"How long has it been, my friends? Forty eight years. Forty eight long years since I was imprisoned and we were forced underground. Forced to conceal ourselves, and wait patiently," Grindelwald sighed. The entire audience of several hundred wizards and witches listened enraptured. "And for what crime? For fighting for our rights? For daring to dream of a better world?"

Boos and jeers filled the room. Grindelwald appeared solemn, before his expression hardened. "Indeed, look at the world since the Alliance's fall: one of weakness, division and corruption. We are forced to cower away from the muggles as though we were insects, as though magic were something to be ashamed of. Magical creatures, shamed for their blessed talents and skills, because of an envious few. Is that a society which we can permit?"

He could feel the anger in the air, palpable tension as they clung onto his words. Grindelwald sighed dramatically. "Once we were defeated, their vaunted coalition fractured, falling prey to special interest groups, corruption, nepotism, bastions of a bygone era we swore to replace. They allowed the rise of the Iron Curtain, and cowered for nearly half a century at a non-existent threat. And now, with that exposed, they fracture. In America, there is civil unrest. Here, tensions between France and Germany. In Russia, complete collapse. In China, a zombie society only held together by the iron grip of an autocrat. Is this a world we stand for?"

"No!" one of the crowd yelled, and soon it became a resounding chant which shook the very foundations of the crypt they gathered in. Grindelwald allowed this to run rampant, a slight release of the emotional build up, before raising his hand for silence.

"The reckoning has only been delayed, for we remain strong and united, while our enemies have grown complacent and divided. Go forth, my followers, and spread the word. The time for our revolution has come. For the greater good!"

One by one, he watched his followers disapparate with determined looks on their faces, until he was left standing alone within the crypt. Only now, did he allow a triumphant chuckle to escape his lips, one which soon erupted into full blown maniacal laughter. Europe would be his, it was his destiny.

-Break-

"Let me get this straight, you disobeyed direct orders to hold the line, and instead broke formation, leaving other units vulnerable?" the major general to her right questioned, peering over his glasses.

"My prerogative was to ensure the sector would hold. With my suspicions of a Russian counter-attacking force assembling, the priority shifted from holding the trench to capturing or destroying the Russian force," Ira responded crisply.

"You took a force of," the lieutenant general in charge, glanced down at his paper, "a hundred men against a force of ten thousand Russians?"

"With due respect, sir, the calculations were clear in my mind. If my unit was destroyed, I would have at least delayed the Russian counter-offensive and bought time for other troops in the sector to prepare. If I succeeded, as I have, then I would have dealt a major blow to Russian operations," Ira defended coolly.

"And why did you not communicate with your superiors before making this decision?" the other major general questioned in disbelief.

"Communication lines were not set up yet, and my squad lost our radio operator. Time was also of the essence. As the senior officer in the vicinity, I decided to exercise my professional judgement."

"Several soldiers have complained about this breach in protocol and the needless endangering of their lives," the major general growled. "You have nothing to say to this?"

"Victory cannot be achieved without sacrifice, sir. I am willing to lay down their lives, just as I expect my troops to."

"Enough Piotrowski," the lieutenant general silenced with a glare, causing the other man to shrink in his seat. Turning back to Ira, his expression softened. "I must commend your actions, lieutenant. I will be forwarding my recommendations to the general staff that you be immediately promoted to the rank of major."

Ira couldn't hide the look of surprise on her face. To do so clearly reeked of favouritism, regardless of what she had achieved. The two major generals flanking the lieutenant seemed to agree with her thoughts, as both appeared defiant, with the one on her right opening his mouth to protest.

"No I will not be dissuaded otherwise," the lieutenant general barked firmly. "President Wałęsa has already made his intention to award her the Order Wojenny Virtuti Militari clear. Given the loss of so many command staff and the dire need for a propaganda victory, I see no reason to kill two birds with one stone. Lieutenant Ivarin, I apologise for this travesty of a tribunal that my colleagues insisted on. I commend you for your dedication to Poland, and encourage you to continue exercising such initiative in the future."

