An Unexpected Invasion
After seeing the vast majority of her close associates climb onto carriages and disappear in the direction of the Holiday Express, Hermione headed for Lion's-Keep, planning on a long uninterrupted revising session while the castle was mostly empty. She opened the door already undoing the clasps of her robes and was mildly disappointed to find it vaguely as full as usual. She had her robes off and folded over her chair before she registered who was in the room with her, and what they had done as soon as she'd entered.
There were three groups, Daphne and Tracy were closest on her side of the central tables. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, were between the tables, and the top of another head of hair was barely visible in front of them.
And Theo Nott was on the far side. And there were sniffles coming from over there that didn't seem to be originating from Theo himself.
And they were all kneeling facing her. Except for Draco who was standing with his head bowed. And Daphne was kneeling in a chair instead of on the floor.
At least all of them (except Draco) had their backs straight, none of them had put their foreheads on the floor or anything.
"Alright…" said Hermione moving to the centre where she could see that the girl in front of Draco was Pansy and the girl beside Theo was a Hufflepuff firstie she'd never had reason to speak to before, "What's all this then?"
Several opened their mouths, but Theo cleared his throat, "the Department for the Control of Magical Creatures took it upon themselves to raid one of my father's factory farms just before Lord Gamp was scheduled to arrive to take a shipment. They brought enough Aurors and curse breakers with them that … there's enough paperwork confiscated to send both of them to Azkaban, my father for life for illegal crossbreeds, Lord Gamp for not quite so long for trafficking in 'counterfeit potions ingredients.' Even though the point of most of those crossbreeds was to supply better ingredients."
"Hmm," said Hermione.
She looked around the room, nominally that would not directly affect Draco or Daphne, hence Daphne saw fit to use a chair, not lower herself to the floor.
Also, Draco was standing, but all his dependants were on the floor.
"Normally," said Draco, "at times like this Lord Greengrass or my father would step in and play ombudsman, or whatever, negotiating a lighter sentence in exchange for token gestures such as letting DCoC officers in for inspections at a greater frequency. And thereby gaining a closer working relationship if not outright alliance with each of them.
"But the timing of it all inspires the paranoid to suspect that the Dark Lord has been making plays to gain control of many of the neutral houses through every path available, and this is punishment for Lord Gamp and Lord Nott for refusing to be bought."
Tracy nodded. Right, the Davis family was part of the house of Gamp.
"As such Father is unlikely to risk his neck right now rescuing the dark lord's 'enemy' from 'punishment'. And Lord Greengrass might be too busy countering the dark lord's play to bring his own house to heel, to be willing to divert resources to save his almost-allies in the house of Gamp. Let alone the House of Nott."
"Ah," said Hermione, she looked them all over, "So where does that leave us?"
"No one here is … newly unhoused," said Draco, "But with a Head of House in custody and for crimes significant enough to make them … believably incompetent to choose their successor, the inheritance of both houses is in question, and until that resolves the protection afforded by having a house is … greatly reduced."
Hermione nodded, "That makes sense, but most of us get along fine without a house."
Draco shook his head, "In Gryffindor and Hufflepuff that is rumoured to be true. In Slytherin at least, unhoused firsties have five months' probation and then are bid on by interested parties, based on their accomplishments so far, including house points earned and midterm results and of course networking acumen. And then deportment and remedial civics tutoring get intense for the second half of the year."
Hermione blinked and nodded.
"It was only after that period was over and you hadn't started even trying to naturalise that I started to question your reason to be here."
"You're saying," said Hermione, "That you never called me mudblood until second year?"
Draco nodded, "And I mostly stopped again when I was informed that Gryffindor did things differently, and mostly just negotiated these things more poorly, at which point I reinterpreted that you seemed to be stuck in an ongoing bidding war between Potter and Weasley, so I let it go until … basically until it became obvious that Weasley had resigned the competition, and Potter was too ignorant to provide that tutoring either to you or to get it for himself."
"And eventually you tried to give it to Harry yourself," she realised.
Draco nodded, "It seemed mildly appropriate via the House of Black connection, I think others tried also, but presented it even more poorly than I did on my first try."
They stared at each other.
"And then rumours started that it wasn't a bidding war over you, so much as an ongoing status negotiation between the three of you, and that you'd ended up above Potter."
Hermione smirked, "The three of us each have our talents and weaknesses, Harry did not bow to me so much as change his priorities to include alleviating some of his weaknesses. That one of his weaknesses was academics, and that he followed me around watching my methods for long enough to acquire them, does not imply that my status rose, only that he didn't mind the short term appearance of that, in order to achieve his goals."
Theo nodded, and murmured, "Verily spoke, Epictetus."
"Alright," said Hermione, "So where does all this leave us?"
"Rumour is that you're starting a house of your own," said Draco.
"I have been researching that," agreed Hermione, "and I have been gathering the paperwork to do so."
"Will you take us?" said Theo.
"What?" Hermione exclaimed, But he looked serious, he especially seemed concerned for the small girl pressed to his side, the only one kneeling on a fluffy blue blanket instead of directly on the stone floor.
Had she borrowed that from the back of Luna's study chair?
Hermione looked at the others, they are all serious.
"Are we talking about inducting the individuals present here, or the families that each of you came from?"
They looked around then all answered differently, including Daphne shaking her head.
"Merlin," said Hermione, "Let's back up, how many of you would be interested in being the Head of a Family within the House of Granger, or whatever we decide to call it?"
Everyone except Draco and Daphne raised their hand.
"And how many would rather bring your entire family with you?"
Tracy kept her hand up and the tiny one started whispering urgently with Theo, who shook his head and whispered something back about muggles not being eligible for membership, only certain kinds of protection, like muggle-safe wards.
"Even if that might mean you wouldn't be your own head of family?" said Hermione.
Tracy flinched but did not lower her hand.
Hermione frowned and looked at Draco, "Why are your people here again?"
"Same reason that kicked this all off, Like Augustus Nott, Theo's older brother. None of us wants thrall marks. If we switch houses before our heads of house or heads of family can be pressured into … sacrificing us, or tributeing us, we have some chance of being the neutral that we'd rather be, instead of conscripted into a war that … frankly wore out its welcome thirty years ago. Would have faded away after a year or ten like muggle revolutions, without oaths, contracts, and magical compulsions to keep the members of each side from learning to recognise radicalising rhetoric and becoming immune, as the muggle fifty-year cycle seems to manage, ours should be longer via our much longer lifetimes, but … small-town politics and weak news cycle works against us."
