Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

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
- 180
- 181
- 182
[Note: “x-x” = speech & ‘x-x’ = thoughts & *x-x* = telepathy & #x-x# Parseltongue]
~~~ ACADEMY ~~~
In their room Harry divested himself of his baubles and returned with Draco to the great hall using the private stairs. By that time the revolve had been turned and the ground plan had been converted into a dining hall. Not long tables, as in Hogwarts, but a series of round tables of varying sizes. Despite Bindweed's team having set the high table on the dais for Harry and his friends, Harry ignored it and went to sit at a twelve-seater.
There was a tactful whisper in his ear: “My lord should not demean himself by sitting on the floor of the hall.” Bindweed knew how a proper count should behave from serving the old Conté two hundred years before.
“I’m sitting on a chair, Bindweed,” Harry chuckled.
“Yes, but …”
“… Were it a formal occasion, I might just be persuaded to sit up there, but it isn’t; so I’ll sit with my friends; okay?”
Bindweed sighed resignedly: “Yes my lord, but I still think it’s not appropriate. I shall bring the family silver down for you to use.”
“I’m quite happy with this cutlery, thank you.” Harry could see his elf-steward looking pained, and Draco was sending messages about the elf’s hurt feelings. “I appreciate that you have spent such a lot of time polishing and arranging it, thank you. Maybe you could make a display on the dais, so that everyone can admire it.”
Draco signalled mollified elfin feelings and Bindweed departed to create the exhibit.
Some of the table-chatter was about what to do with the prisoners and, as Faustus was at the table, he volunteered to look up the relevant references on Harry’s magisterial authority. Hermione became involved and, as the meal finished, they both went off to raid the library to try and find some answers.
Meanwhile Kreacher popped on to the scene: “Harry? Could we talk privately please – just you four.”
They went up to the living room, where Kreacher commenced: “Bindweed needs a successor urgently. The systems he was describing need to be properly understood and transferred to a new steward.”
“Yes I agree, he seems to get frailer every time I see him. I take it that you have a solution?”
“Of course; his name is ‘Cardocazzo’ and seems to be a distant relative of Bindweed.”
“Um … I know Bindweed is a translation of Convolvulus, so how does Cardiocazzo translate?”
“‘Thistle-prick’, Harry, but more accurately ‘thistle penis’ he had a very cruel master.”
“So I see … Um … would he be too offended if we just called him ‘Cardio’?”
“Most of us already do. He was steward to the Crabbe family’s Italian residence, but the last of that line were all killed during the recent hostilities, as you already know. Elves who held important household offices are difficult to place. Minerva asks that you accept him.”
“So what’s his problem, Kreacher?”
“Extreme nervousness, caused by overuse of hurtful hexes by his master, more than anything else.”
“Okay, I can understand that. We’ve helped others like him … Oh … Um … He isn’t gay is he?”
“No idea – Erm – not that he’d be able to do anything about it one way or another – Erm – part of what happened to him was that it was cut off – he has no cazzo.”
“Okay – we get the message – we’ll be sensitive to his feelings … Anyway, Thistle sounds quite a nice name.”
“He still prefers Cardio, Harry.”
“We’re happy with that. I imagine you want me to talk to Bindweed.”
“Yes please.”
~~~ CHANGEOVER ~~~
The interview with his steward was not as harrowing as Harry imagined it would be. Bindweed was very happy that he had a week or two left in which to pass on his stewardship skills to a family member, however distant.
“… After all, my lord; I have been contemplating my demise for a couple of hundred years since the last Conté passed away.”
Cardio was called in and the situation was explained to him: “Are you quite sure you trust me, my lord. I’m not sure I’m up to it.”
“Reeve Kreacher says he’ll help you and he has every confidence in your abilities. I’ll back his judgement on this. You’ve been an elf-steward before so you have the skills. There is one big difference though, we don’t abuse our elves. We believe mutual respect works better.”
###
With some show of reluctance Cardio accepted the position and a couple of weeks later was the chief mourner at Bindweed’s funeral, ably supported by Kreacher and the whole corps of elves; as well as the seers and a number of members. In the future Dorothy and Cardio were to become great friends; mainly because they had co-operated in the massive spring clean of the Villa.
~~~ THURSDAY 9^TH JULY ~~~
The following morning Harry reconvened his court and the two prisoners were brought before him. This time the cage had vanished and they sat on two chairs where it had been.
“I have been informed that I have greater powers than my British counterparts, so be advised that a long term of imprisonment is available to me, if I so deem your actions warrant it. Do you understand?”
