Title: Diverging Reality
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Various
Chapter: 26
Word Count: 1778
Warnings: nothing really

Beta: TigerKat

AN: A little late, but I am very tired and in pain so enjoy the chapter.

Stepping up to stand beside Lord Marvolo Slytherin, Harry smirked at the way that he and Lucius were talking, subtly flirting back and forth. Ever since his own marriage contract had come to an end, Lucius was often found in the company of Marvolo, usually talking politics or who was who in the world.

If you were lucky, you could sometimes catch them when they were talking about Draco and what he was up to. Or speaking about Lucius' hope to have more children if he had found someone who was willing to marry and carry.

And it sounded as if they were discussing what they were going to be doing during the current Wizengamont meeting. "I do hope I am not interrupting anything," he drawled as he settled into his seat. He adjusted his purple robes and wrinkled his nose. "I am going to really hope that the new robes to be decided on won't be such an eye-searing color."

Lucius chuckled softly, shifting in his seat so that the two Dark wizards could look at Harry. "The robes had been pushed through by Dumbledore when he had been fresh from the win against Grindelwald," he said. "The man really does love his weirdly colored robes and hasfor years."

"His tastes have not changed from my time at the school. It just got worse in the color mixes that he wants," Marvolo stated. He eyed where Dumbledore was sitting at his own desk section. In the last two months since Harry's marriage had been dissolved, there had been a shift in the political arena. Dumbledore had lost his Supreme Mugwump position, with Amelia taking his place, and Harry had fully settled into his own position.

The man had apparently decided not to wear the robes that they all wore and put on neon purple robes with bright green stitching, the sight of it making Harry shudder. "When it comes time for voting, please vote for the darker toned blues," he hissed, leaning close to Lucius. The silver-blond man snickered softly and nodded. His and Harry's relationship had gone from friendly business associates to something richer, a true friendship that even Severus enjoyed now.

Thus why they were able to joke the way they did.

"Are you going to come to the midsummer ball?" Marvolo asked, switching the subjects to save himself a headache. Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "House Slytherin will be opening their doors to the mansion that has been long sealed to the Gaunt family. The estate itself had money, but no one of my family had the magical aptitude, nor the mental stability to gain the Lordship apparently," he explained at the curious look.

Harry smiled politely and nodded to Severus, who had taken his seat as Lord Snape-Prince, the man sitting down next to Lord Weasley, both men sitting in the Neutral section. "I did hear from Lord Weasley that you were working with Gringotts to update the warding scheme and the house itself," Harry said as he looked to Bill, staying polite in public. "That must have been the invitation that arrived before I had to leave the house. If it is, I'll send my RSVP when I get home," he promised. "But I do believe that I will come to the party. Lucky for me, I have a few robes that will work for it."

"It's always a good thing to have various extra robes on hand," Lucius drawled, approving Harry's choice. "You still have a month and a half, and the ball itself will be rather informal."

"Good. That'll give me time to find a housewarming gift. Tell me, how is the rebuild going?" Harry asked.

Marvolo huffed. "It's almost done. It should be fully done in just about two weeks from now and then I can have my chosen furniture moved in. I've been shifting through everything in my vaults and chose the best pieces that would go together well for the house," he said. "It seems as if my grandmother had some of her own money and kept her own vaults from the rest of the family, both before and after she had married, that she had invested. Dumbledore had decided not to tell my father of this," he continued, playing up the act of being his own son.

Harry smiled behind one hand, amused at the charade but understanding it.

"Well at least the various vaults are now opened, and you have money to do what you need to do if the investments are still going. Are you still planning on investing in other businesses?" Harry asked, as he watched Amelia sweep in and settle at her single desk where she worked from.

"Yes. I have been looking into a few businesses," Marvolo said, as they sat up straight. The desks that ran around the two-thirds circle that was the Wizengamont chamber unfolded up before them. Harry and Marvolo shared a look as their papers appeared from their offices, the entire room shifting slightly so that the paths for the pages expanded just a bit.