"Hmm," said Hermione.
Draco shrugged, "Anger is the motivation for change, when the change cannot be made, that may cause depression problems, conversely no system is so perfect that a charismatic radical cannot find some flaw to nit-pick and gain a following. If history was being taught properly around here, we wouldn't be glorying in war, we'd be pointing and laughing at the populace for being led around by the nose by the various radicals of history. And by doing so, inoculate ourselves against radicalisation ourselves."
"Except," said Theo, "This isn't a day school, this is Hogwarts, and it isn't in 'our' best interests to become inoculated, it's in our best interests to know how to lead."
Draco shrugged.
That had the sound of a well-worn argument between them.
Hermione glanced at Crabbe and Goyle expecting to see glazed eyes. Instead she saw smirks on their faces and interest in their eyes, and …
"Vincent and Gregory," said Hermione, "Are your normal exam scores at all indicative of how you expect to place on your OWLs?"
Draco's eyes widened, and he smirked, met her eyes, and shook his head.
They looked confused, then chagrined.
"Alriiiight," said Hermione, "First of all, everyone get off the floor and take seats at the table. We're all equals here until we finalise something, and so far we don't have more than an outline. Second, someone better explain the game to me and what strategy has been used so far regarding their grades, because with a new house and new rules. We might need to reexamine strategy."
Crabbe and Goyle turned and looked to Draco.
Draco shrugged, "choose now, if you're going with her immediately, or waiting for me."
"What are you waiting for?" said Hermione.
"Deniability," said Draco, "And perhaps the option to bring my whole remaining family, and possibly their remaining wealth, rather than only myself, I'm still coming rather than staying, as soon as the only other option is to become a thrall, but I'm not yet sure how much more than that I can bring to the table."
Hermione crossed her arms and glared, "To what extent should I … make you leave before you hear private house matters or something?"
He shook his head, "while you're going over a constitution and things like that, you want me here, and I want to be here. Kick me out, when you start switching from possibilities and bylaws to plans, especially plans that might affect my parents' plans or the dark lord's plans more than gutting our houses of possible victims or new enforcers before the dark lord can tighten his grip, already will be affecting his plans.
Hermione nodded, "So because this entire meeting is your idea, you think most of the contents will be … so predictable that you don't need to stay to learn it, so it only makes sense for you to stay to make sure we don't make easily avoided mistakes?"
He nodded, "Daphne and Theo know most of what I know."
They nodded to that.
"But a different section of it is instinctive for each of us, so different sections of it are too obvious to put into words, and you'll get a better explanation from one of the others, Pansy too, she's not an heir of anything, but her Mum has been trying to groom her to be a lord's wife for ages."
Hermione nodded, "alright, what's next on the agenda, from your perspective."
"You're going in a logical order, who is allowed to be here? I recommend all of us, just be aware that I and perhaps Daphne might not sign on until the last moment, but we still want to establish that the house is going to be one that we'd like to join."
"Alright," said Hermione.
"Then you can resume the question: How many of us do you even want in your house?"
Hermione nodded and looked at Crabbe and Goyle, then turned to Daphne, "and is your reason for being here the same?"
"If this doesn't look like a good fit for us, I'm just going to claim Tracy and hope for the best, and maybe we'll end up here later, or maybe we'll find a better fit elsewhere before it's too late."
Tracy nodded to this formula.
"Fine," said Hermione. She looked at Crabbe and Goyle, "Are you two going to get any O's on your NEWTs? Or is your only desirable quality your status as second rate quidditch beaters?"
"Probably already could do that for Care of Magical Creatures," said Crabbe, "I'm also hoping for one in history, but I'm not there yet."
"You did hear her say NEWTs, not OWLs?" said Tracy.
"Yes," said Crabbe.
"And Hogwarts doesn't even teach History beyond OWL year?" said Tracy.
"It offers it, but no one signs up for it," said Crabbe, "And I won't either."
"And you're still anticipating … Oh," said Hermione, "Oh, god."
Crabbe nodded.
"How about you Gregory?"
"History and Herbology and Care are my strong subjects as well, just not in the same order. I thought I'd also be passing defence, but now that Professor Tonks is teaching, and after seeing you and Harry in defence group scaring the crap out of the fencing club, I'm not as confident."
Hermione nodded, "keep staying awake in defence group, and you'll probably be fine."
"And I'm OK with ritual magic," said Goyle, "But apparently I should have taken arithmancy, I thought I already knew enough to be getting by with."
Hermione nodded, "That's apparently an easy mistake to make. What are you doing about it?"
He shrugged, "I skimmed through the third-year book last spring, and bought the fourth-year book to work through over the summer, I um, still haven't finished it."
"But you're still making progress?"
He nodded.
"Alright, if you bump into anything that seems more opaque than it should be, feel free to ask me for help, or Theo probably."
Theo flinched slightly, then shrugged.
Goyle's eyes went wide, "alright, thanks."
She turned to Pansy, "I haven't heard or noticed anything negative about your academic performance, so we're going to be moving straight to: You've got a sharp tongue."
Pansy smirked.
"I realise that requires something of a sharp mind behind it."
She nodded.
"Which is to say, fairly good ability to assess the effects of your words, before and after you say them."
She nodded.
"If I told you, at the bare minimum, I expect enough house loyalty from you that you'll be using those talents and that tongue of yours to build up house members, not tear them down."
Pansy gave her a weird look.
"Hufflepuff," said Theo, "She wants you to be so gentle with your words that by the time we graduate, we will often forget that you're not in Hufflepuff."
"Oh," said Pansy and got a faraway look in her eye, "That's a really weird request, wouldn't most people want warnings about—"
"I'm not telling you 'no constructive criticism'," said Hermione, "I'm telling you I want you to try your hand at encouraging rather than discouraging. Exhorting people to help them grow, not prodding them toward blind rage."
"At all, or just towards house members?" said Pansy.
"The order is regarding house members," said Hermione, "I suggest that you might find it easiest to carry out if you happen to practice it indiscriminately toward others as well."
"I don't think that's how her mind works," said Draco, "give her an in-group and an out-group, and she'll figure it out."
"OK, sure," said Hermione, "Pansy, your in-group is beings, your out-group is dragons and manticores."
