herumtreiber

Title: The Privy Councilors 22/33
Chapter: Awry wars gone prank
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: PG-13
Warnings: None
Epilogue compliant? No way!
Chapter length: ~4,208 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

21. Prank wars gone awry

Masquerade!
Every face a different shade...
Masquerade!
Look around -
there's another
mask behind you!

Flash of mauve...
Splash of puce...
Fool and king...
Ghoul and goose...
Green and black...
Queen and priest...
Trace of rouge...
Face of beast...
(Masquerade, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart)

It took Ron some time to round up all the privy councilors, or rather Hermione, who took it under her supervision. She could see how overwrought Ron was, and she was herself afraid. Thank God Molly had decided to go with Ginny. That way there was less opportunity for any untoward incidents. She trusted that Harry and Draco would do what they could to assure a good future for Ginny.

She explained to the councilors what was happening. She fixed the Twins with a steely gaze reminiscent of Molly's as she commanded them to obey Blaise and Neville. They would stay at her side during the discussions.

With that, they all left via Floo to the Wizengamot.

Soon the councilors met and sat down in their chairs. The session was still ongoing, and Draco had not announced its end.

Now he proceeded to shout stentorian, "You are all a bunch of manure, hardly worth of the consideration given a vegetable. You conspire to adopt Sirius Black against his will. Not content with that, you insist on arresting Ginevra Weasley. You have no business whatsoever judging Ginevra when you allow such criminals as Bellatrix Lestrange to go about her business and try to brainwash Sirius Black!"

Draco swished silently the wand, which was Harry's Invisible wand. He wanted to make sure it would function for him too. It worked and cast a Silencio spell over the increasingly irate members.
Draco continued nonchalantly, "You will give me the names of the people who orchestrated both these moves, right now. Otherwise you will be charged with conspiracy and if guilty will be taken to Azkaban. You, Marigold Loving, speak up!"

He removed the spell and Marigold replied haughtily that she didn't know anything, whereupon she was arrested and taken to a holding cell, ready to be tried for conspiracy.

While this was going on, Sirius observed attentively the behavior of his Harry and Draco. They seemed to be mad about something. Fortunately for the peace of mind of the blond lion, Sirius was tired and therefore not in the mood for more adventures.

Unfortunately the same could not be said for the Twins. They easily escaped the attention of Blaise, Neville and Hermione, whom they called Mio. They slipped past the magical chains conjured by Blaise to serve as mini-wards for them. The redheaded twins needed to go to the bathroom, and rather than ask the ever-officious Neville or Blaise, they could look for it on their own.

As everyone was entranced with the political drama, no one noticed what happened with the small Twins, except Luna. She saw and decided to give them seven minutes and then catch them outside the room they were going to.

oOoOo

The Twins got to the bathroom and did their business, when they finished and opened the stall; they found four aggressive individuals in the room, near the washbasin. They looked enormous to the Twins, and started talking about whether they were Weasleys, given their red hair.

The leader ordered, "It doesn't matter if they are Weasleys or not, the color indicates they might be cousins to the other pests. We will grab them and ask for ransom, after we've had our fun with them, too!"
The Twins were both enraged and afraid. Parts of the conversation they did not get, however they got the gist that the men wanted to keep them from their friends and family, and also wanted to hurt them.

The fear and anger touched their magical cores. In them, they remained what they would always be: Fred and George Weasley. Those emotions powered up their transformation, which they would always be able to perform, and they became Siberian Tiger... Cubs.

Cubs may not sound too dangerous, but these Tiger Cubs were 1.30 meters long, weighed 180 pounds, and had the sharp claws, fangs and instincts of a tiger.
The Cubs jumped on the unsuspecting and utterly surprised miscreants and had their tigerish fun. They mauled the gits, bit them and left them with many a scar to remember them by.

They were able to get out of that room when George got on Fred's back and managed to grab hold of the door's handle and turned it with his mouth.
The Cubs made it out of the room strutting proudly, until they noticed Luna. She murmured something to herself and approached them. She kneeled next to the Cubs and said, "Well, you have managed to have an adventure. It is necessary that you remain in your Tiger form until we get to Hogwarts. We are pulling a prank, and if you want to be an effective part of it, you will do what I say, OK?"

