Prologue

It had been ten years since the Battle of Hogwarts. Ten years from the day when hundreds, even thousands, of magical beings descended upon one another in a mass of death, destruction, and hatred spurred on by ignorance and fear. Ten years since the blood flowed so freely into the grounds of Hogwarts, consecrating it with the essence and potential of the good and the bad alike. Ten years to mourn and to learn from the past; yet the people hadn't.

Distrust was rampant, the people were divided, and unease ran throughout society.

The government had toppled following the war of course, as none of the surviving victims of the Death Easters were going to allow those in power during and prior to the war to maintain even the flimsiest of grasps on power. Minister Shacklebolt had attempted to maintain the peace, but anarchy reigned when the mixed bloods, and liberal pure bloods had revolted.

That had been a year and a half after the Horror-Day, or "H-Day," as the Battle of Hogwarts had come to be known.

The anarchy had been sparked by an "independent" commission which had been tasked with discovering just how Voldemort achieved the power and control that he did; even after coming to vague conclusions that the problems had started because the Wizards did not ensure the health or welfare of magical children during Voldemort's youth, and a failure on the part of the Hogwarts staff to identify and address the Young Tom Riddle's obsession with power, or fear of muggles, the people were just not satisfied.

Minister Shacklebolt had been in the process of rooting out the corrupting influences of Magical Britain, but with the peacekeeping forces depleted after Voldemort's Second Rising the government had simply fallen.

What had taken Voldemort nearly 40 years post Grindelwald had taken the nationals of Magical Britain only 36 months. Their government had been brought to its knees by outraged mothers, brothers, sons, sisters, and fathers of those killed by the terrorists, and a ministry which wasn't opposed to their overall agenda. The sheeple of Britain had awakened and the peace ceased.

Part of the rage of the people had been fueled as the verified stories of those whom suffered, and were meant to suffer, at the hands of the Muggle Registration Committee came to light in the Voldemort investigations. When the Wizengamot failed to even consider revising the laws of the land to address this massive breach of the social contract, the people as one rose to declare the contract void, and since then the defacto rule of law had been that of medieval and feudal Britain: the Strongest Wizard ruled.

Before the Ministry collapsed, and Minister Shacklebolt went home to protect his own family by integrating into muggle society, he had sought out Harry Potter to act as a unifying force to try and quell the masses. In his heart of hearts he believed that if he could have gotten Potter to his side, this chaos could have been avoided…but neither Potter nor Granger could be found anywhere. None of their friends had heard from them in years, even with all known magical means of location/contact being employed to find him nothing worked.

The days were dark indeed.

The Goblins had retreated to their ancestral lands to live in the 'Tween, where no wizard had ever been, and abandoned Gringotts with all of their protections in place. No one could gain access to their vaults though as after the Goblins left, the wizards of Britain discovered the Great Goblin Betrayal.

In the aftermath of the first week post revolution, wizards and witches attempted to visit Gringotts only to find that the bank doors were ajar, and the entire structure, rebuilt and gleaming, was deserted. In those days there were still roving bands of aurors seeking to keep the peace in Diagon Alley who were called in to investigate once people summoned them. The aurors found that the deeper they went into Gringotts, and the closer to the tracks they came, the hotter it was becoming.

With shielding spells and cooling charms protecting their bodies and being conjured along the way to make passages habitable, the aurors were shocked to discover still molten lava filling the miles of tunnels beneath the city of London, quickly turning into a concrete representation that their way of life was over. People still periodically went to check the condition of the tracks, but it never changed. The magma was still as fresh as the day it appeared, and no amount of water, cooling charms, solidifying spells, or simple warding could solidify or remove it.

Many perished in foolhardy attempts to penetrate the lava and access vaults.

Any chance for a return to the previous order died on that day with the treasures of generations.

Experts, former human employees, were rounded up by the handful and after much chatter among themselves it was determined that while it was possible the goblin vaults and enchantments were still intact, now baking in a sea of magma, it was more than probable that the contents would have been destroyed by fires caused by the heat, and even if not there were no experienced curse breakers found among the former employees who could disable the goblin wards.

The international wizarding community took immediate notice of the threat the situation in Britain posed to the greater world and cast ancient spells about the British Isles which prevented native wizards, whose magic was shaped by the land of their birth, from leaving and barred foreign wizards from entering.

With no economy, no international trade, and no hero to save them as always before the people of wizarding Britain settled down to live, to commune with magic, and to occasionally travel into the muggle world.

Within six months of the government's fall a hierarchy of wizards had developed, in which at the top rested the powerful, and at the bottom the weak; it was the natural order, it was told, and the people aching for stability in life accepted it.

No longer did bloodlines matter. Instead power defined one's rank in the new order.

Families had returned to their ancestral trades, and dusted off antiquated and previously obsolete Family Grimoires which detailed the family history, caste, and specialties. A developing and primitive barter/trade economy had begun to develop among the families of Magical Britain, along with experimental forms of paper money.

