Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

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THE EMPIRE OF EARTH

Harry Potter was fidgeting. He wasn't a fan of formalities and any situation that required him to wear a muggle suit usually meant formalities. He was standing and waiting for a meeting he knew almost nothing about with a very powerful person he'd never met.

The fact that the man was a muggle didn't concern Harry. After all, he'd met the Queen and the Prime Minister. Perfectly nice people, but still two meetings that gave birth to his reticence for formalities.

He looked towards the office he was waiting to be called into and had to admit the curved walls certainly made it stand out.

He looked over towards the other man waiting with him who looked completely at ease.

The United States Secretary of Magic John Colbert saw Harry tugging at his collar. “Relax, Harry.”

“Relax?” Harry repeated doubtfully. “Voldemort and all the known Death Eaters have completely disappeared off the grid. It sounds like the muggle world is in even worse chaos. And you show up telling me it's imperative that I secretly meet with the president of the United States in the middle of the night. Why exactly should I relax?”

John Colbert glanced at his watch and shrugged. “Because whatever you think this is about, you're wrong.”

That assurance didn't help Harry relax any. “Shouldn't there be secret service agents around here or something?”

“Are you planning to attack the president?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry just gave him an irritated glare as he scratched the back of his neck. “It's this itchy monkey suit.”

“In case you haven't noticed the wards around here negate just about all forms of magic. You should get yourself a nice suit that feels comfortable.”

“I have a nice suit.”

“One that's not charmed and can pass through high security anti-magic wards,” John chided. He was about to continue when the door to the oval office opened. “We're up.”

He led Harry into the room and proclaimed, “Mr. President? This is Harry Potter.”

“Mr. Potter,” the president said walking up to meet him halfway. “I'm Courtney Alexander. This is my chief of staff, Sandy Harrison.”

Harry shook the offered hands and greeted them in order. “Mr. President. Ms. Harrison.”

“Please, have a seat,” the president said waving towards the couch.

Harry sat down next to John while Sandy and the president settled into the couch facing them.

The president was clasping his hands together. “I apologize that we had to drag you out here on such short notice but we're in a bit of a crunch. And it's time you got brought into the loop on a number of events and plans.”

“You know I'm not an official representative of any branch of the government,” Harry replied. “So if you're planning a coup and want me to-”

“Harry! Harry,” John interrupted with a chuckle. “Remember when I told you, you had no idea what this is about? Just listen for a minute.”

“Okay,” Harry agreed, sitting back unable to look as casual and comfortable as the other three people in the room.

“You can speak freely of the magical world,” John said, hoping Harry would relax. “The only secrets you need to keep are those you prefer to.”

“Understood,” Harry said with a curt nod.

“There are a number of things we need to discuss,” the president said unsure where to begin. “Would you like something to drink?”

“No thank you, sir. I'm fine,” Harry answered while Sandy poured a few glasses of brandy from a decanter. He saw they were patiently watching him. “I'll be honest, Mr. President. I was unaware Voldemort's influence had reached this side of Atlantic.”

“Voldemort?” the president repeated looking towards his secretary of magic.

“The Dark Lord in Europe,” John explained.

“Ahh,” the president said with a nod. “Not to worry, Harry--may I call you Harry?”

“Yes sir.”

“This isn't about Voldemort, Harry. In fact, I'm fairly confident in saying that Voldemort may not pose any further problems for you.”

“Really?”

John nodded and glanced at the top sheet of his file. “Intel's going to be sketchy but he and all those fanatically loyal to him appear to be gone.”

Harry looked at John in surprise at the thought of Voldemort going out without even a whimper. He noticed the other sadly smiling and knowing faces. “Forgive me for being blunt sir, but why am I here?”

Sandy chuckled and looked at John. “You weren't kidding when you said he wasn't a politician.”

“Precisely why he's perfect for the job,” John happily agreed.

“Job?” Harry asked.

John raised a warning hand. “We're getting way ahead of ourselves. Just listen.”

Harry nodded and gave the president his full attention again.

