March 1070

The next meeting had been scheduled for the spring equinox, but for various reasons had been pushed back almost a week to near the end of March. That entire week, Eva spent all of her time either in the lab, reading books, or practicing Transfiguration on smaller bits and bobs. She'd been throwing herself wholeheartedly into the challenge I'd set her, practicing on different items and trying different methods of process-visualization, but she brought an entirely new level of focus to it during that last week.

Being a little concerned that she might overdo it, I told her that when she felt ready, she'd perform the Transfiguration in front of me, in my home, in case anything went wrong. The day before the meeting, she walked into my house with a look of determination, skipped lunch, settled her cloak on the table rather than hanging it by the entrance, and settled the block of wood atop the cloak.

I gave her points for not putting the block of wood she was trying to change in direct contact with my wooden table, and then both Elfleda and I settled back to watch.

First, Eva settled her fingers over and around the block of wood, touching every side of it. Second, she closed her eyes and steadily settled her breathing until it was rhythmic, calm, and barely audible. Presumably, she took the time to fix the image of what she wanted in her mind then as well, but I wasn't an empath or a telepath so I'm just guessing here. Third, she started pulling in magic and letting it flow out, into the wood. At that point, I leaned forward and opened my Sight, focusing on the block of wood.

Now, what she was doing was interesting. See, I would've thought that putting both hands to the object you were trying to change would be counterproductive. The left hand absorbed magic and the right hand emitted it, after all, so in my mind that should have led to some inefficiencies in this process. But Eva didn't just make it work, she seemed to make it an integral part of the process, forming a kind of magical circuit that washed away the qualities she didn't want while reusing some of the energy she'd already put in, getting the block used to being changed by magic. She let this cycle go on for about a minute until she'd made the block "pliable", for lack of a better term, and then she actually started working.

The outer layer of the block took on the sheen of copper, but rather than stop there and try to pass it off as done – which I would've seen through – she pushed the change further and further into the block, turning wood to copper at an accelerating rate. Then, once she was done turning it into copper, she didn't stop. Instead, she took her left hand off the now copper block and kept going, the block going from the reddish-orange sheen of copper to the grayish sheen of iron. This time the change was even faster, occurring in a matter of seconds rather than half a minute. Then, only once all the copper had changed to iron, did she let go of the block and pull back, breathing heavily.

While she caught her breath, I carefully picked up the block with my right hand, still gloved, and turned it over, peering through the magic that had seeped into the wood-turned-metal and making sure that she had indeed gotten everything. Once I was satisfied, I closed my Third Eye and put the block back down.

"Why did you change it from copper to iron?" I asked. I had some idea why, but I wanted to hear her explanation.

"Copper is associated with change, the flow of energy," Eva said in between breaths. "It seemed easier to turn wood into copper. But I wasn't sure the copper would stay that way for the entire three hours, so I needed something more permanent, like iron. So first I turned the wood into copper, then the copper into iron, rather than trying to go directly from wood to iron."

"And the hands?"

"I… just thought it would help, really. Leave as much magic that had been used to transform it into iron as possible in the block, to help encourage longevity and permanence," Eva replied.

I nodded, then moved both cloak and block over to the far end of the table. "Good. Now we give it three hours and see whether you've done it."

Given her obvious excitement, nervousness, and distraction, I figured it was a good time to practice more shielding. So, after an hour and a half of more flicks, followed by another hour and a half of more general theory and practice, I went back over to the block and once more turned my Sight upon it.

Even without looking at her, I could almost feel Eva's anticipation coming off of her. I even heard Elfleda snort in amusement as I inspected the block, which told me Eva must have been very tense right then.

After a full minute, I closed my Third Eye again and looked up at Eva. I engaged in a little schadenfreude and drew out the silence for a few seconds, before finally pronouncing my judgment, "Congratulations. You did it."

Eva let out an excited "Yes!" and then immediately, and very unsuccessfully, tried to compose herself, prompting Elfleda to snort again.

