Chapter 21:

In February 1995, I was reading the Daily Prophet and saw this:

We now present an interview with Dmitri Yanovich, the new Minister of Magic of Yugoslavia.

"How is it that a Russian is Minister of Yugoslavia?"

"The separate nations within what was Yugoslavia have tragic history, in last few years, of fighting each other. Tragedies too much for wizards to bear, and many breaches of secrecy occur. Obliviators needed to operate in war zone. Non-magical families of wizards being saved by wizards, others being targeted by other wizards.

None of the peoples of land, would be accepted by the others to lead them. Hence, naming of outsider. Many compromises. Slovenia is now protectorate of German Ministry of Magic. Albanian people in Kosovo, but not land, now under authority of Albanian minister."

"Why was the Yugoslavian Ministry of Magic not split into the new nations?"

"That worked when split peaceful, such as Czechia and Slovakia, or in former Soviet Union. However, borders in lands of former Yugoslavia still being fought over. Actually, in Soviet Union, there was recent split to 15 ministries, but before they were even formed, some recombined. Russia and Belarus combined. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan combined. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania not only combine, but now are affiliated with Finland, and loosely affiliated with Sweden and Denmark. The later two are themselves affiliated with Norway. Don't even ask about Iceland and Greenland, it gets very complicated."

"Are you connected to Vadim Morozov?"

"He is an old friend and ally. He also helped facilitate fraternal help from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan."

"What sort of help?"

"Technical support, to end non-magical fighting without breaching Statute of Secrecy. Ways to get non-magical leaders to agree to peace agreement. Also, he facilitated the lending of 1000 Battle Wizards."

"What will the Battle Wizards do?"

"I sincerely hope that no one needs to find out."

"What sort of non-magical peace agreement do you expect to achieve?"

"Self rule for the many peoples of Yugoslavia, within a Federal Government that is not run by any one people. Slovenia will remain separate, but rest to be within Federal Yugoslavia. Maybe Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia remain formally independent, but Serb people ruled separately. Same for Montenegro and Kosovo. Much to work out, results not yet known, except there will be peace."

After reading that I was thinking, what was the country count now? Maybe 7, or eight if you counted Albania or Montenegro.

In March, I read in the International Herald Tribune that American astronaut Norman Thagard was launched from Kazakhstan to the Russian and Kazakh joint Mir space station.

Unprecedented Era in International Space Cooperation.

Another article said,

Plans for International Space Station Take Shape

While the three main launch partners are the United State, Russia, and Kazakhstan, nations throughout the world will be adding components and sending people to the station.

The station will be modular, designed to be significantly expanded from its first completion step. Lift capacity is steadily increasing, which directly effects the size of each segment. Russia has the Energia M. The United States is developing the Comet HLLV, an expanded launcher with twice the capacity of the Saturn V rocket used during its Apollo program. Kazakhstan is keeping its next launcher close it its vest, only saying they'll show it when it's ready. Not to be left out, the European Space Agency, using its Guiana Space Center, expects its heavy lifter, the Ariane 5 to be ready in time to add segments to the International Space Station.

On April 8th, there were articles about the Samashki massacre in the Russian region of Chechnya. Over 250 Chechens were killed by the Russian military.

The New York Ghost reported the following statement by the Ministry of Magic of Russia.

"We are aware of the seriousness of the events that took place in Chechnya, and the possibility of the start of a war. Our ministry will intervene and prevent a war from occurring within Russia.

We do not, and I repeat, do not, require nor will accept any help from outside Russia. All Wizarding travel is restricted, with arrivals being checked for loyalties and pledges to outside influences.

There is also a call-up of all competent Wizards and Witches of Russia to report for militia duty. They will be trained as needed, and will be of assistance to prevent war from occurring within Russia, and to dissuade attempts to make use of the situation to expand external influence over the Motherland of Russia."

Luna and I met with Dumbledore, just after reading this. He said, "I will be meeting with Minister Bones, and based on what we talk about now, I might tell her I have new information to give her from the seer that I am in contact with."

I answered, "I assume I cannot meet with her because she wouldn't agree to secrecy oaths."

