Chapter 26
Harry gave Voldemort an indulgent smile. "Dementors are filled with souls, and guess what… I can move souls where I want them. Outside of their bodies even. Turns out their bodies aren't built for that. Hence the explosion." Harry made a gesture with his hand, opening his fingers rapidly, to illustrate the point.
"Soul boom, soul boom," V cackled in agreement, bobbing up and down in amusement on his perch.
Voldemort slowly nodded his head and sipped his wine. "At this point I believe it is just better to accept that you'll always find new ways to turn my worldview upside down."
Chuckling, Harry leaned back in his chair and finished his own glass of wine. "That's perhaps for the best. Though, to be fair, I'm frequently amazed at things you all take for granted in this world as well."
"I suppose we're both in for a few more surprises then in the future," Voldemort agreed quietly.
Harry could hardly believe the day he'd had. Such a pleasant, enjoyable day, and he'd spent it all with his once enemy, the man who murdered his parents and who had even tried to murder him. They'd raised house-elves from the dead, they'd started the first stage of negotiations with the goblins, they'd planted matching orchards and now they were enjoying a wonderful dinner together.
What was the last time that Harry had felt this comfortable around someone else? Or when had Harry allowed himself to enjoy a few of life's pleasantries like this?
Not since the first of his children had died, Harry was sure of that. For the last few decades or more, since Harry's immortality had caught up with him by way of the deaths of his loved ones, Harry had, perhaps subconsciously, started withdrawing from certain aspects of life.
But now he felt that spark again, that burst of enthusiasm and passion that had started when he decided to first build a magical island and which now led to spending pleasant time with new friends.
Yeah, Harry realized, he had somewhat socially neglected himself for a while there, but thankfully that was changing now and Harry genuinely looked forward to many more days spent with Voldemort.
"I will summon my followers tomorrow," Voldemort said after he emptied his glass as well and placed it on the table. "Get them all sorted first. After that's done we can break into Azkaban."
Harry frowned when a thought occurred to him. "Could there be more wizards and witches in Azkaban who were treated unfairly or never got a trial, like Sirius?"
"There will be quite a few prisoners on the minimum security levels who are there for practicing forbidden magic," Voldemort said while he gave Harry an understanding nod. "These are potentially good people to add to Magica."
"I think we should take our time in Azkaban then," Harry said, filled with the determination not to let anyone rot in that prison who didn't absolutely deserve it. "Go through every prisoner and take most of the non-violent offenders with us."
"We can leave the rapists and murderers behind," Voldemort agreed easily. "But the poor sods who are in there for performing a forbidden ritual or a little blood magic certainly deserve a second chance."
"Good." Harry sighed and stretched his arms over his head. "I still have to pop by Sirius and Regulus and give them their gold."
Voldemort chuckled. "Or you could make them sweat a little longer and conveniently forget to do it tonight."
"Nah," Harry said with a grin. "I'd much rather not hold onto it longer than I have to, before something really does happen to it. I do sometimes have the worst of luck."
"That's a good point." Voldemort carefully pushed his chair back, looking rather regretful while he did so. "Then I shall leave you to it and thank you for a wonderful dinner."
"Thanks for daring to try Violet's cooking." Harry snickered and got up as well. "Though I can't tell you how awesome it is to finally have a servant who can cook."
Voldemort looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose I should get a house-elf for myself as well. A living one," he added quickly when Harry looked ready to offer him a house-elf inferius of his own. "I cannot depend on Quirrell to always do my cooking and cleaning now that he can move about freely again here in Magica."
"We can compare elves, then," Harry said, eager to see how his undead ones performed compared to their living counterparts. "See which one functions better."
"That would certainly be interesting to investigate." Voldemort followed Harry to the entrance hall where Harry opened the doors with a wave of his hand. "I will see you soon."
"Yeah," Harry said, feeling oddly disappointed that Voldemort was leaving, even after having spent the whole day with the man. "Good luck with your meeting tomorrow."
Once Voldemort had disappeared into the darkness outside, Harry wasted no time and got his broom from the closet and flew to Black Manor, V following him with rapid beats of his wings.
