Diplomacy

"I'll just have to forcefully kidnap you and show you just what you're missing out on."

"Protego!"

With a flourish, Harry deflected a fireball over his shoulder. Pointing the wand back at his assailant, Kirche the Ardent, he fired two stunners in quick succession, hoping to end the match before it could really start. Showing an uncanny agility, she dodged the red colored spell.

They traded a few stunners and fireballs, while gauging the other's move. Harry would mostly deflect her fireballs and she would duck and weave around his counterattacks. Harry didn't really want to go away from using the simple stunner, even if she had seen through it already. After all, he didn't want to actually hurt her and the Stupify spell really delivered in that regard.

However Kirche seemed to mind less and less about escalating the fight. Chanting a few words of power, she called forth a stream of fire from the tip of her wand. Harry quickly countered with an Aquamenti spell before he had to dodge out of the way to clear away from the hot steam.

Before he fired another spell, she unleashed, quite suddenly in Harry's opinion, a wall of flame well above his own height at him. Eyes widening, he quickly dived into the nearest of the craters Louise had recently made, face-down. After a moment of searing heat had passed, he quickly stood and instantly had to jump out of the crater to avoid a fireball, which proceeded to blast the whole crater into pieces.

It struck him that perhaps she merely wanted to maim him for rejecting her instead of abducting him for romantic purposes.

"You're quite good at dodging, Harry!" Kirche yelled out. "But you won't escape me for long by doing that."

She was right, of course. But he hadn't really been out to hurt her yet. That was about to change. He was getting royally tired of being pushed around like a piece of meat.

"Incendio!" he called out. Her cloak burst into flame at the hem. She instantly panicked and shifted her attention, but before she had time to shrug off the cloak, he fired a blasting curse at her feet, creating another crater and blasting her off her feet. Firing another stunner, he narrowly missed, as she rolled out of the way and came to a stand without her cloak.

"If that is your way to get me undressed," Kirche said, smiling deviously. "Then I like it."

Harry growled as he fired another blasting curse. Mostly just to shut her up as she was really getting to him. It worked, as she had to keep moving to avoid being blown sky high. Far from a lethal tactic, it was however not quite as clean as the stunner. A sudden explosion of dirt and grass at his own feet suddenly brought him on the defensive as the situation was reversed.

As he was literally attempted blown off his feet, Harry found no time counterattack. He was given a quick reprieve when she had to stop for breath for a moment. Apparently her spell casting wasn't as easy or quick as his own was. It would have surprised him if he had stopped to think about it. He'd always been an underdog in his fights, so he didn't stop to gawk at the opportunity.

"Colloshoo!" he said forcefully, using a stickfast hex. He didn't bother trying to mask his choice of spells as neither knew the others arsenal. Not a bad choice in most cases, as an inexperienced wizard could easily be floored by such a spell if caught unawares. Kirche was already moving as Harry had expected, but instead of Kirche being rewarded by avoiding another attack, which hadn't come after all, she was instead surprised to find that her shoes suddenly stuck quite insistently to the ground, which made getting off the ground quite impossible. Luckily the two quarreling parties hastily sorted out a compromise; Kirche could keep moving forward, while the shoe stuck fast. Kirche's momentum quickly toppled her and she fell over as long as she was, as she cursed loudly at falling for his feint.

With the redhead down in the dirt and distracted, Harry finally tried to accio her wand. It flew out of her grasp but stopped mere inches from her hand by some bizarre trick. Kirche jolted back in action again with an explosive energy. She immediately reached out for her wand and grasped it again, spewing fire with it as soon as her fingers came in touch with the wood.

Harry was surprised. His spell had connected, yet something had stopped it. However he had no time to think about that mystery as he had to rear back his head or risk burning off his eyebrows. But that was about it. Her fire spells were as hot and dangerous as ever, but her firing aim was all over the place as she was trying to keep him busy, while she got off the ground. However she was doing a poor job of distracting him as it would be over in just a moment.

