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as always next chapter is on pat re on for free.
Chapter 19
Things settled down into a quiet routine at Hogwarts. There was some grumbling from the junior death eater crowd at Harry and Hermione not going to Hogsmeade during the last visit. Only, that changed to outrage at having missed their opportunity to ambush them when the Prophet printed the article Rita had interviewed them for. It mentioned that Harry, Hermione and Fleur had given the interview in Hogsmeade during the last Hogsmeade weekend and they weren't at all happy about the lost opportunity. But there was nothing they could do about it in school because Harry and all his friends refused to go anywhere alone, robbing Draco and his sycophants of the opportunity to get any measure of revenge.
As for the article, from Harry's point of view there wasn't much happening. There were some letters to the editor in the next few editions of the newspaper, and Harry received another huge load of mail. Some of the letters were on his side, some neutral, questioning if what Harry had done was really necessary, and others that said he was a monster and kidnapper. Basically every possible point of view so once again the magical population couldn't make up their minds about him.
As relatively uneventful as it was in Hogwarts the Daily Prophet was a window into a far more unstable outside world. Voldemort and his death eaters were still staging random attacks, mostly on magical business that they disagreed with. The ice cream parlour, a shop selling mundane clothes, a shop owned by a first generation wizard, a witch working for the muggle worthy excuse department in the Ministry and even the Daily Prophet were all attacked. The ministry worker was saved by the Aurors as was the Daily Prophet, but the owner of the ice cream parlour had disappeared and the owners of the other two businesses had died.
The Daily Prophet was apparently now working out of a secret location. One that was both under a fidelius charm and was in a different location. Harry suspected they were now running out of France, as he didn't think the death eaters would want to risk French Aurors getting involved as they were sure to if they attacked a business in France. This was, however, pure speculation on Harry's part. Hermione thought they were hiding in the mundane world but Daphne thought that was unlikely as the prophet while not as anti first generation as a lot of business, still had a lot of old school purebloods working for them and she didn't think they could handle working in the non magical world. They just did not know enough.
It was almost Halloween before there was news from IronBlood. One of the Carrows had finally cracked and signed the surrender document. Unfortunately it was Alecto Carrow the sister/wife. That meant that her signature meant little as far as the goblins were concerned, she wasn't the Head of the family nor was the family vault or properties in her name. That meant they couldn't use it to claim any goblin artefacts in the vaults or such their property for any more. It did however mean that he could now force from her a vow to confess everything to the D.M.L.E. or more precisely Fleur could. He had added her and Hermione to the list of people who could make decisions on his behalf. And as Fleur worked for the bank and didn't have to worry about getting permission to leave the school.
According to the letter Harry had received, though Alecto wasn't a named person on the family vault she did have a personal vault that had some jewellery that wasn't goblin made and she had about three and a half thousand Galleons and it was now up to Harry to decide what to do with it.
Harry's first instinct was to take it all as spoils of war. That was his legal right after she had signed a full and unconditional surrender. If he was feeling petty enough he could even send the goblins to their home and have them collect everything that obviously belonged to her: robes, jewellery, hell he could even claim the toilet paper if she had a separate bathroom.
Then Harry thought of the Carrow twins. With their mother about to go to jail and their father either about to follow or sit in his goblin cell for a very long time they were very stuck. They both had another year of Hogwarts education to pay for and no prospect of earning that gold for themselves.
The counterpoint was that they were definitely part of Draco's little band of junior death eaters who were looking to kill him. Not giving them the gold would have them out of the cast by the end of the year and with that out of his hair and out from under Hogwarts protections from the blood feud. It was a lot to think about.
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Fleur signed out of work for the day. It had been a long day. Elaine had to put wards up at a new construction today and Fleur had needed to go with her. There was a lot of very detailed work. First they had to sketch out the enter ward scheme in chalk, then bury some crystals into the foundations that couldn't be even a quarter of a degree out of alignment, then there was etching runes into flag stones that were to be buried in the foundation, then finishing the ward by actually creating the channels of magic between the crystals and runes.
Her day was full of sayings like 'measure twice, bury once' and 'less haste more speed'. As useful as the sayings were, their repetition quickly became the bane of Fleur's existence. It was bad enough that when she was sent on a run to get tea and bacon sandwiches she actually considered it a break.
Fleur was looking forward to going home but unfortunately she now had to meet up with a goblin warrior who was going to escort her to Harry's private prison so she could take the oath of the Carrow woman who was deluded enough to believe that marrying her own brother somehow made her better than everyone else.
