Chapter 39
Harry realized at once what he'd said and then he couldn't think of anything else to say. They stared at each other for a long while as more and more decaying corpses hauled themselves out of the water and surrounded them.
"I… er…" Tom swallowed once, twice and then seemed to shake himself out of whatever stupor had come over him. "I have feelings for you, too. Very severe and real feelings."
Harry bit his lip so he wouldn't burst out in laughter. He was so, so glad to see that Tom was worse at this than he was.
"I've just never had those feelings before, for anyone," Tom continued, voice pitching higher and higher the more he talked.
"So what you're saying is that there's feelings and they're real and they're freaking you out a little bit," Harry summarized when Tom looked like he was on the verge of hyperventilation.
"Yes, exactly," Tom eagerly agreed, seeming very relieved that Harry had understood his mindless rambling.
"Let's stick with that for now." Harry closed the small distance between them and gave Tom a sound kiss. "I meant what I said about this gift, though. Best gift ever."
"I'm glad you like it." Tom sounded uncharacteristically shy and quickly cleared his throat. "How are we going to get them to Magica?"
"I'll open a portal to my yard and store them there while we dig some more bunkers around the island." Harry raised his hands and felt for the magic that surrounded the inferi. "This is fascinating, how you've reanimated them," Harry said with a huge smile, looking between Tom and the inferi and back. "It's like you needed to travel from here to the entrance thirty feet away but you decided to take a detour past London, Antwerp and Paris first before arriving at your destination. The magic is sound, but there's just a lot of unnecessary steps involved."
"Dumb wizard, dumb wizard," V crowed while chattering in Tom's direction.
Tom waved both their comments away with a roll of his eyes. "Yes, yes. Soon enough I'll learn to do it the right way."
Harry got a portal opened in no time at all, and as the inferi stepped through it, Tom released command of each of them to Harry. It was a heady feeling, to suddenly have a few hundred inferi more in your power, but Harry resisted the urge to just bask in this delicious dark magic that bloomed inside of him. He kept focussed and after half an hour or so they'd emptied out the lake and stepped through the portal to Magica.
The bedraggled inferi stood spread out across Harry's yard looking very out of place in the bright sun. The Thestrals were spread out amongst the corpses and it took Harry a moment to realize those fucking things were nibbling on his amazing gift.
"They're eating the inferi!" Harry cried, running towards the nearest Thestral who had a whole decomposing hand in its mouth. "Shoo, shoo!"
V took to the air and cawed, "Bad mule, bad mule. Shoo, shoo!"
Meanwhile Tom stood bent over at the waist, laughing hysterically in a way that made it clear he couldn't stop even if he wanted to.
"Keket!" Harry yelled at his oldest friend, who sat sniggering as she watched the show. "These fucking things are your subjects. They're not allowed to eat the inferi. Do something!"
Keket did nothing but snigger more as Harry frantically ran between the thestrals, making furious motions with his hands to shoo them away. The thestrals flapped lazy wings in his direction, as though he was nothing more than a tiny annoyance and happily kept munching on the feast before them.
Two teenage boys were hovering on brooms above the whole spectacle and it took Harry a minute to even notice them. "Hey," Harry called, craning his neck to stare up at them. "Can you help chase off the Thestrals? They're eating my inferi and they're not allowed."
"I can't even see those things," the boy with the light blond hair shouted back.
"I can but I'd rather not get so close to those dead bodies," the boy with the darker blond hair added.
Well, what fucking useless neighbours did Harry even have? Harry tried feebly to chase off a few more Thestrals to no avail, and then he was just done.
Harry stood stock still in the middle of the feasting Thestrals, grabbed hold of his wards with his magic and summarily ejected every single fucking Thestral from his property. The lot of them went flying, wings flapping frantically, knocking over inferi left and right.
Keket let out an affronted roar but Harry turned on her and pointed a finger at her. "Don't complain now, Keket. I gave you a chance to fix the problem yourself." Harry straightened his shoulders and gave Keket a pointed look. "You can still play with your friends, just not on my property."
The whole herd of thestrals, almost fifty animals at this point, stood right at Harry's ward line, staring at the damaged inferi with hungry, white eyes.
Tom had regained his composure, though he was still wiping at his eyes as he joined Harry. "Nice show of magic."
"Thanks." Harry beamed at him. "Let's get those bunkers made quickly. Who knows what else on the island might want to eat our new security personnel." He noticed that the teens were still hovering above his property. "Anyone we know?"
