Sasuke was shinobi. He knew that the most successful revolutions, because that was what was contained in the mass of parchment before him sent from Hogwarts, were not the bloody ones. The most successful wars were won in the hearts and minds of the people, waged behind the scenes in small gathering places. The pubs and bars, the boardrooms, the debating halls, the dinner parties.

He smiled and stood.

Well, it was time he did his part. His little sisters had worked hard on this after all.

"Blood purity is not a myth." Sasuke almost smirked at the dumbfounded reactions, quickly hidden, of his compatriots. Carmonia Rosier was frowning. Rigel was smiling into his wineglass. "At least, if we're talking about blood and magical strength."

Mallister Grentle threw up his hands in exasperation. "You were just saying it was stupid!"

"I said, how people saw it was stupid." Sasuke had been a member of a clan obsessed with breeding strength into their bones and flesh, power into their blood. "Blood purity is desirable, even something to study and expand, but only in the matter of family and personal power. Basing a political agenda on it so openly is agitating for civil war."

The Bloody Mist proved that killing off a significant portion of the population because they were born into a different caste only weakened a nation. It also made looking for alliances and trade partners difficult. Hidden Mist, despite the rich natural resources of the Land of Water, was still recovering decades after Mei Terumi became Mizukage.

"Do you remember the year Brums was Defense professor?"

Markos Pucey smirked. "You mean do we remember that six times that year, the masonry in the dueling room had to be repaired?"

"Two times, Gilbert Crabbe destroyed charmed walls with a single spell. And yet, he never won a duel."

"That's because he's stupid." Mally grumbled.

"And that's part of the point." Carmonia grumbled back. "Those of old family lines have ascendance in terms of magical power, even excluding bloodgifts." She looked conflicted. "Until great-grandfather's time, the family had a ritual every three generations that involved the presence of magically-powerful muggleborn. If I had to guess, the children that resulted were halfblooded."

Sasuke nodded to himself. He had read in the Uchiha family journals the practice of acquiring fresh blood by taking clanless ninja as mistresses and lovers. In the lesser bloodlines of the clan, marriage to outsiders was not uncommon.

"And then there are the health complications. I mean, the lifespan of the average magical human is a hundred and twenty, according to the records from four hundred years ago. There aren't official population statistic records of our world but looking at the obituaries in the last year and the Ministry census, our grandparents' and parents' generation rarely lived to beyond ninety years old."

"Why," Markos looked at her quizzically, "do you know that?"

She shrugged. Her lips slanted thinly, wryly. "Father's cousin works in the Office of Historical Studies."

"Ah."

"Hardly seems worth it," said Feriel Bones, returning to their discussion of blood purity. "What's the use of power if you can't properly wield it?"

There was a thoughtful silence. All of their group valued cunning and brains, what would it be worth indeed, if they had power instead?

"So too much marrying within the same bloodline fucks up the brains," Mally concluded, a trifle too cheerfully. There were a few sighs and a couple of mumbled imprecations against Gryffindor. Mally ignored them. "Why did blood purity suddenly gain traction? Before grandfather's time, it wasn't so pronounced."

"Don't your family teach you history, Grentle?" snapped Bernie Mulser, talking for the first time. "The number of squibs and muggleborn increased to levels never before known in the latter part of Victoria's reign. It was thought she was retaliating for her consort getting killed in a magical dispute."

"In the 1800s the British Isles were involved in a total of thirty-four wars on the non-magical side," Sasuke added. "That is over four times the number of major conflicts they fought in the century before. At the time, magicals were expected to join wars to bring their families honour."

The Crown was flexing its power, gaining world-wide territories, creating an empire. It also meant that magical blood was decimated in the battlefields. Those who sought to keep their bloodlines pure found that there were less and less choice for their sons and daughters. Squibs started to pop up with greater frequency. In an effort to revitalize, Magic itself started creating greater numbers of muggleborn.

There was a time when muggleborn were taken into the magical families to be educated, taught how magicals should comport themselves. With the sudden increase in their numbers, fear started permeating minds. Talk of stealing magics started.

Those who before welcomed the odd muggleborn into their houses became hesitant. The muggleborn, a great majority coming from the common classes, remained untutored and unaware. The term 'mudblood' gained popularity, denigrating those who smelled like the offal of the city streets and the country lanes, had no idea of hygiene, and didn't know how to read or write.

