13. How fragile is life

"What do you think of this truce Dumbledore is kind of offering us? We did a lot in half a year, we can do a lot more in another half a year."

"Yes, that's a point. But we already have control of the castle, and we can keep it even against the Ministry, if necessary. What more do we need? Let's see what are our weak points."

"Good idea, Susan. Well, if we revolt against the Ministry, they will siege the castle. They could not enter, but they could make it difficult for others to enter, too. We can use the elves to bring us food and other resources, to distribute the Quibbler, to transport us wherever we need to go. But we would need to do it in disguise, at the risk of being caught."

"There is also the parents and relatives of all the students in the group, our necessity to find more boys to join us, which wouldn't be possible if they closed the school and send everyone back home or to another location. There is also the problem of all the non-humans wanting to come here. The ministry wouldn't let them come."

"Many of these problems can be solved if we have some property abroad connected here to Hogwarts. People could go there first, instead of coming direct to us. We could also use another property as the destination for port-keys we could give to the parents and relatives of our members. Some house-elves could keep an eye there and, confirming who they are, send any newcomers to this other property..."

"That's a very good idea, Flora. Maybe this second property could be our main base, in case keeping the castle proves to be too difficult or dangerous. I really would like to be independent of external resources. With magic and the right knowledge, we must be able to produce everything we need by ourselves. Now, where would be a good place for these other properties?"

"That's clear, Harry, it must be the seat of our new country."

"It wouldn't be easy, Luna, but I think that we'll be forced to do it."

"There is no current nation giving equal status to more than a single species. If we want to be united, no matter our differences, we need to take a nation under control or create a new one, as we would need better laws to govern us all. I think creating a new nation would be easier and better."

"I agree with you, Rhea. Soon the other members of our group will be back. Let's give them some time. We can put it to vote on the Saturday after they return. What do you think? Maybe we can use the truce the headmaster is willing to give us to built this new nation."

"Do you really believe this truce is for real?" asked Flora.

"Yes, Dumbledore seems too focused on this TriWizard Tournament. He seems to believe it to be his best chance to bring Voldemort back."

"So, what we do regarding the new magazine. We'll avoid attacking Hogwarts and the headmaster for now, right?"

"It is better to let this point for discussion next weekend, with all our members, don't you think?"

"Yes, sure. But I'll talk to dad soon about it. Maybe, instead of a new magazine, we could just create a new column in the Quibbler."

"Do you think the kind of topics we wish to cover will interest the actual readers of the Quibbler, Luna?"

"Oh, I think so. And if we can give dad some new subscribers he'll be so happy!"

"And what do you think must be our debut article? Voldemort's origins?"

"Exactly! Few things could be of more impact."

"But… I don't know. Maybe it would be better to start with something less controversial, let the people gain some trust on us and our method, before throwing such hard news on them."

"Susan has a point. We can raise suspicions on our reliability and motives if we start with such a bomb. It could be too much too soon."

"I see. Maybe we could start low level. Snape could be a good beginning, don't you think? And we just presented the facts that we could prove with reliable and easy-to-access documents, avoiding any unproved claims."

"I liked this idea."

"Let's think about it a little more. We can return to it later."

"Harry, what about the adults?" asked Hestia shyly. "How would they be involved in the decisions? Could they… you know, veto our plans?"

"Definitely not! I'll ask their opinion, hear their critics, but the decisions are ours to do. I'm open to respect the will of the majority, at least in most things. I have some principles that I can't go against, even in favour of the majority, but I'll try to listen and consider the opinions of every one of you, even if you're alone in your way of thinking. I just won some freedom, I'm not ready to give it away so soon, sorry people."

"Oh, no. Sorry enemies! They wouldn't have a chance against the New Harry!"

.o0o.

"Ah, Harry, my boy! Thank you for coming see me. I have some important points to discuss with you! Tea?"

"No, thank you, headmaster. I hope you don't mind to go direct to the point? I had some plans that I needed to postpone to be here."