The cubs nodded. Then Luna used spells to make the blood currently on their paws and muzzles disappear.
They made their leisure way to the Wizengamot. Several times they were stopped by people who wanted to know what the deal was with the Cubs. Luna replied calmly that they were half-Kneazles, who were also the crossbreed of unicorns and tigers. She intimated in the airy way that she sometimes affected that they were part of an experiment she had proudly proposed. They were excellent guardians of homes and could fight to the draw those pesky Lethifolds.

The Cubs exchanged worried glances. They did not want to do all that! They just wanted to cause a little mayhem!

oOoOo

In Hogwarts, a Werewolf with a sweet tooth suddenly woke up from menacing dreams. He sensed that members of his pack were in danger! He had a brief image of two pale shadows moving erratically.

He raised his head and realized he was in the Infirmary. He remembered everything, the chocolate treat, eating it and then being so tired it was impossible to remain awake.
He recognized the nature of the threat now, Sirius had been right. The menacing Twins apparently knew him well enough to fool him easily.

He looked at the other bed and recognized Narcissa. They got her too! But where was Sirius? What had they done to him?
Remus got on the other bed and tried to wake Narcissa up. Nothing seemed to work, so he decided to slap her. Once he'd done that, Narcissa finally woke up sneering, "I will get you for that, you French poseur!"

Remus hurried to reassure her that it wasn't Fleur who hit her, but him. He explained succinctly that they were victims of a prank and apparently had been asleep for some days.
Once Narcissa processed that, she called, "Kreacher!" With a sound of elf apparition, the house-elf showed up. Narcissa ordered a nutritious meal for Remus and herself and they both fell to eating ravenously.

After the meal, Remus commented worriedly, "I'm afraid, Narcissa. I can't feel Sirius in the castle, nor can I feel any of the other councilors, or Ron and Hermione for that matter. Even the mischievous Twins are missing. I think they were called to do something, perhaps something that requires the full complement of privy councilors. I think they are at the Wizengamot. I propose we join them."
Narcissa agreed after she hurriedly accio'd a particular dress. When it didn't come up, she frowned but called for a different one. Eventually they were dressed and refreshed. Narcissa took her Elder wand and accompanied Remus to the Floo. Soon they were at the doors of the Wizengamot.

In the Wizengamot, the session proceeded as more people denied them information and were arrested for later questioning, and some individuals finally confessed what they had done and who were their accomplices.

Neville and Blaise, however, were distracted by the disappearance of the Twins. They were also worried because Luna had seemingly vanished too. They kept imagining bad situations happening to the helpless Twins. They also worried about Ron's and Draco's reactions when told the Twins were missing. Actually, they worried more about Ron.

With that crazy arrest, Ron was bound to be very uneasy. If one added his brothers missing, Merlin help Ron!
They were keeping an unobtrusive watch on the door. Suddenly it opened and Luna walked regally in, accompanied by twin Siberian Tiger cubs. Neville and Blaise blinked once, then twice. They tried to manage their surprise, but couldn't.

Apparently the Twins had transformed into their Animagus shape and now were tiger cubs. Hopefully they would not transform back in public, because then they would have to get registered and lose the edge of surprise, as they had secretly demonstrated today.

Soon Luna took her seat, and one cub went to Neville and the other to Blaise. Neville shot Blaise a commiserating look, letting him know he knew exactly how he felt. Pansy just smirked. If she had been charged with taking care of the Twins, she would have manipulated the situation so the Twins behaved. Done like a real Slytherin!

Having dealt with many miscreants, Draco approached his main concern.

"You appear to have issued a warrant for the arrest of Ginevra Weasley. Such a warrant would be unlawful as it would not have been done with the Quorum required by law. Fear not, I will surely use the Lex majoris spell to cause the guilty party the pain they wanted to inflict on poor Ginevra."

"Ginevra may have acted poorly in one or two occasions. She was punished by expulsion from Hogwarts. There is no need whatsoever to add to her pain with a stupid warrant or a stupid trial done by the stupid likes of you. I present to you Harry Potter's memory of that night!"