The goblin introduced himself as Axe'alot but apart from that didn't speak much. There was a good chance that he didn't speak English or French. A lot of the warriors aplenty didn't bother learning another language. As to speaking in the goblin language, while she knew a few words she was far from being able to use it.
They portkeyed to a large cave and from there she was led through seven checkpoints each one checking she was who she said she was. But eventually she was through and was taken to see IronBlood, the goblin who administered this facility.
"Greetings IronBlood, may this victory bring honour and prestige to your line." She greeted him formally.
"And may this bitches gold fill your vault." He responded back with a smile. "Now let's get down to business so I can get back to my forge." He started to lead her down a corridor. "As you were informed, Alecto Carrow has finally decided to cooperate. Apparently a weekend of tasteless food, no colour, only water to drink and zero conversion was too much for her and she wanted out no matter the consequences." He laughed.
"What of the other one, her brother slash husband?" Fler asked, trying not to sound too sick at the idea. "Any clue how close he is to cracking?"
"Not really. Goblins tend to have a more hands-on approach but I wouldn't say he is doing well. Maybe a few more days, maybe a week, maybe more. It happens when it happens."
Fleur nodded, there wasn't much she could say after that. She was led through twisting tunnels that had been dug out following veins of whatever metal or mineral the goblins had been after until they reached the cell. The cell was just the end of the tunnel that had been walled off and fitted with a large iron door. The only light was the one they brought with them and a faintly glowing parchment that was stuck to the front of the door. The parchment glowed just enough that you could read the document.
Fleur gave the document a quick read. It was the contract for unconditional surrender and it had been signed with a blood quill making it both legal and magical binding.
"The cell is left dark so that the only thing the prisoner can see is the contract." IronBlood said. "If nothing else, boredom has them reading the document again and again. Boredom will eventually lead them to sign it just so that they can see again. If they don't then after a month we will turn on a silence ward depriving them of sound as well." He grinned as he pulled out a key and opened the door.
The woman inside drew back from the light like it was painful. Though after weeks in the dark it probably was. If Fleur had to describe the woman in one word she would have a hard time choosing between broken and pathetic. She had obviously lost some weight as the robes she was wearing were hanging off her.
Fleur tried to feel some sympathy for the woman but all she could think was that this was one of the people that had attacked her home with the intention of killing her. So instead Fleur took a deep breath before saying with as much authority as she could muster: "Alecto Carrow, I am Fleur Delacour, bonded betrothed to Harry Potter, Warlock of the House of Potter. I speak now with his authority. Stand up."
It was clear the woman didn't want to, but stand up she did. That wasn't conclusive as to whether she was bound to act under Fleur's word though so Fleur said, "Now tell me the worst crime you ever committed."
"I used the Imperius curse to make a Muggle woman eat her mudblood daughter while she was still alive." Carrow admitted and suddenly looked terrified as the words spilled unbidden from her lips.
Fleur felt sick. "You will walk in front of me." Fleur said, pointing down the tunnel she had just come from. "You will only walk at a steady pace, you will keep your hands down, you will follow any instructions given to you by myself or a goblin working here. You will not try to resist and you will not attempt escape. Do you understand?"
"Yes." Came the defeated and terrified voice of the woman. Who started walking in the direction Fleur had indicated.
As they walked Fleur gave her more instructions. "We will be leaving this facility and we will be going directly to the Ministry of Magic. When we are there you will be given over to D.M.L.E custody. There while you are being interviewed you will tell them the truth about your connections and affiliation and membership to the group known as the death eaters and their leader Voldemort. You will also give them all the information you know and suspect about all the other death eaters including their identities and what crimes you have witnessed them committing. You will confess to every crime you have ever committed. You will truthfully answer any questions they ask of you. You will accept any punishment that the legal authorities impose on you and you will not seek to escape. If you find yourself illegally free of your sentence for whatever reason you are to surrender yourself to the authorities. You will never again discriminate against a person on the basis of blood. You will never again discriminate against someone for their species." Fleur kept adding more and more conditions as they walked.
The more conditions that were added the more it became obvious to everyone in the group that Carrow's days of getting away with her actions were over. None of them were familiar with the term 'time to pay the piper' but they would all agree that it fit if they did know it.
