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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
- 177
- 178
- 179
[Note: “x-x” = speech & ‘x-x’ = thoughts & *x-x* = telepathy & #x-x# Parseltongue]
~~~ MONTECRISTO ~~~
As a pleased and slightly limping Ronald left Kingsley’s office, Mackenzie was called in. Like Ronald before him, he was introduced to Malcolm.
“As you know, Harry’s taking on a wider field of activity within Europe. Peter has been appointed new aide-de-camp, so, we need a suitably qualified and active person to act as Harry’s replacement. We propose asking you to work with Jason Judicarus”
“Has Ron turned the job down then?”
“No … He’s to be in charge of the Aurorbunker and training – more suited to his physical well-being. He’ll have Monach as his assistant.”
“Yes … I see! Getting them to respect an elf by the back door, so to speak. I’ve duelled him. His reflexes are like lightning. He gave me a good run for my money. Who is this Jason bloke, then?”
“He’s like you, Mac, second-in command to me,” Malcolm explained: “And we hope you will take on that position within the aurors.”
“As you know, Harry, as Inquisitor will still hold the auror-in-chief title for political reasons. It will be up to you and Peter to keep the department running smoothly and to co-operate with Jason. You two will be equally responsible.” Kingsley chuckled: “Not as it was before with you and Harry being equal, but Harry taking the lead.”
Mackenzie still looked dubious: “That worked out well – he’s got better connections than I have.”
“With Ron in charge of training, and Peter covering much of the clerical side, you’ll be able to indulge your practical talents, which seem to have become muffled by admin.
“You can be active in the field where Ron cannot,” said Harry: “No doubt you’ll ask his advice if another big push comes. It’s only his body that lets him down not his brain. And I can be called in if things get really hairy. But as a Seneschal I’m better used sorting out the underhand politics that try to undermine true justice.” He smiled ruefully: “Astoria’s extremely astute, and I have the political goodwill to be a cleanser of murky places.”
“Yes!” Makenzie grinned: “You three make a good team. Tor seeks, Draco wheedles, and you ask the telling questions. A few shaky seneschals are very busy disposing of shady items and covering-up unwholesome connections. Not that it’ll do them much good. And then, working with the goblin guards adds another dimension to law keeping.”
“That’s what both of us thought,” confirmed Malcolm.
Mackenzie mused: “I suppose I could use Ronald as my tactician, could I? I’m much better at the practical side.”
“That’s what we had in mind. Peter’s good at the paperwork side, and Ron’s more recent tutor NEWTS give him the professorial rank to do the training. Both would report to you and you could call on Harry’s expertise as necessary.”
“I didn’t know Ron was studying.”
“You don’t know how forceful his wife can be.”
“Yes I do, Harry. How would you as Inquisitor fit in.”
“We could have a weekly meeting together, Mac, with Jason. Either of you including the relevant personnel,” Harry explained: “There will be times when you’ll need the ward team’s expertise or that of the forensic team as well. What you now need is a colour-sergeant for your team. Just as Tracey is one for my old team.”
“That presents little problem now Michael has passed his exam. He’d fit the job, he’s made quite a hit with some of the old buffers in my team.”
Harry looked at Kingsley, who nodded. “I’ll ensure his promotion is gazetted, Mac.”
Mackenzie thought for a minute or two, asking various other questions, including one about his increased salary. Eventually he agreed to take on the responsibility.
###
The next person to be interviewed was Draco. As before he was introduced to Malcolm.
“How-do-y’-do Sir. Do I take it that Xerxes is one of your team?”
“Yes, that’s correct. I take it you know him?”
“He was in the same group when I was given the hat and handshake. He and Theodora make a very good team. I value his analytical insights greatly.”
“Good! So, you won’t feel too put out if we devolve some of your responsibilities of to him, then?”
Draco smirked at Kingsley: “This is your response to my wishing to have more freedom, is it?”
