Friday morning dawned bright and warm, the sun climbing above the horizon well before 6am. Harry rolled over in his bed, stretching his arms out to the side and unexpectedly coming into contact with warm flesh. On both sides. He turned his head from one side to the other and smothered a snicker. To his left, in a bed jammed tight against the wall, lay a very deeply asleep Remus Lupin. To his left, was his brother, half awake and frowning at him in confusion.
"Har-aaa-ry?" Severus yawned.
"Mornin', Sev." Harry grinned.
"Oh, gods, he's a morning person." Severus groaned, throwing an arm over his face.
"Nope, not really. I'm just glad it wasn't all a dream. For a moment there, I thought it might have been." Harry chirped.
"No dream, little brother." Severus grumbled, pulling a pillow over his head.
"Good." Harry flung back the covers and swung himself to his feet. He crossed to the pile of bags dumped near the door and began the hit and miss task of shuffling through them, looking for clean clothes for the day. "How's the arm this morning?"
"Arm?"
"Arm. You know. After the removal?" Harry pulled out pants and trousers, still combing through bags.
"Oh." Severus sat up quickly, as memories of the night before returned. He lifted his left arm and studied it, he moved it at the shoulder, the elbow and the wrist. Then it was the turn of his hand, each finger was moved, twisted and turned, each finger was tried and it's strength tested.
"Hmm…" He hummed. "The fingers… there seems to be some weakness. Will you look at them, Harry?" Severus held out his hand towards Harry.
Harry turned a frown on his face, he reached for the cuff-holster still strapped to his forearm and pulled out his blackthorn wand. He gave the wand a little shake to wake it up and tapped it against Severus' arm, then lifted it and hissed a few words in parseltongue. The wand extruded a mist of pale smoke-like substance that showed the different layers of bone, nerve, muscle and skin, of Severus' arm, hand and wrist. The mist slowly changed colours, it bled red from the elbow forward, all but one spot, that turned a murky blue/purple/red. The colours showed Harry exactly where the nerves were blocked and after another hissed word or two, a series of shapes appeared, sinuous and curved, shapes Severus had never seen before.
Harry studied the shapes and grunted unhappily, before sighing. "Well, one nerve cluster is affected. The choices are, leave it or repair it. Repairing it means we're going to have to vanish that nerve cluster and regrow it. That's painful and frustrating, you'll have to have your hand immobilised for… about 6 hours, given the size of the cluster. There is an upside, though."
"And that is…?"
"I can teach you how to alter the speed of time in your mindscape, Sev. In both directions. Faster and slower. Six hours out here could be as little as six minutes in your mindscape. Although… I'd recommend a break in the middle, just a few minutes, for a bathroom break. You don't want a bladder infection, as well."
Severus blinked, he'd not given Harry's mindscape time twisting ability a thought, but now that it had been mentioned… Oh, yes, he was definitely going to take advantage of that.
"If you decide not to repair it, I doubt it will affect you greatly, but you will be aware of it. According to the scan I just did, you have a 38% decrease in nerve function in your pinkie, an 11% decrease in your ring finger, 8% in your middle finger and 3% in your index. Noticeable, but not significantly impairing your use." Harry stroked his fingers down each of Severus' as he detailed the damage. "It's your choice, brother."
"No, Harry, there's no real choice, we have Dumbledore in front of us, we must all be at our best. I'll wait until this evening, though, to do the strip and regrowth. I will have to brew the appropriate potion for the nerve regrowth, you know it's shelf-life is only a matter of hours."
Harry nodded and turned back to the bags of new clothes. "Fair enough. I'm gonna grab a shower, I suggest you follow me pretty closely, Remus will probably use up a loch's worth of hot water. His muscles get really tight for the first few days after the full moon and that was Wednesday night." Harry left the room, heading in the direction of the guest bathroom.
An hour later, Harry sat on the patio enjoying a cup of tea after having finished his breakfast. He, Severus and Minerva watched a still stiff and sore Remus join them, fresh from his very long, very hot shower.
