For the umpteenth time Karen wondered why she'd had the idea to give out a small gift to all the children and adults leaving the station when she could be following her bond to Petunia.

"Have a good Saturnalia Mr Malfoy, Mrs Malfoy. I hope to see you in good health for the train in the new year."

She shakes her head at the poorly hidden sneer and look of derision on Lucius' face at what she's wearing even as he graciously accepts the gift she takes from Daphne. Narcissa on the other hand is far more gracious.

"Thank you for the seasonal gift, may the gods look on you with favour in the coming year. Will you be attending any of the new year balls this year?"

"Thank you, and I'm afraid that I'll be out of the country over Christmas, unresolved issues from before my appointment you know."

"That's a shame, maybe next year?"

Reaching over to Harry's basket she pulls a gift and hands it to Draco while she replies noncommittally "Maybe. Draco, have a merry Christmas, and don't forget to practice your meditation."

Draco sniffs as he gracelessly takes the gift and brushes past after his parents.

The next hour or so seems to go in a similar manner, with the more traditional families looking down their noses at Karen those that knew her personally being friendly, and those that didn't but were either neutral, progressive, or light aligned being polite and gracious with the gifts. It was with some relief that the last person left the platform and she could turn to the children and shoo them off for the holidays. Not that it really mattered to them, as they were Magi, so they still had responsibilities, it just changed where they could leave from.

"Let's get back to Hogwarts Minerva, the children won't look after themselves. I just wish that we didn't have to put so much on those three."

"At least you've given them a choice. Don't forget that I've spoken to each of them, and it's not like they weren't after the responsibility."

"I know, but it should be down to the adults to do this. If it wasn't for the fact we don't have enough adult Magi to do all the jobs we need I wouldn't have even given them the option."

Minerva snorts as they both step through to the main entrance, "At least you're giving them the option, Albus would have just manipulated them from behind the scenes."

"Or outright used compulsions for the 'greater good'. Did you ever talk to Petunia about her life before Hogwarts?"

"I can't say I did."

"Well, put it this way, there was a blood quill involved in ensuring that she was in a 'happy marriage'"

Minerva stops and stares at Karen, "I knew things were bad, but to go that far?"

"There are good reasons why both Harry and Petunia were seeing mind healers. I'm just glad that magical treatment is more effective than non-magical treatment. Even if the primary treatment wouldn't work for any of us due to Nixie and Chirpy."

"Tell me about it, I'm just glad you decided to hire Gosling, as I'm pretty sure that there's a few students that would be dealing with quite bad trauma, not to mention the idiots that forced their children to practice occlumency."

"Changing the subject, how are you getting on with acclimating yourself to the next realm in the Dream?"

"With what time?"

"How far have you got?"

"The realm after Sanctury, I want to be sure I'm ready for the next one before I try as I don't want to end up like Beth and Septima"

"Well, that one has a week to a day here doesn't it?"

"Something like that I think."

"Well, what I do is I've made a home near the sea, and every night I spend a couple of months there doing paperwork and research before coming back. You could do the same until you get close to the Sidhe world. Though obviously not for months, but you could probably spend a day there while the dream is open in the Library except when you're on a night patrol. In fact you should probably try to spend a few earth days over Christmas finding somewhere you're happy to live and setting up a house."

"But what about the students?"

"That's why we have the dedicated staff for each house. You're not on your own anymore. Anyway, after dinner I'm going on my vacation to find Petunia."

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Petunia was washing the floor with Lyasa when someone covered her eyes from behind and whispered "Guess who?". Predictably she screamed as she thought they'd been found out. At her scream Ceeley popped in ready to defend her mistress followed by the rest of the household with various weapons drawn. Everyone paused when instead of attacking Ceeley instead jumped and grabbed the person in a hug, tears streaming from her eyes.

"Mistress Karen has come, Mistress Karen has come."

"Hello Ceeley, I've missed you too."

Most of them recognise that the language is English and pause weapons drawn to see what's going on. Slowly Petunia turns around disbelief clear on her face before she looks at someone that she'd thought died decades ago.

"Karen? How?"

"Yes Tuni it's me. Sorry it took me so long to find you, but I needed to learn how."

"But how?"

Garund clears his throat and speaks up in Sidhe, "Excuse me Titania, but who is this?"

"Garund, how many times have I asked you not to call me that? And to answer your question, this is my wife Karen."

