Chapter Text
The night was dark and it was raining heavily, a cold wind blew across the sea whipping the wave tops into foam, and the thunder of the storm is almost lost in the booming of the waves breaking around the Island, a flash of lightning illuminated the stark black tower in harsh relief. The lightning flashed again and two figures, dressed in black and kitted out for combat stood on the roof top, rapidly moving to the door and entering the tower.
Once inside they quickly moved though the upper floors of the prison, identifying the death eaters, silently stunning each and opening the doors for the dementors. The strange creatures moved past the two intruders, recognising them as their true masters. They feasted on the souls of the death eaters one by one.
Hermione reached the cell she had been looking for, Bellatrix Lestrange. In the cells further down the corridor, her husband and brother in law were dispatched to meet their fates. Hermione opened the door, Bellatrix stood and faced her, “Ooh look, all sneaky and dark. Have you come to end me ickle girl.”
“It is your time Bellatrix, your Lord is no more, time to join him in Hell.”
“You lie, The Dark Lord is immortal, he cannot be killed.”
“My master, DEATH, would disagree, time for you to go.”
Bellatrix leapt forward to attack Hermione, but was not facing a starved and weak teenage bookworm, but a highly trained and physically fit adult. Hermione allowed Bellatrix to grab her around the neck and grabbed the back of her neck in her right hand as she slid the Fairbairn-Sykes knife in her left hand up into Bellatrix’s solar plexus and her cold bitter heart.
The look of shock on her face as she felt the knife enter her body, and realised she was done, no magic, no way back. She died as Hermione stared into her eyes, “That is for all the innocents that you killed for amusem*nt, that is for my daughter, you bitch.” Hermione hissed the words into her face.
She pulled the knife free of her chest and sealed the wound with a wandless spell. Cleaning the knife she returned it to its sheath. Hermione looked at the small broken looking body of the woman from so many of her nightmares. “I should revive you and kill you a dozen more times, you foul disgusting wretch.” She turned and left the small cell. Harry stood just outside the door. They exchanged a look, he had held back to allow her to deal with Bellatrix, this was one of her personal demons, and he knew she must be the one that finished her. “We are done, let’s get out, they will find the bodies in the morning.”
The pair slipped back to the roof, and relocked the door, before disappearing into nothing, the anti apparition wards meaning nothing to the agents of death.
Amelia Bones was tired, she was sitting at her desk reading the report and drinking her third coffee of the morning and it was not yet eight o’clock. One of her Aurors walked in, he had a piece of parchment in his hand. “Boss, there has been a situation over at Azkaban, they have lost a few prisoners to the dementors.”
“What happened, is it suspicious?”
“Cell doors open, the dementors had a picnic.”
Amelia shook her head, “Do we know who?”
“The high security wing, all the Death Eaters by the looks of it.”
“Send a couple of duty Aurors up to check for foul play, but don’t waste a lot of time. No one is going to support an investigation into an overdue execution for those animals.”
“Any preferences?”
“Send Dawlish and Rowling.” She smiled, let them learn their fate.
“They aren’t in yet Boss, I will send them when they get here.
In her hand was an unsigned note in an elegant script, it informed her that all the soul pieces of one Tom Marvolo Riddle were incorporated back into the whole, and that they now resided in that area of the afterlife reserved for the foulest of individuals.
She knew in her heart that the dead prisoners in Azkaban had been, Reaped. She also knew that it was justice, and carried out under the auspices of a ‘Higher Power.’
“Reed, send someone around to check on those two, is Arkwright on duty today?”
“No, she is on leave.”
Amelia nodded. “OK, send whoever is free to Azkaban, but let them know it routine, we aren’t looking for a conspiracy here.”
“Boss.” He turned back into the bullpen and issued some instructions to the Aurors in the room.
------oooOOOooo------
Hedwig flew into the Great Hall at breakfast and dropped a copy of the Daily Prophet on the table in front of Hermione. She had a subscription, but Hedwig insisted on delivering it to her. She hooted at Hermione. “Thank you, girl, get her some bacon Harry.”
“Yes dear.”
“You are so whipped mate.” Nev commented from his side and passed the plate with the bacon to Harry, who picked a couple of pieces and fed them to his owl.
“Nev, you might be right, but would you say no to either of these two?” Nev laughed and shook his head.
Daphne and Tracy took the seats either side of Hermione, and most of the Quidditch team appeared shortly after and sat alongside them.
Harry opened the paper as Hermione wasn’t bothering, he saw the news on the second page about the deaths in Azkaban, he showed it to Neville. Nev took the paper and read the article slowly. Harry reached over and placed his hand on his brother’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
“Does that give you any peace Nev?” Harry asked. Nev sat in silence for a few moments and nodded.
