Golden Opportunities 3 (Raw) (Patreon)

A/N:  This is the third chapter, tell me what you think?******

(Rachel “Raven” Roth)

October 17th, 2001Merigold ManorLiving room

Raven was afraid. Triss and their mother were shouting at each other, this was the first time that this was happening. Angela wanted her to change schools, to go to France or North America to get a better education without finding themselves in danger. As Raven listened to the two arguing, Triss conceded that Hogwarts was dangerous and the domain of that awful evil man called Albus Dumbledore; but she wanted to avenge her parents and she knew that Dumbledore was the one who puppeted everything in the background.

Things calmed down once the two of them settled in the living room with green tea to calm their mood. Raven looked between them as they sat on different sofas sipping on their tea. They were all getting comfortable, Triss was in a black high waisted lace dress with long sleeves, her scarlet red hair done in her usual double horn buns. Meanwhile, Angela, their mother, wore something more mature and sexier; a dark blue corset, black jeans and blue slippers, between her breasts was a focus amulet in the form of an Ankh.

The black haired Raven was simply in a black hoodie and blue jeans with Mickey Mouse slippers. She liked simple attires, none of that fancy get ups her sister and mother liked to wear to look good. Her adoptive sibling and mother were again being too stubborn… and Raven had had enough of the silence and simply said, “Mum, I think Triss is right… but the way she's going about this is too dangerous.”

“Ah, finally someone who sees sense in this house.” Angela leaned on the sofa, sighing with relief.

“Raven?” Triss had a betrayed expression onto her face.

Raven hated when Triss did her drama queen thing, she rolled her eyes. “Don’t Raven me! You fought two adult wizards who are also telepaths, what if they had scrambled your mind?!”

Triss suddenly looked guilty, looking down and finally getting the expression she wanted to see on her sister’s face, Raven continued to reprimand her. "Didn't we decide to do things safely? And you basically got on everyone's radar now, your bubble of anonymity has completely burst. Everyone now knows you've got a lot of power and you know how those sheep react to someone powerful, either they fear them or are in awe of them."

Triss wasn't angry, she just asked calmly, "What was I supposed to do? Let Snape read my mind? You know how strong my mental defenses are, after all you helped craft them."

Raven always hated how her sister took the wind out of her sail with logic like this, as she didn't have any good retorts to those good points, the black haired young girl crossed her arms and pouted. "Fair enough."

Angela put her tea cup on the saucer and then on the table, she coughed and stood up. Her face looked somewhat scary right now. "Girls calm down, we can discuss this like civilized people or should I threaten to not bake any pastries for one month?"

Growing up in England wasn't easy for someone like Triss and Raven who can teleport or portal whenever they want to any country she visited before; it was mainly the food that bothered them. To keep them in place, Angela had to become a good cook and a Goddess of the pastries. Her millefeuille, croissant or cakes were to die for and the girls had tried to see if a house elf at school could replicate one of Angela's recipes and it didn't even come close…

Triss panicked, putting her tea cup on the saucer of the low table with an audible 'clack' and she cried out, "Mum! That's emotional blackmail! You can't do that!"

Raven’s expression mirrored her sister's. Angela looked smug, happy to show them who was the true top dog in this house. "Oh, yes, yes I can and will if you don't chill right now. Don't forget, never piss off the cook, girls."

The older woman circled the low table and sat at Raven’s side, she looked at Triss who sighed and stood up to join them on the big sofa. Angela put her arms around her daughters' waist and began saying, "Anyhow, I am still against you going back to that school…"

Raven could see it, usually Angela supported the two of them in their endeavors, but when she didn't like something she put her foot down and then had to do things her way.

"But, mum-" Triss was about to complain, but she was interrupted by a bop on the nose.

"Let me finish, Triss." Angela scowled at the little redhead.

Sufficiently cowed, Raven’s sister closed her mouth. Triss found herself pulled more into the embrace of Angela who started one of her famous speeches. "I loved your parents, you know? Before they died, we were talking about getting hitched for real; me as a legal concubine and us moving somewhere else like Salem, New York to leave that damned country behind. Then just like that they were taken from me by that idiot half-blood Tom Riddle. I understand that you want revenge, I really do but the way you're going at it is self-destructive and inefficient."

Triss looked mildly offended, while Raven giggled at her mother. Angela then changed tack and decided to explain some things to them, Raven recognized that expression of hers when she wanted to teach them something about life.

"Alright, lesson time, girls. Open your ears and listen." Angela said.

"Should we get revenge?" Angela asked out loud. Before Raven or Triss could answer, the black haired matron continued, "I think that yes, we should hunt down, destroy and then kill those who have hurt us."

The two children looked at their mother as if she had grown a second head. Triss was the first to react. "Mum?"

Raven was the one to actually ask the question Triss failed to request. "Shouldn't you, like, tell us revenge is wrong?"

"Girls, I was an orphan and I was on the street for a good long while so I know how life works. Only people who've never suffered like to throw bite-sized philosophies and platitudes like “Violence is wrong”, or “Hurting someone is wrong”, or “What’s the difference between you and them?” Angela had a disgusted expression on her face.

Then she let go of the girls and stood up from the sofa to spear them with her gaze. "Violence is not wrong. Aggression is wrong. Aggression is a special kind of violence, and for the most part, this is the one that’s wrong and not justifiable. But Revenge, as opposed to aggression, does have a prior violent act as its motivator. And this is not wrong."

Raven looked as Angela explained to them the type of revenge they needed to stick to. "An act of vengeance can serve several purposes, including punishment, discouraging further transgression, catharsis, closure for the victims and their loved ones, and reinstituting a sense of justice when the ordinary mechanisms do not seem to deliver. This feeling is important. It’s cathartic. It makes you feel safe. It helps you get closure, restores faith in fairness and justice in the world, and helps you move on. It definitely does help cope with loss too. It is crucial for our well-being."

Angela looked out from the window at the garden spreading around the Manor, her eyes lost in remembrance of a harsher time in her life, Raven was sure of it. Their mother didn't talk much about her childhood. Turning her head to Triss, Raven saw a bit of moisture forming from her sister’s eyes. But she quickly wiped them.

Their mother continued to speak. "A major act of unfairness or injustice that goes unpunished, can literally wreck the mental health of a person. Yes, some people are able to accept and internalize injustice, or find peace some other way, or are able to move on without exacting revenge. More power to them. But that does not make it the only right thing to do."

"Moreover, it is not just about bringing peace and tranquility to the victims, but it is also a matter of principle. Not retaliating to violence, or not getting revenge or punishment or whatever, and condemning people for wanting this basic tenet of fairness, literally flies in the face of all our ethical maxims that we preach. When an act goes unavenged and unpunished, when unfairness is allowed to thrive, persist, and fester, there cannot be a harmonious society. There can only be a sick one, where there really are no consequences for some evil behavior."

