-sleekwolf18 – I will be considering both those pairings for my alternate version of this story, which will be written after I finish this one.
-nantukoprime – I will NOT be going to Tolkien route. Too common. There will be obvious similarities, but many major differences. I'm not a big fan of Tolkien, or his elves (though they are the best of his characters). No offense to Tolkien fans, don't kill me?
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Many thanks to everyone who reviewed! Many apologies for any grammar or spelling errors, I only had the time to read it through once, but if I don't post it now I won't have the chance – going away for a few days.
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Chapter 26
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Rahkesh woke to the feeling of something choking him, snapping a hand up to his neck he felt scales and the familiar presence of his pet serpents' magic. The snake had been sleeping on his head, and at some point had wrapped herself around his neck and was slowly constricting around his neck, and it was starting to choke him.
Sygra, I love you dearly, but if you don't stop choking me I might have to hurt you.
Ssss you woke me.
You were choking me.
Ah, sorry.
I wasn't aware snakes could have dreams.
Foolish mortal, of course we dream.
And strangle people in their sleep.
I already apologized. I had this wonderful fat mouse and-
Never mind.
Why are you awake anyway? It isn't light out yet.
Extra-long transfiguration class this morning.
Can I come?
No, we're starting animagus transformations. Sygra hrumphed and unwrapped herself from around his neck, and coiled onto the pillow beside him. Rahkesh rubbed his throat; cobras weren't constrictors, why would Sygra choke him over a dream about a mouse? Looking at his familiar he saw that she was asleep again. At least she hadn't bitten him.
They had an early transfiguration session before breakfast today. And they would every day for the rest of the year so that the professor could monitor any changes in food preferences right after meditation on their forms. This meant waking well before dawn every day until summer break. The vampires, who were always exhausted around dawn as their internal clocks told them to go to sleep, were not happy about "catering to mortal weaknesses". To which the mortals responded that they too would rather be asleep. Apparently Professor Walner had no problem with rising abnormally early.
It was dark, he could see shadows between the trees, fast moving forms, he was moving too; running at a high speed. It was cold, he felt the freezing air in his nostrils, but the cold felt good, it didn't bother him. Slowly everything became darker and darker, and then faded away completely.
Another scene began to appear, he could feel air moving all around him. The sun felt warm on his back and he felt sleepy. His feathers moved with a sharp breeze, he had feathers?
Rahkesh's eyes snapped open just before he unbalanced and fell over. He had been sitting cross-legged and rocked himself upright quickly and looked around. Most of the class was either back already or just starting to come out of meditation. Interesting, in their first meditation on aimagi session they supposed to only contact their form, only one form. But unless he was very confused he had felt two forms. That was not supposed to happen.
Around him everyone was whispering softly about what they had felt, some people were looking very disappointed; they must have not managed it. They were all sitting on mats on the floor, since people had a tendency to become unbalanced and fall over when returning to their body from searching their magic for their animal selves.
"Rahkesh?" Rahkesh turned to see Silas was awake as well, "I think we should wake Daray, I know were not supposed to, but…" Silas trailed off as Daray growled and his skin slowly began to develop a scale-ish pattern. Rahkesh hastily threw an illusion around the vampire, his wand hidden in his sleeve.
"I think we'd better wake him. You do it; he's more likely to recognize your magic." Rahkesh said. Silas began tentatively prodding his cousin's shoulder. Daray's eyes snapped open; they were orange/gold and starting to glow.
"Daray, ixnay emonday." Silas muttered to his growling cousin. The orange glow vanished from Daray's eyes as he blinked, and Rahkesh dropped the illusion that had been keeping anyone from noticing.
"Sorry, every time I try I only get the demon." The vampire said, "never mind, I'm supposed to wait for the results from the potions masters and mind masters before trying anything to do with animagi anyway."
"How is it going?" Professor Walner asked. Seeing that all three had come out of meditation. Most of the rest of the class had finished as well; the first session was not designed to be long.
"It was remarkably easy to find my animagus self, but I haven't the foggiest notion of what it is." Rahkesh replied, deciding not to mention that he might have found two forms rather than the one he should have found.
"Where were you?"
"Running, somewhere cold, but the cold didn't bother me." Rahkesh replied.
"So your animal can run - how many legs?"
