The Good War

by inwardtransience

Despite her best efforts, Elizabeth Potter is repeatedly drawn into situations she wants absolutely nothing to do with. People just refuse to leave her the hell alone. (fem!Harry, dark!independent!Harry, mentor!Snape, F/F, playing with tropes for fun and profit)

39. Third Year — XIX

Liz had seen pictures of the Wizengamot Hall before, mostly brief glances she noticed in the Prophet, but she'd never been. Which she realised was slightly ridiculous, since she was a Lady of the Wizengamot and everything — and yes, she was a member of magical parliament despite only being thirteen, the magical government never stopped being stupid — but her life was slightly ridiculous sometimes.

Supposedly, the Wizengamot Hall stood on the very same spot where the Seventeen Founders met, selecting Merlin as their leader and creating the body that eventually came to be called the Wizengamot. (That hadn't been the name at the time, obviously, and it still wasn't the name on official documents — in fact, in Cambrian it was still called simply the Council.) The spot had been a sacred place to the native pre-Christian Celts, part of a religious sanctuary on the island of Anglesey — the priests who managed the site, over centuries and centuries of shite happening, eventually became the modern House of Bones, supposedly their lands still corresponded with the old sanctuary more or less exactly — and there'd been some weird superstition about not spilling blood there, so it'd seemed the obvious place for them to go. They never did build a proper hall for them to meet in for some centuries, because there were apparently also superstitions about that, depictions of the old Wizengamot in art normally show them meeting in a Roman-style amphitheatre, out in the middle of a bloody forest somewhere.

They didn't actually build the first Wizengamot Hall until the 13th Century, a good seven hundred years after they began meeting there. By that point, the religious stuff had gotten much less important — the priesthood that would eventually become the Boneses had still existed, their sponsorship of the Wizengamot making them kind of the closest thing the mages had to a state religion, but the rules had shifted over time — and there were political reasons, shite to do with the English invading, and also people just building shite more in general back then, it was complicated. (It didn't help that Binns was a terrible History teacher.) Of course, that one was the first Wizengamot Hall, because they were on their second one now — the first one had been almost completely destroyed by stray spells from a duel between Chief Warlock Henry Black and 'Dark Lady' Frances Cromwell back in the 17th Century, which sounded seriously fucking impressive, but unfortunately nobody was selling memories of the event, so she couldn't put it in her pensieve.

(Tamsyn had accidentally reminded her that people sold memories of duels and all kinds of things for use in pensieves, with everything that had been going on lately Liz had kind of forgotten. Unfortunately, they didn't send them by owl, she had to go to their shops and buy them in person, so that would have to wait until summer came around again.)

The second Wizengamot Hall was built on the same site as the first (apparently they'd even kept some of the Founders' old seats intact). Meaning it was still (supposedly) on the exact same spot Merlin and the first Wizengamot had met, a good fifteen hundred years ago. As much as its physical location really meant anything anymore — the war they'd just gone through with the Cromwells' people and also with the beginning of Secrecy, they'd maybe been a little paranoid, and they'd gone overboard on the wards. The Wizengamot Hall had been so thoroughly magically isolated that it sort of...drifted. It was hard to say exactly where it was on Anglesey, because supposedly it wasn't in any one particular spot, or at least not one anybody could get to. She'd read that the Boneses' records still marked where the land they'd (eventually) ceded to the Wizengamot should be, but you couldn't see it if you went there. If you tried to walk over the wardline it'd just teleport you straight to the other end, so smoothly you couldn't even tell anything was happening, like there was nothing there at all.

Liz was pretty sure that, if a bloody nuke was dropped on the place it was supposed to be, it would still get blown up, but short of that the place was pretty much untouchable. The only way in or out was through the few lines of transportation the wards allowed. Apparation was limited to a special group of Hit Wizards assigned to Wizengamot security — like the police guarding the Parliament building, but with silly uniforms that reminded her more of the Yeomen of the Guard (except in purple instead of red) — and by tradition Lady Bones — currently Susan, who couldn't apparate anyway — as well as someone called simply the Custodian, whose job it was to manage the maintenance, cleaning, and gardening staff, and who was also traditionally a Bones. (Well, one of the Boneses' vassals, technically, but whatever.) Everyone else, they used the floo, which was literally the only other way in or out. There were public floo grates, where visitors or press would come through, but each of the members also had an office in a sprawling network of hallways underground — before a session all the members would floo in, go over whatever documents they needed and hold little meetings with each other, and then all go upstairs when it was time for the actual session, and then go back down for more meetings and shite, and then floo home, there was a whole rhythm to it.

Since Liz didn't want to go tumbling out of the public floo grate like a clumsy child, she had to go by way of the Potters' office — so she could go tumbling out of a private floo grate like a clumsy child. During the war, the Hit Wizards had put in place additional security measures, one of them making it so that the floo in the members' offices connected only to their family's home, so people couldn't break in that way. This shite could be kind of weird sometimes, because while Doge, the bloke Dumbledore had picked as her proxy, had had the authority to vote for her family, he hadn't had the authority to mess with the family's security, so the wartime measures were still in place for the Potters' office.

According to Dorea, Doge hadn't actually used the Lord's office, instead put himself up at the assistant's desk in the sort of reception area thing — when asked, he'd said he wasn't Lord Potter, he was just holding the seat for Liz, so it'd be inappropriate for him to use the office. Which was...weirdly humble of him, Liz wasn't sure what to think about that. The elves posted to the Wizengamot had been cleaning the place, but supposedly nobody else had even stepped foot in the office itself since James's proxy (something Carpenter, an old friend of her grandfather's) had been murdered back in September '81. Liz should probably give it a peek at some point...

Anyway, as the date of the last hearing approached, Severus had insisted they use a free(-ish) evening one Wednesday to go out and get clothes appropriate for appearing in the Wizengamot. The nice robes she already had weren't really formal enough, and also she'd been seen in them in public several times (rich people could be funny about that sort of thing). He knew she didn't really care whether old arsehole noble types would judge her for it, but being able to present herself properly would reflect well on how he was handling her, which would make the Wizengamot that little bit less likely to rule against them — which was silly, but fine, it wasn't that big of a deal. Liz had to miss a quidditch practice, and Severus one of his NEWT classes, but they both had full schedules, there really wasn't a better time.

(Severus might have bribed her with magic pizza to convince her to go, which kind of made her feel like a child, but also magic pizza was great, so she wasn't complaining.)

Liz had suggested using the certificate Padma had sent her for Christmas — they were actually going to Twilfit and Tattings anyway, so that just made sense — but Severus suggested she save it. The point of the gift was to get something nice and pretty she actually liked (which was a little silly, because she didn't really care about what she wore that much), and it didn't expire for five years, so she should wait until after she did that blood alchemy procedure — obviously, something she got now wouldn't fit her anymore once her scars were gone and she actually had tits. Which, that was a point, just, not the sort of idea she expected Severus to have...

(But then, one of his best friends was Narcissa Malfoy...)

She'd ended up getting a set of formal robes, which were kind of like Hogwarts robes, though the cloth was noticeably thicker and heavier, and they were obviously far more elaborate. It was mostly white, with a few panels of a pale blue, and there were these really little delicate patterns stitched in all over the place in gold — as in, Liz suspected it was actual gold, metal thread embroidered into the cloth, because mages were ridiculous. It was pretty, she guessed, the stitching giving the cloth a sort of wave-like texture to it, glittering in the light, it was just so damn over the top. And the sleeves were absurdly baggy, when Liz raised a hand they fell down all the way to her elbow, which she'd thought was a mistake in the fit at first, but no, apparently they were supposed to do that.

Since the sleeves did fall all the way to her elbow she also needed to get matching gloves to cover her whole forearm — fingerless, as fashion gloves usually were, so the material didn't interfere with casting magic — but she thought these were surprisingly comfy, so she didn't mind that so much. Of course, she couldn't just wear Tracey's scarf with this, but T&T had a sort of shawl thing that was fine, all white and gold and glittery, the cloth thin enough it was semi-transparent, but it protected her neck from her own damn hair just fine, so she didn't mind. And the boots she normally wore were black, so obviously she couldn't wear those (so silly), she'd gotten matching white ones instead. Unfortunately, it turned out all formal shoes had heels — only boots meant for duelling didn't, actually, even men's — and she'd literally never worn heels before. She'd picked ones that didn't seem too bad...and then spent a couple hours spread out over the last week practising walking back and forth in one of the Slytherin showers (closest private place with tile), because she'd rather not make an idiot of herself in public, thanks.

The robes themselves were comfy in general, actually, all warm and cosy, hugging tight around her middle (while leaving her arms and legs loose and free), so having to wear them didn't really bother her that much. But she couldn't imagine having to dress like this every day, though, so bloody tedious...

(She did like that the boots made her that little bit taller, she might have to look into wearing heels more often, but still, very tedious.)

Of course, Liz completely forgot that at formal shite she was supposed to be wearing something on her head — she could take it off once she was on the Wizengamot floor, but in the halls walking to it she'd be underdressed with her head uncovered — and apparently the people at T&T had forgotten too. But it turned out they hadn't forgotten, Daphne said that's actually what the shawl thing was for — just loop it up over your head like this, and there, that was all you needed. When other people were taking off hats and things she should pull it back like this, but if she didn't want to mess with it she didn't have to, it'd just come off kind of shy and old-fashioned (in a very girly sort of way, though Daphne didn't say that part out loud), which was fine, she guessed. (If she did bother fiddling with it she'd probably just fuck it up, so.) Kind of weird that covering her head didn't actually involve covering her head, she could still make out her hair through it just fine, but whatever.

When the actual day of the hearing came around, Liz ended up getting Daphne and Tracey to do her hair, because it wasn't like she had any bloody clue what she was doing. Daphne gave Nilanse a list of jewellery to track down for them — the Potters were a fancy noble family, so obviously Liz had an absurd amount of that stuff sitting around somewhere she'd never even seen — so she ended up getting a few bracelets and rings pushed on her — one had a hippogriff in Potter red and white on it, and resized to her finger as she put it on, which was a neat bit of magic — and also a necklace that she was pretty sure was goblin silver, and also she suspected the little glittery gemstones were actual diamonds, and she could feel some kind of magic crackling around it, protection spells of some kind? Hmm. Anyway, Liz's hair was, as usual, completely fucking impossible, but Daphne and Tracey managed to force a few narrow plaits into it here and there, these little gold ring things with swirly engravings on the surface (definitely intended for the purpose) stuck in every few inches. Which seemed a little over the top to Liz, and also one of them kept bumping into her cheek when she moved, which was a little distracting, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

Also, she looked in the mirror, and the white and gold and everything was all bright and very pretty — she didn't normally wear light colours, but she had to admit it didn't look terrible. And her hair was only barely cooperating, but the random black curls against the white of her robes didn't look that bad, actually, she thought this was mostly fine.

(Looking over herself, she had the idle thought that maybe it wasn't that she didn't like girly stuff, and maybe she'd just managed to convince herself that she looked like shite anyway, so it wasn't worth trying. But this wasn't the time to linger over that idea.)

She guessed Daphne and Tracey had done good work with her hair, but she drew the line at makeup or cosmetic charms or whatever — she'd rather not have someone poking at her face, thanks.

By the time she was ready, there wasn't that much time before they were supposed to be meeting Susan, so she might as well get going. She was a little slower than normal on the stairs — it hadn't occurred to her to practise stairs in heels, though she wasn't sure where she would have gone to do that anyway — and she could feel people's attention on her as she walked through the common room all dressed up, she just focussed on her feet as best she could, to hopefully not trip over herself like an idiot. The door to Severus's office was hanging open, she stepped inside and closed it behind her, the wards instantly snapping into place — she let out a breath as the eyes clinging at her skin dribbled away.

