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Harco Empire	By : Toddy Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 34430 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or films. I do not make any money from the writing of this story, just enjoyment.

Chapter List
- 167
- 168
- 169
[Note: “x-x” = speech & ‘x-x’ = thoughts & *x-x* = telepathy & #x-x# Parseltongue]
ITALIAN JOB
The four seers went over to the Zabini table to greet their guests.
Greetings over Draco enquired: “To what do we owe the honour of seeing you here.”
“We’d heard so much from our nephew-heir about your integrated village, that we felt we should compare notes about ours,” replied Niccolo: We have a similar set-up in Italy.”
“I thought you lived in Florence, Sir.”
We have the Apartamento there, Harry. The place where we entertained you, but our main residence is in Piedmonte area north of Napoli. There we have an estate which produces a very passable wine,”
“Yes we drink it occasionally. Our Reeve has some put down in the cellars of our London home.”
Calendra smiled: “So you keep to the old pure-blood traditions then. Your country estate here and a town house.”
Harry bristled slightly but Draco and Tor calmed him internally.
“Do I take it that you have a cabinet that connects the two?” asked Calendra: “We do. We find it very useful. I’m not sure I could live in the eternal bustle of Firenze.”
“You have that gorgeous view over the Arno,” put in Astoria: “We only have a canal.”
“It’s a very pretty canal,” Susan defended: “Justin’s family keep their cruiser there. I love cruising through Regent’s Park in an evening for a dinner out. There’re some very select restaurants near Little Venice.”
“We tend to use Number Twelve for going to and from the Ministry and for political dinners,” remarked Harry: “I suppose your parent’s house must be near ours, Juicy, because we have a canal at the back. Not that I’ve explored it.”
“That’s the problem with most magicals’ houses. They’re obscured from the muggles. When we have time we’ll have to find out,” observed Draco: “However our lives are rather full just at the moment. And Beltane is looming upon us again.”
“Erm … Dear Blakes … Erm … That’s why I asked uncle and auntie over.”
“I’m not to prance around naked again, am I?”
“No Harry, that’s just every seventh year.”
“Good!” Harry looked relieved: “Though I suppose we’ll have to preside over the maypole dancing and blessing the fields.”
“Of course!”
“There was a Madonna che scappa festival at Easter in Sulmona. That sets off various local churches to have blessing processions. Our church is dedicated to Saint Gabriel.”
“You mean the archangel?”
“No, a bit like your Godric, he’s a lesser saint but lived and died in our region. He was studying to be a priest but died before he was ordained. Being the patron saint of young people, our youngsters make special pictorial displays of confetti on the first of May.”
“Doesn’t it blow away?”
“It’s not the paper confetti I talk of, but a special kind of sweet. It started out as a sugared covering for almonds, but now other fruits are enclosed. The youngsters use the various coloured sweets to create flower-like designs. The winner has a special cape presented to him or her for the year. They lead various processions throughout the year.”
“A bit like our May Queen,” interjected Gilda. But that’s not why Uncle Niccolo’s here, is it, Darling?”
“No, Cara mio, it isn’t. Thanks for reminding me … Erm … Draco, do you four have any special plans for the cabinets this time?”
“Nothing totally set in concrete, if that’s why you enquire?”
“Well … Err … Yes … You see … I’ll inherit all of Uncle Niccolo’s holdings when he dies. Not that that will happen in the near future, I hope,” Blaise smiled at his Uncle: “It’s more like my paternal grandfather’s holdings in Sicily that will come first. However there’s a sharing law in Italy for various descendants, if you own too much property. Uncle and I are dead set against giving any of it to my erring mother. She already has enough with the Apartamento in Roma and the holdings that her latest husband has accrued.”
