Estate Sale
The portkey spat them out one at a time nearly fifty feet above a lush green landscape with small hills as far as could be seen. Harry got ejected from the ride first and got to appreciate the beautiful landscape for about a second before focusing on the fall. Even though he fell slowly, running in place wasn't an option while his feet were above his head. It took him almost until he was on the ground to wright himself, so he only skidded in the grass on his knees until stopping.
Looking up, he saw Lyra soaring to the ground, abandoning any thoughts of putting her legs under her to keep her arms and legs outstretched and soar like a bird, eventually pulling her knees underneath her to land as Harry had. The other adults landed gracefully, staying on their feet, except for Tonks, who stumbled and twisted as she landed, raising her arms above her head as if she did it all on purpose, only for Whispers to fly straight into her and knock her over.
"Three and a half out of eight standing," Charlie quipped, "not bad."
Brandt looked around and called out, "Opal!" When the elf of Elmswood Lodge in Diagon popped in, he instructed her, "Our luggage got sent to the London Portkey Terminal without us. Please retrieve them and bring them to Elmswood."
"Wait!" Moody commanded just as the elf turned to leave. "Leave my trunk." She nodded and vanished. The old auror lifted his wand and placed it in the palm of his hand, covering the top and whispering an incantation. A white light bloomed, and he spoke into his hand, "Go to Amy. Tell her my trunk is at the LPT. Send someone to get it before one of the customs people loses a hand. The code is tap tap knock tap tap tap."
Charlie looked a little weirded out but shrugged since no one else seemed to care. As Brandt gathered the kids, he jumped in, "I hope you weren't planning on leaving before breakfast. My mum wouldn't forgive me if I let you leave on an empty stomach."
"Your mother doesn't like me," Lyra replied glumly.
"What? Why?" Charlie asked with surprise.
"Because she's a Black," Brandt replied.
"Oh… well, that's a bunch of bollocks. Nymmie is as much of a Black as she is, and my mum loves her. If there's a problem, I'll do the talking."
He started walking but turned back when no one else had moved. "Nymmie, tell them how good my mum's cooking is." She crossed her arms and looked sternly back. "Tonks," he corrected himself, "Tell them they don't want to miss a meal from my mom."
She sighed and replied, "I highly recommend it, but I'm going where Lyra wants to go." Harry also took a step towards his sister to show support. Charlie looked at her with pleading eyes.
Lyra looked around at the others and said with a small voice, "If she's mean, I want to leave."
Charlie led them over a few small hills before the terrain opened into a large glen. A large house sat in the middle that looked unbalanced, as if stories were added without a professional architect involved, and most of it was held up with magic. Outside was a large shed and an expansive garden with a fence along the far side with a grove of apple trees further away. A strange-looking tower stood beside the house with wires running from over the hill nearby the road. From the hill that they were standing on, a small lake could be seen past the orchard and a forest beyond that.
"Welcome to The Burrow!" Charlie exclaimed and led the way down to the house.
The group waited outside as he walked straight in the front door, which led to many exclamations of surprise and shouts of his name. There was a hushed conversation afterward, then a group of gingers, led by Molly Weasley, pushed their way out the door to greet the group. The matriarch glared at Lyra and Brandt but was interrupted by Fred and George pushing their way past and breaking the silence.
"Harry! Lyra!" they stormed out and wrapped each up in an embrace before quite literally tossing each one to the other twin and repeating their greeting. Upon seeing Tonks, they put down the two children and bowed deeply with respect, "Madam dragon."
She sneered back at them and tapped her mouth with her wand, letting out a puff of blue fire. Whispers took his turn to jump on the twins and have his hellos. Charlie pushed out from behind his mother and ran introductions for everyone, pulling Ron and Ginny out from inside as well; Ginny because she was shy and Ron because he was half awake. They were slowly escorted back into the house, with Tonks pulling Molly Weasley to the side and letting Charlie guide everyone else. Fred and George brought in a series of odd-looking chairs until everyone had a spot around the table and sat down with slightly uncomfortable looks on their faces.
There was a bit of silence before Molly asked, "So, good to see you, Alastor… and not that we don't enjoy… guests… but why is everyone here?"
"Portkey error. We were visiting the dragon reserve, and stuff got sent ahead, so we hitched a ride with your boy."
"Why were you at Charlie's reserve?" Ron asked Harry, point blank.
"I, uh, needed to test a potion for recovering hair lost from magical fire."
There was a bit more silence before Molly gestured toward Tonks and asked Charlie hopefully, "So, are you two back together?"
"Sorry, Molly," Tonks replied, "I don't have enough scales for him."
That got a chuckle from everyone.
To keep more awkward silence from emerging, Molly got up and started arranging food for everyone while the twins began to pester everyone about their summers. Their family had just returned from a trip to Egypt to visit the eldest child, who was working as a curse breaker. Fred and George spoke animatedly about the various tricks and traps inside the tombs they were excavating, along with various skeletons and golems that had been animated to guard them. Harry and Lyra couldn't talk much about what they had done but spoke about flying, dueling, and visiting the dragon reserve.
Brandt and Tristan mostly kept to themselves during the conversations while Alastor spoke with the matron of the house and helped her to bring in more food when some ran out. Molly gave continuing glances towards Whispers who ate slowly and quietly next to Lyra, though he was clearly enjoying the fare he was given. When they were all stuffed, Harry volunteered to help clean up and approached the sink, drawing his wand.
"Scourgify!" a large soapy blast came out and began to clean the dishes accumulated in the sink.
"Hey!" Ron called out. "You can't do magic outside of school!"
Harry looked around nervously and towards Brandt for guidance.
