BMU President Resigns amid corruption scandal
The first administration of the BMU has braved several crisis, but the latest, in which minister of finance Tullos was shown by leaked documents to have embezzled state funds, seems to be one to many for the embattled president, who in a surprise announcement declared snap elections for both parliament and the presidency.
Dozens of candidates vying for the presidency have emerged in the day following the announcement with no clear front-runner yet. Early polling suggests that parliament will be split again, requiring a new coalition to be found after the current ruling coalition, the Front for Baltic Peoples (FBP), has lost considerable support from the public.
This is a surprise to no one, given how recent tragedies such as the failure of werewolf containment facilities, poisoning found in vampire blood banks, a disastrous breakdown in the floo network, along with a slowing economy, rising crime rates and creeping inflation, have significantly polarised the population.
President pro tempore Irakli Davis, new head of the FBP, told the magical times, "We have made many mistakes, and that must be acknowledged. I will be working hard with my colleagues to regain the trust of our people. Extremist ideology is not the answer that Raven would have advocated for. I have already announced several reforms which have been passed, allowing for greater auditing to create the transparency and accountability that the people deserve."
Despite these assurances, extremist parties on both the far left and right have gained significant ground on moderates, and chairman of the Communist Baltic Alliance (CBA) Dusan Semenov, told the Magical Times, "The series of crises have shown the ineptitude of existing mechanisms. After the glorious founding of our country by Raven, his spirit for innovation and progress has been lost to corruption and complacency. It is time for the people [of the BMU] to rise to our destiny."
The CBA, which advocates for policies such as universal basic income, a massive expansion of state projects, the nationalisation of key industries and increased regulations for companies, has drawn the support of many disillusioned with the Socialists for the Magical Baltics (SMB), which has hemorrhaged support for its perceived inaction during the crises.
The Nationalist People's Party (NPP) has gained the most traction, and is projected to win fifteen seats, up from its current two. Policies such as restrictive immigration, the deportation of certain species such as vampires and werewolves, increased spending on security and the rebuilding of slums in the city's peripheries, all policies once considered too radical, have been embraced by a vocal minority on the right.
The election results for both parliament and presidency will conclude next week. A national holiday has been declared two days from now to allow all to vote. Expected turnout is high, with fifteen percent of eligible voters having cast their ballots for the presidency and twelve for their MPs.
"Isn't this too soon?" Sarah frowned, raising a cup of tea to her lips and taking a sip. Harry hummed thoughtfully. "Unless you're planning to take power now?"
"No, not yet," Harry shook his head. "For all you have learnt, you still don't understand. Fear leads to bitterness, bitterness leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to rebellion. I need to displace hope, but not with fear or with hate. Nor apathy, from which I cannot derive true loyalty. No, I must do that with despair."
"Freedom is slavery," Sarah shrugged, drawing an intrigued eyebrow from Harry. "Orwell's 1984, quite a brilliant book. I found the ideas quite fascinating: in a free society one is chained by expectation and doubt, whereas in an autocracy one is free from the worry of finding one's place. A free market would permit the enslavement of one by another and the promulgation of capitalist exploitation, whereas in a controlled, equitable system, everyone would have true freedom to succeed. It's quite paradoxical, is it not?"
"So it can seem," Harry inclined his head, a pleased smile on his lips. "And what of the other two slogans?"
"War is peace. It is the idea that humans always need to find an enemy, be it one of class, race, or religion. The creation of an artificial enemy can unite a people and create domestic peace for external war. Much like how you're poisoning the idea of democracy in the minds of the people such that they would embrace you as an autocrat."
"Very good, Sarah," Harry beamed. "And the final slogan?"
"Ignorance is strength. You give them the freedom of knowledge such that they are crushed by the burdens. Worry after worry, crisis after crisis, until they are exhausted, and are content in their place. A willing, consensual ignorance is difficult to exploit by other adversaries, while having the benefits of censorship."
"We're quite paradoxical creatures, aren't we?" Harry smiled. "I am surprised that you read the book. What brought it up?"
"You, Harry," Sarah answered. He gestured for her to explain. "You've always been fascinated by Orwell, I thought it prudent to learn why. I have come to respect his writings. I'm surprised you haven't made all of your circle read it?"
"It is not my place," he shrugged. "Knowledge discovered is knowledge gained. Knowledge forced is knowledge forgotten. Orwell in particular, it would be so easy to simply read the book and come away believing it a simplistic critique of authoritarianism, yet it is so much more, is it not? Tell me, would you have looked so deep, or gained such insight, had I forced you to read?"
