Ch 10 Planning the Next Steps
The day after James and Erica met their parents, Harry was talking to Hermione about the situation at Hogwarts, and especially about Albus and Cleo, Scorpius and Rose. They were in her office with her privacy wards activated.
"The head of the family really should show up to force a marriage," Hermione told Harry. "At least that is how I read the law."
"Does the law really imply that as head of the family Jezebel has to show up to force Cleo and Scorpius to marry?" Harry wondered.
"That is how I am reading the law, Harry," Hermione evasively responded. "That is what I've told Narcissa and Cleo.
"Are you as worried about this plan as I am?"
Harry replied, "Terrified."
"I think I am more worried about Rose, and Scorpius, than I am about Albus and Cleo," Hermione sighed, obviously very worried. "Everything we do will have to be focused on protecting Al and Cleo. I am just afraid that Rose or Scorpius or both may end up … hurt or … dead."
Harry stood up and hugged Hermione. "I wish I had some comforting words," Harry replied.
Cleo walked out to a tent where a meeting had been set up with a representative of Jezebel. The Ministry and Hogwarts had promised free passage for the witch, who was sitting on a chair waiting.
Cleo showed up, accompanied by Dis and one of the Hogwarts Elves, and making sure to keep from touching distance of the witch.
"According to our law you do not need to marry at Malfoy Manor," the witch insisted.
"Show me the law, where it is published by the International Confederation of Witches and Wizards, and where this supposed island is," Cleo retorted. "From what Hermione Granger-Weasley says, only the head of the family can force Scorpius and I to marry. So, are you saying that I should proclaim my mother head of this supposed island since the former head is too much a coward to come to my wedding?"
"Your mother will never be head of the island," the witch snapped.
"So maybe I should proclaim myself head of the island, and since she is such a coward just assemble an army and kill her?"
"You have no idea what powers you are confronting!" the witch exclaimed, jumping to her feet in anger.
Cleo took out her unusual wand. "I'm not exactly powerless myself, especially against a coward," she smirked, waving the wand. "If Jezebel doesn't show up maybe I should just marry Albus, and then she can confront the Elder Wand and the great-grandchild she was too much a coward to even meet."
Cleo arose and left.
"I've told Draco, Astoria, and everyone I can get in touch with from Jezebel's island that Cleo and Scorpius are not going to her island to marry, and they are not going to marry at Malfoy Manor if she doesn't care enough to show up," Narcissa told Harry. "I've told them what Hermione told me as well. It is not going over well, but I think by standing our ground we are beginning to make progress."
"We'd better have a big meeting to plan this," Harry replied. "We probably should have done more planning sooner, but I didn't think this crazy plan of Albus's would work. I will get people together tomorrow morning. I may have the four youngsters spend the weekend."
Saturday morning Harry looked at the calendar. It was Saturday November twenty-sixth. He knew that Jezebel was going to want to confront Cleo, ideally have her back on the island, before her birthday December twenty-fifth, less than a month away. Harry was nervous. He went to Hogwarts, and picked up the four young Magi and their Elves, and brought them back to Grimmauld Place.
Ginny, Ron and Hermione met the group and took them down to the secure room under thirteen Grimmauld Place, a room shielded from Apparating and, Albus knew, shielded from anyone finding out about underage magic or the experiments that Weasley's Wizard Wheezes did in this room.
"We have more people coming to meet with us, but we wanted to talk to you privately first," Harry told the group.
Ginny asked the girls, "How do you feel about being pregnant?"
Rose thought, "It changes your body. It sure upsets your stomach, although the potions have taken care of that. I wanted to have children sometime, but not so soon. It's not the worst thing that could happen, but I really didn't want to be married this young.
"I mean, I've read about it, and talked to the matrons, and witches really are mature enough to become pregnant at sixteen, which is why it is so difficult to have a spell that keeps witches from becoming pregnant when they are sixteen or older. Witches do not have many miscarriages or handicapped babies. It happens, but it is rare. So physically we are ready.
"Actually, it is not the pregnancy that has me worried. It is the baby. It is that next summer instead of having a summer vacation I'll have a baby and I want to be a mother and do all the mothering things but not so soon!"
Ginny looked at Cleo. She beamed, "I guess I'm supposed to be sad or upset. I've always wanted to be a mother. I feel great! I think this is the best thing that could happen to me, well, maybe a little early. Al is just such a fantastic wizard, and we get along so well, and if we are with each other more earlier I just think that is," Cleo looked at Al with an enormous smile on her face, and gave a big sigh, "great!"
