OK, that looks like a big 'No!' to Origin, as hardly anyone's looked at it. ;^)

Should have known I guess, tried a Steampunk spin-off of the contemporary spy/sci-fi series I originally fanfics wrote for for a while and while it had some enthusiastic followers, it never got more then half the views my other stories did. It still did one hell of a lot better than what was supposed to be the start of Origin though, and it was the basis for my first steampunk novel series out in the 'real' world, I don't really see medieval magic stories working there.

Might be time to head back to the twenty first century anyway, they seem to be making comments about unfinished stories in that space, though Donald has screwed up at least one of them now. ;^)

NB: I realised that I'd left holes in the changes to the underpinnings of Magical Britain, so I went back and made a small amendment, in that the Hufflepuff title and holdings for the County of Leinster and others was reinstated and bequeathed to Sirius, like the Peverell titles and holdings were reinstated and bequeathed to Harry, so Sirius is now the Duke of Gwynned and Leinster and the titles and holdings for the original Most Ancient Houses are all under the control of the Potter Alliance. Basically, between the seven Duchies of Harry, Sirius and Luna, they have coverage of nearly all of Britain and over a quarter of Ireland, and the counties between those of the group fill in the rest of the holes.

Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.

Black House had become the family seat of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black after Black Manor, the country seat of the family, was destroyed in the fighting towards the end of the second Goblin Rebellion of the eighteenth century. The House of Black was getting more heavily embroiled in political chicanery in the last decades of the eighteenth century, so the current Lord Black at the time decided that it would be advantageous to base himself in Black House in London rather than put divert the family fortunes into rebuilding Black Manor and moving back to Wales. None of the succeeding Lord Blacks had seen any great benefit in overturning this decision, so the Blacks had become entrenched in Black House from then on.

Sirius side-along apparated Harry into Black House because it was under a fidelius charm, and the screeching from the magical portrait hanging in the foyer that greeted them the moment they arrived about the disgrace and affront of having blood traitors and filthy half bloods in her house put paid to any doubts that Harry may have had about whether Sirius and Remus had been exaggerating about what it was like quick smart. Sirius looked at the portrait with loathing before turning to Harry with a wry grin. "Harry, meet my dear old Mum, Walburga Black, hopelessly psychotic in life and twice as bad in death!"

That just set his mother's portrait off again, of course, and the non-stop screeching almost masked the approach of another. Harry however felt the magic of the Black family elf, Kreacher, approaching and quickly spun around to face him. The way that the elf's hand was extended towards Sirius told enough of a story for Harry to blast him back up the stairs with a banishing spell. That brought silence down over the foyer, but only briefly.

Walburga's portrait started screeching again, but this time it was directed at the stupid elf for failing to deal with her traitor of a son as he'd been ordered to. Harry realised then that the portrait had been trying to hold their attention to allow the elf to sneak up behind them and decided to do something about the situation. He didn't discuss this with Sirius, he just cast a non-verbal, wand-less 'immobulus' charm at the elf, quickly followed by a similar summoning charm. Once the elf was standing in front of him facing the portrait, unable to move (or speak as he'd also cast a 'silencio' spell over it as well), he told Sirius to get away from his mother's portrait before he started speaking to it.

"You are aware, Lady Black, that Sirius has been magically accepted as both Lord Black and the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and that he has in fact rightfully been the Head of the House of Black ever since his grandfather, Lord Arcturus Black, died?"

"Of course! Druella's girl Bellatrix informed me of that when she came seeking assistance. It's nothing but a disgrace! Him, a traitor to the House of Black being made the Head of the House and Lord Black!"

