Chapter 70. The First Blow of the War

In the weeks following my meeting with Dumbledore, I make a few attempts to find Nessie, and I find nothing - other than the fact that she must be based in some underground cavern at the base of the lake. Most likely, warded and hidden from Muggle sensors, which is fine. I also hear from Dumbledore that he has people watching the Department of Mysteries to make sure nothing gets in from Voldemort's side, in case he decides to abandon his trap.

Wise choice, we can't have him giving us the back-door. It would ruin our plans - though I will admit that it is dangerous, because if the watchers are found, then they could very well end up dead before they know anyone is there.

But time passes, and nothing of the sort comes about. I quietly met with Harry on the 14th of December, to get a progress report on how everyone in the DA is doing - and the results are less than ideal.

Outside of people who are his personal friends - Neville, Hermione and impressively the Weasley Twins, no one who is outside of my group - who I had been feeding the exercises to over the years was doing them.

Except for Luna Lovegood, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot and Roger Malone, who is a friend of Susan and Hannah's in Hufflepuff. This is obvious in the point that they are quickly becoming the most skilled of everyone in the DA. So the gap is steadily growing between the elite of the DA and the normal members.

So I add more things the people who do the extra work can do to gain more control, and have better control over most combat magics in particular. I make sure it is abundantly clear these are dangerous, and you should do them in pairs, and with some minor healing potions or skill with healing spells - Episkey and the like - at least.

It is the day before the Winter Holidays, after the last meeting of the DA, when everyone - even I was asleep, that something happened.

Being woken by the Order's coin burning my chest through my sleep-shirt, where I kept it in a breast pocket, was not how I would like to be woken.

It doesn't matter that I meditate instead of truly sleep these days - as allowed by my various perks from mastering meditation and my obscenely high con score, it isn't nice to be broken from a deep trance like that so suddenly.

I flick out the coin and then nod, waving my wand and pinning it to the pillow for Sarah to find in the morning. Cuddling is still very nice, and it's a shame I have to cut it short. I conjure basic robes on myself, and step from the darkness of my room into the Headmaster's study directly. If he complains about that in an emergency…

I find the Headmaster's door is open, but only he is present. He looks up as I come in, and nods. A glance at the clock tells me it is two-am. December 19th.

"In the lunch break of the Unspeakables, they found the dead body of Mr. Arthur Weasley, under an invisibility cloak, lying in a pool of his own blood. His throat had been torn out after he was bitten twice by an incredibly venomous snake. He had been dead at least an hour when he was found, as it seems the snake liked watching him struggle to call out, as evidenced by the magical residue in the hall, which grows fainter as the time passed. It started at about 11pm, and went to almost 1am. The snake seems to have somehow prevented the magic, either being highly resistant and absorbing the spells, or by wrapping him up so he could not speak. Both are possible, but I believe it was mostly the second." He explains cooly, with an undertone of great loss.

He had been good friends with the Weasley Patriarch.

"This is a problem. See that a two-thousand five-hundred Galleon 'Bereavement pay' is given to the Weasleys, and they are only allowed to withdraw from it when they state the need. This will prevent them from using it on frivolous things, but should see the kids through school, and decently fed." I all but order, pulling summoning from my inventory a money order form, and quickly fill it out for Dumbledore. "Hand it to them personally, not from my bank-note. Say it is given to all who die in the work for the Order. I have more gold than I know what to do with anyways. Making sure they can at least finish school is important, if they're to make it out of this disaster as an even somewhat whole family." I explain my reasoning, and he gives me a warm, happy look.

This is more to keep them from quitting the Order wholesale, or make the kids hate Dumbledore, which may happen anyways with Ronald, but the Twins are too anti-Voldemort, and will understand in time. Ron doesn't really use his brain enough. I don't know Ginny at all. The others - those graduated - will not have to worry about their siblings, and can focus fully on continuing work with the Order, as needed.

Bill and Charlie, and even Miss Weasley, won't leave over this, in fact, I suspect they'll become more driven, with Bill as the Head of the House now. He's a very impressive male.

"This will help, of course, but for now, I want you, when you have time, look into how we can defend our members against such attacks going forward. If he's using serpents to spy for him, then we need to have a way to defend against them." Dumbledore tells me, and I nod, then pull one of the books I have in my inventory - a veritable library these days - out.

"These are the best generic defences, potions which keep you from being affected by venoms for a few hours, eliminate your scent or body heat from the senses, and so forth. These are difficult to cast spells, and potions to create, however, so it may take some time for people to master them. Other than these - which you probably already knew - I can write out the phonetic way to say stop, but it won't help unless they do it flawlessly, and that's not very useful." I conclude, and Dumbledore nods. I write out the short phrase, then tap it. "Also, extrasensory charms, minor wards to alert them if something comes within 30 feet of them from the entrance corridor and similar spells may be of use, most people don't think about it, but it is a good combination most fully trained witches and wizards can do. I'm sure you can tell them about how to use those spells if they don't know them - other than those, though, there's not much I can do to help with that. I'll ask the Greengrass family if they have any specific antivenoms, along with my other allies. Do we have a sample of the venom the serpent used?" I ask, getting a nod.

