Title: Diverging Reality
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Lucius, Harry, Marvolo
Chapter: 28
Word Count: 1734
Warnings:

Beta: TigerKat

AN: Why is this chapter so late? Life. That's what you're getting but also eye issues that make it hard to see if I'm not careful so I have been very careful with my eye.

So for now, please enjoy. All the hugs.

Sitting down at the round table with the two men, Harry smiled when the copies of the current bills and the bills he wanted to introduce appeared before them. Cups of tea, juice, and water also appeared, Marvolo chuckling as he picked up his pomegranate juice.

"Your elves are very good at what they do," he said.

Harry smiled and nodded in agreement. "It's a surprise to some people that when you treat them with respect, their magic becomes stronger and they are far more protective of their families," he said. Lucius hummed.

"I have noticed a change in my own elves now that I am shedding old beliefs that my father raised me with," he said, picking up his teacup and tasting it. "Perfect as always."

"Of course," Harry drawled. He picked up his juice cup and tapped the side of it with a frown. "I don't know what to do about that fraction of the Light side that still crawls up Dumbledore's ass," he sighed.

Lucius picked up the first bill. "I think we are going to have to call for a special kind of meeting to finally get the full information out," he said, crossing his legs. "And have them believe it. To make our statements and information clear without them being able to look at them with a bias would be the best bet."

Harry groaned at that. He still remembered reading the information about the various types of meetings that the Wizengamont could hold. The one that Lucius was talking about would mean that everyone had to sign a contract that stated that they would allow everyone to have their time to talk about it and would listen when each person was talking.

The contract forced them to.

But the drawback was that on the speakers' part, they had to have the information and believe that everything they said was the truth. It was a delicate balance for the person bringing the information forward.

"Do we have enough information on everything that they want to try to get passed?" Harry asked. Lucius nodded, pulling out the information, making copies and handing them over. "At least the laws have mostly been cleaned up. We're to go through the last of them and fix what needs to be fixed next round, right?" he asked.

Marvolo hummed as he put his teacup down and pushed it to the side as their appetizers appeared on the table before them. "Indeed. I believe that we're down to about five laws that need to be fixed if people want them to be kept. Otherwise, they will be removed."

"If I remember correctly, they're old laws about the New Bloods," Lucius said as he plucked a mozzarella stick up from his plate, carefully dipping it. He bit into it, glad that Harry had introduced him to such delicious food. Swallowing, he continued talking. "The parts that need to be changed arethe parts that tax them differently than the Old Bloods."

"From what I read, the taxations are unbalanced. And according to the treaty with the Queen and Royal Family, the taxations should be the same across the board. All must be equal," Harry replied, eating something that the two men eyed. It looked as if the elves had made crisped potato peels that still had a bit of the meat on it with cheese that had been melted and browned, a bit of bacon on top. Marvolo decided that he was curious about it and snagged one off Harry's plate, splitting it with Lucius.

"What in the world are those?" Lucius asked after they had tried them, eyeing Harry's plate before some appeared next to them on a new plate.

"They are potato skins. True, they usually don't have so much of the potato meat on them, but I like a little bit," Harry said. "So, back to the laws that need to be fixed. The tax laws are one such law. I'm thinking that we are going to have to call for a Meeting of the Minds, as much as I don't want to, and we need to figure out what these new laws are all about," he sighed.

He eyed the bound book with all the laws.

Marvolo hummed, lifting the first bill that they were there to talk about and opened it. "This first bill looks as if it is from Doge. It seems as if he wants to create an age restriction on who can and cannot hold a seat on the Wizengamont."

"It's likely because I have held my seat since I turned sixteen since I took it up the day after I married Ginny. He didn't really like it when he found out I controlled my seats then, and he doesn't now. What age does he want to set the restriction at?" Harry asked, as he flipped through the papers. He saw that Marvolo had another pile of papers that he had pulled out of a pocket and unshrunk.