“I am going to get some air.” He stood to leave the room.
Harry tugged his sleeve before he left, “Do you need any company?” Nev shook his head,
“Thanks Harry, I just need a bit of time to myself.”
“Understood mate, understood.”
Tracey watched Neville walk out of the room, “Harry, what’s eating Nev? Is he OK?”
“There was an incident at Azkaban a couple of nights ago, and the Death Eaters all got kissed. You know about Nev’s folks?” Tracey nodded. “The Lestranges all died. It ends it for Neville, if only his parents could be brought back from wherever they are.”
Hermione was staring straight at Harry, “Where are they?” she murmured.
Fred slipped into the space vacated by Nev, “Bambi our seeker of fame and fortune, are you all psyched up for the match this weekend?”
Harry laughed, “No. I had completely forgotten. Hufflepuff right?”
“The Puffs indeed, their seeker is pretty decent. You will need to be awake.”
“Diggory isn’t it?”
“Yeah, do you know him.”
“In another life maybe, I’ve got his measure.”
“When you say another life, are you joking? After that party, and I know it happened because the whole team remember it. I don’t know what to think.”
“Bit of both, Pettigrew killed him last time around, right in front of me. I didn’t handle it very well at the time. He also beat me in a game in our third year after I was taken out by dementors and his father never shut up about it. Cedric is OK, bit pretty really, but his father is an arse, complete Dumbledore acolyte, so far up Dumbles butt he can See Doge.”
George laughed. “You reckon we should be OK then.”
“Best Quidditch team in the school. The game is ours to lose.”
The team members all beamed, Hermione and Daphne had matching eye rolls of deafening proportions. “Smell that Hermione? That’s the smell of victory, that is, or is it from a dragon’s bottom.” Daphne snarked quietly, they giggled. “Dragon, or a Bull. Hard to tell.” Hermione replied.
------oooOOOooo------
Dolores Umbridge was working in her home study, late in the evening, she sat looking over some proposed legislation she was working on, limiting even further the rights of magical creatures. She was working on having Werewolves reclassified as creatures rather than beings. Making them a class of animal, rather than a wizard with an affliction. It did not cross her mind that no one chose to be a werewolf, nor that werewolves were not born, but infected.
Her kitten patterned china teacup was empty, she stood and walked into her kitchen, with a few waves of her wand she had a fresh pot of tea brewing, and stood looking out of her window the moon was full, and in the clear January sky her modest garden was bathed in light, she thought she saw movement, a skulking figure.
She still held her wand, and walked to the door, she would teach this common criminal not to mess with Dolores Umbridge. She stepped out into the garden and the werewolf sprang grabbing her, batting her wand away and biting her neck. He released her from the bite, “welcome to my pack, bitch. You like to make us suffer, well now you will know how it is to be one of us.” Fenrir Grey back dropped the screaming toad on the path, her body began to transform in front of him, and his teeth bared in a feral grin. He watched her go through the agony of her first transition, then biting the back of her neck pushed her to submit, holding her down until his anger was gone. He left her laid in her garden, he loped off his path illuminated by the moonlight, he had the ability to control his transformations, so he left in good order.
When he reached some woods on the outskirts of the town, he slept. He awoke in the morning, stiff and cold and stopped to wonder. How had he arrived at that garden? The previous night he had been drinking in a bar in Montenegro near the border with Albania, he had followed a pretty young witch out of the bar, her scent had inflamed him, as he grabbed her, to bite and rape and devour, she had smiled, her chocolate coloured eyes staring right into his eyes, “Hello Fenrir, Puppy.” She had said, the world had gone black. He had awoken in the garden of the Umbridge woman, with the knowledge that she was responsible for the persecution of his kind.
Fenrir was no hero of the Werewolves, he embraced his animal side, he liked to kill. He loved the taste of fresh blood, watching and feeling as his victim’s life ebbed away in his jaws. The smell of their fear in their last moments on earth. He had satisfied one appetite the previous night, now he wanted to kill, preferably someone young and innocent.
He woke early, his sense of smell alerted him, and he moved though the woods to a footpath where he saw a young girl in her school uniform with a pale blue backpack, perfect he thought. He jumped out in front of her, half transformed and stopped. He expected screams, her to run, or freeze, wet herself in fear, and to cry and beg.
What he got was. “Are you the big bad wolf then Fenrir? because I am not little red riding hood, and my granny lives in France, not Cricklewood.” She smiled, “Contact,” was the last thing Fenrir ever heard.