"Send some to me, I'll work with them to see if we can find or make an antidote for it which everyone can carry. It'd be better if they could figure out automatic deployment spells, but those are too advanced, I think, so carrying a vial will have to do." I murmur, and then, hearing people coming up the stairs, I give him a look, requesting my leave, and he nods, so I melt into the shadows, and back to my room.

Sarah didn't wake up while I was gone, so I get rid of my conjured robes, leave on my night-shirt and slide back into bed, for sleep.

.*****.

Christmas break, it turns out, is a lot more boring than even I thought it would be. The Duelling tournament is very easy - I win without almost any thought. The rest is just guarding Harry, and looking around Loch Ness for any sign of Nessie.

I'm certain, after a few days, that she is under some ward, though it's not Arcane in it's base form, and my attempts to find her within the Loch is not bearing fruit, due to the very low visibility in the waters, though I have cleared a lot of the lake, except for the innermost parts of the lake.

It would be reasonable to assume she lives there, but it is hard to be sure, and going from the outside and slowly working in is the most effective way to check. The centre of the loch is deep enough to require a bit more work to handle than normal, not to mention the silt in the bottom, among other things.

Today is the day I will dive into those depths - the 23rd of December.

Normally, I'd spend the day with family, finishing Christmas decorations, but Jasmine and Adam are both out, as friends for the holidays, and Mum is visiting her family members as a result, so the house is quite empty. I'll go to the Greengrass family home for the holidays, but that means I have nothing to do until late tomorrow, and there are lots of things I can do here, searching.

So I dive in, and sift along the bottom of the lake, slowly prowling to the heart of the Loch.

I find nothing, until I reach the deepest parts of the Loch, two hours into my search.

A cave, one not on any map, is there. I feel an intense repulsion coming from the mouth of the cave, but I have enough willpower to ignore it. I also note that it has a few effects which make it so that it might not appear on muggle detection systems.

Not Arcane magic, but something closer to my Shadow magic. Divine magic, I think. I walk to the mouth of the cave, and look inside, impressed to see that it isn't just a mouth of a cave - going into the bed of the loch, it is an air-bubble, which goes down around fifteen feet and slants into the rock, so to allow a creature easy access in and out. I step into the mouth of the cave, and let myself to the floor of the air-filled space easily.

The air is incredibly fresh here. Interesting. Not at all stale, or full of the scent of the food which Nessie surely eats.

I settle in, to wait.

I don't have to wait long.

"What are you doing here, young witch?" A voice hisses from the shadows - speaking English, but clearly much more adapted to some other tongue. Taking a guess, I respond in Parseltongue.

"I'm here to meet the Loch Ness Monster, I figure you are? An old wizard thought you would be more compatible with my magic than a Dragon or Phoenix or Unicorn, for the rituals I seek to go through. A scale, hair or similar would meet the requirements, but I was hoping to get to know you - and see if we are compatible - before I went through with such. I am not one to steal from a sentient being who is not my enemy." I explain honestly, and get a snort in response, and a response in Parseltongue, which still sounds odd, but not so strained as English had.

"I suppose this would be because of your magic - cold, dark and the feeling of times long past, yes? You have a strong feeling of the Gods about you, along with your clear strength in the Arcane. Your master was wise to send you to me, one of the wind and rain. I may agree to such an arrangement. Do you have a gift to offer me?" Nessie asks.

I produce a chunk of Mythril from my inventory, and place it before me, getting a snort of amusement, and acceptance.

"I hope this is a good enough gift?" I ask, and get a feeling - projected from Nessie, that it is.

"My name is Yushui, and you may enter." The voice replies in Chinese, of all things, and sounds completely normal. Very traditional, old, chinese. I blink, and respond in the same tongue, introducing myself.

"I am Aubrey Hawthorne, High Druid of the Clan Hawthorne. It is a pleasure to meet you, Yushui." I say, stepping deeper. "I wish I could say the weather has been pleasant, but lately the snow has been quite worse than normal. I may enjoy snow, but it does make travel a bit difficult, especially when the Loch's freeze." I tell them, as I enter what has to be the main cavern.

First I see the great wealth this being has accrued, gold in plenty, scrolls of all kinds, a few prize books and gems, which light up the space by obvious magic.

Then, I see the creature itself.

Nessie - or Yushui - is a long serpentine creature, with four arms tipped with five claws. Long horns come from the apex of its skull, and it has two long, flowing whiskers, which sit below the analysing golden eyes, which burn with a curious fire.

This is an eastern dragon - the Horned Dragon - K'iu-Lung - in species specifically. It seems quite old for one of that breed, likely nearing the end of its life as this particular breed.

