C O Potter

Year Six

Chapter 52

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The powerful wings of the dragon helped it pull up and away as the young boy shot past it. He banked hard hoping to salvage his try at tagging Angelica and Uasal. He kept his eyes on them as he turned as tight as he could but when the dragon folded her wings in, she dropped like a stone, and he knew he had no hope of catching her. He rolled on over and turned in the other direction, being a reserve chaser for the house Quidditch team, he had learned a lot from his teammates about flying, but trying to tag a creature that was born to fly, was teaching him a lot more.

He looked and caught Rose and Angel watching Charlie and Car-baun, at this point he didn't care who he tagged as long as the game didn't end with him still being 'it'. He tucked in tight against his broom, he had to get one of them quickly because those Ferrarginies were fast! He slowed down enough that he could sit up and he tagged Angel just before his father called an end to the game. Yes! He wasn't 'it'!

The group of family and friends landed on the ground and grasped their brooms in their hands. Neville watched as Angelica slid off of Uasal and then kissed her on her snout and gave her a big hug. With a wave of her wand, the saddle was banished, and she was free to do whatever she and her son wanted to do.

Angelica walked over towards Cici, "I'm going to say something here, and the words are going to be wrong, but I'm going to say it anyway. But if someone had told me that I would have a dragon as a pet, I would never have believed them! But now I have a dragon as a friend! This is an amazing life!" and she hugged her daughter tightly.

"Yes, it is, mom!" Cici hugged her mom back.

The two women kept walking towards the house as Charlie caught up to his wife, he slipped his arm around her shoulder, and she slipped hers around his waist.

"Car-baun wants to know when Draco is going to give him his second cow, he says that he wants a treat," Charlie addressed Cici.

Ced and Vic walking with their arms wrapped around each other's waists, moved over to collect their missing piece, Ced moved his arms up around the women's shoulders as Cici slipped her arm around his waist too.

"Uncle Draco still hasn't given them their second cow?" Cici said in disbelief.

"According to Car-baun, no."

"I'll ask Harry how I go about buying a couple of cows," Cici told him. The dragons had been promised two cows, and Draco, it seems, had only given them one each.

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The group of people sat down for lunch after getting their second shower of the day. Even Charlie had started holding Angelica's chair for her, and like her daughter and daughter-in-law, she gave her man a kiss.

"A letter my Lord," Gareth said with a bow.

Harry turned to look at the elf. Who would be sending him a letter this time of day? He took the envelope from the elf and thanked him.

"It is a pleasure to serve," Gareth said with a bow, before turning to leave.

Harry slid his finger under the sealed flap of the envelope to open it. Inside, on a plain white piece of copy paper was a hand-written note.

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Can you and I meet this afternoon? I have someone that would like to meet the kids.

Sean

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Harry's brow furrowed. Hermione stopped what she was doing and looked at her husband.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"Sean," He said. "He wants to meet this afternoon."

"What else?" Hermione asked. Unlike her kids, she and Harry didn't have their mental link fully opened to each other the majority of the time. It was better now, then it had been all those years ago, but she knew that Ced, Cici, and Vic had their mental link fully open the majority of the time, and they only closed it off to protect the others from an incapacitating pain.

"He said that he had someone that wanted to meet the kids."

At this revelation, all of the older teens stopped and looked at Harry. Someone was requesting to meet them? Who else on this planet knew about them? And, how did they find them? They had layers of security. How did they tie McMillian to them?

"What are you going to do dad?" Ced asked.

"Go and meet this person. If worse comes to worse, I'll obliviate their memory," Harry said bluntly, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"If you want, I'll go with you," Vic told him. "I can always go poking around in Sean's head some more." She told him with a smirk.

That brought a smile to Harry's face, he knew how nervous Sean got the last time the three of them went poking around in the spy's head. "No, I'll be okay." He told her. "Thanks for the offer though."

Harry thought for a moment, "Gareth." He said politely.

Pop, "Yes, my Lord?" the elf said with another bow.

"Would you please bring me a quill and a piece of parchment?" Harry asked.

"Yes, my Lord." And he was gone for a few seconds. "Here, my Lord." The elf said as he held out everything that Harry would need to write a reply to the note.

Gareth waited for Harry to pen his reply. When he had finished, Gareth held out his hand for the note to take to an owl.

"Thank you, Gareth."

"My pleasure, my Lord." He replied.

When Harry turned back around, there were trays of sandwiches and crisps on the table for their lunch.

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At a little after five o'clock, the floo flared to life and out stepped Harry, a few moments later Agent Robins stumbled through the floo, then Sean McMillan, and after him, another man stepped out of the floo like he had done it thousands of times before. All of the teens stopped what they were doing when they saw Rob come through the floo and then they stared when the other man stepped out.

Ced moved to get up off of the rug they were all sitting on, Vic and Cici moved so he could get to his feet. Ced knew that his dad would never let a threat through the floo, so who was this new wizard? And why was he here? Was this the man that Sean had hinted to his dad? As Ced walked over to his dad, the others got up and started to move that way also.

As Ced greeted his dad after Gareth had left, the others had fanned out behind Harry, as Hermione came walking gracefully down the stairs. Her mate had been gone for close to four hours.

Ced greeted and shook Rob's hand. He welcomed and shook Sean's hand.

Harry waited just a moment until Hermione was where she belonged, right next to him. Harry introduced Hermione first. "Zander, this is my wife, Hermione. Hermione, this is Zander Williams." They shook hands.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Zander said politely.

As Harry was going around and introducing all of the others, Zander's attention wavered for a moment as he looked over at the front doors of the mansion.

Gareth had opened the doors for Ginny Weasley, who had come to collect Willow. Harry followed Zander's stare and saw Ginny walking towards the group of kids.

Harry motioned for her to come the rest of the way over. Ginny walked on over, she had caught a glimpse of the tall man with light brown hair, in the middle of the group.

"Ginny, this is Zander Williams, from America. Zander, this is Ginny Weasley." Harry told the star-struck wizard.

