Off to School
*****
Arianna twitched impatiently as she waited in Ragnok’s office. She knew her bad mood had nothing to do with Ragnok being a few minutes late to their meeting and everything to do with the knowledge that Harry was currently on the Hogwarts Express, getting farther and farther away from her with every minute that passed. Having that knowledge and accepting that logic were two very different things, though, and she was struggling to put aside her urge to transform, fly after the train, and steal her clutchmate away to a safe den forever…
Ragnok’s entrance startled her before she could give it much more thought, though.
“Apologies, milady,” he muttered, bustling to his desk and quickly locking away some parchment. “It would appear some of our clients are not taking the news of Voldemort’s return all that well. Many have been moving gold around and it has put a strain on our already busy tellers.”
“I’ll offer again to end some of my requests to free up goblins for your usual business,” she said after taking a deep breath. “I know you don’t want the Recalls to end, but surely some of the audits can be postponed farther.”
“I wouldn’t worry, milady,” he denied. “The elves you’ve bonded are making good progress on many of those and are actually assisting in the Recalls. Besides, all audits but the one on the Aiaia vault are currently postponed pending the completion of that one. Your requests are actually something the Nation wants to fulfill, so please do not disrespect us by stopping them. All you will be doing is telling the Nation that you do not have faith in our abilities.” Arianna winced at the chastisement and nodded. “Now, what business brings you here today? I trust the reports are reaching you?”
She nodded again and then reached into her satchel to pull out the thick stack of papers she had brought. She noted Ragnok’s curiosity at the notebooks and uniform pages and made note to suggest they put an order in to the nearest mundane office supply store if they found the pages so useful. She certainly did and had startled the manager of such a shop by buying out their stock. She had an idea and fully intended to test it thoroughly before handing them out to the people in the Fidelius. Gods did she not want to think about how much harder all of this would be without her gold…
“The reports are reaching me fine and I do believe I may have found a wizard manager to assist in my properties and audits. Not that I believe my goblin account manager cannot perform his duties,” she said with a knowing smile at Ragnok. “But because there are some places goblins still are not allowed access to, even on business, and until I can start tackling the creature laws, it might behoove you to have some help.” Ragnok chuckled but nodded, gesturing for her to continue. “What I came here for was to discuss my business holdings.”
She set the various notebooks on the desk and turned to him.
“And what would you like to discuss about them?”
She smiled, all her teeth exposed in her vicious glee, and Ragnok returned it, instantly on board with whatever mad scheme she’d devised now.
“I plan on paring them down,” she said. Ragnok cackled.
“With the number of businesses your various Houses have invested in over the years, that could be devastating.”
“I plan on it,” she said. “However, I’m not entirely sure how to tell, just by these accounts, which ones are worth my time and which I should just write off. I don’t want to cripple legitimate businesses or have uninvolved people suffer the loss of jobs. So I’m hoping, with the goblin propensity to know just about everything even remotely related to business and the gold of magicals, that you could be of assistance.”
Ragnok just nodded, eyeing the piles carefully.
“And how might the Nation provide such assistance?”
“Well, I only want to invest in those businesses that support neither Voldemort nor Dumbledore,” she started. “But since that would eliminate most of them, I’d settle for the goblins putting together three options for all of my investments: best for the goblins, best for the business, and best for me, with whatever additional information on who they support that you can provide without violating your privacy policy. Once those are provided, I’ll go through them and mark an option for each. I’m hoping investing in the good businesses will cause an increase in their abilities to hire new staff and therefore mitigate the sudden closing of others now that the galleons have run out. If you could also provide a short summary of when each investment was made, how the business is currently doing, and the number of employees, either magical or otherwise, I’d appreciate it. I know this is adding on to your already very full agenda, but many of these can wait if needed.”
Ragnok looked at her as if she’d just said gold was meaningless.
“My Lady Aiaia, it’s business. It will not wait,” he admonished, tone bordering on horrified. “I’ll see to this request myself.”
She smiled and pushed the various notebooks over to him, glad to be rid of the lot for a bit. “I’ll be in my office, drowning in paperwork…” she muttered. Anything to keep her mind off her brother’s trip to school.
Ragnok just waved her off, already diving into the neat notes she’d made and summoning a quill to start his own.
