Chapter 21

Hasenbergl, Munich, Germany

Tuesday, 18th November 2003

Lupin frowned as he once again, found himself in a rather run-down area of the city he was visiting. He glanced at the street sign, confirmed he was on the correct street and strode towards his destination.

"Remus!" The call caused him to jump; he looked around and saw Gerhard, who he'd met in France, crossing the street towards him. Lupin offered his hand but the man embraced him like a brother instead. "How have you been?"

"Fine," Remus supplied. "Things are going well."

"Would I be correct to assume that this is not a social visit?" the German asked as he led the Briton down the street; Lupin smiled.

"I spoke to our contact with the Veelas last night." His friend raised his eyebrows at the revelation that they were on friendly terms with the reclusive women. "He recently visited one of their villages in Bulgaria and got some news on the Empire."

"Go on."

"It sounds like generally the Bulgarian magical mindset is fairly well aligned with Karkaroff's so Bulgaria is unlikely to join in any uprising."

"That supports what I've heard through our… network; Bulgarian werewolves are…" he hesitated, trying to decide how best to word things, "given certain promises by their government. The promises have been enough to keep them in line and they are widely considered to be one of their most potent weapons and are often used in maintaining order where needed. However, few believe the promises will all be honoured."

"Yet they continue to serve the Empire?" Remus was surprised; Gerhard stopped walking for a moment and looked at him with a hint of incredulity.

"How easy did you find it to obtain paid work, my friend? While they doubt the promises, and not all support the government's motives, they have to feed themselves and, in some cases, their families," he defended their brethren.

Remus nodded; he could sympathise with the predicament many of his kind found themselves in, as it was a lot easier to have principles with a full stomach. The idea of what they were doing as a "potent weapon", however, did not sit well with him; he opted not to linger on the thought.

"What about those from other countries?"

"As you move west they tend to be more willing and eager to integrate, though they are still shunned by many. There are pockets of sympathy – and there has certainly been a positive reaction from many non-afflicted magicals to your Minister's offer of Wolfsbane. I understand that some of our kind who live in Poland were approached but, as they are on comparatively good terms with the local populous, they rejected the overtures and instead they are actually involved in the planned uprising."

This was the magic word; the uprising was what Remus was most interested in at this time. "Do you have any details about it? Timings? Anything like that?"

Gerhard shook his head. "They are keeping things very close to their chests, not wanting to risk the authorities learning of the plans."

"I can understand that," Remus observed, "but if there were similar plans in other parts of the Empire – Hungary for instance – then if they were all co-ordinated there would surely be more chance of success."

"That is true," the German nodded, "but the risks are very high for them. Even I do not know the date or even the city where they plan to strike."

"Well," Remus scratched his chin thoughtfully, "if you do learn anything about plans elsewhere then making sure everyone planned to act together would be the thing to do."

"I agree. I will put some feelers out to my contacts in other lands and see what comes back." As they reached a major road he turned and smiled at his guest. "Enough of this talk; come, my friend, let me show you around my home city."

Lupin gratefully accepted the invitation and followed his friend down the street; he would leave several hours later with his friend pledging to speak to his contacts soon.

Minister's Office,

Ministry of Magic,

London, United Kingdom

"Hello," James stood and smiled as four young blonde girls filed into his office accompanied by Amelia Bones and Nymphadora Tonks. "These are the girls from Bulgaria?" he asked the head of the Aurors.

Bones nodded. "The operation to free them was a complete success; to the best of our knowledge there is no link between ourselves and the escape."

"Well if there is then I'm sure Albus will let us know about it very soon," the Minister observed. He looked to the eldest girl and introduced himself; she thanked him for their rescue and introduced herself and the others.

James walked over to his fireplace and threw some floo powder in. "Ambassador Potter's quarters," he called.

"Hi dad, you ready to send them through?" He heard Harry's voice emitting from the emerald flames.

"Yes, I have the four of them here."

