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Black and Malfoy Before Third Task

In the months since the Second Task, Harry Potter maintained his calm exterior, kept all the adults at Hogwarts at arm's length, avoided the press with the help of his elf, and corresponded with Vault-manager Ironstream using Hedwig and (Dobby with the most important documents). He directed Ironstream to make investments in firms based in mundane Britain and other nations. There was great consternation within Gringotts when large chunks of gold departed for banks in the mundane world. But the monthly financial reports proved the muggles (mundanes) understood business. Other goblin vault managers began investigating investment opportunities in the mundane world.

Despite the best efforts by Albus Dumbledore to bring about a reconciliation between Sirius Black and his godson, there were no words of reconciliation between the two wizards. On a Hogsmeade weekend, Sirius Black appeared in the village and harassed several students he thought could tell him where his godson was hiding.

Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger defended themselves well and held off Black until Professor Flitwick arrived from the centre of the village to blast Sirius against a wall.

"Mr Longbottom and Miss Granger, are you well?"

"Yes, professor, thank you."

"We've had enough extra lessons with Harry to be able to defend ourselves," Hermione replied. "We didn't want to hurt the man."

Listening from the side lines, Draco Malfoy scoffed and said, "Who would ever think that a mudblood could hurt someone from the Black family!"

"Draco Malfoy, are you causing problems with my friends?" asked Harry, who appeared behind everyone with a loud pop. The young wizard wore the crests of his three lordships on the breast of his outer robes. "You're interrupting a business meeting at Gringotts!"

"What is the problem…" Harry asked before he saw Sirius rising from the ground. He asked, "Sirius Black, what are you doing in Hogsmeade?"

"You worthless son of a mudblood bitch!" Sirius cursed. "Dumbledore said you'd be here, and I should talk some sense into you. You're too young to become head of the Black family.

Harry frowned and wondered why Dumbledore chose this as the time to involve Sirius in the headmaster's thus far fruitless attempts to curb Harry's growing independence.

"Head of the Black family?" cried Draco Malfoy. "No! Scarhead can't be…he's practically a mudblood himself!"

Malfoy's mouth was large and loud; his declaration attracted the attention of every person not already listening to the conversation.

Harry frowned and his magic flared outwards, making everyone flinch. Unfortunately, Draco and Sirius reacted by drawing their wands and firing hexes at Harry Potter. The Potter family magics provided a shield around Lord Potter to protect him from these spells. The Black family magics reflected the hexes away from the lord and back onto the wizard who cast the spell. And the Slytherin family magics magnified the spells to be five times more powerful.

Sirius was once again thrown back against the wall of a building and this time he remained there. Draco was more fortunate – his spell hit him and knocked him ass-over-teakettle for three full loops before he landed in a crowd of Slytherin and Ravenclaw students gathered to watch the fun.

Flitwick hurried to determine if any student was injured – only Draco required a trip to the infirmary. However, Sirius needed to be healed from a concussion and several broken bones. An invisible elf popped the unconscious wizard away to Saint Mungo's while Harry determined that Neville and Hermione were unharmed. Harry thanked Professor Flitwick for his timely intervention. Once Neville escorted Hermione away, Harry asked a favour of Flitwick.

"Professor would you ask the healer in the infirmary to confine Draco to the infirmary until such time as I can speak to him?"

Flitwick's eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead but agreed to make the request. "I can't guarantee the healer will keep him there. Madam Pomphrey kowtows to the purebloods."

"A confrontation in the Great Hall in front of the entire school will have to do then," Harry said before he popped away, returning to the meeting at Gringotts.

Appearing at the intake desk in Casualty at Saint Mungo's, Harry Potter strode forward and politely asked to visit his godfather, Sirius Black. The young witch frowned at first – the teenager was well known in Magical Britain.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?"

Harry smiled and allowed his three lordship rings to appear on his hand he laid on the desk. He said, "It is a matter of family magic that Lord Black speak to Sirius Black, a wayward member of his family, immediately."

Confused and unsure what to do, the apprentice healer sent for a full-fledged healer. The man barrelled out of the doors, fussed at the girl and the Boy-Who-Lived until he noticed the rings – Potter, Black, and Slytherin.

"Lord…Lord Black, allow me to escort you to your…to Sirius Black."

Harry followed the man after thanking the young witch who remained agitated for the remainder of her shift. Inside the casualty department, Harry was led to a set of screens that confined Sirius Black to a hospital bed and muffled all voices inside and outside.

Awake and unhappy, Sirius growled when he saw his godson walk into the 'room.' He frowned and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Sirius Black, son of Orion Black, do you wish to be freed of all obligations and mandates of behaviour required by Lord Black?"

"What? What are you going on about, mudblood?"

