Harry sat on a couch in his grandfather's lounge watching his guests mingle after a long night of dancing and socializing. With the arrival of the Weasleys three days prior to Christmas a quiet and sad Petunia was more Or less ripped out of her shell my missus Weasley's flamboyant attitude and refusal to let the woman marinate in her own misery, which Harry was grateful for as He had no idea how to help his aunt who had withdrawn into herself over past week. Luckily for Harry however, aunt Petunia and missus Weasley bonded over home making and other housewife activities, how non magical cleaning products stack up to their magical counterparts, if using a spell to speed up the rise of bread dough actually affected its taste or texture. Or if a 6 o'clock dinner was better then an 8 o'clock supper for sending growing children to bed with a full belly. Dudley bonded with the Weasley twins very quickly as he was amazed at the magical sweets and candies they had taken to designing. And he in turn showed them little of what he had learned in the Smeltings academy boxing club, Harry didn't like the evil glint in the twins' eyes.
Harry found it very amusing when, after Christmas had come and gone and wizarding society began turning up to the manor for the yearly new years ball, Dudley met Daphne for the first time and the usually confident to a fault Dudley Dursley became embarrassed and flustered as soon as Harry's blonde friend spoke to him. It was rather amusing to watch Dudley try to dote upon the girl the day before the ball, even if it made Harry's stomach lurch in some weird and unrecognizable way whenever she laughed at one of his rather crass or awkward jokes or stories from his and Harry's childhood. Late one evening when Harry was going through his various letters, receipts, and statements Dudley found him.
"Hey Harry, what are you up to?" Dudley Spoke suddenly, startling the young lord as Harry was focused on a letter from his parseltongue mentor Mister Chemalli from Mexico.
Taking a deep breath to calm his suddenly racing heart and gently placing down his wand which he had grabbed on reflex Harry Spoke. " nothing much just answering my letters and going through some paperwork, it's a normally a full time job to manage a normal wizarding house, and the potters holding is about four times bigger than the average holdings and i have about one third the time to do it all because of school goblins extends their usual deadlines for me it's very thoughtful of them."
"Goblins?, like the errrr."
"Yea little, just like those, they run through wizard bank, in England anyway. I'll take you there some time if you want."
"I'll, errr, think about it, magic is still, err, uncomfortable.
Hey, So, tell me about that Daphne girl I met earlier." Dudley spoke in a very forced casual tone.
" Is that your angle then? " Harry snickered. " Well she's a very prim And proper young lady, what we refer to as a "pureblood princess" at seeing the defeated look on his cousin's face Harry laughed again. "Dont worry she's not a real princess it's what the wizarding world uses to refer to heiresses of the old "pureblood wizarding families."
"What's a "pureblood?"
"All magic families, no non-magical or people like my mum , who are called muggleborns, in the bloodline for at least five generations."
"Oh, does that, err, matter?"
"Not really? In a political sense yes and opportunities open easier for the purebloods becuase they're old families and Many of them write the laws of the land so they write laws that favor them, But magically, no I don't think it matters at all, my mum was muggleborn and she supposedly outclassed everyone, same thing with my friend Hermione, and a classmate Dean Thomas is also very good with magic, he does better than many "pureblood" students, of course that might just be because they're lazy, or that they take magic and their family wealth for granted, I don't know."
"She didn't seem like that, Very "down to earth, mum said."
"Yea, Daphne is great, but that is a very new attitude her father is more traditionalist than she is and by all accounts he seems like a liberal compared to his father, they didn't join the dark side in the last war, not publicly at least but Daphne would admit her grandfather believed the nutter who killed my mum had the right idea."
"But she doesn't think like that?" Dudley asked, his voice dripping with trepidation.
"No Daphne is very liberal she won't have a problem befriending you."
"Thanks couz!" Dudley clapped Harry on the shoulder and ran off while Harry frowned at the large inkblot that now decorated the letter he had been writing to mister Chemalli, sighing in frustration as he searched the small collection of miniature spellbooks for the ink syphoning charm
Another lurch happened when Daphne chose to dance with his cousin first during the ball though it was very amusing to watch Dudley attempt to ballroom dance and Daphne taking extra steps to avoid having Dudley step on her toes.
The pit of Harry's stomach was quickly forgotten however as he was dragged onto the dance floor by his best friend and danced the night away with Hermione and then Dora and then a slew of other females but mainly Hermione and Dora, whom he had not seen or talked to in quite some time as she was busy with the Auror academy.