Karen sketches a traditional greeting and replies in fluent Sidhe, "I'm pleased to meet you. I apologise for my unseemly entry I was so excited to meet Petunia again that I didn't take into account how long it's been for her."

There is silence for a moment as everyone absorbs that before Lyasa leaps forward and hugs Karen. Karen hesitantly returns the hug looking somewhat nonplussed.

"Erm, if you don't mind me asking, but what's going on?"

Petunia is the one that answers as she joins in the hug, "Short story, she's my magically adopted daughter, which makes her your daughter too. These are my clan, and my responsibility, as they gave me succour when I arrived from the isolation and they've also been training me too."

"I guess that means that you don't need rescuing then?"

"I… I don't know how to get home yet, and I'm pretty sure everyone's dead, as it's been a few hundred years already."

Karen folds Petunia into another hug, "No love, it's been less than a year since you were kidnapped. There's around 3 years passing here for every day that passes at home."

Petunia blushes slightly with embarrassment, "Erm, I might have forgotten how long a year is, as we don't use years here."

A sheet of parchment and a quill float out of Karens backpack and starts taking notes as she asks, "Oh? So what do you use?"

Garund coughs again, "While I appreciate that our Titania and my niece trust you, and the Urisk has identified you. The rest of us still have no real idea who you are, or how you got here."

Karen sighs, "I suppose that means that you want a formal introduction. Can you take my word for my rank or do you need me to use my presence as well? As I'd rather keep my visit low key."

"Is your presence anything like our Titania's?"

"Probably."

"Then just the formal introduction will do."

Karen sighs again, hoping that they won't fear her after her introduction, as she steps to the centre of the room and conjures her formal robes and summons her staff. Channelling a little magic into her ring and her staff so that the magically reactive material in each of them glowed slightly along with the moon on her forehead.

"I am Magi Karen. Chosen of Selene. Student of Arch Magi Katastroféas, the Bloody Rose, Laird of Hogwarts and it's environs, and Chief of Clan Hogwarts. With her I have fought off the Crawling Chaos. I have travelled to the shore of magic and am seeking to make my own ring. I am the Head Mistress of Hogwarts, and the beloved wife of Petunia Evans. I have taught 8 qualified Warlocks. I greet you and make myself known."

As she lowers her staff and looks around she quirks an eyebrow in surprise to see that the adult Sidhe have all taken a prostrate position facing her.

"Oh come on, I'm not that scary."

"It's not that Magi, your Master is the one that freed our clan and the others near our homeland. We owe her our freedom and our lives."

Petunia gestures at them with her hands, "And this is why I can't just leave them. If it wasn't for the fact that the clan leadership hasn't transferred to Lyasa yet, she'd have already been forced to swear fealty to the local Oberon and Titania or die, and if she died it would have been Garund here instead. I would love to go home, but I need to ensure that they're safe."

Karens shoulders sag in defeat, "I understand, at least I can come and visit now. Do you think you could visit for Christmas, as Harry and Dudley both miss you and I won't let them travel into the time-dilation part of the Dream while they're still growing as I don't want them outpacing their friends age too much. Lily would also like to meet you too."

"I don't know, you said that it's around 3 years here to a day there. How long's a year?"

"Oh, yeah, you did ask that. 365 and a quarter days."

"Magi, I am Sorcha, Lyasa's Birth Mother. Would you have any news of my eldest daughter Azaria? She has been missing for as long as our Titania, and I fear that she is gravely injured."

Karen laughs good naturedly and pulls a photo album from her backpack. "I don't think you need to worry about her been hurt. Pregnant yes, injured no unless she's pissed off her wife again. Look."

After an hour looking at the photos, Sorcha speaks up again. "Magi. If we can get away for a while, would you be able to take me to visit my daughter."

Karen shakes her head sadly, "I could, though you'd only be able to visit her for a few hours before you'd be stuck in a deadly environment for a day until the dream opens again. Azaria was originally only able to leave the sanctuary and go to earth for a few hours a day until she bonded with Nymphadora. I can show you what that would feel like if you want."

"I…" Sorcha hesitates before her voice firms and she continues, "Yes, show me what it would be like."

Karen shakes her head with a smile and mutters, "Mothers!"

