Chapter 28: The Art of Negotiation

North America, Lake Superior. The second largest body of fresh water in the world, larger than the whole of Great Britain. I was in no mood to enjoy the gorgeous scenery. This far from home, defensive charms were draining my energy faster than it replenished, and I had far too much unfinished business back in Europe. But here I was, conjuring water snakes, slapping on tracking charms and releasing them into the lake with orders to search…

"William, are you certain this is the right lagoon?" I asked "Burke's friend."

"Yes, my Lord. It almost ate me two hours ago, I barely managed to apparate away."

Yes, I already saw that with legilimency or I would not bother searching.

Finally, I felt something a few miles offshore: the snakes' tracking signals vanishing…

"William, hide. It will be here shortly."

My conversation partner instantly disappeared. In a few moments, the surface of the lake rippled, and I was forced to fly back to avoid an enormous snake that launched at me from under the water. It dwarfed Salazar's basilisk: wider than a full-grown bull, the part of it visible above the water alone reaching 50 meters. The creature's head was adorned with over a dozen straight horns, and in the middle of its forehead glimmered a dull green rock… So this was what my Patronus looked like in person… How sad that the charm's effectiveness had nothing to do with the animal's type or size…

However, the giant creature did not radiate grandeur. Scrapes and wounds of varying severity covered its entire body. Some of the horns were broken. And in magical sight, it glowed noticeably paler than Salazar's basilisk.

The horned serpent shifted color to semitransparent, pulled its body back underwater, and opened its mouth. Only instead of words, it spat out an incredibly pressurized jet of water.

To my shame, I was still gawking at it and did not react in time. My shields handled it. But I did not come here to fight.

" Can we talk? " I asked, pulling out my wand. "I can heal you and give you a new home."

I could try bending it to my will. As a rule, snakes were compelled to obey born parselmouths. But a magical snake of this size and power… There was no guarantee. The situation in the Chamber did not apply- the basilisk must obey the heir of Slytherin. And besides, forced compliance had a nasty tendency to disappear at the worst possible moment. Common interests would bind us better than shackles.

The jet ran dry. The snake closed its mouth and released clouds of steam from the nostrils.

" Who are you and what do you want ? " it asked.

" I am a powerful Dark wizard and a parselmouth. I am searching for a worthy companion. I sent out small snakes to look for one, you must have heard about me from them. Now tell me who you are and what you want ."

" Before, I lived not far from here in a place the humans called Preserve. I grew big and strong. I saw how the humans killed the ones who grew too big. I decided to escape but did not know if there is food outside the barrier. I met your messengers, talked to them and ate them. I decided to swim away, and the humans tried to stop me. They were weak but moved fast and stung me. I wanted to hide at the bottom, but younger snakes attacked me to steal my territory. I had to escape. I gave away a lot of magic to swim through the barrier, and now I am here. But here has little magic and no food. No squids or big fish. The fish here are small, the humans here are stupid and don't glow. And they are all without juice. I swam to the place the little snakes told me about. The man here glowed but did not speak and was weak. I decided to kill him for lying."

Juice… Magic? Was it talking about muggles? Well, it all made sense. Somewhere in America, there was a magical preserve that bred these snakes. It was obviously aggressive and must have been kept in a secure area. When the serpents reached a certain size, they were killed for ingredients. As far as I knew, most of their value lied in stones on the foreheads that served as a magic accumulators. The keepers really fell flat on their face with this one - it grew so large and amassed so much energy it slipped through the barrier. Just how old was it? Too bad snakes had no proper sense of time…

"You can come with me. I do not wish you death, I need you alive. Do you agree?"

" What do you want from me? " the snake huffed out more steam. " I won't give you my stone ."

Of course an accumulator stone that size was appealing. But I wanted you for another reason.

"I am offering you a new home. A lake with a magic source nearby. You will receive many benefits. First, you will no longer need to worry about food and shelter. Second, you will no longer need to fight for your life because my humans won't attack you. Third, if you decide you want to fight, you can fight on my side. But only on my side or not fight at all. No attacking me or my servants. Fourth, short-sighted wizards exterminated your kind where I live. But we'll be able to fix it. I can find your fellow serpents. And if you behave, I will bring you gifts. What do I want from you in return? At the very least, not getting in my way. Live and don't kill anyone. If you want, you can kill who I tell you to kill. And only them. Either kill who I tell you or kill no one at all. I will provide you with plenty of food. What do you eat?"