"We were wondering if you had changed your mind and decided to keep our gold for yourself," Sirius said with a laugh, but Harry did detect a hint of real nerves there. He couldn't even blame his godfather now that he'd seen how incredibly rich the Black family truly was.
"Nope, still don't want or need your gold," Harry said as he started unloading all the trunks and crates from his satchel. "Did you manage to set up a secure area to store it in? We might eventually get a Gringotts office here but that won't be for a while yet."
"Yep," Sirius said just as Remus and Regulus joined them in the hall. "We put part of the cellar under a Fidelius charm, with me as the secret-keeper."
"That's a simple but effective solution," Harry agreed, still unloading his godfather's riches.
V hopped from trunk to crate around the hallway. "Gold, gold, lots of gold."
"V was eager to keep it all for ourselves," Harry told his friends with a teasing grin.
"Ours, ours," V said, hunkering down on a particular large trunk and glaring at Sirius.
"Think again, feather-duster," Sirius said and levitated the trunk right out from under V, who flapped his wings frantically to not fall flat on the floor.
"Would you like to stay for a drink?" Remus asked when Harry made for the front door.
"I'd love to, but I need a nap right now. I'm planning on starting on the Hogwarts library tonight," Harry said. He wanted to get that over and done with now that his to-do list had grown yet again with the upcoming Azkaban heist.
Regulus looked up from the crates he'd been examining. "Will you get it all done tonight?"
"Not sure, but hopefully."
"I'll get the shelving finished first thing tomorrow morning then," Regulus said with an eager glint in his eyes. "Almost all of it is done. I also need to add some runes to activate the library charms."
"If I'm up all night I won't be at the library until midday at least, so there's no need to hurry," Harry said with a dismissive gesture.
"Okay. Thank you, Harry." Regulus offered him a grateful smile before going back to sorting through his family's treasure.
Harry flew back to his castle and made a beeline for his bed for a much needed nap. He set a simple alarm charm that woke him up half an hour before midnight. Though he was still tired, Harry was determined to get this task done because he was genuinely worried if he didn't do it now, it would be another week at least before he'd find time to do it.
After quickly washing his face and brushing his teeth, Harry felt refreshed enough to apparate to Hogsmeade, broom in his hand and V on his shoulder. V took to the sky while Harry flew through the darkness towards the astronomy tower. He'd heard plenty of stories from his father, how he'd snuck out to Hogsmeade by using his broomstick to simply fly from and to the astronomy tower, since the door there was apparently never locked.
Harry slipped his invisibility cloak on over his shoulders the moment he touched down on the tower and slid his broom into his satchel. V flew down the many steps and kept to the air, leading the way to the library while Harry quietly walked through the empty hallways.
The library was closed for the evening, but Harry had learned from his family members that there were no wards on the gates, merely a locking charm that Harry easily undid with a wave of his wand. Once inside the dark and deserted library, Harry got to work at once. He got more crates and trunks out of his satchel, though he was running rather low because he'd used most to move the Black fortune around, but he easily transfigured more from random sheets of parchment or broken quills that he found.
The magic Harry used to copy books was a combination of charms and transfiguration, that took air molecules and turned them into paper and ink while copying the exact design of the book. It was a very effective way to copy huge amounts of books without wearing the wizard out. The only downside was that since it used air molecules a very real consequence was that Harry might accidentally end up suffocating himself in between the library stacks, so the first thing he did was get some ventilation going with a few charms that would supply a steady stream of fresh air to the areas he was working in.
After that it was a matter of starting at one stack of books, working his way systematically down one row, to the next, until he moved to the next stack and the next, while books flew off their shelves, copied themselves mid-air before returning to their spots while the copies fell into the waiting trunk beneath it. The work wasn't difficult at all, but there were so many books to copy that it did get rather tedious after a while and Harry found himself nodding off while leaning against one of the stacks more than once.
"No sleep," V chattered while keeping an eye on Harry from on top of the stack. "Wake, wake."
"Sshh!" The last thing Harry wanted was for some caretaker to hear V's comments and come see what was going on in the library in the middle of the night.