"Well, if you prefer this way… After all, you are the owner of this place, aren't you?"

"A recent and surprising development. Let me make this clear: I don't want to take your position, nor interfere with the way you manage Hogwarts, except if I see the need to intervene for the security of the students. I don't know why you did so much to put Snape here, he can be an excellent potions master, but he isn't a teacher. And to sacrifice the students' safety to have him here is something I couldn't agree with. The wards that you put down so he could be here would have prevented several dangerous situations, like a troll and a basilisk wandering the corridors, a dark artefact that possessed a student and Voldemort himself teaching students."

"Ah, well… I can see your point, my boy, but you must recognize that my age, positions and experience give me a broadly point of view of how things must be conducted. But let us not be wasting time on the past. It's better if we found ways to work together. You're still young and inexperienced. I'm sure you'll agree with me that my guidance can do a lot for you, right?"

"I really don't know. I can't say I've experienced it before. You know, there are a lot of things that you could have told me or did for me while you were my guardian, but you didn't. I'm not refusing your help, but if you want me to trust you then you need to win my trust."

Dumbledore stroked his beard while looking disappointed at the boy. Harry felt some images coming to his mind from some external source. He relaxed and focused on them. The castle seemed to be showing him many other times where Dumbledore had used the same approach to instil some guilty in his interlocutor, winning the point by making them felt as a bad boy needing correction. Those images totally cancelled the efficiency of the headmaster's technique. Harry just stay there in calm silence, looking back at the old man, awaiting his next move.

"Well, it seems we'll need some time to build trust between us, then. You said you'll not interfere with the way I manage the school unless to ensure the security of the students. By my side, I don't expect to put the students in any danger, but there is a point we need to discuss about this topic. You see, we both know that Voldemort is still around. I can foresee some daring times ahead of us, for when he succeed to acquire a new body. That he'll find a way to regain a body is a certainty in my opinion. When this happens, he'll not be a menace only to the British magical society, but to the entire world. We need to create bridges to tighten our ties with the rest of the world. It's imperative that we don't grant Voldemort the chance to conquer each nation one by one at his own schedule. Only united we'll be able to stop him from succeed because pureblood prejudices are widespread and entrenched in all magical societies. To start this counter-offensive I've been working in resurrect an international event that I hope to host here next year: the Tri-Wizard Tournament."

"'Tri' as in 'three'? What three?"

"Three schools will compete in the tournament: Hogwarts, for sure, Beauxbatons Academy from France, and Durmstrang Institute from East Europe. These two other schools would send their best students here for most of the year, granting us the chance to promote an approximation between the students of the three schools."

"But they are only two others, and all European! Couldn't we invite more schools, from a broader part of the world?"

"Well, it was always only these three..."

"But you said you'll resurrect the Tournament. How long was it interrupted?"

"Hum… Some three and a half centuries, I think."

"So, why not make it bigger? Why resurrect the Tri-Wizard Tournament instead of create the World Wizard Wrangle, WWW for short?"

Dumbledore was shocked. Not only Harry was agreeing with his plans, but he even suggested a much bigger event! But the boy was too worried about security, the exact point that caused the original event to be cancelled!

.o0o.

Harry left Dumbledore's office only two hours later, in a bad mood. The man had a century of experience in politics, and it was an uphill battle to keep all his secrets protected from the many lunges of the old man to discover the boy's true intentions. He also had to concede some relaxations in the security for the Tournament, but he was adamant: nothing dangerous inside the castle, and whatever they brought to the grounds would be responsibility of Dumbledore. The old headmaster tried his best to change this, specially knowing about Karkaroff, but Harry was immovable: for any activities inside the castle Durmstrang would need another person to act as a proxy for the old Death Eater.

