Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Harco Empire	By : Toddy Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 34417 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or films. I do not make any money from the writing of this story, just enjoyment.

Chapter List
- 75
- 76
- 77
[Note: conversation =: “speech” & ‘thoughts’ & *telepathy* & #Parseltongue# & {telephone}]
~~~ TEACHING ~~~
At Friday teatime, a week later, Harry saw the five students chatting and beckoned them over. “Have you any more classes today?”
“No Professor; but we have some homework to do,” answered Cassius.
“Does it require dozens of books?” Harry queried.
“Only a couple each. Why do you ask?” Honorius quizzed.
“I have a study period now, I thought, perhaps, that you might like to study at Chantry Cottage, it will be quieter than in the main hall,” suggested Harry. “So maybe we would achieve our aims earlier.”
“Ooh! Can we? Yes, please! We’ll just collect our satchels.” The Smiling Ones went off hurriedly, leaving Peter behind.
“Does that include me, Professor?”
“Yes Peter, as long as you don’t have to use the entire library.”
“Thank you. It’s just neatly writing up various notes for Professors Flitwick and McGonagall. I took them during their lessons today and I want to put them down properly before I forget some of the details.”
“Do you need to get anything?”
“No thank you, Professor. I have it all here. The house-elves took my clothes after you gave us permission. At least I hope they did.”
The Smiling Ones reappeared carrying full satchels; Harry joshed them about bringing the library with them and took them to the apartment. As they passed through the foyer Draco stuck his head out of his study door.
“Where are you going?”
“To the cottage when I’ve collected my papers.”
“It’s a bit early to go home, isn’t it?”
“Harry says we can do our study at Chantry Cottage, Draco. It’ll be much quieter there, won’t it?” Honorius smiled ingratiatingly.
“Hmm … Yes … I suppose it will. I’ll come and join you.” Draco picked up a few papers and joined the procession through the new portal.
After a brief look at the New Annex’s repairs they walked through the Milk Wood to the cottage.
“Masters … You’re early.”
“I hope you’ve no objections, Kreacher?”
“No, Master Draco; just surprised, that’s all.”
“Did we catch you doing something you shouldn’t, then?”
“It’s only masters who get up to those kinds of shenanigans. We elves are pure and dedicated; surely you know that?” There was more than a hint of irony in Kreacher’s voice and he winked at the five students.
Harry spoke up: “I seem to remember a certain elf being very insulting and hiding several of the Black heirlooms.”
“It’s a good job I did so; otherwise Voldie would never have been defeated, would he?” Kreacher gave his locket a quick polish and looked meaningfully at Harry.
“What does he mean, Professor?”
“Well Peter. Voldie did some murder-magic, and split off parts of his soul and hid them. His idea was to make himself immortal or at least un-killable. We had to go to find them and destroy each one. There were inside all kinds of vessels, including a locket like Kreacher wears. One Horcrux, for that is the name of those special vessels, was hidden inside the locket. Once it had been destroyed, we knew that Kreacher was very attached to House Black so we gave him the Black heirloom as a memento.”
“Later on he earned our thanks too, because he led the elfin army in the battle of Hogwarts,” added Draco. “That was when Harry finally defeated Voldie.”
“Why do you call that evil magician by such a familiar name?”
“That’s easy, Master Peter. He would have been livid if someone had been so familiar with him. All the death eaters were very reverential when they addressed him; sometimes going as far as to crawl on their knees towards him. So his opponents started to take the piss; treating him as a thing of fun. The humour was a way of dealing with the real horror that he truly was.”
“Thank you Kreacher,” said Harry. “I knew that we called him Voldie, but I’d never heard a rational explanation of why we did it, before.”
“It really arose from an elf-slang usage. You see, below stairs we tend to be disrespectful of our Masters, especially the overbearing ones. It helps us to be civil when dealing with them. Master Harry, we all called Potty, same as Dragonet was used for Master Draco, before they became reconciled.”
