Chapter Seventy Five - Creeping Death

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to the proverbial Duchess of Magic, JK Rowling, Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros and some other high falutin' companies. No matter how much I whine about not owning anything related to the HP universe, other than a few fanfic plots, I do not profess to own - and would never dream of making any money off - JKR's wonderful world... Damn it!

A/N: You get this one a couple hours earlier as somewhat of an apology for― Nah, screw it. I did it for me. I just wanted it out of the way for today. :)

Chapter Seventy Five - Creeping Death

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―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

The morning's copy of the Daily Prophet contained the entirety of what had happened the two days previous morning on those stairs at the third floor landing. Hermione was surprised with how accurate it was and expressed such to the others.

Daphne smirked and said, "That would be Sampson's fear of what Law-wizard Tonks would do to them and, specifically him, if they wrote anything but the truth."

Iolanthe Sampson was Cuffe's replacement as Editor of the Daily Prophet. She'd moved over from Witch Weekly as editor there.

Hermione immediately gave a smirk back and softly said, "I'd forgotten about that."

However, it apparently also had quite a significant number of students, who weren't until then privy to what had happened, again looking to the Heirs with a mixture of awe and fear; especially those who were children of the dark families. The other Heirs, less Harry, were now well used to it and ignored it.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

Later that morning the stinging, tingling feeling in Harry's shoulder finally stopped. However, he was still not immediately released; it wasn't until that evening he could escape the hospital wing. It took the rest of that day, the Monday, for the flesh and skin to be repaired enough at the wound site for Robinson to decide it was time for him to remove the combined splint/bandage/poultice.

Ten minutes later, after a lot of prodding and poking and questions like 'Does this hurt?', Harry was finally released with warnings not to over-exert the muscles and bone of his wand arm shoulder for the rest of the week.

"In other words, Lord Potter," warned Robinson, "No excessive exercising of that shoulder until the weekend at least."

"No, sir," Harry dutifully nodded. Mind you, he'd have agreed to just about anything just to get off that hard mattress and out the door. Promising not to over-exert his shoulder was well within his ability to agree to.

Of course, his three ladies were all there to collect him and 'escort' him up to the Potter apartment. Recognising and knowing they were worried about him he let them mother him a bit. It wasn't that big a deal to him.

As soon as they got into the apartment, Hermione tried to 'urge' him into bed again.

"Not going to happen, Hermione," he firmly said. "Assignments wait for no OWL year wizard. I've laid and snoozed on my back all day. I want to make a start on today's assignments well before I head for bed later this evening."

Looking like she was going to vehemently argue about that, before Hermione could say a word Daphne cut in first. "That sounds like a good idea, Harry. There's nothing stressful to your shoulder about writing assignments."

"Agreed," said Fleur.

With both girls clearly agreeing, Hermione decided not to disagree, after all. She just gave a bit of a quiet huff showing she didn't like it, went to her book satchel and pulled forth her folder she kept her assignments within. Then brought them back to the coffee table and couches.

Dobby had already retrieved Harry's satchel and put it on the floor leaning against the leg of the coffee table, where Harry often left it. Harry was quick to pick it up, retrieve his writing equipment and set everything up ready to write down what each of his missed assignments were. Dobby even brought him his 'lap table', an idea he'd copied from Alice Longbottom, so he wouldn't have to continue to lean over to the coffee table to work.

"Thanks, Dobs," he muttered, organising things either on the table or alongside himself. He admitted only to himself that his shoulder still ached a bit.

That night Fleur entered his room only a few minutes after he did.

Seeing her, he said, "I'm sorry, Fleur; but, I won't be able to do much to help you, tonight. I can't do... ummm... push ups."

As she disrobed, she said, "You let me worry about that, mon cher. You do not have to be... as you put it... 'on top'."

Harry was unsurprised he was able to get to sleep that night with a smile on his face. He might not have been able to give his bonded the multiple releases he knew he was capable of when fully fit, but he was able to give her at least a couple and reach completion himself in the end.

That she was sprawled in the bed asleep and appeared utterly 'wasted' was testament of that, at least.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

It hadn't taken Weasley long to realise he was not going to be happy being cooped up and effectively trapped in the basement of Nott manor to know he needed to come up with some sort of effective plan not to be so trapped.

His exploration of the basement within the first couple of hours of being stuck down there found him the potions room. He might not be the best at brewing, but he considered himself a fair hand. It was his belief it was only the crap he'd had to put up with from Snape, when the man was still the Potions Master of the school and Professor, together with the man's hatred of all things Gryffindor, that had a negative impact on him.

