The Power of the Potters ✔

Part 17: traitors get what traitors deserve

Harry was exercising all the self-control he had to not give his cousin the verbal lashing she so deserved.

"I will deal with you later." He said dismissively, hoping he could get the girl to retreat before he lost his control.

"Sure you will…" She spat, physically unable to enter the room but unwilling to remove herself from it. "First Azkaban, and now this!" She gestured angrily at Hermione. "If only you spent half of the time you do on gallivanting off to play the savior and moping after this… this demimondaine on Family issues, rather than heaping them on me!"

Harry flinched. She was unfortunately right. He did delegate everything he truly didn't want to deal with to her. All social calls went through her, all interior matters like spats between family members, the wedding, the Potter Gathering, and other menial work as well. He ran off to Hogwarts for some reprieve from the duties that he hadn't wanted from the beginning, leaving Henriette to take care of everything.

It made him feel like rubbish.

And he had to give it to the girl, she always came up with the best insults. "I-."

"What did you call me?!" Harry almost face-palmed at Hermione's response. He definitely didn't want the two to start fighting. His talk with Hermione in the hospital finally gave him some insight on the interaction between the two. He had been unbelievably dim and unobservant back then not to notice the Family Magik in play and the tension between Hermione and Henriette.

Not that me being unobservant is anything new, he thought self-critically.

Henriette's countenance darkened considerably at Hermione. "I called you what you are! You do and have done nothing but keep my cousin in trouble and distracted from his familial responsibilities. A common strumpet with whom my weak-minded cousin is smitten - a distraction in a low-quality skirt! A -."

"ENOUGH!" Harry bellowed. He infused a bit of Family Magik in his words, but Henriette was on a roll.

"- small-minded, know-it-all, first gen whose very existence is preventing Harry from leading the family to where it should be! As Lady Potter, I prohibit your presence in this House! Elves!"

There was a moment of silence. Harry felt his face go blank. Two house elves, coming to carry out the wishes of the Lady of the Manor, popped into the room. Upon seeing Harry, they looked confused from Harry to Henriette, who now seemed to realize that she had gone too far.

"Go back to your duties," Harry growled. He did not even notice the two elves hastily remove themselves out of the line of fire, nor that the lights in the room darkened, nor that a small glow surrounded his frame.

"You are not Lady Potter." He clarified simply. "You will never be my Lady Potter. You are my cousin no matter how distant, what our Family Magik desires, or what the inbred social elite believes. I will never marry you." His anger was so heavy and potent that family members began apparating, flooing, and portkeying to the Manor to see if everything was okay.

He could feel the wards admitting them, the Family Magik welcoming them.

Henriette's eyes looked pained at the thought of not being his Lady Potter. Her eyes flickered angrily to Hermione. If she hadn't been trapped by the magic in the doorframe, she probably would have physically attacked Hermione.