“Why was I called Dragonet, Kreacher?” asked Draco.
“A pun on your name, and the fact that a dragonet is a small thin spiny fish.”
“I suppose I was prickly and I still don’t have that much extra flesh. So my father was the dragon, then?”
“Oh no! He was Lucky; mainly because he managed to change sides just at the right time, more than once. Though he’s not had much luck this time, has he?”
“Chameleons find it harder to change colours quickly as they age, maybe that’s it,” mused Draco. “Anyway, I’m glad to be on the side of light. Apart from the moral outlook, everything is so much more relaxed.”
“I think we had better be more purposeful,” suggested Harry. “We came here to carry out some quiet study. Much as I love the insights Kreacher has given us.”
“Spoilsport!” Draco pulled a face and winked at the students. “However we’d better knuckle down; and that includes us two professors, as well.”
Under the patio canopy, they chose a table each and seated themselves to catch the best light. Silence reigned, apart from the scratching of quills and the ripple of pages being turned. Occasionally one of them would look up, thinking about what they had to write. If someone else was doing the same, they would smile, look down and reapply a greater diligence than before. The result of just over an hour’s labour was a number of contented sighs over jobs finished. There was ample time to take a shower and dress languidly before strolling towards the Farmers Arms. Peter used the shower in the single guest room.
~~~ FARMERS ARMS ~~~
“Why do professors have to study?” asked Peter as they ambled along.
“To check that the lessons for next week are relevant to what was learnt last week; that we have our facts right; that the lesson is in the kind of language our students understand and that we have a teaching style suited to that group of students’ needs,” replied Draco. “For instance if I referred to potions ingredients that the seventh years use regularly, and just named them to you first-years, without teaching you first what they look like, their properties and drawbacks; you may well do yourselves some harm, or at the least not find the correct item. In the same way the Seventh-years would be bored if I listed all the properties etc. In fact, I would probably get rude comments from them. Then again, I might just drop a hint in passing, or ask someone to repeat the drawbacks, just to make sure they knew what they were about.”
“Yes I see.”
“We have to keep up with the present state of things,” Harry added. “No use teaching you an old defence charm if a new one would do the job much better, is there? For us young professors and tutors, we are still learning how to teach; with Madam Longbottom as our professor. And we have to take exams, just as you do.”
“Hey Harry? That means you work harder than we do, doesn’t it?” Septimus’s eyes were registering shock. “Here we were thinking it was a doddle to spout-off in front of a class and get paid for it. Yet you still find time to relax with us, too.”
“Relaxation’s necessary as well. It helps you put a perspective on what you’re doing. Severus had little relaxation; it’s probably why he was so foul tempered all the time.”
“Mmm … I know what you mean … When I get all uptight about something I go and tootle on my flute,” put in Honorius. “It makes all the difference.”
“Harry and I go flying and chuck a snitch around,” Draco explained. “Blaise and Justin swim. Herms has a sketch book. Bloody good pictures she draws, very lifelike. Hers is muggle art, so the image doesn’t move around, but they’re good nevertheless.”
They were now at the door of Richard’s pub. Richard had screened off a part of the back room to give them a private dining room. He ushered them in there, introducing everyone, discreetly leaving them with the sherry decanters. There was an awkward silence to begin with.
“Granddad, did you know that our professors have to work harder than we do?” Peter blurted out.
“I should hope so, too. I’ve had to show people what to do so I know all about it. I hope you respect them for it.”
“Yes well … They make it such fun … Least these two and Ham do … Oops!”
Everyone tittered.
“I imagine Ham is Professor Holderness.” Draco suggested with a smile.
“Why Ham?” asked Nanny.
“His forename is Hamish and he’s fairly rotund, I suspect.” Harry chuckled.
