Chapter 14
"I use it all the time.." Harry said, accepting his trusted wand from Ollivander.
"Look. Lumos!" Harry said, a white ball of magic appeared above his upturned wand. Ollivander stared in wonder.
"Stay here I want to try something." Ollivander said, rushing into the back of his store. When he returned, he handed Harry another wand, this one simple and rather unremarkable.
"Please try this wand." Ollivander asked.
"Lumos" Harry said. The light appeared above this wand exactly as it had his holly wand. Ollivander clapped his hands and laughed.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked.
"Forgive the deception, Harry. That 'wand' is a stick that I picked off the apple tree behind my store.
"Huh." Harry said, handing Ollivander the stick back, and rummaging through his coat and retrieving the dagger he used to fill flasks for his vampire friends, that he insisted on calling 'Captain Stabby.'
"Lumos." Harry said. Once again the telltale orb of light appeared, this time hovering over the tip of the knife. Harry sighed, putting the knife away and picking up his holly wand.
"Looks like it's the mantle for you, my friend." Harry said, placing the wand carefully in his coat.
"I'll process that later. The main reason we're here, is we wanted to see if Schrodinger here is magical." Harry said.
"Wonderful! Please come over here, Mr. Schrodinger, I need to take some measurements." Ollivander said. Schrodinger stepped forward and laughed in wonder at the measuring tape flying around of its own accord, measuring the length of his nose and the distance between his forehead and his left elbow.
"I'm pretty sure the measuring tape is just for fun." Harry stage whispered to Zorin who chuckled.
"Don't go giving away my trade secrets, Harry." Ollivander said with a smile.
"Sorry, Garrick." Harry said. Ollivander went into his back room and stared gathering boxes.
"I noticed you two are on a first-name basis." Zorin said.
"He and I were captured by death eaters during the war along with Ron, Hermione and Luna." Harry said.
"That was most certainly not a pleasurable experience." Ollivander said, placing give opened boxes in front of Schrodinger.
"Go ahead and try this one." Ollivander said. Schrodinger picked it up and at Harry's urging, waved it creating a torrent of water, soaking him.
"Well that answers one question." Ollivander said with a chuckle.
"Harry? What does that mean.?" Schrodinger said. Harry grinned and then cleared his throat.
"You're a wizard, Schrodinger." Harry said in his best Hagrid impersonation.
The last box managed to be a match for Schrodinger, it was eleven and three quarters of an inch long, mahogany with a unicorn hair core. Harry paid and lead the two vampires out of the store, makign their way to Florean Fortescue's. Luna smiled when they arrived and limped over to take their order.
"Is your ankle acting up today?" Harry asked. Luna nodded, shifting her weight to the good leg.
"I have good days and bad. What can I get for you?" Luna asked.
"You can sit down and rest for a second for me." Harry said. Luna didn't argue.
"Is there nothing they can do for it?" Harry asked. Luna shrugged.
"St. Mungos can't even figure out what's wrong. Some days I feel fine and I can dance around, others I have to close the shop because it hurts too much." Luna said. Harry pulled a muggle first-aid kit out of his jacket and retrieved an elastic support bandage.
"Can you do anything for the pain?" Zorin asked. Luna shook her head.
"Pain potions lose effectiveness and can be addictive." Luna said.
"What about muggle painkillers, even over the counter medicine?" Zorin asked.
"I didn't think of that." Luna said.
"Ok, Luna. Give me your ankle." Harry said. She gingerly lifted her leg and rested it on his lap. He carefully removed her shoe, and started wrapping her ankle with the bandage. Luna winced when he accidentally jostled it.
"Sorry." Harry said. Zorin gasped.
"Harry, I might know what's wrong." Zorin said.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"When you jostled her foot, I could hear her bones grinding against each other." Zorin said.
"Huh." Harry said, producing his potions satchel from his jacket and rummaging through it.
"Found it!" Harry said, picking out a vial and giving it to Luna.
"Try that." Harry said. Luna drank it without question and shivered. She experimentally flexed her ankle and smiled.
"Cartilage potion?" Schrodinger asked.
"Something like that. It's designed to repair cartilage and soft tissue damage. How did St. Mungo's miss that?" Harry asked. Luna stood and took a few experimental steps before twirling around and laughing.
"Thanks Zorin!" Luna said, hugging the large vampire.
"Oi! I'm the one with the potions." Harry said. Luna grinned.
"Thanks potion monkey!" Luna said. She put on her shoes and made them some ice cream.
"So, Schrodinger. It's important to remember that using magic underage is illegal, and there's a tracker on that wand that will tell the Ministry if you use magic outside of Hogwarts." Harry said.
"Oh." Schrodinger said, sadly.
"It'd be a real shame if someone broke the tracking charm like this." Harry said, taking Schrodinger's wand, and grabbing a spoon from the table, he waved it at Schrodinger's wand and a snapping noise could be heard. Harry grinned and handed it back.
"Harry, you just broke the law in full view of the public." Zorin said, looking concerned. Harry grinned.
"Fuck the police." Harry said, throwing a knut at the jar, this time it landed inside.
Harry followed Remus into the private dining room he'd reserved at the Leaky Cauldron along with Lavender Brown.
"You're sure about this, Harry?" Lavender asked.
"Oh yeah, I mean even if they don't help, I'm still going to get rid of those stupid laws." Harry said. After a few minutes, several other people wearing shabby clothing, and looking rather worse for wear filed into the room. Harry smiled at them, and got polite nods but little else. Once everyone was seated, and drink orders were taken, Harry stood.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I've asked you here today to discuss... the future." Harry said.
