Plans

It didn't take Hadrian long teach the farmers a method to increase their yields. More specifically he decided to teach four- field crop rotation. He noticed that the farmers would often leave a part of the field fallow. He had to make them replace the fallow fields with turnips or clover instead of the usual corn. The idea was to use the turnips and clover to feed livestock so that farmers could have more of that as well.

Both adult Starks had a strange combination of looks on their faces when they heard the news from the farmers that the yield was gradually getting higher each harvest. It was a mixture between excitement and resignation.

That's when Hadrian decided to invite the Northern Lords to Winterfell for the Harvest Festival.

It was three moons to the next festival and Harry spent many nights alone in the main solar of Winterfell with both his uncles, discussing what they would do with some of the newfound wealth and the wealth they would gain once they spread this knowledge to the North. During this time he told them about a few of his plans. He didn't tell them everything of course. Both because he knew there were some they wouldn't agree to, but also because he didn't want to overwhelm them.

His biggest plan at the moment was to get some land back that rightfully belonged to the North. New fertile land.

Yes, Hadrian was determined to get the Gift back into the hands of the North.

Which leads to the current circumstances.

"Uncle I want you write a letter to Robert about giving us permission to get the Gift back from the Nights Watch."

His uncles face went through a myriad of emotions. It was late at night and him and uncle Benjen were sitting beside a fire in the solar. Both of them had cups of mead in their hands and were listening to some of my ideas.

Benjen was the first to react. "The Nights Watch is neutral. The King will want to think twice before taking land away from them. Some may not react very well to it."

Hadrian nodded his head lazily. "Aye, that's why I want him to give us permission to negotiate with the Nights Watch for them to return the lands to us. "

After being quiet for a while uncle Eddard nodded slowly. "Aye, it may work. Robert will give us permission if I ask. How will you get the Nights Watch to release the lands though?"

There was a simple answer for this one. "The Nights Watch is failing uncle. It has been losing numbers for many years now. They only control three castles now. They only have a little over a thousand men and according to what I have heard they are getting very little if anything from the Gift due to low numbers and wildling raids driving off all the small folk."

He give that a second to settle in before he continued. "I plan to ask them to give the Gift back to us and whatever lords who are named for these lands will pay their taxes to us. In return Winterfell will arm them ourselves, we will aid in rebuilding some of the castles along the wall as well as helping increase the prestige for the watch, we will give them a decent sum of gold every five years or so, so that they can maintain their castles and to trade. There will be other stipulations but I will discuss those with the Lord Commander."

The uncertainty was back on their faces. Uncle Ned was surprisingly the first to voice his thoughts. "I'm not sure if the Lord Commander will agree to that. They are losing a lot of land in this. I think they would want something more."

Harry shook his head. "True the Gift is a large piece of land but they lack the men to patrol it and the smallfolk to farm it. It's useless in their hands as it is. I considered having those new houses pay a portion of their taxes to the watch but that will very soon become some of the most valuable land in the North. It is already extremely fertile, with the new farming practices; its value will be massive. I can't let an institution that doesn't answer to the Starks receive such a large amount of wealth and have any control over a northern house, even if it's just in tax. Imagine what a statue worshipping southerner as a Lord Commander might do with that type of wealth. Never mind the fact that the watch hardly trades for anything, they won't be able to spend that wealth and it will just sit there collecting dust or being stolen by the rapers and thieves on the wall. No, the most I can offer the watch is gold and arms as well as trying to increase their reputations so that more volunteers take the black."

He knew he was laying it on thick with all the southern hating nonsense I was spewing. There was a method to the madness however. Hadrian knew that one day there would be trouble with the Faith. That's something he's accepted. They would not allow a land with rival gods to flourish like he planned on the North doing over the next few years. The South will not leave the North alone, because the North flourishing means more gold will travel into the North and less will be left in the Southern kingdoms. Growing our own food means less will be purchased from those Southern kingdoms, making a dent on their economy. It will be even worse for the South once the new farming practices spread there. The price of food will drop quite drastically, meaning many farmers will struggle to sell their wares. Inevitably they will look for someone to blame and the North makes the perfect scapegoats. The Faith will most likely find this as perfect ammunition to use against the North and the Old Gods, so tensions are going to rise. It's almost inevitable that the North will go to war with the south, just not the form that war will take.

