In regard to a point brought up in a review, everything I could find said that Eileen Prince was the last of the Princes, and there was only conjecture that she may have been disowned for marrying a muggle, like Andromeda Black was disowned for marrying the Muggleborn Ted Tonks, so in my world Severus Snape was the only member of the Noble House of Prince and Minor House of Snape (Snape bought the holdings needed to obtain a Baronet to get himself the status he believed that he deserved, because no-one had never told him anything about his mother's Noble family).
NB: I've made another minor amendment back at the start, it doesn't really change things but aligns the storyline better to its world in my mind. This was to change any references to 'common goblins' to 'hobgoblins', as the hobgoblins are closer to the HP description of goblins than other descriptions of goblins. Those lazy wizards just dropped the 'hob' off the name. There's more of a description of the Druids' curse in this chapter, because it explains how they freed Dobby of the rest of its effects.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale. There will provably be changes in the first hour or so as I find things that didn't come out the way I wanted.
Amelia and the others relaxed once Quirrell's body went through the veil with its dark passenger, because they were all safer with Voldemort and his horcruxes gone, not just Harry. Amelia called for the Wizengamot members to come to her office, getting the pensieve set up so that the ones who had been at Hogwarts could present carefully selected memories which offered damning evidence that Albus Dumbledore had lost his facilities (she was thankful that the Muggle restrictions on the use of circumstantial evidence weren't generally known or accepted in Magical Britain, as she could paint Dumbledore in a rather bad light with what they'd put together), adding some of the recorded memories as well. She had to admit that what Harry set up with the wands had been a master stroke, because Dumbledore had never let anyone examine the Elder Wand too closely and didn't talk about it, for fear of a stronger wizard winning it off him, so to be ranting and raving that the wand which looked just like the one everyone remembered him having for over half century wasn't his, and then having Garrick Ollivander confirm that it was most definitely the wand that his grandfather had sold to Dumbledore put him in a very bad light.
Malfoy and Nott just said that they'd been saying that the old fool wasn't competent for years and left, and Doge and Macmillan refused to listen to these lies about a great man like Albus and left too, no doubt to try and warn Albus about what was going on (they'd put money on Doge at least heading straight to Dumbledore). That cleared the way for Amelia to use the earlier memories of Dumbledore and Severus (she smiled to herself as she saw Tiberius and John trying to work out why they were referring to him his given name now, and more to the point, why they couldn't remember his surname) drawing their wands to attack the Aurors, and Dumbledore trying to stop them taking Severus out and arguing with Amelia. Amelia left in what she and Minerva were taunting him with, because it could easily be explained by them being angry that he'd exposed the students of Hogwarts to both a Death Eater that students had been complaining about for ten years and Voldemort, and her niece and ward was just starting at Hogwarts. Alastor, Augusta, Angela, Sirius and Cyrus supported this by angrily saying that if their children and wards had been harmed by what Dumbledore had brought into the school, they would have ended him! Minerva also pointed out that she and the other heads of house and professors had often taken issues about how Severus treated the students to the Headmaster but he'd put them off every time.
Amelia changed tack then, bringing up the fact that the Headmaster had shown that he clearly regarded his own wishes as sufficient to override the immutable thousand year old laws of Magical Britain, and that he had actually attempted to join that Death Eater and Voldemort in attacking the Aurors. They put the memories into the pensieve to show how this happened and it was clear that he had in fact drawn his wand and begun to throw curses at the Aurors before he was stunned (they were careful to only show Dumbledore's actual stunning from angles where the stunners heading for Snape in the background made it appear that he'd been stunned by a number of them like Quirrell to avoid questions about how one person could have had that much power, especially when it was an eleven year old boy who'd done it). They also showed how Dumbledore had started to throw Reductos towards the students in an attempt to stop the Sorting Hat from finishing what it was saying about why Slytherin was the only choice for Ronald Weasley.
While he wasn't about to argue that it was unconscionable for the Headmaster to be risking students' lives like that, or that his other actions were almost certainly criminal, what the Hat was saying, and the fact that the Headmaster had tried to force it to put Weasley into another house was what caught Tiberius Ogden's (as they'd engineered it so the others would leave so they could talk to him and John de Greystoke alone) attention. Amelia had to force down a smile at this as it gave her the opportunity to bring up the fact that he'd actually attempted to do that twice in one night, showing him the memories that they'd taken of Harry's sorting.
