29 Chapter 29: Griffin Legion
"Wow, this is some really good stuff," Harry stated through a mouthful of scones. He did not know if it was his hungry stomach speaking or if that truly was. Who knew that running amock with too much magic would really create an appetite.
"Thank you, my lord," Alex said as he bowed his head slightly to him while standing still right besides him. Would you like some more, my lord?" the lieutenant asked once he saw that he finished his own serving as he held out some more from him.
"Don't mind if I do," Harry said with a grin as he grabbed half a handful and piled it on his tiny tray.
"Once again," Alex began with, "I am deeply sorry for the attack on your esteemed personage, my lord. I have failed to realize who you were and that is deep failure on my lowly self."
"Alright, alright," Harry said as he heard enough of this and was getting a lot of bad vibes from the man. He seemed to be very loyal, too loyal in fact that if Hary commanded him to off himself he would do it without hesitation.
Now Harry appreciates loyalty since it was a deep tenant of his own House at Hogwarts, but fanaticism was a whole nother thing. He knew very well how Voldermort used that to get his followers to do very twisted and dark things and he did not want to be like him at all.
"Listen," Harry said, "it was an honest to god mistake. We all make them, since at the end of the day we are all humans. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Well said, well said," Sirius spoke up as he patted him on the back like a proud, preening peacock. "Now that is the godson that I raised," he added as he wiped away at something at the corner of his eyes.
Rolling his eyes, Harry heard sniffling from one of the corners and turn to see that that gentle giant was blowing at his nose while pausing with his task that the Commander gave him. He even saw that the other two idiots that shot at him and Sirius were looking heart warmed by his comment as if he was speaking about them.
Feeling helpless at being surrounding my jokers and softies, Harry couldn't help but chuckle to himself. At the end of the day, they were all that matters and who stood by him.
"Anyways," Harry said trying to get things back on topic, "I must say you are really good with that blade of yours."
"Thank you, my lord," the lieutenant nodded his head.
"So how did you get so fast?" Harry asked the most important question that drew his curiosity.
"A lot of training my lord," Alex answer, "plus some rituals that I undertook."
"Dang," Harry said with a whistle, "anyways you really got to teach me how to use that blade of yours."
"It would be my honor, my lord to see you on the training field and for me to teach you the way of the sword."
"Thank you, I look forward to that," Harry said with a nod. He really could imagine him being a badass and swinging around a certain family sword, namely the sword of Gryffindor.
"I must say," the Commander interpreted, finally speaking up. "You are the spitting image of your grandfather." The man finally seems to get over and process the fact that he, the last Potter was sitting in his office, drinking his tea and eating his scones.
"Really?" Harry asked as he perked up from the scones he was shoving into his mouth.
Right now they were sitting in the leader of the legion's office where the family coat of arms was plastered behind his desk with trophies, spoils from past campaigns, medals of honors, badges, and pins, plus mementos where placed around the office.
"Yes, not only in looks but personality as well," the gruff man said with a nod of his head. "For a moment there I thought you were his ghost come to haunt me or a really tricky bastard."
Harry knew that he shared a really close resemblance to his grandfather thanks to when he saw his living portrait. However, it seems like this man knew him on a more personal level. That is why Harry got right to the point and asked, "Did you know my grandfather?" as a bit of hope leaked through his voice.
As much as it has been fun to hang out with portraits of long dead relatives and ancestors, he knew that couldn't be healthy or good for him, nothing beats real actual people than ghosts of long past.
"Yep, he and I were in the Grindelwald war together. I was a new, up and coming Centurion of the family's Legion and your grandfather just graduated from The Clock Tower and married your grandmother. He and I were in the thick of it from the Battle of Moscow to Berlin and Atlantic. There we forged a great bond and became brothers in arms."
"Wow," Harry said as it was really all he could say.
Still, as much as he would like to learn more, he had to finish up what he came here for before he could sit around and take about the past.
Setting his tea down, Harry took on a more serious tone and uttered, "Well let's set aside the formalities for now, Commander. It seems like you are basically my Granduncle."
"Haha," the old man guffawed at Harry's comment, "I like that- call me Granduncle Leo from now on, boy."
"Sure will, granduncle," Harry said with an incline of his head. "Well to get back to matters at hand, today I came here in my capacity as Chief of the Griffin Legion to check up on how our family's standing army was doing."
"Of course," the gruff man said with a deep sigh as he sagged deeper into his chair. "Well to be honest with you boy things are not looking good at all."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked as his eyes narrowed together into slits.
"To begin with the remaining soldiers have not been paid for months on end as the fortress' coffers have been emptied a long time ago. There is no more foodstuff left in the fortress to feed anyone and the soldiers have been left to hunt for their own food in the wild.
