Chapter 27: Earth for the Last Time (Part 1)

Chapter 27: Earth for the Last Time

Author's Warning: There are some heavy inferences to rape in this chapter if you do not want to read it...skip that part it is quite clear when it begins. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Author's Note: this Chapter is huge by my standards as I simply couldn't find a decent place to stop...the next chapter won't be.

95 BBY

3,558 ATC

2015 A.D

Harry flexed his new bodies fist as he looked carefully at his beautiful sleeping wife laying next to him and marvelled at how peaceful she looked. The time that they had been married had been, by far, the best of his life and it was almost like the last two months had flashed by in the blink of an eye.

They had changed bodies only a few days ago after dealing with a particularly virulent plague on the Outer Rim. They didn't know for certain if they were infected or not but, with bodies to spare and the risk that it posed to the Commonwealth if the infection had spread, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Staring down at her almost glowing (and sated) body in the morning light he had to ignore his baser instincts to let her get some rest. The lovemaking they had just finished had been everything that she had wanted that night as, after all, it was not only long and drawn out but passionate and caring with many whispered endearments and added carresses to boot.

She did not make this task easier for him in any way when, even in her sleep, she teased him with her small and pert breasts almost wriggling out of the covers as she moved into a more relaxed position. Despite himself his eyes were drawn to them and he licked his lips involuntarily and tried to turn his mind to other things.

In the past five years many things had come to fruition for the burgeoning power that was the Commonwealth apart from the marriage that all (but none more than Harry or Luna themselves) had awaited with baited breath and it was, both to them and the people that they had begun to hold so dear, the perfect day.

The Commonwealth's growth had still managed to keep surprising him and, he had belatedly realised, it was much like the Republic in the sense that they both had expansion phases that drew in many new people and (in the Commonwealth's case at least) many new and previously uncolonised worlds.

There were now over three hundred worlds that fell under its banner and that growth showed no signs of stopping yet, quite to the contrary, it appeared to be speeding up and seemed to have almost have taken on a life of its own.

Part of the reason for that was the ongoing humanitarian efforts that his people had been doing in the Outer Rim since the inception of the Commonwealth. This sent refugees streaming to the new worlds as well as, unlike other small groups or Empires that formed in the Outer Rim or Wild Space, they tended not conquer to gain land.

Technically neither did the Republic though through trade pressures (amongst other things) they did encourage membership in it's ranks as well as, at least on paper, claim the entirety of whole patches of the Outer Rim though their actual claim was tenuous at best.

The main reason many were leaving the Republic, Hutt or unaligned worlds (aside from the influence of the Commonwealth's medical and educational aid in the past) was the simple fact that they were doing something more than the bare minimum for the worlds that they had claimed.

When the Republic colonised a world it was often through proxies (such as the Trade Federation) and even if they did so directly it was often generally given the most basic of building supplies and little else.

The Hutt Cartel did something similar as they were more concerned with using their 'citizens' for anything from slaves or prostitution to running drug rings and making money in any way possible. This meant the last thing on their mind was the actual well being of the people that toiled under their demanding rule and provided for their many pleasures.

Not so with the Commonwealth as they never stopped trying to improve their worlds and make them better or more self sufficient and, in the long run, this made them much more profitable.

Before the first of their pioneers landed basic plans, under the purview of the Lord of Colonisation, would already be in place (tailored to each specific world) for the very first cities and the infrastructure needed for them to work.

In those cities would be many prefabricated (and easily constructed using worker droids overseen by the pioneers) buildings and amenities such as, but not limited to, fully equipped hospitals, schools, universities, sewers systems and where appropriate mines or other buildings that facilitated the growth of infant economy on the new world as well as that of the Commonwealth as a whole.

Personal touches and the eventual individualisation of each planet came with time as did further growth but no current power did more to help their people at the outset as the Commonwealth did.

In all fairness it was easy for them up to a point as they not only had the Geo Forge if needed (and uncharacteristically leaders that took a very long view of history and welfare) as well as all of their other factories that they had but there was the changed nature of the Army to consider.

The Army (barring planetary defence) was no longer largely droid based but was now instead roughly a mix of both droids that were still being improved and organics that lived in the Commonwealth. Though the actual percentages changed year by year this did mean that they had a great many droids that were repurposed for other tasks and the majority went into construction.

So many went into it in fact that it was more than commonplace, even ridiculously ordinary, to see several hundred on old worlds and at least several thousand on new ones creating new things or repairing and improving the older designs.

The Geo Forge was not then, by and large, needed to create builder droids and spent its time creating ships and combat droids (always the newest versions or experimental improvements) and it was the smaller, less effective, factories that would repurpose those same droids when they were not needed.

