herumtreiber

Title: The Privy Councilors 9/35
Chapter: Consequences - 1
Author:

herumtreiber
Genre: AU to HBP, romance, adventure
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or related characters. Nor do I make any money from the writing of these stories.
Rating: R
Warnings: None
Epilogue compliant? No way!
Chapter length: ~4,503 words
Summary: Draco/Harry, Luna/Neville, Ron/Hermione, Narcissa/??? Harry is about to be sent to Azkaban. The story explores Wizengamot politics and the fight against evil Dumbledore - where he gets vanquished early and does not prattle on and on - but is he gone? Plus de-aging. Someone returns whose name begins with a S. (And my revenge on characters whose accents are hard to read – like Hagrid and Fleur ;-)

Table of contents

5 Angry aardvarks

No, I can't forget this evening
Or your face as you were leaving
But I guess that's just the way the story goes
You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows, yes it shows
(Without you, W. P. Ham, T. Evans. )

At the hospital, Severus was duly reawakened from his healing coma.

He appeared to be in good health, sarcastic as ever and glaring at Remus and Draco. Narcissa observed this benevolently. Draco asked snidely, as was their wont, "How ever did you get in such an accident, Sev?"

Severus answered incensed, "Don't call me that, you uppity brat! I was hiding something. Did you cast privacy wards?"

Narcissa nodded. Draco proceeded to inform Severus about what had happened at the Wizengamot, how they had thwarted the designs on Harry.

"Dumbledore is gone, Sev. He cannot threaten you with Azkaban so you keep spying for him. It's high time to come in from the cold, my friend. They will know you as you are and respect you, or they will have to face me. It's time to say the truth."

Severus grimaced and continued, "I was getting rid of the potion I used on the Headmaster. The man was in a mad rush for power and would try to kill people, as he was trying to off Potter. I had taken the collateral ingredients and hid the potion when his damned phoenix, Fawkes, got into the chamber and caused a dangerous mix to occur."

Draco asked, "But I thought you had your chambers warded against anything, Sev!"

Severus grimaced and answered surly, warily observing Remus, "I thought so, too. Obviously I was wrong and the snooping phoenix got in."

Narcissa offered, "Let us look deeper into this matter. We need the Black Pensieve! Kreacher!"

The elf appeared, and Narcissa ordered him to fetch the Black Pensieve, which was a filigreed tool that provided much more detail than the average Pensieve.

Presently Kreacher returned with the device. Narcissa took the memory from Severus, put it into the Pensieve and flicked the exposition mode.

They saw the incident with the phoenix, how it appeared and seemingly tumbled the bottles. Only they could now observe that the phoenix purposely ran into the material to cause it to fall and break. The phoenix obviously was looking for an accident to occur.

At the end, Narcissa wanted Remus' opinion. "What do you think happened, Remus? I ask for your unfiltered point of view, I am not interested in the tamed outlook."

Remus answered soberly, "It's noticeable the animal wanted the potions to mix and cover Severus. It's also clear to me that it is not an animal. We are watching an Animagus that can morph at will into a phoenix. Whether this is new or has occurred always with this phoenix I cannot say. We do not know if Albus supported this person and encouraged them in their role. We have now identified an unknown powerful enemy. Apparently the person detected some of Severus' intent and tried to punish him for his deeds against Albus. If we ever see this particular phoenix I suggest we stupefy first and ask later."

Remus did not share the disquieting feeling he got while observing the putative bird. He couldn't see auras, but his heightened senses allowed him to grasp patterns. This person seemed close to him somewhat.

Severus said mockingly, "Why should we trust you, Lupin?"

Remus growled deep in his throat and answered, "You should listen, Snivellus, because it is the truth. We all see the world through a screen tempered by our perceptions and place in the world. As a human, you are most likely generations removed from any predator that had to listen and observe every nuance of the environment to catch their prey, or they would die of hunger."

"I don't have that cushion. There is a level of graininess, of depth of perception I have recently been able to reach. Using these hard-earned features, I can discern some patterns that remain hidden to you."

oOoOo

Draco, Narcissa and Remus returned to the Manor and found Harry sprawled on a couch in the Library, deep asleep.

Draco carried him to his room, put him to bed, and left. Narcissa had silently gone with him, and she asked seemingly out of nowhere, "Why didn't you use Mobilicorpus?"

Draco replied huffily, "It would just seem too cold, too impersonal. This way seemed better."

