CHAPTER 22: SUMMER OF 1992

Apologies for the delay in getting this chapter out. As everyone is aware the world has gone crazy over the last few months over Covid-19. Anyways here is the rest of the chapter. So here it is. The remainder of Harry's summer after first year.

July 2nd, 1992

Harry woke with a start, leftover images from his dream about how the war in his original world still flashing through his mind. "Not here. I won't allow it to happen." He muttered to himself before getting out of bed and conducting his morning routine. After his shower, and with over an hour before breakfast would likely need to be started, he made his way into the office that his father had set aside for his use. Because he was emancipated, and technically the Lord of two houses, James had understood that somethings that Harry would deal with would be related to those two houses specifically and therefore he'd need his own office to conduct house business. Which had led to him working on converting a room near his own office into another study for Harry, in which only Harry had unfiltered access.

Sitting down at his desk, Harry opened the first folder in his to-do file. Intelligence reports. Since the day he'd arrived in this world, Harry had understood that somethings were different. Case in point was the Minister actually being a good man trying to revolutionize their world. Meaning while his knowledge of how events would work for the most part was useful, but it was also not entirely reliable. That meant he needed to establish a network. So he'd gone to the one person he knew could be counted on, and the only person who was likely to know he was from another world. Luna Lovegood. And he was right. She had instantly identified him as having existed on another plane originally and still recognized the Master of Death title that had been bestowed upon him when he had originally united the Hallows. Given that he was barred from saying anything by death, he'd allowed Luna to tell her father that he wasn't from this universe, thereby successfully working around his gag order. Once Xeno had understood the seriousness of the situation, he'd instantly agreed to run his spy ring, confiding in him that for years he'd already been building a network of semi-agents across Europe and parts of Asia. And now with Harry secretly funding him, Xeno had begun actively recruiting agents, including former members of the Department of Mysteries. Those handful of agents had in turn trained almost a dozen more over the course of the year since Harry's arrival. And as of now, they were each either in a position of importance, had were working a source that was. So far, Harry had only one agent actually stationed in Britain not counting Xeno or the trainers. The majority of the 15 agents he actually had-again not counting Xenophillius or the trainers- were stationed in mainland Europe. France, Spain, and Germany. Magical Britains biggest natural enemies. Unfortunately none of them had Diplomatic Covers which meant they had to be extra cautious. Which meant that unless it was of a highly dangerous, and time sensitive nature, the agents reported directly to the station chief of their country, whom reported to Xeno, who placed the reports embedded into the Quibbler. The Station Chief of France had sent in a coded Emergency message last night which had caused Xeno to have to break protocol of putting his reports in the Quibbler. Grindelwald had apparently paid a visit to one of his old Generals who was hiding out in France. That worried Harry. If Grindelwald was going to be actively rebuilding his army, and with Voldemort still being out there, Harry was going to have his hands full. Sighing, he wrote a quick letter to Xeno to order him to try and increase their active agents from 15 to 30 within the next few months.

Harry's next order of business was to review his own personal budget. Over the last year since his arrival, Harry had forked out a lot of galleons, and he wanted to make sure that he was still turning a profit. He'd used his knowledge of the future, specifically companies that were created around this time that ended up going big to invest nearly every bit of gold left in the vault that this world's original Harry had. 14 million Galleons later and he was projected to more than quadruple that within three years. Between those, Marauders Inc, and his other projects like The Sanctuary and Merlin's Cove, he was, or rather would be drawing in over forty million galleons a year, although over twenty of it was the projected income from his Investments and the Cove and Sanctuary. However, since some of the biggest sources of his income had only just opened, their revenue was projected, and over all, he had taken a heavy short term loss in favor of the long term profits. So even though he was financially sound, he actually had spent double his profits this year easy, although if the projected income from the Sanctuary and Merlin's Cove were even remotely close, he'd have made a full recovery within a year, two max provided he didn't engage in anymore extremely costly endeavors, something he couldn't be completely sure about given what projects he was already funding.

By the time that the budgeting was done, and Harry had had a chance to review the reports from their other agents in the quibbler, it was time for breakfast and Harry was worried. While no one else had broken protocol, former members of Grindelwald's army had been spotted all across the continent in ones and twos. Nothing so public as to be noticed by the host countries, but enough that he was worried about the Dark Army making a comeback. They needed those Aurors now, not by the world cup. Unfortunately, with the damage done to Hogwarts, specifically the DADA and Potions, the extra training that the Aurors were required to go through limited the amount that could attend the academy by a third. And with the qualifications still being relatively high, it meant that each year less and less people applied for the academy.

