Sirius didn't miss the furious look on Wenlock's face as the wizard immediately left the Wizengamot as soon as the doors opened. Sirius stayed in his seat. There would be a three ring circus in the atrium as Cornelius had lined up a press conference to announce the new Muggle Affairs Department with Arthur, and Sirius was quite content to miss it. He'd even convinced Cornelius that his presence there would be distracting, coaxing the Minister into acceptance by pointing out the publicity should belong to him and Arthur.
Richard Bones leaned over from his chair, closing the distance between them. "Wenlock is going to be a problem."
"He is." Sirius agreed, casually erecting a privacy bubble. "What do you know of him?"
"Wenlock's kept himself pretty isolated." Richard commented. "His father went abroad in the early Seventies. Simon was educated in Durmstrang and did a Mastery in Potions. When his father died in 'eighty-five, Simon returned with his family to England. He has two sons and a daughter – all at Durmstrang. Politically, he has aid and support alliances with the Ancient and Noble Houses of Adams, Flint, Nott, Selwyn, Wilkes and Gibbon – but that's all."
Sirius turned that over in his head. All of the Houses named were known pureblood alliance supporters. All of them had alliances with Malfoy although Adams and Flint weren't part of Malfoy's inner circle. If Wenlock decided to build an opposition…
"He has nothing with the Minor Houses?" He checked.
"Nothing." Richard confirmed. "Up until now he's always acted like they're beneath him. He doesn't socialise with them; doesn't court them." He paused. "His agenda is very…" he sighed, "he hates anything that isn't a pureblood wizard with a title who thinks the same as him. It's not just the Minor Houses that he hasn't courted, he's ignored the neutral Ancient and Noble Houses too."
"So if he wants to build an opposition, he has a lot of work to do." Sirius thought out loud with satisfaction. He could get Malfoy doing some pre-emptive negotiations with the Minor Houses that followed the pureblood alliance and he'd talk with the neutral bloc; they wanted the Minor neutral houses in the alliance anyway.
"Do you really think he'll attempt to build an opposition?" Richard asked seriously.
"Grandfather used to say that nature abhors a vacuum; she fills it immediately with whatever rubbish she can find." Sirius said dryly. "The fact is that we've disturbed the natural order here in the Wizengamot. Wenlock was probably content to sit on the side-lines while Lucius held a strong position with the rest of the pureblood Houses but now…"
"I see what you mean." Richard sighed.
"Even if he does set up an opposition, we should be able to ensure it remains a minority." Sirius commented. "Something for us to discuss at the next alliance meeting."
Richard fidgeted, hesitated, and finally committed himself to asking whatever was on his mind. "Something else for us to discuss is whatever is going on with the family magic."
He thanked Merlin he'd had plenty of practice at keeping a straight face during all his years of pranking.
"Oh?"
"The griffin and the snake showing up in the Potter seat as though they're substituting for Harry? All of our family magic responding to the call of the House of Potter?" Richard said dryly. "Need I go on?"
Sirius shook his head; his heart was pounding in fear that they knew, that everyone knew about Harry's affinity with family magic.
"I realise there are secrets," Richard said hesitantly, "but the Ancient and Noble Houses of the alliance deserve an explanation for why our family magic is suddenly responding to someone else." He gestured and looked away to watch the crowds slipping out of the doors. "I thought it was me you know the last time. The magic took a long time to accept me when I did the ritual; I thought it might be because I was never supposed to sit in this chair; never thought it would be me. Merlin knows Edgar was twice as powerful as I am and Amelia could best him in a duel easily. It wasn't until I spoke with Leonard and Augusta that I realised they'd felt the same; like Harry had more of a right to the magic than any of us; that it wants Harry more than any of us." He turned and his honest brown gaze met Sirius's guarded grey eyes. "We're allies, Sirius. Trust us."
Sirius nodded slowly; his heartbeat slowing as Richard's sincerity sank into him. Richard was right. They needed to trust their allies otherwise they wouldn't be allies for very long. "We'll arrange something."
Richard nodded. "It's probably safe to make a move now."
He was right; there were very few left in the chamber, the press conference was probably over, and Sirius would be able sneak out around the crowds flowing through the atrium.
They stood and Sirius dispelled the privacy bubble with a thoughtless show of the small amount of wandless magic he could do.
"By the way, Susan wrote to us about the duel Harry won against Amelia!" Richard said cheerfully.
"Amelia underestimated Harry." Sirius said with a smile as he remembered the duel. "She won't make the same mistake again but he'll be ready for it."
"He could easily be a duelling champion," Richard commented as they made their way out of the chamber, "is he planning to enter any tournaments?"
"He's more focused on Quidditch," Sirius replied, "takes after James that way. He doesn't really like duelling for all that he's good at it."
"Amelia loved duelling." Richard commented. "It's just as well she was his opponent and not me. I would have lasted a minute if he managed to defeat her as easily as Susan made out."
"Maybe you underestimate yourself, Richard," Sirius said seriously, "whether you ever thought you'd be the Head of House or not, the ring wouldn't have accepted you if it didn't find you worthy." He brought them to a gentle halt in the middle of the corridor. "I never expected to sit in my seat either."
Richard gave a grateful nod and they started walking again.
Sirius's eyes widened at the sight of the redhead coming down the corridor towards him and Richard patted his shoulder realising he was about to be shanghaied.
"I look forward to our next meeting."
"Thanks, Richard." Sirius said absently as they drew level with Bill. Richard nodded an acknowledgement to the Weasley Heir and continued walking while Sirius stopped to talk with him.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked concerned. "I thought you were still confined to bed rest?" And he really didn't see how Bill could have sneaked out of the Burrow where he'd been recuperating under Molly's watchful eyes.
Bill winced and waved off Sirius's imminent remonstration. "I had an appointment at St Mungo's."
.
.
.
🎉Subscribe and get access to all PDFs🎉
🎉ko-fi.com/gokublack444🎉