Narcissa unobtrusively rolled her eyes and nodded. Still, there was someone who observed this. The warm brown eyes of Hermione detected her friend and the blonds as they took him away, she had followed their movements and words. It would seem then that she had an ally in the titanic task of opening the Seekers' eyes.

Hermione had spent some time collecting information about Wizarding children tales. She was interested to note, for example, that the toxic apple given to Snow White may originate in the famous legend of the Red Rose of Lancaster. The rose given to the Sovereign that would cause death in the family. Rumor had it that the Rose was involved both in the inception and end of the Stuart dynasty.

She also learned the truth about the Hansel and Gretel case, it appeared they killed the witch! Naturally the Muggles defended them and let them go free, celebrating them as would-be heroes when they were simply killers.

Many tales were bent completely out of shape so that they conveyed a nightmarish worldview regarding magic and its uses-

Narcissa reached her room and entered. She called on Kreacher. The Pureblood-fanatic elf appeared and bowed to Mistress Black. Narcissa asked, "Have you any news about the former 12 Grimmauld Place?"

Kreacher answered, "As Mistress knows, the contents of some rooms were considered suspicious and taken to the Manor in Yorkshire. We have continued doing some tests on them and the results are very disquieting, though still far from finished."

"What do you need?"

"We need the presence of a wizard or witch, they must be of the Black blood. This should reveal whether what the rooms contain is a nuisance, or a major catastrophe."

The next day the councilors went to a Wizengamot session they had called, to deal with the aftermath of Dumbledore's depredations. They had discussed the main points before, and were agreed on most of them.

They got to the chamber and entered. Harry looked to the visitors' gallery and found a figure writing meticulously. He couldn't wait for them to get what they deserved!

Presently Pansy started, "We the Privy Councilors have discussed the sad affairs of our government in the hands of the people who were considered good. There was no redress of any type, no way to stop the rot before it became widespread. With that apocalyptic picture in mind, we decided on the following."

"The office and title of Minister of Magic is hereby dissolved, the head of the Wizarding Government will be called Speaker for Magic. It will be chosen at random among the heads of the departments of the Ministry, and they will have that office for a period no greater than three months."

"Any bill can be introduced by the Ministry to the Wizengamot to be voted on, provided it has the written support of three quarters of the heads of department."

"In the Wizengamot, the title and honor of the Supreme Mugwump will be dissolved and annulled in perpetuity. The office of the Chief Warlock will be declared null and void."

"These titles were pompously held by Dumbledore. He proved to us, by hard example, how useless they are. He did not act with the supposed competences the titles held. They are better gone to the trash can of history, like Dumbledore."

"This will be an open admittance government. What this means is that any self-aware individual can take place in our deliberations and government, not only species favored by the former Headmaster, like centaurs and giants, but all beings. These include so-called Dark beings, like werewolves, hags and others. As an example, the restrictions unlawfully levied on werewolves, forcing their registration and prohibiting them to procreate, will be lifted as what they are, products of little minds."

"If other peoples see hope of their grievances being heard, they may think twice about forging an alliance with Voldemort."

"We will vote now on these measures."

The Wizengamot proceeded to vote. Some conservative members were enraged. As was expected, the great majority of the old Wizengamot voted to retain things as they were. However, the combined voting power of the Privy Councilors at 180 votes managed to secure the approval of the reforms.

Luna continued, "The reforms have been approved in toto. So mote it be!"

"We of the Privy Council are of course interested in a fair reporting of the things we say. With this in mind, we are introducing a law designed to punish the slander of individuals. Since even with this law we could not manage to contain the poisonous vitriol of Mrs. Skeeter, we have introduced an injunction against the Daily Prophet. They cannot publish any more issues, and Skeeter is out of a job. She will not find it easy, for there were several complaints lodged against her, and she will be monitored."

Harry could observe the figure of Skeeter raging in the visitor's gallery, and he was filled with glee, one down, one to go!

Neville grabbed their attention when he announced, "There is an urgent matter that the councilors have to deal with. This is not an edifying tale, it tells of a powerful witch – in her own mind – sent to a magical school to do as she pleased. The witch forced all of the students to say what she wanted. When they refused, she used instruments of torture on them to force them to conform to the truth as espoused by the Minister of Magic, her boss."

"Unfortunately the tale is true. The Privy Councilors demand the arrest and immediate trial of Dolores Umbridge, on the charges of prolonged torture and intent to cast Crucio."