Picking a couple of the Potions books found in the 'lab' to read through to see if they held the answer to his problems, had him return to his bedroom and accompanying study table to begin reading.

Some of them looked interesting.

Of course, Nott didn't just have the standard Potions books that could be found in Flourish and Blotts. He also had quite a few that contained potions that could be dark. And those would probably have the answer to his dilemma. He cracked those open first.

If he was to be honest with himself, which he wasn't, if there'd been a book or magazine on Quidditch in there he'd have grabbed that to read first.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

Harry was back in classes the next day; a double of Charms, morning tea, a double of Transfiguration, lunch, a single of CoMC and finishing up with a double of Herbology. A full day, but not so much moving about between classes as in the past.

Fleur had left earlier to head into work at Gringotts after Harry prepared a quick breakfast for her, before joining everyone else for the trip down to the Great Hall.

Walking in, he was near immediately almost set upon by the twins. "Lord Harrikins!" stated the first, hurrying over from the Gryffindor table to where they were heading for the Hufflepuff table that morning.

"Please―" started the second, as the first took it back up again, "Believe us when we tell you―"

"We had no idea Ron―"

"Could do such a thing as deliberately ambush you."

"Relax, guys," he said. "None of us blame you two."

"Or Ginny," added Hermione.

"No; this was all Ron. We know that," he finished.

When the twins appeared relieved, Daphne said, "While this attack is seen as 'all Ron' it does not excuse the behaviour of any other Weasley if they have desires to attack any of us.

"Ronald Weasley's behaviour and what will no doubt befall him in the coming of time is just as much his mother's fault as his own. After all, he should not have turned out the way he did since your mother, who was pretty much solely responsible for raising him before he arrived at Hogwarts on the first of September in 1991, should have spotted the problem much earlier than that and dealt with it back then. His bigotry, his jealousy and his disgusting eating habits, plus all the rest, are as much her fault as his."

Clearly sad to have heard that, both twins nodded with one adding, "Indeed."

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

After reading through one of the potions texts available to him in the basement of the Nott manor, Weasley realised he'd found at least one answer to one of his problems; how to move about outside without being immediately recognised and captured. He had no doubts that, if he was caught, he'd quickly find himself in a holding cell at the DMLE and almost as quickly tried and found guilty before being sent to Azkaban.

His answer, he believed, was Polyjuice potion. Crouch had imitated Moody for almost the whole of a school year and not even Dumbledore had supposedly figured out 'Moody' wasn't Moody. He'd even stated that, apparently, during his trial; at least, that's what his Mum had said.

That meant it was safe to take for extended periods of time. He just had to get used to the taste.

Though the instructions in the book looked a little difficult he knew they weren't. After all, Granger had brewed it in their second year; so it simply couldn't be that hard.

Yes, there would be the problem of stewing the lacewing flies for twenty one days, but that gave him plenty of time to find other potions he could add to help him.

He called for the Nott house elf, Runt, and told it what he needed.

His first and unknown problem was that Runt, unlike Dobby, was not confident in offering advice, let alone corrections, to his instructions. The Notts made sure the elf did exactly what it was told and nothing else. And his second problem was his attitude of 'close enough is good enough'.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

By the Friday things had well begun to settle back down at Hogwarts. Harry was pretty much over his injuries and his girls were appreciative of that.

For the school, all the students were now starting to get into the mindset that it was only a few weeks before the end of term, just over six weeks, and they'd be heading back for the Christmas break on the 19th of December. Some were already starting to talk about what gifts they'd buy for others or hope they'd receive in return.

The Heirs weren't wondering much about that. When others started mentioning the upcoming break, Harry's first thought was where would they spend it? He called the girls together on the Friday evening to discuss options.

When Harry first raised the subject, Hermione had immediately asked, "Where do you think we should spend it, Harry?"

Both of his other girls also immediately turned to look at him with curious expressions on their faces. It was now obvious, to him, it would be his task to pick.

"Well," he said, somewhat surprised by how they were deferring to him about this. "This is a three week break, this year. I think it's... in part... to make up for the shortened summer break."

When all three nodded back, still not saying anything, he thought about it and said, "How about... since we didn't spend a lot of time there last summer... we spend the first week, including Christmas Day, at the Greengrasses..."

That had Daphne immediately beam back in happiness.

Continuing, he added, "The next day and for the second week we spend five days in France with the Delacours, where Gabby should also be back from Beauxbatons for the break. Since they both work, we then spend New Years Eve, Day and the next couple of days with the Grangers. Then finish the week at The Kennel."

That had all three grin back in happiness before Hermione turned to look at the other two and, almost smugly, stating, "See?"

