New Moon Meetings
Sunday, 18 October 1998
“Alright,” Susan called, bringing the meeting to order, “what did you all come back with?”
“I can vote yes for Shacklebolt if we include the revised provision on sacrificial magic,” Harry said, “and Weasley, Wood, Chang, and Davies will also vote yes with that provision.”
“Great,” Susan said, adding the votes to her count, “so, are we all in agreement with the final legislation?” she asked, turning back to the group, “Please, speak now if you have any issues or questions. We’re putting this to vote on Wednesday.”
“To make absolutely sure I understand,” Pansy said, “this legislation would bring back the rituals associated with the wheel of the year with the stipulations that the High Priest/Priestess be registered with the Ministry, the ritual use a proper ritual circle that contains magic to the ritual site, family rituals are considered Family Magic, and there be no sacrificial magic aside from one’s own blood or magic, or the general sacrifices of food and wine?”
“Correct,” Susan said, nodding her head, “the sacrificial magic stipulation is new as of this meeting, it’s how we ensured those Light votes, it seems the main reason many Light families were against the continuation of the Old Ways was because of the perception that sacrifices are used in the rituals, even though most if not all of the family rituals don’t actually use sacrifices, adding that stipulation is just an added layer of security that doesn’t hurt us any.”
“Where in the Ministry are the ritual leaders going to register?” Simon Yaxley asked.
“With the Wizengamot,” Daphne answered, “we spoke to my father and determined that would be the easiest place as they’re the body that deals with Family Magic issues, not the DMLE.”
“Thanks,” Yaxley said with a nod.
“Okay,” Susan said, clapping her hands, “let’s vote now to be entirely sure. Heirs, please back away from the table, sitting Lords and Ladies, please raise your hands if you are voting yes,” she said, looking around the room, “alright, that’s everyone. That’s 22 votes, plus Weasley, Wood, Chang, and Davies which brings us to 26 and we know from the Heirs here that we have the Abbott, Burke, MacMillan, Patil, and Rivers votes which brings us to 31. This should pass on Wednesday without much trouble.”
Wednesday, 21 October 1998
Susan was right, their first major act of legislation passed unanimously. The discussion during the session swayed the final votes – Diggory, Sinistra, and Slughorn – to their side.
“Good evening Chief Warlock Greengrass,” Harry greeted as he stepped up to the podium following the meeting, “I need to register as a ritual leader for the Hogwarts group, the ritual site has been checked by all four Founders Heirs under the direction of the Founders themselves and was double checked by McGonagall. I was trained in Family Magic and Rituals by Narcissa Black, Salazar Slytherin, Charlus Potter, and the Peverell Family Grimoire,” which was really code for Death Himself, but Cyrus Greengrass didn’t need to know that.
It was rather difficult to argue against a ritual site checked over by the Hogwarts Founders and a ritual leader trained by Slytherin himself, so Harry walked out of the Chamber with a slip of parchment signed by the Chief Warlock.
* * *
“Theo?” Harry called out as he stepped through the front door, “did you beat me home?”
“In here,” Theo responded from inside Teddy’s nursery, “I went straight for the floos when you were talking to Greengrass.”
“Did you already get Teddy from Ron and Hermione?” Harry asked, hanging his cloak on one of the hooks by the door.
“About 45 seconds before you came through the door.”
Harry checked his watch and saw it was just after 3:00, “can we have a family cuddle before we send him to Grimmauld before Astronomy tonight?”
“Of course, love,” Theo said, stepping back into the sitting room with Teddy, “are you alright? You look like something’s bothering you.”
Harry sighed and pushed off answering the question, “bed or couch?”
“Are you going to fall asleep?”
“Most likely.”
“Bed then,” Theo said, “change out of those clothes before you get in our clean sheets though.”
“Of course,” Harry responded with a slight smile, “no outside clothes on the sheets.”
“Don’t make fun of me, Potter.”
“I’m not, it’s a perfectly reasonable rule.”
“Shut up,” Theo said, lightly shoving Harry’s head, “now what’s up? I can tell something’s wrong.”
“I don’t know what to expect for Samhain,” Harry said with a sigh, “I know I’m the best choice for ritual leader for this particular holiday for … obvious reasons, but it’s why I’m the best choice that’s making me nervous.”
“Explain.”
“Death mentioned that a Samhain ritual led by any Peverell is always a bit more intense than any other ritual, the family, clearly, has an incredibly close connection to Death, but he doesn’t have any idea what me being, well, me is going to do to the ritual.”
“You mean that your whole Master of Death situation might, what, supercharge the ritual’s magic?”
“Essentially,” Harry said as he dug through his wardrobe for sweatpants and a t-shirt, “but we don’t know how. Usually, the people who participate in a Samhain ritual can just feel familiar magic or sort of whisps of spirits, but people who partake in a ritual led by a Peverell have heard voices or seen moments of full apparitions, and that’s just having Peverell blood. I’m the Master of Death, I wear the Resurrection Stone every day and I’ll be casting the ritual spells with the Elder Wand while wearing Death’s Cloak, normally the leader is only wearing the Cloak. Also, normally the leader doesn’t have weekly chats with Death himself.”
“I can see how that might stress a person out,” Theo said, trying not to laugh because, honestly, the situation was pretty serious, but listening to Harry rant about his insane powers and weekly chats with a deity was rather funny, “should it concern me how often the two people in charge of death have no idea how something works?”
“Probably not,” Harry said with a shrug, “and I am in no way in charge of death … neither is Death really, it’s more of a group effort and even then it’s tied more to nature and life force than it is to any singular deity or group of deities.”
“I really can’t have a philosophical discussion about death at 3:00 on a Wednesday afternoon, especially when you literally know Death, it’s far too insane to process.”
“Welcome to my life, Theodore,” Harry said, burrowing all the way under the duvet so only his hair was visible, “now hand me my son, change your clothes, and come here.”