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Guest (Chapter 11): He could try, but he would fail. The Megalos family is the the most powerful in the world, worth nearly trillions all together, hundreds of them, and all with immense political influence. If Harry crossed them right now, he would be totally and completely destroyed and lose everything that he cares about.
June 1st, 1993.[]
May was a great month for me. I learned a lot, and my manipulation of Calypso Rosier finally bore fruit, and I was able to perform two Sex Rituals, and finally become a mid-level Grand Sorcerer. I managed to shag Adaleide Dolohov and Adelina Rookwood, and force them into the same oaths as Calypso. I was quite pleased in that department and even managed to achieve a tiny bit of power growth with my work on Fiendfyre and the Patronus Charm. Unfortunately, that meant I had to try conjuring and controlling hellfire. I was lucky that I was smart enough to only conjure a little. It had three times the power drain and twice the difficulty of control, but I managed it, barely.
I passed my Potions Mastery test. I tested into the Ancient Runes mastery course, and then tested out of it. They simply couldn't deny that I had the knowledge and fulfilled the requirements of the mastery. It being mostly memory retention helped matters greatly. I tested into the Magical Creatures mastery course. I got an OWL in Astronomy, I figured I might as well. I even drained the knowledge needed to get a mastery in Ancient Studies and Alchemy from the teachers. I did understandably have questions about the benefits of their classes, I just drained the knowledge from them during my questioning. I just needed practice with that knowledge. Conclusion? I. Am. Awesome! No one had ever made such amazing achievements! Six ICW recognized masteries to my name! All by the age of 12!
As I reflected on my greatness, I was exiting the castles wards. My Portkey activated moments later.
Twenty minutes later, Potter Manor. I had finally arrived back home, and had stored my things in my room. I was looking forward to a summer of practicing my newly acquired knowledge, and mastering control of hellfire.
"Harry, please come down here!" Mom called out.
"Be right down, mom!" I called out in reply. Maybe I was about to find out why my parents seemed secretive. I quickly ran downstairs, eager to hear what it's about.
"Yes, mom?" I asked, with a smile.
"Your father and I have something to tell you, about your brother." She said, to my concern. I hadn't heard from him since the 20th of May. "He's fine," She added, seeing my concern. "The monster terrorizing Hogwarts was a Basilisk, he killed it. Lucius Malfoy was suspected of placing Voldemorts diary into Ginny Weasley's cauldron, and your brother managed to cost him his house-elf Dobby in retaliation. Oh, and Gilderoy Lockhart tried Obliviating your brother, but failed and it rebounded on him. You can visit him whenever you're ready. Do you have any questions?"
"Yes, now that I know he's fine. Can I legally destroy House Malfoy? I had been waiting to build up leverage to do so, but now that James has defeated the family three times it's an actual possibility." They both seemed to understand what I was getting at. "We could neutralize Voldemorts biggest financial supporter and deal a blow to the Dark Faction and possibly get some bigoted laws repealed. We could also send our enemies a message that we would destroy them if crossed." I could tell they both approved and agreed with the sentiment.
"Do you know how?" Dad asked.
"Yes," I said, with a truly happy smile. "By right of magical conquest, I claim the titles and assets of House Malfoy and all of its members; in the name of House Potter!" I said, assertively. A blank ring appeared on Dad's hand. "I am awesome!" I said, to their amusement. "Let's go visit my little brother! Oh, and you might want to have Aurors remove the Malfoy's from your new properties. I'll cast the Fidelius Charm with you as the Secret Keeper later."
"I'll go do that!" Dad said, with childish excitement. He quickly ran off to do so.
"What about retaliation from the Malfoy's or the Dark Faction?" Mom asked, in concern.
"They'll be quickly dealt with. The Dark Faction is reduced to a measly three votes, and any attempts by the Malfoy's would finish ruining them. They are no longer nobility and would be horrifically punished." I said, as Dad re-entered the room. "Now to deal with Lockharts attack," I said, to their confusion. "I believe we should seize his wealth, estimated to be a few million Galleons, as punishment. He no longer has need of it, and we're well within our rights to do so."
"What about his family?" Mom asked, no doubt believing they should have it.
"They can't even touch his money, Gringotts and the Ministry won't let them." I said, making sure I explained why.
"I think we should go for it, Lily. He's a fraud anyway." Dad said, in support.
"Oh, alright." She said, still not liking it, but understanding it will just be wasted anyway.
"Now, how do I claim it?" Dad asked stupidly. Did his parents teach him nothing?
"I'll get the forms and guide you through the process." I didn't feel like running upstairs, so I wandlessly summoned them.