"Thank you sir," Ira saluted, ignoring the glares from the two major generals for the soft smile that the lieutenant general favoured her with. While the man's admission that it was equally for propaganda that she would be promoted left a slightly sour taste, she had no doubt that Harry would be pleased.

-Break-

"Douglas, watch your right! Jules, just hold, I'm coming to reinforce!" Anguis barked, finally managing to land a stunning spell on his opponent, knocking him out of the fight. While sweat already covered his body, the sixth year forced himself forward, casting a blasting curse that knocked another one of his opponents several feet back as they were forced to abandon cursing his squadmate in favour of raising a hasty shield.

Now two on one, Anguis and Jules managed to push the opposing squad's leader on the backfoot, who despite being the single strongest individual in the simulated battle right now, was neither advanced nor strong enough to do anything but focus on defending against two opponents.

"Jules, tennison gambit!" he grit out, charging forward while shielding. Behind him, Jules fired a banishing spell, sending Anguis careening towards the shocked opponent. His shield, while adept for deflecting spells, did not withstand physical attacks, and with Jules continuing to fire spells, he could not afford to change to a different shield.

With a loud smack, Anguis and the opponent tumbled to the floor, at which point Jules quickly bound and stunned the opponent, rushing over to help him up. "Good work."

"We're not done yet though," she replied with a grin, and the two fist bumped before turning to help their teammates.

Watching all of this, Harry nodded thoughtfully while Katerina was jotting notes down. "They've improved significantly."

"I've modified the training curriculum. There were mixed results, but we're seeing a lot of innovation. Competing against each other has encouraged advancement at a rate beyond my optimistic prediction," Katerina mused, a smile on her face. "I take it you are satisfied with the progress?"

"If you can keep this up, then I will be very impressed," Harry confirmed. "Is the competition causing any problems in terms of...rivalry?"

"A bit," she admitted. "It's one of the costs of having them stick within the same teams."

"I see," Harry rubbed his chin, weighing the pros and cons. "Keep them as it is for now. Let me know if any major problem arises. If it's just small rivalries for now, then it's an acceptable trade off for better internal cohesion. Just make sure there are team building activities cross-teams as well."

"I'll have it arranged," Katerina agreed quickly, jotting down a note to do so. Harry turned to Sarah, who had been observing the exercise silently thus far. She felt his gaze and the unasked question.

"I concur with your analysis, so long as they continue to grow at a similar rate, we'll be able to initiate operation union," Sarah responded in a clipped voice. Katerina seemed taken off guard by this praise, her composure flustering for a moment. "They will be a fine core, but have you thought about how to replace them as they inevitably are retired?"

"I have," Harry chuckled. "I suppose you would suggest that I insist on a rotation?"

"That would be my recommendation."

"Tell me, what is the difference between an intelligence operative and a soldier?"

"An intelligence operative rarely engages in direct combat. They play a supporting role, working in the shadows. A scalpel to the hammer that regular soldiers are."

"I asked for the difference on an individual level, not operationally."

"I...suppose that an intelligence officer is more operationally flexible compared to a soldier."

"A passable answer. Katerina?" Harry knew Sarah was cursing inwardly, but this would be a good learning exercise. He would allow no one in his circle to be complacent. She considered her answer for several moments.

"An intelligence officer is meant to exploit opportunities, whereas a soldier is meant to complete definite tasks."

"That's what I just said," Sarah muttered under her breath.

"Incorrect," Harry sighed, looking towards Sarah. "Katerina's statement, while similar to yours, is in fact, minutely different, and close enough to the answer I wished to hear."

Embarrassed, the girl ducked her head. Harry sighed tiredly. "An intelligence operative is often expected to act with large degrees of independence. They are given an overarching direction, and often must pursue it by adapting to the evolving situation. Many times, they will be forced to rely on their own judgement. In contrast, a soldier exists in a support structure, a piece to a greater whole. Rarely will a soldier not have at least a partner, if not a squad with them. They are expected to know how to fight and how to protect, and do those things exceptionally. But more importantly, they always work in teams. Tell me, Sarah, why does this matter?"