And I would receive an indisputable proof of my greatness and status as the heir of Slytherin. My audience was not the type to be impressed by fancy robes or trinkets. As long as it didn't eat any of my people, I would come out on top.

" I eat any live flesh. The humans fed me cows. But magical animals are better- big squid and glowing fish."

Excellent. We could not afford feeding humans to this creature. As I understood, it lived on meat and magical energy. Could the Lestranges' source handle this ? Probably. I did not know anything about that preserve, but they must have had more than just one snake feeding on magic… Maybe I'll move it to the Hogwarts lake after my victory and sell tickets for its fight with the giant squid…

"How often do you eat?"

"I can be without food for a long time and hibernate. Then I can eat more cows than I have horns all at one time."

Again with the lack of understanding of time… It should be fine fasting for a few days. Such obsession with food was strange for a reptile. All right, let's count… Twelve intact horns, five broken… Regardless, cattle was no object.

" What abilities do you have? " I wondered.

"I am strong. I can crush, bite and eat. I am venomous. I can spit water, steam and venom. Hit with horns. Become hard to see and hide. Become light and fast. I am very strong in the water. On land I am weaker, my scales itch, and I want to bite. I also have my stone. My precious… You can't have it."

Yes, I got that part already… Curious, did its magic work symbiotically with the stone? Did the snake have a size limit?

" So, I understand you agree to come with me? What should I call you? "

" I agree. Snakes don't need names. When the weak speaker who hid behind the barrier talked to me, he called me "girl" or "SG-14-156. "

Give her a name, then? Riddle's memories demanded something dramatic, like Ouroboros… What's the point? I would have called her Nagini, but nobody would believe my familiar changed this much.

" I'll call you Nessie. I am Lord Voldemort. "

" Call me what you want. What matters is you feed me often. I don't feel an exit here, all water is still. All the rivers are dead ends. How will you take me away from here? Those who are like you but not so shiny are searching for me. "

Transporting such a huge, saturated with magic creature was my plan's bottleneck. Apparate? Well, it would be easier than apparating with the Hogwarts Castle- I'd move her a hundred yards or so. The phoenix? Too much even for her. A portkey? The Ministry would notice- if there was a magical Guinness Book, that portkey would be in it. A ritual-fueled portal? One runic circle around her, another at the destination, multiple victims or multiple Death Eaters drained of magic… We could certainly do it… Except, transcontinental transport of a gigantic XXXXX-creature would discharge so much energy that all of the American law enforcement will rush here at once. And in any case, I had no time to draw the circles - it was a month's worth of work.

This only left physically moving her under constantly held concealment. Down the river, a shortcut across land to Hudson, then swim straight to England. The snake could easily keep up with a ship for weeks… But I did not want to bet so much on her staying unnoticed for thousands of miles… And really did not want to start a war in America.

" I will now feed and heal you. My human servants will get everything ready. Don't attack them. "

I put up charms over the area and retrieved my supplies. All the dragon meat and anise tincture I brought went on Nessie's wounds. It was not enough to heal her completely, but she was no longer bleeding. Then William delivered ten stunned cows with a portkey. Nessie alternated between chewing and swallowing them whole, and William kept getting paler.

Soon two more wizards arrived, levitating something resembling a train cistern or a large rocket shell between them.

" Crawl in there and hibernate," I commanded. " It is larger on the inside and filled with water. They will bring you to your new home ."

We'd move her via ordinary flight. This cistern took Selwyn three weeks to craft- completely weightless unless you tried to portkey of apparate with it.

The snake eyed me with distrust.

" This is your only chance. If you refuse my offer, your jailers will catch you. "

" I will crawl in but I will not hibernate. If you lie, I will kill as many as I can. "

Should I have her delivered to the Ministry? Wasteful… This specimen was huge, relatively sane and loyal. And suspicious, but that was even better - mistrust pointed to intelligence. I planned on being a very useful friend.

We sealed Nessie inside. I gave out orders to my allies and wrote Edward a note: "D o not open the container without me present, stock up on live cows and redcaps. " Hopefully, the snake will like their pond. It was wider and longer than her, so she she better not complain.

