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Level Two of the Headquarters of Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic, two hours after supper…
"I think I cursed myself, Harry."
Harry blinked before he gazed over at Percy Weasley. "What the hell brought that out?"
"'Two steps forward, one step back?'" the older man repeated himself from Tuesday.
The Director of the DMLE blinked before he chuckled. "Good point."
A polite cough from the direction of the main door into the DMLE operations room then heralded the presence of a Spanish member of the Black Maidens, the red upward-pointing chevron-over-stripe insignia of a Soldado de Primera on her epaulettes. "My general's complements, Don Harry. The group sent to Upper Flagley just reported in."
"What did they find, Nanda?" Harry asked.
"They were able to rescue Señora Leolin and her daughter, but Señor Leolin was dead by the time the team got there," Fernanda Núñez y Santiago stated. "Doña Calliope was hurt, but it's not bad; it won't require a body-swap. An emergency blood-purge was done on scene. We passed the news on to Doña Tracey; she's gone to see her sister."
"Wonderful. How soon will Linn be done at Malfoy Manor?"
"At least another hour."
"Thanks. You need some pepper-up?"
The young native of Jerez de la Frontera twenty kilometres north of northeast from Cádiz chuckled. "If I was still in my old body, Don Harry, I'd probably need it now." She then perked as if she was listening to something before sighing. "Excuse me."
And with a muffled pop!, she apparated out. "Bloody hell!" Percy breathed out as the small team of aurors in the main office — who were monitoring those of their comrades who were out in the field helping keep the public safe and calm in the face of such massed attacks on their countrymen — of the DMLE gaped at the place where Fernanda had just been. "I know the girls in that platoon were trained to do multiple apparitions in a day, but she's going to exhaust herself if she keeps going like this…!"
"Must be that bloody ki training Lady Tsukuyomi and her lads gave them before the hippogriff shite hit the fan when the Yanks got involved in '41!"
People smirked as a scowling retired master auror stomped in, his magical eye spinning around to take in all around him. Those who knew Alastor Moody in the past were quick to see he was now less-scarred; that was courtesy of regenerative treatments he had been given since February thanks to a group of Avalonian-Briton and Avalonian-Irish "fans" of his who — once they were freed of that DNA loyalty lock that kept them from breaking cover — arranged to have one of the most feared dark wizard hunters in recent memory looked over by their healers. "How did it look at the Crouch home, Mad-Eye?" Harry calmly asked; he was long used to the older warrior's insane paranoia when it came to dealing with other people. Given what had happened to him in the late summer of 1994 thanks to the junior Barty Crouch, Alastor had more than enough reasons to be constantly vigilant. "From what Nanda and her friends reported, it was bad. I can't afford to put my people on sick leave!"
Alastor growled as he took his hip-flask from his pocket and sipped a little of the lovely Noukiite-style spiced peach brandy one of his admirers personally brewed for him. "It would have turned even my stomach when I was those kids' age, Harry," the native of the magical side of Dublin grumbled as he sat down in the chair in front of Harry's current work desk; said station was normally used by the duty watch auror as it was next to a fireplace. "Turns out that bint Timaea went right around the bloody twist after she lost both her son and grandson back in '95. Did you know that Barty Junior's body was still there all this damned time?! And still alive even if it was lacking a soul?!" As people gaped in nose-twisting disgust at him — dealing with a person who had been subjected to the Dementor's Kiss had been seen for decades in Britain as no different than practising necromancy; anyone doing that for whatever reason was viewed with loathing by normal wizards and witches — the senior surviving member of the original Order of the Phoenix shook his head. "Even worse, it seems Timaea decided to go hunt down a few normal boys to have some fun between the sheets, probably to have another child before she died! Paedophilic bitch…!"
"My God! What happened?!" Percy gaped as some of the young aurors paled.
Alastor cackled. "You have to admit this about Gibbon's girls: They've got their own morals and they stick to them! When that team blasted their way into Timaea's house, they caught her with a lad in her bed. I'd swear he was your age when I was to have taught you DADA, Harry! Normal kid, kidnapped right off the damned streets! Once they understood that, the Black Maidens nearly ripped her to pieces before they put her in chains!" As the others in the room savagely grinned on hearing that — even if they were professional law enforcement officers, there were things that were beyond the pale…and the rape of an underage child was at the top of the list — the retired auror sipped from his flask. "They were disciplined about it — as you'd expect from soldiers in a well-trained military force — but you could tell they were within a hair's breadth of unleashing a few Cruciatus Curses on the bitch! So they got a little creative."
"What did they do?" Percy asked. Everyone knew that when the Schwarze Mädchen wanted to hurt people, they could do it…and be quite nasty in doing it.
"They used some pretty interesting jinxes and curses on Barty Junior's body…and forced Timaea to watch it all happen," Alastor snarled, his lips twisting into a smirk as he remembered the howling screams the elderly matriarch of the Crouches of Wells made on seeing her "darling boy" hurt so much. "It won't matter one bit in the long term. Barty's been effectively dead since that dementor got him in '95; it's just that his heart hasn't stopped beating. When that lovely Rosie saw what had happened in that place — not to mention sensed what happened there! — she got one of their dispatch runners to get the Key to the Maze from Gibbon, then sent Timaea there…HEY!"
That was Fernanda Núñez, who had apparated back into the hallway outside the DMLE offices before walking inside; she had just slapped the physically older man up the backside of the head. "Señor Moody, do NOT ever presume to call Doña Rosa that in our presence!" she snarled as she glared intently at him, earning a resentful look back.
"Nanda! That's Don Alastor to you!"
Everyone turned as Rosa Fernández stepped into the room, escorting a smiling goblin in full battle armour. As Alastor leered at the pretty Spanish master healer — which made the others in the room smile on seeing that the legendary master auror was taking interest in a woman; the man had lost his wife Mary during the First Purification War to the Death Eaters — Fernanda winced. "Doña Rosa! You can't let this man…!"
"That is ENOUGH, Fernanda!" Rosa snapped, making the younger hit-witch wince. "Now, go find Livia and have her come here right away. The honourable warrior who escorted me here has a message he wishes to pass to her from War Leader Ragnok."
Fernanda blinked before nodding. "Sí, Doña Rosa!"
With that, she apparated out. Alastor watched her go, then he smirked. "They all love you, Rosie," he stated as he gazed on the Black Maidens' senior healer, then he turned to gaze on her escort. "None of your people were hurt, Axeclaw?"
The liquidator shook his head. "Not at all, Alastor," he said with a toothy grin; the two had known each other for years and Axeclaw's brother managed the Moody family account at Gringotts. "But there's a metric tonne of profit being made this evening thanks to what that Sewell chap just unleashed this evening…if it IS him given what was just discovered at Malfoy Manor." He gazed on Harry. "My war leader's sincerest compliments to you, Marquess Harold. He wishes to report to you that the Marchioness Magistra Magi Raven Malfoy has finally corrected the mistake she made thirteen years ago."
Harry nodded. "The Praeda Bellica?"
"Yes," Axeclaw stated as all the others in the room save Alastor and Rosa winced on realizing what had happened earlier that evening up at the Malfoy family's summer home in Cumbria. "Right to the point when the Marchioness Raven claimed what she should have claimed when she struck her father down on the grounds of Hogwarts, she hoped that her brother would finally see reason. After all, a dozen 'vampires' had hid themselves at that location to ensure Master Draco's compliance to the 'alliance' made between his friends and those things. If the Schwarze Mädchen hadn't interfered, the Dowager Marchioness Narcissa would be dead right now and Master Draco's wife and son would either be dead or turned."
"I take it, Master Axeclaw, Draco still berated his sister as a 'golem?'" Percy asked.
"Indeed he did, Master Senior Undersecretary," the goblin replied. "Which is beyond disgusting in our eyes. Anyone with eyes could tell the difference between a golem and one of the Daughters of Sagussa. And even the blind people in this land must now realize that whatever tripe the idiots who've tried to put those poor women down these last few months was nothing more than hot air. How could the Viscountess War Matriarch Elizabeth call down the Vengeance of Blood today if she was a golem?!"
The others in the room nodded before footsteps heralded the arrival of Livia Dietrich. "Is there something wrong, Rosa?" the deputy commander of the Black Maidens asked before turning to give Axeclaw the goblin salute of peace; she had been helping coordinating her people's actions from the old Potts family mansion near Romney Marsh, now owned by Christine Schultze. "A waterfall of gold upon you, Master Liquidator Axeclaw."
"A waterfall of gold upon you, Oberste Livia Frieda Fürstin Dietrich und von Crouch zu Wells, Lady Knight of the Order of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords," Axeclaw replied as he returned that salute. "My war leader's complements unto you, good lady. He wishes to report to you that the former Countess of Wells has been condemned for crimes unspeakable to Her Majesty's Prison Gonebren at the pleasure of Her Majesty. Because of the clauses of the Special Annex to the Treaty of 1779 between the Noble Tribe and the Crown of the United Kingdom, Mistress Timaea was automatically stripped of her title and seat in the Wizengamot. Both are now bequeathed unto you as her last surviving magical relative." He bowed his head. "We of the Noble Tribe offer our sincerest congratulations upon winning such a spectacular victory, Countess Livia."
Livia blinked before she sighed, reaching up to slip her fingertips through her wavy dark brown hair; she normally wore it loose to mid-shoulder but now had it tied in a simple ponytail. "It is not a victory I would have really desired, Master Liquidator."
The goblin nodded. "Understandable, my lady, especially given your predecessor's many crimes as just was discovered by your coven-sisters," Axeclaw stated. "Will you desire the curse-breakers of the Second Battalion of your noble coven under Oberstleutnante Diana Daniela Fürstin von Meißen zum Oberspreewald und von Martin zu Droitwitch to examine your new home or would you desire to hire our services in that matter?"
"My beloved schoolmate's subordinates will be busy trying to put their lives back together since we expect this to be all over with by Friday morning and we can stand down," Livia stated as a sigh escaped her. "Convey to the master curse breakers and your own subordinates within your noble institution that I will pay the standard rates for a complete examination of my new home when the time comes for your subordinates to perform your proper duties of liquidation. Plus an adequate bonus of course."
Axeclaw bowed his head. "Five percent it is."
A shocked look crossed the German witch's face. "FIVE PERCENT?! Mein Gott! Bite your tongue, mein Herr! It'll be FIFTEEN percent and not a percent less!"
The goblin gargled in shock on hearing that statement from Livia. "My lady…?!"
"Master Liquidator, I will NOT bow to the common conventions followed by my fellow magical humans when it comes to dealing with the Noble Tribe in honourable business!" Livia declared as her hazel eyes flashed. "It will be fifteen percent!"
Axeclaw blinked several times as his mind quickly calculated the level of profit his team would make out of such a huge bonus; as the turnover of the Crouch estate to Livia Dietrich's control would automatically include liquidators, he would get a handsome share of that profit. And while five percent (the standard bonus rate the goblins normally insisted on whenever their customers offered such) was a respectable sum of money — especially when dealing with an ancient estate like the one just outside the cathedral city of Wells in the Mendip Hills of Somerset — getting a fifteen percent bonus would leave even the most junior-ranked curse-breaker feel as if they were swimming in gold! Such COULD potentially set a dangerous precedent, especially if some of his people got it into their skulls to demand that high level of a percentage from some of the more flinty members of British wizarding society, even if Gringotts did have a complete monopoly of the financial market in the United Kingdom…!
