Jao
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Magic Knows No Boundaries But Those We Believe In (Harry Potter)
- Thread starter NonsensicalRants
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Friggenj
Versed in the lewd.
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I'm a little lost in the sauce here. But what is this war even really about? It feels like Tom is running a social revolution for the disenfranchised by using the elites as a bunch of useful idiots?
Should Harry even want to win here?
Should Harry even want to win here?
NonsensicalRants
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These "Elites" are not useful idiots and are not being used as such. Purebloods and rich are not synonymous.
The two sides are simple.
Purebloods:
"This is our country. Our culture. We have already changed it and adapted to make it more suitable for you and you have spat in our face for it. No more. YOU adapt and integrate into OUR country, or get the fuck out. Or else we'll resort to a third option(shows Voldemort.) we have seen the fruits of Muggle society and politics. Half of us are over a century old and witness the rise of national socialism, Marxism, Italian Fascism and the hundreds of millions they've killed. WE DON'T WANT IT!"
Muggleborns:
"Like, ewwwww. Your society is so totally backwards. You should change it to meet our modern, enlightened, British sensibilities. Here, look at our sexual revolution, god awful education systems and healthcare systems? And look over here at the total eradication of local cultures and customs in the face of globalism. Why wouldn't you want that?! Are you just, like, totally bigots?" Proceeds to sniff their own farts.
MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot
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Interesting, if redundant, phrasing.
Uhh... why? He's not a citizen of this world at all, and why would he still be hamstrung by a one-sided morality to leave DE alone knowing what they do?
kowtow is definitely the wrong word there; not sure quite what you wanted, but that's not it.
IN a pear tree, not AND
Is he STILL going to be all "don't rob Death Eaters" knowing that they've robbed him?
Ugh!!! If I'd read that in chapter 1 I'd have dropped the story immediately! But other than the friendly-helpful-goblins and magical inheritance crap this has been well written so far. Hopefully this is as far as that goes.
NonsensicalRants
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1) That is a reference to a youtuber who says "Murder to death" as a joke phrase. It is joke.
2) upstanding citizen was meant sarcastically. Also he has no idea of Lucius here is his enemy, or deserving of such. If this was time travel, he would be all over that. But this is an AU. This Lucius has done nothing to him.
3) You're correct. It should be "managed to browbeat long enough into kowtowing."
4) Next you're going to tell me its not "elemenopee" when I sing the alphabet. I'll add that to the list of songs I've been singing wrong my whole life
5) This is a rewrite. The original story is not mine, and this was a criticism of my own. I kept everything that was in the original story, only adding to it, not taking it away.
2) upstanding citizen was meant sarcastically. Also he has no idea of Lucius here is his enemy, or deserving of such. If this was time travel, he would be all over that. But this is an AU. This Lucius has done nothing to him.
3) You're correct. It should be "managed to browbeat long enough into kowtowing."
4) Next you're going to tell me its not "elemenopee" when I sing the alphabet. I'll add that to the list of songs I've been singing wrong my whole life
5) This is a rewrite. The original story is not mine, and this was a criticism of my own. I kept everything that was in the original story, only adding to it, not taking it away.
MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot
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I really wish people (read: authors) would realize that the Fidelius Charm is intended to hide A SECRET, not a place. If it does hide a place, like in canon three times, it's because that place is intimately related to the secret in question, not because that's the only use of the spell. I've only seen one author use the Fidelius more creatively than "hide this place", probably because JKR herself didn't, but the way it's described in canon it's far more versatile than she ever showed and in fanfictions about expanding the usage of magic it'd be nice if they... uhh... did that.
the agenda. An itinerary is a wildly different thing.
So, is McG the headmistress, or is Albus? It can't be both, and if it's not Albus then he has no authority to fire a teacher.
No he didn't. And while he now knows that the DE are essentially "stealing" from him and many other families' potential inheritances, he's still not done anything about it, including defrauding them using knowledge of alternate futures. He should, but he hasn't. And he definitely hasn't done that to any of the people in that room.
NonsensicalRants
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1) True, but the bigger the secret/space the more power it requires. A drawer and its contents are an easier secret to keep than the headquarters of a... vigilante organization.
2) Good catch. I've been misusing that word a lot. Will correct on the next edit.
3) I meant deputy headmistress. Good catch.
4) he absolutely did. And it's not the death eaters who stole from him, it was the ministry of magic/government. The Death Eaters who successfully sued for damaged are not the thieves here. His own biases notwithstanding
MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot
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When did Harry lie to the people in that room? Did I miss something? That chapter went over pretty much every interaction he had with any of them, even second-hand.
You're right, though, that it was the Ministry who stole from him, but on behalf of the DE who knew precisely what they were doing, since they in large part own the Ministry.
administrator
Crystal meth wasn't even a thing in the 90s, and that study in Canada was in 2018. If you're going to go off on political diatribes at least make them fit the timeline!
Better yet, don't go off on political diatribes in fanfiction! It's... gauche. Plus why is Harry so obsessed with the goings-on in America? American companies, American natural disasters, American everything. He was a British Quiddich player; when did he have the time to keep track of all kinds of muggle happenings a whole ocean away, and why would he do that? Is it just so that the author can shoehorn in political rants disguised as conversation? Because honestly, this entire section just sucks! Most of the rest of the chapter isn't bad.
"Both grandpa Crabbe... and whom? The sentence isn't complete.
Wait, so one in 30 women is a witch? And magic is still a secret? Literally everyone on the planet would know a witch or two. This math makes canon a joke.
Tell that to a kick-boxer, MMA fighter, etc. Also, why would Harry even "know" this?
Why would Harry know this? Again, he's a Quiddich player who dropped out of middle school to become a wizard, and dropped out of wizard school to be a vigilante. Yes, Hermione was his friend, but she did the same thing! Harry's coming across as more and more of a Gary Stu, and I'm liking him less because of it. Let him be good at what he's good at, not a know-it-all. He's in his 20s; up until 18 he knew none of this sort of thing, and what we've read about his career after that gives him no reason to know about it either.
Uhh... what weird AU is this?! Dumbledore in canon hid EVERYTHING from him!
NonsensicalRants
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1) Death Eaters sued for damages. So have other people. As is their right. And Harry ahs lied about being a seer, while most of his actions are based on actual knowledge of the future. This is deceiving.
2) Good catch.
3) Not political. At best politically neutral and pertinent to the topic of trying to start a nonprofit. Especially when trying to convince people why your nonprofit is worth investing in. I am exploring the goblins ideology, and landed on "Have you actually done any fucking research at all!? Are you trying to scam us like humans are wont to do with so many of their nonprofits?"
4) Weird choice of things to be offended by. Another guy got offended by me talking about the catholic church doing the same. Why aren't you bothered by that? Is it because you can be objective when cunts you disagree with do evil but not ones you do? Here I am criticizing both. Pointing out cunts stealing is not political. Nor is talking about aids. Neither is basic economics. Why aren't you offended by the dotcom bubble joke? If the retardation of the housing crisis is political then so too is that. Grow up.
5) Grandpa Crabbe and Goyle. Good catch.
6) I said it's a debate. And those people are sportsman, not combatants. For actual combat? Go talk to a marine or a navy seal. You know. People who kill and risk death.
7) Uh, you're nitpicking.
8) I'm not into Dumbledore bashing. Or Weasley bashing. Or bashing any character really. Dumbledore really did risk the entire planet to give Harry a chance at surviving the killing curse a second time, and it required him to keep Harry in the dark. If Harry knew he could survive, then he wouldn't have been able to come back. This is canon.
MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot
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Except he never actually told anyone that he's a seer. They all assumed he's a seer because he knew things about them, but he never told them that. He never so much as implied it. And... in this story for some reason he actually IS a seer given all of his "feel the world" stuff and all it implies. There's literally no reason that he should "lose the trust" of any of those people, both since he didn't once lie to them and since he never actually sought that trust in the first place. That whole bit really felt like plot railroading rather than natural human interactions. The entire crew ran off along some mental side path, then when their own assumptions went too far they got suspicious, but nothing Harry did had anything to do with any of it.
It's the "criticizing both" part that offends me in the first place, not the jokes or opinions in themselves. I don't read fanfictions so that I can be lectured about current or past events, no matter what the opinion or side you choose. I frankly don't care what you think about the church, the Clintons, the housing bubble, and so on, but putting those opinions into a fanfic that has nothing to do with any of them annoys me. It's not about objectivity or offense; it's just not what I'm here to read, and I suspect that's true of most of your readership. If you want to write opinion pieces about those things, go forth and do so, but don't shoehorn them into a fanfic in such an artificial and intrusive way.
