The Circle Grows
*****
“Now, everyone will behave or I’ll confiscate wands and spell you to your seats,” Arianna ordered to the gathered group.
As promised, now that Regulus was awake, it was story time and she had little patience for shenanigans, even as the last of the people in the know joined them, including Bill and Charlie. She was not ignorant of the tensions between individuals and the blatant mistrust of Snape and Regulus, but she was done with the threats and taunts. Regulus had only just woken up, cleared of all potions and spells just like a number of other people, herself included, and no one had really known him before. Just because of some ink on his arm. She made a mental note to look into those marks to see if they could be removed. If the trouble was in the black lines, she’d remove them and then maybe everyone could weigh the men on their merits and not past actions.
But she was not joking around. If she had to field another hex thrown at the pair, she would follow through with her threat. She had found a nifty little box in the study for holding magics in stasis and she had no qualms about tossing the few wands in residence in there for a few hours. Since no one but her seemed so adapt at wandless magic, it would give them all some peace for a while. The resigned faces around her indicated that many of them recognized that willingness and were loath to test her.
“Now, I’ll start with asking you, Snape, if you can please take this test. Of everyone here, you are the only one who has not,” Arianna said, offering the treated parchment from the goblins.
The potion master took it gingerly, studying it for a moment before his eyes snapped to hers and he glared.
“Am I to believe this is necessary? And that Regulus, who was in a magical coma, has taken this?”
Arianna just handed over the completed tests, holding hers and Harry’s in reserve. As theirs were the absolute worst and showed the sheer power, both political and magical, they wielded, she was hesitant to give that information out without assurance that it would be well guarded. Everyone but Regulus and Snape were already added to the Fidelius and she’d seen no reason to withhold the results of their own tests, as they’d all agreed to use them as evidence moving forward.
Snape glared at the list of spells, scoffing when he got to Sirius’ pages. When he was done with one, he handed it over to Regulus to peruse. They repeated the process for everyone.
“I’ve noticed neither yours nor the brat’s were included,” Snape said with a sneer.
“For a good reason,” Arianna said, taking a deep breath at the brat comment. She was doing this for her mother’s friend. She was doing this for her mother’s friend. Shewasdoingthisforhermother’sfriend. “And unfortunately, I will not be handing them over until you take your own test. There is information on there that I will not allow to leak to anyone until we are ready to take action.”
Regulus looked sick, holding Sirius’ test in his hands tightly and staring at his brother with obvious pain. Snape just looked deep in thought, studying her intently before his gaze swept the room for a moment. The others were getting restless, but Arianna would not jeopardize anyone for the sake of a few minutes of unnerving silence. If they couldn’t give the man the time to make the decision, she would gladly ask them to leave. And they seemed to sense that, even the ones who had only woken recently and had few interactions with her.
Finally, after nearly ten minutes, Snape pulled a dagger from a sheath at his hip and pricked his finger. Once the blood was applied and the ink stopped flowing, he handed it to her. It was surprisingly clear, the only truly unknown piece the Prince Lordship, though she did sigh at the same marriage contract she had already cancelled for herself. It was a bit surprising it was still showing for him, but perhaps he would have to cancel it himself to prevent magic itself from choosing another match for him now that she was ineligible.
“I suppose being a Potion Master helps,” she muttered.
“Of course,” he drawled in response. “I never eat anything without checking it and I have a stock of counters to every known potion. A fact that Dumbledore seems to forget when he’s regularly spiking my food and drink. The simple truth is he shouldn’t even feel the need to try, with being my proxy since I discovered I was not disowned with my mother, the threats he holds over me, and the life debt I owe the Potter brat.”
Arianna raised an eyebrow at that, but a grimace from Sirius confirmed the theory that one had been created when her father had saved the man from Moony during their school years.
“So, no love of the Headmaster then?” she asked, quirking her lips when Regulus adopted a sneer reminiscent of Snape’s own.
“None,” the pair snarled together.
Arianna nodded, looking to her godfather and asking without words his thoughts. He seemed to pick up on the request and turned to study the pair for a moment. Then he nodded sharply and she could see him working the Fidelius to include the pair.
Snape noticed as well and could obviously feel the buildup of magic.
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Adding you to the Fidelius,” she answered. “We literally can’t talk without you included.”
“And if I’d been potioned? Or said Dumbledore was a beacon of light that all should follow?” he snarled.
“If potioned, we’d offer a goblin cleanse, just like the rest of us had. If you supported Dumbledore, I’d still suggest the cleanse, or at least a more intense test, since I know you hate him and wouldn’t say that willingly. If it turned out I was wrong, well, we’d thank you for your time and send you on your way with a mild alteration to your memories and no remorse in requiring the return of all moneys paid to you from Harry’s accounts. Now you get involved in the discussion and we assess whether or not to require the return of the funds stolen,” Arianna said promptly.
Snape glared at her but nodded in acceptance. When Sirius gave his own nod, indicating the pair were successfully added, she promptly handed over her and Harry’s tests. She tried not to wince when his eyes snapped to her as he read and she knew that would have to be addressed. It did make her feel better that the man obviously didn’t know about the contract and hadn’t fully read his own prior to handing it over.
She knew this portion of the explanations had to be boring for the others in the room, but they all stayed silent. With the younger Weasleys absent and Harry trying valiantly to fuse himself to Remus and Sirius’ sides, the room was full of adults, most of whom had fought in the first war. None of them had been happy with the results of their own tests and so few of them were willing to judge the pair of Death Eaters without listening first. It had been hard to convince the Prewetts, since they distinctly remembered the Death Eater attack that led to their imprisonment, but the other two were on the fence. Marlene and Romulus knew in theory that the Death Eaters were bad, but they had both avoided being targeted directly for either recruitment or attack as both were secondary, or spare, heirs for their houses. Romulus for being second born and Marlene for being female. It also helped that neither were from one of the Sacred 28, so they were pretty low on the priority list for recruitment.
