As the sky lightened in the hour before the dawn, the inhabitants of the Grimoire household were up and about. The first think that was done was to make sure Harry P. was still all right. Janet took a look at Harry P.'s hands and blinked.
"You have some fast growing fingernails," Janet said. "They are already staring to come back in."
Harry P. chuckled. "My Aunt Petunia once shaved my head and the next morning my hair was back to the way it was."
"Will you be able to stand and walk to the kitchen, or should I bring the food up to you?" Janet asked.
Harry P. took a deep breath slowly stood up. He took some wheezing breaths as he clutched the side of his chest. Janet Grimoire refrained from moving towards him, and just bit her lower lip. Harry P. took a few more breaths and nodded.
"I can do it. I'd like to talk to your son some more," Harry P. said. "Thank you for...um..."
"I don't abuse my son like the Durselys did to you and I don't pamper or spoil my son like the Dursleys do to your cousin Dudley. I saw that you wanted to try and held myself back. If you looked like you were going to fall, I would have been there to catch you," Janet explained.
Harry P. nodded.
The two made their way down to the dining room. Janet gave an amused snort as she looked at the large oval table. It had been a long time since the table had that many people sitting at it. There were also empty places in case the entire Weasly clan showed up. Harry P. sat down between Harry G. and Amanda. Janet sat down next to Felicia and started chatting with the Cat Woman. David Grimoire came out with a large pot and sat it down in the middle of the table. He went back and came out with a basket filled with small, steaming loafs of bread that had the smell of garlic. He set the basket of bread down and went back into the kitchen and brought out a huge bowl filled with a white stringing substance.
"Spaghetti? For breakfast?" Donovan asked.
David smiled at the hunter. "All three of us have weird hours and it looked like we would have had to toss out the hamburger in a couple weeks. Also it was the easiest thing to make for this many people. Hsien Ko, I don't know if you need to eat, but.."
The ghost gave a sad smile. "I can't. I can drink water, but eating is beyond me."
"I'm sorry," David said.
Hsien Ko nodded at that and didn't say anything. David spooned out helpings to the others sitting at the table. Amanda shook her head when David was about to put the meat sauce from the pot on her spaghetti. Accepting that, David finished serving the others and sat down.
"I would say this is when normally we should say Grace, but this is not a normal collection of people," David said in amusement. "So, all I am going to say is dig in."
As the group ate, they chatted about things like magic, Voldemort, Pyron, and other events in their lives. A pounding at the door halted the conversations. David got up and head for the door. Opening the door he saw a man with a constantly rotating false eye, a black man, a woman dressed in witch's robes, and a young woman with green hair.
David did his best to hide his smile, as he turned to the man with the false eye.
"You must be Professor McGonnagall. Harry Potter mentioned you."
The black man and the young woman covered their faces to hide their laughter. The man with the false eye glared at David.
"You deliberately did that," Moody said flatly.
"Yes, I did Mr. Moody," David replied and looked at the woman who was giving him a very hard stare. "All of you, come on in.
Alastor Moody stomped in and shook his head. The other three quickly followed him.
"You made a big mistake in accepting us so easily. What if we intended to do you harm?"
David smiled. "I think you'll find that out in a second."
And a second it was as Moody stopped when a large black sword floated in front of his nose. Moody grinned when he saw the sword.
"Cute. If we intended harm, you had back-up ready," Moody said.
A boy's voice came from the dining room. "If you intended harm, you'd be suffering from a severe case of full body sunburn. It would be very painful to go to the bathroom."
Moody's grin grew wider. "So, that's what one of those strange wards does. You do have precautions in place."
David shook his head. "I didn't know about the sunburn ward, but go on into the dining room to see what my back-up was."
Moody did so and blinked when his magic eyeball fell onto Hsien Ko and Felicia. Moody gave a short laugh and looked around. Janet waved to a chair and Moody sat down. Moody glanced at Harry Potter.
"You had us worried there. You owl, Hedewig, couldn't find you."
Harry G. winced. "My fault. There is a 'bird ignore this place' spell up."
Moody glanced at the boy and did a doubletake when he saw the ring. "Why do you have a spell like that up?"
"Do you know how hard it is to clean pigeon droppings off the roof of this house is? Also birds tended to build nests in the chimney and died when they couldn't get out," Harry G. said.
Moody gave a snort and turned back to Harry P. "Do you want to tell us what happened? The note you sent had general information, but wasn't specific. By the way, the man is Kingsley Shacklebolt and the woman is Nymphadora Tonks."
"Just Tonks," the woman said. "I hate Nymphadora."
David held up his hand. "I think the explanation can wait until everyone has been introduced."
A quick round of introductions passed and Harry P. told his story to the group who just arrived of the book he had found, the bullies and how he wound up at the Grimoire household.
"The book you were reading," Moody said, as he held out his hand.
