I own nothing. Cheers for all the reviews so far. Even those that don't like them

I'm unsure of this one tbh. I struggled with it for a few days. FYI im doing my own editing on chapters after i post them looking for mistakes. I dont have a BETA to look over the chapters before they're published. Thats why it's very likely some of you will be reading edited chapters.

Malfoy Manor

"Well, that went well, didn't it?" Anna said as she exited the floo last after the others "we are no better off than we were before the meeting. In fact, given the situation Severus has found himself in we're in a worse situation!"

"At least we found out what happened and why Potter declared the Blood Feud" Esmerelda commented"

"And it still gets us absolutely nowhere" Anna retorted "And you were a fat lot of good too Zabini! It seems for all your bluster before the meeting that when it came down to it you did nothing!"

"I couldn't" Zabini shouted startling them all "there was something in that office that suppressed my magic, I could feel something actively leeching and suppressing my magic. I have never felt such a disconnect between myself and my magic before. It felt horrible, almost like Death was in that office at the same time" she finished in a small voice

The other women looked at her in shock. Death? Why would Death be in the room of the Leader of the Light? Was Snape dying? Was Dumbledore dying? Is there even an actual Death? Of course, they'd all heard the stories over the years of various accounts of a living avatar of Death meeting various witches and wizards but many of them were fanciful to say the least, often put down to ramblings of drunkards and the uncouth. The most famous account was of course by Beedle and his Tale of The Three Brothers but even that was now considered a folktale, told to young witches and wizards to keep them in line with the threat of death if you didn't humble yourself. There was a good ten minutes of complete silence while they all went through their own thoughts on what Constance had said before they were all startled back to life with a pop of an appearing House elf placing tea and cream on the table before popping away again.

"So, what are our options?" Florence Nott asked "As far as I can tell we only have two options, and I'm not sure which one I like the least"

"Go on" Anna said

"Well given that Dumbledore has pretty much told us we ourselves have no chance in asking Potter to reconsider, and that our children have less than a zero percent chance of doing the same we find ourselves in a lose-lose situation if we want them to live. We have two options. Find a way of killing Potter before the next week is up, which is incredibly unlikely given that he's protected at Hogwarts or" she said trailing off

"Or?" Florence asked irritably after half a minute of silence

"Or we humble ourselves yet again before the Dark Lord and ask for his help" She finished with a shudder which seemed to pass around the entire group

"I am not going to prostate and cheapen myself before that man again!" Narcissa burst out "That man, no that creature has cost me both my husband and my son in the space of three months! We have absolutely nothing to offer him and I will not debase myself any further to receive any kind of help from him. And do not look at me in surprise! All of you know full well just what he has cost us over the years. I have had thirteen years of peace without him around, demanding an unreasonable amount of time and Malfoy money from Lucius. His cause has got us nowhere and for all his promotion of pureblood ways how many pureblood families has he decimated in his wake?"

"Blood traitors the lot of them!" Anna burst out

"And yet still Pureblood!" Narcissa exclaimed "and most of them wiped out! Pureblood society as a whole is gone because of him. The Elite are facing extinction. Do you really believe after a year of him being back and seeing what is asked of our husbands that we're all going to live the high life should he be victorious? How often has your husbands come back from his meetings shaking because of the cruciatus curse being cast on them? No, this is something that we'll have to sort out for ourselves. If you ladies want to go to the Dark Lord, then do so. But the Malfoy family, or what is left of it will no longer support his cause. My family will always be the main focus of my life and I will do whatever it takes to save my Draco. I suggest you ladies go home and give this some real thought. I will speak to you all tomorrow morning about any course of action that I can think of. Come up with some ideas yourselves if you can"

With that the ladies left one by one until it was only Constance and Narcissa left by the fireplace

"What you say is true Narcissa" Constance said "But the Dark Lord is extremely powerful and could be of some help to us. But if word gets back to him what you've just uttered you know your life is forfeit correct?"

