No Thing Not Earned Chapter 36 Adopting Strays, a harry potter fanfic

Narcissa Black sipped red wine that was so dark that Sirius tapped his Animagus Grim senses to confirm did not contain actual blood. They had both been raised Black, so muggle-merlot was a thing. They eyed each other across the table while Draco was being bullied into letting Luna Lovegood feed him Chinese Food with chopsticks.

"I don't see why I have to eat this muggle food. I mean I am all about culture of course, as a Pure Blood, but culture came with forks!" Draco insisted as a piece of pork dripping in something that looked like troll blood, the nearly jelly like red did smell both sweet and savory, so while his mouth objected, his tongue and salavary glands were in full rebellion.

"You are a dragon. This is food of the Court of the Dragon Emperor. You should eat it. Besides, it can't be muggle food if you need to master not one but two wands to eat it." Luna mused.

She stopped and her eyes shot open. "It is duelist food, and dragon food! So clearly you can't eat anything else." Luna said as if this explained everything.

Narcissa looked at Sirius, and then at Luna. "The odd child, what is her relationship with my Draco and your..."

"Heir?" Suggested Harry.

"Kidnappers?" Suggested Neville.

"Rescuers." Corrected Hermione

"Lunatic Horde." Concluded Milicent.

"And Minions!" Cheered Fred and George who had accompanied them into exile while a fuming Percy screamed at them. "Come back, you are grounded to the common room, I am Head Boy!"

Sirius sipped his own wine and looked at Luna, his eyes hooded, his memories haunting him. "Toujours Pur, Narcissa. Do you remember those words"

Narcissa raised her head proudly, her beauty a thing of ice and iron, remote cold and utterly uncaring over the judgement of those beneath her.

She answered coldly. "Always pure. The motto of House Black. I remember it Sirius, it was not I that broke faith with it. What has that to do with the odd child and my Draco."

Sirius looked up now, gesturing at the children and the snake who was even now insisting that his Mouse Giver supply him with sweet and sour pork offerings like Draco was being fed by Luna.

"Toujours Pur, always pure. Odd words those when you think about it. Ancient words that have been handed down since before we came to these shores. Words we brought down from the North with the Franks when the conquered France and took to England with the Norman Conquest. We were taught they were about Blood Purity, which is ridiculous because that nonesense didn't even become an issue until 1588 when Slytherin's grandsons allied with the Spanish Armada. Odd we always took it to be about Blood Purity when the words were ours since about CE 405. A bit hard to believe its about Blood Purity when we had been living by them for twelve hundred years before it became a thing." Sirius said.

Narcissa looked at Sirius, her eyes hooded this time, her thoughts unreadable. "If it is not blood purity, what is it then?" Her voice wasn't quite a challenge, but it wasn't just a question either.

"Pure magic. Not light, not dark. The magic we worked before wands, before Rome and before Merlin set up his system. Pure magic, using the elements of nature to bend the wild magic to the needs of the people. Magic too strong to fit into a single spell, too potent to contain or channel with any wand or staff. " Sirius said, his voice becoming excited, a wild light filling his cold grey eyes until they flashed to match his wide wolf grin.

"Power Narcissa. It what freaks Dumbledore out so badly. These kids have been fumbling towards pure magic, the magic that was the root of the families back before there was a sacred twenty eight, and Luna Lovegood sees it." Sirius said, and he was no longer the Marauder, the bad boy rebel, the prankster. His voice now was the Lord of House Black, inheritor of an unbroken line of war wizards that stretched back to the Frankish conquest of Roman Gual.

Narcissa's eyes flew wide and she looked over at Luna who smiled back at her dreamily, her fingers dancing as she made Draco imitate Noodle and lunge to get his deep-fried prawn. Narcissa extended her own sense and felt the pool of magic swirling around Luna, a chaotic pool of power like the aura of a unicorn, rather than a witch or wizard.

"She is a seer?" Narcissa asked in shock.

Hermione answered before Sirius could speak. "Not at all. Seers are channels that occasionally get overwhelmed by Magic when it has a prophesy that is ready to begin moving. They are tubes messages get shoved through, they don't know or understand the message itself. Luna swims in the sea of Magic, she sees and feels its currents everywhere, all the time. She sees how it moves inside us, around us, and changes because of us. She is probably too wild to ever be a decent wand witch, but magic sings its secrets in her ears, and unfolds wonders before her eyes."

