Wheels Within Wheels – Part Three
Iolanthe
Chapter Fifty-Two
Of Vampires and Grandees
"Master Francisco!" Harry gasped. He bent over in a low, extended bow. If he'd been asked, Francisco Aguinaldo would have been among the last people Harry would have named as likely to show up on his doorstep.
"Up, up!" laughed Francisco, after returning Harry's bow. "You defeated Brother Michel?"
"Yes, Master Francisco."
"And you lived!"
"Yes, Master Francisco."
"Let's sit down," said Francisco, looking Harry up and down. "You may be alive, but you did not come out very well."
Francisco started laughing again, bringing Harry along with him.
Harry had just gotten Master Francisco seated in his study when Iolanthe, Lissette and James knocked on the door. Harry could see Moira waiting behind them in the hall.
"Your prisoner is in temporary quarters, Father," Iolanthe said. "Mother got an owl post a few minutes ago. Percy Weasley will be calling this morning."
"Oh," Harry said. Leave it to the children to take care of the practical side of things.
"Come in, everyone," he said. "Master Francisco, may I present my daughter, Iolanthe Astoria Potter, her friend from Hogwarts, Lissette Lestrange, my son, James Greengrass Potter, and his friend from Hogwarts, Moira Turley. Everyone, this is my teacher, Master Francisco Aguinaldo, from Cebu."
The students all went through some variation of, "Very pleased to meet you, Master Francisco."
"So nice to meet you young people," Francisco assured them. "Is your mother close by?"
James affirmed she was and went to fetch Daphne, returning with Tracey, Kendra and Fabio as a bonus.
"Harry Potter," Francisco said as he stood, "You have learned the traditions of our lineage and kept your vows. I've come because there is something I must do in person. To do it, may I impose upon you and your family for just a few minutes?"
"Of course," Harry said. "What do you need?"
"To see Michel Lestrange, or his body."
"Ah," Harry said, looking back at Iolanthe. "You said prisoner, not deceased prisoner?"
"Yes, Father," Iolanthe said, "You can visit your prisoner." She looked at Lissette, who avoided looking Iolanthe in the eye.
James and Iolanthe flanked Harry once again, reversing their course to the green, then on to the woods.
Harry must have been showing some alarm on his ravaged face because James spoke up to say, "We had to keep him out of the sunshine."
Iolanthe waved her wand near the trunk of a monstrous oak tree and stepped through a portal.
"It's just a fancy fence," she said, "Until we can build something permanent."
Then she added, "If it turns out we need to."
One by one the party entered the portal. Lissette and Iolanthe kept their wands ready. Harry looked around for Michel Lestrange but didn't see him. What he did see was a pig, a fairly trim red pig, rooting around in the mass of acorns that covered the ground beneath the great oak tree.
"He can stay out of the sun and he seems content," Iolanthe said, speaking with the authority of someone who has spent hundreds of hours in the ancient and honorable pastime of observing magical creatures.
The pig raised its head and looked at the party of Potters and various allies and associates. Harry thought it stared long and hard at Master Francisco before turning away with a piggy snort.
"This is as good a place as any," said Francisco. He turned to Harry.
"Harry Potter, you are the first practitioner in our tradition to deploy successfully the defensive use of magical extraction in many years. Your opponent studied with us, learned some techniques, then broke his vow and tried to commercialize his knowledge. As a token of your Mastery, you are to wear this with your robe."
Master Francisco pulled his hand from his pocket, bowed, and held out a red belt. Harry gasped. The red belt had not been presented to anyone for decades, perhaps a century.
"Master Harry," said Master Francisco, bowing.
"Master Francisco," said Harry, returning the bow as he accepted the belt.
Harry was still wearing his grass-stained formal shirt and black trousers with a satin stripe on the seam. Strictly speaking he should have added a robe, but he wanted to let a certain red pig see him in his red belt. Harry straightened up and faced the pig. He took his time getting the belt around his waist and knotted properly. The pig trotted over to the party of humans. It looked directly at Lissette and snorted. Lissette looked at the pig, keeping her wand in hand and visible.
"What?" she asked.
The pig snorted and let out a little squeal.
"It wants to say something," Iolanthe said. "Don't you, Mr. Pig? You didn't get a chance to speak your piece."
The pig hung its head, then shook it back and forth. Lissette didn't move her head, although she did shift her eyes toward Harry, then back at Iolanthe.
"Give me the word," Lissette said.
Harry drew his wand.
"Iolanthe, keep an eye on him. Any sign, of anything," he said, "Earns Michel one expelliarmus. Go ahead, Lissette."
Lissette reversed her porcinafors. Michel Lestrange stood up as a man once again.