Harry snorted. "Didn't Bellatrix tell you that she wasn't a Black any more? The Head of the House of Black banished her from the Black family and ordered the dissolution of her marriage, so she has no name! He did the same for Narcissa but he accepted her formally back into the family, just as he did Andromeda and Nymphadora…..Oh, and by the way, he isn't Lord Black any more…." He paused long enough for the portrait to begin to look delighted before he continued. "Sirius has now been recognised and elevated to Duke Black by Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. "

When she started screeching that the filthy muggle queen meant nothing in their world, he cut her off. "I thought the Blacks were supposed to be properly educated in the rules of our world! We retain control of Magical Britain purely at the forbearance of and by the rule of the titles and holdings bestowed upon us by the King or Queen of Britain! The King or Queen can take all of that that away from us at any time if we do not comply with the terms of the Charter under which our world was created. What that means, you stupid hag, is that Her Majesty the Queen is quite capable of abolishing Magical Britain with one command if she so chooses!" He paused to collect himself.

"That is neither here nor there in the current matter however, you have just confessed to knowingly ordering a house elf who is bonded to the House of Black to murder the current acknowledged Head of the House of Black! Did your psychotic harpy of a niece also happen to tell you who the current acknowledged Heir to the House of Black is?"

The portrait spat out. "Yes! You, you filthy half blood! Kreacher was supposed to remove the blot of both of you from the house of Black! Useless elf couldn't even do that right!"

"So you chose to try to wipe out the House of Black rather than allow the one who was properly next in line to succeed from Lord Arcturus Black to take his rightful place, and for him as the rightful Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black to officially designate his own heir?"

"Neither of you could ever be fit to lead a proper pureblood house like the House of Black! You had to be eradicated before you could taint the Noble House of Black!"

Harry cut her off. "Portrait of Walburga Black! You have confessed to being guilty of ordering a Bonded House Elf of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black to eradicate the Most Noble and Most Ancient Houses of Black, Potter and Gryffindor, the Most Noble and Most Ancient line of Peverell and the French Ancient and Noble House of Flamel by murdering the acknowledged Head of the House of Black and his acknowledged heir. If you were living you would almost certainly be sent through the veil of death for your crimes, just as your niece Bellatrix was, but as you are no longer living, I will have to make do with ensuring that you cannot harm any of our houses with your insanity ever again!"

With that, he began to summon veela fireballs. Walburga's portrait started ridiculing him, secure in the knowledge that if her son and his werewolf cohort hadn't been able to do anything to her portrait, there was no way that a mere boy like this could! She very quickly changed her tune though when the first veela fireball hit the portrait and it began to burn like a focussed ball of fiendfyre. She went from scoffing, to screeching, to pleading in a matter of seconds but Harry just lobbed another fireball at her, and then another. Harry didn't vanish the fire until the portrait and its frame were completely gone and a hole had been burnt right through the wall where it had been hanging.

When the portrait was gone, Harry kept Kreacher frozen there in place, facing the hole where the portrait had been, as he walked around to face him. He cancelled the 'silencio' before he addressed him. "Kreacher, Bonded House Elf of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Did you hear Duke Black's late mother's portrait acknowledging that Duke Sirius Orion Black is currently the rightful Head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Black?"

Kreacher just stared at the hole burnt through the wall with tears in his eyes. "Mistress…."

"You have no mistress! Any claim that Walburga Black may have had to your loyalty as the mistress of this house died with her ten years ago! For that matter, she should have been banished from the Black family for trying to withhold the titles of the Head of the House of Black and Lord Black from Sirius as the rightful heir after the previous Lord Black died. Sirius's grandfather, Lord Arcturus Black, died before she did and the house magic would have been trying to bestow the titles on Sirius as its new master back then. Again! Did you hear the confirmation that Duke Sirius Black is now the rightful Head of the House of Black?"

Kreacher muttered "Yes."

"Did you also hear that I, Duke Henry James Potter-Gryffindor am now the acknowledged Heir to the House of Black?"

Kreacher muttered "Yes." again.

"Yes What?"

"Yes…... Master." came out grudgingly but audible.

"Were you aware that you were attacking the rightful head of the House of Black and his heir?"

"Not exactly….Master."

"Explain!"

Kreacher looked up at the hole in the wall again. "Mistress…..."

"You have no Mistress! Explain!"