"That's Draco Malfoy," Tom whispered, and honestly, that much was obvious since Draco looked a great deal like both his parents. "And the other one is Theodorus Nott's son, Theo."
"I don't like people staring as I work," Harry muttered and then waved at the boys. "Hey! If you like, you can go race a dragon. His name is Rigel and he lives in the mountain."
"A dragon?" Draco demanded, flying a little lower. "What kind of dragon?"
"Isn't that dangerous?" Theo asked with a worried frown.
"A Hungarian Horntail, and he's very friendly, promise. Go look for yourselves." Harry was stoked when the teens couldn't resist the temptation of seeing a real live dragon and flew off. Sharing a knowing little smile with Tom, Harry clapped his hands together. "Let's make some traps."
They selected sites all around the island and dug bunkers into the bedrock, much like Harry had already done when he'd turned Greyback and his cronies into inferi to use as security for the island. They added eight to ten inferi per bunker and then closed the whole thing off. The inferi would stay there, slumbering, until Harry summoned them to the surface in case of an attack.
Every fifteen minutes or so for most of the afternoon they saw Rigel's enormous body flying over, followed by two small dots yelling in sheer delight. V cawed obscenities at them but otherwise left them alone.
It took them most of the day to get it all done, but Harry would sleep better at night knowing they had some defences in place now. The next day Harry planned to start working on strengthening the wards.
As they flew home, Tom turned to Harry, the wind whipping around their faces. "Want to go to the pub tonight?"
"Sure," Harry yelled back. "Any reason?"
"It's New Year's." Tom hesitated for a moment and then added, "And it's my birthday."
Harry almost fell out of the sky from shock and it took him a few tries to regain his trajectory. V cackled like a mad thing as he flew circles around Harry. "It's your birthday? Fucking hell, Tom, you should have said something. You got me an amazing gift and I got you nothing."
"You did!" Tom yelled back, cheeks red from the cold wind. "You got me a home!"
Harry's smile was terribly sappy and the moment they touched down in front of Harry's castle, or rather their home, Harry hauled Tom in for a deep kiss. "Happy birthday," Harry whispered against his lips. "Sorry I didn't get you a proper present."
"You've given me more than enough already," Tom assured him and they went down to the kitchen where Violet had a lovely meal of roast chicken with mashed potatoes and creamed spinach waiting for them. Dobby presented Tom with a birthday cake after dinner, with a lot of burning candles which Tom blew out with determination.
They took a shower together, with only some quick shared hand jobs since they were in a hurry, and then flew to Spellbridge through the dark sky.
The Irish Cock was crowded, which was to be expected since it was New Year's Eve. Harry and Tom found some empty seats at Sirius and Reggie's table. Sirius was heavily flirting with Kashvi, but Regulus seemed to welcome their company.
"Barty had to stay at Hogwarts?" Harry guessed while Tom went to get them all some pints of Guinness.
Regulus nodded. "He couldn't get away. I'll see him in a few days."
"Just a few more months," Harry said with a kind smile. Tom had decided to keep Barty at Hogwarts for as long as the Tournament was still ongoing, just so he had someone on the ground to make adjustments as needed.
There were a handful of teenagers cramped in a corner, Draco and Theo amongst them. Harry realized the other kids must be the children of some of the muggleborns on the island. Hogwarts was closed for repairs so those kids were all home for the rest of the holidays at least.
Yeah, Harry realized with a sigh. There was no way they could keep Magica a secret for much longer with teens blabbing to their friends. Oh well. The secret had to come out at some point.
"Barty made a good point this morning when I talked to him through the mirror," Reggie said, gratefully accepting a pint that Tom handed him. "We should get the paperwork to file for independent status with the ICW filled out and keep it ready to file the moment we're discovered."
"That is an excellent idea," Tom said with an approving nod while Harry wondered why they hadn't thought about that earlier. "We'll get that taken care of as soon as possible."
The bar door opened and Harry looked at it with half an eye, until he saw that it was Remus who entered, followed by some of Harry's favourite people in the entire world.
The vampires had arrived.
"Hey!" Harry yelled, jumping up from his seat and waving frantically.
"Hey!" Daniella and Shiv yelled back while the rest grinned in ways that perfectly showed off their fangs.
"Oh fuck no," Tom groaned and took a fortifying gulp of his Guinness.
Harry ignored him and went to greet his new friends who welcomed him with open arms and many excited tales of their new underground homes that Remus had just shown them.
