Chapter 371: The Supreme Wizard
Over the course of several decades, Hogwarts had become a magic academy renowned across Middle-earth.
Its yearly intake of new students had stabilised at roughly a hundred.
Altogether, there were now some six to seven hundred students enrolled, and with professors, tutors and staff added in, more than seven hundred souls lived and worked around the castle.
Most of the pupils came from children within Kael's own territories. A smaller number each year were Dúnedain, and every few years, one or two Elven children would appear.
The Dúnedain themselves numbered only a few thousand, and their lives were many times longer than those of ordinary Men. Not a few, like Aragorn, reached eighty or ninety years without yet having married.
So each year, only a handful of Dúnedain ever came to Hogwarts.
Elves, with their near‑endless lives and slow rate of birth and growth, were rarer still. Years might pass between one Elven student and the next.
Whenever an Elf did arrive, they became the rarest of rarities at the school, cherished by professors and students alike.
At the Sorting, the entrance of an Elven first‑year always drew every eye. Each House watched in hope, praying the hat would send the newcomer to them.
With their keen senses and far superior bodies, Elves made ideal Quidditch players.
So it was common, on Sorting night, to see cheers and wild celebration from the House that won an Elf, and long faces from those that did not.
Beyond the castle, Kael's lands had grown in steady, ordered fashion. The wizarding population within his rule had reached thirty thousand—fully one third of all his people.
No hard line was drawn between wizard and non‑wizard, but wizards tended to live together, forming their own villages and small towns.
These wizard settlements lay scattered across Eriador like stars around a centre, with Hogwarts at their heart and Hogsmeade and Bree as the main hubs.
Because his wizards were spread so widely, the region under Kael's sway now covered most of Eriador.
Had he chosen to take a crown, there would have been no shame in calling it a kingdom.
To other powers such as Gondor and Rohan in the south, that was what it already was. They spoke freely of the Wizard Kingdom, or simply of "Hogwarts," when they meant all the lands under Kael's rule.
The castle of Hogwarts itself was the royal city of that realm in all but name, and Kael its uncrowned king.
In the broadest sense, Hogwarts now encompassed the castle and the cities of Hogsmeade and Bree, the surrounding lands of Eriador, and also Isengard and the Gap of Rohan, with the Dunlendings who dwelt there.
The total population was still under a hundred thousand, far less than Gondor or Rohan, but no one dared belittle it.
Most placed its strength on a level not just with those two realms, but also with the Kingdom under the Mountain, the Woodland Realm and the other great realms of the Free Peoples.
Part of this was Kael himself: a wizard of tremendous power who commanded a dragon, a thunderbird and other mighty creatures.
But it was the thirty thousand wizards that most awed the world.
In the Far Eastern campaign, Hogwarts had sent only a hundred wizards and had still smashed tens of thousands of Mordor's troops.
No one in Middle-earth dared imagine what might happen if all thirty thousand ever took the field together.
Few outside Hogwarts knew that those hundred had been the elite of the Aurors, the sharpest edge of wizardkind. Even so, the fear and respect Hogwarts inspired remained, most of all in Mordor.
There, Kael's realm was regarded with deep suspicion and dread; Mordor's quiet in recent years was due as much to Hogwarts as to any secret plotting in Barad‑dûr.
Isengard, one of Kael's strongholds, stood on the borders of both Rohan and Gondor. If Mordor struck at either realm, Hogwarts would not stand idle.
Near Isengard, in the Misty Mountains, lay the greatest dragon‑breeding grounds in Middle-earth, staffed by more than a thousand skilled dragon‑handlers.
Around Isengard and across the Gap of Rohan, there also lived several thousand Dunlending wizards.
In time of war, all of these could be turned at once into front‑line strength, delivering devastating blows to any who dared attack.
As the ruler of such forces, Kael was known as the Supreme Wizard.
Had the title "Witch‑king" not already belonged to the Lord of Angmar, many would simply have called Kael what he was in truth: a king of wizards.
Back at Hogwarts itself, Bilbo had settled in.
He had originally come only to stay for a while. But the laughter of the students, the sight of brooms darting through the sky, and the constant life of the place had sunk deep into his heart.
In the end, he accepted Kael's invitation, remaining in the castle as one of the school's caretakers.
This term, Hogwarts was preparing to host a Four‑House Tournament, and the students who had been pining for Quidditch were quickly distracted by the prospect. Complaints about the cancelled season faded away.
The tournament was, in truth, a contest between the four Houses.
To let every student feel involved, Kael and the professors had drawn up rules that began with internal trials.
Each House would hold its own duelling contest to choose a single champion, who would then represent them in the final four‑way showdown.
As the selection matches began, excitement surged through the castle again.
Every effort had been made to give all students a chance to compete, but it was inevitable that most of the younger years served mainly as warm‑up matches, falling in the first rounds.
Even so, they did not lose heart. Once out, they turned to cheering on their older schoolmates instead, dreaming of the day it would be their turn to fight for their House.
While the whole school was absorbed in the tournament, Gandalf came back from the Shire—with Frodo, and three other Hobbits in tow.
"Gandalf, what's all this?" Kael asked, watching four Hobbits tumble out of the fireplace and turning a questioning look on the wizard.
"Kael, Frodo has agreed," Gandalf said at once.
The meaning struck Kael in an instant. He looked at Frodo in honest surprise.
He had not expected Gandalf's words to carry such weight, nor for the Hobbit to decide so quickly to become Ring-bearer.
After all, there was no glory in the task, and little chance of surviving it.
Frodo could easily have refused. With the fortune he had inherited, he could have lived out his days in peace and comfort in the Shire.
"Frodo, have you truly made up your mind?" Kael asked, meeting his eyes. "You must understand—it will be terribly dangerous. You may well die along the way.
"And the Ring will gnaw at you without ceasing. Its corruption will bring you pain beyond imagining. Even if you succeed, it will leave you with wounds that may never fully heal. Knowing all this, are you still willing to go?"
Under Kael's gaze, Frodo felt as though his heart had been laid bare, as if every thought was open to view. Instinct told him to look away.
He forced himself to hold that gaze instead.
His face was solemn, but his voice was steady as he nodded. "I am sure."