Talks Break Down Between European Powers
In an extraordinary turn of events, British and French delegates completely withdrew from negotiations on the proposed Treaty of Maastricht. It was the hope that the European Community would be able to reconcile their differences, but with this stunning move came an announcement that the British and French would be withdrawing from the European Economic Community.
When pressed, the British ambassador, Lord Wood, stated, "We will not compromise on the sovereignty of the British people. The sacrifices we have made with the French in the channel has been shouldered long enough. With the rejection of any amendments to the current agreement, we will be reclaiming our sovereignty."
As of the time of the announcement, the Royal Navy has moved several destroyers into the waters, who have engaged in a tense standoff with destroyers from the French.
France's president, François Mitterrand, expressed his own grievances, stating, "France has supported the West German state without reciprocation for far too long. With the German requests for additional funding to support the reunification efforts, it is clear that France is being exploited for its generosity. I will not allow this to continue, and until this stance is accepted by the Germans and the British, there is little left to discuss."
Further tensions exist in the British territory of Gibraltar, which Spain has again demanded to be returned. Military build up has begun on the Spanish side of the border already.
Meanwhile, Italy is facing yet another parliamentary crisis, calling for an unprecedented fourth election in six months with another failure for any coalition to emerge. Stocks plummeted on the news, and the Lira is down twenty five percent on market opening. This follows a tumble of 15% last week owing to the dire situation in Yugoslavia, with reports of Belgerade being bombed by Croatian nationals.
As of the time of writing, the White House has yet to issue a comment.
Harry set down the newspaper and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. Beside him, Sarah also discarded her paper, looking at him perturbed. "The situation is escalating quickly."
"Indeed," Harry murmured. "Eastern Europe is surprisingly the more stable area for now. But let us not worry about that, I believe I promised you a shopping trip."
"Yep," she chirped happily. "I have the whole itinerary planned out."
She handed him a piece of parchment, and he scrolled down the list, a smirk growing on his face growing wider and wider until he reached the bottom.
"Very detailed," he mused. "A ballroom? I honestly didn't see you as the type," he chuckled. Sarah flushed but stared back defiantly.
"Scared you can't dance?" she jibbed. This elicited a full blown laugh from Harry, clearly flustering her.
"Please, believe that. I will make it all the more enjoyable," Harry smirked. "But why in Merlin's name would you want to go to the outer districts?"
"They receive so little attention, I want to see them firsthand," Sarah shrugged. "Besides, I have the Raven with me, can't waste this opportunity, can I?"
"You do realise that much of the area is...slums and criminal elements, right?" Harry questioned dryly. "There is a reason why most avoid the area."
"Which makes it perfect for an adventure!" Sarah chirped unrepentantly. Harry merely shook his head in amusement at the girl's enthusiasm.
-Break-
As they walked down the street, the side of one of the apartment buildings crumbled, causing the entire structure to sag slightly as panicked screams were let out an its occupants scrambled outside in a stampede. Harry gripped Sarah close and tight to him as they continued walking down the streets.
The paved stone roads had long been pilfered, leaving dirt tracks in their wake. From another building, Harry raised a shield as excrement was tossed out of one of the windows, causing curses to fly from angry pedestrians. Quickly dragging Sarah and moving out of the immediate area, he breathed out a sigh. Sarah, on the other hand, merely looked fascinated, much to his consternation.
"Isn't this amazing?" she mused. "So many...opportunities."
And Harry was reminded why she was undoubtedly his favoured for the role of spymaster. For most it would have been disturbing to see such calculation from one so young, yet given his own background, he could only nod proudly.
Suddenly, they were surrounded by four robbers, brandishing their wands menacingly.
"All your gold now, and no one needs to get hurt," their leader growled. Harry merely rolled his eyes.
"Sarah?"
"I'll let you do the honours," she smirked. Harry raised his hands, and suddenly, all four of the robbers' necks audibly snapped, their heads contorted in impossible angles as they fell to the ground, dead. "So dramatic. Sending a message?"