“Another reason,” Niccolo added: “Is that neither myself nor my wife are getting any younger and we’re beginning to feel the strain. Now if I transfer the heritage to my heir in order to avoid death duties, as I wish to do. It puts Blaise in a position of owning too much, and Lusty Lollobrigida will start court proceedings to claim her share. So I’ve held back. Now, at your party in Firenze, I got chatting to Astoria’s grandmamma, the Duchessa; she told us that you have an arrangement whereby she has vested the Grunrasenhof in your Trust. So we were wondering if that was possible for us too.”
“I feel a bit out of it, Harry and Draco,” added Blaise: “Each of the directors have donated various bits of property, but not me. I’m very pleased that you made me I director, but to have a piece of property that was to have been mine, put into the trust’s portfolio would help me to feel I was doing my bit.”
Draco chuckled “And Lusty Lollobrigida wouldn’t be able to claim her share, would she?”
Blaise giggled: “There is that too. There’s something else as well. There’s no proper magical academy in Italy, that’s why I came to Hogwarts. There are a couple of our elfins who are the right age to start at Hogwarts and our Vinaeo would like to teach some magical youngsters the art of vine-growing and wine-making.”
“What do you think Horrty?”
“I’ve only recently met him, but I like Ubriaco, despite the bad name he’s a very well versed vintner. It will add another possibility to Filius’s Portfolio for Peace. Erm … Podesta Zabini … why did you give him that inebriated name?”
“It’s sort of traditional at the Zabini Podere. He has a son called Giovani Ubriaco, and his progenitor was called Antico Ubriaco after he retired. The elf family wear it as a badge of office, so to speak. And I’ve never ever found him worse for drink. It’s grown into a sort of gentle joke, I suppose. I think they’d be highly offended if we tried to re-name them.”
Harry chuckled: “If he’s anything like our Reeve, they’d be furious if you try to do that. But back to business. Whilst we’ve been chatting externally, we four Blakes have been conferring internally and we think we’d like to accept the inclusion of the Zabini property.”
Blaise let out a big sigh of relief: “It’d be two properties, Harry. The Firenze Apartamento and the Patrimonio Zabini, in the Villaggio Gabrielli.”
Hamish chortled: “I suspect you’d like the ward teams to get busy then. One of the Gringotts goblins was saying to Bertie that one of his colleagues thought Lucy was looking for another Italian hide-out.”
“Yes, I’d heard that too,” confirmed Calendra: “Our village is like yours in its mix of residents; both muggle and magical. So we would like to have the latest thaumic technology covering our heads. However physically we are totally different, being clustered on the top of a very steep hill. The church and castle towers each vying with the other to be the tallest.”
“Some of our tenants have reported seeing unsavoury strangers snooping around our fields and asking questions. Of course they keep shtum, they protected us when the fascists came around. And we protect them when the customs men appear. You’d be surprised how many hidden cellars our rock contains.” Niccolo chuckled and then looked serious: “According to my father, they were useful during the last war too, quite a number of refugees found their temporary resting place. Either they were fleeing from the gas chambers or escaped prisoners of war.”
“Did you meet my grandparents, then?”
“So you’re part of that Potter family,” Niccolo smiled: “And keeping the family heroic tradition going too, I see. I’m afraid I didn’t, although I met quite a few people who had been helped by them. I wasn’t quite old enough to be called up into the army, thank Merlin, but we worked in the fields and kept ourselves and our guests reasonably well fed. We kept a low profile too, the fascists didn’t like our kind either.”
A certain bushy haired female honed into the conversation: “I think we should appear to be tourists. Just in case Lucy has someone snooping round. Apparating in would leave too many thaumic traces,” she observed: “Of course, once the dome’s up, that suppresses thaumic leakage. Probes, Grammarian and I could come over earlier and make a survey. If you show me on the map where your family Patrimonio is, we can see if it is within range of the mages portals.” She looked at the Blakes: “I take it that you intend joining them to system. It makes it so much easier to update the wards.”
“Yes Herms, we did have that in mind.”
“Joining us to what system?”
“As Blaise’s family, and as he’s a director, you should be able to travel using our portals. They’re a little like cabinets … … … [There followed a description of their network including visiting various places] … … … So now you realise its extent.”
