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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
- 262
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- 264
[Note: “x-x” = speech & ‘x-x’ = thoughts & *x-x* = telepathy & #x-x# Parseltongue]
~~~ VENERABLE ~~~
Now the task of repatriating the ex-prisoners started.
Draco, being the most eloquent one, explained the situation to them and said that if the newly-freed mages felt able, they were to side-along the muggles to the Okruh. A number of safe areas had been set up by the goblins and elves rather like a string of beads leading from where they were to the Okruh. This allowed the mages to regain their confidence in using magic, and also not tire themselves too much. The hops would increase in distance as they went along. Everyone felt weary, so it was decided to start moving on the Thursday Morning. That also gave the magical people a chance to re-build their skills by practicing within the confines of the island’s occlusion.
###
One of the first events at the Okruh was Oxana and Farad meeting in an enormous hug and snog. After that, Farad sat hand in hand with his wife whilst he talked with Leonid; eventually being introduced to Taros and Vitaly. There followed long discussions with Mama, Dada and Trephine, followed by a meeting with the village elders.
In the end it took two days before everyone was safe inside the Okruh and resting in comfort. During that time the village elders were monitoring the newspapers and broadcasts; however, nothing was mentioned. It seemed that the muggle population was more worried about something they called Corona Virus. There was a certain smugness in the wizarding press based on the fact that they were an isolated community already. Nevertheless, Hermione and Poppy, with Draco, said they would look into how to immunise the magical population, if the muggle scare continued. They felt especially worried about the few muggles who were included in their community, especially the ones in the newfound Ukrainian community.
In fact, later, when they looked back; as far as the people of the Okruh could remember, nothing about the mass escape was ever officially reported in the muggle media. The hunters deemed it unwise to go and have a look, just in case officialdom was lying in wait, in order to catch the perpetrators; something the mages agreed with. Trephine had chatted to each rescued-one as they arrived and ascertained what they hoped to do now they were free. Saturday was a time of recuperation; it was also a time when Trephine dispatched the few returnee mages from Volvoditi to find out how welcome the ex-prisoners would be in their home areas.
That day, the Seers went to see the captive satrap, Viridian Meadows, in his secure accommodation; he was still bandaged around his delicate areas.
After enquiring solicitously about the ex-prisoner’s injuries Draco commenced: “I understand you were a satrap with my father, is it your wish to continue that career?”
“Nah … I’d be worse off than I am now. ’T least these wounds will eventually heal; ’e’d probably blast me bits off n leave me to bleed to death. ’E gets a nasty turn of mind if ’e thinks you let ’im down.”
“So, what do you intend to do?”
“I dunno really. I can’t go back to Britain there are people after me blood there. I was with a party that robbed an ’ouse acting as lookout. I’m not much good at attack ’exes, so I got to use me surveillance charms instead. Because I warned ’em all t’ others got away safely, but just as I disapparated some muggle took a photo.”
“Yes, I remember now, somewhere in Cornwall wasn’t it? At least that’s where the Prophet said it was.”
“Yes … One of them wealthy muggle places, wi’ ’igh security fences. That’s why ’is Nibs chose it: ‘They must be hidin’ some loot,’ ’e said. ’T was a good ’aul too; kept us well for ’t least four months. We melted down all t’ precious metals. Old Antirrhinum Umbridge is gradely at forging and t’ metals went to make muggle money.”
G: *His aura isn’t good, Draco; far too much nastiness in it. There is a little pink showing, but not much.* She then left to go to the cottage.
A: *I don’t like his scent either!*
H: *His magical core is fairly weak.*
These observations were made whilst Viridian was speaking.
“Didn’t the muggles catch you using the forged money?”
“Nah … We didn’t take it to t’ banks. We roughed it up a bit n spent it in t’ markets all o’er t’ shop. As I said, Antirrhinum was a good forger; so t’ muggle yokels couldn’t tell t’ difference. Whotcher goin’ to do wi’ me?”
