Chapter 5

Harry woke up from one the most relaxing sleeps he could ever recall. He opened his eyes marveling once more at the clarity of his new eyesight from the contacts. He looked around at the master bedroom that Dobby had led him to last night. The rooms walls were painted in a soft blue color and the decorations while somewhat ornate were soft and sinfully relaxing. The bed was huge and firm, measuring eight feet long and six feet wide, covered in silk sheets. He got up and walked into the attached bath. After showering he grabbed the clothes laid out and walked out of the room and down to the foyer. He then called out "Dobby." When Dobby appeared he asked "could you show me to the dining room for breakfast?" Once he reached the room and ate the sumptuous meal he pulled out his communication mirror and called out for Griphook. Once he appeared he asked "what time do I need to be there to go with Bill for the excavation?"

"He should be ready in about two hours. Is that time good for you?"

"Yes that should be perfect for me. Is there anything you need me to do now?"

"No. Everything that we are doing now will not need you until you come back from your trip."

"Ok. I will see you in two hours then." Closing the communication he walked over to the library. Once there he asked "Godricson is there a map of this place?"

"Yes there is. Ask the retrieval system for a map, it will provide you one that will show all the rooms as well as show everyone present in the house."

"I wonder if that is where my Dad got the idea for the marauders map of Hogwarts?"

"What is the marauders map?"

"A map that shows every room and secret passages in Hogwarts, it also shows everyone with a tag showing their name. It even shows the name of a person in their animagus forms."

"That sounds exactly like the map that is stored here in the library. It also has a search function to find a specific room or person."

"Cool." With that conversation over Harry walked over to the retrieval system and asked for a map of the castle. Once the map had come floating out, he opened it and asked for a dueling room. Seeing a room begin to blink he followed the map to the specified room. Opening the door he looked at the room. It was a huge room about the same size of a soccer field he estimated. One side was stocked with exercise equipment of every type and design. On the other side he saw a familiar looking book on top of a pedestal. He walked over to the book and asked "what is your function?"

Once his words were spoken writing began to appear in the book. As he read he learned that this room was magically enchanted to retrieve and or copy all types of exercise equipment that muggle or magicals created and have it appear in the room. The room was also able to have up to twenty magical dummies appear and simulate an attack. These dummies could also be set at various difficulty levels. The levels consisted of: Hogwarts graduate, low level Death Eater, Auror graduate, mid level Death Eater, veteran Auror, Death Eater lieutenants, Death Eater Inner Circle, Dueling master, Voldemort, Dumbledore then finally Merlin. Seeing these categories listed Harry wondered how in the name of Belatu the system was able to determine the power and ability levels. He asked the binder how the power and ability levels were determined. It printed out that the magic enchanted in the manor was able to cover the British Isles, Ireland and most of Europe. The system then was able to observe the power levels and abilities of selected individuals. It was not able to tell the name of particular Death Eaters as it did not determine names. It could however see how people fought and extrapolate the power and abilities of the combatants. Harry was almost giddy at the thought that with this training system in dueling and combat he would be able to practice at full levels against his opponents. Deciding he had spent enough time here he then walked out of the room and made his way to the entrance.

Once outside of the veil he called for Dobby and had him transport him to Gringotts. Once there he got out his mirror and asked Griphook "do you know if Bill is ready for our excursion?"

Griphook answered "Bill is not ready quite yet. But I do have some business here that you will need to take care of now. I will send a goblin to show you to my office."

Once the goblin had guided Harry to Griphooks office Harry asked "what is the business that needs to be taken care of, Griphook?"

"The business that needs to be taken care of is the matter concerning the marriage contracts. The Greengrass family is unwilling to fulfill their part of the marriage contract without having met you. They have asked to meet you as soon as possible."

Harry thought for a few seconds. "Well I can certainly understand their concerns. I am willing to meet them at their convenience either before Bill and I leave to Egypt, or later today. After today it would be about three days before I was able to meet them. Is there a way for them to meet me now?"

"Yes they have consented to meet you now. They are in an adjoining conference room. Follow me please."

With that Harry followed Griphook to the conference room. He opened the doors at Griphooks gesture and walked inside. He saw Daphne Greengrass standing across the room with her parents on either side of her. He smiled at them and waved towards the seats and sat down. He cleared his throat a tad nervously then spoke up "as you can see I am Harry Potter and am the new Lord Black. I had no idea of the contracts or anything really. I will answer your questions as honestly as I can, but I may have to withhold some information as it pertains to my security."