~~~ ITALY ~~~
During the week preceding Beltane Draco and Harry managed two days off at the weekend. So on Friday 28^th, with Astoria, they ported to the Palazzo in the evening to have a chat with Freddie. He confirmed that some of his colleagues further south were getting reports of satrap-like goings-on, although nothing major. On Saturday morning they caught an early train to Florence; it took just over two hours and then they had a quick wander from the station to the Apartamento Zabini. After using the Zabini family cabinet to arrive in Villaggio Gabrielli the trio went for a walk round.
It was the hilltop village par-excellence. The campanile of the church was dead centre to the hill, but set on one side of the nave of the church. The township was a place of narrow cobbled alleyways; many of them equipped with uneven steps, almost certainly hewn from the same living rock which supported the houses. In front of the church was an almost triangular market place with the ecclesiastical frontage forming its base and the door into the Zabini domicile at the apex. The other two sides were formed by the dwellings of the villagers. Each similar house snuggled up to its neighbour, being saved from monotony by having its stucco colour-washed differently. Every house had stupendous views out of its back windows over the valley.
They took the narrow road that led down to the valley floor, the upper part of which had other houses cheek-by-jowl providing shadow enough from the hot sun, however they stopped the breeze also. This road descended in a big loop, having occasional passing places and many steep unprotected drops down the sheer cliffs. Where possible, terraces had been built surrounding the village. In which there were a few trees, with vines clambering up trellises attached to the cliff face. Some of the villagers also grew their vegetables if there was enough space.
Below on the valley floor numerous fields were scattered around, some containing cattle, and some had various kinds of crops. On the lower slopes of the valley sides were vineyards, and above them were olive groves. Further up the beech forest grew. According to the locals at the bar; where they stopped for a cooling drink, the beech trees sheltered a good variety of truffles and a lively discussion started as to which method of finding these delicacies was best.
They left the locals still arguing and climbed back up some narrow steps to regain the central plaza. Going back into the Patrimonio they were very pleased to be offered another cooling drink and sit under the shade of one of the almond trees in the small garden. That space, being part of the old defences, which overlooked the exposed road, had a breeze blowing over it. It could not be called cool, but it did dry off the perspiration they had accrued in climbing the steps. It also afforded many magnificent views of the valley and mountains.
“I think I know now why they have a siesta,” remarked Astoria: “But for the breeze I could be reduced to a small grease-spot.”
“I think we’ll wait until the sun hides behind the mountains before we carry out the ward survey.”
“I agree, and it’s still only spring. The almond blossom must be earlier than at home, the fruit seems to have set already. Remind me not to come here in high summer.”
They were definitely lazy-tourists for the next couple of hours. Sitting in the shade sipping a long lemon drink and either snoozing or chatting quietly. At about four, the inhabitants could be seen, going out to work in the fields. At much the same time Niccolo appeared from his room and suggested he guide them around the village. He roared with laughter when they told him of their stroll.
“Noel Coward used to sing a song called ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.” I imagine my tenants will be making many of the same remarks about you by now.”
“I wondered why the old folks looked askance at us. We just thought they were the retired ones sitting in the shade. Now I can see some of the ones we talked to working in the fields.”
“If you like, you could make yourselves useful. One of the problems about living up here is that the water, by-and-large, is down there. One of the chores that people of your age undertake is to man the pumps to lift it up to the cistern in the Patrimonio’s tower. They think that we have a large pump hidden away. Not being aware of our powers, when a mage is in residence, we usually help with the water raising.”
“Of course, we’ll help, just show us what to do, Hamish has shown us some water raising charms; many of us learned them when filling the satyr’s pool.”
“That sounds useful. Come, let me show you where the well is situated.”
Niccolo led the way into the basement of the tower.
“You see these marks on the side of the wall. Well... The lowest one indicates that the cistern is full. As you can see it only has a quarter of its capacity filled.”
“Um … I don’t understand. Surely the mark at the top shows when the tank is full.”
