A/N: This chapter, like the previous one, is a bit shorter than usual, but it brings us closer to getting the gang back home in the UK. As of Tuesday, I am on holiday for 2 weeks, so I wanted to get this out before I left. I'm hoping I'll have a great fortnight of rest and relaxation before I get back into writing. See you all next time!
It had only been a day since Sirius, Harry, Amelia and Dorea had gone to the USA, and yet it had felt like a lifetime. Regulus and Ophelia were the man and woman of the house currently - and Regulus liked to think they were doing a good job. Sure, it was a lot quieter, but he knew they would be home in no time.
The weather had been pleasant, which meant the remaining kids - Blaise, Theo and Barnaby, - had spent most of it outdoors, whether it was playing quidditch, chilling with Buckbeak or just sitting outside on the grass.
Regulus was currently sitting in one of the study's on the first floor - sorting through the drawers and cabinets. Sirius had already started clearing it out before he left, but Regulus carried on doing it. In a way, it was therapeutic. But gosh, did he rue uncle Alphard (and other generations of the Black family that had lived in Black Manor) for keeping documents of literally everything… bills from Madam Malkin's, receipts of goods such as 4 kilogram bags of pure coffee beans, tea, and even luxuries such as caviar and truffle; Gringotts, Ministry and insurance documents… it was endless. Sirius's thinking was that the room simply needed gutting - and Regulus agreed, though he did wonder if his brother was planning on using the room as simply another room he could work in.
He had just taken a whole wad of paper documents out of one of the filing cabinets and sat it down on the desk with a big huff of breath when he noticed Theo in the doorway. He smiled at the young lad, who had been resembling a lost lamb ever since yesterday.
"Be careful. You could put your back out, lifting all that paper." The lad remarked.
Regulus chuckled. "I'll remind you that I am younger than Sirius, Theo. It's him you should be worried about in regards to creaking bones and joints." he paused, "What's up?"
"Amelia and Harry's birthday."
"What about it?"
"I really want to spoil Amelia, but I don't know how." Theo said, almost sheepishly.
"Does Harry not deserve to be spoiled too? And Dorea?" At Theo's pleading look, Regulus went back to being serious. "Right, well… What have you got her so far?"
"Before school broke up for summer, I went to the Quidditch outlet shop in Hogsmeade and got her jumpers and scarves of her two favourite Quidditch teams - the Wigtown Wanderers and the Tutshill Tornados, - but I want to also give her something more meaningful."
Something clicked in Regulus then. "Ah, now it just so happens that in one of the upstairs rooms, where generations of great-aunts and grandmothers of mine used to live in, there's a collection of jewellery. Necklaces, bracelets, rings.. All sorts. Some of them are very pricey."
Theo's eyes lit up. "Would you mind if I took a look?"
"Not at all!" Regulus said, "It's not like anyone here is using them. Come to think of it, some of them might be tarnished or need a clean up, but that should be quite easy to do."
He walked up the stairs with Theo beside him, and Regulus suddenly felt a bit jealous of the boy's luscious hair. The problem with Black Manor was that there were just so many rooms on each floor, with everyone looking like the one next to it, it was quite hard to remember what room had what in it.
They eventually found it - one of the very last rooms on the floor. Inside, there were actually three boxes worth, which blew Regulus's mind. He remembered his uncle Alphard once saying that the tradition of the collection of jewellery was started by an Apollonia Black, and was carried on by other ladies of the Black family such as Phoebe, Belvina, Callidora, and Elladora. Because of that, it had grown extensively, though hadn't dented the family vault much, clearly.
He gestured to the boxes. "You could take these to your room if it's easier. I'm sure Amelia would really love you if you gave them all to her, but if you ever get stuck on what to give her, get a few opinions. Secretly, of course."
Theo nodded. "I know roughly what colours and styles she likes, so it shouldn't be too hard. Thank you."
Theo was able to levitate two of the boxes, which meant Regulus carried the third one (he would have liked to have used magic, but ever since that… near fateful day in the cave destroying the Horcrux, he hadn't had a wand). It thankfully wasn't too heavy. He knew the lad would be hard at work with the Scourgify spell for a while at least.
He knew that either way, Amelia Potter would be very happy when her birthday rolled around, just under two weeks away.
