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The Daring Win	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 8178 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
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Chapter Twenty-Five--A Place on the Stage
"You look magnificent, Harry."
Harry smiled as he met her eyes in the mirror. It was the kind of smile he could never have given three years ago, brimming with secret satisfaction and assured intelligence. "Thank you, Miss Dolores."
Dolores stepped back and watched indulgently as Harry straightened his dress robes and took a moment to adjust his hair. He had gradually gone from wearing his hair any which way to wearing it how Dolores brushed it for him, and then again to using a hair potion that his ancestors had invented. Now it looked messy but not uncontrollable. Dolores had thought it was a good compromise between Harry Potter the child and Harry Potter the maturing, perhaps dangerous, political ally.
Harry turned and offered his arm to her to escort her down the stairs. Dolores still had to bend a little and it looked a bit ridiculous, but neither was as true as it would have been when he was seven.
"You told me you think Dumbledore has regained strength," he murmured as they walked down the stairs.
Dolores lowered her voice. Even after all this time, neither of them trusted Remus or Sirius with anything sensitive. "Yes. Unfortunately, forcing Lucius to a low power ebb in the Wizengamot did have that effect."
"Will he try to gain custody of me?"
"I think he'll give that up and just go straight to influencing you."
Harry bobbed his head a little as they came around the corner into the dining room. "Then we have to concentrate our next volley on him."
Dolores started to answer, but she didn't get the chance, since the room all around them was exploding with light and laughter.
"Happy birthday, Harry!"
Dolores stared at the people piling into the room, dazed. They hadn't told her they were planning a surprise tenth birthday party for Harry, and she had no idea why for a second. Then she scowled a little. They'd wanted to take that away from her, plan something without her.
She didn't have much time to resent it, though, because Sirius snatched her hands and spun her around, and Remus grabbed Harry and did an impromptu dance in the middle of the drawing room. Other people piled out of the kitchen: Draco, Ernest, Pansy Parkinson and Daphne Greengrass who had become Harry's friends this past year with Dolores's reluctant approval, their parents, Minister Bagnold, a few of the Wizengamot members who had proven themselves to be amusing. They surrounded Harry and cast spells that filled the air with fireworks and "wishing charms" that were supposed to encourage his wishes to come true, laughing the whole time.
Dolores supposed she could tolerate this. For now.
"You don't have to do anything today," Sirius said, whirling Dolores around one more time and dumping her in a chair near the kitchen doorway. "The house-elves cooked all the food and made the cake, and we bought all the gifts. You can relax for once. We'll take care of Harry."
"That's the part I'm worried about."
Dolores said it softly, so that Sirius could hear, and his eyes sparked as he looked at her. "What do you think is going to happen to Harry with all these people around?" he asked in a challenging whisper.
"Betrayal. A stab in the back that won't hurt much right now but will produce consequences for years to come."
Sirius opened his mouth, then glanced over his shoulder as the house-elves started carrying food into the drawing room, along with small tables and trays to eat off. His fingers spasmed on hers. "You're a mistrustful and suspicious woman."
"I have reason to be."
Sirius only shook his head and stepped away from her. "It'll be all right," he said, and went over to scoop Harry off his feet and whirl him around in a version of the dance he'd given Dolores. Harry laughed up at him. For a moment, his face was entirely open and trusting.
But then Dolores looked deeper, and saw how still and calm his eyes were, the way they turned and looked at Pansy's and Daphne's parents when no one else saw him looking.
No. He still remembers the lessons I taught him.
That realization let Dolores sit calmly, and accept a plate of sliced oranges and oatcakes and soft goat cheese and tumbled salted nuts, all the favorites that she hadn't realized Remus knew she liked. She ate them, and laughed at the poor jokes the Greengrasses made, and kept an eye on Harry all the time as he talked with everyone, children and adults alike. She had taught him how to be a gracious host.
And he was. He smiled at something Draco said, and touched the other boy on the shoulder in a way that, Dolores knew, would make Draco feel they were still the best of friends, despite other people sharing Harry's life now. He inclined his head to Astoria, Daphne's little sister, whose parents had probably brought her along because otherwise they would have had to leave her with grandparents or stay home themselves. Astoria was a petite thing, not graceful enough yet for Dolores's taste, but this wasn't an adult party. And after Harry listened to her stumbling wishes for his birthday, he said something that made her smile. The smile let her whole face up. Dolores nodded judiciously. She might make something of herself in a few years.
Sirius joked with Minister Bagnold, doing something that was probably flirting, if the way she blushed was any indication. Then he came over and flopped in the chair next to Dolores, shaking his head. "You don't let him be enough of a child."
