Charlus watched the car below him as he followed while Disillusioned on a broomstick. He wanted to question the driver and his wife but was having a surprisingly difficult time.
It had started before the first task of the Triwizard Tournament when he had gone to visit Vernon and petunia Dursley. He thought over that encounter again in his head. He had Apparated to a clump of trees and bushes in a nearby park and walked the rest of the way. It was a pity he couldn't just Apparate to the street just outside the house, but the Statute of Secrecy strongly discouraged Apparating or Disapparating where muggles could see you. The street looked exactly the same as it had when he visited over the summer, and only the cold and lack of blooming flowers showed that so much time had passed.
Charlus knocked on the front door of Number Four Privet Drive and waited. From inside the house he heard grumbling and the scraping of a chair, and then the door opened revealing the rotund man his daughter-in-law's sister married.
"Oh it's one of you people. I don't care what the freak has done, we are not taking him back." Vernon's voice was already angry like he was psyching himself up for a fight.
Charlus was taken aback by what Vernon had said and tried to calm everything down. "Harry hasn't done anything. I just thought you'd want an update about your nephew. He was pulled into a situation that could get him killed and I thought you would want to know so you could help support him."
"Support him? He is nothing but a freak. I'll be rooting for the kid alright, rooting for him to finally do the world a favour and die." Then before Charlus could say any more Vernon had slammed the door in his face.
Charlus had drawn his wand to try and break in, wanting answers. But the second he cast a spell on the door, strong wards had reacted and sent him flying into the street. He had had to leave with there being nothing he could do.
Charlus had tried again the next day, only early enough that Vernon would still be at work. Surly it was just Vernon who was the problem, *women are naturally more caring and Harry was her blood, her sister's boy. Only now the wards wouldn't let him anywhere near the house. He tried to find a weakness or a way around them, but he couldn't. Eventually Petunia saw him and came out of her house just enough to tell him to clear off.
In that moment the wards around the house saved the lives of Petunia and Vernon, as suddenly Charlus realised that this hadn't been a good place for Harry to grow up and he wanted to kill the people who had hurt his grandson. But he couldn't get through the wards and that forced him to leave and calm down. Normally Charlus wasn't a killer, but to him six months ago had been the height of a war, and when you're at war you kill the people who are threatening your family. Being forced to go and calm down, however, hadn't gotten Charlus to give up. Brewing Veritaserum took three weeks, so he got right to it.
While the potion was brewing the first task of the tournament had come and gone, and in that time Charlus had been planning. The wards only protected the Dursleys while they were in their house or very close to it, but they weren't in their house all the time. Vernon would have to regularly go to work and that left Petunia to run errands. He was following Vernon right now, and he was going to grab both of them and get the truth from them. He was going to pour Veritaserum down their throats and get every cruelty ever inflicted on Harry from them, and then he was going to decide what to do with them.
To do that, though, he needed them both, and the only way he was going to guarantee he could catch them both was to watch the house for a time they were both out,, and then to take Petunia first and then go and nab Vernon from his place of employment. Easy enough with Apparition, but in order to Apparate to the place Vernon worked when he needed to, he would need to be familiar with it already. And with the hearing against Avalon Publishing just around the corner, it would seem that he would only catch the two before that if he got lucky.
-ϟϟϟ—
Harry sighed in frustration. Translating Runes wasn't easy to begin with, trying to translate the Triwizard clue of a simple triangle, one of the oldest and most wide spread Runes, was bordering on torture. They had started with Ron's help going through all the books Harry and Hermione had thought might be useful and placing silk ribbons in between every page that had a triangle rune on it. That had allowed them to discard about a third of the books, but that was where Ron's helpfulness had come to an end. It wasn't lack of trying or willingness on his part, but as he didn't take Ancient Runes the work was just beyond him.
