A/N: Yes, I know that it has been ages since I updated this story, but with 561 people having this story on alert, and 237 listing it as favorites, I am well motivated to keep plugging. I do offer my apologies for my laxity in the updating, but I was stricken with a huge block on the story at the same time that I was being attacked by random plot bunnies. One of those bunnies has taken root in a new story, "Seriously, Black". I will not go into it right now, I suggest that you take advantage of this shameless plug and read it for yourself. HW
Chapter 18
The Game is Afoot
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
It was an official day of mourning in the wizarding world. This was the day that Albus Dumbledore, newly reinstated hero of the wizarding world, would be laid to rest. Although many had thought that he should be buried at Hogwarts, this was vetoed by not only the family, who wanted him buried in the family plot, but also the school's board of governors. Never had a headmaster been buried on the school grounds, even the founders had been buried away from the grounds. It was the intention of the four founders that Hogwarts should look to the future, not have the objects of hero worship planted, as it were, on the grounds. It was bad enough that the founder's houses had been so misinterpreted in such a way that cultish behavior dominated the thinking of the students over the last 1000 years, to have the relics of the founders would have been dangerously close to mirroring the muggle church that had been dominant in their time. No, Albus Dumbledore would go the way of all of the headmasters of Hogwarts, laid to rest by family and friends, then the grave location guarded by their family until the end of time.
In the common room shared by the heads of house, of which Neville Longbottom was the latest resident, all of the Lords and Ladies were franticly preparing themselves for the funeral. They were all dressed, the ladies had their makeup perfect, but as in time immemorial, the girls had decided that the males of the contingent just needed 'a few more things done to them'. After going around the lads, straightening collars, adjusting ties, brushing non-existing bits of lint from their robes, Harry was now the object of the girl's attention. Specifically, Harry's unruly hair. Pansy had attempted to use gel to make it lay down, but Harry thought that made him look like a dark haired Draco. She magically removed the gel, then tried various cosmetic spells, none of which worked. Finally, Daphne stepped up, pointed her wand at Harry's head, and muttered a spell under her breath. His hair stood on end, then properly parted itself, laying neatly on his head. He looked in the hand mirror that Pansy offered him, and when the mirror complimented him on his hair, he turned to Daphne.
"That was brilliant! What was that spell?"
Daphne gave a sly grin. "I figured that your hair was so unruly that it must be possessed by a demon. That spell just scared the devil out of it."
At Harry's confused look, she continued. "Potter, that means that I'm not telling. If you want to have decent looking hair, you will just have to come to me." She winked, then shooed him toward the door. "Time to get going."
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Dumbledore Family Cemetery
Cardiff-By-The-Sea
The Hogwarts contingent portkeyed into the cemetery along with several security men hired by the Gringotts goblins on their behalf. There were already a half dozen aurors stationed around the cemetery to assist in crowd control. The funeral promised to be the event of the decade, since Albus had been reinstated as an official hero. The members of the reborn Order of the Phoenix would be acting as an honor guard and the vast majority of the Wizengamot would also be there; some to show their respects and the rest to make sure that he was planted deep enough that he would never again bother them. Harry and the rest of the Posse would be in the section set aside for Wizengamot members rather than with the rest of the Hogwarts students and staff who had come to pay their last respects.
The layout of the service seating was simple. There was a speaker's dais at the front of the casket, family members were seated facing that. Behind the family was the seating for the Order members, then Wizengamot members. Next came seating for Hogwarts staff and students, then Ministry employees, and finally the general public. The eulogy was to be delivered by the Minister Pro Tempore, Lady Marchbanks. Following that, there would be speeches by everyone who might have something good to say. Harry had been asked to say a few words, but he had begged off due to the fact that feelings could still be a bit raw. Harry thought it could be a bit awkward seeing as he was responsible for blowing the whistle on Albus' squeaky clean image.
This was the first time in many years that the cemetery had been accessible by anyone other than the members of the Dumbledore family. Wizarding families tended to keep their cemeteries unplottable and hidden due to the danger of bodies and graves being desecrated and dark rituals being performed by enemies with necromancy in mind. There was also the danger of inquisitive muggles discovering too much. Even at open funerals such as this, the other graves were hidden from non-family members.