It isn't well known, but they change as they get older, becoming different species as they grown in age and power. Soon, perhaps in a century, this will become one of the ancient Winged Dragons of Chinese lore.

How the hell one of those wound up here, of all places, I cannot fathom. Having made its home in the largest loch, however, makes sense for one of its breed.

The larger the body of water, the more power it will innately have.

And oh, it controls the weather, to an extent.

"The snow is needed, after all, to allow the land to rest after the long seasons of planting, growth and harvest. It allows the land its proper rest." The response comes, and I nod, choosing to sit away from any valuables, in the mouth of the cave, as we speak. Reclining so as to mirror its relaxed position.

I don't even care to try to Observe one of the creatures which is considered lesser divinity in Chinese mythos. I'd probably get lots of question-marks, or not see anything at all.

"Of course, but it is in human nature to complain about things which are not exactly how they would be to have the most convenience. I personally am not much affected by the weather, I have many blessings to endure great heat and great cold, along with my magic, it is not an overly large issue, it is merely how most would expect me to speak of it, so I follow the normal, expected line." I explain, and then shrug, sending over the Mythril with a small bit of levitation, before letting it settle some ten feet before the Dragon.

"This is a fair point, most mortals are not as resilient or powerful as you. Tell me of your travels, and I will tell you of my own, and we may well find ourselves at an accord." The dragon commands, and I give a short bow, before I begin my tale, explaining my travels in this life.

I leave nothing out.

.*****.

It is seven hours later that I leave, having given Observe a try at one point, I was surprised to find I had been wrong. I could see the beings' stats.

Name: Yushui,

Title(s): King of the Thousand Lakes, Son of the First, Nessie.

Level 130

Age - 1917

Race - K'iu Lung

Sex - Male

Str - 550

Dex - 550

Agi - 400

Con - 623

Int - 605

Wis - 858

Luk - 803

HP: 955,500

MP: 2,762,700

STM: 2,118,200

I have more mana than a fully grown Dragon, somehow. This thing has more HP and Stamina than me, to be sure, and probably much more magical skill, but I have almost three times its raw mana.

I suppose that is a by-product of having amassed so many Draconic kills, and Western Dragons seem to focus on Mana as opposed to Stamina like this Dragon seems to favour.

I wonder if controlling the weather is a physical ability, like my running, and that's why..? Or maybe they just don't have a lot of the multipliers I have due to being a different species and getting different perks?

Either way, his raw stats are far superior to my own.

Interestingly there was no Dungeon involved, though.

Yushui seems to be very peaceful, unless something threatens his home. Every tale of some knight or mage or other Dragon coming into his land looking to claim it - or his life - wound up in some battle where he came out the ultimate victor.

Turns out being able to summon powerful storms to blast your enemies as they try to get to you, and control the water so they cannot leave the water as it tears and rend them makes fighting Yushui a very difficult process.

If only those poor fools had the ability to leap through the shadows and darkness like I have, water is full of the stuff, especially silt-filled bodies like this Loch.

In the end, Yushui told me to come again in a week, and the week after, and the week after that so they can get a better measure of me, and how I comport myself. He did explain that he was interested in my proposal, it has been almost four-hundred years since anyone has asked for his blessing in any way, be it ritual, or literal blessing.

Which he can apparently do, by the way. Give a minor blessing, on behalf of the gods he serves.

Which is, for some reason, the Tuatha De Danann. Not the Chinese pantheon. Seriously, what's going on here?

I suspect some kind of trade to help relations between them, some powerful servants or something similar. However it is, I am very interested to hear more about this, which means contacting my family patron, who is technically part of the Pantheon the dragon serves.

I spend the rest of the day practising various magical manoeuvres, teleporting around with Shadow-Magic and using my combat magic to blast things to bits, trying to 'clear the room' of animate level 8-10 practice dummies as fast as I can without being hit. I do that for four hours in total, before setting into bed, focusing on contacting the Family Patron.

Then he's before me, in his scholarly robes, hair pulled back, and fingers ink-stained as always. I offer a polite bow, and when he bids me rise, I do. We settle into chairs on the plane we're conversing on - surely not in my house, given the ground looks like clouds and the furniture is made of some material I do not recognize.

"I've been told you have met with Yushui. I assume you have some questions?" he asks kindly. I offer a nod.

"I guess the first is, how did he end up here? Like those Dragons are known to be pretty limited to their side of the world…" I trail, and he gives me a very slight smile.

"Divine contract. This was just about two-thousand years ago. We traded an egg of one of our dragons for one of theirs. This was to formalise a peace agreement, showing each other the weapons we might use against each other, so the overall threat level goes down. This is one of the Primary reasons the Chinese have not ordered your death, yet. We have a standing non-agression pact, and killing the high-priestess of my religion, well, it would not end well for them." he offers, and I give a short nod, then, I tilt my head.