"Morning Remus, good shower?" Harry grinned.
"H'morn'n, 'Arry." Remus mumbled in reply. "Yeah, nice." He sat down and proceeded to demolish the remains of the laid out breakfast, before sitting back and sighing in pleasure. "Right, then. I'm ready to face the day." He swatted at Harry as the other wizard laughed. "Shaddup. What's the plan for the day? What're we doing?"
Minerva raised and eyebrow as she looked at Harry and Severus.
"Uh… I kinda thought we'd look at brewing the lycanthropy potion for you, Remus." Harry stated, like wasn't it obvious? "It has to sit for at least 4 hours after bottling, before you can take it, though, so I thought, maybe, after lunch we could go fetch the Gaunt Ring? What do you think? Máthair? Sev? Anyone else got things they want to do?"
"Perhaps…" Severus began.
"Perhaps…?" Harry asked. "Perhaps… what?"
"Perhaps we should be waiting to hear from Gringotts, before we make too many plans. Bogrod is meeting with Lord Black this morning, after all." He hesitated for a moment. "Plus, if we are going to be teaching and living at Hogwarts, there are a few things I wish to retrieve from Spinner's End, to take with me."
"Of course, Sev. We can see to that." Harry agreed.
Telli appeared holding the Gringotts chest with the sigil brightly lit in red.
"Miss Minnie? The goblinsy's boxy is glowing and making noisy's." The elf placed the chest carefully on the table in front of Minerva and stepped back. "Telli and the elfies thought it might by important, so Telli is bringing it to Miss Minnie." The elf wrung her fingers together in doubt. "Did Telli do the right thing?"
Minerva smiled. "You did, Telli. Tell the other elves that it was the right thing. I'm pleased you brought it out. I think we could do with some more tea, would you make another pot and bring it out, please?"
"Yes, Miss Minnie." Telli beamed and disappeared, soundlessly.
"So the 'pop' is for wizards, after all." Minerva mused.
"What?" Remus asked.
"Unimportant, Remus, unimportant. Shall we see what Gringotts has for us today?"
As she spoke, Minerva pulled her wand from her sleeve, reminding Harry that he had a gift for their Máthair in his room, in one of the bags, somewhere. She tapped the sigil and waited while it flashed from red to green and the lid popped open. A single sheet of paper sat inside the chest, it had only two lines of writing on it.
Unexpected development.
Urgent you all attend Ragnok's office, immediately.
"Oh dear." Minerva sighed.
Harry and Severus swore, fluently and creatively in Gaelic, Latin and, surprisingly, in parseltongue.
"Oh gods, what now?" Remus muttered.
"Well, gentlemen. I suggest we get dressed and go find out what's got the goblins in a tizz." She stood and without saying anything else, headed inside.
The three men sighed and followed after her, they caught the witch as she was explaining to the elves that she and the wizards had been called to Gringotts urgently and they wouldn't be wanting that pot of tea, any longer. The three men paused for a moment, but kept going when Minerva waved them on. They each went to the bedroom they'd been assigned but, in the case of Remus, hadn't slept in, yet.
5 minutes later all four stood in front of the massive stone inglenook fireplace and with a nod from Minerva, Harry reached for the floo-powder.
"Gringott's Inner Waiting Room." He spoke loudly and clearly, as he flung the handful of powder at his feet.
A flash of green and he stepped from the elaborate marble floo-fireplace into a simple but elegant and expensive sitting room. As the green faded from his sight, he saw young Blordak waiting, almost impatiently, for them.
"Master Snape-Urquart, are the others coming? Ragnok has a message for Master Severus Snape-Urquart and yourself, from Lord Prince." It was a sign of how upset the goblins were, if they were discarding their traditional greetings.
"They are, Blordak, they are moments behind me." Harry had barely said the goblin's name when Remus appeared in the flames, he was closely followed by Minerva and lastly Severus.
The goblin sighed in relief. "Thank goodness." He said. "This way, please." He hurried from the room, his pace could, almost, be called a trot. The three wizards and one witch exchanged concerned glances and hurried after him.