The equipment is why behind the times, there is no one left to repair and fix our weapons and armors. The runes need to be renewed, the place needs major refurbishment, we need new men to fill our ranks."
Just listing to the man go on and on about all the issues there was made Harry's head just hurt. Things look very bad here.
"Plus all the Grifin creatures have all but gone wild since no Lord has come to calm them down."
"I can help with that," Harry said, as there was finally something that was a quick fix.
"Yes, you can," the old man said with a sigh, "but that would be putting a bandage over a gaping head wound at this point, boy. To be honest kid, I just can go on and on with all the issues we face, but most importantly of all is that morality is all but shattered. Not only has our future Lord and Lady been murdered in cold blood, but our past Lord and Lady died of the accursed Dragon Pox."
Looking down at the floor as Harry was reminded of that, he couldn't help it when grief came up to the surface and nearly overwhelmed him.
"Then there is what is left of the Legion. After fighting two wars back to back- of the proud 5,000 strong men and women of the Legion, only 1,250 soldiers remain."
"WHAT!" Harry shouted as he jumped out of his seat like a thunderbolt struck him in the ass causing his chair to tip over and fall to the ground.
"Yes, you heard, boy," the gruff, old man said as he looked bone-weary of it all. "Two last Cohort is all that is left which is lead by Lieutenant Alex and some support."
"But... but..." Harry tried to say, "that is a 75% loss. Are you telling me only 25% of the whole standing army of my family's Legion is left?"
"Yes," the man simply replied leaving the room in complete silence.
Harry had no words to say at all, so many men and women died and for what. Just because two men wanted power, just because they did not like the way things were, just because they were too egotistical to bring the change they wanted in a non-violent manner.
Sitting there, left to his thoughts, Harry's heart went out to all those wizards and witches that died for his family. Even though he did not know them personally, they still sacrificed their lives for a much better cause.
"We would have been willing to sacrifice ourselves to protect our Lord and Lady, but your Lord Father commanded us to stand down."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked as he looked over at the Lieutenant who spoke up.
"What he means is we would have made a last stand at the Potter Manor if it came down to it. But your father decided he did not want what was left of the Legion to be all but wiped out, so he ordered us to remain here until we heard word back from him. But....."
"You never did hear anything back from him since he was murder in cold blood," Harry finished for him since it looked painful for the old veteran to even speak about it.
"Yes," the old man nodded sorrowfully, "and ever since then, we have kept to our last order. Guarding the Lich Pass."
Suddenly breaking him out of his dejected disposition was Sirius who patted him on the back comfortable then gave him a look of understanding.
Appreciating support, Harry tried his best to get his head out of the gutter and said with a shaky breath, "Okay, is there anything I can do. If there is please just tell me and I will get to it."
"Just like you said, visiting the Griffin stables and calming them down would help. However most importantly, what we need is monetary support. We need to buy new equipment and armor, pay the soldiers, fix this place up, get foodstuff, and so much more."
"Good," Harry said with a nod of his head, "I will speak to my account manager immediately, and have the gold sent." At this stage, money was no problem at all, if he wanted to he could splurge millions of Galleons into this Legion if he so wanted.
"Now it seems to me what is more important is our very low numbers? Could we recruit more soldiers, and how do you go about doing that.?"
"Recruiting soldiers is no issue, especially if I were to use your name."
"I have no problem with that," Harry grinned up at the man, already liking where he was going with this. So many people were using his name already- the boy-who-lived, the one who vanquished the Dark Lord - so why couldn't he do the same.
"Yes, but the issue is how long it takes to train the soldiers."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Well, here we are training elite soldiers that can handle a variety of different Griffin creatures. So this isn't just some 3-month basic training and then you are sent to the front lines. No, it takes at least 2 years for a soldier to be ready to serve and become a legionary."
[A/N: Usually in the American army it is 12 to 14 weeks of basic training to be combat-ready. But for more advanced career paths it takes years. So I just went off that.]
"2 Years," Harry repeated, as he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. God damn it, he did not even know if he had two years before Voldy wonks would come back and start up his reign of terror again.
"Can I be honest with you here, granduncle," Harry said as he looked the man in the eyes.
"You always can," the gruff looking man answered with a nod of his head.
Looking around at the room with the lieutenant, his godfather, and the three idiots who tried to shoot him down, he turned back at the one-armed man and asked. "Do you trust everyone in this room to keep a secret."
"With my life," the old man nodded his head, "lieutenant Alex has been my aid throughout these troubling years, these three might be buffoons but they are loyal men through and through."
