Harry ran down one of the rather empty fifth floor corridors of Hogwarts, relishing in the fact that the running wasn't that much of a strain as it once was. He almost had his own speed and endurance back, and if that wasn't a bloody miracle… well, maybe he should really stop underestimating magical medicine because it truly was miraculous. He thought he had a better understanding of the wizarding world, but it kept surprising him still, so that muggle upbringing of his seemed to be hanging on in the back of his brain more than he'd like it to.
He was just a tad late—he wanted to ask permission to perform a new spell from his joke book from McGonagall and she'd actually allowed him to do it which was awesome, except her only available office hours for his schedule today meant he was kind of hustling to get to his next class on the other side of the school. Hence the running with his bag slung round his shoulders and his book tucked tightly into his arms.
He almost didn't notice anything wrong as he spun around a corner and was met with a cluster of people—they looked to be first years, the bell hadn't rung for the next class yet, and it was in the vicinity of the Charms classroom so they were probably just using up their time hanging out.
At least, that's what he'd assumed was going on before no less than seven of them suddenly found the ceiling or their shoes simply fascinating.
And then he noticed there was an equal number of people with red and green badges on their robes and they seemed to be standing with a noticeable space between the two groups.
Well isn't this fascinating. Binns won't even notice if I don't show up at all much less am a couple minutes late.
"Hey! You're Ginny right?" He zeroed in on the only first year he recognized of the group, and the fellow redhead went scarlet in mortification since the rest of the bystanders were clearly eavesdropping, given Harry had obviously just walked in on something, but she dutifully nodded anyway.
"Ah—y-yeah. You're Harry Potter, right?"
"Monroe actually," He corrected extremely warmly with the friendliest smile he could muster up. "I've been meaning to catch up with our new first years! But you know, busy-busy; Hogwarts never lets anyone rest. Welcome though, hope you're all enjoying yourselves!" He laughed it off, but before they could get too comfortable with the topic turned on the dime to the little snakes to his right, and they all noticeably stiffened up. A couple had better poker faces, but… not really.
Oh my god they're all little Dracos! He thought, positively gleeful. And if he let that show on his face, it clearly just terrified them.
"And the new Slytherins! I love Slytherins, I was almost sorted there myself you know! Class is almost about to start but I'll be at your table for lunch so come say hi, alright? Promise I don't bite!" He laughed, then shot them a slightly more serious look. "Much."
Before they could blink he took off again, waving over his shoulder without looking back.
"Gonna be late, but try to get along!"
And then he laughed all the way to History of Magic imagining their reactions, because whatever aneurysm he'd given them, they deserved it. He spotted no Colin Creeveys or other muggleborns he knew of, and if they were already fighting mere weeks into school after he'd done so much to cross the boundary between the lion and snake house last year, they were definitely purebloods who'd been raised prejudiced against each other.
The rest of the school got with the program pretty quickly that he was loud, and nosey, and he wasn't going to put up with that shit. They must've been aware of his stance because they all tried to look elsewhere when he showed up suddenly, but still. They definitely deserved it.
He could tell his year mates thought he was insane when he walked into History a couple minutes late with a mega-watt smile on, although only Neville had the good sense to just sigh and ignore it as his friend slipped into the seat he'd saved beside him. Harry didn't care though, that was far too much fun.
Hierarchy was a weird thing, and he now knew why upper year Slytherins bullied the heck out of their underclassmen—it was just so much fun. He couldn't get away with too much on his own Gryffindor underclassmen, but the snakes were built off a distinct hierarchy and so it went that year-levels were the very basic core of it all. Second years had ranking on first years, third years had ranking on seconds years, and so on. From what Harry could tell, seventh, sixth, and maybe fifth years were all on the same level and their hierarchy was more based around the reputations they'd built themselves in the first 5-6 years at Hogwarts, as a poor snake seventh year could easily be trampled by a dominate fifth year, and so forth. Fifth years were kind of a different breed on their own though, as they had OWLs to contend with so they were mostly removed from a lot of the inner-house ongoings while they focused on their studies—or they would start withdrawing around Christmas, probably.
But the very reason Draco struggled so much last year, was because first years were easy pickings and didn't exactly have much clout or reputation within their house yet to lean on. What were those firstie snakes going to do, tell on him? The most an upper year Slytherin would say was 'get good', or 'don't pick on the weirdo Gryffindor you idiot, he eats snakes for lunch'.
Not that Harry hadn't fully instigated that confrontation, but so far as anyone could prove he'd been nothing but friendly.
He'd been nothing but friendly to the first year Ravenclaws he'd caught stealing Luna's ink pots too, which may have contributed to his new reputation amongst the first years to not let him catch them causing conflict with each other.
Because if they wanted conflict, Harry could bring conflict. And given they had a couple weeks of magic under their belts, let's just say they were not prepared for the amount of conflict he could bring down on them. Especially not when the twins had learned of his friendly conversation with a bunch of Ravenclaws and had gleefully given him tips and suggestions of how to improve his friendliness.
Not to toot his own horn but Harry was pretty sure he was doing more for house unity by being a quasi-bully than any teacher in this entire school, and you know, he was fine with that.
Neville wasn't by his weary sighing every time Harry went off, but he had promised to speak up if he were going too far by crossing any lines, but so far the blond hadn't said anything officially, just given him weary looks of 'why must you be this way?'.
In any case, this sudden new crusade of his fired him up to the tips of his toes and the roots of his hair. It wasn't quite anger or frustration although the sheer determination to support house unity by force if he needed to was definitely rooted in those emotions, but honestly he was having too much fun to be properly upset. Being his old social self, meeting new people, sassing at them until they were civil and having it work more often than not was a great thrill—self-fulfilling and satisfying in many ways. He'd skipped ahead three years of magic last year fueled by his desire to protect Draco, and this year when he'd suddenly had the hazy-eyed, day-dreamer Luna Lovegood and the overly excitable squirrel that was Colin Creevey dropped into his lap, he'd suddenly filled out with a righteous fire to protect them too.