"Take tomorrow off," I said. "Do whatever, hang out. We're going to be leaving the day after. Can you handle convincing your brother to come along?"

"Oh, definitely," Eva said.

"She's been pestering him for most of the week," Elfleda added. "He's practically capitulated already."

"I was not pestering him," Eva replied with a frown.

"Enthusiastic encouragement, then."

"Well whatever the case may be, you've got the rest of today and tomorrow to prepare," I said. "Pack light. You'll want space for whatever we buy in London."

I spent the rest of the day brewing up a set of potions for the road in case anything untoward happened. Not that I expected anything to happen, but preparation is a vital virtue.

The next day, before noon, Helga, Rowena, and Salazar came back again. I'd changed the wards to recognize them, and so this time rather than switching from yellow to green to red as a proximity measure, my candle-flame turned blue. That gave me enough warning to lay out a quick spread of basic food – bread and stew – and finish a few seconds before they reached my door.

I let them in, sat them down, and we had brunch. Then we got started.

"Alright," Helga said once I'd cleared the table. "Rowena, if I'm remembering correctly, you did some testing with inserting the thaumaturgic detection we were planning to use into ley lines and have some ideas regarding how to make it work."

Rowena nodded.

"We'll leave that for last then as that's probably going to take the longest to explore and work through," Helga said before glancing at Salazar and me. "I don't know about you two though. Do either of you have a subject you think will require extensive discussion?"

"Not particularly," I said. Salazar just shook his head.

"Then I'll start," she said. "I was thinking about how to organize the school. Now, obviously we're going to have a pretty big divide between the talents that can reach the level of a wizard and a witch and those that can't, but I don't think it's a good idea to try and organize the school along that line. It's too…" Helga trailed off, searching for the right word. "Stratified. I don't want some students thinking they're better than others."

"That's going to happen regardless," Salazar pointed out.

"Well, yes, I suppose, but I don't want to encourage it," Helga said. "Part of the goal is to foster unity and understanding. And while at first we might only have a few students, if we're actually successful we're eventually going to have a lot of children to deal with. So, I'd like to make a system that can handle that right from the start."

Everyone nodded, and I motioned for her to go on.

"To that end, I came up with a kind of… House system, I think would be the right term," Helga said. "Splitting the students along lines that have nothing to do with magic and then having each of us look after a group, eventually delegating responsibility to people we trust as we get more students."

"How would you split them?" I asked, already having some idea.

"I was thinking by personality, so we'd find it easier to deal with our own Houses. Ravenclaw would be easiest with studiousness." Helga paused briefly, but Rowena didn't dispute that. "And Dresden with… uh…"

"Suicidal insanity?" Salazar suggested dryly.

I eadriced in his direction.

"I wouldn't put it like that. More like… bravery," Helga said.

"Suicidal insanity," Salazar repeated. "Added atop foolhardiness."

"Then I guess we can assign cynicism and stellar diplomatic skills to Slytherin," I replied.

Salazar eadriced in my direction.

"And Hufflepuff?" Rowena asked, diffusing the tension. Somewhat. A little.

Helga sighed. "I'm torn between determination and sanity."

I let out a muffled chuckle. "Heh."

"I'm serious. I seem to be the only normal one here," Helga insisted.

"I'm not denying that," I said. "It's still funny though."

Helga huffed.

"There's one issue that I can see with your idea, at least right away," I went on. "If you're splitting by personality, you're going to encourage… focusing on that trait. Extra brave, extra studious, extra acerbic, so on. You'd split the student body in a different way. I like the idea in principle, I'm just not sure personality's the way to go about implementing it."

"Though it pains me to say so, he has a point," Salazar said.

"Then what would you split it by?" Helga asked.

"Interests," Salazar said.

I grimaced, got a foul taste in my mouth, and said, "Yeah, that. With a bit of a twist. For the first… however long, six months, a year, two, whatever we decide, I'd say we split responsibility by gender. Salazar and I look after the men and boys, you look after the women and girls. Then, once they've had some time to learn and explore their strengths and weaknesses, we can sort them by their interests. So, the people that want to focus mostly on their magic and exploring that go to Ravenclaw, stuff like that."

