As the hubbub of the family visit ended, Henry spent the rest of the night in his room happily sleeping.
His family on the other hand was sweating bullets. They had all gathered for a private meeting amongst the adults. As luck would have it Dora had sent word back home that her mentor, Moody, had assigned her an investigation and she would be gone for several nights. The job of an auror was always on the clock and barely left any room for a personal life. Normally they all worried for Dora and had several reservations about her job but now it seemed that they may all need auror training.
" I won't pretend to understand what a seer is or any of the magical mumbo jumbo but I do know what a political supremacy movement can do. It's nothing like the one me and your mother dealt with Ted, but it could be." Alfred began.
" I know dad but what are we supposed to do if he's already on the path towards something like that. Isn't it better for us to guide him and control how far he goes. He's eleven for gods sake and heaven only knows how long he's been living with visions of death and destruction. It would be a wonder if he didn't become like this. " Ted responded.
" That's exactly the problem Teddy. Most kids when they see horrific things don't start plotting the founding of political regimes and hiding their fears for several years without a single clue. I say you get that truth serum thing and we get some more answers." Isabella interjected.
" What your mom says makes sense Ted. Even if he is seeing the future or whatnot, anyone with half a brain can see the boy's choices resemble a sociopath or someone with a distorted savior complex. A reckless one at that. The truth serum would let us know if it's the boys thoughts are not influenced by some ghost or whatever. " Alfred continued.
" It's not that simple dad. Veritaserum isn't perfect. Three drops is enough to make anyone spill their guts and speak their truth. The problem being that it is THEIR truth. If Henry believes it to be true then its his truth even if it may not be the actual truth." Andromedas said distraught and unable to find a way to explain properly.
" So the solution being that we are going to let an eleven year old kid lead a political party that hunts and kills everyday human beings and their descendants? I know we all put an understanding front for the kid but I didn't realize we were actually accommodating this madness Teddy."
" We're also letting him be taught dark magic by that psychopathic brother in law of yours. Which in no uncertain terms you've made clear is basically illegal magic. Hell my grand daughter hunts criminals who use it. Then you're happily going to have him take upon Andromeda's deranged father's political influence. No offense Andromeda. This is insane Teddy." Isabella continued.
"The classes aren't so he uses dark magic mother, it's so that he can defend himself and identify those type of threats. To be honest defense against the dark arts isn't the best taught subject at Hogwarts."
The argument between the direct Tonks family tree was continually heating up and getting rather incoherent.
Andromeda, who up to this point remained rather quiet, watched on as her in-laws and husband discussed her son. She genuinely did not know how to proceed. On the one hand she hated everything that her family stood for. On the other if her son really was a seer this was a gargantuan problem. As former muggle born her in-laws and husband had no idea how terrifying it was that Henry was a seer.
Seers often predicted prophecies, which were then recorded and stored in the Hall of Prophecy in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. Prophecies which have led the magical world on to the path of self destruction before and often don't end well for the seer themselves. The fact Henry saw the return of Voldemort alone could lead to some very dire consequences for himself. If he could really see the future it's likely he already knows his seer status is a great risk to his own life. He could be emulating Grindelwald to save his own skin at this point.
Seers in general were either something to exploit or eliminate by their very nature. They were often not treated as beings but tools for the benefit of their families, the ministry, or dark wizards. While her in laws and husband feared that Henry would become a threat to the world, she feared the world would become a threat to Henry.
Whatever her son said he was or wanted to be tonight, it was clear to Andromeda he was the very son she gave birth to. The rest of the family was treating Henry like he had darkness pouring out of him but she knew the boy was nothing more than a lazy bookworm with a deep caring for his family. Henry wanted to be included in his family, he yearned for it.
The boy was never really overt about his desires but she could tell he wanted to have a nickname like the rest of them. Not because it was necessary or useful but because he wanted to be included. The excitement he had in his eyes when she called him Hal couldn't be faked. That same twinkle appeared when Ted showed caring and distress at the thought of him being possessed earlier. That boy craved their love and acceptance.
By all of Andromedas personal observations her son was not possessed and was definitely in full control of his faculties. This is why as opposed to the rest of the adults at the table she didn't consider the consequences of Henry's decisions today. Instead she was focused on analyzing how her son reached the conclusions that he had for the negotiation.
The son she raised would not blindly follow the path set for him by others let alone follow an ideology that would harm his family. Henry may be a bit brash and lackadaisical but the boy was always honest and considerate.
He once told Dora that she was too clumsy to be an Auror but immediately followed up with ways to accommodate her clumsiness. Though he did end the topic by telling her to just not be clumsy.
A boy with such thoughts would not support her families pure blood ideals. Instead he would find a way to accommodate her family's dream into his own ideals. He would find a peaceful and efficient solution. The solution here being to make the entire world into wizards...
