Preparations for task and trial
After her fascinating and informative trip to Hogwarts, Amelia Bones headed to the Ministry. Yes, it was Saturday but that didn’t matter. She wanted to work on the Black case. Yes, the document authenticated by James Potter was theoretically evidence enough, but still. Fudge would claim it was fake and there were enough people siding with him by default. She didn’t know what the Dumbledore faction would do and there were probably enough members of the Dark faction who wanted Black out of the picture so Malfoy could reach the family fortune to finance Voldemort.
If a member - even the Heir - of one of the oldest families could just be tossed into Azkaban without proper trial and based on hearsay, it would set a dangerous precedent. And even worse, it violated the wishes of Lord Potter and left his son and heir, the last of his House without proper care. If she could spin it correctly this wouldn't be about Black’s innocence or guilt, this would be about the most fundamental rights of old Houses. And since this still mattered among those on the Wizengamot, this should hopefully work. Now, her job was to work through the official file, highlight its flaws, get Barty on board and have Fudge schedule a trial. Currently he was very happy, Potter in the Tournament would make the whole thing more interesting apparently. And something about our young hero proving himself. Sure, the fact that the Prophet clarified some stuff with that article didn’t make him happy but he didn’t intervene. Let it rather look like someone fooling Dumbledore and the Ministry instead of calling Potter a liar. Cornelius and his strange reasonings… but apparently it worked and the public was agreeing with him most of the time. So if she would reason the right way, he would give her that trial without hesitation. Potter noticing the lack of trial when he researched Black last year and asking to clear that up? Dropping hints regarding Potter’s knowledge of his family legacy and him noticing irregularities with the wills or files or whatever? She would come up with a clever solution. Maybe she could just “suggest” to give her free reign if he wants to stay in office? That could work.
Oh, and honestly, she was curious about the first task too. Amelia hadn’t looked into the list Susan and her friends wanted, but she still had a copy of it here. Maybe it would even be interesting and she could take the day off to watch it - while checking in on “Moody” too.
Two minutes later Amelia was marching down into the training hall to throw a few blasting curses at dummies. Fucking dragons, nesting mothers at that. They really wanted Potter’s death. She would have to make time to be at the task, and make sure that they had a whole team of healers.
Once she had calmed down a little, she went to the Minister. Fudge was busy discussing something with Dolores, but once Amelie stressed that she had something important to discuss, something that needed to be handled before it became public, he made time for her. The stupid toad - whoever came up with that nickname really deserved a raise - wasn’t happy, but left the office.
“I need the Wizengamot in full session. If possible in the week before the first task. There is something coming your way that might destroy this government. Something that happened under Bagnold and Dumbledore. If you don’t ask and support me, you get Potter’s support, good press and more votes from the old houses. If you don’t help… this government is basically done. Potentially prison and definitely a lot of fines and reimbursement money.”
Fudge immediately realised that Amelia Bones wasn’t joking. She had reminded him once or twice before that he would make an enemy out of the old families if he continued with his plans - and every time he followed her advice and got more support. She was the Lady of House Bones, she knew what the old families thought. Cornelius didn’t come from such a family, he had to work his way up the ladder and sometimes he really underestimated the power they had. That was why he was listening to both Amelia and Lucius - both sides of the spectrum.
“How bad?”
“Massive violation of old laws - imprisonment without any trial for a titled person - and the Headmaster might have kept Potter in the dark regarding his duties.”
“So… two more Noble and Most Ancient votes directly and potential alliances like you or Augusta Longbottom in my camp? And a loss for Dumbledore?”
Amelia nodded.
“You should really read the Tournament rules and realise what the immediate consequences are. And before you ask, I can’t tell you whose trial - or lack thereof - was faulty. That could be your political death. Just play along with me.”
Fudge sighed, he didn’t like that but Amelia tended to be right. And she wasn’t someone to stab him in the back - especially when he was following her suggestions.
“I can’t do it before the first task. Dolores wanted to question Potter about entering the Tournament - which I didn’t allow her. Bad press for our champion, and after the article this was moot either way. We know he didn’t do it. She wanted to do it immediately because the three weeks before the task are there for preparation. I can’t question him in the Wizengamot during that period. If he has to attend, then after is the only option.”
“Then the same day. In the evening.”
The Minister saw that Amelia wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“Okay. I’ll have my office send out the notifications.”
“No, I’ll do that. I have my ways to notify Potter and the other person.”
With that she turned her back and marched out of his office. Amelia Bones was on a mission.
Late that day, Neville and Susan had left by now, Harry sighed loudly. He was checking the runes on Henry’s old armour and had spotted an issue.
“Oh damn. If I understand that correctly, then I can’t engrave scent masking runes on it without having to rebuild most of the other rune schemes. And I have neither the skill nor the time to deconstruct the resistance and the silence runes so I can implement it.”
