Dark Prince Rises by Ronin2106

Chapter 17

August the 19th. Albion's Hearth

The chambers of the Council were the usual meeting place for the representatives of the governing body of Le Fay's lands. Decorated in rich materials and colors of authority, along with the symbols of the various magical races that could be found in here, along with the large table and chairs. The place had been arranged right after Henry Le Fay had received first oaths of loyalty and fealty, as he was prepared to begin governing his realm like he was supposed to. There were already reforms and needed changes put in place, such as equality for all races, establishment of rights and laws, along with update of already existing ones. All done in a relatively short order, and already it had yielded good results for House Le Fay and its subjects.

However, today the chambers weren't used by the councilors and representatives of various races, at least not all of them. The council hadn't reconvened ever since the death of Nymphadora Tonks and recovery of her body and of Prince Le Fay. The reason why there was no meeting held since was the fact that Henry Le Fay, due to the extensive physical and far more severe psychological damage, had been put into a medically induced coma by Cassiopeia, who tended to his burns.

In his absence, Rose had officially assumed the position of acting Princess Le Fay and a regent in Henry's absence. This decision wasn't met gracefully by most of the leaders of magical races, but was accepted, after Neriada, now Queen of Dryads, had openly expressed her support of Rose. The leaders of the races were aware of the situation with Henry, and had made sure to keep their mouths shut on this topic, lest their enemies found out that House Le Fay was currently weakened.

As for the Ministry and the general public of the Magical Britain, Rose had managed to covertly, with the help of Carissa and High Elven infiltrators, plant rumors that Prince Le Fay was currently out of country, possibly pursuing a love interest. That was enough to quell questions from most of the Magical Britain, but not from all, especially the Wizarding Families that have already pledged their loyalty to Henry. Lord Greengrass in particular was concerned with the disappearance of Prince Le Fay, as he had expressed to Rose that without Henry, House Le Fay may lose a golden opportunity to gain more supporters from Neutral, Light and Dark families. Rose, with the help of Tracey, had managed to placate him, at least for the time being.

While House Greengrass was easy to deal with, House Jones was not as easily placated, as its Lord had managed to catch wind of the fact that Hestia Jones, younger sister to current Lord Jones, died thanks to Henry. It didn't take a genius to understand that it was work of Dumbledore, and that he had wanted to capitalize on the disappearance of Prince Le Fay while he could. Well, too bad for him, as Rose had acted quickly and put Lord Jones in his place, subtly reminding him that House Jones had managed to increase their wealth and power due to support of House Le Fay.

Along with that, she had also made it clear as day that Hestia Jones effectively betrayed House Le Fay, as she was a member of a vassal House to Le Fay family, and had paid the price for her betrayal. And when Lord Jones had demanded compensation for the death of his sister, Rose's patience waned down, and stated to him in a direct language, that he should be grateful, that Henry had stopped on just Hestia, instead of punishing the whole House for the betrayal, something that was well within his rights to do. That served the purpose and calmed Lord Jones, and had served as a reminder that House Le Fay isn't one to forgive treachery of any sort.

Rose rubbed the temples on her head with her fingers, reviewing everything that had happened over the past 6 days and coming to the conclusion that House Le Fay had clearly suffered a significant blow, not to mention that she, along with Henry and all of House of Black, had lost their closest family member. Nymphadora was buried just two days ago, laid to rest in the House Black's family mausoleum, an honor that was granted to her by Arcturus and an acknowledgement of Nymphadora Druella Tonks as a full-fledged Black Witch. She was the first Black family member to be allowed in there since the death of Marius Black, as Arcturus forbade burying even his son Orion, Cygnus, Walburga, and definitely Sirius, of whom nothing had remained at this point.