Planning Ahead
June 25th, just 7 days until the end of the term and leaving Hogwarts.
The day after Harry was knocked unconscious by the Goblet of Fire, he recovered and woke up, but he spent most of his time hiding in his dormitory because he had become the laughingstock of the entire school.
Skylar lay lazily on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling of the dormitory room. He felt particularly lazy today and just wanted to slack off and did nothing. Even he felt exhausted from the short few hours he had experienced last night.
A few scattered items were laid out on the bed beside him.
First came a bag bearing the Ministry of Magic's emblem, filled with a full thousand golden Galleon —the prize money for the Triwizard Tournament champion, which Fudge publicly presented to him after he received the Goblet of Fire from Bagman.
The Goblet of Fire does not belong to him, but to the victorious Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It has been handed over to the warden Filch and sent to the Trophy Room, to be retrieved and used in the next Triwizard Tournament five years from now.
[Received 1000 Galleon!]
Even with Skylar's current wealth, a thousand Galleon is still not a small sum. Although the Sleeping Dragon Society is composed of students who join voluntarily, the organization's operations include researching new spells, Potions, and even new Magical Creatures. Not only are the research materials extremely expensive, but the amount of materials consumed by the entire organization in a single day is astonishing. Moreover, the research is not guaranteed to be successful, and at least in the short term, there will certainly be no return.
Moreover, Skylar also had an intelligence network that was still developing, recruiting and training professional intelligence personnel, and cultivating informants and spies, all of which were very expensive investments.
Fortunately, Skylar used his "Absolute Dominion" to subdue Rita Skeeter, a free intelligence agent, and took over her intelligence network. Otherwise, it's unknown how many more resources would have been needed to expand the network to its current size.
Even so, Skylar was still not satisfied with the current level of his intelligence network. A simple comparison between his network and Dumbledore's would reveal many shortcomings.
For example, Skylar had Silver Fang in the Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore had Hagrid and his animal friends.
For example, Skylar had the Miraculous Alchymia in Hogsmeade, while Dumbledore had Hog's Head Inn, a gathering place for all sorts of people, giving it an inherent advantage in intelligence gathering. Not to mention, Skylar placed an unknown illegitimate member of the House of Malfoy in the Miraculous Alchymia, making Aberforth's intelligence capabilities undoubtedly superior.
In Diagon Alley, Skylar's Malfoy Armor Shop had only recently opened and was not yet firmly established. Moreover, in this peaceful era, the shop didn't have much business or foot traffic, let alone any influence in Diagon Alley. On the other hand, Dumbledore had Florian Fortescue, who had been running an ice cream shop for many years. The two could also communicate through a portrait of Dexter Fortescue (Florian Fortescue's grandfather, one of the headmasters), making the information exchange much more efficient.
Although Skylar had placed his own people in many important positions in the Ministry of Magic, Fudge was still the nominal ruler. Among his subordinates, there were still some core members who could not be bribed, such as Auror John Dawlish, Senior Undersecretary Dolores Umbridge, and his nephew Rufus Fudge, who was placed in the Department of Magical Catastrophes.
Even so, Dumbledore still had Mr. Weasley recruiting talent for him within the organization. In the original story, Tonks and Kingsley were recruited into the Order of the Phoenix in this way. Fortunately, Kingsley had already been eliminated by Skylar. As a promising elite Auror, Kingsley's loss significantly weakened the power that Dumbledore had cultivated within the Ministry of Magic.
If the Ministry of Magic's intelligence network held a slight advantage over Skylar, then in the following comparison, Skylar was utterly crushed.
Skylar's intelligence network was virtually useless in Knockturn Alley and St. Mungo's's. In contrast, Dumbledore had Mundungus Fletcher in Knockturn Alley and a portrait of Dilys de Derwent in St. Mungo's's, demonstrating a significant advantage in intelligence over Skylar.
Improving the intelligence network was an urgent matter, and Skylar understood this deeply.
However, finding someone capable of managing the intelligence network is extremely difficult—not only must they be proficient in various codes, but they must also be adept at magic such as transmitting and encrypting information, not to mention being skilled at summarizing and organizing, and extracting important intelligence from a vast and chaotic database.
Yes, finding talented people to send to Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley is an urgent matter.
As for Knockturn Alley and St. Mungo's's, Skylar needed to start from scratch in both places, first establishing a foothold, and then slowly developing informants and manpower to infiltrate outwards. This was something that couldn't be rushed, so Skylar could only patiently plan and proceed step by step.
As for the fact that Arabella Figg was in charge of Harry's residence in Little Whinging in the Muggle world, and that Snape was an inside agent among the Death Eaters, these were automatically ignored by Skylar.
First of all, Harry's address in the Muggle world was meaningless to Skylar. Skylar had no intention of gaining any benefit from Harry, or using Harry to accomplish anything. Harry's thinking was too naive, and his actions were reckless and impulsive. Without the protagonist's halo, he would almost be a troublemaker who was more likely to cause problems than achieve anything.
As for the Death Eaters, almost all of them have been imprisoned by Sarf.
Skylar did not intend to kill them. By now, the population of the Pure-blood families had dwindled considerably and could not withstand any further losses. Moreover, the House of Selwyn and House of Yaxley were not weak in terms of power and wealth. As long as "Absolute Dominion" was used against them, all of this power could be transformed into trump cards in Skylar's hands and used to Skylar advantage.
And then there's Snape... Skylar has confidence in his intelligence; among Voldemort, Dumbledore, Skylar, he'll know how to choose.
Next to the bag of gold coins was a secret letter.
The secret letter, written in a special coded language, was delivered to his bed by House Elf kept by Skylar's men. It was a letter from Mr. Crouch, who had confirmed Barty Crouch Jr.'s death using the family's unique Blood Magic, thus serving as proof of his loyalty. In addition, it contained details of his negotiations in the Hebrides—
According to him, the negotiations were progressing very smoothly. In particular, after the Hohenheim Family demonstrated the power of the Dragon-Sealing Seal, the McFusty Clan agreed to submit to Skylar with almost no resistance. He would remain there to finalize all the details of the negotiations and strive to maximize the benefits that Skylar could obtain.
Actually, Skylar didn't ask for much.
His original purpose in subduing the McFusty Clan was to use his control over dragons to build a legion of about twelve dragon knight mages, using the massive dragon bodies as shields and the wizards hidden behind the dragons as the offensive force, which was equivalent to the so-called "infantry-tank cooperation" on the battlefield in later times.
The Dragon's massive size and high resistance to magic make it perfect as a "tank" (cover). If a wizard skillfully utilizes this mobile cover, they can almost ignore enemy attacks and focus solely on offense. And if combined with Skylar's high-speed rapid-fire technique...
The number of twelve Black Dragon was not large, and he believed Crouch could handle it. As for other benefits, such as money, intelligence, and resources, they were naturally welcome to take them.