Severus was at his desk, marking an essay (because of course), though not in his normal school robes. They were still in a similar cut, with sleeves tight at his forearms — supposedly the baggy sleeves were for nobles or rich people (who weren't expected to need to work with their hands) — and panels below the waist that shifted around enough to show he was wearing trousers under there (Liz wasn't, but the 'skirt' of her robes completely covered her legs, so). But his were also made out of heavier cloth than normal, glittering a little in the light (silk), and there was even colour, if not much of it — they were mostly black and green, with little bits of silver stitching here and there, less than her gold stuff but still noticeable. Definitely higher-end robes, Liz knew enough to tell now, but not as ridiculously fancy as hers. But then, he wasn't filthy rich magical nobility, so.

(She didn't know how much money Severus actually had, but she had the feeling he couldn't even afford the robes she was wearing right now, not to mention the silly jewellery and shite — she kind of suspected most of his really nice clothes had been gifts from Narcissa.)

"Elizabeth," he muttered, not looking up. "Are you ready to leave?"

"As I'll ever be." She was trying not to be nervous about the whole hearing in front of the magic bloody Parliament thing — she had a calming potion in her pocket, just in case. "You remember the floo password? I think I'm going to have Nilanse pop me to..." She blinked. "Hey, do you know if elves can get to the Wizengamot Hall? I think I'll just get soot all over my nice dress if I go through the floo..."

Returning his dip pen to its...thing (she was blanking on the word at the moment), Severus said, "Elves are capable of crossing the wards alone, but they cannot—" He finally looked up, and abruptly cut off when he saw her, an odd shiver rippling across the air with a blink.

Okay, that was weird. "What?"

"It's nothing." Hmm, that wasn't reading as a lie, didn't know what was up with that. Severus swished up to his feet — the cloth his robes were made of was heavy enough it was actually audible, if only just — walked around his desk, plucking up a black cloak off of one of the student chairs. "It won't be any trouble to vanish any soot you might pick up, but if you would rather have Nilanse carry you to the Manor, that is acceptable. I do remember the password."

Right, fine. "I know I look ridiculous, you don't have to try to cover it up."

He ticked up a single eyebrow at her. "You don't look ridiculous. You look like a noble girl."

Well, yeah, that was kind of what she meant...

"I'll meet you on the other side?"

"Yeah, fine, let's get this over with. Nilanse?"

The excitable little elf popped her straight to the Lord's office at Clyde Rock, Liz waited a moment for Severus and...he didn't show up, the low-burning fire remaining fire-coloured. That was weird — the floo wasn't instantaneous, but it didn't take that long. She was just wondering if something had gone wrong when Severus suddenly appeared in the middle of the room, popped over by Cediny. Apparently he'd arrived in the guest wing, because ha ha, of course he had, oops. Severus continued on through the floo first — so he wouldn't accidentally trip over her if she fell, but he was tactful enough not to say that out loud — she counted up to five before following after him.

The floo was, as usual, awful — this time there was an odd shuddering, like the whole thing was being shaken by a bloody earthquake, made her even more nauseous. (Fire magic and water didn't mix, and Anglesey was an island, so.) When she was tossed out the other side she overbalanced immediately, weight too far forward, she tried to throw a foot out to catch herself but one of her heels slammed against the floor far too early (bloody things), she teetered over—

She was caught by the shoulders, a hand firm on each, the contact making Severus's mind blare much louder than usual — not that she actually caught much, just a bit of amusement and a low-simmering anticipation, but it was still loud enough to be a little disorienting. Once she had her feet back under her, Severus let go, and then a tingly spell of some kind crawled over her head to toe, presumably vanishing the soot she'd definitely picked up, because she sucked at floo travel.

This must be the Potters' reception area...thing. The walls were wood-panelled, a warm brown with a hint of red to it, the carpet a matching brownish-reddish colour, the ceiling overhead white, the texture of the stone oddly...ripply, like a gentle breeze disturbing an otherwise calm lake. There was a sofa over there, along with a couple armchairs to one side, a desk made out of the same wood as the panelling, a bank of bookshelves behind it. There was a pretty sizable painting on one wall, hippogriffs grazing in a forest somewhere (apparently Potters had a thing for hippogriffs...also, weren't they carnivorous? maybe they were actually hunting squirrels or something...), but that was really it.

Liz cast a mirror charm quick, adjusted her shawl thing (bloody floo). She probably should check out the office at some point, but they were supposed to be meeting Susan for an early lunch, so, maybe on the way back. After quick asking if she was ready to get going, Severus opened one of the doors and stepped out into the hall. The place was rather plain, without much in the way of decoration at all, dark stone and wood, the whole hallway cast in an even, somewhat dim glow — without any obvious source, kind of like the sunlight enchantments back at the Greenwood, though this had the orangeish tone of flamelight. There was a tingle of magic on the air, Liz found herself unconsciously glancing in the direction she instinctively knew she it was coming from, didn't know what was up with that.

"There you are! Hello, Liz." Apparently Susan had been standing waiting, she was in the hall only a few steps away from the door. She was also in ridiculous formal robes, hers in white and sky blue (Bones colours), little glints of silver in the cloth here and there catching the light, and also at her fingers and her throat, and Liz was pretty sure those were gemstones in her hair, because of course. She was only pretty sure because she actually couldn't make out Susan's hair very well, mostly covered by a hood, because mages had silly rules about that kind of thing — Severus had pulled his own hood over his head before stepping out into the hall, which made him look even more dramatic and broody than usual.

And she wasn't alone, Daphne's mum of all people was apparently keeping her company. Not a big surprise, Liz guessed — she'd been brushing up on her politics ahead of the hearing, and there were apparently divisions inside the major factions (because of course), and sort of the radical wing of Common Fate included the Boneses and the Greengrasses. And also the Glanwvyls, Smethwycks, and Dunbars, whose origins were all related to the Mistwalkers in some way, which Liz was certain wasn't a coincidence. (A few of the families in the more radical segment of Ars Publica also had traditional ties to the Mistwalker Clans, it was a whole thing.) Ailbhe looked distractingly pretty, her formal robes all bright greens and golds, smiling at her all nice, ugh...

(It was really hard to not stare at Daphne's mum sometimes. Like Daphne herself, really, they did look very similar...)

They all said hello for a little bit, and then set off, Susan leading the way in the same direction the magic was pointing Liz. She and Susan ended up in the lead, Severus and Ailbhe looming a few steps behind them — Susan was taller than Liz, but not by very much, the adults were stupid tall next to the two of them — gossipping on about nonsense in that way adults had. Susan mostly talked about the light lunch they'd be having in her family's office thing, assuring Liz that she had made sure to get things she'd be able to eat, apparently she'd gone to the kitchens to ask the elves (which was nice of her), and yeah, this place was ridiculous and overdone, and at least chopping off her hair had made that part easier but ugh, she had to wear heels. Liz was with her on that one — it hadn't occurred to her that the couple extra inches added to her height didn't matter for shite if everyone else was wearing heels too, so the one part she'd liked about it was pointless. Though, that meant she definitely couldn't not wear heels, because then she'd be even shorter...

They passed a few people in the halls — some also all prettied up in formal robes, more lords and ladies, but some dressed much more modestly, assistants and things — and Liz did get a few glances from people, this was her first time at the Wizengamot, but nobody tried to talk to them, so. After a little while, a couple turns down more halls (near the end turning off the direction the magic was pointing), and they came to a door with maybe the simplest banners she'd seen yet. There had been things hanging to either side of each door off, the flag of each family marking their office — the Potters' had had the whole thing with the shields and the hippogriffs and the scroll with Latin on it and everything — but the Boneses' were very simple, just plain blue and white, the border between them a diagonal line straight from one corner to the opposite. Apparently, having a simple flag was actually kind of a power move — the Boneses were old and well-known enough that they didn't need much in the way of identifying symbols for people to recognise them, and were confident enough in their place in society that they didn't need all the fancy shite to make them feel special. A lot of the older families tended to have very simple symbols, the younger families sometimes more like...well, like the Potters, Liz guessed.

The Boneses' reception area thing was all done in black and white and blue, and wasn't so different from the Potters' in the general idea, but was noticeably bigger — there was enough room for the assistant's desk, a sofa and a couple armchairs by the fire, and also a sizeable table ringed with chairs, most of them already occupied. They all stood when the door opened (with the exception of an elderly-looking woman), and then Liz and Severus were introduced to everyone, which took annoying long, because there were too damn many people. Dorea's aunt Andi was here representing the Blacks — they'd met before, briefly — and Lady Longbottom (Neville's grandmother), the old woman who hadn't stood to meet them was Lady Glanwyvl, and then there was Lord Ollivander and Lord Peakes and Lady Dunbar and Lord Bellchant and Lady Scrimgeour (the same Erin Scrimgeour who used to be Director of the DLE?) and Lord Abbott and Lady Tugwood and Lord Bletchley and Lord Urquhart, just, Jesus...

Liz was pretty sure this was most of Common Fate. There were a few missing, and Scrimgeour and Tugwood were in Ars Publica and Bellchant was actually in the Light, but. She had the feeling they were trying to recruit her. She didn't mind Common Fate so much, as far as she could tell, and it was the faction Dorea and Daphne (and Susan and Neville and Tony) were in, but she thought — maybe, she still didn't know as much about this shite as she probably should — that she actually fit with Ars Publica more. They were the people big into dark shite and whatever, so.

Hmm, maybe she should try to steal a second with Scrimgeour to ask for help getting a new proxy...or she could just write her, she guessed...

Their little lunch/tea thing was kind of tedious, but it wasn't that bad. The food, mostly little finger sandwiches and biscuits, was at least edible (though obviously not the biscuits), and the coffee was pretty good, actually. All the fancy noble people did ask her a few questions, mostly inane school-related stuff, the things adults always asked children for some reason — but only mostly, Liz was now very certain Common Fate was trying to recruit her — but thankfully they gave up pretty quickly. Once that was through, the adults mostly gossipped among themselves, random politics or society stuff, halfway interrogating Severus about the state of things at the school, nothing Liz really had to pay attention to. She and Susan mostly talked about class stuff and the Hogwarts quidditch teams, quietly by themselves, which was much more Liz's speed. She picked up the explicit thought from Susan that she was trying to keep it easy and impersonal, so Liz wouldn't get too worked up before the hearing even started, which was nice of her, Liz guessed.

As they got closer to time, they broke for people to explain to Liz (and Severus, but he'd been here before, so mostly Liz) how the session would go. They would go up there, find their seats — the Potters' was on Bellchant's way, he'd show them there. Dumbledore would stand at the Chief Warlock's podium in the government section (where the Minister and the Department Directors sat) and call the assembly to order. There'd be procedural stuff at the beginning, though that probably wouldn't take very long, since they'd been meeting almost every day for a while now. (Two or three times a week was typical, they were busy lately.) One thing that would come up was welcoming Liz and Susan to the Wizengamot, since this was both of their first session.

Apparently Susan was coming specifically for Liz. Normally the Boneses would just abstain on everything — the only other Bones was the Director of the DLE, she felt uncomfortable representing her Department and voting for the family at the same time — but Susan wanted to make sure Liz and Severus got that one extra vote. Which, well, Hufflepuff, not surprised.

