91 Chapter 91: A nation forged from war

"How dare you say this to me, Croaker?" Amelia thundered, her eyes blazing with fury as she stared down at the head of the Department of Mysteries, calmly sitting across from her on the other side of her desk.

"I know this is not what you wanted to hear, Minister, but you've got to come to terms with the truth. Harry Potter is lost to us." Croaker said in a monotone voice, largely unbothered by the outburst of the newly elected Minister of Magic.

Amelia continued to glare into the emotionless eyes of Croaker before she fell into her seat with all the strength leaving her limbs.

"Why? You promised everyone that you could return Harry Potter so long as you had access to Time Turners. What has changed Croaker? I need answers." Amelia asked.

"We've located Mr Potter, but retrieving him is now nearly impossible," Craoker admitted with a sigh. "On second thought, highly improbable might be the right words."

"Explain." Amelia demanded before taking a deep breath to calm down and think. "Wait a moment, Croaker."

Amelia immediately moved towards the fireplace and threw a handful of floo powder before dipping her face into the fire.

"Hogwarts Headmaster's office."

"Amelia! What a pleasant surprise. I…"

"Spare me the platitudes, Dumbledore. I have news to share about Harry Potter. You better come in haste." Amelia bit through her pursed lips before withdrawing her head from the fireplace of her new office.

The old office of the Minister of Magic was now sealed off under the most powerful barriers and wards the Department of Mysteries could employ. To the public, it was under the pretence of an ongoing investigation regarding Fudge's corruption and possible Death Eater connection. To sell it better to the public, she had to place Fudge in a detention cell in the Ministry. She had expected stiff resistance from Fudge's old colleagues and supporters but was greeted with dead silence. How long that'd continue was a relevant question, but she was willing to put that aside for the time being.

The floo lit up with flames, and Albus Dumbledore stepped out of the fireplace in his flamboyant robes.

"Amelia. What news…"

"Croaker says he can't retrieve Harry Potter." Amelia bluntly said forthrightly, leaving the Headmaster gaping like a fish.

"What?" Dumbledore was aghast. "Why?"

Amelia stared at Croaker, who remained patiently in his seat without a change in his posture. "Explain Croaker."

"Very well." Croaker sighed before standing from his seat.

Taking out his wand, he drew a straight line in thin air. Amelia raised an eyebrow when a thin silver line manifested on her eye level. Croaker then tapped two points on the silver line. Two dots formed on the line; one was red, and the other was black.

"Consider for a moment the black dot is us in the present, and the red dot is Mr Potter in the past. We must traverse the distance between these two spots to get to Mr Potter. The good news is we know for certain Mr Potter is lost in the past, but we cannot retrieve him because the past branched off into a new reality." Said Croaker, drawing a red line from the red dot branching away from the white line.

"I don't follow." said Amelia, scowling at the wizard.

"I'm also confused, but first, how are you sure Harry is not lost in the future instead of the past?" asked Dumbledore.

"Because the future is not set in stone. The future contains events that have not happened, and therefore, magic has limited powers over the future. Time turners are specifically designed not to access the future because the entire magic in the world is not enough to construct events that are yet to be. If Mr Potter is in the past, on the other hand, it has already happened and is therefore accessible, transporting matter through time and space."

"Okay. Then what is the issue in retrieving Harry from the past?" Dumbledore calmly asked.

"Because Mr Potter is no longer strictly in the past." Croaker said.

"You are not making sense, Croaker. If Mr Potter is not in the past or the future, where is he?" Amelia asked, annoyed by the long-winded conversation. "Speak plainly instead of wasting our time."

"Very well then. I'll make it simple. Mr Potter is in an alternate reality of our past."

Amelia looked expectantly at the man, but Croaker looked at her as if that explained everything.

"Croaker." Amelia bit out.

"Yes."

"I distinctly remember asking you to explain what happened to Mr Potter plainly," Amelia said with restraint she thought she lacked.

"I don't think I can make this any plainer, Minister Bones. Mr Potter is in the past, but a significant event changed in the past, which has triggered the creation of an alternate reality to branch out from our past."