Or so Harry thought, till a big something unexpectedly toppled him over from behind and the something, which apparently had teeth, clamped down on his wand arm. Landing on his stomach, Harry lost his grip on his wand with a startled cry. A fiery red salamander with an ashen breath and eyes that shined with dangerous intellect was on his back. Kirche's familiar had joined the fight.

Struggling as best as he could, Harry knew it was hopeless. His wand was out of reach and the jaws of the salamander restricted any use of his right arm as it held him down.

"It seems, that I win, Harry-darling" Kirche remarked as she sauntered over, taking good care to pick up Harry's wand on the way.

"You're not the only one with a few surprises." She stated, assured in her victory. "I'd expected a powerful wind mage from the way you dealt with Guiche, but you're truly something else, aren't you? Obviously, I came prepared. I saw the way you snatched Guiche's wand out of his hand so I made some precautions."

She then let her wand fall from her hand and it dropped towards the ground. Just as before the wand stopped a few inches from her hand. Now that he was close he could see a simple thread of string attaching it to her wrist. Not a very elegant solution, however it had proven its worth. Harry grimaced. He'd lost because of a single piece of thread. Without that she'd have been wandless and unable to distract him effectively, he would likely have seen or heard her familiar coming. Or maybe he was just over-thinking things and this was the only outcome.

"And as for Salamander, you should know that familiars sticks together with their mages and helps each other out. A shame that Louise left you," Kirche said. "Forget about her, Harry. You are wasted on that girl."

Harry glared at her. "I'll decide that myself! And you're crazy if you think I'll do what you want."

Kirche seemed to think that over for a moment before shrugging. "You're a real stubborn one, you know that? Geez, it's not as if I'll force myself on you."

Harry quirked an eyebrow; did she seriously just say that? "And in what way is this not forced?"

She glanced around. She was imperiously standing over him with Harry's wand in her hand and her familiar holding him still down in the dirt. He could perhaps wriggle a bit and still had his left arm free.

"I'm trying to help you here, Harry! So bear with me." she said with a hint of annoyance. "Louise doesn't deserve a familiar like you."

Once again Harry found himself being treated as a familiar first and foremost, then in most eyes a peasant second and finally a human being third. Would people ever stop making choices on his behalf?

None the less, unless Louise somehow decided to come back and then actually proceed to help him out of this mess, then he was literally at Kirche's mercy. After all he had no wand and he was being pinned down pinned down by an overgrown fire-lizard. But then he suddenly remembered; he still had Louise's wand. He hadn't given it back before she had stormed off in anger, so he'd just stuffed it in his pocket as an afterthought. A candle of hope was kindled and Harry could almost not keep the grin off his face.

"You can do better than her, Harry." Kirche smiled. "I'll show you exactly how well. Now relax, we're heading out."

Harry almost wasn't listening. He was busy figuratively grasping at straws. He realized that it was kind of desperate. Louise's wand might not even work with his magic at all. Should he attempt their kind of magic for this to work? He couldn't even recall a practical spell from the last few days. Even just from touch he knew their wand types were different. They carried out the same purpose, but wands had no distinct feel from each other here. They came in all sizes and forms, but they were all the same to him, unlike the wands back home, where the wand chose the wizard.

But none of that was on his mind as his free hand withdrew the wand from his left pocket, a spell already on his lips. If Kirche hadn't stood in point blank range and her wand had been in her hand instead of dangling on a piece of thread, she might have been able to do something to avoid it. But as it was, Kirche hardly had a moment to react to it, outside of flinching.

"Ventus!" Harry yelled, hoping it would work. And it did. Unexpectedly well, actually. A mighty gust of wind blasted Kirche several meters away where she fell in a heap; less than a second after, the salamander was likewise blown off and then stopped short, hovering in place up in the air. The animal began thrashing about helplessly in confusion at its new predicament.

