Chapter 14: Revelations and Plots for Christmas
The week after the closing of the Chamber of Secrets was full of surprises. On Monday the front page of the Daily Prophet sported a massive picture of Gilderoy Lockhart, in prison robes. The article explained that Lockhart had confessed to a group of students who wished to remain anonymous before he was apprehended by a small team of aurors while attempting to flee Hogwarts. Lockhart had apparently been unable to free himself from Harry's bindings and had been forced to hop away from his office only to be arrested after finally reaching the main gates. DADA classes were canceled for the week so that schedules could be rearranged in order to replace Lockhart. In the end it was decided to combine all the DADA classes for each year and have Flitwick, McGonagall, and Snape rotate through teaching the classes.
On Wednesday Arthur Weasley stopped by the school to thank Harry for saving Ginny from the Diary. With Virgil's coaching and the help of Susan's book Harry managed to get Arthur to extend the life debt owed by Ginny to the entire Weasley Family. Harry hadn't been entirely convinced that it was a good idea, but then Virgil had pointed out that he could call in the debt to force Ron to leave him alone if it became necessary and he had gone along with it. According to the Twins Ginny had become absolutely obsessed with Harry, she claimed that the fact that Harry had saved her proved that they were meant to be together. She conveniently ignored the fact that Harry had been joined by his girlfriend, and that he had only gone down into the Chamber to save the entire school from her.
When Dobby had made his appearance he took an immediate liking to his new master and "Master Harry's 'Mione". Harry decided that since Dobby would be unable to tell anyone any of Harry's secrets, not that he would want to even if he could, that it would be a good idea to tell Dobby the full story of what had happened so that Dobby would be able to actively help Harry. The conversation between Harry, Dobby, and Hermione quickly turned to house-elf rights once Dobby became aware of all of the facts.
"But Dobby why wouldn't house-elves want to be free?" Hermione asked
"Well Miss 'Mione, house-elves is liking to work, and we is needing to be bonded to a witch or wizard or we is losing our magic. It is how we is always been." Dobby tried to explain.
"How could wizards do something like that it's just so... so wrong." Hermione stammered out.
"Wizards is not doing it, house-elves used to have no magic, then we is discovering if we is working for wizards we is getting some of their magic. And when we is forming a stronger bond we is getting more magic. Some wizards, like Dobby's old masters is only making bond if house-elves is being unable to leave willingly, but most elves is not bonded permanently like that, and wizards like Dobby's old masters can't get new house-elves because other elves know how they is being." Dobby's explanation mollified Hermione for the time being, but she began coming up with ways to protect house-elves from wizards and witches like the Malfoys.
The rest of term went by quickly and soon Harry was sitting with Hermione and Susan on the Hogwarts Express heading back into London for the Christmas holidays. When they came out of Platform 9 ¾ they were greeted by the Grangers and Amelia Bones, they greeted each other and Amelia said that she had something that she wanted to discuss with all of them in private over the holidays so they made arrangements to have Susan and Amelia come over for dinner the next week.
When Amelia and Susan came over three days before Christmas the kids went into the backyard to practice their transformations. They had all gotten to the point where they could fully transform into their animal form, but they could only hold the form for a few minutes before they popped back, it would still be a few months before they would be able to hold their form indefinitely. After a dinner of lasagna, Harry had taught Dobby how to make lasagna on a whim and the excitable little elf made it at every opportunity, they all headed into the sitting room to talk.
"David, Jean, I don't know how much Harry and Hermione have told you about what has been going on with Dumbledore-" Amelia started.
"We filled them in on everything we know Madam Bones." Hermione supplied.
"Good, well as you know Albus Dumbledore has apparently taken an unhealthy interest in Harry's life, and is currently attempting to covertly end his relationship with your daughter. He claims, and he may be being honest, that he is doing it for political reasons. I think we are all in agreement that it is unacceptable for him to continue acting in such a manner." Amelia continued
"Can't we do something about him? You're in charge of law enforcement he must have broken some kind of law doing this." Jean asked, she hadn't seen Hermione as happy as she was with Harry since before she started school, and she was going to let some nosy old man ruin her daughters happiness.
"Unfortunately until he actually puts some of his more desperate plans into action he won't have actually done anything illegal. Were this anyone else trying to interfere with Harry's life we could take it to the press and they would tear them to shreds, but unfortunately this is Albus Dumbledore we are dealing with, he is far to well connected to be dealt with so easily."Amelia paused for a few moments to let this much sink in "Now while Albus has apparently chosen to use Susan to try and separate you two, he has not chosen to divulge any information on his plans to do so. For the time being Susan will continue to play along with Dumbledore while watching to make sure that neither of you shows any sign of being controlled either by spells or potions. Unfortunately that is only a temporary solution, Dumbledore will eventually catch on, the only permanent solution I have been able to come up with is a betrothal contract."
This pronouncement was met with a simultaneous "WHAT!" from Harry and all three Grangers.
Jean was the first to recover enough to speak "Surely you can't be serious?"
"I am serious, and don't call me Shirley." said Harry, Hermione, and David on instinct.
"I am quite serious" Amelia said, ignoring the poor attempt at humor "Any attempt to break up a betrothal is a serious crime, and because Harry is the heir of a Noble line it would constitute line theft which carries a life sentence. They are old laws and if Dumbledore tried anything he would find every one of the old families against him."
"But a betrothal it's just so... archaic." pointed out David.
"That may be, but this is the only way I can think of to protect Harry and Hermione from Dumbledore. Even without resorting to illegal measures he could cause serious harm. He could trump up charges and have Hermione expelled, then she would have her wand snapped, her magic bound and her memory erased, the three of you would have no knowledge of the existence of magic and Albus would be free to do whatever he wished with Harry."
"Very well, if we agree that this is the best course of action, what exactly would this contract involve?" David hedged.
"Well in order to be a legally recognized betrothal there needs to be a deadline for completion of the contract, Harry's twenty-fifth birthday should work nicely, and some requirement for the dissolution of the contract, in this case it can simply be that either Harry or Hermione chooses to withdraw from the contract, with a thirty day grace period during which time the decision can be reconsidered." Amelia explained, she hoped that they would all agree to this as she already had a copy drawn up just awaiting the necessary signatures.
