Many changes because of my two beta readers, Deb and Diane. Thank you for making the story better, and in this case easier to read as well.
*
Harry looked around at the meeting of the MELL students and their parents and families. He put his wand to his throat, saying 'Sonorus," announcing, "There is going to be an opening dinner and then dance tonight. All of the MELL students are invited to attend along with all of the people in attendance here. Seating is assigned, and it is a formal occasion. If you do not have appropriate dress, please let someone on the staff know."
Harry put his wand back to his throat and said, "Quietu," then turned to Albus and Cleo. "The prophets would like the two of you to come with Mum and me. They would like you to be dressed by the costumers of the Regent."
Rose turned to Scorpius, shaking her head. "It will be interesting to see if they have any better luck with Cleo than I do. I do the best I can, helping her to buy stylish clothes, but between her obsession with pockets and her own choice of what she wants to wear I am not very successful." Scorpius looked sympathetic to Rose's plight as Cleo was dressed today in dress of large cabbage roses and huge pockets that took up the front of her skirt.
*
Harry and Albus went down to the quarters of the Regent in the castle, and into a large men's dressing room. When Harry was first in Switzerland the formal dress was very fancy, medieval looking robes. Harry had insisted that they change to what he still felt were too fancy and decorated but much more modern suits. All his medals and honors were displayed on the jacket, much to Harry's discomfort.
Albus had displayed his unusual magic powers early, and more than once it had been suggested that he be awarded The Order of Merlin for saving lives during these incidents. Albus never talked about this, and it was not widely known. For the first time, there was on Albus's jacket modest but visible markers indicating these actions. The information was not large or showy, but it was there, much to his embarrassment.
*
One of the ladies that maintained the costumes for the Regents came into the room where Ginny, Jane and Minerva were and told them, "Ginny, you have to get ready for the ball tonight."
Jane panicked. "Do I have to go to a ball? I do not have a dress for a ball, and I have no idea how to behave. I'm not ready for a ball."
You are staying here with Minerva and an aide." Ginny reassured Jane, resisting the urge to say 'Yes, Cinderella' to Jane. They could easily get a dress for Jane, but emotionally Jane was probably not ready for a ball.
Ginny, Jane and Minerva went into a large dressing room, where a witch washed Ginny's hair. Jane noticed that the shampoo bottle had Mrs. Potter's name on it and picked it up. Ginny remarked, "I made my own shampoo. The scent is custom."
Jane noticed that the scent, although feminine, was a little sharper than most of the female scents she was aware of. She noticed that the hairdresser finished up with some Cover Witch Cosmetics 'Colour Just the Gray' from a bottle that also had Mrs. Potter's name on it.
The hairdo that that Ginny ended up with was much more sophisticated than the way she usually wore her hair. She wore an incredible tiara.
Eventually Cleo was led into the room. The hairdresser looked skeptically at the two large plaits, took them out, and washed Cleo's hair. It was thick, seldom straight but not uniformly curled. The witch tried to put it up in a bun or otherwise corral it. She tried one large, more sophisticated plait, but it did not look like Cleo. She finally put it back in the two big plaits intertwined with many smaller intricate braids and beads. She then took Cleo into a big room where the three witches were just finishing dressing Ginny in a very fancy dress that did not hide that she was heavy but emphasized all her curves. Ginny looked like a prosperous middle-age mother.
The three witches looked critically at Cleo. They tried a modest dress that covered her up to her neck, but it obviously was not her. They tried a couple of dresses ideal for an early teen-age girl, but her figure was really closer to that of a well-endowed sixteen-year-old Muggle girl than that of one that was only thirteen-and-a-half. They tried a couple of dresses to minimize her bust or hips, but neither worked.
When they were big enough, breasts were features that you could work with, minimizing them or shaping them to look sexy. There was only one shape that looked natural on Cleo, and that shape seemed to shout out 'Maternal," not something you would think natural on a young girl. The same with the large shapely hips and the not thin but certainly much thinner middle, which somehow by not being too thin looked more lush and maternal than it would have had it been real thin.
