The Search Is Over,
Chapter 154, Slytherin
Though a huge plan for literally changing the wizarding world was put on the table, nothing major happened for some time. Instead progress was slow and gradual, but Regulus felt this made the foundations it would require to succeed more stable. This meant that not only was it far more likely to happen, but it was also far more likely to actually last. He was happy to support it, to help in any way, because it was what he'd always wanted. Always he'd hoped to make the magical world a better place, only now he felt he was doing it right. That he was behind people with truly good intentions of the sort Voldemort had never had. The goblins and elves deserved to be free from the oppression of wizards just as much as wizards did from Muggles. So as Regulus saw it, it was much the same cause.
A cause he'd always believed in and would always fight for. At least now, he'd be working along side people he trusted to do the right thing. Griphook wasn't making Horcruxes, after all. Even while the foundation for a new magical society was slowly being built, it felt at once normal and surreal. The normality was found in the slow progress, and the fact that the initial steps were made among loyal and trusted friends. The surreal bit was still in that this was happening at all: that they were actually daring to do this. They began by putting out feelers, first in their immediate social group, then further. All their friends were in.
Mag and Severus, Blaise and Gellert, Wolfgang and Millicent as well as all of their parents. Kereston was certain that some of the newer Aurors at the Ministry would throw their lot in with the new regime as well. In her line of work, she had to interact with enough of them when cleaning up magical messes, so had plenty of time to subtly feel them out on their feelings concerning the current state of government. Reynaldo even agreed to go into the forest and try to win some of the other Acromantulas to their cause as long as someone came with him. It was the hope that promising the spiders such luxuries as Reynaldo had would have them interested in working wizarding jobs. Kereston was eager to see how well Acromantulas trained as Aurors. She was certain their webs would be brilliant for catching criminals, which Regulus found quite intriguing.
The goblins were all in, but were they to pull off this eventual coup, they would need an extra power boost. For such a power grab to succeed and remain over time, they would require more magical strength behind it to form that much needed stable foundation. The succeeding bit worked for government overthrows frequently enough, but the power to make it last was where such revolutions fell through over time. Everyone involved with this one was smart enough to use history as a springboard from which to learn. If they were to succeed, they'd need more powerful allies, and elves were perhaps the most powerful of beings. This new magical government needed elves to succeed, but most elves were slaves. Elf slaves could not be freed by any sort of revolution. Not when the owners had to do the freeing. The only up side was that these owners, at least most of them, would have lost their magic. Could the loss of magic serve to break the magical bonds that enslaved elves? One could hope, but one should not count on it for the upholding of a revolution. Especially if the elves weren't freed by their master's loss of magic.
There would need to be another plan. This topic alone sparked many late night meetings between Griphook, Kreacher and Kereston. Though they were the three that Griphook had decided to put in charge of this operation, the goblin welcomed input from anyone else who wanted to give it. Regulus always sat in, as he went where Kreacher went. Occasionally, Gellert and Blaise, or Mag and Severus would attend these meetings as well. In truth, Kreacher only attended because Griphook practically badgered him into it while showering him with grudging compliments. Being told that he was clearly the most powerful of elves did please Kreacher's ego, though Regulus believed the goblin to only be speaking simple truth.
"We could vampirically compel the owners to free their elves once said owners no longer have magic," Regulus suggested. "By rights that should work, though I've never heard of a bond being broken by way of compulsion."
Griphook nodded thoughtfully. "It's definitely something to try, and if it does work, it would be the faster method for sure.""
"Also working along the path of least resistance, if they are made to believe it is their idea," Regulus said.
Kreacher shifted in his chair, glancing about worriedly, as if searching for the words he wanted. "Kreacher only wonders," he began slowly. "If these masters are forced to relinquish their hold on elves, will such a thing taint the freedom...magically? If it is unwilling, can it truly be a secure and pure breaking?"
Regulus considered, then shrugged. "I would agree with the sentiment normally, but in this case, it feels proper. Like poetic justice. The elves were surely forced into such to be slaves in the first place."
Kreacher brightened as Griphook nodded. "Kreacher likes that," the elf decided. "Wise Master Regulus."
"We're all wise, and that's why this thing is going to happen," Griphook said, a sudden eager light flashing in his bright, black eyes.
"We'll go down in the history books," Kereston chuckled. "Or not. At least not with the truth, for we can likely never admit to stripping wizards of their magic to improve and strengthen the wizarding world."
"That's alright," Griphook said easily. "Most history books are full of tales told by liars, so ours won't be different. We tell the truth that won't get us overthrown again, and in that, we're just like everyone else. For example, if you believe every word of the recounting of the Goblin Wizard rebellion from your history books, you'd be mad."
Kereston nodded. "True. I always knew that Gryffindor was a rat from the sketchy reasoning behind why the goblin king couldn't just be allowed to make another sword. When it comes to us, though, no one needs to know how it all began. And even without the full truth being told, we shall still be seen as revolutionaries, for it will be us to think of using the necessity that the lack of magic shall present to form a better, stronger wizarding government for all. Unlike the Goblin Wizard wars, we are all working together this time."
"If that was ever done before, it was surely long before the elves were ever slaves," Regulus said. "I personally look very forward to seeing what a wonderful magical world it can be."
"Oh don't be a dreamer, Black," Griphook said, suddenly shooting Regulus a nearly fierce scowl. "Nothing is going to come up roses, because there will always be prats to make trouble. Wizard prats, goblin prats and elf prats."