“Yes my Lord Count, we do. We have discussed how to show you our true penitence and are resolved to undertake any task, however noisome or distasteful, that you impose on us. Thus we would hope to prove our change of heart. We accept that you do not trust us at the moment and ask that you keep our wands until we have proven, beyond any doubt that we cling to the light.”
*They still show a lot of dark aura, Harry, but there are one or two pink flushes that were not there yesterday.*
*Thanks Gin, pink, is that the altruistic love colour, right?*
*Yes Harry.*
*What about digging out the salt-pits and cesspits, Harry. That’s dirty and smelly, but there’s a positive side as well; manuring the vines and seeing new growth.*
*Nice one, Tor!* “Would that include menial tasks and being supervised by an elf?”
“You ask a lot, my Lord Count … But I suppose we could accept that, if that was your sentence.”
Kreacher stood: “I have a squad of nine tough elves who are suitable for such a task, my Lord Count. That number is enough to ensure twenty-four hour surveillance. They are one of the most effective fighting squads in your army, so they would stand no nonsense.”
“Thank you Reeve Kreacher. We will take your offer into consideration. Have the viniculture-elves taken up their positions yet?”
“Yes, my Lord Count, all three of them are members of the squad I mentioned previously.”
Harry turned to the two [ex?] satraps: “I accept that you say you wish to turn to the light. You accept that we are unable to fully trust you and one of my partners affirms you still have a lot of dark influence remaining within your hearts. Therefore I find you guilty and propose to sentence you to work on this island for a minimum of three years. You will be under the supervision of a squad of elves, and you will be undertaking those menial jobs that they so devise. Your wands will remain confiscate during that period and will be subject to Prior Incantatem. If I find any serious crimes in their make-up then this court will be reconvened and it is likely that time will be added to your sentence here and you may have to make adequate reparations to the families you have damaged. You will be fed, clothed and housed here and accrue an amount of wages for the labour carried out. That accrued income will not be yours to use until you are deemed to have completed your sentence, and may well be depleted by any financial reparations made to adversely effected persons. Do you understand the sentence?”
“Yes my Lord Count.”
“I must inform you that you have the right to appeal this decision and if you do so a meeting of the Pisan Wizengamot would hear that appeal. Do you understand that right of appeal?”
“Yes my Lord Count.”
“Do you wish to have time to consider your sentence and apply for an appeal?”
“If we appealed, would we remain in custody until it was heard?”
“Yes you would.”
The two prisoners whispered quietly for a minute or so.
Adalbert stood: “My Lord Count, we understand our right of appeal and choose not to exercise it. We accept your sentence as just, and are prepared to take an unbreakable oath to that effect.”
“Do you concur with that Mr Scrope?”
“Yes my Lord Count.”
“Then I am prepared to accept both your unbreakable oaths.”
There and then the oaths were administered; Bert and Millie went off with their elfin mentors to start cleaning out the vessels and basins.
###
After lunch Harry and Draco returned to London to take up their official Wizengamot positions. Their spouses remained at the villa until Sunday morning, when they appeared out of the portal in time for the Morning service.
~~~ THE REST OF JULY ~~~
For two days each week the team returned to academia, spending one day at AMIC and alternate days at the Villa and the Dragon Reserve where a putative Slavic Academy was forming around Charlie and Paulus. Certain of the Iberian and Italian mages in their twenties were released from their full time occupations and, as a trial, apparated to attend training sessions in the Aurorbunker alongside the new recruits that Ronald and Kenneth were training. However he found that they lacked the basic skills that a third year would have normally been able to use easily. He therefore suggested he should arrange a private course based nearer to their homes.
To make it worthwhile both teams should join at one place. The idea was sound, but it meant a lot of apparation because the seers were not yet prepared to accept that everyone should become Dumbledorians in order just to use the portals. For the time being Harry and the other tutors met with these groups separately on their home grounds.
~~~ 1^st WEEKEND IN AUGUST ~~~
During this period Harry and Neville jointly celebrated their slightly delayed birthdays, family, friends and Dumbledorians all using the cleaned out bedrooms at Montecristo for an extended weekend of seaside fun. The great Hall hosted a Dinner on Saturday night. A service the following morning, and a disco the same evening. They used the Monday as recovery time from the almost all-night high jinks.
~~~ TUESDAY 11^TH AUGUST ~~~
Ginevra’s birthday was less riotous than before, but the Dumbledorians enjoyed it.
~~~ SATURDAY 15^TH AUGUST ~~~
No courses had started yet, bar Harry’s unofficial ones, and in the morning the inner cabinet were sitting around the oval table in Montecristo discussing how to proceed from September onwards.
