Chapter 54

April 26th, 2019. Spellhaven.

Although Harry had left behind instructions to contact him if anything major happened, everyone had been determined to let the newlyweds enjoy their honeymoon for as long as possible without interruptions. While important things did happen in the world at large, it was nothing that could particularly be controlled, so Narcissa, Penny, Andromeda and Aurélie effectively stonewalled any attempts to contact them.

In the end, it wasn't an emergency that brought them back home, but boredom. As good as it felt to get away from it all for a while, they were ready to get back into it.

Instead of a portkey, they flew from Black Island to Spellhaven on a flying carpet. Pregnant women were advised to avoid portkeys, Apparition and even the Floo Network after all. They weren't guaranteed to cause miscarriages, but it wasn't unheard of either.

They had called ahead, so a small welcome party was waiting for them when they arrived. There was much hugging and kissing and high speed female chattering.

Harry rolled his eyes and left them to it, stepping forward to greet Narcissa instead of participating in the, in his opinion, overly excitable reunion.

"Welcome home, my lord." She said with a smile.

"Good to be back." He nodded, truly meaning it.

"Did he get you pregnant yet?" The mischievous voice of Gabrielle cut through all conversation.

" Oui ." Fleur nearly glowed with happiness as she confirmed it.

"Me too." Luna beamed beside her.

Everyone looked at the resident metamorphmagus, apparently somehow containing their squees until they had a firm grasp on how loud they needed be. A mysterious female psychological phenomenon.

Said metamorphmagus was somehow managing to look both sheepish and happy at the same time.

"Nymphadora, are you pregnant as well." Andromeda asked, quite blatantly hoping for a confirmation.

"Oh, let me tell you what Dora did." Harry cut in, sauntering around and putting his hands on his most colorful wife's shoulders.

"Harry." She made a weak protest, clearly embarrassed, yet also strangely happy.

"Shush." Harry faux scolded. "In any case, it seems that she really wanted to make sure that she'd get preggers as soon as possible, so she used her morphing powers to… shall we say, adjust the odds."

"And?" Ted asked, puzzled.

"It worked better than she expected and now she's carrying triplets."

Harry winced at the enthusiastic shrieks this resulted in. What was it with women and their lack of volume control when they got excited anyway? Well, mostly it was Apolline and Gabrielle, although a few others came pretty close. Andromeda and Narcissa were the only ones to completely maintain their composure despite their obvious happiness, having been raised to always maintain a dignified mien.

Speaking of Andromeda, she turned to Harry with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you upset that she's having triplets, Harry?" She asked pointedly.

"Nah." Harry assured, and it was true. Mostly, he was just feeling amused exasperation at the unexpected turns one's life could take. "But I am certainly never going to let her forget that she accidentally gave herself triplets because she wanted to be triple sure that she'd get pregnant on our wedding night."

"I was excited, okay?" Dora muttered, not looking terribly upset at her 'blunder'.

"I hope you still feel that way after you become the size of a whale." Harry teased.

Privately, Harry was very glad that he had a Hyperbolic Time Chamber to escape into when he needed some peace and quiet, because he couldn't imagine his sanity surviving without some private time. He already had to take breaks from the girls occasionally and children would probably be a hundred times worse.

After a family dinner where conversation revolved almost entirely around children, Harry took Penelope and Narcissa up to his study while the girls and everyone else retired to a sitting room… to talk about children some more.

Harry was baffled. How much could there possibly still be to say on the topic that hadn't been said already?

Adrastia was already in the study, lounging catlike in one of the plush armchairs. He had called her back to Spellhaven, but she had no interest in sappy reunions or pregnancy crazes and elected to wait in here instead of participating in it.

"Harry." She purred with a grin. "I hear that you're going to be a father. My condolences."

"Thanks." He replied dryly, grabbing hold of Narcissa's hand to keep her quiet. The blonde witch was happy for them, but her emotions were a bit raw from the reminder of her own dead offspring. "Let's get right into it. Cissy, you first. How are things in the ICW?"

"Chaotic." She said succintly, burying her irritation. "They don't really know what to do with themselves without the Statute of Secrecy, or how to handle the overtures from the United Nations they've been getting. Both organizations are too bloated, corrupt and self-important to agree on anything and the diplomatic situation resembles an exploded potions lab."

"So you don't actually have to do anything?" Harry asked amusedly.

"Not really." She smirked in response. "I have still been leveraging your name and reputation to kill off any initiative that looks like it might make some kind of momentum, but they usually implode on their own anyway."

Harry nodded, pleased. The ICW might well collapse even faster than expected.

"What about Dumbledore?"

"Ineffectual." Narcissa's smirk widened. She had never been a fan of the old man. "He has been attempting to play mediator in both the ICW and the Wizengamot, with only minor success. Usually, neither office requires much actual work, but the constant emergency sessions have been running him ragged, especially since Hogwarts has reopened."

"Serves him right for trying to hold down three jobs." Harry snorted.

"There is more." Narcissa said and her abrupt tone made him think it was serious.

"Oh?" He prompted with a raised eyebrow.

"The muggles have learned about Grindelwald."

Oh… yes, that would cause quite an uproar, wouldn't it? The average pureblood might not really understand what exacty Grindelwald was doing or why he was 'consorting with muggles', but it was a foregone conclusion that the sheer timing of a Dark Lord rampaging during World War 2 would see people connecting him to the Axis powers. All the worse since he had in fact provided some magical augmentation to the Nazis in particular, even if it was for his own purposes rather than shared beliefs.

"How bad is it?"

"Incredibly so." Adrastia cut in, smiling as if it was the best joke she'd heard all month. "Many are wondering if Hitler and his cabinet were even acting of their own volition, or if they were just puppets for a Dark Lord and his minions and if World War 2 would have still happened without them. Without even waiting for confirmation if this was even the case, some are already speculating how many other mundane wars have been instigated by wizards from the shadows. The hysteria will eventually die down, but it will cause a lot of damage before it does."

