2021 A/N: A chapter which includes dialogue, politics and riddles. Three things that I am absolutely terrible at writing. I have stressed over this chapter so much! Hopefully, chapter 52 will go better for me, before I return to writing more riddles for chapter 53. I needed to break it up a bit, so I didn't bog myself down.

2021 A/N 2: I apologise for how short this chapter is, in comparison to some of my others but a lot seemed to happen.

Chapter 51: Year four: Breaking Point

It was a few days after the first task when Sirius contacted Aileen.

She'd been sat with Ron and Hermione, trying to reaffirm her friendship with the later now that he had finally realised the true danger of the situation that Aileen had been placed in and that his distance was giving her stress. They'd decided to settle into the common room, mostly so Aileen knew that Fred and George were close enough to come and help her if Ron started mis-stepping with his words, since she wasn't emotionally in the place where his words could be brushed off.

With the stress of the tournament, learning warding that was far more advanced than what she realistically had the time to learn, and then the looming stress of the rising tension among the mer-people was pressing down on her. She wasn't even thinking about her schoolwork anymore, only just putting enough attention into it that she was completing the homework, but that was it. She couldn't afford to divert her attention in such a way without giving herself an emotional break – a break which she couldn't afford that year.

"Sirius?" Aileen answered the mirror that she kept on her person at all times.

"Hay pup." Sirius greeted with a tired sigh.

"What happened?" Aileen leaned forward in her chair, prepared to cast a silencing charm if she felt it was needed.

"I need you to come in pup. I know you didn't want to, not yet, but I need you." Sirius admitted. "I need your authority in this."

"Who's the problem?" Aileen sighed, just as tiredly as her godfather had done. She'd known, in the back of her mind, that this was coming. She was hopping that Sirius would be able to deal with the politics, allowing her to take a back seat. But Sirius wasn't his grandfather, who was known as the Black Dragon within the political world during his time, and he just didn't know how to use his words to turn the opinions of so many people who didn't believe what he was saying. And, even if he could, he didn't have the tenacity to force those stubborn once to submit.

"Fudge, Umbridge, Nott, Sewill, and Francis." Sirius rattled of quickly.

"And where's Malfoy on the matter?" the last time they had spoken, Malfoy had been mostly quite on the topic, only asking why they needed to copulate to their demands when they weren't someone the Wizagnmont had a treaty with.

"Letting the others take the lead, but I know he's going to act up if the others lose the argument." Sirius sneered slightly. He'd wanted to reach out to Narcissa and determine if she was worth keeping in the family, but he couldn't do that while fighting this movement in the Wizagnmont.

"Okay. I can't do it this weekend, that's when Gryffindor play Hufflepuff. I'll tell Dumbledore I'm missing lessons tomorrow. Meet me in the atrium." Aileen requested before signing off. "Hermione, could you…"

"Collect your homework. You sure it's okay to miss lessons like that?" Hermione frowned in concern.

"We've been over this Hermione. I've taken up headship of House Potter, I have no choice but to put my family's responsibility above my schooling. When my proxy comes to me saying he can't do it without me, I have to respond." Aileen explained. She'd sat down with the girl, with the help of Lavender and Parvati who had a basic understanding of the situation since they were from old families and explained it to Hermione a few nights after Aileen had taken up her family ring.

"You know, I'm glad that the Weasleys lost our place on the Wizagnmont. It seems very stressful." Ron commented.

"That would have been Bill's stress," George began, having moved over when Aileen got the mirror call and seemed to shrink slightly in stress.

"Although I'm sure he would have happily passed it onto Percy, since I'm positive Percy would thrive in the position." Fred tagged on.

"You know Bill could take up the Prewitt headship since your mum is the last of the main line, meaning it passes onto her children." Aileen commented absently, but her mind was elsewhere. "Please, excuse me, I've got to do something."

*^*^*^*^*^*Wizagnmont Chambers*^*^*^*^*

Aileen met Sirius next to the fireplaces. She put on the same clothes she'd warn to her godfather's trial because she was making a statement. She had warned Fudge she was going to bring him down, and she had passed that warning onto Madam Bones. And now, she had no choice. She gave him an opportunity, but he was stalling something that she had allied her house with – something she was doing to stop a war.

"You ready pup?" Sirius questioned, clasping a hand on her shoulder.

"They won't know what hit them." Aileen smiled grimly, preparing herself for what she was about to do. She was going to war, but she was doing it without drawing her wand or her sword. This was war and fighting on a front that she had only faced once, and this time she was doing it without the support of the more experienced Madam Bones.

"I've called the meeting because we didn't resolve the situation yesterday and we have a deadline. The dark put a timeline of two hours aside for the situation today." Sirius explained. "I couldn't get more time, since this is outside of scheduled meeting times and there are several members with jobs, they are presently not doing because they're here."