"My lady, I mean no offence, but are you sure…?"
Livia smirked. "Mein Herr, if the normal run of customers you deal with in this country cannot appreciate the excellent services your noble institution presents unto them, that is their loss, not mine," she calmly declared. "Fifteen percent."
As he tried to fight down the heating of his cheeks at such a complement, Axeclaw slowly nodded his head. "Fifteen percent, my lady," he quietly stated.
"Wunderbar! Now, if you'll kindly excuse me, I need to get back to Romney Keep so that I can make sure our operations this evening haven't cost more people their lives. May you forever be showered with gold and your enemies' skulls decorate your home, mein Herr." With the salute of peace, the first leader of the Black Maidens walked out.
Axeclaw remained in place, making the younger aurors in the room gape at the sight of a senior goblin warrior looking totally gobsmacked. Seeing this, Alastor and Harry both coughed politely to get them back to work. That also caused the liquidator to shake his head before he gazed with a mixture of awe and fear at Rosa Fernández. "Maestra Sanadora Doña Rosa, not that I desire to insult your coven-sisters' kindness towards us, but I fear that if what Fürstin Livia did is going to be NORMAL…!"
"Fret not about that, Master Liquidator," the senior healer of the Schwarze Mädchen stated with a twinkle in her dark olive-brown eyes. "Your brethren in Spain will be sharing in the pain soon enough, especially when it comes to MY family estate."
He gargled as she gave him the salute of peace before walking out. Axeclaw watched her go before he turned to stare wide-eyed at Alastor. "Ye alright?" the latter asked.
"They're going to ruin us, Alastor!" the goblin eeped.
That made the retired master auror roar with laughter…
The Borough of Camden in London, Saint Pancras International Railway Station (to the west of King's Cross Railway Station), that moment…
"Thank you for travelling on Eurostar, sister."
Hearing that salutation from the young stewardess who had been standing by the door leading off the Class 373 Trans-Marche Super Train that had taken passengers from the Gare du Nord in Paris under the English Channel to London in a little over two hours' time, the tomboyish Slavic woman in the casual clothes with jeans and a small dufflebag slung over one shoulder nodded politely in return. "Ne za što, továrišč."
The steward blinked. "Ty Rússkij?" she asked in accented Russian.
"Da," the traveller with the short dark red hair stated before switching to accented English as she shifted away of the others disembarking from the Eurostar. "It's so strange, travelling under Lamánš like that. Back in my day, you either had to take a ferry or fly across…and that was in an airplane with propellers."
That made the younger woman gape — though there was no flash of any sort of disbelief or other negative emotion on her face — before she blinked as she walked over to stand protectively close to the traveller. "You're Terran-turned," she said in a quiet voice before an understanding smile crossed her face. "Great Patriotic War?"
That made the traveller gaze on her before she smiled. "Da."
"Forty-sixth Regiment?" the steward then asked, the excitement of meeting a veteran of that particularly nasty side of World War Two overcoming her.
"Net," the older woman said with a grin, surprised that this young alien-born woman had immediately thought of her being a member of the famous all-women unit officially known as the 46th "Tamán" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, nicknamed the Nachthexen by the Germans. "Though I am more than glad that they are reforming that as a space fighter regiment." Her deep blue eyes widened a bit as she tried not to look totally overwhelmed by what she had learned about her adopted race in the last couple of months. Lowering her voice further to ensure the normal Terrans who might overhear them didn't learn of things they shouldn't, she whispered, "I was the commander of the Moskvá Mágičeskie Front from the day the Fašístskie Golovorézy crossed the border in the summer of 1941 to when the last of them were put down at Núrmengard, though we missed out on that as we were busy mopping up the mess we made at Gréifinsvald a week before that eunuch Gítler killed himself. You're aware of what's between Platforms Nine and Ten at Kings-Kross, da?"
"Da," the younger woman whispered back. She then gave the older woman a smile. "It's an honour to meet you, Comrade Marshal." Concern then crossed her face. "How in Lyna's name did you get out of Kítež, much less become one of us?"
"You may thank the hybrids who set up their village on the shores of Lake Svetlojár near Vladímirskoe," Glávnyj Máršal Mágičeskie Vojsk Sovétskogo Sojúza Svetlána Il'ínična Múromeca — one of three people to have won the Gold Star marking her as Hero of the Soviet Union four times; unlike her brother marshal, Geórgij Konstantínovič Žúkov, she won each of her stars in face-to-face battle against members of the Magische Reichsarmee between 1941 and 1945 — stated as a motherly grin crossed her face.
As the stewardess — the name tag on her jacket read HEATHER — winced on being reminded of those poor children born of Avalonian mothers and Niphentaxian fathers who had, for the most part, totally isolated themselves from either Terran or Avalonian after the Liberation and the migration to Earth, Svetlána added, "I just couldn't believe it at first. Me, the Krovávye Sibírskogo Medvédica who liquidated dozens of magical villages across the Soviet Union at Iósif Vissariónovič Stálin's command before we were invaded, then helped savage all of eastern Europe over four years — banished to the Spemát to make sure I didn't launch a new magical war after my patron died in 1952…" Here, she shook her head. "And a group of children I would have sworn at the start were part-goblin began visiting the crazy old bábuška koldún'ja trapped by the magic of a prison she was slammed into by the only people on Earth she would have considered her equals…and they didn't care." Her eyes began to tear. "They didn't care about my past. Those little angels just wanted to love their new 'shiei'cha' even if she was condemned to the Spemát for life because she was seen as a threat to all of humanity."
"You were a product of your times, sister," Heather stated as she placed a comforting hand on Svetlána's shoulder. "Give anyone a chance and the right level of emotional support…and they can change. Even people like my former master." As the former Soviet magical warrior tensed, the younger woman winked. "Pity he didn't get that chance. He served in the fleet…and ultimately became dragon food." As Svetlána laughed, the stewardess then winked. "Just wait here for a moment."
The traveller blinked as the younger woman headed towards the engine car. A moment later, a grinning elderly man in the uniform of a Eurostar train driver came up. On seeing him, Svetlána was quick to sense he had once worn a different uniform. "Marshal Múromeca, welcome to the United Kingdom," he stated as he stopped, bringing himself to attention as he nodded his head. "Staff Sergeant Arthur Nott — 'Artúr Kántankerovič Nott' in your style — at your service. I was in Number 8 Commando and the Special Air Service in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and northwest Europe when you and yours were busy stopping Gellert's fighters from turning Russia into a giant funeral pyre."
"I take it you're one of those poor people called 'squibs,' Artúr Kántankerovič?" Svetlána politely asked; what had often happened to those types of people — denied by the merciless Fates to weld the power their parents possessed — in Russia before the February Revolution did away with the monarchy was enough to turn anyone's stomach.
The retired special forces operator nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Pa was a prejudiced little shit who couldn't understand why his eldest boy never got an invite to old Hoggy-warts. While I didn't do what Marius Black did and joined Gellert as a way of striking back at the families that tossed him on the streets when he was a kid, I followed Dean Raeburn's example and put a bullet into Pa by 'accident' when he stupidly wandered into our training area in '44 before we did Overlord. Stupid fool was shocked to learn that the 'living shame' was still alive and wanted to remove me from existence since tossing me out on my arse as a kid didn't kill me." As Svetlána grinned, he shrugged. "Pity I couldn't have killed my brother Herbert; he joined up with ol' Tom Riddle — you know about him, ma'am…?" At her nod, he smirked. "Well, he paid for his alliance with 'You-Know-Who' thanks to Alastor Moody. He got married and had a son that stayed loyal to that half-blood bastard child before he became room temperature, then made his grandson join up just in time for the second round Harry Potter put a stop to in 1997."
Svetlána nodded. "Gírbert's grandson wouldn't happen to be Fëdor, would he?"
He hummed as his mind quickly shifted her pronunciation of names to the proper English standard before he nodded. "Aye, that's him. Never got the Mark or was forced to spend time at Her Majesty's pleasure in Gonebren Moor, but he's still around."
"And you wouldn't object if I arranged a fatal accident for that boy, Artúr?"
He tensed. "What did he do to you, Marshal?" he growled.
"He tried to kill me when I was helpless in the Spemát at Kítež two months ago," she replied, which made his eyes go wide with outrage; while there was never truly set rules of war as laid down in the Geneva Conventions — save to WIN it — the idea of attacking a helpless prisoner was beyond the pale. Even more so when it was in the potential pursuit of something that had totally turned his life upside-down when he was a child of eleven and wound up expelled from Lundy Keep; what else would have made Theodore Nott do such a thing?! "Found a way to rape my mind, then got information about a certain project that — if it wasn't for Elizabéta Èduardovna Gíbbon and her beautiful black angels — would have caused everyone on both sides of the Iron Curtain a lot of problems after the Nacísty finally submitted to their betters in 1945. His doing that forced the hybrid children who lived near the Spemát to save me with a body-swap."
"The Werewolf thing?!" he then hissed.
"Da. Your grandnephew learned of a poor — but potentially lethal — version of the Stal'nój Ángely the idiots in the SS wanted to have constructed as part of that operation," she replied as Heather — who remained close by to respond to her chief's needs and ensure privacy — gasped. "Over a thousand of the disgusting things!"
A hoarse breath escaped him. "Could they be here, ma'am?"
"I don't know," she replied. "That's why I need to speak to your grandnephew."
He blinked before nodding. "Alright, then. Heather?"
The stewardess perked. "Yes, Papa?"
"Escort the marshal to the Waterloo Club. I'll give you a note to pass on to Nate Carter so that people won't be alarmed that the Siberian She-bear is in town. I'll be there once I do the final checks for the train."
Heather Nott grinned. "Alright!"
"You adopted her?" Svetlána asked.
The special forces veteran of World War Two smirked. "Wouldn't you, ma'am?"
"In effect, I had no choice, Továrišč Stáršij Seržánt. The hybrids who saved my life two months ago practically adopted me as their new grandmother without a care in the world of what I once did," the Soviet magical veteran of Grindelwald's War said with a wistful smile. "As I just told you, Artúr, that's why I'm like your daughter."
He laughed. "Let me write that note, ma'am."
She nodded. "Spasíbo!"
South of Edinburgh, the reception hall of Glencorse Manor, nightfall…
"Let's hear it, Linn."