"I beg your pardon?"
"Harry. He's like a little adult. You could stop teaching him lessons for one afternoon and let him relax and socialize with his friends."
"What am I letting him do at the moment?" Dolores asked, genuinely curious. Sirius hadn't confronted her like this since the "prank" three years ago when he had pretended to kidnap Harry. Dolores thought things had been going perfectly smoothly lately. It seemed odd he could build up a head of steam about something.
"That's different. You're only doing it because you didn't know about the party and you didn't have a choice." Sirius leaned towards her. "You would have forbidden us to have the party if you knew about it."
"I would have suggested you expand the guest list." Dolores smiled as she watched Harry cast sparks from a practice wand with Pansy Parkinson. "There are a few other people who could have been here."
"But you think Harry should act like an adult."
Dolores eyed him. "And you think he is a child after what he endured with the Muggles?"
"He still needs to be able to have fun and enjoy himself! How can he enjoy himself when he's learning about laws and history and the proper way to serve tea all day?"
"You forgot the lessons in Latin," Dolores told him, and used a nut to scoop up a dab of goat cheese. "Harry was the one who insisted on those. He said he was tired of not knowing what the actual incantations he was learning meant."
Sirius flung himself dramatically back in his chair, hands spread. "My parents didn't make me learn Latin, and I'm a Black! What are you trying to make Harry into? A Potter? A Wizengamot member? He's ten!"
Sirius's voice was drawing too much attention, and Harry turned towards them slightly, one hand tensing. Dolores stood, put down her plate, and escorted Sirius into the next room, which was where the guests had Flooed in. At least it was too early in the party for anyone to want to go home soon. She shut the door and turned to face him, standing in the center of the blue rug that dominated the room. "Tell me what this is really about."
"Harry, and his ability to have fun, and the way you're ruining him."
"At least this round of accusations doesn't come complete with a prank," Dolores said, although she stepped a little further away from Sirius. She didn't think he'd have had time enough to set up a prank since she'd chosen the room, but she had learned not to underestimate him. "What am I ruining him for? And why this dramatic way of putting it?"
Sirius spent a second clenching his fists like Harry. Then he said, "I want him to run around and have fun and play on a broom and ask me for stories and--"
"Be James Potter."
It made Sirius's words cease as if she'd doused him with ice water. He stared at her. "What?" he choked out.
"You want him to be his father." Dolores had thought of that long ago, but she had decided to save the words for when they could do the most good. Admittedly, the confrontation in her mind had been for higher stakes than this, but that was all right. Perhaps she could stop Sirius here and keep him from going further. "You never thought that he lost that chance the night his father died."
"I--of course James was my best friend, and Harry looks like him, and--"
"No. You want Harry to be him. Otherwise, you wouldn't keep up complaining that Harry isn't a 'regular' child in the face of all evidence that he doesn't want to be."
"But--" Sirius choked again and paced in a circle for a second. Then he said, "How can any kid want more lessons? It makes no sense!"
Dolores shrugged and watched him. "You wouldn't want them, James wouldn't want them, so that must mean Harry can't want them?"
"Yes--no--Harry just isn't--"
"If you say the word normal, then you'll regret it," Dolores said softly. "You're basing normal entirely on your own definition, on the way you remember being. Harry had enough of being told he was a freak when he was living with the Muggles."
"I would never use that word!"
"But it doesn't matter, not if you're thinking of the concepts. You think of normal children as spoiled pranksters. That's not going to be Harry, ever. If that appalls you, then you can save us all time by walking away now."
Sirius hunched his shoulders and said, "The Muggles did so many things to him. But he never told me they made him feel like he had to grow up."
"Calling him freak and starving him and making him sleep in a cupboard didn't make him feel like he was normal. And then he was plunged into a world that he didn't really understand, where he was a hero and a savior and some people wanted him to go straight back to the Dursleys." Dolores moved in to touch Sirius's shoulder. He could still be an ally. He just had to learn his place. "He's chosen an identity that will save him from that. He could never be in control or defend himself if he was still a simple child."
Sirius stared at the floor in thought. Then he looked up. "You said to me once that he would probably be in Slytherin."
"No one can predict that with one hundred percent certainty. You went into Gryffindor. But I think I can predict it with ninety-five percent certainty."
"I suppose--I can accept that, really." Sirius sounded as if he was speaking through a dry throat. "I just hoped it would be Gryffindor." He gave her a wavering smile. "I suppose this was the last gasp of my hope."
