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7 June 1995, Land of Shadows
They sat down, looking at the faces of Arcturus Black, Sebastien Delacour, Alexander Marinakis, and Vlad Drakul. The vampire spoke up in a smooth voice, "I'm glad to see you at this time. Let's ignore the pleasantries, we don't have time for that. Instead, let's talk about how we're planning to handle Ragnarök."
This meeting was something that Harry had dreaded for a while. It had nothing to do with who was involved, but merely the topic, its goal, for the final preparations of Ragnarök. Yeah, sue him, but Harry wasn't exactly looking forward to the End of Days. Nevertheless, they were all sitting there, ready for a war whose scale they barely even understood because the world had never seen anything like it before. Well, technically, there could be some comparisons to the original war between the Light and Dark, before they were sealed away that is, but that didn't really count.
Nevertheless, despite the daunting task ahead of them, they had gathered in the Land of Shadows, Vlad Drakul's domain. It was, probably, the single most protected place in the world, being essentially a subspace, a folded dimension of its own that Gellert Grindelwald couldn't see through.
Everyone was staring at Harry expectantly as if waiting for him to lead the meeting. It made sense; he was the one who was probably the most knowledgeable about the Light and Dark, he was the only one who had survived a proper fight against them, and he was the one with an actionable plan. Harry had wanted to avoid the whole thing and get Arcturus to handle the 'army' side of the fighting, while his ward would focus on his plan. Yet, the Black Patriarch refused, saying something about it being time for Harry to step up.
Deep down, Harry knew that his guardian was right. This was his plan, his fight, and he should lead it, but he still hadn't led anyone before, not really. The only time he could think of it was when he trained people during the tournament and led his friends during the Battle of Hogsmeade, that was it. The sad truth was that even amongst friends, Harry had a hard time really expressing himself, often just giving up and handling everything by himself. It was one of his biggest flaws and something he had planned on working on if he, you know, actually survived Ragnarök.
And yet, now they were expecting him to lead army veterans in a war, which Harry felt extremely unqualified to do. However, he had no other choice. Arcturus gave him an approving nod, and he took a deep breath, "Alright, let's talk about Ragnarök, His voice was steadier than he expected, "What do you lot know so far?"
Sebastien Delacour answered, "We know that Grindelwald and Dumbledore are working together, that they had been manipulating the European School Tournament to their ends. For each task, they broke a prophecy and used its magical release to power something."
Marinakis nodded, "It's a very elaborate ritual, one that needs to be powered seven times, if I had to guess. However, I must say that its goals still elude me."
Their host, the first vampire, spoke up for the first time, "I believe I can shed some light on this. The ritual is Gellert's creation, his masterpiece. It was a theoretical exercise, truly, not something I ever expected could have seen the Light of day. It's a way of amplifying massively any sort of magical spell by spreading it out over time, causing a compounding effect as it's stored before it releases explosively. Seven broken prophecies, over months of time. The magical release alone will be astronomical, enough to wipe an entire country off the map at the very least, maybe even a continent."
They all shuffled around hesitatingly, and Harry decided to put a stop to it, "I have set certain measures in place to handle any large-scale magical release. This will not be a problem," he then turned towards the vampire, "Do you have any idea what the purpose of this ritual is. I still don't know, even after spending almost a year trying to stop it."
Harry was, of course, talking about the World Tree. Its seed was ready to absorb any large-scale magic like a sponge, using it to grow and protect the material realm. Nevertheless, he didn't elaborate. He saw no need to tell people about the World Tree. Harry knew the people in this room, but he didn't trust them enough to tell them about something as massive and as monumental as what the tree was bound to become. They would try to use it to their own ends, specifically Delacour, Drakul, and Marinakis.
Thankfully, they didn't press, and Vlad simply answered, "Gellert was obsessed with the prophecy of Ragnarök, well before the World Serpent perished. My former pupil's greatest desire was always control. My guess would be that he saw that the End of Days was coming and is trying to give himself some form of control over the prophecy."
"What about Dumbledore?" Arcturus asked.
The first vampire scoffed, "That fool has always been blind when it came to Gellert. I don't know if my former pupil told him about his true plan, whatever it is, but I don't think so. This ritual is Gellert's work, probably refined over decades. They both know that they'll fight, that one of them will not survive. I'm sure that both of them will be preparing, and making plans for their own ends. Believe me, their alliance is fragile. Gellert would not let himself lose and would stack the deck in his favour as much as he could."
Sebastien Delacour scoffed, "So, what you're telling me is that Dumbledore and Grindelwald have been planning a gigantic ritual, probably something that would give them somehow some form of control over how Ragnarök is going to occur, and that our only advantage is that they're planning to eventually fight one another."
"Mind your tone, Delacour," Harry answered dryly, "I confess that we don't know much about Grindelwald's ritual, but if this ritual comes to pass, then we've already lost. We don't need to know about it, we need to stop them before it happens."