"Are you saying a whole new world was born from Harry's accidental arrival into the past?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Yes. Some event in the past shifted so drastically that it has created the reality we have experienced."

"I do not understand this. How can a new reality be born if something changes in the past? Whatever changes in the past do not affect the future because we are here, right?" Amelia asked confusedly.

"That's because you are viewing time as a linear stream. You think the clock spins and time passes with every second. But that's the low-resolution understanding of time we created to make sense of our everyday lives. That's not how time works." Croaker said with a sigh.

He drew a large circle in the air with his wand.

"Time is cyclical, and we observe time from one point. But what if I take an arbitrary point in space and create another loop of time?"

Croaker tapped his wand at a point on the circle and drew another circle, but it was tilted on its axis. Again and again, he drew several other circles with tilted axes but with a common centre. These are all time loops but observable only in a specific dimension of space.

"Similarly, Mr Potter is in the past, but he occupies a space different from our dimension. I don't know what changed, but it must've been something fundamental enough that shattered reality as we know it."

The silence that prevailed was the most uncomfortable for Amelia as all her plans hinged on rescuing Harry Potter from the freak accident that whisked away the boy.

"We must get the boy back somehow. The Prophet has already started to call him the Chosen One as some idiot in the Ministry spilt the beans about rumours of a Prophecy involving Potter and the Dark Lord. If the public learns Harry Potter, the boy who crippled the worst Dark Lord we have ever seen, is lost due to a fluke accident, they'll lose all hope to fight. It'll be an easy victory for the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters." Amelia said, falling into her seat and placing her head in her palms.

"Amelia is right. Harry is a beacon of hope for many, and we can't afford to lose him at this juncture. Is there any way we can retrieve Harry?" Dumbledore asked, looking hopefully at Croaker.

"There is a small chance," Croaker breathed, shaking his head. "But it's highly experimental, and I'll need the aid of your Phoenix, Dumbledore."

"Fawkes?" Dumbledore blinked in surprise. "Of course, but may I know why?"

"Because a Phoenix is a creature untouched by time in the conventional sense. Only two days have passed for us, but that may not necessarily be the case for Mr potter. A day for us might be a month, a year, or a second for Mr Potter. We frankly don't know." Croaker shrugged while rubbing the back of his neck in a sheepish manner.

"I see. Fawkes perceives time differently." Dumbledore nodded in understanding.

"Yes. It'll be better if we have the aid of a Phoenix. I'll need your phoenix to carry something to Mr Potter and create a bridge connecting us through time and space if we are to retrieve them successfully." Croaker explained.

"I believe Fawkes would be more than happy to help. It also helps Fawkes have a rapport with Harry." said Dumbledore.

"Then it's settled." said Amelia.

Seeing the two men nod, she let out a sigh of relief.

"How long will you need to make the attempt?" she asked immediately.

"Soon. As I said, Minister, this will be an experimental procedure. We've never done something like this in the history of the Department of Mysteries. Give me some time." said Croaker.

"Unfortunately for us, time is something we do not have in abundance," Amelia said, rubbing her face tiredly. "Do what you must, but do it fast. I hate to say this, but the fate of the wizarding world rests on that boy's hands."

****

As months passed, Harry developed a tight schedule between his duties at Hogwarts and Hogsmeade's demanding work. At first, his work in the village was focused on building houses for the thirty families that were refugees in Hogwarts during the war. This later developed into Harry being saddled with the responsibility for the village's security and being the sole arbitrator of disputes despite his strenuous objection. He had tried to pawn off the undesirable job on Salazar Slytherin or the other Founders, but they expertly evaded all responsibility.

It was not that he disliked the position of power in Hogsmeade, but the responsibility of being a village leader of wizards and witches robbed most of his free time. This left Harry little time for his attempts at studying the Time Turner in his possession.