At the top of the path Dan and Harry sat in a makeshift hide, disillusioned and other charms hiding them and their scent. Harry had a spotter scope and was watching over Hermione carefully, they were only about four hundred yards away.
Dan had ‘borrowed’ another piece of kit. This was brand new, a prototype, the ‘Arctic Warfare’ variant from a company called Accuracy International, currently bidding to supply the Army with its next sniper rifle. The current version of the gun was known as the ‘Green Meanie’ and a variant would hold the record for the longest kill at over two thousand four hundred metres for a few years in the near future.
Today Dan was looking down the hugely powerful scope and could clearly see the beast towering over his daughter, he heard her call the shot, and squeezed the trigger, the specially made rune carved, silver cored magnum calibre round hit Fenrir square in the centre of his chest, fragmenting on impact, the impact knocked him on his back and with a twitch he died.
Hermione transformed his remains into a stuffed toy, a cute little wolf puppy, and dropped it into a large double seal food bag before putting it into her backpack, then skipped Luna style to meet Harry and her father.
Dan looked at his daughter, “Seriously pumpkin, Little red riding hood jokes.” He couldn’t stop his grin. “You were definitely trained by Cat. That Asshole.” Hermione grinned and pulled the desert eagle from the base of her backpack, it was feather weight charmed so she could hold it, but the recoil sat her on her butt every time.
Harry gave her a hug, “did he kill Umbitch?”
“Better, he infected her. If you will pardon the language, She is SO f*cked.”
“Umbitch is a werewolf, we should tell Mooney. Wicked.”
Dan had the hide folded up, “C’mon crew, breakfast time.” They linked hands and popped home for bacon butties and mugs of tea.
------oooOOOooo------
Luna was sitting outside her home watching the birds wheeling and diving above it was a cold clear February morning, the sky was a pale washed out blue and the sun sat low in the sky, bringing little warmth. She was intrigued by the dance the birds appeared to perform in the sky around the tower she called home. As she watched the birds scattered, a large white owl flew in and landed on the back of the chair opposite the one she occupied.
Hedwig regarded Luna with its large eyes, and held her leg out to the girl. Luna looked. A letter for her? She had received her Hogwarts letter the previous week. She carefully took the attached letter from the bird, and slipped into the house, returning with some chicken for the owl. “I am sorry my beautiful girl, we have no bacon in the house. I shall make sure we have some for next time,” she fed the bird the pieces of chicken, “They expect an answer, thank you for waiting.”
Luna opened the envelope, and found a birthday card. Today was her eleventh birthday, the thirteenth of February. She had forgotten. She opened the card, it was from Harry Potter, and Hermione Granger. She knew who Harry was of course, everyone knew about the boy who lived, but he had written to her.
“Dear Luna, Happy Birthday. I know what it is like not to get any Birthday cards, and I know how lonely it can be on your special day if no one remembers. Included in the card is a voucher for Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream parlour. Hermione and I would love to meet you for an ice cream tomorrow afternoon, we can meet you at the Quibbler offices if that suits you best. Please send your reply back with Hedwig, she will wait.
Your friends Harry Potter & Hermione Granger
P.S. Hedwig likes bacon best, or chicken.
Luna smiled to herself. Friends. They said they were her friends, she used to have a friend called Ginny, but she didn’t call around any more, not since Luna’s mother had moved on. It would be nice to have friends. She could go into the office tomorrow with her daddy and meet them for ice cream.
She got some paper and started on her reply, singing to herself as she worked.
The following morning she dressed herself in her favourite dress, it was sunflower yellow and was puffed out with petticoats around her legs, she tied her long blonde hair back with matching ribbon and joined her daddy for breakfast. “Good morning Moonbeam, you are up early, and dressed as well.”
“Good morning daddy, I am coming to work with you today, my new friends Harry and Hermione are taking me for ice cream as a birthday treat.”
“Oh, that’s nice Moonbeam, have I met your friends?”
“I don’t think so, have you ever met Harry Potter before?”
“No, he disappeared after you-know-who killed his parents, I believe he is at Hogwarts this year. You will meet him in September when you start.” He returned to his breakfast.
“I will meet them at one o’clock when we go for ice cream with Hermione.”
“That’s nice dear.” Xeno wasn’t really paying attention, Luna smiled. He hadn’t said she couldn’t go.
Later that morning as they finished their lesson, Harry and Hermione told Professor Lupin, that they would be out of the school for the afternoon, they were taking a friend to lunch for her birthday.
“Pandora’s girl?” Remus asked
“That’s right, Luna.” Hermione replied.
“I haven’t seen her since, well you know what happened.” He mused, “be back for Dinner, I believe Minerva wants to have a word with you both.”
