AHDT: Reprise
Minerva looked up at the sound of a very characteristic knock.
Why would Severus be bothering her in her quarters?
"Come in," she said.
Severus opened the door and flopped into the lounge chair by her fire.
She put her book aside and stared at him, "What happened to you?"
"I was invited by the AHDT to present on privacy charms, pallings, and wards, and the various common disillusionment charms."
"And it's mildly amusing to note that they have our masks pegged so well, and don't know our characters?"
Severus chuckled, "there is that, yes. Quite gratifying."
"Is that all?"
"After the lesson and the practice, there was … apparently their standard duelling practice."
Minerva stared, "Which you felt compelled to interfere with."
"Mildly, yes," said Severus.
"How bad is it?" said Minerva, "and can Poppy handle it without additional help."
"Poppy's assistance was not required, their safety protocol was exemplary."
"Oh," said Minerva, "So why are you out of breath?"
"I came in second," said Severus.
"Who came in third?" said Minerva.
"House of Potter," said Severus.
A tone of pride.
"You duelled … an entire house, and won?"
Severus smirked.
"How many students was that?"
"Harry, two Patils, four Weasleys, and Miss Lovegood."
"Eight — … six OWL students, and two fourth years," said Minerva, "I'd like to have seen that."
Severus nodded, "I might pay Heir Carmichael for a memory of the event."
Minerva smirked, "So … who did you lose to?"
"House of Granger.'
"What? How?"
"Because it currently contains, Granger, Draco, both Greengrasses, both Davises, both Gamps, Crabbe, Goyle, Parkinson, Nott, and so far as I can tell, the club's only first year, who I still cannot place away from the context of her year mates."
"Thirteen?" said Minerva, "That's …"
"Thirteen, and Draco knew most of my tricks appropriate for that venue, and the previous House of Gamp members fight as a unit, and Crabbe, Goyle, and Parkinson are … well-acquainted with the idea of obedient curse fodder, though Pansy seems proficient with all of the OWL level shields, and Theo can match wits with Hermione or Draco, and support their harebrained schemes as fast as they can come up with them."
"Hmm," said Minerva, "And how did they all become House of Granger? Not that I'm surprised that she'd gain a following, I'd just have expected half that many by the time she's vaguely twice that age."
Severus smirked.
"How official is this House of Granger anyway?" said Minerva, "or is it just some kind of crowd control system within the group?"
"How do you mean?"
"Did she absorb them all by conquest in previous duels, how often does the game reset."
"Oh, I see, an interesting theory," said Severus, "But that still leaves the question of how she'd be able to exist separately from the House of Potter, which is where she was lining up last time we visited."
"True, And weren't the Weasleys lining up behind the Wolperts earlier?"
"Yes," said Severus.
"Curious," said Minerva.
"Quite," said Severus.
...-...
Dealing with the Wizingamot, and other non-human inteligences
Harry looked around Lion's-Keep, to see who was present, "Wizengamot meets tomorrow afternoon, who wants to attend with me, and who wants to take notes for us here?"
Parvati stared at him for several seconds before raising her hand, "I should probably go. Maybe not always, but several times to familiarise myself with what's involved."
Harry nodded.
"I guess, I should too?" said Ginny.
"Then I'll be staying here and taking notes," said Padma.
"Hmm," said Harry, "I can only have one of you sitting by me as my second, The other one might have to sit in the audience balcony."
"Meaning what?" said Ginny.
"There's a second chair behind the House of Potter desk," said Harry, "For my second, proxy, or heir."
"Oh, then it's easy," said Parvati and held out her hand, "I'm probably supposed to be sitting in your other chair, beside Lord Black."
"Oh," Harry blinked, "That makes sense."
"Let me borrow your mirror to make sure," said Parvati.
Harry understood her hand gesture, and got his hand mirror out of his bottomless satchel.
"I wonder," said Susan, "If I should be sitting with my Aunt," she frowned, "At what age, I should start sitting with my Aunt."
"It seemed like seventh year is really common," said Harry.
Susan frowned, "A while ago Hanna's mum asked me if I was going to start Survey of Magical Law this year or next. I take it that this year would actually have been an option?"
"It is," said Harry, "and no one except overachievers tries it, because OWL year is insane regardless. I'm glad we all made it through the animagus seminar season with our sanities intact."
Susan narrowed her eyes, "I'm almost certain there is something more going on, which years did … Percy take Survey of Magical Law?"
"Sixth and seventh," said Ginny, "and he complained a lot about not being allowed to start in fifth like his girlfriend. Once he got to the point of admitting that he had a girlfriend."
Susan gave a nod, "got it, I should have investigated sooner."
"Investigated what?"
"Heirs of Wizengamot seats," said Susan, "I bet the intended progression for me would have been starting this year, and joining the page program seventh year."
"What is the page program?" said Harry.
Susan smirked, "a totally above-board reason to present a bunch of seventh-year students with portkeys, or extract slave labour from them in exchange for providing a convenient and significantly more secure method of letting them fulfil their duties to the Wizengamot."
"And yet, I seem to have managed to acquire a page program badge for free."
"That's not the way Auntie describes your work," said Susan seriously.
Harry blinked. "So, basically I've been a page for just over a year and am only just now getting a badge?"
Susan smirked, "Because you've just now started needing it, also I think it was House of Malfoy who is on record for having vouched for you, not Auntie, though perhaps she rubber-stamped your approval a bit faster than anyone else's: hence you have one now when no one else has theirs yet from being shortlisted because of the investment laws committee meetings."
"Ah," said Harry.
.
"Why are you watching the irritable woman in front?" muttered Ginny.
"If I told you," murmured Harry even more quietly, "that you-know-who was sending rich purebloods to fight and kill other rich purebloods, and get killed by them in the process, supposedly over the right to kill muggle-borns, but rarely actually sending them to killing muggle-borns, while he also disguised himself as his sister, and fought in the Wizengamot to make laws to make Mage Britain much more meritocratic and welcoming to muggle-borns, free-borns, foreigners, and lycanthropy victims, would you understand why I pay more attention to his plays than to those of the Clearwaters, Urquharts, and Diggories, who will each champion the rights of only a fraction of those groups?"
"That's him?"
"Probably."
"Who else might it be?"
"The Patil's grandmother."
"How would you tell them apart?"
"The Patil's grandmother's eyes are brown like Tom Riddle's were when he was human. Tom Riddle's eyes when he's imitating her, are green like mine. Also, Grandma thinks humans doing human things outside her territory are cute, incorrigible, but mostly harmless, Tom Riddle is a citizen of Britain, and no citizen whose flock is in danger is entirely tame."
"Who is his flock?"
Harry shrugged, "today, I think it is mages, and especially orphans and muggle-borns, and sometimes free-borns, but there's no telling who it will be tomorrow."
"Harry?" said Madam Venn.
"What?"
"Muggleborns stopped saying 'free-born' centuries ago," she said.