The male that Harry presumed to be Daphne's father spoke up. "My name as you may not know is Mattias Greengrass and I am Daphne's father. The concerns that we have with this contract is that we are unwilling to accede to the contract if certain concerns are not alleviated. The first one is we want to have a contract drawn up that states the behaviors of both parties. This would cover how you treat one another as well as what would happen to any children you might have. The second concern is the fact that by marrying you our daughter would be losing some position in certain circles. The next concern is the fact that by marrying you whether it is a contract or not is the perception that our family has chosen sides. The last concern we have is that I personally do not want to give up my daughter to a loveless marriage."

Harry listened to the speech from Mattias with a spurt of anger and disdain for him that Harry would even consider hurting an innocent person not to mention his wife. Gritting his teeth he forced than anger from his face by sheer will and continued to listen. He noticed at several points that Daphne winced at the words of her father and he began to wonder if he could break this contract and get rid of the hassle without having a feud on the basis of him breaking the contract. When Mattias had finished he spoke in an even tone leeched of all feeling "Sir I am insulted at the thought that I would hurt an innocent person much less my wife! I acknowledge that you do not know me except from the newspapers or stories from your daughter. As such I will endeavor to answer your concerns politely." As he said this staring intently at Mattias he noticed outside of his vision the expression on Daphne's face was one of shock at his words. He then continued "As far as your concerns to her station I could personally give a flying fuck about station and if it is a great concern to your daughter then I definitely do not want to have anything to do with her. If she cannot deal with that then we will break the contract. As for your so called neutrality for both sides in this conflict I can understand not wanting to follow the leadership of either the ministry, Dumbledore of Voldemort, however I cannot understand why you don't get involved on your own and fight the bastards who rape, murder and torture innocents. I will definitely want a concrete reason on why you do not do this already."

His face bright red in rage Mattias almost shouted "who are you to judge me! You are nothing but an ignorant whelp and should listen to your betters. I don't know where you come from but in this world children should listen and obey when the superiors talk. As for fighting the Death Eaters what should I? There only muggles and mudbloods after all. Who cares what happens to them."

"I see. Is that your final words on this matter?" Seeing Mattias nod Harry sighed and took out his communication mirror. "Griphook what is the procedure to break a marriage contract to the Greengrass family?"

"I will be there in a few minutes with the proper forms." With that Griphook shut down the mirror.

As soon as Griphook shut down the mirror Harry looked around the room and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Hearing the door open he looked up as Griphook came into the room and sat down in one of the chairs about equal between the two sides. Griphook took out a briefcase and opened it. He then extracted a sheaf of papers and looked at them for a few seconds. He then looked up from the papers and looked at Harry. "Lord Harry Potter-Black what were the reasons on your side for breaking the contract?"

Harry then spoke up and answered Griphook; "the reason for a breach of contract is because of rank cowardice, bigotry and pure snobbery on their parts."

With these words Mattias sank back in his chair as if he had been shot with a bewildered expression on his face.

Griphook then turned toward the Greengrass family "as for your part: what was the reason for the breach of the contract?"

As these words were uttered Daphne whirled from her mother with whom she had been gesticulating widely and appeared to be shouting at. She took two steps forward and announced to the goblin "I ask that I be able to speak privately to Lord Harry Potter-Black."

With these words being uttered Harry noticed the face of Mattias whiten as if he had no blood whatsoever left in his face. Mattias turned to Daphne and croaked out "why do you defy me daughter? Will you run the risk of being cast out of the family?"

At hearing these words Daphne's face heated up and she practically growled out her reply. "I do not know who you think you are, but you are not the man that I considered as my father if you believe in the utter filth that you have uttered here. And if you could in a century think that I would be cast out on your say so you are sorely mistaken father. You know as well as I that my Grandfather is the head of the family and you are not even considered to be a Greengrass as you married into this family. As soon as Tobias hears what you have said here today I don't think it will be me that is cast out. Especially considering that his sister, my aunt, and her husband were tortured then killed by Death Eaters. I think I have a very good idea to how he will react." Finishing with her words she turned to harry and blushed and asked "Harry? May we talk privately please?"

Shocked beyond belief at her eruption Harry could only nod in acceptance. He then turned to Griphook and asked "could we use an adjoining room for a private discussion?" Seeing Griphook nod and get out of his seat Harry turned to Daphne, pointing at Mattias he asked "will we need to worry about him?"

Daphne shook her head and replied "I don't think so. Until the discussions are completed none of the parties can leave Gringotts. It is one of the ways that Goblins can assure that there will not be an attacking force outside the banks steps when one side leaves."

Harry nodded and gestured at the woman he assumed to be her mother. "What about her?"

"I would like her to accompany us as she will be able to give you and back up my statements that I will be saying. I would like her to be there with us as I explain some of the background of what you have heard here."

At this Harry nodded and followed Griphook out the door and trailed him to a new door. He stepped inside and sat down on the far side of the table. Daphne and the woman followed him into the room and sat opposite him. After a few uncomfortable seconds of silence Harry cleared his throat and looked at Daphne. "I believe you had some things to explain?"

