Fate's Request: A Harry Potter FanFiction

Back at his Manor, David was requested by Greenie upon his arrival to spend some time with the Griffons. Apparently, they'd missed him.

David was sceptical about this.

"Are you sure Greenie?" David asked his House Elf with a raised brow.

"Oh, most definitely! They really got excited when I mentioned you would be returning home soon," Greenie replied with love in her eyes.

"Alright then… I guess I'll go see them. Mel, can you get my boots out?"

---

The next day David was being measured by Mel for a new suit that she'd decided he'd need for his meeting with Cyrus Greengrass.

Mel had at first planned on tailoring some Wizard robes, but David was vehemently against wizarding fashion and requested a more casual single buttoned, British style suit. He didn't bother asking for a specific colour, as Mel would probably make half a dozen of them.

Following the fitting and measuring, David returned to his room and in front of his blazing fire, read over the report on the Greengrass family.

There was a lot of information on their business holdings and such, and while they interested David, he preferred to focus on the information regarding their dealings and affiliations in the previous war.

What he found was that, while the Greengrass family interacted with families such as, Malfoy, Nott and Parkinson, they never had a single member of their family which joined the death-eaters, regardless of being under the influence of the Imperius curse or not.

That was a relief to David, for he doubted that anyone would attack a Hogwarts student in their own home before the Dark Lord rose again, it was a weight off his mind that the Greengrass' didn't overly buy into the pure-blood mania.

They might have supported laws that gave pure-blood legal protections and such but didn't support any measures of being anti muggle of muggle-born that families such as the Malfoy's regularly tried to implement, even if it raised serious doubt of their actions during the war being under duress.

Finishing his second reading of the Greengrass brief, David brought out the list of names and basic information on the various officials of the International Confederation of Wizards that were living in Britain.

With this list, David could begin the long and arduous process of bribing individuals in various Ministries of the wizarding world to start enacting more laws regarding the protection of Magical Creatures and directing funds into maintaining and encouraging their growth and protection.

He couldn't go and speak in front of these Ministries himself, he was too young and also had no reputation to give his words any sort of weight.

As such, he decided to spend a fraction of his ever-growing mounds of Galleons to bribe these ministries to better protect all sorts of magical creatures from hunting and culling.

David hoped these actions would in the short-term, alleviate the decimation Britain was going to go through during the war and in the long-term, allow Magic to recover, for while he found the magical world absolutely bonkers, he did, in fact, love it and want to protect it for the years to come.

---

Later that night, in one of the vast and somewhat empty rooms of Cross Manor, Mel displayed a wide range of suits she had made for David's picking.

"Master, I've made them all to the style you've requested. What do you think?" Mel asked, massaging her sore hands.

"You've really outdone yourself this time Mel… they're great. But do I really need so many? In a few months, I'll probably outgrow them," David asked of Mel, noticing her hands that were probably quite sore.

"Oh, I can adjust them for you Master, they should last you another year. Also, after you've chosen your favourites, it'll be much easier to make you some new ones as you grow," Mel happily replied, bouncing on her heels.

Knowing that ordering Mel not to do as she wished was probably cruel to her, as he'd seen first hand her reaction to not being allowed to work, David shook his head slightly and went to choose a few of his favourites.

"I think for tomorrow, the simple black suit will do fine…" David said out loud as he walked among the manikins Mel had somehow found.

Mel nodded happily and allowed David to continue with his choosing.

After picking a grey, tweed and light blue suit, David allowed Mel to deal with the remaining suits as he decided to try one of them on.

Transfiguring a mirror from an empty chair in front of himself, David admired the tight-fitting suit Mel had made and decided to request she make a couple in the future that were lined with either Basilisk skin or Dragonhide for armour.

Ending up dead due to a way-ward spell he didn't see coming would be a horrible way to go, David thought as he looked at himself vainly in the mirror one more time.

---

David got Mel to pick out a bottle of wine as a gift for the Greengrass' as he himself had absolutely no idea about wine and probably wouldn't touch the alcoholic drink until his illness was cured.

"Master, a bottle of Penfolds Grange Red Shiraz, 1990," Mel said as she appeared with a bottle of wine in both hands.

"Is it any good?" David asked as he adjusted his tie.

"A multi-award-winning wine from Australia, Master," Mel answered, knowing quite an amount on the world of wines.

"Uhh, the Greengrass' won't be offended by being offered a muggle wine, will they?" David asked sceptically.

"Not at all, wizards only produce their own beer, mead and whiskey. All other spirits and wines are bought form the muggle world, and pure-bloods do drink muggle products. They believe it is the rightful order of things, for the lesser muggles to provide food and drink for them," Mel explained without a hint of emotion.

Sighing at learning another bit of knowledge regarding pure-blood mania, David took hold of the bottle.

