Chapter 3

Sometimes Two Heads are Better

It was mid-morning when I rose, the others were all up and eating. I walked into an argument between Ron, Harry and Hermione, and got the impression this happens a lot.

"I'm just saying you were right there and had the sword in Hermione's bag."

"Ron, next time you have a Bloody eighteen foot long snake attacking you, let's see if you can remember to grab the sword that's in someone else's bag. And by the way we didn't have the sword yet. We didn't have it till yesterday when you showed back up after running out on us for 3 months."

I put two fingers to my lips and whistled. "Time out, I will have one rule and that is NO arguing at meals. It makes for bad digestion. Besides there is no way to know how anyone will react give a life or death situation, so the point is moot. And Ron is now here so his leaving is moot as well."

"Told you she wouldn't have it" Merlin grabbed a sausage and sat down next to me with a hot cup of tea. Harry today you, Ron and I will be going to the practice room to work on wordless, wandless spell throwing." Hermione started to object. "You Hermione will be in the library finding any and all information of Horcruxes." He kissed me on the cheek, "While Cassy finishes up her research on the ancient wards and protections that may well work better at keeping Tommy Boy and his forces at bay."

I finished of my eggs and was already onto my toast when the others started to get up to leave. "You know, Merlin, I'm going to need an expert at wards and how to break them to test out what I've found."

"My brother Bill is bloody brilliant with ward."

"That may be, Ron, but I already have someone in mind and if Harry is willing to let me use Dobby to be my messenger we could well have more guests by this afternoon."

"Sure, as long as Dobby is okay about it."

"Great." Merlin gave me a look that read as (What are you up to). I just smiled back and called for Dobby. Into his large elf ear I whispered the name of who it was I wanted him to take my letter to, requesting assistance in practicing and defeating the wards and protections I was intending to use around the homes and palaces of the Royal Family.

"I promise, Mistress Cassy, that I will return with them both." With that he was gone and I headed into the library to see what if anything I could find on how to defuse a killing curse. Hermione was busy reading up on horcruxes and had found a book on the Deathly Hallows that she wanted to show to Harry at lunch while I went over the book of ancient wards one more time to see if there was anything I had missed. It was hard to believe that something as beautiful and elegant as these wards had been forgotten. I was sure that some of the ward breakers at Gringotts had run into some of them in the old tomes and ruins they would raid in search of magical artifacts, but what I was planning and how I was going to use them in combination with the protections was going to be unbreakable, or at least I hoped they would be.

I looked down at my watch and then waved to Hermione to come down from the stacks. "Almost time for lunch, feel like taking a look in on what Harry and Ron are up to?" She nodded and was down from the stacks and started out the door before I could turn around. "Left corridor end of the hall."

"Thanks," she called back as she ran down to check thing out in the practice room.

I dusted myself off and was just turning around to put the book I had been reading down on the table when I heard a rather loud pop. "I'm starting to feel like a Mother with all these Kids around."

"You may well be old enough, Cassy, but you don't look a day older than when I last saw you."

I turned to face Remus Lupin and a very pretty and pregnant young woman whom I assumed was Nymphadora. After all I hadn't seen her since she was barely 3, and only a few times with Sirius when we went to visit his cousin Andy. I held open my arms and Remus greeted me with a hug. "It has been way to long, old friend. And you, I remember you but you most likely don't remember me."

Nym smiled and took Remus's place in a hug. "Yes, actually I do. Sirius and I had been talking about you before he died. He said that if he were to ever marry and settle down it would be with you Cassy."

"I will have to hold him to that."

"Wait, What?" Remus and Nym both went a little pale.

"You see he wasn't dead when he tripped through the trilithon gate." I tossed him my note book with the plan in it to retrieve Sirius.

"You don't mean to tell me you're going to actually try this."

"Yes.

"But the ministry is being control by the Death Eaters how do you think you're going to get in." Remus's face was grim.

"With this." I pulled the badge of office out from inside my robes. "With it I bypass all the wards and enter straight into the council chamber."

Nym looked closely at the badge. "I know that symbol; it's the one on the Merlin's seat."

"Bingo.

"How,? There hasn't been anyone to take that seat in almost 400 years."

"That isn't quite true. It's more like no one has wanted to come back and take the seat till now. You see Remus, when I told everyone that my last name was Emrick, well that wasn't the truth, its Emrys and up till about 6 months ago my Father and Brother were respectively the heirs to the seat and title. They were on their way here when the plane they were on blew up, leaving me as the last direct descendent of House Emrys."

"So you're really going to give this a try."