"Age twenty-two. And you must be a master in whatever you are apprenticing in. Never mind that most never see any kind of mastery until close to their thirties, if at all," Marvolo said, as he shuffled his papers around.

"And some of us have never gone for a full mastery as it is," Lucius admitted, shaking his head. "It will, to be frank, fuck us all over to have that kind of law. Because we'd have to apply it to everyone on the Wizengamont since it looks as if he didn't include a clause for those who are already on it," he said.

Harry snorted. "It looks as if he didn't think that it would apply to anyone but me. The clause about having a Mastery means that about half of the Wizengamont would be out of their seats and the sessions would be shut down. Which means no new laws. No old laws being fixed. No trials. Nothing," he said.

"I'll make sure that my secretary pulls together the proper notes for my arguments," Lucius said, snapping his fingers and asking his elf to bring him his self-inking DictoQuill and a long parchment scroll for the coming conversation. Once the elf had brought the requested items, they went over the law, making notes of every issue as they finished off their appetizers. With that done, they moved onto the next law.

Over the following hour, they ate their lunch and went over each law in detail, having their questions and concerns taken down by the quill so that they could bring them up at the next meeting. Lucius would send them the written-up notes later that week and they would decide who would bring up what concern when and who they should share their concerns with before the meeting.

Harry said that he would most likely have Narcissa act as the Black family representative for the meeting due to all of the concerns. They all agreed that they would call for a Meeting of the Minds at the end of the next meeting. Even if Dumbledore protested and tried to get it stopped, it would still go through since it was the magic of the meeting rooms that decided if such things should or should not happen.

Harry saw the two to the floo, blushing very slightly when Lucius bent over his hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it, catching his eyes before he disappeared through the floo. Marvolo chuckled as he pulled on his cloak, looking at him in some amusement.

"Oh, shush with you," Harry huffed, reaching up to rub where his scar used to sit. The day after he had graduated Hogwarts, he had gone with Marvolo to a tribe that did horcruxes safely, but didn't talk about it, and had them remove the piece of crystal that held the bit of his soul. Marvolo had absorbed the larger piece of soul in Slytherin's locket and placed the piece of crystal into the locket, keeping it on his person at all times. He had carefully renewed the protection runes on it and had made sure that the soul piece was sealed away, the rest of his soul healing, back into its proper place.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Marvolo drawled as he tapped Harry's nose. During the time that they had gotten to know one another, his initial attraction to the brilliant young man had settled into a deep respect for the voracious mind behind the Golden Boy mask. They had come to an understanding and acted more like family instead of possible lovers.

Harry had even started to tease him about his attraction to Bill, who had become the head of the English branch of the Curse Breakers and was working on the tombs around England.

"I'm sure," Harry drawled as he eyed his friend. "Are you going to head to your home?" he asked.

"No, not yet. I have a coffee meeting with the young Lord William about his mother and dealing with her. Seeing as how she is in Romania with Regent Prewitt, it is easier to discuss the issues about her with Lord William and have him send the information on for me," Marvolo said, catching the small smirk from the younger male. "Shush."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry cooed at him, getting a roll of red-hued eyes.

"I see how it goes," Marvolo sniffed playfully. "Though I believe that you really should expect a courting gift to arrive in the next few days. No later than the morning of the Wizengamont meeting," he warned. As Harry's mouth fell open, gaping at him, he took some of the floo powder from the dish, tossed it into the flames, watched them turn green, and called out his destination as the cafe flo as he stepped through.

"I swear, that man," Harry huffed at the giggling Winky who was standing off to the side. "I don't know why I'm friends with him. Anyways, Winky, please get me when it's just about time for dinner. And watch out for Hermione and Neville please. I know that they are coming over tonight after their afternoon date to go over some details for their upcoming wedding," he instructed her. He left the floo room as he stretched and groaned. "Slytherins. Why am I surrounded by Slytherins?"