"The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." - Neil deGrasse Tyson
In the weeks following the confrontation in the forest, Harriet was left more or less alone, and now the holidays were approaching.
Seated in the same classroom where Daphne and Tracy had once had the opportunity to sample Harriet's magical abilities firsthand, another meeting was underway.
"Draco has been lost in his own thoughts. He barely speaks to anyone anymore and pays attention to almost nothing. On top of that, he was supposed to be recruiting purebloods for the cause and rallying the children of those who participated in the last war, and that ended in failure. From what I've been able to gather, You-Know-Who spent an entire day torturing his parents, but no more than that, as though he didn't expect much from him to begin with. The status quo returned fairly quickly after that. Or at least, that's how it appears. But I think Draco is still useful for something, which is probably the reason he's still breathing despite everything, and why the other Slytherins haven't finished him off yet. Snape seems to have been tasked with protecting him, he's been hovering around him like a nanny lately," Daphne said, analyzing the gathered data with her usual cold precision.
If the demonstration in this very room had tipped the scales in Harriet's favor before, her single-handed defeat of twenty Slytherins had now considerably raised the stakes for anyone choosing to stand at her side.
"It might also be precisely because he failed so spectacularly that You-Know-Who still needs him. He'll have no choice but to execute his next mission perfectly if he doesn't want to disappoint him again. Which means the mission must be significant, and probably located at Hogwarts. If nothing else, the Dark Lord does know how to manage his human resources," Tracy said, thoughtful, tapping one finger against the rim of her own untouched cup.
Harriet took a sip from her cup and made a face. "I prefer coffee... But yes, given what happened, Dumbledore is probably quite pleased with himself, thinking Draco is finally on the path to becoming a 'good boy.' The bigger the failure, the higher the chances you'll realize you've been on the wrong path all along, and the fact that he barely speaks anymore points in that direction. Voldemort understands that perfectly, and he'd already anticipated the senile headmaster's reaction. His ability to read people is actually quite remarkable."
Harriet set her cup down and turned to Daphne with a more relaxed expression. "Daphne, I have a question for you. You know more about this than either Tracy or I do. How much do you know about the other magical communities?"
"There are quite a few," Daphne said. "Every country has its own magical territory. Why do you ask?"
"I've been looking into it lately. I'm trying to get a sense of what kind of weight Britain actually carries in the broader picture."
"Politically, England certainly has a say in Europe. Dumbledore is quite skilled at foreign relations, to the point that Europe's future generally ends up aligned with England. That, and the fact that they're afraid of him. And don't judge our Minister too harshly over the incident during your trial. He's a very good talker. He usually knows when to back down and when to play arrogant. He just badly misjudged how far you'd cooperate with his 'rival for the ministerial title,' who also happens to be our headmaster. And he didn't account for the fact that you didn't crack under pressure when you found yourself alone in front of the leaders of magical Britain. Hence his blunder, and his defeat that day." Daphne took a sip of tea. "But that's only Europe. The rest of the world mostly treats us with courtesy at best and disdain at worst. To give you an idea of how they see us, they think we're idiots who think we're living in a fairy tale, and the best is that we even managed to produce a baby hero and mistake it for reality."
Harriet looked a little embarrassed. "When you put it that way, it is pretty ridiculous, I'll admit. Though it does seem to work well enough here..."
Tracy picked up from there, uncrossing and recrossing her legs, settling in like she'd been waiting for her turn. "I travelled with my family to America and Japan over the holidays, and we visited the magical enclaves there too. It's true, they seemed pretty disdainful toward us. Some of them even looked at us with a kind of pity, like we were simpletons. By the end we'd stopped mentioning we were from England. It really does seem like a widespread opinion, we get lumped in with ridiculous fairly often."
She leaned back afterward, arms folded, done contributing for the moment, though her eyes stayed fixed on Daphne.
"I'd say we have our say in things," Daphne replied, "though only in Europe, and even then plenty of old families, the Pendragons for instance, stay out of everything entirely. Best not to disturb them either, they certainly aren't afraid of our dear headmaster. But that's not really what you're after, is it, Harriet?"