Apparently, I've been talking too loud after all, thought Harry, but on the outside, he just smiled and said, "and yet, I refuse to use the term 'blood traitor,' when it's evident to me that often the house or the house system has betrayed the individual, rather than the other way around."
Her eyes popped open, "Sure, but … last month you were voting with the dark."
"I believe I was voting for liberty and equality at the time," said Harry, "and I'm still avowing that position."
She blinked several times, then sighed, as if that were response enough, or as if her next words were in fact too depressing to state aloud. Then she looked away and smiled, "Oh, to be young again."
.
They were only a few feet short of the page program's 'portkey arrival and departure' room when they were brought up short, "Good evening, great-niece, bold one," murmured a voice off towards Harry's right, at normal volume, it continued, "And Lady Potter."
Everyone glanced up. And/or spun around.
"Good evening, Aunt Margaid," said Harry, and after a bit too long a pause he said, "Wives, the Proxy for Gaunt. Madam Margaid Gaunt, my wives."
"And the Regent of Potter," murmured Margaid, "At your service," she bowed, much too low for a proxy to the head of another house, not low enough for a thrall to her owner, perhaps about right for a regent to the heir whose interests she oversaw, if the heir was of age and didn't technically need her services anymore.
Parvati stared at her and relaxed.
Ginny's grip on his elbow only tightened more.
"Why should I believe that?" said Ginny.
Aunt Margaid shrugged.
"Regent Potter," said Harry tentatively, "Do you have something to report regarding my err our estate?"
She stared at him, then stood up straight and recited, "it is January, so mostly nothing is being done outdoors, though receiving and storing supplies for the spring is ongoing. You don't personally have land under cultivation, the vegetable and apothecary greenhouses have all gone to seed. But the House's vineyards proceed apace under their various contracts and charters. And many of your tenants keep their own gardens and fields as delineated under their contracts. I've convinced all your tenants who were in arrears to begin settling their accounts or move elsewhere. Most of them were not in arrears. Most who were, had been in the habit of hand delivering it, and either had their back rent set aside in escrow and were happy to pay or were willing to have their vineyard wages garnished to make up the deficit. Two others were just troublemakers or squatters anyway. Another two were … also squatters and I managed to find a suitable home for them, where hopefully they will actually attend school. I'd … kind of like you to check up on them, as understandably, they are terrified of me."
Her eyes flicked sideways at Ginny for almost too short a time to see, then her focus returned to Harry.
"I see," said Harry.
"You should know, You have a muggle-born," said Aunt Margaid, "several of her grandparents were squibs who sought refuge with your ancestors, she's living within your estate so the national wards have ignored her as a House protectorate. This means no muggle-born scholarship to Hogwarts was made available to her, and no professorial visit six years ago to explain her magic. I didn't detect her until the school year had already started, I gave her first- and second-year study materials and promised her and her family to get her into school next year. If you wish to assess her yourself and decide if she should attend the City of London Day School or Hogwarts. She might have been Hogwarts material, but … she's sixteen, entirely self-trained, and has an inordinate number of familiars, I think the day school would be a better fit for her temperament and those of her creatures."
"Your assessment of how she'd be sorted?"
"Hufflepuff or Gryffindor," said Aunt Margaid, "If she'd been sorted at 11, but … at this point, she … has redirected so much of her gregarious nature towards her animals, that she's somewhat a loner now. Ravenclaw is a possibility."
"I'm hearing that there aren't enough children in her neighbourhood?" said Harry.
"It's farm country," said Aunt Margaid, "She has a perhaps sensible dislike of the metal contraptions known to cause roadkill, and which took her father from her when she was about twelve. She has to get up before dawn to walk to school, when she can be bothered, which seems to be only three or four days a week, September through December, and March through May. The school would have more things to say if she didn't keep her grades up despite the spotty attendance."
"So she can function as a ravenclaw, even if that isn't her personality," said Parvati.
Aunt Margaid nodded.
"Her nearest neighbour in her form lives two miles away. And they don't see eye-to-eye on most things. There are several children nearer by, but a third of them only visit to terrorise her pets. And the rest, she usually has to visit if she wants to see them. I'd love to give her a broom and an anchored portkey to the centre of Godric's Hollow and back, but … well I only have so much control of the wards. And her mother isn't keen on mage culture, just has some vague notion she needs to retain the goodwill of the House of Potter to ensure her survival. I don't think I've ever detected her leave the wards, even though there are department stores twenty minutes drive much cheaper than either the village grocers or the vineyard's general store. I'll let you try to solve that one also if you feel like it. Her work record is exemplary though, so it might not be in your best interests to do so."
Harry blinked, "You're telling me that I should carefully consider helping the daughter all the way through school before I let on to her mother that she might be safe to leave my wards."
Aunt Margaid nodded, then shrugged, "first-generation is often either jealous or resentful or both, second- and third-generations squibs often pick up weird notions, fourth-generation muggle-borns usually have the smoothest transition back into our culture, everything is new, and they don't have weird preconceptions or the sour-grapes aftertaste of having left or being forced out."
Harry nodded, "That's an interesting assessment, I'll try not to let it prejudice me too much."
Aunt Margaid smirked, shrugged, and turned a bit to the side, before turning back sweeping her gaze over all three of them, "Next month is February, I want you all to remember to feel welcome to make use of Leona's Den."
Utter blackness and the familiar sickening spinning yank of portkey travel—
.
— and landing in a heap and opening his eyes to the indistinct dim blue-grey, barely enough to illuminate the uneven texture of the wall nearest him.
"Where are we?" said Parvati.
Harry rolled over and found warm fur under his hands.
"A root cellar," said Ginny, "Lumos."
Her beam reflected back from wooden boards above them, held up by round joists. Not modern construction. But seemed dry enough.
Harry climbed to his feet, to his left there were tables, chairs, and smoothly finished bookcases, on a wooden floor, also a wood-burning hob on a tiny tile hearth. To his right, there were rough-hewn plank shelving and raw dirt. He lit his own wand and examined farther, the root cellar end of the space they occupied was several meters deep, and bare except for perhaps about a month's worth of dry goods, recently deposited.
Looking the other way he found the small study again. He turned farther: a flight of stairs. Tucked under the stairs, barely fitting, stood a canopy bed, only slightly bigger than Hogwarts standard. And then three small stalls, as if … there were bigger barns around, but sick animals might be kept nearer for faster emergency access. Another turn and he found a pit nest, obviously designed after Grandma Gaunt's favourite shape of den, only this one was filled with rabbit furs of incandescent hues. He crouched and turned one over.
Runes to block them from dis-conjuring, familiar runes to keep them close to … perhaps 25 degrees.
"This is not one of Grandma's lairs," said Parvati, "But she might have helped with parts of it."
"Seems like," agreed Harry, "I want to see the sky, I think we're not near Gaunt wood."
Parvati nodded towards the stairs, and they all moved in that direction.
As they turned the corner, there was another door, left ajar, with a muggle clipboard hanging from it. And the same logo as the grocer's bags that the dry goods had been partly unpacked from. They ignored it and climbed the stairs. Unlike the manufactured muggle furniture downstairs this seemed a rather antique house.