"Oh, thanks to Commander," the lanky man exclaimed as he wiped away at tears in the corner of his eyes.
"I knew you always had a soft spot for us," the stocky short man said with a goofy smile on his face.
"We will serve well, Commander," the gentle giant sniffled out.
"Shut it, before I take that back," the old man shouted as he gave them the eyeball look.
"It is already too late for that, Commander, " the slender man declared with a wicked grin, "you said it yourself, we are your best soldiers."
Grumbling under his breath, the metal armed man turned to look at Sirius and stated, "and Sirius is your father's best man and closest friend. I knew they were spewing a load of hogwash when they said you betrayed them."
"Thanks for the faith, you old bones," Sirius joked, but Harry could see he was touched by the old man's belief in him when very few believed him.
"So," his grandfather's best friend continued, "you are in trustworthy company. Say what you must say."
"Alright," Harry said, "this might sound unbelievable to your ears and you might not trust it, but hear me out."
"Don't worry," the old man said, "whatever you have to say I will believe you. You might not know this but the house Lordship ring does not accept people who aren't of sound mind and body. Plus it had very powerful protection that prevents the tampering of your own mind."
"I actually did not know about," Harry acknowledged as he looked down at his wonderful ring. Rubbing it affectionately Harry had a lot of praise from the ring but he knew now wasn't the time for that. Still, he wondered if all the effects were compounded since he actually had five rings on.
"Well, back on topic," Harry said then took a deep breath in, getting his nerves up, and stated. "The dark lord is back."
From behind him, he could hear a sharp intake of breath, and someone stopping something fragile, but Harry did not look back, no his eyes were only on the old Commander. All that mattered was for the old veteran to believe him and to be ready for the coming threat. He did not know if things would break out into open war, but if it did, he did not want to be caught with his pants down.
"Do you have any proof of it?" the metal armed man simply asked as he stared down at him with eyes that gave nothing away of his deep, inner thoughts and feelings.
"No, not per se," Harry replied with a shake of his head, this was a good sign, the man was at least willing to listen to him. But what he said next would make or break.
"But," Harry continued, "I swear to you on my honor as a Potter whatever I say is true." With the solemn oath of honestly, Harry began with his tale which of course started all the way back to the time he first got his letter to Hogwarts.
After a long while of telling his tale, Harry finished up with, "so during my third year I didn't actually run it Voldywonks, but I did meet his backstabbing, rat-faced minion."
"Mhm," the old man said as he rubbed at his greying beard, "now that is a tale worthy of a song."
"or a book," Harry amended with a shrug.
"Yes, either way, it is quite incredible that at such a young age you faced some very dangerous situation and came on top."
"I could swear on magic herself, if you so wanted," Harry uttered as it sounded to him the man did not believe him one bit.
"No, no, no," the old man said, "I believe you boy. What kind of loyal man would I be if I do not even trust my liege lord. What I am surprised about is how all that went down within Hogwart's very wall."
"Well we do have a very careless Headmaster," Harry shrugged.
Snorting back his rancor, his godfather mocked, "now that is the underestimation of the year."
Laughing out loud once he heard their clear distaste of the old meddling fucker, the old man stated, "Oh, don't let me even get started on that old fucking twat. Comes in the tail end of the war and participates in the last battle and takes all the credit for defeating Grindelwald."
Nodding his head in agreement, Harry could get behind anyone that sees through the old git's falsehoods.
"Well, I will put the Legion on high alert and begin with the rebuilding efforts when I get the gold."
"Excellent," Harry said with a gracious nod, "then we have a deal."
"Good," the old hand said, "now before anything I want to show you something."
"What is it?" Hary asked as he sat back down on the seat he was getting up from.
"You see your Lordship ring," the old veteran said.
"Yes," Harry said with a nod of his head, as he slowly rotated the ring in his finger.
"There is an important function it has called summoning. If you are ever in need of us, just speak to the ring and say, 'I summon the Griffin Legion.' With that, we will appear, and you also can just think about how much you want."
"Are you saying, what I think you are saying?" harry asked as his jaw nearly dropped to the floor.
"Mass teleportation," Sirius whispered, "dang, I really need to get my Lordship ring."
"Yes," the old man said with a nod, "but use it wisely, the ring will need to recharge for a long period after that taxing attempt. Now," the old man said as he got up from his chair and to his full height, "I believe a tour of the fortress is in order."
"Gladly," Harry said as he too got up from his chair and headed out into the Griffin Fort.
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5 soldiers make a Contubernium lead by a decanus, 10 Contubernium make a Century lead by a centurion, 10 Centuries make a Cohort lead by a lieutenant, 10 Cohorts make Legion leader by a Commander.