The dress they ended up with showed a modest amount of cleavage, and was form fitting to Cleo's natural waist, where it flared out, emphasizing her hourglass shape. It did have a very obvious pocket for her wand, and another small pocket.
"She makes me want to have a baby again," the oldest of the three witches remarked.
Cleo looked right at the youngest, who smiled. The young witch had accompanied both of her children to see Cleo earlier in the week, and after each time made love to her husband when she was fertile. It was hard to see and talk to Cleo and not think having another baby was a good thing.
The third witch had just become a grandmother. Before working with Cleo, she was more than content with her three, but working with Cleo there was something just so attractive about, maybe ...
Everyone looked at Cleopatra. At least she was not frumpy. She looked very very Cleopatra. She would never be beautiful in a twenty-first century sort of way, but she did radiate a Renaissance sensuality. All of the Potters' were easy to approach and talk to, but Cleo radiated an openness that put people at ease. The previous ruling family wore expensive costumes to separate themselves from their subjects. There was an honesty about Cleopatra's dress and appearance that was the opposite.
One witch brought out a tiara that Cleo was supposed to wear, very worried that the expensive tiara would look silly on this unpretentious outfit. To everyone's surprise, the tiara looked natural on Cleo. She looked like a princess, a princess that anyone would be comfortable approaching and becoming friends with, but still a princess.
*
Harry hated to make an entrance. He had been able to avoid most of the pomp and ceremony of being the Regent, but the Opening and Closing Balls for the International Confederation of Witches and Wizards were exceptions. Most of the time he was just Harry Potter, not Harry Potter with three Orders of Merlin and the Wizard of Wizard's award from the International Confederation of Witches and Wizards and honors from Great Britain and he had lost track of all the other countries. The full list of his honors could fill a page, and it embarrassed him. The only time he had to acknowledge them was at the Opening and Closing ceremonies.
Harry and Albus met Ginny and Cleo at the door to the witches dressing room. Harry took Ginny's arm. Tonight there would be no Elf helping her, so Harry had to let Ginny hold his arm whenever she was not sitting down. Albus and Cleopatra followed, holding hands. Albus had grown, and was finally significantly taller than his short mother and closer to his father's height. He was wearing shoes that raised him up another two inches, and Cleo wore very thin slippers, so although she was taller than he, in fact taller than Harry, she did not tower over him as much as she had a year ago.
As they entered, the Sergeant at Arms introduced them. "The Regents Harry Potter, who has ordered me not to read his many honors to avoid delaying the start of dinner, and his wife Ginny Potter, Order of Merlin First Class.
"Albus Potter and Cleopatra."
Harry rolled his eyes and sighed at the antics of the Sergeant at Arms, but was grateful that the Magi did not belabor his introduction.
The two couples walked up to the head table. Everyone stood while Bishop Scherica gave a very non-denominational blessing, and then sat down.
Appetizers appeared at everyone's plate at once, one of the nice things that magic made possible. A multi-course dinner and dessert followed.
Harry and Albus were sitting next to each other. Harry pointed out various people to Albus, and told him a little about each, and Albus did the same for some of the students and their families. Ginny was sitting next to Giselle Richter, the wife of Gerhard Richter, the Chief Wizard of Switzerland, someone she had known for over twenty years.
Cleo was sitting next to an older lady who introduced herself. "I am Jo, and I am in charge of primary school education here in the valley. I have heard about you from many of our teachers and students, and am happy to meet you."
Cleopatra responded with one of her huge smiles. "Oh, I love meeting all the children! Their flags do so help make the valley happier. I'm always delighted at all the new and unique designs they come up with."
"The last time I saw that tiara worn it was by the daughter of the last Regent," Jo puzzled. "You are not a daughter of the Regent. The children act like you are going to be the next queen, or they want you to be the next queen. Who are you?"
"Albus and I are going to marry and have a big family," Cleo casually remarked, as if that would explain things.