Anyway, Lady Monroe would stand, say there was someone new here, and Susan would introduce herself to everyone. (Which was silly, everybody there already knew who she was.) There were vows she had to give, but that was quick and not a big deal — Dumbledore would ask three questions, Susan just had to say I will and that was that, it wasn't magically binding or anything. And then Augusta (Lady Longbottom, she insisted Liz use her name) would stand and say the same thing for Liz — the Potters had branched off the Longbottoms ages ago, the Longbottoms always introduced them at the Wizengamot and vice versa (she caught a thought that it'd originally been a signal that the truce they'd reached at the end of an old blood feud still held, because noble families going to war against each other had been a thing once upon a time, but now it was just tradition) — and then Liz would follow the same formula as Susan had. There might be a comment about Liz technically not being able to speak for herself due to the trusteeship (she was supposed to have a guardian with her to back up whatever she said), but that wasn't a big deal — they might or might not bother, and if they did someone would just point out Severus was sitting right there, nothing to worry about. And that was it, Liz would sit again and they'd move on.

After that, there were a few other matters of business they had to get through quick. Nothing major, with the multiple big scandals going on actual legislation was on hold for the moment, there were just things the Ministry needed permission to do, very routine Wizengamot stuff. These votes were by assent — that is, raising your lit wand to vote, instead of getting a verbal aye or nay one by one — so Liz could just ignore those. Eventually, someone would move for them to return to the matter of Liz's guardianship, and Dumbledore would recuse himself, since the case directly involved him.

The head of the Department of Health and Family, the Ministry people who managed the family law courts, and also clinics and orphanages and things like that, would go up to the podium in his place. The current Director was a bloke called Justin Carmichael — not one of 'their' people, but Ailbhe said not to worry about it, rumour was he was absolutely furious with Dumbledore and wanted to take him down a peg. (Liz suspected that didn't actually have anything to do with her, some pre-existing disagreement, but it was working in her favour, so who cares.) Severus was going to be questioned first (again), since he wasn't a Lord of the Wizengamot he'd be called down to the middle of the floor, it was a whole thing. Anyway, that would mostly be about what his plans for if he did get sole custody of Liz were like — just making sure he knew what he was doing and wasn't going to fuck it up, she guessed. He was likely to be questioned pretty closely, since a lot of people didn't exactly trust former Death Eaters, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

After that was done, it'd probably be time for a break — go to the bathroom, get a drink, whatever. When they got back, there might be more procedural things to get through, and then it would be Liz's turn. Since she was a Lady of the Wizengamot (ridiculous), she didn't have to go down to the floor, just stand up at her seat. She was assured by multiple people that her questioning would be much more gentle than Severus's. (Partially because the Girl Who Lived thing, partially because they kind of pitied her now — because of her 'secret tragedy', as Skeeter had put it — but nobody said that part out loud). She'd be asked to confirm the findings of the Office of Child Welfare and the Wizengamot's hearings, and also Skeeter's recent articles, her perspective on a couple things, but they probably wouldn't get very deep into it (because, again, pity). She'd be given the chance to tell them what she wanted to happen, because at least she got to express an opinion on the matter, and then that'd probably be it. Shouldn't take very long.

Then there'd be a bit more debate, people making (prepared) statements, and eventually they'd finally come to a vote. Or, well, two votes. The first one was whether Dumbledore should be stripped of his trusteeship — Lady Scrimgeour said that was certainly going to pass, and by a wide margin. The second one, an up vote was to give it to Severus, and a down vote was to request the family law courts select a different trustee — this vote was going to be closer, but the people in the room were all but certain they'd squeak by. If Liz and Severus did well in their parts of the hearing, it should help (so they should still try to come off as good as they could), but the people here were pretty sure it would pass anyway, it should be fine.

Oh, not only was she allowed to give an opinion on her own damn life, but apparently she could even vote, too. These votes would be in sequence, Carmichael would call her name, stand and say aye or nay, that was it. So she'd be making her first vote in magic parliament, about her own custody, which was kind of funny when she thought about it...

Liz was going to want to count the votes on the second one (mostly just to distract herself from worrying about it), could she get— Oh, there'd be paper and a quill at her desk? Good. And there were...sixty votes total? Oh, the presiding officer (and the Ministry people) didn't get a vote, so it was fifty-nine, right, thanks.

People gradually trickled away toward the end of the explanation of everything, until Liz and Severus were left with only Susan, Andi, Ailbhe, and Bellchant — and they'd timed it pretty well too, by the time the talk was done it was about time to go. While everyone (except Liz) sorted their cloaks and things, Andi and Ailbhe going off ahead, and then they finally got going, Liz following a step and a half behind Susan at the front of their group. They were going along with the weird directional magic again, in only a minute or two they reached an absurdly broad staircase, the steps wide and shallow (to be easier on old people, she guessed), slowly turning to the left as it rose. They weren't the only people here, a couple Lords (tailed by assistants) climbing a few steps ahead of them, an occasional assistant rushing by in the other direction, running back to their employer's office to grab something last minute.

The Wizengamot Hall wasn't just the assembly chamber itself and the office below, of course — it was basically the heart of the magical government, there was other shite they needed. There was the public floo, of course, and another room for international dignitaries to arrive by portkey (which was hardly ever used, normally they went to the keyport in London and flooed in). There was a reception hall, where they would hold state dinners and stuff — for holiday gatherings and whatever high society nonsense one of the noble families would volunteer to host, but they would usually have formal receptions for international visitors to the Wizengamot or award ceremonies or whatever here — and also a few apartments for international dignitaries who needed a safe, neutral place to stay while in the country. (Since it was the place people like the bloody Queen would stay while visiting, they were apparently very fancy apartments.) There were also a few meeting rooms and stuff, and then there were the grounds, the gardens still maintained by (vassals of) the Boneses, with, she didn't know, gazebos and shite out there for people to hang out and chat at. It was a pretty big place, was what she was saying.

At the top of the stairs was a bloody enormous room that Liz knew, from what she'd been told ahead of time, was called simply the Antechamber. The place reminded her somewhat of the Entrance Hall back at Hogwarts — which made sense, the big double doors at the end to her right led outside — a cavernous open space under a high arched ceiling, the whole thing all made of stone. Instead of the pale greyish granite of Hogwarts, this place was instead made out of pure white marble, polished to a shine, with the addition of the gold decorations all over the place (even thin lines of it framing the tiles in the floor) so damn bright Liz blinked against it for a second, dazed. There were huge banners hung all along both sides (thankfully blocking out portions of the too-bright stone and metal), alternating between one of a red dragon on purple (magical Britain's), and another that was also mostly the same purple, with an odd triskelion sort of symbol, a triple-spiral thing...except there was another spiral in the middle, so a quadruple spiral? The symbol was really old, supposedly they'd copied it off of something etched into the old sanctuary — there were a lot of very confident-sounding and mutually exclusive claims of what it'd originally meant, Daphne said nobody really knew for sure. Whatever the people who'd first used it had meant by it, it was on the flag of the Wizengamot now.

And there were a bunch of people in here, taking up a fair chunk of the floor. To her left, along the whole wall with the doors leading into the Wizengamot Chamber itself, was a line of Hit Wizards in their silly special uniforms — normally Hit Wizards just wore black duelling leathers under a blue cloak (the colour differentiating them from the Aurors in red), but these were far more elaborate. The base was black leather (probably enchanted the same as normal Hit Wizard armour), but there was a layer of decoration over it in deep purple and glittering gold, in these complicated interlaced designs with a bunch of swirling lines and— It was finely detailed enough and all mixed up it was honestly hard to follow one line from one side of a bloke's chest to the other, it was a mess. Not bad to look at, she guessed, it was sort of pretty, just way more detailed than necessary, that shite must have taken forever to make. (Assuming it was made by hand, anyway.) Also, they each had a bloody sword at their waist — which was silly, nobody but goblins used those anymore — as finely decorated as everything else, and they were all wearing heavy hooded cloaks, drooping low enough most of their faces were hidden. Liz could only assume there were some kind of enchantments on those so they could see through them, because blinding your bodyguards generally wasn't a great idea. They were all standing at attention, feet shoulder-width apart and hands folded behind their backs, so rigid and still they hardly even seemed to be breathing, reminding Liz very much of the Queen's Guard back in Westminster.

(As much as Liz thought this magical government stuff was ridiculous, she was willing to bet those blokes took it dead seriously — fucking with them was probably a bad idea.)

Arrayed across the floor between here and there were dozens and dozens of chairs, some of them occupied by visitors, others left waiting for the people milling about in clumps here and there. The Chamber didn't have room for press or observers or anything, so instead they projected out into the Antechamber what was going on inside — apparently not just the sound, part of the reason the ceiling was so bloody high was so it could fit a visual image too, the semi-transparent illusion scaled to half life size. (Or so she'd been told, obviously nobody had switched the thing on yet.) An open alley had been left between the bank of chairs and the wall, so there was plenty of room for people to get from the stairs to the Chamber. Liz had been distracted looking around for a second, had to skip a few steps to catch up with Susan.

They were maybe only halfway across the Antechamber when the crowd noticed them — or, more to the point, noticed Liz. Because of course. She grimaced as a wave of attention slammed down on her, like getting hit over the head with a bludgeoning hex, eyes crawling over her skin like ants, curiosity and anticipation and concern and irritation and relief and affection buffeting her. She was catching explicit thoughts, but there were too many all at once for her to pick any meaning out of it all, rushing in one ear and out the other like leaves rustling in the wind. Liz drew in a long, slow breath, and tried to pull herself in, make herself smaller. The weight of too many people's thoughts and feelings on her lightened somewhat, she focussed as hard as she could on Susan's back, taking in the subtle embroidery worked into her cloak, putting one foot steadily in front of the other, trying to, just, ignore it.

(Even as hard as she tried to ignore it, she could feel pity filling the room like sick, cloying, their focus like fingers pulling at her robes.)

She winced at the first camera flash, startled — though she should have expected that, really, a good chunk of the people in here were press, of course they'd be snapping pictures...

Thankfully, nobody tried to approach them, and they reached the entrance into the Chamber itself without incident; double thankfully, there must be some kind of privacy wards on the Chamber, because the second she stepped inside the minds clawing at her instantly dropped away, she let out a relieved sigh. The Wizengamot Chamber proper was a big circular amphitheatre sort of thing, all made in the same white marble and polished gold as the Antechamber, though there was far more colour in here than outside. The seats rose in tiers around the circle at the centre — several metres wide, worked into the tile a huge reproduction of that same twisty triskelion symbol in black edged with gold — each of them with a full-sized writing desk, though no two of them were exactly the same. Stone of all different colours, different kinds of wood, even stained and polished ceramic, carved into hard and simple lines or twisted into detailed curls, many with banners hanging from the front — each designed by the family that owned them, displaying their colours and whatever symbols they had, all of them put in one space looking very eclectic and messy.

Though having a break from the pure white marble was probably a good idea — the ceiling was enchanted transparent, like in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, and thankfully it was a cloudy day, because Liz could imagine it would be miserable in here when it was too sunny.

Their heeled boots clicking audibly on the tile, Susan led them down all the way to the floor in the middle...which was about the point when Liz's skin startled to crawl from people watching her again, but at least there were rather fewer people in here than out in the Antechamber. And, while she was picking up a haze of feelings in the air, it actually wasn't that bad, Liz assumed the Lords and Ladies had better occlumency than random people off the street. (Which was good, because she needed to concentrate, it turned out going down stairs was harder than up.) The first tier of seats all belonged to the Seventeen Founders — yes, all seventeen, despite most of them not existing anymore, mages were weird about that kind of shite — Susan wished Liz luck before swooshing down to sit on a bench behind a perfectly plain-looking desk, made in the same white marble as the rest of the Chamber (almost seeming to just grow out of the floor) but blocky and without any decoration of any kind. (After all, the Boneses didn't need fancy shite to feel special.)

