That morning's Weekend Daily Prophet was again filled with the happenings regarding what Harry had caused to make known; just as it had been for the past few days. However, little of it was of any real substance.
Information contained in the newspaper alluded to a lot, but it was practically all 'hearsay'. And it was also clear the reporters writing the stories were getting quite frustrated with how well Madam Bones was making sure the information leaks were being kept to as small a minimum as she could manage. They were attacking her for it.
As such many of the student body were trying to figure out ways to approach Harry to get information. And he was quite thankful the aurors stationed in the castle, especially the two he always seemed to have specifically guarding him, were keeping those approaches to a tiny fraction of what he could have expected.
Now the students were getting sneaky in their approaches.
As the two teens were slowly heading back to Gryffindor Tower tailed by Harry's two bodyguard aurors, they'd just walked out of the Great Hall when one of the Slytherins in the year above them, Scarlett Lympsham, approached and offered to teach him about what it meant to be a Lord of a Noble and Most Ancient House. In return, all she asked for was, 'the occasional titbit of information he'd be willing to share to someone who was going out of her way to help him'.
The female auror shadowing him at that moment gave a firm clear of her throat and frowned at the girl. Lympsham immediately backed off and said, "I only meant information otherwise available to the public, of course."
Before the auror could scoff back, Harry said, "Heiress Lympsham, I thank you for your offer. And I may take you up on it once the current... unpleasantness... is suitably dealt with. However, for now, I must decline. Please pass on my respects to your grandfather, Lord Lympsham, when next you have opportunity to communicate with him."
With the bare twitch of her left eye showing she was surprised by his response and his intuitiveness in 'suggesting' it was her grandfather who pushed her to approach him, she replied, "Of course, Lord Potter. I shall do so and look forward to the time when I may assist." Then she gave a slight curtsey before heading off again.
However, while her tone and expression was pleasant, Harry knew she was somewhat miffed he'd so handily discounted her; or that he'd immediately guessed it was her grandfather and Lord of her House who encouraged her to approach him. After all, she'd appeared to have gone to some effort to make herself visually appealing to get her way. For the first time he'd seen her since they first bumped into each other a few days after he first entered the school - and she'd sneered at him, looking down on him as if he was beneath even her contempt - she was not wearing a buttoned up blouse with a school tie. Instead, she was wearing 'civilian-wear' with a blouse that had a neckline low enough he could see down to between her bra-encased breasts, together with a loosely-pleated skirt that ended above the knee. As she spun away to leave he saw how it flared out, displaying her legs quite nicely.
Hermione, who was with him at the time, softly exclaimed, "Well! I... never!"
He turned to her with amusement on his face and twinkling eyes. "The single ladies of the castle have now had it pretty much driven home to them that the Harry Potter they thought they knew was only a mask. And that the real Harrison Potter is a Lord of a Noble and Most Ancient House, single and... I hope... quite attractive."
"Quite attractive, are you?" she scoffed.
Harry laughed, reached out, grabbed her and dragged her in close to lay a big hug on her.
After an initial exclamation of shock at being suddenly grabbed and hugged, Hermione was a few seconds before she relaxed into it.
It was a long few seconds more before she declared, with a voice muffled by his robes, "It's going to take me a little while to get used to you actually being more the touchy-feely type than I thought you were. Well, not touchy-feely; more... willing to initiate physical contact with someone else."
Still grinning, he turned his head a little and kissed her on her forehead. "Hermione Granger; my slave in the chariot."
She gave a snort of amusement before pulling away again. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you know that reference and what it means."
As they continued to walk, heading up the stairs, he said, "I'm not surprised it was a Slytherin who was the first to approach that way; or that it was an Heiress of a Noble-ranked House. Once the rest of this lot get their minds around just what type of person Harrison James Potter truly is, that's going to happen more and more often."
"What do you mean?" she asked, curious.
"I'm the Head of a Noble and Most Ancient House," he shrugged. "That puts me at the top of supposed wizarding society here in Britain. In a way, you can class me as someone around the level of Marquess in the muggle world. Next are the Noble and Ancient Houses - Earls, Noble and Elder Houses - Viscounts, non-noble Ancient Houses - Barons and non-noble Elder Houses - Baronets. After that you have the 'higgledy-piggledy' of other Houses, who've earned a Life peerage on the Wizengamot - Esquires. The Magical House of Malfoy wants to be one of those, but is really not."
Hermione had stopped without a word to say she was going to and Harry had walked on a bit before he realised she was no longer beside him. He turned back, curious as to why she'd stopped. She was looking at him in stunned shock.
"Hermione?" he asked.
"You're... you're... a Marquess?!" she stuttered out, that last bit in a high-pitched squeak.
"No," he immediately replied, gesturing her forward again. "Actually, a better representation would be 'Marcher Lord' since Marquis is really the French equivalent. While Marcher Lords no longer exist in the muggle world, the wizarding world had already separated from their muggle cousins by then and the Potter holdings are mainly located in the south of Wales."
"Plus, as I said, I really only called them that so you had some idea as to the ranking system of the Houses in wizarding Britain. I could, of course, have used military ranks, but the Houses are more about hereditary peerages than military ranks. The major difference between Wizarding Britain and the United Kingdom is we do not have a monarch. Well, not one that's recognised, at any rate."
Frowning she asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"I, for one, happen to believe Her Majesty, Elizabeth the Second, is our liege monarch whether in muggle or wizarding Britain or not," he shrugged with a small smile. "But, that just might be me coloured by my muggle upbringing."
"It probably is," she quietly sighed.
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
Sirius had actually arrived back in wizarding Britain late on the evening of the 23rd of November. As soon as he'd learned from Harry his name had come out of the Goblet of Fire, he immediately made the decision to leave the unplottable Black 'holiday' island in the southern part of the North Atlantic near the Azores and made all haste back.
He knew, though, that Harry didn't know that.
He'd also tried to get in to watch the first task, but the security was so tight he knew he'd be caught for sure if he made the attempt.
Instead, he'd headed back to 'his' cave out the back of Hogsmeade and used the last couple of days since then to gather intelligence. Almost immediately after the first task he'd learned from the Daily Prophet just what had gone on. It was all over the front page... and the second... and the third! Actually, it was all over the front page for the next few days.