Chapter 7
Percy Weasley was in heaven. He had been given an order by his Head of House, Arthur Septimus Weasley, that he was to teach his younger brothers proper manners. And if any of the younger children in Gryffindor wanted to attend, Lord Black would pay him! Getting paid to do something that Percy would pay to do, well, if he had the gold.
Fred and George actually paid attention, and recruited several others into the class. Their practice may have been over the top, and really, there was absolutely no reason for cross-dressing, but they were funny, even if Percy wouldn't admit it in public.
The only problem was the Headmaster. He was trying to crack down on the spread of the 'pureblood madness' as he called it.
Percy was proud of his father for standing up to Dumbledore.
Albus Dumbledore had dared to come to their home uninvited, and tried to talk his mother into undoing the agreement that saved young Ronald's life and magic. He didn't imply that the twins would become playthings - he stated it outright. The enraged father of the family had had enough.
"Get out of my house, and never darken our doors again. You knew that Malfoy had cursed our orchard, and did nothing about it. You knew that Harry Potter was targeted as a child, and did nothing about it. You wound up Ronald like a muggle toy, and aimed him at the Boy-Who-Lived in an attempt to kill him and it worked! In my mind, you are no different than Who-know-Who. You are just another Dark Lord who wants to rule Britain in a certain way, and you don't care who gets hurt or who dies to do so. Get out!"
"Now, Arthur, you're distraught, but I forgive you." Dumbledore had tried to reason.
Finally, fed-up with no one listening, the head of House Weasley went over to the ward book, and stuck out Dumbledore's name from the allowed list.
It was considered the height of bad manners to do that to a guest. One should always let someone leave of their own accord.
Getting evicted like that hurt - a lot.
Arthur grinned. That had felt good. Molly just gaped at him.
"But Arthur! That was Dumbledore! We rely on his scholarship, and help for school, and..."
"Bah! We wouldn't not have ever asked for help if he had used his power and knowledge to help us here! It took Bill less than two hours to find the problem and fix it Molly. Two hours! Part of the curse was to not look into it - a sort of fidelius, that could be removed by a powerful mage. Or a curse-breaker. Bill had grown up here, so didn't notice. Being told what to look for was the key."
"But Albus couldn't know!" She said, stubbornly holding on.
"Think what you wish, I have no desire for a slave of a companion. But I won't allow that man ever here again. Not for any reason." Arthur looked at his wife. She was a good money manager. Ginny was nearly Hogwarts age. And she definitely needed distracting.
"Molly, you've always done well with our garden, and food animals. Due to your hard work, and careful planning, we have had bounty on the table, and been able to help neighbors as well from time to time. I'm proud of you for that."
The woman blushed, wondering where the buttering up was going.
"The orchards will start producing again. Likely this summer, we are going to have 100 acres of orchard with trees bearing fruit. I don't want this to go to waste, do you?"
"Of course not!"
"Good! You have time to make a plan. Do we pick and sell the fruit? Do we turn it into cider? Do we do a bit of both? Grandpa Septimus says that the cider press was working fine the last he knew, and it should be carefully stored in the old barn. I'll support you in what you decide. You are the manager here. You might need to hire a few people to help. Remember Remus Lupin from the order? He's a good man, and there are others we could do a good turn for."
"Arthur!" Molly ran to her husband and kissed him, right in front of the children.
"Ewwww!"
"Alright, you lot! Those of you headed back to Hogwarts, come with me, I've got a portkey that will get you to the gate. Stay away from the Headmaster! If he demands that you go to his office, don't go without Minerva. And I'll send her a letter right away about that, too!"
Percy shook his head from his musings. Yes, indeed, he was proud of his father. And happy that Lord Black was taking an interest in his extended family.
That could only mean good things for Percy's future.
-00-00-00-
Harry's life was very strange at the moment. He was supposed to be resting, but he was trying to catch up on a week's homework. Now, his tutors, who he had met with once already, were telling him he had plenty of time.
Something else was going on though, felt creepy, something was off in life, and Harry couldn't put his finger on it.
He turned to the stack of homework, and had to smile about one thing.
Each assignment had a neat copy of the notes from the class, along with the suggested reading, and what pages and paragraphs were most appropriate.
Harry knew who he was going to hire as a personal assistant when he got older. And Hermione was only a first year!