"No one puts a time limit on me." Aileen turned her smile into a distinctly vicious smirk that had an Auror they were passing on the way to the meeting room shift out of her way like she'd drawn her wand on him.

"You know, you're terrifying." Sirius decided, "And that look is all your mother. She had that look before she took down eight Death Eaters… with prejudice."

Their conversation fell away as they entered the chambers. Sirius took the new Black seat, which had been moved to the 'Neutral' section alongside the Potter seat, while Aileen took her own place. Watching with guarded eyes as the rest of the Wizagnmont filed in. Her presence was noticed by a few, and her battle robes were noticed by a few more of the keener eyed individuals. When Dumbledore came in and took his place, he nodded respectfully in Aileen's direction. She had told him she would be here, but she hadn't told him what she was going to do. As Chief Warlock, he needed to have some deniability and impartiality.

At exactly ten o'clock, Dumbledore sealed the doors and called the session into order.

"Are there any changes to our members which need to be brought up?" Dumbledore asked the mandatory question that most often went un-answered.

Aileen stood, lighting her wand to signify attention. "Lady Aileen Potter, sitting the Potter seat for this session."

"So acknowledged." Dumbledore nodded his head to confirm that she was there for just the one session. If she'd wanted to take up her seat permanently, she would have used a different wording. Fortunately, underaged or medically limited Lords and Ladys of the past had ensured that several clauses were written into the formation and process of the Wizagnmont.

"Thank you, Chief Warlock." Aileen bowed and re-took her seat.

"Are there any other points of order before we proceed." There was no movement from the room, and so Dumbledore continued. "The point of contention for today, is the issue facing the Wizagnmont of the threat of war from the mer-people."

"A war from the lake dwellers means nothing to us." One of the lord's snorted, starting an immediate argument.

Aileen watched and listened to the arguments, getting a sense of who stood where and who was staying out of the argument completely. Sirius and Amos seemed to be the ones arguing the point, the only ones arguing the point for, while the opposing side has several against, with the loudest voices being Fudge, Umbridge and Nott but there were a couple of others speaking for that side. She let the arguments continue for thirty minutes before she lit her wand, changing the colour to a bright green instead of the standard white, which means she had an important point of order to bring forward.

"Order among the seats." Dumbledore called for silence. Once he'd achieved silence, he nodded to Aileen. "Miss Potter, you have a point of order."

"I Aileen Alessa Lakshmi Potter, Head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Potter, Heiress Primary of the Most Ancient and Nobel house of Black, Representative of the Mer-People community of the globe, call two points of order before the Wizagnmont." Aileen began, moving her wand so it was held diagonally across her heart. Whispers started up around the hall, likely because of the third title she had used, but Aileen ignored it and continued. "I call upon the magic of the halls to seek justice on behalf of House Potter in answer to contention of my first order. I call upon the magic of the halls to seek resolution of war between two races on my role of Representative of the Mer-people of the globe."

Two loud 'gongs' signalled that the points of order had been accepted and the hall was now sealed, and no one could leave until she called her point of orders resolved on behalf of House Potter and Representative of Mer-People. It was unusual to be able to call two points of order under two different roles, but she was unusual with the fact that the roles she carried under her name weren't connected. She didn't have to align house Potter with the mer-people, but she had chosen to do so because the mer-people hadn't had a true representative on land for many centuries.

"The Wizagnmont recognises the point of justice and the point of resolution. We will now hear the point of justice." Dumbledore acknowledged the magic, and decided the order they would talk about the two points. Since the discussion of war was one that they had been talking to death for the last month, he decided to talk about the point of justice first.

Aileen returned her wand to the hip holster since she now had the floor, and no one was allowed to interrupt her until after she had finished delivering her point and opened the floor up to questions. Any attempt to stop or interrupt her, while explaining her point of justice, could see the Lord or Lady temporarily silenced by the magic of the room.

"House Potter has issued two warnings to Minister Fudge; we now bring our point of justice before the Wizagnmont. We had hoped, that with the warnings delivered, once in person and once through an official intermediary, Minister Fudge would take the year we were willing to give him in order to improve himself and his office. It has come to our attention that this is not the case, and he is now directly acting against the interests of the ministry, the people and my house." Aileen began, using 'our' instead of 'me' or 'I' since she was using her houses authority and if she had more members in her house, she would be referring to all of them. And then there was the allies, like the Longbottoms and now the Blacks, who would be tied to her house in the event of a war or feud due to the oaths they took. Of course, they wouldn't have to fight at her side, at her houses side, but fighting against her house would automatically break the alliance and a lot of power was established through these alliances.

