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Chapter 14

"Tonks, get in here a sec," The voice called out, and the Auror who was permanently assigned to the Minister's protection detail left her post and walked into the office.

"You called, minister boss lady?" Tonks knew some of the people there found her casual attitude with the minister disrespectful, but she also knew Bones actually appreciated it. It helped her stay grounded to have someone so close that didn't kowtow to her position. It also helped that Tonks was actually good at her job and Bones actually trusted her, not just to watch her back but for the occasional clandestine job as well.

"Do you know what Potter is up to?" Bones asked while looking over some documents.

"No ma'am, he hasn't written to me since going back to Hogwarts, and Fleur hasn't said anything either. Why do you ask?"

"I just received some documents about tomorrow's Wizengamot meeting. Potter has put in the paperwork to address the Wizengamot tomorrow, and he has sent notices to appear to a lot of warlocks. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott, Avery, Parkinson, Carrow, Yaxley…all the warlocks who are escaped Death Eaters. He is planning something."

"Do you think he intends to publicly call them out as Death Eaters? I know he knows our hands are tied due to lack of evidence. Maybe he is hoping he can provoke a reaction out of them?" Tonks speculated.

The minister thought about that for a few moments before she nodded. "As a warlock he has the right to speak his mind in the Wizengamot. Using it to call them Death Eaters to their faces is a bold move, though. Do me a favour, make sure the Aurors are there in force tomorrow. A lot of the people Potter called on are wanted criminals who obviously won't come, but a lot will. I don't want them doing anything excessive."

"I'll get down to the Auror office right after my relief turns up. Anything else, ma'am?" Tonks asked. She may be casual but there was still protocol.

"No. Dismissed, Auror."

-ϟϟϟ-

Harry was woken up early on the Saturday of the equinox. The Wizengamot session was set to start at seven o'clock in the morning. Considering Harry had to be there half an hour early, that meant getting up before the crack of dawn. Luckily, Dobby had been more than willing to help. So, when a slightly less bleary-eyed Harry walked back into the dorm from the shower, he found not only his formal dress robes laid out for him but also a steaming hot cup of coffee. Harry ignored the robes for a minute and just focused on the coffee.

"Dobby is also having these for boss man." The little guy held out three vials of potion. Harry took them and examined the labels, seeing they were Wit-Sharpening Potions - basically the magical equivalent of supercharged coffee. "Old bad master used to go to Wizengamot meetings like this to know what's be going on, and he used to make Dobby get him these potions to help him stay alert," said Dobby. Harry knew today's meeting was a long one and even though there were breaks built in, it was considered very rude not to attend the whole meeting if you attended at all. Harry wasn't due back at the castle before eight o'clock tonight, so the potions would definitely come in handy.

Harry finished his coffee and got dressed. He was surprised when he got down to the common room to find Hermione waiting for him. She was still wearing her pyjamas and a thick fluffy bathrobe to ward off the already present morning chill that came from a Scottish September. She was sitting at one of the tables, a silver cloche and a couple of plates waiting next to her.

"Morning… 'yawn'... Harry. I thought we could have breakfast together before you leave," she said.

"Morning love." Harry said as he walked over and gave her a kiss. "I'm sure Dobby could get you a coffee if you wanted one."

She shook her head as she yawned again. "No. I'm gonna go back to bed after breakfast." Harry nodded. The meeting was open to warlocks and invited people only, and invites could only be sent to people relevant to something a warlock wanted to talk about. There were some exceptions, such as Ministry Heads of Department and the press, but there was no way Harry could have gotten Hermione in. He was just glad one of the Gringotts directors found an excuse that they could send a goblin. But as Harry was going to have to sign off at least one thousand galleons today, having a Gringotts manager there to do the draft immediately would actually help him.

He sat across from Hermione and pulled the cloche off the breakfast. It was a planter filled with everything you find on a full English breakfast: bacon, sausage, black pudding, hash browns, bubble and squeak, fried tomatoes, fried eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, toast, and of course a pot of tea. Harry started to fill his plate with the stuff on the plate.

"So how much trouble do you think you'll be in after this?" Hermione asked, fighting away her tiredness with her own admittedly smaller breakfast.