"Probably not," Sarah conceded. "What now, though?"
Harry stood up, beckoning for her to follow over to his desk as he pointed towards a world map. On Britain, there was a pin labelled 'Dumbledore'. On the border between France and Germany, there was a pin labelled 'Grindelwald'. On the Balkans, there was a pin labelled 'Voldemort'. And in the BMU, there was a pin labelled 'Harry'. Various other pins dotted the map, but with the way these four glowed at his wandpoint, Sarah focused on them.
"You believe war in Europe is inevitable?"
"I do," Harry acknowledged. "At the current moment, there is balance. The traditional power of France faced off against a newly united Germany, and both also against Grindelwald's rise. Dumbledore, still rebuilding Britain after the destruction wrought by Voldemort. The Balkans, fractured, but with great wealth and the potential to rear its ugly head. Disturbing reports of the ICW withdrawing after losing many of their agents...such a blatant attack, I suspect can only be the work of Voldemort. And finally...the BMU, once the target of suspicion from the entire continent, now a wounded beast that has imparted the confidence for other powers to face different grievances. Four major known players...we must be careful, to appear weak when we are strong, and strong when we are weak."
"What of Russia?"
"On the muggle side, concerning, given Communist insurgents are still springing up, I'm observing the situation closely. I've heard rumours of nuclear disarmament worldwide with the fear of terrorist cells. It's been gaining traction."
"Is it even possible to close Pandora's box?" Sarah asked in disbelief. "Seems to me everyone would just hide their stockpiles."
"Perhaps," Harry shrugged, "but...perhaps not."
"You have something planned?"
"The beginnings of one. There are eighteen nuclear programs that the Soviets had intelligence on, including America, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Israel, Egypt, Taiwan, Japan, North Korea, Libya, and four states within the Union, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Among these, there are roughly one thousand two hundred key experts responsible for the knowledge involved in producing nuclear weapons."
"You want...to assassinate that many people?" Sarah's eyes boggled.
"I would prefer obliviation, to be honest, though I conceded some disappearances will be necessary. Without these key personnel, along with some other...initiatives, I believe we can make it undesirable for states to pursue nuclear weapons."
"Like project Erasmus?" Sarah observed shrewdly. To her relief, Harry merely looked amused rather than annoyed.
"Very much so," he nodded. "You've been busy, perhaps I should work you harder."
"I wouldn't be opposed to more private sessions with you," she offered coyly. Harry merely laughed.
-Break-
"Feel," professor Aribage encouraged, as Harry pressed his hand to the edge of where he knew the ward was set up to be. "What do you sense?"
"An intent to harm...to electrocute," Harry answered after several moments.
"And this one?" the professor encouraged, lowering the first and raising another. Harry reached out with his senses and smiled.
"A ward designed to repel physical objects."
"Very good, very good," he smiled, re-raising the first ward. "Now try and tell me, which one is on the surface?"
Harry concentrated hard, but to little avail. The magic of the two wards intermingled too much, and after several moments, his concentration broke, unable to determine the difference. The professor looked thoughtful for several moments before snapping his fingers, face alight with inspiration.
"Let's try again, I'll press the wards further apart."
Taking a breath, Harry reached out again, and this time, he could feel two distinct signatures despite them intertwining together. Nodding pleased, he answered, "The physical deflection ward."
"Good, now I'm going to move them closer slowly, try and observe how they intermingle," he encouraged. Harry observed as the wards slowly inched closer, and the magics slowly overlap. Yet having seen the process gradually happen, he managed to lock onto the distinct signatures for far longer.
"I see it's worked," the professor mused happily. "Don't fret, it's an arduous process to learn how to sense them. Most curse breakers take a full decade to grasp it."
He raised another several wards, beckoning Harry over to them.
"A notice aversion ward, an anti-apparition ward and a owl exclusion ward," he answered after reaching out to feel each one. Professor Aribage clapped his hands, pleased.
"Good, now feel as I inch them closer. Feel how their magic starts to blend, and try to keep in mind the distinctions that separate each one." Harry nodded, focusing as the wards slowly bled together until they were almost melded.
"I...the owl ward is outside...but I can't tell within."
"Very good, very good," the professor beamed. "This is progress. I'm going to remove the owl ward, now try and tell which comes next."
