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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
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- 261
[Note: “x-x” = speech & ‘x-x’ = thoughts & *x-x* = telepathy & #x-x# Parseltongue]
~~~ALTERATIONS ~~~
They were two deep around the table in the dining-room at Montecristo.
“It’s like this,” started Probert: “Every time the Ward Team alters the protectors it inhibits certain legitimate people from travelling through them. That means that the Travel Team have to contact those affected and then alter their medallions accordingly. So far we have managed quite amicably but with the new proposals, if they are accepted, we will need to work more closely together. On top of that, a number of team-members wish to take a less active part; not quite retiring, more like becoming advisors. So we felt that our Seers and the Cabinet should have their say in these deliberations, as well as those most concerned.”
“As well as that,” added Gottfried: “Many more disconnected establishments are being given village wards. Beforehand, all the village warded places were connected together through either the portal system or the schools’ posterns. Thus any new addition to the wards was automatically fed through the system and everywhere updated at the same time. This individual updating creates much extra work for the ward team and detracts from their experimental basis for counteracting Lucy’s minions’ latest ward-destroyers.”
“Two isolated village wards were almost breached last month,” Fredrick informed them: “The Seignior has a team determined to break in if at all possible and we have to keep frustrating his latest anti-wards as quickly as is achievable. The team and Aurors need quick transit possibilities to all village warded sites if an attack occurs and preferably to have all the sites automatically attached to the main location.”
“To this end,” put in Gabrielle: “Our team has been looking at the Triple Reciprocating Portkey System so recently unearthed in the Okruh. With some slight adaptation this arrangement could be used to connect a main location to an outlying site. The adaptation would enable the alterations to the village wards – or any other kind of wards – to be transmitted automatically. The TRP system is simpler than the cabinet chain system as used in Iberia, Sardinia and elsewhere. Thus the posterns would link groups and each TRP system, would link individuals. However, it means a radical look at the present portal system.”
“We have noted the increased use of the postern between The Square and Diagon Alley,” Probert continued: “And how it enables non medallioned but acceptable mages to conduct their business without the stress of apparating or flooing. At the moment the satraps appear to be attempting to frustrate the floo system, significant numbers of mages have either overshot their destinations or arrived short, occasionally having to fight their way back. The main problem is that the floo network is a semi-open network; what we propose would make our network enclosed. In order to apparate or fly from one village warded location to another, accepted mages need at least two medallions, each attuned to the wards concerned whereas walking does not. I suppose that using muggle public transport is the same. We think it inadvisable to water-down this protection, because of the fear of a satrap army attacking. We have seen, recently, how well the wards resisted such an attack and we have greatly improved our defences since then.”
“Our first proposal,” propounded Gottfried: “Is that we establish a TRP Terminal inside the Square, to cover the outer London area. This would be linked to three sites where a number of like-minded mages live in close proximity. One is in Leatherhead, where seven magical families live. Their gardens all touch and we have given the gardens and houses one complete village ward. We would like to set up a TRP terminal in the small community centre they have built and use to meet in. The next one is out east in South Oakton. There another seven families have clubbed together to buy, divide and renovate an old Victorian mansion and its outbuildings. It has a separate clock-tower, in whose base a TRP terminal would be based. The third one is in a block of flats near Harpenden in which six magical families live, plus a squib caretaker. Before you ask,” he remarked with a smile: “He’s not like Argus was reported to be at Hogwarts.” He paused whilst his audience tittered: “Via the muggle commuter railway these resident mages already have a reasonable connection, but they have to exit their wards and use the commuter trains to do so. Some of you remember the Hogwarts Express being attacked, don’t you?”
“YES!” breathed their audience. “More than once,” someone added.
“We have conducted an experiment in Scotland,” Frederick informed them: “Joining together three vulnerable outposts. One of them is Rory’s garden on Teinamoray, whose plants the Seignior covets. He thought the island not well protected, and was very surprised when our Dumbledorian Aurors turned up within two minutes of his starting the attack. Then he retaliated by trying to burn the Croft and that was unsuccessful also. We thought he might try Sonnach McMillan; however, the Laird reported no disturbance. Using our experience there, we hope to set up an equivalent network around London.”