Though if he wanted to do that he didn't need the pure bloods support. They rarely spoke over it but it was an unspoken agreement between her and Ted that Henry made Alfred and Isabella wizards. Like Alfred said the boy was reckless so doing what he did to her in laws on a grand scale seems like something he would do. It would just require his personal effort. Personal effort. Such a lazy kid going through so much effort was impossible.
Henry may think himself a genius but she noticed on a few occasions he sometimes had some form of golem do his chores and schooling for him. She had no idea how the boy enchanted the thing to look like him or even operate but it became clear he often controlled the thing from his room. Her son was lazy and extremely motivated to be lazy. The boy can make wizards, human like constructs, and only Merlin knows what he's done with the mass of suitcases that he has in his room. All of those incredible actions were taken not for power, wealth, or pursuit of dark arts. No her son used his ridiculous magical talent to skip school and chores. That's the type of child he was.
" Mother, father you should let it go. There's nothing wrong with my son. Trust me, a mother knows. I'm more worried about why he's taking these steps.
From everything we've seen Henry believes in a few years not only will Riddle return but he will once again be defeated by the Potter boy. In that process our world will leak into the muggle one resulting in untold tragedies and he's simply trying to prevent that. "
"...Correct but why support the pure blood crap if that's the case." Alfred retorted.
This was the part Andromeda couldn't understand. Is it just to broker peace between her and her family?
The room once more fell into a contemplative silence. After a minute of extremely strained thoughts Ted was the first to respond with a eureka moment.
" He's taking away Riddles forces!"
The other three in the room looked at him perturbed. With only Andromeda asking " What are you talking about?"
"Well think about it. Hal believes that Riddle will one hundred percent come back. By taking on the pure blood cause he limits the amount of followers that will support the man. Just by releasing Riddles family background to the Malfoys today he cost the man most of his supporters. That little shit is literally playing Risk with the world at stake."
The other threes eyes widened and only Isabella could mutter out:
" Oh god you're right...."
The events of tonight had put everyone in the room on high alert and while some of them were acclimating better than others, they had all inadvertently put Henry on a rather high pedestal.
They had all started treating him like an adult but at the end of the day he was just a young kid. The problem was when they finally remembered that fact, they realized Henry had approached real life problems with the mindset of playing strategy games.
The Tonks family were avid boardgame players and every member of the Tonks family was similarly competitive in these things. Naturally this led to some rather embarrassing backroom deals amongst the family that would make any sane person question the ability of Andromeda and Ted's parenting.
When the Tonks elders initially joined in on the fun they took the time to chastise Ted and Andromeda after their first family game night experience. They then went on to be far worse than the other two ever were by bribing Hal and Dora with progressively larger bribes. Bribes which they recently learned the two kids often cooperated in increasing from both sets of adults. Divide and conquer. The two always won if in a team and thinking back seemingly took turns winning when not.
The board game that came to mind with the current situation was Risk. Arguably one of the games Hal was most proficient in. Regardless of starting point Hal would always fortify his position and remove any immediate opposition near him then use his fortified position to systematically eliminate the rest of them. It didn't always work but it worked often enough that the family as a whole banned the game. Well ban is a strong word. The truth was that Andromeda in a fit of anger used an evanesco spell on the board but no one disagreed with her actions other than Henry.
When they broke it down from that perspective it became clear what Henry's plan really was. Absorb all of Riddles supporters and likely use them as sacrificial pawns to methodically increase his own position until he gets his desired result, which seemingly mirrored Grindelwald's…
Ending the statute of secrecy.
That seemed to be Henry's true goal, well he said as much. Henry was gathering a military force. That thought seemed more likely when Hal mentioned that they would have to fight alongside Captain America against a mad titan for the survival of half the universe. So in Henry's mind wizards needed to integrate quickly because if earth was busy fighting against wizard kind before that day than it's likely the so called mad titan would have little to no challenge accomplishing his goals.
Alfred and Isabella had trouble believing the Captain would return and Alfred was visibly angered at the prospect of using his hero and commanders memory in Henry's delusions.
That was until Andromeda went on to tell Alfred that wizards were actually capable of bringing the captain into this time period with something called a time turner. She didn't mention it before when they were interrogating Henry so the boy wouldn't get any ideas. In the end however Alfred became aware Henry's words weren't that farfetched.
The prospect of saving the captain left Alfred salivating at the mouth but Andromeda went on to explain that time turners were rare, hard to acquire, and even harder to use. A few people may have wiped themselves from existence on more than one occasion, per the Black family records.
Ultimately after a round of discussion the family decided to give Hal the benefit of the doubt and wait until the 31st of July.
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