The Aurors were seemingly not too keen on doing their job that day, as they dithered and passed some time debating whether to obey or not. Umbridge could have run outside and taken flight, if she hadn't been downed by 4 Stupefy hexes cast by Draco, Pansy, Neville and Harry using his invisible wand.

After some Healers were called and they somewhat made Umbridge presentable, the trial began. Harry put his memories in the Pensieve and all of them could watch Umbridge with the blood quill, and hear her as she taunted Harry and almost cast the Crucio.

Seamus Finnigan offered some of his memories suffering under the blood quill, as did Dean Thomas.

Faced with these overwhelming proofs, the Wizengamot had to comply and duly sentenced Umbridge to life in Azkaban.

A trembling Umbridge was led out of the chamber by the Healers. Harry observed this with fruition, it seemed revenge was good for something!

Next came a thornier issue for the Privy Council.

The headmaster was gone. It was necessary to appoint a new one. The Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall was clearly favored by many. In fact, when Neville called for the position to be filled, he mentioned McGonagall as a good candidate.

Harry could see Draco's face, and he could observe his grimace of disgust. Surely he would not support Neville in this!

Draco said in a stentorian voice, "I object to McGonagall's appointment as Headmistress of Hogwarts! That is a position implying that the holder will work with all the houses. I submit that McGonagall blatantly favors Gryffindor, as did her luckless predecessor. She scorns the other houses, most especially Slytherins."

"Since we supposedly are fighting to give everyone a chance, it ill behooves us to leave this dinosaur guarding our children." Draco walked ahead and elegantly touching his wand to his forehead, extracted a memory that he then put in the Pensieve. It was the memory of his transformation into a ferret and what occurred later.

Afterwards Draco commented, "What you observed was an act designed to humiliate and vilify me, which put me in immense danger. You also observed how it was all hushed by McGonagall, with her supposed 'admonition' to Mad-Eye Moody to stop transforming students. I think that in any other school, transforming a student into a ferret would have been cause for termination of contract or some disciplinary measure. Not here. After all, McGonagall and Dumbledore must have observed that no precious Gryffindors were damaged, just a lowly Slytherin."

"What you may not know is that the man who transformed me was not Mad-Eye, but a Death Eater masquerading as such. If McGonagall had truly acted like the Deputy Headmistress, the man would have been fired and Harry Potter would not have been brought to a fateful confrontation with Voldemort. The Dark Lord would have remained bodiless. Unless of course, that's exactly what they wanted to avoid."

"I think that McGonagall holds too many prejudices to be an effective Headmistress. Therefore I propose in her stead the Head of Slytherin House: Severus Snape."

Some gasps were heard. Draco ignored them and continued, "Severus Snape has helped the side of Light enormously during his varied career. He started to report about some developments to Dumbledore, to try to save Lily Potter. The former headmaster decided that he wanted to keep him on as his pet spy, and if ever Severus tried to stray, he was warned that Dumbledore would have him brought to Azkaban at the slightest misbehavior."

"Dumbledore wanted Snape to project an awful image as a teacher, and Severus was forced to obey. By that time the Azkaban threats were not enough, he was under loyalty and mind-confusing spells."

"Through it all, Severus stayed true to himself. He devoted himself to a few people, researching potions and sticking up for his House."

"Dumbledore made a mistake when he appointed Severus as Head of Slytherin. He thought that with his pet spy at hand, he would finally cow those uppity Purebloods. Instead he found subtle opposition and a sharpening of the will to excel. Slytherin held the House Cup for many years, until Harry Potter showed up."

"Dumbledore could not allow that the Gryffindors led by Potter would lose, so he decided to freely shower them with additional points at the Feast signaling the end of term. Invariably Gryffindor won the honor-tainted House Cup."

"Severus never gave up. He consoled us, he made us stronger by example and dedication. These qualities suggest that he'd be a great Headmaster. He's known bigotry and has been made to indulge in it too. He's prospered in the most inhospitable conditions. He has remained true to himself. He is the epitome of a Slytherin."

"He is also the epitome of a human being. I nominate Severus Snape to be the next Headmaster of Hogwarts."

The Wizengamot was asked to decide whether Minerva McGonagall or Severus Snape were worthy of commanding Hogwarts. Unsurprisingly, a large majority of people voted for Minerva, still Harry observed that a significant minority, more than he thought, voted for Snape.

It would all come down to the Privy Council. Unsurprisingly Pansy and Blaise voted for Severus, as did Draco. However, when the turn came for Neville and Luna, they blushed and voted for McGonagall. Harry looked at the number of votes and saw that the current tally was 220 for McGonagall, and 195 for Snape. It all came down to him.