“No Harry, you see, there is a float in the cistern, and it is attached to the marker by a cord which goes over a pulley. As the float rises the cord slackens, moving over the pulley and allowing the marker to descend. A very simple but effective gauge.”
Niccolo gestured with his hands whilst he was telling them, and Harry now understood.
Niccolo chuckled: “Our so-called pump is in this room, those pumps on the wall are for the villagers to use. I’m told that in the bad old days, pumping water was used as a punishment. I can quite understand that too.”
They entered the room and peered down the well. There was the faintest glint of water far down. Harry thought for a minute, recalling the charm Hamish had taught them. Firstly, he formed a magical tube, getting Draco to take one end up into the cistern. He used the other end to feel for the surface of the water and then see how deep it was. He was happy with the amount that appeared to be there. Just to be sure he checked the bottom in case there was mud – there was none. By that time Draco mentally told him that the tube was pointing into the stone lined upper reservoir.
Harry gathered Draco’s and Astoria’s magic into him, pointed his finger down the well: “Rwy’n codi’r dwr in mewn i’r seston!”
There was a rushing sound as the tube sucked the water up and deposited in the tank. Ten minutes elapsed as Draco struggled to hold the end of the tube over the cistern’s edge.
*Okay Harry, it’s almost full.*
“Atal y llif!”
The tube disappeared and Niccolo gasped in amazement: “Err … Why have you stopped?”
“Because Draco says the tank is full – look at the marker.”
“You must teach me that one. My charm usually takes half an hour. I didn’t recognise the words either.”
“It may not work for you, Niccolo. You see I gathered both Draco’s and Tor’s magic into me and channelled it all. Being Seers, we have been given those kind of extra powers.”
“On top of that, Niccolo,” Astoria added: “I seem to have an affinity for earth/water charms ,and I had my fire-staff which was well and truly screwed into the stones.”
Draco had come down the ladders by then: “We were using the ancient Brythonic, which seems to work better with earth/water charms, too. I must say, Harry, that I nearly fell into the cistern when the water started to flow, it was a bit strong.”
“Sorry! I forgot that you’d loaned me some of your strength.”
There was a clatter and the door opened to reveal two male teenagers.
The Blakes insured their St Georges were touching their skin, in order to understand.
“Good afternoon, Podesta Zabini, may we commence pumping, please?”
“You may if you wish. However, I suggest you look at the marker.”
“Oh! It’s full. Great, who did it for us?”
“These three friends of mine thought they’d like to help out.”
“Marvellous, thank you many times, we were not looking forward to the hard work. Come, let us buy you a drink each.”
Harry looked at Niccolo who nodded affirmatively.
“Thank you, we’d love to.”
“I think I’ll go and rest a bit,” suggested Astoria: *I suspect it’s an all-male establishment. Not quite my scene.*
Harry winked at her, understandingly: “Did all that work tire you out then?”
“Thank you many-times again Signora,” one of the boys offered her a hand.
As she shook hands she sent: *Both of them have thaumic potential, but it seems suppressed.*
H:*Fine, we’ll check it out with them.* Harry held Draco’s hand and briefly closed his eyes to check out the young men’s magical ability. Draco sent out a legillimens probe. They both agreed with Astoria’s observation.
D:*It’s as though they have enclosed their magical core so that it does not affect them. *Probably because they were afraid of the results. Do you remember what Alexandrou said about the local populace’s reactions to his uncontrolled magic?*
H:*Quite well, I recall my school-mates reactions too. I know it was a great relief when I learned I wasn’t a freak. How come Niccolo didn’t find out?*
D:*That’s something else to probe.*
A:*They smelled of oranges, so that means they are trustworthy and tend towards the light.*
H:*Fine … We’ll find a way to broach the subject.*
“You two have gone silent, I do hope we haven’t offended you.”
“Not at all. Draco and I are very close and seem to be able to swap thoughts. At least we seem to know what each other is thinking sometimes, so we don’t always converse outwardly. I’m really looking forward to that drink you know.”
