HPWW631-640
Chapter 631
The next morning's Daily Prophet contained a short
article on page three that berated Amelia Bones and
the DMLE for not discovering the culprit or culprits
involved in the murder of Hamish Fawley, now that
they were almost two weeks into January and a little
more than five weeks later.
From the crime novels he still occasionally read when
he had the chance, Harry 'knew' that unless the crime
was solved within the first few days the likelihood of
the culprit being discovered dropped down to the
single digit percentages; at least, that's what
happened in the muggle world. Now that it had been
five weeks he believed the likelihood of the crime
being solved was now down to barely a single fraction
of a percentage point, if even that, especially seeing
as magic was involved.
'Scourgify, anyone?' he thought. That was a quick and
simple way to get rid of any trace evidence, if there
ever was one.
He did, however, think the culprit was a daft moron in
one aspect. He should have immediately transfigured
the body into something innocuous and flammable,
removed it from the scene, taken it to another
unknown location and burned it to ash. No body, no
hard evidence of a crime.
However, on a second thought of the issue, he
realised that Flint - for who else could it have been -
wanted a dead body to show that Fawley had indeed
been killed. He just didn't want any evidence that
would point back to him while also having everyone
know it was him that arranged the man's death.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Besides the Daily Prophet, in the mail that morning
was a notice from Ted that the Perth property had now
been: purchased outright, as instructed; warded as far
as lawfully allowed under Australian magical law,
while also recognising that the Wilkinses might have
to both access and use the property in the future; the
two requested vehicles had been purchased (they
ended up being a mid-sized 4WD four-door turbo
diesel Toyota Prado and a mid-range Toyota Lexcen
(T3) four-door sedan) to 'populate' two bays of the
triple-car garage; the emergency portkeys to it had
been created and delivered, together with instructions
on why and how they worked; and a house elf had
been acquired, bonded and set the task of maintaining
the property while also keeping an eye on the
Wilkinses as they went about their day-to-day lives.
Harry hadn't even thought of that last one and was
grateful Ted had and acted upon that thought.
With a smile, he handed the details of that over to
Daphne, who also had Hermione leaning almost onto
her shoulder to also read.
The letter also included details of the property in
France. The agents acting on Ted's (Harry's) behalf
had followed their instructions and negotiated hard on
the final price of the large chateau that had become
available from a deceased estate. Harry was surprised
by how hard the negotiations must have been
because the final price was almost down to the sickle
at ₲178,877. He saw the price and just gave a snort of
amusement. It was under his limit of ₲200,000 so he
really didn't care.
Ted had also organised for the wards to be 'refreshed'
by a professional and 'secrecy sworn' warding
company, had the floo address reset to a new name
and password - 'Potter Retreat' and 'Home Sweet
Home' - and also bonded another elf to care for that
property.
Moves were still being made to acquire a suitable
property in The Hamptons in upstate New York,
MaCUSA, with Ted mentioning he might have to
contract another property consultancy as the one he'd
acquired until then just didn't seem to 'get it' with
what Harry wanted. Harry authorised it.
And finally property-wise, Ted had also acquired a few
and various properties around both muggle and
magical Britain to boost Harry's property portfolio that
showed great promise in investment returns.
Secretly and on Harry's only-verbally-given orders,
though, he purchased a 'bolt hole' property in Wales,
pretty much centrally located on the Isle, and had it
warded out the whizzer with every security charm he
could get on the property, including unplottable, antitracking, anti-scrying and the like. It was a small
manor house located in a very out of the way location,
nestled in a small valley within a short walking
distance of a stream of near pure, but definitely
untainted, water. There was not another 'soul' for
many miles around. It was highly unusual for a
muggle property to be so. And it was muggle, as it
had both a well buried power supply running to the
property, as well as 'scheme' water - 'black water' was
stored in an underground septic tank well away from
the house. It also had a quiet gravel drive from the
nearest road to the house; a large shed out the back,
also powered; and was properly wired throughout.
For that property the warding company had sworn an
oath not to directly document or in any way find a way
to document the work they'd done and to be obliviated
of the knowledge once they'd completed the work.
Their work cost about ten times what the property was
worth, but was still considered a damned good
investment. From that moment forth, the Potters and
any trusted allies would now have an escape hole they
could run to if any threats arose against the House.
The warding company also installed a proper floo, but
had the 'registration' for it muddied through a false
identity.
Later, Harry planned to have the secret keeper of the
property have a Fidelius placed on them that a second
secret keeper kept that had the knowledge that the
first secret keeper was the secret keeper of the
property. It would be what he'd called a double-blind
secret; with only the second secret keeper, himself,
being able to grant the first secret keeper the ability to
tell the secret to only those whom he wanted to know.
The first secret keeper could then not tell the secret
unless the person needing to know was told the
identity of the first keeper by the second keeper.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
That evening and once Fleur returned from work, the
'Potters' had a discussion night. Until that night,
discussion nights was one of the things that
happened organically; weren't planned ahead of time.
This night, it was organised.
Harry said, "I think it's time we had a good oldfashioned 'chin-wag' among ourselves again. I'd like
to know what is going on in each of your lives we
don't already know about. For instance..."
He turned to Hermione and asked, "How goes things
with your lessons with Adeline and Alice?"
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Chapter 632
Surprised, Hermione was a moment before she
replied, "Oh! Ummm... We're now down to just
discussing things via mail. They've both said I've now
acquired a definite understanding of what it means to
be a Lady of a Noble and Most Ancient House and
what it also means to be the betrothed of one. That's
why I won't be going to almost daily lessons with
them at the Easter break, let alone the summer break.
"I'm to keep up with my self-study of the matter, but
they're still willing to answer any questions I have that
the books I read don't cover the answers to."
Harry gave a smile and a nod and said, "That's
excellent, Hermione. Well done!"
As the girl gave a slight but pleased smile back, she
also pinked a little in unearned embarrassment.
"Thank you," she quietly returned.
Turning to Daphne, he asked, "How about you,
Daphne? Anything the rest of us should know, but you
didn't think important enough for us to discuss
immediately?"
She smiled and replied, "I don't believe so, no. Unless
you didn't know Justin and Tracey's agreement has
now become a contract?"
Surprised, he returned, "No, I didn't know that." He
thought for a moment and, though blushing a little,
asked, "Was the... condition for which it became a
contract along the lines of ours?"
She grinned and replied, "Yes. They've had sex.
According to Tracey―"
Quickly he brought his hand before him waving them
in rapid warding off gestures while quickly developing
a deep blush. "No-no-no! I don't need... I really don't
want to know!"