You said "when teaching someone to fight", not "when teaching someone to kill". And generally not even marines kill with kicks or punches. That entire response seems almost irrelevant.
I'm nitpicking because your Harry seems to be becoming a worse know-it-all than early-canon Hermione, with opinions and presumably experience about everything, and it reads more like he's an authorial mouthpiece than an actual character. He feels less and less like a person, let alone the person who was named Harry Potter, and that's a problem since I as a reader am supposed to relate to him as the main character. Even after reading the following chapter where for some reason they spent lots of time in America I just don't feel like this Renaissance Man Harry makes any sense at the age of (somewhere in mid-to-late 20s). I do love what you did with Draco and Dudley, and find it believable, but Harry just knows too much stuff, and acts like he has the experience and knowledge of four people, only one of whom was a double dropout.
That's one interpretation, and I won't even get into whether or not it's valid. But from the perspective of the person who was mistreated by EVERYONE on that path, including many of his friends and allies, because of some of Dumbledore's decisions, him feeling like he does in this story feels unrealistic. Even 10 years of reflection later. Whatever Dumbledore's reasons, Harry was ground up to dust because of his decisions.
Angelina
NonsensicalRants
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1) I said he was deceitful, not that he lied. these are different things.
2) Again. Grow up. You already revealed yourself by picking which part of the joke to be offended by. I will make jokes at the expense of any and everybody.
3) Yes, I said fight. Not box. Not spar. Fight. actually fight. Sportsmen in the martial arts debate whether kicking is effective or not. Law enforcement and military don't even debate, they go with hands and restraining. And they are correct.
4) yes, my interpretation which is what we're going for in this story. Even still this Dumbledore is Machiavelian, but he's not evil or senile.
5) Good catch. I'll address it on the next edit.
MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot
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The record speaks for itself.
They mostly go with shooting or bombing. And, again, you said "fight", which in every single context in this story so far has been duels, which is sports. This isn't a war story, so how is a reader supposed to know that suddenly you're talking about warriors rather than sportsmen? This is part of the problem with getting up on a soapbox in the middle of a story: it's not clear when or why you're doing it because it doesn't fit into the story.
Expect to lose readers if it doesn't fit the story. It's your story, and you can do whatever you want with it, but things that take the reader out of the situation at hand (e.g. by being anachronistic, being things the characters shouldn't know or care about, etc.) never, in any story, adds to the narrative. People complain all the time about how characters in some stories are authorial mouthpieces rather than coherent and believable people, and even when it's a side character it detracts from stories. As the MC, it's worse. That's the last I'll say about this.
NonsensicalRants
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1) "Show me where he specifically claimed he was a seer" He pretended to be a seer, that is lying/deceiving. He did lie about many OTHER things to support this deception. The original had him lying, and also being deceitful separately. Second one I misspoke. Unless I did have him specifically lie about that. I'm sure another reader.
2) how is this a soap box? We are discussing self-defense here. Either way, on the streets or in the arena, kicking not being an ideal is a position even professionals take. I'm allowed to have this opinions, so is Harry, who is well acquainted with his professional boxer cousin and many Aurors who, occassionally, get into CWC. And was a soldier himself, sooo.
3) Ah, here's your misunderstanding. You seem to think I care about total number of readers. I don't I care about the quality of my readers. Quality readers can read a story about Harry starting a nonprofit, read a joke at the expense of assholes who abuse nonprofits for profit, and chuckle or move on. I make jokes regularly about peoples sacred cows, and I try to be inclusive by extending the joke to all sacred cows. I'm only interested in people who can laugh at themselves like I can. Hell, I make jokes about jews and communists all the time, and I'm both of those things.
Once again. Grow up. Become a more interesting person instead of... getting upset over a fanfiction?
MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot
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When? He expected to get an A at best on his NEWT. It was only when he was asked to do the practical part when he realized that he actually COULD see that guy's future, and warned him about it. So the only time he acted as a seer (and still without saying he was one!), he already was one. And he never did so to or about any of the members of the Order. He helped Lupin's kid before knowing he even WAS Lupin's kid. He showed off that he could figure out matching wands (which has nothing to do with the Order) because he actually could, and never once claimed to be a seer because of it. He helped Bellatrix with her wand because it was his job. He dated her because the story wanted him to (*cough* because she was hot). He beat the snot out of Arianna because it was part of a test, and it was her that brought him up to the Order. They literally made up "Battle Divination" out of whole cloth at that meeting and Moody said it was suspicious that he had contact with two duelists, Ollivander (who isn't even a member), and Romulus. They're suspicious because of NOTHING. At no point in ANY of that did he lie, deceive, or even INTERACT with most of them. From the chapter:
He literally had no idea where any of that came from. How can one lie without even knowing about it?
Where? When? Point me to it. You wrote this and you can't. I just re-read it to find the above and it's all utter tripe that they're suspicious of him when they're the ones gossiping about nothing more interesting than him "banging" Bella.
Sure, but when his opinions sound to a reader like yours, that's when there's a problem because Harry no longer feels like Harry. He feels like YOU. If this were an SI story I wouldn't care because that's what I signed up for, but I want to read about Harry, not you in a Harry skin.
And again, in your personal life or in an essay or opinion piece that's great. In a fanfiction it's called word bloat. It has nothing to do with the story, takes readers out of the story, and is basically a waste of everyone's time. You can say "It's my right" all you like, and you're correct, but it makes for an objectively worse story. You seem to define "quality of readers" as "readers who agree with (or tolerate) me". I define "good story" as "story that is self-contained and self-consistent", which this one isn't when your MC feels like your SI. If you can't or won't see that then there's little left to say about it.
This story is mostly pretty good, but the frequent asides that have nothing to do with plot, character, or worldbuilding (or worse, actively contradict them) are annoying, no matter what they're about or which side they take. The very fact that they're IN the story is what's annoying.
Or, alternatively, you could choose NOT to be a dick when someone point out flaws in your story. Maybe you could try to improve your writing instead of attacking someone pointing out its problems.
NonsensicalRants
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i thanked you for every flaw or typo you pointed out. And will continue to do so. And I agree with very little Harry says or thinks, save some obvious things. Case and point, Harry blames the Death Eaters for the loss of so much Morrigan wealth, when objectively the Ministry used it as a fund for damages in the war to people on all sides. the martial arts thing? That's just a fact. Martial artists DO debate the efficacy of kicking for self defense.
The only thing I gave you guff for was when you tried to police my humor. I didn't make it universally offensive on accident buddy. That's not a bug, its a feature. One that sifts out the perpetually offended and invites in my fellow dicks who can hurl a good insult or offensive joke back at me. My people.
MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot
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Why not just use a tag, then? And then keep the insults in character for the people you're writing. The point isn't that the humor is offensive, but that it doesn't fit the story or characters you wrote. You seem to be going out of your way to ensure that it's "universally offensive" (your words), but in so doing the characters and worldbuilding feel janky. THAT is the problem, not the humor itself. A good burn makes any story better IF it's believable and in character.
See, this is what I'm talking about. Who is the sarcasm by? Who is it toward? This is YOU, the author, speaking as narrator to me, the reader. It's offensive to nobody, so you can't say I object to it on that ground. I object because, like so many other things, it takes me out of the story. It makes me remember that there's a writer, and I'm not in his world so much as I'm reading about it. A lot of the jokes you think offend me are the same way, they don't fit the narrative or story and thus break immersion.
While I fully agree with the sentiment here (I was just next to two shrieking infants on a plane a week ago, UGH!), again, it just feels out of place and jarring to see a paragraph on that randomly inserted into the story where NOTHING about the scene has anything to do with it.
They never asked in the first place, so "again" doesn't fit.
While Dumbledore does love the sound of his own voice, this isn't how he talks about people, so this comes off as author praising his own character or writing.
tl;dr: The problem with this story is the existence of all of the writer-insert asides and OOC verbiage, not the content of same. If they were in character and/or well timed, they'd be great. Immersion is important in fiction, and this one goes out of its way to break immersion every few paragraphs. 'Nuff said, and I'll drop it here since I don't think you agree on the importance of immersion.
Why would that be so soon? Levitation charms aren't taught until around Halloween first year, two months after school started.
Are they sixth years, or seventh? Because unless more has changed, if Dumbledore just got the ring over the summer it should be their sixth year and that's also the impression I got from prior chapters involving the twins, Ron, etc. In particular, Harry was surprised that Katie wasn't at school and she's a year older than they are. Also, "duAl sided".
hang of it
ill omens
Last edited:
Chapter 36: Busy Being Busy
NonsensicalRants
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Chapter 36:
Busy Being Busy
Busy Being Busy
Harry started his Tuesday with a morning hike, accompanied as he was by a dozen students and the Gray Lady.
