Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Harry Potter story or characters. I do, however, reserve the rights for any characters I develop and the plot of this story.
AN: Well, for those of you who predicted what was going to happen when Harry touched that ball. You're completely right. For those of you who thought the Queen had no idea what she was doing, you're completely wrong. Sorry.
AN2: Due to the recent change in Fan Fiction's review system, if you have Private Messaging turned off, you can no longer receive review replies.
AN3: The Harry and Tonks situation poll is now closed. The results were surprising and very definitive, to the point of "extreme tactical superiority." However, the actual result of the poll will not be dealt with until the situation has stabilized.
Harry Potter and the Veela Life Debts
By Jojobevco
Chapter 24
From "Oh, Hell No!" to "Yes, Yes, YES!"
(AKA, How to Reorganize a Government in One Night, By the Duke of Magic)
The Queen then walked over to the Ministry seal in the center of the Atrium and looked at the ceiling and started intoning in a loud and commanding voice,
"We, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Our other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith do hereby declare the Council of Wizards, doing business as the Ministry of Magic, to be in violation of the Magna Carta Liberatum and terminate its right to rule effective immediately!'"
The whole room seemed to stop for a moment as if judging the Queen before all the lights went out. A small pedestal arose from the middle of the ministry seal, on which was a large white orb that seemed to be pulsing at a steady rate. The Queen picked up the orb.
The pulses of the orb changed, they now matched the Queen's heartbeat. As she held it she said,
"We, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Our other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith do hereby declare our magical regions, lands, and subjects to now be part consolidated into the newly established Duchy of Magic."
The orb glowed brightly for a moment before returning to its previous pulsing. The Queen then turned to Harry who was still at her side and handed him the rather heavy orb, "Harry, be a dear and hold this for us."
October 31, 1995
6:27 PM
Atrium
Level 8, Duchy of Magic Headquarters
London, UK
Harry took hold of the orb, it gave off a warm, happy feeling; a feeling of nostalgia, of a million angels singing in the heavens.
It was, in a word, beautiful.
The Queen took advantage of his momentary distraction to take her sword back from Dumbledore and gently tap it against the orb.
The orb started beating faster, in time with Harry's heart. The feeling that Harry got changed dramatically, it felt like it slowly melted into the environment surrounding him so that it wasn't front and center in his mind, but that now, he could feel every little thing within the building.
The Queen then tapped Harry's shoulders, intoning, "Harry James Potter, We Dub Thee, Duke Harry of Magic."
The Orb glowed brightly again.
Harry blinked, one, two, three times. Then it sunk in. Then he reacted.
Harry James Potter had never had the opportunity to throw a true temper tantrum in his life. First, because of the Dursleys, then because of who he was, then because the moodiest part of his life was short circuited by two very hot freeloading Veela. He was not going to let his legal existence as a normal person end without having one.
"Oh, HELL NO!"
Harry then desperately tried to hand the orb back to the Queen, who started back peddling in order to not touching it.
"Now, Duke Harry-"
"Don't you 'Duke Harry' me! I don't want the job give it to someone else! Like Dumbledore!"
"Actually, I refused the position."
"Jean-Pierre then!"
"As the Minister for Magic of France and not actually a British Citizen, I am naturally ineligible."
"Sirius."
"You can't be serious? We'd be running for the exits inside of an hour!"
"Tonks then!"
"Harry, I may be a good Auror, but I can't administrate worth a damn. I also hate paperwork."
"How about Mr. Weasley?"
"While I appreciate your confidence Your Grace, I do have a lot on my plate."
Everyone looked at Percy Weasley, who was carefully stepping over the dead bodies in the Atrium.
"I wasn't talking about- you know what, never mind. I already have to kill a man, and act as a national hero; I can't run a bloody country!"
Although Elizabeth II, Queen, rarely showed her temper, now was one of those times, "DUKE HARRY!"
Harry turned to face her, surprise etched on his face.
"There is really nothing you can do, the position, once assigned is assigned for life. And besides, the paperwork was signed last week."
"What?"
"You have been the legitimate rule of a country known as the Duchy of Magic for the past week. Today's presentation was mostly for show."