"But the Egyptians don't have that same restriction, so when they saw me with Shadow Magic, making allies out of groups they have no alliance with…" He nods. "That's pretty silly. You'd think they'd try to convince me to come to their side, instead of kill me." I snort, and he sighs.

"The current rulers of the Egyptians became so powerful as they just eliminated all threats to them - internally and externally. They carved their niche in blood, and those they could not kill were sealed away. The Greeks, Romans and even the Norse are ancient enemies of theirs. To be frank, they consider us enemies as well, due to the fact that we've never spoken to them, and every time they've tried to make an alliance with us to kill the Greeks or Romans, we've rebuffed them, as we have no desire to see what happens when those pantheon's decide to work together, again. Right now, they're a bit split on how they should handle their… issues. When they agree, they're an equal to the Japanese, who have the most power, technically." he explains, and I blink in shock.

"How do the Japanese have the most power?"

"Interesting question! It has to do with the amount of land the gods have to control and protect, and their system is cunning and wise. Almost every mortal in Japan worships at shrines in their home, or at public shrines at least twice every day. Combining this with the relatively small land-mass they oversee, and they have the most worshippers per unit of divinely protected land. They also have incredibly powerful members of their pantheon - even if they opt not to take part in divine wars, they only refrain as a result of the wars never really being defensive. A minor strike on an outlying island, and the Japanese gods take three islands from the aggressor, and the people who they take are into their ways completely by the end of the second generation. Hell, they even have people second-hand worshipping outside of their lands with their ingenious use of television shows, video games and such. No other Pantheon - save perhaps the Christians, who if I'm being honest have too much land and not enough worshippers per unit of land - has such a following. Genius, really. Most Pantheons don't have enough control over their population to make such things happen. We'll see what attempts they make in the coming years, though." He explains calmly for me, and I nod, understanding.

"So power is worshippers divided by the amount of land they protect? If a Pantheon could live on the smallest measure of land possible, and accrue a massive, devoted worshipping in that land, then wouldn't it be more effective? You'd be much more powerful, in that way." I offer, and he nods once.

"This is indirectly my method, though I do it slightly differently. My main focus is on the libraries of the countries I'm in. I only claim that land, or the homes of my devout worshippers. This gives me very little land - but very high power from the land I do claim. You have to understand though, the more land you claim, the more power you could have. It's a balancing act. I am of intermediate power, when it comes to the gods because I have a lot of secondary Worship, and a cluster of devout primary worshippers. If I had more land - Schools, martial arts dojos, opera halls, and the like, then I could easily become the most powerful god in my pantheon. Of course, this is a deadly game, because other gods want the same space. What of the Gods of Music? Or Drama? Well, I think being god of the Arts, they should be under me, but they disagree." he sighs, then. "Really, the only way to force my worship into those areas would be for someone in my priesthood to open such a location in my name, make it so popular that the other houses also convert, and steadily take over. This would not be an action taken by me, but by a mortal who has free will. This would, in essence, give me the reign I need to become the head of the Arts in my Pantheon, and then begin helping organise us into a true Pantheon again." He concludes, then shakes his head. "Of course, I don't really have a high Priest or Priestess, due to the fact the candidates never ask to be properly inducted, and they don't ask for my help or power, so they cannot use the proper magics. A shame, that." He says, then winks at me.

I blink. Is it really that easy to get divine magical access? Ask?

"I thought you had to do something a lot harder than ask - like go on a quest to prove your faith or something." I blurt, and then blush slightly.

"If that were the case, then almost no gods would have worshippers. Of course, to become powerful you must do quests, but they're not onerous things. Mine aren't anyways. It'll be something like 'go find this lost book.' or 'make sure the library on main in these small towns don't shut down, please.' things like that. A bit of money, or time, and you can easily do these tasks. Gods of War or similar might have you go on some quest to slay a monster or end a war, but that's a good way to kill potential priests who are serving you well - and let me assure you - you have served me well as an unofficial member of the clergy. So many lost arts, lost skills, all being taught far and wide. It gives me a lot of power to see people studying and working to improve their arts." he concludes. I nod.

"Then if I could be an official member of your Clergy, I'd love that, to be certain." I say, bowing again shortly. I get a chuckle, and then he ruffles my hair and I feel a sort of connection forge itself.

Congratulations!

You've swallowed your pride and asked to serve, and been granted one of the Three original schools of magic for it!

Divine Mana Unlocked!

Due to past actions which have pleased your patron, you are granted 500,000 Divine Mana to start with.

Due to Divine Mana and Shadow Mana being similar in typing, you can use one for the other, but conversion makes this half as efficient as it otherwise would be.

Due to the benefactor granting this power, you have 50/100 control in Divine Mana.

You have access to all Healing, Creation and Illusion based Divine magics of tiers 1-5. Note, that bringing back the dead is barred, but possible if you try hard.