If you wanted exotic or specialty ingredients for passive magic, such as potions, healing, or certain rituals, the Longbottoms were purveyors of the freshest and most potent ingredients even though several other families were devoted to the herbological arts, but the Longbottom family magic was innately stronger and so their product was vastly superior to others, more weak, in their trade. It also didn't hurt that the Longbottom heir was immensely powerful and reigned over several weaker families within his domain. These weaker wizards assisted in his family businesses and in return he provided them with magical protections.

Hogwarts was inaccessible and laid in ruins still. No one knows what happened, or who did it, but powerful wards had been erected about the school, forest, and the village of Hogsmeade once the government fell such that no one could enter the ground. A translucent dome of energy constantly thrummed and arched with power preventing anyone from accessing these sacred areas. No manner of magical or mundane transportation could cross the barrier from above ground, at ground, or below ground. The masses feared that before the ICW sealed off Britain an immensely powerful dark force crossed over and feasting off the negative energy and enormous wound the death of so many magical beings had caused to the very magic of Britain.

Every Lord of a Coven, including Lord Longbottom, had attempted to cross the barrier to no avail in the hopes of claiming the castle and surrounding lands as their own in an attempt to establish their sovereignty over all, and every one had failed … so the area was cordoned off with the cooperation and ascent of each Lord to restrict travel to or from the area. It was agreed that each Lord, from that moment forth, would be responsible for the education of their Coven as well as their protection.

No standard curriculum was developed, and no means was formed to share what each Coven knew; quite the opposite was true actually. Each Coven Lord jealously guarded the knowledge he could amass to ensure that he was and always would be at the top of his caste.

It was the first Decade post H-Day, and a generation of Magicals had grown with this system in place.

The Healers of St. Mungo's were the first to be swept up in the initial charge of "light skirmishes" that happened as Coven Lords began to assert their dominance and divide Magical Britain into their fiefs. Some offered bribes of safety, and a freedom to establish their own clinic with the ability to train their own staff, others used force and once subdued bound formerly free witches and wizards to their Lord by bonds of liege loyalty; crueler still, some of these Lords were devious enough, and talented enough at spell crafting, to bind without a term of years clause as was "normal" practice.

One of the leading, and more iron fisted, Lord was none other than George Weasley, with his Brother Ronald and Sister Ginerva as his chief enforcers. Where Lord Longbottom exercised his power with grace, charm, and quiet confidence, Lord Weasley had seized on brute strength and a reliance on his family's unique skills to ascend the new social ladder. With his brother Ronald's unique talent for coordinating and strategy, and his sisters talent for stealthy execution of said strategies, George had reclaimed the Weasley ancestral lands which included not only the Burrow and Rookery to the East, but also the Malfoy and LeStrange estates which bordered to their extreme South. … Fred's had become one of the longest fiefdoms, if not the widest in certain areas. He was a man on a mission to restore his family to what he saw as their rightful place, and to subjugate, with bonds of liege loyalty, those who were responsible in his eyes for the death of his twin and the destruction of his world.

Lord Weasley was widely feared/respected by his peers, and his tendency for painful "justice" was widely known. It was rumored among the masses that he had successfully captured the most fully trained healers of St. Mungo's but also several prominent members of the former government that were seeped in the dark and forbidden arts.

Weasley's Coven was fiercely secretive, and his lands were strictly off limits to any but those he considered a friend. He was not the only Lord that patrolled his lands with uniformed officers, but he was the only Lord whose subjects were so needed to be self reliant, and whose trade was so deeply restricted to only those covens which Lord Weasley approved of. Violators of his travel and or other laws were subject to harsh penalties to discourage repeat offenders, or copy cats.

With the fall of the magical government occurring so soon to the beginning of the Blair administration, and the survivors of the riots which occurred in the ministry building escaping to their own homes and families, no one was in a position to know that there was a magical world the muggles could have overseen and no one in the Brown Administration had even been given a briefing from members of the government who did have knowledge of the magical world as secrecy oaths prevented such things.

For the first time in centuries, Magical Britain was governing itself without even the most remote instances of Muggle oversight. It wasn't remotely democratic, neither was it by any means fair but the people were able to live free of fear, inside their Lord's Lands, but crime was rampant on the highways and biways, and no one dared attempt to bespell muggles after the very public and messy executions that Lord Weasley and others had held at the beginning of their reign.

They knew that the ICW was giving them only a finite amount of time to settle their own internal issues in the wake of Voldemort, without Dumbledore there to prevent such measures the ICW had been swift to impose these massive sanctions upon the Isles as no one trusted that Britain had the capacity to contain such international, potential, threats without Dumbledore, or his exalted replacement, to contain them. Very few countries had suffered the consequences of the Statute of Secrecy being breached on a large or continuous scale. No one wanted to see the Biblical type plagues and curses the nations of the world, acting in unison at the ICW Temple of Magical Gathering could unleash upon them as had been done to the Imperial Ottoman Territory which encroached into European wizard domain.

