Grimmauld Place, school and scheming
The first few days following Harry’s letter, Sirius was having a great time. He felt more energetic and motivated than ever. The gift of his bloodline, long forgotten and dormant, had awoken. Now he would do all in his power to help Harry and get back on his feet. Kreacher had been doing a nice job, nothing was dusty anymore, they were getting regular (and pretty good) meals and already on Tuesday the house was looking mostly fine. Nearly all of the litter was gone, broken cupboards, shelves, chandeliers and more were fixed, and so on. They had removed a vast majority of the rather gruesome things like the house elf heads and the troll leg umbrella stand, the kitchen was looking perfect and Remus had gone and fixed all the battered carpets. A few colour changing charms after a wallpaper removal spell and reapplication of colouring charms on the big Coat of Arms in the entrance, the dining room, the master study, the library and the meeting room. Shoo away a few boggarts and vanish dozens of doxies - probably even hundreds, and suddenly things looked much better. And that was just Monday.
On Tuesday Remus went shopping for them (Kreacher could pop down into the Black vaults, there was an extra vault for elves to restock the household). He ordered a few new robes for both Sirius and him, formal and informal, then he restocked the potions lab (there was still some stuff in there, but few useful things), the alchemy workstation and reactivated the book subscriptions of House Black. Which actually came with a big surprise. One of the former Lord Black created a contract with one of Knockturn Alley’s biggest and oldest stores, Noble’s Books and Tomes. The House of Black would get all the important and interesting new publications delivered via mail on a monthly basis, so their library would always be among the most extensive and up-to-date ones. What neither Sirius nor Remus (who had begun working through the damn paperwork) knew was that the contract was still ongoing. Just…after Arcturus passed and Grimmauld Place in a Fidelius Lockdown went, there was no way Mr Noble could still deliver. The money was still transferred though, praised be the goblins, and so Remus left the bookstore with a bag containing thousands of publications. Blessed be undetectable extension and featherlight charms.
After buying some proper tea leaves (not for Divination but drinking, and Walburga’s tea was slightly old by now) Remus apparated back to the House. He was right on time to hear the end of a rather emotional conversation between Sirius and Kreacher. Something about little Regulus. Sirius somehow managed to give Remus the short version of the story and handed him the locket to lock it up with all the other dark and cursed artefacts until he could research or ask the curse breaker department at Gringotts about it.
And yes, Sirius intended to go to Gringotts soon, but he wanted to get as much done as possible prior to that. Get all the cursed objects sorted through so the goblins could deal with them, maybe find a few goblin silver objects he could part with to garner favour, get back to health and have a house that was appropriate for a Lord of his standing - once he wore the ring. He had already sent a letter to Sharpsword of House Silverblade, the Black account manager, and they had agreed to a meeting on Thursday, together with Gornuk of House Goldclaw. He was, after all, a member of House Potter by the laws of sanctuary and protection. On top of that, the Potter account manager would be working as an intermediary between Harry and Sirius. Always working through Remus would eventually attract attention.
Aside from tidying up everything, Sirius spent quite some time training and studying up on some family knowledge he didn’t have access to before his maturity. There were several levels of access in the library, some books accessible for everyone, some for friends and house members, then those just for Blacks, those from the main branch, those for Lord/Lady, Heir(ess) and second-in-line, and lastly the same categories but only for those of age. And it seemed like the warding accepted his position as Lord Apparent to grant him access to everything - meaning that there was so much more to learn. And when Remus wasn’t busy with paperwork, he would join Sirius - his position put him on the same level as a main branch member, so a rather big access too.
Training, working through a crap load of paperwork, cleaning and restocking everything aside, the duo was also trying to come up with plans for the future. They had gotten a copy of Harry’s blood magic results (which the boy had allowed Gornuk to give them) and of the wills, which led to two very angry men. A fucking horcrux in Harry’s scar and Dumbledore hadn’t done anything about it. Okay yes, usually you couldn’t really do anything against living horcruxes, they had to die, but Dumbledore could have researched more. Or maybe he was still doing that and just decided to tell neither Harry, nor Sirius or Remus. Which itself was negligent and irresponsible. He was in no way Harry’s guardian and shouldn’t be allowed to keep those secrets and make those decisions.