"Today is the fourth of June, year 1998. This is the fifth Wizengamont meeting of the year," Amelia noted before she banged her gavel on a rune on her desk. The scribes started to type out the minutes on the new typewriters that had been implemented, muffling runes carved onto them. "During the last meeting, date May nineteenth, 1998, we decided to wait until this meeting to discuss the two new proposals that have been talked about for the last two months. But before we do that, we have a, I hope, final update on the laws that were passed on the suggestion of Lord Marvolo Slytherin with Lord Lucius Malfoys and the then-Heir Harry Black-Potter. The head of the law reform team was chosen to be Widow Longbottom. If you can update us, please," she called out, once more smacking the rune on the desk.

Lord Longbottom watched as his grandmother stood, stepping up to the podium that appeared next to her desk. She adjusted her papers. "Thank you, Supreme Mugwump. As we all know, I have led a team to go through the old laws since January of 1997 to find out what laws would invalidate our treaty with the Queen and non-magical world, the holder of the treaty between our two worlds, and which laws would need to go, stay, or change," she said, tapping her wand on her pile of papers.

All around the room, copies of her papers appeared with tabs sticking off them on each desk.

"Please note that this is not the final copy, but the tomes are still being bound as of right now. Each tab that you see means something. The green tabs are laws that will be allowed to stay. The red tabs are the ones that should not exist at all due to various reasons. Each reason is listed with the law in the final book. The blue tabs are the laws that should be discussed more in-depth, if they are needed at all, but do not go against any of the laws in the non-magical world," she said.

Harry hummed as he pulled out his personal dicto-quill, cast a connected privacy ward around his mouth and the quill as he opened the book to start going through it. For the next hour, they discussed plans for when to talk more in depth about the maybe laws, the laws that were to be removed being already rescinded.

Umbridge looked quite a bit on the upset side about the laws on creatures that she had pushed through being removed, and the old laws that had made sure that they got what they needed to live life being reinstated. Harry made a note to continue to dig up dirt on the bitch.

After that, they stopped for a short lunch, Marvolo, Lucius, and Harry all gathering in Lucius' office to discuss the business that Marvolo and Lucius were planning on investing in to get the economy moving again. Harry made notes on what to look into himself later.

After they came back from lunch, they discussed the two bills that had been put forth about the school. Bill, as the Weasley Lord, and Charlie, as the Prewitt Regent, both put their support behind the bill from Lord Slytherin along with Harry, that bill an education update. They all wanted the school to return to its former glory.

Harry and Neville, who had taken his own Lordship just that week before, put forth a bill to support Lord Slytherin's bill to have all of the school's wards that were around the school and later their communities checked on, updated, or fixed as needed.

To no one's surprise, the bills were passed easily, and Dumbledore looked like he had gotten a super sour Warhead instead of a lemon drop before his face smoothed out into the grandfatherly smile. Harry wondered just what the old man was thinking about before he pushed it out of his head. The meeting was finally called to an end, and he stood with a groan before tapping all of his notes to return them to his personal Wizengamont desk.

"This whole process is going to end up rather tedious, isn't it?" he asked Lucius as they left the hall. Lucius chuckled at him and patted his shoulder as Marvolo headed to talk with the Widow and Lord Longbottom, thanking Neville for his backing on the bill.

"Very much so. But luckily for us, once the last of the laws have been decided on, and things have settled in, things will be much calmer," he promised, getting a small smile from the other man.

"Yes, I do suppose that it will get calmer. I should probably head home and respond to my mail though," he hummed. "Do expect a luncheon invitation in the next few days though. I wish to discuss a few ideas," Harry warned him as he looked up at him. "You and Lord Slytherin both. I might invite Lord Weasley and Regent Prewitt to get their thoughts too."

Lucius smiled at him, taking Harry's hand, and bowing over it, pressing a kiss to it. It was a move that he had started to do in the last three months as they grew closer. It never failed to get a blush from him, knowing the move for what it was, but he never showed that he knew beyond the blush.

They both knew that if Lucius was working up his way to court him, he would need to do the proper steps just like anyone else.