Muggleborns did not cease to be; yet strangely enough the knowledge of how to track instances of magical activity in muggle areas did. No surviving devices, no spell books, no former employees could be found which were able to describe, to anyone's satisfaction, how to even begin to create such things; even the vaunted Weasley Family Clock, modeled upon the same spells and crafted by Arthur based in what he learned of those spells, no longer worked. Every Lord assumed that Muggleborns wee still emerging to their parents, yet unless they had no means to track them.

One of the few acts of cooperation between all of the dozens of Lords was the creation of a Muggle Watch Commission, in which not only were select individuals sent to live among the muggles, muggleborns and halfbloods volunteered largely, and given some leeway with their magic so as to establish a cover identity and position in muggle society which allowed them to monitor both the muggle news and muggle police so as to attempt to track reports on what could be magical activity by accidental magic.

These individuals were deep undercover and most started families so as to blend in with their colleagues and surroundings. Some ensnared their spouses with charm and personality alone, others with wealth and power acquired with the blessing of their Lords, and still others outright ensnared wealthy and powerful individuals who were in government positions with access to the means of achieving their goals. The number of these individuals were known only to the Council of Lords, and the individuals to their individual Lords only. Only once since the revolution did the Lords have to collectively act to prevent the revelation of magic in the muggle world, and that was an instance in which a merman had washed up on a beach in Brighton. Minds, records, and evidence had to be modified to hide the merman and instead show a walrus had somehow made its way to England and washed up on its shores.

Yet somehow, even with this level of infiltration by the magical overlords into muggle culture, muggle society remained unimpeded by magical machinations. If there were incidents of Muggles being molested by magical means, on a mass scale, such knowledge never came back to the Coven Lords, and none wished to be made an example of. The mere knowledge that there were measures in place to catch criminals seemed to deter the weaker wizards who were prone to a life of crime.

Azkaban prison had simply ceased to exist one day.

With no government to maintain order on the island there was a real fear that the dementors would escape. No one wanted to relive the fears that had existed at the height of the Voldemort wars, and no one wanted the prisoners to escape. The mere thought of being kissed motivated the ministry remnants into action. Before the revolution the government had freed the low to medium security inmates as the manpower was needed to restore wizarding society, not to mention most of them had been incarcerated by the corrupt ministry and thus deserved to be released.

Once the ragtag group of volunteers arrived on the island though, the phantom chill which had previously been ever present was gone; the seas were calm, and all was quiet. Daring to venture further into the compound the group discovered that all of the prisoners were in an enchanted sleep.

When questioned the most anyone discovered was that the normal screams of the insane and tortured was interrupted one night with ever growing quiet. Some claimed a fog descended upon them and in it they saw strangely glowing masses, but nothing definite, others described angels and demons, but no one really had any clues worth sharing which lead to any proof, but the general public was simply told that Azkaban had been raided post Voldemort with the dementors contained inside. Most people accepted that as the truth; the general sentiment was that those in Azkaban at the time of its destruction deserved their fate.

Few questioned what was hastily shared by the exploring party, and with no government to investigate or individuals in power who cared to, that was the end of a barbaric and heinous chapter in wizarding history, justice and punishment were now meted out by the Coven Lords on their own lands on their own terms.

This new world was viewed by the people as a time of power and might; the few families, or independent covens without leadership in in the Council of Coven Lords, which had managed to escape impressing into the larger groups lived in secrecy secluded by magic, or else had abandoned magic for a life of quiet solitude among the muggles.

What had once been a sovereign state brimming with magic, grand public works like the floo network, universal public education (Hogwarts), universal healthcare (St. Mungo's), and internationally recognized and respected master's of their fields creating and innovating their fields from within Britain was now a loosely connected band of feudal estates covering vast swaths of land, peoples, and history each attempting to prove their dominance.

This was the world that Harry Potter would come to find upon his return, and it was a world he was ready, willing, and destined to subdue and bend to his will. He would become the sovereign of these lands, re-establish Britain in the bodies of international politic, and create in Britain the envy of all other members of the larger magical world. This was to become the most prolific and innovative nation of magic in the world; it was to become Potter's Kingdom.

Scene Break

Chapter 1: Know Thine Enemy.

"Professor one last question before we leave if you will," asked the handsome young man asked from the middle of the lecture hall. "Go ahead Mr. Potter, I'm sure it's a riveting question as usual," Dr. John McDaniels, J.D., PhD., . said with a smile.

"If our rights as English speaking men, and citizens of the United Kingdom and Human beings, do originate from "natural law," as you've been so kind in explaining to this entire class, and if there can be no subrogation of these rights as they originate from a higher power than man, how then do you explain the existence of Positive Law, Constitutional Law, and written systems of law which do not depend on one's belief in rights or entitlements originating from said nebulous higher power, but instead are agreed to, and changed from time to time, by social contract doctrine?"