"I have evidence from my personal interaction with the Minister, and also evidence brought forward from a privet investigation. I will present evidence that in his time as Minister, Fudge has taken many bribes either with the purpose of turning a blind eye to something that has happened or in order to push something through the Wizagnmont; he has allowed a minimum of thirteen people to be sent to Azkaban without a trial, of which seven of them are now deceased; he regularly abuses his power as minister in order to achieve a goal or objective which bolsters his position or crushes opponents."

As she was explaining just some of the things that she had discovered, the Minister's face started turning red and his eye were darting for a way out. Aileen had always planned on having Fudge arrested, but she was going to hand the case over to Madam Bones instead of having it done before the Wizagnmont where there were many members who would want this shut up because they were implicated. Aileen, knowing she was going to be doing this today, pulled the evidence she had collected from her inner pocket and sent it to the scribe who would then send out copies.

Aileen continued talking, explaining in detail the crimes that Fudge had committed and she had evidence of. She'd warned the man that she would remove him from his position, but as she dug into his life, she was now going to have him sent to jail for the rest of his life and have all his assets removed from his name, and every decision he had ever made questioned. Madam Bones had motioned for the guards to detain Fudge and move him into the witness box.

Finally, she reached the end of her details of crime. "Having now explain both the grievance that House Potter holds against Cornelius Fudge and brought to your attention crimes against the Wizarding World, I call upon the Wizagnmont to seek justice." Aileen nodded to Dumbledore, in his position as Chief Warlock, and Madam Bones, in her position as Head of the Department of Law Enforcement, before taking her seat. She couldn't bring her second point for address until this one was resolved.

"In light of the evidence presented, I suggest that we call an emergency vote to remove Cornelius Fudge from his post as minister, before handing over to Madam Bones who will be able to spear head an investigation to see if he has committed any further crimes that we are not aware, which may impact the running of our government." Dumbledore spoke gravely.

"I second this motion." Regent Longbottom was the fastest to her feet, but not the only one who had been going to make the motion.

"I third this motion." Sirius spoke barely seconds before Lord Ogden.

"The motion carries to vote." Dumbledore announced. "All those in agreement?"

Wands lit all around the room. Aileen had to abstain her own votes since she was the one to call the point of justice, but her wand wasn't needed since not a single person left their wand unlit. At this point, it would have been political suicide in order to vote against Fudge's removal. Those who would be implicated by a trial, would now have to try and find another way of silencing the man or speak with their own lawyers pre-emptively.

"All those against?" Dumbledore asked as a formality, but he barely waited a second before continuing. "Then it is agreed. Cornelius Fudge will be removed from his post effective immediately and handed over to Madam Bones who will complete an investigation of all crimes so accused." He banged his gravel once to signify the completion of sentence.

"Auror Burrow and Finnings, you will take Mr Fudge to the holding cells on suicide watch. You will be the only ones allowed access to him until I say otherwise." Madam Bones order to the two guards who were stood with a shocked and pale Fudge. They nodded their accent and took the horrified man from the room using an access point that only law enforcement could use.

"We must now decide on an interim-Minister, who will be charged with assisting Madam Bones in going through the minister's office for any problems." Dumbledore glanced around the room. "Are there any names to be put forward for vote?"

"Albus Dumbledore!" A member of the Wizagnmont called out.

"Although I am flattered," Dumbledore chuckled. "My focus is on Hogwarts, and so I must decline."

"Amelia Bones." Regent Longbottom put forward. Madam Bones nodded her acceptance of the nomination, although she didn't look particularly happy about it. She'd probably only accept the post until an election could be held.

"Ronald Odgen." Lord Greengrass put forward another candidate from the neutral section of the block.

"Danial Flint." A lord sat in the dark voting block put forward their own candidate.

Dumbledore asked if there were any more nomination before calling it to a vote. Aileen decided to vote for Bones since she didn't know enough about Odgen's politics to put the man forward. If his name was put forward for the election, then she would do her research on his political standpoint and make an informed decision then. As it was, she knew that Madam Bones would act to help make the ministry more efficient and remove as much corruption as she could during her time in the post, before happily reverting back to her position as Head of Department. The voting was close between Odgen and Bones since they were both neutral and so the votes from the neutral and light block was split almost evenly between them, with a handful of the dark block also casting their vote for them instead of Flint. In the end, Bones won by five votes and was sworn in.

"Lady Potter, the floor is once again yours." Dumbledore conceded the floor once that had all been settled.

"My second point to be brought before the Wizagnmont is a point of Resolution. As the Wizagnmont has been made aware, the appearance of the Durmstrang ship in the Black Lake at Hogwarts caused damage to the mer-village. The minister of Bulgaria provided the material that the mer-people needed to rebuild, and the headmaster lent my services for healing with Madam Bones and Professor Snape providing the items I needed. The final thing that the chieftain demanded as reparation for their loss of land and people, was the returning of their statue of Opal which was a large part of their culture. This was brought to the attention of the Wizagnmont when the goblins discovered that we were the ones to take possession of the statue.