Ernest and his chaps had brought their instruments and before long a rowdy tune filled the crowded pub and the atmosphere became even more festive and jolly.
Harry danced with a few of the vampires until his feet hurt and then he sat down with Tom again because he didn't want his boyfriend to be alone on his birthday. And yeah, Tom was totally his boyfriend, Harry saw that now.
In fact, just an hour before midnight, as everyone was getting well into their cups, Harry climbed onto his chair and raised his glass. "Today's my boyfriend's birthday! Happy birthday, Tom! Next round's on me!"
Ernest and the band immediately started playing Happy Birthday, naturally, and the whole pub joined in giving a vividly embarrassed Tom a drunken serenade.
"How's that for a gift," Harry said with a cackle while V was bouncing around on the table in sheer happiness at seeing Tom's face turn red.
At midnight there was a deafening roar as everyone wished everyone else a happy new year and the band started playing a rowdy version of Land of Hope and Glory, followed by Rule Britannia, which the entire pub sang along with, even when they didn't know the lyrics and soon enough people started changing Britannia to Magica, allowing for even more confusion. But at that point most people were too drunk to care, so much fun was had anyway.
Harry wasn't sure how the hell they got home, but they woke up in their own bed the next morning and ultimately that's all that mattered.
"Potion," Harry croaked as he woke up with a pounding head and rolling stomach. "Dobby, potion!"
Dobby, that amazing elf, knew exactly what they needed and before long Harry and Tom downed a hangover potion each and were ready to face the day. A full English breakfast in bed energized them enough for a nice fuck in the shower and afterwards they decided to start on strengthening the wards. But first Tom sat down at his desk and wrote a request for the forms to declare an independent nation and then used Poppy, Harry's eagle owl, to send it to the ICW in Geneve.
"I also have a very vague impulse to ask someone to compose a national anthem for Magica," Harry muttered as they opened the front door so Poppy could take flight. "Though I haven't a clue why."
Tom chuckled as he followed Harry out of the castle. "We should really implement anti-apparition wards," Tom suggested as they stepped out of the castle into the brisk January air. If it weren't for Harry's runes that kept the weather nice and stable it would most certainly have been freezing.
A small distance away the herd of Thestrals stood behind the invisible ward line, giving Harry's property forlorn looks. Yeah, fuck those things. Harry still hadn't forgiven them for eating his precious inferi. They could stay outside for now.
"Bad mule, bad mule," V cawed as he tauntingly flew over their heads.
"How should we implement those wards?" Harry asked. He had some idea of his own on this subject, but he wanted to hear Tom's opinion on this as well.
"Direct all international apparition and portkey travel to one point on the island where visitors have to check in," Tom said as they stopped walking for a moment. "We can still allow apparition within Magica, so people can easily get around."
"And out of it," Harry quickly said. He didn't want to have to move to one fixed point on the island every time he apparated to the UK or mainland Europe. "Let's go talk to Sebastian."
They found their Construction Officer at his home, just finishing up his breakfast.
"We need a terminal for international apparition and portkey travel," Harry said by way of greeting. Thankfully Sebastian was the kind of man who didn't expect people to mince words for him. "I'm thinking behind the Ministry building, there's plenty of space there. New arrivals can register at once and easily move to the Ministry if they have business there."
One of the departments Harry and his family had decided on was the Department of Housing and Financial Assistance. They would be taking care of all the details from then on that Remus had looked after up until that point.
"Sure thing," Sebastian said with an easy nod. "We'll get started on it first thing in the morning. Any requirements?"
"Just that it's functional," Harry said with a grateful smile. "I'll leave the design up to you."
With that out of the way, Harry and Tom got busy with the wards. Tom was an absolute genius when it came to warding, Harry soon found out. Tom was quick yet meticulous with inscribing the necessary runes all around the island's shoreline. Harry copied him but he honestly got rather distracted more often than not from watching Tom work.
Around lunchtime Harry summoned Violet and asked her to prepare a simple picnic for them. She brought them a thermos of tea, hot sausage rolls and little pork pies. They sat on the rocks overlooking the ocean as they devoured their lunch, much hungrier than usual from working in the cold, salty air around them. V demanded a whole sausage roll for himself, which he tore into with vigour.
"You're still you," Harry said after all the food was gone and they were finishing their tea. "You're mostly still the same bloke, but you've also changed since you got your soul back."
"Have I?" Tom quirked an eyebrow at Harry. "How so?"