Ginny looked at the tall, tanned man, and the dancing blue eyes, dressed in wizarding business robes. "Pleased to meet you." She said.

Zander held his hand out to Ginny, "It is my pleasure." He said with a slight bow, to the incredibly beautiful witch, dressed in casual business robes.

Ginny accepted his offered hand, and he held it tenderly for just a moment longer than needed.

"Ginny, would you like to join us for dinner tonight?" Harry asked her.

Ginny looked around.

"I would be honoured if you would." Zander prompted her.

Ginny looked at Harry and Hermione, "I would love to." She told them.

Harry finished introducing the rest of the teens that had fanned out behind him.

"Let's go to the sitting room, while we wait for dinner," Harry told everyone.

Cici, Ced, and Vic led the way to the sitting room, as they entered the room, they conjured more chairs and couches for all of the people that were there. As the others entered the room and took a seat, the trio claimed the largest couch.

As the last of the group entered the room, Sean remained standing. "I realise that most of you are nervous about having a stranger come into your home, and I would like to apologise for that." He started off. "When I was initially contacted by Agent Robins, we weren't sure if this would be something that all of you would be interested in. Today, Agent Robins travelled by portkey for the first time when he brought Zander Williams of the Redwood Institute for Magical Education to meet me. After hearing his story, I contacted Harry, to have him meet Zander, and now we are here." Sean indicated for Zander to take over from there.

"It is a pleasure to meet all of you in person. I had heard rumours about a remarkable group of young adults that had the ability to accomplish the impossible. Well, I kept following that rumour until it led me to Agent Robins. After I told Agent Robins, why I had been searching for all of you, he told me he had no way of getting in direct contact with you. But he did tell me, we might be able to meet with someone, that might, be able to get in touch with all of you." Zander was walking and talking like he was used to speaking in front of a group of people. "When Agent Robins contacted me again, to let me know that Mr McMillian would be willing to meet with me, hope began to rise in me once again. When I first met Harry, I was awestruck to be meeting a legend, The Lord Gryffindor. After I talked to him and told him my story, he made me take an Oath of Loyalty to the family, before we would go any farther. Once that was finished he brought me here to meet all of you." When he finished, he was looking at Ginny, who blushed a little.

The others hadn't even realised that she was in the room with them.

"Would you be willing to share your story with the rest of us?" Ced asked politely.

"Forgive me, please." And he launched into his story and why he needed their help. The group of people that he represented was willing to pay a lot for their help.

"I told him that you all were not cheap," Rob told them from where he sat. "But he told me, that cost was not an issue. So, that's why we came looking for you. All of you did an excellent job for me. You were able to accomplish what experienced agents couldn't," he praised them.

"Like Agent Robins has said, the cost is not an issue. The parents just want their children back."

"How long have these children been missing?" Cici asked in dismay.

"For over a month now." He looked down at the floor in shame, when he had finished.

"For over a month?!" Vic said in dismay.

"Yes."

"By the name of your school, is it safe to assume that these are magical children?" Rose asked.

"Yes, they're all magical children."

"And how many kids are missing?" George asked.

"Thirteen, we think."

"You don't know how many kids are missing?" Angel said in shock.

"No, because some of the kids each year leave without telling their parents or us. But they generally show up, sometime, somewhere, during the summer months." He told her.

"How old are we talking here?" Julia asked.

"They're all between fourteen and sixteen years of age." He told her.

"How old are the ones that leave on their own, typically?" Ced asked.

"Those are almost always seventeen or eighteen-years-old." He said more positively.

"Would everyone involved in this, be willing to talk with us?" Angel asked.

"As far as I know, yes." He told her looking sincere.

"Well, not to be the greedy one in the bunch, but as Agent Robins has said. Our services don't come cheap." Vic started talking to him.

"Like I said, the cost is no object. Whatever you want, we will pay."

"Well, we need to get this stumbling block cleared up." Ced started telling him.

"Cost is no object." He repeated.

"You keep saying that, and it's starting to make me nervous." Fred finally spoke up.

"Like I was saying, not to be the greedy one in the bunch, but we typically get one million U.S. dollars for our services, each, and you pick up the expenses." She told him.

The tall American man's tan faded, his mouth started to work like a fish's out of water.

"You said it several times, 'Cost is no object', and we tried several times to get you to talk to us about it, but you just kept saying the same thing, 'Cost is no object.' Well, now, it seems that the cost, is an object." Cici told him bluntly.

"No, the cost is not a factor. All of these parents are well off, and they all want their children returned. One million dollars shouldn't be a problem." He cut the amount slyly.

"I apologise, but you must have heard me wrong. The price is ten million U.S. dollars. One million for each of us." Vic was including Ginny in this deal. For some reason, she had the feeling that Ginny was going to be a part of this solution.

Again, Zander choked on the amount. These were just kids he was dealing with.

"No, we are not just kids that you are dealing with. What we are, are independent contractors, we work off of the books. And as you have heard from different sources, we get the job done, when others can't. These children have already been missing for over a month. What have you learned in that month?" Cici attacked him verbally.

Sean and Rob stayed out of it. They both knew that the kids were worth every penny they had spent.

"So why have you chosen ten million?" Hermione finally asked.

Zander looked like someone had finally thrown him a life preserver.

Vic looked at her for a second, her mum had never gotten involved in their negotiations before. "The tenth person is Ginny." She told her.

Ginny's head snapped around to look at Vic. She knew Vic was a very business savvy young woman, but why had she included her? "Why are you including me?" Ginny asked.

"For whatever reason, I just know that you are a part of the solution to this problem. I can't tell you why, but I just know it." Vic told her.

"Well, I'm not paying for something that I don't know about." Zander was putting his foot down.

"Would you like to challenge the three of us to a duel?" Vic asked him. "If we lose, we'll do it for free, but if we win, you're going to pay us double; twenty million dollars. No, let's make that twenty million Euros." She looked him straight in the eye. "Deal?"