"Depends what you mean by trouble. You know as well as I do that this is perfectly legal. It hasn't been done this century, but it's legal. Of course, when you consider everything that's happened this century, that no one has done this is evidence that it's considered a rather extreme option. I'm expecting a whole list of people to tell me how incredibly disappointed they are in me and try to tell me I need to undo it. They will shout, scream, and demand, but in the end there is nothing they can do about it. So no real trouble." The two sat together chatting and eating for a while until Harry had to Floo to the Ministry. He kissed Hermione goodbye, who told him to be careful, and left. He had arranged to go by the headmistress's Floo. McGonagall was probably still going to be asleep, but he had the password to the gargoyle and a warning to keep the noise down.

He arrived in the Ministry atrium a few minutes before half past six. The goblin he was expecting was already there waiting for him, and to Harry's surprise Fleur was standing right next to him. "Fleur, what are you doing here?" Harry's surprise overruled any delight at seeing her.

Fleur sighed. "It's nice to see you too, Harry. This is Manager Goldtooth, my direct supervisor. I'm here because he wanted an assistant today."

"Sorry, manager Goldtooth. I was a little surprised to see my beautiful betrothed here today and I acted impolitely." The rules the goblins believed in terms of manners were that you used the rules of the place you were at. In Gringotts that was goblin manners, but here in the Ministry it was wizarding manners that were expected. "You have my apologies."

"That's quite alright, Warlock Potter. I dare say if I saw my wife here I would make a similar faux pas," Goldtooth laughed, obviously comfortable with being around witches and wizards.

"Shall we make our way to the Wizengamot Chambers then?" Harry asked, looking around to see if there was anyone else around he should talk to before heading in and seeing no one. The three of them set off the lifts, where there was a crowd waiting that took multiple trips for the lifts to clear enough soporous witches and wizards for the trio to get their turn. During the wait, Fleur had settled into standing next to Harry and using his shoulder as a pillow. A few people were giving Goldtooth curious and sometimes even hateful looks. Harry just gave challenging looks at anyone he noticed doing the latter, and all of them looked away rather than challenge Harry on the goblin's right to be there. There were some parts of having a scary reputation that Harry found he enjoyed some of the time.

When they finally got to the doors of the Wizengamot chamber, Sirius was standing by the door waiting for him. "Hey pup, Fleur, and goblin…" Sirius paused, obviously waiting for Goldtooth's name. Fleur introduced her boss, and Sirius smiled and continued. "...Manager Goldtooth. Harry, you will be sitting with me in the Black seat."

"No, that would drag the House of Black into this!" Harry protested. "This is House Potter business. I will sit in the visitors' stands until it's my turn to speak."

"I'm fully aware of the implications, pup, and if you think I'm letting you do this alone you have another thing coming. You're sitting with me as is your right as my Heir," Sirius insisted.

"Harry, Sirius is right. Go sit with him," Fleur insisted.

Harry saw that he was outvoted and gave in. He tried to give Fleur a quick kiss in parting, only for her to smile and remind him that she was actually working so displays of affection were inappropriate. Harry walked off with Sirius, leaving Fleur and Goldtooth to head for the visitors' bench that were at the back of the room.

"I noticed that you had no problem with displays of affection when we were waiting in line." Goldtooth grinned at Fleur.

"That wasn't affection, that was me using Harry as a convenient pillow. This is a God-awful time to start a meeting. In France they don't have meetings like this, instead they have them over three days so everyone can come and go at reasonable times," Fleur complained as they found seats.

"Maybe you can have your husband propose that they change it when he takes his godfather's seat."

"Harry isn't my husband yet," Fleur responded.

"By goblin standards he is. The bonds you three share and have accepted for yourselves are far more binding than vows and signed parchment. You already act as one and are offered the same respect as any married people would get."

Fleur blinked in surprise for a second, then she thought about it. Marriage would mean very little to her on the practical side. Emotionally it was everything, and she could hardly wait for it. But now that it was pointed out, on the practical side nothing would change. The only thing keeping the three of them apart at the moment was that Harry and Hermione were still in school. Once the two of them were done with that, they would be living together in exactly the same way a married family would live.

