Plans
Lucius, Thaddeus and Corban were assembled in front of their lord again. Each of them had worked on their tasks and had just reported the results of what had been achieved since their last meeting two weeks prior. The next day marked the beginning of the new term at Hogwarts, and the time during which Dumbledore would be kept too busy to look into all kinds of things outside the school.
"Well, my friends, it is great to already have this much information. We will also invite Amycus, Alecto and Walden for our next meeting. The immediate observation of especially Amycus will be greatly reduced, now that there is little chance for anybody getting to Endymion until the Easter break. Peter could determine that Hogwarts now has active animagus detection wards, thus he can't sneak into the school anymore. After all, thanks to him being blamed for the kidnapping of the two girls he has managed to rise to the position of most wanted man in the country," Voldemort was clearly amused about that part.
"What about Sirius Black? From what I heard, he was cleared of all charges after he gave himself up at Hogwarts and Dumbledore arranged for an interrogation under veritaserum, as he didn't trust Fudge to not try to hush the scandal up," asked Corban.
"Sirius Black isn't of major consequence to us," stated Voldemort, "You have to remember that somebody that spent that much time in close proximity to dementors will have suffered mentally. And without the right potions to help the mind directly after that situation changes, it takes at least a decade until the person is back to old levels of magical abilities as well mental strength. For example, they tend to become reckless in duels or misjudge certain situations. As Black escaped from Azkaban and never got those potions within the first month, which is procedure to give to those that are discharged after they have absolved their sentence, he lost a lot of his threat potential. Even if he gets those potions now, he will need a long recovery time. And, you have to remember, Black was disinherited by his family. While it wasn't the full option where he would have been left nameless, he has no claim to the family wealth and title."
"Meaning, he is a political nobody," commented Lucius.
"Exactly. The power of the Blacks will be Barty's once he had passed his NEWTs in May. His wife is the next in line for the title of head of house, thanks to her great-grandmother being the sister of the last head of the house of Black," pointed Voldemort out.
"From what Narcissa said, the line of Orion only has a town house in London to their name. And she was sure that Black hated that place and it was unlikely that he would choose to live there. He might use some of the books assembled there, but the majority of really useful ones will be stored in the Black family vault at Gringotts or Black Manor," added Lucius.
He didn't like that his son didn't have any claim to the Black fortune, but as long as it was under control of a Death Eater it would still assist their cause.
"I guess he will have to concentrate on healing from Azkaban and then probably he will be occupied with looking out that his goddaughter and her child will do well," commented Thaddeus.
"That's what I suspect as well," agreed Peter, "Sirius is devoted to the girl and will concentrate on protecting her. Especially after she was kidnapped once already."
"Then he will be suitably distracted for a while. Corban and Thaddeus, how many complete files do you have about the Ministry employees by now?" asked Voldemort.
"About half of the employees are completely assessed," answered Corban, "a quarter is nearly finished, the others need a while longer."
"That's acceptable for the short time you had so far," accepted Voldemort, "Leave the files you finished for me to look through after the meeting. Thaddeus, how far are the plans about the sleeping potion?"
"I have to finish one more experiment, then I believe I have a way to get unlimited amounts of the potion into the Ministry building," answered Thaddeus pleased with himself.
"Oh, how did you manage that?" asked Voldemort curiously.
"Actually, it is a method a Chinese competitor of my brother uses to make his products more appealing to the customers. Potions, no matter which ones, regularly are nasty to take due to their taste. That competitor developed a way to turn the finished potion into pills that can be swallowed. Basically, a dose of potion is compressed into one pill. That pill is swallowed with some water and then the potion is set free inside the stomach of the one taking it, due to the contact with water. My plan is to turn the potion into pills like that. The wards of the Ministry can't detect pills, contrary to potions. The only thing we need to do afterwards is bringing the pills in contact with water after they are across the wards. And that can be achieved by putting the pills into the water tanks that are used for brewing coffee and tea for the employees, for example sometime during the night before the day we want to strike," explained Thaddeus.
"Incredible," exclaimed Peter, "Does that work for all potions? I mean, it would also be a great business opportunity if those pills were offered."