That had all three of his ladies snickering in
amusement.
"My fault," he sighed. "I really shouldn't have asked
for clarification as to the whys and wherefores."
He gave that a moment to settle as he also brought his
slight blush under control and asked, "Ummm...
about... CeeCee..."
She just smiled again and replied, "As far as we're
aware, she still has her virtue, Harry. However, she's
seems to be starting to develop the opinion she
doesn't need to have it, if you know what I mean."
"Gods!" he said. "She's thirteen, for God's sake! I pray
you girls are all talking to her about that? To... you
know... not rush things?"
Hermione replied, "We are. Plus we've also warned
her just how much trouble she can get us, especially
Justin, in if she... ummm... succumbs to her... wants."
"Not to mention Sirius or Cousin Cissy," said Harry. "It
would also put her family back in Perth in danger.
Because of her age, if she's found out, someone just
might finally be able to get her removed from Sirius
and Narcissa's guardianship."
Daphne said, "We hadn't thought of that, but you're
right. We'll talk to her about that, too."
With a sigh of relief he believed that part of the
discussion was over, he said, "Right. What's next?"
The next subject was the girls' involvement in the
Tapestry Circle. Together with how that particular
organisation was doing.
Apparently, a few death threats had been issued from
some of the more traditionalist Houses of the country
- dark, grey and even light - even one or two from over
in mainland Europe.
"Madam Bones is immediately alerted of those and
she and her aurors deal with them," explained
Hermione. "However, Narcissa is now being carefully
watched by aurors when she goes out and about;
much like you used to be."
Harry gave a very slight wince at that. He completely
empathised with the older witch.
Noticing Harry's reaction, Daphne immediately said,
"She doesn't mind that, Harry. She sees the danger,
too."
A few other subjects were raised, but nothing of much
consequence. They had an early night.
Daphne joined him but, within an hour, she was the
solid form of a gooey puddle of oxytocins and
endorphins spread on the bed, reeking of sex and
gently snoring.
Harry had spent about three to four minutes watching
her sleep, feeling good about himself, before he too
drifted off.
Out in the living room Betsy popped in, sighed in
exasperation and removed the silencing charm on the
door. She quietly muttered "Betsy wants babies,
dammit!"
The last was a mild curse both elves 'picked up' from
Harry, who constantly used it. If Harry had heard it, he
would have laughed his arse off.
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Chapter 633
Now back at the school and with things settling down
- with no constant attempts to harm Harry - the Heirs
focused on their studies while also slipping in the now
rarer opportunities to exercise. Harry was also
slipping in time to write his Bill for the February
session of the Wizengamot.
News from outside the castle was somewhat minimal,
except for the few times some idiot journalist, clearly
bored with the 'normalcy' of things, tried to stir
something up. Luckily for them, they never targeted
Harry or the Alliance. They'd finally learned their
lesson.
Closer to their own interests it was learned that the
new Noble Houses of Spinnet, Diggory and Hilliard
had all accepted membership into the Grand Alliance,
after all.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Four and a half weeks later and it was the next
meeting of the Alliance, though there was no January
sitting of the 'Mot. This time it was held at Abbott's
Ford, the home of the Seat of the now Noble and
Ancient House of Abbott.
The first order of business was the introduction of the
new member Houses, with the 'spouses' joining them
for the moment. They were Amos, his wife Florentina
('Tina') and Cedric Diggory (now adult son); Simon,
his wife Maude, Geraldine (adult daughter) and Robert
(adult son) Hilliard; and Caden, Rosaline, Rueben
(adult son) and Alicia Spinnet (adult, though still a
student, daughter).
Amos, Simon and Caden joined them at the table with
Cedric, Robert and Reuben sitting behind their
'Heads', as was proper. The others joined the spouses
in the parlour as the informal dining room was now
not even close to being large enough to contain them
all, even with expansion charms active.
The three then 'officially' received their copies of the
new charter, even though they'd all been granted
permission from Frank to read the master copy to
ensure there was nothing contained within they'd
object to. Harry had heard that they were all surprised
it wasn't as restrictive as they'd each feared, with
Caden even voicing that.
They now numbered an even two dozen Houses in
their membership, with fourteen of those being Noble
votes upon the Wizengamot - plus now two extra with
the Ministry votes of Amelia Bones and Miles Ogden.
That was quite the considerable voting block.
And they knew they had it and were well prepared to
use it.
"Otherwise, why have it?" Harry had 'innocently'
asked.
Sirius chuckled and added, "He's right. What is the
purpose of the Alliance... politically... if not for this
sort of thing?"
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Before heading back to school, Sirius took Harry
aside.
Pre-arranged, Sirius had gone out and collected three
gifts for Harry's three ladies for Valentine's Day. It was
now only two days away, on the Monday.
Surreptitiously taking the shrunken packages out of
his pocket and offering them to Harry, he said, "As
you requested, Pup."
Just as surreptitiously accepting them and sliding
them into his own pocket, Harry asked, "They were
able to accomplish the order, no problems?"
"Yup," smirked Sirius. "And, I say again, it's a bloody
brilliant idea."
As he grinned, Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
When his ladies cast curious looks at him a little later,
clearly wondering what he and Sirius had talked
about, Harry just grinned at them and said, "Nothing
for you three to worry about. Just godson and
godfather business."
Hermione gave an amused hurrumph and quietly said,
"Sounds like someone's going to get pranked."
"Now, Hermione," he grinned. "Just because Sirius
cannot sometimes help himself, does not mean
everything he does is a prank."
"Rarely," snorted Daphne.
Also having arrived from her mother about a week
after she'd sent off her request to her, Hermione
received a stack of books in return with a short note.
~ # ~
Hermione dear,
Your father and I believe you're correct. We're just as
surprised as you that Harry's 'issues' could be such.
However the written evidence, coupled with the
observational evidence, reflects your belief.
Take note of the sections relating to Autism Spectrum
Disorder. Your father and I are both of the firm belief
this disorder is what plagues Harry. However we both
also believe Harry has a very mild form of this, known
as 'high functioning'; and is why no one has picked up
on it until now.
The books will also give you some indication as to
how to better interact with someone who suffers such.
We strongly urge you to take note of that and act
accordingly.
Mum and Dad
~ # ~
Without letting Harry know what she'd received and at
her first opportunity, Hermione grabbed both other
girls and led them into her room for a 'girls chat
session'.
She then showed them both the letter she'd received
from her mother and the books.
She said, "I suggest we each read these, switching the
books out between us, then have another chat about it
later."
Both other girls agreed.