“Thanks Mooney.” Harry added. Remus gave him a wry smile.
The pair nipped into their quarters and changed into jeans and trainers, tee-shirts and hooded tops, before apparating to the alley near the Quibbler offices. Harry checked his watch, it showed that it was five minutes to one, they walked over to the door of the offices, but it opened as they approached and Luna stood at the door beaming, “Are you really my friends.”
Hermione gathered the waif like girl in her arms and hugged her, “We are Luna, and we always will be.”
Her smile was splitting her face, “I think I am going to be happy to be your friends, I think we were friends before weren’t we?”
Harry picked her off the floor and swung her around, “We were the closest of friends Luna, we were family. You will always be welcome in our lives.” He put her down, “Now, how about some ice cream?”
Luna closed the door to the offices and took Harry and Hermione’s hand in each of hers and started to skip along the alley towards the ice cream parlour. Hermione gave Harry a smile over Luna’s head, they would make sure their surrogate sister was cared for in this lifetime.
They sat inside at the ice cream parlour and shared a massive bowl of mixed flavours, “Would you like to go to a muggle cinema Luna, and watch a movie?” Harry asked.
Luna regarded Harry for a few moments. “I don’t know what that is Harry” She put her spoon down, and wiped her face with a napkin. “Do you think I will enjoy it?”
“I think you will love it.” He replied.
“I think for us it’s a choice between The Addams Family, or the Star Trek one.” Hermione commented.
“I like the sound of the family one,” Luna said. “I like the idea of family, I miss mine.” Hermione gave her a side hug.
“Leicester Square isn’t far, we can walk in ten minutes, or we could apparate?”
“Let’s walk, don’t want to spook anyone. Should we age up?” Hermione nodded. With a quick check to see if anyone was around they transformed into their adult selves, an ability they had been granted after collecting the last part of Riddles soul.
Luna looked up at Harry, her eyes shining, “Have you met my mummy?”
He crouched down to her level, “Not yet, but we could go visit after the movie if you want to, we could have some tea and cake with her. Would you like that?” Luna nodded, her eyes sparkling. They took Luna’s hands in theirs and walked along letting her swing between them and skip as she beamed at the world, through the Leaky and into muggle London. Hermione conjured a jacket for Luna, it was a cold day, and they made their way across to the Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square, and paid for the tickets to the Addams Family.
Luna sat enthralled at the idea of movies, actors, and the whole thing. “They remind me of some of my family, there are some boys I would like to torture.”
“Really Luna? I never had you down as one for vengeance.”
She looked at Hermione, “Ginny’s brother, he was horrible to me, and Hermione, but he has gone now. I should not be glad about that, but I am happy that he will not be at school when I start. He called me Looney, I pretend I don’t mind. I see things other people can’t, and they don’t understand.” She said all of it with a smile, and shrugged. “Where to now?”
Harry checked around, the cinema was dark and no one was looking, they took Luna’s hand and slipped through reality into neverwhen, “Take a seat Luna. We can have some tea and some cake,”
“Lulu. You have grown so much,” A blonde woman, clearly Luna’s mother ran to her and swept her up into her arms. Luna wrapped her arms around her neck. Hermione brought out a tea set and some Victoria sponge cake, made with real cream. She knew this would not be allowed by the guardians of English tradition that was the Women’s Institute, but she wasn’t going to sing Jerusalem either.
Susan appeared, and gave them both a certain look, “I will allow this, Luna has a role in the future, and deserves some peace. She will have to wait for Samhain in future, or you will have the Auditors on our backs once more. If you want to leave Luna to spend some time with her mother, you can go, I will take her back home later, her father will forget her otherwise. You might want to consider letting her live with your family at the school during the week?”
Hermione looked at Susan, and her hair sorted itself into a French plait. “Got it, at least my hair is cooperating now. Susan, are Nevilles parent’s up here, or are they trapped somewhere?”
“They are not here, they are not even due for years yet. They need some help finding their way back from where they hid. You have the ability, I believe. How is the trash disposal progressing?”
“We cleaned up the prison, and the Ministry is missing a few employees, they all caught dragon pox and passed away in their homes. We have a plan for Malfoy and his cadre, we are waiting for them to meet up so we can scoop them up in one go.” Harry replied. Susan nodded, “The rest we think we can use their mark to track them, perhaps more. Hermione has figured out the magic behind it.”
“You are both doing well. I believe we will be able to reward you when it is complete.” Hermione smiled.
