Disclaimer: Harry Potter its characters and settings are the exclusive property of JK Rowlings, Scholastic books and Warner Bros. Films. I get nothing for the stories I write using these characters and settings. All I get, and I love when I get them, is reviews from my readers. This story is a collaboration with Darkshaddowedrose. Betaed by Alix33

Yet Again

Chapter 2

It had taken a three weeks of fairly solid negotiation for Harry to get the contract he hoped for. In it he seemingly agreed to hunt down Tom Riddle. When, more if in Harry's mind, he killed him he'd be paid a princely sum. Harry had carefully implied he would, but was not contractually committed to killing Tom. Separate from the contract he was given completely unrestricted access to all of Their Supreme Excellencies libraries. Harry didn't kid himself, however. One of the reasons they had signed the contract was there was no guarantee that once his task was completed or if they figured out he was planning a double cross, there was nothing stopping them from trying to kill him. And he was certain they would. He, however had the right to do anything he felt necessary to defend himself, free from prosecution in the empire guaranteed by Their Excellencies own magic courtesy of the contract. Harry suspected that the only reason they signed it was because Grindelwald had the Elder wand of this universe.

Harry travelled and lived with the court, but he paid a stipend to the court chamberlain/treasurer for the meals he ate with the court and for his quarters. He didn't want them to claim he owed them a penny. It was interesting because he was getting to stay in the great and historic palaces and castles of Europe, Asia Minor, and India. To maintain appearances he had acquired the an elf of his own. He needed someone to cook, clean, fetch, and carry, and better a house elf that a human being because at least the elf got something out of it. Marguerite thought he was a very strange wizard, giving her a uniform, not a pillowcase and always saying please and thank you. Sending her into the local marketplaces for food and the occasional over the counter clothing that he had her tailor for him. But keep her master's secrets she would.

Harry's time was usually spent in the library and boy did he miss Hermione. This Universe was so very different from his own. In addition to spending a few hours a week looking around whatever country they were in, he took one meal a day with the court to reassure Dumbledore and Grindelwald. He said nothing about the surveillance they had him under. Harry spent hours researching everything. He tried to figure out the differences and finding out everything he could about Riddle and the world he'd landed in by day, and sneaking past the guard they had watching him during the night with his cloak for a few hours while they assumed he slept. Those stolen hours were spent investigating Their Excellencies themselves.

The things Harry found sickened him. The first things were sad and ignorant like Dumbledore's sister Arianna died in the muggle attack when she was a girl. His father didn't just go to Azkaban, he was kissed. Dumbledore hated muggles, and never developed a conscience as result. His and Gellert's fascination with their "Greater Good" and with the Hallows was as strong as ever hence their use of the Hallows symbol for their monarchy/dictatorship.

His studies revealed Grindelwald had sided with Adolf Hitler. He had carefully steered the man, who in Harry's world was one of the most evil men in history, to even greater horrors by helping him win most of the battles in his bid for global domination. The Nazis had conquered all of Europe and had made serious inroads in Asia. Killing off masses of people on the way. The way the history books here read, a half billion people died during his rampage. Then at the height of his power, Hitler was overthrown by those he considered his allies. Grindelwald and Dumbledore took over. Overnight they dissolved the Statute of Secrecy in their domain and muggles were reduced to the status of serfs or as they preferred to call them citizens third class. Not all muggles had taken to serfdom well. However, their insurrections were met with a lethal response: for every magical killed a quarter of a million muggles were killed. Entire cities all across Europe, indeed the entire empire, had been razed. From the descriptions, it sounded like fiendfyre had been used.