"Give me one minute," Harry bustled over to the door of his rooms; he managed to flag down a passing Veela and asked her to let the Bulgarian women, and the Queen, know that the rescued girls would be coming through. "Ok, dad," he called once back by the fire, "I'm ready for them to come through."

James gestured to the fireplace. As the eldest, Marija took the lead; she walked gingerly towards it and, following the Minister's encouraging nod, stepped tentatively into it (being unaccustomed to floo travel). Seeing this, the other three girls joined her in the fireplace; James waved to them before they vanished, reappearing moments later in Harry's suite.

"Radka!" One of the red-clad women shrieked, engulfing the young girl.

"Aunt Bisera!" The youngest Veela child was in tears. Once she had been released she looked around the room. "Where is mama?"

Her aunt bowed her head. "She was one of the women taken by the wizards. Our best guess is that she is now in Prague with the others." Tears welled in the eyes of them both. "They wanted to take us all for a purpose so we know that she is still alive," she declared through her sobs, "this gives us hope that we will see her again one day." She looked at the other girls. "What happened to your sister?"

"She was taken by one of the Ministry wizards," Penka's tears intensified. "The wizards who rescued us say they will try to rescue her and the others." Her aunt turned to Harry.

"Do you think your people can rescue the other girls?" she asked sharply, switching to French from her native language. Harry pondered for a moment before repeating the line Amelia had given him.

"We hope to be able to. It will not be easy, as we first need to find out who has your girls and where they are holding them, so it will be a long and dangerous process. I can't promise success but I can promise we will try."

She gave a small nod; on one level she appreciated his honesty but she'd have rather been told that they would definitely be getting the girls back quickly.

"Well we thank you for your country's efforts," Fleur spoke up from the doorway, causing many of the welcoming committee to jump; they had not expected the Queen herself to join them and the Veelas sank immediately into deferential bows. Fleur lazily urged them to rise.

"Your Majesty," Harry gave a curt bow of his own. The women in his suite edged to the side to allow her entry to the rooms; she chose to remain on the other side of the threshold.

"Your suite is, technically, your country's sovereign territory," she explained in answer to his inquisitive look. "I will not enter without your permission." Before he could reply, granting that permission, she spoke to the room in general. "Come, everyone, this should be a day of celebration, let us make it one in recognition of our daughters' recovery, while we wait on our friends helping to devise a way to recover the rest of our daughters and sisters." To Harry specifically she added, "Please, Ambassador, join us in the Hall when we celebrate."

Harry nodded as she turned and walked away; the other women filed out of the room to follow her, many of them thanking him as they passed. Danielle, in particular, thanked him with a hug; she had seemingly been taking every opportunity she could to get close to him since their scouting trip to Bulgaria.

Minister's Office,

Ministry of Magic,

Sofia, Bulgaria

The atmosphere in Oblansk's office was far from celebratory; the Minister and his senior officials had been furious when news of the escape of the girls reached them – both with the abduction and the breach of their Ministry that had enabled it. Most upset was the General who had led the attack; he had, of course, been promised one of the girls for himself and upon learning of the escape had immediately arrested the guards who had been on duty. He and some of his men now dragged them to the meeting in the Minister's office.

"How did they escape? Where are they?" the Minister demanded; the two guards who had been on duty trembled inside the chains that currently entombed them.

"We never saw the kidnappers," one spoke up in a shaky voice. "We were standing guard outside the cells, as per our orders and as we always do, when suddenly red beams appeared from thin air – stunners. The next thing we knew, when the spells wore off, they were gone. Just the girls, they didn't free all the prisoners."

"They knew what they were looking for then," the General observed, scratching his beard thoughtfully. "If these two," he jerked his head at the new prisoners, "are to be believed then the intruders must have made themselves invisible by some means or other and took the young Veelas before making their escape."

"Who could have done this?" Oblansk demanded. "Who knew that we had the creatures and where we had them?"

"I will speak to our border guards and see if any suspicious people entered the country recently." Oblansk waved him off and he left; his security forces took the chained wizards with them for further questioning.

