Magic perhaps Chapter 4 Rebuilding the Legacy I, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter 4

Magic perhaps

Helltanz's notes: Alex I like the word mook though : ( I'll try and refrain from using it so much I didn't realize it was that annoying to you.

Also wanted to update before May, so here is the next chapter enjoy, hopefully its not too rushed.

Disclaimer: come on you should know the drill by now

Chapter begin

Harry Potter was not particularly impressed by the Wizarding world, not that he had expected to be however there were a few things that were earning his, mind you grudging, approval.

The amount of land now in his possession however enticed him beyond what he had believed to be possible.

Admittedly the castle was in a state of disrepair, all right extreme disrepair but that was more or less the point as the other castle was more of an over stylized country house that was much younger.

By all accounts the castle was still more defensible than the country house was, still there would need to be a lot of work done. "Search the area," He ordered to the minions he had brought along with him. "We'll need to start work immediately." The surrounding woodlands had become overgrown so that was something that would need to be fixed and of course they'd need to fix the broken down parts of the castle.

Consultation of the records kept by the Gringotts Goblins informed him that the castle had last been inhabited sometime in the earlier portion of the seventeen hundreds before the Potter Family had begun construction on the aforementioned country house. The country house lacked the defensive purpose and had been built more for comfort and style than anything else.

The castle was going to need to be refurnished extensively that much was readily apparent. A good number of the doors looked to have become rotted, and one of the towers didn't look to be so sturdy but it was better than starting from scratch, not that he didn't intend to have a separate tower constructed on a separate piece of land.

Design for the second project would be something that would likely be but off until he determined exactly where he was going to build anyway. It would seem that wizards of past generations had managed to secret away land from non magical kind, the settlement in the capital was just one example of this.

Exactly when the wizards had done all this wasn't something that had been clearly defined but it didn't particularly matter. Diagon Alley for example was only one of several such alleys in London, and in fact the magical sections of the capital held a number of other locales that it would probably be prudent to acquaint himself with sometime in the near future.

For the time being however Lodnon was better to avoid until something could be determined about the miasma. That aura, or more correctly the cause of the aura was a serious potential problem, of course acting aggressively was out of the question given his lack of manpower.

Grounds that were uncontested would be what he focused on for the time being primarily in regards to fortifying what he already had. Future conquests would also need to be considered and for that he would need to expand his manpower pool and for that he would require raw materials.

Harvesting resources from the local surrounding wouldn't be that difficult and the expanse of land certain was fairly abundant in what all it had access to in regards to materials for a pre industrial economy. Stone, iron, gold, wood, about the only thing he was lacking really were materials that required to be cultivated, leather, agricultural products and other things but that could be dealt with at a later date.

In the mean time he'd have his minions begin clearing the area and begin renovating the castle and getting it ready for inhabitation. Harry by and large disliked muggles though more in a condescending way then anything else but he did admit that the non magical humans had their uses.

Animal mentality meant most males he, rather more correctly his minions, apprehended in woodlands would attempt to defy him openly mostly because he was younger then them it was primarily the reason he didn't let them live long.

Teenagers for the most part all seemed to be disrespectful animals in his opinion but they weren't completely unredeemable, cleaning was among the tasks they could be entrusted with at the very least.

Judging by the state of disrepair cleaning staff was likely something that they would indeed require. Additionally it wasn't like the humans were actually needed in the woodland lair so moving them to help here wouldn't hurt. Still it was unfortunate he couldn't head to London and collect some of the 'lost and the damned' they'd at the very least be somewhat useful for menial labor.

Keeping a low profile however was also an issue so for the time being he'd just need to use the 'regular' minions to get the castle ready. The goblins were going to be slow completing the work and Harry didn't have enough of other more capable races at his disposal at present to speed up the process. He had barely a handful of Orks at present but at least they would be of some use now.

Little could be done about the numbers of minions at present it was something that really only time would fix. Clearly the overgrown trees, and building logging camps would also take time as would the construction of the forges and other workshops that would be required for the castle future's needs.