“Oh, and Ragnok,” she said as she reached the door, glad she’d discovered the small loophole about goblins owning or investing in businesses owned by magicals. He looked up for a moment. “Anything I decide to get rid of? The Nation is welcome to buy off me at knuts to the galleon.”
The grin he gave was ruthless and she grinned back before ducking out of the office and down the hall.
Gods she was tired still, even with a Pepper-Up potion added to her coffee. She really needed to add some people to her Houses and distribute the magical load of the elves. Because she was not getting rid of any of them. And she had every intention of adding some.
*****
The trip on the Hogwarts Express seemed both longer and shorter than it ever had, and Harry couldn’t honestly say what affected it more. His excitement to return to the place he had called home until this summer or his dread at being so far from Arianna. It was the first summer he could honestly say he enjoyed most of and it was almost entirely due to a certain pair of twins, Marauders, and his newly found sister. She’d even managed to see them off at the platform by claiming the right to see her business partners off for their last year before they could launch their shop. She promised loudly to start stocking up on ideas and products, earning the gaze of a number of parents and smiling when more than half startled at the obvious signs of wealth speaking to Weasleys of all people. She then managed to find an excuse to hug all of them, much to Harry’s relief. He’d be glad when she could claim him properly as her brother and they could give up the charade so he could get a hug whenever he liked. He was getting quite fond of them when they came from the Hufflepuff. But then she had him promise to call only after returning to his dorm for the night and spend the train ride actually talking to his friends and fellow students.
He didn’t like it, having planned on having her active on the mirror most of the trip, but he had agreed and now here they were, in their normal compartment only because of how early they’d arrived at the platform. Ron and Hermione had returned from their Prefect meeting and Hermione was rattling on about their summer homework to herself while Harry and Ron discussed his captaincy of the Quidditch team to distract themselves, even if it had been a supreme shock that they suspected had more to do with Harry’s attitude this summer than the suitability of older players like Angelina. Anything to avoid Hermione’s now annual rant that they were going to have horrible scores on the work because they always did some of it on the train. Even if they weren’t doing that this year, all of it done well in advance and even reviewed by Remus, Romulus, and others. He felt good about the work, for the first time, even if he was trying not to panic about when Hermione found out about it.
Arianna had insisted he turn in his actual work and not keep to his habit of being seen as dumber. He knew it was going to take some getting used to… But she had a point. No longer did he have to worry about a beating if he did better than his lard of a cousin and it was exhausting re-writing everything once he could gauge better what level he should write after the others finally finished…. Simply adjusting to Hermione’s guaranteed disbelief was going to be hard, though, and he was not looking forward to having to explain why his marks would suddenly shoot up. It was going to draw a lot of attention. But Arianna was right, as she was often proving to be. He idly wondered if it was an older sibling skill or unique to Ari. There was no reason to pretend to be stupid when he was never going back to the Dursleys and his friends needed to learn about his little habit. It would be extremely difficult to keep hiding when his brain was working so much better anyway. Even if he maintained his habits, there would be a bump in his marks. But why pretend anymore? He was going into this year with so much more hope than he had in any of the previous, except maybe his first, when he was unknown.
And he wanted to make his sister proud of him.
Even if she’d promised she already was.
So, as he prepared to take his OWLs with his yearmates, he’d do his utmost. Starting by socializing with the babbling witch sitting across from him.
“Hermione, breathe,” Ron ordered when she was approaching ten minutes of constant chatter. At least she’d moved on from homework.
She blushed but nodded. “I’m sorry, boys, I’m just so excited. Did you know that Circe Aiaia was the first witch to speak with the goblins and approach them with the idea of opening a bank for magicals? She was even named Goblin Friend after she fought beside them in several confrontations with magicals, going against her own people at one point to protect the race. And we know the new Lady!”
Harry had to chuckle, even in the lingering exhaustion from his bondings with the elves. Hermione was certainly living up to her reputation, having spent all of yesterday researching the name they were using for his sister, frantically searching the restored and locked Black library to find any and all information she could to tide her over until she had access to the Hogwarts library. Apparently, she’d found a lot of success.
“Know who?” a familiar voice asked meekly, popping his head into the compartment. Harry smiled at Neville and gestured to the empty part of the bench he sat on, eyeing the plant he carried warily but saying nothing.
“Lady Aiaia,” Hermione said quickly.
“The new American Lady that’s been making waves this summer?” Neville asked curiously, settling down and staring at her in awe.