"So no dowry or anything, no penalties for canceling, nothing like that?" David asked trying to cover all the bases
"Well Dad, a dowry or bride price is usually included and penalties aren't unheard of, but those are usually only included if one of the people in the contract is considered to be of higher value than the other." Hermione explained
Harry chuckled at this "What a great way for us to thumb our noses at the pureblood supremacists, if we signed a contract like the one Madam Bones outlined it would mean that everyone involved considered Hermione and I to be of equal value. Since I am famous, and probably one of the most sought after wizards in Britain we would be using their own laws to say that everything they believe in is a load of crap." Seeing where he was going with this thought everyone joined in on his laughter.
"If we all agree to do this when would we need to sign off on it?" Jean asked
"The earliest we could do it would be Harry's thirteenth birthday when he takes up his position as head of House Potter. Then he could sign off on it as his own Head of House, he would also sign it as one of the two involved in the contract, Hermione would also need to sign and one or both of you would need to sign." Amelia explained to Jean and David "I would also sign as an arbitrator to state that neither party is being coerced into signing. My only suggestions would be, only do this if you are all okay with it, and if you are going to do it do it as soon as possible." And with that she pulled the copy of the contract from her robes. "Thank you for dinner, we will see you soon. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me." and having said their goodbyes Amelia and Susan left to allow the other four in the room a chance to discuss the decision they had before them.
After ten minutes of silent contemplation, or conversation in Harry and Hermione's case, David finally spoke "I still don't quite understand this whole betrothal thing, what exactly does it mean to sign the contract?"
"Well Dad what it all boils down to is an agreement that marriage between the two parties is a possibility. Most of the time it would be done as the first stage of an arranged marriage, signed when one or both individuals is a small child." Hermione tried to explain as simply as possible "In this case though it is simply an understanding that, unless Harry or I change our minds in the future that the end result of our relationship would be marriage, though that would be years down the line."
"And is that where you two see this going?" Jean asked
"Yes." Harry and Hermione both responded without hesitation. Had it been any other twelve or thirteen year old answering both parents would have doubted their ability to understand the situation, but both Harry and Hermione were very mature for their age, and both adults had seen how they felt about each other. They all silently agreed that no more discussion was necessary, when the time came none of them would have second thoughts about signing the contract.
On the day before Christmas Eve an official looking letter arrived addressed to Harry. He opened it while he sat at the breakfast table and upon reading it he let out a small sad chuckle. Everyone looked at Harry wondering what the letter was to get that response from Harry, he passed the letter to David.
"If I think about, that really is the best Christmas present the Dursleys ever gave me." Harry said. The letter was to inform Harry that Vernon and Petunia Dursley had been sentenced to ten years in prison for child abuse.
Harry and Hermione had a wonderful Christmas together with the Grangers, they both received a number of books from different friends and many of their housemates sent them assorted candies, which they had to hide away from Hermione's dentist parents. Harry gave Hermione a small gold necklace with a fox on it while Hermione had given Harry a silver one with a raven. Harry and Hermione both got novels from David and Jean, over all they were very pleased with what they had gotten for Christmas.
The rest of the holidays were pleasant, Harry and Hermione fell asleep together on the couch when they tried to stay up until midnight on New Years Eve. At the end of the holidays Harry and Hermione once again boarded the Hogwarts Express, they were joined by Susan and they spent the whole train ride discussing the holidays. Susan asked whether they had made a decision about her Aunts' suggestion and they told her that while no one had actually said it out loud they were all probably agreed to sign it on Harry's birthday.
When they arrived back at school they were immediately cornered by the Twins, it appeared that the Weasley Twins had had an extremely interesting holiday at Hogwarts. They had completed the first step of becoming animagi by discovering their forms, they were both racoons. Hermione suggested that they speak with McGonagall about helping them with their first transformation. They had been resistant to this idea at first, but when Hermione had refused to help them, Susan had informed them of the potential penalties for being an unregistered animagus, and Harry pointed out that between the five of them they would almost double the number of living registered animagi, they relented and agreed to make plans with McGonagall for the full moon that was a week away.
On another note Draco Malfoy had been extremely vocal in his disappointment that no one else had been attacked following Mrs. Norris. Harry had been willing to leave Malfoy's object lesson in proper behavior until he heard that Malfoy had made numerous comments about how he had been looking forward to "that mudblood Granger learning her place", at that point it was decided that Malfoy needed to be put in his place repeatedly. It took them two weeks to come up with a way to do it, but on the first day of classes they turned Malfoy's head into that of a donkey, and for the next two weeks every time Malfoy used the word mudblood his voice immediately became the braying of a donkey for the next hour. Although everyone suspected Harry and his friends no one could actually prove that any of them had cast a single spell against Malfoy that would explain what had happened. The reason that no one could prove their involvement was that they had each cast a single portion of what Hermione had called a spell matrix, each part was appeared to be nothing but magical static but combined they had the desired effect.
Chapter 15: Matches and Exams
Hufflepuff's first game of the Quidditch season was on a cold February morning against Ravenclaw. Cedric had insisted for the first time that the team have daily practices leading up to the game. As the team sat together at the breakfast table they all felt a quiet confidence, Ravenclaw's team was known for being erratic and inconsistent in their teamwork and their Seeker, Cho Chang, had only caught one snitch the year before, and that was against Gryfindor who were generally considered to have the worst Seeker in the school until Draco Malfoy had bought his way onto the Slytherin team.
Harry was glad that he was going to finally get to play Quidditch and he couldn't have asked for better weather for a game, the skies were clear, the winds were calm, and the air was cold enough to allow them to fly for hours. As the team was standing, waiting to walk onto the field nerves finally got the best of Hermione. Despite her initial reluctance about playing Hermione had quickly taken to the sport, her competitive nature pushing her to excel. She still couldn't understand people like Ron Weasley who talked about nothing but Quidditch despite the fact that they didn't play, but the moment she set foot on the field no one was more enthusiastic about the game.
"Harry, why did I have to do this? That bet was supposed to be a joke. I can't do this, why are you making me do this?" Hermione rambled pacing back and forth.
"Hermione you'll be fine. You know what to do we are just going to go out there and do it." Harry told Hermione, pulling her into a hug to stop her pacing.