Harry could only exhale noisily in frustration. There had never been a way to soften that particular blow, Grindelwald had simply been too big a deal. He was quite sure that the only reason the Statute of Secrecy hadn't been broken back then was because camera and communications technology was still very primitive.

"I'm assuming that assurances have been given that this was not the case and that Grindelwald was not some all-powerful puppet master behind the scenes?" He asked. The previous Dark Lord had been too busy with his own ambitions to micromanage an angry little Austrian and his groupies. Hitler's obsession with the occult and the chaos he was causing had been very useful for Grindelwalkd, but ultimately just a target of opportunity.

"They have." Narcissa said sourly.

"I'm sensing a 'but'." Harry stated with resignation.

"Dumbledore was holding a press conference for the muggles to explain the matter to them. One of the reporters asked him about his relationship with Grindelwald. Dumbledore tried his usual evasions and then the reporter asked him directly if they had been lovers. Dumbledore's reaction provided a clear enough answer and more details have surfaced since then, painting a very unflattering picture of the esteemed headmaster." She explained.

"As a result, relations with the mundanes are now even worse than they would have been if nothing had been said." Adrastia added.

Harry wanted to break something. He had known that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had history aside from their famous duel, but he would never have expected this sort of dramatic 'tragic lovers on opposing sides of a war' bullshit. Just how ridiculous could the old man get? The worst part of it was that the information itself wasn't even as bad as it sounded at first, given that Dumbledore and Grindelwald must have broken off whatever relationship they had long before the war, but the timing of it being released was devastating.

This had Bjomolf's fingerprints all over it. How else would that reporter have known to ask such a question? Most people that looked at Dumbledore can't even imagine him ever being young, much less having a libido. And the vampire was exactly the type of schemer to sit on that juicy nugget of information for decade after decade until he could use it to maximum effect.

He was suddenly excruciatingly aware of the fact that the vampires knew that he had supplied Amortentia to a person of dubious moral character because he had wanted to learn how to Skinwalk.

Dora had not been happy with him for that one when she'd learned about it. She had demanded that he take her to North America to see what Ahiga had done with the potion and he had relented. Turns out that the man was simply sweet on a woman that had probably not given him the time of day before. They were the image of a happy young family now and had a son. You'd never know anything was wrong unless you checked for potions.

Hardly the worst outcome of Amortentia use, but Dora had made it quite clear that what he'd done was Not Okay, especially since he hadn't cared what Ahiga would use it for. In the end, she had let it go since flushing the potion out at this point would do more harm than good, but he had still been in the metaphorical dog house with her for weeks.

The world at large would be much less forgiving and he needed his reputation to stay intact. There would be no calling out the vampires on what they were doing. A mud-slinging contest would hurt him much more than them. Besides, the real fight wasn't against against the vampires, not really. They just had plans that may or may not clash with his own.

"Is Dumbledore doing anything in response?" Harry asked. Probably not, but people could surprise you.

"He has resigned his positions on the ICW and Wizengamot and retreated to Hogwarts. The only thing he did was send us another request to speak to you." Narcissa said.

Harry simply nodded. The old wizard had been asking for an audience since Voldemort's 'demise' had been announced, but he hadn't been in a rush to talk to him.

"Since you mentioned the Wizengamot, how are things there?" He questioned.

Harry didn't quite have a proxy appointed for his seat in that body, but he did have someone there. An unassuming and unambitious, but perceptive, man that excelled at taking notes and paying attention. He didn't have the authority to speak on his behalf, so his only job was to keep track of what the collection of idiots was doing. Narcissa was his direct overseer.

"Also chaotic. They have been clashing with the muggle legal system constantly, especially on the topic of muggleborns as you predicted. The traditionalist faction, led by House Montague, is advocating for a strictly isolationist foreign policy where they would stop taking in any young magical children with ties to the muggle world."

"Idiots." Harry snorted. As if it was going to be that easy to get a handle on this mess. Indeed, this was pretty obviously just an attempt by dumbshit purebloods to use the situation as a way to get rid of anyone who wasn't 'pure' enough.

Narcissa continued as if he hadn't spoken. "The progressives, once led by Dumbledore but now effectively leaderless, are trying to push for a closer relationship with the muggles and joint jurisdiction of muggleborns."

"Oh look, even more idiots." Harry sneered.

The first, second and maybe even third-generation magicals were the bridge that connected the magical and mundane worlds, they always had been. That made them a very dangerous group, not in and of themselves, but for what they could be used to facilitate. If the magical and mundane worlds were to share jurisdiction over this bride, then Hogwarts would have non-magicals on the board of governors before you could blink.

He would sooner plunder its library and tear it down stone by stone than allow that to happen. A culture died when it allowed its schools to be infiltrated by foreign influences. Although in this case it was the idea of the mundane making rules for the magical that bothered him more than anything.

"Yes, well, they aren't having much success either way." Narcissa made a strange expression that could best be described as an amused grimace. "The muggles don't seem keen on sharing jurisdiction at all. In fact, many don't want the magical world anywhere near their children."

"I'm sensing that I'm not going to like this one either." Harry sighed.

"There was a girl named Granger in your Hogwarts class, wasn't there? The Ministry obliviated her parents and several other members of her family after her death as per standard procedure, completely removing all memories of magic and making them think she died in a car accident. The story somehow got out, along with several similar ones, and the backlash among the muggles is still ongoing, especially with the Grindelwald debacle and everything else going on."

Granger. Harry did remember a girl with bushy brown hair and a gratingly bossy attitude. Hermione, pancaked by a mountain troll. Obliviating her family had been a good decision at the time, but now it was just really bad press. It looked like wizards had gotten someone killed and then wiped memories to avoid responsibility. Admittedly, that wasn't entirely untrue, but the main reason for doing that had always been to prevent grieving parents from blabbing.

Harry didn't want to start attributing everything to the vampires, because down that way lay paranoia, but the timing sure was awfully coincidental. Still, this sabotaging of relations might actually work in his favor. Maybe.

"What about the moderates?" He asked

"They have chosen an interesting approach. Led by House Greengrass, they are advocating a sponsoring system, where willing magical families would host new muggleborns along with their parents, to introduce them to the magical world without making them part of it."

