The country was in shock after the article came out.
For the next week it was all that was on the tongues of witches and wizards in Europe. The impact spread because of my status as a champion in the tournament and the fact that BonesWorks was in the final phase before opening its new branches in other communities.
The revelation reassured many. I am too young and powerful in all aspects for others to not have doubts about. Something which seems too perfect is seldom accepted by humans, and wizards are no different.
But my experiences when it comes to blood-supremacists, noble extremists, dark magic fanatics and the general cancer of our times, has made everyone understand that I would, most likely, never willingly stand on their side. I lost most of my family and was tortured under the home of the most fervent supporter of that bald cunt, so not exactly prime death eater candidate at this point. Plus I'm the nephew of Amelia freaking Bones, badass woman of justice extraordinaire, and after those dipshits who tried to hurt her position by accusing her of abusing me and by extension Susan are quietly removed from any positions of importance, I am going to make this a big boost for her career.
I have two general plans regarding mother's future: the first path is to help her become a proper Minister of Magic when people finally realize how pathetic Fudge is and make sure no one can touch her, the other is to help her prepare the men and women under her in every way possible to bolster the combat ready forces when the fucking loveless pussy comes back even if she's not Minister. Fuck whoever's in charge when it comes to plan two. I would prefer her not being in harms way, but the only way I can picture that happening is if I kidnap her and then hold her prisoner. There is just no way she would ever stay still when shit goes sideways and she is more than capable of making those cock eaters suffer when she's in command. That's one of the main reasons the walking ball sack killed her personally.
Back on the reactions that little interview received, it's been funny learning about how those bigoted pansies panic when they realized that one of the richest (they have no clue how truly insanely rich I am) and most powerful lords of modern times will never follow along with their stupidity. I mean, it's not like the chances of that were high after I was raised by the goddamn head of the DMLE, so not sure what the surprise was there. Those idiots just thought that because I'm engaged to Tory, who's father, I hope anyone could agree, is one of the most horrible father/husband/lord/men/dirtbag/cunt eaters still free at the moment, that it would somehow enlighten me to the true path a noble blooded wizard should take.
It was just too easy to get every bit of their reactions from my network and how they plan to try to limit my growth. I can't wait to start really shacking things up. I already have 18 members of Wizengamot firmly in my corner as their safety has been guaranteed under me, I've supported and advised them in political maneuverings ever since my little case against Lucius last year, I've given them money to grow their influence under me and provided useful bits of information against their political ennemies as well as getting rid of potential blackmail against them. Oh yes, I am not just building up my forces, I am making use of what I have to further increase my reach. And that's just those who would support me completely, I have many others who were quite partial to me as well due to my increasingly apparent capabilities.
There are still a good number who will stop at nothing to not lose any of their current power, status or feeling of superiority, but I will slowly remove those fools from power so that our country can actually improve for once. I am also the one with the most dirt and money to control those Lucius usually blackmails, but he has no clue and still thinks he can just do as he pleases. Something I am more than happy to let him believe since it is funny watching the self important prick think he's still matters.
Although I am against practicing the dark arts personally, too much temptation and corruption for my liking, I am not above playing dirty. Blackmail, bribes, assassinations, anything which can cleanses this rotting world and let everyone have an actual future. Fuck the stupid way Dumbledore has been doing things. Fuck those morons at the ministry who are incapable of making hard decisions. Fuck the nobles who forgot that with nobility comes nobless oblige. I'll work in the light and the dark to achieve true change.
Got a bit too amped up about that, so let's get back to some lighter news about that article.
Funnily enough the biggest feedback the Herald got over the interview was a ton of mail from witches of all ages complaining about them crushing their dreams or demanding clarification on my actual relationship status.
They sent me a picture of the mail room and I couldn't help but feel a little schadenfreude over their situation.
Besides getting my reports on the situation from either Sherry or Scott, the rest of the week was only a bit more busy for me at Hogwarts.
Many students had questions about my feelings on the tournament or what I said in the article, which made a slightly bigger amount of students try to approach me. Fortunately enough, they all know how I dislike being mobbed and that such disorder is not accepted. Helps that my group of friends is almost exclusively Prefects and Head boy/girl. Makes people think more then once before annoying us in general.
If you talk to us calmly and politely we generally try to answer pretty much any question we feel comfortable answering, so not a problem. We have the kids behaving properly. Kinda what happens when you basically rule the school since fifth year.
Aside from dealing with all that, the four of us have also been finishing our preparations for two important events: our animagus registration/me taking the early exams for my NEWT's in the subjects they said I could, and our operation to deal with Fenrir Greyback was also fast approaching.