"I couldn't really tell, four I think. I could feel my feet on cold ground. It was very cold, it felt good. I could smell everything; the world was made of smells. There was singing too." Rahkesh said, trying to remember. "So it must be an animal with at least four legs that can run and has fur or scales to keep it warm in cold weather and it prefers the cooler climates. It has a very good sense of smell." Professor Walner nodded, smiling, and turned to Silas.
"Uh, lots of really weird psychedelic colors and sand?" Silas said, he shrugged and ducked his head when even Professor Walner looked at him oddly. "I don't even know if it has legs."
"It must have very different vision then. Size?"
"Erm, no idea. Really weird colors. I think it was venomous, don't know where that impression came from." Silas said, shrugging.
"Daray, the other professors and I decided that you should wait until we can find a time to meet with professor Namach and one of the mind magic masters. It is likely that your second form is overpowering anything else, it's the same problem werewolves tend to have, only different since no one knows much about demons." Professor Walner said. Daray nodded and growled again once she was out of earshot.
"Relax Daray, maybe you'll never manage another form. That could be a good thing, you have one violent and powerful form, what if the second form is its opposite? Like a fluffy white rabbit?" Rahkesh asked, grinning evilly as Silas snickered at the horrified look on his cousin's face.
"Grandmother would kill me for being an embarrassment to the family." Daray said.
"I just hope my form isn't something Nuri might feel inclined to eat." Silas said, "that would be a problem."
XXXX
"But do you think it could have been because of the dragon blood?" Rahkesh asked. Mariah was back; she and Namach had called him in to see them to discuss his animagi training. Rahkesh had just finished explaining to them that he'd somehow gotten images from two forms, instead of one.
"Rahkesh, in this case, anything is possible." Mariah told him.
"It is very likely that the four-legged form is your first one. However the dragon's blood has decided that it prefers the one with feathers, probably because it flies. The dragon's blood is fighting what your magic is sending you, because it and your magic favor different forms. I think you'll find that you won't be able to do the first form until you've satisfied the draconic magic." Namach said.
"So I work on one form in class and one on my own?" Rahkesh asked.
"Yes, but I think you should have someone else present when you're trying that, if only because of how complicated this is. And you should ask the headmistress to observe when you try to transform. After all she had four forms completed and is working on a fifth and sixth simultaneously." Namach suggested.
"She knows about what happened?" Both vampires stared at him, "never mind, of course she does." Rahkesh sighed, he didn't have any choice but to trust the headmistress, and, really, if he couldn't trust Nvara Aelfly then whom could he trust? Most of the students at Akren had secrets, and she was supposed to know and look after all of them. And unlike Dumbledore she didn't meddle at all, but was happy to help if asked. And she was the only living being (of any species) to ever manage four animagus forms, and was working on a few more.
"Part of what I do, Rahkesh, is to try to trace the dragon lineages genetically. I took some samples from the few bones we have that are from the species I believe your dragon to be, and compared them to your blood. That is the reason we called you here actually, your blood is changing, it is becoming remarkably dragon-like." Mariah said, interrupting his thoughts.
"What does that mean?" Rahkesh asked.
"It means that you blood is developing an ability to clot, in injuries only, much faster than even bloodmagic could enhance it to. You'll probably never have to worry about any blood-related diseases, or your cholesterol. It will probably also be flammable, when you want it to be. We couldn't test that, but it seems very likely."
"That will be of great value to you once you start the most difficult bloodmagics and necromancy and soul magic." Namach added approvingly, he looked delighted. "Ordinarily people have to inject liquid fire into them and magically bind it to their blood; most of them die in the process. You can skip that step."
"It also means that you cannot right now be identified by DNA testing. Your DNA is changing. It will probably finish the change within a year, and will be very different from what it was when you first arrived at Akren."
Rahkesh felt a wave of joy at hearing that, even more to separate him from Harry Potter. If he could only get rid of the scar, he would be unidentifiable as the Boy Who Lived. Perhaps it was odd to be obsessed with getting rid of yourself, but Rahkesh didn't regard Harry Potter and himself as the same person anymore, apart from his connection to Voldemort. A dangerous mindset but one he couldn't really help. He wasn't comfortable in Harry Potter's skin anymore. Mariah was talking again.
"It may also magically charge your brain. We don't really know what the effects of that will be." Mariah added. "There have been experiments done with adding magic to the brain, but it was always from an outside source and the subjects didn't do very well, this is internal. It may make it nearly impossible for creatures like dementors to remove your soul, and it could be used to repair brain damage. Those were the two results the experiments showed, but again this different; it probably won't nearly kill you to try that. The best-case scenario would be that you could get some actual conscious control of the signals your brain sends to your body, which would be invaluable. There is also the possibility of channeling magic through your new blood into your magically charged brain to enhance things like memory and the speed with which your brain works."