“This would be the beginning of a network to include every light-supporting mage in the British Isles,” expanded Gabrielle: “Each TRP terminal would be capable of being turned into an outreach terminal, supporting two further outlets, as in the Okruh. We envisage slowly reaching out to all the Dumbledorian families to begin with. This could include any other magical beings or muggles whom they had already protected. From there we would like to expand to any other vouched-for mages. The whole network would grow gradually, so don’t expect your aged granny who lives way out in the sticks to be connected yesterday.”
The audience chuckled.
Astoria looked puzzled: “I understand you want our imprimatur on the scheme, but you seemed to suggest you wanted our skills as well.”
Probert sighed: “I knew one of you would point that out … Yes, Auntie, we do. There are other equivalent groups of people situated near Ottery St. Catchpole, Godric’s Hollow and various islands. I can tell you the particulars if you like.”
“Not just at the moment, Probes, thank you. We’ll accept your assurances. But how are the Seers involved?”
“There is a problem with the TRP System once it gets beyond, say, seven or more connections; one that the Ukrainian mages have referred to, that of remembering which portkey to take next in order to further your journey. However, if you seers were to alter the private portals between Number Twelve and the Burrow; making them into public portals between the Square and Ottery, that would meet the criteria of seven or less connections, because the further-out mages would connect to that outpost. Another TRP could be situated at the Manor which already has a postern.”
A: *It has some merit. The carpet’s getting very worn inside the Solar, and we keep having our meetings interrupted by Dumbledorians as they pass through. *
H: *Mmm … It’s not too bad at the cottage, the entrance is in the bothy. *
D: *That’s to the school adytum; the one to Number Twelve is upstairs. It’d be nice to keep it private again. I’m not sure of the one in the square, its public enough already. *
A: *Yes I agree. *
Harry spoke: “We think that placing a terminal in the square is not a good idea. As the square has a link to Diagon Alley and TRP is semi-public maybe it should be in the Alley or at the Ministry. The people who presently use the rail station could then go there. I know there are hotel residents, but the square is supposed to be a quiet residential area.”
“Okay! We’ll look into it.”
“Say we did agree to make those portals into posterns, where do you envisage the terminals?”
“The terminal in The Square would have backed on to the pavilion. It would have meant removing the railings, but that’s no-go now. Two small portal porches at each end one for Godric’s Hollow and the other for the Manor and another at Ottery St. Catchpole. There would be three TRP terminals between them, but we’d leave the Diagon Alley public portal where it was. We suggest that the terminal at Godric’s Hollow be put next to the Postern to the Schools Adytum, thus keeping it well away from the present portal. It means we could add the TRP Terminal within the bothy.”
*That might mean we can keep a private portal to Number Twelve still family only type? *
*Aunt Sissy and Grandmamma would like that. *
“So where do you envisage the Godric’s Hollow TRP connecting to?”
“Nothing in granite yet, but Muppleshaw where there are seven dwellings connected to a private cave system. To Marewood where there’s a hidden hamlet in the middle of the forest and to Corlaten Mill where a few families have clubbed together to alter the watermill and its various warehouses.”
“Um … do you envisage going out further than that?”
“Yes Harry, eventually; once we’ve seen how well these work and depending if people ask. We have approached the first London families mentioned and they say they would feel safer if they were connected. Not that they’re demanding anything yet, we approached them asking if they would like to take part in an experiment.”
“Well … I think Phoebus Penrose was fishing earlier. He was telling me about coming to work via muggle trains and his worries about the residents of the other two centres.”
“If I were the Seignior I would target the Ministry and its workers, with Diagon Alley as another prime target. So that terminal would have to be secure.”
A number of people agreed with Justin’s statement.
“Um … I get the feeling that everyone thinks this is a good idea. Am I correct?”
“YES HARRY!”
“Tell us … Are the TRP arms of equal length?” asked Michael.
“They cannot be longer than twenty-one magi-leagues,” Gottfried informed them: “You may recall that a magi-league is three muggle miles plus a bit more. However, over water the distance expands, we have a theory that the latent water-magic enhances the passage. Now areas of trees, on the other hand – not individual ones or small copses – seem to impede the travel thaums slightly. Mountains, once you’ve gained enough height to overcome them make little difference. The three locations mentioned from The Square to the Burrow and at Godric’s Hollow are towards the extremities of the portal travel-thaums. I dare say that, with the Seers help, we may find a way of extending the range, for instance where an island was just out of range. Vidma Trephine reports that one of the incarcerated mages was the mahiya-vodi professor and we’re hopeful that Alexandrou can learn more water charms from him. To that end we would like to add Alexandrou to the team. He and Fredrik have invented a number of water-thaum anchors which help to stabilise wards surrounding islands.”
