"You're rebelling, aren't you," Rodolphus said.
"That's a heavy word," Harry said. "I just got sick of the way this life was going. Little things mounted. I realized that I didn't deserve to be treated this way."
The two of them were still in the kitchen of Lestrange Manor. The setting was perfect for Harry's words to win Rodolphus over. It was the place he'd been banished to in his own home by the lord he'd served like a god.
"You want to take over," Rodolphus said.
Harry smiled in silence.
"Why… Why are you coming to me?"
Rodolphus had been a proud man once, but there was only so much that an ego could withstand. Harry put a hand on his shoulder. Rodolphus flinched from the gesture, before standing straighter.
"Because you've seen the light. You know. There must be more for us out there than what we've been given. We deserve more! What have Death Eaters always done? When we aren't getting what we deserve, we fight for it."
"You would fight him?"
"I hope it doesn't come to that," Harry said. "It might still be possible to carve out a future with our master's blessing."
"What if it isn't?"
Harry squeezed his shoulder. "You're a brave man, Rodolphus. I know you won't shy away."
Rodolphus gave him a strange look— touched by the gesture, scared of the implication, and trying his best to hide both.
"You can count on me," Rodolphus said.
"I know I can," Harry said.
He patted Rodolphus' shoulder and went toward the open window. "I'll be in touch. For now, do your best to hang in there."
"P-Penny!"
Rodolphus had taken a step toward Harry, reaching his hand out.
"I'll work with you," he said. "So can I have her back?"
It was easy for Harry to hide the curl of his lip.
"She's been freed. The Imperius that was cast on her is gone. If she chooses to come back to you, then she's welcome to."
"The magic is… gone?" There was something shattered about Rodolphus' eyes despite his lingering smile. "But the Emporium used an Imperius expert. He made sure she would listen to me."
"And I made that same expert terminate his spell," Harry said. "Any more questions?"
"Why—?"
"Rodolphus."
The lights flickered in the room. All the candles winked out, leaving Harry's green eyes glowing in the dark. Rodolphus knew it was an illusion of some kind, but he still flinched.
The lights came back and the effect was broken.
"I'd like for the two of us to share a good relationship," Harry said. "Don't spoil that."
"Right. Yes. I get it." Rodolphus was looking down.
Harry smiled at him once again. "Perfect. I knew we would understand each other. I'm sure you'll do wonderful work with me."
With him, not for him. After forcing his submission, Harry could give Rodolphus a smile— not a sneer, but an expression of warmth. Of course it was all just another illusion…
But Rodolphus was in the mood to be fooled.
"I won't fail you!" Rodolphus said.
O-O-O
The lonely dining room of Harry's near-vacant house had become a place of life.
Harry's eyes darted over the changes as he entered. His old table had been swapped in favor of a bigger one with extra seats. Neville, Hannah, Ginny, Daphne, Susan, Fleur, and Narcissa were all there. Dobby was skipping around the room distributing snacks. The house elf was more thrilled at the changes than anyone.
"Did I make you wait long? I apologize," Harry said as he took his seat, next to Fleur. "Rodolphus Lestrange is eager to be our acquaintance. It was too easy, frankly. The Dark Lord did the work for us."
"Can we rely on him?" Fleur asked.
"If we ask the right things, I believe so," Harry said. "He's fallen for his arranged wife. My master is using that to torment him. He's a coward to his core, but he's eager for petty revenge. It's another Wizengamot vote at worst and a spy at best."
Narcissa touched Harry's hand, stroking him from the elbow to the tip of his fingers. "Excellent work. I'll help you brainstorm uses for him after this meeting. A task like that would only hold up this meeting."
"You just want to remind us that you've moved in," Daphne said. "I see through you."
The same day that Narcissa spearheaded Harry's Wizengamot defense, she had returned to his front porch with everything she owned inside a Mokeskin Pouch. She spun a touching and rational tale about how unsafe it was for her at Malfoy Manor after she'd slipped mild poison into her husband's meal and spoiled his plans.
She was right of course. Narcissa was past the point of no return now. The only problem was that she was a little… gleeful. She kept searching for excuses to remind everyone else that she lived here now. Neville and Hannah were polite about it, but Daphne and Ginny were thoroughly over the un-subtle references.
Right now, however, it raised a good point.
"That's not a bad idea," Harry said.
Daphne blinked. "What isn't?"
"I have a lot of empty rooms," Harry said. "As soon as all of you came to my aid, you put a target on yourselves. You will be attacked if the opportunity rises. Your homes are no longer safe."
"You're telling us to move in with you," Ginny said.
"I'm suggesting it. Strongly." Harry looked around the table. "I can't afford to lose you."
"...We'll do it," Neville said. He laughed, cutting any tension that had built up. "I won't pretend I'm some kind of ace duelist, and our house barely has wards on it. The Death Eaters stripped them after the war."