"It only works for perfectly brewed potions, that is the handicap. And you will agree that the quality of commonly available potions isn't up to that standard. A potions master like Severus or a genius in the subject like Barty and Rabastan would manage to first brew those potions to the necessary level and then have them turned into pills. In that regard the Chinese are ahead of us. They simply produce more excellent potioneers than we do in Great Britain," replied Thaddeus.
"I see. A project for another time then," nodded Voldemort, "Once we take over the Ministry and can start our reforms, this should be improved over time."
The other men nodded.
"Now, Lucius, you said you had talked to Severus. Where does he stand? Will he come back, or has he thrown his lot in with Dumbledore?" asked Voldemort.
"He is working at Hogwarts because of the protection Dumbledore granted him for working as a spy during the war," answered Lucius, "Severus still believes in the vision our movement was based on. Though he disagrees with the methods used at the end. Simply because those harmed our cause a good deal."
"Yes. We won't repeat the mistakes from that time," agreed Voldemort, "So, he would be open to working for us at Hogwarts."
"He would probably be happy about the chance to take a role in turning the lacking support structure for the students on their head. He told me about the model he has created for Slytherin to let them have the best possible results in their education and magical development as witches and wizards. It is highly impressive. I have written down the model he established for Slytherin for you, my lord. I believe that this can be used as a blueprint to bring Hogwarts back to the top. I have also checked the results of the Slytherins that went to Hogwarts since Severus took over from Slughorn. There is a clearly noticeable improvement of their results," reported Lucius.
"Interesting, I will read that report carefully. If the results are that promising, we can use it and claim that the testing phase was already over and show the results of the Slytherins as proof that it works," nodded Voldemort approving.
"Severus also expects that Crouch and Lestrange will be pulled from Potions classes this term, but hasn't sent information on that part yet," continued Lucius.
"Oh, they will be excused from those classes. During the ritual I could determine two extra boosts of magic from conception taking place with both couples," stated Peter, "not to mention that I secretly fed both witches with fertility potions to make it nearly impossible for them avoid pregnancy."
"Ah yes, that would add a nice additional boost," agreed Thaddeus.
"Do you have any plans for those children, my lord?" asked Corban.
"Outside of having them raised with the true ideals of our movement and show them off as perfect examples of powerful unions to prove that inbreeding is utterly stupid, no. Especially not as I know that Barty and Endymion would revolt should anything happen to their children," replied Voldemort, "There is also Barty's wife to consider. You have to know that she had two bindings on her magical core, leaving her with just twenty-five percent of her core to use actively. That was undone before the ritual of course, but it also means she is exceptionally strong magically. Should anybody try to harm her family, she will retaliate and with that much magical power, as she is among those that realised a large part of her potential as far as possible, she will be a terrifying opponent. She will be worse than Bellatrix in a mood at that time of the month."
All of the Death Eaters shuddered at that thought. Bellatrix was scary enough when she was her normal self. When she got in the mood and was angry, one better ran fast and far away and only returned once her bad temper had run its course.
"How will Bellatrix take the fact that her nephew is now married to a halfblood? She is among the most extreme concerning pureblood supremacy," asked Lucius.
"She will accept it as I was the one to arrange this. The fact that the marriage was formed as part of the ritual to bring me back to full power will outweigh the small blight on her family name. And the girl is Gilbert's daughter. That counts for a lot," pointed Voldemort out, "Not to mention that the girl will please her opinion that a witch doesn't need to stand behind wizards in her power and scholastic success and can be better than them."
"True. Endymion's wife has been the top student of her year all three years since she started at Hogwarts," nodded Lucius.
"Just leave Bellatrix to me. I know how to make her accept this development. It will become even easier once the child is born and shows its powerful magic. I expect that Endymion and Hermione will be terribly busy with that. A child conceived during a ritual like the one we performed will naturally be extremely powerful. Add to that that their family lines never crossed before, or at least up to twenty generations back as far as we could determine so far, and the baby should prove what I have been trying to preach to my smarter followers since the forties," stated Voldemort.