Harriet smiled at that. "There is indeed a question I wanted to ask, and it has to do with the Pendragons. You must know, or at least have caught a glimpse of it. All things considered, we're nothing but insects in this world compared to certain other magical races. Have you heard anything about those?"
At that, Tracy turned to look at Daphne, who looked like she'd just swallowed a fly. "Yes, I do have information on that. It completely shattered how I saw the world, the day I learned about it. But that kind of information comes at a cost, Miss Potter."
Harriet smiled slightly. "I can introduce you to my little miracle worker, Yuna. I know families like yours, the ones that don't just coast on their inheritance and actually stay involved in the family business, have heard about what she can do. She managed to multiply my capital by 1.25 while investing, and in a remarkably short time too. But fair warning, she's mine. So when you deal with her, you deal with the Potter family, and the Black family too."
Daphne looked a little surprised. "The Black family too. So it was true. Deal, it's worth it. Listen carefully, both of you." Her voice dropped, quieter than before, and she glanced toward the classroom door before continuing. "This isn't information that's easy to come by. It's considered taboo around here, simply bringing it up can get you made to disappear practically overnight. Is your silencing charm solid enough, Harriet?"
Harriet and Tracy both straightened up. "I've refined that spell enough that we're practically standing in an alternate dimension while still being in the main one. If there's anyone who can still listen in, they're way too strong to care about mere mortals like us. By the way, I named my refined spell the Blackout," Harriet said, chest puffed out just slightly.
Daphne rolled her eyes at the name, but nodded, reassured. "That's impressive, I'll ask you about it later. All right then, let me tell you what I learned from my father, and it concerns the Malfoys as well. During the Second World War, the Malfoys were actually a neutral family and didn't back either side. At the time, they only financed pharmaceutical companies, and supplied both sides. It wasn't only a Muggle war either, it was also a magical one, with Grindelwald and Dumbledore leading it, and there was significant interference on the Muggle side from both parties. What isn't widely known is that it drew the attention of certain other parties: a magical race called the 'devils,' as well as the Church. People assumed they'd end up as assets or liabilities on our level. The devils sent representatives, one of them being a certain Serafall Leviathan."
"Leviathan," Harriet said. "The multi-headed serpent God killed and fed to the people of Israel, that one? I thought devils were named after the seventy-two of the Ars Goetia."
"It's more of a title, actually," Daphne answered. "She comes from the Sitri family herself. In short, people assumed the devils and the Church were there to take advantage of the war and fight each other over it, but it was mostly about mutual restraint. Some of the devils saw a war going on and found it entertaining, and wanted to join in, which is why the Church stepped in, and why Serafall was there too. It was an exercise in keeping each other in check. On the rare occasions they did get involved, they shone on the battlefield before being disciplined for it by their own side. But back then, no one realized just how much they were holding back. It was as if they were merely amusing themselves, like adults playing with children, and that's what terrified everyone who learned the truth."
At that, Harriet asked, "What actually happened, and what made it child's play to them?"
"They only ever stepped in for skirmishes," Daphne said. "I won't tell you which side was which, you can probably guess anyway, but it mostly amounted to brief, impressive displays. One devil, wandless, wiped out a flying squadron of ten wizards just by throwing lightning at them. People originally assumed they were simply a magical race like veela, with some kind of innate spellwork, but they'd often slip into war councils and suggest ideas that can be both good and malicious. In short, they were the kind of ally you absolutely need to get rid of."
Tracy had gone very still by then, the kind of stillness that meant she was listening harder than she looked like she was.
Daphne took another sip of tea and let her gaze linger on the cup for a moment. "That's when the Malfoys decided they wanted more. It was Draco's great-grandfather who chose to summon a devil, using a name written on a flyer that had been handed to him, probably by someone with less than good intentions. The Malfoys wanted to join Grindelwald's side at the time, and they needed as many advantages as they could get. They badly underestimated exactly what kind of evil they were summoning. When the devil, one who goes by the name 'Marbas,' was summoned, they quickly understood he was operating on an entirely different level than anything they'd seen or heard of during the war. No one knows exactly what agreement was struck, but it clearly didn't go the way they wanted, because a wave of incurable disease, one that only grew worse over time, fell on both sides shortly after."
