Lily's House
Friday, 18 December 1998
“Lady Bones, you have the floor,” Chief Warlock Greengrass said as they moved into the new business section of the Wizengamot meeting.
“Thank you, Chief Warlock,” Susan said, nodding her head slightly as she stood and smoothed out her plum-colored robes, “myself and Lord Peverell are introducing this legislation as co-sponsors.”
“So noted.”
Both the Bones and Peverell chairs were in the highest tier of the Chamber where the 20 original seats were placed. 19 out of those twenty families remained in the Chamber, only the Gaunt line had died out. Harry could’ve sat next to Susan in the Black Chair, but he was sitting 9 chairs away in the Peverell seat between Theo in the Nott Seat and George who was sitting in the right chair of the Prewett seat.
The average age of the top tier had dropped significantly when Harry and his friends came into the Chamber. Only the Abbot seat, currently held by Hannah’s father, Thomas, and the Fawley seat, currently held by Lord Patric Fawley, were held by someone over the age of 27.
Harry stood from his seat once his co-sponsorship of the legislation was noted, splitting the Chamber’s attention between Susan on the left and himself on the right.
“This legislation comes in several parts,” he began, “each of which serves the goal of protecting our most precious citizens; our children.”
“The primary goal of this legislation is twofold,” Susan continued, “first, to establish a Children’s Welfare Office in the Ministry and second to establish an orphanage.”
Murmurs broke out across the floor. It was no secret that Susan and Harry were made orphans by the first war then once again by the second with the deaths of Amelia and Sirius.
The debate over the necessity of the Children’s Welfare Office began immediately, most were talking about funding, but several Lords and Ladies were attempting to argue that the office wasn’t necessary whatsoever, even if funding could be procured.
Harry raised his wand and was recognized by the Chief Warlock, “do you have something to say on the matter of necessity, Lord Peverell?”
“I do, as a matter of fact,” Harry said, rising to his feet once again, “do any of you find it odd that I needed a permission slip to visit Hogsmeade, but I was allowed to go one v. one with a nesting dragon without so much as a by your leave?”
The Chamber fell silent as everyone stared at him, and he could’ve sworn he saw Amos Diggory cover up a laugh.
“Does anyone find it odd,” he continued, trying not to smirk at the fact that Amos’ ‘I hate Harry Potter’ routine was finally cracking after half a decade, “that when I didn’t reply to my first Hogwarts letter, instead of sending someone to check on me, the school sent over a hundred owls to my muggle neighborhood in Surrey? How about the fact that the school didn’t shut down when students were being petrified in my second year? Or the fact that the Triwizard Tournament happened at all? We talk about our children as if they are precious, but we don’t do anything to show we believe that. I’m not the only magical child who was left stranded in an abusive home. I’m not the only one who was made an orphan by one of the wars, but I’ll certainly use the voice I’ve been given to advocate for those like me. We’ve let our children slip through the cracks for far too long and it’s high time that we start actually protecting them.”
“Where would the funding come from?” Lord Burke asked.
“That’s the thing,” Susan said before Harry could call everyone stupid for not actually reading any of the documents they’d passed out explaining exactly where the funding was coming from, “we don’t need much additional funding. There are several current ministry employees who are working in child welfare, they’re just spread across existing departments which makes it harder for them to do their jobs effectively. If we simply relocate them into a new department focused solely on children’s welfare they’ll be much more efficient.”
“And what about the orphanage?” Lord Patil asked, looking at Harry like he already knew the answer.
“I’m offering the Potter land in Godric’s Hollow,” Harry said.
“That’s a ministry site!” Lord Dean, one of the elected members, cried, “you can’t do that.”
Harry just stared at the man for a second before he shook his head and told himself that this was not the place to punch people for being dense, “it’s not an official ministry site. After I was effectively kidnapped and dropped on a porch in Surrey in the middle of the night in winter, someone put up some preservation charms and a plaque, but it never changed hands from the Potter Family to the Ministry. It is my property, and I can do with it what I see fit.”
Before anyone could argue further, Harry continued, “the property itself is in good shape, the house obviously is not. There would be costs associated with razing the house and building the actual orphanage, but that cost would be a fraction of what it would cost to procure new land and set up new wards.”
