Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's probably not mine It all belongs to JK I'm just playing in her sandbox a little. I do read a lot of Fanfiction so if you see anything else you recognize I may have accidentally incorporated something.
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Chapter 12 – High Inquisitor
~~~~~Power of Ancestral Magics~~~~~
Hogwarts, Scotland, Monday, September 11,
Harry woke up on Monday morning and headed down to breakfast meeting several of his friends in the Great Hall as breakfast began at 6 AM, classes may not start for three hours but Harry had always been an early riser. "Good morning students I hope you have your homework done." Said Professor Sevine walking by. As the students passed Harry watched for Professor McGonagall needing to give her the updated letter from his "head of house". It was the same as the first but instead of merely saying titles now said professors actual name as Professor Umbridge had been given an additional title as well and could theoretically use it to give Harry detention. For some reason Harry's magic recoiled at the very thought.
As professor McGonagall walked in Harry quickly stopped her and handed it to her. "As I have defense today and someone could theoretically get around the previously conveyed orders of the Potter head, here is an updated letter stating his orders."
Professor McGonagall opened the letter and quickly scanned it noting only the names in addition to the title's had changed but having been briefed by Albus last night she understood the necessity. "Well Mr. Potter it certainly looks in order I will give it to the headmaster and a copy to Delores this morning."
"Thank you" answered Harry. He returned to his seat and exchanged History homework with Silver as they both did last minute spell checks and such for each other before the Daily Prophet arrived. Once it arrived Harry stopped to look as did many others, to read the front page.
Delores Umbridge
High Inquisitor of Hogwarts
In Educational Decree number 23 the Minister gives one Delores the title of High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. While she is on staff as the D.A.D.A. Professor. Delores Umbridge has been given a secondary title to aid the Ministry in keeping Hogwarts safe for our children. A number of incidents have happened at the school over the past few years and as such we the Ministry felt that it would be best to keep a better eye on Hogwarts, her faculty, and her students.
In doing so the minister has given the High Inquisitor the duty of ensuring that Hogwarts is teaching to the proper guidelines. That all teachers have appropriate credentials to be teaching at Hogwarts and to enforce several other rules that the Ministry intends to enforce later in the coming months. For more Information see page 3.
Harry turned to page three and read the rest of the Article admitting that was tastefully done, even if they were sugarcoating her actual roles and duties after all she wasn't technically qualified to teach Defense herself, how could she correctly ensure appropriate credentials for everyone else.
"Ah, Mr. Potter it is good to see you this morning, and I see you have read this morning's paper as such I must inform you that the detention assigned last week will take place tonight my office, 7 pm."
"Good morning Professor, I have made myself clear that it is to be heir Potter to all those that do not have permission otherwise. As to the detention I see that the Deputy Headmistress has yet to be able to give you the letter from my head of house I suggest you do so, as such I will have to decline your polite request to attend detention with you."
"Potter, that will be a second detention for your disrespect and 20 points from Gryffindor." Sneered Umbridge nastily.
"High Inquisitor unfortunately neither the detentions nor the points will stand. As to the detentions all students under the banner of house Potter are forbidden from having detention with you, Professor Snape, or Professor Dumbledore…"
"I am well aware of that McGonagall however, I am no longer simply the Defense Professor, I am now the High Inquisitor as such I am allowed to place Mr. Potter in detention with me."
"If you allowed me to finish." Said Minerva crossly. "I would have told you that the orders are now name specific, I received this, this morning." She handed Umbridge the letter. "Not even your new title breaks that order. Secondly as Mr. Potter was not being rude in correcting you in his address, he had every right to say what he did." Turning to Harry. "Mr. Potter do, watch your step I will be watching you; you will not be abusing the rights given in this letter. I will not hesitate to place you in detention if I catch you even a step out of bounds."
"Understood Professor," Harry answered. He glanced up at Umbridge's face and mentally decided to get tutors for both defense and Potions next time he spoke with Sirius.
~~~~~Power of Ancestral Magics~~~~~
Hogwarts, Scotland
On Wednesday morning Harry had decided it was just going to be a bad week. Professor Umbridge had spent the week trying to do everything in her power to get Harry into trouble. Even going as far as trying to frame him a couple of times. On top of everything yesterday he had informed Angelina that he wasn't playing Quidditch this year, which had further caused him to be ostracized from a school, that was already of two minds about him being a lying attention seeking psychopath. His explanation that with his house duties and his assignments he just didn't have time fell on deaf ears, with people telling him that Quidditch should come first. Friday morning, after a further Harry confronted McGonagall about everything that was happening in the school. She only told him to keep his head down.