Pansy went cross-eyed.
Draco covered his mouth.
"Wait," said Pansy, "Are you serious, or is this just a mental exercise?"
"I am serious that it is the mental exercise that I want you doing until I say otherwise."
Pansy shivered and closed her eyes, "can I add the other 5-x creatures too?"
"If it helps, yes," said Hermione.
"OK, so …" said Pansy, "The Dark Lord?"
"Plausible," said Hermione, "and I suppose any country that might declare war on whichever country the House of Granger is then residing in."
"Right," said Pansy, "so …" and suddenly she relaxed.
Hermione didn't think she'd ever seen Pansy relaxed before. She'd always considered her high-strung, perhaps a bit more than might be healthy, but … what exactly just happened?
"And … can I ditch hags and add centaurs?"
"Plausible," said Hermione, "But I've never met a hag so I'm not going to formally agree to that change."
Pansy opened her eyes and stared at Hermione, "Is … this how you live all the time?"
Hermione shrugged and nodded.
"Merlin," said Pansy, "This is how you can be so nice but rude all the time? You really just assume everyone … is hufflepuff?"
Hermione raised an eyebrow.
Pansy turned to the side, Hermione couldn't make out whether she was staring at Theo or at the firstie with him.
Pansy turned back to Hermione. After several seconds she smiled. After a few more seconds it went a tiny bit condescending, but also very very warm.
Hermione raised her other eyebrow.
Pansy's smile went from merely warm to positively bedroom.
"Ah," said Hermione, "That brings up another point," she raised her eyes to the ceiling to stop being distracted long enough to put it into words.
"Hypothetically," said Hermione, "Theo, If I demanded breed rights with you, what would happen?"
Theo frowned, "Are you really talking about breed rights or bed-warmer services?"
"About you, I'm talking about breed rights."
Theo shrugged, "I'm fine with that."
That wasn't quite the answer she was expecting, or at least not the presentation of the answer she was expecting.
The girl at his side had started shivering again though.
"Um," said Theo, "I said I'm fine with it, and I meant it, but out of curiosity, were you asking about natural breeding or blood alchemy?"
"I don't know what the second even is."
"Think, blood adoption rituals and 'blast-ended scrutes.'" said Draco.
Theo nodded, "So you meant natural, and therefore it was an ethical question? Not a magical alignment comfort question?"
Hermione nodded, "I've never been confident those aren't two aspects of the same question, but never mind."
Hermione sighed and turned to Pansy, "And Pansy, if I asked you for bed-warmer services?"
Pansy clenched her teeth momentarily, then nodded, "Yes, my lady."
"Interesting," said Hermione.
"What exactly was that hypothetical about?" said Daphne.
"Trying to calibrate my expectations," said Hermione, "How much power do I have, which is to say, what sorts of protections do I need to put into place to protect you and your descendants from me and my descendants."
"Oh!" said Draco.
Daphne grunted, "That's a mildly more acceptable topic to be discussing in front of everyone then."
Hermione nodded, "what else am I about to be blindsided by?"
"It is not uncommon," said Draco, "for houses that are newly forming from individuals, rather than as an alliance from established families, to act like one commune or like fewer smaller families in the first generation or two. Even more to the point, it is not unusual for smaller families within a larger house to merge eventually."
"That makes a certain amount of sense," said Hermione.
Pansy raised her hand, "Before we get too far into the esoteric, can we establish, whether or not I can have the title 'house whore'?"
Hermione blinked, "Can someone other than Pansy advise me on whether that is a real title, and how … common it is?"
"Yes, it's a real title," said Theo, "No, most houses do not have one."
"Thank you," said Hermione.
"What is significantly more common is for there to be one or two, known-to-be-expert sex tutors," said Theo, "usually not official."
"Good to know," said Hermione.
"There's also significant statistics to suggest," said Draco, "that marriages made after age 25 and with the unanimous consent of the couple and both their families tend toward more profitable and less violent, and less likely to cause mental problems in the couple and their children," said Draco, "Also significant evidence that between 13 to 15 and that hypothetical optimal marriage at or after 25, it is … risky to forbid men to have sexual companionship, almost as ill-advised to forbid the same to women. With the availability of contraceptive potions and charms, a whole range of compromises is possible."
"Thank you, Draco," said Hermione, "I'd heard about half of that before from your Aunt."
Draco shrugged, "Conversely, the longer before a girl permits herself to have sex, the higher the ambition of her offspring will be. No one is sure why, and how that relates to the insanity problems caused by either forbidding or demanding sexual activity."
"Is there a specific thing you're lobbying for?"
Draco shook his head, "I'm content with my current habits, I don't foresee them interfering with anyone present."
Theo grunted, "I recommend budgeting for real estate, wards, and buildings before adding little mouths to budget about."
"Of course," said Hermione, "is anyone present not proficient with at least one contraceptive charm."
Gregory waved his hand to mean 'so so.'
"Katherine is eleven," said Theo.
Hermione blinked and shook her head, "Katherine, I expect you to learn that third or fourth year, if you need help at that point ask. There's really no hurry, just don't have sex before that."
Katherine shot her an appropriately disgusted look.
Hermione gave her a nod and turned back to Pansy, "If you reproduce without a contract, … if you neglect or abuse it, I'm taking the child away from you and having you sterilised."
Pansy raised an eyebrow but her eyes went dull. Then she nodded and was back to full alert. She smirked, "Yes, please."
It was Hermione's turn to raise her eyebrows.
Draco cleared his throat, "can her voluntary sterilisation be temporary until she's twenty-five, and or wants it reversed? I'm not arguing against 'abusive parents don't get to breed again'."
"Hmm," said Hermione, "Are there potions like that?"
Pansy nodded, "but the dosages are notoriously difficult, professional brewers and administered by healers only."
Of course, it wouldn't be that easy.
Hermione shrugged, and stared at her until the pieces fell into place, "you want help paying for that?"
Pansy shrugged, "I think I could pay for it, I expect I'd need a parent or head of house to sign off on it."
"Ah," said Hermione.
"Which means it's a superfluous discussion until we're officially a house," said Draco.
Hermione shook her head, "no, we're establishing house policy."
Draco shrugged, then nodded, "So … what house policy are you suggesting."