Henry, who was discussing Elder Futhark with Hermione, looked up, frowned for a second and then nodded.
“That’s very possible, scent masking was something I never needed. You can have Bathsheda look over that to make sure though. I guess you might have to come up with another plan if turning completely undetectable is not possible in the time frame.”
“Yes, I’ll go ask her now. There is something else I wanted to know either way so… see you later? This could take a while and you’re still busy, Mione.”
“You’ll be fine? Because then I will still do some stuff here with Henry.”
“Don’t worry.”
Bathsheda Babbling had just put aside the last essay of the day and sat down on her couch to read a book. It had been a long day for her, with lots of Essays to correct. As always, they were completely frustrating because the Ministry wouldn’t let her adjust the curriculum like her master taught her. But it wasn’t a British problem, it was slowly becoming an international problem. Britain had always been the country with the best Runes scholars, mostly because of the Potters. Few other countries carried gifts down their bloodlines, the Japanese and Chinese had that to an extent, and the South American magical tribes were slowly vanishing. It had something to do with the ambient magic in the countries, and both Avalon and Camelot had been the strongest magical centres of all times. While their education was slowly beginning to lack, Britain and their wizards had the strongest ambient magic - and thus innate magic levels of the magicals.
And simply because the magical energy was less all over the world, they had less prodigies and masters of various disciplines overall. Partly because of the magical gifts (which even appeared in Muggleborns, who were mostly squib descendants, too) in the bloodlines, partly because disciplines like Runes, Spell Creation and Divination worked better in areas with high ambient magic.
If she could only teach Runes like Henry Potter always wanted, then every British magical could read some runes on a basic level and do simple enchantments. More would become masters and the knowledge would spread further. Just because you could achieve extraordinary results here, it didn’t mean you couldn’t do something great all over the world with that knowledge. It was infuriating.
But well, maybe the young Potter could eventually change something. She didn’t allow herself to have too much optimism, but the potential was there. They hadn’t really talked since the day he asked for their help - he was mostly studying on his own or training with Filius - but she knew that he found possessions of old Henry in the vault and studied up on Runes.
Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by someone knocking on her door. Bathsheda sighed and got up.
“Yes? Oh, Mr Potter. Come in.”
“I hope I’m not disturbing? Something came up while preparing and I wanted your opinion.”
It was then she noticed the strange way he held his arm - before it clicked and she realised that this must be the invisibility cloak.
“Oh, now I’m curious. What are you hiding underneath your cloak? You want a cup of tea?”
“Yes please, thank you.”
Harry sat down and unwrapped his great-grandfather’s armour.
“I wanted to improve the runes on this one to mask my scent, but looking at the resistance and silence runes that is probably not possible without massive deconstruction.”
Bathsheda couldn’t believe it, Mr Potter had Henry’s old armour and wanted to work on it. It seemed like the teen had studied up on runes. Oh this would be an interesting evening.
She handed him a cup of tea and reached for her wand to cast analysis spells at the dragonhide clothing. Yes, you could read the runes on the object, but over time they tended to fade on most materials. It didn’t affect the strength in most cases though, only if scratches and wear damaged runes.
Regardless, with bigger projects you usually used analysis spells to create a projection of it in front of you. This semi-transparent illusion highlighted every rune in glowing colours and you could easily enlarge the construct or look at the runic schemes on the inside of the object.
“Oh this is brilliant, I have never seen the schemes of that. What a beauty. Massive strengthening against all sorts of physical and magical attacks, impervious to most spells, enhancement of physical strength and so much more. And there, the silencing runes. I see your problem. You wanted to do the invisibility with your cloak?”
“Yes, either that or a pattern of Mesopotamian cloaking runes supported by Younger Futhark for stability. I would have gone with Hide me from the flood of the gods and some Norn theme in Futhark to weave them together. That would have nicely worked with everything else, but to mask my scent so no creature can smell me I would have to disassemble the silence stuff. Parts of the strength stuff too.”
The professor nodded, she saw what his problem was. And damn, he had learned a lot. Or was he just repeating something Miss Granger told him.
“Why?”
“The disassembling? The invisibility runes work on a different level, basically an illusion and some heavy camouflage while strength, silence and anti-scent all work like a bubble surrounding the armour. They all keep something in or out. Noise, smell, kinetic energy and so on. Well, that’s mostly accurate. The muffling of my steps is something different, because that’s external noise. Besides the point. If I want to mask my scent efficiently I’d have to open up the existing field and implement it. If I put a secondary field above all of that it would probably break easily. Or it could leak scent.”
“Exactly. Nicely seen. You worry that you couldn’t assemble it back in time for the task. Not even with Miss Granger’s help?”
Harry shook his head.