The girl hesitated, taking time to compose her answer. "Fostering a dependency training intelligence operatives is ill advised given they need to be able to operate alone. Whereas, a soldier can specialise in a particular area of expertise, confident their shortfalls are covered by a complementarity skilled team member."

"Good. An intelligence operative is expected to use subterfuge, manipulation and any means necessary in their work, which would likely be hindered if they were to form any non-utilitarian relationships. In contrast, a soldier working in a unit would benefit significantly from a strong relationship with their squad mates and superiors, because in most situations they will rely on those very same people just as those people rely on them. There is a reason why muggle militaries often form units based on the geographical origin of their troops, because a common heritage and culture generally makes it more compatible. It also means desertion is not only a betrayal of the cause, but their brothers and sister in arms. Their failure would endanger not only themselves, but those they have grown to care about. This, ladies, is why the two of you were placed in your respective roles. Neither of you can exist from the other, and while on principle you may dislike each others' methods and style, if you allow such notions to hinder the overall effectiveness of my operations, you will face my fury. Understood?"

"Yes sir," the two acknowledged with ducked heads.

"Good, carry on." Looking down at his watch, he sighed and quickened his pace. He was already late for a meeting with Schwarz.

-Break-

"And now, we have the pleasure of welcoming Albert Warcraft, the director of Phoenix Investments, one of the up and coming wealth managers making waves for recently pumping twenty billion dollars into several IT companies, most notable purchasing a controlling stake in Ciena corporation, which lays submarine internet cables. Mister Warcraft, can you tell us why you've done so?"

"Thank you Cindy, just Albert is fine. In my opinion, the internet will revolutionise the way business is done. Transactions that once took days to process can now be done nearly instantaneously. In the future, you might very well possess all the latest information minutes since its publication through the internet. Shopping, socialising, work, the potentials are limitless. And with the growth of Asia, I foresee large amounts of cabling needing to be laid. Just look at the four Asian Tigers and China's rise."

"I see, I see," Cindy, the interviewer, nodded along pleasantly. "You've made some very controversial bets, including profiting from Black Monday last year. Why this latest bet?"

"I'm always looking to the future, Cindy. The role of the market is to correct mistakes. The British government overvaluing the pound was a case of them slowly pulling off the bandaid. While it might hurt, ripping it off, as we did in the markets, will help Britain in the long run. As to claims that we were in the wrong, the only institution to blame is the British treasury for wasting taxpayer dollars trying to fight an unwinnable war."

"Curious you mention the future, another one of your bets is intel, which has already reached historic highs thanks to speculation. How do you respond to criticisms that you're just chasing fads?"

Albert chuckled lightly despite the slight annoyance within himself. "It's simple. I believe in a world where we will digitise, and that world will require lots of chips. Right now, we see them in calculators and computers. Tomorrow, they could be in fridges, televisions, cars, perhaps even implanted into us. While there might be bumps along the way, I believe semiconductor manufacturing is going to be the commodity that makes or breaks future nations. It's the same reason why I bought into ASML, various battery manufacturers and IT companies."

"Interesting. And what are your thoughts on the growing economies in East Asia. Do you believe in, as I believed it was coined, the Asian century?"

"I think that there's definitely going to be a shift from a Euro-American world order to an Asian-American one. There's just not much room left to grow for western countries in comparison to Asia, where billions of people could soon be joining the middle class. India and China in particular, those will be where future MNCs are made or broken."

"I see. Do you plan on investing in those regions?"

"I admit to not being familiar enough to do so. My clients have entrusted other entities to manage their investments in other parts of the world, my focus will be in Europe, with which I am most familiar."

"Very well, then let's talk about the current civil war in Russia spilling over into other Eastern European countries. What are your thoughts on that?"

"All around, it's bad for business. Many of my investments have been in the baltics and Poland, which have suffered as a result."

"So why buy in more in the region? Would it not make more sense to diversify?"

"My goal, Cindy, is to be ahead of the curve. The Russian people are suffering dearly, and soon they'll revolt unless the various factions can come to an agreement. Neither Yeltsin or the parliament wants that, so I think they know they will have to act soon. With that said, many assets with intrinsic value, such as mines and oil fields, are being sold for pennies on the dollar. I would be a fool not to take advantage."