"Well, my manor is the home of a proper pureblood family!" Daphne tilted her chin up. "I have the utmost faith in its wards." She cracked one eye open. "Harry could always come and stay, though. If he ever gets sick of this drab house."
"I don't want to leave the Burrow," Ginny said. "It's the last thing I have."
Hannah touched her arm, consoling her, which Ginny acknowledged with a brief nod.
"I won't force anyone," Harry said. "Give it proper consideration. Now, have things been going well?"
This wasn't a social get-together. Each person at the table had their own responsibilities. Hannah was the first to report.
"I've relocated the children from Godric's Hollow to Muggle orphanages around London. They believe that they lost their families to a terrible fire. I… thought it was kinder that way."
"Penelope Clearwater is waiting in the foyer after being freed as a slave," Harry said. "Can I trust you to find accommodations for her?"
"Leave it to me," Hannah said.
"The Emporium's slave trade is roughly half-way disassembled," Neville reported. "Hannah is handling relocation for all the ones we free. Blaise has been nothing but helpful so far."
"No inconsistencies to report?" Narcissa asked. "Signs that he will double cross us?"
"None," Neville said. "Well, he's dropping hints that he'd love to be invited to our meetings. But I think that's his ambition talking."
"If he believes we can outmaneuver the factions currently in power, it would be advantageous for him to get closer to us," Harry said. "Just ignore it for now."
But don't forget it, went unsaid. Blaise was an unknown variable— albeit a useful one. Trust should be dolled out sparingly.
"I've been helping Hannah where I can," Susan said.
"There is not much need for my talents at the moment," Fleur said. "Rest assured, my wand will be ready when the time comes."
Harry smiled at her, and she returned it in kind. He touched her hand under the table, sliding his fingers between hers.
"I," Daphne said, "have been doing what you asked. My connections aren't to be underestimated. I'm already working on a list of the most disillusioned members of society. Some of them remained neutral during the Dark Lord's rise, only to be treated as second-class now. Others are former supporters who didn't receive what they were hoping for. Give me a week, and I'll set up at least six more meetings with wizards like Rodolphus Lestrange."
"Leave convincing the ones who won't bow to power in my hands," Narcissa said. "If they can't be intimidated into doing our bidding, a subtler touch may be necessary."
The meeting descended into logistics after that. Their plans were moving fast, but they needed to keep it manageable. After an hour Harry started watching the clock on the wall. Eventually, he stood up.
"I've got a prior appointment," he said.
"Is it another recruit like Rodolphus?" Hannah asked.
"I can't say yet," Harry said. "But… I truly hope so."
O-O-O
Harry walked along the path of a Muggle park until he reached a bench. He sat down there in the shade of an oak tree. Its winding branches kept the sun's heat off of his neck. After a few minutes of enjoying the scenery, he was joined by a girl wrapped in a cloak.
"You look like you're braving a snowstorm."
"Prat," Pansy said. "Did we have to meet somewhere so… Muggle?"
Harry had chosen a park north of Leicester. There was absolutely nothing special about it. That's why he picked it.
"We can't exactly meet on the Malfoy Mandrake Farm. I don't think I'd be welcomed there."
Pansy sighed heavily. "Well, you're not wrong. I can't tell what goes on in your head. You've ripped Draco's family apart."
"They put themselves in my way."
"What a perfectly Slytherin response." It could have been an insult, but Pansy's tone conveyed that it was a compliment. "So… could it be I was the last thing keeping you sane? As soon as we had one fight, you went and started a war."
"That was coincidental timing. My actions weren't because of our argument."
Pansy laughed. "Of course it wasn't. I should've known…"
An uncomfortable silence settled over them. Muggles were moving through the park, jogging for exercise or walking their dogs. Three strangers passed their bench while Harry gathered his words.
"I… don't know about marriage," he said. Pansy flinched when she heard that word. "I don't understand what it is, because I refuse to accept the political arrangements I was raised around as the right answer. There should be love involved… but how could I know love, given who raised me?"
"You're just supposed to know," Pansy mumbled.
"I agree. And I've realized. There are people whom I love."
Pansy whetted her lips, trying to fight dryness inside her mouth. "Who?"
"Narcissa Malfoy. I don't know if it's real romance or lust, but I appreciate her as a woman. I don't wish to be her adversary. The idea gives me… pain. Daphne Greengrass has grown on me. We've been intimate, but that's not where the fondness comes from. She has a way of making the mood lighter in her vicinity, even if it can be at her own expense." Harry hesitated for a split second. "Draco too… At one point at least… But things have happened. I appreciate what he did for me as friend, but there are things I cannot overlook. Life's current is too quick to rebuild that bridge."
"And me?" Pansy asked.
"Yes," Harry said. "I love you." He ignored the high-pitched noise that Pansy failed to contain as he turned toward her. "I can't say in what way I love you. Yet. But you're my closest friend… and perhaps more. I want you at my side throughout what is coming."
