Chapter 19 – Secrets of the Past ~~~~~Power of Ancestral Magics~~~~~

Hogwarts, Scotland

Harry walked into the great hall the next morning slightly frustrated, wondering if his actions the night before had been right but Marvolo seemed content to wallow in his power not realizing that there was more to being king than just power. Harry had no doubt given the right circumstances Marvolo could be a great ruler but at this point in time he was too caught up in his own power.

"What's on your mind, Harry." Asked Lavender Brown.

Harry almost jumped out of his seat not realizing he had already sat down. He really had been too lost in his musings. "Sorry long night and an already long morning with more meetings to come today, what was your question?"

Frowning she answered him "I had asked what was on your mind, but I think you answered that. Did you remember that we have class today?"

Harry frowned now back. "It's Saturday, we don't have, on no I forgot about the merge lecture we have today, excuse me I have to call Sirius." Harry rushed away now looking even more frazzled.

"Speaking of class" Hermione said, "we had best be going.", with that she and the other Gryffindor fifth years exited the hall headed for the culture classroom. They were quickly followed by the remaining 5th, 6th, and 7th years as they all carefully filed into seats and settled in, waiting for the teachers to arrive. Harry slid into his seat just as the teachers entered the room with a few extra guests that took seats in the back along with Dumbledore and a few other teachers.

"Well we have all had an interesting week. A reminder of the ground rules before we begin the discussion. If someone else is talking please do not interrupt them unless it is to clarify what the just said. I will take points, next stay on topic, if we need to jump topics or you feel the class needs to understand something first before you can answer say something then you may do so. Third make sure the questions you ask relate to either current events or what we are studying in class. Let's begin, stand if you have a question to ask." Several different students rose that all promptly sat down when Hermione stood up blushing as they all sat down. "Well miss Granger it appears that the floor is now yours."

"Merry met, and the days greetings to you all. To star with when I enter Hogwarts five years ago as a muggleborn, I had a lot of questions. I had been raised in the mundane world, which is far different, I made assumptions that I have since learned are false. But those first few years I felt like I kept running into a brick wall with every question that I asked, getting sneers, and snide comments at every turn. With this class that has begun to change. I of course have no doubt that I'm not being told everything, Some question I'm still getting the run around for. The past few weeks we've been studying the different tiers of houses and many of us figured that ancestral houses were just the higher form of Utmost houses but then Lord Le-Fay emerges somehow though no one will tell me how and people begin to go slightly crazy over it, giving me the impression that the title of ancestral is much more important than I was led to believe. Then with the testing or whatever happened last night things are lot more confusing than I thought even on the level of most Ancient and most Noble. With Grindelwald's escape the world has gone even more crazy, I keep hearing comments about blood feuds, hunts, massacre's and other things but I can't find any of it in any of the library's books. Therefore, the main question I suppose is what in the world is actually going on?

"Well," answered a Slytherin 7th year "and don't get me wrong I'm not trying to be mean but it's complicated and somewhat all jumbled up in Wizengamot secrecy laws as well. We can't just give you a straight answer."

"Nor should you be," Dumbledore says standing in the back and making his way forward. "Some of the questions you are asking miss Granger are things that you need not concern yourself over. The house of Le-Fay has returned, it changes a few things, but it will die down and things will return to normal, the matter with Grindelwald will soon blow over. Sometimes miss Granger it is best to leave some things in the past, it is not healthy to dig up and open old wounds, the events of the past are in the past we need to look forward and think of our future not on revenge for actions of the past that aren't needed or warranted…" What he was going to finish with was quickly silenced by the slamming of a book onto a desk echoing throughout the room, with it Harry got up and left the room but not without a parting comment.

"Isn't warranted, almost an entire family line is murdered and over a millennium of traditions and history gone, isn't enough to warrant a desire for revenge. If that is the case than your father sure deserved to die in Azkaban, didn't he Dumbledore."

"Mr. Potter" shouted McGonagall going to go after Harry as he left the room racing down the hall. "You have no right…" The door slammed shut before she could leave. As the students turned back to the front to see who had cast the spell to seal the door, they were surprised to see that the action had been taken by one of Professor Abraxas's visitors. Those that had gone to Nurmengard the day before recognized him as the grizzled old man who had spoken to them so curtly the day before.