Honestly, he didn't know why Neville was being so judge-y, this was as Gryffindor as he'd ever been before. He had a new life about him that he'd been sorely missing, which seemed to revitalize his soul as he got back into the swing of being the social butterfly he used to be.
Neither first year that he'd adopted necessarily needed him, which was good and also the main reason he was suddenly invested in securing house unity not just for the principle of the thing, but for the future students of this magical boarding school as well. Colin was the weirdest mix between Hermione and Seamus—he was 110% totally invested in the magic around him because it was cool and doing his homework felt more like reading adventure novels rather than textbooks (honestly, Harry could relate sometimes although that magic had definitely worn off before finals last term) but he was also very, very oblivious to social clues and kind of trampled conversations without thinking. Luckily he balanced it with being a very genuine, friendly guy who was always happy to help if he could, so despite being objectively an annoyance, his seemed to have some solid friends in his dormmates who weren't about to exclude him just because he couldn't shut up to save his life. That didn't mean the girls of his year didn't start tossing sharp barbs his way nor that some upper years hadn't tried to tell him to shut the hell up, but Harry glaring at them and/or slyly inserting himself into their conversations as if daring them to talk about how annoying Colin was to his face seemed to spread the message that, annoying or not, they were to be nice to their underclassmen or else.
Luna was a bit harder as she wasn't in his house, but luckily she either didn't notice, or was just so far above this plane of existence to even care that her year mates were outright bullying her. Harry loved Luna immediately, and while he was still not sure if she even properly acknowledged he existed for how far above the clouds her mind seemed to be, he was kind of just down for it honestly. She never sought him out but was always happy to see him if he found her in the library or by the lake, thrilled to talk as long as he wanted if he sat down beside her. She had some… interesting ideals, and after double checking with Lu, confirmed that most of her references were akin to what unicorns and leprechauns were to the muggle world.
Although given both those things had proven to be very real halfway through Harry's life after he'd been raised to believe them impossible, he was absolutely not about to say with confidence such a thing couldn't happen again. Wizards loved the excuse because magic with no founding to support it so there was literally no non-hypocritical reason to think Luna's creatures couldn't be real. Harry's whole attitude when learning magic was, 'if I think I can, I can—because magic' and he hadn't been lead astray thus far, so if Luna kept believing then because magic would likely prove her right, somehow. At least that was Harry's theory until proven wrong.
Protecting Luna was a bit harder as A) she didn't tell him when she was being bullied, simply phrasing it like 'oh, it seems my shoes have gone missing—must be the nargles', and B) she really did not care about it and just let it happen. And given free license to do it without any repercussions, people were likely to keep doing it.
Harry himself was a great example of that.
Luckily eagles were quicker studies than lions, so one friendly conversation with a couple of them later and they seemed to lay off Luna. At least in ways he could outwardly notice, that is, which he knew was all he could do for now until Luna actually started caring and/or telling him about it. Jury was out on if that'd ever happen or not.
Eventually he calmed down and the droning of Binns' voice was boring enough to dull his thrill of messing with his underclassmen, the quiet classroom and the lazy scratching of halfhearted note taking around him lulling him into a dreary haze that only History of Magic could put him under.
He had his own journal out in front of him, but as he brushed the feather end of his quill over the page languidly as he considered taking a note, he quickly realized he wasn't hearing anything Binns was saying to even know what the write.
Yeah, this class sucks.
The boredom got to be really unbearable and there was something tempting about a journal that had nothing written in it just yet, so despite not strictly wanting to… he realized he should probably get his thoughts in order. Like a to-do list of sorts, since he'd been avoiding it so far and, well… what else was he going to do write now? Take notes?
Yeah, no.
He hadn't been able to get back to his graveyard in… well, that was another matter, so since his thoughts were not being very cooperative lately, writing it out might help.
First item…
…he needed (he needed) to know if Sirius Black was innocent or not.
Realistically, going by what Daphne had said last year, even if he were miraculously innocent there was no way he'd be sane enough to be an actual guardian if he were to be released. Azkaban was just that bad that people didn't just walk away from over a decade in there perfectly fine, and after this summer Harry could understand that with a crystal clarity he'd never had before now.
There was still the chance he wasn't innocent at all, and he was in prison because the crime was so clear-cut everyone just knew. But the wizarding world was full of things that everyone just knew and were frankly total bullshit in Harry's opinion so there was also the chance he hadn't done anything wrong—or at least not wrong enough to warrant incarceration without a bloody trial. This magical society was just messed up enough that Harry would not put it past them to have messed up that badly (honestly not even muggle society was that faultless either, so there was a chance!). But he had to know. Either way, he couldn't move forward until there was some kind of answer one way or another. If Sirius Black were innocent and freed and actually allowed (and willing) to be his legal guardian, then problem solved! Each one of those things made the chances of it happening even less likely to happen though, so it certainly wasn't his only plan, but it was the one that had to be cleared first.
How to get started on it wasn't even that hard, he knew the Greengrass family would always up for a trade. And… honestly, after the summer, Harry was now willing to give up a lot more for this than he was last year. Last year it hadn't been so critical, so while he might've hesitated in doing bigger deals with the Grey than simple class notes, now he suddenly had a lot less hesitation, and what he thought might've been too expensive before suddenly seemed like a fair deal in comparison to the alternative.
He didn't know how long it would take though, and it most certainly wasn't the only horse he had in the race because there was still the undeniable fact that Sirius Black really could just be his parent's betrayer and nothing more, or simply not fit or willing to take on a kid once freed from the hellhole that was Azkaban. He needed to know the fate of other people mentioned in his parents' will to start, and he was kind of assuming they were all dead but just in case they weren't it would be good to check.
