Literally uploaded at 11:59. My apologies.

Despite being a bit short again, I think you'll like this chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

DOING THE THING PROPERLY

O

Nothing happened.

Albus's life had flashed before his eyes—everything he'd ever done, every person he'd met, every narrow escape he'd made, every laugh, every tear. Even his future flashed before his eyes: stuck in the Hourglass Empire forever, begrudgingly making a living in the police force chasing the very occasional baddie once the Sandbloods were taken down. Waiting impatiently for the next newcomer to enter the Empire so that he could hear word of how his family was doing on the surface, and how the war was coming along. Hoping every day that a new exit could be constructed and being continually disappointed in that regard.

But nothing happened.

Poticand looked around at the circular platform. She grabbed the knife up and thrust it upwards, but it sliced through nothing except air. She picked up Lily's cat and placed it on the invisible staircase, but she couldn't stab the staircase; her knife still went through air. She sank it deep into the platform again, and stepped back to watch while the sand ran back down into the hole she'd dug, and covered up the Bloodblade. Still nothing was happening to the platform.

"No," she cried. "No! I studied this for so long, it was supposed to work—"

She spun and slashed her wand in the direction of the door; the door sealed itself shut as a large group of Sandbloods brandishing firearms were about to enter.

"I told you we didn't have time," snarled Poticand, extracting a bright blue task wand from her robes and hoisting it high into the air. "Rennerventer!"

The wand let loose a pulsing aura of blue-violet light, and when it passed over Albus, he felt himself able to move again. He leapt to his feet and extracted his wand.

"Draxler Cordot created this universe," said Uzu. "He was the most powerful creator of Devoxons the word has ever known. You may not be able to destroy the exit until you find a Devoxon just as powerful as the ones he's created!"

"Stupefy!" yelled Albus, and he Stunned a Sandblood who was looking in through the hole in the door that had been created when Poticand carved out the eye scanner. The Stunner hit the Sandblood right in the eye, and he somersaulted backwards out into the hallway, knocking over a few more of his brethren.

"Don't bother!" said Poticand. "I'll take care of them. You go!"

"You want us to leave now?" asked James. "But just a minute ago you—"

"I wanted the Hourglass Empire to remain as closely guarded a secret as possible," said Poticand. "But that seems out of the question now, if I truly can't destroy the mechanism. You need to go and save yourselves!"

She kicked one of her metal leg plates towards the door, where it stuck itself over the eyehole.

Albus looked towards Uzu.

"You know how to make people resistant to MM," he said, kicking himself mentally for not having remembered earlier. "You need to come with us!"

"I don't honestly know how to do that," said Uzu. "It was an accident—a spell that went wrong. I wouldn't know how to do it again."

"You have to come!" he said. "You have to try! So many people's lives depend on it—"

"Just go!" roared Poticand. "You need to get out of here. So get out of here! I outdueled a hundred wizards and I can handle myself, but I can't protect all of you, too!"

"I'm sorry, Albus!" said Uzu. "I couldn't repeat the feat, or I'd go insane. I almost went insane again simply from creating this eye!"

"Go!" yelled Poticand to Albus, pointing to the platform.

"Go!" yelled Albus to Lily, pointing to the platform.

Lily jumped up onto the sand, and her three-legged cat followed, still under her Imperius Curse. She watched it as it climbed the staircase and pressed its paws to the ceiling.

"Albus, the knife," said James. "Before Lily stabs her foot."

"Blade!" said Albus, and the knife popped back into his hand.

Lily dissolved into sand and rose up through the neck of an invisible hourglass.

"You next!" said James.

"No, you—"

"ALBUS I'M OVERAGE AND I'M RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SAFETY ANY TIME WE ENTER AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE WITHOUT MUM OR DAD," bellowed James.

"Your magic is depleted!" said Albus. "What if they break in?"

"I'M GOING TO IMPERIUS ONE OF YOU IF YOU DON'T GO RIGHT THIS SECOND!" shouted Poticand.

A wave of orange light suddenly washed over them; it had come from the door. Everyone looked in its direction.

"Go, Albus!" said James. "Or I'm telling Dad!"

"What was that?" asked Albus as he begrudgingly ran onto the sand.