"You missy had best sit down, your Pierre would be ashamed to look at you today. A far cry from the string independent woman he raised you to be, I should know I was a good friend of his." He said before turning to the class. "The name's Mathews, Adam Mathew's, yes, I was the previous head of the ICW investigations division. I served as head for twenty years, for almost thirty before that I served as an investigator for the ICW, before that I served in the Grindelwald war as part of the 153rd infantry under the command of Lord Charlus Potter. Before enlisting I served as an Auror here in Britain. I quit for good reasons and those reasons are part of the reason I never came back to Britain, or to my post as an Auror."

"You children want to know the events that made up the Grindelwald war, the hidden parts, well sit down, I'm not bound by no ministry I'll give it to you straight. Dumbledore sit down and shut-up, you've ruled Britain with an iron fist for far too long, I've lived long enough, and seen enough of your damage that I no longer fear you enough to keep silent." The man calmly stated.

"When the Grindelwald war started with small simple attacks here and there, a large fiasco in New York, many initially didn't think much of it, yes Grindelwald was to be brought before the ICW for trial, but that was for breaking the statue of secrecy and other reasons, he wasn't thought of as a dark lord yet. Initially it was more guerilla warfare than true war, spreading panic, but no true damage. It was only after New York that he truly began to spread war. With that came battle lines being drawn. Even then it was some time before it came to light that Grindelwald's, true intentions were not just to have the magical rule over the mundane, but for him to ultimately rule us, as king of Albion. Most were stunned, many flabbergasted and enraged, some outright laughed at the thought that he could actually claim the throne. But Grindelwald quickly gained enough followers that some began to suspect he knew a way to do what he claimed. The way he went about it confused us though, as in his desire for power, he searched the lands for any links to the ancestral houses, each and every one of those 38 houses, once thought to be extinct, though recent events have proved that to be false. In his search he entered both the Russian, Egyptian, Empire's along with several other's in his search. He seemed intent on finding the last remnants of the Ancestral houses. We initially thought he wished to force them to claim their birthrights through trickery and torture, but instead he hunted and killed as many of their descendants as he could find. He wiped out entire lines for simply being rumored to be descended from the oldest of our houses."

"While this happened almost exclusively in mainland Europe, and beyond Albion's borders, we here in magical Britain were not touch by the war, even once Grindelwald started his attacks on the muggle side of things in 1939. It was not until the Summer of 1942 that Grindelwald truly stepped onto the shores of Britain, and when he did it was only for a day."

"Now see here Mathews you have no right…" Dumbledore interrupted him.

"No right to what, no right to tell them the reason why that boy who ran from this room in anger did so? No right to tell them why the vassals and cousins of that same boy even now glare at you for your words? No right to tell them the reason why the house of Potter has never ended the blood feud with house Grindelwald even though its only remaining member was exiled to the prison of his own making? I have every right. Because of the way the house of Potter was treated after the war that boy will not answer those questions. He is too much like his great grandfather Charlus for that." Dumbledore quivered under the man's glare. "You came home Dumbledore. After requesting of the ICW for Grindelwald not to be given over to the Potter family for execution, but to be imprisoned in Nurmengard. After all that, you came home and had honor, prestige and power handed to you. What did Charlus Potter come home to? He came home to a decimated house; he came home to pick up the pieces of a broken house. He came home and had to look into his son's eyes and say he failed. Knowing all that Charlus came home to, what did you do? You put him on trial for charges of war crimes. You banned his house and all who served house Potter from Ministry service, or ever serving in ICW service. As such your actions, and your actions alone cut the number of Aurors in half, and left Britain half defenseless in the jaws of its own monster of a dark lord. You criticized house Potter in the Voldemort war for using hired hands in the form of Hit-Wizards, encouraging these men to instead enroll and join the Aurors core forgetting in your own haste that as they served house Potter that avenue had been cut from them by you, yourself. Outside Britain, the entire blame for the Voldemort blood war is on your shoulders. If you had left house Potter alone, they could have done their duty and protected Britain, long before it came to war again, knowing all that is it any wonder the boy is on the verge of blood feud?"