Sasuke had to be impressed at the breadth of data his sisters and their friends had to slog through to acquire knowledge so comprehensive. Then again, they had been looking into these records for years. There were statistics showing that a fifth of all children born in the latter part of the 19th century were squibs or as the report stated 'non-wand-channeling magicals'. Of the muggleborn since the early 1900s, a full half were descended of those squibs and therefore technically half-bloods.

He smirked. That was all information no pureblood would want getting out. He wondered how a pack of Hogwarts students acquired it.

Carmonia hummed and the attention of the small group focused on her. "This new dark lord is clever to seek to build on a platform popular with the nobles and the wealthy but the world is still coming off the repercussions of Grindlewald's war and the conflicts of the century before. Apart from the muggle wars that wizards fought there were the purely magical Russian Conflicts of the 1860s and 1880s, plus the Mediterranean War in the 1840s. Four major magical wars in Europe in the last two hundred years. If this research," she tapped a finger on the documents they've all come to discuss, "is viable, then rallying support on a banner of blood purity is the worst decision he's made. Especially as it increasingly appears like battlefields are being readied."

She glanced at Rigel, the only one of them from the Department of Mysteries. The former leader of the RRG only smiled. She rolled her eyes at him and looked at Sasuke. "In the long term, of course. If he moves quickly enough and decisively enough, Britain would likely fall to him. And recent events do tell us he's decisive, at least. Where do you plan on going with this?"

"I am merely looking for opinions on these records."

That drew the exasperated and derisive looks the statement deserved.

"I don't argue in committee," he insisted. "That's Pucey's job."

Markos, who was shadowing his uncle in the Wizengamot, chuckled. "You don't even want credit?"

"This isn't my research."

"How are your little wolfcubs?" Rigel put in, genuinely curious. His contacts still sent him RRG reports and he read every one gleefully even after he left the school. Several of those who graduated in the years after him now worked in his department. It looked like he would read the next generation's reports with similar enjoyment.

"Terrorizing half the school, I imagine," Markos looked a little annoyed. "I can't believe you allowed them to become pranksters."

Sasuke shrugged. Markos had always been overly concerned with dignified conduct. "Practical experience."

Mally sat up from his brooding, looking askance at Sasuke. "You're planning on fighting him in the open."

It was Carmonia's turn to throw up her hands. "Do you really have to go to extremes? This is someone who is powerful enough to be called a dark lord."

There was no doubt in his friends' minds that Sasuke would move against Voldemort. Not with his sisters at stake.

All his family history noted again and again, the Uchiha loved fiercely, deeply, they devoted themselves to things they loved. Then the Kyuubi happened and their love was betrayed, their devotion spat on, until all that was safe to love was the clan.

Sasuke would not allow such a thing to happen here. Lily loved the magical world and her feelings on the divide would be odd to most. She thought of them as 'human' before magical or non-magical. He wondered what she would think of the non-human magical races. Lily was convinced that magic was an extension of her innate connection to humanity and not as a separate thing that needed to be feared. Petunia simply imagined that her sister was a citizen of another nation that was conveniently ensconced in Britain. She was more aware of the divide but like Lily, thought of them as 'human' with an strange talent. It would not occur to her to see herself as inherently inferior.

The reincarnated soul hid a fond smile in his wine.

"I'm not planning bloody war in the near-future," he confirmed. "As it is, there is no real reason to oppose him so brutally."

Even if Voldemort won, Sasuke was shinobi born and bred. Overthrowing a despot would be child's play. In fact, if Voldemort was as astute with government as he was with his campaign, it would be preferable to wait until efficient structures are in place before disappearing Voldemort and taking over a more efficient government.

That didn't mean he wasn't doing anything to oppose the man. With Dumbledore and Voldemort both bright beacons, no one noticed the flickering of shadows between Light and Dark.

The difficult thing about wars was winning over the populace. The wealthy were one thing. Still, the average masses were as powerful as gold and influence when they were united in one mind. It was a consideration he had never given much thought before.

But before, he had the might and name of a clan with centuries of history behind him. Even diminished to a single person, the Uchiha name was still feared and known.

In this world, he was only the son of a businessman, with no antecedents that the magicals would respect. Other than his character, ability, and wits, there was nothing to recommend him.

It was exhilarating.