“Partly that and the fact that, under your partners’ code, we need to show solidarity with our magical counterparts. The Watch Committee has been very gratified in the results from the new forensic department and wishes to create a post of Seneschal Commissioner of Forensics. Being a Seneschal means that it is a privilege post not a paid one. One quite in keeping with your pure-blood tenets, I suspect.”
“Quite … And the money you save on my salary goes to give Jason a pay-rise, to the equivalent of Theodora.” Draco looked at Malcolm meaningfully.
Malcolm chuckled: “Thanks for back-handed compliment. I agree we were a bit niggardly, but it was an experimental post to begin with. He will have a couple of assistants, when we can find some. I believe there are a couple of elves who passed their potions NEWT’s with flying colours.”
“Adolphus will be interviewing them soon, with an eye to starting their Guild courses. So, I’m now a Seneschal Commissioner, thank you. I shall, of course, keep an eye on the forensic department and help out where necessary. Goodbye Gentlemen.” Draco shook hands and, in leaving, inclined his head to them.
~~~ SUNDAY AFTER THE INTERVIEWS~~~
Sunday, after the parish lunch, the seers were sitting quietly in their lounge when three eager goblins burst in.
“Hey Harry; how did you do it?”
“Do what Selwyn?”
“Get Probes a job, so’s he can still be with us.”
“Really it was Probes who engineered his own appointment by remaking those very complicated protectors at the Castillejo and carrying out further experimental work on the medallions when he wasn’t working at the shop. Draco and I will be taking on a Pan-European role so Mac is to become the Chief clerically assisted by Peter; whilst Ron will be in charge of training assisted by Kenneth,” Harry explained: “The goblins are paying Zac so the ministry’s paying Probes and Monach.”
“Does that mean you’ll not be giving us any more training in the Aurorbunker, Harry?” asked Ganymede.
“Only occasionally, but Ron and Kenneth will be the main people. Be warned; although your training is exciting, a lot of the work is not flash-bang. Much of what Aurors do is mundane and boring. Sometimes they stake out a building for months before they can make an arrest. Having done so, you have reports to make out so that a successful prosecution can take place before the Wizengamot. Think back six months and how much time we spent investigating and practicing before we attacked the Castillejo.”
“Yes, we know. Chief Shacklebolt emphasised that when we were interviewed. Part of the sergeants’ exam was to write a concise report after we had read a long scenario. There were all kinds of hidden clues.”
“So, I understand. I’m told that you didn’t do too badly; I daresay Ron will go through them with you showing you what you missed. He’s very astute when it comes to that kind of thing, that’s why he makes such a good chess player and general.”
“He already has done, Harry; we learnt a lot from that exercise.”
Probert looked worried: “I have this big scenario to look through and make a concise report. Hermione will show me what I missed. Zac and Monach have one too. Hermione says it’s part of our written work for our master’s degree in warding and defence.”
“Let’s have a look? We had one in our exam.”
Ganymede and Selwyn peered over Probert’s shoulder, turning pages.
“That’s not like the one I had.”
“Nor me. It looks much more complicated. I didn’t realise that wards were so intricate”
“Probes, I think you are supposed to do this by yourself; so, no cribbing, Okay?”
“Yes Harry. She did suggest I went somewhere quiet to do it. Hermione wants it for tomorrow lunchtime.”
“That’s something else you’ll all have to get used to – working to a deadline. It’s not like school, where you could try and make excuses in the hope you could charm the professor into giving you more time. Here, someone’s life may depend on your accurate work being in on the dot. On the other hand, if you do it in a rush and fail to spot something telling, it may result in our prosecution falling and a guilty satrap being freed to wreak more havoc.”
The three goblins looked very serious as they thought over what Harry had said.
“Harry, may I use your study, please. Then I can be quiet. I know that I’ll be tempted away from the task in hand if I share our joint study area at home.”
“Good idea, Probes. You know where the parchment and quills are, don’t you?”
“Yes thanks.”