Bellchant led them a little further, toward the government seats, identifiable by the long conjoined row of plain wooden desks, one tier below them the Chief Warlock's podium more marble crusted with little swirly designs done in gold. Into one of the alleys running between the desks, they went past the first row, and then the second, and then turned onto the third — one tier above the government seats not far away over there, it was also the last tier, because there weren't really that many noble families. Well, not actually the highest tier, past a waist-high barrier of...ceramic, she thought, worked into a kind of lattice pattern, was a bank of seats (just chairs, no desks), going all the way around the whole Chamber, for the first- and second-class members of the Order of Merlin. Apparently, one of the privileges of membership was the second-class members were allowed to observe the Wizengamot directly, and the first-class members could even stand and ask to speak to the assembly at any time (though they didn't very often, so as not to interrupt normal business). Liz knew now she was a first-class member — that was what one of the acronyms after her name on her Child Welfare paperwork meant, she'd been admitted back in early '82 (though according to Daphne it was technically provisional until she got a proper induction ceremony) — but she was also a bloody Lady of the Wizengamot, so it wasn't like it actually mattered. There were several people milling about in the Order's seats here and there, but they were mostly empty — there weren't nearly that many members at the moment.

Anyway, they shuffled on past a single desk before Bellchant waved her to the second one, which was evidently hers. Even if she hadn't had someone pointing her to it, she would have been able to guess: it was made out of warm rosey wood like practically everything in the office at Clyde Rock, the light reflecting off the gold all around bringing out more of the red, a matched pair of ceramic figurines of rearing hippogriffs attached to each of the corners facing the floor, done in life-like detail but painted in Potter red and white, their claws and beaks glinting gold. (Like she'd said, Potters had a thing for hippogriffs.) There were three chairs behind the desk made out of the same wood, a cushion on each upholstered white, little twisting gold filigree along the curling back of the somewhat taller one in the middle — she was going to go ahead and guess that one was supposed to be hers, the shorter, less fancy chairs to either side meant for assistants or whatever. After thanking Bellchant quick, Liz sat down, Severus actually helping her get the chair pulled in to the desk a little, which was completely unnecessary, but she guessed they were doing the super formal fancy people thing, so fine, whatever. Severus pulled his chair back a little before sitting, putting him a step or two behind her shoulder...for some reason, presumably he knew what he was doing.

And...she guessed they were here, then. Nothing to do but settle in to wait, she guessed.

Maybe she should have brought a book or something...

Liz was hardly the most patient person in the world, she was only sitting there for maybe a minute, shifting in her chair (more comfortable than she'd expected, must be enchanted) and tapping at the smooth surface of the desk with her fingers, before she reached for the pen and ink set, started fiddling with it. It was one of those dip pen things, but like the ones at Gringotts had multiple reservoirs for ink — the larger one was black, with smaller ones at each corner, blue and red and green and purple, the whole thing made out of clear polished glass. Kind of pretty, she guessed, but she wasn't sure why you'd ever need that many colours just to take notes. (Liz herself only had black pens and ink, and coloured pencils for planning runes stuff.) The pen definitely had some kind of enchantment on it, but she didn't know what— Oh, tap this part just above the tip here against the rim of any of the reservoirs (which had thin little rings of steel around the edge) and it would push out all the ink inside, so you didn't get the colours mixed up, she got it! Liz dragged over one of the pieces of parchment, and started sketching out random runes in the different colours — not really with any purpose in mind, she was just bored already (and nervous) and didn't have anything better to— Oh hey, the pen also automatically dried out what she was writing as she went so she didn't smear it, neat!

She could feel a study pulse of cool, faintly-exasperated amusement from Severus behind her, but pretended not to.

Thankfully, they didn't have too long to wait — they couldn't have been in here for longer than five minutes when there was a low, heavy pulsing, the vibration carried up from the floor through her chair, boom, boom, boom. (Only felt through her chair because, no, her feet didn't quite touch the floor sitting in this thing, because of course they didn't, why was she so bloody short...) The air kept ringing for a couple seconds afterward, seeming to echo inside her skull, Liz grimaced a little, but apparently that was meant to be a starting bell of some kind, there was a bit of a shuffle as people rushed toward their seats. A pair of overly-fancy Hit Wizards pushed the tall marble double doors ponderously closed (must be heavy), and they latched with a deep clunk, privacy wards crackling into place a second later, sealing them inside.

Nerves immediately began sizzling along Liz's spine, her scalp crawling, she closed her eyes and took a deep, slow breath — that was to keep other people out, not to keep her in, she was sure they would let her out if she asked, it was fine, she was fine.

Once everyone had found their seats, Dumbledore shuffled up to the podium in front of Liz and to her left — dressed rather more sedately than usual, robes red and Wizengamot purple — and the session was called to order. There was some opening stuff in very elaborate language, formally signalling the beginning of the meeting, blah blah, stupid fancy noble shite. There were a few quick announcements, Liz was only half-listening, and eventually a middle-aged woman in the first row stood, told Dumbledore there was a new face here — this would be Susan's introduction, then.

When Monroe sat, Dumbledore asked Who stands for the House of Bones? and Susan stood up to answer. It wasn't that complicated of a statement, following the formula she'd been told to use: "Your Excellency, I do. I am Susan Rhonwen, Lady over the Noble and Most Ancient House of Bones, by grant of my lord father, Dilwyn Cystennin." Liz noticed that Susan's accent had shifted, sounding more like a magical noble, that weird Northern-sounding, Scottish-but-not-Scottish kind of thing they had — she'd been half-raised by Hannah's mum, who was a muggleborn from southern England somewhere, so she usually sounded way more muggleish than that. Must be trying to be all proper and formal, Liz guessed.

She was belatedly realising that her London(-ish) accent was going to sound very foreign to these people, but it was far too late for her to do anything about that...probably. At least she could pronounce Ls like she was supposed to now, because of practice for Cambrian...when she was thinking about it, anyway...

And, as Dumbledore started leading Susan in the vow things — "I will," right, don't forget the bloody L, Potter, will, will, willll — Liz suddenly realised she had a problem. Thankfully, she still had her pen in her hand, she quick wrote out a question: What's James middle name? As surreptitiously as she could, Liz folded the page around the pen, and handed it back to Severus.

There was a brief pause, a shiver of feeling from Severus she didn't know how to read, before he handed the paper and pen back up to her. Charlus, pronounced car-ləss. Oh, right, she knew that. Wait a second, she thought it was...

She wrote a second note — I thought it was said like char, like from a fire — passed that one too. It only took a moment for Severus to pass a note back, which was good, because Liz thought it was almost her turn. And it was kind of a surprise he finished it so fast, because the explanation was unexpectedly long, his spiky handwriting a little more sloppy than usual, rushed: Mages unfamiliar with James, reading it off a page, often pronounce it as it is spelled, but James himself pronounced it like car-ləss.

Oh, well, okay. That was good to know, she guessed. That shouldn't be too much of a problem, just like the name Carl but with an added Latin bit, she should—

For fuck's sake, she just noticed there was an R in it, she was almost definitely going to say that wrong too, bloody purebloods and their bloody accents...

Mouthing to herself, carefully not exhaling so it didn't make any noise at all, Your— Yourr Excellency, I do, I am Elizabeth Hazell, Lady over the– (fuck's sake,) overr the Noble House of Potter, by gran-, gran-, (fuck how do you even say that, that's not going to come out right,) by gran– no wait, by gran-tuv, nailed it, my lord father, lorrd fatherr, fuck, this was impossible...

She twitched at a thought pressed against the edge of her mind, cool and smooth — Elizabeth, what are you doing?

Oh, well, shite, it must have been visible she was doing something from the outside...she thought she might have been nodding a little with her silent cursing. Oops. Cautiously only touching the very edge of Severus's mind, slipping the thought in very gently — Trying to figure out how to not sound horribly muggleish. It's not going well.

There was a brief pulse of surprisingly intense amusement crashing over her, she shifted a little at the (not unpleasant) tingles trickling down her back. He didn't seem to be taking the problem very seriously, which was weird, he'd been the one to make the point about it being better to pull off the fancy noble shite as well as possible in the first place, sounding like an uncultured fucking barbarian every time she opened her mouth probably wasn't going to help. It didn't feel like he was making fun of her at least, too warm and, well, something, anyway...

Liz was distracted once again turning over the weird thought that Severus actually liked her, for some inexplicable reason — if she hadn't felt it through weird mind magic nonsense she probably wouldn't believe it, she had no idea how that had happened (which made her feel slightly nervous sometimes, because if she didn't know why she couldn't know how to not fuck it up) — when she belatedly noticed Augusta down on the first tier was standing up, oh shite, it was almost her turn. Nerves immediately crawling over her skin, she clenched her fists and took a slow breath, right, she could do this, willll will, carr-liss, yourr, she had this, she was fine...

"Who stands for the House of Potter?"

Blowing out a last little puff of breath, Liz tipped the inch or two down to the floor and stood up — and then immediately cringed under the weight of every eye in the room turning to her all at once, crawling on her skin like ants, fuck, that was unpleasant. With a little bit of effort, she forced herself to stand with her back straight, her shoulders back (consciously trying not to physically pull away from the minds pushing in at her), and, staring blankly in Dumbledore's general direction, tried to speak as clearly as she could. "Your Excellency, I do. I am Elizabeth Hazel, Lady over the Noble House—" (the Hs, fuck!) "—of Potter, by gran't-of my lord father, James Charlus."

Liz tried not to show any hint of her own frustration on her face, though she was sure Severus would be able to feel it. She'd gotten most of them, she thought, except she'd fucked up "lord" — she wasn't even sure how that was supposed to be pronounced, honestly, when the mages said it there was kind of a weird little...flippy thing... — and she'd somehow forgotten about the fucking Hs, bloody things. Maybe if she tried to talk slower next time... And, of course, she would have gotten a bunch of the vowels wrong, but still, at least she'd managed to get the bloody Ls and Rs in there, so she didn't sound like a fucking child, it could have—

Fuck, she just realised she'd said "Potter" like she was a bloody Cockney or... Ah, to hell with it, if anyone commented on it (which didn't seem likely), she'd just insist the way she said it was the correct pronunciation — it was her damn name, what were they going to do about it?

There was, indeed, a brief comment about Liz being legally considered incompetent because of the whole trusteeship thing, but Tugwood, the WAS bloke in the government seats, brought it up simply to acknowledge that Severus was sitting right here, so it was fine. Seemed kind of pointless to bring it up at all if he was going to admit that anyway, but whatever, bloody magical nobles. There was a little back and forth up there that clearly didn't actually matter, and then Dumbledore got to the questions — focussed on not looking like a total basket case and also not fucking up her Ls like a baby, Liz didn't really catch the exact wording, but it wasn't like the exact wording even mattered that much.

Something about respecting the rules of the Wizengamot for how sessions worked, blah blah. "I will."

Nailed it. That was one...

Something about respecting the decisions of this body, and cooperating with them where the internal affairs of her family were concerned, blah blah. "I will."

Two for two, one more, come on...

Something about upholding the peace of this council, and accepting its determination when feuds with other families came up, blah blah. "I will."