Draco, using his hawthorn wand, pressed it near Harry's forehead and extracted the memory. He put it on a medit-sieve he had left purposefully in the Wizengamot.

He switched it to exposition mode and they all could see and hear the ghostly images of his parents ordering Harry to let Voldemort kill him, then James trying to call a life-debt on Remus. They heard Sirius speaking and finally how the Stone was apparently destroyed. The clarity of the memories was extraordinary. It was as if it was really happening right now.

Draco continued ferociously, "I submit we vote about the validity of any arrest warrant against Ginevra Weasley. If there are more than 60 votes against her, I will personally contact a Necromancer and have him raise the spirits of James and Lily Potter from the dead. When this is done, I will accuse them in the Wizengamot of conspiring to kill their son. They will go to Azkaban, where they will be Kissed."

Luna missed the last part. The exposition to that medit-sieve was too strong for her. She had an inkling that it meant that Seer magic had gone into its making, probably to strengthen the detail so it could be observed more carefully. She suspected that one or many Seers had been seriously hurt just to make that medit-sieve.

For a moment, she wanted to step out of the Wizengamot when the doors opened and Remus and Narcissa walked in. Luna Saw that it was really Narcissa, and she smirked a bit. She sauntered up to them and said, "Hello Remus, Narcissa. I suggest you do not go in right now, if you don't want to meet yourself, Narcissa!"

Narcissa sputtered as Luna continued calmly, "Sirius was deaged and Bellatrix wanted to adopt him. The only way to stop them was for Tonks to pretend to be you. It worked."

Luna went into the Wizengamot, approached Narcissa and had some words with her. Narcissa left with Luna. Sirius was observing all these goings-on with wide eyes. He was of a mind to go and find out what it was all about.
However, Draco had developed a very accurate Siridar, which served to predict the moment when the little Marauder would step out. Without missing a beat, Draco glared at Sirius and used his wand to pull on Harry, alerting him to the possible Siri-breach. Sirius didn't react negatively. After all, he was tired, but when he was feeling all right he would go where he wanted.

Luna and Narcissa met Remus and Narcissa near the doors. Narcissa observed her good luck dress on the faux-Narcissa. Tonks transformed back to herself and she used her glamour skills to change the cut and parts of the material of the dress.
Cissa asked, "How is Sirius?"

Tonks replied, "He is fine. It is Draco you should worry about. Sirius often goes where he wills, and Draco searches like mad for him. The Twins are also a matter of concern. They were deaged too, and they drive their caretakers bonkers. They just transformed into tiger cubs, thank Merlin not in public!"
Remus asked, "Why are they all here?"
Tonks replied, "Ron received a phone call from his mother, indicating that the police had arrived to arrest Ginny. They did not show a proper warrant. Molly went with them to protect Ginny, as you can imagine Ron and the rest of them are very angry."

Remus grabbed hold of Tonks and kissed her fiercely. They got lost in the energy and sweetness of the kiss, which they had missed for some days now. Inevitably it would have led to more, but they heard someone coughing noisily.

They disentangled and beheld Narcissa. She added swiftly, "It's time to make an appearance."
Luna, Tonks, Narcissa and Remus entered the Wizengamot. When Remus sat near the councilor seats and Sirius noticed him, he almost screamed, "Remmy! C'me here!"

Dutifully Remus approached and the small Marauder hugged the big Marauder. Sirius then noticed Narcissa sitting alongside Draco and shouted gleefully, "Cissa!"
The shout was so exuberant, that Draco lost his thread of discussion and had to start from an earlier beginning.

Sirius felt ready to face the world, with his Cissa, Remy, Harry and Draco beside him!

oOoOo

Draco bade them to vote regarding the validity of the arrest warrant against Ginevra.

The politicians were very scared. They took him at face value regarding his threat to bring the Potters back to life. The question on their minds was that if they displeased him enough he might use Necromancers on them. Never mind that it was a ludicrous idea, because if Draco wanted something from them he would acquire it so much more easily than through death, it was useful at the moment for Draco's plans.

