The nervous ministry official stood there shifting from foot to foot as Filius stared him down. Filius was quite short as a half goblin, but the man was still wilting under his stare.
“You realize how ridiculous that sounds?” Filius stated flatly, “The champions were supposed to just not notice that their friends had suddenly disappeared? And what of Fleur Delaceur’s sister, is she not supposed to be in France right now? They were just supposed accept your word that they were fine? Especially Harry Potter given all the threats he’s faced. I… you know what, I don’t need to hear any more of this. Where is your superior? Who was it that ordered the kidnapping?”
“Well… it was a decision made by committee, no single individual…” the man said, “Then where is the committee!” Filius shouted in frustration as McGonagall looked on silently. The magical contract they had saddled her with was restrictive, he was amazed she had been stupid enough to sign such a thing. Luckily it didn’t have a secrecy component so she was able to tell him the terms of it.
Needless to say that despite doing her best, the contract prevented her from disclosing events that ‘directly pertained to the three tasks relating to the triwizard tournament’ until a winner was determined. When she restated what had happened from her perspective regarding this situation, Filius had groaned out loud in response.
The way she had acted would have made even him suspicious... No wonder Harry Potter had been alarmed, especially given his terrible prior experience with Dumbledore. But now, Filius had to bypass whoever this ministry patsy was and get to the real power that had decided that four children should be kidnapped and spelled for a sporting tournament.
“Well, actually the whole department worked together…” the man backtracked and Filius shook his head, “For the love of…,” He said, “You both stay here and try not to commit any more crimes while I’m gone. I’m going to go to someone with actual influence.”
The man protested, but Filius ignored him as he strode forward to the fireplace and took some floo powder from a little cup to the side. He stepped forward.
“Professor Flitwick, please. Let us discuss this and not blow things out of proportion,” the man said, sweating heavily, “Surely…”
“The Ministry!” Flitwick said firmly throwing down the powder into the fireplace, stepping out into the bustling lobby of the ministry. Several people gave him nasty looks due to his heritage as he walked to the front desk. The receptionist leaned forward.
“Do you have a request, sir?” she asked sounding annoyed to have to talk to him.
“Can you call Arthur Weasley to the front? I have something important to discuss with him regarding Harry Potter and the triwizarding tournament. Tell him it is Filius Flitwick. Charms Professor.”
The receptionist blinked and then peered closer at him. Filius could visually see her warring with herself, various ugly expressions flashing across her face. On one hand she wanted to deny whatever he wanted to do due to him being a ‘half-breed’ as he was sure she would put it. But on the other his message really did sound important and she would be in trouble if she didn’t pass it along.
“Very well,” she said leaning back looking vaguely dissatisfied by her decision, “Please wait here. I will send him a note.”
She wrote something down on a piece of parchment and with a flick of her wand it folded into something that resembled a muggle paper airplane before floating into the air and shooting off into the distance.
Filius stood there and waited and the receptionist ignored him. Fifteen minutes later Arthur Weasley arrived and stepped out of the elevator. Filius was surprised to see the dark bags under his eyes as he walked towards Filius as soon as he noticed him. Many in the room gave Arthur respectful nods. With Dumbledore’s reputational collapse, many of Dumbledores long time allies that had been involved in all the dirtiness he had been involved with had also been exposed without Dumbledore covering for them.
Arthur Weasley was one of the few who had been untouched by this, and so he had become the defacto leader of the light faction in the Ministry. It was lucky for everyone that Lucius Malfoy had been so severely weakened in the years prior to Dumbledore’s trial, or the remnants of the light faction would have been utterly crushed by the dark faction in their period of chaos and upheaval after Dumbledore's arrest.
As it was the dark faction was dominant, but not as much as one would expect with Dumbledore’s absence. Filius could see that the stress was piling onto Arthur as he worked to hold the light coalition together.
“Professor Flitwick! I just got you message. Is it an emergency?” Arthur Weasley said as he drew closer. His voice upbeat and strong despite his current worn appearance.