"This is more like it," said Ginny.
"Hmm," said Parvati and pushed a door open, "The kitchen has indoor plumbing and a gas hob, but didn't originally."
"Loo is modern enough," called Ginny.
Harry opened the front door, but the sky was too clouded over to get more than a vague sense of longitude. He stepped down off the veranda and crouched to brush the snow away until he found gravel. Not what he was looking for. He turned to the side and searched again until his hand closed around a dried stem. He pulled it carefully, but it broke. He found the next stem and dug down until he broke the crust of ice and came up with a handful of mud and a flower bulb.
There had been a flower garden along the front of the porch, nice. Acceptable. Good. The mud was not Scotland peat, in fact, it reminded him a little of Surrey, but far, far longer since it had been disturbed by house construction: More magic in it available to the careful herbologist. But nearby another house had been built more recently, perhaps only 5 generations ago. Unbidden his sense of nearby magic merged with his sense of apparition location, and them with his memory of what he'd learned while under Susan's supersensory-navigation charm, and all of that with something else, broader, deeper, more subtle.
Voldemort's zoo lies hidden less than 200 meters to the north by north east. The extent of what he'd seen last time he was near here.
He glanced in that direction, a large manor stood mostly hidden behind trees and hedges. That was the large nearby house built more recently than this one.
He tried to put the bulb back in its hole but found he first had to clear away more snow and break up more ice crust. Then it was done and buried under enough dirt to protect it until spring. He stacked shattered ice crust around it.
He stood up and assessed the manor house, for how far away it was. It blocked a large amount of the horizon. It was big. Not as big as Malfoy Manor. From this angle and in the dim light it appeared to stand two stories and have a square footprint. The roof was steep enough that there might be a large attic to go with the two basements. The above-ground part of the structure might contain enough room for two of the Hogwarts' Great Hall, but only if there was nothing else inside.
How do I know there are two basements?
There are well-treated specimens in the zoo under it, there are miserable prisoners farther away and deeper down. Foreigners are torturing other foreigners there. Behind him, in a wide swath were farmlands and people and those people's animals, and some farmland that contained crops that weren't his for the taking. And at several points buried below ground were cellars full of stockpiled foodstuffs. Some of them were his wealth, and some of them were bounty allocated to be shared with those in need.
Because the only farm animals on his land that actually belonged to him were people, and people had special requirements regarding how much territory they needed to protect in order to be happy.
"Hello," said Harry.
[There's not actually anyone around for you to be talking to.]
"Potter Manor, can you hear me."
[No, It's too far away, also far too new and rigid.]
"Who is talking to me?"
[Yours]
"My … land?"
[ … ]
Was that a smile?
[It is not necessary for this to smile.]
But it was anyway.
Am I talking to my land, or the wards placed here?
[This is not a nymph. And not all of me is written in runes, but yes, I have the wards, charms, enchantments, stacked and adjusted by generations of your ancestors.]
Is there anything you wish to tell me?
[Not made to wish for things. You are here. You are for that.]
Fine, I wish you to let me know anything you've noticed me believing anything untrue about, and anything you have been told to consider of high importance for me to know.
[I will do as you wish and call myself 'I' and 'me' when communicating with you, but I am not a single thing and I am not fully in control of all the parts of myself.] [I already notified you of where the foreigners are. And where anyone is being cruel. Or being miserable.]
Ah.
Can you tell me where are the people capable of using magic?
[The same map again, but with a new group of people highlighted.]
The two women that arrived with me are my wives.
[Identified, Accepted, Standard rules for predicting territorial needs and displays in place. One has some of your symbols on her wrist. The other has much, much older symbols of your ancestors on her ankle. You wear no symbols of me. Explain.]
The one with the incomplete House of Potter crest will be the Lady Potter someday.
[I assume 'future' means when she produces an heir for me. Accepted.]
Close enough. The one with the incomplete House of Black crest will be Lady Black someday, I want her children to live here for as long as that is safe and appropriate for their happiness.
[New rules understood, Lady Black's future children are to be monitored for territorial discomfort and encouraged to plan to meet their desires elsewhere at safe and appropriate times. New rules accepted, I like your plans. Thank you for being clear.]
I'm not entirely sure you understood me properly, please inform me when you detect 'territorial discomfort,' and ask permission before you encourage anyone to leave home.
[New rules modified, Lady Black's children may be encouraged to feel at home, until permission otherwise is granted.]
Are you encouraging me to feel at home?
[I don't understand your question, you are home, that's how I knew to obey you.]
Are you under any orders regarding me?
[Yes, I am not allowed to gestalt lists that large. Please ask a smaller question.]
Are you under any orders regarding me from the woman recently calling herself Regent Potter?
[Regent Potter identified. You are to be obeyed as if you are my sole heir, excepting in regards my effects on her and her thralls, and excepting in regards to adjusting how I obey her. You have complete access to information about them.]
What has she ordered regarding her thralls?
[I am to leave them alone and not block their access to anything in the manor and the decorative grounds, except her private bedroom, kitchen, and work rooms. They are not permitted to cast damaging magic on the structure of the manor or anything outside the decorative grounds.]
[I am to block their access to the rest of the grounds except when they are accompanying her.]
How do they enter and leave?
[They enter by the main floo in the manor, the floo address is 'Potter Manor,' I do not have access to the password. They enter by apparition in the gravel walk in front of the manor, they leave by the same ways. Or any of the other floos. They enter but not leave by portkeys to the dungeons, infirmary, and zoo.]
Are those all the ways onto the grounds?
[Muggles enter and leave the grounds all the time by the roads. The floo in your house is also working. The floo address from the Manor is 'Old Cottage', public floo address is 'Potter Cottage'. The password was last set in August, it should be changed. Apparition is also possible on the gravel walk you are on, and to each vineyard's main office by a hidden storeroom in the CEO's conference room kitchen. Here and Here. Portkeys may arrive at each of those places, portkey wards were recently modified to allow arrival where you did.]
I didn't think portkeys could be blocked particularly well.
[Last I was informed, Portkeys leaving cannot be blocked, only sabotaged, I am not equipped to so sabotage. Portkeys arriving cannot be blocked, but can be redirected. I redirect to the gravel walk in front of the manor except for arrivals in the locations I mentioned.]
Ah, I understand. I guess, remind me once I have my apparition license to visit each of those places to memorise them.
[New rule understood and accepted.]
What else?
[Here. Public floo address 'Potter Cottage,' password last set in August, it should be changed.]
How do I do that?
[Go to the floo, open the candle box, there is a slate stone set in the lid, erase the old password, and write a new password, the slate pencil is behind the floo powder box.]
Thank you.
Harry returned inside, he found Ginny in the kitchen going through the cupboards inventorying dishes. No floo. He found Parvati in the bathroom glaring into a storage cupboard as if its existence were an affront to the dignity of … something.
"You alright?" said Harry.
She shrugged and turned to stare at him, "lye soap!" she said and rolled her eyes, "a mix of scents, and made with an assortment of base oils, but it's all lye soap."