The professor had slowly started to smile as the young man, soon to be graduate, finished his line of questioning, before taking a few moments to compose himself and answer. "Mr. Potter I've never known you not to ask a loaded question," the professor paused for those in the crowd who were quietly laughing in agreement to settle down, "but for the benefit of those who haven't had your years of experience with the subject, or our debates during those years, I'll simply answer you this way: the positive law to which you cite, based on the Lockeian principles of social contract, was built on the principles and intellectual thought of Sir Thomas Hobbs, who cited God and his anointed representatives as being the font of all justice. The Common law of this country, and those who inherited our legal systems, including the United States of America I'll remind you, look to the natural order and the natural law, as ordained by God, and his inherent liberty granted to all men, to form the basis of 'THE LAW,' which I'll remind you can only be just if what class?"

The professor paused his lecture to allow the class to respond and in a monotone that betrayed the frequency with which they had had to answer as one everyone replied, "It is properly published and promulgated, lest it be an unjust law; as an unjust law is no law at all."

"Mr. Potter man has been looking for ultimate truth throughout our existence. Interpreting nature is a very hit and miss means by which we explore our reality. Opinions vary once doctrines are tried and tested, and this understanding of the law allows for evolution, promulgation of what we understand as the immutable truth, and ensures justice. The question, class, that Mt. Potter should have asked was not why with regards to basing the law on natural law principles, but rather he should have, and you should, ask "who" decides on the question of what is justice." The professor surveyed the room of mixed years taking his philosophy of law class, and continued, "These questions are the appropriate forum for the common barrister to ask when contemplating the rights and privileges of his clients. At trial you will have to argue that either the law is just, or unjust, and whether or not the law violates some right of your client that either Parliament has recognized, or is forced to recognize by treaty, or else the right is so universal to deny the existence of such right would be so offensive to the Court as to upset the traditional notion of fair play that justice could not be served without the recognition of such right."

"To effectively make these arguments you have to know the arguments, the principles behind them, and the foundations of thought which would be most convincing and likely to help your side prevail."

"To those of you who are about to enter into practice, like Mr. Potter here, with your apprenticeships take this to heart, and to all of those who still have classes left to take, don't forget it. With that I'll see you in the review session next Tuesday before the final. You are dismissed."

The class erupted into excited murmurs and made their way from the lecture hall, Mr. Potter among them, when the professor asked him to stay back.

"Mr. Potter, a word please," and of course Harry obliged for his favorite professor to respectfully disagree with. "I want you to know that just because we teach the law one way here, and in particular how the administrators required me to focus this class, just know that there are no absolutely certain answers in philosophy or morality as there can be no objective measure of either … but there can be an agreement by a majority, which binds the conduct of the minority, to certain social norms and that is the social contract."

"I know professor," Harry began, "and I appreciate it very much. You know what my goals are and how I tend to agree with the doctrines that promote equality at law for all people regardless of how people come to recognize those rights." They both continued toward the door and hallway beyond. "It's just that from what I've seen and studied so far, in your classes and in other classes, the politics of our age are taking us into a time and place where individual rights are being eschewed for group rights; and it seems to me that a majority should not be able to control the rights of a minority, so long as the minority's desires are not dangerous or destructive to the majority."

"That is the delicate balance of our democratic monarchy Mr. Potter. In theory the government, formed by a majority of voters, exercises our rights which are vested by and in the government on Her Majesty's advice and consent. We have at least two layers of protection built in, not including the courts mind you, of electors choosing politicians and voting out those who would abuse our rights and trust, and then ultimately the crown that could dissolve the government and act as a last line of defense for us."

"Even when things have been at their worst we have soldiered through because we could count on the stability of the Monarchs keeping the passions and fires of the public in check. If that's all Mr. Potter I believe you have your usual lunch date waiting on you. Good day."

"Goodbye professor," Harry walked off toward the grassy common where he and his "lunch date," as the professor described her, were going to have their usual picnic lunch under the shade of a Victorian Oak. It was the last semester of his career at Oxford seeking his Juris Doctor degree, hers as well. Both had several degrees already in the arts ranging from history, politics, and engineering for Harry, to medicine, languages, business administration, and international diplomacy for his companion … and who could Harry have found that would have been by his side this last decade, and have been able to manage that diverse of a course load, other than his one true and dearest friend, not to mention the love of his life, Hermione Granger?

"Did Prof. McDaniels have any good last minute advice for you before you begin your apprenticeship Mr. Potter," Hermione asked with a bit of a Scottish lilt to her voice which was reminiscent of both of their beloved former professor. Greeting her with a smile, and a somber sage voice similar to professor Dumbledore's, "Why yes my dear Ms. Granger he did, and as was normal of our chats they were resolved in favor of my opinions after I'd had a chance to reason him back into the light side of seeing the issue."

Harry met her eyes and they held each others gaze, then as one they both began laughing. Throwing a napkin from the basket at his head, Harry caught it and sat down beside him as he joined her on the blanket.