Making a fist and revealing to Sirius that he wore the lordship ring, Harry asked again, "Sirius Black, son of Orion Black, do you wish to be freed of all obligations and mandates of behaviour required by Lord Black?

Furious, Sirius shouted, "How the bloody Merlin did you steal the lordship ring? Who made you Lord Black?"

Before Harry could ask the question for a third time, Sirius replied, "Yes, by Dumbledore's long beard, I want to be free of obligations and mandates to the damned Black family!"

Harry nodded, raised his hand without his wand and declared, "Sirius Orion Black, born son of Orion Polaris Black, by thine own choice, thou are cast out of the family Black. The family magics are gone. The name Black is gone."

There was a swirl of magic in the air over the hospital bed, and Sirius NoName fell back, a light groan escaping from his lips.

"Farewell, Sirius NoName. Access to any Black family properties is denied to you. The personal vault at Gringotts remains yours, but the Vault-manager for the Black family will not serve you again."

Harry turned to leave, paused while considering if he should say more, and decided to depart without additional words. In his bed, Sirius NoName realized his mind was clearer – the Black family madness was gone from his mind and magical core.

'Merlin…I failed completely as godfather for Harry. James will curse me when I pass over to the other side,' he realized. Then he shivered imaging what Lily Potter (nee Evans) would say and do to him.

Harry returned to Hogsmeade using the floo at Saint Mungo's and arrived in the taproom at Three Broomsticks. He was greeted politely by the witch who ran the tavern but was ignored by the few Hogwarts students still in the tavern. He paused for a moment, debating having a butterbeer and thinking about what had just happened at Saint Mungo's.

'No, I've lost Sirius and won't dwell on it. He's an idiot!'

Making his way outside, Harry found one of the carriages waiting for passengers to make the trip back to the castle. It was late on Saturday – almost supper time and the young lord climbed into the carriage. Seeing others holding back as if afraid of him, Harry growled at the students, "Get in. You'll be standing here at curfew waiting if you don't get on board."

During the ride back to Hogwarts, a fifth year Ravenclaw asked about Parseltongue, and a fifth year Slytherin asked if Lord Slytherin knew anything about the language helping with healing spells. That sparked a conversation about the wizard Hippocrates who began the study of healing in ancient times. Harry promised the witch he'd loan her a copy of a book on healing spells he'd found in the Slytherin vault.

"Is it in Parseltongue?"

"No, but it is in Olde English, so you'll have to translate the sentences into modern English to really understand them."

"I'll do it!" the young witch stated firmly.

Entering the Great Hall with the other students for the evening meal, Harry was disgruntled to see Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy in conversation with Headmaster Dumbledore near the door. Draco stood at his father's side and sneered at Harry.

"Father!" Draco declared. "Potter is here! Deal with the mudblood!"

Harry didn't bother to look toward the headmaster for any support or even the man's usual suggestion of 'Let's move this conversation to my office.' His wand slipping into his hand from the wrist holder, Harry stepped forward and said, "Hogwarts witness and judge my actions."

Lucius smirked and said, "What's this I hear about an assault on my son in Hogsmeade this afternoon? You cast spells at him that sent him to the infirmary."

"Not so!" declared Professor Flitwick. "I was there and can testify that Mr Potter didn't cast any spells on Mr Malfoy."

Mrs Malfoy frowned at her husband and son before she asked, "Professor, what do you recall of this afternoon's events?"

The powerful duelling champion recalled seeing two Hogwarts students being accosted by Sirius Black. "They defended themselves well…"

"Of course," Dumbledore said, proudly.

Flitwick continued, "And they denied knowing the current location of Mr Potter. Apparently, Sirius Black was searching for his godson. I was forced to take action and blasted Black against a wall. Then Mr Potter appeared on the street."

"How did my son become involved?" inquired Narcissa.

"Mr Black rose from the street and verbally cursed Mr Potter. He admitted that the headmaster sent him to Hogsmeade to talk with Potter about being the head of the Black family."

Flitwick kept his eyes on Dumbledore and Mr Malfoy while Potter kept his eyes on Draco, Narcissa, and Lucius. The professor continued, "Young Malfoy decried the notion of Mr Potter's suitability to be the head of the family. And Malfoy and Black drew their wands and fired spells toward Mr Potter."

Flitwick gave his full attention to Dumbledore when he continued, "Nothing touched Mr Potter. Every spell the two wizards cast at him reflected and hit the wizard who cast them."

"Surely not," Dumbledore protested, but then admitted that Professor Flitwick wouldn't lie about such a thing.

"How do you have magic that can reflect spells cast at you – boy?" Lucius demanded to know. "The DMLE will come and arrest you when I call them! You cannot attack my son and the presumptive Lord Black in public and not be punished!"

