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Chapter 29
Harry dragged himself down to breakfast wishing he could go back to bed, but he knew he really couldn't today. It was his own fault he was so tired, he had gone to bed at a responsible time last night but he just couldn't sleep. So, instead of trying so hard to fall asleep, he had gotten the Potter family grimoire and had done some reading. Next thing he knew it was 2am, and he wasn't going to get a lot of sleep. He sat at the informal dining table in the family room that had been expanded to seat ten since the first time he had visited. "What would master Harry be liking for breakfast?" A voice squeaked from Harry's left.
Harry turned and saw Dobby there waiting for him. "Coffee," he groaned.
"Master Harry is needing more than just coffee," Dobby said in a scolding tone. Normally, Harry would be happy that Dobby felt comfortable enough to tell him off but right now he was too tired to be happy, instead wanting to snap at the little guy. However, inside he knew he was just irritable at the moment, so just repeated his wish for coffee. Before Dobby could say anything more, Hermione came down the stairs. Harry didn't know how he knew it was Hermione, as his back was to the stairs, but somehow he knew.
"Dobby, why don't you just bring a large pot of tea and another of coffee for now, and we'll decide what to have for breakfast once Harry has woken up a bit?" Hermione said, trying to be the reasonable one as she took a seat next to Harry.
Dobby bowed a little to Hermione and said "Right away miss," before popping away.
"Morning love," Harry said but the fatigue was evident in his voice.
"Harry, did you get any sleep last night?" she asked.
"Some. I got caught up in a book till two this morning." He had to stifle a yawn.
"Harry, you know that isn't good for you," Hermione admonished him.
He just looked in the eye for a few seconds before saying, "*pot. Kettle."
Hermione blushed a little but couldn't really argue with Harry, she had lost herself to a book more than a few times. "What book was it?" She asked, genuinely curious what book had held Harry's attention so much.
"The family grimoire." Harry said.
"Learn anything interesting?" At that moment a tray with tea, coffee, milk, cream, sugar and the sweeteners Hermione used appeared on the table in front of them. Harry grabbed a cup and spooned about a tablespoon of sugar into it before filling the cup with coffee and cream. Hermione looked a little offended by how much sugar Harry had added to his coffee but didn't say anything. It wasn't as though he often took his coffee like this; he just wanted the small sugar rush to help him wake up.
Once he had taken a gulp of coffee he turned to Hermione. "The family was started by a muggleborn. He had a natural talent with magic that was unheard of at the time and a good head for potions. A lot of Potters over the generations have had the same gift - the natural talent, not the head for potions, though there have been a few of them as well. The Potter talent is basically Apparating, but from what I read the Apparating you learn once you can take the test isn't even half as good as the Potter version. I think I have it."
"Why do you think that?" Hermione looked enthralled at the new knowledge he was sharing.
"According to the book, there are signs to look out for to tell if a Potter child has the gift. Firstly they will Apparate for their accidental magic, I Apparated to the roof of my school when my cousin Dudley and his gang were chasing me to beat me up. I also Apparated to you in London when I didn't know exactly where you lived, that's another part of the Potter Apparition - It can anchor to a person, not just a location. Other signs include having a hard time experiencing floo travel or side-along Apparition from a witch or wizard using the normal version. Apparently the version that Potters have a chance at being born with is a lot more like how elves can Apparate, it can even work through anti-Apparition wards like theirs," Harry paused for a moment before he continued. "I think it's how I was able to get on the troll's back, back in first year. I don't remember climbing up the troll, I thought that was because so much was going on and I just didn't remember, but now looking back I think I might have Apparated."
"That's amazing Harry, I'm kind of jealous, but how does Apparating help with potions?" Hermione asked the same question Harry asked himself last night.
"It does nothing directly, but there wasn't the economy for potions ingredients back then that there was today. From what was written in the book, you were limited to using what you produced yourself, what you could forage for, or what other magical people you knew produced. Linfred of Stinchcombe was able to travel all over Europe collecting ingredients, and because of that he had access to a much wider selection of ingredients to experiment with. He was even able to develop two potions we still use today, Skele-Gro and Pepper-Up. It was the demand for his Pepper-Up potion that gave him the nickname 'the potterer' that eventually became the family name Potter." Harry soon finished his coffee, and Dobby popped in and asked Harry again what he wanted for breakfast. Harry gave his food order to the elf and Hermione did the same as everyone started to come down and join them at the table.