In the meantime he's going to make the North as strong as he can. By having a reputation among his own family of disliking southerners he will have an excuse for why he disregards most of the wishes of the South over the next few years. Leaving him to mostly grow the North in solitude for the time being, while having a simple excuse among family for some questionable actions that they won't understand.

With any luck this will also help make his cousins more wary of the South as well.

Catelyn had been irritating him with some of her actions lately and he needed to make sure they had no lasting impacts on his cousins' development. Preaching that Seven-Star nonsense to Robb. Trying to make him be wary of Jon because he's a bastard. She even tried to move Jon out of Robbs room and into one of the smallest servant's quarters we had. She was pissed when he had him moved across the hall from Robb, into a room similar in size to Robbs.

He was pulled out of my musings by his uncle Neds sigh. "If you think you can convince him I'll invite him to Winterfell." Hah, even uncle Ned seemed to have given up trying to change his opinion on southerners.

Hadrian nodded to him. "We have the Harvest festival in three moons. Invite him to Winterfell in two moons. We would have gotten a positive reply from the King by then so we can discuss terms. This will also give us another moon to decide how the lands will be split up before the Lords get to Winterfell."

Both his uncles nodded and took small sips of their mead. Uncle Ned started rubbing his hands over the fire while Benjen just stared into the flames.

After a few moments of comfortable silence he decided there was still more to talk about and so cleared his throat and began to speak. "I hate to bring this up now Benjen, but I think in the next week or so you should make your way to Sea-Dragon Point. You need to decide where you want your new keep to be and start coming up with a basic design you want. After the Harvest festival I'm hoping you will go with the Manderlys to learn how to captain a ship, so I think it would be best if we had those details sorted before then so that the building can begin while you are at White Harbour."

Benjen just gave a resigned nod. Harry was sure he was still a bit upset about not being able to join the watch. Hopefully travelling outside of Winterfell and actually doing things will help improve his mood.

There wasn't much else to speak about at that moment, so Hadrian wished both of his uncles well before heading off to his chambers to get some sleep.

Line break-

The next morning found Hadrian sitting with his legs crossed in front of the Heart tree in the Godswood of Winterfell.

For the last three years, since the end of the Rebellion, Harry would come out to the Godswood every day for a few hours in the morning to work on his magic.

In the first few weeks it was incredibly difficult to get the magic to respond in any meaningful way. He started by trying to manipulate the elements. He would sit over a candle for hours trying to get fire to move or flicker slightly, he would submerge himself in the hotsprings and try to move the water or he would sit quietly in a clearing trying to move around the air around him or the snow on the ground. After several weeks with no results he started to get incredibly frustrated. He went through his memories from his past life recalling all texts on the nature of magic or elemental manipulation using probably the most useful gift from being the Master of Death.

Perfect memory.

Many would probably consider the immortality to be more useful. Or the extra power that comes with the title. But to Harry the greatest gift would always be the ability to remember his happiest moments. To remember his friends faces, smiles and laughs in perfect detail.

Some days he thinks these memories are the only reason he is still sane. On others he wonders if they are pushing him closer to insanity by providing him with a reminder of what he lost. Harry doesn't particularly care. He is just happy to have something to remember those lost to him by.

After searching through all his memories of elemental manipulation and still failing to achieve any result, Harry came to the conclusion that the magic system of this world is too different from his own. He can still feel the magic in the air even if it's weakened. Trying to manipulate it however just leaves him frustrated by a lack of progress.

It was then that he came to the conclusion that he would have to learn the magic all over again with this new system.

He decided to start with a magic that, according to his research, his ancestors probably had great control over.

Warging.

He determined that his ancestors were capable of warging due to a few facts. First, thousands of years ago the Starks defeated the Warg King and married his daughter into their bloodline. The magic should have passed down to their children and he found proof that it did. Some of the older texts written in the old tongue made reference to Stark Kings of old having companions in the form of Direwolves that were said to be extremely loyal and fiercely protective of the Starks. If that doesn't scream warg then he is not sure what does. He was never able to discover why exactly the Starks had lost their companions though, or why they stopped practicing warging. The pages of the older texts he was reading were either too faded from old age or too damaged to read anything further.

At least it provided an excuse to order the Maester to teach one of the orphans in Wintertown how to read and write, so they could start copying the texts. Harry knew he would need a team of talented loyal scribes for his plans for the North and its best to start now.

