Chapter 16:

Draco started his third year at Hogwarts. He asked head boy, Percy Weasley for a private word. Draco said, "Slytherin would agree to complete non-hostilities with Gryffindor this school year. The only threat I see to that arrangement would be your brothers engaging in hostilities that they call pranks."

Percy looked serious and said, "I will keep them in line, and if I fail that and they conduct a prank without good retaliatory reason, I will have them publicly punished."

Draco had a group in Slytherin he could count on in case of trouble. Theo, Vince, Greg, Blaise, Daphne, Pansy, and Millicent. In addition the Quidditch team, mostly older years, would stand together with any team member.

A couple of weeks later Draco noticed at lunch that Luna Lovegood didn't have some of the items she was wearing earlier in the term. He walked over to the her at the Ravenclaw table. He bowed and said, "Miss Lovegood, our group in Slytherin would wish for you to dine with us today." and gestured to his table.

Luna said, "Oh, Ok.", and walked over sitting between Draco and Daughne. She looked at Pansy and said, "You have a Wrackspurt infestation."

Draco looked sharply at Pansy to indicate that she shouldn't give a hostile response, as he prepared his table in advance.

Draco said to Luna, "I understand that your fellow Ravenclaws have been stealing from you and otherwise bullying you. You might call it Nargles, but you tend to give different terms for things you observe. It is people doing this, and people who have names. I cannot abide seeing this sort of treatment given, and will protect you."

Luna was very tentative, "I get my things back at the end of the term."

Draco used the Sonorous spell to speak loudly to the entire hall, "Attention Hogwarts, and especially the Ravenclaw House. Luna Lovegood is now under my protection. If any of her property is not returned within 48 hours, I will seek out the offenders and subject them to prosecution for theft among other responses. Any bullying against Luna from this time forwards will be responded to at my discretion as to manner and time, even if said response would need to wait until after graduating Hogwarts."

Luna looked frightened at the attention, but quietly said, "Thank you."

The staff looked uncertain as to what to do, but Professor Andromeda Tonks said, "10 points to Slytherin for showing the Slytherin trait of leadership and applying it to the pursuit of justice."

Professor Sprout said, "10 points to Slytherin for inter-house cooperation and looking after fellow students."

Professor Flitwick said, "There will be a House meeting tonight and we will review how we treat each other and appropriate remedies will made made."

Dumbledore just studied the situation and didn't say anything.

The next day at breakfast I again brought her over to the Slytherin table. She said "Most of my things have been returned, while some were disposed of by Hogwarts Elves from where they were hidden."

Draco said, "We can show you the room of hidden things if you'd like."

Luna said, "That sounds like a wonderful place. I'd like to see that."

Draco brought his Slytherin group, along with Harry and Hermione with him and arranged to go there in the early evening. He didn't reveal the other uses of the room of requirement yet. He cautioned everybody to check for curses before handling anything, and only four of them knew how to do that spell, so to ask first.

Draco was reflecting how in another timeline, during his seventh year, he would almost die in that same room, due to the reckless use of fiendfyre by Vince Crabbe, and would be saved by Harry Potter on a broom.

They encouraged Luna to find equivalent things to what she had lost there. They also took some books to put in the Slytherin common room. Hermione took some other books.

Meanwhile I was continuing to meet with Khan Noonien Singh. Since we had mutual pledges we no longer needed a secure meeting space. We decided to work out some things first before bringing our advisors to the meetings. We wanted to the lines of authority to be already worked out before introducing ourselves to each other's inner circles.

I said, "We have several things to work out as to goals, likely threats, and solutions to achieve goals while avoiding threats.

For threats, there is the ICW to consider. While they have some of their own aurors, their strength is largely that of wizarding ministries supporting them.

The next threat is non-magical warfare assisted by magicals who are hostile to wizarding society and by those non-magicals who know of magic and those with limited magic also called squibs."

Khan replied, "In the future history you have shown, another set of threats are magically run nations fighting each other. The ICW didn't seem to be an issue, so perhaps my original plan had that aspect handled."

I answered, "We do not know that. A description of augment run countries fighting each other could have encompassed the ICW being involved.

I was leading up to getting the ICW itself to approve of a plan to reveal magic before it might happen accidentally. Afterward helping to guide non-magical societies would be a necessary operation to prevent witch hunts with atomic bombs or with biowarfare.

Keep in mind, that in, what I'll call the Star Trek canon, your statement about genetic engineering was believed and with 1990's technology genetic differences were found between magicals and non-magicals. Technology now, or in the following decades would make it possible to introduce a disease that would kill magicals.

These possibilities require a level of control over non-magical societies as a matter of wizarding safety, not even considering if that was to be a goal or not."