So Harry and Hermione were sitting in the library, going through book after book listing out every possible meaning for a simple triangle. So far the had come up the number three, three things together as one cup/chalice/Goblet, cauldron, man, a man's genitalia, a woman, a woman's genitalia, change, it could even have been the Greek letter delta which can mean four. Also, an even bigger issue was that a triangle could have vastly different meanings depending on which way the triangle is pointing. For example, if the point is up it's considered masculine In a number of sources, whereas the down means feminine. There was no way to know which part of the egg was top and which was bottom. Eggs in a nest tend to lay on their sides, some people say you store eggs side down, others the opposite. There were just too many variables.
Harry pushed his glasses up and ruled at his eyes hoping to clear away at least part of his headache but knew the effort was in vain. He had had the headache ever since he had potential this morning just before lunch. It was obvious as soon as Harry walked into the dungeon classroom that Snape was in the bad mood Grandfather Charlus had predicted. Before Harry could even reach his seat, Snape had taken five points from him for not wearing his robes properly. Harry had his top button undone just like about half the class, yet he was the only one singled out for losing points. Then Snape spent the first ten minutes of the lesson once everyone started brewing to find as many ways to take points from Harry as possible. He took points for Harry's cauldron not being cleaned properly because there was a little soot on the bottom, on the outside. He docked points for Harry's homework being illegible and said he would need to do it again. He then burned the homework Harry had handed in, so he couldn't even take it to Professor McGonagall to complain. When Snape had noticed that this wasn't getting to him, he took to glaring at Harry for the rest of the lesson. That was stressful enough that Harry had a massive stress headache by the end of the lesson and it stayed with him the rest of the day.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry rubbed his hands over the jar of bluebell flames Hermione had made for him that morning. They were at the Quidditch pitch watching the Slytherin vs Durmstrang game, right at the back of the stands away from the crowd so that the conversation Harry was having with the reporter from Quidditch Weekly wouldn't be interrupted as much. Hermione had brought a book, and with her own jar of bluebell flames to keep her warm she had mentally shut out the game and started to read.
"So Harry. When last we spoke, you were fighting for Quidditch to be reinstated this year and had plans to play as the Gryffindor seeker. Quidditch was brought back of course, but with the rule that no one participating in the Triwizard Tournament could be on the Quidditch team. Then your name came out of the Goblet of Fire and you had to give up your position on the team. In your own words, tell me how you felt about all that," The reporter, Mr. Scratch, asked Harry.
"Well when Quidditch was brought back - and we have your article to thank for that, it never would have happened this year without the public support you helped generate - all the Quidditch players were over the moon. Dumbledore added the rule about the Triwizard champions being ineligible and then told us that Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would also be fielding teams, and that the professors wouldn't have the time to organise any of it and it was on the Quidditch captains to do it. Everything was going great, but then on Halloween…" Harry paused for a moment before continuing. "Then on Halloween, to mine and almost everyone's surprise, my name came out of the Goblet of Fire as well. I was shocked and angry that someone would try and force me into the tournament. There was a big argument between my grandfather and the people from the Ministry, but apparently as my name came out of the Goblet I am bound to compete in the tournament. I am particularly gutted about that. I love flying, for me at least being on a broom is one of the best feelings in the world. It's like you leave all your stress and anxiety on the ground and can just be free. And the tournament has taken not just Quidditch, but any time I had to just grab my broom and fly from me. I have to dedicate so much of my time to preparing for a tournament I am under qualified to participate in just so I don't die in the tasks," Harry responded, trying to be as honest as possible.
The reporter quickly wrote what Harry had said before continuing. "Well that's quite the story. A lot of the best flyers in the Quidditch league describe flying in the same way you do, like they are just more at home in the air than on the ground. Have you ever considered going pro?"
