Hermione was positively bouncing as she searched the crowd at platform 9 and three-quarters.

Sure she may have blown up an oven and (after a LONG lecture) four easy-bake ovens, but she had made PROGRESS! Hagrid's flour had several interesting properties, such as keeping moisture better (made baked goods not dry), but the most important one had also been responsible for that massive explosion.

It warmed up in the presence of magic.

She grinned, half lost in her thoughts as she searched the crowd for that mop of black hair. Sure Christmas had gotten in the way (She had lost a WHOLE MORNING! Honestly there was research to do.) but it had paid off.

Finally she found him, surrounded by some of the girls. "HARRY! I figured out the muffins!"

Harry blinked. "Good afternoon to you too, Hermione. I would like you to meet my new sister, Luna Lovegood. And this is her best friend Ginny Weasley. Did you have a good Christmas?"

Hermione waved a hand. "Yeah yeah, look, I got Dad to get me some thermochromic pigment that actually changes into MULTIPLE colors based on the exact temperature and mixed it with some of Hagrid's flour and... wait, you have a Sister now?"

Luna blinked and gave a small, hesitant smile. "Hi! I am Luna. The Sun found me and helped Dad. He's my brother now."

Hermione was still off balance. Son? "Goran found you?"

Harry shook his head with a grin. "No, she calls me the Sun because she sees magic and stuff and I am a bit bright. Plus it makes sense for the Sun and Moon to be related, no?"

Hermione blinked, and moved the whole conversation into the 'Something about Harry' mental tree. She could work out that stuff later. Science now. "So you know how those muffins glowed and exploded?"

Harry nodded, while Daphne seemed distracted as she was trying to both hug Astoria and muffle her comments. Her sister would not start school for one more year, so was trying to get in extra teasing before Harry went back from holidays.

Hermione pulled out a box covered in white wires. "Yes, so the glowing and stuff was because of Hagrid's flour, it gets hotter when exposed to magic. The muffins exploded because of how much magic Snape hit them with. So I made this!"

She waved a box frame that almost looked like an instrument, white threads woven in a grid. "I mixed the flour with glue and some thermochromic pigment and..." She trailed off seeing the blank looks.

She sighed. "Fine, it changes colors when near magic."

The green-eyed boy raised a hand, stopping her and ignoring her 'Hurumph'. Turning to Luna, he wrapped her tightly into a hug. "Sis, I will see you later tonight just before bed. I'm going to send you home, all right?"

Luna sniffled slightly but squeezed him back. "Come back to me, Sun. I need the light."

Harry tweaked her nose just as she vanished. Turning to Astoria, he grinned. "So you want to head home as well, or visit Luna for a bit?"

Astoria grinned. "Luna please! We're going to watch those moo-vie things Amy told us about."

Harry absently waved a hand, fading Daphne's sister away.

Turning back to a toe tapping bushy-haired scientist, he grinned and waved his hand again, moving Hermione's and Daphne's luggage into the air and behind him. Magic detecting powder could be interesting... depending on how accurate it is. His eyes narrowed as they walked onto the train, looking for a good compartment. "If the flour caused the glowing, then does that box double as a grenade then?"

Hermione leaned against the edge of the corridor, letting two other students run along. "Well, sort of. The important thing is I can use it to see magical fields, like a really weak version of what your eyes do."

Daphne was moving, keeping an eye open for Tracey and Padma. "What is a grenade?"

Harry shrugged. "Non-magical explosive, throws metal shards in high speed. Although considering the amount on those strings, it could be worse than that."

Hermione ignored Daphne's ashen look as she waved the suddenly horrifying object around. "Oh don't worry so much, I did some tests on smaller samples. The glue and the pigments really weaken the explosion stuff. I think. Haven't tried hitting this with a killing curse of course."

Harry grinned. "So did you have a good Christmas?"

She paused, putting the box back in her bottomless pouch and giving Harry a quick hug, missing him blushing. "THANK you for that copy of 'Magical Mundane Potions'! It actually helped my research, I have NO idea where you found it!"

He coughed as Daphne giggled at his face. "Well you know, you seemed into that muffin thing just before we left."

Even as he finished his head was thwapped by Neville. "Harry, you are a great friend, but don't ever deliver gifts that way again."

Daphne blinked. "Oh yeah... mine landed on Stori's head. Did your's get damaged Neville?"

He blushed. "Scared me right silly it did. I was... indisposed at the time."

