... Shezza! This is the third keyboard! And– shit... what am I going to do with all these bricks?!

 

Nice update, as always, Shezza. I liked the ominous exchange at the end with Dumbledore and Amanda.

 

I still am of the opinion that Amanda isn't someone the ministry can do whatever they want with. She's no american ambassador obviously but she is not a native Brit either. It's not unimaginable that her father would have some political clout if power is anything to go by as with Dumbledore.
Hell hath no fury as a father scorned

 

I never got the whole snapping of wands thing. I mean, for murder or something yeah, but expulsion from a school? That isn't exactly worth destroying someones livelyhood. That would be like snapping a pornstars family maker because he... Goes to early.

All in all a great chapter, I too love it when you write Dumbledore. He's believable, in character and slightly manipulative (Not the cliche type, but the real political sort)

You win 5 internets good sir.

 

Nice update, as always. I look forward to seeing how Dumbledore and Harry will deal with the denarians, and what will happen with the school.
You kept Dumbledore's best line in there, too. Always puts a smile on my face to read that.

 

Amanda shifted against him and shifted on his feet to accommodate her weight. “She could have even gone back to Salem. Why would you do this for her?”

^ wrong A name ;b

Fun chapter as usual. Will definitely be interested in the ramifications of the warlock formations.

 

Great chapter. I loved how you portraid Dumbledore here. The way he rose up and calmly explained the he could singehandedly crush the ministry if he so wished was brilliant. Made him look really cool and Umbridge and Fudge look like the utter fools that they are. The scene where Dumbledore interrupts Fudge's victory speech to say that he wont "come quietly" is also one of my favorites. Great stuff! And as I think I already said, having Dumbledore save Amanda to help prevent Harry from falling into evil was a good reason for him to confess.

The whole battle scene was exciting. I did find the part where Meciel yells at Harry not to transform a bit strange though? What was the reason for that? Could you clarify it a bit more?

EDIT: Oh wait. I just realised that it was not Meciel afterall. It was the denarian communicating with the other two and Harry just heard it.

The discussion between Dumbledore was enjoyable. I suppose it makes sense that Umbridge would want Harry to pass if it would remove any protections he has as a "minor" and possibly allow her to arrest him. I wonder though, now that Umbridge is in control, surely she would want to try that thing with the quill again? How will Harry deal with that?

You might want to mention that Dumbledore will still be connected to the wards or has some other way of monitoring the events despite his fugitive status. I mean if Voldemort does attack, there is a real chance that Harry will be defeated. He was the last time the two faced afterall, and Dumbledore knows that. Voldemort is also said to be very close to Dumbledore in power and we have never seen Harry project the menace and power that Dumbledore did here. Harry might be able to slow Voldemort down but without Dumbledore rushing to the rescue, delay would not mean much. I wonder why Dumbledore did not give Harry limited access to the wards since he expects him to defend the school.

And finally, I also liked the "bonding" between Amaris and Harry. Nothing too mushy or out-of-character for Harry but still nice. Good work.

But she is in british soil. I don't know how these things exactly work but I would expect that the fact that she is in britain should mean that she is affected by british laws, not american ones. If Fudge wants her expelled then there is little to be done. Ofcourse as Amanda thought here, being expelled in britain would not mean that she could not continue training in america. The snapped wand is nasty but I would expect that another could be made for her so its not like it would cripple her for life.

As for Michael, I doubt he has any real political power. He is shown to be far too humble and such to have gone into politics I think. I suppose he could have tried to get the church to intervene but I am unsure how much influence they would have on Fudge. And besides, by the time he would have learned of it, Amanda would already have been expelled. I suppose if she had actually been arrested then things might have been different. But even then I think he might have been more likely to pull out his sword and organize a jailbreak.

 

I think snapping her wand would be going beyond the power a ministry has on a foreign student. But as for expelling her, they have all the right to do so.