A: *What if we kept the present portals? And alter the portals to the west into posterns? Maybe we could place the portal for the Chateau next door to the WWW door. I like being able to go to bed in my own bed and don’t fancy mixing with strangers when I port. *
G: *You sound just like Draco, Tor. But you do have a point. Removing our Chateau Portal from the Manor and placing it at Number Twelve would keep things in the family. *
H: *Um … How about converting the whole set of portals down to Laggen lodge public? Move the Chateau Portal to Number Twelve, keeping our link to WW and the Cottage private, as you suggested. Lots of mages go down to the Scillies for their holidays now. *
A: *Mmm … Yes … We could make the one to the Fortress public as well. The Irish mages are having problems from the satraps when they come over. Maybe have a TRP terminal there. *
G: *I like that idea … You suggest it, Astoria. *
H: *Me too! But I thought it was water magic that joined the portals together. *
A: *You have a point Ginny. Number Twelve, being near the canal, must have helped when we made them originally … mmm …* Astoria cleared her throat: “As you probably guessed, we seers have been consulting …” Astoria went on to propound their ideas: “… But we think that the proposed terminal in the middle of the square is definitely out.”
“To make clearer a few theories,” Hermione started: “Originally we thought that it was the fire thaums that activated the floo network and the portal network. Further research has shown that water thaums are the most influential. However, for short distances, earth thaums are quite effective; almost as an extension of a ward; such as the connection between The Alley and The Square. In all forms of magical transport air thaums have a part to play. For the triple portkeys, earth, air and water thaums are needed. If you think about the terminals of our portal or postern systems, they are all close to living water sources. Full transit nodes if sealed, do not need to be near water. The only one we are aware of is that one in Dresden; even that one is in sight of the River Elbe. We think the enclosed state of The Square by high Georgian brick buildings would have a diminishing effect on the water thaums.”
More debate took place and from it emerged the scheme. The McLaggens were extra pleased for the safety of their customers. Arthur agreed that the tin shed near the almost-lake and at present acting as the portal cabinet could be rebuilt in a better style and have a triple TRP terminal plus the present three portals opened to the local mages and other vetted Magicals. Seamus was over the moon and started planning where the combined team could make their first Irish triple terminal. Molly started chatting about suitable TRP extensions from the Tin shed, also. Some experiments would have to be made with the water thaums before the scheme went ahead. All in all, the three seers thought the scheme viable and were pleased that it provided them with extra privacy.
In a good mood the green-eyed mage went towards his bedroom. When he arrived in the room his temper improved again. A certain blond-haired mage was draped seductively on the bed.
“Come out of your funk have you?” Harry asked playfully.
“Just a reprieve especially for you,” Draco replied in like manner.
“I have lots of things to tell you …”
“… Later … Afterwards … Please?”
Harry needed no prompting and was soon as déshabillé as his Lover.
An hour or so later, Harry learnt that Draco was waiting for various potions to prove. He felt slightly piqued at being second fiddle, but shrugged and made the best of what was present on the bed and very willing. In the aftermath, the blond was brought up to speed about the meeting; and proved very enthusiastic about the scheme.
~~~FRIDAY~~~
They were not early risers that day; so about mid-morning Draco and Harry wandered out into the square and then to Diagon Alley. The new team with Astoria and Ginny were carrying out some tests.
“Hello Harry, compos mentis are you Draco?”
“Okay Tor, I know I’ve been out of it, no need to rub it in. How’s the experiment going?”
“Not very well I’m afraid. In fact, I’m surprised that the portals to Diagon Alley work as well as they do.”
A: *You forgot that Hermione said that earth thaums work over short distances, perhaps that is what’s happening. *
G: *So she did! I’d forgotten. * “Any idea how we can induce the water thaums? The houses seem to isolate them from the Alley.”
“Um … A water tunnel from a canal?”
