Sumnary of last chapter:
- Abraxas contracts dragon pox and lands in St. Mungos
- he is visited by his friends multiple times as his conditions worsens until he dies after a few weeks
- Lucius Malfoy murders his older brother Julius to get the lordship
- Along with these events, Reefelt and his wife are assassinated, many other lords and ladies are killed, several manors are destroyed and somebody breaks into the department of mysteries
- Albus Dumbledore and Harold Minchum react independently from eachother to the news, Harold places Britain under Martial Law
- Arcturus reacts to the news and questions why several families were attacked, realises that Voldemort now seeks to steal more and more members of his alliance via different methods
Chapter 12:
thx paulaa90 for the review lol idk how that happened, do look in your inbox tho
Important: Before you begin reading this chapter please read the following carefully. I have corrected several mistakes in previous chapters.
I have corrected MacMillian into MacMillan in Chapter 2
I have replaced Yaxley with Rosier in the list of Lords that have joined Voldemort as mentioned in Chapter 2 as I have plans for the Yaxleys later. It wouldn't have made sense anyway as Arcturus titles them as 'young lords' and Corban Yaxley looks to be atleast in his 70s in 1997 and thus in his 50s in the year 1973 which certainly doesn't make him young anymore.
I have removed Fawley and Rosier from the list of junior members in the Black Alliance because Rosier is now mentioned as being a senior member. Fawley in the meanwhile was already mentioned in Chapter 1 as having recently joined Voldemort. Given the timeline it would make no sense for house Fawley to still be a member of the Black Alliance at that point (I basically corrected a continuity error).
I have added the houses of Selwyn, Travers, Yaxley, Trembley, Fudge, Orpington, and Max as junior members of the Black Alliance in Chapter 2. The Blacks were supposed to be the political powerhouse of this era and I felt it appropriate that they would have more than just 4 junior members. I have also some plans for Yaxley and Fudge in later chapters.
I have corrected another continuity error in Chapter 5. The sorting dates for Harry McPhillips and Emma Taylor mentioned by Kingsley Shacklebolt in his report to Bartemius Crouch Sr. were originally 1955 for Harry McPhillips and 1956 for Emma Taylor but that doesn't make sense since in Chapter 4 I said that Harry McPhillips started his fifth year in 1969 meaning he started his first year in 1965. Emma Taylor now started her first year in 1966.
Corrected minor grammatical errors in several chapters but there are probably more. My native language is German so please don't bite my head off :P
Looking at these points, the list really looks like a list of patch notes from a game lol. Anyway feel free to leave praise, constructive criticiscm and to show me more grammatical and continuity issues. Enjoy the chapter. :)
17th April, 1976, England, Riddle Manor:
Lord Voldemort hummed to himself, something he would deny in front of others of course but right now he was alone and he was in a good mood.
Everything was going to plan lately and had been for some time now. Actually it went even better than what he had planned, they were quite ahead of schedule.
When he first thought out the current plan in the late 1950s he thought he would need atleast 25 years but more like 30 to 35 years to completely take over Britain and now it was looking like the Ministry might last another 5 years if they were lucky. And muggle Britain would fall within months after that. Well, should the ICW not intervene that is, if they did it might take a few years aswell. But he could wait, he was getting closer and closer to his goal and he could wait another 5 years. Voldemort was patient after all.
Minchum though could very well become a problem in the future, the man had the balls to circumvent the Wizengamot and declare martial law without letting it come to a vote. Minchum had already been more effective in 8 months than Jenkins had in 5 years. She had done well enough in dealing with the pureblood riots around 8 years ago but had been useless in the fight against him. Minchum though had reformed the Aurors, increased the budget of the DMLE, given the Aurors more leeway in their dealings with his death eaters and now declared martial law. Voldemort might have to step up his efforts to force Minchum out of office or atleast make him unable to do his job effectively through the Wizengamot.
Speaking of, while the votes of house Malfoy and Lestrange aswell as a few others now effectively belonged to his cause aswell, the Black alliance had stopped voting in his favour after young Julius Malfoy and the Lestrange elders had been killed.
