FILFY teacher

by Vimesenthusiast

A Harry Potter who has tried to take control of his destiny from second year on finds himself in need of a fresh start due to his marital status changing abruptly. Armed with some abilities beyond the norm, a Mastery of Defense and a muggle-style teacher's license, Harry takes his daughter Lily Luna and takes a job offer at Kuoh Academy. Pairings undecided save Harry/Rias/many?

16. Chapter 16

Not British and not talented enough to draw boobies.

Hey everybody. FILFy actually won the second medium story poll last month, however, due to my desire to reward my patty rons with my MHA/One Piece teaser, Heroes of the High Seas, taking so long (55,000 plus words), I couldn't quite get to it. Then I lost the first weekend of January with RL issues and four days this past week. Despite that, I enlarged some bits, added others, and made it into a large story for this month. One of two, with the other being Horse for the Force. This actually worked out very well, letting me concentrate all the family bits of two chapters into one, which means from the next chapter on, we will be delving entirely into PLOT. My own side plots for a bit, then back to 'canon' DxD.

This has been edited by Nad Destroyer and then me through the use of Grammarly. Another reason why it has come out so late in the month. Arg.

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Chapter 16: Politics, Cookoffs Dates and Troubles Abound

Harry came out of the enchantment shuddering slightly as he felt the draw on his magical reserves end. At the same time, the power from that other energy source he connected to whenever he and Yubelluna made use of his demigod powers together continued to fill him, rejuvenating him like someone had just given him a jolt of adrenaline right to the heart. Conscious once more of the material realm Harry looked around him, his mage sight spell allowing him to look at the wards magical construction for a time while they finished settling back into place around Kuoh. To his eyes, they were blazing with magic and purpose, more power than he and the others had ever believed they could pour into them.

Gods, right. Power to spare, and within their realm of control very little in the way of limitations. But at least this one was friendly. Although from what I thought I knew about Shiva that is somewhat surprising. But I really doubt even a god could lie through a magical connection like that no matter how brief, Harry thought with a small smile, as he moved over to Dutugamunu. He was kneeling down to one side of where he and Asia had been standing. He was also chattering excitedly on what he was seeing while several magical pens midair around him, copying down his words. Where did he get the pens?

"Magnificent!" Dutugamunu said as Harry moved towards him, before turning back and gazing almost lovingly down at the still glowing runes at his feet, his long trunk twitching this way and that even curling up over his head in a show of extreme delight and joy. "This can lead to a whole revolution in our understanding of runic magic! For too long, simplicity and speed of spellwork has pushed runes and rituals into the background. But with this, with this, we can…"

He was interrupted by a punch landing on the back of his head sending him sprawling forward onto his face, his long snout squished between his head and the ground. After a second, the large elephant Youkai rumbled to his feet turning to glare at Harry, his eyes slowly going red. "And what was that for?" he asked, his voice deceptively mild even as he lowered his head in preparation for a charge, ivory tusks gleaming.

Harry showed no fear whatsoever as he glared up at the taller man. "We are going to have a long talk about those runes of yours tomorrow," he said tightly. "You told us quite a lot about them, but you never told us where you got them from. Or that they were supposed to call upon the power of a God!"

"I did, in point of fact," Dutugamunu said calming down slightly, yet still taking an almost threatening posture in front of the other man. "After all, you yourself are a demigod, I felt they would make excellent conductors for your divine powers in order to add a bit of Holy magic into the wards." Then he blinked as Harry's words really registered. "Wait, call upon? They're simply supposed to be more effective in utilizing a god's power."

"No," Harry said tightly, trying hard not to tear the other man's throat out with his teeth. "They quite literally call upon a God. And not any specific God either. I got the impression they serve more like a shout to anyone in the Hindu pantheon that is interested enough to stop in."

"I still don't see the problem then," Dutugamunu said after a second, although he had stopped looking as if he wanted to launch himself at Harry. "After all, the fact that a God could use them to join their powers to the spell simply means they would have worked even better than I had thought to channel your own divine energy."

Harry rolled his eyes, much of his own anger disappearing, allowing him to see some of the humor in the situation. "Oh yes, it might have. Except that a God answered!"

"Wait, what?" At that, Dutugamunu took a step back, and Harry nodded grimly.

"Oh yes, a God answered, and he told me some interesting things about your family. Do you have a son in India? Who you haven't contacted in twenty-something years?"

Dutugamunu blinked, while around him, his assembled apprentices, who had all teleported to this pillar point when the enchantment finished, gaped. "Ah, I, I do have a son I suppose," the elephant man said after a few moments thought. "I'd forgotten."

"You forgot you had a son? I would say something about elephants and memories, but I'm not certain if you would get the punchline or if that's just an English thing," Harry muttered, rubbing at his lightning bolt scar. "Still, I suppose while personal, that bit of information isn't nearly as important as what specific god replied…"

Dutugamunu scowled. "Just get on with it and tell me, Potter. Don't beat about the bush."

"Shiva," Harry said, the name causing the Elephant Youkai, the nearby Tiamat and his apprentices to back away quickly. "He told me about your son, and a few other things then told me his name almost as an afterthought before cutting the connection as it were."

"That sounds like him. I never met Shiva personally, my range never extended beyond Persia, but his, hmmm, call it his off-duty persona was such that many gods and other similarly powerful beings knew of it to a certain extent." Tiamat mused, taking part in the conversation now. "Did Shiva say anything else?"

"He confirmed our fears about other old pantheons coming back and that part of why they were was because Ophis was shaking things up. He continually mentioned something about colors and how they don't lie, which is interesting, and I have a few ideas as to why that could have been important. He then mentioned Dutugamunu not having talked to his son and his needing to do so," Harry rattled off. "His whole attitude was… interesting, not at all matching my idea of what the Hindu god of destruction should be like."

Tiamat scoffed. "Bah, Serafall and the other Devils hardly act as they should either. Nor do I. The Hindu gods especially are very confusing and complicated creations. Still, it is fascinating that Shiva reached out like that. And further interesting that he made a point of mentioning this one's son." She gestured at Dutugamunu.

He rolled his old, wrinkled eyes. "I have no idea why you all are making such a big deal about that. My son is a grown man by this point and I'm certain I'm not the first man in the world to choose his passion over his family."

At that point the two of them were interrupted by Koneko appearing in midair, popping in via a teleportation spell from Rias, landing with a role in a hop skip, a small smile on her face and her Nekoshu features on full display. Harry smiled at her, and Koneko put her arms around his waist in brief hug While Harry looked over her head at Dutugamunu, one hand idly caressing her ears in just the right way.

"And I can't understand that at all," he said bluntly. "I can't understand having a family, having a son and choosing anything else over having them in my life. Now mind you, I'm still getting used to this whole 'live for centuries' thing, but even so, twenty years is far too long a time. I suggest you make plans to head back to India and find your son because if you don't, I'm going to make them for you. Shiva was very clear that you should contact the boy and I somehow doubt it's because he doesn't like absentee parents."

"Man," Dutugamunu said mildly, scratching at his large, bulbous nose, having retaken his human form during the conversation, still not seeing the issue here. "He would most heavily be a man by this point. At least in terms of age anyway."

Koneko blinked at the weird conversation, then shook her head setting the mention of Shiva and the rest to one side in favor of something immediate. Despite the ongoing head pats nearly turning her into mush, she gently stepped out of Harry's arms, tugging at his shirt. "Come," Koneko urged. "Work is done, it's time to play!"

Harry blinked at that, but when they arrived at the central position of the ritual, Koneko's words, and the eagerness with which she used them, made more sense. Perhaps because of Shiva's involvement, or perhaps because they hadn't been so stringent about keeping the musical aspect of the ritual to themselves, the semi-impromptu outdoor concert had spilled out over the into the mundane, garnering a lot of attention. As the ritual went on, more and more people came by creating a festive atmosphere that had quickly spread.

Several dozen other music groups had appeared, and one of the Shinsengumi had been forced to step in to organize things along with a Tiger youkai. The party had spilled out of the park, to several of the surrounding streets, which police had closed off, beginning to treat Yubelluna's concert as if it was a fair or other scheduled event, thanks in part to control spells of the Onmyouji. Everything on that side was working smoothly, almost as well as it might have with prior planning. The festival would be something most of Kuoh would be talking about for weeks, but thanks to the subtlety of Demonic-style memory modification spells, that was no real problem.

Harry made a note of that. The young Tiger Youkai, whose name was Minato Shimura, had quickly and very swiftly organized things, working with the local policemen and one of the Shinsengumi, a more experienced woman named Chie. That kind of impromptu organization and leadership ability was something he wanted to keep an eye on.

Speaking of leadership, I wonder if my own little addition to the wards will work, Harry thought to himself, staring out towards the school.

"Daddy!" Shouted a young voice, and he turned to see Lily and Kunou running towards him through the crowds. He knelt quickly sweeping them into his arms and then the party atmosphere spilled out over him and his two youngest daughters, pulling him in as Koneko got behind him and pushed. Later he would have to think about that little addition more, and his experience with Shiva and what it could mean. Now, as Koneko had put it, it was time to play and Harry intended to do just that.

Harry danced the night away concentrating his attention on Yasaka while she was there. Harry and his foxy lady danced together with their daughters and without for more than thirty minutes straight before Yasaka had to excuse herself back to Kyoto with Kunou in her arms. While even more outgoing nowadays than Lily and someone who enjoyed being around a lot of people more than the other youngsters, Kunou didn't have Lily's stamina and it was well past her bedtime. Teddy too quickly retired at that point, although Tonks quickly returned to party the night away.

With Yasaka gone, Harry turned his attention to his other ladies, noting as he did that Yubelluna too seemed more empowered by the ritual this time than exhausted by it, though her fingers were still raw from playing her violin. Instead, it was Kala who was exhausted, and other than a few dances with Harry and teaching Asia how to do a particular swing dance, she was content to sit slumped against one of the park's trees, eating a tray of food three times the size of a normal meal like a starving beast.

Rias, however, once the two of them were covered by spells which made Rias look like Yasaka – something the two of them had agreed to since the story of the two single parents getting together had made the rounds at the academy – was more than up for some fun. She was somewhat tired as well, but her magical reserves were about five times the size of Kala's, so she was still good to go.

Finishing up one dance with the redhead, Harry stepped back, canceling the spell around them. He then watched as Rias joined Sona, Reya, Asia, and Koneko in dancing with some of the other freshgirls (like freshmen only female) in some kind of period dance, going over to Kala and gently pulling her into a slow song. The songs had gradually been slowing down for about half an hour at this point, signaling the end of the festivities.

Halfway through the song, Harry smiled as Akeno came through the crowd around them, swaying her body slowly from side to side. She wasn't dancing with anyone though, and Harry had seen her turn down of firmly rebuff any attempt to dance with her from the boys. When she wasn't dancing she was eating with Kala and Tsubaki or singing. "Hello Akeno," he murmured, turning some of her attention her way as Kala leaned her head against his shoulders, her eyes closing as she yawned against his neck.

Barely able to hear Harry's welcome over the sound of the crowd, Akeno still smiled at him. "Ara, ara, don't you two look happy. It's enough to make a girl jealous," she said nodding to Kala who was in his arms. For some odd reason the sight of the Fallen Angel, who had spent centuries using the lust of men in various ways, was blushing at just being held by Harry, was hilarious to Akeno. And yet, there was also something strangely cute about it, although Akeno would never have previously thought to ever use that word, or indeed any positive word, to describe the Fallen Angel. My how times have changed.

"Well if you want a dance, you will just have to wait for me to put this one to bed," Harry said with a smile, before going on as he gestured around them. "Although of course, we'll have to be covered by an illusion spell, so we look like different people like Rias and I had to be. You might've noticed that a lot of your classmates are here, and it would be highly inappropriate for a teacher and student to be seen dancing together. "

Indeed, Harry reckoned that practically the entire senior class was here by this point, which was kind of amusing. The Japanese liked to work incredibly hard, a little too hard when it came to schoolwork Harry felt, wedded to too little in the way of personalization. And yet, they also partied just as hard, which was always fun to see.

"Fufufufu, I will cheerfully take up your offer of that sen~se~i~," Akeno teased, before looking around for Lily, spotting her dancing around with Rias now.

"I note by the way, that Loup is not here," Harry stated. "have you seen him?"

"No, nor have I seen Momo-chan or Suzaku-onee-sama." Akeno giggled wickedly. "It's enough to make one wonder, isn't it?"

Harry laughed at that, then muttered something about people in glass houses not tossing stones. This caused Akeno's giggle to become far more lighthearted, even as she moved away through the crowd to a bench where she would await his return.

Harry took Kala home, laying her out in her bed in the girls' dorm, shaking his head with a faint smile. She was easily the most exhausted of them all. Harry carried her through the house in a princess carry, then after using a wandless spell to pull back her covers, laid her out on the bed. He stood above her for a moment before leaning over and placing a kiss on her cheek then straightened up and backed away, unwilling to do more lest he wake her.

He had barely turned towards the door to open it when the rustle of cloth moving alerted him, and a whisper of "Harry…" caused him to turn back. What he found on the bed now stunned him.

Harry was no longer unused to beautiful women, either being around them or even seeing them naked. Kala had the kind of body men drooled over, Rias, was the ultimate girl/woman next door, her body always arousing him every time he looked at her. Yet the Fallen were in a way shaped both mentally and physically by their sin as they Fell, and Kala had fallen because of Lust.

Thus her body was literally reshaped to entice men's minds on a near instinctual level. And while they had gone out for a brief time, enough to let Harry know something of the contours and feel of that body, never before had he seen Kala in all her sinful glory.

She was tall, almost as tall as Rias. Her legs were long, well-formed but not overly muscled, with wide, soft hips yet with little fat. Kala's waist was thin, yet not overly so, with no muscles in view, but obviously enough of a shape to tell any who saw it that Kala took care of herself. Above that, her breasts were large, drooping only slightly, the kind of droop that bespoke of their weight rather than age, capped with dark black nipples, large yet perfectly formed.

Those breasts weren't as big as Rias, or perhaps not even Yasaka but they were still large, full and inviting. And they shook and jiggled as Kala stretched in place on the bed, looking at Harry with an almost feline level of delight, like a cat staring at a mouse.

She smiled wearily, yet Kala's eyes gleamed at the amount of desire Harry was quite obviously showing her. "I understand that we haven't been together for very long," she said, and even her voice now was low, velvety, causing a shudder to ride down Harry's spine. "I understand that I'm far too tired tonight to do anything but lay here, and I am certainly not a passive participant when it comes to fucking."

"Lovemaking," Harry interjected shaking his head faintly a wry smile on his face even as he kept looking at her with raw desire and appreciation in his eyes. "If you want to call one or two specific times between us fucking after the fact that's fine, but the totality should be termed lovemaking, because that is what it will be, Kala."

At the amount of affection and, dare she say it, love in Harry's tone when he said her name, Kala bit her lip and her legs worked against one another for a second. Then a yawn burst forth, causing her to chuckle ruefully before replying as the moment was nearly ruined. "Yes, lovemaking. So that's not going to happen tonight. But I wanted to send you back to Rias and the others with a little reminder of what you have to look forward to in the very near future. I'm not going to be wanting to waste any time Harry. Realize that if we get the chance, I'm going to so jump your bones!"

Harry chuckled at that and moved back towards the bed, still taking in her form as he did, his eyes practically gleaming in the light of her bed's lamp. Those eyes were so expressive when Harry wasn't guarding his emotions, Kala reflected, it was practically impossible to not see how he felt about things, or in this case people.

And she could tell that as entranced as Harry was right now, that feeling was softer somehow, less primal and needy than the Lust of men she'd known. It was more like he was appreciating a fine sculpture, an exquisite work of art rather than a vision of ultimate Lust. And there was no sense of possession there either, or if there was, it was a far softer, less demanding sort than she had ever known.

When he reached the bed, Harry trailed a finger from Kala's big toe up her leg to her waist. There the digit paused in its journey to slowly twirl around and in the thatch of blue hair that covered her pubic region, never touching the delicate opening or the small, moistening petals that protected it. Harry's finger then gently traced a route up then to either side below Kala's breasts before retracing its path turning upwards between her breasts to her lips.

Then the finger once more traced down again to Kala's chin lifting it lightly as he leaned over the bed, kissing her. Harry's touch had caused Kala to start to breathe heavily, her body reacting despite how exhausted she was, and the kiss caused her to spasm slightly. But Harry pulled away gently as she tried to deepen the kiss, causing her to let out a whimper. That she then yawned once more though made the point once more that she was too tired to do anything more.

"I look forward to it," Harry said with a laugh. "But not tonight love. Unfortunately, I have other plans for the evening, and before you ask, no they don't include any of the other ladies either."

Kala blinked, then nodded understanding dawning. "Good luck with that one. We still have no idea what's going on there, but it should be interesting."

With an answering chuckle, Harry gave her a kiss on the forehead and pulled away. He walked back towards the doorway, keeping his gaze on her body the entire time as if he was trying to burn the image into his memory before he slowly opened the door and exited the room.

When he was gone, Kala leaned back in her bed, shaking her head and sighing as she did. "Oh yes, going to jump his ever-loving bones when I get the chance. Teasing flirt monster."

Harry returned to the impromptu festival and he and Akeno danced through two slow songs. Then Harry and Rias danced for another before he danced one more song with a now-exhausted Yubelluna as the party slowly came to an end. Through spellwork, simple persuasion and work with the police Harry and his friends brought the party to a conclusion, before all of them began to head home too.

About an hour and a half later, Rias, who was already in their bed, looked at Harry who was carrying a now-crashing Lily on his back. To her surprise, Yubelluna was following them up the ladder, although she was using magic to float herself up rather than climbing it. "So, no fun times tonight?"

Looking apologetic, Harry shrugged. "If Lily's dreams were affected by the previous times Yubelluna and I have used our powers, then she'll probably be influenced again this time. Regardless of your dream catcher, I think the, call it the signal which will grab at her will be stronger due to the amount of magic we used in the ritual enchantment earlier. Especially given what I told you about our divine interruption."

"Ah yes. I still don't know what to think about that, I really don't. Tomorrow for that kind of thing," Rias said with feeling. The implications of Shiva being friendly towards them was fantastic, but his general attitude as briefly explained by Harry made her eyes want to cross in confusion.

Soon enough Harry was in bed too, with Lily flopped out over both himself and Rias, nuzzling into his chest.

"Cuddle monster," Harry said affectionately, putting an arm around her as he looked at the apprehensive Yubelluna, who was looking between him and Rias.

"Are you, that is, this is sort of jumping the gun isn't it?" Yubelluna quibbled, although she was eyeing Rias in a way that implied she was also protesting the redhead's presence.

"I don't know what you're imagining… or rather I do, and I look forward to the time that you and I properly share a bed," said Harry, emphasizing the word deliberately which caused Yubelluna to look away, a faint blush on her face. "But no, this is only to sleep. You know that Lily is effected by whatever you and I create as a byproduct of this odd connection between us, and I want us both here tonight to see what happens."

"Sleeping together as part of a magical experiment," Yubelluna muttered, "that's a first for me. Still, I understand at least."

"If my presence is bothering you that much Yubelluna, I can bunk down in the girl's room tonight. Do you want me to?" Rias asked. She was somewhat conflicted about the offer, but she knew that having Yubelluna nearby might protect Lily in some fashion. And it's best to get used to the idea of us having a kind of rotation in order to choose who sleeps with him of a night.

Yubelluna hesitated, then shook her head, sending a lopsided smile at the younger Devil in thanks, before she moved to the bed, getting in it across from Rias. "Thank you for the offer

She then twitched as Lily shifted from lying on Harry's chest to live on hers. "Comfy?" she asked looking down at the little girl, a warm smile on her face and in her eyes. This wasn't the first time she'd had shared a bed with a child. Ri and Li had routinely slept with her or with Mihae if they'd spent the night before with Riser. This time, I think I will have a much more pleasant night.

Lily mumbled something, then nuzzled into Yubelluna's chest, the only word that Harry could get out of the mumble was 'welcome" and "comfy', which Harry had to nod at. Yubelluna's chest truly did look comfortable, and he looked forward to trying it out in the future for many different things.

Down boy, he thought to himself shaking his head. For some reason using his demigod powers as he had today seemed to always make him a bit randy. But this night was most decidedly not going to be a time to indulge that kind of thing. He could feel Lily already starting to fall asleep. With a last ruffle of her hair, Harry clapped his hands, causing the lights in the room to go out. "Was that magic, or did you honestly install one of those clapper things?" Yubelluna asked shaking her head in amusement.

"Clapper thing," Rias said with a laugh. "It was just easier."

Yubelluna chuckled at that, then hesitantly leaned her head against Harry's shoulder. She was exhausted, all the work she put in on the song and dance, which had grown into an impromptu fair well beyond the forty-plus of the newcomers, was catching up with her. But she was still tense sharing a bed with Harry for the first time, even while his accent continued to make her insides go all gooey.

"Don't worry," Harry said, his voice a whisper from the dark to one side of her. "I'll never pressure you to move faster than you're comfortable with. You control how fast or how far we go, just like the other girls. I'll never push you. Well… unless You want me to," he said, smirking wickedly in the dark of the room almost unseen by Yubelluna.

She chuckled at that, Harry slowly put an arm around her as he had already done with Lily. She stiffened at first then slowly leaned against her head against his shoulders, all her tension ebbing out of her as Lily mumbled between them. This, this I could get used to.

OOOOOOO

When Yubelluna opened her eyes, she knew at once that something was off. She had gone asleep cuddled against Harry which she had been embarrassedly happy with. Lily was somehow laying out on all three of the adults as boneless as a cat.

She woke up laying out on a bed of startlingly bright green moss under a giant tree. In the distance there came the crash of the waves, while above she could see a blue sky and a few birds well up in the air moving this way and that. Around her, the sounds of the forest filled her mind with frightening clarity.

To one side, a familiar shock of blood-red hair caught her attention out among the trees, and Yubelluna moved in that direction.

Lily was already looking around eagerly, shifting to her werewolf form and sniffing the air excitedly as Yubelluna came up behind her. "Lily, don't go anywhere, please. We have no idea what's going on here," the former Phenex Queen said instead of a greeting. With children, it was best to get the order out as soon as possible

The young redhead whirled around, blinking her larger-than-normal eyes. "Yube!" she leaped forward nearly bowling the taller woman over in her enthusiasm. "You're here this time?" Hopping away, the young werewolf looked around excitedly. Yubelluna reflected ruefully that any tiredness she might have felt physically obviously hadn't carried over to whatever was going now. "And it's much clearer too. Before, it was always misty and weird and disjointed… like a, like a glitching computer game, only with smells and a lot of other stuff."

Yubelluna ruffled the girl's furry ears, but she was still staring around her, scowling. Unlike Lily, she knew quite a bit about the Devil styles of mind magic, and what they were experiencing right now was beyond anything she had ever heard of. It's almost like someone pulled a, a gestalt of ourselves into this place. And whatever this is, it's bypassed even the new wards. That coupled with the power needed to pull our magical gestalt or whatever is going on here is god tier magic. "Do you have any idea where we are Lily? And why your Dad isn't with us?"

"Nope on the first. Although this is a lot clearer than I've ever seen it before," Lily said again, looking around with the eager, inquisitive energy that was part and parcel of her personality. "Something like this anyway. A big old forest, with the sound of the ocean nearby."

"So it's never been the same spot?" Yubelluna asked looking around and hoping Harry would turn up.

But while Harry might've thought that he had allowed his defenses to fade, he obviously hadn't. Perhaps it was because his version of mental defense was so different than Yubelluna's, or perhaps as he slipped off to sleep his mind had automatically raised those defenses again without Harry consciously ordering it. Or perhaps his presence is simply too strong for whatever this is to peel a gestalt like this away from, Yubelluna mused. Regardless, unless he's still awake, which, come to think of it, is an easier explanation, Harry isn't here.

Someone else was, however. Lily was sniffing the air as Yubelluna was staring around them, thinking, then Lily blinked turning her head rapidly to one side, her eyes wide. "Asia?!"

Yubelluna turned quickly to see Asia coming towards them from around a few of the large trees. She had been looking around in bemused confusion, but now she breathed a sigh of relief at seeing the older woman and the younger girl. "Lily-chan, Yubelluna-san, oh praise the lord I thought I'd been somehow teleported to ancient Japan or something similar."

Chuckling a little at the girl's wild guess as to where they were, Yubelluna moved towards her as Lily raced over to take the older girl's hand, pulling at it while still concentrating most of her attention on what her nose was telling her. "Tell me Asia, is this the first time you've had dreams like this?"

"Um… I think I might have had a dream that looked somewhat like these trees at one point, but it was very brief. But unlike Lily, Tou-san has started to train me in Occlumency, so perhaps my building mental defenses were able to keep this all out before?" Asia said, frowning. "But um, however, we got here, um, what should we be doing now?"

It was with a certain amount of chagrin that Yubelluna realized the girl was right. How the three of them got here – which Yubelluna was putting down to the two girls blood connection to Harry and her own bandrui status for now – was not as important as learning everything they could about where they were and anything else they could figure out. "Well, first of all, have either of you seen trees like these before in your lives or in pictures?"

The two younger girls looked at one another then around them, shaking their heads slowly as Yubelluna smiled tightly. "I thought not."

The trees were treelike but were different from any tree any of them had ever seen. The bark looked as if it came from a Baobab tree, but the rest of the tree looked exactly like an oak. On another, the tree had pine needles but they were far longer than normal, the bark looked more like that of a birch tree. Another tree that looked like a redwood had silver leaves, some of whom had grown to preposterous size. And all of them, as far as Yubelluna could see, were massive, ancient examples of their breed.

That was what their eyesight was telling them. Their other senses told them more. Yubelluna looked around, smiling slightly as some of her earlier concern faded. "These trees, they are nearly... not sentient, but self-aware perhaps. They have a far greater sense of their health, their wellbeing, and surroundings than I have ever felt in a plant before. It's fascinating, almost but not quite intoxicating. They are calling out to my bandrui nature like a mermaid's song to a sailor."