He allowed Helena to lead the hike from the front with Harry at the back, in case he needed to take action on anything. You never know, a particularly grumpy unicorn could come across them and decided to gore one of the poor boys.
The October weather was nice and cool, but not yet freezing, making the hike absolutely perfect. No snow making them lose the trail. No biting winds making their noses, lips and ears fall off. The last surviving moss and bushes were still just a little green.
"Why are we going so slow?" Urquhart complained.
Ah, and nearly everyone who came along was a Quidditch player and/or captain like Urquhart there. Although it didn't seem like he managed to get any of the other Slytherin players to come along. The only Ravenclaw was Cho, whereas half of the Hufflepuff team had come along. Anthony Rickett, Timsin Applebee, and Heidi Macavoy. The only Gryffindors to come along were Colin Creevey, who seemed to be using the opportunity to sharpen his photography skills, and Dean. Harry guessed that the lack of a football club make this the next best outdoors club to join for him.
"Because this is a hiking club, not a jogging club." Said the gray lady. "You are more than free to job around the lake and Quidditch pitch if it pleases you."
That kind of defeated the purpose. The big selling point on the hiking club was the privilege of being allowed to skirt the rules around the forbidden forest. After all, some of these trails did cut through said forest, and with it being so early in the morning that it was as close to stomping around the forbidden forest at night as any of them would ever get. And this was only possible because Harry was there to supervise.
"This is meant to be relaxing and invigoration." Harry told them. "And it is still a great way to get into shape. It builds an endurance of a different kind to jogging. If you want to try jogging these trails in your free time on weekends unsupervised? I would advise against it, but I can't stop you either."
Although, to be fair, Harry had opted for one of the easier trails. One near the mouth of the Black Lake where it opened out to see. The trail and people on it could be seen from all of the Hogwarts grounds and most of the east end of the castle. It was soft dirt, not rocky trail beneath them, with the occasional standing stone from some long-forgotten students arithmancy or warding experiment decorating the hill or slope on either side here or there.
"I'm hoping to get a good photo of the sunrise hitting the trees justright." Said Colin.
"I'm just trying to tire out my legs a bit more." Said Dean.
"That's the spirit!" Harry congratulated. "We'll start on tougher trails tomorrow, wasn't expecting all athletes."
Colin looked at him questioningly.
"You'll become one eventually if you spend every morning with all of us." Harry told him.
"Thank you Argus." Harry told the caretaker as he delivered a box of mail marked safe.
"It's what I do." Argus said. "Best part of my job actually."
"Examining potentially dangerous mail?"
"Or confiscated objects. People think because I'm a squib magic is off limits to me. They seem to forget that potions, runes, divination and numerology are just as acceptable to me." He said with a smirk.
Harry remembered how the Filch of his universe told him that he was the one tasked with stripping his Firebolt in search of curses, with only marginal help from Filius. Filius was a master of charms. Argus was a master of reverse engineering enchantments. Comes with the territory of being the main target of all pranks and in charge of examining all objects coming in and out of Hogwarts.
He wasn't joking about Squibs focusing on non-wand based magic either. He was probably better at runes than babbling, but his knowledge of these fields were more applied to curse-identification and joke objects.
"What's the worst you found in the rejected letters?" Harry had to ask as he opened the box.
"One was a powdered love potion tuned to a specific individual, sent anonymously. Probably some wrerewolfesse fangirl. Another was enchanted to shoot small needles filled with blood, likely belonging to a werewolf, into the skin of the person who opened it. Sloppy work." Filch explained. "The message on that one is pretty clear. Love werewolves so much? Here, become one. Not that it would have worked. That or vampire blood. Vampires get uppity about people helping werewolves but not them. Might have pissed one of those off."
Yeah, that would have ruined all of his plans. Problem with trying to help vampires was that they were contagious, and dangerous, at all times. Unlike werewolves, with the obvious upside that they were a bit easier to keep under control, as they had more self-control. But still, hard to help.
"Well, thank you very much for keeping me safe. Let me know if you need help with anything." Harry told the caretaker.
"Can do. If you wanted to start helping me out, you could try living a less interesting life out of the spotlight, but I don't see that happening." Argus groused jokingly as he left.
Harry shook his head bemusedly. Moreso than most, that man was an enigma.
He only had a few minutes before his class for the day so all he managed to do was open the box and organize the letters by date, intent on responding to them in the order he received them. To the best of his ability.
"Welcome miss Granger. Mr Malfoy." Harry greeted the two students as they walked in together.
They bowed and took their seats. Susan came in after them, followed by Lavender and many more. When the bell tolled for class to begin he stood up, vanished his conjured chair, and walked over to the chalk board.
"Today, and for the remainder of term, we will be refreshing and improving on your knowledge of dream and omen interpretation." Harry explained. "Along with the regular mediation. Now. Would anybody here feel comfortable opening up about any interesting dreams they've had this last week?"
Harry entered a new routine. His mornings were spent on morning hikes with his club, his classes reached a level of repetitiveness that they required much less work than usual, and now his afternoons were mostly spent reading and responding to letters.
As he expected, most of the letters were requests to attend his sanctuary during the upcoming hunters moon on the twenty sixth. He replied to each and every one with an affirmative. There was room for all!
Most of the remaining letters were of support. If Voldemort's plan was to dirty the name of Hadrian Morrigan, or else overwhelm him with an excess of customers, then he sorely miscalculated. The letters of support, often with offers of funding or volunteering time and labor, were almost as common as the letters asking for help.
The most surprising letter of all came from Dolores.
Dear Hadrian
I am writing to warn you about a potential danger I fear you may not be seeing. You are not the first to try and shelter werewolves, though you are the first to so through private means instead of public.
I have tried to be a part of the latter. On several occasions there have been attempts to form werewolf only communities so that they might quarantine themselves both as a violent threat to society and as a pathological one. I am old enough to remember the days when catching lycanism was still deadly, as the basic nutritional treatment of them was not yet studied well. These efforts were torpedoed by fears of becoming like Muggles.
I am not sure if you took Muggle studies, but extra emphasis is placed on the socialist ideologies of the 21st century. Especially Fascism, Nazism, and Marxism. The latter two of which lead to the wrongful internment and butchering, or worse, of well over 200 million people. Any attempt at creating contained werewolf communities too strongly resembles the evils of Muggle socialists, or offshoots thereof, for wizarding governments to ever approve such plans. You are new to your lordship but even you must know that when Muggles make horrible civic choices, we go in the opposite direction. Hence why all educational institutions and medicine are still privatized despite Muggleborn complaints.
What I am getting at is this:
If your sanctuary continues to succeed, then your success may destroy you. While it has never happened, Muggleborns bang their drums on private industry potentially leading to the same or worse evils of government excess, and should your sanctum continue to expand into an organic werewolf community you can expect accusations of forming a private gulag, or more strangely, a military complex to come at you from the aisle opposed to yours.
So, heed my advice. Do not expand from your 3-day model of sanctuary. Do not expand to providing permanent housing. Do not conglomerate werewolves into their own secondary society like the Jewish Ghettos of socialist Germany. Not only to avoid these accusations, but to help ensure the further socialization and integration of werewolves into society and vice versa which has taken so much work to achieve, to the point they are so close to acceptance it is painful.
You are doing beautiful work. Keep it up.
All of our love, Dolores.
Harry put the letter down. There was a lot to soak in there. From realizing he was on a first name basis with Dolores Umbridge of all people, to her confirming that he had properly creating an illusion around himself of being fully on board with the purebloods of society. His work to build that rapport was paying off. Not least of all because he mostly was. But not to the point that his status as "Muggle raised" had been forgotten. People were rightly fearful that he brought along just a few too many ideals and principles of Muggle society that witches and wizards, by virtue of witnesses such ideals and principles as outsiders with long lives and longer memories, could recognize as moronic.I am writing to warn you about a potential danger I fear you may not be seeing. You are not the first to try and shelter werewolves, though you are the first to so through private means instead of public.
I have tried to be a part of the latter. On several occasions there have been attempts to form werewolf only communities so that they might quarantine themselves both as a violent threat to society and as a pathological one. I am old enough to remember the days when catching lycanism was still deadly, as the basic nutritional treatment of them was not yet studied well. These efforts were torpedoed by fears of becoming like Muggles.