Ares had told him that the rat was dead, but not to feel bad about it, it wasn't Harry's fault. He had wanted to ask if the rat was still alive when it got here, but had decided against asking. He really didn't want to know.
Completely bored with the theory of low-level magic, and having done most of the reading in the hospital, it didn't take long to catch up.
Plus, as much as he adored his baby cousin, Hogwarts was definitely quieter.
He knew he needed to go back, but he really, really wanted to stay, and he realized what was wrong.
He was afraid.
All of his defense training, and Harry had been nearly killed, all because he had his guard down when he was gathering his magic.
If he had been struck during casting, who knew what would have happened. Would Hogwarts have gone floating off, with a permanent featherlight charm? If he had seen movement, and struck the boy with said charm, would they now be looking for him in outer space?
Harry knew he had a problem controlling his power. He had talked about it with the healers. The problem was, short of Grindelwald, Dumbledore, and Tom Riddle, there really weren't a lot of powerful mages running around. And none of the previous ones had allowed any experimentation on them.
The Heir to the Black family would gladly volunteer Dumbledore for some medical and magical testing. Especially if it involved a bit of torture, and starvation. Let him see how he likes it. Then he took a deep breath. His magic had started to build wanted to work with the healers, but Grandfather had scowled, and talked about family secrets.
Harry desperately wanted Prince back, and let his family know that if any skeletally thin Grims showed up on the property, he was taking them to Hogwarts.
Ares had laughed, and said half the staff would faint. The others would laugh at the ones who fainted, and Severus Snape had a zero tolerance policy towards pranks.
Which was why all of Harry's prank ideas got recorded by a dictaquill and sent by elf to a certain third year dormroom and never mentioned again.
And Ares was disappointed because Harry showed no sign of being Prong's son! As if! He just wasn't going to call attention to himself about it.
Harry's pranks were funny, the twins thought so too!
As he finished the last of the homework, Harry carefully packed it away. The constant headache that he had since he could remember had gotten so much better in the hospital. It wasn't gone, but it was only half as strong
Maybe it was the baby's cries that hurt. Hopefully it didn't mean something.
It did.
-00-00-00-
Acturus was contemplating the last few weeks, and wasn't happy.
Lord Black had been furious with the first letter from Harry. Not furious that he was sorted to Slytherin, no, that had made the older man puff with pride.
Keeping something in the school that could kill students?
He got together with Lucius. They both knew about the kidnapping attempt, and how the Headmaster had blamed everything on his minion. Said minion was in a low security part of Azkaban, and would be back to the school soon. Hopefully with lessons learned. No, they had come up with a plan to circumvent the Headmaster, and try to figure out his game.
The room in the third floor corridor to be avoided, they had found out, contained a cerberus on a trap door.
If this was Dumbledore's idea of some kind of obstacle course, well! Acturus wished he had the power to confront the man tete-a-tete. He would have to wait until his protege and heir was older for that.
Until then, he would go to Hogwarts and teach Harry the fidelius charm. It was easy enough to learn, like most difficult spells, it just needed power. The fidelius could only be used on something that someone owned, technically, but as Harry was one of the founder's heirs, Acturus thought the lad would be able to hide the corridor successfully in order to protect students.
Magic was always about intent.
The Lord of House Black had snuck into Hogwarts the second day of class, and met Harry well outside the area of danger. The spell was learned and cast, the secret was written by dictaquill on a special parchment sent to every single adult in the castle.
The person would read it, the parchment vanish, and they wouldn't remember that they had just read the secret. They would continue to know what they knew before the fidelius was cast. No more, no less.
Only Dumbledore, with his power and control of the wards, might have noticed something. But he had been at the ministry at the time (something that Acturus had taken into account).
For once, a plan had come together, and seemed to be working well.
Lord Black had heard nothing bad happening at the school - no children being eaten by three-headed dogs or the like.
He just wished he could send a squad of bodyguards to defend his heir. He had a bad feeling, a foreboding about the future.
Ares come into the room, carrying his daughter. Cassiopeia had her father's grey eyes and black hair. She was going to be a beauty when she grew up. Her face lit up, seeing Grandfather.
"Is Persephone well, she wasn't at lunch or dinner. And you weren't offering explanations."
"She's at St. Mungos. I thought she would be back by now. No, not an illness. We forgot the charms, and with her nursing the baby most of the time, we didn't expect..."
"Another child? So soon?"
Ares nodded. "I know I should be happy, but what if it's a boy?"
