(30th August, 2016): Minor expansions and corrections of the main text in places, for hopefully improved reading, and expansion of the Author Notes.
Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter.
Note: The following is set in an alternate universe where some characters and situations have diverged from canon, and is complementary to 'Saint Potter?' This chapter sees an ex-military centaur, Aeolus, on a mission from Greece, taking the time to study Hogwarts from the edge of the grounds to the southwest of the castle. It takes place three days after the previous chapter in this piece, and four after the 'bust up' between Albus Dumbledore and Chiron of the second chapter. This story is (as of 16th August, 2016) currently rated 'T' although the rating may go up at some later point/chapter.
Monday, 15th July, 1991
The Greek centaur, Aeolus, was ex-military; indeed, in his youth, he had been a member of the elite mercenary company of Greek centaurs known as 'The Companions'. Through the ranks of that company he had steadily risen, until, by the end of the 1960's he had ascended to the position of its acknowledged field-commander – with a by then keenly developed tactical sense, and being well-studied in matters of warfare both magical and otherwise.
Then had come a job for a 'magical' government of the witches and wizards of a central African nation who were in a state of panic because some enterprising wizard 'from outside' had sold the local goblins several dozen machine guns and more than sufficient ammunition and spare parts to see the goblins through their latest revolt against rule by witches and wizards. That magical government (formed of members from families as famous for their 'fashion sense' as for their deliberate avoidance of knowledge of any matters 'muggle' which they could absolutely avoid) hadn't had a clue how to cope with goblins with firearms, nor possessed the sense to develop new tactics to directly cope; in desperation, they had hired centaurs, promising practically anything, if The Companions would restore control of their country to them.
As far as 'practically anything' went, The Companions had settled for a legally watertight contract, and then thrashed the goblins (unprepared for centaur intervention, as evidenced by the lack of positions featuring such inconveniences to a centaur as steep, tightly turning, staircases or upper storeys, generally) sufficiently speedily to invoke the 'triumphal parade' (always good for the reputation) and 'showered in gold' (or at least gold coins) clauses of their employment contract. The magical government had been sufficiently grateful not to attempt to 'renegotiate terms' after-the-event to any degree that might be considered impolite, and the centaurs had removed themselves from the country, not a single stallion or mare amongst them doubting that their recent employers were so 'well bred' that they would be facing another goblin revolt within half a dozen years, and that next time their recent employers were unlikely to have sufficient funds available to hire anyone actually worth the name of 'soldier of fortune' to bail them out.
Aeolus and several other officers (and members of the rank-and-file) had after that job been sufficiently wealthy (and weary of the mercenary life) to retire – in Aeolus' case to a villa on a small island in the Mediterranean of which he had become the exclusive private owner, to soon be attended to by a staff of six male squibs. Since then Aeolus had amused himself by writing the odd treatise on warfare, and occasionally running errands for the High Council (which he had half an eye to getting a position on, one day).
All of which brought him to this latest mission – to Scotland – where on behalf of the High Council he was supposed to make sure that some local herd leader, by the name of 'Magorian', acted appropriately in the interests of the High Council and of all the centaur peoples of the world.
Apparently, Magorian and his herd were salt-of-the-Earth centaurs, but – it was presumed in Athens – too busy with day-to-day survival in the environment in which they lived to have developed a sense of dignity suitably refined for rigorous diplomatic negotiations, nor the wits to properly outmatch their neighbour, Albus Dumbledore. Since Albus Dumbledore lived in a castle (which doubled as a school) in which the High Council were highly interested, right now, and since the High Council and Albus Dumbledore had recently fallen out, it was, in the opinion of the High Council, unfortunately necessary that Magorian be advised by a centaur from Greece; and since Magorian and his herd lived in hard, primitive, conditions (salt-of-the-Earth types, well and truly) it was appropriate that any centaur from Greece advising Magorian be sufficiently familiar with 'rough living' as to not be duly distracted by the lack of sophistication in the herd's amenities – which was where a centaur with experience of the rigours of a military life such as Aeolus was very useful.
Aeolus gathered that his name had practically jumped out at the High Council, as soon as they knew what was needed, and they had lost little time in sending for him, briefing him, and dispatching him to Scotland, in the company of a witch employed to attend to his magical transport needs.
Having arrived in Scotland, though, before he made contact with Magorian, Aeolus had temporarily ditched the witch in the High Council's employ in the bar of one of the hostelries at the local human settlement called 'Hogsmeade', to indulge himself in a little sight-seeing, for his own personal gratification. If questioned on this, at any later point, he would naturally claim that it had been 'reconnaissance necessary to gain an appreciation of the land, the better to be able to form a proper psychological profile of the Supreme Mugwump, from knowledge of the place in which he dwelt'.
