Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER EIGHT – Expansion
"All set Harry?'
Harry nodded and took a portkey with Ragnok. Griphook was staying behind this time. Meeting with the veela was surprisingly easy for Harry. He worried their charm would affect him, but either he was able to resist it easily, or more likely they were able to suppress it. A few questions with him and it seemed they had appreciated what he was doing. They wanted to be sure they would be able to return back and forth, as a lot of the veela wanted to remain in parts of the wizarding world. With Harry's assurance it was merely a home, not a separate prison they followed Harry into the portal he had just freshly installed. They scouted out an area, and begin to lay the foundations for new homes. The veela were the first ones most similar to wizards in that they wanted to live in buildings rather than a specific sort of forest or natural habitat. With a little of Harry's assistance they begin using their magic to develop structures and had the appearance of homes showing. With funds and a little hard work they would be all set in their own neighborhood within a few weeks.
A similar meeting was held with the banshees and a portal was installed at the Gringotts in Bucharest. The banshees chose higher ground on Sanctuary, and created their own caves to move into. Word apparently had been spreading, and there were several independent werewolves that had joined up and were very helpful in building homes for those wanting them. Sanctuary was really coming together and working as Harry and his friends had envisioned it would. Archimedes was quite happy to be helpful to just about all the creatures and felt a bit of pride that so many looked to him for guidance and assistance.
The community was thriving, and with a full moon coming, Harry realized he needed to pay a visit to Ragnok and Tonks, and ask for a couple favors.
Tonks arrived home and saw a familiar looking phoenix. She'd wanted to hear from Harry for a while now, but didn't want to just show up without being invited.
She smiled at the phoenix. "Hey there girl! What no note for me this time?"
Harry jumped into the air and trilled out a bit of song for her. Tonks felt a feeling of security fill her. It wasn't quite the same as a normal phoenix's song, but it was better than last time. The phoenix popped into Harry, and he said with a smile "Girl?"
"Harry!" She grabbed him in a hug. "Oh it's good to see you again. I was worried something happened or maybe you hated me again."
Harry winced a bit. "Nope sorry. No hatred here. I've just been busy."
"Oh yeah? Your ickle little project taking some of your precious free time?"
"Yeah. It's really coming together. Got some merfolk in one of the biggest lakes, as well as so far, umm, let's see how much of this I can remember: some centaurs, acromantulas, veela, banshees, some dragons just showed up, flew there apparently, more phoenixes, yeti, a few rogue giants, the goblins have been working on their home, a few werewolves are helping out a lot in construction, some trolls, hippogriffs, including Buckbeak, vampires have visited and helped but I don't think any are considering it their home, a whole flock of occamy, a couple of sphinxes, one I hear has a habit of guarding one of the banshees caves and annoying them a bit, hehe, a few different serpents I didn't even recognize, and even a nundu so far. I'm probably forgetting some, but the response has been pretty overwhelming. The griffins are like the apartment managers helping everyone out and mainly keeping the trolls from wandering away."
"Holy Merlin Harry, you have been busy."
"Yup, and if you're willing I've got a couple things I was hoping you might look into for me."
"Sure. What do you need?"
"Actually, I just remembered, Ragnok knows Potions Masters who will make and sell us the Wolfsbane, so I guess it's just one thing. I was hoping you could go on down to the Ministry, and inquire about any house-elves for sale. I know not to expect any as independent and free as Dobby, but the most forward thinking ones I think we should buy. Or any that have been abused. I'll bond them to me, if they need it, and Dobby said he'd bond some to him too, as apparently he can act as an elder house elf. I'm sure we could use the assistance now, and they wouldn't feel useless. And perhaps seeing the whole community and tolerance of Sanctuary might change a few of their minds."
"Not a problem. I'd be happy to. How many you think we should start with?"
"Well, it depends on how they react to you I suppose. But if they seem open to the idea, why not all of them?"
Tonks laughed. "I half expected you to say that."
Harry smiled. "You know me too well it seems."
Tonks frowned a bit. "This is most definitely going to be noticed by the Ministry. And my dad's a muggle, so I'm going to have to buy them in your name."
Harry handed her a key, "I know. This is a key to a Sanctuary account that's been set up at Gringotts. Should have more than sufficient funds, though the goblins are watching it a bit closer than most accounts. Unless there are some elves you think will be problems, try and get them all. Take them to Gringotts, and Griphook will help you bring them to Sanctuary."
"Alright. I know you could do this, so I appreciate you giving me the opportunity. Will I get to see you at Sanctuary for a bit?"
"I shouldn't be too long. I'm going to go have a friendly with a few giants and vampires."
"Alright Harry. I'll see you tonight." Tonks said with a bright smile.