Pansy was truly a Slytherin. Even with the delight she was failing to hide, Harry watched a shrewd look enter her eyes. "What is coming?"
"That remains to be seen," Harry said. "But rest assured, I am going to shake this world of ours."
"You're going after your master?" Pansy sounded breathless. She grabbed his hand. "And you want me at your side while you do it?"
"I do. I can't act alone. I'm gathering those that I can rely on. People to support me—"
Pansy had let go of his hand.
"Women?" she asked.
"Some of them." Harry tilted his head. "I have no wish to mislead you. There are those around me I have slept with, those who have held me at my lowest, and those that I love with my whole heart. As much as I love you, I love them as well."
Although he spoke of a plural group, one face rose above the rest. Fleur Delacour— the woman who taught him how to live and gave him the courage to try.
"Who is it. Narcissa? No, it can't be," Pansy said. "She's too officious for your tastes. Is it Daphne? Maybe Susan? That would explain why you kept her locked up in your house all these years. Or—"
Pansy suddenly flinched away from him. Even though Harry hadn't moved toward her or spoke, she looked at him like a monster.
He was used to that kind of look, but never from Pansy.
"Tell me you didn't," she said. "Not with a fucking slave."
"Fleur Delacour has never been a slave to me," Harry said.
Pansy shot to her feet. "So in the end it's all about looks! You're just like Draco, drooling over that slut in our fourth year! It's not even human! Why are boys such pigs?"
Spit flew out of Pansy's mouth, her eyes wide and manic. Harry had never seen her like this, not even when Draco's betrothal was announced.
He didn't know how to calm her down. Frankly, he wasn't in the mood for it either. Even though he came with the desire to bring Pansy back to his life, there were some lines he couldn't quietly watch her cross.
Harry stood up. Pansy was made to lean away, looking up at him. He'd been taller ever since their twelfth birthdays.
"The correct word is she, not it," Harry said. "Fleur is more than her face. Can you understand what it takes to be caged and never let your spirit dim? Without Fleur, I would not understand what love is. Without her, I would not be living a life worth the breath it takes to sustain it. Insult me. I deserve it. But you will learn to treat her with respect or there is nothing we can be."
Pansy recoiled.
"You're angry for her." She laughed as tears started to fall. "Merlin. Harry Potter, the coldest bastard in Britain, is acting like a knight in shining armor for the veela whore he bought at auction."
"What does it matter how she was born?" Harry's frustration was reaching his voice. "She's her own woman, not a representation of her parents!"
Pansy's laughter grew out of control, tears still streaming from your eyes.
"It doesn't matter how she was born?" Pansy said. "We fought a war to make a world where it was the opposite!"
"And in doing so, we broke everything," Harry said.
"...You're a traitor." Pansy began to back away. "You've turned on everything. You've turned on me. That damn slave put ideas in your head. Now you're talking as if half-breeds are witches. What vilified stereotype are you going to take on next, the inferiority of Muggle-borns?"
"Perhaps werewolves," Harry said.
His words cut through Pansy's rant, halting it before it could fully develop. For as long as she'd known him he'd been a werewolf. She had seen how he was looked at by others, but she always knew him too closely to buy into rumors. A handful of times, when she was especially drunk, she had complained that it wasn't fair how he was treated. He didn't deserve that. Werewolves aren't all bad.
"You know me," Harry said. "So you can see the truth. Why can't you try to know Fleur?"
Sullenly, Pansy didn't answer, so Harry was forced to do it for her.
"Are you scared of what you might find?"
"Fuck off!"
Pansy Disapparated with an unnecessarily loud bang. It rang like a cannon shot throughout the peaceful park, making picnickers flinch and inciting dogs to howl. Harry stood still, staring at the place Pansy disappeared.
A blond woman wearing sunglasses appeared at his side. "You should have stopped her."
"How, Narcissa?" Harry wasn't even surprised that she'd followed him. It was perfectly in-character for her. "Pansy didn't want to be convinced."
"You know how. She could be a threat. What if she exposes us?"
"She won't." Harry's heart ached, but he was certain about this. "Pansy may be angry with me, but she won't do something that would threaten my life. She's lashing out because she loves me. At worst, she'll stay away for a bit…"
Narcissa tapped her foot. Her shades hid her eyes, but Harry could feel her disapproval straight through them. "You're taking risks. It only takes one mistake to collapse a house of cards."
Harry turned his back on the last place Pansy stood. "Then it's a good thing that I know what I'm doing. Our time is better spent working than worrying. Rodolphus Lestrange is now ours to command. Are you going to help me figure out how to use them, or would you prefer to nag my choices?"
Narcissa shook her head. The two of them walked five steps, turning off the path, and passed behind a thicket of trees.
They never walked out the other side, their bodies hurdling back to his manor at the speed of magic.