Harry P. nodded and handed the book to Moody. The Auror flipped to the last page and nodded at the spell. He then flipped through the book and found two entries. He looked at Donovan and The Grimoire family.
"So, two of he families mentioned in this book are still alive: the Grimoire family and the Bane family. We also have a woman from a race that is supposed to be extinct here," Moody said.
Harry G. spoke up. "Mr. Moody? Is there a chance that those bullies were under some kind of spell to make them want to attack Harry Potter?"
"Possible. I'm not sure. The blood protection spell protects against Voldemort and his followers," Moody replied.
"What if Voldemort hired a professional assassin?" Harry G. asked. "The blood protection spell only stops Voldemort and those loyal to him. Someone who is loyal to money wouldn't be bothered by it."
Moody chewed his lower lip for a bit of time and finally nodded. "You have brought up a very valid point. The Dursley residence might not be the safest place for him."
Janet spoke up, "I don't think Hogwarts is a good place for him to go to school this year."
Minerva McGonnagall frowned. "He needs an education in magic."
"Well there's always private tutoring and with all of Elijah Grimoire's books, plus what's in the sub-basement, he could get an education here," Harry G. said.
"Sub-basement? Harry, we don't have a sub-basement," Janet said in confusion.
"Yes. We do have one. Until I got the ring, the sub-basement was sealed off," Harry G. replied. "I better show you. I moved all of Elijah's books there as well."
Harry G. picked up a small, flat-bladed jeweler's screwdriver and led the group into the basement. Harry G. stopped in front of a large square pillar that looked like it was holding the center of the ceiling up. Sighing, he removed the Ring of the Black Dragon and poked the screwdriver into a notch at the base of the ring. He quickly turned the metal band around the stone and the dragon symbol on the ring popped up. Harry G. reached up and placed the ring into a small indentation on the pillar and then turned the ring like a key. A crack formed in the pillar and the outline of a double door appeared. Harry G. removed the ring and twisted the band until an audible click was heard and the dragon symbol was once again flush with the stone.
"Where did you get that ring?" Moody asked.
Harry G. sighed and related the story of how he got it. Moody took a look at the ring and then the doorway to the sub-basement and shook his head.
"That ring falls into a very gray area. Apparently it was stolen from this house and sold in England. The ring belongs to your family and this door proves it. That ring is a key to a room in this house," Moody said.
"Except for this one door, all the locks in the house were changed when the ring was lost," Harry replied with a shrug. "It was mentioned in Elijah's notebooks as well."
"That ring is not worth the effort of pursuing a court case over," Moody stated.
"I should say not," Minerva added. "I think the museum would at least like some monetary recompense for the ring though."
"If I can find the Vault of the Black Dragon, I would be glad to give them some of the money out of it. I just don't know where it's at," Harry G. replied with a shrug.
"We can figure that out later. I'd like to see this sub-basement," Moody said, as he opened the doorway up and walked down the stairwell.
"Why didn't you mention this before Harry?" Janet asked.
Harry G. shrugged. "I didn't want to add more to my chores. There is more than a century of dust over everything."
Janet and David looked at each other and then their son.
"Son, we'll talk about that later," David said.
Harry G. winced and sighed, as he followed Moody down the steps. The others in the group quickly followed.
"Lumos!" Moody called and the end of his wand lit up.
Harry G. shook his head and hit a plate on the wall. A glowing blue sphere appeared in the middle of the room.
"I haven't got all the rooms set up to use the stuff from Pyron's ship," Harry G. said. "I only had four glow plates."
"Pyron? Who's that?" Moody asked, as he quenched his wand.
"Long story," Harry G. replied.
Moody shrugged and looked around the room he was in. It was a room the size of the foundation of the house and had bookshelves along each wall that reached to the ceiling. There were also freestanding bookshelves lined up in row throughout the room. An opening in the south wall led to a small room with a desk and chair in it. Also in the room there were boxes with books in them. Unlike everything else, they didn't have that much dust on them. There were also openings in the other three walls and the stairwell continued downwards to another level.
"How big is this place?" David asked his son.
"It's fairly big. Apparently one of our ancestors wanted enough space to do his research, so he created a pocket dimension to do all his work in. The added effect of the pocket dimension is that it creates an interference for any sort of external magical detection," Harry G. replied.
Donovan started reading some of the titles on the books and shook his head. Harry went over to one of the bookcases on the wall and opened it up. He picked up a small leather bound book and headed back to the group.
"That is one of the most cliche things I have ever seen," Felicia said with a smile.
"It's not a hiding place, it's a storage area for diaries and notebooks. All of the bookcases have an area behind them like that," Harry G. replied, while waving the diary at Felicia.
Minerva was also reading the titles in shock and awe. "A lot of these books are believed to have been destroyed during the first goblin war."
Harry G. pointed towards the East opening. "There's more books down there, but they all deal with brewing potions or Alchemy if you prefer. As to the first goblin war, that makes sense. That's when our family broke away from the Wizarding world. They were upset that their colleagues imposed their wills on the goblins. That's why they entrusted the location of Vault of the Black Dragon to the Goblin King."