There were a lot of books, on all sorts of subjects, and Harry looked forward to reading lots of titles that he came across.
Around four in the morning, Harry was done with the regular section of the library, and while yawning fiercely, Harry inspected the wards on the gates that blocked off the entrance to the restricted section. As it turned out, those wards were mostly meant to keep underage students out, and Harry was an adult. The other spells he found were merely very strong locking charms which weren't that difficult to break for him and before long Harry got started on copying every book in the restricted section as well.
By the time Harry was finally done and made his way back to the astronomy tower, the sun was cresting the horizon. Harry quickly flew just beyond the gates of Hogwarts, waited until V touched down on his shoulder and apparated home where he wasted no time going straight to bed.
V pecked him awake just before noon. "Wake, wake! Eat, eat!"
Harry blinked bleary eyes at his companion as he pushed himself up on his elbows. "Yeah, all right. Violet, breakfast in bed!"
Holy fuck, Harry couldn't believe he had a servant who could do that. He loved Igor, he really did, but having someone around who could make him breakfast in bed was just fucking awesome.
A few minutes later Violet appeared, holding a large tray while giving him a blank stare. "Eep."
"Thanks," Harry said, accepting the tray in his lap while eyeing the delicious food. Violet had made him some toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, some fried mushrooms and a strong cup of tea. It was the best breakfast Harry had in ages, and V also ate his fill as he sat beside Harry in bed.
Harry took a very quick bath, got dressed in clean clothes and then something occurred to him when he spotted the overflowing hamper. Igor did the laundry whenever Harry told him to, but he had to do it by hand and he often didn't wash things long enough to get things like bloodstains out of the linen. But now Harry had servants who could perform magic.
"Lavender, do my laundry!"
"Eep!" Lavender appeared at once and took the whole hamper away with a pop.
Harry laughed to himself while he jogged down the stairs. The moment he stepped outside, broom in hand, to make his way to the library to drop off his loot, a familiar looking owl swooped down on him and dropped a note in his hand. It was one of the owls Harry had bought for the post office, and the note was from Rachel, his natural development officer, who asked him for a meeting as soon as possible, so Harry mounted his broom and flew straight to her house.
"Good, you're here," Rachel said the moment she opened her door. "Come in, I need your opinion and advice."
"Sure." Harry sat down at her kitchen table, which was now almost completely covered with many piles of muggle books on all sort of natural subjects, and gladly accepted a cup of tea.
"I got a hundred head of mule sheep yesterday," Rachel said, voice full of enthusiasm as usual. "I managed to enlarge the inside of a crate usually meant to store wool in, herd all the sheep in there and then portkey the whole lot to the island."
"Ingenious. Well done," Harry said with a proud smile.
"I also got a whole bunch of ewes of primitive breeds, like Jacobs, Icelandic, Shetland, and Manx Loughtan. I'm still trying to find some Romanov hair sheep rams, but I've got some leads." Rachel was practically beaming when she was done talking.
"I'm very happy to hear that," Harry said honestly, relieved that Rigel and Keket, had something to hunt and eat that weren't his precious Shetland ponies.
"But I've been thinking," Rachel said, her tone betraying she wasn't sure if Harry was going to like whatever she had to say next. "How do you feel about wolves? Or bears?"
Harry blinked. "I like them just fine as long as they aren't eating my livestock."
Rachel sighed and threw her head back briefly. "Here's the thing, Harry. Muggles have bollocksed the conservation of wildlife up royally. In mainland Europe the wolf has been pretty much hunted to extinction. Same with the brown bear." Rachel got a very determined frown on her face. "And what was done to wolves and bears here is nothing compared to what was done to the Siberian tiger."
"The what?" Harry asked, unsure what a tiger was.
At once, Rachel pulled a large book out from a random stack and shoved it towards Harry. The title read 'The Siberian Tiger' and the book was filled with very realistic, colourful pictures of a large orange cat with black stripes. In one picture the cat had a whole deer in its mouth and at once Harry worried for his precious Shetland ponies. Then he saw a chapter titled 'the man-eating tiger' and he also started worrying about Magica's human residents.