"Not before this year. At least, not seriously, I bet everyone who flies has at least the occasional daydream about being a professional Quidditch player. But it was when all the Quidditch players this year were fighting to get Quidditch back because it was their best chance to get the scouts to see them fly and to earn a spot on a team that had me seriously thinking about it for the first time. I don't think I will want to make Quidditch my entire life after Hogwarts like some people do, but I think I would like to play professional Quidditch for a while. I could easily see myself playing until my mid thirties before moving on, rather than staying in coaching or some other aspect like a lot of players do," Harry explained. He didn't have to clarify to the reporter that most players gave up playing in their mid-thirties, despite magical people easily living until their hundred and fifties. The stresses of playing any professional sport builds up over time even with magic healing, and most players move on before the damage builds up too much. There were always a few players who stayed of course. Harry thought the oldest current British player was fifty-six.
"What team do you dream of playing for? What is your favourite?" Mr. Scratch asked.
"I don't really have a favourite team. I was raised in the muggle world and never learned about flying brooms or Quidditch until I was eleven, and the only non-school game I have seen was the World Cup final over the summer. As much as I love the sport, I haven't had a chance to find my team yet. I have friends who support the Cannons, the Catapults, the Harpies, and my old Quidditch captain Oliver Wood is now flying for Puddlemere. Honestly I would love to fly with Wood again, but the only teams I can't see myself playing for are the Cannons and the Harpies. The Cannons because I actually like to win, and I just don't see the Harpies changing from being a witches-only team any time soon." Harry laughed.
"Well that's interesting. You said you hadn't heard about broom flying until you turned eleven, but I was informed you made your House team in your first year, so that could have only been a few months. Can you explain that timeline to me?"
Harry shrugged. "Sure. I learned about being a wizard and the magical world on the 31st of July 1991, my eleventh birthday. I think I may have seen a flying broom in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies that same day, but I had no clue what Quidditch was at that point. I heard a few people talking about Quidditch once I got to the school, but it was just one of many things I had no clue about. Then came our first flying lesson." Harry went on to explain what had happened with Malfoy and how Harry had caught the Remembrall, and how he was put on the Quidditch team before he even knew what the sport was.
Mr. Scratch was of course astonished by Harry's claim. Being put on the House team after one aborted flying lesson was understandably unheard of. He did say he was going to have to verify that claim, only for Hermione to pipe up. "I was there and saw it happen just as Harry said, I was even the one to tell Harry that his father had also been on the House Quidditch team after that lesson because Harry didn't know," she said.
Slytherin vs Durmstrang was a long one for Hogwarts as it took almost four hours for the snitch to be caught, and in the end the Durmstrang team took it 300-180.
-ϟϟϟ-
Charlus was bored out of his mind. He had been sitting in front of the Wizengamot for most of the day while Ms. Twist did all the talking. Avalon Publishing, its owner Marlon Avarite, and his law wizard were claiming that the disclaimer they had at the beginning of their books was all they needed to be able to continue to publish the books. Ms. Twist was countering that Harry had the right to his own name and likeness, that Avalon Publishing and their writer, someone they were refusing to reveal, were causing real harm to Harry. Some people were unable to separate the real Harry from the one in the books and expected Harry to be more like the character: brash, arrogant, and spoiled when the opposite was the truth, and how people went into meeting Harry with expectations no real person could meet and were disappointed when Harry couldn't live up to the hype.
During all this Charlus had nothing to do but sit there twiddling his thumbs. He of course wanted to help, but this was a fight best left to the law witch. She was the one who knew what she was doing. Luckily Ms. Twist indeed seemed to be winning, Charlus did have an idea for if they lost but it was definitely in poor taste: the law works both ways. If they lost, his plan was to write his own books such as Marlon Avarite and the Way of Avarice, where Marlon Avarite, the owner of the company Avalon Publishing, would do anything for a galleon. The books would then be given away to everyone who bought a Harry Potter book. It wouldn't stop Avalon from publishing the Harry Potter books, but it could destroy the reputation of the man who owned it. Once the company was in enough financial difficulty he would swoop in, buy it, and find out who had written the damn books in the first place and go after them. Was his plan immature and petty? Yes it was, but Charlus had more than enough money and motivation to do it anyway. After what he suspected from the Dursleys, he was officially out of mercy.
