Odyssey of a Mage

by mootjeman7

Reincarnated into the Wizarding World of HP universe, Atticus Sayre grabs the second opportunity at life with both hands. With an understanding of what is to come, he dedicates himself to magic and subverting dangers posed to the world he now belonged to. Ruthless, Determined SI-OC. Fem Riddle

40. Chapter 40

A/N Hello All, a little later than usual but it's also much longer than usual!

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He sighed as he cleaned the blackboard, removing the Eldar Futhark runes that he marked out as he went through their meanings and potential uses for his third year Ancient Runes class.

He went to the front of the desk but not before he felt her approaching the door to classroom seconds before she walked through once she opened it.

"Master" he said smoothly as he kept his back to her as he gathered the right number of the special parchments for their fifth year class.

He was getting good at it, feeling people through magic from a distance. It wasn't a conscious effort, not any more.

Everyone had a...unique quality to their magic. One of the things that he noticed is that siblings had similar enough feel to their magic.

He did discover some aspects to it. Muggleborn siblings – currently there two pairs of siblings from muggle families – had a more...diverse quality to their magic, almost as different from each other than two distantly related purebloods whilst pureblood siblings were very similar to each other.

Muggleborns had wilder, unrefined magic – magic nonetheless but still different in many respects to purebloods and half bloods.

A lack of magical heritage, lack of family magic and lack of magical upbringing made their magic individualistically unique.

Even those who didn't have a manifestation of a family trait still had access to family magic. Family magic creates a bond through blood and magic and it is something that comes into existence after centuries of purposeful shaping.

And so, many siblings would feel similar to each other – except for muggleborns who are unbound due to their heritage.

He wondered what it meant for those who are born from squib lines from long dead family names. Names were important to magic, thus to magicals. It created identity and tied them to their heritage. Magic knew itself but it seemed to be a limit.

Claiming a name, especially those of Old families, was not a simple matter. Many families could lay claim to Hyswel, to Winterdon, to many other long dead families through blood...

But magically?

Well, that was far more difficult. Emily's situation was a perfect case. Her family is undeniably descended from House Slytherin and yet it took centuries for House Gaunt to produce someone that could be accepted – not only by whatever safeguards were in place in the Slytherin vault but probably also by magic.

If she hadn't had access to Slytherin family magic, she would not have been able to put on the heir ring.

If the entire universe was living, with neurophysical energy – magic – permeating everything in their plane of existence...how do individuals fit in with this concept? Why were magicals capable of affecting magic like this in the first place? The capability of using magic did not explain it and neither did magic of having a form of sentience.

Perhaps it was not the right question he mused to himself.

He could her snorting as she walked towards him "As much as I like you say Master when we're alone" she said as he turned around and saw her with mischief in her eyes causing his lips to twitch in amusement. She winked at him, finally making him laugh "I've told you many times to just call me Daphne" she said with a raised eyebrow.

He shrugged unrepentantly "It's a hard habit to unlearn" he said with a curl of his lips and she rolled her eyes good naturedly.

"As you're aware, today the fifth years will be starting on learning about runic schemes. Normally, I'd have you just assist but I'd like you to take over the class whilst I only observe" she stated.

He looked at her curiously prompting her to continue "Your talents in constructing Runic Schemes are prodigious and effortless. As such, having you teach them instead of myself will be beneficial to all parties." She said with a gleam in her eye.

"That's fine" he said slowly "Are you sure about this? It's an important part of the OWLS" he asked with a tilted head.

She rolled her eyes as she went around him and he turned to look at her. She sat down behind a desk behind the teacher's desk and looked at him quite amused.

"You're more than capable of teaching the entire curriculum without any difficulties. You will be easily capable of teaching this part of the curriculum. You're more than capable of taking on an apprentice, for Merlin's sake, were it not for your age" she snorted.

"You could have been finished a year ago if you truly wanted after all." She said with squinted eyes.

"Ah but then I'd have to leave this wonderful castle." He said nonchalantly with a grin.

"I'm sure that was the case" she said sceptically before she tucked in a loose her behind her ear as she cast her eyes down at some homework the third years gave in.

"More like a certain inhabitant that this lovely old castle holds that has you moving at a snail's pace" she sing songed lowly and his eye twitched.

He didn't respond to that. It wasn't exactly the whole truth but it was close enough to it.

"Will I be taking over for the rest of the year?" he inquired and she looked up to stare at him for a moment and nodded.

"As I said, you are more than capable of teaching the curriculum of every year. Continuing to teach the students what you will be starting today is only sensible. I'm only going to observe as a requirement more than anything else" she told him and he accepted that.

The first few students walked into the classroom, his last lesson of the day. They eyed him curiously given that Daphne was seated in the back of the room and he was standing in front of them.

"Are you teaching us today Professor" Emmaline Kitborne, a Ravenclaw asked.

"I am today, yes" he confirmed with a small smile as more students came in until the last one did.

The fifth year class would be the last time a large group of mixed students in Runes as more than half dropped it after OWLS. Daphne also required EE minimum, another barrier but he didn't think it was too difficult to achieve.

"Morning class" he said smoothly as he glanced over the class "Today, I'll be taking over the class from Professor Goshawk." He said as he put his arms behind his back as he peered at the class "Are there any questions?"

A ripple of murmurs swept the class before a hand at the back was raised, Jason Whittlewick, a Hufflepuff. "Yes?" He asked expectantly.

"Will this be permanent?" he asked "You taking over teaching us I mean" he quickly clarified.

"Yes, I'll be teaching you for the rest of the year. I know all of your progress so far to date and I've helped set your curriculum so there should be no issues finishing preparing you for the OWLS." He told them.

A little round of murmurs rang around the classroom which he set to end "Now" he began, quieting down the room "Are there any further questions before we start the lesson?" he asked intently and he was pleased to find out there were none.

He nodded lightly

He turned towards the black board and a chalk floated into it and he began to write wandlessly before he turned back to the class

"Today, we'll start with an important topic in Runes;"

Runic Schemes

He turned to them with his arms behind his back as his eyes peered over his class.

"For the past two years and a half, everything you have learnt thus far has been to prepare you for advanced runecrafting and Runic Schemes are the very beginning of advanced runecrafting." He told and saw a number of them straighten up.

He turned around and sat down on the edge of the desk, with his feet crossed and settled into lecture mode, his left hand twirling the piece of chalk.

"Just to recap, by now, you should know very well that runic magic, reduced to its simplest form, can be considered a method of magical writing, that is to say runes can be inscribed on most objects and runes with different meanings used to combine to describe and cause the effect that you want. Runes can also be used to maintain spells that might require more power, longer lasting or have a wide area affect.

The symbolism that we ascribe to runes is responsible for the effects and this is why we only use dead languages where the meanings are fixed to a certain degree. Through our magic, through our intent and the meaning we give to each runic letter, we create the basis of runic magic. Application of certain runes can be varied but their underlying meaning remains the same. Some languages are better than other in certain things" he said pausing momentarily as he checked to ensure he had their attention. He continued.

"In your sixth year, you'll be introduced to different writing systems that are better for certain things. For example, Ancient Norse runes are better for elemental magic whilst Chinese runes are better for more esoteric purposes. Eldar Futhark is perhaps the most flexible runic language and writing system there is and as such is one of the main reasons as to why Eldar Futhark is used predominantly in many magical societies around the world. Mixture of these languages is a topic that will be touched upon in your sixth year.

Returning back to the subject at hand, in your third year you were introduced to the alphabet of Eldar Futhark and their meanings, the importance of the exactness of inscribing to prevent weakening of the effect of the rune and how imprecise lines can cause failure.

In your fourth year, you were introduced to the concept of linking runes and their mechanisms...How position and alignment of runes were important to ensuring that your scripts work to their fullest and are not weakened.

You were introduced to how runes interact with ambient magic, that is the energy that surrounds us, and in some instances could draw magic from you. You learnt that certain materials such as magical metals such Goblin silver or metals such as gold could hold runes almost indefinitely in comparison to other, less magically conducive materials such as stone.

You began your first steps into using runic magic when you did in class exercises which were to link certain runes to cause the effects that were desired such as combining when you all combined Kenaz, which represents the warmth of the home fire, and Dagaz, which represents the essence of natural day light and the power of the sun, to create a small fire at the centre of special parchments.

You learnt how you can affect the size, intensity and colour of the fire through the position and alignments of the rune within the script you wrote on the parchment and how to apply your intent and magic.

This year you expanded through learning Selmat Principles of Exclusion and Inclusion whereby conditions could be set within your script of linked runes to make for example fire harmless to human skin or to activate if certain conditions are met, namely if there is sunlight within the room or not." He said pausing as he finished his recap.

"All of this is to help you prepare for advanced runecrafting, where the application of the art – yes, runes is as much an art form as it is form of magical writing – is incredibly diverse. Cursebreaking, Warding, Ritual Magic, Enchanting and Alchemy all use runes in some form or another. And Runic Schemes are at the centre of most if not all of these branches of magic. Runic schemes are one of the oldest forms of runic magic" he told them as they listened with rapt attention.

He levitated the piece of chalk, starting off murmurs as they watched him. It wasn't a surprise to them anymore, him using wandless magic. He turned towards the blackboard and drew a larger circle and a smaller inner circle that he shaded.

"Runic Schemes are effectively networks of linked runes, where sequences of these runes are combined to a single point, a centrum. These collections of sequences create the intended magic by combining as they connect to the centrum whilst the centrum determines how the magic created should behave, determining how the magic is used, when to be used, what it is used for.

An analogy that works best is to consider the network of runes similar to the concept of wand movements of spells and incantation...with the centrum considered as your will, your magic, your intent and imagination." He paused for effect.

Runic schemes were pretty much magical programming of sorts.

He drew out the word tier with an arrow pointing towards the inside of the outer circle.

"The most basic of runic schemes consist of an outer circle and inner circle and these are called tiers. Runic schemes work by runes in the outer tier affecting the inner tier.

The shaded circle here is the focus of the scheme and is largely called the centrum. The focus of the scheme will contain the instructions of the scheme. The outer circle will contain runes that creates the magic and thus enables the focus.

He added another circle before he turned his face to them "The most complex runic scheme to date has 14 tiers which was only a conceptual exercise. Generally speaking, runic schemes beyond three are hardly ever necessary." He said calmly to them as they noted down his words. He continued "Regardless of the number of tiers you may have, all of them will converge and focus to the single point" he said finally before he glanced at the students.

"Mr Greenwood" he called out.

The boy straightened out "What would you say the centrum reminds you of with regards to linked runes?" He posed to the boy.

He could see Greenwood thinking it over before their eyes met.

"Uhm" Greenwood began nervously "The centrum reminds me of anchoring method required for linked runes" he said as he begun to overcome his nervousness. He squinted his eyes in concentration as he looked at the board "In our exercises, the positions of our runes needed to be convergent to the anchoring rune with the runes that set the conditions closer to the anchoring rune and the runes that caused the effects on the edges" He finished and Atticus nodded approvingly.

"Ten points for Gryffindor"

"The principles of linking runes is by design similar to Runic Schemes. Linking rune are by nature simplistic. For example, you do not need a Runic Scheme to create fire, to create something that floats or hovers. Linking runes are often used for minor things like making quill tips everlastingly sharp, to make surfaces permanently smooth and scratch free like your desks.

Runic schemes are used for complex actions such as spacial manipulation, warding – a warding scheme consists of multiple layers of runic schemes – all of ancient stone circle sites used forms of runic schemes to perform large scale magic like rituals" he paused as he stared at them for effect.

"Runic magic can do anything wands can do and so much more – if you know how to use it and runic schemes have been used for as long as magicals can remember. It is one of the most ancient use of magic and one that has stood the test of time and the potential uses are endless." He finished for a moment as he saw them absorb his words.

"Now" he said as he got up from his seating position as he clapped lightly

"For runes to work within a runic scheme, they must be activated and for this to happen, the runes, or unique sequences of runes must be within a boundary, the most common boundary being a circle and these circles or boundaries are called loci." He said as he drew a couple of circles within the outer circle.

"For one locus, the singular form of loci, to affect another locus or tier, it must be linked through a curved line" he told them as he showed them a connection between the two different loci.

"However" He began and drew an outer circle in the free space of the board, two circles within the outer circle, one slightly smaller than the other and a hexagon. He shaded the larger circle.

"If loci are affecting one another within a tier, you have to show which is affecting which. The locus with the most corners affects the other loci the least, with the centrum, the shaded circle being affected the last." He paused momentarily as he turned back to the class and saw everyone taking notes.

"The reason for this order of operations is because one locus can affect many others, something that you will discover much later on if you choose to progress to NEWTS. A locus is not restricted to affecting only one other locus or tier.

Loci that affect a lower tier do not need to show order of operations unless they are also affecting loci within their own tier." He told them.

"The application of conditions is slightly different to how linked runes work and the way that it is, is like this"

He cleaned the board and added two circles, a shaded one and a circle with another very slightly larger circle concentric to the circle, making it a double lined circle.

"If you want to create a scheme that excludes something, you would show that by a circle around that loci excluding it from the effect. This means that the excluded element cannot enter or exist within that part of the effect of the scheme." He said to them.

"If you want to modify the effect of a rune, for example reduce or increase it" he trailed off as he drew a large circle with a smaller circle which had its centre point fixed on a point of the circumference of the larger circle.

"The smaller loci is placed overlapping like so which creates a combined rune. This combined rune is then affected by all other runes interacting with them as if they were one rune. Similarly if you have a combination of runes within the circle, within the boundary, the overlapping loci will change the effect of sequence of runes as if it was one rune as well."