Harry did research into the magical families he knew of. Septimus Weasley had fought against a non British government and was the most outspoken of his kind, he and his entire family including his youngest son Arthur had been put to death in 1956. Many of the other light families like the Prewetts and the Bones had been completely wiped out, even to the young daughters Amelia and Molly. The Potters were another story. Harry's grandfather had not joined Grindelwald and Dumbledore, but he hadn't made a strong enough stand to warrant being made a strong example of. Instead his Grandfather died in 1966 prior to the state taking children. James Potter, however, was registered as a citizen second class. Harry searched for but couldn't find much about citizens second class. He found record that his mother had been born. He also found a record that at age 16 she'd also been deemed a second class citizen. Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel had been found, arrested, their belongings including the Philospher's stone (Harry assumed) confiscated, Nicholas killed and Perenelle living out another ten years under basically house arrest. At that point it had been noted by historians that Their Excellencies seemed to stop aging. Aberforth Dumbledore had died, imprisoned for speaking out against them the second year of their reign.

The Blacks were accepted members of the court, as were the Malfoys. In fact Harry had seen both his godfather, Sirius, and Draco Malfoy in the entourage of Lord Prince. He didn't approach them because Lord Prince had an undeclared Vendetta against Harry, and Harry didn't want to make things awkward for Sirius.

Magical creatures that had human appearances had it rough as well. Veelas were automatically second class citizens and were closely controlled. Any and all werewolves were automatically exterminated regardless of age if a person survived the attack from a werewolf they were "put down" by the very doctors they sought help from for their wounds. Vampires too were automatically killed.

However that wasn't the limit of the horrors they had perpetuated. Citizen classification was disgusting too. Harry had been able to find details of first class citizen ship easily. To be a first class citizen you had to be magical. Magical children were taken at age seven from their parents, and placed in homes/schools where they were taught what the state wanted them to know. They were given weekly contact with their families and godparents as long as their families toed the party line. Thus supposedly guaranteeing they were healthy, not spoiled and that their first loyalty was to the state. Which in one sense was smart but in another quite horrifying. First class citizens lived lives of comfort. They spent six hours a day working at their state mandated job, but then they had food, housing, medical care and even entertainment provided for them. In return the state asked for their best effort at their job, their loyalty and seven children. If however they wouldn't make their oaths to the State, then the youths were named second class.

He got sick and threw up when he found out the details of third class citizens. All third class females were sorted. Very pretty ones were taught to become little more than concubines. The rest were workers in factories and fields and only allowed to have three children before being sterilized. Males were taken from their parents at fifteen. They were given a year's training before being thrown into basically a gladiators ring. Harry couldn't help but think, "Bread and Circuses anyone?" Those that survived to twenty five were allowed to marry and start families but the number of births was strictly controlled. The birth rates for non magicals didn't compensate for the annual loss of life. Third class citizens had one possible out for their miserable existence. That was to bear a magical child. If they actually did so their existence went from being a third class to something else. Roughly translated that meant moving from a survival based life to one of seeming luxury by comparison. A home, clothing and food provided instead of having to live in a hovel and spending long hours working praying you got enough to eat. Also they went from being limited in their number of children to being told have as many as possible, with the possibility of their children living a first class existence.

If those horrors were not enough Grindelwald had borrowed pages from Josef Mengele, he created biological weapons designed to kill or otherwise incapacitate wizards and used second class citizens for the testing. Records that Harry found indicated that a quarter of a million second class citizens had died due to Grindelwald's 'experiments'. In looking at the records Harry realized there were several thousand second class citizens somewhere, living some undocumented fate. Harry was puzzled why atomic weapons hadn't been developed to try to stop them; until he read how the Americans had used one, only to have a second one was transported magically back to New York City just prior to its detonation. No atomic or nuclear weapons had been used since.

In countries not controlled by the empire wizards had banded together with muggles and united so they could stand against the empire and a cold war of a sort had formed, lasting for the last thirty years. Harry also read about how those other countries had had their wizarding populations quartered by mysterious plagues, which he supposed meant Grindelwald had used some sort of biological pathogen to weaken those countries.