The privy councilors voted en bloc to nullify that warrant. Only 30 people voted against Ginevra. Some people noted that for a while now Luna had voted just like Draco.

Draco said, "The warrant having been declared null and void, and unlawful, we want to see Mrs. Ginevra Weasley and her mother. You have five minutes to bring them here, or I start to send you you know where!"

The cowering politicians hastened to do their task. Just when the five minutes were about to be over, the doors opened and Ginny and Molly were led in. Molly had several bruises around her mouth and nose. Ginny had more bruises in her face, she was in chains, and you could see that she wasn't sleeping well.
Ron was so enraged that he was about to transform, until Hermione's hands grasped his and she murmured with passion and energy, "You will get your revenge, Ron! Focus on that."

Harry was so angry, he wanted to explode. He felt his hand and knees being squeezed by Draco's. He growled, "Ginny will be revenged, Harry!"
Draco was the picture of perfect poise on the outside, inside was another matter. He had a reputation to uphold and he did it effortlessly. With the ease that legends are made of, he assumed the Malfoy Mask and swiftly took out his hawthorn wand to vanish the chains.

He asked Mrs. Weasley courteously, "Can you give us some information about what happened? We want to punish the individuals responsible for your plight today."
Mrs. Weasley was a little confused, she did not believe she was home free. She noticed Ron, though, and her son nodded. She decided to trust them. She said, "My daughter was arrested, I insisted in going with them, there were several policemen, and I got a bad feeling about them. They started to get fresh, and then I chastised them. They hit me several times, as they hit Ginny when she tried to defend me. They left us in a small room for some time. I was afraid of what they would do at night! Suddenly someone came and fetched us. Then we arrived here."

Draco spoke softly and carefully to the two red-headed women. "Ron received your phone call, Mrs. Weasley. He was very worried and disturbed about the tenor of your predicament. We decided to help him defend your daughter. All the privy councilors were called here. I argued that Ginny's expulsion from Hogwarts was more than enough. Further pain was not warranted, nor advisable. Eventually a vote was taken, the overwhelming result is that the arrest warrant was declared null and void and unlawful. I've been catching persons who had something to do with this, making them subjects of police investigations with the goal of finding out the extent of the conspiracy and punish them by sending them to Azkaban."

"Then I asked for both your presences. A previous headmaster was wont to ignore physical abuse. We do not, we pride ourselves in being as different from that dumbmaster as we can."

Draco addressed the Wizengamot, "I will ask for a last vote. To stop the bothersome actions of a few politicians, be it considered as proved, that Ginevra Weasley has endured what she has. No claims or demands can be made on her relying on the subjects discussed in this session. Furthermore, let 60 per cent of the wealth of the accusers and perpetrators be used to fund a vault dedicated to Mrs. Ginevra Weasley."

Draco submitted this resolution to the Wizengamot and it was endorsed almost unanimously, with only 20 votes against it.
Draco considered what he should do. Should he allow the Weasley women to leave, or was it more profitable if they witnessed the extent of the retribution Ron and the others would enact for their suffering? He decided to let them watch. He had the idea that maybe Ginny would warm up to the world if she felt that some people were still behind her, mistakes or not.

Draco motioned for Ron and Harry to approach. When they were near he informed them of the decision to cast the Lex majoris spell. He hoped to have their magic, too. The Gryffindors agreed readily. Draco swished his wand elegantly, Ron forcefully and Harry moved his Invisible wand as they intoned, Lex majoris re Ginevra Weasley.

Several Wizengamot politicians vanished in mid air, presumably bound for a long stay in Azkaban. Three guards of the Magical Police fell to the floor, as if someone were beating them, or something worse. Soon they vanished too, they went to the prison island.

oOoOo

Ginny saw this with wide eyes. Life had been so hard lately. First she had fallen into a deep depression; she even considered ending her life. Soon Ron, Hermione, Harry and Draco took an interest in her and got her to consult a Psychiatrist. She advanced in the therapy to get notions about the root causes of her behavior. She started to change a bit. For the first time, things looked up.