He waited for a few short moments before he turned to the next topic. He drew out four circles, two midsized ones and two smaller ones and linked the midsized circles with curved lines before he linked the smaller circles, which were spaced away from each other on opposite sides with two straight lines to the curved line whilst one of the smaller circles had a slightly larger circle concentric.

"In this case, by connecting a locus to an affecting curved line by two straight lines, you can set conditions for the scheme to only activate if certain conditions are met.

Additionally, by connecting a locus surrounded in an exclusion circle to an affecting curved line by two straight lines, the scheme will only activate if the subject of the exclusion is present." He finished.

"Arithmancy is required in small amounts to calculate the positions, alignments and sequence of the loci to ensure that magicals fields of the sequences and effects of the runes fit well together and this is what we will go through now."

He swiftly and concisely explained to them the principles before he finished and proceeded to clean the board.

He picked up special parchment used for runes. "Now, today we're going to draw out a very basic two tier Runic scheme and activate it using what you have learnt today." He told them and they perked up slightly.

He continued to explain what the exercise was, a simple one in the end, that created a small fire in the centre of the parchment that had conditions to stop if a hand approached the fire within a few inches, exclusion being waterproof, modification being a very small fire less than ten inches long and wide. It would also have a monitoring rune and a gauging rune.

The double period class ended with most students having succeeded in activating the array on their own as they applied what they learnt whilst some needed a bit more help.

He sighed heavily and heard a snort from the back of the room.

"It should be illegal to have a double session on a Monday afternoon" he complained and this time she laughed as she patted him on the shoulder.

"It isn't fun" she agreed before she turned a little serious "It was a good lesson, I see no issue with you continuing to teach even if I'm not here to observe" she told him.

He straightened out a little and he nodded "I hope it's only the fifth years and not the sixth and seventh years?" he inquired and she nodded.

"For those classes, I'll continue to take the lead as you assist me." She said before walking towards the door "Don't worry about marking homework, I've already done most of the third years and fourth years" she told him before he nodded.

Daphne looked at him curiously "Only three more weeks until your mastery presentation." She stated as she sat across him from one of the student desks.

"Yes..." he said breathily "My last one for a while I think" he said to her and she nodded seriously.

"I've already told you what I taught of it" she said to him "Whilst it isn't as revolutionary as your transfiguration mastery, it is a credit to you" she said with a smile.

His submission will be a novel way of bridging multiple languages within a runic scheme consistently without having to adjust it based on what language you are using.

Whilst circles were commonly used for runic schemes, there lesser known forms, such pentagons, hexagons etc. Bridging multiple languages without any problems was his submission and it would use a hexagonal runic scheme that removed misalignment and incompatibility, regardless of what runes were used.

"Thank you" he said with an incline of the head "A shame though" he mused to her and she looked on curiously.

"A shame that we never truly succeeded with three dimensional runes" he told her and she laughed.

"Indeed. I could see so many applications for it..." she sighed.

"Anyway" she said as she got up "I will see you at dinner" she said as she nodded to him and walked out of the room.

He sat there for a moment thoughtfully.

Three dimensional runes would open up to entirely new forms of runic magic. One set of sequence of runes constructed in three dimensions would take up no more space than a single rune in the same amount of space.

Unfortunately, for the moment, they were missing a few things for it to work, in particular, the ability to make the runes less rigid in its structure without losing its meaning was something that truly made it difficult.

One of the other things that he wanted to explore was the aspect of Quantum physics in magic...Quantum Entanglement in runes and further consideration of Quantum mechanics in Arithmancy and Transfiguration.

Of course, he wouldn't jump into it, not that he had time for it. For all his brilliance in Arithmancy, he did not compare to the mathematical geniuses of the muggle world. He was probably around at bachelor level when it came to mathematics with a greater understanding in differential equations and algebra which was immensely useful it when it came to transfiguration.

Mathematics never were a passion for him, not like engineering or even physics were and it was partly why he never truly bothered to make the changes that he could do to Arithmancy if he published as often as he did in Transfiguration.

His study load under Moira focused more on Energy physics and engineering which required more intuitive understanding than the logical and abstract mindset necessary for mathematics.

The arithmancy that is taught at Hogwarts does touch up on most of the mathematics taught around secondary school, just as astronomy touches up on physics, planetary motions, interactions between different bodies and so on (albeit more from a magical perspective) but the higher elements of mathematics isn't.

Arithmancy masteries were more along the lines of understanding of the magical fields of the various elements involved in spells, rituals, wards and the creation of spells than it did mathematics. Experimental spellcrafting involved direct manipulation of magical energy – once you did the arithmantic calculations.

Wand movements optimised performance and effectiveness of the spells that you intended to create through binding the magical energy to those movements. At the beginning of spell creation, magical fields are meant to be manipulated by your wand, almost like weaving strings. You can stretch and bend them and the more experienced spell creators are capable of minimising the wand movements.

Hensel, the author of the spell creation book that helped him immensely, had many indications regarding the optimum movements for different branches of magic and the more you dive into it, the more you understand certain movements are better aligned for said branches.

Incantations were only meant to create meaning to the spells, as a form to associate your mind and your magic with the magic that is cast.

It was a shame because much of the maths that he knew helped him understand so much easier difficult components in spells. Group Theory helped him understand the different logical structures of spells and the ability to derive multiple spells from single spells.

For example the spell Percutio, a piercing hex, has several derivations, often dark but those derivations are only superficially the same and were a mess arithmantically.

His own version Perque was similar but far more effective and dangerous. It was an armour piercing dark curse that took inspiration from his knowledge of future armour piercing explosive rounds.

The devastation of the spell was immense; it was capable of piercing twenty inch steel and the devastation that it caused was as much internal as it was on the surfaces on both side of the plate by design. The downside was that it was pretty taxing magically and it required a volatile mindset to maximise the amount of damage necessary.

Group theory was important to many of his projects just as...after all, groups describe the symmetries which the laws of physics seem to obey, as far as he knew...for now.

It was from that, that he learnt how to craft spells that were extremely harmful. He remembered that were horrific muggle diseases such as Naegleria Fowleri, a microbe – if he remembered correctly – that fed on the brain until the person died.

It was gruesome and it was perfect.

It was called Cerebri Manduca. It was a perfect assassination spell that would take days to finally kill them. The only problem was that he was only simulating the effects in the spells and so there was time for them to be treated. The spell would 'eat' through the brain matter, breaking it down as it progressed. And so he had to modify the spell to make counters difficult to make. Phoenixes healed poison, venom and injuries...they did not counter curses. Neither did healing potions.

His spell creation didn't last there. He had a few notable ones that were likely to be fatal.

Dormis Languorem based on African Trypanosomiasis which is known as the sleeping sickness which induces confusion and loss of balance until they fall asleep which begins to stretch into a coma and then finally death.

He remembered that after he looked it up when it came up in a Trivia in a bar in Cambridge.

Minu Cerbres based on strokes. It makes veins in the brain pop causing immense bleeding that shuts them down.

These three spells were all power and incantation dependent meaning should he cast it in full power and with incantation, the effects of the spell is almost immediate and if he cast it wordlessly, it would kill them in days.

Those spells would be restricted to when he needed to off a bunch of people.

Some of the spells that he'd use in combat that he created, when he wasn't using elemental or transfiguration, were all related to debilitating diseases.

Crassus Vox Cutis – based on Harlequin Ichthyosis, a genetic condition of the skin. It thickens the skin in a plate like manner separated by cracks in the skin. It makes movement of the chest, limbs and breathing difficult. Surprisingly it was grey given that it was more of a incapacitating spell than anything else.

Necrotis Fasci – Based on an infection that kills tissue, an immensely deadly disease that kills 25% of those who catch it. In addition to fast acting skin death, the individual falls into toxic shock and organ failure. Extremely dark spell.

Secaremillus – Inspiration taken from Sectumsepra. He didn't know what spells it was based on, nor did he know the full effects of the spell so he simply recreated it as well as he could whilst adding his own aspects to it. It would make a thousand tiny cuts that would make the individual haemorrhage as well. Naturally, it was a dark spell.

These were only a few spells that he's created over the years. With the Time Room, he could work on several things at the same time and he used spell creation as a break of sorts from the more intensive projects he'd be working on.

He flicked the chalk up and down before he got up and proceeded to clean the blackboard wandlessly and then made his way towards the Great Hall. It was almost dinner time and he was starving.

The thoughts on spell creation reminded him of his current mini project and he'd continue it after dinner.

As he sat eating, he overheard Slughorn conversing with Medelin regarding the declaration of war by the Americans on Grindelwald.

"The Americans are joining far too late" Slughorn said a little pompously as he cast a discrete eavesdropping spell.

"Oh hush, it's more than what we're doing." Medelin said disapprovingly

"What happens in Europe is none of our business" Slughorn huffed

"Really?" Medelin asked sceptically in a slightly high voice "Wanting the dissolution of the Statute is none of our business?"

"Yes." Slughorn said unashamedly

"It is the responsibility of the ICW to enforce the statute, it is literally their sole duty that they have expanded into an unwanted overarching bureaucracy" he said unhappily.

Michais on the other side of Slughorn scoffed "You're just unhappy about the travel restrictions that are placed all around the world." Michais said with amusement tingeing in his voice.

Medelin laughed "Are you unhappy that your friends". Atticus lips twitched at her elucidation of friends "can't come to your ball in the summer?" she teased.

"No" Slughorn said unconvincingly "It's not because of that at all" he said as he huffed afterwards.

"Merely that they are neglectful in their duty when they allowed Grindelwald to rise as he did and now they expect us to do their work for them"

He could hear Michais' eyebrows rise at that statement "You're far too overconfident in our capabilities Horace. Should Europe fall completely to Grindelwald...and given how much of Europe has fallen to him, I doubt we will be capable of resisting him" Michais stated dryly.

"We have excellent mages in our country. Our Aurors have never been so plentiful. The Blacks, the Sayres, the Potters, the Bones and let's not forget our esteemed Deputy Headmaster." Slughorn said with confidence.

"Not even they can withstand an army and Grindelwald has an army that almost matches the ICW nowadays" Michais said reprovingly

"I agree with Michy, Horace" Medelin interjected

"There is no chance we'd win should Europe fall and it's terrible that we're letting things go as badly as it has. Did you not hear what happen in Spain and Hungary?" She asked Slughorn.

"I have" Slughorn said reluctantly.

Spain had several officials staunchly opposed to Grindelwald assassinated whilst in Hungary there were entire families opposed to Grindelwald culled.

Spain was in chaos at the moment as there distinct groups emerging...some who wanted to remain firmly neutral, some who wanted to join and others who were outraged at the actions of Grindelwald.

Problem was, the stability of the country barely there and the current Minister was highly focused on ensuring that the country didn't fragment.

Spain's magical population was a mixture of Berber and Spanish people. The previous Muslim population of muggle Spain was effectively driven off but the magicals managed to remain in their enclaves hidden from the Spanish.

The wars between the Spanish and Berber magicals had been frequent in the last six hundred years and only in the last two hundred were things stable but they still were tense.

"Again, none of our business." Slughorn said firmly.

Slughorn had a seat within the Wizengamot, well his family did and they were staunchly against the war. They were a neutral family who were not light, grey or dark affiliated. Simply neutral in all politics except when it came to business or war, it seemed.

He dropped the eavesdropping charm and returned to his dinner deep in thought.

The Americans arrived recently and they are battling on multiple fronts, even pushing out Grindelwald from Serbia and the regions surrounding it.

Unfortunately, France was a slugfest...singularly the largest concentration of fighters bar those who were fighting in the East against Russia. But they were holding their own for now.

It was likely that sooner than later the Americans would meet up with the Russians to push Grindelwald out of Russia, Latvia and Finland.

He wondered where on Earth Grindelwald was...none of his elves have heard a peep of where he might be.

-Break-

He stepped down the stairs into his trunk and proceeded to go to one of his workrooms.

As he entered the room, a large magical mirror was the first thing that could be noticed.

It had taken him a little while to construct it. As his skills in forging improved, so did his ability to craft. Thankfully there were many sources of books on the topic of creating mirrors and the different types of them.

The giant mirror was really his first successful attempt at creating something and it was made from Adamantite.

His process of melting Adamantite heavily borrowed from the designs Dvalin gave him. The ancient dwarves had a unique method of creating a furnace yet it was oddly ancient. It was effectively a solar furnace enabled and enhanced by magic. A solar furnace is a structure that uses concentrated solar power to produce high temperatures.

Parabolic mirrors concentrate light onto a focal point and the temperatures at the focal point can reach 3,500 degrees Celsius.

It was fascinating to learn that they used this method for thousands of years, refining it as time went by. They used sympathetically linked runic schemes, similar in some aspects to Vanishing cabinets or the myriad of other artefacts, to transfer the energy received on the mountains to the furnace deep in the bowels of their homes.

Unfortunately, Dvalin refused to teach him Dwarven Runes and would only teach him to write the runes and their meanings. He almost refused given that he did not like to use magic that he didn't understand.

But in the end he caved. It had been too important and what he learned about the possibilities of transfer of energy through magic...

The dwarves didn't understand the sheer magnitude of their discovery. Virtually endless energy could be had simply by installing a few satellites around the Sun...not only that the physics of it...

He already knew that artefacts could travel point to point instantaneously through Vanishing Cabinets...but that had been a shortening of space, dimensional physics that he had yet to truly broach.

But it truly clicked for him that if matter could travel by magic enabling, so could energy and that was a prospect that needed a lot of investigation. It could help lead to the answer of how to convert other forms of energy to magic.

In any case, the Dwarves never needed to melt Adamantite which had a melting point of something like 8,400 degrees Celsius, an insanely high melting point that exceeded the surface of the sun!

