This chapter is just a bridging gap for the year and frankly if you hate the info dump type chapter, nothing new happened here. I enjoy imagining the world as it would be, influenced by motivations of people and how things would be different for them. The HP world, as it was conceived in late 1990s, is utterly mismatched and incomprehensible in today's world. How can an entire world of reality defying acts remain hidden, where even your wardrobe malfunction for your graduation remains on record for everyone to see for years.
Imagining something like an entire magical world remain secret because muggles cannot see Magical creatures or the spells, is ludicrous when even without seeing them, their efffects should be felt, and recorded. As such I find myself having to amend my imagination of how the Potter world will look like, in the early dawn of Information Age.
Those who do not appreciate the world building type fanfics, should primarily stay away from this story. And secondly if you still are reading through, and enjoyed the story despite the world building, you may not enjoy this chapter much, as it is more Slice-Of-Life. But beware, this is a long chapter, exactly 4800 words, longer than I am used to!
Anyway, tell me how it was! Thanks for reading!
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Chapter 20. Reminiscence
The last four years have been tiring. Out of fear of being controlled by my bigoted father, to having my freedom limited, having to socialise with other bigots and steadily kill my grey cells; OR be my own man, guide father away from his firm orthodox beliefs, guide both my parents to live out of the shadow of being devout followers of a fraud psychopath, kill the said psychopaths so that, I don't have to live under the thumb of zealots, all at the same time, make my father live out of the fear of "Dark Lord" and start calling him what he is, halfblood Tom Riddle!
All this, before the events conspire themselves against me and mine, and we find ourselves facing the forces of both Light and Dark.
I had a very narrow window before my Hogwarts years begin, when Voldemort was ignorant of our actions in the forest, Bellatrix and other zealots were safely imprisoned, Crouch Jr. was still under imperious, Pettigrew was accessible, Flamels were alive to pass on their knowledge, Dumbledore was still complacent, Hallows were in known location, Harry was still docile and impressionable, Chamber was not yet opened, and all death eaters still had not infiltrated the Ministry like in the war.
This presented a unique opportunity and offered substantial time to prepare. If my canon knowledge held true, Lucius was more an opportunist, than a zealot like Bellatrix and Crouch Jr. All he cared for was keeping his family in power, ruling over people like an aristocrat of old, enjoying the freedom such power offers, and gain respect and money in loads in the process.
If I showed the key weaknesses of the losing team, Lucius aligned with, and showed him the true identity of his lord and leader, then the invincibility of Voldemort becomes merely a trick in his eyes, and the uber-powerful leader becomes 'one trick pony'. And showing Lucius how easily Riddle's power can be dismantled into our own, well I would earn myself the trickier politician Lucius Malfoy as my closest ally and confidant, and his loyalty will be without question, as he is my father.
Knowing this, I set my path to plan out the careful dismantling of death eaters and his inner circle of followers. Some much to do, in so little time, when I was a man in his twenties with a devious mind and a seven year old body; who was going to believe me? Who was going to rely on my plans? So what did I do? I convinced my worth. I showed father my analytical skills, my academic skills, by learning Oclumency in months, 3 old languages in 4 months, basic texts on politics, social behaviour and nobility in mere weeks, and their advanced texts in the library within days.
We etched our name on all the important milestones in European Ministries, increased the rate of employment, improved their standard of living, made sure every Ministry knew exactly what muggles were capable of, and their projected growth of technology and influence which could threaten our magical world and statute of secrecy.
The European Ministry shed their differences and united in the cause to promote strict regulations of control. When I showed the new surveillance capabilities, long-distance communication equipments, RADAR and military technology, and the weaponry post World War II, the ministry realised the credible threat to the society if the secret got out. I made the governments revamp their Muggle-related departments and the complacents ones were fired outright for incorrectly assessing the threat level.
It made a global news, when the European ministries allied together to form their very own, European Union, called United Magical Europe, and presented the united stand of European ministries and the current threat level to the statute of secrecy, and the wizarding world on whole. I prepared a speech and presentation for my father, projecting the widespread application of Internet, new communication technology and computing that can affect us.
It was seen as ludicrous by some representatives and declared to be paranoid and bigoted view, but then we showed the evidence of new plans for Trans-Atlantic cables, the Pacific network, and the American plan to connect all countries and trade. We also showed the growing technological changes, and how it could affect us. For evidence, I showed even the aspect of Nuclear and Hydrogen bomb, which could cause untold and unseen damage if the muggles decide to attack us.