Dumbledore answered, "Correct."

I described, "Recent events remind me of Star Trek canon, which could be very bad for wizard-kind."

Luna continued, "Vadim Morozov has a physical resemblance to an augmented human, not magical, in Star Trek canon, at around this time."

I continued, "He, along with others ruled 40 nations, mostly in south, central, and west Asia. We think, Q is using that resemblance to signify his role."

Luna added, "He was not a particularly bad ruler, although he did not tolerate dissent. Wars started when the some of the augmented rulers started to fight each other. Eventually, the non-augments fought them all, successfully, and removed them from Earth. Some escaped by spaceship. Afterwards, the existance of augments was ruthlessly suppressed, making ones birth close to being a crime."

I continued, "There are differences, so far. Wizards are very different than the augments, who had superior human abilities, but no magical abilities. These rulers are remaining hidden from non-magicals, and aren't visibly rulers to the non-magicals."

Luna started, "It is not time to second guess our previous decisions. Maybe involving the Vulcans could have worked out better, maybe not. Maybe showing the potential danger of extra-terrestrials had bad effects, maybe not."

I added, "Even deciding whether to support or oppose Morozov is not a simple question. At this point, I think I'd like to see him succeed. The alternatives are too disastrous. But see him take over the world? I'm not sure. Have Russia remain independent and then maybe later fight him? I'm not sure."

Dumbledore asked, "What about Minister Bones?"

Luna said, "She seems intelligent. She'll realize by now that the ICW has no real power, but Morozov chooses to show loyalty towards it."

I said, "You want advice. Without knowing what Britain should do, it should build its strength to deal with what it later decides to do, or is forced to fight. First, make sure there is no warfare in the lands of the Ministry. That means make sure that the Northern Ireland situation is actually solved, and do not allow disaffected elements to resume violence. Yes, this means the Ministry of Magic must do this.

Second, build an army. Not to fight Death Eaters, but to fight 1000 or considerably more, Battle Wizards. What to expect from Battle Wizards? Clearly a mixture of technology and magic, and tactics that make use of large numbers with considerable space assets and high technology devices."

Luna added, "It might seem too soon to train to fight together for Wizarding Britain, but it is not. Perhaps even the upper years of Hogwarts should begin this training, so eventually all adult wizards become part of the militia."

Dumbledore said, "I'll bring these ideas to Minister Bones."

The Quibbler had an article,

What can we speculate about what is going on behind the scenes in the territory of the former Russian Empire?

Russia is preparing to defend itself. Meanwhile, Director Morozov is worried that Russia might institute the same sort reforms and combination of magic and technology that he has done, but with a much larger population and economy base.

He might be looking for other allies, that have their own fears and grievances towards Wizarding Russia. Those might not be the same as the non-magical nations that might have similar misgivings towards Russia.

Dumbledore spoke to us after he got back from Minister Bones. "She already talked to the Muggle Prime Minister about the importance of the peace framework in Northern Ireland continuing. She also said, that she will offer magical help to prevent any disaffected elements on either side, from resuming terrorism, and how any fighting now brings the possibility of foreign intervention.

She also encourage what she calls army training at Hogwarts, and to expand the deputy auror programme to have much of the Wizarding population ready to fight as an army for their independence, if it comes to that.

I would like to formally release the Advanced Study Groups fighting spells and devices to Minister Bones to use in what will probably be called the British Wizarding Army.

We also discussed the possibility of fighting between Wizarding nations causing a loss of secrecy and potentially a resumption of witch hunts, except this time with atomic bombs. We agreed that the British Wizarding Army will also train against this possibility."

I started subscribing to even more magical periodicals. I used translation charms for some other language ones, although I was starting to be able to understand Russian, and I already was fluent in French.

I had generally thought that the Wizarding world was illogical and slow to understand new historical trends. This belief was not correct. The Wizarding world seemed to all understand the implications of the intervention in former Yugoslavia almost instantly. One beneficial result from that was that all non-magical wars were stopped before they started. Even non-organized terrorism was stopped by magical authorities. In April 1995, MACUSA, the magical ministry of the US, stopped an attempted attack in Oklahoma.