"Well, we'd better be off then… you know the location of the Greengrass Estate?" David asked of Mel, ready to meet the Greengrass family.

Nodding, she outstretched her hand, which David took hold of immediately and with a pop, they were instantly in front of the grounds of Greengrass Estate.

---

Before David was an immensely long walkway towards a castle of sorts.

The white gravel walkway was adjourned with lightly frosted pine trees on either side and slightly off to the side of the path, stood Daphne and Astoria, waiting for him.

"David! You made it!" Astoria shouted as David surprisingly to her, appeared with a House-Elf at his side. She'd assumed he would arrive in some sort of Muggle transport or the Night-Bus itself.

"Hey Astoria, hope I haven't kept you and Daphne waiting too long?" David asked his new friend as he noticed they were covered in snowflakes.

"No, you're right on time David," Daphne said, answering for her sister, "We just decided to head out a little early, just in case."

Astoria merely smiled and nodded as her sister answered and invited David inside, "That being said! We should head inside, Mother and Father are waiting for you."

"Lead the way," David said before turning to Mel, "Mel, you can head on home. I'll call for you when it's time to pick me up."

"Very well Master," Mel replied as she disappeared with a click of her fingers and the accompanying popping sound.

Before they made it to the entrance, Astoria couldn't keep it in any longer and asked about the House Elf.

"David, I thought you lived in a muggle Orphanage? How do you have a House Elf?"

Knowing that Astoria wouldn't reveal his secret and that Daphne wouldn't dare after the vow she'd given, David explained, "I moved out of the Orphanage after finding out about the Wizarding world, I live at Cross Manor with Mel, my House Elf now."

"You've found it?" Daphne asked curiously.

"Found it? More like the Goblins told me where it was after they confirmed I was a real Cross," David explained as he continued to walk in between the two sisters.

"Oh…" was all Daphne said in response, for she knew from her father that past generations of Greengrass' had been trying to pry that information out of Goblin's for quite some time now.

Cyrus and Penelope Greengrass must have been alerted to David's arrival through their wards, for when the trio neared the entrance to their home, both were waiting for them.

Penelope was the first to speak as she stepped forward with an outstretched hand, "David, it's so nice to meet you. I'm Penelope, Daphne and Astoria's mother."

Stepping forward himself, David took her hand and shook it, "Thank you for the invitation, Mrs Greengrass."

Standing next to her now, with his own hand outstretched was Cyrus Greengrass, "David," was all he said with a nod.

Which David also nodded back too, and took his hand and received a much firmer shake in response.

"Nice to meet you, Mr Greengrass," David said following their handshake.

"Please, it's quite cold, come inside," Penelope said with a slight shiver, ushering everyone in.

"Moxy will take your coat, David," Penelope said as her children were handing their slight snow-frosted coats to the old elf.

Handing his coat to the House Elf, Astoria spoke up and said, "David, we're going to have dinner first, come with me."

---

Following an expertly made dinner, which a quiet Cyrus and hospitable Penelope enjoyed his wine at, eventually, the entire point of David's visit had come.

"David, would you join me in my study?" Cyrus said, following the main course, skipping dessert entirely.

"But there's still desert dad!" Astoria complained, which she received an elbow from Daphne for.

"There'll be time for Dessert later, Astoria," Cyrus answered with a slight smile of his own, his first show of emotion all evening.

"Shall we? David?" he asked as he turned to him.

"Of course, lead the way, please," David answered, agreeing to finally talk about their crux of the matter.

---

David and Cyrus sat quietly in his well-heated study.

Cyrus had a glass of wine in front of him, the same wine that was leftover from dinner while David just had some tea.

"Where to begin…" Cyrus said eventually, as he set his glass down.

David, not knowing what to say just remained quiet, hoping he was hiding his nerves well enough and now starting to feel uncomfortable in his suit.

Sighing, Cyrus asked David, "What do you know of your Malediction?"

Thinking for a moment, David answered, "Well… I know that I really shouldn't be alive, as the Malediction is designed to take my life quite early on. Apart from that, I know that I have a lot less time than Astoria."

Nodding, Cyrus spoke, "Yes… I see, it would be best that I start from how it all really began, easier to explain a lot of my information you see."

"Please," David encouraged, wanting to know the details of how why the Greengrass family cared so for his family name.

"Quite some time ago, a little before your family feel into obscurity, pure-blood society was heavily dominated by three ancient families, the Blacks, the Lestrange's and the Cross'. While the former two were nigh untouchable at the time, the Cross family, not so much," Cyrus said, beginning his tale.

Taking a sip of the remains of his wine, he continued, "As such, eight families, the Greengrass' included, got together to form an alliance in the Wizengamot. Initially, it was just seven lesser houses, but they needed one of the three. They thought, with the Cross-family waning, they would be far more accommodating to their offer of alliance."