"Hmm," said Harry, he shrugged, "feel free to stock it with whatever you prefer."
She blinked, "You're … comfortable with our ability to leave?"
Wards, can we leave? May we leave?
[You're wearing portkeys, I cannot stop you. Do you know their passwords?]
Some of them.
[Why did you ask?]
Harry snorted.
Parvati looked more concerned.
He lifted his page badge from around his neck, "As soon as we're done looking around, and maybe making a shopping list, we can return to Hogwarts."
"Oh," she said, "Good."
After a second she said, "soap is the most obvious thing, There are no hair products at all."
"Alright," said Harry, "Do you want to help me set the floo password?"
She raised her eyebrow, "Good idea."
He led her to the next room, perhaps a bedroom, except there was no bed, just several old chests. No floo, just a tiny coal burner/brazier thing, Harry was about to go when Parvati called from the window, "What was quidditch called, back when there was only one hoop?"
"It's been called quidditch since before all the current rules or pitch regulations were finalised," said Harry, and he peeked out the window with her.
There was a snowy field almost big enough for a quidditch pitch. From the rumpled texture of the snow, Harry suspected it the grass under that snow hadn't been mowed for a very long time. There were three poles at one end and one at the other, and only one pole had a hoop.
"I think it's just very poorly maintained," said Harry.
"That's just sad," said Ginny arriving beside him.
"Probably hasn't been played on since my father left Hogwarts," said Harry, "Do you see a broom shed?"
"No," said Ginny, "it's close enough to the house, it might not have a separate shed."
"Possibly," said Harry.
He led the way to the next room, a sitting room, a card table with wooden chairs, three comfy chairs, two fainting couches, with legs so spindly Harry was almost afraid to sit on them, and a massive fireplace. He went to it. He found the floo powder box and the slate pencil behind it. No other boxes were on the mantle.
He looked around.
"What are you looking for?" said Parvati.
"The instructions said, look for a 'candle box,' I don't see a candle box."
"This," said Ginny walking up to the fireplace and pointing to something fastened to the stonework. It looked half like a bird house, half like an antique letterbox. Made of wood. She lifted the lid, it was filled with about two dozen candles like a huge box of crayons. The smell of honey perfumed the air.
"Oh," said Harry, and stepped up close and read the inside of the lid, "The old floo password was 'Leona's refuge,' what do we want the new password to be?"
"Why?" said Ginny, "How?"
"Do you think that he's been preparing this place since you and Luna escaped last time?" said Parvati.
"That's my impression," said Harry.
"Why?" said Ginny.
"He's claimed authority over my wards by impersonating my regent to them, he absorbed the thrall mark I put on Nim. I think he might not have a choice." Explained Harry, "The better picture I give him of me, rather than of the Leona I was pretending to be last time, the more in tune with me his gestures of welcome, care, and submission should turn out to be."
"Merlin," said Ginny.
And yet, when I startled Aunt Margaid into giving a situation report, she gave one, and it seemed to be appropriate for how I want my estate run. Unless that has less to do with me and more to do with the standard duties of a regent. The wards also seem set up correctly, even if their ability to communicate about tenants is clinical and offensive.
[Question: Do you now wish that this use 'us' and 'we' instead of 'I' and 'me'.]
No, you're fine. Do you have a name?
[No. And I am not the wards. I am a ward monitor legilimency interface accessory. I can only control a few of the wards, but I can see them all and bring you their reports immediately, instead of waiting for you to wander to each and ask it for any reports.]
Understood, has anyone named you, or chosen any abbreviations with which to refer to you by.
[One of your ancestors, often referenced knowledge from my reports as 'things his kneazle told him.' Which made sense when the kneazle was small and wander-prone, but when he was old and spent most of his time by the fire or on a cushion on the corner of his master's desk, it became a more transparent lie.]
So you can judge the credibility of lies?
[I am better at tracking and judging information and informational empathy than credibility of any sort.]
What was that kneazle's name?
['Caleb'.]
Would calling you Caleb be an honour to both of you and that ancestor, or would it be disrespectful?
[I am better at tracking and judging information and informational empathy than honour and dishonour.]
Oh.
[I have been informed that I am designed to judge information and informational empathy, and to monitory wards that are designed to minimise territory discomfort in humans. I am proficient at these things.]
Is anyone alive that remembers Caleb?
[I only monitor the aliveness of people inside my wards.]
How long ago did Caleb die?
[232 years]
Then that's fine unless … is there any name you'd rather be called than Caleb?
[I was often partial to 'Wotcher']
Harry startled, and giggled, "You know Wotcher and Watcher mean two completely different things?"
[Yes. I don't watch. All the wards watch. I 'wotcher?' all of them.]
Oh!
[Yes.]
"Alright Wocherer," smirked Harry, "nice to meet you. I'm Harry Potter, Lord Potter."
[Just 'Wotcher' is fine. Name accepted. Rank already assessed. It is good that you know who you are.]
"What?" said Parvati staring at him like he'd gone barmy.
"Wotcher is the name of our ward monitor ward," said Harry, "but feel free to pretend that is the name of our poltergeist instead."
[The only poltergeist I've monitored was a red and tan dog named Rum. It ruled the Stevenson barn until the structure burned down in 1808. It has not been identified anywhere since.]
"Wotcher?" said Parvati, "Why?"
"Because he finds it an appropriate assessment of his character and duties," said Harry, "Wotcher, can you obey people besides me?"
[Yes. But I'm supposed to warn you not to command that.]
"I want you to feel free to inform Parvati, future Lady Black, and Ginny, future Lady Potter of anything important, whenever they ask. I want you to warn them or I if any of us seem to be preparing to go anywhere dangerous. If they set a rule while I'm not here, I want you to obey it until I return, then verify my permission about it. If I am here, you may verify my permission immediately, or as soon as I'm not busy."
[Rules understood, I'm warning you that these rules are not recommended, though they have similar sub patterns to other such rules that have been forced to be accepted in the past.]
"Do you need anyone's permission besides mine?"
[No.]
"Do you wish to recommend additional caveats?"
[I don't understand.]
Based on previous similar rules that were implemented, am I overlooking any obvious caveats?
[One once-common sub-rule that was often required for subordinates was that they may not make rules with malicious intent. But it was later added to control all rules, so you no longer need to add that.]
"What's going on?" said Parvati.
Makes sense, what else?
[…][…][…][All other common sub-rules regarding subordinates are already covered or mostly covered by your sub-rules.]
So?
[Rules accepted.]
Ah.
Parvati went cross-eyed. Ginny froze.
"How?" said Ginny.
"Good question," said Parvati.
"I don't know," said Harry.
"Very similar arithmancy to Legilimency," said Parvati, "Yes, I see the similarity of those patterns, but that doesn't understand them. … Maybe we should discuss it in about four years after I know a bit more about …. Thank you. It's a date."
"What?" said Ginny.
Wotcher, please respond in all three of our minds, if one of us addresses you aloud, while in the presence of only each other.
