AN: Thanks for the reviews. Wow, a fast upload? That's just because this chapter's pretty short (its title says it all) but I hope it's just as interesting, something about using snippets of in-universe information sources for world building that gets me going. Let me know how this style of storytelling goes, because in small quantities, I feel like it's good. Just a quick FYI, I paralleled this civil war with the real Russian Civil War, I've always felt tying in real-world events is what gives urban fantasy life, just hoped I did the real history justice.
Chapter 42 - Interlude I
THE NEW YORK GHOST
January 12, 1919
CIVIL WAR IN RUSSIA RAGES ON
MULTIPLE RED VICTORIES IN WESTERN RUSSIA
The Russian Ministry of Magic, dubbed the White faction which is fighting against the Red revolutionaries, has reported the fall of one of its strategic strongholds in Crimea. Analysts say such a loss could spell doom for the Whites' control over the region.
White Hit Wizards attempted to mount a counterattack to seize back the stronghold, the mission was deemed a failure when none of the Hit Wizards returned, adding another twenty to the increasing number of casualties.
Furthermore, fourteen recorded skirmishes flared up all over western Russia in the past week, the highest rate in the war thus far. All encounters have left the Whites with many casualties.
Given the climate of the civil war, analysts have agreed that the war has reached a major turning point. The initial superiority the Whites held at the start of the war is slowly being handed over to the Reds. If the Reds maintain their advantage, the Whites might lose the war without major intervention from foreign powers.
Once again, Anton Ryumin, the leading figure of The Seven - a circle of aristocracy which heads the Russian Ministry of Magic - has implored the ICW to intervene, citing the need to end the bloodshed in Russia.
Continued on page 2
LE CRI DE LA GARGOUILLE
8 Mars 1920
ICW APPROUVE L'EXPÉDITION RUSSE
LA FRANCE MÈNE UNE EXPÉDITION COMPOSÉE DE SORCIERS EUROPÉENS
THE
DAILY PROPHET
12 March 1920
FALL OF SEREBRO CITADEL: THE FINAL WHITE STRONGHOLD
A GRIM END? OR A GRIMMER BEGINNING?
After two years of bloody civil war, it seems the conflict has culminated with the Whites' defeat at the hands of the vicious Red rebels. Three days ago, Russian ambassadors in Britain had stopped receiving owls from the White authorities, leading to fears of Serebro Citadel being besieged. Eventually, news from local wizards and witches in Yakutia - where Serebro Citadel was located - trickled to the outside, confirming the fall of the Whites' final stronghold in what had most likely been a valiant last stand.
Wizengamot member Corvus Lestrange commented that it marked the fall of Wizarding Russia as we know it and the dawn of what is most possibly a barbaric and brutal regime. An anonymous official from the Ministry had said that 'a monster had been born in Wizarding Europe's backyard'. Pressure from the international community has been mounting on the ICW to hasten the deployment of their expeditionary forces.
Senior Auror Richard Bones, who leads the British contingent of the Russian Expedition has said the too-swift fall of Serebro Citadel makes the situation more problematic as the expedition would no longer have a foothold within Russia to act from. Experts have agreed with the statement, saying that attacking the Red rebels from outside Russia would be more difficult.
Continued on page 2
Rumours of Red atrocities on page 3
Elites of the Reds: 'Aurors' or Dark Wizards? on page 3
THE
DAILY PROPHET
20 March 1920
RUTHLESS BLOODY MURDER
CRUEL DEATHS OF RUSSIAN ARISTOCRACY AT THE HANDS OF RED DEVILS IN RUSSIA
AUSTRALIAN WIZARDING TIMES
20 March 1920
RUSSIAN ARISTOCRACY MASSACRED
As the Whites collapse and the conflict in Russia falls onto the shoulders of the ICW, the Reds who have effectively taken over Wizarding Russia began a massacre of the wizarding aristocracy which had held control over Wizarding Russia since its inception. Only a select few houses which had declared allegiance to the Reds at the outbreak of the civil war remain untouched.
With the Whites' collapse, news from Wizarding Russia was mostly cut off. Currently, information from the country comes from the refugees seeking asylum in neighbouring countries. Surviving members from the wizarding aristocracy in Russia had brought with them tales about Red Hit Wizards and Aurors storming the residences of prominent wizarding houses and subjecting entire families to slaughter.
These survivors have also reported that the majority of wizards and witches are backing the Reds now that its victory over the Whites have been cemented. A portion of the wizarding aristocracy unable to flee Russia was forced to change their identities, living among the common populace.