They hadn't had a chance to discuss this with Cyrus or Augusta before, so it was the first they'd heard that Daphne, Astoria and Neville had gone into Hufflepuff too, which was fun. Minerva stopped fast forwarding the memories just before she called Harry, and they watched the initial altercation between Harry and Snape that was the official reason for the DMLE to be called to Hogwarts. Tiberius was a stickler for the rules, so he knew quite well that everything that Harry and Minerva said was correct, and joined them in questioning how Dumbledore could be the Chief Warlock without knowing the laws of Magical Britain, but raised another point that played into their hands.
"Yes, yes, we definitely need to call for a vote in regard to Dumbledore holding that role if he does not care to make the effort to understand the laws of the land, and breaks them himself... but Cyrus, what is your younger daughter doing there? She cannot be eleven yet surely? You must know that students are not allowed to begin their magical education until after they have turned eleven!"
Minerva decided to handle this. "Madam Bones, do you have that copy of the Hogwarts Charter that I gave you handy?"
That got her a suspicious look from Tiberius so she explained while Amelia was getting her copy of the Charter from the drawer. "I made a copy of the Charter for Madam Bones when I called her at Duke Potter's request, because while I have no doubt that she has a good understanding of the foundation laws, no-one can be expected to remember all the specific details, and the original laws of Magical Britain were actually written into the Hogwarts Charter as it was the first set of legal rules accepted by the Wizards Council. I had a copy in my office because I had been going through it to confirm the requirements of Duke Potter's party… Thank you Amelia, now…." She made a show of spending a minute or two locating the specific rule she was looking for and then pushed it across, pointing to the rule. "I believe that this should answer your question Tiberius."
It took him a couple of minutes to decipher the old English, but it was clear enough. 'Once a child has begun to repeatedly display their magic, they are required be enrolled in a suitable magical school to learn to control their magic so that they do not become a danger to themselves and others.'
When he looked up, obviously wondering why it was now held that children may not start magic school until after they had turned eleven when it was stated here that they were required to begin school as soon as they started to regularly show their magic, Minerva went on. "I wondered about that as well Tiberius, so I asked a family friend who is a solicitor to look into it for me. Apparently, it was pushed through at Albus Dumbledore's request soon after he became Headmaster at Hogwarts. I would have asked him why he would put through a rule that was in direct contravention of the Hogwarts Charter, which as we all know overrules any and all subsequent rules, but as we have been discussing, he has become increasing erratic and contentious over the past month or two and quite frankly I regarded it as too dangerous. On top of that, from his actions tonight, I have come to believe that he has not even read the Hogwarts Charter, even though the Headmaster or Headmistress' oath states that he or she will uphold all the requirements of the Hogwarts Charter, as does the Deputy Headmaster or Headmistress' oath."
Tiberius nodded, but looked confused. "But how did you learn of this Cyrus, I understand that you observe the old rules, but surely this was far from obvious?"
Amelia's sharp eyes saw a calculating look flash across Cyrus' face as he considered how to answer that, and she was surprised when he basically told Tiberius the truth. "Lucius Malfoy has been pressuring Edessa and I to enter both Daphne and Astoria into betrothal contracts with his son Draco Tiberius. We neither trust nor care for Malfoy at all and have seen nothing to indicate that his son will shape up to be any different from his father…." He glanced at Angela, Sirius, Amelia and Augusta and they nodded, seeing where he was going with this. "Then a few weeks ago, we were called to Gringotts for James and Lily Potter's will reading…."
Tiberius cut in at that point. "But those wills were sealed by the Wizengamot! It was illegal to read them!"
It was Amelia who came back at that quite vehemently. "NO! The illegal action was Dumbledore's! He falsified the evidence to seal the Potters' wills in order to allow him to do what he liked with their son and votes!"
Griselda put her hand on Amelia's arm to calm her and explained. "I'm sorry Tiberius, but when you see what happened to James and Lily Potter's son because of that man's self serving machinations I can assure you that you will be furious as well. Albus Dumbledore witnessed both of their wills, and he had them sealed because they interfered with his plans for their son. Harry was almost murdered by those Muggles he left the boy with, after the Potters had both been quite specific in their wills that he was never to go anywhere near them! Sirius Black was also sent straight to Azkaban without a trial on the basis that he was the Potter's secret keeper, but the fact that Pettigrew was the secret keeper was also listed in both their wills that Dumbledore witnessed, along with the fact that Dumbledore had cast the fidelius charm himself so he knew damned well who the secret keeper was! Albus Dumbledore sealed those wills to cover up his own criminal acts and plans, and to profit from unlawfully taking control of the Potters' votes and assets."
"But why hasn't he been arrested if he has done all of this?"