They followed the two locals out of the tower and down a side alley.
“Erm … Would you mind too much if we went to our house instead of the bar. You see some of the locals don’t like our lifestyle.”
“It’s not that they’re intentionally rude, but there seems to be a sort of barrier between us and them. We take our place in the pumping rota and co-operate in the fields but …”
“… Then they go home to their families.”
Draco smiled winningly: “Do I take it that you share a house together?”
“Yes … Is that a problem with you?”
“No … Harry and I share a house too.”
“But I thought Tor was your wife?”
“She is, but we have an arrangement. Ginny, Harry’s wife, is looking after the kids at home in England. All four of us share the cottage …”
“… Oh! Tell us when we get inside. This is our house. It belonged to Vito’s great-aunt. Some of it we don’t use, but we maintained the family connection to Villaggio Gabrielli. No doubt one of our cousins will inherit when we move on.”
“So, you intend moving away then?”
“No … I meant at the end of our lives. We seem to have settled in a niche here. Much better than both our homes where our schoolmates of yesteryear ragged and insulted us.”
“Not forgetting our parents expecting us to get married and settle down. Well … We are settling down, but together. Now come out onto our little patio. Four of us will just fit and we’ve rigged up a striped awning.”
“Would you like wine or something less alcoholic?”
Draco screwed up his nose: “It’s a bit early for wine so a nice long drink would be most welcome.”
“Max makes a delicious Lemonade. The fizz comes from natural fermentation so there is a small amount of alcohol.”
“Were not averse to that, thanks. Our house-Erm-hold makes fruit wines.” H:*Nearly slipped up there!*
“Great … Lemon drinks coming up.”
Our two looked out at the glorious view whilst the Italian two sorted the drinks.
H:*They’re gay, aren’t they?*
D:*I imagine so, but quite butch with it.*
“Here we are … I think we’d better introduce ourselves. I’m Maximiliano Nashi and my mate is Vittorio Sabina.”
“Pleased to meet you, I’m Draco Malfoy and my mate is Harry Potter.”
They shook hands.
As they did so Harry sent: *They have got the Fluence, haven’t they?*
Both of the Italians jumped and looked at our two suspiciously.
“Err … What’s the Fluence?” Maximiliano asked timidly.
“So, you heard us speak inside your minds, did you?”
“YES!” Both of the Italians looked worried.
“There’s something going on here which we don’t understand,” ventured Maximiliano: “You seem to speak good Italian, but your lips seem to be out of synch, a bit like watching an American movie that’s been dubbed.”
“That’s easily explained,” said Harry, fishing out his St George: “These little gismos translate our English into Italian and you hear the result. It works the other way around too, so we hear what you say in English.”
“That’s some hi-tech wizardry you own. I bet they cost the earth.”
“We were given them, but I expect they are fairly expensive,” replied Draco.
“What kind of batteries do you use? Do they need charging or are they replaceable?”
“Hmm … Batteries? We don’t have to charge them, they just work because they touch our skin.”
“That really is some advanced technology. I’d heard that our muscles were worked by minute electrical impulses …”
Draco looked baffled so Harry took over: “… No, it’s quite different … You see … It’s about the Fluence. Remember what you heard in your minds, yes?”
“YES?” Both the Italians looked wary.
“Um … We have some special talents and you two have the same potential too. Have you ever wished for something to happen and it did? Almost like a reply.”
“Erm … Yes … Some louts from a village where we used to live wanted to beat us up because we were gay. I sort of thought I’d like to dump them in the nearby river and they just jumped in. They looked very confused and got out, coming at us again.”
“It was my turn then, I thought about a wall between us. It wasn’t visible, but the thugs crashed into it anyway. They didn’t bother us after that, but strange rumours went around the village. Luckily Auntie’s will prooved a week or so later, and we moved up here.”
“Nobody’s threatened us here. We’re still strangers, even after five years, so they keep slightly apart. Not nastily, sort of warily. It suits us, we get no hassle.”