And so, he needed to figure out a way to almost triple the temperature of the furnace.

Luckily for him, there were a number of spells that duplicated things and there he found his inspiration.

Duplication spells worked in several different ways and one in particular was the ability to self replicate.

He wasn't interested in that, no he was interested in the mechanisms that went into duplication arithmantically and he found common variables and formulas that ultimately helped him figure out how to increase the temperatures of his furnaces.

He used these variables and formulas to adjust the runic scheme using his language bridge. Thankfully Dvalin did explain what each rune did and that had been enough for him to add bridges that would anchor charms he invented that would enchant the furnace to be able to increase its temperature to roughly 8,200 degrees Celsius.

He used pressure and temperature relationships to increase the temperature to 8,520 degrees Celsius, finally enough to melt Adamantite.

And so he used a mould to create the mirror and polished it to have a high reflective surface.

The mirror whilst he didn't need it, had been a useful tool to measure the rate of absorption of magic in Adamantite mirrors and to confirm or oppose some theories he had.

He created a magical null space – something that Rowena helped with given that many of her projects revolved around the study of magic itself – and tested the mirror.

The first thing that he did was cast diagnostic spells at the mirror; most diagnostic spells used on humans couldn't be cast by the person themselves.

His control over his magic was excellent so he was able to gauge roughly how much magic he was pushing through – not exactly precise enough for scientific purposes but it was fine enough – and he found that the mirror absorbed some of the energy that it received.

One of the things that he ensured was that the light reflectance value of the mirror was 100% so that it wouldn't interfere with anything magical.

Spells could be reflected back to individuals using mirrors and the known reason had been was because of the reflective nature...that it was unable to be absorbed and thusly reflected towards some direction.

He was more than certain now that it was more likely that magic shared many similarities with the electromagnetic spectrum but still quite different and it was something that has never been explored.

One more thing to add to the list.

In any case, the absorption of some magic in a highly magical metal had to be addressed for his later purposes and so he added a household charm that polished surfaces.

Surprisingly that made the magical reflectance value 100% which was pretty funny...a charm was invented to polish perfectly and in the end it resulted in polishing the mirror completely in terms of magic and probably light.

He turned towards the set up on the main desk.

All of initial work stemmed from what he learned from Rowena last month...that magicals emitted a burst of magic at a certain frequency at age eleven. The similarities to the electromagnetic spectrum clicked and would aid him in many of the most important endeavours in the near future.

It was an optical glass triangular dispersive prism with flat highly polished surfaces that refract light...and magic.

Normally dispersive prisms are used to break up light into its constituent spectral colours...white light that enters the prism is a mixture of different frequencies, all of which get deflected by the prism at different angles dependent on their wavelengths.

For example blue light is slowed more than red light and therefore will be bent more than red light. This is to do with wavelengths...red light has a longer wavelength than blue light.

Thankfully, the refraction of spells worked on a similar principle as to light and the results had been fascinating.

Arithmancy is the foundation of spell creation and it is used for spell detection, it is used for spell analysis. Understanding of the energies involved is critical along with the arithmantic calculations.

Arithmantic calculations took care of the mathematics behind the spells whilst intuitive understanding of magical energy took care of the artistry behind spells.

The form of analysis he was using now...

He discovered various magical frequencies which are separated in different colours, a new perspective in understanding magic that was breaking things down at a fundamental level, isolating individual frequencies that normally would be combined within a component of arithmancy.

Arithmancy calculations always had components...mixtures of frequencies now that he understood better but now he could break them down into elements.

The spells that he experimented most with were Lumos and Homeno Revelio.

He was using a spell freezing ward that he discovered in the Sayre Library some time ago, which were predominantly used in ancient homes to prevent 'guests' from casting magic. It didn't halt high powered spells but it did stop most.

He modified this ward to analyse the magical spectrum of colours. This ward manipulated magical energy in a hundreds of bubble like layers that are continuously charged spaced mere millimetres apart to slow it down until it hits a layer that it can't go through and it would result in the spell being 'frozen' as it meets a layer that halts its momentum.

Lumos was a simplistic charm. It converted magical energy into light.

He discovered that the colour schemes weren't too different from light...meaning that certain colours could be considered to have the same wavelengths as their light counterparts or at least the same general amount of deflection.

The first thing that he did was match what he knew arithmantically about the spell...matching up elements with corresponding colours and this had been a tedious experiment as he matched arithmantically similar spells and noting down the colours and angles.

Since then, he established a table of elements that correspond to the frequencies...to the colours.

All of them were within a certain band that matched up with what Rowena observed about magicals. It seemed that we can only cast within a certain band unique to our kind.

With Lumos he managed to isolate the element within the component that converted magic into light...which worked on a similar basis to how lightning, how fire was created but the simplicity of it helped him immensely.

He used many dark spells as well to determine their nature and their frequencies. One of the consistent things that he found different from every other spells that don't explicitly induce harm was that there was a sickly grey colour that was had a longer wavelength.

Of course the sickly grey colour was never uniform...it seemed that there were degrees of harm that either were less grey or darker grey. The colour hue scale were also slightly darker in nature.

It was fascinating.

Spells like Confringo and Expelliamus were distinctly lighter than a Entrails Expelling curse...literally.

His biggest discovery however had been about the differences between the Human revealing charm...and the killing curse.

The system between jinxes, hexes, and curses and charms was already well established but what he found was that from this refractive perspective, there were fundamental differences...

Jinxes and charms were similar colour wise whilst hexes and curses were distinctly darker which the dark curses being much darker in their colour scheme.

Jinxes, hexes and curses did share at least one common colour which was yellow green in nature whilst charms all shared a orange colour.

It was from that basis that he determined that all major branches likely had some kind of unique frequency that all spells shared.

The human revealing charm was different from what he found, so different that he had to check it with other spells that were considered to be soul magic. Whilst it shared a orange colour, there was an off white colour and a pure white colour within offset around 7 degrees from each other that he found in no other spell and that was how he determined that it must be corresponding to the soul.

And from there, he truly found out that the killing curse actually didn't affect the soul...per se.

He'd always assumed that the killing curse was soul magic and in many respects it was but mostly it wasn't.

He never cast the killing curse before...he'd only ever used the Imperius curse...it was simple...using your will to dominate was infinitely easier than it was to gather the necessary hate and absolute desire to kill a living being.

The killing curse was destructive...it destroyed physical inanimate structures but it didn't destroy magic and so he charmed the glass prism to be indestructible whilst ensuring that the charms didn't affect the refraction.

It was then that he discovered that he couldn't actually cast the killing curse properly...not even his father in his old life garnered the same hate that was necessary.

It seemed that he put it behind him and he didn't hate anyone enough now for him to truly be capable of casting that spell.

He'd been stumped and honestly he'd been worried about Emily. Casting killing curses like it was a machine gun was insane now that he knew what it took.

It was pretty fucked up.

He had to create a false persona in his mind to even cast it remotely. After the first few times casting it when he had enough data, he completely destroyed that persona. Even now, weeks after he cast it, he felt dirty. Like tar clinging on your hands...in between the fingers like inky sticky webs but that feeling spread all over your body. He was tempted undergoing a cleaning ritual.

The colour scheme from the killing curse were darker than any other spell but there was a black colour and but also the tell tale off white colour but there was only one of each and no pure white colour.

He didn't quite understand it until he readjusted his thinking away from soul magic.

He considered what he knew of the three Unforgivables.

They all affected the nervous system.

When he considered it, truly, along with the Imperius and the Cruciatus, he wanted to hurt himself.

The Cruciatus curse directly affected the nervous system. It had to. The description of the curse was that it felt like bones, skin, muscle, everything was affected the same time causing immeasurable amount of pain and that had to be related to the nervous system.

The imperius was more...ambiguous but the underlying aspect of it was that it controlled the mind which controlled the body. It was an insidious form of control of mind and body and again, elements of the nervous system.

He remembered that there were parasites that were capable of manipulating cognitive functions of people and that there was some kind of parasite that could actually control insects once it burrowed into it by tapping into the neuronal circuitries.

Once more the nervous system is key.

It also made sense as to why absolute desire for their deaths and hate are necessary for the killing curse. The killing curse likely destroyed the nervous system, instantly killing the victim.

And once he checked the Imperius and Cruciatus curses, he found once more a black colour and a off white colour.

They shared the same kind of roots but not the same as the human revealing charm.

Soul magic was esoteric and manipulation of the soul was magically neutral. Most dark curses had fatality in mind and so to cause one harm, required said mindset just as torture and absolute control did.

The black colour must then correspond either the nervous system or the subversion of the mind. The mind controlled, subconsciously, the nervous system and so it must be related to that if it wasn't specifically the nervous system.

The killing curse destroyed the nervous system, he was quite sure of that.

He suspected that the pure white might actually be the true soul representation which was scary...if the soul had a specific frequency attuned to magic...

Could you actually create a spell to annihilate a soul?

He'd been unwilling to voice it but he suspected that he could very well create one and that terrified him. If he could, then it was likely others could as well.

Especially if he ever published his findings.

He shook his head and began his work, finally.

The arithmancy of each of those spells, once he threw himself into it made it very clear to him that his hunch regarding the nervous system was correct.

And it also helped him understand how those spells bypassed magical shields. It was ingenious and simple at the same time.

Magic had a highly varied spectrum, a spectrum that wasn't well understood or mapped as far as he knew which was far better since he studied under Rowena.

All magical shields operated within a frequency range that all spells also were in.

Bar the Unforgivables.

And the human revealing charm.

The off white was what allowed those four spells to bypass shields. That frequency was what was responsible for why those three spells were unforgivable by allowing them to bypass shields.

And this is why he was here today...

To work on creating a shield that can protect against the unforgivables whilst also working on spells that were less...dirty but bypassed shields all the same (except for the shield he'd create)

With the notes that he's taken in his journal, he was almost certain that he was on the right path on finding a way to convert energy to magic in some way or another.

It would require, unfortunately, mathematics that aren't in Arithmancy currently and so he'd have to use physics and mathematics to come up with the necessary representations and transformations.

It was a later time however. Shields came first because he was getting the feeling he'll need it soon enough. His dream visions were getting more and more hectic and it was agitating him.

He shook his head and discarded that thought and breathed out deeply before he frowned in concentration as he looked over the work he's already compiled and where he'd need to pick up from.

-Break-

24th of February 1942

"Tweenie!" he called out *pop*

"Master" Tweenie bowed deeply. He was dressed in a small black suit with a white shirt and a black tie, pretty much the elf version of Men in Black.

He chose it for them all, at least the ones who weren't doing more hands on work.

He now had 86 elves, 24 of them trained in the more clandestine arts.

He got lucky. During one of his forays into muggle London, he managed to pick up surface thoughts of a high ranked Section 5 agent and later on managed to capture him in his home after tacking on a tracking charm on the man.

He didn't want to change history by damaging the man just in case he'd be important to the Allies and so he tested out his increasing Legillimency on a number of older people who were retired but had knowledge that was useful for extracting, such as older men who worked on building jet engines.

He was careful to avoid hitting the same kind of profile as he didn't want to make it suspect. In the end, he managed to legilimise five different old men and managed to only induce one stroke after he figured out how to copy knowledge from their minds. From that point onwards he tested out how to implant knowledge and it had been a success.

And so, after he captured the agent with his elves, he copied the man's training and the knowledge he had along with obtaining the names of other skilled individuals.

In the end, he copied three different skill sets, one of how to conduct counterintelligence, how to wire tap and code systems that he could begin to modify for his own purposes.

He gave those memories and skill sets to 24 elves and to Tweenie.

"What have our agents in Germany found?" he asked with intense focus and Tweenie looked at him with miserable eyes but he remained composed.

One of the things that he worked on, hard, was to help the elves that worked for him (yes, worked – he had them consider themselves as his loyal employees that were required to take 10 days – he had to negotiate up from 3 – a year off to pursue hobbies. They only accepted because they revered him – which was uncomfortable) is to lose their more...pitiful displays of heavily downtrodden slavishness.

"Master, it is bad" Tweenie said solemn and his face grave

"Elf Spy teams 1 to 6 have found many sites which has the highest numbers of muggleborn children. Sachsenhausen in Granienburg Germany, Natzweiler-Struthof in Bas-Rhin France, Herzogenbusch in Vught Holland, Gross-Rosen, Auschwitz, Belzec, Treblinka, Chelmo in Poland and Nordhausen-Dora in Nordhausen Germany." Tweenie listed off composed and with his voice even but he knew that he was struggling with it.

Atticus sighed heavily "How bad" he said in a low tone.

"Most of them will die Master" Tweenie said his voice now edging towards hysteria and despair "Elves are all very very upset master, theys wrote report and they so so bad. There are over four hundred muggleborn children in those places and many of them are in the hundreds of camps around." Tweenie's eyes watered as he began to sniff.

To elves, children were sacred. Most elves viewed those who worked at Hogwarts as the luckiest of them all given how many children there were.

In truth, even in magical society children were sacred and they were only truly killed when blood feuds were absolute.

He wanted to know how many muggleborns would be interred in those camps. He was well aware that there thousands of camps but he was one man and it was deep in Grindelwald controlled territory. Adult muggleborns shouldn't be there, only children pre magical schooling would be vulnerable enough to be caught.

It made him furious in truth. Grindelwald's message was about magicals above the muggles and yet he is allowing the travesty of the holocaust to happen to their people, even if he didn't value muggleborns it was still something that was contrary to his supposed message. He knew that there were more than just a few muggleborns in his army and yet he did not bother with ensuring that they rescued muggleborns.

