The Eye of Insight is not subtle. When I sweep it across a room, people stop being faces and become instruments: affinities, temperament, latent skill, the soft probabilities of loyalty. I let it pass over the Slytherin common room again and wrote the names into my mind like marks on a ledger. Each one fit into a role, into a shape I could use.
I fingered my Heir ring, feeling the little hum under my skin, and catalogued them aloud to myself.
Edward Lestrange — Pureblood duelist potential. High dueling reflexes, above-average magical resilience. Temperament: hot-blooded but proud. Useful as a frontline enforcer once tempered by discipline. Loyalty likelihood: moderate; convert with nobility and honor, not fear.
Walburga Black — Ancient family pride, excellent political connections. Low visible affinity for combat, but exceptional for influence and networked reach. Temperament: rigid, traditionalist. Useful for recruitment into the higher circles and for social engineering. Loyalty likelihood: low-to-moderate; bind with status and shared destiny.
Anne Rozier — Sharp in potion theory and delicate magics. Calm, surgical; a mind that cares for results over glory. Useful as an alchemical and ritual specialist. Loyalty likelihood: moderate; convince by demonstrating superior knowledge and clear purpose.
Odella Greengrass — Subtle charm affinity and exceptional Occlumency baseline. Temperament: cautious, observant. Useful for intelligence, infiltration, and maintaining secrecy. Loyalty likelihood: high if personally respected.
Eileen Prince — Arcane scholar, blood of cunning. Exceptional aptitude for runes and ritual binding. Temperament: cerebral, ambitious. Useful as an architect of enchantments and wards. Loyalty likelihood: moderate-high if given autonomy and credit.
Tobias Prince — Martial talent; a thinker who prefers planning to posturing. Temperament: loyal to ideas, not people. Useful as a strategist and logistics head. Loyalty likelihood: variable; secure with logic and vested interest.
Demetrius Nott — Strong raw magic, stubborn. Temperament: resentful of authority, which can be redirected. Useful as a loyal soldier once anger is channeled. Loyalty likelihood: low initially; increases dramatically with ritual binding and shared vengeance.
Amelia Fawley — Healing talent and unexpected resilience. Temperament: compassionate with a core of iron. Useful to maintain the group—medicine, recovery, plausibly deniability. Loyalty likelihood: high if she believes in preservation over destruction.
Vincent Crabbe — Brute strength, practiced intimidation. Temperament: simple but loyal if shown clear leadership. Useful for muscle and presence. Loyalty likelihood: high under a strong, respected leader.
Of course, Abraxas Malfoy and Orion Black sat at the top of the list by default: my first lieutenants, my outward friends and inward confidants. Abraxas for influence and family leverage; Orion for lineage, connections, and a dark charm that hides hunger well.
I let the Eye linger on each one and watched the subtle runes tick off small counters—potential, risk, loyalty. The pattern emerged quickly: Slytherin is fertile ground, but not sufficient. To shape a movement you need diversity of skill. That's why I am not content to keep the circle small or pure by blood alone. I will recruit from need and shape them by method.
I outlined, in my head, the steps I will take:
Identify the Approach: Each recruit requires a different opening. Edward hears challenge; Walburga hears legacy; Anne hears mastery; Odella hears secrecy; Eileen hears architecture; Tobias hears logic; Demetrius hears purpose; Amelia hears protection; Vincent hears command. Abraxas and Orion will be my social wedges.
Quiet Tests: Small favors, staged competitions, subtle demonstrations of competence. Let them feel inadequacy or opportunity. Offer help that looks accidental; save a face; provide a secret advantage. The Eye will tell me who bends.
Education and Binding: Use the Room of Requirement for private instruction. Teach them occlumency, shields, precise control. Apply Wizard King during sessions—teach personally to accelerate their rise and to create dependency. The talent will escalate their capabilities and their investment in me.
Ritual and Mark: Once trust is earned or leverage secured, present the Dark Mark as a covenant—both symbol and signal. Morsmordre will be our broadcast; the mark will be our tether. The system's schematics make the creation precise: sigil components, binding clauses, and fail-safes. The Mark is not merely intimidation; it is an infrastructure.
Create Roles: Assign each recruit a role that enhances their identity: enforcer, archivist, spy, healer, second-in-command, recruiter. Reward them with status—titles and tangible increases in power via the Wizard King synergy.
Maintain Plausible Denial: Keep Dumbledore and the school's gaze deflected. Memory charms, occlumency, and controlled exposure will be the web that keeps the outer world unaware until it is too late to stop us.
I paused, letting the architecture of the plan firm up. The Eye's light dimmed and slid back into my mind—tools stored, probabilities updated. The moral shape of what I intended was ugly if described to those who cared for sentiment. But I am not guided by sentiment; I am guided by calculation and survival. If the muggle world ever reveals itself fully to its lethal technologies, we will be outnumbered and outgunned. The alternative to wielding power is extinction.
I rehearsed a final thought aloud, soft enough only for me: This will not be chaos. It will be order. It will be careful, disciplined, precise. We will not be monsters for the pleasure of being monsters—we will be architects of a new balance. And I will be the one who ensures we survive it.
Beneath that vow, the system pulsed—a small, approving ping. The knowledge I had been given was absolute; the talent granted me a crown of mechanics so efficient it felt obscene. I file names, times, small notes of temperament, and places where I will begin my tests.
Tonight I will send a casual word to Abraxas and Orion—an invitation, nothing more. Tomorrow I will place myself where Edward Lestrange will see me, staged to pique his honor. In three days I will arrange a "study group" and have Anne Rozier sit beside me when the topic of potion synthesis comes up. Odella will be approached through a small secrecy of favors; Eileen and Tobias will be offered archives and experiments that feed their curiosity; Demetrius will be challenged publicly and then privately complimented; Amelia will be shown how many will need her hands if war comes; Vincent will be given a role that flatters his crude ambitions.
I closed my eyes and allowed the mask to settle into place—the polite smile, the deferential nod, the boy who studies, who listens, who thanks professors for notebooks. Outside, laughter and music rose faintly from the common room, ordinary noises that had no clue of the calculus forming beneath them.
I do not delude myself. There will be resistance, mistakes, betrayals. But the Wizard King talent changes the math. With it, a handful of talented and devoted allies becomes a force—fast, trained, and loyal. The plan is no longer fragile; it is scalable.
I rose from my seat, smoothing my robes. The names were mine now—not possessions, but points on a map. I would begin at once.