All the sudden, one of the feels of magic disappeared, and he was better able to concentrate on the remaining two. Reaching out, the distinct sensation to look away radiated from it, and he easily identified it.
"Now let's try to layer the owl ward back on," the professor encouraged, raising the ward several meters away and slowly inching it towards the other two. Harry fought to find the distinction, but it became clear that he still was not attuned enough to do so.
"Don't look so down, you've made excellent progress already. It's only been a few weeks," Aribage assuaged. "But that's enough for today. Have a seat. How is your project this year coming along?"
"Well enough, I suppose. I'm delving more into runic channels. Right now, I've got a crude but functioning bridge between all the major languages," Harry admitted smoothly.
"This I must see," the professor chuckled, passing several pieces of parchment and handing it to him. Harry pulled out a pen and began to quickly scribble, his runes not in either a standard line or circle, but rather in hexagonal shapes like a honeycomb. The professor watched curiously as he continued to scribble for several minutes, before handing it to him. "And this...works?"
"Using the common denomination method, yes," Harry nodded. "Try it."
The professor scribbled a quick rune sequence in native american script, and another one in anglo-saxon, connecting the two at either end and sending a jolt of magic. Both observed, Harry confident and Aribage in disbelief, as the energy channeled through the honeycomb structure, successfully bridging the two.
"This...this is...incredible! How did you think to come up with such a shape?"
"Ironically, muggle physics," Harry answered. "After brute force calculations, I managed to deduce this was the simplest shape with a reasonable transition coefficient. Of course, I've managed to make a more complicated version with a nonagon, though it doesn't possess quite the same stability as using hexagons."
"I presume this is your final project, then?" Aribage proffered. Harry nodded. "Well, it seems I'll be submitting a proposal to the guilds then. I daresay they won't be able to deny you a mastery for this like they did last time. Would I be correct in assuming you want to work on ward sensing for the rest of the year, then?"
"That would be lovely," Harry agreed with a smile.
-Break-
Otaba,
I have joyous news, son. The dark lord has graced our family with his blessing, and is on the road to recovery. He is currently residing with lord Rosier, and is quickly gathering strength. Several other families have also rejoined the Alliance.
Your interest in rituals has attracted the dark lord's attention, and he wishes to meet you over Yule. Present yourself accordingly.
Sigmund Rosier
Otaba frowned at the letter. Spying Harry and Katerina enjoying a conversation at the edge of the common room, he reluctantly walked over, ignoring the glare she shot him at interrupting. Whether Harry noticed this byplay, Otaba couldn't say.
"Grindelwald now...resides in my family's manor," he ground out, causing Katerina's annoyance to morph into surprise. Harry merely nodded sagely.
"Give your family's traditional support, it was a likely event," he conceded. "How long do we have?"
"Milord?"
"I have no doubt your family will want you to pledge your loyalty. How long do we have?"
"Yule," Otaba answered reluctantly. Harry nodded thoughtfully.
"Are you-"
"Anything for the cause," Otaba resolved. Harry favoured the boy with a smile, before turning to quickly scan the room.
"Sarah," he called out, causing the girl to leave her conversation with several agents and skip over. "Apologies for interrupting, but I need you to train Otaba in occlumency, as much as possible by Yule. Ensure that his mind is secure."
"Will do," the girl agreed quickly, bowing before dragging Otaba off. Katerina looked at Harry with confusion.
"Grindelwald is a high level occlumens, but not as adept with legilimency, by all accounts, rare as they are. If he is to survive as a spy, he will need to have some level of mental defenses."
"Why not train him yourself then?"
"Apart from the time I struggle to even find time to have conversations like this these days, I cannot do everything myself. I am but one individual, and I need to train all of you within my circle to work independently. Just as I put Ira and now you in charge of training up our fighting forces, I am entrusting this task to Sarah because I can intervene should there be any significant issue. In the future, we may not have such luxury."
-Break-
"Clear your mind," Sarah instructed. Otaba frowned, but attempted to do so. After several minutes, she tapped him lightly with a legilimency probe, yet he showed no indication of feeling anything. Inwardly, she sighed. How was he supposed to do anything? Harry had admitted it had taken him years to get his mental prowess to where it was. She had taken a year under his talented tutelage. She had a matter of two months to somehow get this done. It was an impossible task using traditional methods...meaning she had to figure out a different way. "Otaba, it's not working. We don't have time for the traditional methods, so we're going to do this the hard way."