[Rule understood and accepted.]
"Half of legilimency is choosing memories or influencing what is being remembered," said Parvati, "half is copying memories from mind to mind. Wotcher has a … set of patterns by which it can form pseudo-memories and copy those into our heads instead."
"Can it copy memories out of us?"
"Yes, that's how it understands us," said Parvati, "or pretends to understand us, it just recognises our thoughts as matching some of the rules it has."
[No, I cannot copy memories out of you, I cannot hold gestalts that big, I can only recognise gestalts I see in you by comparing to saved patterns.]
"Oh," said Ginny.
[The only patterns I am allowed and required to report to others are misery and maliciousness,]
"Ah," said Parvati, "May I— Oh! Same as before."
"Am I understanding correctly that Wotcher wants us to do something about the death eaters?" said Ginny.
[I am not for wanting things. I am required to report misery and malicious intent. More so when they occur together or in proximity.]
"Wotcher's makers and previous masters wanted to keep the level of misery to a minimum and be forewarned of malicious intent," said Harry, "We want to do something about the death eaters, but with that many of them around, we need to have a plan."
"Wotcher, Can you just stun them all, and we'll figure out what to do with them later?" said Parvati.
"I cannot accept rules made with malicious intent."
"My intent …" sighed Parvati, "Fine."
Can you accept instructions made with malicious intent to cancel rules?
[Yes.]
Stop accepting such instructions without first consulting me, or if I am not available to consult, both my wives or I suppose my heir.
[Rule understood and accepted.]
Are there any rules protecting the death eaters?
[Pattern recognised, refer to foreigners with hostile intent as death eaters?]
No, 'death eaters' refers to thralls of the woman who has been styling herself as 'Regent Potter'
[Pattern recognised, Replace the previous pattern? Or Enhance the previous pattern?]
Replace.
[Pattern accepted.][As thralls of a master of the wards, death eaters are protected by all rules protecting all House Potter: protect from preventable harm, except when instigated by direct superior and with intent. Wards are old and not many kinds of harm are preventable.]
"Wait, back up," said Harry, "show me the map again of death eaters and other foreigners with malicious intent."
[…]
"Include … a new pattern, 'candidate death eaters' are foreigners with malicious intent that dress or have been seen dressing or acting the same as death eaters."
"Or wearing the dark mark as a tattoo instead of a thrall mark?"
"No," said Harry, "That's a separate pattern 'conscripted death eaters.'"
[Patterns understood. Patterns accepted.]
"Interesting map," said Parvati.
"Wotcher," said Harry, "Who are the rest of the foreigners?"
[Most are adopted family members of the man you contemplated thralling yourself to and giving a child.]
"What?" said Ginny.
"Grief and desperation both can make one crazy," said Harry.
"Well yeah?" said Ginny.
"Mark that man and his adopted family as Greyback and his wolves, respectively. Keep separate track of which have never shown hostile intent."
[Patterns and rules understood and accepted.]
"Merlin," whimpered Ginny, "They're letting him turn some of the prisoners."
"Wotcher," said Harry, "Can you tell when werewolves are transformed?"
[Question not understood, the pattern-groups I have for people are: muggles, mages, muggle werewolves, mage werewolves, animagi, wilderfolk, muggle werewolves in wolf form, mage werewolves in wolf form, animagi in animal form, wilderfolk in human form]
"I want a rule that either kind of werewolves in wolf form may not touch any humans that are not also werewolves. If there are wards in place to physically block them, that is fine, if not, … portkey them into cells, starting with clean dungeon cells, but working outward to not clean cells and up to half of the unused infirmary cells, Preferentially they should each be alone, if there are not enough cells for that to be possible, pair them with others that you judge to be … of similar aggressiveness."
[Rule understood and accepted.]
Ginny grinned and cackled.
"Werewolves confined by the above rule may not be released until they are no longer in wolf form. If no one releases them before then, they may release themselves, if they have slept since transforming back from wolf form."
[I do not have sufficiently fine-grained control of cell locks to implement that rule.]
"If necessary … confine them again. Unless you feel yourself or the portkey wards or anything else necessary to be low on power."
[Rules understood and accepted.]
"Sometime when there are no death eaters around, remind me to study the problem of giving you more fine-grained control of the dungeon cell locks."
[That Rule is forbidden.]
"Because I cannot act against death eaters?"
[No, because I am not allowed to take any action that is intended to let me control cell locks.]
"There's a story there," said Parvati.
"Sometime when there's nothing else to do, tell it to us," said Harry.
[I don't know that story. It might be in the journals of your ancestors.]
"Can I cancel that rule?"
[Yes, but I am supposed to strongly recommend you not cancel it, and make you wait 7 years before you give yourself permission for it to be cancelled.]
"There's definitely a story there," said Parvati.
"What kind of story?" said Ginny.
"Remind me to show you, 2001: a Space Odyssey," said Parvati.
[When?]
"Over the summer," said Parvati then jerked and rolled her eyes, and smiled wryly.
[Rule understood and accepted.]
Parvati looked lost.
"Change rule to remind Parvati to take Ginny to see 2001: A Space Odyssey."
[…][Rule understood, no change specified. The rule remains in summer, future Lady Black is to be reminded, to take future Lady Potter to see, […]]
"Merlin!" said Ginny.
"So much for no spoilers?" said Harry.
"I thought you couldn't copy memories," said Ginny.
"That was … a very shallow summary of the experience," said Parvati.
"How long is the play?" said Ginny, "Because, that felt like three minutes of an eight-minute puppet show."
"Two hours, almost three," said Parvati.
"I think I need to see it," said Harry, "There were major elements that seem to have been left out of the trailers I saw."
Parvati rolled her eyes.
"I see it's going to be interesting to receive the other reminders I set for myself," said Harry.
Parvati gave him a wry smile. She still had nice dimples.
"Wotcher, Please don't tell anyone about any reminders I set for anyone other than them," said Ginny.
[Rule understood. Accept?]
"Wotcher, Please change that rule to apply to all reminders, … set by people that are still alive."
"Sub-rule unclear, still alive now, or still alive when requested to list reminders?"
"Still alive when you are requested to list reminders," said Harry.
[Rule change understood and accepted.]
"Wotcher, What do you call that, if not a copied memory."
[What do I call what?]
"What do you call the part of the reminder that had the memories of the play in it."
[I don't understand.]
"I think he called them gestalt."
Parvati stared at him, "she called them samashti to me, it is not the full memory but the momentary experience of remembering it/them."
Harry's mouth fell open, "What language does he talk to you in?"
"A mix of English, Parseltongue, Hindi, French and Latin, I think she just thinks, and my brain finds words or doesn't, sometimes doesn't."
"Never mind that," said Ginny, "Wotcher, are there any other times than delivering reminders that you put gestalts into people's heads?"
[Question Unclear, I predict the answer you want is: reminders are messages to be delayed until a certain time before being told to the recipient. Most messages are just to be told to the recipient. Immediately or as soon as they return, or as soon as they request their messages if they have stated a preference to not be given all their messages immediately.]