"I've gathered as much. I'm curious as to why a man who works with a vampire hunting organization wanted to meet with a group of werewolves." Eric Schultz, their chosen representative asked.
"Let me start, by offering you a gift, in the spirit of goodwill." Harry said, turning and pulling a cloth off of a steel keg that he had left there ahead of time.
"I chose a beer keg because I thought it would be funny. This is full to capacity with wolfsbane. The keg is under a stasis charm." Harry said. Then once he had their attention, he bent and lifted it with seemingly no effort, placing it on the table in front of him which sagged under its weight.
"This is yours regardless of the result of these talks." Harry said.
"That's... That has to be worth a fortune!" Eric said, staring shocked at him. Harry nodded
"72,332 Galleons to be precise. Would have been more if I didn't brew it myself." Harry said Eric consulted with his colleagues in hushed tones before nodding.
"We accept this gift and you have our thanks." Eric said. Harry smiled.
"The gift is also a convenient segue into the point I was hoping to make tonight. As you may know, my honorary uncle here, Remus, is a werewolf, as is my friend Lavender. The way they have been treated, as well as presumably yourselves, is nothing short of atrocious. I've been vocal about this in the past." Harry said, pausing to take a sip of his water.
"Werewolf registration laws, the lack of employment discrimination laws and the ludicrous price of wolfsbane I feel has done little more than line the pockets of a few pureblood potion distributors, and actively alienate a significant portion of our population. I say this only for context, I know this is not news to you." Harry said.
"I'm taking a risk here. A big risk." Harry said, sighing,
"Ladies and Gentlemen it is my intention, through diplomacy or violence, to overthrow the Ministry of Magic before the end of this year." Harry said, earning him shocked stares.
"That's insane!" a werewolf woman said to the right of Eric. Harry nodded.
"It is. However look at how things have been going. Vampires are being constrained to smaller regions within the magical world. The werewolf registration laws have been tightened. Muggleborn witches and wizards are being fired from their positions within the ministry, and they are driving the economy into the ground by increasing spending in a few very specific areas." Harry said.
"So? The ministry has always pulled that kind of shit." a very large werewolf man behind Eric said.
"Not to these extremes. If you look at the patterns it becomes obvious. The pureblood elite within the Wizengamot are systematically destroying the economy of Wizarding Britain." Harry said.
"But why?" Eric asked.
"Chaos. When the economy collapses, everyone will demand change, and who do you think will be there to provide it? This time, though instead of the flimsy, pretend democracy we have now, it will be an oligarchy of the purebloods. Can you imagine what they would do with that much power consolidated amongst so few people?" Harry asked. Eric paled.
"It will take years for this to occur of course, during that time, werewolves, vampires, veela and every sentient magical non-human will be pushed further and further until the only thing to do is to move to the continent." Harry said.
"You've already been working towards this, haven't you?" the woman to Eric's right said. Harry nodded.
"First, because I decided to allow myself a moment of selfishness, was to remove my friend Hermione from her position as the senior undersecretary. I didn't want her to go down with the ship. Second, I took over Hogwarts, and am privately funding it to sever it from the dying economy. The third part was overthrowing Ragnok in Gringotts' bank, and replacing him with a competent replacement. This here, is what I'm calling Phase 4. I've already gut punched many of the elites by calling in ancient debts, but more action, I'm afraid, is required." Harry said.
"So let's say for the sake of argument, we agree to support you. What is in it for us?" Eric asked. Harry nodded.
"The price of wolfsbane is artificially high. That keg would be worth less than a thousand galleons on the continent, but most of the key ingredients needed are imported and Britain is still under sanctions from the ICW from the Voldemort war. With a new government, we will be in a position to renegotiate, especially since the element that allowed his rise to power will be gone. Furthermore, and I know until it is done this is just words, the laws imposed on magical non-humans will be discarded entirely." Harry said.
"Seriously?" Eric asked. Harry nodded.
"The only werewolf legislation will be that 'I wasn't in control because I was transformed' will not be a valid excuse in court, because wolfsbane will be provided to all werewolves at no cost. Furthermore, turning people against their will be punishable by death." Harry said.
"And vampires?" Eric asked.
"Blood will be collected from prisoners and volunteers, and provided to vampires free of charge. The same laws apply, because blood is available, hunger is not an excuse to commit crimes and turning someone against their will is punishable by death." Harry said.
"Aside from that, Vampires, Werewolves, Veela, Centaurs, Goblins and Dwarves as well as all other magical non-humans will enjoy the same rights and privileges as magical humans, including unrestricted wand use." Harry said.
"This is a lot." Eric said. Harry nodded.
"I'm not expecting a yes or no right now, I have a tentative yes from the vampires, and the veela are on board. The Goblins are itching to be rid of the Ministry. All I ask is that you limit who you tell about this to those you trust." Harry said. Eric turned to his companions and spoke.
"Remus, What is your take on this?" Eric asked.
"I'm biased, but I agree with Harry and will be standing him when he does this. He's already done us all an invaluable service by slaying Fenrir Greyback and his master." Remus said. Eric nodded.
"Count us in then. It can't possibly be worse than what we're dealing with now." Eric said. Harry looked shocked.
"Really? Wow.. I'm... Thanks." Harry said, offering Eric who shook his hand without any macho theatrics.
"We'll stand with you. We will not lead or follow." Eric said.
"Fair enough." Harry said, then grinned when he saw two werewolves struggling to carry the keg out of the room.