The match itself was one of the shortest Harry had ever played in, he had been watching intently for the snitch, hoping to catch it before much scoring had been done by either side. He hoped that by removing most of the burden of play from the Chasers Hermione and Susan would be able to adjust to playing on the team so that they would be even better when they got to the more serious match-ups against Gryfindor and Slytherin. After fifteen minutes the score was 50-30 Hufflepuff, Hermione and Susan had both managed to score twice, when Harry finally spotted the snitch. It had been hiding in the shadows near the base of the Ravenclaw stands so as not to reflect any light which might have drawn attention to it, but thanks to his improved eye-sight courtesy of his raven form Harry was able to spot it easily. He immediately shot after it on the Nimbus 2000 he had purchased and before Cho even realized he had made a move he was already half way to his prize. At the last moment the snitch tried to escape by darting straight up, but Harry was ready for it and grabbed the wily ball with little difficulty.
After their first victory Cedric reduced practices to just once a week for the two months until their match against Gryfindor. The reduction in their schedules gave Harry, Hermione, and Susan plenty of time to finish mastering their transformations. So it was that the second week of March Hermione entered the Great Hall for breakfast with a raven on her shoulder. Once Hermione took a seat at the Hufflepuff table the raven flew up to the staff table where it landed directly in front of Professor McGonagall and looked her right in the eye.
"Well Mr. Potter, congratulations on your accomplishment, though I would suggest that you get some breakfast now." McGonagall said with a small smile on her face. Harry nodded before flying back to the Hufflepuff table where he transformed back before sitting down to eat.
Harry had been the first to hold his form indefinitely, but by the end of the week Hermione and Susan had also succeeded. Fred and George had performed their own first transformation and now Harry, Hermione, and Susan put their focus into helping the Twins with their transformations. In early April the second years were given information on the electives they could take the next year. Harry had to spend the entire week convincing Hermione that she shouldn't take all five available electives, as useful as a time-turner might have been Harry didn't want to see Hermione as exhausted as he knew she would be after a year of twenty-seven hour days. Harry had decided to take Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures and Hermione was going to take the same classes. Susan had decided that she wanted to take Muggle Studies instead of Arithmancy since she fully intended to go into politics and taking Muggle Studies would give her a good basis for trying to bring the Wizarding World into the twentieth century.
As part of their course selection each student had a meeting with their head of house, Harry's meeting went almost exactly as he had thought it would.
"Good Afternoon Harry" Professor Sprout almost always referred to her badgers by first name when she was acting as head of house in non-disciplinary settings "The main purpose of this meeting is to discuss which of the elective courses you wish to take beginning in September. The choice is completely up to you, however every teacher is asked to give recommendations for which courses students should choose."
"Okay Professor, I'm pretty sure I know which classes I want to take." Harry told her.
"I'm sure you do Harry, and based on your performance in all your classes, you won't have any trouble with any of the classes. Everyone of your teachers that submitted recommendations for you included Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, and Professor McGonagall specifically recommended you not take Divination." This last part brought a small smile to Sprout's face. "Now this is unusual, but the headmaster has submitted a recommendation that you take Divination, but he did not provide any reason for his suggestion."
"Well, while I appreciate the headmaster's thoughts, I have no intention of taking Divination. As far as I know there are no careers that are helped by taking Divination. I would like to take Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Care of Magical Creatures." Harry informed her.
"Yes I thought you might choose to take the same courses as Hermione. I am very proud of you two, it has been a while since I could say that I have the top students in Hufflepuff, keep up the good work Harry." Professor Sprout said dismissing Harry.
Hufflepuff's second match of the season was soon upon them and this time the team was much more serious, they all knew that they were more skilled than the Slytherin team, but the Slytherins all had Nimbus 2001s courtesy of Lucius Malfoy, and the Slytherins played dirty. The faster Harry caught the snitch the safer the rest of the team would be.
The game got off to a quick start, within two minutes Slytherin had scored, but Hermione had already spotted a weakness they could exploit. The Slytherins were fast, but were not very good at changing direction rapidly. Hermione rapidly communicated her observation to the rest of the team and they quickly used it to gain the upper hand. By the ten minute mark Hufflepuff had managed to score three times while completely stopping the Slytherins from doing anything. At this point the Slytherins decided to start playing dirty, Stillman had the quaffle and was moving quickly down the pitch when Marcus Flint rammed into him, this caused Stillman to drop the quaffle but it also earned Stillman a penalty shot, which he made. In retaliation Harry decided to teach the Slytherins a lesson, making sure that Malfoy was shadowing him Harry turned into a steep dive, and just as Harry planned Malfoy followed him using his brooms greater speed to try and catch up, by the time Harry was within a few feet of the ground Malfoy had pulled up to just behind Harry's tail and had significantly more speed, so Harry pulled out of the dive at the last possible moment to watch Malfoy plow into the ground at top speed. Harry's Wronski Feint was far from perfect, and any halfway decent Seeker would have realized what he was doing, luckily for Harry Malfoy had a long way to go even be halfway decent. With Malfoy out of the picture Harry went back on the hunt, it was another ten minutes, with three goals by Hufflepuff and two fouls by Slytherin, before he finally spotted the snitch. Harry shot off after his target and before anyone even realized what he was doing he had caught the snitch winning the game 240-20.
When May arrived Hermione once again went into exam mode, once again Harry and Susan found themselves following Hermione to the library where they were joined by everyone who had studied with them the previous year for exams, with the exception of Weasley, as well as a number of first years who were bright enough to ask for help from older students. Harry and Hermione were spending most of the time going over what was expected on the exams with the second years while Padma Patil, Daphne Greengrass, and Tracy Davis helped the first years. Harry was surprised that Daphne and Tracy had been so easily convinced to help the first years, but then he realized that they were doing it in order to get on his good side. Unlike most Slytherins Daphne, Tracy, and Blaise Zabini were true representations of what Slytherin House was supposed to be, people of cunning taking opportunities to advance themselves, not bigots parroting whatever drivel their parents spouted. Whether Harry liked it or not he had become the central figure of his year at Hogwarts and was quickly drawing a following from the younger years as well. Harry could see now that it had been Ron that had caused him to be marginalized in the original time-line, Ron had pushed everyone away as best he could, monopolizing Harry and causing Harry to be an outcast. It was probably because of Ron that people had been so willing to believe every bad thing they heard about him, after all no one but Ron and Hermione had been allowed to get close enough to learn what he was really like.