“What do you mean?” Lord Patil said, asking exactly what Harry hoped someone would ask, “about the wards?”
“The Potter wards themselves are impressive, but a recent survey of the property shows that the sacrifice my mother made on Halloween 1981 left protective magic on that property that no ward master could ever dream of replicating,” Harry said, trying his best to smile with pride rather than grief, “that’s why we’re proposing the orphanage be named Lily’s House.”
“A lovely idea,” Lord Patil said, sending Harry a soft smile.
“And where would the funding to build the orphanage come from?” Lord Rivers asked.
“Me,” Harry answered with a shrug, “if we approve the Children’s Welfare Department, I’ll work with them to build the orphanage to their standards and then I’ll lease the land and home to the Ministry for a galleon a year. The Ministry would be responsible for the upkeep of the property; things like paying the staff, supplying food and clothing. The school board has already met and agreed that if this plan is approved, Hogwarts costs and tuition will be free to all residents of the orphanage so that isn’t something we need to worry about.”
“Also,” Susan continued, finally pulling the attention away from Harry for a moment, “it wouldn’t be difficult for the Ministry to fundraise the money rather than pulling it out of the core budget, the annual costs aren’t all that high considering the fact that Harry is essentially donating the home and property so there’d be no annual mortgage costs or anything of that sort.”
“You two sound like you have it all figured out,” Chief Warlock Greengrass said with a soft chuckle, “why don’t we take a recess and then come back and vote?”
When there were no objections, he said, “be back in twenty minutes,” and signaled for the doors to be unsealed.
“Ugh,” Harry sighed, slumping down into his seat.
“At least you made Diggory laugh,” George said, reaching over the empty Potter seat to ruffle Harry’s hair.
“Quit it, Weasley,” Theo chided as he tried to fix the mess George had created, “it took me a half hour to get his hair to lay flat.”
“Apologies,” George said with a laugh, raising his hands in surrender.
“Where is Draco?” Harry asked, ignoring George’s teasing and Theo’s attempt to straighten out his hair and looking up toward the Heir’s balcony where Hannah and Padma were currently sitting alone, “he’s holding my non-stupid robes, so he better not have left.”
“He has all of our non-stupid robes,” Theo pointed out, “so you won’t be alone in hexing him if he decided to take off.”
“Not to mention the fact that I also need him to be here so I don’t have to talk to Diggory about using the Malfoy land for a werewolf sanctuary alone.”
“There’s absolutely no way you’re still afraid of Amos Diggory,” Fred said, joining the conversation.
“I absolutely still am,” Harry deadpanned.
“And you think bringing the man formerly known as Draco Malfoy along is going to help?”
Harry thought about that for a second and shook his head, “great point, guess who’s coming with me now.”
“George?” Fred said hopefully.
“Not even a little,” Harry said, sticking out his tongue.
“Mature,” Fred responded, “but I’m not walking down all those stairs just to have to come back up, so it’ll have to wait until the end of the meeting.”
“Fine,” Harry sighed, “play the chronic injury card, see if I care.”
“You’re the worst,” Fred said with a laugh.
“Oh look,” George interrupted, nodding toward the stairs, “looks like you two won’t have to walk anywhere.”
“I’m going to go talk to Daphne,” Theo said, squeezing Harry’s shoulder as he stood up and walked down the row.
“Hello Lords Prewett, Lord Peverell,” Amos greeted with a nod.
“Harry, please, Lord Diggory,” Harry said.
“You’ve known us our whole lives,” George said with a smile, “call us Fred and George.”
“Then call me Amos, please,” he said, returning George’s smile, “Harry, this bill is really well done, I wanted to congratulate you.”
“Thank you,” Harry said, trying to mask the nerves that always popped up when he had to interact with the man, “there’s actually something else I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, we’ve been talking about proposing the use of the old Malfoy property as a werewolf sanctuary and I wanted to bring your office into it. The funding would come out of an initial donation by the Black Coalition families and then from an investment account we’d establish, but there’s some details we’d like to go over with you if you’d be interested?”