"Yes, I'm aware, but I stand by what I said" Narcissa replied tears falling from her eyes "He has cost us so much and given us so little. And he has gutted my family. They're all I have left in this world so losing my life to that creature no longer scares me. What more can he do to me? My son has a week to live because of Potter, my husband is in prison for following another arrogant wizard and I am left all alone in this big house with nothing. Draco is my life, and I will do what I can to help him. I am going to write a letter to Dumbledore asking for Draco to come home and one to Potter asking for an audience with him in the next few days to see what I can do"

"I agree with everything you've just said Narcissa" Zabini said gently "that is the course of action I had already decided on myself. Keep an eye on Anna and Esmerelda, their children get their lack of intelligence from not just their fathers" with that she left via the floo back to her own home. As soon as she was gone Narcissa's legs collapsed underneath her, sobs wracking her body as she thought about what a mess her life had become

The Great Hall

The silence after Harry left was impregnable. The Professors swept from the room very quickly, to go a meeting Dumbledore had immediately called following Harrys exit. That was until one voice shouted out "I Told You! I told you Draco and now because of you and your idiotic ideas you're all now going to die?" the thing that really shocked the students was that it came from Pansy Parkinson, the very student who for five years was nothing more than a sycophant. Always on Dracos arm simpering away, snidely making comments about the various other students who she saw as being beneath them. The betrothal contract between the Malfoy and Parkinson family was a very poorly kept secret, mainly because Pansy couldn't keep her mouth shut when it concerned her future husband and the fact she wanted other girls to know they had no chance with him. It was after all how she had been raised, raised to believe that she would make a fantastic future Mrs Malfoy. It was what her mother always told her after all, and her mother had never lied to her.

Pansy was fully behind the plot to end Potter. It was sickening that a filthy Half-Blood such as Potter had gotten into Slytherin. There was no way that someone whose mother was a mudblood deserved to be placed into the Noblest of houses. Like a lot of people, she was convinced that Lily must have dosed James with love potions, how else would a nobody marry someone whose lineage went back almost a thousand years? The fact that Potter was placed there sickened her. And then seeing him not only succeed in the last five years but thrive there proved to her that he had duped them all, starting with the Sorting Hat. So, while she knew it would be risky to kill Potter, she also knew that it was the right thing to do. Gardeners after all prune the weeds in the garden to stop them suffocating the other plants and taking over, as far as she was concerned Potter was the biggest weed and he needed pruning.

Over the past five years she'd seen how Potter had placed himself in the Slytherin hierarchy, always the contrary voice to Draco who she felt was the rightful leader of the house, always speaking out against the injustices he perceived against creatures and other students. Anyone who uttered the word Mudblood in front of him usually ended up with a broken nose, her poor Draco being the main one. In fact, the majority of Potters detentions had been because of this. His dirty muggle way of doing this just reinforced her belief that he was beneath her. Potter had done so much damage to the reputation of Slytherin in his time there, imposing so many unrealistic rules on the rest of them that a revolution was due. Who in their right mind would not want to put those beneath them in their place? Wasn't it the right of the powerful to rule over the weak? Being a mudblood was not a great step up from being a muggle as far as she was concerned so she went out of her way to go against Potters rules, knowing he would never hit a woman. What she didn't know was that every time Pansy uttered the word mudblood in front of him he had hit Draco. And Draco was far too arrogant to let other people know that Potter was better than him in any way

She knew the plan would not turn out well. Potter always wriggles out of situations. It was such a simple plan too. Wait until Potter falls asleep, make sure to disable the wards on his bed and then put a knife into him. There was five of them against him after all! How could that go wrong? Easily it seemed when you don't check who's listening into the conversation, or if you fail to see there was no wards on his bed, but the biggest failure had to be the one to check that it was actually Potter in the bed. Normally Pansy would be able to attribute such an idiotic failure down to it being either Crabbe or Goyles fault, but this was all Draco. Draco planned all this and now it had backfired so spectacularly that her plans to be the future Mrs Malfoy had gone up in smoke in less than twenty-four hours. You can't marry a dead person after all.

"I told you yesterday that Potter would find a way to do something" Pansy started on Draco as he was sat there still in shock "we sat round a table and told you to find a way of making sure Potter could do nothing and you assured us all that he could do nothing. Now you five are going to die. You better hope and pray to Merlin that someone can find a way of getting you out of this situation." With that Pansy got up from the bench and fled the room in tears. This seemed to start a mass exodus of the other students where in the end just the five Slytherin 6th year students were sat down, not looking at each other, not speaking a word to each other, still in shock at the situation

Room Of Requirement

Whether it was by design or just a hive mind way of thinking the rest of the 'Ministry six' made their way to the Room of Requirement. Hermione had reached the wall first so she was the one who asked the room for somewhere where they could all sit and talk without being disturbed. Opening the door, they walked in to find the room had provided them with an exact copy of the Gryffindor common room except where there were normally chairs in their place was six bean bags. By unspoken agreement they left one of them unoccupied as they sat down.

