Chapter 5 A Royal History of Magic

Author Note: An apology to my loyal readers for the long delay in updating this story, dealing with final illness and death of my mother, and subsequent familial obligations, has meant that I have not had the time or HEART to write. It may take me a while to get my muse back, but I will update as I can and do not plan to abandon this story. Thank You for your understanding!

It was our first day back home after our honeymoon in the United States and I was reading a book I had bought after our trip to New Sparta, 'A Magical History of Britain and Europe'. The differences that in what I had learned from the book in Tinworth, during the year that Harry was fighting Voldemort, and this book were astronomical in proportions. So many details were missed out from the British books, the fact that Hogwarts was built on land ceded to his allies, by Royal Decree of King William the 1st after he had conquered the Saxon king Harold at Hastings.

Richard, Duke Slytherin and his son, Sir Salazar; Sir Jean de Poiter, Lord Poiter; had come over from Normandy with William giving him magical aid in his conquest of the Saxons. He was joined by allies in Britain, Godric, called Gryffin 'dor, (griffin of gold), as he had managed to save an entire village by slaying a rampaging griffin that had been threatening it. An English lord by the name of Roderick of Ravenclaw and his daughter, Rowena; and a peasant girl by the name of Helga, from some obscure village called Hufflepuff's End. After the battle, Sir Salazar on surviving the battle had inherited the title from his father who had perished in the battle...

King William had knighted and Ennobled young Godric as Earl Gryffindor; the Lady Rowena Ravenclaw inherited her father's title and Helga was created Lady Helga Hufflepuff, these four worthies were instructed to create a school for the education and training of all magical subjects of the New Kingdom...

Sir Jean de Poiter became the Court Mage to the newly crowned King William and was charged with protection of the crown from any and all magical and mortal attack. A new castle was built by the King and his Court Mage put all manner of enchantments and wards on the castle to prevent magical attack on the premises. There was also a complex charm connecting the monarchy to the wards, so that should a magical royal occur, they would be shielded from the wards; the perpetuation of the wards was tied into the creatures of the area on which the castle was built, in reality a flock of ravens were the living embodiment of the charms on this castle...

I looked up from my reading, castles, wards and ravens; I seemed to remember something from when I was at school about that. There was some sort of muggle legend that if the ravens ever left the Tower of London, the Monarchy would fall; seems to me there might be some more to that legend than I had previously given credit to...

The relationship with the Royal Family continued until the Civil War when after the defeat of the Royalists by the Commonwealth, the Wizarding World had formed its own government of Heads of Families and Wizarding Lords calling it the Wizengamot; no attempt had been made to re-establish contact with the Monarchy after the Restoration, but technically the Crown was still the head of the Wizarding World, indeed the oath on taking a seat on the Wizengamot had pledged allegiance to the Crown until it was altered in 1837, when Queen Victoria had ascended the throne, and the Wizengamot had decided that enough was enough and they would no longer pledge allegiance to a muggle and a muggle woman at that...

The vaguely interesting thing that seemed to occur through this history was that occasionally, a member of the Royal Family would attend Hogwarts as a student; the last one that had been eligible had been a Prince John. Born in July 1905, he had never attended the school as some sort of muggle illness had precluded this and indeed he had died as a complication from this at the age of 13. Although I had no proof and indeed there probably was none, it did seem that the Royal Family was not all muggle, and could indeed be a cadet squib line of a magical house.

What really seemed interesting to me was that the Queen was still the head of the wizarding world, although the muggle world had evolved into a constitutional democracy, with the Queen as Head of State rather than an absolute Monarchy; that had never really happened with the Magical World. No treaties or documents had been signed to remove her as Ruler. I understood from Harry that on odd occasions the Minister for Magic would report something to the Muggle Prime Minister, as had indeed happened when his godfather, Sirius had escaped from Azkaban, as that had been reported on the TV news. Indeed Fudge had also notified the Prime Minister of the time, (John Major if anybody is interested), of the import of several dragons into the country for the Triwizard tournament. Now if the Wizengamot still felt that need to inform the Prime Minister of these facts, why did they not see the Queen as the ruler of the Magical World?

The book more or less ended about this point, as it was published in 1996, and was the latest edition that the American book store had when I had visited it, but it raised a few interesting points to me.

I knew that in a few months I would be required to take up a seat in the Wizengamot as a new wizarding lord, but it seemed as a British subject first and foremost, my loyalty was to the Queen, and technically could be accused of treason if I took oath with the Wizengamot which was in violation of the Accords of the Wizarding World which were part of the Magna Carta that had been signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215. This had stated that the Wizarding World had certain autonomies to rule itself, but the ultimate authority rested with the Crown.

Indeed if the Crown were aware of a breach of these Accords, it could rule it invalid and all sections of the Magical World that were hidden from muggles could be opened to the general populace, all charms and spell protections removed by Royal Decree.

I didn't believe that this should happen, although I was convinced from my visit to the US, that the Statute of Secrecy was wrong in some ways, I was not eager for it to be revoked completely by Royal Decree; the magical world could not survive if completely open to scrutiny by the muggle world. I needed to find out more facts about the way that the system worked and how my part in it as a new wizarding lord fitted the pattern. If I went to one of my colleagues at work though and asked, I am sure they would fits of apoplexy if they knew I was checking into the connection with the Muggle Monarchy, I'm pretty sure that some of the older more stuffy members of the magical world didn't even know who the present Monarch was, having 'severed' all connection when Queen Victoria ascended the throne.

I left the front door of my house and went next door and knocked on the 'hidden' door of number 12 where Harry and his family lived, I needed to discuss this with someone. Gabrielle understood the French Ministerial politics more than the English although she worked at the Ministry, and I hoped Harry could help.