"That sounds awfully risky to attempt." Rahkesh said, though no more risky than attempting bloodmagic on himself in the room of requirement, or drinking dragons blood, or attacking a basilisk.
"But the pay off if it is possible would be tremendous." Namach pointed out, "but you're not even trying that until after the change is completed and you have some rudimentary necromancy down as well as that animagus form. The experiments with brains and magic showed that the people often tended to sink into their souls and to the edge of the death, knowledge of necromancy and some beginnings of a connection with death could help you avoid, or exploit, that."
"This is so exciting, years from now my colleagues are going to be extremely jealous, I get to study someone who drank dragon's blood." Mariah said, making it sound like a gift from god. Namach laughed. Rahkesh had to smile at the ancient's excitement, for a dragon researcher this probably was the chance of a lifetime. Since, after all, she wasn't the one going through an unkown magical metamorphosis.
"By the way, have your food preferences changed at all?" Namach asked.
"No, but I've been feeling a strong inclination to go bask in the sun." Rahkesh said, Sygra had found that very amusing. He wasn't sure what it meant, since most dragons were not cold blooded and according to Mariah cloud forest dragons were among the first species to be warm blooded.
"One of the things the more magical species of dragon can do is to feel the intentions of a spell, they don't know what the spell is but they can tell what it is going to do. Now most humans can teach themselves to do that but if the draconic magic really starts showing itself you should quickly develop that ability." Mariah said. "I've spoken with Xanthius, he'll search the elvish archives the next time he gets back to their realm. He's working with Daray and the healers right now. It might take him a little while to get to the archives though, they're rather busy right now; someone tried to break into their realm."
"What sort of idiot would try that?" Rahkesh asked. "And why?"
"Someone with a death wish, and I suspect it was an agent of this Voldemort character in Europe." Namach answered, "and as to why - the only Dyalnos trees in the world are in the elf realm. And they'll fight to the death to keep it that way."
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Rahkesh closed the door to his rooms and leaned against it, running Namach's last words through his mind again and again. The only Dyalnos trees in the world were in the elf realm…but that wasn't true. He had one. And there were seeds for several more in the Potter family vault, though some of those had been moved to his new vault. Namach had implied that the elves protected their Dyalnos forests viciously, what would happen if professor Xanthius found out he had one?
"You look like you're thinking unsettling thoughts."
Rahkesh frowned at the vampire on his couch, but was too worried to bother electrocuting him again. "Maybe." He answered, opening the door as Rianae, Silas and Ally appeared outside.
"Daray, you look like hell." Silas said in shock. His cousin's skin was pasty gray color and he looked like a day-old corpse. Rahkesh blinked and realized that Daray's magical aurora, usually very strong, was almost non-existent.
"I soon as I'm feeling better I'm going to kill Xanthius, that goddam elf decided to see whether I was capable of shifting into the demonic plane of existence. I told him that I had the demon's body, not its soul, but would he listen? No. Bastard nearly got me killed." Daray grouched, looking barely capable of killing a fly.
"I'd suggest waiting a few years to try to kill him, it might take you that long to recover." Rahkesh said. "He started doing experiments with plane shifting and your soul?"
"Yes. Fucking hurt." The vampire muttered.
"What else are they having you do?" Rianae asked.
"Testing me for allergies. I don't have any naturally but demons are rumored to be allergic to certain things, only whoever wrote the records didn't say what, idiot." Daray hissed. The other three traded looks, wondering how long it would be before Daray went and attacked one of the healers.
"I can't", Daray said, catching onto what they were thinking, "Namach's orders. I have ot behave like a good little demon."
"What did they say about you Rahkesh?" Silas asked. Seeing that his cousin was getting himself worked up rather violently.
"The dragon blood is changing my DNA. And, really, they don't know what that's going to do. And there was something about magically charging my brain." Rahkesh said.
"I remember reading about those experiments, the subjects all died, rather horribly." Rianae said, "perhaps the DNA change will allow you to survive?"
"I hope so."
"You realize that with altered DNA you can no longer be classified as 100 human." Daray said, "and if you're not human, and not anything else, the chances of you being able to reproduce are very slim, hope you didn't want kids."