Filius shook his head, “Not at the moment. But it is a serious problem. A problem with the ministry. Something I thought you could help me deal with.”
Arthur got the message and was silent as they went into the elevator and after a short journey walked into his office. Arthur activated the privacy wards and then started speaking.
“Professor, what is the issue? What does Harry Potter have to do with it?”
Filius summarized the situation and Arthur collapsed into his chair and rubbed his forehead. He groaned.
“By Merlin! First Barty Crouch Senior, now this? The fools in the department of Sports and Games have really done it now. And dragging the department of International Cooperation into it since they are the ones supposed to assure other countries involved and make sure things go well... Annoying as it is, the man you spoke with is correct. The whole department of Sports and Games is on the line for that decision. It is almost worse that way... I’ll have to take this right to the minister after some basic preparations. Anything more and I’d look complicit too. And Sirius Black is involved… ugh.”
“Sirius Black?” Filius asked, “Why would his role in this matter so much?”
Arthur looked up almost as if he had forgotten that Filius was there, “I suppose you might not know unless you were in the ministry. But the old families are all up in arms about Sirius Blacks unjust imprisonment," he said, "The dark ones especially, but even some of the light ones too. They have been all year, furiously striking out at anything they view as ministry overreach. Out of selfishness more than anything else, but this newest event will stir them all up into a blood frenzy. Harry Potter is Sirius Black’s Godson. Even if he is a half blood, this is an attack on the Black Family and its heir by proxy. Something that is only reinforced by Harry Potter retreating to the Black residence and openly stating to those involved that he suspects the ministry as a whole, versus just the single department, is behind everything. The old families will run with that logic without even a second thought. I bet those directly involved in the decision in that department to go through with the kidnapping that aren’t sent to Azkaban will be loaded up with all sorts of nasty curses if there’s even a hint of their involvement in any of this. And that’s a lot of people if this is as broad as I suspect. The darker old families don’t take kindly to threats to them. I’d be surprised if many of the ones directly involved in the kidnapping not in Azkaban will survive even a year or two with the way the old families are lashing out recently.”
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There was some silence.
“So you will bring it to the minister?” Filius said. All those political calculations flew over his head. He understood why Arthur was worried, but the old families may be right to be upset given what had happened. He was sure that Arthur was exaggerating on how far they would go. But Filius had absolutely no problem with the people who had orchestrated this having their careers and livelihoods ruined even if they escaped Azkaban through the corruption that seemed to run rampant throughout the Ministry.
Filius took the safety of his students seriously, and he never thought that it would be the ministry itself that would be so brazen in trying something like this. His next stop would be the board of governors so they could take their own actions to set things right.
“Yes,” Arthur eventually said, “Just when I thought things were slowing down… but at least everyone is safe. Harry made a good choice. With the war wards activated, I’m sure the Black residence is completely secure and they can wait out all the drama from in there until things settle down.”
“Best of luck with the Minister, Arthur,” Filius said.
“Thanks for telling me this Professor Flitwick,” he said, “Don’t you worry, the ministry will be in an uproar looking for who was behind this.”
— — —
The last month had been surprisingly fun for Harry and everyone cooped up in the Black household. Sirius seemed to enjoy the company, and Harry got to have more dueling practice while they were there together. Ron and Hermione were still at odds but had settled into an uneasy truce since everyone was so close together in the house.
The old racist elf Kreacher was buying them food and getting news on what was happening. The second task had been concluded with zero points for all of the champions. Apparently all the ministry had to do was declare that task was to land on the moon by that date. It was hard enough but technically possible, so the goblet of fire accepted it as a valid task for the tournament and let it count towards the deadline to release everyone from the contract.
The Black house was filthy besides the main floor where Sirius and Sharon lived, so after the first few days of relaxing they all started cleaning up the other upper floors. Viktor, Cho Chang, and Gabriella had chosen to leave by having Kreacher apparate them out after the first few days. The French Ministry was nosing in on the investigation on what happened now that it was revealed that Gabriella was one of the ones kidnapped. She had been all the way back in France when she was taken, so it was now an international incident.