"Would a siren's call impact a sailor more than a normal wizard?" Lily asked, somewhat confused by the purple-haired woman's wording.

"…Um sort of lovey," Yubelluna said, blanching slightly. "It's just a phrase. What is your nose telling you?"

Successfully diverted Lily went back to breathing in, pressing her nose fully into the nearest tree then around. "Erm, it's summer for one thing, but it's been summer for a long time. I don't smell any erm, what's the word, loam? Like crushed leaves and stuff like that. Um, the trees smell amazing too, at least a few of them really powerfully of pine, and one or two smell like they should have flowers, roses and stuff, but don't. It's weird but fun. There's a lot of the trees around though, so all of the smells are kind of getting in the way. I need to really work hard to figure out one tree-smell out of the others."

"Ano, what about animals?" Asia asked, frowning as she looked around.

"I smell a lot of birds. Some squirrels, but no wolves or anything like that as far as I can smell. There's something at the edge of my nose's range, a bear maybe, something large and shaggy. But we seem to be away from any larger animal's territory," Lily said definitively, with all the assurance of a very young werewolf. "The nose doesn't lie."

Yubelluna smiled slightly at the pleading look she was now being given from Lily. Even Asia was looking at her hopefully. "Look at you two," she teased gently ruffling Lily's ears again. "Not here for a few minutes and already you want to rush out and explore the unknown?"

"Well, it's interesting!" Lily said huffily. "I mean, look around us!"

Chuckling, Yubelluna asked, "You said that you could hear the sound of the ocean in your other dreams like this one. Can you do so now?"

Lily nodded eagerly, pointing in a specific direction. "That way. I can hear the sound of waves and even smell the salt air from that direction thanks to the wind blowing it this way."

"Very good." Yubelluna praised her. "Then, let's see if we can find the ocean. Maybe that'll give me more information on where we are."

As they walked, Yubelluna watched Asia out of the corner of her eye. The younger girl's initial enthusiasm began to wane as they walked through the woods until she was looking around, frowning faintly, one hand clasping her rosary, which had somehow come to this place with them, something that amused Yubelluna. "Are you thinking more clearly now?"

"I believe so," Asia said pouting slightly. "Yet this is all just so fantastical. This place is amazing, the very image of a magical forest. And yet, I cannot forget that we are here against our will and that we do not know where we are."

"I wouldn't go so far as to say we were taken against our will. Rather we were not given a choice at all. Still bad, but not as bad as if we had tried to avoid coming here and couldn't." Yubelluna replied, her tone serious. "But we need to remember we're not at home any longer."

Asia nodded, but even so, Yubelluna could tell the magic of their surroundings was still effecting the girl. It was effecting Yubelluna too, if not as much.

How long the three of them moved through the forest they didn't know. They came upon several wondrous sights during that time, however. Trees shaped and molded somehow int the images of giants in various poses. A tree shaped like a twisting vine winding up a rock face. Crystals the size of a man glowing with an inner deep blue light. An archway made of wood, flowers blooming all over its length. Tiny streams of pure water following down from high above in a tree's branches into a still pool. Panes of worked glass that when the light hit them chimed somehow like little bells. And here and there they found stones, markers of some kind, worn away by the ages and the weather yet still there.

Yubelluna noted the still very distinct markings on them, markings that looked like runes. Whenever they came upon stones like that she stared at them long and hard, committing them to memory and thanking Harry for the limited mental exercises he'd taught her during evening. She wasn't any closer to being able to defend her mind against intrusion than she had been before but Yubelluna had been able to organize her mind somewhat which allowed her to remember things better.

They came upon a real riverbed at one point, flowing away into the distance, and heard the sound of several little waterfalls, which Lily laughed at, turning in that direction. The river was a large body about twenty yards across, and the water was flowing very strongly. When Lily made to leap in, Yubelluna grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, shaking the whining little were-puppy in the air for a moment. "I don't think so," she said laughingly. "Come on now."

She pushed the little girl that further downstream, and Lily pouted, an odd look on her wolf-like face, but nodded. Occasionally, they would have to skirt away from the stream, but it still led them down towards the ocean. As they went, they Yubelluna and Asia began to hear the sound of seagulls in the distance intermingled from the other sounds of the forest and the birds.

As they did though, Yubelluna frowned, around them quizzically as something occurred to her. They hadn't seen anything larger than birds, although at one point Lily had spotted a squirrel and chased it up a tree. Given the feeling the forest gave her, she thought they should have seen lots of animals by this point since there were so few signs of actual habitation. Still in comparison to the rest of what was going on that was a minor mystery, Yubelluna thought, before shrugging her shoulders.

The trees ahead of them seemed to end after a bit, but instead of coming to a clearing or something similar, the three would-be explorers found themselves standing on the brink of a cliff while still being under the shade of the trees. The cliff in question was massive one, at least twenty stories tall, of white stone and marble leading down to a very thin rocky shoreline. In the distance to one side the cliff slowly gave way to what looked like a winding pathway leading downward. But for the most part, the ocean began right at the bottom of the cliff, save for that small strip of land.

A strip of land that was liberally dotted with the stones they had previously seen in the forest. Odd.

"This looks like the Cliffs of Dover," Lily said, looking around them thoughtfully. "The same color rock in the cliff anyway. Although there, the forest didn't reach directly to the side of the cliff like this," she said gesturing back over their shoulders deeper into the forest.

"Interesting," Yubelluna mused, absentmindedly ruffling Lily's ears, while Asia sat on the edge of the cliff, holding her rosary in her hand as she stared out in blissful wonder at the ocean beyond. Lily had enjoyed the forest and was looking back into it now.

But it was clear that Asia was enjoying the sight of the ocean just as much. The glint of the sun was fascinating, as was the number of seagulls in the air. In the distance, where Asia was a school of dolphins, gamboling around in the waves. They looked as carefree as dolphins always did, leaping and jumping out. When she heard one of the splashes Lily quickly turned her attention that way too. She then sat down beside her sister, leaning her head against Asia's side.

Yubelluna let the two girls to it, looking around, committing the scene to memory, trying to remember a spell to sharpen her eyesight, but failing. Sighing, she stepped towards the side of the cliff casting a featherweight charm on herself and floating downwards. "I'll be back in a bit. You two stay together and stay where I can see you," she ordered.

Lily rolled her eyes at that but stayed where she was, curling up against Asia's side staring out at the dolphins in the distance.

The dolphins for their part seemed to have noticed Yubelluna when she arrived on the beach. Several of them swam closer to get a look at her, so close she feared they were in danger of beaching themselves.

But she needn't have worried because a second later they were skittering away, squeaking in their high-pitched tones to one another, even as more came in to get a good look at her. She waved at them and watched in something like astonishment as several of them flipped upward in the water behind the others and waved their tails back at her before doing somersaults back into the water.

"Well, they are supposed to be very bright," Yubelluna muttered with a faint laugh. Then she knelt down in front of one of the stones. She looked at its marks, committing them to memory as she had the others before moving on. Many of the stones were too worn for her to see anything from. But she found five that weren't. They were all the same and after realizing this, Yubelluna flew back up towards the other two.

"Well, this has been interesting, but I'm no closer to figuring out how we are where we are right now, or what it could possibly mean," she said ruefully. I'd be more worried about getting us home, if I didn't think this was some kind of dream sending, and it will end when we wake up. Even so, the lack of answers is annoying. "So, do either of you have an idea of where to go from here?"

Lily was about to open her mouth to reply, when she frowned, coking her head, her mobile ears twitching this way and that as she stared to the northeast.

"What's wrong?" Almost as soon as those words left Yubelluna's mouth the sound of a distant drumbeat, a deep thrumming noise reached her own ears. This was followed by a horn, impossibly loud for something that none of them could see. The purple-haired woman scowled, staring around her.

"Why do I think that is not a good thing?" Lily muttered.

"Because you're smarter than the average werewolf?" Yubelluna asked, mock-quizzically.

That caused Lily to giggle but she was scowling around them, her claws popping out as she did. A normal werewolf might've been ready to flee too, looking for a way to escape. That was the instinct, after all, fight or flight. But not Lily Potter after the past few months. She growled and then placed herself in front of Asia staring back into the forest ready to fight anything that threatened her or family.

Asia blinked, looking down at the shorter werewolf girl a little bemused. "As a big sister, aren't I supposed to protect you?" she asked hesitantly.

"Nope," Lily retorted with a scowl on her face. "We're supposed to protect one another. That's what Koneko-nee says anyway."

"Oh," Asia said, and her face firmed from its previous confused, wary expression as she stepped to one side and then forward, deliberately placing herself alongside Lily rather than behind her. "That makes more sense."

Lily laughed, a barking sound in her werewolf form, while Yubelluna growled herself deep in her throat, magic beginning to coalesce along her fingers and hands, causing her to blink, then grin evilly. Oh, so wherever I am, that still works. She then slammed her hands together and reached out with both of them towards the forest, connecting to the trees as she had not been doing before.

The former friendly feeling of some of those trees had changed, shifting, becoming darker, menacing almost. They tried to fight off influence her, but Yubelluna was ruthless, pressing their willpower back, hammering it with her own. Yet at the same time she felt another, faster willpower slowly beginning to coalesce deeper in the woodlands moving toward their position.

The bugle of the horn came again, three sharp blasts of sound, some kind of signal. In reply there was the yowl of distant hounds, large ones from the sound of them. This was followed by laughter, manic laughter, crazy laughter in fact, which caused Yubelluna's skin to crawl.

Lily on the other hand frowned, standing up as straight as she could in her werewolf form. "That sounds like I always imagined Peeves the poltergeist would. That's not good."

"The poltergeist?" Asia asked. "I remember Tou-san mentioning him once."

At Yubelluna's quizzical look Lily explained. "Peeves was a poltergeist at Hogwarts where Daddy went to school. He had a lot of run-ins with the critter because he thought he was really funny. But most of his practical jokes ended up being hurtful."

Then the shadows under the leaves of the forest all around them started to come alive, reaching towards the trio from every direction, above, around and even up from the ground. The shadows stretched out, their ends becoming clawed hands reaching for the three interlopers. There was no form there, no person or eyes or anything within the shadows the could be in, it was just the shadows moving.

Several of those shadows died instantly as Yubelluna reacted. The trees that cast the shadows shifted this way and that underneath her bandrui power before she channeled her Sacred Gear, Bombardier, through them to light up the area with scattered explosions, causing several shrieks and gasps of pain to come from the shadows.

The noise of the baying hounds and the horns came closer quickly, and with them came a feeling of fear and darkness, so much so that Asia began to quail, grabbing at her rosary. The feel of it in her hands buoyed her spirits, and she began to chant a hymn to herself. "Yea though I walk in the valley of death I will fear no evil for you are with me for you are with me my Lord!" her voice rose with every word until she was shouting it out, trying to push away at the feeling of fear and darkness.

Next to her Lily laughed staring without fear into the shadows and the oncoming rush of darkness and vileness. It felt almost like what her Daddy had described as the impact of Dementors, although nowhere near as powerful.

"Get back, girls!" Yubelluna shouted. "I'll face the forest head-on, you can cover my flanks, we'll put our backs to the cliff so we don't need to worry about being surrounded."

With that, Yubelluna began to reach out once more with her powers only to grimace. That fell presence was there now, pushing her powers out of the trees like a large adult would push aside a toddler. But Yubelluna was not exactly without other resources. "Be ready to close your eyes when I tell you to!" She muttered, slapping her hands together, then moving them to either side, creating a wide square box of magic in midair which quickly flowed out from her into the trees, growing rapidly.

The shadows in that area hesitated, as if they were uncertain what was going on before trying to rush out again towards them. Then she clicked the fingers of both hands at once and shouted out, "Image Bomber!"

The explosions began instantly, creating a chain reaction in the area marked out by the box Yubelluna had crafted magically to mark out where her Image Bomber would strike. Even though she was careful to keep the explosions slightly away from them the blasts of heat and air rocked the three of them even as it shattered the forest all around them.

Ancient trees, older than some nations back home screamed both aloud and in Yubelluna's mind as they exploded, and the druid in Yubelluna cringed at what she was doing. But the Queen in her, the warrior who had led the others of her peerage into battles, when her King could not be bothered didn't give a damn about the trees. She wanted a clear fire zone, and that was what she was going to get, and she continued her destruction of the forest while the two younger girls crouched down, their hands over their ears.

But explosions too could cause shadows. Now those shadows leaped out towards the two girls to either side of Yubelluna. At first, their forms were amorphous, small too. But they grew larger as the shadow monsters reached for them. While the girls could actually see through the shadow creatures, all of them instinctively knew that if those shadows touched them, they would prove real enough.

Asia shouted another hymn to herself, as she thrust out one hand, impacting the chest of the creature that was trying to touch her, as she ducked under its arms shouting the first spell that came to mind defensive wise. "Expeliarmus!" the spell blasted the shadow back into another, where they merged but also lose their anthropomorphic bodies.

"Lumos!" Lily shouted, holding up her hand in front of the shadow coming towards her. The sudden flare, though small, caused it to twitch backward, actually shrinking back. This caused the shadow creature because Yubelluna quickly turned, slamming a finger into its head and causing another explosion.

She rapidly turned back the way she had been looking and continued to clear out trees all around them. This created a wide area of destruction, giving them better line of sight. But still the shadows came on. Yubelluna exploded them as she saw them, gesturing with one hand to guide her Sacred Gear's attack, while she used the other to create simple pure magic attacks. The only spell she had learned from Harry she could use at this point was Protego, so she had fallen back on her Devil magic.

Asia too began to do the same thing with both of her hands, although in her case she used all the spells she had learned from Harry up to this point. She sent out Expeliarmus and Stupefies at first and then changing up to Reducto with her second hand. The first seemed to take the shadows aback, knocking the corporeal things backward slightly once they took a shape. The Stupefy spell didn't do anything. The Reducto spell tore the shadow thus targeted apart.

Lily kept using the light spell whenever a shadow got too close to either to them. This allowed Yubelluna to target them, so though Lily didn't cause as much damage as the other two, she was certainly causing a lot of irritation and hesitation.

But that darn horn and those baying hounds were coming closer now all the time, the sounds constant on the wind, and Lily could feel her hackles rising at the smell that came with them. It was as if her werewolf side could smell its natural enemy almost. Regardless, the Lumos spell was giving her an idea of what to use.

Lily had seen her Daddy practice magic a lot. For years he had set aside Sunday or some other day of the week to spend just showing her magical spells, in order to show her how amazing magic could be. And one of her favorites was the Expecto Patronus.

Now, she was years away from having the power that most thought necessary to use that spell. But Harry had let Lily in on the big secret of that spell: that power really wasn't as necessary for it as most people thought. Instead, having a happy enough memory to use in the spell was the most important.

As the shadows coiled around them despite Yubelluna's best efforts, and the feeling of cold fear and sadness began to close in with the growing smell of dank, wet fur on the wind, Lily reached inside and then howled. She howled as loud as she could, she howled so loud that it deafened both of the other girls with her, causing Asia to clap her hands over her ears, and Yubelluna to reel away. She howled so loudly that the baying of the hounds turned into whimpers of fear, and the sounds of the horn stopped instantly. It wouldn't have lasted long, but that hesitation lasted long enough, the shadows themselves recoiling as she howled out.

And with the howl, Lily pushed out her magic in all directions, imagining herself conjuring the Patronus into being. And it worked. From Lily's small body came a vast coruscating rainbow of colors as she thought about all the fun memories she'd had with her Daddy, with her friends, with Koneko, with the others, pushing them into her magic and then out of her body. This of course wasn't what you normally did to use the Patronus spell, but Lily was also part Demigod, and her magic was far more malleable than most wizards, not needing the sharp control of a spell to use.

What appeared around her were not the full, almost solid form of a full Patronus spell. These were ephemeral things, like fog almost, the same kind of fog that appeared when Harry was calling on his godly powers. But there were dozens of these fog images, each of them looking like a person Lily cared for. Rias, Koneko, Lily, Daddy - several of him in his various forms – even Kunou and Asia and Teddy, who she would never think to call on to protect her. Everyone she knew and loved appeared around her. They then flashed out towards the shadows, slamming into and through them in blasts of silver light.

But that was not the only effect of the strange spell that Lily had created on the fly. The world around them shivered, turning almost into fog itself, as everything around them started to take on a dreamlike state. Whatever spell or enchantment had pulled the three of them there had suddenly broken as Lily used her magic in that world for the first time. As the background faded, Yubelluna found felt her body slowly drifting off into true unconsciousness, and desperately tried to retain her memories of what had happened, even as she laughed in delight at their escape.

OOOOOOO

"I have someone new I wish you to meet Lady Ophis," Cao-Cao said, as he bowed to Ophis.

The young-seeming Ophis looked up frowning at the interruption but making no other outward sign of annoyance. Indeed, inside she was rather happy for it.

The recruitment for the Khaos Brigade was still going well more than two months into it, even if the lack of activity toward opening a doorway to the dimensional gap and kicking Great Red out was making Ophis unhappy. But where before only single criminals or heretics had been brought in, now whole groups were being recruited.

Whole clans of magicians had been brought in to replace those they had lost. One hundred and eighty-two European style wizards brought in clumps from here and there throughout Europe, although that seemed to be only the tip of the iceberg there since most of their fellows were busy on their side of the Wizarding World's massive Notice-Me-Not arrays with their own goals. A few dozen turned vampires though not many just yet, and no pureblooded Vampires, most of whom made their home in Romania. Sacred Gear users from all around the world brought in whether they wanted to be or not.

All in all, what they had lost in the months leading up to January when the Youkai Association, the Onmyodo government, the Hinduists and the Three Factions had started to wage their own anti-Khaos Brigade campaign, had been replaced. It made Ophis pleased, pleased with her plans going forward since it brought so many different minds and magical types together to work on her goal of getting rid of Great Red.

At the moment Cao-Cao interrupted her however, she had been looking over some of the detailed information on her newest goal: the three items which she knew could lead to sealed Evil Dragon's which she could then force to obey her.

She was planning to head off tonight to see to the first of those items. But since they were so far away from one another, and two were in areas where the humans had so many radar devices and further were in areas controlled by the annoying – and annoyingly capable – MACUSA, she was taking her time going over how precisely she would do so rather than just smashing her way in. The last thing she wanted now that she was drawing wizards to her side was to force the largest Wizarding World government to act against her. While no threat to her or even most of her followers even in vast numbers, they could still disrupt her plans in a most annoying way. The one in the human country of Iran however, that one at least is fair game. Still enough of that for now.

"Who?" She asked, looking at Cao-Cao quizzically.

"They are Devils milady and they are part of the Old Satan faction who have survived to this point by hiding from the New Satan Faction. One is in fact a representative of another, who believes that he could in fact be almost as strong as one of the two so-called Super Devils, Sirzechs and Ajuka," Cao-Cao said.

Ophis raised an eyebrow at that. Though neither of those so-called super Devils were anywhere near as strong as her, there was a reason why they were called Super Devils, placing the two of them within the top ten strongest individuals on Earth. Of course, Ophis knew that she herself was stronger than the other top three on that list combined, but that was neither here or there. Such a power would be helpful when it is time to battle Great Red.

But her eyes narrowed. "You said this Devil who has come here to meet with me is a representative of another?"

Shrugging, Cao-Cao nodded. "Yes. I was able to get in touch with the man himself, a Rizevim Livan Lucifer. However, instead of coming himself he sent his representative and an offering of a magicians guild that look to him for their power source." The man's arrogance infuriated Cao-Cao, as it had upon meeting with him in person, but he did not let that show on his face.

"How many magicians?" Ophis asked. If she had been in her draconic form her tail would have been lashing, but as it was, there was no more sign of her ire than the narrowing of her eyes.

"An even twenty-four. All of them are decently powerful for their breed too. They even seem to have good endurance magically speaking as well."

"Do you think that is all?"

"I doubt it. I believe that these two, the woman named Katerea Leviathan and Rizevim Lucifer lead far more Satan faction members. However, they only sent this group, and the one other man, Euclid Lucifuge as a representation of what they could bring to the Khaos Brigade."

Ophis abruptly stood up, moving around her tiny desk, and out the door. "Come," she said not even looking at Cao-Cao as she walked on.

He smiled holding back a grimace with the ease of long practice as he followed the nonhuman creature out the door and down the corridor to the large entranceway where newcomers were first breveted, introduced to Ophis, and then blessed by her if they so needed, and if she so deigned to. Cao-Cao himself had only recently been ordained like that, but the power-up had been incredibly amazing.

Indeed, no nonhuman should have that kind of power! Soon, soon. I still need her to help shatter the peace talk between the three factions. Once they are again at one another's throats, none of the other mystical societies out there will pose much of a threat to my Humans Only Alliance. We will use the rest of the Brigade, weaken them all, bring magic into the light of the real world, and then conquer them all, one after another until only humans remain alive on our planet!

While the name of his group was still a work in progress, the thought behind it was simple enough. Cao-Cao hated all nonhumans. He found them arrogant, poisonous beyond belief to everyone around them in various ways and completely unnecessary for Earth as a whole. He wanted each and every one of them dead and gone. Gods, devils, angels, fallen, Youkai. All of them would be purged eventually. And I will start with Ophis, draining her power, and adding it to my own. But carefully. I can't move just yet. My team isn't quite assembled yet, and those who look to Vali are stronger still. Until then, I must use the other nonhumans, turn them against one another as best I may.

In the receiving hall were twenty-seven people. Three of them were Khaos Brigade guards there on duty, watching the newcomers warily. All three were magicians who had switched allegiance to Ophis and bore her mark on their shoulders, which were bare. The rest of their body was covered in a kind of uniform in the form of a sleeveless black robe covering them from head to toe. Ophis thought the look somewhat ridiculous but she had never been asked her opinion on them or to help create the robes, so she didn't care one way or another.

But perhaps it is not the most ludicrous look they could have devised. Odd. I wonder why it is that most magicians seem to like to dress alike depending on their particular guild or the Devil they look toward for their powers. Is it to show unity, or is it simply a sign of their lack of individuality? Then again, none of them are strong enough to stand alone anyway Ophis thought, the words accompanied by a feeling of contempt as she looked at the newcomers.

The twenty-four magicians wore a cerulean robe paired with black gloves, black boots, and a white mask covering their entire faces bar two eyes slits. On the white mask was painted a bloodred mark of the original Lucifer.

To one side of the mindless magicians, the two that Cao-Cao had mentioned stood and they were somewhat more interesting to Ophis.

Katerea Leviathan was a tall woman with big breasts and well-built hips, on display in something that, if asked his opinion on the matter, Cao-Cao would have called an odd mix between a dress, a dominatrix outfit, and a swimsuit. He might not have time for Devils and Fallen, but he could admit that many of them were extremely gorgeous. After all, they were built for Sin, weren't they? And this woman took that concept, built for sin, to a whole new level.

The outfit didn't cover much of her chest, being open in a diamond shape in the center ending just below her navel, despite the long, wide collar the only part of the outfit that didn't hug her like a second skin. Katerea also had somewhat tanned skin paired with long brown hair that was tied into a bun under which purple eyes watched Ophis beyond a pair of square glasses.

Looking at her once more, Cao-Cao thought with some amusement that it was as if Katerea could not decide if she wanted to dress like a severe teacher or a succubus. On her face, she wore a neutral expression, but there was something in her eyes that said she would be sneering if not for how serious an occasion this was. And despite the arrogance of her dress and face, she seemed to know that Ophis was to be respected despite the dragon thing's human form.

The other was a young man, with a handsome face looking only a little older than Cao-Cao. He had silver hair tied in a braid down his back, white gloves, and a butler's outfit, complete with coattail and cravat. Unlike the woman he was looking around, smiling as he took in the base. Yet once more when Cao-Cao saw the man's eyes, he knew that smile was false. Or if not precisely false, simply a surface image, hiding all beneath. For those eyes held an age to them that made Cao-Cao remind himself once more of why he loathed these nonhuman creatures.

Before Cao-Cao could do the introductions, the young-seeming man spotted them as Katerea had. He took two steps towards them then bowed deeply towards Ophis, ignoring Cao-Cao now that Ophis was there. "Greetings mighty Ophis. My name is…"

"Silence," Ophis ordered, pointing a finger at him. At the same time, her power roared out from her small frame, her aura visible in the air of the large cavern-like hall. It pressed down on them as if the gravity had just quadrupled in the cavern as fear roared through their minds, causing them all to fall to their knees, even Cao-Cao. The two Devils were no exception, thrust to their knees even faster than Cao-Cao considering they were the target of her power and he just caught in the backlash.

Both of them wore astonished looks on their faces and tried to flare their own power to counter Ophis's aura, but she simply overpowered them with ease. After a few seconds she had overwhelmed them and both were now staring at her with wide eyes. Katerea looked afraid now, any earlier arrogance she might have felt snuffed out like a candle. The man seemed to just be shocked, fear not yet touching his mind for some reason.

Her eyes still narrowed in anger, Ophis slowly reigned in her aura very slightly, before she pointed at the woman, releasing the woman from her aura. "You seem to be stronger than him, if only by a small margin. You will speak."

Katerea gulped looked at her companion, and then back to the little human-formed dragon in front of her. "W, what," the woman coughed, "What would you like me to say?"

Ophis nodded and the feeling slowly dissipated from the rest of the cavern, causing many of the magicians, who had been forced to their knees as well in the backwash to gasp in shock and fearsome of them collapsing entirely, foam forming on their mouths. But Ophis didn't care for them. If they were so weak their minds broke at a mere brush with her power, what worth were they?

"That was the proper answer. The question is, I was told that one of you two represented someone else. Why is he not here?"

The way she asked that question implied the words 'and it better be good', which the woman obviously caught. But she didn't reply instead looking down at the other man. "I don't honestly know. My name is Katerea Leviathan and I represent my clan, a clan of more than a hundred and fifty Devils, all of them medium to high class in power. We are willing to join with the Khaos Brigade so long as you are willing to give us the chance to reclaim our thrones. But the Old Satan Faction isn't nearly as organized as you might think. We all work together to hide from the New Satan Faction, but we don't talk to one another all that often, or work together on anything else. I have tended to not look too closely at the other Old Faction leaders or their doings either in the interest of keeping that peace."