Many concerns filtered into Harry's plans for the futures not amongst those plans was impressing people with glory and splendor. The castle was a fortification so there was little need to concern himself with bright colors and pretty paintings, all Harry needed for this place was to supply him with materials for his future war machine.

Now was a time to prepare, and to prepare he would among other things have to gather more detailed information on the Wizarding world, in addition to continuing his research into magic.

Harry stared up at the central tower as he stood before the front gate of the castle, there was a lot of work that needed to be done. Time however was something that he could afford, there was no rush it would take time for everything to be prepared after all rushing forward would solve nothing.

Of the many things that needed to be addressed was the Wizarding world, the dark cloak wizards the Death Eaters, stupid name really, were openly rebelling though so far at least as far as he could determine weren't kept in line by the ministry because they kept their movements low key. It wasn't just them though, the traditional conservative elements had a firm stranglehold on power it was something he'd have to look into.

Purebloods, the idea was appealing to him as any other, but for now he'd simply have to deal with them. For the time being it was just something that he would have tolerate and in regards to that it meant he would have to put up with going through the letters he had received after the incident in Diagon Alley. In the meantime this wasn't the only place he needed to look into.

While the Dursleys were more tolerable these days Harry would be pleased to move out of Number Four Privet Drive at the first available opportunity. Doing that meant moving into one of the homes he had inherited.

Pureblood families were apparently all quite closely inter tangled through marriage and apparently the last few generations had seen several die out, leaving him as the successor to those lines.

It wasn't something he was all that concerned with assets were assets after all, and the only relatives he had ever known were the Dursleys and frankly with relatives like that he wasn't particularly interested in any others.

Harry scowled it was true that there was little he could do in regards the restoration progress, but it didn't mean he had to like it. That being said he did have other things that needed to be addressed in the mean time.

Until he had the resources and the manpower necessary it was mandatory he work along side the wizards. In order to work alongside them he needed to get a better grasp on their politics and inner workings and that was what he was preparing to do.

Determining what needed to be done would exactly would however require him to come back later and examine things. Come back and study this place in depth, surveying and such.

The Wizarding World or at least the British portion of it was governed, if it could be called that given the facts as Harry interpreted them, was at best criminally incompetent when it came to dealing with the death eaters.

Overall the so called ministry seemed to be made up of the Parliament like Wizengamot, which appeared to be comprised of hereditary seats, and then the varying bureaucratic departments.

At the present Harry was none too inclined to waste his effort bothering himself with the internal issues that existed though he did take note of them. It wouldn't do after all to be caught unaware of such things.

Blood purity frankly sounded like a load of nonsense to him but that was what they seemed to believe in. Unfortunately those who subscribed to theory were the very same conservatives people who were in control of the government and no doubt they had money as well.

While he had no proof Harry at the very least expected that from this information there were sympathizers in the government for the dark cloak, and masked wizards. It was merely a suspicion but he at the same time had no reason to believe otherwise.

Confident as he may have been in his own abilities in regards to magical combat he did still recognize that he had weaknesses in the form of numbers, something he frequently reminded himself of. Going up against an entire government was not something he had the resources to do at the moment.

Dark Families, Light Families, Grey Families, keh it was all just politics by an other name it was something he recognized. Still the so called purebloods no matter what their professed alignment was they all were apart it seemed of the institutionalized behavior all of them seemed to be 'conservatives' to varying degrees.

This was not necessarily a bad thing in fact it might very well be useful in his task to destroy non magical infrastructure and technology.

Expectations that's what the wizards had for him, they were foolish to expect anything out of him. Making assumptions was foolhardy at the best of times and as history taught could be fatal at the worst.

He himself had been worried that, this had been fore he had chanced upon the Wizarding world, that he would eventually run into wizards with minions and powers superior to his own.

Fortunately the Wizarding world didn't appear to have anyone who met that criteria but it was best to still be cautious. The goblins were just one unexpected turn of events he could mention, the intelligence they had demonstrated had surprised him. It was not something he had expected, because he had been going by what he already had experienced.

Going on the assumption that what he knew already would always apply was foolish it was something he should have known better, things could change all to quickly. This was amongst the reasons he wanted to gather more information on the Wizarding world and it's no doubt various inhabitants.