Projecting a glowing circle around her, she speaks loudly enough that everyone in the room can hear her, "Anyone that doesn't want to experience this should stay outside the circle, be warned it's likely to be painful as I'm going to start much closer to what you call the deep desert than normal as I don't want anyone to detect that I'm here unless I really need to. I'm going to start with home world of the Urisk and count down from 10 before moving out to the next realm, prepare yourself."

Unsurprisingly Petunia joins Sorcha in the circle. Surprisingly so do Lyasa and Garund. Everyone else stays well clear. With that she starts the simple music spell and envelops the area in her magic, imposing it on the world and pushing the native magic out. Then she forces it lower and lower Garund is the only one that leaves the circle as she crosses the boundary between the outer realms and the outside realms, or in Sidhe terms crosses into the deep desert. Sorcha's face is a picture of agony and tears are falling down her face freely as the last two realms feel like they're passing agonisingly slowly. In a surprising contrast to that, Lyasa's face is only showing the tiniest hint of discomfort. Catching her eye, Karen smiles and gives her a reassuring nod just before she releases her control over the local magic and giving Sorcha a hug.

"You did well Sorcha, though there are techniques that could help you. I'll be here for a few months, erm around 90 days, before I go back and let everyone know I've found you. I'll be coming right back after that and hope to spend the next few years here. Though if you're anything like Azaria, you'll be begging to have a few phases, whatever they are, to process stuff. I know that Beth was working on a runic device that would correctly show earth time, so I'll pop back at some point over Christmas and see how she's getting on with that."

Petunia steps forward and enfolds Karen in another hug and gives her a kiss on the cheek, "Honey, what's this about you being the Headmaster of Hogwarts? And when did you become a magi?"

"Erm, I hope you like older women, as I'm now older than you are."

"Explain."

"Well, you know how there's around 3 years here to a day at home… On earth at any rate. Well, it's about 50 years out on the shore of magic, and I might have been pushing myself to find you and so spent 500 years there before anyone realised that I was losing my ties to earth."

"How could you be so stupid? Who would look after Harry and Dudley? I love you, you great lump."

"Hey, it was only two weeks earth time, 14 days. I just had so much to do. I've learnt Occlumency now so my memory issues aren't really a problem any more, but I have been careful not to spend too much time away from earth."

The conversation continued long into the night and included the various members of the household at one point or another. Lyasa, refusing to go to bed and miss something, ended up falling asleep between both Karen and Petunia.

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It was a couple of months later that Lyasa managed to corner Karen on her own.

As she snuggles down into her lap Lyasa asks, "Am I really your daughter?"

Karen kisses the top of her head, "Yes child, you are. All family of Petunia's is also family of mine. Dudley is Petunia's natural son, and your brother. Harry is her sisters child and we both consider them our own too, though whether they're a sister or brother depends on their mood at the time."

Lyasa looks confused, "What do you mean?"

"Do you have any metamorphs in the clans?"

"I don't know what that is."

"OK, certain magicals on earth have the born ability to change their physical appearance at will, hair colour, apparent height and weight, skin colour, eye colour, etc."

Lyasa nods, "We don't really have anything like that, but most of us can do something similar if we really concentrate."

"That's interesting, but moving on Harry has an additional ability to completely shift their gender, that's whether they're male or female, at will in addition to the metamorph ability. This means that unlike normal metamorphs, they are fertile in both forms and will also show up as male or female to detection magic."

"Oh, I see. We have something similar, though it's not something we can control and gets less frequent as we get older as our personality settles down. Clan Mother or Uncle would be able to tell you more.

"What's it like being the chosen of a Great One?"

"I don't know, I have nothing to compare it against as Selene met me while I was getting my magic."

"What do you mean getting your magic?"

"You know how all of your people have both a physical and magical body?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, that's because there's so much magic here that you can't be alive and not have a magical body. However, on earth there's so little ambient magic that most people aren't born with a magical body. We think that there's another world beyond ours where there is so little magic that it's impossible to maintain a magical body, which would be instantly fatal to any magical."

"I don't understand."

"That's OK, neither do I really. But I know that our healers do, and I trust their word. When you visit earth you can talk to some of them and they might be able to explain it better. Would you like to see where your Sister trained me to track?"

"Can I?"

"Do you know how to travel between worlds yet?"

"I do."

"Then as long as you let your Mothers know and they say it's ok, sure."

"But how are we going to get out of the city?"

"The same way I got in."

"How did you get in?"