The Wizarding world understood some things. One was that whatever alliance that Director Morozov had created was more powerful than any individual ministry of magic. Second was that the ICW only had power to the extent that ministries provided competent wands to enforce its edicts. Third was that the combination of technology and magic was a source of power to Morozov and that the rest of world was at a disadvantage in not following suit.

Some were content to be left behind. Some of Wizarding Britain actually wanted to be left as a backwater in a rapidly changing Wizarding and non-magical world. They, along with some of the Scandinavians and a patchwork of magical nations in Europe, were going to work together to preserve their independence. Implicitly they preferred that their own muggle-borns and others who wanted progress would move elsewhere.

In Britain, the debate encompassed what would happen if muggle Britain and Ireland became uncompetitive and therefore didn't have access to many imports. Many older wizards remembered the two World Wars. Their answer to that, is that they would help the muggles if necessary, in that unlikely outcome.

In the USA, MACUSA was not prepared to have the non-magical economy become uncompetitive. They siezed control of Starfleet assets in California, by having those assets report to a new directorate.

Ace Castillo was given a fancy title, and Peter Quahog was pushed through as the new head of Starfleet. Morozov reported to Quahog, but informally there was no over-site and he controlled all Starfleet assets in countries he controlled. Quahog, in turn controlled Starfleet assets in the USA, and other places that they might informally control.

Ace Castillo was given a goal of keeping US high technology competitive with that of Kazakhstan. That meant that Intel, AMD, and Micron were being helped to use magic in a top-secret manner, to improve their products and efficiency.

Dumbledore had explained that even though he was Chief Mugwump of the ICW, that role is mostly ceremonial and a vehicle for persuasion rather than actual authority. He said that the reorganization of Starfleet was due to a solid majority that was worried that Morozov was accumulating too much power. The changes were to reign his potential expansion. However, no-one had the willingness to try to reduce his territorial control. They were all afraid of him, not as a powerful wizard, but as a leader of an army that might together be more powerful than the world had ever seen before.

MACUSA started an informal alliance with Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia. However, India and mainland China both looked to building up their own economies and not being a junior member of any alliance.

In a discussion with Dumbledore, the Picards, and the Lovegoods, I outlined what I had learned, and continued, "The influence Luna and I have over the world is limited. We could disclose what we know of the Star Trek world to more people, we could also contact aliens. Neither seems wise at the moment. At this point, I do not know what direction to influence."

Luna picked up the thought, "To prevent war between magicals. To prevent war between magicals and non-magicals. For Earth, which would hopefully include both magicals and non-magicals, to have sufficient ability to defend itself before any contact with other space-bearing civilizations."

I added, "That would include not doing anything during that period that would cause the Vulcans to want to openly contact us.

At this moment the changes to our societies will need to occur. You cannot undo the opening of Pandora's box."

Dumbledore interjected, "Not exactly true, but apropos for this discussion. Do continue."

I continued, "That means, for now, we let the world divide into blocs. Hopefully, later they will cooperate and build a unified Earth. Britain is not going to be a center of that world. Luna and I will have to decide where we will want to be.

Director Morozov has been very clever in recruiting Hermione Granger, and Fred and George Weasley, before other options became available to them. He recognizes talent, and is thinking long term.

For many of us, the USA might be culturally more familiar to us, than former Soviet lands, but I liked what I saw there with how he was remaking Kazakhstan."

The news from Russia was quiet. There didn't appear to be any attempted invasion or takeover of Russia. However, on May 28th there was a major earthquake in Northern Sakhalin Island, killing about 2000 people. There was speculation that it could have been the result of a battle.

At the closing feast in June 1995, Dumbledore announced that next term, years 6 and 7 will have mandatory militia training, and that during the summer they would each receive a book describing the theory of large units tactics, discipline, and battle communications, as soon as the Ministry approved book was ready.

The Advanced Study Group approved Dumbledore's request to release, to the Ministry of Magic, all combat inventions made part of the group's secrets. The contracts of the group did not give him the unilateral ability to release that information.

Later in the summer, we discovered that information had became widely known, so all of us who had something to publish, did publish.