"Marbas," Harriet interrupted. "That's in the Bible, isn't it? Supposedly he can both heal and cause disease. Capable of creating, or copying, every disease he's ever seen, to make something even worse."
"That's exactly right, and it was vicious," Daphne said. "No one actually died from it, because the point of the disease wasn't to kill, it was to keep the victim in a constant, worsening state of pain. In the end, it was Serafall Leviathan's intervention that fixed everything, but plenty of people never fully recovered. The strongest fighters on both sides, including Grindelwald and Dumbledore, took part in trying to subdue that particular devil, and it was a total defeat. It took him ten seconds to kill half of them and put the rest out of the fight, and probably only because he was enjoying himself. That's when Serafall Leviathan showed up and ordered him to fix what he'd done. As it turned out, he had the power to heal too."
"This Serafall must be terrifyingly strong," Harriet said, "to be able to order around someone like that."
"That's an understatement," Daphne said. "She was the devils' representative during the war, after all, and no one had grasped just how much power she was actually holding back. Apparently, that day, she let just a fraction of it slip out to calm everyone down on the battlefield, and it traumatized everyone present, Marbas included. Her role really was babysitting, in the most literal sense. She also ordered both sides to end the war before she got personally involved, which is what led, a week later, to the duel between Grindelwald and Dumbledore, and to the headmaster's victory, ending the war on both the magical and the mundane fronts."
Tracy's arms had tightened around herself somewhere in the last few minutes, though she didn't seem to notice she'd done it. "So devils really exist. And the Church must have had angels on their side too, in that case. It's terrifying, imagining they can just walk around our world however they please..."
"And they probably struck some kind of agreement beforehand not to go to war with each other, hence the restraint," Harriet said, a little nervous but also a little excited. "We really are just ants in this world, aren't we. Interesting... So this world is far bigger than it looks. From what you're telling me, even with everything I've improved on since all this started, even getting close to the same level as the Dark and White Lords, I'd still get killed in a fraction of a second by something like that. Well. They probably don't get involved in our affairs because we simply don't matter enough to them, or some agreement was struck millennia ago, and knowing our luck, one heavily stacked against us."
Harriet continued after a moment's thought, a bit more relaxed now. "Meh, we probably just don't even register to them. We're likely what a Muggle is to one of Voldemort's precious purebloods."
At that, Daphne and Tracy both nodded.
…
In the Underworld, in an office somewhere in the city of Lilith, in the Department of Foreign Affairs:
Buried under a mountain of unsigned treaties, Serafall Leviathan sat in her magical girl costume, surrounded by stacks of paperwork, sighing theatrically at no one in particular, wondering whether devils had invented bureaucracy specifically to torture humans, and if so, why was she the one suffering through it now? Wasn't she a devil herself?
Suddenly, she felt someone invoke her name, and her pen stopped moving. Oh? Gossip about little old her? They clearly didn't know that once you'd reached a certain tier of existence, saying that person's name without the proper precautions meant they might just hear you. And, oh, wow, look at that, quite the impressive little ward for such a small community! Still not enough, though.
Ah, right, that war. Brought back some memories, but that wasn't the important part. The important part was: "Ah, I remember, I gave those picture books to So-tan when she was little and adorable and she loved them so much, ahhh, and now she's thirteen and thinks she's too grown up for that kind of 'childish nonsense,' she's gotten so serious, wuuuhuu," she said between two sobs, before quickly composing herself. "But a serious little So-tan like that is still adorable! Hmmm, this 'Girl-Who-Lived,' Harriet Nicole Potter, now that I take a closer look, she'd make an absolutely wonderful magical girl! I need to go recruit her the moment I have some free time!"
And so Serafall Leviathan, one of the Four Great Satans, Satan Girl (Maō Shōjo), and Siscon Extraordinaire, made herself a solemn little promise to go bother a certain brunette the very first chance she got.
…
Unfortunately for Harriet, the person who had overheard their conversation was very much not one to shrug it off. Normally, someone at that level would have simply ignored it. Too bad for her that she happened to check every box on Serafall's very particular magical girl checklist.