Due to various divine blessings you also have access to Divine War, Home and Hunting magics. These are only up to tier 3, however as you have not earned higher rankings from the gods whom grant these boons.

You are now considered a High Priest of Oghma (Tuatha De Danann) and the Matriarch of the British Sect for Vesta (Roman), Mars (Roman), and Apollo (Greek and Roman). Lastly, you are considered a Priest of Odin (Norse). Odin has not elected to grant you access to his Domain (Divination) as you have not proven yourself worthy of seeing so deeply, yet.

You have been granted 5 Divine Quests -

Empower the Faith (Oghma)

Open an Opera House, Theatre, and School, or buy one out so Oghma can begin influencing the area with his divine powers to make them the highest ranking one in a generation or two, and increase his divine power.

Rewards-

+100,000 Divine Mana

+10/100 Divine magical control.

+100,000 xp

Title "Patron of the Arts"

No time limit.

Home (Vesta)

Find an orphanage which is struggling, and fund it so the children there can have a true home. Find any abusive care-takers and remove them, and make everyone in the homes you have the ability to aid happy.

+1,000 Divine Mana per child helped.

+1 Divine magical control for each abusive caretaker removed

+20,000 xp for each orphanage fixed.

Title "High Priestess of Vesta (Northern Europe)"

5 year time limit.

The Lost Regiment (Mars)

The Roman invasion of England left a lot of useful weapons and monsters loose, but they're all being used for petty reasons now. Find the monsters and kill them. I'd like it if you got rid of the scumbag mortals hoarding the weapons too, but if it pleases you, then you may simply steal them for yourself, instead. I want those weapons, armour and assorted items useful for war being used properly again!

+3 Divine Artefacts (1 Sword, 1 Spear, 1 suit of Armour)

+15 Artefacts (1 Bow, 8 Spears, 6 wondrous items of value)

+52 pieces of good, useful gear. (Assorted weapons and armour for your allies)

+250,000 Divine Mana

+25 Divine Magical control

+1,000,000 xp

Perk "The Regiment"

Title "High Priestess of Mars (Northern Europe)"

Not time Limit

Hunt (Apollo)

Use the Bow and Arrow to hunt dangerous magical creatures (minimum, 3) and keep the people of the lands safe using your divine given skill with Archery to do it.

+50,000 Divine Mana per beast of level 85+ slain with a Bow

+1 Divine Magical Control per Beast of level 85+ slain with a Bow.

+25,000xp + The all of the monsters XP

Title "High Priestess of Apollo (Greek AND Roman) (Northern Europe)"

1 year time limit.

Seek (Odin)

The other gods are idiots, find where my idiot son put my horse, before some Muggle finds it. I think he hid it in the Scottish Highlands.

+Access to the Divination Domain of Divine magic.

+1 Rep with Odin.

+Title "Valkyrie"

48 hour Time limit.

I blink at the screen, then turn to Oghma, who can also clearly see it, and is amused.

"I thought Hestia would reach out to you too. Maybe she plans to just piggy-back on what Vesta does?" He hums in thought, then shrugs. "Either way, expect to be contacted by every pantheon who you go near, now. If you go to Japan, expect a Matriarch or Patriarch to be your guide, at least. One step below their high priests. Same for China, Korea, India, America or pretty much all of South America. Not Mexico, though, those gods are too busy to send people to watch some random Priestess from over the oceans. You couldn't do more harm than already been done there." He snorts, then relaxes. "But that's the whole spiel. When you complete the quests, we'll know and you'll be rewarded. Odin must really want his horse back, though. I'd get on that." and with that, I'm waking up, having apparently been talking with Oghma for my entire required rest period of six hours.

I hop out of bed, stretch, and then cast the most powerful divination spell I can think of, which is basically a divination bomb, to blow up anything stopping me from scrying what I want, then telling me if what I want was in the 'blast radius'. Not very exact, but good enough.

The horse, it turns out, is pretty close to Hogwarts. Within 10 miles, to be sure.

I sigh, and apparate to the edge of the grounds, and send my familiar out to scout the southern half of the land around the school while I go poke around the northern half.

Why do gods have to prank each other like this?

.*****.

The horse - a normal pack horse which had an anti-scrying ward which stopped me from finding it with spells to target it specifically - in seven hours. I tapped it, and felt something - probably Odin or some part of him which watches me as one of his 'priests' make a marker from my pool of Divine Magic and tag it.

I'm not a fan of the idea that they can co-opt my divine magic whenever they want, but I think it's fine, since I would have no divine magic if they didn't give it to me in the first place. Basically, they're just using it as a sort of confirmation of quest completion, it seems.

After the mark, and my momentary bout of being upset at the lack of total personal control in the Magic I now use, the horse disappeared. I was also given the reward for the quest, along with a general sense of direction towards my other divine quests. This must be the basic form of divination divine magic - it basically tells me roughly where to go to do what is needed of me by the gods.