“The older students are at third year start level in DADA, but there’s no way we could mix adults with third-years, they’re on completely different wavelengths.”
“From my potions tests I think I agree with Harry,” Draco averred.
“For adults, their transfiguration is abysmal,” said Justin, who had volunteered to teach in that area of endeavour if necessary.
“Same for their charms,” added Emanuele Lomenta, an Italian recruit as a professor.
“I should hate to let them loose in your woods, Harry; they can’t tell daisies from dracula-flowers,” put in Blaise who was intended to be the Herbology tutor.
The rest agreed.
“There’s going to be a problem with the younger ones who haven’t reached an age to be able to apparate properly. Side-along or Apparemus is very draining on the teacher,” said Ginevra the Quidditch coach elect: “Flying those long distances is definitely out.”
“What we really need is to extend the range of the posterns which was mentioned in some of my history books,” suggested Astoria, actually recalling Ivanova’s teaching.
“I always took them to be the public portals that Harry and co have made recently,” Dean remarked from his practical stance.
“I don’t think the posterns mentioned needed special medallions for access; just an aura of magicality. Possibly plus medallioned muggles like the Yates and Dudders;” Seamus said from his new tutoring point of view.
*I think this needs some Ivanova research; the posterns seem to work differently.*
*I agree, let’s finish this conversation and have a Tasmo.*
“Perhaps some more research?” suggested Hermione, Arithmancer to be; thus saving one of the seers making a spurious excuse.
“I agree. They’ll have to come to the Forbidden Forest to see the magical creatures; Parseltongue teaching can be managed anywhere,” put in Ronald: “Have we appointed anyone yet?”
“Hogwarts has the best astronomy equipment, and I’d like them to meet the centaurs because they have a different outlook,” added Anthony.
“Okay, meet next Saturday see if we can find something. Oh! Don’t forget Gran wants to see your teaching plans by the end of the week.”
“OKAY HARRY, SEE YOU IN THE MORNING.” The seers were left by themselves and, once the coast was clear, Zeused to the tabernacle to find Ivanova.
~~~ TIME OUT ~~~
“Hello Sages, come for some lunch have you?”
“Hi Igor, that’d be great! Is Ivanova around?”
Pop: “Here I am! What’s the problem?”
“We’ve made posterns that any vetted mage can use without the use of charmed trinkets. We hope to link up the Iberian and Italian schools to make reasonable class sizes. The other problem is about the ninety-one magi-league limit. We really need to have one something like double that and preferably a few more.”
“I read something about posterns, Ivanova. We assumed they were portals by another name, but maybe they’re not.”
“Understood! How about I search the records for mention of posterns and the like?”
“Lunch first, Sages.”
“Okay, Igor.”
They ate round the table filling in Ivanova about what they already knew and enjoying Igor’s freshly made game pie followed by a lemon soufflé. Next they sat round the desk looking at the monitors and adding recent items to Ivanova’s database. Meanwhile Ivanova rattled on her keyboard pursuing posterns info. Igor served tea whilst they were still absorbed and then just before dinner they felt they had filed enough information. Over dinner they pooled their ideas. Afterwards a couple of rubbers of bridge saw the sages ready for bed.
It was odd getting up in the supposed morning because it was still Saturday outside.
“Remember to call it Saturday-B; that helps,” Ivanova reminded.
It was Saturday-F morning by the time their discussions and experiments were over.
“As I see it posterns are the kinds of connections we have between Kaiser Wilhelm and the Grunrasenhof, Astoria posited: “So we should be thinking of expanding the school node and making it into an adytum; not creating something absolutely new. The other difference is that there is no need to disguise the posterns with portraits, a decorated door seems to work, just as it does in the cupboards of portals.”
“No Sage Astoria, the links between here and Kaiser Wilhelm are extended portals, using through transit nodes and, of course only available to your good-selves. Posterns and Adyta are akin but not the same. In fact you seem to have created an adytum at Hogwarts by including the finials at Croft and the Ring of Brodgar the third connection is to Milkwood, another adytum. This is a major adytum joining the adyta of the Fortress and Gringotts etc. Whereas the portals must be medallion worked the posterns are open to any magical who has been introduced. The other difference is that posterns can cover up to One-hundred and seventeen magi leagues. As you rightly state the portal maximum is just ninety-one. I don’t think travel thaums can stretch any further without either overloading the creator or the traveller. As it is only you four seers can span that distance.”
“Let’s go and look at the map,” suggested Astoria: “And see if we can create them without making too many adyta.”