So they didn’t know whether the old man was turning dark and wanted Harry dead, or if he was just a negligent old man who was ready to sacrifice Harry for the greater good. Either way, they wouldn’t directly associate with him anymore in the future. Harry deserved people in his life who cared about him instead of using him as a pawn.
Lucius Malfoy was sitting at the breakfast table Wednesday morning and enjoying his tea when a letter arrived. He didn’t recognise the handwriting at first, which confused him. On top of that he couldn’t place where he knew the Coat of Arms from. It was French, that much was clear.
Vicomte de Malfoy,
I am writing to you in a matter of great urgency. It has come to my knowledge that your heir, Draco, has recently been making rather unwise statements in public. Without wanting to take any side, the internationally renowned scholar Irma Pince has clearly stated that young Mr Potter could in no way have entered the Triwizard Tournament on his own. This happened in a very public proclamation in the midst of Hogwarts’ students and has already reached the ears of many noble families.
I know that you are a staunch opponent of Mr Potter and all he stands for, but it would certainly bring shame to your house if you were to disagree with a famous (and neutral) scholar. You might want to follow my lead and put your heir into his place. A public statement specifying that your heir is just a very… stubborn teenager and you are not doubting Irma Pince’s credibility would definitely not harm your business ventures.
The times in Britain might change soon and it would be wise to act with cunning and care. Otherwise you might regret it.
Don’t forget your place, Vicomte.
Marquise de Fleamont
Lucius’ eyes widened. He hadn’t received a letter from a fellow French family in a long time. Despite the social standing of his family in Britain, the Malfoy family was not really that respected in France, so they tended to ignore him. But now this. A threat. And apparently Draco was doing stupid things too.
He wasn’t sure what to think now. The Dark Mark was darkening and all the signs were there for a return of the Dark Lord. Clearly Potter didn’t have the skill - or a reason - to enter the Tournament on his own, so it was either an assassination by proxy or some other plot of the Dark Lord. Probably with the help of Snape or Pettigrew. Maybe someone else. Lucius heard a lot of rumours all the time, but none that gave him clear enough answers.
Despite the fact that everyone assumed Lucius was some sort of a wealthy, arrogant idiot who only manages to achieve something via blackmail, he was a good spymaster. And definitely not stupid. Money wasn’t his only power, he also weaponized information. That was the main reason for being in his Lord’s inner circle.
For example, he had always known that the whole Black incident was a frame job (not just because he knew his Master’s right hand, and they definitely got the wrong Black for that in the history books, but also because of the lack of trial or evidence beyond hearsay), but only after that situation end of last school year he figured out it was Pettigrew. Had always been among his top theories for that, next to Imperius, Polyjuice double or a load of memory manipulations on many people.
Quirinius Quirrell’s death was another one of the obvious ones. Travels to Albania, one of his Lord’s favourite countries, comes back with a turban and a stutter, flinching a lot and completely changing his character. Meanwhile Dumbledore hides something at Hogwarts, something that someone tried to steal out of Gringotts. Quirrell was seen in the Alley that day, and Rubeus Hagrid emptied a vault just hours before the attempted theft. If that wasn’t Dumbledore goading the Dark Lord (clearly possessing Quirrell - all the signs for possession were there) into a trap - or at least one of his servants - then he didn’t know what kind of madness the old fool was doing. And Potter was injured the same day Quirrell “vanished” and the mark burned.
He could continue that list for hours, but that's besides the point. What he didn’t know was going on now - besides the Dark Lord and/or his associates entering Potter. What was the end goal, who (besides Pettigrew) was helping the Dark Lord, why did he kidnap Bertha Jorkins (come on, getting lost in Albania… so obvious) and who killed that muggle with the killing curse in Little Hangleton. Yes, he knew about that gardener, having a squib (certainly not a relative, no no, the Malfoys didn’t produce squibs. There was no cousin Francis. Definitely not! Could you imagine the shame of that?) working in a high muggle government job to give him intel about all strange occurrences was quite helpful.