Harry was up and standing before Kirche, and he immediately tried to stun her to end the battle. However nothing happened, when the last few spells had gone off without a hitch. More powerful than normal even, which was strange as magic didn't work that way, and he felt nothing from the wand in hand that would indicate it had anything to do with it. It was just an extraordinary piece of wood. Ron's wand back second year had more of the familiar magical tingle to it than this glorified stick, and Ron's wand had been broken and fixed with the wizard equivalent of duct tape.

Kirche was still down for the count, so he looked for his own wand and saw that Kirche had dropped it midflight. A quick accio spell, which luckily worked, saved him precious seconds to go get it.

Harry immediately changed back to his own wand. It was reassuringly warm in his hand, as if welcoming him back. He then went about stunning the dazed Kirche, which went entirely uneventful. Suddenly not wanting to forget about the familiar who had surprised him once already, Harry stunned the salamander too before setting it down on the ground. Disarming Kirche of her wand and quickly looking for any extra wands in the least intrusive way imaginable, he finally enervated her. It was judgment time.

"What happened?" Kirche mumbled her first words in confusion, as she came to. Harry would gladly tell her.

"You bullied Louise just for a chat with me." Harry answered her. "And then, when I didn't want to have anything to do with you for doing that, you outright attacked me."

"And why was that? Well, you got the bright idea to try to kidnap me against my will; which for the record is only be the second time this week that happened!" he finally yelled, angrily. This was obviously not what she'd been asking about, but Harry didn't particularly care. She didn't need to know.

"What made you think that any of this would be okay?" Harry finally asked expectantly.

"Well, when you put it like that, it obviously sounds bad." Kirche said shrugging, having come to her senses. "But you know, I did this for your sake! Louise doesn't even appreciate you at all!"

"If this wasn't about Louise then you should have left her out of this, Kirche. I am not some damsel in distress waiting to be rescued. You leave her for me to figure out." Harry ground out. "But this isn't about Louise. This is about you harming innocent people and me, without giving a care for anybody but yourself. I can take care of myself without you doing as you please on my behalf."

"Did you somehow think that any of this would make me like you?" Harry asked. "I won't allow you to make decisions for me."

"Fine, I get it. You can choose for yourself and you really don't like me. And it's probably justified too." Kirche said. "But what's a woman to do? Play nice with all the other kids? No way!"

"It'd be a start." Harry grumbled. With that he threw her wand over his shoulder and walked back to the academy, leaving Kirche alone to her thoughts.

Looking at his retreating form, Kirche wondered how things had gone so bad. This anger and bitterness was not what she'd wanted. Harry had certainly been doing his to resist her temptation and one didn't resist something they were immune to, so she hadn't been totally wrong in her approach. She still had it. But he was obviously so mad now that any chance of getting him was pretty much out of the picture for who knew how long. Not that she really entertained that thought anymore.

She sighed in exasperation. She had grown overconfident on this academy. The boys had been so easy; they had simply flocked to her, feeding her ego to a point where she and indeed everyone had thought too highly of her and she could choose among them as she pleased. Such popularity had helped her reputation which had further increased her popularity and success with the boys. But now she paid the price when an outsider came along who wasn't in the know on local market. Harry hadn't gotten the memo that you didn't just deny Kirche.

But now that Kirche thought it all over, she wasn't really that interested in Harry anymore. The novelty was waning. Sure, he was a powerful mage, kind and not hard to look at. And the little scar on his forehead, and the confidence he walked around with. But if she was honest, she'd really just been extremely curious in a Zerbsts way. He had been special from the first moment he'd arrived there; a new and interesting type of boy, who had appeared when she had been tiring of the local variety of aristocrats. For some time, in her eyes, Harry'd had an attitude to him that made him stand out unlike the locals. That he'd not immediately bent around her finger had only further interested her and somewhere after meeting him, she had lost control in the spur of the moment. The added bonus of taking something from a Valliére was also enticing; something that was forbidden her.

But in the end he wasn't her type. Way too serious when provoked. Their personalities would clash horribly. It would never have worked in the long term, not that she'd ventured there yet. On the other hand, she would probably always hold a little soft spot for him; He was still the one that got away.