"Of course," Harry replied wryly. They continued down the street, though neither failed to notice several alley children had quickly begun squabbling as they looted the corpses. Most in the alley quickly returned to their business, uncaring, though the few pedestrians around visibly shied away from them as they walked down the middle of the path.
"I'm hungry," Sarah bemoaned after several more minutes of walking. Harry rolled his eyes.
"So?"
"Feed me," she poked him on the ribs. He gave an amused snort.
"We can go back to the city centre," Harry offered. She shook her head.
"Where's your sense of adventure? Look, there's a bar!" she dragged him with resolve towards a seedy looking establishment. The bell chimed, and all conversation stopped as the two entered, walking towards an empty table and sitting down.
One of the burly men sauntered over, slamming a fist on their table, though neither reacted with anything but amused smiles. "This is our bar!"
"Sarah? Care to do the honours?"
"Of course," the girl replied easily, in one swift motion withdrawing a knife and stabbing it through the man's palm and impaling it on the table. Before any of the patrons could react, she had withdrew her wand, and incanted, "Crucio!"
A red jet of light shot out of her wand, causing the man to collapse to the ground in spasms. She lifted the spell after several seconds, casting a blasting curse at the man's head and killing him in an instant. In the ensuing silence, she met the frightened gazes of the patrons.
"Anyone else?" There was a sudden flurry of forced conversations and averted eyes, causing her to smirk as she retrieved her blade, stowing it in her wrist holster. "How was that, master?"
"Passable," Harry shrugged. "I was hoping you'd use your mind."
"I'm still not trained enough to do that."
"Watch and learn then," Harry chuckled, taking in a breath. Suddenly, all the patrons in the bar and the barkeep stilled, their bodies frozen in motion. "This...this is power. The ability to strip another of their free will...to turn them into nothing more than marionettes...hollow imitations. The imperius is but a bastardisation of this, for while it induces pleasure, the mind arts...they can strip a being of their existence."
Suddenly, all the patrons began moving again, the only sign of Harry's exertion being a slight twitch in his thumb. Sarah looked at him in clear awe. "That, my dear, is what you could achieve one day if you continue to study the mind arts."
"T-t-that's…"
"Inconceivable?"
"Yeah…" she chuckled weakly. "Could you do that to me?"
"Easily," Harry admitted truthfully, causing her to shiver. "You're progressing well for a year of studies, being at level three is no small feat, but I have beaten level seven occlumens with relative ease."
"Just...how strong are you in the mind arts?" she breathed out. Harry chuckled.
"It is my single greatest skill. To compare it to my fighting abilities would be like comparing my runic knowledge to that in magical creatures."
"H-h-how am I ever supposed to compete with that?"
"You forget that while I learnt through trial and error, pushing the very boundaries of the art, you are learning from me. Where I failed a hundred times before succeeding, I now impart on you the most direct path to success. But enough of that," he dispelled the privacy ward around them. "I will not have my little protege eating the swill served in this place."
She rolled her eyes, but followed him outside nonetheless as they entered a floo terminal, one of the remnants that the state had once maintained a presence here, and returned to the main alley. "What food do you want to eat?"
"How about...Russian?" she suggested. He chuckled, leading her down several alleys to a more quiet part of the city. She quirked an eyebrow.
"I make sure to know enough about the city I helped establish. You'd be surprised how loose you can make a person's lips if you provide them with good food," he mused. She nodded, clearly committing that to memory. "Ah, here we are."
"Gavrie!" he called out, causing one of the waiters to turn around and let out a big smile on his face.
"Harry! You're back, and with a lovely lady by your side," the man exclaimed happily. "Finally found your match."
"We're working on it," Sarah answered, startling the man before he let out a belly laugh.
"She's a keeper," he winked at Harry, ushering them towards a comfortable and snug booth. "The usual for you, I presume, and what would the lady like?"
"What does the house recommend?"
"Pelmeni, our dumplings, and Pirozhki, meat pastries. I'll get you a bit of each."
