Chapter 53: Augusta
A/N: Harry meets with Augusta Longbottom at long last.
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"Lord Hallows. I must admit, I was beginning to think I'd done something to insult or offend you."
Harry flashes Lady Augusta Longbottom, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Matriarch of House Longbottom, an apologetic smile.
"My apologies Chief Warlock. I've found my schedule to be quite… full these days. Juggling my business over in Diagon Alley with the expectations of my position as a Lord have certainly kept me occupied. I will admit; I wanted to get to you sooner… but I didn't necessarily get the impression that whatever you needed of me was time critical. If I was wrong about that, then I apologize doubly."
In the end, getting this meeting with Lady Augusta was as simple as owling ahead and then making his way over to the Longbottom Mansion once he received confirmation that she was available to see him. Said confirmation had come almost immediately, betraying her desire to finally meet him privately face to face.
Her sniping comment as soon as they sat down together at long last made it even clearer that the older witch was perhaps a little irritated with him. He would have thought someone like Augusta Longbottom would be more patient. Then again…
"Time critical? I suppose only insofar as I cannot be sure you will still be alive by this time next week, Lord Hallows. While your survival so far has been prodigious enough to have everyone abuzz with interest, curiosity, and excitement, there's no denying that nothing is certain these days."
Well, she's not wrong about that at least from her own perspective. Harry is fairly confident in his ability to survive whatever this world has to throw at him, but at the same time he's not about to explain his situation to her. Instead he just smiles and inclines his head.
"Of course. Well, I'm here now, Chief Warlock. What exactly do you wish to speak with me about?"
"Legacy, Lord Hallows. Legacy, lineage, and bloodlines."
Harry arches a brow. Before he can reply, tea service arrives and he takes a moment to get a sip of tea while Augusta does the same. Afterwards…
"I assume you're talking about the continuation of House Longbottom."
Lady Augusta pauses briefly before smiling a thin, tight smile.
"You do not beat around the bush, do you Lord Hallows? Very well… yes, that is precisely what I'm talking about. House Longbottom, like so many of our Noble Houses, has been dramatically reduced. In our case, I am the last living member of our House."
Harry's eyes widen slightly at that, something Augusta doesn't fail to notice. She sighs, sounding frustrated.
"We have lived on the British Isles for a long, long time Lord Hallows. And none of my ancestors were particularly adventurous folks. We do not share blood with anyone on the mainland, nor have any cadet branches anywhere in the world. What you see is what you get at this point… and if nothing is done, House Longbottom will die with me."
He supposed he'd never really thought about that. Neville, in some of the worlds Harry had visited, had turned out to perhaps be the most adventurous Longbottom of all. But even still, for there to be no Longbottoms elsewhere… well, he was sure that they weren't the only House in the British Isles in danger of extinction. Hell, Harry imagined some had already gone extinct by this point.
There's just one problem… Harry can sort of see where this conversation is going and for the first time since arriving in this world, he finds himself balking just a little bit. Augusta Longbottom might not be as old as say, Griselda Marchbanks… but she's certainly closer to Griselda than she is to a woman like Narcissa Malfoy.
Put simply, Augusta is at the age where even the magic within them that slows down their aging compared to mundane humans isn't enough to prevent her from being wrinkled and greyed. Or to put it crudely, she does not warrant 'GILF status'.
"My son and grandson are both dead. I find myself lacking in options. Which is why I would ask you to help me, Lord Hallows. Help me save my House."
And there it was. Harry grimaces, not quite sure how to navigate this particular minefield. He doesn't want to burn bridges or piss Augusta off necessarily, but he also doesn't want to bed a woman who was already a fully formed adult in World War Two.
"… While I appreciate the desperation of your situation Lady Augusta, I'm not entirely sure about this…"
He's not quite squirming, but it's a near thing. How the hell does he get out of this? Fortunately, Augusta sees right through him… and snorts in derisive amusement.
"You can cease your bellyaching, Lord Hallows. I am not asking you to bed or impregnate me. I am past the point of such things at my age."
Wait, what? Harry pauses and looks at Augusta critically. Hm, she might be right… though with magic, a lot of things are possible. She would simply need to undergo a couple of rituals to reinforce her body and ensure her womb was up to the task.
Of course, the far easier path would be to… oh, right. Harry almost laughs. He was an idiot.
"You intend to have me impregnate a surrogate and then use magic to ensure that it's a Longbottom that's born from the surrogate's womb, don't you?"
The Chief Warlock smirks.
"There you go, Lord Hallows. You got there in the end, once you stopped fretting over my wrinkles and sagging tits."
Harry flushes a little, not expecting a distinguished woman like Augusta Longbottom to speak in such terms. But at the end of the day, he just huffs and rolls his eyes.
"Who do you have in mind for the surrogate, exactly? Not that I'm saying I can definitely do it… but it should be possible, all things considered."
The older witch gives him a considering look for a length of time before suddenly rising from her seat.
"Come. I'll show you to her."
Harry blinks, rising at the same time even as his brow furrows. The surrogate was already on the premises? That was surprising. Then again, maybe it wasn't. Maybe Augusta had been planning this ever since he'd shown up on the isles and was waiting for him to arrive all this time.
Regardless, he follows the Longbottom Matriarch out of the sitting room and down a hall and up a staircase and down another hall. Finally, they arrive at a door. Pausing for a moment, Augusta looks at him… and then she opens the door and leads him inside.