After five minutes of silence where they all collected their thoughts, Hermione spoke up "what just happened?"

"Something which I never thought I'd see in my lifetime Hermione" Neville spoke up "Blood Feud"

"Yes, I'm aware of that" Hermione retorted irritably "but what is Blood Feud and why does it seem like that phrase should be capitalised? I've never read a single book where it was mentioned before"

"And you wouldn't" Ron surprisingly chipped in looking unusually serious "Blood Feud is never to be written down, it's one of the few of Merlins Edicts that is still around today. What we're about to tell you Hermione must never be mentioned outside this room. It's only because we care about you so much and trust you that were even letting this conversation take place. I may not know much compared to many others but one of the many things that were taught growing up are something we call Pureblood Traditions. There are many, many things that we're taught, things that have been passed down from generation to generation, a lot of which can be found in books, but one of the few that's never to be written down is Blood Feud. The gist of it is Harry just extinguished five Pureblood lines today, or will do in a weeks' time"

"Like Ron said we wouldn't be telling you this normally" Ginny said looking at Hermione "but we trust you. Before we leave here though we're going to require an oath from you that you will never tell anyone else what we're telling you"

"An oath? Like on my life and magic?" Hermione asked, "it's that serious?"

"Yes" Neville replied "and I already know what you're going to ask Hermione. Harry told everyone else in the Great Hall so everyone else must already know? No. You're going to find a lot of frustrated Muggle-born and Half-Blood students tomorrow roaming around Hogwarts asking what Blood Feud is to various purebloods or Professors, but I can tell you now no one will ever mention what it is. The Purebloods will know and while it may seem like favouritism or Pureblood Inclusion trust me when I say it's something that's considered taboo in the Wizarding World."

"Okay" Hermione said "if it's that serious I can do that as long as you tell me just what it is"

"What you must understand Hermione" Luna started looking unusually focused "is that this is really going to be hard for us to tell you everything here. And while you may moan about 'Magic should be for everybody not just the select few' there are some things that are rightfully kept from people"

"Alright, I'll try my best" Hermione said while the others looked skeptical

Taking a deep breath Ron started "Okay, I'm assuming in the millions of books you've read you've come across a term called the Sacred 28?" receiving a nod Ron continued "good that makes it easier. The Sacred 28 are essentially the beginnings of our lines, the founding families of Wizard-kind who we are all descended from. Through the years some have died out, others have merged with other lines, and some are still going. It's still up for debate just what constitutes a Ruling Family but by and large we go off something called the Pureblood Directory. In this book it lists the 28 families. In reality there are far more than 28 but 28 is what is accepted. Harry funnily enough is a case in point here, his family name is as old as ours but doesn't get in because his family name clearly has Muggle origins, that of being a potterer or makers of pottery which many at the time considered to be a menial muggle job. So, while Harry isn't in the Sacred 28, Potter is still considered a pureblood name so he still kind of is.

Ok, now back to the point. These 28 families were appointed by Merlin to rule over the Wizarding World in his stead because he had heard a prophecy informing him about his death and the death of Wizard-kind if steps weren't taken. Do not look at me like that Hermione" he said noticing the disbelieving look on her face "Divination is a subject here for a reason. Anyhoo, these 28 continued to rule and still do with many dying off or merging with others. They're the basis for our Wizengamot. We Weasleys no longer have a Wizengamot seat due to our family being considered Blood Traitors, not minding the infusion of Muggleborn blood in family lines but we're still part of the 28

Now, onto Blood Feud. Blood Feud is essentially what it sounds like. One family exacting revenge or demanding 'Blood' from another family because of what they see as a slight on them. Now this cannot be something trivial when calling Blood Feud, you're demanding your magic interact with the ambient magic around you to interact with the other party and judge whether you're in the right. If you're not in the right, you may lose your magic. It's that serious. So, when calling Blood Feud, you must be absolutely certain that you're in the right or you could die. Wizards and Witches aren't just Muggles with Magic despite what you might believe. Magic is running in our veins, throughout our bloodstream and embodies just who we are from the point of conception. Power is defined by just how much ambient magic you can draw into yourself along with how much you can push out of yourself at the same time. So, the loss of your magic is certain death. You don't become a squib, you die, plain and simple.

