A Calm Weekend

The following morning a message arrived from the Ministry. The council was mildly amused to hear the Minister's distress at his envoy's disappearance, but the politics still had to be played.

"Sable," Harry spoke after the message had been read aloud, "Please draft a reply for our signature stating that we have received no such envoy from the Ministry and, as our forces are disallowed from operating outside the Island, we are regrettably unable to offer any assistance in the search."

"As you wish, My Lord."

"Add that we have recently rejected an envoy from Voldemort – please be sure to use that name – and would much prefer to welcome a representative from the Ministry." he added, "Please ask that the Minister contact us in advance to arrange a time for our meeting, so that our guards can meet him on the boat and protect him from any untoward encounters."

"Of course, my Lord."

With that small matter dealt with, Harry turned back to the council to deal with the matters of Azkaban.

. . .

The remainder of the day was unusually calm, peaceful even. Harry visited the shepherd on the moor, who he found to be doing quite well for himself, listened to the Unkindness of Azkaban, and studied hard through the afternoon. After the sequence of bizarre events that had intruded on his life over recent days Harry found the relative mundanity to be soothing. Sunday, however, was to prove far more eventful.

"My Lord." Sable greeted Harry as she woke him, "Minister Fudge has scheduled an appointment for this morning. Shall I place him amongst the other petitioners in your public court?"

"Better not," Harry responded, "We still have no idea how this is going to go – arrange a private meeting room after. As soon as he arrives, send him to the Psychiatrist. Have him given a brief session and a dose of the suppressing potion – but don't tell him why. Only that we are concerned about the effect of distant Dementor auras can have on those unaccustomed to their presence."

"It will be done, My Lord."

"Good," Harry smiled, "Then see to it while I get dressed."

A shadow flickered briefly over Sable's face before she bowed and departed. Harry pondered it briefly before shaking the thought from his mind and turning his full attention to the day ahead. Today he would publicly judge the grievances of Azkaban and meet with the British Minister of Magic to determine the future of their alliance. Distractions were one thing he definitely could not afford.

. . .

"Minister Fudge," The Lord of Caer Azkaban strode into the small audience chamber and greeted his guest, "Welcome to my humble abode."

"N-not so h-humble to me, m-my Lord," Fudge promised, already intimidated by the shadow-shrouded Lord, "S-sorry, that potion made me woozy."

"An unfortunate side effect that we have yet to resolve," Lord Azkaban accepted smoothly, knowing that it was far more likely to be caused by the fire whisky his guards had reported the Minister drinking, "Though preferable to the Dementor's chill, however faint."

"I-I was told they l-left?" Fudge cringed.

"Most of them did; but I was able to recall them." His voice turned hard as he added, "They will not be leaving the Island again."

Fudge nodded furiously at that, unable to give voice to his drunken fear. The Lord Azkaban sighed in response.

"We will continue to incarcerate any criminals you send us, Minister," he informed the man, "And we are looking into increasing our complement and defences. There will be no further breakouts, and if Voldemort attacks us here we will give him a nasty surprise or three. Unfortunately, under the terms of our alliance, none of my forces can operate in Britain without declaring war on her; excepting only in matters directly pertaining to my safety, such as a bodyguard. As I have no intention of going to war with you or your ministry, Azkaban is unable to help you against Voldemort. Of course, should you fall to his Death Eater's, Azkaban will avenge you."

"The M-ministry requests that you h-honour our alliance and c-come to our aid" Fudge stammered.

"Azkaban is honouring our alliance," Lord Azkaban replied firmly, "It would be illegal for even one of my soldiers to set foot on British soil, or I would have have them hunting down Death Eaters already. We are at war after all, Minister."

"O-of course, my Lord, I-i'll have a new law today." Fudge seemed eager to agree.

"My forces would require Auror Authority," Azkaban mused, "They already have the training and pay, you don't need to worry about that, Just the legal right to act as Aurors do."

"Wizen-gamot meets this after-noon," Fudge seemed slightly calmer now that the fearsome Lord Caer Azkaban seemed to be agreeing with him, "W-we'll see it d'done."

"Thank you, Minister." Harry smiled, unseen within the shadowed hood, "I'll have my forces standing by, ready to go the moment we get the word."

So eager was Fudge to get away from the intimidating Lord, that he almost forgot the Dicta-Quill recorded transcript of the meeting. So, after stammering a few more empty platitudes, he fled the Island under the amused gaze of her guards.

"Sable," Harry thought to her as he watched the stumbling Minister leave, "I have no idea if he will actually come through, but prepare the teams anyway. They are to hunt down and capture or eliminate Death Eaters and their supporters. Try to cripple Voldemort's support network. We also need to locate and eliminate his Horcruxes without tipping our hand."

