I don't own Harry Potter or Startgate.
Chapter 13
The trio transported over to the Potter Facility and got back to work. Padma went strait in to Intelligence to discuss the reports and Parvati was fielding calls from the new pads that went overseas. Harry went to spend the day with and train with the Navy. He figured that if he was going to be a commander-in-chief he would have to know how and why everything was done. Still none had found a way to keep a full scale Goauld invasion under wraps.
Intelligence did find out that the governments of the world knew of their magical governments and were supposed to get updates from them as to what was going on. The general conscensus was that they were being misinformed and they were generally tired of it. They were gathering together to get ready to bring their ministries under human control in one swoop. So Harry realized that he would need to talk to Kingsly and soon.
He informed the girls where he was going to be and flooed over to the ministry. He was quickly ushered into the minister's office to see the head of the DMLE waiting as well. He took a deep breath and jumped right in.
"Kingsly, I tapped into the chatter from the muggle ministries and found that they are preparing to take over the magical ministries because they are tired of being talked down to and lied to. We have to start dealing honestly with the muggle government or it's not going to end well for us." said Harry. Kingsly frowned.
"I have been since I came into office. I told them that the previous administration was run by Voldemort and a terrorist had taken the ministry building and control of the government. Their response was that if the corruption has gone so far that your ministry can be taken then you need a new government model. They knew we'd been pushing the muggleborn around and out. They knew about the discriminatory laws and disapprove of every one of them. It's made worse that the other countries, except for the colonies, use a similar model that we do and are telling the muggles as little as possible. I think they've been talking to the muggleborn but I don't know how they found them." said the Minister. Harry shook his head.
"Records are how they found them. You push them back into the muggle world after you pretty much force them out of that world at the age of eleven. Then, on paper in the muggle world, they cease to exist until their seventeen and can't find a job in our world. So they go back to theirs with no usable education in the muggle world. They stand out like a sore thumb which means that the Statute of Secrecy is threatened by forcing them out after you get out of them what you want. You get an influx of money from them for seven years and then they are left to fend for themselves. The muggles know about them because of that and have been helping preserve the Statute of Secrecy for you for a long time. Now they are getting tired of it. They're scratching our back but we won't return the favor." Harry countered. Kingsly pondered that and looked at the new head of the DMLE.
"When I called you in here I was wanting to look into the reports that you are bringing in a large amount of muggleborns. What are you doing with them? That's why I brought Gustavson in." said Kingsly. Harry smirked.
"I'm giving them all jobs and a place to sleep. And my magic tech found that there are no muggleborn in my group. All their parents are squibs. The wizarding world tends to kick squibs out and not track them. They have kids who happen to still be squibs. Did you know that wizards have millions of years of history not just human history. We got here first and seeded life onto the planet mostly as an experiment or something to do while we settled in. The oldest witch, of the purest blood is frozen in the ice in the Antarctic and has been there for over a million years. She has a wizard killing plague so I'm leaving her there until we are prepared to cure her and everyone has had the vaccine. But back to it...we kick them out and don't track them and, eventually their descendants exhibit magic again and we call them muggleborns. But their really half-blood." he said. Gustavson frowned.
"You're saying that we have been doing ourselves a disservice for centuries? That magical blood is still magical blood even if they have no magic?" he was clearly upset.
"They have magic and a magical signature. They just don't have enough for a wand. That's all. They have magical cores that are detectable and some of them are almost strong enough for a wand. It makes their children half-blood and means that there are really two blood classes. We should have been helping them, not shunning them. Now countries, especially the Eastern European ones, are starting to round up the muggleborns into camps like Voldemort did. That is what is really driving this schism between out governments. They want us to watch over the statute for ourselves and stop basically giving it lip service and only punishing the muggleborns for violating it when we force the violations." said Harry.
"Back to what I'm doing...I've found and am starting to repopulate Atlantis. I've established a new bank, since the goblins refuse to deal with me anymore, and we already have over a hundred new accounts from the half-bloods in my employ. The Americans have found an artifact from or ancestors that allows travel between planets, and not just planets in this solar system but much farther away and used it to piss off the race that rules 90% of the galaxy. I'm watching all transmissions coming through the system which is how I found out what the muggles are doing. I actually didn't get a request for a meeting before coming here. I was on the way to warn you about what was going on when I was ushured in here for this meeting."
"Now you're telling us you can travel to other planets? You're mad! Kingsly, don't tell me you're listening to this." said Gustavson.
"There are two ways to travel between planets. One is to use an Astria Porta, as our ancestors called them, and the other is to build a ship and go there. I'm building ships and soon I'll build another ship like Atlantis, and Atlantis is the ship our ancestors came to Earth in, and set it up somewhere else. I located a new system to go mining in so I'll be sending out a ship to get that started. I don't care what you want to believe. I am building ships and preparing to clean up after the Americans as they just killed the leader of the people ruling the galaxy and they are not very happy." Harry said. Kingsly raised a hand to quiet the retort of Gustavson.
"What Harry spends his money on is his business. If he has the magic tech and money to work these things out, and he did bring us this information about a possible takeover by Her Magesty, we should work with him to resolve this mess. Harry, will you be there for the next Wizengamut meeting? We could use the politicking to push some reforms in the way we treat the muggleborns and I bet the department of mysteries has known what you just said forever and kept it to themselves. They're no good to anyone if they take in tax money and never have anything for public consumption. The next meeting is tomorrow. It's an emergency session. It was going to be about the small army you're raising but now it's going to be about our unknowing violations of the Statute of Secrecy. What a mess." said Kingsly. Gustavson growled.
"And you're going to just let him build an army?" he raged.
"To be precise, I'm raising a space navy. Most of the time we won't even be on Earth. You'll see me because I have a couple of seats on the Wizengamut and I'll do my part to help clean up Magical Briton, but there is literally a galaxy of dark lords out there and I want to put myself between them and the Earth." said Harry.