“We haven’t decided yet. You must realise that we cannot trust you, especially with a wand; until you have proved yourself trustworthy. Why were you camped where you were?”
“We was just passin’ through,” Viridian looked shiftily at Draco.
Draco gave a dry laugh: “You’ve just lost some house points. You don’t really expect me to believe that, do you?”
“’T was worth a try.”
Draco let the silence build and looked piercingly at Viridian as he did so.
“Oh! Very well then. ’Is Nibs wanted t’ get t’ Cabin, but there were some funny defence charm on it. ’E said ’e wanted a warmer place for t’ winter.”
“Really! Is his present hideout cold then?”
“Not really. Almost like a foreign country too. Though ’t was still in Britain. Right pretty too. Can’t see why ’e wants another place.”
“Good views were there?”
“Yus, down t’ valley to t’ estuary. Garden-elves growin’ veg an’ all that.”
A: *Sounds like our old home in Wales. Only it can’t be; the goblin academy is there now.*
“What did you mean about a foreign country?”
“They’m Cymrics and gabble their language too quick.”
“It is the old language of Britain, you know.”
“’Appen, but we’re civilised now.”
“I think you’ll find that much of our civilised notions were nurtured by the original Britons. The Romans were the ones who imposed their particular type of governance, sometimes brutally too. That’s why we use dog Latin for our charm and hex making.”
“That’s over my ’ead. You toffs know what’s what. Me; I just follow orders.”
“Very well … You are to stay here until you are healed. We’ll give you further instructions later.”
After Viridian had nodded his acceptance, Draco stood and walked disgustedly out of the room. He went into an adjacent room where a number of people were holding hands with another two seers. [Ginevra was now looking after things at the cottage]
“I don’t think we should let Viridian know about our network,” observed Harry.
“I agree,” added Astoria.
“Sophiamonastir is going to need a caretaker. The post does not necessarily need to be held by a mage,” remarked Farad: “Without a wand he could be easily confined within the wards and yet carry out a fulfilling, if limited, job.”
“We seers can monitor him, to see if his attitude is truly changing. If it improves, we might want to borrow him to claim back that Welsh house he talked of. That could be near my ancestral home,” explained Astoria: “The Seignior ousted my parents illegally from it, so he probably did the same to some other poor family. It probably happened in the days when Voldie was in charge and we were not as strong as we are now. Of course, a new Fidelius would be made, but we suspect Viridian could be party to it.”
“Let’s go and meet the village elders,” suggested Farad. The others agreed and off they went.
Of the rescued mages Farad was the only one who hailed from the Okruh and so was elected to chair the meeting. The items included discussions about arrangements for re-opening the academy and the celebration service at St Vladimir. There were also worries about finding a blacksmith. The old one had died a few months ago and, because he was single there was no family to continue the work. His ex-apprentice wished to move to the new motor factory near Kiev, where he thought that the money was better and the work less exhausting. The returnees promised to look out for someone when they were scouring the country looking for places for the ex-prisoners. They were also given a remit to look out for possible students for Sophiamonastir.
“The re-opening of Saint Vladimir’s church ought to be a high mass,” said Farad: “but I have no priests to act as deacon and sub-deacon.”
“Why not ask two of the Orthodox priests to help out?”
“One of them has said he is available and knows something of the Latin Rite and could act as sub-deacon.”
“Perhaps Esteban or Beppe could help out.”
“Who are they?”
“Two of the priests attached to our society, Farad …” ten minutes of explanation followed.
After some flue calls Giuseppe agreed to become deacon for the service. So, all was set for the weekend after next.
The reason for the delay was that it was half term and the seers had arranged the usual joint birthday party for their children. There was an important Wizengamot meeting to attend and then various tutorials to conduct with the undergraduates,
###
Hamish and Dolores brought the St. Godric’s choir over on Saturday afternoon and camped on the shore as before; the younger members splashing around in the lake before the rehearsal. Luckily for them Viridian Meadows was still feeling under the weather and was disinclined to attend church services, anyway. Thus, the secret of the portals would not be revealed to the ex-satrap.
