Reading Time: 84 Minutes

Title: Never A Spare
Author: Strailo
Fandom: Harry Potter
Genre: Angst, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Slash, Time Travel, Tragedy
Relationship(s): Cassius Warrington/Harry Potter
Content Rating: R
Warnings: Major Character Death, Violence-Graphic, Canon-Level Violence, Torture, Obsession, Violence – Against Children, Kidnapping, Murder
Author Note: Thank you for coming to read my story! This was a trip to write and I’m glad it’s finally done and out there. Enjoy.
Word Count: 121,649
Summary: When Magic Herself decides that things are oh so wrong, She makes her move with Fate, Destiny, and Death standing beside her. They knew the Ripples would come when they chose their Person. Those Ripples touch everyone in the Wizarding World. They touch Harry Potter the most, being the Chosen One to bring balance to an unbalanced world.
Artist: Veevess

09 First Task and the Aftermath

Harry took a deep breath as he tried to calm himself, rubbing at his cheeks as he stood under his invisibility cloak with Draco standing next to him. The two teens were staring at a large penned-in area. “Nesting. Mother. Dragons,” Harry hissed at him, ignoring Hagrid and Madam Maxine. Hagrid wasn’t paying any attention anyways, mooning over the head mistress more than the dragons so they were safe.

“I’m going to have to tell Cassius,” Draco warned him softly. Harry nodded his head. They started to move carefully away from the scene and up to Hogwarts, where they headed down to Slytherin House, where Harry was supposedly spending time with his friends. They used a blind spot in the corridor and tucked it into a bag that Harry was carrying with him. They walked into Slytherin house with the help of Snape, who nodded to them.

He nearly ran to where Cassius and the others were waiting, sitting down next to him. Markus grumbled slightly and shifted over, seeing just how pale the two teens were.

“What happened out there?” Markus asked as he moved closer to where Draco had dropped into a chair by the couch. He frowned as an elf appeared with hot chocolate for the two teens before disappearing.

Harry flicked his wand, a muffling spell surrounding his friend group as he talked. “Nesting mother dragons,” Harry said softly. Cassius winced and added another layer of privacy to their group as they moved closer. Daphne pressed a hand to cover her mouth as Pansy went pale, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth. “They’re going to use four of them. That’s why the first task got pushed back so much. It was because they had to negotiate the new dragon and make extra sure that the eggs would be safe from everything, including the mother and participants.”

“At least they’re going to take care of them,” Blaise said before he cursed softly, the Italian words tinged with his anger.

Cassius scowled as he tucked Harry close to him. “We have many books on dragons here,” he said as he nodded to the door off to the side. It lead into a giant room full of books that almost compared to what the Ravenclaw personal library supposedly held. The books within had all been donated by alumni and students of Slytherin house, meaning that no headmaster would dare touch them unless they were illegal.

Harry blew out a breath and looked up to the portrait of a man who smirked. “Am I able to use the room as a guest?” he asked the grandson of Salazar Slytherin’s portrait. Marius Slytherin nodded in answer.

“Of course you are, Lord Ravenclaw,” Marius told him. “I believe that you will find quite a few things in there that will help. Including hints of where to find the Ravenclaw library.”

Pansy hummed as she leaned into Tracy. “If you can find that library, I’ve heard that she made it so that copies of every book that comes through the school joins the collection,” she said. She smiled slightly as she watched her friend press closer to Cassius. “It should hold quite a few books that have been lost to time or have disappeared into family vaults for whatever reason.”

Harry made a considering noise. “Well, we do know what is coming this first task is to be. And we can work out what to do during it. Then we’ll have a just a few weeks between this task and the second task,” he said. Daphne pulled out a pad of paper to start writing down what needed to be figured out and what to they needed to take into account when going against the dragons.

Draco told them the type of dragons that they were going to go up against. Harry mused that knowing his luck, he’d end up against the meanest one of the four. Cassius moaned that it would probably be the Hungarian Horntail that he went against and how they thought that it was a good idea to bring her to a school full of children and idiots with power. Harry just patted his arm with a small smile dancing on his lips, staring up at him with soft eyes.

“Don’t worry so much. We’ll work it out. Tomorrow is Saturday so we’ll have some time to do a deep dive into the books. I have a few things that I need to finish anyways and I was going to have to do a study session with Dean and Seamus over Potions,” he said as he thought about it.

“The study session is always set up for after breakfast. Then we can do some lunch and come down ehre to start digging around in the Slytherin collection,” Pansy said as hse pulled out her journal to make her own notes. “Do you think that we can get away with asking Granger down as one of our allies and Friend of Slytherin to help?” she asked.

“You do realize that you’ll end up having to keep inviting her down to raid the collection, right?” Harry reminded her.

Pansy wrinkled her nose before she shrugged. “That’s fine. We can deal with that. We like her.” Harry snorted at her blase attitude.

The morning of the first task came, Harry getting out of bed to find that it was an overcast kind of day with frost on the ground. He shook his head and took some time to get ready for the day, leaving the carriage with Lukas and Fleur to walk to the Great Hall. They settled in with Hermione, Seamus, Dean and Neville at the Gryffindor table.

“I know that you don’t think it, but you will be fine,” Hermione told him softly. “According to our laws and the laws of Romania, the dragons must be protected, and so must you,” she told them. “If you have to kill your dragon, that means that they messed up the warding and it will be whoever messed up the wardings that will end up in trouble. Not you. Not Hogwarts. Just whoever did them.”

Harry pursed his lips at that. “I just wish they had used some of the more common dragons. All four of them have a low population as it is because of idiot poachers,” he said. At the curious look he got from the other three males, he shrugged. “I was able to send off Dobby to get population numbers for me. All of them have less then six hundred dragons that are living wild. Most of them are in protected zones if not in reserves all over the world. The keepers gather things like shed scales, their droppings and the such to help pay for their upkeep, and if they die naturally, their bodies are collected. But if it’s killed, that leaves behind a taint in the body and they can’t be used for certain things like wand cores.”

“Well,” Fleur said. She shook her head and blinked. “Keep to our plans then, yes?”

“I’ll try to talk with mine. You are trying to lure yours into resting right? I know Cassius was working on something with solid illusions if I’m remembering right. And Krum is doing…something or another,” Harry said, glancing at Hermione. She just eyed him up.

“He’s been told that anything that could harm, maim or otherwise kill a dragon that is not explicit self-defense will get him no points and a mark against him,” Hermione stated. “So, he’s planning, but I’m not sure as to what he’s planning.”

“Understandable considering that while he does respect Harry here, they are still at odds in terms of this tournament in his head,” Lukas said, shaking his head.

Dean wrinkled his nose and pointed his fork, with a sausage speared on it, at Lukas. “I still say that echo is annoying.”

“I am learning to speak English better, but it does take time to smooth out my enunciation enough for you to actually understand it,” Lukas replied.

“He’s right, ya know?” Seamus said, bumping shoulders with his boyfriend. “Anyways, you guys do need to actual eat,” he continued as he put toast with scrambled eggs on it onto their plates. “At least eat somethin’ ta calm the stomachs down. If you lose your stomachs, this way it will be more than acid, yeah?”

“Acid?” Fleur asked, sounding surprised and worried about that word.

“Stomach bile acts like an organic acid to break down anything that you eat or drink during digestion. Unfortunately, if you’re not careful, it will break down your throat tissue to a point a point if you don’t have something to hold it when you vomit,” Hermione told them.

“I…see,” Fleur said as she looked down at her stomach. “You learn something new everyday I suppose.”

Harry chuckled as Dean shook his head. “The wizarding world has potions for upset stomachs that work better then the muggle style medications, but their cold and flue medicines do leave much to be desired. Or so mum has told me,” Dean told them as he laughed softly. “And you guys are amazing! You can do this.”

Harry smiled at him, nodding. “Yeah, we can,” he said as he picked up the toast with eggs on his plate, biting into it. “And these two are right. We do need to eat. Not only to fuel our bodies, but also our magic and minds. Through, after this? I have something that I need to do,” he said. His thoughts turned to the journal that Dobby had found hidden and left for him on his desk.

He was finally going to read through Pettigrew’s journal about his time with Voldemort. He was hoping that he would learn something about the man since no one knew who he was or where he had come from.

Though Harry had a feeling that what had happened in his second year was important, but he hadn’t had time to think about it.

Harry stared down at the little dragon statue as Fleur and Cassius sat on either side of him on the cot. Technically, they were sitting in a part of the medical tent with the other part was closed off for the champions after they had faced their dragons down, which they were fine with. They were just hoping that what they were wondering was true.

Harry swallowed and waved his hand over the small creature in the careful movements that he had learned from the journal with Pansy’s and Hermione’s careful help.

“It’s there,” he said as a green glow surrounded the dragon’s creation. “It’s a scale. One that was shed and collected, not taken forcibly.”

“Thought so,” Cassius said as he lent back on one hand with a smirk to his partner. “Gonna test it?” he asked, nodding to the statue. They could feel Krum watching them, but the man hadn’t said a thing to them yet.

“Yeah, I am.” Harry took a moment to gather himself before taking a slow breath, releasing it slowly. He started to hiss. “Hello, little dragon,” he started, the dragon stopping it’s angry roars and staring up at him.

“Speaker,” the little dragon greeted, the words heavily accented. “I do not feel right.”

Harry smiled softly as he softly stroked a finger down her back. “You are a construct. All four of you are constructs made from a shed scale. To be truthful, your form is held by the magic that is left over in the scale,” he told her. The dragon blew out a bit of breath in displeasure. “Do you think that your full self will listen to me if I talk with her?”

“If you are able to get her attention, most likely. Use something shiny,” the little construct said. “I am getting tired.”

“The magic stored in your scales are starting to dissipate. Thank you for talking with me,” Harry said. They watched as the constructs started to dissolve, leaving behind four different scales in their hands. “She said that as long as I get her attention, I should be able to talk with her,” he said, rubbing at his face after stashing his scale away. “Remember, we are under constraints for this and I don’t really think that any of us want to deal with the issues that will come with breaking those rules.”

“You haz been spending to much time wiz Daphne,” Fleur stated as she patted his arm. Harry blushed and smiled at her sheepishly.

“She’s been helping me with learning what it means to be the style of Lord I want to be. Her and Blaise. They already set up things so that I have tutors who can fill me in on more things,” Harry said, playing with the scale in his pocket. “Especially a Lord to such an old name and another yet with power behind it from various points in time,” he continued.

“It’s a good thing to learn though,” Cassius said as he lifted Harry’s hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. He got a small smile from the younger male. “We’re all ready as much as we can be now.”

“AND THE FIRST CHAMPION IS VIKTOR KRUM FROM DRUMSTANG INSTITUTE!” came the thunderous announcement from outside of their tent. Krum nodded to them as they all wished him good luck as he headed outside. They waited and listened to the way the crowd reacted, the commentary muffled to keep information on what each contestant was doing. Cassius was called next.

Fleur and Harry took the time to play some simpler games with a pack of transfigured deck of cards before she was called. She left Harry to play a quick round of solitaire as he waited.

When Harry was finally called, he stood up from the cot, took a breath and walked out of the tent. He headed down the tunnel to come face to face with the Hungarian Horntail that was snarling and straining at her hold.

Harry took a deep breath to calm himself and cast a single spell the moment that Crouch called out the start of his task.

