Dark Prince Rises by Ronin2106

Chapter 8

Albion's Hearth. Several hours after the reactivation of Le Fay magic.

In the past Henry had spent a great amount of time in the libraries, be that in the Fleamont's mansion, where James and Lily had raised William, along with him and Rose, or in Hogwarts, where he could stay away from the unjust prejudice because of where he was sorted. His grandmother had taught him how to read, and had taught him to love books, as they were not just a source of knowledge and information, but also: "gateways to new worlds and adventures."

Those were her words when on his fourth birthday, she gifted him a complete book trilogy of J.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", fantasy story that had become Henry's favorite. He had read to Rose when she was just two and they had been left to their own devices by Potters. He still wished that William hadn't found those books during the summer between his first and second years and used them as a target practice for Confringo charm, destroying them in front of Henry and Rose.

The resulting beating that Henry gave to William had cost him three weeks of being locked up in the cellar, with one meal for an entire day, no voice due to a curse that his mother put him under, so that he couldn't call any of the House Elves. Not that they ever listened to him or Rose, given their somewhat of a 'rotten' nature, reflective of their masters. But the image of that pompous idiot brat's broken face and sullied pants still brings the smile on his face, just as it did right now.

Henry flipped the page of the Two Towers, before observing the vast and near endless rows of high bookshelves, filled with books, scrolls, scriptures and manuscripts from nearly every era in human history. If he had thought Hogwarts' library to be massive, then Le Fay's library was near colossal in size and in amount of knowledge it held and gathered over the time. According to Irene, one of her duties that Morgana had employed her for in here was the protection and expansion of the knowledge and magical information held in this library, a job that Irene has been doing without stop.

Henry had suspected that the place was magically enlarged to fit the constantly expanded library, which held every type of literature and knowledge one could ask for in many examples. From old and ancient papyrus' written manuscripts of Imhotep to the modern literature books, all that and more could be found here, if one wanted to, as Henry had found out.

And the library itself, much like the rest of the citadel and its grounds were in pristine shape, without any sign of degradation, deterioration and more. All of that was achieved not just by a 70 House Elves that Albion's Hearth supported on its own, but also thanks to Morgana's own magic still active after over 900 years, that kept the Elves and Albion's Hearth in a similar to frozen in time state, until the new Prince Le Fay could appear and claim the title and rights. And now that Henry was that Prince, the castle and it's magic once again lived, awakened from its slumber.

After the ritual was completed, Henry had contacted his family, granting them passage onto the castle's grounds. Arcturus and Regulus were glad and pleased that everything went smoothly, while Cassiopeia looked far more preoccupied with examining Irene, with Rose being openly glad that he was alright. After a quick tour of the castle and its grounds by Irene, they held council on their next moves, determining that now Henry needed to secure allegiances of magical beings on his lands.

He had better do it before the July 31st, when a monthly gathering of Wizengamot was held, where he would have to make an appearance and show to the world the new Prince Le Fay. Henry had a week to accomplish it, and he wasn't going to waste it. After that, Arcturus and Regulus decided to return to their own devices, with Regulus believing that he may've had the lead to one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, while Arcturus had to prepare make preparations for a meeting with Narcissa and Draco Malfoy, who all of a sudden decided to meet him tomorrow.