They way out of the seven locked gates took three times as long as it took to come in not just because they were built to prevent escape but because as they were taking a prisoner out then there was security verification of that decision at every gate. By the time they reached the large roomy portkey cave Fleur was really looking forward to going home for the day.
Fleur was given a portkey to the Ministry of Magic and told Carrow to grab the other end before she spoke the activation phrase. A few seconds later the two landed in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic. This naturally caused quite a stir among the people there. It wasn't common for anyone to portkey into the Ministry outside of the international arrivals area and the D.M.L.E. let alone a veela and someone everyone knew to be a death eater in magical subregions handcuffs.
Security was on them in seconds demanding to know what was going on. It took some fast talking from Fleur but she explained how Carrow had agreed that it was time to turn herself into he D.M.L.E for her crimes. None of the security wizards questioned any more after that. It probably had something to do with the feud being so high profile. Everyone knew exactly how Carrow had ended up a prisoner of the Potter family.
There was some kerfuffle about signing into the Ministry but then the two of them were led to the D.M.L.E. Fleur had been hopeful she could just drop Carrow off and run. Unfortunately just like any other government, the Ministry had paperwork for everything.
The forms that Fleur was currently filling out were actually new. They were a response to the declaration in the Prophet that they would be handing prisoners over to them. Some jobsworth had decided that there had to be official Paperwork for that and when they found out it didn't already exist they had created it and the D.M.L.E had had the forms waiting for over a week in anticipation of the first of the prisoners.
Luckily for Fleur the parchmentwork was the only thing she needed to do, the Aurors were far more interested in questioning Carrow than having her hang around under foot. Fleur was just about to leave when Tonks came running up.
"Hey girl, I'm just getting out for the day. Fancy grabbing a bottle of wine and just hanging out?" Tonks asked surprising Fleur not from the question but because the klutz hadn't tripped once as she joked over.
Fleur loved the idea. "Yours or mine?" She asked.
"Yours, give me half an hour to pop home, have a shower and get changed and I'll bring the wine." Tonks said as they started walking towards the lift to get back to the atrium. It was just as they were getting to the door lift that the inevitable happened and Tonks tripped over her own feet.
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It took Harry a few days of thinking and consulting with Hermione and Fleur before he decided what he was going to do about the Carrow twins. That was why he was currently knocking on the office door of the headmistress.
"Come in" the voice called out and Harry opened the door and walked in. Harry was a little put out when he saw his professor's face fall at the sight of him. "Mr Potter, Please tell me that you're just looking for help with your Transfiguration homework. Or that it's at least not another incident where you are about to run off and try to get yourself killed." She sounded tired and resigned to the situation.
"Neither but somewhere in the middle. I'm hoping that you and I can meet with two students and hopefully come to an agreement where they can peacefully finish their education, and I don't have to worry about them trying to kill me. At worst it's a meeting with us shouting at one another, but at best fewer students are trying to wait outside the school gate to ambush and kill me and my family."
Of course the professor wanted details so Harry explained how with the surrender of their mother and their father the Carrow twins were going to have trouble with the funds for their next school year and how he was prepared to give them their mothers gold and jewellery in exchange for a binding contract of non aggression. It would basically move them out of the shadow of the blood feud and bind them personally to not attacking Harry or his family.
The professor looked thoughtful as he explained, and when he finished asked, "Can this be done at Hogwarts? My understanding was that feud business was banned from these walls"
"There are no restrictions on where settlements, peace offers, or parlays can be held. In fact it's assumed such conversations will happen in neutral locations. The Ministry or Gringotts are the preferred locations but this wouldn't be the first held here. And I'm here, they are here, no reason to make this complicated by going all the way to London. I just need to forward them some documents after the discussion." Harry explained.
The headmistress agreed to the meeting but had conditions. First, the meeting would be held in her office. That was fair as far as Harry was concerned, there was likely to be raised voices and keeping it out of the way would keep them from disturbing the whole school.
Second was that the Carrows would have their head of house and one adult of their choice there to represent their interests. Harry would have the same with Professor Babbling and an adult of his choice.
Third neither Harry or the twins would be permitted to have their wands during the meeting. That Harry didn't like as he would feel vulnerable but he also trusted professor McGonagall enough that he agreed.
Lastly, Professor McGonagall wanted to personally check any documents before they were signed. A precaution Harry was fully behind. He didn't want to be slipped a fake document any more than anyone else.
"So Mr Potter, when do you want this to take place?" McGonagall asked.