"You're more relaxed, I think," Harry said, giving Tom a good once over. "Less stuck up."
Tom chuckled and gave Harry a very fond smile. "I suppose I am. Also less inclined to want to rule the entire world."
"Just our own country," Harry said knowingly.
"Exactly." Tom leaned over to give Harry a soft kiss. "Running one country with you is more than enough to keep my megalomaniacal side satisfied."
They spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up the wards and once they got home they enjoyed a simple dinner of shepherd's pie, a welcome, hearty meal after long day of work in the outdoors. They headed to bed early, both exhausted. Harry didn't even mind that there wasn't any sex but instead they cuddled for a while as they both succumbed to sleep.
The next morning they were up fairly early and there was plenty of time for a delicious romp between the sheets. After a shower they had breakfast, in the kitchen as usual. Both Tom and Harry enjoyed the comfortable hominess of the kitchen over the impersonal dining room.
Dobby popped into the kitchen as they were enjoying their waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. "Master Tom be seeing this right away." Dobby placed the rolled up Daily Prophet in front of Tom instead of leaving it on his desk like he usually did.
Tom placed down his fork, unrolled the newspaper and looked at the frontpage with a curious curve of his eyebrow.
"What?" Harry asked anxiously. Were they already discovered? If so, at least they got the wards up in time, though they hadn't yet activated the anti-apparition wards. The terminal wasn't built yet to receive people.
Tom chuckled and quickly gave Harry a reassuring look. "The British Ministry has finally figured out that Knockturn Alley has all but emptied. Even Ruben Lyon has disappeared. The bartender and owner of the White Wyvern, the pub in Knockturn Alley," Tom explained when Harry looked at him with a blank stare.
"So we're getting another pub," Harry concluded with a happy little smile. Harry loved a good pint, so the more the merrier, as far as pubs were concerned.
"I'm sure Ruben is setting it up in Fantastic Alley as we speak," Tom said, referring to the alley off High Street that Harry had created especially for the Knockturn Alley denizens. "Listen to this," Tom said and started quoting the newspaper. "Minister Fudge was just as puzzled as everyone else we've spoken to about the disturbing disappearance of the Knockturn Alley occupants. 'We have not rounded anyone up,' Minister Fudge insisted when we asked him. 'None of these people have been chucked in Azkaban, I promise you.' But when asked what did happen to the Knockturn Alley natives, Minister Fudge had no answer."
Harry laughed, long and hard, as he threw his head back. "So they're still going with the rumour that the Ministry's been illegally detaining every werewolf and hag they could find."
"Apparently," Tom said with an amused chuckle, reading the rest of the article with rapid movements of his brown eyes. "Here's another great bit: We found one lone occupant in Knockturn Alley packing up her Apothecary business. She wished to remain anonymous but she was willing to tell us she was leaving for better pastures. 'I'm going to the promised land,' she said while giving us suspicious glares. 'Not a single one of you lot has ever accepted us, except when it came time to charge us ridiculously high rent and income taxes. No more. I'm going to a much better place. Now get the hell out of my shop.'"
"Oh, so we're getting an apothecary," Harry said, pleased by that bit of news. "I'm sure they'll do really great business with hangover potions."
Tom snorted and gave Harry a bit of a tired look. "I'm sure they'll do much more business than that. But fact remains that people are now aware that something is going on."
"But not yet what exactly," Harry insisted. "We're just about ready to be discovered anyway."
Tom got a thoughtful frown on his face as he closed the newspaper and picked up his cup of tea. "We've only really recruited from the UK so far," Tom said slowly and took a sip of tea. "Which might give the British Ministry some sort of vague claim over Magica." Tom quickly held up a hand when Harry looked ready to protest. "One easy way around this is to start recruiting from mainland Europe. Put out some feelers with the werewolves there, and the muggleborns and perhaps the Veela community as well."
"Sure, we can do that." Harry wiped his mouth with a napkin and sat back in his chair. "We've got the town meeting tonight, so we'll bring it up."
"Good idea."
Just then Igor came shuffling into the kitchen, a letter in his hand, which he placed in front of Harry.
"Thank you, Igor," Harry said loudly with a pointed glare at Tom. "See, just as valuable as a house-elf."
"But far less talkative," Tom couldn't help but say, which earned him an eyeroll in return.
Harry opened the letter and read its contents. "It's from Gringotts. They've decided they want to open up a branch of their bank here in Magica." Harry gave Tom a huge grin. "Stormaxe is asking for an appointment with us to sign some contracts and such."