"Much obliged," Sarah agreed, and the man quickly left, hurrying to relay the order. "How do you know him?"
"I funded this place. It's useful to own stakes in all types of business. Not only does it make financing operations easier when you have multiple channels, but it also unlocks relationships and favours," Harry lectured. Sarah nodded in understanding.
"Ah, thank you Gavrie, the food smells wonderful, as always," Harry complimented as the owner presented the three dishes, causing the man to beam. "How is little Amdrei doing? Still with boundless energy?"
"He's mellowed out, much to Tatyana's relief," the man chuckled. "He's going to start pre-school soon, hopefully this means I'll get my wife back."
"One can dream," Harry teased, causing the man to snort amusedly. "How's business been?"
"Good, good," the man smiled. "All those bigwigs you bring, they keep coming back and leaving generous tips. I might have to renovate the place soon to accommodate, even if the locals won't like it."
"Sometimes the bigwigs appreciate a more homely feeling," Harry advised. "Have you thought about doing owl orders?"
"Not really, the kitchen is busy as it is," Gavrie shook his head. "Besides, I like to keep a tight ship, can't do that if I expand like all those other businesses."
"Fair enough, to each their own," Harry nodded.
"I hate to do this but-"
"I understand, duty calls. Don't let me keep you," Harry assured. The man smiled, tipping his hat before quickly rushing back into the kitchen and barking orders. The two began to eat in the meal, Sarah quickly devouring the dumplings while Harry ate his borsch in a more sedate manner, observing the girl across amusedly. When she realised this, she blushed.
"The food's good," she justified weakly. Harry merely waved it off.
"I don't mind, Gavrie would take it as a compliment anyhow." Tacit permission given, she continued devouring the dumplings, before moving on to the large croissant like pastry. Biting in it, she let out a satisfied hum, the sauces circling her lips.
When she finished, she looked over to see Harry finally finishing his borsch, and frowned. "Why do you…"
"Order such a simple dish?" Harry chuckled. "I find...it is a good reminder to ground myself. From my time in the camps, to mingling with dignitaries, I could always count on this to fill my stomach. I've...grown to appreciate the simpler things."
"I never knew you to be the sentimental type," she teased, chuckling at his furrowed brows.
-Break-
Progressive chasse. Back lock. Outside spin. Turning Lock. Hesitation change. Fallaway Reverse Turn. Double Reverse Spin. Contra Check. Chasse.
The steps were drilled into his mind, and he flowed in the ballroom, guiding Sarah as she latched onto him. Many of the other couples had stopped to simple admire the duo as they almost glided across the ballroom floor, almost teasing as they brushed past other couples completing less complicated routines.
When the music finally stopped, the two separated, him bowing and her curtsying, to polite applause from the gathering crowd. Sarah's face was slightly flushed, though a smile lit up her face. "You weren't kidding?"
"I rarely bluff," Harry chuckled amusedly, offering her his hand and leading her to the refreshment table once she had latched onto his side. "What's troubling you?"
"Is there something you're not good at?" she deflected easily. Harry noted it, but indulged.
"I've quite the horrible luck in card games, I've come to find," Harry offered, stealing a tinkling laugh from Sarah.
"Then perhaps I will have to take you to the casinos sometime," she returned.
"Ah, but that is before I cheat. And for that, I am a master," he countered, passing her a glass of champagne. At her arched eyebrow, Harry shook his head. "You need to learn to keep your alcohol down, it looks suspicious if you can't handle it."
"How?" she challenged.
"Practice," Harry answered. She stared at him in disbelief. "Please, I was in the Union, holding down vodka was necessary to hope to blend in."
-Break-
"It's so beautiful," Sarah giggled, visibly drunk as she latched onto his side. He nodded in agreement as the fairies danced in the air, singing a soft tune all the while. The streets were bustling with vendors offering various beverages and drink. "Do you like fairies? I think I want one."