Harry pulled out his pad and made some commands for the shipyards to build another Orion to send out to the new site. Gustavson's jaw dropped as Harry tinkered with something that was definitely technological in the heavily warded Ministry of Magic. It shouldn't be possible. Yet, here he was, tapping away. So the man calmed down in his shock and asked a question.
"What is that?" it wasn't barked out angrily so Harry answered.
"It's my work pad. It's a small quantum computer with a communications suite so that I can stay in touch with my operations in real time. No owls." he said.
"But owls are the best way for communication. Better than anything the muggles have!" said Gustavson. Harry shook his head.
"Muggles have television, which allows one way communication and sends moving pictures. They also have telephones, which allows near instant two-way communication without having to get on your knees in front of the fire place. They also have email which allows faster messaging than owls but can be intercepted and read by a third party, much like owls can. Muggles have come a long way but you wouldn't know that if you took muggle studies at Hogwarts. The course is out of date and has been since probably Dumbledore was in school. Airplanes, motor cars, diesel trains, nuclear submarines, space shuttles, and satellites for communications and spying. None of that is mentioned and all if it muggles are using right now." Harry said.
"I'll talk to Minerva about updating the course then. And what can your magic technology do then?" said Gustasvson, genuinely interested now.
"The same thing the muggles can do but better. Did you know they went to the moon? Well so can we, and any other moon or planet. I don't want to declare war on the Goauld, which is what the rulers of the galaxy call themselves but if they come here we will push them back. But we need to stop this brewing war between us and the muggles. That would get nasty pretty quiclkly and I would be forced to start beaming people out to get them away from the muggle military. Stop talking to them as if they were stupid, they probably know more about the magical world than you do. That will go a long way." said Harry before he pulled up his communications.
"Hey, Padma. You were right that they had no idea that the muggles were planning to fix their problems by force." he said into the pad. They watched and listened in wonder as it spoke back to him.
"The crisis in Eastern Europe and the death camps in England that we just cleaned up has got them pretty mad. They've been lied to and talked down to for so long they are ready to call the Treaties of Seperation and the Statute of Secrecy violated and come down on us like a ton of bricks. It also looks like its going to be Appophis that holds the nearest territory to us as few are challenging him right now. You still in a meeting with the Minister?"
"Yup. Now that the head of the DMLE is actually listening to what I say instead of trying to find some reason to chuck me into Azcaban it's going really well. He was afraid that I was building an army to topple the ministry." he said.
"That's just silly. If you wanted to do that you would have done it when you were fighting Voldemort. Then when you killed him you would have pushed on to the ministry and took it over for yourself. You didn't do that and helped to rebuild and you are pushing to fix the policies and laws that allowed for something like Voldemort to happen in the first place. You tell them that purebloods can also apply to work for you too but you have no place for blood snobs yet?" she asked. He grinned.
"Not yet. Hadn't got that far yet." he admitted.
"Then get to it already."
"You beat me to it. I better let you get back to what you were doing." he said.
"Yeah. Things are interesting on the Goauld front. I'll fill you in when you get here."
"There's an emergency session of the Wizengamut tomorrow though I don't know the time yet. You'll have to do without me most of the day that day."
"That's the day that the Zeus's crew moves to their new ship isn't it. Well the ward schemes are done for the other hulls for you to approve. Parvati's been in talks with the European Muggleborns all morning and it looks like we are getting even more than we originally thought. We may have to send some of them strait to Atlantis as civilians and give them an allowance until they get jobs to support themselves. I know we're setting up our own economy but this won't even eat into your budget." she said.
"Bloody hell...thanks for the update. I'll get back to my meeting now." he said.
"Okay. Miss you!" she said as she broke the connection. He looked back up at the waiting men and sighed.
"As you can see, I've taken it on myself to save the muggleborns and drag the wizarding world to the stars all over again, kicking and screaming if I have to." he said. They nodded.
"Well we'll get the word out that purebloods are welcome to work for you as long as they aren't blood snobs tomorrow in the Wizengamut because it will be on the wireless again. It's a new idea of mine that the lords will be more careful who they screw over if everyone can listen in and know who to blame." said Kingsly with an evil grin. Harry laughed then turned to Gustavson.
"So...we good?" Gustavson nodded.
"So what is the plan for getting the queens' government to not destroy the ministry?" Harry asked.
"I go into the Prime Minister's office and tell him the whole truth. Then I apologize for the previous administrations treatment of muggles and actually enforce the laws on treatment of others that aren't purebloods. The laws on how to treat others have always been in place but were rarely enforced unless the victim was a pureblood. We have to enforce them is all. And on that note I'm going to authorize the money to build up the force, Gustavson. We'll use the monies set aside for the snatcher teams to pay for it. Its still on the books as of now and we're going to appropriate the funds. We'll need the aurors and we really do need them now." said Kingsly.
"May I suggest that we stop calling the muggles muggles. It might sound offensive to them. Normals or no-mag as the Americans do." said Harry. Kingsly nodded.
"That might be a good idea. I'll write up a bill to change the official lable to no-mag. Their the only country not having problems with their non magical government. But then they are part of their government and not separate. They also accept the muggleborn with open arms so they have the highest magical population in the world, which is funny as the witch hunts were particularly bad there." said Kingsly.
"Good because we need them on our side. If we end up having to stoop an invasion by the Goauld, the only thing that will keep it under wraps is the mundane governments. They are the only ones with the resources to make that work. Let the Prime Minister know that the American mundane government or military is working with an ancient magical artifact that allows instant travel between planets in the network and that we've found that the galaxy is ruled by a race that calls themselves gods and believes that everyone should and will bow down to them and become their slaves or be destroyed. The Americans have already pissed them off and they will be coming for us because of it. If it's going to be used it should be a joint effort and not just the Americans. They would call it a stargate but our ancestors called them Astria Porta, which basically means the same thing." said Harry.