Mathew's turned back to the students after silencing Dumbledore. "The date was July 16th, 1942. The day was the annual Potter family picnic, it was a reunion of sorts, all ten cadet branches of house Potter, along with many of the house vassals living inside Britain were in attendance. They had chosen a field abreast of the Britain great square for it that year. Over a thousand people had gathered for the picnic. Charlus and his wife, his son Fleamont and his wife, along with a few cousins and their wives, had gone to the manor for a family rite. The field had nothing for the kids to do, so the adults had transfigured a humongous playground with things for kids of all ages to do, from the youngest to the oldest. Those transfigured items still stand today, in that field."

"To this day it is unclear why Grindelwald acted as he did, why he attacked. It wasn't unusual for Grindelwald to go after families, to go after houses but this, but what he did that day, it was different. At the time I was a senior auror, we were called in after the deed was done. At that point I had considered myself a seasoned Auror, but upon apparating in even I was sick. It was called the Potter massacre for a reason. Of the over a thousand people who had been there none survived. House Potter was left only to those that had left for the rite. Henry Potter, Charlus's father and the then Lord Potter very obviously was killed last and it showed. But he wasn't the only one who had been tortured, all those that had been at the picnic, had been brutally slaughtered from the youngest to the oldest."

"Charlus Potter left the ritual room at Potter manor, where he had just finished the rite that they had been away for and walked into the next room only to have the head of house ring appear on his hand. It's called a violent transfer for a reason, it knocked him out for two hours, while it showed him the last hours of the previous head, as is customary when the ring goes immediately from one head to the next in such a violent manner. When he arrived at the scene, my men had been there for three hours, and Charlus Potter was infuriated. His five siblings, and parents had all been in that field, and now at 45 he was now beyond his wife, and son the last of the main Potter branch. Of the previously over a thousand strong Potter family, only about twenty remained after that day." Mathews stated his eyes gaining a far of look.

"House Potter wanted blood for what they had lost, they wanted blood, for the blood that had been spilled, and Charlus Potter would have it. He first declared Blood feud and later that winter he joined the army himself. Leaving his wife, son and newborn granddaughter in Britain, while he left for war, taking to the field himself. I served under him and with his aid we cut a bloody swathe through the front lines straight to Grindelwald and his forces. He dueled Grindelwald to a standstill more times than I could count. It seemed that as much as Charlus wanted Grindelwald dead, for some reason Grindelwald wanted Charlus dead just as much."

"When the day of reckoning came Charlus Potter first fought with two of Grindelwalds lieutenants before going head to head with Grindelwald for over two hours. If Charlus hadn't taken a friendly fire spell to the back," here Mathews glared at Dumbldore, "he would have won that duel, but instead a worn and tired Grindelwald that had been hunted for over two months with no rest by Charlus Potter faced a fresh and ready Dumbledore. You Brits seem to think that Dumbledore won that battle on his own strength, but I was there, he didn't. I'm not saying he couldn't have, he just didn't then. Dumbledore took Grindelwald in and was hailed by the British as a hero, while Potter faced charges and dishonor from his own countrymen. In mainland Europe, where the long arms of Albus Dumbledore never reached, we knew what the house of Potter had done. It may not be known why or what Grindelwald was after when he attacked and killed the Potter house, but we knew what the Potter's had done, in retaliation. Charlus always seemed to have some clue, no doubt given to him, from seeing his father's last moments but we never knew for certain." A voice from the back answered.

"He did know, my great grandfather knew very well what Grindelwald hunted from house Potter, it was part of the reason he hunted the man. The house of Potter thanks you Adam Mathew's for honoring and remembering the sacrifices of others, Britain it seems has a habit of forgetting them." A much calmer, more put together Harry Potter had walked back into the classroom. "But know let's get back to the other question you asked. You asked about the ancestral houses, how Lord Le-Fay ascended, why it is such a big deal, I will attempt to explain." Harrys says.