Staring up at the beautiful, frighteningly large dragon, Harry swallowed and remembered what his godfather had told him about the Blacks. They did not back down as long as they could walk out of a situation with their skins attached. He was a Black and he had a feeling that with his plan, he could do this without losing his life or getting a new scar.

He already dealt with one scar and it was the most annoying thing to have to deal with it.

He cast a sparkling spell before casting Sonorus on himself as he stepped forward, starting to hiss. “Great Mother, I come to you in peace,” he called out. The Horntail growled but stopped straining against the chains that stopped her from getting at him. “Your human helpers, the ones who live to protect you and who brought you here, have left a fake egg that requires me to gather it.”

“Lies,” she hissed.

Harry shook his head. “No lies, only the truth,” he said, staring her down. “Three other mothers have gone before you. All three contestants have walked out with a golden egg while the other eggs were left behind. I just want the fake egg.”

She stared at him, sniffing a few times before she snorted a breath of fire at him and turned to her eggs. He didn’t move as she nudged the eggs around, sniffing out the one that smelled wrong. She snarled before she swung her head around to him. “Take the fake thing out of my nest. Should you hurt one of my eggs though, be warned, I will eat you.”

Harry tilted his head in acknowledgement, knowing that if she did try to eat him, he would have the right to kill and collect her corpse to sell off as he wished. He had too much to much to live for now, and he refused to allow her to try to kill him just because she decided she didn’t like him.

He didn’t say that though and simply walked carefully towards the nest. He found the egg and grabbed it before he started back towards the exit, holding the egg tightly. He narrowed his eyes at the growling that was coming from her, ready to defend himself and his magic seemingly coiling deep within his own body.

He would not allow anyone to push him around any more.

Even a pissed off dragon that he hadn’t asked to face would have to face him down if she wanted to try something. Neither of them wanted to be there. He was there under duress for his magic, and he was walking out of the encounter one way or the other, even if it meant one less dragon in the world.

The mother didn’t do anything though, just growled at him as he disappeared through the barrier and down the tunnel. She allowed her handlers to gather her eggs and move them back to her area until they returned home. Harry blew out a breath, muscles unwinding, before he headed back to the medical tent.

He listened to his scores being announced, ending up with a score of twenty-three, and allowed Pomphrey to look him over. She cleared him and allowed to get to his friends. Harry put the egg down before he sat down next to Cassius, allowing the older male to pull him close.

Harry buried his nose into Cassius’ chest, his arms coming to wrap around the other male’s waist tightly as he shivered. He allowed himself to be the scared, barely teen boy that he was. He had just faced down a dragon and his fears had been hammered home.

Someone wanted him dead. And now the question to be answered was who wanted him dead and why.

Blaise stared at the three eggs that were set on a table in the room that had been turned into the study area for their friend group. “What do you think that it does beyond screech at you each time you open it?” he asked. Dobby and Winky shook their heads and made sure that they all head hot chocolate to combat the cold of the castle and that the fire was good. Severus, Olympe, and Lukas were acting as chaperone’s while ignoring them. Lukas had mostly been chosen because he had a fiance, a girl who was in the year under him.

“I swear that I haz heard that zound before,” Fleur said as she sat back with a frown on her face. “But where?”

“Perhaps it is mermaids?” Lukas asked as he tilted his head to look at his friend, holding a book in his hands. He held it up and wiggled it at her. “We’ve been studying them in Creatures, remember? Our professor has recordings of how they sound underwater verses above it. The water waves change the sounds they make into understandable words,” he told them.

Harry blinked at his roommate before turning to stare at the egg. “They would not be so stupid as to do something under the lake, would they?” he asked. A pause before the group all made sounds of disgust, knowing that they would. Severus just hid his smile behind his newspaper as Olympe shook her head. “Never mind. I tend to forget who I’m talking about.”

Seamus snorted. “You’ve been spendin’ way to much of yur time with Greengrass and Parkinson there, mate,” he teased. “Your sarcasm is gettin’ so thick you can butter yur toast with it.”

Harry rolled his eyes, tossing a piece of crumbled up parchment at his friend as he smiled lightly. “Shush. But…if it is a mermaid, wouldn’t that mean that we should submerge the egg so that we can hear whatever it is that they want to say?” he asked. He frowned as he sat back.

Draco looked to Markus and waved a hand at him. “You’re best at things like that,” he said.

“At what?” Dean asked as he leaned around his boyfriend to look at the two males.

“At elemental based magics,” Markus grunted as he pulled out his wand. “Somethin’ that they don’t teach no more is that Magic doesn’t just fall into Light, Dark, or Grey. It’s all connected to nature, like all humans. Earth, Air, Water, Spirit, Fire and is then broken further into subcategories beyond that. Our parents teach us when we’re old enough ta start learnin’ about them,” he said. He pulled out a wand with a frown and started to wave it in a complicated motion.

Hermione bit at her bottom lip, already bursting with questions before she pulled out her pen and travel journal that she had brought with her after the holidays. She wrote down her questions. Daphne took the pen and journal from her when she was done before she jotted down several book names onto the paper under the questions.

“You might have to go to one of the side alleys in Diagon to find them. Down Brandston,” Daphne told her. She had made sure over the holidays that she had taken Hermione down some of the other parts of Diagon alley, down the side streets that weren’t quite as well known by those who didn’t visit often during the summer holidays. Hermione had been shown where to find all the stores for the best used items, including books that had found it’s way into the stores.

Hermione smiled at her, tucking the journal away as Daphne gazed at the pen in her hands, playing with it. “If you want, I can get you a refillable pen from the same place that daddy goes to. They’re fairly well built and have been in business for close to three hundred years,” she offered as Markus carefully used his wand to create a bubble of water around one egg.

From what she could see, Blaise was working to weave a spell around the ball to allow whatever was said in the water to be heard outside of the bubble.

“If you could. I will pay you back for it,” Daphne said, smiling when Hermione nodded with her own smile.

“I’ll have father check on the price for a good set with various nibs and the such, and tell you how much it is. And to get me a catalog,” Hermione mused. Daphne and Tracy beamed at her as Pansy bumped shoulders with her. Luna came to sit in front of Pansy as they talked about the pen set that Hermione had. Pansy absently started to work her fingers through curly blond hair.

“Of course. Thank you.”

Harry smiled from next to Cassius, pleased that his friend had found others who were helping her to discover just who she was outside of her books and the need to be seen. He had always been worried about her, but it was looking as if the four girls with her now were good for her. Doing what he couldn’t being hurt in his own ways.

Markus lowered his wand and blew out a breath before he nodded to Cassius, who reached out, shoving his hand into the water bubble. He opened the egg as it floated in it’s water prison.

“Alright, let’s break this down,” Hermione said after they had all listened to the egg a few times. She had written the poem down in it’s entirety and was staring down at it with a frown. “Come seeks us where our voices sound; We can not sing above the ground. Obviously that means it’s the mermaids in the lake. From what I remember reading about them, their village is close to the middle of it, surrounded by various underwater creatures.”

“It is also to be held in February,” Fleur stated, wrinkling her nose at the thought. “Ze cold will not be kind to me.”

“Not for any of us, really,” Cassius said as he shook his head. “But with your Veela blood, it will hit harder I believe.”

“Ezactly.”

“So, we’ll need to focus on making sure that you can last under the water for a max of an hour since you will all have an hour to finish the task,” Pansy said as she pointed to the papers with the poem. “Make sure that you’re all strong swimmers for this.”

“The judges will want to see varying strategies I bet,” Neville said with a frown. “So you’ll each have to do something different and something that will last or that you can cast wordlessly underwater.”

“I can uze ze bubble head charm. I know it well enough to cast it to last a long time, but I can also cast it wordlessly should I find need to,” Fleur mused.

“I can probably do that to, but I would want to test it out before I committed. There’s also gillyweed,” Cassius mused. Harry looked up at him in curiosity. “It’s a plant that will let you grow gills and webbing between your fingers and toes, allowing you to swim easier.”

“Is it hard to get a hold of?” Harry asked. “I might just go that way since I don’t know the bubble headed charm and I doubt that I’d have it down enough for a long time,” he admitted. Cassius smiled, nodding.

“It’s not hard to get. I’ll contact mother. I know that she’ll have some and she’ll make sure that you can get it the day of,” he promised. Harry smiled and nodded. “We’ll end up having to stay in the water until it’s gone past, but we can do it easily enough.”

“The part that worries me the most is that they’re takin’ somethin’,” Seamus said as he shivered slightly. “What are they takin’? Are they goin’ for a a human or somethin’ physical? You don’t really think they’d do a human do ya?” he asked, turning to Dean with wide eyes.

“Knowing what we do? They would,” Daphne snorted. She sat back in her seat, frowning. “We should make sure that anyone who has been taken knows what they are volunteering for. That they know the risks and are under some of the heaviest protections for the duration just in case.” Harry nodded, agreeing with her suggestion.

“I’ll send a letter to Sirius soon. He’ll make sure of it since he’s been sitting on the board for this since he was cleared,” he admitted as he settled back into Cassius’ arms. “I don’t really know what to think about all this, but this is the Birtish Ministry that we’re talking about. They’re not the best at making the smartest decisions as we’ve all seen,” he sighed.

Draco snorted softly. “Yeah. Write to your godfather and check on this. I personally need to get going though.”

“I take it that your mother is talking with you about what is going on with their marriage right?” Markus asked, Draco nodding his head.

“Yes. Lord Black has agreed to allow them to renegotiate their marriage contract seeing as it would end up hitting both the Blacks and Malfoys if it’s dissolved. The way that their parents wrote the original contract is just vile. But as long as they are free to find lovers outside of the marriage, and that any children from said lovers will be considered legitimate under whatever name it is they want since they’ll most likely have their lovers under contract. Most likely children based contracts, but nothing that will state that they absolutely do not need to have children,” Draco stated. “She told me that much in her letter. She wants to show me the new contract thought.”

“Sirius did say that as long as they’re happy with the contract, he’s happy with it,” Harry said. He shrugged one shoulder. Draco smiled slightly and nodded before he gathered his items and stood.

“I’ll see if mother would have any ideas as what to do about the swim,” Draco promised before he left, the group checking the time on their various watches.

“Ah, seems as if it is lunch time,” Fleur hummed. “Shall we?” she asked. Everyone agreed, even the teachers and Lukas, cleaned up the space and left, heading down to the Great Hall as they chatted. They passed by Ron, who stared after them with a blank face and shimmering anger at just how easily Harry and Hermione had seemingly moved on from him.

Hermione noticed him watching but didn’t look at him directly, knowing that Ron had to work his feelings out on his own. After last night, where he had said that Harry really hadn’t put his name into the Goblet, she had told him that the fact that Harry had stated a Vow should have been enough for him if he had been a real friend.

In her book, the vow would have just given the argument that Harry hadn’t put his name in more strength if they had been proper friends.

The resulting row had left her absolutely disgusted with him and not wanting to talk with him. Not in the least, tiny bit.

Draco took a deep breath as he sat down across from his mother, smiling at her. “You’re looking rather worried,” Narcissa greeted as their lunch appeared before them. He hummed as he pulled his bowl of butternut squash soup closer to himself.

“I suppose that I am.” He hesitated. “I’m frankly worried about what will be done and…who will do what. What will happen when…well. All of that,” Draco admitted as he used his spoon to mix in the cream and spice that was on top of the soup. He looked at his mother, watching as she lifted a spoonful of the soup to her mouth, sipping at it.