'Well I guess it is only understandable, I did have Lord Black's protege killed after all and Arcturus is too sharp to believe the story we created. Additionally it is most likely that he suspects my involvement in the death of the late Lestrange elders and he'd be right.'
However, while Voldemort did understand Lord Black's actions it didn't mean that he wouldn't force him into compliance in one way or another. No the Blacks were too powerful to be allowed to act against him. Well they weren't acting against them but they were also not his followers so they might aswell be considered enemies for now. Not all of them however. No Orion Black the, current heir Black, was said to be supportive of Voldemort's cause.
'Hmmm maybe it is time for Arcturus to have an accident. He is getting old after all hehe' Voldemort thought with a chuckle.
There were also Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy of course, both daughters of house Black. Bellatrix had quickly become invaluable and had been in his inner circle for some time now while Narcissa was atleast married to another death eater of Voldemort.
'Also young Lucius is quite adept at fighting and quickly becoming a good leader too. It could be reasonable to add him to my inner circle soon aswell. Yes he shall be a fine lieutenant.' Voldemort thought.
Then there was Regulus Black. The son of Orion Black was only in his fifth year at Hogwarts but quickly becoming a good duelist from what Voldemort had heard and it seemed like he admired Voldemort quite a bit though the death of Monteban Shafiq, who was Regulus' best friend at the time, had apparently impacted young Regulus a lot.
'Eh eh will get over it' Voldemort thought dismissively. The failure of Qeldon Greengrass back then was quite annoying in another matter entirely.
The Shafiqs were now completely exstinct and with them a member of the sacred 28 which had miffed most of the neutral and dark pureblood families.
Qeldon Greengrass had to be punished for his failure of course.
Greengrass' screams had been most entertaining for the few minutes he had suffered under the cruciatus before becoming a vegetable.
This had of course not gained house Greengrass' favour and Lord Greengrass had followed Lord Black in stopping to vote in favour of him.
'Unfortunate but that, too, will be dealt with in time' Voldemort thought again dismissing the thought of them becoming a problem. Their faction was powerful but they weren't acting against him and multiple houses in the faction had death eaters amongst them so it would be pretty easy to get them to his side if needed.
He now had a nice little list of followers in the Wizengamot. Malfoy, Lestrange, Rosier, Rowle, Carrow, Goyle, Crabbe, Fawley, Nott, Mulciber, Dolohov and MacNair who now deemed themselves the Traditionalist Block. His influence in the Wizengamot was still only minor however since there were a massive amount of houses that didn't bow to him.
There were the unafilliated like houses Zabini, Crouch, Burke and Parkinson who while slowly shrinking were still the largest group by far.
Then said Black Alliance who was also called the Dark Moderates and were a faction he really wanted to be his ally simply because of the political connections of Arcturus Black with the dark families and Marvin MacMillan with the light families respectively. There was also the wealth of the Greengrass and Black families to consider. They still had quite a few minor pureblood houses in their little alliance but had lost 2 major members and a lot of votes with house Malfoy and Lestrange. S He would try to recruit the rest of junior members into his cause, they were considered dark or neutral families after all.
Then there was the Sayre Alliance also called the True Moderates. It was pretty small in numbers but The Most Ancient and Most Noble House Sayre alone was one of the great powers in the wizengamot. They alone had a large amount of votes to their name but combined with the votes of the Blackstreams and a few other minor pureblood houses aswell as the wealth of the Ruslanovichs they had a lot more influence in the wizengamot than him... at the moment atleast. Blackstream was a curious case. He had Lord Bernd Blackstream along with his wife Lady Derina Blackstream nee Dolohov killed while having one of his inner circle members, Antonin Dolohov, put his brother in law, Bilius Blackstream (Bernd's younger brother) under the imperius but Bilius had unexpectedly fight the imperius off while he took his lordship in the wizengamot and thus stayed loyal to the Alliance.