They arrived a few moments later.
"Okay," I said, setting the forms on the table. "You list the offences, the perpetrator, victim or target. Basically fill in the required information, twice. If we can provide a pensieve memory, or if you finally sign your name in a Blood Quill, it becomes an instant procedure." Dad looked disgusted at the mention of a Blood Quill. "Your blood carries magic, by using a Blood Quill, your swearing the truth on your magic. We could always delay this, and simply get a Pensieve memory, but most use a memory, and sign in their blood. It provides two layers of verification, and greatly speeds up the transfer."
"We'll wait until we get a Pensieve memory." Mom said, Dad seemed grateful that he just got out of it.
"Alright." I summoned the forms to me and placed them in my pocket. I also summoned another form from my room.
"Let's go visit James then."
They rose, and the three of us went to the floo.
When we arrived at Hogwarts, I quickly set off in search of my brother, while my parents went to meet with Dumbledore and McGonagall.
Minutes later, I had the misfortune of seeing Fred, George, and Ron Weasley, alone, in an empty hallway. I managed to get to my wand before they did, and they were beaten moments later. They were so pathetically easy to defeat that it didn't merit description. I drug them into an empty classroom for my revenge.
When we were inside, I quickly searched their minds and found several creations of theirs, and even knowledge of the Marauders Map. I quickly took the Marauders Map from Fred's pocket, and Obliviated all three of their knowledge of it. I Obliviated them of their knowledge of several of their creations. I deserved some compensation for all of their stupid attacks on me after all, so I just took what I felt that I deserved, which admittedly wasn't that much. When I finished covering my tracks, I disillusioned myself and peaked outside the room. I saw no-one, so I exited.
I arrived at Gryffindor Tower minutes later, having used the Marauders Map to find my brothers location. I bypassed the security measures and entered the tower.
When I was inside the Gryffindor Common Room, I quickly saw my little brother and walked towards him.
"Hey, little bro." I said, getting his attention. "I heard you played with a dead guys snake." I said, making Dean and Seamas laugh.
"Shut up, Harry!" He whispered harshly.
"Fine. I got the joke out of my system anyway. Are you busy? We need to discuss some Potter family business, in private, of course." His eyes lit up at finally being included.
"No, I'm not busy. Where do you wanna talk?" He asked, containing his excitement.
"I noticed a private room near here, we can talk there." He nodded eagerly and rose from his seat, I began leading him to the room.
We arrived in less than a minute later, and entered. I secured the room against eavesdropping, and made it so that no one could enter; except Mom and Dad, of course.
"What do we need to talk about?" James asked eagerly.
"Your recent actions," I said, causing him to fear another lecture. "Which managed to help House Potter greatly." I added, to his relief. "You did great little bro. You may not have known how to capitalize on them, but I did and it should negate the fall out from your previous actions and possibly have regained you consideration as a possible heir apparent to House Potter." He looked very pleased with that. "Your attendance of a duel that Draco Malfoy didn't show up for, defeat of Lucius Malfoy's diary scheme, and freeing his House-elf constitutes three defeats of House Malfoy. Under the laws of magical conquest I seized House Malfoy and its assets. House Potter is now the most wealthy of all nobles." He looked thrilled by Malfoys defeat.
"Lockharts attack on you was a major crime, and we're in the process of seizing his assets. When this meeting is over, I'll need Pensieve memories of his attack and attempts to attack you. I'll also need memories of Draco Malfoy's challenge and his not showing up. Also, any related memories to Lucius Malfoy's placing the diary, and anyone who may be able to confirm it. I'll need any memories relating to attacks on you by members of House Malfoy." He nodded along.
"Now, a bit of advice. Under international law you can seize the carcass of the Basilisk; it's theoretically worth millions of galleons, possibly much more. You could put the wealth with House Potters fortune, or possibly put mom in charge of a charity in your name, to improve the quality of Hogwarts education and provide better supplies for classes. Like brooms for flying lessons."
"The second one." He said, loving the idea.
"The James Potter Jr. Charity for Academic Excellence?" I suggested, off the top of my head.
"Isn't that an awfully long name?"
"Its intentional. It has your name, the word charity, and the term Academic Excellence. It carefully associates your name with those good qualities, and should ensure good press." I explained, he seemed to understand.
"What can we do with the charity?" He asked.
"Off the top of my head... Improve the quality of education offered at Hogwarts, offer money to fund maintenance of said school. Hogwarts doesn't receive enough money from the Ministry, your charity can help with that."
"Awesome! How do I give you those memories, by the way?"
"Simply focus on the memories, and I'll extract them." I said, lazily withdrawing my wand.