"The Master's mother told me to get rid of the traitor son and the filthy half blood if they ever came to Black House."

"That does not explain your comment of 'not exactly'. Explain!"

"Miss Bella was talking to Mistress about the son being made Head of the House and making the filthy half blood his heir."

"So you knew that you were trying to kill your rightful master and his heir!"

"No master, they never used your names…."

Sirius swore and started to lift his wand, but Harry grabbed his hand.

"Kreacher. Do you now acknowledge Duke Sirius Black as your rightful master and me as his rightful heir?"

"Yes, master."

"And you understand that attempting to harm your rightful master or his heir in any way will make you liable for the most horrible punishments that we can find or create for you?"

"Yes, master."

"So will you now obey Duke Sirius Black in all things and never attempt to harm him in any way?"

"Yes, master."

Harry waved to Sirius to hand it over to him then and Sirius took up the baton.

"Kreacher, from this moment, you will never refer to any member of the Black family or any guest of this house as traitor, blood traitor, half blood or Mudblood, or use any derogatory references such as dirty, filthy or anything of the like about them. You will refer to them by a respectful and appropriate name and title. Do you understand?"

"Yes Master."

"Alright, how will you address Harry from now on?"

"Master Harry, Master."

"What about Duchess Potter?"

"I do not know who that is Master."

"Duchess Potter is Hermione, Harry's muggleborn wife."

Kreacher hesitated, then forced out. "Mistress Hermione, Master."

"Good, what about Remus?"

"Mister Remus, Master."

"What about male or female guests who's names you don't know?"

After a moment, Kreacher said. "Mister or Miss, Master?"

"Very good, though it should be 'Missus' if the female guest is older and appears to be married."

Sirius glanced at Harry with an evil grin before turning back to Kreacher. "What about Harry's other wives? Ginny, the Duchess Gryffindor, Astoria, Lady Black and Gabrielle, the Lady Flamel?"

Kreacher hesitated again, but this time it was because he was looking confused. "Mistress Ginny, Mistress Astoria and Mistress Gabrielle Master?"

"Very good, now what about Harry's other partners, Fleur, Daphne, Luna and Padma?"

"Miss Fleur, Miss Daphne, Miss Luna and Miss Padma Master?"

"Very good Kreacher, if you keep this up I will allow you to continue serving the House of Black and won't have you killed painfully. Now, do you recognise this?" He held up the fake Slytherin locket.

Kreacher's eyes lit up at first. "Master Rugulus's locket….. No, that is the one that Master Regulus left on that rock in the lake…." Then he started crying. "I failed Master Regulus Master, he ordered me to destroy the other locket, but I couldn't. He ordered me to take it and go when those things were coming and to make sure that it was destroyed so that Miss Bella's Lord could never get it, but nothing I did could destroy it..."

Harry knelt down in front of him to look him in the eye. "Kreacher, do you know where the other locket is now?"

"Yes Master Harry, it is in Kreacher's cupboard." He was so distraught about failing Regulus that he missed the expression that crossed over Harry's face when he mentioned his cupboard because even seven years later, any reference like that brought back memories of the cupboard he'd been locked up in and the abuse he'd suffered at the hands of his loving relatives. Harry controlled his expression and asked. "Can you bring the other locket to us please Kreacher?"

Kreacher nodded, saying. "Yes Master Harry" and was gone, popping back after a brief delay with something that looked just like the one in Sirius's hand, but felt totally evil. There was no question that they'd located the last horcrux! Harry held out a dark objects container that they'd brought with them and had Kreacher place the locket in the container. As soon as he'd sealed the container, the room felt more wholesome, and Harry wondered whether this thing might have been at least partly responsible for making Kreacher the way he was, especially if he'd been sleeping with that foul thing in his…. cupboard all these years.

Harry wanted to just take the foul object and pop straight off to Gringotts to have the soul fragment destroyed, but he stopped for a moment to promise to Kreacher that they would ensure that Bella's Lord couldn't ever use it.