Soon Dumbledore arrived, and the Chief Warlock got everyone's attention and opened the session of the Wizengamot. What followed was hours of mostly mind-numbing boredom. Warlock after warlock stood, walked to the centre of the room, and addressed the Wizengamot. A lot of it was the most boring and petty hippogriff shit Fleur had ever heard. For example, one warlock introduced a bill to levy trespassing charges and fines on a wizard if an animal they owned trespassed on another's property without permission. The reason was because the warlock in question had recently started breeding ferrets, and his neighbour's hippogriff kept trying to get at them and had trampled his wife's rose garden. However, some were indeed more legitimate, like calling for a reduction in sales tax to offset the increase in prices that were a result of the war. Voldemort's attacks had caused shipping to take a hit, so businesses had raised prices to cover the loss in sales and continue to pay staff. That was the first thing any of the Ministry representatives had responded to, Bones arguing that they needed the sales tax revenue to pay the Aurors they needed to end the war.

During all the boring babble, Harry was busy looking through the crowd of visitors to see who of the people he had called to session had turned up. Warlock Malfoy was sitting in the middle of the front row of the visitors section, flanked by Warlocks Crabbe and Goyle just like his son was. There were a bunch more that sat together in a group, and Harry was sure there were more of the people he had sent notice to, but he didn't actually know what most of them looked like under their masks so it was difficult to be sure. A lot of the people hadn't come, but that was because they were wanted criminals who would be arrested the second they walked in, so he hadn't expected people like Pettigrew, LeStrange, or Rookwood to turn up.

Harry was surprised to see the Flamels in the audience. After that, Harry spent quite a bit of time watching Dumbledore to see if he had noticed the two people he had stolen a priceless magical artefact from were in the audience. With the reminder of the stone, Harry looked over Dumbledore's appearance. His beard was back to being pure white, and he didn't look any younger, yet there was something about the man's energy. Despite the fact that they were all sitting around, there was something a little more spry about the man. If Harry hadn't known about the stone, he would have written it off as the man having more time to sleep now he was no longer responsible for running a school. As he was watching, though, he was able to see Dumbledore's eyes flick up to the Flamels multiple times. Despite having a great poker face, it was obvious to Harry that Dumbledore was nervous.

The first break came and went, and still all Harry could do was wait and listen to boring prattle. When they broke for lunch, he caught up with Goldtooth and Fleur. They two were bored out of their minds and were wondering when Harry was going to get his turn to speak. Goldtooth even had a theory. "From what I can tell from reading the minutes of previous meetings, Dumbledore can be pretty obstructionist. It wouldn't surprise me to learn he has worked out your plan and has put you right at the end, hoping you will have given up and gone home by the time you have your opportunity."

"Well he can't end the session until everyone who submitted a request has had their chance to speak. I am prepared to wait here for three days if I have to."

"No Mr. Potter, just think, you give your declaration at the end of the day when everyone has left but you. It would be legal and then your enemies will have no idea what is happening to them," Goldtooth said, causing Harry to laugh at the idea.

It was indeed hours longer until Harry was called on, though he wasn't quite the last. Harry quickly drank his last Wit-Sharpening Potion and made his way down into the centre of the Wizengamot chamber. Once he was there, he took a second and thought about if he was really going to go through with this. When he found he was resolved to do it, he took a deep steding breath and started to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Wizengamot, I stand before you and with some of you here today as a wronged man. I speak of course of the Death Eaters, vile murderers, rapists, and terrorists. We are besieged from within by people who want to control us. Control who we can be friends with, control who we can marry, control how successful of a life we can lead all based on who our parents are. These animals, who can't understand anything different from themselves, hide behind masks and use 'innocent until proven guilty' as a barrier to justice, despite many of us knowing who the majority of them are. However, the history of this place has left us a legacy where law enforcement fails.

"I, Harry James Potter, last son and Warlock of the House of Potter, hereby serve notice of blood feud.'' There was a collective intake of breath from everyone watching; he certainly had everyone's attention now. This was no longer some boring meeting full of boring speeches. "There shall be war between me and any who refuse to answer my challenge. I challenge on the grounds that these people offer shelter, aid, and gold to the man who killed the former Warlock of the House of Potter, my parents, and who has now on multiple occasions tried to end the line of the House of Potter. I will accept nothing less than an Unbreakable Vow of truth, where the challenged says they are not a Death Eater and do not nor ever will serve the individual who refers to himself as Lord Voldemort." There was some muttering at this, but Harry pressed on.