The slight confusion he was feeling must have been reflected in his expression as Daphne laughed and said, "That's almost exactly what we figured you'd suggest."

"And for the same reasons," added Hermione.

Internally, Harry breathed a huge sigh of relief. He was worried he'd upset one or more of his ladies and did not want to feel their wrath, if they were of a mind to unleash it upon him, for 'getting it wrong'.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

In the basement of the Nott manor, Weasley was in the middle of working on a few potions he figured could be a help in getting back out and about from the basement.

He'd already begun to brew his first batch of Polyjuice potion, together with a couple of others related to disguises; one of which would mask his magical signature - not knowing Nott's house elves were already slipping him such a potion within his food.

However, he was also working on a couple of control potions and poisons. He'd now determined his chances of getting to Potter and directly defeating him wouldn't work. So, he'd have to come at him through his whores and minions - for that is what he now thought of them. He'd slip one or more of them control potions and have them poison him.

He'd already decided that, while he'd have preferred to defeat Potter in a one-on-one duel, he'd be satisfied with using his whores and supposed friends to kill him on his behalf.

'Just so long as he's dead,' he thought with satisfaction.

Because he was envisioning the pain and effects the poison would have on Harry's body, he wasn't paying as much attention to what he was doing as he should have. A couple of very important steps were not completed exactly as they should have been.

At one stage, he had to pause while he called the Nott house elf assigned to him to go and purchase a couple of ingredients he hadn't noticed, until then, were missing. Nott had granted him a very limited budget for the purchase of such ingredients and the house elf was only obeying instructions when purchasing them.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

At the meeting of the Alliance a little over a week later and just before the meeting even started, Amelia took Harry aside and gave him a quick report about their hunt for one Ronald Weasley.

"He's completely disappeared," she immediately told him. "It's now been two weeks and, even with all the suggestions you gave us on how to find Dumbledore, none of them worked with finding him, either. As such, we believe he's under a Fidelius or within one of the old manors that have a set of the old ward schemes on them. That's all I can think of that could block our efforts."

With a small disappointed sigh, he said, "I'd already figured as much."

"The hunt has not been called off, though," she stated. "Eventually, we'll find him. Plus, Arthur Weasley has informed me he has his wife watching that family clock of theirs. If he dies, we'll near-immediately know of it. Well, as soon as they see any change and let us know of it. Right now, it's apparently telling them he's alive, calm and not in immediate danger. But that's all it tells them."

"Understood," he replied.

As he'd told Harry he would, Frank informed them all how disgusted he was to learn that the 'secret' of what the Tapestry Club was doing was made known to the Daily Prophet.

"We are an Alliance," he firmly stated. "What we discuss here is debated in the knowledge that what we speak of... what is an Alliance secret... does not become fodder for the gossips and especially that scandal sheet rag, the Daily Prophet. We need to trust one another that what we discuss here, stays here.

"Lord Potter has convinced me it will do us no good to ferret out the one who betrayed our confidence. Finding them would mean we would have to kick them out of our Alliance, just on principle." He sighed. "That's not something the fledgling Grand Alliance we have become should have to weather.

"Just know that we are very disappointed in you, whoever you are. And, if anything like this happens again, we will discover your identity."

After letting the gathering think through that for a moment he eventually asked, "Now. Any more news for us?"

"Parkinson," Sirius almost growled out.

"Yes," said Ogden. "We really need a plan on how to handle him and his incessant attempts to discover more information about, or try to get control of, Heiress Malfoy... CeeCee. You know they won't stop, don't you?"

And ideas were tabled to discuss how to deal with the dark families trying to wrest back control of the Malfoy fortune.

During the early part of the meeting Harry had been carefully watching Sirius, the man was trying to look grave, but the expression of gleeful chaos Harry could see shine through every now and then had him a bit worried.

As the meeting this month was being held at Abbott's Ford, Eugene Abbott was chairing the meeting. At close of one short piece of business, he asked, "Next?" and looked around the table.

That's when Sirius leaned forward with clearly feigned nonchalance from where he was sitting back and calmly drawled, "I have an announcement, if you don't mind."

"Of course not," said Eugene, sitting back slightly to listen and offering the 'floor' to Sirius.

Sirius gave a nod of thanks and said, "Because of the resounding defeat of the emergency motion to have the work of the Tapestry Circle made a High Secret, we all know that means any similar motion cannot be raised again for twelve months. However, that does not mean a contrary motion cannot be raised."

When a few, including Ogden and Bones, nodded back, he smiled and said, "Harry's little speech against the motion, we would all agree, went a long way to earning that three-quarter majority. It also, I believe, gained a lot of support for The Tapestry Circle's efforts.