The president sipped at his drink. “This is part of a much larger project that's been in development for thirty years, but first, are you familiar with the war on terror?”

Harry hid his surprise at the length of time involved in whatever covert operation this was. “Broad generalizations only, sir. I have no doubt Voldemort and his Death Eaters are the very model of a terrorist group.”

“Well, since I hope we can all be blunt, I should tell you that we dealt arguably the final blow in the war on terror. But it's only the first step of a larger campaign.”

“A larger campaign? Is America going to war?” The lack of a quick denial told Harry all he needed to know.

The president sipped his drink. “I'm not talking about World War III, Harry. I'm talking about the final World War.”

Harry opened his mouth and saw the other three people in the room all looking at him expectantly. “On second thought, I will take that drink.”

John got up to pour Harry a drink while the president explained, “Thirty-six hours ago, the United States magical government and the Chinese magical government working in conjunction with several other global powers completed a ritual that's been in process since 9/11.”

The secretary of magic handed a glass of brandy to Harry. “Six hundred sixty-six willing wizards and witches sacrificed themselves to initiate the spell.”

Harry took the glass in shock. “Six hundred sixty-six people's life forces all powered a single spell?”

“No,” John replied as he settled back into place on the couch. “It took that many to initiate the spell. The power for it came from the Earth or the very magic of creation, depending on your interpretation.”

“To what end?” Harry asked incredulously.

“To end terrorism,” the female chief of staff solemnly answered.

Harry frowned in confusion. “How can terrorism end?”

John took over the magical explanation. “The spell tapped into the magic of life, Gaia, mother Earth, whatever you want to call it. And it sought out those who presented a threat to existence.”

“What the hell constitutes a threat to existence?” Harry demanded, temporarily forgetting just who he was talking to.

“The targets were debated over by some of the brightest minds in the world for many months.” The president waved to John. “You can probably explain it better to him.”

“Before you get the wrong idea,” John stated. “No targets were chosen, no specific individuals or groups. Every person on the planet was subject to the spell. But it only affected those that fell within the spell's parameters.”

“You used living runes?” Harry questioned.

“Yes,” John said. “Among a great many other things, some of which go beyond my understanding. But it wiped from existence all extremists who posed a threat to life itself.”

“How are you even still here, then?” Harry said. “If you're willing to target everyone on the planet with a killing spell, I mean…”

“I'm not explaining this well,” John said with a small frown. “Are you familiar with the statistical concept of deviation?”

Harry nodded. “I think so.”

“Perfect,” John said trying again. “Because the middle safe zone, those protected from the effects of the spell, is the people who believe in tolerance and pluralism, those willing to coexist with others and other forms of life.”

Harry was slowly nodding.

Sandy saw his hesitancy and added, “Pluralism crudely defined, is a freedom to believe whatever you want. My belief in God has no effect or standing on whether you believe in God or not. Two different equally acceptable answers to the same question.”

“Exactly,” John agreed. “So it's not like the spell said Death Eaters were bad and the people hating and killing Death Eaters were good.”

“I've hated and killed Death Eaters,” Harry said. “I'm not exactly proud of that, but it remains true.”

“That's different,” John said. “It's more like if you used violence, murder, and terror to push muggleborn rights in the same manner that Death Eaters use them to push pureblood supremacy, then you probably wouldn't be here today.”

“So you targeted methods not ideologies?”

“Yes,” John agreed heartily.

“Why didn't you just say that?” Harry said taking a little solace in John's growl of frustration. “I still don't understand how you're all still here.”

Sandy knocked back the rest of her drink and mumbled, “We do need a new vice president.”

“As I understand it,” the president said, “you have taken a life when you had no other reasonable recourse, correct?”

Harry nodded.

“This decision was made through consensus by a group of many nations' leaders acting in what they believed to be the next logical step. Rather than one person taking another's life it was many people taking a fraction of a percent of the world's population.”

“How many?”

“Early estimates put it around 0.4 percent,” Sandy supplied. “Or in the neighborhood of twenty-five million people.”