I am not sure if you took Muggle studies, but extra emphasis is placed on the socialist ideologies of the 21st century. Especially Fascism, Nazism, and Marxism. The latter two of which lead to the wrongful internment and butchering, or worse, of well over 200 million people. Any attempt at creating contained werewolf communities too strongly resembles the evils of Muggle socialists, or offshoots thereof, for wizarding governments to ever approve such plans. You are new to your lordship but even you must know that when Muggles make horrible civic choices, we go in the opposite direction. Hence why all educational institutions and medicine are still privatized despite Muggleborn complaints.
What I am getting at is this:
If your sanctuary continues to succeed, then your success may destroy you. While it has never happened, Muggleborns bang their drums on private industry potentially leading to the same or worse evils of government excess, and should your sanctum continue to expand into an organic werewolf community you can expect accusations of forming a private gulag, or more strangely, a military complex to come at you from the aisle opposed to yours.
So, heed my advice. Do not expand from your 3-day model of sanctuary. Do not expand to providing permanent housing. Do not conglomerate werewolves into their own secondary society like the Jewish Ghettos of socialist Germany. Not only to avoid these accusations, but to help ensure the further socialization and integration of werewolves into society and vice versa which has taken so much work to achieve, to the point they are so close to acceptance it is painful.
You are doing beautiful work. Keep it up.
All of our love, Dolores.
The letter told him that he needed to do a better job of alleviating peoples fears that he might be bringing with him far left ideological principles. He'd made sure not to give any impressions that he might have extreme religious or industrial ideals, by virtue of not being religious or trying to force the adoption of pointless technologies.
The thing that stood out about her letter the most was her warning that people might suspect him of militarizing werewolves as Voldemort had done. An accusation out of recognizing he had the means, even if he had no motive to do so. The suspicion that he might be conspiring to round them up and kill them, on the other hand, was just outright paranoia of those overly concerned for werewolf safety.
Paranoia was sometimes a good thing. The advice she gave was what he was already planning to do, but her reasoning was a whole new beast for him to struggle with.
He was starting to see why she had been placed in charge of trying to route out Dumbledore's supposed uprising. She knew how to think like conniving politicos, especially dishonest ones. The reason she'd failed so miserably at Hogwarts, beyond not being suited to working with children or teenagers at all, was because she had been dealing with honest and well-intentioned people. Not the usual ministry assholes. That and her premise, that Dumbledore was fomenting a rebellion against the Fudge administration and Harry Potter was a deranged maniac, was so far off of reality that she stood no chance of succeeding.
And so the week passed, leading to a weekend filled with people vying for his time.
"Hey, Hadrian. Want to join the other club runners and I for lunch this weekend?" Cedric asked him Friday afternoon.
Cutting it a little close there aren't you?
"Sure! Either day works. I'm sure Bellatrix will want to be there, if for no other reason than to glare daggers at Fleur and to have the opportunity to get some practice duels with her and Viktor." Harry said.
And so, he spent his Saturday morning stopping by Tofty's to thank Dolores in person for her interesting perspective. He had a quick cuppa with them and left with a single pastry in hand. Then, he visited Jacob.
"Hello parole officer." Said Jacob, now free of bandages and looking more like himself. "Am I in trouble?"
"Don't know. Let me check." Harry said.
He loosened his grip on Ghillie Dhu and let his senses pervade every orifice of the small apartment above Garricks shop. When he had volunteered to be in charge of the man's house arrest and rehabilitation, the idea of putting him in Garrick's spare room was a no brainer. Not only was it centrally located, his and Garrick's acerbic personalities just meshed.
That and Garrick could kick his ass if he somehow managed to break the wards. Which he had not. Each one was as Harry left it. He was most proud of the one that allowed the person keyed to it, Jacob in this case, to remain tethered to the ward while exiting for five minutes every few hours for bathroom breaks, and for thirty minutes thrice per day for meals and showers. The ward would begin literally rushing his heart if he stayed out longer than that. Slowly at first, to serve as a warning shot.
"I see you got yourself a lot of new books." Harry said, looking down at an encyclopedia of fighter jets on the small coffee table.
"Not much else to do in here except read." Jacob complained, turning a page on some strange novel that had George Washington riding a dinosaur on it. The one with the horn on its head.(AN:1)
He knew you weren't supposed to just a book by its cover, but that was one hell of a cover.
"Well, I wanted to know if you were interested in running security again on the twenty sixth." Harry asked.
"I literally have nothing else to do." Jacob answered.
"I mean. Do you want something else to do?" Harry offered.
Jacob looked at him.
"What do you have in mind?" He asked.
"Want to teach teenagers how to shoot guns and bows?" He offered. "The archery and shooting clubs were rejected, but mostly because we had nobody able or willing to teach them. Can't believe I didn't think of you."
Jacob smiled.
"All teenagers should learn basic gun safety and operation, especially wizarding ones who don't respect Muggle weapons nearly as much as they should." Jacob said. "I'm in. But who will supervise me?"
"Garrick, of course." Harry said.
"Like hell I will!" Garrick called up from downstairs.
"Oh, well, plan b then. I'll take it on as a second club on weekdays." Harry told him.
"When do I start?" He asked.
"Monday." Harry ordered.
His third stop, before joining the champions and his girlfriend for lunch, was Weasley Wizard wheezes.
"Hey! Welcome in landlord of ours. Like what we've done to the place?" Fred greeted him as he walked in.
Harry looked around. The place had somehow gotten even more colorful. The hallway and stairs were so very yellow. When harry raised an eyebrow at the redhead, he turned a dial near the register. The rugs and wallpaper then turned vibrant blue and purple, respectively.
"I could do with some earth tones during the full moon." Harry said.
He turned the dial again and things wen to their usual browns and tans. Much better.
"So! What brings you here?" Fred asked.
"Wanted to commission some things for Halloween." Harry said. "As a precaution."
"Precaution?" Fred asked.
"Without fail, Halloween brings upon me some kind of disaster or outright attempt on my life. I want to be prepared." Harry explained. "I foresee some shit going down."
"Oh. Well we're a joke shop, what can we possibly make that would help you in that regard?" Fred asked.
"More than you can possibly imagine." Harry told him with a smirk.
(AN:1) Not making this up. Can't find it, but I once read a novel in which George Washington regularly rode a Parasaurolophis. That was the cover. Just, north America with dinosaurs.
I just love the idea that wizards and witches, with their longer lifespans, just watch Muggle countries try new things, see it fail spectacular, and just go "Okay. Let's NOT do that." By the time the first Muggleborns to be raised under Hitler's socialist Germany were old enough to take part in wizarding politics, nazi Germany was gone and it's evil laid bare. Same is almost true floor Marxist Russia, if we assume age requirements for running for office in the wizarding world are also raised in proportion to their higher lifespan. Modern corporate business models and globalism? Yeah, fuck that. The sexual revolution, no fault divorce and the trillion-dollar industry surrounding it? Yeah, these people wouldn't be hot on adopting that after 35-70 years of watching it's consequences. And I'm a fan of the sexual revolution part, but people born in the late 19th century sure as hell wouldn't be.
Policies in wizarding society probably take decades to pass, with people living nearly to 200, they're a bit more patient and faster to course correct. There are some old enough to have personally been in private schools before public schools were introduced, to have experienced a private healthcare system back when countries still had them and seen the absolute disasters that public school and healthcare are everywhere they've been tried, with the possible exception of places that had no type of either to begin with.
So yeah. Loooong memories. Slow to change. For better and worse. For better in that they don't adopt disastrous social programs, for worse because they also don't adopt new technologies, business models, and the like. But they do eventually. They're in no rush, they live 200 years. Makes for an interesting society to think about.
Which is kind of the theme of this story, if you haven't figured it out. Wizarding society having seen the lunacy of our world over the last century and a half not taking to kindly to Muggleborns coming in and saying they should imitate our geopolitics and cultural changes. See also, S.P.E.W.
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Chapter 37: An Uncomfortably Quiet Month
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Chapter 37:
An Uncomfortably Quiet Month
An Uncomfortably Quiet Month
"So let me go over this again." Fred said as he looked over the notes he took on what Harry said. "You need one each of devices capable of hearing, vision, smell, taste and touch deprivation?"
"Preferably two of each, actually. One I can use on myself and turn off on a dime, one to effect others." Harry corrected.
In order, he had in mind Mandrakes, basilisks, trolls, trolls and the cruciatus curse. Every Halloween something happened to ruin his life, creatures chief among them, and while he had no intention of going down into the chamber to fight Slytherin's pet, it was still there, and Voldemort still had the power to set it loose at any time. If he decided to do so hoping to drive Harry out, he'd happily kill it again. In fact, he'd been procrastinating going down there because he was almost certain one of the horcruxes was down there.
