Voldemort watched from her manor as hundreds of protesters were quickly quarreled away by her guardians with a barrage of lethal curses. She felt brief revulsion at the sight of a stampede trampling several of their own as they raced to retreat outside the range of her anti-apparition wards.
Turning back inside her office, she resumed her seat in front of a wide mahogany desk, opening the cabinet in her desk, taking out a vial of thick, silvery liquid and gulping it down quickly. A brief bitter taste brough bile to her throat, but she forced it down and felt her body's aches begin to soothe. The tremble on her fingers slowly abated, until only a dull prickling indicated anything was wrong. A sigh of relief escaped Voldemort's lips as she descended through her manor, nodding to several of the guardians protecting her, before entering the locked basement. Within, there was a single cage, with hundreds of restraints tying down a whimpering unicorn.
The creature was very small, possessing gold hair on its body two shades lighter than the gold of its hooves. At the sight of her, the creature began to struggle against its restraints violently. Stepping forward, she summoned the knife on the table, and made a small incision on the side, allowing several drops of the fluid to leak off of the foal's side before casting a quick healing charm on it.
"I'm truly sorry about this," Voldemort sighed, caressing the side of the unicorn in a comforting gesture. It merely shivered to her touch, and she quickly resisted the urge to continue running her hands through its soft hair.
Pocketing the vial, she quickly left the room, a stoic visage on her face once again as she reached the fireplace. Taking a pinch of floo powder, she tossed it into the flames, calling out, "Olav's Den."
There was no rest for the wicked.
-Break-
"Welcome, Alana, to the lab," he gestured with his hands. "Countless wards have been placed here, redundancy upon redundancy. Here is where I have long tested my experiments, and the area which I now gift to you."
"Thank you," she breathed out, observing the various workstations in awe. "What's...what's that at the back?"
"The experimental chamber. A curious concept I adopted from the muggles. See, rather than expose ourselves completely to test objects, what if we tested them from a distance, and had protective shielding between us. This, fundamentally, is the concept of a separate chamber, in which we shall test your device."
Taking the magical orb, he walked into the chamber, placed it at the centre, and returned outside, activating the protective wards. "Are you ready to test it?"
"Of course," she nodded excitedly. With a flick of his wand, Harry activated the magical orb, which began to hum violently, glowing a bright white as the casing began to implode on itself, pulling the ambient magic around it and concentrating it in an increasingly dense core. All the sudden, a loud screeching voice was heard, and Harry raised a protective shield around the duo as a violent explosion ruptured the chamber, shattering the protective enchantments and impacting against his shield, causing small spider-web like cracks on various parts of his shield.
When the flash dulled, Harry observed its impact, to see that the secondary wards had also failed, and that the room's ridiculous number of enchantments had barely prevented the explosion from spreading through the entirety of Durmstrang. Several redundant rune stones had exploded from the strain they had been placed under, while the platinum circuits of other protective rune sequences had been overloaded to the point they had become molten, or in one case, vaporised into gas.
"M-m-morgana," Alana stuttered out. Harry merely raised a curious eyebrow. "That was...intense."
"And a proof of concept," Harry nodded.
"We...we just created a magical bomb."
"No, Alana, you did," Harry smiled. "While it seems I still have ways to go to truly make wards strong enough for the chamber, I will say that for this particular project, it has proven successful. Imagine activating multiple of these on a target. The wards would likely be overloaded and the backlash incapacitating many of the defenders, allowing for a far easier offensive."
"Harry, don't take this the wrong way...but why would you need such a device? You're more than capable of taking down most wards."
"Perhaps," Harry acknowledged, "but I cannot be everywhere at once. But you are right in sensing a grander purpose. Are you familiar with the term 'arm's race'?"
"It's a muggle one, when two factions try to outdo one another, right?"
"Close enough. Magical combat has always been ridiculously simple. A bunch of wizards and witches flinging spells together after the first group enters an area and a second group engages them. Voldemort was arguably an innovator, using guerilla tactics to great effectiveness. But muggles have always advanced faster than magicals because of the sheer size of their populations."
"You...want to arm muggles?"
"It is inevitable," Harry chuckled. "Grindelwald did this, more or less. It's a logical progression. Tell, me how many muggles for every magical being?"
"One in...a hundred?"
"Try one in three hundred and fifty eight. For us to break even in combat, every magical being, assuming we were completely united, would have to take down three hundred and fifty eight muggles. Do you think we could do that?"
"I...well, muggles live in cities. A few fiendfyre from magical titans like Dumbledore, Grindelwald, l Voldermort or you would easily kill millions."