As Harry entered Louise's room, the first thing he noticed was that Louise was here, laying on the bed and staring emptily at the ceiling. She looked neither angry nor sad. But she had changed into a new uniform, apparently despite her earlier demands that a respectable noble with servants shouldn't be clothing themselves if possible. Harry didn't know if that meant a good or a bad thing here.

"Loui-" he started but was interrupted.

"Familiar" she stated neutrally. "Give me my wand. And be sure to remember to call me by my last name or master as is proper of our relationship."

He returned her wand to her and silently sat down on his soft hay cot, his back against the wall.

Seconds passed. And after a few more the silence almost stretched into a full minute. Harry felt sorry for her and he could emphasize with her. Being ostracized was something he knew well of. And she always seemed to talk about meeting expectations. To her Harry was supposed to act as an exemplary familiar and she was supposed to act with dignity becoming of a noble. A fitting noble is in control and shares equality with his or her peers based on their magical abilities. Except that Louise didn't have much magical ability to show for her efforts, so she worked manically to close the gap in every other possible way. So it wasn't too strange to Harry that she'd been strict on him with all the familiar-business. She strove so hard so she could be accepted on equal ground by her peers. With that in mind, Harry could calm himself. Now that he felt he understood the situation, he could deal with it. After a while, after he'd thought up what to say, he spoke up.

"I'm sorry, Louise. I didn't know about any of that zero stuff. But for what it is worth, I'll try to help."

Louise didn't seem to register his response at first. She might have chosen to ignore him, since he'd ignored the formalities.

"It's a familiar's job to help their master and I told you to call me by my last name," she said, in toneless voice. "You're a bad familiar."

She was frustrated and disappointed in herself. Despite only knowing her for a day, she might as well wear her emotions on her sleeve as far as Harry was concerned.

Harry chuckled a bit. "You got that right. I'm not good at all this familiar stuff."

Louise seemed conflicted. With a great huff of frustration, she chucked her pillow off the bed. It hit the wall with a soft plop.

"Ugh, why do you suddenly agree with me?" Louise said in a frustrated tone. "It's not you at all. It's because of me. Kirche is right. I am Louise the Zero. I have zero talent for being a mage of any kind."

"You shouldn't let that stop you though." Harry said. This finally drew a reaction as she turned her head his way, an eyebrow raised.

"Huh? What?" Louise said. It was a bit of a ridiculous thing to say to a girl on a magical academy, but Harry was all about guts and stuff like that. At least he reasoned so. He was definitely stubborn in a good way. Besides, he didn't handle depressed people well, so he'd rather she got over it sooner rather than never.

"Really, you shouldn't." Harry insisted again. At her perplexed expression he stopped. He'd piqued her interest enough that she would listen, but he wasn't going at this problem from the right direction. He couldn't just spell out what he thought and cram it down her throat. She'd just choke on it figuratively. He needed a bit more finesse; Harry's mind quickly jumped to the name of Remus Lupin. How would Lupin deal with this?

First of all, he'd try and be understanding. And Lupin would tell him stories about his father and the other marauders, back when they were all together, keying in some nuggets of advice. Harry didn't know Louise's family and she probably already knew her father without Harry trying to tell her about him. But there was someone else he could tell her about.

"You remind me of one of my friends from back home." Harry began. He'd told her a lot about his world so far, though with the sheer amount of stuff to tell, he had barely scratched the surface, but Harry generally kept quiet when it came to himself. He had been hesitant to tell, and though he knew she wanted to ask, she hadn't.

"His name is Neville Longbottom and he's a bit of a klutz when it comes to magic. So there are people, who pick on him because of that." Harry began. "But despite that he shows a lot of courage when it counts and he stands up for what he believes in, always. He's got the Gryffindor courage. In my first year, that courage won us the House Cup."