"Now I acknowledge that being wrongfully accused in this setting is a great insult. To that end, any person who can refute my accusation, I offer weregild of one thousand Galleons." Harry had to hold back a smirk at this point, as a number of the muttering whispers turned from hostile to hopeful. one thousand Galleons wasn't pocket change, and a lot of the visitors who weren't Death Eaters were hoping that Harry would abuse them. A temporary vow to only speak the truth for a few minutes was short work for one thousand Galleons.

Warlock Nott stood up and shouted, "It's illegal to magically coerce someone into giving evidence against their will."

Harry sighed and turned to face him. "No, Warlock Nott. It is also very rude of you to interrupt a warlock while they are giving a speech. The time for the Wizengamot to have its say will be in a few minutes. But to answer your statement now, it is illegal for the D.M.L.E. to magically coerce someone into giving evidence against their will, I am not a member of the D.M.L.E and have no power to coerce you. I am merely setting the standard of evidence I require to not declare a blood feud on a house.

"As I was saying, one thousand Galleons in weregild to any who can give me a suitable vow-backed statement of innocence. I have even brought a Gringotts manager with me today who can draw up a suitable banker's draft that you can take to Gringotts the moment we leave this chamber. Now, are there any questions?"

The first was if what Harry was doing was legal. He had expected that one and pulled a scroll from his pocket and read out the laws he was using verbatim as it was written. Others asked how Harry knew who the Death Eaters were, which he answered as best he could, but unfortunately he had to protect his sources. Not just from the retaliation of the Death Eaters, but there was no telling what Dumbledore would do if he found out the twins were passing him information from his barbecued chicken club. There were more questions of course, mostly about the exact wording of some of the laws Harry was talking about. Then it was back to Harry to continue. He turned first to one of the members of the Wizengamot. "Warlock Greengrass, Head of the House of Greengrass, I accuse you of being a Death Eater. How do you answer this charge?"

The old man gave Harry a greedy smile. "I refute the charge, prepare to lose your gold boy." He then came and joined Harry in the middle of the room.

Harry nodded, as this was exactly what he expected. "Very well. I invite the representatives of Gringotts to join us, Miss Delacour can act as our bonder while Manager Goldtooth can prepare and present you with the draft if you can give a suitable rebuttal."

Fleur and Goldtooth joined them. Goldtooth opened up his briefcase right on the floor and a wooden booth with a bank teller's window grew out of it, which the goblin quickly climbed into. Fleur acted as bonder, and Greengrass vowed to speak only the truth for five minutes, then under the vow gleefully declared himself and the Greengrass family neutral and not followers of Voldemort, though he did have some trouble saying Voldemort's name.

Harry publicly apologised for the insult, and then quietly so that only Greengrass would hear said, "I knew you weren't a Death Eater, but from what Daphne tells me there was no way you would turn down one thousand Galleons and prove to everyone here that the vow was a simple thing. Now, when all the others I accuse refuse to take the vow, no one will listen to their moaning that it's 'too insulting to give a vow.'" The smile left Warlock Greengrass's face when he realised he had been used. He snatched the banker's draft from Goldtooth's hand and stormed off back to his seat.

With a wide smile Harry turned back to the Wizengamot. "Well looks like I got that one wrong. Oops. Let's try again. Warlock Malfoy, Head of the House of Malfoy, I accuse you of being a Death Eater and I accuse your wife and son of aiding and supporting the man responsible for the death of my parents and the near-destruction of the House of Potter. How do you answer this charge?"

Malfoy stood up in the visitors' seats. "I refute the charge but I refuse to take part in this farce. It is an insult to be forced to take such a vow and a mere one thousand Galleons is nothing but pocket change." There was a lot of murmuring at that statement, and it was clear a lot of people didn't believe him. Harry looked over at Warlock Greengrass and saw that his eyes were wide with the sudden realisation that he tried to set his granddaughter up with the son of a Death Eater. That was going to be interesting to see how it played out.