A minute of not-quite-running and they stood outside Ragnok's office, breathing quickly. To emphasize the urgency of the situation, Blordak didn't ask them to wait, he just threw the door open and entered the room.
"Mister Remus Lupin, Professor Minerva McGonagall and Masters Henrick and Severus Snape-Urquart." He stated clearly.
There was a gasp and a child's voice erupted.
"Harry James Potter! What the bloody hell did you do?! Why, why in the name of Circe's saggy tits, am I only 6 years old, again?!" The child screamed violently, as she threw, wandlessly, hex after hex at Harry.
Harry instinctively threw up a shield around himself and those with him. Then the voice registered.
"Mione?" Three strides and he was across the room, the girl-child was grabbed and hauled into his arms. He held her tight and buried his face in her neck. "Mione!" He sobbed.
"Oh, Harry!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around the man that held her. "You did you do?"
"Castor Bean seeds, Wolfwort and Blue Moonflowers." Severus was the one to answer.
The girl looked over Harry's shoulder at the other three, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Harry? Harry? Harry?!" She lifted a hand and smacked him on the shoulder, just hard enough to get his attention, she leaned back and crossed her arms. "Explanation, please." Her voice was calm and blank, a complete turn-around to the hysteria of moments earlier.
Harry blinked and carefully placed her on the ground. "Wild Magic, Hermione. Yes, I was working with Castor Beans, Wolfwort and Blue Moonflowers, but according to the core scans that Máthair di-"
"Máthair?" The girl asked, still calm and blank-faced.
"Professor McGonagall." Harry answered quickly. "The scan showed that Wild Magic had entered my core and was mixing with my inherent magic. It's changed me, Mione…" He hesitated but continued. "By the time Máthair did the scan, I'd already had a golem made to take the place of Harry Potter, I'd been through an aging ritual and a masking blood adoption, four full Blood Adoptions and a sibling adoption. I'm-"
"I'm assuming that as Blordak introduced you two, by established names and Snape by a slightly altered name, that you are Henrick Snape-Urquart?" She cut him off, pointing first to Remus, then Minerva, Severus and lastly Harry.
He quickly pulled out the folio that he'd been given two nights earlier and handed it to the girl child. She opened it and flicked through it quickly, before looking up.
"You are not doing this alone. I don't care how many people are supporting you now, I'm the one that lived through this with you, you better get plans in place, to get this done for me, too." Her voice was still calm, but it was also as firm as bedrock.
"Yes, Mione." Harry turned to Ragnok. "Please?" Was all he said.
"Are there to be more… travellers?" Ragnok asked.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other and blinked.
"Ron?" They both asked, before Harry turned back to Blordak. "Can you send a message to the Weasley's? Say… 'The blipping mad seeker requires his chess-master at the place where the cup was kept. ASAP.' If Ron's with us, he'll know what we mean and where to come."
Blordak nodded and quietly left the room
"Nice one, Harry." She turned to the others. "So, do you know who I am?"
"Given Harry's reactions, I would say you are Hermione Granger. Am I correct?" Severus asked.
"Yes, I am. You are now Harry's brother, yes?"
"Twin brother, thanks to Blood Adoptions, sibling adoptions and Wild Magic."
Hermione tilted her head and studied them.
"So, what's the plan?"
"Discredit Dumbledore, kill Harry Potter, retrieve Sirius from Azkaban, get him cleared in the Wizengamot, meet with our new grandfather, sign on as professors at Hogwarts, give Remus the lycanthropy potion." Harry answered quickly.
"Not necessarily in that order." Remus added. "A number of things are going to happen at the same time."
"Like…?"
"Signing on at Hogwarts, killing Harry Potter and Lord Black fronting the Wizengamot regarding Sirius being Heir Black." Remus found it difficult not to react to the child's demands for information.
"Dumbledore?" She asked.
Minerva gestured to a thick sheath of paper. "We've noted down what we felt would have the most impact on the Wizengamot and the public, once it becomes known. Gringotts are going to present it before the Wizengamot, when asked about Sirius."