"Even with you technology, this sounds far fetched Harry." said Kingsly.
"It's not, really. I made a magic transmitter and reciever and can pick up their communications. For the most part they are shouting threats at each other back and forth and trying to find Earth so they can set the closest Goauld System Lord to destroy us for daring to oppose the gods. They have been here before, mostly in Egypt and anywhere that was a big fan of pyramids. That's where they got a good portion of their slaves, we think. Anyway tell them that and emphasize what the Yanks are doing and you should get them off your back." he said. Kingsly nodded.
"I guess I'll let you get back to work. The Wizengamut meeting starts at 8 tomorrow morning." said Kingsly.
Harry rose and shook their hands as all three filed out of the office. Kingsly made for the floo as well to head to the PM's office and Harry flooed to the Potter Training Facilities. Once there he went to find Padma. She said she had something for him and he needed to approve the new ward schemes. Walking into the intelligence division, he found her reading over some reports. He wrapped her in another hug from behind and kissed her neck.
"Hey beautiful. What do you have for me?" he asked softly.
"Hey Harry. The war for power is a cold one for now. They are massing up ships on each other's borders but it's the truly big fleets that are threatening for Ra's territory. I saw that you courtesy copied me on the new mining and construction site you picked so thank you. Anyway the System Lords are gearing up for a portracted war. No one had the ships that Ra did to enforce his rule and his domain is being mostly split up by his underlings grabbing for power. There are now 7 more considered System Lords than there were before. Because they use unskilled labor to build them most shipyards are slow and then they have to carefully train their slave soldiers, called Jaffa, so that they don't realize that they aren't really gods. We are beginning to get a decent picture as to the state of the galaxy and how far their long range sensors go. They can see about 4 light years in any direction so we may even be able to establish ship yards in their territory if they become aggressive towards us.
"On another note, Atlantis can make 5 social satellites an hour and launch them and she's doing that which is bringing us a lot more information. Appophis knows how to read the gates so he likely knows where Earth is. He's consolidating his position right now but soon, after this cold war is over, he'll have ships to spare. The Goauld don't use much automation as that would require maintenance workers who understand the technology enough to repair it. If we come up to one, he's likely to use a personal shield and a hand device that can cause pain and kill. It's how they pose as gods to begin with. They are actually little snake like beings that enter you through the mouth and wrap around the brain stem to take control of your body. The new medical core was made aware of that when we found out so there's that. We recalibrated the sensors, all of them, to look for such creatures from now on.
"Also we've found we may need some ground forces as you don't want the nannites and bots to really think for themselves and so research and development is coming up with a whole soldier package complete with rifle, personal shields, and communications for ground combat. Hermione didn't like the idea of making weapons but once she got into it she came up with a rifle that has 3 settings. Our new stun, bombarda, and a piercing hex to punch through shields. Stun grenades and naquada frag grenades came from a few more of the muggleborns. Now we just need someone with military training to teach us how to apply them in the best ways." she rattled off.
"You're right. That is a lot of good information. I bet you courtesy copied me to my pad and station didn't you?" he asked and she turned and gave him glare.
"Duh. Don't let something like those new ships happen again. And you need to authorize the implementation of the wards on the new ships before they get finished building. You can use my station to do it. It's right over here." she led him to an upgraded station and pulled up the wards.
"For the hospital ship we went with the name Asclepius for it's name and class. It goes with a simple notice me not and unbreakable to keep the hull in one piece. It's more likely to be called in after the fact but still has double shields and such but it's main function is a flying hospital. We learned that the Jaffa are genetically engineered for strength and toughness as well as to have little to no immune system. They get that from the juvenile Goauld in a pouch in their belies. We thought it would be a good idea that if we can get ourselves a Jaffa or two we could find a way to restore their immune systems and free them and not have to kill so many of them just to get at the Goauld. We would also get our hands on a juvenile Goauld to run tests on it. Now less staring and more authorizations please." she said. He chuckled and added his codes and sent the changes.
"Thank you. Now any new information about what the Minister is going to do about the normals? This operation becomes a rescue and escape mission if the muggles take over. Witch hunts...again. What's he gonna do?" she asked.
"Last I saw, he as headed to the Prime Minister's office to lay all the cards on the table. There's a change to the official classification of muggle to not be muggle anymore. I don't know for sure what the new word will be but I'm pretty sure the muggles found the term muggle offensive. I told him to tip her magesty's government off to what the Yanks are doing with the stargate and to get in on it as they really shouldn't be doing this alone. If they are going to bring down the wrath of the Goauld on Earth let it be the whole Earth's mistake and not just one nation. I'll be extending the invitation to the purebloods tomorrow for those that aren't blood snobs. If they are and can hide it well enough to work with us then I don't really care, personally, but that just me." she frowned a bit but nodded. She decided to show him around.
"This section is going to grow and you really should build on to the living space with standard bunks and stick more to a room with a shared bathroom between them as we're going to need the housing for some time. You personally expected a few hundred and planned for that but we are actually looking at tens of thousands just to start off. That was your mistake for not reading the world news and not thinking that Parvati could get the word out for what you're doing." she scolded lightly.
He blushed and nodded and pulled his pad to have a long wing added to the facility for housing that would hold another thousand and the Orion to deliver the bots required at maximum speed. It would all be here within the hour and construction would be finished by the next morning, including knocking out a wall off of the social hall. It wasn't large enough for 1,400 people but it would have to do.
"We don't need to hack the Goauld because you did it for us. They have more variety in their fleet than we will but most of their things fit on board an Ha'tak and is carried into theatre. The only carrier in our fleet will be the carrier class which we reclassified as the Pallas in class and name. He's the titan of warcraft and the spring campaign season, just like Asclepius is the god of medicine. We currently have 6 ships, one which should be manned and will be manned tomorrow and 5 drones. You CC'ed me when you multiplied the building capacity of the industrial site times 10. What's the new build order so I can let Parvati know."