"That would have been an excellent way of doing things… before everything went to hell." Harry finished mockingly. "And where is Bones in all this?"

"Minister Bones is, quite simply, overworked. Aside from the usual duties a Minister of Magic is expected to perform, which she actually takes seriously, she is also in constant meetings with her muggle counterpart in an attempt to smooth out relations, and on top of that the goblins have recently started causing trouble for her." Narcissa said with a frown.

"What are those vertically challenged little bastards up to now?"

"They seem to be trying to break into the muggle banking system."

Harry snorted, barely holding back a laugh. The goblins might think they were hot shit as bankers, but he wouldn't bet on them if they went against the overgrown leeches pretending to be human that ran the mundane world's finances.

"And she is currently also embroiled in a legal dispute over which government would sentence a man that recently murdered a young muggleborn and her family." Narcissa continued without pause.

"Let me guess, a Muslim did it?" Harry sneered.

"You really need to work on keeping your hatreds more private, at least until you act on them." Adrastia sighed. "It does you no good to advertise them beforehand."

Harry scowled at her, but pushed down his feelings with a vigorous application of Occlumency anyway. She did have a point after all. This was the worst part of politics, really. You constantly had to pretend that you were a sophisticated, cultured man when what you really were was a vicious cunt in fancy clothes.

"Better." She nodded approvingly. "Nonetheless, you are correct, it was indeed a Muslim. With no Statute of Secrecy to stop them, the parents bragged about their magical daughter and he took exception to it."

Harry frowned. His derision for deluded morons aside, the situation was actually usable. "Are we capitalizing on this?

"We have been spreading the word that Spellhaven is willing to take in any wizards and witches as well as their families if they feel threatened, that reporter of yours has also been helping." Narcissa nodded. "Some have already expressed interest."

"Alright, keept at it." He instructed and turned to Adrastia, his de facto expert and advisor on the global situation. "And how are things in the rest of the world?"

"It varies." She replied with a shrug. "Pick a region and I will tell you what I know."

"Might as well go from left to right." Harry muttered and shrugged. "North America."

"Canada is barely worth mentioning." Adrastia began. "Their government is full of simpering fools, led by the king of simpering fools. The local Muslims are bleating as usual, but there are few enough magi living there that it is essentially a non-issue. The situation in the US, however, is far more complex, perhaps the most complex in the world. They are a land divided in more ways than one. Rising racial tensions, the ongoing breakdown of gender relations and politics becoming increasingly more partisan are just some of the issues they face. Throwing MACUSA and it's own myriad of issues into that simmering cauldron hasn't helped. It would probably be faster to tell you which problems they don't have."

Yes, Harry could certainly see it, not that it took much. Magical societies naturally evolved more slowly, not only due to longer lifespans but also because of the differences between the advancement of magic and technology. One started out strong and advanced slowly and steadily, whereas the other started out weak and advanced exponentially. The North American magi were somewhere between sixty to a hundred years culturally behind. They weren't a perfect mirror for their mundane counterparts of the time, no magical society was, but it was similar enough that anyone looking to start a fight would have no shortage of excuses. MACUSA's current president was trying to push things forward, especially in doing away with the pervasive racial bias against non-whites that still persisted among the magicals, but it wasn't something that would or could happen overnight.

"Has there been any violence yet?"

"Some. Your reveal about Jesus being a wizard has caused religious schisms and it took the zealots to the south of the country longer to work up steam than the Muslims, but they got there eventually. Your continuous poking at people's beliefs is agitating them further, by the way. I do believe that a few families have actually fled to Spellhaven after the first couple of incidents, while the others have simply moved elsewhere and gone into hiding. The situation is not escalating any further for the moment because the magi have learned to keep quiet and the mundanes can't really find them unless they reveal themselves. Non-religious driven conflict has so far remained at the verbal stage, but it still has the potential to escalate."

"This is going to be a theme isn't it?" Harry guessed.

"Indeed it is. Incidents like these are happening everywhere in the world and it has actually served to cool some of the outrage towards the methods employed to maintain the Statute of Secrecy now that the realities of living openly are shown, although many media outlets have begun attempting to downplay the severity of what is happening. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also people asking any known witch or wizard for magical help with their petty problems, which quickly drives most of them back into hiding."

"Right, let's move on. What else about the USA?"

Adrastia nodded and continued. "While I have heard only whispers of it so far, I do believe that their intelligence agencies are already trying to recruit wizards. Legilimency and compulsions, scrying and warding, transportation and potions… a spy sees no end of uses for magic."

"You've got someone in the CIA or something?" Harry's eyebrows went up. She had given him a list of list of men that she had on a distant leash, but he didn't recall anyone like that being on it.

"No, merely someone with a friend who has a friend somehow connected to it." Adrastia smiled. "Which reminds me, the private sector is also doing something dangerous. They are trying to save money by hiring wizards to handle transportation of goods. Expanded spaces, teleportation and similar magics look extremely tempting to such people. It hasn't really taken off yet, but when it does, it will have a severe impact on the economy and exacerbate all the other problems. It won't be long before they begin attempting the same in other areas, such as security and the like. And this is not an issue in the US alone, although it is by far the worst there."

Harry could only nod. What was there to say? He had learned a long time ago that people would do just about anything for money. What did some corporate CEO care about the consequences of abruptly pulling money out of an established economy when it would save him millions?

Come to think of it, criminals would absolutely adore having wizards on board. Smuggling would become a downright trivial issue. Ophelia already had her hands in that pie, didn't she? Damn it, the more he thought about this, the worse it looked.

"The last major thing to mention about North America is that Ophelia has gone public." Adrastia said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"She did what?" Harry blurted out, surprised both by the mention of the very vampire he'd just been thinking of and by what she'd supposedly done.

"Talked to a reporter the same way you did and introduced vampires to the world. Her club abruptly became the most popular place in the country." She answered with amusement.

But Harry hasn't amused. He vividly recalled the swirling magical effect active in that club, he'd even based the Crown of Glory on some of its principles that he'd been able to dissect and reproduce. There was no telling what she could or would do with curious morons from all over the country, perhaps even the world, getting caught in her trap.