"Before the last couple of months, you couldn't be with Al a whole lot more," an exasperated Rose observed. "The last couple of months have been hard, not being able to spend as much time with Scorpius. It has been really awkward and hard. I didn't realize how comfortable it had become just spending time with Scorpius, and I MISS it."
"Albus and I, we'll sleep together! We wouldn't have to worry about kissing leading to … to … to gettingpregnant!" Cleo observed.
"You still have to worry about getting pregnant after you are married," Ginny corrected. "You don't want to spend your whole married life pregnant."
"WHY NOT? Pregnant and nursing and raising children, Oh Mrs. Potter," Cleo exclaimed, and then whispered, eyes wide open, "It's like a dream come true."
"CLEO," Ginny gasped. "You are sixteen. Witches age slower than Muggles and can get pregnant until they are almost sixty years old. That's forty-four years! Do you really want to be pregnant and nursing for the next forty-four years?"
"I think so," Cleo responded cautiously. "I kind of think that is who and what I am."
Ginny looked at Al. "I kind of think maybe she is right," Albus pondered. "Maybe not a child every year or anything like that, but certainly having lots of children. I've read about all the potions that Magi, mostly witches, have developed to allow a witch to recover from giving birth and then recover from the stress of nursing. The next days will tell us a lot, though."
"And you are going to father all these children?" Ginny wondered.
"I really did not think that was a job you delegated," Albus grinned. "I certainly intend to be the biological father to all of our children, unless we adopt some. Even if we adopt a child I will still be the father.
"Dad says it's the best job in the world. If we have a lot of children, I will just have a lot of the best jobs in the world!"
"The problem is," Cleo added, looking less sure of herself, "that some of the couples I know who are marrying, or who I think will marry, are not mature enough emotionally. Most of them, almost all of them, maybe all of them, will be able to make it work. I think the only case where the father of the baby is not the one the witch is going to marry, she is going to marry her boyfriend and not the father of the baby, which is good. Well, it's better than the alternative, but it is not good. They are not saying anything about it, and I'm not going to say who it is, but like most of the couples they are marrying sooner than they would like to.
"Things change when you are married, or formally engaged. Things have changed between James and Erica, because they are formally engaged and voluntarily consummated their relationship. With many of the students, most of them, it is like rape. Not the wizard raping the witch, but the spell raping both of them. That's bad.
"I wanted as many witches pregnant as possible, when I was younger, but seeing it happen, and it is not ideal. Not the babies. No baby is ever a bad thing, but being pregnant when you are not ready, marrying when you are not ready, that is not ideal."
"I think that is a good way to put it, Cleo," Hermione confirmed. "That spell raped the students, the wizards as well as the witches. It is not fair to any of the couples. Unfortunately, life is not always fair. We are lucky that all but one couple that became pregnant were already dating or engaged. Could you imagine if they weren't? How devastating that would be for both parties."
Harry told the group, "I need to meet some other people. I've already arranged for a number of them to come."
Harry went upstairs to meet the new people.
Nausicaa came through the Floo.
"Prophesies and omens are going crazy, Harry," Nausicaa said. "Have been for the last weeks."
"I will explain in a secure location," Harry told Nausicaa, and he led her down to the secure room. Teddy had come shortly after Nausicaa, and he followed. Harry went back upstairs to meet Narcissa, who had gone to the New Burrow. Just after Narcissa came through the Floo Minerva McGonagall appeared. Harry led them both downstairs.
"I wish there was a way we could disappear from the maps at the Ministry," Harry thought. "Is there any way to make this room even more secure?"
"Do you have a map of Grimmauld Place on you?" Albus asked.
Harry took out a modest sized map of twelve and thirteen Grimmauld Place
Albus looked at the map, took out his wand, and pointed, and Teddy and Nausicaa disappeared. Then Minerva McGonagall disappeared. Finally, the rest seemed to be scattered in various rooms upstairs.
"Son of a … how did you do that?" Harry wondered.
"Oh, I'm pretty good at magic," Albus offhandedly replied, a small grin showing, Harry biffed him on the back of the head cause both males to chuckle. "The wand's not bad either."
Nausicaa stifled a guffaw at this remark.
"I think this group needs to know about the magic objects, who possesses them, and at least some of the prophesies," Harry started. "I know we do not understand all of them, and some of them are reserved for only a few people."
"Why?" asked Nausicaa.
Harry answered, "I think we have our best chance to kill Jezebel Nukpana and free her cursed island, and if we do not confront her but frustrate her plans by hiding who knows what havoc she might wreck. There is no safety in trying to hide. And if these youngsters are going to have to face her they ought to know who they are facing and what the stakes are."