This time they were greeted by Michaela who, with Hamish and Dolores went immediately into Saint Vladimir’s sacristy, found the music library, and looked through a number of scores. After much discussion they found a Stravinsky setting which, by luck, had both the Cyrillic and Latin scripts for the same sounds. Quite soon a full rehearsal was taking place. This attracted some of the freed mages and some of the returnees who had been helping out. Later, the three priests joined in as well, after they had practiced their joint ritual. Astoria had to call them all away in order to partake of the evening meal which some of the other ladies had prepared.
Draco sat with some of the elders and Astoria with the ladies, but Harry sat with Hamish and Dolores.
“You’re very quiet tonight, Dolores. Has all the rehearsing worn you out?”
“No more than normal, Harry. I’m a bit under the weather, thanks for asking.”
“It’s more than that,” Hamish added: “The school has just had another Ofsted inspection and has come out with the highest commendation. However, the examiners did query the teaching of Latin at Junior School level.”
“Then they found out that we were also teaching a form of Welsh.” Dolores sighed and sipped her drink: “We couldn’t reveal the real reason for teaching those subjects, could we?”
“Good thing Narcissa was on the board of governors. She immediately quoted: ‘Latin is the basic of many European languages. Many of our children will be active in the European Community and to have learned many of the root words will help them when they choose which language to learn in secondary school’,” Hamish beamed: “Quick thinker, that lady!”
“The Examiners thought she had a good point,” Dolores continued dismally: “And remarked that the standard of teaching was good. Then they queried the Welsh teaching. Which, as you know forms the basis for the Brythonic the earth charms use. Oh dear!” and took another gulp of wine.
“That Narcissa defended as being good for cultural understanding and included some of the Gaelic words as well.” Hamish grinned: “She was on shaky ground on that one. But the inspectors said the teaching was of an acceptable standard.”
“So, what have you to be sorrowful about, Dolores?”
“Local politics! You know that they continued to pay my salary.”
“Yes?”
“Well, the councillors we defeated last time latched on to the two unusual subjects and argued that I had gone beyond my remit. On top of that there were more budget cuts in the offing. So … They persuaded the local authority committee to remove the grant aid that paid my salary. For obvious reasons, I could not tell them the real reason for teaching those subjects, so now I’m looking for another job. Then there’s this Covid threat. The authority is thinking of closing all the schools. ”
“We’re working on a vaccine for that. Do you want to move away?”
“Of course not, Harry. But that grant paid my wages.”
“Then we shall have to find that from the Trust’s coffers.”
“That sounds very generous, thank you, but the whole status of the school will change and become a private fee-paying school.”
“All the magical pupils already get a grant, I’m sure that could be increased. Then each muggle pupil gets a per capita grant, so that shouldn’t be a problem, especially with the good Ofsted report … Um … It was good wasn’t it.”
Dolores looked defiant: “Of course it was, one of the best too.”
“Fine! Then all we have to do is get Francis to do the legal work. Our Trust is already recognised as a charity in the muggle world, so it should be reasonably plain-sailing.”
They were interrupted by one of the returnees: “Excuse me, people, but we have an odd muggle man with us. We found him with a vidma in one of the villages about two hundred miles from here. He’s been cursed, we think, he’s partially blind and doesn’t seem to make much sense, except for muttering about trying to find Sophiamonastir. We’ve tried all the healing charms that we know, but they are not effective. We’re rather hoping that one of the Seers might try.”
D: *That’s your preserve, Harry.*
H: *Fine!* “Where is he?”
“In a tent, outside the occlusions.”
“Why there?”
“Some of the Okruh muggles saw him and said you had excluded him earlier. They were worried that he might have evil intentions. He seems too muddle-headed for anything like that, but we abided by their caution. For the same reason we did not think it wise to let him inside the Cabin’s occlusion either.”
“Fine … I’ll just collect Draco and we’ll come with you.”