"Your cousin is quite fun Harry, quite the turn around from how you described him in the past." Daphne said as she and Harry finally took a turn together across the dance floor.
"Being around Andromeda will do that to you, she's had him reading books on social manners and drilling lessons on proper Behavior into him for the past week. I think she's also working through her own frustrations on how I was raised even if she doesn't mean to. I can't tell you how many times I've heard some variation of "you're a direct relation to one of the most famous and powerful families in our realm and by Freya you'll act like it." over the past 2 weeks.
"I'm sure you're right, Andromeda is a formidable witch, how has your aunt taken to the manner?" And Harry shared about the first time he had found his aunt roaming around the manor by herself.
Harry had to use the manors wards in order to find his aunt after Dudley became worried not having seen her that day. When Harry entered the room she was in he found it to be a third floor sun room used in times past to most likely grow potion ingredients that needed more care than the outside greenhouses could afford to provide. Now the wooden planters stood empty and bare but ready as ever to bring life from seeds and dirt. His aunt stood at a window that overlooked the south facing portion of Harry's grounds and the village beyond the front gates.
"Aunt Petunia?" Harry said gently, still managing to make the woman jump.
"Yes?" She said as she turned to face him.
"Is there anything wrong? Dudley was worried about you. Had me come search for you."
"Oh.. I'm fine. Just…." And she looked around the room as if searching for a thing to say. " I was just doing some thinking and having a look around. I still haven't got a tour from you, you know? How can I navigate this place if the lord of the manor doesn't show me around? Like, this? What even is this room? I know you have large green houses on this property so why have this?" She pointed outside where Far in the distance you could see the large glass buildings whose windows were covered in fog from the warm humid air inside them.
"I don't know the purpose of every room in this music box of a manor." Harry groused eyebrows furrowed with the slight irritation that crept into his voice before sighing and calming himself down. "But if I were to guess this room was for growing plants that needed a lot more care and maintenance than most other ones. For example There's a plant called "Durin's grace" that's a key ingredient to some very potent potions. It can only grow in complete darkness and stillness. It's so fragile that one graze of a falling feather feather will make the plant fall apart. At least that's what I've read in some of Snape's advanced potion books." Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck. Aunt Petunia's face pinched slightly at the name Snape.
Over the next hour and a half he walked around his home and showed his aunt his family history. And told her what he knew of the building and why rooms like the miniature library on the fourth Floor or why his aunt most certainly could not enter the storage room hidden behind a staircase that hid a collection of old magazines.
"She actually took up residence in a bedroom down the hall from that sunroom she found and is growing a bunch of magical varieties of flowers, apparently she always wanted to be a florist. She helped Andromeda organize the flower arrangements for the evening." He said gesturing to a table arrangement As the spun together.
"She has a knack for it. I think the arrangements are quite beautiful." Daphne said smiling curtsying as the song and their dance ended.
Harry sat alone watching his guests mingle. It was now 1:30, the new years came and the party had been rounding down slowly. Remus Lupin and Sirius Black suddenly appeared. While men had rosy cheeks, sirius' where much more prominent showing that his godfather was a bit more deep in his cups than his shabby uncle.
"Hello Harry," said a smiling Lupin. "I couldn't help but overhear a couple of crotchety old warlocks complaining about your overt show of wealth at dinner and I realized that they were quite correct, you did not have the traditional Silver utensils out that were marked with the potter crest, out of curiosity would you care to share why?"
Harry sucked in a breath. "Uhh yea, the silverware had an odd reaction to a new polish the elves tried and there wasn't enough time to untarnish them and repolish them with a different polish before the ball so we just pulled those out of deep storage. Apparently that set is about 4 hundred years old and made of iron dipped in gold. So not quite an overt show of wealth even if they are a bit pricey still."
"Ahh see sirius, i told you Harry wouldn't spend thousands of galleons on new silverware."
"Well, it was a legitimate concern, it's something my mother did more than once and she only bought goblin silver."
"A fine point padfoot, a fine point."
The three sat in silence for a minute as they watched and listened to the guests in the lounge talk and laugh in indistinguishable murmurs, until Sirius broke the silence in an emotion filled whisper.
"I never thought I'd be back here, not after charlus, or James….. not after that night. I didn't know how good it would feel being back at one of these stuffed shirt parties. But-" Sirius took a deep breath and looked at Harry. "but it feels good, great, really, I'm thankful you decided to carry this tradition on, Harry. It's a great way to memorialize your family. It's a great prank too, your dad hated these parties with a fervor he normally reserved for Snivilous."