Kreacher's face and voice were full of wonder and gratitude as he hesitantly asked. "You will fulfil Kreacher's duty to Master Regulus for him?"

Harry started to nod, but saw Kreacher's eyes shining as he looked at the fake Slytherin locket hanging from Sirius's fist and remembered what Sirius had said about how Kreacher worshipped Regulus, so he quickly held out his hand and asked Sirius for the locket.

When Sirius handed it over. He pressed it into Kreacher's hands, saying. "Yes, we will ensure that what is in that locket is destroyed. And I think Regulus would want you to have this locket to remember him by Kreacher."

The normally dour, if not sour, elf was overcome with emotion at that and he dropped to his knees in tears.

Even Sirius, who'd hated the elf all his life because of the way his mother had made Kreacher act towards him, was moved by this, and awkwardly came forward to put his hand on Kreacher's head, speaking softly.

"The House of Black has changed forever Kreacher, and I think it's time Black House changed too. I want you to start cleaning up this house for me. For a start take down all the family portraits and magical paintings, as well as the family tapestry, and put them down in the basement, along with those damned elf heads. Then I want you to collect every single dark object in the house and put them in the basement as well. When we have the time I'll go through them and decide what to keep, but I don't want them in the house. I'll get the goblins to come in to ward the basement so that the dark objects down there are separated from the rest of the house, but I need you to move them all down there for me, can you do that Kreacher?"

Kreacher's whole attitude and dispositon had changed with Harry's promise to complete his duty to Regulus for him. "Yes Master, Kreacher will move all the nasty objects down to the basement."

"Good, and when that's done, we'll see about making the house a bit brighter and cheerier, then maybe we can get some life back into this house! Or rather get some life into it, I cannot remember a time where this was a place for living."

With that, they left Kreacher to it and popped off to Gringotts. Harry's (and to a lesser degree Sirius's) status in the Goblin Nation was such that as soon as they were recognised, they had no trouble as the goblins had a standing order to assist Harry in anything he requested. The specialists were examining the locket when Gringott hurried in (the Head Goblin was actually named Gringott the Fourteenth, and Harry had been made one of very few who were allowed to address him by his familiar name in private before he started at Hogwarts as Gringott found the extraordinary human child delightful) excitedly asking. "You've found it? You've got the last horcrux?"

Harry grinned at him and nodded. "It has actually been hidden in the Black family townhouse since Sirius's brother Regulus stole it from Voldemort, and as long as your team were right about how many of those foul things were made, yes! If they are correct, as soon as this soul fragment is destroyed, Voldemort will be once again mortal and we can destroy him once and for all. The war will be over, forever!"

The team cast the cleansing spells over the locket and confirmed that no dark magic or presence remained. They also measured the amount of magic, or soul, that had been released. On the basis of their measurements, they estimated that this had probably been the third horcrux created. On the basis of Harry's memories from the Chamber of Secrets of the reaction when Harry 'cleansed' the diary and what Riddle had said, Riddle's diary was probably the first horcrux. From their measurements when the soul fragment was destroyed and the records of when Riddle's father and his family had been murdered, the Gaunt (or rather, Peverell, actually) ring had almost certainly been the second. The emissions measured as the soul fragments were released and Auror reports regarding their previous owner's death appeared to place Slytherin's locket as the third, with the Hufflepuff cup as the fourth. They'd had to use the memories of those who had been there when they found Ravenclaw's diadem and destroyed the soul fragment to make a prediction as to where it came in the order that they were made, but after reviewing all of them and making a projection from what the Grey Lady told them about Riddle coming to her to ask about the diadem, they were fairly certain it had been the fifth horcrux made.

There was also some argument over which was the sixth and which was the last horcrux because some of the team argued that no snake could have lived longer than Harry, even when it was pointed out that Nagini was obviously Voldemort's familiar and well steeped in magical enhancements. Quite aside from the 'a snake can't live that long' argument though, the fact that the measurements taken at the removal of the soul fragment that was trapped in Harry's scar showed something notably less than Harry's memories from the graveyard when he cut off Nagini's head and then cast the cleansing spell as the soul fragment that escaped did seemed to indicate that the horcrux in Nagini had been created before the Horcrux in his scar.