"Because the only things we can prove at this point are that what he said about the secret keeper and the reasons he gave to seal their wills and assume guardianship of Harry were false, and unfortunately we've probably helped give him an excuse for that with the approach we've taken, but it was considered more important to address the bigger risk of Voldemort, snaring Dumbledore's pet Death Eater in the process was just a bonus. We will address those other matters in due time, but for now you have interrupted Cyrus, I believe we should let him finish."
Tiberius nodded and apologised to Cyrus, asking him to continue.
"As I was saying, we were called to Gringotts for the will reading, and after the initial shock of seeing Harry alive and well, we were shown some truly terrible things, one of the things you'll see later is the report from the healers at Saint Mungo's who Harry was brought to after that Muggle almost killed him… and you will be shocked and appalled about what that poor boy had done to him repeatedly, by wizards as well as those Muggles! His magic had been repeatedly bound so much that it couldn't heal him and he had a foul abomination of a…. well call it a curse... placed on him that would have killed him as well. The healers at Saint Mungo's managed to prevent him dying when he arrived, but that was the limit of what they could do for him, they couldn't save him as that abomination and those bindings were too much for anyone in our world to fix, so they did the only thing they could to save him, they called the goblins."
Tiberius started to react to that but Angela cut him off. "Those healers ruined themselves to do the only thing they could to keep our Harry alive, and we will be eternally grateful to them! Their careers were finished because other people suspected what they might have done, and censored them without any proof whatsoever, so they're not at Saint Mungo's any more!"
Sirius put his arms around her to comfort her and Cyrus took up the tale again. "Angela and Sirius are Harry's Godparents and guardians Tiberius, and they would have been his guardians ten years ago if Dumbledore hadn't illegally sealed the Potters' wills. So the goblins managed to remove the abomination from him and peel away all those layers of bindings on his intellect and magic, and then spent a week feeding him potions to rebuild his body and rectify the ravages of the abuse and malnutrition he'd suffered for the past ten years. When he was whole and well, the Potter Account Manager convinced him to accept his House rings and the Black Heir's ring so that he'd be stronger and better prepared for what's coming at him. Once he'd done that, Harry asked the Account Manager to arrange for the will reading with the original copies of the wills that the family knowledge had told him would be held here at Gringotts, so that was why we were called in for the reading."
"Aside from all the terrible things that were done to Harry, some very interesting things came out of the will reading, and that convinced us that all our children were at risk from what was going on, so we used the laws for male and female line betrothal contracts to protect our children and our houses from machinations of the likes of Malfoy, and Dumbledore." He nodded at the look Tiberius gave him "Yes, Dumbledore, you see one of the things we discovered when the goblins presented everything to do with the wills was that Albus Dumbledore and Molly Weasley had signed an illegal marriage contract between Harry and Molly's daughter Ginevra when they were six and five respectively, which stated that upon their marriage, Molly Weasley would have full control of everything to do with the Potter fortune until he reached the age of twenty four because he had no other family to manage and protect his fortune for him. We have informed Arthur Weasley of this and other matters that we have discovered in regard to his family and Arthur is doing his best to make retribution, even though Harry has made it clear that he does not hold Arthur responsible for any of what his wife has done. Arthur had another burden placed on him tonight though because both Percy and Ronald Weasley were stripped of their magic and expelled from Hogwarts for attacking Harry and a number of other Heads and Heirs of Most Ancient Houses on the Hogwarts Express…. Arthur is a good man, he doesn't deserve any of this."
"Sorry, I have gotten off track with the story. When we were making arrangements for our children who were to be starting Hogwarts today and confirming what rights could be claimed to ensure their safety at Hogwarts, we discovered that rule about when children are actually required to begin their magical education, so as both Astoria and Xeno Lovegood's daughter Luna have both been displaying magic since they were four or five years old and they would be safer there, where they can be protected by what we've put in place for the others, we enrolled them as well. If Dumbledore had been doing his duty as the Headmaster he would have seen their names on the new student lists, but he only seems to pay attention to those things he believes will add to his own fame, fortune, power and glory, so it passed him by. Well that's the story behind Astoria being at Hogwarts, but what Amelia wanted to discuss in regard to dealing with what Dumbledore is doing is more important…. Amelia?"