We spent the next few minutes withdrawing and storing the memories into labeled and charmed vials. The prized jewel of the memories was the attempted murder of my brother with an unforgivable. That should neutralize the Malfoy's if they crossed us again.
"Well, that should secure our family against attempts to block our acquisitions. Shall we go retrieve the Basilisk from the chamber?"
"Yeah, follow me." When he turned his back, I cast a spell that quickly created an untraceable psychological block on his Parseltongue ability. I had learned that he hadn't tried speaking it since entering the chamber, and had been bitten by a Basilisk.
We arrived at Moaning Myrtle's bathroom minutes later.
"It's official, Slytherin was a bloody pervert." I said, making James laugh.
"Open." He said, in english.
"That was english, little bro." I said, in amusement.
"Open!" He said, still in english.
"Maybe whatever happened in the Chamber removed the ability. Didn't you almost die?"
"Yeah, and I hope it's gone. I never liked that ability. How will we get into the chamber though?" He asked.
"We'll have to replay the memory of you opening it. I'll cast the Language Charm on myself and use Legilimency to view the memory. Hopefully that combination will help enough, although the language charm doesn't apply to Parseltongue, it should provide a tiny boost to my ability to grasp languages." He nodded in agreement. I watched the memory once and tried opening the entrance, and purposely failed.
I watched the memory a few more times, making sure I could justify perfectly mimicking the language. I could tell James was getting annoyed by the tedium.
"Open." I hissed.
We entered the Chamber...
Time Skip.
We had just arrived near Dumbledore's office, and had finally finished harvesting the Basilisk into one incredibly large box. Which consisted of me wandlessly levitating the massive snake into it, which impressed my brother greatly. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was simple telekinesis, albeit reinforced with my considerable magical power. We calmly entered Dumbledore's office, having seen the door open, and saw our Mom and Dad, and Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall.
"Ah. There they are." Dumbledore said, "We had looked for you both, but couldn't find you." He said, the explain yourself was strongly implied.
"House Potter business, Headmaster." I said, trying to cut off his invasive behavior.
"Yes, I heard. You seized House Malfoy, and are trying to seize Lockharts assets." Dumbledore said, in a tone reproval.
"House Potter is well within it's rights to do so, Dumbledore. Especially considering that Lucius Malfoy recently tried murdering my brother with a Killing Curse! But, by all means, defend a Death Eater!" I said, to the shock of everyone but Dumbledore.
"He did what?! I'll kill that bastard!" Dad said angrily.
"No you won't. You'll let him go to Azkaban or as it is commonly called 'hell on earth'." I said, before forcing him to sit. "You going to Azkaban for murder won't do any good, for anyone."
"He's right, James." Mom said, he seemed to calm down after that.
"What is your justification for seizing Lockharts wealth?" Dumbledore asked, not willing to drop the matter.
"Two attempted assaults on nobility. It would just sit in Gringotts forever otherwise, and it can be used in a war against Voldemort or given to a worthwhile charity. In other words, his money can be used for good instead of going to waste. Have I adequately answered the questions you had no right to ask?"
McGonagall looked pissed at my behavior. Snape looked somewhat amused, and so did my parents.
"Yes, you have, Harry." Dumbledore said, somewhat coldly.
"Good! I can't put into words what your approval means to me..." I said, in a believable way. "...without offending you further" I added, making Dad and James snicker. McGonagall looked even angrier. "Anyway, Mom. Do you want Malfoy's place on the Board of Governors and the headship of a charity?"
She looked shocked.
"Harry, you shouldn't get your mothers hopes up." Dumbledore said.
"I can make it happen, but just barely. I need an answer while they're still meeting." I said, ignoring the old man. Mom looked to Dad for support, he whispered to her.
"Yes," She replied.
"Great! I'll go persuade them," I said, before excitedly exiting Dumbledore's office.
I arrived at the Board Room, and entered like I owned the place.
When I did, I was rewarded with looks of shock at my audacity.
"Yes, Heir Potter?" Madam Longbottom asked, in amusement.
"I'd like to strongly suggest my mother Lady Lily Potter as the person who replaces the former Lord Malfoy." I said, getting some muttering at the mention of Lucius being a former lord. I knew they would all agree. It was that or complete ruin if I used my blackmail. Augusta only liked me because I had the nerve to blackmail her, and the entire board, and succeed.
"I assume your very strongly suggesting this and would be most displeased if it didn't happen?" Lord Greengrass asked.
"Yes, I would be beside myself in anger and possibly lash out." I replied. Comply or be utterly destroyed, and he knew it.