 

I'm curious why Dumbledore acted like he did. His whole reason for leaving the school was pretty much "can't let Amanda's wand get snapped" – unless he has another secret motive for leaving (Fawkes' influence?), then he must think that Amanda needs to stand by Harry's side. So much is it necessary, that he could not even chance the fact that he might be able to wield sufficient power to give Amanda another wand and a second chance at Hogwarts.

 

Greatest line. Ever.

Brilliant update Shezza, I personally felt a little warm hearted at the thought of Amaris leaning on Harry for support - the whole father/daughetr thing.

Tops!

PS: May I pleasepleaseplease use the Dinosaur line wherever I go? Tis epicness.

 

You guys are forgetting that canon Fudge and Umbridge are idiots. Fudge has always tried to use power he doesn't legally have - he tried to expel Harry without a trial in OotP; Umbridge violated the law in sending the Dementors and the threatening to use the Cruciatus. There is no way that the Blood Quill was legal, either. If Fudge can delude himself enough to believe that Harry and Dumbledore were trying to overthrow the Ministry and had made up all the resurrected Voldemort stuff as cover, then it is reasonable to believe he would expel a foreign exchange student and snap her wand without any kind of trial or hearing with her parents involved. Hell, they probably have no idea who Michael and the Knights of the Cross are! Fudge is the worst kind of paranoid politician, seeing plots where they don't exist and ignoring the ones that contradict his narrow-minded world view.

 

No. Just no. Seeing as how Fudge gets away with the shit he does means that while it's dubious he can "legally" do that much, it's clear nobody in magical Britain will call on his bullshit. The minister of magic isn't a dictatorial position. Most probably he's in too deep with the older families and the powerful that he has cart-blanche in what he does for the most part.
As much as we hate the shit Umbridge did, threatening to use crucio isn't actually the same as using it. The legality of the blood quill is pure conjecture. It might as well be allowed seeing as how backwards the general wizarding society is.
Important to note is that Amanda is _not_ british. As Renzhoulawyers said, expelling? Sure. Snapping wands? Not quite as obvious.

In Shezza's world the two magical system coexist. They're not exactly hiding from each other. Imagine for a second how the british wizards would react if the child of one of their more prominent members of society got their wand snapped because of some prissy foreign govermental worker. It might not mean anything in the immediate timeperiod but the political fallout that would create just wouldn't be worth the headache.

Fudge the brown-noser should know who's who in his vicinity. It's just the way he is and as such I'd expect him to know when the daughter of a goddamn knight transfered to Hogwarts instead of continuing her studies at Salem. That's some damn good PR.

 

Great Update.

Although I'm not much of a fan of the father daughter bonding fluff, it's counteracted nicely in that both father and daughter are sadistic bastards. A great update, I look forward to reading more.

Peace,
Ver1tas (Or M3n7h01 on this forum)

 

Maybe it is not a dictatorial position by nature but it does seem as though Fudge is using it like one. There seems to be no way for Dumbledore or Harry or anyone to seek justice for the slanderous actions of Fudge&Umbridge and the decrees he puts out cannot be defied. Even the ones that explicitly allow the torture of children. The only major newspaper is full of Fudges propaganda and none of the population have the courage to even consider resisting. What else could you call Fudge at this point but a dictator?

Personally I hope that Shezza has him die in agony. Maybe Voldemort could kill him while Harry stands by and says that the educational decree against practising defense prohibts him from interfering or something.

One thing you are forgetting is that Amanda is not exactly prominent. We know that as a wielder of one of the swords, her father is pretty powerfull. However no where is there any indication that this in any way gives her status in the wizarding world. In DF books Michael is shown as very humble person who gives credit to god about everything and never demands any price. Not the type of person to have gained sufficient political power to be any concern for someone like Fudge.

And without that, Amanda is just a random muggleborn(as far as Fudge knows anyway). In his view it is probably highly unlikely that snapping her wand would cause any trouble. And he is most likely right too. Even Harry thinks that Amanda having her wand snapped would not be a big deal, and I expect he would know if it was not possible to easily get a new one. Michael might be upset but I doubt he would try anything. Her wand would already be snapped at this point and he is not the kind of person to seek petty revenge.