Unfortunately Harry didn't have a Direwolf that he could learn how to warg with so he decided to go with something else.

More specifically, he started with a pup from one of the hunting hounds that he named Padfoot. The dog resembles a husky with great shaggy black fur.

It took him a few weeks after adopting the puppy to learn how to go into its mind after great amounts of concentration. After his success in those efforts he was reinvigorated in his pursuit of magic and now over three years later he has a much greater control over the ability.

He can warg into his dog easily from a large distance away. He isn't sure of the exact limitation yet as he has never been that far from Winterfell. Based on his experience with warging into birds he believes it's far. He hasn't actually been able to find a limit yet and he's flown a bird out of the North completely.

Two years ago after he had mastered warging into his dog on command, he decided to move onto other animals. That's when he first learned of the inherent danger of warging. The animal and the human share a mind. Therefore unless one is careful, some of the instincts of the animal can bleed through to the human.

The first time he warged into a random raven in the rookery and flew, he had almost got lost in the instincts of the bird. The feeling of freedom that the bird in flight gave could be addicting to those unwary. Luckily for him, his memory is perfect and he has experience using occulemency to fight intrusions into his mind. This made it a lot easier to notice the instincts that weren't his and shut them down.

Now, he can warg half a dozen different creatures at once. The only downside to this is that he has to concentrate immensely on meditation. Meaning that he has to sit still and he has very little awareness of his surroundings unless one of the animals he has warged to is nearby. He has been trying to fix that issue but hasn't had much success as of yet. Even trying to actively warg into one animal only has him lose awareness of himself. Unfortunately without a teacher, he is forced to learn everything from scratch. Luckily being around the ambient magic in the godswood makes it a bit easier to push his magic in different ways with less strain, making it easier to experiment.

He misses his old magic terribly, but that's not to say there aren't any advantages to what he has learned to do in this life so far. In fact, he used warging to determine that the Iron Islands were going to rebel. He first noticed that the Ironborn were being spotted more often but the number of raids wasn't increasing and so decided to investigate. It was incredibly frustrating to make a bird fly all the way to the islands. He was only able to warg at night, lest his family find him and grow concerned. The problem with this is that inevitably the bird would wander in a different direction when he wasn't actively trying to guide it. Sometimes undoing the work of the previous night.

Needless to say it took him weeks to get a bird to Pyke and spy on Balon Greyjoy.

Once he found out he was planning to rebel, he tried to think of how he could inform his uncles so that they could subtly warn the Houses on the Western shores. Eventually he decided to hit them with enough facts presented in a way to make the Ironborn Rebellion sound if not definite then at least plausible.

Harry is slightly ashamed to admit to himself that he almost didn't tell them about the rebellion at all. He knew that his uncle would warn the King. Despite what he told his uncles he didn't know how the King would react to the rebellion. He expects him to let the rebellion kick off before putting it down because like he said to uncle Ned, putting down an Ironborn Rebellion with most of the Lords of Westeros behind him will add a great deal of legitimacy to his reign. Unfortunately he doesn't know if that is what Robert will do.

He hopes he doesn't make any moves to act against the Ironborn because he expects they will move against the Lannister fleet first and Harry hopes they burn it to ashes.

The Harry from Hogwarts would never be able stomach the thought of knowing about a war and not doing anything to stop it. He would never wish for a war with all the devastation he knows it will bring. That was before he lost everything and everyone he loved.

This time he is determined to keep what he has. Unfortunately that means making decisions that he finds terrible to protect his family.

The Lannisters are one of the biggest threats to his family in Westeros. They're undoubtedly the most powerful family on the continent and while they aren't enemies of House Stark, he can't rely on that staying the case forever. Tywin Lannister is a ruthless man. A cruel man. Harry will not let House Stark go the way of the Targaryens.

He clenches his fist thinking about the fate of those children and their mother.

While Harry might be more ruthless than he used to be, that doesn't mean that he is okay with the murder of innocents. Nevermind children. That's partly the reason that he told his uncles about the rebellion, so that he can clear his conscience. Even if only slightly. As whatever happens next between the Ironborn and the Iron Throne is out of his hands.

The fact that Robert Baratheon rewarded the bastard with the brutal murder of children by making his daughter Queen is a serious black mark against him, that will never be removed from Harrys mind.

