Chapter 19
The Dark families do not, as most suppose betroth their children in the cradle. Nor are the pairs picked out well before Hogwarts. It is in the early years at Hogwarts that the process begins, and no one who is of pure blood is out of the question, no matter their House, (although Gryffindors have to be very important before one would be considered). This is why the rankings and early alliances within the ranks of the Slytherins were so very important.
The children's behavior in school effects their rankings, including their grades, house points earned or lost and detentions. Personality is less important than family lines, however the children's preferences are usually taken into account. That is why not only their own ranking is so important, but also those above and below them in years. Alliances and marriages aren't just between those born in the same year, and Slytherins are taught to remember who did what and why long before they set foot in the hallowed halls of the school.
That is why Theo Nott knows that Pansy Parkinson really doesn't want to be involved with him either as a husband or as an ally and that this meeting between their parents will go nowhere. Pansy already has latched on to Draco Malfoy, someone who really isn't his friend, and the only way to pry Draco out of her cold hands is her death, his death, or his parents choosing someone else. Theo really doesn't care that she feels he is beneath her. He doesn't like Pansy anymore than she likes him, but unlike with her parents, his father will have his way and not consider his wishes. He is one of the unfortunates who will be wed to whom his family picks out whether he likes it or not.
Theo kept his sigh to himself and glanced around the restaurant. It was one of the upscale cafes in Gastromic Ally, one that catered to pure bloods as a casual meeting place. Here was where one took an acquaintance to begin negotiations or to maintain loose alliances according to his father. He could see the truth in that as he recognized a couple of his classmates and their parents in meetings similar to his, as well as several older years or their parents meeting with those he knew were at least nominal allies.
It was only as Theo glanced back that Pansy started to scream and he, himself jolted backwards out of his chair. His father and grandfather, as well as both of Pansy's parents were burning. They weren't the only ones. Several of the others scattered around the cafe were burning as well, and most of the people inside were screaming. Some were attempting to cast water and other fire suppressant spells, but it was obvious that they weren't working.
It was over in a matter of minutes, but those minutes took far too long for Theo. Seven wix had burned to death with no flames, just their bodies painfully turning slowly to ashes. Someone had called for the Aurors, but all Theo could do was stare at the chairs where his father and grandfather had sat only minutes before. "You've got Lady Magic's mark on you," he heard Pansy say. She'd stopped screaming, but her voice was shaky.
"What?" he asked, turning to look at her.
"You've got a kiss mark on your forehead," Pansy said shakily, her pure blood mask completely shattered.
Theo realized that Pansy was marked as well, but not with a kiss. "You're all over red," he said. Pansy looked down at her arms and whimpered. "It's like you've been sunburned. If this was Lady Magic's doing..."
Pansy visibly gulped. "Then it's a warning."
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Auror Carter stared at the pile of ash that had once been Bellatrix Lestrange. She was the last of the Death Eaters that he'd been picked to check on. "Well shite." he said.
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Molly Weasley hid her daughter's face in her shoulder as the rest of her family, (minus Ron of course), stared in shock and horror as Scabbers the rat leapt off of Percy's shoulder, his fur in flames. She knew perfectly well that this wasn't one of the twin's pranks because the boys had been buried in text books for the last two weeks when the family wasn't seeing the sights of magical Egypt. They hadn't even tried to trap Percy in a tomb being too concerned with their discussion of something about muggle pranks and how to package them in order to sell them in their future shop. There had been a lot of that sort of discussion to be honest, and she'd been proud of them for taking their responsibility to their family's life debt so seriously.
So no, it wasn't the twins. It also wasn't the twins who were responsible for the rat changing as he fell, from rat to horribly burning man. A man that she knew personally. Molly's mouth fell open and her eyes began to burn with fury. Peter Pettigrew! There should have been no reason for Pettigrew to hide from her. They had both served Dumbledore, (a fact that she almost regretted as standing up to Voldemort wasn't something that she was ashamed of but she deeply regretted standing with the fool who played with Obscuri), and she would have gladly taken in a friend for whatever reason.
But Pettigrew wasn't a friend, was he? Not with the Dark Mark on his arm that she could see as his jacket and shirt burned away, leaving his arm and his face the only recognizable features left in the charred corpse the fire left behind.
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It would be months before anyone would notice that Durmstrang's Headmaster was no where to be found. Headmaster Karkaroff took his summer leisure time seriously, and no one knew where he spent the time. It would be a month into the next school term before his harried deputy would find out about the burnings that took place mostly in England, but a few more around the world. He would simply curse Karkaroff's name one more time and then forget about the man. He had a school to run.
