17

XXXIII. Awareness

In muggle parlance, there is a concept known as solipsism, which means viewing the world as if you are the only mind or being that is certain to exist. While of some interest to philosophers and similar navel-gazers, few things are more foolish than treating others as lacking agency and their own complex motives. That is how you get betrayed from the inside or completely shocked by attackers on the outside- that is not to say you can't manipulate others, just remember that everyone is always after something.

Harry had mixed feelings about the upcoming summer- he was looking forward to spending some time with Astoria, of course (Margaret's mood seemed rather sour when she put that on his schedule) but unfortunately, there was the matter of ICW business.

As it turned out the introduction of a new magical nation wasn't that common, meaning there wasn't even the potential fun of someone giving their speech and making their flag and all that business.

Now he could recognize some people though- the Koxinga nodded politely at him- and several others recognized him. The representatives from Japan and Peru had thanked him privately before the whole thing began.

Then it was just a matter of suffering through the politicking- and people took note of the political preferences of one Mr. Potter. He had a few subjects he was very impassioned about, and would consistently vote for laws or resolutions that protected the dignity of intelligent magical creatures.

Of course, people began to take that into consideration, and started considering if they might be able to win Potter over for their own proposals by supporting things he liked…

Generally, it was a touch boring. But it was Harry's responsibility. Not one he had asked for, but Harry was very familiar with the concept of stepping up to the plate for things he didn't really sign up for. He could suffer through the political song and dance if it meant improving the quality of life of magical creatures around the world.

Astoria was waiting for Harry to meet her at Diagon Alley- it was only a few steps away from muggle London, after all. She was starting to worry that Harry wouldn't show, and she had no idea if the dress she was wearing was actually anything like muggle fashion and…

The squawk of a bird broke her out of her contemplation. It seemed like a fairly normal crow at first, other than the slightly disheveled feathers on the head and the distinctively green eyes…

Animagi weren't supposed to have multiple forms, but she supposed that Harry Potter was always doing unexpected things like that. It flew over the top of the Leaky, and Astoria followed- Harry probably wanted to avoid the attention when he could.

Opening the door to muggle London was a bit of a shock- all those car thingies, going so fast, and all the people… Thankfully, she found Harry, and quickly took his hand. She certainly didn't want to get lost, after all…

"Harry!" She chirped.

"Astoria! I'm glad you could make it. Did your father…"

"Oh, Dad came around eventually." She smiled serenely- thankfully, Mum was willing to help win him over, on top of preparing her dress.

"Do you think he still dislikes me?"

"Oh, he was just playing it up a bit- you cured me, after all." She leaned into him a little as they walked through London.

"I'm glad you're alright, Astoria."

"You can call me Tori, if you like." She suggested.

"Alright then, Tori." She could feel her cheeks turning a brilliant red, despite the fact that she suggested the nickname. Gah.

After a bit of searching, they settled down for dinner at an Indian place.

"It's not too far from the genuine article." Harry said.

"You've had the real thing?" Astoria asked. "Like, in India?"

"Yeah- I'm used to it being a touch spicier, though…"

"Do you think I could come on some of your trips?" Astoria asked hopefully.

"Sure." Harry said. "I figure your parents want you to finish Hogwarts, though?"

She nodded. "But could we do something this summer?"

"I wasn't planning much, but if you'd like…"

She managed to get him to talk a little about the boat for a bit before the check arrived. With a confident grin, she took it, reaching for her coin purse and flushing- in all her excitement, she hadn't gone and exchanged her Galleons for pounds.

Harry chuckled and pulled out a muggle wallet.

Unfortunately, father wasn't quite on board (so to speak) with the idea of Astoria being all alone on a boat with Potter. Thankfully, with a bit of begging Astoria managed to negotiate her chaperone down to Daphne instead of Mum. (Daphne still gave her a funny look when Harry called her Tori, though)

She also managed to get a slightly more expensive tour of the island, and it definitely didn't disappoint. The library (and attached printhouse) were remarkable, and Astoria was slightly embarrassed to realize that she was listed quite prominently in the acknowledgements section of Harry's book.

Harry introduced them to his subjects (even if he danced around using that word or anything like it) including the Selkie woman, Agathe, and a woman that Astoria might have called Harry's secretary- Margaret. (Astoria was under the impression that the vampire didn't like her very much)

Daphne seemed interested in all the potions ingredients that were being grown in the significant gardens, although her composure cracked when faced with the acromantulas in the basement. Her mood seemed slightly brighter when she saw the beautiful fabric the silk was being processed into- and it got even better after seeing the amounts of venom Doggerland was collecting.

(Daphne was imagining the amounts of money they could make if she got in on the venom import business…)

Then there was the matter of the portal thing that attached the island to Harry's ship. It certainly worked, even if the sudden transfer from dry land to a rocking ship sent Astoria stumbling into Harry in a way that she swore wasn't intentional.

