Disclaimer: In the grand scheme of things, I own less than a house elf. Specifically, that means that I own nothing but my imagination. Everything else belongs to Jo.

A/N: I love the reviews and suggestions. I must say though, some of these pairing suggestions are downright creepy! Useful, but creepy. I plan to hook Lord Black up with someone his own age (or there abouts) I am also not planning on any slash, after all, he is the last of two different houses and really needs a whole bunch of offspring. And I am really not into the whole mpreg scene… if men were responsible for the propagation of the species, it would have died out many years ago. It also brings up anatomical question I would prefer not to ponder…

Chapter 3

Old and New Business

4 Privet Drive

Harry had finally figured out how to solve the problem of keeping the selected glamour while still wearing muggle clothing. Even though he did not know the charm for the glamour, he could transfigure clothes into different shapes. He simply took the robes, and with his new muggle clothing as a guide, made the robes match. He had become quite attached to his Lord Black persona that he had worn to Knockturn Alley, that of the sandy haired 30 year old. He was now dressed in tan dockers, a dark blue polo shirt, and Italian loafers.

As Harry pulled up in front of the Dursley house, the hairs at the back of his neck stood straight up. A masked Death Eater stepped out of the house and fired the spell to place the Dark Mark above the house. Harry stuck his wand out the window of the Mini and stupefied him. Jumping out of the car, he closed the distance to the dazed Death Eater, drew back his leg and gave a solid kick to the man's temple. Harry heard a distinct crack, and the Death Eater went limp. Harry grabbed the man's wand and snapped it, then stepped cautiously inside the house.

Petunia was dead, her blood and entrails smeared all over the entrance hall. Dudley and Vernon were hiding behind the couch, one at each end, and an insanely laughing Death Eater was firing spells at any body part that became exposed, all while mocking them in a little girl voice. She never realized that Harry was in the room until he stuck his wand at the base of her skull. As she froze, Harry plucked her wand out of her hand.

"Hi Bella. Did you just happen to be in the neighbourhood and decide to drop in and slaughter some pigs for Voldemort's breakfast bacon? I mean, you can tell Tom thanks for the favor, but I was really planning to take care of this myself."

"Potter! I just killed your aunt, and was about to kill your uncle and cousin, and its alright with you? Damn, you take all the fun out of this job!"

"Whoops, he's getting away." Harry stunned Dudley before he could break free, then did the same to Vernon. "How about some ideas, Bella? You know my crucio really sucks, and it is not really inventive enough anyway. I was thinking about dressing them in pillowcases and making them work under my house elves until they have paid back every knut they stole from me over the years. And paying them at one half the wage of the elves. What's half of nothing?"

"You've changed". Bella looked at Harry in admiration. Why don't you join forces with the Dark Lord? You know he has offered before."

"Bella, it will be a cold day in Hell before I, Lord Potter-Black, bows before that half blood mongrel. He talks a good game, but he is out for nothing but his own power. It would be much better for you to rethink your loyalties."

"But you are a half blood yourself!"

"No, I am the Head of the Most Noble and Ancient Houses of Black and Potter, son of James Potter and the adopted pureblood witch Lily Prewitt. Dumbledore stole her from our world and let her be raised by muggles without her family's knowledge. I am also the Godson and Heir of Sirius Black. By the way, I forgive you his death, I saw that you were only throwing stunners at him." It almost killed Harry to say this, but he was determined to undermine Voldemort's base any way possible.

Confusion was in Bella's face. She wanted to believe, but she could not. Harry took her face in his hands and drew her into a passionate kiss. He felt like throwing up, but it was all he could think of at the time. When he drew back, Bella had a dazed look on her face. In her eyes, she had not been kissing the 16 year old Harry, but rather the 30 year old persona that the glamour put forth.

"Now go to your boss and tell him that he should contact me in his usual manner tonight. I will send your wand back to you by owl when I get home. I plan on taking care of this trash myself."

Dudley and Vernon were coming to. Harry transfigured the couch into a large wardrobe cabinet, large enough for the two to fit in. He growled at them. "The only chance that you have to live is to get in that cabinet and close the doors. Otherwise I will give this lady back her wand and let her finish what she started."

The two Dursleys scrambled into the wardrobe. Harry locked it, then tapped it with his wand, shrinking it (and them) into a package about the size of a deck of playing cards. He then stuck the package in his pants pocket. He turned to Bella and motioned toward the door.

"Lord Black?"

"Yes?"

"I don't know if the Dark Lord will kill you or not, but I have to say that you have a lot of class." With that, she Apparated away. Harry got into his car and left before the neighbors arrived.

Minutes later, there was a series of pops and aurors began appearing in the street in front of the house. They looked inside, cleaned everything up, removed the bodies of Petunia and the Death Eater, then left the neighbourhood looking as if nothing had ever happened.

Harry was whistling when he entered the door at 12 Grimmauld Place. He had stopped at a pharmacy and purchased the strongest mouthwash they had so he could cleanse his mouth after the kiss he gave Bella. He drew up short at the portrait of Walburga Black. Giving the portrait a small nod, he greeted her.