That exchange broke the tension. The conversation started on the subject of nicknames and wandered off, as all good conversations do, into many other topics. Some were erudite, some embarrassing [especially for Harry when Voldie was talked about], so he turned the tables and praised his latest rescuers. Various revelations were exposed, ‘when we were young’ did not always have a censorious moral tone to it. The children learnt that the adults had fooled around when they were kids. The food and the wine built up and easy camaraderie. Sometime during the evening, the business about five cottages being up for sale was revealed and a promise to introduce Francis undertaken.
“If we come to live here, the parents will have to have some way of apparating in. Being warned beforehand we all came by train to the nearest station at Oxenholme and then took a taxi. It was easier anyway, both of us don’t like being charmed and side-along apparated,” admitted Granddad. “We are happy using the train, but our adoptive sons and daughters prefer the other way.”
“Once the station is opened, we hope to make an apparating area in the old goods shed. It will have a comfortable waiting area attached, so you can appear at the tail of the arriving passengers. We already have too many witches and wizards coming out of our front door, so they now use the other gateways too,” explained Draco. Why not come to The Annex and we’ll show you why.”
As the group walked along John appeared out of the vicarage and had to be introduced.
“Three won’t tingle, John,” Harry explained; whilst Draco explained the phenomenon to the others. They avoided any discussion about houses, because, as yet, nothing was certain.
Once inside the Annex, Draco made an explanation about the portals and then took them via the new portal to Hogwarts. Granddad and Nanny had to be reassured four or five times about the two locations. The parents had great fun in exploring their old haunts whilst Peter went to the Ravenclaw common room and introduced some of his friends to his grandparents.
It was late when they ported back; Draco had asked Kreacher to warn Richard who in turn had given the elf a key to the side door.
~~~ SATURDAY 19/06/99 ~~~
After breakfast the Blakes went to look for Francis at his office. They apprised him of the housing situation and asked if they could bring Granddad and his adopted family to see him.
“I have representatives of the other families who want to sell coming to see me at ten thirty; they’ll be pleased I have some prospective buyers. They were grumbling about the previous solicitor’s ineptitude. I don’t know why, they really should have instructed a house agent, which is what I was going to advise them to do. I’ll hold off, at least until the two parties have chatted together. Say an appointment at eleven thirty? Will you be coming along too?”
“If Peter’s Granddad wants us too, we will,” answered Harry. “We’ll go and see them now.”
Our pair wandered over to the Farmers Arms to find the complete Manchester party just finishing a late breakfast.
“Hello Professors, I thought you’d be planning more lessons.”
“No Septimus, we aren’t; as you can see.”
“We were just going to take our parents for a walk around the village, care to come along?”
“Why not? We need to be back for eleven thirty as we have fixed an appointment with Francis for you to meet the house sellers’ reps.”
“Isn’t it wonderful, what a coincidence?” Peter exclaimed in innocent glee.
Harry felt his inner voice confirming what Peter had said.
Draco sensed it too: “I think it bodes well, Peter, yes; but let’s not count our chickens until they are hatched, hmm?”
“You know, Grandson; we mustn’t appear too eager or they’ll push up the price. Much as I feel your excitement we mustn’t let it show. Do you understand?”
“Yes Granddad. Perhaps we five had better not come to the solicitor’s office; we’d probably give the game away. Err … Professors … May we use your swimming pool when you go into the solicitors, please?”
“Of course you can, Peter. Is that all right with our musicians?”
Nods of assent clinched that deal.
The walk took them into the square along Ash Street, left into Oak Lane and round the south side of Godric’s Hollow using the Pastures Way, during which Harry described the village wards and what a tholus was. When the party reached the river bridge Draco explained about the newly-made extension of the tholus to cover the path and the station-house. They did not go that way; instead they followed the river path towards the mill. Michael was there, still tinkering with the wheel. He was glad to show them round and talk about his project. Harry and Draco privately thought that he had not progressed much further than when they had visited last time. However, the mill leat was now full and did not appear to leak overmuch, so the Blakes supposed he must have been working on that. They also noticed that the Woodyates muggles had fitted up small sluice gates for their glasshouse irrigation project.