Harry swore it was unfair to be put in such situations. Ordinarily he would vote for McGonagall, but he couldn't forget certain facts, like how she must have known about his conditions with the Dursleys, the cupboard and all, when she signed the letter addressed to him! Granted, there were maybe 50 magical children who she also sent letters to, but he was the dratted Boy-who-lived, he merited special attention! And he got none.

If he was honest to himself, he'd admit that much of what Draco said was true. McGonagall clearly favored the Lions, she allowed biased commentators to disrupt the smooth flow of the commentary introducing broad asides to the Slytherins, she smiled tightly and gave to understand it was all in favor of fair play.

Such a woman would not lead Hogwarts out of its current impasse, in fact, it would sink more into internecine House wars.

On the other hand, Snape would be a hard but fair taskmaster. Once convinced that he was in charge of all of them, he'd try to create bridges between the houses so that eventually in the future the whole house thing would be forgotten, a mere aside as it must have seemed to the Founders.

Having made up his mind, Harry announced, "The Potter vote goes to Severus Snape as the Headmaster of Hogwarts. The final tally is 220 for McGonagall, 225 for Snape. Severus Snape is the new Headmaster of Hogwarts."

Harry could see Draco talking amiably with Neville and Luna, and was glad to observe there didn't seem to be any hard feelings from the differing viewpoints.

Among the spectators, however, several observed this breaking of the monolithic block of the Councilors and inwardly smirked. According to legend, Heaven was a place of peace before there was great discord and the inhabitants engaged in brutal war.

oOoOo

After their hard session at the Wizengamot, the councilors were leaving the chamber, accompanied by Ron and Hermione, the smirking Twins and Remus.

Harry immediately sensed that something was wrong. The placement of the people, their movements, they were all suspect. He shouted: Ambush! And made to escape through a side door, but the door was locked and wouldn't budge. He could glimpse two figures behind him. He suspected they would hold him captive as they hexed him or portkeyed him. He could also see that Draco was in similar straits. Apparently they were the main targets of the attacks, and the corrupt and imbecilic Aurors were seemingly debating with themselves whether to respond or not.

When they entered the corridor and beheld the skulking figures, all Remus could think of was the danger they were experiencing and the fact that they might try to harm Harry, his cub.

His inner wolf had been somewhat skittish, understandable when Remus paused to consider that he'd been denying it for a large part of his life. Sometimes it was playful and mischievous, with a sense of power permeating his sensations.

Now it was enraged. Remus had been practicing somewhat the meditation exercises, prompted by Narcissa. He used them now to try to calm the wolf down.

He was somewhat successful. He managed to control the wolf to a point, but the wolf remained mostly free. He was in a hyper-active state, and he found his thoughts didn't have their usual momentum. When two persons sought to restrain Harry, Remus ran to them and grabbed them by their throats. Remus wished he'd have his claws, and in that instant his hands transformed into fearsome claws. He proceeded to cut their throats with them.

The other Privy Councilors were fighting gallantly. Pansy and Luna were deadly with seemingly light spells, a Wingardium leviosa might be considered simple, until it was used to levitate a chair over a head and let it fall from there. Draco was easily getting the better of two older characters, who appeared to know a lot of dark curses, but didn't have his agility.

Neville and the Twins were fighting back to back, and the miscreants attacking them were the worse for wear. Harry could see Remus as he finished off his two would-be attackers and saw a figure that prepared to cut Remus down, with a knife probably made of silver. This figure seemingly disdained a Harry that apparently lacked his wand. Harry swished carefully his invisible wand and the knife jumped from the man's side and carved a way directly into his heart.

A voice interrupted then, surprisingly cold, "Give up now, Potter, or they will be killed!"

Harry could see Mad-Eye Moody, as he held Hermione by her hair and had a stupefied Ron at his feet. The wand of the Auror was directed at Hermione, "You will cease all resistance at once! You will keep this councilor business to delude weak minds. You will carry out my instructions to ensure you see your friends again. I will hide them so you can't find them ever ag…"

Mad-eye Moody was kept from continuing as he was aggressively transformed into a shrew. A one-eyed shrew with only three legs. Harry didn't have to see Draco's smirking visage to know who had done the transformation.

Draco added innocently, "I've always wanted to do that. Now if only I could bounce him off the walls! Heck, why shouldn't I?" Draco proceeded to energetically bounce Mad-eye/shrew around the walls.