Then those blokes came to arrest her. She didn't know what would have happened if her mother had not come along. And now, she had been rescued; furthermore, Harry, Ron and Draco had cast a spell to punish those people that hurt her. She recognized two of the guards that briefly writhed on the floor as those who had beaten her.
It seemed that they really meant it. Their forgiveness was real. Perhaps it was time to let the dead past go.
It was in such small, but solid steps, that Ginny recognized she was in the right direction to continue with her life.

Draco was almost content for once. He turned to Narcissa and said, "I wish mom would have seen that! She was the one who insisted upon me to have poise. All Lucius cared about was to project a menacing figure. Mom filled it with love and attention."

Narcissa fought not to cry and replied, "Your mother has seen you today, Draco, and is in awe of you. You have made my life worthwhile, my little red dragon!"

Draco turned, surprised, and kissed his mother's cheek. "It is you, mom! That's great! You can watch Sirius… I mean, you can play with Sirius."

Narcissa replied, "Don't worry, dragon. I know children can be a handful. I also know how difficult Sirius was as a child. Every time they visited Sirius ended up lost. One day he and Regulus showed up for Andromeda's birthday. Needless to say he and I banded against the others. Andromeda was OK, but she was a little bookish, living too much by the rules, like your Hermione."

"Regulus and Bellatrix were hellions. They wanted to rule the rest of us. Of course Sirius and I opposed that. That birthday Sirius suggested nonchalantly a game of hide and seek. What Bella and Regulus did not know was that Sirius had secretly obtained the help of a house-elf to charm one room to hold them prisoner for a day. Sirius being Sirius, he hid in a neighboring room, which also happened to be affected by the charm, so it was only the next day that we beheld a confused Sirius and the irate Bella and Regulus."

Their conversation was interrupted as a magnificent owl, almost snowy but with some black stripes, dove and settled in front of Draco. The owl looked imperiously at him, as if ordering him to hurry or get hexed. Knowing the owl, it could probably happen.

Draco took out the thick parchment and gave the owl special owl treats he had put in his pocket that morning. The owl glared at him, but was condemned to eat them, because it was something that owls do.
No one else had bothered to read the characteristics of the Wizengamot. They did not know that there were wards to keep animals from the premises, so they were unaware that the owl most definitely was not an animal, but an irate Gryffindor with the name of Hermione Granger. Just like those tigers…

What tigers?
Draco looked at the tiger cubs and glared at them, and at the hapless fellows Blaise and Neville.

Draco looked at the creamy parchment and opened it. He read what he expected, and he said, "The news of your stupidity has reached the widest spheres and caused the most diverse reactions. The Sovereign has learned of your abysmally treacherous nature, your silly bouts with the law of the realm, and your endless jealousy for those better off. The Sovereign has sent a Writ of Dissolution of the Wizengamot."

"The current Wizengamot will be annulled. The doors will be closed for all of you, rats! Elections will be held in four weeks."
"Further business with leading the Magical Realm will be dealt with by the privy councilors."
A timid voice was heard, "Does the Queen really write that?"
Ron replied, "It's her name and style. You can try to check it by magical means trying to destroy it, only use a mild spell."

The man sent a dissolution hex to the parchment. When it was about to touch it, it was surrounded by a small blue shield which reflected the hex to the caster. The man stumbled and would have fallen if he hadn't sat down.
That proved to them satisfactorily that the Writ came from the Sovereign. No magic could act against the Sovereign.

Draco mused about the penchant of the human mind to blindly follow a set of beliefs. They just grabbed what they were told and followed like meek sheep, abdicating the use of their higher cerebral functions. Harry and Hermione were ready to believe in the phone-elves, they refused to consider the stuff they had grown up with, because Ron, Sirius and Draco tricked them.

Sometimes things are not what they seem, even if one ardently believes they are, based on the past, customs, or ideas. It might be that an explanation is offered to lead one astray. For example, the parchment. It was treated with a strong potion that would cause major hexes to be reflected to their originators. It was simply explained that the magic could not go against the Sovereign, but there was more. There is always more.

23. MAD: Mutually Assured Deaging