Where once the Geo Forge may have rested now it was active day and night as, both Harry and Luna sensed, that a great time of upheaval was nearly at hand and though they could not (as of yet) understand what it was they wished the Commonwealth to survive.

That was not to say that the other factories did not produce new units of either building or military standard because they did but rather that they, unlike the Geo Forge, tended to split their time between the two seperate objectives.

The main exports of the Commonwealth, aside from the speeders made by Potter's Triumph and the expensive ships made by its sister company Silver Star, were rare stones, metals and minerals mostly mined from asteroids in their space.

This was especially effective as not only did it provide cover for the Geo Forge (if it was ever needed to take up the slack of producing goods once again) but because unlike both the Cartel and the Republic the claims that they mined from were fresh and hadn't been overmined or even discovered by anyone else unlike the majority of those elsewhere in known space.

As well as traditional businesses they also had a booming trade in tourism (with very few and heavily monitored trips to Spero somewhat of a rarity) and it was this that Harry was most proud of.

The main reason for this was that it not only brought in a lot of money but helped spread both the idea of the beauty and desirability of the Commonwealth to new potential citizens but raised the standing of it among the people of the Republic and the Cartel if not always those in power.

Silver Star though lucrative in terms of money was less effective in it's secondary purpose. Needless to say as it was set up in direct competition to Rugess Nome it cut savagely into the man's profit margin but it struggled to gain any information about the man himself.

Though the company did manage to gain the goodwill of the upper echelons of the Senate even those new 'friends' came up empty when making discreet inquiries regarding the Muun even when it came to gaining the barest hints of his actual life.

Harry had even given a few of his ships as gifts to the most influential (and corrupt) Senators who in turn managed to provide an influx of new customers for the new company and further extended its influence into the Mid Rim Senators who emulated those of the Core.

In short his ships became a status symbol of wealth and power that were the envy of many.

Their other greatest export, which they currently provided at cost, was to supply items and manpower for relief from natural disasters and medical supplies for the most impoverished worlds.

This was one of the main reasons that Harry and Luna had changed bodies more than once because disaster relief was still one of the most dangerous things, irrespective of technology, and more than once both found it very useful to have a spare body or two on hand.

Thankfully every ship that was part of the Commonwealth had at least one magically hidden and Force locked compartment that held a clone of each of them for emergencies such as that so dying, in the traditional sense, was less of a concern for the married couple.

Harry's friends and confidants had also come far in the past five years. Just two weeks previously both Dobby Silvereyes and Leo Dalon had passed their trial of Knighthood and taken two new padawans each.

Luna's two had done the same around a month before she and Harry had married and though she had also taken two new padawans on her return Harry hadn't as he preferred instead to teach only in emergency situations or by simply training more Elves to be Force trained Healers.

Neville had, at the age of twenty eight (some two years ago), ascended to the position of Grandmagi and also, when not involved in his Council duties, helped both Nicolas Flamel with the R&D side of his own job or supervised with his now fairly immense magical skill either helping the Magi in the colonisation of new worlds or helping the magical members of the Army train.

Technically the Army was only the ground troops and the Navy was anyone in ships but, in the Commonwealth, the two terms were used interchangeably so he was actually training and helping both as and when needed.

All of the other immediate friends of Harry's family were happy with their current positions and doing very well in them to boot.

The number of Magi were also increasing due to the fact that the inbreeding of Wizarding Britain was a thing of the past and, when combined with the ever increasing magic that was on Spero (now vastly and quickly increasing due to the Geo Forge's constant use) meant that not only were more muggleborns cropping up but also that the transplanted Magi as a whole were doing something that was almost unheard of in their history.

They were giving birth to twins. A lot of twins.

Still life was very good in the Commonwealth, if very busy, and having taken Luna's advice to heart Harry, prince or not, not only kept up with his magical and Force training regimen but improved on it.

When he was not otherwise engaged he could often be found arguing magical theory or practicing with Neville and Nic. He also persevered with gaining skills from the information that they were still recovering from Ossus.

He also was able to solve one of the mysteries, at least in part, that had plagued magical history. It turned out that contrary to what they normally did the magical community had got something right.

The beings known as House Elves, along with Dementors, had once been of the same race.

They were once known as Atlanteans but, as the still unnamed cataclysm had begun to ravage their homeland, some who were otherwise blameless tried to make themselves part of the Earth's magic to survive while others continued the arts that caused the problem in the first place and were cursed.

The cursed of course became the Dementors but the others were much more interesting to Harry. Using magic in a way and scale that had never before been attempted, along with the largest ritual anyone had ever conceived, that had not been attempted since they had begun to shed their physical forms and had intended to become at least part living magic.