"I'm not actually allowed to teach you that unless you promise to train to become a Magi, don't promise now as it will be a promise on your magic. However, if you look at my ring it signifies the promise that I've made, and when I make my own ring my promise will change. The triangle in the background signifies our oath sworn duty to defend the earth from external threats and our other responsibilities that go with it. The circle inside it signifies the political power we were granted in order to be able to fulfil our duty. Finally the wand running through the other two signifies the magical power that we wield in pursuit of that task. Before you decide if you want me to teach you, you'll need to come to terms with the fact that once you're qualified you will have to be willing to kill your own people and humans on earth to fulfil your duty. This is because the elder things like the crawling chaos and its masters have only one goal, to extract all of the iron from the center of the earth. To do that they will tempt, subvert, and corrupt our peoples and use them in attacks on our defences, or as an anchor for summoning. On top of that, their true names are like a malignant disease of the soul. Once someone knows the name, the only way to forget it again is to cut it out of your soul. My teacher has had to do it more than once, and the first time it cost her the knowledge of her family, the second time it cost her her name. I don't mean she just forgot, as the cost is steeper than that. Imagine your mother or uncle meeting you and all you know of them is the same as any other stranger on the street. No matter what they say or show you, you can only ever relate to them as someone you met and maybe became friends with. If the people that have learnt the name of one of those things either can't pay the cost, or refuse to, then it falls to us to destroy them so that the name doesn't spread. Even if it's our own family or friends.

"I didn't mean to scare you, but now you know, so when you're able to go to earth for a while you'll be able to answer the question honestly in front of my teacher. Go ask your mother, and don't forget to mention that I'll be helping you get closer to the sea of magic."

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In less than an hour Lyasa was back and bouncing to go, though Karen wasn't sure just how much her guardians understood about where they were going, but she had permission. She'd also said goodbye to Petunia, as Petunia had decided that both of them being gone at the same time would be problematic if someone came around, while if only one of them was gone they'd assume that Lyasa was running an errand or something.

"Right, first things first, let's get those manacles off you. After all, we don't want anything interfering with your transit as it's likely to be hard enough as it stands."

Conjuring a box, she uses a switching spell to send the manacles into the box, which she then attached to the roof by the wall with a sticking charm.

"How did you do that?"

"That was a switching spell, a 4th year charm that we teach at Hogwarts." At the same time as she answered the question, she stepped them both to a remote location near the transit point that she'd used with Azaria.

"How do I learn that?"

"First of all you need to learn how to use a focus, as it's easier to teach structured magic with one. You'll also want to learn how to use your magic the same way I do, but with greater finesse. As most human magic is about getting the most out of the smallest amount of magic possible. Tuni and I just took it to extremes before we started learning officially. Anyway we're here. I'll go ahead of you, and what I want you to do is slowly open up your magic the same way you close it down to get closer to earth. It will be hard as once you start you'll find that it's like standing against a river until you get used to it. I'll stop you from overshooting, but it's going to be down to you to get there. If you're not there in 15 minutes I'll come back."

"Erm, OK, I think I can do this. See you soon."

"Don't forget, if you feel like you're going out of control, shut your magic down hard and I'll come and find you, just don't wander off."

Lyasa looked around the area that she's in, far from any signs of civilisation. Nervously sitting down, she finds that bit of her magic that keeps her here and slowly starts to open it up the way that she needed to in order to get home from the hunting expedition. To start with it was easy, just like going to the hunting ground and coming home. Feeling more confident she opens up her magic faster, and suddenly she's fighting to stop it opening too fast. Struggling to bring it under control, she opens her eyes in a panic and sees Karen just becoming visible. In her inner world, new creatures and wildlife grow out and start to populate the place and her world seems to expand. She pulls her magic under control and pushes it down as fast as she can, but suddenly the new world snaps into focus and it feels like someone has forced her central point to equalise with this world. She looks up in awe at the faint streamers of magic in the air and the different creatures that are moving around alien trees and plants.

"Are you OK?" Karens voice breaks through her distraction.

"Huh? I mean yes, I'm ok."

"How are you feeling? Any bloating, feeling like your skin is too small, feeling like you're trying to fit too much into a small bottle?"

"Er, no? At least I don't think so."

Karen's eyes open in surprise, "Are you sure?"

"Yep, I'm sure."

"OK, I'm going to relax my control over your magic. Try to stay here instead of going deeper."