He shrugged and replied, "It's not a problem, the trace can't pick up your spells inside a magical household. Too much interference to isolate a child's spells."
Molly looked at the Black steward with fury in her eyes as the twins said together in a high-pitched voice, "What did you just say?"
Brandt looked around and immediately understood what he said that was wrong, "Um, I mean… he's Harry Potter and can do anything he wants."
However, it was too late and the youngest Weasley pulled out her wand and pointed it at the table, and said, "Rubio!" splattering red paint in front of her.
There was complete silence for nearly ten seconds before Molly Weasley whipped out her wand and yelled "Accio! Accio! Accio! Accio!" summoning her children's wands from their pockets or hands.
"Thank you, Mr. Black. You just destroyed the tiny bit of peace I had been able to have for myself each summer when these rugrats come home from school."
Charlie, Tonks, Moody, and Tristan started to laugh as Brandt grimaced, "I'm sorry… I assumed that they knew. Can I make it up to you somehow?"
She growled and said, "I think it might be best if you just leave." Brandt shrugged and started to get up with Harry, Whispers, and Lyra starting to follow.
"Why can't Harry stay?" Ginny asked suddenly, then blushed.
Tonks looked to Brandt, "Tristan, Moody, and I can stay with them."
"I'll be heading out too," Moody said gruffly. "I need to get my trunk and file some reports."
Harry and Lyra looked back and forth between their escorts for Brandt to make up his mind, eventually just saying, "Miss Tonks, please bring them to Elmswood by nightfall."
With everyone in agreement, Moody followed Brandt out of the house that he had set on a path of chaos for the next few years. They both disapparated as soon as they reached the garden.
"Should I still do the dishes?" Harry asked as Whispers started cleaning a plate with his tongue.
Brandt appeared back in Black Manor and had Darby escort him to Arcturus's study. Lord Black had the door open and was waiting for him as he worked through an endless stack of paperwork in front of him. The splintering black crack that ran down the side of his face from his left eye had grown longer and now went to his neck and under his collar with it being thicker and more fractured along his face. The method he was using to prolong his life and avoid death was taking some kind of toll on him.
Before any kind of greeting, he said directly, "I hope you know you have a tracking charm on you."
Brandt nodded, "Moody put it there. He hid it under two others that I already removed. The last one only activates every five minutes so I bet he thinks that I missed it. He's becoming more suspicious about our activities and he knows where the recording orbs are from."
"Really?" he looked surprised and interested. "How?"
"Not a clue but I think he clued in Miss Tonks and his other trainee, Mr. Nevitt about it. As for the tracking charm, I think I'll use it to see if the new cloaks really work on him. I also got Mr. Potter and Lyra to allow me to take one of the re'em from the island to finance the purchase of a live dragon from the Russians."
"Wait." Arcturus took a deep breath and rubbed his temples, "What did you say?"
Brandt smiled, "On the dragon reserve, there's a baby there that they are trying to buy a surrogate mother for from the Russians. They are mining jeweled armor rats to pay for it but the process is slow and Harry wanted to loan them the money. I used a little push from their vengeance oath to have them let me take one of the re'em and put it to auction to pay for the dragon. I'm not charging interest but we will get heavily discounted dragon parts for years instead, not to mention fresh gems from the rodents. I'm going to get some of both for the yacht in particular."
Arcturus smiled back, "I knew it was a good decision to give you the Black name. I'll need you to drop in on tonight's meeting as a statement of proof for revitalizing the families. Do you have anything else to report?"
Brandt reached into his coat and pulled on the rune-engraved jar with the captured ghost inside, "We will need to set up some time before I leave for the Balkans to interrogate this ghost. I had to silence the jar as he wouldn't stop screaming. He was part of the group that Harry and Lyra swore vengeance on."
The face in the jar was still screaming in silence as Arcturus took the jar from Brandt. "This will be fun, another teachable moment for you. Now, tell me about the Oath of Vengeance that Lyra and Mr. Potter made."
Back at The Burrow, the four younger Weasleys were washing the dishes by hand while Harry and Lyra uncomfortably chatted with their mother, who seemed to just be pressuring them to talk about their home lives. She seemed intent on finding out who took care of them and if Brandt was their primary guardian. As she pushed more and more for answers, they heard a bell ring from the fireplace and the flames inside ignited with green fire. A moment later a girl rolled out of the fire with bushy brown hair.
Not understanding why she was there, but still happy to see her, Harry, Lyra, and Whispers jumped up to greet her, "Hermione!" they both cried out as their little brother made a happy screech and all wrapped her in a hug.
Startled by their appearance, she looked very confused, and then asked through the hug, "Did I get the wrong house?" Seeing the other Weasleys, she asked, "What are you doing here?"
"We just got back," Lyra explained quickly. "We had a bad portkey and hitched a ride with Charlie, then ended up here!"
"Miss Granger," Molly said sternly, "I must insist that you fire-call before coming to see Fred and George."
"I'm actually here to see Penny. Her parents said she was here," she replied.
"She was here yesterday to see Percy. He was so brave rescuing her from those terrible men… strange…" Molly pondered, "I don't remember her leaving last night."
The twins grinned as Hermione's eyes widened and Molly suddenly understood. "She's still here? Why didn't any of you tell me?" she yelled at her children as the visiting adults snickered.
"We didn't see a problem," Wayne told her. "All they were doing was studying."
"Studying all… night… long," Garth smirked.
Molly barged through the house with everyone following behind her. They went up two flights of narrow stairs and she pushed open a closed door to find Percy Weasley sitting with Penelope Clearwater at a desk, surrounded by books and parchment and a dozen empty cups of coffee around them.
They both looked shocked before Percy yawned and said, "Ok, fine we will go to bed."