There were doxies and other magical creatures that had taken up residence in the upper floors of the Black house, so they used some specialty spells to stun them and clear them out. There was one particular painting in the front entry way that had been covered in a cloth. Walburga Black, Sirius’ mother. On their way up the stairs someone had knocked the curtain off its rod, sending the woman inside screeching about mud bloods and all her various racist propaganda that she wanted to tell everyone that was nearby. This went on for over a minute as they all wrestled to get the cloth back over the painting to shut her up. Eventually Harry had had enough.
“Will you be quiet?” he said to the painting, “Were you this irritating in life too?”
She went quiet in an instant and stared at him in shock.
“I- Heir Slytherin. My lord, I didn’t know… I apologize. I- I will remain silent on your command.”
She went quiet and everyone stopped struggling with the cloth to stare at him.
Sirius came around the corner and looked between the silent painting and Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Harry in confusion.
“What? How did you manage that?” Sirius said as he approached them, “I’ve been trying to shut up dear old mum ever since I got here. She put a permanent sticking charm on the back of that thing. Can’t take it out without demolishing that whole wall. Not that I haven’t been tempted over these last few months…”
Walburga glared at Sirius but said nothing.
Sirius walked forward and stared at her in fascination, “Ah, sweet silence. I didn’t think you could manage it, mum. Thought you’d be too busy shouting the superiority of the purebloods from the rooftops.”
Walburga’s face twisted for a long moment before she finally screamed at the top of her lungs.
“YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU DARE DISRESPECT ME RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE HEIR OF SLYTHERIN! I KNEW YOU WERE A WORTHLESS, MUGGLE-LOVING LITTLE-”
“Shut up, Walburga before I ask Salazar how to counter a permanent sticking charm,” Harry said and she immediately was aghast as she looked at Harry. She closed her mouth again and Hermione took the opportunity to cover the painting with the cloth again. Sirius stared at Harry intently.
“Heir of Slytherin? Salazar? What’s this about, Harry?” he asked.
“Well, my friends already know,” Harry said, “Can you promise not to tell Frank or Alice? They may not like me as much if they knew.”
“Fine, I promise unless it is actively dangerous,” Sirius said grudgingly.
“Well, when I saved Ginny Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets I actually discovered a second part of it called the Sanctum. It checked my blood and apparently… I’m a descendent of Salazar Slytherin. Since that was true and I defeated the last Heir in combat I got the title and access to the Chamber. And there’s a painting down there. Of Salazar himself. He’s the one that's been teaching me dark magic. The training room in there is great.”
Sirius staggered back, “You? Descended from Slytherin? Who was it? James? Lily? No, that’s ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Not as ridiculous as you’d think,” Ron jumped in, “You usually die if an inheritance or family magic rejects you from all the curses they throw at you. Why would a Potter ever bother checking something that’s obviously for Slytherin’s descendants only? That's what I figure at least.”
Harry made his Slytherin locket visible and lifted it to show to Sirius.
“This locket lets me access the chamber from almost anywhere in Hogwarts.”
He pulled it back when Sirius reached out to touch it.
“But, don’t touch it,” Harry said, “Salazar’s painting said it would treat thieves ‘harshly’. After some of the spells he taught me, I don’t think I want to know what that means.”
Sirius pulled his hand back like it had burned.
“Salazar, huh,” Sirius said seemingly to accept the story after inspecting Harry’s locket for a few more seconds, “Imagine talking to the founder of the school, even if he’s the slimiest one of them all…”
“He’s much nicer than I thought he would be,” Harry said, “But that might be because his last heir was so bad. Before that Heir Salazar didn’t get anyone at all for hundreds of years.”
“Salazar Slytherin and nice. Never thought I’d hear those two things together,” Sirius said.
“We’ll talk more about this later, Harry,” Sirius said, “But for now, who’s up for some dinner? Sharon is whipping up some great pasta. My mouth watered just smelling it.”
The tension broken, they all proceeded to the kitchen where they ate the excellent food. Harry receiving his own food in bulk to consume alongside with Sharon’s home cooked food.