As Harry made his way downstairs for breakfast he continued his previous chain of thought. He hated to do it, but he feared the only way they were going to increase their aurors was to recall any and all recent retires. Given the extended lifespan of magicals, they tended to retire at a much later age normally. Except with the case of Aurors and Hitwizards. Given the highly dangerous nature of their job, most of those who reached half retirement, thirty years, tended to retire then. Only a few, like Moody, continued to stay on past that. If he was doing his mental math right, they could probably recall at most, 100 Aurors and Hitwizards.

"Good morning Harry." The voices of his two fiances broke him out of his thoughts.

"Good morning Alex, Daphne. What are you two doing here?"

"Someone wanted to see if you were to busy to go out to the theatre and see this new film that's just come out. I don't know what it's called though." Daphne was the one who replied to him.

"Of course. The Wizengamot isn't meeting until Monday the sixth, and for the most part I've already finished reviewing everything that's on that's supposed to be coming up for a vote."

"Good. So the movie starts at one this afternoon. Wanna hang until then?"

"Of course." After that Harry gave each of his siblings a hello, and then gave his mum a kiss on the cheek before giving his dad a one armed hug and then sitting down and enjoying the breakfast that was before him. Yes the addition of Grindelwald and the freeing of Dumbledore changed his plans, but for now, he could pretend to be the nearly twelve year old boy that he pretended to be.

()()()()()()()()

0800 July 6th, 1992

Wizengamot Chambers, Ministry of Magic, UK

The next couple of days went by pretty quickly for Harry as he split his time between working on the bills he wanted to present to the Wizengamot and his girls. He also spent a day working with Neville who would also be present for the meeting today. Neville knew nearly as much as Daphne and Alex did about his wants for a better world, and they had agreed that it was time for the first official alliance of the Peverell-Daniels clan to be signed and present to the Wizengamot. The Longbottom's had historically been allies of the Potter family since time immemorial and although Harry was still technically a Potter, he was also the Head of Two houses who were very weak in official alliances. Yes he had the Black-Greengrass alliances but a House with only two allies is a house that does not stand according to his grandfather's journal. And now Harry found himself entering the Wizengamot chamber for the first time to fulfill his role in this world.

"Hear ye, hear ye, I call this session of the Wizengamot, July 6th, 1992 to order. The Honorable Chief Warlock Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore presiding. Close the doors!" The clerk called out as the doors boomed shut, officially starting Harry's first Wizengamot meeting.

"We have several items on the agenda today. I believe however that Lord Peverell-Daniels and Lord Longbottom have an alliance contract to share so. Lord Peverell-Daniels you have the floor."

"Thank you Chief Warlock. It is my pleasure to announce that the Houses of Peverell-Daniels and the House of Longbottom have signed an alliance and are now sworn blood brothers. When you threaten one house you threaten both, so I say, so mote it be." Harry sat back down and nodded to Dumbledore.

"Thank You Lord Peverell-Daniels. Is there any other points of order prior to this body starting today's docket?" No one stood up. "Very well then. Per the Charter of Albion, the Minister has submitted his budget request for the next fiscal year to this body. Discussions have been finished in the last session and all amendments are completed so it now goes to this body for it's final vote. Voting is now open and will close in ten minutes." Dumbledore banged the gavel and slowly the volume in the room rose as people quickly placed their vote and then began talking to their neighbor. Harry looked across the room and saw his father sitting beside Amelia and nodded to him. "Good morning Lord Peverell-Daniels." A voice from behind him spoke.

"Thank you Cornelius and a good morning to you as well. Did you receive the letter I sent to you the other day?"

"I did and I want to thank you for informing me. I've already scheduled an Emergency meeting with the ICW for tomorrow. Don't worry, they will not have any knowledge of where I received the information from. I saw that you submitted your proposals yesterday. We do have a large docket today however and I'm not sure if we will get to them, at least to a final vote."

"I don't expect us to do so today. My father can vote for them in my stead at the next meeting should that be required, but he could not present them as he is not the original author, merely a sponsor of the bill."

"Indeed. From what I've heard, Mr. Malfoy was very upset with them being added to the docket. He attempted to have me remove them, but I was able to convince him that it simply cannot be done with such a powerful alliance backing it. I fear that he is beginning to realize that I do not truly share the same beliefs that he has."