"At least we got some of the girls to their new homes," Oblansk's deputy observed once he was alone with his minister; he thought of the room where his own 'guest' was housed. "There is no chance that anybody will be able to break into our homes and get to them there."

Oblansk nodded. "And at least Karkaroff doesn't know we withheld some of the creatures from Svoboda and the Czechs. We don't need to give him any more ammunition to use against us." By which, of course, the Bulgarian meant against him personally.

"Do you know who could have done this?"

"There are not too many suspects," the Minister talked through his thoughts. "Who knew that we had taken them? That is the key question. The only people who answer it are the Veelas themselves or one of their allies; that would probably be the British. They must be our chief suspects."

"With our approaching Dumbledore in the ICW already we must be careful," his aide cautioned. "To accuse them publically before we get evidence would only worsen relations – and we would not necessarily have the Emperor's support if it were not proven."

"We won't go public at all on this matter, and even if we did we would certainly not be able to mention Veelas," Oblansk replied. "Remember," he reminded him, "nobody can know that we kept some of the creatures here. When we get the proof we need that the British are behind this then we will simply tell Dumbledore that we know they are responsible for freeing some of our prisoners. We will use this second attack on our sovereignty to increase the pressure on them to hand over Potter to us. In the meantime," he shrugged, "it gives our military friends a new job to do – increasing our country's security, especially for if they do come back for the rest of them."

The aide shuddered; suddenly he felt less secure inside his own home.

Main Hall,

Le Chateau Delacour,

Location Unknown

"Look at her," Gabrielle muttered bitterly as a smiling Danielle handed Harry a glass of champagne; she rested her hand on his arm as she said something to him: from the distance, and given the hubbub in the room, she couldn't hear what was being said but did see Harry smiling and nodding at her words. She turned to her sister. "Doesn't it bother you at all?" she asked quietly.

"Should it?" the Queen asked indifferently.

"The Ambassador…" Gabrielle began; Fleur spoke over her.

"The Ambassador is perfectly entitled to behave, within reason, however he wishes and interact with whomever he wishes. My courtiers have the same freedom," she added with a hint of a warning in her tone.

"But…"

"Enough," Fleur's voice was quiet but firm. "You know our laws, sister; even if I wished it, and even if I hadn't insulted him over the Bulgarian attack, there could never be anything between me and him." She glanced at the younger girl. "It would even be difficult for something to happen between you and him," she warned, interpreting her sibling's expression.

"Not impossible," Gabbi grumbled quietly, "unless, of course, she keeps that up," she looked over again; Danielle was laughing at something Harry had said and had rested a hand on his arm. Fleur just shook her head.

"We will talk more later," she told her sister; Gabbi recognised the dismissal and, with an almost insolent bow, walked away to mingle with the crowd, making sure to spend plenty of time talking with the new arrivals to see how they were settling in to their home.

"Your Majesty," Harry took advantage of a rare moment alone and approached the Queen. She smiled at him.

"Ambassador, my thanks once again to your country for their efforts in rescuing our girls."

"You're welcome; we were happy to support our allies and partially right a terrible wrong," he replied; Fleur winced internally at the coolness of his words and tone – another sign of how frayed their personal relationship had become since the visit to Bulgaria. "My Minister also wished me to remind you of his having invited you to visit Britain; he feels that doing so would be particularly beneficial after recent events."

The Queen froze for a second; with everything that had happened recently, planning of an official visit had taken a back seat for her. "I will speak to the court," she promised, "and begin planning it. Perhaps we can meet when you have your country's expectations and we can formalise the itinerary?"

"I'll get back to you after I next speak to him," Harry gave her a bow before catching the eye of one of the serving girls; she came over to them, carrying her tray of drinks, and he took a glass from it. Fleur, though, waved her away.

"We will talk again soon then, Ambassador," she stated before leaving him; Harry caught Danielle watching him and headed over to speak to her again; Gabrielle watched for a moment before looking away sulkily.

Minister's Office,

Ministry of Magic,

Sofia, Bulgaria

"Minister," the General saluted as he was shown into the office.

"You have news?" Oblansk asked, looking up from behind his desk.