"How old are you?" Jo wondered.
"Albus and I are only thirteen, so we are going to have to wait years before we marry," Cleo sighed. "At least Albus is growing up. He was a little boy when we met two years ago, but he is maturing. Every time I have a period it reminds me I could have a baby, but I guess I need to wait. I love babies and children."
"You are going to Hogwarts with Albus Potter?" Jo asked.
"We are in different houses, but we are going to classes together, and do many other things together," Cleo confirmed, smiling one of her frequent huge smiles.
She and Jo proceeded to talk about classes and Hogwarts. Jo shared how primary schools were organized in the Swiss valley, something that Cleo expressed a great interest in. Jo ended up being very pleased with Cleo's interest in and appreciation of her work for the primary age children of the valley.
Eventually Cleo told Jo, "I need to write down some things." Jo did not see anything big enough to hold even a small biro, but Cleo reached into the flat slit in her dress and pulled out the tiniest of purses. She touched it with her wand and it grew into a modest sized clutch purse. Cleo reached into the purse and pulled out a modest sized note pad about four times larger than the purse, along with a biro to write with. She proceeded to grill Jo on some of the things they had been talking about, writing information in her note pad.
When she was finished she looked like she was pondering something. "Index," she said as she started to write. She spoke Jo's full name, and some details of the discussion, the date of the dinner. Then she thought," Jo's husband has an unusual tie with Beaters and Bludgers on it. Jo has a purple dress with a sweetheart neckline."
"How will those help you remember?" Jo asked.
"Sometimes I remember a conversation by who I was talking to and what they looked like," Cleo replied. "Rose and Mrs. Granger-Weasley have helped me index my notes."
Cleo proceeded to put the biro back in the notepad, the modest size notepad into the little purse, then shrank the purse and put it into a pocked way too small for it, leaving no sign of anything except an almost unnoticeable slit pocket in her dress.
Rose looked on in wonder at this scene. The people who dressed Cleo had somehow managed to keep her neat while letting her be herself. This was magic of a high order.
*
Gabrielle DuMond had arranged to sit next to Rose Granger-Weasley at the dinner. Her parents had impressed on her the need to become friends with the most powerful of the Magi children. She was not in Gryffindor or Slytherin, so she did not spend as much time with the other MELL students when she was at Hogwarts. So she arranged to sit next to Rose.
"I admire your fashion sense," Gabrielle told Rose before Harry and Ginny, Albus and Cleo entered. "What kind of dress is Cleo going to wear tonight?"
"I have no idea," Rose told Gabrielle.
"I cannot imagine she is going to look like a princess, or do justice to her supposed position," Gabrielle scoffed.
"They are getting dressed in the Regent's quarters," Rose explained.
"I've never seen her well dressed," Gabrielle sneered.
Rose kept quiet. Cleo was not a conventional beauty, but Rose had seen her reasonably well put together at times. Cleo would never meet Gabrielle's standards for beauty, but she wasn't ugly by any means.
Harry and Ginny, Albus and Cleopatra had to make a grand entrance just before the meal was to begin. When they entered, Rose looked at her uncle and aunt. Harry was handsome and fit, and looked like a modern ruler in his modern suit. Ginny's dress, plus the tiara, made her look like a modern queen.
Albus did look like a prince, a very young one but no longer a child.
Cleopatra looked like Cleopatra. The dress she was wearing showed just who she was, with a wand pocket that showed off the most unusual wand she carried and somehow emphasized that she was a powerful witch. The dress, the hair, everything about her conveyed that she was the friendliest and most approachable princess. Her smile took over her face, not the carefully controlled modest smile of a beauty queen but the overly wide smile of someone who was happy she was who she was and you were who you were.
And the tiara fit. Somehow you knew that, as unlikely as it might have been, Cleopatra was a princess.
Gabrielle looked at Cleo as she entered, ready to sneer at her again, and stopped short. That fat (well, she wasn't that fat, just not thin) undignified mess of a girl looked like a princess.
