Chapter 96

Taking a look at his surroundings, Harry noted that he was in some kind of lobby. The room was decorated in dark red woods and possessed black marble tiling as well as large, marble Corinthian columns embedded into the walls. It had an air of refined elegance about it without being too ostentatious. Harry assumed the place was designed that way to appear humble while impressing those who came through with it's imposing columns.

A small crack alerted Harry to the fact that he was no longer alone. A small house elf had appeared in front of him, this one much more pleasantly dressed than the last house elf he had met.

"Harry Potter?" the house elf asked in a refined voice, nothing at all like some of the other members of it's race that he had spoken with on occasion.

"Yes."

"Master Greengrass is waiting for you in his study. Follow me please."

Without waiting for a response, the house about faced and began walking out of the room. Harry quickly followed as he was led into a hallway with dark green carpeting that looked almost like grass and brown wooden walls that gave the space a more natural feel to it.

Knowing he would not get many chances once the meeting took place, Harry used this opportunity to clear his mind. He went through all of the Occlumency meditations he could think of, and even ran the gauntlet for meditation techniques Master Wei had taught him. They helped, if only a little.

Harry was lead soon led into a large, open room with many doors and a large set of stairs, the grand foyer. Like the lobby, the floor was made of black marble, while the columns that looked like they were being used more for decoration than support were made from white marble. In the center of the room was a beautifully crafted fountain of what Harry recognized from his studies in mythology as a Wood Nymph spouting water from a vase in it's hands. Several meters from the fountain was a large staircase that split into a T junction at the end, leading in two opposing directions.

The room itself was very large, imposing. At a guess, Harry would have to say it was around two stories tall. The white columns against the black marble background made the room look even more intimidating and majestic than it otherwise would have been.

The house elf, whose name Harry had never learned, led him up the staircase. They took a left at the T, leading to more steps that ended in another hallway. The walk through this one was much shorter, and soon Harry found himself standing in front of a elegantly crafted wooden door with a crest of a large King Cobra standing on a grassy plain with it's hood fully extended, the Greengrass family crest.

Below the crest was the family motto: 'Anguis in herba' or 'A snake in the grass'. It was a very apt motto for a family whose name was not only Greengrass, but which had belonged to the Slytherin House since the family's founding.

The house elf knocked on the door.

"Master, Heir Potter has arrived."

There was a moment of silence.

"Send him in."

Opening the door, the house elf bowed before Harry and gestured him inside.

"The master will see you now."

This was it. The moment he had been preparing for since sending Nathaniel Greengrass his letter asking for Daphne to accompany him alongside his other friends as they shopped for school supplies. Harry took a calming breath, preparing for the inevitable meeting with the only man he had met so far aside from Voldemort who scared him.

He entered the room.

Nathaniel Greengrass' study was much different than any of the other rooms he had been in so far. It still retained it's intimidating majesty, but it was also very spartan. Aside from a shelf lined with scrolls and books to his left and the large desk with the bare backed chair in front there was nothing in this room the speak of.

Harry squared his shoulders as he walked forward with the practiced grace that Andromeda had drilled into him when he asked for her advice on pureblood affairs the first time they had met. He was grateful for his animagus form as well, as it made his already impressive gait even more graceful than usual.

He stopped just a few feet from the desk, which Nathaniel Greengrass was sitting behind, several documents that he appeared to have been writing in sitting in two neat piles on his desk.

"Heir Potter," the voice was just as dead and emotionless as he remembered it. Harry did his best not to let the chills that wanted to run down his spine at that voice come out.

"Lord Greengrass," Harry inclined his waist slightly in a respectful bow, just as Andromeda had told him to do. "I hope you have had a pleasant summer. I hear the ICW has brought forward several progressive laws they are hoping to pass."

"They are," was the only thing Nathaniel allowed himself to say as he gestured for Harry to take the seat in front of the desk.

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