"The ancestral houses are in the simplest terms our world's oldest, and strongest houses. They helped shape the empire's, they have molded our culture into the form you see today. Each empire has ancestral houses, for Albion, we had Emrys, Le-Fay, and Evan-Shade lines; for the Mayan Empire, there was Xook, Ehb and Chan lines; for the Inca, Capac, Tupac, and Amaru lines; for the Russian, Dramir, Mihailov, and Darkstrom lines; the Mongol empire had Yeke, Batu and Burilgi lines; the Hitite had Zindata, Zalpa, and Ishtar lines; the Indian had Digvijay, Arjun, and Dalip lines; the Chinese empire had Qianlong, Taizhu, and Taizong lines; the Japanese the Tarashihiko, Wakasazaki, and Hitarashi lines, with the Egyptian empire having the Ptolemy, Kush and Peverell lines; the Oeacanic Congress having the Maiava, Tuala, and Suega lines; with the African congress with the Adebowale, Abioye, Jaheem, Jelani, Imari, Folami, and Emem lines. Three for every individual empire, they provided protection, balance and guidance, a triumvate for every empire, it served our people well. One took the light magic, one the grey, and one the dark, and although borders have changed, and other ancestral lines have been lost with the falls of their nations, those are the names still we remember and know today."

"To truly understand you have to break them down into three groups, High, Middle and Low. The High ancestral houses are different. And I don't mean different as in the way that every ancestral house is different, they are not like or even akin to most of the other houses. The biggest thing about them is that, we don't even know how old they are, it is not public knowledge, nor is it know their family histories, these are the house mentioned in myth and legends. With such age comes power and knowledge that is hard for the other houses to compete with. It is said that their magic feels old as not even the tombs of Egypt feel old." Harry paused here and Draco Malfoy spoke up.

"In many ways the eldest of the ancestral families gave us our magic in the manner that we know it to be now. It is why we know that we are still missing the names of several houses. We know the magics existed we have the gifts they forged, we've seen the remnants of their power, other lines have brought back the understanding of their magics, but we don't have all of the pieces to be able to achieve the feats of magic our ancestors did."

"We've been taught that because of their age, Ancestral houses have an innate extra connection that connects them to their house magics, it's why they are able to aid in the power boost that comes when our houses reach a certain age, it also makes them stronger than those of other lines. Taking this into account and the age the house has to be to gain house magics, it makes their houses, monsters of power. Giving them extra protections, and knowledge when forming and researching old magics. You have to understand that the house of Malfoy has some of the strongest family magic in Britian, we've existed as a house for about 15 hundred years now, we achieved house magics decades ago, but our house magics, compared to house Black who is about 400 years older than is rather small. House Black received their power of house magic two hundred years before house Malfoy, and that age wise not time wise. House magic is very powerful, the older the house the stronger it is, and the high ancestral houses have it in spades."

Draco hesitates before continuing, "the middle houses aren't as old as the high houses. Their history is more common knowledge, you see more evidence that they exist, though they are also monsters of power and might, but they aren't the titans of magic that the high ancestral houses are. Traditionally the empire they serve under now is not the first empire they have served under, that goes for the high ancestral families as well. Taking into consideration that most of the current empires have only stood, as they stand now, for about 2 to 3 millennia. Those house are all older than 4 millennia, but they aren't the estimated at least 10 millennia of the high ancestral."

Taking a breath Draco continued. "The lower ancestral houses are younger and returned to us old magic thought lost, such as the Dramir line of Russia who returned to us our knowledge of runic works in various forms and sets previously thought lost with only a few key sets remaining that we understood previously. No, they did not give us the language itself, they gave us the way the different sets interact with each other to form the high runic sets. The knowledge they had was nearly complete, they are only missing the Celtic runes of our own Britannian ancestors, the roman runes of ancient Rome, and a few other more esoteric runic languages. The house of Burilgi of the Mongol empire gave us the branch of magic called shadow magics, today that magic is once more lost to time and as that family is now once more gone, the magic is now lost agian."