"With your help, I hope, but I also need your help with these first." I took back my notebook and handed him the book of ancient wards. "I have some ideas on how to make them, I hope, fail proof. You see part of the deal with taking the title is that I'm now bound to the Royal Family and to the protection of Britain. I also, once that council starts meeting again, get to be the Queen's Mouth piece in the council. No more Minister deciding what to tell the Mundanes. So you up to it?"

His grim expression hadn't changed, "As long as my condition doesn't get in the way."

"That reminds me," I reached into the pocket of my robes and pulled out a small vial. "For you."

Nym took the book of wards while He pulled out the stopper and took a sniff. "It reminds me of the wolfsbane potion, but different somehow," he sniffed it again, "Stronger."

"Yeah well all the tests I've run on it have had great results. Those who have used it have not gone through the change in over 6 months some have gone for over a year. The most any of my subjects complained of was being short tempered and wanting raw meat. So up to being my first test case here in Britain?"

He had already tipped the vial up before I finished my pitch.

When he lowered the vial his the look on his face had changed. The lines around his mouth had softened and he was smiling. "I guess we will see how well it works tonight, after all it is the first day of the moon." Nym held up crossed fingers behind him.

I looked down at my watch again. "Well, time for lunch and let's not talk about the Sirius thing in front of the others. I don't want to deal with possible ramifications." Remus gave me a questioning look. "You will understand shortly."

As we rounded the corner heading for the dining room with me in the lead there were Ron, Hermione, Merlin, and Harry. The exchange of names and greeting, and hugs continued all the way to the dining room. Remus after getting past the surprise of seeing Harry then noticed Merlin. I looked at Hermione, "You want to explain about Merlin, I'm tired of having to go back over everything." To say that she was more than happy to impart all she had learned would be an understatement, which gave me a chance to sit and enjoy my lunch without stopping between bits to answer questions. Nym finished her food then excused herself asking for the nearest bathroom. "So has she had problems the whole pregnancy?"

"From what Andy told me, yes."

My response was a not a happy one, "What do you mean from what Andy told you, haven't you been around to see for yourself."

"I was concerned that the child would be like me and…,"

"And he walked out on her," Harry added with a bit of anger tinging his words.

"But after Harry here talked some sense into this old wolf, I went back."

"And he begged me for my forgiveness for being a gait." Nym was looking less green as She came over and kissed him.

"I'm not going to harp on what Sirius would have felt about your actions, but what I will do is tell you that all my research has shown that your condition can not be passed from parent to child. It's not genetic it's a form of viral infection which means we may well be able to eventually cure it. Simply put Remus, it's in your blood not the reproductive cells."

Remus's hand reached up and squeezed Nym's, the relief was clear on both of their faces. "Thank you, Cassy. You have given us a gift beyond words."

"So, are we all ready to get back to work?" Merlin grabbed a plum and started to head back to the practice room.

"Sorry boys, but I need to kick you out of the practice room for now. Remus, Nym, and I need to test out the ward and shield combo's to see if they are as good as I think they are."

"May I accompany you," Hermione asked, "These are the wards and shields you have been read about, they really look interesting and I would love to learn something new since I've been working on learning how to combine the ones we have been using to make it easier and quicker to cast."

"She really is the most brilliant witch of her age, Remus said before I could reply.

Fine, I've always said that you never can assume you know everything and you never know where you may learn something new. You may have in your experimenting found something that might help. As for you three I looked at Ron, Harry, and Merlin, if my memory serves me right Merlin is a master at making wands, and Harry is in need of a new wand. So since the grounds have several different types of trees that are good for wands and we have a phoenix right here who is more than willing to give Harry a new feather…"

Merlin looked at Harry and Ron, "It's up to the two of you. I can tell you one thing for certain, that even though Ollivander's is a great place to get a finely made wand, nothing is better the making your own."

"That sounds bloody great," Ron said,

Harry smiled and nodded. "I thought you couldn't leave the Manor."

"The grounds are part of the Manor, Harry, so not a problem. Also the house elves informed me that a hippogriff showed up last night and says it is a friend of yours. So we put him in the stable along with the Unicorns and a stray Thestral that was found injured from a wicked wand blast."

Before Merlin had finished what he was telling them, Harry and Ron were grabbing their coats and heading out. Hermione now looked torn on what she wanted to do.

"Go ahead, Hermione. If we are still working when you get back, you can join us."

She smiled, waved, and was out the door pulling her coat on as she did. Merlin gave me a kiss on the cheek and followed her out.

In the practice room, I showed Remus the incantations and patterns for each ward and shield then we went to work setting them up. We first set the shields then the repelling wards, then two different lock wards and then wove into the layers a rune circle that I hoped would be the key ward. Once we were finished, it was then time to start hitting the wards with every ward breaker charm we knew. I stood back and monitored the wards while Nym and Remus gave them the beating, after an hour I called a stop to let them rest and to check for any cracks or weakening, there were none.