"Thank you Cyrus. Well Cyrus has filled in the background of what we're doing quite well Tiberius, but as he said, Dumbledore is the biggest problem. We know that what Dumbledore is doing for his own ends is quite likely to destroy our children and our world if we do not stop him, but as Griselda said we don't have enough proof of his criminal acts to stop him that way. We do however have the evidence to show that he's incompetent to carry out the duties of the positions he holds, and that's our best hope of limiting the damage that he's doing quite wilfully. We can show that he's been doing much of this for over ten years so none of it is an innocent once off mistake as he will try to claim. As you said yourself Tiberius, we simply cannot have someone holding the position of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and directing the primary legal decisions for Magical Britain who is wilfully ignorant of the laws of Magical Britain, and who has also been proven to make decisions in favour of his own personal gain over what is legally required…."
"Therefore I have scheduled the trial of Dumbledore's pet Death Eater in tomorrow morning's Wizengamot session. Dumbledore's connection with him is ample cause to force him to recuse himself as the Chief Warlock for the session, so once the session is started, I will add an extra item to call for Dumbledore to be removed from the position of Chief Wizard, and inform the ICW that as he no longer represents the Wizengamot of Magical Britain he is also ineligible to retain the position of Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. That's where we can use the existing evidence to show that he is unfit to hold the position of Chief Wizard. What we have may not be enough to uphold criminal charges against him, but it is enough to show that he is incompetent to act in that position, and as you've seen, we have evidence that should be sufficient to convince most of the Wizengamot that he is losing his faculties too. There is much more that needs to be done in regard to Dumbledore, but the Chief Warlock's position is where he can do the most damage to Magical Britain, and therefore the most urgent one to get him out of."
"This what we wanted to talk to you about Tiberius. We will need to vote in a suitable replacement immediately if we are to limit the damage from Dumbledore's actions. You and Griselda are the most senior members of the Wizengamot and are among the few that we regard as having the integrity and impartiality needed to honour the requirements of the position. As we have told Griselda, we are not trying to get you to promote our interests, we have come to the two of you because we are confident that you will uphold the laws and best interests of Magical Britain no matter what, and that is what we are asking of you! So... what we are asking for here is that the two of you to decide between yourselves, which of you we will be nominating and supporting in the vote for the next Chief Witch or Warlock, and the order there was nothing more than 'Ladies First' Tiberius."
Tiberius shook his head. "This is a noble endeavour and you do indeed have my support, but what makes you think that you can get enough votes to get one of us through?"
Amelia looked at the others and they nodded. "One of the interesting things that Cyrus mentioned our discovering was that between us, we hold all twenty of the Most Ancient Houses, and they're all active and registered with the Wizengamot. We have well over a dozen more Noble and Ancient and Ancient Druid houses, including the Noble and Ancient House of Flamel..."
Tiberius looked at John at that, as he knew that John was the Steward of the House of Flamel, and that it was one of the richest and most powerful Houses in Magical Britain, and John nodded. Tiberius looked back at Amelia, and she continued.
"and a couple more Noble Houses as well, plus the fact that Sirius and Harry have taken a few Houses worth of votes from Dark Houses, and that anyone blindly supporting Dumbledore like Elphias Doge will have been discredited by then by the evidence shown. So even if we don't have others voting with us, we hold nearly half of the votes and that will almost certainly be enough to get whichever of you it is who accepts the nomination voted in."
Tiberius shook his head again, but it was more in awe this time. "How did you get all of the Most Ancient Houses? I thought that they were lost except for half a dozen or so?"
"Apparently another eight or nine were being kept hidden as family secrets until needed, and the others reappeared in this generation… That is why you cannot remember Severus Snape's family name by the way, because Harry invoked Most Ancient House Law to eliminate the Minor House of Snape and Noble House of Prince in Magical Britain, so the name of Snape no longer exists in Magical Britain…. most of us believe that the Fates are taking a hand in this from what we've seen, but the point is that if we go in there with a plan we will almost certainly get one of you in, so who will it be?"
Once they got over the shock of hearing that Most Ancient House Law had been invoked again and Minerva confirming it, Tiberius and Griselda looked at each other and he said. "I believe that it should be you Griselda, you understand the matters at hand better than me."
"Are you sure Tiberius? I know that you have wanted to be Chief Warlock for a long time."
He nodded. "Yes, as I said, you have a better understanding of the issues in front of us and we are in more perilous times than I for one realised... it is not the time to indulge an old man's vanity."