"Interesting...interesting. Let's get a few viewer questions on here. This one is from Marcus Zyinsky, who asks, 'What are your thoughts on the authoritarian capitalism seen in China and Singapore'?"

"A good question. I think this is irrefutable proof that economic liberalisation does not equate with political ones. For far too long, the west has been blinded by the idea that once countries like China open up economically that we can expect them to democratise. The truth is, there have been authoritarian capitalist states for at least a century, look at Manuel Estrada Cabrera and Jorge Ubico's respective reigns in Guatemala, Augusto Pinochet's reign in Chile, Suharto's New Order in Indonesia. If the West is to champion democracy, then it must be made as a condition towards economic relationships, or we might very well be faced with the reality of authoritarian capitalist countries being allowed to join the world economy and subsuming our democracies."

"Fascinating, and another question, this one submitted anonymously, asking 'Do you think the free market can resolve the looming environmental crisis?"

"I think that the market based systems and the Washington consensus are fundamentally flawed. They are highly theoretical assumptions that may work in the short term, but fail to take into account existential issues such as wealth inequality and environmental degradation. Fundamentally, a market rewards those able to generate the greatest private surplus, which creates a tragedy of the commons situation. I also believe that free markets inherently make a country expansionist and imperialist, seeing as to maintain continual growth more resources are always needed. Today's conflicts are for oil, but perhaps tomorrow's will be for water, rare earth metals, or something else entirely. I personally believe in mutualism and a focus on the societal good rather than individualism, but that's neither here nor there. Long answer short, don't expect the market to solve anything."

"An interesting view for a wealth fund manager," she probed, causing several chuckles to erupt from the audience. Albert laughed good-naturedly.

"Those are my dreams of what the world should look like. Alas, we need to work with what the world really is."

"That's all we have time for, thank you, Albert, for your time. This is Cindy Ackman, recording live at the World Economic Forum. In half an hour, we're going to be back with IMF managing director Michel Camdessus."

Albert shook several hands, smiled pleasantly, and quickly left the stage. Moving through a fancy red carpeted area, he lifted his VIP badge and was allowed into the executive lounge, where many of the world's elites were dining and chatting. Relaxing his face into a smile, he approached several Chinese businessmen. Hopefully he would be able to make more networks that Harry could use.

-Break-

"Loosen your grip, the point of a blade is to redirect, not to halt an enemy's attack," Tomak lectured as Harry fell to the ground, blade clattering to the side. Taking a deep breath, he hoisted himself up, raising his blade again. "And again."

Tomak raised his sword up high, swinging left before pivoting, revealing its nature as a feint and slashing to the right. Harry had his blade angled, and it bounced off with a clang. Several more times, Tomak swiped with his blade, and each time, Harry deflected, carefully adjusting his grip so the blade was always fifty five degrees against Tomak's, causing the professors strikes to skim to the side.

Inevitably, after a particularly brutal strike, he was unable to reangle in time, and Tomak's blade struck the hint, sending jitters all along his body. Were that a real strike and not merely intended to warn, Harry knew he likely would have lost an arm.

"That's enough for now, you're too tired, won't do you any good pressing yourself," Tomak chuckled, wiping the sweat from his own brow. Harry mimicked his action, sheathing his sword. "Not bad for your third lesson."

"I'm not adept at using two hands on a blade," Harry admitted, causing the professor's eyebrows to quirk in curiosity. "Much prefer twin blades or one and a shield."

"Your profile says otherwise, you're a strength oriented individual. It just takes some getting used to," the professor assured kindly. "I myself am the opposite, I thought I was a strength swordsman, but my master insisted I was an agility type. He was right."

"Then I'll defer to your expertise," Harry chuckled, drawing a laugh out of the professor. "You're very skilled at the blade."

"It's the mark of an alchemist, Harry. While Flamel's stone is the most known, in reality, most alchemists judge each other by their sword and swordsmanship. It's a craft, much like alchemy, and the same dedication, precision and skill is required to master both," Tomak lectured. "One day, you will teach your own student, just as I am now."

