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"My lord," a soldier came running into the throne room of the Nott family. He was the exact same man that brought the unfortunate news of the invasion of the family's vassal's lands by those of House Potter.

He was sure his superiors were forcing down all these bad messages on him to report so they could avoid their ire of their Lord and General.

Sighing to himself, the soldier wondered what happened to not harming the messenger, especially your very own. Biting down on everything he had to say, he could only blame himself for choosing to take up services with a Dark Family.

Light families always do provide top notch medical and dental benefits, and plenty of sick and parental leave. He really should have listened to his older brother and parents, instead of acting like the rebellious little punk he used to be, swayed in on all the pure blooded supremacy bullshit.

None of that shit really pays for the rent or helps you with diabolical bosses.

"It's you again," the General eyes honed in on him. "Don't tell me you came with some more bad news."

Swallowing nervously, the man could feel the sweat dripping down from his brow. "I also bring some good news, my lord!"

"Go ahead, report what you must," the young new Lord waved to him to speak.

"The good news is my lord, we have managed to clear out most of House Potters vassals from the estates and holding they managed to take. Only a few still stand still and managed to withstand the first force we sent their way, but soon a much larger combined force will be formed to deal with them just like you wanted."

"What remains of our vassals?" the general asked the kneeling soldier.

"Sir..." the man said looking up for just a single second.

"The question is simple, man. Now answer!"

"Not much," the soldier said hesitantly, "they basically have been all wiped out, so we can not expect much help from them in this war."

"And our enemy?" the gruff man asked.

"They too have been all but wiped out, except for two last hold outs!"

"What do you make of this general?" the young lord asked his master of arms. "Why would he waste away his vassals upon ours. I get he wanted to deal a crippling blow to them so we can be denying extra forces, but he had the element of surprise. He found out about where all our vassal's estates and land were hidden, so couldn't he had just struck and got out.

Why make a futile effort in holding on to something he knew he couldn't. All he really did was just waste away all his vassals' forces, basically crippling himself like he did us."

"Aye," the kneeling soldier said as if he made to say something, but then thought better of it, letting his masters just carry on their lines of thinking until they made him spill the beans of the bad news.

"I don't know my lord," the general answered. "The new Lord of Potters thoughts are a great mystery to me. However what could be a likely case is the loyalty of his vassals. When your father, the preview head, was looking into the Potter family, he took notice of how disloyal the bunch of them were. Some not paying their taxs for years, others skimping n their duties, some even pursuing their own agenda. That is why he made a play to have on of house Potters vassals rebel, so everything could come crashing down."

"So you think he did this to clean up house. Strick two birds with one stone with this move."

"Yes, it is most likely! He would be both crippling our vassals and those disloyal to him all in one move."

"Mhmm, very ingenious," the young lord rubbed his chin. "I never thought that our little exemplar and paragon of light would stoop to such trickery and guile only reserved for the dark!"

"Yes, it would seem the new lord of House of Potter is more in line with the grey. That is why you need to be more careful my lord, he could implore any technique while playing to be the good guy. That makes him a very dangerous opponent indeed."

"Yes, I know that," Theodore Nott nodded his head solemnly. Then turning to face the kneeling man, the young lord turned back to address him, "You said this was the good news soldier? If so I don't think you know what good news is at all, but still, pray tell, what is the bad news you have for me."

Swallowing down on the lump in his throat once again, the poor messenger caused at his superiors who made him come break the news to two very terrible wizards. "The... the Grim Tower h-has fallen, my lord," he bowed his head, not daring to raise his neck one inch o as not to get it chopped off.

"What. did. you. say?" the young lord asked as he leaned in from his throne like chair, peering down at the soldier.

Cursing his bad luck, the man repeated in one single breath to get it all over it with in one single go. "TheGrimTowerhasfallen, mylord!"

"How," the General growled, "and be clear soldier. What do you mean? How has the tower fallen."

"We... I mean my superior officers, they do not know at all, my lord," the fighting man stated, laying the blame on the people who sent him into the lion's den. "The tower is... just gone. All that remains is rubble and ruin in place!"

"That bastard..." the young lord growled, clearly speaking of the Potter lord. "He must have done this."

"Yes, it would seem that his greater goal than just crippling ours and his disloyal vassals was to create a distraction. To throw up some smoke screen while he struck were we least expected it," the General mused as he seemed to come down, thinking everything over.

"He is more dangerous than we thought, my lord. It's like he is playing circles around us," the old hand said a bit worriedly.

"Damn him, and damn his house," the young lord got up angry, tossing his wine glass up agist the fir wall, making the kneeling soldier flinch back in fear. "What would my ancestors say about me, the one who lost the family's tower, the one who gave up our researchs' to our enemy on a silver platter.

You know those incessant little vassals and followers will start taking right General. Taking about how young I am, on how my uncle should have lead. And my father.... oh, how he would love this. That fucking bastard would be right old happy with himself."

"Take it easy, my lord," the General tried to calm his liege lord. The poor messenger on the other hand was looking for a way out of here as he was pretty sure staying here any longer wouldn't be good for his health. But damn this grand hall, the place went on endlessly and every sound echoed all around.

"No, we need to act," Theodore Nott growled, "and we need to do it right now. I can let that half breed trounce about me. No, I will take the battle right to him and show everyone... especially her, that I am the superior wizard!

