The double doors in front of Harry felt immense. They were large — nine feet tall and at least five wide — but they felt bigger than that. It almost seemed, standing before them, that you were shrinking, growing progressively less important compared to their ornate surface.
It hardly bothered Harry. It was a brand of illusion, and those were his trade.
He turned to Susan. "Can I expect your cooperation?"
"Do you think I was lying?" Susan said.
She wore fantastic yellow robes befitting her Hogwarts house. Fleur had done her hair, pulling it into an elaborate flowing braid. Her appearance was perfect— apart from her palms, where her nails were digging in almost to the point of drawing blood.
Harry looked at the door again. "I don't. However, if we deviate even slightly, things can go very badly, very quickly. I have to know for sure."
"Yes, you'll have my vote. Are you happy?"
"Of course," Harry said. "I'm thrilled."
He squared his shoulders. Voices could be heard from the opposite side of the door. Thirty more seconds, and it would be time to enter.
Without warning, Susan grabbed his shoulder.
"I'm helping you this time because you're doing something good," she said. "But do not, for one single second, think this will make you anything but a bad man!"
Harry couldn't help but smile.
"I'm glad you understand," he said.
He slipped his elbow inside of Susan's, pulling her arm away from his collar. Harry's smile grew, while Susan's face lost its expression as they approached the door, which opened unprompted. They walked through, their arms linked.
They stepped underneath a vaulted ceiling made of firm, dark wood. The walls were white stone, while ornate seats were built in an ascending arc over three-quarters of the room. A red carpet led from the door to a set of stairs providing access. There were fifty seats in total, yet with everyone present less than half were occupied. Harry led Susan up the stairs, ignoring the loud whispers filling the echoey room.
The Bones and Potter seats were next to each other near the center of the space. That was probably by design. To their right, Yaxley's faction sat in all their glory, eleven of the richest and best-dressed scions Wizarding Britain still had to offer. On the left, Crouch sat with the Carrow twins, one other mean-faced man, and the remaining blood traitors they kept under their thumb.
The moment Harry and Susan entered the whispers tripled in volume. Yaxley must have kept his plan close to his chest. There was a reason he asked Harry to enter last. Part of it was to not give Crouch time to run away… But mostly it was to see Crouch's face.
It didn't disappoint. The handsome, brown-haired man was glaring at Harry with a nasty scowl on his lips. He looked murderous, causing Yaxley to smirk. The older pureblood missed it when Crouch's expression softened for a single second, shooting Harry a wink.
All petty whispering and glaring stopped when the door opened again. In his lap, Harry's hands closed into fists.
Bellatrix Lestrange was wearing a black gown, its massive tail trailing behind her along the floor. Her arm was out, an owl perched upon her wrist. She glided to a single seat set apart from the rest, with a desk of its own that faced the assembly, and shifted her arm, allowing the owl to hop off onto a perch. The wall behind her was covered by an immense mural of a scale, its paint as dark as a shadow.
When Bellatrix sat she picked up a gavel from the desk. She used it to deliver a single strike that boomed through the room— even though everyone had been silent already.
"The Supreme Mugwump has arrived," she said.
There were a few muted, sycophantic applause. Harry couldn't help but note that both Crouch and Yaxley showed very little emotion. Bellatrix's recent meddling in politics had not been met with joy by those who were here first. Last he heard, Bellatrix had just been a representative on Voldemort's behalf. Her position seemed to have been upgraded.
Bellatrix reached out, shuffling a heavy stack of papers that had been waiting on the desk. She skimmed the first of them, then tossed it aimlessly over her shoulder. The second paper met the same fate. When she reached the third, she finally stopped and grinned.
"Now this is worth dealing with!"
The Chief Warlock didn't possess a vote, but they were more important than any individual representative. It was their role to raise motions, propose votes, and ensure that every detail was seen to. It was not to throw out the first third of a meeting because they found it boring… But Bellatrix had Voldemort at her back. No one would dare challenge her, because if it turned out they were questioning an order that came straight from him, it would be the last mistake they ever made.
"Muggle-born Education Act. Hah!" Bellatrix cackled. "What a name! Let's see… A new school would be created. Proposed classes cover topics like basic arithmetic, Muggle inferiority, household charms, even subservience training. You've put thought into this! Graduates would be registered with the Ministry… I'm sure you've heard this before, considering it's been defeated twice already."
It sounded casual, but Harry knew that had been a dig at Yaxley and Lucius. If there was any doubt, it was dispelled when Bellatrix looked up after she said it, smirking in their direction.
"It's got one more chance," she said. "If it loses this vote, that's it! So let's see. Shall we play the game? You're up first, Corban. Remember: one minute."