Ha, three for three, perfect! Fuck, that was hard, bloody magical nobles and their stupid bloody accent...

There was a bit about Dumbledore welcoming her to the assembly or whatever, but she hardly heard a word of it — she was a little too busy silently congratulating herself for...mostly not sounding like a street kid in a silly period film or some shite. Didn't do a perfect job, but she guessed she'd take it. Once Dumbledore was done talking — yes, thank you, Chief Warlock (oooops, forgot the R in "warlock", oh well) — she sat down, letting out a little sigh as the weight of everyone's attention on her lessened significantly a second later.

And that was it, she was done for now. Brilliant.

(...There was no way she was going to be able to manage this through her whole questioning later on. Maybe that was why Severus thought it was so funny...)

It didn't take very long, the assembly moving on to other things she neither knew nor gave a damn about, Liz went back to sketching out runes on a page, just to have something to do to distract herself. (Letting her mind wander in a room filled with people who knew at least a little occlumency probably wasn't a great idea. so.) But she couldn't really plan enchantments or anything without a dictionary on hand, so she gave up pretty quickly and started doodling instead — trying to copy the triskelion shape on the floor in the middle, but it wasn't going very well, curves were hard. Her handwriting was bloody terrible to begin with, so...

The mention Skeeter had made of finding marks from pastels on the walls of the cupboard had recently reminded her that she used to draw. She vaguely remembered being bored at school a lot — in retrospect, their lessons had probably gone too slow for her — so she'd passed time just doodling along the edges of assignment or her workbooks. Also, Dudley hadn't had the attention span for colouring books and the like, so she'd usually end up with his pretty quickly — when they were really young, Dudley hadn't yet had any problem with letting his weird little cousin have things he didn't want anyway. (She vaguely remembered he hadn't turned properly mean until after Vernon had.) So, she used to draw and colour and whatever kind of a lot, but...she didn't really remember how? Which sounded kind of silly even in her own head, it wasn't like there was a wrong way to aimlessly doodle, she just...

Well, she had this (sloppy and lopsided) triskelion design, she had green ink so she could put little leaves on it, like it was made out of twisted up vines or something, and... No, that was way too round, should be flatter and pointier... That one was better, sort of (ugh, she was shite at this), then put one on the other side, and...

Distracted with her drawing, she was a little startled when she heard her name — they were getting to the part of the session about her already, right. Dumbledore stepped down from his podium, taking a seat in a chair a few steps behind it, was replaced by a man with a thin, lined face and frosting blond hair. Must be this Carmichael bloke, from the Department the Child Welfare Office was in (Liz had forgotten the name already). There was a little bit of talking, some procedural stuff, reminding people of what happened at their last sessions. There was a brief debate about releasing her full medical report into evidence — they'd only been given a summary, for privacy reasons (though even just that was quite enough, Liz thought) — but Liz could tell from the feelings drifting on the air that the mood was strongly against it, so that didn't go anywhere. (Good, apparently Pomfrey had speculated about her being molested or something, bloody woman could have just asked, all this was already bad enough without having to deal with that.) Given all of that shite, it took maybe as long as an half hour from the start of the hearing for Severus to finally be called to testify.

The assembly was put on pause for a moment for Severus to stand up and move down to the floor — his pace smooth and unerring, his mind cool and unconcerned — a hissing in the Chamber as people whispered to their neighbours. Liz didn't miss the faint crackle of suspicion and hostility on the air, a few people she noticed even openly glaring at Severus. A lot of people didn't trust him, she knew, especially in the Light...and, of course, he'd probably made enemies of several Dark lords by being a bit 'too' zealous dealing with Slytherins' abusive parents. (Liz wasn't convinced there was such a thing, he could go ahead and murder them all as far as she cared.) She noticed Tracey's grandfather, in the back row not quite straight across from her — at least she assumed that's who that was, the banner hanging from his desk had an image of a hawk with a fish caught in its talons, wasn't that a Davis thing? — looked particularly displeased, face twisted into something that was not quite a hateful sneer, but he was hardly the only one. As much as it felt like people here did not like Severus, their group at lunch had said it should be fine, so...

Severus's part was, as she'd been led to expect, mostly to do with their future plans. Of course, she was still at school now, so nothing would change immediately; the plan for the summer was for Liz to move into the Potters' townhouse in Caoimhe's Refuge, which would most likely be her permanent residence in the long term. (The thought of having a house was still surreal, but a little exciting, she was honestly looking forward to summer.) No, she wouldn't be living with him any longer — "as you will recall," apparently referring to something he said last time, Liz was very self-sufficient, and preferred to manage herself if at all possible (which was way more true than they realised, they thought Liz had gone straight home with Severus after first year). He planned to check in on her in person every other day, sometimes less frequently if he was particularly busy at the time, but the new wards on the townhouse were solid and she had a personal elf, she'd be fine.

(She fucked up terribly at her first attempt at drawing a little purple flower, ugh, this was hard...)

The exception was the duelling tournament this summer — that was to be held in Jassy (a city in Romania) this year, and "naturally" Severus would be travelling with her. Which she wasn't complaining about, honestly, she'd never been to a foreign country before. She'd be with the rest of the team most of the time, but still, wouldn't be a bad idea to have an adult around to bail her out if she fucked up somehow. It didn't help that she sure as hell didn't speak bloody Romanian...though maybe she should try to copy French before the tournament, that would help...

Anyway, proceeding with her education and everything, blah blah, she already had a Latin tutor (which seemed to surprise some people), he was looking into finding someone suitable for the other stuff she needed to know, fancy society shite, but she was still focussed on her studies, so that could wait (forever, as far as Liz was concerned). The plan was to continue on into Mastery study, at the moment she was looking at the school in Paris and the University of Syracuse — she would prefer going somewhere overseas, you know, see more of the world and all that. (He tactfully avoided admitting she was looking into foreign schools for Proficiency study, but she'd probably study abroad for Mastery stuff too, so, technically not a lie.) Severus would have no say in who or when she would marry, they would dissolve the trusteeship before it was time for that, that would be entirely her decision.

(He tactfully avoided admitting they planned to dissolve the trusteeship almost immediately anyway, so most of these questions were irrelevant.)

Blah blah, all kinds of shite, some of it rather intrusive (obviously suspicious of Severus's intentions with her), but Severus just unflappably answered every one, all matter-of-fact about it. Liz noticed he was always talking about her. She meant, he would say things Liz planned to do, or what we would, and very little just plans Severus had made for her himself — implying all of this shite was all Liz's plans, or things they'd decided together, not making it sound like he was in charge here. Which she guessed was accurate, Severus would make suggestions but he didn't actually tell her what to do very much, when it came down to it. (Other than moving into his spare bedroom in the first place, of course.) She wondered if he was doing that on purpose, setting up for dissolving the trusteeship, see, she already practically takes care of herself anyway...

Severus's questioning took a while, Liz had had time to attempt to draw a few more flowers — none of them came out right, which was annoying, she'd been able to do this when she was five. Anyway, when everyone finally ran out of questions, Severus came swishing up toward her, wordlessly sinking back into his chair. There were a few more comments from there going back and forth, commenting on something in a (redacted) report submitted by Adjustment — apparently Liz had been obliviated a handful of times as a child after accidental outbursts in public, like any muggleborn, which was news to her (all before her mind magic kicked in, obviously) — a suggestion they actually bring the Dursleys in for questioning, which was immediately shot down, and then they called a break. Good bloody timing, that, Liz had had too much coffee with lunch...

They had to go all the way down to the toilet in the Potters' office, because of course. In the flood of people pouring out of the Chamber, on the way down the stairs and through the halls, a few people approached them, but it wasn't that big a deal — hello Lady Potter, I'm Lord/Lady So-and-So, pleasure to meet you though I wish it were in better circumstances, perhaps you know my child/grandchild/niece/nephew at Hogwarts, blah blah. Nothing too bad, Liz just tried to be polite and avoid touching their minds at all. (The latter was much easier said than done, she was certain she was noticed at least a couple times, but they just pushed her away and didn't comment, so.) Figuring out how to use the toilet while all dressed up was annoyingly difficult, it took far longer to get back upstairs than it really should have. Still had plenty of time, of course, all these old people around...

Walking back past the spectators, their attention clawing at her again, Liz grimaced, ducked against the weight of their minds for a second before forcing herself to straighten. Passing the press (camera flashes going off again, because of course), there were a couple shouted questions at Severus, which he just ignored — seemingly unaffected by the crowd at all, mind cool and smooth with only the slightest hint of simmering tension. She abruptly realised his hand was hovering near his opposite wrist, ready to draw his wand at a second's warning. And she wasn't the only one who saw it, once she noticed she knew a fair number of the people watching them had too, might have something to do with why nobody tried to run up and...whatever, she didn't know. Luckily, they were almost through already, and—

As a thought flittered into view, Liz froze, glanced over her shoulder, instinctively looking for where it'd come from. It was impossible to pick one person out of a crowd, of course, she didn't have nearly that kind of precision — the direction something was coming from, sure, but it was just too damn noisy in here. Looking was just instinct, you know, something weird happens, so you look, all what the hell is that...

Someone in the crowd had just been thinking that she looked nice. Not in a creepy way, or anything, the snippet she'd caught hadn't felt sexual at all — it'd be bloody weird if it had been, since Liz was so annoyingly tiny, and obviously didn't have tits or anything, so. Not that paedophiles didn't exist, of course, she was just saying. (Daphne was one thing, they were the same age, catching anything in that family from some grown man, which had happened a few times, was always uncomfortable.) No, it was nothing like that, but more childishly cute, like, and...

And now that Liz was actually looking — thoughts pelting at her like a spray of water over her hand, catching forcefully against her fingers but most slipping right by too much to hold onto — whoever that had been wasn't the only one thinking it. Not that that was the only thing going on either, of course not, it wasn't like taking in the thoughts directed at her was dropping her in a river of...whatever the right word would be, just, no, that was hardly the only thing people were thinking, but it was there, in multiple heads, and...

Liz twitched, as she realised she was just standing here staring back at the spectators like an idiot — they'd noticed she was looking back at them by now, she jerked into motion, fleeing into the Chamber. Feeling weirdly self-conscious, too aware of the swaying of her hands and the narrow plaits framing her face, her weight shifting with each step, the 'skirt' part of her robes swishing around her legs...

She relaxed a bit once she was back inside the wards, the weight of far too many minds focussed on her abruptly lifting away...but the weird self-consciousness didn't stop. Sitting in her chair at the Potter seat, she kept fidgeting, adjusting her posture or how her robes were sitting, reaching to fiddle with her hair, just... She was aware she was acting kind of weird, but she couldn't help it, just, distractingly aware of how she was sitting, and... She didn't know.

She felt...tingly. Tingly how, she couldn't say, just was.

(It was bloody weird.)

"Is there something wrong, Elizabeth?"

"No, no, I'm fine." Liz forced out a sigh, tried to get herself to relax — she didn't know what the fuck this weird mood was about, but nothing was even happening, she was fine, honestly. She reached for the pen set, pulled over another sheet of parchment — she'd crumpled up the first one and tossed it into the fire at the Potter office — and tried to distract herself with doodling again.

(It didn't work.)

(She didn't know how she felt about random strangers liking the way she looked, it was, just, not something that happened very often.)

Eventually, the assembly was called to order again, the enormous bloody doors once again pulled closed, and they got right back into it. There was a bit of chatter, people making a few statements, nothing particularly important, and then it was time for Liz's questioning.