"Master Francisco," said Lestrange, not bowing exactly but inclining his head all the same.
"Lestrange," said Francisco. "Pull up your hood, it's not shady enough for you here."
Michel Lestrange did as he was told.
"Come to finish the job, Potter?" Lestrange asked. "Be my guest. You've done everything but. I can't charm a bud to open. I tried."
"Can't do that, of course," said Harry. "I'm paying a high price for relieving you of all that darkness you were carrying around. I'll keep paying it, too, minute by minute, as long as I live. Understand, I won't be letting you get off that easily. You might have to get used to porcine life. None of us are going to become murderers to save you from it."
That seemed to get through to Lestrange, who appeared to have some of the pomposity knocked out of him.
"I'm a wizard…" Lestrange tried before Harry cut him off.
"WERE a wizard," Harry said. "No more. Your privileges are revoked."
"Nothing I did deserves this," Lestrange muttered.
Iolanthe saw Lissette's flush, the watery sparkle in her eyes, and she laid her free arm around Lissette's waist, drawing her close. She didn't think Lissette would kill Lestrange right there in front of everyone but one never knew.
"Decisions will have to be made, as you well know," Harry said. "Marshal the arguments in your favor. It will give you something to do."
Harry turned and nodded to Lissette.
"Porcinafors!" said Lissette, pointing her wand, and Michel Lestrange was left to find company in his acorns.
"Some refreshment after your travels, Francisco?" Harry said as the party crossed the green. "I know just the place."
Tracey and Daphne flanked Harry on the walk to The Mill. Francisco was delighted to meet the fairies. It was a beautiful day, for the first of November. A warming charm kept the arbor at a very pleasant temperature. Harry did well, considering, but the fatigue showed. The food and chitchat from his distinguished guest could not keep him upright indefinitely. Harry didn't feel like it was his most gracious performance, but he extracted a promise from Master Francisco to stay and at least overnight with the Potters before going back to Cebu.
"Daphne?" Harry said. He got up from the table and walked toward the front door of The Mill.
Once they were inside Harry took Daphne's hand and went straight to the bedroom to lie down.
"I don't have the energy," he said before taking several deep breaths.
"St. Mungo's," Daphne said.
"I know," said Harry. "Not right this minute. I feel like I need to be here. It's not rational so don't reason with me."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Daphne.
"Hospitality for the visitors. Keep the children calm," Harry began. "Francisco said he can stay for a day or two. I really need to have an extended conversation with him, but it won't be right now. Chaperone James and Moira. Be Lady Daphne and hostess our guests' country weekend.
"There will be more to the Lestrange affair and I'm delegating the statecraft to you. I will be in retreat for some months. No work. Not fit."
"Oh?" said Daphne. "I'm witness to a first."
"Ha. Ha," Harry said, enjoying himself.
"You and the others can stay here or go back to the house, but I'll be going to sleep now."
Daphne kissed Harry on the forehead, ran her hand through his white hair and left him there, drifting off, his red belt and wand in his folded hands.
Harry spent the weeks between the first of November and Black Christmas at The Mill. He and Francisco had two hours-long conversations, breaking bread and drinking pumpkin juice. Some of their consultation happened while they sat on Harry's brookside thinking bench, which they were delighted to find was equipped with a warming charm. Melon was assigned to Harry full-time so Periwinkle could manage the rest of the estate. Harry spent most of his time in meditation, strengthening the container that kept the Dark away from Harry and the family.
True to his word, Harry let Daphne handle the statecraft. Percy Weasley paid a call at Potter Manor to get the story on Michel Lestrange. Daphne gave him a tour of Michel's corner of the woods. Percy couldn't find any fault with the containment and the pig was being treated humanely. He reported to Kingsley that Michel was better off with woodlanders for neighbors than he would be with the wretches of Azkaban. Assured the ministry had no objections to the Potters' handling of the Michel Lestrange situation, Daphne agreed to host Lestrange pending a decision.
Harry tendered his resignation from the ministry, which Kingsley accepted with great regret. Harry felt a great weight lift off of him when he handed Kingsley his letter. Kingsley was extremely kind and gracious, thanking Harry for his years of exemplary service and assuring him he was welcome back anytime, in whatever capacity he thought he could handle.
Late on the Saturday of the Samhain ball, Millicent Bulstrode took the floo to Potter Manor, spent the night, and took charge of the return to Hogwarts on Sunday. Much as she hated the time away from her patient, Daphne went to Hogwarts with everyone, along with Tracey. Mrs. Turley had come over from St. Magnus and met the Potters and Moira at the Three Broomsticks.
