It turns out the Goblins didn't have an expert on leylines. At least not up to the standard I was looking for. The old Goblin they brought for me to tell me about them said a lot, but most of it boiled down to a few key facts for me.
One, there are magical lines of power criss crossing the world. Two, many ancient and modern magical societies sensitive to these things often took to building upon them. Three, magical flora and fauna tend to be more prolific on these lines. Four, some ley lines are more powerful than others. And five, no they aren't going to tell me where their mines or quarries are or let me into them.
Still, they'd given me enough information to go off of for myself. Bidding the Goblins farewell for now, I took to the air with my map of Britain in hand. Thus follows several hours of my flying about and teleporting all over the whole island, marking out locations on my map, including towns and sites that weren't on the map in particular.
More importantly, I'm marking out the lines of magic I can feel in the air and in the ground. Though it's a bit of a misnomer. Mana is actually pretty much everywhere on this planet, at least if the example of Britain holds true for the rest of the Earth. But there are places where it's stronger than others, and to my senses, those places did indeed form lines. Sort of. In the same way the aurora borealis does, waving about, but on such a small scale that simply drawing a line on my map covers the whole area of movement.
Actually… I had to pause and consider that thought for a moment. These things really do move about like the aurora. That…
I glanced up and my eyes widened. Oh.
So uh, magic's not just everywhere on Earth. If anything, the magic on earth is muted compared to what I'm seeing with my senses in just the small local area that I can feel from out in space. I couldn't help but just sit and stare at how… beautiful it is. All of that magic… and funnily enough, all of it seemed to match Earth a bit, with wavy lines concentrated particularly on where stars and other major celestial bodies were in the night sky.
Glancing at my map showed a correlation between the two, at least as far as I can tell. Suddenly I could appreciate Hogwarts teaching astronomy as a core class a whole lot more now. And to top it all off… some of these lines look familiar.
Conjuring a stone on my hand the size of my head with the power of Essence of Earth, I used natural pigment to color it like the earth just to be cheeky, then fed in my mana and once there was enough, shaped it into a runic siphon. Immediately, cracks formed in the surface of the globe, forming the runic array that would normally be used to siphon magic from the environment, and wouldn't you know it, those leylines I was noting earlier happen to look exactly like part of the formed cracks of the runic siphon.
Were they natural? Coincidence? Divine intervention? Aliens? I didn't know, but I couldn't wait to find out. Either way, I think I've got a pretty good idea now how the ancient mages and magical fauna of the world first developed runes now. Monkey see, monkey do and all that.
Granted, only some of the lines match the runic siphon, but that doesn't surprise me much, as that was usually just the start of the runic array anyway, with further lines added for other effects. Case in point, I believe I recognize part of a shielding rune set down there as well.
Does this mean every rune currently available is represented on the planet's surface? Are there more possible than just those? Also, and possibly more importantly…
I took the magic I felt from the lumos spell and focused its particular energies into the stone. I had to brute force it a little to speed it up, but eventually the array of magic within took shape and new cracks formed on its surface and the stone began to emit a soft glow, which I'm sure I could give more power and make brighter and bigger with a few tweaks, but more important are the implications. If I went looking, would I find this particular runeset somewhere? Or more to the point, is every spell represented on the surface of the planet like this? Is it possible those spells work because they're represented on the Earth's surface already? Would they still work elsewhere? Or are these just natural examples born of the magic meeting in this location upon this planet like this and useable anywhere? Could this be why Earth has life? If I went out into the cosmos searching for other intersect points of magic like this, would I find other planets with life on them?
I wanted to set out immediately to find out, but I had to reign in my impulses for exploration and discovery. I've got a few more mundane responsibilities to deal with currently and can't just go gallivanting off. Yet. I mean, I can teleport after all. And folding space would let me cross distances that would take eons to cross in just a single step. I've got time. I could spend nights when my charge is asleep exploring this further.
Also though, I've still got a prison to deal with and not much of the night left to do it in. And while I could just flood it with my own minions to keep watch, I'd rather just have a few sentries and observation magic let me keep an eye on it while the wards do the bulk lifting.
Popping back over to the location of Azkaban, I paused to admire the natural leyline it sat upon for a moment. With this I likely have a roadmap for just about every significant magical location on the planet. So much to do, so much to see, so much to discover… I nearly shivered in anticipation.
Right. Focus. I took a deep unneeded breath and let it out. I now know just enough to pull off what I want here.