Hermione sighed, "At the minimum, No one should be censured for requesting temporary sterilisation. But at a maximum," Hermione frowned and sighed, "I'm not quite ready to say maybe house policy should be more along the lines of registering who is and is not currently sterile, rather than requesting a hearing to get approval."
"What are your reasoning for and against … those extremes?"
Hermione shrugged, "Right now, we're all equal, and you're all proposing to elect me as head of house," and I happen to notice that I and those of you who were raised and probably trained how to be Head of House seem much better suited to that position. "As such, I see two obvious routes forward, continuing to assume that we all are and should be equal, and we're co-opting the legally established House structure to allow us to keep acting that way."
Daphne, Draco, and Theo all looked uncomfortable with that.
Daphne shook her head minutely, and Draco shook his head violently.
"Draco, do you want to interrupt?"
"The House of Prince is just embarrassing," said Draco, "there's … several other houses that just … don't amount to anything, or end up so … disorganised that they may as well not be houses, most of them end up with a ridiculous fraction of their members in Azkaban, or crossing the statute to live as muggles full time."
Not that there's anything wrong with that? Thought Hermione.
"Often in organised crime," injected Theo, "or international trade, who cares about the statute or keeping regularised inter-house diplomacy when there's no one on your freight ship except one or two magical families."
"Ah," said Hermione, "that strongly hints toward the opposite extreme, let me see… no wait, one more thing before we discuss that, Draco, you don't want … equality with your head of house?"
"There should be one Head of House," said Draco, "I could be that, or I can and should do my best to earn the position of most trusted advisor, and the reputation for being a reliable agent of that Head of House. But no, there should not be several Heads of House. Similarly there should be one head of each family."
Theo and Daphne nodded.
Then Tracy and Vincent. Interesting.
She turned to Daphne, "anything to add?"
Daphne shrugged, "There have been several collectivist houses over time, They rarely last more than a decade to three generations, when they split, the families that emerge tend to be some of the richest, or some of the poorest. Tracy's family and mine have that in our history, we know that a collectivist house can be very very good, or very very bad. Or one followed by the other," she shrugged, "neither a perfect lack of authority, nor the perfection of authority are ideal. Bureaucracy doesn't have to be perfect, it needs to be sane and stable, and select for sane people to fill itself with."
"Hmm, alright," said Hermione and turned to Theo, "and you?"
"Telling me that you're letting Pansy permanently off-leash would be the fastest way to get me to petition Greengrass for asylum instead."
Daphne nodded.
"And it might be better for us all if she weren't a head of family either."
Hermione looked at Pansy.
She shrugged, angry and arrogant, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she froze. She looked at Hermione, and after three seconds, her eyes dropped and she covered her face.
So she could reign her tongue in. Good.
And … it might be her best defence mechanism, or at least her most socially acceptable defence mechanism.
"Thank you, Pansy. Come here."
Pansy didn't come, she slouched lower in her seat.
Oh, that might be tears, not a blush she was hiding.
And wasn't the proverb, 'bullies tended to have experienced a lot of bullying at home', (though it was an unsettled question, whether that implied it was genetic, or the habit took training to develop, or whether the child repeating a social interaction that they'd come to believe was 'normal')
Hermione stood and circled the table, leaned over Pansy, and draped an arm around her neck, which caused her to freeze and even tremble a little. Not tense yet, but … fighting not to go tense.
Hermione put her other hand on Pansy's head and pulled it back far enough to plant a kiss on her forehead. Then just as gently Hermione withdrew and circled back to her chair.
"What just happened?" said Theo.
"What just happened," said Hermione, "is that Pansy held her tongue, and I chose to reward her. You, however … hmm, you answered the question I asked, so thank you also. I'm not sure if your example was entirely necessary."
Pansy sat up straighter and stopped covering her face.
Theo just stared.
"Probably it was necessary for my sake," said Hermione, "but it might not have been fair for Pansy to hear it."
She looked at Pansy and then back at Theo, "I think she will someday … have the makings of an acceptable head of family, just because she doesn't yet, isn't … cause to give up hope."
Theo shrugged, "fine."
No one else said anything.
"Alright," said Hermione, "opposite end of the spectrum might be that the Head of House has draconian err … totalitarian control, over everyone and everything, including everyone's breeding schedule and etc. I … hope that's not actually legal."
"It's not," yawned Daphne, "and given that there are both contraceptive potions and charms, and fertility potions, charms, and rituals. It wouldn't be entirely enforceable even if it was legal."
"Good," said Hermione, "I think, that the farthest I'd recommend is the Head of House, or a council of Heads of Families, might from year to year set a policy whether, given the current and foreseeable finances among other things, whether or not the coming year is a … recommended time to reproduce."
That got nods from around the table.
"There are some topics," said Draco, "that … are drastically better to settle openly with such a Council of Heads of Families, there are others that might be better to settle in a series of one-on-one meetings with the affected parties."
"True," said Hermione, "And you think this one is better for one-on-one?"
Draco shrugged, "if you restrict your influence to: 'you know, your family's finances are looking really good these last two years, have you considered having a second child?' or 'there are rumours that you've been neglecting your child, do you need help negotiating with your neighbours for childcare,' or 'no, that action crossed the line into abuse, I'm confiscating your child, for two weeks while you handle whatever your issue is,' or, 'that was your last chance, I'm giving your child to someone who will care for it, and I'm having you sterilised.' I think it might not need to be something for you or a council of heads of families, to spend much time on, or even any time on."
Hermione nodded.
"And in the process of considering house governance and enforcement styles in general I think we've gotten off the original topic."
Hermione raised an eyebrow.
"Originally the topic wasn't reproduction and finances, it was bed warming."
"Right," said Hermione, "Does anyone else have anything to add?"
Tracy put her hand up. Hermione acknowledged her.
"If we're all heads of families, can we just say, you don't have the right to interfere with the breeding or marriage arrangements of other families, and move on?"
"I think," said Hermione, "I'd only ever want to be allowed to interfere if it were a question of marrying into a … currently enemy house and … espionage or blackmail were a major concern. Other than that, a desired marriage between warring houses might be a good reason (and possibly even method) to make peace."
Are you talking about "Julie and Romero?" said Daphne, "or are you talking about the Thirty Years War?"
"Yes, both," said Hermione, "Though hopefully we can learn from both their mistakes and declare inheritance well enough as to not need a War of the Roses in the next generation."
Daphne nodded.