"So after we graduate what do you want to do Hermione? Shall we sail the seas, see the world? I appreciate your pulling out all the stops to ensure that I had the means to come so far so quickly."

"Harry your Occlumency helped in spades, it barely took you a year until at a you were able to read and comprehend everything put in front of you in seconds; it barely takes your looking at a page now to read and comprehend it!" Hermione responded. "I swear if this were a more widely practiced art, and taught to children when we were young, we'd be able to evolve as a society in just a few generations!" It was an old argument that Hermione and Harry had parsed more than a few times in the past. Harry would chime in with a counter that a child's mind was too delicate and ill formed to safely develop the highly skilled and technical art that Occlumency is.

They both agreed on the practical applications that Occlumency had to offer children but Harry believed, having experienced learning Occlumency the way that he did, it should be taught only after one's magic had fully settled post-majority as the risks to an undeveloped mind were great. Hermione, on the other hand, believed that the basics of Occlumency should begin to be taught at the age of five, along with yoga, transcendental meditation, and body/mind fitness so that by the time a child became eligible for magical education they would have had a thorough grounding in the basics, and their magic would be accustomed to their exercises and the innate magic of Occlumency.

"You know how I feel," Harry said after a bite from a golden fried chicken leg, with Hermione's secret recipe of spices(!), "about the dangers facing children as far as the mind arts are concerned. The average magical child, while innately more astute than non-magical children, due to magic shaping and molding their minds, it takes stability of one's magic before children are outside of the danger zone." Hermione scowled at him as she always did when he made a good point that undermined her opinion, "But you did it before you graduated from Hogwarts", interrupted Hermione. "True my dear, but the art itself only stabilized in me after Professor Dumbledore had died and the shock of witnessing his death forced my magic to settle and stabilize just enough that I would be able to. I still have yet to reach my majority, and you didn't even begin to make any progress with it until your majority kicked in when you hit 21."

"All I know Mr. Potter," Hermione said in her playful voice, "is that magical education should be completely re-conceptualized … starting from the ground up, children should learn the basics without having to rely on private tutors and family. If our time at Hogwarts was any indication, and our classmates were an accurate representation of society at large and how families raise their children, then a thorough grounding in the basics of the Maths, the Sciences, English Composition & Grammar, History, and Chemistry before beginning their magical education. It's time for the magical world to have a renaissance in thought…that can't happen when the educated class isn't trained in the scientific method or have a reasoned basis for how to go about answering questions which need answering."

Harry dug into his pie at this point, rolled his eyes, and let her say her piece.

"If Occlumency were introduced in stages for children, starting during their grounding in the muggle subjects, then by the time they are ready for strictly magical education, a shift in perception and cognition will occur for a generation of thought and understanding," she took a sip of her lemonade as she descended from her proverbial soap box to gather her thoughts. "The dangers you've described arise when you have incompetent instructors, like Professor Snape, who were attempting to punish you with the art or force you to develop an innate uncontrolled shielding of your mind and we see how effective his instruction was on the subject. You taught me when my magic was still unstable, and I was able to develop the base skills in less that 3 months."

"We've been able to take these insane course loads, to achieve all of these degrees in such a short amount of time because of Occlumency Harry. We've both just finished getting another professional degree. For God's sake we were able to impress the administrators so much our first year that we were allowed to test out of our Bachelorette classes after 6 months, and secured our place in Oxford on full tuition for everything else we've achieved. It's all because of Occlumency and if we can do it, anyone can do it."

Having finished she sat down and started on her desert.

"I know the benefits of it Hermione, and I'm enjoying them immensely. The problem is that it's too risky in my opinion. It's an older art, but not a widely practiced art. You know as well as I do that something that isn't this widely known or practiced now by the general population isn't going to be widely adopted by parents who can't do it themselves…fear of the unknown and all."

They both sat and chatted, reflecting on everything from the loveliness of one of the last cool spring days before the heat of summer moved in, to what their final plans post-apprenticeship(s) should be.

"I just can't see myself going into private practice Harry nor can I see myself utilizing the other degrees we've worked so hard for in the muggle world. I mean, for God's sake if nothing else we're going to have to return these time turners eventually … we can't be students forever and we've got to eventually get back in touch with the magical world; I'm sure that our friends won't appreciate the choices we've made, even after telling them we were going away and needed time to heal."

"Hermione," Harry began, "I don't regret the choices we've made, and I certainly don't miss the stress that accompanied the Daily Prophet or corresponding with our friends about this or that in the magical world. It's been very therapeutic for me to re-immerse into the muggle world and society. I needed all of this to find out who I am; or rather who my muggle halve is." Hermione took his had into hers in and lightly caressed it.

"Harry you didn't have a chance to grow and develop in the muggle world like I or the others did. You've flourished and changes so much from the adventurous but nervous eleven year old who saved my life and stole my heart. If we hadn't done this we likely wouldn't be a couple today and we wouldn't have had these amazing opportunities."

Harry smiled at her and knew that she was right.