"You're what? Fifth years? You've just finished up your fifth year in school?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I'm pretty sure that I can take a couple of fifth years in a wizard's duel. So, yeah, I'll take that deal." He told her cockily.

"Now, just to make this clear. This is not a formal duel on a duelling platform, but more of a combat duel. Is that going to be okay with you?" she clarified the situation.

"Whatever you want little girl. If I can save ten million dollars, then I'm money ahead." He put her down.

"Great, and if you lose, the new price is twenty million Euros." She repeated for him.

"Agreed. When do you want to do this?" he asked her.

"Let's get it over with now. And then we can have dinner." She told him. "The elves will understand."

Rob, Ginny, and Sean were all interested in this. None of them had ever seen the teens fight, especially with magic.

Harry stood up, then he turned and offered his hand to Hermione, she had been sitting next to him, and not on his lap as she usually would. "Please follow me," Harry said to the group.

Harry led the large group of people across the living room and down a hallway to the training room. He entered the room and said out loud, "Room, empty space."

And the room lit up with just an open floor for the duel.

Harry looked at Zander, "Do you want just an open space or would you prefer some pre-placed barricades?"

"I'm fine with just an open room." He told Harry, self assuredly.

"Would you like to set a time limit? Or would you just like to duel until it's over?" Harry asked him again.

"Let's just go until it's finished." He said to him. Why all the questions? He wondered.

"Do you want to double down on the bet again? If we beat you in less than fifteen minutes, it doubles to forty million Euros?" Vic asked him. "After all, we're just a couple of fifth years." She taunted him a little more.

"I'll take that bet and I'll up you one. If I beat you three, in less than fifteen minutes, you pay me ten million dollars." Put your money where your mouth is.

Vic thought for a moment. Actually, she talked with Ced and Cici. "We can't cover the ten million, but we can cover five million."

"I'll spot you the other five," Harry told her.

"There, see. Now you're covered." He said to her face, cheekily.

"Okay, pick a side," Harry told them.

Zander walked one way, and the trio walked the other.

"Okay! This is a no time limit fight! No unforgivable curses!" Harry said just to clarify something that popped into his mind. "Three, two, one, go!" and Harry stepped out of the way.

The three teens had already charmed their clothes on the walk to the training room, and on the count of two, Ced had already cast a shield spell to cover the three of them.

"What? Do you think that I'm going to cheat?" Zander asked almost, but not quite offended.

"It has been our experience, that most of our opponents prefer to; let's just say, take every advantage they can get over their victims," Ced told him.

As Ced was talking, the three of them spread out, presenting three separate targets.

He may have been Ilvermorny's Dueling Champion, twenty years ago, but he may have underestimated his opponents too.

"We get that a lot," Cici told him.

"People underestimate us," Ced told him.

"Because of our age," Vic told him.

"Sorry, Mr Williams," Cici said just before she opened fire on him. Reducto/expulso/stupefy.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Ced thought.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Vic thought.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Cici thought.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Ced thought.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Vic thought.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Cici thought.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Ced thought.

Reducto/expulso/stupefy. Vic thought.

Silently the three of them just pounded him into the ground. It was a steady stream of spellfire that was intended to overpower his shield by brute force. They quickly overcame his shield spell. They had crushed his shield spell with overwhelming firepower. The talking had lasted longer than the actual duel had.

He faced his opponents, they were sixteen at the most. He had been watching how the two young girls just hung all over the boy. He was good-looking, and the two girls were gorgeous. His parents must be very open-minded to let their son behave this way in front of other people. They probably even let them sleep together, by the looks of things. He had seen the girls and the boys hanging all over each other at R.I.M.E. In fact, they didn't discourage it, they wanted their students to find themselves, in a safe place, before they went off, out into the world. Their campus was an open campus, people were free to come and go as they wished. They had a small school of about 150 students. The only walls they had, were the walls of the buildings, and the natural wall that the trees made as they surrounded their campus. People were free to come and go as they wanted. They had had troublemakers before, but they always seemed to get bored and move on after a couple of days. His school, at the request of the parents, didn't even teach Defense classes, preferring to let MACUSA take care of things like that.

Now here he was trying to use skills that he had developed over twenty years ago. He looked at the three opponents, and he judged the boy to be the biggest threat, based merely on his physical size and the fact that he was a boy. The fact that he had already cast a shield spell before the duel actually began, in his mind told him that they were scared of him. Well, he would teach these little kids a lesson this evening. After all, parents had been bringing him their children to teach for the last fifteen years. Why are they talking to me like they can read my mind? First one of them, then another one of them, and then another. It's like they can speak to each other without talking. He assumed a proper defensive stance. Why is she apologising to me?

"Protego." He said out loud, out of self-preservation he put all of his strength into his shield spell. He could feel the pounding of the spells just hitting the shield, pushing him backwards. He just kept drawing on his magic to sustain the shield. He had never experienced anything like this in his life! All of his duelling opponents back in school, it was just one spell at a time. They would cast a jinx, then he would cast a jinx. They would step it up, then he would step it up, and so it went until one of them. Generally, it would be him, would land a lucky shot on the other person.

Rob had never seen anything like this in his life. As they walked down the hallways, the people in the paintings actually could move! And they would move from one painting to another! He had seen that the kids used candles for lighting in their houses at Quantico. But here, the whole mansion was lit by candles! When he walked into the training room, he could see where they had gotten the idea from for the training room they had made at Quantico too. And did Harry just talk to the room? And these kids are pretty cocky to quadruple the bet like this, I mean, I know that Ced can defend himself, and the two girls put Johnson in his place quick enough, but forty million Euros? Come on! Oh, and now if they lose, they're going to pay Zander ten million dollars? What kind of circles did these kids move in? And Harry just covered their bet for them too? He had never seen the kids fight with magic before, something flashed around them while Harry was counting down to the start of the duel. What's that? Is Zander, right? Are the kids scared of him? He is older than they are. Now they're accusing him of judging them because of their age. Why did Cici just apologise to him? Look at all of that coming out of their wands! He had seen this tactic used in the Navy when the battleships and destroyers would start to pound a beach before a landing party would get there.