Time to move on to other business. Two apparitions later, I was strolling towards the New York Gringotts branch.

Gringotts remained the only bank in England ever since its founding in 1474, but it had competition in the US. The majestic snow-white building and white marble stairs leading to the main entrance must inspire admiration in every visitor. Next to the ornate bronze doors stood a goblin doorman in gold and red uniform, greeting the visitors with a bow… That was not my destination. Having rifled through Edward's, Bella's and Malfoy's minds, I knew exactly what to do and say. I walked to the nondescript back door and knocked.

"I am afraid for my life. Non-goblin enemies are pursuing me. I am under concealment charms but do not desire anyone else's money. I request permission to travel to the London branch," I addressed the door, feeling like an idiot.

The door swung open. Inside, I found myself surrounded by one goblin in casual clothes and ten goblins in polished medieval armor holding assorted weapons.

"State your name, remove your concealment and defensive spells, and state the purpose of your visit. Then present your key and wand."

"Lord Voldemort. I would like to discuss my vault opened in November 1981 by Lucius Malfoy. Here is the key and a letter from Mr. Malfoy. He said he notified you of my arrival. I must warn you: my appearance is somewhat unexpected."

I drank the polyjuice antidote and completely exposed myself… If they wanted to chop me up or shoot me with a crossbow, I would die…

"As far as I'm aware, this is not what the said individual looks like," said one of the goblins, scrutinizing the younger version of my muggle father. "And you have two other live humans with you."

All around me, the goblins were waving detectors and some other artifacts.

"My appearance is explained by the public image. Very few have seen me without defenses and masking charms. And the additional life signals… You are not concerned with several extra wands, are you? These people are similarly instruments, and they are under the Draught of the Living Death. I have no intent to spy or assault Gringotts. Can I hope that slight eccentricities in my behavior will be excused and remain between us?"

In the worst case scenario, I'd leave by phoenix…

"Certainly. Our clients' secrets are none of our business and neither are wizarding wars. I assume you know we have ways to defend against legilimency. You may restore your defenses."

I hurried to do just that. Today, my horcruxes stayed in my home safe in England. An unnamed goblin escorted me to the fireplace, and I traveled to the London branch.

"I am Kragrod, the manager of your vault number 806. Would you like to withdraw gold?"

"No. I want to speak to you about my finances in private."

We walked in a conference room, and I listened, listened, listened… It seemed I found Malfoy's long-lost relatives: profitability of the real capital, profitability of core assets, profitability of personnel, profitability of liquid assets, profitability of the total assets, profitability of the invested capital, profitability of business assets, profitability of trade margins… And that was just some of the letter P. There was much more: investment turnover, interest rates, coefficient of asset growth… Between all that, I missed what my actual balance was. Good thing I asked Malfoy in advance.

The goblin handed me a stack of incomprehensible papers the size of Dumas' novel collection. I really wanted to interrupt him, but good manners required listening for a short while… An hour or two, otherwise they wouldn't understand.

I wouldn't even try dabbling in finance. At least not until winning the war.

Magical banking sounded absurd. Wizards had regular wars with goblins yet kept all valuables in their bank. What's more, goblins considered themselves permanent owners of any object they created: the artifacts "purchased" from the goblins had to be returned after the buyer's death. But everything turned out much more straightforward, as I understood from some knowledgeable people's memories.

First and foremost, the goblins were a sovereign nation not subject to the Ministry's laws. This effectively made Gringotts a giant offshore zone. Banned ingredients and artifacts? Tax Evasion? Not according to our laws! The Ministry naturally wanted to put a stop to this nuisance, and their attempts occasionally sparked goblin rebellions. But no one wanted to fight goblins in their caverns… And the goblins did not care for surface land.

Second, money meant leverage. The Ministry loved nothing more than confiscating the assets of terrorists and political enemies. But Gringotts served their customers regardless of political climate. Even during goblin rebellions, a wizard was free to withdraw money and use it against the goblins. No, the goblins were not idiots. They valued their reputation above temporary benefits and took pride in exploiting suckers within the bounds of law. What's the problem? The contract listed all the risks, it was your own fault for not reading it carefully. Natural selection at work.