By the time of the February Alliance meeting, all three
of Harry's ladies had read the books and had their 'Ahha!' moments. The information concerning ASD
(Autism Spectrum Disorder) and Aspergers
Syndrome, with the latter now recognised as a subset
of the former, explained so much. They all agreed with
Monica's belief and wondered why they'd not
investigated the issue before then.
"We're not trained childhood psychologists," replied
Hermione. "That is, mind healers for children. Healer
Bincutty was able to test for it because she's trained;
we're not."
"But, still," said Fleur, "It explains so much."
"Indeed," nodded Daphne.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Bincutty/Klein, however, had also been doing her
research. She had been in touch with muggle child
and juvenile psychologists and taken her nonidentifiable patient interview notes with her. Each and
every one of them, based on her notes, all gave the
same 'diagnosis'; Patient X was suffering from a very
mild form of Aspergers.
However, theirs went deeper. Besides providing
advice to their colleague on how she could further test
to narrow her diagnosis down even further, they also
pointed out other issues.
Of the seven psychologists, four gave their opinions
that the child was also suffering from a mild form of
PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), had very likely
been abused as a child (which likely explained the
PTSD), was highly intelligent (common with those
diagnosed with ASD) and indicated where in the
Patient's psyche notes he had issues relating to
emotional disconnect.
Once her interviews were completed, she then illegally
went through the notes of each psychologist to find
their own patients suffering from similar. Picking
twenty one of the child ASD diagnosed at random, she
located them and began to observe them to see how
close their symptoms related to those displayed by
Lord Potter.
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Chapter 634
From that twenty one she narrowed her list down to
six. Then, she carefully set up situations where the
child saw something, she then surreptitiously
obliviated them of the knowledge and asked them
questions relating to what she'd obliviated from their
minds. Of that six, five 'proved' the oblivation did not
hold.
And, finally, she wrote up her report and presented it
to Croaker.
Sitting in the chair opposite Croaker's desk as the
Head Unspeakable read through her report, skipping
through sections until he reached her conclusions, he
finally gave a grunt, looked her back in the eye and
said, "So; it's proven, then. Potter's ability to shrug off
obliviations is related to his, as you put it, autism.
"Yes, sir," she firmly and immediately replied. "I can,
of course, widen my experimentation and research,
but I believe it will only strengthen my claims."
He nodded and said, "Five out of six is pretty
conclusive, isn't it?"
Knowing Croaker didn't expect a response, she
remained silent.
A few moments later, after appearing deep in thought,
he asked, "Any idea why one of the six did not show
signs of being able to throw off the obliviations?"
"I think the... degree... of their autism wasn't as
strong, or as deep if you prefer, as the other five," she
replied. "I'll also point out these were all muggles. If I
was able to find similar numbers of witches or wizards
who suffered from this I think we might find it would
be six out of six who were able to shrug it off."
Croaker sighed, sat back and rubbed his temples.
"Your research shows us that, if there are other
witches and wizards like Potter, there could well be
those we've obliviated in the past of knowledge we do
not want them to have, who have then kept it secret
the obliviations didn't work on them."
"Yes," she firmly returned. "However, as they've
obviously not gone on to share that information...
otherwise we'd've heard about it... I don't think it's as
big an issue as it could be. They're keeping silent,
which is what we wanted, anyway."
Croaker gave a grunt affirming her response.
"The bigger issue is one I've not written down," she
said. "I felt it was too dangerous to do so. However, if
you were to reason it out, you'd also see it."
"Oh?" he quiet asked, looking back at her with
intensity.
"I have not written down that the muggles' own
research into this syndrome have reached certain
conclusions," she replied. "First; the numbers of
those suffering from autism are now at about one in
every fifteen hundred. Second; the numbers are
steadily and gradually rising with belief the numbers
will increase to at least three in every fifteen hundred
by the turn of the century. Third; in almost all cases
the diagnosed were male, but the numbers of females
is also increasing. And, by no means the least
important, fourth; with that many I have no doubt
there are those muggles who were supposedly
oblivated by the Ministry's Obliviation Teams of
seeing magic, but still remember it.
"Of the last, if word of that gets out, I fear those
Obliviation teams will become muggle execution
teams, just to keep the secret of magic from the
muggles."
Croaker was a long moment before he quietly said,
"Weeellll... shit!"
Klein nodded back.
With a long sigh, Croaker said, "Alright. This
information just went to Deep Secret. All your
research is to be so classified. Bundle it all up and
lock it up. Even the knowledge the research exists is
now a Deep Secret, understand?"
"Yes, sir," she replied.
"Continue to assist our young Lord Potter," he went
on, "But also remove any link to his... what did you
call it? Autism?"
"In full, Autism Spectrum Disorder," she replied. "But,
yes, autism."
"Autism," he nodded. "Remove that phrase and any
linked to it from your written notes and call it
something else, that Post Trauma thingy sounds best,
but continue to treat the young man, regardless."
"Yes, sir," she replied. "However, I should also point
out that ASD... autism... might not be the only PDD,
Pervasive Developmental Disorder, where there's
pathology of an immunity to obliviations. It's just the
only one I've specifically tested against. If there are
more... and more common..."
Staring at her for a moment he snarked, "Gee...
Thanks, so much."
She just smiled a little and gave a shrug meant as
apology.
When he gave a nod and returned to reading the
report, this time fully, she knew she'd been dismissed.
She rose and quietly made her way out.
Beginning to read the report in full, Croaker could feel
a new headache coming on. He mused, 'That young...
smartarse... is causing me... everyone, really... no end
of problems and it's not even his bloody fault.'
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Before Fleur left for work on Monday morning and
while he was finalising her breakfast, Harry asked her
to go wake the other two and ask them to join them.
Without even asking, Fleur just agreed and went in to
wake them both.
When both came out they joined Harry and a now
eating Fleur in the apartment's small dining room.
"What's going on?" asked Hermione.
Harry had a cup of tea prepared for both, but before
they could even take their first sips he offered a small
package to each of the three.
The size and shape had each of them give a small
gasp of surprise - they were clearly ring boxes.
Harry, pleased at their initial reactions, smiled back
and said, "Well, go on then, open them."
And all three did just that.
Of course, the gift was a ring for each. Each was a
ladies' signet ring with the House Potter crest on it. In
Hermione's case, there was a small diamond
embedded in what would be the bottom left quarter of
the shield; Fleur's was a sapphire and Daphne's was
an emerald.
All three girls, with Daphne asking first, demanded
Harry slip them onto their fingers. He was happy to do
so.
As soon as each ring slipped onto their fingers it
slightly warmed before resizing to fit.
