Number 12
"Stop sulking Sirius; it's unbecoming of a Lord," Harry teased good naturedly, as he politely dug into his light supper.
"You stunned me in her majesty's crown jewels Harry! You just don't that to a man," Sirius exclaimed in protest, as he lovingly rubbed his crotch, as if to comfort it. "You stunned me four hours ago and I still can't feel mini-me!"
"It could be worse," Remus offered from his seat at the table.
"How on Earth could it be worse Remus?!" Sirius asked, giving his friend a dark look.
"At least Harry didn't hit you there with a cutting curse," Remus expressed, as Sirius cringed and paled at the very thought. The idea for a dragon hide codpiece flashing through his mind. "When did you get so good at duelling Harry?"
"Tonks and I have been duelling since halfway through my first year. With Peter after me, and Tonks wanting to be an auror, we've been putting in even more time and effort to get better. We got to the point where we were spending maybe 8-10 hours a week duelling and practising defensive magic together," he explained proudly.
"That is a lot of extra time and effort to put in, especially for one so young," Remus noted thoughtfully.
"Not when your very life may depend upon it; then it's rather easy to get the proper motivation to train," he answered emotionlessly before a small smile slipped onto his lips and inexplicably a slight sparkle became visible in his eyes. "Tonks is good fun; she knows how to liven up the training." His grin grew even bigger as he remembered with fondness the time that he had stripped and left Tonks buck naked after they'd duelled, in retaliation for the time that she had left him naked. At the time he hadn't been mature enough physically to find Tonks attractive beyond thoughts of her being 'pretty,' but looking back now he could easily admit to himself that Tonks was extremely attractive and definitely sexy, even Penny was for that matter.
"Most girls are good fun if you get them one-on-one," Sirius voiced with a goofy grin, even as he and Remus rolled their eyes at Sirius' typical reply, and casual reference to sex. The minor bit of guilt he was feeling for stunning his godfather in 'her majesty's crown jewels' swiftly disappeared.
"Have you considered signing yourself up to compete in an international duelling competition Harry? It'd be great experience and you could learn a lot. Most have sub competitions specifically for the various age and/or skill levels," Sirius asked, carrying on the conversation.
The idea was intriguing, so he thought over Sirius' suggestion for a good minute and half before replying to the question. "I'm not really interested in competition duelling, thank you." The main reason why he wasn't interested in joining a formal duelling circuit was that he didn't want many people to know of his duelling style or skill level, since it undermined its defensive value. In short, he wanted to hide his abilities, to hide his claws and teeth, so that people would dismiss him as just another bookish Ravenclaw, giving him an advantage if he was ever attacked in earnest.
"Any reason why?" Sirius asked, as Remus listened.
He quickly realized by his godfather's stern facial expression alone that he wouldn't allow this subject to drop without a decent explanation or reason. A non-lethal competition like they'd described probably seemed perfect to ensure that he was safer and better prepared to fight and defend myself in the future. "A couple reasons, I just don't want people to know what I'm capable of with my wand," he answered in a serious tone. "I want them to think I'm a boring, bookish Ravenclaw, so that they underestimate me if I am ever attacked."
"I hate to burst your bubble Harry, but I think that ship has well and truly sailed. The chances of being underestimated, like you're describing, were likely gone the minute it became public knowledge that you successfully became a tiger animagus at the age of 12." Remus added thoughtfully from his seat.
"Remus has a point Harry. Becoming an animagus is a rare and difficult skill to master, at any age, as it's a statement of the wizard's power and mastery of their magic; you did it at 12! I haven't been able to confirm it, but I think you're the youngest recorded animagus in our history." Sirius added.
"Fair point," he replied after some thought, truly hating to admit that he was wrong, but they were absolutely right. This confirmed once again that having competent advisors willing to tell him that he was wrong was not only a great idea, but a necessary one. He consoled himself with the fact that it wasn't his idea to out his form in the middle of the fucking Great Hall! But he could take some comfort in the fact that he was potentially the youngest recorded human animagus in history. He would have to get that verified and have it officially confirmed by the ICW. Titles/records like that, which were recognized on some level by the entire magical community. 'Maybe I'll get my own chocolate frog card?' he pondered for moment. The company that did the chocolate frogs loved using wizards and witches with notable magical accomplishments and records like that.
He considered for a moment learning the memory charm and then going around erasing that particular memory from the population of Hogwarts, or most of it, before realizing it would be an impractical, likely illegal, and extremely time consuming task, but not totally dismissing it. "Which duelling competition would you suggest then?" he asked the elder pair of wizards, as he considered once again trying to memory charm the whole school.
...
Reading through the morning news article, his lips curled in cruel satisfaction at the latest news, before putting the paper to one side so he could tuck back into his cooling breakfast.
"The Minister has finally jumped ship; I have to admit, he stayed loyal to Malfoy far longer than I had expected," he voiced aloud to his breakfast companions, with a hint of approval. He admired and respected loyalty. The Minister somehow lasting for over a week under intense public pressure, before inevitably abandoning his fallen ally, actually said something positive about the man. Or perhaps he had simply been too scared of crossing Lord Malfoy until recently, that couldn't be discounted. Whatever the Minister's reasons for finally jumping ship, they no longer mattered, only the result did. And the delicious result was that the Malfoy family had lost all of their most publically useful allies.
Remus swallowed his food before offering his own opinion, "The Minister probably realized how hopeless Lucius' situation was."
"Or the gold stopped flowing into the Minister's back pocket with the freezing of the Malfoy family vaults," Sirius added from his place at the head of the table. "Harry, I'll be out for most of the day with Nicholas to drum up some more support. Remus will be staying in to keep an eye on you and help you if you need anything."
"Alright," he replied, as he gave a polite nod to Remus, before biting into his egg covered toast, just as a Hogwarts post owl flew into the dining room. "By the way, Rita Skeeter wants to do another interview. Her plan is to rent a meeting room at the Leaky Cauldron to do it. Would you mind coming along?"
"When does she want to do it?" Sirius asked.
"Tomorrow or the day after, whichever is more convenient for us," he replied, already knowing the interview would be nothing more than show for his godfather's and Remus' benefit. The nature of his connection to Rita needed to be kept secret for the value of her articles to remain high and capable of influencing magical Britain.
...
A/N : if we get 400 power stones by the end of the week, I will release an extra chapter ;)
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can join my p atreon :
p atreon.com/loveran