"Starting from completion tomorrow it will be 2 Aurora's and 8 Destiny drones. We can pack people in the training rooms to get the bodies on board and training will continue when aboard ships so we have a competent force waiting. The grounds will be used for the ground troop training you and your analysts have cooked up. We just have to figure out where each ship will go. So by tomorrow we'll have 2 Aurora's, and I'll leave the naming to intelligence and hope we don't run out of gods, one Asclepius and one Pallas. I think the Asclepius should stick close to Atlantis until there is more adequate fleet cover. The next site will start out on the same setup we have at the current site and build one each of the manned ships, one new city ship, and 5 Destiny drones. I've already reassigned a drone to patrol that system. We can expect to find more of such systems because unskilled labor can't mine these types of systems. We'll do the same commercial thing with the new city and call it something like Olympus or something." he said. Padma nodded.
"That will work. The next build should be more manned ships. We'll have more than enough crew but you will have to hire many more of the refugees. The tents show up today and the food shows up tomorrow when the people get here. They'll be free to join up with us or move on into British magical society. We'd have to clear their emigrant status with the ministry. It looks like we have a good handle on things so why don't you go see Parvati." she said. He gave her a quick kiss and headed out.
He found Parvati outside with some volunteers setting up the tents. Suva was there as well with his work crew of squibs that seemed to be able to get anything if you could come up with the gold. He came up behind Parvati and hugged her as he had Padma and kissed her neck. She jumped in surprise.
"Hey Harry. Don't sneak up on me like that! You see Padma about the sorry state the Goauld are in right now?" she said she spun around in his arms and stole a kiss before moving to grab another tent.
"Yeah. What about your side of things. Anything new for me?" he asked.
"Yup. There's an enclave of muggleborns in every country in Europe except France. Seems Magical France had a shake up at the same time as muggle France during the French Revolution. I really wish Binns taught something other than the Goblin Rebellions. Well anyway the muggleborns were tired of being pushed aside and turned on the purebloods. It was a pretty bloody war with the muggleborn coming out on top and forcing a fully representative government. Now there's factions and a lot of the old families in France don't exist anymore or fled here, like the Malfoy family. Anyway, Magical France is taking on some of the enclaves as well so we don't end up with over 100,000 hungry people siting on your property that we would have to employ. There is actually some established jobs over there for them to take if they can learn enough French to get by.
"We'll be taking in 32,826 tomorrow and I really hope we have enough tents. They'll bring some of their own an we're just really lucky that there's so much land here to work with. Your constructors are working on that new wing already and making really good time. After the Intelligence Division came up with the army or marines as one muggleborn said, because they will be working closely with the Navy, I took the liberty to mark out the training grounds and firing range for them. We only have one manufacturing constructor table working on the rifles. Hermione really is brilliant. She figured them out in a few hours. You stare down the barrel and holographic targeting reticule pops up for you. They are tamper proof too. They are powered by mini potentia and once we get the rest of the equipment we can really start training them." she said as she set up another tent.
He joined in. It was relatively warm outside and they were working pretty fast. The tents were all set up a little after lunch and they had a decent tent city going here. Then he thought of how they were going to be bringing in even more tents and was really thankful he had so much land. He began planning the expansion of the training facilities and adding more buildings. He didn't actually go ahead with them as they would just get in the way tomorrow. They all went inside for a late lunch and Padma found them and sat down with her tray as well.
"Well the lesser System Lords were finally attacked while you were helping Parvati. I won't complicate things with their names but the greater fleets moved in on them, some working together, and crushed them this morning. More hulls started to be built today as well. Each of the remaining lords have their own shipyards but we really shouldn't see any new construction in space for months yet. They can't churn them out like we do as they don't seem to have much nannotechnology. The ones we need to know are: Ra, Socar, Osiris, Nirrti, Chronus, Ba'al, Apophis, Heru'ur, and Anubis. Anubis was banished by Ra for unspeakable cruelty, even for them. He's still not marked as dead though. He escaped them somehow. We believe that he's amassing a fleet to get his revenge and will be back. We can't seem to find him either, even hacked in as we are. The only reason we are weary of him is that we know everyone elses fleet strength but we have nothing on him. He was also the 'go to guy' for technology so his will be upgraded somehow. So in short, we don't know where he is, his strength, or when he will come back. We prepared a briefing of full fleet strength and territories and sent it to your pad." said Padma. He nodded and pulled out his pad from his robe pocket and looked over the briefing.
Each of the major lords and their underlings each had fleets of over a hundred ships. The underlords were interesting as they had pledged their fleets and support to the other System Lords so they they wouldn't get crushed like bugs.
"Get the captains pads as well so they can be CC'ed this kind of information. We'll get our own ship and crew eventually or we'll just command Atlantis. What about the people coming in tomorrow. How many of them have agreed to work with us?" he asked, looking up from his pad.
"Pretty much all of them. You didn't notice but the nannites at the main construction site built more than just the Orion. They built several for the buffers alone. They are also using the Atlantis's buffer to get things done as well. We're churning out pads as fast as we can and preparing for the long haul to keep people here and get them all through the repositories and training. As space opens up we push more in and the simulators are going to be packed. We can pack more into medical and engineering simulations but that still leaves tens of thousands sitting in the lawn. They'll be bringing everything they own and all their own galleons to live off of but they need something to keep them gainfully employed and the pads can be used for some of their training and some can go into the marines." said Parvati.
"We should see if any of them have any experience in child care and would like to run day care centers so parents can work and train." said Padma.
"And we have to be ready for some people not to work well with others. Its bound to happen. We need a police force instead of just the bots and sensors. See if anyone has any Auror training or some such like that." said Harry.
Parvati picked up her pad and sent off a message wide to all the pads not on the grounds. She got responses pretty quickly with a few hundred police officers of different types among the refuges and one among the British that were coming in as well by transporter. She also got some 70 healers from Eastern Europe and knew that Atlantis and the Asclepius class ships would need them. They would have enough pads, even if she had to stay at the facilities overnight for the rush job.