"Jawohl, meine Generalmajorin," Linn Heinrich breathed out before she gazed on her dataPADD. "Of the thirty-six magical homes attacked by our enemies this evening, almost all of them suffered casualties to one extent or another. Here are the specifics…
"The primary list of targets were the families of those members of the Wizengamot — and relatives of same — who attended yesterday morning's meeting at Lundy Keep, save for Burggraf Theodore Nott. Witwe Markgräfin Malfoy was critically injured and required a body-swap; that was carried out on the bioroid factory. Her son was deposed as Markgraf of Avebury by his sister. His wife and son are alright. Markgraf Runcorn was injured, but received a blood purge on scene before being transported to St. Mungo's. None of his relatives, both blood and by marriage, were hurt. Burggraf Matthews and his wife both escaped unharmed, though both their younger children received minor injuries. Their older daughter was critically wounded and is now in St. Mungo's. The healer on the scene recommended a body-swap, though Burggräfin Camellia refused same; Markgräfin Achelois Runcorn has been contacted about this and is heading to St. Mungo's now to talk to her friend. Burggraf Goyle is dead, though his wife, mother and sister came through it unhurt. Freiherr Leolin is dead. Freifrau Leolin was hurt and transported to St. Mungo's. Their daughter is safe and in the care of our team now in Upper Flagley. Freifrau Selwyn is alive and well; she actually made a good accounting of herself before our people came. She has sent a missive to us offering an alliance of estate to you and the others ennobled today as an apology for supporting the former Markgraf Malfoy and his allies in the Wizengamot. Freiherr Smith and his mother were hurt, though not severely. And you know what happened to Fürstin Crouch, Elisa. All other locations attacked suffered minor casualties, easily handled by our healers."
Hearing that, Elizabeth Gibbon took a deep breath. "How did that line in Henry V go, Callie?" she asked her cousin. "The one the King said after Agincourt…?"
"'Here was a royal fellowship of death.'"
The leader of the Schwarze Mädchen blinked. "A fan of Shakespeare, Miss Skeeter?"
Rita Skeeter smirked. She had come up with Callie Norman to Glencorse Manor just after the former had filed her stories concerning the Vengeance of Blood benediction sworn before the attack of the vampires on Diagon Alley, plus the inheritances won by the Black Maidens thanks to their blood relations to lost Wizengamot lords. "He was a confirmed rhabdophile, Brigadier," the Daily Prophet reporter said. "When a lot of his fellow countrymen at the time would have burned people like us at the stake, he offered both his home in Stratford-upon-Avon and his theatres in London as places of sanctuary for those wizards and witches who wanted to avoid lynch mobs. He never wrote plays directly for a magical audience — trying to keep that sort of thing secret after the Statute became law would have been a nightmare — but there were many letters he did pen to friends in the Wizard's Council that are in the archives at the Ministry. And Henry V is a popular play."
Elizabeth breathed out, "Well, it was a fellowship of death…though not royal, thank God. I can't believe that Sewell — if it is him, of course — expected the magicals of Britain to just collapse and bare their throats to him and his friends in the wake of something like this. What news from Trischen, Linn?"
"I've yet to get a full report," the chief interrogator replied. "Danielle took those members of her company that she could spare from operations here to Trischen to examine the bunker. Herr Direktor Weasley went with them to inspect the place on behalf of the Ministry. Since we now know that the golems built to support Unternehmen Werwolf have been brought into play here, the Ministry has every right to know of this."
"What was that?" Rita asked.
Hermione Granger sighed. She had come up with Rita and Callie to join Elizabeth at her family home and current field headquarters. "Unternehmen Werwolf was a plan the SS came up with to create a commando force that could operate behind Allied lines in late 1944. Atop that, it was seized as a propaganda weapon to try to convince the Allied leadership that German partisans would rise up even after the surrender in May of 1945 to keep fighting, just like local partisans who rose up in Yugoslavia and other nations the Nazis conquered did. It never got support from the Nazi leadership; right almost to the very end, Hitler refused to agree to such a 'defeatist' measure as a weapon to be used against his enemies. Yes, there were attempts by fanatical Nazis to try to disrupt the Allies' operations even after V-E Day…but nothing on the scale that the legends claim. Our hosts were the primary reason why that never happened."
"Once our loyalty oath to Hitler was lifted from us, we began to actively hunt down Nazis to ensure they could never try to create the seed for a 'Fourth Reich' to cause trouble down the road," Elizabeth added. "You know of our two biggest successes, Miss Skeeter: The killing of Martin Bormann by Gretta and Jessica's and my helping the British capture Heinrich Himmler. But there were many others, especially a good number of those magicals who were directly conscripted into the SS or their female auxiliary corps like Janina Neumann." She nodded in the direction of the dining room, where the former Auschwitz camp guard was currently being held prisoner even if she was still too out of it because of the death of her lover earlier that day at Moroboshi Ataru's armoured hand. "Along the way, Projekt Killer-Puppe was shut down by us so that it couldn't be used by some fanatic fool to cause trouble later. We planned to go fully dismantle the mess when we got the chance. The Battle of the Gates got in the way."
"What was that?" the reporter repeated herself.
"It was originally an attempt to create intimate companions in the field for members of the Magische Reichsarmee to make use of in lieu of visiting brothels," Linn reported in a matter-of-fact manner, that making Hermione blush and Rita gape. "As early as 1940, Herr Himmler discovered that a lot of soldiers in the normal Wehrmacht were being laid low with diseases such as syphilis. He directed the creation of the Borghild Project to create a synthetic companion for soldiers to use in lieu of risking themselves with a living prostitute. It was cancelled in 1942 — I don't know why — and the prototypes were lost when Dresden was burned to the ground in 1945. But when I first heard of that project, I realized that the logic behind it made a world of sense."
"Why?" Hermione demanded.
"Hermione, think about it," Elizabeth stated. "In our case, it was frightfully simple. A coven of forty-four hundred highly-trained hit-witches in the midst of a world war fighting to revolutionize magical life across Europe and free those who were enslaved by the Europeans in Africa and Asia. Unlike other covens in history, our bond to Master Gellert was that of master-to-apprentice, not witches looking for a good wizard to help co-parent a child. Thanks to the demands of female biology, we risked pregnancies if we took a man to bed when we needed that sort of comfort; even if we made use of contraception charms, there was still the risk. We couldn't afford to be out of action for nine months because of pregnancies. Atop that, since we were all normal-born, the idea of lesbian relationships didn't sit well with almost all of us. Yes, in the immediate aftermath of battle, there were times when we gladly ravaged each other as a way of allowing the adrenaline that was pumping in our veins to drain out of us…but it was something we didn't really care to do all the time." She winked at Linn. "When Linn developed her first prototypes using some of the notes that went into the creation of the first generation of German Steel Angels…" A shudder ran through her. "Oh, my God! It was like being with Clark Gable!"
Hermione's cheeks reddened at the idea of having a replica of such a handsome man to sleep with. Even if she was nowhere close to selecting a future life-mate to start a family with, the normal-born from West Sussex was still a young woman with needs and had gone out on intimate dates with men before. She always did the same in the normal world so as to ensure potential enemies didn't target her lovers out of some hope to get at her; as always, pureblood traditionalist blindness to the "muggle" world worked in her favour. Atop that, the only men on the magical side of things she might have considered as potential husband material were taken: Harry Potter by Pansy Parkinson and Mandy Brocklehurst (and now, Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin), Ron Weasley by Raven Malfoy and Neville Longbottom by Hannah Abbott. While she had explored intimate relationships with women before — always with Luna Lovegood, who was quite flexible both physically and emotionally — such a thing wasn't really her cup of tea. In that, she could sympathize with the Black Maidens' attitudes towards that…even if their now being Avalonians would wildly shift those attitudes thanks to the bioroids being bisexual.
"I think I outdid myself," Linn noted with a saucy smile.
"So how did these sex dolls become 'killer dolls?'" Rita asked.
"That was because of the losses the Magische Reichsarmee was taking in the latter years of the war, especially on the Eastern Front," Elizabeth answered. "As you might know, the commander of Soviet magical forces was Marshal Svetlána Múromeca." On seeing Rita shudder in horror on hearing that particular name, the leader of the Black Maidens smirked. "You've heard of her, I take it?" she calmly asked.
"I've actually MET her," Hermione calmly noted.
Rita's head snapped over. "How…?!"
The normal-born from Crawley smirked. "When Sirius Black's will was read…"
Gringotts in Diagon Alley, Wednesday 3 July 1997, mid-morning…
"Hey, Harry!"
Harry Potter perked on hearing his best friend's voice before he turned, standing up to grasp Ron Weasley's hand. "Hey, Ron!" He nodded politely to the other Weasley family members — including Percy — as they walked into the beautiful office currently used by one of the most feared goblins employed by the British branch of Gringotts. "May I present our most honoured and honourable host, Senior Director Erlking," he said as he waved to the amused-looking goblin in a well-cut suit sitting behind an ornate desk. "He was the manager of the Black accounts; he'll be doing the will reading today."
Bill Weasley gave the goblin the salute of peace. "War Lord Erlking, on behalf of my humble family, I greet you. May you be forever showered in gold, your foes' skulls used as goblets for blood wine and their bodies roasted over an open fire."
The former chief liquidator laughed. "You are too kind to me, Curse-breaker Weasley," he said as he returned that salute. "May your magic be strong, may you always return safe to your loved ones and may your hard work give them the fortune they deserve."
"You are too kind to us, War Lord," Arthur Weasley said as he and Molly bowed their heads to him, giving him the salute of peace.
The other members of Ron's family did the same before they took their seats. A moment later, the door opened to reveal Hermione Granger and her parents, Daniel and Jean. The normal-born of the Golden Trio stopped to bow politely to their host. "A thousand humble pardons for disturbing you with our trivial business, Noble War Lord Erlking," she said with the salute of peace. "May gold forever shower upon you and may the Gods of Magic trumpet all your victories across the Heavens."
Erlking returned that salute with a grin. "Lady Hermione, you truly flatter me. May your magic remain pure and whole and may you dance over the graves of those you destroy to bring justice to this sad world," he stated before nodding politely to her parents. "Master Warrior Healer Daniel, Mistress Warrior Healer Jane, welcome back to Gringotts. I'm Erlking, the manager of the Black family accounts; I will be handling the will reading to the late Marquess of Grimmauld, Lord Sirius Black. May your memories of the time serving Her Majesty always make you smile and may your skills in dentistry always make those who misbehave tremble at your very feet."
Daniel laughed as Jean grinned. "You're too kind to us. May gold forever shower upon you so you can provide for those you love," the former then stated for them both.
"Wait! You were in the military?!" Charlie Weasley asked.
"Yes, we were," Jean stated as both sat down. "Before we pursued our careers in dentistry, Dan was in the Special Air Service and I served in the Ordnance Corps; it helped pay for our education long before we had Hermione."
"'Special Air Service?'" a confused Ron asked.
"Think of them as muggle versions of the War Hawks, Ronald," Percy stated. "Given the dependency many of us have concerning wands, they could kill us with impunity once we were disarmed…or even if we were still armed! And they could do it much better than normal soldiers could, even to the point where we couldn't BEGIN to guess what happened or why. Given the Queen's current mood…"
"Bad?" Daniel asked.
"Bad," Percy affirmed with a nod.
Hermione's parents nodded. Given how old-fashioned wizarding Britain was in comparison to the normal world, that there was such a strong loyalty to the Crown still among magicals was a good sign. Before they could comment, the door to Erlking's office opened to reveal Draco Malfoy and his mother Narcissa, along with a well-dressed man with the air of a barrister; no doubt, Harry mused, he represented Bellatrix Lestrange since she couldn't risk coming here without being killed or thrown back into Azkaban. They were followed by Luna Lovegood, her father Xenophilius, Remus Lupin, a raven-haired version of Narcissa, a pleasant-looking man her age in normal clothes and Nymphadora Tonks; no doubt, the adults Harry hadn't recognized who accompanied the last living Marauder here were Nymphadora's parents, Theodore and Andromeda.