"We could offer these animals on the brink of extinction a home here, Harry," Rachel said, her brown eyes wide and her voice pleading.
Harry briefly closed her eyes while he bit her lip. "I understand your motivations, and I admire them," Harry told her diplomatically, meanwhile imagining his precious Shetland ponies ripped apart by wolves and bears and tigers. "But our country isn't built to house large predators, and that won't change for many more years to come." Harry held up a hand when Rachel seemed to want to argue with him. "Our country is too small right now. We will grow and in some years we might have enough land and natural resources to support a few bears. They're omnivores, so they'll be fine eating just about anything they can find. But wolves are notorious for killing free-ranging livestock. And while these tigers look magnificent, they form a very real risk for the people of our land."
"But," Rachel said, eyes getting a little misty. "These animals deserve homes, too, away from muggles who try to hunt them to extinction."
"What I can do, sometime in the future," Harry made a pointed gesture with his hands as if to push something far, far away from him, "is to create another island and set that up as a wildlife reservation. We could have wolves and tigers there, and we could take holidays there, admire the wildlife from a safe distance."
"Like ecotours!" Rachel perked up again and gave Harry a blinding smile. "That would be awesome. But we can introduce wild boars on Magica, right?"
"Not this year, as the plant life needs to establish a bit more, but in the future, absolutely," Harry agreed easily. Boars were delicious and having a steady supply of them to hunt was a good idea.
Rachel leaned closer to him across the table. "Also, I've been thinking about our lakes and rivers. Trout for the lakes, which are edible and fun to catch."
"Sure."
"And for our river, I was thinking about buying fertilized salmon eggs. When hatched in that river, the salmon will return there once they're adults to spawn, and we can catch them." Rachel looked at Harry as though she'd just announced that she'd invented the wheel for the very first time.
"That sounds fine to me." Harry finished his cup of tea and gave Rachel a nod. "You're welcome to add whatever you like to the lakes and river. I trust you with that. Just… any predator larger than a fox needs my permission, okay?"
"Okay!" Rachel all but bounced in her seat. "But I'm holding you to tiger island, Harry, don't think I won't."
"Sure, but not today." And with that, Harry pushed his chair back and got up with a sigh. "One more thing." Harry pulled a small bag of gold out of his satchel and handed it to Rachel. "Your salary for November. Thanks for your hard work. I appreciate it."
And while Rachel gratefully accepted the bag of coins, Harry saw himself out. One well-meant crisis averted. Harry decided to stroll to the library since town square bordered Walnut Street.
The first thing Harry noticed in Town Square was that the new pub now had wooden panelling on the outside where white stone used to be. The second thing he noticed was the huge sign above the doors and windows that said: THE IRISH COCK. Below it was a very small, very boring picture of a cockerel.
Harry bent over laughing, while V made affronted noises on his shoulder. Subtle Billy Malone was not, but Harry appreciated the humour of it, and he figured others would as well.
Once Harry entered the library he found it transformed. Right near the entrance stood a large wooden desk with a row of filing cabinets behind it. Beyond the desk were rows and rows of nicely finished wooden bookcases, some of them already quite full. Above them hung signs that displayed subjects like 'household charms' and 'hexes and curses'.
The moment the door fell shut behind Harry, Regulus stuck his head out from behind a bookcase. "Harry! You're here. Did you get all the books?"
"Books, books," V cawed as the took flight around the library. "Ours, ours."
"I did, yeah. Almost fell asleep a dozen times. Copying so many books is tedious work." Harry opened his satchel and started unloading the many, many trunks and crates.
"Sorting through the books is a lot of fun, though," Regulus assured him with a bright smile. This was the most lively Harry had seen him as of yet, and it was good to see Regulus with a healthy flush on his cheeks and an eager shine in his eyes.
"I'm sure you'll have all the fun in the world going through this mountain of books then." Harry reached inside his satchel and pulled out a small bag of coins. "Since it's payday for all my employees and you do work for me…" Harry held out the bag.