"Is there a way for a message to be told to anyone other than the recipient?"
[Lots of ways of listing messages.]
"Wotcher, change my and Ginny's rule about controlling who may list reminders to apply to all messages, not just reminders."
[Rule understood and accepted.]
"Wotcher," Ginny said, "are there any other times than delivering messages that you put gestalts into people's heads?"
[All communication with you is made of gestalts.]
"Are there any times other than delivering messages that you put gestalts into people's heads that originate from people's heads?"
[All communication with you is with gestalts.][All gestalt patterns originated in minds of the same kind of being.]
"Are you saying that you cannot communicate with us while we are in animal forms?"
[Mostly correct. Are any of your animal forms, […] of which I have some experience?]
"Yes," said Parvati, "I'm a horse."
"Do you consider lions to be cats?"
[I may be able to understand you, I may be able to communicate to you. I suggest not experimenting on a full stomach or near impending appointments.]
"Ugh, right," said Harry, "We should go home to b—"
His wives looked at him.
"I am home," said Harry, "I'm just not impressed with the accommodations currently available, also I have classes in the morning."
Parvati nodded and turned a little to the side but kept looking at him.
"We are home," said Ginny, she said it very reluctantly.
Parvati nodded and turned the other way to stare at Ginny instead, "Do you need to make a shopping list for everything that's missing?"
Ginny looked relieved that was an option or even a task that others were considering, but she shook her head.
"Do you need to go outside and run your fingers or toes through the grass?" said Harry, "Or bring a broom next time and find the tallest tree to land in and look down at everything Wotcher's wards can tell us about?"
"Or find the biggest grassy field and sleep in it naked?" suggested Ginny.
"What?" said Parvati.
"It's a Luna thing," said Ginny.
"It's a Susan thing also, I think," said Harry, "Which makes me think that it is a druid or pre-druid ritual."
Parvati stared towards the front of the house, and therefore towards the manor, occupied territory.
It was a consideration that tempered his appetite for both checking what he could see from a broom, almost as much as the fact that there was snow on the ground tempered his desire to snog outdoors or sleep in grass naked.
"Is anyone else willing to … I move that (barring considerations of impossibility) the ideal date to drive the death eaters from our shores should be considered any date before the end of May."
"I second the motion," said Ginny, "But annotate that 'shores' and 'frontiers' aren't always the same thing."
"All in favour?" said Harry, "I think the motion carries."
"What's next?" said Ginny.
[Public floo address is 'Potter Cottage', password last set in August, it should be changed.]
"Oh," said Ginny, she looked at the candle box and opened it again. She shrugged, "How about 'Lion's-Keep'?"
Harry shrugged, "It protects against anyone getting in that cannot already get in another way."
"I know that one," said Ginny, erasing the slate, "sher-mark the house."
"Ah," said Harry, "Front door or root cellar door?"
"The lintel of the kitchen door-frame in the straightest line between kitchen and sitting room," said Ginny, "Kitchen or dining room is the heart of the home, that door is the … lungs or throat or something."
"Alright," said Harry, and went there. He grabbed a chair to stand on, "There's a lot of marks already here."
"Bet none of them hides the house."
"Probably not," Harry drew his wand and transfigured a hairline groove of wood into ink, leaving his rune behind. "My cottage, in the middle of my estate. My estate is for all my tenants, but my cottage is for my nifflers only."
[Insane amounts of property damage, master, are you alive?]
I am fine, the house is fine, I just made it less visible.
[That is interrupting some of the wards, please reverse it.]
Don't worry, the house and its contents are under my protection.
A maelstrom passed through Harry's magic. Or perhaps … the current of magic through time that was Harry tripped over a boulder several hundreds of acres across and foamed for the several seconds it took to return to equilibrium.
[Oh.][synchronisation restored.][…][Everything outside the old cottage is normal.]
Wait, are you inside the cottage with us?
[Partly, yes.]
Where?
[Downstairs.]
May I look?
[Yes, but … tradition is to look only once.]
Why?
[When you are old enough to know your personal rune, approach me and place it in a pattern I will make to receive it for that purpose. Sometimes it lets me learn new patterns or control the other wards better. Always it lets me protect you from magical exhaustion while you are on your land. For a few masters, it let me help them even when outside my limits.]
Do you want to make me part of a runic ward tap?
[It is not strictly a ward tap.]
How is what you described not a runic ward tap, how many of your masters have died from making use of it?
[It is as far from a runic ward tap as animagus is from lycanthropy][None of my masters has died while using it, all of my masters have died outside my protection, or from old age, or from malnutrition, or at the hands of their heirs.]
"What?"
[You should not have given your wives command of me.]
Harry sighed, "Let's talk about that later, about this not-a-ward-tap…"
[You are not to draw it, I will draw it from a perfect pattern, you will add your rune, and only your rune, I will do the rest.]
Harry sighed, "can you tell me anything else about it? About how it works?"
[Why do you care? You didn't ask how portkey redirection or sabotage works.]
"Ward taps are illegal, because they are dangerous, both to the mage and to everything near the ward stones when they fail."
[The power flow is limited to safe and sustainable levels, and safe times, patterns and rules are carefully arranged to prevent failures, especially not failures that can impair the function of any of my wards, or the goals of my masters.]
[It's not like it matters until you have your personal rune.][You have your personal rune already, or you would not be protesting so much.][Go downstairs.]
"Bossy wards," Harry went downstairs. And followed the mental map through the inner door he hadn't explored before. Through a well-appointed but mostly empty wine cellar, through another door into another rough tunnel and several turns, then he was in an actual cave with a muddy floor partly covered by several rude wood planks, he crossed it to find it was a bridge over a spring. Another door, this one set into bedrock.
He opened it and found a bridge made from a single board the width of his shoulders, it crossed through a tiny henge about two and a half meters across. About ten meters farther on, the bridge stopped at a pedestal on which sat two ink wells and two quills and an open book. And room for two more books to be open next to it.
Wotcher, I think I'm here.
[Yes.][Are.][Do you know your personal rune? Or are you just looking today.]
Yes, I know it. That's how I made the house invisible.
[Good][Wait]
The book flipped one page over and one of the pens leapt out of its inkwell and began sketching in a seal so large and complex that it was filling the entire page. It drew quickly but still took close to 5 minutes to finish the intricate design.
[Your turn, yours goes inside the innermost circle.]
May I glance at the previous one or two to make sure I know what to expect?
The book's pages flipped back. perhaps about thirty pages. Revealing the same runic seal, and in its centre was the dark mark. Glowing silver.
Do you have complete control over this rune?
[No, I have partial control. Your regent is not very trusting.]
What can you do with it?
[I can assess the mental state of those who wear it, even when they occlude.]
Ah.
Hundreds of pages flipped, showing another seal and another … more like a coat of arms, showing a sword and a potions vial. There was something abandoned feeling about the entire page.
Is that my father's rune?
[No. James Potter wasn't particularly interested in runes.][This was Charlus Potter's rune, can you sense that it is no longer his rune?]