Ophis frowned thoughtfully, looking into the distance as she considered what she knew of devil kind, their government, and the individuals running it. This woman might well be a very good resource. The Leviathan clan, Ophis had learned, were something like information packrats, finding and squirreling away secrets of all sorts. It was why Serafall Leviathan was the head of the diplomatic corps for the New Satan Faction. "That makes some sense. Are any of these beholden to you?" she asked.

"No. I have three different magicians guilds that look to me and my clan as their source of power, but all of them are small, ten to fifteen members each. I have them doing various specific tasks for me and our clan's interests most of the time, although if you want them

here to meet you or to receive portions of your power on top of our own, that can be of course arranged," she added hastily, showing a healthy modicum of fear from the earlier example of Ophis's strength.

"No. That is fine," Ophis said with a nod. "You will tell me later what tasks you have them on, but other than that, so long as you understand where they are best utilized, I will not interfere with your running of them. I will be questioning you closely on what information you can give me."

The woman breathed a sigh of relief. "My clan specializes in espionage and mind magics, detecting and using them. I have seventeen of them in South America at the moment, gathering human-type funds from the various drug cartels and government. The others are spread out in the Devil Government working in various departments."

Cao-Cao nodded, stepping forward quickly while Ophis was wondering idly if the woman had some special fetish for the word 'various'. "And you will share any information you gather." The Khaos Brigade's own espionage efforts on the underworld side of things had been sharply curtailed of late as the Devils got better at rooting them out. Indeed, Ophis was growing annoyed by how well they seemed able to discover her spies so this woman was an excellent addition to her Khaos Brigade.

"Of course," the woman said with a nod toward him.

Ophis glanced at Cao-Cao but then nodded. That was a good question, and she would let his interruption go, even if her own interest in the woman remained mainly on the Leviathan Archives that was out there somewhere and all the information it was rumored to contain. Still, there will be time for that later.

She turned back to the man, who had also recovered himself by this point. "And you? Who do you 'represent'?" she said, making the word sound distasteful to her, which it was, hence her earlier show of force.

"I represent the true Lucifer, he who stands above all Devilkind, Rizevim Lucifer!" Euclid said proudly believing foolishly, that the dangerous moment had passed. "These are but a tithe of the magicians that my Lord commands. Six thousand, six hundred and sixty-six magicians the world over look to my dread master as their source of power."

"And why is he not here?" Ophis said, her voice its normal monotone and her face it's normal unresponsive mask. Because of this, of the people present only Cao-Cao realized the danger and he quickly took a step backward, frowning and hoping Lucifuge didn't say anything stupid.

This hope was in vain.

"As this is to be an alliance between equals, it was felt that the groundwork should first be laid by an underling such as my…where?"

Before Euclid had finished speaking Ophis had moved. She had crossed the intervening space in a bare eyeblink, leaving behind a sonic boom that nearly knocked Cao-Cao off his feet, and before anyone could react was now past the man.

For a moment, he looked confused, looking around for her. Then the pain hit, and Euclid screamed, one hand rising to where one of his arms should have been. "GAAAAHHHHHghhh!"

Ophis had torn it out of its socket with the ease of a man pulling apart the two ends of a ziplocked bag. Euclid went down to his knees still screaming, until Ophis reached down, and there was a flash of fire that cauterized the wound. Then he merely whimpered, falling onto his side, the pain more than he could bear for all his magical power.

"See to healing the wound and giving him something for the pain. No regeneration. I wish for him to have something to remember this lesson by," Ophis said to Cao-Cao, who nodded.

Ophis then turned back, crouching in front of the man glaring into his face, now tear-streaked with pain, in her normal dull way. When he made to look away she grabbed his hair and pulled him back to stare into his eyes.

"I am Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God. On this plane, I have no 'equal'." She spat out the word, before pausing, obviously waiting for some response, and the man nodded his head jerkily, which she allowed. After all she didn't want his hair on her hand. "Your master is mistaken in that if he deals with me he will be dealing with me as an equal." She paused again.

This time the pause was longer and looking at the man's face Ophis realized there was a battle going on inside his head, perhaps between a deep fear of whoever this master of his was and a new fear of her. Or perhaps a sense of actual loyalty was holding him back although she discounted the very idea given he was a devil. But eventually, the terror of the being in front of him surpassed it, and he nodded his head again.

"You will tell your master this. If he wishes to become part of the Khaos Brigade. If he wishes to partake of my power, then he will come here and meet with me himself. I do not deal with middlemen." With that, she dropped him back to land face-first on the ground, standing up and looking over at the woman. "Do you want to be blessed by my power now?"

Katerea showed she was a devil in truth, in Cao-Cao's opinion. Where most humans would have been appalled, terrified or just shocked at the display, Katerea was simply impressed, and eager now to partake of the power she had just seen. She went to one knee where she crossed her arms on top of the bent knee as she bowed her head. "Lady Ophis, it would be my greatest honor to be blessed by you."

Ophis nodded and moved over to the woman, pressing her hand into the woman's forehead. Black, gold and red energy rose from all around her as a tattoo slowly worked its way out from under her hand, the same kind of tattoo that Diodora who Harry had killed had worn on his body. It twirled around Katerea's forehead, then down her body, covering her from head to toe before slowly sinking into her skin disappearing within.

Ophis then pulled her hand back, stepping back two steps as she addressed Katerea. "You now have a fraction of my power within you. Continue to serve my cause and we will continue to aid you in yours. This is a contract between us, one we are both bound by," she said sternly, using much the same words that she had used every time with others.

Although for some reason now she was once more having to fight to banish the words of Harry Potter, shoring up her mind with her pride against them. A dragon does not ask, it demands payment. "What is your goal?"

"I Agree," Katerea said bowing from the waist as she stood up. "I will help you in defeating Great Red and opening a door to the dimensional gap. So long as you can help me, reclaim my family's position as one of the Maou of the underworld."

"Then we have a contract," Ophis said with a nod. She looked over at the man. "Take him back to the underworld with you. You need not wait to hear his employer's words. I trust I will be hearing from him soon."

After tearing off his arm Ophis had also placed a tracking charm on him, which would allow her to find him should his master decide to no longer work with them. Since he sounded strong according to Cao-Cao, she would not allow that to stand. He would either serve, or he would be eliminated. She would not allow a power like that to join her other enemies.

Turning away, she moved down into the base once more, leaving Cao-Cao to clean up and show the mages where to go. As she went, she was surprised somewhat to see Arthur and his sister ahead of her in the hall. It looked as if they were waiting for her, and she cocked her head as she reached him.

Realizing that was an indication that they should speak," Le Fay began. "Um, Lady Ophis, I'm afraid that my brother and I will need to take a bit of a break from the Khaos Brigade this coming March."

Ophis blinked, cocking her head to one side. "Why?" Le Fay was a very good magical resource for the brigade as a whole if not a good combatant, and Ophis rather liked the girl's sweets that she sometimes prepared. Arthur in contrast was one of the Khaos Brigade's best field agents, his swordsmanship was second to none, and combined with the sword Excalibur Ruler made him strong enough to be acknowledged by Vali and Cao-Cao.

"There is a magical phenomenon occurring in the United Kingdom, Ireland and even parts of Scotland that is baffling the locals. I've been following that investigation, and I think that the magic involved could be interesting." Le Fay replied.

Ophis cocked her head again, one eyebrow rising in silent query.

"…It seems to be godly in origin, to cover that much territory and to appear and disappear without anyone the wiser it almost has to be, or perhaps some residue from a previous pantheon's work," the younger woman replied hesitantly. "It's so widespread the Wizarding World is baffled by it. And we thought that is…"

Arthur took up the tale quickly. "Thanks to our family's connections, we are able to work with both the magical and non-magical governments to get to the bottom of whatever this is."

"The United Kingdom is where Harry Potter came from correct? Do you think there are any others as, not strong as he certainly, but as magically inventive there?" Ophis asked. The wards around Kuoh continued to impress her, and she had watched recently when they grew even stronger than before. That, and some of the things she had learned the Wizarding World intrigued her. With the wizards they had recruited already helping her she had even copied their Notice-Me-Not wards for her base of operations here.

"Um, m, maybe," Le Fay said, blushing a little at the mention of Harry Potter, who had become something of her hero when she had it first investigated him. "Certainly we can do some recruiting there too."

Ophis frowned at that, knowing of some of her own first contacts in this world, contacts that continued to aid her even now in their own way. But still, I doubt these two will bring any attention their way. And this magical phenomenon sounds interesting. "How long?"

"We shouldn't be gone for more than a week or so," Arthur said. He didn't want to go at all frankly, but, Le Fay did, and Arthur would no sooner leave her alone in any circumstances then he would cut off his own leg. "By that time, of course, much of the training of the new recruits that we have already added to our ranks should be done, I wouldn't want to leave such undone," he went on bowing from the waist to Ophis.

"Just the two of you?"

"Yes," Le Fay and Arthur said as one before Le Fay pointed at her brother and shouted jinx, causing him to roll his eyes and for Ophis to blink in confusion. The younger Pendragon giggled at their expressions, before going on seriously. "We don't need anyone else to investigate this and frankly, the more people we have, the more complications there might be. I mean let's face facts, no one in the upper echelons of the Khaos Brigade is very good at blending in you know?"

Ophis nodded at that, thought for a moment, then nodded again. "Your point about training being nearly done for the groups that have been brought in recently is well taken. And this magic you mentioned intrigues me. You will take notes on it, and report back to me as soon as possible if it is at all useful."

"Thank you milady," Le Fay said with a curtsy, an act that Ophis always found amusing. She liked the respect most people gave her but curtsying just looked amusing to her for some reason. She nodded at Arthur, then turned and as usual walked away abruptly.

"Well," Le Fay said looking over at her brother. "That went better than I expected."

The older Pendragon just nodded, and the two siblings walked away in a different direction, never noticing one of the newcomers, a middle-aged wizard of Mediterranean descent, looking after them from behind a series of concealment spells.

OOOOOOO

Once whatever power had grabbed their minds, or as Yubelluna put it their mental Gestalt, and dragged them else when had faded thanks to Lily's magic, the night had passed uneventfully. But the memories of that time had not. Yet at first, when she woke Yubelluna thought at first might've been a dream, and then she looked over at Harry, who was cocking his head quizzically looking at over at her. "Well, I didn't feel anything, what about you, my Lady?"

Yubelluna flushed, remembering then that she had spent the night in Harry's bed for the first time last night, and felt his arm around her waist, encircling but not holding her there. It felt…nice. Nice to be sleeping next to a man who desired her but had no wish to dominate or own her. That and these days whenever Harry called her 'my lady, Yubelluna's insides sort of turned to mush a little more.

But before she could analyze those feelings more or bring herself to actually answer Harry's question, Lily began wriggling out from between them, "I did!" she said, and hopping off the bed. She grinned back at them over her shoulder even as she skittered towards the flap lifting it and hurling down the ladder.

Harry blinked following her with his eyes, before tracking over to Yubelluna who sighed. "You weren't pulled in with us, but did you feel anything?"

"No," Harry said with a shake of his head. "I didn't."

"Then I'm afraid your mental defenses might not have been down as you might've thought, or something else is going on there. But whatever it was the spell or enchantment dragged me in too this time as we thought it might. I saw the forest. I saw the ocean. And I saw the shadows coming for us, the sounds of the bugles and the baying of the hounds," Yubelluna shuddered, remembering.

"What?" Harry asked, his eyes narrowed.

Rias came up then, looking a little frazzled. "Lily just about pulled me over just then," she said with a laugh. 'She's heading towards Asia's room, and I think our little nun is about to be ambushed by the serial cuddler."

"It wouldn't surprise me," Yubelluna said with a laugh. "She was there too."

"Could you start from the beginning," Harry said mildly, though there was nothing mild about his eyes as he looked at her.

"I'd like to talk about it with Lily and Asia there if you don't mind, I want to see if their impressions match mine," Yubelluna said, flushing slightly under that gaze. Harry nodded, rolled out of bed and then stood up, holding out a hand to pull Yubelluna out of the bed with him.

Down below, Lily had banged open the door to Koneko and Asia's room. Koneko blinked, looking up from where she had been combing her hair, the half sleepy look on her face disappearing as she looked at Lily's excited exuberant look. "Lily?"

Asia looked up from where she had been praying, blinking as she smiled at the little girl. "Hello Lily, I had the strangest…"

That was as far she got before Lily had launched herself across the room, slamming into Asia carrying her back onto the bed with a cry of "You really are my sister!" A second later she hopped out of the bed now carrying the wildly gesticulating and blushing Asia and moved over until she could grab at Koneko, who was blinking rapidly in surprise at the sudden cuddle attack.

Later, as Kala was preparing breakfast, Harry and Rias listened intently while Asia, Lily, and Yubelluna explained their adventures. Koneko listened too, not so much intently as with annoyance, her arms crossed, her cat ears flat to her skull. Again. Again Lily had an adventure, and I wasn't around to protect her! This time at least it seemed as if there was a reason behind her exclusion, rather than Koneko just not being there, but she still didn't like it. Grrrrrrr…..

"And you're positive there was no intentional threat in the, the sending I suppose we'll have to call it," Harry asked seriously. He was quite worried about this considering that again the calling had bypassed the wards entirely and had been able to overpower Rias's defenses this time too.

She too was scowling angrily at this point, tapping one finger on her other bicep as she crossed her arms, the very picture of angry defensive motherhood. In Harry's opinion it was ruddy hot frankly, but now wasn't the time for those kinds of thoughts.

"Do you think your memory is clear enough for you to create a memory for us to look at?" Harry asked gesturing towards her head.

She shook her head. "No, although I might be able to draw the images of the runes I saw."

"Show me," Harry ordered.

She wrote them down on a piece of paper, then handed them over, and Rias and Harry both looked at what she drew. After a second Harry stiffened, scowling. "Okay, that's unusual and very worrisome. When we head to the UK, I might have to stop in at the Department of Mysteries."

"Why?" Rias asked, her own voice going tense as she saw how worried Harry looked.

"Three of those runes I have never seen before. But the fourth, that one was over the top of the Veil of Death.

"The one you fought around when Riddle tried to pull you into an ambush during your fifth year at Hogwarts?"

"The emphasis should be on tried there," Harry said with a small lurking smirk. That had been the moment where he and Albus had started to part ways, after Harry and his friends had killed seven of the nine Death Eaters who they fought in that running battle through the Department of Mysteries, including several newly inducted just out of Hogwarts Death Eaters like Marcus Flint. "But otherwise yeah, that's right. Hence my concerns here. You didn't feel any tugging, anything trying to drain your powers? Any mental pressure to stay once Lily's spellwork started to shatter the calling?"

"No," Lily and Yubelluna said as one, causing the little girl to giggle. Right up until the shadows and the hunting horns had started she had been enjoying herself immensely. Even if she was kind of tired this morning. It had been fun to explore, and Yubelluna had pointed out some really interesting plants as the three of them had moved along.

"I think that whatever threat is there does not come from the calling itself," Yubelluna mused. "If it is a real place, then obviously it could have dangers. That, that thing at the end… that was disturbing."

"As you describe it, it almost sounds like the Wild Hunt," Harry said. At Yubelluna's confused look, Harry explained. "The Wild Hunt is a part of Welsh and British folklore. It's supposed to be held near the end of the year on the last day of Winter or Winter's Solstice or some such. Depending on what part of the isles you come from it can either be seen as a force for good, gathering all the bad stuff that has gathered throughout the year and routing it out of the forests or a force for evil, hunting those who have been caught out that night for all eternity."

He smiled mirthlessly. "Judging from your reaction to it, I suppose the second is closer to the truth. It's supposed to be led by Herne the Hunter in British folklore, or Wotan or Gywn Ap Nudd in Celtic lore. The most traditional Wizarding World families celebrated a small holiday on the last day of winter to commemorate the hunt, and I remember thinking it odd that they both celebrate it, but also never leave their houses on that night."

Rias nodded, her anger fading slowly. "That sounds familiar. I would have to check with Suzaku to be sure, but I think there is a Japanese version of it, one that occurs out at sea and gathers all the ghosts, demons and dangerous creatures, chasing them back out to the deep ocean. I can't think of the name of it though." Something about that imagery was bothering her in conjunction with the story the three ladies had told them, and by his face, Rias could tell it bothered Harry too.

"Alright. Since we're already heading back to the UK there's nothing more we can do know. "I want you to write down everything you can remember that was out of place, anything that didn't seem natural. And I want to know as much as you can tell me about this, the phenomenon at the end too."

"Should I do that too?" Lily asked, raising her hand as if she was in school.

"I think so lovey," Rias said leaning down to give the girl light kiss on her forehead. "After all, you've had this happen several times before. But, I want to be clear on this, my defenses were able to stop this calling from getting through before this? It was just the recent ritual that let it through?"

"Yep," Lily said with a nod. "I hadn't had that dream since you put up those defenses back in January."

"Good. Put up your defenses around Lily again whenever she's sleeping, and Asia too." He looked over at Asia, who smiled and nodded leaning into the hug he gave her while Koneko continued to scowl her fingers twitching. "I don't want us playing with this. Mental magic like that, even if this is just some kind of weird leftover magic from the Tuatha De Danan my demigod status is connecting you to could be dangerous. And I in no way want my daughter involved in it."

"Agreed," Yubelluna said with a firm nod.

Lily pouted, but under her Daddy and Rias's looks, nodded too. "I suppose."

"Also," Harry said after a few moments, "I think Yubelluna and Lily, that I'm going to assign you a bit of homework. Asia, you've already been working extra hard on your wizard-style spells, and this was the first time you've had this kind of thing happen, so I'll exempt you from it for now."

Lily groaned dramatically, while Yubelluna simply nodded and Asia leaned down to whisper into the little girl's ear that she would help if she could while Harry continued. "I'm going to ask you to go online and look at various historical sites, tourist places in Ireland and the United Kingdom. You mentioned stones, see if you can match them to anything that's known in the nonmagical world, them or any actual geographic sites. That'll help us when we go back to the United Kingdom."

And thank the powers that be that Rias and I have parental control over the internet and that the girls haven't shown any interest in adult-type stuff just yet. Hopefully, this will actually get us some information, and with Yube there along with Asia I don't think they should get too sidetracked…

"But we are going to explore this when we get there right?" Lily asked holding up her hand once more.

The adults looked at her, and Harry cocked an eyebrow as he leaned across the table, poking her forehead. "And why do you think it's important my dear?" He asked his tone light, but his eyes serious.

Lily understood what he was really asking, but she wouldn't have spoken up if she hadn't already had the idea in her head. "Before the shadows showed up, I thought it was fun. There's something about that place, it kind of calls to me and I'm not talking about the whole pulling my mind there thing. It's... I don't know it's almost like entering your own territory? It's tied up with my werewolf instincts, and some other things I think."

"This isn't I don't think it's just a…" she frowned thinking about the words. "Like, I don't think it's, dangerous, I think it's a part of something bigger. The calling itself might be a spinoff of it, but this something else, that is really important. Does that make sense? And it's something that's maybe failing?" she trailed off, frowning as she wondered how to explain the feelings she got.

"A, Ano, I think sensed something of that last impression too," Asia said. The others looked at her and she shrugged. "It, it was a very strange feeling, but I feel as if that, wherever it was, was somehow closer to us at the end of the dream than at the beginning? Those stones, they were part of it, and, well, they were all worn down, nearly gone even the runes on them. That, doesn't that mean whatever ward scheme or whatever they are a part of will be failing too?"

Harry frowned, glancing at Yubelluna who nodded reluctant agreement. "I said before we're going to be going back to investigate the Tuatha de Danan and how I can best use my godly powers before loves. But yes if you want me to promise to figure out specifically what is going on here, I can do that too. Will that set your minds at ease?"

Holding her rosary again Asia smiled happily and nodded while the other two made affirmative noises. "If you so promise Dad, then I believe you."

"I just wish it could've taken me too," he said looking over at Yubelluna.

"Regardless," he went on, reaching forward and gently taking Yubelluna chin in one hand. "You protected my daughters from whatever it was. Thank you."

The look in his emerald eyes sent Yubelluna's pulse to racing but that was nothing compared to what happened next as Harry pulled Yubelluna towards him with that hand, his grip gentle, yet inexorable until their lips met. There was nothing soft about that kiss. It was passionate, it was loving, and it was deep as she opened her mouth allowing Harry access as he gave her the most passionate, quim-wetting kiss that she had ever had. She couldn't stop herself from moaning aloud, and Harry took that as a cue to just keep kissing her, drawing her into a hug.

Laughing quietly, Kala and Rias chivvied blushing Asia and the giggling Lily out of the kitchen into the foyer with the still scowling Koneko. "Come on you all, regardless of what happened, the rest of your life must also be seen to, and I think it's time for you to go get changed for school."

There they met with Kunou, who popped in from Kyoto, although alas her mother wasn't with her this morning. She'd been called away on a small issue between the local werewolf clan and the Rakshasa clan on hunting territory.

As Koneko herded the younger girls off, with Lily now filling in the kitsune about her nighttime adventure, and Asia went up to pray, Rias looked back in at the couple still making out in the kitchen an outrageous pout on her face which Harry caught over Yubelluna's shoulder. He just shrugged at her, and she gestured with her chin at Yubelluna, pouting even more before sighing and turning away.

Rias knew she was bisexual, but she Yasaka had yet to get together for more than a few make-out sessions, and neither Yubelluna nor Kala were open for more than simple hugs from other women. Worse, the two of them had talked about their upcoming schedules, and it didn't look as if they would have time to get away for more than that, because Yasaka's days were currently full up with meetings with local clan heads and others, who are not getting in their opinion their fair share of the trade agreements.

That was annoying work, but it had to be done to keep the peace in the Youkai Association and February was always the time for meetings of that nature. So she couldn't begrudge it. And of course, my days are still far too full with going to school, magical training, training with Onii-sama or Serafall-sama, Harry and the rest of our family. And just like her first time with Harry, I think the first time all three of us can get away should be special.

So while Harry was busy nearly making Yubelluna see stars, Rias took that morning to pour a bit more power into the dream catcher she'd created months back over Kunou and Lily's bunkbeds. She then sent a message to her family, asking her mother and father to see if they could figure out a way to get her some books on dream-based warfare.

She had heard from one of them once, that the American wizards, the Native Americans not the colonial Europeans who had taken the continent over, had been very good at that kind of thing, and she wanted to know more.

After that, she went down to interrupt the two of them. "All right you two, break it up. We have other, just as important things to think about now. Unless you don't want to talk to us and the others about Shiva reaching out to talk to you?" she asked Harry, who sighed, but nodded, while Yubelluna was still dazed and staring straight ahead.

About twenty minutes later, the leaders of the various groups in Kuoh met up in the occult research clubs room. Though it wasn't a central position to the wards it had become a sort of command center for the city's magical population, simply because of how easy it was to use in that fashion thanks to the preexisting spellwork covering the old school building.

As soon as they were all gathered, Harry pointed at the old elephant Youkai. "I think, that Dutugamunu here should be the one to start us off unless anyone else has felt anything problematic or strange in the wards?"

"Other than the fact that they're so responsive or that they seemed to have created an area of high magical density that makes spellwork far easier than it should be on Earth?" Sona asked dryly pushing up her glasses with one finger. "No, beyond that I haven't felt anything odd."

"That is actually something very deliberate that Rias and I worked into the wards," Harry said with a smile. "What it should act like is what I have heard described as a paraclete, a sort of magical aid that can help our spells or create additional effects that can add to the spellwork in some fashion. For example last night I think we all found it far easier to convince the nonmagicals the party was over? And I know Dutugamunu suddenly had several magical pens taking notes for him without conjuring them up himself. Small stuff like that for now, but eventually it will also help for research purposes and in other areas, including one specific one that I hope has worked down in the Runes classroom. For now, though, we have other things on our mind."

At that, Harry turned back to Dutugamunu who sighed, although there was more amusement than resignation in the noise. "Harry Potter here seems to have had a visitation, for one that he blames me. And alas, he is right to do so." With that, the ancient Elephant Youkai briefly explained what had happened, although Rias and Yubelluna had already heard some of this from Harry.

"Although I am confused as to why it was Shiva the took an interest in you or our work here," the old elephant said with a frown on his face. "It should have been his son."

"Shiva's son…" Harry said thoughtfully. "That would be Ganesha, correct?"

"Exactly. He is the patron god of my people, the God of the masses, and honestly of solving problems by going straight through them. He's not exactly bright as gods go, despite being a patron of literacy, but we like him," Dutugamunu replied, smiling slightly around his large nose. I have no idea why Shiva was the one to contact you."

Harry thought about it for a moment, then frowned. "Is Shiva thought of as the God of death in the Hindu pantheon?"

"No, if by that you mean that he embodies the totality of death and crossing over to the afterlife like Anubis or Hades does. That is a power that many gods share in my pantheon. Change, renewal, death, creation, all of it is tied together. Hmm… although Shiva does have a more direct connection to it thanks to also being the God of Destruction in one of his aspects and protection in another."

"What exactly Did Lord Shiva say to you?" Sona asked. Like Rias, she had known that the Hindu gods were still around, but she had always been told that the Hindu Pantheon had never really reached out past all the borders of ancient India, restricting themselves to that area despite the fact that they had a sort of mutual defense treaty with the church.

Harry shrugged and recounted the rest of his conversation with Shiva. When Harry mentioned Shiva talking about Dutugamunu's son, the old elephant earned another smack upside the head from Rias and Sona both appalled that he had seemingly just forgotten that he had a son as Akeno giggled behind one hand and the others rolled their eyes. but the most interesting thing was the bit about the fact that he had basically confirmed what everyone else had known, that the old pantheons were coming back.

"And very few of them are going to feel peaceful towards the status quo, even if they didn't work directly with the Khaos Brigade."