Hermione and Harry were both glad that they didn't have to wait long before their last game of the season, Harry because he would get to play again, and Hermione because with the season over practices wouldn't get in the way of studying for exams. The game against Gryfindor would be its own unique challenge, Gryfindor had some of the best players, with the exception of Cormac Mclaggen the only person who had tried out for Seeker. Unlike the other matches this one was a long drawn-out battle in which neither side could get the advantage. After an hour and a half Harry had still seen no sign of the snitch and the score was 170-190 with Gryfindor holding a momentary lead. Harry was getting worried, Hermione and Susan could hold their own on the field, but neither of them had built up the endurance that Katie, Alicia, and Angelina had during Wood's marathon practice sessions, if Harry didn't end it soon Gryfindor would soon hold an insurmountable advantage. Gryfindor managed to score twice more before Harry finally caught a glimpse of the snitch, McLaggen was closer, but Harry had drawn him into so many feints already that he hoped the Gryfindor seeker wouldn't realize that Harry had actually seen the snitch until it was to late. Harry made a sudden sharp turn and shot straight toward the Gryfindor goal posts, putting as much speed on as he could, McLaggen watched Harry for a few moments before he looked toward Harry's destination where he saw the snitch, unfortunately he was already too late as Harry had closed the gap on McLaggen and was rocketing toward the snitch faster than McLaggen would ever be able to go. Everyone in the stands fell silent when they saw Harry tear off after the snitch, everyone could see that it was all over but the crying.
Hufflepuff House may have been looked down upon by most people, but living in the Badger's Den had its advantages, no one knew how to throw a party like the 'Puffs, and the party that followed the win against Gryfindor did not disappoint. While Harry knew that Gryfindor Tower had hosted its own share of raucous parties the entire atmosphere in the Hufflepuff common room was better. Harry knew that at some point he was going to have to bring Fred and George down to the Hufflepuff common room for a party, now that would be an amazing party.
With their victory over Gryfindor Hufflepuff was all but guaranteed to win the Quidditch Cup, the only way they wouldn't win it was if Ravenclaw beat Slytherin by at least 430 points. With another month before the Slytherin Ravenclaw match most of the school turned to studying for the exams. Unlike the year before Hermione was able to maintain composure as the exams approached.
Exams came and went, Hufflepuff won the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup and soon Harry, Hermione, and Susan were riding on the Hogwarts Express heading home for the summer. They were joined by the Twins, Neville Longbottom, Tracy, and Daphne. Tracy and Daphne had decided to spend more time with the three Hufflepuffs when they had learned that Harry and Hermione would be taking Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Apparently very few people outside of Ravenclaw took both Arithmancy and Ancient Runes and since Harry, Hermione, Daphne, and Tracy were the only ones in their year they decided that they should get to know each other as they would probably have to spend a lot of time together the next year studying for what were considered to be the two toughest classes offered.
Halfway through the train ride Luna Lovegood came into their compartment looking her usual spacy self. They offered her a seat and she joined them for the rest of the train ride without saying much. When they finally arrived at King's Cross they had managed to get Luna to open up a little bit, but it would take a lot of work to get her to trust them enough to talk about the problems she was having in Ravenclaw, but Harry was confident that they would be able to help her soon.
Harry and Hermione met David and Jean when they got off the platform, and after making plans to meet Susan and Amelia at Gringotts on Harry's birthday they loaded up the car and headed home. It had been an interesting year and Harry was surprised how much he could get done when he dealt with whatever annoying life-threatening problem the school was facing sooner rather than later.
Chapter 16: The Game Picks Up Speed
Once again Harry found himself telling the story of another year at Hogwarts on the ride from King's Cross to the Granger house. This year though the stories of their misadventures were more in line with what the Grangers expected from a magical school. Harry and Hermione did tell them about the chamber of secrets, but with how easy it was to deal with it really became nothing more than an interesting side note, rather than an impending doom that colored the entire year.
Harry and Hermione spent the first two weeks of their summer doing all of their assigned summer homework. Most of the homework was easy enough, but Snape had given everyone an extremely nasty essay which required them to analyze the ingredients and brewing instructions of three different potions. Once they were done with their homework Harry brought up something that he wanted to discuss with Hermione.
"Hermione I've been doing some research, looking into exactly what benefits there are to being Lord Potter, and I found some interesting things. The one thing I wanted to talk to you about was this, apparently as a Lord I have the right to carry a weapon with me at all times, regardless of the current laws. The only real restriction being that to carry one in Hogwarts the weapon would need to be an heirloom that has been in my family for at least five generations." Harry told Hermione while they were laying out in the backyard.
"Well, you do have all those enchanted weapons in your vault. I'm sure one of them has been in your family long enough to count."
"That's what I was thinking, so I looked through the list and I found a pair of swords that were put into the vault in 1743."
"Why would you need a pair of swords? It's not like you could use both of them at once."
"No I couldn't use both of them, but as the Lord of a Most Ancient and Noble house I can grant an heirloom to a protectorate of House Potter. So for example I could give the sword to the betrothed of Lord Potter, and she would be free to carry the sword under the same rules." Harry explained with a smirk.
"But Harry, I don't know how to use a sword." Hermione told him with a frown.
"Me neither, but I figured, since we have so much free time this summer, we could take fencing lessons. Then by the beginning of school we should know enough to use them if we need to."
"Do you really think we'll need them? It's not like we have very many enemies at school, and the few we have are kind enough to stay away from us."
"True, but we are about to start kicking a hornet's nest, and there's no knowing how people will react. Sirius will break out some time next week, we'll be able to get him a trial as soon as my birthday. Once he's free he'll be able to financially cripple most of Voldemort's old supporters, and we'll be directly connected to that. Malfoy, Nott, Parkinson and a few others might try something monumentally stupid."
"Better safe than sorry I guess." Hermione said with a grim smile.
Two days later they had their first fencing lesson at a place a few blocks from the Granger home. Harry and Hermione were both very enthusiastic about their fencing lesson and they quickly improved over the next few lessons. On the morning of their third fencing lesson the Daily Prophet contained the article about the Weasley family winning a prize drawing and going to Egypt. Harry knew it was only a matter of time before Sirius made his escape. Two days later the Daily Prophet led with a headline about the escape of Sirius Black from the supposedly inescapable Azkaban prison.