Of course, Harry let out the fact that he himself had been part of winning that cup. Technically he'd only earned back the points he'd lost for breaking rules after all, despite his good intentions. Now that he had begun talking, he fondly began to remember all kinds of things about poor endearing Neville. Harry made a mental note to hang out more with the boy if he ever got back. Heck, he'd hang more out with everyone if that was possible.

"The house cup?" Louise asked.

"It's a special prize one of the four houses can win. Remember what I told you about the house points the teachers can give and the 4 houses?" Harry explained. She nodded. Earlier, he had told her of Hogwarts and their four houses, glossing over what the different things represented and such.

"At the end of our year we were only a few points behind the Slytherin house who had won the house cup several years in a row at that time.

"So at the last moment, when everyone thought that Slytherin was going to win for another year, our headmaster gives out ten points to Neville for standing up for what he believed in even against his friends. And then we won the cup." Harry said wistfully.

"That seems kind of crooked," Louise remarked casually.

"Well, now you mention it. It kinda does." Harry sniggered. "But seeing the look on the slytherins' faces, it was the best end of the year ever."

He kind of enjoyed these small talks. It was hard to reconcile the attentive listener with the demanding noble.

"Anyways, when it comes to botany class, there's none better than Neville in our year." Harry said. "So even if you think you have zero talent, you are simply looking at the problem the wrong way or haven't gone about it the right way. I feel, that Neville will get better too one day. And even if he does not get any better, then it doesn't matter; he's got the heart in the right place. But I don't believe that you have zero talent. You just need to find out what you're good at and hold on to it while you keep improving what you're bad at."

She now looked on with mixture of confusion and doubt.

"What are you up to? Why are you doing all this?" Louise said as got up in a seating position. "You're my familiar and you hate that, so why are you being all helpful and nice?"

Harry wondered that too. Though it was partly done out of pity, it was mostly because he understood how it was to be singled out. Harry himself, was often singled out on Hogwarts, which wasn't bad half the time, though last year with the triwizard tournament, which had split the school's opinion about him in two, had been very bad. Without support from Ron and Hermione, though Ron had been a bit of a prat at the time, Harry would never have gotten through that year.

"That's because we're in this together for better or worse. And you're not so bad when you're not so caught up in what everyone thinks of you and playing that aristocrat game."

"What game? And what do you mean 'What others think'?" Louise asked, perplexed.

"Well, yeah... like not bowing to everyone's expectations and ermh... doing what you want rather than what you think will make you fit in." Harry said a bit lamely. "For example why are you letting what other people do with their familiars decide how you treat me for example? You know I'm not like other familiars and it's not their business to decide what goes and what doesn't."

Harry had waited a long time for this talk. After facing down Kirche, it was time to get even with people and he'd start here.

"And now we're talking about decisions, I will be having a say in this, as a participant. Having a familiar isn't a master/slave relationship. It is a partnership with mutual respect that goes both ways. I am not your servant to do with as you please.

It would be best, if you didn't think of me as your familiar." Harry said seriously. Louise needed to understand that. It hadn't been bad yet. So far he'd only had to clean her clothes, which was easily done with magic. That wasn't really a chore, though he didn't like the implication that he was literally a glorified house elf. He had to nip this in the bud.

Louise looked at her familiar in disbelief; though she shouldn't have been surprised. It had been a long time in coming.

Here he was, her familiar, basically laying down the ground rules for their partnership if it could be called that. And she found herself numbly nodding to this, giving up the last vestiges of power, which was a meek illusion at best any way.

He wanted a partnership of mutual respect and equality? Harry was much better than her at magic. When he finally unveiled himself as a mage, he would be more respected than she ever was at the academy. She didn't expect to have earned his respect. She still had to prove herself. Her life was a never-ending quest to prove herself these days and the hurdles grew higher and higher.

Shared decision-making? That had been a mistake to begin with and she was paying for it now. She could not refuse. Who was the bound one here?

"Fine, you win. I can't force you to do anything anyway." Louise said dejectedly. Just a few words and with that, she had sealed away her claim on her familiar. She needed to do damage control. "But don't go around telling people that or get yourself into trouble. People will still hold me responsible for it and I won't stand for that, so don't get any ideas."