The three men nodded. They had followed that advice. While Lucius' wife Narcissa had several ancestors that had ignored good sense, she and Lucius didn't have any common ancestors up to fifteen generations back. That balanced things out for them, even if Narcissa had had trouble to have more children after Draco was born. Still, their son should, as long as he married a girl not closely related to him, manage to have more children with his future wife. It sometimes took a few generations to get inbred problems out of a line.
"Now, once we have Alecto, Amycus and Walden here with us, we will initiate step two of our preparations. We need to have everything ready to strike to take over large parts of the country without the corrupt ministry even suspecting that anything is going on. Outside of the Ministry, one important place is Hogwarts, but we will leave that alone, as Barty and Endymion will work towards changing the way the students see things. They are the centre of attention due to us having to reveal their involvement in the ritual to keep them out of the suspicions of Dumbledore and Scrimgeour anyway. We will use that to let them voice their opinions about the lack of quality in their education at Hogwarts.
"Then St. Mungo's needs to be secured. I don't want any harm to come to the patients and healers there. Lucius, you have donated to the hospital in the past. What I want to do is that you take some of the funds we hid in the seventies to set up programs that further the education and training of the healers there. You can use that to position yourself as a benefactor of progress for important parts of our society. Just ensure that the ones who get approval to be supported by the programs can show excellent grades in assessment tests outside of OWLs and NEWTs taken at Hogwarts. This is meant to bring the elite among the healers up, not continue the same old groups. I want to break the monopoly that certain families have built up in healing. They will only figure that part out when it's too late already though," explained Voldemort.
"That can be arranged easily, my lord," agreed Lucius, already running some things through his mind, "Perhaps we could add to that by setting up a competition for NEWT level students that develop new spells and potions for the healing sector. Like, the best potion is rewarded with two hundred galleons, the second best with one hundred and the third best with fifty. That would lead to the students taking their Potions classes more seriously as well, which would help Severus. Next to patenting their invented potions if they are completely new ones and not just improvements of existing ones."
"A good idea, Lucius," approved Voldemort, "We can use that as a test run, and then add to it once it has shown to work. And the amount of money is tempting for students. We could also include automatic permission to sit the assessment test for the healer program for those that manage to win one of the top three spots in any year. That gives an even stronger incentive for those that are ambitious enough to go for it."
The men nodded. With the candidates for the program elected by neutral parties, it would avoid that the same groups that so far managed to get healer apprenticeships would monopolise their healing system further.
"What about Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley? Or the smaller shopping areas?" asked Corban.
"Many of us have shares in enterprises in Diagon or Knockturn Alley. That isn't a big concern, but I want to instigate a similar support structure for young entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses with innovative ideas, who simply lack funds. If we sponsor them in some way, they will be beholden to us. It's simply good sense to have a hand in letting our economy grow. I also think that we should found two more shopping districts outside of Diagon Alley. Ones that are more modern and invite foreign investors for that as well. We need to bring more ideas into our world. I have travelled a lot as you know, and I have seen what other countries offer their citizens. Our country is far too limited in what we let our citizens have. Magic can achieve incredible things and we certainly aren't worse at developing them than other countries. For the beginning, we can entice the companies to open branches here in Great Britain, then, once we have brought our people to a level educationally where they can bloom, we can make sure that native companies are the biggest players in the market."
"The main issue with that is space, my lord. The idea itself is great," replied Lucius.
"I have a few ideas how to get the necessary space, my friends," assured Voldemort, "And it would only need one additional place. I plan to expand Hogsmeade for this. There is more than enough space around that isn't used for anything practical. It already is a place where no muggle can get to. And that area surrounds Hogwarts for forty kilometres in all directions. That part of Scotland is mostly uninhabited anyway, therefore we can easily work the expansion plans. It will also assist in offering more of our people living space far away from muggles."
"Interesting, my lord, and once we have the ministry under our control, nobody could refuse the permissions that are needed to build the houses we need to make this a reality," understood Thaddeus.
"Very true. The last shopping area can be located in one of the uninhabited areas of Wales. That would spread them out nicely among the parts of the island. And if one of my old experiments works out, we could even make that one themed to be highly interesting for families," revealed Voldemort.
"Families?" asked Lucius, "That would require that more families can have more than one or two magical children."