"What do you want to happen? You know that Hadrian loves you, knows that you are his godfather. Yes, I, no we have raised him to be head of house. But he could use all he has learned, and be a great head of house Potter, and lend wisdom to his cousin."
"You say that as though you feel something bad is going to happen to us."
The man turned wintery eyes to the window. "Something wicked this way comes, and if any of us survive, it will be Magic's blessing."
-00-00-00-
Despite everyone's forbording, Harry returned to Hogwarts, and was happy to be reunited with his friends. He had bought Hermione a magical snow globe of Hogwarts as a thank-you for all her hard work and also gave her the list of tutors that St. Mungo's had given him. Confused, he let her in on the secret that if she took classes over the summer, she could use magic.
He had been in classes since he was six, and had a permanent underage magic use pass, as did Susan and Hannah. He would have to make sure to get one for Neville too.
Unhappy that muggleborns would normally not be told these things, Hermione gave her sincere thanks.
Heir Potter-Black was nothing like the Harry Potter she expected. But he was a far better friend that she had ever hoped for.
-00-00-00-
All Hallow's Eve. Harry dressed in his dress robes, the traditional pure white, for the day. They were open robes, and wore his normal uniform underneath.
He had his head-of-house's written permission to wear them in his hand, lest any teacher object.
Daphne was waiting for him on the couch. She too wore white robes of mourning. Her Grandmother Rosier had recently passed, and like Harry, clutched her permission.
They both knew that a fight would be brewing over this move.
What they didn't expect was the seventh year prefects coming down, arrayed the same. Both stopped and bowed to Heir Black.
"Did you know that my Uncle Alphard was named after Alphard Black? Father refused to tell me the story of why. So, I am remembering him. Just to let you know, Lord Black has promised me a posting if my NEWTs are good enough. A show of solidarity, Gryffindor can't have all of the bravery in the castle now, can it?" The girl curtseyed again, and stepped back
.
Very cunning, Grandfather, honoring a man named after a Black who was one of your favorites.
"All of us want to go back to the old ways. If wearing a white robe helps, then who am I to deny my girlfriend? Besides, we have all lost family, it is important to remember them. To honor them. Taking that away, and making it a holiday about lollies? That isn't right." Prefect Belby bowed.
Harry knew that Heir Belby had a good career waiting as one of Severus' apprentices. The expensive posting was being sponsored by House Potter, but Harry expected to get a good return on his investment.
The four walked together to the great hall. It wasn't long before Professor McGonagall came to them, her eyes flashing.
"Just making sure that everyone has their notes. The Headmaster is livid about this, but I too remember a time when we would wear robes, not just for the day, but from now until the third in remembrance of the dead. I wish I could join you, but he'd find a way to oust me from the castle if I did. Blessings to you all." Her eyes caught Harry's, and he saw tears in hers. She was clearly remembering a different boy who was now gone ahead, waiting on his son to one day join him.
A hopefully long, long time from now.
Hermione gave Harry a questioning look, but turned to her breakfast. He could expect the inquisition later.
Harry knew that what he had planned for dinner would count as a prank. He looked up to see his head of house carefully ignoring the headmaster's rant. Good, Professor Snape wasn't looking at him. He hadn't gotten permission for part II, only the robes. And Dumbledore clearly wasn't happy about that. None of the students could hear a word, but he was clearly agitated. It appeared that something happened to the giant pumpkins that were supposed to be in the hall this morning. Apparently with Hagrid gone, they hadn't been tended to properly.
Yes, it could be construed as a prank. He hoped his punishment wasn't too harsh. But all he had said to the house-elves was 'please'.
-00-00-00-
When Hermione didn't show up for studying after classes, Harry asked a couple of others if they had seen her.
"She was very upset at something that Professor Quirrell said. I mean, he almost called her the M word. Didn't get the details." Susan informed him. "She went to the loo and hasn't been seen since."
Susan too was dressed in white. Justin asked about it, and Harry handed over a small pamphlet his grandfather had prepared for all of the muggleborns their year if they asked.
"Your parents, too?" Justin asked Susan.
She bowed her head before nodding. "I lost them just a few weeks before Harry lost his. And no, I don't blame Harry for not rescuing them or any other such nonsense. We were both babies! I love my Auntie Amelia very much. She's strict, but fair. Hannah's family is like my own, and of course it wouldn't be complete without Grandfather Black. How is he?"