"It's ten in the morning little bro," Charlie laughed at the sight.
"Charlie? When did you get here?"
"Just like we said," recounted one of the twins. "Studying all night long."
Molly had no idea what to say as Tonks and Tristan dissolved into a fit of giggles. Hermione pushed around Molly and approached her mentor.
"I did it!" she exclaimed. "And Harry and Lyra are here too! I figured out the aurora wool!"
Penny tried to shake off the sleepiness and adjust to having so many people around. She reached for a half-empty cup of cold coffee and drank it in one gulp then looked back at Hermione.
"What did you do?" Penny asked. Harry and Lyra were just as interested.
Hermione reached into a purse on her shoulder and pulled out a scarf made of aurora wool and laid it on the desk she was at. There was a small metal tag hanging off the end with symbols carved into it. Penny leaned in to examine it.
Hermione took that opportunity to explain, "So I wanted to understand what made the wool glow, so I studied about the aurora itself. There's a lot of stuff that I tried to explain to the woman at the enchanting shop in Diagon but she just looked at me like I was crazy. Basically, the aurora is created as a result of interactions between light, magnetism, and gasses in the atmosphere. Examining the wool itself, I found that it has a high concentration of nitrogen in it, so I tried to simulate light and magnetism with a rune scheme."
She pointed to the tag, "The metal is made of nickel and connected to wires running through the scarf. The runes center on Dagaz, symbolizing a balance of polar opposites, which I took for magnetization, and then I placed Uraz above for natural power and reinforced it with Sowillo below for solar power."
She took a step back, pulled off a glove covering the hand of her prosthetic arm, and tapped the tag with it. It glowed white for a moment before the scarf lit up with ribbons of green and purple light, illuminating the room. The occupants stared at the light for a minute before it all died down.
"That was beautiful," Molly Weasley commented.
"Oi!" Ron spoke up, "Does everyone get to do magic except me?"
Hermione squinted at the freckled boy, "What are you doing here, Ronald?"
"I live here!"
Penny smiled, "We will need to get you to the Knitter Critter with the others to sell your creation!" Hermione looked shocked for a moment, before Penny added, "This is all yours."
Before she could add anything else, a loud snore came from the boy to her side, as Percy had fallen asleep sitting up in his chair. Penny let out a whoop and yelled, "Ha! I won!" then she flopped down on Percy's bed and fell asleep.
Charlie started to push everyone out of the room, conjuring a small mattress as they went and levitating Percy onto it. When they all got back to the kitchen, Harry and Lyra started to interrogate Hermione on the scarf while the others got pushed to the side. Ginny seemed to be trying to edge herself into the conversation while Ron just looked angry. Tonks began a quick explanation to them about the aurora wool and what Hermione had just done based on Harry's magic.
"And it is done with runes?" Molly said loudly, looking towards Ron who suddenly looked afraid.
He was saved from further scrutiny as a large clock in the entrance made a ringing noise and Molly announced, "Arthur is on the way!"
Moments later, there was a bell from the fireplace and green flames spit out the Weasley father into the sitting room. He had a joyous look on his face which brightened even more when he saw they had company.
"Charlie! Nym… Tonks! Are you two back together?" After a vigorous head shaking from both, "Harry! Good to see you again, I have made great strides in my research into muggle bath toys thanks to you. Mr. Nevitt, good to see you and Miss Black… Miss Granger, might I pick your brain some more on muggle plugs later?"
Hermione sighed and shrugged in acceptance of the request.
He gave an embrace and a kiss to his wife before asking, "Is there more tea left? I would like to bring Jack and Arlo through. We have a big day ahead of us, we can make it an outing for everyone!"
"What's going on, Dad?" Charlie asked.
"Well, after you told me about that dragon egg found at a boot sale, I pushed for and got a budget to investigate magical items that may have fallen into muggle hands and maybe other muggle things to research. I just got a tip on a rich old couple that recently passed away, with no heirs, so all of their belongings are being sold in an escape sale."
"You mean an estate sale?" Hermione asked.
"That's the word!" Arthur corrected himself.
"We get to hang out with Jack and Arlo?" one of the twins asked.
"They are so cool," the other added.
"Two of the most hard-working guys I've ever had," Arthur explained to the others. "Fudge himself transferred them to my department, so he must be recognizing my work."
Molly was already putting on a new pot for tea, and said, "I won't be going. Someone needs to stay here and make sure Percy doesn't get into trouble." After a very confused look from Arthur, she added, "Your son is up in his room with that girl he rescued, Miss Clearwater."
Charlie laughed and explained, "They stayed up all night long… having a studying contest. They just fell asleep after the new girl got here," he pointed a thumb at Hermione.
"Can I come back later to join you?" Hermione asked. "I'd like to get some money from home in case I find something neat."
After a nod from Arthur and a request to return in an hour, Lyra asked her if they could join Hermione, which had Harry, Whispers, Tonks, and Tristan joining her. As they stepped up to the fireplace, Hermione told them, "The floo address is 'Granger Castle.'"
She chuckled as the others repeated the location and the fireplace whisked them away. The fireplace spat them out into a small room with a single light overhead. The walls had soft mattresses lining the walls which they all ran into as they exited.
"Sorry for the small room," Hermione told them. "This is the only place we could set up the floo."
She moved aside one mattress and opened a door behind it to reveal a large open yard and a very nice house beyond it. The building they had been in was a small shed that must have been cleared out to have a fireplace installed inside.
"How did you manage to get a floo address in a muggle home?" Tonks asked with interest.