He knew how difficult it could be to get a witch pregnant from his own experience.
"Yes. I believe that I was close to figuring out a way to give a witch the ability to carry a child to term and get her pregnant if normal fertility potions don't work. Those only get the witch to be put into the perfect part of her normal cycle to increase the chances of normal conception exponentially. The potion that is part of a ritual that I have been working on to give us more magical children, will have to be taken by both partners. It will temporarily ensure that during the act the wizard will produce fertile sperm. For the witch, it will both make her produce a fertile egg and prime her body to hold the baby for nine months. I only need a few more tests done to let a trial period begin," answered Voldemort, "Though I will admit, this isn't a solution for those with incompatible magic. They would conceive this way, but the child would be a squib."
Lucius looked extremely hopeful hearing that.
"My Lord, if you manage to figure out the last details, would you grant Narcissa and me the honour to be among the first ones to test this?" asked Lucius.
Voldemort looked at him understanding his request.
"You have the problem that Narcissa couldn't conceive easily, didn't you, Lucius?" asked Voldemort.
"Yes, we had trouble. While we are compatible, the inbreeding of the Black family has had Narcissa nearly incapable of keeping a child long enough to be viable. Before Draco was born, we had three miscarriages. We invested a lot of gold for the best healers to ensure that Draco was carried for eight months to at least have one child," confirmed Lucius.
"I will grant your wish, my friend. Once I have finished all tests to be sure that this treatment is safe for the participants, you will be given the first doses to have more children for your family," promised Voldemort, "And I will personally instruct you how to perform the ritual that goes with it."
"Thank you, my Lord, I can't wait to tell Narcissa," stated Lucius, clearly happy about the chance to have the additional children that he and Narcissa had wanted. They didn't want to be like the Weasleys and their brood that the family couldn't afford, but they had hoped to have two or three children when they had married.
Sirius Black was waiting for his goddaughter to arrive at the room he had been shown to by Hagrid, who had greeted him at the gates of Hogwarts. Right now, nobody was allowed to floo into the school outside of cleared Ministry personnel or in extreme emergencies, healers from St. Mungo's Hospital. Dumbledore didn't want to risk any repeat attempts of a possible kidnapping. Especially not when the four teenagers that had been forced into the ritual were scared of being recaptured and used by their kidnappers. It had been pure luck that they had woken up before the rat and his accomplices had expected them to do so. And that for some reason their wands were close to them.
He didn't have enough knowledge about sacrificial rituals to have all the details that could determine a ritual's power. He had sneaked away whenever he could when such dark magic was discussed at his home. He had heard what had been decided to protect the four teenagers. But he needed to be sure that Jazzy was okay. He needed to see her with his own eyes. While he had only recently been cleared of all charges against him and had received a large amount of gold to compensate him for the injustice done to him, he hadn't spent more time than absolutely necessary at St. Mungo's to get the effects of the dementors treated. The healers had clearly told him that he could expect a long recuperation period, as he didn't get the needed potions against dementor exposure within a month of leaving Azkaban.
He simply took that as fact. He had been given the potions now, but he would have to work his way back to full strength the hard way. He would manage, but his first priority was his goddaughter. Who he hadn't been able to protect once again. Even if this time he couldn't have done anything. He hadn't reached Great Britain yet on Halloween. He heard steps outside the door and stood from the chair. He had heard from Dumbledore, who had briefed him before the meeting, that Jazzy had been given potions but to see the extreme changes in her was mind-blowing.
"Jazzy," he brought out, then he had his goddaughter hugging him strongly.
"Padfoot," she replied, "I'm so happy that you are finally free."
"Me too, but the important part is you now. How are you?" he asked immediately, looking over her to make sure, even if he had already checked once when she stepped into the room, that she wasn't injured.
"I'm fine. Sure, it is a bit hard to deal with what happened, but I certainly lucked out with my new husband," she told him.
Sirius had to control his reaction. One part of him wanted to rip the man apart for daring to defile his goddaughter. The other one, the more rational one, knew that he was as much a victim of Pettigrew's actions as she was. He looked at the blond teenager that had accompanied Jazzy.