XXX
It was cold in the streets of London, though not so cold as the mountains Akren was built amongst. It was late and very dark when Rahkesh entered an alley that appeared (to muggles) to not exist, and moved through the magical barrier and into the magical part of the city.
Almost immediately he was forced to dodge a stray bone-breaking spell. Poorly done he thought as it shimmered out of existence behind him. Whoever had cast it was not well trained.
Up ahead of him nine figures in robes were attacking a tenth. The spell had not been aimed at him; Rahkesh relaxed just a little, but kept his wand out anyway.
The person being attacked was managing to hold off their attackers fairly well, which was probably do to the complete lack of skill the attackers showed. Flinging not-so-dangerous curses and hexes at fairly slow speed and with little power. Very poorly trained. It did not occur to Rahkesh that before spending the better part of a year at Akren he would not have been so unimpressed. He probably would have thought of them as quite dangerous.
Unfortunately the person being attacked was already injured, limping heavily and appeared to be almost unable to fight back. For all that whoever it was was swatting the curses aside and dodging and managing to throw some extremely destructive spells in return.
As Rahkesh watched one of the attacker ran forward and tried to throw a punch. A very poorly done punch, he didn't even make a fist correctly, and the person being attacked picked him up and tossed him aside like a he would a feather pillow.
Whoever was being attacked wasn't human. Rahkesh carefully reached out, trying to ascertain the species, and immediately sensed a werewolf. Second later he caught the telepathic "tag" that all Akren alumni wore constantly in their telepathic aura. It was a requirement, after graduation Akren graduates had to wear it within the outer limit of their aura for life. An Akren alumni werewolf.
"Immobulus!" Rahkesh said softly, mentally concentrating on directing the magic and removing all visible light. They had been taught at Akren that visible light or color from flying magic was a sign of power being drains off and dissipated into the air as it moved. If there was no visible light then when the spell hit its target it still contained all of the power the caster had given it. It also made it very hard to dodge.
Two of the attackers froze, immobile. Three rupturing spells in rapid succession caused three of the others to drop back, screaming, as various organs or arteries ruptured. Rahkesh sent out a telepathic signal Akren. While the students and alumni of Akren might kill each other they would also fight to protect each other from anyone else.
The werewolf began fighting harder, he stunned the injured ones, then cast a quick burst of healing magic at them. The werewolf stunned two more and Rahkesh broke one persons back, not fatally, but he would probably be paralyzed. He then bashed the last one over the head with a blasting curse that knocked him out.
"Are you injured?" Rahkesh asked, approaching the werewolf, who did not appear to be in very good shape.
"Nothing you could heal. A recent pack fight." The werewolf was male and appeared to be very tired.
"Full moon last night." Rahkesh nodded, understanding. "Any idea who they were?"
"No. Probably just a group that figured out I was a werewolf."
"And decided to attack you for it." Rahkesh said, "foolish of them, so close to a full moon."
"Yes, well, the general public…" he trailed off with a sigh.
"Are imbeciles." A voice from the shadows finished.
Both the werewolf and Rahkesh whirled around, then stilled, sensing the Akren telepathic signal again. A moment later a vampire walked out of a side alley between the backs of two stores. It was Andrew Farov, who Rahkesh had been on his way to see.
"This is twice in one night non-humans have been attacked." The vampire said, stopping to cast a repairing spell on the man with the broken back. The basic repairing spell was not meant for injuries, and the man screamed horribly as his back fixed itself. Farov had a silencing charm around him, and the others, so it did them little good.
"Ever since that new law." The werewolf muttered, "by the way my name is Daniel, Daniel Markstone, and thank you." Rahkesh shrugged.
"Rahkesh Asmodaeus, and their lack of spell casting ability ought to be criminalized." The other two snorted. "The other one who was attacked tonight?"
"Me. Stopped by one of the old vampire pubs to help close it down." Farov replied. The werewolf chuckled.
"I suppose they won't be seeing daylight ever again?" Daniel asked.
"No, certainly not. The survivor will spend the rest of his life cleaning my manor." Farov said with a toothy, nasty grin. Rahkesh shook his head, hoping they would take it for amusement. He decided that the vampire and the werewolf had met before, they seemed familiar.
"Since we're going to my manor anyway how about we take them along for questioning?" Farov asked Rahkesh, Rahkesh nodded and levitated them all. "You too Daniel, you'll probably want to hear this."