Harry released a breath with a sigh. He's working himself up. With another deep inhale and exhale he feels his shoulders relaxing. A calm and relaxed mind helps greatly with warging, working himself up will only make the process harder.

Closing his eyes he focuses on Padfoot. Before he knows it he's staring at his body from a low angle and with senses that aren't human. His eyesight might not be that great at the moment but his hearing and sense of smell are just more. He doesn't know if he will ever get used to seeing out of the eyes of animals. Stretching out his mind he concentrated on sharing his consciousness with a small brown owl that lives in the Godswood that has gotten used to him warging with it.

His senses start expanding and his viewpoint changes again as he starts to see out of the eyes of two different animals at once. It was an intensely nauseating experience the first few times he tried to do this.

His vision started clearing as the owl, reaching a definition and depth perception that is impossible for humans. He starts to feel hungry. With a searching glance he spots a small rabbit a small distance away. His instinct drives him to leap from the branch and kill and feast.

Harry quickly clears his mind and gains control of his instincts. That doesn't mean he is going to ignore them completely however. Today feels like a good day to fly. He will give the owl some food just later to make up for missing his meal now. He stretches his wings and with a quick push-"

"Harry!" Padfoots ears perk up at the sound of his two little cousins voices. With a quick flex of willpower he pulls his consciousness from the owl and padfoot back into his own body.

He stands up and turns around just in time to get tackled by Robb and Jon. He stumbles back a few steps chuckling. "What are you two monsters up too?"

Both of them step back laughing before Jon answers. "We hide from Mira."

I can't help myself from releasing a loud laugh before ruffling the hair on their heads. Both boys push my hands away with a pout. " Its 'We're hiding from Mira, Jon."

Jon looks at the floor with a frown while mumbling the correction I just gave him.

Mira is the governess that was hired to take care of Robb and Jon a little over a year ago after I finally managed to get rid of the damn Septa that Catelyn insisted on bringing from the Riverlands when she first came North. I had tried to get rid of her unsuccessfully for two years until eventually I found out while warging, that she was sending messages south through a man in Wintertown.

Making a bird steal the letter once the man got a few days away from Winterfell gave me the chance I needed to finally get rid of her. After giving my uncle the letter in which she reported our private family secrets to Hoster Tully, reported how successful she has been in converting the North to the Seven and repeatedly called us heathens, he finally decided that I was right and she needed to go before she could poison his children toward the Old Gods.

Catelyn tried to argue against it, but couldn't deny that the Septa was in the wrong. She then tried to bring another Septa North to teach her children, but at that stage I was done playing around and told Ned in no uncertain terms that the Starks have worshipped the Old Gods for thousands of years, and would worship them for thousands more if I could help it. I told him our bannermen would never support a Stark raised in the Faith of the Seven. It still ended up being one hell of an argument. He wanted to support his wife and was determined to do so until Benjen joined the argument on my side, and told him that I was right.

To this day Catelyn seems content to completely ignore my existence except for the occasional glare she throws my way. Not that it's ever really bothered me. Once you've had Petunia Dursley as an aunt, anything seems like a major improvement.

"Why are you two hiding, hmm?" I ask with a smile on my face.

Both of them break out into giggles before Robb answers. "It's funny."

I can't help but laugh a little with them. "Aye it can sometimes be funny but you mustn't do it too often to the poor woman, okay?"

They both put serious looks onto their faces before answering simultaneously. "Yes Harry." My cousins are the only ones that really call me Harry in this life. When they were younger they couldn't pronounce Hadrian so I told them to call me Harry. Uncle Ned and Benjen have called me that a few times as well but generally they both seem to prefer to call me Hadrian for some reason."

With a smile on my face I start leading the two out of the Godswood. "Come on, let's go see Sansa."

Robb groans. "But she's boring. She just sleeps."

"Shes your sister Robb. It is both of your jobs to look after her. She might be boring now but so were you two when you were her age."

He glares. "No. We were fun."

I laugh hard." Aye, whatever you say. Come on you two, if you behave you can watch my sparring practice for a bit afterwards."

Both of their eyes light up and their previous reluctance disappears completely.

"Really?!" Jon asks looking as if I just gifted him something amazing.

Robb is already racing away. "Hurry up. Lets go!"

I smile. Yes this is worth protecting.

Next Chapter Thursday 19 January 2023.

To read ahead of the update schedule: Pat_ (slash) TheLifeandTimes19.