"Hello, I take it you are my goddaughter's husband now," he greeted him, fighting to keep any nasty tone out of his voice.
"Yes, I'm Bartholomew Crouch, Mr Black, nice to meet you," he introduced himself.
"Nice to meet you too. Just for the record, you hurt her in any way, and you will find out why the Blacks were feared for centuries," declared Sirius, "I may be the white sheep among the herd of the blackest ones possible, but I still was raised in that house."
"Perfectly clear, Mr Black," nodded Barty seriously.
"Good," accepted Sirius.
"Padfoot, be nice," admonished Jazzy.
"It's my job to make sure that your husband treats you properly. Your Dad would have done it if he were still alive too. After your Mum was through with him that was. Nothing James could have thought up would be worse than Lily making sure that her baby girl was seeing a good guy," Sirius shuddered at the thought of how protective Lily had been of her baby girl.
"That bad?" asked Barty confused, "I thought she was a nice witch."
"Oh, Lily was one of the nicest persons you would ever meet," assured Sirius, "but if you crossed her, or worse, could be a threat to Jazzy, you better took cover and begged for mercy. Lily was a force of nature when it came to her daughter."
Barty filed that away and was relieved that he wouldn't have to deal with Lily Potter. Especially not considering his true situation. He could deal with the weakened Sirius Black, even if he wouldn't underestimate him at all. But he had little to fear. He would never hurt his wife. Thus, he should be safe.
"Come on, take seats. We have a lot to talk about. I won't pry for details that you aren't comfortable talking about, but I want to help where I can," stated Sirius.
The couple did just that, sharing a couch.
"I guess the headmaster already explained what we told him to you?" started Jazzy.
"Yes. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there to protect you, pup. But I honestly thought that Hogwarts was safe for you. I never expected that Pettigrew could sneak in to kidnap you," admitted Sirius, "I should have. I knew about the hole in the wards, but I didn't think that he would dare something like that during the day and in the middle of the school. Especially not when Moody was here."
"I didn't either. Thankfully, things didn't end as badly as it could have been. We are all alive and outside of being married and finding myself pregnant I'm really okay," said Jazzy.
"Pregnant?" exclaimed Sirius shocked.
"Yes, I thought Dumbledore would have told you," replied Jazzy, surprised he hadn't been told before.
"No, he didn't," growled Sirius.
"Mr Black, while I know you would probably like nothing better than hex me for getting her pregnant when she's just fourteen," Barty hastily started, but Sirius held up his hand.
"I know that you were also put under imperius, Mr Crouch. I don't blame you for that. And I remember that I heard that creation of life during the virginal sacrifice ritual would add more power to it. It makes sense that Pettigrew's aim would be that it happened. Once I get the traitorous rat into my fingers, he will wish that I had just killed him last June. You are right, I am horrified that my underage goddaughter is going to have a baby this soon, but I will deal with it. But I know far too well how it is to be blamed for something you aren't at fault for. Had this happened because you were careless or had taken advantage of her by getting her drunk for example, this would be a whole different thing. But this will make things harder for both of you. You are still incredibly young and none of you had graduated," stated Sirius, his tone hard but he clearly controlled his initial reaction.
"Thank you, Mr Black," replied Barty, "I have taken first steps to have help with the situation. Jazzy had freed the old Malfoy house elf Dobby two years ago, and he was very enthusiastic to bond to my family to now serve his beloved mistress. I have serious doubts that anybody trying to harm her, or our unborn baby would survive that foolishness. Dobby is a bit unhinged but in good ways. Next to that, I renewed the bond of Winky, the elf that basically raised me, as my grandfather kept me prisoner to make sure I wouldn't turn out like my father. She is a trained nanny elf and is determined to make sure that everything works out perfectly."
"That's a good start," acknowledged Sirius, "And call me Sirius. I'm not one for formality and you are my goddaughter's husband. And as she seems to have fallen for you strongly, despite the short time you knew each other, I think we can get along just fine."
"Thank you. Call me Barty."
Sirius nodded.
"What are your plans for the immediate and further future? With a baby on the way, you need to plan more thoroughly than other teenagers," asked Sirius, "I mean, I know that you will be able to take care of a family with the Crouch fortune that you inherited from your recently departed grandfather, Barty. But have you thought about a job?"
