Chapter 11
As Severus Snape floo'd into Malfoy Manor, he was smirking to himself. After all this time, he was finally going to get some revenge on his tormentors. Not that they knew that of course; they all thought that he'd forgotten the humiliation that he'd suffered in Slytherin House as a poor, half-blood First Year and later simply because he'd been friends with, and then suffering under a love potion for, a muggleborn - a love potion put on him by that slimy, power mad, manipulative, arrogant bastard of a Light Lord. He was going to enjoy this little scene to the hilt.
"Severus! What a surprise!" Lady Malfoy said, holding her hands out to him. The floo room was tastefully done in the Malfoy family colors, and Narcissa's robes were some of the best that galleons could buy. It was all a show to make certain that people who came here knew that the Malfoys were the purest of pure bloods. That Narcissa, one of his only real friends in Slytherin, was forced to put on this sort of show every time someone came to the manor was sickening. She was little better than a trophy to Lucius and Severus knew it, among other things.
"I bring important news, Narcissa," he replied. "I've spoken with Lord Slytherin." He caught Narcissa's hands in his own, and squeezed them in warning. If Lucius ever knew just how much Narcissa had told him over the years, Severus would be dead inside of an hour. She couldn't let anyone see just how much his being here meant to her.
"But the Dark Lord is dead," Narcissa said faintly, fear in her eyes. Severus didn't blame her for her fear. Her life as Lucius' wife was bad enough. Life under the Dark Lord was far worse. Lucius would only beat her. The Dark Lord reveled in torture and rape - and Lucius would be all too happy to hand his wife over to his Lord.
"I didn't say the Dark Lord, Narcissa. I said Lord Slytherin. The Dark Lord never actually took that title, and it now falls to another," Severus stated.
Narcissa blanched and immediately drew Severus further into the manor. They found Lucius and Draco playing chess in the library and Narcissa told them what Severus had told her. "Lord Slytherin?" Lucius asked, as he turned away from the game.
"Yes," Severus said, before pulling up his left sleeve. "And here is the proof of it." His arm was completely bare, with no trace of the dark mark. Lucius jumped up, grabbed Severus' arm and ran his hand over it, checking for glamours and other such magical ways to hide the mark that he knew had been there.
"Severus," Lucius began, only for Severus to halt him.
"Lord Slytherin is not happy, Lucius. He's already stripped the Lestranges and those fools who killed the Prewett twins of their lordships. He gave those lordships to their pureblood victims," Snape said firmly. Oh how he was enjoying seeing Lucius blanch. "However, he gave me that which the Dark Lord never bothered to." This time he held out his own hand, the Prince signet ring in full view.
"But you were disinherited!" Lucius protested.
"No I wasn't," Severus snarled. "My mother was, and the Dark Lord never bothered to check or if he did, he didn't want me to claim my rights. Lord Slytherin did check and he gave me that which was mine. He is beginning to check all of those who followed the Dark Lord, Lucius. There will be no hiding from him. He controls the dark marks now. No matter what the question, you will answer." Lucius Malfoy actually took a step back, his face dropping the pure blood mask of superiority and Severus caught a look of fear. Severus didn't let him get over that. "Put your House in order, Lucius. Every bit of it. There's no telling what he'll do. There's no telling what he'll ask - or demand."
Severus turned to Narcissa. "You do the same for what Black family matters you can claim. Draco will spend the summer with me. He'd be better off well out of what is coming, but Lord Slytherin will be looking him over once the school term starts, just like he will the rest of the heirs. You won't have time to deal with him before then, and I am his godfather. I'll get him into shape for the meeting. Draco, have one of the elves pack your trunk. You know the one. We'll be leaving as soon as you're ready." Draco nodded and ran out of the room. His godson knew what was happening, or at least would be thinking that he did. He and Narcissa had been planning for years on how to get Draco away from his father.
Severus turned back to Lucius. "I don't know if I'll be seeing you again, Lucius. Spread the word. The Lord of Slytherin House is back, and he's not happy."
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"Here, it made the papers," Ron said, and handed Harry a newspaper. The front page had a large picture of the Weasley family in Egypt, everyone but Ron, in front of some tomb. The title was 'Family of Lords and Lady goes to Egypt and finds hidden library of magical works'. While officially the article was about his brother Percy finding a lost library in one of the tombs that held works done by several famous witches and wizards, most of the article was taken up with the fact that Lord Slytherin, whose identity was known to only a select few, had finally decided to take action against those deatheaters who were in Azkaban, gifting their Houses to those Pureblood families who had been their victims. The fact that the Weasley family had ended up with all of their many children gaining noble houses was apparently a great shock and the paper had done a big speculation piece on the hows and the whys.