This ended up being way more painless than she'd expected, honestly. Right at the beginning, before she was even called, someone moved that they have one person handle the questioning, so they don't all shout at her at random, didn't want to overwhelm her or let people just come out and ask really intrusive shite. That was Narcissa, actually, a pulse of surprise that she would be the one to suggest something like that running through the Chamber — Liz wasn't surprised though, she was nice enough (to Liz, at least), and she and Severus were friends, so. Atwell was a little annoyed, insisted Malfoy (said with some scorn) herself wasn't going to do it; Narcissa said she'd planned to suggest Scrimgeour; Erin Scrimgeour was generally thought of as pretty decent and honest, and being an ex-Auror knew how to question people, so that idea went over really well, actually. Before too long, there was a vote, which passed (they just raised lit wands, looked to be about two-thirds of them), and just like that, Liz only had to deal with one person questioning her about shite she'd really prefer not to have to talk about, which was...better, she guessed.

(She'd have to write Narcissa a thank-you letter when she got back to Hogwarts.)

And then the actual questioning part of the questioning started. Erin (Emily's grandmother?) started off with easy shite, explaining the rules, asking things like her name and birthday and school stuff, how she was finding the duelling team, whatever. Which was slightly tedious — especially since she was still feeling annoyingly self-conscious, kept shifting her weight around, crossing and uncrossing her arms, fiddling with her hair and the weird shawl thing — but whatever. And then Erin eventually transitioned into what this whole bloody thing was all about.

She asked Liz to confirm the findings of their investigation, mostly in the form of yes or no questions with a few requests for detail, going chronologically. Which meant the first one she didn't actually have a solid answer for — Petunia had said that they'd found her on their front step one morning, but she'd honestly thought Petunia had made that one up until Skeeter had printed it. (She still didn't know how she felt about it apparently being true, but she didn't like it.) Yes, they kept her in a cupboard and would deny her meals and make her do chores all the time, that was all true. The lock wasn't always there, Skeeter missed that detail — they'd added it when Liz had done better than Dudley in year one (she thought it was year one?) at primary school, and she started to miss a lot more meals after that. That would have been when things started getting really bad, noted in Pomfrey's report when her history switched from moderate malnutrition to severe malnutrition (which was apparently something her tests could pick up, despite being done years afterward).

(Liz was finding it easier to get through if she said things, like, that was when Pomfrey's report said severe malnutrition, instead of so I was basically always hungry, kind of got used to it after a while, which is fucked up when you think about it, innit? And Skeeter had nailed it with the smelling dinner cooking thing, she– was going to stop thinking about that now, she was making herself anxious.)

Some of her answers would have little spikes of feeling shooting across the room, an especially noisy one from Severus at the explanation of when and why the lock had gotten on her door — he'd known she'd been punished for doing better than Dudley in school, but none of the details. Weirdly, having other shite going on kind of broke up the weight of their eyes on her, this wasn't so bad, actually. But even so, as the questions went on, Liz felt herself begin to tense, nerves sizzling and ants crawling on her skin, as Erin worked up the timeline, dreading when they would reach the thing with the sofa, she did not want to talk about that. Ever at all, honestly, and definitely not in public. Somewhat to her surprise, though, Erin skipped right past it, instead asking Liz to confirm her mind magic had triggered to defend herself from physical mistreatment — she leapt to answer that one maybe slightly more enthusiastically than necessary, she was just so relieved she wouldn't have to talk about it.

(Maybe she wouldn't need her calming potion after all...)

They walked through the next few years after that, not much to say, and then getting her Hogwarts letter — yet another wave of unpleasant feeling echoing around the room at the confirmation that she hadn't known shite about magic or the magical world by then — and yes, Dumbledore really had dragged her back to Privet Drive (she tried not to smirk at the surge of anger, unpleasant but pointed nowhere near her, that was Dumbledore's problem), and Skeeter had guessed correctly, she'd used mind magic to get a room at a muggle hotel until school started. She volunteered that she was aware now that that was technically muggle baiting, she was willing to pay the fine — Erin just brushed it off, though, said such things were allowable in emergencies so long as she kept the Statute, which obviously she had. Susan's aunt stood long enough to confirm that the DLE had no plans to charge her for it before moving on.

After that, the interviews all the Slytherin kids got with Severus, and because he's a perceptive son of a bitch (in those exact words, oops, at least she got chuckles for it) he realised something was wrong with her immediately. Giving her the calming potions — didn't need them as often anymore, but she did always have one on her just in case (yes, including right now, pulled it out of her pocket to show them) — which was actually one of the things in the secret part of her medical report, but Liz was fine with people knowing that. Besides, the more fucked up she'd been, the worse it reflected on Dumbledore, the more likely they'd give the trusteeship to Severus for trying to fix it. (People had seen her take the potions at school anyway, it wasn't really a secret.) Severus putting her up in his spare bedroom (she was intentionally vague about when exactly that'd been), also bribing her for getting better marks in school so she'd stop sabotaging herself (she didn't mention what with, she caught a thought from someone nearby assuming it was sweets, which was apparently a normal thing for a twelve-year-old to be bribed with), waited until she was thirteen to go to the Child Welfare people so Dumbledore would have a harder time just making it go away — and yes, he really did try to convince her to go back to the Dursleys when he found out, Severus hadn't made that up.

No, Liz never talked about the trusteeship and this whole thing with him in person. They've spoken in person exactly twice in her entire life — once when he dragged her back to the Dursleys in August '91, and the second time after the Defence Professor briefly kidnapped her back in...May '92, she thought it was, and neither of them had been pleasant conversations. (Apparently the thing with Quirrell wasn't public knowledge? Oops! Liz thought, trying not to openly smirk.) When he found out about her Child Welfare case they'd discussed it through letters, because she'd refused to meet him in person, for obvious reasons. No, seriously, they had no relationship at all. Liz had literally never heard of him before the goblins told her he was her legal guardian in July '91, and he'd never made a point of having anything to do with her after that either. And it felt like the Lords and Ladies were not happy with Dumbledore over that, tee hee.

Oh, getting into duelling was Severus's idea, actually — to help her get better control of her mind magic, long story. It's fun, though, she might have to tour the professional circuit for a few years after graduation. Not quidditch, that was fun too, but if she had to pick one to keep doing after school it'd be duelling. No, Severus wasn't trying to get her to go into Potions (Liz thought the question had been teasing, but still), it was one of her best classes but she thought she wanted to study enchanting and wardcrafting. Artifice would be cool too, but she would need to get her Transfiguration marks up, ugh, she hated transfiguration...

Ending on a lighter note about how terrible transfiguration was — she caught multiple thoughts that she was being childishly adorable again, which, hmm — had the dreary, angry pall in the room breaking up a bit, so, that wasn't so bad. (Erin must have done that on purpose, though Liz wasn't sure why.) Erin asked the assembly if there was anything else they needed cleared up, and there were a few more questions — not to Liz directly, they would ask Erin and she would ask Liz. Though Erin was editing the wording or reframing things a bit, and one slightly creepy question about her bedroom at home (Severus's house, she meant) she refused to ask at all. (Fishing for details he could use to accuse Severus of molesting her, Liz was pretty sure.) For one question, Liz said that Severus had introduced her to Narcissa to talk to about things — the question had been referring to puberty and sex stuff (things which a teenage girl might reasonably want to have a woman around to ask about), which wasn't really what she and Narcissa had talked about, but Narcissa thankfully let that one slide.

The last question Erin asked was what she wanted the Wizengamot to do — and obviously she wanted them to get her out from under Dumbledore and give the trusteeship to Severus. She honestly couldn't understand how that was even a question (which got a few rueful chuckles).

And that was it, Liz's part was done. That hadn't been so bad.

(She'd tried to pronounce the Rs and Ls and shite, but she doubted she'd done a very good job, probably sounded very muggleish all the way through. Oh well.)

There was a little bit more debate after that, and then long monologues that were definitely prepared statements, sort of political speeches, which Liz didn't really listen to. Instead, she flipped over her sheet of parchment, and set about sketching... There were fifty-nine seats, right, so the closest possible vote would be thirty to twenty-nine — perfect, using the silly overdone inkwell as a straight-edge she drew a grid, twelve columns and five rows, tracing over the vertical line in the middle a few times, extending it a bit further up and down. It was a little crooked, but that was fine, the boxes were big enough for her to write a name in each. (She wanted to keep track of the vote count, and also which families had tried to fuck her.) Of course, if the vote went over either way they wouldn't fit in the boxes, she could just put the extra ones underneath. She labelled the left side simply yes, and the right side pricks. Ah, right, she drew a line separating off her grid, to the left, labelled this part of the page the worst, and then underlined it twice, and then added a couple exclamation points for flavour.

She'd been told the vote to remove her from Dumbledore should pass easily, but if there were any complete fucking bastards who would keep her stuck with him despite everything that'd happened, she wanted to know who they were. Because.

The debate and tedious statements from people ended up going stupid long, enough that Liz resorted to doodling some more to occupy herself. Had to be an hour, maybe — there wasn't a clock in here, and drawing her wand to check the time was probably not on. Finally they were done talking about random shite, some of which only tangentially had anything to do with her case — there was talk about changing the law on how trusteeships worked, the Ministry setting up some kind of oversight, giving the Child Welfare Office broader powers to investigate and intervene in cases of child abuse (apparently in a lot of cases they couldn't do much as things stood, the trusteeship being established by the Wizengamot actually made Liz's easier in some ways), reconsidering how they handled muggleborns... Huh, hadn't Bulstrode said something about Adjustment removing muggleborns from abusive homes? Apparently they hadn't even considered it in Liz's case, so, how bad did it have to be before they did something about it?

Oh, she got her answer, indirectly: apparently the Ministry was only empowered to intervene when they had good reason to believe the child was literally going to die. For fuck's sake...

Anyway, after far too bloody long, they finally called the vote. This was a more formal vote than the raising lit wands thing, they would be called alphabetically and would stand to verbally give an aye or nay (or sometimes the equivalent in Cambrian or Gaelic). Liz was pretty sure they did this for more important votes specifically so people would know exactly who voted how, which was convenient, because that was exactly what she wanted to know. And, well, it was mostly alphabetical, they actually did the Boneses first, and then the rest of the Founders, and then everyone else — because mages could be bloody weird about their traditions sometimes, Liz wasn't really surprised. It took fucking forever, but finally Carmichael called a start to the vote on the first question, whether Dumbledore should be removed as trustee.

Bones was first, and obviously Susan voted yes. And then Dorea's aunt, and then Ingham — Lady Ingham was in duelling clothes, Liz hadn't realised that was allowed — then Neville's grandmother, and then Monroe, all also yes, and then back to the beginning of the alphabet, for the Noble Houses not special enough to get a "Most Ancient" attached to their name, starting with Abbott — not closely related to Hannah, she was in the Common House of Abbott, it was very confusing — who was a yes, and then—

Liz glared at the back of Lord Ainsley's head, close by one row down and to her left, and wrote his name down right under her !the worst! heading. Atwell, another Light family (and therefore supposedly one of the Potters' allies), joined him immediately afterward. Arseholes. There were a few yes votes after that, and then Brown joined the column of collection of cunts — that would be Lavender's grandfather, she'd tried to threaten Liz with him back in September — and then a list of good votes, one after the other. Farley was added to the list — like Gemma Farley, the seventh-year prefect? — and then a bunch more yes votes, and then Llewellyn joined her list, and MacEwan not long after. Then there was another series of yes votes, Liz wasn't counting but probably twelve to fifteen in a row — Liz's own turn was somewhere in the middle, she said "aye" with probably more vehemence than necessary before sitting down again. The streak was broken with Smith (prick), and the rest were all yes votes. Counting up the no votes and doing some quick maths, there were seven against, which meant fifty-two for, yeah, very one-sided.