Given all of that not working… he was kind of back to square one. Adult allies as Draco had advised was far easier said than done, especially coming from a spoiled boy whose parents loved him and had a vulturous bat as a godfather secretly tutoring him. There was the academic route, in which he could 'change his mind' and want to start publishing his Transfiguration work early, so he could get McGonagall to get him in contact with a publisher or editor of sorts. They might be interested in their client being emancipated, or at least be a willing go-between to a barrister…
Ah, but McGonagall had been against him publishing so young, and to suddenly change his mind would be suspicious. Not to mention he probably could not hide his communication with an editor from her, as she'd be looking out to make sure he wasn't taken advantage of or got his work stolen "again" after the Montague ordeal. McGonagall was still an option but… yeah, he'd come back to that if he couldn't think of anything. While he did like her a lot as a teacher, he wasn't sure he could actually trust her to keep this from Dumbledore.
Same went for all teachers in the school as well as Hagrid. He wouldn't loved to have Hagrid as an ally but there was no way that'd work—he was very vocally brainwashed by Dumbledore's benevolence to be able to hear anything else, no matter if he genuinely cared about him or not.
The clearest way would be to get emancipated, but as that documentation needed to come from Dumbledore… yeah, not happening. He needed a legal guardian or some kind of legal exception that made that irrelevant. The easiest way, although it certain didn't feel easy, was to get a magical legal guardian but…
He put his quill down in annoyance, biting his lip in irritation.
Inspiration hadn't just come because he wanted it to last year, the opportunity had simply fallen into his lap and the idea to use it just popped into his head one day. He knew (hoped) that would happen for this too but just being patient and biding his time until the opportunity presented itself was a lot harder this go around. Maybe because the consequences of not figuring this out were a lot more drastic—he wasn't just trying to fix a problem, he was trying to avoid literal death probably, and if he couldn't do it he was going to be faced with, not just the chance, but the certainty of being back with muggles who had legitimately tried to kill him. He loved Draco and fixing his position in Slytherin had been a need, been something Harry had worked his butt of for, but it paled in comparison to how urgent and desperate he was to figure this out.
He didn't have time to just sit around and wait for inspiration to strike. At least, that's what it felt like, and it made him incredibly antsy.
By the time History was half over, not only had he not heard a word Binns had said, but also the only thing in his journal was 'talk to Daphne', and he'd already known he had to do that, he just hadn't written it down so clearly.
At this rate I'm going to have to hope one of the people in my parents' will isn't a dead end—literally. Maybe even if they are dead, they'll have living relatives who'd be willing to help at least a little.
There had to be someone though. His mind was not nearly as orderly as it'd once been, but he knew he'd pushed a lot of things away over the past couple months, so now was the time to bring them back and write them down. If only so he didn't forget again, if not that one of them might be a clue.
Just brainstorm. Write down everyone, narrow it down later.
Adults in his life? Teachers, for one. Not helpful though.
Still, he did the exercise of writing each and every one of their names down, then tentatively crossing them all through with a single line. He had a reason for writing them all off, but he wouldn't outright scribble them out—if he got desperate enough, who knew? Suddenly some of those reasons might not look too bad.
Parents of his friends? That one was… weird to think about, considering he had only ever met Draco's parents and that had been about as bad as he could've imagined, but then again, he'd been desperate and he'd reached out. It hadn't turned out like he planned, but it wasn't a horrible idea. He was already going to reach out to Daphne's parents about Sirius Black's trial, and if he was still stuck by the end of the year he was already planning on facing Dalia Zabini, terrible as that idea was. Slytherin parents though… he might need to be a tad more desperate than he currently was to get too deep into that black hole.
But what about other parents?
The twins' parents seemed nice enough. Mrs. Weasley had even sent him a Christmas present last year, so despite probably going to be far closer to Ron than he'd like, he also be getting closer to the twins which wasn't bad at all. They might be willing to help…
Still. Going off what Draco had said, even considering the blond snake was very biased towards the "blood traitors", it sounded like the large family was firmly in the Dumbledore camp, which turned him off immediately. The twins might be good allies all on their own, the forces of nature that they were, leaving the Weasley parents out of it. He wrote them all down individually to come back to later, but he needed more research on that.
Neville's grandmother? Going off Neville's accounts of her she sounded terrifying but… once upon a time he and Neville were potentially supposed to be raised together. There might be a legal loophole with the will in there somehow, although he really hesitated in using Neville even more than he already did. He still felt kind of bad about their clearly lopsided friendship and in no way felt like he deserved the kind Gryffindor's solid presence by his side, so intruding on his life like that seemed a horrible way to repay him. Even if Neville himself either wouldn't mind, or just wouldn't speak up honestly of if it'd bother him or not.
He wrote it down and did not cross it off, but he had serious misgivings about it. Not good misgivings backed in actual logic, just personal conflicted feelings over it he wasn't ready to confront just yet.
Susan's aunt. That's right, he meant to send her a gift basket… though she was with the Ministry, the fact she wasn't on Dumbledore's side publicly was a great sign. He wrote her name down with a little more enthusiasm, especially since Susan herself was very no-nonsense; if he just genuinely asked her for legal help she'd probably be down without asking too many questions. Okay yeah… that might be his first step after getting Sirius Black his trial—in fact he could probably get to know the woman throughout the ordeal, since she was head of the law enforcement division.
Who else? He scanned his list of friends trying to gauge who he knew well enough that it wouldn't be the weirdest thing ever to bring up talking to their parents randomly.
Seamus would be down to help, probably, though he knew so little about them if they raised a kid like Seamus they weren't horrible people. And on that note Dean's parents were muggles, but maybe that was an angle he hadn't thought of yet? Even wizards worked within the boundaries of the muggle world to a point despite having different governments technically, so if he were to somehow be emancipated in the muggle world, would there somehow be a way to make that work for his presence in the magical world? Or was he back to the idea of him needing to finish his education in the muggle world to just flat out escape the wizarding world until he was of-age?