"Oh, um, really?"
Hermione chimed in here, "Did you think that the enormous amount of paperwork piling up on your desk was for its health?"
"I just thought that people kept CCing me on memos by accident, I was going to bring it up at next week's meeting."
"Duke Harry, if you don't mind, we're on a rather tight schedule here."
Harry stopped and took a deep breath, it wasn't like they were trying to swindle him out of his fortune, or enslave him, or run some sort of con on him. They had just kept his new position from him, that's all.
"Okay, what do you need me to do?"
"Well, Our experts tell us that placing the orb back on the pedestal will bring the lights back on."
Harry walked, like a condemned man over to the pedestal and placed the orb in it. The pedestal immediately retracted, the lights came back on, and all the changes made by the House-Elves on the Queen's orders were revealed. The Atrium looked nothing like it did just a few minutes ago. The dark and severe tones of it had been replaced. The Atrium was now ornately decorated in gold, silver, red, orange and white. It was amazing. It looked like the ballroom of Buckingham Palace. The images of Fudge had been replaced with images of Harry, standing tall, wand out, looking into the distance. The bold "M" that served as the Ministry seal had been replaced by an elegant design with a phoenix in flight at the top, an owl at the bottom and two lions climbing the sides. The inside was two crossed wands that divided the seal into four parts, one was the personal flag of Elizabeth II, another was the Seal of Hogwarts, another was an image of an old country estate, and the top was the sword of Godric Gryffindor, cutting through the head of a snake.
Then, the music started, it was majestic and magical, it was like Harry was discovering magic all over again. It reminded him oddly of Hedwig.
Harry started pacing around the Atrium and muttering to himself trying to remember his lessons on this, "Okay, Coup 101, what's the first thing we need to do? We need to," he snapped his fingers, "secure the building." He started giving orders, "Lafleur, take Torrent and run a sweep of the building, let's make sure we're alone. Sirius, I want you to start a security assessment, it's clear that the previous occupants were not that security conscious if a bunch of Death Eaters could get into a bunch of top secret laboratories.
"Okay, what's next? Um, controlling the flow of information. Tonks, Smith, take a section of French Aurors and shut down the Daily Prophet and Wizarding Wireless. We need to buy some time."
Hermione raised her hand, "Um, isn't that a bit illegal?"
The Queen corrected her, "Actually, it's not. When We dissolved the Ministry for violating the Magna Carta, We invalidated every check against the Crown since them, with regards to the now created Duchy. Since the first Dukedoms and Duchies weren't created until 100 years after the Magna Carta, there is no precedent to follow. In the vernacular, Miss Granger, when it comes to Magic, I and Harry can do whatever we damn well want to. Until Duke Harry decides otherwise, he is the be all and end all of the Magical Government for the United Kingdom. No Wizengamot, no DMLE, no Fudge, no Weatherby, nothing."
"Speaking of Weatherby, do you have the list, Agent Weasley?"
Agent Percy Weasley, of Her Majesty's Security Service, commonly known as MI5, handed a list of all ministry employees over to Duke Harry. Just before he was about to explain, Ron, naturally, had to interrupt.
"Wait 'Agent Weasley?'"
"Yes, Percy's separation from his family over the past few months was crucial to his mission. He's been working for us ever since I pulled Gabrielle out of the lake."
"What?"
Fleur spoke up here, "One of my doubles was successful at changing his opinions about the state of the Ministry."
Harry raised an eyebrow and looked at her, "Uh huh, okay." Harry then looked back at the list, "Percy, not that I don't appreciate your use of highlighter, can you explain the color coding."
"Certainly, Your Grace, red, there should only be a dozen or two of them, are known Death Eaters I would recommend arresting them. Yellow are people who are either sympathetic to the Death Eaters or to Fudge, they will probably have to be fired, and maybe detained. Green are the people we can probably trust, but I would interrogate them just to be sure."
"Okay, um, I order the arrest of these Death Eaters immediately!"
Nothing happened.
"Um, Sir, you need to sign the attached warrant."
"I thought I just had to say things."
The Queen's eyes took on an oddly Albus like twinkle, "Ah, but Duke Harry, I filed the paperwork for that a week ago."