They trooped upstairs into the travel chamber where the map table had been set up and the various extant travel channels marked. Draco got out his callipers and moved them about the map.
“Between Montecristo and the Chalet there are ninety-one magi leagues. That makes it portal-sized. The Chalet to Guéthary just come in at one-hundred and seventeen and the same dimensions hold from Guéthary to Cerroverde. So we could make three posterns cover the whole distance.”
Astoria mused for a minute: “We could do it all in one go. If we set up an already charmed cabinet between the Chalet and Montecristo we know it takes few thaums to convert a pair into a portal. It seems, from my reading; that a portal will convert effortlessly into a postern if a postern is opened next door. So-o-o, sometime towards the end of October we set up a pair and then at Samhain we create the two posterns, thus creating a three stage link for the students to use.”
“We will need to separate the various termini. At Cerroverde that is easy because we want the adytum in the academy premises and not at the Hacienda.”
“The same applies at Montecristo our portal is in what will become our lounge whereas the postern should be one floor down near the kitchen chimney, where the students can access it.”
“The chalet has two identical cupboards either side of the stairs. One is used as the portal node the other could be used for the Adytum. There should be enough separation. We could make the door into the chalet only visible and available to those in the know and who are wearing medallions.”
“That just leaves La Maison?”
“I think Nigèrre would give up that cave like store next to his shop. It’s only cupboard sized after all and we could therefore seal the door, as we propose at the chalet.”
“For the time being, let us mass-app one set of students over on Monday to one site. Taking them back at the end of Friday. The next week we’ll do the same to the other batch of students to the other site.”
“It seems reasonable. We’d better put it to the mages who are going to teach.”
~~~ MEETING ~~~
This time Niccolo invited the various mages to meet at the Appartamento. He also arranged for them to have a private visit to the Uffizi Gallery. It was a draw, but a number of the Italian practitioners declined to discuss, any further, the setting up of any kind of National School. However those who did managed to persuade various well off mages to sponsor students. The result was that some of the less well-off magicals, whose families could never have afforded the fees in the private market, availed themselves of the offers. It meant that the tutors had a very willing and grateful set of students; who were prepared to put up with the inconvenience of mass-apparating until the posterns could be made.
~~~ STAFF ~~~
It was Saturday evening at Number Twelve. The Dumbledorians inhabited the various reception rooms. Because they had added new people to their numbers each year they had outgrown the cottage’s facilities. Number Twelve was, as-it-were, just through another door and could hold nearly three times as many people comfortably. Narcissa held her dinners during the week so that, except very occasionally, the weekend duty-elves could open the doors between the dining room and the withdrawing room. The whole space was furnished with comfortable chairs and settees resembling a cross between a gentleman’s’ club and a common room. Those members who wanted serious games used the Tapestry Room and the studious ones read in the library. However the ambience was fluid. Starting with a buffet lunch the numbers would build up, wandering from one chat-group to a book and play depending on the mood. Draco called it their networking time.
###
“Pullet?”
“Yes Harry?”
“Is there anyone you can recommend to become the DADA Professor at our new academy? The Italian mage who was interested has decided against it.”
“How about a goblin?”
“Someone in mind have you.”
“Been a Dumbledorian for a couple of years now. His father wants him to follow on in his profession but Mat isn’t hard-nosed enough to become a guard at Gringotts.”
“Matthias Malisous? Are you sure?”
“Yes. He was a bit like you in college, you know, helping people when they got stuck. He’s too patient to become an auror, tries to understand where the other guy’s coming from. However, put him in a formal duel and he’s shit hot.”
“Fine. I’ll wander over and chat to him.”
When Harry found Matthias he was playing chess. He won and then commiserated with his opponent. He left to go to the buffet so Harry drifted up for a drink also.
“Mat, how’s the job search going?”
“Dad’s pressuring me to join the Brigade. You know, family tradition, and all that. I’m not sure about uniforms and eyeing people up to see if they’re malcontents, however DADA was my best subject.”
“Um … So I’ve heard … How would you fancy teaching DADA?”
“That’d be fun, but there aren’t any posts and I don’t have an instructors NEWT.”
“Have you heard how Draco and I started out?”
“Yes. But those were desperate days. Lots of professors were dead or maimed.”
“If you’re interested, I think I could ask Gran to take you on, as she did with us. You see I need an assistant at Montecristo/Cerroverde. You could learn on the job, just as we did. I’m told you’ve been helping some of the less able students, so obviously, you have the talent.”
“That’d be great, only I don’t speak any other languages.”