"Okay, we can whip up some glasses, earrings, nose rings and tongue rings for all of those for personal use. Not sure about how to make your whole body numb." Fred said. "For the others, best I can think of is a flash bang grenade for sight and sound, maybe a stink bomb or pepper spray for smell and taste. Maybe an aerosolized icy hot to make the whole body go numb?"
That was a funny idea. Would also take away sight, smell and taste for a good long while and bring about a whole lot of burning to the corresponding sensory organs.
"Make that but a flash grenade and I'll take ten." Said Harry.
"Oh, we got another commission?" Katie asked, entering the front lobby. "And from the big boss?"
"Another? You're working on a commission? And I'm not your boss. Just your landlord. Treat me like anybody else." Harry commanded.
They both scoffed at the idea of treating him like anybody else.
"Yeah. Working overtime to make it work. Tricky pit of charms and transfiguration work. Here, let me show you." Katie said.
She led him into the room behind the counter, where the guests during a full moon would sit around and wait, and there in the center was a mannequin. Every inch of it was the kilt of a knife embedded deep into its wood. It looked like a gruesome kitchen knife set holder.
"That's a bit macabre." Harry criticized.
"The goal is to make the entire surface deform into little pocket spaces, like a mokeskin pouch, so the knives can be buried into it without actually stabbing the think underneath." She said. "It's kind of working."
Harry could see the use in that. Especially if she made the little pockets that take in the knives spurt blood, real or fake, when stabbed. With it being a Halloween commission, he was certain she would.
"Getting the cloth to deform and create such pockets no matter where it's stabbed from does sound tricky." Harry consoled. "I'd recommend weaving it from separate materials that deform to spacial expansions differently. Wool for linear deformations, Kevlar to resist deformation entirely and prevent cutting through, nylon for concave deformations and maybe coat it all with rubber or something for convex deformations. Charm them all separately then weave them together."
Katie looked at him.
"Are you also somehow a charms and enchantment master, because that's brilliant!" She declared.
He shrugged.
"I just like tinkering, you know?" He said defensively. "And I know my materials, is all. Former wandcrafting apprentice, remember?"
Harry arrived at the Hog's head to find everybody else already there. Poliakoff, Cedric and Viktor were boxed inside of a book by Fleur and Bellatrix on either side, leaving one available seat for him next to Bella. Clearly, she wanted him to sit as far away from the Veela as possible.
"Welcome love. Thank you for not keeping us waiting too long, I know you have a bad habit of doing that." Bella greeted him with a peck on the cheek as he say down beside her.
Did he have a habit of being tardy? He didn't think so. In fact, he was fairly certain he wasn't he was timely more times than not. What was she on about?
"So, food." Cedric said. "And drink."
"It's a bit early for that, is it not?" Asked Fleur.
"Hey, five PM was eighteen hours ago." Said Harry jokingly.
They ordered a platter of deep-fried appetizers. Chips, crisps, onion rings and chicken sticks came served with enough dipping sauces to hold them all over until dinner. Really, Abe needed to stop serving American sized portions. He liked living in a country of people with healthy waistlines.
"So, how has the first week of club activities gone?" Harry asked.
"Great. Only a few bruises from the wrestling club, and a few dropouts from people uncomfortable with having other people's crotches in their face." Viktor said. "Understandable, it's not for everybody."
"I had far more injuries." Said fleur. "Nothing severe, just cuts that are quickly bandaged. Most of my members didn't even bother going to the hospital wing to have them properly healed."
Harry wondered for a moment why she didn't mend such simple injuries herself, knowing full well she had the ability. Then he remembered the documents he signed at the beginning of term swearing to not do any healing magic on students, except in life or death situations, and to leave it to the mediwitch on staff. Insurance reasons and all that.
"Mine was spectacular." Said Cedric. "Not a single fall or tumble, though I lost a few who didn't feel comfortable riding thestrals that they couldn't see. Best steeds we have since we didn't register the club beforehand and request proper horses."
Harry shook his head. Thestral riding was a joy. Those kids were missing out.
"Any problems with the boating or jousting clubs?" Poliakoff asked.
"Nope." Cedric and Viktor said at once.
"Well, we haven't started on the jousting yet." Said Cedric. "Gotta ride before you can joust. So both are essentially one club at the moment."
"Is nobody going to ask Poliakoff or me if we've had any injuries in our clubs?" Harry asked.
"What? Did anybody sprain their ankles? Get a splinter from a checkers piece?" Fleur teased.
"Yes. Several." Harry said.
"Same." Said Poliakoff. "Poor mister Weasley may need to have his thumb amputated for it."
If "poor mister Weasley" had made that joke, Harry would have been concerned. Hell, he was concerned that Ron hadn't come to him for extra tutoring on exploring his newfound abilities. He expected him to have done so by now. If his friend waited much longer he may have to write Molly into giving him a tongue lashing for not pursuing such a talent.
"Well, all things considered, this may be the best part time job I ever had." Said Cedric. "It's a good break from Quidditch practice."
"And from dueling." Said Viktor, to which Fleur nodded.
"I expect it'll get less busy as people drop out for the holidays, then get busy again in the new years when nothing else is going on." Harry advised.
"Speaking of holidays!" Said Cedric, withdrawing some pamphlets. "Halloween!"
Right. That holiday. That horrid, ill-omened, holiday.
Harry took one of the pamphlets and raised his eyebrows in appreciation of it. It detailed the riding clubs plan to put on a rendition of Sleepy Hollow with a headless thestral rider for the event, to be performed at the jousting stands near the east end of the Black Lake on the Monday before. Harry already liked it.
"And what will your clubs be doing for Halloween?" Cedric asked.
They all gave him the same deadpan look. Clearly, none of them had thought to have their clubs prepare special events for the occasion. And now Harry was thinking about what Christmas activities they might have.
"I guess that's what we'll be talking to them about for the next week." Said Harry. "Best my club could do is decorate the trails, maybe prepare a hayride type event with all the spooking and scaring it entails."
"And of course, you'll be inviting your girlfriend along for both it and the headless horseman.
"I got nothing for the boating or wrestling clubs." Said Viktor. "I'm sure they'll come up with something. The boat house at night could be made into something, I'm sure."
"I'll have to ask too." Said Fleur.
"My members will probably just make all of the carnival games. Bobbing for apples, pumpkin carving contests, that sort of thing." Poliakoff said. "But who knows? They may surprise us."
And so, Harry had even more work to do.
The shooting club got approved surprisingly quickly. To the point that the first Monday after getting Jacob on board for it had him supervised his bitch. He was fresh from his morning hike and yawning compensatorially.(AN:1) Their group was made to gather in a large sub-chamber of the dungeons, one with thick enough walls so as to not scare the whole castle with the sound of gunshots.
He was fairly certain the area was once used as the Slytherin dueling pit, as there were chambers identical to it near the Hufflepuff common room, Gryffindor common room and Ravenclaw common room. That and the Slytherin common room was a thirty second walk from its doors.
"Alright kids, pay attention." Jacob said to the contingency of mostly Gryfffindors and Hufflepuffs. "The first rule of firearm safety to treat all weapons as if they are loaded. It is equivalent to treating your wand like it might the killing curse by itself on accident, a good perspective to have for some wands. The second is to never point a weapon at another person unless you intend to kill them. The third is to keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to fire."
A few students actually took notes along with his words.
"And if I catch a single one of you breaking these rules, you can expect a detention of writing them over and over again until they sink into your bones. Compliments of Professor Morrigan, of course." Jacob warned.
Harry nodded and even more students began taking notes.
"Now. Let me introduce you to the different types of firearms. Not guns, firearms. Do not call them guns in my presence." Jacob continued.
He removed the tarp covering the long table to reveal a whole host of guns, er, firearms. Every variety Harry had ever seen and a few he hadn't. For a moment, Harry wondered where Jacob had gotten them, before a quick once over with his expanded senses showed them to be conjurations. That was damned good conjuration work, rivaling Marchbanks' conjuring of a model T back when he retook is practical newt exams. They were fully functional conjurations, save for the gunpowder which was real and Harry had paid for out of pocket.
"There are pistols, rifles, submachine guns, shotguns which are also known as trench guns." He explained. "They can be further subdivided into revolvers, break action, semi auto, bolt action and so forth, but only those of you who actually fall in love with firearms will care to learn them all."
He went to the leftmost area, where a host of pistols of different makes and models sat.