Gabrielle giggled, "Besides Harry, imagine if you said something along the lines of, pardon my language, 'oh, fuck me!' Now, while I wouldn't mind that, and Fleur might not mind that other people would."
Tonks mumbled, "I wouldn't."
Unfortunately, Sirius heard her, "Tonks, aren't you supposed to be destroying the freedom of the Wizarding press?"
Tonks snarked, "And aren't you supposed to be redesigning the security system?"
Meanwhile, Harry was too busy being embarrassed to notice this what Tonks said or the following byplay. He simply said, "Oh," Harry quickly signed the warrant.
At this point Madame Pomfrey walked in and started checking on Bella, who everyone had forgotten about. In a few minutes she was awake, which was good, because Harry needed her to do something.
"Bella, if you're up for it, I have a bit of an assignment for you."
"What do you need?"
"I need you to take Sparks and our reserve French Auror forces and capture Azkaban."
Bella rolled her eyes, "And you call that 'a bit'? Alright, fine."
"Smith, redeploy Standard to cover our Headquarters."
"Understood."
Harry looked at everyone who was still standing there, "Well, what are you all waiting for, get moving, we only have a few hours!"
7:30 PM
Offices and Presses of the Daily Prophet
Diagon Alley, Duchy of Magic
London, United Kingdom
Tonks, Smith, and their team had arrived at the entrance of the Daily Prophet. The night guard started reaching for his wand as he saw the group of militaristic wizards entering. They stunned him before he could even stand up. Tonks turned to the Aurors behind her, "Remember, nonlethal takedowns only. Also, we're going to shut them down, not blow the building up. Smith, stay with me."
They then burst out of the lobby into the bullpen, moving through stunning, binding and petrifying people as they went, all was going well, until someone actually questioned what they were doing.
Barnabas Cuffe, Editor stepped out, "What is going on!?"
Smith looked at him, "By the Order of His Grace, the Duke of Magic, all presses and media groups are to be shut down for the duration of the transition."
"What Codswallop is this? We don't answer to any 'duke' we answer only to the Minister for Magic, himself. I'll go contact him and sort out this mess!"
Cuffe reentered his office and knelt infront of his fireplace, "Minister for Magic, Direct, Password: Fudge is Great!"
Instead of the Minister's office he got something that a muggle would recognize as a dial tone and Artemisia Lufkin's voice came over the floo, "We're sorry, but the government you are trying to reach is no longer in service, The Duchy of Magic wishes you a pleasant day."
Cuffe screamed and stepped out of his office wand in hand, he pointed it at the stupid man that had the audacity to throw his Minister out of office and screamed, "Avada-"
BANG!
Cuffe hit the floor, a red hole forming slightly above his eyes.
Tonks nodded and looked at her team, "Alpha Squad, stay here and secure the employees, Beta Squad with me, we're going to stop the presses."
7:37 PM
Level 2
Duchy of Magic Headquarters, Duchy of Magic
London, UK
Lafleur and Torrent moved through the building clearing it room by room, so far, the building seemed to be abandoned. He and his team had just arrived at Level 2 when suddenly a Reducto flew right past his face. He and Torrent hit the deck, before returning fire with a few blasting hexes. They were about to move from cover when someone shouted, "Wait," in a deep baritone, "Identify yourselves!"
"Joint Magical Counterterrorism Task Force!"
Suddenly, Kingsley Shacklebolt stood and walked over to them, "Oh, I take it that the plan's complete then?"
"We're in Stage 5, Kingsley."
The Task Force's man inside the Usurper Ministry nodded, "Fudge ?"
"Dead, Her Majesty decapitated him?"
"What?"
"Umbitch tried to kill her; we splattered her all over the Atrium. The house-elves cleaning it up, looked like they were trying to decide between vomiting and celebrating."
"FREEZE! Drop your wands, now!"
Shacklebolt visibly rolled his eyes before turning with the rest to see Dawlish pointing his wand at them.
"Dawlish-"
"No, shut up you traitor, you're all under arrest for the murder of Senior Undersecretary Umbridge and as accomplices to the assassination of the Minister for Magic."
