The Portkey promptly deposited the Ice soldiers, Harry, and the Longbottoms on the floor in the entrance hall at Nair'icaix. Harry quickly stood up from his fallen position and took in the surroundings. The large hall had been transformed into a gigantic hospital-wing. Nurses and Medi-wizards darted from bed to bed as they checked up on all of the patients.
Captain Nailoff promptly commandeered one of the nurses and instructed her to have the Longbottoms looked after. Before she scurried away, Harry also added his own instructions to have them taken to a room once they had been examined. Nailoff and his soldiers then dispersed to their own accommodations leaving Harry standing amid the bustle of the temporary hospital.
A glance at his watch revealed to Harry that it was nearly morning. Any decent wizard or witch would be getting some sleep right now. However, he was convinced that Dumbledore was getting ready to expel Neville and the two girls. He couldn't let that happen. With a sigh, he pulled his Ivory wand from his cloak and used it to Apparate to Hogwarts.
"Any of you could have been killed!" Dumbledore said to re-emphasize the main point in his lecture. "I realize that you are a very skilled wizard when it comes to Defense, Mr. Longbottom, but Miss Patil and Brown could have been severely injured. You had no right to place them in such danger."
Dumbledore's statement was followed with a loud 'harrumph' from both girls. "We knew the risks and I would gladly do the same again!" Parvati said, her voice bordering on the edge of absolute defiance toward the aged Headmaster.
"Me too!" Lavender added.
The three teens were then studied for several moments by Dumbledore before he spoke again. "That's what I'm afraid of. I can't have you three gallivanting off to wherever you want when I can't supervise you around the clock. I will have to take disciplinary action."
"They were Death Eaters!" Parvati wheedled. "You and the others needed all the help you could get."
"You did not go to St. Mungos expecting to fight Death Eaters." Dumbledore promptly rebutted as he drew several sheets of parchment from a drawer in his desk. "Even if those had been the circumstances, you would still be in violation of school rules."
Lavender was looking distinctly nervous now that she and her cohorts could see that they were definitely in trouble. Ironic really. They had always expected that trouble would come from the existence of Potter's Legion. "What are you going to do?"
"All three of you are too old and set in your ways for me to change you, so I have no choice but to expel you. It's the best thing for all concerned." Dumbledore said coolly.
Before Neville could say anything, another voice interrupted them. "That won't be necessary, Albus."
Dumbledore looked up in shock as the three teens spun in their chairs to find a somewhat bedraggled, yet very imperious Harry Potter standing in the open doorway of the Headmaster's office. "What are you doing here, Harry?"
"That's Mr. Potter or Lord Polairix to you." Harry stated. He then waved his hand absently and grinned. "But that is irrelevant because I won't 'allow' you to say anything. I'd rather get this over with so that I don't waste any time while you explain why I should 'give myself up' or do any other idiotic things that you think might serve one of your schemes."
Much to his chagrin, Dumbledore found himself unable to even open his mouth to speak. Apparently young Harry had outstripped him where magical power was concerned.
"In case you forgot, the House of Polairix owns and as of this coming summer, operates Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Harry began. "I don't have any authority as of now. You must realize though, that I will have absolute authority come summer. If you wish to remain Headmaster of this institution, you will NOT be expelling Neville, Parvati, or Lavender. Agreed?"
Neville bit back a grin as he watched Professor Dumbledore give a resigned nod and a look that asked Harry what his reasoning was. Dumbledore did not know, understand, or suspect the association between Harry and Neville.
"You won't be expelling them because from what I've heard about them, I think they have their priorities straight. Not only that, haven't you realized that Neville and his friends were the ones who fought back that attack during the last Hogsmeade weekend? It would be sheer idiocy to get rid of them." Harry explained, purposely leaving his other motivations out of the explanation. He doubted that anything could stop Dumbledore from expelling Neville if he found out about Potter's Legion "I think that is all."