The Mushroom cloud in the presentation at ICW became the front page picture in every newspaper in all member nations of the ICW. The countries wanted to be in on the plan for deciding the next steps.
Naturally as the rallying force, United Magical Europe, the magical version of EU, became the lead at the council to decide and assess the threat level. To ensure impartial report, we suggested every member nation to conduct their own investigation and present their unedited reports to the council. My father became the chair on the Council, as economic and political representative for United Magical Europe, now dubbed UME.
Why am I reminiscing about this now? I receive a monthly report of every business, legal and 'extra-legal', along with the reports on all Ministries and their policy changes and a projection of how it may or may not affect us. Since the reports were mostly memory vials as they were viewable faster and offered more information, they had become standard norm as it made paperwork and records redundant. I received the reports of the individual investigation and the stagnant council reports. There were a lot, who wanted to sabotage the pipelines and network system. Others wanted to obliviate the engineers and scientists involved in the project.
I was expecting such a haphazard response, and therefore prepared a report to show, how we can hijack this network for our own benefit. Using magic, we could make Runic systems and enchanted devices, that could be faster than optic fibres. Using protean charms, information could be transferred and replicated faster than speed of light. And hijacking on the system gives us access to the information, and ability to control and regulate it.
Any haemorrhaged information and leak could be resolved using magic, and as last resort, the devices could be destroyed and people obliviated. The cloud storage, smartphones and Internet of Things is decades away. By then, we could have some smart inventions of our own to protect our secrecy.
I sent the projected growth of technology of muggle inventions, and our only way to counter any hostile action towards us, in a 650 paged report, along with a memory vial, of the effects and influence of the technology.
Needless to say, the report was presented verbatim to the ICW, and our company was hired to be the lead enchanter for the hijacking systems.
Muggles saw interference in the radio and TV and declared magic distorts electricity. I ensured all enchanters received at least University level Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, to understand the nature of matter and particle, the quantum physics and semiconductor technology as a whole. As an added bonus, I sent my knowledge of nanotechnology, physics and engineering of the 2020s, in the memory vial, to view and integrate it into their own work.
There were a lot of new creations, but none with the specifications I desired. I wanted the runic systems to be a one-time done deal, so that all future revision to the network systems cannot affect or bypass our hijacking. But evidently, it would take some time, to reach that level.
Naturally with our growing influences, opportunists, skeptics and conspiracy-theorists started to snoop into our deals, our businesses, our ledgers and even our people. Polyjuice potions, spying and scrying, and even charms specifically made for surveillance and espionage was not new, and all such methods had counters. But actually noticing the number of wizards foolishly resorting to such tactics was befuddling.
A few Aurors and law enforcement in Britain, France and a few other countries tried to snoop in and detained a few of our employees, but the wayward folk were 'dealt' with, with extreme prejudice, and the snooping nosy cunts were led on a wild goose chase, while sending official formal complaints against them, and threatening to withdraw our support, asset and money from the country.
All such 'sleuths' and 'meddling kids' were dealt with quietly, without any of it connecting to us. Some met their end in a portkey accident, some got splinched during apparition, some got drunk and cast a bombarda on the floo, which rebounded and blasted their head like a melon. Some got defamed and committed suicide, another got involved in a shady business and got killed, another got their obliviate spell rebounded due to broken wand, so on and so forth.
And now, while I singularly focus on my transfiguration, charms and runes, we have established our runic systems and enchanted artefacts to highjack the internet, which is still in its nascent stage.
We established magical companies in the muggle side, to offer competitive prices to establish fibre optics and all supporting network system, and lay it across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We needed to establish diplomatic relations with China and India, who were not cooperative due to not receiving a piece of the pie.
But, I had other methods to leach them dry for sharing even 1% of our profits with them. They had currently no idea how widespread the technology can be, and what internet can really offer. And that is why I made sure the services to the Asian countries were more expensive than for everyone else.
I ensured the 'wire-tapping' we did, bypassed information through our company first, and since it was 1990s, Servers were not really that effective and fast. On the other hand, using magic a lot of electronics could be made cheaply and data storage was possible on smaller scale, and faster to transmit. But it was far into the future, as the wizards had not yet caught up with the possibilities.