So the combo worked now I needed to find a way to be able to cast a compatible charm on those who had been cleared by Amelia and the Royals that would allow them to pass through the shielding as they wished and would still protect them from attack. That was the hard part and was going to take me the time I had asked for.

"Well now that the easy part is done time to get to work on the hard part, We now need to come up with a way to allow only those we want to pass through and in addition create individual shields for each and every member of the Royal family and their staff so that things look normal."

"Are you completely daft? That has never been done."

"Just because it hasn't, doesn't mean it can't be. In fact I think I may already have the first part." I showed them the rune I had created to cloak my magic signature. " If we take this and customize it to the wearer and add to it a repelling charm and the weaving ward it logically should hide the wearer from anyone looking for them by scanning for the magical signature, and allow them to be recognized by the wards as someone to be let pass through. The hard part is making it work for non-magicals."

It was now nearly time for dinner and a break from the day's work. I could tell that Nym was dreading trying to eat, so I handed her a box of stomach soothing mints, the same kind I gave all my patients who were suffering with hyperemesis, and told her to take two before every meal and that they would ease her stomach.

When we reached the end of the corridor we all stopped in wonderment. The main sitting room was decorated for the holiday. It hadn't even occurred to me that I had nearly missed the holiday. I had gotten the letter from Amelia on the day before Yule. My trip had begun on Yule and I had arrived here at the Manor on the afternoon of the 23rd., so today was the 25th. of December and I had nearly missed the holiday completely. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open till Dipper popped in and beaming up at me and asked if I was pleased with the surprise, That Master had asked them to decorate since I along with Harry, Hermione, and Ron had not gotten a chance to celebrate the holiday.

There was holly and ivy, mistletoe and an evergreen so large that it was hard to believe it fit the room. There were gifts of all shapes and sizes around the room and hanging from the boughs of the tree. On the table was a rib roast and a pheasant, fig pudding and pecan pie, all kinds of vegetables and fruit, more food than we could have eaten to two evenings. I looked down and then realized I was crying.

Poor little Dipper looked distressed as if he had done something wrong.

"It's wonderful Dipper," I patted him on the head and he popped out giggling as he did. Off to my left I could feel a cold breeze as Merlin and the Kids entered the house, "Oh my", was all Hermione could say. "Wicked", escaped from Ron, and Harry just stood there smiling.

Merlin came up and stood next to me. "Happy?" I nodded and kissed him on the cheek.

Everyone started roaming around the room. "Hey Hermione, this one is for you from my Mom." Ron handed her the gift. "Ron here is yours, I'll bet it a sweater," Harry throw it at him. Presents were being stacked in front of each person for the unwrapping. "How?" was all I could squeak out.

"I sent the house elves to retrieve the presents from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley along with some small gift to give to them, Ginny and the Twins that I had the elves pick up while they were out. Yesterday while playing chess with Ron and Harry they made comments about not being able to celebrate the holiday and how much they missed their friends and family. Then you had Remus and Nym come here and I saw in their eyes just how much it made them happy and sad at the same time. So I made the decision that we needed to have this, we all needed this celebration; I hope you don't mind I had the money taken out of our, your vaults." I must have looked concerned, "Not to worry the Goblins are more close mouthed then you could imagine."

In front of me sat three gifts, one from my Aunt Viv, one from Merlin, and the last that looked as if it had been wrapped for a while was from Sirius. There was a note on the gift that was dated 1994,

I know you are most likely getting this well after the holiday, because I'm having a hard time sending it and not bringing it to you myself. I know it has been a long time Cassy and that I really have no right to have expected you to wait for me, but I pray that you have. I have spent the last two years since getting out of Azkaban thinking about all I have missed and one of the things I have missed the most is a life with you. I really do love you Cassy and hope that you feel the same and are willing to give me another chance.

I dropped into a chair tears running down my cheeks unable to open the small box. Kreacher popped in next to me. "Master Sirius had ordered me that I was to give this to you Miss Cassy, if you ever returned to Britain and he was not able to bring it to you himself."

Everyone had stopped what they were doing and watched as I unwrapped the box. Inside was a ring with the black family crest carved into the small red stone, and inside the ring was engraved. To the woman who has always been my Wife, Love your Husband Sirius. I lifted my hand and the ring levitated out of the box and slipped onto my figure.

I looked to Remus and then to Merlin. "I know that the veil is thinner on Samhain and again at Imbolc, but it remains thinner than normal between the two, I have gone over the ceremony more times than I can count, Fawkes is here and so are those he loved and considered his family. And the ministry is closed till New Years. We do it tonight."