Whichever order the first and second, third and fourth and sixth and last horcruxes had been made though, going by the orderly reduction in magical energy released as each soul fragment was destroyed, they were fairly certain that they had now located and destroyed all of Voldemort's planned horcruxes, and the accidental one in Harry's scar as well. They were all excited about that, because it hopefully meant that the next time Harry (or whoever) killed Voldemort, the bastard should stay dead!

Through all of this, they'd been forcibly ripping any memories that had anything at all to do with Voldemort out of Dumbledore's head, and these had tapered off to the point where they appeared to have them all. Knowing what Harry had in mind, Hermione called for a family discussion, hoping that between them they might be able to talk him out of his incredibly dangerous decision to take Dumbledore's magic into him.

That discussion didn't quite go as she planned though, because Fleur pointed out that the bond that Harry, Hermione, Gabi and herself shared should be able to act as a safety valve, letting some of the magic bleed over into them if it was too much for Harry to contain, like it had with the bursts of magic released when both she and Gabi had bonded with Harry and her. While the logic of Fleur's argument eased Hermione's fears about what might happen to Harry, it raised another concern, because now she was worried about what it might do to her baby if magic was channelled into her while she was pregnant. That was a valid enough concern for Harry to agree to hold off with the ritual until after their son was born, especially as she had less than two months to go.

The fact that Dumbledore got to keep his magic for another month or two didn't mean that he got a free ride though, they were still taking turns ripping memories out of his head every day, looking for whatever might be useful. None of them had any qualms about doing this, as no punishment they could inflict on the old bastard could ever balance out the nearly hundred years of manipulation, abuse, theft and sending anyone he felt like to be tortured or killed to serve his damned greater good.

The ones who worked him the hardest were Amelia, Angela, Alistor, Frank, Alice, Sirius and Kingsley. They were the ones who had been Aurors the longest and therefore had seen the most effects of atrocities inflicted on people. Most of them had more nightmares than Harry because of what they'd seen, but now it was worse, because now they had to rethink anything and everything that they'd ever done at the direction of the 'leader of the light', given that they now knew that he was at least as much of an amoral monster as any others that they'd ever faced.

With that knowledge, they were now wondering whether they had killed, maimed or tortured innocent people, just because they had gotten in the way of some plan that Dumbledore had, or he decided that their death or suffering would serve him in some way. That was why they were working him so hard. They were trying to extract useful information from him, to be sure, but they were also looking for evidence that their actions as part of the DMLE at his direction had not just been to satisfy some terrible whim of Albus Fukn Dumbledore.

The next time Sirius went back to Black House, he was shocked enough to apparate straight back to grab Harry before they popped into Gringotts to get a team of dark object specialists and returned to Black House. As soon as they arrived, Harry understood Sirius's reaction, as the oppressive feeling that had dominated the house before was gone, now it felt light and airy, even hopeful somehow. They had to laugh, as Kreacher had obviously taken Sirius's instruction to heart. Quite aside from every picture being taken from the walls, at first glance it appeared that he'd stripped most things from the rooms as well.

When they looked more carefully, it was only roughly half of the items in the house that were now missing, but he'd apparently removed anything that had the slightest dark taint to it. Sirius wasn't complaining, this house that he grew up in had never felt this wholesome or free, but he shuddered to think what it would be like down in the basement now with all of those dark objects concentrated in one space. None of them were surprised when the Gringotts team came up blank when they swept the house for any remaining dark objects, so they proceeded to the basement to process what was down there.

As expected, the atmosphere in the basement was hard to endure, as not only were all of the dark objects from the house concentrated in one area, but their effect was contained in there by the additional wards that Sirius had had applied by the goblins. It was quickly decided that everything should be transported to a warded Gringotts cavern to be sorted out and either cleansed or destroyed.