"Horcruxes?"
"Just the ring and the diadem still to get. Planned to fetch the ring today, while the lycanthropy potion was cooling. Tuesday we are to attend a staff meeting at Hogwarts and Máthair will give us a 'tour' afterwards, we'll do a quick stop on the 7thfloor during that. Immediately after the meeting, come back here, healer Tinrilla will remove this one," Harry raised a hand and touched his forehead, "and I'll transfer the Horcruxes from their current vessels to either paper or timber ones, then I'll use fiendfyre and burn the bloody things out of existence."
"And the wraith?"
"A quick trip to Albania, a containment field and some more fiendfyre." Harry smirked.
"I'm here now. What are you going to do with me?" Hermione tilted her head.
Harry turned to Severus and a rapid, silent conversation was had, Severus' brows rose, fell and eventually he sighed and nodded.
"Ragnok, will Gringotts take the fact that my parents gave blood for full Blood Adoptions two days ago, as permission for another full adoption?" Severus asked.
Everyone frowned at him.
"Yeeesss… given that there is little to inherit directly from either parent and that you are currently the eldest child and so would inherit from Lord Prince. I will acknowledge that permission is given, on the condition that Miss Hermione is also younger than you." Ragnok answered slowly, his thoughts running so much faster than his mouth. "And you are very much in luck. After you left, Bogrod returned a number of Signet rings to different vaults and noted in the appropriate ledger that one had been removed from the Urquart vault. In doing so he found that Elphinstone Urquart left a number of phials of blood, specifically labelled, 'for blood adoption'. Again they were under stasis charms, but these charms are in perfect condition and most definitely not deteriorating."
Remus looked at Harry. "What's running through your head, Prongslet?"
"Harry's thinking that instead of twins, we become triplets. It's rare to split triplets, it would account for my unhappy youth at Hogwarts, it would encourage Dumbledore to hire all three of us and would stop him from even considering that our Harry could be Harry Potter." Severus answered.
"It would mean that Hermione would have to have a golem made and-" Harry started.
"No, I don't. My family… there's no extended family and my parents were loners, add to that we'd just moved house, a few days ago." She sighed. "This morning, I decided that, if this was accidental time travel, I was going to take advantage of it. I obliviated them and removed all memory of me from them and all traces of me from the house. I wasn't going to have Dumbledore use me to further his plans for Harry. Then I thought, why not go one step further? I planned to come to Gringotts and get a new identity, a permanent aging potion and set myself up as Lily Potter's other sister, the one that Petunia never spoke of. I was going to go to Privet Drv and convince Petunia and Vernon to give me custody. Then I thought I about taking Harry out of the country… But I had no idea how to get around Dumbledore." Hermione sighed again.
"That's because your first reaction is to follow the rules. And mine isn't." Harry grinned. "I'm not the son of a Marauder for nothing, Mione."
The expression on the girl's face was a cross between exasperation and pride. "No, you're not. So please… enlighten me."
"Alright. Like Sev said, we become triplets. Once you do the masking and Blood adoptions, Hermione Granger will cease to exist and if we go all the way with Snape, Urquart and McGonagall blood, you'll definitely get a new name. You and me would have been home-schooled, so we'd need Gringotts to get qualifications misfiled for you. Ah… What Masteries have you got, again?"
"DADA of course, Charms, Runes, Muggle-studies, History of Magic and Magical Theory." She answered.
"What?!" Came the reply from Severus, Remus and Minerva, while Bogrod just blinked and Ragnok looked amused.
"She's an over-achiever." Harry sighed.
"I am not! I just… I like to read." Hermione pouted.
"Over… achiever…" Harry agreed.
"Dumbledore mentioned that he was hoping to sign young Quirinus Quirrell as the Muggle studies professor." Minerva began to offer information. "We are currently without either a runes professor or a magical theory professor." She paused. "We might be able to talk him into letting Binns go, particularly if it meant signing on a set of triplets. Twins are rare in the magical world, triplets even rarer. It would also account for keeping two of you hidden, there are many people that would have tried to exploit that, Dumbledore and Voldemort included."