"Excellent." Tom leaned back in his chair and exchanged an extremely satisfied grin with Harry. "This will only give us more credibility with the ICW."
"Igor, bring me an empty bottle of wine!" Harry told his butler who stood quietly by the door.
"Eurgh!"
Harry folded up the letter. "I'll send Stormaxe a portkey and then we'll give him the full tour of Magica."
Dobby popped back into the kitchen and handed Tom another newspaper. "Master Tom is receiving two papers this morning."
It was a copy of The Daily Snitch, Sabrina's brand-new newspaper.
"What's in it?" Harry craned his neck to try to read the front page and Tom held the newspaper at an angle so Harry could at least see most of it.
The front page held several announcements, about the Daily Snitch itself, but also about the Ministry of Magica's search for personnel and about that evening's town meeting.
"Sabrina's sending everyone a free newspaper twice this week, but after that people are expected to get a subscription," Tom said as he skimmed the second page of the paper.
"We'll get one," Harry said at once, though that hardly needed confirmation with a bibliophile like Tom. Of course Tom was getting a subscription.
Igor returned to give Harry an empty bottle, and on his heels was Sabrina, who gave them both a happy smile to see them reading her newspaper.
"It looks great!" Harry said, genuinely impressed she'd put it together in such a small timeframe.
"Thanks! I used my brother's printing press and Mildred let me use the owls at the post office early this morning." Sabrina was once again holding a scroll and unrolled it so she could study its contents. "I promised Xenophilius we'd move his house today, if that's all right?"
"Sure, we can do that right away." Harry pushed his chair back and got up.
"I'll put the finishing touches on Project Cuckoo and get started on some statements for once we're discovered," Tom said, also getting up. He gave Harry a quick but heartfelt kiss and then disappeared into the library.
Xenophilius and his daughter Luna lived in a house that perfectly reflected the peculiarity of the whole family. Luna seemed like a kind and inquisitive young woman who gladly followed Harry and Sabrina around as they prepared the property for relocation.
"What sort of animals are there on your island?" Luna asked. She'd been asking questions about anything and everything.
"We've got a dragon," Harry revealed dramatically.
"Oh." Luna frowned and gave Harry a serious look. "How about crumple-horned snorkacks?"
Harry gave Sabrina a questioning look but Sabrina's face gave nothing away. "We don't have them yet, but we might get them in the future. You should speak with Masaru, he's our Game Warden," Harry said to the girl who was just as weird as her aunt, as it turned out. Looked a lot like her, too.
"Could you not put us in a town?" Xenophilius asked when Harry got ready to move the property. "Somewhere a bit more remote would suit us better."
"I know just where to put you," Harry said as he opened a portal to where Hippogriff Hollow was planned, near the lake in the north-west corner. He placed the tower and its surrounding lands away from what one day would become a bustling town, right along the edge of what hopefully would grow into Centaur forest. The trees were now a good eight feet tall, but still looked quite spindly.
"Oh, this is lovely," Xenophilius said, standing in his doorway and briefly glancing outside. "If you'll excuse me, I've got work to do. The Quibbler doesn't print itself." And with that he firmly closed the door. Luna stood outside and looked up to the sky where a few of the local hippogriffs were flying around.
"Are those Flurrieflies?" Luna asked, hand perched above her eyes to shield them from the sun.
"Weird witch, weird witch," V cawed from his position on Harry's shoulder.
"That's not very nice," Luna said with a stern look. "I thought sootwings were much more polite than this."
And that was the day Harry learned that Sabrina Lovegood was the sanest person in her entire extended family.
Right after lunch, which Harry had with both Tom and Sabrina in his castle's kitchen, an unexpected visitor dropped by their home. Harry, with Sabrina on his heels, went to meet them after Dobby popped into the kitchen to announce their guest's arrival.
Lucius Malfoy stood in the entrance hall, dressed in his finest wool cloak with black fur collar, looking around in obvious distaste at the rustic surroundings.
"Lucius," Harry said with an easy grin, voice just a tad too loud. Behind him Sabrina snickered. "What can I do for you?"
Lucius stared at Harry over his nose and sniffed. "I read in that quaint little newspaper this morning that the Ministry of Magica is looking for personnel. I do believe I am the best possible candidate for any number of positions."
"Such as?" Harry asked with a curious tilt of his head.
"Such as Head of Law Enforcement," Lucius said with an eager smirk.