Ch. 176 Time to play hardball

In the last days of the break, I received a sincere 'thank you' from Narcissa and confirmation regarding Draco declaring his intent to remain with his mother instead of following his Father's stupidity. Her gratitude for regaining her son resulted in an offer to increase my influence and political clout in Spain, something she said she was open to, but I told her there was no need. Instead I asked her if she was willing to take charge in a new business venture I had thought about in the past, but hadn't really seriously committed myself to: magical spas.

After explaining what a spa was, I could practically feel her willingness to make it a reality through her messages. Ms. Black was very optimistic about such facilities becoming very popular amongst the ladies and even began to plan on having the first one being made near her current community in order to test it on those accustomed to life's so called finer things. It would take time of course. Proper research on exactly what would/could be offered needed to be done. I would get the supplies and manpower, while Narcissa would be in charge of coordinating things and deciding what exactly was going to be happening. Having a woman in charge of something pretty much designed to attract women was appropriate to me, especially a cunning one like Narcissa who could get the best results possible once she applies herself.

She would have free reins on this project, with me only helping when it comes to some of the treatments which could be offered using my vast knowledge regarding beasts, herbs and potions. This would also act as a sort of test to understand Narcissa's abilities better, but if she is truly interested in this opportunity then I have little doubt she shall succeed.

If I decide to keep Lucius alive beyond the coming battles for some reason, it would be hilarious to watch his reaction as his ex-wife returns to the country after taking pretty much everything from him, opening a new branch of a very successful business which was inspired by muggles, with their son on her side, and finally realizing that all his personal failures are still caused by me. But it probably won't happen because there's a 50% chance Lucius is going to die this year and a 90% he'll die within the next two.

The only reason I am currently debating killing him is because of the impact it would have on Draco. I know I am putting a lot of focus on the kid, but he is currently my student and trying to change for the better. His current psychological state is unstable at the moment however, making the choice to wait for another year the better option. The man will die however. I could never wrap my head around how the bastard got away with serving Tom as a Death Eater lieutenant twice, just because he didn't go a try to slaughter school kids a second time when his lord was kinda losing.

And besides, Lucius is not the only Death Eater I am currently stopping myself from killing on sight.

The Parkinson family is touchy since their only daughter, Pansy, has not exhibited any positive character developments so far, only showing me the classic case of a bully. The girl will harass those she is told are below her and fear those better than her, displaying the symptoms of a child no one has ever taught properly. Her family is supporting the effort from the back by funding the Tom, too cowardly to openly fight like many families were during the first war. A family full of classic blood supremacist, those passing on their stupid hate and bias. But I am undecided between erasing them or making them lose everything.

The Nott patriarch has always been on thin ice in my book. It was hinted in the books that he killed his wife and the mother of Theodore Nott in front of the child, something which has already placed him on my shit list. But I needed to have a proper talk with Theodore to understand just where he stands regarding to his father. If he wishes to be free of him then the man will die when he crosses my path, and if not I will have to determine my options after seeing the kid.

Crabbe and Goyle Sr are weird for me in all honesty. This is because their sons are too thick to actually predict how the death of their fathers would affect them. I really don't know if losing their fathers would impact them in anyway except some kids either mocking them or sympathizing with them. Trying to teach them made me understand why Draco was surprised when Harry And Ron were disguised as them in their second year, exclaiming that he was shocked one of them could read.

Besides them, there are many who will disappear in the coming times, but they are all either have no other relatives, have been rejected by the rest of their families or the entire family is too far gone. These bastards must learn the hard way that actions have consequences, whether they learn it in death or life is all that's left to decide.

Moving on from the morbid topic of people who actually call themselves Death Eaters, the continuation of the school year brought a comfortable status quo within the school.

I was still closely monitoring the toad, but my actions have been driving her nuts since she hasn't been able to achieve anything except annoy everyone. None of her so called 'educational decrees' have succeeded, any attempt to gain some kind of power over others was heavily restricted, she could not find any faults from the staff because we were all supporting each other and yes I am including Professor Trelawney because I personally helped her create proper lesson plans, and there are no 'unapproved' activities in the castle to attack the headmaster with because all of the faculty is using the loopholes i pointed out. The woman wasn't even able to recruit any members for her stupid inquisitorial squad because she is seen as a joke by most students, an annoying one at that.

And it was time to really start pressuring the ministry from all angles.

I was going to start really swinging my weight around, not like I was doing before by 'barely' changing decree no. 23. No. It was time to start really destroying the Fudge administration.

My most obvious move was to officially by release white magic in Britain.