Hermione laughed, humourlessly. "Quirrell's useless without Voldy on the back of his head and he's terrified of his own shadow." She hummed. "I'll take any of them, if we can get rid of the old meddler."
Remus laughed. "Welcome to the New Marauders, Miss Hermione." He bowed.
"Thank you… Remus." She wasn't quite sure of what to call him. Or any of them.
"Is everyone in agreement? Seeing Tinrilla about an aging ritual? Then another masking adoption and finally the full Blood Adoptions?" Ragnok asked. "Professor McGonagall, your late husband left authorisation for up to five full Blood Adoptions, with your approval. Do we have your consent? And will you donate for another full Blood Adoption?"
"I certainly will, Director." Minerva answered. "I need someone to help me keep these three in line."
"And don't forget Sirius." Severus muttered.
Hermione smirked. "Control Harry and you control both Remus and Sirius."
"And can you control Harry?" Minerva asked, amused.
"As much as anyone can control Harry, yes." The girl-child answered.
Ragnok ignored the side conversation and continued to speak with Harry. "I'll notify Tinrilla to set up for another one, possibly two, aging rituals and adoptions. It will take an hour or two to get blood for the masking adoptions. How long will it take until you know if your 'chess-master' gets your message?" As he spoke he made notes and sent them via the interoffice network.
"If Ron did travel back, it should only take him a few minutes to get here. It might be a wise idea to let the tellers know that another child may be entering Gringotts under glamours." Harry frowned for a moment. "But… I arrived Wednesday and Hermione only got here today… it's possible that Ron may still turn up, but isn't here, yet. It could be a couple of days." Harry frowned in thought. "Let's assume that if Ron hasn't appeared in Gringotts by midnight Monday night, that he's not going to."
"Ah, in that case, I'll have Tinrilla set up for Miss Hermione and be warned that Master Ron may yet need her services." Ragnok mused as he made a few notes. "I'll need Miss Hermione's OWL and NEWT results… after we have her new identity set up." He paused as a message pod slid onto his desk, he opened the pod and read the note. "Ah, good. Tinrilla has ordered a ritual room ready for an aging ritual and had begun to ready the potions for both masking and Blood Adoptions. All she needs is the donor blood. Oh…" He trailed off.
"Oh…?" Harry asked.
"She notes that she placed the blood donated by Eileen and Tobias Snape under a stasis and it's been stored in our Blood Storage until under your and your brother's names. The same with the… oh my… she made up the donation from Elphinstone Urquart into multiple Adoption potions and placed each of them under a modified stasis, but recommends that each be tested before being used. So it seems that the only blood needed today, may be that of your mother, Minerva." Ragnok replied.
"Handy. How long will it take for the ritual room to be ready?"
"I would say… by the time you get to the healer's wing and get Miss Hermione assessed, it should be ready." Ragnok offered.
"Good. Do you need anything else from us, right now?" Harry asked.
"Just to let you know that Lord Prince is requesting to meet you all, he's asked Gringotts to host that meeting, he would prefer Monday. He felt that a private meeting here, might be easier than an awkward public one." Ragnok answered.
"Alright. We can do that, lunch or early afternoon, please. Oh… you might want to inform him about Hermione joining the family, too." Harry grinned.
"I'll do that and I'll get started on the paperwork. Do you know if Miss Hermione has any inheritances coming to her?"
"Not a clue, she's muggleborn so probably not, but once the adoptions are done a identity test will show for certain, won't it?" Harry shrugged.
"Hmm… Yes, an identity test is necessary. But, as you say, that can happen after the adoptions." Ragnok nodded.
"Alright, shall I get this lot out of your office?"
"Please do. Bogrod's attending to Lord Black and you've given me a fair whack of paperwork to see to. Not to mention acquiring donors for Miss Hermione's masking adoption." The goblin grinned.
Harry bowed formally and turned back to the others, who were now watching his conversation.