"The fact that even Shiva believes that Ophis is dangerous is frankly frightening beyond all measure," the old elephant said, all of his earlier amusement in Harry's having met one of his people's gods and his odd treatment at the hands of the others for having forgotten about his son disappearing. "Shiva is the God of destruction and war. If he feels this creature is stronger than him, I shudder to think about how powerful she is. He looked at Harry with something like bemused respect. "And you talked back to her."

"I didn't so much talk back to Ophis as challenge how she saw the world," Harry said equably, although he too was worried.

"What about the rest though, the colors don't lie? What is that supposed to mean?" Sona asked. And I am not going to comment about one of the most powerful beings on Earth acting more like a stoner than anything else right now. Huh… perhaps my Onee-sama's attitude has prepared me for other powerful beings being a little… what is the British idiom? Round the twist? Something like that anyway.

"I think it might have to do with the colors our magic appears as. I remember being surprised at the number of colors that joined the wards during this last ritual. Perhaps Lord Shiva was telling us that whatever someone might look like they wouldn't be able to hide their identity on a magical level?" Akeno suggested.

Tiamat spoke up for the first time since shown up to take part in this discussion. "Yes, that is most definitely what he means. You must understand that Shiva, even among deities he is one that is rather hard to define. He has so many different aspects, and when he is acting in the manner required of one of them, his whole attitude and character will change to support that aspect. His, um… his acting like an enlightened aesthetic who has partaken of the ritual herbs a little too much is merely the persona he uses when he is not doing anything else. Do not make the mistake of assuming that is the entirety of his personality."

When the others nodded Tiamat pointed at Akeno. "And even when he is acting in that persona, his words need to be taken seriously. There will always be a deeper meaning to them. Always. When it comes to colors for example… you said once Potter that you fought off a Diodora Astaroth who wished to take young Asia away? And he had been Blessed by someone who gave him an Ouroboros tattoo?" When Harry nodded, Tiamat smiled grimly. "That kind of act would color the individual so blessed in the color of the one doing the blessing. While their spells would stay the same, the color of their magic would most definitely not."

"That makes some sense, and later I think we will be able to see some truth in that," Harry said with a secretive smirk, glancing sideways to the door and through it to the staircase that would lead down to the Runes Classroom and the magical laboratory. "And perhaps we need to head to India at one point, not only so that Dutugamunu can meet your son, but also to see if we can arrange a face-to-face meeting with Shiva, or perhaps one of your other deities. Just because they have this mutual defense treaty with the church doesn't mean they can't make any other agreements after all. I should be able to also contact Parvati while we're there to act as a local guide."

The old elephant youkai blinked. "Why would you think Shiva's wife would be willing to show you around? I understand she's supposed to be quite the lady, but she's also supposed to be quite aloof towards humans despite her goddess aspects. The tails of how Shiva wooed her, and how he had to prove his worthiness for her hand makes for… interesting… reading."

Harry laughed. "Actually I wasn't talking about her, I was talking about my friend Parvati. She and her twin Padma are from India originally, and Parvati moved back there with her friend Lavender. Lavender married into her family recently and they are both still living there somewhere in Bangladesh."

"I never liked naming children directly after deities like that, it smacks of hubris to my mind," Dutugamunu muttered. "Regardless, that could be an excellent idea."

"And now Harry I think it is time for you to show us this secret of yours…" Rias said, taking his arm in hers firmly.

He laughed, letting her pull him out into the hallway beyond the ORC club room, but also leaned down and stole a kiss before breaking away, pulling her along. "Come on you lot, I think we're in for a treat."

Rias flushed at the loving contact, while the others all smirked at her, then she led the way down after Harry, entering the Runes lab on his heels. As they entered, however, Rias stopped and stared, pointing at the glowing glob of silver magical potential that was hovering in midair. "And what, is that?" she asked

"Oh so it did work," Harry said with a laugh.

"What is it?" Sona asked.

This is a sort of command center," Harry said, moving towards it. He touched it, and closed his eyes for a second, intoning the word. "Map!"

A second later, the silver globe shifted and showed a map of the territory and everyone's eyes widened at the amount of detail it showed. It was an exact copy of the Kuoh territory, complete with people and cars moving around. Harry could with a few gestures and verbal commands, zoom in on any one area. He could even look through walls. "Although that ability is only available to the five pillars. I didn't want this system to be abused after all," he said dryly.

But it showed something else too as Harry continued to play with it. It showed everyone who used magic in the area as glowing with various colors, a wide smirk on his face. "And that I think is what Shiva was really talking about: on this map, we will see the colors of an individual's magic, no matter their form or any illusion trying to hide it."

Hovering in front of them was the truth of that in the form of the room they were currently in. Tiamat was glowing purple of draconic energy with a thin vein of white within the purple, whereas Harry was glowing almost pure white with a bit of purple mixed in to signify their familiar contract. A second later they pulled back to the rest of the school. They saw Koneko glowing black, but with a hint of blue for her Nekoshu heritage, and several of the others, both among the two peerages and the other magicals in the area. Despite being covered by illusions that should have foiled any kind of scan the Devils knew of that could be used at this range, they still glowed with the colors of their various magics.

Sona held back a whimper, rubbing her legs together as she stared at the one device that could possibly be the single most useful bit of defensive magic than she had ever seen. Something that Harry had come up with and implemented into the wards of the area on his own. On a whim. The same man who had thought up the idea of creating a school where every magic in the world could be taught had just created a means with which to defend that school and her territory far beyond anything else on Earth. "Rias…" she said, her voice somewhere between plaintive and pleading.

"No, get your own magical genius," Rias said with a laugh, putting her arms around Harry from the side as she too looked at the control sphere with admiration. "I'm already sharing him with enough girls thank you very much."

Sighing, Harry pulled away from Rias's hug, deciding not to mention how much his werewolf senses placed over into his human form right now. He could literally smell how turned on Sona was right now by his show of intelligence, and he could tell she wasn't the only one. Rias was too, as was Akeno and Kala to a lesser extent.

"You all can play with it later. Right now it's time for those of us who have to head to school to do so. I also think we should limit the number of people using the Simulacrums to two, since the more people that are missing the harder it is for the others to cover any mistakes. Tsubaki, you can go first today since you still look tired. Akeno, you too. The rest of you ladies have five minutes to get to homeroom," the teacher gently admonished, gesturing them out the door. "However Rias, Sona, I will cover for you in your class with me so you can write up a report for your older siblings on this. They might need to know that Shiva, and perhaps others of the Hindu pantheon, are becoming more proactive."

However, that proved unnecessary. As school was ending later that day, Harry and the others felt someone who had been read into the wards a guest appearing in the ORC club room.

There, Sirzechs looked around himself, feeling the wards close around him like a vice, and he frowned heavily, wondering aloud "Okay, what the heck have you people been doing to these wards?"

Tsubaki had been there doing some homework on the sofa while Akeno puttered around the kitchen preparing some tea. She instantly bowed to Maou Sirzechs, reading him into the wards quickly. "I'm sorry my Lord, it seems as if adding to the wards has negated some of the temporary read ins we gave out."

"Not to worry," Sirzechs said, still feeling out the wards very, very delicately. Their power was astonishing, and Sirzechs felt that now even he would be challenged to take them down at any speed. And I'm not certain I could do it permanently at all, he thought with some wonder. However, that wasn't what he was here for. "Can I speak to Harry? Is he free? Oh and Tonks. I think I need both their opinions on something."

Tsubaki looked at the clock then nodded. "I can send a message to him," she said, holding up a hand and flicking a finger. A small barely seen bird appeared in her hand and then flew out.

It looked like a baby crane, but it was silver, a spell that Sirzechs had never seen before and he stared at it with interest as it flew through the doorway and though wall opposite, asking "Won't that be seen by the non-magicals?"

She shook her head, already going back to her homework. The next second Akeno came out of the kitchen area, bowing to Sirzechs and offering him some tea while they waited.

Several minutes later Harry arrived along with Rias, who greeted her brother with a hug before he could leap over the sofa he'd been sitting on to give her his normal exuberant one. She then quickly stepped back before he could tighten it and sat down across from him smiling slightly at the massive pout that had appeared on Sirzechs' face. "Tonks is on her way, but she has a bit further to come than the two of us did brother, can I ask what this is about? We haven't even finished writing our reports on our latest ritual, let alone submitted it."

"A few things, all to do with the Khaos Brigade I'm afraid. I'd like to ask some questions about Harry about the Wizarding World if you don't mind?"

Harry nodded, gesturing him to speak. "If I don't like your questions or don't want to answer, I just won't. For now, though, let's fill you in on what happened during our group enchantment last night."

The three of them spoke quietly about the wards, as Rias shared Harry's revelation with Shiva with her brother, watching as it floored the older Gremory, and he gaped at them in open astonishment. "No wonder the wards are so strong!" he said ship gesturing around him.

That was a huge deal in his mind. The fact that Shiva had just loaned out his power to these wards, without actually doing anything himself, that was beyond unusual. Most gods would never even think of doing something like that.

Admittedly Shiva was an oddball amongst the surviving gods. Sirzechs hadn't met the man, but he knew that Serafall had, and the two of them had actually gotten along like a house on fire. Serafall had been fully into her magical girl persona at the time. If that didn't say oddball to you, Sirzechs wasn't certain he wanted to know what would.

The thing about the colors was interesting, and Sirzechs eagerly accepted a small notebook containing a few notes on the magical sight that the wizards had developed in order to help them with rune work and spell creation. The fact that it had allowed them to see the colors that Shiva had mentioned was tremendous as was the idea that the wards would reveal the actual colors of a person's magic regardless of any spell that might be attempting to hide that information.

By that point Tonks arrived and hopped up over the back of the sofa to land neatly beside Harry on his other side from Rias, putting up her feet up on the table. "Wotcher everyone, thanks for getting me out of more training with the Onmyouji. The first two groups are fine and dandy, but the locals stuck all of their slow learners into one group, and oh my God are they driving me spare." She cut off as Akeno came by, handing her a cup of tea before sitting down by Tsubaki on a conjured love seat to one side of the two original sofas. "Cheers luv."

"Driving you spare like tripping over their own two feet and launching spells at their partners, or going spare like not learning spells so quickly?" Harry asked mildly.

"Both," Tonks said elbowing him hard in the side, causing him to laugh and push her shoulder gently.

Sirzechs smiled, but then turned serious. "I told Rias this and I'm sure she mentioned to you that the Khaos Brigade have gone silent in terms of offensive action, but they have been recruiting heavily correct?"

All of his listeners nodded at that, and Rias made a get on with it gesture with one hand staring at her brother intently worry forming in her gut.

"Well, what we didn't know at the time but have since learned is that they are recruiting up in the Wizarding World as well."

Tonks and Harry sat up at that, narrowing their eye. We're not talking about just trolls or vampires, are we? Wizarding World type dragons? Or giants?"

"No, trolls and giants would be a scant issue for anyone in the three factions or even the warriors of the Youkai Association." Their vaunted magical resistance wasn't enough to face the simple difference in power between the Wizarding World and the three factions. "But, they are recruiting among wizards. We've lost about a hundred and twenty Devils worldwide to the use of your Unforgivables and other magic spells, and I know the Fallen have lost members as well."

Harry winced. He knew that while the high-level Devils, and he assumed Angels and Fallen, could defend themselves against spells that targeted the soul, the vast majority of devil kind could not. It wasn't something that came naturally to them, as the physical nature of the spell really only encapsulated the intent until it actually hit the opponent and any spell targeting the soul was worse than horrifying to them, it was an abomination. This meant that Wizards, who already had a speed (in terms of casting time) advantage and a wider repertoire of spells to call on, also had a leg up that could let them punch well above their weight class.

"Damn," Tonks said mildly though her face was serious as she spoke. "Do we know where their recruiting is most active?"

"No. I wish we did, but I only have contacts in magical Greece and Iceland. Is it true you need to hate the person your cursing to use the Avada Kedavra spell?

"No, not really," Tonks said while Harry was still frowning. "Hate is sort of in there, but you also really need to look down on the person. You need to see them as a thing, not human, an obstacle to be removed. Hate helps, lowering the power cost of the spell, but if you have the rest you don't need it. So you want us to look into this recruitment and put a stop to it if we can?"

"I know you're planning to head to Britain, so yes, I'd like for you to look in on figuring out how they are recruiting among the Wizarding World, how they're getting past your Notice-Me-Not wards at all, and I'd especially like you to go to Greece. My contact stopped reporting in the other day, and I fear the worst, both for my contact and for what his silence could mean. He warned me that the Greek Wizards were close to civil war, and if he's stopped reporting in, that might mean that's become fact rather than supposition," Sirzechs said his face a rictus of worry.

"You must realize that we are also going to be looking into something else entirely on our own," Harry warned.

"Understood, and what you're doing elsewhere there is important enough that I don't want to get in your way. But as I have been saying far too often of late, you wizards can have an impact in any kind of magical war for greater than your actual numbers would suggest," Sirzechs replied with a sigh.

"So basically you want us to hunt down whoever's recruiting for the Khaos Brigade?" Harry said with a nod. "We can do that."

Tonks laughed evilly next to him, and the two of them exchanged brief, wolf-like grins. "Too right, we're old hats at hunting wizards luv," Tonks said to Sirzechs. "You just leave that in our hands."

"Who all is going with you on this trip of yours anyway?" Sirzechs asked going off on a brief tangent. He wasn't particularly happy about his little sister leaving Kuoh and its defenses behind, but so long as they kept moving it would be safe enough.

Rias pouted slightly to one side of Harry while Akeno's mask of being the perfect Yamato Nadeshiko cracked and she grumbled under her breath. "Unfortunately, we can't take everyone. I'm going of course, which perforce means that I have to leave Akeno here as my most senior family member."

Another person, even another Gremory would have said Akeno was her most senior piece, which as Queen would have been accurate. But to Rias, that was beside the point. Of all her peerage, only Akeno had shown any sign of being able to handle a leadership role. Even Tonks, for all her greater combat experience, was not a good combat leader, let alone outside of combat. Akeno, in contrast, was a good organizer and had a decent head on her shoulders when dealing with the Onmyouji and Youkai, and Sona would listen to her advice as well.

"Which I still say is unfair, Rias-chan," Akeno muttered, pouting outrageously. "Kiba, Gasper-kun and I have to stay here while you all go off and have fun."

"Hunting wizards isn't what even I would call fun Akeno, and Rias is right since she's going that means you have to stay behind, no matter how much both of us would wish to have you with us." The hint that Harry and Rias had wanted her along worked to perk Akeno up slightly. But she kept pouting until Harry rolled his eyes and leaned sideways, pulling her into a momentary hug. "Now come on, stop pouting or your face will stick like that."

"Buu…," Akeno pouted, then said lightly, "Well if that is the case, I would just have to have someone kiss it back to normal, wouldn't I?"

"Hmm, tempting, very tempting," Harry replied, amused as they fell back into their flirting game once more.

"I always prefer prevention of such things rather than curing them after the fact," Rias said, exchanging a laugh with Akeno as Harry chuckled. In Rias's opinion, the two of them were coming to a boil quite nicely.

Her brother's cough brought her back to their current discussion, and she turned in his direction with a smile still on her face. "Lily is going, since part of the reason why Harry has to go back to the UK is due to the issues Ginevra is attempting to create there." Rias never addressed Ginny as Lily's mother.

"We've been getting a missive or demand to return to the UK every other week. Official ones passed on to us through the Onmyodo government from Wizarding Britain. Some of them come from the actual government, others come from important social figures, and I believe they are mostly pushed by Ginny. She really wants Lily back under her thumb for some reason, and I doubt it has anything to do with finally finding her motherly instincts," Harry said dryly.

"Heh, too right. Anything that'd make her like Molly is somethin' Ginny'd fly hundreds of miles out of her way to avoid," Tonks grumbled. "Some of it might come from Molly come to think of it, the whole guilt trip sort of thing. But yeah, there's more going on there that we don't know about. Maybe somethin' from the Prewitt line."

Harry nodded, while the others looked confused, but Harry waved their confusion aside. "It doesn't matter. Suffice to say there might have been a reason why Molly kept on having kids until she had a daughter. Anyway, the other missives are requests for me to return to the UK for 'consultation' whatever that means, demands I return to the UK and take up my duties as the scion of a Most Noble house, which is just hilarious, and a few things on the Gringotts side. They still aren't happy about how much of my gold is no longer residing in their vaults despite Rias convincing me to keep some of my gold there. All in all, just some small, niggling things I would cheerfully ignore if not for the need to head to Ireland and Wales to learn about my demigod powers."

"This means that Yubelluna has to go with us. Her bandrui powers are directly linked to Harry's demigod status after all," Rias said, taking up the explanation before the conversation could be sidetracked again. "Koneko will be coming with us because she would probably refuse to be left behind, especially after what occurred the other night. And when my little kitten becomes obstinate, she does it very, very well," she added ruefully.

"We had initially thought that Kiba or Gasper might come along too, but Akeno will probably need Kiba here. As for Gasper, I had thought perhaps that he would have reacted to last night's ritual like Lily and the others did thanks to his Sacred Gear being called Forbidden Balor view, and Balor being a god of evil in the Tuatha De Danan pantheon. But he didn't report anything like that."

"Sacred Gears are not like your Fragarach or the other two Hallows Harry," Sirzechs interjected. When the others looked at him he shrugged. "Any connection to their previous pantheon is seared clean of it. That would be true for any, even Sacred Gears made by the powers of still-living spirits or deities. And Balor was dead long before the Almighty found his powers and made a Sacred Gear out of them. It doesn't surprise me that Gasper has no connection to this leftover enchantment of yours."

He paused, thinking. "Now that he is more stable, and your own power has grown enough to provide a further anchor for his magic and soul, I will start working with him whenever I can to help him learn how best to use his Sacred Gear. He can join Kiba in our lessons."

Rias gratefully thanked her brother for the offer, accepting on behalf of Gasper, who was out with Mittelt at the moment, wondering about a shiver going down his spine as his King threw him to the lions, while Rias went on. "In any event, I talked to Kiba and he and I decided that instead of taking my Knight along, I would take Mittelt. Removing Kiba would remove too much of my peerage's present combat power from Kuoh, and Mittelt offers both a perspective and powers that my other family members don't have. I was tempted to also bring Issei along, but not only does he still have his own family and it would be annoying to come up with a reason for him to come with us, but he isn't exactly the most diplomatic person."

"Lily is the only kid going; I'm leaving Teddy here. With Kala and the others to watch over him, and with the power of the wards I'm comfortable doing that while I go and have Harry's back in the Wizarding World. That's a job I'm most used to on our old stomping grounds," Tonks said.

Harry nodded. "And Kunou will be spending the week back in Kyoto with her mother. Yasaka thinks the little one is strong enough now magically speaking to begin kitsune-style magical training, and kitsune do that kind of thing a bit differently. Loup will be coming along with us to replace Kiba and Asia will also be coming with us, since she too felt the connection that has been plaguing Lily, and like Mittelt offers a unique perspective on things."

Frowning, Sirzechs thought about their choices. It wasn't the choices he would have made, but each decision on who to leave behind and who to bring was logical and well-thought-out. And Kiba is about two lessons at the most from achieving his Balance breaker. It would be a shame to set that back. And with Koneko taking the Boosted Gear with them they won't lack for striking power even if Harry or Rias are busy elsewhere.

"Was there anything else?" Harry asked, his voice breaking into Sirzechs' thoughts.

"Ah, Yes," Sirzechs said leaning back. "This bit I am uncertain about because it's only coming from one report. But there is something weird going on in Egypt. Normally I would have discounted it entirely, but it looked as if someone had a magical battle, your type of magical battle Harry, and it spilled out into the real world. I don't know what to make of that frankly, but it's another thing I would really like an actual wizard to look in on, and while I have magicians galore, you are the only wizard I know that comes from the other side of those Notice-Me-Not wards."

"Actually given my fame and her own abilities, Tonks can move covertly around a lot more easily than I can," Harry replied, to which both the others all laughed.

Cutting off her laughter for a second, Tonks changed her face to match Sirzechs. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Harry," she said in his voice, winking at the man across from him.

He laughed, shaking his head slightly as he stared at his body double. "That's amazing, and more than a little disturbing."

She laughed again, reverting to her normal body, as Harry began to ask more questions about this magical battle. But all Sirzechs information amounted to at this point was strange lights in the sky level of information, reported from some source that Sirzechs refused to talk about. What that could mean Harry didn't know, but it looked as if their trip was going to be very interesting indeed, even if they weren't going to be able to spend as much time in Britain as he had previously planned for.

That just means will have to deal with Ginny and company even quicker than we were going to otherwise, he thought to himself grimly. Good.

OOOOOOO

Neville Longbottom had changed quite a bit since he had entered public office. While he still retained the muscular shoulders and energy that befitted a man barely in his mid-twenties, his hair was already receding and he had begun to put on a bit of a belly, from all the heavy eating and sitting down that he did. And his eyes were also much more sunken into his face than was normal for a twenty-something man such was the impact of his job as Chief Mugwump of the Wizengamot.

Why the bloody fuck did I want this job again? He thought as he leaned back in his chair in his office in his family's ancestral home, the Long Hall.

"If you're here to complain about the latest endeavors to try to cut the budget for your Aurors, you can save it," he said wearily, shaking his head at the large, completely bald black man that sat across from his desk. "It's already been stopped in its tracks, although not for the reasons I'd like. All this hoopla coming out of Ireland has people spooked, and badly. So badly that they're not even listening about anything coming from the continent. So this next quarter's budget is going to have heavy oversight to it, and most of it will be spent on training up more Obliviator teams instead of on training more Aurors."

"… I wish I could say that it would go to waste there but given how overstretched our resources are in keeping that bizarre silver fog from getting out among the non-magical's and their blasted recording devices every time it shows up, I can't," the minister for magic said dryly, gesturing with his wand to one side. A silent Accio spell brought a decanter to him, and he poured himself a heavy dose of the famous Longbottom Port.

"Although that is part of why I came, to talk about what's been going on in the continent I mean." He looked at the younger man sharply for a moment, cocking his head to one side. "How likely is it that our formerly Dark factions and families are going to want to get involved with what's going on in the continent?" He asked bluntly.

Neville laughed quietly shaking his head. "Not at all likely if by that you mean in terms of, what was that one phrase Harry used, 'boots on the ground'? He came up with a lot of fun sayings from reading about non-magical warfare and talking to their soldiers." His laugh didn't last long though before he shook his head. "Yes, there are still Dark alined houses, yes, there is still far too much prejudice against non-magicals and nonhumans in the Wizengamot despite our best efforts. But there isn't going to be any rush to join the fighting going on to 'ensure blood purity' or whatever blithering shite is being used these days to put a gloss on slaughter and rapine."

Shacklebolt breathed a small sigh of relief but had to ask, "Nothing from your wife's spies then?"

"Since they are actually working for us I think you should call them contacts, it's a far less abrasive term," Neville replied with a smile, as he tried to imitate his wife at her most annoyed best.

The marriage between him and Daphne Greengrass had come as a shock to many, but it had also made sense, wedding the strongest neutral family to the Light sided progressive Longbottoms in order to combine their two power blocs in the Wizengamot. Or rather it should have, Neville thought ruefully, although of course not for the first time.

What happened in real life was that the Light Side – the so-called progressive faction - had gained a few more members, lost several who thought of it as a betrayal of the Light to even be seen with someone as ferociously traditional as the neutral block usually was, and the neutral block itself had splintered. So now you had the Dark aligned houses, those houses whose families were known but couldn't be proven to dabble in the Dark Arts. Then there were the Purists, families who did not necessarily practice the Dark Arts but who believed in blood purity and were worried about losing their traditional prerogatives if the Wizarding World allowed itself to be influenced via the non-magical world any more than it was already. The third faction was the Longbottom-led Light Faction, which pushed more regulation on allowed Dark magics and a more progressive attitude towards muggleborn, if not nonhumans simply because no one was willing to hear about that last one.

And finally fourth and smallest was the neutrals, whose main areas of interest were mercantile in the teacher. At times, Neville thought that they were the most intelligent group, since the bottom line was all they cared about. Not ideologies, existential dread, fears of the unknown, or anything similar.

The neutrals and light-sided parties did sometimes align together depending on the laws being votes on, but that in turn forced the purists and the dark aligned houses to ally against them. Longbottom and Greengrass had hoped to shatter the status quo, to break the fundamental gridlock in the Wizengamot. All they had succeeded in doing was simply to remake it in a new image. It would've been hilarious to Neville, if it hadn't been his work which was shown to be so pointless.

"But no, there hasn't been any sign even the Notts and Malfoys are interested in backing their cousins across the channel, despite both families being led by representatives of those branches now. They're concerned about what's going on Ireland, their wondering if it's another attempt from the Irish wizards to break off from the British magical government, and of course my Irish fellows staunchly oppose that view. That's enough to have my bailiffs ready to step in to stop spellwork on the floor of the Wizengamot. In comparison what news were getting from the continent isn't enough to rouse the interest of anyone."

"Not even their younger set?" Shacklebolt asked.

Neville looked at the man, shaking his head sadly. "Most of that younger set are dead, remember?" he said simply. "There is a reason after all why so many families are being led by what amounted to branch members as little as ten years ago." He smiled a wintry little smile we were very in given cause.

"It was the same way after the great war and Dumbledore and Grindlewald had their little set to," Shacklebolt said after a moment's silence. "And then we of course we had the first and second coming of Riddle and his merry band adding to it."

"Exactly," Neville sighed then smirked at the older man over his tumbler. "I've got a theory about why dark Lords come to be if you would like to hear it?"

"Is a societal theory or a magical, because of its a magical theory, that Dark Lords are somehow needed, you can take that kind of thinking and shove it up your arse, Longbottom," the older man said with a laugh. The sound was still deep and resonant coming from a still wide, powerful chest despite his spending far more time behind the desk then on his feet these days.