By the way, to have any legal power, a contract must be written in Gobbledegook. A language with 119 tenses and 560 words referring to money…

And in return for their services, goblins received part of the investment profits and vault maintenance fees. Although, some rumors claimed that goblins collected antiques, gold and artifacts for another purpose. That they had a way to use precious metals for either producing magical energy or accumulating it… But no one knew, and the goblins kept silent. Even when gutted- Riddle checked. Maybe those grunts simply did not have the clearance?

After two hours, I decided to finally interrupt the goblin.

"Mr. Kragrod, this is wonderful. I am satisfied with your work," the goblin still showed zero emotion. "I trust Mr. Malfoy. He may continue managing my vault under the same terms. But right now I would like to discuss the incident in the Lestrange vault that occurred on October 31, 1981. Here is a letter of recommendation from Mr. Lestrange and a power of attorney in Gobbledegook."

The goblin immediately perked up and excused himself, nearly running out of the room. Soon another, much older goblin walked in.

"Do you any information about the incident? We will generously compensate you if you tell us who tried to access the vault and how. Gringotts regularly deals with robbery attempts, but it has been centuries since anyone made it out alive. In this case, we are not even sure what happened."

No hello, no introduction… but blunt honesty had its own charm.

"Unfortunately, my information is incomplete. As you know, I am leading a war in the wizarding world. The source of my information is a master occlumens and double spy Severus Snape. The Lestrange vault was attacked by Albus Dumbledore personally, with the goal of undermining the Death Eaters. He is planning to repeat this attempt some time within the next two years. Mr. Lestrange requests additional funds to be diverted to increasing the security of his family vaults."

My plan was a stroke of genius. I would turn the goblins against Albus. And he would really break into Gringotts. It was extremely easy to set up: have Severus leak that the Dark Lord hid a horcrux in the Lestranges' vault. Goblins would never surrender anything stored in their clients' vaults, not even a horcrux. Capture the vault owner and get the power of attorney through torture? Good luck passing through the "Thief's Downfall" waterfall on the way to the caverns.

"With all my respect to Mr. Lestrange, what is your proof?"

"This memory. Dumbledore broke into the Lestrange vault with the aid of a super-weapon: the Elder Wand he took from Grindelwald."

I gave him a vial with the memory of Albus telling Snape about an upcoming attack on Gringotts. No forgeries, all theater. I, under the Thousand Faces potion, played Dumbledore and laid out my plan to rob the Lestranges. Severus faithfully listened where to store the stolen items and how to assist if Dumbledore were injured in the attack. Three more Orderers were nodding along with him: Amelia Bones and Frank and Alice Longbottom (the Lestranges under the Thousand Faces potion. Easy identify with a spell, but who would cast it?). Naturally, they had all gone through Malfoy's favorite memory-erasing ritual before the performance. Any minor discrepancies were fixed by Snape's occlumency. I tested the memory in every way I could- it looked genuine. If the goblins found anything wrong, it was all Snape's fault. I had nothing to do with it.

"The memory appears to be authentic. We will increase the security measures. If your information is confirmed, you will receive a reward," the goblin concluded.

"I don't need a reward, I am capable of earning my own money. Dumbledore is my enemy, and I would be happy if he doesn't escape alive. Be careful: he is extremely powerful and merely pretends to be a harmless old man."

"A wizard refusing money? You are an unusual client."

"Yes. We need to discuss one more matter. I don't want anyone's money, I only ask that you listen to what I have to say before jumping to conclusions. I would like to request the presence of the Potter vault manager."

"As far as I know, you are not related to the Potters. Their accounts were frozen after their deaths. If no lawful claimant comes forward within three months, the will takes effect. You are not mentioned in it."

"The news of the Potters' death were premature. Allow me to demonstrate."

I opened a strong isolating artifact and took out the unconscious Lily and Harry. Healthy sleep was important. I'd return them like nothing happened.

"Even if you are holding the Potters hostage, it does not grant you the right to access their accounts," the goblin bit out coldly. They would already be trying to turn me into mincemeat for such a primitive shakedown if it weren't for returning the favor of informing them about Dumbledore's evil plot.

"I don't want the Potters' money. But you must agree that after James's death his wife and son inherit all Potter assets. The will clearly states: everything must go to Harry and Lily, in case of both of their deaths- to the Order of the Phoenix. All I ask is that the Potters' assets remain with the Potters, in accordance with James's will. Since the two surviving Potters are currently in a difficult situation and unable to access their funds, everything must be stored in Gringotts until they claim it."