“Neither do I, but I do have this medallion,” Harry showed him his St George: “When it’s touching my skin I can hear and speak in the language of my listener, as long as he or she has touched it. Reasonably simple, don’t you think.”
Matthias giggled: “And here was I admiring your Omni-language skills. What a let-down. With that in mind, I think I’d like to have a go. So yes please.”
That encounter started Harry thinking along a new path. Lost in thought he bumped into Amicus.
“Sorry.”
“No probs. It’s usually Draco who goes round in a blue funk, muttering about a potion he’s deciphering. So what’s troubling you?”
“Um … Are you and Gareth still plant hunting?”
“Sort-of, as long as it keeps Pater of our backs we put some effort in. We’ve even managed to find two girls who have the same mind set as us. At the moment we’re discussing how to sell the idea of your kind of establishment to our prosaic parents.”
“Would you two be in the market for a student professor’s job?”
“That would please Pater no end. Why?”
“We need a Herbology professor at the new college we’re setting up.”
“I’m fluent in Italian and Gareth has both Spanish and Portuguese, so we could make half a professor each. Our Herbology NEWT’s were top-notch, as you know, all we’d need is an instructor’s NEWT. You two got yours on-the-job, didn’t you, could we?”
Neville homed in on the conversation: “Pomona’s feeling a bit lost, now I’m taking over. Maybe she could be induced to oversee the setting up of the new glasshouses and stocking them. You two’d have to do all the heavy stuff. Her arthritis has stiffened her up quite a lot. She’s not in pain, Draco’s new potions see to that and the swelling, but there’s nothing at the moment to ease the stiffness.”
“I’m about to persuade Gran to take on Mat, so maybe she’d add you two as well.”
“That’d be great, thanks.” He wandered off to find Gareth.
Harry had much the same sort of conversation with Ernie and Lavender and then went to chat to Kreacher. Out of that came Curare, and elf who all three recommended.
“She’s been helping us with some of the disabled war veterans. I’d like to see her make more of herself,” Lavender enthused.
Hermione found out what was going on: “Harry, I’m surprised at you. Surely you know that we have an undergraduate course set up now?”
“Sorry, Herms, no I didn’t. So can you take the four on? They’ll be learning on the job, just as we did.”
“Of course, and to have ready-made placements and prospects is a big advantage.”
Suffice to say that five undergraduates were enrolled for the instructor degree course, because Anthony also enrolled.
###
Thus it was in the dining room of Villa Montecristo that the preliminary staff meeting took place.
“Good afternoon friends, I hope you enjoyed your tour of the building this morning and had a restful siesta?”
General positive murmurs greeted Harry.
“In case you don’t know, I’m Harry Potter and it seems I’m the prime mover of our college to be. When I taught, my subject was ‘Defence Against the Dark Arts’ and put those skills to good use by being an auror until earlier this year, but now I’m freelance, so to speak. It seems that we are the select few. Some of us come from Italy and some from the United Kingdom, not forgetting Professor Pedro Tamerlane our Arithmancer from Spain. We have had private discussions about which subjects we would like to teach. May I suggest we introduce ourselves and speak briefly about that subject? Faustus, perhaps you would like to start.”
“Faustus Fabricci, friends, my subject is Ancient Runes … … …”
Enough to say that it took most of the afternoon. Anthony for Astronomy, Dean for Construction, Blaise for initial flying, Herbology was shared between Amicus and Gareth, and healing became Curare’s province. Of the other Italians, Emanuele Lomenta was for Charms, Alberto Ladino for History, Amore Belzoni for potions and Mario Sismondi for Transfiguration. Matthias Malisous, son of the Goblin Brigade Commander, was introduced as Harry’s assistant DADA instructor.
They agreed there were gaps, but felt that most of the main subjects were covered. They also felt that the first two months would be exploratory, so that individual students could be brought up to the class standard, before the class-based teaching started after the joining together.
Surprisingly they were not put off when told of the need to mass-app the students. When it was the Italian’s turn to be in Cerroverde, the Italian based professors would carry this out. Pedro and the Dumbledorian Professors would mass-app the Iberian students when it was their turn to be in Montecristo.
The following day they had a mass-app to inspect Cerroverde. There they decided which aspects were to be taught at which section of the joint academy.
###
Once the professors had departed the four seers made use of the boat dock. It was extremely hot outside so the boat dock became a temporary swimming pool. It also became a temporary knocking shop, because the quartet of mer-people turned up to renew their six-monthly bargain. Ginevra said it was hard to keep track of the dates because the trysts were twenty-seven weeks apart. Twenty-seven being both Arithmantical and phased with the moon.
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