"Dawlish-"
"I said drop your wands or I will use force!
"Under whose authority are you arresting us?"
"The Ministry of Magic!"
"Ceased to exist a half hour ago, you idiot."
Dawlish spun around and faced, "Black! You are under arrest, Dementors will be here to kiss you shortly, drop your wand."
"John Dawlish, you are under arrest for high treason against The Crown, drop your wand!"
"Crown, what Crown, the mudblood crown? You're all a bunch of lunatics, all clearly with Black here!"
Everyone could see that Dawlish was getting worried, and they all knew why, as soon as Dawlish had pulled his wand, he had hit the silent alarm under the desk he was covering behind. He was expecting backup. Little did he know, his backup was currently on the floor of the Atrium either dead or dying.
Dawlish was spinning trying to pick who he was going to take out first, when suddenly a medium sounding crack came from the commander of Torrent, blasting a bullet through Dawlish's hand. Dawlish promptly started screaming.
Sirius, Lafleur and the rest of Torrent looked at the squib commander of Torrent who was smoothing his handlebar mustache, "What, it was either that or his head?
7:30 PM
Offices and Presses of the Daily Prophet
Diagon Alley, Duchy of Magic
London, United Kingdom
Tonks and Beta Squad returned from turning off the presses and locking down the Owlery which was a lot easier than they expected (They didn't think there'd be a large "Stop the Presses button). They were carrying the two employees watching those rooms with them. They arrived to see Alpha Squad checking the arms of all the employees. Tonks looked at Smith, "John?"
John pointed to the arm of Barnabas Cuffe, where a Dark Mark was clearly visible. Tonks signed and shook her head.
"Well, that's not unexpected."
A few minutes later, Tonks and Beta team had decided to move on to the Wizarding Wireless Network headquarters across the street.
7:32 PM
Azkaban, Duchy of Magic (Disputed)
The North Sea
While Tonks was surprised at how easy of a time she was having, her aunt was cursing her luck. The attempt to capture Azkaban in a nice calm fashion had turned into a running firefight. It was clear that Sparks was not trained as well as her forces from the French Magical Gendarme. Their training instead seemed to be on the level of British Aurors. But since they were currently facing British Aurors and were outnumbered two to one, the math just didn't add up.
Although, they did have one equalizer. The commander of Sparks got on his mirror back to headquarters, setting off a chain of events, "White Tower, this is Sparks requesting fire mission, over."
7:33 PM
Headquarters of the Joint Magical Task Force
12 Grimuald Place, Duchy of Magic
London, UK
The communication officer on duty responded, "White Tower copies, Sparks, ready for your coordinates, over."
"Coordinates 60841596, Elevation 13m , Be advised this is a danger close fire mission. We are in adjacent grids south and west of target."
"Copy that, relaying now, recommend you take cover, out."
The officer then picked up a phone and dialed, "Sea Rider this is White Tower, Authorization Code Magic-62442-Dutchy, Adjust Fire, for support mission, primary target area grid Coordinates 60841596, Elevation 13m. Be advised this is a danger close fire mission, friendlies are in grids south and west of target."
7:34 PM
Combat Information Center
HMS Richmond
Approximately 4 NM South of Azkaban
The North Sea
The Executive Officer of the HMS Richmond, the Royal Navy's newest warship, was having a very interesting month. First his ship had been assigned to patrol duty running a circle around a particularly foggy portion of The North Sea, then a few hours ago, Her Majesty herself called and ordered the ship to Action Stations and directed that they would be under the authority of "White Tower" which was conducting a SAS operation in the fog cloud they had been circling for the past month.
"Sea Rider this is White Tower, Authorization Code Magic-62442-Dutchy, Adjust Fire, for support mission, primary target grid Coordinates 60841596, Elevation 13m. Be advised this is a danger close fire mission."
"Richmond copies, White Tower."
"Good hunting, out."
The XO brought the telexed copy of the orders to the Commanding Officer, "Captain, our orders."
"Radar, is there anything out there we can lock onto?"
"Negative, it looks like a big storm, nothing there."
"Right, we'll have to do this the old fashioned way. Prepare to fire the battery."
The crew snapped into action.
"Gun loaded."