------oooOOOooo------
They returned Luna to her home themselves in the end, Pandora turned out to be every bit as out there as they remembered Luna to be, and she told them a few choice stories about Sirius, Remus, James and Lily from their days at Hogwarts in what she referred to as the marauders era. Sirius had not been joking when he said she had no inhibitions, some of her stories were certainly adult content. They returned when Luna fell asleep, in her mother’s arms and they popped her into her own room, put her to bed, with a note, explaining how to contact them.
They apparated into their own school apartment and with a sigh and a last kiss, transformed back to being twelve year old selves, or nearly in Harry’s case. “This is getting old.” He complained. “Or rather it isn’t.”
“Not long Harry, once we get the rest of them, then I think we can stay adult one way or another.”
“I hope so, I haven’t even hit puberty. It sucks.” Hermione kissed him on the cheek.
She replied, “I think it’s cute.” Harry snorted.
They had dinner in the Great Hall, telling Katie about the Addams family movie, she lived in a muggle area, and understood cinema. The others were fascinated, and they made plans to see if they could get a small group together to visit a cinema at the weekend at some point. They laughed at the idea of some of the Professors out in the muggle world.
As they were standing to leave the hall a note appeared on the table.
‘Harry and Hermione Potter
Please come to my office after dinner, I have a few items I wish to discuss.
Prof. McGonagall
HeadMistress’
Harry passed Hermione the note, they exchanged a look and set off to the Head’s office. As they arrived the gargoyle was missing and they walked up the stairs, and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Minerva called, “Hermione, Harry. Pease take a seat. A pair of chairs appeared in front of her desk. Harry took a look around and noticed the lack of do-dads and nik-naks in the office compared to Dumbledore’s day. He took a seat next to Hermione, “What did you want to see us about?”
“I would like to have a chat about the castle wards, if I may?”
“Of course, what can we do to help?” Hermione replied as they sat in the chairs conjured for them.
“After Albus was removed, Fillius and I went to the ward stone room, and we discovered in the logs, that the wards had been heavily, I will say, repaired, perhaps reset, a few weeks ago, by Rowena Ravenclaw. A lady that passed away nearly a thousand years ago. I enquired with the elves about some of Albus’s excesses, especially with regards to potions being given to pupils, and they explained that Lady Ravenclaw and Lord Gryffindor had told them to stop and not to tell Albus.
Their descriptions of the Lord and Lady are of the pair of you. Am I correct in my assumption that this is work directed by our friends from beyond the veil?”
Harry grinned, “We spent months with the founders, Rowena herself helped Hermione fix the wards, I left her to that one. Runes isn’t my best subject, and it’s a passion for Hermione. Have you been able to remove Albus from the wards?”
“We believe so, but I would be very grateful if ‘Rowena’ would check them for us. Perhaps you could show Professor Bell what you know, she is very capable with wards.
Hermione beamed, “I would be delighted to check the wards for you, Rowena showed me how to remove and add users, the best way is to swap the equivalent of the users identity, as you have surmised, when I access the wards it records me as Rowena, and Harry as Godric. We did this so Albus could not lock us out of the wards, or into the castle. He had damaged the ward matrix to the point of collapse.”
Harry asked, “Where is he at the moment? I doubt the old goat has given up trying to run my life. We have finished with Riddle, he is in the afterlife, and never coming back.”
“Run or ruin?” Hermione quipped.
“Same thing, his meddling caused me more pain than Riddle managed.”
Minerva stood, “before we check the wards, I have to ask. Did you engineer Ronald Weasley’s demise?”
Hermione looked at her, “No. I was going to kill him myself, look into his eyes as he did me, feed him the memory of being murdered by a close friend, let him feel my pain and hurt and betrayal. Then I was going to end him. I hadn’t decided the exact method at the time, and the potions got mixed up, we assume Ron consumed his usual quantity and would have had enough in him to make an erumpant frisky.” Minerva looked a little shocked at Hermione’s calm demeanour describing how she intended to kill Ron. “Minerva, with your permission, I will show you that memory?”
Minerva paused, “No, thank you Hermione. I think experiencing something that awful, is perhaps something I will pass. It is difficult to reconcile what you two have experienced with the cute little girl sat in front of my desk. I am sorry, I understand your feelings to the late Ronald Weasley, and I am glad you did not have to act on them in the end.” She walked around the desk, “shall we take a walk to the ward stone?”
Hermione grinned, “We have founder level privileges, we can apparate within the castle. Harry, please go and see if Samantha is free, I can show her the wards structures, it is easier to understand if you know how it is assembled. I will meet you at the door.” She took Minerva’s hand and they disappeared.