"Well, depending on how well I do in my NEWTs at the end of the year, I have considered apprenticing under one of the teachers here. I mean, we will live at Hogwarts during the school year anyway, as Jazzy is still a student and will be for three and half further years. That would give me a good base to start from. Masters of any kind are respected from what I know and have an easy time getting well-paid jobs," answered Barty.
He had talked about this with Jazzy before. She also wanted to learn a profession; she just wasn't sure which one yet. Though he had advised her to look for one that would allow her to combine raising children with her work. Once they were both done with school, they wanted a few more children. And he knew that if things didn't go exceptionally wrong, by that time, the Dark Lord would have taken over their country and would install the reforms he had planned all those years ago.
"I also don't know too much about the general wizarding world, thanks to my grandfather's behaviour. I consider this a chance to figure out what I would enjoy doing in the future."
"I understand. I don't have any kind feelings for your grandfather, as he was the main culprit in sending me to Azkaban without a trial. I know how obsessive he could be over getting his way. Would I be correct that you didn't get to officially sit your OWLs?" asked Sirius.
"Yes. While I was given the test papers, they weren't handed in with the DME. Professor Dumbledore arranged that I could still join the NEWT classes for the subjects that I want to take for the second term and join the others my age to sit the NEWTs in May. My file at the Ministry will simply show that I passed the OWLs for the subjects I have studied. I won't have any grades to my name, only for the NEWTs. Still, it is much better than I expected," explained Barty.
And it was true. He had half expected to be forced to first sit OWL exams to then be allowed to go into NEWT classes. At worst, he would have stayed one year more. He could have accepted to sit the OWLs at the end of this year, take classes with the next year's seventh years for the school year and then take the NEWTs. This was much more advantageous for him though. He also had decided which subjects to pursue for masteries. He would go for Defence and Charms. And once Snape was back on board with his lord, the man would be perfectly suited to teach him in Defence. It was honestly a waste that he wasn't allowed to teach the students in that subject. Barty could assist Professor Flitwick in classes as part of his studies in Charms and he would have to see who got the position next year. As there were no signs of Binns being dismissed as History of Magic teacher, Moody wouldn't stay. The Dark Lord had explained how he had prevented that Hogwarts could keep any of the Defence teachers for decades.
"Have you given any thought where you will live during the summer breaks?" asked Sirius.
"Probably the manor I inherited from my grandfather. It is in good condition and has strong wards around it. Professor Dumbledore didn't tell us anything about possible properties that Jazzy inherited from her parents, but I fear if any are left, they wouldn't be directly inhabitable. Even if I don't enjoy the thought of living in that manor again," admitted Barty.
"I will see how Potter's Keep looks like. Now that I'm free again, I can take care of many things for you. I won't start working soon anyway, as I first need to get back into shape from the long time I spent at Azkaban. The Keep wasn't damaged during the war. The wards were far too strong for Voldemort to breach," pondered Sirius.
"Then why did my parents live in Godric's Hollow?" asked Jazzy.
"Because the Keep is too large to put under a full fidelius charm. And there are ways to lay siege to a place like the Keep. You can set up wards that prevent that any of the ones living under the wards can apparate or use the floo. And travelling by broom when there is a large force of the enemy just waiting for it, would be stupid. After a while, the ones on the inside would be forced to come out, if only to get groceries and the like. You have to remember; the Ministry was close to falling when you were born. They didn't have the means to protect the high number of private properties that could be targeted like that. They were barely capable to prevent that the Ministry itself fell.
"The main opposition against Voldemort and his Death Eaters was the Order of the Phoenix under the leadership of Professor Dumbledore. And there weren't enough members to stop something like a siege. Had we tried, the Death Eaters would have cut us down easily. They outnumbered us," explained Sirius.
"I read in some books that I got to pass the time while I was captured that at the beginning, the movement that Voldemort led wasn't as violent as in the end," commented Jazzy.