She hummed. “Yes, I do suppose that we didn’t discuss this much during our holidays, did we?” she asked as she sighed softly. “We are still married. We will stay married because both of us are stuck by the clauses in the contract. Yes, we did things during the first war that we regret, but we were in a hard place during the war. Sirius is very understanding about this, even with our magical compatibility being lower on the scale,” she said.

“If I remember that particular talk right,” Draco started as he blushed, “magical compatibility is important when it comes to two people trying to have a child. How did you end up having me in the first couple of years of your marriage?” he asked. “If you’re on the low end that is.”

Narcissa snorted as she looked at her son. “A night of drinking and having sex on the turn of a season,” she drawled. Draco wrinkled his nose.

“I walked into that. I so did,” he decided before he shook his head. “What did the original contract state?” he asked.

They both ate a bit more as Narcissa tried to think about what to say. “It stated that we were to have two children, minimum. We were to push for as many children as I could physically give him as close together as possible though. My body, like those of most Purebloods, do not do well with more then one or two children,” she told him. She put her spoon down with a sigh. “Neither of us could find a lover outside of our marriage. My parents did not like the fact that, like most of the Wizarding world at large, we are open to those who we find attractive. They wanted us to be strictly with the opposite gender. Men for me, women for Lucius. I was of course not to be sexual with anyone until my marriage night so as to not taint the Malfoy line. Unlike Bellatrix, who had slept with who she pleased as long as she did not catch something or become pregnant.”

“From what you told me when I was younger, her husband didn’t truly care as long as he could sleep with whoever he pleased whenever he wanted to. And he pushed for that fact,” Draco said. He sat back in his seat and took his mother in. “Did…did father have to do anything that would have broken the marriage contract while under the control of the Dark Lord?” he asked.

Narcissa sighed and pushed her dishes away. “By the time that the Death Eaters were starting to lose control over what they could and couldn’t do, we had been married. It stopped him from being forced to do certain things. Did he do other things though? Yes, he did. He was mostly to bank roll the war just as your grandfather had been along with others,” she said. “It was not a good time for any one family.”

Draco blew out a slow breath, feeling his body relax as he nodded. They turned their attention back to their food for a bit of time, getting through the main course and coming to the dessert before they continued to talk.

“What is the new contract looking like?” he asked.

Narcissa pulled out a copy of their contract, handing it to her son with a smile. Draco opened it and frowned as he started to read through it. “We will still be married, like I told you, but now we do not have a child minimum hanging over us. We can find our own lovers, using contracts to create children for our partners or for the Malfoy line according to magic’s demand. Blood adoptions would happen, partially on my end, to allow them to fully claim Malfoy blood.” She broke off a bit of her tart and ate it, delighting at the sweet fruit taste. “You are still Heir Malfoy, while obviously Lord Potter is Heir Black, but currently you are secondary heir to Lord Potter. Any children that we have that are declared Malfoy’s or Black’s in my case, will become branch families and be given a portion of the family’s money to start building their own fortune.”

“I see you won’t have to sleep with father unless you feel the need to?” Draco asked.

Narcissa nodded her head as she placed her napkin down on her finished plate. “We are rather tired of having to have potions in our systems to attract us to each other to try to have a secondary child,” she snorted. “There is a reason why your future marriage contract states that you are allowed to find lovers outside of your marriage for the purpose of children if it comes to it.”

“Which is good since Markus has been talking about a possible courting contract for us. With surrogates,” Draco admitted as he played with a napkin. “Or rather female lovers who are willing to do the Children contracts so that we can indulge in our need for a woman but also have children that would be ours,” he told her. “Pansy has already agreed to break our courting contract, stating that she does not want to marry anyone but would like to have as many children as she can carry. Or if she does marry, it will be to someone who isn’t an heir to their own house. Even then, she would still carry for us. Just more of the potions route instead of having sex,” he continued. He was able to barely control the hot blush of red over his cheeks.

Narcissa chuckled at him. “Ah, the absolute delight of youth just learning about your hormones. Tell Heir Flint to send over the Courting Contract that you both are hoping for and we will look over it. I doubt that he will be stupid with it,” she told him. Draco smiled and nodded once, pleased with her easy acceptance.

10 A Twisting Surprise

Sitting down at his desk in his shared room, Harry smiled as he watched Lukas slip out to go on his chaperoned date with his betrothed. He was glad that the other male was getting some time alone finally. Ever since he had been chosen as another Champion for the Lily School, he had found that he rarely was alone at any time.

And he had been wanting to read through Pettigrew’s journal since it had been found. He had a feeling that there was something in it that he should know. He kind of doubted that Dumbledore would tell him anything about what was going on if he didn’t think he had to. And this was despite the fact that Voldemort had gone after him every single year in some form or another.

Harry moved his lamp closer over his head, allowing him to have better reading light, opening the journal to a random page.

Something…happened today. Something that I’m unable to put into words but it is oh to late to save me. I’m already marked, tied to the monster that wears such a pretty face and speaks with his honeyed lies.

Harry blinked several times at the almost poetic quality of the words that had been placed on the entry before he decided that he should start from the beginning of the journal. Flipping to the very first page, he found that it had been started during the Maurader’s seventh year.

We’ve already started our 7th year and already, as it has been from the start, James has become the center of attention. Not that it’s at all surprising considering that he’s been Gryffindor’s golden boy, best seeker in the last hundred years and is the all around brilliant heir and future Lord of the Potters.

And from what I’m hearing, Dumbledore’s golden goose in the future. Hopefully Lord and Lady Potter aren’t stupid and make sure their wealth will be protected against that long fingered charlatan.

Mother always made sure that our money is safe and so will I when I take over. Both of our wills will stop the Ministry and Dumbledore both from draining the Pettigrew name dry.

“He was extreme in his distaste about Dumbledore by the looks of it,” Harry said, frowning slightly to himself. “But then again, I’m not feeling all that charitable towards him either because of all of this.” He flipped to the next entry.

It finally happened. James and Lily have been dating since last year and he actually popped. Not even a courting contract! Just a full on engagement via the muggle ways. Pathetic for a lord to be. I have a feeling that the Potter Family Magics won’t allow either of them to have full access to the entire Potter Estate.

But I was asked if I wanted to be an uncle to their future children, and a groomsman at their wedding. I said yes to both questions. They’re getting married right after we graduate.

Lily is already working with Lady Potter about getting the wedding planned out to perfection. The amount of money that is going to be spent on it is staggering, but she wants to be smart about it while doing it right.

She wants to keep it small, protected and just family. She’s going to make sure that we’re all protected this time.

She’s not wrong to do so though. If only she knew who I was in contact with and all of the truths that I was learning every day…

Harry frowned as he noted the date. “So he was starting to talk to Voldemort and kept it a secret from them starting around mid-semester of their last year,” he mused aloud, staring at the pages. The following entries continued over what he was learning, the planning for the wedding and the building war. Just short notes about things.

Entries that danced around the subject of Voldemort. Until finally, Harry came to the last three entries that were set when he was enjoying his second Halloween, all of fifteen months old and not knowing they were hiding.

Harry looked up when Winky placed a hot cup of tea that smelled like spearmint and sugar next to him, making him smile at her. “Thanks, Winky,” he said.

“Of course. You be going to bed soon yes?” she asked, Harry nodding with a smile.

“Yes. I’m almost done with my reading and then I’ll head to bed,” he promised. Winky nodded and disappeared with a gentle pop of magic. Harry took a moment to steady himself with the tea before he returned to the journal, opening it back up to the entries that he had left off on.

Something…happened today. Something that I’m unable to put into words but it is oh to late to save me anyway. I’m already marked, tied to the monster that wore such a pretty face and speaks with his honeyed lies.

I cannot talk about what happened, the secret held to my very soul and magic, but there is still much that I can talk about.

I can speak Voldemort’s name if needed.

I can speak of my place by his side.

I can speak of the lies that he fed me, seen for what they are much to late to do anything about them.

The role that I will be forced to play from this day forward.

I can also speak of my own deeply held regret and the knowledge that one day I will face the afterlife, going to a place of deep darkness and horror for the sins that I have committed.

First, let me write this down. While I can speak his name, I can only truly write his last name as I have discovered. Riddle. He claims to be the Heir to Slytherin, but as far as I can tell, the magics of Slytherin have rejected him. To hide this, he tells others that he has no need for the magics, he’s powerful enough without them. Using the family magics to gain our goals would be taking the fun out of taking over the Wizarding World after all.

But I have started to see more than others. The Magics of the House know what he did. He has done Forbidden Magic, magic that can not be found unless looking for it specifically.

Soul Containers. Horcruxes. Just how many times he has split his soul, I do not know but I fear that should he lose his life, such as it is, that he would just become something else with those in the world. Most likely a wraith. Not a full soul that is able to pass, but a being just waiting to take over a body.

But hopefully, when someone finds this journal, the name Riddle will help them find out who he is behind the mask of Lord Voldemort.

I can tell you that he was oh so smooth. Smart, charismatic. He was easily able to lie to everyone. Dumbledore didn’t trust him from day one but went about things with him in all the wrong ways. That man should have damn well helped him, put him on a different path instead of letting him walk the one he was at the crossroads of. Instead, with his visible distrust and bias towards him and all Slytherins, he pushed the Dark Lord further down the path of anger and evil.

This journal though comes to late for so many of us. Tomorrow, he will go hunt the Potters down. I have already told him the secret of their hiding, waking up far to late to save them.

Sirius was never the one that held their secret! I was…I was the one who held the secret. They trusted the rat, the coward. The one who he would never look upon when he had his Moony by his side…

No. It can not matter why I did it. I did it. I knew when I started to fall from Him that he would never look at me like that. But the promises that the Dark Lord weaved in my ear was such a siren call…

I do not know what will happen come tomorrow. If I can after, I will write in my journal one last time and have my mother’s elder elf hide it in the school. I am sure that someone will find it eventually.

Or the clues that I will be leaving carefully behind.

I will have to see how it goes in the end.

Just know that I weep with sorrow at what I did. I know that it will not be enough to be forgiven to say I am sorry, but I am working to fix what I broke. That I am working to sew this wound on my soul that I created with my own actions with trying to make it so that it can be fixed by someone stronger then me.

Hopefully his name will help and hopefully I am able to leave more information out there.

It’s done.

Lily and James are dead and gone.

Their son lived somehow. I think they most likely did something to protect him. I was right when I thought that they wouldn’t have been able to claim the full rights of the Potter estate, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have access to the knowledge, history, and spells of the Potter family.

I don’t know what kind of magic they did, but it was able to save Harry and destroyed Voldemort’s body for a time.

Does this mean I’m free though? No, far from it. Sirius is already hunting me down even as I write this. I have to hide. The brand on my arm demands that I be ready for the Master that turned me into nothing more then a piece of living meat.

I have already sent a letter to my mother, telling her to leave England and cut all ties from it. That my sins will haunt the Pettigrew name here for generations to come. I refuse to allow her to be hurt for what I did. I told her to have a new heir. One that would be a proper heir.

I am writing in this journal just to state that Voldemort is still living. He is a wraith, I saw it. He is a broken soul that is drenched in evil, anger and lust. He has killed, tortured, raped and maimed for most of his life. He has done so much more but writing it out would take so much more then what I have time to write.

