Spotting Orion Black Sitting at a Table Near the Back Corner of the Three Broomsticks Harold

Chapter 11

Spotting Orion Black sitting at a table near the back corner of the Three Broomsticks Harold walked over to join him.Pulling out a chair and sitting down, Harold leaned forward so once he lowered his voice it would be easier to hear, “This Voldemort fellow has reared his ugly head; he and his so called Death Eaters attacked a small town of mixed magical and non families on the edge of Berwick upon Tweed last night.”

Letting the rage he felt over that jumped up half bloods dark army cross his face briefly as he remembered how they cruelly tortured his youngest son to death when he did not immediately join on the bandwagon, telling them he needed to consider what they had to say.Getting control of his emotions Orion knew that between Harold Potter the Patriarch of the Potter House and the fact he was the Patriarch of the Black House; they controlled almost half of the old families in one way or another as Liege Lords.“I think it is time for the two of us to call a conclave of those that look to our Houses for leadership, it is past time we put a stop to that crazy madman that calls himself Voldemort. We also need to inform the others we have sworn our service to the High Ones, and in turn they also, with their oaths to us, will follow the High Ones.”

“You do have a good point; that might cut down on the recruitment drive that madman is trying to start up again. The question is should we hold it jointly or separate?” Harold asked.

“Together, it is past time that the dark and light aligned meet and realize that they should strive for a middle ground between the two,” Orion said firmly, convinced that a middle ground was the only way to survive what was coming.

“Gray, a bland color but after talking to some of the High Ones I can see why gray is the direction we need to head in. No light or dark, only intention. As they intended when they gave us the gift,” Harold sat back also convinced this was the right thing to do.

‘The sooner the better I think, less chance that our people will be recruited by that Madman,” Orion told him as he stood up pulling his wand out of his waist holster.

“Agreed, tomorrow night then,” Harold said as he followed suit and walked to the center of the pub not bothering with being discreet.

“Agreed,” Orion said as he stepped forward close to the Potter Patriarch and placed his wand between their two hands pressing it firmly so it did not move.

Placing his own wand in the palm of his hand and placing the wand into the opposite hand from Orion’s wand, the two men stood face to face, palm to palm with their wands between their palms and both started to chant as magic grew around them.

I Summon the Conclave to the place of old

Before the bell tolls midnight

Those that have sworn an oath to me

I summon thee

So Mote It Be

Both men chanted as the magic caused them to glow as they sent the message of summoning to all that looked towards them as Liege Lord or Patriarch.

As the pillar of magic shot out from between them magic carried the summons of a conclave meeting at Stonehenge tomorrow night to families long oath sworn to both of these men.

Several of the pubs patrons stiffened in shock as they felt magic touch them and inform them of the summoning, most did not realize that their families were beholden to the two men they watched in interest as they called for a conclave.

Stepping apart both men returned their wands to their individual resting places and turned to walk out when they stiffened as their House ring tingled with the signal of an emergency Wizengamot meeting.Changing direction both headed for the fireplace and taking a small bag of purple colored Floo powder out of their pocket they each took a pinch and threw it in the fire activating the security floo which would connect the Wizengamot floo with this one briefly.Not bothering to call out the unneeded destination both men disappeared into the purple flames.

The first thing Harold noticed when he stepped out of the fireplace was the long thought adornments around the chamber were glowing, not only glowing they were blinking.Racking his brain for what that meant he overheard Orion whisper, “The Alarm informing one and all the High Ones walk amongst us once again.”

The second thing he noticed was all the stares directed a the two of them as they walked into the chamber and a good two thirds of those present sent them half bows of the head in acknowledgement of the summoning.

The last thing he noticed after the subtle nudge from Orion was the Headmasters calculating look sent their way as he took in the actions of their fellow Wizengamot members.

Among the last to arrive once they took their seats the doors were closed and sealed and Dumbledore picked up the ancient stone that was used as a gavel since the founding of the Wizengamot and hit the top of the sounding block three times.

Once everyone had settled down and all attention was on him, Albus cleared his throat, “I call to order this emergency session of the Wizengamot. First order of business is to inform you all that the alarm ringing throughout every ministry in the world right now is to inform us that the High Ones have been spotted amongst Wizarding kind once more.”

Ever one for dramatics Albus spread his hands and told them gravely, “Now we must come to a decision on what to do about them.”