Useful, that. Well, for things which require me to go somewhere specific. I doubt Vesta's quest is included for some reason, as it would flag almost every Orphanage in the country, and there is not nearly enough markers for that.

In fact, I think there's hardly enough for Mars' quest, though I can probably combine a lot of that quest with Apollo's quest. Surely the things - or people - who hoard the items Mars wants me to collect are mostly along the lines of what he wants me to kill?

Either way, I know where I could find what I'd been sent to hunt, which I confirmed by apparating in the directions indicated a few times to confirm - at the end of my three trips I found three dungeons, level 90, 102 and 88, in that order. I didn't check the other four directions I'd been given, deciding making a bow, arrows and enchanting them to high heavens would be needed before I tackled them.

Then I went home, and got dressed for the Greengrass Christmas, along with packing a far nicer dress and various odds and ends for sleeping and casual wear outside of the political events. I might only be there for a couple of days, but it is better this way. I'll probably want some changes of clothes. And shoes. Heels are very pretty and work well with my outfits, but they are not really great for prolonged walking and such in a home, or on the grounds of an estate.

I'll probably do a lot of that.

So it is, at 4:00pm sharp, I floo over to the Greengrass estate.

I'm greeted by an elated Astoria, who hugs me fiercely and then a much calmer Daphne, with her father, Uriel, giving me a firm handshake, but not much else.

After the normal greetings and festivities - followed by a nice supper - I politely pull Uriel aside for some talk about my plans to 'patronise the arts and open an Orphanage' all to help position myself as a philanthropist and generous person. Fortify my position as a political figurehead, in the same sense as Malfoy does. Really hammer it home that the Hawthorne family is here to play, and we're not backing into the shadows.

He likes the plan well enough, and we quickly begin organising a summer ball, to take place in the last week of the Summer holidays, to help 'fund the orphanage' and make it much more public. Of course, we already have a good location picked out - a large old vacation home, close to London but with enough land that it has its own Quidditch pitch.

Apparently Magical Orphanages have been done before, but they usually fail, as they cost a lot to upkeep, and getting enough donations is hard. The ones which work tend to be the ones which last five to ten years.

"Well, I think we need to get top of the line wards on this first, and nail down perhaps two people to keep the grounds, a head matron, and at least five workers, three for day work and two for nights. If we have more than twenty charges, an on-staff medwitch or wizard will be good, and we'd do well to scale the amount of employees after thirty charges. This war is likely to leave a lot of kids without he's, not to mention Muggleborn children who come from Orphanages. We could transfer them, the big issue there is the volume. Around twenty or so of those are underage, at Hogwarts at any time. If we assume one in ten families will lose their ability to support themselves, we'll have about a hundred kids at the end of this." Uriel points out, so we select a secondary location, and then a third. If it comes to needing all three, the Greengrass family will enter the venture with me officially, as the third location is one of their older houses out in southern Scotland, and apparently it hasn't been used in over a century. A dark lard blew its wards off, and the house has some damage, but we figure out fixing it all shouldn't take that long - and we have a year or two to set it all to rights.

The opera, theatre and even guilds are much easier to figure out. The Hawthorne and Greengrass estates, between them, have enough properties - or the land they sit on - to basically take over two of each, though those are all muggle, and we'll have to buy out the investors, but with careful direction, we'll see ourselves paid back in perhaps ten years, then see a steady profit.

Guilds are, of course, the hardest. We have enough for carpentry, masonry, clothiers and potion makers, as we have a hand in those businesses already, along with a pile of buildings which were used as guild quarters over a century ago. Those were abolished before World War 1, because of something about them having too many secrets. When abolished, however, the heads of the guilds made the magic into family magic and locked it away, instead of turning into public use - which was the intention of shutting down guilds. So now, a few families and their allies are effectively the guilds, just unofficially. There was never going to be a measure to force family magic into the open, so it worked to make those families richer, but certainly weakened magical Britain as a whole.

We can, between us and Dumbledore, probably undo that bit of legislation. It only requires half of the votes. It will take a few years for the guilds to be fully in order, and until then we'll have to have a temporary bill stating how apprenticeship to a guild works, and the maximum number of apprentices a shop in the guild can have, along with how long they have to stay on once signed into the guild, before either the guild or person in question can leave.

One year for discharge by guild, and five for people who join as apprentices. If you choose to leave, the contract has a stipulation we'll propose to keep the magic secret - only able to be shared or used for profit by guild members.

This will stop people from making outside of guild shops after spending five years in them and filching their secrets.

The last thing I put forward, before we turn in, is contacting other houses in various businesses so we can see if they'd like to get in on making guilds with us, since it's a good way to secure quality, profit and general good faith with the public.

Uriel agrees, we make a note on our parchments of every family who we want to be part, then we split ways, going to our beds at last.

The school project is going to be focused on the private schools near my house, so when I have kids, I can send them to the best damn school in the nation.