Dinner that evening at Ilvermorny was as formal as the lunch had been earlier. Amelia had changed into a different shirt and trousers for this one, as tomorrow night was a dinner banquet, with some guests coming from MACUSA apparently. She had brought a dress for that one, and couldn't wait to wear it.
Their dinner starter was, like the lunch earlier, a choice of three different things - cheese pinwheels, filled sweet potato skins, and mozzarella sticks. Amelia had one of each, and quite liked the sweet potato skins the best. The main course was superb; beef brisket with creamy mash potatoes. Most of the guests had second helpings of the mash - it was delicious. Amelia thought dessert couldn't top the main, but she was wrong when a fresh apple pie was wheeled out and served. She even opted for a few scoops of ice cream to go with hers.
For tonight's seating arrangements, she was seated with Dorea next to Professor Fontaine. She didn't find the man intimidating, per se, but she wondered what on earth they had in common to talk about. He had mentioned a few times how much he loved Britain.
"Have you been to Hogwarts many times, sir?" Amelia asked him, when the food was being cleared away and some leisurely drinks were being served before the end of the banquet.
"A few, though it's been a while since my last visit. I do keep in regular letter contact with Professor Dumbledore though. I'll let you in on a few secrets from these meetings - if all goes well, there should be exchange student programmes being set up between Ilvermorny, Whitestar and Hogwarts. Now ain't that exciting?" Fontaine said.
Amelia would be more excited if she hadn't heard that rumour from Hunter Martinez earlier that day. Her and Dorea feigned surprise to be nice. She was intrigued about the fact that Whitestar (the Canadian school for magic) was also involved, though it was a good sign that all three countries were getting deals done.
"That sounds interesting, I'm sure lots of students from both our schools will be jumping at the chance to do that." Dorea said, with Amelia nodding agreement.
Fontaine downed a shot of whisky. Amelia could smell it from where she was sitting. "Will you two girls raise your glasses with me?" Fontaine said. Amelia thought the toast would be put to the whole table so they could all raise their glasses, but he seemed to only be toasting with them. "To our continued friendship."
"To our continued friendship," they both said at the same time, and clinked with Professor Fontaine. Some of the other guests seemed to take notice when they heard glasses clinking, but went back to their conversations not long after. Sirius kept looking at them from down the table, as did Harry; for some reason it was as if they were wary about them sitting so near Professor Fontaine.
Conversation between the three of them stalled a bit, filling the air with an awkward silence. Amelia shared a look with her godsister - what on earth was there to talk about with Professor Fontaine? They weren't really holding up conversation with him that well.
She heard the man grumbling a bit, and when she looked at him, he was filling yet another shot of whisky. Then he started speaking again. "Y'know, there's a girl transferring to Hogwarts from here."
"Oh, really?" Amelia was surprised, but thankful for some talking, at least, "Will she be an exchange student?"
"No, no. Permanent transfer." Fontaine said, clearing his throat. "She's British originally. Came here because Dumbledore said it was to 'keep her safe, far away from her father', whatever that meant."
Amelia could tell that Dorea was thinking the same thing as her - why was someone from Britain not attending the British Wizarding school?
She even briefly wondered if they were meant to hear this at all. Fontaine was slightly in his cups, but he wasn't wasted drunk, so surely he had some clue of what he was saying still.
"Who would this girl and her father be? Why would she need to be safe from him?" Dorea asked quietly. Amelia hoped she wasn't being too forward with this, as Fontaine might react badly if he realised he was telling them something confidential.
"A guy…" then he realised, "I'm not meant to tell ya. Besides, was my stupidity and carelessness that ruined her life, - a, erm, letter got out detailing her father, - which is the reason she's moving in the first place. But gods… can't look at her the same since knowing. Didn't know that my students would shun her for it, though."
What on earth is he on about? Amelia wondered. Dorea was looking as puzzled as her.
Fontaine changed the subject of the conversation to now focus on what Amelia and Dorea did subject-wise at school. It was after this conversation that the dinner concluded, and they were all dismissed back to their rooms.
Amelia was sure she fell asleep, still puzzled about what Fontaine said earlier.
The next day, after a modest breakfast and lunch, Harry walked with Amelia and Dorea towards the edge of the creature reserve to meet Aquinnah. Today she was joined by Chenoa. After greeting each other, they started walking.
"Have you all had a thought about what other issues can be brought up?" Dorea asked the two Native girls.