Harry popped into being outside Sam’s quarters and knocked on the door, privately relieved when she shouted, “Come in Harry,” and on entering he found her alone, marking papers. “What I can I do for my favourite Grim Reaper?” She asked with a grin. Harry stopped. It was true, he was a Reaper of sorts, and Sirius’s dog form was a Grim. He laughed, Trelawney wasn’t so far off seeing death in his life, just not his.
“Hermione is helping Aunt Minnie with the wards, since she has Rowena’s access levels, and she want’s to show you how they are set up so you can manage the wards for the castle, as ward work was in your old day job.” Sam stood and stretched, “OK Bambi, lead on.”
Harry snorted, Bambi. He took her hand and popped them down to the chamber.
“You can apparate in the school?”
“Hermione and I have founder level privileges, and as you rightly called me, we are Reapers, or at least part of the team, so we can go anywhere.” Hermione opened the door and Harry watched them file into the room, “I am going to have a chat with Sirius and Remus about Luna, love.”
“OK.” He heard from the room as the door closed. He popped himself over to Sirius’s office, it was empty, so he nipped to the common room, Remus was there, “Do you know where Scooby is Mooney?” he asked poker faced.
“Professor Black is at home I believe, Mister Potter.” He said looking at Harry with raised eyebrows. Harry nodded and fired off his patronus, Remus blinked, “I don’t know why, but I should realise you can cast a patronus, I expected a stag, not a big cat.”
It used to be a stag, for a lot of my lives, but since Hermione and I bonded, we both have big cat patronuses, hers is a snow leopard, mine is a panther. They are the same as our Animagious forms.” He transformed into his Panther form.
Daphne, Tracey and Katie chose that moment to enter and decided that Harry had to be petted. He was still laid on his back chuffing in pleasure at having his belly rubbed when Sirius walked into the room, He barked out a laugh. “You ladies do know that’s Harry you are all stroking don’t you?”
“What?” they asked together, Daphne continued, “He is animagious as well. Hermione is a lucky girl.” Harry rolled himself over and wriggled free of the girls before transforming, accidentally into his adult form and then into his school self. Tracey and Daphne exchanged a look and a nod.
Katie climbed to her feet, “What is Hermione’s form?”
“Snow Leopard.” Harry replied, “It’s really cute, but she mauls me quite badly if I say so.”
“Well, sadly you are still stuck with Bambi, even if Baggy would be better suited.” Sirius quipped,
“That’s OK Scooby. I can live with it.” The girls mouthed ‘scooby?’ and looked askance,
Sirius dropped into his dog form for a moment, and returned, “It’s Padfoot.”
Katie looked, “Nah, Scooby Doo is way funnier.” She giggled, “Muggle TV show, we need to fix up a TV for the common room, you guys need to learn mundane cultural references.” She directed at the others.
Harry laughed, “Can I have a word with you and Remus, about family stuff. Maybe in our room?”
They followed him into the rooms he shared with Hermione, “Grab a seat, anyone want a drink?”
He ordered a pot of tea from Dobby and asked the elf to stay when he returned with the tray. “Hermione and I have contacted Luna Lovegood recently, Pandora and Xeno’s daughter. She is just like her mother, who says to tell you both the offer she made to the pair of you concerning a bowl of whipped cream as clothing still applies.”
He smirked as Remus actually blushed a little. “Xeno can’t really cope with Luna and she spends most days alone, she is still grieving her mother, and she needs to be in company. The nearest family is the Weasleys and Ginny has turned her back on Luna for some reason. Hermione and I are in these bodies so we can’t really help, but I want to ask you guys to organise it to let Luna stay at the school, even if it’s just in the daytime, between you two, Dobby here, Cissy, Andi, Sam, Hermione and I we can give her company. She will be here from September, and she will spend summer with us as much as she wants.”
Remus looked at Harry, “That is extremely noble of you Harry, I think we can talk to Minerva and sort something out, I doubt Xeno will object, as strange as he is, he loves his daughter. If she stays here in the week, would you and Hermione be happy for her to use the spare room until she starts as a pupil?”
“Yes, we had thought that might work, she is really attached to us both, she was very close to us in our previous lives, but she was in Ravenclaw, and they picked on her for being odd, we didn’t meet until our fifth year I think. We love the whacky little pixie, she sees magic in a way none of us do, but doesn’t know how to describe what she sees, so makes up names for it. Nargles are a favourite of hers, I think it means you are stressed or worrying. We want to fix that this time around.”
“How is the other stuff going?” Sirius asked.
“We have cleared the Death Eaters from Azkaban and the Ministry, and Fenrir Greyback is dead.”
“Greyback is dead?” Remus asked.