"What's up?" Hermione asked.
"We're heading down to the healer's wing. Tinrilla will do a health assessment before you have an aging ritual. Then there adoptions."
"Okay." Hermione got her feet, but Harry, grinning wildly, picked her up and tossed her half over his shoulder. "What…? Put me down, Harry."
"No." He said as he left the office.
"Harry… bloody…Pot-"
"Stop." Harry's voice again held that hard, commanding edge. "Tinrilla wouldn't let me walk down there, so you're not either. The aging ritual is bad, Mione, painful. Very painful. It's 12 plus minutes of excruciating pain, far worse than Bellatrix's cruciatus." He went on, slidding the girl back into his arms and holding her on his hip.
"Oh…" Her voice was small. "And there's no painkillers that work with it. Do… do you think I can do this, Harry?" Her fingers clutched at his robes.
"I know you can, Mione. It might knock you out, but you can do it." Harry assured her. "Just think… when it's done, there's only a few potions and you'll have family, a real family. Two brothers and a mother."
Severus caught up to Harry. "Hermione? Are you familiar with Harry's mindscape?" He wasn't sure how to ask if she knew how to do Harry's time-twisting and wasn't going name the subject for fear the girl was unaware of it.
"Yes, Pro- Mr Sna… What do I call you?" She asked over Harry shoulder.
"Severus or, as Harry often calls me, Sev." Severus replied.
"Okay… Sev. I prefer Sev. And yes, Harry taught Ron and I, both." Like Severus she wasn't going to say it out loud.
"Yep." Harry grinned. "So once the potions are done, Máthair will do a core scan and I'll walk you through the adjustment process, then we'll get the wands from our vaults up and see if any of them choose you." He snickered for a second. "Sev got a Slytherin wand, sure, but his second wand… it's a Gryffindor." He continued to chuckle quietly.
"It is? Really?" Hermione's face lit up. "I wonder what caused that?"
"Quite probably the fact that I took the chance of getting Harry as my brother, when it appeared. It terrified me." He said as they entered the healer's wing. "But for the chance to have a family that wanted to be my family… For that I was prepared to be brave, to jump in like a Gryffindor." He didn't quite sneer the name.
"Fair enough." Hermione acknowledged, nodding.
"So… who do we have here?" A new voice cut in.
"Hello, Tinrilla. This is Hermione. She's like me."
"Like you? Physically or…?" The goblin trailed off.
"She's an accidental traveller."
The goblin heaved a sigh. Hermione wasn't sure wether it was of relief or resignation.
"What does she need?"
"Ah… I thought Ragnok told you?"
"His message left a lot to be desired and where possible I prefer to speak directly with my patient and their family."
"Harry's my family." Hermione stated bluntly. Then she paused. "And maybe Severus, Remus and Professor McGonagall. I think…" She frowned in thought.
"Alright, little Miss. What are we doing with you?" The goblin asked.
"Aging. A masking adoption and then Blood Adoptions." Hermione replied.
"We're going to be triplets." Severus added.
The goblin's eyes widened.
"Triplets? Well, that's a new one, that is." She spluttered. "Triplets." She heaved a deep breath. "Right. Date and time of birth?" She pointed at Severus and then Hermione.
"9th of January 1960. Between 5 and 6 am." Severus stated.
"19th of September 1979. Between 1.30 and 2pm."
Tinrilla hummed in thought. "Right, you." She pointed Severus. "How many hours did we put between you and this one?" She jerked a thumb in Harry's direction.
"Two hours, Healer Tinrilla." Severus answered.
"So, we need another two hours. I'm going to say… 7193 days, 8 hours and 15 minutes. No. 7193 days, 8 hours, even should be fine. No need to fiddle with part-hours."
"Wait." Harry said. "Hermione's always been like my older sister. Can we still do that? I know she can't be older than Sev, but what about being between us? I want my big sis back."
Tinrilla tilted her head in thought. "I can… do that…" She said slowly. "It would take… We did two hours between you pair? So I need to rearrange the numbers a little… hmm… 7193 days and… 9 hours should put her right between you two."