"It looks like it's a late night for me. To get enough pads means someone will have to be working through the night. If you'll authorize overtime I can get production and manufacturing to rush more of the pads to be done by tomorrow at noon by the latest." she finally said. He looked at her, concerned.
"Don't work yourself into the ground. If you need to run down to the apothecary and get a supply of potions for everyone, do it. Floo over and grab a nap too. We like using the transporter as there's no spinning and we don't get dumped out and we still need a transport scrambler for the goblins. I'll take care of that tonight because I promised it to them. We could so rob them blind right now. Anyway, we should see if any of them have military experience to train the marines." he said.
"Already done. We have a couple of retired army and marines that will work with our people for auror pay. I say we send even the police through the same training, just to be sure everyone is on the same page. We have 12 upgraded constructor tables going full bore. Some filling the orders for our magic tech the rest are churning out pads. As they really cost us next to nothing, we should give them out for free to everyone that is going to be working with us. They can run training programs and learning programs on them on their time off so they don't get too bored and don't forget things from the repositories." she responded. He nodded.
"I guess I should plan what I want to say at the Wizengamut meeting tomorrow. Are the both of you sure you can handle it until I get back?" he asked. They leaned in and kissed his cheeks.
"Yes. Police and military know to look to your under counsellors for anything they need. Those that want to try the civilian and business route know what to do when they get the basic knowledge downloads as well. Go and muddle through the Wizengamut and we'll take care of everything." said Padma while Parvati finished her lunch and rose to head to the floo.
"Take care of my tray Harry, please?" she said over her shoulder as she hurried off.
He smirked and knew she was headed to Grimwald Place first for gold before she headed to clean out the apothecary. He buckled down an finished his own lunch before putting his and Parvati's things in the recycler. Padma was right behind him but looking to get back to work herself.
He made his way to the main control room of the building where he'd set up their stations and sat down at his, checking for any messages that he hadn't received on his pad and began began to compose what he would say to the Wizengamut. It really depended on what Kingsly had to say to them first. He poured over the intelligence briefings so he was familiar with the information and could quote it at the meeting. Since the old constructor tables were in the room as well he created a hard light projector to show what he needed to. They would either believe him or not but it was his money to waste if he was lying, which only he n the chamber would know for sure. He would tell them he'd taken in the refugees from Eastern Europe and the Veela and was training them to join his magic technology powered space navy. He wouldn't tell them about the marines he would begin training because by the time they needed to know they wouldn't even be on Earth any longer. Sure of what he would say, he closed out his station and moved to look up Parvati.
He found her in manufacturing with her crew churning out pads as fast as the upgraded tables could go. He watched his focused fiance for a moment and decided that it wouldn't do to distract her right now and went to find Padma. He found her in the research and development section chatting with Hermione over the specs of some sort of headgear.
"That is a good idea Hermione. Real time communications and some very short range, ten miles, sensors. This is just what the marine section needs. This is the last of the ground gear for now. Did you call your parents last night on your pad? They had just closed down everything they owned and sold their home to work with you in some capacity and the intelligence section will be moving to Atlantis in the near future so you can move in with your parents again in their suite. Or you can sign up to have you own suite. Which will it be for you?" he heard Padma ask as he moved up beside her and took her hand.
"I think I'll stay with my parents for now. I missed a lot of time going to Hogwarts then last year when I obliviated them and sent them away. They still aren't happy about that." she responded.
"I would say so. What if you find a like mind among your coworkers? Going to move out?" Padma teased. Hermione turned her nose up a bit.
"Please! There would have to be an impending marriage before I moved in with a man. It's just not proper." she said a little stuffily. Harry chuckled.
"Oh? And what are you laughing at, Harry?" asked Hermione.
"You sounded just like Percy just then. Or Mrs. Weasly. I couldn't decide and ended up laughing about it. I can't wait to see you actually fall in love. It will be refreshing to see you change your mind on how a lot of things are done." he chuckled. She sniffed but didn't respond.
Padma smirked and checked her watch for the time and her eyes bugged out. They had been here for almost 12 hours.
"Well, Hermione, me and Harry are going to turn in. He's got to be in front of the Wizengamut at 8 and we've all got a busy day tomorrow getting everyone processed." she said. Hermione waved them off.
They went back by transporter and sat down at the dinner table. They thanked Tipsy for holding dinner for them and apologized for making her wait. The little elf was nearly in tears that they cared so much for her. After the late dinner the two of them had some snogging time before bed but pulled away from each other just before 10 and after stealing another goodnight kiss went to bed.
HPTLA
He was up by 6:30 and had breakfast by 7 with Padma. A tired Parvati met him from a nap and was headed back to the facility with a quick breakfast in her belly. She took the time to steal herself a kiss, however, before she flooed out.
He arrived in the Wizengamut meeting with about 30 minutes to spare and took his seat early. Many looked at him wearily and he realized that they thought he was building an army to take over Britain. He almost laughed at the fearful looks double checked his personal shield. Slowly the room filled and the Chief Witch called the room to order.
"On this the second meeting of the year I call the Wizengamut to order. As this is an emergency meeting we move to the Minister to explain." said Madam Marchbanks. Kingsly rose.
"I was alarmed when the opposing side from the progressives, the conservatives, pushed for a vote of censure against the Potter-Black votes because they accused him of building an army to overthrow the ministry. I have spoken with him and the Prime Minister and, after a few calls were made, too much of Lord Potter-Black's story rang true. He's building a Navy to fight in space, mostly anyway, and he's preparing to fight off an invasion from space of our nearest neibors. They would enslave or destroy us but to get the full story I would give the floor to Lord Potter-Black.