"Huh," The boy seemed almost surprised as his serious frown slid off his face.

"I will try not to get into trouble. But it kind of follows me around." Harry answered sheepishly. Louise just arched an eyebrow, though she held her tongue. It was better not to ask about these kinds of things.

"Anyways, I won't make you to do my chores or other unwanted familiar business anymore." She said. "But that begs the question. What will you do now? You're as free as can be."

She said the last with an almost quivering voice, though she smothered as ruthlessly as she could. It would be bad if he left. People would ask questions and they would talk. Then, if word got out, she might get a letter from home. A mage without a familiar; she might get pulled out from school. Louise didn't want that. She knew what would come next then: Marriage of the political kind. Harry wanted freedom, a naïve notion, as none were truly free in a world such as this. Obligations bound everyone; the chains of nobles were simply tied in such a way that shirking from duty usually brought about your doom of yourself and harmed the country. Far too many nobles were awaiting such judgment either here or in the next life.

In that way only a vagrant lived truly free.

Harry Potter shrugged his shoulders as he lounged casually about, unaware or uncaring of her inner turmoil.

"Nothing, I guess." Harry said as if no careful thought had been given into it. "I actually like it here. It might sound strange, but I'm kind of fond of magic schools. And I won't have much luck finding a way home on the countryside."

"Very well," Louise said as aloof as she could as not to give herself away, but she couldn't fight off the smile that crept up her face. "You'll stay then? That is good, I suppose. Will you keep helping around with your magic too?"

"That seems fair," Harry said. "About that, I actually have an idea I want to try. You see, I tried using your wand and then something weird happened. So I would like to try a few things out."

"Sure, but we might have to push it back a little." Louise said. "We'll be busy tomorrow."

"Eh, why?" Harry asked, confused.

"We'll go talk with the headmaster tomorrow about your situation here. But more importantly, I think it is high time we went shopping."

"Ahh," Harry could only say.

Albus Dumbledore briskly walked through the halls of the Ministry of Magic. These days, Dumbledore was a busy man, despite having mostly delegated matters pertaining to Hogwarts to McGonagall, his upcoming successor as headmistress at said school; He hadn't even had time to make the change official yet. That was partly why he was here today.

He had a meeting with the minister of magic, Cornelius Fudge. Minister Fudge was a pleasant fellow in Dumbledore's own opinion, though he was as utterly unfit for his position as the next head of state. As a redeeming quality, he earnestly wanted to do what was best for everyone involved and tried to surround himself with important and knowledgeable people, such as Dumbledore himself. Unfortunately, he also took rather well to manipulation, which was entirely unfitting for a man of his station, although Albus sometimes used it to his advantage, the cons outweighed the pros because of a single man. Lucius Malfoy was quickly becoming the real power in office, with Fudge deferring less and less to the wizened old and now former headmaster in favor of the pureblood aristocrat, who had no scruples in controlling the man more effectively and subtly than any Imperio.

Dumbledore had less stellar views of Lucius. While Fudge was an ignorant populist who had suddenly found himself in a position too large for his mettle, he at least tried to do some overall good, despite how misled he currently was. In contrast Lucius was a self-serving opportunist and a parasite with a manipulative streak as big as, and likely correlated to, his massive fortune and family estate. The man had amassed an astounding amount of political clout, while simultaneously undermining Dumbledore's own sphere of influence, both actions a testament to his skill since Dumbledore hadn't even noticed. As Dumbledore was prone to, he kept underestimating former Hogwarts students as it was hard to reconcile the poisonous snake of Malfoy today, with the snarky but shy first year who had grown into the gallant fourth year who always had a ready answer to a question in class along with a cocksure smirk and a comically shocked expression whenever said answer was wrong.

Albus reasoned he would always hold such a soft spot for former students; thinking of little Lucius as he was today was akin to imagining first year Ron Weasley becoming a Death Eater. Nevertheless, such fanciful thinking made the current Lucius no less dangerous.

