"I think it's about time to call this meeting to order," Dumbeldore thundered imperiously and then glanced pointedly about the room, empty except it's many occupants and a round table filled with chairs, "it seems the ministry does not even see fit to show their face anymore."
"And what makes you the person to lead this?" Slytherin rounded smoothly on the old man.
Complaining at the same time as May who scoffed, "says, disgustingly, the most universally hated man in the room." She and Linda were already sitting, a good distance from Dumbeldore but less than ninety degrees from him on the round table so that they wouldn't be anywhere near the side of the table that Slytherin lingered by.
"Disgustingly? A hypocrite and resistor of change of his caliber deserves that title." The final person in the room commented from the side of Slytherin, taking joy in The angered looks the two women sent him, his hands twitched and his face seemed frozen at an odd gleeful expression. They seemed vaguely familiar, but Harry couldn't place them at all, average height, so a little shorter than May would likely be without her heels, but that made them shorter than everybody else there except Draco.
"They were good people who you killed, good witches and wizards." Linda stated, her voice a forced neutral and body relaxed, an odd contraction given the gleam in her eyes and the words she choose spoke of nothing but fiery anger, "All they wanted was to help you and be your friend. And you killed them. Do you even ever think of their names."
"It was a sacrifice for a greater cause." Slytherin spoke grandly, with a sweeping gesture as he took a seat directly across from Dumbeldore, "Something I know you do not stray away from."
"They were children!" May protested.
"Some of them were, but many were also older than some of your Ravenclaw... friends. Older than those caught in the crossfire of certain Diagon Alley raids."
"But we aren't targeting them! And... So was I." There was a degree of vulnerability in May's voice that hadn't been there before.
"As was Rowle." Slytherin stated, self-satisfied by the full circle and beginning to make his way into a full speech, "As was all the unfortunate lives lost to Hogwarts, due to the ministry and Dumbledore's blatant disregard and incompetence. And, as much as it pains me to admit it... as was Potter, while I may have greatly wished to kill him at the time-"
"At the time, suggesting not anymore?" Draco interrupted.
Slytherin eyed him warily, before he spoke, seemingly not as put off as Harry would have expected at the interruption. "I see no reason why I can't just ignore the prophecy. It seems Potter has fled back into the wilderness if he survived, if he continues to stay out of my way, then I won't get in his. As simple as that."
It was a little odd watching the wariness the group excluding Theo seemed to extend towards Draco who he was so used to seeing cower. Then again, perhaps the larger sign of things was that Theo who had kept a cordial but distant relationship with seemingly everybody now seemed to have a very clear past with everyone that held a lingering tension which rarely came from things that weren't deeply personal.
From May, to Ron, to the Hufflepuff prefect, to the odd Slytherin fellow, even Dumbledore, he seemed to have in some way grown close to them and then burnt the bridge irreparably. On top of that everyone was referring to Draco as Drakon, for some reason, and nobody seemed keen to do anything but talk in circles making the whole thing feel more like some kind of fever dream than any logical reality.
Although that seemed to be expected from humans in his experience.
In the other room the fireplace roared to life again.
"Here, here, you aren't getting started without us, are you?"
"Fudge." May said flatly, "Dumbeldore was just insisting on starting the meeting."
"I see you haven't changed your habits of making groundless statements since you said Harry Potter was the one who led you to believe you know who was back." Fudge sniffed, "If anyone here should be the ones who call this meeting to order it should be the ministry." A tall platinum blond haired man followed Fudge at a distance, Draco's father. There was magic masking the left side of his face so that it appeared normal. Harry wasn't sure what was behind it, even when he tasted the air.
With them taking the two of the remaining seats. The table looked more clumped in groups and spread out at others, with three missing chairs, Dumbledore, the first to sit, sat facing the door Ron sitting to his left, Millicent Bulstrode next to him. Fudge took a seat to Millicent's right, Malfoy to his so that Malfoy sat on Theo's left who sat two empty chairs away from Slytherin.
"The ministry's duty was to provide a fair trial, it failed." Theo responded clearly and coldly. "No matter the baseless accusations doddering old men spread about."
"Voldemort, might not have returned in the form you expected him to, but return he has." Dumbeldore stated, "And whether he was behind the attack on Hufflepuff or not, he is a dangerous force that seeks to uproot magical society as we know it!"
