No one had really known what happened, the world just burst into war with the main battle being fought on the grounds of Hogwarts, the next many of the fighters were gone in one way or the other while the house elves stormed the castle to help their saviour. That had been less than 12 months ago. They had been watching ever since as humans turned their own kind into something less than. Treating them like vermin and worse than most elves have ever been treated all because of the same twists logic that caused the pure bloods to sneer down at muggle borns.
But this was more than making them inhuman- this was revenge and it had gone too far.
Dobby, the house elf watched as Draco Malfoy fell for the third time, one eye swollen shut, the blonde hair nothing more than short dirt stubble, blood dripping from various cuts and other wounds. The pale skin had turned grey and as he lay there an electrical jolt moved through his body caused by the collar around his thin, scarred neck.
The child sized house elf had prayed for a day where his bad former masters paid, but he never had wanted them to pay like that. It was time to inform Master Harry. It was time to plead for yet another intervention by the Saviour on behalf of the Magical`s of Britain.
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The room was cold, colder than should be natural for a former ball room in a heated manor. But then again, it was also filled with pedestals that held iron rods on which 30 people of different ages and genders were bound, kneeling, head forcefully held up. All of them were thin, their skin full of fresh and healed wounds, and all of them had glassy eyes. Eyes that were unseeing because most of their awareness had found a hole to hide in, deep within their minds.
A jeer filled the room as one of their "trainers" kicked Astoria Greengrass into the room. She was fourteen years old and her eyes were dull, her lower lip swollen, and they had bound her hands behind her back to make it impossible to stop the impact with the floor. The man grinned and gave a small chuckle watching her move up again. Without his cheers the eery silence had returned. "Not so hasty, whore. Since you want Potter to save you I`ll prove to you that the git does not give a fuck! You can even scream his name!"
"The only one repeating my name is you", a cuttingly sarcastic voice sounded from the doorway. It drew everyone's attention because of the calmness and the edge to it that hardly anyone had ever heard from this particular human being. There he stood, wearing black trousers and an onyx black button-down shirt, his green eyes alight with power. Harrison James Potter stepped into the room as if he owned the place and the cruel smirk on his lips as the man gave an unmanly "eep" caused the people in the room who were aware to start wondering.
Shock was what followed when he gently flicked his wrist, and the blonde man was swept into the air and thrown across the room with nary a whispered word. When the former Gryffindor then removed his grey cloak and draped it over the kneeling young woman the would be rapist rose, sputtering from the spot the had landed.
"She`s a whore, Potter! They don`t get to have clothes", the man said apparently trying his luck with the former Gryffindor. "We taught them that." "Did you, now?" No single Slytherin had ever heard Harry Potter speak like this.
Silky and with a hint of Dark amusement. "Of course, now pick the one you want…" Anthony Goldstein begun but he did not get any further. Because the earth began to shake and break open around him. It didn`t take long for the debris to shape itself into a pack of little wolves made of concrete and mortar who then began to snap at him.
When the wolves began to circle him and force him backwards Anthony realized that the battle, he was facing was not the fight of two men over meat. "Potter… Harry… what are you doing...?"
"I knew you were incapable of getting laid the normal way, Tony, but considering you seem to prefer children I think we can just solve the problem once and for all…"
"What? No. Call the beasts off! You can have her…"
"You seem to misunderstand the situation, Goldstein. She`s a minor. Many of them are. My being outside the country wasn`t actually me agreeing to enslaving half the population. It was me taking a deserved vacation."
The screamed answer of the blonde former Perfect was swallowed not only by a pack of wolves but also by the wall that seemed to swallow him whole. While that happened some of the ground around their Saviour began to shake and another pack of wolves rose and left through the door on the hunt for prey. No animated piece of floor ever returned to the room, but the silence of the house was suddenly broken by a slew of different noises.
Emerald eyes swept over the assembled and very much presented thirty people in the room before his eyes returned to Astoria who had cautiously risen from the floor and was now standing upright, a little bit of her proud stance returning. It was a visible sign of hope especially since she didn`t move away when the young black-haired man approached her. "I`ll have to draw my knife to cut the rope." The edge was gone from his voice and everyone watched as the 14-year-old let him step close enough to touch, knife drawn before he cut through the magic resistant rope. Then they watched as he turned the knife over, handle first. "I could use some help, if you`re up for it."