"All of these are loaded with rubber bullets, on account of I don't trust British children with live rounds. But when they fire they are just as loud as firing real bullets, and almost as painful." He warned. "As such, I had Professor Sprout provide us with hearing and eye protection. Which is the fourth rule of firearm safety, protect your eyes and ears."
All of the students wrote that down.
"Collect a pair of protective glasses and earmuffs, and we can begin. We will start with the nine millimeter."
And so they spent the rest of their morning learning how to properly hold, carry, and fire pistols. Jacob had to transfigure his other conjurations into identical Steyr M1912s. Those kids riddled those dummies at the other end of the dungeon with rubber bullets, which then vanished when their conjured forms were too damaged to maintain their shapes.
Harry appreciated the ear protection with how much the stone walls echoed, before opting to just muffle the walls with an anti-echo charm. He kept the earmuffs on anyways.
Their aim and grouping were excellent. Came with the territory of having to aim with wands whenever you cast a spell. Said aim translated nicely to gun, er, firearm aim. And later that week, he learned it also translated to aiming with a bow.
The next two weeks flew by in a blur. Both were as quiet as weeks ever were at Hogwarts. By the twenty fifth all of his club members under Jacob knew how to fire rifles in the form of Henry Lever Action Octagon Frontiers, shotguns in the form Mossberg 500 SPCs, and sub machine guns in the form of the Tec 9. Harry didn't know why he chose those out of every type of rifle, shotgun and submachine gun, but he suspected they might have simply been the simplest to conjure, having the least number of parts.(AN:2)
With the last Wednesday and Friday leftover to teach them, he also had them practice with revolvers in the form of the Nagant M1895 and, most concerning of all, gave them M79s.
"Don't worry!" Jacob assured him. "They're dummy grenades, not even rubber."
That wasn't exactly Harry's concern in teaching children how to use grenade launchers, but he did recognize that was the only field of firearms he hadn't taught them yet, save for heavy artillery, which wasn't going to happen. Either way, the M79's were the students favorite, save for maybe the Tec-9s.
"Well, you've all learned the basics of every type of firearm, starting next week we can start competitive shooting. We will stick with pistols, rifles and shotguns for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Seeing as Tuesdays and Thursdays are for archery."
The groans and complaints from the students at this let down was legendary.
"Fan we just drop the archery and do firearms all week, every week?" Complained Seamus. "Or at least have one day for the grenade launchers?"
Damnit Seamus! Why did you have to be such an Irish stereotype?
"Go take it up with your heads of houses, if you guys all want to drop the archery club and go with five different types of firearms every week, I'll happily comply." Jacob told them.
Harry groaned and knew they would do just that. As if Dumbledore wasn't suspicious enough of him, now he was essentially having any student who wanted to become a fully trained Muggle soldier! He was expecting it to just be a rifle sharpshooting club, maybe shooting bird plates with shotguns. Not all this!
But he had to admit, he was having fun shooting with the American too.
Friday night saw him sitting down on one of his office balconies looking out over the school grounds.
While the shooting club opted not to do anything for Halloween, his hiking club decided to decorate all of their trials with jack-o-lanterns. Lit from the inside by ever-burning candles. Safety candles, of course, no chance of causing a forest fire.
At night he could look out and see them glinting on the hill and mountainsides and flickering orange stars.
There was a chime from the wall holding the secret passage for the staircase entrance.
"Come in!" Harry called out, re-entering his classroom.
In strolled Sinestra, Hagrid and Remus. He wasn't expecting to see them today.
"Uh oh. Has something happened?" Harry asked.
"Course no'! Just felt like spendin some time with our loner." Hagrid said.
Harry scoffed. He wasn't avoiding anybody, he just spent so much time teaching, managing clubs and doing the homework study hall that he'd been neglecting his relationship with his fellow teachers. He really ought to focus on fixing that.
"I also wanted to thank you for the lovely work you've done on the trails." Sinestra said, taking a seat on his desk. "It made for excellent night hiking, it is quite nice."
"Aye. Scared some of the centaur children though." Said Hagrid.
Harry looked between them.
"Do you guys usually go out for night hikes together?" He asked.
"Indeed." Said Sinestra. "My classes are at night, and while I strive to be present for meals, I sleep between them. Night time is when I come to life."
He supposed that made sense. And it was unsafe to go out on the grounds at night, which was the only time she could do so. She wasn't exactly a fighter, so having a gentlemanly half giant as a personal guard was appropriate.
"So. Full moon Saturday. The second ever for your sanctuary. Do you feel better prepared?" Remus asked.
Harry thought on that.
"Less actually. I have four times as many werewolves wanting to come and almost as many new volunteers and prospective beneficiaries that want to come see how things are done." Harry said. "I expect it will be much busier than the first."
Remus hummed.
"Have you even been able to vet the prospective volunteers?" Remus asked.
"Didn't have the time." Harry said. "But I do need the extra hands. I plan to have you other volunteers vet them over the next two days, allow in the ones you approve of."
"That's probably the most you can do." Said Remus. "Perhaps the students who volunteer to take the extra credits again can be put to more tasks this weekend?"
"Maybe. I would have to check and see if they legally can." Harry told him.
"I see, I see… And are you allowed to tell us what you think is going to happen on Halloween?" Remus said.
Ah. So that was the reason behind this meeting. Word of his commission and reasons for such omissions got back to Dumbledore and the others and now they were paranoid. It made sense, he knew Fred was still in the order.
"I'll probably get attacked by some creature or have a nasty accident." Harry said honestly. "Happens almost every year. I think it's a curse."
They all looked at him suspiciously.
"Would you please elaborate?" Sinestra coaxed.
Harry listed them off on his fingers.
"Parents were murdered on a Halloween. I came face to face with a troll on another Halloween. I came across a dead cat and got blamed for its killing another Halloween. Had an escaped convict break into my bedroom on another Halloween. Got pranked by somebody tricking a magical artifact into taking my name into a binding contract that fucked up my life for a whole year on yet another Halloween… would you like to have more elaboration?" Harry asked.
They all raised their hands defensively and shook their heads in the negative.
"So it really is just personal paranoia on your part? Not a prediction of anything major happening on that day?" Sinestra confirmed.
"That is correct." Harry said.
"You've had Albus twisting himself into knots these past two weeks. Between training so many students with firearms and your ominous request to the Weasleys, he seems to think World War Three is going to break out on the thirty first and you're preparing for it." Remus told him. "But didn't see fit to tell the rest of us about whatever divination lead you to the conclusion."
Now Harry was feeling really defensive.
"What! But... I... It was the students who wanted the shooting club, not me! I just wanted the hiking club." He groused.
"Yeah, but looks a lot like yer training an army." Said Hagrid.
"Well, I'm not. Those kids, as they are, would make shite soldiers." Said Harry. "No, whatever fighting is to come should be shouldered by us adults. I want to keep the students away from any fighting, and I'm hoping to end this war before they become the adults shouldering said responsibility."
He realized he might have said too much there, but they all nodded in understanding and seemed pleased with his explanation.
"So, why were you three sent here to interrogate me on this in particular?" He asked.
"Oh, we weren't." Said Sinestra. "I came here hoping to offer to take over the hiking club, seing as I go to bed just after it usually ends. Remus and Ruby wanted to offer their help again for your sanctuary. But they couldn't contain their curiosity over Albus' concerns."
Harry turned on Hagrid.
"You want to volunteer?" He asked.
"Aye. I'm surprised you haven't tried to recruit me yet, what, with me being a half-giant and immune to the werewolf curse." Hagrid said.
Presuming one could bite through the man's thick hide anyways. Yeah, he was worth at least five volunteers on his lonesome.
"Well, you're definitely hired. I figured you'd be too busy as a teacher and groundskeeper." Harry said.
Hagrid waved the concern away.
"The roles overlap. I tend to get the latter done while doing the former. Got plenty o time to give." Hagrid assured him.
(AN:1) Hey! It's a real word now.
(AN:2) I literally selected them all based on their difficulty level in World of Guns Disassembly(Great game, by the way. Highly recommend.) These were all the very easy ones of different categories. And I'm sorry for the chapter devolving into gun porn, I AM an American, you know?
I kind of let an entire weekend of socializing go to waste in this chapter, between the two weeks, and left out a Sunday. Would have been great opportunities to have more interactions with the older folks of the Harry Potter universe.
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Prices subject to change in the future. Check my profile.
Become a Patron:
NonsensicalRants
You can also still become a patron for ONE DOLLAR to get access to future chapters 2 weeks early and vote on which stories I update Next. I have higher tiers, but I have no idea what to offer for them now that I lowered everything to one dollar.