I know I carry my sins on my soul and that when I leave my life, I will be judged for them. But until then? The mark demands that I hide, wait and look for my master when the time comes. Demands that when the time is right, I am to rejoin him and help him to regain a body once more.

I fear for the coming future. I hope that you are able to find this in time. I hope that you can stop him, reader.

I fear that I will not live to see him fall. That I will not live to pay for my sins in this world just as the next.

Do you think…that my greatest sin was that I had started to fall in love with the Dark Lord? That I knew somewhere deep in me that his words were lies covered in sweetness, spoken from a beautiful face? I knew even when I was letting him lead me to his bed that he was just using me. Just as he uses Bellatrix as he pleases. Just as he has used whoever caught his attention.

But I still let myself fall into that trap and look at where it has gotten me.

Without my friends by my side. Without a true love after I have moved on from the one that will never be. Without the nephew that will come to hate me for what I have done the moment that he learns what happened and until past both our deaths I believe.

I am truly an idiot. But…I hope that this journal helps you to learn who he was. Who he is.

I hope that you find the wraith of a soul that is floating around. I hope that you survive whatever is driving you to read this journal of a traitor and that you see the end of this monster.

And should I die? I hope that I die knowing that he has been forever destroyed.

And that in some way that you are able to change the world at large. Make it so that those who carry Evil in their hearts do not rise up. Make it so that everyone is fully, completely equal. Make it so that magic once more sings with Pleasure, Delight, and Happiness once again instead of with Despair and Pain.

Please. For the small amount of my soul that is still unstained by sin, I pray for this.

Harry closed the journal slowly, staring at the name on the cover for a long moment before blowing out a huff. “I will have to give this to Gringotts. Only a copy though,” he said to the empty room, missing when Lukas walked in and closed the door behind him before he talked.

“It’s not very hard to create a copy of things. You just need something that is the same size and thickness or bigger,” Lukas said as he walked further into the room. He smiled at Harry when the other male jumped and whipped around. “We can go gather something tomorrow seeing as it is weekend. Madame Maxine will be happy to escort us to Hogsmead. I need to gather a few things for Valentines day for my betrothed anyways, and so do several others who haven’t been able to get what they wanted.”

Harry hummed and nodded. “I need to pick up some catalogs anyways. Some of the things that I want though, I can only get from Diagon or from one of it’s side alleys,” Harry said after he had switched to French with a flick of his wrist. He was getting better with casting the translation charm that he was using, but also with the language itself. The charm only had to translate every few words now instead of the entire sentence.

Lukas beamed at him, noting this, before ruffling his hair. “We can go there instead. I will tell the Madam that you are going to join us tomorrow then,” he said. Harry smiled at him before he yawned, hiding it with one hand. “For now though, you should head to bed. Get some sleep,” he suggested, clicking his tongue.

Harry looked at the time and winced at it as he nodded his head. He placed the journal into a locked and warded box that Winky had found in the Ravenclaw vaults. He then slipped the box into an equally warded drawer in his desk, locking it with the key that he had been given when he had moved in before he took the last of his tea with him to his bed.

He climbed into bed and settled back as Lukas wrote a short note, sending it to the headmistress as he smiled softly. Harry sighed as he watched the other male, enjoying the last of his tea as he went through all of the information that he had found in the journal.

Harry’s mind returned to what he had read. Voldemort’s last name was Riddle, which sounded muggle and vaguely familiar. From what he knew from his lessons with Draco, Blaise and Cassius had given him since, there was no magical family with the name Riddle.

So he had a feeling that, despite what he wanted others to think, Voldemort wasn’t a Pureblood and had never been one.

From what the journal had said, he had at one time been handsome, and very charming. He had been able to weave lies that no one thought to look at very hard. So there was a record somewhere connected to the name of Riddle who was the Heir of Slytherin.

But if Pettigrew was right, the magics had seemingly rejected him because he had done something. Something with his soul that was known as Horcruxes.

Harry would need to write to at least his Ravenclaw manager, but most likely both of them. He would need to send them a copy of the journal and ask if they could look into why Voldemort had decided to attack his family that night. Or find someone who could do it for him. He needed to know why Voldemort was so hell bent on killing him.

Harry wasn’t going into the fight that Voldemort was begging for without knowing just what was going on. And why Voldemort came after him so many times.

He set his cup to the side, stretching his arms over his head and pulling the curtains closed around his bed. He slid down to hopefully get some sleep. Lukas would wake him up in the morning to get a shower, change and eat before the trip to Hogsmead if he couldn’t get much sleep.

But he quickly found that the tea had done a good job in relaxing his body and mind, helping him to fall asleep easily as Lukas climbed into his own bed, reading for a bit.

11 Making New Friends

Remus stepped out of the fireplace, already smiling at Dumbledore, getting a smile and twinkle from the man as he took a seat after brushing off his robe. “Remus, it’s good to see you again. Have you spoke with Sirius since the trial?” he asked.

Remus shook his head, frowning. “I had a meeting that he had to cancel because of the trial that got pushed up. And then after the trial when he told me he would write to me about this. His last letter to me to set one up said that he’s very busy trying to fix the Black family now that he’s free. It seems the family became even more broken when his grandfather lost his wife the way he did and started to withdraw from the rest of the world,” he admitted. He took the offered cup of tea with a nod.

“I see,” Dumbledore sighed. He sat back and frowned to himself. stroked his beard with a frown. “I was afraid of that,” he admitted. “I was worried that he would pull away from the world at large, and from his friends who should be by his side. There’s just so much that is going on and I can not afford to step away from my work for a time,” he admitted.

“I think that he’s mostly just focused on taking care of the issues within his family and his cousins, making sure that those who hurt others can’t,” Remus said. He shook his head with a rueful smile. “He’s always talked about disowning Bellatrix completely after he had dissolved her marriage to regain her vaults. He knows for a fact that she broke the cheating contract by her own admission. He’s going to speak with Lord Lestrange from the rumors that I’ve heard running around.”

“I see,” Dumbledore said as he sat back and frowned to himself as he tapped his fingers on his chair arm. “Are you absolutely sure that you can not get him to speak with you about this?”

Remus sighed and pulled out the note that he had gotten from Sirius just before he came to see Dumbledore. “He has offered to meet up with me in a couple of days at a cafe before he goes to speak with Lord Lestrange about some things,” he said. He showed Dumbledore the note, the man frowning at the way the letters jumbled together, scattering across the page.

“It seems as if he’s playing some kind of trick on us,” Dumbledore said, showing Remus the paper. Remus just snorted.

“It’s a Black family spell to stop anyone who isn’t supposed to be reading the letter from reading it,” he told him. “I can’t break it, and from what Sirius told me, the last person who tried to figure it out died in the Janus Thickly Ward.” He paused as he drank some more of his tea and continued. “Thirty years after he had tried to break it.”

Dumbledore quickly dropped the idea of trying to figure out the spell for his own collection. “Indeed. How about you just tell me what it had said?” he asked.

“I can do that,” Remus said. “Pretty much, in three days time, he has a meeting with Lord Lestrange set up as a private meeting at a high class restaurant and he’s willing to meet with me before he goes to the meeting,” he said. “For a few minutes at least from what I can tell. He stated that he only has about thirty minutes to meet with me since he has to talk with the Goblins about getting copies of his cousin’s marriage contracts and the meeting with Lord Lestrange after that,” he said.

Dumbledore hummed thoughtfully, lacing his fingers together in front of him. “I would like to see if you could speak about his plants for young Harry.”

“Seeing as Harry has been named an officially emancipated minor and Lord of his own? He’ll probably just offer him a home, should he wish for it,” Remus replied.

“Still, I would feel better about all of this if he understood the importance of Harry returning to his family’s home. There are a variety of reasons and it would be easier to have him return if Sirius was willing to back me on this,” Dumbledore said. “It is for his protection.”

Remus nodded in agreement, not really seeing anything wrong with what Dumbledore was requesting of him. The man had given him so much over the years to help him. Had actually been the person to introduce him to a publisher that would pay him a good bit of royalties from his books about history and Defense. And before then, the man had helped him to find a Master for his mastery in both History and Defense. And then there was the fact that Dumbledore had allowed him to come to Hogwarts when others wouldn’t have allowed him the chance.

Dumbledore had kept him safe.

He owed so much to the man. Talking with Sirius about this was an easy enough favor to do for Dumbledore.

He smiled to Dumbledore as he stood. “I will write to him and accept his current invitation to meet with him. I just hope that he will listen to me,” he said. “He disappeared for a while there, yes, telling me that he was healing on a tropical island. But it looks as if he has been doing a lot more then just that,” he said as he shook his head.

Dumbledore smiled at him. “That is all that I can ask. Thank you, Remus.” Once the werewolf disappeared, he hummed as he looked at the note and shook his head, shoving it into an envelope to send it back to Remus.

He knew that Remus wouldn’t lie about what had happened about someone who had messed with a Black created spell. He had seen some of the things like that happen and wasn’t really going to get on the bad side of such a spell.”

Three days later found Sirius sitting down across from Remus, staring at him as he tried to figure out his feelings and when they had changed for the man.

Was it during their last year when he had started to notice when his sometimes lover had started to become more of a follower of Dumbledore as the Leader of the Light?

Or had it been after Marlene had been killed, and Remus hadn’t stayed behind long enough to help him mourn the woman he had found love in? The woman that he had planned to ask to marry him after she helped him heal from the fact that Remus didn’t want anyone to know about their relationship had just been killed.

And Remus had left him to flounder in his mourning.

Hell, that one had hurt more seeing as Lily, who had been heavily pregnant and not quite as close to him as Remus had forced him to the Potter house to care for him personally.

Maybe it had been during his time rotting in Azkaban and the guards had taken every chance they could to mock him that no one came to visit on visiting days. Even the Lestrange brothers had their father trying to visit them for longer then the five minutes allotted to higher level prisons. He had mostly been turned away most often then not, but he came like clockwork, every week, to visit them.

They all knew that the guard would use the hurt that being denied his friends and love would have done to all three men. But Remus hadn’t even tried once to come visit him during the time.

But here he was, sitting across from Remus after he had time away from the man to truly heal his mind and body from the time in Azkaban. Rethinking what he felt about the meek mouse of a man across from him in the full.

“Remus,” he greeted softly. Remus looked up as he smiled slightly at him. “How are you?” he asked.

“I’m doing a lot better. And…you’re looking good,” Remus said as he sat down across from his finally. Sirius hummed, nodding his head.

“Amazing what having an actual healer doing the care for you does. While you were gone and I was at Black Island, I had a specialized healer come to help me with the after effects of the Dementors. She comes from some little spit of land in the middle of somewhere magical that has history with such creatures as them,” he said. “Apparently, Ekrizdis had messed with a creature that was connected to Death. A cleanser who clears zones of great pain and death actually. They would eat the lingering traces and then return to their homes until a new place called to them from somewhere and they cleanse it.”

Remus eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I’ve never heard of such creatures.”

“She was a wealth of lost information in the British Isles. Her family used to work with the creatures before they lost their Names. The guy messed with sailors that he would torture until they broke, and then using a ritual, would mix those creatures and the broken sailors to create Dementors. It’s a whole thing and she’s agreed to send me whatever books she finds to me,” he said. “But she knew how to best work to fix the damage done by them. So I was finally able to heal, even if I did have to come back earlier then planned. I wanted to be here for Harry and I was able to free myself to help our world find a new path.”