In his efforts to find out about Tom, Harry found out about the resistance. The resistance had existed for the last thirty years, it had probably existed before that but it wasn't acknowledged. It was made up of people non magical and magical descent who disagreed with the policies of the empire. Harry found it strange but appropriate that the resistance formed itself into cells. Each cell was between five to twenty people and cells didn't know of each other other than they existed. The cells usually had one controller but he or she was usually under a unbreakable vow such that even torture couldn't force them to reveal their contacts in the cells they controlled. Whenever the resistance attacked they used a combination of muggle and magical means with the emphasis on the magical so local muggle populations weren't considered to blame. The resistance usually disrupted communications or supplies but every now and then they destroyed a magical lab where work was going on to tighten control over the population or where advanced magical weapon research was being conducted. Harry found it interesting that in most cases where a cell had been found, many of the cell members were teachers, lawyers, and historians.

Harry found out that Hogwarts had sealed itself after the death of Armando Dippet. He wondered what had prompted it. Harry was careful to ward his quarters so he couldn't be spied on there, and he frequently consulted the portraits of his forebearers. There was no sign of Fawkes. The English school of magic was now held in what used to be the Ministry. It was noted in the books Harry read that Dumbledore had bemoaned the lack of history that this had resulted in. When he read this Harry inwardly scoffed more like he bemoaned the loss of the most powerful magical node in Europe. In the last universe Harry had learned that was why the Founders had built the school where they did when shortly before graduation he had found Rowena's library in the room of requirements.

Harry had started researching into the ritual that caused him to jump universes and spent almost all his time doing research so on February 13th at the start of his second year he was surprised when he received a invitation to a formal Valentine's Day ball with the court. Harry had been to enough court functions to know that husbands and wives at court were seldom faithful to one another. Marguerite kept him current on court gossip as to who was sleeping with whom and the amount of bedhopping going on offended his sensibilities. More than one of the court had accosted him. He had even been given an open invitation to Their Excellencies bed much to his disgust. A Valentine's Day ball would probably have a licentiousness that he would find exceptionally embarrassing. At least he didn't have to get fitted for robes for the ball. Madame LaFarge had persuaded him weeks ago to get some very formal robes that she had designed with him in mind. Though she had tried to talk him into crimson with silver or white, he had chosen hunter green and gold. The robes allowed his armor and even his basilisk sword yet would please even the Contessa D'Teresi who was acknowledged as the court's best dresser.

Valentine's Day, Harry found out the fate of the missing second class citizens. He entered the ball and was immediately called over to Their Supreme Excellencies. "Lex, my boy, so good of you to join us. As I was saying to my love, you work entirely too hard. To live like a monk at your age isn't healthy; a young man like yourself needs sexual release. Since you seem to only like women, we want you to join the court as we choose thralls for the coming season." Dumbledore stated.

"Thralls?"

Grindelwald spoke. "Of course. We have an obligation to perpetuate magical kind. Thralls are a means by which genetic diversity can be achieved. I know you have studied our ways enough to know our citizens are asked to have seven children. But having all those children with one partner limits the diversity. Thrallls are the answer. Certain magical users, despite the training we give, think that we are wrong that magic makes us superior and therefore we should rule. Tom Riddle is one of these. But sadly about a sixth of our population feels the same."

"Citizens second class."

Grindelwald smiled and said, "Exactly. Such people pose a problem. But we found a solution."

Dumbledore beamed at Harry. "Come my boy, we've gathered the cream of the crop for the court to pick from, You get first choice of course, you can pick up to seven, a gift to you as it were. I know you you won't be picking any of the boys or young men but there are several young girls to choose from. Beauties all, nothing but the best for the imperial court."

He led Harry to the area where the thralls had been gathered. Roughly a hundred young people stood they were clothed, sort of. Their clothing consisted of a semi-sheer toga like dress and a collar for the girls and a similar shirt and tight trousers for the boys once again with a collar.

"The collars insure their obedience of course. Before the collars it was difficult to insure they would co-operate. We hope you'll take full advantage of their presence, we potion them with a mild fertility and lust potions. It would be good for the empire to get the benefit of your magical seed."

Harry had never felt a stronger urge to be sick, but was completely aware that doing so would cost him his life. He half smiled politely as he was led to the thralls. Harry had never before realized exactly how hard it had been for Snape in his own universe, to smile and nod in the face of such evil. Voldemort had been evil but this mockery of good was worse. He still thought the man a sour immature git, but he had a greater respect for the man's abilities as a spy.