"Round seven?" Harry asked after gulping down a mouthful of water and pulling his blade. The professor did the same, a smirk on his face.

"Like you need to ask." And with that, the professor's onslaught began again.

Author Note:

Seeing as this is a shorter chapter, I've decided to talk a bit more about how and why I am writing this story the way I am. Some of you might prefer the fight scenes over the the policis, and I totally understand why. But in reality, while sometimes boring, understanding at least the basics of politics is vital. This philsophy is clearly reflected in Harry Potter and the Raven:

With Voldemort's and now Grindelwald's rally shown, I believe now is a good time to discuss the politics that can be found within this work. We see Grindelwald and Dumbledore, who are fervent adherents to their own ideologies. For the former, this is the magical conquest of the muggle world. For the latter, it is the maintenance of the status quo. For Voldemort, she is more pragmatic, completely abandoning the pureblood movement in Britain and instead now leveraging on the revanchist enclaves in the Balkans. Harry takes this to the extreme, and we see his belief in authoritarian pragmatism, having witnessed the failure of other systems to combat the corrupting influence of the Soviets and the Soviets inability to keep themselves stable, which has led him on a path to discover a better way. On a personal note, I dislike the political spectrum as reactionary. In my belief, history can be looked at from a materialist point of view, with the struggle from different factions. In feudal times, the conflict between monarch and nobles resulted in the latter gaining more and more power because monarchs require the support of their nobles to stay in power, whereas the opposite, when considering castes rather than on an individual basis, is not true. Using a more modern example, by Marxist theory, the capitalist class' desire to maximise the exploitation of the working class is incompatible with the working class' desire to increase their standard of living, creating inevitable conflict. For those of you who played Fallout New Vegas, there is a faction called the Divide, which believed that the kleptocratic semi-democracy in the NCR, the tribal authoritarianism in Caesar's legion and the authoritarian capitalism in the Vegas strip were all remnants of an old world that cannibalised itself. The faction, built on mutualism and decentralised capitalism, is a fascinating piece of lore that suggests that the discussion politics should not be between markets (as seen in capitalism vs communism) or control (as seen in authoritarianism vs liberalism), but rather on individualism versus mutualism. The critique made is that the political systems of the 'old world' are unable to shake the fundamental principles of individualism ingrained into humans: in Soviet Russia, Lenin had to enact the New Economic Policy, which allowed for capitalist enterprise to flourish, in order to rebuild Russia. When Stalin tried to reverse this by collectivising, it led farmers to burn their livestock and eat their animals rather than surrender them to the state, causing mass famine; in America, the constant demand for economic growth and a prioritisation of capital markets has led to expansionist policies in South America and the Middle East dictated by special interest groups, and when those began to produce less tangible benefits, led to increasing divide and self-cannibalisation, culminating, for now, in the January 6th storming of the capitol; in China, the quest for continual economic growth has pressed the state onto unsustainable policies, leading to environmental devastation and financial instability (with the shadow debt crisis and housing bubble), and a similar need to pursue expansionist policies in Asia and Africa to sustain this. Three different systems, yet fundamentally all failed to address challenges such as environmental degradation, wealth inequality, special interest groups etc. I don't have the answer, and I hope that by the end of the story, it is clear that I don't intend to try and present one to you. Rather, I hope that reading this story not only brings you enjoyment, but inspires you to think, to question and to doubt. Just as this story is pushing me to my limits as an author, I aim too to push you to your limits, to face that which you find discomforting and scandalous, to consider every avenue. I know this is a far longer author note than normal, but this is because I feel passionately about this issue. When mixing between third person omniscient and third person limited, I try to impart some bias in the writing, particular in character thoughts, to create character, but rather than project their views onto you, I hope it is encouraging you to doubt. Harry undergoes horrific tactics, such as deliberately sabotaging werewolf facilities to create the magical world's equivalent of ethnic tensions. He truly believes he's in the right, but hopefully you as a reader do question that. His successes don't equivalent to him being 'good' or 'right'. Some of you will dislike the time spent on Albert. I've kept him out of the story, but I believe it's important to set up how he presents himself to the muggle world and the influence he wields on behalf of Harry. Investing heavily into Eastern Europe is going to play a part in Harry taking control in the future.