I wonder how much Fudge even knows about the other magical communities. He no doubt knows they exist and has some knowledge, but in truth I would be surprised if he had ever heard of the denarians or the knights even.

This is the guy who made a public decree allowing Umbridge to torture children? Somehow I don't think he is all that good with PR, given that Umbridge actually started torturing prominent pure-blood families too who should have some power.

 

Is this a tribute to Dead Beat where Harry Dresden raises the T-Rex from the dead Shezza? Cause it sure as hell sounded like one to me.

 

As I said, the position of the minister of magic has a low probability of being a dictatorial position in nature if you compare to real life examples where there exists a wealthy and powerful nobility. Also as I said, I speculate that the reason Fudge could get away with what he did was because there was so much money between him and the powerful nobility that he did not fear reprisals as long as he continued being the corrupt little minister that he was portrayed to be. I'm sure that the moment he'd step out of line, his backers would quickly pull out and make an example of Fudge. People like Malfoy apparently.

It's purely based on speculation of course. Shezza's AU is not the same as the canon universe and as such we have to make assumptions on how relations should be between the two communities. As neither magical community are in any way described as being mystic, ancient or utterly OP in comparison to the other you could easily assume that they coexist. As such both sides are aware of the potential of the other, meaning especially the existance of powerful iconic figures and orders such as Dumbledore and the knights.

That said I argue that even though the knights are humble in nature, their power is clearly quite real. Meaning people will notice if not of Amanda's father specifically then by other feats done by other knights. And whoever is in charge of magical law enforcements in America will make sure they retain the cooperation of the knights.

This story isn't one where a few Dresden characters got plopped into the HP universe for giggles. It's a merger of both. As neither side is in any way or form making an effort of trying to hide from the other some things should be common knowledge, perhaps not for people such as the Weasleys but surely for a minister. If there's one thing Fudge does well then it's his ability to be bribed, which means a knowledge of who's worthy of being bribed from. Meaning he should know who the influential are.
I know trans-atlantic magical diplomacy is something which hasn't been mentioned at all but realistically Amanda suddenly transfering to Hogwarts should have caused some form of publicity on both sides of the ocean. Analyzing Fudge's modus operandi he doesn't antagonize people he know can fight back. As a non-brit quite a bit of his influence is lost on Amanda and add upon the fact that she is the daughter of a knight.

Harry's version of politics is to kill every dissenting voice so excuse me for not using his assumptions.
And if you think Michael wouldn't do anything about Amanda's broken wand well.. A parent can do a lot of crazy shit for their kids. Seriously. Revenge is what evil people do, justice is what good people seek.

There was no such explicit order, he gave Umbridge power to combat a percieved threat. Umbridge used said power and gave some to Malfoy & cronies. There were no prominent pure-bloods being tortured mentioned either. All in all, everything was perfectly justifiable in his little world. Families he likes got their share, families he didn't like weren't.

 

You know, I spotted this REALLY obvious typo that just jumped out at me the first time I read it, but when I went back up to quote it, I couldn't find it! I even looked through the chapter twice, or skimmed it rather.

Oh well. No big loss.
​

 

Then again, it does seem as though there are no checks in place to prevent this from happening. Fudge seems to have had no problems making anykind of laws he wishes to hurt Dumbledore or prevent students from learning or anything. The fact that Fudge, who is not exactly a genius, managed it does suggest that its not exactly hard to become a dictator in the ministry.

Also dont forget that the previous minister was able to throw Sirius into prison without any trial and no one was able to say or do anything about it. And infact given that everyone is convinced of his guilt we can assume that the newspaper was spreading ministry propaganda even then. Another dictator there. The fact that of the two ministers we know of, two were corrupt dictators who abused their positions to do what they wanted does not speak highly of the position.

