I do not own Harry Potter, which sucks, but thanks to social distenceing and enforced Lockdown I don't have Covid-19 ither, so it could be a lot worse.
Chapter 14 – Conversations
It was a few days after the meeting at Hogwarts that Harry and Hermione were due to meet with Ted Tonks to discuss the Potter estate. They arrived at Ted's muggle office across the road from Charring Cross Station. A secretary showed them in and served coffee. Once the secretary left, a squib who chose to live life as a Muggle, Ted pulled out several parchments. "All right, thanks for agreeing to meet me here in the muggle world." Ted said organising his parchments. "I have several meetings over here today and a couple of conference calls so it's easier for me to be here all day."
"Not at all Ted." Harry said, just pleased he didn't need to be dressed in robes for a change. "It's nice to be on this side of the pub, things on the magical side have been very strange as of late."
"So, I have a bit of business with Miss Granger first." Ted smiled turning to Hermione. "I don't know if it's anything to worry about but the DMLE have sent an owl asking for you to make a statement about the business with Harry's Muggle relatives in July."
"Why do they want a statement?" Hermione asked.
"It is probably just routine." Ted assured her. "I think they just want to be able to close the file."
"Ok, so what do we need to do?" Hermione asked.
"We just write the facts, what happened and when. If you want, we can get it out of the way now?"
"Sure, let's just sort it out and move on." Hermione agreed.
Ted pulled a legal pad out of a desk draw and put fresh ink in his fountain pen. "All right then." Ted said. "It all began when Harry wrote to you?" Ted wrote down Hermione's story and passed it back to her to read over it. "If you're happy with that then I will have my legal assistant write it up on parchment and owl it out to you to sign and send back to the Ministry."
"Thank you, Ted." Hermione said.
"You're welcome, now, we come to Potter business." Ted said putting the pad in his briefcase. "Each one of these stacks of parchment are legally binding contracts drafted by the Gringotts legal department." He explained. "And I have to tell you Harry those goblin solicitors are tricky bastards. I have been through them all thoroughly, it took most of yesterday as a matter of fact. This first one is for the Potter Trust. I have forwarded it to your steward Mr Lupin and he can go through it all with you at a later date, but by signing it you take your place as Lord Potter with all that entails." Ted took out a pot of ink and a quill from a desk draw and handed them to harry. "Last chance to back out Harry."
Harry signed the parchment and it glowed scarlet.
"That's that then, My Lord." Ted joked, "This second one is a standard transfer of ownership of the London town house from the Potter Trust into your name. Again, I have given the information to Remus and he will go over the particulars with you." Harry signed it and there was a second glow. "And finally, this one is for Lorrin Hall, the stately home in Summerset and Potter Castle up in Scotland. They are separate from the rest of the trust and Potter properties. They are owned independently so can be sold or given away without having to involve the Potter trust." Harry signed it and the contract glowed again.
Ted gathered up the contracts. "Right then Harry that's done and dusted. I will get these filed with Gringotts. I have to warn you though, these are all binding magical contracts, so they are incredibly difficult to break." Ted reached out his hand and shook Harry's. "And I will send your statement off to the DMLE."
"Thank you, Ted." Hermione said also shaking his hand and they left.
After meeting with Ted, Harry and Hermione decided to go to Diagon Ally to collect their school supplies. First, they went to Madam Malkins for new school robes, then to Eeylops Owl Emporium to refresh their supply of owl and cat treats, after that they went to Flourish and Blotts for the new schoolbooks. They quickly made their selections, paid and tried to leave.
"Well lookie, lookie here." A voice sneered from across the road. "Taking your Mudblood dog for a walk Potty?"
"Malfoy?" Harry said in surprise. "Is that the best you have?"
"Whatever I have it's better than what you have." Malfoy muttered.
"No, Malfoy," Harry said plainly. "I have love in my life. All you have is hatred and bigotry. And by looking at your Aunt Bella, probably a little bit of inbreeding."
"How dare you!" Malfoy demanded. "You jumped up little half blood. The Malfoy Family has pure blood going back ten generations! And by the look of it you are planning on adding mud to your blood even more." Malfoy smirked. "Unless Granger is just a bit of a fun fuck before you settle for someone else? I can't say I blame you."
"Take that back!" Harry demanded. The air in the ally became noticeably colder and a breeze picked up.
"Why the hell should I?" Malfoy responded. "I am the heir to a Noble House, Potter. I do what I want, say what I want, and you can't do a damn thing about it."
"That's Lord Potter." Harry said. "You may the heir of a Noble House Malfoy, but I am the head of one. You will apologise to Hermione or their will be consequences."