"A fair point," Harry conceded, pleased that she had studied the muggles as he asked of her. "But on average? A normal witch or wizard might cast five to ten spells before they are exhausted. Meanwhile, muggles enjoy weaponry that barely exhausts them in comparison to our use of magic. Not to mention, that have developed incredible technologies. Artillery that could strike from kilometers away. Missiles from hundreds. In the blink of an eye, Voronagrad could be completely vaporised and rendered uninhabitable for the next century from a single nuclear bomb."
"You...you plan on integrating with the muggle world?"
"I do."
"You would have the world against you."
"Perhaps," Harry admitted. "But I do not foresee that the magical world will unite with me. In fact, there will likely be a scramble in countries between magical and muggle authorities to integrate. Some may face civil war, others will exploit such opportunities to mutual benefit, yet more may enjoy a one sided exploitation, but there will be unions, however violent."
"I...see."
"You do not find the idea comforting?"
"I fear the repercussions. Perhaps the notion is so...inconceivable given the history we have faced."
"As do I, Lana. As do I."
"Then why do so?"
"Because I see a truth: that while our world is relatively stagnant, the muggles are growing exponentially in numbers and strength through technological advancements. Currently, we are capable of doing sufficient damage and offer sufficient benefits that a relationship can be symbiotic and we maintain a degree of leverage in any conversation. In fifty...one hundred years? I fear that not even mother magic can save us."
-Break-
Gellert Grindelwald listened curiously as a set of footsteps echoed down the hallway to his cell. This itself would not be peculiar, for there were dozens of guards on this level of the prison alone. No, it was that the individual seemed to be alone, when every patrol was to be done in threes, to ensure if any individual tried to aid him the other could prevent it. He knew at least several of his followers had been thwarted because of this.
Looking up curiously, he was greeted by the sight of a young man that held a slight tremble to his posture. As the man raised his wand, Grindelwald prepared for himself to be ended. A spell was flung, but instead of impacting him, the cell door was blown to shreds, causing him to look up. Easily, a pleased face masked his surprise as he stood up gracefully.
"Milord, your wand," the guard presented to Grindelwald his familiar wand. Gnarled and twisted, the wand was of a dark hue, and had three red thorn-like protrusions running along its length. He recognised it immediately, and with a smile, took the wand in his hand, feeling a rush of completion upon him. Insignificant compared to the power he once wielded with the elder wand, but still a far cry from the powerlessness he experienced within the confines of Nurmengard.
"You have done well for me, my devoted," Grindelwald praised, his gravelled voice seemingly unnoticed by the awed kneeling man.
"E-evan Rosier, milord."
"Ahh...how fitting," he breathed, "that it would be your family that stands beside me in our great revolution. Come, we must move swiftly before our enemies discover my escape."
After nearly half a century, Grindelwald was free again!
-Break-
Rose accepted the cup of tea Lily provided her, sitting in one of the plush couches in the muggle studies professor's office.
"First week at Hogwarts, how have you been, dear?" Lily asked kindly. Rose beamed.
"It's been wonderful. Flitwick is such a good teacher, he gave me five points for doing the levitation charm. Mcgonagall is also alright, though she's very strict. Herbology is a bit dull, even if Sprout is a nice professor. Potions sucks though, Snape is a jerk to all of us."
"Yes, Severus is quite...difficult to work with," Lily conceded dryly. "He hasn't...given you any trouble, as he?"
"No mum, he's just...well he's a bit creepy. I feel like he's always staring at me," Rose shuddered at the thought, missing Lily's narrowed eyes. "But I doubt he'll do anything, not with you here."
"If he tries anything, you come straight to me, alright Rose? Promise me," Lily demanded. Rose hummed her agreement, and Lily opened her arms, accepting Rose into her lap as her daughter wrapped her in a tight hug.
"Why does Dumbledore keep him around?"
"That's...a very complicated issue," Lily sighed. "Dumbledore...well Dumbledore has his reasons for keeping the man around, even if most of us don't like him. But enough about that man, tell me more. How are you settling into Hufflepuff? Make any new friends?"
"Yep," Rose chirped excitedly. "Hannah and Justin in my year are quite nice. Ernie is a bit of a braggart, but he's okay, I guess. Anyways, we had our first flying lesson as well, all the others were impressed."
"You didn't do anything dangerous, did you?" Lily asked warningly, sighing at the bashful look Rose gave her. "I swear that I let James have too much influence on you sometimes."
"I'm a daddy's girl," she giggled. Lily toyed with her raven hair amusedly as Rose snuggled into her chest.
"Have you been getting into any trouble? Causing any mischief?" Lily teased. Rose giggled.