The Wizarding World has condemned the act, with the most heavy condemnation coming from the European community. ICW Supreme Mugwump Giovanni Vitali has commented on the massacre, saying 'a bloody day has forever stained the pages of wizarding history'.
In light of the massacre, a wave of volunteers in Wizarding Europe have requested to join the Russian Expedition.
Continued on page 2
THE
DAILY PROPHET
3 April 1920
BRAVE WARRIORS ARRIVE
After several logistical delays and arguments with diplomats from the Turkestani Council of Magic, the ICW expeditionary forces have finally been established, mainly concentrated along the Polish and Turkestani borders of Russia.
The British contingent has been stationed along the Polish border, which will be working with the French contingent in an offensive towards Moscow, now the capital of the ruthless new regime in Russia. Leader of the British contingent, Senior Auror Richard Bones, commented on the bright prospects of achieving a decisive victory.
'It will be a tough fight, no doubt, but I firmly believe that the ICW will seize a decisive victory'
Continued on page 6
-English Translation-
-Translated by █████-
CLASSIFIED CLASS VII
state property of the Russian Ministry of Magic
MINISTRY OF MAGIC
DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES
██████ 1956
PROJECT 330: BABA YAGA
FINAL REPORT
In the ██████████, ███████████████████████████ - then only a member of the Pervoro - was given a directive by the Pervoro to form a specialised operations task force to aid Red efforts in the civil war. The task force held the name of ████████████████████████, later renamed to ████████████████████████ in ████, both shortened to ████. It saw the introduction of the doctrine that is the Combined Magical Arms, where it is agreed where the idea of a Spook was born. One of the many revolutions of the Combined Magical Arms was the introduction of specially trained Muggle operatives to bolster the manpower of Spook task forces, allowing more wizarding Spooks to operate in magically-intensive roles.
During 1941, at the height of the Global Wizarding War waged by Gellert Grindelwald and the Muggle commencement of Operation Barbarossa where German forces invaded the Soviet Union, there had been discussions and theorisations by commanders within the ████ regarding a switch or combination of the wizarding and Muggle roles in Spook task forces. Bringing Muggle operatives from auxiliary combat roles to frontline combat roles would ease up more wizards for the vital production of magically enhanced weapons and equipment as well as further increase the manpower strength of Spook task forces.
A key problem in such a change was the inability of Muggles to match wizards in magically-reliant scenarios. Although it was theorised that with specialised equipment, field support and training, a Muggle operative could match a wizarding operative on long-range missions, a Muggle operative would nonetheless fall short on close-range missions where engagements would begin to more heavily rely on spells. Due to this, the idea was placed on hold until a solution could be found.
However, the █████████████████ had forced Spooks to heavily consider focusing on the idea of incorporating Muggle operatives in frontline combat roles. As a result, orders were given to Spook Unspeakables within the Department of Mysteries to develop a method to ensure the operation readiness of Muggle operatives in frontline combat roles. On ██████████████, Project 330 was started under the supervision of █████████████ to fulfill the order.
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████. Due to the mounting number of fatalities within the subject population, Project 330 has been cancelled and recorded as a failure.
AN: This long AN is basically a plot summary for the Russian/Spook/Vergilius side of things, Chapter 1 to 41, feel free to ignore it if you don't need it. I think we've hit the point where plotlines spread across many chapters start converging and this fic is long enough. After all, this story has been going for a year and a half, old viewers might have forgotten a detail or two.
Regarding the factions in wizarding Russia, I'll quote lines from past chapters with a TLDR beneath:
Chapter 15 - Revelation
...Official, government-sanctioned, internationally noticed matters had always fallen under Sergei's domain
...Grey mused. "But one must wonder what makes this one so special, the Whites have always been relying on outside help."
"Sergei must be confident himself, letting Bagrationi run free."
...
"... But he's not a Spook, people like Sergei and Leo are better players."
"Movement of agents and information will be critical. Sergei does have the advantage here," Nathaniel agreed.
"Never mind him, he and I have always seen eye to eye. Leo is the one we have to watch out for, one does not simply keep their position during the Red's collapse without reason."
Chapter 21 - Wetworks
"Feels weird," Pavel scowled. "Two of us here are under Leo, as is those two there. I am pretty sure that circle of seven people are with the Whites. Those two there are definitely under Sergei's thumb. And those two are probably with Grey."