"They aire... magnifique!" Fleur softly exclaimed.
"I bought you each a ring that clearly forms a set,"
explained Harry. "Each is only different in the stone
used in the quartered shield. And each has certain
protective charms laid on them in the form of runes.
I'll let you figure them out, as I'm sure you'd want to
do even if I told you what they were."
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Chapter 635
Hermione, still staring at her ringed finger with a
watery smile, muttered, "You know us so well."
"Uh-huh," he nodded. "I know what effect Fleur's
choker has had on the population of Hogwarts. And, if
all it took was the choker to tell one and all she's
protected by me, then I think the rings will add to that
for each of you."
"Yes," said a just as teary-eyed Daphne. "It is very
clever."
Almost as one, the three girls then almost fought one
another to give Harry the best snogging of the three.
"Happy Valentine's Day," they each said to one
another.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
The next day was the day of the February sitting of the
Wizengamot. And Sirius's Bill was, of course, the first
and main matter discussed.
It should have been no surprise it passed, considering
the size of the voting bloc of the Grand Alliance, but
Harry was still so. The margin was even larger than he
hoped in his wildest dreams at over seventy percent
in favour.
As of that day it became, with a few very specific
exceptions, illegal for two or more of opposite sexes
to enter a relationship agreement in any form where
the two had a common ancestor within the past five
generations.
Of course, there was also mutterings of those
ignorant traditionalists who just wouldn't accept that
determination. Those mutterings were of those who
thought they could skirt the law by sending the two to
get bonded overseas to have the ceremony performed
there. Therefore, having first heard it some time ago,
Sirius had included an addendum into the Bill at
almost the last minute that covered that. Anyone who
tried that path would have their bondings refused to
be recognised within magical Britain. And, any child
born of that union would be legally recognised within
magical Britain as a bastard and locked out of
inheriting titles.
That, too, caused a furore. However, it gained very
loud support from the Tapestry Circle. Sirius
countered much of the negativity directed his way by
indicating his fiancé and pointing out how she was
both a pureblood of high enough standing and they
did not have such a common ancestor. And
strengthened that by, with permission of the heirs,
showing their own ancestries and lack of such a
common ancestor.
"It can be done, my fellow Members," he firmly stated.
"It just takes a little bit more effort. If you don't do this,
your laziness will... as has been proven... kill or
deform babies. Dead or deformed babies cannot carry
on your bloodlines, so you don't want that.
"Do what is right; not what is easy. Or be prepared for
your House to go extinct."
That, temporarily at least, shut up those still muttering
in annoyance.
The Bill ended up being passed and becoming the
Statute for the Protection and Magical Strengthening
of the Bloodlines. A new, though small, office within
the Department of Wizarding Childrens' Services
would be created to oversee the enforcement of the
Statute. All Inheritance Tests would still be undertaken
at Gringotts and a Gringotts Certified Document
containing the bloodlines would now be required as
an addendum to the new registration form, together
with a copy of the Relationship Agreement, to register
a Relationship Agreement with the new Office. And
such registration would be required in advance of any
handfasting or similar.
The passing of the Bill into Statute was met with
raucous applause from the visitors' gallery in
approbation.
Harry was thankful that the majority of the blood
bigots were now dead. Maybe Ron did not mean to kill
them all, while also killing himself in the process; but
Harry knew he had to be thankful for that event of
serendipity, even if it was accidental.
It now meant they were all just that much safer from
harm.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
With Sirius's Bill now an actual Statute, Harry stood to
give the first reading of his own Bill; the Bill for the
Protection of Muggle-Raised Wizarding Secrecy.
He opened with an overview of why he was standing,
what he saw as the issue and how the Bill, if accepted
into becoming a Statute, would rectify that issue.
"One moment, Lord Potter," interrupted one of the
newly inducted Lords, not realising he should not be
cutting in. "Am I to understand you had at least two
bouts of accidental magic in public that were not
attended by Ministry Obliviators?"
"You understand correctly," Harry nodded. "One was
when I was six years old and turned the hair of my
grade three teacher a bright blue. It was done in front
of twenty-six six year old children, of which only two
were approved to know of magic - myself and my
cousin. Of the other twenty four, they were of twenty
three different families - two were twins. Of course,
there's also the teacher, herself.
"The second time was when I was seven years old and
accidentally apparated from out of the school
playground and onto the roof of one of the school
buildings. While I do not believe I was seen
apparating, nor did I know at the time that is what
happened, the entire school staff... and most of the
kids, too... knew I had to be rescued from off that roof
by one of the school's staff, the custodian, with a
ladder. I was, at the time, unable to explain how it
happened, but it is known something... odd... had
occurred.
"All other times of accidental magic were while I was
inside the prison-home of the Dursleys, when
Dumbledore would show up and illegally obliviate
everyone - including my very young, at the time,
muggle cousin Dudley."
That had quite a few mutterings of both shock and
outrage from the Members.
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Chapter 636
"In a nutshell my Bill, once it becomes a Statute, will
have not just Ministerial Obliviators turn up at a scene
of accidental magic, but also trained first contact
responders who will advise the family of the
muggleborn what had just happened. These first
contact responders will also provide the family of the
new muggleborn with a method by which the family
will be able to immediately alert the Obliviators that
something has magically happened and they need to
attend. I suggest something like a rune stone with an
alert charm the family can activate.
"I also believe it will cause less accidental magic
events if the young muggleborn and their family is
given some counselling into how to prevent such
occurrences in the future through meditation
techniques, etcetera. And, as we all know, the less
accidental magic events that occur, the greater the
protection of wizarding secrecy."
Turning to look directly to Ogden, Harry said, "Chief
Warlock, the House of Potter thanks you for this
opportunity to present its views and submit for first
reading the Bill for the Protection of Muggle-Raised
Wizarding Secrecy." And quietly sat.
The Bill contained a great deal more than what Harry
had just spoken of, but that was a very important part
of it, all the same.
During his talks with mind-Healer Bincutty, he'd asked
about what obliviations did to a young child. And,
from that, figured out some very important points.
First, the obliviation of a young child was fraught with
the danger of causing permanent mental harm to the
child. Second, that mental harm generally was in the
form of an alteration to the child's psyche. And, third,
oblivations weren't legally allowed to be performed on
children. Instead, the memory they would normally
obliviate in the adult was supposed to be, instead,
locked behind the mental form of a notice-me-not
charm within the mind of the child. However, the
Ministry's Obliviators had gotten lazy and, whether
through ignorance of the problem/law or
carelessness, simply obliviated everyone.