"Who?"
"Snape, Harry, that is a very immature name your dad and Sirius concocted for Snape." Lupin interjected.
"Oh! I never put that together, I knew Snape didn't like my dad but for some reason I didn't connect that you all went to school together."
"Oh my, yes, you see we were all actually in the same year at hogwarts, we marauders in Gryffindor and he in slytherin, and I'm sorry to say we, uhh, didn't like each other very much, your father was the height of cool in the school, and Snape was, well, to be frank, not, he always seemed angry at your father for something or another, jealous, I think of your father's talent on the quidditch field."
"It certainly didn't help that James and I were two of the only people in the school that could wring a smile of Lilly other than him, they were friends you see, knew each other growing upnor something like that, and once she started hanging around us? Well, everything that was already between us, dialed up to eleven."
"But, why if they were friends wouldn't that bring you all closer?" Asked Harry.
"Aren't you doing extra potions with him? You should ask him about our fourth year sometime. I know that you know that Snape and I don't get along, but if you want context as to why, well, it's not really my story to tell."
Around that time Hermione bustled up to him and demanded one more dance before the dance floor closed out and he was whisked away By the iron grip of his best friend.
After a long night of dancing and partying and avoiding talking to his "peers" i.e. dodgery old men that sat on the wizengamot and seemed to enjoy talking about nothing other than departmental budgeting, and a further few days of Harry spending his time working on his holiday work, potion making - The elves liked having fresh cleaning potions and asked Harry to make them from Charlus' Recipe rather than buying the store bought variety. And spending Time relearning how to be with his blood relatives in a non threatening relationship; it was time to return to school. Instead of apparating which every non magical with them hated they piled into a stretch limo that Andromeda had purchased with the help of the Grangers. She had used Harry's privileges as a lord to get the limo enchanted legally.
"It's enchanted the same way that the Ministry's cars are plus a magically expanded "boot" as Ted and Dan say the area is called." Explained Andromeda. Harry climbed in after helping the girls inside and sat in between Hermione and Daphne after they pulled him down between them. Dudley sat to the right of Daphne and next to his mother, who was in deep conversation with Cyrus Greengrass about her possibly doing floral arrangements for the spring garden party. Hermione's Parents were talking to Andy and Ted while the latter drove the car.
Their first stop of the day was reached remarkably fast as within an hour of them leaving Blackstone manor in Wales they were pulling up to the front gates of Smeltings academy in the southwest of England. Dudley got a round of farewells from everyone, even Andromeda stopped him before he disembarked.
"Now Dudley, I know your father never put much stock in your education. But as the Potter steward I must warn you if we receive anything below a B from you this term, not only your mother but I will show up and discuss what is bringing your grades down. And you must stick to the diet we discussed over Christmas, a cake or sweets every now and then won't hurt but if you want to meet your goals, then you need to be properly dedicated."
"Yes ma'am." Dudley said in his newly acquired bashful voice.
"Good bye Dudley it was very nice getting to meet the new you. Keep it up." Smilled daphne. This got a blush and a nod from Dudley.
"Mind your friends Popkin, that Piers is bad news I think." Said aunt Petunia as she wrapped Dudley in her arms.
As the boy left the limo they seemed to have popped away, very suddenly they were at the end of the block having just gone through a changing traffic light. Andromeda seemed to be very emotional with his cousin's departure and Harry deeply wanted to ask why but something in him kept him quiet. Dan's hand on his shoulder was a quiet sign that he made the right choice in his silence. It was a very short ride after that, that they pulled up to Kingscross, Harry, having listened to Daniel Granger espouse the glories of the new dental drills they had acquired was nearly asleep and was startled back to reality as his two friends pulled him from the car and pulled him to the platform arms looped through his as they walked
For the first time ever, Petunia Evans wished and even hugged Harry farewell, promising to tell him more about his mother's childhood upon his return to Blackstone, Something she had been far too emotional to do over the holiday. And the adults soon left. It was still nearly two hours before the train had to leave but Harry didn't mind, the adults were heading to the ministry and he was very sure it would be a memorable morning for everyone involved.
The train ride back from the winter holidays was always just as packed and rowdy as the start of the year. Many of their classmates stopped by and as the journey was half way done it seemed that Malfoy could no longer resist his seemingly obligatory visit to Harry's Harry and his friends.