"Not to mention," she continued, "that once we have properly ended this little journey and decide to rejoin everyone we're going to be able to do what we always wanted; reform and rejuvenate the magical world but most importantly, we've managed to come to terms with everything. This time away has been our therapy…we both needed it."

The couple packed their lunch and began to make their way to their apartment content with their life choices, but still anxious about the uncertainty of the future.

Scene Break

Inside the Longbottom compound's solarium Neville, Lord Longbottom of the Coven of Longbottom, was reviewing profit/loss and expense reports that his greenhouses were generating, but he was being inundated with council messengers and reports and unable to get any real work done.

With the fragile economy in place that had emerged over people had abandoned specie currency in favor of paper money, and in some instances bartering, but there were ongoing negotiations in place among the Lords to unite behind a common currency in replacing the Galleon. The biggest debate so far had been between the muggle raised and those who had not been raised in the muggle world. The muggle raised weren't even united in their plan. Some wanted to just adopt the British Pound Sterling as their currency.

No plan existed as to how that currency was going to be acquired, as there was no pact between the muggle government or the Council of Lords. Still others wanted to adopt either the Euro or the US Dollar as their base currency since it was so prevalent. When pressed on how to acquire the currency, it eventually boiled down to either stealing the money from muggle reserve banks, or bespelling muggle bankers into opening governmental accounts for them.

The opposite proposal had been that within each Coven a unique currency should be developed and the council could charter a central bank which would handle conversion and exchanges, but such a system was deemed impractical and too complex for the time being.

After all, a common complaint was how to value each Coven's currency within each Lord's domain, and what the basis for the value of the currency was to be if not gold, silver, or precious stones.

These thoughts gave Neville a headache as he became distracted from yet another report which had been delivered to him in the previous half hour.

"Bumbles!" A house elf appeared at Neville's side. "Can Bumbles be helping sir?"

"Yes Bumbles, please fetch me parchment and my portable writing desk. I have a letter to draft."

"At once master! Bumbles get it at once."

Neville nodded to the squat little creature, his own personal elf which supervised the other elves which were tied to the estate, and the few elves which had either been brought in by the Coven or given to him as payment for the more expensive deals he'd made.

"Can Bumbles help Master in any other ways Lord Longbottom?"

"Yes actually. I would like for you to fetch Mr. Barns and Ms. Maple please Bumbles, please tell them I need to speak to them both before the hour ends. I would be greatly appreciative if they would come within the next half hour."

"Yes Master."

Neville began writing his letter to the other members of the Coven Council of Lords, advising them of his efforts and research yet another trail he'd been set upon to hopefully breach the ward(s) that trapped them all on the Isle and prevented them from contacting or traveling to the continent.

My Fellow Lords

As you are collectively aware for the past three years I have been chair of the committee charged with discovering the nature of the wards which have effected us all so intimately. To date, with the assistance of the remaining members of the committee, we have finally designed a spell that is not only capable of mapping the boundaries of the ward but also monitoring it/them.

This may not seem like much of an accomplishment to the average witch/wizard, but as the other members of the committee can attest with the map in place we can begin to study how it/they are grounded, and if we can trace the ward to a power source within the country we can end it by simply destroying the power stones which syphon from the native magic of the land.

At the request of the larger Council I am writing to inform you of the next phase for my committee.

With the ward(s) now mapped, we have a concrete base from which to operate now. Mr. Barnes and Ms. Maple were able to coordinate with the other members of the subcommittee on ward-masters and it is my understanding from their reports that manageable and functional ward diagnostic tools and machines are in development. Though we managed to survive the Revolution with many of the country's warders still on site, the subcommittee tells me that the elder wardmasters and wardsmiths who were capable of creating these machines and tools mostly left the country after the Great Goblin Betrayal.

Had these individuals been in country, we would have been able to have mapped the ward(s), analyzed them, and begun to diagram the spell matrix that sustains them.

As it stands, the ward-masters which we have are too inexperienced to accomplish these tasks with the same efficiency and skill as the grandmasters would have been able to do had they been present.

If you will pay attention specifically to this my Lords: the subcommittee informs me that given the skill set and mastery level of their membership, it is likely that we will be under the influence of these wards for another decade and a half at the earliest.

Materials for the specialty tools these masters need are normally found outside the country, but we have located deposits of certain ores in country that, while inferior, will eventually assist in our turning our prison back into our homeland.

We have at least a decade gentlemen. We have that long to prepare for how we are going to repay our international brethren for this great betrayal.

I support Lord Weasley's proposal that we each commit to the creation of a grand army that will wreak our vengeance upon those whom have ensnared us.

The slumbering dragon slumbers no more gentlemen. It is time we prepare to unleash him and remind the world of why Britain was the most feared and respected nation of magicals for centuries.

Yours in service,

Neville

Lord Longbottom

As Neville was finishing his letter the people he had summoned walked into the solarium.