Eyes turning dark, Cyrus spoke heavily, "How wrong they were…"

"What was the point of the alliance?" David asked curiously.

"Power, money, standing, domination over muggles and muggle-borns, the usual... You see, the three were also heavily in favour of these ideals, but they didn't share their power and wealth with who they viewed as the 'lesser' families. As such, out of jealousy, they gathered but lacked the political muscle to skew laws in favour of the alliance, and needed a heavyweight," Cyrus answered, giving David the answer to his question.

"Ah, I should also express, that while the three held much power at the time, there were other families that did not uphold the same ideals and kept them in check," Cyrus added, receiving a nod from David to continue.

"The idea they proposed would have, with only minimal bloodshed, toppled the three and allowed for more sharing of power and wealth between the eight. Unfortunately, they overlooked a seemingly crucial and obvious detail, the head of house Cross' mother was a Black and was quite close to the Black family and Lestrange's by extension."

Downing the rest of his glass, Cyrus continued, "The meeting… went horribly. Wands were drawn and Ignatius Cross, the head of house Cross at the time, showed that the domination of the three didn't only stem from political capital and gold, but magical might. He wiped the floor with all of them, reducing the heads of the lesser families to their sons and daughters."

Snorting, Cyrus went quiet for a time and eventually continued, "The remains of the seven gathered, naturally furious at what had happened and planned their revenge. They managed to obtain some blood from Ignatius Cross at the scene of the slaughter and pooling their resources, enacted the ritual that cursed the Ancient and Noble House of Cross into near oblivion."

"Aquila Cross, named in the fashion of the Black's in honour of her grandmother survived the Malediction but witnessed the decimation of her family. In her fury… she tortured the information out of one of the seven, I don't know which… I guess it doesn't even matter who it was," Cyrus said, shaking his head.

Smiling sadly, he continued, "Aquila Cross, armed with the knowledge of the Malediction gathered the blood of each of the Seven, and prepared to cast the ritual herself, giving them a taste of their own medicine, I suppose…"

"How did she survive?" David asked, curious as to how someone managed to survive the Malediction, while her entire Cross family died.

"Oh… Well, Esme Greengrass speculated that it was due to the amount of magic she held. I suppose it would be fair to say, that if the events of that resulted in the ritual being cast never happened, the Cross family would have become the bastion of Magical society of those times. Surviving the Malediction through sheer magical force would put her in the leagues of Albus Dumbledore and the Dark Lord… You should understand that pureblood families haven't produced anyone of their magical fortitude for quite some time, too much inbreeding you see. Aquila Cross was a freak!" Cyrus said with a self-deprecating laugh.

"Are you suggesting the Dark Lord was a half-blood?" David asked hiding a smile, for he found someone speculating on that immensely funny.

Shrugging, he replied, "I'll never admit having said it."

David smiled at the response and asked him about the Greengrass family, "How did the Greengrass family and the others survive the curse? If Aquila Cross was so… mighty?"

"Ah! But they didn't. At first, a few of each family remained, but the curse worked away at them, of the seven, only we truly remained… Through no other reason than friendship. Esme Greengrass and Aquila Cross, while no longer speaking to each other all that often since leaving Hogwarts, used to be the best of friends. When she cast the curse in her fury, Aquila remembered her old friend and through regret and magical intent, weakened the Malediction incredibly, allowing those who it afflicted on the Greengrass line to live a some-what normal but limited life," Cyrus explained excitedly, before growing sad again.

"After mostly eliminating six families, and killing Esme's uncle herself, she told Esme the entirety of what happened and cast a 'blessing' on her, which we assume is the reason why Astoria is affected but Daphne is not," Cyrus finished sadly.

"Do you have… records of the curse used on the Cross family?" David asked a little disheartened now, for if what Cyrus said about curse was true, Aquila should have been able to remove it herself.

"Yes… we do, and you David, have the records of the altered ritual cast on the seven," Cyrus answered, dropping two verbal bombs onto David with a growing simile.

Silent for a long time, David spoke hurriedly, "But, Cross Manor was entirely baron… And the ministry emptied the family vaults. I don't have any memento's from Aquila…"

"What? Did you say the ministry emptied your vault?" Cyrus shouted, rising from his chair in anger.

Nodding, David answered, "Yes. That's what they did."

"We… we must get it back David! Astoria's future hangs in the balance here!" he said, not lowering his voice at all.

"Is that even possible? And are you sure it would have even been there?" David asked, wanting to help Astoria, but also wanting the version of the ritual cast on himself from Cyrus.

"Is everything okay?" Penelope asked as she opened the door to the study, shocked to see the look of anger on her husbands face.

Calming himself in shame, he said, "Maybe… maybe we should have the rest of the conversation with my family, I've already told Astoria the entirety of it… we can discuss the issue of the ministry together… over dessert."