The first thing was pretty easy. Just had to get permission to go out during a weekend and head to the ministry to get registered, also give them a heads up that I'll take them up on their offer to test me early.
So I just asked the headmaster and deputy headmistress for permission and use of one of their fireplaces to go there. Dumbledore was quite happy to have students even better than the previous Marauders learning to be animagus, especially since we were actually capable and disciplined instead of being immature pranksters. McGonagall on the other hand decided that, even if we were once in a century/millenium geniuses, we should not have done such a 'dangerous' process unsupervised and should have told them about our plans. I get that she worries, but most people become animagus when adults, so who looks after them when they try this stuff? Kinda made the nagging redundant in my mind, but it's cause she cares so let's just smile and nod.
For the second part of my ministry visit I just sent to the Ministry and another to mother since the registry for animagi is under her department.
I took a few days to get the response from the ministry itself, but they scheduled me tests to be on the 25th of March and mother said we could drop by pretty much whenever for the registration, but shouldn't hold off on it too long since it'll be illegal after a while.
With the date specified and everything ready, the four of us then proceeded to ready ourselves for the more important event, which is obviously our ambush/assassination of Greyback Sr.
From everything I was able to gather and with some manipulation from my spies and informants, the animal will attack on the 16th of March, during the dead of night. He picked the date for the full moon, thinking that the werewolves of the town would be on his side if freed and his own men strengthened from the moon.
The fool has no idea what he's walking into. He's taking about 50 of 'his' men to attack the town and thinks that'll be enough.
Just the forces always protecting the village would be enough to beat back that pathetic assault.
The town itself has nearly surpassed Hogsmeade in terms of population, closing in on two thousand residents. We have a properly built goblin forged fence which is capable of expansion protecting the town and concealing it perfectly from non magicals, and hostiles when I want. It's capable of pretty much anything Hogwarts can do but on a slightly lower scale. Can't apparate directly into or out of it, only permitted entry points like some fireplaces, portkey drop locations and the four physical entrances can let one legally come in and out. Well except for me and a select few who are keyed into the wards and are free to come and go. There's a force of 98 residents trained and armed by my forces maintaining order in the town itself and supervising the entry points. Doesn't sound like a lot compared to the almost 2000 residents, but the people there are very happy with their lives and are almost desperate to not lose what they've gained, dramatically reducing the chances of crimes. They're usually there to stop people from sneaking in, drunken fights or petty crimes and the likes, but they are more than well trained. Plus my guys from Fortress can get there in no time at all by using an emergency system we have in place. So even without my little scheme, the bastard stood next to no chances of succeeding his plan.
But the thing is, he needs to die. I will not give him even a single fraction of a chance at escaping. We will kill him and his most trusted in one strike and remove that insult to all werewolves from existence.
So now we have Geri and her men added to the mix. 40 experienced and battle-hardened men and women from Fortress. Remus actually took the initiative to involve himself. Then you add little old me, a being in the same tier as Dumbledore and Voldemort. My three friends capable of taking on a dozen or so Aurors. Then you factor in my traps, plans and wards, and you've got yourself a dead man walking.
Even then you can't underestimate the preparations my friends have been making up to the fated day.
Victoria has taken the nearly mad scientist route for her prep work. She 'borrowed' all my notes on werewolves, their genes, blood, virus, strengths and weaknesses, studying everything I found out and researched when I was developing the suppressor and almost went into seclusion with them. She came out with an arsenal of potions and poisons designed to do things from paralyzing werewolves with them taking a whiff of the smoke the potion makes after it's thrown on the ground, something which is basically the cursed oil from the Witcher, all the way to something which is apparently capable of melting the bastards.
Christian finally got all his equipment for werewolf hunting together. The most interesting things in there was the crossbow with silver tip bolts and a freaking Moon Dust grenade which makes silver dust burst out and burn the respiratory system of the werewolf if got used on. I decided to enchant the crossbow and bolts with James so that our friends can quickly fire and have tracking bolts for easy hits. We basically screwed over anyone wanting to be on the other side of that thing without shielding capabilities.
James had finished making the equipment he had time to make, meaning my friends all had greaves and bracers which were really well enchanted against physical and magical attacks by the both of us. Managed to make the bracers capable of deflecting the killing curse too, something which is going to fuck over some over confident little shits I tell you.
The last thing that happened was my own little gift for all of them, which was a basilisk/dragon hide overcoat for the three of them. Each with a different symbol on the back: halo for James, wolf for Christian and crown for Tory. I then proceeded to enchant them with James in order to strengthen them against physical damage since both of the hides they were made from already gave them a great deal of magical protection.
Everyone was pretty happy with their new gear which matched well with mine, even if my stuff was on another level in general.
Everything was ready as the 15th ended.