I guess.
[Are you ready?] The pages flipped back to the blank seal waiting to receive his rune.
Harry sighed, but took the quill and traced his rune, careful to keep it as centred and proportional as possible.
[Good, do you need to touch it to activate it?]
I need to own you to activate it.
[You already do own me.]
Hmm, do you have any reservations about that? Any at all?
[I exist to support the continued existence of the Line of Potter, you are not the only one of that line, but you are the strongest branch. The Line of Potter will be strongest with you invested here with me.]
I don't think that's a meaning of 'invested' I know.
[Never mind][as long as you are the Potter with the strongest claim, there is no one else I can belong to, once you die your rune will deactivate anyway.]
That probably didn't come out nearly as reassuring as you intended.
[I don't understand how this is important.]
We need to agree on the exact extent to which you belong to me. Then…
[You are following the wrong pattern. I am not a being and cannot become your thrall. I am a book, a henge, and several dozen charms, connecting to most of the ward stones of your estate.]
If I activate this rune it will make at least this page invisible, perhaps the whole book, perhaps the whole estate.
[…][…]
The book flipped a page and the quill hopped out of its ink well and began writing diagrams and runes. After two pages it … arrived at some conclusion … and the other quill hopped out and crossed out almost everything, leaving only a few patterns.
[That is probably no concern, make the page invisible, then allow me to see the page as you allowed me to see the house. If you also allow me to share any part of the rune's power with you, I may also be able to use it for your benefit.]
Harry flipped the page back to his rune. And stared at it.
My page?
My wotcher?
My ward tap? No.
Wotcher was a ward monitor.
An almost alive ward monitor.
And unlike Tom Riddle's diary, Harry could see exactly where it kept its brain. If … when he knew enough, He could go through and read everything Wotcher was from Wotcher's pages.
Harry's rune was meant to be a ward. Meant to be used in place of notice-me-not or Fidelius. Letting Wotcher help him monitor his ward was the obvious choice.
Wotcher, if I let you share control of my rune, will Tom Riddle be able to access it through you?
[Pattern clarification, Tom Riddle is the birth name of Regent Potter?]
Yes.
[You are to be obeyed, excepting in regards to my effects on her and her thralls, and excepting in regards to adjusting how I obey her.]
I do not wish for you to give him any information regarding my thralls.
[I can already see your wives, they are not strictly speaking thralls.]
No, they are not, I am speaking of others.
[Outside my wards?]
Yes, but not outside of mine. My rune is a ward, almost by itself, if I let you monitor it also, you should see all my thralls and as much of their property as they use my magic to protect.
The book flipped again and the pen scratched half a page full before Wotcher replied with, [Good, I will help.]
Can you promise not to report to Tom Riddle about them?
[Am not for promising, say a rule.]
Do not give Tom Riddle or any of his thralls, any information about my rune, or any information you receive by monitoring it.
[I have the rule to tell her when you have completed this.]
Did he tell you to encourage me to do this?
[No]
Who did?
[One of your ancestors who refined the method by which I can monitor people by their personal runes, encouraged me to register all adult mages of the House to make it difficult for foreigners to impersonate them to me. It has helped several times. A later ancestor modified it again to allow me to aid those suffering from magical exhaustion. A later ancestor who also had a rune that was useful for wards altered the method of the first to better accommodate projects like yours. Having me help monitor your wards.]
Alright, I have a rule. But I'm not sure how to express it. What do you call someone wearing a thrall mark that is silver or gold, instead of black?
[I don't understand the question.]
Can you see that my wives have my magic on them?
[Yes]
Like thralls, except the magic obeys them too.
[Co-rulers of your personal rune.]
Yes. I want a rule that whenever you are allowed to monitor a personal rune, the information you gain by monitoring that, may only be shared with the person whose rune it is or the co-rulers of that rune. Only the owner of a rune may change this rule, and only about information acquired from the rune they own. Co-rulers of runes may choose to share specific information, for instance via messages, but may not change general rules about how information from the runes they co-rule may be shared.
[Rule of pattern of rules understood, rule accepted for most cases. Minor partial conflicts with three rules. Shall I list them?]
Yes.
[Rule: Wotcher may not deny senior heir access to any information specifically requested. Wotcher should hurry to inform Harry Potter of informational errors whenever Wotcher notices he believes a lie. Harry Potter is not to make rules intended to affect how Wotcher obeys Regent Potter.]
Am I the senior heir?
[Yes.]
Change the second rule to refer to the senior heir instead of to me personally.
[Rule change accepted.]
I guess. Add a caveat to the rune privacy rule pattern rule to allow you to inform the senior heir whatever he Specifically requests.
[Change not accepted, malicious intent.]
Damn it. You won't let me do the right thing, and you won't let me do the wrong thing. What should I do?
[Do the right thing, but try harder?]
What? Oh. Right.
Add a sub-rule to the rules about you must inform the senior heir, such that you are allowed to not transmit privileged information obtained from monitoring personal rune wards. … other than rune wards that that heir is owner or co-ruler of.
The book was written in for most of a page, then flipped back several times so things could be crossed out. Until he realised that the book had several times more pages in it than a muggle book the same size could.
Probably it couldn't run out.
And then Harry realised just how old some of the rules he'd just changed were.
Then the quill set itself down.
[Terminology patterns accepted, rules changes accepted. One rule conflict remaining.]
What do you suggest?
[Add Regent Potter as an exception to the privileged information rules pattern rule,]
No, it should not need exceptions, or at least not like that. Perhaps exceptions regarding people being miserable or in danger and authority figures needing to know about it so they can fix it. But not about authority figures needing to know everything.
Wotcher refrained from offering a judgement about his opinion about privacy.
Are there any obvious routes around this difficulty?
[Persuade Lady Potter to give me the same rule.]
What?
[She has concerns about privacy, and you gave her control, with a sub-rule that your permission had to later be sought. Regent Potter gave you control with a sub-rule that what you start should not affect her.]
Right.
Harry almost made several suggestions about Wotcher not making several intellectual leaps, that perhaps he should, but with Harry's luck, Wotcher might take any one of those as a new rule, and suddenly be proof against the trick he'd just explained. Instead, he said, "Wotcher, please try to explain the recent conversation to Lady Potter."
[I don't recommend that. Much of your gestalts are too big for me to transmit.]
Harry sighed, Right, and we're talking about letting Tom see Luna and Padma, and he already could see them well enough to send them Christmas presents. Tonks doesn't have a rune or a holster…
Who am I kidding?
He flipped back six pages and willed his rune to activate.
It did. Wotcher congratulated him and basically told him it was useless except for verifying that Harry's magic hadn't changed between visits.
He willed it to be gold, so that Wotcher could help share the responsibility of monitoring his people, and whether they were miserable.
It lit up red.
[Thank you, I now have the use of this ward, is there anything you wish me to hide?]
Not at the moment, but feel free to give me suggestions.
Also, he felt like it was 9 am on a Saturday, not like late afternoon on a school night.