Harry asked, "Is it against the law to throw spells at a 'presumptive lord' as you described Sirius?"

Dumbledore replied, "It isn't against the law, but it is very poor judgement to do such. The family magics will protect…"

Realising the truth of the matter, Narcissa gasped aloud and said, "Lucius, do nothing! Say nothing!"

The wizard turned to his wife who was pale and fearful while watching Potter. Draco frowned and muttered about mudbloods running amuck.

"Lady Narcissa, I believe you have an idea what this means," Harry said. "Perhaps you can explain to Mr Malfoy what it means."

"Refer to my father as Lord Malfoy, Scarhead!" demanded Draco.

Narcissa's wand was in her hand as spells flew through the air to silence and petrify her son where he stood. Before she could do more, Harry explained to Draco an important fact of life. "Draco, your father, 'Mr' Lucius Malfoy is head of the minor family, Malfoy and he is a vassal of Lord Black. His marriage to Lady Narcissa Black raised his standing in Magical Britain but did not make him a Lord. When Sirius Black was imprisoned in 1981, your father placed himself as proxy for the Black family seats in the Wizengamot and began referring to himself as 'Lord Malfoy.' Isn't that correct, Grand Warlock Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore?"

For some reason, the headmaster admitted the truth in Potter's statement. "It was politically expedient to allow Lucius to take on the mantle of Lord Malfoy."

"Because he voted to allow you and your cronies – allies – to take the proxies for the Potter seats," Potter continued. "But since November last, neither of you have been able to vote as proxies for those seats, have you?"

Lucius sputtered, "What did you do? Have the goblins interfered?"

Harry lifted his left hand, formed a fist and revealed his rings. A disruptive house elf snickered as he made the crest of all three families appear on the young wizard's robes – on the breast and across the back so that everyone in the Great Hall could see.

"Holy Merlin!" cried several Gryffindor students, fearful that a three-time lord slept in their dormitory. The four Weasleys began thinking about home study next year. Hermione and Neville frowned – how did their classmates think that emblems on his robes or rings on his fingers made Harry Potter different? He'd been a lord since November and except for the incident in the common room that left the Weasleys jumbled and floating in the air, he'd never turned his powers against them.

"Why are they surprised?" Hermione asked Neville. "He wore those emblems at the First Task, the Ball and the Second Task."

Longbottom explained, "He's revealed that he is the lord of those houses – has been since November."

The fourth year Gryffindor wizard smiled and continued, "That's why my grandmother smiled so much at Yule and during the spring break. Harry must have put proxies into his seats in the Wizengamot. They aren't voting how Malfoy or Dumbledore want since November."

The students in Slytherin were divided – several were terrified remembering their past interactions with this Lord Slytherin. Others felt hope that their house could emerge from the image of snobs and pureblood terrorists, and return to their true values of cunning, subtly, and planning.

Everyone in the Great Hall watched as Narcissa Malfoy performed a perfect curtsey and said, "Greetings Lord Black, how can this daughter of your house serve you this day?"

"Narcissa! No!" declared Lucius when his wife acknowledged the boy as her head of house. He fired a spell at his wife but for some reason it reflected on the wizard.

Lucius had mastered a stinging hex that included a long-lasting pain for his wife – she would ache for hours after the sting faded away. Now, the spell returned to strike Mr Malfoy and was magnified by a factor of ten. The sting and pain were such that Lucius was forced to sit at the end of the Ravenclaw table.

"A pain potion, Dumbledore," begged Lucius less than ten seconds later. At the headmaster's command, an elf provided the pain potion, but Lucius was unable to hold onto the bottle. The elf was summoned back to climb on the table and feed the potion to Lucius Malfoy.

Dumbledore used his funny wand to cancel the spells on Draco. "Young Draco, come comfort your father. He is in considerable pain."

But Draco ignored the headmaster and his father who panted from a throbbing pain. The students had moved away from the wizard and Lucius realized that no one would offer him comfort or relief.

Narcissa stepped toward her son and said, "Draco, you must do and say nothing! Lord Black is head of our house, and you cannot attack him."

"No! I'm heir to the Black family! Father told me that I would be Lord Black after the wild man Sirius Black died," Draco shouted. Several Slytherins wondered again how Draco Malfoy had ever been sorted into their house.

"Draconis Lucius Malfoy, born son of Narcissa Lois Malfoy (nee Black), you will be silent until I allow you to speak again!" declared Harry Potter, Lord Black.

Trying to speak, Draco found he could not but frowned and thrust his wand forward to cast power at the Boy-Who-Lived. However, before any magical power could fly from the end of Draco's wand, the stick turned to dust and his hand was struck with a stinging hex.

Finally, Dumbledore attempted to intervene and said, "Harry, that's enough."