Probert went downstairs, already reading his assignment. With a little persuasion the other two went back to their joint study area above the shop.
~~~ MONTH OF FEBRUARY ONWARDS ~~~
A host of birthday celebrations went by whilst Harry and Draco spent a day each week at Cerroverde teaching and helping to set up the new academy. Their main task was upgrading Carlos’s team’s skills, plus those of the older students. Carlos, having spent a month with Harry, was able to show his colleagues the various charms and hexes. He and Harry made sure that he was just ahead so that, as leader of the team, he could not be undermined. Another day each week Harry spent liaising with various other European departments of magic. At the spring equinox the seers charmed some more cabinets for WWW.
###
Whereas France and Germany were well catered for as far as ministerial and educational facilities were concerned. With Austrian youngsters going to Durmstrang and the Benelux countries divided between that school, Hogwarts and Beauxbatons on language grounds, they catered for all the clientele available. In those countries behind what had been the iron curtain, pogroms had eliminated many thaumaturges and there was a crying need to instigate some form of education for the few remaining adults as well as newly emerging youngsters.
Italy was unusual in the fact that although the fascists had persecuted the mages, as had happened in Spain, there had been some recovery, but by using small, well hidden, local front-room schools. Because of that, the official organisations tended to be local and still organised around the capitals of the old city states before the Risorgimento. Each state had a small school plus one or very occasionally two respected, competent professors. There was a trading system whereby schools swapped students for short courses in the particular professor’s area of expertise. The constant squabbling about the allocation of finances kept an army of administrators happily tied up all year.
It took a lot of diplomacy on Draco and Astoria’s part to even get the provincial Italian professors to meet and discuss the possibility of a more efficient system. Eventually a form of bribery worked – not galleons – but, in early July, a big dinner and an opera concert at the Venice Palazzo plus a number of select guided tours of the hidden places in Saint Mark’s; arranged via Giuseppe.
Blaise’s Uncle Niccolo was also a great help in persuading reluctant professors to co-operate.
###
Resting from their political exertions the seers hired a small motorboat and went out into the Venetian Lagoon, choosing a place well away from the normal shipping routes. It was wonderful just to get away from people for a few hours and they lazed on deck chatting and nibbling at the oversized picnic Sporcaro had provided. They even managed to have a siesta under the awning. However, that was cut short by some beings rising out of the water and flumping on to the gunwale.
*It must be that time again, * observed Astoria, accioing her shell and clipping it on. Not that it stayed on for too long. For the next hour or so their activity was not at all restful. What would have had them sweating on land was quite refreshing underwater in the shade of the boat’s hull. Afterwards they shared some of their picnic with the four merpeople.
~~~ MONDAY 6^TH JULY ~~~
The conference took place in Venice after the weekend of music and wine. Having eventually seen sense and agreed to discuss centralisation; every professor wanted it to be on their own patch. A frustrated Harry wanted to dump them all on a small island without their wands, until they came to their senses and in his fury mentioned it to the Dumbledorian cabinet, later on that day.
“What we need is somewhere like the Vatican; a small independent state within the larger Italian one,” suggested Astoria, who was acting as one of the hostesses alongside Narcissa and Grandmamma.
“The Vatican is already too crowded with muggles and known buildings. Somewhere in the mountains like Hogwarts or the Castillejo would be ideal,” mused Hamish.
Draco went to the library and dug out a large atlas: “Hmm … I thought so … What about San Marino, that’s independent and in a mountainous zone.”
###
The solution was put to the Italian assembly during the next session.
“Good idea! However, every summit is built upon and inhabited,” put in one of the professors.
“Right then, how about an uninhabited Island? There are plenty of them,” Draco suggested in an exasperated voice, sweeping his hand over the map and jabbing at various Italian Islands.
“I read a muggle story once about someone who found a fabulous treasure on a small Italian Island … Um … I can’t remember its name, though.”