Harry looked thoughtful, then leaned in and whispered something.

Neville smacked his arm, his blush doubling. "NO! EWW! I was just in the bathroom."

Daphne had a smirk as she raised an eyebrow. "Hmm... wonder what the-boy-who-gifts was thinking about."

Hermione blinked. "I don't get it."

Harry coughed and started shoving everyone toward an empty compartment. "Well would you look at that, suddenly we are here and obligated to change the topic as we put things away."

He proceeded to walk into the door.

Daphne giggled. "Thats the fifth door. Never gets old."

Hermione grumbled. Things were always complicated when her friends were around.

~~~Core Threads~~~

Nagnok nervously straightened his armor as he stood outside large golden doors. Not real gold of course, the inside was composed of layers of metal, magical materials, even thin layers of dragon scale. The sparkle stuff was to keep invaders off their edge when attacking.

With a loud groan, the doors finally began opening, showing a darkness that seemed to absorb sound and fill the air with heavy atmosphere... and the dim outline of goblin warriors, lined and armed.

"Enter, Nagnok of the Accounting Clan."

He shivered internally, trying to stand tall and without fear as he strode into the dim light. He should be fine, everything should be fine, nothing SHOULD be wrong. Nagnok had single handedly increased profits for his division by almost 14%, and he only had one client now.

Each silent warrior he passed caused him to second guess though. Did the new room damage the other wards in some unknown ways? Had there been too many complaints from the 'magic rift' incident? Well, enough complaints to counter the massive profits earned from being paid to set up what turned into a disaster and THEN to clean it up.

For gold's sake, they had even earned bonuses! It had been the most profitable incident in the last three decades, with basically no body count.

Nagnok's eyes narrowed as he reached the defensible throne. Slits in the side to allowed poisoned darts, magically protected and invisible metals creating an unseen wall between him and the armor clad old Goblin who was now examining Nagnok.

He gave a firm bow. "Greetings, Director Ragnok. I Nagnok, Potter Family Account Manager, received notice that you required my attendance."

Ancient claws rested on an enormous battle-axe as the armored goblin watched with darkened eyes.

Silence entered the dimmed room like a thief.

And as thieves should be, it was slaughtered. "Guards, leave us."

Nagnok's eyes widened as he felt the room expand, the dozens of armored warriors seeming to vanish until he was knelt alone before an avatar of wealth and strength.

The room now empty, Ragnok stood, his massive axe lifted with one hand and rested on his shoulder.

And he smirked. "How are things, grandson?"

Nagnok blinked. "Sorry sir?"

Ragnok chuckled, waving a claw as the room got brighter, the divisive wall sunk into the floor, and the chair became more soft than intimidating. He absently tossed the axe sharply into the wall as he lifted a mug with some hot liquid in it.

His chuckled got deeper as he watched Nagnok mentally lock up. "I know, grandson, that we have never talked much. Director for Britain's Gringotts branch aside, the Accounting clan has always been cutthroat due to our nature."

Nagnok blinked as he absently stood and began walking toward the gestured chair. "I... I just don't know what you want me to do right now, sir."

The older goblin chuckled and pushed some goblin wine over. "Drink with me and we can straighten this out fairly quickly."

Nagnok's jaw dropped. Forget the honor of meeting his Grandfather in an official setting, goblin wine was only for the most important of occasions. It was as similar to human wine as gold was to cats. Strong, deadly, and tasted vaguely of figs.

It was a magical drink so fierce that a goblin could only have five shots in their entire life, else they would go mad and stay drunk until death. Most families would have a glass when their parents died, their first born child, and at their wedding.

This was... important.

He looked up at the knowing look of his Director and gave a nod before drinking deep.

His lungs filled with air as the world glittered. Goblin wine did not cause drunken stupor until overdose. It caused clarity, occasional prophecy, and caused one to tell the truth.

Not due to any real magical cause directly. One would tell the truth because any impurity such as lying would lower the pleasure of the drink, and Nagnok knew somehow that this precious moment was worth more than some lie.

Even as his eyes cleared and ears tingled, he turned to Ragnok. "What in gold's name is this about, gramps?"

Somewhere in his own mind he cringed. Politeness was a type of lie, really. Just a nice one.

Ragnok laughed out loud and he drank as well. "Gramps? You young grubs today are amusing." His eyes focused sharply. "Nagnok, I am creating a division of Gringotts to cater to your wizard."

On some level, most goblins knew that Wizards were just really annoying pets.

Nagnok blinked. "Pull the other one."

His grandfather grinned, his teeth sharp. "Do you realize how important Lord Potter is to Gringotts as a whole?"

Nagnok shrugged. "Well, profits have been amazing working with him."

Ragnok waved a claw. "Amazing? No, more than that. Lord Potter was already our 2034th most valuable account BEFORE he arrived. And that is only considering his liquid assets. To have such wealth under the control of only one person was a large deal." He looked at the bottom of the crystal glass. "But now? He literally makes diamonds. Revolutionized ward stones. Expanded our territory without violating any of our magically binding treaties. And has enough power to rob us blind."

Nagnok frowned. "Harry wouldn't do that. He's a good kid."

Ragnok smirked. Being old had advantages, and handling magical liquor was one of the best. "He can manipulate magic, and he can create and manipulate magic on a scale we may not see again for thousands of years. Even if on paper he should lose us money, he has gifts to offer that are worth any price."

He leaned forward. "Nagnok, my grandson. Anything Harry needs will likely be provided, for a cost of course. And if you can, get him to do as much work for the Goblin Nation as possible. Gold we can gain, as well as gems and artifacts. But he is the source of impossible things, and I have been told by the Goblin King that our nation could use as many impossible things as Lord Potter is willing to grant us, at whatever price it may cost."

Nagnok's eyes bulged. "I... I... of course grandfather." He blinked vaguely and looked at the empty glass. The pure thought provided by goblin wine had just given him an incredibly useful suggestion.

"We need more alcohol."