Hermione gave a small smirk, "Brandt set me up with some kind of exemption for using magic over the summer." Tonks coughed which sounded very similar to the word 'bribe.' Hermione made an exaggerated shrug, "I never opened the envelope before sending it to the Trace Office, so I'll never know for sure. However, I was doing so much magic that the person who worked at the Trace Office asked for my floo address to put some enchantment on the building to keep her from getting notifications… and I used her request to speak to the Department of Transportation to get on the network."
Harry and Lyra crossed the large lawn and Whispers ran in large circles in the open space to reach the red brick house beyond. It had two stories and what was possibly an attic. The building itself stretched around the backyard in an L shape. It wasn't actually a castle but it was still very impressive.
Hermione pushed open a door, leading to the kitchen and called out, "Dad! Mum! I'm back, I brought company!"
After a few seconds, a man's voice called out, "We are in the lab! If they are from school, bring them up!"
"He means if you're wizards. We have a whole room of the house designated for researching magic stuff."
She led them through the house and up to the second floor to a room with double doors. She opened them to reveal a room lined with bookshelves and desks, diagrams and charts, plus two muggles waiting for them.
"Ah!" Lysander Granger exclaimed. "Harry, Lyra, Whispers, and… Tonks? Good to see you again." He gestured to Tristan.
"Tristan Nevitt, Mister, and Missus Granger. I was Alastor Moody's trainee before Tonks here." He crossed the room and shook their hands.
Celia Granger smiled and asked, "Harry, Lyra, did you both have a good summer?"
Some of it had been good, other parts not so much. So they just told them about spending time with family, the vulkatross, and the dragon reserve.
Whispers began to explore the room as Celia told them, "We've been researching all the magical healing books that Steward Brandt gave us. Tonks, can you tell us how a Skelegrow potion knows which bones to regrow?"
She looked to Tristan who shrugged, then replied, "I have no idea. It's magic."
"None of the ingredients seem to give us an answer and the books don't say it either," Celia replied. "It seems to be part of an individual's magic or something because it won't regrow bones on a severed limb."
"Magic is weird like that," Lysander said. "Were you able to find Penny to show what you had done?"
"She was at the Weasley house. That's where I bumped into them," Hermione gestured to the others. "Mr. Weasley is going to go hunting for lost magical objects and 'Muggle artifacts' at an estate sale and invited us to go along with him." The adults chuckled when she used air quotes.
"Let me get some money for you," her father started to head out of the room.
"Can we give you gold for muggle money?" Harry asked quickly.
He stopped and thought for a moment, then replied. "I'll give Hermione a little extra and we can settle up later."
He returned a minute later with a stack of bills which he passed to Hermione, then proceeded to ask Tristan and Tonks all manner of medical questions, nearly all were way too technical for them. When their hour was nearly up, they started to leave, with Hermione's mother stopping her.
"You know the stuff I want, if you find it, right?"
Hermione seemed to go through a mental checklist, "Bookends, old flags, maps, anything Shakespeare and playbills." As her father started to open his mouth, she added, "Swords, interesting statues, rock and roll records, and anything else Shakespeare." He smiled and waved as they left the room.
When they arrived back at The Burrow through the floo, Fred and George were talking to two men; one was large and strong but younger than Tristan with his head shaved almost down to the skin, and the other was maybe a few years older than Brandt with dusty blonde hair and wiry but fit build. The thinner one got up and approached them.
"Well, I didn't think my day would include meeting Harry Potter." He leaned down and extended his hand. "The name's Jack, and the big guy is my associate, Arlo."
Harry shook his hand and then introduced the others to him with the usual amount of shock being received for a talking demiguise shaking his hand. Harry and Lyra took the next several minutes explaining to both Whispers and Molly that he would need to be staying there and not come with them. Eventually, they just told him to wait with Penny and take a nap, to which he seemed to agree to.
The sound of a car horn was heard from outside and the Weasleys along with their guests exited the house to see Arthur pulling a blue car out of the shed and around the front of the house. He parked and walked around, opening the passenger side doors, and gesturing to the group to get in.
"You finally got this thing working?" Tonks asked. "I remember you working on it for years."
Arthur puffed up with pride, "Working completely with magic, no gus or ekeltricity at all. A couple of other modifications as well too."
"Like fitting twelve people inside?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, like that," he smiled.
Whispers seemed enamored with another human named Charlie and stayed behind as everyone started piling in the magically expanded interior. There were five rows of seats behind the driver, who had a captain's chair situated in the middle of the vehicle rather than to the left or right side. Arthur stuck his wand into a hole in the center of the steering wheel and the car started making a soft rumbling noise.
"Is it supposed to sound like a cat?" Hermione asked.
"Is it supposed to sound different? The muggles down the road are always talking about how their new automobile purrs." Arthur responded curiously, with a few chuckles being heard around the car.
Hermione decided not to reply as Arthur shifted into gear and started to drive. Despite the road being dirt and bumpy, they glided over the top as if it was flat ice. While they traveled, Harry looked over the console in front of Arthur and tried to figure out what all the buttons, switches, and levers were scattered around the steering wheel. Uncle Vernon's car certainly didn't have any of these. After they got on the main highway, it took nearly an hour to reach their destination, an enormous manor house on the top of a windy road behind a large metal gate.
There were a dozen other cars already parked around the entrance, either much nicer or larger than Arthur's car… though they probably weren't magic. A man in a suit greeted them at the door and watched in surprise as the large party of people continued to exit the car, one after another. When they reached the door, he had recovered from the shock and addressed them.
"Welcome to Dale Manor. Would you be interested in hearing the history of the family before entering?"
"Not really," Ron said and started to walk in, only to be stopped by his father.
"A brief history would be nice," Arthur told him.
He looked irritated at Ron, before saying, "This was the home of Richard Dale and his wife Fiorella." He began to escort them into an entrance hall.