"It will be done, my Lord."

"Assign our best investigative team to the Ministry building itself, ostensibly as 'Ministerial liaison and security'," He added, "Have them investigate Ministry employees for corruption and incompetence – starting with our illustrious Minister."

"Of course, My Lord." a slight smile tugged at her lips, "I doubt that will prove a difficult task."

"Tell them to keep it discreet, though." Harry insisted, "We do not want to scare our targets away. I don't want us to win the war ourselves, but the ministry is crippled by corruption and nepotism. Until we clean them out, they would be all but useless."

"As you say, Lord. Will you select the teams yourself?"

"Goodness no," Harry immediately brushed off the suggestion, "I do not know them. Assign the task to someone who does: I need teams chosen for their effectiveness, not randomly."

"At once, my Lord."

. . .

Harry retired to his chambers to read and practice wand work. Since acquiring his new muffled wand he had not had a chance to truly grow comfortable with it. He spent an hour going over a sequence of basic spells, just growing accustomed to the ways in which the peculiar wand distorted his magic into unrecognisable shapes. By the time noon approached, he was more than confident that he could cast his spells with the minimum of leakage, making the muffled wand a valuable asset in his arsenal.

"My Lord," Sable bowed as Harry made an armchair dance ballet, "It is time for the Hrafnsmál."

"Of course, Sable." Harry smiled at her, "Let us give them the good news."

"Good news?"

"It is time for the Unkindness of Azkaban to once again fulfil their ancient duty," Harry explained, "Of course, I can not officially send them to operate on the mainland before we get that official clearance from the Ministry, but I doubt that they will be wanting to operate openly anyway. Azkaban marches for war, Sable, and her ravens will fly with us."

"Of course, My Lord." she bowed deeply once again, "Noon approaches."

. . .

Though it was hard to tell when he could not hear their replies, the Ravens did indeed seem quite eager to take up their ancestral role in the defence of Azkaban. When true noon approached and Harry was called away to lunch the Unkindness scattered to the four winds, save for the Alpha Raven who merely nodded acknowledgement to the 'Lord Human'.

With the ravens taking wing, Harry retired to enjoy a quiet lunch with his servant and his slave. A luncheon that was eventually disturbed by a maid bearing an Owl for the Lord Caer Azkaban.

"May I?" Sable asked, gesturing with her wand, "It seems urgent to have been brought here directly, but stranger curses have happened."

"I would expect the Wards of Azkaban to be sufficient to counter curses," Hermione opined, "It is more mundane poisons you should worry about."

"There is a charm for that," Sable shrugged, flicking a dozen different spells at the parchment before checking the seal, "It's official, direct from the Wizengamot."

"That's really rare," Hermione gasped, "Usually they just let the Minister or a proposing member write a letter on their behalf – whatever is in there must be serious."

Harry opened it with a flick of his wand – just in case – and read over the parchment within. A smile broke out over his face as he handed it over to his companions to read.

"Is this what I think it is?" he wanted to know.

"The situation must be desperate if the Wizengamot responded this quickly," Sable opined, "This letter effectively grants you blanket authority within the United Kingdom – as long as an action is legal for someone to perform, you can authorise someone to perform it. Even if the action is only legal for a small group of people that your chosen agent does not belong to. The treaty requirement that your forces not operate on the mainland is specifically revoked – interesting choice of words – and the only limitation imposed is legal. You can authorise physical or magical acts, such as arrests, assaults and duels, but not legal acts, such as new legislation. You can, however, propose new legislation should that take your fancy."

"What is interesting about their choice of words in revoking that requirement?"

"Revocation is effectively permanent," Hermione answered for Sable as she poured over the short letter, "Had they suspended the clause instead, it would have allowed them to restore the limitation at will. Revoking the clause essentially means deleting it from the Treaty, so they can not restore it without renegotiating a new treaty."

"More importantly, at least for you," Sable added, "Is that they can not retroactively decide you were in breach of treaty a moment after the war ends. We will get plenty of warning to pull our forces back."

"All that remains, then, is to assemble and brief the teams." Harry sighed, "I assume you found someone appropriate to arrange matters?"

"Of Course, My Lord," Sable immediately replied, "Given the Treaty restrictions, the Commander of your Guard has command over all Azkaban's military forces. I have informed her of your desires and she has promised to assemble teams for your consideration."

"Please let her know that the Wizengamot came through" Harry indicated the letter, "And that I am authorising the teams' deployment from Monday. I expect her to have at least the Ministry Team ready to go by morning."