Next to come into the office was a harried Cornelius Fudge, who — much to Harry's personal delight — didn't have a simpering Dolores Umbridge at his side. Then again, Sally-Anne and her wife just took care of that stupid little woman, the Boy-Who-Lived mused as the soon-to-be deposed minister was followed into the room by Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and some of the other members of the Order of the Phoenix. Much to Harry's personal disgust, none of them did so much as politely nod to their host; Draco and his mother didn't even do that! Well, wasn't that too bad…
"Please be seated," Erlking stated in a frigid voice, which made all the newcomers visibly wince or cower before they took their seats. "The Lady Tsukuyomi is slightly delayed. The will reading cannot begin without her, I am afraid to say."
Draco jolted. "WHAT?! You mean it's true?! How could…?!"
"DRACO!" Narcissa snapped. "Be silent!" As Draco spun to stare wide-eyed at his mother, Narcissa turned to bow apologetically to their host. "My apologies for my son's behaviour, Senior Director. It has been quite a few harrowing days for us."
Harry said nothing, though there was a mirthless smirk on his face. Seeing that made many of the people wince in fear as they wondered what was going through his head…though both Fred and George Weasley immediately suspected there was a prank involved. Given the developments since the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, neither Albus nor Severus dared use Legilimency to probe the mind of the Boy-Who-Lived right now. Not only would the wards inside Erlking's office detect such — which would be grounds for war in the eyes of the goblins even if such an action was directed against another wizard and not a goblin — Harry had a necklace with a meson crystal hanging from it. No doubt, the headmaster realized, Yomigawa Tsukiko had keyed that into Harry's life force, making removing such a lethal act to the idiot stupid enough to try doing just that.
Before Erlking could say anything in response, the door opened again, revealing Alastor Moody. "War Lord Erlking, an eternal fountain of gold on you and yours," the retired master auror stated with the salute of peace before declaring, "Announcing the retired Mahō-Shōgun of the Empire of Japan, Generalissimo the Countess Tsukiko of the Magical Domain of Yomigawa within the Imperial Province of Hizen, Lady Tsukuyomi-no-Tsukushi, Destroyer of the International Confederation of Wizards and Liberator of All Asia…" — a savage grin crossed his face — "…and the retired marshal commander-in-chief of the Moscow Magical Front of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Chief Marshal of Magical Troops and Quadruple Heroine of the Soviet Union Svetlána Il'ínična Múromeca, Destroyer of Greifinswald, Liberator of Europe, Grand Warrior Sorceress of the Order of Koščéj in the First Degree."
Albus gargled in grey-faced horror as the others turned to stare wide-eyed at the two women now at the doorway. Dressed now in a more formal kimono in lieu of her normal Shintō shrine maiden's robes, Yomigawa Tsukiko had all her wartime medals and the special badge — paulownia leaves between crossed army colours and a naval ensign under the Imperial Seal — that marked her as the last living Gensui of the Japanese Empire on her top. Her companion was dressed in a modern Russian Army uniform with the rank of a Generál Ármii on her shoulders, her chest — on BOTH sides! — covered in medals that, to Daniel Granger's knowledgeable eyes, indicated she had been busy serving her homeland; much that he knew the Russians tended to go overboard with medals and decorations, a lot of those ribbons didn't look the least bit like campaign medals or long service awards. And while she seemed about the same age physically as Minerva McGonagall, there was a frightening vitality to this beautiful woman with the grey-shot dark red hair and the deep sea-blue eyes that Hermione's house mistress simply didn't have.
"Lady Tsukuyomi, Comrade Marshal Múromeca, welcome to Gringotts London," Erlking said with a bow to the newcomers. "Please, be welcome here. May your magic remain forever strong and all those who oppose you tremble in mortal fear at your coming."
"As always, Erlking-dono, you are truly respectful to we humble warriors who come to seek good tea within your ancient fortress. May your steel never break so you can use it to slit your enemies' throats so you can seize their gold and drink their blood as wine from their skulls after you beheaded them," Tsukiko said as she came in to place herself beside Harry, positioning herself between the Boy-Who-Lived and the Defeater of Grindelwald. "I hope you have caravan tea for my friend here. They don't serve it at Kítež. You would think Svetlána-san's wardens would know a lot better."
"Do not berate the stupid children who pretend to think they can cage me, Cukíko Makotóvna," a quiet voice escaped the Russian woman who had accompanied the Dark Lady of the Orient to this meeting, the tenor in those tones making all the magicals in the room save Harry and Albus tremble in horror as they all realized there WERE worse creatures in this universe than Voldemort or Tsukuyomi. "They can't help but feel terror when they are close to me. If that's the state of magicals in the Ródina these days, Iósif Vissariónovič would be turning over in his grave at how weak people have become. Besides, I only stay within the Spemát because the Ródina has no need for my services at this time…though, if such changes in the future, I will be there."
THAT made Cornelius gargle in horror as he realized that the Ministry of Magical Affairs in Moscow was taking notice of what was going on in Britain. The threat of the Bloody She-bear of the Steppes once more calling forth the hordes of magical cossacks which she had rode with throughout eastern Europe during the last four years of Grindelwald's War had been the one thing that had kept pureblood traditionalists in Europe — those who had survived the horrid purges the Dark Lord of Europe had unleashed when he had come within a hair's breadth of becoming master of the Continent — from rising up wholesale to wipe out all the reforms the Americans and the Soviets forced on those societies they liberated after the Battle of Nurmengard. And he knew that the Department of Magic in Washington was sitting back and letting Tsukuyomi have a free hand in Britain. Then again, those stupid colonials had backed Grindelwald's chief ally since before they saved her from the Nagasaki atomic attack in 1945…!
"A pity I couldn't convince Borís-san to let you leave the country a lot longer than just a month," Tsukiko noted as she waved to the empty seat to the other side of Harry.
A disgusted snort responded as Svetlána did as her friend bade. "I wouldn't serve a drunken eunuch like Borís Nikoláevič Él'cin even if I was actually paid in real coin!" She then gazed critically on Harry, which made the Boy-Who-Lived blink as he returned that look with a neutral stare. "You are Xárol'd Jákovič Pótter?" she asked.
He offered his hand. "It's an honour to meet you, Comrade Marshal."
"Harry…!"
"You are no longer Marquess Harold's legal guardian under any law, Baron Dumbledore," Erlking coldly declared as Svetlána warmly shook the offered hand. "Given that you deliberately defied the wishes of the late Marquess James Potter and his wife when you placed their son under the care of Marchioness Lily's sister after they were struck down by Tom Riddle — when it was expressly forbidden in their wills to do so! — your actions since that time are all being brought into question." As most of the people in the room gasped on hearing that, the goblin smirked as he clasped his hands before his mouth. "A pity you couldn't embezzle anything from Marquess Harold's accounts, much less force a marriage contract between him and Young Mistress Ginevra there…!"
That did it.
"WHAT?!"
That was ALL the Weasley children, including Ginny!
"What in Merlin's name are you playing at, Professor?!" Bill demanded as people glared at Albus. "DEFYING the wishes of one of the Seven and Ten?! Are you MAD?!"
"You promised me that YOU were Harry's guardian! And that you asked him about making such a contract with Ginny on his behalf!" Molly shrilled out.
"MUM!" Ginny howled.
"Mum, how could you do that to Ginny and Harry?!" Ron barked out.
"I was doing it to protect your sister, Ron!" Molly stated. "And I was assured from the moment I discussed this with your headmaster that Harry had given his full support to that!" To Harry. "I'm so sorry, Harry! You know about Ginny's feelings for you! I was only looking out for my daughter's future! Please don't be mad at me!"
Eyes locked on Harry. He seemed to think about it for a moment before shrugging. "Much that I do understand why you did that, Mrs. Weasley, you should know this. ALL of you!" he then snarled as his eyes glowed slightly. "Thanks very much to Mister Dumbledore, I know NOTHING of my place in this society! Why do you think I said in the Department of Mysteries that I honestly wished that I got an invitation to attend Meridiana instead?! With the way people have treated me these past five years, I really have no home here…and feel as if I have no kinship whatsoever with any of your kind!" As people winced, he crossed his arms. "Your apology is accepted, Matriarch Weasley…as long as you never presume you have the right to dictate things to me ever again." Ignoring Molly's wince at that warning, Harry then gazed on Ginny. "Young Mistress Weasley, much that I am trying to understand this stupid, mindless veneration some people have felt for me for something my mother did to that half-blood bastard child freak of magic called a 'dark lord' back in 1981…" — he ignored Draco's outraged squawk on hearing Voldemort be called that — "…I cannot and will not accept any sort of intimate relationship built on those sort of feelings. Using the Life Debt that exists between us because of the incident in the Chamber of Secrets to force such a relationship between us is utterly repulsive to me. Also, I refuse to have anything to do with any person attending Hogwarts as long as Mister Dumbledore is headmaster!"
As Albus sputtered in shock on hearing that unspoken accusation in the Boy-Who-Lived's words, many of the other people in the room nodded in appreciation at such a show of concern for Ginny's feelings. Fred and George both flashed their silent backer two thumbs up, Ron grinned, the other Weasley brothers gazed in delight at Harry for his show of respect for their little sister, Hermione gave an approving nod and Ginny herself flustered in embarrassment at the fact that Harry valued her freedom of choice…even if winning his love had been a fantasy of hers for years. "Still, the life debt between yourself and Mistress Ginevra must be resolved," Luna warned.
Harry nodded. "Good point, Mistress Luna. With your permission, War Lord Erlking?"
"Go ahead, Marquess Harold, Mistress Ginevra," the goblin bade.
Drawing his wand, Harry stood up from his chair and assumed the stance for a man taking an oath. "I, Harold James Potter, Marquess of Taunton Deane and Grimmauld, do hereby declare with my magic, heart, soul and body that in acknowledgement of the Life Debt existing now between myself and Mistress Ginevra Molly Weasley of Ottery Saint Catchpole, my wishes are thus: That from this day on, Mistress Ginevra will live her life as she so wishes to live it and seek whatever relationships she desires WITHOUT the influence of any adult save her father and head of clan for as long as she is underage. This I swear before Magic Itself, so mote it be."
Ginny rose from her own chair and copied his actions. "I, Ginevra Molly Weasley of Ottery Saint Catchpole, do hereby declare with my magic, heart, soul and body that in acknowledgement of the Life Debt existing now between myself and Harold James Potter, Marquess of Taunton Deane and Grimmauld, I acknowledge his wishes and will live my life as I so wish to live it and seek whatever relationships I desire without the influence of any adult save my father and head of clan for as long as I am underage," she then declared. "This I swear before Magic Itself, so mote it be."
Their bodies glowed to "seal the deal"…before an outraged scream escaped Draco Malfoy. "WHAT?! HOW DARE YOU DECLARE YOURSELF LORD BLACK, POTTER?! YOU…!"
A choked gargle then escaped the scion of the House of Malfoy as he found himself grasping his throat. "I find your noise annoying, brat," Svetlána coldly declared as her own eyes seemed to glow a pale blue. "Be seated and let your betters speak first!"
"Madame!" Cornelius croaked out as Narcissa and the lawyer moved to try to render what aid they could to the stricken Draco. "Senior Director, I apologize…!"