"To that end, I have been working with Ted Tonks to draft legislation that will make what the Tapestry Circle have already researched and determined needs to occur. We have drafted a recommended Statute to, with the exception of specific cases, make handfastings and concubinage between witches and wizards who have an identical blood relative closer than six generations back illegal."

That had a few give quiet gasps of shock or, in one case, give a huff of annoyance.

"There would need to be exceptions, of course, for those who are already handfasted or concubined, for those in current unbreakable relationship contracts, for those finding themselves in soul or life debt bonds, etcetera. However, I believe Ted and I have covered every possible contingency that would require such an exemption."

"It won't pass," Puvingson firmly said, interrupting.

"By the reaction of the Members during the debate of the emergency motion, I believe it will," said Sirius.

"It's a fool's quest," Puvingson shot back.

"Then I shall be a fool and quest it," said Sirius. Before Puvingson could retort yet again, Sirius added, "The House of Black has not moved a motion within the Wizengamot in one and a half decades. I believe this matter is important enough... and is sufficiently a hot enough issue... for House Black to lead the charge on this."

Ogden asked, "You're not doing it because Dowager Malfoy is a daughter of Black?"

"No," he replied. "I acknowledge Narcissa being a daughter of Black had a little to do with me deciding to champion this issue within the 'Mot. However, on a personal viewpoint, I also believe most strongly this needs to be moved forward with haste. That's the primary reason I'm doing this."

Frank asked, "May we see what you've got?"

Sirius smiled and called, "Chuckles."

When the little elf popped in, he said, "Bring me my Bill for the Protection of the Well-being of the Recognised Houses, would you?"

"Yes, Master Sirius," replied the elf, before it popped away for a long moment.

When he came back, he immediately popped a parchment folio onto the table before Sirius.

"Thank you, Chuckles," muttered Sirius, as he flipped the 'cover' of it open.

Thanking the house elves for their service was something both Harry and Hermione had impressed upon him. He'd begun to do it for them. Now, he did it automatically.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

After a 'business as usual' start to the November session of the Wizengamot, the call for New Business was issued by Ogden. The only difference was, again, the numbers of witches who filled the visitors' gallery; though, to be fair, there weren't as many as the few weeks previously for the emergency session.

Sirius stood and immediately got the call, which showed Ogden was waiting for him.

"Thank you Chief Warlock," said Sirius. "I stand, before you, representing the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black offering for your consideration the first item of legislature the House of Black has put forward in over fifteen years. I stand before you for the first time offering such legislature.

"The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black presents in first reading the Statute for the Protection of the Well-being of the Recognised Houses." And sent his 'original' copy to the Scribe.

After the meeting that original would be passed to the WAS, where they would record it, copy it out as many times as necessary and send one each to each Member of the Wizengamot, including the Minister and each department Director. Other copies would, of course, be made available to any interested party who wished to find out more about it.

Within a minute of Sirius speaking to the Bill many of the Members were up in their wands about it. Sirius's Statute, as he'd told Harry it would do, was to pass into law the 'recommendations' of the Tapestry Circle, together with the exemptions the Heirs let Sirius know plus the views of a few other interested parties who managed to have their views heard by Sirius and Ted. Many of that last group were members of the Tapestry Circle Narcissa told Sirius he should speak with to hear what they had to say.

In a nutshell the Statute made it illegal for any relationship agreement, let alone handfasting, between any witch and wizard where they had a common ancestor within the past five generations. Plus, it included all the exemptions the Heirs had discussed and let Sirius know about, together with a few valid points the Tapestry Circle also 'submitted' believing should be included. It then went into some depth as to the penalties for breaching the Statute, the least of which was a magical repudiation and enforced disenchantment of any illegal handfasting not already having an exemption. It wasn't a long Statute, but it was certainly a contentious one.

During the 'reading' Sirius had to stop no less than a half dozen times due to both the sheer amount of noise and or at request by Ogden. And four supposed Lords had to be thrown from the chamber for the 'crime' of 'Ignoble behaviour within the Chamber' before Sirius, after half an hour, was finally able to conclude his remarks.

It was while a Speaker against, some old crotchety Lord of a Noble and Elder House Harry didn't care much for, who was speaking about how 'even the tabling of the Statute' impinged on the 'rights' of Heads of Houses in the husbandry of their own Houses, that Harry had an epiphany that had him a little worried - the rights of muggleborns.

It was something he'd have to raise with the Sitting alliance members at their debrief at the conclusion of the meeting.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

They'd been sitting in the Chief Warlock's office going over the meeting of the Wizengamot when Harry raised his epiphany.

