Harry potter : Forgotten Lord

( Penny PoV )

She had only been partly successful in her search for information on the Potter family over the last couple of days, one reason for that was due to having to ditch Percy, who wouldn't take the hint that she wanted to be alone. Then there was the fact that there was no one book to reference, instead she had found a number of references relating to the Potters, but most of those references talked about an individual Potter's role in various historical events rather than the family itself.

Eventually, after several days of searching, she had found an old worn out tome, which contained a short history of the line, along with most other distinguished families in magical Britain's history.

Reading over the aged tome, the Potter family's history was certainly impressive from what she knew about blood lines. The family could be dated back close to eighteen hundred years accurately, but some records suggested close to two thousand years, making them one of the oldest magical families worldwide. Only another couple dozen families spread across Europe could make similar claims accurately, the rest were simply rumour or adopted lines.

Their official history started in the north of England, on the Scottish borders as a part of a druidic sect of wizards, which helped resist the Roman imperial mages' occupation with their non-magical allies.

With the collapse and withdrawal of Imperial Rome, the Potters were left as one of most powerful magical families around, resulting in them carving out their own little kingdom in the north of England, and were one of the '7' Lords of the North. The Lords of the North were a group of 7 magical warlords, who controlled northern England and lower Scotland before the creation of the Wizengamot, and the creation of the modern Ministry of Magic several hundred years later.

For the most part, the Potter family history was similar to the rest of the ancient families dating back to that period, spending most of their time on their own private conflicts and wars trying to increase their own regional power and influence, much like their non-magical counterparts did in the middle ages.

With their lands spreading south, they continued absorbing and conquering smaller families and factions as they went. However with the creation of the Wizengamot in the late 12th century, the Potters were welcomed as one of the founding families, and were one of the original ruling 13 charged with trying to maintain stability for wizards as a whole.

This early Wizengamot was mainly responsible for maintaining common laws between wizards, until the Wizengamot finally expanded to include all lords of set station and rank, and the creation of the Ministry of Magic to enforce their collective rulings in the late 14th century. In other words, it was the beginnings of the modern British Ministry of Magic, close to 500 years ago, when the Statute of Secrecy was first introduced to stop persecution from muggles.

The book went on to reveal the major Potters and their historical roles, but the conclusion was that Potters were considered a light-side family in policy and views in general, but were more grey in nature, having no issue with taking up the sword and the wand if need be. With the family motto, 'Death is the last enemy to be conquered.'

Considering the information, it explained a lot about the Potters, and why they ended up fighting against Lord Voldemort. And why the Dark Lord had wanted them dead.

They had been a family whose whole history had been fighting one enemy or another for centuries, whether that was a dark lord, or another state.

Ultimately resulting in the Dark Lord sending his Death Eaters after them and Harry's parents dying at the hands of the Lestrange family, and another unknown Death Eater who had managed to flee as the Aurors arrived to investigate, only to find Lady Potter dying next to her infant son, with Bellatrix Lestrange unconscious by the door.

The tome didn't go into much detail about what had happened that awful night, but from the short outline it was clear, the Potters had been sold out by one of their closest friends to the Dark Lord, who sent his most trusted and feared lieutenant after them. The tome didn't say any more.

She expected that if she wanted to find out any more information, rather than a general overview, she would need to ask Harry himself about his family. Since only the Potters themselves would have a complete family history, or perhaps ask a close historical ally to them.

The Longbottom family was one of their ancient allies, dating back to the '7', but she expected if she asked the young Gryffindor he wouldn't be able to provide any useful additional information, and it would draw attention to her asking about Harry. However, her planning was interrupted as her target walked in and went straight to the magical creature section.

Penny thought this was odd, since that subject wasn't taught until the 3rd year, but there had to be some reason for his interest. Carefully watching the first year from behind her stack of books, whilst considering what to do next; should she introduce herself? Or just continue to watch?

Deciding it would be better to tell him now, so he would be prepared for her tutoring him rather than just surprising him on Wednesday. Taking out a small mirror from her bag, she made the effort of checking herself over and smarting herself up, spending the next several minutes trying to get the right image she wanted to display. But just ended up going for a smart look; if she was going to be tutoring him, she would need to make the impression of being knowledgeable and intelligent.

Walking across the floor of the library, she noticed the first year holding several large books in his arms, whilst inspecting the 3rd one's index for whatever he was looking for. Deciding to make her presence known, she gave a light cough, to make him aware of her.

Looking up from book, Harry turned to face her, giving her his attention, "Yes, can I help you?" his voice laced with annoyance at her interruption.

Penny gave a light smile, hoping to help disarm his hostility towards her. Deciding it may be best to give a quick explanation of her presence before he started ignoring her like he did with Percy on the train, she introduced herself. "Yes, Professor Flitwick tasked me with being the one to monitor your studying for the rest of the school year; I believe he talked to you about this?"

"Yes, he did," Came the quick reply, "But he didn't say who he was considering for the task." He closed the book, before offering his spare hand to her.

Penny just smiled, taking the offered hand while saying "Penelope Clearwater, but you can call me Penny," offering her shorter name, hoping it would help lay the seeds of friendship.

Harry brought the offered hand to his lips and gave a light kiss before lowering it, putting his other hand now free of holding the book on top of her hand, "Harry James Potter, it's a pleasure to meet such a fine lady." He said, offering a smile, quickly disarming her with his unexpected charm and sudden change of attitude, causing her to forget her planned response.

...

( Harry PoV )

Deciding it was better to start charming the girl early, if he was going to have to spend the rest of the school year with her watching him. Besides the girl was a Ravenclaw, and fifth year, so chances were she wouldn't be too annoying, and would prove to be rather knowledgeable and useful. Also, having a charmed prefect liking him would be sure to have additional benefits, if he ever decided to take a midnight walk with his dad's cloak.

Plus having an attractive girl liking him would be sure to help keep some of the older guys from annoying him. Especially the carrot-haired Percy who seemed to take it as his own self-appointed task to annoy Harry by throwing his position around and doing on-the-spot inspections of his book bag for banned items.

After all, he had seen Percy trying to court the girl on a number of occasions. How better to get back at the ass, than by having the same girl he was charming, put him down?

He couldn't wait to see the carrot haired fool's reaction of having Penny protecting him, as he flashed his best smile.

After all, he couldn't fight Percy directly without drawing too much attention. Rather than having to deal with it himself, far better just to get another person to do it for him. If he was lucky he could spend the next three years using Penny as both a shield and a sword to get back at the guy.

After all, the sorting hat would have made him a snake had it not been for the safety of the other students. It seemed sensible to embrace his cunning side, since it seemed foolish to just discard such traits simply because he was sorted into Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin.

Still holding the girl's hand waiting for her to respond, he decided to get to work on his self-appointed mission of charming Penny. Plus it would make some good practice since words could be just as deadly as swords, with far longer lasting effects, remembering a muggle saying about the pen being mightier than the sword. Bringing a smile to his face Harry suggested.

"Penny, how about we get our books together and head back to the nest, so we can get to know each other better. After all, there's no point waiting until our first tutoring session when we're both free right now?" causing the girl to blush slightly, throwing her off-guard by the unexpected invitation.

She obviously wasn't expecting him to act in such a way, as she failed to respond. Not really surprising considering most first and second years would never act this way towards her. But he was a Lord and it was expected of him to a point. He tucked his books under his arm and led her away to the checkout desk, not waiting for her to agree.

Besides, if he was going to have this working relationship with her for the next year or so, he was going to be the one in control of it, as he had found asserting control early set the tone and structure of the friendship as he pulled the still speechless 5th year along.

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