Khan said, "I talk about reaching for power, for our destiny. You talk about safety. And yet we are both talking about identical actions. It is quite interesting."

I said, "In that case, I would propose that my concerns are higher than yours, as your can and did result in disaster due to lack of attention to safety. I would make the case to you that you act while I keep you grounded to reality and safety. That I have the final word in case of disagreement."

Khan said, "That is an intriguing argument, but not one I am ready to concede at this time. Let us plan further and then reexamine the details not just the overall authority of our collaboration."

I continued, "I am also looking towards a time when we have contact with extra-terrestrial civilizations. In Star Trek Canon, that happened in 2063. Since that was based upon reaching a certain technological milestone triggering extra-terrestrial open contact, that could happen earlier in our timeline. Even if 2063, with typical wizard lifespans we both might be alive and perhaps still in charge at that time.

We will need to guide Earth through a time when it is the equivalent to a first year student at a magic school, just learning to make and use the basic technologies long known to our neighbors."

Khan said, "Again intriguing arguments."

I said, "While earlier I said you would have been Slytherin, you also would have been well suited for Gryffindor. I would say that you have both a strength and weakness of charging in to a situation with a bold attack. The weakness is not accounting for all of the possible outcomes of that attack."

Khan said, "If you are referring to me threatening Doctor McCoy when I woke up, I was confused after a 200 year rest and thought I was being held prisoner."

I answered, "Perhaps. And I would not discount the effectiveness of a sudden cavalry charge or its equivalents in resolving an otherwise difficult situation. You are causing the enemy to respond to a rapidly evolving attack, which might turn a losing balance of forces into a winning one.

The challenge is to get to my goal of humanity, including a surviving wizardry, being secure among the stars a hundred years from now and a thousand years from now. That means no unrecoverable losses in that time."

Khan said, "You are quite convincing. I certainly do not look forward to being part of a remnant that escapes Earth."

We had another meeting to go over the intelligence reports of the countries that Khan was considering taking over.

Khan would address his inner circle members, Otto, Joaquin, and Kati, by their first names. The rest of his group, such as Rodriquez, Ling, and McPherson, he would address by their last names.

Khan addressed his advisors, "Lucius Malfoy and myself have pledged ourselves to each other. He will have the final word to keep our plans successful for the long term. I will be the one formally ruling. He will build up a covert action force to intervene when needed. In case of dispute I will accept Lucius Malfoy's rulings."

His advisors presented, "Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyztan all have similar circumstances of being recent republics of the Soviet Union trying to find their way in the world. All five can be easily taken over.

Mongolia is In a similar circumstance. Their government was overthrown in 1990, with President Ochirbat elected in June, but already having lost popularity due to an inability to fix the economy. With food and energy shortages, it would be almost too easy to take it over.

China has no easy vulnerabilities either of its whole or of western regions that might prefer independence. Given its nuclear power status we do not recommend any operations there.

The status of India . While Khan Noonien Singh has obvious reasons to want an independent Khalistan, the insurgency itself has lost momentum in the last several years. We might consider trying to take over India as a whole, but not in the first wave. The likelihood of securing a region is poor.

Pakistan has fairly solid rule by Benazir Bhutto with close ties to the military and Inter-Services Intelligence. Still, with magic only a few people would need to be made to follow new directions to completely rule the nation.

Afghanistan is in civil war. A winning group would tend to rally varied groups to its banner. Many want some peace and stability.

Iran is intriguing, where some magical influence on a small number of people might be enough to rule the nation.

Iraq has three regions, two of which might be taken over by magic fairly easily. The new government declaring its cooperation with the restrictions imposed on it after the Gulf War might be enough for the West to leave it be. The new government might announce autonomy for the Kurdish region, which itself could be taken over in the second wave.

Turkey would be more difficult, with considerable focus by the West on maintaining a government cooperative with NATO interests.

Syria presents difficulties, but again a small number of people magically influenced could be enough to take it over.

The first wave should ignore the nations of the Arabian peninsula due to close ties with the West.

With some of the previous mentioned targets suspicious of Russia, Azerbaijan might be considered. It is in a state of low grade civil war.

While initially the plan was to take over 40 nations, the present plan is to start with 11, and then expand with a second wave. We expect to consolidate with at least some of the magical populations and recruit them for the next wave."

I then presented, "Before proceeding we will have a plan that we all believe in for dealing with, meaning prevent, non-magical backlash, wars between regions, wars between the countries being taken over, intervention by other magical nations and the International Confederation of Wizards.

We will also carefully analyze whether the second wave takeovers will work or if they will build up defenses due to the first wave takeovers. We might consider again a larger first wave which would then include India, China, Southeast Asia, and Arabia.

We plan not just to succeed for today, but to eventually rule Earth, and rule it well."