(Looking over the list later, talking about it with Daphne, she'd realise the no votes were all either in the Light or Ars Brittania, with the exception of Smith in Common Fate — all die-hard Dumbledore supporters, basically.)

They proceeded immediately into the second vote, Liz already going tense with nerves, she took a few slow, calming breaths — supposedly this one was going to be close. Carmichael reminded them that an up vote was to give the trusteeship to Severus, and a down vote was to kick it back to the Ministry courts to pick someone else. Which wasn't necessarily the end of the world, she guessed, but that Gringotts goblin had pointed out that anyone could throw their hat in the ring, and they could also bribe the judges, she could easily end up stuck with a complete fucking arsehole. (And she suspected it would be much harder to get away the second time than it had the first, so she'd really be stuck.) Susan voted first again — Liz unthinkingly writing Susan in the first box instead of Bones, but that was fine, she knew who she meant — after sitting down Susan threw her a surreptitious thumbs-up. The rest of the Founders followed, Black and Ingham and Longbottom (barely fit in its box, letters squished together a little) and Mon—

Monroe voted no?! But, Liz thought she and the Boneses were— Ugh, fine, four to one, then.

Abbott, aye; Ainsley Atwell, nay (pricks); Avery, aye, and that was the last of the As — six to three. (Avery was a Death Eater arsehole, she knew, she wondered if he was only voting for Severus to keep her because then they'd have control of her.) And then there were the Bs: Bellchant Bletchley, aye; Boot Brown, nay (not surprised by Brown, but she was going to nag Terry about his family voting against her later); Bulstrode, aye; Burke, nay — nine to six. Yeah, this was staying unnervingly close, she was not happy with that. And then into the Cs, Carmichael voted up and then Carpenter and Cornfoot down; and then Tracey's complete bastard of a grandfather voted nay, shite, ten to nine, come on...

(It hadn't been necessary to get Tracey out, but maybe Severus should have just killed him anyway.)

Diggory — not Cedric's father, he was Director of the (super racist) department that dealt with magical creatures and beings, must be some other relative — voted nay, and now it was tied, fuck. Her fingers tapping nervously at her desk, next was Dunbar, aye, and then Eirsley, aye, but then Farley (bastard) and Fawley both voted nay, bringing them even again. Liz grimaced when Gamp was called, and he voted nay, and they were losing — only by one vote, but her fingers were still shaking a little as she wrote down his name, this couldn't be a good sign. Next was Glanwyvl, the old lady from lunch, who brought them even again, and then Goldstein, who brought them right back under — and now she was going to bitch at Tony when she saw him next too. It didn't look like she'd be the only one, either, she noticed Susan was gaping up at him, unpleasantly surprised, after a second narrowing into a glare.

Liz had the feeling Goldstein was supposed to vote with them, which also wasn't a good sign.

Next was Ailbhe, who obviously voted for them, and then Grey, who brought them above water again, but then Jones made it a tie — fifteen to fifteen, halfway done and exactly tied, this shite was going to be close. She was almost painfully tense, throat tight enough she could barely breathe, she clenched her fist to keep herself from tapping too noisily, and she wasn't the only one, the air around her rigid with anticipation, it was going to be close...

Then Lestrange and Llewellyn voted down, MacCormac up, and then MacDougal, MacEwan, MacMillan all voted down, fuck fuck fuck! (If they lost she was so kicking Morag and Ernie's arses later...) Malfoy and Nott voted up, good good, and next was Olliv— That bastard, he voted— Why the f— He'd been at their lunch and everything, he hadn't given any sign he– that son of a bitch...

She was distracted by a pulse of a warm, smooth, soft something from behind her, almost forgot to write Parkinson's name in the yes column, glanced back over her shoulder — that was definitely Severus that feeling was coming from, but his mind was never that loud, he must be doing that on purpose. Then Peakes voted up, and then it was Liz's turn — she was even more insistent about her "aye" this time, practically snarling it out — and her turn made it tied at twenty-one each, but then Prewett immediately brought them under again, and then Prince...

She twitched at a touch on her shoulder, that odd feeling Severus was pushing out growing even more intense. A little breath escaped through her clenched teeth as it fell over her, warm and soft — not unpleasant, rather like the mind magic equivalent of that moment after she tightened the laces on her robes, the thick cloth hugged close and comfortable, enough of the tension dribbling away that she shivered a little. (Her hand jittered enough that the name Rosier in the yes column was kind of messed up, but she could tell what it was supposed to be.) After a second, letting the feeling settle in, his hand tightening just a little on her shoulder, Severus whispered, "It's all right, Elizabeth."

It took her a couple seconds to find her voice, her throat too thick and hot. (Rowle went in the pricks column.) "What if we lose?" The words came out hoarse, strained, speaking almost painful.

"We won't."

How did he know that, though? She hadn't gotten any Seer hints (her head was probably too noisy right now, but she couldn't help it), and Scrimgeour and Selwyn both voted aye, which made it tied again at twenty-four, it would only take six votes either way, and she was starting to run out of boxes...

(In retrospect, the answer to that question would be obvious: Severus was familiar with the members of the Wizengamot, how they were ordered alphabetically, so he'd known who had yet to vote and which way they would likely land. Tense and frightened of the prospect of the family courts forcing her under the power of a complete bloody stranger, she hadn't been capable of thinking that coherently at the time.)

Slughorn and Smethwyck voted up, only needed four more — thoughts jumping back and forth at random, Liz remembered her parents had intended Lady Slughorn to end up with her if all of their friends got killed, she still didn't know why. (Toward the end of the list, but still.) And then Smith voted against (prick), and then Stryke and then Thorpe, and they were losing again, twenty-six to twenty-seven, and there were not that many votes left. Fuck, they were going to lose, Liz was so fucked...

And then Travers, aye...and then Tugwood, aye...

Liz was leaning forward enough in her chair that her feet could actually touch the floor, her knee jiggling as one foot bounced, she wasn't even aware she was doing that until she heard something in her robes clicking, her stomach lurching and her scalp crawling, her throat tight enough she didn't even bother trying to breathe, chest burning from holding her breath, come on, come on...

...Urquhart, aye...Wilkes—

She deflated as a heavy breath gusted out of her, the tension dribbling away leaving her shivering. As the last couple votes were called she slumped over onto her desk, her head pillowed on her arms, suddenly feeling very, very tired.

Wilkes, aye; Yaxley, aye; Young, nay.

Thirty-one to twenty-eight. They'd won. Barely.

A couple days later, when she had an opportunity to go over the vote list she'd drawn up with her friends, Daphne would explain that there were some sort of odd things going on with the vote, the factions breaking in unexpected ways. At first glance, at least, but it did mostly make sense when looked at more closely. All four members of Ars Brittania had voted to give the trusteeship to someone else — they'd actually been split evenly on whether to remove her from Dumbledore in the first place — and so had a comfortable majority of the Light. Obviously, they hated the Death Eaters, and didn't want to give up the Girl Who Lived to the Dark. The exceptions also made sense: Bellchant and Grey were both more traditional families, their religion in the same family as the Mistwalkers' (related but different), and were kind of outliers politically, close to Common Fate; Carmichael was more like the rest of the Light, but the family had big personal disagreements with Dumbledore lately, and also the Director of Health and Family (that was it) was a Carmichael, it'd be kind of odd for his Lord to not support the Department's own recommendation.

(The last defector from the Light was Liz herself, who didn't count.)

Common Fate had come out in support, which was as expected — their preference was to respect the wishes of the person themself in these sort of cases, and also it turned out the common assumption was that Liz would join Common Fate once she took control of her seat, so they didn't want to annoy her for no reason. Though she wasn't really sure why that was? Maybe just because she had friends in Common Fate, she didn't know. Most of their defectors — Smith, Goldstein, Prewett — were all culturally light families and had close relationships with Dumbledore or other people with the Light, and had probably been hoping they'd be able to get Liz a light-leaning guarantor in the courts. (If it had gone to the courts, Dorea said her aunt gave even odds of Liz ending up with Severus, the Tonkses, the Slughorns, or the Prewetts — so, only a one in four shot of the Light winning there anyway.) The last no-vote was Ollivander, and they didn't know what that was about, they'd expected him to vote yes.

The Allied Dark had also voted strongly in their favour, with only two no-votes out of a total of ten. (Which made them the most supportive faction by percentage, eighty per cent against Common Fate's sixty.) Daphne admitted it was very possible that was because they thought Severus was one of their people (which he only kind of was), and having the Girl Who Lived join them was to their advantage politically, and also if the war started up again they'd have her as a hostage. Liz was pretty sure Severus would murder anyone who tried to get him to pull that kind of shite, but sure, whatever, worked to her benefit this time. Davis almost certainly only voted against them because of Severus's recent intervention in his House — Tracey apologised for that, which was ridiculous, especially since Liz was the one to bring her to Severus in the first place, she just brushed it off — but nobody had any idea what had happened with Rowle, he'd also been expected to support them.

And Ars Publica was really weird, their vote split in half — exactly in half, eight to eight. The radical wing of the faction — Ingham, Scrimgeour, Slughorn, Eirsley, Tugwood, MacCormac — had all voted for them, for the same reason most of Common Fate had, respecting what Liz wanted. The conservative wing — Lestrange, Selwyn, Prince (Liz didn't learn until this conversation that Severus's mother had been a Prince), Thorpe, and Gamp — had all been expected to vote against them...though Selwyn had flipped, no one knew why. But the last third of the faction had been split, in a way that didn't really make sense. Ideologically, they should have voted for them, but they'd actually leaned the other way. Tracey thought it might be personal hatred for Severus — especially Stryke in particular, the rumour was that a Stryke had been a Defence Professor a few years ago and Severus had done something unpleasant to him (supposedly for molesting girls coming in for his office hours, so, fuck him) — but that didn't explain all of them, and certainly not Monroe, who definitely should have been on their side.

Dorea, relaying her aunt's suspicions, suggested that maybe some Dark families had been planning something sneaky with the courts. Ars Brittania (with the Light) and the Allied Dark were disproportionately powerful in the Ministry at the moment, but politics were on the move — Dumbledore's star waning and the scandal around Fudge (Light-aligned) meant they'd almost certainly get a new Chief Warlock and a new Minister in the near future, and with the balance of power in the Wizengamot shifting there'd be a big shake-up at the Ministry. Perhaps, they thought that it'd take long enough for the courts to get to Liz's case that the Dark would have time to replace enough of the membership to arrange a guarantor for Liz favourable to their interests. In fact, Andi thought their goal might have been to put her with the Slughorns. So, Liz didn't know how to feel about the whole thing, honestly.

(Liz never got confirmation, but with hindsight a few years down the line, after she was more familiar with the people involved, that did seem very likely — she suspected they'd chosen Slughorn because of her parents' will, make getting the courts to go along with it a little easier, and that she would have dissolved the trusteeship immediately. Cynfelyn would imply that the radical Ars Publica people had intended to vote against them as part of the scheme, and had only flipped because Liz said she wanted to stay with Severus, though, again, she'd never get confirmation of that.)

