Harry Potter: Raised by Wolves.

"Theo holds the Nott seat, and the Avery seat on explained.

his

mother's

side,"

Zabini

"Is it unusual for someone to hold two seats?" Harry asked nervously, thinking of the four he had waiting for him when he came of age. Zabini shrugged.

"It's rare, but not unheard of. Family lines inter-mix fairly well, but most pureblood lines try not to merge too many heirs into one family, or if they do they'll spread the seats out amongst siblings, like the Weasleys. The mix of family magics can be a little… volatile."

Great. Even in the pureblood world, he was a freak.

"I read that some of the seats have been vacant for decades," Harry said. Like the Slytherin seat, and the Peverell seat. Harry didn't understand why his father hadn't been Lord Peverell, only the proxy to it — surely it didn't come through his mother's line?

"Sometimes lines die out," Neville informed him. "If the family magics can't find a suitable heir, they'll sit in proxy until one steps into the Wizengamot hall. There are probably a few heirs to the older lines who don't even realise it, but without a Line Test they'll never know, and that's not exactly common these days. If a line has truly died, once confirmed by Gringott's, then the seat stays empty. Some lines are just waiting for a valid heir to come of age, and those seats are held in proxy to whichever family was allied the closest to them when the last heir was in session. Except the Founders' seats; those always belong to whoever's head of Hogwarts."

"The Founders' lines are different, though," Goldstein said. Harry eyed him questioningly. "There's been plenty of legal heirs to the Hogwarts founders in the last few centuries, but their family magics are fussy. If you don't fit the bill, you can't claim the seat. And they don't necessarily make that decision when you come of age. Usually it happens when there's great conflict in the wizarding world, and the heirs are needed to bring guidance. Also, they're interlinked — you either get all four, or none at all. So of course, it's really rare circumstances for the Founders' seats to be occupied by actual heirs. Hasn't happened since 1783. Most of the time, even if you're a legal heir, the family magic just kind-of… sits there."

Harry's shoulders relaxed a fraction. That was one less thing to worry about.

"So between us in this room, we hold almost a third of the seats of the Wizengamot. Or we will, once we all take our seats. That's why it's important to play nice in these early stages, so we can make fair and just decisions for the good of wizard-kind." Hannah's words were accompanied by a sweet smile and a pointed look in the direction of some of the Slytherins.

"Don't expect us to be nice to you, Potter," Greengrass said plainly. "We all have roles to play. But good heirs don't hold grudges. The Dark Lord almost won because his followers had too many Wizengamot seats, and we're worse off for it, regardless of what our elders say. I refuse to let that happen again." She held her head up proudly, daring someone to comment, but everyone was nodding in agreement. Harry wondered how many of them had parents who had followed Voldemort, who had given him their Wizengamot seat.

He was starting to think he'd judged the Slytherins too harshly all these years, then remembered that Dumbledore's compulsion spell was supposed to make him do exactly that. He scowled internally; how many of these people could have been his friends if he'd been allowed to be his natural self? His first two years at Hogwarts, he'd been so caught up with Ron and Hermione, refusing to let anyone else get close. He hadn't even truly befriended Neville until this year. Was that part of Dumbledore's plan? Keep him isolated from the rest of his peers, so he never found out what he was missing?

"Can we wrap this up? I've got an Arithmancy OWL in twelve hours and I am not nearly as prepared as I'd like to be," Warrington said, a furrow forming on his forehead. That seemed to be the cue for everyone to break apart, claiming other places to be, and Harry figured he should probably get back to the common room as well. Ron and Hermione would be wondering where he was. If Hermione hadn't passed out from exhaustion yet.

Neville walked with him to the library to get the Charms book he'd originally left for, and the two of them made their way back up to Gryffindor Tower. "Thanks, Neville," he murmured softly, before they reached the portrait. "It's nice to know I have allies."

"The Ancient and Most Noble House of Longbottom will always be your ally, Harry," Neville assured him. The words were heavy with magic, like an oath, and Harry's eyes widened. Neville spoke the password before Harry could vow anything in return.

"There you are!" Ron called, looking up with desperate eyes. "I was starting to think you'd never come back. Help me, Harry, she's gone mental!" Harry looked at Hermione, who seemed to have abandoned her own work in favour of taking a vicious correcting quill to one of Ron's Transfiguration essays. He laughed, shaking his head. "You're on your own with that one, mate."

.-.-.-.

Harry kept his head down as he ticked off his exams one by one, determined to do better than last year — not his best, or Dumbledore would get suspicious, but better. It was a relief to get to his Defence Against the Dark Arts exam; the one subject he was truly allowed to try his hardest in.

"Excellent, Harry!" Lupin enthused when Harry climbed out of the trunk after vanquishing his boggart. "Full marks!" He leaned in close, grinning conspiratorially. "Well done, cub!"

His good mood continued all the way to the steps of the castle, where the sight of a familiar bowler hat had him deflating like a balloon. He tried not to outwardly scowl as the Minister acted like he felt bad about Buckbeak in any way, like he hadn't already decided to kill an innocent creature. It was all he could do to help Hermione drag Ron away before he could do something foolish.

He was desperate for the day to be over by the time he walked into his Divination exam, the incense in Trelawney's classroom already making him sleepy. He almost thought he'd dozed off and imagined it when she went rigid in her chair, speaking to him in a raspy voice.

Had he just witnessed a real prophecy?

He climbed down the ladder, unsure whether to tell Ron and Hermione Hermione would laugh for sure, and Ron probably wouldn't believe him either. He wasn't even sure if he believed it. But all thoughts of prophecies, real or not, flew from his head when Ron showed him the note from Hagrid.

"We have to go," Harry said immediately. "We can't let Hagrid face that by himself."

"But Harry, the teachers will never let us out at sunset! Especially not you," Hermione pointed out.