Triss reacted to this and raised a hand, stopping Angela mid rant. "Errr, like what happened to the Death Eaters who bribed their way out of prison?"

Angela reacted at that, "Yes, yes you're right."

She took on a thoughtful expression and sat back between Raven and Triss. "That’s why, girls; I am going to help you, but we're going to do this all above board. Let's use this society and their ingrained corruption against it to destroy it. I hate this place, if it wasn't for our friends, I would already have left with you two somewhere safe. But let's do it with a bang!"

"Mum?!" Triss was suddenly full of happiness as she hugged Angela who kissed her cheek sonorously.

As if struck by lightning by an awesome idea, Angela had another inspired expression on her face; Raven chose to not say anything as her mother was often pulling more evil ideas than Triss to get back at their enemies.

"I remember that Frank and Alice Longbottom are still hospitalized, Triss, can you do something about it?" Angela inquired.

Raven and Triss automatically knew where Angela was going with that; Alice Longbottom was a friend of a friend to her, but Angela had never been able to help her. Triss was advanced  enough in her family magic to be able to help.

The redhead nodded, but made a soso gesture. "I thought about it already because their son is our friend; I can save them, but they won't remember anything from the torture they went through."

Raven rolled her eyes, Triss and her work ethic were top notch but it came with the defect of being a perfectionist. Angela laughed and once again kissed her daughter’s forehead. "That’s more than enough, sweetie. I will contact Madam Longbottom. What else can we do?"

Raven raised her hand, Triss and Angela turned to her. "Take Dumbledore’s supporters from under him?"

Triss widened her eyes, then a wicked smile spread on her face. "Oh you've got something in mind?"

Already, plans to destroy the Light faction by pulling key Families from amongst them are built in Raven’s mind. There was no way that Britain would survive it.

"Yes, I do! We can take the Weasleys to the Gray." Raven smiled back at her sister.

Angela was about to stand up. "Okay, then I need to speak with-"

However, Triss caught her hand and pulled her to sit again at their side. "Wait, mum! We need to save Harry Potter, he is in an abusive home and Dumbledore keeps him there despite that."

Angela Roth was an orphan, raised in a state orphanage that was well funded but over some time, the chairwoman responsible for the establishment became a crook and siphoned the funds and ran away to another country when she was discovered. Things went from bad to worse for the children placed in the orphanage and she had to flee to the streets before being placed with horrible people; as a result, Angela did bad things to survive. She shacked up with a Satanic cult worshiping the Demon Trigon; after being saved from the cult's destruction, her life turned around by getting in contact with magic and some good people.

However, if she could spare another orphan from a bad situation she would do it without hesitation. There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up. Angela's blue eyes gazed into the verdant one’s of Triss as she asked with emotions, "Tell me everything, darling."

So Triss and Raven started to explain in turn what was happening with Harry Potter, how he was left on the porch of magic hating mundanes who beat him up for eleven years and turned him into a slave. Angela became furious when they told her how Dumbledore, after having taken on Harry’s magical guardianship, had done nothing to help the young boy; how they now knew that the old wizard was a thief who took from the boy’s family vault, the lies he spread and the political agenda he pushed by using Harry’s fame.

"We need our Solicitor, let’s call Mister Tonks." Angela nodded, her eyes burning with the fire of determination.

Raven stopped her mother right there and asked, "Before that let's make lunch! I want cottage pie!"

It was better to scheme the downfall of your enemies with a belly full.

~~~ G.O ~~~

(Daphne Greengrass)

October 18th, 2001HogwartsGreat Hall08:17 AM

Breakfast, one of the best parts of the day, Daphne found; they just had the time to finish their homework while regaling about the food; the usual English fare but it was better than nothing. Daphne was now too used to having food from other countries since she’s been bunking at Triss’ Island since she was six year old. That family used an unknown portal spell to get to other parts of the Earth to travel, she was a bit jealous.

The windows of the great hall opened and finally the delivery owls arrived while Daphne was eating her waffle. A black owl deposited a letter at the plate’s side and Daphne rewarded the animal with a bite of bacon; it thanked Daphne with a dip of its head and lifted off. Taking the letter in hand, she threw a spell to analyze it for any curse, found none and took it in hand; It was addressed to her and the seal on the letter belonged to House Merigold.

Calmly opening the envelope, Daphne started to read it…

Dear Daphne,

How are you? I hope you have been having a wonderful time at school… Raven and I are having a bad time. My mum is being overprotective and unreasonable, telling us that she wants us to change school and country.

This floored the icy blonde who couldn’t believe what she read! Why would Madam Roth do that to them? They had all chosen to go to Hogwarts because this is where Triss was going. *No, calm down Greengrass! There must be something else in the letter.*

I’m sure that you must be freaking out right now, Daph; but don’t worry we negotiated with mum and she decided to let us stay at Hogwarts while she’s going to do things before releasing us from Fólkvangr. Administrative stuff.

Daphne’s eyes widened, the word “administrative” in their letter was a code to tell their allies and friends that they were about to take the Ministry by storm with the literal army of solicitors that House Merigold had at their disposal.

Expect to see us this Saturday, please can you give the news to Mione, Harry, and Tracey? It would be brilliant of you. We intend to come back with a pastry box, I hope it will be enough to forgive us for pulling that stunt with Quirrell.

Hoping to see you soon!

Love,

Your best friend, Triss

*How typical.* This was totally Triss’ style, a brief letter to give her basic information; but Daphne could understand, if the Headmaster could block the mail from leaving, he could read it as well. She had heard about how the DMLE had been here last Monday's night and took over the investigation about how Quirrel turned into a possessed husk in the end.

Daphne mused over that as she put the letter in one hand and her remaining bit of chocolate covered waffle in the other.

"Is this what I think it is?" Tracey's voice said as she snatched the letter from Daphne's hand.

"Hey don't do that! That's bad manners." Letting go of the waffle in her hand into the plate before her, Daphne tried to take back the letter; however Tracey had time to quickly read it.

"They're coming back, phew." Tracey sighed in relief and gave the letter back to Daphne who glared at her ferociously.

Tracey just showed her tongue to mock her friend, who glared at her and was about to retort when another interruption occurred. And this time it was  Hermione who was at the other side of the table facing Daphne. "Who is coming back?"

Tracey immediately informed their new friend. "Triss and Raven, they are coming back this Saturday."

Hermione put down the slice of bacon she was about to eat into her plate and sighed in relief and slapped the table. "Bloody good! Maybe they can explain what they did last monday, the rumor mills kept saying they were suspended; but we both know it can’t be true!"

Tracey gaped at Hermione, surprised that the bushy brunette swore.

"Hermione, language." Daphne warned.

Hermione blushed and lowered her eyes a bit embarrassed by her outburst. Harry, who was at her side patted her back delicately saying things like, “It’s okay to swear from time to time, it’s freeing.”

Daphne whispered to Tracey by leaning toward her, “We’re having a bad influence on her.”

The bubbly girl giggled at that; Hermione looked affronted that they gossiped about her without including her and asked rhetorically, “Harry, why are they talking about me as if I wasn’t here?”

She hadn’t expected an answer from him as he was eating with gusto, but after swallowing his food, the dark haired boy stated the obvious. “Because they’re teasing you?”

“Those two are so mean!” Hermione exclaimed.

With a free hand, Harry patted her shoulder. “Yes, yes, now have some of that bacon and write the last line on your Charms essay!” Harry looked into Hermione's brown eyes, raising a finger. “And remember respect the length of the paper Professor Flitwick gave us, you made him cry the last time you gave him a book sized essay on the levitation charms!”

The bushy haired girl looked rather mutinous. “But-”

The boy scowled at her. “I must insist, the professor always comes crying to me because Triss isn’t here to talk you out of writing too much.”

The two looked into each other’s eyes, not realizing how close their faces were close to each other. Hermione was the first one to crack and blurt out, “Fine! You win, I will do the bloody paper with minimum pages!”

Daphne found Hermione and Harry so funny when they interacted; there was a bet with a pot full of galleons in Flitwick’s office about the time it will take them to be dating. Daphne already estimated it to be until third year. The icy blonde tacitly ignored Tracey who jealously looked at Hermione all the while.