Sean was watching as Ced, and the two girls moved out on to the open floor. He watched as they spread apart so that the American wouldn't have one big target. He had been taught this back in Infantry training school, spread out so that the enemy has multiple targets, not just one big target. He had seen the kids use magic before, but he had never seen them fight. They must be pretty sure of themselves to quadruple the bet like that, and then offer to pay ten million if they lost. Harry must believe in them too if he's willing to cover the bet if they lost. What's that? Ced's getting jumpy? Why did Cici apologise to the guy? Wow! Look at them go! He'd seen the Royal Navy use this tactic before when they were doing amphibious landing exercises. They're just pounding on the guy! There he goes! He's down.

He saw his shield fail, and then he felt the hardest punch he had ever felt in his life throw him backwards through the air, then while he was floating he felt …

"Are you okay, Mr Williams?" the black-haired, dark-skinned girl was asking him. If he weren't in England, he would say that she's Mexican. He felt stiff and a little sore, his head was kind of foggy, but he didn't think that he was injured in any way.

"How, what, why are you standing over me? Did I lose?" he asked groggily. The good-looking boy with the black hair and the green eyes was holding out a hand to help him up. He reached up and took his hand. He lifted him up with ease! Wow was he strong!

"Here," the light-skinned, witch with light brown hair said to him as he watched a vial flying through the air into her hand. "My name is Vic." She told him as she handed the vial of potion to him. "It's a Vitamix potion. It will help with the fogginess in your head."

"Oh, okay, thank you." He downed the whole thing in one shot. "Well, what happened?"

"What happened is, what happens to a lot of our opponents. You judged us by our age. You looked at us and saw a little boy with two little girls playing house, with two very liberal parents. You underestimated us. You said to yourself, that because you are older than us, that you are stronger, faster, smarter, and better than us." Ced scolded him.

Zander looked down sheepishly, the boy was right.

"The 'boy' as you keep calling him, has a name." Vic scolded him again. "His name is Ced. You really should make an effort to learn our names. Especially since you're going to be paying us forty million Euros." Vic told him with a smile on her face.

"Uh, yeah huh," Zander said as he looked around. Then his eyes met the older, good-looking redheaded witch's eyes.

"Are you coming?"

"Huh? What?" Zander shook his head. Wow, she's incredible!

"Yes, she is. Now, are you coming to eat with us?" Harry asked him again.

Can everybody here read my mind? Zander thought.

"Most of us can. It's one of the things that helps us." Harry answered his unasked question.

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At the dining room table, Harry sat Zander next to Ginny, and Ginny was sitting next to Cici. Zander watched all of the couples, the guys would hold the chair for their significant other, and then the girls would give the guys a kiss, either on the cheek or on the lips. He watched as the others at the table looked at a menu and then spoke to their plate the selection they had made. A few minutes later, their food would appear. He looked at Robins and Sean, both of them seemed almost as confused as he was. Then one of the redheaded boys started to explain how things worked. On the other side, the dark-skinned girl with the bushy hair began to explain how it worked to Sean. He watched as they spoke their selection to their plate.

"Here, what you need to do is pick up your menu, and make your selection. What is it that you would like for dinner tonight?" Ginny asked him.

Zander looked over the menu. "I think I would like to try the seafood dinner." He told her incredibly beautiful eyes.

The intensity of his stare was a little unnerving to Ginny, she had never in her life had a man look at her like this. "Okay, then just tell your plate that you would like the seafood platter. Then in a few minutes, your dinner will appear on your plate." She broke his gaze by looking away. She could feel her cheeks getting warm. She saw Charlie at the other end of the table watching her. He smiled to her, to let her know that he was happy for her, then he went back to paying attention to Angelica. It had been a long time since Ginny could remember her cheeks getting warm like this. Back then, it used to make her angry when the boys would make her blush. But then, she had started to become hard.

Then she heard him speaking to her. "I'm sorry, I must have gotten lost in thought." She told the good-looking American.

"I was asking what it is that you do?" But what he wanted to ask was, is there anyone else in your life? Are you seeing anyone? I don't see a ring on your finger.

"Oh, sorry, I work for the Ministry of Magic." She told him, blushing again. Why does he keep making me blush? Why does he keep staring at me?

"Oh, wow! What do you do for them? That seems like an awfully big place." He said to her. You are so beautiful. How can you be so gorgeous?

"I work in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department." She told him. How can your eyes be so blue? They're so beautiful!

"Oh, muggles?" he asked. Your eyes are so incredible, I have never seen eyes the colour of yours, they almost glow!

"Uh, muggles are what we call non-magical people." She stammered out. How can you make me feel this way? After all of these years!

"Oh, we call them no-Majs," he told her. You have such beautiful, creamy white skin. I love the colour of your hair, it's so amazing, like you.

"What is it that you do?" she asked him. Other than sitting there looking so fantastic.

"Me? Oh, I'm the School Director for R.I.M.E." He said to her. What I have been doing is looking for you, for my whole life. And now that I have found you, I never want to let you go. What do I have to do to get you to stay with me forever?

"Oh, that sounds interesting. What's R.I.M.E. stand for?" she asked him. Is there anybody else in your life that I need to worry about? A wife? A girlfriend? Why are you interested in me? I'm broken.

At that last thought, every female at the table over the age of fifteen, except Angelica, frowned at her, they all dropped their silverware on their plates, suddenly.

"We need to go and talk, now!" Cici said facing Ginny and getting up before Ced could move. In fact, all of the females at the table over the age of fifteen, got up before their men could even think about moving.

"Is something wrong?" Ginny asked, a little afraid.

"Yes!" was the unanimous response from all of the women but Angelica.

"How about that Irish Quidditch team?" Ced said as he got another piece of the fish. The elves had really outdone themselves with the fish tonight.