"Where shall we start?" asked Nausicaa.
"With the objects," Harry proposed. "It shows we are not just talking about current problems and people, but about objects and people and prophesies that are thousands of years old."
"Ah, the three, and the two, and the one," Nausicaa nodded. "The three original Crystal balls, still the most powerful, the two wands, and the one ring.
"The ring is the Resurrection Stone. It has great potential for good, but only if yielded by someone who can resist the temptation to use it for his or her own good. So far no one who has made a habit of wearing it has resisted temptation, except for Albus. Albus, may we see it?"
Albus took the ring out of his pocket. "That's why I never wear it," he said, "unless briefly to help other people. I put it on to heal Cleo when she was kidnapped, or merpeople-napped, and for Teddy, Teddy and Victoire, and I suppose I will have to put it on to heal other people, but I told myself after talking to the centaurs that I would never just wear this ring, never, on my finger, on a chain around my neck, never!"
"We are defined by our choices," Harry observed, proud of Albus.
"Yes, indeed," Nausicaa confirmed. "Wise choice, Albus. I don't think you can just use it a little for yourself. I think you must never never put the ring on unless called by others to help others.
"The two are the two original wands, the male wand never used by a female, the Elder wand, and the Wand of Circe, of Hera, of the Pirate Witches of the Caribbean, never used by a male."
Nausicaa told Albus. "Show your wand to your mother."
Albus handed the wand to Ginny. She took it and immediately dropped it, saying "AAAhhhh, Oh Oh that's horrible."
"Hermione?" Nausicaa continued, pointing to the wand. Hermione was within about eighteen inches of the wand before saying, "That's one powerful wand. It just feels like a woman really should not touch that wand."
"Rose?" asked Nausicaa.
"I'd really rather not," Rose replied. "I don't have any problem being near it when Albus has it, but I really don't want to touch it.
"Cleopatra?" asked Nausicaa.
Cleopatra picked up the wand, looked at it, and handed it back to Albus. "It does have strong masculine spells on it," she told the group. "I expect it is like my wand, with its strong feminine spells.
"May I see your wand?" asked Nausicaa. Cleo handed it over. Nausicaa felt it and looked at it, eyes getting wider and wider. "Oh my, Cleo," she gasped. "There were only a dozen wands ever made with strong gender. I think they were made for couples, six couples, although as far as I know no two are with couples now. I have no idea how many of the twelve still exist.
"I am almost sure this is the next strongest female wand next to the wand of Circe. Harry?" and Nausicaa handed it to Harry.
Harry touched it and quickly put it on the floor. "I touched it before it was purchased for Cleo. It really doesn't want a man handling it, does it?"
"No," Nausicaa replied. "Except Albus does not have any problem with it." Nausicaa nodded to Albus, who picked it up and handed it back to Cleo.
"Why can Albus and Cleopatra pick up each other's wands?" Hermione wondered.
"I'm not totally sure," Nausicaa pondered. "Cleopatra, have you ever wanted to be a boy?"
"Of course not!" replied Cleopatra. "Boys don't have babies. Besides Al is a boy and I couldn't marry Albus if I was a boy, not marry him and have his babies." Cleopatra said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and that what she said really settled it. Albus was a boy and she was a girl and she wanted to have his babies.
"Albus," asked Nausicaa, "Have you ever wanted to be a girl?"
"I never was given the option, really," Albus replied. "I've always been pretty happy being me. It's pretty stupid to talk about it at this point, anyway. I sure don't want anyone else making babies with Cleo while I'm around!"
"Well as I said, the other feminine wand, the original wand, has been in the hands of a Pirate Witch Queen of the Caribbean for the last five hundred years," Nausicaa let the group know.
"Let's move on to the third objects, the Crystal balls. There are three original Crystal balls, and all the other Crystal balls are just copies. One of the Crystal balls is in Switzerland, and the prophets use it. Harry, that is the one we have had you use. One is in the Caribbean, owned by the Pirate Witch Queens, and one is owned by the King of the Dementors, a very old semi-living wizard somewhere in the East.
"Any Magi possessing one of these objects is powerful, and possessing two of them makes you extraordinarily powerful and very subject to the prophesies and fates."
"Albus has two of them!" Rose noted.
"He has had both since his first year at Hogwarts," Scorpius added.
"I know that," Nausicaa confirmed. "That's why we are here. Extremely important things are happening.