“I think it has to be open water, Harry. Otherwise the present feed to the pool and the tap water distribution system would help.”
“Hmm … It only has to be near open water, doesn’t it? After all, the Hogwarts’ connections are underground, but near Loch Dhu. So how about using a cellar? Or maybe, extending one towards the canal. If I remember correctly, Juicy said that there was a canal arm close to the Alley.”
Percy had come out of WWW: “We can see the canal from our back window. There’s only the towpath between our back wall and the canal itself. We’ve occasionally channelled canal water onto one of George’s firework experiments that went wrong.”
“Hmm … Maybe use one of their cellars.”
“Um … Good idea Draco. We don’t use the one under Ollivander’s shop anymore.”
“We would need public steps to go down there.”
“There used to be a barrel entrance to Fortescues.”
“Maybe he has some spare cellar space.”
“Before we start any major excavation and construction we should go and check our facts. Alexandrou and Probert, will you look into your records please? We’ll go and consult some of ours. Perhaps another couple could have a look at the utilities route-plans to make sure that if we excavate we don’t burst a gas main or something.”
Various people designated other tasks for themselves and departed to do them.
The seers first job was to go and consult with Ivanova at the Tabernacle. It was more the business of checking facts than learning anything new. Afterwards, shifting the Chateau Portal was relatively easy; it seemed to settle into the continuous ley line from Hogwarts with a sigh. Altering that position of the portal at the Manor would be hardly a chore either. It’s end being near one of the Manor’s ornamental lakes. During the process it became obvious that Astoria’s handling of earth thaums and Ginny’s of water thaums were another of their growing talents, so the girls were in charge of the seers’ team for the processes.
It was the following weekend before the finishing touches of the new transportation system were complete. The team had found that a spare cellar under the ice-cream parlour was nearest to the canal and was sufficient for the water thaums to operate. In discussion afterwards they decided that moving one end of a link was less fraught than moving a whole one. Making the private portals public was even easier and they enhanced the connection to the Fortress – much to Seamus’s glee. Even then the seers were fairly exhausted by the time the week was over on the Saturday three weeks before Beltane.
~~~ LUNCHTIME~~~
A couple of days later the family sat down to a midday meal at Number Twelve.
“Draco, how do I get to Molly’s house?” a perplexed Narcissa asked: “I went through the usual door and ended up in France.”
“You use the new public portal which is in Fortescues’ cellar, Mother …” Draco went on to explain the changes and the reasoning behind them.
“Very good! We will be more private again. Cottage to Grimmauld traffic was increasing, especially with the greater Dumbledorian families being accompanied by their guiding members. Molly will be pleased also; she was becoming increasingly worried when her friends travelled outside the wards. She wanted to tell them about the portals but, apart from Luna, they weren’t Dumbledorians.”
“Yes. Auntie M was very enthusiastic about the ideas at the meeting, so were the McLaggens. They were worried about the families travelling to stay in their chalets.”
“So you’ve extended that far have you?”
“Yes Auntie,” Harry replied: “We have included the Fortress, in order to protect the transit of the Irish mages. Seamus has a scheme to link the outposts, but we’re all waiting to see if the TRP experiment works here as well as it did in Scotland.”
“Do you envisage making all the portals into posterns?”
“No Mother, that’s why we joined the other portal in The Square to the Schools’ Adytum and it’s therefore now a postern. If we need to go to the school we can use the apartment link, or walk to the Annex. The young mages know about posterns because most of them will have attended a class somewhere away from their normal establishment. As you would expect, word then gets back to the parents and thence to the families. The schools’ wards are their protection; as are the village wards when a stranger comes to use our Postern. Our family wards can now be more stringent because we have sealed off the passageway from the school adytum. So Medallions are not needed, but undesirables excluded.”
“I’m very pleased to hear that; even if we were in that category a few years ago.” The two Malfoy-Blakes chuckled.
“Once Sophiamonastir reopens,” Astoria mused: “We’ll have to join that to the system somehow.
“Via the Dragon Sanctuary would be feasible, as that the budding school there has a connection via Elysium from Montecristo.”
“Let’s see how things go first, Guys,” Draco tempered: “Although it would be nice if we could meet privately in the Solar without interruptions.”