"I doubt they'd be very happy to be kidnapped," Harry chuckled dryly, walking over to a fruit stall and buying a cup of berries. Returning to a bedazzled Sarah, he whistled, drawing several fairies' attention. Holding up the fruit cup, there were several high pitched squeals as the tiny creatures dived down, eagerly accepting the proffered fruits as he handed them out one by one. After several, he nudged Sarah on the side. "Want to try?"
Quickly, she took the cup, before carefully handling the fruits off to the gathered fairies one by one. Several blasted her with fairy dust, causing her to giggle, continuing to hand out the berries until all the fairies in the vicinity had taken their share and returned to their places dancing in the air.
"That was...nice," she mused as they continued down the street, watching young couples kiss and old ones walk hand in hand, while parents followed their excitable children amusedly. He hummed in agreement as they passed by several carnival stands, and Sarah played several of the games, aweing passerby with her surprising accuracy in throwing balls, earning herself a large stuffed dragon that fluttered its wings, flying around her in circles.
Returning to their apartment, Harry chuckled when she quickly muttered a good night before trodding off to her bed, clearly worn out for the day.
-Break-
"Can you feel me?" Harry asked encouragingly, brushing lightly against her shields. After several moments, she let out an affirmative hum.
"Good, now try and redirect me," he encouraged. He could almost feel the concentration radiating off her as her mindscape slowly shifted, and he felt his probe being drawn into a vortex. Smiling, he began gently fighting off her pull, slowly increasing the strength he exerted as she increased her pull.
"Very good, Sarah," he praised, "now try and push me out. Follow the trail into my mind."
This time, Sarah was far more obvious in her success, channeling a burst of energy at his probe. He felt himself ejected from her mind, and only years of training prevented him from staggering.
"That was very good!" he praised genially as he felt her probe latch onto his mind, causing the young girl to beam at him. "You've improved significantly."
"I still can't detect you unless you tell me though," she sighed annoyedly. "Nor can I actually do much once I get into your mind."
"One day, you will be able to reverse the probe almost undetectably, just like how I'm doing right now," he informed Sarah, chuckling at her astonished look. "Feel."
"I...found it," she noted glumly. He lifted her chin until their eyes met.
"Don't be dour, Sarah, you're making progress faster than I could have hoped for," he encouraged.
"Only because I have such a good teacher," she returned with a smile, sitting in his lap and wrapping his arms around her. "Now tell me more about the KGB."
"Right...when did we stop last time?"
"With Stalin's purges."
"Right, right," Harry nodded. "The NKVD, as it was called at the time, consisted mostly of a network of informants that reported to their local branch official, who in turn reported to their superior. In such a way, you could never be certain who was an informant and who was not. What the muggles didn't know was that the guardians bolstered the NKVD's operations, placing listening charms and enhancing surveillance beyond technology available at the time. Legilimencers would identify traitors before they even consciously knew about their own thoughts. There is a reason why no one was safe, not even Stalin, who was disposed of by his aide Beria when the man learned he was next on the chopping block."
"Ironic."
"Indeed," Harry nodded in agreement. "While the department has always been focused on internal affairs, it did have an excellent series of overseas operations. One advantage Soviet spies had was that their agents often were loyal because of ideology, meaning lots of resources were saved. Make no mistake, for much of the Cold War, intelligence reports for the West were completely incorrect owing to these communist operatives."
"And this is something I have to replicate?"
"There are...multiple facets to every intelligence operation. You have sources, which can range from bribed individuals to undercover intelligence operatives, who need to be coordinated and managed to maximise their effectiveness. You then have action squads, trained individuals meant to act on information gathered by operatives. You also have coordination centres, which prioritise targets and assign units, logistics, which ensures that safehouses, backup, equipment, funds and everything else needed can be acquired, stored and accessed discreetly," Harry listed off. "And note that for each of these departments, there would be a myriad of redundancies, checks and balances."
"That's...a lot," Sarah acknowledged, causing Harry to chuckle.