"It looked like our orbs that disrupt Muggle technology," said Poticand. "But it was orange instead of blue. What…"

A barrel of a rifle smashed Poticand's metal plate off of the door, and shots began suddenly firing throughout the room. Poticand, Uzu, and James jumped to the side of the room, and Albus braced himself as his cat ran up to the staircase—but he wasn't feeling its presence in his mind through the Imperius Curse… something had snapped his connection, but his cat was still eager to escape.

"Protego!" shouted James. "Protego—why isn't anything happening?!"

The cat pressed its paws against the top of the staircase, and Albus's whole body began to tingle.

"You're exhausted!" shouted Uzu. "Protegan!"

Nothing happened with Uzu's spell, either. Poticand tried next, and… nothing.

"No!" cried Poticand. "The orb they threw—it's counteracting our magic like ours counteract their technology!"

A small series of explosions rocked the room; the door burst down, and gunmen came running in. James screamed, and Albus looked over—he'd been struck in the leg with a bullet and there was no one and nothing to protect him.

"Phoeba!" cried Uzu, throwing herself in front of the Chief.

Uzu's head snapped back as a bullet pierced her neck. She rolled onto the ground in front of Poticand and James, who screamed together.

Albus tried to shout something, but he couldn't. He had no magic—he was powerless, and all he could do was watch himself dissolve. The magical exit was still working, even after the magic-preventing orb was shattered… Devoctrices still worked even in the presence of these devices that put a stopper in magic… but would James be able to get to the platform and escape, with the dozens of gunmen pouring into the exit chamber?

He gasped as a bullet burst through his shoulder, but there was no pain, only a shower of sand; his body was dissolving anyway. More shots were fired at him, but he felt nothing, and remained standing. Mutely, he reached an arm out for James, but his arm dusted before his eyes.

Poticand shielded James behind her body, and one of the Sandbloods raised a pistol.

BANG.

The bullet bounced straight off of Poticand's forehead and back into the Sandblood's stomach. He staggered backwards and dropped onto the ground, clutching his bleeding body.

Another Sandblood stepped forward, and shot a bullet right into Poticand's heart—or, he would have, if it hadn't bounced right back off and struck him in the throat. He toppled over, choking.

Albus's eyes widened. Poticand was protected…

The Amivical Devoctrix.

The world in front of his eyes flecked away grain by grain, and he saw only darkness with occasional dots of sand-colored light. Then he was falling… then he was rising.

The world began to return to his vision. Bit by bit, it returned to him. When the world returned to him in full, he was standing in the middle of a desert at night.

Lily was nowhere to be found… the exit must send each person somewhere different. His brown cat was right next to him, making an odd sort of yowl. It pawed at his leg, and he bent down mindlessly to allow it to jump into the pack on his back.

He sank to the sand on his hands and knees. Poticand was protected by the power of Uzu's sacrifice. Would James be able to escape? Was he protected as well? What about the cat, which he needed to escape? And how could he get back to contact his parents and find Lily?

He reached into his pocket to grasp his Portkey, and was extremely surprised to find a yank behind his navel; the Portkey worked again, now that he was on the surface. He soared through nonexistence and then slammed into what looked like a cabin of the Loch Stock Liner… because it was a cabin of the Loch Stock Liner.

His father had said the Portkey would return them to the deck of the Loch Stock Liner… but that would be idiotic, if the Liner was underwater. It made sense he'd be sent here, to one of the cabins. He opened the door tentatively.

"ALBUS!" shrieked Lily, who had evidently taken her Portkey as well; she had been waiting in the hallway. She threw herself onto him and hugged him tightly. "ALBUS, WHERE'S JAMES?"

"I don't know," said Albus, his breathing accelerating as his brain finally started fully comprehending what he had seen and what it could mean. He looked around; he had appeared in Cabin number 91, towards the very back of the Liner, right before the few larger, more expensive suites were located. "Which cabin did you come from?"

"90," said Lily. "Do you think James will come out of 92?"

"Albus!" said Milo, rushing towards them, panting from the run all the way from the front of the cabins. "Albus, you're all right! Yes, your brother should appear in 92 if he uses his Portkey, too. We've sent word for your parents. We're heading to your mother now. What the bloody hell happened on this mission of yours?!"