Nobody with any sense on the High Council would question him on that. None of them were military experts as experienced as himself, after all…
Anyway: here Aeolus was, a short way outside of Hogsmeade, not 'sight-seeing', but 'carrying out mission-necessary preliminary reconnaissance'.
Aesthetically speaking, Aeolus – surveying the site through a telescope, from the high-road just beyond the iron boundary fence – considered Hogwarts architecturally unattractive, at best. There was no external gilding in evidence, a total lack of marble facades (though he privately allowed that the Scottish climate might render marble impracticable as a facing material), and what roofing material was evident on the main buildings consisted of either weather discoloured sheet-metal or a dull grey slate (although some of the subsidiary out-buildings visible from this side sported reddish tiles).
Militarily speaking, at least from this viewpoint to the southwest, Hogwarts was much more attractive. The main complex was constructed from carefully shaped stone blocks which – if they were the granite that they seemed to be from this distance – would be highly resistant to magical attempts to breach the walls, even if there were no additional supporting enchantments and wards; outlying buildings had for the most part been carefully partially sunk into the slope leading up to the main body of the castle, so as to as little as possible impede the field of view on this side from the walls; and, scattered here and there about the grounds were what at first glance appeared to be ornamental walled terraces – but which actually would probably serve quite well as cover for skirmishers outside the castle defending the approaches on this side from the advance of any kind of purely ground-based invaders.
Aeolus would certainly rather not lead any centaur assault on the castle from this side if it were even halfway fully-manned. The incautious might take it for granted that – ordinarily – Hogwarts' adult witch and wizard staff would be incapable of managing much more than a basic defence of the main castle, but Aeolus had in preparation for this mission studied what written accounts were commonly available of the attack on Hogwarts which had taken place during the British Wizarding War. In what should have been a time of extreme vulnerability of the castle, when the pupils and most of the teaching staff were away for the summer, the attackers had made the unpleasant discovery that someone in the castle had had half a brain and had trained the castle's scores of 'house-elves' to be able to assist in a halfway coordinated fashion in the defence.
And that had been practically eleven years ago; Aeolus didn't doubt that – if training had not slacked off – the garrison would be able to muster even more formidable a defence now.
Of course, any centaur attack would more likely come from the other side of the castle – from the northeast – assuming it was worked with local centaurs, and Aeolus had yet to visually inspect the castle and its approaches from that side. What maps he'd seen suggested much less cleared ground existed between the castle and the notional cover offered by the edge of the Forbidden Forest around that side than the extensive lawns and terraces running down to the highroad on this side; those maps which he'd seen also suggested much steeper gradients there though than were to be found on the gently sloping lawns to the southwest, and Aeolus suspected that there would be numerous features on the northeast approach which took advantage of the gradient (and any accompanying rough ground) to maximise any inconvenience to would-be attackers. It was certainly unlikely to be the sort of terrain that one could mount a swift, glorious, charge from cover across, to reach the base of the keep's walls…
"I don't recall receiving any request, formal or otherwise, to entertain a centaur inspection of Hogwarts."
Aeolus lowered the telescope, to find himself being addressed in Greek, by a man on the other side of the school's boundary fence, who had managed remarkably stealthy an approach whilst Aeolus studied the castle. The human was dark haired, and garbed all in black and had a wand casually held in one hand which his body language and tone of voice suggested that he would be quite prepared to raise and use in an instant, if provoked.
"On this side of the fence, it is, to the best of my knowledge, a public highway, and there are no notices saying that it is prohibited to look upon Hogwarts or its grounds." Aeolus responded in a carefully neutral tone of voice.
"Most casual passers-by are not equipped with so high a magnification telescope as you look to have there, nor do they spend so long apparently studying the castle so intently. The headmaster has had a recent heated exchange with a senior centaur of Greece, and now – if I judge correct by the cut and fashion of the harness and bags that you wear to carry gear – a centaur has arrived from Greece to hold his school under close observation. Indeed you are a centaur who – if I do not misinterpret the insignia on the bag on your left flank – is an officer, or ex-officer, of a famous centaur mercenary company. If you are not here to intend harm, now might be a good time to introduce yourself and to make clear your business if you do not wish me to suspect the worst of you."