Forming several globe shaped stones, seven to be exact, I held them in place around myself with telekinesis, and started feeding them all magic in the exact amounts at exactly the same time. I then focused on shaping the magic within to form the runic siphon, then started adding various control tweaks to direct the magic towards certain effects so that it would do what I want.
I then focused the magic for several spells into them all, all arranged in certain ways to work with the requirement tweaks I'd added. Once I finished, I pushed them all to specific points around the island, using space folding to reach them all at the same time, and added the finishing touches to cause them to activate.
I watched in giddy anticipation as the magic took hold and formed a dome around all of Azkaban, causing several things to happen at once. All seven stones are shielding themselves and holding themselves in place, so now they can't be touched or messed with. Any magic cast upon them would be disrupted thanks to the magic of finite, and a bit of space folding trickery and notice-me-not would cause people to step around them without even realizing it.
Several of those effects were magnified to affect Azkaban as a whole. Anyone attempting to leave the island or get to it normally would just end up back where they started for the former, or passing it completely for the latter.
Several of the next macro level wards that affected Azkaban as a whole were intent based. Anyone who entered via the pier, assuming they could find it, which was the only part that was hidden only via muggle repelling, which it'd already had so I left alone for the most part, were marked by magic as visitors as well as judged for their crimes, which were picked up by magic and had a set of instructions based upon what the crime was.
So now, basically anyone who entered Azkaban would have their crimes listed out for anyone to see, and magic itself would incarcerate you within different cells, which were themselves space enfolded and kind of an enclosed microcosm. It would allow you to see the world as it moved on without you, acting as an observer only. Some prisoners wouldn't even get that. Others would be able to visit each other, but as they would still be in their cells, they wouldn't be able to do anything beyond see and hear each other. Still others would be able to communicate with others in the same way, though their behavior would be monitored.
It's not all autonomous though. I left a few ghost minions of my own to oversee the system and make changes as needed, such as releasing of prisoners or reacting in case of something going wrong and contacting me for it.
Each cell, aside from being the magical equivalent of a limited holodeck, would have a 'home' location that the prisoners could go to that had the basic amenities. A bed, toilet, shower, sink, and a monitor that would display their information and current privileges and time towards unlocking new ones, as well as a list of punishments and their effects, including the crimes that incarcerated them in the first place.
As for their magic, I couldn't fully suppress it without causing them harm, but I could allow for certain effects to happen depending on if they tried to cast certain spells. They would be allowed some magic use as a privilege and the accepted spells were listed. Any others would see certain things happen, the least of which would be a finite disrupting the spell, or stunning, petrificus totalis, or being 'transported' back to their 'home' location. Anti-apparition wards were up as a matter of course. Most of the original wards of Azkaban were still represented and strengthened.
Food would be provided by house elves as before, though the usual disgusting gruel would at least be upgraded to be a necessary gruel of vitaimins and minerals, with options for it to be transfigured to select choices as a privilege to taste, with it returning to its basic form in the stomach. Water would be filtered from the ocean and outside air as needed. Waste would be atomized and scattered via the vanishing spell.
As far as occupancy, space folding and conjuration would see to the creation of more or less cells as needed. And I figure that should be everything. I honestly can't wait for the Minister and other certain people in the Ministry to visit and inspect the place. They would find themselves incarcerated immediately, with magic providing witness to those who are with them to show why, and if necessary my ghost minions would allow for them to enter the cells and perform their own interrogation and use veritaserum.
Health would be taken care of as any injuries would be seen to as the wards would cast healing spells and for anything particularly bad, medical professionals could be called for. I'll probably have to set up something with St. Mungos about that later.
The only thing left as far as the prison itself would be the currently incarcerated that the wards determined to be innocent and merely political prisoners, of which the number was not zero sadly. Those were handled on a case by case basis and most decided, after explanation to simply stay within the prison, though with all privileges unlocked as it would provide a manner of protection for them and allow them to still live and meet with their loved ones as magic would project their forms to the outside and allow them to still interact with the world but not be harmed by those who would find their 'freedom' to be inconvenient. I rather expect the British magical world to be in a bit of an uproar tomorrow. I couldn't help but grin at the thought. Good.
Warping back outside, I considered Azkaban. Other than the huge amount of increase in magic around the area, it didn't look any different visually from the outside, at least to anyone magical. Baseline humans would see nothing but ocean and would generally find themselves directed away from the area anyway. And thanks to spacefolding I wouldn't even have to worry about satellites, nor would the appearance of the prison appear on electronic devices as it's just a clever illusion showing the exterior inside the wards and not something actually there. Which probably meant any actual pictures wouldn't work unless you somehow took them inside a pensieve, and speaking of I should get my hands on one of those things, if only to examine the runes so I can make one of my own.