"That's only the beginning of it. Much like the Americans, the Soviets were notorious for having overlapping organisations. It is not a coincidence that departments are constantly merged or broken up for seemingly pointless reasons."
"I still have much to learn," she sighed. "I've read the manuals and books you provided...but they seem so…"
"Insufficient," Harry mused knowingly. She nodded. "That is because intelligence and counterintelligence operations, much like the mind arts, is a constant arms race. What you will find in the manuals is standard operating procedures, which while sufficient for a low level individual, is barely scratching the surface of what you need to know if you hope to truly manage my intelligence networks."
"I will succeed," she swore, causing him to smile knowingly.
-Break-
"Hello again, Jade," Harry greeted jovially, pulling the older woman into a hug. "Sarah, meet Jade, the Chinese ambassador to the BMU. Jade, meet my friend, Sarah."
"A pleasure to meet you," Sarah curtsied, letting out a surprised 'eep' when Jade rolled her eyes before wrapping the younger girl in a hug.
"None of that now, any friend of Harry's is a friend of mine," she assured. "So Harry tells me you're interested in the intelligence community?"
"I'm…" she looked to Harry, who offered his nod of approval, "I've been fascinated by the Cold War and intelligence operations. I've been told that you're a specialist in that regard."
"That I am," she noted wryly, "though I must wonder why you haven't taught her yourself, Harry."
"I'm hardly an intelligence operative, I'm more an assassin or a one man army, if anything," Harry mused dryly. "While I've taught her basic counter-espionage, I was hoping you could help her develop some skills."
"By basic, how…" Sarah tapped herself with her wand, disappearing from sight. Invisible to the two, she cast a scent removing, sound dampening and print reduction charm. Jade looked at the room closely, before nodding her head. "That's an impressive disillusionment. Where are you?"
"By the sofa," Harry answered amusedly, causing Sarah to reappear with a pout on her face. "I taught her all that she knows, not all that I know."
"Don't feel down, Harry is quite adept at making everyone around him feel inadequate," Jade jibed, eliciting a chuckle from Harry. "I'll see what I can do for some training sessions, this gives me an excuse to leave the office more often, anyhow."
"Thanks Jade," Harry inclined his head as they sat down in the private lounge. "How's everything going?"
"So now you ask me?" she asked with mock hurt. He merely quirked an unimpressed eyebrow. "Horrible. I've missed you terribly, others are just so...ugh, uninteresting. And I still haven't managed to rant to you about the senile coot."
"Dumbledore?" Harry questioned amusedly. She nodded furiously.
"The bastard stole the vote for the tournament from me!" she exclaimed. "I thought I had it in the bag, then at the eleventh hour he pulled shit out of the bag. I'm going to have the Americans flayed! He had one job, to split the vote between Euro-America!"
"And that Sarah, is why you never underestimate an opponent," Harry lectured, drawing an ireful look from Jade that was pointedly ignored. "Do not fear the known, always the unknown. Dumbledore is many things, but a fool is not one of them. Do not mistake his grandfatherly act, it is a carefully crafted facade meant to lull you into arrogance."
"Yes Harry," Sarah acknowledged, while Jade muttered curses under her breath. When he looked at her, the woman merely offered an innocent smile.
-Break-
'I confess myself frustrated, Harry,' the book wrote in its inky black.
'And why is that?' Harry wrote back.
'I was on the cusp of achieving something great, and yet it was denied to me at the last moment.'
'May I ask what it was?' There was a sinking feeling in his gut.
'You should know, considering you were the one who impeded me, Harry.' The anger was radiating off the book.
'I...do not follow.'
'You are smart, but I suppose that there are still limits. No, Harry, Amanda Hurst was not my follower. Amanda Hurst, was me, Emily Riddle. You denied me the treasure trove of Grindelwald.'
'I'm afraid I don't have any idea of what you're talking about.'
'Let us not play these meaningless word games, Harry. You've outplayed me this round, and for that I congratulate you. In hindsight...considering your expertise in runes, I should have suspected it was too easy. But rest assured, that there are consequences for all actions, Harry. I hope you know that.'