Sirius came down last, and he was wearing solid black formal robes and a wizard's hat with the House of Black crest prominent on the right side of his chest. Today was the winter solstice, and with it came one of the four biggest sessions of the Wizengamot. Sirius had to go and announce that he was officially taking the position of Warlock of the Black family. It was mostly ceremonial, as Sirius was the only Black left like Harry was the only Potter, meaning they were both automatically considered the Warlock of their Houses. However, by declaring himself as the House Warlock, he was basically telling the world he was ready to shoulder the responsibility. Harry was glad he didn't need to declare his headship of his house until he was 21.
By about 8:30, all the magical people in the house were lined up at the Floo fire. The other Grangers would have liked to attend, but the only time a mundane was allowed to enter the Wizengamot chamber was if they were invited, which had apparently happened only four times in the Wizengamot's history. The party was able to floo directly to the Ministry. Fleur was the only one who hadn't been here before, and found it was interesting to look at, after gawking at the massive pillars of some type of nice-looking stone that supported the roof yet polished to a mirror shine. They each presented their wands to the welcome wizard (who started drooling at the sight of Fleur), but they were quickly past him and, after a short trip through the Ministry, they were seated in the visitors gallery of the Wizengamot.
It was Dumbledore who opened the Wizengamot as the Chief Warlock, standing in the middle of what looked like a small Roman-inspired amphitheatre and giving an opening speech. Everyone watched from two rings of seats, the inner ring containing the Wizengamot while the visitors were in the slightly higher and much less comfortable looking outer ring. There was a bunch of boring waffle about how long it had been since the last session, what was discussed during the last meeting, and a few reports that were ordered done last session were read out. The people watching could see that a good percentage of what they were talking about was actually important, such as the report on the different types of magical creatures that were wild in the the UK and whether the Ministry needed to make any changes to what they did to keep the muggles from discovering them, but not much was interesting. After about an hour they moved on to new business, and Sirius put his name forward to make an announcement in front of the Wizengamot.
There were two other wizards who put names forward to make an announcement as well. The House of Abbott announced that there was a boy born to the head of the family, and that the boy would be the Heir to the House. This was met with a round of applause from almost everyone in the Room. Harry wondered how closely related his classmate Hannah was to the man who spoke and the new baby. The second wizard announced a wedding for his son, and finally it was Sirius's turn. Unlike the others who just stood and made an announcement from their seat, Sirius got out of his chair and walked into the center of the room, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Esteemed Warlocks of the Wizengamot, I beg a few minutes of indulgence as I am here to make a few announcements today." It was clear that Sirius knew how to play to a room of people, though Harry could see that this was draining for the man who still hadn't recovered from spending thirteen years in Azkaban.
My first announcement is the one you are all probably expecting. I, Sirius Orion Black III, wizard of good standing and oldest son of the house of Black, do hereby take the title of Warlock of the House of Black." There was a round of applause at this as with the other two announcements. "On to my second announcement. I name my Heir Presumptive to the headship of the House of Black: Harry James Potter, son of James Charlus Potter, son of Dorea Potter nee Black." That caused a ripple of surprise to rocket around the room, but none were more surprised than Harry. He had no idea that Sirius was going to make Harry his heir (well, heir presumptive, so Harry was only the heir until Sirius had a child of his own). He was lost in thought for a moment, until he heard Sirius call his name.
"Harry, can you join me down here for a moment, please?" Harry didn't exactly want to go down and be the centre of attention, but it would have made Sirius look bad if he had refused. So, he got up from his seat and, after a little surfing around Hermione and Remus (Fleur was sitting on Harry's other side), he was able to get into the aisle and walked down the steps to the stage that was the center of politics in magical Britain.
Once he reached Sirius, the man held up his hand where everyone could see the ring he was wearing. "Harry, this ring marks you as the Heir of House Black." He took off the ring, "From this day, until the heirship passes to another or you take up the mantle of Warlock for the House of Black, wear this ring with pride." He held out the ring to Harry, who hesitated a few seconds before taking it. He didn't exactly want to be the heir to the House that brought forth Bellatrix LeStrange or Narcissa Malfoy, but he wasn't going to snub Sirius. However, he was considering bribing Remus with a slab of Honeydukes best chocolate to hit Sirius with a few dozen stinging hexes.
Harry looked at the ring for a few seconds before sliding it onto the middle finger of his right hand. There was a small flash of light from the ring and it resized itself to fit Harry. There was applause, but the reactions were in two extremes. A lot of the members of the Wizengamot were clapping enthusiastically with wide grins on their faces, while some looked at Harry as though he was the foulest thing on the earth. During the noise, Sirius leaned in and whispered to Harry, "Stand a little behind me to my left. Don't say or do anything unless I tell you or if you are asked a direct question. No one should ask you anything. You probably won't like this, so brace yourself." Harry nodded and did as he was asked, though Sirius's ominous words had him a little on edge.