“You…” Harry gaped unable to find words.

“It's genocide on a scale not seen since the plague,” the president added.

The room was smothered in an oppressive silence as they all waited for Harry to process what he had been told.

Harry saw none of the kind, smiling faces they'd been wearing earlier. He could tell they weren't joking with him and the grave faces said they weren't proud of it either. “Why?”

The president continued. “The proliferation of nuclear weapons has put the human race, every species and form of life, even the entire planet in mortal peril. The end of civilization is a threat we can no longer ignore.”

“So you kill everyone who opposes you?” Harry snapped. “This is… nutty.”

“That we can agree on,” Sandy chimed in.

“It's done,” the president announced with finality. “We can debate it until the end of time, but it's not going back in the box. We're now on the brink of the biggest step forward in human history. And yes, the cost is that it is on the heels of our most horrible act.”

“But twenty-five million?” Harry said. “How can you possibly be this blasé?”

“We didn't know how many it would affect,” Sandy said. “It was unlikely but possible that the spell could have removed no one else or everyone else.”

“You could have wiped us all out,” Harry shouted. “How can you claim it judged you not a threat to end civilization?”

“Three thousand people are aboard a cloaked top secret Chinese space station orbiting the planet,” the president explained. “People from all different walks of life and culture are there. And the vast majority has no idea why. If we all had died, they would have started over.

“The entire team of those who coined the idea and created the spell, they were all a part of the ritual to initiate it. With their death went the exact knowledge of how it was done and within a generation, the knowledge that it even happened will be removed as well.

“It is our hope that no one will ever find out why twenty-five million people disappeared overnight.”

Harry had gotten up and poured himself more brandy. He had his back to them as he asked, “So why are you telling me? And why now?”

“We're on the brink of a new world order,” the president answered. “The end result of the final World War will be for the first time, a unified planet under a single centralized democratic government.”

“This isn't just the United States,” Sandy said. “The Chinese have been in it from the start. Together with the Russians they're going to handle most of Asia. The Indians are assisting friendly elements of the Pakistanis. Most of the European Union is on board and the biggest roadblocks in the Middle East all appear to have disappeared.”

“Africa was hit pretty hard,” John said. “But it's probably more stable than it's been since colonization.”

Harry walked back to the couch and sat back down. “My understanding of world politics is pretty limited, but the Chinese have been in it from the start?”

Sandy smiled wanly. “The magical government in exile was our first point of contact. They've broken more than a few international laws but the people we trusted controlled the others until the spell sorted out the lot of them. They're maintaining appearances for now.”

“Maintaining appearances,” Harry repeated, catching the meaning and uncertain what to make of it. “It sounds an awful lot like you're conquering the world.”

“We prefer to think of it as every industrialized nation coming together to form a singular governing body that'll colonize all the third world countries, but basically… yes. We're conquering the world.”

“There are fewer unassailable rights and freedoms than we'd like,” the president replied. “But pluralism the world over is the ironically, the singularity that will be enforced. Cultures and nations will still exist independently, just not quite as independently as before.”

“Your 'United Kingdom' just got a whole lot bigger,” John said.

“It's not going to happen overnight,” Sandy explained. “We may have removed the most extreme and dangerous, but that just means we have a new measure of who the most extreme and dangerous are. It's unfortunately inevitable that some resistance will detonate a nuclear device somewhere. When it happens, the world will have its mandate. And everyone else will fall in line.”

Harry closed his eyes as he felt a headache forming. Picturing the aftermath of the final World War kept triggering his nervousness and paranoia of Voldemort's next attack. “Will we ever get to why you're telling me this?”

“The magical governments are even trickier than the muggle ones,” John explained. “The Statute of Secrecy will be maintained initially, but there are going to be discussions about its continued practicality. Until the day comes to revoke it, we need to establish a centralized democratic magical government.”

Harry sighed. “And somehow you thought I'd be your poster boy?”