Damn it, now he’d have to go write a letter to Draco, one to Severus (he’d better see to it that the boy behaved) and figure out who’s currently holding the Fleamont title. Not easy, because he was regularly being denied access to French ressources. It’d take weeks to have someone steal and smuggle out a detailed book on French nobility with current family trees. There was no registry with all families (aside from some in family libraries, but stealing something from a Duc or Marquis was not really doable) since the abolishment of the power behind the titles. So finding the Marquis de Fleamont was going to be one hell of the task.
Argh.
Harry was having a good time. Following the potions lesson on Tuesday he spent a lot of time studying with Hermione, both regarding school stuff and the extracurriculars. Wednesday was barely different, Charms was fun, but beyond that not much more to say. He was getting along brilliantly with Henry, with whom he talked for ages whenever he had the chance. Both he and Filius had given Harry a few additional tips regarding duelling and in that little bit of spare time that remained, the two teenagers tried out spell chains from a duelling handbook.
Basically, everything was going fine.
Then, Thursday morning at breakfast several things happened. Harry was waiting for the Prophet to arrive, still curious as to what they would write about him (until now there hadn’t been too much news coverage aside from an initial article talking about the selection of champions). But before the newspaper got delivered, a majestic grey owl arrived and headed towards the Slytherin table to drop a letter in front of Draco. The boy was confused, he wasn’t expecting mail from his father just now. Little did he know that Harry had sent Lucius a letter the morning prior.
When the same owl dropped another letter in front of Severus Snape, many eyebrows were raised in the Great Hall. Harry just smirked. He figured that must be Malfoy Senior’s response to his semi-anonymous letter. Henry had told him that French nobility was a very secretive society these days, it would take Malfoy ages to figure out the truth.
Draco opened the letter carefully, not sure what to think. Especially because Professor Snape received something too. Had he done something wrong?
Draco,
I cannot believe that you publicly doubted the veracity of an internationally renowned scholar. You know exactly what I am talking about. It’s not about siding with Potter, but about preserving our image. If you feel the dire need to comment on the situation then speak about Potter’s lack of skill in the Tournament or something. From now on your opinion will be “someone entered him, be it a crazy fan wanting him to triumph or someone wanting him dead, that doesn’t matter. Fact is, he has no realistic chance and will utterly fail.”
Professor Snape will see to it that you do as I say, son. This is your only warning.
Your loving father,
Lucius Malfoy,
Vicomte de Malfoy
The Slytherin boy turned towards the Head Table, from which Professor Snape glared at him. Apparently the Potions Master wasn’t too happy being bossed around by Lucius Malfoy.
And Harry - he just grinned.
Hermione of course knew of his plans, so she couldn’t help smiling too. It was a bit funny. But while Harry was too busy being amused, she picked up the Daily Prophet as it arrived and… laughed.
“Hm? Everything alright, Hermione?”
“Oh yes, everything is fine. Better than fine actually.’The Goblet of Fire and its inner workings, or how Harry Potter did not enter the Triwizard Tournament.’ Front page article about the Goblet, written by Irma Pince and Bathilda Bagshot, edited by Barnabas Cuffe. Let me look, history of the goblet, inner workings and enchantments, and ways to fool it. They literally say you could not have done it.
‘It is the belief of the Daily Prophet’s two top scientific advisers, famous historian Bathilda Bagshot (author of “Hogwarts - A History” and many more top sellers) and researcher Irma Pince (masteries in Runes, Transfiguration, Magical languages, Ritual Magic, Advanced Arithmancy and Spellcrafting, author of at least 17 standard textbooks under various pseudonyms, former Unspeakable) that, as a consequence of previously stated reasons, Mr Potter could not have entered the Tournament of his own will. Whether that might be the fault of an old enemy, a crazed fan or enamoured fangirls, read Rita Skeeter’s article on page 4.’
I would say that will make your life much easier. Here, read it yourself.”
She handed the newspaper over to Harry, who began reading it with a broad smile on his face. He would never claim to understand whatever science stuff Pince and Bagshot explain there, but he got the gist of it. That was fantastic.
“Brilliant. You think we can drop by the library and thank her before class?”
“Before… you want to come late to Transfiguration and explain that to Professor McGonagall? We’ll do that in the lunch break before DADA.”
Harry nodded, Hermione was clearly correct. He would have to go thank Madam Pince, but risking coming too late to class was not really an option. Especially not since he wanted to go over his notes once more.
