Harry Potter and the Path to World Optimisation

Chapter 2: Meet the Setting

The second portion of the prologue before we move into the actual tale.


The last preparations complete Harry glanced around at his companions. He currently looked as he had at thirty and had improved his vision. Hermione had been de-aged more than him so she appeared in her early twenties, in the time they were heading two a thirty year-old wife who had never born children would likely be frowned upon. Minerva had been restored to the age she was when Harry met her, her guise as Hermione's mother seemed to suit the former Headmistress. Draco and Neville were both de-aged to their late teens and Mad-Eye – who had both eyes back – was in his fifteen year-old body and bulged with muscle. Augusta was re-aged to her early thirties as Neville's mother. Crabbe and Goyle were tough looking men in their primes, armed with daggers and staves.

Harry double checked anyone was in their positions and heaved two platinum goblin forged chain links into their sockets on the device. The party and all their possessions were encircled by a single huge chain off platinum inscribed with all the usual time turner runes plus a few of Hermione and Augusta's modifications. Spreading from this chain was a web of smaller gold time turner chains that enclosed the party in an intricate pattern.

"Everyone cast their cushioning charms, this will be changing both our time and location. I've also tried to account for erosion but we could end up some way above ground – better to be up in the air than appear underground, eh?"

Harry grinned. Then he tapped the time machine and then twirled it. The large hourglasses slowly turned over and the room around them disappeared.


106 BC, ten miles outside the port of Dyrrachium in Modern Albania

With a groan brought on by his howling headache and the left side of his face stinging Harry awoke. An instant later something hit his face and the stinging sensation increased. Opening his eyes he saw Moody, no he corrected himself, Musa looming over him. Grasping an extended hand he allowed himself to be pulled upright.

"Who's awake?"

Harry/Verres asked, attempting to overcome his disorientation and slip into character. With a disapproving glare, much less intimidating without the Eye of Vance, Musa replied in fluent Vulgar Latin.

"I woke you first Verres. Now you wake Draco and I'll Vicentius and Gregorius. Then the rest of them by fighting ability"

The idea of frowning past through Verres' mind before he overcame it and followed the former auror's instructions – experience had taught him to respect Mad-Eye's paranoia as a sensible approach to the unknown.

A short while later they were all awakened and after a healthy dose of medical potions to clear their heads they had a final briefing and retrieved their assigned positions before bidding their farewells. After much debate they had decided to travel in smaller groups on arrival, so they attracted less attention and be more easily trusted. As Musa had put it 'You don't trick an old witch into letting her pass her wards for an emergency Floo-call by arriving as group of injured people or some such nonsense – the lone victim of a splinching was far more likely to gain access due to appearing less threatening.

Thankfully in their new period individuals of status tended to have retinues of clients, advisor, slaves and servants so some of their backstories would actually gain credibility. With a curt final nod Mad-Eye apparated away.

Squinting eastward Harry could make out the distant shape of a man falling through the air several miles to their east before disappearing after a second. Few wizards had the combination of calm, instinct and experience required for that distance apparating. Centuries ago some cunning wizard had realised that while apparation could only take you to a location you had seen before, you easily apparate somewhere unknown by making line-of-sight jumps. In the early 1800s a Black with had figured out that by apparating high into the air you could extend your line of vision to greater distances and make larger jumps. After several small height increases the unfortunate ancestor of the Black family had apparated to high and died due to what Verres' assumed to be a combination of a lack of air and extreme cold.

For the intervening century and a half wizardkind had therefore assumed the technique impossible and some violation of a fundamental law of magic like one cannot transfigure a part of a whole object. Tom Riddle had seen this tale and drawing the same conclusion had reintroduced the technique before mastering unaided flight. Making repeated high altitude apparations and a safe landing was taxing and it would take Mad-Eye several days including rest periods to arrive in his destination, the Roman Province of Nearer Spain.

After deciding to split up Hermione had suggested that they infiltrate the past in both Muggle and Magical roles to increase unity across this divide and offer a greater level of influence. The sole purely muggle role went to Alastor Moody who would play the part of a young muggle and aspiring legionary recruit, joining the campaigns of Sertorius and then Pompey in Spain.

Verres, along with Hermione his Greek wife and her 'mother' Minerva, would be accompanying the young Roman noble Draco of the Mallii family as his tutor, a Roman of Greek descent who had recently gained citizenship. Also with them were Neville/Nerva a knight of the Equestrian order and his grandmother Claudia Augusta.