About halfway through the speeches by Wizengamot members, Harry was seriously zoning out, beginning to watch other members of the audience. He was especially curious about the Dumbledores and some of the few Order members who had stayed loyal to Albus. Aberforth and Violet looked stricken, Jonathon had a bland, expressionless face, and Jennifer was upset, but not nearly as affected as her mother. The few members of the Order that Harry made eye contact with looked at him with undisguised loathing and hatred. Harry met these glances without expression, although he was smirking inside. He was supposedly this powerful weapon for the Light, but from the looks of this Light organization, they would not pee on him if he was on fire. Fortunately most of the people in the Order had no real assets that he could use in opposition to Voldemort. They were, in short, unimportant and unpleasant idiots who would sell out their own people out of fickleness. In other words, just like the rest of the wizarding population.
Over two hours after the funeral service began, it seemed like the crowd was beginning to lose sight of what they were here to do. Harry thought that Dumbledore would have loved this, being the center of attention by all of these people. Harry was mentally wishing Albus well on his 'next great adventure', but his butt was beginning to hurt on the metal chair. He was starting to realize why Albus had always preferred those big, poofy overstuffed chairs. He and the rest of the suffering public were saved by a flash of red fire and the sad, sweet phoenix song of Fawkes. The song spoke of honors past and the sadness of what could have been. Fawkes landed on Jennifer's shoulder and leaned over to rub his face against Violet's. He then flew toward the casket and flashed out directly over it. This stunned the speaker into silence. At this point, Jonathon stood up, strolled to the dais and addressed the crowd.
"This concludes the service for Albus Dumbledore. My family would like to thank all of you for coming, you will never realize just what this means to us. If you will please leave in an orderly fashion, the actual burial will be performed by the family. Once again, thank you." With this, Jonathon left the dais and stood by the casket with the rest of his family joining him.
As the crowd began to disperse to the apparition and portkey area, Harry joined the rest of the Posse to head toward the Hogwarts group portkey area. He gave a short shake of his head as he met up with Draco. Draco gave a smirk and a very unrefined snort.
"Looks like the Order of the Ruptured Duck weren't real happy with you. I think that I would rather have them as enemies than friends."
"I know what….." At that moment, there was a disturbance back toward the casket area. Harry and Draco spun around and saw a non-descript woman leveling her wand toward the Dumbledore family. Harry, Draco, and Daphne quickly pulled their wands and fired stunners at the woman, but the distance was too great. There were also wards placed around the gravesite that nullified hostile magic within them. The woman dropped her glamour leaving Bellatrix Lestrange pointing the wand at the family. Jennifer screamed but Jonathon just stared at Bella with a smirk on his face. Bella attempted to fire a Crucio at Jonathon, but the spell never got past the end of her wand due to the wards. Frustrated, Bella looked around frantically at the aurors and Gringotts security contingent rushing toward her, then, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, ran of toward the side fence as fast as her legs would carry her. She jumped the fence mere feet ahead of the security forces, then disappeared as a portkey whisked her away. The Gringotts people left the chase and quickly gathered up their charges and hustled them out of the cemetery and to the portkey point. They portkeyed, not to Hogwarts, but to the private area of Gringotts. Harry was shaking with anger when they arrived.
"I swear to Merlin that I am going to kill that bitch!" The magic burst caused by rage was visible to the others, the power radiating from Harry in waves, causing the portraits on the wall to begin shaking loose from their moorings. Two goblins rushed into the portkey area, assessed the situation, then cast a dampening ward around Harry in order to save life, and more importantly, Gringotts property.
Daphne stood watching Harry in shock and not just a bit of awe. She had seen many enraged wizards in her short life, what Slytherin hadn't? She had, however, never seen anything like this, and feelings of fear, fascination, and not just a little erotic excitement fought for dominance in her mind. The excitement won the battle, and when the magic level had dropped to the point where the goblins could remove the wards, she rushed forward, took Harry's hands in hers, and looked him straight in those dreamy green eyes.
"Harry, Harry, hon. Calm down. Come on now, that's right, bring it back inside." As Harry began to hear her calming voice, his eyes focused on her, he took a deep breath, and the wild magic faded from view. It was still present, making the hair on the backs of the other's necks stand on end. Only Daphne seemed to be unaffected by this, and when he calmed, he swept Daphne into a tight hug.
