Chapter 301: Spherical Thirds
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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
I would like to thank my beta, Awdyr, for his help in this chapter.
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29 November 1994, Durmstrang
Harry watched as the investigator, David Roche – very cool name, by the way, stepped out of the room feeling far more conflicted about his position than he ever did before. Harry didn't have it in him to be angry at the guy, especially when he scared the crap out of him just minutes prior.
The guy was just doing his job, trying to balance not being an asshole and not losing his job, and Harry didn't really help matters by freaking him out. What it did serve was getting the man to talk to his superiors, to figure out what they wanted him to do and why the ICW had such hostile reactions to him…
All it took was a sneaky eavesdropping rune discreetly applied to the man during their conversation, and he had gotten everything they needed. To be honest, if this was what the ICW was capable of, then he was sort of worried about their general competence. The moment they had taken his wand, they thought that he was helpless.
To be fair, Harry wasn't exactly in an interrogation room, just some classroom in Durmstrang, and while Family Crests were a thing, Harry didn't have any signs of one on his arms. Atypical crest expressions, like in Harry's case, were very rare and often documented. They must have thought that Harry lied about having one and didn't want to press the matter to avoid setting a precedent.
Still, these disadvantages were in Harry's favour, because he quickly realized why the ICW was acting this hostile. It wasn't because of the dead bodies, since it turned out that the dead mercenaries were mostly criminals and that a large majority of the Imperius victims were alive and well… It wasn't even because Dumbledore had asked them to, which was a big surprise since the man hated him with a passion.
No, the answer was far more political. Harry had gotten very popular ever since the tournament started, and that, in turn, had made the citizens of magical Britain a bit more restless. The ICW was relying on the fact that Dumbledore wasn't there to protect Britain and that Fudge's administration ended up ruining most of the economy with his large projects that always ended in disaster. The Quidditch World Cup was a fiasco that allowed the ICW to gain some leverage to gain more influence in Britain to 'ensure the security and safety of its people'.
Britain had always been a very delicate entity to deal with for the ICW, essentially being members in name only. The sad truth was that the large concentration of family crests in one place and the nation's very extensive magical history made it very hard to influence. Britain had some of the oldest and wealthiest magical families in the world and it showed with the way their government was structured. Nepotism was fairly common when it came to employment, people without a similar magical history were seen as outsiders, like muggleborns…
Changing Britain was essentially changing its culture and in a weird way, Albus Dumbledore had done that for the better part of a century. Young wizards sometimes decided not to activate their crests, especially the progressive faction. The slow decline of magical experimentation just made British mages weaker with every generation, giving way for the ICW to intervene with Dumbledore gone.
Harry had unwittingly become a symbol, a new protector of the British Isle, the next Albus Dumbledore, who was defying the ICW in its own game, defeating all the other schools and showing Hogwarts' superiority.
That presented a large irritating conundrum for the ICW, not only were they losing a lot of headway in Britain, contrary to their expectation of Hogwarts being a total failure and leveraging this fact to gain influence over the school, allowing them to gain more control over magical Britain. There was also some doubt all over Europe that the ICW's influence actively caused them to have weaker mages, and that allowed some countries to seek more independence from the international entity.
All in all, Harry's actions had caused the ICW to get a lot of headaches that they didn't foresee happening, and they needed to stop his momentum. Honestly, Harry didn't give two shits about the ICW and its influence in Britain. As far as he was concerned, Dumbledore had already ruined generations of mages with his ideology and the ICW couldn't exactly make it worse. Magical Britain was ripe with corruption and nepotism, especially in the ministry, and someone doing something to make things slightly better for people without a magical lineage was more than welcome…
He wasn't Britain's babysitter, to stop the big bad ICW from interfering.
Nevertheless, Harry was being used as a figurehead and the ICW was responding by trying to raise suspicion on him, even though not a single court in Europe would try to convict him with such an obvious case of self-defence. No one would even be willing to risk prosecuting him, especially knowing that they would lose and take a big hit for their career. So, the plan was either to get him to confess to something and hold him for that, or just to stall until Arcturus arrived, but by then, word would have spread about his 'imprisonment'.
Unfortunately for them, Harry had called their bluff with one of his own, saying that he had already contacted the press, which would end up causing a lot of damage to the ICW's reputation and doing exactly the opposite of what they wanted.
It was amusing to hear them debating about what to do, and whether or not Harry was bluffing. They ended up just deciding to take their losses and let him go after his 'extensive witness testimony' to have a 'good understanding of what happened'. Anyway, Harry was out in less than an hour and his wand returned to him without any issues.
Finally, Harry got to enjoy walking around Durmstrang. The school was a stark contrast to Hogwarts, with its imposing, gothic architecture. Towering spires pierced the sky, and the heavy wooden doors creaked with age as he passed through them. The corridors were lined with dark, polished wood and lit by flickering torches that cast eerie shadows on the stone walls. Despite the cold, there was a certain rugged beauty to the place. Outside, the grounds were vast and wild, with snow-capped mountains in the distance and a thick forest that seemed to get darker the further it got from the fortress.