"I will say that he told me to state to the Prime Minister that the American mundane government had found and was using a multi-million year old magic technological artifact to travel to other planets in this galaxy and had pissed off the rulers of the galaxy in the undertaking of this venture. That they had killed one of them and set their system of government into disarray. A lot of this information came from Lord Potter-Black and the Prime Minister so bear with me.
"The Americans acted on their own on behalf of everyone on Earth. In doing so they have likely drawn the eye of a space navy numbering in the thousands with millions of slave soldiers. That is the Prime Minister's guess based on the information his offices had available by the end of the meeting. The general concensus is that the Allies will now work together with the stargate, and that is what they call it, and make joint decisions and joint teams. No one nation will handle the gate. The Americans refused to hand over the gate to their Department M so it will continue to operate under the control of the mundane governments of the Allied Powers.
"With his magic technology, Lord Potter-Black also found that the mundane governments of the world were preparing to wrest control of the magical governments away from us. The previous administrations had lied to, bespelled, and talked down to them for so long they were no longer willing to cover for us and the Statute of Secrecy any longer. We have been doing ourselves a great disservice. When we push the mundane born out, and yes it is the wish of this administration to change the designation to mundane, we create a paper trail in mundane records that lead right back to us. When they can't get a job with us they retreat back to the mundane world and, who has mandatory education laws, uneducated in the mundane way in direct violation of that law. This creates more problems that need to be covered up.
"The mundane government has been doing all that they can to help keep the secret of magic. Scratching our back, if you will, but we've done nothing to help from our end. Our criminals attack the mundanes with magic and we barely fine them. Our people steal from them and obliviate them but we leave video evidence and electronic records behind leaving the mundanes to have to run a cover operation to confiscate all the evidence left behind. Our methods haven't worked since the invention of the computer and video camera, both of which are better with magic technology, but we use them as if we know better. The mundane citizens are beginning to get suspicious that there is some mysterious second society that their government is covering for that doesn't have to abide by the rules of their own society and is barely remaining hidden.
"To prevent war with out mundane government counterparts we must do better. The budget is still slotted to fund snatchers and camps though we have neither and have had neither for a few months so this administration has appropriated these funds to get the auror and hit wizard corps up to date. Magical France and Germany are looking at us like a wounded duck and they are the wolves. It has been some years since a magical country has been conquered and I would like to be able to say: Not on my watch!" said Kinglsy, nearly ranting.
Many began to murmer and complain that the current minister was a 'muggle lover' and should be replaced. They were of the conservatives though and found their numbers and political clout greatly reduced after the fall of Voldemort as many of their number were found to have been funding the monster until he'd completely ignored and threatened the Wizengamut that they knew he wasn't at all about bringing back some of the 'good olde days' and more about putting himself on a throne. By that time it had been too late and they were stuck with him and they were now known as his monetary supporters.
"Lord Potter-Black, I believe that we would like you to tell us more about the external threats we face from outside our own planet as confirmed by the PM's office." prompted the Minister.
Harry rose and held up the hard light projector and pulled up the first image. The majority of the room recoiled.
"This is a Goauld. It's a smallish snake like creature that enters your body through the mouth and the back of the throat and wraps around the brain stem to take control of you body. We don't know if there are any other effects but we believe that they would be able to easily impersonate who they've taken control of very easily." he switched images.
"This is the mock up of an Ha'tak. It's a mother ship. It carries hundreds to thousands of smaller ships so that they can bring a large invasion force wherever they go. Even one of these showing up in our skies is trouble. I have taken steps to ensure that if one does show up it won't last long. To make that work we need to be on good terms with the muggle government. I'm not asking for ministry money to defend the world from invasions. I'm making enough to foot the bill myself. I am asking that any pureblood that has a problem finding a job and isn't a blood snob can apply to work for me as well. The same for half-bloods as well." he changed the image again.
"This is an image of my ships. All four types are here. They have magic cannons, wards, and the ability to move between galaxies if need be. You would have to be able to follow the orders of a half-blood or even what you would call a muggleborn, which is a misnomer. I have found that, among the group that have joined me so far, that all of the mundane born's parents are squibs. They have some magic and have a magical signature but not enough magic to match with a wand." he paused and listened the the conservatives complain for a few moments.
"The minister actually covered much of what I wanted to talk about. The Goauld call themselves gods and go out of their way to make sure that their slaves believe that. They developed weapons that resemble fire raining from the heavens, and took the names of gods from our past, especially cultures that built pyramids. We think they have actually been to Earth before and stole a good portion of our people as slaves. We are sure that the nearest of them knows where Earth is and will be attacking once the civil war the Americans started among them is over. There are 8 major players in Goauld politics and hundreds of smaller names that have sworn homage to them. If they come here looking for a fight they will find one. I already have ships patrolling the solar system for defense and, today, there will be a manned ship doing the same.
"And, finally, the crisis in the way we've treated the mundane born has reached a head. The Eastern Europeans have decided that they will follow what Voldemort did and establish camps and such and round up the mundane born that didn't leave of their own volition. The only major magical school in that part of Europe is Durmstang and they don't even accept the mundane born anyway so they had to educate themselves and are now being told they don't even have the right to live and will be rounded up. We don't know what the plan is to do with them, but it can't be benevolent. One of the retreating groups is to portkey or transport directly to Potter Manor grounds to be housed until such time as they find jobs with me or try their luck in the local anti-mundane born economy." he said. The traditionalists' spokesperson stood with a scowl.
"You mean to tell us that instead of being done with muggleborns we have to deal with the sudden influx of thousands of continental ones because of you? They are a threat to the statute of secrecy!" he said.
"You must have not been listening to the minister when he said that the threat to the statute comes from our pushing them back into the mundane world without mundane training so that they stick out like sore thumbs. That's what has almost broken the statute. No matter what their NEWTS we refuse to allow them jobs, especially in the ministry and most pureblood run businesses won't hire them. Where are they to go if they want to feed themselves legally?" he asked. The man really had no logical response.