He was suddenly assailed with the strange mental image of society represented as floorboards, some of them loosened by the stress of time, mistreatment and poor maintenance, and above them the albino vampire hefting a crowbar with a smirk.

Was that the play?

"Wait, why hasn't anyone shot the place up or burned it to the ground yet?" He asked, frowning. That was a thing in the United States, wasn't it? All it would take was one impulsive guy with strong opinions and, this being New York, there was surely no shortage of them.

"I am assuming they were stopped if they tried." Adrastia shrugged. "I haven't heard of anything like that happening either way. The Aurors would have normally shut her the moment they got a whiff of it, but now she is protected by her sudden fame and the laws of the mundane world that she complied with to the letter."

It was like trying to play a game where nobody explained the rules or victory conditions, introduced the other players or even told you that it was being played until you were already too deep to back out.

Harry wanted to flip the board, but it was heavy beyond his power to lift. For now.

The rest of Adrastia' report went on in a similar fashion.

South America. It didn't have the same level of social confusion experienced by their northern neighbour, but the situation was no less complicated because the South American wizards weren't divided by country, unlike their mundane counterparts. Combine that with dangerously high levels of political instability, rampant government corruption and the unavoidable conflicts due to religious zealotry and you get a lot of potential for shit to hit the fan.

They did really like Etal though, so that was a plus.

Europe outside of the British Isles. Generally stable at the moment, but for the numerous Muslim and occasional Catholic extremist doing as their religion commanded and 'suffering not the witch to live' or whatever it was their books of fiction said on the matter of magic. Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the countries of the Viségrad Four, were having the best time of it, having seen the danger of uncontrolled immigration by a people whose culture was hostile to their own and wanting none of it, which left them with a much more straightforward situation. That being said, it wasn't all sunshine and daisies. Even without the issue of Muslims causing extra trouble, the task of adapting to the new reality was still far from simple.

And mainland Europe had it's own issue with murky borders, although not as bad as in South America. The British Isles had it easy, clearly separated by ocean as they were, and even then there were some disputes over Ireland and Scotland being governed by the British Ministry of Magic. Due to a combination of low population, ease of transport and just plain disinterest in mundane politics, the borders of Europe's magical nations were more than a bit blurry and rarely corresponded to the non-magical ones.

The Balkan area and the rather vague oversight that the Italian, German, Hungarian and Greek Ministries of Magic had over it was a particularly thorny issue. Several of the non-magical Balkan nations were apparently already trying to create their own Ministries of Magic in a completely transparent ploy to get legal oversight of the wizards and witches living there.

Africa… well, it was Africa . Adrastia didn't have many contacts there, but you hardly needed any to hear how disastrously things were going. Although amusingly enough, the mundanes were having trouble actually targeting the wizards and witches there, since the local magical governments had long been aware of what kind of place they lived in. It was why they had no contact with their mundane government counterparts and why they abducted magical children from their parents. They were very good at hiding and were proving difficult to find. That didn't stop the loonies and even the governments from going after anyone they even remotely suspected of being magical though.

Most of the Middle East was predictably freaking out and had launched a campaign to root out any magical presence in their lands, although they were trying, and largely failing, to keep it quiet for now. Harry was much amused, because those lands had no magical presence worth mentioning. The vampires and succubi had hunted the magi to extinction there millenia ago and they had never recovered due to a combination of factors. The most that might live there was the occasional hermit, untrained first-generation magical or a family that had somehow managed to preserve their gift and keep it secret despite all odds. He had conveniently forgotten to mention this factoid in his interviews with Laura, amused by the thought of Muslims killing Muslims for no, more than they normally did that was. Nobody else had brought it up either apparently. They sure were going to look dumb when it inevitably came out.

India proved once again that hope was merely the first step on the road to disappointment. Hinduism was a religion and therefore still analogous to a river of shit in Harry's mind, but he had figured that since it was quite accepting of magic that things would be, if not great, at least okay. Alas, it seemed that the initial impression of 'okay' was merely due to news being suppressed. The situation was decidedly Not Okay, because politics.

Russia and China were keeping their opinions on magic to themselves for now, probably thinking of ways to use it for their own benefit. The rest of Asia varied depending on their culture and level of advancement.

Aside from the ubiquotous issue of idiot Muslims and the odd idiot of other religious affiliation, Australia seemed to be rather laid back about it. Then again, their magical population was tiny and their 'government' more resembled a large family get-together, so perhaps it wasn't so surprising. If nothing else, it would make a good field test for the idea of actually integrating with the mundanes.

All in all, Harry would rate global mundane-magical relations a dismal 3/10, maybe a 3.5 if he was feeling generous. The many calls for wizards and witches to reveal themselves or even be registered, the rising wave of bigotry against non-humans such as veela and goblins, the idiots trying to kill them for one reason or another, the idiots wanting all their problems fixed with the wave of a wand, the idiots wanting to control them for profit or power… it all painted a bleak picture of the future, and that wasn't even factoring in the vampires pulling strings in the background.

The last of Adrastia's report was on what general public opinion of him was. That wasn't a simple matter either.

Some had a neutral-leaning-towards positive view of him thanks to the interviews and the PR campaign Narcissa had been running to take advantage of Voldemort's defeat, others thought they were smart and decided that he was lying about house elves needing the bond, making him out to be a human supremacist that routinely enslaved non-humans. Some were even speculating if he had done it to the veela to use them as his sex slaves or something.

Some thought him a benevolent leader, others claimed he was just a thinly-veiled tyrant and everything in between. The latter was fueled in good part due to the slaughter of the poor Imperiused bastards that Voldemort had used to attack Spellhaven.

Some claimed that he was a misogynistic pig for having multiple wives and mistresses, others actually grasped that power was attractive and that without a cultural bias against polygamy there was no reason for him to settle for just one woman.