They had succeeded to a point but the few thousand that had been involved couldn't agree, at a critical moment, what exactly they would look like or what they would do so Mother Magic in her infinite and infantile wisdom had turned them to her purpose.

That was how House Elves were born.

A life of service for an unspeakable crime that was still not spoken of and had caused the destruction of their famous island. This helped Harry because, though they couldn't use it, they were able to teach Harry, Luna and Neville (as the incumbent Grandmagi) certain spells and secrets that would have otherwise been lost under the angry waves thousands of years ago.

They each, by unspoken agreement, learned the words slowly and carefully with each starting at a different collection of words to maximise their learning.

He had also modified the interior of the Patience to carry the Daring, a top of the line speeder, as he had learned that often speed of action counted more than forethought and planning.

This was especially true when searching out and possibly encountering new Jedi or Sith ruins or finding lost techniques on the Force (especially Holocrons) as there were almost always other interested parties.

Luna, for her part, tolerated her new husband's wonderlust and even joined him on occasion knowing that Harry was the type of person that always had to be doing something and that every so often that meant literally going somewhere.

As much as he had accepted it sometimes it was also a relief for him to go somewhere where he was not the Silver Prince. These infrequent journeys allowed him that space to breathe and, more often than not, he was also able to bring back something useful.

The only major downside, that he was aware of, was the disappointingly few runic arrays that worked on his ships though they had mostly solved that problem.

The Mark I's and II's had been stripped of almost all magical enhancements such as their clusters of runes while the ones on the in the Bluebirds and the Starbursts had been limited and refined to rely on the user's magic and not overtax the systems they powered at a loss of power to the enhancements.

Thanks to the magical nature of the N.A.S. (thanks to the relatively small power drain when compared to other methods) when R&D had finally worked out the proper expansion charms all fighters were equipped with both bombs and missiles creating a fully functioning and truly unique fighter bomber hybrid.

They had compensated for the lack of runic protection by adding extra diamond and phrik coated (at least at a microscopic level) armour to the outside of their hulls. While this was not as good as the shields could have theoretically become if the runes had ever worked properly they did save the Mark I's and II's from being destroyed from a single direct hit from a larger weapon.

Most fighters were, especially by ones that hit the cockpit directly, but all of the diamond fighters could take two head on impacts with before being destroyed if the cockpit itself was not truly breached. Naturally both the Bluebirds and the Starbursts were given the benefit of both the new weaker runic shielding and the new armour.

The larger ships didn't fare much better. In fact, due to the larger and more powerful charms and runes needed, the problems for them were exacerbated over a thousand fold but at great length a solution of sorts was discovered.

In the new design the ships hull armour was increased by a minimum of twenty percent and the engines, though top of the line, were unmodified by spells or runes. Instead of shield modifying runes they had used the less troublesome expansion runes to install a second redundant shield system but that, in and of itself, was not where the real genius of the new design lay.

When he first came to Bluestone and began his 'tinkering' he had come across heat conversion runes initially designed to boost the heat of a forge by converting some of the excess light.

Later similar versions were used in the Hogwarts Express to help it move faster and when he had taken the idea to Nic R&D had taken the idea apart and set to using the underlying principles for their own purposes.

It had taken years but this backup plan (as it was nowhere near as easy to implement as their original design had been) was put in motion. First they stripped all but the most basic standard heat absorption technology from all offensive armaments on the larger ships.

The next step was the simplest and the most tedious in that they then used heat conversion runes to turn the excess heat into power and though they had yet to design some sort of battery to enable the power to be sent anywhere (though that was still the long term goal) they had used a series of cables sunk underneath the deck to send the variable flow of power into the shield recharge system. There were also several heat sinks that would activate in case of unforeseen issues.

Essentially the more their warships fired the quicker the shields would recharge and that, combined with the second shield that would kick in if the primary shields fell below thirty percent, meant that when in combat his ships effectively tripled their shield life at a minimum as long as the weapons were firing. When one shield was active the other was charging after all.

At this point in time the only great worry left for someone on Spero was something that Harry himself had no idea about.

-LAFA-

In his modest home on the other side of the city Nicolas Flamel was sitting in a comfortable chair and drinking some very nice whiskey and mulling over a very particular problem as his wife slept contentedly upstairs.

It had been years and yet both his spy network and Augusta's own people had not been able to find any proof, one way or the other, that Hermione was acting out of anything but her own will. He had even asked Luna to meditate on it, several times in fact, but the Force was silent.

