Categories > Books > Harry Potter > Harry Potter and the Witches Secret
Chapter 19
The Witches of the world have a Secret, of course poor Harry is stuck in the middle. Post Goblet of Fire.
?Blocked
Harry Potter and the Witches' Secret
Chapter 19
11 Sept 1995 (Sidereal)
9 Sept (Off Sidereal)
Harry and Nym popped into the entry hall. The mates and Fudge women joined them. Sirius and Remus popped in in the company of Potter elves, and Tim Spicer joined them in the company of Sarah.
They were also joined by Janet Carruthers, Krystal Champion, and Krista Collins, war mages seconded to the Ambassador.
Nym looked at Harry and he nodded. She handed the Time-Turner chain to Hermione on her right, who passed it to the next mate. They handed it around the outside of the group.
Harry spoke as they did. "We'll be using this device to go backward in time seventy-two hours. Geoffrey has arranged suitable training facilities and rooms for us here in the Castle. For those of you who don't know, we'll be trying to avoid ourselves to prevent a paradox. If you're more interested in this, please see Hermione as trying to explain it makes my head hurt. If you become lost, please call for Geoffrey and he'l redirect you to where you need to be."
The chain made it around and back to Nym. She attached it to the Time-Turner and wound it as far as she could. She looked up and made sure everyone was inside the chain, and then she released it.
The Time-Turner spun them back through time, but it was glowing red-hot when it stopped.
"Narcissa, I believe I just found something that wasn't in your cost calculation." Nym held up the glowing device.
"I'll have it checked, Nym, but you may be right. Those things are not cheap." Emmeline took the Time-Turner by its chain and swung it gently as it cooled.
Harry moved to the war mages with Nym and Sarah. "Ladies, may I introduce my Alphas, Duchess Nymphadora Potter and Sarah Windsor-Mountbatten, Duchess of York?"
Janet's eyebrow raised. "Milord, I am Janet Carruthers. This is Krystal Champion and Krista Collins."
Harry shook Janet's hand first and felt the electrical charge between them. Janet was a tall woman at six feet. She had a handsome rather than beautiful angular face with a massive red scar passing through her left eye from an inch above her brow to her jaw. She appeared to be about thirty-five years old. Harry looked in her eyes as he held her hand and saw strength and power. She was terribly thin, however.
Krystal was a smiling, round-faced young blonde woman of five foot nine, very powerfully built and very confident. She appeared to be about thirty. When Harry shook her hand, he felt the tingle again.
Krista was the very personification of a middle-eastern princess. Dark brown skin, deep black hair, five six, medium build, but she had green eyes as bright as his. She appeared to be the youngest at about twenty-five. He felt the tingle from her, too.
When Nym took Janet's hand it was all Janet could do not to fall to her knees and offer her wrist in submission. Her military training and experience were all that kept her on her feet. Sarah shook her hand and the urge was there again, not as strong but it was there.
Krystal actually started to her knees, but Nym's iron grip held her up. Nym mouthed, "Later," at her and almost imperceptibly nodded toward Mr. Spicer. Krista had the same experience.
Harry didn't even wonder any more about how these women found him.
He greeted Mr. Spicer as the mates greeted the war mages.
He gave them a few minutes as he talked to Remus and Sirius.
Finally Harry said, "Well, we all have an early start in the morning, so the elves will show you to your rooms. We'll meet in the gym for PT at 6 a.m."
Elves faded into view and escorted everyone to rooms. The male guests were in rooms far from the bondeds' wing.
Andrew was with Sarah in the bondeds' wing.
HPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWS
Potter Castle
First Turned Morning
Harry awoke in the morning to complete quiet for once. The entire bond, other than him, was still asleep.
He slipped out of bed and into the bath. Emma and Victoria found him there.
"Harry, did you talk to our parents yesterday?"
"No, Victoria, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Harry. I hope you don't mind, but we sent them letters with Hedwig. They want to see you at eleven o'clock on the twelfth."
"You need to tell Nym, Victoria. She'll need to be here."
"Yes, we know. We'll tell her later."
Emma, Victoria, and Harry spent the next hour just being together in the tub. Their play started out very light and progressed to very heavy. Just as Harry was about to peak, Sally moved Emma from his lap and sank onto him. She had been watching them as it was her turn at safety. Sally released with Harry; it had been incredibly stimulating watching him bring the girls to orgasm over and over. Then she climbed off of him and gave him back to the girls. Harry, thinking this was unfair, included all three of them in their play. They settled, and soon Harry was floating just at the edge of sleep as the mates rose and dressed.
At 5:55 a.m. Harry rose from the tub, dressed in his PT gear, and moved to the gym.
He greeted the bonded and the war mages and began his workout.
Janet had been in the gym looking over the available equipment. It was all professional-caliber fitness equipment arranged so that if you proceeded around the outside wall one way, you started at the head and worked every muscle in isolation. If you went around the other way you started at the feet. There were machines and free weights. In the middle of the front wall facing out over the valley were treadmills dividing upper body from lower body. She was satisfied with the equipment.
She leaned against the wall and waited to see what would happen. She was concentrating on Harry, Krystal was watching the Primary Alpha and the mates, and Krista was watching the Secondary Alpha and the Primaries.
Harry walked in and greeted his mates. He moved to the mats behind the treadmills and did a very complete set of stretches. There was very little she could improve there. The Alphas and Primaries and all the mates executed the same routine and added some stretches that the war mages knew were designed just for females. Janet smiled tightly; these were women on a mission.
She refocused on her target. Harry had started on the upper body circuit and was working on a four-way neck machine. Janet was impressed; she estimated his height at five-foot-eleven and his weight at about 185. He was working out at significant percentages of his mass. She was concerned that he had not warmed up first but instead started really high.
Harry had started at seventy-five pounds and went up on the next set to the whole 150 pounds available on the machine. After that set he got up and added fifty more pounds of free weights to the machine. He did three sets of twelve repetitions and then moved to the next station.
