updates 5-24-24
a/n: hey everyone I need some opinions is it a fuax-pa to change a stories title?
I came up with the title before I had anything written and the story went in a slightly different direction I had thought up initially?
anyway, back to the story at hand.
Harry sat in a well-appointed dining room. A rich mahogany table gleamed like a jewel beneath his plate, which had been pointed out by his host to be the finest 14th-century china. His gleaming cutlery was most certainly pure silver, engraved with what he assumed was the family crest and other finely detailed filigree. On his plate sat the appetizer before the main course: a smallish mound of deep silver orbs sat in the center of the plate adjacent to a spoon. Harry didn't know what material it was, but to him, it seemed like a pearl. Aunt Petunia had a small necklace of real pearls, and the spoon and these orbs had the same odd sheen.
also on the plate were a few thin slices of hard cracker like bread, a small cup of a white substance, and several sprigs of what Harry thought was dill.
Harry stared at the odd dish for close to two minutes, wandering at this strange assortment of foods. and then he looked at the others around him, immediately seeking out Mr. Tonks across the table from him in hopes that the man could show him. With a severely confused look on his face unsure if it would offend those who served the food that he had no idea how to eat it without probably looking like a barbarian. However Mr. Tonks was in deep conversation with Cyrus Greengrass, so he went to the next person he could think of who would help him without much judgment, Daphne he hoped. she was slightly down the table from him but luckily she noticed him looking with out him having to gesture or anything to get her attention.
She arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow at him, and Harry gestured to his plate while mouthing, "I don't know what this is. Help."
She smirked at that and then seemed to ignore him, looking back at her own plate. Then, she slowly and deliberately gathered a measured amount of the silver orbs (very pointedly) with the pearl-like spoon and put the orbs on top of the cracker-like bread. She then took a small dollop of the white sauce and spread it gently onto the silver pearls, topping the whole thing with a sprig of the herb that looked like dill. Gently placing the small morsel in her mouth, she turned in her seat slowly to face him better. Speaking over the other low conversations going on at the table, she said, "So, Harry, how are you finding the Wizarding World? Many people were quite looking forward to the Boy Who Lived returning to Wizarding Britain."
Harry sat in thought for a moment and noticed that all conversations had stopped. Many of the dinner guests were waiting for his reply.
"Err, well, I'm finding it quite well, Daphne, of course. Most of my experience has been at Hogwarts and, recently, the Ministry. Hogwarts feels like home, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I belong, even if certain people at the school would rather see me drop into the lake with lead shoes. I find the school and most of the students quite enjoyable. I even enjoy the odd things like quills and ink. In the Muggle world, we just use ballpoint pens or fountain pens if it's fancy. Learning to write with a quill took a minute. I'm still not that good, really, but at least my writing is legible, more than I can say for my friend Ron Weasley."
"That is very good to hear, Harry. I feel I must apologize for my behavior at Hogwarts. I fear I fell into the trap of house politics and was less than welcoming to you. I would like to extend an olive branch, if you don't mind. I know you are advanced in Transfiguration but not so in Charms. Next term, we should study together. You can bring your friend, Granger, if you like. We would both most likely benefit from her presence. I can even give you handwriting lessons, if you'd like, although I must warn you I am an exacting instructor. Ask Astoria, my younger sister. I expect only the best from people I teach."
You know, Harry, word is from the Board of Governors that your friend, Hermione Granger, scored the highest in our year. It apparently raised quite a tiff among the pureblood governors. (She raised an eyebrow in the direction of the Malfoys.) It is quite the scandal—a Muggle-born first year outscoring and outperforming all the pureblood heirs? It's... well, not unheard of, but it's certainly a rare event. Father, when was the last time it happened?
"Ahh," said Cyrus Greengrass, smiling with nostalgia in his eyes and the maneuvering his daughter did to raise the topic here. No doubt he thought a move to make her would-be friend somewhat more comfortable in the presence of a group of people he must think hate him.