The inside of the ship wasn't too odd, at least as she could tell- although the ghosts were unusual. She was sort of used to them, though, courtesy of Hogwarts. The thoroughly menacing sounds coming from the engine were… less pleasing, but she had to admit that it was a very nice boat- more than big enough for her taste.

Of course, there was also the matter of their destination- India. It was definitely a little shocking to have walked less than a hundred feet, but to so obviously be somewhere completely different, down to the weather…

"Where are we?"

"Pondicherry." Harry said. "I've been investigating some legends about Kumari Kandam…" seeing their looks of confusion, Harry explained. "A sort of… Tamil Atlantis, I think?"

"Is it real, you think?"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe? I'm not even sure if Atlantis is real- I can't exactly make educated guesses when I barely understand the language." Of course, this was assuming it wasn't already found and made unplottable, or if it was just still inhabited.

"I'd like to find out with you." Astoria could almost feel Daphne rolling her eyes.

Harry had gotten relatively used to feeding the vampires, and their slightly arbitrary feeding schedules. Some of them were mostly content with taking blood from the bank, infrequently requesting it straight from the source- but a few were a touch more… needy. If one of them needed to pull him aside for a few moments, he could tolerate that.

In fact, he had it down to something of a process, just pulling up his sleeve and waiting- so it came as a bit of a surprise when he felt Margaret's fangs sinking into his neck instead of his upper arm. Harry jumped a little at first, but it didn't seem like she was on the attack… or maybe it was just the funky magic of the bite talking.

After a few moments she pulled back and started giving profuse apologies- all "I beg your pardon, my prince," and that sort of thing- she was typically hesitant to pull out the my prince card, because she knew he found it exasperating when people started really bowing and scraping. Was she trying to distract him?

He had to wonder if vampires had preferred spots for taking blood- he chose the upper arm just because it was easy to hide, but did that cliche of going for the neck have some meat behind it? It would probably be a good spot to go for if you were hoping to incapacitate, but that definitely wasn't what Margaret had intended on doing...

He supposed he couldn't begrudge Margaret a little indulgence here and there (if it was a matter of taste and not some weird attempt at marking her territory, which he suspected it was)- she was dependable, despite the little Prince of Doggerland kerfuffle- his main issue was hiding what was basically a massive vampire hickey. And it was summer, so he couldn't even wear a scarf…

Some part of him almost wondered if he would get another invitation to that vampire-human group in America… It was almost that time of year again, and he was sure his new (and he desperately hoped temporary) marks would make him fit right in.

Harry was generally very hands off when it came to managing the island- he understood that the last thing most of his people wanted was a government breathing down their necks. Other than making sure that their needs were met and any… special conditions like lycanthropy were handled, they could do whatever they wanted.

If anyone really governed, it was the vampires- not really in an intentionally subversive way though. The thought process was something more along the lines of "a maid should run things so well the master should never have to worry about their household". This was just a logical extension of that, even if the household encompassed an entire country.

And a household should be run profitably- or at the very least, income should exceed outcome. This was actually something of a possibility now, considering that they had actual industries.

The most obvious was probably the presses, and even with a non-insignificant cut of the book sales going to the Lovegoods, they were still making money off of Harry's book. Unbeknownst to the Prince (who couldn't exactly divine the hobbies of every single member of the island's growing population) he wasn't the only hopeful author on the island, so there was some definite promise for Dogger Presses.

Then there were the acromantulas, who more than made back the costs of buying the occasional sheep or pig to feed them. Milking their venom was a difficult process, but they were willing to tolerate it in exchange for heaping helpings of offal. The acromantula silk clothes were, at the moment, only available for the people of Doggerland, although some citizens had interests in selling overseas.

The Kitsune, when not busy causing mischief, were more than happy to collaborate with George Weasley when he came by to toss around ideas. That was, of course, the only reason that George ever felt the need to visit the Kitsune, and there were definitely no ulterior motives whatsoever, other than pranking & profit. Absolutely.

Their gardens were fairly fruitful too, and could eventually provide a profit when the produce was sold. Alchemy was still something of a money sink, but the vampires were quite wealthy, even if they insisted on still doing the maid thing.

Of course, Harry, being the benevolent despot he was, approved all of their money making ideas as long as they wouldn't cause harm. They had already been greenlit by the vampires beforehand, though- it would simply be shameful to waste the good master's time on silly pursuits.

The good master was far too busy to worry about trifles like accounts and finances; of course, they had a goblin to help with their finances- he could still appreciate making numbers grow even if it wasn't for Gringotts.