Harry hoped that Sirius would be able to track him down at his new address, just as he had tracked Harry to Privet Drive in the original time-line. Harry kept an eye out for Sirius every time he left the house for the next few days. Unfortunately Harry did not see Sirius before his birthday, but there were other issues that still needed to be dealt with, so on the morning of July 31st Harry and the Grangers made the drive into London to go to Gringotts and meet with Amelia Bones.
Amelia met them on the front steps of Gringotts and lead them inside "I've spoken with Bloodclaw already so we can get everything finished quickly." Amelia informed them as a goblin met them just inside the doors and lead them back to Bloodclaw's office.
"Ah Mister Potter, Miss Granger, Madam Bones, what a pleasure to see you again. I went ahead and got everything ready for your business today, so if everyone could take a seat we can begin." Bloodclaw greeted them while gesturing to a number of chairs arranged around his desk. Once everyone was seated Bloodclaw took a small wooden box out of his desk and placed it in front of Harry "This box contains the Potter family ring, if you are able to put it on that will confirm your rightful position as Lord Potter, and all the correct paperwork will be filed with the Ministry automatically."
Harry took the box and opened it to reveal a heavy platinum ring with the Potter family crest, a phoenix with a scroll in one talon and a sword in the other. Harry picked up the ring and placed it on his right ring finger, the ring flashed gold and shrank to fit his finger.
"Excellent, now if you and Miss Granger will drink these," Bloodclaw said placing two vials of pale blue liquid "Then we can move ahead with signing the betrothal."
"What exactly are those potions Senior Accountant Bloodclaw?" Hermione asked while looking suspiciously at the vial in front of her.
"It is a love potion neutralizer. It is Gringotts policy to require that both parties take one before we will agree to witness a betrothal contract" Bloodclaw explained neutrally. Harry and Hermione nodded their understanding before each of them picked up a vial and drank the blue potion. "Good now if you all still wish to go ahead with this we can continue." Bloodclaw produced a copy of the contract and placed it on his desk next to a quill.
David quickly read through the contract to make sure it was the same as the one he had read through at Christmas before signing it. This was enough to alleviate everyone's doubts about the contract and soon everyone had signed in the proper place. Once all the humans present had signed the contract Bloodclaw signed as a witness and the contract flashed gold, this was immediately followed by another flash of gold around Hermione's right hand. When the light faded there on Hermione's ring finger was a smaller lighter version of Harry's ring.
"Good that cover's everything that I was informed of, is there any other business you wish to handle at this time Lord Potter?" Bloodclaw smiled when he saw the ring on Hermione's finger, he had been fairly certain that there would be no problem with the betrothal, but there had always been the possibility that some obscure family rule would prevent the Potter family magic from accepting a betrothal.
"Just a quick trip down to the Potter vault to collect a few things and get some money." Harry said.
Ten minutes later Harry and Hermione walked into the Potter vault. The vault was massive, the walls were lined with a myriad of treasures and artifacts stretching back hundreds of years. Harry let out an impressed whistle "Wow, that's a lot of stuff. Take a look around, see if anything looks useful while I grab the swords and some money." Harry said while walking over to a rack of ornate weapons.
He found the swords easily enough, a pair of elegantly designed blades, thin and functional. The swords were constructed in the style of early smallswords, they were double bladed, which was uncommon in later smallswords, with simple crossguards. The blades were about two and a half feet long and less than an inch wide, they would need to adjust their fencing styles for the swords, but not very much. Harry quickly affixed the scabbard to his belt using the built in sticking charm and went to find Hermione.
"Find anything interesting?" Harry asked as he came up behind Hermione and stuck her sword to her hip.
"A couple of books that might be worth reading, this one is on general magic theory and discusses methods to cast magic without incantations, wand movements, or even a wand. And this one is a self updating book of criminal law, might be useful getting Sirius cleared." Hermione told Harry as they walked out of the vault.
After leaving Gringotts Harry and Hermione made a trip to Madame Malkin's to purchase new robes for school. Instead of the typical black with a Hogwarts crest their robes were a midnight blue with the Potter family crest. As a Lord Harry was allowed to wear family robes instead of the prescribed school robes and as his betrothed Hermione was entitled to the same option. They didn't plan to wear the robes all the time, just enough to make sure that those people who would be paying attention would know that Harry was fully aware of his rights.
Three days after their trip to Gringotts Harry and Hermione were walking home from their fencing lesson when the spotted a large black dog following them. The dog followed them all the way home and when they opened the front door Harry turned to look at the dog and said "You might as well come inside Sirius, we need to talk." Harry had to chuckle at the look of surprise on the dog's face as it walked through the door before turning into his godfather as soon as the door was closed.
"How did you know it was me?" Sirius asked incredulously.
"It's a bit of a long story, for now all you need to know is that I know you are innocent, I know Petigrew was my parents' secret keeper, and I know he's still alive. For now though you need to get yourself cleaned up, we're going to have a meeting now that you've finally shown up and it would be nice if you didn't look like a deranged mass murderer." Harry said smiling.
While Sirius took a shower and got changed Hermione called her parents at work and told them that they would be having company for dinner and that there were some important things they all needed to discuss, and Harry sent a letter to Amelia Bones inviting her and Susan to dinner that evening. Two hours later Harry, Hermione, Susan, Amelia, Jean and David were sitting in the Granger's living room with two empty chairs, while Dobby prepared dinner in the kitchen.
"Now that everyone is here we can get started. Madame Bones if you could pleases leave your wand on the table for the moment I would rally appreciate it." Harry said politely.
"What is this all about Harry?" Asked with some concern as she placed her wand on the table.
"This is about a number of things, but first and foremost it is about seeing justice done. As you have all no doubt noticed we have a couple of empty seats, there are two more people who will be joining us, but they do require some introduction. First is Virgil Hunter," Harry began as Virgil appeared in one of the empty seats "his purpose here will be explained in a little while. Secondly we have Sirius Black." Sirius walked into the living room as his name was spoken and Amelia's hand went straight for where she normally kept her wand, by the time she had remembered that her wand was on the table Hermione had already placed her hand over the wand and Sirius was taking his seat. "Madame Bones I can assure you that Sirius has no intention of harming anyone in this room."