"Like I would fess up to a professor!"
"I'm your mother."
"That's even worse."
"Rose Lily Potter!"
"Lily Violet Potter!" Rose returned easily. Lily gave a sigh of fond exasperation. "Why are you sad?"
"What makes you think that?" Lily asked bemused.
"At the sorting feast...you were hoping for something. You've been down all week, what's been bothering you. Do you miss dad?"
"There's that," she conceded. "You're too observant for your own good."
"Dad tells me I get that from you," Rose replied with a cheeky grin. Lily pinched her cheeks affectionately. "Now are you going to tell me the real reason?"
"Don't worry about it," Lily shook off, "just a dream that I had. Nothing more."
Rose looked unconvinced, but did not press the issue, for which Lily was grateful. The burden was hers and hers to shoulder alone.
-Break-
"Red against Green. Move it, people!" Katerina barked, while Harry watched impassively from the side as the two seven person teams rushed towards opposite ends of the duelling pit, deploying in two battlelines, shielders in front.
The two lines advanced against each other, shields dropping momentarily as both sides unleashed a volley of spells. It was a testament to their training that the pulse only lasted half a second before the shields had snapped back in place, easily absorbing the other side's barrage. He watched the exercise continue for several moments, and noted that Katerina had a hopeful expression on her face. He becknowned her over with a single finger, and the girl glided over.
"What do you think?"
"These are the fresh recruits?" he inquired. She frowned.
"No...these are our more experienced squads...are they not up to your standard?" Katerina asked worriedly. Harry hummed neutrally.
"It is not a matter of skill, but philosophy. Tell me, they've continued five minutes, yet what has either team done to try and win?"
"I...what do you mean?"
"Survival is the most basic of instincts. I would not have wasted my time training them on it were it not but a foundation required for development. They need a drive to win. There needs to be more innovation in tactics. More...development of initiative. The point of them is to eventually train them as shock troops, punch a hole and exploit before quickly disembarking. This philosophy needs to be reflected in their combat style."
"How?"
"Let me tell you a story, Katerina, that of Rome's military. In the beginning, they used the phalanx to great effect, crushing their untrained opponents in their surrounding areas. However, as they expanded northward, they were faced with the hill people, who used hit and run attacks, able to ambush, attack from multiple directions, and retreat before the phalanx could hope to turn and pin them down. And so the Romans develop the maniple system, three battle lines in a checkered formation that gave them the flexibility needed to traverse the difficult terrain. When Rome had conquered the Italian peninsula and came into conflict with the likes of Carthage, they faced a new problem: the Empire had grown too large for the micromanaged system of the maniple. A commander in one place might have too many triarii, the elite veterans, and not enough principei, the raw recruits, or vice versa. More standardisation was needed to rapidly expand. And so they did, inventing a completely new system called the legion, formed up of cohorts. A cohort was a unit of roughly a hundred muggles, who could operate both as an individual unit and the legion as a whole. In fact, multiple legions could coordinate with relative ease for the time."
"So...you want me to have them split into smaller units?"
"Indeed. I must admit some fault, in promoting the seven man team so thoroughly, when in fact, it should be thought more of two pairs and a trio, or a quartet and trio," Harry explained. "There will be times when they will have to fight as part of a large group of perhaps one hundred or more magicals together. There will be times they operate in pairs or alone. No part of this training can be neglected. But back to the subject at hand, they are not creating opportunities nor exploiting them, merely trying to outlast the other in a slug fest."
"So like the Roman phalanx, too unwieldy and inflexible?" she inquired. He nodded.
"While a good foundation for establishing team cohesion and basic tactics, it's time to push them to develop more flexibility. I would recommend three pairs under the command of a leader to start with. But first, send another squad to attack Red."
"Yellow team, take down Red!" Katerina barked, snapping another squad of seven into action as they charged forward and engaged the flanks of the reds, who quickly bent their formation to hold down the two fronts despite buckling slightly.
"So much potential," Harry murmured.
"You'll have your army, I'll be sure of it," she promised.
"An army?" Harry chuckled. "No, these are going to be my elites. I want them as close to perfection as possible, because they will be my ace in any conflict. Not only that, I am counting on them to propagate their training into any future recruits."
"How many will truly stay with the cause though?" Katerina asked with uncertainty.
"Probably slightly less than half." At her shocked look, he chuckled. "I am but a talented fifth year student, not all will immediately devote themselves to me as you have, nor would I expect them to."
"Then…"
"Why train them?" Harry mused knowingly. "Do you remember the analysis I requested of every individual before I assigned them to various units?"
"Of course."
"There was an...ulterior motive to that."