"You are a fucking idiot Potter." Malfoy spat. "I don't care if you're a Lord or not, I can say what I like about Granger, because unless she is your intended, your power as head of House doesn't mean shit!"
"I tell you what Malfoy, apologise and I will let you walk away." Harry said quietly, the wind picked up.
"Fuck you, my Lord." Malfoy laughed and started to walk away.
"Stop!" Harry called out and Malfoy froze to the spot. Hermione could feel the power radiating from Harry
"Harry!" Hermione warned as Harry stalked towards Malfoy.
"You can't do this Potter!" Malfoy cried.
"Can't do what?" Harry asked.
"I can't move." Malfoy said.
"I haven't cast a spell on you." Harry told him. "I don't know why you can't move."
"Harry, what are you doing?" Hermione whispered.
"I don't know." Harry whispered back.
"Are you doing this?" Hermione persisted.
"I don't even know what this is." Harry whispered back and then began walking towards Malfoy. "Apologise!"
Malfoy spat in Harrys face.
When he was asked later what happened Harry could only remember seeing red. What actually happened was Harry wiped Malfoy's spit from his face with the back of his sleeve as he took another step forward, his emerald eyes ablaze with the power that was radiating through his body. He reared back with his right hand and punched Malfoy right in the mouth. "If you ever come near me, or mine again Malfoy, I will fucking end you!" He muttered. "Now fuck off!"
Malfoy began to run away. "You will regret this Potter!" He yelled as he fled.
"He's probably right." Harry muttered to Hermione. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Yeah." Hermione agreed. "You know Harry, you are going to have to learn about all this noble house stuff."
"I know." Harry nodded. "I'm going to write to Sirius and Remus tonight and sort something out."
"Good plan." Hermione said. They quickly left Diagon ally and caught a tube to Paddington Station and then a train home to Oxford.
The following morning Remus arrived on the Granger's doorstep brandishing the mornings copy of the Daily Prophet. "So," Remus began putting the paper down on the table. "Anything interesting happen while you where shopping yesterday?" he asked.
Harry groaned when he saw the headline.
NOBLE HOUSES AT WAR!
Reta Skeetar
Yesterday the busy shopping centre of Diagon Ally almost turned into a shootout at the O.K. Corral. When Houses Potter and Malfoy squared off in the middle of the street. Witnesses say that Potter, who has just recently been cleared for underage magic, used an unknown spell to freeze Draco Malfoy, son and heir to the most Antient and Noble House of Malfoy, then whilst the young Malfoy Scion was unable to defend himself Potter cowardly struck Master Malfoy…
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Harry cursed. "It didn't happen like that." He protested.
"So, you didn't stick the little maggots' feet to the floor and then punch the prick out?" Remus demanded.
"Not on purpose." Harry said. "I didn't cast a single spell. Hell, I didn't even have my wand out."
"Be that as it may, Harry," Remus protested. "We have to get on top of this. As your steward I have already got Ted drafting a statement to put out in this evenings Prophet. And I am afraid you are going to have to meet with Lucius Malfoy and apologise."
"Like hell I am." Harry said.
"You don't have any choice." Remus explained. "You insulted and assaulted his heir, in public no less. Jesus Harry, you can't just do whatever you want without consequences."
"Fuck off Remus!" Harry swore. "Malfoy insulted Hermione and me and my House, which is apparently a big deal, and then spat in my bloody face!"
"He did what?" Remus demanded. "You need to tell me exactly what happened."
"No problem, but then you have to explain to me all this Lordly bull shit." Harry said. They spent an hour going over the incident with Malfoy while they waited for Sirius to arrive.
Sirius arrived carrying Styrofoam cups.
"I got these in Manchester before I apparated. They are coffee I think." Sirius said handing out the Starbucks cups. "Caramel macchiato."
"Ooh, I've heard of these." Hermione said taking a long drink. "So good."
"So, Harry, Remus tells me you need some lessons in etiquette?" Sirius asked.
"Not just etiquette." Harry replied. "I know absolutely nothing about my title or my role in the Wizengamot."
"Ok, so right at the beginning." Sirius said taking a long drink. "Bloody hell that's sweet. Right, there are three sides of the Wizengamot. The Ministry side, they put forward legislation to be voted on and try to make into law. The Ministry side is made up of the major department heads and the Minister acts as their Speaker. There is the Most Noble and Antient Houses. They are all Lords, about 20 in all, but not all of the seats are filled. The Potter seat for example lies empty until you take your place, and the Black seat is empty because I won't let anyone else sit in it. The main players here are the Longbottom's, lead by the Dowager Duchess Lady Augusta Longbottom, she is holding the seat for her grandson Neville until he comes of age, we have the Malfoys, lead of course by Lucius Malfoy and the Greengrass's, led by Lady Gillian Greengrass, fairly progressive for pure bloods."