"Gate sectors set,"
"Elevation ready."
"Fire!"
The whole ship shook as the 4.5 inch gun started firing through the programmed sectors on the map.
The wards at Azkaban were impressive, although primarily designed to keep people in, they were also capable of stopping a massive attack force, such as a dragon. However, they were not designed to stop a 45lb shell traveling at 3,600 miles per hour. Twenty five of those impacted the top floor of the old stone structure caused it, and the floor beneath to crumble, stopping just inches from where the SAS team was pinned down.
Bella, as part of the French Magical Gendarme had known the power of muggle weaponry, however she had never seen it firsthand.
Bella turned to the commander of Sparks, "Sergeant."
"Yes?"
"Next time you do that, bloody warn me first!"
9:00 PM
Office of His Grace, Duke Harry of Magic
Level 1
Duchy of Magic Headquarters,
London, UK
Everything was, finally, done. Now, everyone was gathered and was reporting in.
"Okay, so, what do we know, Sirius"
"Security here is terrible; it has more holes than Swiss cheese. Most of it is reactivating dormant wards, so we should be able to close them within 24 hours or so. But, my serious concern is a lack of manpower. Right now, we are barely holding the Ministry. Azkaban, and the Daily Prophet, we need reinforcements."
Harry, who had spent the last two hours that everyone was securing his government trying to solve the manpower issue just rolled his eyes and shut his godfather up with a hand, "we're working on it."
Bella, who had somehow managed to get another head wound, started reporting on the status of Azkaban, "We've secured the prison but to do it we had to, um, compromise the structural integrity of the building."
"What?"
"We, um, called in a naval bombardment."
"You what?"
The queen stepped in here, "We acknowledged the possibility of this, that's why the Richmond was out there to begin with."
Harry sighed and pinched his nose, trying to work out the rapidly forming headache, "How bad is it?
"We leveled the top two floors of the Northeast Wing, which was administration and empty maximum security cells, so the fatalities were all Usurpers. The bottom two floors have been moved to the South Wing along with the captured Death Eaters from the Department of Mysteries."
"Okay, so not that bad. The Prophet?"
"We decided to send out tomorrow's edition on schedule with the addition that the 'Minister' will be holding an emergency press conference tomorrow morning."
Fleur nodded, "All ministry employees have been ordered to report to work at 10 AM tomorrow. Except for the people on the Green list, who are coming at 7:30 and the red list, who are coming at 9 AM."
"How will we keep people from coming ahead of time?"
"Decoy Squad Five."
Harry nodded, "Good idea, Tonks. Now, if there is nothing else people, I'm going to turn in early because I'm exhausted and tomorrow I have to tell a country that I am now their ruler, something which will not go over well."
No one else spoke up, there was nothing that couldn't wait until tomorrow.
"Good, Gabrielle, Fleur, Tonks, let's go home."
Tonks pulled out a portkey and they all touched it, Tonks then tapped it with her wand and away they went.
When they arrived, Fleur gave Gabrielle a look, Gabrielle then promptly dragged Tonks away while Fleur turned to face Harry.
"I, I could have died today, when I was facing McNair I almost froze. I would have froze except for some instinct that told me what to do, what you wanted me to do. And when it was all over, I realized that if I had died, without you, without having you, without serving you, I would have regretted it.
Fleur took a deep breath here and handed Harry a Pepper-Up Potion, "Harry, Master, I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm ready."
Harry did nothing but look at her for a moment, seeming to take a moment to pull himself together, drink the potion and, for lack of a better term, pounce.
He picked her up as Fleur, knowing what he was thinking wrapped her legs around him as they started heading into the bedroom, snogging and tearing their clothes, slamming the door behind them.
A short time later, Winky popped in and looked at the clothes, sighed and started picking them up. As she was finishing she heard the loud scream of, "Yes, Yes, YES!" Winky rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers putting a silencing charm on the room before heading off to bake cakes with Dobby.
AN: Please Review, thanks to those who have.
AN2: I actually have no idea how to call in a naval bombardment, so it was all guess work and research on my part.
AN3: The line "Right, let's do this the old fashioned way" comes from this popular 1990s movie.