~~~Core Threads~~~

Susan and Hannah finally found the compartment just to see a grumbling Harry and giggling friends.

Susan sighed. "I guess we got here too late to share space."

Tracey had shown up earlier and was squeezed next to Daphne, but offered a grin. "Well, there are a few laps available."

Neville coughed and blushed as Susan tried to match the color. She gave a smile back though. "Fun as it sounds, we would probably cause issues."

Harry held up a hand before the two girls could leave. "Actually, I may have an option. I accidentally learned a new trick when I was making Daphne's gift."

Almost all the girls slowly turned to Daphne as her face grew red and she tried to look at a very interesting section of wall.

Harry frowned. "You will have to go into the corridor though. Not sure what it would do if you were close at the time."

A few moments later, the girls were in the corridor trying to get Daphne to show her gift as Neville awkwardly looked around for Terry Boot. Sometimes a guy just feels outnumbered.

Back in the compartment, Harry focused carefully on his power. Last time he had done this by accident, and he was hoping that with a little focus the room would NOT be a cavern. Just... a tiny bit.

Eyes open was probably a must.

Watching his core, he gently took a thin thread of crystal green power. He wasn't sure what would happen using the power of the Deathly Hallow, but now was NOT the time to play with it. Probably during summer.

The thread curled around his body, making a gentle bubble. Taking a deep breath in... and out. The power pulsed gently, expanding, stretching. Harry felt the table, the chairs, the walls... and something was giving, shifting. Like a soft sponge everything gently pulsed.

Scared that he might create an infinite room or something else equally as unexpected, he cracked open an eye that he had closed at some point when focusing.

Thank Merlin, it was only thirty feet larger in each direction. Although now the table and bench were stretched as well. He frowned. Had that been intentional, or had his magic just decided to help?

He stood carefully and walked toward the door.

Ouch. INTO the door.

Daphne cackled on the other side. "Sixth Time! Still only five doors though."

Hermione paused in her argument and raised an eyebrow. "Harry, why ARE you bumping into everything?"

He grumbled. "Magic nearly exploded me, so I had to compress it down and create a real magical core for myself. Apparently I used to just have a field of magic that would make doors open, keep me from walking too far, and other such. Now that I can keep my magic inside I have to remember to do stuff myself, like picking stuff up or opening doors.

Tracey broke off her conversation with Terry and blinked. "Wait, your magic nearly exploded you?"

Harry flinched as several worried girls instantly turned to him and he quickly clapped. "SO who wants to check out our train car?"

Daphne harrumphed. "I'm still angry that you attacked that muggle mafia group."

He paled as the glares suddenly got more intense. "Ah... how did you find out about that Daph?"

She smirked. "Oh I asked your vassal family after you caused the adults to get pregnant."

The glares were now a mixture of shock, horror, concern, and at least one of confusion.

Harry calmly held up a hand. "Now look, that only happened because I accidental caused that magical rift..."