"Asuna mentioned when she got here that we could talk about how, because we face challenges and discrimination, many Native witches and wizards face further struggles regarding life after school." Chenoa explained.
"Yeah, we'll go into more detail about that when we get to my house." Aquinnah said.
When they arrived at Aquinnah and Tokala's home, they received a slightly warmer welcome. What was most surprising was that Wapeka and Sakari even said hello and gave them something of a smile.
When they got settled around the large table in the dining room, they got straight back to business. They had just under two days until Harry, Amelia and Dorea were leaving to go home, and lots of work still to do. Plus, there was the issue of arranging a meeting with the faculty…
Their first hour was spent talking more about issues. They went into further detail about what Chenoa explained earlier, and it was both interesting yet sad - for Native witches and wizards, because they were already marginalised, it put them at a disadvantage when it came time for them to find work. "Though employers aren't meant to be discriminatory, they definitely are towards us. They don't want the hassle. Which can leave us Natives working lower paid jobs just to get by, and as you can imagine, that can affect our living standards."
After another twenty-five minutes or so speaking about other issues, they got on to preparing what exactly they were going to say during their presentation to the faculty. They spoke some more about being persuasive, and presenting in a way that didn't come across accusatory - just speaking researched facts.
There was also the issue of who was going to say what. "Are you guys wanting us to actually speak in the presentation?" Amelia asked. "I don't want us to sound like we're speaking over your issues."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Taima said, "you guys have already done plenty just being here and helping us."
"Tonight at the dinner banquet, we could speak to Professor Fontaine on your behalf about arranging the meeting," Harry said, an idea sparking, "because he already likes us and is our host, he'll hear us out, and will probably be more inclined to say yes."
Most of the natives nodded their heads at that, some agreeing ardently.
"Who all is on the faculty?" Dorea asked.
"Fontaine and Adams. The others are mostly old white people who are bored with retirement, have loads of money to throw around, or are the fathers and grandfathers of current students." Mitena explained.
Just like the faculty of Hogwarts. Harry thought, thinking about how Malfoy Snr was on the faculty before his jail sentence. Neville's gran was on it too, he was pretty sure.
After another hour, they finally had something that resembled a presentation. On parchment paper, each Native had written down their notes and what was going to be said. Once the specifics were narrowed down, they adjourned for a break.
Aquinnah almost sprang out of her seat, and looked at Harry, Amelia and Dorea. "Oh, gosh! I completely forgot yesterday to offer you guys drinks!"
Tokala tutted. "Jeez, Aquinnah, it's not like they are our guests or anything."
Harry laughed, as did the girls. "It's fine, honestly. We had plenty of food and drink yesterday, and today as well."
"Can I at least get you three glasses of water? To make up for it?" Aquinnah pleaded. Harry surrendered and nodded, as did Amelia and Dorea.
In their little interim break, Wapeka, Denali and Sakari approached the three of them. Harry eyed them, wondering if they were about to get more snide remarks or earfuls.
"Hey," the two girls said.
"Hey," Dorea responded, "you guys okay?"
"Yeah, erm.. We're just here to say we're sorry for misjudging you three." Sakari said earnestly.
"We can tell you guys are genuine about helping us." Wapeka added. "Us two have a hard time trusting people claiming to 'help'. Ever since we've dedicated ourselves to change, so many people have vowed to help us, but leave us hanging in the end."
"That's why we have a bit of a hard time warming up to folks." Denali concluded.
"Honestly, I don't blame you for being like that." Harry said.
"We would do the same." Amelia said.
After another few minutes of accepting apologies and getting to know Denali, Sakari and Wapeka, Aquinnah called an end to their break. When they got back to business, there was another hour of preparing their notes, and once that was done they had a quick mock presentation, where Harry, Dorea and Amelia sat and listened as if they were the faculty. The overall presentation was just over thirteen minutes long, which they deemed a good length. After making a note of things to work on, they were basically wrapped up.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief. All that was left to do was talk to Professor Fontaine tonight at the dinner banquet. He prayed that most of the faculty could spare just fifteen minutes tomorrow, as that was their last day in America before heading back home - and Harry wanted to be here to hear how it went.
He really, really hoped they had done enough on the persuasion part. But nonetheless, he had a really good feeling about this.
A/N: Give yourself a pat on the back if you worked out that when Fontaine was half-drunkedly rambling about the girl that was transferring to Hogwarts from Ilvermorny, he was referring to Isadora.