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In a motel somewhere on the continent, a maid pushed open the door to a room that was supposed to be empty and cursed. "Damned kids," she said as she began to clean the room. She took the bedding off of the two beds and shook the two piles of ashes into the trash can. "One of these days I'll get my hands on them."
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Auror trainee Tonks leaned into Amelia Bones' office and said, "Sorry ma'am, but Burke's rather messily dead. It looks like he did violate his healer oaths and it caught up with him. Don't know what's going on, but from the gossip on the street, Lady Magic is doing her own clean up. Got lots of people coming all over with sunburn like, and even more going up in flames, but there's people that have kiss marks on their foreheads, so..." she shrugged. If Lady Magic was cleaning up all of the old arses she certainly wasn't going to complain.
Amelia sighed. "Of those former Death Eaters who claimed the imperious defense - how many are alive right now?"
Tonks sighed. "About twenty, and yes, all of them have the kiss. The rest, near as we can tell are all ash. Most of the children of suspected Death Eaters who are twelve and under are sunburned, in spite of the fact that none of those questioned were anywhere near being out in the sun long enough or kissed, but those older than that are mostly burned like their parents. A few spouses are marked with the kiss and I know for a fact that Mistress Yaxley is now able to walk without her cane, freely and without pain."
The look the two witches gave each other were rich with understanding. There was no divorce in the wizarding world, and some wizards took advantage of that by using very loose marriage contracts that allowed the wizard far too many things, especially if they had their own estates where they could lock up their wives. It was the only way for a pure blood witch to be kept from the 'tea parties' of the social set; tea parties where certain services could be purchased if they were - necessary.
That was why Lady Zambini was so welcome in all of the best social circles, not that Amelia condoned the murder of an abusive husband, but well sometimes it was actually necessary. It was one of the reasons that she'd never married. Not the only one of course, but it was definitely one of them. If she ever did marry she'd have an air tight contract written up by the Goblins at Gringotts. Too bad so few of the girls at Hogwarts knew that was an option.
Shacklebolt leaned into the office. "The Toad is as pink as her clothes and Molly Weasley's out here with what's left of Peter Pettigrew. She's hollering up a storm, but it's him all right. The corpse is charred enough to be one of the current burning deaths, but Lady Magic left enough of him to be identifiable. There's also a Dark Mark on his arm."
"Too bad, I was hoping she'd be ash," Amelia sighed. "Alright I'll calm Molly down and let her know that Black's out of Azkaban and we know he's innocent. I do wish Lady Magic had left Pettigrew alive long enough for us to interrogate him, but I'm not one to try and stand in her way. It'll be just one less trial for us to prosecute now."
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Draco Malfoy stood at the gates of Hogwarts and called, "Bell!"
His personal elf popped in. "Yes, Master Draco? What does Little Lord Malfoy wish of his Bell?"
Well, that answered one question, that of if the Malfoy elves knew of his father's death last night. "I need you to bring Crabbe and Goyle to me." Bell nodded and popped out. Draco honestly hoped that she returned with both of them. They weren't much other than muscle, but they were his vassals and there was a good chance that Dumbledore had messed with them. It was his duty as their liege lord to check and see if they needed to be purged.
Bell popped back in with both boys and Draco sighed with relief. At least these two were still alive, even if he couldn't count on them still being his friends. "Alright, I see that you're pink. That means that Lady Magic isn't happy with you, but you haven't done anything that would get you executed or strongly repremanded."
"My dad went up in flames," Crabbe told him shakily.
"Mine too," Goyle agreed.
Draco nodded. He knew with the way they'd said that they had probably seen the executions just like he had. "Lord Slytherin put my father on trial last night, calling on Lady Magic to judge him. She wanted to know if he meant all of the Deatheaters, and he told her to do what she wanted, he was all for it. News is that she's been wiping out or marking everyone that even tried to follow the Dark Lord's ways, or marking out those who were innocent. As you can see," he pointed at his own face, "those like us who are all over pink or red have been warned not to follow the Dark Lord's ways any further."
The two boys looked at each other and nodded. "Good, now come up to the castle. You need to get purging potions so you can get whatever Dumbshite put on you purged off. After that, we'll see about getting you checked for magical talents and I want to know if you are interested in learning anything special. There's going to be a Resorting the first full day of school and there are a lot of new classes that are being offered. We may not be in the same House anymore. As your lord, it's my job to make sure that you're being educated properly, even if we hardly see each other after the resort." Draco chivied both bigger boys up the drive.