Most noble Germans, Austrians and Eastern Europeans sent their children to Durmstrang whilst others attended the smaller Prussian Institute of Magic or Salzburg Institute of Magic and where most muggleborns in Germany, Austria and Poland went to.

There were eleven Great Schools; Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, Koldovstoretz, Al Kindi Institute, Atharvas, Xianxi Institute, Mahoutokoro, Uagodou, Castelobruxo and Ilvermony.

These schools were the greatest and most prestigious schools in the world and are generally the bar by which magical education is measured by.

Generally speaking, most institutions were under the purview of the local government but there were several outliers that remained independent or were managed by multiple governments.

As an example, in Scandinavia, there were five smaller schools managed by a council which had representation of each member state however by no means are they the norm.

Some like Hogwarts were semi autonomous and were only cursory managed by the Ministry as an agreement catering the school's historical importance to the Isles and the fact that it had managed itself for centuries before a government came into existence.

Similarly Ilvermony started out as an institute in a land bereft of any governmental oversight until decades later and so they retain some measure of independence.

Despite the varied statuses of schools around the world, all of them are required to work towards matching or surpassing a minimum number of subjects as dictated by the ICW. In addition no government can impugn on forcing children to attend certain schools.

However, schools can dictate entry requirements, just like how Hogwarts dictates the minimum power requirements at age eleven. Durmstrang requires concrete magical heritage for example which is something that is matched by most European schools bar a few which are almost exclusively muggleborn or half breeds.

And so, muggleborns in mainland Europe rarely attend any of the Great Schools in Europe, namely Beauxbatons, Durmstrang and Koldovstoretz. Beauxbatons had no purity requirements, only the capability to afford the fees with exceptions granted to orphans regardless of blood status.

The problem was these smaller schools/institutes were underfunded as the vast majority of wealthy purebloods went to these three schools and it is exacerbated by the fact that the ministries were dominated by these purebloods thus making it difficult for schools for their pleas to be taken seriously.

With the minimal amount that muggleborns pay, given the disparity between muggle wages and magical wages and yet had to attend magical schools to ensure that they were trained and capable of adhering to the statute, it meant that there was little goodwill towards muggleborn children which continued into their adulthood.

And so, their value to society was minimal if you disregarded their blood status. That meant not lifting a single finger to pick up said children from camps was an easy decision that they would not lose sleep over.

It may well be the case that they support such actions given that there was quite a few Jewish muggleborns and culling the population of muggleborns without getting their hands dirty may well be something the German purebloods could endorse.

He was in a bind. He didn't want to leave those muggleborns in those camps and yet he did not want to affect history aversely. Not to mention he'd never be able to get all of those people out. But he could smuggle four hundred muggleborns out...the problem of where to send them would something he'd consider later on.

"Tell me everything" he ordered and the elf began to the tale, struggling to not breakdown but managed to compose himself.

And so, for the next hour or so, harrowing retelling of constant deaths due to starvation, mass killings by guards and soldiers, and so much more.

He remembered that many Polish Jews died during the war and it seemed that it was just about to start.

"Tweenie, get the elves to spy to get more locations, including the hundreds of smaller camps. Have the elves focus on getting the layouts of each camp, the weaknesses, the number of guards." He ordered.

"I will come up with a very small tracker device that will be under the skin and unnoticeable. Some elves that are carving runes on the golems will be diverted to carve runes on the devices." He stated as his mind whirled.

He wouldn't be able to do this on his own but luckily, he had the right people in mind.

"Yes master" Tweenie said with determination in his eyes "What about the parents?" Tweenie inquired and Atticus winced momentarily before his eyes hardened.

"The parents" he began slowly "We won't be able to do anything about them" he said gravely.

Getting those muggleborn children out in the first place was going to be difficult. Adding parents who will ask for their family members to be included...

"Were there any magicals, adult magicals around?" he asked intently and Tweenie shook his head "No master, none of the elves reported any adult magicals" Tweenie confirmed and Atticus nodded absentmindedly.

That was good. That meant teams could get in and out without any difficulties. He rubbed his hand across his face. He'd need people trained as well and it has to be as soon as possible.

Time could not be wasted.

"Very well, Tweenie. Relay my orders to the elves and remind them, no interference until I say it is time" he said firmly. Tweenie nodded seriously and Atticus' face softened.

"I know that it is hard for them to see such cruelty and nonsensical suffering but if we are to save as many of the magical children, we must be strong" he told him and Tweenie accepted his words.

"What about the non magical children?" Tweenie asked quietly and Atticus set his jaw.

"We will tag siblings of magicals as well. But for the non magical children" Atticus said with conflicting emotions before he closed his eyes

"We cannot do much for them. It is important that we save magicals first. This war...we have own war and they have theirs. If we do too much, we may change things for the worse...if we save more than the ones that are magical then they may end up killing them all in other camps to ensure none escape." He told Tweenie who looked horrified and pressed down his guilt.

The concentration camps ultimately were important in making people see the horrors of hatred and inhumanity that can rise amongst a populace. It was an important lesson that did much to contribute to averting global wars, human rights and establishing war crimes, and importantly, nuclear war.

He was not here to change muggle history nor was he their saviour and in the end there was only so much he could do and he decided, some time ago, that his efforts were for magicals and magic.

"I understand master." Tweenie said quietly before he popped away.

He sighed and decided to turn for the night.

The days until Friday passed by quickly. There were grave news about attacks in England on certain Lords and disappearances which dominated much of the news in the country and the school.

With a crack, he apparated towards the farmhouse of Devonshire and as he walked towards the house, he saw that it no longer a simple farmhouse as he saw extensions built and had an appearance of a campus.

The door opened after he knocked and a middle aged woman appeared at the door with brown hair and brown eyes. She looked kindly.

"Hello Mr Sayre" she said with a smile "They are waiting in the building behind this house" she told him as she welcomed him in.

"Thank you" he said as he walked in.

"Follow me please" she said and so he did.

He nodded and received nods as he walked through the house. It seems that it kind became a small community as rooms were expanded and it became more like an apartment complex than a farm house. He felt more squibs than muggleborns which made sense given that muggleborns should find it easier to not depend on others.

Soon enough, he arrived in a large room with four softly conversing with each other who all turned once he stepped through the room.

"Afternoon" he said with a nod.

"Atticus" Sandra said with a smile as she came over and hugged him lightly

"Good to see you" she said with a smile that he returned.

Derek also came over and he conversed lightly with the two before they settled down around the table. He cast a muffling charm and several other anti eaves dropping charms before he began.

"Before we start this meeting, an oath of secrecy must be sworn to protect the sensitive information that I am disclosing today" he said in a firm tone as his eyes flickered towards the four individuals.

The other two, besides Sandra and Derek were considerably older.

Matthew Hale, a clean cut blond man dressed in an expensive suit was a WWI veteran and also a muggleborn who signed up disobeying the Ministry as he joined up with the army as soon as he left Hogwarts in 1914.

He was one of the few who did join up over the course of the war and someone who mostly stayed in muggle Britain. He worked predominantly in the capital as a trader focused on international trade. But he also worked as a mercenary of sorts in the past with his buddies and that was useful to him.

Atticus found out about him through the network of muggleborns he helped establish and his knowledge and expertise will be extremely useful.

Besworth, currently smoking a cigarette as he sat eying him closely was a squib who was heavily involved in the more illegal aspects of importing and had many contacts that knew how to get things through the country albeit things were more difficult now as even the criminal were wary of allowing Krauts into their country.

It was his first time meeting them properly.

Sandra eyed him curiously "It must be serious then" she simply stated and he only nodded before he passed on three slips of paper with the oath to them whilst he gave a magical contract to Besworth who laughed.

"Figured ya would do this, everything I heard from ya" he said a Croydon accent

"Now tell me why I should do this" He asked sharply as he sent a piercing gaze at him.

"I agree" Hale said softly as he looked at Atticus shrewdly "Oaths are not lightly given, I learnt that much from your folk" he said as he assessed Atticus.

Atticus smiled tightly before he inclined his head "I'm aware and had it not involved saving potentially thousands of lives, I might not have asked" he said calmly as he met the man's gaze before they turned to Besworth who looked at him more calculatingly now.

"I have heard of you, the man who helps muggleborns and squibs" Besworth scoffed

"If you can even be called a man. How old are you? Eighteen?" he inquired.

"Seventeen" he said with a wry smile.

Besworth shook his head "You're barely a man"

"Age doesn't invalidate or validate anything" Atticus said with a shrug of the shoulders "Ultimately what matters is whether or not I am capable." He said with a stony face.

"And are you?" Besworth responded shrewdly.

He looked Besworth predatorily before he smiled coldly "I have thus far not failed achieving my aims." Before he returned to an impassive face.

"We've much to discuss" he said as he looked at the individuals around him.

"Do as I ask and I will you everything that pertains to it" he said calmly before he leaned back in his chair and waited.

Sandra and Derek raised their wands and swore the oaths whilst Besworth read it and then signed. Hale looked at him this entire time, as if he was trying to figure him out before he looked at the slip "Time restrictive and conditional." He murmured.

The secrecy oath and contract were restrictive to after the job was done or if he agreed for them to include others in the plan which would be necessary.

Finally he swore the oath and Atticus brought the reports that the elves made though he reduced them to facts, removing the emotional component. He slid them across the table, giving each of them a copy of the report.

"Read them and you'll see why" he said tonelessly as he watched them reading the report.

He watched as Sandra and Derek looked horrified whilst Besworth looked grave and Hale looked impassive as he read the report.

"This...this" Sandra began as she looked up from the report and looked at him with horrified eyes

"This is monstrous! How can they do this?" She exclaimed.

"Lass, Chief Kraut only spoke last month at the Berlin Sportpalast threatening them Jews with annihilation." Besworth said gruffly

"Don't be so surprised that they're going through with it"

"Doesn't make it right!" she shouted at Besworth as she looked outraged at his casualness.

"Doesn't matter if it's right or wrong" Hale interjected as he closed the report and looked at Sandra "It's what happening." He said calmly before he turned to Atticus

"Given that this report is focused primarily on muggleborn children amidst the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, you want us to help take them out of their camps" he said calmly as he correctly assessed the situation.

Atticus nodded. "Yes, I want the muggleborn children and their likely squib siblings out of the camps." He said as he turned towards the rest of the room.

"That is the purpose of this meeting...to save as many magicals we can from those camps" he said firmly.

Sandra looked conflicted as emotions warred in her face whilst Derek looked furious

"You want us to abandon all those other people because they're not magical" Derek said as he got to his feet

"That's...that's monstrous!" he said outraged.

"I have to agree with the young lad, mate" Besworth said he looked at him with thinned lips

"Giving us this report" as he waved the document in the air "and then say that you only want to rescue a small percentage of those people...that's cold" he said appraisingly.

Atticus tapped his finger on the desk "Tell me, gentlemen, and lady" he began softly

"Forget the Statute for a moment and all that it entails...how would we save millions of people – do not think that these camps are the only ones around, there are likely thousands of these camps all around Europe – with our resources, with my resources" he said firmly as his voice remained even as his eyes flickered around before settling on Derek who remain standing.

"Any attempt that we make has to be impactful and as low key as we can make it. That means that we have inconspicuous and we have to ensure that we do not affect the war effort in the first place...tell me Derek" he said softly as their eyes met

"How responsible would you feel if our actions regarding those people results in negatively affecting the war?" he said with a tilt of the head

"Imagine that we save perhaps a hundred thousand people within this year, all of whom require food, medical care and homes...what will happen to those who don't save? If we help a large amount of people escape? What would the Nazis do?" he said softly but it rang across the room.

"They'd kill them all quickly" Sandra said with horror in her voice and he inclined his head "To ensure no one else escapes." She finished as she looked defeated.

"Not to mention the Allies may be hampered if the Krauts think they have enemies in their camps...changing their encryptions, changing their organisation, tightening holes" Hale contributed and Atticus nodded grimly before his eyes settled on Derek again.

"This war is not dealt with thousands or even low millions...it is hundreds of millions of people. Anything that we do here, today, can affect the war. Only last month had the first American troops arrived in Europe. This war is far from over and so we must prioritise on who we save, if we can save anyone." He told him firmly.

"What we'll be doing will be breaking some of the rules of the Statute" he said as he peered his eyes over them

"Of course, it can be argued that the muggleborns should never have been left in those camps in the first place...I have no doubt that there are some who are aware of magic or have had accidental magic occurring so us intervening for those muggleborns is not something that is completely illogical."

"Do the Allies know?" Hale asked quietly and Atticus shrugged.

"Probably" he said carelessly

"Ultimately they're in the same situation as us...if they care at all, which I doubt given that they have to be focused on winning this war, they are unable to do much beyond a certain point. After all, it's not as if Jews were welcomed whole heartedly when most wanted to leave before things got really bad" he said to him and Hale inclined his head.

Derek sat back down, his hands trembling "It's not right" he murmured quietly "To let those people die – I know you know that they will die Atticus" he said as he glanced with narrowed eyes at Atticus.

"You would not have called this meeting were you not sure that those people will die"

He closed his eyes before they hardened "I'm certain many of those people will be dead by the end of the year...And there is nothing we can do for most of them."

"Except for those muggleborn children" Besworth interjected as he eyed Atticus who inclined his head slightly.

"Except for those muggleborn children which I hope to endeavour to save as many as possible" he confirmed before he turned to Hale.

Hale was watching him all the time and he used Legillimency softly as he read the room.

Sandra was highly emotive but she was already rationalising it, the necessity of saving those who could be saved whilst Derek was angry...angry at himself for considering it, for knowing Atticus' words to be true and he was angry at Atticus. But that paled in his hate for the Nazis.

