It's Almost There
It had been a couple of… trying weeks since Hadrian had decided on resurrecting his fallen foe. Litha had been seven weeks after Hadrian’s arrival, but honestly it had gone by in a flash.
Barty, thankfully had stopped with the pet names, but had annoyingly replaced them with always using ‘Hadrian’. It had admittedly grown on him, and at this point he was honestly only calling him out on it on principle. He found he liked the name Hadrian, he had always disliked the name ‘Harry’, since he had found out that was his name on the first day of muggle primary school. It seemed so basic. Not that he had even thought to complain when he was told he had a name instead of just ‘Freak’ or ‘Boy’. But since coming to the Wizarding world, his dislike for his name was just magnified. He had found almost everyone had amazing names in this new world, names with a story behind them, history. Yet he had gotten ‘Harry’. He was more than amenable to being called Hadrian now. He just didn’t want to give in to Barty.
He had found an old Pureblood book that had detailed major purebloods through the years in the library. Apparently, Hadrian Potter I, had been a revolutionary in the Dark Arts, had designed many new dark spells. He had died during experimentation, and had been succeeded by his son, who as a result of his father’s death, sworn off all dark arts and had been the first ‘Light’ Potter. He had taught his children, and then his children’s children about the dangers of the dark, which had ultimately resulted in the state of his family’s allegiance to the Light.
Honestly after everything the Light had done for him, he hadn’t minded being named for a Dark wizard. He had been confused about why his parents would have named him for a Dark wizard though, so he had grudgingly asked Barty, and he had said that during one of these socials that James had supposedly started attending again, James had told them that he had wanted his son to grow up with a wizarding name, he had hated his own muggle name growing up, and still did. No matter how Hadrian had pushed though, Barty had provided no additional explanation as to why he chose a Dark wizard to name him for though. All Barty had said further was that he knew that James and Lily had fought a lot over his naming, but that James had ultimately won.
Barty had tried many times to explain the ‘true views’ of the Death Eaters. Honestly these supposed views he had told Hadrian about made a lot of sense and was something Hadrian could honestly see himself supporting. But as previously stated, he wasn’t idiotic enough to believe the words of a liar and a murderer.
Barty had also handled everything to do with the ritual as he had said he would, so Hadrian had a pretty uneventful couple weeks otherwise. But those uneventful couple weeks had given his anger time to stew. He was now more pissed than ever. His anger at the manipulative old coot had never been greater and he was fully ready for this ritual, just to bring a smidgin of the pain he had felt from the world, back on those backstabbers that called themselves ‘Light’.
He had gotten the pre-major-life-changing-event jitters, but he had then reminded himself of the pain this would cause Dumbledore and all those who had betrayed him, and his nervousness had disappeared quickly.
While it could be said he had an uneventful seven weeks, it certainly couldn’t be said for Dumbledore. Much had gone downhill for old Dumbles after he turned on Hadrian, and nobody was happier than Hadrian.
Dumbledore had been avoiding and working around any questions asked about the progress of the election he was supposed to be setting up for as soon as possible. He had yet to announce a date and had yet to even hold a nominations meeting.
In the wizarding world he had found out, there was a day called Nominations Day, where any member of the public could come to an open Wizengamot session held that day and nominate any other member of the public for the position as Minister, their nomination then had to be seconded by either a Wizengamot member, or 10 different members of the public. This, as you can imagine could take hours, but the chamber opened at 9am and then closed at midnight that night, after it closed no more nominations could be made. Despite the time cap, there was still a lot of nominees by the end of the day.
Many had been very annoyed and had thought that the election should have already been held, let alone not even having had nominations yet. Key word being had, past tense. Dumbledore had in all his wisdom, managed to convince the public that a transference of rulership, not that he had called it that, would be destabilize the rebuilding process and put it on hold for much longer then needed as the new Minister familiarised themselves with the process. And of course, everyone had immediately agreed.
Well not everyone. Due to Dumbledores own claims of the absolute criticalness of the situation, the International Confederation of Wizards had decided to step in a lend a hand in rebuilding, and also supervising, despite Dumbledores protests, to ensure the political stability of the weakened nation. They had not agreed with his sentiments and had set a date for Nominations Day, again despite Dumbledores protests. It had been held in the middle of May, and when Dumbledore had inevitably been nominated by a member of the public, when asked if any member of the Wizengamot wished to second the nomination, over half of their hands had raised immediately.
