195 Ch. 194 Cleaning up the forest

The holidays were nice if somewhat tense at times due to the somewhat-war-time.

Mother's work as Minister of Magic took a lot of her time and was stressful, but she was still holding a rock solid position and Sirius was fantastic in helping her relax and enjoy life.

It made for a rather interesting situation as a large black dog ran around with a glowing red nose, Christmas hat, bells, and essentially farting snowflakes. That last one was Harry's payback for embarrassing him via a set of Succubus magazines with centerfolds with some similarities to the unattached witches in Harry's life.

Sirius was so proud of him for that little bit of charmwork.

Well, before mother glowered him into a transfigured doghouse for giving Harry porn.

Fun times.

Susan couldn't stop laughing until she noticed, a few days later, that one of the models had some suspicious similarities to herself and unleashed her own wrath, kickstarting a prank war which dragged everyone in, somehow including Remus Lupin, who was visiting, the Weasley twins, their explanation involved 'prank senses', Luna who wanted to look at all the sparkling fuzzers, her father, who was mainly a target as he kept trying to question mother about the ministry's Heliopaths, and then a rather jolly Headmaster, who liked throwing out candy and enjoying his remaining time, until Professor McGonagall showed up and ended up with pie in her face.

Her fury was a sight to behold, but I did not like the admiring look Victoria was giving her.

My husbandly goal of keeping my lovely wife as happy as possible seemed to gain some renewed importance after that show.

The good Professor did eventually calm herself after her lecture which included multiple generations of troublemakers and seeing mother feeling like a schoolgirl again.

Great pictures for future… enjoyment.

As the only ones who were not spotted pranking by the deputy headmistress and by being clean as whistles, Tory and I avoided the lecture, earning the glared of many others when they managed to sneak them in while receiving a lecture.

My wife and I looked the definition of innocence as our sparkling reputations whilst students bolstered our case against taking part in everything.

A Slytherin move, but the wisest at the moment.

Sirius, Remus, Harry and the Twins might avenge themselves another time, but for now we silently gloat victoriously.

Like I said, nice holidays.

The timely retreat back to our own home did wonders for avoiding immediate retribution and enjoying the remainder of our time in peace. Their vengeance would come someday though, I only hope it won't be too much as pranksters and mischief makers with time to plot was rather dangerous for a target.

Tory will probably get away due to no one wanting her personal meaning of revenge, but I'm likely a juicy target. Hard to get, known location and schedule, surrounded by many prank possibilities at nearly all time, almost like catnip for pranksters really.

Good thing I was away from most of them after the new year began.

Hopefully Sirius won't manage to bribe Dobby and Winky if he thinks to prank my home.

Regardless, time to get back to work.

Thanks to Christian's negotiations, with the help from the island herd, we managed to instill the actual rules of the land in the local centaurs and that we would be clearing the forest of truly dark and dangerous creatures, at least gaining some assistance in the effort.

My friend also helped with preparing the Merpeople just in case some dangers emerged from the Black Lake and its connection to the sea.

We had some affiliated tribes from the Atlantis sectors join in for the remainder of the school year.

It's being used as a good way to open up trade with the Black Lake residents and getting castaway parts/ingredients from the giant squid. Those buggers are quite rare, solitary and difficult to manage, so having one which is always in the same general area is useful.

James and I created a set of wards to essentially trap the majority of truly dangerous creatures in the forest, taking exceptional care to assure no Acromantula would escape to rebuild a new nest.

Tory readied various poisons with a surprisingly cooperative Snape. The man was almost showing visible signs of positive emotions at being able to create new poisons targeting specific species while not being harmful to the ecosystem, whether it be flora or fauna.

And I had to negotiate with the goblins and the Ministry regarding their assistance.

They would be extremely useful in combat, being close range fighters, but also near indispensable when it comes to the underground lairs Acromantula tend to create.

Goblin magic being more suited to metals than earth itself, but Britain had no true dwarf clans and I already had a positive enough relationship with the goblins, the positives outweighed the negligible difference for an operation like this.

Plus, i knew for a fact that the goblins would very much love a chance to blood themselves on dangerous opponents. Beyond the usual subterranean creatures and each other to change things up.

The only problems were dealing with those unhappy about goblins being allowed to walk the surface and being so close to Hogwarts, with some ambitious little shits from the goblin side needing to be put down to stop them trying to organize a damn kidnapping for glory and more rights.

Mother and I had headaches regarding idiots for days during these negotiations.

The ambitious goblins ended up dead for threatening children and insulting both the Goblin Nation's honor and the friendship between House Bones and it, while the Wizarding bigots 'suggested' that anyone who objected was to be the ones to replace the goblin manpower, match the predicted results of having them and pay for it.

Blood and gold really do run most civilizations.

But at least that solved the problem of having Direclaw and his company joining the forest cleaning.