Gabrielle looked in surprise at Rose, who smirked. The ladies who dressed her Aunt Ginny had worked a miracle on Cleopatra, making her look like a princess while at the same time allowing her to look like herself.
"Don't worry, Gabrielle," Rose smiled, her tone perfectly calm. "She will revert back to the Cleopatra you love to make fun of. There is just more to her. Remember, Cleo is my friend and I would appreciate it if you kept your jealous comments about her to yourself when in my presence."
"Jealous?" Gabrielle started to rage, but then seeing Cleo so at ease at the head table, and Roses determined visage, she stayed quiet.
Rose's dinner with Gabrielle was reasonably tense and frosty, and Rose vowed never to share a meal with Gabrielle if she could avoid it.
A formal ball followed the dinner. This was a chance for people to talk to Harry and Ginny, and almost more importantly Albus and Cleopatra.
People in Switzerland knew who Harry and Ginny were. Harry was a modest person, a Regent who seldom used the power of his office and never flaunted it. Everybody could see that he was way more powerful in the world of the Magi than his formal titles, Head Auror in Great Britain and one of the assistant-managers of the International Auror Association, would suggest. Harry never withdrew any money from the Regent's accounts either, which endeared him to the Magi in Switzerland. There were rumors that he was fabulously wealthy, which was true, but there was nothing in the way he lived to indicate he was anything other than moderately wealthy.
Ginny was a sports writer, and as that was a rather public person. She dismissed her Quidditch injuries by saying that the knee that was damaged had at one time been very painful, but since they installed the Muggle metal knee that had not hurt, and none of her other problems, as serious as they sometimes were, caused her any pain. She seemed to be a very happy person, although she did have a temper.
Harry and Ginny had been attending these balls and dealing with the people in Switzerland and around the world for years, and had become very good at being polite without being too newsworthy.
As soon as rumors began to surface about Albus, people had been trying to figure him out. Albus tried to resist any attempt to speculate about being the heir, or about what he would do if he was. All the MELL students acknowledged him as their leader, partly because Galadriel and Thorin treated him as such, and partly because he was obviously the most knowledgeable and powerful Magi of the group. Albus had tried, not always successfully, not to do anything newsworthy until last year, when he and Cleo removed the wall in front of the castle, and Cleo started to redecorate the castle.
No one had been able to talk to Cleo since she left Switzerland a year ago until she arrived back with Albus about a week ago. Since then most of the children of the valley had met with her, but reporters had been kept away. All the younger children and even most of the older ones wanted her to be the next queen, and to spend time with them. Rose could not begin to give the budding artists all the attention they wanted and needed, and Cleo and Rose had recruited a dozen witches and a dozen wizards with artistic talent and the ability to work with children, something that endured Cleo not only to the young artists being taught but also to the older children whose talents were being used and appreciated.
As soon as Cleo was at the table with Albus a group of Magi approached her. One Francois de la Farge said a snide remark in French, to which Cleo responded is passable French that her French was not very good. Francois continued in irritated English, "Who gave you permission to redo the castle?"
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Richter gave us permission, sir," Cleo responded. "The castle was dark and gloomy. It looked like a 15th century castle that had never been updated, built and decorated by people who were afraid. I want a happy castle that makes everyone who sees it happy. Who wants a dark and gloomy castle? Most of the castle did not have modern bathrooms! That is why we are doing all this work, putting in bathrooms, and as long as we are running pipes for plumbing we are putting glasses for inside nets in each room because the wild flyers don't go through the walls."
Harry laughed. "We are putting glass fiber for internet because the thick walls of the castle interfere with wi-fi. We are also running electric wires to all the rooms. We are not hooking it up everywhere yet, but as Cleo indicated as long as we are modernizing the infrastructure we might as well do it all at once."
Many of the Magi recognized what Harry was talking about, although there was a significant minority for whom wi-fi did not make any more sense than wild flyers.
Gerhardt Richter added, "Harry had not really spent any money on the castle since becoming Regent, and the house accounts had accumulated more than enough money, if that is your concern, Francois. It really was time to modernize the castle."