“What do you mean by that?” Remus asked. He frowned as he sat up straight. Sirius hummed, pulling out a copy of the book that he had started to work on from his bag that hung from his chair. He had found that his father had left a lot of information in his study in Grimmauld place about how their world used to be before Dumbledore had truly sunk his claws into their world at large.

Remus took the book, flipped it over, finding the outline on top, including what classes the muggle raised should take the year before they started Hogwarts. How their parents had been watched at one time just in case the child was hurt or was put in danger for whatever reason. How the new witches and wizards would be able to create New Houses and fresh blood to their people.

He scanned through the notes on how Dumbledore in his years in power, starting as early as his apprenticeship with the Flamels, had worked to have people stop looking for the muggleborns early in their lives, and putting them under the safety watch. And when he had power in Hogwarts, how the lessons that they would take had been stopped, along with how the Muggle Studies had been dumbed down.

Remus looked up at him with wide eyes, fingers clenching around the book. Sirius waved a hand. “Take it with you. It’s only a copy. Dumbledore nor anyone else will be able to read it and you won’t be able to talk about it either, just to warn you. It has a contact compulsion on it for good reason,” he warned. Remus scowled at him. “Don’t give me that look. Go ahead and try looking me in the eye while telling me that you wouldn’t have run off to Dumbledore with that if I didn’t have that compulsion. Go on. I dare you,” he drawled, leaning forward.

Gray eyes started into brown eyes before Remus looked away. The man knew that Sirius was right. He would have taken the book to Dumbledore. He would have shown him the book and let him do whatever he pleased with it. And Sirius knew it. Had already planned for it even as he hoped that it wasn’t the truth.

“That’s what I thought,” Sirius snorted as he sat back in his chair, shaking his head with a blank look on his face. “What does he want from me, Remus? Did he not get the damn hint that I want nothing to do with him right now or is he trying to use you as something new?” he asked.

Remus slowly closed the book. “He was hoping that you would listen to reason and help to convince Harry to return to his relatives,” he said. He looked up when Sirius snorted.

“No.” Sirius shifted in his seat. “Did you not hear all the rants that Lily had about how her sister was a small minded bigoted bitch?” he asked. He tapped his fingers on the table. “Cause I sure as hell remember them. I highly doubt that Harry even considers that place a home, much less thinks of it with any kind of warmth or care that would be needed to supply any kind of actual magical blessing or ward.”

Remus frowned as he remembered the times he had listened to Lily talk and rant about Petunia. She had admitted that at one time she had hoped to fix things with Petunia during her wedding day. That hadn’t happened when James and Sirius had turned Dursley into something after he had insulted the late Lady Potter’s portrait and had called Sirius’ cousin Andromeda a frigid bitch.

Lily had been pissed about it all but understand why they had done that.

“Yes, I remember them,” he said after a moment. “But what does that have to do with Harry returning to his relatives if it’s the safest place for him?”

“Remus, think about it. The only close blood family outside of myself, Andromeda, Bellatrix, or Narcissa was Lily’s, Petunia Evens. Now Petunia Dursley.” Sirius pulled out some money and placed it down on the table to pay for their drinks. “You need to really stop and start thinking for yourself and not with whatever rose colored glasses it is you have for Dumbledore and his reasons to have you do his errands. Cause I did look deeper into Hogwarts history. The shack that you used to go to? Used to be a huge ass home that could home a whole ass pack of wolves when they were allowed to go to Hogwarts.”

Remus jerked his head up from where he had lowered it, staring with wide eyes at Sirius.

“It’s one of the books that my father had been working on before his death. You’ll see the first volume get published over the summer,” Sirius stated as he stood up. “If you will excuse me, I have an appointment in a bit.”

And with that, Sirius gathered his bag and cloak, leaving Remus in the cafe with a cup of cooling tea, a book that was in progress and a lot to think about.

Walking into the restaurant, Sirius smiled slightly at finding Corvus Lestrange standing at the hostess podium, waiting for him. “I hope that you don’t deem me impertinent for waiting for you,” he greeted the moment he saw Sirius, shaking his hand.

“Of course not. This is a very worrying conversation that we must have. I myself just got done with another such conversation that I have been putting off for quite a bit of time,” Sirius replied, turning to the hostess with a smile. “Private table for two, under Black,” he said.

She smiled politely at them and nodded as the reservation was pulled up in her book along with what table they were to be placed at. “Yes, I see you here. Please, follow me, Lord Black, Lord Lestrange, and I will show you to your seat,” she said, leading the way through the restaurant. She came to a table that was settled in a far corner that was away from most everyone else.

As with every table in the establishment, they were under a privacy ward that would protect their conversation from anyone who wasn’t a part of their table. Sirius sat down across from Corvus, the hostess placing menus down with a smile.

“Just use your wands to choose your drink or order. Tap the bell if you wish to ask anyone about the food or when you are ready to pay for your check,” she said, smiling as she tapped the side of the table with her wand. The table was quickly set up, fresh tea in a pot appearing.

“Thank you,” Corvus said, the girl nodding her head before she headed back to the front. “She’s a good girl. The family had started out as muggleborn family about two generations ago but they have made quite the name for themselves with this restaurant.”

“I learned that the non-magical family the young man came from owns a series of high class hotels and restaurants in the muggle world. He probably grew up knowing how to build and brand one, and then learned how to translate it into the Wizarding side,” Sirius said as he looked over the menu.

He decided to forgo the offered tea and go for a nice coffee that he had remembered enjoying while there with friends before everything had gone to shit. Corvus also chose a different coffee, doctoring their drinks as they wanted and choosing to share a large appetizer plate between them.

They also sent in their main dish order, which was made fresh and by human hands only. With that done, they settled in to talk while they waited for their food to arrive.

“So. Tell me, why did you agree to allow your grandson to marry Bellatrix? I remember that she was well known for not being any sorts of sane by that time,” Sirius stated, gazing at the other man over the rim of his coffee cup.

For a wizard who was in his seventies already, Corvus didn’t look that old. No more than his early forties, but Sirius knew that was normal for a healthy wizard. Sirius’ own grandfather, as he had learned, had died due to a nasty strain of dragon pox after having his body strained from the loss of his wife. Or so the Goblins had told him. The man could have easily lived for another forty years if he hadn’t caught it while still in mourning for his late love.

Corvus hummed as he thought about what to say. “My eldest son, who has since that time been…encouraged to leave the country, had set it up. He thought that she would give him a grandson, and he would be able to encourage me to leave things to him so that I may retire,” he sneered. “But she refused to do anything but the barest of minimums that the contract required and that she would only have a child for her precious Dark Lord. As I know for a fact, he had no urge to have a child. Ever.”

Sirius snorted softly. “I know for a fact that she broke the rather loose fidelity clause the moment she could. She would sleep with whoever she wanted as long as she did sleep with Rodolphus once a week. I think that at one time she slept with him at most once every three months and that was when she wasn’t getting any from her toys,” he said as he put his cup down.

Corvus nodded. “Yes, she did,” he agreed. “You wish to break their marriage, don’t you?” he asked.

“I do. Mostly because she’s brought shame to both of our families for her actions. Breaking her marriage contract is very high on the public list, but in private, her allowing her Black Madness to rule her from the word go is the main reason I want to do this. I saw that on his side, he didn’t break any of the clauses. He tried but was often stopped by her.”

“That is how it happened with them,” Corvus confirmed. “Unfortunately for all, by the time that someone could do something about their marriage, the trials had already happened,” he continued, once more sneering.

Sirius nodded his head as the appetizer plate appeared in the middle of the table, smaller plates sitting in front of them. “We can go today after we have our lunch and speak with my manager about the contract. It will allow your family to keep the dowry that you were given but will allow me to seize her vaults under her Black name.”

Corvus nodded his head. “All that I would ask you return anything that belongs to the Lestrange family before the marriage with them,” he said, placing some of the food onto his plate.

Sirius smiled at him, gray eyes sparkling as he nodded in agreement with the request. “That’s more then fine.”

Corvus found himself marveling at the flash of desire for the younger man that sat across from him before he shook that thought off.

He had had something once upon a time with another male, but his family had pushed him to marry his wife to have children after the man had disappeared one day. He supposed that it was a good thing that Tom had disappeared when he had considering who he had come back as.

But in the moment, with Sirius across from him, asking about his family and how his businesses were going, he felt the desire for more then a quick tumble in bed. His magic had never lead him wrong before and he doubted that it was leading him wrong this time.

Sirius blushed slightly at the contemplative look he was getting but hid it behind his cup of coffee as he got himself back under control.

Stepping through the floo at the house that he was staying in, a smaller Black home that sat on the main family land, Sirius dropped down into a seat as Corvus stepped out. The man brushed some soot from his suit. “Are you alright?” he asked, frowning slightly at the fact that Sirius rubbed at his forehead.

Sirius sighed as he eyed the man, weighing his decisions as to what to say. “What most people don’t know about the Black family is that we’re closer to our magic, but we don’t use it like the majority of wizards. Not just in spells and rituals, but also in every day life,” he said. He waved a hand to the couch near him. “Tea? Coffee?” he offered.

“Coffee if possible,” Corvus said, Sirius nodding his head.

“Winky, would you please get Lord Lestrange some coffee and myself a cup of my special tea?” he asked when she appeared. The young elf nodded her head.

“Winky does,” she chirped before she disappeared. It took a few seconds for a cup of hot tea that smelled faintly of roses and honey, and a cup of hot, fresh coffee, made to his taste.

“I see that Winky was able to find a new master and remembered my coffee preference,” Corvus said, Sirius humming.

“Harry is allowing me to use her and Dobby to keep them busy when they’re not with him,” Sirius admitted. “I have one elf, but he’s so damn old and cruel that I don’t want to use him at all. I’ve already had to metaphorically tie his mouth shut about talking to anyone about anything concerning the House of Black.”

“A good thing.” Corvus sipped at his coffee as he watched Sirius drink his tea. “You were saying about the Black Magic?” he asked him.

Sirius hummed. “Right. Blacks always have clauses in their marriage contracts to allow both parties to have lovers as long as they keep them discreet and there are no bastard children that are born from them,” he said. “That is because our magic was always heavily steeped in the sexual part of the Wizarding traditions and old rituals. Fertility, blessings of lust between those who are arranged in marriages, that sort of thing,” he continued.

“The Lestranges are much like that, yes, but more geared towards a general fertility and sexual loving then something specialized,” Corvus admitted.

“Yeah. But the Lestranges don’t end up having issues with their magic if they don’t have sex after their first time,” Sirius snorted as he put his cup to the side.

Corvus’s eyes went wide at that as Sirius nodded.

“The dementors did help to pull off some of that weirdness of my magic, allowing me to survive without blowing the entire prison sky high in a fit of accidental magic,” Sirius stated. “But after I got free and was able to start getting better, I had to find lovers for a time who were willing to help and knew about the Black thing. I had a couple of guys but one was a very good friend when I was younger. His wife agreed to allow him to help me cause he could keep up with me but since I returned…”

“I had heard that you and Lupin were secret lovers at one time. Have you not thought to go back to him?” Corvus asked. Sirius shook his head. The Lestrange Lord watched as the soft black hair won the fight against whatever it was that kept it in loose waves, curling a bit more around Sirius’ face.