Janet was stunned. He was working his neck muscles with more than his body weight.
On incline presses Janet realized he was warming up with weights other people would work out with. His workouts were at levels approaching record-setting weight.
Janet reevaluated her target. He did not have the blocky body of a weightlifter, but he was extremely well formed. He also appeared to be below ten percent body fat. In fact, all of those 185 pounds looked to be muscle and bone. Janet looked away; she couldn't believe she'd made herself wet looking at him. She looked up into the smiling, knowing eyes of Nym Potter. She blushed faintly and looked back at her target.
Harry finished his upper body work and got on the treadmill. Janet watched as he programmed it first for a world record mile pace and then for high angle. Harry ran for thirty minutes, increasing to maximum angle after five minutes and then at maximum angle for twenty. He dropped the angle for the last five minutes.
"Janet, this is incredible. These people are all at our levels, and Harry is well past even our fittest male mages."
Janet nodded at Krystal. "I know."
"Sarah seems to be struggling a bit, but she's right in there."
Krista came over. "How am I supposed to evaluate a five-year-old?"
"What? Why?"
"Beatrice and Eugenie came in with their mother and Hermione told me they're Primaries."
Janet was shocked to her core. "He bonded a five-year-old?"
Krista rolled her eyes. "Of course he didn't. She's intent-bonded to him."
Janet looked at her. "And what does her mother think about her being in an active bond?"
"I think you're barking up the wrong tree there, Janet. I think it's what Eugenie thinks. I mean, have you looked at her or talked to her? It's like talking to a thirty-year-old in a tiny little body."
"Back to the question, though. I mean, our tables don't even go that small for height."
The three war mages turned their eyes back to the group.
Harry reduced his machine to a lower angle for cool-down and then stepped off. Janet thought he was through, but he stepped over and started the lower body circuit.
He worked through that and then started his cool-down stretches. He popped up from that and went into the cold pool, where the mates joined him. While they were in the pool the war mages conferred.
"Well?"
"This is undoubtedly the most fit group of wizarding people I've ever been around, Janet, bar none."
Krista nodded her concurrence. "I agree with Krystal, Janet. They're phenomenally fit. So much so that I wonder if they've done any rituals."
Janet nodded. "Yes, they have, but not the ones you're perhaps thinking of. From what I was told, their magic combined is enhancing them to the maximum that they can be, and it's possible that the magic will be holding the fully bonded at that maximum for a very, very long time. Perhaps hundreds of years."
"Us too, if he fully bonds us, Janet?"
"Yes, Krystal."
The mages went to breakfast. They arrived in the dining room and Geoffrey materialized beside Janet. He looked at them all intently for a moment and faded back out just as Andrew entered the room. Andrew seated them and then any of the mates that came in. Remus and Sirius did the same thing. Tim Spicer stood quietly to the side, waiting.
The seated mates were not really paying attention. They shuddered gently in unison and then moments later Harry, Nym, and Megan appeared and Harry made his way around, exuberantly kissing his mates good morning.
In his exuberance Remus and Sirius got a buss on the top of their heads in passing, as did Andrew. The mages got their knuckles kissed and Mr. Spicer got a glowing grin and a firm handshake.
Janet found herself on the end of two sets of bright green eyes more than once as she cleared her massively full plate. She wondered if Nym even knew her eyes exactly matched Harry's.
She was glad that breakfast was all light and not greasy as, after the debacle in the Balkans that she had just been released from, she wasn't sure she could take a normal English breakfast.
The first class they had was Runes. Janet was amazed to see that all of the mates kept up. The work was very advanced. The classes stayed just as advanced the entire morning. Occasionally Harry would disappear with a mate, and again Janet was amazed that no comments came from the males present as the mates obviously shuddered through what had to be orgasms.
She watched Sarah shudder through one while holding her husband's hand, but he said nothing. It was amazing.
After a huge but light lunch they moved to another hall that was set up for dueling.
"Janet-you, Krystal, and Krista, if you please. Let's go ahead and get this out of the way."
Janet nodded at Harry She looked at the other mages and said, "Standard takedown, no holds."
Krystal and Krista blinked. They were now free to use any spell. They knew better than to kill Harry, but anything else went.
Moody stepped up and began the duel.
The war mages immediately cast hugely powerful debilitating spells in multiple strings. Harry shielded some and dodged others. He made no offensive moves while he observed their techniques.
Janet was getting more and more upset. She had expected to take him down in her first string. She had thought having the other two mages participate was overkill. He had dodged or shielded all of their spells. She increased her level of effort, leading her team into harder and more deadly casting.
Harry finally started casting in return, and the mages were shocked by the power behind his most simple spells.
The mates and visitors had stood back along the walls behind the dueling shields, watching. While the mates were watching and laughing, Sirius and Remus were horrified; the magics being cast were deadly, and where they weren't deadly they were massively powerful.
Harry finally felt he had their rhythm and threw the holly wand across to his left hand. He snapped his wrist and the staff appeared in his right hand in its wand form.
Harry immediately began casting strings from both wands. The mages changed tactics and the fight was truly on. Harry continually fought to keep the mages where he could see them while they fought to get spread out and surround Harry. They had not counted on Harry's dual simultaneous casting, however, and his power levels were a complete surprise. They were all combat veterans and were not about to be overcome. They knew the price of failure in their business was death, possibly a long lingering death after being used by whoever or whatever beat them. They increased both the power of the spells they were casting and the level of the spells.
Krystal managed to slide past Harry on his left while he was concentrating on Krista on his far right and Janet in the center. She smiled sadly and raised her wand....
She saw no more of the fight.
Janet watched Krystal slide behind Harry and she just barely managed to catch the flick of the wand in his right hand. She watched as, with amazing speed, he flicked that arm back and the spell left the wand. She knew Krystal never saw it coming. She breathed easier, however, as she saw it was one of those hugely overpowered Stunners. She did not keep breathing easy, however, as when Harry's arm came back the wand in it expanded to a staff and two more of those Stunners blasted from the end of it. Both of them were on target and she smiled as one blasted through her shield.