Nothing less will do.

.*****.

The Yule ball we go to with the Greengrass family is very, very traditional. It is being hosted by the Druidic house of Fieldwake, and the colours are all Green and blue for the decor, with most of the dresses being a dark red colour. Some have golden dresses, and very few indeed have purple dresses.

The colour of the dress indicates a lot, considering this Ball is hosted in honour of Badb, who is the goddess of War.

Red dresses indicate they are abstaining from the conflict - or are non-combatants, support staff, etc. They're just 'the blood' which will be 'spilled freely' in the coming conflict.

Gold dresses indicate they'll fight, but they refuse to be offensive in any way. They're protectors.

Purple, like my dress, indicates they're going to wade into the battle, and break their enemies, any enemies, who cross them in two. Only myself, Lady Longbottom and Lady Bones are wearing the purple.

Most of the red dresses, I think, are a lie.

The men, however, all wear funeral-black. They're 'the walking dead'. All men go to war. They're most likely to die. Outdated custom, but still. It makes it easier to hide their true intentions, but there is no room for deceit.

The fact everyone makes room for me, no matter where I go on the green of the very nice lawn the ball is taking place on - because that's just how it's done in such a traditional ball - well, thats a benefit of the purple dress. If someone offends me while I'm here, telling everyone I will destroy anyone who makes me an enemy, well, best not to offend where I can literally use tradition to demand a duel to the death.

I'm the duelling champion of the world, and everyone here knows how a duel with me would go, unless they used some illegal magic, which, in their mind, may result in their 'win' but would also result in blood feuds from all sides, as most of the people present would turn on them instantly.

A sad side effect is no one wants to dance with a purple-dress wearing woman, and the only people - other than the Greengrass family - who will talk to me for longer than the bear minimum, are Amelia Bones and Augusta Longbottom, the two other Purple Wearers.

So it isn't unnatural to find myself discussing things with them, alone at a table, with no one even sitting at the adjacent tables to over-hear. I still blast all the eavesdropping spells off of the area around us, and even on us in three cases. People pretend not to want to offend, but they'll do anything to listen in, and in such a highly enchanted area as this, detecting an eavesdropping spell is like spotting a needle in a haystack with raw magical sensing.

So I have to look for them specifically to pick them out and get rid of them, before we really talk.

Madame Bones gives me a hearty look of approval at my actions.

"They're all cowards." Augusta bites out first thing when all eavesdropping is removed. I sniff in agreement, and Amelia adds -

"Of course they are. They don't dare declare they're a combatant. We'd know who to look at, then. Not like people who've been watching don't already know - they're just liking the ability to pretend to people who are coming out of seclusion for the first time, because they can sense the storm, even if it isn't public, and there isn't concrete proof. Everyone has seen the Darker houses slinking into a tighter knit ball, voting far more unanimously and generally becoming much more heavy handed in how they argue about Muggleborn rights. Everyone knows what that means, reading between the lines." She concludes, and I nod.

"Some Dark lord is here, either a new one, or Voldemort again." I conclude in an almost bored voice, then roll my eyes. "And if anyone is listening to Harry Potter and Dumbledore, then they'll know it's Voldemort, and that he's much worse than before, due to how he's come back. They've put it all out there, for people who will listen. Just, not many have been. A shame." I sigh, then shrug. "They can't hide behind masks and pretty clothes much longer, though. Maybe a year, before the war kicks off fully. Voldemort can't hide forever." I explain with a grin. Amelia gives me a curious look, and Augusta gives me one of appreciation.

"You've some plan to force them into the open, and how to deal with all this foolishness, don't you?" Augusta asks, and I nod, but don't talk about it, so she continues. "Really, it's been a long time since anybody has been titled the Dragon of the Wall. Almost no one dares hold the title, and slides purposefully into another role or title in the ranks. Keeping the balance isn't easy, and keeping everything sane, especially from internal and external threats? Well, it takes guts. I figured someone your age, given the title of Dragon, would aim for Dragon of the South. Keeping enemies off our shores is much easier than keeping the peace, after all." She says, seemingly offhandedly.

Of course, I know why she's saying this. She suspects a classic northern/southern divide. It is very likely. Aside from a few houses - like the Malfoys - who live in the south, all the very powerful Dark Families live north. Either north Ireland, or in Scotland or in very far north England. Most light houses, with the exception of the Feildwake family - and Augusta's own Longbottom family - live in the south.

All the other ones have been destroyed in past wars, and it is very likely one - or both - will be major targets in the coming war.

If Voldemort can muster the courage to try to siege them. Longbottom Manor is one of the only manors I would say, when on full power, could rival Gringotts for impenetrability. They can't do that level of wards for long, though. It would be maybe a week before they fell out of 'Siege' level defence.

Feildwake, I know, is a much weaker house, defensively. They've survived this long but being incredibly evasive and good at picking off raiding parties.