Narcissa hissed in shock. "Dumbledore is just letting her wander around free? If the Unspeakables suspected what she was, they would disappear her into a cell in the Department of Mysteries, never to see the light of day again, being milked of information until she got lonely enough to die!"

Harry slammed his hand down on the table. "NO! I have the silver, and we have the power. We will bind her to the coven. Luna says she is our Vision, Draco our Soul, and Merlin help us all, she swears the ginger idiots are our Heart."

Narcissa leaned forward and matched Harry glare for glare, her hand went out to rest on her Draco's shoulder protectively.

"You think to mark my Draco? You think to put your mark on him, when he is promised to the Dark Lord?" Narcissa Malfoy challenged.

Milicent tapped her butter-beer with her knife to gather everyone's attention.

"Lady Malfoy, I would think long and hard before I ever allowed anyone I cared about to have the Dark Mark put on them. I touched it with my wand and simply whispered, and Lord Selwyn did more than die, his body fit into an urn smaller than a cremated cat. I used no spell, I simply activated what was inside it already. A death sentence for any who bore it at the merest whim of its master, or the simple loss of connection to same. It is a slave brand, not an honour." Milicent said, her voice calm and cold as if delivering a weather report she found only mildly interesting.

Neville spoke up next. "The runes bind us together in a circle, a coven. We each bring our individual magic to it, and together we can weave the calls of anyone who joins with us in ritual together so Magic itself can hear us, and if our call and desire matches the needs of Magic and the world, then miracles happen." He looked at Narcissa calmly, and when Narcissa tried her best cold glare to intimidate the notoriously shy and nervous boy, she felt her eyebrows rise in shock as Neville responded to the challenge with one more response.

"Oh, and your Dark Lord screams like a bitch when Harry comes for him. I have seen Harry break and eat several pieces of his soul, and every one of them died begging." Neville said, a blush coming to his face as his voice hardened.

This time it was Augusta Longbottom who reached out and grabbed her heir's shoulder in support.

Draco looked over at his mother and tried to reason with her, rather than the twin options of demanding and begging that had constituted his communication repertoire with his parents for his entire life.

"Mother, you always said you supported the Dark Lord because those fools at the Ministry, and Dumbledore's Light Faction wanted to gut the magical power of the Pure Blood Houses, but I have seen his mind. He wanted to gut the magical power of everyone who was not his, and those who were his could only be powerful if they were little more than his mind broken slaves. All power was his.

This is different. Taking the runes of the coven makes us all more powerful individually, and more in tune when we are together. It brings us into harmony but it calls each of us to grow and become great.

All my life Father was raising me to be a copy of him, and a good servant to his Dark Lord. Never did anyone think about making Draco Malfoy great. The best I could hope for is to be a pleasing enough tool for my father's house and master.

I stood against the darkness mother. Me. Draco Malfoy. I fought with my friends because I was Slytherin enough to pick up a tool others dared not, and they were too Hufflepuff to leave me alone facing it. Taking up the runes may or may not make me great, but it will make me Draco Malfoy, wizard and man. When my friends face the Dark Lord again, I will be with them."

Draco looked at his mother with his best attempt at a Lord's dignity. Sirius burst into an inappropriate belly laugh, not because Draco looked foolish, but because he looked like a thirteen year old copy of Lord Arcturus Black, the ancient Black Patriarch who died before Draco's birth.

Narcissa gave Sirius a glare. "That is quite enough, cousin."

Turning to Draco she smiled softly. "Toujours Pur, my dragon. Always pure. You seek to bind yourself to pure magic, and bind yourself to a company that dares to pit their will against the Dark Lord and Champion of Light, against the Ministry and against the world. Let it not be said I would deprive my son of his chance at greatness.

You wish to join this coven? So mote it be."

Luna shattered the solemnity by leaning forward and hugging Draco powerfully, causing him to squawk in indignation, and blush scarlet as she cheered. "Yay!"

Fred and George jumped up and pinned Milicent in a joint hug.

"Minions forever." They cheered together.