Oops. Well, now most of the glares had accusation.

Desperate he leaned back. "I mean, uh... Hey, Daphne is hiding her gift!"

They all turned but Daphne had already snuck into the massive room and was trying to look interested in a book that she was holding upside down.

The glares paused seeing the MASSIVE compartment, but then turned back.

Harry sighed. "I'm going to have to tell the story, aren't I?"

~~~Core Threads~~~

Minerva McGonagall sighed, rubbing her eyes. Another year, another Defense against the Dark Arts Teacher.

Many wizards and witches claimed the position was cursed. And from a certain point of view they were right.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. The curse was Lucius Malfoy.

His power was strong and insidious. He was on the board of directors for Hogwarts, and ensured that no half-bloods or muggle born witches or wizards could teach. If he had this level of power years ago, poor Professor Flitwick would have never been hired, much less Hagrid or some of the others.

With only the so-called 'pure-bloods' available, Defense was nearly impossible to hire for. For Merlin's sake, it was hard for HER to say his name, and she had actually fought his minions. Of course, she had learned the habit because the dark bastard had made his name into a national Taboo, to help hunt down his enemies.

These other so-called-teachers were just scared.

The few pure-blood teachers who were worth their salt just laughed at the small budget that she could offer thanks to Malfoy's aggressive politics.

A malicious smirk crossed her face. Not this year. Thank's to Lily's boy, they had not only stayed within budget for this quarter but had actually increased in funds. The brooms not only didn't have to be replaced, but she had actually sold one of each to a collector for a massive amount. Brooms for Hogwarts crafted by the Boy-Who-Lived? Pure gold.

Her smirk faded slightly into a frown. As wonderful as little Harry was, he had grown old. It was like a smaller man was talking to her, not a young 11 year old fresh in the world. Minerva wanted to help teach and guide him, but class seemed so... uninteresting to the child.

Sure he passed every assignment, achieved any spell requested, and helped his fellow students. But while other students studied and practiced, he wrote notes in that strange book or seemed to meditate in class. Oh, he seemed to know what was going on, but...

Well, it made her feel useless as an instructor.

At least this time she had gotten a good instructor for Defense the rest of this year. A young Auror who would likely get removed by next year of course, if Malfoy continued his work. Probably because students who could defend themselves would be harder to control.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a soft cough. Looking up, she gave a small smile at Filius. "Yes?"

He walked in and waved his wand, lowering the chair to more easily sit. "Minerva, we may have an issue."

She blinked. "Nothing urgent, of course?"

He shrugged. "Honestly, if he had done it during the school term I would have given him points."

"Mr. Potter?"

He nodded.

She sighed. "Of course. What has he done now?"

He waved his wand in a complicated pattern and numbers, graphs, and some spell patterns shimmered. "As far as I can tell, he has created and cast a customized space expansion charm on his cabin on the train. The security wards detected it a few minutes ago."

She frowned, looking at some of the stranger and unknown sections of the floating spell. "It has been years since I have worked on spell creation, can you give me the overview? I thought the train was unable to be expanded, too much magic used for safety and avoiding discovery and so forth."

He nodded. "All the spells that are currently known would interfere indeed. But Harry's spell expands the magical space as well."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Look Filius, I've had a long holiday. Just... is this going to cause problems for the Hogwarts Express?"

"Not really. Maybe some competition to sit there."

She started going through the paperwork for today. "Then just... let's move on. Let Mr. Potter know I would like to meet with him after dinner tonight."

Professor Flitwick nodded, already distracted as he wandered back to his office. There was time before dinner, and these calculations were just BEGGING to be cross-referenced.

~~~Core Threads~~~

On one hand, the teens were used to strange stories after hanging around Harry 'Was that impossible?' Potter.

Then again, the other hand was face palming fairly firmly.

Tracey leaned against Daphne. "So the whole 'I created the magic rift' stuff was neat and all, but I wanna hear more about the party."

She pushed Tracey back. "It was nice. Astoria and I got to meet Lord Potter's new sister and his vassals."

Hermione's eyebrows started racing to the sky. "Lord Potter?"

Harry shrugged, blushing slightly. "Well, you know... they hadn't planned on having another kid. And they needed my help. Besides, Jack and Chloe are good people. They treat me and Luna like real family."

Tracey chuckled. "Better than family, I'm sure. Family tends to include more than just 'everyone loves each other'. NO ONE makes you more angry, scared, and frustrated like family."