They've grown very lazy - shifting from stealing from enemy nations into a lucrative merchant house. I doubt whether the family head is even an adept in his families specialty - mobilisation magic. Why would he need to be? No one has been brazen enough to kill a Druidic clan in a very long time, because when that happens, a chain reaction of Druidic houses dying tends to happen.

There's so few left, that there'll only be a few left, probably all Light, Neutral or Dark. One of the three factions will surely all but cease to exist.

Which isn't a bad thing, long term, for me, or my house. As long as we survive, and the Greengrass, Potter and Bones houses survive, we'll be in an outstanding position, because the Druidic council will be forced to elect a few new members, which will have to come from the Most Ancient and Noble houses, and if us four are left, we can pull three of our staunches allies in.

Shafiq, Black, Abbot.

A light, Neutral and Dark house, each. No one could complain, really. The fact all seven houses are in a formal alliance and will dominate the court only makes us more powerful, considering we have an alliance with a number of other houses, and can, between us seven, boot Malfoy out of the peerage, among other things.

Oh, yes. A mass culling of the Druidic houses who are evil, lazy or just don't care about the country anymore isn't a bad thing. Just… unfortunate. I would work with them, if I could.

War is a harsh mistress, though, and using it to reach my end goals is a very good thing. Killing a Dark house, and making it look like some corrupt house did it, then revenge killing their killers and so forth until us four are all that is left is a very delicate game.

No Voldemort supporters, no corrupt houses, no weak houses who only care for profit. Cutting off rotten limbs is always messy, but it saves the tree, and in the end you gain firewood - something to light under the future generations to keep them going to the goal of moving forward.

Brutal, but effective.

No one knows that's my plan, but I'm willing to settle for just killing the Voldemort supporting houses. There are three outright evil Druidic houses, who use their power to torment or make life harder for the others in the community for no reason other than they're not from a very old house.

Smith, Tugwood and Gore.

Fieldwake is likely to be blown off the map no matter what I do. It should be one of Voldemort's opening moves of open war. I can't make wards enough to protect the family from full frontal assault, and the 'anonymous warnings' I send them see no action being taken.

They clearly don't think they are in danger, not really.

"Druidic clan Fayn…" I hedge, and get a nod from Augusta.

"Bunch of pushovers. They don't care about anything anymore, They just want the world to move into a more profitable era for them, for change to come. No Dark Lord will like that, they want things to stay the same. A problem, for keeping the peace." Augusta agrees with my ambiguous trailing.

"That leaves us with, what, Bones, Greengrass, Hawthorne and Ogden after this war? Ogden isn't going to get blown out by some war - they're too rich, powerful with their unique brand of magic and smart. Greengrass is actually becoming a threat again, and, well." I give Amelia a look, which she meets with a smile.

"No one will easily be able to remove us. If Voldemort co-opts Ogden, he may well try to have the rest of us killed for the Druidic council to be his toadies." She says, then snorts. "Good luck. I know for a fact Hawthorne has a lot of war-magic in their tomes, as do we Bones. Greengrass, as a clan, make the Black family look like rank amateurs in the laundry list of methods they have for attacking and defending, when they care to try. Granted, I doubt they'll use them with great happiness, considering how small the family is…" She trails, and I give a short nod. Augusta looks mildly confused.

"What of the others?" She asks, trying to get clarification.

"As you said, useless, too relaxed. That, or they're just outright Voldemort supporters, and will be targeted by our side as soon as the war is open, and they take any action on his side." Amelia murmurs. I nod, and flick my hair - soon to be cut for the first time in this life - over my shoulder impatiently.

"Honestly, I expect the toll in this war will be high. We're going to need to set up orphanages and probably personally fund recreational things right after the war. Of course, this will open massive holes in the market for making money off of the shops we open into those holes but it'll be a damn costly endeavour." I explain, and Augusta snorts.

"I'll try to get a more potent monopoly on the Herbology based things, then, and maybe even a good bit of the potioneering stuff. Those tend to go hand in hand, and the Longbottoms have been in Herbology for a while now, along with the Auror's we produce. Might as well corner the market if I can." She says almost jokingly. I give her a serious nod.

"Would be useful. We could restart guilds if we controlled a large portion of the more common trades. Potions, clothes, books, things like that. We could have a part ownership of the guild, and reap profits from every big business in the nation of those types just by starting them after the war. No resistance is likely, and we'll be in prime position to pounce if we're not dead on the other side. I figure if I'm dead, I might as well share some of my ideas so they don't die with me." I explain, and both women have frozen expressions of pleasantry. Clearly, they're shocked. Their brains reboot shortly, and they nod very slightly.

"Explain how you would make the guilds work." Amelia all but demands, and I grin.

Seed planted, and post war efforts secured.

Even if I - or they - die, everyone will have a hand in the creation of a better Britain. Those who give a damn about her, anyways.