Flitwick snarled and interrupted the headmaster, "Albus! Refer to this wizard as Lord Potter or Lord Black or Mr Potter. You never should act familiar with a student!"

"Filius, you cannot…"

"Headmaster Dumbledore, refer to Lord Black as Mr Potter or Lord Black! I take offense to your behaviour with the students and shall report it truthfully to the ladies of the Wizengamot this afternoon!" declared Lady Narcissa.

"This is enough of a show before dinner, don't you think," Harry said. "Lady Narcissa, I would appreciate your escorting Mr Malfoy and young Draco back to your home for the night to rest and think about their way forward," Harry said. Very quickly, Narcissa escorted Draco and an invisible but helpful elf (Dobby) levitated Lucius out of the Great Hall.

Dumbledore frowned, whirled around and stomped back to the head table. Filius asked, "Mr Potter, would you care to sit with me here at the Ravenclaw table for supper? We can discuss the charms that reflect spells back to the caster if you like."

~~~***~~~ CHANGE SCENE

Staring at the Maze

Continuing his boycott of almost every class at Hogwarts, Harry spent his days reading in the library and writing letters to noted wizards and witches in other nations about theories of different magics. After Bagman revealed the maze as the site of the third task, Harry (with Hermione's help) found historical information on the types of creatures used in such tests.

But then Neville commented, "Yeah, but they didn't have Hagrid breeding new creatures for them. Want to bet there'll be a Blast-Ended Skrewt in there? How about an oversized Acromantula Spider or three hanging around with their webs ready to catch you?"

This sent Harry on a mission to inform Fleur Delacour and Victor Krum about the creatures Hagrid could access and place in the maze. Delacour declined all communication, but Krum remained friendly after the second task and agreed to meet with Potter at the Quidditch Pitch.

Today, Harry played hooky from Transfiguration and Herbology classes, and met Victor Krum at the Quidditch pitch to stare at the maze of tall hedges that desecrated the pitch. They were seated in the stands and even with no one around, Harry still threw up a powerful Slytherin privacy spell to protect the conversation with the Durmstrang champion.

"Victor, I think we should work together in the maze. Our creature's professor breeds, captures and tames all types of dangerous animals. There will be Blast-Ended Skrewts and giant Acromantula Spiders, along with boggarts, sphinxes, and perhaps small dragons."

Victor frowned and said, "This tournament was advertised as increasing international cooperation. Perhaps you and I can show the rest of the magical world that we can work together?"

Grinning, Harry replied, "Yes! That's the idea! Now, if Delacour will just cooperate."

Shaking his head, Victor explained, "The young witch from France feels she must prove herself in this final task. She was defeated by the dragon and had to forfeit the second task. If you had not saved her sister, she would have embraced her creature side and burned the judges and their platform to ashes."

"That's not a bad idea," Harry opined with a serious expression on his face. The other champion laughed.

Then Victor said, "Potter, I will work with you but know this – I have no intention of putting myself in danger again. I lost my arm once and thought my Quidditch career was over."

"What do you plan to do?"

Leaning closer the wizard explained, "I have to participate for a set amount of time and make a true effort to make my way through the task. However, once the magically required amount of time and effort are met, I will concede the task to you and Delacour to complete."

"When I lost my hand, I didn't care if the tasks killed me. Then you arranged for me to get my life back," Victor said, holding up the new left hand that was a true replacement for the lost one. "I don't want to die or lose a leg in this last task. I want to return to the Quidditch circuit."

"I'll come watch your play somewhere this summer," Harry said.

"Now, there's another secret I want to share with you," Victor said as he brought his left arm up, flexed the hand and a second wand appeared from a wrist holder. "Every student at Durmstrang is required to master the spells to cast the notice-me-not spell on a second wrist holder for a second wand."

"I thought…"

Waving away the honest teenager's protest, Victor continued, "Yes, yes, the British Ministry for Magic forbids you to have two wands. But if you ever watch your professors, you will see they each carry at least two wands. Karkaroff swears Flitwick carries a wand and magical knife, and that Dumbledore carries three wands on his person!"

Victor asked, "Can you get another wand before the third task? It needs to be one that works for you in your left hand."

Harry nodded. "I can get a second wand and another wrist holder before the task."

"Good! Get some practice on throwing bombard and levitation spells. Maybe the spell to pull your enemy's wand out of their hands. It takes a lot of magical power to use a second wand but I believe you have it."

Glancing around again, the Bulgarian seeker added, "And I want out of this backwater country. Your mundane Britain is democratic and liberal, but this…this Magical Britain…is autocratic, full of bigots, and falling apart. I'd advise you to run as far away as possible as soon as possible. The ICW will step in before many years go by to prevent them violating the Statute of Secrecy."

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