Chapter 28

The sound of people voicing their objections got louder and louder now that Harry had appeared and stood facing the mob. Thankfully, Harry had faced mobs before and knew how to handle the situation. The crab fishers back on Sildar whose whole livelihood he'd invertedly destroyed when he'd grown more land in the wrong place had come storming his castle as well, brandishing their crab pots at him.

Harry straightened himself out, uncaring that he stood there in only his pyjama pants with his tattooed chest bared to the world. "SILENCE!" Harry bellowed as loudly as he could. That had the desired effect and at once the people in front of him shut their mouths in shock. Harry put on his best disappointed parent expression and he'd raised four kids so over the years he'd more than perfected it. "I am deeply disappointed in all of you that you thought storming my castle as a mindless mob was the desired way to settle any disputes."

Several people in the mob hung their heads when they realized they had probably overreacted just a bit.

"In the future, if you have any questions or comments for me, it's a much more civilized solution to simply send one person to knock politely on my door and ask for a meeting. I am your Governor and if you have urgent concerns I will gladly meet with you all, but not like this."

V flew down from the banister and landed on Harry's shoulder. "Rude, rude," he cawed while he glared at the crowd, his head lowered. "Very, very rude."

More heads bowed down in regret and Harry was pleased to see that the majority of the mob now seemed to realize that they probably had reacted like children instead of civilized adults. "I will hold a town meeting in an hour at Town Hall. All of you are invited, of course, and all of you will have a chance to ask your questions and voice your concerns. For now, I'd like to go wash and have some breakfast, since you all awakened me so rudely while I've spent half the night awake and working on the defences of the island that will keep us all safe."

Yeah, that was all it took, Harry was pleased to see. People nodded and slumped off back home and Harry closed his door and released a deep sigh. The first thing he did was send a Patronus to Remus, to alert him of the situation, and then on second thought, he sent one to Voldemort as well to alert him of the upcoming meeting. Harry was sure his new friend wouldn't want to miss it for anything.

Harry took a quick bath, which refreshed him enough that he did eventually feel awake enough to function, and then he enjoyed a delicious breakfast prepared by Violet. He also made sure to send Violet off with plenty of prepared food to the women and children he'd rescued the previous night, since none of them had money to buy anything and Harry wasn't about to let them go hungry even for an hour when they were already far too thin.

Finally, Harry grabbed his broom and flew to Spellbridge, where he saw plenty of people walking from their homes to town square to join the meeting. Remus, Sirius and Regulus were already inside Town Hall, with the two brothers arguing whether they needed to create a dais or not, since the large room was entirely bare, save for Remus' desks which were shoved against the wall for the occasion. Sirius was against adding a dais, insisting they needed to meet the people at their own level while Regulus insisted they needed to put themselves above the crowd.

"We need a dais," Harry said as he crossed the large, empty hall with quick strides, ignoring Sirius' groan of disagreement. "All the people need to be able to see us, and we need three chairs for now. Me as the Governor of Magica, Sirius as the Mayor of Spellbridge, and Remus as the Immigration Officer."

V flew up to sit on one of the chandeliers that hung from the high ceiling, so he could keep an eye out for any potential threats and call out a warning when needed.

"Thank you," Regulus said with an exasperated roll of his eyes while he shoved his brother to the side and started conjuring the needed dais and chairs. Remus took up position beside the door where a crowd was already waiting outside. The moment the dais was finished, Harry sat down in the middle chair, with Sirius to his left. Remus opened the door and then quickly joined them on the dais as the people poured into the hall. Harry saw Voldemort and Quirrell amongst the crowd. They kept to the side and managed to find a spot near the dais. Voldemort gave Harry an amused little smile which Harry studiously ignored. For now.

Finally, as no more people were left outside to join the crowd inside, Harry raised his hand to silence the muttering and whispering around them and when the people were finally quiet, Harry got up from his seat and stepped to the front of the dais so he could look out over the whole crowd.