Griselda smiled fondly at him. "You are a good man Tiberius but…. perhaps we can arrange for me to nominate you to share the position?" she looked at the others as she fleshed out this idea. "Once I'm voted in, the evidence on Dumbledore should be quite enough to present a good case that checks and balances should be in place to prevent any one witch or wizard controlling the Wizengamot in case they fail Magical Britain the way that Dumbledore has… just off the top of my head, I can think of at least two or three other Chief Witches and Chief Warlocks whose actions could be used to support that too. We can easily argue that the role should be shared between two Chief Witches or Warlocks, with both of them presiding over any major issues to ensure that they aren't decided by any one witch or wizard's whims, but either of them could preside over ordinary sessions, and I will nominate Tiberius as the most qualified to share the role, stipulating my reasons for nominating him and asking for other nominations, then call for a vote, and we can use the votes of the Most Ancient Houses to ensure that Tiberius gets voted in..."
They were all nodding at that, because this was a very sensible move, as well as the right thing to do. This would also make it more difficult for the factions to manipulate circumstances to get one of their people made Acting Chief Witch or Warlock to push through something that they wanted, which had happened more than a few times in the history of the Wizengamot, because at least one of the Chief Witches or Warlocks would generally be available.
Tiberius nodded with a smile. "I would like that Griselda, thank you, and I quite agree that what you've described would be in the best interests of Magical Britain…." but he stopped as something else dawned on him and he turned to Amelia. "If you have all of the Most Ancient Houses, then you have all four of the Hogwarts' Founders' Houses! Surely no-one was hiding them, they could have addressed all those issues at Hogwarts."
Griselda looked at Amelia too and she shook her head. "Only one of the Founders' Houses was known before Tiberius, and by itself that wasn't enough to take control of Hogwarts, the other three only reappeared in this generation, but that is why we are less worried about Hogwarts than the Chief Warlock's position at the moment, because Hogwarts has made it clear that she will support the Founders' Heirs, so even if we couldn't control the Governors' Board, we can control what happens at the school directly. Mind you, that is another thing we will be asking the Headmaster tomorrow, what he is doing to replace the Potions and Defence against the Dark Arts masters he lost tonight. Professor McGonagall asked him in front of everyone but he didn't respond, he just stormed out."
That got a feral grin from Griselda, because if Dumbledore wilfully failed to provide adequate instruction for the students, she'd have cause to nail him to the wall no matter how many supporters he had…. though she was willing to wager that there'd be a lot fewer of those after tomorrow.
With that, they confirmed the plan for the following day. Amelia had Snape's trial on the docket, if Dumbledore turned up, which they expected he would because Doge and Macmillan would have gone running to him the night before, they'd force him to recuse himself and Tiberius would preside as Acting Chief Warlock. Once they'd officially stripped Snape of everything he had including his name and used the accumulated evidence against him to ensure that he never taught in Britain again if he was ever released from Azkaban, they'd use the evidence about Dumbledore to present a case to show that he was unfit to hold the position of Chief Warlock and have him removed, notifying the ICW to ensure that he lost the position of Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards as well.
As soon as Minerva and the others left with Amelia, Harry caught Auntie Mona's eye up at the High Table and she nodded, calling an end to the sorting feast and sending the new first year students off to their dormitories with their prefects as acting Deputy Headmistress before Dumbledore could return. She told the Hufflepuff prefects that she would look after Duke Potter's party, and a disillusioned Remus, Efa, Emyr and goblin guards formed up around Harry and the others as they left the Great Hall.
Harry only removed the disillusionment from Merlin when they were in the common room of Corvus Tower, as Hogwarts had named it in honour of the original families of the Potter and Black lines, and he set him on a cabinet under the raven standards that took pride of place on the common room wall. Merlin craned around to look up at the standards and sort of nodded. "Ah yes…. I had forgotten that you were of Morgana's line My Lord, I dare say that is where your power comes from."
That just got a terse nod and a muttered "Part of it, yes." and Merlin shut up when he saw the other elements and Harry asked him to let the matter go over their link. They'd laughed about the fact that the rest of the wizarding world didn't know that Harry had elvan blood through his Druid ancestors who were part aes sídhe, as well as being a Half-Blood, but that was something that they didn't want to come out anywhere that others may hear, and they weren't certain that there were no other ears in their tower yet. Merlin changed the subject and asked Harry's, as Head of the Most Ancient Druid House of Emrys, permission to link with Lady Luna as he had with him and Lady Hermione so he could talk with her as well, if she wished to of course.
Harry and Hermione just grinned at each other, as if Luna wouldn't want to! but Harry suggested that Daphne and Astoria be included as well as they were also bonded to him. Merlin was ecstatic about the idea of having more people to talk to so Harry called the girls over as he picked up Merlin. Daph and Tori weren't far behind Luna in assuring him that they'd love to be linked to Merlin so that they could talk to him, so Merlin went on each of their heads in turn so he could talk them through the ritual to link with him.
