Ch. 22

He resisted the urge to squirm under her intense scrutiny, and after a second, he seemed to have passed as she nodded haughtily and waved him in. "Madame Walburga Black." She gestured to another woman who had just entered the room. "This is Druella Black, nee Rosier, my sister. The dining room is that way. Bellatrix!"

"Yes, Aunt Walburga?" the familiar voice came from upstairs, where Harry remembered Sirius's room to have been, along with a few other bedrooms.

"Your guest is here."

"I'll be right down."

The infamous Black matriarch nodded to herself, then turned to Harry. "Have a seat. The remainder of the guests will be here shortly. My husband and I will be with you in a moment."

"Thank you."

Harry didn't particularly want to wait for Bellatrix to arrive, and since he knew his way around the house anyway, he found the dining room without much trouble. A few people were already there, though from the sounds of it, and judging by the number of empty seats, he was one of the first to arrive. He stepped into the room and suddenly found himself grabbed by the arm and spun around.

"Hey, look at what the cat dragged in," a voice to his left spat.

"Yeah, the punk from Diagon Alley yesterday," another one added.

Harry frowned as he looked at the three young men in front of him. He vaguely recognized them from the incident in Diagon Alley the day before, and there was no doubt that they recognized him, as well. The three of them were, he guessed, between twenty and twenty-five, dressed in garish clothing that they seemed to think projected wealth, but in reality just spoke of bad fashion sense.

It works in the movies, he thought to himself with a slight shrug as he waved one hand in front of him. "I'm not the wizard you're looking for."

"Wha-?"

"You will let me pass." Another wide, arcing wave of his hand.

"Like hell we will!"

Oh well, it was worth a try, Harry thought with a mental shrug.

He reached for his wand at the same moment the three other men did. There wasn't enough time for him to cast a spell that would take care of all three, and they were too close to risk casting a spell, anyway. He snapped his wand hand up in a trick that an auror in his time had taught him. He slammed the back of his rising hand into the other man's wrist, taking a step forward as he did so. A flick of his own wrist around the other man's arm brought Harry's wand tip to bear against his throat, causing his three assailants to still abruptly.

"You punk!"

Harry paused and sighed. He really wasn't in the mood for this, and making enemies of the younger purebloods probably didn't bode well for his future relations with their parents, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. The best thing he could do was avoid confrontation at this point. "You're not even worth my time," he finally muttered and shoved the man aside, leaving him and his two companions glaring at Harry's back as he walked to the table and found himself an empty seat.

Before he could sit down, however, Harry realized that his actions had not gone unnoticed by the occupants of the room. The attention of every person in attendance was riveted on him as he walked past the three men. They also noticed this attention, and clamored to not let the incident go without saving their pride.

"You think you can just walk in here and show us all up? Who do you think you are?"

"Someone ought to teach you to respect your betters!" another said hotly.

Harry turned around and glared at them, putting every ounce of the accumulated hardship of the past few years of his life into it. The intensity and harshness of the look froze the three young men in place, but before either could say anything, they were interrupted by a loud cough from the head of the table. Harry glanced over to discover an older, pale-looking wizard sitting there. His grey hair was combed back neatly, and despite the wrinkles on his face, his figure looked remarkably healthy for someone Harry estimated to be in his late seventies to eighties. He sent Harry's three assailants a long, deliberate glance before looking away to something else. When Harry turned around, he found that the three would-be aggressors had quickly retreated to the other side of the room.

"Already getting yourself into trouble, Ashworth?" a quiet, husky voice asked from next to him.

Harry spun around and found Bellatrix standing next to him. He plastered on a grin. "Good evening, yourself."

Bellatrix nodded to the old man at the head of the table as she sat down. "That's my uncle, Orion Black," she told him.

Harry nodded quietly as he sank into his chair, carefully glancing around the room. Everyone had gone back to minding their own business upon the Black patriarch's silent command.

"What did you do to get yourself into trouble, anyway?" she asked once they were both seated.

"Nothing," he hissed back. "They're from Diagon Alley the other day."

Bellatrix was fighting to suppress a smirk; Harry could just see it briefly flitting across her face. "I see. Well, lucky for you, those guys are idiots. No brains and think they're the cream of the world."

....

Join my P@treon and get 60+ advanced chapters.

Link: p*atreon.com/0LordSilvere0 (Remove the *)

Free members get 2 chapters free.

Join Right Now