Once the noise died down, Sirius addressed the Wizengamot again. "That is the end of the fun announcements, I'm afraid." There was a tittering of noise around the hall as Sirius said that, with everyone now wondering just what Warlock Black's next announcement would be. "I, Sirius Black, Warlock of the House of Black, announce that I am filing a grievance against the estate of Bartemius Crouch of the House of Crouch for his hand in denying me my rights as a citizen of magical Britain when he refused to give me a trial for my alleged crimes in 1981. I am filing a grievance against former Minister of Magic Millicent Bagnold of the House of Bagnold for her hand in denying me my rights as a citizen of magical Britain when she refused to give me a trial for my alleged crimes in 1981.
"I am filing a grievance against Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore of the House of Dumbledore for his hand in denying me my rights as a citizen of magical Britain when he refused to give me a trial for my alleged crimes in 1981; for using my illegal incarceration to take the guardianship of Harry James Potter, my oath sworn god son; for abusing his authority and sealing the wills of then-Warlock James Potter and his wife Lily Potter; for acting against the will of Lily and James Potter by leaving Harry with people whom the will expressly forbade from becoming Harry's guardians; and for abandoning Harry Potter when it was his responsibility, though illegally taken, to perform regular checks on young Harry's living conditions." Sirius' words echoed around the chamber, and Harry had to force himself to stay there stoically while parts of his life that he would rather no one knew about were being brought up in front of the entire Wizengamot. He wanted to just leave and walk out of the room, but doing that in front of the Wizengamot would just make everything worse. A part of him wanted to turn and punch Sirius for springing this on him like this, but deeper down he knew it was necessary.
Dumbledore stood up to address Sirius. As the Chief Warlock he was the one in charge of the Wizengamot, though only in a technical sense, as the Chief Warlock was more like the organiser than the boss. "Well, Mr. Black, I'm sure that this is completely unnecessary. The Wizengamot has already granted you compensation for your time in Azkaban, searching for more gold is just greed. I refuse to grant any of the Wizengamot's valuable time to this." Harry watched Dumbledore while he was talking and realised he couldn't read anything in the man's expression; it was blank, even more so than Harry was trying to look right now, carefully keeping his face neutral to avoid embarrassing himself in front of everyone. This was getting to Dumbledore in some way.
Sirius wasn't so easily deterred. "Chief Warlock, I did not say I was seeking compensation from the Wizengamot. I named individuals for their abuses of ministerial authority. Speaking of abuse of authority, I, Sirius Black, add an additional charge against Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, for attempting to abuse his authority just now, when he tried to use his position as Chief Warlock to prevent a case where he himself is a named party from getting court time."
The Wizengamot blew up at that. If Harry hadn't been watching, he wouldn't have seen the look of fury that crossed Dumbledore's face. It was gone in less than a second and was replaced by his normal calm face, but it was enough that Harry saw it. Harry wasn't surprised to see the anger, Sirius was basically attacking him in front of everyone. What surprised Harry was how quickly the emotions disappeared from his face; how often had Harry seen that calm face and not realised that it was a mask?
The Wizengamot fell into an argument, until someone Harry didn't know stood up and shouted over everyone. "I call for a vote to temporarily suspend the Chief Warlock while the dispute brought by Warlock Black is in arbitration." That quieted everyone down so he continued. "As the Chief Warlock is currently in disrepute and is definitely using his authority to prevent this from being heard, then we, as the voting members of this body, must step in. By temporarily appointing an interim Chief Warlock we can, without bias, continue with the arbitration. If the Chief Warlock is innocent as he would no doubt claim, then his position can be returned to him without incident. If, as Warlock Black seems to believe, it goes against Dumbledore, then we can make our decision on who should continue on as our Chief Warlock at that time based on the evidence we hear." The mystery man then sat down.
Harry thought the man, whoever he was, was taking an all-too-reasonable middle ground approach. Dumbledore was the one who sent him to the Dursleys and kept everyone in the Wizarding world from knowing where he was (a good policy for the remaining Death Eaters), but didn't save him from Vernon and his twisted sister, so he wanted them to kick Dumbledore out of the Wizengamot now. Another person stood up, someone Harry recognised. "I second the motion by Warlock Parkinson," Madam Longbottom said before returning to her seat.