"And tattoos!" Said George

"Mom will" Agreed Fred

"Go nutters!" They cheered together.

Narcissa walked her black dog to the Floo of the Leaky Cauldron, and Flood to Longbottom manor where the coven gathered again. The whole of the coven gathered to sing and chant as Alastor Moody drummed and Hermione's needle wove silver into four figures bound in vines summoned by Neville from the earth.

Goblin magic bound goblin silver to runes that called to that of the witch and wizards bound by branch and thorn, by blood and will, to the working. Othala for family, Algiz for protection were woven into left and right breast of each, this was the binding to the circle.

Then the runes of their nature were woven into them.

Fred found the X rune known as Gebo over his heart. Gebo was the gift rune, the rune of commitment, of partnership, the rune of harmony. His was the blending of their spirits and natures.

George felt the rune of Wunjo weave above his heart, like an arrow pointing upward with only one side, it was the rune of joy, of completion, of fulfiment. Wunjo was the joy of their will manifest in the world through their magic.

Together the twins were the heart of the coven, and they felt their magics bring the opposing forces of the elements into harmony as Hermione wove blood and power, silver and pain into the wounds of their marking. Each thread of the silver worked not simply into their flesh, but into their souls.

Hermione blushed a bit as Luna bared her chest with a smile, utterly unconcerned about the mixed genders as to her eyes everyone was naked to their soul and magic so body modesty seemed too silly to worry about.

As Hermione worked the runes into Luna, she was unsurprised to see the third rune forming between her breasts was the cup shape of Pertho; the rune of secrets, occult knowledge, and also the rune of chaos and chance. This was the rune of the wild magic, the magic spells and wands cannot bind or contain.

Draco was sweating and writhing against his bonds as he was marked, for his runes burned into him harsher than the others. Draco wept and raged, but when Hermione asked if she should stop, he raged and swore at her to continue.

His rune was the harshest. Nauthiz. Like a small t with the crossbar slashing down left to right like cut by a sword. It was the rune of need-fire. The rune of suffering for knowledge, the rune of prices paid, the rune that shatters stasis and ignorance both. A rune of patience and pain, and of world shattering action.

Narcissa held her place in the circle, she danced with the other witches and wizards of the outer circle that their steps and words, their intent and need could call out to magic to hear and see what was wrought in this time and place, and weave itself into the binding. She saw her delicate boy, the over proud and protected child she had endured a loveless marriage to produce be marked with a rune fit for a dragon. If he was to be the soul of the coven, his would be the harshest price.

She felt the tears burn her face, a mother weeping for the pain of her son, pain now and pain a hundred fold tomorrow, yet her steps grew fierce and wild as joy burned in her heart. Toujours Pur. He was not the weakness of his father's blood. He was hers. He was Black in his heart. Her delicate little dragon would be strong!

After a lovely feast in Longbottom manor, whose wards were strong enough they did not fear Ministry Aurors storming the place looking for the renegade (yet oddly unconvicted) Sirius Black, the group returned to the Leaky Cauldron, for that is where Cornelius Fudge would be arriving to take them back to Hogwarts for their official welcoming and awards ceremony. The negotiations (or browbeating, blackmail, and bribery) with Albus Dumbledore had been concluded to no ones satisfaction but everyone's tolerance, and the Minister would get his shiny happy press moment.

Narcissa sat with Sirius in her room and after weaving her privacy wards, she finally broached the subject of her cousin's status. Since Draco was bound to Harry Potter and his coven of lunatics, his fate and his position of Lord of House Black were now critical to hers and Draco's survival and success.

"Sirius, this thumbing your nose at the Aurors and tricking the Ministry is no doubt amusing to you, but you and I both have children to protect. You cannot do that when your enemies can wield the power of the Ministry in the daylight, and the power of both factions of the Wizagamot in the shadows." Narcissa said softly, not looking at her cousin and lord.

Sirius poked unnecessarily at the fire, his face growing shadows in the firelight that made every year in Azkaban show plainly carved into the crags of his noble but now more brutal visage.

"I have a plan, Cissy. The Ministry is giving the kids the Order of Merlin. That means over the Yule break, they will attend the Wizagamot session to take up the single seat each Order of Merlin holder gets. No regency for underage when you get an Order of Merlin, they get their seat and their vote right there.