The owl Bellatrix entered with flapped off of its gilded perch. It was a large animal— a Great HornedOwl with fearsome dark plumage and piercing yellow eyes. It flew almost silently across the room, smoothly landing on Yaxley's forearm.
"That's Representative Yaxley," he said.
Bellatrix merely smiled. Harry could practically hear her grating voice: fifty-five seconds left.
Yaxley stood, the owl still perched tall atop his arm.
"Our society is on the verge of crisis," he said. "On the eve of what should be the greatest period, it could be the smallest of things which topples our golden, pureblood dynasty. I ask the assembly, would you like to whittle away your days fulfilling busywork? Would you be happy if your son was forced to butcher meat, or craft the chairs we sit upon, simply because there was no one else to do it? We are great. It is our birthright, as the latest in long lines of magical excellence. But to be great, you must also have the unexceptional. For a gem to shine, one must also have rocks. We, ladies and gentlemen, are the finest of gems. Not only do we glitter, we have fought for the right to do so. But only through this bill, by dragging rocks into our society, will we have a proper foundation upon which to shine. It's like I always say— the wand was the greatest invention of all time, followed by the house elf. Well, ladies and gentlemen? It's time we crafted a close third."
The owl took flight again, soaring off of Yaxley's arm. He sat down, silent once more, while the owl circled overhead.
As it circled, and indeed since Bellatrix entered the room in the first place, Harry had felt the effects of a spell. It was a compulsion charm. Powerful, but with a wide radius covering the whole room, making it easier to resist. It compelled silence unless it was one's turn, signified by the regal bird. If he chose to, Harry or any other wizard of sufficient strength could ignore the charm, but its purpose was clearly not to enforce total silence; merely to remind attendees what was proper.
A shadow passed over him. The owl was diving down.
It swooped to Crouch, who casually raised his wrist for it to perch on.
"The opposition's turn," Bellatrix declared.
Crouch didn't bother to stand. He just tilted his head, smiling.
"Have you no pride?" he asked.
There was silence, of course, as the other representatives accepted the compulsion charm.
"We need Muggle-borns? Us? Oh, yes, as a way of 'glittering,' right? Pathetic."
Yaxley refused to reward Crouch by showing an outward reaction, but Harry knew he must have been grinding his teeth.
"I'll tell you how to glitter," Crouch said. "We fought a war to rid our society of filth. Now, you propose bringing them back. That's why you can't stand out unless you surround yourself with filth— because your zeal is lacking. I'll vote against this bill. I urge every proud pureblood in this room to follow my example. And if you want to make yourself stand out, rather than betraying the root of our cause, try picking up your wand and seeing that cause through, instead abandoning our ideals the instant you're uncomfortable."
The owl left his hand. It flapped straight to its perch this time, landing beside a smirking Bellatrix.
"Things are getting tasty," she said. "I could let others speak… but the rest of you don't actually matter! Let's vote already. You know the procedure—" Her eyes fell on Harry and Susan. "Well, I suppose some of you are probably still ignorant. Simply raise your wand. You can manage that? Fire sparks from the tip. Make them green to vote yes, red to vote against. Choose wisely."
With absolute confidence, Yaxley and Crouch both raised their wands. Their supporters followed their example. There was an explosion of green on their right; an identical red one to their left. The scale mural began to move behind Bellatrix. The two sides swayed, before slowly balancing out, both sides nearly even.
Harry saw the exact moment Yaxley spotted red sparks coming from his and Susan's wands. Yaxley's forehead gained three times as many wrinkles, while the hand not holding his wand squeezed the upholstery of his seat hard enough to turn his fingers pink. His nostrils flared as he sucked in the deepest breath Harry had ever witnessed. Lucius' face had gone slack beside him. Somewhere behind Harry, he heard the snap of a camera capturing a photograph. It seemed Crouch hadn't been taunting idly when he talked of inviting a photographer.
"Ooh! That one will hurt," Bellatrix said. "Down goes the bill for the third and final time."
She casually tore the parchment in half, tossing away the scraps. Before Bellatrix could speak again, the owl flapped off its perch.
It flew low, gliding across the room to settle back on Crouch's hand.
"I'd like to propose an Act of my own, if I can," he said. "You'll have the details in front of you, Bellatrix."
Bellatrix looked at the next page in the stack and cackled. "I do!"
"It's a simple thing," Crouch said. "Won't take long to explain. We still possess the spells to locate any Muggles born with magic as young as their eleventh birthday. Thus far, we've ignored them, leaving them to live in filth. I'm merely proposing that we rectify that. With this Act, the Ministry will personally ensure no nasty Muggle ever casts a spell in this country again. One at a time, we'll just… grind them out of existence."
"Interesting," Bellatrix said. "Will anyone second this?"
Alecto Carrow gleefully spewed green flames from her wand.