~~~ G.O ~~~

(Tracey Davis)

October 19th, 2001Hogwarts corridorSecond floor

Tracey wasn't happy. She was quite annoyed by the bet everyone has on Harry and Hermione. The boy needed stability before even thinking of entering into a relationship; he was still flinching when someone approached him for Freya’s sake! Harry needed a mind healer, but before that there were obstacles that needed to be taken down to do this: Dumbledore, the guardianship, the Dursleys, and their Faction needing to kick the Light’s factions collective asses.

Harry and Tracey were walking in the corridor leading to the library’s tower; as the charmed candles lit their way in the dark corridor, Tracey asked herself why she felt so protective of Harry. She didn’t know what to think but reality will show her that she needed to pay attention instead of being in the clouds; Tracey missed the magical alarm that warned her when a certain ferret boy approached.

Blocking their way were four people; wearing black and green uniforms of Hogwarts showing them to be Slytherin. *Blimey, we got ambushed!*

A grinning Draco Malfoy strode toward the two Ravenclaw. "You're a difficult man to get a hold of, Heir Potter. Ah, where are my manners? Good afternoon."

As if a switch was flipped on, Harry stood straight, chest out and his face took on a more dignified expression. "Greetings, Heir Malfoy…"

To Tracey, it was still freaky to see the training that Triss had given to Harry, the dark haired boy simply changed demeanor and body language and vocal inflection. Triss had drilled Harry in the common room of Ravenclaw, taught him how to walk, how to act, how to speak… she even helped him update his wardrobe and daily necessities. Now he could pass for one of those pureblood Heirs easily.

Draco nodded, happy to have received a formal greeting from Harry like a good little pureblood Heir. The platinum blonde took the hand of the girl at his right, a girl of little stature with shoulder length raven black hair. Draco pulled her at his side and introduced her. "This is my Fiance, Pansy Parkinson, and here you have Crabbe and Goyle. And I'm Malfoy...Draco Malfoy."

Harry's eyes settled on the other girl and he gave her a smile that Tracey dubbed knickers droppingly handsome, making Parkinson blush.

"Oh, yes I heard all about you. You're rather famous in our circles. This is Tracey Davis, my friend. I am charmed to meet you too, Miss Parkinson, might I say Heir Malfoy, how lucky you are to have such a pretty girl at your side?"

The light dash of red on Pansy's cheeks turned nuclear at Harry's compliment; Tracey rolled her eyes at the boys and put her hands on her waist waiting for the conversation to finally advance.

Draco preened and boasted, "My father was the one to come up with this match and I am really satisfied by the arrangement between our two families. Though is it true that they speak about me? I hope it's all good things."

Tracey saw on Pansy's face the frown that showed that she didn't like to be thought of as an object, but it quickly disappeared under a fake smile. She acted as if delighted by what Draco said; Harry didn't miss Pansy's discontent. Tracey smirked at Draco, if he knew what everyone thought of him he wouldn't look so proud. All the firsties in Ravenclaw have described Draco Malfoy as an arrogant, elitist tool, as well as a bully, a coward, and - above all - an egotistical, entitled prick.

Tracey looked on as Harry fed Draco a load of bullshit with a straight face. "Yes, everyone in our common room knows how you got a primary education prior to coming to school. It's really evident in potions and DADA."

Aka Malfoy senior didn’t want Draco to humiliate the family name and tried to give him a head start, but potions seemed the only place he excelled.

The ponce pushed up his chest and lifted his chin with a proud smile spreading on his face. "Well yes, we can't come to school ignorant."

Draco seemed to like Harry, but he still had a touch of wariness; Tracey snorted at the boy who reacted at Tracey’s silent mocking. He frowned, but said nothing, at least not yet.

The blonde began to say, "You're an enigma, Heir Potter. We all expected you to be in Gryffindor, a champion of the light faction… and Dumbledore’s Golden boy-"

Harry stopped him right there, lifting a hand to interrupt him. "Dumbledore? That man ruined my life! Why would I want to associate with such a character?!"

The dark haired Ravenclaw looked insulted and furious; that announcement broke Draco and the present Slytherin’s confidence in what they knew about Harry Potter. Draco stepped back from Harry, not looking at him in the eyes, like the coward he was.

It was Pansy who asked the question the Slytherin present wanted to know. "Huh? But isn't he your magical guardian? He professes to be that at least."

Tracey put a hand on Harry’s shoulder, the frigid atmosphere around him was gone by a simple gesture. Harry’s fury washed over him and he calmed down; Pansy sighed in relief about that. Harry Potter seemed to be a reasonable boy, completely different from what the stories and Dumbledore said about him.

Harry awkwardly smiled at Parkinson and answered her question with, "Miss Parkinson, not everything is as it seems."

Tracey watched as Harry spun a tale and looked from left to right; no one was there so he began to speak low and said, "I believed what they told me about Hogwarts initially, but… I would never have been in Hogwarts if I knew the truth, I mean this is supposed to be the best school in all of Europe? But did you see the state of the equipment? The sub-par classes that are History and DADA? The school brooms are in disrepair and there's not even core classes such as English, Mathematics, Science! They have those in Beauxbatons or Mahoutokoro! There's not even a Physical Education class and we have a feast at dinner every night. I fear for my waistline! I might get too fat!"

Despite herself, Pansy exclaimed, "Yes! Finally someone who thinks the same as me! Did you see how chubby some of the students have become in the space of a month and a half?!"