Harry apparated with a pop and reappeared near a camp outside of Little Hangleton. Today was a day that may alienate him even further from both sides in the wizarding world's war. Harry transformed into a phoenix and used his senses to locate the giants first. Harry determined who the giant leader was and approached him. He explained his offer and what Sanctuary was. It appeared the giants were getting quite unhappy with Tom. It took very little for them to believe Harry and want to go. Hearing about other giants already choosing to go there seemed a very enticing selling point. Trying not to alert any death eaters, as Harry was hoping to avoid violence as much as possible, Harry explained the situation, and the giants were going to discuss it some. Harry told them he was going to go talk to some of the vampires allied with Voldemort, and when he came back he could set up a quick temporary portal to get them to the island, but he couldn't leave it open, as it would be too dangerous near one of the dark side's base camps.
Harry subtly checked his link with Tom, and found he was not in the area at all, and didn't seem to be feeling any particularly strong emotions at the time. Locating the underground caverns, Harry went and approached the leader of one of the clans allied with Voldemort. When he saw Harry, his eyes widened. "You are a paladin. This explains so much."
"Excuse me? I'm a paladin? Have we met?"
"No Harry Potter, we have not. I am Marcellus. And I now can see and understand what your Sanctuary is. Are you coming to tell me, even those of us allied with the dark are welcome there?"
"Nice to meet you, Marcellus. As long as you understand and respect the rules of Sanctuary, you and all your clansmen are welcome. As are any other magical creatures or species. You will not bring the war to the island. If you cannot be tolerant of others you will not be welcome. You can choose to be completely isolated and unfriendly if you wish, but you must respect the others. It is that simple."
"I think me and my family will be very happy to take you up on this. Voldemort has not been the most favorable of allies, and I can tell your presence virtually assures us he will not succeed."
"Do not misunderstand me. I am not going to war against Voldemort."
"Maybe not right now, but you will protect magic, and it is in everybody's best interests to listen to you. We will leave and join you at your Sanctuary. Just give us until nightfall and tell us where to go."
"Gringotts' branches in London, Bucharest, and Paris all can provide secure transport. If you need nightfall, there is a portal behind the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. It is near a large tree at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. My brother Archimedes will most likely meet you at Sanctuary. He can answer any further questions you have."
"Thank you Harry Potter. I cannot speak for all vampires, but if you ever wish for my aid, I will assist any paladin. Good day."
And Harry left with a few questions and he was quite curious what Marcellus meant by 'paladin'. When Harry returned to the giants, he saw four death eaters had been conked on their heads. Maybe just sleeping, but no doubt they would have a headache when they woke up. All the giants had packed up everything they wanted, and were waiting on Harry. A couple introductions and Harry created an oversized portal, while a couple other giants kept a lookout. Harry went through it quickly, alerted Archimedes that about 40 impressive sized giants were coming through, and Archimedes seemed to get another big smile. Harry came back and watched out while they all went through. When the last one was gone, Harry closed the portal. He turned into a phoenix and fire-flashed back to a room in his manor.
He began searching through books looking for reference to 'paladins' with very little luck. He finally found one of Merlin's books that talked about the will of magic. According to the book, there was an elf mage named Gabriel. Gabriel lived on Atlantis in its final few years. He was extremely powerful, and not terribly well respected since he was born from the union of an elf and a wizard. He claimed magic herself talked to him, and he was a self-proclaimed 'paladin'. From the sound of it, and the theories the book made, magic chooses a being to be a protector of her in times when she is in most danger. Sometimes it is due to violence and terror or even possible apocalypse, sometimes it is one race attempting to annihilate all others, other times it is the very nature of magic herself in danger and she feels she needs to be protected. According to the book, Gabriel actually stood aside, and allowed Atlantis to implode on itself. His role as a paladin seemed to be fulfilled by allowing the society to destroy itself, and he just watched. Gabriel was not the only paladin there's ever been it seems. Apparently several millennia ago, nundu's roamed quite freely, and they began attacking everything else. A vampire had been chosen as paladin, and hunted the nundu's all over the world. They were not willing to listen to reason, and he nearly hunted them to extinction. Basilisks apparently began doing the same too. The basilisks managed to mutate themselves to be capable of limited flight, and could cover air, water, and land, and they felt it was their right to vanquish the others. An ice dragon became the paladin, and again, hunted the basilisks to near extinction. These were the only three examples mentioned in the book. It seemed to allude to the idea that there may have been more or others, since the concept of a paladin was rarely understood and some may have been acting as one, letting magic guide them completely unaware that they were.
Harry began considering his place in magic's plan. Marcellus recognized him immediately as a paladin, and Harry now had no doubt, this sounded like what was happening to him. He idly wondered if the vampire that hunted the nundu's was Marcellus or a friend of Marcellus's. Harry's musings were interrupted by a violent knocking tugging on his connection with Voldemort. Harry opened the connection a little and said "Hello Voldemort."
