Disclaimer: We all know how these work, I acknowledge that J. K. Rowlings, Warner Bros. and Scholastic own Harry Potter and all other characters and settings from cannon, and I get to write whatever I please and even add in characters of my own as long as I don't get any money. The no money sucks but there you go, at least I don't get lawyers knocking on my door. Addendum: If you recognize a name of a character from elsewhere it isn't mine.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait. Tendonitis sucks. Typing is still limited to a half an hour a day. So updates will be slow.
Sirius' Savior
Chapter 65 Many Meetings
When Harry's cell sounded as he left water polo practice he quickly answered it. "Hello."
"Good news kiddo, I'm in the clear."
"That's great. How's England?"
"Wet and cold. Beth and Rick are in their element with all the political maneuvering. I'm mostly sitting back and watching."
"Did your cousin and her husband hand it over?"
"Yes."
"So that's four."
"Yep. I've also put a bid on the property you said housed the ring. It's next to a forest reserve and once we get past the protections on the ring and destroy it I figure we can donate the property to the reserve. And yes, I know, I need to wait for you since the protections on the ring are mostly parseltongue."
"Yes. That just leaves the diadem."
"Yep. How's school? How was your history test?"
"Aced it. The professor asked if I'd lead the talk when we visit the Parthenon next break. He says it will be extra credit for the final trimester if I do a good job."
"Harry... I...You sound happy. Are you?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be? I mean I miss you and Beth, James and the girls but I have what I need and then some. I have more money than I'll ever spend. I have...work, for lack of a better term, that makes me happy. Challenges me, I get to do good. I 'm tutoring once a week in one of the D.C. inner city elementaries, Etienne is from Haiti and my French comes in very handy. I'm looking forward to finishing my education and doing the work of the foundation. Like I said why wouldn't I be happy?
"Oh I forgot to tell you. Kyle, you know first cello in orchestra got bumped and fell badly during basketball. Anyway he broke his arm and wrist in three places and damaged the nerves in his left hand. It will be at least a year before he's back in orchestra. It sucks for him, but you are now speaking to the first chair cellist of the Stuart-Cavanaugh student orchestra."
"Congrats, I'll make a point to portkey back for the trimester concerts. But I'm not sure if anyone else will come. But back to my question. I ask because I keep moving in the direction that you're going to leave Stuart-Cavanaugh and the States and come to the U.K. and join the magical community here, but I just assume. We both know what they say about assumptions.
"I want this to be your choice Harry, your decision. It would be different if you hadn't done the time jumps. I knew when I was thirteen that I didn't want to knuckle under to my parents pressures. I think that living with my family was what made fifth year so hard. I nearly killed another student that year for a lot of stupid reasons and at the time I thought it was just a prank. I screwed up so bad with your dad and Remy. Bad enough I endangered another kid, but I nearly turned Remy into a killer too. James gave me the lecture of my life and said if I ever did anything like that again... Well, he gave me one more shot to prove I wasn't like my family. If I effed up again, I was on my own because the apple hadn't fallen far enough from the tree. Your dad let me come home with him, to help me keep from messing up again. But I guess what I'm getting at is I want you to choose, to choose the life you want, Not just to do stuff because it's expected of you."
"I... I haven't really thought about it. You've always done your best to see to it I knew how to do the things that would be expected from me. I seldom felt anything other than contentment and I never was truly unhappy. You always made sure I was allowed to set my own pace. Can I think about it for a while?"
"Sure. So...what do you think of Baltimore's chances to represent the States at the Quidditch World Cup?"
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Three weeks later Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was ready to pull his beard out. The Wizengamot's committee for the restructure was ignoring his suggestions completely and that ...that upstart from the colonies was undermining decades of Albus' influence. In fact Augusta Longbottom and Rufus Scrimegour had told him point blank if he valued his Headmaster of Hogwarts position he should get out of their hair and mind his school. It was only because of his prior service that he wasn't on trial for obstruction of justice. He had reluctantly returned to Hogwarts.
Part of him wanted to rail and fume about his lost influence. He should have known Sirius Black would be a thorn in his side from the day the boy was sorted into Gryffindor. He had thought that by protecting him from that indiscretion fifth year, he had bought the boy's loyalty and he had never expected him to be able to gain the level of political power that the man now wielded. Albus appreciated the power play that had been made and schemed how he could get his power back.