"Harry that man is a wanted fugitive, he murdered thirteen people and betrayed your parents." Amelia said looking at Harry for any signs that he was not acting of his own free will.
"Actually ma'am neither of those things are true." Hermione interjected "Sirius was not the Potters' secret keeper and he didn't cast the spell that killed all those muggles. Peter Petigrew did both of those things before escaping in order to fake his own death. As for him being a fugitive, well Sirius was arrested, detained, and incarcerated under the 1977 'Measures for the Reasonable Enforcement of Law and Order' which were repealed on November the sixth 1981. The measures allowed anyone law enforcement personnel to arrest and detain anyone that was suspected of being a Death Eater without a warrant and to imprison them indefinitely without trial. The legislation that repealed the measures stated that 'Anyone currently held in ministry custody under the aforementioned legislation may continue to be held per the guidelines of that legislation'. It was written that way so that people who had already been imprisoned wouldn't need to be given proper trials, but those that had been released after being arrested under the measures couldn't be picked back up without a warrant. Since Sirius is not 'currently held in ministry custody' he can't be arrested without a proper warrant, and he can't be returned to Azkaban or given the Dementor's Kiss without standing trial."
"As such Sirius Black is currently being granted the sanctuary of House Potter while the Ministry of Magic attempts to illegally abduct and murder him in direct violation of his rights." Harry finished for Hermione.
"Very well, I'll accept your second point, but how could Petigrew have escaped, and how could he have remained hidden all these years?" Amelia asked.
Hermione took out a couple of documents and handed to Amelia "Peter Petigrew along with James Potter and Sirius Black were all animagi, Peter's form was that of a rat. He transformed after cutting off his finger and escaped into the sewer pipes that were exposed by the explosion." Hermione told her.
"So they were all unregistered animagi?" Amelia asked in shock.
"Peter is, James was, but since he is dead he can't be punished for it, but Sirius Black is completely registered, I just filed his registration with the DMLE." Hermione told Amelia with a smirk.
Amelia looked down at the documents she had been handed, they were in fact a completed registration for Sirius Black. "Hermione as soon as you graduate I will gladly give you a job in the prosecutor's office." The girl had just admitted that her 'client' had been committing a crime for at least a decade, but had also managed to undermine any attempt to prosecute him for it.
"Thank you ma'am, but I already have a job as Harry's Chief of Staff, so unless you can afford to beat his salary offer I'm afraid I'll have to decline." Hermione said with a smile.
"And what exactly his Harry's offer?" Amelia asked not yet giving up the hope of hiring such a brilliant legal mind.
"My entire staff budget as a Wizengamot member." Harry stated simply. "But now we must move onto more important things. The main reason why you are all here is that it is time for certain secrets to be revealed. In the year 2000 with the help of Mr. Hunter here a future version of myself sent back his memories so that I would be able to change things." Harry's pronouncement was met with stunned silence. Harry proceeded to tell everyone assembled about the original time-line and bringing Sirius up to date on what had happened since Harry had received the memories.
"So we plan to set things up so that when Voldemort comes back he'll have little to no resources, even less political power and he'll be facing a larger and more competent auror force. We also need to eliminate Dumbledore so that he can't muck up our plans in favor of his 'Greater Good'." Harry finished.
"How can any one person cause so much trouble for everyone." David wondered aloud.
"What you fail to realize David, is that Dumbledore has spent his entire life being told that he is brilliant by everyone who knows him. He has spent so much time listening to people's praise of him that he has come to believe that he is completely incapable of making mistakes, but being human mistakes are inevitable, and even before Dumbledore started playing international politics he had a tendency to make massive and catastrophic mistakes." Virgil explained, despite his importance to the entire situation he had only made a few minor comments during Harry's story.
"We are talking about a man who can take a lot of the blame for World War Two, Dad." Hermione pointed out. Seeing the disbelieving look on her parents' faces she continued "The summer after Dumbledore graduated from Hogwarts he became friends with a man named Gellert Grindlewald, you would know of him as Heinrich Himmler, he was a wizard, and the only reason Hitler succeeded as long as he did." At this Amelia, Sirius, and Susan adopted similar expressions to David and Jean "Grindlewald was the nephew of a neighbor and spent the summer after he had been kicked out of Durmstrang for doing some questionable experiments with the dark arts."
"Which is something akin to being kicked out of the military for violent tendencies, it does not say anything good about the person." Harry interrupted.
"So anyways Dumbledore spends a lot of time with a man who is clearly extremely dark whose life goal is to conquer his own little chunk of Bavaria and set up his own magical government and Dumbledore turns him onto the idea of using the Elder Wand, and taking over both the magical and muggle worlds. He even helps him draw up plans and ways to sell it to potential followers and opponents. Then they have a falling out in which Dumbledore's little sister dies and they don't speak to each other ever again. Skip forward 30 years and there's dear old Gellert drawing a lot of international scrutiny by starting up the exact same plans that Dumbledore helped him make, but does Dumbledore tell everyone what is coming next? No he stays out of it for years, lets Grindlewald almost win, then waits until he's all but defeated and then finally steps in to beat Grindlewald before imprisoning him and not letting anyone speak to him ever again."
"End result, millions die so Dumbledore doesn't have to admit that he turned a few third rate thugs and a second rate wizard into a force that conquered most of Europe, somehow he even comes out of it with the most powerful wand in the world and a massive boost to his reputation for beating his friend." Harry finished.
"So now what?" Susan finally asked.
"For now we get the search for Sirius tuned down until they either drop all charges or offer him a trial, then once Sirius is cleared he uses his position as head of house to annul the marriages of Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange, and then to call in every loan given to a Death Eater family. All told it will nearly bankrupt every single one of Voldemort's money sources." Harry laid out the beginning of the plan.
After dinner had been served as everyone was leaving Susan pulled Harry and Hermione aside "Harry, is my Aunt the only reason why you and Hermione became my friends? I understand if that's the case, I just wish that you had trusted me."
"Susan we do trust you, if we didn't you wouldn't know about this even now. I became your friend because you and Hermione became friends so easily, and Hermione didn't know about all of this until after we started first year. You are one of the best friends I have ever had. Besides the original plan involved an anonymous letter to the DMLE informing them of Sirius' innocence and Sirius offering to turn himself in if he would be guaranteed a fair trial." Harry reassured his friend before both he and Hermione pulled her into a hug.