Looking rather embarrassed and uncomfortable Daphne nodded her head and asked "would you promise that the information that I give to you now will remain confidential? It could put my family in danger from Dumbledore, Voldemort as well as the Ministry."

Harry looked piercingly at her for a few seconds and then nodded to himself "I can make a wizards vow that all that is said in this room will be truthful and secret amongst us if you and your companion swear the same." Seeing her nod Harry then swore "I Harry Potter swear on my life and magic that all that I say in here will be the complete and utter truth as I know of it. I also swear that I will not inform anyone outside of this room of what is said to me by the people in this room to anyone without their express permission. So mote it be." Upon the completion of this oath a golden swirl came out and engulfed him before disappearing back inside him.

Daphne then swore the same oath as well as the woman who Harry learned was named Ceridwen. Daphne then spoke "Harry his is my mother Ceridwen and I would first of all like to offer my sincere apologies for the statements of the man who I used to call father. As you heard the Greengrass family has been officially neutral in the conflict between Voldemort the ministry and Dumbledore. We used to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters on the sly in the first war until the loss of my uncles and aunts. When they were killed by the Death Eaters we were forced into strict neutrality and my Grandfather was forced to sign a contract that we would not fight Voldemort or his followers anymore. In addition we would have to support certain measures in the Wizengamot. The third thing that we were forced to do is we have to pay a subsidy to Voldemort and his followers. We paid this money to them up until Voldemort was defeated by you. While he was gone we still had to pay a reduced fee to Lucius Malfoy. Once Voldemort came back at the end of our fourth year the fee has grown to the level that it was at previous to his disappearance."

"Now onto the man that calls himself my father ... My mother was betrothed and forced to marry him to continue on the Greengrass name. Why he was chosen I do not know." She turned to her mother "you know the rest of the story. Could you fill us in as it seems that we need to know the full story?"

Ceridwen looked deeply into her daughters eyes and sighed. "As you know Daphne I was forced to marry that man for the continuation of our family name. What you do not know is that there was a final stipulation in that damnable agreement that my Dad was forced to sign. The final thing was that I would have to marry him. He comes from a long line of purebloods that have always been purists, however the family had fallen on hard times and their coffers were depleted. So the second son was forced to marry me. We have never agreed and he has remained in check only in the sufferance of your grandfather. We tried for sons, but with the birth of your sister your father contacted a disease and became sterile. It was this, in addition of being forced to be neutral in politics with the apparent death of Voldemort, that has embittered and twisted him until he has become little better than a Death Eater." She then turned to harry "as for you young sir I am afraid that if I consent in having my daughter to marry you that I would not have long on this plane in addition to my father and daughters."

Harry closed his eyes and engaged his brain in an intense thought process. He opened his eyes and looked at both Ceridwen and Daphne. "I was hesitant in marrying you in the first place Daphne as I do not know you. In addition I find the entire issue of marriage contracts being forced on people to be repugnant. I realize that this is a part of the world that you have both grown up in, but I was raised with muggle notions of right and wrong. As such I consider the forcing of people into marriage without their consent to be little better than rape. I was slightly hopeful that I would be able to break the contract between ourselves without having this erupt into a conflict between us. As I am willing to help your family as I have what Hermione calls a 'people saving thing' I would like to be able to help your family in any way possible. So we can break the contract between us and I will pay the penalty as stated which is 25,000 galleons, I believe?"

At their nods he continued "I would like to request a list of people in the ministry and especially the Wizengamot that is broken down into the following categories: marked Death Eaters, unmarked Death Eaters, blood purists, Fudge lackeys, Dumbledore lackeys, Light purists and finally honest politicians if you can find any. For receiving this list as well as oath that all the names on the lists are correct I will help your family relocate if you would like, or upgrade your wards, something along those lines. Is that ok with your family?"

Ceridwen looked at him for a few seconds and asked "is it ok if I put up a privacy barrier so I can discuss this with my daughter?" Seeing his nod she did so. Harry looked on as Ceridwen and Daphne talked for about ten minutes. Ceridwen then took down the barrier and turned to him. "My daughter has a few questions for you, I believe. After she has asked them I have a few as well. Ok?"

Harry nodded and turned his gaze to Daphne seeing her questioning gaze upon him he asked "your questions are?"

"What happened to you? As far as I could tell from Slytherin you are the Gryffindor golden boy I hear stories from Malfoy and Professor Snape about your arrogance and hatred of all things Slytherin and you being the poster boy for support of the Headmaster. What changed?"