"Welcome!" Harry called, putting on a pleasant smile while he nodded at several of the people he recognized in the crowd. There were well over a hundred people there and Harry was pleased to see how quickly Magica had grown over the past few weeks. "For those of you who haven't yet met me, I am Harry Potter, founder and Governor of Magica. Over here is my godfather and Mayor of Spellbridge, Sirius Black, and over there is a man you've all already met at least once, our Immigration Officer Remus Lupin."

There were several surprised gasps at the mention of Sirius, but Harry again quieted the crowd with a gesture of his hands.

"We have a few things to discuss today, and after I'm done talking I'll gladly hear all your concerns and questions." Harry allowed the people no time to object and continued in a loud but calm voice that had a clear authoritarian edge to it. This wasn't Harry's first time addressing his people, after all. "When I created Magica and I learned of the plight of werewolves in Britain, I vowed to ensure that every single werewolf would have a welcome and safe home here on the island. Last night, I attempted to keep to that vow by visiting the last wild wolfpack in Britain." Harry paused for a moment, to give people time to absorb all the information while he gauged people's reactions. So far everyone was hanging onto his every word. "Unfortunately I was met with instant hostility and I had no choice but to defend myself."

Again, Harry paused, narrowing his eyes and giving the crowd a look that brooked no argument. "Fenrir Greyback is dead, as are his accomplices to his despicable brand of child abuse."

Fierce voices shouted out in disbelief, while others only conveyed relief at that bit of news.

"The people I brought back with me to Magica are Greyback's victims. Women and children, all of them," Harry explained, softening his voice and looking several people in the eyes. "They need our sympathy and our help, not our scorn or our fear. They are no more monsters than you or I."

People were again muttering loudly, but Harry was happy to see that most now spoke of the tragedy of these new residents, and of what kind of help they would need.

"These women and children have nothing," Harry explained, his voice full of sympathy, to hopefully set an example for his people on how to feel about this whole situation. "Only the dirty and torn clothes on their backs. I have been keeping them fed, which I'll happily continue to do until they can provide for themselves, but they need more help than that. None can read or write, and they need clothes and toys and household goods. I will build them a larger home on the outskirts of Spellbridge, so they can all live together as is their wish. But I urge all of you to open your hearts and help these people where you can, by sharing physical goods or by instructing them on how to look after themselves, how to grow food, and anything else that you can think of."

Harry was very pleased to see more than a few people nodding along and he had high hopes that the people of Spellbridge would be generous in helping Greyback's victims settle into their new, safe lives.

"What about him!" someone shouted somewhere in the back. "That's Sirius Black. He's a Death Eater!"

Harry shook his head and raised his hands again to urge people to calm down when more individuals in the crowd voiced their concerns about Sirius. "I am Harry Potter, son of James and Lily Potter," Harry said while giving the crowd a challenging look. "Do you honestly believe I would have the Death Eater who betrayed my parents to Voldemort sitting with me on the stage here if he was actually guilty of any of those things?"

Plenty of people were nodding in agreement with Harry, that this notion was rather ludicrous indeed.

"Sirius Black was never a Death Eater and he never betrayed my parents to Voldemort. He was framed by the real secret-keeper, Peter Pettigrew," Harry said, crossing his arms, daring anyone to disagree with him.

Someone did, because there was always one who liked to stir the pot, after all. "But he was found guilty of those crimes by the Wizengamot!"

Before Harry could reply, Voldemort stepped closer and jumped up onto the dais so fluidly that Harry was sure he was using magic to do so. "My name is Marvolo Gaunt, still relatively new to the island, but in the future I'll take up the mantle of Magica's International Ambassador. I was there when the British ministry executed Sirius Black by throwing him through the veil. Therefore, Sirius Black completed his sentence."

Several confused voices rose up from the crowd while others inhaled sharp, knowing breaths. Harry looked down to hide his grin when he realized where Voldemort was going with this.