"Elated. Persephone is with child again. She's really, really sick though, so she's been in and out of St. Mungo's. But I think it's just Ares being paranoid about losing a baby. He had a bad dream where his son died. Scary. I think she'll be fine. Where's Hermione?" Hadrian asked again.
She was late, and Miss Granger was never late.
Harry went over to the stacks and called a female house-elf. He passed her a note to give to Hermione, and thanked her for her service.
The little being's cheeked turned a florid green, before she curtseyed and popped away.
There was still no response by dinner time. Here it was, Harry's biggest stunt of the year, and he knew that Ares would have been bursting with pride, Grandfather too. Maybe. Hermione was going to miss it!
The doors opened. No flying bats, no scary skeletons. Not a single lolly was to be found.
Instead, the banners of the hall were draped in white. White tablecloths. White candles. Open bowls of the traditional salts were placed so that there was one per four students to share.
The Slytherins went to their tables, and stood behind their chairs solemnly, waiting for their Head of House to intone the proper greeting. The Hufflepuff first years followed Harry's lead, and remained standing, while a mix of the house sat.
Everyone wearing a white robe was standing. Some of the students changed their normal robes to white, and joined the others standing. Nearly three fourths of the students participated. Only Gryffindor had a majority sitting down, in the black robes. Percy, Fred, and George Weasley stood out like lit candles, but there were a few others of that house that joined in.
Minerva McGonagall won the hearts of everyone there when she silenced the Headmaster before he could say one negative thing, and gave the traditional opening blessing for the simple meal that honored the dead.
The students replied back, all of the newest members of magic grateful for a guidebook.
Blessing done, the students sat and broke bread, and dipped it into the salt. Then the rest of the meal was served.
It wasn't until the doors were banged open, and a troll being loose in the school that Harry looked for Hermione again. Still gone! He ran to Professor McGonagall who overrode the Headmaster about sending half the school to the dungeons where the creature supposedly was.
Harry pulled his map. It was an updated version of the old map, so showed both living and dead, and creatures as well. There was Fluffy, moving slightly, so likely enjoying dinner as well. No troll in the dungeons. There was Hermione, no!
With the sound of a crashing church bell, Harry had left the great hall.
-00-00-00-
Hermione was very upset.
She had basically been told that Harry and all of her friends had lied to her. That she, as a muggleborn, was less than dirt, and shouldn't be allowed to live, much less allowed to attend such a prestigious school as Hogwarts.
She ignored the message from Harry - he had lied to her! Pretended to be her friend! Lord Black would never bless their marriage, she had been told. Just ask anyone. Not that Hermione wanted to marry Harry just now, but it was the principle!
Unhappy, and missing home, she had cried all day in the bathroom. She was hungry, and thought about going and getting a plate of dinner, and taking it up to her room when she suddenly heard something odd. And smelled something vile.
Quickly peeking out of the door, she screamed just as the monster took half of the door. What was that?
Then the sound of a clanging bell chimed and Harry was right in front of her!
"NO!" He said, holding up a glowing wand. The movement was fast, and suddenly there was a golden cage all around the thing.
"Hermione! Are you alright? I heard that a professor was mean to you - did he try to kill you with this? If he did, he will answer to me!" Harry proclaimed, very, very upset.
Hermione was a genius, but it didn't take her great intellect to figure out that a) Harry was an extremely powerful wizard b )if he was lying and pretending to be her friend, why was he mad about her being attacked?.
She did the only logical thing she could think of. She ran to him and pulled him into a very close hug. Which he returned.
"You like me!" She declared.
"Of course I like you Hermione, you are my friend. One of my best friends!" Harry declared.
Just then, three professors ran into the ruined room, but it was the one in the purple turban that caught Harry's eye.
"You! You did this! You set the troll on her!" Harry claimed, aiming his wand at the stuttering man.
"How did you know? I mean, you can't...Stupify!"
A wide area spell caught them all unaware, and Harry's world went dark.
Harry woke up as they approached the third floor corridor - he could feel the boundaries of the fidelius coming up. Hermione was bound as tightly in ropes as he was. He then noticed the two professors similarly bound, all disillusioned, and bobbing along behind the DADA professor.
He stunned an awakening Snape, and left him and McGonagall in the first empty classroom on that level.
"I would love to question you Snape, and see where your loyalties truly lie, but I just don't have the time." Quirrell said, no sign of the stutter. "I do think you mine though."