"And how are you prepared to do that?" Marinakis questioned.
"Look, the way I see it, we have two different ways we can do this. The first one is to stop the prophecy from being broken. It's the last piece of the puzzle. They will not be able to move past this; the ritual will be incomplete and they'll get caught up in the blast. I can deal with the magical release, so we should be fine on that front."
Yes, it was a plan, but not without its issues. For one, they had no idea what the prophecy Dumbledore was planning on breaking, and there was also the fact that they would need to be close to Hogwarts, something that Sebastien voiced, "No, it's too close the Hogwarts. Any attack would be seen coming a mile away. Dumbledore had decades to learn every single detail and ward available in the castle. We will not last long against something like this. We're already at a disadvantage; there's no need to make it even worse."
Everyone seemed to agree, and Harry continued, "Alright, if we don't stop the prophecy, then we need to concentrate our attack on the actual ritual site. This brings us to our next problem, we have no idea where Grindelwald's ritual will take place."
It was something that he had neglected in the previous tasks. Harry never really took the time to see where the two Champions were storing the energy they collected. It was just gone, absorbed, without a single trace. Thankfully, Vlad chimed in, "A ritual of this magnitude, they can't store the energy in one place. It'll be obvious and that's not to mention extremely dangerous. No, Gellert used each school as an anchor of some sort, storing the magic there, ready for the ritual, which is a good thing, since the ritual will need to be a certain distance from each of them. By my calculations, there are five places that could work, but only one of them really stands out."
"Where?" Sebastien asked.
"Nurmengard," the vampire uttered.
Holy shit. Was Grindelwald planning this so far back? There were many speculations as to why Grindelwald chose this place in the middle of nowhere to build his fortress. Sure, there were a few ley lines passing there, but it wasn't anywhere special. There were better places to choose from, places with better ambient magic, places with at least a natural defence, like mountains or even a lake. But no, Gellert Grindelwald chose a place in the middle of nowhere and now Harry understood why, "He's been planning this from the start before even his own war began."
Delacour and Arcturus slumped in their seats and Harry couldn't blame them. They had fought the Dark Lord in the Great War. They had won, at great sacrifice, and it was the only thing that made it worth it.
The idea that it was all some sort of elaborate plan, that conquest hadn't been Grindelwald's main goal from the start, that Nurmengard was created, not as a prison for his enemies, not as a centre of his operations, but as a way to manipulate the End of Days to his own ends, well, it was extremely demoralizing, to say the least.
Thankfully, Marinakis broke the silence, "The question is whether or not we even have the numbers necessary to break the wards on Nurmengard. Wouldn't it make more sense to attack Hogwarts instead? It'll be far less protected."
"But we would have less intelligence on that front. Voldemort's death means that we don't know which prophecy Dumbledore is planning on breaking. The entire Department of Mysteries is looking for candidate prophecies, but they've found nothing so far. Even then, we'd need to find where they're planning on breaking the prophecy and deal with that on the fly. It's too much risk."
Arcturus seemed to disagree, "We could have a small task force in Hogwarts to stop the prophecy from breaking."
Harry thought for a moment. It was very likely that Dumbledore would be able to break the prophecy, but theoretically speaking, he could use that. Harry could technically absorb the magical release with the Elder Wand, much as he did on Olympus. Sure, it might not fully work, but the excess magic could be useful in the eventual final battle.
He nodded at them, "I'll lead a small team in Hogwarts, hoping to stop the prophecy from breaking. I'll need a heavy hitter in case we end up fighting Dumbledore, but I'll do what I can."
The former headmaster of Olympus Academy spoke up, "I don't mind joining you. It's been a while since I've been in a real fight, but this doesn't change the fact that attacking Nurmengard will be very difficult. Grindelwald spent decades maintaining the wards on this place. Will our numbers be enough to stop them?"
Harry took back control of the room, "I believe they will. I have thousands of Lycans ready to be deployed, and hundreds of Unspeakables specializing in breaking wards. Delacour and Black were able to hire over ten thousand mercenaries from across the continent, and we have enough heavy hitters. Given the fact that Grindelwald will have to perform the ritual himself and will not be able to reinforce any of the wards, we have a solid chance to break the wards. If they haven't by the time I get there from Hogwarts, I'll sneak in myself and destroy them."
"No," Vlad retorted, "I'll be the one sneaking in and destroying the wards. We can't afford to waste any more time and stealth has always been a speciality of mine."
Harry nodded, feeling grateful, but Delacour wasn't exactly convinced, "What about the army of vampires that are bound to attack us?"
The vampire answered, "The number of Elder Vampires and Vampire Lords has dwindled in the last few years. They will be troublesome, but not impossible to deal with."