“Yes I agree,” came for Materfamilias: “The desk is a little cramped where it is, squeezed between the wall and the portal door. Is there anywhere else we might put the doorways?”
“If we moved some of the ancestral portraits from the tapestry room …”
“Which ones Ginny, I like Uncle Travis’s portrait there?”
“I was thinking of the older Black ones, the ones between the fireplace and the stairs wall. Perhaps we could put them on the stairs where the shrunken elf-heads used to be.”
“It would stop Arcturus grumbling about the reinstated family members and those on the two new side wings of the tapestry.”
“I never liked sitting in those two chairs on the other side of the fireplace, you always seemed separated from the rest of the company somehow.”
“Fine … Let’s move them all out … Reorganise the stairs portraits into chronological order, just have grandparent’s in the tapestry room, plus Uncle Travis.”
“Think outside the box, guys.”
“What, Astoria?”
“Turn the adytum through ninety degrees and have the door into the hall. There’d be room for a proper picture of your parents as well, Harry.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes … All ours are living.”
“Terbia’s a good magical artist …”
“… Thanks Astoria, I’ll lend you the book Hagrid gave me.”
Ginevra had great fun re-hanging the ancestral portraits and arguing with their incumbents. Astoria’s growing earth-thaums managed the relocation of the portal door without the other seers’ help, there was now a more benign aura because the ley line had settled – north-north-east to the Cottage and south-south-west to the Chateau – now becoming a major ley line coming south-south-east from Hogwarts. That ley line went on as a portal from the château to the chalet and then naturally as far as Montecristo and continuing to the dolmen in the Sicilian Villa’s grounds.
~~~ VISIT NO 1 ~~~
Harry felt that they ought to visit the three new London TRP centres and managed to wangle an invitation to visit Mackenzie’s family after church on Sunday. Upon emerging from the clock-tower’s base, Astoria noticed a long ornamental canal-like pool extending from where they were standing. She stood enraptured by the scene out between the wings of the house, towards a distant view of the Thames Estuary.
“I think the original owners of Osculum House made their money from shipping.” Mackenzie informed them: “There is a story that says they had an almost life-size model of a cutter afloat on our pond.”
“Did Joseph Locke have anything to do with this architecture?” Draco asked: “Because the buff and red brick arches resemble those of Crewe Station; as do the stone heads carved into the centre voussoirs.”
“I believe he was a distant relative, Draco.”
The two-storey wings of the house had been stables with grooms’ lodgings above on one side. The other side had been the servants’ quarters above the utilities rooms. Both wings had been converted to house two families apiece. The main building had more floors thus allowing three families to inhabit. The grand entrance hall and the flanking reception rooms were kept for the communal use of all the families concerned.
~~~ VISIT NO 2 ~~~
During the week Phoebus asked the Blakes to have dinner with them. Their block of flats from the outside continued the architecture of the multi-storey car park; all concrete and not too enthralling. The entrance was through a cunning glamour of parked cars. However inside, it was in the art-deco style. Had the Blakes not seen the unprepossessing exterior they could have imagined themselves meeting flappers around the next corner or sidling up to the speakeasy and asking for entrance. The public area had shiny white marble bas-reliefs and gilded doors; their effigies all resembling tall elegant ladies and gentlemen. There was an air of opulent magnificence which made the four of them straighten themselves up and adopt suave exteriors. Ginevra could feel her peers preening and caught herself doing just that, as well.
~~~ VISIT NO 3 ~~~
The next weekend had them visiting the Shacklebolt area. This was Edwardian suburbia at its best. Each of the seven houses were built in the same style, but not to the same plan. Bar the three houses at the front facing on to the main street the others were grouped in a semicircle called Fairy-wood Crescent. There were, of course, muggle houses opposite them, but the gardens at the rear all tapered towards a central point. It was at this place that the Blake Seers emerged.
The community centre was made to look like a rustic summerhouse placed at the narrow end of each garden. Each aspect differed from the next one, carefully hiding a sumptuous club-like room within. Draco remarked that it looked like the interior of a London gentleman’s Club.
Kingsley chuckled: “There are a couple of differences though; our wives may also use this room, and there is a semi-open play area for the kids on top. Below is a cellar which our teenagers have appropriated. I thank Merlin that it has soundproofing charms surrounding it.”
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