Hale was surprisingly composed but there was tenseness and anger there too but the thing that dominated was his steely determination. Besworth was calmest of them all...he could sense that he was more accepting of the depravity of humanity.

"You don't care about muggles do you?" Besworth inquired who had all eyes on him.

Atticus thinned his lips "I don't care for them...no" he said calmly "The deaths of millions of muggles does not faze me...war happens all the time. Do any of you care what happens in China with the atrocities the Japanese are conducting there?" he asked with a tilted head

"In the end, caring for people who don't matter to you is useless and an unnecessary weight." He shrugged

"I can only care for so much and choosing to care for our people" he said as his eyes bored into them all "magicals is enough. These children will die before they truly know what they are...of what world they belong to...before they have even lived. That, to me, is unacceptable" he said with heaviness in his voice.

"You're the strangest pureblood I have ever met" Hale said as Atticus' eyes met his.

"I have never, in my life, met a pureblood that considered us" he said motioning towards the others in the room "as their people" he said with piercing eyes.

Atticus smiled wryly "Not so long ago, the Welsh and the Scots never considered themselves as British. But as time goes by, they do...as culture changes, as language changes. The problem with those of different blood statuses is the lack of understanding, in some capacity. After all, Magical culture is different to that of the muggle one...different values, different beliefs and so on that was never bridged." He said before he paused.

"When you arrive in the magical world at eleven, you aren't dissuaded from the notion that you're part of the British Empire when in truth you are in an independent country, one as different from Britain as say Italy or Portugal is. Assimilation isn't something that is done properly and so, leaving blood status aside, resentment is built as foreigners arrive without wanting to embrace the culture of the nation" he said with a shrug.

"And whose fault is that?" Hale rebutted before he shook his head "We're not here to talk about that".

"Agreed" Besworth said "as fun as it is to talk about the delightful argument of blood and culture..." Besworth said before he paused "What do you want from us?" he asked curtly.

He brought about a stack of papers.

"Hale, you're a WWI veteran and from your NEWTS scores, you scored highly in DADA and later on, in Dueling which you took after you returned from war and have experience as a mercenary. You are also familiar with borders as part of your functions in your trading job." He summarised aptly before he turned to Besworth.

"You" he motioned with his head "have connections in various ports in the Isles whilst you also have a few in Belgium and Netherlands, from what I've gathered from you. Not only that, you are well aware of the more seedier elements in several countries, which might well prove useful" he said and Besworth stiffened a little as he narrowed his eyes.

Atticus ignored that "The two of you have skills and knowledge that will be necessary in getting those children out as quickly as possible and as discreetly as possible." He continued as he settled into his chair.

"Within the reports, you should have noticed that these camps do not have any magical presence, except for the children themselves. It seems that Grindelwald and his followers are not involved but it can't be discounted but given that they are muggleborn, I doubt that they'd care in any way" he said with thinned lips as Sandra's face darkened.

It seems that she finished rationalising and saving muggleborn children was something she was clinging onto. Perfect.

"That means saving those children should be...easier than it could have been." He told them.

"How would we even get there?" Besworth asked.

Atticus floated copies of a design to them. "By this. This is an enlarged boat that can fly as well as sail at a max speed of 40 knots." He told them as they checked it over.

Besworth whistled as he scrutinised the design

"I have already procured the boat and I am currently having the boat engraved with the necessary runic schemes that I developed" The runic schemes only needed some modification given that he played around with making boats fly as part of his import export business. He'd shelved it but kept the design which was proving useful now.

"It comes with invisibility along with other methods of ensuring that it remains unnoticeable to muggles." He told them.

"What about magicals?" Hale spoke up "The Magicals Nets around Europe would surely pick this up?"

Atticus shook his head "They won't. Magical nets have a maximum height of a kilometre. Warfare never required anything higher than that. Brooms within the magical net are nullified so whilst they can travel high up, getting down will be difficult as brooms stop working once you're within the net and so it is rarely done." He said carefully as he eyed Hale.

Besworth laughed "They never thought of parachutes then?" he asked amusedly and Atticus nodded.

"Why would they? It's a muggle invention and they'd never consider it." He responded.

"How would the boat get down?" Derek spoke up for the first time in some time "As you say, brooms wouldn't work so there must be nullifying mechanisms of the charms and runes that are on brooms" he asked logically.

Atticus looked at him pleased "Yes, that is correct. But I have figured out and tested a scheme that doesn't rely on the commonly used charms and runes that are on brooms, using runic languages that are rare and almost lost to history. It will be completely runic based with a few charms that have nothing do with existing flight charms" he confirmed to them.

"So you plan on using this boat to ferry those people away from those camps...how will you get them out and how will we identify them?" Hale inquired.

He smiled at him "We will use elves to ferry the children from the camps...Elves can sense magic and children who have magic are noticeable to them. They are capable of transporting people and are able to remain invisible. Squibs they can't identify so the elves will identify siblings of muggleborns and have small tracking devices, which I'm having made, embedded in the soft tissue in the back of their necks which will be removed once they are rescued" he paused momentarily as he eyed them.

"What about the parents?" Sandra asked intently.

He thinned his leaps as he leaned back "We can't do much for them" he said calmly and she narrowed her eyes in slits.

"I don't buy that" she said curtly "Atticus" she sighed as she closed her eyes momentarily

"We cannot abandon their parents, for that is what they will think and that is what the truth will be." She said softly as she stared at him.

"Gotta agree with the lass" Besworth said as he scratched his beard "You'll build resentment if you rescue the children without rescuing the parents." He commented.

"I'm aware of that possibility" he told them before he leaned back with hard eyes

"But where will it stop? Will we rescue aunts and uncles? Nephews and nieces? Grandparents? Because that is what they will ask for and the disappearance of a few hundred people will become noticeable even more when it turns out to be more than a few thousand" he said sharply.

"Leave that to us" Hale interjected and Atticus snapped his eyes to him "We will figure out a way to rescue the muggleborn children and their siblings and parents. That is why we are here, no?" Hale asked intently.

"You want me" and he nodded to Besworth "and him" before he turned back to Atticus "to help plan the rescue and recruit individuals who will be able to help with the rescue" Hale said calmly before he narrowed his eyes.

"Rescuing a few more people will not be difficult, not if there are no magicals to impede on us."

"It would be if we end up becoming too noticeable" Atticus retorted "Bear in mind people, Grindelwald and Hitler are working together" he stressed out

"Just because at these camps there are no magicals doesn't mean that there are none elsewhere. The Nazis are experimenting with people...who's to say that there aren't other camps where Grindelwald followers aren't doing the same? Alerting them to magical interference would very well jeopardise the mission to save these muggleborns" He said heatedly.

"Leave it to us" Hale said firmly again as his eyes bored into Atticus "I understand the possibilities, I understand the riskiness of the situation but it is something that I and others who have experience will come up." Hale told him.

Atticus thinned his lips as he thought it over before he nodded "Fine" he acquiesced "I will leave it to you." He confirmed with an incline of the head.

"But know that I do not want to risk this war because your people are incapable of sticking to mission parameters" he said coolly "The purpose of this mission, the only purpose of this mission is to save muggleborns and squibs if identified." He said with narrowed eyes.

"Will the people you're hoping to recruit be capable of turning a blind eye to what will happen to those people once they leave them behind? Will they be disciplined and ensure that they won't jeopardise the rescue and the war the muggles are fighting?" Atticus asked intently as the others watched them stare at one another.

Hale said nothing as they stared at one another before he finally nodded "They won't. They'll all be muggleborns and half bloods who will understand prioritisation and the delicate nature of the mission. I fought with them after all." He said calmly.

"Good" he said before he sighed. He supposed saving parents probably would work out better.

"Where will they go?" Derek spoke up after a moment of silence.

Atticus glanced at him for a moment "Ireland" he said simply. "I have...large amounts of land in a very low populated region that I can house them. That is why you're mainly here Derek." He said before he sent a document his way which Derek began to read.

He had plans for Ireland.

"I have contacted the goblins who put me in touch with some magical builders who will be under contract to build several large buildings that I'm aiming to be self sustaining. Farming, education and housing will all be included in the buildings. Your job, will be overseeing this" he told him

"I'm aware you've still got a year left in your education but you have built up a team, have you not?" Atticus inquired.

Derek looked up and nodded "I have. There are several older muggleborns who I've been speaking with and setting things up with. The shipbuilding infrastructure is almost finished and I've been using several people to act on my behalf and who report to me."

He's been using Derek as an overseer of sorts as he recruits and manages people. Sandra was more analytical and ensured the necessary documents and so on was used. She's was fast becoming a legal aid of sorts.

The magical world did have barristers and it was something he discussed with her. She'd start an apprenticeship with a decent attorney that his family had used once in the past. He had to negotiate with the man, offering him to help seed his law firm in return for him taking on apprentices that he'd sent his way.

It was excellent. After all, he'd need a law firm that he'd be able to use for both magical and muggle worlds. The attorney was from a minor pureblood family, only two hundred years or so pure and wasn't fanatical about purism. He didn't care about blood status as long as he got his own company as he'd never had the influence or the capital to be anything more than free lance or work for the ministry.

"Excellent." Atticus said "You'll take over this part of the situation. In the document there are listed requirements of teachers who will take over their magical education" he told him and Derek looked at him confused.

"Won't they go to Hogwarts?" he inquired and Atticus shook his head but Besworth laughed and interjected.

"As if Hogwarts could afford an influx of muggleborns...not to mention you'd cause so many problems with the purebloods. Muggleborns and half bloods already outnumber purebloods...adding these children will only make things so much tenser." Besworth added.

"Besworth is correct. Not to mention, it would be nightmare politically along with the sheer difficulty that we would face if we attempt to set this up on the mainland" he said shaking his head.

"No, Ireland is perfect. The Irish Ministry is small and my family has a lot of influence there. Not to mention my own wealth will ensure that they will accept these people. The school capacity is only three hundred students and the population is small so having these people not burdening their infrastructure and wealth will be the least we can offer." He told them.

"How can you afford this?" Besworth asked with calculating eyes

"All this" he said waving his hand "Is going to be expensive. I won't be cheap either. Whilst this boat can fly, I know very well both worlds...which regions we can move through best without being noticed even if the boat is invisible. Your family may be rich but everything seems to be a private endeavour"

"It is a private endeavour." Atticus confirmed "And my wealth is independent from my family" he said calmly

"My influence is dependent on my family, mostly" he said with a wryly smile "But I have my own influence which is growing all the time"

Sandra scoffed as she looked at him with a warm smile "Mr Boy Wonder" she said teasingly and Derek snorted as he looked at Atticus with twitching lips.

He rolled his eyes and continued "So do not be concerned about capital of any kind." He finished.

"Very well" Hale said "I have sixteen muggleborns and half bloods who I can contact who will be able to do the job. Let's discuss the finer points" he said and so they continued to speak for the next few hours as they covered the obvious problems.

Soon enough, only he, Derek and Sandra remained.

"You warned us about this" Sandra said after a moment. "You told us what will happen with the Jews when you said about the possibility of being hunted if we're exposed"

"I did" he said after a little while. "The rhetoric of the Nazis was built on hatred and the feeling of being betrayed by treacherous elements in the war that the Germans lost...for them to do this was only going to always happen." He said with a sigh before he rubbed his face with his hand.

"Ultimately, we can only do so much and this is all we can reasonably do without breaking the Statute and that is unacceptable" he said firmly.

Sandra nodded and remained silent.

"You want these muggleborns for reasons other than simply rescuing them" Derek spoke up as he eyed Atticus.

"This isn't altruistic...simply an expansion of your plans..." he trailed over as he furrowed his brows.

Sandra looked at Derek sharply as she considered it before she turned to Atticus with narrowed eyes. "What is your end goal Atticus?" she inquired suspiciously.

"The companies, the opportunities you're giving to those at the edges of magical society" she listed off.

He smiled wryly as he sat back and considered it for a moment before he nodded to himself.

"Know that the secrecy oath is in place, still" he said firmly as he eyed them "The oath will bar you from speaking of anything specific unless I tell you so and this" he motioned to them "Is something that can never be broken until I have said so."

They sat up straight as they watched him.

"My end goal..." he trailed off for a moment "Is to create a magical country that is solely independent from muggles...a country that shares no borders, or isn't mixed with muggles. That is my end goal. Everything that I am doing, what I am asking and paying you to do, is geared towards helping me achieve that" he said finally getting them into his confidence.

Their eyes both widened in shock.

He continued "It is a dream of mine that is decades away and it is something I'm certain will happen, regardless of what is in my way. I see many things wrong in both worlds and I don't see a way that can reasonably bridge the differences between those of different blood statuses, mainly muggleborns and purebloods that doesn't end in blood as time goes by. Reforming societies that are centuries old that are heaped in corruption and prejudice is unfeasible." He shook his head.

"So you decide to make your own country" Sandra said breathily.

He nodded "One where the foundations can be set based on fairness, on common sense, and fraternity whereby magic binds us all. I once told you that magicals are different to muggles. This is undeniable and yet the differences within our community will end up tearing us apart and should the worst ever happen with the muggles, if we don't have own country, where magicals are safe, I fear that we will a people that is only noted to history.

We already see the intolerance they have to non magicals in the form of the Jews...imagine when they all discover magic exists and that there is a whole subset of people who have power in their fingers...the hate, the anger, the violence." He sighed.

"You truly believe we'd end up like those poor people?" Derek asked honestly.

He shook his head "Not quite...I think it'll be worse. They'll want to figure out how we work, why we are able to do what we can do...not to mention the religious undercurrents would make us seem to them as subhuman." He said with hard eyes.