Draco hesitated here trying to find words to explain it at which point Blaise Zabini spoke up. "As I have some experience with the committee, perhaps I can explain it in other ways. The path to ancestral status is littered with many different ways to ascend. The Taizhu of China ascended and gave no old magic back to the world, they ascended on miraculous deeds done alone. It's hard to tell where a house is in its walk to being ancestral because it's not like the other tiers of ascension where there are specific goals you have to achieve. The best we can say is that it's almost like a magical point system, you get a point for doing this, this and this, and then you may get the prize. But even that doesn't always come into play in the exact same way. The magical number to achieve is three, as far as we can tell. Three qualifications to be an ancestral house, sometimes a deed or magic given is so strong that it counts for two, but on average three points are required to become ancestral. The ascension to ancestral does not come from the magics of Albion or the magics of any of the other empires. It is the one title that surpasses borders and cultures and stands on its own as an international Avalon title. As such it is hard to track where a family is at in their journey. As such a committee was formed and is now part of the ICW, there job is to watch and as near as they can, to accurately guess when a line is about to ascend to ancestral and inform both the house and the public of its accession. Though the highest points on the scale seems to be the level of magic your house magic is at. Some houses have racked up far more points than others, it becomes a mere waiting game, waiting on the growth and strength of their house magics to reach the level required to stand with the ancestral lines. However, it can happen with or without a formal announcement, the chief marking comes from the rings themselves. Its why the house rings are so important. If you look at the Le-Fay house ring on Lord Le-Fays finger you would see that instead of being made of bronze of a house member, silver of the heir, or gold of the traditional lord, the rigs of the ancestral houses are made of mithril, for the house of Le-fay, as the house colors are silver and a rose gold, their mithril ring is also silver and rose gold in color. The Evan-Shade mithril ring is said to be Black and Red, as the Emrys's ring is white and silver. The rings transform the moment the house becomes Ancestral and is the first sign of its ascension."

Theodore Notts drawling voice then joined the session as he continued and spoke. "The reason the ancestral houses are so very important to us, is that those houses have enough power and strength that when called upon, a single member of one of those houses can do magics that it would traditionally take a full coven or circle to do. In their research and growth into becoming and even after becoming ancestral houses, some magical creatures have been formed and created by said houses. Some still roam free today and live out their lives like the centaurs, others were captured and bound, or driven extinct as they proved to be too strong, or too detrimental to our own survival to remain."

"Make no mistake though" Nott continued. "The ancestral houses are forces to be reckoned with, they are not usually quick to anger except over very specific matters but when they are riled few can challenge them, and those that have brought that rage down on their heads do not usually survive. The magics of an ancestral house are wild, it is not simply tamed by anyone. The house magics of a Most Ancient and Most Noble house requires rituals to claim them, because the magic is potent enough when you wield it to rip you to shreds. Attempting to wield the power of the ancestral houses is impossible without those rituals and more that pertain specifically to the ancestral houses is an automatic death sentence for more than that person but for everyone in their vicinity. The Ancestral houses were our rulers and kings before the land chose the royal houses, and they only knelt to the royal houses because the original heads of those houses were chosen by the magics of our land. It was what caused some of those houses to turn on the royals they once served at times, Egypt's first empire was felled by the ancestral house of Peverell, because the Pharaohs at the time had turned from their responsibility, generations later the Ptolemy line rose as Pharaohs, because they sought the approval of both the land and its people."

Another voice from the back 7th year section rang throughout the hall as a student Harry didn't recognize stood to speak. "The royal houses went hand and hand with the ancestral houses. They all have special gifts that set them apart, the strength of their house magics were awe inspiring and the houses produced giants of magic and power. It's where some of the blood purity issue comes into play. You Miss Granger as a muggleborn are around a half as strong magically as many of your pureblood classmates, not because your core is weaker but because you do not have the family and house magics to back you up. You could have the strongest core in this room and still not rank as strong as some of the others depending on the strength of their connection to the family magics. Lord Potter for all that his core has to be large to have done some of the things I've heard about, will never be as strong as Charlus Potter was, because Charlus gained a connection to family magic from both sides of his family, Harry did not and as such unless certain rituals were done during the days directly following his birth, he will never have the connection to the house and family magics of house Potter even his father had and will never be able to waken the Pendragon wards as is his blood right."

Here Harry interjected. "I suggest you tread carefully in your words, before you generalize and comments like that. My nerves are already strained today, and comments like that will only anger me considering I have already proven that I can wield the Albion wards, as I did with Prince Dimitri. That is not a wise move to make. As I feel this is information that needs to be clarified on, I will be taking us slightly off topic. For your information that is only true if the muggleborn is a true first-generation witch or wizard and has had absolutely no witches or wizards in their family tree. Hermione, like my own mother is classified as a squib born witch, as she received an inheritance of family and house magics. Even if that family and house magics are locked to her and others it does not mean that it is completely absent, and unable to reinforce her own magics with that of family and house magics. It shows in her potions work, as Miss Granger has been claimed by the Dagworth-Granger house even if for other reasons her guardianship remains with me. She was listed as a non-heir and it shows in her constant O potions exams since we started Hogwarts. Mine can very clearly be seen in my defense grades."