"There is no need to apologize, Minister," Erlking stated as Svetlána released the choke hold she had on Draco, making him collapse unconscious to the floor. "Unlike most other humans, Comrade Marshal Múromeca is considered a True Goblin Friend, free to use her magic within the bounds of the property of the Noble Tribe in our defence."
"That was because of the Liberation of Petrográd."
Eyes locked on Hermione. "How did you know that, Hermione?" Bill asked.
"It was in a history book I read at Harry's new home, Bill," she replied. "When the October Revolution began in 1917, the magicals allied to the Whites tried to steal all the gold of Gringotts at their branch in Petrográd. The marshal led a company of Magical Red Guards in to rescue the goblins, after the Whites MURDERED hundreds, INCLUDING the RAPE of dozens of women…not to mention broke into the underground city and slaughtered hundreds of CHILDREN…!" — most of the other people gasped in horror on hearing that, with many of the women becoming misty-eyed in sympathy; NONE of them had ever heard this! — "…because of their 'defiance of their betters'…then tortured and killed all the Whites there. That's why she got her first Red Banner." Hermione rose to walk over and indicate the circular badge — the first of three such awards, two pin-on medals and one ribbon medal — with the red flag bearing the famous slogan Proletárii Vsex Stran, Soedinjájtes'! next in order of precedence to the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of Lénin and the First Degree Order of Koščéj.
"You are learned, child," Svetlána stated. "What is your name?"
"In your style, Germióna Daniílovna Gréjndžer, Comrade Marshal."
That made the Russian's eyes widen before an amused grin crossed her face. "Ah! You share a patronymic with a very good friend of mine!"
"I would think Dean would be ASHAMED at being considered a friend of yours, Svetlána!"
Eyes locked on Albus, who was staring stonily at the leader of Soviet magical forces in Grindelwald's War. "I would personally think, Headmaster, that Major Raeburn — who's old enough to be your MOTHER, by the way! — could make that decision on her own," Daniel Granger stated, making many of the members of the Order of the Phoenix gape in awed shock at the sight of this "muggle" berating the Defeater of Grindelwald like that. "I will not stand here and allow a woman who has won THREE Victoria Crosses, the Medal of Honour and was declared Heroine of the Soviet Union and won the Order of Lénin to be insulted by the likes of you, to say anything of another woman who was declared Heroine of the Soviet Union FOUR TIMES and won the Order of Lénin and THREE Orders of the Red Banner! Why should a man who stayed in his comfy tower at Hogwarts until near the end feel he has to right to criticize people who were engaged to end a WORLD WAR for all six years Europe was ablaze, to say anything of the nine years Asia was ablaze?!"
He sat back in his chair as Svetlána gave him an approving look, quickly sensing he was ex-military himself. "By the way, Headmaster, Marshal Yomigawa was so nice to arrange to have our daughter placed under her magical charge, which is legally binding under international magical law; your ministry has no power to change that if they don't want to risk losing their seat in Geneva," Daniel added. As Cornelius sputtered on hearing that, Hermione's father continued, "We've already contacted the other normal-borns' parents to recommend they do the same. We'll have no more of you meddling in the lives of our children beyond our control! Atop that, the marshal arranged to have our home town warded against anyone wearing Riddle's mark. If they try to come in to attack our girl, they get teleported over to visit a place…" He blinked. "What's it called again, Jane?"
"Gonebren," his wife coolly declared.
Almost EVERYONE in the room croaked on hearing That Name. "Bloody hell…!" Ron breathed out. "You're really serious about this! Are you, Harry?"
"Do you blame me, Ron?" Harry asked before turning to Erlking. "Shall we begin, sir? Time is money and we're horribly wasting yours. You'll be compensated, of course."
The goblin cackled. "So we shall, Marquess Harold."
He flicked his finger as a crystal ball on his desk began to glow, projecting an image of a smiling Sirius Black overhead. "This is the last will and testament of Sirius Orion Black, Marquess of Grimmauld and Patriarch of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black of Grimmauld," the image began. "This recording was made at the International Mercantile Bank of Gringotts at their branch in Diagon Alley in the City of Westminster within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on Tuesday, the ninth day of April in the Common Year 1996 and in the Forty-fifth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty the Queen. This recording also supersedes all previous will recordings made by myself prior to the day this recording was made. Per the clauses of the Treaty of 1779 between the Noble Heirs of the Grandmaster Gilder Gringott and the Crown of the United Kingdom — AND per the Special Declaration on Magical Affairs Within the United Kingdom as issued by the International Conference of Magical Communities on Wednesday, the fourteenth day of February in the Common Year 1996 — this will is considered legally binding and cannot be questioned by any authority save Her Majesty the Queen in Her Right as my Sovereign.
"Bearing witness to this will are the following people…"
Erlking's image replaced Sirius'. "Erlking of Clan Tharok, Senior Director and Chief Liquidator Emeritus of the International Mercantile Bank of Gringotts, guarantor of this will per the Treaty of 1779 between the Noble Tribe and the Crown."
Then came Yomigawa Tsukiko. "Yomigawa Tsukiko, retired Generalissimo of the Army of His Imperial Majesty the Heavenly Sovereign of Japan, requested to attend this meeting at the behest of the International Conference of Magical Communities."
Then came a grizzled Russian man with almost as full amount of medals on his chest as Svetlána Múromeca had. "Major General of Magical Troops and Hero of the Soviet Union Alekséj Júr'evič Lomonósov, Warrior Sorcerer of the Order of Koščéj in the Second Degree, Magical Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of the Russian Federation to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, witness for the International Conference of Magical Communities."
And then came a raven-haired woman with grey eyes looking to be about Harry's age. "Meagan Rowanna Schwartz, Berlin Branch, Wolfram and Hart International."
Shocked gasps escaped many of the magicals there on hearing that last statement as Sirius' image reappeared. "Couldn't believe the last one, eh?" he cackled before turning quite solemn. "Now that the legal bollocks is out of the way, comes the good stuff." He then put a noisemaker to his lips. "I GET TO GIVE AWAY MONEY!"
Laughter filled the room from the young people there as they applauded. Sirius then began to list his monetary gifts, which included hundred thousand-galleon bequeaths to Remus Lupin (with a hint to get married to the lady of his life), Andromeda Tonks (making up for the dowry that wasn't given to Theodore when they married), Nymphadora Tonks (with a hint to go get her man), the Weasley twins (so they could make sure people would remain happy), Arthur and Molly Weasley (in thanks for moving to care for Harry), Ron Weasley (for sticking up for Harry despite the several times he let his anger get the better of him), Hermione Granger (to ensure she would be able to care for herself despite the prejudice against her)…and to the surprise of everyone there, Severus Snape (with an apology for what happened in their fifth year at the Shrieking Shack). Minor gifts to other Order members followed, then came the big boom:
"As my right as godfather per the traditional oaths and my legal rights per same since I was NOT given a trial for my supposed 'crimes' — which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that I didn't betray James and Lily in 1981 as people want to believe I did; pay attention to that particular point, Cornelius, as Luna and her father are recording this! — I hereby declare my godson, Marquess Harold James Potter of the Noble and Most Ancient Magical House of Potter of Taunton Deane, emancipated under both magical and mundane law," Sirius declared, making Cornelius gape as Albus shook his head. "This is because of the abject FAILURE our whole society demonstrated when it came to an orphaned child who was saved by the sacrifice of two wonderful parents at the hands of a Traitor to the Crown and to Magic Itself named 'Voldemort.'" As people croaked, the recently-deceased Marauder smirked. "And don't get me started about the Dursleys! Don't worry; they'll be getting theirs! But back to my original comment about Moldyshorts!" As the young people all roared with laughter at such a ridiculous nickname for the Dark Lord, Sirius shrugged. "It rather shocked me when I found out from Harry that the so-called 'dark lord,' that incredible paragon of pureblood traditionalist virtue, is actually a HALF-BLOOD!" As Draco squawked in outraged denial on hearing that, Sirius smirked. "Even more so, he's a half-blood BASTARD CHILD atop that, not to mention a child born of RAPE! And given that he is the last living descendant of Headmaster Salazar Slytherin, I find it so sweet to know that Tom Riddle — that's Voldemort's birth name, by the way — will never be able to claim the Slytherin family magic, which is all centred NOT in the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts…but at Her Majesty's Prison Gonebren!"
As more screams escaped many of the crowd, Sirius smirked. "That's right, Draco! The noble 'dark lord' your father bows to all the time is a HALF-BLOOD BASTARD CHILD born of RAPE! Master Salazar was many things…but he did NOT approve of witches using LOVE POTIONS to snare a man — even a muggle man! — to have a baby with! Think hard about that before you decide to get that mark put on your arm!" He shook his head. "Not that it will matter anyway. In this will, I declare the following changes to the succession of my seat as Patriarch of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black and Marquess of Grimmauld, to be made effective on the day of my death:
"Marquess Harold James Potter of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Potter of Taunton Deane is hereby declared my immediate successor as Patriarch and Marquess of Grimmauld…though, as per the Ministry Governance Act of 1705, he must elect a proxy to vote the Black House seat separate from the Potter House seat until such time as he legally takes a wife;
"Master Marius Arcturus Black is posthumously restored to his place as a member of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Because of that, his only daughter, Mistress Meagan Rowanna Schwartz, alumnus of the Nibelung Academy of Magic in the Mistresses Class of 1954, is declared as holding primary place of cognatic primogeniture in the wake of my chosen successor as Patriarch of the House and Marquess of Grimmauld;
"Lady Andromeda Persephone Black-Tonks and her progeny are hereby restored to their places as members of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black;
"Mistress Nymphadora Arethusa Tonks, daughter of the Lady Andromeda, is declared as holding secondary place of cognatic primogeniture in the wake of both my chosen successors as Patriarch of the House and Marquess of Grimmauld;
"Any further children born of the Lady Andromeda and her husband, Master Theodore Lewis Tonks, will have successive places of cognatic primogeniture in the wake of my chosen successors as Patriarch of the House and Marquess of Grimmauld in order of birth;
"And ALL other living members of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black of Grimmauld who do NOT forgo in their hearts and souls the old motto of the clan, 'Always Pure,' in the conduct of their lives are hereby BANISHED from the House once and for all time.
"Also, I hereby call upon the Old Ones who gave the late Lord Marius the power to bestow a curse that will, over five generations from his day, forever DRAIN the magic from ALL those who bear the blood of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black of Grimmauld — and who continue to adhere to the old motto! — to render them all SQUIBS and also ensure that their souls are to condemned to ETERNITY within the Shadowlands, totally at the Old Ones' mercy!" Sirius grinned. "Which they don't have, by the way."
Narcissa squealed out in horror before she collapsed in a dead faint on the floor. Draco looked as if everything he once trusted had turned out to be a total lie…which in a way, Harry mused, it was. The other man who had come with the Malfoys to this will reading sputtered before he raced out of the room, looking as if he wanted to get as far away from this place as he could. As Albus shook his head in disbelief on realizing that things concerning Sirius' family were far more dire than he ever thought possible, the image of Sirius then shrugged. "Well, that's it for me, folks," he said with a touch of joviality before all humour left his face. "Good luck in trying to change this, Albus. You need to get past Lady Tsukiko to get to Harry…and I really wish you luck in trying to get past Wolfram and Hart to get at Meagan. You'd need Rittmeister von Taserich to win against the Old Ones…which he might not be so inclined to do, given his favour towards muggleborns. Even if you possess a wand the Rittmeister created — that's the one you got from Gellert, by the way — you wouldn't succeed. I also asked Lady Tsukiko to see if she can get Marshal Svetlána Múromeca out of her current place of residence to come to Britain to help train Harry to put Riddle down once and for all.