“Pansy?!” Draco looked at his fiance with a hurt look and discreetly patted his belly and checked his waistline. His abdomen stretched a little and he blushed as he realized that he really had gotten fatter.

Harry turned his head to look at Draco. "See Miss Parkinson thinks the same. Fortunately, Heiress Merigold helped with our dietary needs by asking the house elves in the kitchen to give us more balanced dishes."

Pansy stomped her right foot on the ground, it was an unladylike display but she didn’t seem to mind. She snapped her fingers. "Why didn't we think about that?!"

Tracey giggled. She liked this show; Triss was right, the people from Magical Britain were all barmy. Harry had a really good poker face, he didn’t even laugh or smile. "Ah, Miss Parkinson. This must be because we're in our first year and not everyone is inclined to teach us the lay of the land in the Castle."

Pansy turned to Draco and glared at him. "This is galling, Ravenclaw is showing us up.”

The Slytherin girl turned on her heel to face Harry and smiled at him in thanks. “But I thank you, Heir Potter, for the tip!”

With a solemn nod, Harry replied, "House of the wise, Parkinson. And you're welcome."

Draco, who wanted to take control back of the conversation, walked up to Harry, placing himself before Pansy as he noticed that the black haired boy was more interested in his fiance than him. "Anyhow, we digressed from the subject. Potter, we've come with a warning…"

*Here we go, finally we’re going to see his true colors.* Tracey thought.

There was a reason everyone loathed the Malfoy family; they were still considered newcomers in the britain magical community after fleeing the revolution in France. They were one of the Magical families supporting the King of France who was a squib. Most royal families in Europe were either from magical lines or they squibed out because of the interbreeding they practiced.

“You’ll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, Potter. You don’t wanna go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there.” Draco looked meaningfully at Tracey.

Harry’s smile froze on his face; he didn’t explode in anger this time but his smile looked scary. Tracey stepped back a bit, as well as the smarter Pansy who was thinking that Draco had done goofed yet again; they were building a rapport right now, and he had to destroy everything, just like everything he did lately.

The dark haired boy chuckled. "Ah… I had hoped to get to know you more Draco… due to the fact that we're related, but you just insulted the girl I like and that's not something someone who pretends to be civilized just does."

No one said a thing, but Pansy kind of glared at Tracey; the other boys frowned not knowing why Harry reacted this way. Then after another ten seconds they realized as their brains finally engaged.

*The girl he likes? Me?* Tracey’s blush went nuclear as she realized that Harry was speaking of her.

Tracey voiced her thoughts, "H-Harry? Y-you like me."

The dark haired boy turned and smiled, putting a comforting hand on her face. "Would I hang out with you if I didn't like you, Tracey?"

Harry retracted his hand and turned to Draco, who looked a bit pained by what he just did. He realized that he effed up good this time; he had Potter where he wanted him, in speaking terms with him, but he had to spew pureblood bullshit that he could have fed him slowly to get him around his way of thinking.

The Ravenclaw boy looked at him with pity. “So as you can see, Heir Malfoy; Tracey and I, we're quite taken with each other. It doesn't help that House Potter decided to ally with House Merigold. The Gray faction seems to be the way to go, I hope you'll inform your father about that. And because we're related through Madam Narcissa Malfoy; I will give you another chance to redeem yourself if you apologize to Tracey for your insult in a public setting. Though I know she can defend herself just fine I wouldn't let her honor be tarnished. I'm sure you understand, after all, you've got your own Fiance in your group. And isn't she pretty? Hmm, I still think she could do better than you though."

Harry took his wand from his arm holster hidden by his robe and swished the magical focus. "Tempus."

It was 3:45, time enough to go to the library and get their homework done. "Would you look at the time we need to get to studying; Tracey, shall we?"

Harry presented his hand that Tracey took gratefully with a smile; he looked at Malfoy. "Goodbye, Heir Malfoy,.” Turned his head toward Pansy and nodded. “Miss Parkinson, it was delightful to meet you."