Helga hummed in consideration. "Well, that kind of works. Dresden can fit the people willing to go out and monster hunt, but what about the other two?"

"Hufflepuff could represent those interested in unity and community. The less… extreme members," Salazar said. "Slytherin… I would have to consider. And must we use our names?"

"It's simple and descriptive," Helga began.

"Not really," I interjected.

"And as the people making the school it's our right," Helga continued, completely ignoring me. "Don't you want to be remembered?"

"I don't especially feel the need to, no, not by putting my name to an ephemeral institution," Salazar replied.

Helga pouted and made sad eyes at Salazar. Not puppy-dog eyes, but more like sad, pleading pig eyes. It's not easy to describe, especially for those who haven't dealt with farm animals, so just imagine puppy-dog eyes instead.

It was bizarrely effective.

"I… ugh, fine," Salazar capitulated.

"Great!" Helga practically chirped. "I'm fine with the idea, though it needs a little more work. Rowena?"

"I have no objections," Rowena said.

"I thought you'd at least sort of defend yourself," Helga said.

Rowena frowned. "But I am a studious recluse. Why would I dispute that?"

Helga let out an aggrieved sigh. "Fine. Whatever. That's it for me. Salazar, Harry?"

I ceded the floor, or rather the table, to Salazar and crossed my arms.

"Fundamentally, the main hurdle we are facing with the Council, particularly the Senior Council, is a lack of trust," Salazar began. "They don't believe that Helga's intentions are entirely benign, and none of us have the connections to simply persuade them. Now, I have associates, but those that are close to the Senior Council are not especially close to me, and vice versa, so that is not a viable solution either. Somehow, we must convince the Senior Council that supporting and promoting Hogwarts will not threaten their position and instead support it, and failing that we must find some way to put them in our debt or gain favor in their eyes."

"And do you have an idea as to how to do that?" Helga asked.

"I have ideas, but no firm plans. Establishing the school not in England or Scotland but rather on the mainland, closer to Constantinople, would be one way to help alleviate their concerns, by putting ourselves closer to their circle of influence, but it's not an especially viable option for a variety of reasons. A smaller concentration of ley lines, a lack of linguistic understanding, a lack of familiarity, a lack of connections. If we could find a direct Way from Edinburgh or the Hidden Halls or wherever we established our school to Constantinople, that would also help, but none of us are explorers of the Ways, and charted paths would require almost a day's journeying to reach the Hidden Halls. Not a simple route to take."

I felt the weight of my pentacle amulet against my chest, and considered whether it knew of such a way. In my time, the Hidden Halls had been the White Council's base of operations, its essential capitol. And Mom had been very… radical, and not appreciated by the Council – or the Wardens. I suspect I could count the number of times she visited the Hidden Halls on one hand and have fingers left over. But, on the other hand, Mom "could be in Beijing at breakfast, Rome at lunch, and Seattle for supper and stop for coffee in Sydney and Capetown in between."

For reference, Seattle was on the northwest coast of the Americas, the giant continent to the west of Eurasia, and east I guess, Sydney was on the southwest coast of Australia, the island continent south of China, and Capetown was near the south tip of Africa. In my time, of course. Right now all the latter places didn't exist.

It wasn't out of the possibility that Mom had found a Way that ran nearby, and if there was one Way that may still be the same even nine centuries in the past, it would be one between the Hidden Halls, one place associated with the White Council, and Constantinople, another place associated with the White Council.

I stretched and then scratched at my chest, flipping my pentacle amulet around in the process so the gem was pressing into my chest. I posed a few questions to the ruby, then hummed thoughtfully. "I think there might be a Way from the Hidden Halls to Constantinople. Might. If the paths haven't shifted over the centuries."

Helga glanced at me. "How do you know?" she asked.