"Change for the better-"
Slytherin was cut off and he cast an ugly look at May for doing so, "Your society is rotted at its core, that's the whole reason people like him can get away with it. Slytherin wishes to bind muggleborns in servitude and implement an outdated cast system that only seeks to exploit-"
"That's hardly what I believe at all," Slytherin protested smoothly, "I'm not nearly so unreasonable. I wish to create a utopia, for the magically gifted so that we don't have to hide-"
"You cannot be trusted to shape anything!" Dumbeldore cried, "you do not love anyone or anything but yourself, and May, I admire your passion, your fire for change, but will you really tear to pieces-"
"Passion?!" Fudge explained, "That fire for change is very much literal and cost seven thousand gallons in damages this past week! Not to mention how it sent four Aurors to St. Mungos for treatment! It's no wonder Hogwarts fell to ruins under your so called authority! Azkaban is too good for the likes of you- you- of your kind!"
"We admit to nothing, first off," May replied smugly, "But us mudbloods as you so often call us will continue to do as we please until you stop allowing the pureblood to walk all over us, until the likes of them stop abusing the political and economical power they were spoon fed to keep all the good positions for themselves! Do you know what percentage of shops in Diagon Alley, the wizarding world's main market-"
"Wizarding Britain," Draco scoffed, "Most of those shops are family businesses, kept within families for centuries. No one is holding you hostage, if you wish to start a business use owl order, move to where there is more turnover, or do so in your original world."
"The wizarding world is my home now, just as much as it is yours!" May snarled rising to her feet.
"It's not mine." Draco said flatly also rising to his feet, May shifted uncomfortably, automatically making a move as if to sit but stopping, "Now sit down, and shut up," she didn't sit, but he continued anyway, "I've had enough of wasting my time. Let me make this clear, Slytherin, set your Death Eaters anywhere near my boys one more time and you make an enemy of the whole night market. Fudge, I don't know what the people who think for you are saying, but they won't be the one who's getting a little nighttime visit if that werewolf legislation goes through, yeah? Try to think carefully now."
His piece said Draco stomped from the table, with a pat on Theo's shoulder and a brief nod, he left. The fireplace flared and then he was gone. Fudge whimpered, but quickly recovered once Draco had left.
As if everyone was in a hurry now conversation picked up as everybody- excepting Fred, George, and Theo- once again tried to say their piece or provoke somebody else at the table over one another and make an equally as snappy exit, nothing having been decided upon. Theo leaned back in his chair as the last people, Fred and George who had stuck around relatively quietly except for the odd quick remark, left the room.
"And so ends the last meeting." Theo chuckled to himself, his hand absently stroking along Harry's tail as he did so, the other undoing his fancy necktie. A small door, located in the fireplace room opened up.
"The last one?" Professor Flitwick walked from it, his attire far less mimicked the heavy layered robes of wizarding Britain which Harry had seen him in and instead was a simple suit, like what the goblins he'd seen at Gringotts wore, "Are you giving up?" He asked insistently.
"Giving up? I succeeded." Theo glanced over pulling a decanter and two cups from his pocket as Flitwick took the once empty seat beside him, "You make it sound as if I had ever hoped to get those hard headed idiots to ever get along."
He poured a fair amount into each cup. "Not one of them are willing to put their pride aside and come to agreement, not unless they spearhead the whole thing as it's leader and the others how at their feet. Not even if they were to be offered exactly what they preach under another's lead. You said it yourself when The Goblin Nation stopped showing for these meetings and even before that when I first suggested that the goblins build a meeting room where none can sign a faulty contract and none can attack or seek to physically deal harm now or later upon another."
"Yes, and I thank you for letting Gringotts be a part of this," Flitwick stated nervously, "Not many wizards think to let any but themselves have any say in the running of things."
Theo scoffed, "The fair goblins of Gringotts were the obvious first choice. I was- vaguely- made aware by a mutual fanged acquaintance of ours, that you still kept in contact with some of your relatives despite living in the wizarding world, which meant I had someone more agreeable to pass along the idea. And even ignoring that, who else in this day and age is as capable to construct such a wondrous room."