Harry took the spell off Ron and he and Hermione cuddled together.

Harry exchanged raised eyebrows with the rest of the councilors, to finish with a seemingly exhilarated Draco, tired from bouncing the shrew. Draco was still enraged, though, and flicking his wand toward the shrew, intoned In aeternum veritaforma! He explained that it was a spell to hold the person into the form they had been transformed into.

Harry asked, "You know what this means, right?"

"War. It's time to let them pay, a little."

The councilors hastily returned to the Wizengamot chamber. Harry started, "The Privy Council requests the presence of the Head Auror."

A bureaucratic voice replied, "He's not in the office, I believe he left for a vacation."

Harry replied enraged, his voice so near hissing that it seemed that a serpent was there, "You don't understand. The Privy Council orders his presence. If he's not here in five minutes, an arrest warrant against him will be raised, you will be out of a job. So find him!"

Three minutes later, a man came in, visibly dressing himself. Harry shouted, "Stay right there, idiot! Your stupid underlings are worthy of nothing. We were ambushed, and I'm still wondering how they knew where and when to find us, and the stupid escort Aurors did nothing. In fact, one of your own, Alastor Moody, was a leading figure of the ambushers! You are out of a job."

"The Privy Council will dissolve the Auror force. They are laughable excuses for fighting wizards, they often conspire with the powerful. They don't protect the majority of the people."

"The persons who will take their place will be volunteers among the firefighters in the different counties of the Kingdom. They are trusty and reliable individuals who have proved their mettle in the crucible of fire. They're used to the discipline and rigor of working as a team. They would receive a commensurate pay. They should be enough to handle the usual petty crime. For darker crimes other arrangements will be made."

Finally the exhausted councilors, Ron, Hermione, the Twins and Remus returned to the Manor. Luna retired to her home and invited Neville over.

The Twins left to plan new mischief with the help of their elvish friend. Blaise and Pansy left for their Manors because their parents wanted them to go to a lavish debutante ball, which made Pansy gag, and Blaise twitch in sympathy.

Remus left for the Library to read more of that book he found so entrancing.

Ron was eating a pizza while commiserating with Hermione over having fallen to the Wizard. Hermione sensed that the Seekers needed to talk and tried to get Ron to unobtrusively leave. However, it was proving to be harder than she thought. After the third time she mentioned she was tired, Ron still kept eating! She proceeded to smack him upside the head. When Ron replied dolefully, "Hey!" Hermione grabbed his arm and forcibly yanked him upright and told him she needed help in lifting some books.

Finally Ron acquiesced and they made their way out. Hermione turned to say goodbye but found that the two wizards hadn't noticed. They only had eyes for each other. Hermione 1, Seekers 0.

Harry started, "We need to talk, Draco."

"About what, Harry?"

"I need to know why you changed so much. You used to drive us crazy, and now you're helping and saving us, I need to know what made you change!"

Draco answered, "Then I will tell you what I believe I have told you before. After my father was arrested, I was incensed and reached a new level of understanding that allowed me to grow. I'm sure you want to know what enabled me to get there. Put simply, I started to write."

"You started to write?" asked Harry as he felt a deep sense of foreboding.

"Yes. On that day I was roaming the Manor and reached an unused bedroom. There was a book on the bed, with a gray and black cover that was so tasteful and exotic. I felt drawn to it, as if there was a part of me that recognized it. I decided to use it as my diary, and took it to my room."

"Eventually I started writing in it. The surprising thing was when the diary answered!"

"I discovered that the diary was a very good listener, and soon it asked me about my environment. I was able to talk to it in a frank, objective way, almost as if we shared much of the same background. The diary pointed out hard facts in a sober tone. What I wouldn't listen to in the voice of Dumbledore grew in importance."

"I was forced to recognize certain facts using the voice of reason. Of course, the diary was often facetious and mischievous."

Harry felt weak, he felt a buzzing in his ears, he sat down, hard, as he fought to contain his tears. Draco would not like to see him cry.

He felt he was losing Draco, for surely he had fallen under the influence of a horcrux of Voldemort's, exactly like Ginny's diary.

Maybe all of this, Draco's help, the political maneuverings and all, had been a trick of Voldemort to win.
And Draco would be possessed. Never would he behold the grey eyes shining in that peculiar way as they hexed someone. Never would he fight along with him, as a friend or a foe.
That thought terrified him, even more than when he had despaired of his liberty.

The darkness rose to overtake him, and he welcomed it and joined it.

Speculations