Daphne and Mrs. Turley, whose name was Agnes, could not have been much more different if they'd tried, yet hit it off immediately. Agnes was thrilled to find out she was meeting Fabio Greengrass' daughter. Fabio had been buying some unique plants and shellfish from St. Magnus for decades, providing a much-appreciated supplement to the island's cash income. Daphne resonated with Agnes' plainspoken honesty which mirrored Daphne's own core self-image of a simple country bumpkin witch from Devon.
The meeting in the headmistress' office was not pleasant for James and Moira. The headmistress relived for them her shock in getting the report that the two were missing, how the staff and students nearly tore the castle apart searching. She advised them that their ability to fly unaided was not license to do so in future. She imposed a penalty of one hundred points, each, from the Hufflepuff total.
Given his chance to speak, James again took all responsibility for the incident, apologizing to Professor McGonagall, Mrs. Turley, Daphne and Tracey, and especially to Moira. Agnes told James she appreciated his gallantry, but she would not allow Moira to let him take all the blame. Agnes ceded the floor to Moira, who followed James' lead and apologized to everyone, with a special codicil in her apology to James for letting him get in trouble with his lovely family, which she followed with yet another round of thanks to Daphne and Tracey for the hospitality.
Agnes and Daphne, for their part, assured the headmistress they did not consider the penalty onerous. Satisfied everyone was on board, Professor McGonagall got to the closing formalities and sent the students back to their common room.
"Can you relieve me of the need to send you back with an escort?" she asked. "Think carefully before answering. This is the first of many opportunities for you to start earning back our trust in you."
Moira and James nodded and left.
Professor McGonagall waited until the spiral staircase stopped turning, then looked at Daphne.
"Harry Potter's side," Daphne said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Ha!" said the headmistress. "I was thinking he is aptly named. Something like this is James all over again, without the mean streak. Professor Longbottom tells me Moira has made tremendous progress in the weeks they've worked together. Please handle them carefully, won't you? They are such fine young people and there wasn't really any harm done. It was a careless bit of magic but they were surprisingly care-FUL, weren't they? I promise you both we will watch them. They're extraordinarily bright. I suspect they have learned their lesson."
James expected a chilly welcome back to the common room, not the standing ovation he and Moira got. Hufflepuffs were generally so low-key they lacked the excitability necessary to get into trouble. Besides, two second-years taking off and flying cross-country without brooms to attend a Samhain ball was such an achievement, the 'Puffs were constitutionally unable to let it pass. Moira and James were given seats near the fire and subjected to an hour-long interrogation covering every aspect of their adventure. James turned very red in the face when he related how Professor McGonagall had taken one hundred points apiece from Hufflepuff as recompense.
"A small price to pay," announced one of the prefects, "Let us turn our hands to our work and get that back by Friday!"
His speech was so inspiring he got a round of applause, and James felt better immediately.
The opinion of the house toward the two miscreants was communicated to the rest of the school the following morning at breakfast. None of the Hufflepuffs touched food or beverages until James and Moira arrived. Then they all stood and waited for James and Moira to sit in the places they'd saved, only then sitting down and eating.
James and Moira expected to be closely watched so they adopted a routine they followed for the remainder of the year. Moira did her studying outside of class with Zelda. James and Moira continued to eat together. Their table talk was almost exclusively about herbology. James checked Moira's homework and gave her back her parchments. If she had some ready to hand in she'd give it to him at mealtime and he'd have it for her at the next meal. Twice a week they would sit opposite one another at a table in the common room and write letters home. Each would send a verbal greeting to the other's family which would show up in the letter. Daphne and Agnes took note.
Tracey planned a very low-key Black Christmas that year. Most of the Blacks knew Harry had been in a serious duel and continued to suffer the after-affects. Harry managed to go, and welcomed everyone, then let Teddy and Scorpius have the podium. Teddy did the recognition and birthday wishes for Iolanthe. Then he plugged Scorpius' book. Scorpius finished up with thanks to Teddy and to everyone who had helped and supported him in his scholarly pursuits. There were a larger-than-normal number of toasts and things could have gotten rowdy had the crowd not been holding it down out of respect for their white-haired chief.
James wasn't at Black Christmas. Harry and Daphne agreed it would not send a constructive message to take James out of school for a big family party just one month after he had risked expulsion to take himself out to attend a big family party. He was missed, but the older Black students who were in attendance agreed James was present in spirit. Provision was made for the transport of a selection of Black Christmas treats to Hogwarts for James and Moira.