But that was two months back, and Harry had abandoned his study of the faulty Time Turner after constantly hitting dead ends. Instead of wasting his time on an impossible task, Harry was more or less resigned to accepting the harsh truth that he was not getting out of the current timeline. With his attempts to study the time turner to rest, he dedicated much of his time to Hogwarts and helping wizards and witches to thrive in the world. Instead of viewing his situation as a curse, Harry started seeing an opportunity. The muggles were bereft of rampant scientific and technological advancements. This left them relatively weak in Harry's eyes. However, in that weakness, he saw an opportunity for the wizarding world.

As of late, he started to entertain the idea of creating a magical nation in the British Isles. While he had made up the fanciful tale of Valyria, he was equally enthralled by the prospect of forging a nation exclusively for magical beings.

'A nation exclusively for those blessed with magic.' Harry mused, staring at a crude map of the British Isles.

The idea had its merits, but Harry knew accomplishing such a task was bloody. What would happen to the millions of muggles inhabiting the home islands if a nation for magical beings was forged in the British Isles? That was a moral, political and geopolitical quandary.

With a deep sigh, Harry set aside the map and tended to the fire that was giving him the warmth to ward off the cold of the night. Instead of using the bed in the castle, Harry decided to camp near the Black Lake. He also waived the use of warming charms to keep himself warm during the night. The bright full moon shining in the night sky tempted him not to think of dreary topics of conquests and wars. But the markers he made on the map of Britain stole his attention from the beautiful moon in the night sky. Harry had marked the different kingdoms that were in existence in England and Scotland. The Ango-Saxon petty kingdoms in English lands were getting consolidated under the rule of a single King of England. On the other hand, Scotland was also suffering from small kingdoms inside the larger Scotland area Harry knew from his time.

Hogwarts was sitting inside the territory claimed by King Constantine of the Kingdom of Alba, while the rest of Scotland proper was divided between Strathclyde and Northumbria. Those Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were kept in check by constant Viking invasions. The situation in the Irelands was far worse from all the sources he could get from Hogwarts. Supposedly, there were Viking enclaves in Ireland, leaving the Irish kings in a constant state of war. These settlements were also a cause of concern for the rest of the Isles because the Vikings could launch their ships from Ireland to anywhere in the home islands.

However, the levers of power were truly in the hands of Rome even though the Roman Empire had withdrawn from the British Isles on paper. The clergymen were in key positions of the many royal courts, and they enforced church doctrine on the Isles using the muggle kings. Whenever the church's authority was challenged, the king would either get deposed or invaded by a rival kingdom. Therefore, the church and its teachings had to be destroyed if he were to forge a magical enclave inside the British Isles.

Unfortunately, that was nearly an impossible and bloody task. If he wanted to use the muggles in an army against their own kind, he'd definitely want to make this a religious war, and he'd need non-Christian allies.

'I'll have to turn the Vikings into allies at some point to sow more discord among the muggle kingdoms.' Harry thought with a grimace.

Harry shook his head, realising the conquest he fantasised about was too much of a hassle. He began scribbling down the idea in a diary he kept exclusively for jotting down ideas for the expansion of Hogsmeade. It also had to be factored in that some of the information he gathered from Hogwarts about the present-day polities of Britain might not be accurate. It was not as if he could verify and cross reference the current status of the isles using newspaper clippings or some media reports.  The curse of the ancient world was that information was sketchy and highly unreliable.

He suddenly sat up alert when the proximity ward he had set up was breached. However, he relaxed upon seeing Rowena walking towards him from afar.

"What was that ward? Was it some kind of an early warning spell?" Rowena asked once she neared his tent.

"A proximity ward. It allows me to find intruders in an area under the ward." Harry explained.

"Hmm. That sounds useful." Rowena nodded before looking around his modest campsite with a curious look. "Did the facilities in Hogwarts displease you?"

"Oh, heavens no. I just wanted to enjoy the moon." Harry nodded towards the full moon shining brightly in the night sky.

The night sky was beautiful, littered with spots of brightly shining stars and constellations. Harry could even pick out a few planets in the sky. The lack of industrial revolution and wide-spanning metropolitan cities cropping up every few miles meant that there was less pollution and artificial light in the sky. This made it easy to enjoy sights like these. Then again, he desperately missed modern food and other muggle inventions like the radio. He desperately wanted to enjoy some music while camping outside but was out of luck.