Harry was a little surprised that a Parkinson would help him, but he realized there were probably motivations that he was completely unaware of, though in this case it could just be that Warlock Parkinson didn't like Dumbledore. Soon Harry was back in his seat in the visitors gallery, though Sirius was now stuck in the seat for the Warlock or Regent of the House of Black. Hermione and Fleur both sandwiched him in a hug between them, and Hermione assured him that neither she nor Fleur had known that Sirius had intended to put him in front of everyone while talking about the things that had happened to him. Eventually, Harry was able to calm down enough to realise that Fleur was hugging him as well as Hermione, and in that moment he couldn't find it in himself to stop her.
-ϟϟϟ-
They left Sirius in the Wizengamot. The solstice meeting would go on all day and into the night, and as he was now a member of that body Sirius was required to stay there the whole time. The rest of them had other plans, Floo'ing from the Ministry back to the Potter house and, after a quick lunch, everyone (magical and non-magical) Floo'ed to the Leaky Cauldron to go Christmas shopping. They took a quick trip to Gringotts so that both Harry and Remus could get some money, and during the trip Ms. Richards was looking around in awe at the sights of Diagon Alley. Harry could hear Hermione telling her nan little bits about each of the shops as they passed
"It's a magical pet shop, all the animals have a bit of magic or are a completely magical species. It's where I got Crookshanks...The apothecary is a bit like a pharmacist, they sell potions and potions ingredients. The ingredients can be kinda gross sometimes but they work really well. I'm pretty good at potions though I sometimes make silly mistakes." Harry saw Hermione's headband twitch a tiny amount, she had obviously flicked one of her ears as she remembered her mistake with polyjuice.
"Oh Flourish and Blotts, it's my favourite store here. It's full of interesting books." Emma snorted at the understatement. Saying Hermione loved the bookstore was like saying the Arctic was cold, not wrong but utterly failing to capture the scope of reality. "This is the bank, Gringotts. This is the real reason Harry and I had to come Christmas shopping in the morning without you last year. Harry had to come here to get some money and we couldn't think of another way to hide it from you. He didn't think you would accept a thirteen year old disappearing in London by himself."
"He was right, I wouldn't have. Central London is not the place for a thirteen year old to wander alone, especially not if they are unfamiliar with the city," Hermione's nan replied, and Harry understood that. London was a grown city, not a planned one; streets were added as they were needed and wherever they fit. As such, London was a maze that you could easily get lost in.
Harry and Remus each visited their vaults - well Harry visited his vault; unknown to him and everyone else, Remus instead headed to Sirius's vault - while the rest spoke to a teller. Fleur borrowed some money from her fathers account in France. She was able to get a limited amount of gold from the goblins, who would then ask for the gold from her family vault in the French bank. If it was paid promptly, then the goblins just added a fee for handling, if not then it was treated as a loan and they started to charge interest. Dan also changed some pounds into gold so that they could go to the pub in Hogsmeade for a drink if they liked while they stayed in the village over Christmas.
Once they were done in the magical bank, they left the pub out onto the mundane street and caught a couple of black cabs to go shopping. The shopping districts in London were decked out in Christmas decorations, and even shops that sold things that had little to nothing to do with the holiday had redressed the front of their store to show their festive spirit.
It was dark by the time they were done with their Christmas shopping, well the mundane shopping anyway. Harry and Hermione both still had things to buy in the magical stores, but that could wait until at least tomorrow and a lot of it could be done in Hogsmeade. The six of them collapsed at a table in the Leaky Cauldron, and after a few minutes Remus got up and went to the bar coming back with six pint sized mugs of hot foamy butterbeer.
Hermione was the first to take a drink and Harry and Dan both sniggered as she sighed in content. Hermione glared at them, confused why they would be laughing at her, but Fleur came to her rescue by cleaning away the foamy mustache that was left on her upper lip. Seeing it was just something silly, Hermione smiled.
"They serve alcohol to kids in the magical world?" Ms Richards asked, a little concerned.
"Only butterbeer. And while it has beer as an ingredient, almost all the alcohol is cooked off. Think of it like *bass shandy. Yes it has alcohol, but barely any. Try it." Hermione urged her nan, seeing that she hadn't tried the drink yet. Harry watched them as he fiddled with the unfamiliar ring that he now wore. Ms. Richards tentatively took a sip of the steamy drink, and then took a larger drink, obviously enjoying it. Dan and Emma saw this and also tried theirs, which they enjoyed as well. Once they were done, Harry went up to the bar and bought another round from Tom the bartender.