"But" another voice questioned. "your dad inherited blood line gift extended even to transfiguration, yours has not how do I explain that?

"Have any of you actually seen any of my grades from the first part of the second semester of first year. For that one semester I was ranked fifth for the entirety of the first years. Transfiguration in particular I was ranked as twelfth overall for highest transfiguration grades in all seven years. At the end of the second semester I had dropped to a solid A grade point average and had dropped to below the middle of my class range listings do any of you know why?"

Hermione gasped as something came together in her mind and she whirled and glared at Dumbledore. "Harry was stuck in the hospital wing for the final sessions of classes which held the practical sessions of our final exams. Without passing his practical's which I'm sure you did not allow him to take during the summer and he did not have enough time in the day that followed after he woke up. Without his practical's, as Harry gained an A his first semester, and an O his second semester overall, it would have been balanced against a failing grade of troll on his final exams, which would have brought him down to a E."

"I discovered that at the end of the next semester and decided after the chamber was opened that I just wouldn't apply myself. It's why I was able to do so well last year for the tournament and despite all my other responsibilities have maintained my fifth-place average for my grade level standings this year."

"Why didn't you and Professor McGonagall just discuss it maybe you could have recovered your grades or something?" someone asked.

"Well I did and was informed that as it was my own actions that landed me in the hospital wing for three days, it was my responsibility to inform my parents, or guardians that they needed to speak to the headmaster about taking my practical's over the summer. My muggle guardians that Dumbledore placed me with are also on the magic hating muggle registry for those in the know, as such I could not just ask them to do so, nor was I informed by anyone at Hogwarts that I needed to do such a thing."

"Now Harry, you shouldn't make up stories like that…" Dumbledore started.

"Madam Auror Tonks as an Auror you have a copy of the full list of magic hating muggle's with authorization to know about our world correct? Could you bring it out and look for the name Dursley?" Harry interrupted Dumbledore to addressing Nymphadora Tonks standing in the back of the room.

"I can. A, B, C, D, Da, De, Di, Du, Dursley, D-U-R-S-L-E-Y, is that the right spelling Harry?

"Yes, it is." Harry answered.

"I have three here, Vernon, Marge, and Petunia Dursley nee Evans, registered for this list as of 1979 for attacking Lilly Potter nee Evans, Petunia's sister after being informed that she was carrying the next Potter heir. The attack was so bad that she was placed in St. Mungo's for a week, and almost lost the next heir Potter no less than four times in that week. Said muggle's only answer for the attack was that she had deserved it for daring to attempt to bring another" she choked on the next word "freak into the world. Bring consideration forward with Miss. Evans over possibly erasing the memory of our world and her from her sister and brothers-in-law's minds."

"Miss. Tonks's those are private and not for…"

"Albus Dumbledore don't you start your lies and manipulations, that registry is public for anyone to see, I am more interested in why you obviously sent the boy to what was to be and no doubt looking at him was an abusive home, without the consent of either his parents will's, or the ministry of Magic?" Madam Bones stormily asked.

"Don't pretend you care about anything that's happened to Harry Madam Bones, he doesn't want you pity. When Harry asked for aid in charging Dumbledore for these crimes over the summer you denied him said right as he was a minor and was obviously lying. You criticized Harry when he informed you that he would move forward and present his case to the ICW, if you did nothing then, why is it now you want to help him. I can't believe your hypocrisy." Ron snapped out.

"You filthy blood traitor has no right to speak to my aunt that way…" Susan snapped back before she was interrupted and the room descended into chaos, it took the professors a good half an hour to regain control of the class before giving up, and dismissing the class an hour early. Hermione quickly pulled Harry aside and into a private room.

"I'm sorry Harry for the way I've been treating you. I just, things weren't making sense and, in many ways, still aren't. But I'm sorry I should never have doubted you."