At the conclusion of his views, which clearly had the others worried, Ogden said, "Damn. I don't think any of us thought of that."

He received concerned headshakes in denial back from the others.

Harry believed that, once the Heads of the recognised Houses finally accepted that the bloodlines were at risk of birth defects and stillbirths from inbreeding, there would be some who would attempt to find a way to force muggleborns and non-ennobled halfbloods into relationship agreements; specifically, Concubine Bond Contracts.

"Those laws are going to need to be strengthened," said Samuel. "The one's covering forcing someone into a relationship agreement."

"They're already there," said Bones, also concerned.

"They're unenforceable," sighed Harry. "Muggleborns have bugger-all rights, remember? It would be easier to enact laws protecting the muggleborns... no, the Unhoused, which would include the muggleborns... from such shenanigans than try to enforce laws that have already been proven to be insufficient."

As the others nodded, he added, "However, the other option is what my ladies want me to push forward as part of the 'Potter Legislative Agenda', as Hermione calls it; make contracted relationships involving sex illegal, or make sex being included in contracted relationships illegal. If the bride or concubine are actually against such a relationship, she sees such contracts as legalised sexual molestation."

Sirius winced. He quietly but firmly said, "I doubt you'll ever get the chance to enact such a law, Harry."

"I know," he sighed. "That's why the first option is the way to go. Hermione's just going to have to live with it, for now.

"I think it might have to start with making it that neither a regent nor magical guardian, other than a magical parent, can enter a child into one. And that such an agreement can only be agreed upon once all parties have been checked for mind altering charms and potions immediately prior to the signing of such an agreement."

Ogden, not focussing on anyone because he was deep in thought, was nodding along. He mused, "A good start, but is it enough?"

No one had an answer for him. Harry was relieved, even glad, a pureblood like Ogden was supportive of such a concept. It gave him hope.

Sirius looked to Harry and it was easy for Harry to see he was thinking back almost a year ago when the issue of Hermione getting caught in a sex slave concubine bond contract was raised at the Grangers'. He was doing the same.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

On returning to the school, Harry returned directly to the apartment and changed before heading down to lunch. Due to how long the Wizengamot meeting went, he had to hurry to make it in time for the end of lunch. And was down at the Great Hall with about fifteen minutes before the end of the lunch and they'd have to make their way to their next classes. For Harry, that was Care of Magical Creatures.

Even before he sat he could see his two, especially Hermione, were eager for news - Fleur was at Gringotts.

He quickly said, "After classes, alright? I'll let you know now, though, Sirius tabled his Bill for the first reading."

That had both, and even the others, relieved.

"Any trouble?" asked Susan.

"Nothing we didn't expect," he replied. "Three Lords and, I think, a head of a Ministry department got their bums tossed out for 'ignoble behaviour', though.

That had both Sue and Daphne wince a little. It was a major slap against one's House to be so firmly evicted from the Chamber during a sitting.

"Ouch!" said Neville, although he clearly didn't mean it as he didn't even twitch a wince.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

After class, a double in Herbology with the Slytherins this year so Daphne was with them, Harry and his two headed straight back to the apartment to get changed.

Once redressed and before he could even ask about the two double classes he missed in the morning, Charms and Transfiguration, the two practically dragged him to the 'triple' couch and sat him down between them.

However, he was pleased to see neither started demanding information; but both did stare at him expectantly, not saying a word.

With a mental snort and light smile on his face he wryly said, "I've got this feeling you both want to know more about what happened during the session, today."

Again not saying a word, both stares just morphed into slight frowns.

"Okay!" he laughed. "Don't hex me for it. Here's what happened..."

He told them about Sirius's Bill first, as he knew that was what they were most interested in. However he also covered what else happened and added what happened in the meeting in Ogden's office after the session.

When he told them about his fears the Heads of the recognised Houses, once they finally recognised the truth of the birth defect problem, would then try to force through relationship contracts with the muggleborns and/or halfbloods both girls looked at one another in worry.

Hermione carefully asked, "What can be done to block that?"

"Now that I've alerted the others in the alliance to the problem, I think our best minds are going to come up with yet another Bill that'll protect them," he replied. "However, while it will be aimed at muggleborns from our point of view, it's going to be aimed at the Unhoused."

"Clever," said Daphne. "That way, it won't seem so much to the traditionalists as giving muggleborn better rights."

"That's the idea," he nodded.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

Weasley was in 'his' potions lab in the basement of the Nott manor when he heard ranting and raving coming from Lord Nott from the floor above. He could hear the man through a heating duct high up in the wall, so stopped to listen.