I plan on being smuggled in. When the time comes for oath taking, it is done alphabetically. House Black will be first. Once the wardstones of the Wizagamot chamber sense the Lord of Black has entered, my name will be recorded on the Book of Law. When they read the names, mine will be first. When the Wizagamot magic allows me to swear my oath of Loyalty, that will prove that I have never been convicted of any crime against the Wizagamot law.

At that point, I am beyond the power of a vote to keep from my seat. The DMLE can take care of the book keeping to take me off the wanted list, because they will be stuck with the Book of Law's acceptance of my innocence. Magic trumps ministry. I mean, you have to love a system that is simply based on the power to splatter anyone who disagrees with you with the flick of a wand.

I will hold all the Black Family vassals votes, I am Harry's godfather and once seated, the Potter vassals votes also become mine to vote. As an Order of Merlin holder, I can appoint Harry Potter to be my seneschal, and hold the proxy for his own bloody votes. Cornelius Fudge can pack his own fudge at that point. Lucius will be left only with the Malfoy vote, none of our vassals will be his proxies. Dumbledore will be left with just his own vote, none of the Potter vassals will be his proxies."

Narcissa shuddered at the boldness of the plan. "You really did sort into Gryffindor for a reason. That plan is terrifying. If anything goes wrong on the way in, you will be given the Dementor's kiss on the spot."

Sirius looked up from the fire and grinned.

"Now Narcissa, it is almost like you care! Yes, my plan is Gryffindor bold, but I had a decade in Azkaban to get right Slytherin cold and cunning about getting it done. Don't worry, I have given the kids the task of pulling it off." The former Marauder smirked.

Narcissa snorted, a most unladylike noise she would deny ever having made.

"You are trusting those children to come up with a plan to beat the whole of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the Ministry of Magic, all the Death Eater sympathizers who need you dead, and Dumbledore who needs you gone so he can get his oh-so-pure hands on his precious Boy Who Lived?" Narcissa asked in surprise.

Sirius leaned down and gave his cousin a hug, which she endured with the same resignation she had as kids when he was being all cheerful puppy with his baby cousin.

"Oh Cissy, just one of them broke me out of Azkaban because she needed a birthday present. Can you imagine what the lot of them can do if they put their heads together and really try?" Sirius smiled.

"Cornelius Fudge ought to thank them if they don't burn the whole Ministry down in sheer teenage excess before it's done. It is going to be better than any prank the Marauder's ever pulled in their prime. I swear, weaponizing Hufflepuff work ethic to Slytherin cunning, it's enough to make a grown Gryffindor tremble in fear." SIrius said, then shuddered dramatically.

"You are going to rein them in, if they get excessive?" Narcissa said hoping her cousin had matured even slightly in the decade spent dreaming of escape in Azkaban.

Sirius looked shocked. "Narcissa, I am shocked! I would never curb their youthful enthusiasm. The Ministry is a frightful pile of ostentation, if it burns, it burns. The prank is the important thing. They will get that part right!"

Narcissa began to massage her forehead. She could feel a Gryffindor headache coming on. She loved her cousin, but it was only Lucius Malfoy still being alive that kept Sirius Black from topping Narcissa's list of people she wanted to murder list.

Sirius and Narcissa would have cause to look back upon this discussion with horror on Narcissa's part, and a mix of horror and wonder on Sirius part. Sirius was a very powerful wizard, a warrior who struck terror in the hearts of Death Eaters when he took the field. He was also, however, the little boy who only went to the circus to watch the clowns fall down. It is entirely possible the idea of consequences would ever have the same reality as the prank to him. Cornelius Fudge and Albus Dumbledore's attempt at political theater with the awards ceremony turning into musical theater may well have been the first open shot of war between a handful of magical children and all the various evils in the wizarding world (its government and educational institution leadership among them), but it was also in Sirius expert opinion, a prank of the first order.

Senior Undersecretary Delores Umbridge had been given the thankless task of briefing the children as to their expected role in their return to Hogwarts for the award ceremony. The Great Hall was packed with students, famous alumni, parents, and every Hufflepuff of note, including a few Muggle Rights activists from the 1960's civil rights movement only allowed back in the country through a special arrangement with the Irish Republic who gave them sanctuary.