I wasn't too worried about anyone attacking the island either. Anyone who tried would find themselves incarcerated and transported into a cell in the prison, their effects marked and stored in a separate location in the prison, and given conjured orange jumpsuits, same as everyone else. Any spells sent at the prison would either fly past thanks to the space folding, or simply flung out or transported into space depending on the effect.
This just left the Dementors. All of them still waited, arrayed above the prison in perfect formation. I thought about it, then decided to just leave them there. Except for just one. I had that one pull away from the others and wait in place inside the prison's atrium temporarily.
I then transported myself back to the hotel, gently stunned Harry where he was still sleeping, and wove a patronus shield around the boy. I then warped back to the prison and the waiting Dementor. Using magic as a medium for it to communicate, I asked if it could pull the soul shard from his forehead without dislodging the boy's soul. The Dementor, after examining the boy, and allowing only a small hole in the shield that exposed the scar and nothing else, bent down and gently sucked the soul shard, black and pus like, from the scar. I made sure Harry stayed asleep through this and that he wouldn't experience any pain.
Once the shard was gone, I returned Harry to his bed, making sure to heal him with a healing bolt as well as with the local magic, even though I knew logically that it was unnecessary and overkill. Irregardless, I still did it for my own peace of mind.
Going back to the Dementor, I paused as it requested to be allowed to fetch the other pieces of the soul I gave it that it could now sense, like some sort of otherworldly bloodhound for souls. It didn't know why it could do this when I asked, but as I followed after it, using folded space to make the trip quicker for the both of us, I mused that with Ekrizdis being a dark wizard, and Horcruxes having to have come from somewhere and been used before, Dementors may very well have been his own personal method for destroying rivals on top of intimidating the hell out of everyone else. It's not like the Dementors actually needed souls to live or even gain power from it, as far as I can tell. It's just something they can do. Pretty sure that makes them constructs rather than natural creatures or something along those lines. I don't really want to imagine the depravities and experiments that must have went into creating the things.
With space warping, it didn't take long to get to the first piece. To my lack of surprise, we ended up floating in the air over a manor house that I could safely bet is the Malfoys. The Dementor indicated that the largest piece is here and is thus the most easily detected, which made sense.
Activating All-Sight revealed all three Malfoys tucked safely in their beds, Narcissa in a separate bed from her husband, which did not surprise me at all. My debate over whether to smash the wards and the manor house and take care of the horcrux or save it for later was derailed at the sight of a dungeon beneath the house with clearly abused and starving baseline human women and I saw red.
Literally. I may have overdone it and bombed the manor along with the surrounding countryside. I wasn't unmindful though. Spacefolding and a bit of magical direction saw the wardstones destroyed first and the house after that within microseconds of each other. Despite my desire to, I simply dropped the Malfoys into Azkaban from their beds before their bedrooms were completely destroyed, and the prisoners were each shielded from the blast and put to sleep, healed completely, their memories wiped of the ordeal, and transported to the nearest local hospital I could find.
Likewise the brownies, or house elves I should say, were also knocked out, healed, and after a bit of searching, delivered to Hogwarts with their magical connection to the Malfoys severed and reconnected to the school and the powerful intersecting leylines it was built upon. I was tempted to have them delivered to Azkaban to serve there instead, but having the abused continue to serve the abusers seemed a mite cruel. I didn't feel like dealing with Dumbledore at the moment though so I simply masked my presence from the wards.
Speaking of Azkaban, a quick warp over there to check what happened to the Malfoys revealed all three of them in a cell for various crimes. Narcissa had the least and would be allowed to appear and speak with Draco, who apparently his father had allowed to indulge in the prisoners. The woman hadn't done anything to the prisoners according to the crime list, but she had several aiding and abetting charges for Lucius' actions. I didn't bother checking why Lucius was incarcerated. That was fairly obvious. I wondered if I should check the Death arch in the Ministry and make another for certain prisoners within Azkaban… Something to think about later.
Once back at the newly christianed Malfoy Crater, there the Dementor revealed that the piece we came here for had disappeared when the house went up. Huh. So I can get rid of Horcruxes with efficiently destructive magic. Good to know.
At that point, it seemed several trails were available that weren't of significant size after that one, so we picked one at random based on what seemed like it would be closest and started making the trip to it.