“We think you have the magical gene. We have it and can feel your aura. If Ginny were here, she’d be able to see it, no doubt. Nevertheless, we feel quite confident that you are thaumically capable.”
“Err … What does that mean?”
Then started Draco’s and Harry’s usual spiel about magic, including some demonstrations … … …
Maximiliano looked aghast: “You mean that Vito and I can learn how to use the Fluence?”
“Yes, exactly. What we need to do is get you some instruction. You’re a bit old to go to our magical academy in Scotland, but perhaps there’s some kind of academy in Italy. We’ll have to ask Niccolo.”
“Do you mean the Podesta?”
“Yes. I suppose so. Is that his title?”
“Yes, he’s the local mayor … a sort of magistrate too. Why are you here?”
“Blaise Zabini, who is one of our trust directors, is his heir, and we’ve come to see how to put up some protective wards around the village.”
“What are wards?”
“Like the wall that you used to defeat the thugs, but much bigger, and permanent, intended to only repel magicals with evil intent in their hearts. It’s shaped roughly like a dome and we’ll probably have to erect a magical spire on top of the church tower to support it.”
“I don’t think that old tower could support much weight. As it is the priest only allows one bell to ring at a time.”
“Seamus and Dean should be able to strengthen it.”
“Who are Seamus and Dean?”
“Our two mages, gay like ourselves, who are into using the Fluence to construct and repair buildings. They’re professors at our academy.”
“So, we could learn to do that could we?”
“A lot depends on your talents, but yes, although I imagine that you could do well in agriculture. We have a goblin professor for that.”
“They’re mythical!” remarked Vittorio, with scorn.
“I think you should come with us to the Patrimonio. There are some elves there as well as our wards team with a goblin in it. At least they said they were coming over.”
“This is very confusing, but we’d love to find out more.”
Thus, two potential wizards were introduced to the local bigwig. They also met his elves, Hermione, Probert and Grammarian. Blaise apparated in just after the introductions were over, that made for further explanations about magical travel.
“We’ve erected a detection ward Harry, tomorrow we’ll reinforce it. Could you and Draco set up the spire tonight when it’s dark, please?”
Even Niccolo did not know why a spire was needed, so they explained about it and the earth thaum-anchors.
The Blakes had brought their miniaturised brooms with them so they were able to do as Hermione requested.
“Whilst they’re doing that,” Niccolo suggested: “Why don’t I take you two to my store of family wands and let’s see if there are some compatible ones.”
“I can give them some elementary instruction, Uncle. If that’s what’s needed. After all I am the professor for that course at Hogwarts.”
“Thank you, My Heir, I think that would be a good idea. I cannot think why I did not find out about them before.”
“Well, we did keep a low profile, Sir. We’d had quite a bit of trouble in our home village, so we decided to keep our heads down here.”
“Did they not like budding mages then?”
“No Sir, budding homosexuals, more like.”
“Well you won’t find that kind of prejudice in my household; but be aware that when you move out into the larger magical circles, some of the die-hards are extremely rigid in their outlooks.”
“Thank you. Draco and Harry have been explaining how they get around that bigotry. So perhaps we shall have to find two magical dykes to pair up with.”
Blaise chuckled: “There are two available goblinesses, but I think our two miners have them in mind. The idea of ensuring that thaumic genes are continued is quite pertinent, as our dear Headmistress points out, frequently.”
Draco snickered: “That was the idea, but I’ve seen Seamus and Dean taking an interest too. I joked about it and they coloured up, saying something about shared construction interests.”
“That’s about Pastures Farm, I think. When their parents died recently, the heirs had already moved away and don’t need the farm. As it was rented it’ll revert to the Trust. Seamus and Dean are going to renovate it and the Goblinesses were thinking of a Decauville track to take in stone and remove the rubble.”
“Well they definitely had their heads together about it.”
A short explanation followed about the village set up, comparing it to the one there. That explanation lasted until dusk.
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