Once that was done, Merlin went back on the cabinet and they went to look around their quarters. Through Merlin Harry thanked Hogwarts for creating these quarters for them, as they were much nicer than any of the school house quarters, with no more than two to a room except for the goblin guards who were six to a room…. but at Hogwarts' prompting Merlin cut off his apology for the fact that they wouldn't be using their bed chambers for anything other than resting places for their trunk flats.
Merlin explained that Lady Hogwarts could see the strength of the wards that they had on their trunks and their rooms, and acknowledged that she could not provide anything to match them, especially with the Headmaster having the ability to order her to make changes to her wards.
With that out of the way, they said their good nights and headed for their respective trunk flats, because for all their age on the inside, Harry and Hermione's bodies were still only eleven like the others' (well Luna was ten and Tori was nine) so the eventful day had taken a lot out of them.
What Merlin had said about Dumbledore being able to order Hogwarts to change her wards made Harry go back to get him to take him into his trunk flat and leave him in his common room though, and he made a note to see about using the outer layer of their trunks' wards to encompass the entire tower. Efa, Emyr and the others could handle the cleaning without trouble and he knew that Efa and Emyr would agree that having their tower secure was more important than a little extra work.
Most of them had been living in their trunk flats for three weeks now, with the changes and enhancements being added to the existing trunks, so they felt like home, wherever they were, which helped them get a good rest inside the flats. Hermione was sharing with Luna, Daph with Tori, Efa and Emyr with Dobby and of course Angela with Sirius. Dora was sharing with Sue and Mary and Alastor and Remus were sharing with Nev, Tommy and Missy (Mary, Tommy and Missy were Bones, Moody and Longbottom house-elfs), Ulfr and Snorri were sharing another trunk flat and the goblin guards were sharing two more. Harry was the only one who wasn't sharing with anyone but Hedwig.
The later developments of the gloos had allowed the trunk flats to be permanently linked, effectively making them into wings of the same house so that it was possible to walk between them as if you were walking through an open doorway. Harry's was permanently linked to Hermione and Luna's, Daph and Tori's, Efa, Emyr and Dobby's and Angela and Sirius'. Dora and Sue's was permanently linked to Alastor, Remus and Nev's, and of course Ulfr and Snorri's was permanently linked to the other goblins' flats, though they also had open gloos to Harry's and Dora and Sue's in case anything went wrong.
As Dobby was one of the extremely rare House Elves who had enough independence and willpower to throw off the Druids' Bond, they had used the details of the curse in the Slytherin family knowledge to remove all of it from him, and in doing so they discovered why it was so apt to call it an abomination. To ensure dependence on druids and reduce the danger from the common elves or hobgoblins if they ever managed to break the bond, Salazar had incorporated bindings on their intellect, magic and physical strength and development (this last had most probably been intended for the hobgoblins as the elves used magic wherever they could and were physically weaker) and a spell intended to drain away their magic over time so that they had to keep drawing magic from the witch or wizard they were bonded to through a modified version of the familiars' bond that he'd used to create the Druids' Bond, or they'd fade away and possibly die.
This was the most horrendous part of what Salazar had created, because the elves naturally had the same longevity as hobgoblins, roughly twice that of the average magical human, so it cut centuries off the lives of thousands of elves. While the curse truly was an abomination though, they had to agree that Salazar must have been brilliant to create it. Hermione could see Rowena Ravenclaw's style on some parts of the curse, but the fact that there was nothing in the Ravenclaw family magic about it said that Salazar had managed to get those parts from her without her realising what it was to be used for.
The bindings on the elves' physical development had over successive generations made them smaller and less human looking than they should have been, but once they'd put Dobby through the same process as Harry had gone through to make him what he should have been, he was around four feet tall with more human features and a copper skin tone that made him look tanned. With the bindings on his magic removed, Dobby was also quite powerful, because like Harry he'd been strengthening it by struggling against those bindings all his life. Of course, his changed appearance meant that he now had to wear glamours whenever he appeared in front of anyone outside the 'family', just as Efa, Emyr, Ulfr and Snorri did, so they looked like ordinary elves and hobgoblins.
Alastor, Nev and Sue had brought Tommy, Missy and Mary with them to look after them, but none of them were elves who could break the bonds, so all they could do for them without risking harming them was remove the bindings on them, and the spell that was draining their magic. They'd done the same for the rest of the elves bonded to all their families, and they would be doing it for the Hogwarts elves too when they had the opportunity.
