Second Intermezzo
Amelia Bones, Minister of Magic, spent a hectic Friday afternoon answering many questions from Wizengamot members, Heads of many Houses, Ministry workers and the press.
All in all, it had been a good day. She didn't really know if she liked this Minister gig. So far everyone's attention had been on the revelations from the Wizengamot but there were many changes that needed to be made in the wizarding world. Voldemort was only part of the problem. The pureblood agenda was the major point. She would have to work hard to provide a structure that would survive into the next millennium.
Too many laws favored the purebloods and that led directly to corruption, nepotism and the rise of Dark Lords. The wizarding world would have to be dragged into the 20th century kicking and screaming.
The report of Gringott's delivering its first enemy had been enlightening. The goblins were going out of their way to be fair. Instead of killing the wizards, apparently they were using the rules of finance to execute the Blood Feud. The death eater they had delivered had accompanied unbreakable evidence as to crimes. The goblins had executed a fine against the offender's house of half of its assets with a prohibition from the criminal himself being able to access the rest -- the wizard's will had been executed as though he was dead already. One quarter of the fine -- still a significant amount -- had been turned over to the DMLE as fines and costs for prosecution, one quarter had been distributed to recorded victims of the death eater, one quarter had been deposited to Harry Potter's vault and one quarter had been kept by the goblins as reparation according to treaties. The goblins moved fast.
The Lestrange Vaults had been distributed similarly but instead of leaving half for the other members of the House, the whole House had been declared enemies of the goblins according to some treaty. So only 1/5th had made it's way to ministry coffers, 1/5th had made its way to the victims of the House, and the rest had been divided equally between the goblins, Harry Potter for some reason and Sirius Black who had annulled Bellatrix Lestrange's marriage and then cast her out of House Black.
Harry Potter would find him and his House considerably more wealthy by the time this Feud was over.
Dumbledore had made a nuisance of himself. She had held firm that she could do nothing in the face of declared Blood Feud and there were no treaties with the Goblin Nation preventing them from coming under the banner of Harry Potter. Anything they did could be construed as happening by his hand and as long as no laws were violated, there was no fighting it.
Now she was going home and would have to explain to Susan what was happening. She was very happy that Susan would be protected should anything happen to her. The protection of Gringott's and the House of Potter was not to be shunned.
Dumbledore sat in his office, sucking lemon drops.
Everything that had happened at the Wizengamot smacked of planning and preparation that should have been all but impossible. Harry had taken up the fight against Voldemort in a way that he could never have imagined. Goblins did not show mercy and this would prevent the redemption of so many souls that would be lost by this Blood Feud.
Even the prophesy would now make no difference. At Amelia had inadvertently made him realize, having the goblins do the work could be interpreted as destroying Voldemort by his hand. Still, there were possible horcruxes to consider. This information would endear himself to the boy and he could guide him to save as many lost souls as possible.
Oooh, was that lemon in the desert from the kitchens?
Lucius Malfoy almost was relieved that Black had granted Narcissa divorce and taken her and Draco under the protection of House Black. He knew that with Potter's Blood Feud and those filthy vermin helping him, one misstep would spell the end of House Malfoy.
Finding out that his Master was a half-blood left was not surprising to him. He had suspected it even if he had not known. Although he had been duped, there wasn't anything to do about that now.
Maybe it was time to go to Argentina and move his assets to a bank run by gnomes. He would have to be careful.
Little did he know that the other shoe would drop as the goblins had already set up his destruction.
Narcissa Black had never been so relieved as she was at this moment. She had heard of what happened at the Wizengamot. Now she had understood Sirius convincing her to divorce her husband and take her son.
Lucius was an Inner-Circle follower of what had turned out to be a half-blood. Her former Husband would be mowed over. There was no reason to put her or her son in danger for some half-blood son of a muggle. Though Harry Potter was a half-blood himself, he was Scion of one of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Houses and House Black being allied with him was a smart move. House Black was still an old and prestigious name and her son was protected.
Draco Black, formerly Draco Malfoy, was at a loss. Potter had declared Blood Feud against Voldemort. He always knew Gryffindors were stupid but this was suicidal.
Well, he was going to stay out of it. He still was a pureblood and the House of Black was even older than the House of Malfoy. He would be able to rule Slytherin with an iron fist.
Molly Weasley was incensed. Sirius Black had taken over guardianship of Harry Potter and ever since, she could not use her connection with Dumbledore to get her daughter in position to trap ... err, catch ... the Boy-Who-Lived.
And now, with this Blood Feud, it was looking more and more like Harry would not be available to be guided down the road she wanted.
Her son, who was supposed to be Harry's best friend, hadn't known anything of what had happened at the Ministry today.
Hermione's parents had ignored her request for her to visit stating that they had alternate plans all summer. Well, the girl was still young; plenty of time was still available to get her to visit the next summer to guide her into a relationship to keep her idiot son in line.