George still tried to make time to eat with his family- anything was better than a quiet meal spent alone- but he had to admit that today's dinner would probably be a bit unusual. He had brought along a guest today, and he was admittedly a little worried about how his mother would react- it wasn't exactly every day that your son brought home a girl with several fluffy tails, after all. At the very least, it would be a riot.

Dad opened the door, smiled, and then just stared behind George. Oh, this was going to be good. He had almost convinced Chiharu to use a glamour to hide her tail and ears for a big reveal in the middle of dinner, but she wanted to be upfront about the whole thing.

Of course, it was hard not to be a little transfixed on the tail and ears if you had never seen them before…

"George…"

"Yes, father dearest?"

"Who is she?"

"Her name is Chiharu, and she's from Japan. She's a Kitsune."

Before Arthur could ask why kitsune women had tails- seven of them!- Chiharu meandered into the kitchen, and Molly reacted.

Once the initial "my son's girlfriend has a tail" shock wore off, Molly got along fairly well with the Kitsune, to the point that they were even sharing recipes before the day was up.

Ron took it pretty well, in part because he was kind of used to Harry surrounding himself with wacky shit. It sort of began to rub off eventually, Ron figured- he loved Harry like a brother, but the man was surrounded by crazy.

George then regaled them with tales of Harry's island- which weren't quite as bad as the paper had described in some aspects, at least.

Ginny's mood was evidently a little sour, and not just because Chiharu had very strict rules about who could touch her tail.

Mary- the vampire who had become Doggerland's librarian- was busy with a number of projects. She had long since set up a complex array of spells to keep the simple aspects of library management in place, leaving her plenty of time to pursue her own research when she wasn't helping someone else.

Of course, she never minded helping the good master research things like medicine… but wasn't it only natural to try to do something by herself? That something had included quite a lot of research and learning Mermish to interview the many who had settled around Doggerland. Unfortunately, this made her the go to person for hashing out any conflicts between the Mermen and literally anyone else, detracting from her research time, but the goodwill built up with the Mermen definitely helped.

Other than the decent sized book's worth of Mermish folktales and stories which she acquired- and got permission to publish and share, obviously- the main find was some fragmentary information on Atlantis, or at least what she thought might have been Atlantis. Sure, sunken cities in the Atlantic weren't exactly a dime a dozen, but she was currently taking her notes on top of a portion of the once sunken landmass of Doggerland, so…

She hoped that she could eventually get into contact with some other groups of Mermen, or other intelligent magical creatures of the water, so she could begin to build a case- she had too many possibilities to reasonably look into with just her information from the Mermen. Sure, Plato had said that the island of Atlantis sat just outside of the Pillars of Hercules- which was to say the Strait of Gibraltar- but Mary suspected he was also peddling a lot of garbage in that same volume.

Assuming it was real, it would be a discovery for the ages; although as long as she got her fair share of the credit (and the first claim on any surviving books or scrolls still left in the place) she would leave the loot to the good master. Perhaps attempting to claim the fame of discovery was unbecoming for an obedient servant such as herself, but she got the impression that Harry would be more than happy to shift the limelight onto her.

XXXIV. Outfits

While technically under the category of appearance, outfits in this context refers more to the uniforms worn by your staff. A significant part of your evil movement should be making it look good. You shouldn't object to the idea of going home with a witch or wizard dressed in such a uniform- if possible, make it a little hot. Don't be too on the nose with skulls or anything like that though.

As it turned out, acromantula silk had a number of useful properties, including, but not limited to the typical strength of silk. It was nowhere near as magic resistant as dragon hide, but the effect was noticeable, and of course it was unbelievably light.

It quickly went into the construction of clothes in a wide variety of fashions. Traditional kimono, flowing dresses, fairly simple work clothes… the vampire maids even requested new uniforms made of the substance, both out of practicality, and as a sort of fresh start.

(For the sake of time, the shockingly spirited debate on maid skirt length shall be omitted- in the end the long skirt camp prevailed, despite furious arguments for shorter skirts which were described as "borderline fetishistic" by their detractors.)

Unsurprisingly, Harry was the first one to get a full wardrobe, and he got a few special pieces the average person probably wouldn't require. With help from Redclaw the goblin, they were preparing a suitable birthday gift, one that could very well become an heirloom on its own: brigandine in Acromantula silk and goblin silver- Redclaw had learned the process before moving to Doggerland, and was inclined to share. He still held onto his people's conceptions of ownership, but that could be handled later.

In fact, Harry's birthday was looking to be a significantly larger event than it was last year- something more like a festival than a party. There were also a lot more invitations sent out when compared to the year before: for the Lovegoods, the Weasleys, the Greengrasses… Gabrielle begged for an invitation and the Veela on the island pleaded her case. Then there were individual guests like Neville and Hagrid...