Janet awoke with Marcia and Anna on either side of her and Harry's hand stretched out to her.
"Wandless, too, Harry? This will be very entertaining." Harry smiled at Janet as the mates and her comrades chuckled. He helped her to her feet and then stepped away. The mages selected opponents and began duels; it was a very informative afternoon.
Harry watched first with Moody and Spicer and then with a growing crowd of mates and others who had finished the duels and been awakened, or had awakened the mages they had been fighting. There had been a couple of surprises for the mages. The first was the level of power the mates had. The second had been trying to fight Luna. With her crazy drunken-man style and her anticipation of Krystal's attacks, she had won her fight.
Ginny had won hers on sheer power, blasting a Stunner straight through Krista's shield.
Nym's duel with Janet had been an amazing display of complicated magic ending in Janet being hit by a wandless Stunner while she was shielding a broken string of high-powered curses. Nym explained it as stutter casting.
Remus, having watched the duels, thought he could do all right; he did, too, for a little over a minute before Janet dropped him.
Sirius drew Krista and lasted about a minute against her.
Dinner was fun, with Harry torturing Sirius. He Transfigured his mouth, Vanished his fork, and illusioned his food into cute little animals while shielding the rest of the table from Sirius's pranks. Meanwhile he carried on a conversation with whoever wished to talk to him. Sirius was pouting by dessert.
"Janet, we'll normally eat at 9 p.m. We finished a little early today; as the duels ran so late, we didn't do the other classes."
"Yes, Harry. I don't see it being a problem. You've all displayed mage level individual skills; now we just need to put them all together. I got hit with hexes and jinxes today that I've never heard of, so what I really want to do is review your knowledge. Then we can come up with a standard set of spells that goes from Atunners to that nasty Bombarda you have and practise them until they're muscle memory and cast in strings.
"If we plan the strings right, they're quick and progressively harder to counter and go from least energy use to most.
"The advantage to this is saving energy for the next opponent, of course."
"Energy isn't really a problem for us, Janet."
"I thought that too, Harry. Last month I learned different. While you might be able to overpower an opponent, when they come for you in their hundreds it can be trouble. So the quicker you put them down with the least expenditure of energy the better off you are."
Harry had watched her face and saw the hollow look come into her eyes; he knew he never wanted to see it again.
"Janet's Company was all but wiped out last month, Harry. She and two others survived but they were all magically exhausted and severely wounded. They decimated the Dark wizarding population of Bosnia, however," Amanda sent to Harry in the bond.
"All right, Janet, we'll start tomorrow."
"Your Grace, can I ask you to outline your plan?"
"Certainly, Mr. Spicer. Let's move to the library, though."
Harry offered his arm to Nym and led the group to the library.
Geoffrey had opened up a small theater off the library and he led them there.
Harry stepped down the sloping floor and mounted the stage. The mates and Mr. Spicer, Remus, Sirius, Andrew, and Moody took seats in the front four center rows.
Harry opened. "Mr. Spicer, Remus, and Sirius-everyone else has heard these plans, but let's go through them in a more formal process.
"There is currently what is known as a Dark Lord rising in the British magical world. A Dark Lord is a wizard who attempts to rise to power using what are considered Dark aspects of magic.
"They're generally powerful wizards who have been corrupted by the magic that they use. I do not subscribe to the theory that there is generally Dark magic. There are intents that are evil; wizards have corrupted magic to fit those evil intents.
"So now we have a powerful wizard with evil intent rising, using a blood-purist agenda to gather supporters. This wizard has corrupted a significant portion of an already mostly inept Ministry that is operating under the influence of 'pureblood' wizards due to its structure.
"The side of the supposed Light forces is being led by a powerful wizard who has either outlived his time or has been corrupted by power just as the Dark Lord has.
"I, a very powerful wizard, find myself thrust into this situation and, due to the actions of the leader of the purported Light side, I find myself dragging at least fifty-one powerful witches with me.
"My original intent was to simply secure enough stability to be left alone to love these women in peace and raise our children. It rapidly became obvious that, surrounded by enemies and simpletons as we find ourselves, in order to accomplish this mission I would have to eliminate the current Dark Lord and his supporters, eliminate the current form of government and reestablish a fair government complete with checks and balances, and either turn or eliminate the leader and forces of Light.
"In order to accomplish these goals and at the same time take the necessary action to save the women involved, we established the bond and began using the Time-Turner to train. The training has progressed much faster than we originally thought it would, assisted by the strength and power of our bond. There is still training to do; however, we have started taking steps to neutralize the Dark Lord by eliminating his allies and potential allies, and we have essentially gained control of the Ministry mostly by taking advantage of an opportunity that presented itself.
"We have yet to move against the forces of the Light or the Wizengamot, but I believe those moves will begin accomplishing themselves shortly.
"I have been created the Duke of Magic of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Defender of Magic and Magical Champion of the Crown and Realm, a feudal duke with the reigning monarch as my liege. Her Majesty has seen fit to charge me to, in as expeditious a manner as possible, destroy the forces of Darkness threatening magical Britain and then remove the pretenders to power in her former Ministry of Magic to her to be judged. Also, I have been charged to establish a fair and universal education system and a nondiscriminatory hiring system.
"As her Majesty put it, the Magical Nobles of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland having signed neither the Magna Carta Libertatum of 1215 nor the Coronation Charter of 1100 or any and all charters or attachments thereto, and not having sworn their oaths of fealty to the realm and crown as it was reconstructed, are declared to be forfeit.
"I will now take your questions."
Tim Spicer stood. "Your Grace, you said that you had taken steps. Would you mind explaining those steps to me?"
"Not at all. We have taken prisoner three of the Dark Lord's followers and the former Minister of Magic. I have interrogated them, stripped their memories, and dueled them in single combat. After defeating them I cast the Praedia Bellica charm, stripping them of all titles, property, chattel, and money, and two of them of their magic."