First of all. While Shezzas story is obviously AU, it is based on the two series. So far atleast he has followed the canon pretty accurately. He has mostly filled in the blanks with characters like Amanda who are not defined in the DF-books. Michael and his personality however is very well defined and so far Shezza has not majorly deviated from that. He is shown as kind, humble and accepting even in this story.

As for the magic worlds. In the trial chapter Shezza wrote that in his universe, the original Merlin created both worlds and decreed that they would remain separate from each other so that if one fell, the other would endure. Though obviously they are aware of each other and probably have some connection. However the connection is probably political and the deeper secrets of one are unknown to the other. In any event, the knights are not a part of the white council or under their jurisdiction so the point is moot anyway.

Their power is certainly real, but they dont go around flaunting it. There are several incidents where Michael says that all of the credit goes to god, not him. Someone like that could easily fly under the radar so to speak. Also remember that while they do fight evil when necessary, their main purpose is to save denarians and capture the coins. And in the trial chapter Shezza said that the fallen operate mostly in the DF-world, meaning that the knights don't have much contact with the wizarding world.

But there is absolutely zero evidence that the knights have that kind of influence. And the righteous nature of the knights means that they would be very unlikely to start bribing people in any case.

As for Fudge knowing about the knights, I am not at all certain if that is the case. He may be the minister but he is never shown to be exactly smart or even highly educated. I could easily see him being completely ignorant about the denarians and the knights, simply because they dont generally operate in the wizarding world and as such are unimportant to him.

Also remember that in one of the DF-books, Molly who is another of Michaels daughters was nearly executed by the white council and Merlin. And it is strongly implied that the Merlin was planning on killing her simply to spite Dresden. If the knights were so influental then you would expect that he would not have been able to do that. And infact, when Michael came to the scene a bit later, the Merlin did not even _know_ who he was. Dresden had to explain that Michael was a knight to the leader of the entire White Council. Hardly well known and influental then eh?

There is no sign that Michael could politically fight back in any way. There is no evidence that the knights have that kind of power. From the top of my head I cannot even recall there even being vague signs of it. And since Amanda is essentially a muggleborn with no family-influence, I doubt her presence would have been all that big of a deal.

But he lives in that world and he uses a wand. He might not be exactly political, but he would certainly know if losing a wand would be permanently crippling. The fact that he does not think its a big deal to buy a new one suggests that its not.

As for Michael, what exactly would he do? Get his sword and lop Fudges head off? As for justice, remember the scene in one of the DF-books where a known mass-murderer asks forgiveness and mercy. Michael makes it clear that as a knight, he cannot punish the man in any way. And this was a former denarian who had probably killed hundreds, if not thousands of innocents. If Michael could not bring justice to him, then why do you think he could bring it to Fudge who was only following the law (albeit corrupted one).

Well, we know that when Umbridge used the quill on Amanda, she went to Mcgonagall who yelled at Umbridge. But shortly after that, Fudge put out a decree that prevented Mcgonagall from doing anything to stop further torture of the students. I suppose its possible that Umbridge deceived Fudge about it though.

The whole quill thing is annoying to me in any case. I cannot believe that even the wizarding world people are so backwards that they would easily accept a ministry flunkie using dark-magic items to torture children. It just does not seem believable that Dumbledore could not have made Umbridges actions public and produced an outcry from the populace. I could have accepted that Dumbledore tried to use the information, but was not believed. But unless I missed something, he did not even try! Grrr.

As for pure-bloods. We know that she is torturing Neville who is pure-blood, though I don't know if his family is influental or connected. Oh, and it just occurred to me that Umbridge tortured Amanda too which is arguably worse than just snapping her wand. Amanda can buy a new one afterall, whereas the quill eventually produces permanent scars.

Btw. I dont think the "inquisitorial squad" has been created yet in this story so no power to Malfoy&co just yet. Or did I miss something? Also given that Malfoy was a suspect in the attack on her, I wonder if Umbridge would ever give him power in any event.

 

Still waiting for the Omake.
Oh well Shezza's work is as good as ever.