The Necromancer

Chapter 28

The sound of people voicing their objections got louder and louder now that Harry had appeared and stood facing the mob. Thankfully, Harry had faced mobs before and knew how to handle the situation. The crab fishers back on Sildar whose whole livelihood he’d invertedly destroyed when he’d grown more land in the wrong place had come storming his castle as well, brandishing their crab pots at him.

Harry straightened himself out, uncaring that he stood there in only his pyjama pants with his tattooed chest bared to the world. “SILENCE!” Harry bellowed as loudly as he could. That had the desired effect and at once the people in front of him shut their mouths in shock. Harry put on his best disappointed parent expression and he’d raised four kids so over the years he’d more than perfected it. “I am deeply disappointed in all of you that you thought storming my castle as a mindless mob was the desired way to settle any disputes.”

Several people in the mob hung their heads when they realized they had probably overreacted just a bit.

“In the future, if you have any questions or comments for me, it’s a much more civilized solution to simply send one person to knock politely on my door and ask for a meeting. I am your Governor and if you have urgent concerns I will gladly meet with you all, but not like this.”

V flew down from the banister and landed on Harry’s shoulder. “Rude, rude,” he cawed while he glared at the crowd, his head lowered. “Very, very rude.”

More heads bowed down in regret and Harry was pleased to see that the majority of the mob now seemed to realize that they probably had reacted like children instead of civilized adults. “I will hold a town meeting in an hour at Town Hall. All of you are invited, of course, and all of you will have a chance to ask your questions and voice your concerns. For now, I’d like to go wash and have some breakfast, since you all awakened me so rudely while I’ve spent half the night awake and working on the defences of the island that will keep us all safe.”

Yeah, that was all it took, Harry was pleased to see. People nodded and slumped off back home and Harry closed his door and released a deep sigh. The first thing he did was send a Patronus to Remus, to alert him of the situation, and then on second thought, he sent one to Voldemort as well to alert him of the upcoming meeting. Harry was sure his new friend wouldn’t want to miss it for anything.

Harry took a quick bath, which refreshed him enough that he did eventually feel awake enough to function, and then he enjoyed a delicious breakfast prepared by Violet. He also made sure to send Violet off with plenty of prepared food to the women and children he’d rescued the previous night, since none of them had money to buy anything and Harry wasn’t about to let them go hungry even for an hour when they were already far too thin.

Finally, Harry grabbed his broom and flew to Spellbridge, where he saw plenty of people walking from their homes to town square to join the meeting. Remus, Sirius and Regulus were already inside Town Hall, with the two brothers arguing whether they needed to create a dais or not, since the large room was entirely bare, save for Remus’ desks which were shoved against the wall for the occasion. Sirius was against adding a dais, insisting they needed to meet the people at their own level while Regulus insisted they needed to put themselves above the crowd.

“We need a dais,” Harry said as he crossed the large, empty hall with quick strides, ignoring Sirius’ groan of disagreement. “All the people need to be able to see us, and we need three chairs for now. Me as the Governor of Magica, Sirius as the Mayor of Spellbridge, and Remus as the Immigration Officer.”