"Well I need time to write up the documents, I need to find a blood quill, need time to call Sirius and ask him to attend. I assume the Carrows will need a similar amount of time. How does Sunday afternoon sound?" He asked.
"Very well Sunday afternoon. And Mr Potter, good work on your last Transfiguration essay." She nodded at him and he was clearly dismissed.
-ϟϟϟ-
The next few days were a bit rushed. Some things were easy, like getting his hands on a blood quill. There was one in the Head of House desk at Potter House. Sassy had been able to get it for him. Arranging Sirius being there had been a little more complicated due to the fact he apparently wasn't carrying his mirror so Harry had to send him a letter with Hedwig.
The actual hard part though was telling Hermione and Fleur they couldn't be involved. While both were legally adults, Sirius was the one with experience of Britain's magical laws and so Harry needed his godfather's help for this one.
Both Hermione and Fleur were disappointed they couldn't be there but understood the reasoning for McGonagall restricting the number of people and even why Harry needed Sirius for this.
The last thing that was an issue was one of the junior death eaters had apparently worked out a loophole in the law. They couldn't attack Harry in any way without it being considered provocation and being kicked out of the school. However, insisting other students harass him with what amounted to nothing more than juvenile pranks skirted just enough of the law to get away with it. So one of them, Harry suspected Malfoy, had put a bounty on Harry. The person who pulled the best prank on Harry over the week would get a ten galleon prize. There were some rules, like Harry couldn't end up needing medical treatment to prevent it being considered an attack, but apart from that it was pretty much open session on Harry. Most Slytherins, a large portion of both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, as well as a few Gryffindors were all trying for the prize. A few of them had even given Harry a heads up that they were going to give it a shot for the ten galleons. It was a lot of money for a student.
That was why Harry was having a few issues getting to classes this week, because he couldn't walk down a corridor without a pie flying at his face, or someone trying to tie his shoelaces together with a spell, or a tripping jinx, or a jump scare. Harry almost murdered one first year Slytherin when he snuck up behind Harry and yelled the incantation for the killing curse. Luckily Harry realised it was a kid who wasn't holding a wand before he finished the cutting curse that he was halfway through casting. It was stressful. But at least nobody tried stuff like that again after seeing Harry's reaction.
On the day of the meeting Harry met Sirius and Professor Babbling in his head of house's office and the three of them walked together to the Headmistress office. On their way they encountered the Carrow twins heading to the same location; they were accompanied by Professor Sinistra as their head of house and unfortunately Professor Snape. Snape had been much better since McGonagall had taken over as headmistress. Harry had to give credit to Headmistress McGonagall, there was no way she was going to accept Snape behaviour. Though Harry was sure Snape was constantly informing on him to Dumbledore and to Voldemort.
Harry was trying to work out if with the Carrows choosing Snape his choice of Sirius was a good idea. On one hand Sirius would counter any vitriol Snape shot in his direction, but Sirius presence was likely to wind up Snape. Either way it was too late now, Harry had chosen his godfather, the Carrows: Snape.
As soon as they were in the headmistress's office she had all the students hand their wands to their head of house before they all sat down. Harry cleared his throat and said. "Well, as I'm the one who asked for this meeting I suppose it's on me to explain why we are all here. Miss Carrow and Miss Carrow, the current feud between our houses has put you in a difficult position. Your parents are captured and you will turn seventeen before the end of this school year. You will be legally adults, but that's it. You will be on your own with just your school equipment, your O. , no N.E. or any way to pay for your last year at Hogwarts. Is that an accurate assessment of your situation?"
"Not quite Warlock Potter, we will be seventeen and able to enter into an agreement with any individuals who have already expressed an interest in paying for our education." The left twin said. It was obvious from her tone that her words were only polite because of the setting they were in. Harry had little doubt she would kill him given the opportunity. But he couldn't blame her, he had imprisoned both of her parents and had successfully tortured one into cracking while he was still working on the other.
"But any such agreement would come at a cost would it not? More than a simple debt of gold to be repaid?"
"That is true." The twin on the right agreed. "But then your offer won't be any different. You will want something in return as well."
"Well reasoned." Harry nodded to the twins who had obviously deduced he was offering to give them the gold to finish their education. "Though I feel you may find my offer easier to accept than the ones proposed by others. I already know that Malfoy and the outer students who are part of houses I'm feuding with are planning to kill me and my family. That includes the two of you. My guess is that their main plan involves some type of trap or ambush when we are off school grounds.