Harry belatedly realized that her and many of the other teachers of the school had never done anything to reign in the students through action or deed. He watched many of the transfer students throughout the rest of the school and realized that many of them openly glared at the teachers throughout the day as the teachers were even less helpful to them, then they had been to Harry. Harry made up his mind to once more contact Sirius, they had a few things to discuss. During lunch Harry slipped away to an abandon classroom to call Sirius. He informed him of exactly what had happened over the last week.
"Sirius, I don't think a single teacher has actually fully read the charter, Bullying runs rampant throughout the entire school. The teachers have done nothing to stop it. If something doesn't change soon Hogwarts is going to shortly face ICW educational reprimands."
"I understand Pup, I'm not quite sure what I can do but I will think of something I do have a Wizengamot meeting in about an hour I can bring it up then, in the meantime is there anything else pup?"
"Two things firstly, I'm going to need tutors in both Defense, and in Potions neither class is going to help me pass my owls otherwise."
"I'll floo call the tutors I had contacted earlier and tell them it's a definite thing. They will be there Monday morning. The second thing was?"
"How long until the document we talk about Sunday is ready, Umbridge is giving some eyes to a couple of different students, some of my friends included."
"It is formally announced across Albion by the Goblins Sunday and will be available for use Monday the Goblins have even agreed for a small fee to enter all the top Albion registered schools Monday night to test all the students, at those Schools. I have to go Wizengamot calls."
"Mind if I join with the tutors" Harry looks up at the voice.
"Which ones Draco, Umbridge loves to suck up to you and Snape's your godfather?" Harry asked.
"Both, I don't need a brownnoser I need a practical defense lesson so I can pass my owls, and Potions is the same, I can never tell if my Potions are actually that good or if he's just giving me a good grade because he's my godfather. This is OWL year it really decides how your viewed after school ends. What jobs you can do and all that jazz. My dad won't pay for the tutors but if I'm going to tutoring with another heir then I can pay it out of my trust fund. I really don't want to, but I sort of have no other choice." Answered Malfoy.
"I didn't realize that. You and your dad don't get along that much do you?" Harry asked.
"I don't really know either of my parents, I was predominantly raised by nanny elves, therefore I never connected to them. Magically or emotionally. I always had to hide it from everyone else but I don't know something tells me I'm okay to be myself around you even with my Grandfather in the castle."
"Ok a few questions, magically connect, I understood the emotional connection but magical, I'm not familiar with that? Secondly why hide it? Thirdly I feel like there is a bit bigger of a reason for you not wanting to pay out of your trust fund than just being a snob." Harry asked.
"Well its sort of a big deal. A child connects emotionally to its parents by being shown love and caring and such things. Magically a child connects to its parents magics by similar acts but instead of them being emotional, they are magical acts. Like a tracking charm to keep the child from getting lost, a baby bracelet to keep the child exposed to the magic, little things like that. The first time I remember feeling my father's magic he sent a stinging hex at me for slouching in front of guests, I was seven, I think. I just remember how cold his magic felt, Mother wasn't much different, the magical connection we had from her pregnancy, was completely decayed by time I was nine. When I got Dragon pox at eleven and was forced to wait a whole extra year to attend Hogwarts. I ended up living the year with my Grandfather, he's strict, but I at least have a magical connection with him." Draco explained. "And it's frowned upon and considered neglect for neither parent to have a connection with their child. I would have been removed from my parents care and they would have been sent to Azkaban for child neglect. It would have been considering a blight on the family honor."
"Oh, wow, I did not know that." Harry said considering his words with a slight tilt to his head. Draco couldn't stop thinking about how perfect Harry looked with that expression on his face.
"As to you other questions. It's sort of a rite of passage. Once a Malfoy turns sixteen they are cut off from the family accounts and are left with their trust fund, and a million dollars, they have 5 years to turn it into at least 2 million, if I can manage to beat my Grandfathers score of 5 Million I can immediately get access back and have control over a portion of the investment vaults not just receive a yearly stipend. However, I don't know where to start and talking to Gringotts hasn't really helped. I could invest it but the markets unstable right now. What I am investing already from my trust fund is only making 8%." Draco stated looking off into space.