Chapter 39 - Missing Part 2
"The Reds are dead," Anya scowled, breaking away from her preparation to glare at Dimitri. "Sure, they still exist. But for all intents and purposes, they are dead."
...
"I'll assume it's Leo's work," Nathaniel sighed, telephone in ear. "Unless Bagrationi suddenly became a Spook overnight, or a third party is involved."
TLDR: Four factions - Whites, the remaining Wizarding Russia's aristocracy, currently under Bagrationi. Reds, rising power in Vergilius' time (remember that Vergilius plotline starts officially in 1917 and it's already 1995 at this point in the story) now a collapsed power, currently under Leo. Sergei, a neutral faction essentially running the current Russian Ministry of Magic. Grey, Nathaniel's uncle and the faction Anya is in, with motives yet to be revealed.
Now regarding the Russian/Vegilius history so far, remember that everytime I place a date on anything in the story, even way back in the first few chapters, it's for a reason because it all adds up. So I'll summarise them all in a timeline.
1903: DoM Research Report on 'Live' Runes (Chapter 12 - Aftershocks)
1913: DoM Research Report on Acoustic Location and Concealment (Chapter 16 - Trip Down Hogsmeade)
Early-Mid 1917: Introduction of Vergilius working in British Ministry of Magic, who complains about the unfair and detrimental privileges of wizarding aristocracy though he is one himself (Chapter 22 - Never Liked Aristocracy)
Mid-Late 1917: Vergilius tours Europe and visits WW1 battlefield (Chapter 26 - A Leg Up) before reaching Russia and meeting the Pervoro (Chapter 30 - Hearing) all of which gives him inspiration of a new wizarding world as he joins the Pervoro
December 1917: Vergilius returns to Britain, where it is revealed he is an Unspeakable. He proceeds to steal and remove all his past work in the DoM as well as a shipment of Ollivander wands before faking his death in a Muggle German air raid in order to return to the Pervoro in Russia. DoM Incident Report states information missing includes research on Active Runes on human (ie. 'Live' Runes), magical manipulation of wavelength reflection (ie. Acoustic Location and Concealment) and many more information which can be assumed to be Vergilius' other works (DoM Research Report in Chapter 12 and 16, if uncensored, would show Vergilius' name) (Chapter 34 - Taking Action, Preparing for Change)
Early 1918: As Pervoro incites protest against wizarding aristocracy, known as The Seven, Vergilius demonstrates a magically enhanced mortar to the Pervoro, marking the precursor to the inception of Spooks (Chapter 35 - A Step Against Everything)
Early 1918: Tension in Wizarding Russia hits a flashpoint and conflict breaks out, Vergilius experiments with mixing Muggle technology in wizarding combat in a prison breakout before writing a proposal on revolutionising wizarding warfare (Chapter 40 - Who Dares Wins Part 1)
1918: Vergilius cooperates with Muggle Bolsheviks who are also in a civil war to gain supplies and Muggle manpower. Begins training the 531st, a secret unit, applying his DoM works and magically enhanced weapons to this new unit. Unit was ready for operations by late 1918 (Chapter 41 - Who Dares Wins Part 2)
Late 1918: Wizarding World begins calling the Pervoro the Reds and the Russian wizarding aristocracy the Whites due to their association with Muggle counterparts. 531st breaks a White siege on a Red stronghold with resounding success (Chapter 41 - Who Dares Wins Part 2)
December 1991: Anya, along with her team, intercepts a cargo freighter in Xiamen, China, holding magical goods from the Reds in order to find where the ship came from. The goods were sent to China in the Reds' desperate hope of an alliance with the Chinese (Chapter 8 - Yule Part 1)
December 1991: Information from cargo freighter in Xiamen leads Anya to partake in an assault in Vladivostok where a Russian named Ignovich was captured and interrogated by Nathaniel (Chapter 9 - Yule Part 2)
December 1991: Anya participates in the assault of a Red stronghold, where Ignovich's right hand man was killed. (Chapter 13 - Dungeon)
Essentially, Vergilius' plotline sets up the circumstances for plots involving Russia, giving the cause to the various factions and how Spooks were formed. It explains why Spooks like Anya operate the way they do, utilising Muggle technology due to trial and error from the 531st, being experts in concealment and infiltration and having their bodies augmented by runes due to the research Vergilius brought with him from the British DoM.
Also(potential major spoilers?), just when have I mentioned about stolen Ollivander wands aside from Chapter 34? Chapter 7.