"Thank you for that," he gasped. Without a thought to the others in the room, he held her as if he would never let her go.
"Harry, I have an idea that might help. We need some privacy so we can talk." Turning around, she spoke to the rest of the contingent. "You guys go ahead back to the school, we'll catch up." Looking at the goblins, he said, "We need a private room for a bit with some tea and chocolate. Harry has had a huge power discharge and needs to recover."
"Certainly Lady Greengrass. Follow me please." Daphne and Harry gave a quick wave to the others, then followed the goblin down the hall while the rest of the party readied themselves to return to the school.
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Harry and Daphne spent the next hour in a small room, sitting in comfortable chairs across a small coffee table, holding hands and drinking their tea. Harry also ate close to a half kilo of chocolate bringing his emotions under control. When they had finished talking, Harry composed his face into an expressionless mask, then went to the door and told the security goblin that he required the presence of his account manager.
Flickaxe had watched the entire conversation that took place in the supposedly 'private' room, so when he was paged, hurried from his office to the room. Potter-Black continued to surprise him, and not in a bad way. He was also gaining quite a bit of respect for the steel-trap mind of the new Lady Greengrass. Entering the room, he conjured a chair for himself and sat down.
"How can I assist you today, Lord Potter-Black?" He knew exactly what Harry wanted, and had already instructed Warcry to begin the process. Anything to further the reputation for efficiency that Gringotts was famous for. With all of their monitoring of important account holders, nothing much ever surprised them.
"Flickaxe, I need three documents prepared for my signature as Head of the House of Black. The first document will dissolve the marriage of Bellatrix Lestrange. This will bring her back under the control of the House. I then want her disowned from The House of Black. The third document will be a Statement of Dishonor declaring Bellatrix anathema and declaring to the Ministry and the wizarding population that, as Head of the House of Black, her life is forfeit to me as a debt of honor. Anyone assisting her shall also forfeit their lives. After I sign and seal these documents, I want them registered with the Ministry at one hour intervals. Once they have all been registered, I want them released to the media."
The three made small talk for about five minutes, then there was a knock on the door. Warcry entered, walked up to Flickaxe, and handed him some parchments.
"Lord Potter-Black, this is my new assistant, Warcry. Anytime that I am not in the office, feel free to tell him whatever you need."
"Nice to meet you, Warcry. What happened to Griphook? He was the first goblin that I ever met."
Flickaxe gave a toothy grin. "As much as I hated to lose him, Griphook received a major promotion to Account Manager. From all reports, he is doing a wonderful job in his new position."
"Well, if you happen to see him, give him my best. I hope that your new assistant is as efficient."
"Trust me, if he wasn't, I wouldn't have him working for me." Warcry, knowing the ins and outs of goblin politics, shivered at the implied threat. He covered his nervousness with what, in goblin society, would be a shy smile.
Harry took the parchments, signed them, and, dripping wax from the table candle, embossed each with the signet ring of the House of Black. "There, that's done. Flickaxe, may your gold flow as water and may you destroy your enemies. Warcry, congratulations on your promotion. May you grow wise and powerful."
"Lord Potter-Black, May your vaults overflow and your enemies die of fright at the sound of your name." This from Flickaxe.
Warcry bowed to Harry. "Thank you, Lord Potter-Black. May your gold multiply like rabbits and the bones of your enemies cover the road as a carpet." The two goblins turned to Daphne and bowed. "Lady Greengrass", then left the room.
Harry went over to the small fireplace in the room, threw a pinch of powder in the fireplace, and called out, "Hogwarts, Headmistress' Office!" He got on his knees and put his head into the flame. "Minerva?"
"Harry, are you alright?" Minerva McGonagall had been worried ever since the group had returned from the funeral without Harry and Daphne.
"Daphne and I are fine. I had a spot of trouble that Daphne helped me with, then I had some urgent business to conduct at Gringotts. There is going to be quite a bit of fallout from this situation and we need to consult with some others on what should be done about it. We will not be back at school until tomorrow morning."
"Harry, you should not be away from Hogwarts right now, there is a huge safety risk you both you and Lady Greengrass."
"Minerva, unfortunately, this is one of those times when our duties as Heads of House overrule our duties as students. We would appreciate you assuring our dorm mates of our safety. Please tell Lord Malfoy that we will contact him this evening."