"Well, it last happened when I myself was a first-year. An exceedingly bright Muggle-born girl came and knocked all our heads off our pedestals—a girl with a fiery temper and flaming red hair to match, a young woman by the name of Lily Evans, or as many in this room came to know and respect her" (and at this, he looked directly at Harry), "Lady Potter, your mother, Harry, was a rare and spectacular specimen. Despite her birth, she became a person that every pureblood heiress sought to emulate: smart, powerful, courageous, and beautiful. I could go on with her attributes for a long while. Many people at this table, whether they want to admit it or not, held a lot of respect—and not an undue amount of fear—for Lily Potter. She was the kindest woman you could meet but could burn you like Fiendfyre when roused. She trounced everyone in school all seven years there; no one else could ever come close, and many people tried. But no one else, not even your father, could hold a candle to her power or intellect. I dare say, given a few decades, she would have rivaled Dumbledore at the height of his powers.
Come to think of it, Harry and Daphne, I'd like to meet this Hermione Granger. I feel that investing in her future will most likely be a very profitable business."
"I quite agree, sir. Hermione is my best friend, so I'd like to see her encouraged as much as possible, and I'm sure she would be thrilled to meet someone so important. I have noticed that most Muggle-borns tend to be looked down on, if not outright discriminated against," Harry said, with an insolent look at Draco. "So I find it nice that you are not as enamored with a certain ideology as I had feared coming here."
"Oh, most certainly, Harry. I don't think any of us will deny, at the very least, a distrust of the Muggle-borns or Muggles. Some have degraded to fear and hatred, though none are likely to admit it. Very few of us in the conservative ring believe we are superior to Muggles, not after the advances after their last war. I know you think we all look down on Muggle-borns, and that is true on the whole, though I have met and work very well with several Muggle-borns—very good business deals. But I digress. I would say you have not been told or shown the major or correct reasons behind this divide. Tell me, Harry, if you were to move permanently to France, Russia, or China, would you not learn the language and adopt the culture to fit in more with your neighbors?" At Harry's hesitant nod, Cyrus continued. "Not abandon your own culture entirely, but you wouldn't expect the natives of the country to conform and change to your home culture, correct?"
"I would only argue against the evil things," replied Harry, gesturing to a house-elf that had just appeared to refill a decanter of wine. "Like slavery, for instance—and I know," he said, cutting off a storm of pureblood protest, "that house-elf servitude is more nuanced than human slavery, but that does not change the fact that it is slavery and it's barbaric. Just because something has always been done doesn't mean you can't see that it's wrong and stop doing it. If a practice is bad, it's our job to recognize it, stop it, and change it. Something being morally wrong doesn't change depending on who, where, or when you are. Harmful traditions should be changed, if not entirely abolished. So, no, I wouldn't expect an American neighborhood to observe tea time, but you bet I'd speak up if my neighbors were... I don't know... segregating their neighborhoods against other races, which is an issue in the Muggle world. We learned about it in Social Studies class in my primary school.
If it were a tradition to kill your firstborn daughter on her eleventh birthday, would you have killed Daphne?" Harry stopped here for a second and went on, "No, you wouldn't. I'm sure you would rally against that tradition and break whatever law allowed the tradition to take place until you got it changed."
"A fine point in the making, lad. A fine point, but my original assertion still stands. If you adopt a new land as your home, you'd adopt the culture. Yet, for several hundred years now, Muggle-borns will join our world and expect all of us natives to tongue up our heritage, our culture, and our way of doing things simply because they, the slimmest minority in our world, find the things we do "behind the times," no matter the historical or economic reasons. It gets even worse as time goes on, as the wizarding world, to them, seems to sit still while the Muggle-borns watch as Muggles rush about like ants in a hill, flitting from technology to technology. no matter that the technology they wish us to adopt does not function around magic. pictures for instance, harry, the camera is a muggle adoption of ours it was invented some 2 hundred years ago or there abouts but its only in the past 65 years that someone found a process for a camera to work around any concentration of magic. before the film would just come out white or black or like sand becuase the magic would scramble the exposure. the muggleborns think we should change our culture to fit into their modern age. but we refuse this is our world and our history And... (the man takes a deep breath and sighs it out slowly.) I must apologize, Harry. I didn't mean to rant there. I would like to talk to you more about this at some other time, not over a meal. We can discuss Wizarding Society and how you feel about it. Maybe in time, you'll help us to update a law or two when it's your time in the Wizengamot, but until then, it'll be a good debate. We should move on before we go too far down the Muggle-born debate. It is another topic I would like to explain a more traditionalist perspective on without inflamed passions getting in the way.