After he had given Hedwig some attention because she was feeling neglected, Harry got ready for bed. He could feel all the familiars (including Mekal) settling down on their mistresses' beds, and could feel Hermione, Luna, Daph and Tori as well, so he wasn't surprised when Luna and Mione came through soon after. Luna had seen her mother killed in an experimental spell accident earlier that year, and she had nightmares about that most nights so ever since they got the trunks with the gloo connections, she had been coming to Harry, Hermione, or more often both of them to be comforted when she had these nightmares. As the girls' links to each other strengthened, Daph and Tori could feel when Luna was upset like this too, and they came through as well if she was more upset than usual, or they felt left out.
As well as the 'general' gloos and the ones forming the permanent links to the other trunks in their common rooms, Harry's and his betrotheds' bedrooms had permanent gloo links to each other. After Luna started coming to Harry and Hermione to be comforted, Efa and Emyr went to Gringott and asked him to add these gloo links without anyone else knowing about them so that the girls could go to Harry when they needed comforting without having to go through the common rooms. They added a control to automatically close the links if the magical signature of anyone but Harry, the girls, Efa or their familiars was in the room, so no-one but them found out about them until Angela came in to check on Harry one morning and found the five of them cuddled up together (Efa had also expanded the bed in Harry's bedroom then so that it was comfortable for the five of them) and they told her about the direct links. They discussed the matter as the 'family' and agreed to keep it a 'family' secret, because they knew it was just innocent comforting, but others may not understand that, especially after the 'talk' and what Amelia had confided to the other adults about her fears about Sue, because they didn't want Sue to get the idea of going to Nev to be 'comforted' on a regular basis in case she took it further (Nev wouldn't initiate anything yet, he was a ways off that).
In the morning, they woke up refreshed when Efa came to get them up (only Efa or Angela did this, to avoid making Hermione or Harry uncomfortable, because while none of them were too worried by either of Harry's two 'mothers' waking them up, it had felt different when Emyr did it, so it was agreed that only Efa and Angela would go into their bedrooms in the mornings), and Hermione joked that they might have to update the enchanted window to show what was outside Hogwarts rather than what was outside Potter Manor, because Efa told them to dress for cold weather as it was raining outside.
By the time they came out, Minerva was there to fill them in on what had happened the night before, both at the Ministry of Magic and at Hogwarts. The only surprise from the Ministry of Magic was Madam Marchbanks' suggestion about splitting the Chief Witch/Chief Warlock role, and they all agreed that that would be a good idea. The news from Hogwarts was less pleasing, because when Minerva returned from the Ministry, Dumbledore had been waiting for her in his office (as he only allowed floo travel via the one in his office).
He'd first demanded to know where she'd been and went off when she said that Madam Bones had required her to witness Voldemort being put through the Veil of Death on behalf of Hogwarts, only just managing to keep a straight face when she answered his ranting 'question' about why he wasn't the one requested to be there with the fact that no-one could find him, as Filius had call via the mirrors to let them know that the Gray Lady had come to pass on word from Hogwarts that he had told her to turn away anyone who came to the door or called.
Then he told her to have Gryffindor dormitory beds and class schedules prepared for Harry Potter and Ernest Macmillan, because regardless of what that stupid hat said, Harry Potter would be in Gryffindor, and now that the Weasley boy had gotten himself expelled, the Macmillan boy would have to go with him to be his friend as he needed a friend from a good Pureblood family to set him straight. He shouted her down when she started to say. "But what about Pomona and Lord Macmillan? We can't just take two students from Pomona's house without….."
"I will inform Professor Sprout of what will happen and if she knows what's good for her she'll do what she's told without arguing! And that goes double for you McGonagall! Don't think for a second that I've forgotten the way you blatantly disrespected me in front of all my staff and students! I would have already fired you if there wasn't so much work for you to do to fix the mess that you helped create! If you don't have people organised to take those Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts classes tomorrow you better be packed and ready to leave, because you will be thrown out of Hogwarts so fast that your feet won't touch the ground!"
He cut her off again when she opened her mouth to retort angrily. "Shut up and get out woman! You and everyone else in this school will learn your place or you will be gone! What are you waiting for? I told you to get out!"
Minerva spun around to storm out of the office, but as she did so Fawkes caught her eye. Even without a link, she could easily tell that the phoenix was furious, and almost ready to attack this fool who she was supposed to be linked to... Minerva snorted at that, the old fool had supposedly been linked to a phoenix familiar for most of a century but he still referred to her as 'he'? Everyone knew that phoenixes were all female!... everyone who wasn't an idiot anyway. That moment they'd shared and the laugh at Dumbledore had taken the edge off of her fury at the old bastard, so she nodded her thanks to Fawkes, and was more than a little surprised when she returned the nod.