"Does that include things like blacksmithing?" Goyle wanted to know. "Oh, and we got the purges as soon as the news came out in the Prophet."
"Good. Now, are you interested in straight blacksmithing or making enchanted items as well?" Draco wanted to know.
"Both, but I was thinking about maybe creating warded objects too? I'm not sure but no offense, Draco. I don't want to be a bodyguard. It's too boring," Goyle said apologetically.
Crabbe nodded. "I'd like to make portraits," he mumbled.
"Both of those would contribute to the Malfoy estates," Draco pointed out. "I don't see any reason you can't at least try out some classes. You both could make a good living doing those jobs, and I could take your family's yearly tribute in goods rather than galleons. That way you could start working to establish your own estates and legacies, maybe even changing your House into a minor House."
Both boys stopped in their tracks. "Are you serious?" Goyle asked in a whisper. Both of their families had been Malfoy vassals for generations, with the eldest boys going to serve as the bodyguards for the Malfoy heirs. They'd never been allowed to grow their families from more than a commoner's House into something even approaching actual wealth for themselves. Everything that had been earned by their ancestors had been part of the Malfoy estate.
"Yes," Draco said with a sharp nod. "The Malfoy family is rich, but my ancestors had been stupidly short sighted. By limiting your families, we've limited ourselves. I'll still need the two of you as official bodyguards at official functions, but really, I don't need anything more than that. The Dark Lord is dead, and if he wasn't before I'm certain that he is now that Lady Magic had taken a hand. That means no more war between him and Dumbshite, who also isn't going to make things worse anymore. So the two of you will have plenty of time to do other things."
"What about marriage contracts for the two of us?" Crabbe asked. "Now that our parents are dead, that's up to you."
Draco took a deep breath. "I need to show Lady Magic that I'm listening to her." He gestured once more at his face. "So, you are here by ordered to court muggleborns, both of you. You can choose who you court for yourselves, but I would ask that you choose someone who can help you expand your families. I'll put into your contracts that you will each be given an allotment of land so that you can have resources beyond your family homes."
Crabbe and Goyle's mouths dropped open in sheer shock. "Oh, and I'll be trying to court a muggleborn myself, once I figure out if there are any that I like. Apparently that's the best way to avoid having any squibs born into your family," Draco said. That was too much for the two boys and both fell over in a dead faint.
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The ballroom was filled with rows of tables covered in chess sets. Ron hadn't been able to eat anything but a couple of pieces of toast before leaving Hermione's house, but seeing all of the kids had actually settled his stomach. The rules for the tournament were very easy to follow, which he had to admit was necessary as kids as young as five were being allowed to compete.
There were four classes - junior primary, primary, junior and senior level players. The primary and junior classes were for all of the little kids. They were all having fun and making far more noise than Ron had expected for what he considered to be a quiet game. The senior class were all of the kids that would have been in their OWLS year (age 15) and above if they were wix, but as they were muggles that actually included eighteen year olds as well. Ron was very glad he was a wizard and would be an adult at seventeen. That left eleven to fourteen year olds, for Ron to compete against.
As Ron proceeded from game to game, he got lost in the pursuit of checkmate. He never really noticed the day going by as he was having too much fun. Well, he was beating the robes off of everyone, but he was learning things too. More than a few of his challengers had new moves he'd never seen before. It was glorious.
The best thing though was at the end of the day when the prizes were handed out. Ron won his tournament and was given a trophy as well as a 100 pound prize and the suggestion by the judges that he try the senior level at the next tournament. Ron managed to stutter a thanks, aware that Harry and Hermione were clapping their hands off for him, but he was too much in awe of the trophy to take his eyes off it.
"Harry, Mione, they gave me a trophy," Ron said as Hermione's mom steered him out of the muggle hotel. "It's a real trophy."
"The first of many to come!" Harry said, clapping Ron on the back.
"I've never, I mean, I've beaten lots of people, but, no one's ever given me a trophy for anything. No one in my family's ever gotten anything like this before," Ron tried to explain.
"It's well deserved, Ron," Hermione said. "We knew you could do it."
"Your mum is going to be so proud of you," Harry said. "I bet she puts that where everyone can see it."
"You really think so?" Ron asked.
"Yes, of course! She'll have to start a whole wall for your trophies!" Hermione said with a grin.
"WOW," Ron breathed.