Narcissa and Laura, with some covert input from Adrastia, had been doing what they could to counter the bad press, pointing out incidents where mundanes had wronged wizards, explaining misconceptions, spreading propaganda and stuff like that, but it was an uphill struggle. At the end of the day, humanity was largely governed by inertia more than anything else and right now, anti-magic sentiment had a lot of it.

"Alright, what about the home front?" He asked with a sigh of the hitherto silent Penny, already feeling exhausted. Killing people was positively relaxing compared to this.

"I was talking to Bryanna the other day and they're being overwhelmed by a deluge of custom orders from rich women all around the globe, and even a few men." Penny said, shaking her head bemusedly. "They're rushing to hire more seamstresses to keep up with demand."

"The perils of success." He smirked. He'd been aware that they had been approached by a few actresses to make dresses for them for the 2019 Oscars back in February and heard that it had been a huge success, but they had gone on their honeymoon not long after that. Looks like things had really taken off since then.

"Quite. Moving on, your offer of loaning a Pensieve for use in high profile court cases is being met with more wariness. It seems their legal experts aren't convinced that it's a reliable method of getting to the truth."

"More reliable than what they're doing now." Harry snorted.

Personally, he was more inclined to think that they didn't actually want to have a better method of determining the truth available. Magical Britain was much the same, with the Wizengamot constantly saying that Pensieves were unreliable and that memories can be faked, nevermind that fake memories were easy to spot unless they were done by a very high level master of the Mind Arts. Several European magical nations, as well as the Americans had no such compunctions and their courts were better for it. The only real problem with using a Pensieve was how rare they were.

"Either way, it seems like it might be a while before that goes anywhere."

"Maybe we could trick the public to pressure them into using it." He mused. "And my other ideas too. But nevermind that now, how goes the effort to draw people here?"

"We've had an influx of new arrivals, probably due to the things that Narcissa and Adrastia mentioned as much as anything to do with our advertising." Penny said, nodding at the other two women. "Not a huge amount just yet, but we'll probably see a steady steam of them over the next few years. Spellhaven's current population is 1,287."

"Just over a seventy more since the last time we checked." Harry mused. "That's not bad at all given that it's only been a few months."

"We still have plenty of room, enough to accomodate approximately five thousand at the current amount of space we use per resident." Penny continued, chewing on a pen as she looked over some figures she had written down. "After that we'll need to either start limiting who can build houses versus who goes into the appartment buildings or shrinking the forest."

"The forest stays untouched." Harry said firmly. He was not going to hurt Marae by cutting down trees.

"Harry, the forest takes up more than 95% of the island." Penny said uncertainly.

"And it will continue to do so. Humans are always ready to think themselves entitled to every bit of space they come across and nothing good ever comes of it."

"But how are you going to make room for the kind of population you expect to have?" She asked in frustration. "That program of yours to increase the chances of children being magical worked, all twelve couples who conceived are now confirmed to be expecting magical children. Seven of the couples asked to stay on Spellhaven permanently. That's twenty-one people right there and they will probably have more children in the future. We already have hundreds of applications waiting and if they follow the same trends we'll be filled to capacity in no time at all."

Harry was very pleased to hear that his experiment had been so successful. He'd expected at least a few duds, as it were. Then again, aside from the veela-crafted enchantments everywhere, every room also had a steady supply of Marae's Nectar available and its internal water supply had been enhanced with liquid magic, so maybe it was to be expected.

"The same way we made any room here in the first place." He replied with a grin. "More islands!"

"Hmm, I could swear you said something about 'humans feeling entitled to every bit of space they come across' just a minute ago." Adrastia said with fake thoughtfulness. "Does the ocean not count?"

"Don't point out my hypocrisy, woman." Harry snarked. "Besides, the ocean won't be notably affected by having another big rock sticking out of it, whereas the forest definitely would be affected if it was shrunk."

"But how do you intend to get this past everyone?" Narcissa asked. "I don't think the ICW would be too happy with you doing that and I can't imagine the muggles will be either."

"They can't actually do anything about it." Harry shrugged. "It's my territory and I can do what I want on it. That includes creating more territory."

Later that night .

"You always liked this spot."

Harry looked back over his shoulder and gave Dumbledore an amused look. "It's a good spot to think."

The much older wizard simply nodded and stepped forward to join him on the edge of Hogwarts' Astronomy Tower.

"You did not find the last of Tom's Horcruxes." Dumbledore concluded after a minute of silence.

"Nope." Harry admitted.

"Then why did you publicly claim to have defeated him?"

"Because I did. Even if his Horcruxes never turn up, it'll be thousands of years before he bothers anyone ever again."

"You have him imprisoned?" Dumbledore asked with a frown.

"Draught of Living Death and a little something extra on top of it."

"I suppose that would work, depending on what that 'something extra' is."

"It's… a secret."

Harry felt a tremble of irritation go through Dumbledore's aura and smile in amusement. Being denied information was always annoying, but it was especially so when you were used to denying it to others.

"What will you do now?" The old wizard asked, giving no hint as to his feelings.

"I suppose I'll be minding my own business and figuring out how parenting works." Harry mused, being deliberately vague about what his business was exactly.

"You are going to be a father?" Dumbledore asked, beaming with genuine happiness.

"Five kids right from the start, Dora is carrying triplets." Harry revealed with an amused shake of his head. "Definitely not what I was expecting when I first entered the magical world."

"What were you expecting then?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Honestly? I was expecting to end up kind of like you. A powerful wizard shut away in his tower, tinkering with his devices, reading his books and maybe tormenting the occasional apprentice."

The old man sighed heavily and Harry could feel the air become heavy around them.

"Be glad that you did not end up like me." Dumbledore said solemnly. "The bonds of love and family are a greater magic than anything you or I can do."

"Hmmm." Years ago, Harry would have sneered contemptously, but he was older and wiser now. It was a false statement if taken literally, but as a motivating force it was indeed hard to beat. Even if he wasn't entirely sure that true love was anything more than a combination of habit and the pull of instinct, he could testify to its power.

"I don't suppose your children will ever grace the halls of Hogwarts now that you are setting up your own school?" Dumbledore asked/stated after a brief silence.