That would mean dropping out of Hogwarts.
Which…
He sighed, tapping his quill on the page in agitation.
He'd given it serious thought over the summer, the idea of how much he needed Hogwarts versus just wanted it. Of bloody course he wanted to keep attending here and be with his friends and… and do all the normal childhood things he wanted to do. He would lose so much if he dropped out, he knew that.
But with a sigh of defeat, he penciled the option in at the bottom of the page. If he didn't have a solution by the end of the year, he could buy time with Blaise in Italy. If he still was stuck by the end of next year…
No one was going to be checking on if he was living with a legal guardian if he wasn't attending Hogwarts. Even if Dumbledore did check, or he lied again to say he did the check when he hadn't, and said Harry wasn't living with a legal guardian, they could threaten to expel him. Or, well, threaten might be a bad word because if it came to that Harry would let them expel him right then and there—or just not show up to fourth year at all and get his education elsewhere.
It was the last resort… but he knew that one would work. It'd suck, but it'd work and he wouldn't be forced to go back to Private Drive if no one could find him until he turned seventeen.
And bad as that last option was, it was kind of a relief to sort through his thoughts enough to know he had a back up of a back up of a back up plan. The severe pressure was off a bit now that he had a last resort, and now it was just him trying to avoid dropping out of Hogwarts instead of him trying to avoid being put back with murderous muggles. One of those consequences was a lot less intense than the other, so it calmed him down a bit.
Between the start of fourth year and when he turned seventeen… that was three years he'd need to hide out and hopefully not fall too far behind. If he kept up his studies somehow and took the OWLs in the month after he turned seventeen and the start of term, he might even be able to come back for seventh year if somehow Dumbledore let that happen. He was sure he'd have a lot more help from the teachers of coming back for his last year of school than getting emancipated though, so that might be easier than he imagined.
He shook it off slightly, refocusing. Dropping out and going into hiding was his last resort after all, and while it was comforting to plan it out to ensure it'd actually work as the safety net he wanted it to be, he wasn't there yet.
He turned a page and jotted down his new plans of action in best to worst order.
First, get Sirius Black a trial. If everything miraculously goes right, he's my rightful legal guardian and Dumbledore can't do shit about it. Even if it's just signing the papers for someone else to adopt me, that'll be his right to do it, not Dumbledore's.
Second, someone from the will is still alive and willing to help. Or one of their relatives maybe.
Third… do more research into the muggle world. Maybe getting emancipated there will do something.
Fourth, consider asking Neville and his grandmother. If there's a legal loophole there, the better.
Fifth, consider asking someone else's parents. Work through the non-Slytherin list first.
Sixth, consider asking a Slytherin's parents, although I'd really rather not.
Seventh… work on my dropping out of Hogwarts plan.
He sat back and looked at that plan, nodding to himself that it wasn't a bad start, especially for only one class period. He could refine it the more he went along.
Especially since the two things he could do today, was first talk to Daphne to clear up the questions he already had, as well as send Madam Bones her gift basket to try and get to know her a bit more. Both of those might change something in this list, the more he learned.
He felt… better, having a real plan. Or the skeleton of plans that might work. He had options and contingencies, and one of them… one of them might work.
He glanced up at the clock and despite all he felt he'd accomplished, despaired that there was still twenty minutes left of class.
000
It didn't take him long to track down Daphne, as she was a pretty easy person to find since many were always coming to her for deals now that she had a solid reputation of it. What was harder was finding her alone for a second, and his best tactic ended up being doing what Susan had done to him earlier by plucking the raven haired girl out of the throng of students filtering out from dinner. And luckily her reputation meant no one blinked twice when he did it, not even Daphne herself who just flashed him a smile and followed willingly to his unspoken request for her to follow him.
Well, no one thought it was weird exactly, but he did get an absolutely filthy look from Pansy Parkinson who'd been walking with the rest of the second-year Slytherin girls. That kind of took him off guard as she'd been steadfast ignoring him all last year but Daphne had warned him she was not going to be a Slytherin he was going to win over most likely. And given the pitch-black allegiance of her family name, for once Harry wasn't even tempted to try to get into it with her, so he gave her glare a blank look in return before ignoring her again. She had the decency to put her nose in the air and continue walking without commenting though, so he brushed that off quickly.
Pansy Parkinson did not rank on his scale of things to care about at that moment, he'd come back to whatever the hell that was later.
"I heard you scared the first years." Daphne commented lightly in amusement as they walked down the hall away from the crowds filtering back to the dorms for the night.
He gave her a wry look, admiring once more how fast the Hogwarts rumor mill worked, particularly in Slytherin.
"Not that you can prove at least. What, gonna believe a first year over me?"
"Ha, hypocrite. I heard Loony Luna Lovegood can do no wrong by you, or anyone else so long as you're around."
"Again, not that you can prove, but call her Loony again and see what happens," he shot her a wink and she grinned.
"Fair enough. So, got something for me?" She cut to the chase once they were decently alone, and she was obviously very much expecting his answer.
"I want to make a deal."
"You came to the right girl." She puffed her chest out proudly. "You already know what I'm after."
"I do, but how many notes I give you depends on how big an ask this is, and I'll admit I don't know if this is even possible."
"Interesting. What is it?" She didn't seem that bothered so he felt a tad bad about just springing this on her, but figured honesty was the best policy. Rip the band aid off and whatnot.
"Would your family have an in with the Daily Prophet?" He asked, but he already knew they did. And as expected she startled a bit, clearly not expecting that turn.
She frowned.
"That's… a lot bigger than I was expecting. But yes, we do have shares and also work with the staff on various other deals."
"I want to bring something up that's probably going to cause controversy, and also the Minister will try to bury it by any means necessary if he can." He admitted rather hastily and not shockingly she seemed a bit taken aback.