Harry considered the most expedient way to gather this information was by direct interaction with the people who resided in the magical society. This was of course why he was going through what he personally considered the bother of meeting these people.

Information was what he was after and it made little difference which political faction he met with merely that he gathered the information. The young wizard had elected to go ahead and begin dressing in classical Wizarding sheik.

Judging by what he observed in his, admittedly, short time he would proceed and modify the robes to his liking. In any case such a matter was fairly trivial either way Harry was not particularly concerned with the issue.

Keeping his metaphorical cards close to his chest was also something important, after all he didn't want the wizards to yet know what he was fully capable of. Capabilities which that Harry was admittedly still refining, the longer he could keep them in the dark about among other things the minions and his plan to use a magical pulse to destroy muggle society the less likely they would be able to successfully meddle, admittedly if the wizards could be swayed to assisting him that would be beneficial.

"Look Mr. Potter," Began the head of magical law enforcement, and unsurprising as he would decide later, a pureblood, by the name of Amelia Bones neutrally. "The event in the Alley was a law enforcement matter,"
Managing to not sneer at the complaint to more effort than Harry wanted to admit, he did after all like to think he had better control over his faculties. "And they did a truly splendid job I must have counted, oh wait I didn't see any of your vaunted troops any where remotely near the alley,"
"Now see here," Her aide de camp spluttered indignantly. The air chilled instantly as the immaculately dressed wizard, in his very nice silk robes, recoiled in fear and surprise at the glare he received from not only Harry but also his boss.

"Oh do you shut up Jenkins," Madam Bones muttered with a grimace. "You are correct the response of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was lax, the raid on Diagon was never expected to be possible with the Dark Lord out of the picture,"

Potter's last scion didn't bother restraining the smirk, "Indeed the main reason such an attack was successful I would hazard to speculate you underestimated their capacities a costly mistake." Harry propped his chin up, "Still the fact they were able to carry this out does make one wonder what is going on," all of this was merely political banter, Harry was not particularly interested in convincing the Law Enforcement to become more competent, "and what else the Death Eaters are capable of? What is next on their agenda an attack against a school that everyone seems convinced is nigh impregnable?" Jenkins paled at the remark.

"Quite impossible there is now way they could attack the school," The aide de camp protested fervently, more as if to convince himself that such an event was impossible. It would seem the attack on Diagon Alley had had psychological repercussions. "They couldn't possibly be able to get passed the wards,"

Raising an eyebrow in disbelief Harry sighed, this was the kind of think that got people killed, not that he particularly cared so long as he wasn't in danger. Still the belief that there was no danger was exactly what had allowed the wizards to be attacked in the first place, that or serious corruption issues.

Still it made little difference to him, whether corruption, or just plain incompetence either one was something he could exploit.

As it stood people had a flawed interpretation of him, a hero, no it wouldn't do for them to get any further entrenched into that foolish idea, hence his nudging the Wizarding law enforcement along. Even if they were as truly negligent as they would still have to do something if he attempted to motivate them lest they be on the receiving end of a public backlash.

Time was something he needed, at present his manpower pool was, as he was frequent to remind himself, limited additionally he needed that time not simply to build up the number of minions under his command but also to expand his own powers, in addition to building the devices to generate the magical pulses along with a host of other preparations that needed to be made.

"One thing Mr. Potter about the magic you used in Diagon Alley?" Madame Bones stated as the two stood up, and Harry prepared to depart.

The young wizard smirked, "My power is my own, just as clan is comprised of flesh, blood and bone, it is something which only is as such known," Energy curled around him and he vanished, teleporting away.

Let them be curious after all what they had seen so far was only a sliver of the powers he would one day wield, let them be awed.

Harry was not by any means pleased with the present state of things. The wizard's incompetence in regards to dealing with the Death Eaters, especially given that group's competence was simply inexcusable.

What little he had bothered to look into in regards to them was that the so called Death Eaters mainly attacked 'muggles', no doubt the purpose of the attack on the school some weeks earlier, and they would occasionally target other wizards mainly muggleborns, though mainly it was arson in regards to attacks on other wizards.

