It had been over a week since he got his lord rings and hadrian had just finished going through the voting records. He had written out the names of the seat holders and had put two boxes next to each. Looking at the bill they were voting on Hadrian would decide what he would do and tally next to each name whether they agreed with him or not. Looking at the tally's there were three people that didn't have a single mark for something he wouldn't have voted for and Hadrian was stumped. Malfoy Nott and Greengrass voted exactly as he would. amusingly enough Dumbledore was one of the worst. He voted for a lot of creature restrictions despite preaching about their right to equality. It made him angry. However he could now do something about it.
Hadrian had looked at the current wizengamot and how it worked, Dumbledore was currently chief warlock because the light currently had the most votes, and Dumbledore held the most seats, making him the head of the light faction. The light currently held 23 seats, the dark held 22, the Gray held 19, and 7 were currently sitting dormant. The rest of the seats were held by ministry officials. So if he removed Black, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, the light would have 20 seats. Two will go to the Gray faction, giving them 21, and the other seat, as well as one of the seats currently dormant, will go to the Dark faction, giving them 24. And making Lucius Malfoy chief warlock.
pulling out three forms from gringotts he wrote. I Lord of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Margrave of Grimfell do hereby give proxy of the seat of House Black to Lord of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Malfoy, Marquess of Ithnion.
I Lord of the Noble House of Sayre, Baron of Forlon do hereby give proxy of the seat of House Sayre to Lord of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Nott, Earl of Norhaven.
I Lord of the Most Ancient and Illustrious House of Ravenclaw, Marquess of Nuashall, Count Of Faypine do hereby give proxy of the seats of Houses Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to Lord of the Noble and Ancient house of Greengrass, Count of Perrybell.
Stamping each one with the correct rings he put them in envelopes and sealed them. He had specifically bought the envelopes as well as stationary for each of his houses and kept them in separate boxes he had had made with the crest of the corresponding house on it. It turns out it was quite important to nobles, something he had found out from an etiquette book. In the last week he had been absorbing knowledge on everything noble and pureblood including etiquette, management, the wizengamot and general house information, like what houses were barons or counts and what region they were the noble of. Now the curse was gone he was soaking it up like a sponge. He also realized how much he already knew even with the curse he had learnt the knowledge, it just wasn't accessible before.
He had had his next meeting with Goruk and mostly went over investments. He also commissioned two mail redirection boxes, so all his mail would go to Gringotts to get scanned for anything harmful, then placed in one of the two boxes. one was anything directed to him as a lord, the other was for everything else. So far he hasn't had anything but it's better to have it for when he needs it. The only reason he got it was because he didn't want anything coming to him in the great hall.
With the letters in hand he flooed to the leaky cauldron and walked to the post bird rental in horizon alley. he picked out a gyrfalcon to take the letter for Lord Greengrass, an eagle owl to take the letter for Lord Nott and a raven for Lord Malfoy. Each was a calculated decision for the house they were representing.
Lusius Malfoy was currently eating lunch with some of the members of the wizengamot. Draco had asked to have friends round and they were currently eating in the gardens while the parents were here discussing Dumbledore's latest bill. It wasn't proposed by him but everyone knew if Lord Doge proposed a bill it was because Dumbledore said to. It was a bill to enforce Auror presence at gringotts. Stating that it was for the comfort of wixen as the goblins don't care if someone is a criminal as long as they have gold. And there were enough creature haters in every faction that this might go through. Counting the votes they were sure it would pass and Lusius was sure it would cause another goblin war.
"We can only prepare. What if we told the goblins? Then at least they dont hate all of us. Screw the ones who think this is a good idea hell, I will give a list to gringotts of who voted for it." Lady Zabini was a ruthless woman, who would watch the world burn as long as it didn't affect her and her closest. Lucius was just glad to be counted among those she was close to. Before anyone could answer the sound of wings were heard and three birds flew in. one, a raven, landed in front of Lucius the other two went to Benedict and Theodorus. Looking at the letter he noticed the Black family seal and reached for the letter. The raven flew away as soon as he took the letter the other two followed soon after. Opening the envelope he was shocked at the contents. Looking up he looked eyes with Theodorus who held up his parchment.
"Proxy to the Sayre Seat." That was two seats to the Dark faction and one away from the light.
Lusius held up his own parchment, "house of Black." Nott raised an eyebrow and they both turned to Greengrass who was just staring at the parchment. "Benedict?" He looked up and Lucius motioned to the parchment.
"I Lord of the Most Ancient and Illustrious House of Ravenclaw, Marquess of Nuashall, Count Of Faypine do hereby give proxy of the seats of Houses Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to Lord of the Noble and Ancient House of Greengrass, Count of Perrybell."
Lucius blinked and blinked again before cackling. Soon enough, Sophia Zabini joined him, the rest were looking between them like they had gone mad. Sophia spoke, still chuckling. "The old goat just lost three seats, and the Gray and Dark faction gained two seats each. He's no longer chief warlock. Lucius sobered quickly, he hadn't put that together yet, and that made him realize.
"I'm chief warlock." Sophia started cackling again.
Hadrian Had received no less than four dinner invitations from Lord Malfoy in the last week. All were addressed to the Lord of house black, and hadrian was debating whether he should accept. It would be good to have him on side, and their views were the same. Which made hadrian think about the dark. He had looked into what they stand for and what the last war was about and couldn't help but agree with some of their ideals. The dark wanted to preserve their rights to their magic, faith, and culture. The light didn't have a clear goal. He had checked. depending on who you asked, or what book you read, it ranged from preserving magic, to making the wizarding world more muggle friendly, to removing all dark magic, including 'dark creatures.'
Hadrians pondering came to an abrupt stop as he heard a clap of thunder and raced to the window. It was charmed to see a view of Parris but reflected the weather outside, and right now there was a thunderstorm. He raced to his closet where he had placed the animagus potion and… yes. There was a single mouthful of blood red potion. Hadrian went to the floo room and removed the rug, chair, and table, shut and locked the exits. Lastly he conjured a full length wall mirror and stepped into the middle of the room. Putting his wand to his heart he spoke "Amato Animo Animato Animagus" he then drank the potion. Immense pain shot through him, it was like his bones were on fire. His head was pounding and he could feel two heartbeats thrumming through him. He closed his eyes and could just make out the shape of his form. It slowly got clearer until Hadrian was looking into the piercing green eyes of a pure black phoenix. It had a single white feather exactly where the white lock of hair was on him.