"In other words, you sanctimonious arse, your 'greater good' — which is the very same thing you ex-lover fought for, by the way! — is about to hit an immovable wall called 'Reality.' And if they don't smarten up, the leicheblut schweinhunde who've run things into the ground in Britain these last three centuries are going to be exterminated." As Draco croaked on hearing that, Sirius smirked. "That, Albus, is what Elizabeth and Jessica Gibbon, Enid Geraint, Callie Norman, Suzanne Stuart and all the others from Hogwarts fought for…and gave their LIVES for in the end! You remember them, don't you, Albus? People who looked up to you…then came to feel that they had no home here in Britain and fled to Nazi Germany of all places to make good lives for themselves!
"You — ALL of you STALEBLOODS who condemned me to twelve years in hell…WITHOUT even giving me the decency of a trial! — have made this situation.
"You reap what you sow."
He smirked. "I'd say 'mischief managed' now that I'm done…but I won't." His smile faded. "This is no joke. I AM being serious…and that's no joke, either.
"Take care."
The image faded…as stunned silence fell over the room. It was then broke by one person clapping her hands. "What a pity such a good man died," Svetlána calmly stated before turning to Harry. "I get to have you for a full month, Xárol'd Jákovič. We're wasting time. Germióna Daniílovna, would you care to join us?"
"I certainly would, Comrade Marshal," Hermione said with an eager grin.
"What of yourself, Luna-chan?" Tsukiko asked.
"I'd love to come, Sensei!" Luna said as she stood while Xenophilius nodded his permission. "It'll give me the chance to interview Marshal Múromeca for the Quibbler."
With that, the others rose and moved to leave…save for Harry, who made his way directly over to where Draco still sat, stunned speechless. Gazing at the spoiled child who had tried to belittle him for the past five years, the Boy-Who-Lived then shook his head. "Malfoy, I'll make it so simple, your inbred, staleblood mind will be amazed," he declared, making Draco gargle in shock at that insult. "Stay out of my way…or I have Raven kill your father…and declare the Praeda Bellica."
THAT made Draco pale as Svetlána roared with laughter…
"How did she seem to you, 'Mione?"
Hermione perked. "What do you mean, Liz?"
"Svetlána? How did she seem to you?" Elizabeth repeated herself as the others in the room perked on noting the two were now using nicknames for each other.
The native of Crawley thought about it before she breathed out, "When she was calm and relaxed, she was a typical Russian lady, full of laughter and song. Not to mention had a massive addiction towards drinking vódka!" As the others in the room all roared on hearing that, Hermione shook her head. "But underneath all that, she was a monster that could have scared Voldemort to death. I heard she was said to be Stálin's mistress. She denied it…but she did confess to doing everything he wanted her to do to keep the magicals in the Soviet Union suppressed. I can understand why Admiral Thompkins and Tsukiko-sensei were called in to put her into the Spemát after Stálin died! She could have easily triggered World War Three if she didn't control herself!"
"We know," Elizabeth breathed out. "I duelled her three times myself when her people started probing into German territory ahead of the Red Army itself in '43. Diana fought her six times. She got cocky on occasion and Svetlána took advantage; that's why Diana got the Wound Badge in Gold in the end. Svetlána might have been a borderline sociopath, but she wasn't an idiot." A tired sigh escaped her. "Magically, Svetlána was a true product of the Soviet system: All power, no finesse. But she was a Russian patriot…and loyal as a Hufflepuff to Iósif Vissariónovič. And given the sheer brutality of the 'Great Patriotic War' as our Russian friends call it — from what we learned after Hitler killed himself — the fact that Svetlána was willing to go an eye for an eye in return is more than understandable. And it was bleeding us out."
She sighed again. "Some of the technomancers working for Master Gellert decided to take Linn's idea and turn it into an effective weapon to use on the Eastern Front. But there were problems working the technical details out and the first prototypes didn't leave the development lab at Trischen until the end of 1944. Once the SS got wind of it, they proposed meshing it together with Unternehmen Werwolf since many of the people working under Himmler began to realize that with the losses in the Ardennes Offensive and the Soviet advances in the Baltic states and the Balkans, any hopes of staving off final defeat were rapidly fading. So the technical team at Trischen spent the rest of the war on the normal side preparing the Killer Dolls for combat action under direct SS command. After we were freed of our oaths to Hitler, Linn led a small force there to terminate the operation, then seal off the bunker from all outside access."
"What of the technicians themselves?" Hermione asked.
"Obliviated of all knowledge concerning how to work the Killer Dolls, then dropped off near Greifinswald for the Soviets to pick up," Elizabeth reported.
"As to how the vampires got in there to get them out, I can't say," Linn added before raising a finger in emphasis. "Though I will admit that I didn't consider putting anti-vampire defences in that place. After all, vampires have no desire to really interact with 'living' humans save for getting blood to sustain them." She closed her eyes. "The basic design was made to react to the influence of magic, which vampires do possess to a certain extent even if they were normal people before being turned. We never could use mesonium in the design — which is fortunate for them — but there were other magical crystals we could use and did. So if Sewell's allies needed replacement bodies for him and those of his friends who had no bodies of their own…"
"These Killer Dolls would fit the bill," Rita finished.
"Ja."
Footsteps then echoed in the hallway. "Hello?!"
"In here, Arthur!" Hermione called back.
Arthur Weasley came in, accompanied by a blonde woman with sky blue eyes that might have been a poster child for "Aryan" beauty hadn't her hair been cut stylishly short at the base of her neck and she wasn't Norwegian, as note the white-trimmed dark blue Scandinavian cross-on-red field flag displayed on her shoulders below the epaulette slip-ons bearing the single star on a pale background framed by dark borders of a major in den Norske Hær. Danielle Larssen was a native of Furnes sixty kilometres east of north from Oslo in the county of Hedmark overlooking Mjøsa Lake. A 1937 graduate of Læsø Søfort, she commanded 14 Jäger Company under Anna Wittmann and had been one of the people involved in the near-destruction of Durmstrang in 1942. Her participation in that operation won her both the Knight's Cross and the Pour le Mérite Magique for her bravery in battle and her capturing a horde of precious artifacts that revealed the "treachery" of Durmstrang alumni when it came to the "suppression of the Greater Good" throughout Scandinavia…which, in the heated politics of the time, meant the continuance of pureblood domination of all magical beings in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
It was because of the willingness of Danielle and her fellow countrywomen who put on the uniform of the Schwarze Mädchen to risk being seen as traitors to their home nation that ensured that the Norwegian Black Maidens would all be posthumously made members of the Order of Sigurd as part and parcel of the Magical Royal Resolution of 1997 that accompanied the Treaty of Oslo which saw Durmstrang transformed into a modern and more open school. As an extra slap to the faces of the pureblood traditionalists in Norway who wanted to keep the "mudbloods" out of Durmstrang, Danielle and her cousin Alexandra — who commanded 44 Jäger Company under Elizabeth's sister Jessica — were, as the leaders of the successful attack on that school in 1942, both awarded the highest degree of Norway's version of the Order of Merlin, Grand Officer.
Remembering that, Hermione then grinned as she recalled all the European magical broadsheets at the time trumpeting that as Danielle's Vengeance.
Of course, the stalebloods in Norway didn't appreciate the humour in that.
Too bad…
"Dame Danielle," Callie greeted with a bow of her head.
"HEY!" the Norwegian hit-witch snapped as her cheeks heated up in embarrassment, her voice almost absent of her native accent. "Stop doing that, Callie!"
"We're entitled to a few laughs now, Dani," Elizabeth stated. "Give me good news."
"The best!" Danielle stated. "The chamber with Linn's prototypes was untouched."
Linn gaped. "Oh, wunderbar!" she groaned out with relief. "Where?!"
"I had my people move them to the Preceptory now."
"Danke! I'll go look in on them," Linn said as she stood up.
"Get some sleep first," Elizabeth ordered.
Linn turned. "Elisa…"
"I need you sharp and on your feet, Linn. Not working yourself into exhaustion."
The chief interrogator blinked before nodding. "Jawohl," she breathed out before nodding "What about Mithwold and Janina?" She nodded to the dining room.
"Send Mithwold to Zacharias Smith. He can take care of her," Hermione suggested.
"Alright," Elizabeth agreed. "Gretta can sit on Janina."
"Danke." And with that, Linn headed out.
The leader of the Black Maidens then gazed on the current patriarch of the Weasleys of Ottery Saint Catchpole. "I trust you weren't hurt, Arthur," she stated; as Arthur was Septimus Weasley's son, he had been accepted with open arms by the Gibbon twins.
"Not at all, Elizabeth," Arthur stated as he moved to sit where Linn had been; he had been filled to the rafters with tales of Elizabeth and Jessica by his father when he was growing up and had found it quite easily to accept the pair as honorary aunts to his family despite their "treason" against wizarding Britain.
"How bad was the damage down there, Dani?"
"Not too bad," Danielle reported. "They got into the main chamber and got all the Killer Dolls. But they didn't find the secret chamber where Linn's prototypes were."
"How did they get in?" Callie asked.
A snort escaped the Norse hit-witch. "Soviet-style spells. Huge on brute power but lacking anything towards finesse. I think our friends paid Mother Russia a visit."
"How's your Russian?" Elizabeth wondered.
"«How literate do you want, Elizabéta Èduardovna?»" Danielle countered in Russian.
The leader of the Black Maidens laughed; due to their lengthy service on the Eastern Front from the summer of 1941 to early 1945, they had all picked up on some words. Given the potential vulnerability of Norway to a Soviet attack even if Finland stood in the way, people like Danielle Larssen studied the language in detail and could speak it as if they were natives of Leningrád; most Russian magicals still had that accent in the 1940s even in the wake of the purges Stálin unleashed to ensure no magical opposition to him could ever arise as he forced the Soviet Union to come into the Twentieth Century (unless they were normal-borns). "'Mione, do you know anyone in the magical side of the Russian Embassy in London who could help us out here?"
"The magical Deputy Chief of Mission is a friend," Hermione stated. "I have to warn you that she'll be loyal to her country first. And she had relatives who fought the Magische Reichsarmee, though I don't know if any of them fought your people."
"Put a call into her right away and ask for her help if you can," Elizabeth asked. "We disabled those things to prevent a magically-powered Nazi fifth column from rising up and striking people down after the armistices were signed at Reims and Berlin. Whoever let the information on what was buried at Trischen loose might have been captured by the Soviets when they wrecked Greifinswald a week before Hitler killed himself; Linn reported to me that she couldn't account for everyone when she closed it all down."
"I'll call her now."
With that, Hermione stepped into the kitchen to make a call…
Near Tottenham Court Road Station (four hundred metres west of north from Diagon Alley, one kilometre south-southwest from King's Cross Station), that moment…
"Marshal Múromeca, welcome to the Waterloo Club!"