"I… I don't know if we can say," said Albus, shaking. "James…"

He threw open the door to Cabin 92. It was empty.

"He may just not have used his Portkey yet," said Milo. "Stay calm. We'll wait for him. He'll get here."

"What happened?" asked Lily. "Did the Sandbloods break in? Is James going to be able to get out of there?"

"I don't know," whispered Albus again.

The Loch Stock Liner began to rise; Albus grabbed the railing on the side, and they shot up to the surface.

A few seconds later, Harry burst through the door to Cabin 94, having used his Portkey as well. He looked at Albus and Lily, then opened the door to Cabin 93 and looked inside; seeing nothing, he leaned back out but left the door ajar. He was shortly followed by Ginny, who appeared at the front of the cabins. They ran up to Albus and Lily and looked around, evidently scanning for any sign of James.

"You went into the Hourglass Empire?" asked Ginny, shaking from head to foot. "Did James make it out safely?"

Albus was about to respond through tears that were welling up in his eyes when a voice groaned out from Cabin 93.

"Safely may be a bit of a stretch."

Lily squealed and threw the door open all the way; James was lying on the floor, bleeding profusely from his leg. Ginny immediately bent down to start healing him.

"Uzu's sacrifice worked," said James, grimacing as each member of the family squeezed him tightly. "Poticand is literally walking out of the base. They're doing everything they can to her and nothing is working. And she gave me this…"

He uncurled his hand; he was holding Uzu's magical eye, which stared towards the front of the cabins ceaselessly; as relief wiped almost everything else from his brain, Albus vaguely wondered what it was looking at, and who, if anyone, was seeing it.

"Fascinating," said Milo. "Is that—is that Mad-Eye Moody's eye? I read about that glorious concoction."

"I buried that a long time ago," said Harry, shaking his head. "Someone else must have made one."

Albus stared at the eye. It had seen through his Cloak… Did that mean it was…

"It belonged to someone in the Empire," said James. "She… she died trying to get us out."

"The Chief of Police down there tried to seal the exit," said Albus. "She didn't want anyone to be able to leave the Empire, but we were able to get out because she couldn't destroy it—"

"Calm down," said Harry. "You can tell us all this later when we've made sure you're all okay. Just tell us one thing: Should we send people down there to take down the Sandblood base?"

"Not yet," said James. "You should be ready. The entire police force down there is compromised. Marionette's Medicine."

"That's where they're breeding the mulunctapoli," said Albus.

Harry nodded. "We think Palmer Viller hides out mostly in the Empire," he said. "You didn't happen to run into him… did you?"

"He left," said Lily, and she quickly explained the false prophecy that they'd leaked him. Harry gawked again and laughed in amazement.

"That was all your idea, Lily?" he asked. "Wow… you really did do the thing properly, didn't you?"

"You don't happen to know where Viller is right now… do you?" asked Harry next.

Albus gasped, and he searched his mind for any sign of a remaining connection—it was still there—he seized onto it.

His mind teleported through space; now that both he and Gimmick were outside of the Empire, the Vessel Charm's connection had been redrawn. He soared through darkness until he opened his eyes to see through Gimmick's gaze.

Gimmick, apparently sensing Albus's presence, began looking around the room to offer his owner a better glance. Albus tried to look at everything as critically as possible. There were two overturned tables, one with playing cards scattered around the floor under it… an electric chandelier with many of its bulbs shattered… several posters of Muggle football players… Viller was examining some picture frames on a fireplace which had no Floo powder on its mantle… even through Gimmick's slightly blue vision, he could tell that the walls and ceiling were painted bright yellow, and the table and chairs and other small pieces of furniture were pink.

Albus opened his eyes back in the Loch Stock Liner cabin.

"He's in a house," said Albus. "Overturned tables with playing cards under one of them. Shattered chandelier. No Floo powder at the fireplace. Posters of Muggle football players. Pink and yellow decorations—"

"I have no idea how the hell you know that," said Milo, "but I've been to the house in question and I can tell you where it is."

"You have?!" asked Harry. "By all means!"

"It's in the Muggle capitol of Ireland… here is the address."