All of those things didn't really concern him, given the fact he was fairly certain his magic, which was much more suited for fighting, gave him the edge.

His inheritance on the other hand was something, which greatly concerned him refurnishing Potter castle would take time as would building the necessary buildings for producing equipment and such.

Of course with this dramatic increase in resources it would allow him to construct those vital resources that much sooner, the down side was this much sooner meant he still would have to wait for his pool of minions to grow.

Good or bad things had changed and that meant plans would need to change, and hence his plan to redirect his attention to acquiring more ork minions.

They would be more useful in open area construction and manual labor than the goblins he had, who were really only good for digging when it came to manual labor. Admittedly digging could be useful for certain things. Indeed there were several mines he intended to have the goblins exploit with their capacity for excavation.

Alchemy and clockwork building were subjects he had only tinkered with at present the fact was Homunculi and machines which worked with magic as well as golems was not something he had done much research in at present.

That would change eventually for all those fields obviously but at the moment those kind of workers and assistance were not available to him. This sudden influx of resources had not been something he'd accounted for in his plans.

In those plans he had expected by the time he had the resources to build a fortress he'd already have completed enough research to build such constructs to assist in the construction. Potter castle was already built, with magic he could modify the structure to his liking as his ancestors had done before him. Or to be more precise to modify the castle to better fit his plans once he'd brought the castle up to par.

Building the barrier, whether it would be a wall, moat or whatever it would be that he finally decided as the boundary would take time as well. Modifying and updating the wards would also take time, as would preparing the defenses. Setting up the workshops and getting the minions to run them would also take more of the same.

All in all there was a lot of work to be done, and at the moment it did seem that there was time to do it. Moving the minions he had at present had been somewhat of a menial task, though.

Establishing places for the spiders was easy enough, captured normals were the same, and so on and so forth for the goblins and for the minions he had in smaller numbers. By and large his forces were as previously touch on, goblins and spiders. The handfuls of others were much smaller in number than either of those two groups of minions.

Orcs were brutish creatures, strong and durable but simple, and up until this point he hadn't focused on summoning them. They were however capable in some crafts, such as lumber, or smithing or even putting siege weapons together or mining, once construction of the mine was done to accomadate their size.

Construction was something they would be good for building things that needed to be built was where their strength would be useful. Of course they'd be stretched thin until he could increase their numbers. As it stood he simply didn't have enough for all the projects he had planned.

That meant he would have to wait before starting some of those infrastructure projects simply because of lack of manpower both in regards to construction as well as on the matter of minions to run the projects.

In the immediate timeframe of things logging camps were a priority simply because he needed to clear the over grown land. It had to be cleared before anything could be done with those areas.

However with the castle in the state of disrepair that it was in that harvested lumber could be put to good use, and of course they would need that wood for other building projects. Still building lumber camps was something he knew already and had planned for on his last visit, and the camps could be built fairly expediently, hence why the first camps were already up and running and felling trees.

The fact was he still needed to decide what was the next course of action in regards to building. Already the goblins were busy tunneling into the mountains through the existing mines looking to reopen the quarries soon.

Wizards had hidden a great deal of land from muggles over the years, but in the process of doing so had hidden it from other wizards and over the years that land had been lost to history. Putting that land back to good use would take time, obviously, as well as more minions if he was to do such expediently.

Establishing brick makers and other clay product producers would potentially have to wait after all stone, metal, and wood were all much better foci for magical energy. Unfortunately establishing an iron works would also take far more time than other projects but it would be needed to make defenses and equipment.

This place has seen less and less use not because it was no longer viable but merely due to the changing trends of society. Harry had no interest in these trends, this castle would serve his needs.

Advanced defenses for this castle, and other places, would require iron works to be built as well as magic users to create the defenses with the iron vessels. That would involve rune carving and enchanting both of which would require investments time.

His existing magic strictly speaking had refined applications in combat and preparations for defense and supplementation. Wizards however had been at peace that their application reflected it. Household charms and such though undoubtedly their potions and wards were something he could use in his plans.