Dumbledore had accepted, to Hadrian’s surprise. He usually preferred to control from behind the scenes. But Barty had told him that Dumbledore wouldn’t trust any of his pawns as Minister after Fudge. Apparently, before his appointment as Minister, Fudge had been as staunch a Dumbledore supporter as Mrs Weasley, but all things Dumbledore had to ask of him as Minister to cover up Dumbledores more dubious activities had turned him against him, as well as the power, power was always a good turner of interests. So Barty surmised that Dumbledore didn’t trust anyone else to do it for him anymore.
A drawback apparently unknown to Dumbledore, was that as a potential Minister of Wizarding Britain, he could not retain his position as Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. It was reported on in the Daily Prophet the day after his removal and beneath all the misplaced fury over Dumbledores removal, Harry found that there were some very specific rules for the Supreme Mugwump. One of the most major being that they could hold no other position in the ICW. The transcript of the meeting of the ICW showed that the spearhead of Dumbledore’s removal, the French Minister, had said that they realistically should have removed him as soon as his appointment as acting-minister.
Hadrian’s subscription to the Quibbler was apparently still valid as they released a special issue centred around Dumbledore’s removal and the inner workings of the ICW. It taught Hadrian a lot about the ICW and the way it worked. Apparently, the SM had no vote which confused Hadrian a lot. If it was such a useless position, why did Dumbledore want it so badly? His questions were answered as he read further and learnt that the SM was seen as a sort of magical Pope. They were supposed to be Lady Magic’s voice on earth and as such their opinion on any topics within the ICW was held with the highest regard, and the side with their support often was the one that won.
The election process for a SM was almost like tournament. Firstly, the nomination process made a lot more sense than the Ministers. Each country was allowed to present one nominee, any country could abstain from putting forward a nominee if they wished, and this was actually commonly done. Most of the time there were about 10 nominees, and the countries that didn’t send one, put their support behind the one they wished for. The nominees then went through quite the drawn-out selection process. They went first through a magical aptitude test, the Quibbler article likened it to the wand weighing in the Triwizard Tournament. It was to test the nominees’ abilities and control over magic, it was supposed to evaluate their communication abilities with Lady Magic. It was a quick process and was often done the day of the nominees presentation to the ICW.
Then, there was a debate, like in the muggle elections. It was supposed to ascertain their beliefs and if they were agreeable and cool headed under pressure. Then a vote is held within the ICW, a countries vote was not just decided by their representative though. Each country had their own way. Some had national votes to pick a nominee and then the representative merely brought that vote to the ICW, some just trusted there representative to pick for them. Other countries had strange magical ways of choosing like artefacts that supposedly divined the best choice.
The then elected nominee was taken to a secret room within the ICW that was supposedly the most magically connected place in the world. They would then be released if Magic found them worthy, if not, they were locked in for the rest of their lives. The only accounts of the insides of the room were by previous Supreme Mugwump’s that had said only that those unchosen were taken care of by Magic, Magic looked after those she didn’t pick, it wasn’t a crime to try.
Hadrian found the concept kind of morbid. Being locked in a single room for life? He knew what that was like, and he wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but according to the past Supreme Mugwumps that had entered the room, they were taken care of, and Hadrian knew that was better than anything he got when he was in his cupboard.
Despite the seemingly simplistic selection process, it had been reported to take upwards of an entire year to get through.
The Quibbler also reported that apparently Dumbledore was the longest serving Supreme Mugwump in history. It went on to explain that while the Supreme Mugwump was a lifetime position, once nominated, you could step down anytime, and that was what most Supreme Mugwumps had done, as the Supreme Mugwump had usually realised their knowledge on the current goings on in the world and their beliefs had become outdated within a decade or two. Due to intense and rigorous selection process, the SM was usually a good enough person to realise this and step down in favour of a more current SM that the people could relate to.
Dumbledore had been Supreme Mugwump since before the defeat of Grindelwald, apparently, he had been pushed through after the death of the previous SM in a bid to bribe him into attacking Grindelwald. This meant that he had been SM for over half a century, well surpassing the previous longest SM term of 26 years.
The Quibbler went on to question this extremely long term, not out right attacking Dumbledore, but just suggesting that he honestly couldn’t have been expected to be acting-minister, in charge of rebuilding a whole magical country, Headmaster, in charge of rebuilding an ancient castle as well as Supreme Mugwump all at once. It suggested that it had been unfair on Dumbledore and with great lightness inferred maybe his work should be evaluated to check for any inevitable mistakes that would occur when you had so much on your plate.
When Harry had finished the article, he had been more then exhilarated, his revenge was already on its way, and he hadn’t even done anything!
He was also surprised to find Luna Lovegood on the by-line. No one had come to see him in the weeks leading up to his expulsion from the Wizarding World. He had been getting increasingly worrying amounts of negative press, yet no one, none of his supposed friends had come to check in. He had assumed they were all on Dumbledore’s side after that, even those he had still thought his friends. He had been long over Ron, Ginny and Hermione by the time of his escape from the aurors, but the twins, Luna and Neville as well as some others? He had thought them still his friends until then.