"Was it something that I said?" Zander asked confused.

"No, it's a girl thing," Harry said.

"Oh, what's a girl thing?"

"Don't worry about it, mate," Fred told him.

They had all been listening to the unspoken conversation happening between the two adults. The women had just moved over to the smaller dining room to talk to Ginny.

.

A long while later, the women all returned to the dining room to finish their meals. All of the men seated the women again and received their reward of a kiss.

"Is everything okay?" Zander asked Ginny softly.

"Yes, it was just a girl thing." She told him.

"Oh, okay." He said.

.

After the pudding had been served and eaten. The group moved to the sitting room again to keep the conversation going. Sean excused himself, saying that he needed to get home for the night. Ced and Harry escorted him to the floo, where he would floo to the Leaky Cauldron to catch a cab. This time, Hermione sat across Harry's lap, signalling to the other girls that chose to, that they could do the same.

Harry offered a room to Robins, Zander, and Ginny for the night. He was very excited to see one of his oldest friends coming back to life. Daphne and Willow had become inseparable, both at school and here at the house. Cathaoir was delighted with the way their relationship was growing, and Willow loved to hear the stories that Cathaoir would tell them before going to sleep. All three of them accepted the offered rooms for the night. As the hours slipped past, Charlie and Angelica excused themselves saying that they needed to go and check on Uasal and Car-baun. They left out of the room, with their arms wrapped around each other.

"What time do you normally get up around here?" Rob asked Harry.

"Well, we usually get up early for our morning workout," Harry told him.

"Okay, what time would that be?"

"Well, Hermione and I get up at five to be down the stairs at five-thirty. The others join us about that time too." Harry told him.

"Okay, would you mind if I joined you?" Rob asked.

"Sure, we'd like that," Harry told their guest.

"Um, which room would be mine?" Rob asked.

"Dobby!" Harry called out to the air.

"Yes, my Lord." The tiny creature popped in and said with a bow.

"Would you please show Rob to his room?" Harry asked the excitable elf.

"Yes, my Lord." The elf said again with a bow. Then he turned and faced the man. "If you would please follow me." Then Dobby headed for the doors of the sitting room.

"What can you tell us about these missing students? Did they all go missing at once? Did anybody see anything strange before they went missing? What kind of wards do you have around your school to keep unauthorised people away?" Ced started to hit the man with some basic questions.

"We have an open campus policy and the only wards that we employ, are basic no-Maj repelling wards. To my knowledge, no one had reported anything out of the ordinary. People are free to come and go as they wish, we believe that students learn best if they're not forced into learning." Zander told Ced.

"So, you don't know when the first student went missing," Cici stated.

"No, not really. The parents were away, and when they returned, their daughter was missing." He told Cici.

"Will you be able to give us a list of the students and their parents?" Vic asked.

"I would have to ask the parents before I could share that information with you." He told her.

"Do you even have the forty million Euros?" George asked harshly.

"Yes! That, the school does have." He told the group brightly.

"Good, because we're going to want half up front," Rose told him.

Cici looked at Rose. Rose looked back at Cici with her lips pressed into a thin line.

"I can do that, I'll just need your account numbers to make the transfers." He told them.

"Good, then we can go to Gringotts in the morning after breakfast," Angel told him.

"Gringotts? What's that? We work with a no-Maj bank." Zander told her.

"That's fine, Gringotts Bank will be able to set up the transfers with your bank. All they'll need is your authorisation." Harry told the wizard.

"Would I be able to get an elf to take me to my room? I think that I'm ready to call it a night." He told Harry.

Hermione slipped off of Harry's lap, she held out her hand slightly, below her waist, to signal to the others that there was no need to get up. All of the girls relaxed a little.

"Dobby!" Harry called out.

With a soft pop, Dobby appeared, "Yes, my Lord?" the elf said with a low bow.

"Would you show Zander to his room please?" Harry asked the elf politely.

Dobby looked up at the man's face, then he looked at Harry, "Yes, my Lord." Then looking at the man again, "Please follow me." He instructed the guest.

Once he was out of earshot, "He's being really vague." Ced said.

"Did you see the way that Dobby looked at him?" Fred said.

"I don't think Dobby likes him, I wonder why?" Angel said. She had known Dobby her entire life, and she had never seen him behave this way.

"An open campus? How are they going to provide for their student's safety with an open campus?" Cici asked.

"The man has no occlumency skills at all!" then Vic looked at Ginny, "And we're going to start teaching you some tomorrow! Nothing will get us killed faster than the bad guys being able to read your mind!"

"Why am I even going on this mission of yours?" Ginny asked hotly.

Vic looked at her, "I don't know. For whatever reason, all I do know, is you are vital to the success of this mission. Plus, it's going to put four million Euros into your bank vault."

For four million Euros, she could take a leave of absence. Her dad would just have to understand. "What am I going to tell my dad?" she asked suddenly.

"We need to tell mum and dad," Fred said suddenly.

"Us too!" George said, a little worried about what his parents would say, but for twelve million Euros coming into the household? They might not like them being gone so soon after just getting back, but he knew they wouldn't say 'No.'

"For your dad," Harry was talking to Ginny, "Tell him as little as possible. Just the bare necessities. Anything more than that could come back to bite you later on. It's called Operational Security or Opsec for short. Good Opsec leads to successful missions, bad Opsec leads to dead bodies on the wrong side." Harry told her.

"Do you think that we need to get Zander to sign a contract?" Ced asked his dad.

Kitten appeared in the room at that moment.

"Where's Willow?" Ginny asked worriedly. All of this talk about Opsec was making her nervous.

"Oh, hi Aunt Ginny! Willow's with Cathaoir listening to a story about the time that Edmund played a practical joke on the leader of the Goblin Nation." She told her.

"Oh, okay," Ginny said relieved.

"Dobby doesn't like this new guest that we have in the house, but he's too scared to tell you," Daphne told her father.