"After they married when they were both twenty-six, Fiorella was found unable to have children. Rather than adopt, they spent their lives traveling and donating to charities for orphans around the world in the many places they explored."
There was a large assortment of pictures across the entrance hall featuring a man and woman engaging in various adventures in settings all over the world. Additionally, many pictures had them standing with large groups of children in different locales. They seemed to stretch from the couple at a young age to when they were old and gray.
As they got to the end of the entrance hall, he told them, "Five months ago, at age ninety-five, they passed away. First was Fiorella and then Richard two months later, with his last words being that he yearned for the next great adventure with his wife after death."
He opened the door to reveal a desk with a cash register, a woman behind it, and a few people waiting with arms filled with trinkets.
"The Dales had decided to donate their wealth to the National Trust and several orphanages they visited on their travels, so anything you purchase will go to a good cause." He gestured for them to enter the house.
Before they got far, Arthur stopped them and told them all to stick with an adult who could test items for traces of magic. The Weasley children snagged Jack and Arlo and disappeared immediately while Lyra ventured off with Tonks. Hermione looked conflicted between joining Arthur or Harry but decided to go with him as he left with Tristan.
The house was enormous and filled with junk from all over the world, every room had bookshelves which Harry had to drag Hermione away from, insisting that they should walk through the whole house first before stopping to examine things closer. That lasted until the second floor in a room that seemed to be dedicated to their explorations in Africa and contained travel books on the area along with numerous souvenirs and clothing. When Hermione refused to leave, Harry started examining masks on the walls.
Once the muggles browsing the room had left, Tristan pulled out his wand and placed an aversion ward on the door so other muggles would just skip the room and started to shoot small puffs of blue smoke with sparkles in it around the room at various objects. The smoke would dissipate in seconds but halfway around the room, it lingered on a mask that had small slits for eyes and spots like a leopard on the face.
"First hit!" he declared. Conjuring a shopping basket, he levitated the piece inside, then continued checking for others.
Hermione had picked out a book on pictograms used around central Africa for herself while Harry took a mask that looked like the face of a gorilla face. Neither of them was magical, just interesting. Tristan managed to also identify trace amounts of magic in a wooden pipe that had a sculpted head on the end with its cheeks puffed out. Removing the ward on the room, they continued on.
The next room had various kitchen tools and no magical presence at all. Regardless, both he and Hermione took a few cookbooks and a few silver utensils that could be used in potion brewing from that room. They found quite a few things that looked magical but tested negative; like a polished walking staff with a red stone that ended up being glass, a sackcloth doll that was used as a pincushion, a weather vane with an octopus on it, and a jade sculpture of an elephant with an eagle perched on the tusks. Tristan did find two more items with traces of magic; an ouija board with strange symbols instead of letters and a set of Russian nesting dolls that had something inside the final doll they could hear when it was shaken but had no obvious way of opening it. Both were levitated into the magical item basket.
They ran into Fred and George in one room with Jack and were told that Ginny and Ron were with Arlo. They seemed to be collecting various costume jewelry and small trinkets from around the world and claimed that all of them had bits of magic in them but Tristan's test came up negative. So they just moved on and let the boys have their fun.
The attic had a treasure trove of interesting things - full suits of armor, weapons from various countries, paintings of magical creatures, and what appeared to be the skull of a small dragon. Arlo, Ginny, and Ron joined them and the large man hoisted the skull off the wall to carry downstairs, leaving the two youngest Weasleys with Harry's group.
Harry was examining a halberd standing with one of the suits of armor when he heard Ron yelling, "No fair! I saw it first!"
He started to walk over to see Hermione holding a decorative chessboard as she replied, "Possession is nine-tenths of the law, Ronald."
"What law? I'll just take it from you then." He reached out and grabbed the corner
Tristan stepped between them and snatched the board away, "What's going on?"
"I saw it first," Ron said angrily. "I play chess all the time. I don't know if I've ever seen her near a board."
"The number of things you don't know could fill the Hogwarts library, Ronald," Hermione retorted, "And it is endless."
It looked like he was considering taking a swing at her, but Harry stepped in between.
"Hermione, do you play chess?" she nodded. "Then I'll buy it and you can play a game at school, the winner takes the board."
"Fine," they both said simultaneously, then growled at each other.
Tristan took the top off the board and revealed a velvet interior that contained beautiful silver and bronze pieces that looked like medieval soldiers of their positions.
"This will be like taking candy from a baby," Hermione sneered at the ginger boy. "A big, dumb baby."
Ron seemed to be trying to figure out an insult, and settled with, "I hope you get bitten by a werewolf."
Both Ginny and Tristan gasped, with the older one knocking on the wooden doorframe, and saying, "That's a horrible thing to say. I'll hold onto the board until Harry goes to Hogwarts and then you can have your match there."
They continued to search the room with Hermione taking a sword for her father and Tristan discovering a small dagger which he thought might be goblin-forged. Harry took a couple of small knives that were similar in size to the ones he and Lyra were training with. Heading downstairs, they found Lyra and Tonks in a room filled with rugs and tapestries. The two of them were standing in front of one that took up the entire back wall of the room and talking about something. Seeing Harry, Lyra pulled him over and pointed to it.
It was an obvious depiction of a battle between men and goblins. The far corner seemed to be the focus of the piece and showed one man on the ground with a severed arm and another enormous warrior standing in front of him wielding a large club in his hand and dead goblins at his feet. Harry recognized the scene immediately.
"It's the battle that Mr. Goyle told us about where Vega Black met Gregorious Goyle!"
"See! I told you!" Lyra told Tonks.