"Anything for the cause," he repeated vehemently. Sarah concentrated, focusing on creating a targeted strike at Otaba's mind. Rather than narrow and refine the probe, she moulded it until it resembled a battering ram, before shoving it through his mind. This time, Otaba clutched his head in pain. "W-w-what in Merlin's beard was that?"
"That was a very blunt legilimency probe," Sarah explained. "Over time, I'm going to refine it more and more so you learnt to detect more subtle ones, but for now, the only way to expedite this process is for me to repeatedly legilimence you until you can identify the probe."
"I can do it," he affirmed. She favoured him with a smile. Was this how Harry felt when training her? Sarah could understand why her mentor loved to teach.
-Break
Jade sighed as she packed the last of her belongings, at which point a house elf popped into the room and took them away. Her assistant watched the process sympathetically as she clutched her handbag, reaching out for the portkey on her desk, a simple rock, and clutched it, disappearing in a flash.
After several moments of disorientation, she landed gracefully in the familiar office of the Chinese minister of magic, where her father sat behind a desk. He looked up, and smiled at her, though she merely returned a scowl.
"Jade, looking beautiful as always, my dear," he beamed, standing up and quickly making his way over, wrapping her in a tight hug. She returned it robotically, and as if sensing her discomfort, he quickly disentangled himself with a sigh.
"Daughter, why the long face?"
"You know full well why."
"I suppose I do," the man sighed again, turning away from her and looking at the fireplace, upon which a family portrait taken from years ago rested. "I can live with you hating me, my dear, as painful as that will be. I could not possibly live if anything happened to you."
"It's my mistake, father. It is only my love as a daughter that I obeyed," Jade grit out. "I have my own life! My own dreams! My own friends! I'm not some pet for you to move around as you please."
"Jade...there were riots on the streets, looting and homicide shooting through the roof. Surely you understand why I asked you so."
"Ordered, father. Don't try and pretend it was anything else."
"Ordered, then," he conceded with a pained grimace. "How could I in good conscience let you remain in the country when it looks on the verge of collapse?"
"I expected you to trust in my ability to make my own decisions," Jade scowled. "I'm not the little girl who cried to daddy when she scraped her knee. I'm almost thirty!"
"You could be a hundred and I wouldn't stop worrying, dear. Neither would your mother."
"I...I don't like it, dad. I understand why you did it, but I don't like it. I'm going home to see mum." Jade sighed. It was perhaps the one good thing to come out of this, she had missed her sisters quite a lot.
-Break-
"Aurors! Open up!" a red robed commander called out while several of his subordinates had their wands pointed at the door. Behind them, War mage Vanner watched with detached amusement, her eyes scanning the entire property for any signs of their targets escaping.
After several more moments of no response, the commander sent a blasting curse at the door, ripping it to shreds as they charged in. It wouldn't be the first time they raided an abandoned safehouse, but she forced herself to remain vigilant outside.
"This is a waste of time," her aide, a bright young witch, muttered under her breath. Vanner didn't have it in herself to reprimand the aide, seeing as she was of much the same opinion. The two waited several minutes, frowning when the aurors did not reappear.
"Something's off," Vanner muttered as she felt her sixth sense tingling, even as the three aurors reappeared out of the door. "Eden, return to headquarters now."
Rather than questioning the orders, her aide quickly ran for the wardline, when suddenly she crashed into an invisible barrier of solid air, which slowly began pushing them towards the three aurors, who had raised their wands. Vanner flicked her wand, firing several stunning charms at them, though they ducked out of the way and began firing a variety of spells at her.
"Boss, there's no way out!" Eden's slightly panicked voice rang out. Vanner paid it idle heed, her attention instead on the individual stepping out of the door, who almost glided forward with the way his blue robes billowed, his malevolent blue eyes shining ominously as the three aurors, standing stiff as boards, collapsed to the ground.
"Is that-"
"Grindelwald," Vanner confirmed Eden's suspicions darkly. "If there is an opportunity to flee, take it."
Not stopping to see if she heeded her words, she stepped forward, mustering what courage she had, and demanded, "Gellert Grindelwald, by orders of the ICW, you are to surrender yourself for return to Nurmengard."
"I think," his smooth voice drawled, "you will find yourselves incapable of demanding anything. Ada Vanner, daughter of the famous maiden of France Serila Vanner. Let us see if daughter will fall like mother."