He also had many other things to do and many other responsibilities than find news on one wayward girl, no matter who she was or how deeply some cared for her, as did everyone else involved in the Commonwealth's wellbeing really.

He had to create, expand and run his ever growing spy network for one. With over three hundred worlds in the Commonwealth it was a monumental task and that was only the internal spy network as the external one was both far far larger and much more difficult to manage.

He had used all of his skill at politics and double dealing that had managed to keep himself and his wife both alive and hidden from those that would steal his stone throughout the centuries and the thin and almost imperceptible tendrils of his will, of Harry's will, were moving deeper and deeper into the Republic even now.

Given the timeframe between when he had first discussed the idea of leaving the planet with Harry and his wife until now he was astounded by how things had evolved. Spero had moved from simply a place for the disenfranchised to go but it wasn't as easy as simply snapping your fingers and making things happen.

It had been a lot of hard work and toil as well as many long days to get to this point but he treasured them all. Now the once empty world was at the heart of a growing power that not only fought for but protected those under their care.

He had enjoyed watching all of the people grow into who they had become. Neville had come far from the shy wizard that he started as, diligently applying himself as much as possible, to become the Grandmagi and thereby representing all of the Magi on the Royal Council.

Luna, aside from helping him (or trying to) with his research into Hermione's situation, was training as many Force Sensitives as she could as well as helping his own wife with the Commonwealth's schooling.

Thanks to the new schooling system (that enabled Force Sensitives to be trained around regular schooling) and the fact that, far from discouraging relationships, the Commonwealth actively encouraged the marriage of all those with gifts including its potential and future Knights so much so that within a few generations the Knights might even be able to rival the Jedi Order in terms of numbers it was an ever increasing struggle to find enough teachers for all of the new citizens.

This in turn had brought Pernelle into the equation. Unlike the Jedi they didn't train the Force Sensitives from birth but taught basic classes in control and simple applications from the age of four until eleven.

After that and with the input of the families involved (as well as combining the Elves new Forced based form of Occlumency and Jedi learning cantrips) they decided if the path of the Knight or Healer was for them and similar time scales were used for those with different lifespans to humans.

Needless to say they took a similar path with the Magi born and though the Magi's initial training was longer as they could not employ both learning techniques the training of a Knight from padawan stage (which began when they made their choice and a master was found) usually took around six years though it could be as short as four or as long as ten.

The constant support of friends and family, contrary to the Jedi view, had enabled those that decided on that path to flourish and gain a better grounding for both their studies and the life of service that lay ahead of them.

Loathe as Nic was to ever credit the Sith with anything he found that they had a point in trying to choose more experienced students than their counterparts,if not for the same reasons as the Commonwealth did, as most of them had historically been world weary and slightly corrupted adults to begin with.

Even at the tender age of eleven those that chose the path to knighthood had more of a sense of self and their place in the Galaxy than the average Jedi Padawan had years later.

The person that had impressed Nic the most however was Harry himself and that was the crux of his current problem.

He moved to the bookcase that was next to his chair and pulled down the Knights Way and took a moment to caress both the the simple cover (only a small silver star on a black background) and the first page tracing the words of their code even as he muttered it.

"Emotion, yet peace" his soft voice broke the silence even as it continued "ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Striving to master fear and understand power. I am the heart of the Force. I am the revealing light and the mystery of the darkness. I am the balance, first and foremost, between chaos and harmony. Immortal in the Force".

Speaking the words, though they could not apply to his life in the same way as would a Silver Knights, helped focus his thoughts more on Harry.

The man had thrown himself into the role of the Silver Prince with the same gusto and enthusiasm that he had done with everything else. He had done so with such force in fact that Nic had to wonder, knowing the pressures of his less hectic but still exhausting schedule, when his friend and irreplaceable sometime student the Prince found time to sleep.

One of the first things that Harry had done was to organise the recovery of as many Holocrons as he could that were left over from the ancient evacuation (especially those that were housed in the Chamber of Antiquities).

From these Harry had recovered the ancient Je'daii Code and formulated both the new code that was in the Knights Way but also, with the help of Luna, wrote the book in its entirety to help reinforce and instruct in regards to the lessons that each prospective Knight must learn.

He held the book reverently and though he couldn't use it he was, first and foremost, a scholar and loved books and enjoyed the fact that he was given the very first finished copy.

To some, he thought, the book was simply mystic mumbo jumbo or simply a series of in depth philosophical lessons and quite frankly beyond me outside of the basic concepts but I can't deny its effectiveness.

Aside from all of that Harry was not only the overall leader of the Commonwealth but a very active one as well especially in and around Spero.