Hermione looked at Tracy, "are we even working towards understanding your question?"
"No," said Tracy.
"Say it again."
"If I or however much of my family joins with me, get around to arranging my marriage, how much interference can I expect from you?"
"How much do you want?"
Tracy sighed and shook her head. "May I be Daphne's bed-warmer until either of us get married, or may I please not need permission for that."
"Oh!" said Hermione, "No, I'm OK with that."
She frowned and turned to Draco, "Should I give permission, or should I put in the charter that I don't have a veto about that?"
"I think you should only permit yourself veto about it where it crosses house lines or involves a problematic difference in ages, or a questionable amount of … consent."
"Sounds right," said Hermione, "can someone start taking notes."
"Sure," said Draco, and started fishing in his bag.
"That would mean," said Pansy, "That you couldn't actually stop me from being house whore?"
Hermione stared at her a second, then shrugged, "It would be your decision."
Pansy grinned, "I'm fine with that."
"And for the record," said Hermione, "I think using love potions on someone other than yourself is a crime worthy of expulsion from the house. Does anyone object?"
They all glanced around nervously, but no one volunteered an objection.
"Alright, include that in the constitution, whichever heading that will be."
"Then I presume," said Draco, "the beginning of that heading has something to do with 'breaking ministry law is also worthy of expulsion except where the house is noted to be stricter or laxer?"
"Sure," said Hermione, "Um, that's for … um imprisoning offences, more than five years or something, except where the safety of other house members or the honour of the house is in some way threatened by the crime."
Hermione noted how Pansy was glaring sideways at one of the boys, though she couldn't tell which one.
"Conversely," said Hermione, "I don't want this to become an additional method of blackmail, I don't want to be hearing any new allegations about crimes more than say, a week old, if there's not a good reason for the report to have waited that long."
Pansy grunted and looked somewhere else.
Hermione sighed, "and I suppose there ought to be some provision for legal defence, though if it's all the same to everyone, I'd prefer if we could avoid that sort of expense for as long as possible. I don't imagine we're going to escape operating on a very tight budget for several years."
"Of course," said Theo.
"I think," said Hermione, "I'm willing to leave each family's marriage arrangements and succession mostly alone, but I think … I'd like to permit myself … the right of veto or one year's moratorium on wedding plans in the case that either candidate spouse begs me for it."
"I'll second that," said Daphne.
.
The discussion had gone on a long time. Goyle had gone to sleep, and Katherine had moved to Theo's lap and looked about ready to pass out also.
"I think," said Draco, "The next question we haven't discussed is: do we have plans for next summer, or do we all need to sound out our parents about the progress so far before we promise anything or request anything?"
Why would that be a topic for discussion?
"More to the point," said Daphne, "Where are you all sleeping the rest of term? Or between when you submit your roster of families to the ministry and when it goes through. And we can all nominally claim the protection of a house again."
"How long is that likely to take?" said Hermione.
"In theory a week or two," said Draco, "Not that I've heard anything recent on how long this takes, add a week for the holidays, add a week or two for traffic because who knows how many other houses the dark lord is forcing to reorganise into a shape more friendly to him, or are voluntarily reorganising in an effort to stay ahead of his game. Optionally add six months to a year because someone has an insider in the department and they object to our arrangement on general principles, and manage to misfile our application for a few months."
"Or just sit on it for a couple of weeks while they owl home for instructions on how closely they should scrutinise it before passing it along," said Theo.
"Merlin," said Hermione, "What can we do to expedite that, besides making sure to check spelling and to write out a clean copy?"
Draco shrugged, "Depends on your ethics and budget, of course."
Hermione glared at him. He shrugged again, and this time she caught his expression and how it related to his shrug.
He wouldn't mind at all if his new house earned a different reputation than his old house.
Interesting.
"So we're talking two weeks to six months that we need to provide our own protection through hiding, before we're allowed to do like everyone else, and provide protection through the threat of legal or violent action outside of school?"
"Yes," said Draco.
"And once it goes through, the equation reverses," said Daphne, "Instead of unsafe at school and 'safe' at home we become mostly safe at school, and possibly no longer welcome at home."
"Seems like your families would still want you around, as a visitor, even though they might be … under the impression that you didn't belong there anymore," said Hermione.
"Yes," said Theo, "For those of us who received warnings and instructions to 'do the best for ourselves that we could.' I don't think Draco's group received any such instruction."
"Correct," said Draco.
"I didn't either," said Daphne, "but I am also willing to wait for the last minute. My primary concern here is keeping Tracy safe."
"Alright," said Hermione, "So, 2 weeks to six months, that we have to fend for ourselves at school, and then the rest of our lives that we need to do so outside of school. Now I understand why living arrangements were brought up, what are the suggestions?"
"Katharine should be fine in Hufflepuff," said Theo, "I'm not sure how common knowledge it already was that she'd been claimed, and our houses aren't obviously disintegrated, merely unstable enough that their protection is currently zero, the threat of future retribution is still real enough that probably, anyone trying to send August a 'message' is much more likely to go after me, for being his brother."
Hermione frowned.
"You're saying disappearing her now, and putting her back later, will draw more attention to the connection, than leaving her be?" said Draco.
"Yes," said Theo.
"Katherine, are you alright with that?"
"I don't know!" said Katherine, "I don't know anything about any of this, I just … picked up a book that looked interesting in the library, and three-quarters of the way through, when it got hard, I tried to ask for help and they sent me to Theo, and … he … made me sign something that said he'd pay for the rest of my school books forever, and I got to complain to him about bullies."
"Nice," said Hermione, "well, basically, if all this goes properly, we'll be working together to pay for all our school books, and you may complain to any of us about bullies, though your own Hufflepuff prefects should be there fastest … at least regarding fighting, but name-calling and family and house insults, probably we're going to be your new team for dealing with that."
Katherine nodded, "Because we're making a new constitution family instead of the marrying kind of new family?"
"Yes," said Hermione, "Which is called a house, or sometimes a clan."
"I got that," Katherine said, "And … that you're still arguing about whether there's going to be marrying family involved."
"I expect most of us will wish to marry eventually," said Hermione, "what we were mostly arguing about is how much I'm allowed to tell any of you that I like or don't like who you've picked out so far. Or give you suggestions without you specifically asking me for suggestions. And where any of us are going to live or sleep."
"And since none of us is old enough to marry, none of us agrees on whether marrying is even a good thing?"