The final two additions to the party were the thirty year-old Vicentius, a towering hulk posing as an ex-legionary, and Gregorius a large slave, who were Draco's bodyguards.

Their party would make its way on foot to the port of Dyrrachium and buy passage on a ship to Rome posing as the young Patrician Lucius Mallius Draco, last of a noble House and supposed son a real – if relatively obscure – historical figure who had died in a recent military campaign, and Draco's retinue of family and clients.

The current plan, though in Harry's experience very open to adaption and prone to disruption, was that Draco embed himself as a young noble and in time enter the Senate and begin making his mark, taking particular care to make allies of Gaius Marius. Harry, in the guise of Verres the wise mentor, would eventually seek to pass into the service of Marius' relatives the Julii and seek to tutor Gaius Julius Caesar.

The plan was noticeably devoid of further detail but with the knowledge of what they considered history along with the philosopher's stone they would pose as several generations of their first roles. Draco repeatedly playing his own heir and building a sturdy political dynasty. Harry and Hermione would repeatedly play their own descendants and influence great Roman leaders and Emperors. Harry's endgame for what he had termed phase one was to remain a capable and respected aid, with a hint of Dumbledoriness, who would be a natural successor in the wake of the disposal of one of the more tyrannical Emperors of the dynasties to follow.

Phase One was open to change because their presence, while hopefully subtle, may well lead to great changes that prevented the likes of Nero or Caligula from rising to the throne and presenting Harry as a benevolent successor.

Phase Two was, though more distant, better defined within the grand plan. Once assuming power their efforts would be divided in three directions. The first would be promoting the Methods in order to bring about an Enlightenment of great proportions, encompassing both magic and the mundane, with all the scientific advance of the next two millennia carefully introduced to ancient times. The second goal was the integration of Muggle and Magical society in a utilitarian manner, hopefully more easily done in this era prior to the Interdict of Merlin and the Statute of Secrecy. The final objective was the expansion of these ideals throughout the world, preferably by social and diplomatic means, although the existing historical documents meant that some armed conflict was likely inevitable.

A discontented sigh from Augusta broke Harry's thoughts.

"If I'd realised how bad a hike in ancient footwear would have been I'd have risked the apparating like Alastor."

A burst of light from a tree revealed Moody's patronus, which barked "My name's Musa." Followed by a quick "Constant Vigilance!" before it vanished.

From somewhere behind him Harr-Verres heard the dull rumble of Vicentius.

"Alright, how the hell did the old bastard manage that?"


Author's Note

From this point onwards I will increasingly use Greco-Roman names for characters, although where the same name did exist I have used it (Draco, Augusta, Minerva, Hermione), otherwise either a close approximation (Vicentius, Gregorius, Nerva (Neville) and Musa (Moody)) or names of significance to the character (Lucius as Draco's first name and Verres as Harry's cognomen).

* A quick explanation of the Roman class system to explain a few words. The top rung of ancient Rome were Patricians or noble-men like Draco. Beneath them were the Equestrians (originally providing cavalry or 'knights' and often translated as the 'knight' class) who were a sort of middle class, often more directly involved in the economy than their Patrician counterparts and controlling significant wealth. At the (sort of) bottom were normal Roman citizens or Plebeians who were comparable to a working class.

At the actual bottom of the barrel are two further classes, freemen and slaves. A freeman is free but not a citizen, he might be of foreign origin or a freed slave or the descendant of such. At the very bottom are slaves, although for the sake of the plot and to cut down on future explanations I'll outline a few key differences between Roman slavery and the modern concept of slavery.

Roman slaves were property, but generally not descended from a long line of slave ancestor or a slave 'class'. Many were in fact the spoils of war and some had even sold themselves into slavery (gladiators, tutors and medical personnel were frequently slaves who'd sole themselves). This is largely due to the institutionalised slavery of Rome, which allowed for upward mobility, slaves could purchase their freedom or be awarded it (examples of slaves being freed as oppose to buying their freedom are commonly found amongst gladiator and in the somewhat common act of freeing ones slaves in one's will).

Finally the fact that slavery was legal and institutionalised, and slaves seen as human if socially very inferior, differentiates it from modern and colonial slavery because slaves were recognised and had certain rights, some level of private property and occasionally some level of monetary compensation (otherwise you couldn't save up to buy your freedom). This may not seem important but it explains why later actions of characters remain plausible with their cover stories.