"My mother explored the Ways, and she passed that knowledge on to me. But that was a while ago. I know some of it is outdated knowledge that's now more dangerous than useful, I just don't know how much," I said. "The Way itself, if it's still the same, isn't too difficult to traverse. It's short enough I'd be willing to try it. But if it isn't the same…" I trailed off and shrugged. "That, I'm not so willing to risk."

I didn't feel like revealing the truth of my mother's ruby. It was selfish, undeniably, but that was my heirloom. I wanted to keep it a secret, to keep it mine, no matter how much now-useless knowledge it could contain.

My colleagues didn't need to know about it.

"Does the Way pass through Summer or Winter?" Salazar asked.

"From what I can remember, it kind of crisscrosses," I said, referencing the ruby again. "Starting from the Hidden Halls you take a short trip through Winter, come out in the Black Forest, go to the edge, go back into the Nevernever, go down the hill of the island you appear on until you reach the shore, then leave, and that should lead you to Constantinople."

"Could you be more specific?"

"I could try. Why?" I asked.

"Bartering Ways out of a Faerie is like pulling teeth from a wolf," Salazar said. "It's simpler and cheaper to have them confirm the existence of a Way. Relatively, at least."

"I'll see what I can remember, then," I said.

"Do so." Salazar turned to face Helga. "But even that is not a true solution, just some… grease on the wheels. We would need to prepare and codify a proposal, accept oversight, make compromises, perform tasks for the Council. It will be a matter of steadily gaining their trust, a matter complicated by Harry's handling of Malfoy."

"And yours," Helga said. "You called him 'acceptably competent' to King William's face."

"Because Malfoy was clearly not up to the task of dealing with genuine threats. As a sort of menial servant however, he is perfect."

Helga let out another aggrieved sigh and rubbed her temples. "Is there anything you can actually suggest? Anything helpful?"

"Consider who on the Senior Council is most sympathetic to your arguments and proposals. Approach them, explain the miscommunication and misunderstanding, and ask how you can clarify the benefits of your proposal," Salazar said.

"I don't know if any of the Senior Council like me that much," she said.

"Then correct that. Spend a month in Constantinople, if not more. Appear invested in their dealings, see who you share interests with. If so far you have only been visiting Constantinople to present your arguments with only some variation on those arguments, it's no wonder you haven't been making progress."

"Can't you help me with that?"

Salazar steepled his fingers. "I can provide some support, but this is ultimately your project, your vision. You need to learn how to acquire and maintain support for it yourself."

Helga sighed. "Fine, fine. But can you offer any firm suggestions for what we can do?"

Salazar shrugged. "No, because I don't know what the Senior Council might want in particular. We're not at war and there are no urgent needs. That leaves personal projects and desires."

"Then… I'll keep that in mind the next time I go to Constantinople," she said. "Is that it?"

"Essentially." Salazar glanced my way. "If Harry were less… confrontational, and more well regarded, he could've made for a better advocate, but as it is."

"Yeah, yeah, the Council doesn't like me," I drawled. I almost added "what else is new?" but stopped myself just in time. "I get it."

"Do you? A not insignificant portion of the discontent is related to you. Your refusal to go to Constantinople, your circumvention of their authority by having Helga and Rowena test you, your connection to the Winter Court. It is not a case of simple dislike, but active wariness."

I sighed. "Well I can't really do anything about that now can I?"

"Not now, certainly. You've poisoned the well as it is," Salazar said.

"Unless you're leading into a way to fix that, I'm going to stop this discussion. Are you?" Helga asked Salazar.

"No," he said.

"Then that's it," she said firmly. "What's done is done and we have to just keep moving forward." She turned to face me. "Harry, your idea?"

"I think I have a way to sell the notion of the school to the nobles, our biggest issue when it comes to gaining legitimacy and acceptance," I said.

"Not the king?" Helga asked curiously.

"Well, him too, but… I'm not sure I like him, really. He rubs me the wrong way. I don't really feel like making him an offer directly. Getting all the nobles under him interested seems like a method that's just as effective."