Daphne groaned. "I know, Stori kept trying to catch Harry and me kissing."

Sudden quiet hit the train car like a storm.

Hearing the conversations suddenly stop, she looked up confused before noticing everyone was looking at her. Blushing bright red she coughed. "Not that we were... I mean, sisters and their wild imagination. In fact, we are like distant sisters. Barely related. Hermione, you said something about magic detecting tools that explode made using muffin flour?"

Tracey was grinning. "Smooth Daph, I'm sure no one noticed."

Hannah raised her hand. "So are we open season on the boys yet?"

Susan pulled the hand down. "Still eleven dear."

Terry shook his head. "I know I should have been paying attention to everyone, but all I can think of are those season Quidditch tickets you got us Harry. Mom is going to be sending you cakes every week for a while I think. Dad tried to adopt you. And no, I am not exaggerating."

Harry blinked, slightly horrified at the idea of MORE FOOD, considering that he had so much stored in his hand that he could probably feed a village for a few months. Still, it was a nice sentiment "Uh... wow. Glad you liked them." He glanced over at the other male island in the currently talkative female storm.

Neville was still buried in the book Harry had bought him. Neville was as obsessed about plants as Terry was Quidditch, but at least no one was smacking metal balls at you with bats. He had retreated once the girls had started hyperventilating.

Harry never pretended to be an expert on women, but he had severely underestimated how worried the girls would be. Near death from being absorbed into a stone, assaulting heavily armed civilian facilities, doing magic dozens of times against non-magicals (It was his first year! No one SAID kids were not supposed to do magic in front of criminals.), kidnapping a family and basically adopting their child as a sister, kidnapping ANOTHER child to buy clothes for the first child, etc.

It honestly sounded much worse when you pushed all of it together into one fat incriminating ball.

He sighed. The end result was that he was no longer allowed to be unsupervised. The girls insisted on at least one of them being around on vacations and holidays from now on, if for nothing else than to prevent another continent wide disaster when he was cooking or something.

It would be infuriating if he hadn't felt so touched. Knowing his friends cared enough to change their plans just to spend time with him (Even if a side effect was less global wizarding issues) made him feel warm inside.

Focusing back on the group, he gave a grin. "Well, now we have a basic idea of what Hermione and I did this holiday. Anyone one else have any neat research results or whatever?"

Several guilty looks went around. Neville tried to crawl into his book. Susan sighed. "Sorry Harry, I have no idea how you can spend so much time researching and all this stuff. I did a bit last week, but I honestly spent most of it with my Aunt."

He blinked. "Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

Terry shrugged, looking at the floor. "Well, we know we are supposed to do all that studying and stuff, but only a couple of us are good at that."

Harry looked at the several guilty faces. "So?"

Everyone blinked. Hannah leaned forward. "So... we are sorry. Most of us have honestly have been treating the Magic Research Project like a club, like just for fun."

He grinned. "Good."

Padma blinked and then moved a bit closer to Harry. "Good? It's good we haven't been spending all our time training and learning?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah! I can do that stuff alone. In fact, I DO stuff like that alone. I am magically strong and I can spend tons of time in my mind working on stuff in my head."

He leaned forward, wrapping one arm around Neville and the other around Padma. "But I can't be with friends alone. Sure we have a club house and stuff, and we find neat spells, but we do it together because it is fun, right?"

Several smiles came back, and the room was feeling more warm and caring.

Harry leaned back, sighing. "Although I think I figured out why you guys are able to do so much more magic for so much longer than normal wizards and witches. Anyone remember what I was like when you first met me?"

Susan leaned against Hannah. "The world was brighter around you."

Hannah nodded. "You walked in and everything was MORE."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, apparently my magical core was damaged when I was hit by Voldemort" (He ignored the shudders) "And again around age eight when I nearly died from injury, starvation, and a daemon in my forehead."

Leaning hard and looking up, he missed the expressions surrounding him. "When my core died, I managed to keep my magic basically through will and defiance. Anyway, I basically was radiating magic at all times and only actively USING magic was preventing me from running out and dying. Not that I knew that at the time, mind you."

Several of the listeners were having trouble being quiet as Harry grinned. "Apparently, since the age of 8 my body has been continually casting and using magic just trying to keep me alive. All the big spells were to keep my total magic level low so that I wouldn't build up pressure and explode since I didn't have a magical core to hold it all together for me."

He paused for a moment seeing Daphne with suspiciously shiny eyes, like she was trying to not cry. "Ah... don't worry, my body was taking care of itself. And you saw that giant fire pillar, that was me finishing my new magical core."