Hermione opened her mouth. So did several of the others, but none of them seemed to have anything to say to that.
"Yes," said Hermione, "Maybe that is part of the problem."
"And here I'd been working up the nerve to say," said Tracy, "we could solve all of the succession crises ever by just saying, the heir of each family is whoever the head of each family says it is."
"Or whoever all competent adults of the family elect," said Hermione, "with possibly a clause about me or a committee of our other family heads to cast tie-breaking votes or ratify selections or something."
"That's significantly less usual," said Draco, "I'm not definitely against it, but I'll mention that the times when it would become most appropriate would be in a family after its … much bigger than most houses get before dividing naturally."
"Ah," said Hermione, and shrugged, "I think I've changed my position to 'each family gets to determine its own succession rules, as long as they are written down clearly, and work with no violence or even enough drama that I ever need to step in to settle anything, then I don't need to worry about it."
"I second that," said Draco.
"I second that," said Pansy.
"All in favour?" said Hermione.
Everyone nodded.
"Good, that's settled," said Hermione, "draft additional clauses about, … we recommend succession rules that don't require, reward, or even merely encourage illegal or immoral behaviour, etc."
"Noted," said Draco, "the topic was supposed to be living arrangements and buddy system protocol etc. over Christmas hols."
"I still don't get why?" said Hermione.
"Did you just tell Katherine to notify you if she did not feel safe in her dorm?"
"Yes."
Draco cleared his throat, "The reason the rest of us are here is that we don't feel safe in Slytherin dorm."
Tracy cleared her throat, "Or rather, more unsafe than usual, and Snape agreed with us enough to stash us here, wherever here is, I never did get what argument finally won him over or why he picked here, but … given Draco … had an etiquette and a speech composed by the time you arrived … ."
"Right," said Hermione, "I do wonder how Professor Snape finds out half the things that he knows."
"Then you're underestimating what he knows by an order of magnitude," said Draco.
"Right… never mind that," said Hermione, "I'm willing to listen to suggestions on what to do about safe housing."
Everyone looked at everyone else.
"Can we just stay here?" said Goyle, "wherever here is?"
"This is Lion's-Keep," said Hermione, "It belongs to Harry."
Draco raised an eyebrow, "A family suite, or a persecuted house concession?"
"Not nominally either," said Hermione, "But I think it's being allowed under the spirit of the terms of a persecuted house concession."
Draco nodded, "fine, whatever. Can we do the same thing without being a house?"
Hermione shrugged, "I think, Professor Snape dropping you here was meant to be a signal for us to try it, and not get caught."
Draco shrugged and nodded, "Plausible."
"So we just need to break into the next suite over without setting off any wards?" said Theo, "Do you know if you have any neighbours already?"
Hermione frowned at him, "What?"
"I'm catching the implication that we can't just add another couple more bedrooms off the corners of this place?" said Theo, "So we need to secure a suite of our own. Preferably a two-bedroom suite, we've got almost half girls and half boys already."
"Do you know the space manipulation magic to accomplish all that?" said Hermione, "Because I enchanted my satchel and my beaded bag, and then promptly stopped worrying about how it all worked, I think I remember where to look up all that stuff, but I'd probably be ready for the project about when I expect Harry back, and he's done lots more with enchanted space than I have."
Theo nodded, "Right, I'm probably about the same, though I'd have predicted less study time than two weeks."
Hermione shrugged, "How long to owl order a sufficient tent?"
"A day or two, max," said Theo, "do you have a couple of hundred galleons laying around?"
"No," sighed Hermione, "But that would take care of the washroom question. Perhaps also the 'what to do next summer?' question."
"Oh, I can do a washroom," said Goyle, "It's just conjured pipe and conjuring and vanishing runes, and the pipes need runes of endurance on them to keep the conjuration from wearing off."
"Can you conjure hot water?"
Goyle blinked, "Why wouldn't I be able to?"
"Interesting," said Hermione, "alright, next question, where is the nearest abandoned classroom to, say, the kitchens? And would we want to claim it, refurbish it into two dorm rooms, a common room, one or two washrooms, and I don't know what else? And what sort of security do we want? And what are we capable of?"
"What kind of security do you have here?" said Daphne.
"Harry's personal rune can be used as an extremely strong and mildly security conscious, audio and visual notice-me-not. There's one on the door."
"So anyone who knows vaguely where to look can find the door by running their hand along the wall, instead of by looking."
"Also not by listening, Yes," said Hermione.
"Vaguely similar to Slytherin," said Daphne, "Except we also have a password."
"Right," said Hermione, "I notice a lot of passwords, compared to locking spells in the magical world, I know how the unlocking charm works, on skeleton and tumbler locks, and the locking spell, but it seems to me that a rune based lock should be able to work on a rune key or something similar."
"True," said Theo, "But would you really want to carry an extra thing around, when you could just use the password versions of the locking charm, and the finisher, and only need to carry your wand?"
Hermione frowned, "so … we could actually just do a rune-based transfiguration with a password, and not even have a door for them to find?"
Everyone sat up and stared at her, "Where did you get that idea?" sing-songed Pansy. Like Hermione had just made a horrible slip to have said it out loud.
"From Theo, just now," said Hermione, "the only things I've ever heard of using password versions for are locking and transfiguration."
"Huhh," breathed Pansy, "interesting."
"I wonder," said Draco.
"What?" said Hermione, beginning to be annoyed.
"Whether all of the dorm doors seem either obvious or stupidly insecure to the other houses."
Daphne nodded, "it could be."
Hermione shrugged, "Or concessions have been made for the fact that all the firsties have to be able to find their way home."
"There is that," sighed Draco, and yawned, "Lady Granger, come up with a few acceptable passwords, someone volunteer for let's see: space-expansion, and conjuring walls, doors, beds, Greg has the washroom, someone to do runes to make the door transfigure into wall automatically, what else?"
"I can do the walls too," said Greg, "once there's enough space."
"Do we want walls?" said Pansy.
"Shut up Pansy," said Tracy.
"Does anyone other than Pansy not want walls?" said Daphne.
"I want walls," said Pansy, "I'm just not sure that they're a higher priority than moving in."
"The moment there's enough space," said Hermione, "I think we can just ask the house-elves to give us nine standard student beds. Which I believe come with a full range of privacy spells."
"If you like dressing inside your bed curtains?" said Tracy.