"Dobby's too scared to tell me? Is he scared of me, or Zander?"

"He's scared of Zander because Zander isn't Zander, Zander's an imposter, but the imposter's real name is Zander too," Daphne told the group.

"Just my luck," Ginny grumbled. "So, is this Zander a good guy or a bad guy?" she asked Kitten.

"He's a good guy who just wants his daughter back." She told them sincerely.

"So how did he get all of the other Zander's memories?" Vic asked her.

"He got all of the bad Zander's memories because of some ancient artefact that let him absorb the bad Zander's memories."

"So, where's the bad Zander now?" Cici asked.

"He's dead, the UAA killed him, well they left him for dead when good Zander found him, and he was dying. Good Zander used the artefact to get bad Zander's memories, in the hopes that he would be able to find his daughter, but instead, he found all of you. That's why he's willing to pay all of you so much, and he has a serious crush on you Aunt Ginny." Kitten told all of them with a straight face.

"So, if he's a good guy, then why is Dobby afraid of him?" Ced asked.

"Dobby!" Harry called out, louder than usual.

"Yes, my Lord?" Dobby asked shakenly.

"Why are you afraid of our guest Zander?" Harry asked him gently.

Dobby looked around nervously, his first instinct was to protect Harry. "Because he is not who he says he is, and he is desperate, and desperate people often do bad things!" Dobby explained this to his Lord, as he looked up at Harry and then down at his feet. Then he would look back up at Harry and then back down at the floor.

"You are correct, Dobby. Often, desperate people do desperate things that are not good things. Will it make you feel better if I shut the floo off to him and we put wards on his door? Or, would you prefer if a couple of house elves keep watch over him tonight?"

Everyone could see Dobby thinking this through. "I think that it would be best if a couple of elves kept watch over him tonight. I would sleep better knowing that my Lord and his family are safe tonight!"

"Thank you, Dobby. Please, go and select the elves that you want, to keep watch over our guest tonight. We will all sleep better tonight, knowing that he is being watched over." Harry informed his old friend.

With a pop, Dobby was gone to select the elves that he wanted to watch over his friend and family.

.

.

The next morning, Rob joined the group getting ready to go out for their morning run. Just as he was reaching the bottom stairs, of the Grand Staircase, Fred and Julia came running down the stairs, and Julia was giggling. Rob looked around, all of the teen girls were dressed the same, in a black sports bra, and skin-tight, black running shorts. The other thing he noticed, was that none of the girls was carrying any body fat and he doubted that any of the guys had any body fat also.

When Fred and Julia hit the bottom of the stairs, Hermione asked, "Are we ready to go?" before she turned and led everyone out the back of the house.

Outside, the two dragons were up early, getting ready to go find their own breakfast. All of the magicals waved at them as the two dragons gave a soft roar of good morning. Ced watched as Rob blinked in disbelief, his whole life he had been told that dragons weren't real, and now he just saw two of them, and these people; waved at them! Ced continued to watch Rob, he looked like one of those toys that the head just bounced and turned every direction, as he tried to take it all in.

"You have a confidence course?" Rob said mostly to himself.

"Yes, do you want to run it when we're finished?" Ced asked him.

"Okay, I guess." He told Ced.

Hermione started to pick up the pace when she had reached the running path. Parts of the path were single file, while other parts were wide enough for people to run side by side. The farther they went, the faster Hermione would run, until their muscles had warmed up sufficiently, then she started to stretch her legs out, so they were truly running.

A little over half an hour later, Hermione started to lead the group back to the house.

"Hey, mum!" Ced yelled out to her.

Hermione finished the run, and the group was walking around cooling down.

"Yes?"

"Rob wants to run the confidence course. Would that be okay with you?" Ced asked his mum.

Hermione looked at the others, not seeing any signs of discontent, "Sure, let me get the safety harnesses." She told him. A moment later the safety harnesses came flying through the air, and she directed them up to the top of the tower to hang in their correct places.

"Do you want to time it? Or do you just want to run it?" Harry asked the American Agent.

"I doubt that I'm as fast as the kids are, judging by the run this morning, but I would like to run it for fun. The last time I ran one of these was when I was a trainee." He told Harry.

"Let Hermione, and I get to the top, then I'll blow the whistle. Let all of the kids go first, and Ced can be your partner." Harry said to him. He knew that the other teens would be too focused on winning.

Rob watched as Harry and Hermione climbed the cargo net, almost competing with themselves to get to the top. Harry beat her, then he held a hand out to her, to help her over the edge. He looked around at the kids, their clothing had changed to cover them up more and protect their arms and legs. The kids looked like racehorses, waiting for the gates to open. Harry blew the whistle, and he was right, the kids all scrambled for the cargo net. Rob looked over at the other two adults standing there with him. What were their names again? Angie and Chuck? Or something like that. Once the majority of the kids had hit the top of the cargo net, Ced and Rob took off for the climb up. At the top, Harry and Hermione helped them over the edge. They slipped the harnesses on and checked each other to make sure that it was fastened correctly, a pair of gloves, and over the side, they went. Four hops later and they were on the ground removing their harnesses. They let them drop there on the ground and took off at a fast jog, or a slow run for the next obstacle.

"Why do you have an obstacle course in your backyard?" Rob asked Ced.

"So, we could teach the others how to run one." He told the agent.

"So, … you just built one for fun?" Rob pressed for a better answer.

"No, we did some private contractor work for the British government, and we knew from experience, that they would be tested on a confidence course like this one. We built it to help them pass." Ced told him.

Rob was professional enough not to ask what kind of mission that they had done, or where they had gone. Still, having a full-blown confidence course in your backyard was kind of cool.

At the end, the two of them hit the wall and cleared it without any needed help. Then they started the run back to the starting line.

Rob looked around at all of the girls again, they were all covered in mud and dirt, just like the guys, these were definitely not girly-girls.

Ced noticed that all of the girls' heads turned to look at Rob for a moment.

"What's up?" he thought to his wives.