Remus, Sirius, and the mages recoiled slightly in horror.
Harry sighed and continued. "Our primary enemy, the Dark Lord Voldemort, marks his followers with a, eerrr, magical tattoo. We have a device that detects this tattoo and transports the person or creature wearing it to the extensive, massively warded dungeons under this fortress.
"We have installed these devices in chokepoints around magical Britain and the Royal palaces.
"Very soon I expect the cells will start filling with supporters of the Dark. They will be interrogated and a copy of their memories obtained. I will then challenge the guilty to single combat. After I defeat them I'll cast the Praedia Bellica charm on them and strip them of all titles, property, chattel, and money, and depending on their crime, possibly their magic.
"We have a list of supporters from the ones we have already captured, and we'll begin picking them up if they do not appear in the cells. Unfortunately, the Dark Lord himself is unmarked, so we have to work on a device to pick him up that will be based on intent. We have almost completed the-eerrr-"
"ROM, Harry."
"Thank you, Hermione-the ROM for this device and we will modify the existing devices and plant more as soon as this intent-based system is operable. After that we will sit back, continue to build the education system, and work on the political aspect while we wait for our enemy to fall into one of these traps. Meanwhile we will counter any of the Dark Lord's moves that we believe will interfere with our operations or cause a loss of life or result in a rape."
Tim considered a moment. Janet asked, "And if he doesn't fall into a trap, Harry?"
"Then at a certain point I will take the fight to him at a time and on a battlefield of my choosing."
Tim's consideration ended. "You're planning this from a position of complete domination. What if you're not up to the challenge?"
Janet nodded. "Maybe I can answer this better, Mr. Spicer. Last month a Company of mages of the First Battalion First Brigade of the Fourth Mage Corp consisting of fifty-five mages fought the combined forces of the Yugoslavian Mage Corp and their Dark league. My platoon of twelve mages were eventually caught in an ambush in Gorazde. I and two others survived. We killed or disabled 1456 wizards or witches in a fourteen-day running fight. I have recovered to about ninety percent of my strength after being exhausted, and Krystal and Krista, who were on other missions and not in Bosnia with me, were at 100 percent when we dueled Harry this afternoon. We did not pull any punches after Harry began dual casting. He legitimately defeated us.",
"We have never seen or heard of a wizard with this much power. It has been recorded that these levels of power existed in the distant past, but nothing even approaching this level in modern history. He has the power to dominate this situation, in our estimation. Also, he can draw on both his mates through his bond and Magical Briton because of the way he was created."
"Okay, so he's up to the challenge. Why not simply eliminate the forces of Darkness now?"
"Actually, I could, Mr. Spicer, but we don't really know who they are. As we gather more intelligence we'll identify more of them. Once we do and then eliminate them, I suspect that Voldemort, the Dark Lord, will attempt to recruit from anywhere in the world.
"We'll let him be a lightning rod for evil as long as we can keep his depredations under control. I hope that he can draw in most of the evil creatures or people over the years and we'll continue to eliminate them. Meanwhile we'll educate those without evil intent and slowly strangle him of resources, both sentient and material. Then, when he's alone and naked, I will take him, strip his mind and magic, and incinerate whatever is left."
"So you propose to use Britain as the battleground in a struggle between good and evil?"
"Essentially, yes."
"And your intelligence is so good you can prevent the 'evil' forces from injuring anyone?"
"Probably not, but we'll keep casualties down to a minimum."
"How?"
"Through our intelligence gathering we'll replace intended victims with simacrula, magical creations that can very closely emulate human beings. We will then let the attack occur and capture the followers of the Dark Lord involved. They will be interrogated and then have their memories of the capture and interrogation wiped. We'll implant memories of a successful attack and send them back to Riddle, the Dark Lord."
"By the time he realizes his failures we'll be far ahead of his recruiting curve and hopefully have the intent-based devices operational. After that we'll plant them in all public spaces starting with locations our intelligence says he will strike next."
Janet, Krystal, and Krista were nodding. Janet said, "We're employing the same tactics in the former Soviet bloc. Minus the 'devices', we gather the intelligence and then snatch the targets for interrogation and elimination."
"How is your interrogation so effective, Your Grace?"
"Magic, Mr. Spicer," Harry said cheekily "We have a compound that when administered forces them to tell the truth. How much intelligence you can gather seems to be controlled by phrasing your questions correctly, in such a way that your target can not avoid them." Harry did not want to fully tip his hand and tell Tim that in extremis he could simply strip the minds of anyone he encountered.
The audience, primarily Mr. Spicer, sat quietly. Finally Tim said, "Your Grace, I believe my company can best help you by educating your bonded as a tactical staff and yourself as a tactical commander. You seem to have a firm grasp of strategy, but I believe your tactical work has yet to be tested. I'll be happy to work with Mage Carruthers and her team in this. I also believe we can provide some higher-level analysis of intelligence."
"Thank you, Tim. I appreciate it."
"Your Grace, I recommend we start this effort with morning briefings. I would like to conduct the first briefing tomorrow after breakfast. This room would do very nicely."
Harry nodded and turned to Sirius and Remus. "Any questions?"
"What do you want to do about the Order, Harry?"
"I want you to start feeling out the Order and engineer a coup if possible. I'd like to replace Dumbledore with a leadership team consisting of at least yourself, Remus, and Alastor, Sirius.
"We've effectively taken the Ministry and we're working toward emasculating the Wizengamot, but we need to secure control of the Order as bloodlessly as possible. With Alastor, Emmeline, Hestia, Nym, and Minerva, you two should be able to gain control."
Sirius nodded. "All right, Harry. When we get back uptime we'll start working on it."
Harry nodded. "If no one else has questions, I'm going to bed." He smiled and stepped from the stage. He offered Nym his arm and they left, headed for the master suite.