They left just like that, leaving three of the Slytherin wondering why Draco lost a verbal joust this badly, Crabbe was the one to ask, "What the hell just happened?" As he was too dim of wit to know what happened in this conversation.

~~~ G.O ~~~

Back with Triss…October 20th, 2001Hogwarts11:00 AM

It was good to be back. Mum had teleported us right before the entrance to Hogsmeade and personally walked us before Merlin's gate, what people called the entrance of the school. Wand in hand I started shaping mana constructs in the forms of six silver and blue birds and launched them in the air to look for my friends to tell them that I was finally back at school. The constructs scattered in every direction.

This was a charm I developed after studying the patronus charm, a spell which I could cast already; but it was rather mana intensive, and demanded a lot of focus. So to avoid burning myself out, I created my own version of the patronus spell after breaking it down to its components: Spiritual, emotional, mana construct, animation.

It was strange that the Ministry used it as they forbade the use of spiritual and emotional magic countrywide. But I think they needed something to repel dementors and lethifold badly to appease and protect their people, so they were content to run out the dementors with the patronus charm. Emotional magic was dangerous and insidious. I could understand why they outlawed it, a user of it could manipulate the emotions of people around them, bring them to anger to create riots and tragedies or to make them be loved as easily as breathing.

Spiritual magic was as dangerous as well, but oh so important to magic users, it allowed us to shape and manipulate our own or others' spiritual power, and put to rest ghost or defeat malevolent spirits or malevolent demonic entities; you know what the dementors, lethifold, wraith, ghost and youkai all have in common, they are spiritual in nature and prey on human spirits. The British ministry fucked up by banning that form of magic, fortunately, the practice survived strong in Japan because of their youkai infestation. My family never stopped using spiritual magic as we often did use it to commune with our patron gods from the Norse Pantheon.

I took away the emotional magic part of the patronus charm and reduced the energy usage by directly shaping the mana constructs in the form of animals. The result? I can use my mini-patronus as a means of high speed communication. Their tactical and defensive value was non-existent, but strategically my mini-patronus was a big advantage, I obtained a means of communication that couldn’t be blocked easily.

"You're showing off again, Triss." My sister interrupted my geeking about my spell and its functions.

I turned to Raven, she wore a black hoodie with Egyptian religious symbols stitched on it, a Ankh, the Eye of Ra and the Isis knot; for once she had put on a pleated black skirt with calf high boots made of shimmering black dragon leather. My sister was so cute! In contrast to Raven, I wore a black and white mini-dress with laces decorating the hem and short sleeves with heeled black ankle boots, my enchanted black pointy hat with button eyes and zipper mouth; an attempt at reproducing the sorting hat and my green cloak made of Arachne silk with the symbol of my house etched on the back.

"Yes, I am." I said as I sent a bird to our head of house, Professor Flitwick, announcing our return.

Walking up to my sister, I put a hand around her waist and we entered the castle, and were welcomed by some of the ghosts. We went off the path and took the shortcut near the greenhouses to enter the part of the castle where all the classrooms were located; we stopped under the covered walkway and gazed at the fountain in the courtyard, taking our time to reacclimate ourselves with the place.

We looked on as some students were roaming the grounds in casual clothes, discussing about something or either reading books and scrolls or eating picnic style. Those were all older students trying to have a good time off on this Saturday. The younger students were all holed up in the common room either studying or having fun at this time of the day.

I side-eyed my sister, she looked on at everyone with a disinterested expression; she looked down and I didn't like seeing her like this.

"You've been incredibly down lately. What's up?" I inquired.

Raven looked down then lifted her arm as if to show me the place in general. "It’s just that we're in a magic school, but… we don't do much real magic."

I became thoughtful about Raven’s misgivings. Hogwarts was full of reality warping children able to shape and manipulate the fundamental forces holding reality together. But everyone so far in the Wizarding World is satisfied with mere tricks… yes tricks! Transmogrifying objects or subjects into something different, altering the laws of reality, logic, and physics, creating things out of thin air, to outright erasing it on the spot is in our reach.

In just seven years, I made this universe's natural laws such as biology, causality, physics, concepts or even time, space, order, chaos my bitch – they no longer apply to  my family and I as I shared everything I discovered with them; we could bend and warp reality around us. Mum was up there with the big magical powerhouse of the DC universe now.

Meanwhile, for centuries, Witches and Wizards were the same as two hundred years ago; they've stopped innovating and don’t look to the stars anymore, believing that they already know how the world works. When I was reborn into this world of magic, an insatiable curiosity has driven me to go further than the normal witch. My thirst for truth has led me deep into my magical work. They’re taking magic for granted; it reminds me of a book I’ve read that says something like: Any system, any government, or any philosophy that doesn’t encourage thought is doomed. Stagnation. Regression. Extinction.

And this is the path the Light Faction that Dumbledore champions, that he wants to spread, first in Britain and tomorrow? The world. The Old Dark Lord really does think like that; at least that’s how his plan looks to me. It reminded me of how Hitler had taken over, no one was connecting the dots yet; that’s normal when History for magic was a defunct class.

Gazing into my sister’s blue eyes, I nodded. "I agree, Wizard and Witch magic is sometimes a letdown… at-any-rate, what do you say about crossing something off the list of things to do?"

This was an important list that we’ve come up with: it had things on it ranging to visit Japan, wear princess gowns in a LARP Fantasy fair; to others like go to the moon, become superheroes or discover the hidden Homo Magi civilization on the planet.

My sister had a wicked smile on her face. She held onto my arms and lightly jumped up and down. "Can I choose the thing? Pretty please?"

I sighed, Raven had a tendency to choose the more difficult things on the list and since I told her about how I obtained Fawkes as a familiar; she's been envious for a while and wanted her own Familiar. I was all for the idea that she get one, just for the power up, but no, Raven wanted a special Familiar just like mine, not some random animal or magical creature. It had to be a Fabulous creature.

And the only way for Raven to find a creature matching her intrinsic abilities would be…

"Please, tell me it's not the one about visiting another dimension?" I whined with an annoyed tone.

With a killer glare, Raven let go of me and crossed her arms, looking a bit defiant. "I'm looking for a familiar, you know I can't find one that can match my strengths on this plane of reality." She then uncrowded her arms and poked me between my breasts in an accusatory manner. "You're lucky you got yours by pure accident."

I looked down at my feet, the stone ground was suddenly interesting; Raven was right, I was lucky and I needed to share the love with my sister. I didn’t want her to be envious of me and souring our relationship. After all, Raven put up with my quirks; why shouldn’t I do the same? "Fine, next weekend then, let's take a day off and we will go find your familiar."

Raven’s face split into a big smile, and she hugged me strongly enough to break bones. "You rock, Trissy!"

After this, we took to the right corridor, passed some of the classrooms and walked toward the tower where house Ravenclaw was located; on the way there we were intercepted by Professor Flitwick who wanted a talk with us. As we passed through the Ravenclaw common room we saw our friends waving at us, we reciprocated but we were quickly ushered to Flitwick’s office in the tower.

Flitwick’s office was full of shelves filled with books, pictures of students with him; I noticed that a photograph of Lily Potter was present; suddenly I knew what to give to Harry for Yule. When we finished visually inspecting the office, the half Goblin professor said, "Please sit down."

Raven was the first to sit on one of the cushioned chairs facing Flitwick’s desk. The half Goblin then went to sit at the same time as me; hmm this chair is really comfortable, I looked more in detail at it and realized that it was enchanted to be so.

“Young Ladies, I am happy to see you well.” Flitwick put on a big smile that reached his eyes.

He was our favorite professor and we made him know about it by often discussing magic with him when he isn't too busy.

“And us you, professor.” Raven and I said in sync, all smiles and giggles.

“Do you have our assignments for us, or are we here because you want to tell us something important?” My sister asked with a curious tone.

*Oh yes, we missed some lessons and homework! Hermione is going to make us catch up…*  I thought as dread filled me, that girl was overzealous with studying.

The short professor acted as if we won a prize and happily complimented Raven. “How perceptive of you, Miss Roth…”

Flitwick’s expression changed, became darker… “Headmaster Dumbledore is being unreasonable and tried to get you expelled for any reason he could find.”

“What?” I asked aloud, shocked.

I didn’t ask why, because I had an idea about why he was doing this. I took his Deathstick and slave Phoenix; mum and Mister Tonks slapped him in the Wizengamot with a restraining order. Dumbledore obviously was acquitted of the offense for attacking me with his pet death eater, but the restraining order has stuck; now he couldn’t contact or come near us. His duties as Headmaster of our school made it so that we needed our head of House or parent present for him to even talk to us.

Dumbledore couldn’t get back the Elder Wands legally because of this. I began laughing inwardly, empathically startling Raven who stared at me then at Flitwick. “Wait, really?”

Professor Flitwick didn’t look happy at all; his hands on the desk tightened into fists, his knuckles cracked with ‘pop’ noises. “Yes… despite your high grades and stellar ranking in the school and how everyone has nothing bad to say about you, Dumbledore was vehemently stubborn; all the other professors but Snape all told him to stop his illegal actions. In the end, the board of governors had to take action and overrule him, so you can continue studying at Hogwarts, young ladies.”

“Why was he so obstinate?” Raven asked with curiosity.

Frowning, Flitwick looked uncertain and turned his head to me. “I have an idea why… but I’m not sure. Your fame in the school is quite high at the moment I am afraid, maybe he fears how you’ll influence our fine establishment, Miss Merigold. After all, your achievements aren’t so little, you saved the school from a possessed professor and I heard you bested Dumbledore in the Hospital wing when he assaulted you mentally with Snape.”

There was a touch of venom in the short professor's voice when he spoke about Dumbledore and Snape.

“No love lost between you and them?” I piped up.

The half Goblin straightened his glasses. “I respected Albus, but now I know he isn’t the man that I thought he was and the fact that he keeps that vile man near children… And the fact that he attempted to silence us and not call the DMLE made me lose faith in him.”

Fawkes had told me how he foiled Dumbledore’s obliviation of the professors on Monday and that made me happy that some people were now seeing the old dark lord's true face. But the simple fact that the professor was revealing this to us right now showed us that he thought that he could trust them because they weren't aligned with the old goat.

Professor Flitwick may become a good asset in their plan to destroy the current iteration of the British magical world. I turned to my sister and I asked her, “Do you think we can trust him?”

Raven rolled her eyes. “Before being a professor, Professor Flitwick is a goblin, Triss. Yes, I know we can.”

"You didn't have to put it this way, Raven…" I glared at her, but all it did was make her smile tauntingly at me.

Professor Flitwick looked lost as he looked in turn at them, his head swiveling like one of those big head toys. "Is there something you wish to share with me, young ladies?"

Nodding, I asked, "Before that, can we cast a privacy spell Professor?" Before reaching for my wand, people tended to get jumpy and nervous when you reached for your magical focus, even more so when they had been threatened by obliviation.

The professor gave me a nod, trusting us. "You may."

With my cherry wand I cast one of my custom spells that were inspired by the Fate series; a bounded field, and with a golden light spreading from the pointy end of my wand, the field stopped at the walls of Flitwick’s office. The noise coming from the entrance of the office simply ceased, the moving portrays still and I felt no spatial, magical or spiritual disturbances in the room beyond our three auras.

The half goblin looked around him, there was a glint of excitement into his eyes. "I don't recognize that spell. Family magic?"

I re-holstered my wand in my Auror grade arm sheath. "No, it is a custom spell we came up with a mix of spatial and spiritual magic to create a mystic boundary line that separates the inside from the outside. No one can spy on us, not the paintings, nor the ghosts or the House Elves." I found myself explaining.

This was what I used to get my room and my friend’s in the dorm completely safe from tampering. But as a double edged sword we had to bring my clothes to the laundry room in the castle ourselves. Poor Elves didn’t like my strange magic.

Flitwick slapped the table, he had a big smile on his face. "Impressive! Thirty points to Ravenclaw for creating such an interesting spell."

"We need to teach it to you to protect yourself, professor." Raven interrupted.

We didn’t care for the House cup thingy the professors had going on in Hogwarts; this was completely superfluous. Flitwick perked up at Raven’s words. "I won't say no, but we are getting off topic, you wanted to reveal something, yes?"

We started to speak about Harry’s situation and Dumbledore’s machinations concerning him, and how he manipulated everything in the background while the blood war raged on; Triss told him how the death of the Potters was engineered by Dumbledore because of a prophecy, how the Longbottoms were attacked similarly because Neville is Harry’s backup chosen one and how Triss' parents died helping Lily and James defend their son. Raven and Triss swore a magical oath that everything they said was the truth as they knew it.

Flitwick had reacted badly to the story we revealed, he actually walked away from his desk and went to a special locker and pulled out a silver ax and was about to exit the office. Raven stopped him by saying that plans were already in motion to save Harry.

I looked on as Professor Flitwick started to cry in anguish and frustration. “W-what can I do? C-can I help?... Lily would have wanted me to do something for her son!”

Raven and I looked at each other, she nodded and I understood what I needed to do; I took a silver ring from my pocket space, it was a signet ring with a circle and golden flame embossed inside it.

This was an utterly new, secret organization that we founded which will exclusively serve matters of magic. Which will do everything to prevent a cataclysm. For if magic were to perish, our world would perish with it.

“Professor, do you want to join the Sorcerer’s Lodge? We have cookies.” I materialized a box full of homemade cookies baked by my mum in my hand.

