herumtreiber

Title: The Privy Councilors 2/33
Chapter: two
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: Sexual content
Epilogue compliant? No way!
Chapter length: 4619 words
Beta: None.
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

Meet the councilors

In your room where time stands still
Or moves at your will.
Will you let the morning come soon,
Or will you leave me lying here?

In your favorite darkness,
Your favorite half-light,
Your favorite consciousness,
Your favorite slave.
(In your room, Gore, Martin)

Once they were comfortable, Draco took out an endless bag and started searching in it. He found a covered dish, still steaming, which he took out, saying, "I'm sure you haven't eaten in a while, Potter. This is supposed to be top of the line Calamari Pizzazz. I also have some cola beverages. All the rest of you can dig in, as I know you have a fearsome appetite, Blaise, and Neville looks famished!"

Pansy snorted and said, "You and names, Draco! It's called a pizza, and I won't eat something so full of fatty acids!"

However, the aroma of the food and the contented look of the males and Luna finally convinced her to try the dish. Pansy had seconds, just as she was serving herself, she turned her head and was thus unable to see Draco rolling his eyes. Harry saw, though, and snorted and laughed for the first time in months.

After the meal, Draco looked at Harry and said, "You can take a nap, Potter. You need to be on your mental toes. We all will guard you, you are safe at this moment."

Frankly, after having the first decent meal he'd had in weeks, Harry felt exhausted, and lazily decided to take Malfoy's offer. He would face the other problems when he had to, and he'd try to rest for now.

He woke up an indeterminate amount of time later. He felt refreshed. He could hear his companions whisper excitedly. When he listened intently, it was to hear Neville and Malfoy betting on the Cannons to win the Quidditch League, apparently they were firm Cannons fans. As befitted the Slytherin, Blaise was of the firm opinion that the Falmouth Falcons would win, and they bickered accordingly.

When he moved his head he was able to see Luna and Pansy sitting apart, seemingly caught up in whatever they were discussing. Luna seemed to be helping Pansy and offering encouragement, and even the help of a Snorkack.

Neville noticed him and called the attention of the others to him. Draco rapidly swished his wand and raised the light level which he had artificially sunk.

Draco began, "We must get to the nitty-gritty and devise a plan to face these villains. You might have noticed that all the people in that hall are against you. Have you wondered how it is possible that you have seemingly lost the support of all the Wizarding World?"

"The answer is that you haven't. There are people who believe in you, there are people who risk their very lives and souls to help you."

"I must tell you that there are numerous loyalty spells, notice-me-not charms, legilimency spells on the doors to this tribunal. What this means is that if people come here intending to support you, they are distracted by the charms and end up in the other side of the building. Only people who detest you are allowed to pass free through that door."

"We know about these hellish machinations thanks to a stratagem we took from Dumbledore's books: we used spies. People that endured psychic torments to bring us needed details about his plans. They told us about the hastily arranged trial, the strictures put upon the observers. They bested Dumbledore at subterfuge."

"Potter, it pains me greatly to say this, but this needs to be stated. Those people who put their lives on the line, they are Weasley and Granger. They proved their mettle, their grit and endurance shouldering the heavy burden for you. They showed true friendship and commitment."

"You may think they are near your enemies physically. However, their love surrounds you right now, sustains you and gives you – and us – strength to fight the evil."

"Hermione designed a spell that, when triggered – let's say by me saying 'Mudblood'- causes that a set of memories take center stage and others seemingly disappear. When they are under the spell a core set of memories concerning you is hidden, and they are able to pin the world's woes on you. I have no doubt that Dumbledore has used Legilimency on them a number of times, but the core memories remained hidden from sight. They follow the instructions we've agreed on without having a conscious reason. When the spell is taken back, they regain their complete memories and report on Dumbledore's plans. However they remember their utterances and deeply regret them."

"They will need your support after tonight, and you will need theirs."

"Harry, you must also know that last night Sirius Black's last will and testament was read. Contrariwise to what the Headmaster expected, Sirius only left you one thousand Galleons. The estate passed to my mother Narcissa Black Malfoy."

"Dumbledore was enraged and tried to kill my mother. Only the opportune help of Kreacher managed to avert that result. Narcissa asked Shacklebolt and my cousin Tonks to arrest the Headmaster but they refused. She even asked it of Fudge and Bones, and they said no."

"This is what we are dealing with: a side of this so-called war that believes they are completely above the law. A side you recently supported."

"However, these considerations we can discuss later. I want to call your attention to the overkill of having everyone supportive of you absent from the trial. Obviously Dumbledore wanted to rub it in your face that the people completely rejected you. No mercy."

Draco said wistfully, "It's almost as if he's trying to get the results that a prophecy foretells."

Harry proceeded to relate to them the circumstances governing his prophecy and how it was revealed to him.

Luna commented, wryly twisting her papaya necklace: "The prophecy seems false. That bit about the seventh month. According to which calendar: Roman, Greek, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon? Each one had different starting points for the months."