"God no. I'm not like those nihilists up in Finland who thinks that everything is just a cycle of war life death and rebirth. Now, magic will always have a darkness to it, will call out to those who have a propensity towards darkness and violence and exacerbate those traits. The blood purity thing is just nonsense, a rallying cry to those who hate those different from themselves. But it has remained such because it works. Our isolation and magical powers lend itself to that kind of thinking, and eventually it boils over, like a giant pustule getting rid of the poison for a time. The wars that result are a symptom of that basic illness, not the illness itself."

"And the last time that particular boil was lanced, it only affected the United Kingdom, and even that not nearly as much is it could have, leaving some families alive if shattered," Shacklebolt said with a nod. "Riddle never was able to gather as many followers the second time as he had the first from beyond our borders, and was never even as successful the first time around as Grindlewald. Yet now it's been a long time since what the Muggles call World War II, and that violence is boiling over."

Neville stared his mouth suddenly dry. "It's that bad?" he asked. He was quite proud that the words came out as simply a question, rather than a plaintive plea to be told it was not that bad. His wife had just confirmed that she was pregnant with their second child that morning. The last thing Neville wanted to hear was that there was another Wizarding War was on the way."

"That depends on who you ask. Egypt, well, we'll get to them in a second, they might be an entirely separate issue at least, according to my few agents and our ambassador to them at any rate. Anyway," Shacklebolt said, shaking his head and moving back to the topic at hand. "France isn't facing much turmoil just yet, but it will come when their neighbors issues start crossing borders. Their own blood purists are cowed because of a very strong centralized government, the fact that Beuabextons has taught equality and preached against racism for more than a century. France was also the only real source of external aid Riddle had in his second rising, and Harry dealt with the remnants quite handily."

"And nearly caused an international incident," Neville said mildly. Very mildly. If someone had attempted to kill his daughter, he would probably have done much the same although he would honestly have apologized for it afterwards and offered to pay her immigration, which Harry hadn't until recently. "And elsewhere?"

Shacklebolt held up a large hand, counting off countries on his fingers as he described what his ambassadors and agents had passed on. "Italy is weird. We haven't seen any issues there outside of the port cities, and even those not often. We can safely assume that nothing's going to happen there."

"Germany is a powder keg right now with Blood Purists on one side and progressives on the other, and both more than willing to use deadly spells on the other. Luckily the Germanic Wizarding World is geographically removed from the nonmagical society as well, so it probably won't be an issue for the ICW to look into anytime soon. There doesn't seem to be any one rallying figure, so it's mostly small time conflicts and rabble rousing, at the moment."

"The Spanish magical population is close to becoming a civil war, but it shouldn't boil over past their borders I hope. Oddly enough, there the issue doesn't have to do with blood purity, but rather distinctive segments of Spain wanting to break off and become independent magical countries. The fact that those magical countries would also then try to take control of those territories on the non-magical side of things is, apparently, a side issue at best," he said with a deep sigh and a shake of his bald head. "in contrast Greece is a civil war already, and it has already spilled over into Bulgaria and the other nearby countries," Shacklebolt said, counting off his fingers.

"Northern Europe is entirely different. There we are actually seeing some cross country interaction and aid between the blood purists, which is really disturbing a lot of my agents and the governments in that territory. Norway and Sweden are in danger of complete collapse. Finland is not, but I don't have as good a handle of what's going on there as I would like."

"I haven't heard anything of that sort!" Neville feebly protested, knowing he should have heard about all these issues long before this, but knowing he too had suffered from focusing on things closer to home.

"The Greek prime minister was assassinated yesterday," Shacklebolt said bluntly. "It was a pity too, he was a good man. The remaining government has gone on the warpath and the blood purists have responded. I recalled our ambassador for his own safety this morning, you'll read about it in the news tomorrow, but I thought to get ahead of it for once. I have also ordered a ban on all travel too and for Greece and Norway and Spain."

"Poland? The rest of the Eastern Bloc?" Neville asked, shaking his head as if he was a grizzly bear shaking off a heavy blow.

"Russia doesn't have enough magicals left to govern its own affairs, let alone make trouble elsewhere, thankfully. But I don't have any agents or contacts in Poland, Estonia or the rest. So your guess is as good as mine there," Shacklebolt replied with a long drawn out sigh.

"Are we in a position to lend aid, and if so where would it be best to be sent?" Neville asked.

"Somewhat, and I would say Sweden Norway and Iceland. They are the closest to our borders, and if we're fast enough, we may head off their governments collapsing with a show of, as you just put it, boots on the ground in the form of our Aurors backing up theirs." Shacklebolt looked at Neville sharply. "But you know what would do the most good is having the Man Who Conquered back, waving the flag for us."

"I'm ahead of you there. I formally requested the Japanese Western government to contact Harry for me recently," Neville said with a sigh. Just because he had been startled by the depth of the problem in Europe or widespread it was didn't mean that he hadn't seen something of the sort coming, and he hadn't been entirely truthful before when he said that none of the blood purists here in the United Kingdom hadn't been making waves either. But Harry suddenly appearing would certainly put a stop to any posturing that area. "We should be hearing back from him in a few days' time."

Shacklebolt grunted, looking pensive shaking his head. "We should never have let him go."

"He needed to get away, to have a fresh start without so many places and faces that would remind him of Ginny." Neville replied instantly coming to his friend's defense. "And you know that he never wanted to work for the government, and his few attempts to become a politician were sad really. He's far too damn honest for my line of work."

"The same could've been said for you before you and Daphne got together," Shacklebolt said with a laugh, and for a few minutes, the two of them reminisced about simpler times. Not easier it must be said, just simpler. After all, it isn't easy to exchange he wand the battlefield for the pen and the halls of the Wizengamot.

But soon enough the returned to the topic at hand, and Neville and Shacklebolt began to get down on the nitty-gritty of what kind of forces could be spared, where the budget for that move would come from going forward, what Neville would have to tell the Wizengamot. Eventually however, it occurred to Neville that he had not asked one question that he should have, and so he did so now. "How likely is it that this will spill out into the non-magical world?"

Shacklebolt winced. "Not very likely in most places," he admitted, lulling Neville into a false sense of security. "Spain's an obvious place we'll have to watch for, but I'm certain the ICW will be doing the same. But, Egypt is still technically part of the United Kingdom, so issues there fall onto my lap occasionally even if most of the country is a goblin reserve. And there, well there, I'm afraid I'm going to have to go to the ICW before they come to us. Because while my last report from Egypt was garbled, and our ambassador is now missing presumed dead, the gist of his last report leads me to think the Statute of Secrecy is in danger of breaking down entirely in Egypt. Even more so than in Ireland."

Neville's glass dropped from his hand as he stared in shock Shacklebolt, his eyes going wide.

OOOOOOO

Two days later found Rias nuzzling into Lily's hair as they sat in the backyard, sighing irritably as the little girl hugged her back hard as she could. "I wish I didn't have to go."

"I wish you didn't have to go either," Harry said with a sigh, his arms wrapped around both redheads. Elsewhere, the noise of Akeno singing came from the girl's dorm, disjointed and somewhat frenzied, but the noise wasn't enough to pull Harry's attention away from Rias and Lily.

"Look at it this way," Sona said from a nearby table where she was working on some paperwork. Somehow even she and the rest of her peerage had come to use the backyard connecting the Gremory/Potter clan's properties as a gathering place. "You've only had the one issue within your family and it's family first beliefs. I've had to deal with four claimants arguing that because they're older than I am they should be in consideration for the Sitri heir position."

"True, but your parents demanded they show their competence via challenging you in chess, not combat," Rias said with a sigh looking up at Harry. Then she smirked at him, as she gestured with a jerk of her head towards the noise in the distance, made so thanks to sound not carrying very well over the runic doorways. "You'll be sure to get Akeno to her audition on time? I swear that girl is going completely to pieces today."

"I'll get her there, and don't worry, I think that once Akeno is actually singing, her jitters will go away."

"I hope so," Lily said pulling out of the hug. "I think it'd be great if she got a recording deal. And I think you'll kick ass, even if you are fighting another redhead, Rias!" she said cheerfully.

"Why thank you, my dear," Rias said with a laugh, standing up and ruffling her hair one final time, and then looking over at Harry seriously. "You'll show her a good time? Akeno I mean."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked cocking his head to one side.

"you know perfectly well what I mean," Rias replied, reaching up to tap Harry lightly on the nose.

Harry winced, scratching at his cheek. "Is it that obvious?"

"It's been obvious for more than a month at least Harry," Rias said cheerfully. "Why, did you think I'd have a problem with it?"

"Not exactly," Harry said. "It's just, well, we've tried going down this road before."

"And you made mistakes, I made mistakes, Akeno made mistakes. We've also all changed in that time. Are you saying you haven't learned from those mistakes?" Harry shook his head, and Rias smiled. "And you've also changed personally. Or can you look me in the eye and say you're the same person you were when the two of you broke up?"

"I can say Akeno's changed too you know," Lily said with a smile. "She's hilarious to hang out with sometimes these days, and there's no, no pressure I guess on either of us?"

"…Do you know what we're talking about here sweetheart?" Harry asked with trepidation in his soul as he looked down at his redheaded daughter.

"Yep. And I don't care. If I was worried about you being with several girls at once Daddy, I'd have said something a lot sooner than this. I've got Rias here acting as well… you know," she said, looking down in sudden bashfulness as she said that, toeing the carpet before going on as she looked up at her Daddy. "Yasaka too when we're in Kyoto. Akeno's nice, she's like, always teasing, always joking, but also helpful too when she is asked to be. She is not trying to, you know, push me away or take away some of the time you and I spend together. So yeah you've got my approval," the little redhead said with a serious nod.

"Well, thank you for that lovey," Harry said with a laugh, amused yet again at how oddly mature Lily could be sometimes. But thank god she hasn't shown interest in knowing more about what goes on between us other than dancing and snogging. I truly fear her teenage years, I do. "Although we actually haven't talked to the girl herself yet. After all, she might not want to try again."

"I'm certain you could convince her if that's what you want," Rias said, resting a hand on Harry's chest with one finger stroking his neck and cheek lightly. "Is it?"

Harry thought about it, thought about the times he teased Akeno, was teased in turn, the joking, the laughing. How they'd worked on the various runic arrays, how she had helped him master some Devil-style spells alongside Rias. That was it: when he pictured Akeno now, it wasn't the bad times, or the arguments and the frowns or frustration. It was the good times. It wasn't just her body that he thought of as it had been far too often when they tried to go out, the thoughts about her body sustaining him through their incompatible moments.

No, it was about how she sometimes made him laugh, or smirk, how Akeno's eyes would light up as she flirted with him or they were studying something obscure about runes. There were none of the confused feelings that he'd had when they'd been going out. That had been replaced by how much they deeply enjoyed one another's time and was still very much attracted to one another.

He finally nodded his head. "Yes," he said simply and then grinned as he leaned down slightly to rest his forehead against Rias's. "Yes I think that all things considered, I'd be very happy to try again with Akeno. But you know that she is not going to hop into bed with you right?" He whispered.

She simply nodded, a small, but very warm smile on her full red lips. "Well, I can give up that dream to make my best friends happier than they would be apart."

"In that case it," Harry said with a laugh, pulling back to wink at her. "I will indeed, give her a good time."

Rias's smile widened at that, wondering if she could perhaps get Akeno to tell her how it went after she came home. Then she looked down at her watch. "I have to go. I will see you when I get back."

She hugged and kissed Lily a final time, and then teleported away. She first appeared in the occult research club's room from where she then used the dimensional teleportation array there, disappearing from Earth entirely to reappear in her parent's mansion.

That thought brought a smile once more. It never failed to bring a smile to her face when she realized that was what this place had become: simply her family's mansion, not her home. My home is with Harry, Lily, and the rest of my extended family, the family I chose, the family I joined, not just the family I was born into.

Seeing her mother waiting for her Rias allowed her faint smile to widen. The two of them had talked at least once a week since Venelana's initial attempt to bury the hatchet between them, and they were, if not as close as they had been when Rias was young, at least close enough to it to make both women happy. "Mother," she said with, moving over to give the other woman a kiss on the cheek and a hug. "How are you doing?"

"I'm quite well, although your challenger has been making a bit of a nuisance of himself with the extended family," the seemingly middle-aged woman replied with a sigh. "He arrived thirty minutes ago and even brought in outsiders. Since there is no clan rule against it we couldn't tell him, no, but it is clear that there is more going on here than one pompous fool's ambition. He is over in the backyard now, along with the twenty clan members needed as witnesses for this kind of thing."

In most clans challenges to the heir position (or even clan leadership) were common, because when you got right down to it despite all the laws and regulations and suchlike, the entirety of Devil society rested on the rule of the strong. There were exceptions to that concept though and in the Gremory house, it was very rare for someone to want to challenge for an heir like this. But then again, it was very rare that an heir of a Pillar Clan would be marrying someone who might force the clan to step down from its Pillar position.

That position, the fact their clan was one of the 'pure' clans in hell, was very important, politically and socially. Rias knew her father still had misgivings about giving that title up once she and Harry produced a child of their own (and oh, but she loved thinking of that moment, of holding a child of her body, coming to love that child as much as she already did Lily). But Rias was certain that eventually, Zeoticus would understand the reasons behind her choice, and would come to accept the fact that Harry brought in far more power and even prestige to their family than any Devil could.

The back of the Gremory mansion abutted a massive garden that stretched out to where it opened out onto the rest of the clan's massive estate. Here and there in the distance, the horizon was dotted with several smaller houses, outhouses of the families of various clansmen. The Gremorys were one of the largest clans, and the vast majority of them either lived here, in their estates and territories in the Underworld or on Earth overseeing the scattered clan territories personally. Near the mansion, the garden became a hedge maze and to one side a large, tiled area, where their clan members waited.

Zeoticus was standing there with the twenty other clan members demanded by the clan's laws, all of whom smiled at Venelana, who they all respected. Rias received a few scattered smiles too, but just as many frowns. The doors that being a Pillar Clan, a pureblood Devil clan, opened were important for more than just Zeoticus. They'll get over it too, eventually. Her brother was not here. This was an inter-clan matter, and Lucifer as Maou could not be here. She did see Grayfia and Milicas though, standing to one side and talking to several of the younger clan members.

This tiled area was a dueling arena, a simple ten by forty area of stone squares. Rias said heard from her mother once that the area actually hadn't been designed as a dueling arena, rather, it had been started as a giant chess set, and the stones underneath were still painted the same checkered color as they had back then. How appropriate is that given the whole Peerage System? Rias thought as she stepped forward, looking at the arena for a moment, then putting herself very boldly in the center place of the king at one side of it facing her opponent.

As she did so, he and three of his cronies, non-clan members, had been talking among themselves, and Rias's eyes narrowed instantly as she saw them. One of them was most obviously from the Bael Clan, the same clan as her mother. He was an elderly gentleman, well dressed, with a grave, haughty expression on his face. Ahh, I think I've just found the ringmaster here.

Her thoughts shifting towards her opponent, analyzing the young man. He looked to be around Harry's age, but lacked her husband's intelligence and had far more arrogance judging from his stance and the way he'd ignored her arrival. And that one is the monkey. Still, he's the only one I can deal with directly, and I know Father well enough to know he'll have already spotted that and be taking steps. The Bael Clan may be another Pillar clan, and one far more strident about purity than us, but they are still our allies and that doesn't mean they can interfere in inter-clan affairs.

As she took her position at the king's place on her side of the board she heard the man speaking in a loud arrogant tone. "And, once I have control of the heir, I'll put someone else in place up in Kuoh. Someone who's actions will be more in keeping with true devil values. "Brom, you wanted to be there, didn't you? To put that little werewolf in her place right?"

"She wouldn't give me a dance, the little tart," the other man replied with a sad shake of her his head. "As if a dirty little half breed human and werewolf shouldn't have felt honored to be approached by a pure devil like me."

Venelana heard that and winced, shaking her head at the attempt to get under her daughter's skin. At least I hope that was staged, hmm… I can't remember if that man was at the Rating Game or not. If Brom of House Sitri, really does think like that, however, I imagine Lord and Lady Sitri might just execute him on grounds of gross stupidity.

Rias too realized that had probably been deliberate, but she also knew they were talking about Lily, and suddenly, all of her thoughts about mercy, and showing that she was willing to turn the other cheek in family matters, and her thoughts about the political and social reasons behind this challenge, went out the door. She turned to her father, who had moved onto the arena after her, her face a mask of sudden fury. "Start the fucking match," she growled.

"Now Rias, I'd really prefer if you didn't kill young Alexastrius. He is still family," Zeoticus replied soothingly, holding out a box. Inside was a simple straight-bladed dagger, the only weapon beyond their teleportation powers the two combatants would be allowed to use.

Rias simmered for a second before nodding abruptly. "Fine, I'll let our kinsman live. I don't suppose I could talk you into letting me fight them both though could I?"

"No you could not," Zeoticus replied repressively. "This is a family matter. Despite the fact that he brought in outsiders to watch, which he got away with since there is no real rule against it. Although if you did make an example of him so long as he's alive and everything is able to be healed… eventually… I wouldn't mind all that much."

She nodded, although her face was still a rictus of anger. "Fine, I suppose I can live with that. So long as that man, he's a Sitri by his looks? So long as he apologizes. If not, I might mention what he said to Sona."

Out of the corner of her eye, Rias watched as the older gentleman stepped away from the two younger men, looking faintly disgusted, and then turned to look at her. In reply Rias turned her attention away from her father, matching the older Bael clan member glare for glare.

He eventually bobbed his head then dipping into a full bow, before turning away, very obviously distancing himself from whatever was about to happen. "He knows how to cut his losses at least," Venelana quipped from where she had moved to act as second for her daughter. "Far too many of my old family are in the Pureblood Faction, and none of those clans are very happy with you being off the market, Rias."

Rias shrugged unconcern. "Eventually everyone will realize that my being married to a demigod most certainly isn't a step down from marrying a fellow Devil. I also hope they realize this whole concept of blood needing to be pure is so much stupidity. Breeding has never mattered as much as power and ability, not really. As for him... if he keeps making trouble, he'll become my issue for later. But right now, I have an example to set."

Zeoticus winced, and not just because of the steely gaze in Rias's blue eyes at the moment, but because of her statement, one all too many Pillar clan members would be furious at. But after a second he shrugged his shoulders. I still don't approve of Harry Potter for Rias but I'm not going to try to hold back the tsunami after it's already hit. And it's not as if Sirzechs hasn't stated similar things before when we're alone. Still, Rias's unwillingness to see the clan's legitimate concerns about losing our Pillar status does mean it's high time I sit down and talk with her about being more involved in the family businesses.

Setting that thought aside, Zeoticus moved to the center of the arena, looking first one way then the other. "Seconds and everyone else leave the arena please," he intoned loudly.

That jolted the man across from Rias, and he turned from his discussion, blinking as if he was only now realizing that Rias had arrived, a bit of overacting that Rias felt wouldn't have fooled a five-year-old. "Rias! Excellent, then we can get the show on the road."

"…Yes," Rias drawled. "That's what my father just said. Are you hard of hearing as well as thinking?"

The man twitched, looking at her as the seconds left the arena; Venelana not even looking at the man. It was evident that the man had hoped to infuriate Rias and seeing her so cold and in control worried him. Not nearly enough though, Rias thought.

Zeoticus held up his hand. "When I drop my hand, the fight will commence. This fight will be, the family magic of teleportation, and the simple non-magical daggers that you have both been provided with. Those of the only weapons you are allowed. Anything else, any other magic, any other physical weapon beyond the daggers and your own bodies, will see you disqualified, and the victory going to the other combatant."

"Excellent!" The man said interrupting her father's spiel. "Without your power of destruction Rias, do you honestly think you can face me? I'm 30 years your senior girl. I've fought in dozens, hundreds of rating games!"

"After my father starts the match you will have three seconds to surrender. And to apologize for what your friend said about young Lily," Rias said with a growl, her eyes flicking over to that friend. "After that, I am going to hurt you."

The man sneered, finally seeing the anger he had hoped to see in her. "And in that, you show you your youth and your arrogance! You're not fit to lead this clan!"

Rias didn't say anything else, simply watching the man, her fingers twitching at her side.

"Very well," Zeoticus said with a final shake of his head. He then slowly lowered his hand before disappearing in a very neat teleportation of his own, reappearing beside his wife to one side.

The two combatants instantly thrust their hands out to either side, their magic appearing in an aura around them before dropping down to the ground below as large teleportation arrays with the clan mark of Gremory at their center started to spiral out from them. But if the man had thought her anger would slow Rias down he was sorely mistaken. And this tiny arena was nothing in comparison to the battlefields Rias had fought on before this. Alexastrius was still working through the array when suddenly Rias's flared, and he found his line of sight far lower than it had been a moment ago, causing him to blink in confusion. Then the pain hit him, his hands trying to desperately staunch the flow of blood from where his lower legs had once been. "GAAHHHHgg!"

Rias had opened up a teleportation sphere underneath him, then let Alexastrius fall through up to his knees before closing it, teleporting his lower legs away to land with wet plops to one side. If her opponent had enough magical power to fight back, to hold the teleportation open by sheer magical power either inherent in his body or as an act of will or if he'd had enough awareness to pull himself out somehow, he could have avoided the crippling injury. But while he was experienced in Rating Games, Alexastrius was barely a mid-level Devil in terms of power, and Rias was far stronger and faster with their clan's magic.

About thirty minutes later the crowd had been dispersed, and Rias found herself in her father's study. At first, she thought Zeoticus would try to take her to task about her ruthlessness towards a clan member, but he didn't seem at all interested in the battle that had concluded so abruptly. Instead, he began to pull out various folders from a filing cabinet, as well as a globe from one corner of his room. "Now that you have come of age and defended your position as heir you need to start actually taking on some of the responsibilities of an heir as well. We've let you take over Kuoh and everything else going on there, but that's really not family business. And you need to realize what losing our Pillar clan status will do to our businesses and political aspirations in the Underworld."

She sighed, but deep down she had known something like this might happen. "I can understand that, so what do you want to do?"

"I think a week of solid nine-hour days will bring you up to speed on the political side of things. After that, I'll get in touch with you about specific meetings or maneuvers on which I'll want you to be involved. Beyond that, I want you to start taking over more of our stock portfolios. What you've done with what we let you take over before shows you have a flair for that. We'll also be talking about our various connections and contracts in the human world. As heir, you need to know everything that our clan members are involved in," Zeoticus replied.

Rias scowled at the idea of staying here for a week, but she had to admit her father had a point. With all the work she'd been putting in on Kuoh, her schoolwork, the magical side of things, and yes the business side, Rias could be accused of having a bit of tunnel vision. Besides, I think I can use this. "Very well father, but may I make a request? I know we also have a bit of an espionage service among our human clientele. I would like to be involved in that as well."

A proud smile on his face, Zeoticus nodded. "An excellent suggestion daughter mine. Shall we begin then?"

She nodded, but then held up a hand. "Just as soon as I call home and tell them I won't be back this week. Darn it."

OOOOOOO

With Koneko, Asia and the others to watch Lily, Harry was, as he had planned since learning Rias wouldn't be there, able to get away to take Akeno to her audition that evening. But when he used the teleportation gateway to the girl's dorm he paused, hearing both off-key singing and banging and cursing coming from within, audible even in the backyard.

Entering, he found Akeno in the sitting room dressed in a very nice, modest (it showed less leg than her school uniform), skirt and blouse combo in light blue and white, something Mittelt must have made for her. Akeno's hair done up in her normal long ponytail, the end of it nearly to her ankles. Over the blouse she wore a jean jacket, giving her a rather nice down to earth sort of look.

The effect of her clothing was somewhat ruined however by how she was bouncing in place as she tried to sing, her voice cracking with nerves as she stared at the far wall with the intensity of someone trying to light it on fire with the power of her mind. Every time she hit a note wrong she would curse like a sailor, bounce in place and then try again.

This went on three times as Harry watched from the doorway, his eyes going wide. Rias is right, she really is very nervous, isn't she? Good grief, I would never have thought she'd be so concerned about singing in front of strangers given how much time she has put into tea ceremonies and the like. Then again, I suppose it is a different kind of courage, putting your dream on the line like this. Mind you, the bouncing is very nice to watch. It certainly made Harry's werewolf side sit up and take notice for certain, but Harry was not going to let that get in the way right now. Akeno needed help, and Harry was the only one here who could do it.

With that in mind, Harry moved forward, deliberately making noise so Akeno realized he was there. Then when she refused to turn toward him, he reached out and took both of her shoulders in his hands. "Akeno, calm down."

She stiffened at his touch, but then turned to him, and it was clear she was a second away either from lashing out with her lightning in anger or hyperventilating in fear. "But, but what if they don't like me? What if they turn me down? Even if they do take me on, how do I know they are doing that for me and not because of their connection to the Gremory clan? Or just for my looks, not my voice?"

"Bah! Of course they are going to like you. You're incredible and that includes your voice, don't let anyone else tell you different! You just need to calm down. Think of it as singing in front of the family, you've done that numerous times."

Yes, but…" Akeno stuttered.

"But nothing," Harry said, placing a fingertip against her lips. At the contact, Akeno flushed and he let his finger trace across her upper lip lightly, trying not to do anything more. "You're ready for this. This is what you've been working towards for months now. All those singing sessions, those lessons you've taken in how to project your voice. Don't let it all go to waste." His mouth quirked into a smirk. "I'd tell you to just think of them all naked but that might make your brain shut down or run away screaming depending on what they look like."

Akeno seemed to recover herself a bit, smiling sultrily in turn as she let her mouth open. Her tongue flicked out lightly to lick at the tip of his finger before he could pull it away. "Oh, I don't know. If you were among my listeners, that might make me get over my anxiety very quickly."

"Perhaps, although I think that singing would be the last thing on your mind at that point," Harry replied, his emerald eyes sparkling with something that nearly took Akeno's breath away.

"True, I'd be thinking about several other… things… to do with my mouth I think," she said

With that, Harry knew that Akeno was back to normal, though he did decide to give her a straight line anyway. "Oh, like what?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" She asked coquettishly.