Chapter 17: The Dog Days of Summer
Harry was getting tired of waiting, what was supposed to be a relatively straight forward session of the Wizengamot had quickly gone off course. At Harry's prompting Amelia had informed the assembled members, including Minister Fudge, that due to the circumstances under which Sirius Black had been arrested the ministry had no legal right to arrest without new charges being drawn up. Before Fudge could demand that charges be brought against Sirius many members of the Wizengamot began questioning how the order to "kiss on sight" had been given to the dementors when the ministry couldn't legally arrest Sirius, let alone execute him. Many of Fudge's political opponents saw this as an opportunity to call into question many of Fudge's actions as Minister. Harry quickly came to the conclusion that Fudge had never made a good decision in his life, his political strategy was apparently to take the largest bribe on offer to make a decision, and then use the money he had received to purchase as many votes as he needed when the inevitable vote of no confidence came around.
Harry was sitting in his assigned place as Lord Potter, despite the fact that he could not vote in the body he was still allowed to take his seat. Next to him was Hermione in the seat generally reserved for the Lady Potter. Strictly speaking Hermione should not have been allowed to sit there, but the seat's designation was purely traditional and could technically be given to anyone who was a member of the family, and as his betrothed she qualified. Normally she would be seated on Harry's other side in the adviser's seat due to her status as Harry's chief of staff, but that seat was currently being used by Sirius, who was hiding under Harry's invisibility cloak.
Finally after an hour of people attacking Fudge's character and job performance a vote of no confidence was called for. The vote was taken immediately and Fudge won by a margin of seven votes. Fudge then called for charges to be brought against Sirius Black and the vote passed by a significant margin. Fudge then demanded that Sirius be tried in absentia immediately, this was exactly what Harry had been waiting for.
"Objection!" Harry called, standing from his seat.
"Mister Potter, you do not have the right to raise an objection in this assembly." Dumbledore said calmly from his seat as the Chief Warlock.
"It's Lord Potter, Chief Warlock, and I have every right to raise an objection, while I may not be able to cast my votes as long as I hold votes I have every right object and to take the floor. I am appalled that the Minister could even consider trying a suspect in absentia before an arrest warrant is even issued." Harry responded staring directly at Dumbledore.
"Very well, I call for a vote to issue a warrant for the arrest of Sirius Black on thirteen charges of murder." Fudge continued looking a little dejected. The vote carried easily.
"I believe it is still the policy for the Ministry to offer a reward of 50,000 galleons for information on the whereabouts of wanted criminals?" Harry asked and was informed that this was accurate. "Very well then, I have information on the whereabouts of Sirius Black, he is sitting right here." Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off of Sirius with a flourish.
"Aurors arrest that man!" Fudge nearly screamed, as soon as aurors had placed cuffs on Sirius Fudge started barking out orders for Sirius to be taken for questioning.
"Minister, you were willing to hold the trial today not five minutes ago, so if Mister Black is willing we should hold the trial immediately, after all the Ministry has had a dozen years to put its case together." Someone called from among the assembled members. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, there had been no guarantee that anyone would force the issue to make Fudge look even worse, and the alternative would have been for Amelia to push for the trial to be held immediately, and that would have stunk of collusion.
"I have no problem with that, in fact I will gladly submit to questioning under veritaserum." Sirius called from where he was being manhandled toward the door by two angry looking aurors. And there was the clincher, Fudge couldn't back out now with a fully cooperative defendant, and there was no legal basis for denying veritaserum questioning.
"Very well let's just get this over with!" Fudge barked. The trial went quickly after that. It immediately became apparent that the Ministry had not bothered to collect any evidence and had in fact obliviated every witness before even taking official statements. It came out that Fudge had been in charge of the crime scene and had used the notoriety of the case to push himself forward in the Ministry, and apparently he had been the one to make most of the serious errors in handling the case. When Sirius took the stand he was given a dose of veritaserum and asked a long series of control questions to make sure the truth serum was working before they began asking him about the events that had lead to his arrest.
"As all available evidence has been presented it is now time for us to come to a verdict." Dumbledore finally called out. The votes were cast and Sirius was cleared by an almost unanimous vote. Sirius was immediately released and quickly made his way to the official seat of Lord Black. Over the next few minutes the Wizengamot voted to bring charges against Peter Petigrew and an arrest warrant was issued. "I believe that is all the business for today so..."
"Actually Chief Warlock I would like to take this opportunity to officially take my seat as Lord Black." Sirius called out from across the room, cutting off Dumbledore's attempt to close the meeting before things could get further out of hand.
"Of course, the Wizengamot officially recognizes the right of Sirius Orion Black to take the seat of Lord of the Ancient and Noble House of Black." Dumbledore stated solemnly. "Now as there is..." Sirius cleared his throat loudly "Yes Lord Black?"
"Based on facts that have come to light today House Black calls for an investigation in to the past actions of Minister Cornelius Fudge to begin immediately. It is clear that Minister Fudge has made a habit of cutting corners and blatantly ignoring the law, and I for one find it hard to believe that these two events are isolated incidents."
As Sirius finished his statement Harry stood from his seat "House Potter seconds the motion, and grants proxy on this vote to Lord Black." It had turned out after extensive research that the only difference between Harry and every other member of the Wizengamot was that he could not be the one to cast the votes held by his House, every other right held along with those votes was completely t his disposal. Fudge's face was frozen in a mask of terror, with the addition of the four votes held by House Potter and the two held by House Black, assuming the voting went the same way as for the vote of no confidence he would only win by a single vote, if even one member had been swayed by the evidence of the trial, or had been unwilling to commit to ousting the Minister, but had serious doubts about his actions, he would be doomed.
"The motion has been seconded, all those in favor" Dumbledore said with a resigned look on his face. The vote came down against Fudge by a margin of twelve votes, better by far than Harry had hoped for. "Madame Bones as head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement you are hereby mandated to begin a full investigation into the past actions of Cornelius Oswald Fudge, and to present all findings of said investigation before this body at the earliest possible time."
The rest of the summer passed quickly after Sirius was cleared. There were only three weeks left of summer not much to do, Harry and Hermione continued their fencing lessons, which they now supplemented with practice sessions with the swords they would be carrying with them everywhere. With Sirius's help they were actually able to fence using their swords by putting a temporary shield that was accompanied by a mild stinging charm along the blades. Sirius also disillusioned the swords so they could carry them all the time to get used to the weight.