"Even if I already know it by heart." The werewolf replied, nodding and following them anyway.
Being a special agent of, and second only to, the master of London, Farov had a fairly nice place. Magically removed from the world with enough muggle repelling charms that if a muggle had somehow wound up in the middle of it they would have died. A sprawling ancient stone castle/mansion with immaculate grounds a pond and a small orchard.
Beneath the manor was a level of dark, rank, damp cells with old iron bars and a single blanket each and a tiny old cot that was probably infested with a vast variety of insect colonies, Rahkesh tossed the prisoners into cells Farov directed him to. There were curses coming from behind a solid windowless door, someone was very angry.
"The last of those that attacked me, if he keeps up with the cursing I might just keep him alive a bit longer to learn some of it, he has a rather astonishing vocabulary." Farov explained at Rahkesh's raised eyebrow.
The vampire removed a container of vertisarum from a cabinet and gave each prisoner a few drops. Then he woke the first. Daniel settled down onto a bench and watched, looking rather grim.
"Why did you attack this man?" Farov asked as he attached chains to the man's throat and wrists and attached them to the wall. Giving him enough slack to reach the toilet in the corner but not the door.
"He's a bloody werewolf, ought to be exterminated like the animal he is." The man hissed.
"Did you know that he has never killed anyone, or bitten anyone. Killing him would make you a worse animal than him." Farov said. Rahkesh raised an eyebrow at Daniel. He had not heard of any students getting through Akren without killing. Daniel nodded and shrugged.
"He a werewolf, they're all liars. Criminals, plotting against us humans, want the world for themselves." The man growled out "They're evil." Daniel sneered. Farov rolled his eyes and gave the man the antidote. Then he leaned down to his prisoners level, curled his lip into a snarl and extended his fangs.
"Oh no, he is not evil, but I am. You have no concept of evil…but you'll learn fast enough." He whispered, and then knocked the man out with a wandless spell before he could make any response.
"Always the same." Daniel sighed, he shook his head and stood up. "And I don't suppose the others will have anything different to say, there's almost no point in asking." Farov locked the cell door and gestured for them to head up the stairs. Rahkesh did not feeling the least bit of pity for the men in the cells.
"That one will be entertaining some of friends when they come to visit next." He said with a nasty smile, "I'll regulate his food and drink intake so his blood tastes better, and fresh blood is considered much more civilized than the stuff that's been stored for years. Especially right from a mortal wizard's throat." He practically purred, Rahkesh rolled his eyes and didn't comment, wondering if the vampire was baiting him. Daniel tossed Rahkesh a look behind the vampire's back and rolled his eyes too.
Farov led them to a lavishly decorated sitting room with a huge fireplace and furniture that looked several centuries old. There one of his slaves, a very pretty blond haired middle aged woman wearing a simple dark blue dress and silver collar, served them drinks and a healing potion designed for werewolves around the full moon, when they could not be healed by most spell or most potions meant for humans. Farov waved her away and opened up a secret drawer in the coffee table and pulled out a plain folder from which he removed an exact copy of the recent anti-vampire declaration, complete with the signatures of all those involved.
"This needs to get to Tristan as soon as you possibly can." He told Rahkesh, handing it to him. "He's the only one who knows who the record keeper is right now."
Rahkesh took the papers and placed them in another folder, after charming Farov's fingerprints off of them. He didn't question why Namach was the only one who knew the record keeper, or even who that was; he was starting to understand that getting too deep into the world of the vampires was not such a good idea. If they wanted to tell him, or if he needed to know, he could find out. Besides, he had a feeling the answers to most of his questions about the vampires would not be things he really wanted to hear or know about, until it was necessary, if it ever was.
"Somehow I don't think killing those involved will make any change." Rahkesh told Farov.
"No I don't think so either, and neither do any of the city masters. But we might as well, and our options are fairly miniscule." Farov admitted.
"Well the werewolves will be happy to help." Daniel told the vampire, "last night was the pack meetings to decide what to do about the Ministry's anti-magical being stance."
"How many sided with Voldemort?" Farov asked.
"Not many. He's got too many purebloods around him and we don't feel like being treated as animals by them. And Fenrir Greyback as almost universally hated. Most of the packs are actively executing any werewolf who helps him, that's how I was injured." Daniel said, removing the bandages from his now healed wounds. The slave appeared again at some hidden signal to take them. "Most everyone is leaving Europe entirely. Russia sent the heads of some of their packs to try to entice us to go there. They're even cleaning up the process for switching citizenship to make it even easier." Changing citizenship was already very easy for magical peoples, simply because there were so few of them. Even people with criminal records had an easier time of it than muggles.