"The ministry sentenced Sirius Black to be thrown through the veil, which they did. Sentence completed," Voldemort said with a careless shrug and a cheeky wink. He was every bit the showman that Harry was when it came to addressing crowds, that much was obvious. "Just because Harry is an incredibly talented wizard who managed to save his beloved godfather from beyond the veil changes nothing to that."

"Besides," Harry pointed out, addressing those few that still looked dubious about Sirius' presence. "This is Magica. We have our own laws and our own justice system, and on this island Sirius Black is an innocent man."

A brunette woman in her late forties Harry hadn't seen before stepped forward and looked up at Harry with a defiant scowl. "Who gets to decide that? What the laws are here?"

Harry gave the woman a pleasant little smile, not at all surprised that someone sooner or later would challenge his authority. There always was one, as Harry had learned on Sildar many times over, who refused to accept his authority without lots and lots of pointless arguments. "I don't think we've met yet," Harry said to the woman. "I'd prefer to know who I am talking to."

"I'm Brenda Stout, that's my husband Hugh, and we're the parents of Sue Stout." Brenda kept glaring at Harry while the balding man at her side didn't seem to know how to look as his eyebrows kept going up and down, eternally stuck between surprise and annoyance. Sue, a werewolf and one of Harry's construction specialists, stood to the side of the room with her face buried in one hand, clearly embarrassed by her mother's behaviour. Harry remembered Remus telling him about this couple, who'd arrived one of the few times Harry hadn't been present to welcome the new residents. Hugh was a magical portrait artist and Brenda was a magical cookbook writer and had quite the fanatical following thanks to her culinary columns in Witch Weekly.

"Well, Brenda," Harry said with a wide smile as he bent over a little to address Brenda personally. "I decide what the laws are here, because I created this island and I am the Governor for the next five years."

Brenda scrunched up her face in clear distaste. "And what if we don't agree with that? What if we think someone else should be in charge?"

"Then go back where you came from!" Someone shouted from the back, and Harry was quite sure that had been Billy Malone, their new pubkeeper, since the Irish accent was rather a dead giveaway. Several people vocally agreed with him while others laughed out loud.

"Who here has experience creating an entire country from scratch, from transfiguring the bedrock to building the homes to inviting the people to live there?" Harry said while he raised his own hand. "Please, anyone who has all of that experience, raise your hand."

Of course, no one did but Harry gave it a good minute before he looked back down at Brenda. "That is why I am the Governor for the next five years. After that, once our country is established and recognized by the ICW, our government will open up to elections. A council will be established that anyone can run for and the people of Magica will be able to vote for a new Governor, who will serve for the next five years. And so on and so forth."

Brenda looked around herself, clearly trying to get people on her side, but when no one seemed to agree with her initial complaints, she decided to try it from a different angle. "But you're a dark wizard, that allows dark magic. We've been hearing all sorts of disturbing rumours about you, that you raise people from the dead."

Harry cut her off with a sharp gesture of his hand while he narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm going to stop you right there, Brenda. Magica was founded on the principle that all magic is legal here. All magic, and that includes dark magic."

"So the killing curse is legal here?" Brenda shouted, her voice taking on a hysterical edge. "And the cruciatus curse? That, too?"

Harry sighed and shook his head. "All magic is legal in Magica," Harry said, but before more people could join the protest, he added, "But murder is illegal, as is torture, as is mind-control. So while the Unforgivable Curses are not explicitly illegal in Magica, anyone who uses them on a fellow human being will still be punished. You have all received a copy of our laws. I suggest you read them." Harry finally aimed a sweet little smile at a quietly fuming Brenda again. "And if you don't agree with this, dearest Brenda, you're welcome to run for government in five years' time. If you feel you can't wait that long, you can always go back to where you came from. No one is forcing you to live here."

Brenda tried to protest again, but was quickly drowned out by other people telling her to go back to Britain and eventually she shut her mouth, though her angry face spoke clearly this wouldn't be the last time she'd argue about Magica's authority and laws.