Yet all of them were allowing Snape and Regulus time to process before demanding answers for the full story. Arianna had yet to explain everything to everyone. The ones with the most knowledge remained Sirius and Remus. Even the Weasleys had missed a few discussions and her American Family had been too entrenched in their projects to remember to ask. She had little hope of that continuing, especially with Uncle Theseus joining them soon. He had sent an owl with the news that he was wrapping up the last of the urgent business that kept him away and would arrive within the week, well before they were scheduled to take a trip to Diagon. She’d responded with a short note detailing where they were and permission to access the floo.
“Have I missed anything?” his familiar voice demanded, effectively cutting the silence but ratcheting up the tension as wands pointed his way quickly.
Only Uncle Newt didn’t react, grumbling about obnoxious older brothers while the rest of the room stared in shock at the elderly but straight-backed ex-Auror. His reflexes didn’t suffer from age, though, as he had his own wand drawn, a shield spelled quickly to prevent any mis-fired spells.
“Little one?” he called into the room warily. “Black?”
Arianna gave a careless wave of her hand and collected the results of her expelliamus. The small pile of wands was then dropped on a nearby table as she bounded to her uncle. She was careful with her tight hug, though, since he was over a hundred, even if it was only by a year or two.
“Hello,” she greeted, face buried in his wool traveling cloak.
“Anyone want to do introductions before we get to the discussion?” Sirius asked dryly, smiling at them and offering Theseus a small wave of recognition. She had to snicker at the eye roll he gave her. Obviously, he’d not made the connection that Uncle Theseus was Theseus Scamander.
“Everyone, Theseus Scamander. Uncle Theseus, everyone,” Arianna announced grandly, smirking at the various eye rolls she received.
Then she went about properly introducing everyone and following the same procedure with him that she’d instituted with everyone else. He raised a questioning eyebrow at the test parchment, but dutifully pricked his finger and allowed the test to take effect, Aunt Tina snuggled into his side. When Arianna handed him the tests for everyone else, she made sure to stress that these were before cleanses, holding off on hers and Harry’s again. Aunt Tina gave him a few whispered tidbits of information as he reviewed them but fell silent when Theseus’s test came up clear, just as the others from America had been. Then he was added to the Fidelius and handed the Potter tests. When he put them down, his face was stony.
“You do realize this test of yours indicates you should have fallen in love with Snape but wouldn’t trust him,” he asked, voice frighteningly void of emotion for a man known to be passionate.
“I did pick up on that, yes,” she said dryly.
“Don’t take that tone with me,” he snapped. “The implications of this will rock Wizarding Britain far more than Grindelwald could have dreamed.”
“Oh, they’ll affect far more than Britain,” she snarled. “I can guarantee that Dumbledore is directly responsible for more than half my list and I have strong suspicions he’s partially responsible for the rest. He’s a manipulative old bat with no compunctions about morals or magical bonds or the ‘greater good’ he’s constantly spouting about. He erased me from history! He left my brother with the worst sort of people. All so he could have the perfect little pawn in my little brother, the CHILD who lived through his parents’ murder, the abuse of magic hating muggles, and a society literally brainwashed into seeing him as some magic-given gift to wizarding kind with NO preparation! To have a child take on the problems of an entire society when grown arse adults couldn’t handle it the first time around! Because a man that can come back from being obliterated would be within the powers of a teenager to defeat when seasoned Aurors with decades of training fell to the man and his followers! Dumbledore has touched the minds and magics of the ruling parties of almost every country in Europe and if he managed to get his hands on someone abroad, I have no doubt most of the world. To top it off, after his efforts in the last war, they practically handed it to him!”
Sirius eyed her warily, but she ignored him in favor of trying to regain control of her temper. The room was literally shaking with her magic and she felt her transformation contained with only whispers of power. If she didn’t get a grip, she’d definitely lose control and tear a huge chunk out of the building in the process. Harry extracted himself from their godparents and edged close to her, face intent and hands out to the sides in clear indication he wasn’t a threat.
The rest of the room just watched, hands twitching for wands.
“As much as I appreciate someone finally acknowledging the stupidity of my life,” Harry said with his brand of snark and his apparently signature smirk, “I don’t think you’d thank yourself later for ruining the main home of Helga Hufflepuff, even if you do own it.”
She gave a weak laugh at that, but allowed him to continue to soothe her, wrapping her up in his long arms and whispering various pranks they could implement to get some form of revenge before she was able to hammer at Dumbledore publicly. Finally, after too many minutes for her comfort, she was able to breathe normally and the various items in the room had finally stopped rattling. She wasn’t able to save the unoccupied couch, the splinters and bits of fabric all that was left after her magic had torn into it, but she was in control again.
“Geeze,” Jacob muttered, the only one capable of speech after the show of blatant power. “Kid, you have been holding back.”
Arianna couldn’t help the laugh at that.
“Only a bit,” she agreed.
Then proceeded to give the full story. From the night her parents had died, to the connection everyone in the room had to her or her brother, to the ones not able to be there but in on the secrets. She poured out her suspicions of Harry’s home life after his whispered agreement, glad when he added his confirmation of all the facts. She held him tightly to her when she was speaking, offering comfort even as she aired the truth of that horrible house. It also allowed her to shield him from their reactions, since Queenie tried to envelope him in her arms and the various Aurors started demanding the chance to go arrest the whale of a man for attempted murder. A few cutting remarks had them sitting back down so she could finish.