"There has been one who I like, she just isn't very feminine. Her mother died when she was really young and her father didn't know what to do with a daughter. He adored her so much that he never denied her anything, not even when she refused to wear a dress for parties or learn womanly etiquette. She plays Quidditch, doesn't really like gowns and jewellery and she looked disgusted when I gave her flowers at our first meeting." "What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Harry demanded. "If you like her, what the hell does it matter what anyone else thinks? Stop letting others dictate what you do, Marcus. If she doesn't like flowers or jewellery, don't bloody buy her any and find out what she does like and buy her that instead."
Marcus grinned at him and touched his shoulder. "Perhaps I should."
"You definitely should!"
"You are going to be a wonderful friend."
"We're friends now?" Harry asked curiously.
"I'm not letting you go now." Marcus insisted with a wide grin. "Especially not if I'm going to tutor you in Runes. You do still want tutoring, don't you?"
"Absolutely!" Harry said excitedly, almost biting Marcus' hand off with the repeated offer of tutoring.
"We'll work around your school schedule. I can get special permission to come and see you at weekends at the castle. It'll be nostalgic to go back, I'll enjoy it."
"Won't that interfere with your work?" Harry asked worriedly.
Marcus chuckled. "No. You don't seem to understand what I do, Harry. I'm a specialist consultant, I tell my employers when I'm working, not the other way around."
Harry laughed. "Oh, that would be brilliant."
"It is, so if you work hard, you can get to the point where you can do the same. So, we'll start when you're back in Hogwarts and if you can spare an hour or two every Saturday, I'll have you understanding and even enjoying Runes by Easter."
Harry grinned and he reacted on impulse when he reached out and hugged Marcus around the waist.
"Thank you! I can't wait! I'll send you a letter with Hedwig to finalise everything! I need to go and tell Rabastan."
"Are you two back on track now after the Christmas Eve party?"
Harry nodded and he had a gooey smile on his lips as he thought of Rabastan. "Yeah, actually it was the kiss you gave me that spurred him into action."
"As I had planned." Marcus told him with a smirk. "I heard that Rowle attacked you just after? I wish I'd stayed with you for a minute longer, I'd have broken more than his nose."
Harry laughed nervously while thinking that he had broken more than Rowle's nose all by himself.
"I was actually expecting that scum to be here tonight." Marcus carried on, peering around the ballroom consideringly.
"He was here earlier. I had an…altercation with him, so father sent him away." Marcus snorted. "I knew that bastard couldn't control himself. What sort of decent pureblood can't even control himself?"
It happened suddenly, as a distinct big cat Patronus darted into the ballroom and an unfamiliar voice gave them a two-word warning. "Ministry raid." The voice was shouting, echoing throughout the entire manor house so that there was no possible hope of anyone not hearing it and Harry had no doubts that everyone from the ground floor to the attic had heard the warning. It still took him a few moments to process what he'd heard before the panic set in.
"Rabastan!" He cried out in complete fear and panic, but Marcus caught him around the waist and held him.
"Calm. Calm!" Marcus coached him. "This happens at least once a year. They probably picked this party because of your recent adoption to the Malfoys, we know how to handle these and Rabastan and Rodolphus will already be gone, I promise you. If you look suspicious and panicked, that is what will make it worse, so just calm down."
Harry breathed and looked around as a few people were popped away by house elves, but everyone else acted as though they hadn't even been warned as they laughed and joked and sipped on their glasses. It helped him to calm down and he held on tightly to Marcus.
Marcus grabbed at him, groping at his chest and he lifted his Lestrange pendant and Harry's eyes widened. That would be a dead giveaway if a Ministry worker saw it, but Marcus drew just two runes on the back of it with his wand and the pendant shimmered and vanished. Harry groped for it himself and he could still feel it, but he couldn't see it.
"I'll wipe the runes away after these idiots leave, until then, would you like to dance?"
"As I warned Rabastan, I'm a hideous dancer and I will stomp on your feet."
"That's okay, I'll likely do the same to you." Marcus told him with a deep laugh.
