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Chapter 31
Harry was sitting in the headmistress's office well away from the door. Professor McGonagall had transfigured the furniture so that there was a very large, extremely sturdy table that took up the majority of the room. There was also a slight shimmer in the air that ran down the centre of the table. It was a rather strong shield charm that would stop anything short of an Unforgivable curse. That Professor Babbling had erected.
The point was clear, there was a physical and magical barrier that would separate Harry from Malfoy who was due to arrive any moment. Professor McGonagall sat at the head of the table where she could meditate and Professor Babbling stood a little behind Harry leaning on a bookcase with her wand in hand, ready to intervene if anything started. She was also holding on to both Harry's wand and his wand-summoning ring to make sure Harry didn't try anything. Though she had allowed him to keep his shield bracer and didn't know about his mother's wand tucked into it. Harry didn't expect to need either because Malfoy was going to be just as disarmed as Harry was supposed to be. But if Harry could sneak in an extra wand so could Malfoy and Harry wasn't going to risk his life on Professor Sinistra's ability to search Malfoy when Harry had just given Malfoy the world's best motivation to murder him.
And it would be murder. By winning the heirship of the house of Malfoy and then the previous warlock dying, making Harry the head of house, the blood feud between the two houses was over. Harry couldn't have a blood feud with himself. At least not legally and without having some strange mental breakdown.
There was a knock at the door and Professor Sinistra walked in without Malfoy. Harry wondered where Malfoy could be, for a second he wondered if Malfoy had decided to go after Hermione or their friends while he knew Harry was here but they were all together in the room of Requirement waiting for him. If Malfoy or any of his friends even found them and then tried to start a fight then Harry was confident in their ability to not only defend themselves but to win. Hermione particularly had gone against fully grown death eaters multiple times and won. An attack by the baby munchers that they saw coming would be fine.
Harry's fears however were misplaced because after looking around Sinistra asked Babbling if she had Harry's wand and when his head of house confirmed she did she asked to see Malfoy's wand. Once it was confirmed that in theory both teens were weaponless Sinistra called Malfoy in.
Malfroy stepped around the frame of the door and into view. Harry had expected a hot ball of indigent rage swearing bloody vengeance. After all, anger was one of the stages of grief. It was also probably the easiest one to fall on for such a hateful person like Malfoy. What Harry got was a boy who had just lost his father. His face was red from crying and his normal swagger was gone.
Harry actually had to remind himself that this was Malfoy the same twerp who had enjoyed taunting him about having dead parents, the same git who coined the term 'mogblood' for Hermione, the same vile shit stain who had crucio'ed Harry at the end of third year. It didn't matter how pathetic he looked now he was losing he would get no sympathy from Harry.
Professor McGonagall told Malfoy to sit in the chair opposite of Harry. Once he was sat down she started the meeting. "Well, all personal opinions aside, we are now in a difficult situation. The purpose of this meeting is to work out how we will go forward regarding schooling and the two of you living in such close proximity to each other."
"He murdered my father and you're going to let him stay here like a normal student?" Malfoy demanded, his default self-entitled personality breaking through his grief.
Professor McGonagall sighed. "In the most simple terms, yes. Mr Malfoy your father is reported to have died from a broken vow, a vow brought on by the results of a duel you called. A duel Mr Potter gave you multiple attempts to call off without incident. As long as the Aurors have no issues with Mr Potter's conduct his place in the school is secure."
Harry scoffed. "If one of us has to leave it wouldn't be me Malfoy. After all, I can afford to actually pay for my tuition next year. You on the other hand couldn't even afford to buy a quill right now."
"I have my trust fund." Malfoy sneered at Harry. "Nothing you can do about that."
Harry let out a sound from a TV game show for a wrong answer. "Wrong." Harry practically sang. "You see, your dear old dad didn't open an account in your name, he just gave you access to the Malfoy heir vault. So it was an account in the Malfoy ledger. I drained the lot. Actually I think that was the money I gave the Weasleys in compensation for what your father did." Harry hadn't meant to reveal that he had given the Weasleys gold, but the temptation to twist the knife was too high.