"Perhaps the founders, there are many secret rooms in Hogwarts." Flitwick replied just as distractedly as before, Theo had found that nervousness was Flitwick's tell when he was trying to decide his wording. Theo tilted his head slightly in question, a bad habit he was sure he picked up from Harry, a motion Flitwick didn't pick up the meaning behind.
"Well, The Goblin Nation succeeded in keeping that knowledge or talent going until today," Theo paused significantly, "What's on your mind?"
Flitwick froze and then sighed, "You've always been a perceptive one... will you be going to look for him? Half your life practically you've been chasing after him and now he's not held away against his will, simply gone. You know as well as I do his favorite part about Hogwarts was the Forbidden Forest. He never took anyone there..."
Flitwick stopped himself from suggesting that perhaps leaving the Slytherins behind had always been a part of the plan. The first year Slytherins had all taken it hard, but Potter had never struck him as being partially interested in becoming well adjusted in the human world, and he had yet to meet a natural animagus who was truly well adapted and comfortable there.
In the end though, the other Slytherins had moved on.
Ron Weasley had lashed out physically and then verbally, before finally, with Millicent as his support, had forged his tactics into a vicious blade, and from there broke into the politics game. Together the duo managed, for the first time in centuries, to create a new faction with actual power, breaking up the previous stalemate between Dumbledore and Malfoy, the two who had assumed the role of leaders of the previous powers, and with this the Bulstrodes had proved themselves as political juggernauts and forces to be reckoned with. They may have heavily championed Potter's release, and largely changed the previously complicated public opinion on the matter, but it wasn't their sole ideal.
Young Draco Malfoy had thrown away his name, magically disowning himself the second he had thrown the puppeteering spell that no one seemed to have even noticed he had been under, and then disappeared. But he had reappeared years later, albeit a criminal, breaking the statute of secrecy, one of the few laws that every witch and wizards hung dear, and creating an underground that strung across magical and muggle societies, made up of anyone or anything willing and able to be of use. There were whispers of a possible prison break, but that was far from the most interesting crime linked to them.
Theodore though, had never moved on. He'd frozen the second it had been announced to the school, and grown even colder when Potter had been sent to Azkaban, but almost horrifically he'd never faltered, never lashed out or broke down. His grades were top of the class, his manners impeccable, even while he never seemed to have much to say, and when he was given chances to go above he went so far beyond expectations talented people in many fields were eyeing him before he scored near perfect N.E.W.T.S. And yet he said little publicly on the manner of Potter's arrest, driving a wedge further between Ron Weasley and him.
Flitwick had not been surprised when shortly after graduation the two's friendship had split apart for a reason he hadn't learned. Newly renamed, Ron Bulstrode still worked on freeing Potter, and the two seemed to work together at times, but the relationship seemed to be either heated arguments or entirely frigid niceties, the friendship they had lost to time.
Theodore's quick mind and determination made him a star of the researching world after graduation, people would kill to have even the chance of getting him on their teams, or peer reviewing their papers. But he didn't spare them a glance. He didn't seem to spare anything a glance after graduation that didn't fit his goals.
He used to have thought that the Malfoy boy was closer than any of the others to Potter, at least that had been his impression before the trial. For the most part neither Theodore nor Potter seemed to have interacted much, to his knowledge, however seeing the steadfast, almost angry way in which Theodore had thrown himself into his chosen path had made that belief waver. However, in all the years Flitwick had kept a cautious eye on things and helped keep his family up to day with the wizarding world's politics, he'd never seen anything that would explain Theodore's reaction, never any proof of a close relationship. Flitwick wondered how the scholar would cope now that this strange fixation had run off leaving him with nothing to work towards without a second glance.
The silence drew on, long and uncomfortable.
"Yes..." Theodore answered slowly, "I suppose I'll keep looking out for him."
Flitwick blinked, watching as Theodore downed the rest of his drink and stood, "I best be going now. I don't think I'll waste as much time attending these anymore."
Flitwick frowned as the floo activated and Theodore was whisked away. The way in which they had said those words had seemed so empty. A truly worrisome thought.
(An:
Did you guys know apparently Dumbeldore was over six feet? So basically picture everyone there towers over the average person, think 180-200 cm range, and yet also puts on their highest heels in an attempt to tower over the others as if to prove they are the biggest in the room.
I'd also like to point out the seating arrangements are not by ideology.
-T.A.L.A. )