“And even if, we’re lacking the skill to make it resistant enough for dragon fire.”
“Dragon… I am not going to ask. Problem understood. No chance that the scent masking runes would work well enough as a secondary layer. And rebuilding it from scratch to be strong enough… I would maybe manage it in the time you still have, you wouldn’t. What is your current plan?”
“Probably conjuration, rune stones and some of the duelling training to keep it busy so I can get past it and steal whatever they let the nesting mothers guard.”
“Merlin be damned, they are really doing that? Anything else I can do for you, Mr Potter?”
“Ahem…maybe. Not with the task though. I might drop by and show you the rune stones but I think I’ll manage.”
“Do you require any equipment beyond what Miss Granger owns for class?”
Harry shook his head.
“Thank you, but I’ve got grandpa’s stuff and his portrait is a great help. You gotta join us some time when everything is a bit less stressful.”
Ah. That explained it. He had Henry’s books, possessions and a painting. Oh yes, Mr Potter would probably do fine in the task. He had an adult that wasn’t restricted by the bloody goblet and his rules, even if it was just a portrait.
“I’d be delighted. And what was it I can do for you, Tournament aside?”
The teen blushed and looked embarrassed.
“The ball… and I can’t dance. Could you please… help Hermione and me? Filius mentioned there were classes by Professor McGonagall, but I need to open the ball.”
Professor Babbling laughed, but not like she was making fun of him. No, she seemed amused and delighted.
“Oh, Filius is such a… Absolutely, I’d love to. You see, I am not from an old house. I’m related to the Lovegoods and the Greengrasses, and a few generations further back there was a Longbottom, but mostly women from cadet branches. The Babbling family is originally Italian and not noble. But when I became Henry Potter’s apprentice, people began noticing me. He was very well-known and respected, everyone wanted to employ or ensnare some of his students for their personal gain. We do have one hell of a reputation after all. Which meant that suddenly I got lots of invites to all the big social events like balls and dinners. Be it as a date with someone, on my own or - like it has always been - with my Master. Henry and Electra often got invites to a Ministry dinner that extended to their respective apprentices. I know that old Horace Slughorn or Filius did that quite a lot to help their students with networking. Especially muggleborns. Your mother must have gotten two invites to everything, as the wife of Heir and later Lord Potter once Fleamont passed, and as Filius' apprentice. Anyway… I got loads of invites, including from noble Heirs. I can only assume it will one day be the same for Miss Granger unless she is taken by then.”
Harry blushed.
“I have always been very perfectionistic, and so I studied everything down to the last detail. Social norms, formal greetings… and dancing. And believe me, I was so brilliant that the Witch Weekly wrote an article after the first ball I was at, claiming I was trying to bewitch and ensnare the noble Heirs with my ‘stunning beauty and breathtaking dancing.’ Don’t laugh, that’s a quote and I’m pretty sure Filius has acquired a copy of that - or he still remembers the article word by word. I get teased regularly by him. This is just him teasing me again. But yes, I’ll do it. I’ve done it a few times before and apparently I’m much better than all the other tutors. Maybe because they are used to teaching it to children at a pre-Hogwarts age and not teenagers. We’ll discuss a schedule after the first task.”
“Thank you. Oh and if you want to get back at Filius just let me know. It seems I’m a good proxy for teasing.”
“Only you could say that, Mr Potter, only you. Your father’s wit, your great-grandfather’s brains, rhetoric and posture and Fleamont’s stubbornness. And clearly your mother’s temper. A scary combination. And on top of that your very own cunning Slytherin side it seems.”
Harry just smiled. She wasn’t wrong, much the opposite. Even without having known them he was just like them. And finally someone was talking about anyone from his family (his parents aside) to him. It was great.
“Thank you and good night, Professor.”
And so life went on. Harry and Hermione studied with the help of their friends, Sirius and Remus trained and cleaned the house, Amelia was working on the court case, Fudge was worrying about his job and the Goblins kept on searching for Horcruxes.
At Hogwarts Ron was still sulking, he was falling behind on school work and no one really helped him anymore. McGonagall had reprimanded him several times, and Snape gave him detention. All bloody Harry Potter’s fault.
Draco Malfoy had employed a Slytherin sixth year student to work on the Potter mockery, and it was going to be brilliant. Yes, his father didn’t openly approve of anything against Potter, but Draco could see through the words in his letters. He couldn’t say something like that in public and needed plausible deniability.
Remus and Sirius were having breakfast Tuesday morning when an owl arrived for the werewolf. The very beautiful black owl landed elegantly on the table and stretched her foot out towards him.
“Oh, aren’t you a well-behaved one? What do you have for me? A letter with the coat of arms of House… Sirius? A little help here.”
The new Lord Black took the offered envelope and raised an eyebrow.