“It was the Count of Montecristo, Harry.” Astoria corrected: “He took his revenge for being wrongly imprisoned by using the fortune to get back at his accusers.”
Draco looked at her: “Was he a muggle? Because I don’t remember anything of a pure-blood family called that.”
Astoria chuckled: “I think my father liked the romance of the idea, so he had a copy. You really should read some of the good muggle authors. I can recommend some that won’t upset you pure-blood susceptibilities.”
“Hmm!” Draco looked dubious. He quickly changed the subject using the atlas in hand which was open: “Here it is, Montecristo, south of Elba.” He projected the map onto a blank wall and pointed out its location.
“I know it,” said Faustus Fabricci, the Pisan professor: “The authorities are very secretive about it. I’ve visited once or twice; you have to wait years to get a permit to land. There was some kind of aura there; it felt like a benign glamour, but I was muggle supervised and could not investigate.”
“Could you visualise a place on the island? Enough to give us some apparition coordinates, please.” Draco now felt that they were getting somewhere.
“Yes, I think so. Why don’t I apparate and set up a homing beacon in a secluded spot.”
“Perhaps one of us should side-along with you, just in case,” suggested Draco looking at Harry meaningfully and nudging him mentally.
“Um … Oh yes … How about we take the cloak with us?”
“Do we really need all that fuss?” asked Faustus.
“With the Seignior on the loose it’s best to be careful. We already know he’s looking for somewhere isolated to make a new base.”
The seers and three other professors went with Faustus to his house in Pisa; staying there for the night.
~~~ TUESDAY 8^TH JULY ~~~
In the morning Harry and Faustus landed by apparition on a small beach, from which a steep trail led up the cliff. Under cover of the cloak they scrambled up it finding a wild landscape of scrubland and occasional pines. There appeared to be no muggle visitors, so they removed the cloak. Following Faustus’s directions, they went towards what appeared to be a ruin of some kind.
“There is a legend that a monastery was situated here, but it was sacked in a Saracen raid and no one returned to rebuild it.”
“Um … so maybe that’s where the glamour was based?”
“No … that’s further on … in that direction … from what I remember.” Faustus pointed.
It took another two hours of hard walking in untamed scrub before Harry could sense a weak ward. It was very old and had almost dissipated, but still held its glamour of yet more pine trees and scrub. Harry was no expert in wards, but this one was easy to bypass without destroying it. Once inside they stood silently concealed in a thick belt of trees, waiting to see if they had triggered an alarm.
Nothing disturbed the peace of what had once been a formal classical garden by the look of some of its remaining rose-entwined pillars and arches still standing.
“It looks like an ancient Roman estate, Harry.”
“Um … Yes … Something like the one at the Castillejo but overgrown.”
“Let’s follow this path, shall we? It looks as though it was the main one.”
They put on the cloak again and followed the unkempt path which led downwards gently; curving around a promontory. They had to duck as they passed through a very overgrown archway, and when they looked up there was an ancient ‘U’ shaped villa with a bougainvillea-covered pillared portico. A number of almost primeval wickerwork chairs were in the shade and in one sat the oldest, wrinkliest house-elf Harry had ever seen.
The doddery elf looked in their direction, not seeing them as they were still under the cloak’s protection. He muttered something in what Harry supposed was Italian. Faustus gave him a whispered commentary: “Go away ghosts, don’t plague me today, I’m too tired. My master said I had to stay alive until the claimants came, and I doubt they’ll ever come … I can still hear you whispering; go away, please?”
Harry and Faustus retired through the archway. Fawkes was there, perched on the bough of a decrepit rose bush: *Go on; show yourselves, he’ll live for another month at least and then die happy when the elf-corps resurrects his domicile .*
“Um … Did you know that Fawkes, our phoenix, can communicate with me?”
“No! I had heard that they can do, though.” Faustus bowed towards the fiery bird.
“He says we are the claimants and to show ourselves.”
“I take it that you trust his judgement?”