Given that the cleansing, and some methods of destruction were to be chargeable services, Sirius had to decide what was to be cleansed and what was to be destroyed. Because of the size of this task, he enlisted the help of Andi, Cissi, Tonks, Harry, Remus and Angela to get this done. They were aided in this by the goblins casting cleaning spells over all the items as they were sorting them. The obvious priority were the darkest objects, as the goblins didn't want them in their domain. Some of these had been so dark that the goblins hadn't waited for Sirius's ruling, they were immediately cleansed if they were of valuable, or destroyed if they weren't.

Sirius, Andi and Cissi were seeing many of the Black heirlooms in a whole new light, now that they were properly cleaned and in a brighter setting than they'd been used to in Black House. Many of them turned out to be priceless antiques, which made the decision to cleanse rather than destroy an easy one. A good many of the lesser dark objects had actually been tainted through proximity to darker objects sitting beside or inside them, which made the cleansing a simpler and cheaper prospect, and quickly reduced the piles of objects that they were working through.

After a week of them all working through the objects when they had the time, they were largely down to the magical paintings and portraits and the family tapestry. Sirius's first reaction was just to burn the lot of them, but they talked him into dealing with them on a case by case basis. Andromeda, Narcissa, Tonks and Harry pointing out that by doing so, he would be throwing away a large part of the Black family heritage without any care for his responsibilities to the House that he was the head of was instrumental in driving the point home. As the ones with the best knowledge of Black family history, Sirius, Andromeda and Narcissa agreed that they never wanted to hear what more than a handful of the Black portraits from the last hundred years would have to say, so it didn't take them long to work through the portraits from that period.

The further they went back, the more magical portraits they decided to keep, and there was no question of getting rid of the earliest ones from medieval times. The first Black portrait was Llywelyn Du (who had been the Ealdorman of Powrys and Head of the Black Family when Hogwarts was founded), because the process to create magical portraits was discovered at Hogwarts in the early rush of discoveries there. This was how they also had the portraits of Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and Harry's ancestor Aelfred Allerdale, the Ealdorman of Cumbria and Head of the Family at that time.

In the end, they had about a quarter of the Black magical family portraits and magical paintings with Black family members in them destroyed. The joy on Sirius's face as the tapestry and then the paintings were fed, screaming, arguing and pleading, into the incinerator was a little disturbing, but the fact that his cousins looked almost as happy said quite a bit about the nature of many of the Black family over the last century at least.

Once it had been cleaned and cleansed, most of the furniture was returned to Black House, being stored in the basement with the paintings that had been kept. After that, it was fairly quick work to go through the rest of the dark objects that had been collected. As with the goblins' previous practice, if the items were valuable (or a Black family member had a reason to keep it) they were generally cleansed, otherwise they were destroyed. Sirius wrapped up his contract with Gringotts by getting them to go through Black House and cast the same cleaning spells over the rest of the furniture etc, also having a team go through room by room to repaint and re-carpet and settled up. It hadn't been a cheap exercise, coming to over 150,000 galleons with the revised and strengthened wards and fidelis charm that the goblins had applied. Sirius was happy with it though because once the paintings and furniture were back it was like a new place.

With less strength in the ley lines through London to infuse power into the wards, they weren't as strong as they were at Potter Manor, but Gringotts was the only location in London that might have stronger wards than Black House, so the family now had three secure locations. Hogwarts wasn't quite as locked down as the other sites, but the Founders Tower was (it was the most secure part of Hogwarts). Potter Manor was the most secure magical location in the British Isles, and Black House was as safe as it got in London. No-one in the extended family ever stayed anywhere but one of these safe locations in Britain.