Janet, Krystal, and Krista were picked up by a Primary and taken to the master suite also.
Sirius, Remus, and Tim began the walk back to their wing.
Chapter 19
11 Sept 1995 (Sidereal)
9 Sept (Off Sidereal)
Harry and Nym popped into the entry hall. The mates and Fudge women joined them. Sirius and Remus popped in in the company of Potter elves, and Tim Spicer joined them in the company of Sarah.
They were also joined by Janet Carruthers, Krystal Champion, and Krista Collins, war mages seconded to the Ambassador.
Nym looked at Harry and he nodded. She handed the Time-Turner chain to Hermione on her right, who passed it to the next mate. They handed it around the outside of the group.
Harry spoke as they did. "We'll be using this device to go backward in time seventy-two hours. Geoffrey has arranged suitable training facilities and rooms for us here in the Castle. For those of you who don't know, we'll be trying to avoid ourselves to prevent a paradox. If you're more interested in this, please see Hermione as trying to explain it makes my head hurt. If you become lost, please call for Geoffrey and he'l redirect you to where you need to be."
The chain made it around and back to Nym. She attached it to the Time-Turner and wound it as far as she could. She looked up and made sure everyone was inside the chain, and then she released it.
The Time-Turner spun them back through time, but it was glowing red-hot when it stopped.
"Narcissa, I believe I just found something that wasn't in your cost calculation." Nym held up the glowing device.
"I'll have it checked, Nym, but you may be right. Those things are not cheap." Emmeline took the Time-Turner by its chain and swung it gently as it cooled.
Harry moved to the war mages with Nym and Sarah. "Ladies, may I introduce my Alphas, Duchess Nymphadora Potter and Sarah Windsor-Mountbatten, Duchess of York?"
Janet's eyebrow raised. "Milord, I am Janet Carruthers. This is Krystal Champion and Krista Collins."
Harry shook Janet's hand first and felt the electrical charge between them. Janet was a tall woman at six feet. She had a handsome rather than beautiful angular face with a massive red scar passing through her left eye from an inch above her brow to her jaw. She appeared to be about thirty-five years old. Harry looked in her eyes as he held her hand and saw strength and power. She was terribly thin, however.
Krystal was a smiling, round-faced young blonde woman of five foot nine, very powerfully built and very confident. She appeared to be about thirty. When Harry shook her hand, he felt the tingle again.
Krista was the very personification of a middle-eastern princess. Dark brown skin, deep black hair, five six, medium build, but she had green eyes as bright as his. She appeared to be the youngest at about twenty-five. He felt the tingle from her, too.
When Nym took Janet's hand it was all Janet could do not to fall to her knees and offer her wrist in submission. Her military training and experience were all that kept her on her feet. Sarah shook her hand and the urge was there again, not as strong but it was there.
Krystal actually started to her knees, but Nym's iron grip held her up. Nym mouthed, "Later," at her and almost imperceptibly nodded toward Mr. Spicer. Krista had the same experience.
Harry didn't even wonder any more about how these women found him.
He greeted Mr. Spicer as the mates greeted the war mages.
He gave them a few minutes as he talked to Remus and Sirius.
Finally Harry said, "Well, we all have an early start in the morning, so the elves will show you to your rooms. We'll meet in the gym for PT at 6 a.m."
Elves faded into view and escorted everyone to rooms. The male guests were in rooms far from the bondeds' wing.
Andrew was with Sarah in the bondeds' wing.
HPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWSHPATWS
Potter Castle
First Turned Morning
Harry awoke in the morning to complete quiet for once. The entire bond, other than him, was still asleep.
He slipped out of bed and into the bath. Emma and Victoria found him there.
"Harry, did you talk to our parents yesterday?"
"No, Victoria, I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Harry. I hope you don't mind, but we sent them letters with Hedwig. They want to see you at eleven o'clock on the twelfth."
"You need to tell Nym, Victoria. She'll need to be here."
"Yes, we know. We'll tell her later."
Emma, Victoria, and Harry spent the next hour just being together in the tub. Their play started out very light and progressed to very heavy. Just as Harry was about to peak, Sally moved Emma from his lap and sank onto him. She had been watching them as it was her turn at safety. Sally released with Harry; it had been incredibly stimulating watching him bring the girls to orgasm over and over. Then she climbed off of him and gave him back to the girls. Harry, thinking this was unfair, included all three of them in their play. They settled, and soon Harry was floating just at the edge of sleep as the mates rose and dressed.
At 5:55 a.m. Harry rose from the tub, dressed in his PT gear, and moved to the gym.
He greeted the bonded and the war mages and began his workout.
Janet had been in the gym looking over the available equipment. It was all professional-caliber fitness equipment arranged so that if you proceeded around the outside wall one way, you started at the head and worked every muscle in isolation. If you went around the other way you started at the feet. There were machines and free weights. In the middle of the front wall facing out over the valley were treadmills dividing upper body from lower body. She was satisfied with the equipment.
She leaned against the wall and waited to see what would happen. She was concentrating on Harry, Krystal was watching the Primary Alpha and the mates, and Krista was watching the Secondary Alpha and the Primaries.
Harry walked in and greeted his mates. He moved to the mats behind the treadmills and did a very complete set of stretches. There was very little she could improve there. The Alphas and Primaries and all the mates executed the same routine and added some stretches that the war mages knew were designed just for females. Janet smiled tightly; these were women on a mission.
She refocused on her target. Harry had started on the upper body circuit and was working on a four-way neck machine. Janet was impressed; she estimated his height at five-foot-eleven and his weight at about 185. He was working out at significant percentages of his mass. She was concerned that he had not warmed up first but instead started really high.
Harry had started at seventy-five pounds and went up on the next set to the whole 150 pounds available on the machine. After that set he got up and added fifty more pounds of free weights to the machine. He did three sets of twelve repetitions and then moved to the next station.
Janet was stunned. He was working his neck muscles with more than his body weight.
