The Master of Death

Chapter13: Kept Promises

Once they had been whisked back into Grimmauld Place No. 12, they found themselves in one of the old bedrooms upstairs. Sirius peaked into the hallway, but nobody was there although they could hear noises from downstairs. "I'm going to look after Buckbeak, I haven't had time to feed him yet," Sirius said and when they parted ways on the stairs he added, "Take care, Harry."

Surprisingly enough, when Harry entered the drawing room he wasn't confronted by Mrs Weasley about why he'd been missing, but Ron and Hermione stared at him and pulled him aside as soon as there was an opportunity. Apparently, they had covered for them, telling everyone that they were preparing a strategy for the trial. Which really wasn't a lie considering their visit to Gringotts.

"Where were you?" Hermione whispered while they pretended to clean dust out a shelf.

"Why are you asking? You know I was with Sirius," Harry responded, slightly amused.

"We looked all over for you. We even knocked onto Sirius' door," Ron intercepted, pausing in his scrubbing of a - particularly - nasty spot.

Harry stopped for a moment, contemplating what he should tell them. "Sirius and I, we visited Gringotts today," he said eventually.

"Gringotts?" Hermione parroted shocked, "But Harry, how could you do this?! Sirius is a criminal on the run! Do you know how dangerous this was?! What if someone saw you?!"

"I hate to say this mate, but Hermione is right. This is outright crazy," Ron replied hesitating.

"It was necessary for my strategy," Harry answered, amused at how the vagueness of his statement increased Hermione's and Ron's curiosity even more.

"What are you planning, Harry?" Hermione asked him.

"I claimed a lordship title."

"A title?! What does that mean? That you're a lord now, or what?" Hermione questioned, "How would that even be valid-"

"I thought this wasn't done anymore," Ron said, interrupting Hermione.

"Oh, it is," Harry replied. "It's just seen as outdated. And it wasn't that cheap either..." Harry muttered the last sentence, grudgingly reminded of Gornok.

"So you bought yourself a title. That doesn't really make much sense, does it?" Hermione inquired.

"It's a requirement you have to fulfil to be able to claim a seat in the Wizengamot," Harry stated.

Unsurprisingly, Hermione picked up on the meaning of it first. "You enabled yourself to vote on your hearing!" she exclaimed, before Ron - with a look over his shoulder - hushed her. "But Harry," she continued whispering, "One vote won't make much of a difference in the overall outcome."

"It's more of a backup plan anyways," Harry deflected, all too well aware that him claiming a seat in the Wizengamot might as well be the start of a chain reaction.

"And how does that even work?" Hermione added after a moment. "From everything I've read about the Wizengamot, members are unanimously voted into their positions and all of them are of age."

"It's a loophole I'm trying to exploit. Some old laws no one bothered to change after people no longer cared whether they held a title or not. At some point in time, even the Ministry started a campaign to support families who were giving up on their title. From my research, it wasn't that conclusive why they did it, but I know that it was under the guise of closing the gap between the 'not so established families' and the 'long established wizarding families'."

"Speak muggle-borns and purebloods," Hermione concluded with a tight expression.

"There was certainly an overlap," Harry agreed. "But since it was seen as rather old-fashioned and anti-government, most families saw no need to hold onto a useless title."