I made sure all schools were funded to incentivise the increase in enchanting, rune studies and Arithmancy including Hogwarts. It became more exciting a job, more travelling, more prestige, more experience, better crowd of professionals, and a quality life.
The apprentices of the subjects were nearly thrice as before in Britain alone, and with an influx from France, and other countries, it was an exciting time for them. I ensured all supporting researchers got to rotate on the sites, taking part in only a chunk of the project each time, to reduce monotonicity. I ensured each larger project was always divided into smaller chunks and that way more achievable.
All research data from all sites, their success and failures was always made available to all who were sworn an oath, and thus no data could be leaked. This also helped me, as I got access to a lot of new Rune systems, and Arithmantic charts for my own personal research.
I enjoyed my weekends as part of the deal with my parents, the girls and Neville. I enjoyed the company of even my basilisk and dragon, and sometimes the Thunderbird which was very moody, and hated being petted.
I enjoyed spending time in the Snake pit, and once Minerva McGonagall came at the Manor, to discuss something and when asked for my whereabouts, my mother said with mirth, "in the snake pit". McGonagall assumed, she meant with other fellow Slytherins students, but the emphasis in my mother's tone was very leading, so when I woke up to a shriek and saw Minerva at the edge of the pit, and looked at me with utter disbelief, I waved back, "Hello Professor, a nice cheery afternoon, eh?" "But, Mr Malfoy you are sleeping on Runespoors, and there are Horned Serpents and Occamies. Some of them are XXXXX creatures, known wizard-killers." "I know, but they are so misunderstood," I wanted to play with Minerva a little, "Horned Serpents, never hurt unless provoked, and they love being petted. Let me show you," I called for my elf, had him bring me my snake's meal of rodents, marsupials and other small to dog sized creatures. Occamies invariably favoured pixies and gnomes.
I led a skittish McGonagall to feed and pet all snakes, and when she approached my Basilisk who had grown to about twenty feet now, she whispered, "Draco that is a Basilisk." I replied casually, "I know, he was my first snake, rather he was my first pet." I then, took her on a tour of the place, and she was baffled, after meeting the Thunderbirds and their little chicks. So to finish the round, I took her to a portkey and reached my cave.
She was exasperated, and wanted to ask where we are, when she heard a loud roar echoing from the entrance of a cave. "Please Mr Malfoy, don't let it be, what I think it is." "Definitely not Professor, It is not a dragon, she is!" I said in a cheerful tone. "And her name is Mrveril. She has just been fed, I think."
I casually stroll past a dumbstruck McGonagall, and entered the cave. Must be for the safety of her student, but Minerva strolled in with her wand drawn, and being on full alert.
Mrveril was in the deep cavern, and suckling on a pig's carcass. I strode to her, "Hello Mrveril, how is the pig?" "Little Draco, you brought a witch and your mother with you. Do you want to ask questions?"
"Not today Mrveril, I came on a social visit, do you want another succulent pig?" When she nodded, I had my elf bring the pig I prepared. The pig was alive and thrashing and I held it in place, till the dragon's spiked claw tore through its heart. "That is barbaric." My mother said from behind. I replied nonchalantly, "No, the struggling prey sates a dragon's thirst to hunt." The reserves can keep them sated on food, but a dragon is sinful in desire, it desires to satisfy its needs, and when they are not met, the dragons need to be caged and chained.
Keeping their urges sated, and fully fed, dragons would be more cooperative and less willing to hunt humans, Isn't that right Mrveril?" The dragon looks up from her food and nods. "It understands you, and you spoke to the dragon." I turn fully to see McGonagall look at me with awe. "Yes, I can speak to Snakes too, and Thunderbirds, and dragons. I can cast spell in their tongue too, and enjoy the company of the mystical creatures. They need to be protected and understood, and they are intelligent simply speak a different language." We take a portkey back after petting Mrveril as she secretly likes being pet on her leathery stomach and below her jaw.
"…Are you sure Narcissa?" I walked in towards the end of the conversation between mother and Minerva. "I am sure, if need be, I am willing to take an oath of my loyalty to my husband." I interrupt, having some idea, what this is about. "Nothing much, Mr Malfoy."
My mother looks at me, "Don't worry professor, we hide nothing from Draco. From a very young age, he has shown intelligence I cannot believe myself. He was matured from a young age, and dedicated to studying, from a tender age of seven, when children are all about playing, laying about and making friends. He first brought that Basilisk as a pet in the house one day, and I screamed at him to kill it, while it is young.