"That damned Black mongrel is hell-bent on the destruction of our world!" ranted Nott.

Weasley had no idea who the man was yelling at, but he'd hate to be in his robes. The answering voice was too quiet for him to make out what they were saying, let alone if he could even recognise the voice.

"No!" ranted Nott. "I am not prepared to wait! Call the faithful! I expect them all... every one of them... to be here and before me by seven hours past noon this very day!"

He heard no more after that. However, if Nott and all his evil, slimy Slytherin friends were going to be here, he could use that opportunity to duck out and get things he needed he didn't want Nott to know he would have.

He didn't trust that elf not to tell Nott and suspected the elf was telling Nott everything he was doing, let alone what he was buying on Weasley's behalf.

While Nott might have helped him by providing him somewhere to stay and be hidden, that didn't mean he was going to trust the man any more than he had to.

Weasley's Polyjuice Potion had, surprisingly, turned out 'adequate' only that day; even if he did have Runt, the house elf, buy him the 'pre-stewed' lacewing flies to save time. However, the other potions he was making, especially the poisons, needed ingredients that were specific to those potions.

He'd looked to see if there were other potions that contained those ingredients, but with the exception of one of the antidotes none he could read up on did. That meant there was a high likelihood if the elf did tell Nott what he was buying for him, Nott would quickly figure out what potions he was making. That meant, after he'd killed Potter, Nott would have the 'evidence' that would point back to him. That could not be allowed.

Besides, he might use the same method to take out Nott later, if that was what he needed to do.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

As the time reached 7.00pm, Weasley could hear through the vent that Nott was again ranting and raving about 'the Black mongrel' and 'Potter'.

He had no idea what Black or Potter had done, but whatever it was certainly riled the man. All he knew from what he'd heard was that Black and Potter were trying to kill off all the purebloods and hand the Houses over to halfbloods.

That had Weasley even more determined to do what he had to do to stop Potter and his minions.

Right on 7.00pm he cast a wide area stasis charm over his potions work bench, turned off the magical fume extraction fan, donned his Disillusionment charm and snuck out through a window high in the wall in the storeroom off the main area of the basement. That window only required him to move two crates under it for him to easily climb them and open the window. It opened just behind a bush in one of the garden beds hard up alongside a wall of the manor about a foot off the ground outside.

A quick brush off of loose soil from his clothes and he was jogging across the grounds to where he thought the nearest road could be found. Once outside the grounds he'd be taking the Polyjuice Potion he brewed and calling the Knight Bus to come and pick him up.

Back inside the basement of the manor, the wide area stasis charm Weasley cast over the workbench failed almost before the boy had finished crossing the grounds outside.

That had the three potions he was currently brewing - a loyalty potion strong enough to be a slave potion blended with almost a Draught of Peace, a compulsion potion as strong as the Imperius curse and a fast acting poison - continue to 'brew'.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

At the Ministry, no efforts at that time were currently being made to track Weasley down. For a start, it was the night shift who were on; and they were more focussed on dealing with the revelry and near riots going on in the pubs of the Alleys, Hogsmeade and Godric's Hollow. And, secondly, it had now been two weeks since Weasley's attack on Potter and his ladies and all attempts to track him down had been unsuccessful to date. As such, no attempts were being made that night to find him.

A young junior Auror had just stuck his head into the auror bullpen. He spotted one of the on-duty Senior Aurors and said, "There's a riot in the Warlock's Curse in Knockturn. The proprietor requests auror attendance."

The Senior looked to the RR Team, smirked and said, "Looks like this one's for you lot. Best go settle them down again."

The Senior in charge of that Team rolled his eyes, sighed, stood up and looked to his Team. "Right. Let's go bash some heads together."

They left fifteen seconds later via portkey.

That left those aurors manning the floos for incoming emergency calls and those couple in the auror bullpen remaining behind as backup. All other aurors were out and about already, including the on-duty 'Desk' Master Auror, who'd already gone out with one of the teams to deal with another trouble spot in Hogsmeade, at the Hogs Head Tavern.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

That evening, Harry received a somewhat thick letter from Ted via HEED.

After casting detection charms over it and finding nothing untoward, he soon had the envelope open and had the parchment within slid out onto the coffee table.

Unsurprisingly now, Hermione didn't immediately try to pick up one of the documents to find out for herself what was written upon them. However, she did watch Harry most carefully. She was also very much aware, now, she was to never touch any documents Fleur might bring home, but at least his oldest bonded didn't leave anything from work out in the open unless she was there and working on or with them.