Tonks and Shacklebolt were also looking through the titles when they heard Harry G.'s declaration.
"What do you mean by that?" Shacklebolt asked.
Harry G. flipped open the book he was holding and handed it around.
The war with the goblins is almost over. I have talked to the Goblin King about the tyrannical decisions that the other families have made. My family has been called cowards at best and traitors at worst for not joining in the fight against the goblins. This is not the first time that our family has been against the others.
I shake my head at some of the decisions passed today at the end of the war. Hiding away like a turtle is not the answer. I have encouraged the selkies in Loch Ness to taunt the newly formed Ministry of Magic. I have a feeling that those with no magic need something magical to believe in someday.
Another day, and another charge of cowardice. The spell is complete. We will leave the tyrants behind and live under another name. I have left the spell behind and one to contact us in case of a life or death emergency which probably will never happen. The no-magics have a name for a book of ancient knowledge. That name is grimoire and that will be the name of our family. All previous references and diaries of our family have been moved into the Vault of the Black Dragon. I hope King Gringott can keep our secrets until we can return.
"If you place a quartz crystal on each paragraph, you get to see what was going on during the day through the eyes of the person who wrote that diary. I've already started mine, after I found the spell to do it," Harry G. said.
Those of the Wizarding world stared at the diary in shock.
"Your family broke that long ago?" Minerva asked in awe.
"It had to," Moody said. "Most of the Lost Families have been hunted down and brought back into the fold or have died out."
"Or been killed off," Donovan corrected with a harsh glare at Moody.
"I won't deny that, but I have no proof either way," Moody said.
"Now what?" Janet said. "Our son is the wizard and I don't think he cares to rejoin that world. I don't want him to, since I had no choice on who runs things."
Moody looked at the ceiling and thought.
"Excuse me, but why don't you hold off on revealing our existence? Harry Potter told us of Voldemort and having some wildcards stacked against him can only help," Harry G. said.
"I'd have to inform the Order," Moody replied.
"No you don't," Donovan said. "Leaks might abound and there is Severus Snape who really doesn't like Harry Potter. Besides, with Demitri Maximov and Morrigan Anslead running amuck right now, we don't need to deal with politicians."
Moody snapped his gaze to Donovan and gave a hard stare. "If what you just said is true, Voldemort is a mild threat right now. Those two were sealed away."
"Until Pyron freed them and got them to serve him, along with Anakaris and Lord Raptor," Harry G. said.
"Pyron again," Moody said. "I'd like to know who he is."
Janet smiled. "The National Inquisitor is a tabloid, but over the next week it will be printing a series true stories. It is just that no one will believe them. Voldemort and the Wizarding world will also be covered. You'll find out all about Pyron there and the truth about the flying pyramid."
Moody grunted. "Since it is a tabloid, no one will care and this family doesn't qualify for Muggle or Wizarding folk. This should be fun. I will have to mention this to one of the rivals of The Daily Prophet."
"Alastor! You can't be serious about that," Minerva objected.
"Fudge is an idiot and I've got a feeling that Pyron is going to make Voldemort look like a joke. We need that information out to the public as fast as possible," Moody replied.
Harry P. asked, "Will private tutoring here be an option?"
"That will take some discussion, but it might be a safe option," Moody replied.
"There needs to be a qualified teacher to do private tutoring," Minerva replied.
"We were told that the person who holds the key to Voldemort's destruction is named Horace Slughorn," Hsien Ko said. "Is this person a teacher?"
"Slughorn?" Moody asked in surprise. "He was Hogwart's potion teacher and he used to be head of the Slytherin house. He's retired though, but it is an option."
"Show him some of these books and he'll jump at the chance to tutor," Minerva said with a snort.
"He's free to copy what he wants of them. The books stay here though," Harry G. said. "By the way, why did Voldemort try to kill Harry anyway? He wasn't after his parents, he was after a one-year old baby."
"Dumbledore told me that I'm not old enough yet," Harry P. replied.
"Oh great the 'to protect the children' routine. We need to keep a child ignorant, so he can be protected from those who would hurt him. It doesn't work like that," David said. "Ignorance may be bliss, but all to often it is deadly. Sorry. I've seen too many court cases that have soured me on the best way to protect a child is not to tell him anything."
Donovan nodded. "True. That doesn't work. Amanda and her family were ignorant of Demitri running loose. Amanda is the only survivor and is still somewhat in spell shock."
Moody smiled broadly. "This could be interesting. Tonks, Shacklebolt, McGonnagall I don't want you to say anything to Dumbledore about what's going on here. I'll inform Albus that other arrangements have been made. We'll have to figure out some way to talk with Harry."
"If you can bring the owls here, I can make exceptions just in those cases," Harry G. said.
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(Posted Wed, 02 Aug 2006 05:39)
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