General," he said as he turned to the man, "You said we already know the location of the Griffin fort!?"

Already seeing the boy's line of thought, the man asked, "Are you sure about this, my lord. This is the height of foolishness, we might be playing into his hand, and attacking a well defended location is not something you do lightly, especially with a equal force. You would need 10 times the..."

"General," the boy cut him off, "have you grown senile or maybe fearful in your old age."

"No!"

"THEN WHY THE HELL ARE YOU QUESTIONING MY DECISION?!"

"I will get to it right away, my lord," the man bowed his head.

"Then do it! You," Nott turned to face the still kneeling man, who cursed silently to himself. "Gather my captains and officers before me. And be quick about it."

"Yes, my lord," the messenger sighed to himself as he nearly all but ran out of the room.

Left alone, the young lord stood there my himself while muttering, "I will show them, I will show them all and especially her!"

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"It's good to see you back boy," the Commander smacked Harry on the back as he entered the Griffin fort. Cheers were going up as they all entered through from the front gates, soldiers were up on walls and battlements waving their hands and wands into the air while someone even let loose some fireworks from their wands up into the sky and someone else was running flowers below as well.

"It wasn't that big of a victory, Commander," Harry shrugged his shoulder.

"It wasn't that big of a victory," the man repeated after him. "Boy you got some high aspirations. If we could have been giving each dark family those types of blows during the way, they might have raised the white flag right away!"

"You strike at their bottom line, my lord," Alex pointed out. "You have struck at the heart of the Nott family's power. They could care less about some vassals getting invaded or having a lord put away. But destroying a symbol of power that has stood for hundreds of years is something else."

"Well we got their attention now," Harry grinned, "I expect them to be very incensed right now. Angry enough to maybe do something foolhardy."

"If they are wise they would surrender right now!" Riley scuffed.

"Do you think a dark family is ever wise," Otto snorted.

"Alright, I need a report of how our vassals' operations went," Harry raised as they made their way up to a council room within the inner keep of the fortress.

"Better than we thought, that's for sure," the Commander answered. "They didn't break against the walls of the Nott family like we imagined, but managed to over run them."

"So that's how bad things were," Harry nodded his head. It was clear now that his vassals have been hiding way extra men for them to take down others of equal rank to them.

"Yes, but they had lost all they have acuminated over these years," Hakim spoke up.

"Serves them right for their disloyalty," Martin intoned.

"Good we will need them as broken children before we can ever welcome them back into the fold! What about Lord Bott, Ser Ryan & Ser Eddie?"

"They have done well for themselves, they took control of the old vassals' home and withstood the first group of Nott soldiery. Lord Boot has the next Lady of House Moss in hand. Ser Ryan and Ser Eddie have joined their youngest son and daughter in union and would like to create a new house with your word!" Alex replied for him.

"They have my permission," Harry said as that moment Toby poped in with Dobby as well setting up drinks and refreshments for them. "It would be good to recover the two vassalage we lost.

Now moving on to..."

"My lord," Hakim cut him off, "you will need to see this." Pulling up on the overhead screen up above whatever he had to show them, Harry and everyone else turned to look up.

He saw that they were looking over the Grim Fortress where the Grim Battalion was stationed. He could hear the chirping of a Mini griff as it flew high up above in the sky as it relayed the video of the fortress. It was his idea to set up a mini little camera on the Mini Griffins so that they could send it live feeds back to them.

What drew Harry's attention and everyone else was all the activity going on down below in the fort, equipment where being prepared by soldiers, packs were being readied, and so much more things were happening in a flurry.

It could only mean one thing, the Grim Battalion was being prepared to head out, and they could only be coming for one person, him!

Everyone in the chamber shared a look and then they heard a shriek of pain come from the live feed as the Mini Griffin struggled against something.

They only got a glimpse at what held the Mini Griffin in its talons. It was a disgusting shadowy vulture like creature that seemed to have a skull face on. It let loose a ear piecing shriek as it flew to the fortress.

Landing on the gloved arm of a sharp eyed man dressed in high ranking uniform, the man stared at the Mini Griffin clutched in the creature's talon.

Harry heard the grinding of teeth as he turned to see the Commander narrowing his eyes toward the face of the man that came up on the screen.

Alex was kind enough to lean in and explain, "That is the General of the Grim Battalion, the Commander and him go way back. He is the man who he lost his arm to..."

"Ohh," Harry said with a nod of his head as he watched the man on the screen grab the Mini griff by the scruff of its neck while it wiggled and shriek in his arm. He let the vulture creature fly off as he headed into the keep of the fort.

It wasn't long before he came up to a very familiar person, Theodore Nott who stood over a map of the actual Griffin Fort grounds, now Harry at lest knew where they would be striking. They exchanged a few words that they couldn't understand, but Harry got a vague picture. The General handed the Mini griff over to the new Lord of House of Nott who took it in end facing the camera head on.

"Are you listening, Potter..." he spoke into the camera.

Harry of course had no way to reply, but he did listen.

"I am coming for you, so you better prepare yourself I make you regret making a move on the woman that is mine..." then of course the video was cut off as Harry heard Nott break the neck of the poor Mini Griffon.

Everyone was silent as they sat there in their seat saying nothing, until finally Harry broke the smile.

"Now isn't that just perfect," Harry grinned.

[A/N: Think of Wendigo like Grim from RWBY]

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