"Are there any other concerns?" Harry called out, and a few people had some practical questions, nothing particularly interesting, but Harry answered them diligently. When no more questions remained, Harry said, "Since our society is still so new and I'm sure more questions and concerns will come up, I suggest that from now on we have a weekly town meeting here in Town Hall. I'll post the next day and time on the notice board beside the front doors."

But before Harry could call an official end to the meeting, Remus got up and addressed the crowd. "Tomorrow's the full moon." This was met with a few wolf howls from the crowd, which caused a round of laughter. "Exactly," Remus said with an amused smile. "Starting at nine tomorrow morning, we'll be here in Town Hall the whole day handing out Wolfsbane potion." This was met with some applause and many joyous cheers. "I'll let our Governor explain what should happen once the full moon rises."

Harry nodded at Remus and then addressed the crowd again. "Basically any land west of the river and the mountain is open for you all to explore tomorrow night, as no one lives there yet. I only ask that you not kill any livestock, and that you mind the trees, since they are still young and fragile. I have planted a nice stretch of woods to the south-west of Spellbridge, that our Natural Development Officer Rachel has been adding to over the past week. In the future, once the trees are a little more mature, this forest will be open to you every full moon and will be stocked with wild boars and deer to hunt, should you desire to do so. I would like to officially name it the Full Moon Forest."

Many cheers and wolf howls rose from the crowd and Harry allowed the people to express their gratitude for a moment before he gestured them to quiet down again. "To the rest of our residents I simply say that on the night of the full moon it is probably wisest to hunker down inside, perhaps with a good book to keep you company because our library is now fully stocked. I wish you all a safe and peaceful full moon. Thank you all for coming. Meeting dismissed."

While everyone trickled out the building again, Harry caught sight of someone he needed to speak to. Kashvi Anand was a thirty-year old muggleborn witch, who was best friends with Arnie, one of the werewolves and a construction specialist, since their days as Hufflepuffs at Hogwarts. Kashvi recently got divorced from a muggle and needed a new start, so Arnie had suggested Magica for her. Kashvi, who'd worked as a sales clerk and a waitress in the muggle world, had suggested she really liked charms and would like to do something with that, but at the time of her arrival neither Harry nor Remus had an idea what sort of job to give her. But last night Harry had a dream about selling his old brooms to the residents of Magica that gave him the answer.

"Kashvi!" Harry called as he hopped down the dais and hurried towards her. "Kashvi! I've got an idea for a business we can go into together."

Kashvi looked at him with an expectant smile. "What sort of business?"

"You said you'd played on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, right? So you must love brooms," Harry said, happy he was about to create another business opportunity for himself and for one of his people. "I make brooms as a hobby, for the most part, and I have made a whole lot of them over the years. Most are gently used, could use some new charms perhaps, but we could sell them as second-hand brooms. In the meantime, you could learn to make brooms and eventually build them for sale by yourself, and I'll build some more brooms once I've got time to do so. We'd go into the business fifty-fifty," Harry said, barely coming up for breath as he explained his rather brilliant idea, if he did say so himself.

"You'd teach me how to make brooms?" Kashvi asked, her brown eyes wide and disbelieving.

"I'd love to teach you, but I am rather short on time these days," Harry said with a chuckle. "But I know someone who could teach you everything you'd ever want to know about broom making. My great-great-aunt Eustice MacMillan, who is an Enchantress."

"Wow," Kashvi said, clearly impressed. "Your great-great-aunt is still alive?"

"No," Harry said with a snort. "But that hasn't stopped her yet from sharing her wealth of knowledge with anyone who will listen."

"Ah," Kashvi concluded with a nod. "She's a ghost."

Harry winked at her, neither confirming or denying a thing. It was probably a good idea not to show off all of his dark powers just yet. "There is an empty shop beside the Roberts' Grocery Store, that would make for a perfect broom shop. Can you manage transfiguring a counter and such?"

Kashvi nodded quickly, her whole face alight with joy at the prospect of running her own business with Harry.