"You have no money, no place to call home. The only things you own are here with you in school. And while I bet you have a rather impressive bag of galleons in your trunk, I doubt it's enough to pay for your education next year."
"I'm still the Malfoy heir. There is nobody else who could take the role." Malfoy insisted.
"Nobody else yet." Harry corrected. "As soon as I have a kid of my own I can pass the heirship to them, and kill the name of bad faith."
There was a flash of rage on Malfoy's face but it was gone a second later. "Be that as it may you are my Warlock and I am your heir, at least for another year or so. You have a responsibility to provide for my education and well-being. You will need to cough up the gold I need."
Harry knew Malfoy was right. It had come up when Tracy joined the house of Potter. Technically as the only other member of House Potter, she was his heir if he died. Tracy knew she was only a placeholder due to a quirk of law. But if Malfoy wanted to play the game that way.
"You're right, I would have to pay for you. But I'm also considered your guardian now. That gives me so many options. For example, Professor McGonagall I feel my ward's current environment is not conducive to him learning to be a decent upstanding member of the community. He and his current friends all seem to share the same hatred for minority members of our community permitting him to be around them seems counterproductive to his social education. Would you please provide me with some options for transferring him to another school? Preferably one that lacks a tolerance for such behaviour."
"You can't do that!" The words exploded out of Malfoy's mouth, his grief replaced by rage.
"If you want to remain a Malfoy I very much can." Harry smirked at Malfoy. "What do you think professor?" Harry asked Professor McGonagall.
The professor hadn't known anything about this because Harry hadn't mentioned it to her so her mind was trying to catch up with the situation. After a few seconds though she realised that sending one of them to a different school was probably the best idea. However before she could answer Malfoy reacted in exactly the way Harry predicted. "I renounce my position as a member of the House of Malfoy due to irreconcilable differences between myself and the Warlock."
Harry had to fight to keep the smile off his face. If he had kicked out Malfoy then it would have earned the git some sympathy from people. 'Harry Potter taking his house then kicking him out' wouldn't have really cost Harry, not with it being on record that Malfoy had used an Unforgivable on him and Malfoy was the one who challenged Harry to the duel. It would be natural Harry wouldn't want him in his house.
But it wouldn't have really been seen as Malfoy's fault to the public. As much as he was a shit stain of a human, the public believed he was Imperiused the first time and it would be easy to spin a brash teen reacting badly to the death of his aunt for the duel. But by having Malfoy jump instead of being pushed, especially after Harry could honestly claim he offered Malfoy a fresh start away from everything, Malfoy would look like his own worst enemy.
"That's a pity. I was thinking of sending you to Beauxbatons. You know, where people could actually understand the warning label."
"Mr Potter if you could refrain from taunting this meeting would go a lot smoother." Professor McGonagall snapped at Harry. Which Harry had to admit was fair. The headmistress was trying desperately to keep the war outside of Hogwarts. It didn't matter her personal opinion on the war, though Harry suspected that were she not headmistress she would likely have joined Madam Longbottoms band of soldiers. Right now she had a responsibility to both students and to the rest of the school. It was her responsibility to stop a fight breaking out that could get innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.
"Are you sure this is the route you want to take?" Professor McGonagall asked Malfoy. "Going to another school would give you a fresh start. You wouldn't be under the stress you will be under here. And if I may be so bold you are not used to considering your budget in this way, paying for another year of education will be difficult for you. You may be seventeen but earning enough to pay off Hogwarts tuition before September will be incredibly difficult for someone who also has to buy food, clothes and find somewhere to stay especially when you don't have your N.E. yet."
"House Malfoy may have fallen but I still have allies. It won't take long for me to find a house to take me in. One were I will be able to legally take my family holdings back from this blood traitor half-blood." He may have been speaking to the headmistress but Draco's eyes never left Harry's, the sheer hatred in them promised that Harry would suffer if Malfoy had his way.
Harry just sat there and looked right back. "So that's your choice then? You challenge me to a duel thinking to come for me with deception and trickery. I win but in the course you get freed from the blood feud, offered a fresh start and you're going to throw it all away just to jump back into the feud. All so you can take another shot at me? Can't you just accept my offer and go away? I'm getting tired of always having to fight you bigoted fools." Harry rubbed his eyes when he mentioned being tired.