Regulus snorted and quickly shook his head. "Absolutely not. You've seen how much gold my family has. Sirius has given me half of it, to do with as I please. Even if I spend it generously I wouldn't run out of gold for the rest of my life. Keep that and give it to someone else. I consider myself a volunteer from now on."
"That works for me," Harry said with an understanding nod. Regulus had no need of this gold, but Harry knew a few people who did. His next stop was the post office where he found Mildred sitting behind the counter, chatting to the dozing owls while she knitted a red jumper.
"Harry, good to see you. Do you like what I did with the place?" Mildred asked as she gave him a beaming smile, her knitting needles clacking without interruption.
Mildred had decorated the post office with some simple pictures of flowers and landscapes, and she'd created a colourful pricelist based on the Diagon Alley Post Office brochure Harry had given her.
"It looks great. I can't stay long, I'm just here to pay you." Harry handed her a small pouch with a few coins. "You've only worked for a few days this month, but you get paid for every single one of them."
"Thanks," Mildred said with a shy smile. Then she sat up a little, her knitting needles finally pausing. "I was thinking, Harry, about our neighbours who don't have financial reserves to fall back on. We could start a public pantry."
"A what?" Harry asked with a frown, never having heard of such a thing.
"It's just a small space we set up somewhere on a street corner, where those of us who can miss a few things can leave food and other essentials for our neighbours who might otherwise go hungry before all our vegetables are producing."
"That is an excellent idea," Harry said with a thoughtful nod.
"I've already talked with Erika and Claire about it," Mildred continued, needles clacking away again. "And they are happy to donate their time and wood to create the pantry."
"Awesome," Harry said. "I'll leave it in your capable hands to set it up, and once it's there I'll fill it up on my dime the first time."
Mildred's smile was both grateful and a little sentimental. "You're a sweetheart, Harry. Thank you."
"No problem." Just as Harry left the post office, V turned around on his shoulder and glared at the owls.
"Dumb bird, dumb bird."
Harry's next stop was Town Hall, where Remus was getting ready to welcome the next batch of new residents.
"Harry," Remus said the second Harry walked through the door. "The construction crew was here earlier, since they finished those new streets but you hadn't suggested any names for them. They came up with Birch Street, Ash Drive, Beech Place and Poplar Lane, since those were the trees they planted there."
"Works for me," Harry said agreeably, glad his construction team were showing that kind of initiative. "Here, your salary." Harry handed Remus a bag of gold.
Remus blinked, looking at Harry as though Harry had just handed him a live rattlesnake. "What?"
"You work for Magica, Remus," Harry said with a grin as he sat down in one of the empty chairs beside the desk. "Of course you're getting paid."
"But I live in Black Manor, I get all my meals there…"
"So what?" Harry shrugged and crossed one leg over the other. "None of that means you don't deserve a salary for your hard work, same as everyone else."
Remus lowered his head, lips trembling briefly. "Yes, fine. Thank you."
"Pfff." Harry waved his comments away while wondering how badly the world had treated Remus that receiving a salary he'd earned through his hard work upset him so visibly. "How many new folks are moving in today?"
Remus collected himself and tucked the bag away inside his robes. "Er…about 20 or so, mostly werewolves."
"How many werewolves are left in Britain, do you think?" Harry asked, wondering if they'd been able to reach all of those wolves that needed help.
"There are still just under fifty or so left," Remus said while he gave Harry a worried frown. "But a big chunk of them are followers of Fenrir Greyback, and we don't want them on the island."
"No?" Harry widened his eyes as he gave Remus a questioning look. "Are they not the civilized kind of werewolves?"
"That's one way of putting it," Remus said, his nose wrinkled in obvious distaste. "Another way is explaining that Greyback prefers to infect very young children and keep them for his own bodily entertainment, and if those poor children survive to adulthood they usually end up with the same perversions as Greyback himself."
Harry sat up ramrod straight as he narrowed his eyes at Remus while old, almost forgotten memories of small dead bodies and crying children and the feeling of Rylan's cock ramming inside of him surfaced with a vengeance. "Where can I find this Greyback?" Harry asked, voice low and magic pooling in his eyes until they were glowing.
"Why do you want to know?" Remus asked in a whisper, his own face suddenly pale.