"Lord Longbottom, Ms. Maple and I are here as you requested," the elder of the two began. Mr. Barnes was in his mid 40s with slightly greying hair and a receding hairline. He had traveled extensively after Hogwarts and had worked for Filchman & McDaniel for the last 10 years; their specialty and claim to fame was that they were a firm specializing in home warding and diagnostics.

"Was there something we could help you with Sir," Ms. Maple asked. She had been a rising star with the premier architectural firm for magical home design and surveying in Diagon Alley before the Revolution.

"Yes," Neville began, "I want you both to read over this letter that I'm drafting to the other Lords and I want you to ensure that it is an accurate reflection of everything that you told the committee yesterday."

He duplicated the letter for them and invited them to join him.

After both had sat and brushed off an invitation for refreshments, Mr. Barns began, "Lord Longbottom this is a very simplified version of what we shared with the committee but I do have to wonder if leaving out the information detailing why we may be under the dome for so long is such a real possibility."

Neville sighed and massaged his brow before answering. "I believe my fellow Lords will not care for the intricacies of the why Mr. Barns. When I was asked to chair my committee they charged me with finding out one thing above all else, and that is when we will be able to break free. That has been my primary goal and the primary task I've overseen. While I personally believed that the economy, or re-establishing ties with the muggles should have been our number one priority, allowing for the nation to once again be a part of the larger magical world is the council's priority."

"My Lord if I may," began Ms. Barns.

"You may," Neville replied.

"I am a little concerned by what you've indicated is the intent of the Honorable members of the Lord's Council." Neville quirked his brow at her statement. "Should war be our first priority? Our Sister nations have seen fit to punish us for the horrors Britain allowed to fester within itself for far to long and which we unleashed upon the unsuspecting world … repeatedly. Grindelwald and Voldemort were both products of Britain or of the British Ministry's inability to effectively police its citizens and ensure that those who pose a risk to society are caught early on and reformed." She took a sip of the water glass she'd been offered earlier, "perhaps we should take this time to truly reform and rebuild our society before making plans only to gear up for another war."

"To reform would mean reconstituting the Ministry, and forcing those who have power now to return to their previous lives," Neville responded. "We may not have the perfect form of government now but it is much more manageable than what existed before. Each family looks after their own, most crimes which plagued our society in the past has been virtually eliminated, and with the rougher elements of society forcibly controlled by their Liege Lord we have no need for a prison."

"Muggle related crimes are non-existent, and while the lives of the average wizard are not as carefree as before we are sustaining ourselves as a nation. Instead of imports watering down our manufacturing sector, an entire new field of charms and potions had to be developed which lead to the discovery of rapid growth enchantments for food production, and forestry. In our efforts to understand the wards which trap us on these Isles, your very own committee has discovered or created entirely new fields of study for cartography and tracking which will eventually allow us to once again track magical activity in muggle areas, and find our muggle born brethren before they are hurt or expose themselves to danger. No, we will not return to the ways of the Ministry, stagnation and corruption ran rampant and lead to all of this; but we will not forgive our slights easily either."

Neville stood and motioned for his guests to join him as he walked from the solarium, to an exit which lead to his adjoining garden. As they walked through the garden, Ms. Banks noticed that there were memorial markers of granite laid throughout. … there were too many to count but the names of Weasley, Lupin, Tonks-Lupin, and Creevey stood out to her.

Neville stopped at the center of the garden and surveyed all that surrounded them. From gazing up to the heights of his manor, to the forest opposite, to the flowing plants and shrubbery in the memorial garden, he contemplated and gathered his thoughts.

"This is hallowed ground to me. I created this space to be a physical place where I could come and remember what and who I've lost because of the Ministry and the Continent burying its head in the sand all the while this loss was going on. These hundreds of names that you see are all from Voldemort's second rise and only the people I knew personally or who committed suicide after the ICW trapped us here."

Neville walked to the center of the garden, just behind his guests, where there was a magnificent tomb of white marble with veins of gold and onyx running throughout, it was smooth and highly polished, and obviously great care was taken to ensure that it was in pristine condition. Adorning the four corners were cherubim and seraphim and in the center was a coat of arms that neither Ms. Maple or Mr. Barns recognized.

At the center of the tomb, facing the forest, was a relief carved into the marble of a Celtic cross which holstered a red shade and a lit candle, ever burning and ever bright because of the presence of magic.

"I lost much on H-Day Ms. Maple, and I had lost so much more before that thanks to the efforts of Voldemort and his followers…but I lost everything when the woman I love was murdered. You no doubt heard of my actions at Hogwarts, but what made me a Lord was the ruthlessness I showed in hunting down and gutting the savages that killed my Hannah. When the dome rose, society dissolved but my hope wasn't lost until some punk trying to make a name for himself forced my hand." He brushed a tear from his eye as he gazed at the tomb of Hannah Abbott-Longbottom and their unborn son Francis Beauregard Longbottom II. "My wife and I were trading our wares to the apothecary for new samples and a sizable expanse to my greenhouses when we were attacked. I was blinded by the spray of blood that erupted from her neck where the spell had landed through the window, a spell meant for my head had I not moved just before."