'I should've carried an emergency supply bag on my person.' Harry thought.

Harry quickly jotted down a reminder in his diary about the emergency supply bag as a backup with all the essential things he needed to survive if he were to be cut off from all known civilisation.

"What's that?" Rowena asked.

"Oh, this? Just some notes on… hey!" Harry was affronted when Rowena snatched away his diary.

"Hmm." Rowena hummed to herself over the notes he made.

"Your language… Valyrian is simpler." Rowena said in perfect English instead of the guttural Gaelic.

He was not surprised to see Rowena had quickly learned modern English, which he had passed off as Valyrian, the official language of his fake homeland. To facilitate the fast learning curve of his students, Harry had to write a whole book on the English language and keep it in the library of Hogwarts. It was a necessity because correct pronunciation of spells was necessary for beginners.

"It's made from the combination of…"

"Latin and Germanic languages. I know, I read your book." Rowena commented, never taking her eyes away from the contents of the diary.

A light gale went past them, and Harry was mesmerised by the beauty of the witch standing before him as her hair danced in the wind. Her blue and red dress hugged the curves of her body in all the right places. Her hair was the colour of the reddest of wines he had ever seen, which he only found more attractive in the moonlight.

"You know it's rude to read someone's diary." Harry scowled at the woman, beating down the kind of feelings that were overtaking his mind.

"I'm just curious what you're planning." said Rowena while leafing through the pages of his diary.

"Haven't you ever heard of the saying, curiosity killed the cat?" Harry asked, gazing at the Hogwarts Founder in a different light.

Of course, Harry was not blind to see the sheer beauty of the witch he admired in his own timeline. Anyone possessing the sophisticated mind that birthed the Enchanted Ceiling of Hogwarts was worth his attention. Since then, many great wizards and witches have copied the work of Ravenclaw, but they all paled in comparison. It was one of the most elegant magic Harry had ever seen in his admittedly short stint as a wizard. There was also the masterpiece in the form of the Room of Requirement, a piece of magic that no one in the wizarding world could ever replicate.

"Never heard of it." Rowena muttered distractedly while running her eyes through the pages at a pace that made Harry raise an eyebrow.

Shrugging his shoulders, he settled on the ground and waited patiently for the witch to finish reading his diary. There was no great secret hidden in his diary anyway.

"So, you've decided to stay in these lands." Rowena commented, holding out the diary after she finished reading.

"What gave you that impression?" he asked, taking back the diary into his possession.

"What other reason is there in planning a conquest of Scotland?" Rowena asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Maybe I'm bored." Harry shrugged his shoulders.

"Bored enough to be callous of the bloodshed from the war you're planning?" Rowena asked, with a hint of disapproval shining in her eyes.

"Nations are forged by waging war. If you're comfortable watching the muggles take over all the lands, then by all means do so." said Harry.

"I find you interesting, Hadrian. You advocated strongly for the lives of four dragons that attacked us, but now you plan on waging a war on the muggles that never harmed you."

"I'll fear dragons when they start breeding like rabbits." Harry said blandly.

He was a little disappointed that a brilliant woman like Rowena Ravenclaw could not see the obvious threat muggles posed to wizardkind. Of course, the Founders don't have the benefit of foreknowledge regarding the growth curve of the muggles.

"Man has been waging war amongst each other since he walked the Earth. He is not going to stop till the end of times. If our people and other magical creatures are to survive better, we need a place of our own."

"A sentiment that I share, Hadrian. But our people are not strong enough. Most wizards and witches are not skilled to protect themselves, much less attack huge swathes of muggle armies."

"Well…I can be persuaded not to seek war with the muggles if I'm otherwise engaged." said Harry, reaching out with his hand towards Rowena.

The silence that followed stumped him. Harry thought he had overstepped a boundary for a moment, but he was startled when Rowena placed her hand in his. A grin broke out on his face, and he pulled her into his lap. They gazed into each other's eyes before their lips met with the moon and the stars as their witness.

AN:

To read ahead of the update schedule;pat(r) eon. C (O) M/Dragonspectre

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