The answer to the question of how to get Her Majesty's Special Task Force (or the Eat Death force as it was generally known) to where they were needed came out of Russia, strangely enough. When the Soviet Union was disbanded at the end of ninety one, most of the Soviet Navy became the Russian Navy, but Russia was so broke that they mothballed many of the ships. Someone on the task force from the Royal Marines heard through the grapevine that the Russians were decommissioning the helicopter carrier, Moskva, and commented that something like that would have the capacity to move their men and helicopters to wherever they were needed. The others could see merit in the idea, so Harry, Remus, Sirius, the twins and a few other like minded witches and wizards popped over to St Petersburg with some non-magical engineers to have a good look at the Moskva.

It didn't take long for them to decide that it wouldn't be too hard to make her into what they wanted and do a deal to acquire her cheaply. They could see the twins' minds working overtime and when they explained their idea, the others couldn't decide whether they were insane, or insanely brilliant. Their first idea was to come up with new fiendfyre fired boilers to feed the steam turbines, giving her better speed and virtually unlimited range, and reducing the crew requirements to boot. The lower weight and placement of the steam plant and reducing the height and weight of the superstructure meant that she wouldn't be thrown about in heavy seas as much as she'd been with the previous configuration, and they also wanted to enclose the lower deck at the stern to make her more sea worthy, so all in all, she would be a much better ship than she'd been when the Russian Navy had her. On top of that, their calculations were saying that with enough powerful muggleborn witches and wizards working together, they could generate port-keys to move the entire ship to within striking distance of where attacks were happening. This was proven by them moving the ship to the River Tyne once it was out of sight of St Petersburg and regular shipping in the Baltic.

Between the non-magical engineers and the twins and their magical ilk, the conventional steam driven Moskva was converted to the magical steam driven Ynys Môn fairly quickly and she was outfitted with what was needed to make her into a mobile base for the task force. Most of the Ynys Môn's crew was made up of magical engineers, and luckily for their cause, there were plenty of talented and powerful muggleborn witches and wizards who were both available and motivated to join up due to the traditional purebloods' bigotry in Magical Britain.

The vaults of the Death Eaters funded much of the purchase, refitting and outfitting of the Ynys Môn, and many of the task force were like little school boys, excited as they were about what they had to play with now. This was probably the best equipped outfit in Her Majesty's armed forces. They had six Super Lynx, four Merlin and two Tiger helicopters, two Warrior IFVs, eight Saxon APCs and fourteen Land Rover Wolfs (all warded against magical attacks as much as possible). They also had separate portable anti tank and sniper weapons, machine guns, missile launchers, mortars etc. They had seen the memories of the last war and knew that, as well as Death Eaters, they could be facing inferi (some sort of zombie), werewolves, vampires, those dementor things, trolls, giants and even dragons ferfuksake! That was why, when they had the opportunity to get their hands on a wide array of heavier kit than they'd normally have a hope of getting, they went for everything they could!

The first time the Ynys Môn was deployed against a major Death Eater attack, the Death Eaters were decimated. The Ynys Môn was dropped into a large enough nearby river and a Merlin, two Super Lynxes and a Tiger were in the air before she'd stopped bobbing in the water. The Lynxes dropped the first response troops within a couple of hundred metres of where the Death Eaters were and seeing their mates being mowed down all around them as soon as they engaged scared the remaining Death Eaters too much to apparate out. The Merlin was right behind, dropping the main force, along with a team of wizards to cast anti apparation wards over the Death Eaters, while the Death Eaters were cowering behind what cover they could and that ensured that very few of the Death Eaters escaped.

At least one of the Death Eaters must have gotten out to cry for help though, because reinforcements turned up just as they were trying to get the others to surrender. Many of these new ones took to the air on brooms, obviously planning to curse the muggles from above. The Death Eaters jeered at the ones who had them pinned down when they saw that, but changed their tune very quickly when the guns on the Tiger and the Lynxes opened up and dropped, if not shredded, every Death Eater in the air as soon as they got above the rooftops.