Still the wizards did pose a potential challenge at present, just due to their numbers and development of their magic. The law enforcement branch was incompetent, at least against those who were fighting back, the department head however was to curious for his tastes.

She was unfortunately not the only one, the wizards were not used to such demonstrations of ability in magic in this day and age. No doubt there would be more questions as the 'paralysis' caused by awe began to fade.

Harry leaned on the metal staff he carried in thought. At them moment he wasn't fully acquainted with this society in addition he still had his own research into magic to do. All of his research was meant for a specific goal.

The end of muggle society was that goal, to do that he had to do more research and make further preparations. He needed to build objects which would release large enough magical pulses to cripple technology, and then have armies of minions finish the job of destroying the civilization, but all that would take time. Just like everything else, time was needed to make preparations to get things ready.

Harry walked towards his own hall, there were preparations to be made for the short term to facilitate long term plans. Construction required raw materials, which meant he needed to establish raw material harvesting and production. So he would have the materials to build bigger structures, which he would need for his plans.

Wood would be sufficient for basic buildings other than that he'd still had yet to decide which to start on in regards to more 'advanced' infrastructure buildings because of his at present limited number of capable minions.

The coming school year also raised issues among those was the fact he would need to acquaint himself with the existing wizard society. Still the 'Death Eaters' seemed little different than the skin heads or the like in the muggle world.

Law enforcement was lax at best though or at worst the government was corrupt or sympathetic to them. The first two were opportunities to exploit for his agenda. Though the Death Eater's attack against Diagon Alley did slightly concern him as it meant he would need to be more prepared to fight. In his original plans he hadn't expected to face another magic user in a fight for along time.

In fact his own estimations were that by the time he found another magic user, not just some one with the capacity but a person who was actively able to focus magic naturally and use it in a fight, he'd have already expanded his own repertoire of spells and abilities significantly.

Contact with the Wizards had been an unforeseen turn of events and had the rather bothersome effect of disrupting his plans. The fact was he hadn't expected such a society or any society as his lack of contact with any other magic users had caused him to suspect they were even more rare than they apparently were.

When school started he'd be surrounded by young wizards which would be both a potential benefit and a probable nuisance. His minions would be able to handle construction in his absence while he was away, thus work on restoring the castle would continue.

Right now the capacity of the wizards was not fully quantified, yes they could use magic but they seemed limited in regards to combat, however this was not confirmed.

Also there were a great deal of them, enough that they could be a serious impediment to his plans unless he took precautions.

None of them knew of his plans, which of course would be the way he would prefer it to stay for the time being. On the other hand they seemed to dismiss the threat posed by muggle, and this coupled with their incompetence could be a problem.

After the magic pulses destroyed the majority of non magical technology Harry would have little if any complaints against setting the wizards loose, if a couple off the hardline purebloods got killed 'muggle hunting' so what.

However that was a long way off so for the time being he couldn't really afford to have the Death Eaters, or anyone else of like mind running around potentially endangering his plans with their idiocy. Still there were other concerns regarding the wizards. These so called purebloods as well as others.

This castle and the lands it sat upon were his, passed through generations of his father's family. An old and powerful pureblood family, and there in was the problem.

There were several old and powerful pureblood families in England alone, and many more had gone silent over the years. Many such plots of land, like his own, had been hidden away by wizards through the ages and who was to say that some threat or another might not have infested these lands.

Or possibly worse that one of these other old, distinguished pureblood families had a castle not unlike his own and that it was already prepared for war. There was no guarantee that all the castles which belonged to wizards had been abandoned and that could be a real problem.

Especially if such castles were to be used in the same manner that he intended to use the castle he was residing in at this very moment.

He had a little less than a month left until he started attending the wizard school that was apparently located somewhere in northern Scotland. There was a lot of work and planning in regards to the castle that needed to be done before he departed for there, as well as research to be done and spells to be practiced.

Elsewhere in England there was another plotter who was dealing with his own headaches concerning plans and the complications they faced. Namely keeping the purebloods in line or more appropriately away from the wizarding world's savior.

As expected, and to his annoyance the wizards were curious. Dumbledore, who was considered one of their more influential people, had even attempted to open some kind of dialogue on the matter.