Here's the problem with that: I'm not completely stupid. We know leaving the grounds puts us in danger. We take precautions, any attacks, traps or ambushes are likely to get turned back on the ones doing it. You both know my reputation.
"However the two of you have never taken an active role against my family and I. So I'm going to offer you all the gold and jewellery your mother had in her vault in exchange for a binding pact of non aggression. You will have enough gold to finish your education and get yourselves an apprenticeship. You won't need to be constantly looking over your shoulders living under the feud, and you need to give up the sort of things people like Warlock Nott or Warlock Malfoy would demand of you." Harry finished making his pitch.
"That's it? Just non aggression?" The right twin asked.
"There are a few more details that discriminate what I mean by non aggression, it isn't just raising your wand, you wouldn't be able to offer aid to any trying to harm me or mine for example. But yeah that's it, non aggression and you can finish your education and walk away from all this."
"How much money is in the vault." Snape demanded. "I wouldn't put it past a Potter to bind them only to reveal that there were only a few hundred galleons in the vault."
Sirius started to bristle at Snape's tone but Harry put a hand on his arm and pulled an envelope out from his robes. "I have a statement here from Gringotts as to the contents of the vault. I know next to nothing about the jewellery beyond none of it being goblin made. It could be worth ten galleons or ten thousand, I don't know. There is however, more than enough gold in there to cover both of them for their last year at Hogwarts assuming there isn't an unexpectedly large jump in the cost of tuition next year." Harry slid the statement over to the twins letting them decide if they wanted to show it to Snape.
"We will also need to see the written agreement before we agree to anything. And you know we can't sign anything until we are seventeen." The left twin said.
"I have a draft copy of the agreement with me for you to look over." He passed over another envelope. "And as to you being under seventeen that's why you have your head of house here. She can act as your guardian and agree to an arrangement in principle with you. Basically as long as you stick to the conditions of non aggression between now and when you can sign the agreement then I won't be able to withdraw the offer. Though if I may be so crass as to ask when your birthday is?"
"Birthdays actually. We may be twins but it was late at night I was born on the twenty-third of February whereas Flora was born on the Twenty-fourth. The right twin who had revealed herself to be Hestia said.
Flora then said. "We will need to think about it. Compare it to our other options."
Harry nodded. "That's fair. Take that copy with you, read it over, I'm sure headmistress McGonagall will let you call another meeting when you're ready or if you want to change anything."
With that the meeting quickly came to a close with nothing decided. The twins, Snape and Sinistra all left pretty quickly, but Sirius asked if he could just just floo home from the headmistress office so Harry's group hung around for a little.
"Are you sure this is the best idea Harry? Normally the best strategy is to weaken your opponents, not offer to fund their education." Sirius asked.
But it was professor Babbling who answered. "If they take the offer then they won't be Mr Potter's opponents. Isn't peace always a better option than fighting?"
"Not necessarily. This deal would buy Harry and his family peace but outside of the family the Carrows are still free to attack and kill first generation magicals, and non aggression goes both ways. Harry wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them."
"It's not Mr Potter's job to stop them. Too much has already been placed on his shoulders. He is a student. The most he should be worrying about is his exams and his girlfriend." Professor McGonagall joined the conversation. "At least this way he is taking the steps to end this ridiculous feud."
Harry, not exactly a fan of being talked past, especially when he was the topic of conversation, said "The Carrow twins get this opportunity because before all this they have never done more than jeer at me. Others will not get the same offer." Harry said ominously.
"You do realise that if you kill a student you may not be in the wrong legally but I can still remove you from the school." McGonagall warned.
"You mean students who are plotting my death already and have already committed crimes that should have seen them in Azkaban for life?" Harry asked while looking the professor directly in the eye.
There was a little contest to see who would look away first, but Sirius stepped in front of them. "Okay you two claws and talons away. Minnie, you know Harry wouldn't go out of his way to attack students, but at the same time you can't expect Harry to surrender any ground to people who would kill him without a second thought. Harry, you know this is a school and you declared feud on students here, you should expect some tension because of that. Now, Harry, you go back to your common room."
Harry wanted to argue for a second but realised Sirius was giving him an out for the conversation and took it. He had to find Hermione and mirror-call Fleur. Both of them needed to be kept up to date.
A/N
As always comments and energy drinks fule my fics and one of those is free