Harry chuckled at that and took a step back from her, letting his hands fall from her shoulders. "So, are you good?"

"No I'm bad, you should know that by now Harry," Akeno said with a laugh throaty and full of confidence now. "And I'm going to show them just how good bad can be."

Harry chuckled once more and moved around her to gesture out the door. They would be flying to where she was going to have her audition. "Then after you, my lady."

Akeno paused, looking at Harry thoughtfully at that, but then she smiled, nodded, and left without saying anything. Outside they both rose into the air and flew for about forty minutes before Akeno recognized a few of the rooftops below. They then descended with Harry in the lead since Akeno was wearing a skirt, something he mentioned to Akeno and which caused her to giggle outrageously for some reason.

She was still laughing as they exited an alleyway and made their way into a large office building. There they were directed up two stories where Akeno was directed by a rather nice secretary into a recording studio, while Harry was directed into the sound booth.

Inside he found several bored-looking individuals, three men in business suits and a recorder expert who was already working the booth's controls. Two of the men looked at him, frowning as they realized he was a foreigner, and very tall too. "Harry Potter," he said with a nod, speaking in his near-perfect Japanese, "Here as moral support. And legal support if needed."

That last cause one of the men in business suits, a fat man smoking a cigar, to stiffen. He hadn't taken his eyes off Akeno through the glass separating the two rooms since she entered, his eyes gleaming. Now he looked over at Harry, a sneer on his face. But he took one look at Harry's face and the size of him and paled, shaking his head and taking a deep drag off his cigar.

One of the other men simply smiled at Harry. "Mikoto Numegara at your service. I own the company, and I got Himejima-san this opportunity, at the behest of one of the major stockholders. However, I'm not a talent supervisor, that's what these two gentlemen are."

"And I already have several significant clients I oversee," said the other man, not looking over at Harry as he watched the fourth man fiddle with the instruments in front of him. "It's going to take something significant to make me want to take on a new product."

"Whereas I have a few opening spots, but I work the idol scene almost exclusively," the fat man said. Then he seemingly couldn't stop himself from adding. "although, looking at her, she certainly has the body…"

"Perhaps," Harry said with a nod of agreement and a quelling stare. "But I think you'll understand that Himejima-san's voice gentlemen, is even more special than the rest of her."

All the other men in the room shrugged noncommittally, everything about them seeming to indicate that they had all heard that before. A moment of silence passed, then the man at the controls said, "All right Himejima-san, whenever you're ready just speak into the speaker in front of you."

Akeno nodded and said "My first song is going to be an American rock called 'Fire Burning' by Dead Posey. And my second song will be from the anime K-on, 'Don't say Lazy'. Is that all right?"

At that, all three men rolled their eyes. "It's all right, although you would be surprised at how often people come here singing anime songs for their audition. Although the fact you're not trying to sing a song you made up is actually a point in your favor," said the sound expert.

About an hour later, Akeno was walking out practically glowing as she held a folder that held her copy of her new contract as a singer. She would have to find someone else to write some of her songs, but the studio actually had several singers songwriters that could help, and her voice was such that both of the talent people had been literally falling over one another to become her manager. Harry had chosen the one that already had several idols and singers across different genres rather than the slimy looking man who handled the idol scene. And Akeno had gone along with his choice, not wanting to be an idol herself, and grateful that they had thought that she had a good enough voice to take a gamble on.

"So," Harry said, "What do you want to do to celebrate? For my part, I'm feeling a little hungry."

Akeno nodded, looking down at her grumbling stomach, although she wondered why Harry wasn't rushing them home. It was a little late and it was a school night it being Thursday night. Although, Akeno didn't particularly care for school any longer. Much like Rias, she could pass the remainder of her classes with ease and the time spent in school was taking away from more interesting projects. Indeed by this point, she swapped out with a magical simulacrum in at least half of her classes, much like her King.

But even so, there would certainly be food at home. Kala was always happy to make something to eat for anyone, and it wasn't as if they couldn't cook for themselves if she wasn't home.

But really, any of the reasons that were going through her mind to explain Harry's suggestion was good for her, so she simply nodded. The two of them moved down the street to a small oden stall, where they ate for a few moments, talking quietly about the deal Akeno had just made and school in general, flirting occasionally but mostly concentrating on their food for now.

As they finished, Harry asked, "so where do you want to go from here? After all, eating at a food stall like this is hardly a celebration is it?"

Akeno nodded, her eyes lighting up as she bit at her lower lip, realizing what all this might mean and hoping it really did mean what she thought. Only one way to find out. "A dance club? And I mean a real club, like the one you took Yasaka too. As much as I've lived Rias-chan for most of my life I've never partaken of her anime craze."

"I think we can do that, but…" he trailed off looking Akeno up and down. "But, neither of us are quite dressed for it, so if you'll allow me?" He asked, his voice trailing off as he cast a Notice-Me-Not spell around them.

Akeno nodded, curious about what Harry was about to do, and he looked at her closely before, touching her shoulder gently with a finger dragging the finger along her shoulder blades then her neck and to her other shoulder. Thanks to her Devil and Fallen senses she could feel his magic enter her clothing, and as she looked down her skirt and blouse changed into a black cocktail dress with silver highlights that hugged her figure and left very little to the imagination. She gasped as she looked down at it, then she looked up at Harry, watching as his shirt shifted into a light green colored shirt, the tie disappearing and the color of his pants, khaki, changing into black.

Their clothing now more appropriate for what they wanted to do, Harry turned away and pulled his motorcycle out of his pocket, setting the small motorcycle on the ground of the alleyway. He then canceled the shrinking charm on it and got on pulling one of the two helmets hanging from the handlebars to Akeno. Getting on the motorbike behind Harry, Akeno sighed, leaning against his back as she put her arms around his waist as Harry revved the bike into motion.

Since they were already in the segment of Kuoh that contained bars, dance clubs and such like, they soon came to a nightclub, one with a long line outside composed of partygoers of all ages. However, the two magic users looked at one another and shook their heads. "I don't feel like waiting, do you?"

"No woman ever feels like waiting Harry, anyone who says otherwise is just silly," Akeno replied, smacking her hip against his thigh.

The two of them moved to the front of the line, using magic to hoodwink the people behind them and then the bouncer, moving directly past him with little trouble. Once inside their looks got them past the second bouncer, who as in many such establishments was more there to weed out ugly and poor people than to add actual security. They nodded agreeably to the woman behind the desk was taking coats, it being winter, though a far lighter one than Harry had ever seen back in the UK, and Akeno handed her jean jacket over, leaving Akeno in her slinky cocktail dress.

Once past the entrance area Harry looked around the large, open room that made up the majority of the dance club. The place was jumping and was quite packed on the dance floor and by the bars that curved out from each corner. The music was loud, pumping up some kind of Japanese technopop and the strobing lights were going full bore above, red, blue, white, yellow.

Harry didn't mind the music so much or the crowd, but he'd always felt the strobing lights were a bit much. But then again, I'm a wizard, and a lot of our attack spells are basically strobing lights, so I can probably be forgiven for that one, he thought to himself with a laugh, before looking down at Akeno.

She too had been looking around, her eyes gleaming in interest but now she looked up at him, and he shook his head. "What is it, Harry?"

"You're just so gorgeous," he said with a chuckle, "I mean, I look around and I'm thinking 'Bloody hell, I just walked in here with the most beautiful woman in the place on my arm. I'm going to have to beat 'em off with a large stick'." He then pretended to ponder one hand stroking his chin. "Excuse me for a moment while I go conjure one. One with nails in it I think," he said as she began to giggle. "Yes, nails. Lots of them. Perhaps with a coating of poison? And because it's you we're talking about, I might as well enchant them to electrocute the poor target every time I hit them."

"Ara, I would have thought you'd be saving such things for when Lily and Kunou start attracting boys," Akeno replied through her giggles while she began to pull Harry towards the dance floor.

"Bah, I won't waste a perfectly good club for that, I have castration spells and Fragarach after all," Harry said, although judging by his voice Akeno was hard-pressed to say if he was joking about using a Longinus-class weapon against hormonal boys or not.

Of course, this set her to giggling again, the motion causing her chest to bounce, but she ignored the looks this garnered her from those around her to reply. "Why am I not surprised? But you won't have to worry about someone getting fresh with me. After all, that would take all of my own fun away, wouldn't it?"

She looked up at him, one eyebrow raised, and he nodded. "True, although, it's more common to slap them then to electrocute the berk. Just saying."

"But you wouldn't have a problem if I electrocuted them?" Akeno asked, cocking her head coquettishly, her bangs falling to one side of her face as her ponytail bobbed.

"No, not really. So long as you remember to throw up a Notice-Me-Not charm modify their memories afterward and don't actually kill them anyway," Harry said with a shrug.

"There was a time you would," she whispered, as they tried to force their way through the crowd onto the dance floor. It was hard going in this area, as people bunched up trying to decide if they wanted to go get a drink or wanted to head straight onto the dance floor. There was also a little niche to one side with sofas and chairs, where couples could be seen making out, or sitting down and drinking at tiny booths along the edge of the side room.

"There was," Harry said with a nod, almost shouting now to be heard over the din of the club. "I told you why at the time, but I've realized since that my reasons were based on past association rather than anything to do with you in particular. Pain can have its place in correcting someone's actions or in… other areas."

After a moment staring into his eyes, Akeno asked, "And how far does that carry? And how much do I have Yasaka to thank for that?"

"Oh quite a lot," Harry replied, with a smile. "I'm sorry to say that her soft-sell worked better than your continued attempts to just introduce me to your interests as it were." He paused, his face becoming more serious as he looked at Akeno. "I suppose we both made mistakes though. I certainly wasn't ready at the time to have two girlfriends."

Akeno pouted at that but nodded her head sadly. "The way I became tense or annoyed when you chose to spend time with Lily rather than me. I am not proud of how I let my Greed… and my insecurities control my actions."

"And I'm sorry I tried to make you into something you weren't ready for," Harry said before asking, "Has Rias ever admitted to you that she had made a mistake to?"

She blinked, then slowly nodded. "We had that talk at one point."

Harry nodded back and Akeno finally was able to push through the crowd. One boy and Akeno used the term with feeling in her mind, turned as he felt a woman pressing up behind him. He looked at her for a brief second before smirking at Akeno, as he shouted out over the music "Hey babe, you here alone?"

His hands were already moving to catch her sides, but she smacked one of them away and twisted away from the other before continuing into the crowd of dancers, with Harry behind her. "No," he drawled as he followed her "She isn't."

The young man growled but seeing how much taller and stronger looking Harry was than him, backed away. "Kuso Gaikoku Hito (fucking foreigner)," he muttered, but Harry let that slide.

In front of him, Akeno was already swaying to the music, her hips twitching this way and that, her hands above her head, as she threw her head around, her long black ponytail flicking and dancing, bouncing off of the top of her rear and the back of her slinky dress. It also hit a few people nearby, but most of them didn't seem to mind. Indeed many of the dancers around her were looking at her in shock, some of them whispering about how she had to be some kind of model. Others were simply staring in lust or jealousy depending on their gender or preferences most the time.

Harry moved up behind her and put his hands up to touch her hands, causing Akeno to look up though she kept her hands up in the air to see what he would do. As Akeno watched, Harry slid his hands down from her palms to her wrists, then slowly trailed his two fingers down the pulse point on her wrist all along to her bare shoulders. Then his hands wound down her side before coming to rest on her hips, as Harry started to sway with her. Akeno shuddered several times during this, her mouth opening and closing, a full-on blush on her face as she fought to not close her eyes to the sensations his touch.

It was perhaps the most sensual act that she had ever witnessed, certainly the most sensual act she had ever taken part of in public. As he started to sway and move with her, she couldn't stop herself from leaning back against Harry's broad chest. She felt one of his arms going around her waist, and she smiled. Her own hands came down to rest on the back of his head, and she started to grind and move against him, biting her lip.

As they did more and more of the other dancers, who were also doing much the same thing, started to notice the two very good-looking people in their midst. Even in a place like this, Akeno stood out. Which, Harry reflected, was as it should be. She was like all the other women in his life, gorgeous. Even the youngsters were good-looking, and Harry suddenly chuckled.

"What?" Akeno shouted to be heard over the sound of the beating of the music and the crowd. It was even louder here than it had been by the entrance.

Harry leaned down and whispered in her ear "I'm just laughing thinking about all the girls and ladies in my life at the moment. Not trying to compare you all or anything, just making an internal comment that all of you could make the ancients weep for want of creating sculptures of you."

"But Rias is the most gorgeous to you isn't she?" Akeno asked shrewdly.

But Harry knew that was a double-edged question so while he answered honestly he tried to make it a joke at the same time. "Well, I do have a something of a redhead fetish."

Akeno laughed, shaking her head. "That's not what I meant, and you know it!" she said. She twirled around in his grip until her chest was pressing up against the middle of his. She wasn't tall enough to press chest to chest with Harry, but her breasts pressing into his upper stomach, where his six-pack began, was more than enough stimulation for not-so-little-Harry to start to rise in anticipation.

She smirked wickedly as she felt it pressing slightly into her own lower stomach even as she continued to dance its way to the music. "I meant, that she'll always be first in your mind, won't she?"

"I suppose, yes, Rias will always have a special place in my heart. But that doesn't mean there isn't equal room for you and the others. It's just that my love for each of you will be different, equal but diverse as all of you are," Harry said, worried suddenly where this was going and he stopped swaying with the music staring into Akeno's eyes, trying to get a feel for where Akeno's questions were coming from. "Does that still bother you? That, if, that if, we, we get together again, that I won't put you first?"

Akeno looked away, turning her head to nuzzle into his chest as she looked around them at the crowd, still moving and swaying to the music, which was wild and throbbing and almost animalistic now, having sped up a little more as they had moved. Indeed, the two of them were now amongst the slower, more staid dancers. All in all, this is a bizarre time for a heart-to-heart, but when have I ever done anything normal?

"No," she said after a moment turning to look up at him, making certain he understood she was telling the truth. "No it doesn't bother me. It's a relief, I suppose? I know in a lot of ways that I can't be what you want in a primary wife, I'm the teasing older sister type. I taunt, I cajole, I punish occasionally, and I make fun of people. I like to cause a bit of distress occasionally, in a controlled sort of way, most the time. And I love pain, although I understand now that I need to make certain the other person also likes that kind of thing too. I'm not a mother figure. So it's a relief that I don't have to be. If we… that is… um,"

Akeno too stumbled over the words. They hadn't actually talked about getting together again before this, but this whole night had been a date from the start, even before Akeno had her audition. It was also a very adult type date, like the kind she had hoped to have so often but had only had a few times without Harry wanting to rush home or otherwise interrupt them. And while they had broken up, Akeno's feelings for Harry hadn't stopped growing. Indeed, they had grown more during their time apart. Even so, asking if they were going to try to go out again was more difficult than she expected.

Instead of answering with words for the moment Harry reached down, letting his hands move down Akeno's back from her hips then around to her rear, gripping and pulling her against him, feeling her soft, pliant rear in his grip before quickly moving them back up to her the small of her back. Even in a place like this, grabbing a woman's rear like that was going to be noticed, and probably get some negative comments. And positive ones, it was after all a crowd of young men and women.

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered into her mouth, his breath passing over her mouth causing her to flush hotly. Akeno lips opening for a kiss but Harry stayed away, pulling back when she leaned forward. This has to be said before we go any further.

"I'm sorry. I tried to fit you into a mold that you weren't ready for. I'm sorry I tried to see in you things that weren't there. I know I couldn't give you the attention you demanded at the time, and I can't be sorry about that. But just because we broke up Akeno does not mean that I stopped caring. We just tried too hard at the time, both of us. But we haven't, that is the spark that was there that made us try to go out, it's been there all along still, and I think that flame's just grown larger." He moved his mouth to the side of her ear, whispering into it. "Tell me I'm wrong?"

"Hehehe, you know I can't say that Harry-sensei~," Akeno said, her voice almost muffled as she leaned against Harry's chest even as she grinned giddily. The one song ended, and the next one was techno-pop and Akeno's grimaced a little. She was fine with techno-pop, but frankly, the emotions of the moment were not lending themselves to that kind of thing. She pulled away from Harry, taking his hand in hers, tugging him towards the nearest bar.

Three drinks later, the two of them were now sitting in a single stool, with Akeno on Harry's lap, as she still was trying to figure out the words she wanted to say, laying her head on his shoulder. Eventually, she simply blurted out, "It was as if, when we started to go out, I, the fun when out of it! Not… like we, I mean…"

She paused again, and Harry held up her glass one eyebrow rising. "In vino veritas (In wine truth)?"

She giggled, and leaned forward, sipping from the drink as Harry held it up for her, shifting her rump on him, feeling his rising ardor neither as she let her tongue lick out at the rim of the glass. It was thrilling, it was intoxicating, empowering, being with Harry like this again was all of that. When she finished sipping at the drink – and causing hard-ons in many of the men around them – Akeno went on. "When we were together, there was chemistry, but, we weren't clicking as I thought we should. I thought I pushed, and I resented and then pushed some more, and we…I made mistakes too," she repeated, "A lot of them. I didn't see all of you, I just saw the portions of you I wanted to, and sort of ignored the rest. Blinders that's what I had," she said, "like a horse."

"Are you comparing me to a horse?" Harry interrupted, looking at her in amusement.

"Well, a certain part of you would certainly qualify," she said with a little giggle bouncing on his lap.

"Stop that," Harry said mildly, although he didn't raise a hand to enforce this order.

But even that mildness caused a shiver to go down her spine at the sheer command in it. Thank you Yasaka she thought to herself get giddy. I am definitely going to have to buy that woman some chocolates. Expensive ones.

Akeno stopped then her shiver came back as Harry gently took her chin and turned her head look him in the eyes. "So I guess, the question is, do you, that is, should we try to make a try of it again?"

Akeno shook her head and Harry blinked in surprise, only to smile as she went on, smiling down at him, her hands in his hair now. "'Do or do not, there is no try.'"

"A Star Wars fan?"

"Sort of," she said waving one hand this when that. "I got into it because Suzaku-neesama is into it and apparently, the Lightning Rod can also be turned into a kind of lightsaber. My mother was also a major fan apparently."

"That's funny," Harry said with a smile. "Did she tell you any more about her?"

The two of them had talked about her mother several times over the past few months, and Harry knew that bonding over Akeno's mother had been a major thing for the young woman as she got to know Suzaku better.

Akeno finished her drink and indicated Harry could set it down. He did so before moving his hands back around her body, pulling her into him, one hand stroking her dress clad back, slowly going a little further down her back each time. "So, you didn't answer my question. And I posed it twice now," he said mock-sternly.

"Pooh, I did too~," Akeno said, her voice almost sounding teasing before she went on in a much more serious tone as it now was her turn to lift his chin, stroking her fingers down his chin, watching his eyes close slightly in delight at the touch. "If we do make a try of it, this time it will be something permanent. I want it to be something permanent. You're right that when we got together, we weren't in love with one another. I was in love with the idea of being in love, and you were simply immensely attracted to me. But now, I think we're both past that, aren't we?"

"Well, I'm not over the 'immensely attracted to you' part, but as for the rest…" Harry's hand mode moved up, one hand moving into her hair near where it was tied up in her ponytail, the other gently kneading the back of her head as he pulled her head down towards him before simply stating, "I think that I love you, just as much as I love the others I'm involved with. And if you care for me just as much, then what's stopping us?"

She smiled back and closed the distance quickly. "What indeed?"

Their lips met in a sweet kiss that quickly became passionate, Harry's hand in her hair holding her still as the two of them made out, their lips moving against one another. Akeno began to move on his lap again, slowly opening her mouth to let her tongue out. It might've been more than 4 ½ months since they'd broken up, but both of them remembered this old dance and soon Harry's tongue was licking the bottom of hers in her mouth, then moving around it in a snakelike fashion, sending tingling down both of their spines, as Harry slowly began to move his hips in a grinding motion against her.

They were interrupted by the flashing of a few cameras, and Akeno sighed, pulling away with an ocean's worth of reluctance. "I'll be deleting those momentarily. Do you want to do the memory charms?"

Harry sighed and nodded. "I suppose we shouldn't let your picture be taken so much. They might link the fact that you're a student and then to me being your teacher. That would be bad."

A few moments later they came back together, with Akeno smiling at having so easily dealt with the issue, even though she had also had to erase the security cameras and Harry the minds of the security men watching them. "All done. Now let's go back to dancing!"

The two of them danced the night away, and it was close to two in the morning before they decided to leave having had to repeat that process several times as Akeno's good looks and dancing had garnered even more reaction once they were back on the dance floor. But Akeno most certainly did not want the night end. After pulling back from another intense kiss as they left the crowd of people leaving the club behind, she watched as Harry got on his bike revving it, and got on behind him, pulling the helmet over her head before putting her arms around his waist and leaning up to whisper, "I don't want to go home just yet."

"No reason we should," Harry said with a nod. Not with Koneko and everyone else and the wards watching the kid anyway. "I understand that there is a great little hill around here that's famous for couples?"

Akeno giggled and nodded. She knew the place he was talking about, many of the seniors who had boyfriends had mentioned it a time or two at school. It was apparently a place to go for a great view of the area although it wasn't at all magically important, so none of the Devils had ever been there. Not even when they were surveying the academy area for the wards beyond a quick look. It was part of a park, that led up to this point, but the chain fence that was supposed to close it to the public at night had long rusted and never been replaced.

The two of them drove through the almost silent town and up the hill. There they found several other couples in their cars. The roar of the bike's engine grabbed a bit of attention, but the couples quickly went back to their own doings and Harry and Akeno moved through the tiny parking area, to a point just in front of the fence that was protecting the cliff edge.

Akeno climbed off the bike, then leaped up easily over the fence, a sign of athleticism that would've drawn many an eyebrow, but which did it now as no one was actually watching them. Harry followed, and as she stood to take in the view, moved to put his arms around her again, leaning in to whisper, "I just covered us with a Notice-Me-Not spell just in case. I figure that there might be a few of your fellow students appear, and that would be bad."

Akeno shrugged. "Has Rias told you about how much frustration she's been feeling in school of late?"

Chuckling wanly Harry replied, "Are you talking about her general frustration about not being open with our relationship, or just the frustration of continuing to take classes she could ace in her sleep?"

"The second one," Akeno admitted with a giggle. Like Rias or herself, Akeno was very much a touchy-feely sort, but also got far more pleasure out of verbal flirtations than Rias appeared to, and she had seen the frustration building up occasionally in her friend during the day. Rias was just that much of a tactile person. Indeed, it wasn't unusual to have Rias disappear to the ORC club room for some snuggle time with Harry during the week.

Akeno turned his arms, and then pulled his hat head down to her, kissing him ardently. Before Harry could start to kiss back though, she pushed him lightly away, one leg hooking behind his. He stumbled, and though he could've caught himself, decided to just go with it and landed on his rear with a thump, looking up at Akeno. "And what was that supposed to do?" He asked noting how this put his head at waist level, one eyebrow rising. "I didn't think you were an exhibitionist too."

"Not that much no," Akeno said, looking down at where his face was even with her crotch. She then knelt down into his lap and began to kiss him again.

{Lime Start}

Since as a devil, the amount of alcohol she drank that night hadn't gotten her even a tiny bit drunk. Human style alcohol would never do it for her even if she really liked the taste of their various cocktails. Harry's kisses, on the other hand, should be on the banned substance list she thought to herself giddily, pulling back to breathe, licking her lips. She looked into his eyes, seeing the affection, the lust and love there in equal measure, and whispered, "I love you, Harry."

"I love you Akeno," Harry replied, then he twisted his head and kissed her hard, pulling her against him. She moaned, humping into his waist again and again, as his hands crept down to her rear, gripping it firmly, firmly enough to cause her pain, which caused her breath to start to come out in gasps. But she wasn't going to just let him do that. Remembering one thing that she tried which had been a bit of a turnoff to him before, and wanting to test his desire to be more open with a bit of masochism, Akeno flicked her tongue out against his mouth once more, and when he opened it, allowed his tongue into her mouth, but as he started to dominate the kiss, she bit at his tongue, letting a bit of lightning magic out through her mouth at the same time.

He hissed but didn't pull back, grinding up against her even more. Akeno brought her hands down around his back, pulled up that shirt, and then began to rake her nails across his back, underneath. He shuddered but again didn't pull back, simply humping up against her even harder, thrusting her down into his waist even more with his hands on her ass. It was almost as if they were going all the way except they were still wearing their clothing, and Akeno groaned aloud as her dress was pushed up enough so that only her panties - sheer, lacy panties with the ties on either side - was between her and Harry's pants, his erection very hard and grinding against her.

Reluctantly, she slowly pulled back, their tongues dueling in midair for a moment before she pulled further back panting as Harry continued to grind up against her, his expression almost primal far more so than any time they'd done similar when going out. Ooh, yes, something nice, Yasaka, must do, her and Rias both, Akeno's thoughts were disjointed as pleasure rose within her, her nails digging into his back, and she watched as he hissed in pleasure.

Yes! He probably will never be the kind to bring in whips, but chains? That's definitely a question in the future, maybe with me being the one tied up though. She thought to herself, before she whispered, "We're not going to go all the way tonight. We did just get back together after all."

Thinking he understood what she wanted, Harry moved his hands from her rear, pulling her dress up as they went. She flushed and shook her head at that, and Harry slowly released her dress. Nodding his head Harry pulled Akeno down into another kiss, and this time began to truly dominate the kiss, one hand rising from her rear to slap her ass with a resounding *Crack!* The moaning yelp this elicited told Harry he was on the right track, and as the two of them continued to make out, humping against one another he occasionally smacked her rear, never ceasing to wring a moan from her.
This went on for a while, but then as Harry started to lose control, he slid one hand underneath her dress and allowed a single finger to trail along her slit, before thrusting it inside. That did it, and Akeno squealed into his mouth as her climax claimed her. Harry continued to hump against her for a time causing Akeno to shudder as aftershocks continued to run through her body until he too came with a grunting growl.