"Good," Harry said with a quick nod while he gave her shoulder a brief squeeze. "I'll send my house-elves over with some scrap wood you can use to decorate the store, and all the older brooms you can get ready to sell. Auntie Eustice will be there in an hour to start your training."

"That's amazing! Thank you, Harry." Kashvi looked around a little before she leaned closer to Harry so she could speak privately to him. "Please don't listen to people like Brenda. Most of us are thrilled to be here, and we love the idea that all magic is allowed here. We're even more thrilled that muggleborns are able to get decent jobs here, so you have our support, don't doubt that."

Harry squeezed her shoulder one last time. "Thanks, Kashvi, I appreciate that. I'll stop by the store soon, but I am sure you'll have no problem getting it all set up."

Sue, Arnie and Shaun, his construction specialists, approached him next. "Thanks for the gold, boss," Shaun said with a cheeky grin. Harry had sent Poppy off with their salaries the previous day. "Do you need our help building the Galloway wolves their new home?"

Galloway wolves. Harry liked that. It was certainly a better name for them than Greyback's victims. "Actually, yes. Wait here for a moment, then we'll go to the end of Birch Street…no, wait," Harry frowned, pulling up a mental map of Spellbridge. "Why don't we start building on the other side of the bridge across the river. We can put the more rural properties, with larger plots of land there. I'm also moving Ernest's cottage this afternoon, we can put it there as well."

"Sure," Sue said, not quite meeting Harry's eyes, probably still embarrassed by her mother's behaviour although there was no need for that because Harry certainly didn't hold her mother's attitude against poor Sue.

"I'll be right back," Harry said, turning away from them because he needed to talk to a few other people. "Quirrell! You wanted to teach, right?"

Quirrell stood waiting beside Voldemort, who was talking to Remus.

"The Galloway wolves need to be taught…well, everything," Harry said while Quirrell nodded thoughtfully. "Do you think you can get them started on at least reading and writing, and then we can set up a more structured educational system for them later."

"I'd be happy to do that," Quirrell said without hesitation.

"I wouldn't mind spending a few hours a week teaching them as well, Harry," Remus offered and Harry gave him a grateful smile.

"They need wands," Regulus pointed out and that drew everyone up short for a moment because they had no wandmaker. And while Harry had been able to make his own wand, he'd never specialized in it because Santika had lacked the large amount of magical creatures needed to make wands for every magical person on Sildar, so they had all continued to use staffs instead, or those with wizarding magic, like his children, used things like opals or other gemstones, like Harry had done in his youth. Thankfully, Regulus came up with a temporary solution. "I don't mind going to Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley and buying up every second-hand wand I can find, so they'll have at least something to start off with."

"That should work for now," Voldemort agreed. "In the meantime, I'll have my people quietly put out the word that Magica is in need of a wandmaker, or at least someone who is willing to visit once or twice a year to sell custom wands here, since there isn't enough business available here yet to sustain a business year round."

"We need a healer as well," Remus pointed out quietly with a glance at Voldemort. "The full moon is tomorrow and there's always going to be some cuts and bruises and perhaps some accidents that need medical attention the morning after."

"For now, I'll ask Healer Calderon to visit the day after tomorrow to see to the injured," Voldemort offered.

"Excellent," Harry said happily, more than a little relieved to see everyone working together so well and coming up with solutions without expecting Harry himself to do all the work. He just loved being surrounded by competent people.

"Harry," Voldemort said, taking a step closer to him. "Well done on the crowd control."

"Not my first angry mob," Harry said with a chuckle and a careless shrug.

Voldemort ducked his head to briefly hide his grin. "Still, I was impressed by your handling of the unreasonable complaints." Suddenly, Voldemort looked rather apologetic, his eyebrows curving a little bit too much. "I know you're busy, and I hate to give you extra work, but a few of my followers have agreed to move here and they need their properties transported to Magica."

Harry released a sigh. "I'm booked for today, but I can start on that tomorrow. Do one property per day, that way I still have some time left to take care of other things."