The door to their compartment was flung open with enough force to break the glass, which fell tinkling to the ground. "Potter! How dare you spurn my family!"
Harry, rolling his eyes, chose to point his wand at the door and cast "reparro" , fixing the glass back into its place before answering. "And, just how, Draco, did I spurn your family? I can't recall any business we've had since your father broke our contract."
"You didn't invite us to the new years ball. We are pure bloods of the sacred twenty eight and we deserve to not be insulted in such a petty manner!"
"Well my family is no longer pure blood and we've never been in the sacred twenty eight so I don't really see how that pertains to my family's traditions in the slightest." Harry said calmly, not even looking at the spoiled wannabe princeling standing in the doorway flanked as he always was by Krabbe and Goyle.
"Hey Krabbe, had a good holiday?"
Krabbe, whose family was at the new year's ball looked awkward and said. "It was fine." While looking at Draco who was obviously seething.
"four families rescinded their contracts after that night!" Draco said through clinched teeth.
"Well that's not my fault is it? So people saw that your old beaten and abused elf dobby was looking happy and healthy serving the bar at my party. I didn't tell them anything other than "Dobby works for me now." After several of your father's associates recognized him."
"It's all your fault you over bloated half blood! Your Stepping too far out of your place Potter and-"
"Yea, yea" Harry said, interrupting Malfoy with a wave. "The usual threats of death, dismemberment, terror and horror like I've never known." And not thinking Harry gestured with his hand and Malfoy seemed to trip backwards and the door shut locking itself while Harry stepped up to draw down the blind on the window. The door rattled as the three snakes began hitting it trying to open the door but stopped and ran off suddenly. Harry opened the door after a swift series of knocks revealing the head boy and girl Percy Weasley and Penelope Clearwater. Not that Harry was paying much attention, he was staring at his hand confused at what he had just done, but his attention was stolen away from his apparent Wandless magic as Hermione called out.
"Percy! I thought you would have been at the castle with the rest of your family already?"
"I would be but I am the head boy, you know and leaving Penelope alone to sort all this mess out would hardly be fair would it?" Percy said in an overly officious, pompous tone. "Now what was all that about?" He said cooking a thumb down the train.
"Oh. That was just Malfoy flashing his bravado again." said Daphne" I'll have the slytherin prefects sort him out don't worry.
"Oh! No, Daphne, we'll speak to them, it is our job after all. It's nice to see you again. You looked lovely at Harry's new years bash." said Penelope.
"You looked quite lovely yourself, you brought a certain amount of class that the Weasley clan can never seem to manage on its own." Daphne said, throwing a smirk and a wink to Percy who harumphed in response crossing his arms and smirking At the good natured joke.
"Stay out of trouble won't you?" Said Percy before nodding and pulling his counterpart away.
When they finally arrived back at Hogwarts and found Ron at the Gryffindor table regaling Seamus, Lavender Brown and a host of other third year students who had not made, or warranted an invitation to the Potter new years Ball. He was telling a story from late that evening where Ron managed to beat one of Harry's guests, A mister Reznov Prekovovich, who was an international grandmaster of the wizards chess game. In reality the man had been too drunk to stand but Harry wasn't going to rain on Ron's parade like that.
"Have you told them the part where Tracy Davis and the twins jinxed your shoes to do the two step Ron?" Harry said more loudly than necessary while sitting down. Ron stuttered causing the group to all laugh.
"No, I haven't gotten to that part yet." Ron said with venom in his voice. "Want to tell your story of making doe eyes at Greengrass while she was dancing with your cousin!" Harry knew Ron was trying to embarrass him but Harry knew how to diffuse those situations very quickly.
"No I hadn't yet and yea I did what of it? She's pretty? Right Hermione?"
"Well. Black silk and onyx rhinestones aren't my taste exactly, but it was rather well put together on her I must say." She responded while elbowing Harry in the ribs and narrowing her eyes at Ron. "Ron, that response was very unwarranted. Harry was just poking a bit of fun at you and you had the right to point out who he was paying attention to that night trying to embarrass him. It would be much more appropriate to tell them how Sirius turned Harry's hair blonde and his robes pink during his speech." Harry nearly spat his drink out.
"Yeah, Ron, that's not cool, especially since, the way I hear it, Hermione was the one dancing with him the most, right, Hermione? That's what that ravenclaw girl Marrietta said." Lavender Brown said in a conspiratorial whisper. Harry and Hermione met eyes and blushed.