“No. He…there was a short time that I thought he and I could become friends at the least after everything happened. But since Harry took up his Lordships and the heirship to the Black family, he’s been pulling away. Today just solidified to me that even if he is my friend, he will always see Dumbledore as some greater being. I can’t do that to myself nor to my godson,” he said. “So when I removed Bellatrix NoName from the family at the bank today, my magic reminded me that I need to find someone.”

“I see,” Corvus hummed. He sipped his coffee as he stared at the other man. He let his mind work out the offer before he placed his cup down, drawing silver-gray eyes towards him. “I have an offer for you that will help both of us.”

“Oh?” Sirius asked as he tilted his head.

“I find that I am very attracted to you. Neither of us have partners and I do doubt that you intend to marry any time soon,” Corvus said. Sirius snorted softly.

“Only if my partner is real good with not having any children with me. And that is another kind of story that you have to be closer to me to get,” Sirius said. He looked to the man. “What are you suggesting?”

“A partnership. I believe that muggleborns have called it friends with benefits situation. You will get what you need: a lover who is experienced, will not betray your confidence, and a safe place to get what you need. Me? I get to have a pretty partner to spoil and to have you in my bed without any expectations of marriage. I do not wish to marry unless I am absolutely sure that I am in love with that person. I do not have an urge to have more children either. My wife is long dead, at her own hand unfortunately, and that had soured my desire of marriage,” Corvus said.

Sirius sat back in his chair, staring at the other man with a long look, taking in his looks. His hair was a rich brown color, almost black in certain lights, but with the soft hings of red in the candle and firelight. He had taken good care of his skin and body, keeping fit and healthy, showing little signs of his actual age.

Really looking at him and being looked at so intently by black eyes, Sirius felt a flush of heat, which he shoved to the side to think things through. He placed his cup to the side and stood to walk over, Corvus watching him.

“Before I answer you, I have one question in return. Would you kiss me?” he asked. Corvus stood up, Sirius having to look up slightly as the man smirked at him. A strong hand came up to tangle in his hair and tip his head back as Sirius found himself in a slow kiss. The man was seemingly taking his time in tasting Sirius.

The younger man groaned as he melted under the kiss, feeling Corvus wrap his arm around his waist and pulling him closer to his body, gripping at the strong arms that were holding him. He pressed whimpered when a tongue licked at his mouth, opening his lips and whining in desire.

Corvus pulled away, already loving the way glazed molten silver eyes were staring at him and soft lips were swelling from the friction. “Well?”

Sirius just groaned out his yes and pulled him back into another kiss.

100

Corvus chuckled softly, watching as Sirius stirred in his bed. His hair had become a riot of curls, hickies dotting along his collarbone and shoulders, leaving him looking well and truly fucked. He could admit that he hadn’t thought that the younger man would be so welcoming in bed, well used to more demure lovers, male, female and in-between.

But it had been quite the pleasant surprise that had ignited a fire in him. It had made him want to see just how much it would take to wear out the younger man. And it had taken him quite a bit of time before Sirius had passed out from all of the pleasure and fun.

It had left Corvus feeling pleasantly sore, his back a mess of scratches that he had to get help to get healing cream on.

He chuckled again as he put his towel around his neck, Sirius lifting his head with a pout to squint at him. “I would linger, but it has come to my attention that my son wishes to try to wiggle his way into my life once more,” he said, coming over to kiss friction swollen lips.

Sirius hummed with a nodded. “Yeah, that would be something that you’d have to deal with and leave, wouldn’t it?” he pouted. “But I do understand that when life calls, you need to answer at some time,” he said, his voice rough. He slowly sat up, wincing at the soreness, black eyes turning hot as the blankets fell, leaving exposed the hand shaped bruises on lean hips and the remnants of what Corvus hadn’t been able to wipe off of him, not wanting to wake him.

“I have left a hot bath ready for you in the bathroom. I figured that our time together left you quite sore after so long with a lover with the stamina to match yours,” Corvus told him. He carefully scooped Sirius up into his arms, the younger man hissing but didn’t do anything else as he was lifted and carried into the bathroom. Corvus gently placed him down into the hot bath, Sirius groaning at the feeling of hot water and special potions that would soak into his skin to help get rid of the soreness.

“Thanks,” he sighed. Corvus chuckled softly as he returned to getting dressed once more to look presentable to the rest of the world.

“Winky was kind enough to gather the needed items when I asked. Your supply was note quite stocked the way that I was hoping,” he admitted. “I have to say that while I’m not much above average in size, it would have been fine if we hadn’t been going at it for quite so long. Or so hard. I wanted to make sure that at the least you would be able to walk somewhat properly after today,” he said. “I’m very much a believer in after care.”

Sirius smiled as he watched Corvus pull on his laundered clothes. He was allowing the potions in the hot water to do their job while he thought. “It’s been really rare for me to actually want to have so much sex,” he said. “Most of my lovers had never really made me want to sleep with them outside of the necessary amount. And they tended to not do aftercare.”

Corvus sat on the edge of the tub as he reached out, carefully working his fingers through the curls, finding that the heat had relaxed them enough to let his fingers pull out knots. “I take great pride in making my partners not only enjoy their time with me in bed but also out of it. Mind, most are still rather stiff in various aspects, but I do not let them leave if they are not well taken cared of in all aspects if I’m allowed to do so. Take the rest of the day and rest. Eat something filling but easy. I left my instructions with Winky since I can not do it myself. I need to deal with my wayward child.”

Sirius snorted as he sighed, relaxing even more. “I will. Feel free to come by sometime soon though. I don’t think I’ll be quite as up to doing what we did, but I can always use friends and allies in our world.”

Corvus smiled, lifting Sirius’ wet hand up to his lips and pressing a kiss to the back of it before he stood. “I would be honored to be considered a friend to you. And if you ever find yourself in need of an escort, feel free to ask of my help. Do not hide our friendship and situation from your godson though. From what I have heard of him, he’s quite the smart boy and will understand what is going on.”

Sirius snorted as he smiled. “He’ll understand alright, but he will have questions, and will most likely judge you for a bit.”

“I can deal with that. He is friends with the Longbottom heir yes?” Corvus asked, Sirius nodding his head. “Tell him that no, I am not helping you in any way to help to assuage my own guilt over what my ex-daughter-in-law did with my grandsons. I feel my pain that he has gone through that hurt for so long, and that his family has been hurt the way they were, but until I have a solid trial and conviction, all I can do is place money into research to figure out what happened to his parents,” he said softly.

Sirius smiled, nodding his head. “I’ll talk with him about that. Truthfully, your grandsons never seemed like they were someone who enjoyed torturing people. Much less do it for the Dark Lord. That was all Bellatrix’s thing. I just want to make sure that those who deserve a punishment are rightfully punished. And those who are innocent, are let go. No one should go through that torture unjustly. I don’t think they should go through it anyways, but that will have to be another fight for another day,” he said.

Corvus smiled, nodding as he once more placed a kiss to the back of Sirius’ hand. “I will write to you tomorrow about what happens with my son. Perhaps we can meet up in a few days? I hope to be able to speak with your godson and his partner personally. I know the Warringtons and they are wonderful people,” he said. “I am thinking of changing the Lestrange sitting from the Dark Faction to the Gray and Neutral faction,” he said. “So it is mostly political with my desire to speak with them.

Sirius laughed lightly. “I can do that. Go on now though. No need to put off tossing your brat out on his arse,” he said. “Leave me to my soaking and basking in great sex.”

Corvus smirked, gathered the last of his things and headed down the stairs to use the floo to head home. Sirius sighed as he slipped further into the water.

“That man has the dick of a god,” he grumbled. “And made me see the stars up close and personal.” He blew out a breath, making the water ripple. “Fuck.”

12 Second Task and the Aftermath

101

The day before the second task was to be held, Dumbledore was sitting with the rest of the committee for the tournament. Snape, McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick had all come to him two days before the current meeting with notes from various Magical Guardians stating that they were not to be used in any form, fashion, or way in the tournament.

Bagman was already groaning as he went through the various forms. “Lord Black has taken over as Miss. Grangers’ and Mr. Thomas’s Magically Guardian. All of it legal. We can’t touch them,” he sighed. “And Miss. Delacour’s sister can not be used either. Anyone under the age of seventeen can’t be used without parental and personal permission on top of that. Never mind that they have to know their rights in this matter, that they will be perfectly safe, and all sign an acceptance with permission from their guardian,” he said, slamming the papers down. “Why didn’t we know this before now?” he hissed, glaring.

Dumbledore sighed. “I received the papers two days prior. That was when I contacted you about something happening.” He stared at Bagman with a frown. “You refused to see me about it until today.”

Fudge rubbed at his face with a groan. “Who is still on the list of possible people? And are we absolutely sure that the spells will hold properly?” he asked.

Dumbledore handed him a list of spells that they would be using. “Warmth spells, anchored with a rune stone, another rune stone for each person to create a kind of a bubble of air around them so that they can breath. A sleeping spell that will last until the bubble of air is broken the moment that the bubble is above the water,” he said. “We had to rethink a few things because of what happened with Lord Potter,” he state,d hiding his distaste at saying the title for Harry.

He had tried so very hard to keep Harry from discovering things, from taking up the mantel of his title so early. But it had been all for naught. And then Sirius had gone and gotten a proper trial and freedom on top of it all. The fact that Remus had been close to Sirius when he had done so made him wonder how Sirius had done that.

After the last meeting he had had, the wolf had told Dumbledore that he had to have some time to think about things, disappearing off the face of the Earth. The man showed that he was still frighteningly good at hiding wherever he was even if he didn’t truly have any money. The Lupin’s homes were under careful wards that made them impossible to find, even more so then the known Black properties.

But he was going to keep all of this information hidden from the people before him as they looked over the list of names.

“I suppose that we could ask Heir Flint to be the person for Heir Cassius. Mr. Drang could be asked for Heir Krum. And maybe Heir Louise for Heiress Delacour. But who should be used for Lord Potter?” Bagman asked as he wrote out his requests to speak with each person.

“We can not use anyone who does not volunteer to be his rescue point. Mr. Weasley had agreed to be that person before the new rules were laid out. But perhaps I can speak with his mother and see if she would be willing to give us permission to use him,” Dumbledore mused. He wrote out the note, sending it off with an elf along with all the other letters.

They waited, drinking tea as the agreements from the requested people came in. They would meet an escort at the Great Hall to be shown their private rooms for the night and would head to the lake before the spectators started to arrive. When Ron came to the office, his mother was stepping out of the floo. Dumbledore was easily able to gain Molly’s written permission to use Ron as a rescue as long as Ron agreed to it.

He did, and he was shown to his private room, an elf delivering things for him to do the rest of the night, including his homework, before she left. The committee finally agreed that they had worked it out and left for the night. They didn’t know that Ron and Harry hadn’t spoken a word outside of the arguments between them since Halloween night.

Nor did they know that Harry didn’t want to speak with the red head while he was still being a stubborn ass about giving Harry an actual apology.

102

Harry looked up from his place at the Slytherin table with Cassius and turned his eyes to the Gryffindor table the morning of the first task. “I know who everyone has to get, outside of Heir Krum down there, but…you don’t think that they took Ron for me, do you?” he asked as he put his cup of juice down. Fleur frowned as Cassius snorted.

“It seems that zey did,” she said, noting that Seamus, Dean, and Neville had all noticed the missing red head as the twins frowned over a letter. The echo to her voice told everyone that knew her that she was using a charm to smooth most of her accent from her voice. “You should ask he’z brothers,” she suggested.