Transfiguration had always been a class Harry liked, despite the stern nature of Professor McGonagall. It wasn’t remotely as nice as Charms (since Flitwick was just brilliant), but fascinating. And, against all odds, he wasn’t all too bad, even without much effort regarding theory. Now he knew that this was a family trait, before that he just accepted the “your dad was a natural, it’s in your blood.” Which wasn’t wrong per se, but not really correct either. Anyway, for him it always made some sense, the way the magic felt and behaved. For Charms he had to read up a bit more about the nature of the spells to make sense of it, but not in Transfiguration.
But when they went over their homework last night in their reading room, Henry chimed in and gave them a lecture about theory. Parts of it had to do with some muggle physics and about understanding what matter was, down to an atomic and subatomic level (yes, Hermione added in bits of newer science, but Henry was already familiar with all of that. Muggles might understand some sciences better than magicals, but if you were clever enough a researcher to understand and utilise muggle sciences, you could make faster advancements and discoveries because you were not slowed down by limited technology), another part focussed more on the mental component of magic. The intent behind spells, the visualisation and the way you guide your magic.
After that, Henry guided them through a few simple tasks which all stressed the importance of those key points. A transfiguration where the base material stayed (basically) the same - a table into a cabinet, a needle into a ring - you just rearrange the atoms, so to speak. Which isn’t exactly right, yes, but the mental image did wonders to the intent. Despite the fact that it is physically incorrect, in case the mass changes, just imagine that every atom absorbs your magical energy and it grows. It’s probably rather a sort of duplication on a subatomic level, or some theorise that magical energy is just a load of protons, neutrons, electrons and a lot of other particles that you just rearrange and shape into atoms. The big questions there would be where you drew the particles from and where the immense energy required to do a sort of nuclear fusion or fission or however you want to visualise it came from. In the end that didn’t matter for Harry and Hermione until they would be long out of school and working as scientists or something. For now, only the visualisation counted.
On the other hand, when you were working on inanimate to animate transfiguration, the key point was the visualisation of magic as a sort of living, breathing (well… not literally) thing which you use to charge up your inanimate object into being sort of semi-sentient.
They learned what to do for transfiguration between different base materials, how to work on finer details of transfiguration (like the ornamental paintings on pottery) and so on.
Honestly, despite the fact that they focussed on Runes and Duelling, they learned a lot about Transfiguration (and by extension, about magic in general as those principles are somewhat transferable). If they would continue to use their time like that, then Harry would definitely be much more prepared for the first task.
Thinking about that, Hermione still wanted to inquire about the import of dangerous magical creatures like Binns advised. That would make the preparations much easier.
While Harry and Hermione were eager to reread their notes, just to be better prepared, Sirius was sitting at the breakfast table at Grimmauld Place. He had gotten up early and - since he couldn’t really just go for a run without resorting to Polyjuice Potion - headed towards the basement. Down there, long forgotten, was a room his great-grandfather Sirius Black II had built. The man after whom he was named (a very talented wizard and businessman who was the true power in Britain and most of Europe for decades - seems like his parents had great expectations for Sirius Black III, future Lord Black. They must have been disappointed until their deaths.) enjoyed luxury quite a lot. Okay, one might argue that was well deserved, seeing as to how much he worked every day and how big his legacy was in the end, but he loved living in opulence and luxury.
He didn’t really live much at Grimmauld Place, instead he built a big Manor somewhere in the countryside (Sirius really should look at that one, it would probably be the least dark and cursed one, another nice alternative to live in with Harry). Still, sometimes it couldn’t be helped and he had to stay here for longer periods of time, be it because of business, family stuff or renovations on his home to make it even more luxurious (okay yes, it was mostly the latter). Which means that old Sirius had to make a few renovations here too, so he wouldn’t miss out on all his luxury. The second ballroom exists because of him, so does the Roman styled garden on the third floor (magical sunlight and breeze making it feel as if you were outside, but they hadn’t even looked at it yet. Way too preoccupied with everything else). And another creation of his - though that one was old Sirius’ secret retreat - was the bath and spa. Sirius was thirteen and alone at home, as the family disgrace they tended to leave him at home even if he was in line for the Lordship. So, like a true Marauder, he used that time to find secrets.