For more than a month you have argued among yourselves, many of you not caring to notice the problem. But what you don't seem to realise is that Hogwarts sits on sovereign soil and has a treaty with the mer-people. I stand as the representative of their race. If they decided to claim what they want in blood, Hogwarts will be forced to close, me and my house will stand and fight on behalf of the mer-people and they will call upon their allies in order to flood the land and call upon storms that will kill our crops. They don't need to leave their waters in order to kill us. This isn't something that can be argued, you don't have a choice…

Once Aileen had gotten the Wizagnmont to listen, and Lord Sewnley was charged with retrieving the statue and delivering it to Hogwarts by the end of the week, she went for a late lunch with Sirius at a café he had discovered in the non-magical world. They talked about a lot of nothing, since they hadn't had the opportunity to simple be themselves when they met up. Always having a purpose which was stressful, like her duelling lessons so she had a chance at survival, and even their mirror calls typically focused on the problem they were trying to resolve or their house business. It was nice, to simple talk about something with no purpose.

Eventually, Sirius dropped Aileen back of at Hogwarts since she didn't have access to the floo system. While she was walking back up to the school, she stopped by the lake briefly to let the mer-people know that she had finally forced the Wizagnmont to bow to their final demand. She didn't' go all the way to the village, instead catching one of the guards who was on patrol through the boarder.

Having cleared her day, Aileen ducked under her invisibility cloak, so she didn't have to interact or talk with anyone as she made her way to where she'd hidden founders' portraits, and she'd placed her egg from the first task. She hadn't opened the egg yet, so busy with other things that she just hadn't given the second task any thought. But, since she had the time, she decided to focus on it now.

"Finally, opening that accursed thing, I see." Salazar commented when Aileen picked up the egg.

"I want it out of the way before I go back to Sirius for the holidays." Aileen smiled at the thought.

She was looking forward to finally having a family Christmas, especially since they only had two and a half weeks before the holidays. She would have to ask Sirius to take her to the sea on Christmas Eve so she could meet with her father for a little while like she had done on the previous years. But mostly, she would be spending her time with Sirius and Remus.

"Well then, let's hear it." Salazar encouraged.

"Where are the others?" Aileen paused before opening the egg.

"Speaking with the warding team, they had a few questions. Young William is quite happy to have our group frame in his rooms since he's rebuilding the wards and not taking them down. I was there before I realised you were heading here." Salazar shrugged elegantly.

None of the founders had explained how, but they somehow knew exactly where she was at all times on the grounds, as well as the heads of houses and the headmaster. They couldn't do the same for the students, so Aileen assumed that they were tied to the wards in a more physical way then they had suggested.

"Okay, well thank you for coming." Aileen said hesitantly, eyeing the founder warily. He didn't normally leave such a conversation to come and speak with her, which implied that he had something to discuss with her. "I'm opening the egg now."

My first is in stressful but not in trustful

My second is in natal but not in tan

My third is in grinder but not in grind

My fourth is in sentimentalist but not in saintliness

My fifth is in danger but not in grand

My sixth is in prescient but not in triceps

My seventh is in commentary but not in necromancy

My eighth is in masterwork but not in teamwork.

"A spelling riddle," Salazar laughed, highly amused at this fact.

Aileen glared at the founder in annoyance. She wasn't the best at riddles, but a spelling riddle was even worse. Despite her best efforts, and the books she had written, spelling still wasn't her best skill. Her dyslexia meant that she had to put a lot of effort into ensuring she hadn't messed a word up. She even carried a dictionary around with her at all times, just encase she was having a really bad day. Hermione regularly edited both her homework and her notes for spelling mistakes, while she had an editor for her books whose only job was to check for spelling mistakes.

Pulling a piece of parchment from her stack that she stored in the room, she wrote out the riddle, using her dictionary to make sure that she got the words right. She underlined the words that she needed to work out the answer. The letter missing from 'trustful' that was in 'stressful' that was an 'e'. Then 'i' was missing from 'tan', 'e' was missing from 'grind'.

"Elements." Aileen announced proudly once she got to the end. "So, does that mean the second task will be about the four different elements? That's helpful." She muttered sarcastically, grabbing another piece of paper. "I'll have to research protections against the different elements, as well as spells in order to create them. Because I don't know what it is I'll be faced with, and it could be either created or combated. Also, water spells will be useful against fire."

"This task seems more thought out then the first task." Salazar interrupted her planning.

"It also seems more planned then the second task was meant to be. I mean, rescuing a hostage from the middle of the lake, in February." Aileen snorted. She'd gotten the truth of the task from the mer- chieftain when she'd asked what their involvement was meant to be.

Edited: 12/01/2024