"Whenever you're ready."

A faint tug became apparent on her magic, one that felt familiar even if it was stronger than she was used to. Subconsciously she found herself resisting that tug, though it was harder than she was used to.

Karen looks at her as if she's a puzzle that needs solving, "Huh? How interesting. Has your magic stabilised yet?"

Lyasa looks sad at the question, "No, I'm still a child. I can't wait until it does, and I no longer have to do what Mum and Uncle say."

Karen laughs and ruffles her hair, "All children say that, especially teenagers. But I've yet to meet an adult that had a good childhood that doesn't wish they could go back to being a child. Just remember that the only thing you need to become an adult is time, but once you're an adult you can never go back to being a child again."

"I guess."

"When was the last time you saw your mother or uncle play without care, and not with you or other children but with other adults."

"Uh, just after the triple light?"

"And when was the last time you were able to do so?"

"Before you came here?"

"Why haven't you played since then?"

"I didn't want to miss any time with you."

"Can you see the difference? You can play far more often than adults because the only things you're responsible for are the chores they give you. On the other hand, they need to ensure that there's enough food, that you're all safe, that the repairs are all done, and that their clan are safe. All of which take time that you normally use for play. Yes, we seem to have more freedoms than you do, but it's not really true, as we also gain responsibilities."

Lyasa looks solemn when she nods, "I think I understand."

"Good, I'm sure you don't yet, but even having an idea of what it means is a good thing. Now, I'm interested in the fact that you're not struggling to deal with the increased magic here like your sister did. Now, we could investigate it further, which would mean I take control of your magic and carry you to the Shore of the sea of magic, and slowly let the magical density increase until it's the equalised with the sea or you start having problems. Or we can go and look at the place your sister and I called home for a while, and then go back to your parents and talk to them about it. Now, I'd like you to decide what you'd like to do. Then I want you to tell me why we shouldn't do it."

"I want to be a Titania like you and Titania Mum." Lyasa blurts out quickly, but then clamps her hand over her mouth.

Karen laughs gently, "I thought that might be your answer, but you still need to tell me why we shouldn't do it. This is something that all adults have to learn to do, and on earth we call it risk assessment when it's been done formally. You don't need to hurry, as we've still got an hour before I need to get you back."

She conjures a large hourglass so that Lyasa can see the time passing, and then conjures herself a comfortable sofa and pulls out a book. It's a full 15 minutes before Lyasa notices the chair, and another 30 before a wild Aictuilaxr notices the sofa and gathers the courage to nab the spell dumping them both on the floor, shortly followed by the hourglass.

Lyasa can't help it, but she bursts out laughing at Karen's put upon expression as she lies there arms outstretched and book just out of reach.

"Yeh, Yeah, really funny. So have you thought about why we shouldn't take you out to the shore now?"

"Erm, it's dangerous and I could die? We don't know what creatures will be there and I could be kidnapped or eaten? You could lose control of your magic and we end up lost in the sea? We haven't asked Uncle or my Mother?"

"Very good, you've got two reasons there, though you repeated the first one three times. It's dangerous and you could die. However you haven't thought of the most important reason: Nobody knows that we're going there or when we're due back. That means that if something does go wrong there's nobody that can help us because they don't know where to start looking."

"But nothings going to go wrong as you've been there loads of times."

"I have, and I started going there when there was nobody that could help me if something went wrong. But I still told my teacher that I was going. So what do you want to do?"

Lyasa thinks for a moment, "I'd still like to try, but… we should tell the others that we've gone."

"Very well, take my hand, and we'll go back to your world, write a quick note for them and then we'll be off."

Hesitantly Lyasa takes Karens hand. Seeing the hesitation Karen looks at her with sympathy and says kindly, "We don't have to do this now, we could wait if you wanted to."

"No, I want to. It's just that, now that I've thought about it, I'm scared of what might happen."

"That just shows that you're smart. I'm sure that your uncle has been in many positions where they know the risks, but they're doing it anyway. I know your sister has, and I have as well."

While they're talking Karen smoothly transitions them back to the Sidhe world and writes a letter in English for Petunia explaining what they're doing and how to find them if they're not back in three hours. Calling for Ceeley, she hands over the letter and start to move towards the sea.

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Hogwarts is in the middle of a pleasant conversation with Selene when she sees her cock her head to one side before disappearing.