He had hoped to sway Lord Atticus Sayre, a legend from the Grindelwald War, to his cause by now but the Sayre's were like the Blacks when it came to bowing down to someone. They would never do it and so Voldemort had tried to have Lord Sayre assassinated like 5 times already but he should have known that it wouldn't work. They had gone to Hogwarts during the same period after all even if Atticus Sayre had been a few years ahead of Voldemort. Besides, even if one of the attempts had succeeded he would have only gained a very powerful enemy. Atticus Sayre, a genius when it came to magic and probably the only one besides Dumbledore to have a chance in a duel against him, had after the death of his parents and grandparents in the Grindelwald War almost single handedly saved house Sayre from extinction. Atticus' sister had married some random American noble and thus moved to the colonies but Atticus had stayed, married Lycoris Black and 4 children with her who by now had 7 children of their own between them. Then came Sophia Eisenhower nee Sayre. She also had 2 children and 5 grandchildren by now. All in all while house Sayre had only 2 members 1945 it now had 13 members in the main brach and 9 members on the Eisenhower side. This meant 22 members of which 10 were adults capable of fighting and most likely skilled aswell. No he would not like to have house Sayre as his enemy if he could prevent it even if half of the extended house lived overseas in the colonies.
Then there was the Light Moderate Camp, an Alliance that unlike the Alliances of Sayre and Black only had light and light-neutral families as members. It centered around Paluten Bones and Norton McKinnon and would only be a minor nuisance at best in the future. The Bones were wealthy and had quite a few votes while the McKinnons were famous for their talented family members but other than them the Light Moderate Camp had only minor pureblood members that were quite irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Finally came the Progressives centered around Fleamont Potter, Graham Longbottom and of course none other than Voldemort's eternal foe Albus Dumbledore. The Progressives were currently the strongest organised faction in the wizengamot and steadily growing as the old fool managed to recruit more and more light families into supporting his agenda that would destroy their culture and maybe their entire existence if left unopposed.
**End of Chapter**
Shoutout to mootjeman7. The names Atticus and Sophia and their basic storyline are heavily inspired by his masterpiece 'Odyssey of a Mage', go check it out if you haven't already. In the slight chance that you read this mootjeman, your fanfic is incredible. I literally read all what's available so far in one go even skipping meals and sleep lol. (as of January 2023)
An overview of the Wizengamot as I envision it in Spring of 1976:
Major Houses are marked like this, Powerhouses like this
Unaffiliated:
Burke, Crouch, Zabini, Parkinson, Ollivander, Brocklehurst, Brown, Patil, Douglas, McCormack, MacLaggen, Goldstein, Umbridge, Prince, Hemlock, Stonehorn, Perks, Dawlish, Edgecombe, Minchum, Copplestone, Greenford, Scrimgeour, Johnson, Spinnet, Accrington, Harlemshake, Slughorn, Runcorn, Wilkes, Gibbon, Lowe, Higgs, Cornfoot, Scamander, Lovegood,
Progressives:
Potter, Longbottom, Prewett, Dumbledore, MacGonagall, Weasley, Moody, Shacklebolt, Wintringham, McKinley, Wood, Tripe, Sinistra, Vector, MacDougal, Kettleburn, Sprout
Light Moderates:
Bones, McKinnon, Jenkins, Abbott, Diggory, Silverling, Firewheel, Chang, Bletchley, Pyrites
True Moderates:
Sayre, Ruslanovich, Blackstream, Serpengold, Montague, Thicknesse, Fingerling (dormant), Bristlecone (dormant)
Dark Moderates:
Black, Greengrass, MacMillan, Rubisheart, Flint, Bulstrode, Selwyn, Travers, Avery, Yaxley, Trembley, Orpington, Fudge, Max
Traditionalists:
Malfoy, Lestrange, Fawley, Rosier, Rowle, Carrow, Goyle, Crabbe, Nott, Mulciber, Dolohov, MacNair
**Empty Space**
Characters in this chapter and the amount of chapters they have appeared in:
- Voldemort (3)
that's it lol