"A lot of countries are doing that. By the end of this Europe may wind up having the lowest magical populations of any place in the world." Rahkesh responded. He had been looking into countries that his friends might prefer to move to, and he was considering moving Harry Potter somewhere else as a public statement. Akren students didn't technically have any citizenship anywhere because no government was going to bother Akren about their citizens, but Harry Potter still existed.
"Have the vampires started to move against the mortals yet?" Rahkesh asked Farov.
"Not quite yet, very soon."
"I suppose there's no hope of smoothing that over?" Rahkesh asked, Farov glared at him and Rahkesh shrugged, he had to ask. If there was any chance to avoid war.
"We grow tired of being looked down upon as lesser beings. And, in this case, the mortals have been going too far, there is a new move to outlaw association with halfbreeds and nonhumans, unless that association involves extermination. There are too many vampires who will not put up with this." Andrew Farov explained.
"I would never ask them too." Rahkesh replied, "but not every country is doing this."
"True, that is a problem. If we permit vengeance here vampires will come to believe all mortals are worthless. And, most interestingly, I think that the muggles would be much more accepting of us." The vampire said, anticipating where Rahkesh was going with this. The difference between what muggles thought and did and what the magical people thought and did was frequently completely opposite. Especially in countries where one side was in some sort of turmoil. "However no one has suggested an alternative."
Rahkesh grinned; he'd given this a lot of thought. "I have one."
"Do tell." Daniel said, "the werewolves are out of ideas too."
"It's really very simple, there is a lot of discontent with what is happening in Europe. Most other magical communities would be happy to take advantage of the situation."
"Well we know Russia is, at least a third of the werewolves are seriously considering moving there. Especially since wolfsbane is readily available and government subsidized so it doesn't cost so much." Daniel said.
"And the muggleborn magic users here are very unhappy as well, and in the most danger. I don't know what the current estimate is on how many have left Europe…"
"Almost six thousand left Europe in the past two months." Farov replied. "And those were adults, they took three quarters of that number in underage witches and wizards with them. Before that, since mid summer, another seven thousand adults." Which was not a huge percentage of the population, but significant enough to be noticed by everyone.
"And we know that there are too few purebloods to continue for long without new input. Inbreeding will kill them."
"Too true." Daniel muttered.
"Voldemort relies on a rich pureblood support base. Any they rely on a fairly large population, which relies heavily on new muggle born witches and wizards. It would be easy enough to get to young people before Hogwarts does, intercept them and explain things to their parents. It is well known that a large percentage of people who get letters from that school think it's a prank and don't reply, or don't know how to reply. Hogwarts has long been blind to how difficult it is for muggleborns to figure out where to go and what to do. The get only a very basic rudimentary explanation by mail. The other schools are only a little better, Durmstrang is worse, and Beauxbatons doesn't exist anymore. It would be simple to convince all of them to go elsewhere for schooling. It would be even easier to talk all muggle parents of children currently in schooling into going elsewhere. The purebloods will approve at first, but given a little time and the current mass exodus and Europe will find itself fresh out of witches and wizards. Leaving only those who approve of what is happening."
"So that it is even easier to pick them off." Farov said. "Never leave out that. The vampires want revenge on those who teach their children to think we're evil, and I imagine the werewolves aren't interested in stopping us."
"Certainly not." Daniel said, "my pack only wishes for tickets to the interrogations and executions of certain people. I can make you a list." Farov laughed.
"Eventually everything will shut down. Then it can be rebuilt differently. It may take a generation or two, but the process can be speeded up if everyone who leaves is required to be reeducated by their new countries on such things as the so called "dark" magic and creatures. I rather think most places would be delighted with such a program." Rahkesh finished, conveniently leaving out the part about him getting rid of Voldemort. He wasn't going there with either of these two. That was his own assignment. And he had several helpers currently figuring out exactly where the underground fortress on the Riddle property (they owned an awful lot of land) was. That done he could retrieve the cup.
"It would take a lot of people to implement." Farov said after a moment.
"Don't a lot of magical schools require students to be educated about other places with magical communities? Make it a school requirement to go and talk to new muggle born witches and wizards in Europe." Rahkesh answered.