The worse happened after they finished discussing the Tournament. First, Dumbledore congratulate him for helping the three girls and not immediately moving them to separate accommodations to have his way with them to then criticize him for how bad the magical society could take this move, both by taking concubines at such young age and by linking himself with the daughters of such discredit families. Then he moved to criticize the boy for acting in gaining emancipation, lordships, control of the castle and even altering the wards without consulting him first. He then finished his sermon preaching the advantages of not associate himself with fugitives and returning to his actual (his aunt's) home in the Summer. Harry subtly avoid agreeing, just saying he understood the headmaster's worries and that he would consider everything with calm before making any decision. He knew he didn't convince the old man, and that they would return to discuss these points in the future, but at least for now both were happy in delaying the conflict.

Maybe it would be best for Harry if he had gone for a walk around the lake before returning close to other people, but he wasn't totally in control after such hard meeting, and in a way he was longing for some comfort. His feet brought him to The Room instead.

As soon as he entered, he saw Rhea near the door, and she smiled seductively at him. Then, as was her habit, she slowly turned her back to him, still smiling over her shoulder, and raise her tail, showing the boy her most intimate parts. This was too much for the weakened boy. With some decided and fast steps he was at her side, asking "Are you just teasing me, or are you really inviting me?"

Soon the two were kissing then walking hand in hand to a new door in The Room. As the new door closed after them, the other occupants of The Room were celebrating what they felt as the fall of the last barrier. They weren't just some guests in the group any more, but full members with equal rights! This was a signal they have been waiting since joining the humans: they were fully accepted!

.o0o.

Harry expended all night with Rhea, and was a new boy the next morning. His magic had worked so well with her as with the human girls. But he soon recognize that a better mood had come to the whole group. It was awesome to see it: they were smiling more and being more kindly and sweet in all their interactions. It was like he image paradise to be: such harmony and care between all of them!

He collected everyone and explained to them his talk with Dumbledore. They were hoping for a half-year truce with the headmaster so they could complete their most urgent plans in calm: they were ecstatic to find out they had 3 half-years of truce!

They knew the price for this, they would need to put up with the Tournament and the chance that Voldemort would fall for whatever traps and lures Dumbledore may be preparing to bring him under the spotlight. Some dangerous creatures would be brought to participate in the competition, some even more dangerous creatures and people could use the opportunity to infiltrate the area, but Harry had protected the inside of the castle from such dangers, and good people could also make use of the weakened security to come to them in great numbers, and be protected inside the castle, reinforcing their group.

"Harry, did you think in the possibility that Dumbledore could make you participate in this Tournament?"

"Oh, be sure I thought about it, and I'm even expecting it due to some subtle clues I got from him."

"But you can avoid it, can't you?"

"Yes. In my case I'm thinking in let it happens if he or someone else really try, but surely I'll be blocking any attempt of someone entering a name that isn't their own in any other case."

"Do you want to use the Tournament to present the full-mags to the world?"

"Oh, you're a genius, Hinata! That's exactly what I'm thinking to do! What do you think about it? It will be near ten months from now, I think we could be ready for it. And if we aren't, I still can block it from happening."

"If Dumbledore succeeds in making the Tournament a world event we'll have Press here from every major magical society. It would be impossible to sweep it under the rug."

"Yes, Luna, that's a great opportunity that we must plan in detail. Would you take care of coordinate this point for us?"

"Yes! I would love to do it!"

"Can we also help?"

"Everybody can help, just follow any suggestions to Luna."

.o0o.

The new edition of The Quibbler opened a new section entitled "The Lies we were told" with the article "Severus Snape: enemy of wizarding society". You could consider it a pet vengeance from the students, but Snape was such bad teacher that he fully deserved it.

The article started with his student's years at Hogwarts and some of his more heinous actions as part of Malfoy's gang of wannabe Death Eaters, following by his recruitment in their midst and the effects of his espionage, putting the Potters and Longbottoms at peril. The intervention of Dumbledore on his behalf was mentioned without emphasis as it was too soon to openly attack the headmaster, but Snape's lack of pedagogy, his blatant favouritism for Slytherin and the absurd reasons to give points to them and take points from the other houses was pointed in detail. Finally, the article ended with an analysis of the effects that his tenure of the Potions Master position at Hogwarts caused to the wizarding society: a full generation with lack of skills in potions, consequently cutting positions in aurors, healers, potion makers and other important functions.