Now her eyes were properly narrowed at him, body turning to face him fully— unamused.
"Potter, this is a lot bigger than some Transfiguration notes. I would need my dad's help for that, and a perfect score in Transfiguration won't cut it when he can easily just tell me to study on my own."
More than fair, honestly. Good ol' Daphne, as up front as ever.
"Maybe not Transfiguration then. How about a debt? Not just from the Potter family—but potentially the Black family too."
Debts weren't great, but Slytherins liked debts. He thought as much, as least; a trade that can be banked in whenever? How could they say no?
He had expected surprise at the sudden good deal presented to her, but he hadn't expected how pale she suddenly got. She whipped around to double check the hallway was clear before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him to the closest empty classroom, which was honestly really ominous and suddenly he was thinking this might not have been such a great idea after all.
She didn't explain her odd actions as she slammed the door shut behind them and cut right to the chase with a deeply disturbed frown.
"What are you after."
Harry took a breath, but he'd come prepared and knew what he wanted to say. It was… just a matter of bucking up and saying it.
"Sirius Black was never given a trial. I want to see him tried for what he apparently did." He blew out a breath both to steady himself a buy some time as he collected his words. "Best case? He's innocent and I get one living relative in my life and don't have to live with muggles anymore. Worst case? I still get to see the man who betrayed my parents crucified."
He met her gaze pointedly to convey how serious he was about this, her eyes a very vibrant, wary blue for how inky her hair was. He hadn't really noticed that before.
It wasn't strictly natural, since the brunette gene and brown-eyed gene was supposed to be the dominant one, so eyes that impossible light combined with dark hair wasn't actually that common. Given his own hair was not strictly a normal color and that there was probably a magical reason for it, he'd be a hypocrite to comment either way.
"I won't know until he's given a fair trial though. Forget politics for a second Daphne, you're not Blaise. Keeping an untried, potentially innocent man in Azkaban is wrong and I don't care how grey you are, you know it too."
She stared at him, with a better poker face than most but she was not as good as some of her housemates. Conflict, indecision, and even a sliver of fear played out across her face, and he was curious as to what she was thinking but resigned himself to just waiting patiently for her to work it out.
She was clearly thinking something over, almost fighting with something internally, and he watched it happen for several long minutes as she got through it.
Eventually…
"…it goes against my better judgement, but I should tell you that offering a blanket debt to someone isn't smart. And I honestly like you Harry, I'm really not trying to trick you here so please listen to me. You're Harry Potter, and the kinds of things people can ask of you when you're just generally in debt with them is too risky. And to back out of a deal is basically spitting on every friendship in Slytherin you've ever made."
Including Draco, the words went unspoken but he felt it harshly in his stomach that was exactly what her wide eyes were trying to silently communicate to him. Including her, was also in there too, and he wasn't sure how much of friends they actually were. For the first time though, as her body language was suddenly highly uncomfortable and hesitant, he realized she was not as ashamed as some other snakes were to admit she liked him as more than just a means to an end. He honestly believed her when she said she was trying help by warning him, and that was kind of a surprise, but a pleasant one.
If not also bittersweet given the position he was putting her in now. But… he couldn't take it back despite the fact she clearly wanted him to with this warning in the air now.
"Please don't do it again." She implored sincerely—and then paused, almost begging him to speak up and back out now. Her tense silence assured him she wouldn't judge him for it, just please reconsider…
But he remained silent, waiting for her to finish. He better understood the gravity of what he was doing now, how dangerous it could turn out to be even... but it didn't matter. His priorities had shifted, and it was either do this or die like a worm at the hands of muggle pigs, and he refused that ugly future with his entire soul.
After a couple long seconds she got the message, sighing as her shoulders slumped a bit, before nodding a bit tightly.
"That being said… I'll offer that deal to my father because he's the one with the Prophet connections so he's the one you'll have to deal with. I will take two Transfiguration notes from you as payment for being your go-between." She didn't even sound happy about her getting anything out of it, and Harry knew this was probably going to get him in trouble but… it was worth the gamble.
He flashed her a slightly apologetic smile and tried to sound as sincere as he felt.
"Thank you, Daphne."
"I'm serious Harry, don't do it again. Not even to someone you trust; it's just not worth it. I trust my Dad, but he could be dealing with literally anyone, you know that." She scolded him, but sounded more weary than anything.
Even Voldemort himself, Harry acknowledged silently. Mr. Greengrass was not his daughter, and he could be making deals with the dark lord himself if that were possible, or literally just anyone else who wanted something out of Harry Potter the myth, or even the boy himself--even Dumbledore as horrific as that was. Or perhaps he wanted something badly enough, who would turn down a favor from the Boy Who Lived if he offered it as a trade?
Yeah, that could get him in some deep shit.
He fully acknowledged that future-him was going to curse himself for this.
He could see where Daphne was coming from: friendship didn't trump business. Daphne herself was one thing, she might be conflicted to find another way to go about doing it that wouldn't directly hurt him, but her father didn't necessarily have the same concerns. And if he didn't care if Harry got hurt in the process, this might end up really badly.
But, thus being warned, Daphne had only traded a connection with her father. If this was really as big as she was implying it was, maybe just getting his problem broadcasted in the Prophet was too small thinking—maybe he could ask for more, like that he wanted Sirius Black to have a trial for sure, not just have it talked about in the papers. The Greengrass family had to have some great barristers on the payroll so maybe even getting him represented in court too…
He was maybe getting ahead of himself, but despite this sticky situation it still seemed a lot better a position than he'd thought it be. Short term at least—long term he was sure he'd hate this but there wasn't much he could do, he was pretty well stuck without adult allies or whatever.
"I will give it better consideration next time," He deflected her demand instead, and she shot him a filthy look.
"Is that all?"