Then Harry James Potter, the Man Who Conquered, The Boy Who Lives- Twice and Saviour of the Wizarding world turned away from the girl wearing his cloak, and slipping into it now that her hands were free, after handing her a weapon. His eyes met those looking at him. "I will have to come close enough to cut you free and then one of my elves will touch you to port you away. Try not to reflexively puke because a house elve touched you. Also try to not move since I have no idea how much damage you have sustained and what kind of medical care you need, and the collar prevents magical scans. Whoever fells up to it can have a knife to help so this goes all faster!"
While he spoke an army of house elves dressed in dark grey tunics popped into the room, all of them putting themselves close to a platform. Nodding at his elves Harry then went to work, followed by Astoria who was trying to not show her joy at being rescued.
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Astoria Greengrass was led into a wonderfully big bathroom with black tiles and golden sprinkles on them, causing the whole room sparkle. The elves had been really gentle with them, depositing them in a big room from which seven doors led. This main room was meant as a space for all of them to sit comfortably, filled with throw pillows as it was. Most of the kids her age or younger had hidden away their minds behind Occlumency walls. And they still had shown signs of hope since it wasn`t yet another cold stone floor they had to sit and sleep on.
But this design meant so much more than just a little less pain or a little bit of comfort. She tried to stop gawking at the bathroom, truly, she did, as she gingerly rubbed at her wrists, untied for the first time in nearly eight months. But it was so beautiful. The elf who had brought her in had smiled at her and filled the bathtub before vanishing and leaving her to clean herself. Alone. Without supervision, jeering, leering, and additional pain caused by a myriad of "amusing" things.
She had not thought this would happen when she had mumbled that Harry Potter would never have agreed to this. Mainly because she had been half delirious from hunger and had not believed the guards joking about "Potter finally jumping onto the bandwagon". Despite their behaviour most of Slytherin house had held a deep respect for the Golden Boy as his down to earth and largely friendly attitude held steady, regardless of how much shit the world threw at him. It might have been grudging and it might have been underlined with a lot of jibes at his lack of proper decorum and clothes, but they had respected him. Even more so when he began to train them in secret an hour before the "DA" met.
That was why no one, not Snape, not Draco nor some of the older ones had been surprised that Potter hadn`t shown up to any of those "training sessions". None of them had expected him to. That might have been why the blond headed one had threatened another public rape and beating, because so far, none of the slaves had ever even batted an eyelash if they taunted them with the Saviour not being there or saving them. As if the absence made it all okay for them to turn into rapists, murderers and all the other things they had disdained and feared the Death Eaters for.
Being raised Slytherin and having fought in the Final Battle had taught her caution but those past months had made her afraid. Afraid that this was just another cruel joke. Respect was much different from actual deep-rooted trust, and while she held both for Harry there was just too much evidence pointing at this being a dream rather than a real bathroom. So, she kept her breathing even and slowly let herself into the warm water, allowing her dirty body to soak though.
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Severus Snape looked at his godson. They had both managed to enter the common room area at the same time. Draco`s eyes were no longer swollen shut and his hair was no longer full of dirt, albeit still extremely short, as if someone had shorn it and it was just growing back. He had not been there when they did that, he had been in another room as they cut out his vocal cords. It wasn`t what they did with all the others who verbally fought back- most only got treated with the silencing piercing Bellatrix had come up with. But since Draco had been on the tower and fled with him he got the exceptional treatment just like some of the children of the worst Death Eaters.
And then there was the day before Potter came when they told him that Draco would soon be rid of his eyes, mainly because his eyes had never lost the piecing quality most others had. So, Draco had retreated behind his Occlumency shields and dulled his eyes. It would not have stopped them, but it had been a good precaution.
Potters bath had been filled with healing herbs for all of them, he noted absentmindedly as he looked around the room. All of them were wearing tunics that left a lot visible but still was more clothing than they had been wearing for the past seven months. And if they had gotten clothes it was only so they could be ripped off them again.
The tunic he wore was made of some kind of silk, since it was not heavy enough to cause him discomfort, which heavier clothing would after so many months without any, and they were in a pale grey. Slowly lowering himself onto one of the pillows he kept looking around. Most who hadn`t retreated to the point that they could not come back without outside help were looking more alert than they usually would, while others were smiling simply because the pain was no longer a constant ache and they could move their arms and feet. Not much, since the collar was a magical item and would use electro shocks if they overstepped their boundaries.