Cries of outrage at the Headmaster’s words along with cries of support in defense brought the room to the brink of chaos, the headmasters yell quieted them down somewhat as they listened to him speak, “PLEASE…Please let me explain what happened.”

Albus hoped for this very reaction, he wanted to be able to be seen as the one guiding them towards reason, “This afternoon a team of Aurors stopped a person that at the time they did not know was one of the High Ones. This person was not cooperative and one of our Aurors in an attempt to control the situation fired off a low level stunner at the person and as a result he suffered a most terrible thing.”

Albus gave a long pause before stating, “His magic was ripped out of him. Not something that would seem suitable punishment for a simple stunner.”

Sitting back down his carefully worded statement did as he had planned, chaos broke out.

Standing up from his chair Harold walked over to the Black family seat and said, “We have to put a stop to this before Albus orchestrates the loss of magic to every witch and wizard in the world.”

Aiming his wand at the ceiling Orion stood up and cast, “Potnetia telum.”

Everyone was silenced as a lightening bolt formed from the impact point of the spell and discharged on the floor with an ear shattering sound.Walking into the center of the floor and facing the shocked Wizengamot members Harold Potter and Orion Black glared at their fellow members as all eyes stared at them in shock.

The use of magic in the Wizengamot chambers had been forbidden since the inception of this ruling body.

Albus was shocked he had thought to give everyone a few more minutes to work themselves up before he calmed them down.

“Sit down and shut up,” Orion Black told them angrily.

“Albus your play on words is unwelcome at this moment and you have unnecessarily created chaos in this august body, chaos that could lead to the loss of magic for every witch and wizard,” Harold spat out as he glared at the Headmaster, “So kindly shut up you bloody fool.”

“As far as Albus’s words leading one to believe that the loss of magic of this Auror was a punitive measure, may I remind every single one of you here today of your history lessons.” Orion glared at each of the members individually before continuing, “To cast any magic at any High One no matter the purpose is to cause the immediate loss of the gift for that person. That was what our ancestors agreed to when the gift was offered to the race of man all the years ago.”

“Do not forget that this attack, for clearly it was an attack if a stunner sent at one of the High Ones was dealt with exactly as promised if we ever used magic of any type against the ones who gave us the gift,” Harold told the now subdued members of the Wizengamot.

“And as far as your leading words on asking us what to do with them as you put it Albus Dumbledore.” Orion sneered in contempt, “We do nothing other than apologize, and pray long and hard to whatever gods we each believe in that it does not awaken the ire of the High Ones.”

“And our doom,” Harold finished as he continued to glare at the headmaster.

Standing up Albus tried to save the situation, “Please, there is no need to be foretelling doom of the magical world, after all it was one of our own that is the injured party, clearly this so called High One was the one in the wrong, he should have just cooperated with our Law enforcement Auror for the greater good of us all.”

Making his way down to the floor he missed the shocked and incredulous looks from all the older family Wizengamot members.“Surely you see that we cannot be fighting on two fronts now that the self proclaimed Dark Lord Voldemort has returned to our shores and has begun his attacks,” Albus tried to sway the members of the Wizengamot by putting a little bit of his magic behind his words.

Shaking his head in horrified amazement that Albus would even suggest fighting the High Ones, Harold spoke out against Albus for the first time in his memory of any Wizengamot session. “I am sorry Albus but you clearly do not have the greater good of Wizarding kind in mind when you suggest fighting against those who gave us the gift of magic. If we allow you to continue in this vane you will doom us all.”

Making plans to talk to the Hogwarts board as soon as possible to replace Albus, Orion spoke out not giving Albus a chance to reply, “Sadly when one of our members speaks openly in this way, to attack the very ones who gave us our wondrous gift it is time to take a stand against them.”

All eyes on him now he spoke the words he hoped he never would have to, hoping that Albus was just misguided and could see reason, “I make a motion to herby remove one Albus Dumbledore from any position of Authority and membership of this ruling body.”

“You can’t do this, not at a time when we need to be pulling together,” Albus cried out in shock, “Think man…Think of the greater good of our people.”

“He is Albus,” Harold stepped forward. “I second the motion to remove Albus Dumbledore from any position of power and membership within this august body.”