"It's true. It's a main reason why they could become as large as they did in the end. At the beginning, I honestly pondered supporting their goals," admitted Sirius, "Some of the things they wanted to realise were good ideas. Had they kept to being a political movement, I believe they would have managed to win enough support from the people to force the Ministry to pass much necessary reforms. But they showed how far they were willing to go in the late seventies. That changed public opinion of them from support to fear. It certainly didn't help that crazies like my cousin Bellatrix were allowed to run wild. Even if the initial acts of violence were caused by the Ministry. It's something the politicians don't want the masses to know. I suspect it is one reason why nobody replaced Binns for ages. If he only teaches about goblin rebellions and giant wars, the students won't even think to ask for other, more important topics.
"The Daily Prophet also only prints what the Ministry allows. Even back then, the only reports about the clashes showed how the Death Eaters, though at the beginning they called themselves the Reform Party, would attack the aurors when they tried to break up their unpermitted gatherings. It's why I never wanted to work for the Ministry. But I also didn't want to follow Voldemort after he instructed his forces to use that much violence against innocents."
Barty was surprised to hear this. He hadn't expected that Sirius Black had been in favour of the true goals of his lord. Maybe he could be inspired to assist them and stay neutral. He certainly didn't support the current ministry officials and their policies.
"So, if Potter's Keep just needs some cleaning, we could use it instead of the place that gives you bad flashbacks thanks to your grandfather having been a grade A jerk," stated Jazzy, looking at Barty.
"I would honestly prefer it, Jazzy. While some will call it uncommon for the husband to move into the estate of his wife, well, our whole marriage is uncommon, as are both of our background stories," replied Barty.
Sirius bellowed a laugh.
"Isn't that the truth?" he chuckled, "Don't worry, nobody will give you trouble if you choose to not use a Crouch property. If the Keep is useable, I will also add any kind of Black wards onto it that I can find at Grimmauld Place, my parents old house. No matter what kind of bastards they were, my father was even more paranoid than Moody and he had any kind of halfway legal ward put on that house. I can look into which wards you should add to Potter's Keep to have your family absolutely safe."
"That sounds like a great idea, Sirius, thank you," accepted Barty.
While he knew that they didn't have to fear anything from the Dark Lord, having a place where nobody could attack them successfully would be invaluable. They didn't know who would protest against their allegiance, once it came out properly that was, after all. And the supporters of the status quo had already shown that they weren't above using violence and bending the law the way they liked it. And there were enough extremists at the Ministry that would attempt something sly.
"Could this include something like detection wards for dangerous substances?" asked Barty.
"You are worried that somebody could try to poison one of you," understood Sirius.
"Yes. While we have instructed Dobby to cook all of our meals, mainly to make sure that Jazzy eats what she should while she's pregnant, and Hogwarts has some protection, as the house elves are sworn to prevent any tempering with the food that is served here at school, it could easily happen that somebody sent something that looks innocent, but which is poisoned. I vividly remember the chocolate that the original date of Endymion to the Yule ball got, which was poisoned and caused her to miss the ball. I don't want to risk the safety of my family. Not when I finally have one," admitted Barty, honestly surprised how fast he felt this strongly.
Jazzy hugged him and kissed his cheek.
"I'm very happy to finally have a true family too, Barty," she told him smiling.
He returned the smile and lifted her chin to give her a gentle kiss, which wasn't as long as he would have preferred it to be, but with Sirius watching, he held back. When they finished, they found Sirius smiling gently at them.
"I believe you two will make it work. While you aren't at the level of Jazzy's parents yet, I think it will go that way," he told them, "Just be careful to wait with more children until Jazzy is done with school."
Both blushed a little at the compliment and the comment.
"Don't worry, we will. We have talked about it and we want more children later, but we both want to first get our education here at Hogwarts and then training for a job done before we plan for a second child. We don't know yet how many children we want, but two or three would be nice," explained Jazzy.
"Yes. As our first child will be born in September, Jazzy can still participate in classes from October on. We have talked with Professor McGonagall how it can be organised that she has enough time for both, and she offered to let her work on many things in self-study for certain classes. She will drop Astronomy, History and Divination as active classes next school year, but I will tutor her on Ancient Runes, as she found out that she liked the subject when she looked into one of the books that she was given to pass time before the ritual. I'm sure that she will be ready for the OWL in Runes when the exams are taken. And Runes are much more useful than Divination. Honestly, why nobody told the students how few have the gift when it was time to choose electives I really don't get.