Thirty minutes later owls flooded into the great hall with an edition of "the evening prophet" something must have happened and Harry thought he had a clue as to what. Hermione picked up the closet copy and began to read aloud.
"Charges filled!
You read that right folks, we here at the daily prophet can confirm through eyewitness testimony that charges of over 1,800 counts of child endangerment, 1,800 counts of child abuse,1,800 neglect, 1,800 willfull endangerment of minors, 14 counts of attempted murder, 5 counts of attempted line theft, and hundreds of counts of public endangerment have been brought against the minister of magic and the ministry It's self by a group of concerned citizens being lead by Amilia Bones and Andromeda tonks the steward of house Potter. Allegations of receiving bribes and political corruption have also been made against the minister.
We here at the daily prophet are shocked and appalled that such actions have been brought to light especially considering the international spotlight our Country is currently under due to the incoming quidditch world cup and a further "secret international event" purported by the ministry to be coming later this year. How many more embarrassing situations is our minister going to put his country through before he is brought to heel by the wizengamot.
For full details of Fudges floundering policies while in office see page four." Hermione stopped reading and rifled to page four and continued reading.
"Your aunt does not mess about, does she, Harry?" Said Ron scanning the list of charges from another copy of the newspaper he acquired. "But wait. That's way too many charges if they're for the students in Hogwarts there are only about 600 of us I think?"
"Maybe they're being charged for each event? 600 times three events is 1800 after all." Hermione said in a distracted tone, still reading. "Ahh! I knew it, Harry, you remember that horrid law someone tried to pass at the start of the year? To be able to slaughter magical species like werewolves and centaurs with impunity, that was Fudge's own under secretary who drafted that bill. It says here look.
"Our minister angered the werewolf friendly countries of Switzerland,Finland, Norway, and Sweden, several months ago when his own under secretary tried to sneak in a bill in an emergency session of the wizengamot that the minister sponsored, that would allow the rampant slaughter of sentient magical species regardless of if the victim species was dangerous, criminal, or threat in any way."
How foul that woman must be, absolutely sickening." Said Hermione in a huff. A few minutes later Daphne walked up and joined them, dragging her sister along for once and they all discussed their own families' policies towards dealing with human sub-species, as Hermione called them. From Neville detailing his grandmother's rather old time view of keeping them at a distance to Daphne explaining her father was nowhere near as obstinate on the subject as her grandfather had been and opened relations to trade with the dwarves in Poland and the elvish colonies for their wine. Harry didn't know how his family treated sub or part humans in the past and made a note to ask Sirius and Toppy about the subject.
The cold winter months gave way faster than anyone realized. January slid to February which melted into March. The time passed with lessons and friends and work. Harry was one of five students who remained in Snape's advanced course working on potions that are fourth year level and need actual skill to brew according to Snape, which meant Harry was probably brewing sixth year potions at the minimum. His usual potions class which the head mistress refused to allow the advanced students out of during this "trial period" was spent mastering advanced ingredient preparation techniques.
Charms class went on a full spring cleaning unit of lessons and Flitwick had the students going around the school cleaning it spotless to practice Turgeo, Scourgify, Lavaré a spell that makes dirty dishes clean themselves. Evanesco, and a few others were mastered in the months post Christmas, cleaning had never been more fun. Especially when Flitwick made cleaning a centuries old abandoned potions lab on the third floor a contest with fifty points going to the person that cleaned the most, which was Hermione in the end.
In Transfiguration they were mastering cross species switches starting from rats to guinea-pigs, guinea-pigs to guinea fowl, guinea fowl to flamingos. Harry still couldn't decide what purpose any of this served but it was very fun at least and Harry and Hermione always managed the spell days before anyone else.
In defense against the dark arts Lupin and Sirius talked their class through almost every magical beast and plant in the British Isles. And something else occurred to Harry after one such lesson.
" Harry, I was hoping I could have a word." He called to Harry as he was leaving the room.
Ok well two things actually. the first I was hoping you could ask Smara if she would consent stand in on my seventh year class?" Harry was about to agree when a voice echoed in his head. "I'll do it little one. It would be nice to be admired so openly."
"She'll do it."
"Most excellent, the other thing was, well me and Sirius were talking and discussing your problem with the dementors and seeing how powerful and advanced you are, and that the ministry is dragging their knuckles with the courts, I'd like to offer you lessons in casting the Patronus charm, after all just because they stayed away from the ravenclaw match doesn't mean they'll be so courteous of the slytherin match up. This is a highly advanced spell Harry some consider it above NEWT level so, what do you say?"