Both Ms. Maple and Mr. Barns knew of what had happened on that day. The news had traveled like fire, and the torture that Neville had inflicted on the man, at the base of the ruin of Gringotts no less, had become legend. While none of the other Lords would admit it publically, there was a genuine fear of Neville Longbottom and a general desire never to raise his ire or cause themselves to face him as others had.

"No Ms. Maple, we can't simply reform ourselves and hope that our sister nations will decide on their own to lift this torment from our lands. We have to impress upon them the severity of the mistake that they have made in destroying untold thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives."

"Doing as they have done was nothing short of a declaration of war, and Clan Longbottom and it's Coven members," he looked at them both, "will answer the call of the drums of war when they sound. Am I understood?"

"Yes my Lord," "Of course my Lord," both responded.

"Good. Please see yourselves out then and return to your projects."

After they had gone Neville called for his elf and had the letter duplicated and sent to all members of the Council. He rested his hand upon Hannah's and his son's tomb and prayed in silence before moving his work to his office and sending out yet more correspondence to manage his holdings.

Scene Break

In the countryside away from the hustle and bustle of the city and university of Oxford, Harry and Hermione apparated back into their elegant and stately home which had been found among the assets of the Black Family. It was by no means an ancient home, but with wide hallways, huge ceilings, the colonnades and porches, not to mention the stonework and elegance throughout it was meant to serve as a home fit for an nobleman. They had found it to be the perfect place to base their operations over the last several years as the Black family, in their paranoia, had layered the house and attached property with every secrecy and privacy ward that the family collectively knew. Hermione had added her own modified version of a Fidelius Charm which upon the premises.

As they both settled into the parlor to relax, Hermione brought up another topic that the two disagreed with, but for entirely different reasons.

"When are we going to remove the amulets Harry? I wouldn't mind being able to receive or send post again, not to mention I'm sure that our friends would probably like to know what happened to us." Harry sipped his soda then pinched the bridge of his nose in contemplation. "You know as well as I do Hermione that our friends are likely to not understand why we went dark for as long as we have. Hell, I needed this long and probably longer just to recover from what the Dursley's did to me… I don't think they would understand that I don't want to expose myself, again, to a world that hurt me even easier and more callously than my family."

"Harry, you know as well as I do that the past is the past. We've both grown so much over the last few years, and I'm sure our friends have as well as they've settled into their lives. People grow apart Harry. We had friends as children, and we loved them as children. We're adults now, and in time we will be able to be their friends as adults. If not, we will make new friends."

"Where do we even begin on getting back into that society though Hermione? I know that our plan was to always return at some point, but having compared my experiences in both worlds I have to say I'm very comfortable living my life in the muggle world. I'm content to use my magic at home in private." Hermione rested her head on his shoulder and held to his hand. "I want to see our friends eventually Harry. I want to reconnect and eventually live in the world we are rightly a part of. We both sacrificed so much for it, we deserve to be a part of it."

They both sat in silence for a little while longer before retiring for the evening.

Both were damaged halves of the same whole, and both knew that with the other they at least stood a chance of one day becoming content in their imperfect completion.

Summation of Plot

Harry and Hermione have been extremely isolated from the Wizarding World as the Revolution in Britain took place. They are completely ignorant of the caste system that has developed and have no idea about the skirmishes, which lead to the creation of the Coven system or what has become of their friends.

Harry and Hermione entered the Muggle world in an effort not only to escape the horrors of the war they had both just survived, but did so in order to regain what had been taken from them by the statute of secrecy: their right to be involved with greater humanity.

At some point Harry acquired time turners from the Ministry during the rebuilding process, and in the chaos of Revolution the records were lost; hence why no one ever tried to actively seek them out other than Kingsley.

Once done with their schooling Harry and Hermione had planned on going back to the magical world and bringing about change with their newly acquired skills and talents.

Eventually they will make their way back, and discover the horror of feudalism that Britain has descended into. Several of the Coven Lords eventually decide to challenge Harry as a new means of deciding who should be King, as defeating a legend would prove their bona fide claim to being the most powerful.

Harry would eventually have beaten off several, reluctantly, and eventually someone kills Hermione in an attempt to draw him out. … he then goes nuclear, his mind becomes fractured, and his begins a siege of magical Britain and all the Covens until finally all who opposed him are laid in waste and bound to him as chattel.

He would assert his reign and rule with an iron first and break the wizarding world as it deserved from being the abomination as it is completely unjust, without mercy, and with no redeeming qualities.

From the ashes of their defeat, Harry would then build Hermione's Kingdom by mixing the best of magic and of muggle science and would eventually take on the ICW for what they had done, winning, and would restore Britain to its place of prominence among the nations of the world, with several nice and blood soaked colonies consisting of the continental countries which had caused the conditions which lead to Hermione's death in the first place.

I welcome your critique and comments.

~EV