He would help, using his gifts, in the construction. He would teach, as a guest, at local primary schools and help design and test new designs for his ships and he had even spent some time with the Army and sparing with all of the Padawans and Knights that passed through whenever he could as well as maintaining his relationship with Luna.

If Nic himself was the eyes of the new Commonwealth and his wife (among others) was its conscience then Luna and Harry formed its heart and head easily. His only real gripe with the pair was that they had refused to have a child, an heir, straight away.

They preferred instead to rely on the tried and true method of blood bags and clones to secure their legacy for now as they currently felt no rush to have children at this present moment in time.

Still, Nic thought going back to the issue in his mind, given everything that we have all been through together and the fact that Luna and I have hit dead ends we should probably inform him of her suspicions and soon at that.

He resolved himself then and there to speak to Luna and together they would, after perhaps another month of searching and rechecking their information, tell Harry about her suspicions.

They would have to wait at least that long to fully go over everything and to make sure, one last time, that they couldn't do this themselves and he had the feeling that no matter what they found Hermione's fate would hurt both Harry and her parents.

By the time that they resolved to act would come upon them it would be too late however as the conversation that they would both agree to later that day would never have the chance to occur.

-LAFA-

The Lord of Scotland sat behind his desk and surveyed his current domain in what was once the office for the Headmaster of Hogwarts and was now his as the undisputed Lord and Ruler of Magical Scotland.

Since the fall of the rightful government (at least in their view) the Ministry of Magic many people had fled to Hogwarts to regroup seeing the ancient bastion as the one truly safe place left for them.

Then the muggle Queen's agents had erected a barrier that stopped them leaving.

The Lord of Scotland ran a calloused hand over his lined face fully aware that years ago, even with his extenuating medical circumstances, his face had not been so careworn and there also wasn't as much white in his hair as there was now.

That nasty barrier, he thought bitterly, has caused us so many problems. Everything from food to basic accommodation was impacted by that fucking thing and that was only the beginning of our troubles.

Even now, he knew, enemy 'Royal' Wizards and self entitled muggles crossed the barrier and actively stole their future kind (the young magical children) from them as often as they could and though they were rarely successful every single drop of magical blood that was lost was of great concern.

Thanks to Hogwarts impenetrable wards they had managed to survive however.

They had even managed, as a society, to adapt to the loss of House Elves though it had more impact than expected as most took for granted what they had done. Any muggleborn above the age of four that was found had their magic bound and were forced (along with their parents) by spells, potions and rituals to become the servants that they were always meant to be as were the squibs.

Then they were forcefully bred with all but the first magical born from each union suffering the same fate.

Of course this fate only applied if they were able to get to their houses before the rebellious scum and often that was a very close run thing as they seemed to have a detection device on par with the Hogwarts Book itself.

They were closer to their targets than their enemy but, due to their circumstances, said enemy was better equipped, trained and generally outnumbered them.

The few fully trained half bloods that had entered after the time of change or had been at Hogwarts at the time had been given the choice of accepting the new regime or serving it in a new way.

Those that had refused the new order of things or failed to adapt to it had served by being ritualistically bound to the wards enabling them to be strengthened and expanded.

This allowed the majority of his people (or at least those he deemed the least useful which was most of them) to settle the land around Hogwarts in relative safety and eventually become mostly self sufficient.

Those that had accepted had either been allowed to manage their Houses or in the case of those without a title had, along with those muggleborns under the age of four or the first born of the servants, been magically adopted by 'proper' families and as a result their base makeup had been altered to closely match that of their parents but allowed enough genetic diversity to lower the chance of squibbing dramatically.

It was a hard fought battle, especially at first, to form this new society and many had wanted to capitulate or assume the role of leadership instead of him but none of them were suitable to his mind. More importantly, it turned out, none were trained by Dumbledore in the arts of misdirection, subterfuge and politics.

And he had learned his lessons well after all it was not Nott, Avery, Rookwood, Malfoy or even Snape that had ever been Dumbledore's heir but him instead.

Before the Great Catastrophe he had only been, to the majority of people anyway, a minor pureblood of an insignificant house (that had disowned him) and it was only Dumbledore's intervention between his first and second years that had opened the eyes of the lonely little boy that he once was.

Of course it helped that the old man had cured his 'affliction' and, when he added his many years of secret tutelage under the man, it had enabled him to eventually rise to the position of leader of all of his kind.

Truly, he thought, the wise man was more of a father than mine ever was or ever could be.

Using the lessons that he had been taught throughout his life by his spiritual father he had adopted an unassuming guise, something that he had a great deal of practice at, he had followed those peoples attempts at scrabbling for power with detached interest.