A slytherin through and through, Lucius was the foremost reason that when Harry had cried wolf and Dumbledore, believing him, had warned the wizarding world about the return of Voldemort. But the world had turned them away on deaf ears, calling them mad, delusional and worse. Because of that, many innocent people would die needlessly in the initial surprise when the wolf finally decided to come out of the woods.

Said wolf had already begun to gather his former strength. Dumbledore's spy, Severus Snape, had confirmed as much along with Lucius's involvement as part of the reemerging cult of blood purists. Snape's findings, while invaluable, did not bode well for the wizarding world at large.

Dumbledore entered Fudge's private office and was met with exactly what he expected. Minister Fudge was seated behind a heavy oak desk with Lucius Malfoy standing slightly behind him to his left. There was no seating available for Dumbledore, a clear ploy to exude control and power to any visitor and rather childish in Dumbledore's opinion. Rather than remark on it, he conjured his own chair, far surpassing that of Fudge's own in quality, as if it was the most natural thing in the world and sat nonchalantly as if his impressive display of magic was nothing special; Albus could be childish too.

Having turned the tables on the impressionable younglings in a suitable fashion, Albus could begin the meeting, announcing his intent to recede from the position as headmaster and instate McGonagall in his place.

Besides a moment of surprise it went rather as expected. They asked why; Albus said it was because of Voldemort and a heated debate broke out. Somewhere along the line Fudge brought up that he'd send a supervisor to Hogwarts to oversee the transfer of responsibilities and ensure the quality of Hogwarts. It was an obvious ploy to get more influence on Hogwarts.

Any further debate on the topic was deemed pointless by both sides. However Dumbledore had one other declaration to make. It was a gamble to reveal this piece of information, but it was a necessary one, as the order needed to know whether Voldemort had anything to do with Harry's disappearance. This was the first step in ascertaining that info. If he had a hand in it, then it spelled a grave future for the wizarding world.

"There's one more thing minister. I've only just gotten word of it, but it appears that Harry Potter has disappeared." Dumbledore said seriously. With the shock applied, it gave way to the tricky part of gauging their reactions.

Fudge was suitably surprised, but Dumbledore ignored him in favor of boring into the eyes of Lucius Malfoy. The head of the Malfoy family seemed to deign surprise, whether it was a facade could never be known. He might act surprised more out of social instinct than any real emotion.

But Lucius's mind was wide open to Dumbledore. While Dumbledore had underestimated Lucius, the same thing happened in reverse. Lucius was a politician first and a wizard second. His life and world was on said stage. His mistake was that he thought of all his opponents as creatures of the same sort. He'd already crippled Dumbledore's base of influence, so for most intents and purposes, Dumbledore was out of the picture.

But Dumbledore was a wizard first and a good one at that. The art of Legilimency was not out of his reach. The skill of reading the mind was a useful one and only required direct eye contact. The counter to this discipline, occlumency, was mastered only by few and Lucius was not one of them. After all, why learn a counter to an art only the fewest have heard of, that only a fraction of said wizards ever master.

Such a skill was a large investment and highly situational. It could however mean the difference between keeping your secrets and giving away everything; like in this one.

So while Lucius's face was a perfect façade of mock surprise and worry, his real mind was a completely open avenue of attack.

Later, after the meeting Dumbledore had to sit down and ponder for a moment.

Lucius knew absolutely nothing of Harry's disappearance and it was unlikely that Voldemort did either; but now they certainly knew for sure. Snape would have to confirm how Voldemort reacted to the news.

In a way it was all strangely encouraging to Dumbledore. Where ever Harry Potter was, he might still stand a chance of getting back. But it begged the question; where in the world was he then?

A/N: Thank you for reading after such a long time! I've rewritten most of the earlier chapters as of a few weeks ago and added for around ~3k words in total, which totals for around half a chapter. The plotline haven't changed and you haven't missed anything vital so there's no need to reread the whole thing, but I personally like it better. I hope this chapter is to your standards.