Early that morning she had been rousted out of bed by the old bastard to be threatened with being thrown out again if she didn't have everything he told her to do done by breakfast, but he was needed for an urgent Wizengamot session and he didn't know how long he would be tied up with that. He also told her that she'd need to inform Professor Sprout about Potter and Macmillan transferring to her house and no students were to be allowed to leave Hogwarts for any reason today before storming out.
They were enraged by what Dumbledore had said to her, but while he was intrigued about what she'd said about Fawkes, something else had piqued Harry's interest even more, so he asked Merlin if he could ask Hogwarts whether Dumbledore had made any floo calls and whether he'd given her any instructions about the floos today. He wasn't too surprised when the answer was that he'd made a fairly long call to Macmillan Manor just before he went to see Professor McGonagall, and then he'd come back and ordered her to reject any attempts for floo connections of any sort in or out unless they from him until he told her otherwise, and to do the same for anyone trying to enter or leave Hogwarts, then he'd got ready and flooed to the Ministry of Magic. Harry could almost see her shaking her head when she said that she couldn't believe the sort of things that wizard asked his magic mirror.
Thinking of Fawkes, Harry asked whether Hogwarts could talk to her and the obviously indignant response was that of course she could! Fawkes' responses to questions about why she remained as a familiar of someone like Dumbledore were a worry, because she was very hesitant when she said that she didn't know why, but she just couldn't leave him, the only thing she was clear on was the fact that while she definitely wasn't his familiar, she was somehow forced to obey him whenever he called on her. This concerned her as much as it did them, so she readily agreed when Harry asked whether she'd let them take her to the goblin healers to see whether the compulsions and curses on her could be removed (the way she was forced to obey him sounded disturbingly similar to the Druids' Bond, so they were worried that he may have somehow found some of Salazar's notes on the Druid's Bond, which in turn made them wonder on the compulsions that he'd put on Merlin, so they took Merlin along too when they took her to Gringotts).
Emyr had popped to Dumbledore's office to bring Fawkes back to Corvus Tower for this discussion with all of them and their familiars, and Harry had been surprised when Hedwig suggested that Fawkes forming a proper familiar bond with Harry may help her resist the pretender's demands (because Hedwig was much like Hermione, she'd resisted sharing her human with his mates and their familiars until she'd judged them worthy of him). Fawkes was intrigued and hopeful about this, because she could see from what was in this human's head that he was worthy of her bond, so with Hermione and the other girls' agreement Fawkes bonded with Harry, then they went to Gringotts.
The goblin mind magic experts quickly confirmed that both Fawkes and Merlin had simpler versions of the Druids' Bond and numerous compulsion charms on them, so the charms and curse were all removed and they were returned to Hogwarts, Merlin to Harry's trunk flat and Fawkes to Dumbledore's office... She'd agreed to stay there to spy on him, because for all his vaunted brilliance, Dumbledore still thought of her as nothing more than a bird with special talents who added to his fame and legend because he was supposedly the only wizard who had been deemed to be worthy of a phoenix familiar's bonding, so he spoke freely around her, in fact he boasted to her about all his plans because he just had to talk about how brilliant he was.
Once Merlin and Fawkes were settled, the rest of them, the rest of the humans anyway, got ready to attend the Wizengamot, because while only the adults could vote, Harry was planning to invoke Most Ancient House Law again, but while he could have theoretically done that with just Sirius, Cyrus, Edessa and Xeno, he wanted Hermione, Luna, Sue and Nev involved, because Hermione had certainly suffered enough at Snape's hand to earn the right to be part of this and Snape was responsible for Nev's parents ending up in St Mungo's so he deserved to see him punished too.
Snape was a Half-Blood who had been raised in the Muggle world, so he theoretically shouldn't be quite so dependent on his magic to survive as the Purebloods were. Harry hoped that he was right about that, because he was planning to use the Most Ancient House Law to strip him of his magic before he left the court room to make sure that the bastard suffered all the more in Azkaban, and if Dumbledore did somehow manage to do the impossible and keep him him out of Azkaban again, he'd be forced back into the Muggle world anyway, because he wouldn't have any magic. Quite aside from everything he'd done to Hermione, him and the rest of their world over the next seven years, that bastard had been the reason his parents were murdered, why he and Sirius had spent the last ten years in the hells of Durskaban and Azkaban and why Nev's parents had spent the last ten years locked in the torment inside their own heads, so he was going to pay! Dumbledore had even more to pay for, but their plans for him were going to take a little longer.