Two days after Sirius had been cleared a letter arrived for Sirius from Remus Lupin, "Apparently he wants to talk, apologize for believing that I was a traitor. He also wants to know if I'd like to join him in a rat hunt as soon as he's available." Sirius said looking up from the letter he was reading at the Granger breakfast table. Sirius had been staying at the Granger home since the trial in order to put off returning to 12 Grimauld Place. Since Harry was taking up what had once been the guest room Sirius had to take the couch, though he had jokingly suggested that Harry could move into Hermione's room, too which neither teen had raised an objection.
"Is he still going to be teaching Defense this year?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, says he's doing it as a favor to Dumbledore. Seems Dumbledore asked him the day I escaped so that he would be able to keep you safe from me. Says he wishes he could get out of it, but it's already to late for him to back out." Sirius said looking through the letter.
"About as much as we suspected." Hermione said noncommittally. Remus had been a touchy subject between Harry, Hermione, and Sirius. Sirius wanted to bring his old friend in, while Hermione had been concerned that Remus's loyalty to Dumbledore would leave him conflicted and easily manipulated, and Harry was concerned that Remus's fatalistic attitude would only be reinforced by being left in the dark. In the end they compromised and agreed to feel Remus out and, if everyone was agreed, tell him everything, otherwise they would spend the year trying to bring him around.
"Might as well invite him over though, get everyone introduced. Who knows, we might get a better idea of where he stands." Harry finally said after a few moments of contemplation. With everyone's agreement Sirius sent a letter to Remus inviting him over to the Granger house the next day.
When Remus arrived the next day he was introduced to Harry and Hermione, and was shocked to discover that Harry and Hermione were betrothed. He was even more shocked to find out why they had become betrothed. "How could Dumbledore do something like that? He's done so much good, how could he go and try something so despicable." Remus asked as he flopped down into a chair.
"Dumbledore has done a lot of questionable things when it comes to Harry. First he leaves Harry with the Dursleys," Hermione started calmly, but Remus's face still paled at the mention of Harry growing up with the Dursleys "then he apparently made a habit of protecting the Dursleys from investigation, and when they were finally tried he pulled every string to keep them safe from the Wizengamot. Then when Harry finally comes to Hogwarts he puts a fake Philosopher's Stone to draw Voldemort to the school. Even after being called out on that he still tries to control Harry and force him back to the Dursleys. Then he tries to use our friends to screw up Harry's life, whatever good he may have done he has completely used up as far as I'm concerned." Hermione was almost shouting by the time she had finished listing Dumbledore's wrong-doings.
"Merlin," Remus finally muttered to himself, his face having gone far paler than was probably healthy "How could he do that, all these years he told me you were safe Harry, and all this time he's been lying to me and playing god with your life. If there is anything I can do to make up for all the years I let Dumbledore ruin your life I will do it."
Harry shared a significant glance with Hermione and Sirius, both nodded to him. "Remus, we have some things we need to tell you."
Remus took the news of Harry's knowledge of future events rather well, the news of what those events included he took slightly less well. The full story made Remus even more furious with Dumbledore, and further determined to help Harry however he could. They spent the rest of the afternoon talking about Harry and Hermione's experiences and friends at Hogwarts and then was introduced to Jean and David before they all went out to a local restaurant for dinner.
As Remus was leaving for the evening Harry called out to him "Remus, there's one last thing I need to tell you. No matter what others might want you to think, being a werewolf doesn't mean you don't deserve to be happy. So go out, find some nice girl who doesn't care that you're a werewolf, and have loads of kids."
Harry and Hermione didn't get a chance to talk to Susan again during the summer, but from the letters they had exchanged with her she made sure they knew that she understood why she hadn't been told everything, and that she would always be their friend. They got a few letters from the Weasley twins in Egypt, and in one they mentioned that Scabbers had run off and that Ron thought that the twins were responsible for the disappearance of his pet. The general thought was that since Petigrew had made a run for it in Egypt he wouldn't bother to return to England before seeking out Voldemort in Romania.
Sirius ended up staying the whole summer at the Granger house. Hermione was very interested to hear what Sirius had to say about the new classes they would be taking beginning in September. Harry could tell her what to expect from Care of Magical Creatures, but he had no real knowledge of Arithmancy or Ancient Runes. Sirius had taken Ancient Runes and told Harry and Hermione all about the applications for the class, from warding to enchanting. Unfortunately he had never taken Arithmancy and could only really tell them what Remus and Lily had to say about it, for the most part the first few months of Arithmancy were spent learning how to do the advanced mathematics involved, which were apparently equivalent to mid-level algebra, then they would learn how to analyze spell formulas to understand how they worked, and eventually they would begin to write spell formulas of their own.
Toward the end of August they made the trip to Diagon Alley to pick up their school supplies. For the most part they only needed to purchase new books, including one copy of the Monster Book of Monsters as Hagrid had again sent Harry a copy for his birthday, though the book was much easier to handle knowing how to get it to stop biting. They also needed to pick up some basic rune carving kits along with replenishing their potion supplies. The last stop they made was to the magical pet shop where Harry reintroduced Hermione to an old friend.
"Hermione, meet Crookshanks." Harry said handing the ginger half-kneazle to Hermione. Crookshanks had been surprisingly docile when Harry bought him from the pet shop, and Harry suspected it was because Ron was not there. Hermione and Crookshanks got along just like they always had and Harry was glad he had taken the time to get Crookshanks. Hermione also made sure to tell Harry how thankful she was.
Eventually September first came around and Harry and Hermione boarded the Hogwarts Express and found an empty compartment. As eleven o'clock approached they were joined by Susan, and then later the Twins and Lee Jordan. A half hour into the train ride they were joined by Neville and Luna. The conversation in the cabin ranged from stories about their summers to the upcoming school year. Luna was evasive about answering any questions pertaining to school and after much coaxing by everyone in the compartment she had admitted to the fact that her housemates regularly tormented her. Everyone agreed that they would need to teach the Ravenclaws a lesson which really surprised Luna. When they neared Hogsmead Station they all changed into their robes, but Harry and Hermione put on their Potter robes rather than their black Hogwarts robes and made sure their swords were clearly visible before getting off of the train.