Ginny was confused. Harry had thanked her for the treacle tarts, said that they were delicious and then told her that he wouldn't be available this summer because of the Blood Feud he had declared against Voldemort.
It was as if the potion she had gotten with her mother's implied consent had had no effect whatsoever.
Well, if Harry was immune to the Imperious Curse, maybe he was resistant to control ... uh, love ... potions as well. She would have to increase the dosage. That would handle the problem.
Ron had heard from his father about what had happened at the ministry. The papers the next day had talked all about the Blood Feud Harry had declared. He was supposed to be beside Harry so he could get a part of the spotlight as well. He had sent off a letter asking about it and inviting him to the Burrow again. He needed help to practice quidditch and winning chess was always fun.
He had also sent a letter off to Hermione. He thought the point of Harry using his fame had been a brilliant move to get the sensible Hermione on his side. Point out Harry's obvious fame usage, give her a little attention and she would be eating out his hands. He could get permanent homework help if he snagged Hermione as a girlfriend until he found a better looking one or until school ended. That would leave time for him to play quidditch. It was a brilliant plan if he said so himself. Better than any Slytherin could come up with.
Anyway, it was time to eat. There was a plate of food with his name on it downstairs.
Dolores Umbridge was not having a good time.
She had been fired and arrested for trying to get rid of a pathetic half-blood freak. Her only mistake had been tying herself to that idiot Fudge. She would use the information she knew to get out of this and she would get the world she wanted. The filth would pay!
She didn't know about the changes in the Ministry of Magic and the Magical World since her incarceration. As far as she was concerned, there was no good and evil, there was only power and those who were too wretched to deserve it.
Dobby had heard rumors of what had happened from hearing talk between the staff that lived at the castle year round.
His friend and hopefully future master, Mr. Harry Potter Sir, had declared Blood Feud against that nasty snake-man. Mr. Harry Potter sir was very brave. He also had heard that the goblins was workin for Mr. Harry Potter Sir. And his Grangey was right there with him.
His Grangey was very nice with all of her talk about freeing the house elves but the others didn't know Mr. Harry Potter Sir's Grangey's heart was in the right place and they didn't likes it. Maybe he could convince Mr. Harry Potter Sir to take him as his elf and convince him to get his Grangey to take Winky as her elf. Then Winky would be happy again and they could be life-mates like Mr. Harry Potter Sir and his Grangey. If that didn't work, maybe Mr. Harry Potter Sir's dogfather needed an elf.
Dobby had a plan, yes he did. He had felt the nasty snake-man's bad magic in the come and go room. He would take the bad magic to Mr. Harry Potter Sir's goblin friends and then ask them to get Mr. Harry Potter Sir to take him as his elf and that would start the plan good.
Yes. That was a good plan.
Rita Skeeter knew she had been duped.
Harry Potter had declared Blood Feud and that was big news. He still owed her two exclusives. But he had made her give a magical oath to not attack Amelia Bones and her family and now that she was Minister of Magic, that Oath was getting in her way of digging up and printing dirt on her.
Still, it was open season on the former followers of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. And with the Blood Feud against him, any attacks against her in retaliation could be offset by providing information on criminal activities to the boy via the goblins.
That was worth a few headlines.
Luna Lovegood was very happy.
Since befriending Harry Potter her life had turned a complete turn. She had friends in Harry, Hermione Granger, the Weasley Twins and Neville Longbottom. He was a very nice boy and they had been trading owls almost every day. Harry and Hermione's letters had been very warm and protective and it left a nice feeling in her. The twins were very funny.
The youngest Weasleys had whackspurts, however, and she would have to avoid them since they seemed to not be interested in getting help to get rid of them. Oh well. You could lead the Bumpy Blungdinger to water but you couldn't make it drink.
Her father had put off their trip to Sweden this year to look for crumple-horned snorkacks because he was doing a lot of papers about Tom Riddle. They would go in August after the party she had been invited to.
It was so nice having friends.
Neville Longbottom was knackered.
He had been having the best summer of his life. He had found new confidence at the end of the last year. He had a number of friends and he had improve his grades tremendously.
His grandmother had taken him to get a new wand and it was fantastic. Apparently his new wand -- cherry, 13 inches, unicorn hair -- was much better attuned to him and he was much more powerful than he had known before. His grandmother was proud and impressed.
He had started learning the sword. It was tiring work, but it helped to tone him up. He was losing the baby fat.
So, he was happy. But he was knackered.
Harry Potter was a surprise to Augusta Longbottom.
Her Frank and Harry Potter's parents had been close friends. They had confronted Voldemort and his death eaters and had had good luck for a while. But her son and daughter-in-law had fallen to a group of his deranged followers shortly after the boy's parents had been killed.