Spring term passed without incident. By mutual agreement, James and Moira observed an arm's length rule outside of meal times, where they continued to sit across from one another in the places the Hufflepuffs had saved for them. Most of their table talk concerned herbology, but the topic could be exhausted after awhile. Sometimes James could get Moira to talk about growing up on St. Magnus or going fishing with her father and uncles and a great Newfoundland dog she couldn't remember not having around. This led to James confessing his experience with dogs was mostly limited to interactions with an ancient Bichon Frise that ruled his grandparents' home when it could be bothered to do so.
The conversations over meals, aside from herbology discussions, led by end of term to a solid friendship and mutual respect. Neither James nor Moira knew another person remotely like the other, so every encounter was guaranteed to be interesting.
One wouldn't have expected Moira and Iolanthe to become close. Iolanthe was two years ahead of Moira. She was close to James, Zelda and Hugo, but they were family, with lots of shared history. On the other hand, Iolanthe and Moira had been raised up and presented to their Mother as maiden witches at the same Samhain. The old ways held there was a kind of sisterhood in that. They reached a rough equilibrium as the Scottish winter dragged on.
"Iolanthe," Moira would say when they passed one another in the corridor.
"Moira," Iolanthe would return, giving a little nod but not breaking stride.
They didn't hug or extend hands for a quick squeeze. James noticed. He'd have liked them to get along a little better but was resolved not to interfere. Wise beyond his thirteen years, James watched and waited for Iolanthe and Moira to decide to warm up.
James didn't know it but Iolanthe was keeping her distance from her subjects. Iolanthe was a born naturalist and nothing was more satisfying to her than field work, sitting at a distance from the objects of study, unlined parchment pad on her knee, filling page after page with notes and sketches. Iolanthe learned from Zelda that Moira had a birthday in February so she broke her own no-interaction rule and gave Moira a birthday card in the Great Hall before retreating back into her neutral distance. By the time end of term was approaching Iolanthe decided Moira was acceptable, as a friend, for her brother.
It made no sense, logistically, for students from the Isle of St. Magnus to take the Hogwarts Express to London as the first leg of their journey home from Scotland. Agnes Turley and a number of other parents came to Hogsmeade instead, meeting their children at the end of the carriages' route to town. James and Moira arrived with several other students, observing propriety by sitting opposite one another. Agnes didn't show any reaction, positive or negative, when the two climbed down from the carriage. James picked up both his and Moira's hand luggage and carried them over to Mrs. Turley.
"Moira! How was spring term?" Mrs. Turley asked as she pulled Moira into a long, squeezy hug.
"And James," she said as she let Moira go.
James put Moira's bag down and straightened up.
"Mrs. Turley," he said before running out of words. Some Hufflepuff witches came over and wanted good-byes with Moira. Agnes Turley took James' arm in hers and turned him away from the others.
"Reports have been favorable, James," Agnes began. "I want to thank you for all the help you gave Moira. She found herbology undecipherable last year, I don't know if you knew that. I'll credit you with getting her started over. She actually seems to like it now, as a subject, according to her letters. Please give my greetings to your lovely mother. I hope I can see her again soon."
James couldn't have been more surprised. Mrs. Turley wanted to see his mother again, soon? Was Mrs. Turley saying he was forgiven for taking Moira from Hogwarts on an unauthorized trip to Potter Manor? He didn't want to presume, but it certainly sounded like it.
"She's brilliant, Mrs. Turley," he replied, "She had just glossed over some basic concepts. I'm glad I was able to help. It would have been a shame for her to get poor marks for that."
Agnes was starting to turn back toward Moira when Zelda ran up and pulled Moira into a clinch.
"Owls!" she exclaimed.
"Of course!" Moira replied. "Mum, this is my study partner, Zelda, Zelda, meet Mum."
James stepped back, picked up his bag and waited for the witches to finish. He wanted to say good-bye for the summer, then he and Zelda would board the Hogwarts Express. Instead, Agnes Turley surprised him once again, pulling both him and Zelda close and thanking them for being such good friends to Moira.
It was time for the passengers to board the train. James stood a little apart, but close enough for conversation. He nodded at Moira. She nodded back.
"Enjoy the summer," he said, earning him a big smile.
"Same," said Moira, "Enjoy yours."
Once aboard the Hogwarts Express, James, Zelda and Hugo found a compartment with some other rising third years. Iolanthe and Rose came upon the group in the course of their inspection sweep. Iolanthe thought Zelda would be scrambling to escape the presence of the young wizards, but there was a second witch in the compartment. Iolanthe looked at her. The young witch held her gaze with a pair of brilliant green eyes.
"I'm sorry," Iolanthe began. She held her hand out in a tentative offer.
"Hester," said the witch as she accepted Iolanthe's hand, "Hester Carrow. Ravenclaw."