Luna hummed as she sat between Markus and Daphne. “Their mother has sent them a letter telling them not to worry about their brother. That she had given Dumbledore permission to use him for this, and that he agreed to it,” she told them softly, swaying as she smiled sweetly. Harry smiled at her as Daphne nudged her with her shoulder. He had felt rather bad that he hadn’t been able to hang out with her so much, but she had in turn flat out told him that she had been writing special journals.

For her, the time around and during Yule was magically heavy, which triggered smaller visions in her. She had also worked on her Tarot and Runes throwing, something that she learned from her father.

She had promised him that she would give him the entries as he needed to help guide his steps.

He sighed as he turned to his food with a shake of his head. “We’re going to have to go get changed soon,” Harry warned Fleur. She sniffed in distaste at that.

“You were right about gathering a suit that would hold ze heating charm better then just ze one applied to myself,” she admitted.

“I suggested them when we went shopping for a better suit for ourselves. I didn’t like the ones that we were given,” Cassius said.

“The rant had included something about there being no thickness or charm holding about it, not to mention not enough coverage compared to what should be used for the task,” Harry said, smiling at his partner. He shrugged as he carefully placed eggs onto his toast, biting into it as he chewed thoughtfully.

Luna waved to Cassius, the elder teen smiling over the table at her and waving back. He found that Luna was gentle and sweet, but he sometimes wondered what she knew when she told him that he should write letters in a journal. Just in case something happened. She reminded him that the tournament that they were taking part in was run by a man with plans and dangers behind every movement.

He had taken her advice and started to keep journals of letters to everyone in his life. Harry’s was larger and more of an ongoing one. He was writing about his memories with the other male, their time together and apart. He just hoped silently that he could one day give it to Harry as a book of good memories with each other.

Harry caught his eyes and smiled up at him, leaning up to kiss his cheek, making Cassius feel warm all the way to his toes. His partner turned back to speaking with Fleur about things, practicing his French as they discussed Harry’s newest potions essay.

103

Taking in a deep breath to calm his nerves, Harry slowly stretched his arms over his head as he frowned at the water that they were standing before. He had gillyweed tucked in one hand while Cassius had his own bundle, both ready to head into the water as they turned.

Cassius mother had been nice enough to get them enough gillyweed for a few times to test it out. A portrait had than shown them where an unused pool had been sitting under a long term stasis. The elves cleaned it out for them and refreshed the water so they could use it to practice with the gillyweed for the two weeks before the second task.

They both knew what was to come once they took it, and how to use it. Now they just had to get through the entire test.

As the announcers were talking about the set up and how each of the contestants would have a small monitoring bubble following them to show what was going on, Cassius and Harry shared a chaste kiss. They quietly wished each other good luck, those who saw it thinking it sweet.

Fleur giggled when they in turn pressed a kiss to each of her cheeks, Krum giving them a deadpan look when they looked to him. “I do not kiss taken boys. I am not attracted to those taken,” he stated. Harry laughed softly and shook his hand, quietly inviting him and whoever he wanted to bring around to the after party that their friend group was going to hold. He promised him that an elf would come show him where he needed to go if he called for Winky or Dobby.

Krum nodded, accepting it, with a small smile before they were called to start. Fleur went first, Cassius second with Krum third and Harry fourth. The water was murky around him but he used his wand to create a floating ball of light that would allow him to see as he moved. He also cast another spell, this one a path finding spell that Hermione had found in the Slytherin library when they were researching dragons.

The path finder ended up pinging on the four other humans outside of the four of them, the signals close together. He started to swim through the water, going around the floating plants, having caught sight of a gindelwind and stopping Fleur with a wave of his hand and shake of his head. While he could talk, it was more like a garble.

He arrived in the mermaid village, enjoying the alien architect and the natural beauty of it as Cassius swam by him. He looked like he had gotten turned around near a nest of water salamanders, one of which was hitching a ride on his shoulder before letting go and swimming into a building. Harry snickered as they moved to gather their captives. He found that Ron, Markus, and Lukas were the only ones left. Krum was swimming upwards with his friend in his hold, his shark head transformation already starting to shift back to his normal head.

Harry blew out bubbles in exasperation as he pointed to Ron with a grimace. He still shook his head and used the knife that was strapped to his thigh to slice through Ron’s ties along with Markus’ when Cassius asked. Fleur took the knife, having used a bubble headed charm and wearing a much warmer swimsuit then the one that they had been given originally. She sliced the ropes and freed Lukas, Harry taking it back as they started to head up to the surface.

Harry could already feel the gills on his neck start to close up as the webbing on his toes and fingers disappeared. He used the last of the webbing to get above water, taking in a gasp of air as Cassius, then Fleur joined him at the waters surface.

Ron gasped and coughed, waking up with wide eyes, sputtering as he started to feel the cold now that he was above the water. “Harry, mate…what…?”

“Not right now, Ron. Can you swim?” Harry asked. Ron nodded his head. “Then start swimming please. I can’t heft you properly with me,” he said. He pulled away once he was sure that Ron could swim okay with him. They got to the extended pier and allowed himself to be helped up onto it, taking a warm towel as Ron was helped up.

Markus has taken to flicking his wand at everyone, drying them off with a burst of warm air that did more than the offered blankets. They were then handed hot chocolate and bundled off to the tents with potbelly stoves giving off heat. In the end, it was decided that Krum had come in first place, putting him in second in the tournament. Harry and Fleur were sharing third place all around while Cassius took first place.

“Just one more of these damnable tasks,” Cassius groaned as he stuck his feet out in front of him, basking in the heat from the stone. He was already feeling warmer by the second. Harry hummed and pressed closer to his partner, sipping at his cup.

“I really can’t wait until we’re done with all of this and find out who wants to kill me this time,” he huffed. Cassius grunted and wrapped his arm around his waist as Ron glared at them from over the rim of his mug.

They simply ignored the other teen as Krum walked over to them and sat in his own chair, enjoying the warmth himself.

“I had vondered vhy someone so young vas added,” Krum said. “Especially after the vow.”

“It’s a whole thing,” Harry groaned, shaking his head. “Tonight, during the party if you come, I will tell everyone about what has gone on for the last three years.”

“I shall be there then.”

104

Scowling as he stormed into his office, he cast several privacy spells with hard jabs of his wand at the walls before he let loose a blood curdling screech of anger. All of his plans, the hard work that he had put into getting the Potter brat into the Tournament was starting to unravel around him.

Not only had he not just rolled over and taken it, but he was thriving during the entire thing. He had come out of the first two days with a courting contract with one of the strongest Gray families, who Gray politically and magically.

He could still remember a time where the Warringtons had thought that his Lord’s cause had been interesting enough to think about becoming one of his private contributors. But that had fallen through once there had been more information on the Dark side had gotten out.

Along with the courting contract, Potter now had control of his estates, showing he was firmly Gray, magically and politically himself. The seats that he now controlled were also Gray. The Potter family had once been Gray but had become strong Light sided Wizards, while the Blacks had been Dark but were now Gray and regaining their proper reputations with the moves that Sirius was doing behind the scenes.

Not only that, but somehow Potter had been able to revive the Ravenclaw name, gaining the ancient seats in the Wizengamont.

If his Lord was able to come back as planned and started his campaign, the populace would most likely listen to Potter instead of listening to the fool Fudge, turning their backs on the young teen. Potter was slowly gaining a following just by being himself. Not only among his classmates, but also in political circles with his regents working their magic behind the scenes.

He had also apparently started to learn about how their world was run. With his godfather, regents and his future in-laws if he did go through with marrying Cassius, he had power and people willing to help him learn how to use it.

Growling, he threw out several destructive spells, various things exploding into pieces. Heaving with his anger, he started to calm himself down, taking a deep breath before he let it go. A wave of his wand had the destroyed items rebuilding, looking as if they hadn’t just been destroyed.

“This brat is making it so very hard for me, but he will soon see my Master. And he will be forced to bring my Master back,” he snarled as he glared at the reflection of the stolen face that he wore. “And then my Master will regain his power, putting that damnable brat back into his place, once and for all. Maybe he will be used as a breeding cow if nothing. There should be no reason that the Black, Potter, and Ravenclaw name should die out after all. The children could be properly raised, their political power used to make sure things are done right.”

With that thought in mind, he opened the hidden trunk and made sure that his prisoner was fed before he slammed it shut on the growled curses coming from the man.

Jr. snorted, making sure that his rooms had been locked down properly so that he could sit in his own skin for a time.

He would see his Lord rise, he promised himself.

One way or another.

105

Walking into the room that had long been set up for those who had been invited and who often gathered together, Krum looked around, finding that it was a calm atmosphere. It wasn’t a loud party, rather it was friends who had gathered together in little clumps as they talked about things, played games, or were browsing the buffet that the elves had set up.

The buffet looked to be a mix of finger foods that had come from Ireland, England, Bulgaria, and France, covering the table with serving dishes. Drinks in punch bowls or drink towers made it easy for them to pour their drinks, each item labeled perfectly.

He looked around the room in appreciation of the cozy feel, Hermione looking up from where she was sitting with Neville, waving at him. The two of them looked as if they were reading a book about the various plants that were used in potions. Harry stood from where he had been sitting with Cassius, Markus, and Dean, the four of them holding plates with snack foods.

“Heir Krum, feel welcomed! I hope that Dobby or Winky was able to show you easily to the room,” he greeted. Krum smiled and shook his head.

“The elf, Vinky, was very helpful,” he said, tipping his head with a smile. “I did not know that Hogwarts vas so accommodating.”

“Technically, it’s not usually,” Harry admitted as he lead him to the buffet table. “First though, feel free to gather some food and drink. I did tell you that I would tell everyone about what was going on here for the last three years,” he said, his friends moving around and gathering the couches, chairs, and bean bags together easily.

Krum nodded his head again, moving to the table, picking up a plate before choosing bits of things that looked interesting. He also got a strong cup of coffee, a small table appearing next to the chair that he chose as he joined them in the circle.

“Alright, Potter, talk to us,” the icy blond female stated as he took a seat next to Markus and another blond male.

“First, we should do introductions. Heir Krum, these are my friends. In order,” he started, pointing to the pretty blond girl sitting on one side of him, Cassius sitting on his other side. “This is Heir Luna Lovegood, Heiress Daphne Greengrass, Heir Draco Malfoy, and Heir Markus Flint. Then we have Heiress Tracy Davis, Heir Dean Thomas and his boyfriend, Seamus Finnegan of the New House Finnegan. On your other side there is of course Hermione Granger of New House Granger, Heir Neville Longbottom, Heir Lukas Dracon, Heiress Fleur Delacour, Heiress Pansy Parkinson, Heir Blaise Zabini, and of course my courter, Heir Cassius Warrington,” he pointed. “Everyone, this is Heir Viktor Krum.”

“A pleasure,” Krum stated. He nodded his head in greeting as everyone smiled and greeted him. “This…The fact that Lord Potter has been forced to do this is not…abnormal?” he asked after searching for the proper word.

Hermione sighed as she lent into Neville. “I hate to say it, but no, not really. Myself, and an ex-friend, Ronald Weasley, were often with him each time. He seems to just attract trouble.”