They are illegal to keep at home, and so we made a reserve in our backyard, and he convinced his father to bring Runespoors, Occamies, and Horned Serpents. Horned Serpents for Merlin's sake! The dangerous creatures from whom wizard flee, and grown men get nightmares about, and one day after lunch, I found Draco missing from the house, only to find him wrapped up snake pit, with the occamies growing to cover the pit, and coiling around Draco.
He talks to them in hisses, and my father saw it too, and came to the same conclusion. Draco told me, something about a ritual to verify the blood relation from ancient Greek, and we verified that somehow Draco is our child, he has no creature blood in him, and yet, he is able to speak to snakes and dragons, and understand thunderbirds. I grew tired of complaining, and watching him sleep in the snakepit, but at least he stopped sleeping in dragon's cave.
That was terrifying to me, and I had him swear an oath to never without reason, intentionally sleep with a dragon. When he left for Hogwarts, I was saddened to see him leave, but a part of me was happy, he would be away from snake pits and dragon cave. And he comes back for the break, telling me, he domesticated a Cerberus. A fully-grown three headed giant dog."
Towards the end my mother is looking pointedly at me, and Minerva.
She reacts sheepishly, "I was just ensuring an important artefact remains away from You-Know-Who's hands, and I ensured no one wandered in the third floor. I didn't know before today, Mr Malfoy even went to the third floor, let alone get friendly with a Cerberus. And How did you Even do that? Cerberus are known to be territorial and retaliatory towards any new comer, that is why they are good guard dogs."
I looked at her, like she was being foolish, "He is a dog, Professor. Like any good dog, he is in want of attention. I simply pet him, didn't go near the trap door, brought him raw meat and juicy bones, and brushed his fur. When he got sleepy, I would hum a song, play my violin or charm one of the Cello to play a tune. And I always made sure to rub its belly. They love it so much, more than the Wampus cats or the Siberian tiger do."
My mother looked at Minerva with exasperation. "See, he does not even see the problem and severity of danger in that sentence. And yes, this is how he was even while he was little." We walk back to the mansion, taking a detour along the snake pit. I pick up a reticulated python and an Indian Cobra, and wrap the cobra around my head and the python around my waist.
Ignoring the looks of my mother and Minerva, I walk back to the manor, while mother whispers, "Yeah, he does sleep with them, or reads in the study, with at least one snake wrapped around him. Thank Merlin, he didn't bring the Occamies with him, they grow, um, restless if Draco is woken up in the morning by someone." The ladies follow me, and we reach the study, and I hiss at the python to go to my room and rest.
My mother clarifies, "His father does not mind him bringing snakes to study as long as they are not that long or ruly. Pythons, rattlesnakes, adders and magical snakes are not allowed in study." I look at mother with sad, puppy eyes, "but mother they look the musky smell of books, when I read to them, they get so cozy, they make a guttural sound, that is like a cat's purr. They are so cute, when they do that, see?" And I take the cobra from my head, who is startled when I picked him up, and when I rub, just below its hood, and rolling my fingers against its skin, made the cobra let out a vibrating hum, that I knew was pleasant. I kept rubbing his head after it, and opened the door to the Study.
My father was in the study, near the Pensieve, and was signing off on something, as I walked in. "Oh Draco, Are you here to borrow a book, or for me?" "Both father, I finished the Chinese text on Fenghuang and Zhuque in muggle and magical literature. It was a fascinating read, but I want something academic, so I am taking the Most Potente Potions, the used copy. Also Prof McGonagall is here to see you on Hogwarts business." My father came to meet her and after greeting them back, I left for my room.
On my mother's insistence, Minerva joined us for dinner, so when I came carrying the Python and cobra with me, she looked curiously, "Do they not frighten you Draco? The creatures I mean. You are smart enough to know the danger they pose, and even if you can communicate with them, you and them are fundamentally different species at odds with each other. Do you really not mind sleeping without caution in their lair?"
I think about it for a while, ruminating my thoughts, "Actually professor, creatures are scary, but they are not innately harmful. They are territorial, and we humans, not only wizards but even muggles, have encroached their land, their homes, for thousands of years. The creatures have for thousands of generations defended and failed to prevent human intruders from taking their lands, their children and killing them for their body parts. And so they are innately hostile to us.