It was finally Saturday, and the Granger family, plus Ron, had met Harry at the Leaky Cauldron as promised. "That's ok," Harry said, and put the paper down on the table. "The deatheaters already know about it. I gave Snape back his lordship ring, and he's gone and told Malfoy, who should have told all of his cronies about it. By the way, Purging Potions for you and Hermione." He handed the two potions to his friends. "Everyone who spent time at Hogwarts has been told to take one. Don't take it now, mind you. You'll want nothing more than to crash for hours afterwards." Ron nodded and slipped the potion into his pocket. He'd had those before and he knew that he wouldn't want to take one until it was time for bed.
"Dumbledore?" Hermione asked in a small voice as she placed hers in her purse.
Harry nodded. "It wasn't just the students, it was the teachers too, and my aunt and cousin."
"So you are Lord Slytherin," Ron said satisfied. "I thought so, but I wanted to be sure. By the way, Mum and Dad wrote me about what you did with our life-debt. Thanks, mate." The last was said in a bit of a choked up voice, but he was glad that Harry ignored it.
"What are friends for?" Harry asked with a shrug as he grabbed Ron's hand and placed the ring Molly Weasley had chosen for her son on it. "Not like I need or want much now that the curses are off my aunt and cousin. By the way, Dudley's going to be joining us at Hogwarts next term. Dumbledore locked down his magic so he couldn't come among other things." Both Dr's Granger were staring at Harry in horror. They might have been muggles, but they were both proud of Hermione and knew just how much her magic meant to her. Hermione and Ron were shocked even worse. "But that's for later. Today is Ron's day. Let's go and get your feet wet, Ron!"
The five of them left the Leaky and piled into the Granger's car where Harry handed Ron and Hermione a leather satchel each. They had feather light and enlargement charms, so that everything they bought could be placed inside without adding any weight. Hermione and her mum were delighted, and Doctor Granger asked Harry where she could find one for herself. Ron might have gotten jealous, but the truth was he no longer needed to be. His family was no longer poor, and with the lordship ring on his finger, he probably had access to enough galleons to return the gift at any time. It helped to settle the feeling of always being the one that needed charity.
Their first stop was H&M, where they got the necessary clothes shopping out of the way. After that, they had a whirlwind time of exploring Muggle London. There were the shops, everything from Lush, where even the boys found some things although Harry still complained that as a Potter nothing helped with his hair much to Ron's amusement, to Lillywhites where Ron got a better look at the football that Dean Thomas was always going on about. They even picked up a full set of gear so that they could play pickup games at Hogwarts. The quidditch pitch wasn't always in use after all. They also stopped at various places like a wax museum and the zoo. The zoo was full of non-magical animals that Ron honestly thought were just as strange as any that were in Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them.
By the time they went back to the Leaky for dinner, everyone was pleasantly tired. Some things hadn't been a shock for Ron over the course of their day, such as the clothing that most people were wearing, but others were - such as the clothing some people were wearing. He'd been right shocked at seeing girls wear what his mother would have boxed his ears for daring to look at, and they'd done it in public! He had seen some piercings before, (his brother Bill had one, along with long hair that his mum was always wanting him to cut), although not anything even close to what he saw just walking down the street in London, and wildly colored hair was something that he'd only considered something to have happened with a magical accident or one of his brother's pranks. The idea that some muggles changed their hair color to something not natural on purpose had blown his mind.
In spite of the shocks, Ron thought that he'd done well. He'd kept himself from gawking like a firstie on the boat ride to Hogwarts, although he hadn't been able to hide the fact that he was startled at a lot of things. Still, it had been good practice and he'd do better next week. He had all of the greetings and most of the manners down. He and Hermione's mum had spent an entire day on those, which he'd found a lot less complicated for the most part than what his own mum had been trying to beat into the twin's heads. Hermione said that he was still coming off a bit stiff, but that most muggles would brush that off as being nervous about competing in the tournament. Merlin, he was going to have to have those lessons from his mum himself now that he was going to be a lord. Still, Harry was right that it was only what his family was owed. His mum should have gotten these rings years ago.
