By the time Antonio reached his home, it was almost dawn.
His inn still was in ruins, and he would either have to pour considerable effort into fixing it magically or hire magical architects to reconstruct the building from scratch. More importantly, he would need to place a powerful protective ward around his new home. Probably, he would think of the entire construction from the scratch.
He was still undecided on the matter and planned to think about it only after some much needed rest.
The bodies and bloodstains had already been cleared away by the aurors and apart from the collapsed remains of his inn, there was no sign that a battle had ever taken place in the street.
As he entered his house through his backdoor, his mind wandered to all the conversation he has had with Amelia.
He had had quite a long chat with Amelia, during which she gave him a remarkably thorough explanation of the various factions, few of their secrets and how things worked for the Wizengamot.
Although Antonio clearly sensed that Amelia was holding back some details, which was only to be expected, he could not blame her for not sharing every secret. He had not even fully confirmed joining her side in whatever was about to come. It was already kind enough of her to offer help without even asking even if it was with the purpose of mutual benefit.
It also went without saying that everything Amelia described came from her own perspective, one that naturally placed her and her family on a slightly higher pedestal.
Even so, she had been very helpful, and Antonio had managed to learn a great deal. Combined with snippets of knowledge from his past life, he was able to deduce even more than Amelia had directly revealed.
In essence, the Wizengamot in its current state was deeply fragmented. There was no uniformity in the divisions and everything was riddled with complexities and squabbles.
For comparison, during Harry Potter's time, the Wizengamot could have been broadly divided into three groups.
There was the dark faction, informally led by Malfoy, which included families like Nott, Parkinson, Goyle, Zabini, Crouch, and Flint.
Then there was the light faction, led by Dumbledore. Families like the Weasley, Longbottom, Diggory, and Wood were part of this group. Though it seemed a bit compared to the other faction, it main influence came from Dumbledore himself.
And finally, there were the neutrals. Families such as the Greengrass, Davis, Bones, Abbott, and Lovegood. Among them, the Greengrass family leaned more toward the pure blood cause, a bit closer to the darker side, while the Bones were more inclined toward the light.
Of course, this was not a strict division. There were plenty of internal differences and rivalries, but these were the broad groupings that generally held true.
However, in the present time, it was even harder to categorize the factions so cleanly. Each of the major families still had a strong leader at their head, each with their own distinct agenda and ambitions.
They were not easily manipulated, nor had they yet fallen into a herd mentality where they might blindly follow a single powerful figure. These leaders would not be so easily influenced in taking him as the leader of the light.
For example, the Bones family led a faction. Then there was a faction led by Potter family. A faction led by Black Family. A faction led by Longbottom family. A faction under the heavy influence of the minister and her cronies.
And divisions were too immense even to count. For example, certain people placed the Greengrass and Davis family into the faction led by Black family. But this was not always the case. Greengrass family had its own interest to follows.
A faction of Malfoy with families like Lestrange and Nott were generally believed to be allies with the Black family but one who knew deeply knew that there were a lot of subtle tensions that had been developing between the families, especially as Arcturus was stubborn in his ways and was not falling in line with the thoughts of Malfoy family.
Then there was the Bones family led faction which could be said to be allies of the Potter faction and the Longbottom faction but the three of them had large differences between them.
A particular detail which Antonio was able to discern was that, since the Longbottom family was leaning heavily toward Dumbledore, many differences had begun to emerge between them and other families, especially Potter family, once who were considered close allies. Charlus Potter, the lord of Potter family and father of James Potter clearly did not like Dumbledore very much.
And then there was Dumbledore himself. Even though his family was only a minor house with a single vote in the Wizengamot, a small faction had formed under Albus Dumbledore's leadership and its influence was growing day by day.
Using his Chief Warlock and Hogwarts' headmaster position, Dumbledore had been furthering his interests.
Such was the fragmented state of the Wizengamot. According to Amelia, if Antonio wanted to be truly assured of the ruling in Wizengamot going in his favour, he would need to secure the support of at least two more factions.
Though she had not stated it outright, Antonio understood that she planned to speak to her father. If Edmund Bones agreed, she might even approach another family on Antonio's behalf, most likely the Potter family, Antonio guessed.
For now, he did not dwell too much on it. His immediate focus was the upcoming meeting with Amelia's father, Edmund Bones.
Though Amelia had all but promised her family's support, the final decision still rested with her father.
With these thoughts churning through his mind, Antonio finally collapsed onto his bed. A silent ripple of blue light spread across the room as a protective dome enveloped his body. A protective spell that would remain active for hours, allowing him to catch up on sleep without worry.
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