On incline presses Janet realized he was warming up with weights other people would work out with. His workouts were at levels approaching record-setting weight.
Janet reevaluated her target. He did not have the blocky body of a weightlifter, but he was extremely well formed. He also appeared to be below ten percent body fat. In fact, all of those 185 pounds looked to be muscle and bone. Janet looked away; she couldn't believe she'd made herself wet looking at him. She looked up into the smiling, knowing eyes of Nym Potter. She blushed faintly and looked back at her target.
Harry finished his upper body work and got on the treadmill. Janet watched as he programmed it first for a world record mile pace and then for high angle. Harry ran for thirty minutes, increasing to maximum angle after five minutes and then at maximum angle for twenty. He dropped the angle for the last five minutes.
"Janet, this is incredible. These people are all at our levels, and Harry is well past even our fittest male mages."
Janet nodded at Krystal. "I know."
"Sarah seems to be struggling a bit, but she's right in there."
Krista came over. "How am I supposed to evaluate a five-year-old?"
"What? Why?"
"Beatrice and Eugenie came in with their mother and Hermione told me they're Primaries."
Janet was shocked to her core. "He bonded a five-year-old?"
Krista rolled her eyes. "Of course he didn't. She's intent-bonded to him."
Janet looked at her. "And what does her mother think about her being in an active bond?"
"I think you're barking up the wrong tree there, Janet. I think it's what Eugenie thinks. I mean, have you looked at her or talked to her? It's like talking to a thirty-year-old in a tiny little body."
"Back to the question, though. I mean, our tables don't even go that small for height."
The three war mages turned their eyes back to the group.
Harry reduced his machine to a lower angle for cool-down and then stepped off. Janet thought he was through, but he stepped over and started the lower body circuit.
He worked through that and then started his cool-down stretches. He popped up from that and went into the cold pool, where the mates joined him. While they were in the pool the war mages conferred.
"Well?"
"This is undoubtedly the most fit group of wizarding people I've ever been around, Janet, bar none."
Krista nodded her concurrence. "I agree with Krystal, Janet. They're phenomenally fit. So much so that I wonder if they've done any rituals."
Janet nodded. "Yes, they have, but not the ones you're perhaps thinking of. From what I was told, their magic combined is enhancing them to the maximum that they can be, and it's possible that the magic will be holding the fully bonded at that maximum for a very, very long time. Perhaps hundreds of years."
"Us too, if he fully bonds us, Janet?"
"Yes, Krystal."
The mages went to breakfast. They arrived in the dining room and Geoffrey materialized beside Janet. He looked at them all intently for a moment and faded back out just as Andrew entered the room. Andrew seated them and then any of the mates that came in. Remus and Sirius did the same thing. Tim Spicer stood quietly to the side, waiting.
The seated mates were not really paying attention. They shuddered gently in unison and then moments later Harry, Nym, and Megan appeared and Harry made his way around, exuberantly kissing his mates good morning.
In his exuberance Remus and Sirius got a buss on the top of their heads in passing, as did Andrew. The mages got their knuckles kissed and Mr. Spicer got a glowing grin and a firm handshake.
Janet found herself on the end of two sets of bright green eyes more than once as she cleared her massively full plate. She wondered if Nym even knew her eyes exactly matched Harry's.
She was glad that breakfast was all light and not greasy as, after the debacle in the Balkans that she had just been released from, she wasn't sure she could take a normal English breakfast.
The first class they had was Runes. Janet was amazed to see that all of the mates kept up. The work was very advanced. The classes stayed just as advanced the entire morning. Occasionally Harry would disappear with a mate, and again Janet was amazed that no comments came from the males present as the mates obviously shuddered through what had to be orgasms.
She watched Sarah shudder through one while holding her husband's hand, but he said nothing. It was amazing.
After a huge but light lunch they moved to another hall that was set up for dueling.
"Janet-you, Krystal, and Krista, if you please. Let's go ahead and get this out of the way."
Janet nodded at Harry She looked at the other mages and said, "Standard takedown, no holds."
Krystal and Krista blinked. They were now free to use any spell. They knew better than to kill Harry, but anything else went.
Moody stepped up and began the duel.
The war mages immediately cast hugely powerful debilitating spells in multiple strings. Harry shielded some and dodged others. He made no offensive moves while he observed their techniques.
Janet was getting more and more upset. She had expected to take him down in her first string. She had thought having the other two mages participate was overkill. He had dodged or shielded all of their spells. She increased her level of effort, leading her team into harder and more deadly casting.
Harry finally started casting in return, and the mages were shocked by the power behind his most simple spells.
The mates and visitors had stood back along the walls behind the dueling shields, watching. While the mates were watching and laughing, Sirius and Remus were horrified; the magics being cast were deadly, and where they weren't deadly they were massively powerful.
Harry finally felt he had their rhythm and threw the holly wand across to his left hand. He snapped his wrist and the staff appeared in his right hand in its wand form.
Harry immediately began casting strings from both wands. The mages changed tactics and the fight was truly on. Harry continually fought to keep the mages where he could see them while they fought to get spread out and surround Harry. They had not counted on Harry's dual simultaneous casting, however, and his power levels were a complete surprise. They were all combat veterans and were not about to be overcome. They knew the price of failure in their business was death, possibly a long lingering death after being used by whoever or whatever beat them. They increased both the power of the spells they were casting and the level of the spells.
Krystal managed to slide past Harry on his left while he was concentrating on Krista on his far right and Janet in the center. She smiled sadly and raised her wand....
She saw no more of the fight.
Janet watched Krystal slide behind Harry and she just barely managed to catch the flick of the wand in his right hand. She watched as, with amazing speed, he flicked that arm back and the spell left the wand. She knew Krystal never saw it coming. She breathed easier, however, as she saw it was one of those hugely overpowered Stunners. She did not keep breathing easy, however, as when Harry's arm came back the wand in it expanded to a staff and two more of those Stunners blasted from the end of it. Both of them were on target and she smiled as one blasted through her shield.