"And do we have a thirder?"
Amycus Carrow copied his sister.
"Then you know what that means. We've got another vote! Two-thirds majority to pass it, fifty percent to delay, any less and it gets tossed out…" Bellatrix leaned forward, smiling wickedly. "Get those wands up!"
Harry pointedly ignored the looks he was getting from one side of the room. Though her face remained impassive, Susan took a deep breath. They could feel the pressure building. Harry wanted to tell her to brace herself. It was only going to get worse from here.
This time, it was Crouch whose wand spewed green sparks. The Carrows joined him, along with the final Death Eater from their faction who held a seat. Yaxley's faction, of course, voted against. Genociding Muggle-borns was the last thing he wanted. They were no good to him dead.
Daphne Greengrass, one of the few representatives around Harry's age, sprayed red sparks, despite being one Harry claimed he could sway to their side. Harry himself voted against, as did Susan.
Unlike Yaxley, Crouch only showed the briefest sign of surprise. The Carrows glared murderously, but Crouch merely smiled, shaking his head. Harry spared a glance at Ginny, Neville, and Hannah, all holding up affirmative votes, and hid a smile of his own.
Yaxley's faction consisted of thirteen votes. With Selwyn dead and missing, that number dropped to twelve. Crouch, meanwhile, only had seven— himself, the Carrows, another elected Death Eater, and the three extorted votes from blood traitors. Without the votes Harry promised, they didn't even make up half of the voting body, and that was without revealing that three of them were now in Harry's pocket. The time would come to flip the Weasley, Longbottom, and Abbott votes… but there was no need to make it today.
"Ouch," Bellatrix said. She scanned the room, noting the way both sides were glaring daggers at Harry, and licked her lips. "I think this seems like a wonderful time for a recess, wouldn't you say?"
She smirked at Harry, meeting his eyes. She thought he was surrounded by wolves, with only the order of the court protecting him. The only reason she chose now for a break was for the others to tear him to pieces.
That was fine. Harry knew he would have to do this at some point. He might as well get it over with early.
He was the first to rise, descending the stairs and following the red carpet out of the room. Susan followed him quickly, making sure to stay close. Others followed behind them, while the painted scales continued to shift and sway on the wall.
"Get away from the door," Harry said when he and Susan left the room, re-entering the plush waiting area outside.
Susan did so without hesitation. Harry turned back to the door just in time to hear a voice scream, "YOU!"
The doors were hurled open. Crouch's faction arrived first— it was in-character for them to rush for blood when angered. The Carrows certainly remembered that night in Godric's Hollow, when Harry stalled them long enough to ruin their fun.
Alecto was in front this time. Her wand was out, and the instant she saw Harry she raised it. He scrambled for his own wand. He wasn't fast enough to reach it, his fingers catching on the hem of his nice robes.
"Diffin-do!"
No spell emerged from her wand, because the incantation for a cutting curse turned into a strangled cry. She was lifted off her feet, clawing at her throat, where a hand appeared from thin air. The Harry she'd been ready to curse disappeared like mist on a sunny day, while the real one was revealed, squeezing the air out of Alecto's esophagus.
"I told you that you were no match for a real wizard," Harry said. "You should have listened."
"Release her now!" screeched her brother.
He jabbed his wand at Harry, but Harry merely dragged Alecto in front of himself. Her fat face was going red, while her eyes were starting to roll back.
"Don't be like that," Crouch said, stepping in at Amycus's side. "That was a good trick earlier. You got us good, so you can understand why we feel you owe us one."
"And when you marched into my village slinging spells?"
"You can't hold a grudge over something like that," Crouch said. "What's a few dead Muggles between friends, Harry?"
Slowly, Harry lowered Alecto toward the ground. He could feel her starting to relax, awaiting her release. The second before her toes touched down, his arm whipped out.
He twisted Alecto around, chokeslamming the female Carrow into the floor with a heavy thud! He watched her eyes turn dazed, a trickle of blood dribbling away from where her head landed. Amycus screamed and raised his wand, but Crouch stopped him with a hand across his chest.
"You are nothing," Harry whispered to Alecto. "I can kill you as easily as you kill children. I can make you suffer just as badly as you torture them. You are alive because I have chosen not to make my life more difficult by snuffing out yours. That is the only reason. So live with your head lowered, and never look me in the eyes again."
Harry stood up, Alecto noticeably staying down.
"You realize this means war, don't'cha?" Crouch asked him.
"What a frightening word. Try not to throw it around lightly," Yaxley said.
The older man arrived with his faction at his back, filling the waiting room. There were more of them than Crouch and Harry's groups put together. At the front of the pack were Lucius and Yaxley— the latter of whom didn't hesitate to step over Alecto's fallen body as he placed himself in between Harry and Crouch.