Her House cried out for blood. And although they didn't have the manpower or resources of some of the other Houses, it was high time to House Longbottom to get its vengeance.
It was time to talk to the goblins about becoming allied in Blood Feud.
Remus was looking forward to meeting up with Padfoot and the cub in Italy.
He was on the continent drumming up support from the werewolf clans or at least promises of neutrality.
The information that had been printed in the press had helped enormously in the last couple of days. The werewolves could see that Voldemort had incurred the enmity of the goblins and the Boy-Who-Lived's chances of defeating Voldemort had risen astronomically. He would have a good report to take back to Dumbledore.
Besides, with the goblins' help, there was finally hope for Remus's life vow. He had made a vow to himself that he would see Fenrir Grayback killed. As a henchman of Voldemort, he would fall under the Blood Feud and all he had to do was alert Harry and the goblins and that would be that.
He was REALLY looking forward to meeting up with Sirius and cub.
Kingsley Shacklebolt had walked into a boat load of work.
He had been appointed by Amelia because she felt she needed Rufus out there leading the Aurors in what was coming and she trusted Kingsley to follow the law and to mete out justice. As far as Amelia Bones was concerned, that was what the DMLE was about and that was ALL it was about. Kingsley could do that.
Even now, the DMLE had been handed several cases on a silver platter. The goblins had been busy providing proof of crimes and it was his job to get the death eaters off the street before goblins started spilling blood. As far as he was concerned, it wasn't the goblins' or even Harry Potter's job to clean up the messes.
It was time to get to work.
Ragnok was pleased.
Harry Potter had proven to be a boon to the goblin nation. By allying with House Potter, the goblins were coming to be viewed with more equity in the magical world.
Mr. Potter had also provided the goblins with opportunity to do one of the things that they loved the most -- to crush their enemies. The vile devices created by Voldemort had now all been collected and the items would be cleansed by the time Mr. Potter returned from his sojourn with his life mate.
Even the goblins who would sacrifice their lives voluntarily in the blood magic used to cleanse the objects -- one per item -- would be honored in the Goblin Nation. Honor for their clan was another goal of every goblin. Mr. Potter had not been informed of this as Ragnok could see that Mr. Potter would not agree to the sacrifice of even a goblin in place of his own life.
The last device had literally walked in the door when a house elf who called himself a friend of Mr. Potter had brought Ravenclaw's Diadem to them. The house elf had been confident in his friendship of Mr. Potter and Ragnok remembered that this was the house elf that he had freed from House Malfoy at risk of his own life. It had been contained in the memories Mr. Potter had provided. All the house elf had asked was help to convince Mr. Potter to bond to the elf and for his life-mate to bond the elf's own intended life-mate.
Mr. Potter's life-mate was also a boon. A muggle-born witch, she was widely held to be the brightest witch of the age. She was a firm proponent of equal rights for all magical beings and this included the goblins themselves. They would pay for her education in law of all type ten times over as she would be tireless in her goal. And Mr. Potter had already stated his plan to spend his life aiding her quest.
He and his Council had agreed. Mr. Potter's life was far too valuable to risk. Goblins would die by the hundreds if necessary to destroy Voldemort. It was time for the Goblin Nation to once again to climb to greatness.
Voldemort had made his way to the cave where he had stored another horcrux.
He had gotten to the island and looked through the green potion. He couldn't see it clearly, but it was obvious it was still there. Still, something seemed ... off. He couldn't put his finger -- well his claw right now -- on it. But he could see it was there and he didn't have a vermin to sacrifice to take it out to inspect it more closely.
Still, he would have to make plans to get this body destroyed so that he could be free to move on to retry for a better one. He was still anchored and that was all he needed to know.
And the next time, he would not use such an incompetent follower as Peter Pettigrew.
Bob and Larry were having another beer together. Tomorrow Larry would visit Harry for a brief consultation. As Bob drank more beer, his eyes had become more and more maniacal. Larry mused that when Bob got drunk, he made his biggest plans.
Bob started talking about Harry, the Granger girl, and house elves. As Bob started laying out his basic plan, Larry groaned to himself. These plans from Bob were going to take a LOT of consultations with Harry.
Still, Lora had been less peeved with him. She had been impressed with the turnaround, and as far as she was concerned the fewer the problems with a client, the less time she had to spend answering to the Board of Directors of Afterlife, Inc.
A/N: I hope you have enjoyed my brief intermission and look at the happenings around the concerned characters. This was fun to write. A little seriousness with the goblins, but things are never TOTALLY rosy. Besides, the goblins are happy to sacrifice their lives when it will destroy an enemy. Their customs and mindset are not the same as the wizards. So, is it really that sad anyway?
Also, yes at some point I will include Hagrid and Professor McGonagall and Severus Snape. I just haven't gotten that far yet.