Harry shut the book. There was nothing more to say.
-Break-
"Minister," the hooded figure greeted curtly. The uniformed man merely smiled easily, gesturing to the empty seat.
"Sit, please. Drink?" The hooded figure raised a hand signalling no, and the General placed the bottle of Vodka to the side, taking his own seat. "I've been told that you seek a deal. What do you have to offer me?"
"I need...muscle to deal with some insurgents in my territories. I am willing to pay handsomely for this," the hooded figure promised, pulling out a gold bar and placing it on the table. The minister tapped the bar, placing three drops of green liquid that turned a shade of pink. "Authentic, keep it, if you like."
"Twenty guardians for six months. They will not be allowed to harm the union directly or indirectly, but will otherwise follow your orders. Two hundred gold bars."
"We have an accord then," the minister nodded with a pleased smile. "A pleasure doing business with you."
The hooded figure didn't respond, merely standing up and leaving the room. Only when he left, did the two guardians flanking the minister relax slightly. "Relay the orders to Maple. There is work to be done."
Author Note:
Well, there you have it folks. We finally made it to the summer! I know some of you will be put off by the newspaper format at the start, but I've said this once and I'll say it again, exposition is sometimes a necessary evil. Sure, I could have done a POV of the negotiations, but that would have dragged on in politics without immediate direct relevance of the story. We're here to see Raven's journey, not politicains in the muggle world bickering.
A bit of bonding and training between Harry and Sarah, the latter of whom is going to start drifting to being quite like Raven. I've thought long and hard about whether I wanted her to lean more towards Harry or Raven in terms of beliefs, and considering her backstory, I think she's the perfect fit for the latter: Soft spoken, charismatic, ruthless, without moral considerations, manipulative, knowledgeable and fiercely loyal to Harry, we're going to see her unleash his darker impulses. Definitely look forward to when her methods start causing conflicts between her and other members of Harry's court once they start their rise to power.
Also managed to explore a bit of Voronagrad. I want to make it clear it isn't some miracle city where everyone holds hands and sings kumbaya. Once you leave the centre, you get to the ghettos, where we see more crime and poverty, truly a tale of two worlds. Again, this story is about authenticity and consistency within its own established boundaries.
Of note, we're going to start seeing major historic deviations. To summarise, with the fall of the iron curtain and the end of the cold war, failures of US military intervention in the middle East is going to cause a radical shift to a more isolationist position and a focus on the American continent. The situation in the Balkans is far more severe, and Tito's loyalists continue to fight on. Without American support, the campaign to stop them is far less effective, especially with the distrust between the European powers who now do not have a common enemy. Economic downturn is slowly gripping the Mediterranean countries, and this has an effect on Europe and the World. Nationalism is going to sweep up and escalations will continue to rise. All the while, we're going to see new players and old emerge, vying for dominance. But don't worry, there'll be a lot more explanations as we draw nearer to the day of days.
Thank you to Dragonhitter and lukasekpazour for your comments. I'll come out and say that Alana's going to play a significant role in the development of magitech. In the coming chapters, we're going to get more POV from Harry's circle and their growth in power and character. I've also definitely considered the introduction of chaos magic and something like that, but it's going to take a while because there isn't really a place for such magic until we see the clash of titan class wizards.
With all that said, thank you all for the incredible support! We broke 10k viewers and 2000 visitors, which for a piece that has been up for a day over two weeks is flabbergasting. Today's chapter took slightly longer to upload than usual because I had to juggle several plotlines and do some minor edits to the grand plan. I'm foreseeing there might be a few interruptions, but I'm still committed to maintaining at least 1 upload a day if not 2, so don't worry about not getting content! As always, if you enjoyed, follow, favourite, share with others in the community and leave comment, even if it's just to say hi! Your feedback is what keeps me motivated to push out these chapters, and ensure I continue developing as a writer!