"Spasíbo, továrišč!" Svetlána Múromeca said as she accepted the warm handshake from WO1 Nathaniel Carter before she gazed on the two dozen elderly men who looked as if they were in their mid-fifties on average thanks to the slowed aging process magical humans enjoyed in comparison to normals; such would make many of them centenarians in real age. Quickly sensing auras of apprehension from some of the warriors before her, the leader of Soviet magical forces in the Great Patriotic War held up her hands to show she didn't have a wand. "Továrišči, please! I don't bite!" She winked as a huntsman's smile crossed her face. "Except for nekul'túrnye svin'í who deserve it!"
The men standing there all blinked before they roared with laughter as many hoisted glasses and cups of alcohol to toast her. With that little icebreaker done, Hermione Granger's great-grandfather waved the visitor from Russia over to a nearby lounge chair. "Arthur told me in his note that Theo Nott actually got all the way into the Spemát to have your mind raped, Marshal," the current regimental sergeant-major of the reformed First Battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment stated as he sat across from her, his face twisting into a scowl. "What sort of things was that little snot after?"
"You know of him?" Svetlána asked.
"My great-granddaughter is the Special Adviser on Normal Affairs to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She rants about his ilk all the time," the semi-retired soldier from Crawley said. "Atop that, two weeks ago, they finally did away with that stupid law they passed in 1957 that forbade Hermione from claiming the family seat in the Wizengamot as it was done in the old days; my late and useless father — who died at Hogwarts in '44 — was the last Baron of Ifield." As Svetlána's eyebrow arched in surprised recognition, Nathaniel smirked. "She wants to eventually do away with the Wizengamot as a magical version of the House of Lords — or your own State Council when you had an emperor as head of state before 1917 — and put in a fully elected magical version of the House of Commons. Everyone has a say in the future of wizarding Britain." He snorted. "Of course, the staleblood idiots…"
A laugh exploded from his guest. "Bóže moj! Is that what you call them now?! I thought that was just something Sírius Oriónovič Blèk came up with for his will!"
"Aye, that's what we call them these days! And the arrogant sods deserve it!" a man snarled, his voice laden with a deep brogue, which made both Svetlána and her host turn as someone joined them, glasses of clear apple vódka in hand. Like Nathaniel Carter, this man looked to be about sixty or so…and it was all lean, muscled meat under his relaxed clothes. The only hint he had been a soldier beyond the proper haircut was a scar that ran down the left side of his face, creasing both his eye socket and eyebrow. Much to the Russian warrior's personal delight — while she didn't care at all for British arrogance, she would never complain about their hospitality — the vódka was served with an apple skin at the bottom of the glass. "Warrant Officer Class 2 Trent Avoy at your service, ma'am. Fought in the Western Front in the First World War and in North Africa and up the Italian boot in the Second." As she nodded, Trent winked. "Had to change my name for the second go against the Hun to avoid the stupid questions about my not being as old as I should have been." That made her laugh as she accepted the vódka. "Matter of fact, just before Mussolini was killed, my battalion ran into some of your lads near Venice after they cleared Yugoslavia; they were on a search-and-destroy mission to make sure the Italians didn't leave any surprises behind like the Germans were said to have done with that Werewolf thing. Didn't have the finesse of Arthur's friends in Sport and Social — to say anything of Major Raeburn's little troop — but by God, they were powerful brutes! I hope they got gold stars for that."
She nodded. "I remember that. Since Deánnetta Daniílovna's troop was operating in Europe at the time from Xogvárts, there was no real need to use memory charms to make the normal soldiers not think so much about magic. Da, továrišč, they did get gold stars; for some of them, it was their second award." As her hosts nodded in approval, she sipped her vódka. "It was a terrible time, továrišči. I was a passionate supporter of everything Vladímir Il'íč and Iósif Vissariónovič did to make things better for all the peasants and workers in the Motherland. I myself am 'muggleborn' by your terms, virtually self-taught even if I was invited to study at Gamájun before the Revolution distracted me from schoolwork. After the Fašístskie Golovorézy betrayed us in 1941, I knew they needed to be wiped totally off the map. Especially given what they did at places like Osvéncim." She simply refused to address that horrid place by its German name.
Both Nathaniel and Trent nodded. "You were just like the Black Maidens themselves in a way," the former then commented. "All of them banded together to get rid of the landed gentry in Europe so that all would be equal. You pretty much succeeded in doing that in Russia…and then later in eastern Europe after Grindelwald was put down!"
Svetlána smirked on hearing that, completely unfazed by the comparisons between herself and the members of the deadly brigade of normal-born sorceresses who had flocked to Gellert Grindelwald's banner in the 1930s to create the Greater Good for all of humanity, magical and non-magical alike. And her host was right about that one point. While it HAD been bloody and sad — and in many ways, terribly addictive — there had been a critical reason for the magical purges that made the Soviet Union in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s one of the most dangerous places for wizards and witches on Earth…not to mention cement her reputation as the Bloody She-bear of Siberia long before she was called to lead the Moscow Magical Front against the Nazis in 1941.
Even after the White counter-revolutionaries had been finally expunged from Russia in 1923, there was STILL potential resistance to the new regime bubbling up from many quarters, on both sides of the magical security divide. The magical resistance to the Bolsheviks came about thanks to those of the rich peasant class — the kulakí as they were called at the time — who had magic and were determined to use it to create a "purer" Russia. As was soon revealed to Stálin by Svetlána and other loyalists in the NKMD, magical kulakí were "purebloods" in the European sense of the term, heavily influenced by their counterparts when it came to their place in overall magical society. Almost all the kulakí were filled with a disgusting and arrogant sense of self-entitlement…and it was all thanks to being descent from the sorcerers who stood up to Genghis Khan's magicals after the turn of the Thirteenth Century when the Mongols exploded from their kingdom south of Siberia and ran rampant all the way to the Baltic Sea!
When he was told about this, Iósif Vissariónovič Stálin was NOT amused.
And when old Kóba — as Stálin was known back in his early days in Georgia — decided it couldn't stand, he ordered Svetlána Il'ínična Múromeca to go do something about it.
She did it…
…and in her eyes, the Motherland came out the clear winner in the end.
After all, the young magical warriors who responded to the Ródina's call to arms when Operation: Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941 and flooded the ranks of the Moscow Magical Front had, to the very end, ALL been of the once-enslaved classes of magical peasants — the half-blood serednjakí and normal-born bednjakí like Svetlána herself — she liberated from the domination of the kulakí over most of the previous two decades!
Despite the horrid casualties in four years of solid fighting over millions of square kilometres from the Urals to Greifinswald, the Moscow Magical Front — an army group of six hundred thousand who outnumbered the Magische Reichsarmee on a three-to-one scale — had done most of the dirty work even if that sanctimonious, arrogant ass Ál'bus Persíval'ovič Dámbldor had swept in at the very end to claim the final victory…
"Nate!"
Svetlána was jolted from her reminiscence as footsteps heralded the arrival a wide-eyed man who looked as if he had spent a little too much time facing clouds of chlorine gas in the trenches of the Western Front during the Great War…even if he still moved with the grace and dignity of a man who had proudly fought for his King and country.
"What is it, George?" Nathaniel demanded as the others in the room instantly tensed.
George Prewett — a distant relative of Molly Weasley…though he hadn't associated with any of his magical relatives for decades — paused to see the strange young woman with the flaming dark red hair in the room…before his eyes widened in shocked recognition. Much to Svetlána's private amusement, he straightened himself to attention so sharply, one would fear for the poor man's backbone! "Marshal Múromeca, I'm sorry…!"
"Továrišč, you have a report for your friend," the Russian sorceress said as she raised a hand to calm the man down and let him relax. "What is it?"
The newcomer stood at ease. "Just waltzed by the Leaky Cauldron, Nate," he said as he gazed on Nathaniel. "There are a whole slew of female troops in camouflage standing guard in Diagon. Mostly Huns, in fact! When I got the chance to ask Tom Dodderidge about it, he told me something I couldn't believe!" He took a deep breath. "The Schwarze Mädchen are alive! Can you believe it?! I thought they were all dead!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Is that a fact?"
Eyes locked on the traveller from Russia. "Ma'am?" Trent Avoy prompted.
Svetlána smirked as she swirled the vódka in her glass. "Továrišči, it is quite simple in the end. There's no need to panic in case my former opponents decide to act silly," she said as she gazed on her hosts. "I learned this back in 1941 when I put out the call for volunteers to fight as part of the Moskvá Front…" She then shrugged before swallowing her drink. "Magical Life Debts are so handy to call on at times," she purred before throwing back her head, a howling laugh escaping her.
The men about her all blinked in confusion…
To be continued…
WRITER'S NOTES
1) Translations: Soldado de Primera — Literally "first soldier," the Spanish Army equivalent of a private (basic) in the Canadian Army (NATO rank code OR-2); Von — Nobility particle that means "of" or "from," which always comes before one's family name; Zu — Nobility particle that means "at," which comes before the name of one's manor home (or in this case, the name of a marquessate, earldom, viscountcy or barony); Zum — Nobility particle that means "at the" (a contraction of zu dem); Wunderbar — Wonderful; Maestra Sanadora — Mistress Healer (Spanish feminine version of the English title "Master Healer" [in Spanish, Maestro Sanador]); Ne za što — You are welcome; Továrišč — Comrade/Adventuring companion (plural: Továrišči); Ty Rússkij? — Are you Russian?; Net — No; Lamánš — Based on the French la Manche ("the sleeve"), this is the Russian name for the English Channel; Moskvá Mágičeskie Front — Moscow Magical Front (the official field army group name for all Soviet combat magicals mustered to fight in the Greater East Asia War); Fašístskie Golovorézy — Fascist thugs; Glávnyj Máršal Mágičeskie Vojsk Sovétskogo Sojúza — Chief Marshal of Magical Troops of the Soviet Union (specialist senior officers like this were equal to a general in the Western armies, possessing the modern NATO rank code of OF-9); Krovávye Sibírskogo Medvédica — Bloody Siberian She-Bear; Bábuška Koldún'ja — Sorceress Grandmother; Shiei'cha — Literally "second [generation] mother," the term used to indicate one's grandmother in Sagussan culture; Nacísty — Nazis (singular Nacíst); Stal'nój Ángely — Steel Angels; Stáršij Seržánt — Staff Sergeant/Senior Sergeant; Spasíbo — Thank you; Witwe Markgräfin — Literally "Dowager Countess of the March" (equal to a Dowager Marchioness in Britain); Unternehmen Werwolf — Operation Werewolf; Projekt Killer-Puppe — Project Killer Doll; Generál Ármii — General of the Army; Ródina — Motherland; Den Norske Hær — The Norwegian Army; Nekul'túrnye Svin'í — Uncultured swine; Bóže moj! — God help me!; Sport and Social — Popular nickname for the British Army's primary special warfare unit, the legendary Special Air Service (SAS); Osvéncim — Russian way of saying "Oświęcim"/"Auschwitz"; Kulakí — Slang term for "tightfisted," which was used to describe affluent farmers that began to appear after land reforms launched in Russia in 1906; Serednjakí — Mid-level peasants; Bednjakí — Literally "pauper," these were the poorest peasants.
2) Harry Potter character and situation notes:
Xavier Leolin, his wife Calliope Leolin (née Davis) and Hester Selwyn were three of the background characters from The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone.