"It's cynical" Sarah added quietly as she stared at him

He nodded gravely "It is. I have no doubt that there are good people, just as there are good magicals. But their terrible people often are in power, much like our own but our populations are small Sandra" he stressed out.

"The damage we can do may be great individualistically but they can swarm us...they will have millions of scientists and engineers working on how to counter, on how to contain us, to experiment on us." He added hotly as he watched them with passionate eyes.

"And as their technology improves" Derek added softly

"So does their capabilities to do us harm" Sandra finished and he nodded.

"So your desire to create a country is to pre-empt the probability of the collapse of the Statute?" Derek inquired and he nodded once more.

"And it all started with you...Sandra, Derek" he said as his eyes gleamed in determination.

"You have helped me and are helping me set the prelude that will help move our people towards a destiny where we can take the best of both worlds, where we can raise our children to become the best they can be, with culture and some traditions from magical society mixed with the industry and the scientific mindset of muggles which we have contributed to heavily before the Statute." He spread his arms as he stared at them.

"There is so much to do, so much to achieve and for that to happen, I will need people to help me with this. These muggleborns we'll be saving are but the first that we will save. There are so many other children around the world, born to small poor villages who do not know what they are...who are killed before they are even picked up by ministries" he said with a hard look.

"You hope to bring them into the fold" Derek said softly as he had an inscrutable look on his face.

"You want them as part of this revolution...this exodus of sorts." He posited.

"I do. I want them to help me, eventually build up this nation where blood status won't matter...where merit and talent determine your fate." He said before he leaned on the table with his arms as he stared at Derek.

"Tell me that is not something that you do not want Derek...tell me that you aren't unhappy with the prejudice around the world with regards to muggleborns and half bloods." He said with a whisper as he attempted to seduce them both with his words.

"I do" Sandra whispered as she watched him carefully "I hate that I can't find an apprenticeship based on my talent...that I need to rely on you to get me something that I wouldn't be considered for even with my intelligence and my skill"

"I do" Derek said softly "I hate that I won't be able to work in the Ministry as anything more than a clerk...even if I am better, even if I am harder working than them"

"It won't change..." he said softly "It won't change unless drastic things happen and ultimately it is something that can't be won with the end of a wand...it is ideas, it is belief that you are fighting against and you all know that the greatest of wars, the bloodiest of wars have all been fought for ideas and beliefs, religious or not. Rarely do either side win for prolonged periods of time.

The Germans lost the last war and it only took twenty years for them to come out even more vicious, more cruel and fanatical about their nation and their people as they seek to annihilate whole swathes of people." He shook his head.

"If we wish to provide a brighter future, one that we can eagerly pass on to our descendants, it must be one that is won through different methods, through excellence and influence and by simply being better." He told them.

"Through economics first" Derek completed for him and Atticus inclined his head and Derek continued "You hope to influence magical society through business, through creating entire sectors, making your name synonymous with it whilst also massively increasing your influence and thus your beliefs" Derek eyed him with respect.

Sandra looked at him differently, as if she finally solved a puzzle "How long" she whispered wide eyed

"How long have you been planning all this?" she inquired.

"Since I was very young" he admitted and she snorted disbelievingly.

"You're still young" she said amused.

He shrugged as he grinned at them "When I was younger" he said amusedly before he turned serious.

"Can I count on you" he asked intently as he used his Legillimency to read them.

"Yes" Sandra said firmly

"I...I believe in what you're saying. I always thought there was so much potential that is just wasted. I always knew there was more to your plans that you weren't telling us" she said curiously before she smiled

"To know this is a relief." She said before her eyes set in determination

"I am all in" she said with a grin and he smiled at her before he turned to Derek.

He believed her sincerity and honesty given that he read it from her whilst Derek was more...turbulent.

"Will we always be under such secrecy?" Derek asked.

"Not always...not until a lot of things are up and running. I am...reluctant to simply trust" he said with thinned lips as their eyes met

"What I'm doing will not be well received, not initially. After all, I'm breaking apart from the world order and setting up a nation unique with ideals that I hope to establish with those who I can trust" he told them "But that is far away...for now."

A moment of silence passed as Atticus read Derek consider many things...he considered how truthful Atticus was being...considering the reality of the situation before he settled on an answer.

"I am with you" Derek said finally and with honesty "I understand the need of secrecy but you can't do it alone Atticus" he said as he softened his face "You've been helping us all so much...trust us"

Atticus looked at him for a moment as he read his mind. He was being genuine.

He finally nodded "I will trust you more." He sighed as he rubbed his eyes tiredly. It was the right time...there was so many things that he needed to offload to competent trustworthy people.

One of the reasons why he chose muggleborns was because of their lack of power or influence to truly screw him over...it was second only to their underutilised use.

"How will you convince the Irish Ministry?" Sandra inquired suddenly "I presume they're all purebloods?"

He glanced at her and nodded "They are but they are small but their wealthiest isn't as wealthy as the average lord in this country. There are only about three thousand magicals in Ireland if I remember correctly. An increase of minimum 15% of the initial population eventually will boost their economy."

"Eventually" Derek asked with thinned "What about now?" he asked with tilted head "Is that why you wanted to establish a base in Ireland?" he asked curiously.

Initially he was thinking of setting a base in New Zealand but it would be too far and too isolated, even for magicals.

Ireland was ideal in many ways. It was nearby to Europe and the Americas, had low populations of muggles and it was important in some way to his family.

"Yes...I will promise them to establish some of my magical company headquarters in Ireland after I show them the products that I will be creating." He said to them.

The Irish Ministry was similar to the British one but without hereditary seats though it was pretty much moot given that the same families more often than not had representation but it was fairer than the British Ministry and often had half bloods and even the occasional muggleborn involved.

Derek whistled "If we are as successful as we think we will be, it will bring in a small fortune in taxes for them"

"Indeed and that is the basis for my argument of taking in those children and their families." He confirmed.

He got up and stretched a little "We will meet again in a week or so, perhaps two or more, so I can bring you in some of my plans that I kept to myself"

Sandra nodded "That's fine...I have a lot of time free when I'm not dealing with the muggle side of our enterprises until I start my apprenticeship." She paused momentarily

"Will I also be dealing with muggle laws?" she asked curiously and he shrugged.

"If you wish. Elderdale will likely be heading the magical side of things, even once you finish your apprenticeship with him as per our agreement but you will be his second if not equal as time goes on...we have plenty of muggleborns...I think it was six?" he paused for a moment before Derek confirmed it

"Yes six muggleborns learning muggle law. They will be the backbone of the lawfirm on the muggle side. Of course, it'll be better if everyone knows both sides but we can cross that bridge when we get there" he said with a nod.

After that, they spoke a little before they broke up and went their own separate ways.

He'd meet up with all four again in the summer to begin the operations.

He made it to the edges of the farmhouse before he cast a glance back at it. Having muggleborns involved in rescuing other muggleborns that are in camps served multiple purposes.

It showed that he was different from the other purebloods. For now, the image of him was taking chances on muggleborns but that was not enough to inspire loyalty.

No...seeing him actively look out for them was what would set him on his way to obtain their loyalty.

When they see the conditions of those children, of those people, they'll understand viscerally the depths of depravity of humanity...

...and on a deep level how it can happen to them...after all, if muggles are intolerant and hateful of other muggles...to this degree, what would happen once they discover they had magic?

They'd see it all first hand as he hoped to get the muggleborns under him to help the Jewish children recover from their ordeal, cementing that suspicion of muggles making it all the more easier for them to fall to his words and beliefs.

He suspected the Jewish muggleborns would become his most ardent supporters and by proxy their parents. Chances were they may very well reject muggles wholeheartedly and embrace magic.

He sighed as he walked a little further. He would need to sort it out with the Irish. He would at the very least obtain permission for them to recover until he can send them off to the States.

He shook his head and with a crack, disapparated.

-Break-

He yawned as he stepped into the Great Hall which only had a few people in it at 7AM. As usual McGonagall was there.

He rarely slept more than four hours a day and once he underwent his final rituals, it would be even less.

For the past week, he spent most of his time with Rowena as they discussed certain things, predominantly regarding on the necessity of having a wardstone on converging leylines.

He told her about space and how he suspected that magic permeated the whole universe, something that he tested when he discovered ambient magic existed in space.

That opened up passionate discussions about the nature of magic, where he confided to her about the suspicion that he had that there was so much more to magic than they ever thought possible with some evidence that he himself gathered and was independent from the meagre knowledge he gained from Moira.

From there, he told her that he wanted to create satellites, after he explained the purpose and what they were, that would help him pinpoint magicals all around the world.

From there, they worked up a method to discover leylines around the world through the Hogwarts leylines and use the free ones to plant wardstones at each point that is connected to a receiver in the satellites that would use the wardstones as a coordinate system.

He'd do it before he left Hogwarts since he'd need to go the wardstone, which he'd have access to through the R.O.R which surprised him. He doubted Riddle knew you could do this given that he'd be able to take the castle through subterfuge.

He sat down in his chair after greeting McGonagall.

He yawned again. He didn't sleep much for the past couple of days.

"That's the third time in less than ten minutes you've been yawning" McGonagall observed as he glanced at her and saw her scrutinising him.

"Been watching have you?" he said with a grin. She rolled her eyes though he could see she was a little amused.

They sort of established a decent relationship...stemmed in Transfiguration and enjoying teaching.

She warmed to his methods as it became clear how well students were doing and enthusiastic they were.

"Don't flatter yourself" she said with an upturned nose as she raised her eyebrow.

He wondered if she was as stiff in bed. He kind of liked the idea of fucking a stiff Minerva into ecstasy as he had her mewling as she lost her frigidity and primness.

Of course he'd never act on it...he was in a committed relationship...likely for eternity...

He sighed inaudibly.

He didn't regret it but he was getting...a little frustrated. He was still a virgin in this life and though he never sought to rectify that, courtesy of Occlumency handling his hormones, and probably to the immense disappointment to the majority of the female student population, it was something he was keenly aware of.

Of course he was very distracted with magic, his plans and so many other things, he rarely thought on it.

But now...the prospect of only one person for probably thousands of years, if things go well...

It was kind of daunting.

He'd never cheat of course. Even if it hadn't been Emily Riddle who'd probably do things to him that even the devil would regret crossing.

Fidelity was important to him, in every way. To his employees, to his friends, to his family, to the woman in his life.

But sometimes...he kind of wanted to go on a spree.

He glanced at her again and saw she was looking at him confused "What was that sigh for?"

He shook his head and smiled at her "No reason." He said and before she could respond, a post owl descended towards him.

He took off the shrunk paper and returned it to normal size

ATTACK ON ABBOTT MANOR!

By Rupert Scrimgeour

Last night, the Ancient and Most Noble House of Abbott were attacked in their ancestral home, continuing the campaign of Grindelwald on Lords who voted for declaring war.

Lord Abbott, Lady Abbot, his younger brother, his sister in law and a child were killed in the attacks before Aurors arrived just in time to prevent the deaths of three young children, the late Lord Abbott's daughter and his two nephews.

This follows up on several attacks that have occurred in the past week, the most notable the death of Lord Forsesyth, Lord Wilkins and his heir and the injury sustained by Lord Bones as he captured his attacker.

Can Minister Spencer-Moon protect these isles? Hear what our experts say in Page Three.

He put down the paper as he pursed his lips. Grindelwald really didn't want Britain involved in this war. At least not yet.

It's been a hectic week as his campaign had been far more successful that it ought to have been.

He spoke with his father about ensuring mother at least had a guard or two with her given that there were several members who'd gone missing, likely dead or imprisoned to put pressure on families who were for war before.

Outcries were happening, mostly in the Wizengamot as furious Lords put pressure on the Minister to deal with this crisis.

He wondered how they were getting around the magical net. Britain was uniquely situated in such a way that getting in or out was very noticeable, magically speaking.

The net extended several kilometres out to sea and as far as he knew, it was fully powered.

"How are you getting the Daily Prophet so early?" McGonagall asked breaking him out of his thoughts.

He smiled wryly at her "They like me" he said serious faced and she rolled her eyes.

"May I?" she asked and he nodded his assent.

His father purchased 14% of shares in the Daily Prophet bringing it up to 33% ownership, the largest share after the Ministry which held 21% and the Blacks who held 13%. It gave quite a lot of privileges, one of them was that they catered to them and would give out issues hours before the rest of the nation.

"Do you think they will vote for war now?" she asked him and he turned to her and saw her frowning as she read the paper.

He sighed. If there was one thing they could count on, it was the fact that Magical Britain had a tendency to kind of...ignore glaring problems.

'Oh, fucking warlord is having his people kill our people to warn us off from joining a war that is specifically about stopping and killing said warlord? Let's talk about it a little more about what we'll do about it' knowing that they are delaying on purpose hoping it resolves on its own.

"No." He told her and she looked at him surprised.

"I think we'll just turtle up and hope for the best" he told her and she looked at him confused.

"Turtles retreat into their shells as a defensive mechanism" he told her and her lit up in understanding.

"I see" she said slowly as she mulled it over "Not an unreasonable prediction" she looked at him sadly before she shook her head and brought out a magazine which he recognised...Transfiguration Weeklyissue, one where he published his latest theory and her eyes gleamed with interest.

"Let's talk about something a little more interesting" she said with pursed lips.

He squinted his eyes "I wouldn't call Witch Weekly interesting" he said dryly and she glanced quickly in panic before she glared at him lightly.

"So you do read that magazine" he said with a laugh "You wouldn't be uncertain otherwise"

"Your theorising regarding that Gamp's 5th exception being incomplete was fascinating" she said ignoring his comment which made him smile even more.