"Hermione it's ok I completely understand as a muggleborn there are a few things that even our professors are restricted form telling you due to the Wizengamot's current laws, as your protectorate guardian however the Wizengamots laws don't affect my guardianship, only Albion's law does. As such I am cordially inviting you to a gathering in the bearers' dorms tonight for all those under my protectorate guardianship."

With that Harry and Hermione went their own ways to attend to different things. Hermione went back to the dorm to work on extra credit assignments, and later that evening attended the gathering in the bearer's common room learning all about things such as the Blood Rites and other such things, even taking her own first steps to claim her bloodlines and performing the awakening rite at that time with many others of her new family. Hermione was beginning to understand that the world could not be divided into black and white, but it was shades of grey, and in making that decision in seeing it in such a way, the last of Dumbledore's control on the brilliant girl faded never to hold sway in her life again.

For Harry he went back to his own rooms and was stuck in mirror calls, most of the day receiving new information from his black knights, mobilizing the military and stabilizing a business that was being destabilized by world events. Harry looked around the room it was time for him to head downstairs for the meeting, but he still had so much more to do. Looking around the room at the work that still needed done Harry's heart hardened a bit more against the people of Britain, a people to buried in their own power-hungry games to see the real issues going on. The highlight of his night so far had been reading the reports on his and Draco's casino, the money was pouring in hand over fist and by the end of the year despite the power grabs by Malfoys father, grandfather, Lord Le-Fay and others, his house would finally have enough to claim the title of Most Ancient and Utmost house of Potter, though Harry wondered if this war went anything like the last one if he would be force to claim the other title waiting in the wings instead. The title hidden away by generations of Potter's after all was by all rights, one of the greatest secrets house Potter had, it had a few extra points on the ancestral claim board and now also held enough house magic to ascend, if he truly stretched the house magic as his grandfather had done in the war against Grindelwald, or used any of the lost magics his house had access to in public the house magics would fully activate, and ascend. The house had played this game before, but this time the stakes were higher, Grindelwald was well aware of some of the Houses greatest secrets, becoming ancestral would only reveal them to the rest of the world, House Potter like the other houses of their age held dark secrets, secrets bound and hidden in the silent third family grimoire that was a mere rumor outside the family. House Potter had made mistakes and held a darkness inside of them that had attracted the darker black houses to them, though even Potter couldn't bear the Wakasazaki lines soul magic for very long. Many saw the family gift of the Potters as defense magics, but it wasn't. Due to the mistakes of the past no Potter could access the true Potter family gift. Harry wasn't sure he wanted to be able to. Having the ability to access that gift came at a price, a price he wasn't willing to pay.

Harry shook himself from his musings as he walked down the stairs to see the crowd of students gathered. Every student in this room was a Hogwarts student under either his, Neville's or Sirius's, protection through the inheritance fund. Along the walls stood mirrors connected to other rooms, at several other schools containing still more children under the houses protections.

"Attention, Attention," Harry shouted getting everyone's attention, and getting them to be quiet. "Good evening, I know that its Saturday night and everyone has other things they want to do tonight so I will try to make this brief. Tonight Neville, Sirius through his mirror, and I will be attempting to explain the tests you all undertook, and expound upon what the goblins, the ministry, and teachers may have told you. Firstly, I want you to pull out your legacy test we will be discussing this tonight. The legacy tests starts with a simple heading stating legacy test, and the word Father on the second line. On the third line you either have a blank space, saying you don't inherit anything from your father side of the family or a name. Now this name is followed by the words, heir, secondary heir, non-heir, with the secondary marking of; magic locked, blood locked, or prerequisite lock, please raise your hands if it does not say one of those things." Harry asked. Looking around and seeing that no-one had their hands raised he continued.

"Now depending on the lines or lines you inherit you may have one name under the category of father or several, each of these names will be followed by one of the aforementioned categories. The families under the word mother will be the same. Now I will explain what the primary words heir, secondary heir, and non-heir mean."

"Heir means that the house either already has a lord, and you are its heir, or the house has a requirement you must meet to claim the lordship of said house. For some of you with younger lines that requirement may be that you simply need to turn 17. Secondary heir means that there is someone already marked as the main heir, but that they are either underage or have not yet sired or born children able to become the secondary heir, it basically means your second in line for the lordship. Non-heir means you are considered to be part of the house, but are not Lord, heir or secondary heir of the house. All of these tests are self-updating and may change, so watch them."