The topic of this first article was probably the less controversial of all those they considered, but that was purposeful. It would be a gentle introduction of the British magical society to a new concept of journalism. It was as far as possible from the gossip and wild conjectures that not only The Daily Prophet but also even The Quibbler had done so far. Here, every affirmation was backed by documents from Hogwarts, the Ministry and its several Departments, especially the Department of Education and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The idea behind this was that of first cement the reputation of this new section as serious investigative pieces, and only after counting with the trust of the readers in their work they would bring up the more controversial stories.

If Dumbledore ever saw the article they couldn't tell, because his lack of reaction, which was excellent. Two days later The Daily Prophet printed a similar article, claiming to have been investigating the matter for a long time but that 'their results were unforgivably leaked to a rival publication without their consent or permission' and urging the Ministry to take the appropriate measures in this shameful case of abuse of power of a teacher against defenceless students. The day after brought a new matter explaining that the Ministry had summoned Snape to provide clarification on the accusations but it seemed that the man had moved abroad. The group took it as a victory.

.o0o.

The students had returned, and Harry was intrigued. No, he was worried. He could see marks of tears in the eyes of many of the girls. They were in an emotional turmoil. Something had happened during the journey on the Hogwarts Express and he wanted to know, the sooner the better!

He entered The Room as soon as he could, requesting Dobby a ride there as soon as he threw a 'goodnight' to his bedmates and closed and sealed the curtains of his bed. Some of the girls were already there, being introduced to the new (non-human) members of their group, and he didn't wait for the others. They would come soon, he was sure. He collected Patricia and Tabitha and they sat on a sofa, Harry between the girls.

"Now, I need to know what put you all in such sad mood. Care to explain?"

"The prophecy told by the sirens… We started investigating what could put the entire world in jeopardy… Oh, Harry, we found so many ways… So many things that could end our civilization..."

"The worst is that is so hard to prevent everything! Accidents happened all the time, of the most varied types! A boy near my home died on boxing day, he was trying his new ice skates, but the ice was too thin! And the woman next door! She was driving back home with her groceries and her car skidded and crashed into a tree! Life is such a fragile thing! Any oversight could be the last one!"

"Does death gives life a meaning, Harry?"

"Hum… interesting question… No, I don't think death gives life a meaning, I think death gives life a value. I remembered of a guy talking about how many people go to a church every Sunday morning to pray for an eternal life while they couldn't find anything to do in the afternoon if a storm keep them at home without electrical power. And that occurs with us being mortals. What would we do if we were immortals? Would we ever finish any task? Wouldn't we always being procrastinating everything? Death is what put pressure on us to seek results, to do things now because we could have no tomorrow. Limiting our time, death put a value on it making it scarce. What gives life a meaning isn't death, but what we do with our lives, the results and conquests we have to show when we reach its end. Death only remembered us that there is an end and that we must run to finish our job before it comes to us."

A round of applause came after Harry finished his speech, much more than he could have expected. It seems the whole group had surrounded him and listened to his words with attention while he was focused in answering Patricia's question.

.o0o.

It was good the return of the students in January 4th was a Saturday. The group reunited in The Room needed a lay in after an intense night of discussions. The journey on the Hogwarts' Express was used by the girls to collect and summarise all the results of their researches about all possible dangers their new nation would need to defend against. The list was extensive, but they had it resumed to the following:

1. Violence: a) Voldemort; b) half-mags x full-mags; c) zero-mags x magicals; d) zero-mags in nuclear war; e) random violence; f) dark creatures; g) goblins?

2. Natural Disasters: a) volcanoes; b) earthquakes; c) tsunamis; d) droughts, heat waves and wildfires; e) floods, avalanches and landslides; f) storms, typhoons, cyclones; g) melting ice sheets; h) Earth's magnetic field instabilities; i) ocean currents disturbances.