Delacour continued, "And then what? Assuming that Dumbledore breaks the prophecy, that you somehow survive the encounter with him, that we break the wards, and that our army destroys the vampires, we still have to deal with the Champions of Light and Dark working together, and believe me, even if our chances of success are slim there, they're practically non-existent against these two."
"Leave Dumbledore and Grindelwald to me. I have a plan, and they'll be preoccupied with their ritual as well. I only need you to give me the opportunity to fight them both while the ritual is being powered. Deal with their armies and leave the rest to me."
He already had to rework a few things given the new information. Harry had assumed that the ritual would take place in Britain and was safe that the World Tree seed would be able to absorb the magical release without too many problems, but Nurmengard changed things. He'd need to find a way to bring the magical release to the World Tree seed, or bring the tree to Nurmengard, something that was probably going to be a headache in itself, maybe some form of large-scale space warping would work? He couldn't exactly do it without Grindelwald knowing about it given how close it would be from his place of operations.
Oh, he had an idea. It could work very well, but it would require a lot of energy. He should be able to pull it off eventually.
Still, everyone sitting at the table looked very hesitant for some reason, and it was Arcturus who broke the silence, "You're seriously planning on fighting them both, alone?"
Harry shook his head, "Not alone. You're all welcome to join me, but as I said, I have a plan. But don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to think that I can overpower the two of them, and I'm not planning on fighting them. I'm planning on killing them. No matter what happens, Dumbledore and Grindelwald will not survive, not for long. Our main goal here is to stop the ritual. The Light and Dark cannot be allowed to enter our realm. We cannot afford another Great Cataclysm."
"Then there's something else," Vlad said, his voice suddenly heavier. "Something we need to stop, no matter the cost."
"What?"
The vampire's gaze flickered to each of them before he spoke the name with finality.
"Gjallarhorn"
The horn that heralded Ragnarök? Harry had heard of it from Norse Mythology, but there was also something recent, "Grindelwald stole it during the fifth task, alongside Thor's belt of strength."
He had forgotten all about that theft, to be honest, and now it was biting him in the ass.
"Yes. The belt is no more, of course, destroyed for its prophecy, but Grindelwald needs the horn. He seeks to manipulate Ragnarök to his own ends, and from what I know from studying the horn, it's a spell, one that needs a lot of power, and makes a breach into the material realm's protection, allowing the Light and Dark to step through. No one was able to do it because it needed a ridiculous amount of power. But it was always there, during every single potential End of Days. I last saw it in Camlann in Morgan Le Fey's possession. The fae sealed her before she could use it, thankfully."
"And no one thought to destroy it, or at least, hide it?" Arcturus replied dryly.
"They have. Even if it's destroyed, it would appear later in pristine condition. Hiding it didn't work, it would teleport around somehow, find a way to be in the right hands, in the possession of people who would be able to use it. We all just gave up after a few centuries trying to stop it."
Delacour spoke up clearly, "So, let me get this straight, you want us to use an army to attack one of the most well-defended fortresses in history, while Potter tries to fight Dumbledore for a prophecy he doesn't even know, in a place that he doesn't even know yet. Then somehow, if he survived, he would join us in Nurmengard, where we're hoping that Drakul would be able to sneak inside and destroy the wards. After which, our army will fight an army of vampires, while Potter and who knows what else, will fight both Dumbledore and Grindelwald, for some plan he obviously refuses to tell us about, while also making sure that the ritual isn't complete, and that Grindelwald doesn't use an invincible, teleporting, and mythical horn. And in the miracle that we succeed, he will also use some other obscure thing to stop the magical release from killing us all. Did I miss anything?"
Harry shook his head, "That sounds about right."
The Frenchman groaned and slammed his head on the table, "We're all going to die."
The young wizard snorted, "If it makes you feel any better, we're all going to die if we don't fight anyway."
"This does not, in fact, make me feel any better. Is this seriously the best plan you could have come up with?"
"It's a miracle that we even have a plan," Harry responded dryly.
Vlad Drakul nodded, "I've seen battles won with worse odds."
The young wizard continued, "We can also use the time we have to gain more advantages. We have almost two weeks and we need to make the best of them. We need to study the wards beforehand and get some intelligence on how they're structured, and where they're based, first. We also need to know where exactly in the fortress the ritual is going to take place. Every minute counts here."
The vampire spoke up, "I also have a few ideas on how to increase your odds during the fight against Dumbledore and Grindelwald."
Harry turned towards the vampire with a gleam in his eyes, "I'm interested."
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AN: This chapter was very difficult to write. I've never really done a planning scene quite like this and I had to rewrite it twice. It's a weird balance, giving enough information to make the chapter interesting, while also not too much to spoil the ending (In a very Harry fashion, not everything will go to plan). I know that Harry's plan sounds a bit too simple, but let's just say that there's more to it than that. I'll address it a bit more in the next chapter, as well as Lupin and Snape's absence. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr
I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.
Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.