"Right, so where do I fit in there?" Harry asked.
"You are the Lord of the Most Noble and Antient House of Potter. You sit on the Antient House side of the chamber. You will get to vote or veto legislation from the Ministry side. If you choose you can also collaborate with other members of the Wizengamot and the Ministry on legislation of your own. Now Lady Augusta is the Speaker for the Most Noble and Antient Houses." Sirius took another drink. "It gets sweeter!"
"And finally, we have the minor houses." He continued. "In this side you have Minor houses. Now these houses are fairly prominent in our society but for whatever reason are not consider Noble and Antient. Most are pureblood, but it is not a requirement. For example, the Zabini's started out as muggle born about seven generations ago. The Minor houses hold quite a lot of power here. Traditionally the Minor houses elect the Chief Warlock from their own number…"
"Wait," Hermione interrupted. "So, are you telling me the Dumbledore's are a minor house?"
"That's right." Sirius confirmed. "Power and nobility do not necessarily go hand in hand. So there are about twenty minor houses but quite a few of those work within the Ministry, like Madam Bones for example, as a Department head she could have sat on the Ministry Benches but chose to retain her position as the Speaker of the Minor Benches."
"Isn't she the Chief Warlock now?" Harry asked.
"That she is. So, the Minor Houses will have to elect a new Speaker. If I was a betting man, I would think it's going to be Parkinson, he has been shaking a lot of hands lately. But I do know that Arthur Weasley has a few friends who could elect him to the role. That is of course if Dumbledore doesn't want it for himself."
"He said he wants to relax and have forty winks on the back benches." Remus told them.
"So how do I go about taking my seat?" Harry asked.
"You just take it." Sirius said. "You contact the clerks and you tell them you intend to take your seat. As your Steward Remus can do that."
"Could you do that Remus?" Harry asked.
"As My Lord commands." Remus said with a mock bow.
"Piss off!" Harry side.
"Yes, my liege." Remus laughed.
They continued to talk about how Harry could make a difference in the Wizengamot.
In the lair of the Dark Lord Voldemort woke up. Wormtail sat dozing in a chair. "Wormtail!" Voldemort said. "Summon my servants. In my slumber I have received testimony. I have a new purpose and I will return the Magical Community to its rightful place atop the Muggles again." The Dark Lord tilted his head back and laughed a maniacal laugh.
Authers Notes: Thank you once again for reading, likening, following and favouriting. It makes me so happy to see those emails.
Thank you to Ginn-Sensu for being my Beta reader and fixing my multitude of errors.
Thank you to all my reviewers as well. I like those emails even more than the likes/follows/favouriting.
Jkarr: Thanks for the review. Hopefully old Gracey Gritts will behave himself from now on.
Karatekid-Ninja: Thanks for your review. I hope I managed to paint the picture in this chapter that Harry is a clueless kid that is going to need all the help and advice he can get, despite all the power, both magical and political that seems to have just fallen into his lap.
Bones71: Thank you for your kind review, and apologies to your (dare is say) better half for startling her. See my theory on Snape in story's like mine, he is a useful tool. A master spy and potion making (but god awful teacher) and why would he be happy for a mear kid to come in acting like Billy Big Bollocks? Of course he is going to be unhappy and unresponsive to a teenager calling the shots. Plus its fun to slap the Grate Greece Trap every once in a wile. By the way if you send me a video of you doing your Happy Dance I guarantee you a first look at the next chapter.
Guest: Dumbeldore made the Order in Cannon, but I have described the origens of the order in my story being from the time of Merlin. This isn't cannon.
Emweb: Thank you for review. If your commuting to work then that must make you a Key Worker right now, and for that you have my absolute and undying admiration and thanks. If this little ditty dose any thing to make your day a bit brighter wile you risk your life for the rest of us then I am all to happy to be of service to you.
Forgive the length of time between updates. To stave off Lockdown boredom I have undertaken a deep clean of the house, which is meaning when I sit down of an evening to write, after the kids are off to bed I'm only getting a couple of hundred words down before I feel my self loosing concentration and drifting off.
Until next time, please keep reading and leave me a review. Let me know where you are and how your coping with Lock Down. If you're a front line or key worker then thank you, if you are supposed to stay home, please stay home, and if you are American please for the love of all that is good and holy in this world please, despite the advice of your president, DO NOT inject yourself with disinfectant.