“Hermione’s dad shot him in the chest with a specially made bullet. He never heard it coming. He was the one that turned you wasn’t he?” Remus nodded, “before he got shot he turned Dolores Umbridge.”
Sirius started laughing, “You set that up didn’t you?” Harry shrugged and grinned.
“We need Fudge gone as well, but Malfoy and his cronies are our next target, he has meetings of the senior Death Eaters at his Manor once a month or so, as soon as we know when the next on is, we are going in hard and killing them all. Fancy a bit of action, be warned this isn’t Dumbledore’s order of the Pheonix stuff, we are going to kill anyone with a Dark Mark, including your old sparring partner Severus. The attack on them at Malfoy Manor will also be a statement, sending a message, if you have a Dark Mark, your days are numbered.” Harry drank some tea.
“Hermione and I can go through any wards, and Dobby here knows the Malfoy elves, they will tell him when the next meeting is and he will rescue the elves prior to the attack. Once we go in, use only deadly spells, we will lock the place down against any form of exit and clean house. If Dumbles turns up, he dies.”
Remus looked a little concerned, “Harry this is pretty dark stuff, are you sure?”
“Remus, I work for DEATH. As Sam joked earlier, I am a Grim Reaper, more or less. I have been granted this life and these abilities to put the magical world back on track, and these assholes that believe they can rape and kill and rob anyone who doesn’t fit their world view of what a wizard should have no place in it. Every one of them had multiple counts of rape and murder over their head, often minors. These men commit the most foul acts and justify it because their victim was a muggle.”
Harry had subconsciously transformed into his adult form as his anger had risen, “What they wanted to do to Hermione marks them all as dead men walking. She was their number one target, me they would torture and kill, Hermione would have welcomed death if they had captured her. If you cannot do this, then stay away, we will not be dissuaded.”
Sirius spoke softly, “It’s OK Harry, I am in, Mooney can decide, but I have some of my memories of those lives, and we lost friends in the first war. Marion, Lily, James to name a few. Do you have a plan drawn up?”
“Only in the broadest sense, but we have a huge advantage, once they meet, we can go into neverwhen, and plan our attack. We can spend days if we need to, and no time will pass. We will plan it in detail when we know who is there and in what part of the manor. We will pop in, and blow the wardstone to pieces, throw anti apparition and anti portkey wards down, and then hit them from all side at once with maximum aggression.”
------oooOOOooo------
The Quidditch match against the ‘puffs was finally on them, Harry was sat amongst the team with Hermione, Tracey, Daphne and their new fan Luna at breakfast on the Saturday morning of the match. Everyone was in high spirits, the sky was clear and although it was the last day of February, the day was dry and the sun was shining. Harry was eating a light breakfast and watching Luna pack away pancakes with the same gusto he used to see in Ron.
The girls had adopted Luna immediately and had taken her into their group as if they had known her their entire lives. After the second night she slept in the first years dorm with the girls in the bed that had once been Hermione’s and had taken to sitting in on lessons. She was easily keeping up with the subjects. Harry looked at the ‘Claws table, Cho and Su-li had been two of her antagonists, yet the lions had welcomed her like the stray cub she was, well except for McLaggan.
Harry thought back to how McLaggan had once more proved to be a complete prat. He wondered if he would survive a third strike from Hermione. It had been Luna’s first day staying with them up at the school, Dobby had picked her up and elf popped her into the apartment for Friday lunch, they had Friday afternoons free, and she was staying the weekend. She had not been home since.
They introduced her to the girls in the dorm at lunch, having explained the reasons at breakfast, and the whole gang, had gone back to the common room that afternoon. Luna had been talking dreamily about him having wrackspurts and he should let Hermione clean them away, when McLaggan had opened his mouth.
“Who asked for any more of your stupid little girl fantasy nonsense. Can’t you just stop for a minute and let people with actual brains say something for once.” He was breathing in to carry on his rant as Hermione walked across the room towards him, as she walked she shifted into her adult body, complete in combat gear, with guns and knives attached everywhere. Harry sat and thought to himself how hot her arse looked with the pistol holster straps across the tops of her thighs.
McLaggan started again, “We have all heard….” Hermione picked him up by his throat and held him with his feet off the floor.
“Come with me Cormac, time for a lesson.” They both disappeared.
“Hermione is really scary when she gets angry Harry.” Neville murmured.
Harry smiled, “Luna is our surrogate sister, she is family. I think McLaggan is about to learn that the world is a very scary place if you piss off the wrong person. Hermione’s knife skills are top notch and she had more of them attached to her than I can remember, and pistols. He is probably about to die a few times as a lesson in etiquette.”
“Shouldn’t you go help?” Daphne asked.