"Avada Kedavra," she cast, the green spell jetting forward, before somehow slowing to a stop mid-air, the energy cackling as the spell slowly lost integrity. Grindelwald's wand was lazily flicked in his hand. "I-impossible!"
"You will find that I am capable of many things," the dark lord chuckled, waving his wand again. The spell suddenly reversed directions, gunning towards her. Vanner threw herself to the ground, belatedly realising it was not her that was the spell's target.
The lifeless corpse of her aide collapsed onto the grass with a thud, but she had little time to mourn, rolling out of the way by instinct and managing to avoid several whistling lances made of compressed air, their density distorting the light to make them visible.
"Do you think yourself capable of standing against me, girl?" Grindelwald taunted, as Vanner's grip on her wand was lost. Both her hands clutched at her neck as an invisible force began choking out the air from her. The dark lord strone leisurely until they were face to face, and traced a finger along her cheek. "You do have...some potential, join me, and I shall make you great."
"N-never," she choked out, despite her vision beginning to flicker to darkness. Grindelwald had true regret in his eyes as he flicked his wand, and with a snap, her throat collapsed in onto itself, and the war mage's lifeless body fell to the floor.
"A shame," the dark lord muttered to himself. "So much wasted magic, but alas, sacrifices must be made for the greater good."
Author Notes:
Welcome back to another chapter! Thank you for all the comments, both here and on reddit! It truly means a lot to me. We're definitely starting to see things ramp up in intensity with multiple plot threads, while I definitely intend to continue exploring different classes, I'm committed to making Harry's fifth and sixth years far more eventful and more reminiscent of Raven's chapters. A warm welcome to Ignotus Redwood, who comments on the historical references made throughout Harry Potter and the Raven. Given this story seed initially sprouted from the idea of incorporating the cold war into the Harry Potter universe, I definitely made attempts to pay homage to various events in history, though I am hardly an expert. I learnt a lot about the European Community and the evolution to the EU we know today from one of my favourite fanfictions, Emperor by Marquis Black, which while is definitely controversial, I believe is truly worth a read, if nothing else for its sheer ambition and vision. I wanted to create a similarly authentic story drawing from elements of real history, which I'm glad to see you enjoyed learning about. While we're going to start seeing significant divergences in this story's history due to Harry's actions, and those of the magical world in general, begin to spill over into the muggle world, there definitely will still be odes to real life events. Hopefully you'll enjoying noticing the differences as we build up to the eventual muggle-magical reintegration. As always, if you're curious about certain events you've seen in the story, I encourage you to look them up! For instance, the U-2 incident in which Raven interrogates Francis is heavily inspired by the real life 1960 U-2 incident, though some elements, such as him having a disabled child, were my own invention to incorporate it into the story. I'm definitely hoping to keep up 1-2 chapters a day, so hopefully you'll have that to look forward to! Thanks again for the support!
A quick breakdown of the four 'titans' of the magical world, of which hints have been given. In case you missed it, essentially each have a speciality. Harry's is energy (an offshoot of lightning) magics and the mind arts, Grindelwald's is air and charms, Voldemort's is the dark arts and fire (more to be revealled on this) and Dumbledore's is transfiguration and water. I cannot wait to pit these four against each other, though there's still a while to go, given Grindelwald, despite his show of strength in this chapter, is still far from fully recouperating, Voldemort is just about to gain her body, Harry's still slowly creating an opportunity for himself to seize power in the BMU, and Dumbledore tries to juggle managing Hogwarts, training Rose Potter, settling arguments in the ICW and preventing the British MoM from falling too far under the influence of Voldemort sympathisers. I'm curious as to whether you all would be interested in looking at the back stories of the other three titans, given that we've followed Harry's rise thus far and will continue to do so. I'm torn between keeping a bit of mystery, and wanting to dive headfirst down the rabbit hole.
As always, if you enjoyed, please considering following and favouriting. It really means a lot, and encourages me to write more chapters for the story. When I see statistics begin to falter, I'm going to assume that reader fatigue is beginning to settle in and pull back on releasing chapters while assessing whether I need to shift directions. If you loved this, consider sharing it on discord servers and reddit so others can partake in this story! Didn't like something? Be sure to leave a comment, I read all of them and try to make changes to improve the story and myself as a writer. This story has always been about pushing myself to the limits, and as such, blunders will be made. Any feedback, whether positive or negative, is genuinely appreciated. Until next time, toodles!