The silence in the room was not normal, but some of them could not make sounds and others had learned the hard way that speaking would trigger the collar. The collar was bad enough but usually the punishments would be delivered on several fronts. Once everyone sat, he noticed that there were more than the thirty they had put on display. Somehow Potter had found all of those in the compound and brought them here. Lucretia Carrow`s eyes were milky, the skin around them scarred since they burnt away her eyesight. Her hands were full of criss-crossing scars and her feet had been broken at least twice which was probably why Potter had left them in casts that ate least looked new and properly done.
Her twin sisters, who were as old as Astoria were missing one eye and ear each and they had used the same magical rods for the tongues to render their hands useless. All of them looked worse for wear. But at least the tunics hid a lor of the damage and scarring that could no longer be healed. The herbal bath had helped, especially since most of them had used the opportunity to soak in the water for several hours, perfectly content with the fact that the temperature stayed the same, but they all needed proper medical attention if they were to heal.
Severus had allowed the sobs to shake him and the tears to fall when he realized that Potter had come to save them yet again and he had been broken enough to know that the man should really not be saving him. If nothing else, he was painfully aware of his shortcomings as human being after this past year filled with Crucios, raids, torture of school children and a war followed by a sentencing to eternal slavery for everyone who might have any connection to known Death Eaters, because by then Voldemort was gone and with him the ugly snake tattoo.
He was brought back into the here and now when the door into the common room opened to reveal their Saviour. Potter`s eyes were haunted and filled with long suffering acceptance of the fact that this world was cruel, and it was once again his move.
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Harry looked at the fifty people in the room wearing the tunics he had bought from one of his favourite seamstresses in Peking and met the eyes of those who looked aware enough, unsurprised this even included some of the blinded ones. "I am fully aware of the fact that you are perfectly capable of deciphering me being polite and vague but I`d rather be painfully blunt here, mainly because there is a chance that the collar will pick up on my less than murderous intentions and start going into punishment mode because you aren`t being humiliated or in pain. And yes, they did built that into the original design. And since we all know how the buffoons at the Ministry work I doubt they did an update to it."
The young man paused, looking around again. "You are currently bought and paid for. The location is this wonderful Island my fiancé redesigned for our little unplanned law breaking. Because once I remove those collars that is exactly what I have done. I will have stolen governmental property and also destroyed artefacts that should have been lost 1000 years ago instead of dug up again. The problem is that I can not heal you properly as long as you carry the collar and I can not simply remove it either!", he paused, checking that they all were still able to listen and not suffering from electrical seizures.
"It took us four weeks to find the original design of the fucking things and then my Twins had to... encourage a group of course breakers to dig up the scripture with the originals design. Sadly, they didn`t make it past that experience but at least we had a proper translation of the runes on the collar!", he paused again, this time to sit down cross legged and look at all of them, meeting their eyes. "These were designed as slave collars. Which means that there never was an in-built requirement to someone belonging to a terrorist organisation or being- you know- bad or corrupt in order for it to "take". But it does require a bonding to replace the bondage of the collar."
"Usually this would be the point where I tell you that no one powerful enough is around to actually do the binding or that you have to be bound to that particular person. But as it happens, I am the Saviour who Died and come back just the inhabitants of magical Britain could fuck it all up anyway. Which makes me powerful enough to pull this off. Especially since my Terror Twins and my finance can share the burden which allows us to actually do this in the three days we have before the backlash of the loss of the collar kills you!", the words hit like punches which caused the glowing of some of the collars to subside and their owner just moved into the next part of his monologue.
"That said there are some of you that I have no intention of allowing to bond to anything other than myself. You can, of course, choose to die before yet another bondage to a master. If you pick that option I`d like you to consider feeding the ward stones with a wiling sacrifice."
Here the pause grew longer as he let it all sink in, since he had been mentioning bondage, blood magic, sacrificial magic and a lot more subtle stuff his guests were surely picking up on. Instead he let his eyes roam over those with the most damage, mentally going over the stuff they`d need in order to provide the necessary medical care. And thinking of that his eyes predictably landed first on pitch black and then on steely grey ones.
"Everyone will get an enchanted piece of parchment that lists your choices and, in the two choices only cases a detailed map of the Island with the ward stones marked up. They are enchanted because some of you won`t be able to read nor hold them, they will also trick the collars into override long enough that it cannot draw on your mind and emotion to infer what is going on. And due to the time period involved I need your decision within the next hour."