It was through those talks, Harry had come to
understand that much of Hermione's driven need to
'know everything' may well have come from once
knowing something to do with magic as a child and
being obliviated of it; and subconsciously knowing
she once knew something, but did no longer. He could
also see similar in Colin Creevey's incessant need to
document everything in the wizarding world through
the medium of photography. Through that medium he
would then have a record of things he may 'forget
about' at a later time. Sally-Anne Perks, another
muggleborn, before her parents had pulled her out of
Hogwarts had the habit of trying to fade into the
background so she wouldn't be seen. If she wasn't
seen, she wouldn't be obliviated.
Harry's Bill would go a long way to seeing
muggleborns not have their memories hidden within
their minds, let alone be obliviated of them. The
Obliviators would be forced to bring in a Ministry
'expert' in integrating muggleborns into the magical
world at the first sign of accidental magic. The law
made it flat out illegal, with prison time if breached, to
tamper with the memories of muggleborns.
He just hoped he'd be able to get the Bill through to
being enacted and becoming a Statute.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Almost immediately after Harry had submitted his Bill
for first reading, Amelia stood and submitted the first
of her own.
The first was an addition to the existing Statute that
laid out the laws surrounding the creation of the
Ministry's overall budget.
As she'd tabled at the meeting of the Alliance back in
January, it had two main parts. The first was a
Wizengamot-ordered increase to the DMLE budget.
The second was for the DMLE budget to be tied as a
minimal percentage of the entire Ministry budget.
As it was only a 'small' change, as most of the
Members believed, it was a quick 'reading' with
minimal discussion.
She then moved straight onto her next item, a bill that
- for national security, of course - would require all
Ministry personnel to give oaths to always support the
lawful government of the time and to never work
willingly or knowingly contrary to the law; or be
required to resign from the Ministry and not able to
return unless willing and able to make such an oath.
As she couched the entire thing as a national security
provision, rather than a way to stop dark lords
infiltrating their people into positions of knowledge
and power within the Ministry, she even had some of
the Lords of dark Houses unconsciously nodding in
agreement with her.
Harry quietly wondered how long it would take before
those nodding Lords of dark Houses would realise
that little fact. And further wondered just how many
current employees within the Ministry were suddenly
going to find that giving that oath would also mean
they'd no longer be able to accept bribes to, among
other things, 'look the other way'. Accepting a bribe
would be working 'willingly or knowingly contrary to
the law'.
Striking while the iron was hot, she then went into her
third item of business to be brought before the
Wizengamot.
As the Alliance knew, she wanted the existing laws
gone through with the intent to strip out those
Statutes, or sections of Statutes, that protected the
'wrong sort of people'. Harry again immediately
thought of the one that protected purebloods from the
use of Veritaserum in trials, but still didn't say
anything.
That was the term she used, too; 'the wrong sort of
people'. With a grin, Harry had immediately realised
that, for him and his, that meant those who were
bigots, law breakers, etcetera. For the bigotted
purebloods, it meant muggleborns and, somewhat,
halfbloods. She just never clarified what she meant by
the terminology she used, though Harry and the other
sitting members of the Alliance certainly knew. At the
meeting she'd even explained she'd be using that term
and why. Then she immediately looked at Harry and
smirked.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 637
She'd just silently let him know she'd employed logic,
as he did, and developed her strategy. She confirmed
it for him, later and during the socialising and informal
period after the official meeting, when he'd
deliberately sought her out and asked.
He'd laughed in amusement.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
It was only the next morning Harry received a 'rushed'
package from Ted. It had the details of a property in
the Hamptons - Southhampton, to be precise - that
Ted felt was absolutely perfect. And, the 'cherry on
top' was that it was actually a wizarding home; yet
another deceased estate.
Harry took one look at the accompanying
photographs and sent Ted back a letter telling him to
purchase it.
The home was on a two acre block surrounded by a
high hedge on three sides, missing the front. It was a
two storey above ground with a basement covering
the entire footprint. Like many homes the basement
had casement windows, meaning the floor of the
ground floor was about three feet off the ground.
Because it was an American wizarding home it had all
comforts of a muggle home, with protective rune
schema on those items that were sensitive to magic.
That is, it had electricity, reverse-cycle ducted airconditioning, a natural gas connection for the built in
appliances that needed it, a triple garage with
driveway access, etcetera. Even better, as it was a
deceased estate, the inheritors were throwing in the
furniture as part of the sale; but not the cars. A house
elf was also currently maintaining the property, but
was also not part of the sale.
Harry's letter to Ted included instructions to purchase
a house elf and 'employ' it to maintain the property,
replace the existing beds with new and 'stock' the
garage with two vehicles similar to the two at the
Lesmurdie property in Perth, Australia. For the time
being the third bay in the garage would be kept free.
The property in America was priced on a par with the
property he purchased in France. However, it was a
little bigger, plus had the muggle facilities the one in
France did not.
With the purchase of the one in Southampton, New
York, that was the three important purchases made
that would be public - Perth, France and The
Hamptons - plus the bolthole property in the middle of
Wales. And it had all been accomplished in only a
couple of months. He was right pleased. It no longer
amazed him how fast things could be accomplished
when you were willing to throw gold at solving a
problem.
"Now," he softly breathed, "About that motoryacht..."
And he began thinking about what he'd want in such a
vessel to make it as comfortable and enjoyable as
possible. It then took him only a minute or two to
realise he needed to know what types of yachts,
together with what you could have in them, before he
could think about having one built.
He grabbed a sheet of parchment and began to write a
letter to Ted. He wanted the man to organise for him a
subscription or two to magazines dedicated to the big
motoryachts.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
By the middle of March the Heirs had all become
comfortable with the 'dark' new Lords and Heirs at the
other end of the Lords' Quarters corridor. Like
Gibberd and Whitehead not once did Warrington,
Beilby, Urquhart or Alton give them any sort of signal,
subtle or not, that they meant any of the Heirs harm;
including CeeCee.
Harry had also received his first copy; delivered via a
redirect using the muggle to wizarding, and vice
versa, postal service; of a luxury motoryacht
magazine. Ted had come through for him. Amusing
him, the man had also written this pretty long diatribedisguised-as-a-report about how much money a yacht
both cost to purchase and cost to maintain.
However, once Hermione saw the magazine for the
first time she all-but demanded to know why he'd
subscribed. That led to him explaining he had the
inkling of an idea he might like to build or purchase
one in the future.
However, he should have realised she wouldn't be so
easily put off with his wishy-washy response. She'd
corralled the other two girls and they tag-teamed him
into coughing up the truth.