"The Pirate Witch Queens of the Caribbean have never passed the wand and island down to their daughters, but only to granddaughters or great-granddaughters or in one case to a great great-granddaughter, usually after the descendent kills the owner of the wand. The current witch has one living daughter who is little more than a slave, not a good person but no great evil will either, and amazingly enough a grand-daughter who is married, is a good person, and lives with her husband and a younger daughter on a boat almost eleven months of the year. For at least thirty days they have to live on the island.
"Their oldest daughter is the heir. We have been aware of her since she was born. At five years of age she was placed with a family in England, to marry their son we think.
"Cleopatra, you are the heir to the island."
"I was supposed to marry Scorpius!" whispered Cleo.
"And we cannot let Jezebel Nukpana find out that you are not pregnant with Scorpius' child!" exclaimed Harry.
"Well, everyone at Hogwarts is whispering about how I'm pregnant with my cousin Albus's baby, and Scorpius impregnated Cleo and they may have to marry," Rose let the group know.
"I've heard the rumors, and have done nothing to contradict them," Minerva added.
"We've kept it out of the Prophet," Ginny added. "Hermione and I've threatened to exterminate Rita if she says anything until after Christmas. I've promised the editor a whole series of stories after Christmas as well, but stressed that there are good reasons to keep everything quiet until then."
"So you're pregnant with Malfoy's baby," Ron said, looking at Rose.
"And I'm not getting an abortion and we are getting married and I'm going to be Rose Granger-Malfoy and you are just going to have to deal with it!" Rose almost shouted.
"I like Scorpius, Poppet," Ron reflected, pulling Rose into a hug. "I would never ask you to have an abortion no matter the father. I may not like Draco, but I love his son."
Ron smiled at Scorpius, who smiled back, both pleased and somewhat shocked.
Ron continued, "Granger-Malfoy? I can guess that becoming Granger-Malfoy will not go over well with Draco. I would like to see Lucius Malfoy's face when you introduce Rose as Rose Granger-Malfoy."
"Wait until I tell them I'm changing the family name, and I'm going to be Scorpius Hyperon Granger-Malfoy," Scorpius volunteered.
"I seriously doubt if that will be acceptable to Lucius or Draco," Narcissa thought.
Scorpius just shrugged at her remark.
"I cannot imagine grandfather Malfoy accepting me," Rose sarcastically remarked.
Harry suggested, "Jezebel Nukpana is going to expect that Cleopatra and Scorpius are going to get married. I expect that she is going to want them to go to the island, where she can kill Scorpius and imprison Cleo."
"I can't say I'm much in favor of that plan," Scorpius mused.
"HOW can we be SAFE?" Cleo asked.
"I think the safest plan is the most dangerous," Harry suggested. "Any attempt to hide and I think the gods would be angry, the omens telling of great things would be broken, and Jezebel Nukpana would go on a rampage that would do immense destruction. Some of us may live, but also live to regret it.
"The other option is to act as if Cleo was pregnant with Scorpius' baby, accepting the rumor that maybe Rose is pregnant by Albus, and set a wedding for Scorpius and Rose for just before Christmas. We have to insist that they will be married in England, at Malfoy Manor. And once Jezebel Nukpana arrives we spring a trap, battle her and either capture or kill her.
"I've told several people we should have started planning this well before the formal betrothal contract were signed, but in all honesty I didn't think it would work. I was also worried that somehow someone or something would force Scorpius and Cleo to marry. That is why, I guess, I wanted the formal betrothal contracts signed as soon as possible."
Harry looked at the assembled group. "I cannot imagine Jezebel surrendering, so we really are going to have to plan as if our only choice is to kill her. If she surrenders, that would change everything, but I just don't see it happening.
"The only thing in our favor is the strong almost unbreakable law that a wizard must marry the witch he impregnated."
"Cleo and I have to battle her," Albus insisted. "I have the elder wand, and it is Cleo's great-grandmother. We have to battle her or die trying."
"I am afraid you are right," Harry agreed. "The omens are with you, but if you are not terrified you should be. Things go wrong."
"I need to be there," Scorpius noted.
"Yes, for Jezebel Nukpana to come you have to be there," Harry agreed.
"If Scorpius is there I need to be there too," Rose grimly insisted.
"NO," Ron yelled. "This is too much. Rose stays away." He looked grim and Rose opened her mouth to argue when her mother cut in.
"Just like you left Harry and me?" Hermione muttered at Ron, who looked at her horrified. "I'm not happy with this at all, and my heart says keep Rose safe, but my head says she needs to be with this group."
"It's a terrible comparison, but a fair one, Ron," Harry added. "Rose has been part of this foursome from the beginning. She needs to be next to her husband to be and the father of her baby. I think it is absolutely terrifying, and terribly dangerous, and necessary."