"A sound plan, I will inform my master. There is a gathering of Akren alumni soon here in London, there're eighty or so of us around, though even we have been leaving of late. Perhaps they will be able to think up some new ideas and help implement this." Farov said.
"It would be easier to go directly to magical schools elsewhere and get them in on this first, before their governments even." Daniel said, "bypass the bureaucracy and get it started fast."
"Perhaps some alumni and current students could go back to their old schools and talk to their former teachers." Rahkesh suggested, knowing he would have to make a trip to Hogwarts soon. On the sly of course, no one would know. Perhaps Neville could start spreading the idea amongst those who were left.
"And articles in the major newspapers, there're so many being home schooled these days." Farov added. "Will you two stay the night?" The vampire asked.
"No thanks." Rahkesh said, Daniel said the same. Rahkesh escorted the still limping werewolf to the apparition point.
"Are you sure you'll make it home alright?" He asked, Daniel nodded.
"I'm a level seven mediwizard, I have everything I need at home." Daniel assured Rahkesh. "Though my mate might rip my tail off for being four hours late."
Rahkesh waited until the werewolf had left, then apparated to a cottage owned by the Potters. He had little doubt that the vampires would take up his idea, and spread it quickly They were very fast operators, a direct result of being so highly socially organized and so obedient to the stronger vampires. They functioned with amazing efficiency and discipline, when they decided on something. He just hoped none of the city masters or their advisors were too angry to listen to a slower, but more effective, solution.
He would have to contact his friends, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasely, even if Ron didn't agree his parents might. So might Neville's grandmother. And he would need to speak to the DA, and Luna's father maybe. Hermione's parents definitely. Their parents were probably more rational than his friends would be about leaving. The master of London would have one of his advisors write to the Daily Prophet, Rahkesh was staying far away from there for now. Hopefully bringing Harry Potter into play wouldn't be necessary. If everyone thought he was being trained by exaurors on Dumbledore's orders (the current rumor) then it would expected that he would be cut off from most of society.
XXXX
"Vampires only harm those that they don't like. You two are probably safe from them. Vampires will go after those who think that vampires are inferior, or inherently evil, and I'm very worried that Ron is one of those." Rahkesh/Harry explained to the twin redheads sitting across the table from him.
He was in the twins office at their shop in Diagon Alley, with a electric blue carpet and yellow walls and neon green furniture. As happy as the twins had been to see him they now looked very worried. Rahkesh…Harry right now, wished he'd had better news, he hated always seeing everyone with grim tidings.
"You're right about that."
"Ron can be remarkably close-minded and bigoted at times."
"You think that by the time he pulls his head out of his arse it'll be too late?" George asked.
"Vampires read minds, Ron hasn't the slightest bit of occlumency and I don't think he's capable of learning it." Harry explained. "I remember his reaction to hearing that Remus was a werewolf, if his reaction to vampires is similar, and I think it will be much worse, then he doesn't have a chance."
"Bill and Fleur are leaving." Fred said, twirling two quills simultaneously around his hand.
"Charlie has been looking at jobs all over the world, anywhere but around here, I already talked to him." Harry said nodding. He'd met both the older Weasely brothers at the bank that day. "I suggested he check out Australia and New Zealand. The job market for dragon researchers is huge there right now, and only getting better."
"We'll call Bill and Charlie home, then talk it over with mom and dad." George said finally.
"Tell him the United States Department of Magical-Muggle connections is hiring." Harry replied, having asked Ally to look into that, she was American and her dad worked for the government.
"Mum will throw a fit about abandoning the cause." Fred warned.
"Actually leaving right now serves the cause just fine." Harry said. He explained the plan to slowly remove all of the magical population, retrain those who needed it, get people to relax about vampires and werewolves, and cutting Voldemort off. "He can have Europe, but there won't be any magical people left. Will he decide to show the muggles we exist? I don't know. It's a concern, but the vampires are going to do that within a decade or two anyway." Harry said.
"They are?"
"Why?"
"They're sick of hiding. They're sick of the fear. They're sick of the separation between the magical and nonmagical communities. It doesn't mean muggle and magic folk will mix, it just means they'll know we all exist. The major concern is religious upheaval. But the vampires really don't care. I think they're ready to start cutting the world down and rebuilding it." Harry said, voicing his suspicions about the vampire's intentions. It was no mystery that the vampires didn't like the way the world was going and wanted to start over.