Picking the small stack up, Harry read the cover letter provided by Ted and began to skim through the attachments. "Ted's come through with recommendations for International Real Estate agents for me," he quietly said.

"International Real Estate Agents?" asked Daphne.

That's when Harry realised he hadn't told his ladies he'd asked Ted to find some for him, or why.

"Sorry," he said. "I asked Ted to find some for me because I'm interested in purchasing some properties in areas that are now important to us." Then he explained where and why.

"Perth, Australia; the French winery areas and New York State in the US," said Hermione. "That's very clever."

"I understand the first two, but why the third?" asked Daphne.

"Somewhere within apparation range of New York City while not being too close to that hustle and bustle," he replied. "The Hamptons, I believe, is where the rich of New York go close-by to get away for a holiday by the sea from New York City. I thought you ladies might like somewhere nice to stay in the US that was close enough for you to be able to visit the New York City garment district, specifically Fifth Avenue."

That earned him three wide grins of pleasure from his ladies.

"Ohhhh, you are so going to get lucky tonight, Potter," said a very pleased Hermione.

He never told them of his intent to purchase a very decent property for Daphne, ready for if she decided she'd had enough of him and would move herself out. He was still feeling insecure about that relationship. He knew Hermione wouldn't leave him unless he did something really, really stupid to ruin their relationship; and he knew Fleur couldn't leave him due to the Veela life debt; but, Daphne was under no requirement to remain.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

Meanwhile and at Nott Manor, the 'Faithful' had gathered. In all, over forty witches and wizards, mainly wizards, had gathered in the manor 'Reception Hall'. These were both or either of the Inner Circle of the Death Eaters and Lords of Noble Houses of the Dark.

Even with expansion charms at their maximum, the reception hall was the only room in the manor large enough to hold that many, even if the room was massively oversized for forty-plus.

A large 'U'-shaped table had been set up in the middle of the floor with chairs around the outside of the 'U' for those 'privileged' to be invited. Nott stood between the tips of the 'U' and paced back and forth, going over, in detail, what both Black and the 'so-called' Tapestry Club had done. He was waving a copy of Sirius's Bill about and reading from sections of it as he did. Of course, many who were there already knew this as they, too, held Lordships and were in attendance.

What none of them knew, though, was the creeping death that was, even then, sneaking up on them all.

Down in the potions lab the three potions that were back to brewing after the failure of the stasis charm had now passed the point of overheating. Instead of just simmering with the lightest wisps of fumes rising from their surfaces, all three potions had reached boiling point and the fumes coming off them were in great invisible clouds.

With no extraction fan in operation, the three separate clouds blended into one whole and rose above the workbench before being sucked into the very poorly placed vent that led back up into the manor proper.

As it was a cold night, one of the 'modern' conveniences of the manor had been activated; the central heating.

The fumes were then sucked into a gas powered heater and further mixed together before being pumped back out into the air of the manor through concealed vents low to the floor spread throughout nearly every room in the manor. That heating both mixed the fumes and distilled the potency of the fumes even further.

Then being expelled through the air outlet vents by the low powered magical fan at the boiler, even now the fumes were beginning to fill the manor.

The quickest acting on the gathered 'Faithful' was the Draught of Peace component. Those attending found themselves becoming quite happy and calm as Nott, who had started with ranting, was now more calmly speaking about what needed to be done with the 'blood traitors' of the Tapestry Circle, specifically the Malfoy bitch and Black.

Because of the calmness that slowly enveloped them all, none of them were worried about what they were now feeling.

Next was the rest of the slave potion together with the Imperius potion. The latter of the two also added to the calmness of the first with the sense of near euphoria it created.

And, finally, was the poison.

When individuals of the Faithful began to keel over, the rest were so lost in euphoria they simply didn't care. Everything was just 'peachy', thank you very much. So, if someone decided to take a quick and unintended nap, that was quite alright and they should be left alone to do that.

With his head a few feet higher off the floor than the others due to standing, Nott was the last to fall. He collapsed almost bonelessly to the floor, making very little noise doing so. No one saw him fall. He was unconscious before his head hit the floor.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

Weasley nearly had a panic attack when, just after he'd entered Knockturn Alley, a team of five aurors charged down it seemingly coming right at him.

However, they ran right past him with barely even a glance in his direction, heading deeper into the Alley.

Not thirty yards further along they suddenly turned and set themselves up to enter a building that had a shingle hanging from a pole outside that said 'The Warlock's Curse'. A long moment later and the one who had his off hand on the door hand and was checking his fellow aurors over, suddenly yanked on that door handle and led what appeared to be a charge inside.