The three teens and old man watched as Harry casually pulled a white wand from his dark robes and impossibly Apparated from the castle after waving his hand to restore Dumbledore's speech abilities.
"How did he do that?" Parvati gasped.
A very deep sigh was emitted from Dumbledore's lips. "He owns the castle and grounds. There must be some way that he is able to get through the wards. Perhaps a hereditary blood key." He then gave them each a piercing gaze, trying to pry their secrets from their heads before continuing. "It seems I can't take any action against you. Please be careful in the future however. You are dismissed."
The old man then watched as the three adventurers shuffled out of his office, vaguely wondering why Harry would go to so much trouble to keep them in school. Was there a connection?
When Harry returned to Nair'icaix, he found that the hustle and bustle had calmed down somewhat in his entrance hall and that all the patients seemed to be comfortably settled. A small team of nurses seemed to be on duty, seeing to the patients' needs and comfort. Hopefully, he would be able to have them all transported back to Britain as soon as possible. The hospital had fortunately not sustained any serious damage.
Not seeing anyone he recognized, Harry slowly made his way up to the master suite. He entered the room to find Bellatrix reading a small book while sitting in a rocking chair that she had acquired a few days earlier.
As soon as she became aware of his presence, she put the book down on a table and jumped up with a concerned expression painted on her beautiful face. "No injuries?" she asked as she glided over to him and absently touched him as if making sure he wasn't hiding anything.
"Nothing physical." Harry said despondently.
Bellatrix frowned. "What do you mean, dear?"
Harry briefly explained his short confrontation with Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, and to some extent the Order. "I've never blamed them for believing me guilty based on the evidence they had." Harry concluded. "It's just that deep down, I expected that they would at least listen to my side of the story."
"They'll be forced to realize their mistake quite soon." Bellatrix predicted. "You're the Lord of Polairix. They can't shut you up forever."
"Doesn't mean I feel any better about it." Harry mumbled.
A cushioned table abruptly appeared next to where the couple was standing. Bellatrix walked over and patted it with a quirky grin. "Strip and get on the table, Harry." she instructed. "It's time for your massage and therapy session with Dr. Bella."
Harry eyed the table suspiciously. "Strip as in 'naked?' What if someone walks in?"
Bellatrix rolled her eyes and promptly conjured a fluffy white towel which she tossed into Harry's face. "You can cover yourself with that."
Hermione noisily vomited for the third time that night. Watching Malfoy Sr. have his head removed had instantly traumatized her. After Ron had helped calm her down, the image of the sorcerer using his blade to do the deed kept playing through her mind. She hoped Ron would forgive her for getting sick on his pants.
"Are you okay?" Ginny asked, knocking on the open door to the bathroom at Grimmauld Place. "Ron says that you're a bit under the weather."
"How did you get here?" Hermione asked as she glanced up at Ginny, unsteadily regained her feet, and pulled the lever on the magical toilet. "Isn't it a bit late?"
Ginny shook her head. "Early, you mean. It's nearly dawn. Professor Dumbledore thought that I might appreciate being able to visit everybody for a short while to see that they're okay. He brought me here with him. I'll be returning to Hogwarts after the emergency meeting."
"Right." Hermione said in what she hoped was a brisk sounding voice. She had nearly forgot about the meeting. "I'd better go and join them before they get started."
"I'll come with you." Ginny volunteered. The two teenage girls quickly fell in pace beside each other as they made their way down toward the kitchen where most meetings were held. "I heard that you saw Malfoy get beheaded. Who did it?"
Hermione fought down the rising sickness in her stomach before answering. "You heard correctly. The 'Count of Trazkaban' did it. I think he's a sorcerer."
"I've never heard of a sorcerer by that name. Where did he come from?" Ginny asked.
"I think he works for Harry." Hermione responded absently as they descended a flight of stairs.
Ginny stopped short on the bottom step. "Harry? What about him? Is there something that nobody is telling me?"