They went up the cable-way to the gallery, but instead of entering the Cabin they took a short passage which led out through an arch of birch trees into a small slightly sloping clearing surrounded by conifers, where a couple of tents resided.
D: *I’ve seen clearings like this in Scotland.*
H: *Could just as easily be in Norway. I wonder why the excluded him.*
Draco looked inside the tent-flap: *Good thing they did, Harry, they’ve found the Venerable.*
Harry ducked in and looked at the man. His once flowing robe was tattered and heavily splashed with mud. What had been a self-satisfied well-rounded face was now hollow-cheeked and gaunt. The eyes that had once glinted with malice were now clouded with fright. They darted around as if to find the nearest hidey-hole but seemed unfocussed. He gripped a battered leather valise hard as though he feared someone might take it from him. The man’s whole being trembled and Harry’s compassionate feelings towards the invalid almost overwhelmed him.
Draco felt what his mate was feeling: *Try and be rational, Love. I know he’s in a bad state, but if we healed him, he might turn into a vindictive monster again.*
H: *Thanks for advising caution; come and touch my skin whilst I look at the damage.*
Harry laid hands on the quivering man, willing him to be healed and feeling a tingle as the magic went to work. The Venerable convulsed and a peaceful look came into his face. His eyes focussed on Harry’s worried face and the Venerable smiled.
“Thank you … I can see properly now, and my misty thoughts have cleared.”
“Glad to be of service, Sir.”
“Are you from Sophiamonastir?”
“Why do you ask?”
“I’ve had a Damascus Road experience.”
“You mean, like Saint Paul?”
“Yes … Are you my Ananias?”
Harry heaved a big sigh: “Yes, I suppose I am. How about you tell me what happened?”
“I was in charge of a group of brothers chasing some Magisters who had been polluting our main cathedral. Although I suppose, now, that that idea may have to be revised. They left a wide trail coming into the Crimean Peninsula which we followed using our raven sensor-birds. Eventually we caught up with them at what appeared to be an almost permanent camp. That bit was puzzling because our information was that the magisters concerned had only just arrived from the west. We also found more than had been reported. There was a battle and fatal casualties on both sides, which included my second in command – a good man that – two fugitives escaped, and our reduced party continued to follow them. They led us a merry dance, but we were persistent and followed their zigzagging course all over the Ukraine. Somewhere near the Russian border they met up with a larger party and my small party was ambushed.”
“Where was that?”
“I’m not really sure but I suppose it was in the forest near Ohirtiseve. However, we made a stand and my colleagues were all killed. They were all alive when I was hit by something that knocked me out. I came-too a few days later under the piled and decomposing bodies of the others. The stench was nauseating, but I managed to crawl out from underneath. My eyesight had been impaired, so it was difficult. The effort must have weakened me because I passed out again. The next time I surfaced I was in a comfortable bed with a very old lady giving me some special medicine, which I learned later on was a resuscitation potion. I was very weak and confused, but she looked after me until some of your colleagues collected me. She was extremely kind and after a time I realised that she was a vidma. Mainly because she tried various spells to cure my eyesight. During her ministrations I talked with her and, once she had admitted that she had the Fluence, I realised that not all magisters and vidmas were the antichrists they were supposed to be. And now you have confirmed it by restoring my sight and making me feel whole again”
G: *He has no more black in his aura than you do, Harry,* [who had just arrived back – Astoria taking over the cottage supervision].
D: *I can sense real penitence,* [who was holding Ginevra’s hand].
“The healing gift is one that has been recently conferred on me and I am still coming to terms with how to use it, Sir.”
“Then I am doubly blessed and should be calling you sir.”
“I prefer Harry, thank you.”
“I am Grigor; my old title of ‘Venerable’ I see now was a misnomer. I was a contemptible persecutor of those who have miraculous gifts.”