"As for the mudblood, she'll be a tasty snack for the cerberus, that should be enough to get us through..."
BOOM!
The ceiling next to Quirrell crashed down, landing on top of him. The binding ended and the ropes dropped off of him and Hermione. She was now on the ground, and rubbing her head.
Falling unimpeded from a meter or so above the rock floor hurt!
Harry pulled her to her feet.
"He was going to feed you to a very large three-headed dog. Let's go!"
They raced the short distance to where McGonagall was waking, and she was trying to wake Professor Snape. Harry snapped off a rennervate spell, and it was only due to the circumstances that she didn't give him points for the silent use of magic.
Harry explained quickly what had happened so far, and called for house-elf help. All four were popped out of the room.
Quirrill moaned and bled and wasn't looked to for over an hour.
-00-00-00-
Amelia Bones was a very unhappy Director.
"What do you mean you had a cerberus in the castle? This is a school, Albus, a school!"
"My title is Headmaster! I will be treated with respect! I expect it, Amelia. No, I demand it!"
"You expect it, Albus, but don't give it! I'll use your title when you use mine! And you still haven't answered my question. I know for a fact that it is illegal to include a Class XXXXX beast in Care of Magical Creatures, and I won't hear of you pet sitting while your former groundskeeper is enjoying Azkaban. It would be illegal for him to keep such a beast anywhere near a school. You know this! You helped reform all of the creature laws back when Newt Scamander was giving everyone in the DMLE grey hairs over his shenanigans!"
"Now Amelia!"
"Now Albus!"
Albus Dumbledore sighed. Everyone was treating him like a criminal lately. He hadn't even docked points for the prank that was pulled tonight by Harry Potter. It had to be that boy. No one else would have dared! Ruining Halloween like that, taking away all of the sweets! Selfish! Just plain selfish! 'I lost my parents on this night a decade ago, so you must suffer too.' At least he would have Severus on his side. No one hated pranks more than him.
"I have a very good reason for a guardian like that in the school."
"Yet you couldn't tell me the secret of the corridor. In fact, if I hadn't been provided it, I would have been able to be inches from a snarling death and not known I was in danger!"
"Be that as it may..."
"Albus Dumbledore, you are under arrest for endangering students. Now if there is anything else besides a Class XXXXX beast in that room, you had best come clean now, or I will be adding charges."
"Aren't you going to arrest Harry Potter for murder?"
"Murder? An eleven year old? When we didn't arrest Ronald Weasley for attempted murder when he had clearly been at fault? Are you insane? First off, Quirrell isn't dead. Second, accidental magic under those circumstances could never be twisted into a murder charge even if the man had died! I would love to charge you with more, but being insane isn't a crime, just an excuse for doing the same. Please surrender your wands."
She held out a box. There had been problems in the past with gaining a wand's loyalty, so the aurors started using evidence boxes, and were under orders not to touch them without gloves on except of absolute emergency.
The stubborn man sighed, and acted as though he were a victim of a crime.
"And I swear, if you try to blame this one on Hagrid, I will pull out your beard one hair at a time!"
Dumbledore wisely was quiet, and tucked away his wands in the offered box. Nothing was said about the second wand. How she knew he even had it was up for debate. He was handcuffed and led out, all of the students of the great hall seeing his humiliation. How was he to ever gain their respect again?
-00-00-00-
In the infirmary, Persephone Black visited a certain turbaned professor. She spelled the potion into his stomach. She had learned the spell from the healers helping her at St. Mungos.
She counted his breaths one, twooooo, threeee...then too faint for a human to hear.
He wasn't dead, just appeared to be so.
Trying to attack her boy? Never!
Persephone may not have been born one, but she was now a Black. And while Harry was technically her nephew, she considered herself his mum.
A hand went over her growing belly. Her own baby son would be wealthy, and might potentially be head of the Black family one day if Harry willed it so. But she would protect the Heir with everything she had, even if it meant that her own son lost out on a prestigious position. There were some things more important than titles, or wealth or social standing. Family was everything.
She would do everything in her power to help him, because Harry was family.
Lord Black and Ares had perfect alibis, and she would be popped back to the manor before she was missed. This couldn't be traced back to Severus if discovered either, as he was at the DMLE giving testimony.
The only being who saw her was a house-elf, and that being perfectly understood.
Harry was family.
And family was everything.
-00-00-00-