"Good afternoon, Lady Black."

"My Lord, you appear to be in a very good humour this day."

"Oh, I am," Harry replied honestly. "I am about to enslave a pair of muggles to work under the house elves in restoring your manor house. I know they are not very efficient, but they owe me not only a life debt, but they have been stealing from me for the past 15 years. I figure they should work off their debt in about 80 years or so."

Mrs. Black blinked. She had expected many things from the new Lord Black, but she had no idea that he would be this progressive! Muggle slaves, this could become a trend. Possibly use them as butlers, they appeared to be almost human. Some liberal wizards objected to enslaving magical creatures like house elves, this could be a real breakthrough!

"Wonderful idea, My Lord! Is it anyone you know?"

"Actually, yes. It is the muggle son and husband of my blood traitor squib aunt. She, unfortunately was killed before I could get to her. Remember Bellatrix? She was the one I rescued them from."

"Oh, yes, Bella. Such a sweet girl. It is a shame she is still working for the False Lord. I suppose that could change someday though."

"Yeah", thought Harry. "When the Dementors suck out what little soul she has left." Nodding at Mrs. Black, Harry went into the parlour and summoned Kreacher.

"Yes, My Lord?"

Harry took the wardrobe out of his pocket and cancelled the glamour on his clothes. He put his finger on his lips in the universal 'shhh' sign and winked at Kreacher. He then 'accio'ed' his most impressive dress robes with the crests of Potter-Black and slipped them on. The final touch was to unshrink the wardrobe and, with a flick of his wand, open the doors, spilling Dudley and Vernon out on the floor. Kreacher gasped.

Seeing Harry, Vernon got over his fear and went straight to rage, charging at Harry, fists clenched. Kreacher waved a hand at him and he was thrown back violently into the wall. Dudley curled up and whimpered.

"Muggle filth! How DARE you attack the mighty Lord Black! My Lord, do you want Kreacher to dismember this animal?"

"No, Kreacher, I have much better plans for them. Turning a glacial glare on Vernon, Harry pointed at him like the skeleton of death, chilling Vernon's very soul. "You owe me your very life. I saved you from the Death Eater who killed your wife. She actually thought that I might have feelings for you and that your death's would hurt me. She was wrong on both counts. Not only did you abuse and assault me for 15 years, you also took £540,000 meant for my support and then starved me and told me that I was a burden on your family. You made me your personal slave while you were stealing the money that my parents left for my care. It is repayment time. You will become my servants, working under my chief elf, Kreacher. You will treat him as your superior, since the lowest house elf is superior to your form of life. You will wear the uniform of the Potter-Black house elves and do what you are told until you debt is paid. This is the only option if you wish to live. Otherwise I give you back to Bella to finish what she started."

Vernon and Dudley hung their heads, then nodded in defeat. Kreacher grinned evilly, then turned to Harry. "My Lord Black, Kreacher is afraid that he has no house elf uniform large enough for the new servants."

"Well, can't you adjust the size? I am sure that is a simple task for a house elf of your caliber."

"Oh, yes Lord, I just wanted to get your approval." At Harry's quizzical look, Kreacher snapped his fingers and shrunk Dudley and Vernon down to the size of the smallest house elf on the staff. Another snap and their muggle clothes were gone, replaced by filthy tea cozies. Harry stared in shock and….amusement. He thought that Kreacher would make larger clothes, not smaller muggles. It was fitting though. If only some of Voldemort's Death Eaters could receive this kind of treatment, they might change some of their views.

"Muggles must come with Kreacher now. Lord Black is a busy wizard, and Kreacher is assigning muggles to pull weeds in Lord Black's manor house gardens. Worthless muggles will have an easy day, there is only 50 acres of gardens to weed out, if muggles will work like house elves, it should be done by tonight."

Chuckling as Kreacher and the new House muggles left, Harry summoned an owl to return Bella's wand.

Harry went to his room that night knowing that Voldemort would be sending him a nightmare. Harry decided not to sleep, but rather practice meditation so that he would not be caught unawares. He had been reading a book earlier on zen methods, and realized that this might be a way to clear his mind like Snape had suggested in the 'lessons' on Occlumency on which Dumbledore had insisted.

He knew that he had succeeded two hours later when the vision of Voldemort torturing Bella came across his mind. There were also innocent muggles being tortured, however Harry did not break down as he had previously. He felt sad, but the corner of his mind that held rational thoughts whispered to him that there was nothing that he could do about it, and that he bore no responsibility for Voldemort's actions.

"POTTER! Your messenger girl says that you want to speak with me. Are you ready to submit to me as your Lord and Master?"

"Not bloody likely Tom. Why should a true pureblood Lord bow down to a half blooded mongrel with delusions of adequacy? Especially when you are torturing your own followers to the point where they will begin to desert you in droves to come to me? Take Bella for example. Fanatically loyal to you, spent a decade in Azkaban waiting for your return, never denied you even at the trial. Unlike Malfoy who claimed that he was under the Imperious Curse and really didn't want anything to do with you. Malfoy answered your call out of fear and greed, Bella came to you out of slavish loyalty. How long before they begin to see your obvious flaws and begin to come to me? They know the first part of the prophesy, that I have the power to defeat you." Harry mentally crossed his fingers hoping that Voldemort would not be able to tell he was lying about this next part. "But while you are desperately trying to find out the last part of the prophesy, I could care less. I may have the power to defeat you, I may have power that you know not, but….what if I decide not to use it?"

