Friday, November 6, 1994 - Morning
It was the fifth morning since the Registration Office meeting ended. Harry rose early, dressed, and waited in the common room for the rest of the house to go to breakfast.
Luna arrived and approached Harry. “Harry, I have just written the latest message from Apollo to you in the notebook.” Luna looked at Harry with concern in her silver-grey eyes. “Apollo says that you are to release the two remaining vassals. They are not going to come back. If you don’t release them, they will be driven mad. They will have to answer for this one day, but Hera and Athena don’t want you to be burdened with them. They have been visited by Hecate for five nights, that is almost too much for anyone.”
“I will write the releases and send them straight away. Will they be released if they don’t receive it?” Harry was ready to cry.
“When you finish the release and sign it, it will be done. You can write to them and explain what has happened, but they don’t have to read the message.” Luna was also teary.
Harry wrote the two parchments with a short explanation and gave them to Polly to send on by owl. He felt a strange feeling of release. An invisible burden had been taken off him. There were no more vassals depending on him, and he now had allies.
Daphne arrived in the common room. “Harry, my father has sent me a message in my family journal. He wants to meet you tonight. He will come to the head of house office after supper. He will have Tracey’s father with him.”
Headmaster Dumbledore met Harry after breakfast, and they agreed that Harry should appoint Miss Dawes as a Professor of the Potter School of Magic and Head of Merlin House. Miriam Dawes moved in that day and began interviewing each student.
The day passed with no more attacks and there was even a slight reduction of general ill will. The sight of the seven Merlin House students sitting together in the Great Hall seemed to calm the sillier rumours. Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott answered many questions concerning their sudden removal from Hufflepuff. Su Li also spoke to some Ravenclaws, and the introduction of Professor Dawes as the Merlin House Head of House introduced a sense of normalcy.
Harry had begun to rely on each of his house members for advice. He asked Daphne if she could get approval from her father to bring all his team members to the evening meeting. Approval was given. Daphne was amused. “Father knows about Tracey and me. He knows that if we aren’t there, you will have to repeat everything to us, so you are just cutting one step out of the process.”
The evening meal concluded. Merlin House proceeded to the head of house’s office. In a meeting room to the side of the office, Lord Greengrass waited. He was a tall, distinguished man in dark green robes. Unspeakable Davis, a shorter man in grey robes stood with him. Daphne, Astoria, and Tracey went to their fathers and exchanged affectionate greetings and hugs. It was hard to keep Astoria out of any conversation. She knew as much as anyone else about wizarding families and politics and was quick to analyse and explain the most difficult problems.
Lord Greengrass went to Harry and extended his right hand. “Harry, I must express my sincere regrets at how I and my family reacted to the Edicts. We couldn’t accept that the Gods of Olympus would take so much interest in one young man.”
Harry took the offered right hand in his. “Thank you, Lord Greengrass. I hope you and your wife are well. Daphne has explained what happened. It must have been difficult to endure visits from the Gods. I have never had such an experience myself.”
“But you have had many trials to face yourself, Harry. That is something that I have to find out more about.” Lord Greengrass stood aside to allow Unspeakable Davis to talk to Harry.
“Harry, I also have to apologize for the way my wife and I have spoken about you. I know Tracey has made her own peace with you, and the Davis family needs to have peace with you as well. Please call me Eric, I’m not noble as Cyrus is, so titles are quite out of place.” They shook hands and Lord Greengrass motioned everyone to be seated.
“As I asked for this meeting, I should explain what it is that I wish to discuss with you Harry. I know my daughters and Tracey as well and I know it would be impossible for you to keep too many secrets from them. Eric and I are happy that your supporters are all here.”
“First, I want to propose a formal and permanent alliance between House Greengrass and House Potter.”
Daphne gasped and stared at her father, Astoria smirked and glanced at Harry and Daphne.
“Second, I want to collect as many memories as possible that you are willing to share of your experiences since you started at Hogwarts. I will get my best experts to analyse everything you want to share. We need this analysis to help you prepare for your tasks and mission.”
“Third, I want to start sharing intelligence that my agents have collected. This information will be about you personally, Potter House, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and our common enemies. I’m talking about Death Eaters and their criminal allies and of course Tom Riddle.”
“You don’t have to answer me tonight, you do have some time to consider my proposal. Don’t leave it too long though. You need help with the Tournament right now.”
Eric Davis cleared his throat and began to speak. “I want to add something as well. I am here un-officially to offer you the complete co-operation of the Department of Mysteries. This offer is most secret. Unspeakables normally don’t share anything with anyone outside of the department and the Minister of Magic. You know that your new head of house, Eric nodded to Professor Dawes, is an Unspeakable on extended leave. She is in fact on duty and will be your contact with the department. Nothing about this arrangement is to be spoken of outside of your house. Fudge will blow up if he hears anything. Dumbledore and Amelia Bones may be suspicious, just don’t openly say anything to them.” Miriam Dawes smiled at Harry.
Harry scanned the faces of his team. Daphne and Tracey gave him small nods. Susan looked up and winked at him. Hannah and Su Li had their poker faces on. Luna smiled brightly and nodded.
“I am happy to accept all of your proposals. Are there any formalities to be done?”
“Not for me.” Eric Davis replied.
“Yes, I have a formal agreement to be signed. We should let your advisors from Gringotts see the agreement first, they will give you honest advice about it. If they approve, we can sign it, then your account manager can seal it and register it.” Lord Greengrass smiled at Harry. “You should know Harry, that House Potter already has two such alliances in place. One is with House Longbottom and the other is with House Bones.”