"That sounds like a perfectly reasonable solution," Voldemort agreed while briefly patting Harry on the back. "When you're ready tomorrow morning, come to my mansion and I'll apparate us to the first property."

"I'll be there," Harry said, wondering where that small shudder came from that ran through his body when Voldemort touched him. The moment ended when V landed on his shoulder, flapping his wings and glaring at Voldemort.

The hall was almost empty by now and Harry gestured at his construction crew to wait for him outside. Then he quickly summoned Auntie Eustice and asked her if she wanted to instruct Kashvi.

"I suppose I could," Auntie Eustice said with a little sniff. "Seeing as how Voldemort is far too busy these days to do much reading, it's not like I'd be missing much spending a few weeks away from his mansion."

"That's the spirit!" Harry said with a cheerful smile, before directing her to the right shop where Kashvi was waiting for her. Auntie Eustice might act as though spending time teaching others was a burden to her, but Harry knew better. Out of all his family members, Auntie Eustice had always been the most fanatical when it came to teaching magic, to Harry himself, but also to Harry's kids and grandkids.

Then Harry called Lavender and told her to bring all his old brooms and plenty of scrap wood to the shop, so that Kashvi could get to work. When that was done, Harry joined his construction crew outside and together they strolled through Spellbridge and across the bridge where nothing but meadows awaited them.

"Let's start with constructing a paved road," Harry said, because the grass was thick and high there and wading through it got annoying quickly. Harry mapped out the new neighbourhood of Spellbridge while the others added paved roads where Harry told them to. Here they would put some properties with larger plots of lands, anything from five to ten acres or so.

Harry gave the Galloway wolves ten acres, which gave them some privacy, but also gave them more than enough land to grow a lot of their own food. Sue got to work transfiguring a stone wall around the whole property, while Shaun and Arnie helped Harry construct the house. Harry modelled it after some of the traditional farmhouses he'd seen around Britain, with a door and hallway in the middle and several sitting and dining rooms on either side of it. In the back he created a large kitchen with access to the cellar that could be used to store food. Upstairs Harry added two floors plus an additional attic that wasn't quite big enough to stand up in but could be used as storage. He added three bathrooms, one per floor, and in total there were eight bedrooms, which he figured would be enough between 20 or so people. The kids could share rooms easily enough even if perhaps the adults wanted their own space.

He had Lavender deliver a whole pile of scrap wood to the house and gave his construction crew the challenge of transfiguring usable furniture out of it, since the Galloway wolves had nothing of themselves. He also asked them to add some garden beds and perhaps a chicken coop once they were done inside the house.

"Boss," Arnie said when Harry made to leave. "What should we call this street?"

Harry frowned as he considered that. Perhaps he should keep the tree names on the other side of the river and start something new on this side. "Plant some gooseberry bushes along the outside of the wall next to the street and we'll call it Gooseberry Lane."

By that time Harry's stomach was grumbling in discontent and Harry apparated home where Violet served him a delicious pork pie with some braised leeks on the side. After that Harry was off again, this time in search of Ernest, who he found at his daughter Louisa's house. There Harry was greeted by five yapping little dogs who all seemed to think it was their personal mission to jump up against him as high as they possibly could.

"I figured I'd bring my crups over already," Ernest said with an affectionate smile aimed at his pets. "I wasn't sure how they'd like being moved magically. They can be particular like that, the little scallywags."

Ernest apparated them to his cottage in Kent and it was indeed a lovely home, with a good five acres of land, probably closer to six.

"You'll need to produce food for the community, though," Harry pointed out as he walked around the property to add the necessary runes.

"I grow an acre or two of potatoes every year, for myself and for selling at the local muggle market in the fall," Ernest said, indicating some bare land that looked recently turned over. "Would that do?"

"Absolutely." Harry got the whole property prepared in under an hour and he quickly opened a portal and moved the whole thing through it. He gave Ernest's home a nice spot beside the river, which Ernest seemed particularly chuffed about. "Welcome to Magica," Harry told him before mounting his broom and flying home so Ernest could get settled.