"Politics is a bad topic for dinner unless everyone agrees on the same points," Daphne pointed out calmly.
"You're a bright lad for your age. I know I never could have stood up to a full-grown man and experienced politician and spoken like that at eleven. I think your parents would be proud of you; I can't claim to have known them very well at all. I know James was a bit brash for a genuine debate, but Lily would have been a powerhouse in whatever political circle she chose. They were a good team together."
Harry smiled at that. "I'm glad you think so, but I'm nothing compared to my friend Hermione. Not only is she the smartest witch in our class, but she's also able to use reason and logic in a way that she wins any argument while making her opponent agree with her without realizing it. She'll be running circles around the Wizengamot in a few years, I'm sure. Hermione and Smara, my familiar, not only expect me to be but push me to be as great as I can be.
I don't know much about my family history, but I know a great deal is expected of me as the boy who lived and as Lord Potter. I can't let people down who look to me as an example, so I have decided to be the very best in every aspect of my life." Harry quickly put together his first cracker of silver orbs and quickly ate it, only to blanch and nearly choke. It was the fishiest and saltiest thing he had ever tasted. He couldn't contain himself anymore. "What is this? No offense, but this is horrible."
Nearly the whole table laughed, much to Harry's relief. "That, lad," started Cyrus, "is silver sturgeon caviar." Obviously, this was supposed to be impressive, but Harry gave the older man a blank stare. "I don't know what that is."
Daphne giggled and quickly put it to rest. "It's fish eggs, Harry—unfertilized fish eggs from a huge fish called a sturgeon. It's a delicacy all over the world, and the silver-gray of the roe indicates that this is of the highest quality."
"Well," said Harry, "I don't think I have been sufficiently cultured to find that palatable." Everyone laughed at that again.
After that, the rest of the guests started to converse once more, and Cyrus introduced Harry more personally to his dinner guests. He knew the children or grandchildren of Nott, who was mostly retired and only participated in the Wizengamot; Flint, who worked for the Ministry in the Department of Magical Law; Crabbe and Goyle (who were business associates and not Wizengamot members, thank all the gods); Bletchley, who had an import/export business focused on animal products and textiles; and Parkinson, another Wizengamot member. But several other names he did not recognize from Hogwarts. A rather old and quiet man by the name of Carrow barely acknowledged anyone around him. Harry thought he looked a bit like a gorilla. Harry decided he didn't like the look of the man. The white-haired wizard had been looking at Harry with barely disguised hate. If Harry hadn't been as good at reading people as he was, he would have mistaken the look on the man's face for boredom, but to Harry, it seemed the man genuinely hated Harry. He wondered why but figured he'd ask Mr. Tonks later.
After a while Mr. Greengrass asked Harry for a brief explanation of his circumstances and what his life had been like and what he was seeking and why. it was the elder Nott that asked the question Harry thought everyone at the table all wanted to ask at that point. Harry assumed it was only because it was not politically optimal to ask or maybe it was impolite to ask this question or maybe the others simply weren't done testing him yet in order to ask,he felt he had been in an texam all night.
"I am growing tired of this dithering, Cyrus!" shouted Nott Sr., holding an empty chalice of wine.
"Why? I ask you. Why should we help you, Potter? Your family has thumbed their noses at us for generations: refused business deals, political partnerships, and mutually beneficial marriages since before the time of my grandfather. Looking down on us, us!, we of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. We who helped found this country. We who have safeguarded the Wizarding tradition from the vile Muggle encroachment for the last thousand years. Your family has betrayed our culture, our history, our blood, and our businesses for generations, and you come to us fresh out of isolation, learning nothing but Muggle foolishness and nothing of your own birth culture, learning nothing so as to look like a fish gasping out of water at a simple dinner party. You sit there at this table after what you did twelve years ago, after you slaugh-" Nott Sr. was cut off at that moment as a red light sailed from Mr. Greengrass' wand, and the elderly man dropped mid-sentence. "When did he grab his wand?" Harry thought as he stared at the old wizard lying face down on his plate of lamb chops. Mr. Greengrass rose to his feet and spoke slowly and deliberately. "Mr. Potter is MY guest, MINE, I will not allow him to come to harm I brought you all here to bridge gaps, to try to bring back some semblance of the political landscape our grandfathers flourished under. so we all could have a moderate voice again instead of these wings we have now spread too far apart to get anything of meaning done. to help anyone the wizengamot, the governing body of this land has not passed a significant bill of any kind in the last 15 years because you lot are so entrenched in your past hatreds to see that our country is falling apart. too often, you have wandered at me and wished to blur the dividing line so we could once more do our jobs." he points to Harry."This lad is the dividing line. " If he gets his independence and he claims majority, then he could pull his vote from under the control of dumbledore, and things might get done! my heir has spoken for the first time in her capacity of that role, and she has declared that any attack on this boy is an attack on the Greengrass family. and I must say after tonight I very much agree with her decision, enervate"
And with that, he brought the elder Nott back to consciousness and repeated his warning to the man.