Harry snorted as he settled back with a cup of juice in hands. “I found out that the Potter Luck is a kind of Blessing from Magic. The term ‘I hope you live in interesting times’ applies very well to this blessing,” he told them. Draco groaned at that. “Heir Krum, I admit that I’m kind of telling all of you with an agenda. I am hoping that you will be able to convince people in power to allow us to send refugees over there if it comes down to it. We know that your school does not let anyone who is not a Pure Blood, but Hermione was able to do some digging into that.”

“I found out through Harry’s Potter manager that everyone in your school is tested for existing blood lines, even those who come from what you call ‘mundane’ bloodlines. Meaning that you tend to find new lines,” Hermione said. “I have an appointment with the Goblins in Diagon Alley to do my own sets of tests during the summer. Seamus here is going to be doing the same thing sometime.”

“How your government does not expect the magic to reappear in Squib Lines, I do not understand nor will I ever figure out,” Krum snorted. “Yes, we do tests. All students are Pureblood, just fresh blood from Squibs. I take that you are planning things?”

“We have an inkling that Harry being forced into this tournament is the start of Voldemort’s return,” Cassius told him. “We are starting our preparations now instead of later. This includes making allies and setting up plans.”

Krum nodded as he set his coffee onto the table, eating a bit as he waited for Harry to continue.

“The reasons why we think this is started in the first year of my life. I’m sure people think they know what happened but really the only ones who know what happened that night is Voldemort, my parents, and me somewhere deep in the half-formed memories of my year old self,” Harry started. “What we do know is that the war with the Dark Lord Voldemort was going strong and the tides had started to turn in the Death Eater’s advantage. That Halloween night, a traitor among my family friends told his Master where my parents had taken me to hide, and the man came to kill a baby.”

Harry spoke about what he had heard with the Dementors, his parents trying to save him, and losing their lives. How he had been shipped off to his aunts and uncles home instead of the list of people who he should have gone to.

After that, he moved onto his first year at Hogwarts and how Quirrell had had the wraith of Voldemort attached to the back of his head. He talked about the trials and the final show down between him and the possessed man, burning the shell of a human with his hands. He told him about the blessing of his Mother’s Sacrifice saving him, and the way the wraith had tried to take him but being ejected just as fast.

He continued on to second year and the Chamber of Secrets. How a journal with a bit of Voldemort’s soul had gotten into the school, using the person to unleash the basilisk on the school. He spoke of how he and Ron had gone into the Chamber with Lockhart, Harry continuing on without them to save the person whose life force had been slowly drained by the bit of soul. He admitted that he would have died down their if not for Fawkes, having been bitten by the creature.

Harry took a moment to drink and then continued to talk, moving onto year three. How they found out about Pettigrew, Sirius and Remus helping him with dealing with the rat. How the rat had somehow escaped from them because of Remus transforming and having missed a dose of Wolfsbane. He talked about Fudge refusing to listen to them because Severus Snape had seen a chance to hurt Sirius and Remus instead of being a decent human. He spoke about how they had saved Sirius using Hermione’s Time Turner to go back.

Hermione told him that she had gained an extra year to her life from jumping back the way she had. But it had saved Sirius from being Kissed and now he was a free man.

Harry moved on and told him that he had known, some instinctual thing, that he had to figure things out the moment that he had heard about the Tri-Wizard Tournament. He had bonded with Dobby and sent him to talk with his Gringott’s manager just in case. Then his name had been called and set into motion everything.

Krum placed his now empty plate down as Cassius muttered something about using bubble wrap charms on his partner, shaking his head.

“Lord Potter, you are already an amazing man, and Heir Cassius is quite lucky to have you in his life,” he said, smiling as the two smiled at each other. For such a short amount of time courting, he could see that there was already a flourishing bond between them.

“I do consider myself quite lucky to have not only Cassius but all of my friends in my life,” Harry told Krum.

106

Walking along the path with Lukas, Fleur and Harry to the carriage, Cassius smiled at the way that his partner was already yawning after their meeting. All of them were tired after having such a deep conversation.

“I was thinking about asking if you would be interested in a double date with myself, Harry, you and your fiance, Lukas,” Cassius offered. “We could be each other chaperones. There is a rather nice cafe in Hogsmead. It’s not Madam Puddletons if you’re thinking that,” he said.

Lukas hummed with a small smile. “I can ask her and send you a letter,” he said, nodding his head. “Her English is much better than mine without the spell. She does not need the translation spell.”

“That iz because her mother waz Ameri-can,” Fleur stated as she smirked at him. “High clazz Ameri-

can. Went to a French Muggle school before she came to ourz.”

“She’s really nice personally but very focused on her classes and extracurriculars,” Harry told Cassius. “I found out that Beauxbatons crosses into the mundane side of schooling to so she’s planning to go to university for her degree in law.”

“She wishes to become a solicitor,” Lukas said, smiling brightly. “I support her fully in her dreams. We have already talked extensively about our future plans. Children later, after she has done at least her first three years of university. I am going into business to take over my family business. I have been working for it long distance while here. I started working summer jobs and worked my way up into accounting. During the summers, I will be learning more areas,” he continued.

“She sounds wonderful,” Cassius said. “And like she knows what she wants from life with you.”

“Amanda is a love,” Fleur chirped with a beaming smile. “I will go with you if you do not mind a triple date. But with Roger instead of a boyfriend. He haz become a somewhat good friend, and a shield against those who would date me just to zay that they dated a Veela.”

“That sounds fine to me,” Cassius hummed. Harry pressed closer to his side as the wind picked up around them. “Does this Saturday during the Hogsmead weekend sound good to you?” he asked.

“That would be a nice treat,” Harry said. “Everyone else has to go shopping for supplies. I know most of our friends need more ink and parchment for classes to.”

“It is lucky that they have more than enough to get them through the week,” Cassius said, shaking his head. “To be honest, I’m still quite upset that our Valentine Day plans were ruined.”

“I swear that I’m going to have a talk with Ginny’s parents about making sure she understands the word no and that I am not interested in being with her,” Harry grumped. “And that I will not break my contract just because she batted her eyes at me.”

“What did happen with your plans?” Lukas asked as he looked to his friend and roommate. He had been with Amanda most of that day, spending a nice night at the carriage with her since it had been a school night.

Harry groaned as he shook his head. “Well, Cassius sent me the flowers, and some of my favorite snacks and candies in the morning as you know. He also picked up a nice new robe for our dinner plans that he had set up for us. We were going to floo from the school to the restaurant, but somehow Ginny found out and ended up stalking me around the school.”

“Mind you, he’s been using unused classrooms for his tutoring sessions since a few of the others are with him for some of his tutor sessions right now. I was in my normal classes,” Cassius told him. “She ended up throwing such a fit that Dumbledore said that I wasn’t allowed to take him out even though as a Lord, he didn’t need permission to leave the grounds and my parents had approved it. Ginny had even suggested that since we couldn’t leave, he could spend the evening with her instead. He shot that down and we had a chaperoned indoor dinner together instead of the place that I had chosen. I’m still very pissed.”

“I’m still upset about it to,” Harry told him, squeezing his arm with a small smile. “She doesn’t quite understand what being in a courting contract entails I would think. I think I’m going to have to talk with my manger again to double check if there are any contracts that someone tried to push through before I became a Lord. I think he was looking into it.”

“As with most families, only the Potter head of house can agree to a contract, and only in limited capacities depending on the level of headship given to the person,” Cassius explained to Fleur and Lukas.

“So like all family magics around the world, it controls what a person can and can-not do,” Fleur summarized. Harry nodded. “If there waz a contract that waz pushed?”

“It wouldn’t have taken,” Harry said. He shrugged a shoulder. “And if someone tries now? It would end up turning on the person and they would be the ones to marry instead of me,” he continued. “Make sure I write to my manager tomorrow morning to see about that please?”

Fleur hummed as they stepped up to the carriage door. “I hope that they will not try to push you to marry her. She iz a little girl with deluzions of who you are,” she stated as she opened the door.

Cassius chuckled, nodding in agreement, as Hagrid jogged up from his cabin to escort Cassius back up to the castle. Harry and Cassius shared a soft kiss, leaving Harry to blush for a whole ‘nother reason before the older male left with the giant man. The three stepped up into the carriage, Fleur going first, then Harry, then Lukas. They sighed at the warmth that greeted them.

Harry sighed, smiling at his two friends and marveled at just how much had changed in just a few months.

107

Blackrock smirked as he nodded his head in greeting to Sirius, placing the large tome that he had been asked to gather by the Lord Black from the main artifact vault. “I do believe that this will have the answers that you are after. Your grandfather was smart enough to stop your mother, father and aunt getting at it,” he explained.

Sirius snorted as he shifted. “He probably didn’t want them to just use it without thinking or caring about it. Removing someone from the family for some of the stupidest reasons have had bad consequences. For example, father died soon after Andromeda had Nymphadora, and she wasn’t fully removed from the family either. I was able to remove Bellatrix fully because the family magics agreed with it,” he said, shaking his head. “They couldn’t use the full ritual to remove Andromedra though, just remove her from the main family and strip her of the Black Name.”

“It seems as if your family magics did not see the reasons a good enough reason to remove her, knowing that she would bring strength to the bloodline with her children,” Blackrock stated as he sat down at his desk, Sirius taking the tome to place on a pedestal. Sirius opened it to the pages that he wanted, finding the two rituals that would restore a partially banished family member to full rights, and the ritual to make sure that Bellatrix had been fully stripped of her Black name and magics.

Currently he knew that at the least she was stripped of the name, and limits put on her useage of Black knowledge and magic. But it was time to follow up and make sure the ritual had fully removed her from the family.

“Can you gather up any information on Andromeda’s, Nymphadora’s and Bellatrix’s known crimes against the family charter for me?” he asked.

Blackrock nodded once as he pulled out a thick book, a quill and an ink well that he put ink into before nicking his finger and bleeding into the ink. With a shake, the goblin was soon writing something into the thick book as Sirius wrote down notes on the ritual to reinstate a person to full privileges in the family. He had created the journal so that it was heavily warded so no one else could read it.

Blackrock’s voice drew him out of his reading. “The information shall be supplied here in a few moments,” he said.

“Thank you. It seems if I want to reinstate Andromeda, I have to state what her supposed crimes were forgive them of the crime, or call it nonsense.” He smirked as he looked up from the journal. “Luckily for me, finding out if Bellatrix was fully stripped will be easy and if I have to do the more in-depth ritual it won’t be to hard to do. I also found an old list of allies and business partners that the Blacks once had contracts with. A good chunk of them had been active during the last war and because of her actions, were broken so if I have to, I can use those against her,” he said.

He knew for a fact that from those actions alone, which had hurt allies and hurt the Black flow of money, and their friends, that he would have a good case against her if he did have to do the other ritual. He didn’t want it to come hurt him in the end seeing as she didn’t have a marriage to fall back on.

He was going to damn well make sure that if Voldemort did come back from the proverbial dead that he found himself down a powerful Black and all of her knowledge. He was going to make sure she was nothing more then a normal, insane witch.

Sirius wanted to make sure that he did his part in crippling the bastard in the long run. And step one in his books was to fully remove everything from Bellatrix.

Never A Spare – 4/5 – Strailo

09 First Task and the Aftermath

10 A Twisting Surprise

11 Making New Friends

12 Second Task and the Aftermath

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Never A Spare – 4/5 – Strailo

09 First Task and the Aftermath

10 A Twisting Surprise

11 Making New Friends

12 Second Task and the Aftermath

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Strailo

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