"Will everybody be all right?" asked Cleo.
"No," Harry admitted. "I greatly fear many people will get hurt or die, and we may be among the dead or injured."
"May I say something," Teddy interrupted. "I spent years on Jezebel Nukpana's island. She averages a human sacrifice a day. She probably rips the heart out of close to four hundred living beings, old and young, infants and children in front of their parents, all while they are alive and aware, every year. We could suffer a hundred killed and in the grand scheme of things be way ahead. I hope we have a minimum of casualties, but she is so horrible a person, from a long line of horrible people, that it is worth it.
"I'm just starting a young family. I feel the pain of my parents who died when I was less than twoweeks old. I do not want to die! But if I had to die to put an end to Jezebel Nukpana reign I would do it in a moment, not without huge regrets but I would still do it."
Scorpius turned to the man he had been calling 'Uncle Harry.' "Mr. Potter, Sir, I'm the most expendable. If someone has to be up front, I mean Rose and Cleo are pregnant and Albus with the wand is important, but I need to make up for all the evil my family has done and if my sacrifice can do some good maybe it will help redeem the Malfoy name, a little?"
"Thank you, Scorpius," Harry replied. "You will be close enough to the front of the action to be in real danger, but I'm not making you or anyone a suicide."
"Don't you go bloody dying on me just when I've begun to really like you, Malfoy," Ron growled. "Don't go leaving that grandchild of mine without a father, either!"
"I'll do my best, sir," Scorpius told Ron.
"We have to assume that Jezebel will appear at Malfoy Manor," Harry let the group know, "and that she will not appear before she sends a large contingent before her, and does her best to neutralize any threat."
"Cleo and I can both unlock the handcuffs," Albus volunteered.
"They still had their wands," Hermione observed. "We have to be prepared for them taking their wands."
"I can make it hard to get a wand out of a wand pocket," Albus suggested.
"Hard, or impossible, and how quickly could you get your wand then?" Harry asked.
"Probably not impossible," Albus admitted.
"Could we furnish each of the four with duplicate wands, real wands that look like their wands?" Harry wondered.
"Cleo's is going to be hard," Hermione thought. "I've seen other witches from the Orient with wands of bamboo with a sandalwood handle, though."
"If the wand in our pockets is going to be a duplicate, where are our wands going to be?" Albus asked.
Harry held out his hand, and his wand flew into it. He explained, "The reason almost all DMLE officers wear jackets, even in the summer, is to conceal their wand." He took off his jacket. "This contraption on my arm is a wand holster. With a little practice you just have to think and the wand is in your hand. If all four of you are wearing robes I think we can conceal your wands on your arms.
"I think I can get Joey Middy over here to fit you with wand holsters this weekend," Harry suggested.
"How many people could Jezebel bring with her?" Harry asked Teddy.
"There are never more than five hundred on the island, usually about four hundred, and that includes children and others that would not be available," Teddy remembered. "She is not going to leave the island undefended either. I would guess she could send a hundred, at most."
"Our living room is big, but not that big," Narcissa thought. "Still, you could put twenty-five in easily. We have had twenty couples, although they were seldom all in the living room."
"So how many allies could we have?" Harry wondered.
"Grandmother," Scorpius volunteered. Narcissa nodded.
"Cleo's parents, if you can get them wands," Teddy added.
"What can we expect from Draco and Astoria," Harry asked Narcissa.
"Probably nothing," she answered. "Certainly nothing from Astoria, and probably nothing from Draco."
"Elves?" Harry wondered, as he turned to look at Frerin.
"None of the Elves are on Jezebel's side," Frerin volunteered. "None of the Elves of the household, not even Gritrude or Rapier. Probably not Druella Black, either, from what Rapier says."
"What about Godiva Malfoy?" Harry wondered.
"No help, maybe an enemy," Frerin shook his head. "Hard for her Elf."
"Will the Elves of the house help?" Harry wondered.
"Like at Battle of Hogwarts," Frerin confirmed.
"We can assume that there will be Anti-apparition spells around Malfoy Manor, and I cannot just have any extra Magi or even Elves Apparate into the Manor," Harry explained. "Is there anywhere in the Manor where they could hide?"
"Elf quarters," Frerin suggested.
Teddy thought, "Jezebel still treats Elves as house elves, and will not suspect that they may be on our side, Maybe Elves working for Harry, but not the Elves of the household. It may work for the Elves to say that Jezebel's people cannot come into the Elf quarters."
The group spent the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with ways to defeat Jezebel and the small army she was likely to bring with her.
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