But maybe, just maybe they hadn’t betrayed him, clearly Luna wasn’t completely under Dumbledore’s influence, maybe the same could be said for some of the others. But he wouldn’t get his hopes up. He refused to be betrayed like that again. He may have hope, but they had a lot of explaining to do as to their actions, but with this article he became slightly hesitant over his immediate grouping of all of his past friends as traitors.
His hope about maybe still having some of his friends was soon abolished by his anger at the world. Dumbledore ran for the Ministers office almost unopposed as all his major opponents suddenly had a change of heart, or a family emergency or for whatever other reason, could no longer continue in the running.
Traditionally the elections for the Minister of Magic are held the day exactly one month from nominations, this was a fairly short campaigning time for the very few candidates left after the mass withdrawals but was good for the weakened nation as it was quick. Voting, as with nominations, could only be done from 9am to midnight on election day and if you didn’t get your vote in, then you didn’t vote. Dumbledore was elected British Minister of Magic by over 90% popular vote, one of the biggest margins in British history. And that was enough to dampen any fugitive’s mood.
His old friends relative success in the world also put a significant dampen on his life. Hermione, with the support of Minister Dumbledore, was easily placed in a very high up position in the ministry she did nothing to earn. She was made head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes, and immediately moved almost the entirety of the Obliviation Squad, onto rectifying the mess she had made of her parents brains. An uneducated casting of obliviate was extremely hard to undo, and if undone, most of the time results in the complete unhinging of any remaining mental capacity by the victim.
Hadrian was told all of this by Barty when he had asked, and Barty had delighted in telling him that his informants in the ministry had told him that she was a horrible department head and that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had to step in for the obliviation of muggles because Hermione refused to put the Obliviation Squad back on their proper job. This had resulted in the head of the DMLE going straight to the Wizengamot and getting Hermione put on probation. It was a permeant stain on her already dubious record and if she reassigned any members of her department onto fixing her personal fuck-ups again, she would immediately removed from her position, with or without Minister backing.
That had brought a little joy back into Hadrian’s life which was quickly stomped out by Ron’s placement as Chudley Cannons keeper. Barty had tried to console him with the fact that the Cannons were without doubt, the worst team in the league and had probably only accepted Ron because Dumbledore promised them Ministry sponsorship, but Hadrian didn’t care. He didn’t care if they were shit, they were Ron’s favourite team, he’d be happy and think he’d won and that just got Hadrian’s goat like nothing else.
Ginny was also making a name for herself, but not in a very good way. Dumbledore had already called in a lot of favours with his older associates and Ginny had already been married twice in the seven weeks since his escape. She had married some very wealthy and very old men that were on deaths doorstep and had no heir.
They had then met their somewhat timely end and she had inherited all their wealth and possessions.
Her second husband had died not a week ago and apparently there were already rumours of a third.
Barty had then told him that Ginny’s name had already gone around every circle in polite society and that they would never accept her.
Apparently, through both of her past marriages she had been consorting and cosying up to the wealthy men of pureblood society, married, engaged and single. Apparently, she was now thought of as a gold digger and was apparently on the blacklist for all purebloods.
This improved Hadrian’s mood little, he was honestly feeling less mad and more just sorry for her past and future husbands, obviously she had not gotten over him and was now looking for a new pure-blooded wealthy husband to leach off and control.
An off-handed comment revealed Barty was unaware that the Malfoys had been released. This surprised Hadrian as Barty seemed to have known everything else going on in the world. Barty had explained that sometimes he had become caught up in his research and hadn’t read the paper for days, sometimes weeks, to avoid distraction. He had probably missed all the coverage.
Barty was even more surprised when Hadrian told him how he had been the one to push their trial through and the fact that he was the reason that they were free at all. Barty had immediately reached out to his contacts and had somehow, for the life of Hadrian he couldn’t figure out how, but somehow gotten the by-pass password for the mailing ward that had been put on all of them as part of Lucius’s probation.
They had all, Narcissa especially, been glad to hear of the survival of a member of their family they had thought gone. Even with different names the Lestrange’s and the Malfoys had always considered each other family after the marriage of Bellatrix and Rodolphus. They had been slightly wary of the fact that Hadrian was staying with Barty. They had heard he had gone on the run, so they were glad to know that he was safe, but they didn’t know if they trusted Barty and Hadrian together without killing each other.