Harry felt the need to respond to the elderly wizard, so he sat in silence, thinking of his approach. He decided the Gryffindor thing to do would be to charge ahead, but he lent himself some caution and sent a questioning look to Daphne and Mr. Tonks. Both nodded slightly.
"It's true, I know nothing of your families, aside from the fact that your children, grandchildren, or cousins think themselves above everyone else and everything else, including the rules and laws.
You say my family thumbed their noses at you? If you have a family member at Hogwarts, I can assure you that they have gotten revenge for your ancestors in that regard. From certain others in this room, I have received nothing but threats and taunts, and outright bullying. I'm assuming it's because of some feud I know nothing about, because as you, Mr. Nott, have so pointedly pointed out, I am an orphan and know just as much about the wizarding world as your average Muggle-born first year.
You ask what I can offer you to side with me. I have nothing to offer you. Do you ask for favors? I have none to give. Perhaps you seek some business arrangement.
But I have no business, so you ask what reason you have to support my desires. I have no reason to give other than my aunt and uncle have abused me every day since before I can remember. You call me the future Lord Potter, but for the first six years of my life, I thought my name was either "boy" or "freak." As I said earlier, you should help me because it's the morally right thing to do. Who knows, when I come of age, maybe I'll open my land back up to be farmed and have potion ingredients to sell and distribute, but only fools would ask an eleven-year-old what his business plans are.
At this, Harry stood and threw his napkin over his half-finished dinner, as he had read he should do in the book Ted had lent him. He then turned to Cyrus at the head of the table and bowed slightly. "Thank you for dinner, sir. It was quite good, but I'm afraid I must go before I cause a scene. If you wish to discuss this again before Friday, you may. Mr. Tonks is the best way to get hold of me at the moment."
He turned and quickly walked out.
To his surprise, he heard heels coming up behind him as he walked to the room with the floor he had arrived on.
" Potter, wait!" said Daphne breathlessly
"As heir to the Greengrass family, I must apologize for my father's dinner guests. Most of them can be rather cantankerous on their best days, and Nott Sr. is a very combative man when sober. I'm surprised he kept his composure as long as he did." She turns to the window and gazes out onto the grounds of her family's estate.
"I have told my father to support your independence as my first act as heir. Politically, that action speaks volumes. I fear it doesn't speak enough. There won't be time before your hearing, but afterward, if you'd like, you can come over and I can give you political and etiquette lessons that aren't from a book 150 years past its prime. You can also bring your friend Granger. Merlin knows she will most likely need them before long."
At Hogwarts, Harry, the only person I have is Tracy, and though she is my best friend, only having one intelligent person to speak to can get rather dull, so I would be very happy to extend those study sessions I offered earlier. Think about it." With that, she took a pinch of glittering Floo powder and threw it in the fire, a clear indication that he didn't need to respond just then. Harry gave a big sigh and ran his hands through his hair, seeing Ted coming down the long corridor, called out, "Tonks House!"
update 5-24-24 (im still mad at that 3k loss i have been unable to capture just what this chapter was there was a whole debate where harry started going off at the entire dinner party especially malfoy. but i just couldnt bring it back to life.)
ok whew, this one has been a doozy between 3 total rewrites multiple revisions, and losing almost 3k words after the app failed to save my progress this has taken forever. but I hope everyone likes it let me know your thoughts in the reviews.
ok whew, this one has been a doozy between 3 total rewrites multiple revisions, and losing almost 3k words after the app failed to save my progress this has taken forever. but I hope everyone likes it let me know your thoughts in the reviews.