"But their muggleborn!" he said, as if that explained everything.
"And that explains nothing except that you choose to hate then and want us all to treat them as dirt so you feel vindicated. If we continue to treat the mundane born like we have the mundane government will get involved." interrupted Kingsly. Madam Marchbanks reached for her gavel but didn't do anything just yet.
"And their just muggles. We are far superior." said the spokesman.
"Wards don't stop spy satellites. They know where we are. Wards don't actually stop a determined incursion by the mundanes. They have weapons that will pass through the defensive wards and they can listen to the wireless as well as anybody else can. It's classified as a top secret military band so no one gets it except the prime minister. You are making the mundanes' case for them. If our government can't govern without prejudice then we will lose that right to govern. I had to dig up the Treaty of Separation and we made a deal long ago with the mundane government that we would do everything in our power to keep the two worlds separate. Chasing a portion of our population into their world doesn't keep the treaty at all." said Kingsly. Everyone flinched as the man shrugged off the ancient treaty.
"It's a piece of paper signed with muggles. How much power could it have? Why should we keep it. If anything we should run all of Britain not the other way around." said the spokesman, though Harry hoped he would learn his name soon.
"It has enough power to see this body removed from power. Laws and changes to laws are automatically added to the books from this chamber. If we break the Treaty of Separation then we loose the ability to govern ourselves and will automatically become a section of the mundane government and the Wizengamut becomes just a collection of old titles. Our ancestors signed it so we have to keep it and we've been doing a poor job of it so far. We have to change the policies in place that run the mundane born out, and as Lord Potter-Black said, they may be half-bloods anyway." Madam Marchbanks banged her gavel now.
"Lord Draven. This body will not gamble away it's governing powers on your whim. You seem to be under the impression that the magical contract doesn't have any weight as one of the signatories is a muggle...excuse me, mundane. As long as the magical side signs the contract it is valid and enforceable. The Minister's office has provided the Prime Minister and the Chief Witch, myself, a copy of the treaty to review and it is my opinion that we have been unknowingly, or knowingly in some cases, violating the treaty and only the mudane government's covering for us has saved our governing power. I dare say that Voldemort would not have been able to dispand the Wizengamut if we were not in violation of the treaty itself. There has never been a time that wizards were better than the mundanes and to think ourselves beyond them is in violation of the treaty. I would not be surprised if your votes from now until you change your mind do not count on the rolls sir." she said and stared him down before continuing.
"The treaty was with the crown, of which the House of Winsor holds. If we declare ourselves free of the treaty then we give over this governing body to the crown and Queen Elizabeth would be the final authority within the Ministry of Magic, not us. The Minister was right to make his apologies to the Prime Minister and the Queen's government and promise that he would make us do better. As Chief Witch, in an effort to preserve this body, I use the rarely used powers of this office to declare that any such sedition against the treaty be stricken. Any law in violation of the treaty is now up for review and will be stricken until such time as they are reworked an no longer in violation of the Treaty of Separation." she intoned.
The self-updating law book in the chamber started flipping through pages and turning lines red as they were encountered. The scribe assigned to the book paled at the number of discriminatory laws that had been passed in violation of the treaty. The Wizengamut looked on in worry as the book continued this work and began to murmer back and forth as to the implications.
Until lunch the body went to work striking laws that said that Purebloods could get away with bespelling mundanes, and in what ways that they could get away with it. The traditionalists were not happy but could see the necessity of stiking these laws as they would loose their seats if they didn't do so. Harry and the Minister spent the time at lunch educating the parts of the body that would listen as to the Treaty of Separation and the Statute of Secrecy and gathering support to make it illegal to banish squibs as well. After lunch new laws were passed to that effect and the call went out to the squibs that they could find jobs with Lord Potter-Black in his New Lantean Navy in the intelligence division or in his new civilian sector.
"Is it your wish to start a new community that is based mostly in outer space and open to all that don't have the typical prejudice as has been seen in this body today?" Madam Marchbanks asked Harry.
"Yes. Very soon we will have our own aurors and such to manage law enforcement and a military to fight the Goauld if they come here. Eventually we will have to take the fight to them instead of only defending and when that happens we need to be able to invade their worlds." he answered.
"And what keeps you from using this army of yours on us?" spoke up Draven.
"The fact that I could have taken my allies and taken the Ministry of Magic for myself after the Battle of Hogwarts and didn't. I have no desire to sit on some magical throne and that would also be in violation of the Treaty of Separation and, possibly, the Statute of Secrecy. By magic, I have become the High Chancellor of Atlantis and am currently building another city ship like her. At the rate Europe is going there will be few mundane born left and the pureblood supremacists will find out just how much they needed them to begin with. We just struck the tax laws that helped chase the mundane born out of our world but, because I am personally a British citizen, I will collect taxes from the people that do their banking with me and pay theirs and mine every year as required. Now that the nobility has voted a flat tax on income every year, even for themselves, we should see fewer Ministry budget shortages." said Harry with a smirk.
"So you are forcing this body to accept you, if only for the galleons?" growled Draven.
"If that is how you wish to see it, then so be it. We are establishing our own shopping center where one can get all sorts of goods but we will still need to buy and ship in supplies to make goods. That will be a boon to the economy, mundane and magical. If you would stop thinking about 'undesireables' and start thinking 'citizens' you would be much happier and less hateful. Do we have to do something for the emigration of the Eastern European refugees that are, even now, arriving on the Potter estate to escape from the camps in their home countries?" Harry said with no smirk this time. The Minister pondered for a moment.
"We will draw up the paperwork for the establishment of a magical allied nation, at least for as long as you head it, and as you are a citizen of Magical Britain you have taxes to pay as a lord. Your citizens, as they are citizens of New Lantea as I think you called the military and navy you proposed. Lord Potter-Black is working to defend the planet from the mistakes of the Yanks and only asking that the unemployed, of which we have quite the number, be asked to join up for jobs. I personally see nothing wrong with this. It a fix for our unemployment rate which has gotten out of hand in recent years. It's well within my powers as Minister to negotiate a treaty and I will do that today after this meeting is over." said Kingsly. The majority of the Wizengamut nodded and Harry could hear favorable comments.