And now he was going to insist on Hermione getting herself checked to see if she had a ring waiting for her in Gringotts. "If everyone's done, we've still got enough time to go to Gringott's for Hermione's inheritance test," Ron said, as he finished off his fish and chips.
"'Mione?" Harry asked, turning to their friend.
"Yep, 'Mione's got this theory that muggleborns are descended from squibs. There's a famous wizarding family that she could, possibly, be related to so we're going to get her tested to see if she is," Ron explained, as Hermione blushed and nodded. "Honestly I just want to see her get a ladyship ring so all three of us can shove them in Malfoy's face."
Harry shook his head. "Don't you worry about Malfoy. I'll be dealing with him as well as the rest of Slytherin House. That's my job honestly and from what Professor Snape told me, only about half of the families that usually sort into Slytherin are actually involved with Moldyshorts, either with actually being deatheaters or by just supporting his views. Malfoy's dad is totally a deatheater, but his mum not so much, and Draco likes his mum much more than his dad. I can't say more than that, not here. Issues of privacy and the like," Harry said and waved his hand around.
Ron nodded even as he snickered over Harry's insulting name for You-Know-Who. Although they were in a private room, this was a public pub. He wouldn't want his own business with his mum and dad paraded around in public, no matter what it was. That's what made howlers so horrible. He'd been yelled at by his mum before, but never in front of everyone else. Lady Magic, Merlin and Morgana! He'd do almost anything to avoid having that happen again. "What about Snape?" he asked as he followed Hermione out of the room. "You said that Dumbledore put stuff on him too?"
"Yeah," Harry said, and waited until they were out in the courtyard to finish. "He's not nearly as bad now as he was before. We may never have him as a teacher again though. He's only going to teach the Sixth and Seventh years. He's going to be the head of the Potions department and he's looking for at least two other teachers to teach under him as well as a lot of assistants."
"Really?" Hermione perked up. "Just what's going on at Hogwarts and how do you know about it?"
Harry groaned. "When Dumbledore got arrested; me, my aunt and cousin, and Neville Longbottom got the responsibility of Hogwarts dumped on us because we're the founder's heirs. That's one of the reasons that the fewmet's hauler did so many curses and potions and such on us. We're practically new people now. Actually my cousin is the biggest shock. He's about half the size he was before because Dumbledore put a curse on him to eat himself to death.
"Anyway, we're updating the curriculum at Hogwarts and adding a primary school as well. Most wizarding born kids are homeschooled. That's why people like Ron have had trouble with the workload once they get to school. Unless they get a private tutor who demands essays because they have to show the parents that the kid is actually learning what is being taught, most kids' education is very haphazard. There's no standard of learning. My aunt about had a conniption. We're getting new classes, old classes are being shuffled around and updated, and there's going to be a ton of new teachers. We're checking out the Book next week to see if there are any muggleborns like my cousin, who is actually a half-blood but anyway, we're going to see if there are any kids who got their magic locked down who are still alive."
Harry threw a LOOK at Hermione and said flatly. "There will be no one allowed to take every class, 'Mione. You're going to have to look over the new classes and make a choice about what you take. Also, there will be school councilors to help us figure out just what sort of career path we want to take to help us pick the right classes."
Ron snickered, because it would be just like Hermione to try and take every class. Hermione glared at him and said. "Perhaps you're under one of those eating curses, Ron. You'd better take that potion as soon as you can."
"Nope," Ron sighed. "It's not like I like it, but it's my mataboism or however the healers say it. If I don't eat enough I get really sick. I've had convulsions because I forgot to eat or I didn't get enough at a meal. My parents already told yours about it. I just don't like talking about it." He really didn't like talking about it. He hated the way it made him look like a greedy pig, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
"Oh, that makes sense, I guess," Hermione said with a blush. "I'm sorry I got snotty with you."
Ron shrugged and changed the subject. "I just hope that we can change classes now. I don't want to take divination now that I know I can get a mastery if I want, and maybe I'll pick something other than care of magical creatures. I mean, I like animals don't get me wrong, but after dealing with Norbert, I'm not sure I want to deal with magical creatures like her all day, every day." All three of the kids shuddered as they walked up the steps to Gringotts.
Once inside Harry asked one of the clerks if Manager Bloodclaws had a moment or if not, could one of the clerks oversee an inheritance test for him. It turned out that Bloodclaws was busy, (there were things she was doing at the DMLE that no one was talking about), but one of the senior clerks brought the group over to a conference room with the necessary items. Hermione's father paid for the test and then the clerk, (who hadn't given anyone his name and no one wanted to ask), handed Hermione a small dagger. "Please drop seven drops of your blood onto the parchment," the clerk stated.