Out of all the schools, Durmstrang was, by far, the more mysterious one. No one knew where it was, not even which country, and access to the school was only achieved using an exact route that could be magically locked by the school. In the centuries of its existence, Durmstrang had never fallen to outside attackers, not even once, which was very impressive.
Harry followed the ICW representative who went to get him until they arrived at Durmstrang's equivalent of the Great Hall.
The hall was enormous, with high ceilings supported by massive stone pillars that were intricately carved with various scenes and symbols. The room was dimly lit by an assortment of wrought iron chandeliers hanging from the rafters, each one holding dozens of flickering candles that cast a warm, golden glow across the space. Long, wooden tables stretched out in neat rows, showing signs of countless meals and gatherings over the years. At the far end of the hall, a grand fireplace roared with a crackling fire, its mantel decorated with impressive trophies and relics from Durmstrang's past. Bright tapestries depicting the school's history and heraldry hung from the walls, adding splashes of colour to the otherwise serious environment.
Harry quickly found where the Hogwarts delegation was sitting and he quickly made his way there, ignoring the stares that everyone was giving him. He sat next to Daphne who asked, "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, they just wanted to know what happened. Apparently, having five dragons attack a school delegation is pretty bad… And since I'm the one who witnessed most of it, they needed my help, and that took a bit of time. It's a shame that I missed most of the welcoming feast, though."
The blonde visibly relaxed, "I was worried they would try to pin anything on you…"
"And say what? That I should have somehow stunned the attackers and somehow protected their falls, whilst being outnumbered by a small army and five dragons? On the ground, sure they could have had a case, but everyone who died, did it by falling to their deaths and since the dragons were responsible for a large majority of them when they lashed out and pushed them off their brooms, they couldn't really do anything about it. Not that it matters, apparently the people who died were mercenaries who were wanted for a lot of crimes, including murders…"
Harry said this loudly enough for everyone to hear. He already noticed that people were whispering all around him. He expected that by the end of the hour, all the schools would know what happened and by the end of the day, most news outlets would know the story…
He had made sure not to say anything damning about the ICW or the investigative team since he didn't want to needlessly make enemies. It also essentially protected him, since the public would be on his side if anyone wanted to use the situation to cause trouble.
With that done, he erected a few privacy charms, allowing him to speak privately to Daphne. The blonde immediately understood, "What really happened, Harry?"
"Nothing much. They tried to pin anything on me, but I bluffed my way out of it, and they let me go. Apparently, they're under a lot of pressure. People have been using my name to reduce the ICW's influence on Britain, and they wanted it to stop. It's all just political…"
"I hate politics," she grumbled.
"Me too… But unfortunately, it is a fact of life. What have I missed so far?"
"Nothing much. They just announced the Yule Ball, and that the task will be announced at the end of it, and will take a week afterwards…"
Huh, that meant that they would spend at least six weeks in Durmstrang, which was far more than either of the previous schools. They had more than three weeks until the ball, and then another week until the task, and finally, one last before they left… That was six weeks.
They had spent around two weeks in France and around the same in Rome. Huh, Durmstrang was really milking this for all it was worth. Still, that much attention in one place was going to be very beneficial for what he had planned. He couldn't really do anything with Dumbledore's plans before the task.
He just didn't know enough to do anything beforehand. He only had that old blood sample of the girl that was sacrificed during the second task, as his clue, and he was researching a way to detect any blood curses and find any blood relations to see where she came from. It was unlikely that such a magical release was done at the hands of a normal muggleborn.
He wasn't being dismissive of the option, but the truth was that powerful magic tended to have old origins… Hopefully, Daphne would help him on that front.
What he could do was try to plan to get Hufflepuff's cup. Everything was already messy enough and he didn't need Voldemort coming back to mess things up even more. The man thrived in chaos and that wouldn't be good for anyone, especially with so many factions being involved in the tournament. Lily, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, the ICW, and now Voldemort… All with different goals, all with different methods… Things were about to be messy.
Harry hummed, "This is good. We should have enough time to prepare…"
"Prepare what? Don't tell me you're going to bail on me with the ball."
He shook his head, "Of course not… But why don't we make the ball a bit more exciting?"
"And how is that?" the blonde replied with an unimpressed eyebrow raised.
"What do you think about us breaking into Gringotts during the ball?"The unimpressed stare she gave Harry made him shiver slightly… Yeah, he was kinda pushing things a bit. Then again, what was life without a bit of excitement?-----------------------------------------------------------------------
AN: I thought this chapter summarized the ICW's motivations well enough. I realized that I never actively put it into words, so thank you all for reminding me. Anyway, things are about to get very intense, very quickly. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.