"Well, to start off with, Gringotts requires you to give your account manager 1% of all dividends made. Make it more than that, and make it tiered so that the harder he works not only does the money from his initial percentage rise but if he reaches a certain point, he also gets a percentage increase. It makes your manager want to work harder, and to stop giving you excuses, this will also make him more willing to go for riskier investments but only ones they know will go well, that will significantly help. Secondly don't exclusively invest only in the Magical world. House Potter has something a bit similar and I am going through a bit of the same thing. I invested into about four blocks worth of old rundown factories in London. They aren't worth much now, but they've been rezoned as residential and I'm building a bunch of apartment complexes, and other buildings on them. After buying the land, demolishing the buildings, and the cleanup of those lots along my other project however, I have to wait for my next investment deposit to move to the next stage, which counts against me. But it's expected for me to make about a million year once it's done and as I can also speed it up a little by using magic."
"Interesting," Draco responds contemplatively "What's the project on our side?"
"Well sort of the same thing, you now the rundown Hotels on High Street, and Phoenix Boulevard?" Harry asked.
"Don't tell me you bought them." Draco said. At the look on Harry's face he continued. "Harry they've been closed down for years, it would take a couple million Galleons to repair them."
"I'm not rebuilding them. In the map of the great square I noticed that they don't really have an entertainment district. So, I am tearing down what's there and building a casino, and other entertainment areas in their place. The casino alone is expected to double the Potter wealth in the first year alone."
"Let me guess you didn't expect the magical fees in doing that and so that stripped your cash budget. How much have you spent and how much do you need?" asked Draco inquiringly.
"Well I had a 2.5 million galleon budget for both projects. I used 1.25 on each one and need about the same for both to finish, I can however wait until January and my next investment stipend to resume work." Harry sullenly answered.
"Or," said a voice from the doorway. "You can take the 1.25 million from Draco for the casino here and take an advancement of 1.25 million from me to go into building one in one of the other magical squares with me in about two years." Looking up Draco and Harry saw Theodore Nott standing in the doorway. "Look, I'm a pureblood elitist I have no trouble claiming it, but even I know that the muggle's stumbled onto something good when they created their economic system. Most pureblood families with any real amount of wealth or desire to reach the stage of Utmost Noble house will have some sort of financial training for all heirs. The Notts like the Potters, and the Malfoys, have one. If that casino brings in as much as you think, it will help any house excel into the bracket of being able to reach Utmost."
"The first Hogsmeade weekend is next week, we can sign the paperwork then." Suggested Draco. Harry agreed and they all headed to class.
~~~~~Power of Ancestral Magics~~~~~
That night the bearer's group of fifth years studied together in the common room, when Ron approached Harry asking for help. "I really messed up mate, I should have listened to Professor Sevine weeks ago, now I'm swamped in homework and don't know where to start. I would ask Hermione, but I am not really in the mood for an hour long rant on why homework is so important. Then for her to pull out one of her schedule's and cram studying into every nook and cranny of it."
"Well Ron, you might have to do just that for a little while, just to catch back up. Here's my schedule we'll have to change it a little more for your specific classes, but it should work. So, we all have a break after History on Monday's if you hold off on going back to bed or other things you can get most of the assignment done, while what was discussed is fresh. This both ensures that it gets done faster but that you also have a chance for someone else to check over it as well. As you aren't in Ancient Runes or Arithmancy you have a much longer break and you have a chance to work on other homework, leaving most of Monday evening for you to have fun time or for group study sessions to work on group homework." Dean and Shamus and most of the other dozen some Gryffindor boys and some of the girls where listening in now as well. "Ron it's harder for you to just sit down and do your homework like that, I get it. My suggestion is to find a couple of partners, in Gryffindor or outside it to help you stay on track, Maybe break it up a little bit, you do one assignment, play a short game the do another assignment. I know at least for DADA my group only writes one main version of the assignment. We then go through it and add a few different things in different places as they are usually dumb and incorrect prompts."
"Harry James Potter that is cheating, and the prompts aren't wrong from her point of view." Snapped Hermione, stepping into the conversation.
"Hermione, it is not cheating we are all working on the assignment and doing the work. None of us however see a point in extra work that isn't going to matter as we start DADA with tutors next week. And as such we will not be in her class any longer." Replied Neville.
"You can't do that, that would mean skipping her classes. It doesn't matter if you take extra tutoring lessons you are still required to attend the classes taught by the professors." Hermione snapped back her anger getting the better of her.
"You do miss Granger. You are also classified, much like me as a commoner and as such have to abide by those rules. This is one of those situations where those of Noble birth are held to a different set of standards. I'm only included in such plans, because my house is a cadet branch of house Potter but common law still in some places applies to me." Stated Jean Marc.