Down in the basement, in the wine cellar (yes, Sirius wanted to snatch some drinks to smuggle into school) he found a secret passageway, just like the ones at Hogwarts. It wasn’t password activated, but instead with pressing on runes carved into the wood in the right order. They were barely visible, hidden under an old illusion spell which was running low on energy after several decades. And the combination… well, good thing that he read through old Sirius’ diaries when he was younger. His parents wanted him to have an idol to look up to, make him walk in the footsteps of his ancestor. Not that it worked. But at least he knew the personal signature old Sirius used to end his diary entries.
Anyway, that is how he discovered Sirius Black II’s private area, containing a big indoor bath, inspired by Roman architecture, and a magic-powered sauna. It also held a lounge area with a bar, but sadly the liquors were all protected by age wards. Sad.
Back then he never really found the time to utilise that discovery, especially because he couldn’t really use it with anyone else at home. If they noticed his absence (maybe he had done something worth a punishment) they could maybe send an elf after him or use some spell, revealing his discovery to everyone.
So in the end he just managed to come here twice before running away, both times when his parents took his brother away to some sort of social thing and Kreacher had a task keeping him occupied all day.
The reason he was on his way down there was that if he couldn’t go out on a run, then at least he’d go swim a bit to get fitter. With anticipation Sirius activated the runes, not sure what to expect. The wards on this place always seemed to keep everyone out, there was just this one entrance. And even after being not used for decades, it was clean and had warm water. So it shouldn’t really be anyhow different from back then…
“Bloody hell, damn it.”
Sirius didn’t go further than just two steps. Yes, it was still looking clean and everything, but not every ward had survived the years.
So that was why Sirius sat at the breakfast table much earlier than anticipated, he simply wasn’t able to do some sports. Bloody temperature regulation and air freshening wards. It wasn’t just damn cold, it was absolutely smelly and stuffy down there too. But yeah, makes sense. Without the magic cleaning the air it was bound to be utterly disgusting after not having been aired in over a decade.
A while later Remus joined him - and obviously Sirius had to complain about the whole thing and whine for fifteen minutes. At least. But hey, the kitchen was spot on clean and looked better than in ages, the food was warm and great, and slowly the glum look of the house began to vanish. It could be worse.
At some point - Remus was blending out Sirius’ rants while drinking his tea and eating some of Kreacher’s delicious bread - the Daily Prophet arrived. Obviously there were ways to receive owls even under a Fidelius, developed during the last year, and so Remus renewed the house’s subscription so that they would get it. And here it was.
“Sirius!”
“Hm? But Moony, don’t interrupt. We just need to air out the fucking thing and spell the wards back to how the were - or must have been, no idea how they were. You should see the bar down there, and the water is brilliant. That’ll do wonders for my physical health and…”
“Sirius! Stop moping. While you’re doing nothing but complaining, Harry is actually getting something done. Less talking, more doing. We’re gonna do the basement, sure. First breakfast and you’ll read that article, then you get the drawing room upstairs in order while I look through the files. Maybe there is the contract for the warding or notes on that in the study. And if not, we work based on the residue. Oh no, don’t make such a face. Here, read that.”
Moony, grinning because he was having fun shutting Sirius up, handed over the newspaper. And promptly Sirius was happy.
There was a reason Remus had always been the brains of the Marauders. Sure, James and Sirius were the most talented, but he was the smartest. He was structured and logical - though he didn’t mind getting dragged along in some chaos every now and then - while they were chaotic at times. So over time he figured out what to say to get each of them back on track - otherwise they would have abandoned half of their greatest pranks and the Marauder’s Map just for some short laugh or little prank. Something well devised and thoroughly planned, something brilliant like layered enchantments, experimental potions or Merlin knows what would certainly impress little Miss Evans more than a silly prank, wouldn’t it? She liked brilliance. Sirius needed a “rival” whom he could surpass, he hated to be compared with someone better. Regulus came home with an EE in Transfiguration and was praised by his parents? Sirius went for an O then, maybe even extra credit. Snape created a new potion? Well, he wasn’t a fucking animagus though. Loser. And now Harry was getting so much done. That would keep Sirius from moping.
Remus had to admit, he was brilliant. Not really modest though.