"Rob doesn't think that we're sexy girls." Cici thought to him.

"He thinks that because we don't mind getting dirty, that we're not feminine enough." Vic thought to him.

Cici caught Rose and Amber's eyes for a moment, then she jerked her head to the side subtly, indicating that she wanted to talk with them in private.

Vic caught Angel and Julia's eyes and did the same thing.

Once all of the girls had walked a little way off towards the house, they all stopped and talked for a moment. Ced could see the dirty looks that they were giving Rob, and Rob was oblivious to the looks.

"Let's go get our showers so we will be ready for breakfast," Harry said to the group. "Then after breakfast, we will need to go to Gringotts to set up the bank transfers."

By the time Harry had finished speaking, the girls were almost to the house. When the girls didn't wait for the guys, this kind of caught Rob's attention again, he couldn't remember a time when the boys and the girls weren't holding hands, and now, the guys were giving him dirty looks.

Seeing Rob's confusion, "You insulted the girls." Ced told the agent.

"How did I insult the girls?" he asked.

"When they were covered in mud and dirt, you had the stray thought that they weren't girly-girls, and that offended them," Ced told him.

.

After their showers, the six girls timed it so they would arrive for breakfast as the last to arrive. Zander had joined them for breakfast also and was sitting next to Ginny. There were two house elves standing by the doors to the dining room. Angelica and Charlie were sitting across from Zander and Ginny, at the end of the table closest to Hermione.

Why does he have this effect on me? She wondered to herself.

With Robins on the far side of the table from the entrance to the room, Julia was the first to enter the room, walking one foot in front of the other making her hips roll in her dress, and Fred liked what he saw. Julia was rewarded with an ear to ear smile from her future mate. Robins stopped what he was doing to stare at the Strawberry blonde, with milky white skin, dressed in all red wearing her ruby jewellery. As Julia was circling around the table to sit between Fred and Robins, Amber was the next to walk into the room, upon seeing his future mate dress in solid black, wearing onyx jewellery, George was all smiles as her hips rolled in her dress, while walking to sit between Robins and George. Next was Angel, dressed in yellow, with her yellow topaz jewellery. Then Rose entered dressed in blue with white diamonds and white heels. Cici and Vic both entered the dining room wearing white, Cici was wearing white pearls and white heels, while Vic was wearing black pearls, black heels, and a black belt because she had the smallest waist of all the girls.

Through all of this, Zander only had eyes for the redhead he was seated next to.

After seating Cici and Vic, Ced sat directly across from Robins. "The girls decided to show you that even though they may be covered in mud and dirt; and helping troops in battle, but underneath all of that mud and dirt, they are still young women. And they hope that you won't underestimate their femininity again." Ced told Agent Robins.

"I apologise for offending you." He started his apology. "But when I had that thought, it wasn't to offend you, it was actually a compliment; in that, you are not the type of woman that would spend a whole afternoon crying over a broken nail. You are much stronger than that. Again, I apologise if I made you feel that you were not girl enough. And any guy that doesn't think that any of you are sexy is brain dead." He told them.

Breakfast was a much happier affair after Robins had clarified his thoughts.

.

"Is this how all of you are going to Gringotts?" Hermione asked.

Seeing all of the girls' nod and smile, Hermione told them. "I hope that all of your jewellery has anti summoning charms on it. Because between all of you, I would guess that you're wearing close to 100,000 galleons of jewellery."

"Well, we're all dressed up, and we have someplace to go!" Vic said cheerfully.

"Rob, are you staying here? Or would you like to go with us?" Harry asked the agent.

"Both! But for now, I think that I would like to go with you and see more of your world." The agent told him. "But then I would like to learn more about what's going on here too."

"Excellent, where we are going first will be directly to Diagon Alley. Make sure that you say the name clearly, or you could end up someplace less than pleasant. Trust me, I know from experience!" Harry said with a chuckle.

"Diagon Alley." The agent repeated.

"Correct, two separate words. If you run them together into diagonally, you will end up in the wrong place, and it can be very unpleasant there." Harry warned him again.

"Okay, got it, Diagon, Alley." He said slowly and clearly.

As the group got up from the table to leave, Zander looked around for the first time since he had sat down. "What's everybody all dressed up for?" he asked in shock.

All of them had a little laugh at his expense. For the whole meal, what little he ate, he had sat there focused only on Ginny. And now she blushed when she realised what had happened.

"Zander, how is it that you actually came into your money. We know now that you're not the Director of R.I.M.E." Harry called out the imposter.

"No, and I'm sorry, but I'm not sorry that I've lied to all of you. I'm sorry because I didn't tell you the truth of who I am. My name really is Zander Williams, and I just happen to share the same name as the director of the school. I'm not sorry, because I was able to find you and get your help. All I want to do is to find my daughter. Raven is all I have left after her mother was killed in a car crash several years ago, and now they have taken her from me."

"Who has taken her from you?" Cici asked sympathetically.

"I don't know," he sobbed. "She wrote me and said that there were some people on campus that made her feel uncomfortable. It was a group, and they all wore red robes."

Upon hearing this, Amber and Vic's jaws took a hard set to them. From what they had learned the day before, R.I.M.E. was an easy target, much more accessible than Hogwarts had been, with all of its holes in security.

"I have the money to pay you, and all of the other parents will pay you too, they're all rich, most of them work in Silicon Valley. I won the Power Ball Lottery when it was close to a billion dollars. I took Raven out of Ilvermorny when the other Zander convinced me that he could give her a better education at R.I.M.E. It was just me and a couple of others that split the winnings. So, I have your forty million Euros, and I will give it all to you today if you will just help me get my Raven back. The other Zander is dead, I found him in a cave, and there was this artefact that he had, and it gave me all of his memories, but they started fading yesterday, and today, I don't know, I can hardly feel him anymore. He's gone."

"Do you remember where this cave is?" Vic asked.