Thankfully, Harry managed to keep Margaret from making the dress code formal, along with removing any mention of the word prince from the invites. If he couldn't use his royal authority to wear jeans during his birthday, what could he use it for? Well, they were acromantula silk jeans, but they looked like jeans- some of the Veela and Yuki Onna had gotten good at the whole dyeing and making clothes process.

On a related note, the Forbidden Forest was made a bit more Forbidden- in the sense that a complex medley of wards kept small children out of the deadly first. It also kept any larger, but still foolish children from trying to make a quick Galleon off of exceedingly dangerous acromantulas.

Considering that Hagrid was the groundskeeper of Hogwarts, and as such was the only person allowed to enter the forest regularly… Well, if Hagrid was the sort of half giant that was interested in profit he might have been capable of making quite a bit of money. But of course, these were Aragog's children- could he really exploit them?

It wasn't as if the idea of harvesting acromantula silk or venom was completely novel- it just happened that most people in Britain thought of terrifying monsters in the forest when acromantulas came to mind. Could you really farm them?

Well, all the logistical concerns of harvesting the poison and silk weren't really important if you couldn't get your hands on the source in the first place...

For several of Harry's guests, this was their first ever visit to the island, and descriptions didn't really do it justice- at least, the descriptions that Harry allowed to be published. The Greengrasses were already familiar with the place, while the Weasleys, Delacours, and Hagrid were not.

Hagrid, of course, was rather worried about his beloved magical creatures, but even he could admit that the castle was something else. Gabrielle was simply starstruck by the whole place, and while her father hid it better, he was clearly shocked by the scale of the castle as well. That wasn't even beginning to mention the inhabitants of the castle.

The party itself was a much bigger affair than last year's, and took place somewhere different as well: one of the courtyards had been covered up (to keep the vampires from crisping, obviously) but Harry had managed to pull off some slick magic that gave the appearance of it being a starry night. It gave the vampires a chance to cool it a little with the whole maid schtick- Kreacher could handle one party, thankfully. They, like most of the other residents of the island, were wearing silk- Harry did notice with some concern that the clothes were still shockingly uniform… rather like, well, uniforms.

Still, Harry was glad to see his people intermingling with 'outsiders': Mary and the Lovegoods were caught up in some complex discussion of myths and creatures that Harry didn't dare trying to keep up with, while Daphne and her father were discussing matters of agriculture and ingredients with the veela who tended to the plants and magical animals of the island…

"Happy belated birthday, Neville- I'll show you to your greenhouse later?"

"My greenhouse?" Neville sputtered.

"I can get it linked up with your house if you'd like- or you can just transplant the stuff I've got there. I don't really mind."

Once Harry had started explaining the process, Neville seemed rather on board with the whole thing, even asking if he could bring Hannah over for a few minor visits. Harry wasn't going to complain about company, even if he did have to wonder why Neville thought his eccentric friend's fortress-island was a good place for a date. Harry asked as such.

"Well, I'm hoping that she might be moving into the Longbottom Manor a bit more permanently, if you catch my drift…"

Harry grinned. "That's wonderful! How soon, do you think?"

Neville gulped. "Well, pretty soon… it would be pretty bad if we didn't get married in the next… seven months or so?"

It took a few seconds for Harry to connect the dots there, before he burst out laughing. "I'm not sure I could manage it, Neville- good luck."

"I think you'd do better than you think- you've got Teddy, don't you?"

"Andromeda's got Teddy." Harry clarified- he supposed he played a role, but it felt like he was more Andromeda's problem (sorry, child) than Harry's- he certainly wasn't the one wiping cake off of Teddy's face at the moment. "I couldn't imagine raising him by myself…"

"I think you'd be a better dad than you think- but have you given any thought to a potential mother?"

"Did George put you up to this?"

"Maaaybe…"

He couldn't really formulate a response immediately. Sure, Harry had figured he would get around to it eventually, but… well, he figured that he had kind of burnt bridges with Ginny. That wasn't to say there weren't other women who played a role in his life (quite a lot of them, in fact) but before he could put something like that into words, Neville got a stupid grin on his face.

Harry realized that he was beginning to get a number of funny looks from the other guests, especially at his neck… and he remembered that he had gotten one of the Kitsune to do the glamour which hid his rather obvious bite marks. Kitsune, who were rather fond of playing pranks.

Great.

A little break from the travelling (a vacation from his vacation, perhaps) made Harry all the more excited to get back on the case. Sure, he was looking into Kumari Kandam, but he also wanted to explore parts of India by flying carpet- he was sure he would only catch a very small portion of the things he could see in the country, but still.

Some part of him also felt a deep urge to climb Everest. Technically, with magic around, it was perfectly possible that it wasn't actually the highest peak in the world. Still, Harry wanted to climb Everest just because it was there, and he figured there were probably some neat temples or whatever in the area as well.