Daphne missed several expressions as she wrapped her hand around the pendant hidden under her robes. Its comforting pulse helped her keep her voice steady. "So... making that diamond warding stone... making my pendant?"

Harry grinned. "Yeah, that probably helped protect me. Of course, it also kept working my core... and I was getting so fast at recovering magic that the amount I HAD to use to get low was getting ridiculous."

He turned to Hermione who seemed to be writing down notes, even as she sniffled. "I had Wisdom go through my memories from the age of 8 forward, and at first I had few magical incidents. Pencils would move to my hand, or my clothes would stay clean. But you noticed what I was like when I left for Christmas, right?"

She sniffled but nodded. "You... books you touched were repaired, books and things would just follow you if you were using them. I passed you a plate of carrots and it became a bowl of apple-sauce."

Harry paused. "Huh. Now that I think about it, there WAS a lot of apple-sauce." His eyes narrowed. "I don't LIKE apple-sauce."

Terry grinned. "Well, your magic does apparently."

Susan giggled, wiping her eyes clear. "Maybe your magic was trying to tell you something?"

He grumbled. "If my magic wants apple-sauce it can bloody well sod off."

Hermione made a gesture to Padma who thwapped his shoulder. "Language, Harry."

Harry looked in shock between the two. "Wait... are you allowed to reprimand me transitively?"

Terry blinked. "What?"

Susan grinned and leaned over. "The transitive power of arm-slugging. Hermione asks someone else to help Harry be polite."

Terry frowned. "Huh. That does seem a bit unfair."

She grinned. "We can give you a few examples to help clear up the issue."

He winced. "On further review, feel free to use Harry as a punching bag."

Neville nodded. "Thanks for taking one for the team Harry."

Harry blinked. "Anyway, I should be good. If my core ever gets destroyed again I now know how to rebuild it."

Hermione was chewing on one of her mechanical pencils. "So, why does all of that mean we are stronger?"

He shrugged. "When I formed your cores, you were flooded with my raw power. Your body is now acting a bit like a wand core. I wouldn't be surprised if any of you can begin to do wandless magic at some point, especially if you keep practicing with your threads and cords."

Harry grinned at the stunned looks. "Not just that too. Most wizards and witches are stronger or weaker based on how well their wand connects to their core AND on what size of power you give it, such as hair, thread, rope, cord or cable."

Hermione seemed slightly dazed. "So not only do our bodies handle magic more easily, but we have more power allocated to our wand and our wand is really well connected? How much of a boost IS that?"

He shrugged. "Well I noticed that we all do our classes AND random spells all afternoon and none of us get tired. Some of our classmates can't even try the spell more than a couple of times per lesson. It is part of the reason why classes are so spread out for the first three years of school and the spells are so basic."

Susan's eyes were sparkling. "So could you like... do this for adults?"

Harry sighed. "Well, for people like my Aunt yeah. But the body needs a certain level of magic for its own use. I couldn't give her any ropes, she only has a few threads now. Anything more could have hurt her I think. It's enough for a couple of school spells a day maybe. Not all day casting like normal witches and wizards."

He frowned. "And for non-magicals, it would likely kill them."

Gasps echoed and he nodded. "Magic is life. It has your soul, even a copy of your memories. That is partly why magicals live longer and don't suffer as badly from brain disease and trauma. If we are injured, our magic extends our life and helps heal us. If our memory fades, it can rebuild itself if we are magically healthy."

He nodded toward Padma. "That is partly why twins can live longer. Their cores apparently share magic. Of course, if one gets really hurt the other can help probably."

Daphne frowned. "What about my pendant? Didn't you put a LOT of power in it?"

Harry chuckled a bit nervously as he ran fingers through his hair. "Sorta. I may have accidentally created a magical core in it. Like, mine. Healing from that was part of the reason why I had to suddenly make ANOTHER core for myself."

She paled. "So the reason I can feel what you think of me is because it... is you?"

He shrugged. "My magic anyway. Why?"

Padma leaned forward. "Daphne, can we see the pendant?"

Hesitantly the blond girl pulled out the golden chain. Almost at once, the room felt... complete. The sounds got sharper, the smells richer, and the seats in the expanded room felt richer and had fine textures.

Susan blinked. "Did your snake just wink at me?"

Daphne quickly put a hand over Tracey's smirking mouth before any damage could be done.