Harry laughed too and accepted the hand onto the dancefloor. He didn't need to act shocked when, with a racket that could have woken the dead, tens of people in bright red robes flooded into the Malfoy ballroom. There were shrieks from women and shouts from men and Marcus held Harry as if protecting him as three Aurors converged on them and prodded them with wands, looking for enchantments or potions that would disguise their true faces.
"I found the Potter boy!" One shouted out over the din the commotion had created in the ballroom as the noise level dropped dramatically when the music was shut off.
Harry bristled. "Excuse me! I am Lord Potter-Black and you will address me as such!" He exclaimed in his best Wizengamot voice. "How dare you storm in here while we are hosting a New Year's ball! What right do you have?"
"We have every right to investigate such a large gathering of dark affiliated witches and wizards!"
"On what grounds are you here?" Harry demanded. "I am on the Wizengamot, I know that you can't just set up this…this invasion without a legitimate, legal reason!"
"We are here on the suspicion that you are harbouring escapees of Azkaban here."
"Oh yes, I've escaped from Azkaban, I fancy an hors d'oeuvre at a public social party." Harry sneered. "Well, have a good look around, don't forget to look under the serving tables, your escapees might be hiding under the tablecloths."
Harry glared down the Aurors in front of him, ignoring that the ballroom had gone silent and that nearly all of the occupants were listening to him.
"We're just doing our jobs!" A red-faced man, who could have only been in his early twenties, insisted.
"Not particularly well, apparently." Harry answered as quick as a snap. "Just because you lazy, imbecilic fools can't find a trace of several degenerates, you actually come and raid a New Year's party just to make it seem like you're actually doing something. This is unacceptable! Just what does the Auror department think it is doing?!" He demanded furiously. "You are supposed to be the top law enforcers of our world, you are supposed to be the elite at tracking and hunting down these dangerous, convicted criminals and yet, here you are, terrorising innocent members of the public by raiding a mere party! What could possibly have crossed your minds to make you believe that this was ever a good idea? You do not look good, you do not look in control of the situation, and you do not look like you're doing something to hunt down these criminals, you look stupid! You all look lost and clueless and like you have no leads and are merely grasping at whatever straws first come to hand!"
Harry ignored the deathly silence of the room and what felt like Marcus suppressing furious laughter at his back.
"Is this who the members of magical society have to protect them?" Harry demanded when everything remained silent. "Idiots who crash a party searching for Azkaban escapees instead of actually tracing their whereabouts and hunting them down? You should be ashamed of yourselves! You, who dare to call yourselves Aurors. You're all pathetic. Who is in charge here? Which one of you actually came up with this ludicrous idea?"
"Harry, calm yourself." A hand on his shoulder and Harry relaxed, easing down from the edge of his anger as Lucius took over. "I'm sure that the Aurors have legitimate information and intelligence to go on and aren't just harassing us for the sake of it." Lucius said silkily in such a way as to imply that that was exactly what they were doing. "It wouldn't do to hamper their search of our home, I would like it known that we are fully compliant with such Ministry intrusions. You need to remember, Harry, that the Ministry have allowed several very dangerous criminals to escape into our community. Criminals who need to be caught and placed back into Azkaban and if the Aurors believe that we are hiding these criminals under the floorboards, then they have every right to search our home to check for them, no matter how preposterous it seems."
Lucius waited for a few heartbeats and then rose a sculpted blonde eyebrow. "Well then, get to it and search, we are in the middle of a party and we would like to get back to it before the night is over." He said sternly. "We have to make up for this deeply embarrassing faux pas that you've inflicted upon myself and my family."
The Aurors looked too embarrassed themselves to do anything, but the one in charge of the raid called out to them all and rallied them and they started searching, using spells and charms to search out any unsavoury objects or people. They searched everywhere and then searched again, but they found nothing and that only compounded their embarrassment and the pointlessness of their raid.
"If that was all." Lucius drawled scathingly. "Perhaps now that you are absolutely sure that there are none of the Ministry's wanted criminals hiding behind the tapestries you could leave us in peace and I might be able to salvage the party that you decided to assail purely for the sake of seeming proactive in the search for your elusive criminals."
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