Empire
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Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Welcome my new story, Empire! This is a story that I'd been planning on writing for quite a while now and it is likely to be looooong. It's a Hermione-centric story and it's a Harmony...eventually, so I guess there will be no romance in this story for a long time to come. This story follows Hermione all throughout her first to seven years in school and after. Hermione, and Harry by extension, will likely also be in other relationships as they grow up in this story, so please take this as a warning if you're a diehard romance fan. The focus of this story is of Hermione's journey in a world where Grindelwald won, not just romance.
That said, in this story, Dumbledore and Grindelwald's duel happened several years earlier, and while there might be mention of familiar people from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, they won't be taking any central roles and I will be completely ignoring anything canon in that universe that doesn't suit the story.
This fic will be updated bi-weekly, in alternate posting schedules with another new WIP I'm working on.
So, without further ado, please enjoy! Reviews and comments are always appreciated and highly motivating!
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Prologue
An Excerpt from the True History of Modern Magic, Chapter 1
By Bathilda Bagshot
The Rise of the Great Empire
In the beginning, the world lived in harmony. Nature existed as it was and Magic was Nature itself. It was a time of peace and prosperity; when men, whether they were touched by magic or not, lived freely amongst each other without reserve. However, over time, those without the gift of magic, muggles as they are called now, began to fear and persecute the very sorcerers they once sought and condemned the existence of magic itself. And thus, the separation of the two worlds was executed.
For centuries, wizarding nations across the world lived in secrecy, hidden, unseen and totally isolated from all things mundane. Both worlds became completely independent and separate from one another and, in time, the muggles would begin to forget about the magicalfolk and even dismiss the very existence of magic altogether.
That had all changed the day Grindelwald won the war.
On a fateful day in the year 1928, Gellert Grindelwald emerged victorious from a battle between two of the most powerful wizards in the world, a ferocious clash for supremacy the likes of which no one had ever seen before or since. Grindelwald's triumph over the great Albus Dumbledore heralded a new era that shook the world, both wizarding and mundane, to its very core.
With the fall of his greatest opposition, the only wizard who could have ever brought the Great Warlock to his knees, Grindelwald was able to crush what remained of those who resisted his rule, and his conquest over all the wizarding nations was accomplished with expert precision; each nation falling like helpless chess pieces one after the other. In the wake of his war for dominance, Grindelwald, both revered and reviled by many, arose from the rubble a conqueror. And like many great conquerors, he set his sights upon what was beyond the magical horizon, towards the very world they had been forced to hide from.
The Fall of the mundane world had been Grindelwald's primary objective, and its subjugation was swift and brutal. With both magicalfolks and muggles lying prostrate at his feet, a New World Order took shape from the debris of blood and violence, with Grindelwald standing supreme over them all.
From the ashes of two separate worlds, the Great Empire was founded.
Built upon Grindelwald's vision of an elite wizarding society, the worlds of mundane and magic were one once again. But this time, the magicalfolk stood superior over those without the grace of magic, no longer the victims of persecution, but now the persecutors. Under the High Wizard's reign, muggles were quick to learn that their place in Grindelwald's empire was a position far below anything magical. Indeed, they were deemed even lower than House-elves, whose willing servitude to wizards and witches nourished their magic in the first place. In the Grindelwald's Great Empire, the magicalfolk ruled.
And rule they did.
The Empire became a society that dedicated itself to the betterment of all magickind and all its endeavours, present and future, was done For the Good of the Great Empire, magic's ultimate utopia.
It was the Golden Age for all magicalkind.
An Excerpt from the Lost History of Modern Magic, Chapter 7
By Bathilda Bagshot
The Freelands
Though Grindelwald conquered many great nations, his domain extending further than that of even the Ancient Roman Empire, there were yet others who opposed his rule, muggles and magicalfolk who had escaped his absolute clutches. They called themselves the Freemen.
The Freemen lived in small, secret settlements, hidden and out of sight within the Emperor's territory, on remote islands and isolated valleys - the Freelands. To protect themselves from Grindelwal's invasion, Muggle Freemen cloistered themselves within walls that would repel anyone in possession of magic, constructed like impenetrable invisible walls with the help of their magical sympathisers. To cross those walls from the outside as a witch or wizard was to burn with your very own magic from the inside out. Similarly, Magical Freemen ensconced themselves within protective barriers erected using the most elemental magic. Magicalfolk and muggles could never set foot within each other's havens unless their own magical essences had been added into these protections. To attempt to penetrate these fierce barriers was to incinerate oneself on the spot.
As such, the Muggle and Magical Freemen lived in harmony, yet separate. United yet apart. And though information and trade flowed freely between encampments, neither one could enter the other's walls, for the cost of one small betrayal was too great. Muggles had their weapons, and wizards had their magic. Both kinds were dangerous in their own right.
There was, after all, a reason why both worlds had been separated for centuries.