To Malfoy, Harry said, "Warlock Malfoy, Head of the House of Malfoy. I, Harry James Potter, Warlock of the house of Potter and Heir to the House of Black, declare blood feud against you and yours. Seek not the aid of the workers of the Ministry, their protections are closed to you. Seek not the aid of the other warlocks, for you will bring war and blood to their door. Gather your forces and prepare, for I am coming for you, and only your blood will sate my anger," Harry said the traditional words needed for the declaration while looking Malfoy directly in the eye. Malfoy looked furious as he retook his seat. It was clear that he knew his anonymity was gone.

Harry then repeated that again and again, going through Houses Avery, Carrow, Crabbe, Goyle, Gibbon, Jugson, Macnair, and Nott before he even started on the names of people who didn't turn up. All of them refused to give a vow to defend themselves. Harry then started declaring blood feud on the people who hadn't come, including families like LeStrange and Pettigrew.

There was one surprise for Harry when he tried to declare a feud on the House of Rookwood. He hadn't known that the Rookwood's warlock had a seat on the Wizengamot, which was because the warlock's surname was not the same as the House. His surname was Knight, and Harry had just checked the list of names without looking at what house they represented. The end result was that Harry was out another one thousand Galleons, and it was made clear that the actions of Augustus Rookwood, the escapee from Azkaban who was a convicted Death Eater, was acting on his own without the support of the wider family.

"That's the end of my declarations,'' Harry said after he finished with the last house; he had saved Pettigrew for last as the rat had a special place in Harry's plan. He was going to pay for betraying Harry's parents. "Now, I-"

"Eviscero!" A sickly yellow spell came shooting towards Harry from the visitors' seats. He was not unprepared for such an attack, in fact he had been expecting it, and easily dodged away from where he was standing the instant he heard a spell being cast. A moment later his wand was in his hand while he cast a shield around himself and Fleur who was standing close by. Just as a second spell from the same person, which he noted was Warlock Goyle, Harry shouted out, "The Ministry is neutral ground under the law, blood feud or not, trying to attack or kill someone here is illegal."

That was all the Aurors guarding the room needed to hear. They would check the laws later, and if Potter had been lying then it wouldn't be good for him. But these Aurors had been trying to deal with Death Eaters for months, and in front of them they had someone who had just refused to fight the charge even when being paid to do so and attacking someone they considered the only one who could face You-Know-Who and win. Even the hint that they had a legal justification had them all casting stunners at the Death Eater. There was some commotion as the Aurors then went and cuffed him before drawing him out, still unconscious.

After a few minutes Dumbledore was forced to make a few cannon-blast sounds with his wand to get everyone's attention. "Ladies and gentlemen, as unusual as all this is, procedure says that if the person speaking is able to continue he must do so. So with that, I turn the floor back to young Harry."

Harry wanted to call out Dumbledore for how he addressed him but knew it was pointless right now. He straightened his robes, checked that Fleur and Goldtooth were fine, then continued where he had left off. "Ironically I was just about to talk about neutral ground." There was a soft chuckle from a few of the people in the room. "The law mandates a number of places as neutral ground, where people involved in a blood feud are forbidden to fight.

"The first and most obvious is the Ministry of Magic, everyone needs to be able to come into the Ministry when they need to. The second is Gringotts Bank, because the goblin guards will chop your head off if you don't behave. The actual law talks about treaties and representing the witches and wizards of the country, and Gringotts being able to enforce the law their own way, which boils down to the same thing. The third is Hogwarts, with that extending to the carriages, Hogsmeade Station, the Express, and Platform 9 ¾, as it's supposed to be a school, not a war ground. And for some reason, The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade is also neutral. Apart from that, no fighting can begin until sunrise three days after the declaration is made, and any attacks that injure a bystander are to be treated like a purposeful attack on that individual. So it's best to be careful, or you could still end up with a murder or attempted murder charge. Now, I think that's all I have to say, any questions or comments?" Harry asked, expecting either stunned silence or a lot of people shouting at him.

What he didn't expect was for a woman wearing a familiar stuffed vulture as a hat to stand up and say. "The House of Longbottom pledges itself to stand with the House of Potter, your enemies are our enemies, and our wands will stand with you in your time of need."

Well, fuck. Harry hadn't planned for that.

A/N

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