"It's not very likely." Harry agreed. "I'd probably teach them everything myself, but their mothers want them to interact and make friends with other children their age. Apparently they don't want them doing the same thing as me."

That reminded him that he'd never gotten the Marauder's Map back from Ginny Weasley. Ah well, it wasn't worth the hassle of dealing with her to get it back. He could just make a new one if he ever needed it.

"You were a rather shut-in student in your time here." Dumbledore pointed out. "Quite extraordinary that you now have three wives, really."

"Power covers a multitude of shortcomings." Harry responded with a smirk. "If I was average, neither Fleur nor Dora would have looked at me twice."

"An unkind thing to say about your wives." The much older wizard said in an irritatingly grandfatherly tone.

"The truth is rarely kind."

Dumbledore sighed and nodded in agreement, and they lapsed into silence again.

"Well, I do believe I've taken up enough of your time." He said several minutes later. "It does not do to keep a man away from his family."

"I'll see you around." Harry replied simply and flew off.

Despite what he had led Dumbledore to believe, Harry had not gone home after they parted ways. Instead, he had apparated to London and was now standing inside one of its many mosques, looking around with open contempt at this temple to ignorance and stupidity.

It was not the biggest mosque, nor the most important, but it wasn't small either and more importantly, it was in a high traffic area and easily visible from quite a ways off.

The night attendants and security had been put to sleep, now it was time to do what he'd come here to do.

Harry drew a knife and unflinchingly dragged it across his palm, causing blood to well up.

He had explained much about the workings of magic during his interviews with Laura, but he had held back far more, especially of its darker applications. Voldemort had been able to curse the concept of the Hogwarts DADA professorship and now Harry was going to place a similar curse on this mosque.

The trickle of blood rose up from his palm as the curse he was casting took shape, forming into a small red bubble.

"With blood and magic, I bind my hatred to this place." He growled, staring fixedly at his blood as it expanded and darkened, beginning to take a gaseus form. "May it prey on the minds of all those who look upon it and stand within it."

The small red bubble had now become a writhing cloud of darkness

"May it grow when a tongue foreign to this land is spoken within it." He continued, the unfinished curse becoming increasingly agitated as he poured more power into it. "May the hatred for everything this building represents take root in the hearts of those who gaze upon its walls and towers."

With a silent roar that only the magically sensitive could hear, the cloud of darkness burst and splattered against the walls, ceiling and floor, sinking in like water into a sponge. There was now an imperceptively heavy air about the place, a lingering malaise that would twist and corrupt the perceptions of anyone affected by it, inspiring an irrational hatred for this building.

Since hating a building was ridiculous, the hatred would naturally latch on to what it represented.

Harry calmly healed the wound on his palm. The blood that he had shed today would not return to him until the curse was ended, either by his own hand or by the destruction of the mosque, but he thought it was a worthwhile trade.

He wasn't blind to the fact that most Muslims were not frothing-at-the-mouth animals bent on violently destroying or conquering everything that wasn't Islam. No, it was far worse than that. As a group, they were a pernicious disease to cultures other than their own because they bred like vermin and refused to assimilate.

The morons driving trucks into crowds were in fact far less dangerous than the quiet types that just went about their business and had ten kids, because those ten kids would also be raised to a narrow-minded, intolerant belief system that despised difficult questions and critical thinking. A system that they espoused as perfect, and therefore unassailable. A system that cared nothing for truth or wisdom.

Europe had not painstakingly dragged itself out of the Dark Ages just so that it could be plunged right back into them.

He, Harry Black, the most powerful sorcerer in the world, would not allow it, even if these wimpy modern day politicians would. Even if he had to instigate mass killings and pogroms. Even if he had to step deep into Dark Lord territory. After all, who would do science for him if Europe became an extension of the Middle East?

The following months were a period of adjustment in many ways, for Dora, Fleur and Luna especially.

When Voldemort was still out there, the majority of their time was spent either on combat training or magical study, simply because Harry would not allow them to slack off if they wanted to follow him into battle against a Dark Lord. Voldemort's defeat as well as their pregnancies meant that they suddenly had a lot of time on their hands.

Luna wanted to return to her passion for magical creatures, especially the discovery of new ones, but being pregnant meant that she was restricted from doing any exploring in potentially dangerous locations for potentially dangerous creatures.

With her primary interest stymied for now, she instead turned to the pursuit of settling more creatures on Spellhaven as well as setting up a magical analogue of Animal Planet. It didn't take long before she received overtures from the Discovery Channel on the matter. It had taken some creativity to make her idea available to both magical and mundane audiences, but they had managed it in the end.

She eagerly awaited the day when she could start going on expeditions again just like the ones she had gone on with her father. She was also hoping that their children would want to go with her when they were old enough.

Fleur had originally been considering a job as a curse-breaker before getting caught up in Harry's life, but that desire had long since passed. Being pregnant, any similarly dangerous pursuits never even crossed her mind. In the end she chose to help her grandmother and Harry scheme on how to properly integrate veela into Spellhaven's culture and she quickly became known as the person to talk to about any sort of public events on the island.

Dora felt the most uncertain about what to do with her time now. Anything even remotely Auror-like was far too dangerous for a pregnant woman to be doing, given that even an otherwise harmless spell could cause a miscarriage if it disrupted the bodily functions needed to keep the fetus alive. That left her scratching her head as she had always been something of an action girl and her interests tended to reflect it.

After multiple attempts to get into a hobby with results ranging from hilarious to frustrating, she decided to devote more time to helping Harry with the administration of Spellhaven, which led her to the still ill-defined laws of the island. While she knew that he preferred to keep things simple, she did manage to convince him that having at least some kind of formally defined legal system would, if nothing else, spare him the trouble of having to personally arbitrate whenever a serious crime was committed. That wasn't actually an issue yet, but it would get to be as their population grew.

As for Harry himself, he basically just kept doing what he'd been doing before.

His interviews with Laura continued and he was thus able to control a good chunk of the magical world's image. Having a reporter loyal to him also helped.