“Yes!” she squeaked excitedly, launching into the tale they’d settled on. “She found Fred and George with their older brother Charlie when they were searching for potion ingredients and loved their idea of a joke shop. She’s funding their business! And she took Harry and Ron and I shopping since we knew the pair and might contribute to the pranks.”
Well, she’d ordered Hermione a few new robes and had them delivered the same day, as there’d been no time to actually visit Diagon again. Twilfit hadn’t even blinked at the order for a young witch not Arianna herself, putting together a set of robes with the measurements provided and a promise to have the young lady in at some point for a full fitting and outfitting. Harry suspected the shop was quite willing to do anything for her at this point, since she’d frequented it almost constantly and had put in a similar order for another almost dozen people. He’d gotten the feeling the tailor hadn’t had this much business in years. Not to mention having someone willing to pay for the absolute best every time and throwing in bonuses whenever they delivered on a particularly difficult request. Like same-day delivery…
“Wicked,” he said softly.
“So how was your summer, Nev?” Ron asked, diverting the conversation easily.
Neville smiled and they spent a good chunk of the trip trading summer stories and predictions about the newest DADA teacher. Harry was quieter than usual, but he still felt the exhaustion of bonding so many elves and shuddered to think how Arianna felt. She’d taken on nearly double what he had and not even all the ones attached to her Houses…. And she hadn’t even had a preliminary bond to work from. So, instead of valiantly trying to hide the horrors of his summer like usual, he just kept quiet and allowed the wash of familiar and trusted voices to lull him into a semi-asleep state, throwing in a comment every now and then to stay mostly awake.
Then, when they were perhaps half an hour from the station, the door opened again and a familiar blond head poked in, sneering before thrusting the door fully open so he could sneer with his full body. Harry woke fully then just mentally rolled his eyes and drew on the lessons Sirius had given.
“Merry met, Heir Malfoy,” he greeted, trying to remain civil.
After all, there was no telling what potions the boy might be on and what compulsions might be causing him to be a ponse. And with how Slytherin was treated, it really shouldn’t surprise anyone how the whole House acted sometimes. His formal greeting and surprisingly civil tone seemed to throw the Slytherin off, though, as Malfoy answered automatically before he could launch into a scathing remark.
“Merry met, Heir Potter.”
“It was brought to my attention over the summer just how rude I was when we first met,” he went on, swallowing his distinct dislike for the boy, which somehow seemed less than it usually was. Cursed potions…. “So I do apologize for that. I didn’t mean to snub you and the Houses of Potter and Malfoy are definitely not at odds in my estimation.” Malfoy seemed stunned and the famous Malfoy mask was missing. His mouth was even gaping. “If you’ll forgive the rudeness, perhaps we can start again?”
It repulsed him less than he thought it would to offer his hand to the blond, but he was trying very hard to remember the list of spells, potions, and blocks they’d discovered. And hope he was right about the majority of his classmates. If Snape and Regulus could now be trusted, even as marked Death Eaters, there was perhaps hope for the rest of the House of Snakes.
“What game are you playing, Potter?” he asked warily, eyeing Harry’s hand as if expecting to see a touch activated curse or hex. “Surely you knew exactly what you were doing at the time.”
“Unfortunately not,” he argued, keeping his hand offered as he explained. It was rude to lower it before Malfoy decided to accept or outright reject it. “With no idea I was a wizard until that summer and no explanation of pureblood politics or culture, it’s actually a bit of a shock I only managed to insult the House of Malfoy…”
Malfoy studied him a moment, seeming confused but then looked at the rest of the compartment. Harry had discussed this with at least Ron and Hermione and, while they didn’t necessarily agree, they knew it was important to him. So they were being silent until Malfoy decided. Neville looked like a young mandrake had screamed in his ear.
Then he took Harry’s hand warily, giving it a good shake when nothing happened immediately.
“Well met, then, Potter,” he said, still seeming confused but unwilling to ask.
“I’ll explain at some point this year, if things go well,” he offered when Malfoy remained silent. The blond nodded absently before making his way out of the compartment and farther down the train without another sneer and seemingly incapable of speech.
“I think you broke him,” Ron said with a laugh once the door was securely shut again.
“I think you’re right,” Harry muttered. “Here’s hoping it wasn’t a mistake. I don’t relish admitting that to him, but it was the only way for him to even begin to believe me…”
“You really had no idea?” Neville asked hesitantly, when he’d managed to regain himself now that Malfoy was long gone.