-ϟϟϟ-
"The result of the trial is a bit of a mixed bag, but mostly good news." Charlus told Harry as they were once more training in the disused classroom. As none of them had discovered the answer to the egg yet, it was just some general training of spells and skills Sirius and Charlus thought were good for them to know. "First, the Wizengamot believe that you have the right to your own name and likeness if it is being used for a fictional work. Avalon and all other publishing companies are banned from selling fictional books about you. They can still make and sell history books with you in them, but the story books can't be made anymore without your permission. However, the Wizengamot didn't go as far as we would have liked to make the publisher buy back the books already sold, instead deciding that Avalon Publishing owes you thirty percent of the gold they received for the books. And, as they have released thirteen books in that series and they all sold rather well, it should be quite the pay off."
"Do I really need another pile of gold? After the basilisk I don't even need the money from the dragon. What am I ever going to do with more gold?" Harry asked. And it was true, he was only fourteen and he had enough money to live off for the rest of his life if he was careful with it. Plus, there was no way Harry wasn't going to have a career. He would make his own gold.
"While I would never advise you to turn down gold, especially in a case like this where it's also about taking back from the people who stole from you, if you are truly uncomfortable with the money then you can always find something else with it. You could start a community project or fund a charity. You don't need to make any decisions now, though. I suggest you focus on the tournament, let's worry about keeping you alive before we worry about gold," Sirius said comfortingly.
"How is your egg research coming?" Charlus asked, shifting the conversation to the main reason he and Sirius visited the three teens.
"Mixed," said Hermione. "We have been researching all the possible meanings of a triangle rune and we have been almost too successful." She pulled the list out of her bag and showed him.
Charlus looked at the list and smiled. "I think the best thing to do is to try out as many of these as we can to see if we can eliminate them as possibilities via trial and error. But how can we do that? Some of the symbols have pretty abstract meanings, like the number three. How do we test that?" Charlus asked, hoping they had an answer.
"You can't test something like the number three, but what about the ones that represent things like elements? You have water and fire if you consider it an alchemical rune depending on which way is up. We can test those and see if they do anything easily enough," She pointed out to them.
They got lucky on their first try, which was water because it was easy to conjure and had almost no chance of hurting the egg. Harry placed the egg on the table and opened it so it was like two bowls, and as soon as the screaming started Charlus used Aguamenti to fill it with water. Instantly the sound changed from a horrible screaming to a rather sophisticated melody. They could tell there were words to a song muffled in the melody, but it was impossible for any of them to make out.
But it was a start, and it was proof they were on the right track. It was Ron who came up with the idea that they needed to have their heads under water with the egg. Sirius transfigured a desk into a large wooden cauldron, Charlus filled it with water, and Harry put the egg under the water before opening it and let the egg sink to the bottom of the over-large pot. He stuck his head in to test it, and as soon as he did he heard the song as clear as if it was being sung right next to him.
After he heard the whole song, he took his head out and told everyone else. Hermione wrote it down and everyone except her took a turn listening to the song, Hermione only refusing because if she got her hair wet it would frizz up even more than normal, and it just wasn't worth the effort to fix it again afterwards. Once they were all dry, the egg was closed, and the cauldron was once again a desk that they were all seated around, Grandfather Charlus asked Hermione to read out the clue again.
"Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour the prospect's black,
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."
"Well the first part is easy," said Ron. "Where their voices sound is underwater. And unless they plan on building another arena for the second task, the only body of water big enough for a challenge is the Black Lake."
"Oh yeah, the Black Lake in February, really easy," Harry grumbled.
"I didn't mean that, just that it's easy to work out what the clue means," Ron said a little defiantly.