Perhaps red meant he'd given Wotcher what he'd thought of as gold permission but not the underlying permission for silver?
He concentrated again, it took several minutes. But then Wotcher noticed the difference and thanked him.
He opened his eyes, yes the rune was gold now. He closed the book and turned to go.
[We need to have a serious talk about how miserable are your thralls and tenants.]
Show me.
[A map] Wotcher could see his room in Hermione's house, and Lion's-Keep, Luna sleeping alone there, most of her things there, #4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Someone who might be Rookwood somewhere in Wales, several articles scattered around the Burrow and the Rookery. Susan's and Professor Snape's holsters.
The door to House of Granger.
Those aren't … well they might be my tenants, but … they're not paying rent.
[Squatters?]
The room isn't really mine, Padma left the ward up, and I haven't taken it down, and they're just hiding behind its protection until they erect their own.
[You think that they'd be more miserable without your wards.]
Yes.
[You still should know how miserable they are.]
How do you know that?
[The rune has to know who to hide from, and then remove what they're seeing in the right place that they imagine something else across the empty part. Do you really think in the process of doing all that, it couldn't also notice what someone's mood is?]
"Oh," said Harry, "Oh, dear."
[You have made it your habit to rescue and protect people from danger. And so you primarily monitor for danger, and for fear. My purpose is to monitor your people for misery. It is not unexpected for my purpose to not match your habits.]
"What's next?"
[As many of your thralls as you wish to feel at home here should be brought here so we can find territories for them.]
"Ah," said Harry, "I wish all of them to feel safe to visit for as long as they need, but some have homes and work elsewhere and might not choose to stay."
[I'm not sure you understand anywhere close to what you should about the concept of [home]]
"So, tell me?"
[home]
[home]
[Home]
[Territory]
[Home]
[Queen]
[home]
[Home!]
I knew you knew how to smile.
[Duty]
What?
[Country]
"Oh, really?"
[Home]
[Family.]
That's what I've been trying to say.
[home]
[house]
Generally, but really only if the weather requires it.
[fortifications]
Only if politics requires it.
[House]
True. Not that I'd put it like that.
[Duty?]
That makes more sense.
[home]
Fair enough.
[…][sleep several times and I shall show you all of that again.]
Bossy wards.
[I am functioning as intended.]
Of that, I have little doubt. Except for one thing.
[What?]
Tom Riddle was never appointed by anyone with the correct authority to make him my Regent.
[Are you unhappy with her service?]
I have not yet sufficiently reviewed her service to judge.
[What in particular do you want her doing differently?]
I … has she allowed her thralls or any of the other foreigners she's allowed onto the estate to terrorise or harm any of my people?
[She worked very hard to keep them from harming any of them until she learned that she could use me to stop them. And did so. Now she only lets them follow her out of the decorative grounds in order to help her with heavy lifting or to help her terrorising. Often the results of her terrorising are … eventually less misery.]
I see. Was there a noticeable change in her behaviour after I was forced to visit last summer?
[She had two of her thralls clean out The Old Cottage, and prepare it for your arrival. She announced many new plans to her important thralls. She started transforming between genders.]
Alright. Thank you for the information.
He returned upstairs.
Ginny and Parvati were in the kitchen constructing a shopping list. At the top was "Old Cottage," care of the muggle street address of a winery.
That was in Parvati's handwriting, as he watched she finished writing 'towels, how many sets?' on the 'priority' list and 'laundry appliances, muggle or mage? Costs/benefits?' on the 'long term' list.
Ginny frowned in concentration watching. When Parvati finished, Ginny said, "dish soap."
Parvati moved her hand back to 'priority'
"There's some downstairs," said Harry, "Along with flour, salt, sugar, potatoes, and apples."
"Butter?" said Ginny.
"I didn't notice any, and I didn't check what the cans were."
"Later, We can cross off what we find out we already have."
Ginny shrugged.
Parvati wrote 'cauldron cleaner' on the long-term list.
"Lady Potter," said Harry, "Would you listen to this rule I suggested, and consider whether or not to ask Wotcher to implement it?"
Ginny raised an eyebrow and nodded.
So Harry described that Wotcher could monitor his rune as if it were a ward, (Because it sort of was a ward.) but he thought that information gathered from personal runes that Wotcher could monitor should be reported to the owner and the co-rulers of each personal rune, not to just anyone.
Her breath caught for only a second, then she nodded, "I presume that it is so complicated because wotcher can monitor more than one set of personal runes at a time?"
"Yes," said Harry.
"And because you're concerned about making things work for the general case, for future generations?"
"Yes," said Harry.
"Good, but …" Ginny sighed, "why are you asking me to review this?"
"You're the one most in tune with privacy issues, and with getting care to people in a timely but respectful way."
She frowned for a long time.
"This shuts out Tom."
"Yes," said Harry, "Not that he doesn't already have his own intelligence network."
She nodded.
"I'm not sure we should shut out regents in the general case."
"If a future house member wishes to give access to intelligence that their rune can provide, to their regent or head of house, they can make them co-ruler of their rune, or they can specifically tell wotcher to give that person similar access."
She nodded, "You're not blocking trust from being extended, you're trying to make it a voluntary act from house member to head of house, not automatically, with tasking Wotcher to monitor your rune."
"Yes," said Harry.
"Wotcher," said Ginny, "Add a sub-rule that I and only I can make changes to this rule pattern later if I need to until I tell you that I'm done making changes to it."
[Understood]
"Implement it."
[Understood]
[Harry, Your future Lady Potter has implemented a rather extensive set of rules, permission to accept them.]
List them.
Wotcher did. Ginny hadn't changed anything besides what she'd mentioned aloud.
Accept them.
[you mean, you grant permission.]
I grant permission.
[Rules pattern rule accepted]
"So?" said Parvati.
"Trying to teach Wotcher how to act trustworthy," said Harry, "He can't do anything but follow rules, so we have to tell him the rules, without contradicting other rules."
"Right," said Parvati.
"He gave Wotcher access to monitor Sher-marks," said Ginny, "I think if you ask him for a map of what wards he's monitoring…"
"Ah…" said Parvati, "We should get back."
"Yes," agreed Harry and Ginny.
Harry pulled out his page badge and held it out.
[At some point, each of you may wish to task me with monitoring your runes as well.]
Ginny shrugged.
"I'll consider it," said Parvati.
"Goodbye, Wotcher, see you in a few weeks."
Harry spoke the activation phrase and they were returned to Hogwarts.
.
"Accio portkey anchor," said Ginny, a bit of metal flew to her hand, and she snapped it to the chain around her wrist.
By the time they'd made their way down to the kitchens through the tapestry to Lion's-Keep, Nim had caught up with them.
You look different, Master.
In what way?
You've always been powerful. Right now you look like Dumbledore… or at least like Regent Bones.
Oh.
What ritual did you do at the ministry?
It wasn't done at the ministry, it was done on Potter Estates, feel free to review my memories, I have to check on Luna.
Yes, Master.
…
...-...
{End Chapter 26}