"Not my point," said Hermione, "But true, I was pointing towards a possible minimum requirement, before we move in, rather than an optimal that we ought to be trying to aim towards."
"Speaking of optimal and long term goals," said Theo, "if we're doing both the design and the execution ourselves, why not give everyone their own room?"
"Or Daphne and I together?" said Tracy.
"And Theo and Hermione together?" said Pansy.
Theo scratched his temple then looked at Hermione and shrugged.
"I think," said Hermione, "I wouldn't mind dating or courting a 'Theo, Head of Nott Family,' where I might never have found Theo of Nott House to be worth the reputed risks."
Theo nodded, "Likewise, or rather the reverse, shall we put off discussion of carnal delights for after the present crisis and enough time after to get to know each other and our own minds?"
"That is … currently more than acceptable, Mr. Nott."
"Call me Theo," said Theo.
"Likewise," said Hermione.
"Ok, Theo," said Theo.
Hermione stuck out her tongue.
Theo blinked, "Remedial deportment, please."
"You wish," said Hermione.
Theo sighed.
"If you two are done," said Vincent, "may I point out that choosing a place in the dungeons would be a convenience for moving in, and moving out again after, but in between being anywhere other than the dungeons, would make us harder to find."
"Good point," said just about everyone.
"Is the next door farther away from anything important than Lion's-Keep too obvious?"
"How about near the library?" said Daphne.
"I second that," said Theo, "except for how high traffic that is."
"Oh! I know just the place. And it's already hidden." said Hermione, "Everyone, grab your stuff and follow me."
They got up.
"Um," said Pansy, "can I borrow this for a couple of days?"
Hermione looked. It was the piece of parchment Pansy had been fiddling with for the past hour. With both halves of one of Harry's runic pet doors, on a single sheet of parchment.
"How much conjured space is inside it?"
"About a hand span," said Pansy, "Why?"
"It's one of Harry's experiments, he's trying to shrink the amount of space between the ends. If you have it back by the end of hols, I don't think he'll notice or mind."
"Oh," she said, "alright, thanks."
.
Hermione was right, the 'office' that Padma had claimed for herself and Luna was mostly abandoned again. And it was conveniently located between a pair of washrooms and Harry's gryffindor to ravenclaw tapestry.
It was already a long skinny room, not ideal for the floor plan that Hermione had envisioned, but plenty big enough for four beds already, with space left over for a common room study area. Or they could squeeze in nine beds and have room for basically nothing else.
Katherine pointed out that if Daphne and Tracy were sharing one bed, and she stayed in Hufflepuff for as long as it seemed safe, that meant they only needed seven, "And I can share with Theo if Hufflepuff changes."
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," said Theo.
Katherine stared at him, "You … never had to share with your brother?"
"No, I didn't," said Theo.
"I've had to share with my sister often enough," said Katherine, "And I've been … pretending you're one of my brothers in my head for about three weeks now."
Theo nodded, "alright, I'll share with my sister Katherine, should the need arise, between now and whenever we get the expansion wards finalised."
"I can share with someone," said Pansy.
"I'm not ready to dictate that," said Hermione, "and I can stay in Gryffindor. As a prefect, I'm required to do so one night in three anyway."
"I was trying to decide whether I was going to ignore that, by pretending that I went home for the hols," said Draco.
"Oh," said Hermione, "interesting."
He nodded, then shrugged, "Six beds seems possible, are we then going to use the remainder for study desks or sitting area?"
"Study," said Daphne, "it's just short term until we get the space expansion working."
"I'd have said sitting area," said Tracy, "We're talking about the Yule holidays."
Daphne's eyes bulged, "fine. I think you're wrong. But I refuse to argue against that perspective."
"It's entirely possible to read in a comfortable chair," agreed Hermione, "It's only taking notes that is less efficient that way."
.
...-...
An Unexpected Choice
As they were leaving for lunch, Draco tapped Harry's rune on the door, "Are you going to mark any of us?"
"I don't intend to, if at all possible," said Hermione, "Why?"
"No reason," said Draco.
"I was thinking about that," said Pansy, "I wonder if we wouldn't better add a clause to the house crimes section, where some of us might prefer to accept a mark rather than face expulsion."
"I could see where, for crimes of an intermediate severity, that might be appropriate," agreed Hermione.
Several stairways later and Draco held her back again, just in time for them to miss the stairway down to the library.
"What?" she hissed.
He'd just effectively separated her from the group.
"Sorry, I just remembered, I need to give this back to you," and he fumbled in his sleeve to pull out the Lion's-Keep copy of the Hogwarts rules, constitution, and bylaws. She knew which one it was because it was the only copy Harry could find, and he'd had to rebind it, and given Harry's aesthetics, he'd done the cover with pieced scraps of dragon hide.
"Oh," she said, "Yeah, I guess I might need to procure a House of Granger copy of that."
Someone behind her grunted and started thumping down the moving staircase after all. Maybe Tracy.
"I can twin this copy for you, once I source some materials."
Hermione shrugged, she took hold of the book but he didn't let go, "Or I could, but help with the materials would be appreciated."
He nodded and glanced behind her, then muttered, "do you intend for the House of Granger to be ancient or modern or agnostic or ecumenical?"
"Is that a euphemism for dark or light?"
"Not exactly," said Draco, "if I said, Anglo or Saxon or British would you have a better idea of what I'm asking."
"No, only a vague idea how old 'ancient' tries to identify as."
"Do you prefer to celebrate, and would you prefer us to celebrate with you: Christmas on the 25th, Christmas Eve on the 24th, or Yule on the 21st?"
December 21st was the winter solstice proper, or at least most years it was, but she'd never noticed anyone, not even the purebloods observing it in preference to Christmas on the 25th. But … given almost everyone's grumbling about how Christmas at Hogwarts was celebrated differently, perhaps there were differences more significant than that your presents are delivered to your bed in the morning instead of a tree somewhere, which was just asking for a mob, and stolen presents and … no, just no. But to have a tiny little shire of her own, did she have preferred traditions? Did she have traditions that she preferred enough to dictate to others?
Hermione shivered as goose flesh tingled up her spine, "Now I have an idea what you're talking about, but not a strong opinion, given that those are all on separate days, can't we all pick and choose what we wish?"