Harry could feel Voldemort's shock. The Dark Lord turned and released Bella from her pain while he attempted to formulate a reply.

"You marked me as your equal, thinking that I was also a half breed. You bypassed the obvious pure blood. But you made a mistake. I am not a half breed. I am a pureblood, and as such, I hold power that you know not, legitimate power in the wizarding government. I hold the right to two seats in the Wizengamot, that of Lord Black and Lord Potter. I als have more money than Malfoy, your wealthiest supporter. Should he come to me, and rest assured, when he finds out that you are a mongrel and I am the pureblood, he will come around, then you will not have either the financial support or the support of the purebloods for your fight. Your little rebellion will wither and die on the vine. I am not your equal….I am your superior!"

Mentally crossing his fingers again, Harry sent back waves of pure hostility. "Dumbledore says that love is the power you know not. In that case, we are equals. The people who were supposed to nurture and protect us used and manipulated us to their own ends. Dumbledore kidnapped my mother to put her with muggles, he did the same thing to me. He stole from me and used me for his own ends, that of destroying you. He should not have bothered, you are doing a great job of destroying yourself. If I was standing next to you with Dumbledore in front of us, I would probably set our differences aside for a few minutes so that we could kill him together. In my humble opinion, the whole love thing is vastly overrated. Should I decide to contest you, I will do it on my terms, not Dumbledore's."

"Potter-Black, you have given me much to think about. I will speak with you again. If you will not serve me, we may still become allies, or at least neutral toward each other." With that, Voldemort retreated from Harry's mind.

Harry returned to reality with a start. What the hell had he just done? This ad-lib playing by ear had just changed the whole dynamics of the battle. Voldemort had hundreds of Death Eaters, Dementors, werewolves and giants. He also had the corrupt government officials turning a blind eye, helping him with their neglect. Harry had a few classmates of questionable loyalty, a load of cash, two unplottable properties, both in terrible condition, an ugly nutter of a portrait and a maniacal house elf. He actually began feeling pretty good about his prospects.

The next morning.

Harry had an appointment at Gringotts to finalize his plans for his mini revolution. Strolling into the bank, he was immediately escorted to Flickaxe's office. When he arrived, there were 2 aurors and Madam Bones, the head of the Magical Law Enforcement Office waiting for him.

"Thank Merlin you are alright! When we saw the Dark Mark over your aunts house and found her murdered, we feared that you had been kidnapped. What happened to your other relatives? And was it you who killed the Death Eater?"

"Slow down! My remaining relatives are under my… protection. I am keeping them safe until this is over, then I will request an Obliviator to remove all memories of myself and our world. Madam Bones, I admit that I despise them, they abused me and stole from me for 15 years, but they never asked for this war. And yes, I killed the Death Eater, however I did not kill him magically, and it was in self defense. The only spell I threw was a stunner, then I kicked him on my way inside. When I arrived, there was another Death Eater torturing my last remaining relatives. I believe that the surprise scared him off." Harry was amazed at how easily the lies and half truths rolled off his tongue. He would be able to repeat this story under Veritaserum, especially since he had a tiny plastic capsule of the antidote secreted under his tongue, the idea courtesy of a muggle spy movie he had watched recently. The antidote had been extremely expensive, having Kreacher purchase it for him from a underground Potions Master. Harry decided he would hire the man if he could ascertain his loyalties. Hell, if everything went according to plan, he would hire Snape as his personal Potions Master.

One of the aurors was writing down Harry's statement, then Madam Bones asked Harry if he had cast any spells with his wand since that time. When he answered no, she checked it for the last spell cast. Harry's story checked out since he had used the unregistered wand for all of the other spells. She then wanted to know why the tracking spell for underage wizards had been taken off the wand.

"I can answer that, Madam Bones," Flickaxe answered. He presented Madam Bones with the emancipation papers and showed her where they had been duly registered with the Ministry. "Since Mr. Potter is no longer considered a minor by the Ministry, the tracking spell serves no legal purpose. It was removed as a service." Harry gave an inward snicker. And he thought that he was a good liar. He couldn't hold a candle to a goblin.

"You do know that Albus Dumbledore is attempting to get that emancipation set aside, don't you? He is convening a meeting of the Wizengamot this afternoon at 2 pm."

"That bloody bastard! Madam Bones, in that case, it is time for me to lodge a formal complaint against Dumbledore."

"Formal complaint? What could he have possibly done that would be illegal?" Flickaxe picked up a document case which had been sitting next to his desk and began to pull out parchments. As Madam Bones leaned over and began to read, her face paled.

A/N: At 3200+ words for this chapter, I am going to do the showdown at the Wizengamot in the next chapter. If you like the story, mark it in the alerts. That way you wont have to search for it, it will be delivered to your email when I update.

Hamilton