Janet awoke with Marcia and Anna on either side of her and Harry's hand stretched out to her.
"Wandless, too, Harry? This will be very entertaining." Harry smiled at Janet as the mates and her comrades chuckled. He helped her to her feet and then stepped away. The mages selected opponents and began duels; it was a very informative afternoon.
Harry watched first with Moody and Spicer and then with a growing crowd of mates and others who had finished the duels and been awakened, or had awakened the mages they had been fighting. There had been a couple of surprises for the mages. The first was the level of power the mates had. The second had been trying to fight Luna. With her crazy drunken-man style and her anticipation of Krystal's attacks, she had won her fight.
Ginny had won hers on sheer power, blasting a Stunner straight through Krista's shield.
Nym's duel with Janet had been an amazing display of complicated magic ending in Janet being hit by a wandless Stunner while she was shielding a broken string of high-powered curses. Nym explained it as stutter casting.
Remus, having watched the duels, thought he could do all right; he did, too, for a little over a minute before Janet dropped him.
Sirius drew Krista and lasted about a minute against her.
Dinner was fun, with Harry torturing Sirius. He Transfigured his mouth, Vanished his fork, and illusioned his food into cute little animals while shielding the rest of the table from Sirius's pranks. Meanwhile he carried on a conversation with whoever wished to talk to him. Sirius was pouting by dessert.
"Janet, we'll normally eat at 9 p.m. We finished a little early today; as the duels ran so late, we didn't do the other classes."
"Yes, Harry. I don't see it being a problem. You've all displayed mage level individual skills; now we just need to put them all together. I got hit with hexes and jinxes today that I've never heard of, so what I really want to do is review your knowledge. Then we can come up with a standard set of spells that goes from Atunners to that nasty Bombarda you have and practise them until they're muscle memory and cast in strings.
"If we plan the strings right, they're quick and progressively harder to counter and go from least energy use to most.
"The advantage to this is saving energy for the next opponent, of course."
"Energy isn't really a problem for us, Janet."
"I thought that too, Harry. Last month I learned different. While you might be able to overpower an opponent, when they come for you in their hundreds it can be trouble. So the quicker you put them down with the least expenditure of energy the better off you are."
Harry had watched her face and saw the hollow look come into her eyes; he knew he never wanted to see it again.
"Janet's Company was all but wiped out last month, Harry. She and two others survived but they were all magically exhausted and severely wounded. They decimated the Dark wizarding population of Bosnia, however," Amanda sent to Harry in the bond.
"All right, Janet, we'll start tomorrow."
"Your Grace, can I ask you to outline your plan?"
"Certainly, Mr. Spicer. Let's move to the library, though."
Harry offered his arm to Nym and led the group to the library.
Geoffrey had opened up a small theater off the library and he led them there.
Harry stepped down the sloping floor and mounted the stage. The mates and Mr. Spicer, Remus, Sirius, Andrew, and Moody took seats in the front four center rows.
Harry opened. "Mr. Spicer, Remus, and Sirius-everyone else has heard these plans, but let's go through them in a more formal process.
"There is currently what is known as a Dark Lord rising in the British magical world. A Dark Lord is a wizard who attempts to rise to power using what are considered Dark aspects of magic.
"They're generally powerful wizards who have been corrupted by the magic that they use. I do not subscribe to the theory that there is generally Dark magic. There are intents that are evil; wizards have corrupted magic to fit those evil intents.
"So now we have a powerful wizard with evil intent rising, using a blood-purist agenda to gather supporters. This wizard has corrupted a significant portion of an already mostly inept Ministry that is operating under the influence of 'pureblood' wizards due to its structure.
"The side of the supposed Light forces is being led by a powerful wizard who has either outlived his time or has been corrupted by power just as the Dark Lord has.
"I, a very powerful wizard, find myself thrust into this situation and, due to the actions of the leader of the purported Light side, I find myself dragging at least fifty-one powerful witches with me.
"My original intent was to simply secure enough stability to be left alone to love these women in peace and raise our children. It rapidly became obvious that, surrounded by enemies and simpletons as we find ourselves, in order to accomplish this mission I would have to eliminate the current Dark Lord and his supporters, eliminate the current form of government and reestablish a fair government complete with checks and balances, and either turn or eliminate the leader and forces of Light.
"In order to accomplish these goals and at the same time take the necessary action to save the women involved, we established the bond and began using the Time-Turner to train. The training has progressed much faster than we originally thought it would, assisted by the strength and power of our bond. There is still training to do; however, we have started taking steps to neutralize the Dark Lord by eliminating his allies and potential allies, and we have essentially gained control of the Ministry mostly by taking advantage of an opportunity that presented itself.
"We have yet to move against the forces of the Light or the Wizengamot, but I believe those moves will begin accomplishing themselves shortly.
"I have been created the Duke of Magic of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Defender of Magic and Magical Champion of the Crown and Realm, a feudal duke with the reigning monarch as my liege. Her Majesty has seen fit to charge me to, in as expeditious a manner as possible, destroy the forces of Darkness threatening magical Britain and then remove the pretenders to power in her former Ministry of Magic to her to be judged. Also, I have been charged to establish a fair and universal education system and a nondiscriminatory hiring system.
"As her Majesty put it, the Magical Nobles of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland having signed neither the Magna Carta Libertatum of 1215 nor the Coronation Charter of 1100 or any and all charters or attachments thereto, and not having sworn their oaths of fealty to the realm and crown as it was reconstructed, are declared to be forfeit.
"I will now take your questions."
Tim Spicer stood. "Your Grace, you said that you had taken steps. Would you mind explaining those steps to me?"
"Not at all. We have taken prisoner three of the Dark Lord's followers and the former Minister of Magic. I have interrogated them, stripped their memories, and dueled them in single combat. After defeating them I cast the Praedia Bellica charm, stripping them of all titles, property, chattel, and money, and two of them of their magic."