The remaining brave Death Eaters promptly threw out their wands and surrendered as soon as they saw how easily and quickly everyone on a broom had been taken out. The ones surrendering were smug, sure in the knowledge that they'd get away as soon as the stupid muggles thought that they had them locked up. Their sneers gave way to fear and confusion rather quickly when they were secured with magic suppressing cuffs and all of their wands were snapped though. How did muggles get these, or even know anything about this?

That question was answered when the wizards supporting the team stepped out and the Dukes (as Harry and Sirius had come to be known in Magical Britain and the task force) popped in once the shooting stopped. Starting with the worst wounded, they used the ritual to strip the Death Eaters of their magic and transfer it to the witches and wizards of the Ynys Môn. Taking their magic killed most of the Death Eaters and boosted the power of the witches and wizards of the Ynys Môn, so this was a win/win in Harry and the others' minds.

This became the standard modus operandi of the task force (and the Aurors) after this, as soon as the Death Eaters were taken down, someone from the family would come in to use the ritual to strip them of their magic and transfer it to the witches and wizards who'd opposed them. It didn't take long for Voldemort to stop sending large groups of Death Eaters on an attack (though Harry was hoping that he'd tortured at least the first few who tried to tell him how stupid what he was doing was to death as the fewer sensible or intelligent followers Voldemort had, the better it was for everyone else), but even with the smaller groups, the response practices still worked.

At least two Super Lynxes, one Merlin and one Tiger were restrained on the helicopter deck of the Ynys Môn and a Warrior, two Saxons and two Land Rover Wolfs were restrained on the hanger deck in a ready state at all times. Two platoons of troops were geared up and ready to go and enough witches and wizards to move the Ynys Môn were on duty 24/7. As soon as the word of an attack came through, two of the witches or wizards would apparate in to see what force the Death Eaters had while the crews and troops boarded the helicopters and vehicles to start running them up.

Port keys would quickly be prepared to take the Wolfs in and pin the Death Eaters down. Where the attack was small, the Saxons and perhaps the Warrior would follow if the initial force wasn't enough to deal with them. If the attack was significant, the witches and wizards would drop the Ynys Môn into the closest body of water big enough to hold her, the deck crew releasing the restraints on the helicopters as they did so to enable them to take off as soon as they arrived. They could also send the Merlin, Super Lynxes and/or Tiger directly there, but it took their pilots a bit to get used to getting control of the helicopters when they arrived in mid air the way they did.

The wards applied to the Ynys Môn normally kept her disillusioned, and most of the helicopters and vehicles were as well, so the task force's operations could be carried out with minimal need to obliviate innocent bystanders. This also saved a lot of questions about where this obviously military ship came from and who it belonged to between operations.

No matter what the scale of the attack though, the final step was always the same, bring in the Dukes or their people to perform the ritual to strip the magic from any living Death Eaters and transfer it to the task force's witches and wizards.

Some of the younger Death Eaters didn't die when they lost their magic. Where this happened, providing that they didn't need extensive medical treatment after the attack was put down to keep them alive they were obliviated, given different memories and dumped in the muggle prisons. The end result was that Voldemort's forces kept getting drained and the task force kept getting stronger as its witches and wizards had their magical power boosted with the Death Eaters'.

It didn't take much for Amelia to decide that this was the way to go, and she brought the Dukes or someone else from the family in to perform the ritual on any Death Eaters they took as well, transferring their magic to her more trusted Aurors. As with the ones the task force dealt with, most of the Death Eaters died when they lost their magic, any that didn't were obliviated, given new memories and handed over to Her Majesty's Special Task Force to bury in a prison somewhere.

The Aurors had less opportunities to take the Death Eaters' magic, because they didn't have the power of the muggle weapons to help take down the Death Eaters without killing them, so many of them managed to escape from the Aurors when they responded to the random attacks. It was usually only when the Aurors had a chance to plan the raids that they managed to have a significant win.

A/N: If anyone's interested about Llywelyn Du and Aelfred Allerdale, they're in Origin. ;^)

NB: The Moskva (Moscow) was real, and I've used her in other stories in another world, but I always thought that she was unfairly underrated. ;^)