She turned back to her work station and began to pull phials towards her. It took her only a few minutes to complete the potion that would alter Hermione's age. "I'm ready when you are, little Miss." She said to Hermione, handing the girl a robe.
Hermione looked at Harry, then at Severus, Remus and Minerva. She took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm ready." She said, slipping behind a curtain to change out of her clothes.
"Down the hall, gentlemen. You know where to go." The little goblin held the phial securely in her hands, as she lead Remus and Minerva from the Healer's wing to the ritual room.
The next 2 hours were among the hardest Harry had faced since the Battle of Hogwarts. Watching Hermione, twist and scream as the aging ritual forced 20 years of growth through her body, in a little over half that many minutes, was something that ripped Harry apart. If he hadn't had Severus and Remus to keep him calm, he quite probably would have collapsed in tears. He was also extremely glad, for Hermione's sake, that the robe the healer's gave her, stretched with her body as she aged, when she finally stood as the Hermione he remembered, the robe just barely covered her dignity.
Harry studied Hermione, after the Adoptions, her hair had darkened to the deep chocolaty-black that came from the Prince blood, but it fell in soft gentle waves, thanks to the Snape blood. Like Harry and Severus, she had a few streaks of Minerva's ginger, but her eyes were the biggest change, going from her rich golden-brown to the bright emerald green that Harry had been born with, they were flecked with her natural gold, whereas Severus' were flecked with the deep brown and Harry's were now flecked with both Hermione's old gold and Severus' brown. She was now tall and willowy, slender but not skinny, her height almost matching that of her new brothers'.
With a sigh Harry transfigured a bunch of handkerchiefs into appropriate robes and underwear. Taking into account Hermione's lack of taste in clothing and her new colouring, the robes were a simple, deep emerald green, lined with a pale sage green. Close fit trousers, a tunic blouse and a over-robe cut to show off her long legs, graced the now green eyed witch.
"Now what?" She asked, her voice rough and a little hoarse.
"Now Máthair will do a scan of your core and we'll use your mindscape to get a grip on your core. Then a wand from the vaults and clothes, Hermione."
"But, can't you just-"
"No. I am not going clothes shopping for you, without you. Not again. You're going to have to suffer through it, just like Sev and Remus did, yesterday."
"Oh, but-"
"Hermione. You are 25 years old. You have five, repeat five Masteries. You can suffer through a few hours of shopping."
"Half an hour." She replied.
"Two." He countered.
"One."
Harry sighed. "One. No complaints, no objections. You get measured, pick you underwear and I'll pick your outer-wear and robes. Deal?"
"I pick my shoes."
"I pick you a wand holster and you wear it." Harry crossed his arms.
Hermione huffed a sigh. "Deal." The two shook hands.
"You realise, I'm going to hold you to that?" Harry informed her.
"If you can find me a holster, that meets the requirements you know I want? I'll wear it." She answered.
"Actually… it's not me that'll find it. Remus already has. We went to Luximbell's yesterday and they had some great holsters. I saw a few that immediately reminded me of you. So, guess where we will be going?" He grinned. "But first? Máthair? Will you scan Hermione's core?" Harry asked Minerva.
Hermione nervously turned to Minerva and gave her a small smile.
"Of course I will." Minerva smiled back. She waved her wand and whispered the incantation.
After a minute a wobbly image began to appear. It wasn't quite round and it wasn't quite not. It's colours bled and blended, swirling and twisting around each other.
"Nice." Harry smiled.
"Nice?" Hermione asked.
"It looks like ours." Severus added.
"Ours?"
"Oh, excuse me?" Tinrilla appeared at Severus' side. "I almost forgot. The sibling adoption potion. I need blood from the three of you, for that. I'm so sorry." She whispered.
"It's alright, Tinrilla. You remembered, so we're good." Harry held out a hand and watched as the healer sliced his finger and dripped blood into a goblet.