"The accounts will remain frozen. Dumbledore will be sent a letter informing him that in accordance with the 1834 Act…" I started to lose my grip on reality, "… section ten of the Gringotts charter, subsection five," skipping that, "… addendum 2046, provision of magical bank operations…" I was about to nod off, "… the Potters' accounts currently have a positive balance."

Brilliant. A response that the accounts had available funds frozen by the will. Probably some other, later will they never disclosed to him. What mattered was Albus would lose the Potters' money. And I was already not poor…

"I am aware of Lily's will from her memories. The Potters' invisibility cloak is currently in Dumbledore's possession. It must be returned to Gringotts in accordance with the will. I am confident Gringotts will win the lawsuit against the thieving Headmaster. Here is Lily's notarized request to recover the cloak by any means possible."

"Persons under the Imperius, love potions, torture and most other mental influences are considered partially incapacitated. She cannot legally administer her property."

"Check this woman's forearm. Here are her and my memories. She joined me without direct mental influence and bears no traces of torture or Dark magic. She is fully competent. She is unconscious due to her insufficient occlumency skills. I hope I can expect everything I said to remain fully confidential."

Half an hour after testing unconscious Lily, the goblins turned back to me.

"We have decided to satisfy your request in accordance with Lily Potter's statement of claim. It will not be brought up in court. Your memories will be destroyed in your presence."

The vials were consumed by purple fire.

"Excellent. I am looking forward to our continuing successful cooperation. Have a wonderful day."

And that was it. I wrung everything I could out of the bank.

Less than ten minutes later, I was again standing over Ariana's body. Why do you refuse to get up? I wasted so many snakes and sacrifices… The only solace was that we at last began receiving a stream of supply from third world countries. No raids, just honest purchases from local criminals. They all had to start kicking the habit of killing without a reason.

The last option I had left to try on Ariana was a variation of the "Ancient Bones" ritual: sacrifice of a skeleton, the older the better. Magical skeletons were preferable but not necessary.

I took the easy route. Unlike Riddle, I liked muggles. There was a lot of them, and they had a lot of ideas. Tonight, I went to the London Museum of Natural History and stole all the skeletons. Even the dinosaur fossils. No one would notice: I conjured them copies with permanent transfiguration, indistinguishable from the originals save for their magic.

Tom's snake-embedding ritual caused the animated body to lose all memories, skills and magical properties. It essentially created a snake-controlled puppet… Or else I could own an unconditionally obedient population of snake people… Now I was trying to perform it on Ariana. She refused to get up as a lich, and anything less would be a colossal waste of material. If it works, I will receive a snake-controlled Ariana. And she should still be able to transform into an obedient black cloud and crush my enemies.

The dinosaur skeleton dissolved in the ritual circle. The older the better… If the muggles were to be believed, this one was over 60 million years old. Though it was a fossil rather than a proper skeleton, it should make no difference magically… The released energy rushed into the body in the other circle. The snake on top of the girl's corpse writhed a little, then stilled… It didn't work.

Use more skeletons? The dissonance from mixing multiple different energies interfered with the ritual. It felt like trying to harness a hundred horses into a single carriage- they didn't pull a hundred times heavier load, only got in each other's way. But Voldemort was extraordinary knowledgeable. I could probably get away with ten ancient skeletons, though the overall ritual strength would increase by no more than a half…

New skeletons were dissolving into the air. I had meticulously calculated everything - it shouldn't explode… If worst came to worst, I had a quick exit. The body glowed but wasn't moving. Strange.. Maybe it needed time to absorb? It was only a matter of waiting… But on second thought, I better get out of here. I quickly set up a loping command: "Get up. Do not attack" in both English and Parseltongue. The recruits could watch over my experiment. If "Ariana" began to move or show signs of consciousness, they'd call me. In the meantime, I better apparate away. Far away. Just in case.

I could finally get to one other task I'd been putting off. Albus left for an ICW conference in France, so it was a perfect time for me, Malfoy and zombie-Hagrid to visit the Forbidden Forest and forge a deal with acromantulas.