{End Lime}

The two of them sat there for a time until Harry, looking down at Akeno who was resting against his chest, realized she was done for the night. "Come on LB, let's get you home." With that he stood up, Akeno in his arms in a princess carry.

"L, LB?" Akeno asked, somewhat confused and very out of it. It had been an emotional rollercoaster of a day, and the climax she'd just had was somewhat mind-blowing too after months of only her own ministrations.

"Yep, it's short for Lightning Babe," Harry said, testing out the nickname with a smile. None of the others were very happy with pet names, beyond 'love' and 'sweetheart', but Harry wanted to use them for at least one of his lovers.

"Lightning babe." Pulling away from Harry to standing on shaky feet, Akeno laughed gaily, throwing her head back, and simply shaking it from one side to another, her black hair a lustrous and flashing in the gleam of the moon beyond her. "I like it," she said with a giggle. "I like it a lot. I can be your little LB any time, Harry!"

"How about for all time, for the rest of our lives?" Harry asked, smiling even though his tone was serious.

"Mmmm, that too, love." Then she leaned in and kissed him again.

OOOOOOO

The work on the wards had not been the only magical research the group had been working on over the last few months. Near the end of the week after Rias was gone one more such study began to bear fruit.

"It's alive, alive! It's alive!" Kalawarner cackled before falling silent at a light slap upside the head.

Behind her Harry looked askance at the creation in front of him, pulling back his hand from where he had gently tapped the back of Kalawarner's head shaking his head slightly while Akeno giggled lightly to one side. "None of that. Still, I have to admit I didn't honestly think this would work."

In front of the three of them, stood the form of a Terra-cotta soldier, one that almost looked as if it would not have been out of place in the great digs in China. Except for the fact that it was newly created, it had a sword in one hand that gleamed with the glint of steel. The terra-cotta soldiers sometimes unearthed in China also did not have glowing red joints, the magic that made them move glowing through from the under-skin.

The golems of China were not simple magical devices by any stretch of the imagination. In point of fact, they were a kind of layered enchanted form. First of all was the clay armor that went on over-the-top, magically enhanced to an incredible degree via runes and actual spells. The runes carved into soft clay, that was then sandwiched with another, thinner layer. The interlayer held the runes of 'thought' and movement, which allowed the golems to move almost like humans, if with a certain ponderousness to their steps.

Their thoughts in this case were several done ingrained physical responses. How to walk (which had, according to Kala and Tsubaki, been incredibly difficult. How to wield their weapons. How to listen for verbal orders, how to identify a foe. And finally, how to learn how to fight in general. These were again a combination of enchantments and runes.

That had been the trick to the ancient war golems of China, which Kala had discovered a few weeks back with the help of the book that Harry had been given from the Onmyouji. That book had only had the spells of protection and defense, having been basically created by various Japanese Onmyouji over centuries of fighting against the golems.

But Kala had basically rebuilt the movement spells from scratch and then worked them into a runic format with Tsubaki and Akeno's help. In so doing the three of them had essentially been forced to almost entirely re-create the runic language of China. That language, which was once the oldest in the world, even older than Sanskrit and Egyptian style runes, had been almost entirely lost in World War II along with nearly all of that country's magical communities beyond the monkey Youkai and a few odd holdouts in the deep mountains. All of whom hidden behind powerful wards and hadn't taken part on the magical side of the World War. Still, with the help of Yasaka's resources, the books from the Onmyouji at the start, they had been able to recreate it.

Tsubaki had helped that process immensely. She had also helped figure out how to create a runic scheme that would allow the golems to listen to verbal commands. Her mastery of Ankhsera had allowed her to come up with that, and then expand on it into giving the golems a simple series of fighting styles and the ability to learn to a certain degree. That could be expanded on later.

Of course, none of that would have worked if not for Akeno discovering the one, final element they had needed to actually give the 'mental' portion of the golem's operating system, so to speak, power. Lightning. The synapses of the human brain generated tiny amounts of electrical energy to carry information. So too did the brain of the golem need lightning magic added in order to connect the various runic arrays and empower them to work together. Figuring out how much lightning magic, how to add it in and then make certain it renewed itself afterward had been another trial, but again the three women had been able to figure it out, almost entirely on their own. Harry was immensely proud of them all for that.

"It is certainly impressive looking but how well do they actually fight?" Kiba said, scratching at his chin thoughtfully.

"Ara let's find out," said Akeno, with a laugh. She held up a talisman so that the others could see it before tossing the piece of enchanted paper into the air where it seemed to stick. Then her fingers began to move through a series of quick shifts, as she wove a spell of summoning. She then thrust her hands forward, and the talisman vanished, to be replaced by a red-skinned Oni, standing there with its club in one hand. It was several feet taller than Harry and would've stood even taller than Dutugamunu if he had been there.

Which he wasn't. Harry had refused him access to the runic workroom until he figured out how to contact his son, certain that there was some deeper meaning there beyond a father just contacting a son after many centuries. Given that Rias, Sona, Yasaka and even his apprentices all agreed, the Rune Master had huffily agreed. If that meant he was actually trying to contact his son, or simply using his own workspace though, Harry didn't honestly have the time to figure out these days.

Seeing the large red Oni, Harry chuckled poking Akeno in the side gently, before pulling her into a gentle sideways hug, his hand resting on her hip just where her school uniform's skirt gave way to her blouse. "Not going to use one of your tiny Oni instead?"

"Fufufufu, I would rather not have them be squished or anything similar for such an unimportant thing as an experiment," the black-haired young woman replied, laying her head against Harry's side even as one hand tried to pull his hand down to the bottom of her skirt then back up her bare thigh. Harry let her for a moment but then pulled away, pinching her side and gesturing to the golem indicating Akeno needed to pay attention.

As the Oni looked around, Kala turned to her creation. "Defend yourself against the red Oni for one minute, and then attack the red Oni until it is incapacitated," she ordered clearly and concisely.

At Akeno's verbal commands, the Oni raised its club, a heavy kabuto, bringing it around and down towards the smaller clay golem.

However, the golem raised its own sword, slamming it up into the weapon coming down, which thrust the attack back upwards. It then charged, shoulder checking into the larger Oni, and for a moment the two creatures grappled until the Oni dropped its weapon and began to use both hands to pummel the golem, knocking its sword out of its hand. But the golem began to win against the Oni in pure strength, its fists hammering the larger creature backward.

"Interesting," Kala murmured. "I thought my orders would've had the golem standing entirely on the defensive for the first minute, but apparently the mix of those orders allowed it to sublimate the first order into the second."

A minute passed and the golem instantly stopped attacking, backing way to its previous position even as it let the Oni recover from being practically pummeled into the ground. Akeno instantly raised another talisman, and the Oni disappeared to the summoned realm. "Ara, the minute portion of your order worked."

"True, which shows we need to be more flexible in the kind of orders we give to them. But that was still impressive. Oni are reckoned to be among the strongest creatures in Japan, the equivalent of trolls."

"Which would be the equivalent of low-tier Rooks in Devil parlance. Still, let us see how well it does in terms of skill against a similarly armed opponent," Kiba said with a laugh, hopping forward on light feet as he raised his sword in mock salute towards the golem.

Kala nodded and intoned her orders again very clearly. "Golem, pick up your sword and defend yourself against the Knight Kiba for as long as he is attacking you."

At those words the golem shifted purely into a defensive stance, raising its sword towards Kiba.

Kiba smirked, and then launched into a rapid series of attacks. The golem could almost keep up with his speed, causing his attacks to go wide or barely touch it. But his own attacks didn't seem to be doing any damage. At least not with his normal weapon, a simple conjured sword with no magical properties. But when Kiba shifted to his enchanted demonic blades, they too didn't do much damage and he backed way in surprise.

"Good, the anti-magic and anti-element enchantments seem to work," Harry murmured, to which Kala nodded, relief clear on her face as Akeno kept watching, her head cocked to one side. "Kiba, let's see how fast it can move."

Nodding, Kiba waited until Kala gave the golem the same orders as before and then went on the attack, moving a little faster every few minutes. "I was moving before at the speed I was at when you first arrived in the area, Harry. Now I am nearly moving as fast as I can…" he said, as his sword finally got through the thing's defenses, the sword tapping the creature in the center of the head. "It isn't fast enough to keep up with a high-tier Knight. Low tier perhaps, but with anything beyond mid-tier Knight speed it would have to rely on its durability."

"Which, thanks to our various enchantments, is extremely high, and can be made higher," Harry said, moving away from a mock-pouting Akeno to give Kala a hug from behind, his arms going around her stomach, kissing her ear and directly behind her ear at her hairline, which he had learned was a sweet spot on her. "Damn good job, Kala."

She hummed in appreciation, leaning back in his arms with a sigh of delight. Damn, if you had ever told me I'd find pleasure in such a simple thing as being held in my man's arms, I would have either laughed in your face or attacked you. But now, Father but I am glad I decided to take the plunge again when Harry approached me.

As Harry pulled away, he asked, "But with all the time you've spent on this project are you going to be ready for the cookoff competition?" That was supposed to occur this coming Saturday after all, and that was only two days away.

She nodded, firmly. "I'll be ready for it but who all is going with us?"

"Kunou, Koneko, Lily and me," Harry said. "Koneko is the biggest eater, and I want to spend this weekend with Kunou and Lily since I won't be seeing Kunou for a week when we leave to head to the UK."

And at their age, a week is a lifetime," Kala quipped causing Harry to laugh in rueful agreement.

She smiled, leaning back in his arms for a moment. A moment that ended as Kiba coughed into his hand, making a mental note to go and find Tsubaki after this. "Ahem, yes, um, well, back to the topic at hand. I think that regardless of its speed issues, it's real problem is its lack of combat style."

Akeno smiled faintly shrugging her shoulders. "We have figured out a way to allow the golems to learn in a very limited fashion, so we can perhaps build on that? Regardless, it's clear we're on the right track here."

"Agreed. This isn't a finished job yet. A runic enchantment to add a haste spell on it to use an RPG parlance would be excellent," Kala said, reluctantly moving away from Harry's hug and nodding to her fellow runic scientist. "And if not that, then heightening it's durability and armor to as high a level as we can would be an alternative."

"How tough are we talking about?" Kiba asked, frowning while Harry nodded in agreement.

"Tough enough to take a full-powered Boosted Gear blast from Koneko," Kalawarner said bluntly. "That'll be our target at least."

"There's another thought too: weapons. Don't get wedded to the idea of golems as frontline troopers. What if we could say, get our hands on some of the Church's sanctified guns? We have a few of those already around the place, right?" Taken in the offensive raids that had lead up to Kokabiel's assault, the Devils couldn't use those weapons as they had been Blessed in some fashion. Tiamat and Harry had looked at them, and both felt it had something to do with Holy water being used during the smithing process since each gun was a unique creation rather than a machined one.

Akeno and Kala's eyes widened, while Kiba nodded. "We have fourteen handguns taken from the ex-exorcists, and I agree, that kind of thing could be a major force multiplier. There is also Rias-sama's Power of Destruction gems. Perhaps using those or something similar as a power source for a weapon would be an interesting idea."

The Knight laughed suddenly holding his hands to either side as he reached out to his Sacred Gear. "And then there is this: Sacred Gear, Sword Birth!" A second later, the floor was covered by swords in a series of circles around Kiba missing the others and the golem but covering the rest of the floor with a sword every half foot. "I have been getting hints of what my Sacred Gear's Balance Breaker would be like, but until I achieve it, having a Golem army armed with Demonic Blades would be the next best thing."

While the others all nodded, Kiba canceled the technique, before turning to Kala, one eyebrow raised. "You mentioned its armor. How heavy is it?"

"Doesn't matter," Harry said before anyone else could reply and Kiba looked at him. Harry just grinned back at the young knight. "Two words boyo: Featherweight charms."

Kiba laughed then looked back at the two women. "In that case, might I request a suit of armor? As I mentioned a moment ago, I am most pleased with my progress in using my Sacred Gear thanks to our training, but my own durability is frankly abysmal. My magic is too caught up in enhancing my speed. I can use it to cast spells; even some to enhance my durability at this point thanks to your help Harry, but my base durability is still quite low."

"Done," Kala said with a nod looking over at Akeno who looked intrigued at the idea.

Leaving Kala to take Kiba's measurements, Akeno and Harry walked home together, covered by an illusion that allowed Akeno to nuzzle into his side, and for him to put an arm over her shoulder. Later, Kala would arrive back home to find the two of them had cooked a simple pan-fried pork loin dish, with some of the sauces she had made recently to dip them into.

She smiled at that, thanked them for giving her the night off, and then buried herself in a pile of scrap paper that she called her cookbook. Despite her earlier words, she was feeling kind of nervous about cooking for critiques and professional chefs for the first time in her hundred-plus years of cooking.

Kala, Lily, Kunou, and Akeno were the only ones with them that night. Koneko was spending time with Mittelt, Asia, and Gasper that night playing computer games that Harry wouldn't let them play with the younger girls, but she would be back later. Yubelluna and Tonks were having a 'Action Hotty Appreciation night' over in the girl's dorm. Loup was out with Suzaku. And Rias had yet to return from the underworld.

As they all sat down to eat Akeno smiled, holding up a large clay jug. "I have a new drink I would like you all to try. It is pear and cherry cordial. I got the idea from a few juice type drinks I have seen over the years."

After the first sip everyone agreed it was quite tasty, but after leaning over to give her a light kiss on the lips Harry had to laugh. "Your lips taste like cherries," he murmured.

Akeno giggled, shaking her head. "Isn't there an American song about lips tasting like cherries or something?"

"There probably is. There are for most things," Harry replied dryly as Lily giggled at their antics from one side.

Then there was a pop of incoming teleportation, and Rias appeared to one side of the kitchen table. She smiled at them all, and then laughed as Lily hopped up out of her chair and gave her a hug saying that she missed her. "I missed you too lovey," Rias said with a dry chuckle. "But it was necessary. I learned quite a few things that I had not known before, not only about my clan business, which I'll need in the future but also a few things that could impact us here in Kuoh." Even as she spoke though, her eyes were shifting over to Harry, smiling at him softly. "I'm home, my love."

Harry smiled back at her, enough love in his eyes to cause her to blush as he pulled her into a hug and kissing her. "Welcome home, wife of mine," he murmured into her lips, kissing them then down her neck, where he began to lick and nibble.

Akeno laughed, shaking her head as she gently pulled Harry away from Rias. "None of that, there are children present."

Lily and the others laughed at Harry's outrageous pout, until he said aloud, "I wonder if I can send them to bed early." This obviously caused Kunou and Lily to protest any such idea. They didn't understand all of what was going on between the two adults, but they certainly understood the joke.

"And do you two have something to tell me?" Rias said with a laugh, looking at Akeno as she nestled into Harry's side and his arm went around her shoulders.

"Nothing that you didn't see coming you weeaboo," Akeno muttered, leaning up to give Harry a kiss on the cheek before turning back to her King and friend. "But if you want me to say it, Harry and I have decided to start dating again. Both of us are in a much better position towards one another and dating than we were in the past, and I think we can make this work this time. For real. Forever."

"I'm happy for you both," Rias said simply, the sincerity in her tone making Akeno smiled happily at her best friend. But Rias went on, hopping into the chair next to Harry, and pulling him into a hug. "I haven't seen him in a week darn it, let me have some snuggle time."

The two girls began to tug Harry this way and that, obviously making a joke of it as he sighed and let them to it, while the girls continued to giggle.

In actuality, however, since Rias knew that she would have Harry almost to herself on the trip to the Brit the British Isles, she allowed Akeno to join him in bed that night, while she bunked down with the two youngest girls in their room. That this let her cuddle Lily to her heart's content was a big feature of her magnanimous decision of course.

The two newly-connected lovers did not go very far. Rather they didn't go any further than the already had, but the next morning Akeno woke up very late, with several hickeys on her body, and a lazy, extremely satisfied smile on her face. She still wasn't exactly happy about Harry going away so soon after they had finally gotten together, but at least she knew he would leave her with a smile on her face.

OOOOOOO

That weekend was the first day of the two-week vacation that the schools in Japan gave their students in March between semesters. Despite there being no school that day though, Harry, Lily, Kunou, Koneko, Asia, and Kalawarner woke up early in order to head down to Kyushu, the southernmost island of Japan for the cooking competition. Harry had initially thought about not taking Asia because she wasn't nearly as big of an eater as the others, but he had decided to do so since he would be leaving her behind with Kala, Akeno and the others.

To aid them in this, Harry brought out several broomsticks laying them out on the backyard.

"Where did you get those?" Rias asked that she looked at the broomsticks and tried not to be deafened by Lily and Kunou's dual squeals of delight.

Kala was also interested, reaching over and poking them muttering to herself, "These are supposed to fly?" She had done a lot of work in runes and enchantments but hadn't researched brooms yet.

Asia interrupted any response Harry could have said as she raised a hand timidly. "Um, could I bow out of using one of those Tou-san?"

"Of course, but they are perfectly safe you know," Harry replied, looking a little quizzical.

"While I can understand that intellectually, I'm afraid fear is not exactly in intellectual emotion," Asia said.

She said it so earnestly that Harry laughed, ruffling her hair. "Well in that case, I suppose one of us will have to fly you down."

"I'll do it," Kala said with a smile, moving up behind Asia and looking down at her. "Unless you object?"

"Oh no, that will be delightful. I like the idea of flying, I just… those brooms don't look safe to me that's all," Asia said with a smile for her older friend.

Kala nodded, and without another world word lifted the girl into her arms in a princess carry, causing her to squeak. A second later Kala's wings popped out of her back, the black feathers gleaming in the light of the sun above them. She flapped once the motion carrying her into the air, where she began to circle their home.

"As for where I got the brooms. One of them is my old Firebolt," Harry said turning back to Rias with a smile tapping the one Kala had been looking at with a finger. "The others are Cleansweep Sevens, decent brooms good for learning with and they have built-in sticking charms, although I will off course be adding my own on top of those."

"Of course," Rias said with a laugh. She took one broom, holding it, then placing it on the ground and holding her hand out over it. "This is how you do it correct? Up!" The thing leaped into her hands, and she smiled. "That was easy enough."

To one side, Kunou did the same thing, barely catching the broom before it could fly up past her head. She pouted at it outrageously, then watched, Lily imitating the other girl as they got onto their brooms, pushing off easily. Koneko waited a moment, for her King to give her the okay, then eagerly followed the other two up.

"I don't know why Koneko so interested, she has flown with her devil wings countless times before this," Rias said, looking up at the Nekoshu.

"Yes, but it isn't natural for her. And broomsticks, well there are just some things you can do on a broomstick that you would find very hard to do with just your wings. At least I think so."

"We'll have to test that someday," Rias said with a laugh, and then cocked her head as Harry had turned away from her to look up at the three girls in the air, where Lily was showing the others how to sit properly, and then how to lean forward in order to get more speed. His lips work had shifted into a smirk for some reason, and she had to ask, "What's that smile for Harry?" as she poked his cheek lightly with a finger.

Harry caught her hand, kissing the finger, then Rias's palm and finally a pulse point on her wrist before pulling away to answer. "Oh, nothing much, just a thought I used to have about when I imagined having a family. I always told everyone that I wanted as many kids so I could field my own quidditch team."

The look he gave her as he finished speaking was very direct, and Rias had to bite her lip to keep from jumping him then and there as she felt a thrill go up and down her spine and into other areas.

"We've got the seeker position, the keeper, and, judging by how much Kunou likes to hit things one of the two beater positions set." Kunou liked to play goalie whenever they played football, so it wasn't a stretch to imagine she would take up the Keeper position. "That leaves the three chasers and one beater position to be filled."

She licked her lips but nodded firmly. "We'll be starting on that little project soon, believe me. The moment I graduate from high school in fact." Rias honestly had no idea where the powerful desire to be a mother had come from. To be a wife yes, that she could lay at her parent's feet, and even Grayfia and her brother's relationship to a certain extent. But the desire to be a mother went beyond that. Still, it was there and this was one bit of Gluttony she had no issue with.

"MM… I look forward to it. Both having the kids, and the practice making them." Harry chuckled, then leaned down and gave her a very long, lingering kiss before pulling back, holding her in his arms for a moment as he stared down into her eyes. "We'll be back tonight."

"I know, and I will be here waiting for you when you do, though I won't share your bed again. I'll let Kala and Akeno do that. After all, Yubelluna and I will have you to ourselves when we're in the United Kingdom," Rias replied.

True enough, Harry said with a laugh, leaning down to nip at her neck for a moment, before Lily shouted, "Come on Daddy let's get going!" reached him from above.

He laughed and stepped back, tugging on her hand lightly before kissing the back of it. "Until I'm home once more my lady."

Rias curtsied mockingly in reply. "I'll keep the lights on for you, my lord." She stood there watching as Harry lifted into the air on his own broomstick to join the others in the air and was still watching as they zoomed out downs toward the south.

OOOOOOO

As he sat down beside his basket of food outside the Khaos Brigade's main base in a small copse of trees, Cao-Cao was somewhat pleased by the way things had been going. Vali had been unable to get away from Azazel and the Fallen for very long, his Hero Team – the name of his humancentric faction within the Khaos Brigade - had grown. That part had been going well. So too had getting a read on what the other groups making up the Khaos Brigade thought about their patron.

When it becomes time to supplant her, Ophis will not be missed by any. Indeed she does our work for us with her general attitude. So long as everyone sees her simply as an ill-tempered battery there will be no true organizational structure within the Brigade, no unity between the power blocs.

Using the majority of the Old Satan Team to take the brunt of the attack on the peace talks will leave only Vali's team in place to stand against me. Rizevim still being out there is an issue, but hopefully, he will come to his senses, and once marked by Ophis he will cease to be an issue.

Still, Ophis's strength is a challenge. One I must have backup plans to deal with, as I doubt that I will be so lucky as to have Ophis weaken herself enough on the assault on Kuoh as to let me have a shot at killing her. My attempts to discover a means to drain her power away have not yielded anything yet either. Damn it, no matter my other plans to get rid of those who would oppose me so long as Ophis retains her monstrous powers she stands like a vast mountain, looming over everything, an insurmountable foe.

Cao-Cao's solitude was interrupted then by the sound of someone clearing his throat nearby. He looked up with a frown, which deepened as he saw the person standing there.

The man was a middle-aged European he thought, with nondescript clothing, deep brown eyes, and weathered face and hands showing he spent a lot of time outdoors. Strapped to his side was a book and on one wrist he wore a tiny bronze bracelet. The way he stood spoke of some self-confidence, but not much, and he bowed respectfully when he saw he had Cao-Cao's attention.

Cao-Cao thought was one of the magicians who had joined recently. Or is he a wizard? Regardless, the man was not a leader of any group, he was a loner. Hmm, who brought him in again?

Before Cao-Cao could question that, the man spoke. "Lord Cao-Cao, I have an offer for you. I see the way the wind's blowing, and I thought to formally jump on the 'hero' bandwagon before it became too late. I wish to make a deal with you."

"And what would you have to offer me that would make a personal deal of any kind be worth my time?" Cao-Cao asked, frowning heavily.

"I have a way into Cocytus, which I understand is something you have been wanting for some time," the man replied smiling thinly.

"…You have my attention," Cao-Cao said gravely wondering if this was a real offer or a ruse of some kind. "But what would you want in return?"

The man's lips twitched. "Access to the Leviathan Archives. I seek information there, information indeed that can only be found there. So you see, it is simply an information exchange I seek."

"Hmm, and what have you heard of my designs on Cocytus?"

"Nothing much, just that you are interested in a prisoner held within," the man replied, and Cao-Cao could detect no guile or interest in his voice.

It was clear to him that the man in front of him was narrowly focused on a single goal. That was good, it meant that no one knew his full plans or how the prisoner he was interested in tied into them. That was good. Still, this man was a veritable unknown to Cao-Cao. "And what information are you interested in?"

"I am in search of a lost treasure of my people, the resting place of one of our heroes. I believe his tomb's location will be found in the Archive."

And there it is, Cao-Cao thought, keeping any triumph off his face as he saw the man's eyes light up like a fanatic's. there is the lever to control this man. Excellent. "In that case, we have a deal. You help me, and I will help you. But what is your name, magician?"

"Wizard actually. And you can call me Simon, Simon Magh," the man replied, a hint of blue light appearing in his brown eyes for just second as he held out his hand.

OOOOOOO

For Kunou, Lily and even Koneko flying on the broomsticks was just plain fun. While Koneko could've flown a bit faster with her wings, using your wings was work, especially for someone who had not been born with them like her. Moreover, brooms were maneuverable as heck! She routinely used her broom as they flew south to do barrel rolls, dives, and circles in the air, and her normally stoic face had split into a wide beaming smile that wouldn't go away until they landed in a small unobserved parking lot. The two kids were just as ebullient, making Harry very thankful he had decided to use sticking charms to keep them on the brooms watching them fly around.

As for Asia, Kala was happy enough to fly with Asia in her arms like a princess. And Asia too took joy in the flight peering around her all the time, her rosary clasped in both hands. She was silent for the most part, letting the chatter of the other three wash over them, but eventually, Kala asked, "Are you enjoying yourself, Asia?"

Asia turned from admiring the view around them to give her a beaming smile and nod. "Oh yes! Is it like this when you fly all the time? The wind in your hair like this, the rest of the world below?"

"Unless I'm just trying to travel as fast as I possibly can yes," Kala said with a smile. "I think it was always one of Father's greatest gifts to angels and certainly the best one fallen still retain: the ability to fly under our own power. I might not be as maneuverable or agile as a broom, but flying is its own reward."

Asia nodded, leaning against Kala's chest as she turned her head forward once more, staring around them in awe. "Truly God's creation is great…" She murmured, tugging her rosary up to her lips for a moment.

Kala simply smiled at that, also staring around them as her arms tightened around the young teen. Like Asia, Harry had told Kala and Mittelt the truth about what Valper had told them about God. Both of them had been shocked to hear that their creator, their father even if Mittelt had made no effort to regain her faith as Kala had, had died. But like Asia, Kala had come to terms with it. Just because God is gone it does not mean his teachings are all false, and just because I am Fallen does not mean that I am without grace.