The children were to be led in, introduced, brought up to the dais while Minister of Magic Fudge would read the award, and the senior Order of Merlin First Class holder, the Champion of Light himself, Headmaster Dumbledore will pin their medal on their robes.

"I'm sure this sort of ceremony will be new to you, Miss Granger, as you suffer from the disability of your Muggle Birth." Senior Undersecretary Umbridge said with a fake smile on her toadlike face. In fact, Neville had twice slipped already and referred to her as Miss Trevor (after his former Suppressor Toad pet).

Hermione gave the Senior Undersecretary a sniff and made a slight brushing off motion as if dismissing her concerns as beneath her notice. "It is always interesting to see how minority populations cut off from their parent culture attempt to follow the half remembered customs of old. Fortunetly, Muggle Britain has never forgotten how to honour its heroes, and I have seen it done properly when my Uncle Sgt Ian McKay of the 3rd Para received the Victoria Cross, the highest battle honour of the British Empire, for the deeds that turned the tide at the battle of Mount Longdon, at the cost of his life."

Hermione looked at Umbridge coldly, "The entire city was shut down, the streets barricaded for the parade, and the Queen herself gave the award. There were tens of thousands of people in attendance, but I'm sure your little school production will be quaint."

Neville swore softly. "Miss Trevor looks like she swallowed a dungbomb!"

Draco stage whispered to Milicent "I thought there weren't any royals or nobles since the statue of secrecy?"

Milicent corrected him. "The same Royal house rules, but we surrendered all our noble titles. Technically our leader, the Minister of Magic is a very junior cabinet minister in the Muggle elected government. We just tell each incoming muggle Prime Minister, swear them to a bunch of oaths of secrecy, and get back to ignoring each other as much as possible."

Delorus Umbridge found herself shouting without noticing it. "The Minister of Magic is not any sort of junior cabinet minster, he is the most important man in Britain. Certainly, the most important man in British Government."

Draco smiled professionally and patted her hand saying with utter Slytherin sincerity.

"He is obviously the most important figure in British government, after all, he is in charge of all wizarding affairs."

Milicent added "Except for the Ancient and Noble Houses of the Wizagamot, who basically order him around like a House Elf."

Harry chimed in. "The Goblins of Gringotts who use his ministerial orders in the privy when we run short on paper."

Hermione added helpfully, "And Hogwarts, who thanks to its charter usually thanks the Minister for his thoughts and does what Dumbledore wants instead anyway."

Neville smiled at the toad-woman whose face was now darker than her pink pant suit.

"But other than that, he is totally in charge. I mean, not of us, but loads of other people. Like you for instance!"

When the doors to the great hall opened, it was to the strange sight of Mr Filtch wrestling Delorus Umbridge for her wand as the students smiled and waved at the crowd and the Sorting Hat which was sitting smugly by Hufflepuff's Cup like two old friends ready to catch up over a plate of kippers and too many drinks.

Cornelius Fudge gave a twenty minute speech that managed to make it clear to everyone that it was exactly his leadership which resulted in the kind of forward thinking and revolutionary daring that inspired these brave children to act utterly and entirely within both the wise and prudent laws of the Wizagamot and Ministry, and in accordance with the ancient pure blooded traditions that were the true strength of Wizarding Britain.

How it was possible to both be forward thinking revolutionaries while slavishly adhering to every written rule and ancient tradition was not explained, but it was generally understood that Cornelius Fudge was the man responsible for making this possible!

Delores Umbridge stopped fighting for her wand long enough to burst into wild applause which was dutifully followed by those students who had just then noticed Fudge had stopped talking, and thought that was jolly worth a clap or two.

Dumbledore gave a long slightly sad speech about how important it was to embrace love, especially in the face of darkness and while it would undoubtedly have been nobler and purer to have been slaughtered by the Dementors, it was probably for the best they had defended themselves, even if their choices had been rather regrettable.

Pomona Sprout and Poppy Pomfrey came forward, with Cedric Diggory between them holding the Hufflepuff cup.