Jupiteresse
Pipiru piru piru pipirupi!
- Joined
- May 10, 2023
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- 88
Hi! New reader of this story here, im not sure if anyone has said it, but (at least for me) the first chapter doesnt seem to be threadmarked? Just thought you should know! Btw it's really good so far!
Tanaxanth
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2019
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- 295
Interesting chapter for sure Halloween should be calm and completely freak Harry out
Probably meant Can
Probably meant Can
NonsensicalRants
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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- Jun 15, 2022
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- 502
threadmarks are screwed, yeah
Jao
(Verified Lemon Drop Addict)
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- Sep 27, 2022
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he had in mind Mandrakes, basilisks, trolls, and the cruciatus curse.*
thing*
Fleur*
Gryffindor*
might cast the*
his*
N.E.W.T.*
Can*
Sinistra*
Sinistra*
Sinistra*
Sinistra*
Sinistra*
Sinistra*
NonsensicalRants
I trust you know where the happy button is?
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2022
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Only think you're wrong on is N.E.W.T. FFnet won't let me use acronyms like that, so I just all cap it. I also can't use Mrs. Weasely or stuff like that. So I say Misses, and mister etc
space turtle
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2015
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- 417
What an odd formatting restriction. I guess to prevent people inserting hyperlinks on the sly?!
Great chapter btw. Love to see people freaking out over the *Seers* personal hangups. If he started stepping over cracks in the flagstones everyone will start copying him I'm sure!
Chapter 38: A Crowded Sanctuary Part 1
NonsensicalRants
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Chapter 38:
A Crowded Sanctuary Part 1
A Crowded Sanctuary Part 1
Poliakoff, Jacob and Remus joined Harry on his long hike to Hogsmeade that Saturday morning. Several students of the hiking club tried to join them, thinking it was a club activity, but Harry shooed them away, reminding them that tonight was a full moon.
They had a quiet stroll later that, appreciating the decorations along the way. They arrived at the Shrieking shack to find people already lined up from the front gate all the way to Hogsmeade.
"Um." Harry said eloquently at the sight of so many ragged werewolves lined up.
The mob bore down on them immediately with an orchestra of gratuitous greetings. Harry recognized some of them as speaking German, others as French, and many more as Slavic languages he couldn't place. Clearly word of his exploits had expanded to all of Europe and beyond. By the looks of the backpacks with bedrolls and put away tents, many had camped out the night before.
"People. People!" Harry called out. "The sanctuary doesn't start taking people in until noon. It's only six in the morning. I can't let you in yet. We have prep work to do."
A lot of prep work to do. Seriously, he hadn't received this many letters, let alone written this many responses. Some of the bilingual men and women present passed the word on for the non-English speaking audience while he struggled to wade his way through the crowd and to the front gate.
"Remus? Poliakoff? Can you run interference for me out here?" Harry pleaded.
"Of course, Hadrian. Next time we might try to floo or apparate in." Remus told him.
Harry agreed internally, but marched through the little wooden, warded, gate and along the path to the front door while Jacob took a position guarding said door. All of the exterior decorations for Weasley Wizard Wheezes had already been changed back to the calm blue of the Sanctuary, but when Harry entered it was to find the interior the bright, garish colors of the joke shop.
Fred was at the counter organizing and packing up all of the registers, receipts and financial documents from the month.
"Hey landlord. The others are having breakfast then we plan to pack everything up for our monthly vacation." Fred said.
"Need any help packing?" Harry offerred.
"Nah! It really is just a matter of banishing all of our crap off of the shelves and tapping them to change them into bunk beds." Fred said. "Oh and turning this here dial."
Fred turned said dial on the counter and all of the bright oranges, purples, yellows and blues returned to the calm earth tones Harry preferred for his sanctuary.
Then, the floo comes to life and the volunteers pour in.
Both Carrows were accompanied by Andromeda and Narcissa, who stood in front of them protectively just in case there were any threats to their lives.
"You are the first to arrive, don't worry." Said Harry. "But you may want to take a peek out of the front door."
Narcissa and Andromeda gave him that trademarked, elegant expression of raising a single eyebrow while Amycus took him up on his offer. He walked to the front door, opened it, and whistled at the sight of the crowd of people just beyond the property border.
"Do we have enough volunteers?" He asked.
"No!" Jacob yelled from outside. "Nowhere near enough!"
Harry shrugged but nodded in agreement.
"But we have plenty of offers from potential benefactors and volunteers who will be coming around this morning, hopefully we can clear enough in time." Harry told them.
Then, the floo came to life again, and in walked Hagrid. He was followed soon after by a minuscule and ancient man with a kindly face and beetle-like eyes. The resemblance was uncanny, and Harry could only stare.
"Professor Morrigan, allow me to introduce ye to me pa. Ian Hagrid." Hagrid introduced.
Harry shook the centennials hand with great care, hoping he wasn't gaping too hard at the absolute madman he knew so much about. It wasn't every day you met a man crazy enough to use an engorging potion in order to wrestle with real giants, nor somebody who actually married one of the most dangerous members of said race. This was the guy who, once upon a time, regularly went fisticuffs with tribal leaders of wild giants for fun! Winning their respect and developing the most pedantic and thorough treatise on Giant culture in history.
Harry was terrified of him on reputation alone.
"A pleasure to meet you at last. Seems everybody I know has nothing else to talk about, save for you." Mr Hagrid told him.
"Thank you, sir. Will you be joining us today to interview for the role of volunteer?" Harry asked.
"Quite. And you can skip the background check. I already had it done." Ian said, withdrawing a manilla envelope from a satchel hanging from his shoulder.
Harry took it and put it under his arm.
"Well, I think I'll be having guests wait outside on the lawn while we all do our preparations in here, if that is okay with you sir." Harry said.
"But of course." Ian said, walking out of the front door with far more pep in his step than a man his age should have.
For a third time the floo came to life, and this time it remained live for several minutes as a long string of people came through. Fleamont was first among them, followed closely by his grandmother and parents. Then came Valentine Crabbe and Hildebrand Goyle, followed by Lucius and Garrick Ollivander with Mrs Zabini.
Then came a string of people Harry had never seen before in his entire life, save a few members of the Board of Governors like Orion Black and Augusta Longbottom. All of them were as ancient as those two or more so. He didn't even have time to greet them or shake any of their hands before the next people to come through pushed them aside. Tofty's sisterhood of tea drinkers poured in and filled out the room more with their personality than they did their bodies, or the large sacks they carried. They were all here. Tofty, both Mrs Marchbanks, as in Alastors mother and wife, Mafalda Hopkirk, Felicity and Hana.
"We brought a good work ethic and pastries!" Tofty said in a sing-song voice.
"Whole grain?" Harry asked, taking a bag and looking inside.
"But of course!" Said Hopkirk. "Dolores was kind enough to remind us."
Umbridge bowed slightly and presented a large, lidded, pot.
"I also made a honey, olive oil dip. Help add some calories and that healthy, Mediterranean fats. For approval from your mediwitches of course." She offered.
"I approve." Said Andromeda from where she stood.
By now, George, Katie, Alicia, Angelina and Lee had joined them in the entrance hall and it was thus very much full. Too full. He was certain that they were exceeding the fire safety limit by now.
"Okay! Everybody who is not already an approved volunteer or benefactor, please exit through the front door and onto the lawn. I will be out to interview you all momentarily." Harry said.
There were a few chuckles, but they all complied.
Then the floo came to life again.
"Oh, come on! Who else could be approved by now?" Harry asked rhetorically.
"Um, the floo is still keyed to our shop." Said Fred. "Will be until noon. Remember?"
Oh right! That means anybody can still come through. And so, they did. Faces he didn't recognize, and ones he did.
Mrs Marchbanks the younger, as in Alastors wife, came in flanked by Madame Hooch and...
"Mrs Shunpike?" Harry asked, confused.
"What?! I have a social life outside of work!" She told him. "Be thankful I'm spending what little free time I had today helping you out."
He didn't see where her job left her with any free time at all to socialize, let alone volunteer. He didn't exactly want a head of the department of mysteries hanging around, but there was no chance of her not passing all examination. She was certainly powerful, and useful to have around. But he repeated his instructions to go through the front door and wait.
Then came Mrand Mrs Weasley. He'd honestly expected them to show up sooner.
"A pleasure to meet you Professor." Arthur greeted with a firm handshake, which he accepted. "Here to offer any help I can."
"It's much appreciated. Would you and your wife please wait outside until we can interview you?" Harry asked.