"Well…"
"It better not be-"
"It's way less critical, I promise! Just some information!" He put his hands up in defense and she leaned off a bit, though still looked suspicious. "And really old information too, I mean so old you might not even know it. And I won't be asking your dad for any more favors if you don't know it either."
"Fine," She huffed. "Depends on the ask before I demand my price." She put her chin in the air and Harry grinned, thankful the tense atmosphere had abated some.
"I want to know about some names and properties I'm not familiar with—Marlene McKinnon, Peter Pettigrew, or Remus Lupin ring any bells?"
She blinked in slight surprise before shrugging, unbothered. "Tutoring. Two lessons."
"Done."
"Marlene McKinnon died in the first war, the ending days of it I think but then again so did a lot of people. Things were getting really nasty before the dark lord suddenly fell, which I'm sure contributed more than a bit to your fame." She shrugged again and he sighed in defeat since he couldn't argue that. "I'm surprised you didn't know about Pettigrew before asking about Sirius Black though—he's the guy Black supposedly killed along with a dozen muggles that got him imprisoned." She explained and Harry blinked. Okay… so that totally made sense and also he'd called it with him being very, very dead.
"Do you know, or know the assumed reason, why he killed him?"
"It's hard to say. Everyone thinks Black went insane, but more than that, I think they were all friends. That Remus Lupin guy too—I'm pretty sure they were known during their time at Hogwarts for being huge pranksters. Lupin, Black, Pettigrew, and of course James Potter." Harry's mind spun… he knew his dad had been a prankster, Hagrid had told him all about it. He'd never even hinted that there was more to it than that though, that he hadn't been alone in that…
Seeing his expression Daphne had mercy and was a tad more gentle as she explained.
"I think that's why everyone is so happy to jump to 'insanity' as the reason he possibly betrayed your parents and then killed Pettigrew. They were supposedly all great friends so everything suddenly going wrong… I mean if it isn't insanity that caused him to do it, then it's because Black was truly an evil guy, and from what I've heard no one actually wants to believe that."
Harry couldn't deal with all the… emotion this was conjuring, so he just swallowed it and forced himself to think clearly. He was here for information—he'd process it later.
"And Remus Lupin… is he-?"
"Not dead, so far as I'm aware, but…" She bit her lip as if hesitating, then shrugged. "Look, my family doesn't care and since you were raised with muggles maybe you won't care… but I know families like the Malfoys—they'll care a lot."
"Care about what?" He frowned.
"He's a werewolf." She admitted bluntly.
Wait, what? I thought werewolves haunted the Forbidden Forest? That's the rumor the twins spread around at least.
Daphne snorted, amused by his baffled expression.
"Seems you don't care. Which, good, you might be able to reach out to him then—just be very careful when you do." She warned and suddenly it hit him that one person in the will might actually still be around, and he perked up. The warning was a bit alarming though.
"Careful how?"
"You'll be monitored to hell and back if you make contact with him. Werewolves…" She bit her lip again, seeming a bit annoyed. "Well they're dark creatures, technically. Not human. Not to the Ministry, and not to a lot of society either. A lot of werewolves sided with the dark lord in the war on top of it, but that only added to the absolute shit they get dealt on the daily. Honestly the dark lord probably promised not to kill them if they served him, which is frankly more than the so called Light ever guaranteed for them."
Harry could not wrap his mind around this.
"So if I send a letter to him…?"
"It'll definitely be intercepted by the Ministry. If he's never made contact it was probably to spare you. By being associated with a werewolf, not only are you subject to the same treatment he gets—and let me tell you, you don't want that—but you're also limiting where you can go in life. If you do reach out to him, do not tell anyone else in Slytherin you're doing it because they'll track the name and they'll know. Werewolves are publicly registered with the Ministry and routinely dragged in for questioning which is essentially just them pushing the poor saps around to let them know society still hates them. Being a werewolf-sympathizer means you won't be getting any public jobs and no matter what reputation you have in Slytherin, most of the house won't deal with you again. Get the picture?"
Oh my god that's… what the HELL is wrong with this world?!
Then again, the muggle world had it's fair share of this shit too... still, Jesus Christ.
"Just to be sure… is there a reason why…?"
"Why society hates them?" She raised a sarcastic eyebrow at him. "From where I'm standing, because they're werewolves is enough. There is fear, uneducated fear for sure, but fear is always a big motivator at times. They are dangerous once a month—read up on werewolves but take it with a grain of salt as even textbooks are a bit biased, they only focus on the wolf part of a werewolf and trust me, meeting a werewolf on a full moon is a bad spot to be in and people have a very real reason to be afraid of that scenario. The other 27 days a month? They're just people." She seemed highly annoyed again, and the longer she talked, Harry was getting pretty peeved off too.
"People who can't get jobs because no one will hire them, and then of course the wolfsbane potion which makes it so they don't lose their minds during the full moon is ungodly expensive so almost none of them can actually buy it, much less twelve times a year." She rolled her eyes. "They live in communities off to themselves for these very reasons, but they get harassed by wizards enough that it certainly shocked no one when they joined the dark lord. Either people were prejudiced and assumed dark creatures would of course join the dark side, or they were smart enough to realize that they were treated like shit so of course they'd joined the side that promised equal rights—even if it was all equally subjugated." She ranted a bit.
Harry frowned at the obvious exception to that though.
"But this Remus Lupin guy didn't."
Daphne sighed, nodding to that. "No, he didn't. From what I know he was an exception—I think he was cast out from the werewolf communities for some reason, and to this day I'm pretty sure he was the only werewolf to ever attend Hogwarts, hence him meeting your father and them."
Okay that's weird. People didn't care, didn't know…?
"Do other werewolves just not get invitations?"