"I say that would be brilliant, can I invite Hermione and Ron?"
"Of course! The more the merrier! And that might very well help things along." Thus that next weekend Harry found himself standing between Hermione and Daphne. Ron had baulked at the thought of so much extra work to master a spell he didn't see himself needing since "Well they're going to be gone soon anyway right? The court dates were finally called" so he had invited Daphne instead.
The three students stood in Lupin's office and were listening intently to his instructions.
"Now remember you have to have a supremely happy memory focused; crystal clear in your mind, you can use the same visualization techniques you use in Transfiguration to achieve this result but it does take extra focus to recall a memory instead of a still image of an example, I can, to this day remember the face of Saphora Abbot, when we marauders jinxed the group of slytherin girls that had been bullying her into looking like the muggle archetype of a mummy and had them singing and dancing to the song "the monster mash." and he cast a glowing wolf patronus. "Now we won't really know if you're sufficiently happy until you try to cast the spell so take a minute to think of the happiest memory you have and visualize it and keep the feeling of the latter memory in your heart, let your magic build around it, flow through and then cast your patronus." It took the three teens nearly ten minutes before one of them was ready to try and to no one's surprise it was Hermione who raised her wand and cast "expecto potronum" despite nothing happening. Everyone could see the drain it had on her energy. Daphne attempted The spell next and then Harry tried, it repeated this way for nearly 30 minutes with Lupins and Sirius constant support at their failures until with a spectral whooshing whistle a spray of silver mist came out of Harry's wand. That tiny jet of silver took Harry to his knees with the unexpected surge of magic it took from him.
"Harry!" A twin shout of concern came as both girls rushed to help him up.
"I'm fine, thanks, I got something that time but Your right Lupin, that is exhausting."
"I don't want to push you three too far. This was excellent progress today. miss Granger miss Greengrass dont get discouraged at Harrys progress those who have troubled upbringings can more readily call forth happy memories
I think we should meet two or three times a week after classes. Are any of you joining the dueling club again this year? Chambers will be restarting it, come spring time." All three nodded. "Yea, I had a blast last year. I wondered why they didn't have it again." Said Harry.
"Well, ask next time Potter?" Daphne began teasingly. "For your information, the normal season for the dueling circuit starts in April and goes until June. They most likely did what they did last year to provide a constant distraction from all the trouble."
Harry nodded at that explanation. "But we're still too young to join the normal tournaments right?"
"Correct, like last year we'll have our own practice bouts and classes."
By the first day of spring nothing had been seen nor heard of Peter Pettigrew. To many Hogwarts students it seemed he had been scared off after he last tried to assault Harry, not that Harry, nor his friends, nor his would-be uncles actually believed that. Harry was getting twitchy, every squeak or scratch was the deranged animagus even Smara's constant presence had only brought Harry so much comfort.
Classes were continuing and Harry had to comfort Ron as he was put into the same classification As Krabbe and Goyle by Professor Chambers after the Professor had them turn in the work they had in the project so far and Ron was one of 5 students who turned in less than a foot of writing. Not that Harry or Hermione put much effort into comforting Ron; they had really long given up on getting Ron to take his education seriously. Chambers had given him an extra week and so Tracy, Hermione and Harry had offered to assist him in writing his essay, with many tuts in Hermione's case.
The first day of spring also brought minister Fudge before the wizengamot for the first session of the year. No student was called to testify and according to that evening's addition of the evening prophet, the case was so cut and dry Elfius Doge, the man that succeeded Dumbledore as chief warlock, ended Madame Bone's testimony early. In the end fudge had been ordered to pay 300 Galleons to each student and 500 more to the ones like Harry who had been hospitalized and then fined 15,000 Galleons for wasting the wizengamot's time. The wizengamot ordered the ministry to retract all but ten dementors from the school grounds by that night. by the time the first rays of the morning the sky, the atmosphere of the school had a lightness and levity that Harry had not experienced since his first year before he came into contact with Hagrid pet dragon
Harry had spent the past month training his snakes sense he could now hold it for more than a minute without getting a headache and Harry had learned that there were rats everywhere in Hogwarts. No rat popped out at him as odd in their Behavior and the sheer number of them had him contemplating hiring a muggle exterminator. His anti dementor lessons continued as well despite their absence. Hermione and Daphne Could now conjure a full shield patronus while Harry had finally conjured a full caporial patronus.
