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Part Five

"Mr. Potter, would exactly did you think you were doing?"

There's a brittle fury in Minister Fudge's eyes. Harry half-nods to him and examines the rest of the Alley over his shoulder. They haven't called Dementors or anything like that, thankfully, although there's a detachment of Aurors spread over the bottom of the steps up to Gringotts. Harry isn't sure whether they're there to bodyguard the Minister or hold down the goblin rebellion they must think is happening.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Bringing wands to goblins is an act of war!"

"It is, sir? Wow! I looked up some laws before I did this, you know, and I didn't see anything about that in the laws!"

Harry did actually read some legal books, too. The ones in Grimmauld Place aren't the most updated ones, but even Sirius had to admit that the Ministry changes so slowly they probably wouldn't give Harry the wrong information, either.

The Minister pauses. Behind him, someone clears her throat. Harry glances at her and finds a tall woman who looks a little familiar watching him pensively.

"Sir…"

"Well, all right, not literally an act of war," the Minister has to concede. "Yes, Cordelia, what is it?"

Harry perks up a little. Daphne's mother is called Cordelia. And she looks like Daphne, now that Harry is looking for the resemblance, with wide green eyes, although her hair is darker and she doesn't have much of the same face shape.

"There is no law on the books about bringing wands to goblins," Madam Greengrass says, shooting Harry a quick look. Harry is happy to stand there and let her get on with it. "Only about selling them."

Fudge's face does a complicated dance of expressions that makes Harry have to cough to hold back laughter. He sometimes saw Aunt Petunia's face doing the same thing, when she was forced to concede someone else had a good point whether or not she wanted to.

"Why do you think those laws are on the books?" Fudge demands.

"I think wizards and witches are afraid of goblins, sir."

"That's right—I mean, no, of course not, we aren't afraid of them! It's just better for peace all around if goblins don't have wands."

"Oh. Because they would be better with them than we are, sir?"

"Of course not!"

"But then why is it better for peace?"

Fudge looks around as if he expects someone to come up and start taking pictures of him. Madam Greengrass is smiling widely and viciously, although she tames the expression as Fudge spins back around to face her. "What is the wording of the laws?" Fudge asks in what he probably thinks is a whisper.

Susan is shaking with laughter next to Harry. Harry hits her with an elbow in the side. The last thing they want is to have the Minister think they aren't taking this seriously.

"I believe that it says something akin to goblins causing a rebellion if they have wands."

"You heard that, Mr. Potter," Fudge says, turning back around and nodding violently to Harry. Maybe he's not enough fool to assume Harry didn't hear him, then. "Because they could cause a rebellion if they had wands."

"Is that what the other rebellions started over, sir?"

"Eh? You know that the History of Magic class in Hogwarts concentrates on goblin rebellions, I hope?"

"Oh, yes, sir. But Binns tends to emphasize the outcome, not the cause. I was just wondering how many of the rebellions started over access to wands. And whether they might have been solved by bringing the goblins wands. Not selling them, of course, that would be illegal."

Fudge shakes his head impatiently. "I don't have time for this, Mr. Potter. Where are the wands now?"

"Inside Gringotts, sir."

"And did you give them to goblins? Did you see them matched with those wands?" Fudge lurches a step forwards.

"No, sir."

Susan starts laughing under her breath again at this literal truth. Harry hits her with his elbow again. Madam Greengrass looks back and forth between them but says nothing and doesn't change the expression on her face one iota.

"Oh, well." Fudge straightens his bowler hat. "Then perhaps it's still all right." And without even asking Harry and Susan how they got to Diagon Alley in the first place, which Harry was sure would be the next question, he turns and practically runs into the bank.

Madam Greengrass lingers where she is, staring back and forth between Harry and Susan with shrewd eyes. "You know that you are playing with fire?" she murmurs.

"Don't worry. My Quidditch Captain has shown me how to fly through it."