He had even helped Nott poison Avery and then assured that the evidence of that (minus his own involvement of course) found its way into the hands of the eldest Malfoy and let him know quietly that it was he who sent the information earning himself favour at the same time as incriminating Nott.

When the inevitable battle between Malfoy and Rookwood (a cousin of the more famous Death Eater and head of the family) had begun he had planted weaknesses in Malfoy's own camp as he quietly switched sides. He had done it so well in fact that Rookwood thought that his defection was his own idea.

The Lord of Scotland had learned that important lesson a very long time ago. The easiest way to get your own way was to make someone think that it was their own idea and not yours.

Needless to say Malfoy's fall from grace was swift, vicious, and one that the man didn't survive. In fact, by the end, the Lord of Scotland vividly remembered that he had begged for death many times and seemed to welcome the death that was his due like a lover when it finally came.

He had then gleefully stabbed Rookwood in the back with a basilisk fang as the man turned in wild celebration of their victory and, in that way, ascended to his rightful place as the undisputed leader of all magical people and claimed (at least theoretically) to be the leader of Great Britain.

This was a title that, as Dumbledore's heir, he claimed and not only deserved but would make as true as his current Lordship of all of Magical Scotland or he would die trying.

His hand moved slowly, caressing the desk that was both his and Dumbledore's, before opening a hidden compartment and removing two vials knowing that the majority of his successes were because of these (even though one was empty) and because of that fact he found that he liked to take them out every now and again and look at them.

To him they were not just reminders of both the past and how they got to the present day they were also his trophies and a vivid reminder that his work was not finished yet. It couldn't be finished until his dream, Dumbledore's dream as well, was realised and all of the United Kingdom (not just Scotland) recognised his leadership and submitted to his power.

He conjured a tea set and poured the last small amount of the remaining liquid from the second vial into one of two cups and then added tea to both.

Then all he had to do was wait for his guest to arrive and thought more on the days before his rise when he was just a quiet unassuming man and (in secret) Dumbledore's ideological heir.

She has been my greatest servant, he thought proudly, and all it took was a regular dose of a combined loyalty and trust potion at first.

The fact of the matter was that potions of that type were much more effective if there was some element of the emotions they inspired already to work with and she had always had a weakness for authority figures and bookish people.

That was what had caused her to seek him out after all when Harry had told her his incredible story. It was also the reason that the small voice in the back of her head, so bound and befuddled by the potions, that told her to trust and believe in Harry was silenced.

Under the potions grip, renewed in her system right after she was released from healing after the Department of Mysteries battle and pronounced whole by the Mediwitches (as they couldn't risk the potion being detected by them at that time), she had broken with her long time friend and joined the cause of the true masters of magic.

That however was not the potion that had been in the vial he just emptied.

That standard, though admittedly extra strength, loyalty potion had only lasted until just after she had arrived here as despite repeated doses her magic and mind (which were both very strong in their own right) sought to fight it off with every iota of her being.

Then had come the second vial (the one that he had just emptied). Not quite a potion and not quite an alchemical compound it also happened to be Dumbledore's last great (and secret) achievement.

Though he was many things the Lord of Scotland was no alchemist nor did he have any versed in the rare art in his kingdom. Dumbledore had also left no notes on its creation and, in all honesty, his opinion of Dumbledore would have fallen a bit if he had. So with great sadness he would never be able to make more.

It did however serve its purpose even if this was to be the very final dose and he had greatly enjoyed the fringe benefits.

He knew that originally Dumbledore had planned for this invention to be used on Harry Potter. At the time he had been fine with that though personally he thought that this would have been a monumental waste even before Harry had disappeared as, apart from anything else, he didn't share Dumbledore's proclivities.

It was far more powerful and long lasting than any standard loyalty potion and this draught, with just over fourteen standard doses which he had carefully rationed for maximum effect, lasted an entire year with each application and due to its hybrid nature could not be fought off by the subjects own magic.

It warped their mind in such a way that, though they could still think and reason with almost perfect clarity, they became utterly and completely devoted to the person that gave it to them and no matter the illogical nature of any statements they might utter or requests they might make they were seen as right in all that they did.

Hence our traditional anniversary custom of morning tea every year, he idly thought even as the door to his private office opened to admit one Hermione Granger, I wonder if anyone else would appreciate the delicious twist once the potion ran its course as much as I do or Dumbledore would have.

"My Lord" Hermione said while taking a seat.

The reverence in which she held the man before her knew no bounds and that was clear in her worshiping tone and practically screamed by her body language. He was everything to her, her light, her life and more than that her entire reason for being.

"Have you succeeded?" He asked and, as always, the timbre of his soft voice sent delicious shivers down her spine as well as up from her most private of places even as she almost physically ached to hear it again.