His magical breeding program idea had really taken off and was now seeing a steady stream of people. In fact, it was so successful that there was quite the long waiting list for the program. Many of those going for it asked to stay on Spellhaven, which in turn caused a rapid increase in population. That necessitated figuring out what kind of jobs to give to all these non-magical people.

Fortunately, this was the modern age and the average person was actually quite reasonably educated, at least in the places they were being picked from. There were plenty of jobs available that didn't actually require a person to do any magic of their own, as long as they had access to certain magical items, proving that most wizards really were wasting their gifts. The increasing interaction with the mundane world also opened up some opportunities. And as a last resort, there was always physical labor.

An unexpected boon also came in the form of a few young would-be teachers which were quickly employed in the newly running school to teach mundane subjects. Harry kept a close eye on what went on in those classrooms, simply because teachers could cause a lot of damage to a society if they held dumb beliefs and spread them around, but for now they seemed okay.

The program also picked up the first of the expected spies. Their covers were excellently done, posing as a couple in their mid-twenties, sweethearts since high school, with the man being a trust fund baby and they had decided that they wanted to raise a magical child.

Too bad that the sharpness of their thoughts betrayed them the moment they made eye-contact with Harry. They were CIA infiltrators come to snoop around and see what they could find.

After a session of Legilimency and Obliviation to find out any secrets they might know (disappointingly few because of 'need to know' protocols), Harry let them get on with it. They might not be intending to have sex and get pregnant, but watching them fight against the effects of the veela-cast enchantments would be pretty damned funny. There were obviously no contraceptives available, nor could they ask for them without breaking cover, so if they failed and got pregnant anyway… well, he might just have himself some turncoats.

Their training could certainly be useful, but he didn't want to jump all over the low-hanging fruit too quickly. He could force them, yes, but having them come over willingly would be so much better. Although, if they managed to resist the urge to fuck like rabbits, then implanting a deep mental suggestion to turn them into sleeper agents might be on the table. Either that or stacking the odds against their willpower to not fuck like rabbits. Decisions, decisions…

On the economic side of things, the situation was… difficult.

Bryanna, Tiana and the other two were up to their eyeballs in business now. Magical dresses had become the height of fashion apparently. The waiting list was long and 'donations' being given to skip it common. Their success had also spurred other young witch seamstresses to try their hand at the business and even established wizarding boutiques such as Madam Malkin's and Gladrag's were apparently getting in on it. Nothing breaks tradition quite like money.

But this sudden interest in magical goods and services in the mundane world was not all good. Even a complete tool could see that many of the things that people wanted magical 'enhancement' for would be disastrous for their economy, not to mention difficult to implement. Still, people were short-sighted idiots and could only see the immediate profit a lot of the time.

Harry was careful to offer nothing that could replace a function of the mundane economy, such as his offer to let courts borrow a Pensieve, highly expensive luxury goods or the services of enchanters in specific areas that could not be done with technology.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be the only one exercising that kind of caution.

While the average witch or wizard had hidden even deeper in response to the violence perpetrated against them by whoever (or due to nagging by neighbours to magically fix their drains or something) and was now quite difficult to find, official contact between the magical and mundane worlds was growing. It was no longet terribly difficult for contact to be arranged, which meant money, which meant trouble .

Harry could certainly see the allure of a large payoff for a relatively simple bit of magic if you were a wizard of modest means, but it was going to be a problem in more ways than one.

Further on the topic of mundane-magical relatons… well, the best that could be said was that it was plodding on. The issues between them were being solved with the efficiency and intelligence that politicians were known for. Spellhaven's population swelled by several hundred more in response… and also due to subtle propaganda.

Finally, his little curse on the mosque in London was proving highly successful. Anti-Muslim sentiment was rising rapidly in the city, attacks on them by the locals were becoming increasingly more common and even the Muslims themselves were showing signs of self-loathing and abandoning Islam. Not many just yet, as the indoctrination was strong, but it was happening.

Harry had gone to Paris and Berlin to place two more such curses on mosques there. The tide of public opinion had already been turning against immigration before he'd done anything, but now it was happening so fast that it was leaving political analysts baffled. The pro-immigration parts of Europe's political spectrum were not happy and there was a good chance that the European Union might collapse as a result of the trouble he'd stirred up.

Well, collapse faster that was, since it hadn't exactly been doing great anyway.

The Arab countries weren't taking this sudden upsurge of anti-Muslim sentiment well either, throwing out accusations of racism and whatnot, but their bitching was just making things worse for them.

Harry's only regret was that he couldn't afford to do more, as tying up too much of his blood in curses like that would obviously be a bad idea. Maybe once those mosques got torn down he could pick others to curse.

The chance that the local Ministries of Magic would find what he was doing was there of course, but they wouldn't be able to break the curse and this wasn't the kind of thing that could be linked back to him. If any of them had found his handiwork already, then they weren't saying.

Truthfully, he wished that he could do the same to churches, but that was a wholly different beast. Muslims and Islam were obvious foreign elements in Europe, easily singled out, identified and targeted. Christianity had deep roots and a long history there, so there was really no telling what might happen if he placed such a curse on a church. Besides, it wasn't nearly as much of a threat to either magic or science as Islam, so it could be tolerated. For now.

And so it went, time passed and events proceeded. Harry kept an eye out for possible vampire string-pulling, but aside from Ophelia's increasing fame and growing cult of groupies in the United States, he could not perceive anything obvious.

Which was kind of silly once he thought about it, as Bjomolf had only ever been obvious when he wanted to draw attention. His own spy network through Adrastia was probably nowhere close to being as invisible in return, which was really quite irritating.

Through all this, his wives expanded like balloons. It made sleeping in the same bed more than a little awkward, but all of them were so excited for the arrival of their children that they didn't mind it much.

Still, Harry was relieved when the time came for the births.

November 22nd, 2019. Cháteau Black, Spellhaven.

Dora's belly was nothing short of enormous. The usual term for delivering triplets was around thirty-six weeks and she was currently at the end of her thirty-eighth.

Luna had pouted outrageously when she learned that multiple pregnancies usually didn't last as long as single ones, because that would mean that they couldn't give birth together. She'd even asked if they could use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to… adjust the timing.