~~~ G.O ~~~

Same day…

When we got back to the common room, it was to be hug-tackled by Hermione and Daphne. It was bone crushing and a bit painful, still it was rewarding to be loved this much. Then the girls started berating us for attacking such a dangerous entity without telling them about it. Raven and I were bullied by Harry and Neville, who was surprisingly present in the common room, into allowing them into our plans in the future.

“That’s non-negotiable, Triss.” Neville said firmly.

I was surprised that he was being so combative about it; getting him a new wand and proving that he wasn’t a weak Wizard had done good to the young Heir Longbottom it seems. It had been so satisfying to watch the likes of Weasley and Malfoy being proven wrong that Neville wasn’t a squib; even more so when they realized that he was more talented than them.

We bribed our friends with boxes of delicious cookies made by mum Angela and they accepted the tribute with happiness. Children were easily led astray, huh. Like I feared, Hermione had kept our assignments material for us and made us sit at a table to start on them. Raven and I found no mercy in Daphne and Tracey’s expression and we proceeded to do our homework until three in the afternoon, the house elves brought us food in the common room.

We finished in record time as we used ink magic to manipulate the solution to apply it on paper; if you got powerful Occlumency, you can structure your mind into doing your essay in your mind and use the ink magic to apply the text on parchment. It was like having a printer in my mind. Hermione became jealous of the spells and was pouting until I promised to teach her how to do it. It wasn’t even a family spell or anything, just a cantrip.

It was as I stared at the domed ceiling full of shining stars that I finally got to ask my friends what had been happening when we weren’t there. Tracey was the first to go and spoke about how they met Draco Malfoy and his posse. She described how Harry handled the meeting and it made me give him one of the remaining boxes of cookies I had for himself.

Daphne came next and explained how the climate in the school was uncertain and how people started gossiping about me and Raven. We were really liked by Gryffindor and hated by Slytherin, that wasn’t surprising, we kicked Voldy’s ass to Kingdomcome. Neville was defending us in Hufflepuff and it seemed that people there liked us. We helped Neville with his magic problem and had a lot of friends in that house.

After digesting all those facts, I began to think about what I could do to capitalize on this. I turned to Harry and asked him, "Harry, what do you think about Miss Parkinson?"

The dark haired boy looked as if he was surprised by the question and from being asked his opinion about anything; the guy needed a mind healer really bad.

Harry found himself saying, "She’s nice, we've met in the library a couple of times. She had to moderate her speech to avoid that pureblood dogma, but I can't fault her about how she was raised… We could easily pull her into a club out of Slytherin's control, but I don't know which one?”

I nodded and showed a predatory smile that made my friends nervous. Harry continued to make conversation as he inquired, “From your previous letter, weren't you supposed to tell us about your grand plan today?"

Giggling, I didn’t tell them right away what I wanted to do. "Yes, yes. But before that, let's do things step by step, Harry. You said that she was worried about her appearance?"

Harry blushed as he looked at me; I think that Harry liked to speak with Pansy more than he let on. "Yeah she seemed so shocked that she could order a balanced meal from the elves, the poor dear."