"It was not enough that these brave children, two years early to have even been taught the spell to protect themselves from themselves from the awful Dementors used whatever tools and magic they possessed to save hundreds of young wizarding lives, they also found and returned to us one of the four wonders of the Founders, the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff!" Pomona Sprout said, and every Hufflepuff in the crowd roared.

Flashes went off as photographers immortalized the presentation of the famous Hufflepuff Cup, at last returned to Hogwarts.

After that it was a long and boring ceremony as each child was led to get his hand shaken or hers kissed by the Minister (quick photo), his or her medal pressed to their chest and tapped once with Dumbledore's wand to affix (quick photo).

Albus Dumbledore was more than a little irritated at having his school co-opted for Cornelius Fudge to turn into a campaign event for his re-election bid. He was further annoyed that the Sorting Hat was telling every reporter who asked that the Hufflepuff Cup was the most powerful healing artifact in the world, and that it was in fact not restricted to her blood heirs, but all of her children, the children of House Hufflepuff could use it."

Since Albus Dumbledore was a Gryffindor, this knowledge was less than helpful, although his mediwitch Poppy Pomfrey was a Hufflepuff and could use it. That was something at least. Still, he could spin control of the cup to give him power and influence over St Mungo's hospital, as now he had control of the cup that could cure what their finest Healers could not.

More than annoyed at having his Great Hall usurped by both the Minister of Magic, and the Hufflepuff Alumni, Albus decided to inflict upon the press, politicians, parents and other parasites infesting his school, the ultimate punishment.

Rising to his feet, Albus Dumbledore raised his wand.

"Before we get to the feast, this is a time of celebration. You can't very well celebrate without music. Music is the oldest and deepest of magics, yet one sadly that is not taught at Hogwarts. Still, we have our own tradition."

Those who knew what came next either winced, if they had any sense of taste or shame, or grinned if they had neither, and prepared to sing the Hogwarts song.

Dumbledore held up his wand. "There now, everyone knows the words. Pick a tune for yourself, since the song doesn't have one if its own, I'm sure anything you find will be good. On three, don't worry, if the glass shatters the elves will just replace it, and SING!"

What Dumbledore expected to happen was the usual. Hundreds of voices singing, speaking, shrieking, howling, yodeling, rapping, and chanting (no two together) in a hundred keys, in as many timings. The Hogwarts song was so terrible it drove Peeves to hide in the Forbidden Forest until the Unicorns chased him out again.

What happened was different.

Luna Lovegood strode to stand beside the Helga Hufflepuff's cup and extend her hand to it. The cup began to glow. That glow formed a crown over Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger and Milicent Bulstrode.

They began to sing.

"This ae nighte, this ae nighte"

A matching crown of gold formed over Harry, Neville, Draco, Fred and George as they stepped forward and sang the refrain.

"(Refrain:) —Every nighte and alle"

Together, the rune marked boys and girls sang the next line, and this time the whole of House Hufflepuff sang the refrain.

"Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,

(Refrain:) And Magic take thy soul."

As the children sang the call, and House Hufflepuff the refrain in answer, those in the audience who bore the Dark Mark felt it burn their skin, blisters and angry red blood wept from where it slept under their arms, as if the very magic of life strove to reject it.

Dumbledore looked upon the magic weaving from the rune marked children, and flowing from the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff and noted the Sorting Hat himself was boldly singing along with the children, and glaring at him as he did. Only Minerva McGonagall was aware of the fact that the wards and stones of Hogwarts also sang the refrain, as if the call of the wild magic in the children's song was echoes by the magics in the castle, more ancient than Wizarding Britain, or the tame magics of the modern age.

The Daily Prophet, Quibbler, Witch Weekly, and Toad Chorus Times all ran a picture of the event, one that oddly actually carried the magic to echo the song itself. The words of the song were printed, even though Cornelius Fudge had a word with the Prophet that the Ministry thought it might smack of forbidden magic. Sirius Black sent an Owl to the same publisher reminding them of his 64% ownership, and general reputation as a vengeful prat, and advised them to run it anyway. The Quibber was Luna's father's publication. Witch Weekly's owners and half the staff writers were Hufflepuff's and the Toad Chorus Times were all mad for magical music, and as long as a toad could sing it, that was enough for them.

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,