He still had a lot of the mundane cash in his pocket that he had gotten out earlier, as whenever he tried to buy anything today it was a race to see who would pay for it. Dan and Emma seemed to have teamed up with Moony, and whenever they could, one of them would sweep in and pay for his purchases. Harry understood what they were doing, it was the same as when he had the fight with Dan and Emma in Paris over paying for himself. But that didn't stop him from feeling like a parasite, taking what wasn't his to have. Buying everyone a round of drinks didn't cover what he felt he owed them, but it did make him feel better.
They Floo'ed back to the Potter house and Sassy instantly came and took all their bags. They all climbed the stairs to the family room and collapsed in the comfortable chairs. After about ten minutes of relatively comfortable silence, Dan asked Hermione if she had her gramophone with her. When Hermione said she did, Dan called Sassy and asked her to set it up and to retrieve the records he had brought with him, and soon they were listening to Dan's Christmas albums.
Ms. Richards was surprised to see a gramophone, as they had been out of use for decades. Hermione explained about the incompatibility of magic and electricity and how the wizarding world already had other ways to do most of what electricity does centuries ago. It was only recently that the modern world was starting to catch up to, and even surpass, the magical world in some ways. "The magical world had the advantage in travel; being able to travel across the country in a few minutes instead of hours was going to take some doing for the regular world to catch up to. However, normal people have taken the lead in information sharing. The magical world has owl mail and the wireless, but with TV, phones,, and now the internet, it's possible to share information with someone on the other side of the world almost instantly." Hermione explained. "The magical world is also better at medicine. As you experienced, potions work faster than any drug and the results are better than almost anything a modern doctor can do. They can even regrow teeth and bones. In fact it was Harry's ancestor, the man who founded the house of Potter who invented the potion, Skele-Gro, that does that."
As Hermione was talking with her nan, the Grangers were listening in, always eager to understand the magical world a little more. Uncle Moony was sitting back in his chair, eyes closed listening to the music, his finger tapping in time with the song's beat being the only sign he was awake. Fleur, however, had fallen asleep and her head was using Harry's shoulder as a pillow.
Eventually Sirius walked in, looking dead tired. Harry didn't feel any sympathy for the man, not after he had pulled his surprise stunt at the Wizengamot that morning. Sirius collapsed into a chair across from Harry and flashed him a grin. "Have a good day, pup?"
Harry considered how he would answer and just went with the truth. "Well, it started off terribly when this bloke decided he was going to pull me in front of the most important witches and wizards in the country and started talking about things I wished no one knew about," he said while glaring at the other man.
Sirius rubbed the back of his neck nervously before he replied. "Sorry about that, pup. It needed to be done. Dumbledore needs to be taken down a few pegs after what he has done, honestly it looks like he left me to rot as a dementor's snack pack because he didn't want to have to fight me for control of you. And whatever he is doing, it doesn't seem to be what's best for me or you." Sirius explained his side.
Harry was unimpressed by what Sirius said. "I get that, I do. Maybe if you had talked to me before I was suddenly at the center of a bunch of people I could have prepared."
"Pup, believe me, there is no preparation you could have done. All that me telling you would have done was give you something to panic over." Sirius defended himself. "I thought it was better this way. You did everything I needed you to do, no worrying beforehand and most importantly, no stress."
Harry didn't know how he felt about that. On one hand, Harry could see where Sirius was coming from, it would stress him out if he had found out beforehand. However, Sirius had gone behind his back, and even if it was for Harry's benefit, that wasn't OK. Harry sat there on the sofa for the rest of the night, Fleur dozing on one side while Hermione talked with her nan on the other, though Hermione never once let go of Harry's hand after his exchange of words with Sirius.
A/N
*pot, kettle - this a common shortening of an old British phrase. "the pot calling the kettle black." This phrase comes from before electric stoves and electric kettles. When people used to cook on wood burning stoves, both your pot and kettle (and everything else you used) would be burned black by the stove. The phrase is meant to call attention to someone being a hypocrite.
I am using an old English version of butterbeer for my reference for this fic, not the sugar syrup they serve at places like Harry Potter World.
*bass shandy was a soft drink made by the Britvic company. The drink shandy is a mix of beer and British lemonade (Sprite is I think the closest America has but it's just a lemon 'soda', and I think Fanta lemon is a closer flavour) the beer was only about 8% of the recipe and results in a drink that has 0.5% alcohol. And yes, you could buy it as a minor. They stopped making it in 2018. I think mostly because most people made their own rather than buying it. If you are going to try and make your own, and I recommend you do, a mix of 50/50 with lager is better for adults. It's a very refreshing drink.