Harry's grin was absolutely predatory. "Because I'm going to kill that kiddie-fucker."
Voldemort refused to admit it to anyone, but he was feeling a little bit nervous about finally calling his followers to him. Just a smidge. The minutest amount. But it was still there, this annoying churning in his gut at the thought of having to announce to his followers they were going to do things differently.
Some would welcome this change, Voldemort knew, since they understood that this new direction was much safer for themselves and their families. But others, those who thrived on violence, would perhaps consider this new and improved plan weak and Voldemort no longer fit to lead them. Obviously Voldemort would tolerate no disturbances in the ranks and he would smack down any hint of mutiny with prejudice, but he was well aware that followers who no longer believed in him and their cause were ripe for the picking by people like Dumbledore, to be used, and eventually discarded, as spies. Voldemort would have to proceed with caution, no matter what.
Voldemort stood in the ballroom in what was now official called Gaunt Mansion, Quirrell and Barty by his side. He'd given Barty a head's up about the summoning, so he could evade Dumbledore without raising suspicion and make sure his Polyjuice had worn off before showing himself to his fellow Death Eaters.
"Your arm, Quirinius," Voldemort said, and the moment he was presented with Quirrell's bare forearm he pressed the tip of his yew wand against the Dark Mark. Quirrell cringed for a second at the sudden flash of pain but he recovered almost at once. Voldemort's newest marked servant had come a long way from the cowering man he'd been when Voldemort first met him.
"And now we wait," Voldemort said, wand in hand but pointed down.
"I can't wait to see who shows up," Barty muttered with a dark frown, still very sensitive about those followers who had rejected the Dark Lord after his fall to stay out of Azkaban.
The first masked Death Eater through the door was Severus, since Voldemort would recognize that swooping stalk anywhere. Lucius followed soon enough, blond hair a dead giveaway to his identity. Others followed who Voldemort could easily identify even with their faces covered. Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, Mulciber the elder, Rowle, Yaxley and Travers.
A few more trickled in before long, one whom Voldemort was surprised to see, though he had no idea why since he was still one of his Death Eaters.
Regulus slipped inside the room, head bent, face hidden, and he stood at the very back as far away from Voldemort as possible.
"Friends," Voldemort said when it seemed that all those that were going to show up had done so. "It's been thirteen years since we were gathered like this. Much as happened. Things you're aware of, like my temporary demise, and quite a few things that are going to surprise you, like the new location of our meetings."
Voldemort took a few steps forwards and walked up and down the line of masked Death Eaters, enjoying their obvious discomfort at having him pass by so closely, probably worried they'd get punished with the cruciatus curse any second now. But no, Voldemort had decided he wasn't going to punish his followers like that anymore, unless it was truly warranted.
"Friends, we stand before a choice we must all make," Voldemort continued as he stopped in front of his followers, hands clasped loosely behind his back. "All of you have a choice to make today. Remove your masks."
There was some surprised muttering, since Voldemort had never ordered his followers to bare their faces in a general meeting like this before. Only the inner-circle met with their faces unmasked. But his followers were still far too afraid of any potential punishment to disobey him so one by one they pulled their masks off and glanced carefully around the room, trying not to be too obvious they were doing so.
Voldemort nodded in satisfaction. "Now that we are all –"
"Reggie?"
Snapping his mouth shut, Voldemort glanced over his shoulder to see Barty standing there, white as a sheet, staring at the other side of the ballroom like he'd seen a ghost.
"Reggie? How?" And before anyone could say or do anything, Barty all but flew across the ballroom and threw his arms around a dazed looking Regulus, squeezing him so tightly even Voldemort started worrying for his well-being.
"Hi, Barty," Regulus said in a whisper, his eyes shining with happiness when Barty finally pulled back. It looked like Regulus might want to say more, but Barty never gave him the chance because he pressed his lips to Regulus' in a firm kiss. For a moment, Regulus stood completely still, eyes widened in shock, but then he tilted his head and answered the kiss while his eyes slowly closed.
Voldemort sighed. This is what happened when you stopped using the cruciatus curse on your followers, he just knew it.