The process to get it Ministry approved was already done using my people. This meant no one knew about this and it was really going to annoy Fudge and Umbridge.

The move was made to put pressure mostly on Umbitch and Tom. I wanted them to feel more pressed to act. I needed them unstable so they would make mistakes. Although I am not actually sure on how long it would take Tom and his gloomy band to learn about this books, mostly because I'm pretty sure none of them are very academic or inclined towards learning new things beyond how to hurt those weaker than them, Umbridge will be able to see me teach the magic first hand.

The toad hates what makes her feel inferior, it is one of the major personality defects she shares with Tom. She will want white magic to be banned for a variety of stupid, weak, bigoted and downright bullshit reasons, and if Tom actually has retained his intelligence he will fear what this magic means and do what he can to destroy it. And for either to do anything, the must act.

I was breaking the current stalemate.

A bit reckless, but I have people everywhere. I have even had an increasing number of people infiltrate the lower ranks of Tom's gathering force. He thought just getting criminals and dark wizards from Europe without proper background and identity checks was smart, bless him. Then I combine that with Jennifer and the info I get from Dumbledore/Snape, and I can pretty know whenever Tom makes a move.

It also helps that I've had Jennifer sneak a magical version of a tracking device into Nagini's 'food'. Can't really put anything on Tom since he barely wears a robe which he uses as a weapon and only carries his wand with him, leaving the snake as the best option to track his movements. Plus snakes have long digesting periods and the tracker very small while also being resistant to most harm.

So even if Riddle just decides to go on a solo rampage I'll know where because he always takes the snake with him or uses her for something. And if he decides to send her somewhere alone like when he did that disgusting thing with Bathilda Bagshot's corpse in canon, it will be an opportunity to end the snake.

Following that, I will mostly turn the Prophet against the minister. I was tired of letting Fudge ruin the people's faith in the paper. Although I would let him keep the pressure on Dumbledore and try to conceal the Azkaban destruction, the coming scandals would be reported by both the Herald and the Prophet. This would help maintain the Prophet's reputation for the future, which is nice since I own most of it, while shaking Fudge's grip on it.

Then my third move was to get rid of the last incompetent members of the Board of Governors. Everyone that supported Fudge in trying to screw Hogwarts over for political bullshit was going to be removed the same way Lucius had been, then replaced with much better members. Already had Carl Greengrass, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Hannah Abbot's father Jason Abbot, my future mother-in-law Selene Travers and maybe Narcissa or Draco in the future, all ready to take the emptied seats.

I wanted Hogwarts out of the reach of anyone who would mess with it. After the brewing storm approaching, I would raise it to truly be the greatest source of magical education in the world. Hence this move served to slap the Ministry and set up the future.

Next was to start the sweep of Fudge's supporters and cabinet.

I am going to have Umbitch murdered so I'm skipping over her, but a good number of officials are going to be politically dead or stuck in dead end carriers after I'm done shaking the Ministry. If they thought I was annoying before then I'm going to make them puke Blood just like Lucius after I'm done. This is because all those assholes who get away with harassment, corruption, sexual assault, embezzlement, suppressing actually talented employees and sometimes even killing someone, they all have to pay someone higher than them to do and a large cut of that money goes to Fudge, letting me have a wonderful way to clean things up.

Watergate wishes it could be as expansive as what I'm going to do because Fudge isn't getting a pardon from his replacement. In fact most of these people will be lucky to not go to Fortress' Jails after this is done. And all too conveniently, I had qualified and driven workers of all status' in place to take over. In one move I would sweep almost a third of the problems plaguing the Ministry and lay the foundation for improving everything else while giving my intelligence network an expansion.

My last step for the year would unfortunately have to wait until Tom revealed himself properly to complete, simply because the cleaning of the Wizengamot is not an easy thing. There are simply too many old bastards clinging to their seats and holding way too much influence on the country. After my previous step I will be able to get rid of the incompetents put there by Fudge and also gain the seats for the various important members of the Ministry, but the majority of the other seats are owned by noble houses, hence are difficult to change.

Malfoy will lose his seat, something which I'll try to get for Draco or Narcissa later, Selene will regain hers after the trial, a few other decent family members are being selected to inherit such positions and some seats will just have to remain empty because I'm going to end their bloodline. That's what you get when you go out to murder, rape and torture random innocent people.

By the time the next school year begins, the Ministry will be ushered into a new age. One where it actually works, does its jobs properly and actively works to better the country. You know, what governments are supposed to do.

It was time to start playing hardball with everyone.

So let the games begin~