“That sounds like a great plan,” Amos said, to Harry and the twins’ shock, “when are you planning to make the proposal?”
“Sometime early next year, maybe February?”
“So we could meet a few times in January and prior to the February meeting,” Amos decided, “who are you working with most closely on this?”
“Draco Black and Luna Lovegood,” Harry answered.
“What about me?” Luna asked, leaning around Fred and George to look at Harry.
“You’re working with Draco and I on the werewolf sanctuary.”
“Oh, yes,” Luna said, sending Amos a bright smile, “hello, Lord Diggory.”
“Lady Rosier,” Amos greeted with a nod, returning Luna’s smile, “good to see you, I’m glad to hear you’re working on this project. Someone has to keep those boys in line.”
“It’s tough work,” Luna said, biting back her grin at the absurdity of her being the one to keep anyone, most especially Harry, in line, “but someone has to do it.”
Harry coughed into his elbow, trying to hide his laugh before turning back to Luna, “we were just speaking about Amos meeting with us about the sanctuary.”
“Wonderful,” Luna said.
“I’ll owl the two of you after the new year and we’ll find a time to meet,” Amos said, entirely oblivious to Harry and Luna’s amusement.
“Perfect,” Harry responded, “will you and Josephine be attending the Yule Ball?”
“We will,” Amos said with a smile, “will you be there?”
“All of us are planning to attend,” George said, “but little Harrikins over here is required to.”
“I know where you live,” Harry muttered under his breath, dodging away before George could mess up his hair again.
“Oh?” Amos said, looking at Harry in interest.
“We never did a public ceremony for our Orders of Merlin,” Harry explained, trying not to grimace, “the Ministry has requested that those of us who received an Order following the war be at the Ball for a formal presentation.”
“That’s wonderful,” Amos said, clapping Harry on the shoulder, “Josephine will be thrilled to see you, she’s so happy every time she gets a letter from you.”
“It’ll be great to see her,” Harry responded.
“You should stop by and see her more often,” Amos said, “she always loves to see you.” When Harry nodded, Amos smiled at the group and said, “well then, I’ll see you all soon. Congratulations again on this legislation, it’s well done.”
“Fuck,” Harry muttered under his breath once Amos was halfway down the stairs.
“That went well,” George told him, patting his shoulder.
“What’d we say about calling me Harrikins in professional settings?”
“Don’t do it?”
“Correct,” Harry said, though he couldn’t stop himself from laughing at George’s over-exaggerated pout. He shook his head and decided to change the subject, “are you two bringing Katie and Angelina to the ball?”
“Yes, sir,” Fred said with a proud smile, “same dates as the last ball.”
“I am not taking the same date,” Harry said, “as my original date and I are now both raging homosexuals.”
“I’m fairly certain that’s not a new development on either front,” Luna quipped.
“Good point,” Harry said.
“Think Cho’ll bring Dudley?” Fred asked.
“Maybe,” Harry said with a shrug, “neither of them have actually told me if they’re together or not but Angelina sure seems to think they are.”
“Think Dudley would run away screaming if he saw us again after the whole ton-tongue toffee fiasco?” George wondered.
“At least you didn’t give him a tail he had to have surgically removed,” Harry said.
“Don’t get me wrong,” George started, “I love Hagrid as much as the next guy, but that was just diabolical.”
“Not to mention horrendously illegal,” Harry said with a laugh.
Before anyone could respond, the Chief Warlock sent out a loud bang from his wand and ordered everyone back to their seats.
“How’d that go?” Theo whispered, taking his seat next to Harry.
“Good,” Harry whispered back, “he’s open to meeting with us about the sanctuary and congratulated me on the legislation.”
“That’s good, love,” Theo said, squeezing Harry’s hand briefly.
“Oh look,” Harry muttered, looking up at the heir’s balcony, “the Little Dragon reappeared, guess he hasn’t absconded with our dress robes.”
“Odds he was just wandering the halls because he got bored?”
“High.”
After another hour of debate on the details, the legislation proposing the establishment of the Children’s Welfare Office and Lily’s House was passed unanimously.
Harry leaned back in his seat, pulled the chain with his mother’s engagement ring out from under his collar, and breathed out a sigh of relief.