Harry had declined citing he was occupied with other matters which required the whole of his attention. By all accounts it was true, as well as being the same response he had sent to others who inquired as to his time. For at the moment he was all to occupied with matters of blood, of his inheritance, and of his own 'legacy'.

Castle repair was a time consuming process that much was also true. Luckily the extent of repairs was not as great as it could have been. Harry had even established and carried out a summoning of new minions here. As soon as such was done he had had the castle secured.

Days had passed since then, and the time to head to the wizards' school was drawing ever nearer. Harry had made his preparations for the trip already, and now all that remained was to use the time which did remain.

Research and calculations could be done and orders pushed along to minions and that was what would be done. By the time he returned for Christmas break the paths would be clear and the repairs to the castle be done.

Once such basic tasks were finished more advanced ones could be under taken here. Seven years, seven years at the wizard school awaited him even should their magic only be useful in the most obscure subjects of theirs it would be worth it. Time enough was seven years to make the preparations needed.

Enough time to bring the castle to the level he desired it to be at for his plans. When those seven years had passed he still wouldn't have enough minions, not yet but it would be nearing what he desired.

For now however seven years was a long way off. It was enough time for a problem to creep up, or some new complication to manifest and cause him to need to again alter his plans. His life was about to change, this wasn't a normal school and he'd probably have to play catch up or maybe he wouldn't, that would all depend on how things played out at the place in question.

Unlike in muggle schools he had attended up until this point he had not had the time before hand to prepare extensively on subjects, yet at the same time he was already well versed in controlling his birthright. A control that reached levels it seemed most adults in the wizarding world never achieved.

The constant work and practice made him powerful and he had dedicated a great deal of his time to studying the fores of the arcane. So while he wasn't totally familiar with the subjects that would be studied anything, which involved the direct application of magic, he would have little problem figuring out. This was proven by his ability to replicate the wizard's memory altering spell to at least usable levels.

On the other hand more book based academic subjects would require more time dedicated to simply studying the subjects in question. This was sure to be an annoyance as it would cut down on his personal research time.

As annoying as such was sure to be from appearances given by the acquired textbooks such subjects would be limited to 'History of Magic' and 'Potions' as far as he figured and the latter might prove useful.

In theory charms, Defense against the Dark Arts, and transfiguration would all be practical applications of magic. At least in theory given what he had seen defense was probably about as useless as could be.

Not that he expected he'd need the lessons but there was a small chance the wizards would have useful spells given the memory altering one. Of course that was not likely to be something to be taught to school children.

Harry scowled at the distant skyline, if not for a mix of paranoia that he would miss something potentially important, as unlikely as such was, he'd have considered mail wards.

Wizards were both extremely annoying and extremely nosy still they had their potential uses. At the present they were however really irritating him by sticking their noses into his affairs.

Establishing his own wards was something he could only do in a limited capacity with the castle at present but the castle's existing concealment and defensive magiks were sufficient to prevent any uninvited visitors.

Add to that there were extensive, Harry was not aware of this yet, anti apparition wars surrounding not simply the castle but the lands around it, and that he hadn't connected the castle to the floo network his domain was very isolated from the majority of wizarding society given the distance and lack of knowledge.

Such was as Harry preferred it, the isolation would permit him at least some degree of peace and freedom to carry out his work without interruptions.

Most people didn't have an idea onto the exact holdings of the old pureblood families, and this was an advantage he intended to use to his fullest benefit. Once the preparations were complete and he could add his own concealment wards the castle would be that much harder to reach whether for muggles or wizards.

Though in regards to the prior if it did ever come to a shooting war they had weapons which would be a problem. As the weapons could be simply fired to impact in the general area of whatever they wanted to hit.

Of course the chances of that occurring were quite low, and he'd probably kill any one before they got the chance to share the information concerning the general area of the castle.

Chapter conclusion

Helltanz's notes: Basically plot building the next chapter should hopefully be more interesting to you readers. Also I'm probably going to cut back future chapters to 5k words for convenience, for another site, even so updates will remain at about the same frequency.

The good news since I'm focusing on this story that update rate will probably be at least once a month possibly more depending.