Remus, Sirius, and the mages recoiled slightly in horror.
Harry sighed and continued. "Our primary enemy, the Dark Lord Voldemort, marks his followers with a, eerrr, magical tattoo. We have a device that detects this tattoo and transports the person or creature wearing it to the extensive, massively warded dungeons under this fortress.
"We have installed these devices in chokepoints around magical Britain and the Royal palaces.
"Very soon I expect the cells will start filling with supporters of the Dark. They will be interrogated and a copy of their memories obtained. I will then challenge the guilty to single combat. After I defeat them I'll cast the Praedia Bellica charm on them and strip them of all titles, property, chattel, and money, and depending on their crime, possibly their magic.
"We have a list of supporters from the ones we have already captured, and we'll begin picking them up if they do not appear in the cells. Unfortunately, the Dark Lord himself is unmarked, so we have to work on a device to pick him up that will be based on intent. We have almost completed the-eerrr-"
"ROM, Harry."
"Thank you, Hermione-the ROM for this device and we will modify the existing devices and plant more as soon as this intent-based system is operable. After that we will sit back, continue to build the education system, and work on the political aspect while we wait for our enemy to fall into one of these traps. Meanwhile we will counter any of the Dark Lord's moves that we believe will interfere with our operations or cause a loss of life or result in a rape."
Tim considered a moment. Janet asked, "And if he doesn't fall into a trap, Harry?"
"Then at a certain point I will take the fight to him at a time and on a battlefield of my choosing."
Tim's consideration ended. "You're planning this from a position of complete domination. What if you're not up to the challenge?"
Janet nodded. "Maybe I can answer this better, Mr. Spicer. Last month a Company of mages of the First Battalion First Brigade of the Fourth Mage Corp consisting of fifty-five mages fought the combined forces of the Yugoslavian Mage Corp and their Dark league. My platoon of twelve mages were eventually caught in an ambush in Gorazde. I and two others survived. We killed or disabled 1456 wizards or witches in a fourteen-day running fight. I have recovered to about ninety percent of my strength after being exhausted, and Krystal and Krista, who were on other missions and not in Bosnia with me, were at 100 percent when we dueled Harry this afternoon. We did not pull any punches after Harry began dual casting. He legitimately defeated us.",
"We have never seen or heard of a wizard with this much power. It has been recorded that these levels of power existed in the distant past, but nothing even approaching this level in modern history. He has the power to dominate this situation, in our estimation. Also, he can draw on both his mates through his bond and Magical Briton because of the way he was created."
"Okay, so he's up to the challenge. Why not simply eliminate the forces of Darkness now?"
"Actually, I could, Mr. Spicer, but we don't really know who they are. As we gather more intelligence we'll identify more of them. Once we do and then eliminate them, I suspect that Voldemort, the Dark Lord, will attempt to recruit from anywhere in the world.
"We'll let him be a lightning rod for evil as long as we can keep his depredations under control. I hope that he can draw in most of the evil creatures or people over the years and we'll continue to eliminate them. Meanwhile we'll educate those without evil intent and slowly strangle him of resources, both sentient and material. Then, when he's alone and naked, I will take him, strip his mind and magic, and incinerate whatever is left."
"So you propose to use Britain as the battleground in a struggle between good and evil?"
"Essentially, yes."
"And your intelligence is so good you can prevent the 'evil' forces from injuring anyone?"
"Probably not, but we'll keep casualties down to a minimum."
"How?"
"Through our intelligence gathering we'll replace intended victims with simacrula, magical creations that can very closely emulate human beings. We will then let the attack occur and capture the followers of the Dark Lord involved. They will be interrogated and then have their memories of the capture and interrogation wiped. We'll implant memories of a successful attack and send them back to Riddle, the Dark Lord."
"By the time he realizes his failures we'll be far ahead of his recruiting curve and hopefully have the intent-based devices operational. After that we'll plant them in all public spaces starting with locations our intelligence says he will strike next."
Janet, Krystal, and Krista were nodding. Janet said, "We're employing the same tactics in the former Soviet bloc. Minus the 'devices', we gather the intelligence and then snatch the targets for interrogation and elimination."
"How is your interrogation so effective, Your Grace?"
"Magic, Mr. Spicer," Harry said cheekily "We have a compound that when administered forces them to tell the truth. How much intelligence you can gather seems to be controlled by phrasing your questions correctly, in such a way that your target can not avoid them." Harry did not want to fully tip his hand and tell Tim that in extremis he could simply strip the minds of anyone he encountered.
The audience, primarily Mr. Spicer, sat quietly. Finally Tim said, "Your Grace, I believe my company can best help you by educating your bonded as a tactical staff and yourself as a tactical commander. You seem to have a firm grasp of strategy, but I believe your tactical work has yet to be tested. I'll be happy to work with Mage Carruthers and her team in this. I also believe we can provide some higher-level analysis of intelligence."
"Thank you, Tim. I appreciate it."
"Your Grace, I recommend we start this effort with morning briefings. I would like to conduct the first briefing tomorrow after breakfast. This room would do very nicely."
Harry nodded and turned to Sirius and Remus. "Any questions?"
"What do you want to do about the Order, Harry?"
"I want you to start feeling out the Order and engineer a coup if possible. I'd like to replace Dumbledore with a leadership team consisting of at least yourself, Remus, and Alastor, Sirius.
"We've effectively taken the Ministry and we're working toward emasculating the Wizengamot, but we need to secure control of the Order as bloodlessly as possible. With Alastor, Emmeline, Hestia, Nym, and Minerva, you two should be able to gain control."
Sirius nodded. "All right, Harry. When we get back uptime we'll start working on it."
Harry nodded. "If no one else has questions, I'm going to bed." He smiled and stepped from the stage. He offered Nym his arm and they left, headed for the master suite.
Janet, Krystal, and Krista were picked up by a Primary and taken to the master suite also.
Sirius, Remus, and Tim began the walk back to their wing.
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