"I checked with the border troops. The only legal entry that caused any interest to our people was a group of Irish tourists. Our forces tried to tail them but they were able to slip away from them."

"So they knew they were being followed?" the Minister was intrigued.

"Yes. According to the tail, they were subtle, he was subtle, but he was spotted. He's one of our best so there's no doubt in my mind – they were not just regular wizards… and a witch," he added.

"Get pictures of them and circulate them around the Ministry," he ordered. "We will see if anybody recognises them." The General nodded and, with another salute, he left the office.

"Contact Minkov," Oblansk turned to his aide, "he needs to speak to his Irish counterpart. I need to speak to their Ambassador. See to it that a meeting is set up for today." The aide nodded and left the office.

"Do you really think the Irish were behind this?" the Bulgarian Deputy Minister asked when Oblansk informed him of this development; the Minister shook his head.

"I am convinced that it was Britain," he replied, "but we can use this to our advantage. By agitating the Irish we can force them to investigate things. When they discover British operatives have been acting illegally while pretending to be Irish…" he smiled, "there will be difficult discussions between London and Dublin."

Ministry of Magic,

London, United Kingdom

"Ambassador," James extended his hand as the Lily showed the Frenchman into the room; he accepted it and, a firm shake later, the Ambassador settled into the chair he'd been offered.

"Minister, I will admit I was surprised to receive your request for a meeting."

"I wanted to advise you, and your government, of recent events." He went on to discuss the signing of the treaty with the Veelas (something that surprised his guest), along with the fall-out from the visit to the Bulgarian exclave (though, for now, he neglected to mention the abduction and recovery of the Veela girls).

"The Bulgarians expect you to surrender your son to them?" Dubois asked incredulously.

"That was their demand," James replied. "Of course they must know that I would not do that."

"You are expecting a difficult time in the ICW then?"

"I think Bulgaria can be expected to make some noise. Our position is that the troops were invading an exclave, rather than being in their own country. That will probably be the main sticking point."

"I will have to speak to my Minister," the Ambassador cautioned, "but I would expect our man to support your argument."

"There are a couple more things, Ambassador," James continued, silently wondering if he would be getting more support in the ICW from France than he did from Dumbledore. He passed on the intelligence about the Empire that had been collected from the Veela women; again, Dubois promised to pass it on to his government. "The last thing," the Minister gave a small smile, "is that we have extended an official invitation to the Veela Queen to make a Royal Visit to Britain. No date has been set yet but we hope that it will happen soon."

"Indeed?"

"Yes. When it happens I would like to invite you, and our other allies, to meet her as well. I believe the Veelas will make a valuable addition to our alliance and that this will encourage them to come more into the magical world again."

The Ambassador nodded as he pondered the invitation. "I will raise it with my Minister," he promised, "but we both know her opinion of the Veelas." They shared an understanding nod before the Frenchman stood; James did likewise. "Minister," they shook hands again and he left.

Studzienna,

Kraków, Poland

It was an unassuming house in an unassuming neighbourhood. Few people paid any heed to the family who lived there; they were civil enough to their neighbours but mostly kept to themselves.

There were stories in the area that once every month a faint, strange howling noise could be heard coming from their basement but the family, both parents and children, always seemed fine afterwards so nobody worried about it, getting on with their own lives and leaving them to get on with theirs.

It was an unusual situation; even in the magical world it was rare for two werewolves to marry and have children. The condition was, fortunately, not hereditary but they had relied on support from sympathetic family in keeping the children safe on a full moon until the eldest was able to understand his parents' affliction and ensure the family's safety. That there were two werewolves together also helped; their mutual company keeping the worst of the wolf's attributes at bay during their transformations.

In fact, their synergy was so good that they had been able to make a success of a muggle life; both held down good jobs in the area and, so long as they kept non-magicals at arm's length, nobody needed to suspect that they were a pair of werewolves with three magical children, especially as they were doing so well that they could afford a private monthly delivery of Wolfsbane from the country's premier potion supplier. All of that looked set to change, however, with the rise of the Empire.