We arrived without any difficulties. There was no hiking in the woods, no running into wild creatures or centaurs spouting drivel about Mars and waiting for the tiniest excuse to shoot their charmed arrows. (I vividly remembered Riddle's excursions into the Forbidden forest as a student in search of ingredients, when one half-horse screamed something about Phobos and Deimos marking the Soulless One.) The scouts had already found the acromantula nest, so we apparated straight into the depth of the Forbidden Forest.

As the three of us walked toward the spiders' home, the webs were growing larger and denser. Now the zombie was lumbering openly. Almost immediately, we faced a small horde of spiders ranging from a human fist to a horse in size.

"Hagrid's here. I got my friends with me," the zombie repeated under my dictation.

"You never brought others here. Make them show themselves," the spider demanded.

Lucius appeared before them. I was playing hidden backup. The spider welcoming committee multiplied in size, and we got surrounded by many more horse-sized specimens.

"We are going to bring fresh meat to the honorable spiders. A lot of meat," Lucius began. "For now, please accept this small token of good will."

We pulled out a dozen of sheep and two cows from a charmed container, all unconscious. How did spiders eat? They paralyzed the prey, injected it with their stomach acid, left it wrapped in a cocoon, then drank the resulting slush… I was now witnessing it first hand. The sheep were instantly wrapped and hanged from the branches, the cows carried away deeper into the woods.

The plan was simple: they don't kill us, and we bring more food. Everything hinged on them not suspecting Hagrid. He had been soaking in potions for over a month, and the Lestranges swore the spiders wouldn't notice anything amiss.

We entered a large cave jam-packed with spiders. I tried throwing around wandless scanning charms to determine their number and locations, but to no avail. Either their web interfered with the charm or the spiders were too magically resistant.

"Aragog!" they spoke quite clearly with their chelicerae. I wonder how?

A truly giant spider spider crawled out of the far tunnel. It must have rivaled an elephant in both size and weight. Some of its many eyes were covered with cloudy film.

"Hagrid?" the monster asked.

"I remember you this teeny," Hagrid cooed under my command. "Come let me give you a hug!"

This should be well within his character.

"Fine," the spider didn't resist.

Hagrid hugged the monster's leg- not even his hands were large enough to wrap around one of them. The spider seemed to buy the switcheroo.

"I'm always happy to see you. But who is this one and why is he here? You never brought other humans here."

"Bad times have come, I tell you," Hagrid said. "The Ministry's wantin' to kill all the interesting creatures. They prepare papers to clean the forest of dangerous creatures and centaurs. You've got to run."

The news was met with ominous clicking.

"Are you sure?" Aragon hesitated. "Nobody ever bothered us here."

"Everything's real bad. They now call harmless hippogriffs dangerous, and acromantulas must be killed off," Hagrid continued stringing them along.

"Where can we go?" Aragog asked with extreme skepticism.

"My new friends will give you a place to live."

"You are not Hagrid. Hagrid would never go against Dumbledore. He would defend us. And most importantly, these friends are servants the one who caused you to be thrown out of Hogwarts and made us come here. Who are you and where is Hagrid?"

The spider's clicking turned menacing. In a blink, they snatched zombie-Hagrid and wrapped him in spiderweb. Several attacked Malfoy. His defensive charms held for a moment, but he quickly succumbed to a spit of paralyzing poison and was strung up in a cocoon. Magical shields worked against magical creatures just as badly as they did against charmed weapons… Malfoy didn't even even get a chance to cast anything. Of course, the spiders never noticed me floating just under the ceiling.

Not the best start.. Well, at least we got in without a fight. Switching to plan B, viva la revolucion…

The Killing Curse may not take down a large acromantula, but my arsenal was much more varied. The cave filled with my voice coming from every direction.

"I'll sic a basilisk on you."

The cave descended into pure chaos. The spiders darted around in blind panic. A burst of Twilight Flame swallowed Aragog. Fiendfyre blocked all exits. Several spiders burned. I removed my masking charms and was burning the spits of poison and web before they could reach me- not terribly difficult under acceleration and enhanced perception potions. When some spiders rushed me from the walls, Arania Exumae calmed them down forever. The repeating recording "I am the master of the Basilisk" was keeping the majority in helpless frenzy. But I had neither desire nor power to fight the entire nest.

"Join me. I will allow you to hunt muggles and wizards. You will receive as much meat as you desire. No restrictions on breeding. If you refuse, I will feed you to the basilisk, and leave the rest to be killed by the Aurors."