“Don’t imagine that all who have these gifts use them properly, Grigor. The ones you were chasing use the Fluence for nefarious purposes. We are on the side of light and so is the vidma who started the healing process. Our main purpose is in protecting everyone that needs it and teaching those who have the Fluence how to use it properly.”
“I feel I must make recompense, Harry. I know of and island prison where a number of your colleagues are incarcerated. I would like to help in freeing them. My old persona has still some influence there.”
“Is it the citadel, situated in the southern Pripyat marshes, an almost square bailey castle on an island with a causeway leading to it?”
“Yes, and it used to supply electricity to the grid, but not after the Chernobyl plant came into use. How did you know?”
Harry chuckled: “We’ve beaten you to the draw, Grigor. All the prisoners were freed a couple of days ago. They’re recovering nearby. You were found by one of the hidden Vidmas and brought here by some of the returning Magisters who were exploring the possibilities of rehabilitating the old practitioners in their previous areas.”
“Oh dear … Then I will have to find some other way of showing my contrition.”
G: *We have another visitor; his aura feels like Farad. *
Harry opened the tent flap to admit the magister-priest.
“Hi, Farad; why are you here?”
“The Spirit’s prompting, Harry; someone needs blessing … Oh … It’s the Venerable … Oh dear!”
“He’s had a conversion experience, Farad. His proper name is Grigor.”
“Harry, I’m worried about this.”
“I can understand that, but we Seers will vouch for him, if that’s any help.”
“Erm … I have to follow the Spirit’s prompting … I can see no other way … Well … I welcome brother Grigor in the peace of Our Lord Jesus.” Farad held his arms out and hugged a very surprised Grigor.
Grigor hesitantly returned the hug. With tears in his eyes he turned to Harry: “How can you be so sure of my contrition?”
“We’ve seen into your soul, Grigor,” replied Ginevra, “You see, we’re very well endowed with the Fluence. There are four of us linked together; we have been given a special task of care for greater Europe and its people. To do that task we have special magical powers one of which is a form of discernment. Now, don’t let us down by regressing.”
“No, Vidma-seer, I won’t. I still need to prove my contrition though.”
“Why not talk that over privately with Farad, Grigor. We’re sure you’ll be able to come up with a solution.”
Draco grabbed Farad’s hand: *He can be accepted by both sets of occlusions, Farad.*
G: via the link: *I’ve seen his aura, Farad. The evil has been expunged – think of St Paul’s conversion.*
H: *He was almost blind when he was brought here. He can see quite well now.*
F: *I’m still not used to this kind of conversation, but I accept your assurances and the Spirit’s promptings.* From somewhere inside his robes Farad produced a small phial of chrism and proceeded to use the same ritual that John had done with Harry many years ago.
The seers excused themselves once Farad and Grigor had started to discuss how the ex-Venerable was going to make recompense. They went up to the Cabin and used the portal links to go home to the cottage. There they sat quietly in the lounge discussing the events of the last few months, before retiring into the arms of their beloveds and sweet rest.
~~~ SUNDAY ~~~
The lady seers wished to stay at the cottage to go to church, it also meant that they could stay in bed for two extra hours. When asked, Teddy opted to come with Draco and Harry to the Okruh. He was especially taken by the aerial gondola.
The service at Saint Vladimir’s was sumptuous and the ritual took longer than normal. During this and before the distribution, a brown robed penitent was brought in. In front of the whole congregation he prostrated himself on the floor, confessing that he had been evil and asking for divine clemency. One by one, each of the three priests came and laid hands on him. Farad, the last, stood him up and presented Grigor to the people as a reformed character. During the istribution Grigor went into the vestry and reappeared in normal clothing; queuing with the rest of the congregation to receive his communion.
The choir boys were reluctant to leave the festival atmosphere afterwards. However, on a promise from Hamish that they could return afterwards, had them using the portals to officiate at Saint Godric’s. The folk festival had a greater scope than the previous one because, not only were their groups from the Okruh, but the returnees and freed people represented others. There was even a space of time for the Smiling Ones’ octet to give a short performance.
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