The youngsters parted from their parents as the group passed Chantry Cottage. The remaining ones arrived five minutes early at Francis’s office and were ushered straight in to the interview room. It was fairly crowded but everyone had a chair and seemed to be reasonably comfortable. One of the ladies there was the one that had lambasted Harry about being a lazy villager, although she seemed to have forgotten the incident. Therefore, she started off on the wrong foot with our pair. She increased their loathing when she condescendingly asked why two teenagers were attending.
“Because we value the opinion of the village mage and his companion, Mrs Gaudery,” replied Granddad.
“Ridiculous middle-ages rubbish, if you ask me,” she replied. “Be that as it may, we have these five beautiful cottages to sell and we understand from the solicitor that you are interested in buying.”
“That really depends on the price and whether we like the premises once we have been shown round.” Granddad was suitably cautious.
“Of course you’ll like them, we love them, but unfortunately our domestic circumstances have changed and, loath to go as we are, we are forced to sell our comfortable extra residences. We have made many improvements especially in the utilities area …” Mrs Gaudery continued on, speaking in estate agent’s superlatives.
Harry caught Draco’s dislike of the woman: *Let’s cast a truth charm on her, the answers might be more interesting*.
D: *Not heard of that one before*.
H: *I was reading up on it yesterday; I’ve not tried it yet because it requires some strength. I reckon we could do it easily between us*. Harry conveyed the form of the charm to Draco.
D&H: *VERITASIMUS VERBUM!* they cast silently, concentrating hidden fingers on the Gaudery woman.
“… Beautiful views,” she was saying when the charm took effect. “Noisy kids splashing in the stream, dreadful smells in the spring when we open the windows, we complained about it of course, but nothing was done. No one bothers to clean the roads; I blame it on the lazy villagers and they were rude to us, too, when we suggested they do something about it. The dust at harvest time has to be seen to be believed. Then there’re all these biting insects, don’t get ’em in the city, not like that.”
Her companions were aghast at her change in attitude in revealing of their real reasons and tried to stop her speaking.
Like Umbridge in full flow the charm made her ignore them and continue to make complaints about their present weekend domiciles. “… So you see why we must move,” she finished.
There was total silence in the room. Granddad looked at Draco who winked and made a hidden wand-waving motion with a finger. Granddad smiled in understanding, winking back.
“Well now Mrs Gaudery, I’m quite sure that because of your obvious distaste for the countryside you would be prepared to discount your asking price considerably.”
The charm was still working as she replied. “We’ll take any reasonable offer just to be shut of our secondary homes, so what do you have in mind?”
D: *Bloody good charm, Harry*.
H: *Yes, isn’t it? Took quite a bit of energy though*.
D: *Definitely worth it, wouldn’t you say? Have a bit of chocolate*.
Two Blakes sat there with beatific smiles on their faces, munching restorative chocolate whilst Granddad clinched the deal, subject to inspection. Mrs Gaudery’s companions looked daggers at her, but had to agree the price.
H: *I think the charm affected the others too*.
D: *The book didn’t say anything about collateral thaumic influence*.
Each set of parents went with one of the sellers to inspect the cottages; Draco and Harry stayed behind with Francis.
“I think you two had a hand in what went on. Didn’t you?” said Francis offering them coffee and biscuits.
“Yes … She’s a stuck up snob … She got up my nose on the day of the demonstration, and didn’t improve my opinion of her when she was so dismissive of teenagers,” replied Harry.
“Harry read up a truth charm, it’s not used very much as it takes a lot of energy. We found it quite draining, but it was definitely worth it,” added Draco.
“Would you prefer drinking chocolate?” Francis offered.
“YES PLEASE,” was their unison reply.
