Title: Diverging Reality
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Various
Chapter: 29
Word Count:
Warnings:

Beta: TigerKat

AN: Why am I so late? Just assume my schedule is fucked right now because it is Tourney of Tales and Camp Nano please. I'm hoping that come May things will return to normal but I'm not sure. I hope but not promising. Just for now, a chapter a week. Promise.

Loves!

Smirking as he walked up to Lucius, wearing the small courting bracelet that had arrived early that morning, Harry looked at him from the side of his eye. Lucius smiled softly at him, still talking with Lord Parkinson about the fact that Pansy was starting to demand her contract with Draco back.

Never mind the fact that when she did have a contract with him, she hadn't kept to the part that demanded that she keeppure during their engagement, not even sleeping with him.

"I am going to tell you once more, Lord Parkinson, she will not be allowed to become Lady Malfoy at all," Lucius said, as he tucked Harry's hand into his arm. "She is far from pure. Or a virgin. And we all know it."

"And how exactly do we know it?" Parkinson asked, eyeing the way that Harry was pressing up against the Malfoy Lord.

Harry smiled up at him. "I went to school with your daughter, Lord Parkinson. It is a well-known secret that she liked to go into broom closets with anyone who wasn't Heir Malfoy," he said. His smile was too sweet and innocent, and Parkinson knew just what he was saying. "She had even tried to get me when it came out that I was Heir to two houses early in our sixth year. I know that you have a son with a wonderful wife. A New Blood from a part of the Potter family that actually left our world, from what her genetic tests have told us," he continued.

"Which means that it is true that she has connections with you?" Lucius asked, looking down at his new courting partner.

"Indeed. I have met her face to face, and they agreed that should I not have a child who is able to take the Potter Lordship, I might consider one of her children as my heir," Harry said. "Their new son is adorable and is already showing his magical power. I fear that if Mr. Parkinson hadn't married her, even against the wishes of his family, that any child that he had would have been a Low Magical," he said, shaking his head before beaming. "But since no New Blood is just a brand-new magical line, we can start to work to really push the laws to properly include them and stop sending them away."

"Ah, yes. You did tell me the last time that we met with Lord Slytherin that your research showed just how hard our economy and blood lines were being hit with the New Bloods leaving our world," Lucius mused. "Wasn't there also a group of New Bloods that had started with Dumbledore's age group to work to help them move to a more open magical community?" he asked.

"Yes, there is. There are a few communities that welcome them as long as they learn the laws and traditions," Harry said, watching as Lord Parkinson go pale at the conversation. "Mr. Parkinson has actually been working with investments outside of our economy since he's helping them get money to move the New Bloods. They also make sure that the New Bloods can get their A-Levels to get into non-magical universities, making them the only ones who can easily cross the lines. Which is something that all of us would be able to do, if not for some bigoted laws that went against the accords."

Lucius swallowed down the laughter that was threatening to bubble out of him at the look of disappointment and sadness that Harry sent towards Dumbledore, who looked surprised and mildly suspicious at the look. His fingers trailed over the courting bracelet, silently showing his approval and his thankfulness that Harry accepted.

"Ah yes, the laws that fully separated us from the non-magical world. My family, despite what we may have felt about them, did make sure that we could blend in when we crossed the line for whatever reason. And that we had a presence. I've been expanding our non-magical investments in the last few years," Lucius finally said, getting a small smile from Harry.

"Right," Parkinson said. He cleared his throat and was quite clearly thinking of begging his disinherited heir to come back and take up the role again. "Oh, would you look at that. Time to start," he said, quickly heading for his seat in the Dark section and settling at his desk. Harry chuckled and shook his head.

"My oh my, you would think that a man like him could lie a bit more convincingly," Harry drawled, smirking with his partner.

Lucius snorted and led the way up to the stairs to their own desk set up for the meeting. He held Harry's hand as the other man settled into the chair before he let it go and sat down at his own, the bills and a list of 'To Discuss' appearing before them.

"You would think so but what you said about not only his daughter but his son and the facts about the New Bloods shook him up. He had told his son when the man left to marry his wife that their children wouldn't be magically strong. The fact that you have seen the child and that they're magically strong has put that to rest," he said. He shuffled through the pages and noted that there was a list of bills that they wanted to hand out to the Wizengamont for future discussions.

"We're going to have to call that meeting even if we didn't want to, aren't we?" Harry asked as he looked over the 'To Discuss' list and noting that their time slot had been struck out by Dumbledore. Sighing, he tapped the spot and removed the strike out, annoyed that the old man had really tried that, his magic overriding Dumbledore's since he hadn't called for it to be called off. "We really need to remind Dumbledore that someone can only deny a time slot if everyone else agrees with him," he muttered softly.

Lucius snorted as he extended their asked time up until the moment where Dumbledore was to present a new bill from himself and his party. "He'll learn. Especially since as one of the smaller heads, he'll need to be a part of the meeting." Harry hummed as he gave the new bills that were being presented a cursory look and writing out a quick sticky note to attach to each one. "I do not like these ones about Hogwarts that seem to be coming out."

"He keeps forgetting some key parts of the treaty that the Ministry signed between it and the school," Harry said. "Merlin himself created those 'if this happens, this must happen' clauses for very good reason. From what we know of the talks and the records, even the founders agreed with it," he continued.

Lucius grunted as he looked through the various bills. "I will have my secretary pull up copies of the information and speak with your sister about research," he said. Harry smirked at him.

"I'm sure that she'll be happy to get away from Augusta. Apparently, the woman has been driving her insane with her need to try to make it a purely Longbottom wedding instead of a mix," Harry drawled, looking over to where Neville sat on the middle between Grey and Light. The other man sighed and gave him a look before he handed one of the pages a note.

The page padded down over to him and handed the note over with a nod of his head before he took Lucius' note to hand to the pages outside of the room. A necessary security measure, but an annoying one.

Harry opened the note and snorted, showing Lucius. "Neville has had to remind her that Hermione is a Lady of Potter and not just a New Blood. She was adopted into my family after all," he huffed, shaking his head, and putting the note into his bag. He put the new bills to the side, out of the way, before pulling the bills that they were going to talk about for the day towards him. Lucius smirked smugly at the glint of heavily protected and warded onyx that flashed on Harry's wrist.

Harry just sent him a look in return before he turned over to where Amelia was calling the meeting to order. He was looking forward to it.