"What you have to understand is that as commoners we don't have a strict requirement for OWLS. As a commoner, or a non-titled for us OWLS, lets us know which classes we can continue studying at NEWT levels. It may affect our jobs, but as there is no stigma to us retaking an OWL in sixth and doing self study and sitting the NEWT a year late, we have opportunities to correct any mistakes in testing." Stated another Gryffindor boy, Allen Spencer, one of the heirs of Neville's cadet lines.
"For all your so called brilliance you certainly aren't picking up on a few things. We talked about several of the laws of the upper nobility already in culture class, its also been mentioned in history a few times. The Wizengamot requires its members to all have a minimum of 7 OWLS all at an E or better. Here at Hogwarts they only offered 11, now 12 classes. The school only requires 7 classes. Now grade wise an O can balance out an A but it's frowned upon, on NEWT's they require the same, just at the A level with no failing marks instead of E's. That was why it was such a big deal over the summer when Marcus Flint only achieved 3 NEWT scores and was forced to repeat the year, he won't take the classes he already passed but he is retaking four classes he failed last year." Lavender Brown added.
"The houses can get serious about some things like that. A further discussion into the differences between the class system can wait until we are working on either our History of Magic group projects of our Culture projects. Suffice to say is that yes, the nobility get some benefits from there station, but they have a lot of expectations, and tradiotions that come with them. Ron it's just a matter of sitting down with a few friends and working out a plan. Then your projects aren't rushed, you retain more informational, and you have more time for fun. You can get easy assignments out of the way with the topic fresh in your mind. Here this is called a notebook, it's a handy muggle item, that's been spelled with never ending pages. I usually write down my homework for the week on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday as we get it and then space it over the days in the slots I have available for the rest of the week. I don't have transfiguration or charms on Wednesday but still work the assignments for them on Wednesday as then I can ask any questions I might have on Thursday during class. Same with the other classes besides Dada and Potions as those professors aren't teaching or answering questions."
Ron nodded and took the notebook marking down his classes on the inside cover and then filling in assignments and the prompts for each class assignment. He joined in the group as several other Gryffindor's did and began working with others and asking for help when needed. Most of Gryffindor as a house then spent Friday night working on catching up their fellow housemates who had fallen behind. With even the first and second years asking for help and getting all their homework done.
~~~~~Power of Ancestral Magics~~~~~
For next two days any early risers saw a peculiar sight as they dined in the great hall. The Gryffindor house was slightly tired but ready for breakfast, at seven AM. As the other houses wandered down throughout the morning many found themselves curious as to this new change for the house of lions. Many students of the other houses checked their food for prank spells or potions and finding none sought out the students to ask what was going on.
As such the entirety of the upper year Gryffindors heard Harry's tirade at 8:30 when the Daily Prophet was delivered. The paper had an entire 2 page article belittling Sirius's sanity and his "foolish belief in lies sprouted by liars". The paper went as far as to call Sirius insane for calling both Dumbledore and the Ministry out for "mistreatment" of students and not following an "archaic and outdated charter".
On Sunday Gryffindor also witnessed the rare event of complete silence in the Great Hall. As students were engrossed in their papers, the Prophet was forced to write a completely unheard of apology and retraction on the front page of the paper, for gross misrepresentation and slander of a head of one of the elder houses. Furthermore, the article corrected its mistake and wrote a nice piece praising the Black Head for its "remaining faithful to its royal charge, even after so long."
This spawned a two-hour long discussion on the royal charges for each house and what it meant in this day in age. With the fifth, sixth, and seventh year students of other houses joining the Gryffindor table for discussion.
With all of the excitement that had happened over the weekend, all of Gryffindor was at breakfast early on Monday morning as they wanted to discuss today's paper once they received it. As such was once again treated to the rare gift of absolute silence descending onto the Great Hall as the front page proudly declared:
House Potter empowers the Common born among us!
Yesterday my faithful readers, we at the Daily Prophet were informed of a press conference to happen at Gringotts. Several newspaper were asked to send reporters to gather on the front steps of Gringotts for an announcement made by Gringotts. This is usually just a quick announcement about rising fees in Gringotts or new products and services being offered by the bank. I thought nothing of it, and almost didn't go when asked. Now, I am aware that not going would have been a mistake, for hidden amongst the rest of the monotonous information on new vault fees, and fee raises, I found a hidden gem. The house of Potter has started a new Albion fund.