"I have no idea; since there's no war there's probably no werewolf children anymore to even bother inviting. And if there were, I can only imagine they wouldn't accept. If you think the house rivalries were bad, even you wouldn't be able to stop most of this school from ganging up on a werewolf kid until they either left of their own will, or didn't survive to make to class one day." He wanted to believe she was joking, but from the grim glint in her eyes he was a bit terrified of how serious she was.
"Werewolf children aren't a thing?"
"No, I don't think lycanthropy can be passed from parent to kid… I think." She scratched her head. "I'm not an expert, but from what my mother has said, really the only way to get infected is to get bit from a full-grown werewolf in wolf form. There was a particularly nasty Death Eater during the war—Greyback—who'd purposefully placed himself near his victims homes right before a full moon to ensure at least someone would get bit, and he got a ton of children that way. Werewolves in wolf form are impervious to a lot of magics, including wards and spells and more so it was kind of a huge threat. Most just died from not surviving the infection, but a lot turned—other than that though most people get infected when they're adults so werewolf children really isn't a common thing. And even if it were a thing, could you really blame werewolf parents from hiding their kids from other wizards?"
Harry had to give that to her, feeling a little sick. Especially at the thought that you could go your whole life and then suddenly be considered less than human because of an attack you couldn't control. Like if the troll popping up on him and nearly killing him wasn't bad enough, if he'd been blamed for it, lost all his friends, and treated like shit from then on just because of it… shit. That was… hard to wrap his head around.
And this Remus Lupin… he was a werewolf child? Or maybe he got infected after Hogwarts… either way he hadn't reached out once in twelve years and while Harry couldn't help but be a little bitter about that, from Daphne's attitude on this topic, he couldn't get properly mad at the guy either. Sounds like life had been a royal bitch to him too.
"Anymore werewolf questions? And ask now because I will not be talking about this in public where anyone can hear me." She warned, and he nodded.
"I think that covers it… but I had some other names I didn't recognize that you might—does Longsgate or the Eileen Prince Foundation sound familiar?"
She blinked… then frowned.
"No, actually. Longsgate kind of does I guess, but that's definitely my dad's area, and if it's an actual place it's not active enough for me to know about it. As for the Eileen Prince Foundation you said? Not a clue—that's not even a pureblood name I don't think." She tilted her head. "You didn't want me to go looking for that info though." She assumed and he shook his head quickly.
"No, I'll find it myself, but thanks." He did not want to bring Mr. Greengrass into this more than he already had. And darn, why had no one ever heard of these places? If Daphne didn't then it really was something arbitrary, or at least hidden, which peeked his interest and made him regret not asking Axeclaw when he was last there.
Not that he would've, given the situation at the time, but still. He wanted to know now.
"Anything else?"
"Nah, but thanks though!" he gave her a cheery thumbs up but she was not amused.
"You jerk. These lessons I just got off you better be damn good ones."
"Sure, sure—I'm pretty caught up on all second year Transfiguration spells by now, even know a couple fourth year by now. Take your pick!"
She looked slightly mollified by that, visibly plotting what she'd ask for. "Good to know. Out of curiosity would I be able to bring Tracy with me one of these times? It wouldn't be her lesson but maybe just to listen in."
At face value Harry might've called her out on changing the deal after it was made—she herself made a huge stink about not doing that from the start. But… she also knew Harry was interested in getting under the skin every Slytherin he could and Tracy, being in their year, was definitely on his list. Aside from Daphne herself he hadn't made any progress with the other Slytherin girls of their grade, and while he was not even going to try with Pansy, there were four other girls including Tracy he hadn't even had a decent conversation with so far. It wasn't a flat deal but… it was an opportunity to get Tracy stuck in a situation with him where she couldn't avoid talking to him and Daphne's best friend would get some academic help out of the arrangement.
Damn, she's good.
He gave her a wry grin to let her know that he knewexactly what she was doing.
"Of course, I'd love to help out of the goodness of my heart!"
Daphne cackled a tad evilly at the blatant lie.
000
It was a couple days later that he finally had his ducks in a row and also a break with which he could use to take a trip to the owlery to get some of his plans in action, a veritable packet of letters in his hand to send out.
First, he'd confirmed with Honeydukes that they could arrange and send a chocolate-themed gift basket on his behalf, he just needed to send along the money for their quoted price on it, as well as whatever letter he wanted sent along with it. So, he had one large letter for Honeydukes with the form to open a tab and link his Gringotts accounts to it (he knew this would not be the last time he'd buy from them and opening a tab was just smart planning), with another letter for one Madam Amelia Bones encased within it for his first purchase. The letter to the head auror was rather simple, just a thank you with as carefully worded description of what he was thankful for as he could get, and hopefully she got the message that she had an ally in the anti-Dumbledore campaign. He also really hoped she picked up on his veiled reference to the headmaster's nosiness and responded back to ask for more details.
Details he'd be happy to provide if she were going to use them against Dumbledore—he wasn't sure how but if he could help he definitely wanted to. And maybe from then they'd have a real correspondence and… he wasn't sure what, but something would come of it. That was the wild hope he had for this gift basket, at least.
And because halfway through filling out his Honeydukes form he realized he was a very wealthy child and he could send people presents as easy as writing a letter, he also had notes and orders for small treats to be sent to Draco and Neville.
Draco, the weirdo, actually didn't like sweets much but had a penchant for sour and bitter candies so that's what he'd get, and Neville was far more traditional in liking simple chocolates and near-muggle candies. He never had much luck with the enchanted stuff as his chocolate frogs always seemed to hop away, and other unfortunate, similar occurrences, so simple was better.
He would not have been able to handle… anything without the both of them, so random presents was not out of the question. He acknowledged he was neither a great friend nor able to bribe them with sweets into liking him since for some reason they already did, but there was really nothing stopping him from doing this and they both deserved a lot more than some stupid candies. More than Harry could ever really put into words or properly address to their faces, so… sweets it was, for lack of better communication skills.