Harry sighed and nodded, giving his friend an abridged version of the first few months of his eleventh year alive, of the wonder he felt and then the horror at finding out his parents weren’t drunks but famous martyrs to magicals. To finding out he was famous and adding on a bit about his relatives. He still didn’t like talking about the Dursleys, but his new mind healer, Mr. Tonks, was proud of the progress he’d been making in admitting to some things. Like how they hated him and kept him ignorant of his heritage in the misguided hope of beating the magic out of him. They’d not yet progressed to detailing every incident, but they were still able to discuss a few of the least horrible ones. Enough to give them both an idea of just how bad it had been. Mr. Tonks was not well pleased with the few stories he’d managed to get out and Harry had asked Sirius for a transcript of his interview with Kingsley to help his healer get a better idea without him having to go through it again.
It would be nice when he was able to speak without the Fidelius stopping him from discussing more recent developments.
Then they were minutes from pulling into Hogsmeade and Harry was scrambling to get into his new robes before the train stopped. If Neville noticed the upgrade, he didn’t say anything, just watching in awe as Harry shrunk his, Ron’s, and Hermione’s trunks before he tucked his into his pocket and offered to do the same to Neville’s. Neville agreed readily then beamed when Harry handed the small thing to his friend with instructions on how to cancel the charm.
“And worse comes to worse, we do share a dorm,” he said with a laugh. Then he led the way off the train before freezing at the carriages. Whereas they’d once been pulled by nothing, now there were leathery, almost skeletal horses with wings in the harnesses.
“Harry?” Hermione called in concern.
“You see them, right?” he asked, worried about some side effect of his potions or blocks being cleared.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much, Harry,” an airy voice called from down the line of carriages. Harry followed the trail until he spotted the speaker. A blonde with a dreamy expression was petting one of the creatures and staring at him. “They’re not going to hurt anyone. They pull the carriages every year.”
“Luna?” Neville asked, hurrying to the strange girl and staring in amazement at her hands. “I can’t believe I never knew you could see them,” he admitted sheepishly.
“Only those that have seen death can,” Luna explained. “I’m not sure why you couldn’t see them before, Harry, but I suspect the Wrackspurts were interfering a bit. But you look much better this year. I was going to point them out so you could shoo them away but you seem to have found them yourself.”
Harry eyed her in confusion, but Neville just explained quietly that she was just like that. So he shrugged and nodded. They climbed into the carriage with no more fanfare and settled in for the ride. When the carriage turned the corner just right, Harry pressed his face to the window, smiling blindingly at the view of the castle awash in the brilliant colors of the sunset.
“Gods, I’ve missed this place,” he said breathlessly. Even if the Headmaster was a monster, he would always love the castle and the good memories he had of it.
“Me too,” Hermione said, seemingly on the same page.
Then the carriage made its way through the wards and Harry felt a shock go through him. He shuddered at the feeling and he gasped at the flash of magic that pierced him to his core. When he opened his eyes, it was to a carriage full of concerned faces. “Just a sudden headache,” he murmured, before catching Ron and Hermione’s eye.
They’d have to discuss that soon. He’d forgotten that he technically owned a quarter of the school now and the wards would sense that, what with the Slytherin ring that was concealed on his hand. Dead useful thing, that Lordship ring. It was only visible to those he wanted to see it. And he’d done what Arianna had done, combining his rings into just the one Lordship ring and two Heirship rings. But that sensation had been surprising, and he worried what it would mean for the Headmaster. He sincerely hoped the man hadn’t felt anything or he’d have to come up with a tale quick. One that would have to hold up to Legitimacy. Since he doubted Dumbledore would have any qualms about reading his mind without permission.
He’d also have to warn Arianna, as they now had a good idea of how the wards were likely to react to her. If anything, it would be more dramatic since she owned the rest. It would be difficult to hide what he was sure would be fairly visible.
Sneaking Regulus from his private carriage on the train, to the driver’s seat of one of the carriages, to the kitchens to wait for Snape to show him to his rooms, however, had been ridiculously easy. And if he had to reveal his father’s cloak to the pair of former Death Eaters, well, he supposed he had to trust them.