"Yes my Lord" She replied even as he smiled and it felt, to her, as if her entire being was being slowly filled with gentle light as if he was some great sun hitting her after she had spent years in shadow.

He drank his tea while watching her and she, the ever dutiful servant, did the same to hers while unknowingly reinforcing his control over her for the final time.

Though there was not a full dose left the Lord of Scotland was content that the insidious brew that she ingested would last long enough to suit his purposes.

"Explain" he commanded and she knew, deep in her bones, that she could never refuse anything he asked.

"We have finally managed to dig a tunnel deep enough and long enough to reach where the wards are weakest. Whoever designed this runic array was a genius though as the hole that we have made keeps trying to repair itself and does so far quicker than we could ever have imagined. They did however overlook one thing on the other side of the barrier and it is something a small team could take advantage of".

"How small?" He asked.

"Five people at the most could go before the ward repairs itself and snap back into place. It is exhausting for us to continually repunch the hole and I doubt we could do it more than one more time before the wards adapted to this avenue of attack. Like I said the traitor that designed this was a genius and I wouldn't risk any more than five even with the speed of apparition on our side".

"Explain your plan and what they missed in detail" he commanded softly though, by her reaction, he knew that she took it as an almost holy requirement.

As she did the man's smile, which she was unwittingly forced to adore, which grew wider and fuller until it was almost as if he had to hold himself back from laughing in delight. He did, of course, give her his permission to lead the team when they left the next day.

She was, after all, his most devoted.

"You do know" he began, after she had finished and was sitting calmly for either dismissal or his next orders, and with a familiar (to her) look in his eyes "that my wife, the Lady Daphne, is away tonight?"

Desire flooded her at the insinuation in the voice of the man that she thought everything of and, to her mind, the fact that he was married to the former Daphne Greengrass meant nothing so long as she could please her beloved lord.

The Lord of Scotland idly wondered if he should transform and take her that way but decided against it as today was not a tuesday.

He then took her hand, even as she began to tremble in pleasure simply at the idea of what awaited, and led her to his bedroom that was just off of his main office.

Dumbledore may not have approved of using his final elixir on Hermione but, with the man taken and presumably swiftly killed by Death Eaters, there was no one left to spoil his little bouts of fun.

Besides, thought the Lord of Scotland as he tore her shirt and skirt from her body harshly (she knew not to wear underwear) and roughly even brutally impaled himself in her arse, though Dumbledore had managed to tame the wolf and change it into my animagus form sometimes it is good to indulge that side of me even if I chose not to transform today.

As he animalistically and viciously pushed himself in and out of her warm tightness, to her cries of eager and pain filled pleasure, Remus Lupin smiled coldly.

He was the Lord of Scotland and the rightful ruler of all true magicals that still lived in this country. Even as he looked down upon the enrapture face of Hermione he couldn't find even the barest hint of pity for her.

Many were taken in by the finely crafted facade of Remus Lupin but he was different from his mentor who had guided him for so long before he had died. Where Dumbledore had focused on intelligence more than any other aspect he personally thought that it was nothing without the proper application of true cunning.

That was why he had no pity for the woman writhing beneath him. It was, after all, survival of the fittest and she had been found lacking.

Soon, he thought hammering his body into hers, I will take my rightful place.

Beneath him Hermione began her first squeal of pained orgasm (one of many to come) as he took what he wanted from her just as he always had.

-LAFA-

Harry was running to the Patience which was already being loaded with forty HP-60's along with Knights Silvereyes and Dalon (the former padawans of Luna were staying behind to help teach the new generation in their absence) as well as Luna herself.

The Silver Flame was not chosen to go as, aside from anything else, terrifying the population of the Earth as it entered the atmosphere or at least the United Kingdom was not really the point.

The reason for this hustle and bustle of activity was, simply put, that both Augusta Longbottom and Queen Elizabeth II were dead. Somehow the magical rebels had managed to slip past the wards protecting them and kill them both.

Worse than that as Augusta had been on a holocall with Neville at the time not only had he seen her death, quite suddenly and painfully at that, but he had also seen who was leading the team that had killed his beloved grandmother.

The face, contorted with hatred, of their former friend Hermione Granger had nearly broken Nevile as he struggled to reconcile the creature that she had become with the kind girl who had so often helped a shy young boy so long ago.

Needless to say that image of that twisted face was seared into both Harry's and Neville's memories for years to come.

Neville himself was, despite Harry's protests, also going back to Earth though in a sister ship of the Patience called the Orion. He would not (no matter what he thought as Harry had taken precautions) be facing Hermione in battle as he was too volatile and too emotional to fight her effectively and Harry didn't want another friend dead.