Milo scribbled something on a pad he took from his pocket, and he handed it to Harry, who read it closely and then raised his wand to send out a Patronus.

"We should get him to St. Mungo's," said Ginny, gesturing to James's leg. "I was able to heal it pretty soundly, but not all the way. It's not a magical wound, though, it's physical, so he should be right as rain if a professional sees him quickly."

"To St. Mungo's, then?" asked Milo. "I'll let Salvo know."

"Yes, to St. Mungo's," said Harry, turning to face Milo. "Thank you."

Milo reached out and plucked the magical eye right from Harry's hand.

"Apologies for the rather insensitive timing," said Milo. "You'll find the real Milo asleep in the last Slumber Suite."

With a turn and a crack, he Disapparated.

Harry gawked at the place where Milo had vanished, and his eye twitched.

"Let's talk about that after we get everything else sorted out," said Harry. "You kids said an invasion would probably not be a good idea?"

"An ill-prepared invasion would be," said James. "You're going to need both magical and Muggle weapons—they have ways to disrupt the use of magic now."

"What?!" coughed Harry. "That's… that always seemed impossible…"

"It's possible now," said James.

Albus grimaced, remembering how the Sandbloods experimented on his body to analyze his magical blockage, to see if they could weaponize it. Had the biggest threat to the magical community thus far come from him?

Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Dominique, Louis, and Gil all popped out of nearby cabins at the same time; upon seeing their cousins safe, sound, and mostly intact, there were dozens more hugs around the family.

"Bill, can you get Milo?" asked Harry. "He's been stuffed in the last Slumber Suite."

Bill raised an eyebrow but ran further down the cabins to fetch Milo.

Milo staggered into view, followed by Bill.

"Wha' happened?" he yawned, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Where's the new intern?"

"I don't think you ever had a new intern," said Harry. "We've got to get to St. Mungo's, pronto. Go tell Salvo."

"Can do!" yelled Milo, and he sprinted to the end of the cabins. They could hear him panting and wheezing when he got to the end from the exertion of his run, and he had to catch his breath before he yelled to Salvo, "St. Mungo's!"

The Loch Stock Liner began to submerge again.

"How did you see where Viller was?" asked Harry.

"Vessel Charm," said Albus. "I'll explain that later, too…"

Saying the name of the charm reminded him that he was still carrying the task wand for the Vessel Charm. He decided to keep that a secret from everyone else at the moment, though, because he could never know when IMW was listening in, and he wanted to keep this particular artifact. Reaching into his pocket and rooting around, he found the Invisibility Cloak still there—thank goodness—and the book that Uzu had given him from which he had read about the Vessel Charm.

Undoubtedly that book had other exclusively Hourglass Empire spells… or, exclusively Hourglass Empire until now. He'd have to learn some of those new tricks; that would definitely get him the upper hand on most of his opponents.

He kept these things completely to himself for now, though. IMW was always listening, and until he figured out who that was, there was no way of knowing when some other precious belonging of theirs could be snatched. In fact, even if he did figure out who IMW was, there was still a good chance of that happening. Not that there was a good chance of him finding out who IMW was any time soon…

The Liner began to surface again; that was one of the fastest trips he'd ever had on the ship. As they surfaced, a silverback gorilla Patronus sailed into the cabins, stood up on its hind legs, and spoke in Geri Stenet's voice.

"We got Viller," he said, "and there's a very excited cat with him ready to be reunited with his master."

Albus sailed through the mind connection again and found Gimmick being held by Adelaide, one of the most trusted Aurors in the Ministry, who was stroking his chin. Palmer Viller was unconscious and being led away in handcuffs.

BANG.

A shot rang out through the room; a window had shattered. Wands were pulled everywhere, and people started shouting in Auror code; from what Albus could gather, it sounded like they were asking if anyone was hurt, but all of the Aurors were okay. Then Gimmick looked down at Viller.

A stain was slowly spreading from his heart, and his eyes were no longer just unconscious but also dimmed.

One of the Sandbloods had shot him rather than let him get captured.

Albus warped back to his own mind and shook his head… Why would anyone want to be a Sandblood?