A quick note, the 'war' in Russia is a parallel to the real like 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis. It's far too complicated for me to get in here, but in essence, Yeltsin wanted to dissolve the country's highest body (Congress of People's Deputies) and parliament (Supreme Soviet), both of which had significant communist sympathies. As president, he legally did not have the power to do so, but used the justification of popular support for his economic reforms as a pretext to remove them. Street fighting ensued, but Yeltsin won, crushing his opposition. In this universe, the fighting is far more prolonged and wider reaching in Russia. The 'Russian' forces we see Ira and the Poles fighting are part of a resurgent Communist movement aiming to re-create the Soviet Union. Yes this is a significant divergence from our own history, something we'll increasingly see. This is another reason I am setting up for future inclusions of Albert, because he is in essence representative of Harry's response to various geo-political events in the muggle world.

Now onto reader comments:
From Dragonhitter, I completely agree. I did get the feeling that the story was starting to get a power fantasy vibe, which is the opposite of what I want to create. Grindelwald confronting Harry and dominating is a reality check for both him, me and you, dear reader.

Ignotus Redwood comments about the names I used in the last chapter, noting some of them don't sound Polish. I want to clarify that I just use a random name generator for most of the characters, so if you're from a particular geographical region you might notice discrepancies. I apologise if that is discomforting. However, I would like to explain that 'sitrep' is actually a military term for 'situational report' rather than the name of a person. When an officer asks a subordinate for a 'sitrep', they are asking for a quick overview of the situation. Thank you for your well wishes!

To snowbot, I'm pleased to announce, that just for you, I've created a server for the story, the code being: Jew89k8Jp8

Daniegeorge asks whether I have left the escape of Grindelwald deliberately vague. That's an excellent question, considering at one point I was considering making it a multi-part mini arc in the story. Ultimately, I decided against it because I felt it unrealistic. As Grindelwald hints, there have been rescue attempts prior that led to the capture or death of some of his followers. The Coalition in 1945 (pre-cursor to the ICW) was very competent, yet as time has dragged on, we see that the ICW is starting to get bogged down in problems elsewhere. Take the Balkans and Horat for instance. Between that, the ICW is stretched thin and not what it once was. The second reason is because I consider Evan Rosier's action a lone wolf attack. Thematically, I felt that it was fitting that it's not some grand, elaborate ploy that releases the dark lord, but merely the actions of few (or in this case one) perpetrators. I didn't want to glorify or romanticise the breakout as some elaborate plan, because that just doesn't fit with the tone of the story I envision. I know it's disappointing, and believe me it felt painful to delete several thousand words worth of plotting and intricacies, but at the end of the day, an escape plot just didn't contribute to the meaning, cohesion or content of the story. This probably isn't the answer you were looking for, but I wanted to be truthful about how I'm writing as an author. Perhaps in hindsight this will be a mistake and a missed opportunity. I don't know. But I can only trust my gut with these decisions. Turning away from a meta perspective and back to a story one, while Grindelwald still has loyalists, most of his more capable individuals were imprisoned or killed, notably Vinda Rosier. Thus over time the most loyal and most capable were whittled out, until all that remained were those that hid (like lord Rosier) and those less fanatical or powerful, and thus rescue attempts dwindled. Equally, the ICW started to get complacent, making the hiring of Evan Rosier and his rescue of Grindelwald possible.

I know that there's starting to be a drag on this story, rest assured that this is the penultimate year 5 chapter. After that, we're going to see Harry interacting much more with his circle in a meaningful way. Harry also realises that he's being pulled in too many directions, and will start to make adjustments in the next chapter, though you'll have to wait to see exactly what and how.

As always, if you enjoyed, consider leaving a follow and favourite. Your support means a lot, and following ensures you are notified whenever I upload a new chapter. I'm currently maintaining 1 chapter a day, though that could change in the near future. Otherwise, please do leave a comment, be it positive or negative. Your feedback is vital to helping me improve, and I love reading them.