Madam Greengrass blinks, and then gives them a small, genuine smile before she follows Fudge. Most of the other Aurors do the same thing, but two of them step forwards and nod to Harry and Susan in an inescapable way.

"We're to escort you back to Hogwarts, Lord Slytherin."

Harry stifles a sigh. At least they're not going to learn anything other than that Harry and Susan came through the Grimmauld Place Floo.

And at least he knows that the goblins will accept the wands now, and Fudge didn't manage to prevent it. Harry will account that a victory.

"We wish to speak to you."

It's the most straightforward sentiment Harry has ever heard out of a centaur. He finds himself blinking at the chestnut stallion who stands on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. He's apparently been watching the Defense class practice.

Harry's Defense class, as opposed to Sirius's. Sirius thinks the whole thing is great and sometimes assigns them homework that coordinates with whatever spells they're practicing in the Defense group.

"Uh, all right." Harry drags his hand through his hair and catches Ernie's eye. He was supposed to have Occlumency practice right after this.

Ernie gives him a stern look, but also waves a hand to tell Harry that he'll wait, this once. Harry holds back the urge to salute, which would just irritate Ernie, and walks over to stand in front of the centaur, nodding to him.

"You call yourself Lord Slytherin?"

"Yes." Harry is glad that none of his friends are with him, because they would probably get upset about "disrespect" or something.

The centaur prances in place. Then he says, "My name is Stardim."

"All right," Harry says slowly. It sounds like an ominous name for a centaur, given how into Astronomy they are.

"We have heard that you brought wands to goblins."

"Yes, that's right."

"Why did you not bring them to us? We have also been deprived of them."

"I didn't know that you would accept them. And I'd already spoken with some of the goblins about my plans to fight the Ministry for creature rights, but I hadn't spoken to any centaurs. I thought that you might dislike humans enough not to want to be involved."

One of Stardim's hooves slams into the earth and digs a divot. "That was ignorant of you."

"Sorry."

Stardim examines Harry for long moments more. His eyes are black and piercing and remind Harry a little of Snape's, although he's pretty sure that Stardim at least can't actually read his mind. "You will enter the Forest with me now and speak to Magorian."

Harry breathes out slowly. "I can't do that without informing someone of where I'm going."

"You will come with me now or the centaurs will never be your allies."

Harry bites his lip. But…well, even if the centaurs are never his allies, they'll benefit if Harry manages to get wand rights for goblins and other non-human people. And Harry can just picture Ron and Hermione and Theo and Sirius's expressions if he goes off into the Forbidden Forest without warning anyone.

"Sorry," he says, on a hard exhalation. "I want to work with you, but not to the extent of going off by myself and with a centaur I've never met before."

Stardim's eyes widen. Harry reckons that he was assuming his tactics would work. He tosses his head up, makes a sound of contempt and disdain that makes Harry wince, and then turns and bolts into the Forest.

"Harry!"

It's Ernie coming up to him, but also Draco, Theo, Hermione, and Justin. Theo is watching the way that Stardim went with a frankly disturbing look in his eyes. Harry moves in between Theo and the edge of the Forest, casually.

"What was that about?"

"He wanted me to come with him right away to meet Magorian. He said that the centaurs wouldn't be our allies if I didn't."

"He wanted you to come alone?"

"Yeah."

"Then it's a good idea that you didn't go," Hermione says, for all that she also looks torn. "I'm sure that we might be able to come up with a way to appeal to them even without your visiting them, I can look in the library…"

Harry nods and drops back to walk with Theo as they go towards the castle. Ernie seems to have given up on the idea of holding their Occlumency lesson outside, which is all right with Harry. He's getting a little better at it, and he doesn't want to be near the Forest right now.

"What do you think?" Harry asks Theo.

"I'm thinking that the Dark Lord sometimes reached out to centaurs in the last war. And that he's frequented the Forbidden Forest before."

Harry smiles grimly. "Yeah."

He will be sad to miss out on an offer of alliance with the centaurs if Stardim was sincere. But he simply can't trust someone without proof.