Snorting at hearing what she thought of him he sighed as he was going to have to explain and bare his life to these people. So he told them of his life at the Dursley's, his arrival to the wizarding world, his first year and killing Quirrell. His second year was about the meeting of Dobby, learning that he spoke parseltongue, the attacks by the basilisk and finally the cursed diary of Voldemort. His third year and finding out about the true story of Sirius black and his reaction to Dementors. His fourth year and his forced entry into the Tri-wizard tournament, his being used in the ritual to resurrect Voldemort and the death of Cedric Diggory. The fifth year and the Dementors near his home, the trail and Fudge trying to discredit him, the torture from Umbridge, the forced Occlumency lessons with Snape the avoidance all year from Dumbledore, the visions sent by Voldemort, the founding and running the D.A., learning that Umbridge had sent the Dementors, the threat of the Cruciatis from Umbridge, the vision of his godfather being tortured in the Hall of Prophecies, the flight there on thestrals, the fight with the Death Eaters seeing his godfather fall through the death veil, the fight between Dumbledore and Voldemort, the attempted possession by Voldemort, then learning that there was a prophecy between him and Voldemort and the deceptions, lies and manipulations by Dumbledore. Finishing his tale he told them of finding out the lies and manipulations that had surrounded his life until this point. He then told them of contacting Gringott's and learning that he was the heir of the Black's and finding out about the marriage contracts, as well as finding out that his parents Will had been suppressed and finding out about the contracts that he was facing from that side as well.

When he finished he looked at them and said "that is my tale so far. Now that you know about me and where I am coming from, what other things are you curious about?"

Ceridwen and Daphne looked at each other for a few minutes. Daphne broke the silence with a slight clearing of her throat. "Harry if I didn't know any better and have that oath in effect I would not believe you. Not because I don't think that you would lie to me, but because your story is hard to believe, especially when you compare it to the widely known boy-who-lived stories. Not to mention the stories that the Daily Prophet and Rita Skeeter have printed. With that oath we have no choice but to believe you. Where we go from here is I think rather clear though." She looked at her mother and said "I do believe that Granddad would support him Mom, especially considering that we could do so without much undue risk to our family. What do you think?"

Ceridwen closed her eyes in obvious thought and then spoke up "Daph I do believe that you are right. Lord Harry the Greengrass family will stand in support of you and your objectives. We will be able to supply you with the lists that you have requested. In addition I believe that either Daphne or her sister will not be attending Hogwarts in the future. This will not only allow them to get out of the country and the sights of the Death Eaters, but will also allow them to get away from the powerbase and influence of Albus Dumbledore. As far as your offer for help to our family I thank you, but the Greengrass family will not need your help in that manner. As long as you fight against the Death Eaters and Voldemort I do believe that we shall be safe as the focus should turn almost exclusively to you. I realize that you will not be able to stop all the attacks and raids that they pull off, but I am sure that enough of their focus will turn top you that will allow that prepared neutral families to escape the worst effects. In addition I think that my father will be reigning in my 'husband quite severely after his display earlier. All this will of course require my dad's approval, but I am quite certain that he will agree. Now that this matter has been settled I think that we are done, yes?"

Harry thought for a few seconds and nodded. "I think that we are. However I will require an oath from your father Lady Ceridwen. Not cast any doubt about his truthfulness, but it is a matter that is quite perilous for me, and I will need that added reassurance. If that is all I suggest we ask that we ask Griphook to draw up an agreement that details the points discussed here so that you can give it to your father. In addition to this I give you permission to tell him what I told you of my life so far as I will be publishing it soon through the services of the Quibbler."

Daphne had an inquisitive expression on her face as she asked "the Quibbler? Why not the Daily Prophet? Doesn't the Potter and Black family own the Prophet?"

With a sense of shock at this revelation Harry asked "we do? I didn't know that. The goblins are compiling a list of assets that I now control, however I d haven't seen it yet. If what you said turns out to be true I do believe that my task of fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters will be easier than I thought, however I can't say quite yet what I own with any certainty."

Daphne nodded and said "I do believe that the potter and Black families together own a controlling interest in the Daily Prophet, but I am not certain. Anyway that is for you to discover. Since we are done here will you call Griphook please?"

Nodding in agreement Harry pulled out the communication mirror and asked Griphook to come to the room. When he got there Harry told him of the agreement that Daphne, Ceridwen and him had reached. He then asked Griphook if this could be written up and made magically binding to both parties with a space left for Lord Greengrass. When he had finished Griphook handed the contract and three copies to Harry who looked it over then with a grimace as it required the use of a blood pen he signed it. He then passed it to Daphne and her mother. They then signed the agreement and the copies.

Keeping one copy Ceridwen asked Griphook "will I have to take all of the copies to Lord Greengrass? Or when he signs one will the others be updated with his agreement?"

Griphook answered "when he signs it all copies will be updated automatically. Now then was there anything else?"