There were five exceptions to Gamp's law of Elemental Transfiguration;

Life: That true life cannot be created by magic and that constructs of said life only mimic the behaviour and anatomy depending on the visualisation and skill of the caster.

Knowledge: Knowledge cannot be created by magic.

Money: Money cannot be created as gold and other precious metals cannot be transfigured – his own published Molecular and Atomic reconstruction does not refute this, simply is longer lasting. The decay can actually be measured which he published a few months afterwards after he created a spell to measure how long transfigurations lasted. The one he did in his presentation would last for 932 years now. He'd given the spell to the goblins to assuage them.

Of course he did create an exception to this with his other law...if he transfigured at an atomic level and then broke the piece into at least two pieces causing the structure to become permanent.

It was something he wouldn't ever reveal...for a good while at least.

Love: True love cannot be created, only infatuation or obsession.

Food: Food cannot be created in the same principles as life and also because of the complexity of food.

She continued "I do not think I can agree however" she said with a frown

He tilted his head as he sat back in his chair. More students were trickling in but curiously there were no staff. He knew why of course.

"Why's that?" he asked intently before he drank his water.

"You've noted that the complexity and the variability of food makes it impossible for food to be conjured. For example, the changes in molecules that occur when someone is hot and is slowly losing heat as time goes by, once exposed to room temperature thus changing the molecular composition of food." She began as she frowned in concentration.

"But your theory that the incompleteness of Gamp's 5th exception stems from the fact that we do not know the inherent make up of food thus making it impossible to create something that we do not understand rather than the possibility not existing." She shook her head.

"I cannot agree with that. Conjuration is never long lasting and even considering your own Law of Transfigurational Molecular and Atomic Reconstruction, it would not last even if you knew the exactness of the structure of food." She challenged him.

He smiled. He rather liked talking Transfiguration with Minerva. Since the retirement of his master, he didn't have many people to talk with regarding his favourite subject who were knowledgeable.

Minerva wasn't great...not yet, if ever but she was head and shoulders above everyone bar Dumbledore and himself. And he'd never speak with Dumbledore.

"Have you not considered that conjuration is a simple matter of conversion of air?" he asked her intently.

"I have as has anyone competent individual." She eyed him critically "Even if you applied your method of atomic reconstruction to air, you would not be able to feasibly create food, even if you understood every single aspect of food. Magic allows for many things but it does not allow the creation of energy for food is energy for the body." She said primly.

He nodded "Magic cannot create energy...that is true" he agreed "But magic can be converted to energy. It happens all the time. Pepper up potions use your own magic to increase your energy, to remove tiredness as it uses your magic to influence your body." He paused momentarily.

"And so magic would be able to create food by substituting magic for the energy that is inherent in food...for example" he began "Justus von Leibig, a muggle scientist in the mid 1800s discovered that the body derived energy from the oxidation of foods recently eaten, that carbohydrates and fats that fuelled the oxidation" he said as he eyed McGonagall.

She nodded "you mentioned this part in your essay in the magazine. That Carbohyates"

"Carbohydrates" he corrected.

"Carbohydrates" she elucidated correctly "are compounds that are composed of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen and that it contains sugars, starch, cellulose and other things that are broken down in the digestive tract which is further broken down to provide energy in a process that involves oxidation and the" she stopped for a moment "excretion of carbon dioxide and water as waste products" she finished.

He smiled at her and nodded "Just so. Should we understand more closely the relationship between energy that our bodies require, should we understand better how things work at a molecular and atomic level, there would be no reason we cannot create food once our understanding is total." He pointed out.

Her brows furrowed as she thought it over "Through what process" she challenged and he bid her to continue.

"Conjuration is never permanent, even if you consider that you are truly transfiguring air. If you apply your law of atomic reconstruction, even after a hundred years, that energy will be lost and who knows what will happen to you then." She posited.

He raised his glass of water and pointed at her as his eyes gleamed "But that energy has already been converted in your body so there is no real reason why it should affect you" he retorted to her

They continued to speak well into breakfast, not noticing of their surroundings until she blinked and looked around and saw students looking at them curiously.

"I think we got a little heated" she said embarrassed and he looked around and saw a number of students staring at them. He turned to Emily and could see she was amused as she raised her eyebrow in question and he shrugged.

"True enough..." he trailed as he looked around "It seems that we are a little short on staff" he commented.

She looked around and saw what he saw. No Dippet...no Dumbledore...no Slughorn and also no Daphne.

She frowned "Do you know why?" she asked and he shook his head.

"I don't" he told her.

He saw Ogg, the gatekeeper at the end of the staff table and he signalled McGonagall to come with him and so they went.

"Ogg, where are the rest of the staff?" he asked the man and the man looked a little nervous.

"Preffesur, there was a problem." Ogg hesitated for a moment before he shook his head "I can't say much" he said to them looking disturbed.

"Very well..." McGonagall said with a deep frown "I'm sure we'll know by the end of the day." She commented to him and he nodded.

"I'm sure we will" he replied evenly.

The day passed by as he taught a few classes and assisted in others and time for dinner rolled by.

Students were avidly talking about the missing students from their classes, seven male Slytherins and a Hufflepuff girl...four seventh years, two sixth years and one fourth year from Slytherin and one girl from fifth year Hufflepuff.

As dinner finished, Dippet asked for everyone to meet at the staff room to discuss certain things.

As he sat next to Daphne, he glanced at her and she looked vexed and had anger in her eyes. She'd been professional in classes but she wouldn't respond to the shortness she was displaying when he asked her about it.

He turned to Dippet who looked tired. "I'm sure you're all aware of the eight students weren't in class today." He sighed and Atticus took this moment to look at Dumbledore to see his reactions. He looked impassive.

"To put it simply, I have expelled seven Slytherin boys whilst the girl is in St Mungos getting treatment" shocking those who weren't aware of it.

He looked wide eyed but Michais spoke up "Why?" he asked even if it was clear why.

"Last night Ogg heard students well passed curfew in a warded classroom and so he raised the issue with me and I, along with Albus went to the room" he sighed heavily as he looked disturbed.

"They were raping the poor girl in turns" Daphne interjected angrily as she turned to the rest of the staff "They had her tied up, all four of her limbs, spread apart as she lied naked on one the desks as they forced themselves on her. Repeatedly." She said with fury in her voice.

McGonagall gasped as her hand went to her mouth. Daphne continued "All of them had the intent to take their turns and my everlasting shame, the girl suffered it three times before Armando and Albus" she spat out in anger and he glanced at the man...'surely he didn't?' he wondered and from the look on his face, it was clear that he did "managed to interrupt their heinous crime" she breathed out heavily as her hand trembled in anger.

"Daphne is correct" Dippet said in a solemn tone "These boys have been raping the poor girl and evidence may well be that they've been doing it all year round as there is signs of Obliviation." Dippet said with his head bowed.

"Surely not" Medelin the astronomy professor gasped out in exclamation and horror.

Slughorn cleared his throat and looked shameful as he dabbed his forehead with a napkin "Unfortunately, it may well be the case. The traces indicate that it was a standard Obliviation so recovery of those memories is possible." Slughorn sighed

"The problem is, it might well prove to be...problematic for the girl should she recover those memories" he said quietly.

Daphne laughed bitterly "Problematic?" she said scathingly as she looked at him furiously "The girl will forever be traumatised by what happened to her and should she recover those memories, she may well end up completely destroyed."

"The fact that you had no clue that these pests" she spat out "were in your house can only be indicative of your lack of ability to control your house" she said with fire in her eyes.

Slughorn looked angry at that "How am I supposed to know that there were a problem like this in my house" he said unhappily as he readjusted his robes that were stuck on his large belly.

"I cannot be blamed for this Daphne" he said dismissively.

Daphne looked just about to respond but Dippet interjected "Stop." He commanded "Blaming one another will not solve this issue"

"So they are expelled" Michais said with thinned lips and Dippet inclined his head.

"They are" he confirmed "They cannot be allowed to remain at Hogwarts" he said angrily "What they have done will be a black mark on this school and cannot be defended."

Dippet continued "The Aurors took them away in the night once I called for them" he supplied to them.

"I noticed that among the students, Corbin and Selwyn were included" Michais said as he eyed Dippet critically and Dippet nodded sharply.

"Yes...it seemed that those two were heavily involved in the matter, based on the words of the other students." He turned towards Slughorn "There may well be other students in your house who have...partaken in these foul activities."

Slughorn looked ill but nodded "I understand"

Atticus once more glanced at Dumbledore who remained quiet through this meeting and judging from the looks that Daphne gave him...

"They won't be happy with this" Michais commented and raised his hand as Daphne was about to speak as he turned to her stopping her

"It was right to expel them...I doubt they will be charged and having those rapists in this school will only harm the rest of the student body" he added before he looked at Dippet.

"They will seek to reverse the decision" he commented and Dippet nodded.

"They will but it is final. The decision is mine and mine alone until I vacate the position." He sighed as he grabbed the bridge of his nose

"Thankfully none of the parents of the expelled students are on the board of governors."

"But they will have allies there" Dumbledore spoke up for the first time "And they may well make things difficult for us" he said calmly and Daphne slammed her hands on the desk.

"When did that make alright for rapists to remain in the school, possibly with a dozen victims" she said angrily as she looked at Dumbledore with contempt who looked at her calmly.

"It doesn't. I'm simply stating facts" he responded serenely and Atticus eye twitched.

"Is that why you advocated in keeping this quiet and simply having them suspended for the rest of the year?" she eyed him with disgust in her eyes.

"You didn't" Medelin said as she looked at him in a new light "You were going to let them off?" she asked aghast.

Dumbledore sighed "I was not. The problem is the girl is a muggleborn...they won't be charged for raping her and expelling them will only breed resentment amongst the purebloods and may very well make things unbearable"

"It doesn't matter if she's muggleborn or not" Daphne spoke up harshly "We are not under ministry jurisdiction and the headmaster is the one who is the ultimate authority at Hogwarts, lest there be a founder"

Dumbledore's eyes flickered to him momentarily before he looked back at Daphne.

'Interesting' he mused. Would Emily have authority over Hogwarts? This bears investigation.

"That is naive Daphne" Dumbledore said condescendingly "The board of governors is comprised of Lords who will not let this pass without a fight" he said as he eyed Dippet before he turned them to Daphne "To endanger the school on the behalf of one student is foolish."

"Foolish?" Medelin exclaimed as she looked at Dumbledore in outrage, matched by many of the professors.

"Yes foolish. This is political now, no matter how just it is. Expelling heirs will mire the school. I am not happy about this but we must consider the possibility of the boys returning in September" he said calmly as he leaned back in his chair.

"Surely not Headmaster" Medelin asked him beseechingly

Dippet thinned his lips "I will do all I can to ensure they remain expelled." He said as he inclined his head "But the possibility exists, no matter how minor."

"What about the girl?" Michais asked.

"She's unlikely to return" Dippet sighed starting another round of noise.

From then on, the meeting heated up until they were dismissed.

He was deep in thought as he walked to his room. He 'arranged' for Ogg to discover the rapists as he put the man under a confundo charm after he took off alarm wards and other layers leaving only a locking charm on the door, making it difficult for them to have time to cease their actions.

He could have intervened...but for there to be justice for their foulness, they needed to be caught literally in the act. He knew that they wouldn't be charged...

Not for a muggleborn.

But they could be expelled if they were caught. He wasn't certain that they would be...it may not be certain they will remain expelled but he's done what he could unless he was to get his hands dirty.

He considered killing them, he had no issues with it...most of these students would end up going in the muggle world to seek their thrills...if not go into Knockturn alley in the even more unsavoury elements that existed.

Just as there were sex rings in the muggle world, there are the same things in the magical world. Depravity took many forms and even if magicals were slightly different to muggles, in the end they were still human and so the worst dregs of humanity existed in the magical world as well.

He was...uncertain what to do about it. He could destroy them but he doubted he'd be able to do it completely.

Not to mention it had several interested parties...likely lords or heirs who got their kicks from the power they felt.

The fact that these students could do it in Hogwarts...the fact that many knew...

He shook his head.

It wasn't his responsibility to save everyone. Nor was it his responsibility to fix everything.

He had his goals and going on a vendetta on someone else's behalf would only make things difficult if not derail everything which was unacceptable.

He'd do what he could, from the shadows when he could.

-Break-

Vinda Rosier POV

She stood impassive at the edges of the field, her arms crossed whilst she watched with observant eyes. Radiant flashes of light illuminated the ruined magical village of Beausejour as battle raged.

Her magic hummed in her veins...impatient, begging to be released while she stood gripped at the sight of men unleashing their magic locked in bitter battle for survival...for victory.

Patience...

She cooed to her magic, promising that their chance will come soon...that their enemies shall know the sweet embrace of her magic.

The ground shook as houses and buildings collapsed, her eyes flickered to a ruined belle maison de ville chaleureuse...one she remembered in her adolescence when she visited this village in her youth.

It was unwise of them to place an anchor to the magical net here.

Her eyes swept the field saw half collapsed buildings amidst the rubble, thousands of broken stones were all that remained of what had once been a famous village.

Flashes of memories appeared in her mind as she remembered idyllic moments of her youth. She'd explored the village with abandon with her sister and mother before they headed out to the famously clear lake that lied just under a kilometre away.

A harrowing cry shook her clear and her eyes snapped towards the piercing sound.

'Ah' she thought as she watched a man immolated screaming in agony until his throat melted and he collapsed on himself.

Her eyes flickered to the north east of her. The battle there was the most gruelling as it turned into a nonstop slugfest. It was also where they knew the anchor to be.

It was time.

"Olaf" she spoke softly in her French accent but the authority in her voice was undeniably.