"You...were testing their loyalty?"
"Indeed," Harry acknowledged. While most would be grateful for training, I knew some would not follow me on my path as warriors. And thus I worked hard on separating those individuals out, weeding them until there were certain elite units who I performed additional training on. The very same individuals who I had Otaba enhance with basic rituals."
"Just how many…"
"Roughly three hundred would follow me now if I asked. Another two hundred could be moulded to the cause with some effort," Harry answered crisply. She hummed thoughtfully, clearly impressed.
"You have a small army at your disposal then," she smiled. He nodded. "Do you really anticipate war?"
"It is not a question of if, Kat, but when," he noted as Red team finally succumbed to their opponents' superior numbers. He pulled out a list. "Have these individuals report to me, they will no longer be part of their squads. I have more...specialised training for them in mind."
"By your command."
-Break-
"The fifteen of you have been selected for specialised training because you have proven yourself a combination of powerful, intelligent and resourceful. These are the qualities expected of elite troops, and to waste such potential on normal types of fighting would be a grievous mistake. No, you are what we in the business call force multipliers, agents who work alone or in small teams to achieve mission critical objectives. Stealth, speed and shock are the name of the game," Harry lectured to the gathered individuals, who stood impassively. "Cast your disillusionment charms."
The fifteen tapped their wands to their head, all disappearing mostly from sight. Harry frowned, pointing at two of the individuals. "Konig, Seidel, you're not properly bending light. Busch, you're not pouring enough magic into it, your outline is sharp and visible. You may drop the charm now."
The fifteen did so, the three individuals he called out looking properly chastised. "You have proven yourself above your peers, but that is not enough. I will make you into the best, and nothing short of it, because the cause needs individuals to fill such a role. You will curse. You will yell. You will cry. But by Merlin's grace by the end of it you will be my agents."
"Hoorah!" the fifteen chorused. Harry nodded, pleased, and flicked his wand, summoning the wheeled blackboard over. "Now, let's go over the fundamentals of the disillusionment charm. It is principled on bending light around you, which means that any movement can and will cause distortions. With enough training, we can minimise the visibility of such a weakness. Let's start with the physics behind this."
-Break-
"You trust them," Sarah mused, appearing from the shadows. Harry hummed an affirmative. "You believe that they will succeed?"
"With enough time and effort, yes," he nodded. "They are undeniably talented and filled with potential. I'll introduce them to you soon, they will become your agents, afterall."
"Mine?"
"You wanted to be my spymaster. What is a spymaster without their spies?"
"Touche."
"Let's play a game. Avoid getting caught by me for an hour, and I'll teach you my disappearance spell."
"Ten minute head start," she bid.
"Five and your time starts now," he returned. She smirked, tapping herself on the head and disappearing from sight. He heard several hurried steps before those too were silenced, and smiled. How far his favoured had come since they first met.
-Break-
"Cover!" Ira barked out as her squad leapt behind a concrete wall just as an artillery shell landed where they had been moments before. She cursed high command and their decision to use live fire exercises due to fears of an invasion.
Not even active troops would have been risked in normal times, but with a surge of activity from the Russians, even trainees like her were now being put through extreme training drills to ensure their competency. Several bullets whizzed overhead.
"Nadia! Take Ernest and Xawrey, go five hundred yards that way and be prepared to flank the enemy. Everyone else, charge forward on my mark. One. Two. Three. Go!" she yelled, leaping from cover and firing several shots forward, causing the enemy to duck and giving them a vital chance to gain ground. Her squad charged forward, their rifles firing even as they continued to run, never giving the enemy a chance to fire back before they leapt into the enemy trench and fired at their torsos, taking them out of the fight for the moment.
"Sitrep!" she barked, looking to her squad.
"Tulont is out, but the rest of us are good!" Xavier shouted back. Ira sighed. This meant only seven of the nine person squad was left.
"Right, we're pushing that way to rendezvous with Nadia and her team. Reload and prepare to move out!"
"Hoorah!"
Author Note:
First chapter of the day, and unfortunately likely the last. I have to get to bed early for a medical appointment tommorrow. Hopefully I'll manage to squeeze two chapters out for both days, but don't count on it. Dragonhitter, you definitely hit the nail on the head. This is a school, and there's only so much that can reasonably happen. I'm thinking of intensifying the conflict between the board, the staff and Harry along with something to do with Grindelwald, so hopefully we're going to get a return to something more gripping soon! Not much worldbuilding for this chapter, despite lot's happening. As always, if you enjoyed, be sure to follow, favourite, share with your friends and leave a comment, even if just to say hi. Until next time, toodles!