“Explicitly!”
“Right then, let’s get on with it.”
Harry got Faustus to touch his Saint medal and then the professor started to sing an ancient Italian lullaby quietly, passing through the arch. The old elf looked up and started to sing the same song. His rheumy eyes opened wide and tears started to cascade down his cheeks.
“Oh Masters, you have arrived. Which one of you has the green eyes? Old Bindweed is almost blind.”
“I am the one with green eyes, Bindweed,” said Harry kneeling down in front of the old elf: “Sit in your chair, don’t struggle to get up.”
“Oh, but I must greet my new Master properly.” Bindweed wriggled in the chair.
Fawkes flew over to the nearby table, landing near a glass. He let a few tears drop into the glass. Harry knew what to do next. There was a small carafe of wine on the table; Harry poured a little into the glass, watching Fawkes until he nodded.
“Bindweed … Sit still … Do as Master says … Drink this; there is some medicine in the wine.”
“Y-yes Master.” Bindweed sipped the wine slowly; sitting for a few minutes more after finishing the draught, whilst some colour returned to his crinkly cheeks. “Wow! That was some pick-me-up … I haven’t felt like this for years … Not since long before Master Il Conte Neronius died.” Bindweed jumped out of the chair and bowed deeply to Harry and then to Faustus.
“Conte Neronius? That name occurred in my family tree about ten generations ago.”
“Do you have a family ring, Master?”
“Yes!” Harry held out his hand: “It was in the vaults; waiting for me when I became of age.”
From beneath his hair shirt Bindweed pulled a string on which was another ring. The two of them held the rings close. Apart from the ‘B’ and the ‘N’ etched into them they were identically cut sapphires in equally indistinguishable settings. When held close to each other little sparks of purple sped between them. At Bindweed’s instigation Harry put both rings on his fingers.
“You are the true claimant whom my master said would come. Now I can die in peace.”
“Not so fast, Bindweed. Fawkes, the phoenix, says you have at least another month in which to see your villa rejuvenated.”
“What was in the potion, my lord?”
“Phoenix tears. They do wonders for all kinds of wounds, even fatal ones; as well I know.”
“I think you should know, my lord; that a couple of other mages were here earlier trying to appropriate your property. They said that this was an ideal hideout and would report it to their leader. I didn’t like their auras at all; they felt very dark and sinister. They threatened to kill me if I didn’t yield the domicile. However, before they did so, a tattoo on their forearms began to glow green and they disapparated.”
“Thanks for that info, Bindweed. I think we’d better call in some reinforcements.” Harry held an image of the villa’s patio in his perceptions and sent: *Seers? I expect a satraps’ raid soonest. Please call in the troops. I’ll set up a homing beacon. Ward-makers most essential. *
*Message received; Probes, Zac and Monach coming immediately, then whoever is available, * Draco sent back.
A number of cracks heralded the first arrivals.
“Where are the wards, Harry?” asked Probert.
“Over there, very weak, in that belt of trees. No idea where the other edges are.”
“We’ll protect the near vicinity of the house first and then explore the other boundaries.”
Phealey and Pullet arrived and were introduced to Bindweed. They did some silent communing and more of the corps arrived, each with miniaturised sacksful of provender. Michael and three DS Aurors arrived with Ganymede and Selwyn. The other seers came in, closely followed by Seamus and Dean with some seventh-year volunteers. Carlos and a couple of his recovered friends were next plus three dwarves.
“Paulus’s going to bring some Dragons, tonight. Orcas is coming now, flying very high,” Draco informed Harry: “I suggest we shut the beacon down, it may attract the undesirables’ attention. Phealey has gone back to the Apartamento and he’s setting up a variable traction-beam with Pullet.”
“What’s a traction beam?”
“Something that our two elf-professors have redesigned from the light beam that we used to invest the Manor. It’s quicker than apparition which uses something like the speed of sound. A traction beam is nearer the speed of light, or so they tell me.”
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