"That would be the ecumenical approach, but it only sort of works, depending on which tradition you prefer. Another option is … holding all of them. Another ecumenical option is taking all your favourite parts of all of them and celebrating on whichever date is your favourite or most convenient."
Hermione shrugged, "are you about to start lobbying for one of those options?"
Draco shivered, "I will not proselytise my Head of House. I can only point out that some traditions require the initiation and invitation of those in power," he extended his other hand and pulled the book open. She let go so it could fall open to where his finger was marking a place.
He pointed, and she looked.
Appendix, Hogwarts Treaty, concessions to houses, on the celebration of feasts: "Hogwarts authority and rules will not be construed to curtail the keeping of the traditional seasonal feasts, specifically on the nights of the feasts, curfew will not be enforced against revellers as long as they maintain respectful demeanour towards non-revellers. No revellers will be punished for drunkenness, nor the day after will the healers make note of treatment requests that might indicate the nature of activities any suspected revellers might have engaged in."
If she remembered clearly, the next page was house concessions to Hogwarts, such as no one would be sacrificing or harassing their fellow students or any residents of Hogsmeade or Centaur Forest. There were lots of other similar clauses, one of which might in fact forbid non-consensual proselytising.
She looked up, "What do you want?"
He bit his lip, and let go of the book. She pocketed it.
"I will go so far as requesting we not be an agnostic house, and that whatever decision you make, you make it consciously, not ignore it, (and leave us each trying to import our favourite traditions and fear a reprimand, or even fear for our place in the house if we offend your tradition.)"
Hermione snorted, but he was evidently deadly serious.
"What does the House of Malfoy celebrate?"
He narrowed his eyes, "Until you research far enough to start hinting that you know most of the interpretations of a given season, I refuse to answer specifics about that season, except to say that … we tended towards ecumenical about details, while trying to maintain the focus of each holiday on the specific meaning of that holiday as the house traditionally understood it."
"Good grief," said Hermione.
"If you seem to be completely missing an interpretation that I like, or acting oblivious to an interpretation that other traditions embrace, I will notify you. But that's just good diplomacy, please don't put me in the position of tutoring you or proselytising. If you want me or Theo to help you find the relevant books on the topic, or to help you take and compile notes, ask any of us. Fair warning, Greg's penmanship is not … just don't ask him to take dictation and expect a useful result."
"You're serious," she nodded, "alright."
"You've got 31 hours before sundown on the 21st to research far enough to make an informed decision about Yule, and there's probably 20 appropriately secluded fireplaces we could requisition, triple that if we don't mind bringing our own chairs, (or music). And yule logs are perhaps optional depending on your interpretation of the point of them (Though I will mention that oak, maple, and apple are notoriously above average). And usually about a month and a half between each solar season and farm season and vice-versa. Or light/dark season and its warmth/cold season, or season start and season middle. Depending on whose explanations and nomenclature you prefer."
She blinked, "You might be working way too hard to not steer me in any direction, what is the most common nomenclature?"
"The one used by the almanac that your family subscribes to?"
"Is this one of those ten mages, ten answers, type questions?"
"That implies you select no mages from Ravenclaw, and no hat-stalls," smirked Draco, "also, in this case, there are only about five nomenclatures; unless you also count the Irish, Scottish, Latin, or Germanic translations of each other."
"Well yes," sighed Hermione.
He nodded and turned toward the stairs.
She looked, it was approaching again.
"I'll write down all the nomenclatures of things I think you'd benefit from researching, but … just an overview of each of Christian, Celtic, and Druidic holidays should be sufficient to get started, a comparative work about them might be interesting, or might just be long-winded ravenclawness, depending on whose you find. You'll still find people around who practice Norse, Latin, Greek, and Coptic holidays. And then there's all of Asia, and all of the southern hemisphere, whose seasons mirror ours, which can be totally disorienting if you don't adjust every month they reference by six.
"Yes, well," said Hermione.
They started down the stairs.
"But leaving that aside, the seasons usually mean the same things to farmers the world 'round, with slight variations for the growing season of their particular favourite crops, and their local weather."
"Right," said Hermione.
He nodded, "Malfoys own and rule land, but we are not exactly farmers."
"My last name means farmer," said Hermione, "But I don't know if I've set foot on a farm outside of school trips, though I have helped with gardening often enough."
He nodded.
"And that was before herbology class, which granted is completely divorced from the seasons, given we need greenhouses to even be able to learn it here and in winter."
"True," he said.
There was nothing more said for a while.
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention," said Hermione.
"You're welcome, Lady Granger," he said.
"For the sanity of all involved," said Hermione, "what about … each family can celebrate their own, and invite the rest of us?"
"Ah, the other kind of ecumenical," said Draco, "I've heard of that too, but usually it's considered a first-generation-only affectation of new houses, and usually of houses formed from families rather than from individuals. It might work, and we'd just discard traditions over time as we settled on our favourites, or it might just cause deep divisions where they are unnecessary, or strongly imply that the house intends to peacefully split along preferred celebration lines as soon as we're big enough, and/or the danger is past."
Hermione envisioned about six ways that could go down. She could see how it might be the worst possible choice.
"And we're not forming from families."
"Yeah," said Draco, "or not yet."
Hermione sighed.
"And you are putting this decision in my hands instead of offering a vote, because as you're bringing the most members you could easily swing the vote where you wanted it, making that method of choosing pointless."
"Not pointless," said Draco, "But … it would not gain me any new information."
Hermione froze and turned to stare at him.
He met her gaze.
"What?" she said.
"If I wanted the House of Malfoy but without the current adults, I could do this by myself, or hire Theo or Isaac to help me poison everyone."
Hermione narrowed her eyes.
"I don't want them dead," said Draco, "I just don't want them sacrificing my choice. I think you won't. And even if you do choose the least ecumenical holidays, you've already proven in several cases, you'd only intentionally allow the ecumenical versions of ceremonies to be run. You wouldn't needlessly spend our choices on alignment dedications that we don't choose for ourselves."
"Not without a significant reason otherwise, anyway."
"It's a refreshingly different approach," said Draco, "I aspire to learn it before I have children to raise."
...-...
{End Chapter 18}
A/N: 1) Thanks, again for the follows and reviews, it helps me know I'm not just tossing this out into the void.
2) So yeah, opportunities tend to find those who have prepared themselves for them. And in this timeline Hermione is both somewhat prepared, and also quietly known to be preparing.