Only the Sacred 28 can call Blood Feud. Harry has apparently inherited the Black family seat from Sirius, so he was able to. He may have also elevated his family name of Potter to those 28 at the same time but I'm unsure of that. But because he's now legally and more importantly magically a Black he could call Blood Feud. Traditionally this is done in front of the entire Wizengamot to make sure that everyone who has the right blood status can witness it. I don't recall if it's ever happened inside Hogwarts"

"Our family and the Malfoys have Blood Feud" Ginny chimed in "It was called by our ancestor many, many years ago over a daughter of the Malfoy line having a child with someone else whilst under a betrothal contract to the Weasley family. The then Head of the Malfoy family took the penance to save his disgraced daughters life, as she was his only child at the time, but the feud continues due to the oath at the time demanding the end of all the Malfoy line. When Harry kills Draco next week the Weasley line is likely to be offered up to the Potter line as servants for doing something we could not. Normally this would be a bad thing, but I can't see Harry demanding servitude of us"

"So how did Harry come across the term then?" Hermione asked "He is essentially muggle raised like I am"

"Likely from the Chamber" Neville said "Salazar Slytherin was one of the first recorded wizards to call Blood Feud against another family due to them being responsible for the death of his first wife. I'd guess that he'd keep a record of it in his private quarters. This was before Merlin chose his edicts so the 28 weren't a thing yet"

"So, what happens now?" Hermione asked "Harry obviously has cause if he's not lost his magic"

"Likely Dumbledore will try to reason with Harry" Luna answered "Only he can call off Blood Feud"

"Hmmm" Hermione uttered "I don't think that's likely to happen. Harry can be very stubborn. You know as well as I do that once he sets his mind on something it's going to happen. I can't believe he'd be this idiotic to do this! He could die!"

"Hardly Hermione" Ron snorted "Harry duelled You-Know-Who to a standstill at the Ministry. And those five are nowhere near being good enough to compete with Harry. You know this as well as I do"

"I know, I'm just worried for the idiot" came the reply "I never had a brother growing up, but he quickly became that for me" if she was looking up, she'd have noticed a smile appear on Rons face "I just wish he'd have discussed it with us first you know? It's really very difficult being helpless when a sibling does something you can't help with" she finished quietly

"Believe me Hermione I know" Ron said looking over at Ginny "I know full well what a prat I'm being when I have a pop at you over your boyfriends, but I genuinely am trying to make sure you're ok. I nearly lost you four years ago, and if it wasn't for Harry I would have done. For a long time that kept me up at night, wondering 'what if'?"

"It's ok Ron, well it's not but it is" Ginny Replied "just let me be happy and make my own mistakes. I don't need another parent. Mum still fusses over me like the Chamber was yesterday and I'm still eleven years old. I just need a brother, that's all"

There was silence for the next few minutes as they all processed what had just been said. Getting up Ginny said "we need that Oath Hermione"

"Oh yes, of course" Hermione replied getting her wand out "I Hermione Jane Granger, hereby swear on my life and magic that I will never talk about Blood Feud with those that aren't already in the know about it. I will also keep what's been said here to just us five and Harry. So I swear, so mote it be"

"So, mote it be" came the five replies as the flash of magic sealed the oath

"Right well I'm off to the library" Hermione said "I shall see you all later. If you see Harry tell him I want to have a talk with him please. Before you guys say anything, I promise I will not have a go at him. I just want to get his thoughts on this situation" with that she left prompting the other four to each go on with their day knowing that for many it would likely be a long one

Headmasters' office

It had been probably the most peaceful half an hour of the morning for Albus Dumbledore. No one had disturbed him after he had let the ladies go via the floo. Looking over to the corner where a ring with a curious symbol lay sat on a table, he thought over just what he was going to say to not only the Minister but Harry as well. Perhaps it was time they had a talk Wizard to Wizard, lay all their cards on the table and talked as equals. After all they were both men of action, Albus certainly was in his youth although that had been tempered over the years so he could somewhat understand some of Harrys thought process. The adage of 'if you want a job doing then just do it yourself' certainly came to mind here. He was certain that's what Harry's thinking was here given the restrictions Albus and Severus had put on him over the years. And while they were for Harrys own good at the time to keep him alive, he knew there was still a lot of resentment there from the impositions. Yes, perhaps it was time to tell someone of his own past. It had been far too long since he was able to talk about it without it stirring up bad memories after all. Maybe talking to someone like Harry would help. With that he wrote a note to Harry and gave it to Fawkes who flashed away to who knows where, likely the Chamber of Secrets. With a sigh he opened the floo network and called through to the Ministers office.

"You can come through anytime now Rufus" Albus said

"On my way Albus" came the reply. This was going to be a long day