But Liz didn't spare a single thought for the politics of it all in the moment. As the vote finished up, Carmichael officially declaring the trusteeship was to be transferred to Severus — there would be paperwork to sign at the Ministry, but it would take a few days to straighten that out — the rest of the session going on around her, Liz didn't pay any attention at all. She sat there with her head down on her desk, consciously taking slow, deep breaths, all but shivering in relief. That had been— It'd been really close, that was all, for a minute there she'd be certain they were going to lose, and she would—

Well, she didn't know what would have happened, really. She had an understanding with Severus, about a lot of things, and someone new coming in and— That could have ended badly. Especially considering all the illegal magic and shite she was getting into, that could have ended very badly. And with her school plans, whoever it was could easily have just stopped her from going, made her stay at Hogwarts, they could force her to live with them — and call the bloody DLE to track her down and drag her back if she tried to leave — they could stop her from accessing her own money, it... And it would have gone on until they decided the trusteeship was over, or until she could get the Wizengamot to overrule them, she would have been trapped.

(She hated feeling trapped.)

When this all started, she hadn't really given much thought to what might happened if they failed — she'd been told it would go in their favour, because Severus was already looking after her, why would they put her with anyone else? And she'd been told it would be close, but it would pass, nothing to worry about, and then... It hadn't really clicked to her that they might lose until they were halfway through the voting and they'd been behind, and staying behind for a good long stretch, and... This could easily have fucked up the whole rest of her life, and that hadn't really quite seemed real until she was sitting here, counting the votes, realising they were under and thinking about what would happen next, and...

It'd been scary, that was all. Far more than she'd expected, she'd been worried about the questioning part of this, not—

She surreptitiously wiped her face against her sleeve, trying to pretend her eyes weren't leaking. It wasn't that bad, she wasn't in any danger of crying in public like a fucking child— (Uncle Vernon hated it when she cried, but she noticed that thought happening this time, crushed it down as hard as she could.) —her chest was a bit tight and her eyes prickling, but it wasn't that bad, she was fine. Severus hadn't moved his hand from her back, mind still pleasantly glowing at her (though with an underlying hint of wariness, thoughts simmering in there somewhere), if he noticed her silent struggle to control herself he didn't give any sign of it.

Ugh, she was exhausted. Once they got back to Hogwarts she was locking herself in her room and not coming out until tomorrow.

The session ended pretty soon after their thing was done — there was other business they wrapped up, Liz wasn't really paying attention to what, but it couldn't have taken more than an hour. They were dismissed with another deep, vibrating boom under her feet, the rustle of muttered conversations almost covering up the clank of the Hit Wizards unlatching the door. Liz finally straightened, wincing a little at the brightness, blinking, her eyes had been closed too long. She was a little shaky on her feet, for some inexplicable reason, but at least she didn't fall on her face like a clumsy idiot.

(She might have stumbled a little on one of the stairs down to the floor, bloody heels, she was going to pretend that didn't just happen.)

A few people talked to them on the way out, but nothing much, mostly just congratulating them on getting the result they wanted. As they reached the floor Susan bounced right up to them, grinning — and then hitched to a stop, asked if a hug would be okay. Bleh. Well, as long as Susan was actually asking, fine, she guessed...

She still didn't really get hugs, but her friends' minds tended to go all warm and squishy and affectionate when they did it, tingly, which wasn't unpleasant to be pressed right up against (unless she was on a down mood or overwhelmed at the moment), so. As long as they didn't spring them on her without warning, fine, whatever.

(Besides, she thought people asking before touching her should be encouraged, at least.)

Thankfully, after that there weren't really any interruptions on their way out. In the Antechamber, there were a few people shouting out stuff to them, but Liz was too busy holding off the weight of far too many minds crammed into one place to really pick out the words very well. Instead of going down to the Potter office, they went to the public grates instead, so they could floo straight to Severus's office. His hand once again hovering near his wand holster, a subtle sign for the too many damn people around to keep their distance Liz was certain nobody failed to pick up on, he paused a short distance away from the first free grate they came to, nodded her on ahead — so she wouldn't be left here for even a few seconds without him, she guessed.

She took a second to roll her eyes at him before stepping through the floo. Honestly, she wouldn't want to be stuck in this crowd without Severus standing nearby being vaguely intimidating and, well, Severus Snape, but it was the principle of the thing.

The floo was, as usual, terrible. There was a lot of shaking and spinning, and after a couple steps she was tossed out again, and immediately tripped, because flooing in heels was fucking impossible. She didn't fall too badly, though, hitched up on one of the armchairs after a few stumbling steps, was back on her feet before Severus arrived behind her. His wand appeared in his hand, a flick and magic was crawling over her head to toe, probably vanishing soot she must have picked up again, because of course.

"I hate the floo," she said, flat and emotionless.

His lips twitched, a faint ringing of amusement around her ears. "It appears the feeling is mutual."

Liz opened her mouth to say something, and then stopped — she felt like she should have something to say, she just...didn't know what it was. Severus had been a great help with the whole getting herself away from Dumbledore plan, and now it was done, and she... Well, she didn't know what to say about all that, anything she could think of just seemed...not right. Maybe she should try to write a letter, she'd recently discovered she was much better at this sort of thing in writing...which was a low bar, but still...

(She was terribly relieved that Severus had gotten it in the end, but she didn't know how to say that, or if she should even bother.)

"A thought occurred to me, recently."

She blinked. "What?"

"I could, of course, begin the paperwork to dissolve the trusteeship in short order. I would recommend waiting perhaps a month, for the attention on us to recede somewhat."

"And...?"

"You might consider keeping it in place instead."

"And why would I do that?" Also, why would Severus agree to that? She would have thought he'd appreciate having one less thing to deal with. The thought occurred to her, briefly, that Severus just wanted to keep the legal authority he had over her now, but... She did get a little tingle of anxiety, sure, instinctively watching Severus's mind more closely for some sign of a trick, but she didn't really believe that. If he'd wanted to hurt her or something, he'd had countless opportunities, and he'd never—

(A wave of tingles crawling over her skin, she remembered in a flash being back in the house in Godric's Hollow, sitting on the stairs, and—)

She didn't really believe that. He must have a good reason.

One of Severus's eyebrows ticked up, a cold shiver in his head, reacting to her reflexive suspicion. In a suggestive sort of drawl, he said, "So long as the trusteeship is in force, it is legally impossible for you to be tried as an adult."

...Oh. With her dark magic stuff, that... Yeah.

"Also, it is worth keeping in mind that you are near courting age. If I am still your guarantor when that time comes, suitors will come to me first, and I may tell them to piss off — speaking on your behalf, I may be more...direct than you can, without running the risk of making enemies among your peers."

Ech, right, she'd completely forgotten about that. "Because I care what the nobles think about me so much." Mostly just to be contrary, she was pretty sure she was going to agree to keep the trusteeship going — those were good reasons...

A shuffling going on in his head, he gave her a flat sort of look. "Yes, you care not at all. Which would explain why I certainly don't recall you scrambling to suppress your natural accent not five hours ago."

"Hey, you're the one who said I had to pull off the good noble girl thing as well as possible, so they'd be less likely to decide you're doing a shite job with me."

"They are aware you were raised among muggles, Elizabeth. They fully expect you to sound like one."

Well, fine then. "Then I guess I was just doing it for me — I sound like a baby when I drop the L.s, I should try to stop doing that anyway."

There was a little flicker of amusement from Severus's mind, but he said, "It's not that bad. Say 'wheat bundled into a sheaf'."

...Okay. Giving him a confused, suspicious frown, she did. He then asked her to say a knife in its sheath, which she did. "What are you getting at?"

"Those are different words."

"What?"

"In your accent, they sound identical to my ear, but they are distinct words. 'Sheaf', meaning a collection of things bound together, spelled with an F; 'sheath', meaning a certain sort of narrow container, spelled with T.H."

"What are you talking about? Sheaf, sheath sheaf— Oh for fuck's sake! Do I always do that?"

Severus was laughing at her a little bit on the inside, which was not nice, but at least he was keeping it off his face, so they could both pretend to ignore it. "From what I've noticed, you reliably distinguish them before an accented vowel, especially in monosyllabic words — 'that' and 'vat' would be distinguished from each other, for example. However, you do tend to merge these sounds in all other positions."

"Son of a bitch. I didn't— Obviously I know those are different words—" She could read, she wasn't a complete idiot. "—I, just, didn't even know I was doing that. I can barely hear the difference..."

"I'm not surprised — it is a rather difficult sound, non-native speakers have particular trouble with it." Honestly, what kind of point was that, she was supposed to be bloody English... "Perhaps you never noticed, but you also swallow final T.s"

"How do you even— Difficult. Difficult, difficult sou— Argh!" she cut herself off, actually throwing up her hands in frustration, because that was fucking impossible, how did he even say that?! "Fuck me, English is a stupid language and I give up. I'm going to go down to my room and hide until the shame of not being able to speak my own damn native language dies down." She was being a little sarcastic, because she didn't actually care that much, but only a little, because seriously, now that he'd pointed it out she wasn't going to be able to stop hearing it. "I won't be at dinner." Like right there, for example. "Won't, won't be— Fuck..."

"If it helps, your mother and I both had atrocious Black Country accents when we arrived at Hogwarts." The suggestion being that she would lose hers eventually too, because Severus sounded basically just like all the fancy purebloods.

"No, why would that make a difference?" (It did help, a little.) "I'm gonna go now."

"Goodnight, Elizabeth."

She walked off without another word — Severus was heading toward his rooms, probably intended to change into normal clothes, so she went ahead and closed his office door behind her. There were people hanging around the common room, a few asked how it'd gone but she just waved them off, they could wait until the paper came. She was done talking today, just reading in bed seemed like a great idea...

What time was it? She was getting kind of hungry already, she wondered if Cediny would do that thing with the duck again if she asked...

---

So now you can see why I split the first scene off. Yeah.

[Jassy] — The French spelling, Iaşi in standard Romanian.

Accents! In my headcanon, the Child Who Lived has a very noticeable southern accent. Not particularly slangy, since Liz picked up most of her vocabulary from reading books anyway (and also I'm American, so it's safer to just not try), and it's not often worth commenting on, but any time she opens her mouth the muggleborns will immediately know yep, that bitch from London. Of course the Noble Houses (with few exceptions) speak with very Celtic-sounding accents (though it does vary in the exact realisation between cultural groups), so Liz sounds very foreign to them. Foreign as in muggleborn — that she was raised in the muggle world is a surprise to nobody who has half a brain and can identify literally the single most common muggle accent in the country (Draco). I maybe went a little too hard into Liz agonising over not sounding off in that one bit, but I was entertaining myself, so you just have to deal with it.

The big things Liz has are dropping Hs sounds in some environments (not all), and also Rs at the ends of syllables — except when between vowels, she actually didn't need to obsess over "your" because the "excellency" meant she'd get the R out anyway, going through it word by word she hadn't thought of that. The thing with Ls at the ends of syllables isn't actually dropping them, as Liz says multiple times, but instead substituting them with a vowel. This is something that happened in English historically, during its development up to its modern form, but some dialects (especially around London and the Thames estuary) are these days continuing the process further along...which, an L turning into a vowel sometimes has funny effects on the vowel before it, it's a whole thing. Oh, also, the "th" sound fronting to "f" or "v", that's pretty common in the area, and for Liz specifically /u(:)/ and /ʊ/ tend to front to /ʏ/, and that's all the big noticeable things I guess.

Woo, accents? nerdy linguistics shit? Woo.

This chapter was a bit indulgent, and went on too long, and maybe a little shaky from those 4-6k writing days I had, but this shit happens. Apparently I'm on a Good War kick, because I'm pretty sure I'm going to go right into the next chapter, should be fun. See you all next time.