3. Human Disasters: a) climate change; b) air pollution; c) land and water pollution; d) ozone layer; e) desertification; f) food collapse; g) epidemics; h) fires and explosions.

4. Extra-terrestrial: a) impact of asteroids and other celestial bodies; b) solar flares; c) excessive radiation; d) aliens.

Yes, some of them had very small probability of affect them, but still… Some others were very hard to predict and avoid, but they also needed to be considered. Life was such wonderful but fragile thing!

Creating their own nation isolated from the rest of the world seems the better way to protect themselves from most of those dangers. Morag and Sally-Anne led the group who studied the better locations. Their favourite point was at the East Pacific Rise, a chain of seamounts east of the French Polynesia. The specific point of their choice was midway between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Equator, thousand of kilometres apart from any land, even small islands. It was on the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but in a shallow part of it, and not traversed by air or sea routes.

But 'shallow' for the Pacific Ocean still means several hundred metres bellow surface. Harry was sure that construction under such pressure wasn't a trivial matter. They would also need to project a completed sealed environment totally independent of external resources once finished. This was also a hard task, but here there were some knowledge already available, knowledge the zero-mags have accumulated with their submarines, spaceships and orbital bases, and the magicals with the creation of all kinds of wards. He even remembered to have read something about more complexes closed environments being tested as pilot-projects for future bases in the Moon and Mars. How difficult would it be to find the details about these projects? Would them be available in the scientific magazines or would they all be kept as secrets?

.o0o.

The group ended sleeping in the (magically padded) floor, those who could using a part of Harry's body as pillow. Such intimate contact was still an amazing gift to the boy who had grew alone and without affection. He was still learning about the dynamic of groups, it was all still so new to him. Until half a year ago he had just two friends, and they continually disagreed about every single thing every fucking day! Now he was part of a group with more than hundred full members and near four hundred total members, in and out the castle, and they hadn't any serious disagreements so far. That must be some kind of record!

He looked once more to the list of possible disasters. Under the light of a bright new day it wasn't so scary. With a little luck they could all be years ahead, if they really happened in the curse of their lives, giving them the time needed to prepare. And they would prepare!

He let his gaze wander around, seeing how happy and serene the girls (humans or not) were in their peaceful sleep. He felt that he loved each one of them, and felt loved by each one in return. He would do his best to keep them safe.

How curious! None of them were wearing more than panties, and only now he had noticed this fact. Such confidence and intimacy humbled him!

The group started the Sunday in a better mood. One good news was that several of the girls had obtained some rare books, while others had gained authorization to reveal some secrets from their family's grimoires, all related to their current main goal of create their own nation and keep it secret, protected, independent and isolated from everything else.

That they would be building their own nation was already certain, even if the official decision would only occur next weekend. They had found three different wards to totally seal a region both ways so even water, vapours or air couldn't enter or leave. They were designed for small regions, like a room, but they believe it possible to extend the region with some work and/or extra power. That was the most difficult point in their initial analysis of requirements, and to have it solved, or at least near solved, was a bust to their mood.

Some committees were established. Megan, Leanne, Aya and Padma proposed to interview each member of the group to list their current skills, favourites subjects and careers of choice with a view to planning how to cover all their current and future needs. Susan, Daphne, Cho, Rhea and Persephone would start the draft of their Constitution, accepting inputs from all of them. Tracy, Su Li, Katie, Zoe, Akani and Ligeia were responsible for the social structure while Sally-Anne, Morag, Parthenope, Ai, Thalia and Rosalyn for the physical structure of their society. Luna, Mandy, Hannah, Raidne, Hinata and Aina became responsible to plan the ecological environment, including their food and potions ingredients productions, while Lavender, Parvati, Lilith, Aimi, Iris and Aglaope assumed the Resources and Products committee, including both stocks of raw materials and the production of clothing, furniture, fixtures and whatever more they could need. They knew they would need some others in the future, but they could wait until they knew a little better what kind of nation they would be building.