Now funds of this type are usually sponsored by a single house, but other noble houses can add money to the fund as well. For example, the Wizarding Health fund, wherein common witches and wizards can ask the fund to help pay for major medical costs. This fund is funded by your donations to St. Mungo's Hospital. Usually these funds are nationwide and as such are managed by the ministry. They typically do not usually apply to the entirety of our magical empire. As the new fund set up by the Potters is for all of Albion not just Britain, I was curious. So, I sought out the head Goblin to get a copy of the charter for this new fund and was shocked!
Usually outside of the high breed and wealthy members of our high society, the average person finds it hard to make sense of taking the legacy or inheritance test that cost fifty galleons a piece at Gringotts. However the House of Potter might very well have changed that, as effective this morning, with the opening of Gringotts bank every common family is allowed to request for the fund to pay for children to undergo such testing, with a few extra requirements and provisions in the contract giving said family access to title's and vaults they may never have otherwise able to claim. With the proviso of them paying back the fund if they've gained a suitable sized vault.
I was at first speechless. I'm not in the slight bit biased towards our nobility but one of the requirements is that every child must publicly claim all seats or houses of the lower court that they inherit. They also must claim at least one inheritance of the upper court, if they do have one or more house of that level. This would mean dropping uneducated children with no clue as to how to handle the politics of the Wizengamot, or that do not meet the requirements for sitting on the Wizengamot straight into the proverbial snake den. Reading on however, I discovered that the house of Potter had thought of that as well.
In the case of any inheriting a seat on the Wizengamot High, middle, or low, they are to be given into the hands and training of a Protectorate house. See Page 5 for the list of requirements to become one. The protectorate house ware then charged with training said heir to fully meet the standards set by Albion law. Or for ten years which ever is the shorter time. In exchange for this training and protection the protectorate houses will hold the proxy for their Wizengamot seat for that time and enable's them to form sign and enforce, betrothal contracts.
At this time the fund is closed to all those not between the ages of 11 and 31. It is also asked by house Potter that all vassals wishing to undergo testing with common status first ask for permission and release of your house from your Lord. There will be no exceptions made to the rulings of protectorate houses and this may affect vassalage oaths. Later the fund may become open to all ages but house Potter at this time wishes to focus on the youth as the future of our world.
Harry had to say to himself that it was a good piece. He was however surprised by the sudden hand on his shoulder as he looked up to find Draco trying to get his attention before he asked. "Will this stand?"
"It should, that why we decided to make it an Albion fund and open to all the empire. The ministry can't legally touch it without the support of at least 25 houses from outside Albion of equal standing to house Potter and with every house that adds their name to the protectorate list, that number grows."
"How do we get on the Protectorate list?" asks Nott standing behind the Draco with quite a few other Slytherins.
"You can't, Upper noble houses only and the inclusion of one specific requirement restricts both your houses from becoming one at the moment. Until a new head of house, that holds the Wizengamot seat, are permitted to take the mantle of lord and head of House. Muggleborn are classified as common born and as such are included into the bill. Wording that into the protectorate bill was hard, but doable."
"Potter you can't restrict our houses just because our heads have pro-pureblood views." Snapped a new Slytherin.
"I didn't restrict those houses, your houses heads or sitting lords are among those that were accused of following a dark lord at some point in time and have not cleared their names with Veritiserum or the equivalent, as such they are prohibited from taking the protectorate position." Harry replied.
"Enough all this talk of the fund is nonsense; the minister will silence it within the day and house Potter will be reprimanded for trying to undermine the ministry. Return to your seats." Ordered the High Inquisitor.
"The fund affects no one Ministry madame, it affects the whole of the Empire, as such the House of Potter was in full rights to do as it has done. Furthermore the minister cannot simply silence it, or annul it. It will be proudly showcase in every Gringotts and the Ministry does not have enough foreign support to block it. Ten points to Gryffindor for cunning, and a further 10 points for thinking things through." Said Abraxas Malfoy, Harry smiled and went back to his breakfast. His eyes alight with pride.
"An announcement if I can have your attention please. Dinner will be ending a half an hour early tonight, as a contingent of goblins will be entering the school to give our students a chance to use up their portion of the fund. Any who wish to partake of this may do so, furthermore any student who wishes to contact their guardian, head of house, vassal lord etcetera will be able to have meetings with them this afternoon. Students, however, need to realize that they will still be required to attend all classes and tonight's commotion will not be an excuse to not have your homework completed. Thank you, students you may return to your seats." Albus announced frown lines crossing his face he would have much preferred that this had not happened, some of those lines had needed to be hidden away they were too dangerous, too powerful to be used.
Harry smiled maybe just maybe he could be an influence for change in the magical world without having to go through blood rights. Harry is calmed by this thought for it means he will never have to take the throne he doesn't want.