"And does it make you dislike him or think of him as somehow abnormal?"
"No, of course not!" Sirius's head popped up, he saw her staring at him, and he lowered it again. "You thought I hated Slytherins enough to go on thinking of him as somehow abnormal."
"I did." Dolores made her voice calmer. If she could get past this without any casualties, including Sirius's trust in her, then she would be happier. "You sometimes talk about the Slytherins you bullied in school as if they've spent years plotting your downfall."
"They bullied me, I didn't bully them!"
"Going after them with four people at once wasn't bullying?"
"They knew Dark Arts! They would have hurt me if I'd tried to fight them on my own!"
"You also knew Dark Arts because you're a Black and you were raised that way." Dolores folded her arms. "Please don't insult my intelligence by implying that you were afraid of them."
Under her stare, Sirius let his head droop until he was looking at the floor. Then he whined, "I might have known Dark Arts, but they knew poisons and potions and all kinds of things. They still could have hurt me."
Dolores allowed herself a roll of her eyes, since he couldn't see it. "I don't really care what kinds of struggles and conflicts you had going on in the past. You can stay up until three in the morning brooding on your wrongs if you want. What I need is some kind of assurance that you won't allow those grudges to translate into affecting Harry if he Sorts Slytherin when he goes to Hogwarts."
Sirius tensed. "You know my worst enemy is the Head of Slytherin."
"I know that you're going to let Harry go on and into Slytherin and let him fight his own battles. If Snape does something wrong to him, then he can report it to us and we'll do something about it. But don't fill Harry's head with tales about Snape."
Sirius looked guilty in a way that made Dolores suspect he'd already done that. She held her breath to increase her patience for a second, then said, "At least promise to hold back on your actions, if it's too late to hold back on your words. Promise me that you won't do anything until Harry actually asks you to."
Sirius blinked. "You're not going to say that I should clear it with you first?"
Dolores shook her head. "With Harry."
"Why?"
"Because he has to be independent of me as much as he can," Dolores said with a little sigh. While still being partially under my control. That was the part she would never say aloud, of course, and she had accepted that she couldn't exercise that control with as tight a rein as she had once planned on. It would be fatal for her plans and Harry's politics if someone ran around saying that he did only what Dolores wanted him to do. "But I hope that you don't plan on encouraging him to risk his life or do any of the other stupid things that the Marauders did."
"We've already talked to Harry about how to be a Marauder when he's at Hogwarts..."
"And that's the dangerous part," Dolores told him plainly. "Harry might have some of the same taste in fun that you do, but he doesn't have the same temperament. Is he going to play harmless pranks?"
"Of course! At least as much as ours, anyway..."
"Yes, I know that you could have murdered someone with your pranks," Dolores said sharply, but calmed her voice down a little when she noticed Sirius looking vaguely guilty. "Vaguely" was the best she could hope for. "But Harry might actually try. Encourage self-reflection and restraint in his pranking."
"Restraint," Sirius muttered as if it was a dirty word. "Why not just tell us not to talk to him about it anymore?"
"Because that would seem to be a restriction. What we want is restraint."
Sirius still looked baffled, but he nodded as if he understood and turned back towards the party. "Can we stop having a deep conversation now? I'm bored and I want to see if Harry actually dances with Pansy."
"Why should he?"
"I might have put him up to it."
Dolores sighed and followed Sirius back into the next room. She supposed that the best she could hope for was Sirius telling her the truth when she went after it and prioritizing Harry's safety above his pranks. He'd never done anything like the "kidnapping" attempt again in the last few years. Harry's safety was the best leash she had on him.
Dolores did pause when she came into the room. There were extra additions, and for a moment she wondered if there were Greengrass or Parkinson relatives she wasn't aware of who might have invited themselves along.
Then she realized that Dumbledore was there, and beside him a scowling man with such dark hair and eyes that Dolores identified him even before she smelled the stink of Potions ingredients that hung around his body. She moved swiftly and silently up beside Harry as Dumbledore bent down over him. Harry looked up at him, unafraid.
Not a custody attempt. Then what is this?
"Harry," said Dumbledore affably, "I'm bringing someone by who's wanted to meet you. This is Severus Snape, who's Potions professor and Head of Slytherin House at Hogwarts."
Dolores came up beside Harry. She said nothing, still not sure of Dumbledore's game. He didn't look at her anyway. Snape bent down as though he felt the need to hover over Harry like Dumbledore.
If Dolores hadn't been so close and watching their faces so intently for a hint, she wouldn't have heard Snape's whispered, "Legilimens."
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The Daring Win