They're a fairly green company, used as an opportunity for younger goblins to gain experience, learn the weapons best suited for them and to decide if being a full time warrior was for them, but Direclaw and his direct subordinates were old hands who had trained thousands over the decades and knew how to run a tight ship and make the best use of their inexperienced men.

On the wizard side of things, I had Oliver send in those with the most experience with dark creatures from Fortress.

Eastern Europe is a right mess by all accounts. Or it was before Fortress came in and at least stabilized the region.

You see, Eastern Europe has always been more… untamed than the majority of the continent. Forest filled with primordial magic and tainted by many archaic and sometimes downright gruesome magics, the non-magical side being in a constant state of chaos, corruption, war and overall poverty bleeding through to the magical one. Things became worst when large numbers of dangerous and intelligents beings began using the lack of strong government to establish themselves in the region, this resulted in packs of werewolves, covens of vampires, gathering of trolls, herds of Bicorn, some wild dragons, roaming Giants and all manners of less than pleasant beings. So the people there either had to get good at dealing with it all or move/die, they chose the former and until Fortress showed up to organize and train everyone, it had been a losing battle.

Now though, Fortress had some of the most knowledgeable and experienced dark creatures/beings experts and hunters in the world as a result of hands-on experience, formal training and specialized educations and support. A good number even went to obtain masteries in Magical Creatures and Defence against the Dark Arts to further improve.

It truly amazes me sometimes that my actions helped create such organizations and filled me with pride to continue observing them all climbing to new heights.

Pioneers of the Potion, Herbology and Care for Magical Creature fields, the biggest names in security, protection and news, subtle control of a magical government, and powerful voices for rights of various marginalized and even hated groups. Then add my creation for a new field of magic into the mix and you have a group capable of shaking nations with its influence.

And all of it is coming together to help this country enter a new era.

For tonight however, we had business to conduct.

With me in the operations room, borrowed office of the Exchange from Luna, were the leading members of our team beside the Centaurs.

From the ministry we had Senior Auror Hawke, Auror Rosier and the Golden Wand. They would lead official ministry forces from the DMLE and Department of Magical Creatures while acting as witnesses.

Fortress sent out their top Creature experts in the form of one Roman Drakoff, a gruff man with a square jaw, black hair and beard, intense brown eyes, and imposing physique and the pack leader for the tracker team of werewolves, Gabriel Ramos, a Spanish man with a charming face if one ignores the evident scarring, well coifed brown hair, dark blue eyes and an athletic build.

Then we had Direclaw and his second-in-command Gripsteel, both heavily armored and armed in goblin steel, carrying heavy shields and pole arms with swords as secondary weapons at their waists.

Beside me were James, Christian and Tory.

Christian came in to do a final sweep with his team to see how the forest would be affected after the operation, note any creatures and help the Ministry team.

James was going to be with me on the ward, control and ritual. Helping make sure nothing escapes and we can cleanse the forest back to its proper state.

And Tory was going to be the lead field medic alongside her team from St. Mungo's.

"My company will come from the northern mountains." Direclaw plainly stated without any way to fight it.

"That's fine. The Centaurs are taking care of the Eastern depths and the plains. That means we'll take the south." Hawke said with a nod of acknowledgement as they looked down at the map of the forbidden forest.

"That leaves the West to us." Roman grunted with crossed arms.

"And our team shall ensure to at least secure everyone's lives and the future prosperity of these lands." I declared.

"Then shall we all be off gentlemen?" Gabriel asked with a confident smile not commonly seen of most werewolves until a few years ago before he turned his eyes to Tory. "Ladies?"

"Keep it in your pants or I'll neuter you." She coldly glared in response to his suggestive voice.

"Not the best decision to try that on a married Lady and in-law to the Minister there wolfie." Elaine teased as the man gulped at the threat.

"Ha ha Indeed!" He nervously answered. "I'll go ahead first then."

And with that, he activated his portkey to his starting location.

"My apologies for the idiot Lord Bones, he gets randy at the worst times." Roman said in his deep voice and joined him with a quick bow.

"*snort* I'll go to my tent." Tory declared as she too left.

"Gentlemen." I bowed out as I activated my chain to the ritual location.

The location I had designated was actually the approximate center of the forbidden forest.

It had taken Christian a few days to reach it and help prepare the site, but we were ready.

This would be a rather different ritual than most.

You see, back in the older days, many belief systems had proper sanctification rituals inspired by true magical purification ones. These were used to cleanse individuals from tainted magics and influences, helping practitioners to maintain clean minds, bodies and spirits depending on the ritual used. Back when magicals weren't all content sheep and cowards who attempt to remove or ban everything they neither want to understand or learn, the study of magics considered dark were prevalent as magic itself was researched resulting in the need for people to clean residues from themselves or, in extreme cases, from some kind of explosive or corrosive fallout which tainted buildings and lands.

Now, these practices fell out of use as conflicts erupted between magicals, between countries and religions, but I managed to recreate and improve some, adding them to my new system of magic.