"I am Aeolus, a centaur, as you surmise, from Greece." Aeolus decided it might be prudent to make some effort to pacify the man. From the man's appearance and attitude, the evidence was rapidly mounting up that this might be the wizard Severus Snape, who was understood in Athens to be Albus Dumbledore's right hand, at least as far as local matters that Albus Dumbledore was too busy or too important to attend to in person was concerned. Aeolus had never met Severus Snape before, but he had read descriptions, and seen hand-drawn images – and for what it counted in a world with magic, there was certainly a distinct physical resemblance to those depictions in the man before him.
"Officially," Aeolus continued, "I am here to convey greetings from the High Council to my kinsfolk in these parts. Unofficially, I am a historian and – as an ex-mercenary company officer, as you correctly surmise – something of an expert in matters military, and I was curious to view the site of the famous battle, eleven years ago, where the British dark wizard known as Lord Voldemort encountered his most significant military defeat. I beg your pardon for not announcing my presence or making known my intent."
"There was fighting that day in Hogsmeade too." the man said, motioning with the hand which was not holding the wand back down the road in the direction of the village, and apparently choosing for now to take the line of conversation of the Battle of Hogwarts, which Aeolus had brought up. "A blocking force was left there to prevent any relieving force from arriving or otherwise mustering there to attempt to break the assault on the castle. But of course, that was not where defeat ultimately came from, for Lord Voldemort and his forces; that was found here – with the defenders of the castle."
The man peered at Aeolus, as if judging how his words had been received, and weighing up what to do next. Then he abruptly gestured back past Aeolus, down the valley:
"Tell me: How would you deal with a zeppelin attack coming from that direction; let's assume that they're zeppelins marshalled and launched from down that way, off Rannoch Moor. Let's say there's a trio of them."
"I was not aware that zeppelins were used in 1980." Aeolus frowned.
"They weren't; however, we're talking a theoretical exercise here. Someone who decides that dropping high explosives from an aerial platform with casings warded to penetrate most magical shields is the way to go with an attack. Smaller, faster, 'bomber' aeroplanes are to be presumed to be ruled out on the grounds that any warding sufficient to allow a munition to penetrate a shield would correspondingly disable the electronic parts of such a delivery vehicle; a zeppelin is however assumed sufficiently spacious for munitions to be held remote enough from motive machinery for special munitions carried aboard not to impair said machinery."
It was obvious to Aeolus that this was a test or challenge of some sort. However: the intellectual appeal of the problem presented to him was such that he could not resist but to rise to respond. Aeolus turned and stared back down the valley for a moment, before returning his attention to the dark haired man.
"It would have to be a lunatic or an optimist to make any such attack, save as a sacrificial diversion for some other scheme." he gave his opinion, then started to methodically set out the reasoning behind it: "You can't hide something the size of a zeppelin, save maybe in low cloud – which would of course make accurately sighting bombs for dropping on the castle difficult, if not totally impossible – and even assuming a close guard of broomstick riders, to prevent aerial boarding actions or close-in attacks, a few well-sited flak batteries in the mountains would tear any zeppelins in plain sight to shreds. Some sort of warding magic might be employed to try to protect the zeppelin envelopes, but we are already assuming that shield-piercing casings are part of the scenario for the attackers, so why not for the defenders? And irrespective whether there are currently flak batteries sited in the mountains, the time required to prepare zeppelin assembly and launch sites, on the moor you mention, should give ample time and warning to prepare such defensive positions, since such offensive preparations could hardly be undertaken secretly."
The dark-haired man considered these words, then nodded. He lowered but did not dispense with – keeping it ready in hand – his wand.
"You are indeed a student and thinker in matters military. Excuse the question, but I had to be sure – and I was indeed also interested to hear any informed reply. I am Severus Snape, and I have charge of the care and maintenance of Hogwarts…"
Author Notes: (updated & expanded 30th August, 2016)
I would have liked to have provided a sketch map to accompany this piece, to try to illustrate the situation of Hogwarts in this universe, but this site does not allow for the posting of images in stories. This is NOT canon Hogwarts, however, in terms of situation and layout. Hogwarts in this universe is on a shelf between a mountain (Beinn Bheòil) to the northwest, and The Black Lake to the southeast. The main part of the castle is at the 'highest' point in the shelf; from the main part of the castle to the southwest, the shelf slopes down relatively gently, across extensive lawns, to the edge of the grounds and the road to Hogsmeade; from the main part of the castle to the northeast the shelf falls away relatively steeply, to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Various outbuildings, quidditch pitches, and so forth, are dotted around on the shelf, to either side below the castle. For most of its length the southeast side of the shelf falls away in steep cliffs down to The Black Lake, whilst the 'mountain' side sees steep slopes heading upwards.