This was something Tracey and Daphne had tried to drill into him not to do. 'You don't show weakness to a Slytherin like Malfoy, he will use it to attack you.' but that was exactly what Harry wanted. Some may call it petty or a schoolyard rivalry gone too far. But as far as Harry was concerned Malfoy had used an Unforgivable curse on him and he wasn't going to let go until Malfoy had paid for everything he had done.
Seeing that there was no path to a peaceful coexistence between the two of them professor McGonagall switched tactics. "Fine if you are set on this course of action this is how we will deal with this going forward. The two of you are both on your final warning with each other. If either of you say more than 'excuse me' to each other to pass by you will be expelled. Let me get this straight. If you cast a spell, throw a punch, spread rumours, incite other students, try to provoke the other into breaking the rules, or even breath at each other wrong you will be expelled. This doesn't end at the castle gates eather. If you see each other in Hogsmeade the same rules apply. Until you graduate, one toe out of line and it will be over for you. Is that clear?"
"And what if he were to go after Hermione?" Harry jerked his head at Malfoy. "Am I supposed to just sit there twiddling my thumbs?" Harry demanded.
"Mr Potter that would be a rather provocative act would it not? And if there is any question as to who started an altercation then we will be using Veritaserum. Due to the risks we won't be using vows." The last sentence she directed at Harry.
Harry didn't like it, he preferred the vow because the person telling the truth had the freedom to not speak if they chose, something that wasn't possible under the potion.
"You can't force someone to take Veritaserum. It's illegal." Professor Sinistra said, challenging her boss.
"True, I can't force them to take it. I can however make their continued enrollment at the school dependent on them voluntarily taking it. I will not accept the school becoming a battleground for this bloody war. I am deciding now that the students' right to a safe, ish, learning environment is more important than these two keeping their secrets. That being said, as long as they don't give me a reason then it won't be used."
Harry shrugged. "As long as I can have someone I trust in the room to prevent the asking of questions outside of the issue, then I see no problem with it."
The headmistress agreed that was reasonable and with her peace said she ended the meeting with a warning. "Neither of you have any leeway or benefit of the doubt left. Your animosity amplified by the war puts everyone in this school in danger.
Malfoy left first along with professor Sinistra, despite the meeting being about the two students sharing the castle without incident going forward, headmistress McGonagall didn't want to tempt fate.
While they were sitting there waiting for enough time to have passed for Malfoy to be in his common room McGonagall sighed deflating a little and started setting her office back to normal. "Mr Potter I hope you understand why I have to remain neutral in everything that's going on in the school?" Her tone had shifted from the authoritative ons she had been using only a minute before.
Harry shifted a little. "I can't say I really understand the complexity of being the head, but I get you need to be the headmistress to all the students. And after you didn't stop me declaring a duel last year you couldn't be seen stopping one this year. Not without the whole mess ending up in front of the governors. Just how many of the governors do I have a blood feud with?" Harry asked at the end, curious.
"Three of seven." The headmistress sighed. "Worse, two of the others are problematic. One is chronically ill and cannot be relied upon to turn up for an important vote and the other, well to put it bluntly, sells his vote to the highest bidder."
Harry winced in sympathy. The people who could afford to spend the most on stuff like that were the people who benefited from the way things are the most and wanted to maintain the status quo. People like the Malfoys. Heck before the duel Malfoy as a former member of the governors was probably using the vote he could buy as a proxy vote.
Though that did pose an interesting question over who would be the highest bidder now. Harry now had Malfoy money to burn, maybe he could even buy a few of the votes.
Once the room was set back in order. The headmistress walked over to one of the large windows that made Harry believe that this tower was originally designed as a watch tower to survey the surrounding land for armies preparing to assault the castle. Now though it was just a very nice view of the surrounding landscape, at least when not hidden by mist and fog. As she looked out the window the professor said. "Mr Potter, Harry. In the last war I had to do things. Protect people. I did things that while I wouldn't hesitate to do again in those circumstances, I can't say I'm proud of them. If you ever need to talk with someone who understands what it's like to have killed people my door is always open to you. Also please pass on that offer to Miss Granger and any other members of your little self defence club who may need to talk."