"Expecto patronum!" Harry called after sorting through his memories and settling on Harry's first meeting with Hermione during the summer before his emancipation. She had jumped at his and very nearly cracked his freshly healed ribs with the ferocity of her hug. After the summer he had the sheer relief of having Hermione at his side again was a feeling he still Couldn't quite describe. With the explosion of magic that cake with those magic words came instead of a silver wall. A silver mist came instead and slowly coalesced into a mammal formed into a deer thin And slender ,a doe that looked at Harry and then swiveled, its head to Sirius and Lupin bowing its head at the men as the form melted away. The sight brought the two men to tears as they fell to they're knees. From the mist released from the deer another shape formed. Large and powerful, sleek and strong, agile and graceful, a snow white jaguar roared a silent roar.
Harry was transfixed, he held his hand out as if to touch this king of the jungle, the large cat sniffed his hand yet before they made contact it melted into thin air. And Harry fell to his knees exhausted. Summoning his patronus had cost him more energy than any spell had ever before. At her joy of seeing Harry succeed, Hermione nearly summoned her patronus guardian as well which formed an ethereal vaguely animal-like shape with four strong legs but the rest was still obscured.
That night at dinner, Hadgrid came to see them at the Gryffindor table. "Harry, Hermione, Ron." He greeted each other with a smile. "I wanted to thank ye Harry for sendin your uncle Ted mine and beakies way he's been a great help. There's going to be a hearin with the committee for the disposal of dangerous magical creatures, this Saturday and I was wondering if Ron and a few others wouldn't consent to coming down and speaking some testimonies on what actually happened in my class tha' day, some of the dung that Malfoy is saying and the committee folk is saying it's his word over mine so Ted said to get more words, figure that means get you lot to say what really 'appened." within five minutes The entirety of the third year gryffindors signed on to be eye, or character witnesses.
Saturday rolled around faster than ever with such an important thing to look forward to. Harry and his Friends sat in the great hall eating breakfast amd waiting for the ministry people to come to the school to start the hearing of Buckbeak the hippogriff. When they arrived Harry was amazed to see not just a member From the department of the regulation and control of magical creatures but the minister himself along with Lucius Malfoy and an Unidentifiable man dressed in a large hooded robe and carrying a grotesque axe, the ministry sanctioned executioner whom Hagrid identified as Alistair Mcnair. They swept through the hall and met with the headmistress and Hagrid at the high table. Next to appear was Harry's uncle Ted and a man and woman who could only be a reporting team from the daily prophet. When he saw his uncle speak to the reporters, Harry approached the conversation they struck up with the ministry team.
"Uncle! It is lovely to see you, who have you brought?"
"Harry!" Ted said dramatically, clapping a hand on Harry's shoulder fondly, a flash of light gave the photographer away. "This is daily prophet "special" reporter Reeta Skeeter and her photographer Clint, I owed her a story and I couldn't think of a better one than the first ever case of a hippogriff being called "unstablely violent"." The lawyer said with a bright friendly smile. "Reeta I'd like to introduce you officially to my nephew Harry Potter."
As the two shook hands she seemed to be drinking in Harry's appearance "a pleasure lord Potter a true pleasure. Perhaps we could get together for an interview?" She spoke in a high pitched, annoying, reedy voice that immediately grated on Harry's nerves.
"Err yea, maybe in the summer time." Harry cringed at how awkwardly he spoke, but this small exchange seemed to appease the woman. And she moved on to who Harry thought was her real target. "Minister! You are not at all who I expected to run into here, care to share what the minister of magic is doing at a simple disciplinary hearing for one of our nation's premiere magical beasts."
"Er, yes, well I was coming up to hogsmeade to get an update on the pettigrew situation and I overheard we needed a witness to the, Er, execution of a rampaging hippogriff. Harry! My boy, so glad to see you, I must apologize for the nasty business with the dementors, but we had to be seen to be doing something."
"Being seen doing the wrong thing can be just as harmful as doing nothing, minister." Harry said before bowing and excusing himself from the conversation to continue with his breakfast and to avoid getting into a public argument with the leader of their nation. A few hours later a large crowd was gathered around Hagrid's hut to watch the proceedings. A crowd that Malfoy tried in vain to disperse only to be blocked by the head mistress.
"This is a school mister Malfoy, there are students everywhere and if I understand it many of these students are witnesses to the events that are about to be discussed."