But now, he had a Sorting and welcome feast to attend. He’d call Ari tonight, as planned, and sneak Regulus and Snape back into the Chamber in the morning.
Half an hour later, the Sorting was done and the Headmaster was interrupted while giving a speech. When the woman took her place and started speaking with a sickly-sweet voice, Harry was a bit surprised by the short, toad of a woman wearing horrendously pink robes. He recognized that shade of pink and turned to where the Twins were seated farther down the table. Both of whom were snickering gleefully and completely ignoring the woman as she waxed on.
Then her words filtered into his bemused mind and he latched onto the phrasing. Oh this wasn’t going to be good. At all. He made note to tell Arianna those private Defense lessons were going to be needed at some point. He was done having that particular class be useless. Maybe he could organize a club to deal with the startling lack of knowledge he truly believed they’d suffer again this year. Maybe he’d do it anyway, to help others make up for the years of bad teachers the whole school had suffered from. After all, not everyone had Sirius Black, Percival Graves, Tina and Queenie Goldstein, Theseus Scamander, and a number of talented individuals including a previous beloved professor teaching them privately over the last month of summer to catch him up to where he should be, despite Molly Weasley’s rather intense protests that she needed help cleaning.
“The Ministry’s interfering in Hogwarts,” Hermione hissed once the woman started winding down.
“Not really surprising, ‘Mione,” Ron muttered.
“I’m more surprised it took them this long,” Harry muttered back.
Hermione eyed the pair of them for a moment before she huffed and sat back. As if she was angry they’d been paying attention and come to the same conclusions she had. Harry sighed and hoped that was not foreshadowing of how she’d act over the next year. She’d gotten better over the years but her cleanse seemed to put her back a bit to old habits. He still wasn’t entirely sure how she was going to react to their sudden interest in school, but he really hoped she didn’t kick up a fuss when he asked her to back off the first time she tried doing his homework for him. Though he fully believed she’d throw a rather intense tantrum when Ron did.
Ron, who’d spent weeks pouring over his school things again and making loads of progress with the assistance from Arianna. Ron, who found he actually liked learning new things when put into the context of using them in dueling. Even household cleaning charms. The first time he’d used lemon scented suds to trip Sirius in a practice duel had been positively priceless.
Ron had practically cried when Arianna had finally pinpointed why he’d always struggled in school, leading to his distinct lack of enthusiasm for it before. Apparently, he had dyslexia, something Harry had had to explain to the boy, since it was a term exclusive to muggles. But it fit his symptoms and Harry truly despised the wizarding world for being behind on that one. Even Merlin had been disappointed in the quality of the professors they’d had if Ron’s struggles had only warranted disappointed urges to try harder and not an in depth look at why he struggled.
For a society that prided itself on education and knowledge, they sure didn’t seem to care when one of their own couldn’t read very well because the letters jumped around on the page. It was a matter of moments after the discovery that Arianna gladly taught Ron a spell to read the page to him. With that, a new wand that actually matched him, and Ron proving to have a wicked memory when he heard things, a lot of the spells he’d struggled with before proved very easy. And Arianna promised to keep sending him quick sketches of certain concepts if she couldn’t find an illustrated version of whatever he was learning, since that also helped.
If Ron hadn’t been fond of her after finding out she was related to his best mate, the work she put into helping him with school, on top of all the other nonsense she was dealing with, would have earned his loyalty in an instant.
And if her new guards spent a few hours every other day training him on defensive spells and physical fighting, well, Harry was looking forward to the day anyone tried to bully the teen now. Dunderhead he was not.
It would be a hard lesson for many that had always underestimated the youngest Weasley male. Hermione included.
But then the feast started, and Harry kept close eye on his holster, suppressing a groan when it warmed slightly. Well, there was the confirmation of that theory. He was really hoping eventually their theories would prove wrong. He was getting tired of having to adjust his world view to accommodate further betrayals…. Harry could see Ron glaring at his food as well and Hermione eyeing her new cuff curiously before digging in with a quick glance at the table. Harry shook his head in exasperation but dug in. No reason to let such good food go to waste when the potions added would do nothing to him now…
He was grateful to finally fall into his bed that night, curtains drawn, privacy spell in place, and heart aching at the sniping he’d done with Dean and Seamus…. Then he wearily cast a few privacy spells, called Arianna, and gave her a quick update on everything before slipping into sleep. It was going to be a very, very long year…. He could already tell.