"Why not?"
"People forgot how to do it. There might be some old family that has a record of how to do it somewhere, locked in some large and dusty library, but if there is, they aren't telling." She smiled. By 'large and dusty library', she of course meant 'small and damp', by 'them' she of course meant Harry, and by 'not telling' she naturally meant, 'yet'.
Personally, she couldn't wait to watch the stars rearrange themselves in the vast, empty night sky, like the world's most spectacular fireworks display, even if the whole 'four dancing virgins' thing was more than a little embarrassing.
Justin bit the end of his quill. "Umm… still getting the hang of this whole political factions thing. What do the Potters do?"
That threw her for a loop. Hermione refocused on the brown-blonde haired boy. "Sorry?"
"The Potters are the leading family of the Light, yes? The Greengrasses are the leading family of the Gray and they do a winter festival and 'the hunt'. The Malfoys are the leading family of the Dark and they do the Yule Ball. So, what do the Potters do?"
Hermione blinked. "Oh." She waved a vague hand. "They do a Christmas party."
...
It wasn't much later that Harry was walking down the Hogwarts path to the thestral led carriages, accompanied by that day's collection of appointed courtiers - Tracey Davis from the Gray, Millicent Bulstrode from the Dark, and two older students from some other minor interest groups. They climbed aboard the carriages, made small talk down to Hogsmeade station, climbed onto the express, made medium talk while they waited for the train to leave, and started on the big talk soon after they passed Carlisle.
"Look, what is it you want, Potter?" Tracey Davis looked him straight in the eye.
He'd been stalling for over ten minutes now. He smiled. "Many things, Heiress Davis."
"You haven't tried to claim anything all year. You just waltzed into the common room after destroying the ENTIRE duelling team, pulled off some insanely high level magic, then sat down for the rest of the semester, and didn't capitalise on it." She glared at him, her button nose and large eyes pushing her two levels above cute and clear into adorable territory.
He leaned back. "Tracey, life is like a box of chocolates-"
"-Oh, for the love of Merlin!"
He chuckled.
"Will you take this seriously for once!"
"Why?"
"Don't you understand about the Slytherin mask? You have SOO much potential but you're squandering it!"
Milli and the two others watched the back and forth, but didn't seem inclined to jump in.
Harry raised an eyebrow. The click-clack of the train filled up the temporary silence. "I'm surprised at you, Heiress Davis. I would've thought you would understand."
Tracey hesitated. "What?"
"I know you've been keeping a close eye on me, ever since a few weeks into the start of term. You didn't think I didn't notice, did you?"
Tracey seemed to flounder for a moment, uncertainty and mild panic flittering across her features, before an ice like visage instantly clamped over her face. Her body straightened, her legs crossed, and her hands quickly folded themselves on her knees. "I do not know what you are referring to, Mister Potter."
Harry smiled ruefully. That had been an occlumency lockdown and a half. "Don't you?" His smile slowly spread into a grin. He extended a legilimency probe and tickled it against her barriers.
Her eyes widened. "Y-You… S-stop that."
His grin widened. "Why? You won't get the answers you need like that, you know." He tickled some more. "Why don't you come back out again, Tracey?"
She looked away.
He bent the connecting tendril and continued right on.
She gasped. "I… I…"
Milli and the others watched, eyes similarly wide.
"You were the only one, you know? Of all the Slytherins in our year, you were the only one who smelled something fishy. Surely you must have realised, even if only at a subconscious level?"
"I d-don't know what you're talking about."
Harry raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything more. If Tracey couldn't figure out that this was his Slytherin mask then he wasn't about to just tell her. He withdrew his mind tickle magic.
Tracey let out a long breath. Her posture relaxed slightly.
"You are an impressive witch, Tracey. Perhaps not possessing quite as much raw power as Miss Granger and Heiress Greengrass, but you see things that other people don't."
She glared at him.
Harry smiled. "What do you want, Miss Davis?"
This seemed to bring her up short. "What?"
"You want to know what I want. Presumably you want to know so you can do some kind of deal with me. What is it that you want, Miss Davis?"
Tracey shot a look at the other three occupants of the carriage. She stood up. "I want you to stop sitting on the fence and pick a damn side!" She stared into his eyes, which he returned with his own relaxed smile. She hesitated. "Only… only, you don't have to decide right now. And… and I also want to invite you to sit with me and my friends in our compartment further down the train."
Harry grinned and stood up. "You only had to ask."
Tracey left.
He winked at Millicent as he walked past.
A hand shot out and grabbed his arm.
"Yes, Milli?"
"Yes, Milli?"
"You will join me, Draco, and our other friends afterwards, won't you?"
He tipped an imaginary hat. "Of course, Miss Bulstrode."
He followed Tracey down the train. They stopped at the middle compartment.
The door opened.
There sat Daphne, Hermione, Terry Boot, Zacharias Smith, Wayne Hopkins, and Blaise Zabini, all laughing and smiling, an open pack of exploding snap on the table, while Hedwig and Freekey both picked at a shared bowl of nuts and seeds. Someone, probably Hermione, had transfigured the window curtains into a waterfall of multicoloured tinsel.
Daphne put down her goblet of pumpkin juice and smiled warmly at them. "Why hello there, Tracey - Oh my, and Mister Potter too. Do come in." She patted the seat next to her. "This is an unexpected pleasure."
- End of Chapter Twenty-two -
A/N: Changes to Quidditch
Do I even need to explain why I'm doing this?
Rule changes:
Chasers can only handle the quaffle for three seconds (time goes down in professional play) - otherwise, I see no reason why it ever even needs to be passed.
Seeker can handle the quaffle, but only for one second (time goes down in professional play).
Golden Snitch is worth 10% of total points scored by the team, rounded down.
Keep everything else the same and extrapolate consequences.
A/N: A note on slave contracts.
It's not nearly as bad as has been made out in this chapter. There are severe limits to what this magic does. A legitimate command given under a slave contract isn't nearly as powerful as the imperius curse, and we know that can be thrown by a strong enough will.
There are also a number of other reasons why Voldy hadn't made wide spread use of these, why the government don't use them on prisoners, why Dumbledore hasn't used it on Harry, or anyone else for that matter, etc, etc, etc.
These contracts are not, in any way, all powerful, or a game breaker. This is not one of those fics (You know the ones I'm talking about).
This is a temporary Author Note that will exist until all this is explained in story in more depth.
...
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