Harry couldn't help but notice that the thralls seemed to fall into one of four categories in terms of their attitude. The older ones (not that there were many, the average age seemed to be seventeen) seemed to fall mostly into one of two categories. Apathy being the most common, but there was one girl she was maybe a year older than Harry. Her eyes held a kind of hopeless anger Harry could remember being in his own eyes following Sirius' death and the revelation of the prophecy. Among the younger ones the look was occasionally one of excitement but most commonly outright terror. He knew what Albus and Grindelwald expected and as much as it sickened him, he would still seemingly comply; if only to spare seven of these young women the perverse attentions of some of the members of the court. He chose six of the youngest girls who seemed the most terrified and the older girl with the desperate and angry eyes. He danced with court members and ignored the sly winks and nudges he was given about his choices. He was correct that he found the whole affair rather disgusting, as many members of the court didn't even bother to seek privacy before beginning to fondle the thralls they selected. When the ball ended Harry led the seven girls to his chambers.

"Marguerite!"

"Yes, Master!"

"These girls will be staying here in my suite and I will be providing for them. I need you to see that they get something to eat while I transfigure my dressing room into something like a dorm for them." Harry went to the unused walk-in closet that was off his bedchamber and started with expansion charms. The dressing room was ten feet by fifteen feet, with expansion charms Harry nudged it up to twenty five by thirty seven and a half. He felt a little bad that he couldn't make it bigger but he knew if he tried it wouldn't be very stable. Marguerite popped next to him. "Marguerite, are they eating?"

"Yes Master some, but they is very frightened and is crying too."

"Crap, I'm sure they're frightened out of their trees... I need you to confiscate seven no- fourteen of the biggest pillows you can find and...fireplace logs half a cord. Report it to the chamberlain's elf so he'll bill me for it. And ask The LeFarges' elf to have them come by, I want the girls more decently covered and... No wait, it will draw too much attention tomorrow if I do it that way. Take the silver I'll set out, to the banks convert it to coin and get the girls' measurements then get, let's see... undergarments for five days, warm woolen cloaks in midnight blue, and warm light blue robes that are plain but completely opaque and buy ¾'' cording. I'll make it a uniform of sorts similar to yours. That way if anyone asks it will be known that they are mine. Hopefully that will keep them safe."

Harry kept mostly to himself but when one of the court's most lecherous women had tried to ignore his "no" Harry had … well Harry had gifted the idiot woman with a change of sex and impotence. Needless to say Harry was now spared the worst of the court's lecherous advances. Hopefully that reputation would also protect "his" girls. Marguerite popped out and a few moments later she popped back in with the requested items. Harry sent her for some parchment from his office while he started transfiguring. Fifteen minutes later there were three sets of bunk beds, one bed, two chairs and three dressers. The beds while not large all had a thick mattress, a pillow, cotton sheets, a blanket and a duvet. He cast warming charms on each of the beds then the room in general since it had no fireplace. It wouldn't do to save them from being raped only to let them get sick from cold.

Harry took a deep breath and went back to the room where the girls were. He wasn't sure what they were expecting but he lived to defy expectations, especially ones of this sort.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"What should I tell father, Godfather?"

"That there is trouble coming for the resistance. I have watched him and while on the surface he seems an average wizard, what he did that first day at court and what he did to Lady Zara, there is more to him than meets the eye. He wears glamours much of the time I'm not sure of his true appearance. I did manage to get Lord Prince to tell me how he got here. He was summoned from another universe to deal with the thorn in Their Excellencies' side. Apparently he has done so in other universes before."

"That is very bad."

"Yes, it's curious though."

"What is?"

"I've been assigned surveillance numerous times. I've always gotten the sense there's more than the obvious with him, and I've gotten the feeling he doesn't like Their Excellencies much. He does seem to dance to Their Excellencies' tune though, so I'm not sure what to think. It's important that we, your father and You-know-who stay on our guard both for our own safety and for the safety of those that depend on us."