"Yeah, and I hid the artefact. I think it's what the people in the red robes wanted. But Zander told me where to hide it so they couldn't get to it. I'll give it to you too, if you want it, just help me get my Raven back!" he pleaded again.

"Okay, I think that all of us are willing to help you," Cici said as she looked around at all of her friends. She even saw that Ginny was holding Zander's hand. I wonder if she even knows that she's holding his hand, she asked herself.

"No, I don't think so," Vic answered her thought.

.

The large group of people moved quickly across the populated street to the bank. With school out, parents and children were getting the things they would be needing for their summer holidays. And it was already an hour after the opening time for the bank. All of the women, except for Ginny had placed the charm back on their clothing to help control their breasts from swaying and bouncing too much, as they hurried to keep up with Harry. The last thing they needed was to get swamped with admirers. The threesome was keeping an eye out for fans of The-Boy-Who-Lived. Vic reached up and tapped on Fred's shoulder, he looked at her, and she pointed with her nose at a couple of fans starting to move in their direction. Fred and Julia moved off to the side in that direction to intercept the fans.

Off on Cici's side of the group, "It's Harry Potter! It's The-Boy-Who-Lived!" some guy shouted, and then another, and another, and so on.

At this proclamation, all of the teens formed a protective detail around Harry, Hermione, Rob, and Zander. Ginny stuck with the group that was less than 100 metres from the entrance to the bank.

Almost imperceptibly, all of the teens charmed their clothing to act as a shield as they kept up the pace to make it to the safety of the bank.

As the news of Harry's presence spread, the group of fans was growing exponentially. Ginny looked on in amazement as a couple of fans evolved into a group, and that kept growing into a mob. And as the group turned into a mob, Ginny's amazement turned into apprehension, and her apprehension turned into fear, as the mob became aggressive, all wanting something from Harry. She tried to keep up as Harry quickened his pace, she was almost running, to get to the safety of the bank.

.

She looked out of the windows in the doors of the bank, as the goblins locked the doors. Then she slowed down enough, and she felt something in her hand. She looked down at her hand and found Zander's hand in hers. Did she take his hand? She didn't remember. Did he take her hand? She didn't know. All she knew, was right then, right there, they were holding hands like a couple of teenagers. But then, Hermione was holding Harry's hand, Amber was holding George's hand, and Julia was holding Fred's hand.

Then the group of people were moving again. She looked around, and everywhere she looked, people were staring. Then she realised, they weren't staring at Harry, they didn't even see Harry, all they saw was, The-Boy-Who-Lived. She remembered now, how much he hated that title and all of the celebrity fame that came with it. She remembered how he hated how people would constantly want to be his friend so they could advance their own agenda, they never cared about Harry the boy, or Harry, the man, they just wanted Harry-The-Boy-Who-Lived. She vaguely remembered all of the Harry authorised this, or the Harry indorsed that's, that came out after the defeat of You-Know-Who. They couldn't even bring themselves to say his name now! And the things that her mother had taught her, had ingrained into her psyche, made her embarrassed to be in this group now.

"You don't need to go down that road now, or ever again," Vic told her. "I can help you with it if you want." She told her caringly.

Ginny blinked at her, how did she know what I was thinking?

Then she heard in her head, "Because, all of your thoughts are on blast! You're broadcasting all of your thoughts to everyone around you!"

Then out loud, Vic said, "When we get back to the house, you and I can go someplace quiet, and I can help you lock all of those negative thoughts behind a closed door."

"How do you know how to do that stuff? Why hasn't the Healers at St. Mungo's ever offered to help that way?" Ginny asked her softly.

"The Healers want you to work through your problems, not run away from your problems. But sometimes, we just need a little bit of space and time, before we can successfully deal with our problems. That's what I am offering you. It was something that was done for me, and something that I have helped others with." Vic told her quietly.

"But why you and not Kitten?"

"Kitten is good, but it is not her speciality. Kitten and Luna have both helped me, but it was Luna that taught this to me. The past can go into the past and stay there. Where it belongs."

"You're not going to go digging around inside of my head, are you?" Ginny asked worriedly.

"No, I'm not here to judge you. I'm here to help." Vic said to her with a small smile.

"Remember how we pulled you aside yesterday and we kept telling you that you're not broken?" Cici asked her in hushed tones. Ced could deal with the banking stuff for now.

"Yes."

"It will let you put all of that away until you're ready to deal with it. Whether that's tomorrow or never. It's your choice. But why are you going to let your past, wreck your future? This Zander, thinks that you are so amazing! Give yourself a chance! Everybody had given up on Charlie ever getting married, why give up on yourself?" Cici told her earnestly.

"They're ready for you Aunt Ginny," Rose said to her softly. She had caught a small part of what Vic and Cici were talking to her aunt about. She was glad that they were trying to help her, she had had a lot of bad luck in her life, and now she was due some good luck. Besides, Zander was kind of good-looking, in an older man kind of way!

"Thank you, Rose." Then Ginny turned to address Vic, "We'll talk more when we get back to your place." Then she got up and moved to the desk to give the goblin her information.

.

The crowd outside had died down some, but the hardcore Boy-Who-Lived fans were still there, outside of the front doors to the bank, waiting.

"Ragrok, is there another way out of the bank, other than the front doors?" Harry asked.

Ragrok suddenly looked uncomfortable.

"Do you need Director Ragnarok's permission to show us?" Harry asked.

Ragrok still looked uncomfortable, Lord Gryffindor was a friend to the Goblin Nation and a personal friend of the Directors. "Please excuse me. I will be back shortly." Ragrok excused himself from the large private room.

"Oh, before you go, could you have one of your subordinates bring Ginny her new debit card, while you're gone? She'll need it soon." Harry asked the goblin.

"Yes, I will get one of them working on that right away!" then the anxious goblin left the room.

A while later, Ragrok came back into the room with Ginny's new debit card and explained how it worked to her.

"Please, follow me." He told the group when he had finished with Ginny.

.

.

.

A/N:

Revised 04.21.2018