Harry was not usually one for denying Luna's requests, but this one was crazy. He wasn't going to give out hints that he knew how to mess with time just so that they could synchronize their births!

Of course, then Dora learned that the longer she carried, the better it would be for her babies. So, being a metamorph, she made sure that her triplets had no shortage of room to grow inside her, leading to her currently being so huge that Harry had actually felt the need to create a specialized anti-gravity levitation spell to move her around.

Assuring her that plenty of triplets were born just fine in the world every day without metamorphmagi mothers achieved nothing. Fretting, emotional, overprotective pregnant women were impervious to logic.

Hoping that she would stop being insane and just give birth already if the other two did as well, he allowed Fleur and Luna to 'speed up' their due date in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

And now here they were, in a room inside their cháteau specifically prepared for them to go through childbirth.

It was in the end rather anti-climactic actually. Through some weird female mojo that had nothing at all to do with actual magic, Fleur and Luna's water broke practically simultaneously and they were quickly moved to the birthing room. Dora was floated in right after them and pretty much told to stop screwing around, but it was Luna's almost childish excitement at doing this together that really got to her.

The mediwitch midwives barely had time to arrive before Dora's birthing was over. Just like Harry had mused after Arielle's birth, she was able to morph open her birth canal with ease and three healthy boys slid right out. It took less than two minutes.

Fleur and Luna took longer, a whole ten minutes before they each brought a daughter into the world. Harry had made sure to have the best possible midwives on call, ones whose specific, childbirth-oriented Transfiguration skills were flawless. Still, they would nonetheless take longer to recover than Dora, who was essentially back to full health almost immediately. Not nearly as long as it should have taken though.

After the newborns were bathed, dressed and breastfed for the first time (Luna had offered her other nipple for Dora's extra baby), it was Harry's turn to hold them.

It could be because he'd felt them grow inside his wives through the Joining, or maybe he'd somehow managed to go soft in the meanwhile, but these children didn't make him feel as awkward as Arielle had. He still had no idea whatsoever what it meant to be a father, but he didn't wonder if he would even be able to love them. He already did.

"Hey, can we come in?"

Harry turned around at the soft-spoken question and his lips twitched in amusement at the sight.

Andromeda, Apolline, Gabrielle and Aurélie of all people had their heads stuck through the door and stacked on each other like in some damn cartoon.

"Sure." He said quietly, mindful of the dozing baby in his arms.

The three women and one girl tiptoed in, followed by Ted and Sebastien. After them came Narcissa, Septima and Penelope. Just before the door closed, Etal lazily drifted inside, floating aroung the ceiling and looking down curiously.

"They have your eyes, Dromeda." Ted observed as his wife cooed over their grandchildren.

It was true, all three of Dora's boys had the same dark brown eyes as their grandmother and a fuzz of night black hair on top of their heads.

"They're all metamorphmagi, I can sense it." Harry revealed, unable to keep from sounding proud. Those boys and Luna's daughter would also have his gifts of Parseltongue and the ability to speak to corvid bird species. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to pass them on to Fleur's daughter as well.

"That's incredible." Andromeda murmured, not taking her eyes off the triplets. "This must be the largest number of metamorphs to have ever been alive at the same time. What did you name them?"

"In order of appearance…" Harry began with a smile, moving to Dora's side and gesturing at the baby held in her right arm. "Antarius, his little neighbour is Marius and the one in Luna's arms is Valerious."

"Good names for boys born to the House of Black." Narcissa said approvingly.

"You can say a lot of things about House Black, but they did have some cool names." Harry agreed. It had been one of the minor reasons why he'd switched from Potter.

Dora rolled her eyes, but didn't stop smiling. They'd picked the names together after all.

"And what about my little graunddaughter." Apolline said almost impatiently, staring at the baby in Fleur's arms eagerly. The newborn girl had the typical veela look of silver hair and sky-blue eyes.

"All five of them are your grandchildren, Maman ." Fleur admonished gently. They were all agreed that there would be no separation beyond the biological. "But this one's name is Victoire."

"You always did like that name." Her father said with a grin. "I remember you telling me that you were going to name your first daughter that back when you were younger than Gabrielle."

"It is a good name." Fleur insisted with a happy grin.

"And this one." Harry cut in, indicating the one he was holding, a girl with pale blue eyes and a head of dark fuzz similar to the triplets. "is Xena."

"I still can't believe you named one of our daughters 'Xena'." Dora huffed in amusement.

"I have no idea what the big deal is, we're just honoring Luna's father." Harry replied with a straight face.

Penelope, Ted and Andromeda chuckled, but the rest just looked confused.

Etal had at that point had enough of skulking around the ceiling and wrapped himself around Harry's neck, staring at the baby he was holding with his bright golden eyes and flicking his forked tongue her way.

Xena blinked and smiled a gummy grin, making noises of excitement at what was probably nothing more than a riotous display of colors to her blurry vision.

" Your hatchlings all look like overgrown potatoes. " The quetzalcoatl declared.

Harry had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.

" A common human failing, I'm afraid. " He hissed back.

" Well, at least you recognize it. " Etal said before slithering away to get a taste of the other four.

"What did he say?" Luna asked curiously.

"That our kids all look like potatoes." Harry answered with a smirk.

"He's not wrong." Gabrielle snickered.

"Hmph, we'll see what your daughters look like." Fleur sniffed.

"I can't wait to introduce them to Arielle." Aurélie said with excitement more befitting a woman a third her age. "She's been so excited to be a big sister."

As the cooing continued, Harry noticed something rather frightening.

Narcissa and Septima were gazing at the children with the most soppy looks he'd ever seen, actual tears gathering at the corners of their eyes.

I suppose two more kids won't make any difference. He thought in resignation. He was already up to five, six if you counted Arielle, and Fleur and Luna had already decided that just one wasn't enough for them. Dora was as of yet undecided if she wanted another, but it certainly wasn't out of the question.

He was usually one to enjoy life's little ironies, but the universe was being a bit heavy-handed this time.