Shocked Albus stepped back and whispered, “Harold how could you do this to me. Think about it, the dark will see this as an advantage and strike while we are dealing with those that have not had the decency to realize their time has past.”

Millicent the current Minister For Magic stood up and walked to the seat normally occupied by Dumbledore and picked up the rock and banged it on the sounding board three times to get every ones attention. “By ancient law a motion has been put before this body and seconded, does any of the honored members wish to speak against the motion?”

Stepping forward quickly Albus spoke loudly, “I wish to speak against this motion, clearly the motion is driven by personal nature.”

Banging the rock three more times Millicent looked down upon Albus Dumbledore with disgust. “As the motion is to remove you for your attempted crimes against magic from this body, you are not allowed to speak. This after all is not a trial, but a vote of no confidence. By our laws you are supposed to uphold YOU…MAY…NOT…SPEAK.” She banged the rock down one more time for good measure.

Glancing both ways at the seated members she told them, “All in favor of removing Albus Dumbledore Stand, those who wish for him to remain stay seated.”

Albus trembled with anger and shock as he watched member after member stand up, all told of the fifty Wizengamot members only eight of them stayed seated.

“How could you do this at a time when we need to be seen as standing together? A time when war is breaking out on the land as Voldemort attacks everything we are in his bid to purify anything he sees as different or not as acceptable,” Albus scolded them but was interrupted from furthering his rant.

“Enough, the motion carries in magic So Mote It Be. From this moment on Albus Dumbledore you are stripped of all titles and offices other than headmaster of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry,” Millicent banged the rock down three more times, the sound echoing around the room.

Albus paled as he felt Magic strip away his titles, he always thought that was an exaggerated myth used to control Wizengamot members, like fairy tales of the old.

“Albus Dumbledore you are herby expelled in shame,” Millicent told him sadly after seeing the magic strip his titles, and that little bit of extra power that came with them.

After being escorted out of the chambers and the doors sealed once more Millicent sat down and wondered what would happen next.

Clearing his throat Harold stepped forward, “Before we deal with the upstart dark lord let me assure all of you that the High Ones mean us no harm, though I am sure Albus will not see it that way after finding out how disappointed they are in finding out the state of our education system.”

“You talk as if you have had conversations with the High Ones,” Madam Marchbanks pointed out.

“I have, several times in fact with more than one of the High Ones,” Harold said calmly knowing the uproar he was about to cause.

“In fact both our families along with the Lupin’s had dinner with their head healer several nights ago in the dining hall of the Lord High One,” Orion told the shocked assembly.

“Though the Lord of the lands did apologize for not joining us for Dinner, we later found out that was because he was meeting with the other three lords of the great kingdoms,” Harold broke in and explained.

“We found out many interesting things on the tour of the grounds after leaving the healers hall,” Orion smiled at the memory of their tour.

Intrigued Madam Marchbanks leaned forward, “Like what?”

“Did you know that a master in a chosen field receives a mark upon completing their mastery, it seems we have lost that ability, and with out the master mark a large portion of magic can not be taught to the students,” Orion told her thinking since she was the head of the education testing committee she would be interested.

Cringing a little Harold told them, “The chief healer was not pleased when she found out that our children were not being taught to access their magic properly, as only a marked master could guide them and we no longer have any marked masters teaching our children.”

Facing his friend Orion spoke to him, yet loud enough for the others to hear, “Not many people can scare me, but after she became angry I took several steps back, so I could make an escape if needed.”

Snorting Harold told Orion, “That is all well and good, but I was on the other side of her and no easy escape route was forthcoming on my side.”

“Are you telling us that you not only have talked with the High Ones but dined with them also?” Antoine Greengrass asked eyes wide with shock.

“Actually we spent several days and nights in the Lands of one of the Lords as his healers cured young Remus Lupin of the curse of Lycanthropy that he contracted. Maybe if Dumbledore was not so worried about things he should not have nosed into he would have notified the board a student was missing,” Orion sneered at Dumbledore’s seemingly incompetence.

After an hour of answering questions about their visit with the High Ones and what they were like, they finally convinced the members of the Wizengamot that the High Ones were not intending on sitting in judgment.

This brought the conversation back to Voldemort’s attacks last night, which seem to be the jump off for another attempt to terrorize Wizarding Britain with the goal of becoming ruler over magical and muggle.