"Madam" he responded as he hurried over to her.

She glanced at him "Tell Reinhard to pull back from the right flank and sent Grimolsson there with the auxiliary force. Reinhard will join me in my assault"

"Yes madam" he said before he bowed hurriedly and scurried away.

Reinhard appeared with his remaining men, 34 of them shortly afterwards.

"Madam" he said a little tired but still in good enough shape. Her eyes flickered towards his men and saw it was the same for them, more or less.

"Reinhard." She acknowledged before she continued "The enemy forces are concentrating at the anchor base, choosing to abandon multiple positions long enough for reinforcements to arrive." She paused before she eyed them coldly.

"Unacceptable. I have received word that it is likely they will receive a few hundred men to stall if not drive us away in the next few hours."

"Madam" Reinhard began and she raised her hand halting him immediately.

"I'm aware of the...ferventness they are fighting with" she said softly as her tone hinged on the verges of deadliness causing the men to stiffen as they recognised her loss of patience.

"Tell me Reinhard" she began softly as she turned to face him fully, her eyes transfixed on him as if he were a grazing antelope.

"Is their deviance more than a match for us, the soldiers who seek to embolden our kind" she spoke softly but with the way the tension drained from his shoulders, she knew she had him.

"No Madam" he said seriously "But the way they are defending, they are leaving none of their flanks are open for assault" he hesitated for a moment before he continued "Not without sustaining huge amounts of casualties...casualties we cannot afford if we are meant to hold this village against these reinforcements."

She hummed in acknowledgement "This is true. They are shoring up their defences whilst leaving the bulk of their best fighters in the front formation"

"It matters not" she said with raging fires in her eyes that verged on the side of mania causing the men to look at her apprehensively.

She was tasked to secure the village and she would not fail him.

"We will attack in an frontal assault with myself in the lead" she said silkily as bloodlust tinged her magic.

Her face darkened, her eyes hardened before she drew her wand.

"We will split you and your men in three groups, covering my sides and back whilst I break down their front section" she told them as she floated a map in front of Reinhard and his team leaders as they discussed the finer points of their plan.

Jean Delacour POV

He whipped his wand into a wide arc that picked up the debris around them and with a flick upward and a jab he transfigured the debris into small knives before he sent three different spells in quick succession against the man who he was locked into battle with.

The man swept his wand across him blasting away the knives from him but was too late in bringing up a shield and was hit by the first spell, a cutting curse that got him in the shoulder whilst the last two spells had been piercing hexes which hit him centrally in the chest and with a groan collapsed onto the ground.

Jean wasn't able to check if he was dead or not as he was forced to duck when a sickly yellow spell whizzed past his head.

He cursed as he got back up on his feet but not before a spell hit a conjured marble stone that exploded in front of him.

Coussart locked into battle with the man until he banished him away long enough for their compatriots to drive him away.

"Merci Coussart" he said gruffly as he stabilised himself slowly, all the while taking a breather before he got back into his duelling stance. Explosions shook the ruined earth around them as his eyes glanced across the battlefield.

Scores of men locked in fierce deadly duels as nothing was held back. For hours they've battled waves of attackers, holding them back as they waited to be relieved. He didn't know how many men he battled but he was tiring and his barely healed wounds were adding to his fatigue.

"Ah partner" Coussart said jovially as walked towards him and Jean sighed.

How Coussart could remain so carefree in this mess he did not know.

"When will our esteemed leaders send our reinforcements?" Coussart inquired as he kept a watchful eye out until he stood side by side to Jean.

"I don't know" Jean ground out as he rolled his shoulders.

A sharp whistle penetrated the air and he snapped his head towards the direction.

"What was that?" Coussart said seriously as he stood ready.

Before he could respond, he saw their enemies breaking from their battles covering their retreat.

A deafening roar was heard and his eyes widened in shock.

"She's here" Coussart whispered in dismay as Jean's eyes searched the dark night sky with gritted teeth.

He saw movement in the corner of his eyes and snapped his head towards that direction.

His breathed hitched in horror when he saw dozens great Hungarians Horntail dragons high up in the sky, each second growing in size as they moved to descend on them.

He turned his eyes towards where their enemy retreated and saw her standing there, in front of several dozen individuals. She stood there with a cruel smirk with her wand was raised.

He cast his eyes towards his right and saw with dread encroaching men and he turned to his left and saw the same.

"Jean" a voice broke him out from the foreboding sight and he saw that it was DuFont.

"How good is your Occlumency?" he asked hurriedly as his eyes flickered towards the dragons.

"Good. But I don't know how it can stand up against" he turned towards the dragons and saw they were at most a minute or two away "that" he gestured towards as he strived to keep panic down.

"It will have to do. There are only a few of us trained in the mind arts and you and Coussart are the only ones that can disrupt her long enough for us to be able to survive this." Dufont said quickly before he turned towards two other groups

"Jacque, Lemarr, you will lead your teams holding off anyone who isn't the démone" he spat out before he glanced up again and looked panicked.

"Go! GO NOW" he roared and Jean and the men around them began to run towards their enemy, knowing how precarious their situation was. He heard FULMEN shouted out a bright streak of lightning erupted from behind him before several other streaks joined the first, towards the dragons who were upon them now.

One of the dragons broke off and dived towards them whilst the others remained on their course.

"Merde what do we do?" one of the men cried out and soon enough the dragon opened its maw and bright red flames were spewed and he shored up his Occlumency to its maximum.

He cast a shield in front of him, knowing it was futile but kept running anyway.

The fire bathed them all and agonised cries rang around him.

He stumbled for a moment and in that moment, his skin felt aflame, his face bathed in scorching heat and he screamed for a moment before he strengthened his Occlumency in desperation, in determination and slowly as he got back up on his feet.

He raised his wand "FINITE INCANTATEM" he roared at the dragon and the illusion flickered slightly, before several finites were cast, finally dispelling the illusion.

Vinda Rosier was feared more than any other bar De Galle and the Diable himself. Her illusions were unnatural, unrelenting and far too real to dispel easily and only sufficient skill in Occlumency was enough to protect yourself against the assault of your senses.

Only an overpowered Finite was sufficient enough to dispel it and only element spells could affect the spells. Unfortunately Finite had a limited range and had to be cast at the main body of the illusion to be effective.

There was no dragon, there was no dragon fire but it matter not for her magic made it appear as if it was, her illusions capable of stimulating the mind to such a degree that it could fool the body that it is burning under dragon fire, until you went into shock or died.

He felt an arm underneath his armpit hoisting him along.

"Come on Delacour, we need to keep going" Coussart said as they resumed their running.

The men he came with, less than thirty that weren't incapacitated sent the first volley of spells as the men behind her came forth to engage with them.

He turned slightly, dodging what he estimated to be slicing curses that whizzed past him before he returned with several blasting curses as he entangled himself with his foe.

He got himself into a rhythm as he dodged, turned and shielded aiming to reserve energy and magic as much as he could whilst he returned spellfire.

He broke through his foe's shield with a shieldbreaker before sending a dark cutting curse that bisected his face. He breathed out heavily before he turned his wand raised towards the direction from where he heard clapping.

"Rosier" he snarled as he got into a defensive stance as he watched her approach him, sliding across the field like a foul temptress eager to devour him. Her eyes were alight with malice.

"Delacour" she intoned as her wand slipped into her hand, tip pointing towards the ground.

He drew his wand quickly as he sent an onslaught of spells, all dark or grey as he dipped into his reserves which were quickly diminishing as he felt fatigue creeping into his bones.

She dodged and she turned on the spot as she brought her wand to bear, deflecting and returning the spells he sent her and soon enough it was him that was on the defensive.

His magic reacted instinctively as he swirled his wand and raised debris to catch several spells that came too fast to dodge.

He leapt to the side when daggers flew towards him, his heart rate elevated as he only just dodged those knives.

He sent a torrent of water at her before he raised the earth around, transfiguring them into chains as she dodged the water.

She looked at the chained in contempt before she surrounded herself with black flames destroying the chains before she twirled her wand above raising the black flames in a furious cyclone before she sent it to him.

His eyes widened in panic before he clamped down on it and drew back his arm and with a yell conjured elemental wind which dispersed the black flames and he dodged quickly as several concussive curses were sent in his way.

He rolled back to his feet as he sent a barrage of disembowelling curses at her. She dodged lazily as she advanced towards him.

He hurriedly ducked under a sickly purple spell and transfigured the debris into hundreds of ten centimetres thick needles before he banish them at her with as much speed as he could before he raised his arm above his head and with a wide arc sent an elemental wind spell that was as sharp as knives

She transfigured the needle projectiles into water before she shielded against the elemental spell, the shield cracking only slightly to his dismay.

Her smirk widened as her wand ignited in a fiery whip that was she whipped at him and hurriedly shielded against the whip.

Crack!

The shield held but large spidery cracks appeared in the shield before she withdrew it and he sent an exploding curse aimed at her feet but she blocked with a block of marble well before it hit the ground.

She ignited a fiery whip once more, this time longer and twinned and she sent it against him and he once more shielded, this time with Protego maxima

Crack!

Crack!

The twinned fiery whip hit at two different points at the same, cracking the shield and she was inching closer each time.

She withdrew the whip only slightly time and kept on hitting the shield over and over again.

He gritted his teeth as he tried to maintain the shield.

"Your father would be proud" she said goading him with cruel eyes which momentarily breaking his focus in his startle.

He snarled at her and her smirk widened as she continued to hit his shield with the whip.

'There!' he thought as he rolled under the whip and sent a cleaving curse at her which she side stepped before she cancelled the whip in one smooth twirl before she jabbed her wand and fired what he recognised as a crucifixion curse at him.

He hurriedly raised a piece of debris in its path and he continued to raise pieces of rubble into the path of her assault as she peppered him with spell after spell.

He walked into a cutting curse that got on his free arm but he had to do it as it had been the lesser curse to take.

Her speed became faster and faster as her wand moved with a deadly elegance. She continued to send debilitating spell after spell at him. For every spell she verbalised, she sent another silently.

He was doing all he could to defend but he knew it was futile. For thirty seconds, she barraged him spell after spell, two spells every second and every sixth or so spell she fired was hitting him, mostly by design as he kept the more damaging spells away from him.

His knees were buckling as he desperately continued to raise debris after debris before he found a second of reprieve and sent an overpowered concussive spell at her hoping to push her over the way.

She turned slightly and the spell veered past her but it was enough for him to summon a large piece of debris which he sent at her after he transfigured it small dragon

"Cute" she laughed mockingly before she ducked under the transfiguration and blasted it with a curse before she transfigured the debris into spears and sent them his way, in a stagger.

He raised a shield once more and his arm buckled almost from the onslaught as his shield clanged before finally breaking and he turned just quick enough to avoid a fatal hit but, in the end, the spear grazed his right shoulder deep enough that it caused a deep wound that made it difficult to raise his wand.

He cried out in pain as staggered on his feet before he was hit with a blasting curse and he hit his head on the cold hard ground, ringing his head as he lied there in a daze, his wand no longer in his hand.

"You did better than I expected, little Jean" she mocked him as he attempted to shake his head from the daze and the double vision that he was suffering under.

"va te faire foutre, putain de pute traîtresse" he hissed out as his daze almost left him.

He groaned as he turned his left side and used his arm to hoist himself up a little and saw her smiling at him and he looked at her with full hatred.

"Tut tut" she said as she waved her index finger from right to left. "Such terrible language" she sighed before her eyes gleamed in malevolent glee.

"But then you no longer have a father to teach you how to speak to noble ladies, do you?" she said wickedly.

He snarled as he tried to get himself on his feet to launch himself at her but she blasted once more in the chest and he dropped to the ground in pain but he was coherent enough to return his eyes at her, full of loathing.

"You're not a noble lady, you're not but a curse to this country, traitor" he hissed out before he spat on her feet and reveled in seeing her cruel mask snap as she looked at him with anger in her eyes before she masked it.

"Traitor?" she said tilting her head as she considered it. She shrugged "I care not what you fools think, I know what is required for our kind, dear little Jean" she said before she crouched down a little way from him.

"Just because you and the fools who sit up high, fat and ignorant of the dangers the muggles pose to us does not mean that there aren't those who are willing to do what is necessary…" she said softly as her eyes gleamed in what he could only describe as fanaticism.

He laughed bitterly "Just end it" he said tiredly as he looked away from her to look at the battles surrounding them.

He gritted his teeth when he saw his comrades were mostly down for the count whilst Coussart was just being disarmed by two assailants.

"End it?" she said almost surprised and he turned back at her before he recoiled when he saw a cruel glint in her eye "Why would I end you when you have so much more value alive" she said with a smirked before she stood back up again and in a last ditch attempt he launched himself at her feet but within a second he was face flat on the ground.

She laughed and he just able to see the end of her wand light up "Don't worry about your wounds…" she whispered to him "The doctor will see to your care"

His eyes widened in fear before he was hit and he knew no more.

Vinda Rosier POV

She stunned and sighed for a moment. He wasn't bad if she was honest. He'd likely have been better if he hadn't been so wrong.

She smirked. Not that it matter.

She closed her eyes momentarily before she opened her eyes and the illusion she cast over them after the dragon attacked them was dispersed.

"Olaf" she called out and he came to her.

"Pick up him up and take him back to our camp" she ordered and Olaf did as asked before she turned towards the battlefield.

The battle was still raging and would still a little while before they put them all down. She isolated Delacour just so she could fight him alone without that pesky Coussart who was an excellent partner.

Speaking of which…he was heading towards her with anger in his eyes and she smiled viciously.

Her magic roused in excitement as she prepared herself for another battle.