My parents entered moments later, followed by my brother, and Dumbledore and McGonagall.
"Lady Potter, your son presents a good case." Madam Longbottom said by way of greeting. "All in favor?" She asked.
It was unanimous, and Mom looked incredibly happy.
"Any other business?" Madam Longbottom asked.
"Yes," I said getting attention and annoyance of all the board members. "As you all know, three of you, formerly four of you, voted yourselves excessive salaries; fifteen thousand galleons a year. When you did that, Hogwarts suffered, due to your idiotic and greedy actions. You are all going to undo that damage." I received glares from said greedy idiots for my harsh words. I could tell everyone else was amused by my nerve.
"All in favor?" Madam Longbottom asked, with vicious smirk directed at them. "Nine in favor, the motion passes."
"Augusta, how has Harry convinced you all to obey him?" Dumbledore asked, prying again.
"He earned my support, as a member of the Board of Governors, because he understood the many failings of Hogwarts, and even had ideas for how to fix them. Well, that, and I truly despise you for leaving my son and daughter-in-law to a fate worse than death, you and your worthless order." Augusta said. "The only reason I haven't killed you myself is because I would die in the process, and leave my grandson behind to be brainwashed by your band of sycophantic idiots who actually believe that your a good Headmaster." She added, causing most of the room to laugh.
"You had no business playing General with your buddy Moody! Your stupidity and ego caused the Bones family to be almost completely wiped out, and the McKinnons to be totally wiped out! You think because you beat Grindelwald you should be able to command an attack force!? We all knew the actual general and ICW War Mage that led the attack! You and your band of renegades simply broke apart, and your actions caused thousands of unnecessary deaths!" She ranted. "In fact... you actually caused more magical deaths than Voldemort himself in a day, then he did in decades."
Wow! She really went for jugular!
"Is that true, sir?" James asked, in shock.
"Of course it is. He's power and glory hungry!" Madam Longbottom said snidely.
"It is true, it's something that I recently discovered. He's praised and worshiped in Britain, and loathed in France, America, Russia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Australia, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia. Their history books reflect his true actions, Britain just wanted to glorify Dumbledore, and have themselves a cheap imitation of Merlin." I said, making sure he understood. My parents looked shocked, and were looking at Dumbledore in disgust.
Dumbledore looked pissed.
"I had to defeat Gellert! I knew I could defeat him and end the threat!"
"Ha! That War Mage was an actual bloody Mage and at near full strength!" Lord Greengrass said mockingly. "You, and Lord Grindelwald were mere Sorcerers! He could have separated the two of you like the two bratty children you were, if your actions hadn't gotten him killed!" He said, causing more shock from my parents. "Oh, yes, when he and his band of idiots separated, they weakened the formation and he had to enter the battle. He fell to a barrage of a hundred spells, but only after obliterating thousands in an hour!"
"I made a mistake. I knew Gellert best and thought I could do better." Dumbledore said, sadly. He just left the room, having had nothing more to say.
"Well, this meeting is adjourned." Madam Longbottom said tiredly, no doubt coming off the adrenaline high from her rant.
The board members all quickly left, giving my family nods of respect.
"That was... exciting." Mom said, sardonically.
"Yup." I agreed.
"What's the charity you wanted to put your mom in charge of?" Dad asked.
"The James Potter Jr. Charity for Academic Excellence. Funded by the eventual sales of the Basilisk, as well as any donations made to it. She'll control what Hogwarts gets, and if the reasons cited are valid, she can even set conditions on receiving the funds. With a few million galleons a lot of good can be done for Hogwarts: new brooms, some teachers could even get assistants, and better maintenance for Hogwarts."
"Could Gryffindor get Nimbus 2001s?" James asked excitedly. I glared at him. "Malfoy bought Slytherin some..." He said sheepishly.
"I would personally advise against it, but, if all the other houses received them, it would be fair. External interference in Quidditch here would then need to be illegalized immediately afterward, of course." I said, getting his hopes up. "It would still be a waste of money and would get criticism from the press, and greatly damage the charities reputation. It would look like you were using someones donations to buy your friends broomsticks."
"I guess that makes sense..." James said, but he didn't look happy.
"If our parents are agreeable, perhaps they could use the recently absorbed Malfoy wealth to buy the other three houses Nimbus 2001s. On the condition that external interference be made illegal immediately after. Another rule could be created that if you want to buy one house brooms, you have to buy the other three the same and swear an oath that as far as you know they are all the same and equal."
"I'm okay with that," Dad said, with a smile. "We can certainly afford it."
"Fine, but were not using the charities money." Mom agreed, after James looked really pathetic to get her agreement.