"Alright, Harry. I do not like it, but I will do it. Should I need to reach you, do you have any way I can reach you?"
"Yes, just call Dobby and have him give me the message. He is keyed into the wards."
"Very well, be safe."
"You also, Minerva."
Harry pulled his head out of the fireplace and the flame returned to its normal colour. Daphne looked at him expectantly. "Where to next, Harry?"
Harry took a piece of parchment, wrote on it, 'Harry Potter-Black lives at Walburga's House' and handed it to her. "Now, if you will just hold onto the other half of this medallion, we can go to my place." When she had done so, Harry said, "Activate!" With the familiar pull behind the navel, the portkey whisked them off to the Manor.
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Walburga's House
"Lord Black! Blinky is happy to see you! And Lady Greengrass! I is honored to greet you, fine lady!" Daphne and Harry both smiled at the little elf's exuberance.
"Blinky, please set up a light lunch for Lady Greengrass and myself in my study." As the elf popped out, Harry offered his arm. "My Lady."
Daphne took his hand and they retired to the study for a bit of nourishment. After a light lunch of cucumber and tomato sandwiches and a bowl of pumpkin soup, Harry went to the fireplace and tossed in some floo powder. "Dumbledore Manor!" He got on his knees and called for Jonathon. "Lord Dumbledore, I am here with Lady Greengrass. May we come through?"
"Lord Potter-Black, this is not really the best time, may I ask what it concerns?"
"Certainly, it concerns the security for your sister while she is at Hogwarts."
"Come through." As Harry and Daphne stepped out of the fireplace at Dumbledore Manor, Jonathon shook Harry's hand. "Lord Potter-Black." He then took Daphne's hand and brushed his lips across it gently. "Lady Greengrass."
Harry addressed him. "Jonathon, I know that this is a bad time, and I apologise for disturbing you at this trying time. If this was not urgent, I would have waited. The upshot is that I believe that your sister might be in danger at Hogwarts from Voldemort's sympathizers." Harry then told Jonathon of his actions toward Bellatrix. "This is bound to enrage her, but I could not have her continually placing my house in danger by her actions."
"That is all well and good, but what do you propose that we do about it?'
"I propose that you insist that Jennifer move into the Head of House area. I realize that she is not an actual Head of House, but I and the other Wizengamot members will support her moving in for her protection."
"What about the Dark Families? Why should they care?"
"It only makes sense to do this," Daphne told him. "It would go a long ways to show that doing the right thing is not restricted to just the Light families. Besides," she smiled, "It is a good idea to have people on the other side of the aisle owing us a favor."
"Now THAT is an explanation that makes sense. Very well, I will bring it up to McGonagall in the morning."
"And we will make sure that all of the members sign onto it. I'll send an elf to you with the agreement." Harry stated.
"Yes, it will be nice to have another female in the dorm. There is only just so much that Patsy and I can talk about without running out of conversation," said Daphne.
They made a bit of small talk, then said their farewells and left.
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After Harry and Daphne flooed back to Walburga's House, Harry gave her the grand tour. They ended up in the room where Walburga and Orion's portrait was hanging. The couple came out to greet Harry, and Walburga disappeared into the Grimmauld Place painting to retrieve their counterparts. The two Walburgas then peered out at Daphne.
"Oh, my," said one of them. "You look almost exactly like our friend Jane Greengrass."
"She was my great grandmother, Lady Black."
Walburga gave a huge smile. "Oh, the stories that I could tell you about her! We were in the same dorm room at Hogwarts. Jane was the biggest prankster ever to pass through the school.
Daphne gasped. "I was always told that she was the perfect Slytherin student, never getting in trouble, always the perfect lady!"
The Walburgas snorted. "She was, which means that she never got caught. How much more Slytherin can you get? She made all of us take witch's oaths not to reveal any of her pranks while we were alive to keep her reputation. She signed all of her work with a picture of a lion. That way the Gryffindors would get the blame. There was this one time when she pranked the entire school. She put handlebar mustaches on all of the students, staff, elves, portraits and suits of armour. The headmaster went insane trying to pin the blame on someone. It also took a week for the charms teacher to reverse the spell."
"Merlin! That is funny! But what about your oath?"
The Walburgas smirked. "You mean the one that would kill us if we told? We're already dead, dear. Is Jane still alive?"