I don't know why, but creatures are more relaxed around me. There was a Nundu who was being hunted for killing 109 wizards, and it took 200 adult trained wizards to capture it. It was to be put to death, but I convinced father to safely relocate the Nundu. It was a she, and when I saw her, I saw burn marks and lashes on her body. It seems some poachers tried to capture her, and killed her baby. Naturally she felt retaliatory! I had her fed, used a bubblehead charm, and brushed her fur, cleaned her whiskers and teeth, and spent some time with her. Eventually I had her meet a suitable mate, and let the two of them live in a simulated environment that looked like her home. If you go to our reserve, you will see she is as docile as cats or Kneazles are, she lets me pet her and touch her, and she is not as aggressive now.
If I met her in the wild, I have no doubt I would be hurt by her too, but understanding what a creature wants from you, keeps me safer and secured than most wizards. And as it happens, snakes and dragons do not hurt me at all. They say I smell like them, and I don't know what that means, nor have I found any records about it in oldfamilytomes of Malfoys, Blacks, Potters, Lestranges or Notts, but all I know by experimenting, is that elemental spells is very easy for me to cast, and fire element does not hurt me at all. Let me show you."
Saying that I took my robe off, and stood in front of father, he was coaxed earlier to try it, but after a while, when he saw not even minor scalding on my skin, he didn't mind. Of course, I knew the cause of snakes' and dragons' familiarity around me, but I could very well not say it out to Minerva without telling her that human sacrifices are performed in the ritual. As it happens, there are so many oddities in magic, that someone naturally born speaking to snakes and dragons, is only peculiar, because of Slytherin trait of parseltongue.
So when Minerva stood to protect me, and saw with utter disbelief when Lucius cast the fire elemental spell on me, she was going to curse father for hurting me, but then saw what was happening with me, and sat down with open jaw. The spell washed over me, and singed my trousers, but nothing happened to me.
Instead I opened my mouth, and started to swallow the fire in. The elemental magic in the spell was lukewarm to touch, and if a wizard controls it, I could eat the spell and push them in my reserves. By now, my reserves had been steadily growing for about three months after the fire ritual on the Halloween night, and had reached an absolute peak. My reserves were larger than father and mother, a little more than Minerva and absolutely no match to what I felt Flamel or Dumbledore had. Flamel may look weak, but that is because, he does not wish to drink the elixir without cause regularly. Once I saw him drink the elixir, and his youthful looks returned, and changed by leaps and bound. After that he said, he would not drink the elixir for at least thirty years. That was some abstinence. Denying youth and vigour, simply on a matter of principle, was stupid in my books, but nonetheless, respectable.
I saw Minerva see me turn around and saw no injuries on me, "Enough demonstration Draco, don't try something dangerous like this ever again." My mother seemed to have found an ally in Minerva, as she vigorously nodded her head, "Please professor, he only listens and respects his teachers more than those abominable creatures. He pays no heed when I tell him to exercise caution. Why, only last week, he was sitting in dragonfire without a wand and naked, just to 'get warm'.
He admittedly, does not get hurt by fire, any fire, and I think only fiendfyre may hurt him, as he tried the incendio spell, the elemental spells of summoning, burning and combustion type. After that, he tried the ignition spell of greekfire, the green fire potion and the purple fire one too. It does not hurt him, but he did not know that, and yet put his hand directly in all sorts of fires.
I am afraid, one day I am going to wake up to him walking in fiendfyre as he burns this manor down."
I looked at mother miffed, "I am not reckless, I am cautious. I would rather try all sorts of fire and their effects on me at home where I could have access to healers, rather than while facing an enemy. And I somehow instinctually knew which fire hurts and which does not. I haven't seen fiendfyre yet, and I know it will burn me badly, but it cannot kill me, and I knew instinctually that I could swallow all fire spells and it would not harm me, but the potion fire is a chemical combustion. Its heat is harmless, but its ingredients are corrosive and it would hurt but not outright damage me.
And I showed you last time, didn't I? I walked into the lava vents, and showed you how it doen't even redden my skin. Like Mrveril said, fire energises me, nourishes me, natural fire can never hurt me."
After that, we had our dinner discussing what headmistress is upto, what new things could be expected and how the recent windfall of funds was going to be used for repairing and improving the facilities. After the meal, Minerva left for the castle, and I went to my room to prepare for the transfiguration tutoring the next day.
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