"If you're implying,"
"what we think you're implying"
"that is very scary." The twins said.
"Yes it is. But it will happen no matter what we do, they've been planning this for nearly two centuries. And they're killing off all the extra vampires, just in time to wipe out most of the mortals and start returning the world to the way it was a few thousand years ago to start over. If they want to try again there isn't a damn thing we can do about it really. Especially since the fae support the idea."
"And you think Voldemort…?"
"Will let the muggles know we exist when he realizes he's stuck. It's hard to be ruler when there's nothing to rule, and it's even worse to be a conqueror when there's no one around but your own people."
"Are you trying to prevent that?"
"Not really. I'm hoping that relaxing tensions amongst the magical beings will make things easier when the vampires make their move. And I'm hoping to finish killing Voldemort before he breaks the news to the muggles. And slowing the vampires by giving them people who hate them. Perhaps with Voldemort gone, everyone a bit more open and friendly, less fear, we can find another way."
"Harry Potter."
"Planning the future of the world." The twins said.
"I don't need the advertising."
"Never said you did mate."
"We just hope you're up to this." Fred finished. Harry shook his head and sighed.
"I hope so too." He looked up again, "of course, it may not mater at all if Voldemort really did try to break into the elf realm because they'll kill all of us and there'll be no one left to worry about anything." He watched while the twins thought, wondering if they really did have a telepathic connection.
"We're leaving." They both said finally.
XXXX
"Cornish Pixies? I'm allergic to pixies?" The sickly-green glowing, dead-looking, vampire exclaimed in disbelief. His orange eyes flashed brightly just before he vomited again, and began shivering.
"Well…only if you eat them." Akren's chief healer said, carefully backing away. Rahkesh, who had come in just in time to hear the end of the conversation, had to stifle a laugh, not wanting to be cursed. Pixies. Oh that was too good!
"You ATE a Cornish pixie?" He asked, finally making his presence known. Daray growled loudly at him.
"They attacked him, he was in demon form, and bit one." The chief healer explained. She smirked as the vampire vomited again.
"The high and mighty demon, taken down by the little pesky demons. I love it." Rahkesh said, now snickering openly since he was pretty sure Daray was in no position to harm him. The vampire merely glared and lay down, the green glow slowly started to fade.
"And he glows green," Rahkesh muttered, "perhaps you shall take Rudolph's place next year, feed him some pixies and call up the sleigh."
"Oh shut up." Daray muttered. "And if you tell anyone about this I'll kill you."
"If you can. You look a little peaked right now." Rahkesh teased, peaked was an extreme understatement. "Does he have to eat it or will inhaling work?"
"He'd have to grow an awful lot to inhale a pixie." The healer replied.
"I meant powdered pixies, dead powdered pixie." Rahkesh explained.
"I'm not sure, I don't think so, but it might cause some other reaction. If he inhaled it, yes there would be some reaction, or if he got it in his eyes." The healer finally decided, she glanced over at professor Strawlime who had been helping with the tests. "Do you have any powdered pixies?"
"No but if I kill one and start drying it now I could powder it and have it ready by tomorrow." The potions master replied.
"NO! Absolutely not. We know I'm allergic, leave it at that!" Daray yelped, halfway sitting up, the motion caused him to reel sickly and collapse again.
"It might be too dangerous." The healer agreed as she checked his eyes again. "I think the worst of the reaction is over. But you're staying here tonight." Daray groaned, and, surprisingly, didn't complain. He must really be feeling awful.
"I'll look after Satan, but he bothers Sygra I'll roast him and eat him." Rahkesh warned.
"That bat would kick your ass." Daray retorted. Okay maybe he wasn't feeling so bad.
"Your silly little flying mouse couldn't give me a nosebleed." Rahkesh said. Daray smirked.
"Oh good, then you won't mind taking part in his training tomorrow will you? I was hoping he'd finally achieve an adult metamorphosis." Daray said, grinning evilly. Rahkesh recognized that look, and began to worry.
"Ah, second thought, I'm kind of busy tomorrow."
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Please review!
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Shall I take the world back to the stone age?
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Whoever guesses what Silas animagus form is gets cookies! (Rahkesh's forms are too easy…well one of them is…I don't think many will figure out the second one.)
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A vote! Do I kill Ron? (Actually I just want to know what everyone thinks of him. I get the impression a lot of people don't like him.)
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