Arthur Nott's father is Cantankerus Nott, the supposed author of the Pure-Blood Directory, which listed twenty-eight "truly pureblood" families (among them being his own). The purpose of the work was for "the aim of helping such families maintain the purity of their bloodlines" (as quoted on Pottermore). His relationship to Theodore Nott is my creation.
And Trent Avoy is my variation of the character of McLean from Old Soldiers Never Die by Rorschach's Blot, marked as one of my favourites at this website. The Waterloo Club and its members were created in homage to the members of the Regimental Association which appeared in OSND.
3) As stated before, I use the Scientific Romanization system when it comes to transcribing Russian. This system makes use of some odd letter choices to avoid using two letter codes for certain single letters in Russian which could make things somewhat confusing. The basic codes used here go as follows (in Russian alphabetical order):
Ë — The close mid-back rounded vowel in a stressed syllable similar to the vowel in yawn when in the middle of the syllable OR the combination of the voiced palatal approximant and the close mid-back rounded vowel together in York when the letter starts a syllable or follows "'" (see below) (usually written in the second instant as "yo");
Ž — The voiced retroflex fricative similar to the first sound in the second syllable of vision (usually written as "zh");
J — The "short i" palatial approximant similar to the last vowel in toy (usually written as "y");
X — The voiceless velar fricative similar to the last sound in loch (usually written as "kh");
C — The voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate similar to the slurred last sounds in cats (usually written as "ts");
Č — The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate similar to the last consonant in bleach (usually written as "ch");
Š — The voiceless retroflex sibilant similar to the first consonant in sheep (usually written as "sh");
ŠČ — One of three two-letter codes in Scientific Romanization, this represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative which is similar to the first consonant in sheep but longer, as if someone was shushing someone quiet (usually written as "shch" or "shh");
Y — The close front unrounded vowel similar to the vowel in free;
' — The "soft sign" that indicates that the preceding vowel has been palatalized (softened) or indicates a break between syllables (note that there is a "hard sign" which is Romanized as ", but rarely used in modern Russian);
È — This is a letter that normally is used in "loan word" (words derived from terms in another language) common nouns or some proper names, representing either the close-mid front unrounded vowel (as in play) or the open-mid front unrounded vowel (as in bed in North American English) in either the first position or immediately following another vowel (usually written as "e" or "eh");
JU — The mix of the voiced palatal approximant and the close central rounded vowel as in youth (usually written as "yu"); and
JA — The mix of the voiced palatal approximant and the open front unrounded vowel as in yard (usually written as "ya").
Note that with the last two letters, the "j" part of the sound is dropped when following a consonant.
Since Russian doesn't have a stand-alone "H" sound, "G" or "X" is often substituted for foreign names as one can see with how Harry Potter's and Hermione Granger's names are pronounced by Svetlána Múromeca. An accent mark over a vowel indicates the stress point. When I render normal English place names using Russian pronunciation, I follow how the words are typed in the Russian Wikipedia (though sometimes, I have to guess the accent point). And when I render Japanese names using Russian pronunciation, I make use of the Polivánov Cyrillization of Japanese before I render the words into Roman script; that system was created by Soviet linguist Evgénij Dmítrivevič Polivánov (1891-1938) and is still used in Russia today.
4) The 46th "Tamán" Guards Night Bomber Aviation Regiment was, as noted above, an all-woman's combat unit that served in the Great Patriotic War (Velíkaja Otéčestvennaja Vojná, the Russian term for the Eastern Front of the European Theatre of World War Two). Former in 1942, this unit flew one of the few biplanes still in combat service at the time, the Polikárpov Po-2 Kukurúznik (the nickname means "crop duster") general purpose training aircraft on harassment bombing and precision bombing missions at night against the Germans and their allies from 1942 to the end of the war. The regiment flew 23,000 missions, dropping 3,000 tonnes of bombs by war's end, becoming the most decorated female unit in Soviet service. The Germans respectfully came to nickname these people the Nachthexen ("Night Witches").
5) Kítež — the current location of the Spemát, which is short for Speciál'nye Mágičeskie Trudovój Láger' ("Special Magical Labour Camp"), the magical version of the Gulág and Russia's counterpart to Azkaban — is named in tribute to a mythical city set on the shores of Lake Svetlojár near Nížnij Nóvgorod three hundred kilometres north of east from Moscow. According to the legends, Grand Prince Júri II of Vladímir (1189-1238, ruled 1212-16 and 1218 to death) built a town named "Little Kítež" (Mályj Kítež) on the shores of the River Vólga…but later moved the town to a site on the shores of Lake Svetlojár, creating "Big Kítež" (Bol'šój Kítež). When he heard of this beautiful town, Genghis Khan's grandson Batu Khan (circa 1207-55) advanced on it, intent on its destruction. When the Great Horde arrived, they noted Kítež had no defending walls and the citizens were praying to God for survival. Fountains then erupted on all sides, sinking the town under the waters of Lake Svetlojár. In the universe of this story, Kítež was one of the magical villages liquidated during the purges in the 1920s and 1930s under the direction of Svetlána Il'ínična Múromeca. In a reflection of Gellert Grindelwald turning the Nurmengard Magic Academy into a prison (then later being imprisoned in it after his defeat in 1945), Svetlána Múromeca made Kítež into the magical Gulág…and wound up becoming its permanent guest in 1954 after the death of her patron.
6) The quote from Henry V came from Act IV, Scene 8.
7) Yes, the Borghild Project was a real project to create sex dolls for the use of German soldiers during World War Two as a "field hygienic project" to ensure soldiers didn't risk getting syphilis with real prostitutes; this was instigated by the SS in 1941. In effect an early version of the famous Realdoll silicon love doll, the Borghild Doll was designed with the same attention to detail as the latter American project launched in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, more demanding needs had the project's funding cut within a couple years of its launching. Sadly, all examples of this interesting little project were most likely lost in the fire-bombing of the city of Dresden in February 1945.
8) Notes on Russian and Soviet awards spoken of in this part:
Being declared Hero/Heroine of the Soviet Union (Gerój/Geroínja Sovétskogo Sojúza) was, for the most part, to be awarded that country's version of the Victoria Cross, Iron Cross or the Medal of Honour. First instituted in 1934, it was meant to honour those people who performed heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society either as individuals or as groups. Prior to the institution of this award — known also as the Gold Star thanks to its physical form, a gold five-point star suspended from a tiny red ribbon with a gold frame backing — persons who performed great acts of bravery were awarded the Order of Lénin (Órden Lénina); as the latter award could also be given to those who didn't deserve the title "hero," the Gold Star was instituted to mark such people as separate and higher than normal members of the Order of Lénin. Like its equivalent awards elsewhere, the Gold Star could be awarded multiple times for separate actions; as Russians never followed the practice of using award bars or "V" devices on the original medal for subsequent awards, multiple Heroes of the Soviet Union wore multiple gold stars. Finally, all those who won the Gold Star had the right to have the honorific "Hero/Heroine of the Soviet Union" placed before their name. As with many Soviet-era awards, the Gold Star was discontinued at the breakup of the USSR in 1991…though in Russia, it was replaced by the Hero/Heroine of the Russian Federation (Gerój/Geroínja Rossíjskoj Federácii). Other former Soviet republics like the Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia followed suit.
The Order of Koščéj (Órden Koščéja) is the Russian (and from 1922-91, Soviet) version of the Order of Merlin. It is named in tribute to the archetype of the male antagonist that almost always appears in Slavic folklore. He is sometimes known as Koščéj the Deathless due to his near-invulnerability to any forms of wounds thanks to his creating what — in Harry Potter magical lore — seems to be a type of horcrux. The soul of the Deathless One was said to be, according to the legends, hidden in a needle inside in an egg within a duck, which is within a hare trapped in an iron chest buried under a green oak tree on the mythical island of Buján…which some believe might be Rügen off the northeast coast of Germany…! In the universe of this story, Koščéj was a warrior wizard who helped fight back the Mongol hordes during their invasions of what would become modern Russia in the Thirteenth Century. Because of his actions, it was decided to name Russia's version of the Order of Merlin in his honour when it was created in the early Eighteenth Century. Divided into three ranks like other magical awards, the levels of the Order of Koščéj are as follows (with Order of Merlin post-nominal letters for comparison):
MO1 — Grand Warrior Sorcerer/Sorceress of the Order of Koščéj in the First Degree (for men: Velíkij Vóin Volšébnik Órdena Koščéja v Pérvoj Stépeni; for women: Velíkij Vóin Volšébnica Órdena Koščéja v Pérvoj Stépeni)
MO2 — Warrior Sorcerer/Sorceress of the Order of Koščéj in the Second Degree (for men: Vóin Volšébnik Órdena Koščéja vo Vtorój Stépeni; for women: Vóin Volšébnica Órdena Koščéja vo Vtorój Stépeni)
MO3 — Sorcerer/Sorceress of the Order of Koščéj in the Third Degree (for men: Volšébnik Órdena Koščéja v Trét'jej Stépeni; for women: Volšébnica Órdena Koščéja v Trét'jej Stépeni)
Note that the Order of Koščéj always follows the highest award of bravery in the overall order of precedence above all other medals.
The Order of the Red Banner (Órden Krásnogo Známeni) was Soviet Russia's first decoration, first instituted in 1918 and would remain the highest award given by the Soviets until the Order of Lénin was instituted in 1930. The Order of the Red Banner — so called as it bore of a red flag on it, that emblazoned with the motto Proletárii Vsex Stran, Soedinjájtes'! ("Workers of the World, Unite!"), the rallying cry of communists everywhere — recognized those who had demonstrated extraordinary heroism, dedication and courage on the battlefield. In later years, it was awarded on the twentieth and again on the thirtieth anniversary of military service without requiring participation in combat. Those units/formations that were given the Order of the Red Banner had the right to place the honorific "Red Banner" before the name, such as "Red Banner Northern Fleet" (as people will remember from The Hunt for Red October). The Order was originally a pin-on medal; it was changed to a suspension ribbon-type medal in 1943.
The Order of the October Revolution (Órden Oktjábr'skoj Revoljúcii) was instituted on 31 October 1967 (the fiftieth anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917). It was awarded to individuals or groups for services furthering communism or the state or in enhancing the defences of the Soviet Union, military and civil. The Order ranked third in the order of precedence for Soviet awards after the Gold Star and the Order of Lénin.
9) Norway's version of the Order of Merlin, the Order of Sigurd (Sigurd Orden) is named in tribute to Sigurðr, a legendary hero of Norse mythology who appears in sagas and ballads across Scandinavia and Germany; there, he appeared in the poem The Song of the Nibelungs (in German, Nibelungenlied), which reported on events in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries C.E. He is depicted as a dragon-slayer, which seems befitting given how dragons impact the Harry Potter universe. As with other magical awards, the Order of Sigurd is split into three levels. From highest to lowest, they are Grand Officer (Stor Offiser), Officer (Offiser) and Knight (Ridder).
10) The Gamájun Academy of Magic (Akadémija Volšebsvá "Gamájun"), Russia's wand magical school, is named after the ancient Slavic symbol of wisdom, the gamájun (a large bird with the head of a woman). It is located in the northern Ural Mountains near the shores of the Kara Sea.