Harry stops on the threshold however, staring at the contents of the room… specifically its sole inhabitant. His lips curl down into a frown and his brow furrows as he looks from Augusta to the bed and back again.
"… What is this, exactly?"
"This, Lord Hallows, is Alice Longbottom. My late son's darling wife."
He'd known that actually. Harry knew enough to recognize Alice Longbottom at this point. That said, he usually encountered her in the halls of St. Mungo's if he ever encountered her at all. This was the first time he'd ever seen her outside of St. Mungo's… and the first time he'd seen her in a magical coma, put under a sort of stasis spell that was keeping her both alive and perfectly preserved.
"I do not expect you to be fully aware of all the tragedies that have befell my family, Lord Hallows. I'm sure you've heard plenty about the curse that has struck down our society's male population, killing our wizards and leaving us in an increasingly poor position. However, before even that we were dealing with a Dark Lord problem… and it was his followers who took my son from me, torturing him and his wife into insanity the night after the Dark Lord was defeated."
Harry knew all of that of course, but he stays silent and listens anyways. Augusta's words are irrelevant though… no, rather, he listens to her bitter tone, the anger in her voice. The Chief Warlock put up a good front… but she was as broken as any of them, maybe even more so. A broken, desperate woman… who seemed to be asking Harry to commit quite an egregious crime.
"When wizards started dying, when St. Mungo's started to become overwhelmed by a diminished staff and the growing crisis in the Magical World, I acted quickly. I had both my son and his wife transported here, to the Longbottom Ancestral Home, where they might be safe behind our wards. Unfortunately, it was to no avail. My son died anyways, laid in a bed just like this one, alive one moment and gone the next. But his wife… remained."
Jaw clenching, Harry tries not to jump to conclusions.
"… Speak plainly, Lady Longbottom. What exactly do you want from me?"
Augusta straightens up to her full height, holding her head high.
"My son's wife has already given birth to a Longbottom before. My grandson, taken from me before he could even graduate from Hogwarts. She is also still technically a Longbottom by marriage… magical marriage. With your seed, her womb, and some of my blood, it will not be difficult to ensure another Longbottom is born of her fertile loins."
When Harry just stays silent, Augusta huffs.
"Put plainly, Lord Hallows, I wish for you to impregnate Alice Longbottom here, so that I might use her as a vessel to begin rebuilding my House."
Yeah… that's what Harry had been afraid of. Inhaling through his nostrils and exhaling through his mouth, Harry stares at Alice's sleeping form for a moment longer before looking to Augusta. Whatever she sees in his eyes makes her stiffen and even lean back.
"Earlier you worried that you had done something to insult or offend me. You had not… until now."
That brings a frown to Augusta's face, but Harry isn't done.
"This woman was wife to your son and mother to your grandson. You're asking me to defile her, to use her body without her knowledge or consent."
Augusta's eyes flash and her nostrils flare.
"I am asking you to help me save my House, Lord Hallows. We live in desperate times. Compromises must be made. Sacrifices must be made."
Harry scoffs.
"And what would your son say if he could see you now? What would Frank have to say about this 'compromise'?"
That antagonizes the old witch even more, as Harry knew it would. But truthfully, he cannot bring himself to care all that much. What Augusta Longbottom is asking of him… it's simply evil. He's not just disappointed in her, he's disgusted by her.
"Keep my son's name out of your mouth. You don't know what you speak of."
Scoffing, Harry takes a step towards the Longbottom Matriarch. Augusta doesn't step back in response, but she does tense up further.
"I know enough. I know your son and his wife were both members of the Order of the Phoenix. I know they fought the Dark Lord Voldemort with everything they had. They gave everything in the pursuit of his defeat… and here you are all these years later, dishonoring their memory for the sake of your precious bloodline."
And then, because Harry can't quite help himself, he sneers.
"I suppose it's for the best that Frank and Neville are both dead. At the very least, they never had to see how much of a monster you are."
Augusta stares at him wide eyed for a long moment… before those eyes narrow into slits and her jaw sets.
"Get out."
'Gladly!' is on the tip of Harry's tongue before he stops, realizing that no matter how badly he wants to storm out of here… he can't. Because if he leaves now, he'll be leaving Alice Longbottom in Augusta's clutches. If he leaves now, Neville's mother will be at his grandmother's 'mercy'.
And Harry wouldn't necessarily put it past Augusta to try this ploy again, perhaps with some foreign wizard from the mainland now that he's survived long enough to make it seem like the curse has been broken.
Lips thinning out, jaw setting, Harry squares his shoulders and looks down at Augusta Longbottom.
"No."
Outrage spreads across her face and the witch immediately responds by activating her family home's considerable wards.
"Leave! Now!"
Power rips into him, trying to force him from the property. Harry though… stands firm. In a contest of power, even against wards that have been charged by Longbottom magic for centuries… Harry will come out ahead every time. Showing no sign of her efforts even effecting him, Harry just scoffs.
"No. Not without her."
He turns to the bed, even as Augusta chokes on her own spit, her anger only increasing. The pressure from the wards grows, but Harry pushes it back as he makes his way over to Alice Longbottom.
He's going to remove her from this place. He's going to take her out of here and get her somewhere safe. And he's going to heal her mind for good measure, just to further spite Augusta Longbottom and her monstrous 'request'.
All that remains is for Harry to decide the order in which he's going to act.
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The Vote:
[ ] Take Alice and leave immediately, heal her mind later - 13%
[X] Heal her mind right here in front of Augusta and then leave with her - 87%
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