At that thought, her arms tightened around Asia, who, besides Harry, had done the most by far to renew Kala's faith in herself rather than just her seduction skills or surface beauty. Asia had furthermore led Kala to renew her faith in God and his plan for the world and the two of them had become close because of that shared connection. If Lily is Rias's daughter, then you're mine, she thought, leaning down to kiss the teen on the back of the head.

When they arrived in Kyushu, Kala split off to register for the competition and get the first portion out of the way. Harry and Koneko and Asia spent the rest of that morning and afternoon seeing the sights and generally tiring Kunou and Lily out before the cooking competition opened to the public audience that evening.

The cooking competition came in three distinct parts, the first part of which did not happen in front of the audience. That was a skills test, which was to weed out those cooks who didn't honestly have enough skills to be there. The second was based on cooking a specific dish or cooking a dish with a specific ingredient. In the final stage was a cook-off between the best cooks.

Normally, a contestant would have had to have been interviewed and recorded at their place of work to be part of the competition. But Kala had used a combination of magic and video editing to cover that portion for her. She could've done without that and entered the amateur competition, but as Harry had put it when he heard, "That'd be rather like beating a dead horse luv. No competition there."

The skills test consisted of four tests actually all of which was extremely easy for Kala. Although she was amused to note that despite wearing a somewhat conservative, if form-fitting, blouse with a skirt that fell to just above her knees, the male judge hadn't been able to keep his eyes off her body long enough to watch her actually cook. Then it was on to the next contest, which, along with the last stage, would be held in front of a live studio audience.

Kala and the others were led out onto a stage that had ten kitchen counters complete with all the tools and utensils of a full kitchen. Kala looked them over quickly as she was led to one of the counters, tying her apron around her before turning her attention to the announcer. At the same time, the audience was being led into the studio from another doorway.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting. We have narrowed down the participants from the original eighty to the remaining six. These six will compete for the grand prize, a chance to compete in three months' time at an Iron Chef championship show which will be filmed and broadcasted around the world," one of the judges announced.

Kalawarner grimaced. I hadn't heard about that. I just thought this was a local competition, not a world competition. She was in no rush whatsoever to be that well known, especially since she knew that her former Fallen compatriots might see her. That would no doubt bring some trouble down on Kuoh. Then Kala suddenly smirked. On the other hand, if they do try anything, well, they'll get the freaking Darwin Award for trying anything thanks to those wards of ours.

The Fallen Angel's smirk twitched into a full smile as she saw Lily waving both arms at her from the audience, with Harry sitting beside Lily, Koneko on her other side and Kunou in Harry's lap. All of them were waving at her, and Harry's emerald eyes were almost gleaming with good humor and support in the darkness over the audience. And I do have people rooting for me. So I might as well give it my all.

"Please, step forward to your booths."

The six of them did so, and the announcer went on. "In this contest, you will be given a single ingredient, that must be the centerpiece of your dish. You will be given fifteen minutes to design your dish, then sixty minutes to cook it." He paused for effect then nodded firmly, gesturing toward the contenders. "Participants, remove the cover from your ingredient."

Kalawarner did so and raised an eyebrow at what was revealed. "Your ingredient is vanilla. This is a powerful spice used in dishes the world over and in particular, desserts and pastries. However, we are not after desserts or pastries here, and they will not be allowed in this match. Vanilla must be the main ingredient and taste in your main course. To your right, we have a full larder, a selection of meats, vegetables, poultry, and seafood including crustaceans of all sorts. You will have fifteen minutes to plan your dish and pick your ingredients starting… now." The announcer, a middle-aged, very slightly overweight man, had said all this in one long breath, and now he hopped away, bowing grandly towards the ingredients table as the audience started to clap or cheer.

Rolling her eyes at the theatrics, Kalawarner and the others moved towards them, as the audience looked on.

At the same time, Harry pulled out a book and started to read aloud with Lily and Kunou, something that garnered a lot of amusement from many of the people around them, since the two girls were the youngest children in the audience. But when the fifteen minutes were up, Harry stopped, and the three of them turned their attention onto the cooks again.

By this point, Kalawarner had returned to her bench and when told to start, she began to cook. The meal she created was based on steamed lobster with tomatoes cooked in vanilla sauce, lobster and vanilla bisque and various mushrooms, pickled fennel and carrot was a hit, though seen as highly unusual due to how many different ingredients she used. But it got her through, and no one noticed her hiding the plate under an illusion charm. After all, the judges had only tasted it, that would have been quite a waste.

In the next round, Kala had decided to use beef sirloin cooked in a Jamaican hot-sauce for her main course. Her dessert was a hit, but the fact her sauce was so hot and there was so much more meat than vegetables, most notably a lack of daikon and rice, caused her to lose out. Still, Kala was happy with how it went and even happier that Koneko and the others greatly enjoyed the dessert.

"You know, I think you would've won if not for the inherent bias against European foods here in Japan," Harry said hours later as the two of them sat on top of the kitchen counter that Kala had been using. Between them, a copy of the food Kala had made earlier that night for the second round sat, preserved magically for the two of them. All the others were gone, having been sent back to Kuoh via portkey, having eaten their fill.

The two of them would follow eventually. But Harry had decided to make this outing a bit of a date, a concept Kala had embraced enthusiastically.

Kala sighed complacently, leaning her head against his shoulder. "It's all right. I know I could've won, that's enough to start with. Perhaps in the future, I'll enter bigger competitions, like the iron Chef that announcer mentioned. Although that kind of thing will need more preparation and more magic to cover my entry and background," she said with a laugh. She paused for a moment, reaching over and twining her hand with Harry's.

"I'm going to miss you when you're gone you know," he said before she could get the word out in turn. "You and Akeno and the others. We've been through a lot since I met you back in June, and it's going to be weird not having all of you around the place somewhere."

Kala chuckled at that, leaning in to kiss him briefly on the lips before pulling back. "I'm going to miss you too, but someone has to make certain that Teddy doesn't get too out of control without Tonks or you around, and I have my own research to continue. Although Mittelt having been chosen to go with you was a bit of a surprise. And I am going to miss Asia something fierce."

"Is it true that she is interested in Gasper?" Harry asked interestedly. Perhaps having a girlfriend would help Gasper become a bit more manly, as Issei put it.

"She says she isn't, but Mittelt's been going over to spend time with Gasper every day ever since you got him out of that rune-locked room of his. I think they just play dress up, but with Mittelt, the line between that and liking someone could well be thin. Although as far as I know, she's never actually been in a relationship at all. She's been used on a few missions against lolicons here and there over the centuries, but that's never amounted to an actual connection. And it has reached that stage with Gasper I think, which means we're in unknown territory in terms of figuring out what she's up to."

Harry laughed, and raised her hand to his lips, turning it to kiss her palm, then nibble at a finger, before working up her to a pulse point on her wrist. "Hmm, well that's fine. I hope the two of them are happy. But right now, I am thinking more about our own happiness here…"

Lemon Start

Kala and Harry kissed as Harry pulled her into his lap, his hands going down her back, and then down past the bottom of her skirt, before going back up, pulling the skirt with it, reveling in the naked flesh beneath, the back of her thighs then her rear, only for Harry to blink he didn't feel anything else there, only one of his fingers finding any more cloth. He broke off the kiss to mutter, "What are you wearing, Kala?"

"It's called a T-back, Potter," Kala said with a laugh that was pure wickedness. "What, do you think I'd wear normal panties on a day when I fully expected us to have some time like this? I have more sense of the moment than that Harry."

Harry growled then put both of his hands on her rear squeezing hard once, then twice. Then one hand was pulling away, moving upwards, a thumb hooking under the back of her blouse, pulling it upwards.

But that was too slow for Kala. She pulled back from another kiss, to grab at her blouse on either side of the buttons going up its central length, tearing it open and then shimmying out of it easily before tossing it to one side. I like that blouse, but that is what repair charms are for.

As Kala moved to unlatch her bra, she noticed Harry gaping at it. It wasn't really a bra as he understood the term. It didn't honestly cover much acreage at all, ending below Kala's nipples. Instead, it hefted and lifted her breasts, almost presenting Kala's chest on a silver platter, silver because that was what the color of the bra was.

"Wow," he muttered, before leaning down and taking one of her nipples into his mouth, nibbling and sucking hard.

She moaned above him, but then she was clawing at his own clothing muttering, "You're too damn dressed for this Harry!"

Harry waved a hand and used a Sirius Special Spell (patent pending) to undress, and even to stack his clothing to one side. Suddenly released from its confines like a spring Harry's full length slapped against Kala's barely covered core, causing her to groan aloud. It then lay there, standing there like a proud tower.

She pulled back slightly, in order to reach down and pull aside her panty, then hefted herself up by her legs. But before she could slide herself home onto him, Harry had grabbed her by the waist and lifted her off him.

A second later Kala found herself sitting on the edge of the kitchen counter, with Harry kneeling down in front of her, pushing her legs wide. He took a brief second to stare at the panties she had been wearing, the fishnet-like front more accentuating her vagina then actually covered it, then leaned in, breathing deeply for a moment as his tongue flicked out.

Above him Kala shuddered, moaning aloud as her fingers began to dig into the tabletop, it was after all only wood, and she bucked up against Harry's mouth.

He began by, oddly enough, to draw the alphabet on her vagina's lips, first the A than the B followed by a C.

"Where the hell did you learn that?" Kala barely got out between moans.

"My dear, you haven't seen anything yet," Harry chuckled, pulling back to look up at her from between her thighs. "You might say I have a skill in this area that has never failed to drive the target girl wild."

"What do you mean?" she breathed heavily, looking down at his face already wet from her juices. She had been so primed for this for so long, Kala was more sensitive now than she could ever remember being with any of her previous lovers/victims.

Without replying verbally, Harry leaned back in, licking and sucking at her clit for a moment, a tiny nub sticking out from the top of her slit, then her slit underneath. He performed one long lick from top to bottom, and then, he began to speak in Parseltongue as he thrust his tongue into her slit. "#You are so beautiful. I think you didn't actually fall from grace, you were tossed out of heaven due to people being jealous of your beauty. Your body is the stuff of dreams in a visual feast, and I mean to eat my fill.#"

Although she didn't understand what was being said that didn't impact what she was feeling. A few minutes of this and Kala couldn't stop herself from cumming. She gave out a loud, almost piercing shriek, her eyes rolling back in her head for a moment as she gasped and moaned.

"What," she gasped "Was that!?"

"Parseltongue," Harry said with a laugh, licking at the juices covering his mouth and lower face. "It's not only good for talking to snakes."

Kala shook her head, reaching down and pulling at Harry's hair so that he stopped his assault on her slit, shaking her head laughing wildly. "Hahaha h, holy crap, that was like, like you had a vibrator on your tongue! And it sent out different vibrations every time you said a different word."

"So it worked even on someone of your more refined taste?" Harry quipped, leaning down to give her a kiss.

The bluenette balked slightly at the taste of herself, but it wasn't as if she had never had that happen before. And besides, his coming up to kiss allowed Kala's hands to grab her goal, and Harry grunted as she began to work both hands up and down his shaft, the thumb of one hand playing with the underside of his tip.

Then one hand was off of his cock, pushing him back gently. She twisted, turning them both around and pushing Harry onto the kitchen counter, where she pressed her breasts on either side of his inner hips, capturing his cock between them.

Looking down, she smiled faintly at the size of him but wasted no time in wonder. Instead, she started to repay the favor from a moment ago.

Leaning down, she took the tip of Harry's cock into her mouth, lathering it with her tongue, working the tip of her tongue against the tiny slit at the top, and then underneath, where most circumcised men were extremely sensitive. Going by the groan this solicited, this was the case with Harry too, and she smirked as she worked, jiggling her breasts, working them up and down with her hands as her mouth went to work on his cockhead, staring up into his eyes all the while.

Kala was, not to put too fine a point on it, both older and far more experienced than any of the other women Harry had been with. This would have been true even if he had already fully integrated Yubelluna into his relationship octagon. She was far more experienced and far more worldly than any of them. And now, she put that to good use, working him over in no uncertain terms.

Every movement of her breasts was calculated on an instinctual level to give Harry pleasure, the way she pressed her breasts together, then released them, increasing and decreasing the pressure their marshmallow softness gave his shaft. The way she worked his head with her mouth and tongue, her tongue work especially, was incredible and she watched as Harry slowly began to succumb, never looking away from his face, never letting him look away from her eyes, which gleamed with the lust and love intermingled.

She watched his thoughts slowly start to drift off, then come back, watched his hands reach down for her before she batted them away with one arm. Kala then shifted, pulling back just slightly, letting her breasts fall from around his shaft as if she was going to obey his silent question to get up. Then, without warning, with the head of Harry's cock still in her mouth, Kala plunged her head forward. She deepthroated him without any buildup or warning, and Harry lost it. There was not a man alive, who could have staved off their orgasm at that sudden move after having been brought so close to the edge already.

Harry came, hard groaning like an animal as he emptied his balls into Kala's mouth and down her throat, and to her astonishment, Kala came too. It had been so long, and despite all of her protestations to the contrary, despite her finding a sort of faith once more thanks to Asia, there was no denying the fact that Kala was still a Fallen Angel, still someone built for sin on the physical level.

That didn't surprise her nearly as much as something else did. A second later her eyes blinked open, watery from her own orgasm, but still showing a certain amount of surprise. What the hell!

A moment later she pulled off Harry's shaft, looking up at him from within his spread legs as he slowly opened his own bleary eyes and looked down at her. When Harry was watching Kala opened her mouth, showing it to be full of his thick, heavy, cream. She then gulped once, clearing some of it away, before licking her lips, getting rid of some of the refuse which had spilled out a second later. She held it all in her mouth for a brief second locking eyes with him again before gulping the rest of it down in one long fluid motion. A second later Kala opened her mouth once more, sticking out her tongue and waggling it at Harry, to show that she had swallowed it all down.

"Damn," Harry muttered, shaking his head. "That was… wow!"

"Wow yourself," Kala said her eyes blinking down at his still hard shaft in surprise. "I've heard about your werewolf and demigod endurance but still you didn't even go soft for a second." She pillowed her breasts around Harry's cock again, delighting in the twitch this elicited, the warmth of his shaft between her tits. But she was still looking up at him and some bemusement. "Strawberry chocolate?"

Harry laughed, shaking his head and still staring down at her in wonder. Not lust, not dazed desire, or any sense of possession, which Kala had all too often seen in her lovers before. No, this was more astonished appreciation and wonder, which she had seen very rarely before. To see it now in Harry, as well as the love that was intermingled with it, sent a thrill down her spine.

"Didn't Rias or one of the others tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Kala said, gently batting his hand away again as each he tried to pull her up from her perch on his waist, looking down at his cock again, wondering if she should go down on it again. At the same time, she kept moving her breasts feeling an erotic tingle from where Harry's cock lay in her cleavage and from where her nipples dragged against his skin. It had been a long time since she had last been this close to a man and her body was responding with all the enthusiasm of a dehydrated woman shown a glass of water.

"My godfather had this book of spells, spells he'd either made up or had discovered to make assignations like this more pleasurable. One of them was a charm, that allows me to change the taste of my cum. You didn't notice me casting it?" She shook her head and Harry shrugged. "Well anyway, it changes the taste of my cum into whatever the taster finds most tasty at the moment."

Kala laughed. "Now see, that right there is another reason why you're a keeper Harry! You would not believe how bad some of the…"

This time she couldn't stop Harry from pulling her up, and he kissed her hard. Kala moaned into the kiss, as he pulled her up into his lap with easy strength, within a second, Kala had shifted enough to thrust her hips down, finally sheathing his shaft into her, and Kala bit him on his tongue as she writhed in his lap.

But Harry was still kissing her just as hard then he was pulling away. While she was still getting over the feeling of being filled again after so long, Kala once more couldn't fight it as Harry lifted her up off him. Before she could protest, Kala was sitting on the edge of the counter, and Harry was standing between her legs, her legs on either side of him locking around his waist as he slowly withdrew from his depth despite her whimpering protests. Her hands gently held above her head for a moment as Harry stared down into her eyes.

"I don't care about your former lovers, or your former victims however you want to put it," Harry said, leaning his forehead against hers as he stared into her eyes. "All I care about is that you're with me. All I care about is that you'll be with me going forward, that no matter how many lovers you've had before, I'm your last. Okay?"

Kala shivered under them, and it had absolutely almost nothing to do with the feeling of Harry's cockhead now just resting lightly at her entrance, or the feel of his body on top of hers. No, Kala's entire being was concentrated on those eyes is those emerald eyes that could express so much.

"I love you you know," Kala said. There was no exaggeration in her tone, no attempt to hide, no prevarication. Just a simple honest truth. "I love you, and whatever happens from here on out, I've never let you go."

Harry smiled tenderly down at her and then leaned down, nibbling at her neck and then her ear as he whispered, "And I love you". Then he thrust hard into her, and Kala let out a wail again.

They stayed in that position, with Harry ferociously intermingling gentle kisses on her neck and ears and mouth with furious strokes in and out, for a few seconds. Then Kala started to regain control of herself, twisting them around. Pushing Harry off her just enough so that she could push Harry onto the floor. There she squatted down on top of him, taking his shaft inside of her once more, riding him hard and fast.

In that position Harry came again, the feeling of him going off inside of her causing Kala to wail into her own third orgasm of the night. But Harry kept on thrusting up into Kala even as he came, carrying her from her third orgasm into her fourth.

Then, she found herself standing up on wobbly legs, her hands clasping the top of the kitchen counter. A second later Harry once more inserted himself from behind this time, his hands going around her back to grab at her breasts, tweaking her nipples, playing with them and her breasts as a whole.

Grimacing, she started to concentrate on her lower region as Harry's began to take control of their lovemaking. He gasped and shuddered as she clenched and unclenched insides on his shaft, grinning wickedly over his shoulder. "I'm a Fallen Angel Potter. Built for sin inside and out," she moaned aloud.

Just then, both of them stilled as there was a rattling noise nearby.

Harry quickly cast an illusion to cover the two of them, and both of them stayed there, still conjoined at the waist, watching the door to the rest of the studio open. Two men entered, one a security guard, another a janitor. "I tell you I heard something!"

"Well there's obviously no one here now," the security guard said, playing his flashlight around the room, and not seeing the two lovers, thanks to Harry spell work.

Grinning to herself, Kala turned her head and captured Harry's surprised mouth with her own, before pulling back leaning up to whisper "keep going," into one of his ears.

Harry blinked at that, but obliged, pulling back and then starting to thrust into her again as the two men looked around them.

Thankfully, Harry's illusion spells covered both sight and sound. Not smell, or at least not the smell of sex, as he hadn't tried to cover that up before now. They didn't even notice when Kala pushed Harry down onto the judge's table.

Harry groaned a deep throaty noise, as Kala started to work up and down on his shaft, squeezing and then letting go squeezing, then letting go, working her breasts against his chest, her tongue in his mouth. He could have fought back, could've taken control once more, but his eyes were once more drawn to the two men, who were now complaining mightily about the smell.

"I can't believe it, there was someone in here. Dammit, look at the mess they left behind!" He said gesturing to the table where the two lovers had started out.

"Damn, it might have been that woman you know, the one who used that bench during the conference rotation."

The two men looked at one another and then sighed as one. "Yeah, that's going to be some dream fuel."

"Dream fuel for them," Harry whispered even as he started to rock up harder into Kala. "But reality for me. Mine, my love, my Kala!"

Kala might have replied with something like 'one of many' at any other time. But, this wasn't time for humor, just for reality. And the reality was, even if she wasn't the only one who had Harry's love, Kala was indeed one of Harry's ladies, and she loved every fucking minute of it. "Yours!" she whispered. "Now and forever yours!" By Father who was in heaven, I love this man!

Her next orgasm was so hard, that her wings actually popped out, something that had only happened a few times in all her life. This caused Harry to hastily renew the illusion spells just as the men were by the doorway heading out. Neither of them was willing to clean the room at the moment, confused and aroused thoughts going through their heads since Kala had lost control of her aura a bit during their lovemaking.

One of them paused then, staring back. "What?"

"I just thought I saw a bird or something, a flash of a feather."

Kala quickly regained control of herself, pulling back her wings into her body and Harry chuckled. Although for just a moment, he thought he had seen something on those wings. Those wings that should've been all black but one or two of them for just a moment had looked at gray. Weird. Then all thought abandoned him as Kala was kissing him again, whispering the word "More!" against his lips.

End Lemon

How long the two of them went at it Harry didn't know. But they certainly had made quite a mess of the studio before Kala slowly started to fall asleep against his chest. Harry, feeling quite magnanimous, began to cast cleaning spells, waving his hands this way and that around the studio. He left some of the original evidence from when he had given Kala has her first orgasm of the evening since that had already been seen, but everything else he cleared up. Then, after dressing the two of them he lifted Kala back into his arms and pulled out a small gold coin, activating the portkey on it to teleport them back home.

The portkey deposited them in the attic room Harry shared with his lovers. To his surprise though, Rias wasn't alone. Akeno sat in bed next to the redhead reading. While Rias simply smiled, Akeno eyes widened and she bit her lip, her expression turning sultry at the look of utter exhaustion on Kala's face. "Ara is that what I have to look forward to?" she asked, almost giddy at the prospect.

"That, and more," Harry growled, considering that he was still up for more that night.

Akeno shuddered in delight but obligingly moved to one side as Harry laid Kala out on the other side of the bed from her. For her part, Rias stood up throwing off the covers before helping Kala in, showing she was actually still dressed, an unusual thing for her. "I'll leave you three together tonight."

At that Akeno started and looked at her in surprise.

Rias smiled. "I promised you would have as much time as you could with him, didn't I? Besides, I'll just head to Kyoto. Yasaka and the two girls are together tonight there."

Chuckling Harry kissed her for a time, not deeply but lovingly, his arms around her waist and not going anywhere just yet. He then stepped back and whispered, "I'll join you in a bit, my love."

Still in the bed, Akeno watched as Harry finished tucking in Kala and Rias disappeared, teleporting through the teleportation tunnel to Kyoto. "Are you certain you don't want to go and join Rias, Yasaka and the girls?"

"A part of me does want to do that, seeing as I won't see Kunou for a week. But I spent the day with her already and most of the weekend too," he said reaching over to Akeno's chin and lifting it with a gentle hand. "But you and I just got together last weekend and I won't see you or Kala for a week. And while Kunou might be a daughter of mine in almost every way that matters, you are one of my lovers. So at least for tonight, I'm going to give you priority tonight."

Akeno giggled at that, then tugged on that hand lightly so that he landed on the bed beside her. "Good. Very good. Now, let me show you how good I can be…"

Early the next morning, Harry woke up to an empty bed, something of a surprise given how he had fallen asleep wrapped around Akeno the night before. He found Kala in the kitchen, puttering around, only wincing occasionally as she did so while Akeno worked on some tea nearby, a smile on her face he would have needed to use surgery to remove.

The look Kala gave him was rueful, and yet also appreciative, and the wink made it very clear to Harry that however pained she was this morning, she didn't regret anything from the night before. She didn't say anything though, as she wasn't alone at the moment. Kunou was there, along with Yasaka, Rias, and many others, coming in and out of the room, practically everyone in their extended clan.

Rias was counting off a checklist with Lily, making sure she had everything packed that she needed for the trip, looking at Koneko with one eyebrow raised. Koneko was also checking over things beside her. Their bags were set to one side, but Harry would be shrinking them momentarily.

"Did you all have a good night?" Harry asked, reaching down and Kunou up into his arms, hugging her as an arm wound around Yasaka.

Yasaka chittered to herself, leaning up and giving him a kiss, standing on her tiptoes to do it for a brief second, then winking over at Rias. "Oh, we had quite a fun time last night actually and everything is ready to go. Rias is just being a little something retentive about the planning this trip."

Before Rias could reply, rather huffily if Harry was reading her face correctly, which he probably was, Harry interjected. "You never told me exactly how we're traveling by the way. You said we would be traveling the nonmagical way, but that leaves a lot of room for choice."

"I also said we'd be traveling in a style which honestly should have narrowed the choices down for you," Rias said, while Lily hugged her side. The two redheads looked at one another and shared a conspiratorial wink before Rias turned back to Harry. "You'll like it, Harry, trust me. Now, I think Kala's nearly done for breakfast, so let's head outside. There's not enough room in here for all of us and warming charms can make the backyard far better."

Several hours later filled with food, well wishes, hugs and goodbyes Harry and the others took a limousine to Tokyo airport. There, instead of being dropped off to join the throng, the limousine actually entered runways themselves. They had to hand over their passports to a few security guards at the outer gate and one of them actually bowed deeply to Rias, before letting them onto the airport itself, but soon the limousine was pulling up next to a private jet, and Harry began to laugh. "Traveling in style, right."

"What use is money if you don't have it working for you?" Rias asked shrugging her shoulders. "Besides which, this will be both faster and we hopefully won't have anything to do with the MACUSA people like Tonks did."

"Preaching to the choir sister," Tonks muttered, shaking her head.

A moment later, all of them were in the cabin, and Harry chuckled again, looking around at the plush chair, the open areas, the small kitchen and the large bar combined with the giant TV. "I think I speak for us all Rias when I say that you are most definitely in charge of our travel arrangements from now on." This got a cheer from not just Lily but everyone bar Rias herself and the older redhead laughed, sitting down beside Lily at the sofa facing the large TV.

Several minutes later, the plane lifted off, and the group was on their way back to the United Kingdom, and whatever adventures awaited them there.

---

End Chapter

Woo, okay, so all the relationship stuff is pretty much set for now. I won't have much in the way of family stuff - kissing and head ruffling and such notwithstanding LOL - for a few chapters. We'll be going into Ireland, the United Kingdom, and then elsewhere as Harry and his smaller band realize that their concentrating on issues in Kuoh might have blinded them to the rest of the supernatural world at a very bad time.