They obeyed and left. The last person to arrive from this round was somebody he didn't immediately recognize in clean witches robes, but still smelled like he remembered.
"Mrs Figg. Welcome." Harry said to Arianna's mother.
"Thank you. I was going to come through the front gate, but I saw how many people there were and realized you may not have the space for them all. So I went home and gathered something special." She said.
She presented a large duffel bag full of… tents?
"They're expanded on the inside and quite luxurious. Each can house up to ten people comfortably. Several of them are brick houses on the inside, more than capable of holding a werewolf." She explained.
Harry was distracted by Dolores shaking her head behind the cat-lady. He didn't catch onto why the tents could possibly be a bad idea until she mouthed the words "Muggle hobo tent cities".
Oh! She was right! Putting the werewolf guests in tents, even ones that were effectively stone mansions on the inside, would make for terrible optics. Any and all reporters seeing it would write extensively how he was providing an unsanitary and poorly kept homeless encampment. It was good to have somebody on board able to politic like that.
"Thank you, but I must refuse. It is not up to our standards to house our guests in tents, no matter how nice or sturdy they are." Harry refused. "But if you wouldn't mind waiting outside, I'll be right with you."
She left and Harry breathed out a sigh of relief.
"I'm still not sure if that's enough people, but it's a good start." Harry told the gathered. "The bigger problem is the space available. I wasn't expecting this much volume."
"Do you think we'll have to turn some away?" Asked Lily.
"If so, we have to resort to opening up our own homes for them." Said Sirius.
Harry somehow missed the Marauders and company arriving. Mostly because of how quiet they had been.
"I'm sure my cellar can house a good fifty." Said Lucius.
"You mean our wine cellar?" Narcissa asked him. "Shall I come home to find the devastation of you hosting a werewolf frat party?"
"There are worse ways to spend a Saturday evening." Said Lucius, with a shrug.
Ah! Pureblood humor. Rich, pureblood humor. Nothing quite like it.
"Needless to say, the tents really aren't an option." Said Fleamont. "If we are to house people it shall be in a house. Of wood, stone, brick and mortar."
Harry nodded.
"If I had known there would be this many people I would have commissioned an extension to the sleeping quarters." Harry lamented. "But there isn't enough time to hire out a company and get it done in time."
"That's where you would be wrong, my dear Hadrian." Said Hildebrand. "While I did promise my workers the weekend off, I have them on standby. I'll go get them now."
Harry tried to sputter a response.
"But… Getting the project approved and the building licenses!" He said.
"Took care of it last night." Said Lucius, pulling out a stack of completed forms from an exp[anded breast pocket. "I saw the campers from your front door to the east coast of China and knew it would be necessary."
Harry glowered at the man as Grandpa Goyle vanished in a plume of green flames.
"Which leaves us time to get onto interviewing." Said Mrs Zabini. "Will the Wheezes be applying to volunteer?"
Fred, George and company all stood at attention and marched through the front door. Only then did Harry realize none of them had packed.
"We'll take care of everything in here, dear." Said Alecto, sweetly.
Harry sighed and accepted that he wasn't in charge of things anymore and followed the board of benefactors outside.
They conjured up a long table to the side of the front door and took their seats, leaving Harry to stand. He wasn't actually doing the interviewing or approving, but he would guide them inside and get them started. And so, he stood next to Garrick at the end of the table closest to the door as Lucius, Valentine, Mrs Zabini and Fleamont called people forward.
"Alright, whoever is here to volunteer, come up to the table one at a time, unless you are here as a pair or group." Fleamont called out.
A pair of older gentlemen wearing rather dapper hats were the first to approach. When they removed their heado rnaments, Harry felt his jaw drop. So did the jaws of most of the people at the table.
"Newt Scamander and Damocles Belby, reporting for duty." Newt said, speaking for the two of them.
"You are hired." Garrick, the only person who seemed completely nonplussed by the men's presence, said instantly. "Professor Morrigan will lead you inside."
Harry dazedly led the men through the front door to find the entrance hall empty and the noises of the barracks being prepared coming from the next room over. There, they could have a smidgeon of privacy.
"Professor?" Belby called out questioningly. "I came all this way specifically to meet and speak with you, and yet you seem as hermetic as people say."
"Oh! I'm sorry. I'm just a little shellshocked is all. And I don't actually avoid people, I've just been very busy these last couple weeks." Harry said, offering a handshake to both men, which they took.
"So, the elder purebloods have complained." Said Belby. "Constantly."
"I've been out in the field all year, so I haven't been a social butterfly myself." Said Newt. "But I think you'll find what my friend Damocles has to talk with you about far more interesting."
Harry turned his attention to the potions master.
"Doesn't anybody ever come here without ulterior motives?" Harry asked rhetorically.
"You will find that people without ulterior motives are a rarity in pureblood society, young lord, and you would do well to remember that as you grow into your title." Said Belby. "But such ulterior motives are often in your favor, not theirs. Mine is such. I have prepared a large stock of wolfsbane potion in preparation for today, more than enough for your unexpected windfall in customers."
Harry felt himself sigh in relief. He hadn't wanted to voice that concern aloud, not least of all because he knew everyone else was thinking it. Yeah, they definitely needed more of that stuff tonight.
Damocles then gave Newt a look and the beast master nodded, continuing on into the next room to give them some privacy.
"Holy shit! Is that Newt Scamander?" He heard Romulus call out from the other room.
This was followed by the sound of somebody smacking him on the back of his head. Presumably Lily, by the sound of her angrily hissing "Language!"
Harry shook his head. He hadn't realized the young Lupin had arrived. He hadn't been there with the Marauders earlier.
"What's so sensitive that you feel the need to speak in private?" Harry asked.
"An offer of a land sale." Said Belby.
"You… Want to buy the sanctuary?" Harry asked.
It made sense that the inventor of the wolfsbane potion would be interested in purchasing a nonprofit dedicated to helping werewolves. It would free up a lot of time for Harry to pursue new adventures, not to mention give him the finances to do so.
"You misunderstand. I am here to sell you, my land." Said Belby. "One on which there is a farm. A farm dedicated to growing giant moonwart, aconite and myrrh trees."
Harry could have smacked himself. Here he was, two months into searching for a plot of land to develop into just such a farm, when the more obvious solution of simply buying such a farm that was already developed never crossed his mind. The time, labor and investment of growing his own crops from scratch instead of buying a business that already did so was astronomical. How many people wasted such time and money developing companies from scratch, learning all of the ins and outs and building a customer base from nothing, instead of just buying a business from a retiree with all of that built in already?(A:N)
Well, he wouldn't be adding his name among their number. But this man's willingness to sell could only mean one thing.
"You are retiring?" Harry asked in a whisper.
"I am reaching that age, and against the advice of my peers who warn that retirement is death, I am making preparations to do so. Though I have not announced it yet." Belby explained. "Potions masters are rare, and when one retires it turns out to be a big deal. Selling to you will act as my announcement. I would prefer to sell to somebody who would properly continue my legacy. Which you seem to be doing."
Harry tried his best to show how touched he was as he spoke.
"It's too soon to merely accept. But we can meet tomorrow to hammer out the details. I don't think I'd be denied a loan, either by the goblin nation or my benefactors." Harry told him. "In the meantime, I am going to be really busy today and tonight. If you would please join the other volunteers in the next room, I have to go help approve the next ones."
Belby nodded and went on his way.
"At least I won't suffer from wont of things to do in my retirement." Belby said. "With two or three days a month taken up here."
Harry went back outside to help with the boards approvals.
-
Splitting the chapter into multiple parts.
(A:N) : After Writing this sentence I decided to google and see if there are websites for buying businesses from retirees. There ARE! And they're really affordable. I mostly worked landscaping, security and agriculture so I looked into those. Yup. People are selling their business, with all of their equipment and their regular customers/infrastructure already built in.
I presume they would also provide financial records, income and expense statements, stuff like that. Hell, I saw a preschool for sale for a similar price to the landscaping companies. Want to teach preschool? Instead of wasting four years in college(losing money from not working and on life expenses during those four years) to work at one, just save up or get a loan to buy your own preschool and you get to run it! No boss! You're the boss and you get to choose your coworkers. There were some other blue collar companies for sale in interesting niches like water pipe cleaning that, along with the equipment and customers, included honest to god training! How is this not advertised more as an opportunity for young people? Well I'm advertising it now. Get out there, my fellow millennials and older gen Zers.
As for sites I used, it was businessbroker and bizbuysell. They aren't paying me, just spreading the word. Make sure to do your proper research, investigate these companies, and stay frosty!