"I guess I shouldn't have said that." Hermione said as a blush tinged her cheeks. She then quickly explained to the younger girl about Harry's arrival at the battle and how the Count had been with Harry and deferring to him.
"Evil attracts evil." Ginny said, trying to imitate a wise sage. "I honestly didn't think that Harry would work for Voldemort, but I'm not surprised that he's out there for himself."
Although Hermione agreed with Ginny, she still couldn't help but feel uncomfortable at their newest analysis of Harry's personality. Some of the things that Malfoy had said bothered her, but she decided to think about it later once they arrived at the kitchen's entrance.
She bid Ginny farewell as she entered the room the Order had deigned as its meeting place. Although she and Ron had been allowed to join up, Mrs. Weasley had adamantly insisted that her only daughter be excluded from the select group. Hermione smiled fondly at the matron who was now engaged in a heated discussion.
"It's unwise to provoke people, Ron! If what you say about that fire curse is true, Harry is extremely powerful, not to mention being the Lord of Polairix. I can't understand why Dumbledore would even let you try to confront that murderer."
"It was only Harry, Mum." Ron said, rolling his eyes.
Mrs. Weasley was ready to retort when Dumbledore, Moody, and Shacklebolt entered the kitchen from the hall. The auror was just concluding some sort of status report to Dumbledore. "Overall, nobody was able to turn anything up."
"What up?" Mrs. Weasley demanded. "Don't tell me that you didn't even come close to catching Potter!"
Moody grinned at her. "I won't then."
"My main concern is the disappearance of all the patients that were in St. Mungos." Kingsley stated as several more Order members filed in to the table. "I hope that they turn up and that the Longbottoms are with them."
The old Headmaster frowned. "I wish that I had been able to ask Harry about that when he visited me a couple of hours ago."
Everyone in the room went silent as he voiced his wish and stared at him. "You saw Harry after the attack?" Hermione half-asked, half stated.
"Yes, Miss Granger. I did." Dumbledore replied as he gestured for everyone to take their places around the table and took his own. "Mr. Potter, or as we could say, Lord Polairix, paid me a visit at Hogwarts. He told me that I would lose my position as Headmaster if I expelled your fellow classmates."
"Did he say anything else?" Ron inquired eagerly. "Were you able to talk to him some more?"
Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "He would not let me talk to him. After telling me what I wasn't going to do, he promptly left." He deliberately left out that part about how Harry had Apparated through the Hogwarts wards. There was no reason to make them worried right now.
"How can he just walk in and do that?" Mrs. Weasley demanded, horrified at what Harry was able to do.
"He owns Hogwarts." Snape said snidely as he made a tardy appearance. "My apologies, Albus. I was unable to get away from the Dark lord until just now." The potion's master then took a seat.
Albus shook his head. "That's beside the point right now. There is nothing we can do about that. Our immediate concerns at this point in time are for the missing patients, and the Longbottoms. Not all of you understand the Longbottoms importance, so I'll briefly explain. Whoever has them might be able to use them to gain some sort of power if they were to make a recovery. Before the battle, they were noted to be making progress."
"I take it that's the reason You-Know-Who attacked St. Mungos." Arthur Weasley observed dryly.
"That's not quite accurate." Snape cut in. "The Dark Lord merely wanted the Longbottoms dead. Unfortunately for him, it doesn't seem like that is going to happen anytime soon."
Tonks grinned. "I guess Harry has more brains than you people would like to admit. Instead of seeing potential power as a threat, he chose to turn it into an opportunity. Let's worry about getting the patients to a safe place. Does anyone know where they are?"
"As I was just telling Albus, the Ministry has been unable to locate any of the patients or Harry's followers. Our tracking devices were unable to sense the magic that those sorcerers employed during the attack." Kingsley Shacklebolt explained to everyone.