"Spider prats too," Renaldo spoke up. The Acromantula lay on a rug near the fire, idly toying with a string of his own spider silk. "I've met a few spider prats who were mean to me simply because I live with humans. Ask me, my life is far better than theirs, so there."
"Too right," Kereston agreed, giving him an encouraging smile. Everyone knew how the mistreatment by the other spiders confused and got to poor Reynaldo. It was only her hope that some envied him enough to want a bit of his lifestyle for themselves. She didn't see why Spiders couldn't live as wizards did if they chose, and Regulus agreed. They were created to be as intelligent as wizards, after all, so why not allow them to enjoy the spoils of such an enhancement and live to their full potential?
"He's right," Griphook agreed. "No matter how things are improved, there will always be living breathing cogs in the mechanism with flaws who will try to ruin it by simply being themselves. That is why we shall have a strong government that will do what needs to be done to preserve a better way."
Kereston nodded. "Exactly. That's the sort of government I've always wanted, and now I finally have my chance to build it. I honestly never considered the assistance of other races, because I didn't think they were interested. I mean I guess I never saw any of them giving the impression that they were interested, but...I wasn't going around asking either." She sighed and Griphook shrugged.
"Due to past issues, there are too many hostilities that don't need to exist. That's one thing I hope for us to do when building a new unified magical government against the Muggles. To unify our power where there never should've been divisions in the first place. I'm not saying we go after the Muggles, but if they ever make things too problematic with their wars against one another, we could certainly handle it better as a unified force."
Kereston nodded. "Certainly. I can be on board with that. I'd just rather not try fighting the Muggles again if we don't need to. It's like I've told Grindelwald, there are too many of them now. They breed like bloody roaches, and we don't."
Griphook chuckled, nodding. "True enough.""
The more they talked things over, the more optimistic everyone felt that they would succeed. Of course it would be a long time in coming, but they all had time. Even Kereston, being the shortest lived among the group as a mortal witch hadn't seemed to age a day since moving in with them when she was around eighteen. Aside from quietly gathering enough support to their side, they were mainly waiting on Griphook's nephew to perfect his magic stripping potion. As the process of removing a wizard's magic proved to be difficult, they all wondered at times if the potion would ever come to pass. Without it, there would be no revolution.
While they waited, Kreacher and Regulus kept their focus on their continued attempt to discover the origin of elf enslavement. If vamping the magicless owners of elf slaves into freeing them worked, that would be fantastic, but if not, that information may be needed to free the elves another way. When they could turn up no new information in books from even Raislen's vast library, they turned to Ariana Dumbledore for help. It was their hope that she could summon the ghost of someone old enough to remember the truth behind elf enslavement. Of course she couldn't just summon random ancient ghosts, so this was another topic that required vast amounts of research first.
Regulus and Kreacher formed lists of names for Ariana, gathered from history books and even old gravestones. Having a name wasn't good enough, though. An item of the long dead witch or wizard was required as well to summon their spirit unless one was extremely fortunate. Ariana said that very rarely, a spirit was just hanging about, and may hear themselves being summoned, but the older they were, the more unlikely such a thing was. Older spirits usually moved onto other lives unless there was some unfinished business to prevent them from doing so. With this in mind, they would just try the name if that was all they could get, while attempting to procure items where they could. Unfortunately this required a bit of effort that passed the limit of disgusting. To possess an item from someone long dead, taking it from their own grave was the only way to be certain it was actually theirs. When they found graves old enough to be of interest, they had to take something from each, otherwise Ariana may not be able to reach the spirit in order to summon it.
Regulus hated to steal from the dead. Even worse than that, it felt fundamentally wrong, but as Grindelwald would say, it was for the greater good. Besides, hopefully it wasn't stealing if they returned it directly after, which they always did. Though Ariana was kept quite busy with remodeling the Hog's Head and running it with her father, she came to help at least once every two weeks. She was able to summon only one out of nine or so wizards where all they had was a name to work with and half where they had personal items. Even failed summoning took time, though, for which Kreacher and Regulus paid her well. Those old spirits they managed to speak with, had no answers to their questions. If they could only find a wizard who had lived before the elves were enslaved, they could at least learn of elf culture that was lost, but thus far no luck their either.
One night when Ariana came to them for another summoning attempt, her eyes were fever bright with excitement. "I bought an item belonging to Salazar Slytherin," she burst out as soon as Kreacher opened the door to her knock. "I...I did a thing. I wanted to see if...That is, I thought if anyone would have the answer to your question, it would be him. I have been hunting for an item of his for months! I didn't want to say anything until I found something, not wanting to get your hopes up for nothing. But I bought a goblet of his from an auction, and my summoning worked! You should see him, all white blond hair and pretty eyes and...He likes me," she gushed.
"Ur...Does he happen to know how the elves were enslaved, or how elves lived before their enslavement," Regulus asked. While the topic of Slytherin in general was fascinating, and he was certain he would have many questions later, his focus was elsewhere at present.
Ariana shook her head. "I am afraid not," she said sadly. "He has no idea. Elves were already slaves by his time."
"So it was the founders who bound those elves to Hogwarts," Regulus asked darkly and Ariana shrugged.
"Ah...I suppose?" she shifted uncomfortably. "I didn't exactly ask that. I was a bit distracted...Did I tell you about his eyes?"