That trial that followed was so one sided that any other Verdict than innocent would have sparked outrage and even more calls of political corruption. It began with Malfoy bringing in an independent healer who had arrived closer to the start of the hearing, who detailed Draco's injuries and why they "resisted healing".
After that Ted had the representative for the ministry read the hippogriff Section in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". Focusing on the part that says if you insult them they will attack you and then Ted called Ron and every other eye witness who all detailed Draco insulting said hippogriff that Ron had already proven wasn't a danger by riding it earlier in that same class. When Malfoy tried to say that all the witnesses were griffindors and thus biased against his son, Ted called Tracey as an eyewitness and Daphne as the first Character of the character witnesses. After her, Harry and several others from all the other houses described Draco one by one as a foul mouthed pretentious bully who thought because his family was rich and was friends with high up people in the ministry, that he could do or say anything he wanted and acted as such.
Harry suspected that with nothing he could do for his "donor" Fudge would not even try to argue Malfoy's side. And he didn't. It took a lot longer than necessary In Harry's opinion but by two o'clock Buckbeak was as free as a bird in the wind. Harry stayed back with his friends and Ted to celebrate with Hagrid and "Beaky". When Hagrid caught Harry checking out the winged creature he was treated to the lesson on hippogriffs that The Care of Magical Creatures class enjoyed all those months ago.
"Beautiful creatures hippogriffs. Smart as a whip too. The first thing you need to know about hippogriffs Harry is that they are proud animals. You can compliment them every way till Sunday but the moment you insult 'em you'll want to run cause as Malfoy found out, them talons hurt. Go up to im' an' bow to 'im Harry and if he bows back he'll let you touch him." And Harry did and a few minutes later he was petting the feathered horse-eagle. And a few minutes after that he was riding the creature on the wind where he got a wicked idea. Doing his best to guide and communicate what he wanted the bird horse hybrid swept from the sky and Harry scooped a screeching Hermione up mid dive and deposited her behind him on buckbeaks hindquarters as the bird released a jubilant screech like an eagle.
"Take me back down to the ground this instant Harry James Potter!" Hermione screamed followed by a solid minute of very un Hermione-ish obscenities that would make the Weasley twins blush until, Harry, his voice calm and lilting said while Hermione was crushing her face to Harry's back so hard he could barely breath
"Hermione do you trust me?"
"Of course I do!" came the reassuringly instant though muffled response.
"Then let go of me and look around. I promise I won't let you fall." and when , after another minute, he felt the pressure release his lungs he heard her release a sharp gasp. Which Harry felt was an appropriate response. For stretched out hundred if not thousands of feet underneath them was the entire expanse of the school grounds and the magical county of Hogsreach itself. The castle with its many towers and turrets stretching to the sky, the village of Hogsmeade and little farther out. The forbidden forest stretched out into the distance and beyond that, the almost unknown plains and wilderness of Hogsreach magical county. Harry knew from reading Hogwarts a history that these lands were once heavily populated with magical communities; the names of those other villages were no longer listed in his copy of hogwarts a history but in the distance he could see the remains of three villages and a handful of smaller castle ruins and towers. Harry knew these lands now all belong to the British magical creatures centaurs, trolls, and of course the goblins. In fact he knew that two of those old human villages had been destroyed in the last goblin uprising in the 1890s.
With the beauty of Hogsreach county stretched out below them it seemed that Hermione had forgotten her fear of heights.
"Oh Harry, this is a beautiful sight. Look! You can see the three old wizarding villages, Upper Flagley, Feldcroft, and Hogsfield." she pointed to each one respectively. " We just might be the first humans to see them since the ministry abandoned the area in the 1920s." Harry shrugged. "Something tells me my father and his mates might have us beat there."
"True," She giggled. "They were a bunch of trouble makers." They sat in silence and soaked in the sights a minute more. With her final request to return to the ground they did. Without her screaming the entire way this time. As Hermione Lupin and Sirius walked back to the school the rest of their group had left long ago for dinner and home in Ted's case. Sirius had just told them a story of pranking Snape to squeak with each step after putting industrial strength grease fighting gel in his hair, thus making him "squeaky clean" when Harry heard it "reducto!" A somewhat distant yell sounded and a red bolt of light hit the ground between all of them, and almost in-between Harry's feet sending everyone flying and injuring them all when Harry was lifted from the ground he felt an extra sharp tug on his right side that sent Him spinning like a top through the air. When he landed he couldn't make out what was happening he was fuzzy and concussed and the only thing he could make out was the sensation of being dragged and then nothing.