Sev added his blood to a second goblet and Hermione added hers to another pair of goblets. The three exchanged looks and took a deep breath, before drinking the potions. A few seconds passed and suddenly there were red faces. Bright red, then pale and finally brilliant smiles emerged.
"Oh.." Severus started.
"…my…" Harry added.
"…goodness." Hermione said.
"That is…"
"…really, the most…"
"…unusual feeling." Hermione concluded.
"It can be fun, though." Harry grinned.
"Dumbledore has no idea what's about to hit him." Minerva grinned viciously.
"Neither does Sirius." Remus smirked.
"Oh, just wait." Harry added. "I've got James and Lily's portraits." He finished in a sing-song voice.
Remus blinked a few times and began to snicker. "I wanna watch you tell 'em who you are now."
Everyone laughed at that.
"Alright, enough of that. I want a wand. Harry? How do I do this?" Hermione nodded to the image of her core.
"Focus on the image. Remember it. Now, look at me." When she met his eyes he spoke again. "Legilimens." He whispered.
Severus and Remus exchanged looks and sighed. "I hope this doesn't take them too long." Remus fretted. "Neither of them even sat down."
Severus tilted his head, his eyes distant. "I can.. hear them… almost. I can feel them. Hermione is… frustrated and pleased and angry and proud and… Harry is just amused." He crossed the room, collected a chair and brought it back for Minerva. "Have a seat, Máthair. We've no idea how long they'll be."
"Thank you, Severus." The older witch sat and watched the two living statues.
A little more than five minutes passed, with goblins coming and going, before Harry sighed, he blinked a few times and stretched his neck. A faint crack was heard.
"Ouch." He muttered.
"Hmm…" Hermione stretched her arms above her head, the rising of her arms causing her sleeves to fall away from her arms, showing long sleek limbs.
Harry turned to Severus. "Any news on the wands?"
"Yes, Harry. Same room as before." Severus replied.
"Mione? Shall we get you a wand, sister dearest?" Harry emphasised the last word.
"Don't you start that rubbish, brother darling." She sneered the last two words, causing Harry to wince.
Severus just shook his head. "Come on, you two." He stood and began to walk away.
Another 20 minutes passed before Hermione held out a wand for the goblin to study.
"Mahogany and… Dragon Heartstring from… the Urquart vault, I believe. Mahogany is excellent for protection and practicality. Dragon Heartstring bonds well with a new owner, but they do like to be a little flamboyant at times." The little goblin said. "And a second wand, Miss?"
"I like the feel of this one, best." Hermione said. "The two together, feel… warm…"
"Hmm… Rowan, from the Black vault. Best suited to defensive charms and duelling, not so good for the Dark Arts, thankfully. And a… thunderbird tail feather. As I told your… brother, is it? As I told the gentlemen, yesterday, Thunderbird feather wands have a reputation for early detection of danger and in some cases, can respond without the witch or wizard's input."
"Really?" Hermione's brows rose. "Given what we face, that could be beneficial, but I hope it never comes to that."
"As do we, sister." Severus agreed.
Hermione smiled the two wizards and the witch that were nodding their agreement of the other wizard's words.
"Thank you." She said, before sighing. "So, clothes, huh?"
"Not yet, Mione. First we have to get your new identity in place. That means Identity Testing, OWL and NEWTs in place, then we have to work out your Masteries. Let's head back to Ragnok's office and see what he's come up with. Yeah?"
"Then clothes?" Hermione screwed up her nose.
"Then clothes." Harry agreed.
"I hate clothes shopping."
"I know, Mione. I'll keep it as short as I can, you know that." Harry nodded.
"Yeah, I know." She sighed. "Let's get started before I change my mind."
"Too late for that, you agreed." Harry smirked and dodged the colour-changing hex she threw in his direction, letting it impact harmlessly, and visibly, on the wall behind him.
Remus quirked an eyebrow at Minerva. "Arguments between these three are going to be fun to watch."
"Just don't forget to put up a shield first, or you could end up the one hexed yellow ." She replied.
"Hmm…" He frowned in thought. "Might still be worth it."
Minerva's laughter answered him.