Crossing my legs, I leaned a bit more on my sofa."I see, so we can attract female Slytherin students by taking care of their basic needs."

"So you do want to unify the school?" Harry quickly came to a conclusion about the questions I have asked him.

As usual he showed us why he was in Ravenclaw. "I knew you weren't just a pretty face, Harry."

Tracey lightly punched his arm in congratulation. Looking at all my gathered friends, I clapped my hands to have their attention; Hermione put down the two thousand pages heavy tomes about magic through the ages and looked at me. "Great, this segues well into what I have planned, my friends."

With Illusion magic, I used shapes with words inside them to do the rendition of a PowerPoint presentation. "We will create two clubs, the sport club and the beautification club."

Two three dimensional boxes appeared between us, one blue and the other pink. In the blue one, a representation of Harry appeared grinning and making a thumbs up gesture. "Harry, you'll get to organize the male side of the sports club with some of the Ravenclaw quidditch team. While Raven and I will take care of the female side."

In the pink box, the form of Daphne appeared, the icy blonde sucked in her breath and stared at me furiously. I smugly said, "Daphne, you'll be the beautification club's president; try to get Madam Pomfrey as the guarantor and to teach us lessons on how to keep healthy and beautiful."

*Payback for not helping me earlier.* I thought about my best friend who caught exactly why I called out her name.

Then Daphne shrugged and thought for a brief moment; after that she asked me, "Are you going to spread some of your makeup magic to everyone else?"

I made a soso gesture. "Not before the patents are in place. Solicitor Tonks is working on that, but I will eventually."