The potion master had quickly been conscripted into service by the puppet government, as had any others within the Empire's borders. Consequently their supply of Wolfsbane was about to dry up and, for the first time in a couple of years, they faced the unknowns of a dangerous transformation. Worse still, as registered werewolves (something that was commonplace across the continent, not just under the Empire) they had been targeted by troops seeking to press then into service of the Empire – and unwilling to take no for an answer.

These unwelcome changes had led to their home becoming an unofficial headquarters of the burgeoning resistance against the Empire (though, as werewolves, they were, unfortunately, distrusted by many of their would-be allies) and over the past few weeks a number of quiet meetings had taken place there on an evening.

"Are we ready?" the man of the house asked; looking around the room he saw his guests nod their assent.

"Tomorrow morning, 10 o'clock we strike," one of them declared, his voice thick with anticipation. "The Ministry building in Warsaw, the local offices in Poznan, Szczecin, Krakow," he nodded to his hosts, "Lublin and the rest. We will put them all under our control until a proper civilian government can be restored."

"What about the other magical districts? The shopping areas, the villages?" Another voice spoke up. "Should we look to secure those too?"

"We give the wizarding population the opportunity to join us in throwing off our oppressors," he replied. "But a direct attack on civilians or on people's livelihoods would undermine our cause and make us as bad as the people we stand against."

There were general nods of agreement for this. The wizards pulled out pocket watches and ensured that they were synchronised. "Ten o'clock," the ringleader said again.

"Ten o'clock," they chorused, apparating away with a sense of anticipation.

"Are you sure this is safe?" The householder's wife spoke up when their guests had left.

"No," he replied simply. "It is a war and it is one that we may not survive," he continued honestly, "but upstairs are the reasons I must do this, so the life we have built for them is now ripped away from us all."

She nodded bravely. "I have told them after school that they should go to my sister's and that we will collect them from there later on. Only Antosz knows that that may not happen."

"He has the letters for our employers?"

She nodded. "Whether they believe what is written in them or not I hope we never have to find out."

"If they are delivered then the Empire will quickly send their hit squad to Obliviate them."

"At least it will keep them busy in the aftermath of what we've attempted. Hopefully, even if we fail, it will encourage others to fight for their freedom."

Tired of the defeatist talk she smiled at her husband. "Come," she took his hand, "if this may be our last night together, our last on this earth, then there are better ways to spend it than worrying about the future."

Ambassador's Suite,

Le Chateau Delacour,

Location Unknown

Wednesday, 19th November 2003

Someone with far fewer concerns for the future was Acting Ambassador Potter; he woke to the increasingly familiar feeling of a naked blonde snuggled against his side. He used his left hand to gently brush her hair from his bare chest, revealing her smiling face as he tucked in behind her ear though, with her eyes closed, he was unsure for the moment whether she was awake or asleep – at least until her smile widened and her eyes fluttered open.

"Good morning Danielle," he greeted her.

"Good morning 'Arry – I mean Amb…" He cut her off with a gentle finger to her lips.

"In this room, and especially in my bed," he smirked, "Harry is fine." His smile widened. "'Arry is even better," he joked, replacing his finger on her lips with his own.

Danielle propped herself up on her elbow and they shared another gentle kiss. "Then 'Arry it is," she giggled.

"What happened to last time being a one-off?" he asked teasingly, slipping his left arm around her and pulling her on top of him before stealing yet another kiss.

"I changed my mind," she replied simply, swinging her right leg over to straddle him. "Besides," she grinned as she felt him harden beneath her and used her knees to elevate herself enough to accommodate him before sliding back on top of her lover, "it doesn't seem like you're complaining."

"Not at all," he replied, kissing her again. "Not at all."

"You still owe me nothing, 'Arry," she told him as they dressed to go for breakfast. "Who knows what the future will bring? For now I just enjoy the moment," she kissed him again before adding in a low, conspiratorial voice, "and enjoy you," before taking his hand and leading him out of the suite; Harry was busy with his thoughts as they walked to the Main Hall.