Pansy concurred, wrinkling her nose and taking a handkerchief from a pocket in her robe: "Agreed. This just seems like the stories that my father told me when I was a little girl, to get me to do something. He'd say something about a beautiful princess that obeyed her father and got the kingdom and the prince."

A seemingly assertive Neville grabbed the last piece of pizza. However, Draco had gotten hold of the other side. A brief tug of war between the Slytherin and Gryffindor ensued. Draco could see that Neville looked indeed undernourished and let Neville the dish.

Blaise opined then, visibly bored, "To circulate a false prophecy and get your adversaries to move, you would need to be a good Slytherin, right? Someone that everybody else respects and listens to, someone powerful enough to bend the law, for close to 50 years. I guess Dumbles has repeated the lie so much he believes it wholeheartedly."

After rolling his eyes, Draco concluded, "What this means is that no one knows what happened to Harry's parents. Everything must come to Dumbledore and his interpretations. He is at the crux of every conundrum involving Harry. The coincidences are too numerous to mention. What we must do is distrust everything he has told us."

Draco took a look at Harry's tired green eyes, and knew there was a serious matter to discuss. He hastily told the others he needed to talk to Harry and grabbed him and took him to a corner. Looking at his tired visage, Draco didn't need to be a Legilimens to intuit the trouble.

Dumbledore was intent on Harry's destruction, obviously he'd found a way to kill Voldemort and didn't need Harry, if he ever did.

The headmaster wanted Harry destroyed, what better way than causing Harry to blow off his top? He knew that Harry was in a delicate stage due to Sirius' death, and still he stopped his friends writing to him. He ordered the Order to threaten the Dursleys and then didn't defend Harry when the beatings came. He probably goaded the Dursleys more so they would either kill Harry or force Harry to hurt them.

Maybe, yet Draco doubted this very much. He knew Harry inside and out, and he was sure he would not kill his relatives, even in anger and pain. What must have happened involved the headmaster having mastery of the Dursley wards, and going there the moment they were activated. Dumbles would kill the Dursleys and use obliviate on Harry to make sure he never told anyone.

The trouble was that if they opted to ask questions of Harry with Veritaserum, following the truth as he knew it, he'd tell that he'd killed them.

If memory served him right, one way to restore one's memory was through the use of phoenix tears on the forehead of the patient. Now he only knew of one phoenix, but Fawkes was on the headmaster's pocket. But there may be other sources…

He took out his endless bag and heaved it up to the table, he stuck his arm inside, waiting to grab a certain vial. Eventually, he found it, and took it out of the bag. He checked the color and smell, making sure there were phoenix tears.

He asked Harry, "Do you trust me?" After an almost imperceptible delay, Harry answered confidently, "I believe I do."

Draco said, "Lay down. I will put phoenix tears on your head. Eventually all memories that have been kept from you via obliviate will be fresh again."

Draco put the drops on Harry. He grabbed him when Harry threatened to move too much. Presently Harry said, "That's OK, Draco. I think that was the worst of the lot."

Draco asked, "Do you remember the deaths of your so-called family?"

Harry gulped and answered tentatively, "I remember they beat me. I felt so weak and lost, unconsciously I must have created a shield to keep me out of their reach. The shield was glowing white. A little while later Dumbledore and Shacklebolt were there. Dumbledore used Avada Kedavra on the Dursleys and killed them, and then he gloated over me. He obliviated me and left."

Draco beheld a Harry Potter seemingly changed. He still bore the signs of deprivation and tiredness, but there was a glint in his eyes, a set to his shoulders that denoted anger and the strength to set things right.

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRH

In Hogwarts, Remus Lupin bristled at being left behind when so many momentous decisions were being taken on Harry's behalf. He could not understand why he had followed the headmaster's directives and stayed behind in the castle, the temporary abode of the Order now that they had been evicted from Grimmauld Place. Cissa really was a spitfire! Imperceptibly the weft of his thoughts and inner monologue changed to something less tense, like his past as a proud Marauder. If there was a forced quality to the mental change, no one needed to know.

Still, Remus felt a deep sense of foreboding, permeating his human senses, and also tickling his wolf abilities.

All his life, since he was bitten, his authority figures had urged him to control the wolf, to never let the wolf run free, or he would kill a lot of persons and wreak so much havoc. His family asked this of him, and later, the headmaster and his Marauder friends.

Although the Marauders paid him a great compliment by becoming Animagi and accompanying him on the full moon nights, undoubtedly they would have preferred for him to be cured of his lycanthropy.

Seemingly the only exception was a thin, pale, raven-haired Slytherin that offered a rough sort of consolation: the unvarnished truth, but also possible avenues of escape.

Remus grew to really appreciate Snape's sarcastic wit and hidden caring nature, until Sirius pulled his deadly prank and it was only the extremely coincidental presence of James that saved Severus' and Remus' lives. The headmaster punished no one, and his friendship with Severus was effectively ruined.

Part 2