With a sigh he explained, "I had the idea that, once
we're all done with out NEWTs, we take a 'gap year'
like they do in the muggle world. We take a year off,
directly after our NEWTs, and sail the world for that
year. Except for the crew of the yacht, we'd be out of
the limelight for pretty much that entire time... just us.
"Once we got that out of our system, we'd be better
prepared for entering the workforce, knuckling down
and getting on with it. That is, of course, if entering
the workforce is something you want to do."
"What do you mean?" asked Daphne, getting in before
either of the other two could.
"I mean," he replied, "None of you, including myself,
are under any obligation to enter the workforce if you
do not want to; ever. Yes, I know that Fleur has her
desire to get her mastery in curse-breaking. And that
you two have your eyes set on careers. But, there's no
rush. You can take all the time in the world."
The three all looked to one another before Hermione
asked, "Do you have your heart set on this?"
"No," he was quick to reply. "However, if we do want
to do this, I need to start work on it now. It can take a
couple of years to build a yacht."
"And if we decide not to?" asked Daphne.
"Then we can use the yacht as an ocean getaway for
short periods of time," he replied. Indicating the
magazine, he said, "I've read in here you can easily
charter the yacht out when you know you're not going
to be using it."
Hermione gave a quiet huff and said, "Then, if we do
decide to do this, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have
the yacht built. If we don't decide to do it I suppose it'll
be easy enough to sell it."
Harry grinned back in happiness and laid a huge kiss
on her cheek. He was worried they'd put their
combined feet down and flat-out refuse him, but it
appeared his worry was in vain.
He didn't tell them, though, that yachts were both
bloody expensive to own and maintain, let alone
purchase, and you never made anywhere near the
money back on them.
"Keep on your research of this and we'll revisit the
idea and, next summer, we'll have a second look at
what more you've come up with," she added.
Harry was all for that. He already knew he'd like to
take the yacht through to some quite odd locations
that he thought 'interesting'. One of those was the
Panama Canal, another was the Manchester Ship
Canal and a third was the canal and lock system that
allowed ships to get deep into the northern half of
North America through some 'seaway', bypassing
Niagara Falls in the process. That meant there would
be a limit to the dimensions of the vessel that would
need to be researched - draft, headway, beam and
length. However, because he wanted trans-oceanic, it
also had to have some pretty serious bunkerage for
fuel. They just wouldn't tell anyone he'd have runes
installed to keep the tanks 'topped up' to a minimum
amount.
He'd get Ted onto that... as if the man didn't have
enough to do. He thought Ted should see it as
punishment for going against him on building a yacht.
Yeah, he'd palm the job off on one of his muggleborn
interns; but that was alright in Harry's book.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 638
At the March Wizengamot session on the fifteenth,
Harry was able to get his Bill passed and it became a
Statute. However, he felt it had more to do with there
being no less than five sets of laws up for decision.
Members had to be feeling a little snowed under with
all the work, than it being anything else. Besides
Harry's one and Amelia's three, another Member had
put forth a Bill for a second reading that dealt with
magical creatures. Yes, the fact he was the Boy-WhoLived and he intimated pretty heavily on his own
upbringing had a lot to do with getting his Bill
enacted, but it got through with minimal amendments.
He was so happy about it he even hung back at the
end of the session to allow well-wishers to
congratulate him on getting his first Bill passed into
legislation.
As for Amelia's: She got the amendment for the
Ministry's budget regarding a minimum percentage
assigned to the DMLE; she also got through the Bill to
have the laws reviewed with the intent to have them
pared back. However, her Bill to have all Ministry
personnel swear an oath to, effectively, not break the
law ended with amendments so severe it was almost
worthless. However, she would work on it and made
sure the oath she'd be forcing Ministerial employees
to take would at least stop them actively supporting a
future dark lord or lady. It was only the 'not able to
take bribes' part that was important and lost. The
Lords wanted to keep that... no surprise.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Also by March, the Fifth Years had begun to look
towards reviewing for their OWLs... except for
Hermione; she started in January. However,
Hermione's stress levels were also starting to ramp up
and the other denizens of the Potter Apartment were
keeping a close eye on her.
"Hermione, remember our warnings of last year," said
Fleur.
"Good point," said Harry. Turning to look at his
betrothed, he said, "One minute past a four hour
study limit and it's no sex for a month for each
breach."
Horrified, Hermione whined back, "But, Harry! It's
OWLs!"
"Shall I set the maximum time to three hours?" he
calmly asked.
Looking as if she was feeling betrayed, he sighed and
calmly asked, "Just how long did Fleur study for, for
her NEWTs, Hermione?"
"I..." she began, before everyone saw her shoulders
slump a little in defeat and sigh. "No more than three
hours a night."
"A lot less than that," smirked Fleur. "I only studied
that long for the exams I knew would be the 'ardest.
For the easier ones... well, easier for me... I only
studied about an 'our and a 'alf.
"The trick, if you can call it that, is to know what is
important to study and focus on that. I will 'elp you,
there. Plus, as I have already told you, studying for
too long is even worse than not studying at all. Your
mind simply cannot absorb that much information."
Hermione silently nodded back. But she did have her
head down.
The other three - Harry, Fleur and Daphne - knew it
meant she would obey the 'order'. That allowed Harry
to relax his firmness in the limitations he'd placed on
her.
"Hermione," he said, getting her attention. "I know it
might come over all unrelenting when I limit your
studying like that, but you can also see that both
Daphne and Fleur are in agreement in this.
"How about you ask for Fleur's help during the
evenings in guiding you towards what would be best
you focus your studying on, so you don't waste time
in studying what doesn't really matter?
"Actually, I think she can help the three of us in that
endeavour. What do you say?"
That had the girl smile back in happiness before she
turned to Fleur. "You... wouldn't mind?"
"Certainly not," Fleur firmly replied. "And, 'Arry is
correct; I will be able to guide the three of you in what
you need to apply your focus upon for each of your
subjects."
That had Hermione hug her and softly say, "Thank
you."
"Yes," said Daphne. "Thank you."
Harry quietly blew her a kiss.
From then on, the Potters set aside at least two hours
a night after dinner to focus on specific revision for
their upcoming OWL exams. A lot of it was reviewing
what they'd studied in class that day with Fleur
indicating what she thought would be the most
important.
She also told them about how each of the wand-based
classes, especially, had the allowance in the practical
side of the examination for the testee to go for bonus
points.
"It is here where you have the most to gain," she
explained. "Demonstrating knowledge and skills
above OWL level can mean the difference between an
Outstanding Plus and a simple Outstanding, or an
Outstanding and an Exceeds Expectations."