Pure propaganda. I had yet to reach the basilisk. The Aurors had a lot on their plate, and who would think to look for Southeast Asian creatures in Scotland? But the spiders definitely felt the basilisk nearby and knew I was a parselmouth. If they did not concede, I'd have to call Nagini to bail me out.

"Aragog!" came a piercing scream from the same tunnel. The spider that ran out of it was almost as huge as their late leader.

I threw a Liquid Darkness at the creature, and the huge splotch of inky substance began dissolving it. The spider screamed and tried to get the "ink" off with its legs, but they too dissolved on contact. This one must be brimming with magic! The curse usually dissolved flesh instantly, and the spider was still twitching… But it did a good job at demonstrating my point: anyone who defies us gets burned or dissolved.

"Who is ready to join my side?" I asked, dispelling the repeating sound of the word "Basilisk."

"I am Morgul," one of the spiders stepped forward. "After the deaths of Aragog and Mosag, I am the largest. Are you really the one who controlled the Horror all those years ago?"

"Yes."

"We cannot attack the castle, the Horror lives there," Morgul informed me.

"And you don't need to. There are many other interesting places in Britain."

"We are ready to join you if you feed us and give us prey to hunt."

"Wonderful. Remember: if you betray me, the Horror will come after you. Loyal service will earn you food. By the way, my servant in the cocoon here is metely unconscious, right?"

"Yes, it is a paralyzing poison. Other ones spoil the taste."

"I'm taking him with me. Gather your nest, Morgul," I said as I was putting out the cursed fire at the exits. "You are moving. Do not eat or attack my people. If you have any questions, ask for Macnair on the other side."

While Morgul was explaining something to his tribe (and, as my olfactory defense suggested, releasing pheromones), I was preparing their transport. Two logs covered in runes got hammered into the ground six yards apart, creating the entrance side of the portal. The other, much larger part of the construct had been built on a piece of land Malfoy leased from Avery. The territory was already covered with all the necessary charms, stored a supply of cattle and had a team waiting to receive the spiders.

I set up two charged accumulator stones on top of the logs and activated the portal. The space between the "pillars" rippled like a water reflection.

"My people are waiting for you on the other side. Do not attack anyone. You can eat the cows and sheep. Do not cross the marked borders. If you wish to get out or hunt, you will be accepted into an assault team and given a target. Remember: with us you are hunters, without us you are prey. Treachery is punished by the slithering horror and death."

One by one, the acromantulas started to disappear into the portal. It looked simple enough, but the wizards on the other side must have struggled to keep the portal stable. Every transported beast drained energy proportional to its mass, magical power and travel distance. It was going to be fine- they had plenty of manpower and accumulator stones. And as a last resort, they could always kill some prisoners or animals (unlike a proper ritual, charging a portal worked with any energy source). We now had muggles deliver us cattle from Argentina through a shell company. They were very confused why anyone would need so much live cattle…

I cast a charm to count the number of transports. Hundreds of large specimens ready for battle. And some were dragging eggs the size of a basketball that should hatch in eight weeks. How fast would they grow if we helped them along? The spiders even rolled up some of the web and took it with them…

"Master, can we eat the one who was Hagrid?" Morgul asked.

Apparently, the new generation didn't feel much parity with Hagrid. The zombie could still be useful… For example, murder someone before Skeeter's eyes. He may not have magic, but a half-giant killing humans with a single punch and proceeding to eat them… Behold the true face of the Order of the Phoenix!

"Do not kill, eat or attack any of my servants. I'm taking him with me as well."

The last acromantula stepped through the portal four hours later- we spent a long time waiting for their scouts and hunters. Some surely got left behind, but they were now literally and figuratively useless leftovers. I took apart the portal. Macnair called through the two-way mirror and reported that they had no problems on their end.

We never risked drawing attention- the Forbidden Forest radiated so much magic it could hide Hogwarts. And Albus was far away. Still, I cleaned up my traces before leaving by phoenix.

I had Nagini take me to one of our secret bases (nothing more than a room with food and first aid sealed inside a mountain) and started fixing Malfoy. I was more of a killing and poison specialist, but my spells and Snape's potions eventually brought Malfoy back to consciousness.

"My Lord, where am I?" he slurred, getting up from the bed. "The last thing I remember is being attacked by acromantulas. Did the negotiations fail?"

