The world outside my window was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of silence that only comes after devastation — or absolute victory.
The Ministry of Magic had been transformed. Where once the walls were filled with portraits of self-important bureaucrats and smug politicians, now they bore new banners — deep crimson and black, embroidered with my sigil. The mark of order. My order.
For the first time in decades, there was no chaos in England's magical community. No rebellions, no uprisings, no dissent. Everyone — from the lowest clerk to the most arrogant pure-blood — understood exactly who ruled them now.
Me.
And yet, as I sat behind the Minister's desk, the Elder Wand resting across my fingers, I knew better than to mistake this fragile quiet for peace.
The International Confederation of Wizards — the ICW — was watching.
They hadn't interfered yet, but not because they approved. No, they were pragmatic. Calculating. England had refused to join them during the Grindelwald crisis, preferring isolation and arrogance. When Dumbledore finally rose to power, England had become the ICW's reluctant partner — but never their ally.
So when I rose, when I began my campaign, when I killed Dumbledore… they simply watched.
This was their way of saying, "You made this mess. Now clean it up."
I leaned back, steepling my fingers. "And I did," I murmured to myself. "Perfectly."
They wouldn't risk war for nothing. Not over one island. The ICW was stretched thin as it was — fighting fires across Eastern Europe, cleaning up Grindelwald's remnants in the Balkans, keeping peace in the Americas.
England was just a chess piece to them. And I had taken it without breaking the board.
Still, I wasn't a fool.
I needed stability.
My first decree had gone out yesterday: all magical law enforcement was to be unified under a single banner — my banner. The Aurors, the Hit Wizards, even the Unspeakables. They all answered to me now.
The second decree: a new Hogwarts administration. The school would reopen soon, but under my direct control. Education was power — and power had to be molded early. The next generation of witches and wizards would not be taught to fear