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Shadow Council Chap123
🕑 Added 2022-08-21 01:03:24 +0000 UTC*****
the sun was still setting when Andromeda notice the owl pecking at her window, curious at the late hour of the delivery she sat down what she was doing and went over to let the post owl in.
Carefully untying the note the owl was clutching in his claws, Andromeda open it up and skimmed through the information. well, I wasn't expecting this.
It seemed that Harry had located his family’s keep, rather ahead of any schedule she might have guessed at. It was actually somewhat remarkable, sent as best she could recall no one knew where Potter keep was any longer.
I suppose he must have found the location in his vaults, Andromeda mused. It really was the only place she could imagine, aside from perhaps somewhere in albus dumbledore’s records, that might reliably have such information. It shouldn't have come as a surprise, but she had been so used to the keeps disappearance after so many years that she supposed she was just locked in a habit.
Well that was good news, Andromeda was well aware that not everything at the moment could be considered such.
The ministry, prodded along by Voldemort from what Narcissa was telling her, had continued to push the agenda that Harry was an attention seeking troublemaker, groomed by and ever increasingly erratic albus dumbledore. Her own counter efforts were slowing any negative public perception that Harry might be experiencing, but the wave of effort was having an effect just the same.
Her upbringing had been centered around the sort of public relations ploys and counter-ploys she was dealing with now, giving her incredibly satisfaction to be putting that early education to proper work. That said, Andromeda knew enough to realize that as things were currently running, she was working at a disadvantage.
Voldemort had the advantage of Malfoy’s decades of work infiltrating the power structure of the ministry, him having become the leading power broker in Wizarding UK. Only Dumbledore came close in terms of influence, but his position was not as strong as it once had been. Many of his strongest supporters had, frankly, aged out of the Ministry.
Malfoy, in the meantime, was essentially running at the peak of his political strength. His efforts since he bought his way out of Azkaban with a pretty story and a lot of gold had placed a great deal of supporters for his, and Voldemort’s, cause right in the seat of power.
Most weren’t Death Eaters, of course. Andromeda actually figured they’d have an easier time of it if they were. No, sadly, most were merely irredeemably corrupt… or unbelievable stupid.
Both in at least once case, she sighed as she considered the Minister himself.
Fudge was a problem.
Yes, he was stupid, and yes he was corrupt… but that wasn’t the problem.
Fools in office, even corrupt fools, were par for the course when it came to the elected. Not to put too fine a line on it, Andromeda was all too aware that she could run Voldemort himself, on a light side ticket, and be confident of votes from certain people who really didn’t care about the actual candidate so long as their ‘team’ won.
People were idiots, and idiots tended to electidiots.
But that was fine, really it was. The system was largely designed specifically to keep that kind of situation in check. Elect the loudest mouth moron you wanted, and they could talk all day about whatever the hell it was they thought should be done… but if they didn’t know how to work the system, not one bit of it would happen.
Fudge, however, wasn’t that person.
Oh there was no question he was an idiot, and even less that he was corrupt to the core. He was also, unfortunately, more than capable of working the system.
A loudmouthed moron who didn’t know shit? Easy to handle, you just worked around them until they were gone. Happens all the time through history.
That same loudmouthed moron, but with a knowledge and understanding of the system?
Big trouble.
And Fudge was big trouble.
Adromeda was already tracking his attempts to bring Harry up on carges for illegal use of magic, and it was clear that he was planning a couple… quasi-legal moves. That is, moves that were totallyillegal, but only if you got caught and were an idiot about it. It was surprising how often a completely illegal act could be mitigated in court by simply saying ‘prove I did it knowingly.’.
Intent mattered, after all, and the difference between being stupid and being malicious could easily be a long stay in Azkaban.
Fudge was a master at being stupidrather than malicious.
Andromeda jotted out a note for the owl and loaded in back in as she gave the post owl a few treats.
“Please get this to Harry for the morning, would you?” She asked, getting an affirmative hoot from the owl as it ducked out her window and took off into the night air.
The Minister was playing a dangerous game this time, however, and so far as she was concerned it was time to show him the error of his ways.
*****
Granger Home
Xander leaned back in the lawn chair, looking up at the sky above. There wasn’t much to see, no stars were visible due to the light pollution… though the cloud cover didn’t help there either, he figured with a grin, but it was nice out and relaxing to just sit there with a soda.
Harry’s Keep had given him all kinds of ideas, but as he’d told his friend Xander did rather like his junkyard at the moment so he wasn’t planning on building an ancient castle in Sunnydale or anything, no matter how cool it would be.
Too bad there aren’t any kicking around the area, though, cause that would be awesome.
“Xander?”
Xander lifted a hand over the back of the chair so he could wave, “Over here, Hermione.”
“Oh you are out here,” She said, sounding relieved as she walked up and took a seat beside him. “I wanted to thank you for helping out yesterday, by the way.”
“Huh? What?” Xander frowned before his brain caught up and got in gear, “Oh right, the alley tour. No problem, Herms. Wednesday might be a bit annoyed, since she’s looking after Fenris again, but that little wolf doesn’t get to run as free around home anyway.”
“It was a big deal, did you know that no Slytherins usually show up?” Hermione scowled, “That’s not right. New students should be shown all examples of what they can expect to have open to them.”
Xander snorted, “You do remember what Slytherin is, right Herms? Pureblood Central? Any reason you want to sucker those kids into the snake pit? Or did you just think I’d scare them away?”