As soon as he'd opened the door, though, Weasley could suddenly hear plenty of raised voices, shouts and even glass breaking coming from within. That same noise just as suddenly cut off when the door closed behind the aurors.

With the aurors now gone, Weasley moved to stand to the side near a shop-front and leaned on the wall. Until then he hadn't realised his heart rate had spiked due to the presence of the aurors.

A few minutes later he stood back up straight and made his way to a shop he could tell was an apothecary by the large and clearly fake bundle of herbs hanging from it's own pole outside the shop. Walking closer he saw the faded, peeling sign that proved it was the apothecary he was looking for; the same name as the name Runt gave him for the name of the apothecary he told Weasley he'd purchased some of the other ingredients for him, including the pre-stewed lacewing flies.

Entering, he braced himself up, yet again trying to act like a 'poncy git', and made his way to the counter.

A quiet demand and he was soon leaving again with small amounts of the two ingredients he wanted.

Before Weasley had even made it back into Diagon Alley on his way back to the street via the Leaky Cauldron, back at Nott Manor the Faithful were all down and unconscious. One, an elderly wizard named Andrew Gibbon, was already dead.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

At The Burrow, Molly and Arthur were sitting for a somewhat late dinner - something they more and more had due to Arthur working back at the Ministry more often due to his job and new responsibilities - when there came from the family clock, 'Dong!'

Both adults Weasleys immediately spun to stare at it. Ron's hand had, again, moved to 'In Danger'. Both were only a little relieved it had not also immediately moved to 'Mortal Peril'.

"Shhhit!" muttered Arthur.

"Arthur?" whimpered Molly.

Arthur turned back, picked up his napkin and wiped his face. "I'll let the aurors know. However, it's well outside work hours; so I don't know what, if anything, can be done."

Looking more firmly at her, he added, "We have no idea where he is, anyway."

He rose and made his way to the floo.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ

Weasley disembarked the Knight Bus right outside the front gate of the Manor and quickly got the hell away from that point. He just hoped no one inside was looking out one of the front windows and saw him get off the evil contraption.

Hiding for about five minutes in the bushes between the fence and the road, after not seeing anyone coming down to check it out, he made his way further along the fence to the place he was able to scale it and get back onto the grounds.

A few minutes later, he was under a disillusionment charm and hiding in the bushes up against the wall of the manor, carefully listening to see if anyone inside had detected him.

Not hearing a sound, he felt he was in the clear and slunk back to 'his' window.

He had no idea that the only living beings still alive in the manor were the owls in the owlery in their own tower. And they were only alive because the owlery was more a covered roof gazebo than a room.

As he climbed in the window, back in The Burrow Weasley's clock hand suddenly shifted to 'Mortal Peril' with a clear 'DONG!'

"Arthur!" Molly immediately wailed.

Arthur's mien just took on an expression of pain and he closed his eyes. In a defeated voice he softly said, "There's nothing we can do, Molls."

He had moved to sit at the table alongside her when he returned from the floo. Unconsciously, they both held hands, praying to Merlin and the Old Gods to save their wayward son.

Even as soon as he was climbing back in through his window, Weasley could smell something burning.

'My potions!' he thought.

He quickly jumped down off the stack of crates and ran out through the door back into the main part of the basement. As soon as he opened the door the fumes hit him like a hammer of smell. He ran into the potions lab.

He barely had a thought for the little elf that appeared to be laying on the floor just inside the door of the lab, almost subconsciously wondering why the elf picked that place to sleep.

His eyes began to immediately water from the stench.

A quick few steps of a dash and he could see his potions were now boiling over. He was coughing from the cloying fumes.

He quickly extinguished the flames and turned back to look at the elf.

As soon as his eyes rested on the little being, through his watering eyes he could see the elf's eyes were open and staring vacantly at the ceiling.

It took him a few moments to realise what he was seeing. The elf, Runt, was dead.

Horrified, he quickly realised what must have happened.

Now panicking, but beginning to feel light headed, he thought, 'I have to... get out... of here!' And ran, staggered, back out into the main part of the basement.

With his head now feeling like it was stuffed full of cotton wool he was now becoming confused and even more light headed.

'The... win... dow!' he sluggishly thought. "I... have... to...'

Staggering, he stumbled his way back to the door of the storeroom.

He barely made it to the storeroom door before he collapsed to the floor. 'Got... to... get...'

He passed out.

Less than a minute later his clock hand fell off the clock face of the Weasley clock with a light clatter.

"Noooo...!" wailed Molly.

Arthur slumped to the table in defeat.

Ronald Weasley was dead.

_‗_

―==(oIo)==―

ˇ