Harry said, "Then perhaps we should also see if we
can figure something out for each class that will allow
us to go for those bonuses. For a start, for DADA, I
think I'll be trying to teach each of you how to cast the
Patronus Charm."
"That would do it," nodded Fleur. "You could also use
that one for Charms."
"Can we cast a Patronus?" asked a worried Daphne.
"Oh, yeah," grinned Harry. "If I can cast a one in third
year, you can cast one in your fifth.
"Besides, I know the secret of how to cast one. Plus,
I'll be the one teaching you."
She looked surprised for a moment before she
snorted in amusement and almost snarkily said, "A bit
full of yourself, aren't you?"
"Not if I'm right," he replied, unfazed. "And I know I
am."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
From then on, the Potters had their study schedule for
the remainder of the school year through to their
OWLs.
As promised, Harry began instruction in how to cast
the Patronus charm for his ladies; and Fleur was
quick to also 'demand' she be taught, even though
she didn't need to learn it for any exams. However,
once the other Heirs discovered Harry was teaching
the Patronus, the other ladies all turned 'puppy dog
eyes' on him. He found himself quickly surrendering
and offering to teach the others, including MacMillan.
Because they wouldn't have room in the apartments,
the Heirs all trooped up to the Room of Requirement
and began their lessons there. Before long he also
had a few others also asking to be taught, including
aurors.
Harry just developed a mien of pained acceptance and
just got on with it.
The first to 'get it' was Fleur. Her Patronus turned out
to be a seagull. Once she found hers and cast her first
corporeal Patronus, the others very quickly began to
get their own.
Hermione's was an otter - Patronus otter, p. otter,
Potter - no surprise, really. Daphne's was a jaguar.
Neville's was a lion - again, no surprise. Susan's was
an alsatian german shepherd. Hannah's was a beagle.
Justin's was a great ape. Tracey's was a meerkat.
Ernie's, one of the last to 'get it', was a porcupine.
CeeCee was close to getting a fully corporeal
Patronus but was not quite there yet. However it
looked big, whatever it was. While she was
disappointed, Harry was quick to assure her she
wasn't far off and reminded her she was two years
younger.
"You'll get there," he said. "We'll just have to come up
with a better memory for you. You just need time."
He also managed to teach three aurors the skill
through to corporeal Patronuses. They each had: a
standard grey wolf, some sort of fish and a small
monkey. The fish surprised him the most, as he'd not
seen a water environment based Patronus before. It
seemed to swim through the air with the same ease its
organic brethren would have swum through water.
Harry then had a visit from Amelia where he had to
promise to help teach the skill to other aurors during
summer.
He just gave her a pained expression and replied, "If I
have time. We haven't sorted out our summer
schedule yet."
She didn't push it.
For transfiguration, Fleur put them through their
paces on inanimate to animate transfiguration,
pushing forward for the bonus points by making the
item they animate perform a dance or something. This
time, Hermione picked it up first, then Daphne and
lastly Harry. Harry focused on turning something like
a chalice into a dancer. That sort of magic required
finesse; something he lacked compared to the others.
He was more brute force and knew it.
Harry had also decided to keep his promise to
Hermione and studied Tracey's notes for Muggle
Studies. He'd put his name forward to take the OWL
for it and carefully went through what they were
studying and he suspected of what would be in the
exam. Then went ahead and researched the new area
of digital communications for the bonus points. He
couldn't see anyone else focusing on that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 639
By the time OWLs arrived on Monday, the first Monday
of June, the Heirs were ready.
Hermione had reduced her hours of evening study
right down to under the three hours Harry had
threatened to cut her down to. And it was all because
of Fleur handing her the book on study tactics and
hints they used in Beauxbatons.
Of course, she then demanded Harry track down
English versions, enough for the entire group, which
Harry was happy to send Dobby off to do. He
purchased an even dozen of them. Later, they were
distributed among the Heirs, even MacMillan got one.
Then she set-to with a plan to properly schedule
everything, coming up with said schedule in less than
three days.
However, at times the schedule didn't turn out to be
much of a schedule due to constant alterations that
needed to be made to it. Some, for example, were
Harry's need to add in Patronus charm classes, his
forgetting about and then having to change things to
add in Muggle Studies and all of them forgetting about
History of Magic. Of course, once they all checked,
they realised none of them were planning on taking
that subject through to NEWTs, even if the subject had
gotten a lot better with the arrival of Professor
Goodstone at the beginning of the previous calendar
year. That meant the amount of time spent studying
that subject was reduced compared against a subject
they knew they wanted to take into NEWTs.
Harry was okay with all of that, as he actually liked
those sort of schedules. And Hermione's, as far as he
was concerned, was close to brilliant; even with
having to constantly make alterations.
However, the first day of two weeks of exams were
finally upon them and they were ready to go.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Finally received was the invitation from Lord
Clearwater of the Noble and Most Ancient House of
Clearwater regarding the handfasting of his
granddaughter, Penelope, to Percy Clearwater née
Weasley. The handfasting would be held the weekend
following the handfasting of Sirius and Jace; on
Harry's birthday, of all times.
He'd even received a short note from Lord Clearwater
asking if it was alright to hold it on that day, as the
man did not wish to offend. Harry was quick to dash
off a letter back stating he felt honoured the man had
chosen his birthday for his Heir Secondary to marry.
When he was going to ask the twins about it,
Hermione suggested he invite them up to the
apartment so they could all hear about it.
The twins were quick to accept and, the following
weekend when they visited, they regaled the Heirs
with everything they knew about what was going on
with it.
According to them, their mother tried to demand the
handfasting occur at the Burrow; something Lord
Clearwater immediately shot down. They did not know
what his letter to their father - not their mother - said,
but their father had apparently immediately gone to
visit Lord Clearwater with his 'cap in hand' to grovel in
apology for whatever Molly's words were.
When he'd returned home he'd summoned Bill, as Heir
Apparent to the Elder Houses of Weasley and Prewitt,
to a formal meeting between them two, Molly and
Percy. They'd heard from Bill that their Dad had 'laid
down the law' to their mother - something they'd never
remembered him doing before. Their mother was
firmly told she could undertake the formal role of
'Mother of the Groom', and only the 'Mother of the
Groom', or would have no role in the handfasting at
all. And that Percy had even gone so far as to tell his
mother that if she tried to interfere any further in their
nuptials he'd cut off all communication with her until
after the honeymoon at the earliest; and he'd also ask
Lord Clearwater to do the same from the Clearwaters.