"Do not worry Minister. From what I understand, Amelia will have him in cuffs by the end of my second year at Hogwarts. In fact, I can promise you that with everything I own. With our situation having been resolved and it being a matter of a waiting game now, she should be able to have that issue resolved by the end of the year. In fact, perhaps we should put together a bill saying that anyone previously accused of being a Death Eater who is brought up on new charges of any kind of similar nature to the things that they were known to do would be subject to Veritaserum."

"Hmm. Perhaps that is a good idea. I'll get my people on figuring out if we'd have enough support for that. But for now it appears that the voting is done or nearly so and I must return to my seat."

"Have a good day Minister."

"You as well Lord Peverell-Daniels."

No sooner had Harry returned to his seat than Dumbledore began to bang on the gavel. "With a vote of 101-79-20 the Budget request for Fiscal year of 1993 has passed. We now will move on to the next item on the agenda. A bill submitted Lord Diggory regarding the importation of Flying carpets." Harry tuned the majority of the session out after that before Dumbledore caught his attention again.

"We will vote on the measure by Lord Nott to increase the restrictions to those who are suffering with Lycanthropy following an hour long recess for lunch. This body will reconvene at 1300." Another bang on the gavel and Harry rose from his seat with his bottom more sore than it had been in a while. After a quick stretch Harry was able to feel his legs somewhat and began to make his way to his father who stood waiting on the other side of the chambers. Once he got close however, he could see his father was deep in conversation with someone he didn't know and since it looked quite serious, Harry simply stood still waiting for them to finish. "Hey pup, looks like your dad is tied up with Lord Odgen. What you say that we go ahead and go get lunch at the cafeteria while we wait?" Sirius said as he came up behind Harry.

"Sounds good Padfoot. Thanks." Turning Harry followed Sirius to the cafeteria on the first floor where he ordered a lunch of fish and chips. A little while later he followed Sirius back into the chambers. Now his nerves were starting to get to him. His Muggleborn Inheritance Test bill would be up for discussion after the vote on the bill by Amos Diggory. It was a well known, but oft ignored fact that Muggleborns really didn't exist, they had to have at least some magical ancestry. Hermione for example was really a Dagworth-Granger from three generations removed. It was funny how that worked.

Dumbledore banging the gavel brought him back to the present. "We will now vote on whether or not to lift the ban on flying carpets in Europe. The voting will period will last ten minutes." Ten excruciatingly long minutes later and with the bill to lift the ban having not received enough votes Harry was finally called upon to discuss his bills.

"Thank you chief warlock. Milords and Ladies, for generations now we have dealt with Werewolves. For generations they have been discriminated against because of their affliction. Now that a cure exists however, I see no reason to discriminate against those who used to suffer from that horrid curse. This bill will ensure that potential employers and those who were formerly afflicted with Lycanthropy will have a support network. I urge you to support and pass this bill. Allow those cured to become truly productive members of our society.

"The second of my bills is perhaps one of the most important bills to be voted on in this chamber since we voted to assist in the war with Grindelwald. For generations our ancient houses have been getting weaker and weaker. We know, that magicals are different at a fundamental level to muggles. This gene, that separates us and gives us the ability to access magic, is scientifically impossible to be produced by two muggles. It is a little known fact that unless they had a magical ancestor, it is impossible for two muggles to produce a magical child. My own mother is a prime example of this. A descendant of the forgotten house of Daniels. With this bill, we can revive some our houses that have long been thought extinct. The house of Daniels is but one house that could return. I urge this body to pass this bill for the good of our society. If every incoming muggleborn and halfblood were to have an inheritance test completed, imagine how many houses would be revived! Imagine how many long lost families and magical knowledge could be rediscovered! With this bill, for the first time in over two hundred years we could have an heir to every magical house. This would not only increase the amount of magical families once more active in our world, but would also increase the amount of tax revenue that the ministry produces. I simply cannot understate the importance of revitalizing our ancient houses. Avalon used to be one of the most powerful magical communities in the world. We were the envy of every country. Now, we have only half of the amount of active houses that we did just a hundred years ago! So, for the safety of our future, I urge you to pass this bill. Thank you."

Harry sat back down to tremendous applause. No one wanted the Noble houses to die out, but everyone was aware that they were heading that way. By revitalizing house long thought dead, not only would they be able to prevent that, but the amount of magical knowledge that was safely tucked away at Gringotts that would be brought back into the open, they knew the country could reclaim it's place as the most powerful among the magical countries. Harry smiled, another step towards a better future was all but ensured.