After this we started planning what to obtain for the two clubs. I had the magic and the smarts of the most intelligent Ravenclaw at my disposal right now; we couldn’t fail and I didn’t intend to.

~~~ G.O ~~~

(Angela Roth)

October 21st, 2001Longbottom Estate11:47 AM

Angela landed before the Iron fence of Longbottom Manor, she straightened her black blazer dress and wide brim hat; the wind having made a mess of them. Like magic, each time she passed her hand over her clothes and accessories, they smoothed out; magic was truly great to have to always look neat. Angela turned to the manor’s fence. This was the ancestral home of the Longbottom Family who have resided there since 1910; it is located in Birsay on one of the Orkney Islands known as The Mainland.

Normally, this place should be inaccessible to her as it is unplottable, under a Fidelius Charm. It doesn't work on Angela because she refuses to let the charm work. Magic is often a matter of will and power. And the one who cast the Fidelius charm was rather less powerful than Angela.

Ding! The black haired woman took her cell phone from her jacket pocket when she heard the ring of the notification and looked at the screen. Angela began to read the messages addressed to her; she was amused by the fact that the girls texted her that they basically put together a spa in Hogwarts. They roped in their friends and the head of house Ravenclaw and Gryffindor in their endeavors, quoting papers and study about magical school practice at Mahoutokoro and Beauxbatons, that they had P.E classes that were not just about Quidditch and Flying on a broom.

This should have been logical, after all, the healthier you are, the more powerful your magic is; the link  to body/soul/magic is an obvious one spoken about in ancient texts dating back to Atlantis' sinking. Angela asked herself how the British forgot about this as they continue to champion tradition and their ancestral magic to isolate the New blood.

Wizards and Witches could be strangely dumb about things. They prove time and time again that magic has led to them being lazy and uninventive. In fact it would appear that magic has made them so lazy they have lost a great deal of common sense.

Their society is stagnant and this was not just the sad part; they aren't taught science or any sort of useful skills that would help them develop new technology, so there's no innovation. In addition, magic solves all their issues to a satisfactory degree, and there's a strong "old guard" portion of society resisting change.

This means that no one wants, knows how to, or is able to create anew. While new spells are occasionally developed, the only spell inventor Angela knows about is Pandora Lovegood, her best friend. This implies that magic innovation is dangerous, and likely discouraged in such a small society as Magical Britain. And if they can't make innovation they steal it, for example, they stole the Hogwarts express and made it disappear with the use of obliviation and erasing any paperwork showing that it had existed.

POP! A female house elf appeared in front of Angela. "Hello, can I help you?"

Angela stared at the magical being, she was clean and wore a beautiful uniform and looked happy. Her opinion of house Longbottom rose by seeing how well they treat their house elves. "Ah, hello. I've come to meet Madam Longbottom. "

With big eyes full of suspicion, the well coiffed female house elf asked, "You want to see the Matriarch? Do you have an appointment?"

Angela looked somewhat contrite as she employed a method that may be perceived as intimidating to reach Longbottom Manor. It was easy to find anything on the planet with the girls' freshly invented divination table. Triss studied how the mundane's satellites worked and made an equivalent of the same technology with expensive high quality diamond in their just as expensive Mithril socket that Triss enchanted to do exactly what those pieces of tech do. Those enchanted divination jewels were placed in orbit over the United Kingdom by Triss with her dimensional power; they can take still images in pretty impressive resolutions or spy on people if you use them as a medium for scrying.

With the Third Eye spell Triss and Raven came up with which to increase the user's powers of perception, they can see through darkness, see into the Ethereal Planes; and finally see invisible creatures and objects. Even so, it was difficult to pierce through the Fidelius charm, a dwelling whose location had been protected by this spell was then invisible, intangible, unplottable, and soundproof; until you use the True Seeing custom spell that Angela's girls had come up with from being inspired by a the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop game which allows someone to see things hidden by magic.

Just like that, the ancient and renowned Fidelius charm has been defeated, by a pair of inventive little girls; this showed how the peace in the magical world was tenuous when determined individuals wanted something really badly. The True Seeing spell was of course too dangerous for general circulation, and was turned into a family secret immediately.

Angela stared into the house elf's big black eyes and said with honesty, "No I don't have an appointment, but I must speak to Regent Longbottom urgently. It's about a life and death situation that only she can help me with; could you inform her that the Regent of house Merigold wishes to speak to her, please?"

The house elf seemed to have reached a decision as she peered at Angela's face for deceit. "If Madam Regent asks this politely, then I will relay her message."

With a POP the house elf disappeared, and left Angela alone at the portal; for ten minutes she waited while texting her daughters and telling them about the situation at Longbottom Manor and what they wanted to do.

Then with another POP, the house elf reappeared with a big smile on her face. "The mistress will be seeing you, Madam."

The house elf held her hand to Angela who took it, then they apparated to a withdrawing room, the size of a big apartment, fully furnished and decorated with ancestral moving paintings. Sitting at a table covered with Gryffindor colored red and gold drapes, Augusta Longbottom waited for Angela.

Angela took off her hat and slightly bowed her head at the older woman. "Good day, Regent Longbottom. I am happy to see you in good health."

The dark haired woman was used to seeing Regent Longbottom in proceedings in the Wizengamot. The gray haired woman was often seen with a horrible hat on her head; but right now she looked dignified in her white dress and her elaborate updo. Angela preferred to see her like this…

Madam Longbottom greeted Angela with a sharp nod and went to the point. "What does the Regent of house Merigold want with me? Normally, you don't like to bother with light families and their opinions."

The Wizengamot assembly room was divided into sides with seats divided into the Light, Gray and Dark factions. The Gray have started to erode at the power the Light factions had been gathering; the dark was still resisting changes despite being shown that their pureblood ideology was a fallacy. Angela and Augusta often crossed words when defending their ideologies; but it never developed into shouting matches like the Patriarch of other Houses do when courts were in session.

Angela laughed at that, she didn’t really care for the so-called progressiveness of the Light faction. "I assure you, I didn't come to enter in a debate with you about the perceived divisions in the magical spectrum. My charge asked me to come here, Triss, is sweet on young Neville and-"

"Have you come for a marriage contract? If so, forget it. We don't allow those kinds of practices in this family." Augusta interrupted Angela with an unladylike snort.

The Longbottom Regent was misinterpreting her intentions…

Angela chuckled at the woman. "Excuse me Regent Longbottom, but no. I didn't come here for this and I abhor those barbaric methods used in this country, I believe in free will and in free love. I could never force anyone to form such a forced bond."

Augusta nodded, realizing that she committed a misstep. Her voice shook a little bit when she said, "Then what did you come here for? And how are you ignoring the Fidelius…?"

*Is this nervousness that I hear in your voice, you old battle axe?* Angela grinned, it wasn't a good expression on her face, she looked like a predator having cornered her prey.

She replied, "Not easily, I assure you. It's taking all of my power to not let my perception and memory be altered by the charm covering your estate. House Merigold has ways of breaking such established charms and wards since they have gone to war with multiple magical houses before; houses that are now extinct in the distant past. The protections over your Manor, I could break them, but it wouldn't be polite to do so… and like I said earlier, I came to make you an offer, Regent Longbottom."

"Out with it, woman." The old woman hid her fear by being aggressive, empathy is such a useful ability…

Angela walked to the table and slowly pulled a chair as she smiled at the old and sad woman. She sat and gazed into the woman’s eyes as she put her hat at her side on the table. "Triss has gotten sweet on Neville, and she wants to see him happy; she started by helping him with getting his new wand."

Augusta scowled, then her facial expression morphed into one full of shame. "I remember… and received a strongly worded letter from Madam Sprout about me being at fault for attempting to stunt the magical education of my grandson and hinder his potential; that I was forcing Neville to be like his father was unbecoming of me and to stop living in the past."

"From what Triss said in her letter recently, Neville is powerful for his age." Angela pushed on the old woman's buttons.

The woman closed her eyes, as if she thought of something painful; Angela liked twisting the knife in Augusta's back as she thought of how badly she dealt with her grandson.

"Why have you come here again?" The old woman asked, Angela was quickly wearing her welcome.

Deciding to go to the point, Angela put her cards on the table. "What if I told you that you don't have to live in the past at all? That you can have Frank and Alice back with you? Sound of mind and completely Healthy."

A lot of emotions passed on Augusta's face, anger, sadness, hope. "How?"

Leaning forward and linking her fingers under her chin, Angela didn't go into much details. "We have some old magic at home which can do what the people at Saint Mungo cannot, we can reset their minds to before the torture they went through."

Angela waited for the woman to come to a decision; she couldn’t force it. Though, Augusta Longbottom’s answer to the offer of House Merigold will shape how Angela’s family will interact with her.

But Angela didn’t need to worry, the old woman seemed to have been hooked as she asked, "What will it cost me and my family?"

Angela smiled, Augusta seemed to know the score. People can not gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain something, another of equal value must be lost.

"Your support to the Gray Faction and an alliance with House Merigold." The black haired woman announced the price of Salvation for the woman’s son and daughter in law.

Augusta gasped and closed her eyes, what Angela was asking was basically to betray their current friends, alliances and business partners from the Light faction and align house Longbottom with the now proactive Gray faction who has been swelling as of late. Now Augusta knew how they did it; they made an offer to those families who needed something that they couldn't refuse.

The Merigold line was a powerful mage line that has existed as long as the Ollivander’s, they’ve been Wandmakers, Alchemists and War mages who helped defeat Rome and send them back to their shores. They were shrouded in secrets that no one has been able to pry from them despite the multiple feuds and House wars they’ve been in.

The Longbottom matriarch wasn’t surprised that they had a cure for what ailed her son and his wife. It was her turn now, and the love that she had for her son and his family trumped any political agenda or business enterprise she may have had.

"Why do you need us, Regent Merigold?" Augusta asked before accepting the impossible to refuse offer and jumping into the unknown.

Angela straightened up her sitting posture. "We plan to destroy Albus Dumbledore."

Augusta’s breath caught. "Impossible, he is too powerful."

The black haired woman rolled her beautiful blue eyes. "If I had a galleon for each time someone said the word impossible, my vault would be full… I am not joking, Madam."

Shaking her head, the old woman was adamant in her belief. "The old goat has so many contacts and people who owe him favors that he escapes any attempt to ensnare him…"

*The fish is still fighting and doesn’t seem to want to be reeled in.* Angela almost clicked her tongue as she listened to the woman.

But thanks to Triss Divination spells, she was in possession of information that would help her convince the Longbottom Matriarch. Angela studied the woman’s face and her mulish expression turned into one of shock when she revealed, "Madam Longbottom, we have proof that Albus Dumbledore is implicated in what happened to your son and his wife. And did other things that are unforgivable and we shall send him where he belongs, to the veil."

Angela could literally sense when the woman’s magic burned from her pores where it had been still as water earlier. Her control was shot to hell, and some vases and crystal decorations exploded. The old woman stood up in all her height, looking imposing as she commanded.

"Those are grave accusations, Regent Merigold; I must ask you to come with me, you have a date with a cuppa of veritaserum…" The old woman said briskly.

Not wanting to fight Augusta, Angela cooperated and stood up in turn; a pleasant smile on her face as she said, "Let's go, then."

It was thirty minutes later that Angela came back from the most pressing interrogation she had gone through in her life. Augusta didn’t dare try to pry any house secrets, but she asked a lot of question about how she discovered her information, who was privy of it and would she really help heal her son and daughter-in-law; what she didn’t like was how she asked about Triss but she’s been vague enough to not reveal that her daughter could create spells and was a priestess of the Norse Gods.

Augusta looked tired and angry. "Everything you say is true, at least you think it is. Still, I will help you take on and destroy Albus Dumbledore and his legacy.”

Angela nodded, saying nothing as she was offered the antidote to the Veritaserum. As she drank the spiked tea, Augusta added, "Merlin help me, I will help you, Madam Roth; but first give me back my family and you shall have your alliance."