In the Orion travelling with Neville would be twenty goblin warriors and engineers whose main task would be taking down the Hogwarts impressive wards. They and their equipment made Neville's ship seem to almost burst at the seams even though it was less full of people (if you included the droids) than Harry's own

Both ships had cloaking crystals installed and powered as well as, in hidden chambers, a set of blood bags for both Harry and Luna as neither wished to attempt to connect with the ones in Commonwealth space as the sheer distance alone could cause any number of problems with the delicate system connecting them to each person.

The Commonwealth was also not willing to permanently lose its rulers either.

Unbeknownst to Harry there was also one other thing in the hidden compartment onboard the Patience. A state of the art medical and surgical droid called M.E-54 was tucked away and powered down awaiting Luna's orders.

They (Luna and Nic) honestly didn't know what was going on with Hermione but, using 54, they intended to get an onsite blood workup and, if possible, a brain scan to help fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

-LAFA-

When they landed Harry was glad. He could have said that it was a good thing to be away from all of the bureaucracy of being a prince (which he could never, try as he might, avoid) as opposed to something that was in some ways similar to his days as a wondering Jedi or that it was good for him to visit Earth one final time, no matter the circumstances, if only for closure.

All of that would have been, in part, true but his major feeling was simply that he was glad the journey was done. Travelling, even at the fastest speeds that his ships could manage, had more and more lead his thoughts back to where he came from and all of the work left that he planned to do.

Plus England was very tense right now as King Charles III was understandably incensed that his mother had been killed so violently and that feeling was only increased by the fact that (due to the magical word still being secret) her murder had been covered up and reported as a tragic car accident.

The new King was even more angry when, upon ordering Harry to deal with it, Prince Harry had agreed to do so but had also pointed out (rather bluntly as he hadn't appreciated the tone of the request no matter the circumstance) that Harry's oath had lapsed.

When Harry had sworn his oath he had not been stupid and, having been burned by governments ruled by a select few powerful families before, had sworn his oath to Elizabeth Windsor not to Queen Elizabeth II or the crown itself.

It was such a small change and, not being overly familiar with the natural loopholes in magical oaths, they had let the change pass unremarked.

Worse for the new King, as he had not yet had his official coronation, he could not demand a new oath as to magic such symbols were important and would not recognize Charles authority over the entirety of his bloodline until he became officially the head of his house.

Which for monarchs meant a official coronation though he could currently renew old ones that were still bound to the Crown as the next in line.

Harry had landed the Patience at Bluestone as it was the nearest place that he both felt was safe enough to leave the ship and near enough to England that travel there was relatively easy. He might have used Longbottom manor but it was both too public and had already been breached once by Hermione's forces.

As soon as Harry was sure that his team was assembled and fully equipped he wasted no time in making a speech or otherwise checking his teams as they all knew their assignments and were all well rested from their journey.

They swiftly took portkeys made by their own engineers and landed by the squat grey stone building that made up the Royal School for Magic.

He couldn't help but notice that, at least in the look of it, it paled to Hogwarts as it was not so much a great castle as what could only be described a massive long grey slug that completely suffocated the ground on which the old Ministry of Magic had once stood.

There they were met by over fifty trained Royal Wizards and thirty more goblins all armed for battle. To Harry only the goblins were sensibly armed and in full kit as the wizards, by and large, were armed solely with their wands.

Even his HP-60's had been equipped better than that as rather than being armed with their standard blaster rifles they mostly carried light repeaters instead. To use an Earth analogy they had exchanged their rifles for light miniguns which were slightly less accurate but had a prodigious rate of fire.

The Auror's were led by Master Auror Mcmatthew, a young but already heavily balding man at twenty four, with watery blue eyes and traces of mousey brown hair on his head.

The Nation's contingent was led by Cracktooth (so named for an unfortunate incident when he was a young pup and an angry but immature dragon had headbutted him) and both smarty saluted him as he and Luna approached with their own people.

"Do we know what happened?" Harry asked in a no nonsense tone cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

"The Longbottom wards were at peacetime settings and someone managed to use a nasty trick to confuse those wards into believing that they were family members and not to be harmed in any way" stated Cracktooth. He then continued to speak with a grudging note of respect in his voice "it was both skillfully done and planned well in advance".

After a pause when everyone digested this information he moved on to the other attack "At the same time two highly trained assassins managed to break into the Queen's private audience room and managed to kill both her and the head of the Royal Wizards who she was having a meeting with. That the two attackers both died in accomplishing their task is cold comfort at the moment though it does mean, according to our analysis of the ward breach, that the enemy strike team is down to three".