"Huh, ok," she shrugged. "It's not magical but it would be interesting to see where this came from. We can ask for the provenance… its history… from the folks downstairs." They took it off the wall and continued to the next room. Unfortunately, none of the carpets in this room were magical, just really nice.
Another room was filled with things that were obviously weird and didn't fit in any of the other rooms. It was where they found the most magical items. They found a troll foot that had been turned into an umbrella stand. Tristan explained that these were used in many magical households because the magic of the thick troll skin transferred onto umbrellas to make them more resistant to water, self-repairing with small rips, and harder to break in strong winds. There was also a set of reading glasses with blue lenses, a signet ring, a sealed red bottle with an unknown potion inside, a leather sack filled with multi-colored, many-sided dice, a necklace composed of twenty-six teeth ranging from a rat's incisor to a dragon's molar, a sharkskin cloak inset with iron discs that served as a clasp, and a music box that could be wound but no sound came from it.
Eventually, they reached the bottom floor having collected a great deal of magical and non-magical stuff. The deceased couple had certainly been able to gather quite a bit over their lifetime around the world. After going through many of the bookcases, Harry collected books on various ancient civilizations and stories about myths from around the world. Lyra had gathered various clothing from different cultures, though most of it was too big for her at the moment. An entire section of the foyer had been dedicated to their group leaving parts of their purchases while continuing the explorations of the house.
Arthur was about to pay for everything when Harry jumped in and forced a haggle on the massive purchase. He wanted Brandt to be proud of him for getting the best deal possible and eventually closed it by telling the cashier that if they didn't take it, someone would need to carry everything back upstairs to where it had been before.
As they carried everything out to the car, Lyra and Tonks made sure to ask about the tapestry. The cashier had to dig through some records before saying that it appeared to be a family heirloom, not something picked up in the couple's travels. The group that ran the estate sale found it in a chest and put it up near the room with the carpets because it fit the theme.
Back at The Burrow, they all looked through the haul of goods, though many of the items that Harry had seen Fred and George collect were missing from the show and tell. Hermione and Ron were staring daggers at each other as Harry collected the chess set, promising they would have their match. Penny had woken up in the time they had been gone so they arranged a day for everyone to do their school shopping and meet at the Knitter Critter to do their business. In the time they had been away, Whispers had been helping Percy scare the gnomes out of the family garden and was tuckered out.
Finally, Tonks and Tristan flooed with Harry, Lyra, and Whispers back to Elmswood Lodge. Brandt was waiting for them in the sitting room by the fireplace.
"I was about to send out a search party," he quipped.
"Is this where the party is going to be?" Tristan asked Tonks.
After a look from Brandt, she replied, "I'm cashing in my chit. The night after my commencement ceremony, party at Elmswood!"
Brandt shrugged, then was told about their day and all the things they discovered, from Hermione figuring out the wool to Arthur Weasley's car, the estate sale and all the things they found, the chess board, and finally the tapestry of Black and Goyle. That drew the largest reaction from the Steward who demanded to inspect it immediately.
After performing numerous diagnostic spells on it, he called for an elf named Randolph, who wore an eye patch and popped in carrying an old leather backpack three times as large as he was. After a quick conversation with Brandt, the elf put down the pack and dove inside of it, returning later with a large strip of leather and a black tube. He then cut the leather to the size of the tapestry and rolled it up, placing it in the tube for Brandt before vanishing again.
"I would like to present this to Greg Senior tonight if you don't mind, and I am to bring you to observe a meeting that is about to start."
Tonks started to step up to join but was stopped by Brandt, "Not this time. Just the children, though they may tell you about it later."
"Fine, I'm going to use that amazing bathtub. Whispers will join me."
"On that note, I'm off," Tristan replied. "My vacation ends tomorrow and I have a girlfriend to see. Though I probably smell of Veela… wish me luck!"
He vanished through the fireplace as Tonks added, "I wonder how Remmy is going to take it when I tell him."
"You don't have to, you know," Brandt supplied.
"You wouldn't tell your mystery girl if you were seduced by a Veela?"
"Not exactly the conversation to have in front of children," Brandt told her with clenched teeth.
"Why does it matter that Tonks or Tristan was with Madeline?" Lyra asked, surprising both of the adults.
"It's a discussion for another time," Brandt told them. "We need to get going or we will miss the start of the meeting."
The three of them arrived inside Black Manor with an elf performing some kind of magic so they didn't fall over as they arrived. Brandt immediately turned around and tapped a skull on the mantle over the fireplace with his wand causing the eyes to glow blue. Green flames lit up in the fireplace as floo powder was automatically sprinkled in from the mouth of the skull.
He took Harry and Lyra by the shoulders, and said, "Grand Ballroom, visitor's gallery!"
The fireplace delivered them in half a second to a balcony overlooking an enormous room, larger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Around a hundred people milled around the room below that had a table running the length of the room, wide enough to put three of the Weasleys' car side by side on it. Elves popped around the room delivering food and drinks to all the immaculately dressed visitors. As Harry and Lyra went to look over the edge, Brandt cast a spell at the banister causing the air to fracture like glass, then return to normal.
"Now we can see down but others can't see up," he explained.
Directly below them was a large chair with a greater level of design than any of the others. A live raven sat on top with Arcturus Black sitting and watching the crowd from the seat. The children watched for a few minutes before an elf delivered a glass of wine to Lord Black and he looked up towards the balcony and gave a nod.
He picked up a staff that was leaning next to the table and tapped it on the ground. The tapping had an unnaturally loud echo through the hall which garnered the room's attention. As everyone started to move to their seats, Harry recognized a few of the adults. Greg Goyle Sr and Augustus Stevens sat to the sides of Arcturus Black, however, he also noticed Yaxley, MacNair, Theo Nott's father, Jonathan Davis, Gerald Abbot, Adrian, and Estelle Greengrass, and a few others that he had been introduced to at Dumbledore's birthday or the Abbots' winter party. The older members of the family sat directly in front of the table, with any adult children sitting in chairs nearly ten feet behind. More than half of the assembled group had no one sitting behind them.