"As you wish, my Lord."

"Tell her that she can cancel the afternoon's lesson if needed," Harry added, "This takes priority."

. . .

As it turned out, his Commander was more than capable of multi-tasking, turning his afternoon lesson into a lecture on the unit groupings she had chosen. She introduced him to the subtle art of unit disposition, and taught him how to arrange a diverse military to best effect. Many of the more esoteric units remained permanently attached to Azkaban – Nightmare calvary might be impressive, but they were of little use in most counter insurgency actions.

"If we can pin them down for a major battle, that's when you can call the calvary in," she had explained, "But if that happens your enemy has made a major mistake, so you might not need to."

"What about broom-mounted forces." Hermione had wanted to know, "Would not they prove more effective?"

"In theory, yes, but they still suffer from many of the problems posed by Nightmares," the Commander replied, "Namely that there are very limited opportunities to deploy them without breeching the Statute of Secrecy. We do not want to incite any further panic amongst the Muggles. There are also regrettably few who can manage to cast effectively whilst in flight."

"Could you not use the broom's shaft as a focus?" Harry asked.

"I hadn't thought of that," she murmured in response, before shaking her head and continuing, "I will have to raise that with the Island's Wandmaker, though it still does not solve the issue of the Statute."

Harry made a mental note to ask about aerial tactics in a later lesson. Even if the fliers never left Azkaban, they would need more than a wish and a prayer to get by. As the lesson continued the Commander returned to the warriors she had chosen, giving him a brief overview of each individual and unit, before explaining exactly why she had assigned each individual to a particular unit, and why she had assigned each unit to their particular task.

. . .

At the end of that lesson Harry signed the official orders authorising their deployment and granting each unit the authority to carry out their appointed task. He still thought that it was a little excessive, the amount of power which the Wizengamot had granted him, though he was infinitely grateful that they had managed to retain Azkaban's autonomy from the Ministry. The Commander seemed equally happy with the turn of events, leaving to give final briefings to those she had chosen as Headmistress Ribbeck arrived to begin their academic lessons.

"Excuse me, Headmistress," Harry interrupted her before she could begin the lesson, "but could we trouble you to look at semi-active amulets today?"

"That is a little more complicated than I would like to cover at your level, My Lord." she frowned, "You are learning well, but are burdened by your previous poor educators."

"I had a thought about where they could prove useful on a wider scale," Harry explained, "And wondered if any of your other students might be interested in making a little extra money."

"Most assuredly," she replied, "But how?"

"Muggle born homes." Harry's reply was simple, but well founded, "Very few would have any magical defences beyond the wands of the inhabitants, which are usually hampered by the Restriction against Underage Sorcery. A Death Eater could seal the building and burn it to the ground without any issue. Active wards are available, of course, but expensive, and very few warders would be willing to Ward a muggle home anyway. They would have to do a substandard job regardless, due to some horribly prejudiced laws, and then charge extra to set up an additional array of wards to prevent Muggles from noticing anything odd. Which have to be especially extensive if they expect to have muggle guests regularly."

"True, but what does that have to do with my other students?"

"Semi-active wards won't do anything overtly magical until they are targeted by active spells, at which point the Statute of Secrecy has been blown out of the water anyway." Harry explained, "I want Azkaban to sell semi-active ward books to muggle born homes, but for that to work we are going to need a steady supply of amulets to fill them – and that is where the students come in. We won't be making a huge profit margin – I personally expect to make a loss covering the expenses – but that does not mean we can not pay your students for their time."

"Well, I can certainly see that working," the Headmistress mused, "But what do you mean by ward books? The only ward books I am familiar with are control tomes keyed to some of the more powerful Active Wards."

"I thought that we should probably scale down the racks you have in your archives," Harry shrugged, "We are targeting a customer base that, by and large, will lack the time for major works to be carried out; even if they happen to have the space and the money."

"Well, that much I can guarantee working," Headmistress Ribbeck forced her attention back onto the Lord before her, "My Lord, I am I right in assuming that you are not sufficiently familiar with the process to calculate the economics of such a plan."

"Right in one." Harry smiled at her, "I don't need to become a semi-active expert, Headmistress, but I do need to know what it is that I am funding – at least in general."

"Then we can begin with a basic overview of semi-active warding." she smiled, handing over a new book, "This topic requires an understanding of potions, runes and arithmancy, as well as a little basic magical theory, so don't hesitate to highlight any points that you are unsure on."

Harry smiled as the lecture continued. It was looking like Azkaban's entry into the war would be far more wide-spread that Fudge could ever have guessed.