Once he was sure they all understood as best as they could he removed his shrunken dragon leather satchel and removed the various scrolls which he then directed to the proper recipients. As soon as everyone was unrolling them, he settled in for an hour of waiting time in even more silence. The leather-bound book he removed including the inkwell drew some looks but they were still cautious and would always remain unnaturally observant. Their interest did not stop even as he began to read over his own handwriting and adding or correcting some of the stuff he had written.
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Lucretia Carrow had been observing with all her senses ever since her environment had changed. She had noted the herbs in the water, the interior of there no doubt temporary rooms, listened as the room filled with fifty people all of which had been at the compound that had once been Malfoy Manor. She had propped herself up on the wall and felt the air frizzle with Potters power and now she was trying to not gasp audibly as, upon unrolling the scroll she heard he words no doubt written down as if it was read to her. Because of the time sensitivity and the nature of the document her options were repeated to her twice more before the scroll stopped emitting the soft warmth that was a side effect of activating the enchantment. Some of her brethren were breathing heavier now, others were trying to hide their relieved sobs while some merely shifted a little. She felt the energy in the room change and heard the whisper of satin and silk on all other fabrics.
It was a sound that had become familiar and something to be aware of, since clothes were worn by "Teachers" and their moving meant something was going to happen. Here she was trying to not freeze into stillness because the noise was only loud due to there being 50 of her people and a Saviour.
She was already set on her decision when she felt a magical probe. It made her cry because someone was seeing her as a human being and warning her that magic would engulf and move her. Her feet were not working and she wasn`t forced to crawl. So when she met Emerald eyes as she was gently made to hover a little bit above and in front if the Gryffindor she had never quite been able to categorise she barely managed a nod and "please" as "option two" resounded in her head.
The levitation charm took firmer hold of her again as she was put back to her spot. There would be no food nor any healing for any of them until the collar removal but all else was already much better than what they had gotten for nearly nine months. This brief interlude was what all of them needed to make adapting later easier. The weight of her choice was slowly lifting the weight of the hopelessness on her heart and she tried to pay attention but felt herself drift off to sleep instead.
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Despite the thrill in seeing them drift off into sleep despite his presence he had yet to face the special cases. Deciding to go with those he needed alive more than he liked to admit instead of those he wanted gone simply because they should have been executed for their crimes like so many of the worst Death Eaters had been before Umbridge had had an idea. Mentally sighing he easily found those cold black eyes that had taught him that he wasn`t capable of hate.
He had given Severus Snape only two choices because the man was the youngest Potions Master in over a century, but he would be fine if the Master took option one and left him with the prodigy instead. If Draco had not been hindered by a brewing war, he might very well have surpassed his godfather, after all. Hiding his wry amusement at all the ways in which Voldemort derailed their life plans he focused on the emotions in those black eyes that lacked their cruel amusement or cold indifference probably for the first time in many decades.
In some of these cases he would not mind them crawling towards him to proclaim their decision, but he really was itching to inflict pain and the collars, dulled as they were, still would pick up on this desire. Supressing this he hardly even blinked when Severus Snape not only knelt down and bowed his head but also lay down in a show of absolute submission. And when Draco followed that reaction, he merely felt his left eye tick just a tiny bit. Still, they all would have noted the tick, and no one would be able to miss his magical aura thickening around him, making it harder for them to breathe. Which was why he nearly running out of there once everyone had submitted their choice- he could not afford a collar cascade because he needed them to be mentally aware when he broke them off.
Once out in the open air he called his firebolt and made a turn of the Island, looking at all the buildings that were being stamped out of the dust by the house elves and various personnel from different countries. Politicking never had been something he liked but he had learned very well and used his vacation to get a feel of the policies of France, Bulgaria, Russia, and other countries. What little the Slytherins and more observant of his school mates and teachers had picked up upon had left them unprepared for the leech free Potter Heir who was dancing with his finance on balls and sitting sipping tea at one party or the other.
All the while his personas fiends had looked the other way or even partially participated in the enslavement of any and all purebloods led by Umbridge and others of various ages and stages of purebloods – only the white kind. As if their blood shone like sunlight once cut. As if enslaving the children and granddaughters and godsons of Voldemort's followers was making the carnage caused by the tattooed ones right. Committing a wrong never made the previous wrong right.
Not that he was going to have clean hands after this, because not only was all of this still Voldemort's and Albus Dumbledore's fault for allowing the rot to spread but also- he was going to do a lot of wrong because he was now free to save the magical world his way.