The traditionalists didn't like the way things had gone and realized that they were the minority in their views. Everyone else realized that the general attitude towards the mundanes and mundane born is what drove the last war and didn't want to go back to those days.
The treaty talks after the Wizengamut meeting were relatively quick with a mutual defence agreement and travel rights for citizens to shop both places. As the Potter properties were warded and unplottable, the travel would be mostly a trickle for the most part. He received a message on his pad during the meeting that they would have some 6,000 training to be aurors and marines by the time he got away from the meetings. The rest had decided to use their pads to try and train for the Lantean Navy as opposed to the Lantean Marines.
Now free just before dinner, he flooed back to the Potter Facilities and went for his progress reports. Deciding to find Parvati first, he found her helping process people through the repositories still. It seemed that none of the refugees wanted to join Britain and instead wanted to join New Lantea. Parvati was happy that he'd made them their own nation, which meant that they could establish their own laws but was determined to keep it relatively simple. They would use the self-updating law books from the British side of things and make new ones that pertained to themselves when the need arose.
"We have a lot of new employees. About 4,000 went to Atlantis to move in and open businesses and apply for jobs there as civilians. Everyone else wants to join up with the Lantean Navy and Marines. We had a lot of squibs owl us asking to bring their families in as well. I think that if a squib is to join us we should have some way for them to defend themselves because then not everyone will have a wand. There have been a few purebloods owling as well. If they are prejudiced they are hiding it very well. They are the types that have very little magical power and relatively low scores on OWLS or NEWTS. We can take them all but they would have to be happy with the Lantean Marines or auror offices." said Parvati after reaching out to squeeze his hand.
She looked very worn out but was almost done with the repositories having only a few thousand left. He joined in with her helpers and really couldn't see where he was actually making much of a difference but helped anyway. It would be a late dinner for the trio as Padma found them at dinner time and joined in. By that time they were surrounded by people speaking Lantean as many of the refugees, or emigrants now, only spoke their home languages but had gotten Lantean from the repositories.
When they were finally finished with the influx of people for the day they retired to Grimwald Place for dinner and apologized to and complemented Tipsy again for wasting her time.
"It bees no problem. Tipsy happy!" she'd respoded before popping in dinner and popping away.
"I guess it's a good enough time for the intelligence reports. The war between the System Lords is in full swing. I fully expect the Counsel to remain the same but the lesser lords are taking a serious pounding. Some of Ra's underlings got a little greedy and tried for Apophis's territories and got smacked down for it. He's a decent tactician. He moved his fleets from the the lesser territories and consolidated his forces. Then swept the territories in patrols that found the lords trying to change the allegiance of the planets to the lesser lords. That was when he would crush the fleet under overwhelming odds before deploying to the lesser lord's territory and adding it to his patrol schedule for the patrol fleet. That fleet is some 30 ships strong. It would hold its own against what a Counsel member could afford to send and the lesser lords can't afford to put all their might against it. He's absorbed a new lord today, folded like a deck of cards. In the interim, Apophis lost his first prime to the Americans antics. He's come down harder on his Jaffa to see that it doesn't happen again but we don't know if the Jaffa are chaffing under the new restrictions or not. It seems he's doing it just so he doesn't loose too much face with the rest of the Counsel." started Padma.
"Any chatter on their network? The Jaffa wouldn't know how to use it but the other lords must have some plans to steal some of his slaves." asked Harry.
"He immediately proclaimed the Jaffa a heretic and that he would soon die for defying his god. His name is Teal'c. I think they really believe that they are gods and it's not an act." she responded.
"That is disturbing if it's true. If they really think that they are gods then they are less likely to go to the negotiating table. Some sort of protected planets treaty. We couldn't do it anyway with the Americans, and now the Allies using the gate. Telling the Prime Minister about it means that we really can't take it from them anymore if they do something really stupid." he said.
"Well, we will have a sizable marine arm soon. Our aurors want to post a guard on us chancellors and any others we designate. We already have the High Chancellor, Chancellor for Intelligence, and Chancellor for Personnel. We need one for the navy, the marines, the aurors, research and development and anything else that comes up. We have 14 new captains training as well as they can with our limited facilities. The pads are a big hit. I made enough for the entire population. -Yawn- And we have a good canidate for Chancellor of Research and Development. Hermione has been coordinating the research teams and doing very well. The teams think she may be a touch too bossy but she's efficient and brilliant. The general concensus is that she needs to get laid.-Yawn- Anyway she would be the obvious choice. Both the intelligence division and research and development will be ready to move to Atlantis as some of the emigrants wish to try for jobs with them and the extra manpower would be helpful. Atlantis is suited for this already and with subspace communications we should have no problems sending reports. You should start working on finding a proxy for the Wizengamut. Perhaps Mr. Weasly. Give him a pad to keep in contact and vote the way you would want. The major fires have been put out there lately and we need you more than the Wizengamut does." said Parvati.
"You should go to bed right after dinner's done. You look about to pass out. You didn't have to work that hard yourself. You're one of the Chancellors. You could have delegated some of it and got some sleep." he worried. She shook her head.
"We need to show that we really care and will work our hardest to make all this work. I can't do that by relaxing and delegating so much. Tomorrow will be better." she countered.
"At least designate a section to work with you so you don't have to bust your ass so much. Its a really nice ass and I don't want to see it busted." he joked. She sent him a weak smile.
"Thanks and I'll do it tomorrow. I know who has been the best workers along side me so I'll put together a section that people can come to so it's not just me. Deal?" she said. He smiled and reached over to grab her hand and give it a squeeze.
"Deal. Now eat up because you're going to bed early tonight."