Once everyone was sitting and quiet, Arcturus rose to his feet.
"I've called everyone here tonight to discuss the dwindling of our power. Our blood is vanishing and needs to be replenished. Look around. Where are your heirs? Sure, some of them are still in school, but most of you will never have one and will be forced to cede your chair to a cadet line, or merge with a lower house."
That statement created a lot of chaos and yelling. After a moment of letting them go, Arcturus stamped his staff and the room quieted again.
"I didn't call you to hear you all bitch and complain. I came here with solutions, whether or not you listen is up to you. I now yield the floor to Narcissa Black."
As the woman strolled out from a room below them, Lyra took a few steps back, with Harry taking her by the shoulders and embracing her from behind. Mumbling spread throughout the room though they stopped before Arcturus would silence them again.
"Years ago, I thought I lost my daughter," she began her speech. "I thought I lost her because I was convinced she was a squib. I cannot blame the fool of my husband for that as I could have stopped him had I wanted to. I was blessed to have her return though I may never be with her again, due to my folly and lack of faith in her."
She paused for a moment to pull out a handkerchief and wipe her eyes, then continued, "I was told by another that I may yet have another chance with her if I could only learn how horrible it must be to feel like an abandoned child. So, last winter, I set out to do just that. I dressed as a muggle and went to visit the squib orphanage in Australia." Narcissa's expression darkened and glared at everyone before continuing.
"Nearly all of you no longer pay your dues. That I discovered immediately. The formerly splendid building we purchased one hundred and forty-three years ago was in shambles with only the Black, Abbot, Greengrass, MacMillan, and Prewitt families paying their dues. Everyone not of the Sacred Twenty-Eight who is here tonight certainly pays nothing, though it doesn't stop any of you from just dumping your squibs there and leaving us to pick up the slack."
"So what?" a man stood up and called out. "There is no reason to dump money for taking care of trash. The trash takes itself out this way."
"Says the man with no one sitting behind him," Narcissa replied harshly. "Your squib brother has a son who attends the Dreamtime School of Magic in Australia."
"What?" the man squeaked.
"His name is Liam. Your brother remembers you and your father and hates you with every memory he has. When you die, Liam may take your seat on the Wizengamot and do with it as he sees fit."
He fell to his seat with a thud, head in his hands.
"I am lucky my daughter never arrived at that hellhole of an orphanage we all forgot about and left to rot. I am lucky she was found and given a better life. Though I still will suffer for my part in her abandonment. You all will have it worse. I have seen the children we abandoned and spoken to every one of them. I have found your descendants and learned of their successes without you and hope that my daughter can do just as well without me in her life."
Hidden on the balcony above the ballroom, Lyra was crying, being held tightly by her brother. Brandt passed her box of conjured tissues as the speech continued.
"I have taken the prerogative to burn down that decrepit building." That statement was met with shock from the room. "All the children there have been brought back to England where I am planning on giving them a better life. Squib or not, they are our blood. Not unless you beg for their forgiveness will any of you see them again." With that final statement, Narcissa Black stormed out of the room.
Brandt reached down to the two children on the floor and embraced them in a hug, "I felt that you needed to witness that, though I had no idea what she was planning on saying. I think Harry should bring you back to Elmswood now."
Lyra nodded as Harry walked the two of them back to the fireplace. A flash of green fire and the two of them vanished. Brandt turned back to the ballroom. The meeting was not yet over. Twisting in place, he apparated to the floor below and approached Arcturus. His presence was barely noticed as the room had descended into chaos after Narcissa's speech.
Arcturus turned around to greet Brandt and shared a minute of eye contact. "Interesting…" he mused.
He let the rabble continue for another minute before silencing them, "Look, I understand that most of you are heartless bastards. However, I will have pledges of support from all of you for Narcissa's initiative. Many of you won't care for your own blood but may be interested in a financial benefit to all of this."
That got some attention from those who didn't seem to care earlier.
"Some of you have business dealings in the muggle world and knowledge of the vast wealth to be taken advantage of there. Others do not. While many of your abandoned descendants have no magic, they do have riches.
"Lord Nott, you are related to a muggle who is a musician making approximately eighty thousand galleons a year. Lady Rosier, you have a relative who is a leading political figure in South Korea. Lord Flint, you have a second cousin who plays for a national sports team in New Zealand and pulls in over two hundred thousand galleons a year."
All three of them were shocked in silence, as Arcturus continued, "Many more of you have successful family members throughout the world, though none of it matters because they will never be related to you. If you all do not care about your squibs, give them to Narcissa and she will turn them into successful men and women who will reap the wealth of the muggle world. None of your magical descendants will want anything to do with you because of your abandonment. Your lines will die out and you will become either an empty seat in the Wizengamot, like the Gaunts or someone who knows only of your hatred will come from abroad to sit there once you are dead."
There was silence throughout the room until one brave soul stood up, "Muggle money? Bad blood? Good riddance. The empty seat of the Gaunts is a monument to the purity of their bloodline. I would prefer my line to go extinct than bring in a mudblood to take over my family as you have done. You parade around that foreign boy like he is a messiah, having him challenge respectable people, like Crabbe, in public places, only to hide behind your name when it suits him. What do you say to that?"
Arcturus shrugged and turned to Brandt, "I don't want you to hide behind my name. What do you have to say about Rowle's challenge?"