Susan looked worried. “Yes Harry, that is right. When I started at Hogwarts with you, I asked Aunt Amelia if I should introduce myself and mention our alliance. She told me that Headmaster Dumbledore didn’t like house business at Hogwarts. She told me to stay out of it unless you mentioned the alliance first. I talked to Neville about it, and he said that his grandmother told him the same thing. I’m sorry that I didn’t say anything before this, I might have been able to help you.”
“It wasn’t your fault Susan, or Neville’s. I knew nothing about any alliances until Lord Greengrass mentioned them.” Harry was unhappy and subdued.
“Harry! It looks like you have been deliberately kept in the dark about this “. Lord Greengrass looked angry. “I know Dumbledore. I was a student here with Dumbledore as Headmaster. If you asked him about your house alliances, I know what his response would be; ‘Now Harry, my boy, those are matters for adults to be concerned about. You run along now and enjoy your childhood.’ Meanwhile, every established wizarding family is educating their children about wizarding society, house alliances and how not to get into trouble with them. It’s a wonder you haven’t had even more problems.”
Lord Greengrass looked around the table. “There are some issues that we have to talk about. The big one is the first task. In past, tasks in this tournament involved large and dangerous magical creatures. The last tournament ended with a cockatrice going berserk and killing people. I have my people looking for signs of dangerous magical creatures being transported and kept near here. You can’t do that sort of thing overnight. There has to be planning, preparations made, getting the beasts in the first place, finding places for them to be kept out of sight. The organisers might think it is all top secret but for my people, it is obvious what is going on. Dragons are being imported and kept in the Forbidden Forest. They are not just any dragons; they are nesting females; the most vicious of all dragons when protecting their nests.”
Lord Greengrass waited for the expressions of horror to subside. “Harry! I have had dragon experts brought in and they say that there is something about you that has them interested. You can speak parseltongue. You did it in that duelling tournament in front of half the school, did you not?”
Harry nodded; he was not liking this at all.
“My experts say that dragons are sentient. They can communicate with each other and us. They speak parseltongue. Whatever the task is, speaking to the dragon in parseltongue makes it a matter of negotiation, rather than conflict. Negotiation usually brings an acceptable result; conflict can bring ruin. With your permission Harry, I will arrange with an out-of-the-way dragon reserve to let you practice speaking parseltongue with some of their dragons.”
“Wow! Yes certainly. If you are certain about that, it sounds better.” Harry sat up, looked around. His team were not convinced. “There is another thing. I was called in by Professor Moody yesterday. He wanted to talk about the first task as well. He wanted me to practice flying my broom. Lots of tight turns, climbing and diving. That’s not the problem. I have a magical heirloom that belonged to my father when he was at school. It is a map that shows the location and name of everyone in the school.” Harry paused.
“Wow! The Marauders Map, I always wondered who got that.” Eric Davis interjected.
Harry was gobsmacked again. “You know about the map and the Marauders?”
Lord Greengrass laughed. Harry’s team looked on in surprise.
Still laughing at Harry’s surprise, Eric Davis replied. “Yes, your father, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were the Marauders, the great pranksters of Hogwarts. They were so arrogant. They thought that no one else could possibly know their secrets. My wife and Lady Greengrass shared classes with your mother. They were friends long before Lily finally relented and let James court her. Lily kept the Marauder’s secrets, but my better half and Lady Greengrass investigated and found out about them. They were never careful enough and Sirius Black was always boasting and bragging about how clever he and his friends were.”
Harry was stunned but he recovered. “OK! Anyway! I was looking at the map and I found the DADA classroom where Professor Moody was teaching a class. The problem is that the name in the teacher’s place was Bartemius Crouch. I waited outside the classroom, and it was Professor Moody in the room. Bartemius Crouch is polyjuiced as Professor Moody.”
The air in the room was filled with exclamations of “What!” “No!” “That can’t be!”
Eric Davis recovered first. “Now, let’s be careful here. Did the name on the map have sr or jr after it?”
“It was jr. What is that? Is it important?”
Eric Davis looked at Lord Greengrass who nodded back. “Bartemius Crouch Senior is the Ministry official who is overseeing the tournament. Bartemius Crouch Junior was a Death Eater who was supposed to have died in Azkaban years ago. Somehow, he faked his death and escaped and is now here posing as Auror Moody. Now we know who sabotaged the Goblet of Fire. What do we do now?”
Lord Greengrass looked at Harry. “If Crouch Junior is using polyjuice, then he must have the real Moody held captive in the castle. Harry, get the map out again and find Moody on it. It might not be a great idea to have the story break and be plastered over the front page of the Daily Prophet. We might have to arrange with the DMLE to have Crouch Junior picked up somewhere away from the castle, Crouch Junior will then be sent straight back to Azkaban to finish his life sentence. Then the real Moody can be released to take up his duties with a minimum of fuss. You don’t need any more publicity Harry, that has always been bad for you, and this could be twisted to be negative for you.”
“Let us list our actions. Harry, get Moody’s location on the map. Daphne can send that to me. My agents in the Ministry will ask Amelia to invite Moody to Hogsmeade. If he is Crouch Junior in disguise, that can be detected. Then the arrest can be made, and Crouch Junior will be interrogated and then taken to Azkaban. We can get Headmaster Dumbledore to allow Professor Dawes to help restore Moody. He might be in poor shape after being confined for months.”
Harry felt a spark of hope. These people knew my parents, I have to get them to talk to me.
“There is something I want to do. I want to meet Lady Greengrass and Mrs Davis. I want to find out more about my parents. I know nothing about them. I have just a few photos, nothing more.” Harry was hungry for more information about Lily and James.
“Harry, come to stay at Greengrass Manor for the Christmas break. You can meet them both there. They have photos and plenty of stories about Lily and James.”
Great! More people who could turn on me when I am inconvenient. I was never this dark. Where am I going with thoughts like this?
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