"As neither Jazzy nor Hermione are allowed to be around potions until two months after giving birth, that class is already delegated to self-study for the time being. Thankfully, Endymion is really good at it and will tutor both of them on the theory and the general things to keep in mind for brewing until they can return to classes to get the practical side in. The idea is that they study ahead on the potions that come up until OWL exams and once they are allowed, they will brew them one after the other. They will also change to half-classes in Care of Magical Creatures. Meaning Professor Hagrid will show them the creatures that are regularly covered in OWL exams, but they will do a more compressed curriculum to have the saved time for the babies," explained Barty.
Sirius leaned back in his chair, thinking about the idea. He had to say, it made sense to him. It might even work a lot better than classes, considering how Snape taught Potions from what he had heard.
"If I understand correctly, then Jazzy will have Charms, Defence, Transfiguration, Herbology and Potions two months after the babies are born as full subjects, Care as a personalised course with Hagrid outside of a normal timetable and Astronomy, History, Divination and Runes as self-study," summed Sirius up.
"Yes. Hermione wants to take some presence classes in Runes and Arithmancy though, to have the chance to do her best in them, as she needs them for her future plans. At least during the second term of the year," nodded Jazzy.
"With some work this could be manageable," agreed Sirius.
"The bad part is that we need to catch up on all the things that were covered during the two months we were kidnapped," sighed Jazzy.
"I'm sure you will manage. The most time-consuming part about this would be having to write the essays, but that isn't too important. With some compressed tutor lessons for the spells that were covered, you should be fine," assured Sirius, "And the teachers in the wanded classes will be able to give you lists which spells were covered."
"True. Though I doubt they would have the time to do the tutoring," pondered Jazzy, "I mean, they even cancelled Quidditch for the year because of the Tournament."
"Don't worry. I can arrange with Dumbledore that I take over any kind of tutor lessons you need. I have the time between my sessions with the healers. While I don't doubt that Barty would assist as well, if he wants to do well in his NEWTs in May, he needs to cram hard. It is better time management if I took over that part," pointed Sirius out.
Barty nodded at that, already making plans how he could use this situation. He would have to call his lord when he was alone to get his opinion on the matter. But from a tactical point of view, it would possibly be beneficial to keep Sirius occupied at Hogwarts, concentrated on keeping Jazzy protected. He might also be an additional party to notice how badly the school was managed and add to the reports of him and Endymion when the reforms of the educational system were presented. And he was right, he would manage the best possible presentation of his abilities if he could concentrate on his own studies. It had been a while since he took his NEWTs and refreshing things was important. He had to prove himself here, as he didn't have the base he had had before.
Right now, the people mainly pitied him for what his life had been like and having been used in a ritual against his will. To ever be taken seriously by the ones with power and influence, he needed to show that he was a powerful and skilled wizard. That left the question which subjects he should sit the NEWTs for. The three wanded subjects were obvious, as were Potions, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Six NEWTs weren't a bad number and he had sat the NEWTs for them last time. But since then he had added more knowledge to his repertoire. Mainly because to keep him busy, his father had given him books to read, even if he wasn't allowed a wand.
He could easily pass Herbology, History of Magic and Care of Magical Creatures as well. That would increase the number to nine, which was unusual for any student. It would help his plans. Having nine NEWTs, he would easily manage to secure an apprenticeship with one of the teachers, preferably Flitwick. The man was a double master in Charms and Duelling. It would be great to learn from him.
"I would be grateful if you assisted Jazzy while I'm busy, Sirius. You are right, if I want to have any chance at an apprenticeship from September on, I need excellent grades in my NEWTs," he voiced.
Sirius nodded and smiled.
They continued talking, with Sirius telling them some things about his journey after he escaped from Hogwarts and what he had managed to do to at least help his condition a bit. He had found out that being exposed to sunshine for at least two hours a day drastically improved his condition bit by bit. And a sunlight spell worked nearly as well as the real sun, which was a bit difficult to find in winter in Scotland anyway.