Once back at his castle, Harry considered taking a nap since he was tired to the bone, but then again, he didn't want to waste daylight hours when there was so much work to be done still. He vowed to go to bed right after dinner, though.

Since he'd spent so much time on other projects around the island he had neglected his own grounds just a bit. Aside from the orchard and the chicken coop there wasn't much there yet. The first thing Harry did was excavate a lake right on the border between his and Voldemort's properties. Rachel's idea about stocking any lakes and ponds with trout was a good one, and this way both Harry and Voldemort would soon have a supply of fish to add to their menus, and to eventually sell. But first the lake needed to fill up and Harry was more than happy to let Mother Nature take care of that over the next few weeks.

Another thing he needed to do was prepare some pig pens with some grazing paddocks. Pigs loved rooting around and eating some plants and roots and grubs. Eventually, Harry wanted his pigs to forage in his woods, and he'd planted plenty of trees already, but they were still far too thin to withstand the force of a happy pig even though they now reached almost above Harry's head. So for now his pigs were stuck in the meadows.

Harry transfigured waist-high stone walls around half acre paddocks, with little stone huts which he filled with straw where the pigs could nestle down for the night or get out of the rain. He made eight of those paddocks in total, all connected to each other, so he could easily rotate his pigs and give the paddocks some time to recover. Then Harry apparated to an English farmer in Surrey he knew sold heritage pigs.

Harry chose Gloucestershire Old Spots, which were a hardy breed, excellent foragers and they provided high quality meat and bacon. They were large pigs, pink with black spots and were traditionally kept in orchards, and that's what Harry planned to do as well, fatten his piglets up by letting them eat all the windfall fruit in his orchards in the future. Harry went home with one bred sow who expected piglets in a couple of weeks, three young sows who hadn't been bred yet and one unrelated boar so Harry could use him for a while yet to breed his pigs.

He also bought a whole pallet of bags of pig's feed and made a mental note to start preparing some fields to grow corn and fodder beets because he was planning on becoming self-sufficient in the future.

Once his pigs were all safely locked in their new paddocks, the bred sow by herself and the boar temporarily shacking up with all the single girls to get them knocked up, Harry considered what else needed doing. He didn't have seeds to grow corn or fodder beets yet, but he did have lots of seeds saved from Sildar so he might as well get a kitchen garden set up. Harry hauled wood from his dwindling pile of firewood and used that to transfigure raised garden beds close to the back of his castle. He built four rows of five large beds, which was enough to get him started. He apparated to Britain yet again, now to pick up soil and aged horse manure for his beds and once they were all filled he got his collection of seeds out and started planting. Thanks to the weather runes he'd inscribed around the island it was a mild spring and would remain that throughout the winter, so his seeds would have no problem germinating and growing even though it was now December.

Right as Harry was done sowing carrots and got ready to start sowing beets, he suddenly found himself lying on his back blinking up at a slowly darkening sky.

V sat on his chest, cackling like a maniac. "Faint, faint."

"No," Harry said in complete denial.

"Dumb, dumb. Faint, faint," V insisted and Harry glared up at his companion.

"Okay, so maybe I've overexerted myself a little bit these past few weeks," Harry conceded as he got up slowly, his head feeling a little bit woozy. "I'll have Slate finish planting the beds while I have some food and sleep."

"Death, death," V cawed while he flew into the air.

Harry frowned up at V as he finally got to his feet and straightened himself out. Only now did he notice the many, many creatures that were spread out around his property. There must be at least thirty of them. Harry had never seen the likes of these creatures before. They looked like horses, with tight black skin wrapped around a skeletal frame. They had large, bat-like wings and glowing white eyes and they all turned to look at him the moment he stood up.

And right in the middle of all of them sat Keket, looking like a satisfied queen who had just found her new subjects to worship her.

"Death, death," V cawed as he circled high above Harry and the weird horses.

"Okay," Harry said while blinking his eyes, thinking perhaps he was still passed out or maybe he was having a strange hallucination. "What the fuck is going on now?"