The door was answered by Kreacher, Harry's aging house elf that he had inherited from his godfather with the house, and I was shocked at what I noticed. Kreacher had always looked a great age, but now he looked positively ancient and rather ill if the truth be known. I asked where Harry was and was directed to his study on the second floor, Kreacher said he would be up shortly with coffee for the two of us, as Master Harry had just asked for some for himself. I nodded thanks and made my way upstairs to the office.

One thing I noticed particularly for the first time was how much bigger than my house, Harry's was. On my second floor I had 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, there were five or six doors off the landing on Harry's second floor, I'd never been off the ground floor in his house before, come to think of it that was considerably larger than mine too. Odd! They were supposed to be identical houses built next door to each other.

I knocked and entered to the invitation from Harry. "Oh hello, Dudley, I was wondering why Kreacher was knocking, what brings you here so soon after your honeymoon? Not looking for a divorce already is she?"

"Very funny!" I quipped, "I'm concerned that every British wizard may be breaking the law and risking the complete exposure of the magicals world to the general muggle population."

He laughed at this and then stopped when he saw the look on my face, "bloody hell! You're serious aren't you? What do you mean by that statement?" I handed him the book pointing out the passages I had marked for him to read through, a lot of the history was irrelevant to the point I was making, there just being a couple of chapters that dealt with the Royal Treaties and Decrees.

He read the marked sections as we both sat drinking the coffee that Kreacher had brought up, finally looking at me as he finished drinking. "I can see what you're saying! If Her Majesty decided that our world had broken Faith with the treaties, she could issue a proclamation negating the treaties and relevant sections of the Magna Carta and we would be open to scrutiny from muggles everywhere! What do you think we should do?"

"Personally I have no belief that the wizarding world should be completely open to the non-magical one, but there should be more co-operations between the two communities. Things can't stay the way they are forever." I opened the book to the back page and removed a photograph that I had obtained from the internet whilst in the States and handed it to Harry.

"What's this?"

"That; cousin is a satellite image of Diagon Alley, Knockturn Alley and its surrounding muggle streets taken from a satellite image on Google Earth. The images of that area we get in Europe are affected by the Statute of Secrecy, the magical areas are edited out by certain clauses in the act; I don't clearly understand how it works, but that Law has a lot to answer for. Without it, we could be using normal technology in the ministry, not our spelled version. Of course our spelled version is a lot cheaper, but imagine the look on the minister's face if he was told of the income that could be generated for through selling magical computers at muggle prices to muggles. The benefits of that would be gratefully received I'm sure."

"Bloody hell, Dudley. What else did you find out in the States?"

I chuckled and reached into my trouser pocket and pulled put a small book; the size of a diary and tapped it with my wand. It expanded to the size of a large paperback, the title read 'Practical Defensive Magic'; I handed it to Harry, "page 275!"

He quickly opened the book to the relevant page, "The Death Shield: 'The Avada-proof vest,' is this what I think it is, Dudley, a shield against the Unforgivable Avada curse?"

"It is, yes!" I replied with a grin, "in the States the spell is not unforgivable; it's legal to cast, in the same way it's legal to shoot someone with a gun, the right to bear arms. I've not actually read the book, but from what I was told it's quite a simple spell to use, second year Hogwarts at most!"

"You don't do things by half do you? In a short visit across the pond, you bring back spells that could seriously change the magical world and dig up a hornet's nest by saying I could be committing treason if I swear to the Wizengamot, what's next, Cuz, speaking with God and getting an answer on your telephone?"

"Sorry! Been there, done that, got the t-shirt!"

"What?"

"During our honeymoon, we visited the State of New Sparta; which is one of the US states hidden from the British because of the Statute of Secrecy. It's a centaur state, basically covering the area of the Bermuda Triangle. We visited the temple of Hecate, the Goddess of Magic; because of a few things that were brought up in our initial conversation with the ambassador we spoke with. I don't exactly remember all that happened in the temple, although I do remember asking for guidance in what my future held for the magical world. Well, suffice to say something happened; on our way from the temple we passed a bookstore and I felt compelled to go in; found myself at the checkouts with that book on history. I seem to be noticing more as well; I've been in your home on numerous occasions, but never noticed before that it's bigger than mine; but at the same time it can't be; they're identical town houses."

"Never thought about that last one; there may be enchantments and spells all over this house, it has been the Black family home for a couple of hundred years, who knows what they did to it. as for your thoughts on the issue of the Crown and the treason issue, it's never occurred to me and I have no idea at this time on how to solve it. We need other help on this and I have an idea on that!"

I looked at him and grinned, "Hermione!"

"Actually no!" I looked at him in stunned disbelief, "I was thinking of Kingsley, he has somewhat limited access to the Prime Minister and we might need that!"

I agreed with him on the point and we made our way to the parlour whilst we waited for a reply to the e-mail he had sent from the computer in his office.

As we made our way down the stairs I was thinking of the differences between our two houses and wondering what enchantments and spells had been used to make the house bigger; I felt a momentary dizziness and my vision altered causing me to stumble against Harry who was in front of me. "Hey! Be a bit more care...! Are you alright Dudley, you look a little sick...?

A/N I was intending this chapter to be longer, but this seemed a logical place to break off; I will continue to update as quickly as my muses allow me to. There are things planned in the future chapters that will set both worlds on their heads. I thank all my loyal readers and those people of excellent taste in my opinion who have favourited either myself and this story and will do my best not to disappoint them.

May I take this opportunity to wish all my readers a Happy Christmas 2012 and a better 2013 for us all?