“House Bones. Lady Amelia, Head of the DMLE. And it’s addressed to you as Steward Black. Either the Goblins told her something or Harry is having the time of his life being a manipulative little wizard. How does he manage to get allies like her?”
He handed back the letter and Remus opened it.
“She… oh. It’s a summons for a Wizengamot session in the evening after the first task. Some violations of old laws that need to be rectified. And she tells me to inform you of it. Well, I do presume she knows who the Lord Black is. It sounds like it is a trial for you. Brilliant.”
The werewolf got up to grab some stationery so he could write a short reply. It really sounded like Lady Bones was on their side and worked with Harry. A few phrases in the letter reaffirmed that to him, like the mention of how important the matter was to Lord Potter and then there was something that sounded like a promise to keep Sirius safe. It didn’t sound like a trap at least.
At the same time Sirius realised that he should probably write a letter to Harry about the Horcruxes and him taking his title. Either he had Remus write the letter… or he sent it to someone else. Filius Flitwick was probably an option, or Bathsheda Babbling. Maybe Miss Granger too. Though the Headmaster might actually keep a closer look on her mail. Hm. He was a Marauder, he’d find a way.
Harry didn’t receive mail on Tuesday morning, but Susan did. As if Amelia would send an important letter to Lord Potter when the Headmaster wanted to keep him in the dark regarding that, and after his unhappiness because of their conversation on the weekend. No, Amelia sent the letter to her niece, who handed it to Harry when he was heading to History of Magic.
“Damn, they can’t hold the trial before the task. Bloody rules. But hey, if Lady Bones is at the task then we already have our way into the Ministry while evading Dumbledore after I wore grandpa’s armour. And she wants me to utilise my titles to sway Fudge.”
He wasn’t all too happy about that, but it was logical. It could force Dumbledore’s hand and have them find out what his plans were. But risking Sirius’ freedom and the Minister’s support just to keep the old man in the dark wasn’t really worth it. They would just have to hope that enough people would believe the evidence instead of hearsay. Maybe the Marquis de Fleamont would have to write another informative letter to the Vicomte de Malfoy. Oh yes, that was a great idea. And so Harry did just that, after listening to an interesting lecture on the founding of the Ministry and the Statute of Secrecy. Interesting stuff for sure, but he had already done all of this with Henry, who was of the opinion that he needed to know this. He was probably right.
Late this afternoon Lucius received the letter he sent off during lunch break, and Harry really wished he could see his reaction. The Malfoy Patriarch sat in his office, writing letters to business associates, when the owl entered. He didn’t recognise it - Harry always used a different one from the Hogwarts Owlery when he wrote anyone outside his immediate circle of friends - but the moment he saw the Coat of Arms he knew what it was. The mysterious Marquis had written to him again. He had tried his best to find out all he could about House Fleamont, but he only found references in older books. They seemed to have been a very prestigious family, but he had no way to trace the line to someone living. The few French contacts among the nobility he had and who didn’t hate him just sent amused replies with no answers. It seemed they knew more but just decided to laugh about him. How frustrating.
My dear Vicomte de Malfoy,
Thank you for putting your Heir into his place. It would only shame your House. Now, I am writing to you in regards to a very important topic. One, that could save or destroy your House. By now you must have gotten a letter from the Ministry or Lady Bones, a summons for a trial following the Triwizard Tournament’s first task.
I know what this is about.
You might want to vote for the innocence of the accused. For once do the right thing and if you need a reason for it - it could set a very dangerous precedent. You will understand what I mean by that. If you sway enough of the smart members of the dark side to join your vote, you might witness a massive change in our country’s politics. A third party is forming, neither Dumbledore nor your murderous maniac. One you could very well support.
I have people deconstructing the light side as well, and if you do the same with the dark… both Lords, light and dark, would lose their strength while you could save your life. And probably your son’s life too.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like you. Any of you. Much the opposite actually, but you are, in your master’s absence, the only member of the Dark faction who has any sort of power, and you have everything to lose.
Make your choice, Lucius. I don’t care if you get crushed, but here is your way out, if you care for your family.
Marquis de Fleamont
Shit.
That wasn’t good. He had really gotten a letter from the DMLE about this meeting, but Cornelius didn’t know any details and had given Amelia Bones free reign. Now, if the Marquis was right then he had an interesting option. The Dark Lord’s violence and the torture of his loyal followers wasn’t really something he wanted to take place in anymore.
Someone seemed to be building a third faction in this war. He had no idea who his source was. Maybe a participant in this whole thing, maybe someone neutral who likes to meddle. It did sound interesting at least, but disobeying the Dark Lord wouldn’t be an option once he returned. He would have to evaluate once he knew more.
Lucius wasn’t happy. Usually the man had everything under control, but now someone else was meddling. How great…