“I would get my arse kicked as well, McLaggan is a jerk, and I was going to tell him to shut up, but he really angers Hermione, they have history in previous timelines, he got handsy with her at a party. One I took Luna to coincidentally, so she has a short fuse with him. If I turned up to ‘save Hermione’ she would be furious. I used to sneak off and do the risky stuff without her, thinking I was keeping her safe. Half the time she had to rescue me, we work best as a team, but she can take McLaggan one handed without magic.”
“She didn’t have to bother Harry, he was listening to his nargles, it didn’t upset me.” Luna said, whilst plaiting Daphne’s hair into a braid down one side of her face.”
Harry shook his head, “Luna part of what we have to do is to make people realise that we are all equal, and allowing that prat to bump his gums like that does no one any favours. This is probably his last chance, if he makes her angry again, she will feed him to a dragon, or maybe the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets under the school.”
“Did you just say that there is a Basilisk under the school?” Tracey asked.
“Yes, it was Salazar Slytherin’s familiar. It killed Myrtle Warren back in 1943, when Tom Riddle opened the chamber. It’s sleeping at the moment. It’s on my to do list.”
“Aren’t they really rare? And really hard to kill.”
“Yeah, this ones about a thousand years old, if I can talk to it I don’t really want to kill it out of hand, but it’s about sixty feet long and probably gone a bit mad. So if it does attack it is really difficult to stop and can do a lot of damage, especially if it comes up into the school.”
Hermione reappeared in the room, McLagan was curled at her feet whimpering. “If I ever hear you talk down to another woman, I will end you McLaggan. You are a pathetic excuse for a male. Be very happy I am leaving you male. Now go to your dorm and write Luna an apology.” He half crawled half ran out of the room, Hermione turned to the group, hair bushed out and crackling.
“Everything OK, Hermione, love?” Harry asked as she shrank back into her schoolgirl form.
“HE. Just. Makes me. SO ANGRY. How can one person be so full of sh..” Harry pounced on her in panther form and rolled her over to the ground, she shifted to her Leopard form and the two big cats wrestled on the floor until she settled, and calmed, purring and sleeping as the girls stroked the big cuddly cat.
Neville leaned into Harry, who was back in his schoolboy form, “What did she do to Cormac?”
“No idea. I will ask in a day or two when it’s safe.” He never did.
The match started and Harry shot vertically to about fifty or sixty feet, and started to look for the snitch, Cedric kept trying to get on his tail, and was trying to make Harry get annoyed and lose concentration. Harry considered using a wandless stunner on him for a moment or two, but thought better of it, he had a faster broom, he knew he was a better flyer. He decided to have a bit of fun. This game had been over in ten minutes last time around, and that wasn’t happening today, it was already twenty minutes. Harry dropped vertically and powered straight down pulling out at the last moment so he almost brushed the pitch, Cedric didn’t get pulled into the feint and bailed early, but he didn’t try to buzz Harry again.
The Chasers and Beaters were being relentless, Gryffindor was scoring almost every couple of minutes, the score was currently 190 – 10 in their favour. The snitch didn’t matter anymore. Harry wanted it, his pride demanded it. He flew up a bit higher and made a fast circuit of the stand looking for the glint in the weak sunlight.
There it was, behind the ‘puff’s keeper. He would block Harry if he tried to get it, unless? Harry flew out wider still orbiting the pitch as if searching flying out past the stands and behind the Hufflepuff hoops, then dropping and turning, he could see the snitch through the hoop on the left to his viewpoint. At close to maximum speed, he threaded the eye of the needle and grabbed the snitch as he passed, flipping upside down to avoid Katie as she threw the quaffle through the same hoop and made the score 200.
He braked to a standstill and held his left arm aloft the snitch wiggling in his hands. The Gryffindor stand went wild. He flew over to where Hermione was sitting, she was trying to look angry, but her smile betrayed her. She shook her head and pointed to Luna, who was jumping up and down with excitement. He stopped just above her and held the snitch out to her in between his finger and thumb. She looked to Hermione for confirmation and when Hermione smiled and nodded reached up and took the snitch from Harry. He did a mid air back flip and flew down to join his team mates. Katie grabbed him tears running down her face, “You mad, brilliant, lunatic.” She kissed his cheek and hugged him. “you scared me to death you bloody awesome little monster. Did my goal count, or had you caught it already.”
“That’s our secret, I won’t tell if you don’t. 200 points before the snitch. Epic. I told you we were the best team.” She smacked his chest, and the rest of the team lifted them both onto their shoulders.
The party went on long after Harry had fallen asleep in a corner with Luna curled up at one side and Hermione at the other.