Harry hesitates a moment before speaking. "After the Grindelwald war many new laws restricting how muggleborns where treated came into effect, these laws effect what can be taught to you, what jobs you can have, and even what schools you are allowed to attend. These laws even affected half-bloods not raised in the magical world. As such there are certain things that legally cannot be discussed with you, by British law at least, the ministry has deemed the information too dangerous for you to know. The secondary markings on your legacy tests are one such thing, how to overcome, them is another such thing. The reason many pureblood lines attempted to become protectorates was so they could theoretically hold the power of many of your houses with bearing the responsibility of actually claiming the lordship. Lord Malfoy was quoted as to say that if the ten years came up and the child is unable to become the head of house by right of the ring, the guardianship and proxy seats stay with the protectorate house, which is true. However, what he failed to realize is that as the fund is an Albion fund, all protectorates under the fund are required to follow the protectorate guidelines as set by the last monarch. These guidelines include teaching all of you, what it means to be blood locked, power locked, magic locked, or prerequisite locked."

"Prerequisite locked means that you have a prerequisite to meet before you can take the mantle of lord. This could be any number of things, it could mean you have to already be a parent, it could mean you simply have to be 21, the guidelines should be available to you upon request from the goblins, but you must request it. Power locked, means that your core has not been through the proper rituals to connect with the house magics, a costly fix, as you have to use the goblins ritual rooms, and it's a series of 5 rituals altogether but necessary ones. My own test would have said such if my father had not undergone them with me after my birth."

"The last two are both the hardest and most difficult to do, to have a magic locked title means that you must first learn and perform magic of a certain type to a certain point for the family magic to allow your guidance to wield it as its head. This usually has something to do with the house's family magic. Again, the information pertaining to the magic you have to have mastered for the magic lock to be lifted, can be requested from the goblins as it is different for each house."

"Blood locked takes a single ritual to possibly unlock. Blood rites however are not your standard ritual, they have severe consequences of not fully passing them. Even if you pass blood rites, the magic may still take punishment from you." Harry paused as something came to his attention. "My apologies, I realized something, continuing, all houses above Noble status, or about 1000 years old have developed family magic that if not properly handled can kill you, as such the magic of the family comes into play and will test you during this rite, if you fail this test in any way, shape, or form, you could lose your magic. Even if you pass the test you may not gain the full power of the magics of the house, even if you gain the title of lord."

"Ok, but that's all just loss of magic?" one person asked.

"Well, it could be loss of magic, which in our world is a pretty big deal, it could be the loss of a limb, it could mean that you can no longer use an entire branch of magic. A young man about fifty years back, the last muggleborn to perform the rite before the ban, attempted to claim a house whose family magic was runes, he himself was already well on his way to being, a runemaster. He partially failed the test and was unable to write in anything except runes for the rest of his life. He died in a runic explosion shortly after his son was born, while trying to write a paper on runes to finish his mastery, his son won't even touch the lords ring for fear of it happening to him. A very likely things considering when the family magic lays a punishment like that, it can pass through several generations. These generational curses are one of the biggest reasons why blood rites has been all but banned in the isles, that and the chance that if you fail to provide an heir for the lines you took blood rites for your own birth family could go extinct without an heir."

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Ok, let me explain that." Sirius piped up gaining everyone's attention. "Ok say a young man name Victor Roberts, heir of the Roberts family undergoes blood rites for three lines, he completely passes, no curses, no punishments, marries and has three children. His children grow up, all three houses that Lord Roberts underwent blood rites for are stronger politically than the house of Roberts and are older than the house of Roberts. Of his three children none of them are the heir of house Roberts. House Roberts dies with Lord Victor Roberts. This is a terrifying thought to almost any pureblood family out there."

Sirius continues, with Neville including tidbits here and there as Harry sat listening, but taking the time to relax and ruminate over his earlier epiphany. Just because Marvolo had gained the title Lord Le-Fay did not mean he could use the full family magics. With Marvolo in residence, Hogwarts would be in danger because Grindelwald would wanting to test whether or not Marvolo could adequately defend the Le-Fay key, and if he couldn't, if he couldn't then, by Harry's calculations based on his grandfather's calculations, he only needed two other keys to completely unravel the seals.