In this chapter, the High Council's response to the falling out with Albus Dumbledore (in chapter two of this piece) comes onto the scene, in the shape of a representative being sent out to Scotland to make sure that Magorian 'does the right things', when it comes to any future negotiations and so forth. This representative is the point-of-view character of this chapter, Aeolus.
As indicated in the notes of an earlier chapter, the centaurs in the 'Saint Potter' universe originated with experiments to create 'improved cavalry troops'. Those martial origins of the race have been carried on into the twentieth century in Greece with (besides centaurs trained and held for the defence and protection of centaur interests) some centaurs forming mercenary companies (such as 'The Companions', in which Aeolus is indicated to have served) and hiring themselves out around the magical world. Sometimes the magical world has problems where witches and wizards (or others) consider reliable professional mercenary help indispensable (or at least preferable to any other obvious solutions). I do not intend to explore in detail at this point the equipment and tactics of mercenary companies, such as 'The Companions', but at the very least they are prepared to use a combination of enchanted armour and 'traditional' weapons (bows, spears, shortswords, and so forth); potions; and hired spellcasters who will do *exactly* what they are told. Senior officers are expected to be familiar with tactics of magical warfare, and to keep an eye on what muggles are doing, for anything which can be borrowed or adapted. Very occasionally, one-off examples of 'muggle' technology which are unlikely to be messed up by proximity to magic occasionally make their way into centaur mercenary company equipment stores, such as high quality binoculars with calculation-based range-finding options...
In the 'Saint Potter' universe, goblins are assumed to exist in countries outside the UK, and (as evidenced by the mention of the revolt in this chapter) to make efforts to renegotiate the terms of their existence with witches and wizards with violence, on occasions. The magical governments of some countries outside the UK are assumed to sometimes consist of witches and wizards with a disdain for things 'muggle' (and for that matter, at least some magical beings) AND with a strong interest in making sure that only people from families with 'the right sort of family tree' are ever in the top positions of magical government.
The enterprising wizard selling machine-guns to goblins in Africa, by the way, in the 1960's was this universe's version of one 'Tom Marvolo Riddle' (also known as 'Lord Voldemort'). Besides making some money and helping cause some trouble, he was interested in setting up a situation where he could see for himself, first-hand, what might happen where machine-guns were used in magical warfare. He concluded that they were good for panicking highly inbred pure-bloods who had no idea what they were, but far too easily countered by anyone with half a brain, and consequently not of very high value for the forthcoming war that he would likely be fighting in Wizarding Britain...
As in earlier chapters, I'm assuming that centaurs in this universe do not use wands or spells, themselves, which is why there's mention of Aeolus having been supplied with a witch to see to his 'magical transport needs'. She's never been to the settlement of Magorian's herd before, so was unable to get Aeolus directly there, but did have enough knowledge and experience of Hogsmeade to be able to get him (and herself) there.
Besides being physically robust, as noted in other 'Saint Potter' universe pieces, granite – due to its complex structure of interlocking crystals of different compositions – is assumed to be an absolute nuisance to even attempt to start to transfigure, which is critical when most magical warfare efforts to go through a wall (rather than to simply bypass it altogether, by, for example, apparating) will usually rely on trying to turn that wall into something else much softer and easier to break up (or at least a different shape with, say, a hole in the middle).
During the (British) Wizarding War, at the height of his military campaign, in July, 1980, Lord Voldemort launched an attack on Hogwarts with a handful of Death Eaters and the full strength of his fearsome werewolf allies, 'The Wolf Guard'. Although the advance party was able to enter Hogwarts and achieve a stalemate with Albus Dumbledore, trapping him in his office, the main force (and Lord Voldemort) were checked and ultimately driven back, mostly by the efforts of the Snapes (Severus and Lily) and the castle's house elves. Most of the (in 1991) published 'history books' in this universe give much of the glory for repulsing the attack to Albus Dumbledore. Aeolus has actually look beyond the 'most popular' accounts, though, and found some versions by former Death Eaters, which indicate that the house elves were a significant (and entirely unexpected) problem.
It might have made for better caution for Aeolus not to have responded in quite such detail to the question which Severus Snape posed him, regarding a zeppelin attack, since it disclosed an awful lot about Aeolus' own depth of knowledge and ability to think about military matters, but Aeolus really couldn't help himself but 'show off' to someone who apparently understands and thinks about military things at least half as deeply as himself. Aeolus so very rarely gets an audience these days which he can 'hold forth' to, and who actually understands what he's talking about and who thus realises what an incredible brain, in at least military affairs, Aeolus has...