Harry watched the professors back as she spoke and couldn't help but be reminded of back in third year. Not long after he had moved in with the Grangers, back when all he had to worry about was one escaped convict. When it had come time to hand in their permission slips to visit the local village Harry had had to tell the professor about the Dursleys. He had had to turn away from the professor, unable to stomach even the idea that the way she looked at him would change.
"Thank-you professor. I, I just might take you up on that."
After that Harry and Professor Babbling left the headmistress office. As they walked down the spiral staircase his head of house handed him back his wand and asked. "So Mr Potter where are you off next? I need to drop you off." Which was a nice way of saying she didn't want Harry wandering the corridors with Malfoy so emotionally charged.
"My friends are waiting for me in a room on the seventh floor, Professor. We were going to spend most of the day there." Harry told her.
Babbling just nodded. "Ah, the room Professor McGonagall told me about. That's actually a good idea." She stopped walking for a second and had a look that said she was thinking. "Actually you have friends from every house right?" She asked.
"Yeah?" Hand answered as a question curious where his head of house was going with this.
"How about you and your friends have a sleepover in that room tonight. Keep your two Slytherin friends out of their common room for a while. Give him a chance to cool off a little before he sees any of you and does something stupid. I will inform the other heads of house that I have given you permission."
She led him up to the Room of Requirement and followed him in. The room was set up for comfort. A large semi-circle sofa was built into a recessed floor with a cracking Fire in the centre. Hermione, Daphne, Tracy, Susan, Hannah, Ron, Neville, and Luna were all looking over at them expecting them as they walked through the door.
"Hey mate. How did the meeting with Malfoy go?" Ron was the first one to ask.
"Fine." Harry called back. "Well as fine as can be expected in the situation. I will tell you everything in a bit but before that Professor Babbling wants to say something."
The professor told them all about wanting them all to stay in the room until breakfast in the morning to give Malfoy a chance to cool down and minimise the risk of him doing something impulsive. It was left unsaid that the most likely to have something happen to were Daphne and Tracey in the Slytherin common room.
When Professor Babbling left Hermione pulled Harry onto the sofa next to her and leaned into his side. "So tell us what happened."
"Mostly it was a meeting. It went about as you would expect. Professor McGonagall warned us to stay away from each other. Basically if either of us does anything to or to provoke the other we will be expelled. I tried to move Malfoy to Beauxbatons. McGonagall was in favour, Malfoy wasn't. I tried to send him as the head of the House of Malfoy. So Malfoy officially declared he was leaving the house. So he is currently unhoused. He basically declared he would be joining one of the houses we are feuding with." Harry told them.
"So basically there is no change as far as Malfoy go's." Said Ron. "Malfoy is still untouchable as long as he is in school but he is still a slimy git looking for his first opportunity to kill us."
"Well I think he is more focused on me right now. He kinda blames me for killing his father and having his mother in my prison. Not that you shouldn't be careful, just that he is probably not plotting your agonising death right now." Harry kicked off his boots and swung his legs up onto the sofa with his head in Hermione's lap as she started to absently fiddle with his hair.
"Well he either isn't plotting right now or we have a much bigger issue on our hands." Tracey said waving a piece of parchment in the air that Harry took a second to recognise it as the marauders map. "Right now he is in Professor Snape's office with Professor Snape.
Harry groaned. Snape had been a lot better since Professor McGonagall had taken over as headmistress and stripped him of his head-of-house role. The theory among the students was that Professor McGonagall was looking for a reason to fire him, that was why Snape had been toeing the line as far as rules went. He was still an arsehole of a teacher but it was more like what you would expect of a normal arse of a teacher rather than the insane caricature he had been before. Harry would have thought Snape would have left himself after the first term of having to pretend to be a normal person. But the man had stayed. Probably as Dumbledore's spy. At least that was Harry's guess.
Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment and then like she did the one time Crookshanks had farted while in her lap. "That's concerning, Snape has a pattern of behaviour with us. I would have said it wouldn't escalate to outright murder before. Snape did save Harry's life in our first year, remember. But from what I heard he was pretty close with Lucius Malfoy, this may be enough to push him over the edge."
"I don't think Snape will do anything." Ron said. "He is still Dumbledore's man according to my mother. That means Dumbledore wants him here. If he did anything to a student McGonagall would kill him."
"That's Professor or Headmistress McGonagall, Ron." Hermione reminded him. To which Ron merely shrugged.
"Doesn't mean he won't point Malfoy at a way to get the job done." Said Daphne. "Snape is a real Slytherin. He would rather set someone else up to take the fall rather than do it himself. And if Malfoy is acting like a Gryffindor and actually telling you he is coming after you then he will make the perfect fall guy."
"Either way it all comes to the same thing right? Nobody is to go anywhere alone and we need to watch out for Malfoy and his friends." Susan piped up. "I wish Professor McGonagall would just kick out the overprivileged bigot. Surely challenging a fellow student to a duel is grounds for that?"
Harry snorted. "Because Professor McGonagall let me challenge Umbridge last year she can't stop Malfoy without the governors stepping in." Harry told her.
They continued to chat and just hang out for the rest of the evening. One of the school elves delivered dinner. And they all slept in sleeping bags in front of the fire.
-ϟϟϟ-
The next morning they all found their school uniforms hanging up and waiting for them and their bags packed and ready for their Monday lessons. There were even two changing areas and the girls one even had the same encouragement to keep the boys out as Harry discovered when in his half asleep state he tried to walk through the wrong door and was pushed out.
They all went down to breakfast together and the entire room went silent when they walked in before the silence was replaced by the buzz of everyone whispering. The enter group sat at the Gryffindor table with their backs to the wall all half expecting something to happen.
However the morning entertainment didn't come from angry blond Slytherins but from a flock of owls. Not since the Triwizard Tournament had Harry received so much mail. There were about fifty letters by the time the owls stopped dropping them.
After scanning them all for magic there were forty left and all of them started working together to open them. Apparently there had been a special issue of the Prophet yesterday telling everyone about the death of Malfoy because of the duel and naming Harry as the new Warlock of the Malfoy House. Which reminded Harry he needed to find a way to dissolve the name, he didn't want the title of bad faith attached to him for the rest of his life. About thirty of the letters were singing his praises for bringing down Malfoy. Apparently he had used his gold and connections to bully a lot of people out of their businesses.
The other ten letters were more specific. There was one from Mrs Weasley, one from Madam Longbottom, three were begging for relief for loans from the Malfoy vaults, two were asking Harry to invest in businesses and three were threats.
The letter from Mrs Weasley was both the easiest and the hardest. It amounted to 'thank you, you did the right thing, I still blame you for the death of my daughter, and you can't buy your way out of guilt.' It was emotional and splotchy with tears in a couple of places. But it at least seemed like Mrs Weasley was going to keep the money. Harry was still sure some of it would end up being donated to Dumbledore's group of ineffective idiots but at least Ron's last year at Hogwarts and some new books and robes should be covered.
The letter from Madam Longbottom came in two parts. The first was an official letter from the house of Longbottom thanking an ally. It was all formal and pledging of support going forward.
The interesting one though was the personal letter.
Mr Potter
This letter is about my personal thanks as opposed to the official thanks of house Longbottom in the other letter. I have to tell you I was starting to worry I had made a mistake. The feud was draining more resources than I thought it would. It was one of the reasons I pushed so hard to be involved in the capture of the death eaters. I knew more gold would come in time thanks to that agreement but I was still worried that I would face issues before that could bear fruit. Your generosity has had a tremendous impact lifting a weight off my old shoulders.
With my most sincere thanks.
Augusta Longbottom.
Harry was glad he had done the right thing by Madam Longbottom and the Longbottom family as a whole. Considering that Neville's mother was his godmother she and her husband must have been close with his parents and Harry really wanted to maintain that good relationship for their generation.
Now Harry just had to speak to the goblins again and find out the details of the loans and the people asking him to invest. After all, if the money just sat there in a vault it just made life harder for the whole country.