"We are at the base 54/86A. I saved you and swayed the acromantulas to my side. They are currently settling in on the land you provided. Macnair says everything is under control."

"My Lord, I didn't have time to tell them anything…"

Of course not. They surrounded you, and you didn't have a wand in hand. I wouldn't be able to say anything either. That was why you went first.

"Make sure your service is beyond reproach from now on."

"My Lord, acromantula venom gathered from a live specimen sells for over a hundred galleon per vial. Their web is also valuable. May I request you to come with me and order the spiders to let the workers approach them for collection?"

Money was all he ever thought about…

"Yes. But first, we discuss how we are going to divide the profits."

Avery was drawing runes in the dirt and thinking. He recently returned from an important mission: a trip through hard to reach areas in search of giants for the Dark Lord. The war showed no signs of ending, and giants were becoming difficult to find. And since Macnair had both work and "work" at the Ministry, it fell on Avery to trek across the globe and negotiate with fleshbags who chewed on train rails.

He returned with a new batch shortly after the New Year. Now he was wondering why the Dark Lord's disfavor befell him, out of everyone. He would rather be cruciated…

"Avery, draw faster. I'm going to go check on the diggers," Jugson said on the way out.

The Dark Lord's plans always had a certain… scale. And it was regular people like him who paid the price. The Lord ordered to prepare for an assault of Crouch's manor. And they were duly preparing. Some were charming golems, some were gathering materials, some were weeping over family savings…

The two most important parts of any operation were delivering their forces to the target and securing the elites' retreat. Edward Lestrange, Yaxley and Rowle were drawing a single-use portal circle next to the Lestranges' manor. He and Jugson were drawing its smaller counterpart under Crouch's. They had created a system of caverns two miles under the house, well below the ward edge. Sure, they had a couple dozen house elves and over fifty digging golems, but the brunt of the work still fell on the two of them. The Dark Lord was generous enough to provide accumulator stones, but the stones couldn't help with drawing. So he drew…

They were not even allowed to use sacrifices! Noo, go and charge it all by hand so the Ministry wouldn't sniff it out. And creating the portals was not even a half of it: they also had to conceal everything, prepare interferences against the enemy soldiers' arrival within a given time frame, and set up a healing ritual for Crouch's wife in the upper cavern…

He finally finished the next pattern, and they both charged the runes for what felt like forever. The brightly glowing accumulators gradually dimmed and depleted. Well, the house elves would bring more soon, they just needed a good kick every so often.

"Kids today aren't what they used to be," Jugson began. "Have you heard, Rabastan Lestrange apparently has tutors in every subject except Dark magic? They say his Hogwarts diploma is forged."

"Don't know," Avery shrugged. "My son joined the Death Eaters and is doing fine. Though, he almost got caught for an illegal spell back in Hogwarts."

Actually, Jugson was right. It took a special brand of stupid to try to rape that girl at school, right under Dumbledore's nose… They were lucky to frame it as a mean prank… And it was not only his son who wasn't right in the head. Malfoy was a genius of finance, and his son… a moron. Avery managed to palm a useless plot of land off to Lucius under a long-term lease. The funniest part was that the lease restricted the land's use to "breeding of silkworms or their analogues."

They continued the idle banter about how back in their day giants were larger, manticores meaner, pixies brighter, women bustier…

And then they received an urgent message. The Lord issued a new order: they must change the local water level to create a pond at the surface during the assault. They were granted reinforcements consisting of Crabbe, Goyle and Rabastan Lestrange. The latter was the only one proficient with charms to draw water towards the surface.

To say that the order was strange would be an understatement of the year. They needed help finishing their current work but instead got loaded with a whole new task mere days before the battle!

Their reinforcements arrived a few minutes later, apparating into the runic circle in quick succession. After exchanging routine greetings and pleasantries, everyone got to work.

"Rabastan, what happened? Why does the Lord suddenly need a pond next to the Crouch's manor? I remember him calling Rookwood's swimming golem idea premature."

Without getting distracted from some Japanese-style charms, Lestrange explained:

"The pond near our manor has a new tenant. When my Care for Magical Creatures tutor saw it, he turned around and left. We later received his request for the remainder of his payment by owl. I couldn't exactly understand what he muttered as he was walking off, but it was something about "batshit crazy Brits."