“Not poster boy,” the president corrected. “We want you to be the first magical president of Earth.”

Harry blinked. “What?”

“Until the war is over and the government is stabilized, we won't be able to hold the worldwide elections,” Sandy explained. “It's been decided that President Alexander will serve as the first president of Earth. We discussed it with many magical Ministers and if you're willing, you are going to be the first magical president of Earth.”

Harry turned to John. “Are they drunk?”

“Even if I were drunk, Harry,” the president smiled wanly. “I can still hear just fine. As the American president, I'm already often regarded as the leader of the free world. But the magical world doesn't have so clear cut an option.”

John continued. “Twenty years ago, it would have been Albus Dumbledore, without question. And while you've been regarded as his successor in many ways, you've rarely ventured into the political arena.”

“Which in this instance,” Sandy added, “works out even better. We need a strong powerful figure, one who leads people and soldiers. Not a politician who wins favor through charm and guile.”

John nodded. “You are arguably the most prominent wizard in the world. Power in the magical world is physically manifested and I know for a fact, you have it in spades. You've got youth, vitality, the poster boy image, your duel with Voldemort in downtown London is the stuff of legend, and the fact that you're not American plays in both our favors. Every European nation supports your nomination.”

Harry saw John smiling at him. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“I suspect you've already figured out the why,” the president said. “But let's be honest; you've been kept in the dark until after the spell was finished because there were concerns you might not survive it.”

John added, “There were also those who believed that if you'd set your mind to opposing it, you could single-handedly reverse the consensus decision and prevent the spell from ever happening.”

Harry let out a dark laugh. “I think you're overestimating me.”

“How many other wizards do you think could hold their ground against Voldemort?” John reminded. “And don't forget, he's gone now.”

Harry opened his mouth before closing it. He saw they were all looking at him. “This is a lot to take in.”

“We don't need an answer this moment,” Sandy assured him. “Think it over.”

Harry shrugged as he stood up. “I haven't said no yet.”

“Ah Harry,” John asked. “You need a bathroom break or something?”

“Listen,” Harry said. “I'm still trying to reconcile the idea that the man who murdered my parents, tried to kill me more times than I can count, and terrorized the European wizarding world for decades disappeared in the night, possibly never to return. Then you invite me to the big kids' table at the new global conspiracy that's kicking things off with a body count Hitler would be proud of. And finally you ask me to be the first president of magic for the entire world. Is there really more I need to know before I think these things through?”

“Yes,” the president succinctly answered. John and Sandy were both nodding silently in support of the president.

Harry winced. “Bugger.”

“9/11 only helped push the time table up and inspired some of the foremost minds to devising what we keep trying not to call a purging of humanity,” the president explained. “But this is part of a larger scheme that's been one of the best kept secrets of the last thirty years.”

Harry sat back, looking every bit the intimidating powerful wizard he was. “I'm listening.”

Sandy continued, “Twenty-seven years ago Major Tom Taylor was approached by an ambassador.”

Harry felt the pregnant pause and tiredly asked, “An ambassador to where?”

“It's hard to say,” Sandy answered. “But we know it's not from this solar system.”

Harry looked at all three of them and saw poorly hidden grins. “Excuse me?”

The president announced, “Major Tom Taylor was the mission commander on one of the Department of Defense's top secret space shuttles. An extraterrestrial made contact with a simple request that was impossible to answer.”

“Uh-huh,” Harry said unsure if he was humoring them or just confused.

“Take me to your leader,” the president said. “That posed the question for which there has never been an answer.”

“Aren't you the leader?” Harry skeptically said.

John shook his head and answered for the president. “He didn't want the leader of a nation but the chosen representative for the planet.”

“There are countless other life forms in the universe,” Sandy explained. “For all that life has evolved on this planet, we have never been unified under a single rule, a formal government to which all nations belonged and who could exercise control over rogue states.”

The president sighed. “The race to space in the sixties was just barely about discovery at all. The unfortunate truth is that it was the Cold War and it was a race to weaponize the skies. We've flown to outer space, walked on the moon, and we're told that we're the first life form to manage that without ever having a clear planetary ruling body.”