Barty had asked if they were going to tell the Malfoys about their plans, but Hadrian had immediately shot it down. He remembered the fear in Draco for his family and his parents must have been afraid too if Narcissa was willing to risk lying to the Dark Lord just to protect her family. He wouldn’t tell them until it was clear that they had brought back a sane Dark Lord, or as sane as one could be. Lucius had chosen to follow him originally, if he was sane again, he could probably convince his family to get on board.
Plus, Hadrian wasn’t going to involve anyone unwilling in his little rebellion, he wasn’t Dumbledore for Merlin’s sake.
Things had been a bit testy on the home front but all in all weren’t as bad as could have been and had been expected. Hadrian had mostly been able to avoid Barty and his constant complaining about ingredients and prices by wandering the library. Along with the book about notable purebloods, he had also unearthed some books written in Parselscript in Riddles study. When Barty had found him reading it he had almost fallen over. Apparently, the Death Eaters had been kept in the dark about Hadrian’s more Dark abilities.
Unbeknownst to Hadrian this had been the settling factor in his position to Barty. Barty knew that Hadrian was perfect for his Lord and had all the right abilities and characteristics to be a good Lord to him and his fellows. There were some things that needed work, like that god awful wardrobe. Merlins beard he dressed like a muggle three sizes bigger than he was. Barty had brought it up multiple times with Hadrian, but Hadrian always ended up just telling him to fuck off.
Hadrian wasn’t going to tell Barty he couldn’t afford new clothes after school, and he had been kept from work by Dumbledores manipulations after the battle, so he was just stuck with Dudley’s cast offs for now. And at least they looked 3 sizes too big now as opposed to 5. But whilst Hadrian had grown, he was always going to be short and small because of those heathens and their ‘care’.
Barty and Hadrian had also had a little hiccup when it came to food. Barty had initially refused to allow Hadrian to cook. That was not his job as Lord of the house, but Hadrian had absolutely refused to relent and had refused to eat anything Barty made for him. While it may have been force of habit or scepticalness when coming to accepting food from an unknown source, Barty came to appreciate Hadrian’s absolute refusal. Hadrian had listened to Barty’s thoughts but had ultimately made his own decision and stuck with it.
Hadrian had been very angry when he had been told by a healer that his severe malnutrition had no real cure. The damage was too old, and he had already gone through puberty so even if he started eating correctly now, he wouldn’t grow much if at all. The healer that he had spent most of his remaining money on had vanished and regrown all his bones that hadn’t healed correctly and reversed all the damage they could but some of his injuries and scars were just too old to fix.
His remarkable down time hadn’t just been taken up by the library though. He had finally decided to explore the master suites other rooms, he found a very decadent bathroom with a pool like bathtub that put the prefect’s tub to shame. Along with the tub there was a double vanity with more counter space than could be reasonably used, as well as very long mirror that wasn’t too ornate that sat on the wall in front of the sinks. There was also a door that appeared to lead to the third mystery room.
He went through to find an absolutely ridiculous walk-in closet. Ridiculous because of the size. No one would ever have enough clothes to fill this monstrosity. The numerous cabinets, dressers and many other compartments he didn’t know the name of, were the same cream painted wood as the bed frame. Upon closer inspection he found the room seemed to mirror itself down the middle. Probably one side for the Lady and one for the Lord.
Further investigation through the vast number of drawers and cabinets found that the Lady’s side (he assumed it was the Lady’s side) was empty while the Lords side wasn’t full but had some robes in it. He found they were the utterly horrendous robes that old snake face had worn. He jerked back as if burnt and then proceeded to vanish the lot.
Even if they were bringing that man back, he could deal with getting a new wardrobe, Hadrian was sure he had plenty of money. Hadrian refused to look at those robes for a minute longer.
He had escaped the master suite after burning any and all contents of the wardrobe and spent the rest of that week exploring. He didn’t find much, there was a basement that he had refused to go into after thinking on what had probably gone on down there. The remaining insides of the house was a bust, really for a manor house there wasn’t that much.
Outside hadn’t been much better, overgrown and crumbling. Hadrian decided he’d put some work into it later if he got the time. Despite being forced at the Dursleys he still enjoyed some chores they had made him do, like cooking and gardening, within reason.
The massive garden project made him think of asking Neville for help but then he was immediately reminded that he had betrayed him. Probably. Maybe. Ugh, it was all so confusing.
With that, he turned from his thoughts and observed the ritual set up again. Barty really had taken care of everything, they were outside, back in the graveyard, and despite the resurfacing of the memories from his last time being present for this ritual in this graveyard, he was excited. Today, his revenge took the first major step. Today was going to be the day he insured went down in history. Today was the day Dumbledore was going to rue for the rest of his hopefully painful life. It was the Summer Solstice, Litha and now, Resurrection Day.