Brandt smiled and took the tube containing the tapestry off his shoulder, "It looks like we will be having a duel tonight. I will only accept an apology when Rowle is on his back and bloody."
With a quick hop, Brandt jumped onto the long table. Halfway down, Rowle took off his outer robe and climbed up as well. Elves popped in from everywhere and took all the food and drink from the table while a few people that knew what they were doing began to set up dueling wards.
"Your house, your rules," the elder Rowle told Arcturus.
"None. I would prefer if you don't use unforgivables, but that's simply because I find them lazy and uninspired. If you want to try to kill my steward, try to at least try to decapitate him or use a blood eruption curse."
When both fighters were at the end of each table, nearly two hundred feet apart, Arcturus stamped his staff on the ground signaling the start of the duel with a loud crack. Rowle began furiously casting sickly colored spells, which did little at the distance they were apart. Even the slightest bit he was off in his aim would miss Brandt by several feet if they didn't just hit the barrier around them. All of his spells would incapacitate or kill in horrifying ways, but his maliciousness and aim weren't a good match.
As Brandt had been training with Stevens and Goyle, teaching Harry and Lyra to duel, and having real-life experience of the Balbal attack, Brandt was in the best fighting shape of his life. He started his attack by conjuring four metal animals, a tiger, a snake, a monkey, and a wolf. They raced down the table, taking the hits from a few spells, with the monkey continuing to dodge as it advanced. Brandt dodged the last few spells easily and tore a page out of Tonks's handbook and lobbed four bright blue balls on a high arc toward Rowle's position. Since he didn't know her spell, these were just rubber and would do nothing except bounce off the wards and floor to draw his attention.
The older man continued to cast lethal curses which were still easy to dodge and shield at the distance they were at. He dodged the bouncing rubber balls or blasted them out of the air when they got close, sacrificing precious seconds. Brandt wasn't sure if his opponent was taking the fight seriously or not. As he sidestepped a castration curse, he performed a transfiguration and banishment of the pieces of the metal tiger changing them into barbed needles and nails as they flew in a cloud at his opponent. He was rewarded with a cry of pain as several pierced the older man's shield and stuck into his torso and legs. The metal monkey was nearly on top of him and turned into molten liquid as it made its final lunge, encasing Rowle's right foot in the hot metal.
In desperation, a wide area curse finally hit Brandt, which started to turn his left leg to stone starting from the marrow of his bones and working its way out. Bracing himself for the counter curse, Brandt broke the spell, which also shattered the bones in his leg. Both men were now short a leg but at least Brandt was still mobile. With so much metal scattered on the dueling platform and embedded in Rowle's body, Brandt unleashed an unguided lightning spell, tinged with dark magic. The blue and black electricity lit up the table in front of him as his opponent screamed. When the spell ended, Brandt's challenger had dropped his wand and his body was smoking on the ground, his right leg still encased in solid metal.
Limping over to his downed opponent, Brandt cast several point-blank bludgeoning spells at his face and body until he was bruised and bleeding, then a revival spell to make sure the man was conscious to speak.
"I am waiting for my apology," Brandt growled.
The man groaned but didn't reply. With his hand that didn't have a wand in it, Brandt wandlessly conjured a stream of green mist, which slowly coalesced into a green skull that began to scream. With one motion, he pushed the screaming skull into Rowle's chest, his body spasming as he did so.
"My apology?" Brandt repeated. "Or not and you will get the wish of your line going extinct right now."
He was a bit too slow with his response and Brandt conjured another screaming skull and pushed it into the man's body.
"I'm sorry!" he gasped when the convulsions ceased. "Please forgive me!"
Brandt leaned down and picked up the man's wand, pointing it into his chest and pulling backward, painfully extracting the green mist that had been absorbed into his body. He screamed as blood trickled out of the pores where the most had come from until no more green magic came out.
"This is mine now," Brandt placed Rowle's wand in his pocket as Arcturus disabled the wards.
"I hope there are no more challenges to my steward?" Arcturus looked around the room as Brandt hopped towards the end of the table where Augustus began to vanish the shattered bones from Brandt's leg.
When there were no replies, he told the assembled guests, "Rowle got off light. At the beginning of the summer, I granted my steward the Black name. He no longer hides behind my name as it is now his too. I would guess he's at least half as strong as I am and has the potential to be just as dangerous. You may address this 'mudblood' in the future as Steward Brandt Black."
He reached his hand into the air and the tube containing the tapestry floated up for him to grab and he opened it up.
"In addition to all the descendants we have found abroad, Brandt Black has just made me aware just today of a recently deceased and possible relation of my right hand, Gregorious Goyle, here in England near Devon." Goyle Sr. looked surprised at this as he hadn't been told. Lord Black tossed the tapestry in the air and it was unrolled and displayed for everyone to see.
"Should this prove to be correct, we will acquire the manor to be used for Narcissa Black's initiative. Our squibs have the potential for greatness but will only do so if they do not hate us the way most generations abroad would if they discovered their lineage. I expect all of you to be in touch with me regarding your donations to the project later."
He sat back down and Goyle Sr summoned the tapestry to examine it in detail.
Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to Joey and that girl you were recommending my fic to. I met these two at a party and overheard Joey recommending my fic to a girl. I chatted with them about things they liked in it but didn't tell them that I was the author. Here's to the first (and probably only) strangers I've met who have read my writing!
Second note: I love the character of Arthur Weasley. Certified genius and definitely part of where the F&G get their skills. Also... Jack and Arlo you might remember from the last year. The twin girls will show up again as well as part of their new job... Do you remember where they would have ended up?
Third note: I can't add pictures here like I can on AO3, but I did update the cover photo of this and the previous year with something I generated in MidJourney. What do you all think?