John was looking at his file and read aloud, "We all started as families. Families led into tribes. Tribes combined to form cities, states, territories, and nations. It is the evolution of man to unify as a planet, and begin to learn about the nature of the universe beyond the fraction we've managed to pioneer."

“We are on the precipice of the next leap forward,” Sandy softly argued. “There are so many things we could learn about life, creation, souls, God, technology beyond our imaginations, the questions that could be answered, the beliefs that could shatter if we just got a seat at the intergalactic assembly.”

The president nodded. “Make no mistake, the seat is there and waiting for us. It's just a matter of us being ready to sit at the table. For all we know there may never be another energy crisis, there may never again be a starving child, or an illness that can't be treated. But as long as we are citizens of separate warring nations first and not simply citizens of the planet Earth, we will continue miring in our own insular existence.”

Harry closed his eyes unable to stop the oncoming headache.

Sandy continued softly, “The ambassador has contacted us four separate times. There is a place for Earth as soon as we can take it. He's offered us a ship to get there until we develop our own form of intergalactic travel. The technology of the ship is their gift and it will be ours to unravel. From what little we know, even our magical think tanks are chomping at the bit. This could uncover fundamental truths about the nature of not just life but magic too. Things never before imagined.”

“Between the two leaders of the planet,” the president explained. “It's been decided that it should be the magical president who is the intergalactic representative for Earth, as wizards are physically capable of everything muggles are and so much more.”

“Should you agree to become the magical president of Earth,” John was genuinely smiling now. “It will carry with it another title for all extraterrestrial relations.”

Harry looked up at them all and sighed. “Do I even want to…”

“Emperor of Earth,” Sandy answered.

“Okay,” Harry said standing up again. “My brain is full. I need some time. If you'll excuse me.”

Harry's body disappeared with a quick little zipping sound followed by a loud echoing boom.

The president blinked and looked towards his chief of staff and secretary of magic. “I thought the White House was warded against apparition.”

John shrugged. “Harry's developed his own form. He self-transfigures into air and then moves faster than the speed of sound. Typically, he muffles the sonic boom.”

“I think we can excuse him for having a few things on his mind,” the president commented.

“Does he know he can't talk to anyone about this?” Sandy asked worriedly.

John nodded. “He'll probably talk to his friends after binding them with oaths. He knows what he's doing.”

The president got another drink. “Do you think he's going to accept?”

“Yeah,” John said with certainty. “For the same reason he always fought Voldemort.”

“Why's that?”

John accepted the refilled glass and took a sip. “Because there's no one else who could do it even half as good as him.”

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Harry streamed through the muggle lock on his front door and reassumed his untransfigured form. He walked over towards the den and was pleased to see his roommate was home. “Hey Luna?”

Luna looked up from the book she was reading. “Yes?”

Harry plopped down into his recliner. “You remember a couple years ago when you tried to read my tea leaves?”

Luna nodded.

“How I said I thought it looked like a cheeseburger? And you said that you thought it looked like…” Harry prompted and waited.

Luna was reaching off for a distant memory and answered, “like you were wearing a blue and green fusion of auror battle robes and a muggle suit because you had a diplomatic mission to meet with the aliens and you accidentally entered yourself into a deadly combat tournament with seven other warrior species all for the prize of an alliance with a super technologically advanced race of submissive alien sex kittens?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded eagerly.

“I vaguely recall that,” Luna coyly said as she looked back down at her book.

“Luna?”

She was blushing and avoiding Harry's eyes. “Mmm-hmm?”

“Luna,” Harry chided. “How did you know the outfit was blue and green? The tea leaves were just brown muck.”

“Lucky guess?” she idly answered.

“Luna,” Harry said more forcefully.

Luna turned another page and pouted. “Our personal pet sex kitten from the future intra-orbed me.”

Harry quickly thought over everything he'd learned tonight. “I… I can live with that.”

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THE END

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