"Do you want to live in the castle, Cleo?" one of the witches asked.
"Who would not want to live in a fairy tale castle?" Cleo sighed, looking at Albus. "And they lived Happily Ever After, and filled the castle with love and laughter and lots and lots of children."
"I did not want to live in this castle," Ginny interjected. "I never had enough energy to redecorate this place either, nor the need to."
"Are you a princess?" another one of the witches asked, looking at the tiara.
"With ermine robes and sitting up on a throne and lording it over people?" Cleo wondered. "I hope not. I'm just me. I was going to tell them not to put this tiara on my head, but it fits. Albus and the prophets tell me, tell us, Albus and me, that there are things we have to do, dangerous things, and I know I have to be a good person and do them, but I really just want to grow up and marry Albus and have a big family, but I will do what I have to do because that is what you have to do."
You could see a couple of the Magi trying to parse that long and convoluted sentence.
"How come you marched in here with Harry and Ginny," another person asked.
"Because I was told to," Cleo replied simply.
"So you think you and Albus are going to be the next King and Queen of the Magi?" another wizard asked Cleo.
"Or prince and princess or he-ruler and she-ruler or President and Mrs. President or manager and manage-her or something, I guess, if the prophets are right, and if we don't die, which I hope we don't, because dying would really be a problem, and we couldn't fulfill any of the prophesies if one of us was dead."
"I am not sure the old King and Queen structure is appropriate for the twenty-first century," Albus added.
Someone jumped in with, "So Albus, if you do fulfill the prophesies you will turn down being king?"
Albus paused a moment, before answering, "I think you are asking for a simple answer to a complicated question. Our world is changing. It has to change, as the No-Maj world changes. Our magic is no match for some of the magic of the modern No-Maj world. I would expect how we govern ourselves will have to change as well."
The same person grumbled, "That is a complicated non-answer."
"Yes, Sir, it is," Albus grinned and replied.
Someone who looked oriental, not one that Albus knew, jumped in with, "You have the Elder Wand. Does that make you the most powerful wizard in the world?"
"I do not think it is particularly wise or safe to think so," Albus replied. "It has been called an unbeatable wand, but plenty of wizards who have used it have been beaten. Sometimes I think of it more like The Sword of Damocles. The wand is powerful, but other people lust after it and will even kill for it."
"Are you going to have to fight the Lord of the Dementors?" the same wizard continued.
"If we do, the prophets say it will be a bloody and terrible fight, and there is no guarantee that we will win," Albus replied.
A few people noticed the markings on Albus's jacket indicating that he had been nominated for the Order of Merlin, but he refused to comment on that subject even when pressed. Harry finally had to reinforce Albus in this, saying, "If Albus does not want to talk about it please respect his wishes, or leave."
The conversation continued in this vein for some time. Eventually Harry and Ginny danced a few of the slow dances. While Harry and Ginny were not with them Albus and Cleopatra did not answer any questions, Albus insisting over and over, "I want my parents here before saying anything else."
Very few of the MELL students danced; dancing lessons at Hogwarts started third year.
As the dance was breaking up Rose rushed over to Cleopatra. "You looked fantastic, Cleo!" Rose gushed. "What did they do?"
"I don't know," an honestly puzzled Cleo replied. "Come along and find out."
When they arrived back at the dressing room the three witches who had dressed Ginny and Cleo undressed Cleo and put the dress she had been wearing back on. They had done something to tighten up the pockets, and instructed Cleo on how to shrink and expand the multiple items she insisted on keeping in her pockets.
"Can you teach me how to do that?" Rose inquired.
"We can try," one of the witches replied. "Bring the rest of Miss Cleopatra's wardrobe here tomorrow."
The next day the witches worked with Rose and Cleopatra on her wardrobe. Nothing could make Cleo look stylish in the same way Rose was, but the alterations and lessons helped Cleo look less disheveled and frumpy. They also gave Rose some styling tips.
2020-2021