Hermione nicked her finger, placed the dagger down next to the parchment and squeezed seven drops of blood out. They fell onto the parchment, were absorbed and green ink began writing down the scroll.
Hermione Jean Granger
Father - Doctor Daniel Frederick Granger, dentist - squib
Mother - Doctor Jean Margaret Miles - Granger, dentist - squib
Siblings - none
Magical Guardian - Professor Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts
Godfather - none
Godmother - none
Godsiblings - none
Heir - none
Magical Abilities - Healing
Magical Blocks - placed by Albus Dumbledore
Herbology - 25 percent
Potions - 50 percent
Healing - 85 percent
Potions - placed by Albus Dumbledore
Loyalty to Light Magic
Suspicion keyed to Severus Snape
Suspicion keyed to Slytherin House
Enmity keyed to Slytherin House
Disinterest keyed to feminine interests
Disinterest keyed to magical traditions
Disinterest keyed to magical customs
Suspicion keyed to magical traditions
Familiar - none
Life-Debts -
Owed to Harold James Potter-Black - minor
Owed to Ronald Bilius Weasley - minor
Marriage Contract - none
Heirships - Most Noble House of Dagworth-Granger
Vaults 674, 792, 385, and Trust Vault 745 - total worth of items and currency -1,598,678 galleons
Businesses - none
Royalties -
Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers - 1,000 galleons a month, guild founder
Laughing Potion - 500 galleons a month
Calming Draught - 1,000 galleons a month
Properties -
Dagworth Castle
Granger Manor
Potioneers Guild Hall - rented to Guild - 1000 galleons a month
Dagworth Estate - Potion ingredient farms, no current employees or house-elves
"Well," said Dan Granger, sitting back in his chair. "I had no idea. How in the world am I a squib? That's supposed to be a person without magic from a magic family, right?"
"Purging Potions, and then on Monday Ron and I will go to St. Mungo's to talk to a healer while you and Mum are busy working," Hermione said firmly. "We'll need those blocks on us taken off, and I'm sure someone there will be able to answer the question."
"What I want to know is about these life debts," Jean Granger said, looking at the boys.
"Oh that, well that's probably because of the troll," Ron offered. "Easy enough to deal with since it's a minor debt rather than a major one. It's still not good to leave it though. Here, Hermione. Let's say, for me, that you help me to figure out which career course I want to take, which classes I need for that, including any muggle education that I need, and that you'll tutor me through getting the basic muggle education so that I can take those muggle classes." He offered his hand to Hermione.
Hermione shook his hand and said, "I agree to your terms, Ron." There was a swirling dust of magic that swirled around her and she turned to Harry. "Your turn, what do you want me to do?" She agreed that the life debt had to be the troll. Everything else that they'd gone through together over the last two years they'd all been working together and had been the same amount of danger. With the troll, the boys had gone after her and had taken the danger on themselves with no expectation that she would join in to take out the troll. In fact, she'd simply cowered through the entire thing - with reason of course, the troll had been terrifying.
"Um," Harry muttered. He obviously hadn't thought about this. Ron knew why of course, his friend had been being sneaky and figuring out how to use the debt that Ginny owed him to help out Ron's family. That had obviously taken precedence. Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "Are you going to do anything with that healing talent? Like are you going to take healing classes?"
"Obviously! There's no good reason to waste a talent like that. It's far too useful, and it's something that my parents can talk to their friends about, their daughter the medical doctor, or probably the medical researcher," Hermione said firmly.
Harry nodded. "Then you can teach me some emergency medical spells once you learn them," he said. "You know the ones. What to do when someone's bleeding out, that sort of thing. Let's say ten healing spells."
Ron snorted. "With your luck, you're definitely going to be needing that one."
Hermione agreed. "I agree to your terms, Harry," she said and they shook hands.
"Heir Dagworth-Granger," the clerk said, and they all turned back to him. "Your heirship ring." He handed Hermione the box. Hermione took it and placed the ring inside on her hand. "Is there anything else that Gringotts can do for the House of Dagworth-Granger?"
"Nothing at the moment," Hermione said. "I will wait for the account manager in charge of my vaults to have time to speak with me and my parents. My your enemies die in vain and your gold flow like a river," she said with a bow.