"Mmm… I agree," Helga said.

"Really?" I asked, a little surprised.

"Yes. The king was charming at first, but he's… brutal. Pointlessly so, almost. It's one thing to put down rebellions harshly, I could maybe stomach that, but…" She scowled. "I've spent the last four months in his company, and I don't care to return. He ravaged the north of his own kingdom and condemned thousands to starvation just to drive off raiders."

I frowned. "What?"

"From what I understand the Saxon… royalists, loyalists, resistance, whatever you want to call them, centered around Edgar Etheling," there should be an AE symbol there on the Etheling but again, not writing that, "were skirmishing around the border with Scotland. William couldn't bring them to battle so instead of dealing with them he just… destroyed the north to deny supplies to the rebels, force them to starve or retreat back into Scotland."

"An effective, if distasteful, military stratagem," Salazar said.

"He slaughtered villages and burned food stores," Helga snarled. "He murdered thousands and left thousands more to starve in winter!"

Salazar reeled back from her, surprised. So was I; before then, I hadn't seen Helga get angry.

"Have you ever had to go without food, Salazar? It's like a gnawing void eating at you, consuming who you are. It's bad enough in summer, when you can try and supplement it with berries and mushrooms and small game. In winter? I saw people eating each other!" She took a deep breath and practically glared at him. "So no, I'm not particularly well disposed to him or interested in indulging his desire for control." She stood up and shook her head. "I need to go clear my head. Harry, your wards, please?"

"I didn't put them back up."

"Oh. Good. I'll be outside then." She swept out of the room, muttering under her breath. I heard the front door slam open and closed a few seconds later.

Silence rained for a good fifteen seconds. I glanced at Rowena, who looked over to where the entrance to my house was. A few moments later, she sighed and nodded at me.

"I'm going to go after her," I said. "Please don't leave this room."

Without waiting for a response, I got up and followed Helga. I found her pacing just outside my house, working grooves into the thawing ground. Her head snapped up when I opened the door and she almost yelled, then caught herself when she saw me.

"I'm fine," she said.

I looked down at her. "Really?" I asked.

"Alright, no, I'm not fine," she snapped. "Part of me is regretting saving the king now and not, as you said to Ursiel, letting him die and starting over with one of his sons. I know it's a stupid thought because there would have been a massive war and even more people would have died, but I can't move past the, the, the pointless barbarism of it all. I mean, what are we even doing, really? What's the point of putting weeks and months of effort into a project no one seems to appreciate while people are being murdered and reduced to savagery?" She took a deep breath and shook her head, still pacing. "God, I just… I get, to some extent, why Salazar's disdainful. I don't like it, I don't agree with it, but I get it."

I frowned. "You do?"

She looked up at me, sighed, and slowed her pacing. "I don't know if I should tell you this, it's a… a personal secret and…" She sighed again and ran a hand through her short-cropped hair. "Ugh. Fine. We interrogated you about all of your secrets, and I doubt Salazar will ever tell you himself and maybe this is me being a little spiteful but I think you deserve to know." She took a deep breath. "I don't know much. He didn't tell me much. But he used to be married, years or decades ago, I don't know exactly, he never talked about that."

"What happened?"

"One of his enemies, he thinks it's a faerie, decided to strike at him. But not directly. His wife was… a minor practitioner I believe, or a sorceress, I'm not sure which but definitely not a witch." She furrowed her brow in thought. "She was visiting her family in… Castilla? I think that's how he pronounced it. And this supposed faerie stirred up a witch hunt against his wife and her family and the villagers burned her family's house down, with everyone inside."

"Oh," I said quietly.

"When he found out… well, he didn't tell me that part. But now that I know he has a basilisk I think I can guess." She shook her head. "Anyway, he uh… hasn't taken it well, as you can see. Not that I blame him for that. I don't think he exactly hates peasants, but I don't think he cares, really. Or maybe he does hate them, I don't know." She sighed.