"Yes. She is getting up there in age, but she is still kicking."
"Well, in that case, please give her a message from us."
"Certainly. What would you like me to say?"
"Tell her that Wally says….GOTCHA!"
The couples chatted a bit longer, then Harry called for Blinky and told him to show Daphne to her room and bathroom so she could freshen up for dinner. After she left, the original Grimmauld Walburga spoke to Harry.
"My Lord, I am happy that you brought that fine young lady to meet us. She is every bit as gracious as any pureblood who I have ever met. If I may ask, what is your relationship and your intentions toward her?"
Harry ran his hand through his hair in a gesture of mild frustration. No longer the self assured 'Lord Potter-Black', he was once again the self conscious, slightly angst ridden teen. "I really don't know. I like her, I like her a lot! I don't know how she feels about me though. Damn it, I'm only 16! What if we get really attached to each other and I die facing Voldemort?"
Orion spoke up. "Son, you cannot allow fear of the unknown to rule your life. There have been Dark Lords every generation. If we hide ourselves and our feelings for others under a rock, our world will die. If the strong do not continue their lines, they will die out and the weak will take over. Then at the first sign of a storm, they will buckle and be blown away. You have not only your responsibility to the wizarding world under that damnable prophesy, you also have the responsibility to two great houses. There is a reason that they are called 'Ancient and Most Noble.' Your ancestors of these houses are looking at you to continue our lines, adding stability to our world and not allowing it to fall into chaos. Most pureblood children learn this at their parent's knees, you have been sorely maltreated in this aspect. If you do not marry, you still need to appoint magical heirs to continue your house. You should do it anyway to insure a future. When you then have a blood heir, that would pass to them."
"Just wonderful! Just what I needed, another responsibility." Harry snorted. "I feel like the chap that was asked for his last words before being publicly hanged. He said, 'If it wasn't for the honor of the whole thing, I'd just as soon pass.'"
"Think well about it. You should enlist the goblins as allies. They have a lot at stake here as well. If something happens to you, they could lose a lot of power and prestige should you die and your vaults go to the ministry. Just remember the Golden Rule. 'He who has the gold, makes the rules.'"
"I will give serious consideration to what you have said. Thank you all. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to freshen up for dinner."
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After an exquisite dinner of roast lamb with fresh fruit from the manor garden, Harry and Daphne said their goodnights and went to their rooms, instructing Blinky to wake them at 5:30 am. Harry ran a hot bath and let the worries of the day melt from his muscles. Afterward, he put on the green silk pajamas that Blinky had laid out for him, then crawled into bed and fell into an uneasy sleep, dreaming of the day's events and mentally critiquing what he could have done differently. He then began to dream of Daphne, a hormonally charged dream that chased away the unpleasant thoughts.
It was during this dream that he felt the mattress compress next to him, and the object of his dream slip in next to him, curling up next to his chest. Harry smelled her perfume and breathed in the fresh scent of her long, black hair. Her hand grabbed his wrist, then brought his arm over her body to lay around her abdomen, brushing up against her breast. Harry's voice caught in his throat.
"Daphne, why are you here?"
"I heard you calling me in your sleep. And I wanted to come. Frankly, I am terribly attracted to you." She reached down between his legs and grasped Harry Jr. "And unless your little buddy here is lying to me, I believe that you might, just maybe, be just a little bit attracted to me."
This was uncomfortable, he had no experience with girls, but he grinned at the absurdity of it all. "Trust me, he's not lying. But as much as I am enjoying this, you should know that I am saving myself for marriage."
"I wouldn't expect anything less. I also plan to make my first sexual partner my last. I do want you to be comfortable around me though. I also want to make it very clear that I am interested in you. Harry, you have a bright future and I want to be a big part of it." She twisted around to face him. Harry took her face in his hands and brought their faces close together.
"Hold on a second, bucko." She reached over and took his wand from his nightstand, pointed it at her mouth and muttered a spell, then did the same to him. "There we go, nice and minty fresh. Only fitting for a first kiss. Now, where were we?"
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A/N: I was having the hardest time trying to figure out how to get my females inside Harry's sphere of influence. Daphne was not hard, she is already in the same dorm area, but as you might guess, Jennifer is a whole different story. Please R&R, let me know if you like the setup.