He was playing for keeps, nothing more and nothing less. The price to be paid for trying to kill him, to end his family line forever, was the complete destruction of the Malfoy family for good. He would destroy their legacy and their name as well, which meant any tactic was fair game in his book.
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The reason was simple, he wanted to, no, needed, to send a message to anyone else with designs on messing with him. The message was that he played for keeps, and wouldn't be intimidated, or bullied into submission simply because he was only 12 years old.
To those who sought to attack him he wouldn't just go after the one responsible; he would go after the entire family and destroy them, as he remembered the Sorting Hat's words. Yes, it might be overly harsh and ruthless, but he wouldn't leave an enemy behind him to strike him in the back when he was down or distracted.
He was the last Potter. It rested on his shoulders alone to rebuild the Potter family, to rebuild the foundations to see it last long into the future, for another thousand years. That had long been his driving force...and he couldn't afford to show mercy and restraint now. Those who sought to destroy him would be taken down ruthlessly and without mercy. There was no other way forward.
His pet reporter's task of character assassination was made infinitely easier upon the aurors seizing the Malfoy family manor. An intensive search of the home and property had dug up loads of dirt on the man and his family. The graphic photos of the medieval torture chamber hidden beneath the manor filled with old fashioned and bloody torture devices, and a room chock full of extremely dark and cursed artefacts on display, like a private museum from previous dark wizards and lords, had made for several incredibly damning stories.
The best photo had been of the way the Lord Malfoy proudly and prominently displayed his former death eater robes and white mask, along with a large number of unregistered wands, obviously used for nefarious purposes. Rita and several other reporters at the Daily Prophet had managed to spin that story for days.
He suspected that Madam Bones, or perhaps one of her subordinates, had shared the incriminating and oh so damaging photos with the paper, because he certainly wasn't behind it.
The flash of a camera blinded him again for a moment, but he blinked it away before forcing a smile as another flash occurred. Rita stood watching in a lovely and actually very flattering outfit, an outfit which kept his godfather's eyes wandering to Rita's well defined rump and semi exposed chest.
He had lessened the restrictions he had first placed on Rita's choice of wardrobe in the last couple of days as a reward for her good service to him, thus giving her greater personal freedom as a reward, which seemed to have earned him some points with her. Luckily for his eyes, Rita knew better than to fall back on her old habits completely and had forgone wearing the bright green she had previously been known for.
He knew that giving gold was a good reward and one that he could use repeatedly, but personal freedom of choice would be a far better reward, and it would show that he would lessen the reigns of control on her if she behaved properly and in a way he would approve of. It also gave him something else he could take away if she needed to be punished or reeled back in.
Today she was wearing an attractive red and black two piece number, with a red gem encrusted jacket and a black skirt with red line stripe down the side which stopped just beneath the knee. She also wore a pair of black stockings or tights, completed with an attractive pair of black four inch heels with a cute red bow on the tip.
A new and growing part of him wanted to see just what was beneath the outfit, but he reined in this primitive impulse. Sirius was dressed in his formal robes for this occasion, nothing as elaborate or decorative as his own, but still quite fashionable, which further enhanced his godfather's roguish good looks.
The rogue that was his godfather had already mentioned several times after their previous meetings with Rita that he would happily 'bang that ass like a drum.' His godfather's eyes stole another naughty glance at Rita, before noticing that Harry had seen the look. The dog animagus grinned like a bad boy that been caught stealing a cookie.
'Interesting,' he noted silently to himself, as he smiled directly at the camera, easily able to guess just what his godfather was thinking about and what the effect of Rita's fire engine red lips was having on the dog animagus' mind.
Rolling his eyes at his godfather's behaviour caused Rita to look over her shoulder to examine his now straight faced godfather. The look on his face was so ridiculously fake, it was laughable. She then looked back at him with a smirk on her lips. He now knew that Rita had noticed, or at least suspected just what had transpired between the pair, but the reporter chose to say nothing. He wondered for a moment if he could use his godfather's attraction for his own ends, or if perhaps Rita herself would use that attraction for her own ends.
It wasn't yet a matter of concern, but numerous marriage contracts and offers had been made by several respectable households since last summer for their unmarried daughters, for both himself and Sirius. Of course, no one knew about his godfather's infertility, otherwise this level of interest wouldn't exist for the middle aged Lord Black. Predictably, with all the recent positive news articles about himself and the highly publicised case against Lord Malfoy, he had also received far more marriage offers.
Ninety percent of the marriage offers he had received were nothing more than polite feelers for interest, Lords and Ladies testing the proverbial waters for their unmarried daughters with those of (relatively) similar age, social standing and personal wealth to his own. The one made by Padma's own father was in the same vein, which resulted in the offer receiving a personal reply, or like the one made by Lady Parkinson on behalf of her daughter Pansy.
They had used the excuse of his young age as the reason for the lack of interest in the matter at the time, thus giving them a way of setting the matter aside to be visited in the future without giving offense. The camera flashed again. Another five percent were much pushier, believing that they were somehow more special, practically demanding a meeting which Harry had no interest in.
The other five percent were just plain stupid or disturbing enquiries. One of the most disturbing offers was made on behalf of a 97 year old witch who was interested in a new boy toy for her remaining years. Even though wizards and witches aged far slower physically than muggles, that was just plain disgusting. The other was made on behalf of a three year old little girl, for marriage when she reached 17.
He spotted Sirius' eyes once again wandering to Rita's ass. Whilst he was naturally reluctant to meddle in his godfather's love life, as he would hate for his godfather to meddle in his own, he couldn't deny the fact that he was worried about what would happen if his godfather married someone whose agenda ran counter to Harry's own, someone who didn't get along with him, someone who could influence Sirius and damage his own plans for the future.
On the other hand, Sirius' womanising was a weakness as far as he was concerned, an easy means for an assassin to get access to Sirius with his guard down and strike at the family. He shifted uneasily at the thought.
'Lucius should have targeted Sirius. It would have been far easier to get to him,' he noted grimly, as he spared a look at his godfather, even as he started to mentally list the man's weaknesses that could be exploited and used against him. He grimaced; the mentally compiled list was long.
"Is there something wrong?" Rita asked, interrupting his thoughts. Once again he wondered how she knew something was distressing him.
Quickly realizing his slip, he replied, "No, my apologies, just a momentary lapse in attention." He forced a smile for the camera once more. With his mask restored, his mind turned back to his previous line of thought.
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A/N : if we get 400 power stones by the end of the week, I will release an extra chapter ;)
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