The meeting continued on as everyone put forth their mostly useless ideas as how to recover the patients and save the Longbottoms. Finally, the subject that all those present had been avoiding was brought up by Ron. "This is getting us nowhere! We can't solve the 'missing patients' or 'Longbottom' problem right now. Let's move onto worrying about imminent threats. Potter for instance."
Everyone was silent as they carefully avoided eye contact with each other. The silence was shattered when Hermione spoke up timidly. "He helped us against the Death Eaters."
"Only so he could take the Longbottoms away!" Ron yelled unnecessarily.
"Shut up!" Snape hissed at Ron. He then addressed everyone present. "All right. Everyone here knows by now that Potter is the Lord of Polairix and consequently, the Earl of the North. Since his escape from Azkaban, Potter has taken a firm stance against the Ministry using his inherited position and immense magical power. Name something bad that he has done."
Glances were exchanged as everyone realized that after a month or so of freedom, Harry had yet to harm anyone. What little progress Snape had accomplished was ruined when Molly Weasley stood up. "He's tipped his hand now, hasn't he? There's no longer any reason for him not to do anything. Mark my words! People will be killed now, and it won't be the Death Eaters doing the killings. Assuming that he's hiding in the North, his followers will come begin a reign of terror."
Snape struggled mightily to control the seething bubble of anger that rose and threatened to engulf his normally cool mind. He stoop up abruptly. "If you'll all forgive me, there are things that I must attend to." He then left the room, nodding discreetly to Tonks and Moody.
"Maybe he's right." wheezed old Mundungus Fletcher, briefly drawing himself out of his habitual drunken stupor.
"Oh, shut up!" Mrs. Weasley commanded as she looked in the general direction of Dumbledore, not quite meeting his blue-eyed gaze. "Something will have to be done. The public must be warned that Harry James Potter is armed, dangerous, and ready to kill as are his followers who have yet to be solidly identified or named. They still don't even know about what he did over the Christmas holidays."
"It seems to me that the Daily Prophet has been saying that for nearly two years." Tonks declared, trying to make the whole thing sound ludicrous.
The young Auror's efforts failed however. Dumbledore nodded. "We'll have to come up with some way to let everyone know."
"What's wrong with the Daily Prophet?" Ron asked readily.
Dumbledore coughed nervously. "I believe that Harry owns it."
"Huh?" Ron exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
"For the past several weeks, the House of Polairix has been purchasing a great deal of stock and ownership in companies. As of several weeks ago, the House of Polairix purchased complete control of the newspaper. Which reminds me Kingsley…"
"Yes?"
"The Ministry will only be able to look into the missing patients situation from a possible kidnapping standpoint. Meaning, that you can't do anything for twenty-four hours. Harry owns controlling shares in the hospital." Dumbledore announced. "That means that you have to have his permission to start investigating who took who from the hospital before the twenty-four hours is up."
Hermione blinked. Since when did Harry have so much money and financial sense? Was Bellatrix Black, who had escaped Azkaban the same night he had done so, helping him? Or was it someone else? She ignored that questions and spoke up. "We'll worry about informing the public of the danger then. Patients of St. Mungos can come later." she said, hoping to head off another heated discussion.
"Perhaps we could get an article in the Quibbler." Ron mused. "Luna was certainly helpful enough last year."
"Helpful to Harry." Hermione reminded him. "I don't think that it would work. She's been slightly distant toward us this year."
"There's the Wizarding Wireless Network." Mrs. Weasley informed everyone. "Everyone listens to that all the time."
Dumbledore nodded. "It's settled then. We'll send messages about Harry over the WWN." He then looked at Ron and Hermione. "You two were his friends, so you'll be more convincing. Would you two consent to making a message for us to use?"
Ron and Hermione both nodded, not realizing how much they would come regret agreeing to the proposition.
"Good." Dumbledore smiled. He then stood up and looked at everyone. "This meeting is adjourned. I will be inviting a select few of you to a special meeting at a later date in order to discuss the ramifications of Harry's succession to the Seat of the North."