He needed to have power so that when Voldemort came back he could save the wizarding world. Of course part of that meant he needed to have control of Harry Potter. It was absurd the potential amount of power that boy had. If Albus had had his way Harry would never had been aware of the power he could wield. Albus would have kept him ignorant, biddable, and naively admiring of himself until he could be guided to his fate of destroying Voldemort. But thanks to that thrice damned Sirius Black those plans would never come to fruition.
Albus wondered if Black had doomed the wizarding world to falling into darkness. Albus knew in the Wizengamot his name was dirt but in the realm of the common British witch and wizard he was still well regarded thank heaven for Chocolate frog cards.
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"Your Grace, in your opinion has progress been made in the restructuring process?"
"Yes and no, Your Majesty and Minister Major." Beth thought carefully how to phrase her observations. "The resolutions before the Wizengamot to address the balance of power issues between the Old families and the witches and wizards from mundane and mixed families have been passed. The Wizengamot is now a bicameral legislature, and elections for the Magical House of Commons will take place next month. The processes to resolve issues between the houses has been determined. The problems now being worked through now are the definition of powers between what is legislative and what falls into the executive powers of the ministry, and the changes in the judiciary needed to bring it into line with the current laws of Britain while still addressing the particular issues stemming from magic. We're fighting literally centuries of traditions, some of which the people fighting for them have no understanding of the origins behind them. If we can understand the origin behind the concern we can address them but with out it...The process is much more difficult.
"My husband recently reconciled with a cousin who is married to one of the more staunchly conservative magical families. Lucius is a prime example, he has been raised to believe non magicals are inferior and is only now coming to understand that we are not inferior merely different. He has explained to me many of the conservative viewpoints, I foresee a very long road before change truly happens. The magical world is very childlike in many ways. Delayed gratification and logical thought are concepts that escapes most witches and wizards, neither being highly used when a wave of the wand will do. Like all beings they fear that which they don't understand and they fear change. When you add that to the wizarding world's long life spans and even longer memory, many of the prejudices we are currently fighting have their roots in happenings of two to three or even more centuries ago. Many of the people in power had grand parents or great grandparents that were alive in the time of the witch hunts and they remember the stories."
"What can we do about it? We need to protect both our magical citizens and our non magical."
"Education is one of the keys. I would like to arrange meetings between representatives from Your Majesty and the Committee of Magical education. If we can educate the magical born of non magical parentage citizens in the traditions of their magic born counterparts while at the same time educating the magicals in the knowledge of the current non magical world I believe we can reduce the friction that presently exists. My...stepson I guess, is a prime example of how this sort of education could work. Harry is educated about both worlds. He speaks seven languages including Goblin and Latin, and is very strong magically."
"Would that be Harry Potter?"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"We would like to meet him."
"Unfortunately your majesty, Harry is currently not scheduled to return to England until mid-August. I would be happy to arrange for a meeting then."
"What is he doing that keeps him from his home shores?"
"He attends Stuart-Cavanaugh Preparatory Academy in Maryland. During the next class break he is going to Greece with the school trip, then he's going to Chicago to receive some magical training until the next trimester starts. Then he's taking a final school trip to India before coming to England to pursue his magical education at Hogwarts as is traditional for someone in his family."
"He is well travelled then?"
"Very. In addition to growing up in Indonesia, he has been to Italy, Costa Rica, China, and Egypt. He'll see Greece in early April, and in August he'll see India for a week and a half. He is quite gifted. He understands many things most boys his age do not and actually is taking classes with students two years his senior."
"That is good. He will need that knowledge from what we know of the magical world."
"Yes, that was another thing that I wanted to bring up with Your Majesty. I believe it would be beneficial for Your Majesty to make some appearances and maybe some interviews in the magical world let your subjects get to know you a bit as it were, to educate your magical subjects who are not a part of the government, on what you expect from them."
Her Majesty frowned but could see the benefit as well. She looked at her secretary, "Arrange it with MI9, Lionel."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
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The cell phone sitting on the desk rang. Sirius picked it up. "Black."
"Mr. Black, I've managed to track down Jarrod Moran and Catherine Parker."
"Excellent, Alexis. What did they say about my proposal?"
"They are busy with research in Tibet for now, but they'll come to England in September and talk with Harry. If they like Harry and think they can mesh for training him, they'll do it. If not Jarrod will use his contacts to put you in touch with another elemental mage he knows."