O

The door to Albus's room opened; Harry walked in, and sat gently on Albus's bed.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

Albus nodded. He had spent the last week with his siblings briefing the Auror Office on what had happened down in the Hourglass Empire. They had been interviewed in separate rooms, then interviewed again as a group to work out the discrepancies between stories to make sure the Aurors had as many facts straight as possible.

And he was all right. The news from the Hourglass Empire had been all right. Harry had sent a few trustworthy spies down to the Empire to report, and they said that things were actually improving down there. Poticand had been badly wounded by her escape, but had survived. She had been immune to all of the Sandbloods' attacks when Uzu was killed, but the spell was not perfect; its effects began to diminish as time wore on. She had escaped in time to only suffer injuries from the bullets and not fatalities, and she had single-handedly destroyed the stock of Marionette's Medicine at the same time. She was hiding out and was still Chief of Police, and now they only needed to wait for the Marionette's Medicine to wear off of the police officers. The Marionette's Medicine factory and the mulunctapoli breeding facility had been shut down. The Empire was safe again… for now. And most of the Ministry was still kept unaware of its existence. The Sandbloods, though, would have to find another base.

"You did some amazing magic down there," said Harry with a grin. "You'll have to teach me that Vessel Charm trick. You're amazing, learning that spell so fast."

Albus blushed; he'd lied and said he picked up the spell immediately. He didn't want anyone to know about the task wands just yet… There was no telling how that could be used for the wrong purpose.

"I'll definitely teach it to you, someday," said Albus.

"Are you okay going back to Hogwarts? You don't have to go back immediately, you know."

"I know," said Albus. "But I want to. It's where I belong… though even though it's where I belong, I don't exactly want to be there for an extra year because of failing to take my O.W.L.s…"

Harry laughed. "Yes, that's perfectly understandable."

"It's also safe there," said Albus, shrugging. "…Usually."

"Usually," agreed Harry. "Oh, and you'll be having career advising sessions when you get back, too… that'll be interesting. Have you given any more thought as to what you want to be when you grow up?"

"Alive," responded Albus.

Harry laughed again. "Good, so you have given it some thought…"

"I just want the world to be… safe when I grow up," said Albus. "I like adventure, but… I want a normal life. A life at least is nice, but I'd like mine to be normal, too."

"I'm not sure how realistic a hope that is," said Harry, sighing. "I'm sorry. I'm working as hard as I can, though. To try to make that world a possibility for you."

"I'd rather not do any Auror missions in the near future, though," said Albus. "They tend to end badly."

"They do, don't they…"

"Maybe I'd be up for another one," said Albus, grinning. "Just not soon."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that," said Harry. "You finish your schooling, okay? And then you can join us and I know you'll be a force to be reckoned with. Heck, you already are. The enemy is more afraid of you than you are of them."

"I am a Gryffindor," said Albus proudly.

"You're a jack of many trades," said Harry. "You're amazingly talented, Albus. So, you've told the Auror Office everything you needed to tell them?"

Albus debated for a half second on whether to tell his father everything.

"Yes," he said, skipping only a small enough beat that Harry didn't notice.

"Good," said Harry. "We're making progress, Albus, don't you worry. We're making much better progress towards that world than we expected, too."

He got up slowly and smiled towards Albus.

"I'll be back tomorrow to take you back to Hogwarts," he said. "For now, just relax. You're safe in the Ministry's guest accommodations. No Sandblood can come get you and not even IMW could get past the security. See you bright and early."

"See you," said Albus, and Harry closed the door.

Albus waited for a second, and then reached into his robes and pulled out the book that Uzu had given him. The title was in a different language, but the contents were in English. He flipped open to the table of contents again to see what was in the book, but he noticed that there was a page before the table of contents. He flipped back to find an acknowledgements page.

By Theres Wolcott

Special Thanks to Ahmed Antari

In Memory of Nistra Kelds

Albus stared at the last line, and broke out into a cold sweat.

In Memory of Nistra Kelds.

IMNK.

W… W… Wilcox… Waters…

Westerling.

"In Memory of Westerling," he gasped, the realization dawning on him like the first ray of sunlight in the morning.

The door slammed open.

Harry was glaring daggers at him.

"Professor Desulgon?" asked Albus timidly.

Harry closed the door.