I didn't really have anything to say to that. Sure, I could disapprove of Salazar probably siccing his basilisk on a bunch of manipulated people and killing them all, and I did, but… I started a fucking war over the woman I loved. I could understand where he was coming from.

"Hogwarts is a good idea," I said. I didn't like saying that name, but I forced it out anyway. "It's worth pursuing. It's a way we can empower the people, protect them, spread our ideals. I don't know if we could ever stop war completely, but we can change how people approach it, how people weather it. If we had a network and support system, we could have helped those people in the north. If there were sympathetic nobles in William's court, they could've held him back. Those are kind of weak examples, but it's the idea behind them we're building towards. Cooperation, understanding, progress."

Helga let out a long sigh. "I suppose," she said. She kicked some melting snow around with her boot. "Alright. Uhm… what's that word you say, okay?"

I nodded.

"Okay. I think I've calmed down. Let's go back inside."

I nodded and opened a door for her. She lightly kicked her feet against the other, knocking the snow off her boots, and headed inside, hanging her cloak back up on the hanger. I did the same, and a few moments later we reentered the main room.

"Helga, I–"

"No, just… not now, Salazar," she said, shaking her head and taking a seat. "Where were we, Harry?"

"I think we need to think beyond just teaching magic," I said. "Just to take my own apprentice as an example, I'm teaching her how to read and write, how to do math, natural philosophy, actual philosophy. But none of those have anything to do with magic, they're just things wizards do and know. So that's my proposal: open the school to everyone, not just those with magic. We could potentially keep the actual magic lessons secret, just for those with magic, but everyone could benefit from the rest of the curriculum. And even if nobles aren't personally interested in learning to read and write and count, there's still a significant administrative benefit to having people that can do all of those things. It's just easier to keep track of lands, taxes, trade, businesses, everything if you have learned scribes. And we'll be producing people with those skills, one way or the other."

Salazar made a sour face at my proposal, but didn't say anything in response, just glancing quickly at Helga, who looked thoughtful.

"We'd need a lot more teachers, wouldn't we?" Helga asked. "If we were opening our doors to that many students. The four of us couldn't handle it."

"We were going to have to recruit more people at some point," I said. "If the school is even a quarter as successful as we hope, we're going to have a hundred students, if not more. It's going to be impractical to look after them and handle all the political aspects and the administrative and logistical aspects."

"That's true," Helga admitted. "But that would make it harder for us to get started. We'd need more people involved right from the start."

"Then find those people," I said. "Salazar suggested working with the Senior Council, but you don't have to limit yourselves to just them. Make friends with others on the Council in general. See who'd be willing to help. If you manage to convince a significant portion of the Council itself, that consensus agreement will put pressure on the Senior Council to go along with the project. And it keeps this project from being regarded as an insular, backwards, English thing."

"Alright. Say we manage that, just for the sake of argument," Helga said. "How do we handle the nobility here, skipping past the king?"

"That's a good question," I said. "You've met Robert, the lord who rules this town. I think he likes me, especially after York. He also listens to his personal chaplain, and I have a good relationship with him too. I have either a good or working relationship with basically all of his court, actually. And he's a major landholder. So I can start with him, gauge his interest, get him to start asking his vassals about it. Then, maybe I can go from him to his brother Odo, who as I understand it is basically the regent of England when William isn't around. He's also a bishop. I'm not really sure how that works, but maybe you or I could swing him. And if we can't, we can just branch out, help local lords, build goodwill, and sell them on the benefits of working with us."

Maybe I could get Elfleda involved somehow. I felt like she'd enjoy the challenge.

"We'll have to work on the details, but I like the sound of that," Helga said. "All in favor?"

Rowena nodded, and after a few seconds, Salazar grudgingly did the same.

"Great. That just leaves Rowena. What did you find out?" Helga asked.

"While it's possible to insert and propagate a spell matrix through a ley line, there's a commensurate loss of precision with distance, which means we would need to focus on a simple, robust matrix to ensure it captured the entire island. I have a few ideas towards that end..."