He had another letter for Draco, continuing their in-school correspondence, and this one was rather weighty since they'd been talking finances a lot more. Clearly Draco was also learning more from his parents so he had a lot more to say on the subject since the start of the new year and most of it was far above Harry's paygrade, so there was a lot of questions to be asked.
Similarly, he had yet another letter for Axeclaw, and that one was both the largest, but also not nearly as long as it probably needed to be.
There was just so much he had to talk to the goblin about, the first thing he asked in this letter was if there was a way to be able to meet face-to-face despite him being at school. Like could he get permission to go visit Gringotts on a weekend or evening or something or was there another way to communicate (because he had a suspicion he'd need either a teacher's, or even the Headmaster's approval to leave Hogwarts for any reason outside of a holiday break and he very much did not want to get them involved or key in Dumbledore to how involved he was getting into his own finances. If Dumbledore's plan was to keep him retrained and clueless, that would definitely raise some red flags and Harry could not afford any more interruptions into his plotting at this point, much less from the old fart himself). The rest of the letter was mainly just questions on what the hell all the finance terms Draco had been spitting at him meant, as well as how/if they impacted him in any way, and following up on his investments.
And oh yeah, at the very bottom he asked for Neville Longbottom, Rubeus Hagrid, Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Leonard Yuu, Fred & George Weasley, Daphne Greengrass, Remus Lupin, Susan & Amelia Bones, and Engel Osmias to be allowed to contact him through his mail wards.
There was still the chance his letters were being intercepted, and if you talked to a Slytherin long enough you started to get into the mindset that all your letters were probably being read by someone you didn't want reading them. To Harry that meant the Ministry and Dumbledore, and so anything leaving Hogwarts grounds was essentially like telling them outright. The finance questions a twelve-year-old could come up with were probably boring enough they'd mostly dismiss it… again, Dumbledore knowing he was taking an active role in his finances wasn't great, but it was more important he was misdirected from the people he was talking to. It was a chance, and he was really hoping this one particular letter would get lost in all the letters he was sending at once and be safe.
Which was why he wasn't talking about any of his more urgent topics, like warning Axeclaw his previous mail wards were probably done by Dumbledore which is why they couldn't find his old mail. If the headmaster found out that Harry knew about that, and connected that to him wanting to let Amelia Bones contact him, both him and the DMLE head would be in a tight spot. He'd included Susan in his mail wards strictly to try and distract from why he'd want to allow communication between him and her aunt—if he were letting Susan in as a friend and Madam Bones was just an afterthought as his friend's legal guardian… well, he just hoped Dumbledore would buy that. Which meant the only seriously suspicious thing in the letter was his request to open his wards for Remus Lupin.
He didn't even mention Longsgate or the Eileen Prince Foundation despite really wanting to know about them since if somehow Dumbledore knew what was in his parents will, he'd then know that Harry now knew what was in the will too. Which meant he'd been at Gringotts for more than just topping off his funds for the coming school year, which might imply he hadn't been nearly as confined to Private Drive as he suspected Dumbledore wanted him to be.
Really there were many reasons to give no hint that he knew about his parents will, so he refrained until he could talk to Axeclaw in person, preferably securely in Gringotts where privacy was goblin-ward guaranteed. The twins' off hand comments about how the headmaster knew everything that happened in the school halls really did not sit well with him, after all.
Putting Remus Lupin in the letter was a risk, there was no way around it.
But… he needed to know, he needed to talk to the man, and this was the best chance he was going to get. If he sent out half a dozen letters all at once, there was a chance one would get overlooked.
Which is why he also had a note for Hagrid asking to come to tea later that afternoon, another letter to put in an order for any new Transfiguration texts Bethany's Books got in this year, an order for more shampoos he really didn't need from the hair shop in Contrair Alley, an order to sign up for the Daily Prophet, another order for the Quibbler at Luna's recommendation, a letter for Osmias to let him know if he made any progress with his poison-detecting glasses, and an empty letter to send to the twins because it might freak them out thinking the blank piece of parchment was pranked somehow and that'd be hilarious. Really he'd scratched his brain and tried to think of any reason to send a letter ever, hoping the one he didn't want anyone to read would get lost in the flock.
As he handed out the letters to school owls, telling them to wait to go all at once and the clever creatures just waited patiently as he tied the other letters up, he paused when he realized he'd been about to entrust his most important letter to Hedwig.
AKA, the bright white owl you could see in the large cloud of feathers when mail was delivered every morning. The extremely noticeable owl outside of a snowstorm that everyone knew was his owl and would, logically, be carrying his most important letter of them all.
Hedwig had put her leg out for him to tie the letter to but when he froze, she put it back down to hoot at him in annoyance.
"I know, but despite trusting you more than anyone else, that's probably a bad idea." He admitted, and she had to understand English because she looked visibly annoyed at the implication as if to say 'I would never get intercepted!'.
Harry really couldn't take that chance though.
It would be suspicious in and of itself if the letter Hedwig were carrying was an invite to tea or blank though, as then anyone malicious reading it would know it was probably a decoy. And more importantly, that Harry was wise enough to try and hide it, which was more insight into his abilities then he wanted to give away just yet. It had to be of semi-high importance, but also not something anyone could think too deeply on or have an urge to stick their noses into.
Orders for books and magazines didn't really fit the bill…
…but.
Harry suddenly remembered, there was a letter he'd been meaning to write last year, and he'd never gotten to it. He had a lot going on at the time, it wasn't a shock, but this… even if Dumbledore read it, he already knew Harry's opinion on the matter, so it wouldn't be any new information Harry was giving away here. The cat was already out of the bag so to speak, and there wasn't anything anyone could do about it by now—not Harry himself, and not Dumbledore.
He plopped down on the owlery top step and pulled out a piece of parchment from his bag, writing on the back of a textbook and trying to make the writing look like he wasn't just scribbling this down as a last-minute idea.
000
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Flammel…