"There've been a lot of decisions made today," he said. "We ought to give ourselves a bit of time to think them all over, wouldn't you say?"
Despite everything that had happened, he still looked professional. Harry was grateful to find he still hadn't changed his preferred methods.
Crouch's faction was like a wildfire. They were erratic, and when they wanted to fight, they picked one on the spot and worried about the consequences later. Yaxley was different. He'd rather constrict his opponents, backing them into a corner they had no hope of escaping from. He had no qualms about using those he hated in order to achieve his own goals. Just look at their approach to Muggle-borns.
In this case, Harry was in conflict with Crouch. Yaxley considered Crouch his most dangerous opponent. So he would protect Harry and stop a fight from happening, even though Harry knew he wanted nothing more than to enact a brutal revenge for the scheme pulled today.
"War is what we fought against Dumbledore," Yaxley said. "It's what was needed to restore purebloods to their proper place. It's not appropriate to describe a fight like this. This is a feud, at most."
"We'll call it a feud, then," Crouch said. "Would you mind moving aside? We've got a feud to get to."
"Here? In this sacred place?" Harry was impressed by how genuinely perturbed Yaxley sounded. "I can't allow something like that."
Crouch took in Yaxley and his supporters, assessing his odds. He looked at Harry, who was calmly assessing him right back. Crouch's final decision was to walk straight past them.
"We're done here," he said. "Collect Alecto."
Amycus levitated his sister off of the floor. When she rose into the air, a dent was visible where she had been slammed. Amycus gave Harry another glare as they left, marching away through the Ministry.
"I suppose this meeting is over for good now that they've left," Yaxley said. "He's never been the most patient."
"That he isn't," Harry agreed.
"Me, on the other hand? I'm very patient. I can wait years, even a decade, for something I've decided I want. But I always get it in the end."
"How fortunate for you," Harry said.
"And unfortunate for others!" Yaxley said cheerfully. "I never forget."
They went silent, neither of them moving, until Yaxley left calmly, most of his faction following him. Daphne hesitated for a moment, glancing at Harry, before following the others. Only Lucius stayed behind.
"Why, Harry?" he asked.
Perhaps the most shocking part was, he sounded genuinely hurt.
"You gave me advice when I was eleven," Harry said. "I doubt you remember. It was after Draco had gone to Hogwarts… You told me that even though I would never have a house, I would always be a true Slytherin at heart. You urged me to follow their values. This is my ambition, Lucius. I'm sorry that you were in its way."
Lucius shut his eyes, only opening them after seconds had passed.
"Draco and Narcissa will be distraught," he said.
Draco certainly would be. But Narcissa? Harry had the strangest suspicion that she would take this in stride.
"Tell them I send my regards," Harry said.
"I will," Lucius said, leaving the same way as the others.
Harry went to collect Susan, deciding it was time they left themselves, only to see a green light reflected in her eyes.
"Avada Kedavra!" said a voice behind him.
Knowing he couldn't conjure a shield, Harry transfigured the sleeve of his robe into a bird, tearing away all the cloth beneath the elbow. The small songbird — which still had fabric on its wings because of its hasty transfiguration — fluttered into the green light… and dropped to the floor.
Harry stared at it, almost still but twitching slightly. "You didn't try," he said.
Bellatrix laughed, lowering her wand. "I bet it scared you though! Poor Potter." She cackled.
"Was there something you needed, Chief Warlock?" Harry asked.
Bellatrix prowled forward, her gown dragging behind her.
"Fighting with the rest of the Inner Circle. Pooling votes to protect mudblood scum. Why, if I reported that to your master, it would almost seem like… betrayal."
"He knows better than to judge my actions without paying attention to my intent," Harry said.
"And what is your intent?" Bellatrix asked.
"To cease being pushed around," he said.
His transfigured bird lurched up. It shot off of the floor, flying straight at Bellatrix, who raised a shield in its path. The bird hit it hard enough to break apart, splattering blood and bits of fabric onto the shield's surface, coating a large section of it.
"Was that supposed to mean something?" Bellatrix asked.
"Yes," Harry said, directly beside her.
Bellatrix's sneer turned to a scowl. She pulsed her magic, and the Harry she'd been talking to disappeared— another illusion, replaced while the dead bird and Bellatrix's shield blocked her view.
Bellatrix looked down at her black gown… But the chest wasn't black anymore. A large pink splotch had appeared on the chest, courtesy of a Color Changing Charm from Harry. The splotch was directly above her heart.
"I'll gladly explain myself to Master any time," he said. "But not to you."
He walked past Bellatrix, who was doing everything in her power to keep her cool despite a visibly twitching eye.
"Let's go, Susan," Harry said. "I think the meeting for today is finished."