Sirius cut them off. "Either way it looks like I need to talk to Moony, he is the dark creature expert. I will find out what you can expect in the lake and how to deal with them." Their plans made, Sirius started their regular training while Charlus said his goodbyes and left, saying he had stuff to work on.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry smiled as he looked at a panicking Ron. Earlier that day, Professor McGonagall had announced the Yule Ball and informed them that it was the type of event one took a date to. For Harry a date was mandatory as a Triwizard champion, but as he had a girlfriend there wasn't any real pressure on him to find a date. Yes he needed to officially ask Hermione, but she had already basically agreed over the summer when she insisted on having a say in the colours of Harry's dress robes. It was easy to ask a girl when the answer was practically guaranteed to be 'yes.' Ron, however, didn't have anywhere near the level of confidence Harry had. Sure, he was doing well with girls this year, being on the Quidditch team had helped him a lot there, but he was still single and hadn't had a date yet.
"You should just ask Lavender, mate. She has been all over you a few times this year, I'm sure she will say yes." Harry insisted as he watched Ron fretting in the dorm room after they had gone up to bed.
"It's not that easy Harry. What if she says no?" Ron was practically whining as he said that.
"She won't." Harry insisted.
"How do you even ask a girl out?" Ron asked, trying to put a plan together.
"Maybe ask her to Hogsmeade as well as the ball?" Harry suggested, in part because he was hoping if Ron was occupied with Lavender then he and Hermione could go off for a date on their own without feeling like they were leaving their best friend behind. With Ron currently having a high level of anxiety, the two of them ended up talking for another hour trying to hash out a plan for him to ask out Lavender.
The next morning Harry and Hermione were down for breakfast pretty early, so Harry took the opportunity to ask Hermione to the ball without an audience and she had pulled him into one of her rib cracking hugs and accepted. Over breakfast, Harry brought up Ron's worrying over asking Lavender to the ball, only for her to sigh in frustration.
"You had it from Ron's side, but I had it from Lavender. All last night it was 'do you think Ron will ask me?', 'What will I do if he doesn't ask?', 'What if he likes someone else?' It was maddening, and because I'm friends with Ron she expected me to know his feelings and opinions on everything. And the more I said I didn't know something, the more questions she asked. I didn't manage to get any reading done last night."
Harry laughed. "So she is afraid he won't ask her and he is afraid to ask because he is worried she will tell him no. God it's like something out of a cheap teenage romance novel."
"And what's wrong with teenage romance novels?" Hermione asked, her tone telling Harry something was up.
The hard edge in her voice was enough to tell Harry that those types of books must be a guilty pleasure of his girlfriend. "Nothing, but from what I have heard you can't exactly describe them as accurate, can you?"
"True enough," Hermione said, mollified. "Wanna go watch the train wreck once we are finished with breakfast?" They laughed as they ate their food, looking forward to seeing Ron and Lavender dance around each other until one of them acted like the Gryffindor they were.
-ϟϟϟ-
Charlus spent most of the next three days from the day he went with Sirius to tell Harry the result of the hearing waiting outside of Number Four Privet Drive while Disillusioned, waiting for Petunia Dursley to leave her house while her husband was at work or for them to both leave the house together. On the third day his patience was rewarded, and the long necked shrew of a woman went out for groceries. He waited until she was walking past an alleyway and reached out and pulled her in before Side-Alonging the surprised and screaming woman to a room he had prepared in the manor.
He stunned her and popped off to collect her husband. Vernon was easy to catch a frequent vista to a cafe near his place of employment Charlus didn't have to wait long for Vernon to leave the safety of too many eyes keeping Charlus from acting. Vernon put up more of a fight than his wife, actually managing to take a few swings at Charlus, first before he could Apparate them away and second after they had arrived at Potter Manor and he saw his unconscious wife lying on a sofa.
Charlus stunned Vernon and set about setting everything up how he wanted it. The two Dursleys were placed in chairs and secured so they couldn't move, and after making sure he had the Veritaserum he revived the . "Now it's time for me to learn the truth about what happened to my grandson."