Francis buzzed his secretary to alter the refreshments; then continued, “Her companions thought they’d picked the most hardnosed of them to force a good deal. They’ll be furious with her for letting them down. How long does the charm last?”
“I’m not quite sure. It was used in the questioning of suspects before one of Draco’s ancestors invented Veritaserum,” explained Harry. “The book said that it made it easier for the guards to settle convicted prisoners in, but failed to say how long the effect lasted after that.”
“I suspect that if Peter’s Granddad’s families like the houses, we should be able to close the deal today before the charm wears off.” Francis chuckled at the thought and rubbed his hands in anticipation of his transfer fee. They talked about his researches into the lord of the manor titles, from which nothing startling had emerged; after which Francis went to see his secretary about the standard conveyance forms.
Draco promised Harry an alcoholic drink as a reward for the morning’s entertainment. They said goodbye to Francis and his secretary, crossed the road and up a couple of houses to the Farmers Arms.
Noting that Richard was stocking a range of magely drinks as well as his normal muggle stock; the pair decided that Fire-whisky was a bit heavy for that time of day and settled for a glass or two of fleur-wine. They were on their third glass when Granddad’s family arrived.
“All right you two, what did you do to her? Not that I’m complaining one bit. She was still niggling about the awful countryside when we left after signing the contracts.” Granddad rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
“Harry read about a truth charm yesterday, so we tried a little experiment on her. It looks as though it works.” Draco tried to act nonchalant, but his pleased smile spoiled the effect.
“Please don’t try it on us.”
“It’s quite draining so you’re safe for a couple of days, at least,” Harry pointed out.
“The least we can do is buy you lunch. We got a very good deal; some of her blurb was quite near the truth. We won’t have to raise such a big bridging loan from Gringotts, despite her acquaintances trying to up the price when we looked at the houses. All we have to do now is sell our houses in Manchester,” Septimus’s dad [The Minister] put in.
“That nice Mr Scalar next-door-but-one said he would give us a decent bargain. He wants to gather his extended family together, you know,” his wife added.
“That’s a good idea, Love; I’ll have a chat with him on Monday. The Smiths got a good price when he bought their house from them, so old Bert said. One extended family selling to another one seems to be very fair.”
The five students joined them for the meal.
“How soon do we move in?” asked Honorius.
“During the summer holidays, if all goes well, Chicken.”
“Aw Mum! Please don’t call me that in front of my friends.”
Four sets of student barnyard noises were his only answer; immediately followed by his mum hugging him and everyone giggling at his further discomfiture.
Richard came to take their orders.
“What do you recommend, Richard?”
“We have some very tender roast chicken with all the trimmings.” Richard was unable to get an answer as the whole party roared with laughter, including Honorius. When they had recovered they went along with his suggestion, Draco explaining quietly the cause of the joke. When the meat was served Honorius got the biggest helping.
“Just to even things out,” Richard muttered in Honorius’s ear, “I was called chicken by my mother, too.”
~~~ RAILWAY STATION ~~~
There was time for a leisurely coffee or two in the lounge bar before the party went to the station. The Mayor of Great Grumblewell was there to open the station officially. Peter played a fanfare on his trumpet, accompanied by his pals on woodwind. His Worship cut the ribbon and John took over, blessing the various parts of the station and the accompanying house. A light buffet was laid out under the station canopy ready for when the railway dignitaries arrived by train. The greeting ceremony over; those present partook of afternoon tea. Dorothy’s team, all in spruce Muggle uniforms, served and cleared away in best country-house fashion, much to the Mayor’s and Mayoress’s delight.
Draco conveyed to Harry that he thought the Mayor and his wife had ever been treated to proper servants before; earning himself a thump on the shoulder from his grinning partner.
On Saturday 26^th, after attending the Wizengamot, Draco and Harry quietly flooed over to Privet Drive to attend Dudley’s nineteenth birthday party – it was a very sedate affair when contrasted with the Dumbledorian shindigs at Number Twelve.
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