It was clear to them it was something their mother did
not want to hear, but their brother stuck to his wand
grip and wouldn't budge one jot; not even when his
mother turned on the waterworks and tried to guilt trip
him, let alone his father and his eldest brother, into
complying. He again had their respect for that.
"That must have come as a shock to her," said
Hermione.
Both twins grinned back and said, "Honestly, it
shocked us, too.
"We had no idea Percy had the gumption to force
Mum to back down."
So, the handfasting would occur on the grounds of
Clearwater Grove, the Clearwater estate in southern
England, as per Clearwater family tradition; and Molly
Weasley could comply with it - and work with Lady
Clearwater - or stay the hell out of it.
Apparently she wasn't willing to do that after the first
meeting between her and Lady Clearwater, when she'd
then tried to put her foot down and once again take
over, so Lady Clearwater tossed her from the estate
with the firm command she'd be told what was going
on and what her role would be.
The whole thing generally amused the male Heirs,
with the female Heirs somewhat mortified or just plain
angry Molly had tried such a nonsense.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
Chapter 640
They all had received their schedules for the timings
of the OWL exams the Monday a week previous. That
gave them a whole week to sort out their last-minute
cramming schedule and what to 'last-minute' study on
the night before exams the next day.
Thankfully, the scheduling was not too onerous. For
the first week they had the written component of the
subject in the morning and the practical component
for that subject in the afternoon. Monday, charms;
Tuesday, Transfiguration; Wednesday, Herbology;
Thursday DADA; and Friday, Ancient Runes.
The second week was a bit muddied up. Monday was
Potions, written in the morning and practical in the
afternoon. Tuesday had CoMC, both written and
practical, in the morning; and Muggle Studies, both
written and practical, in the afternoon. Wednesday
had the Arithmancy written exam in the morning, with
no separate practical component; the written
component of Astronomy in the afternoon; and the
practical of the Astronomy exam in the early evening.
Thursday had History with no practical exam in the
morning; while the afternoon was set aside for those
taking exams where the examinee was ill for the
original time of the exam. The Friday was also set
aside for that. Thankfully, none of the Heirs fell into
that category.
So, for the Heirs, they were complete on the Thursday
at lunch of the second week and were able to relax.
The exams had, of course, been quite stressful.
As planned and for the first week, for Charms and
DADA the Heirs all went for the bonus points in the
practical by casting their Patronuses; to the
amazement of the examiners. For Transfiguration
Harry transfigured his mouse into an eggcup, the
required practical component, and then animated it
into performing a tap dance for the bonus. For the
Herbology practical bonus he had Dobby bring him an
example of the same poly-pipe reticulation system
he'd bought Neville over a year and half ago and
explained how, with runic magic, it could be
automated. He left the Herbologists excitedly chatting
with one another as he left, each of them with voicing
they thought the idea brilliant. He didn't go for the
bonus in Ancient Runes on the Friday as they didn't
allow it.
For the second week, for Potions he brought a
microscope with him and explained how not all
contaminants were either visible or macrobiotic;
instead, some could be microbiotic. And explained his
idea of how to reduce that form of contamination. For
CoMC he not only successfully approached a
hippogriph, he rode it for a short flight. For Muggle
Studies, where he felt the written exam was beyond
easy, he brought out and demonstrated, without
turning it on, a mobile phone; then explained how it
was relatively new technology that would lead to the
great majority of muggles owning one by the turn of
the century. The Arithmancy exam he also thought
was beyond easy, simply because it was straight
forward mathematics. Astronomy was just an exercise
in memory retention. As was History on the morning
of the last day, Thursday.
As the History exam wasn't that long, just tiring, the
Heirs all trooped up to the Lords' Quarters and almost
immediately trooped into the Potter Apartment.
Harry collapsed onto one of the long couches and
immediately had Daphne and Hermione snuggle in on
each side.
"That... was exhausting," he sighed.
With his own sigh, Neville said, "At least we have a
decent sized summer vacation to look forward to
now."
"When do we receive our marks?" asked Hermione. "I
hope we get them early. We have to choose our
courses for next year."
Daphne gave a quiet snort and said, "Accept that you
received Outstandings in all your subjects, Hermione.
And pick what you want to study from there."
"No more than eight," Harry firmly stated. "I will not
have you exhausting yourself so badly you end up
doing nothing but attend classes, do assignments and
sleep."
"I know," she sighed. "I'm... just having difficulty
accepting that at the moment. I still don't know what I
really want to do for a career."
"Yes, you do," said Daphne, straightening up to look
around Harry. "You want to go into Law. You want to
push forward changes to legislation to improve the
lives of magical creatures, muggleborns and
halfbloods. We all already know that.
"So, you need to choose subjects that will help you in
that field. History, the Politics elective, the Law
elective and Advanced Muggle Studies should be your
first four. I'd then add Ancient Runes and Arithmancy
as two of the other four. You just need to think about
what the other two will be. Probably Charms and
Transfiguration, or Charms and DADA would be my
choices."
What about you, Daphne?" asked Harry. "Finally hit on
your final choice, yet?"
She gave a nod and said, "I'm thinking of combining
my final two choices. I want to go into Healing, with a
focus on spell development in the Healing field."
"Nice," said Neville.
That then opened the discussion up to what everyone
else was narrowing down to their final choices of
career. Neville, of course, was going to be a
Herbologist before finally taking over from Pomona
Sprout as the Professor of Herbology at Hogwarts.
He'd already discussed it with her and she was
supportive.
Hannah was looking towards shopkeeping. Of all
things, she wanted to run a pub. Susan was looking to
a career at the Ministry in the DMLE, with a goal
towards becoming Minister one day. Tracey was
looking towards a career in Potions; as, once Snape
was replaced, she'd shown a remarkable talent in the
field. Ernie was still not sure, but was thinking of
starting up a muggleborn relationship consultancy
that would work with Harry's Statute that now made it
law for new young muggleborns and their families to
be aware of the magical community after the first
outward sign of accidental magic. He'd explained
about 'outsourcing' to the others and, apparently,
CeeCee had told him that's what they had in Australia.
As for Harry, he was going to be focused on pushing
the Potter legislative agenda, and... secretly...
approaching the Department of Mysteries about
working there. If the Unspeakables turned him down,
he'd look towards spell development, like Daphne; or
look towards anything else that took his fancy. If
nothing else, he'd be quite happy to be a stay-at-home
father when that time came. As he'd explained to his
ladies, there really was no need for any of them to tie
themselves to careers.
Once their informal meeting wrapped up as lunch was
quickly approaching, Harry suggested they all change
out of school uniforms and into 'civvies'.
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