This particular ritual was designed with the goal of purifying land, magic and life on a large scale. It requires a powerful source of positive magic, in this case the centuries of pure developing magic seeped into Hogwarts, of untainted life, myself and Sol's flames, and the clear sky to oversee the land, being the cloudless full moon whose gentle rays will help wash away what it sees.

Of course various markings, supporting pillars and ingredients are involved, but the prior three are the biggest and most import. If this wasn't happening at Hogwarts, or somewhere else with great and 'innocent' magical strength, and I wasn't an extremely powerful Wizard with a super Phoenix for a familiar, then there would be no chance to purify so much land in one go.

"Things are going well." James said as he stood beside me.

Both of us could feel the general ongoings within the wards we controlled to help protect everyone.

"I Hope this'll help those arses in the Wizengamot take Goblins and Centaurs more seriously after this. Our relations with both are terrible." Christian commented as he gazed out into the forest, spotting flashes of magic and hearing roars of creatures.

"It won't be anytime soon, but this is a good start." I answered with a shake of my head. "Wizards simply aren't ready to unlearn their supposed superiority yet. Reforming our current education system would be an ideal place to start."

"Sounding like a true professor." Christian teased with a grin.

"Not a difficult thing to do in my position." I smirked in response.

"But would it truly work?" James asked with some hope.

We had all been in close contact with various magical races, but James would be the closest to two of them being together with one and a student of another. I, myself, am essentially a symbol of hope for werewolves while Christian is closer to the races more on the wild side like Merpeople and Centaurs.

Fixing the magical world's views and laws on this matter is something we feel rather strongly about.

"In time." I answered with a sigh. "We obviously can have laws passed to help the situation, but it doesn't mean the general population's established views will change.

Werewolves are still considered extremely dangerous even after everything I've done. Merpeople and Centaurs are going to be seen as savages. Goblins as subservient, money grubbing barbarians. House Elves as a lower life form which needs to obey and submit to any order.

You need to change those views from the root and that simply takes time and exposure to reveal lies and misconceptions."

"You know… Dumbledore is going to have some serious competition in the whole 'Leader of the Light' schtick if you keep saying stuff like that." Christian said with a raised eyebrow.

"I prefer to think of myself as Grey." I replied dismissively. "Everything needs to be balanced. Not too much darkness, not too much light."

"I can agree." He assented with a nod. "In nature death is likely the most intrinsic fuel for life. Something lives too long and it chokes out new life, just like a mighty tree dominates a hill alone."

"Just as the perfect blade must be balanced or alchemical creations measured." James added as we all looked at life in various ways due to our paths.

"We'll get there someday." I declared with certainty. "But for now, I believe we should do our jobs. Things are starting to get dangerous."

"I've got it." James said as he manipulated the wards and emergency portkeys more actively.

"I'll head out with my sweepers to make sure nothing escaped or was missed." Christian acknowledged with a nod before disapparating.

It took six hours of constant fighting within the forest, with dozens of magicals, close to two hundred goblins and just over one hundred centaurs to finally reach the desired results.

By the time all teams and members were accounted for, alive, dead or injured, and the sweepers declared everything cleared it was nearing 10 pm.

We had many wounded, and unfortunately more than a simple handful of dead. A good two dozen goblins and eight magicals were lost. We do not know about the Centaurs.

Unfortunate, but necessary and a long time coming.

The dead were already retrieved and things were being handled on that end.

I waited with Sol at my ritual, awaiting the peak of the full moon as the optimal time to begin.

And two hours later, it was time.

Under the eyes of many curious individuals, I used my flames to light the ceremonial torches.

"Spark of life for where death now holds."

The six circles filled with complex runes and geometric patterns began to glow a pale blue before the largest one they surrounded, followed suit.

"Touch of light to lift the darkness."

The moon itself began glowing bright as its gentle raise illuminated the forest as my magic thrummed with the nature.

"Forgiveness of the heavens to wash away sins on Earth."

My flames began to burn brighter and larger as the lunar rays empowered them, but also appeared extremely calm as they grew paler and paler, becoming the same silver color as the bright moon.

"And magic for magic to renew its wonders."

My final words activated the vast reserves of magic Hogwarts held, allowing me to channel and match the power gifted by the moon as Sol helped me control everything, guiding the immense but gentle tide.

And with both hands, I prayed as the silver flames rushed forward with the aid of the magic flowing through me. Spreading all around as it chased the darkness, smothered the taint and breathed new life and magic into everything from the blades of grass to the greatest trees.

And using one of the oldest hand signs in existence, prayer, I we became as instruments for magic and life itself.

It was a remarkable experience.

I truly don't know how long my prayer lasted, but once I felt magic settle, my flames wither and the moon's energy dim, I looked up to find the surrounding forest glimmering in as the magic infused plants glowing soft silver, blue and green lights.

A feeling of calm and peace washed over me as I felt in-tune with everything, my exhaustion nearly forgotten as the Forest seemingly welcomed and thanked me.

'I love magic.' I thought with a satisfied smile.