He grinned, looking over at her, and put a hand over his heart, “if it’s the second one… Hermione, I’m hurt… and touched, really. Do you really think I’m that scary?”
“Scary? No,” Hermione rolled her eyes before smirking at him, “Annoying? Definitely.”
“Kids didn’t look annoyed,” Xander laughed.
Hermione looked to the skies briefly, “You flew in on a flying motorcycle, showed off more magic in thirty seconds than they’d seen in their entire lives, and basically pulled off the cool older kid with experience act.”
“Act?” Xander tried to sound hurt.
Hermione ignored him.
“Of course they weren’t annoyed. They’ll learn differently if they have to put up with you for any amount of time, I have no doubt.”
Xander snorted, “They’d have to get into Slytherin first for that.”
“Yes well,” Hermione sighed, “If they do, you’ll look out for them right?”
“Of course, but it’s a big school, Hermione.” Xander said seriously as he looked over at her, “really it’s probably best if they go somewhere… safer.”
Hermione gnawed on her lip a bit, “You… you don’t think it was a mistake, do you? I mean, you showing up like that?”
“I don’t know,” Xander said honestly. “I suppose we’ll find out.”
Hermione buried her face in her hands, “Oh Merlin, what if I really messed up?”
“More of McGonagal’s screw up, honestly.”
Hermione glared sharply at him, “Don’t say that about a professor!”
“What? She was in charge, it’s her responsibility. Did you invite me without telling her?” Xander asked.
“Of course not.”
“Then it’s on her,” he grinned and shrugged, his expression becoming a little more serious after he spoke. “But ok, we’ll keep an eye out. Good?”
Hermione nodded, “Yeah. Good. I guess.”
“Cool. So,” Xander said as he leaned back again. “What else you been doing this vacation?”
*****
Dursley Home
Harry sat by the single lamp in his room, poring through the Grimoire with an intensity he normally reserved for quidditch.
That book, and the estate ledgers that had been kept by his father, were among the only things he had from his parents and he fully intended to master everything both had to offer.
The twins would kill to have a Grimoire of their own, Harry thought as he worked his way through the chapters under the guidance of the imprints stored within the book.
Unfortunately for the Weasley Twins, however, Harry was almost certain that the Book would literally kill itself before it allowed either of those two to read it.
He wasn’t even being overly dramatic with that statement either.
Harry had located several sections in the security seals and runes section that specifically seemed designed to prevent certain types of people from accessing information. He couldn’t read the actual ones inscribed in the book, those were hidden… likely in the binding based on what he was reading, unless the Coven had opted for a fake out.
Combined with the other notes, Harry thought that either they had taken the whole idea of keeping pranksters from reading it insanely seriously… or they just wanted readers to think they had.
He wasn’t sure which, honestly, but he wasn’t going to risk letting the Twins anywhere near his copy… just in case.
If I ever need them out of my hair for a bit, though, I could always put them on to Xander’s copy, Harry thought with a tight smile.
Letting Xander deal with the Twins felt like it would be a proper sort of payback for… well, something Xander had done, is doing, or will do in the future. He just needed to wait for the right time. There wasn’t any question that Xander would provide, after all.
In the meantime, though, Harry was finding a lot of the magic being discussed in the book rather fascinating. He couldn’t really see where Xander kept getting all his ideas, some of them were really off the wall, but a lot of the foundations were plain to see right here in the pages of his mother’s book.
I really should have taken Ancient Runes instead of Divination.
Harry suppressed a groan.
He hated it when Xander was right.
About anything.
*****
Malfoy Manor
Lucius paused at the closed door that connected to the family side of the manor, taking the time to let his muscles stop twitching.
His Master was in rare form, it seemed, happily tossing curses in any odd direction that suited him. Lucius had been lucky enough to get away lightly, but he still would prefer that his family not see him as he was just then.
Finally, as composed as he was going to get, Lucius let himself through and into the family side of the home.
Narcissa was the only one still up, thankfully, and she was waiting for him when he reached the sitting room.
“Husband,” She said, nodding to his seat where there was a potion waiting in the place of his normal glass of Brandy.
Lucius just nodded thankfully as he eased himself into the seat where he rested for a moment before taking the pain killing potion.
“thank you, wife,” He said softly a moment later.
“You are welcome, husband,” She said in a matching tone, before sighing. “Lucius… this cannot continue.”
“We must do as the Master commands,” He said, teeth gritted together.
She didn’t respond to that, leaving Lucius in silence with his thoughts.
The Dark Lord’s return certainly brough with it many opportunities, but the costs were equally high… and didn’t even account for the risks his return introduced… and even if those risks failed to materialize, there were other clear issues. If they took the day against Dumbledore, something that Lucius was not willing to stake everything on, that would leave them under the yoke of the Dark Lord… and it was increasingly obvious that he had not returned fully… intact.
The Dark Lord’s mental acuity seemed as sharp as ever, but his rage… he had lost what little control of it he’d had in the past, continuing a trend that had been growing since before the Boy Who Lived vanquished him in the first place.
Something was wrong with the… man? Was he even a man now?
Lucius didn’t know, but it was clear that he was going to need to prepare a few… contingencies.
*****
Comments
David Lucas
Still my favorite. Thanks for all the effort you put in.
Colin Croft
I'm so glad to discover that you're still posting new material on this story, even if only intermittently. It's still one of my absolute favourites! Please don't resist if the muse strikes. :-)
