Chapter 44 – Homecoming
Harry, Ron and Viktor were waiting for us when we arrived in the pyramid. After hugs with friends, and snogs with husbands, they stepped aside, allowing us to give a medium-length update of our adventures, along with a pep talk, to those who guarded the pyramid. We were then whisked off to our house for a more detailed meeting. I thought it significant that Harry didn't take us to the Ministry. It also was significant that neither Director Shacklebolt nor Deputy Minister McGonagall was included.
"Your messages, especially the last one, really worried me. That's why I wanted to talk just among ourselves. The ribbon-between-worlds is a huge threat to us. It's worse than when Vili and various Vanir invaded us through the Black Stones. Five exits from the ribbon are a lot to defend. Even worse, you say one simply pops through the portal onto a local ribbon and has the choice of disembarking across many miles. A lot of those portals and areas crossed by the local ribbons are in areas we don't control and can't defend. The non-magical governments will have to defend against attack from those routes.
"We will have to defend against attack on the ribbon itself. The ribbon seems to be a free travel zone, as you've used it to travel past multiple worlds. If we don't permit passage, that will likely be taken as a very hostile action.
"Barb is an exceptional auror. She can make a go of being a lone sentinel miles from your garrison on the ribbon. I don't think the majority of aurors could handle it for very long. You will need a sentinel on either side of the extreme Earth portals. That's four aurors. I don't like that. I spoke to Hermione's father and to Ellie. They are developing ideas for a machine which can serve that function. I think that is far safer. That's what I wanted to say to set the stage for this meeting.
"Oh, one more thing. I've talked to Tony and we've discussed the possibility of recruiting the nonmagical governments to take the lead in defending their territories from attack. Tony agrees it makes sense to recruit Israel, so you need to work with Yael and her boss to start building the Jerusalem circle. Tony thought the Greeks might be willing to help and keep the secret, if Britain supported them. The first out-only portal appears to be in Tibet, which is controlled by China. Tony says they are not to be trusted at all and it would be very dangerous to let them in on the secrets. The friends across the pond are the best prepared to defend their portal, but we've just gone to great effort to keep them from finding out about us. Eventually we must go back to the ICW, but first I need to meet with the Bad Dude."
"And just the six of us are meeting, because you want us all to agree on a proposal, before you present the plan and justification to the rest of the government," Hermione asked Harry.
"Yes, but more than that. I want to check with the Bad Dude, and Danny Yakom, and wait for Percy to determine whether a new Vanir transition government can be peacefully organised. I also want all of us to get together with Tony and our Greek friends. The Ministry leaks like a bottomless bucket. It always has and I'm not convinced that the auror we caught was the only leak. That and the urgency of the situation say we have to move very quickly."
"Durmstrang has a White Column. I'm surprised there wasn't a portal at our school."
"The God-ribbon-between-worlds and the Black Stones/White Columns seem to be two entirely separate means of travel. The God ribbons were even unknown in seid-space until Frijjo or her 'mother',Gna, discovered an entrance from seid-space. Hermione and Cho will back me up on this: we have no idea how extensive the local ribbons which the portals empty onto are. For all we know, the ribbon outside the Mount Olympus portal extends all the way to Durmstrang. We didn't have time to explore. As usual, we are having to do too much all at the same time."
"Ginny's right."
Ron and Harry had prepared a lamb stew, which they now dispensed into big bowls in front of each of us. "It's early summer break at Hogwarts. This is either very young mutton or old lamb," Ron apologised.
He needn't have been apologetic. It was very well spiced, super tender, and delicious. The lads had also bake fresh bread. I was enjoying my lunch when a Stone message blared in my head.
This is Cissy. Odin was investigating the ribbon beyond Earth with Pegasus, Catta, Aagog, and me. He was leading the way and stumbled onto some sort of fortress built right onto the ribbon. It struck him down, when he was still half a mile away. We 'Accio' him away from the fortress. He's in bad shape. We are going to Apparate him to the Hogwarts pyramid. He's not dead, but he's also not conscious. I'm shaking. I was only ten feet behind Odin. I should be dead!
I repeated the message. Hermione and Cho had also heard it. We abandoned the rest of our meal and Apparated to the pyramid. We beat Odin there by a couple of minutes. He looked awful. We moved him right into a charging oval and then tried to figure out what was wrong with him. His heart was still beating. His body did not bear any of the burn marks of the innocent who had been murdered in front of Ve's fortress. Hermione and I both thought we could sense his aura. We also thought we could use some help. An auror was dispatched to fetch Doctor Wright. I heard Harry telling another auror to please bring back McGonagall and Shacklebolt. I told Harry "no need, I can contact both of them by Stone and they can Apparate directly here."
McGonagall and Shacklebolt arrived first and Cissy and I gave them a quick summary of what we observed. I asked Cissy to go first, because she had first-hand knowledge of the encounter with the fortress. I listened very carefully to her description, trying to determine whether one of the identifier stones Odin normally carried was responsible for the attack. This was just far too like the incident at Ve's fortress. That incident had revealed that Frijjo had a vastly greater knowledge of Odin's stones than either of us had thought. The big question raced across my mind; I must have spoken it aloud: "How old is Ve's fortress; how long has Odin been using his identification stones; how long had Frijjo been running almost everything?"
"Excellent questions," Harry declared. "Let's hope Odin lives to tell us the answers. I also instantly thought of Ve's fortress. I had a more harrowing thought: what if Frijjo still lives, perhaps in the less-than-a-body-form which was all that Voldemort could manage for a decade?"
I hadn't noticed the arrival of Dr. Wright, but he was now standing next to Harry and reporting Odin's condition: "His aura is reasonably strong. I can't find anything wrong with his body. It's his mind. This is new territory for all of us. I can only hope that he will continue to improve until he eventually can speak to you. Your healing chamber is stronger than the one you gave us at St. Mungo's, so I believe it best to leave Odin exactly where he lies. I gave him some of this potion, which should help to speed his recovery. I expect him to live. I won't promise that his mind will be unaffected. I didn't realise just how much stronger your healing chamber is. I request permission to use it for our more serious patients. Even the chamber that you added at St. Mungo's has been a big help. I'd like to assign an assistant to work here."
"That will require a strict security screening," Shacklebolt cautioned; "but it certainly should be doable," I suggested. Harry agreed. He also reminded Shacklebolt "we've already screened a number of doctors and assistants to tend to sensitive cases, like the former Lord."
It was agreed that Doctor Wright would return with an assistant and another very weak patient whom he wanted to place in one of the stronger pyramid ovals. He asked how the strength of the St. Mungo's healing ovals could be increased. I answered honestly that we could try to better tune them to the London circles, but that short of building a new circle at St. Mungo's or the Ministry, I didn't think we could make much of an improvement. Harry and I both promised to think about it. Perhaps a branch infirmary in the Hogwarts pyramid, or at Hogwarts itself, was the quickest solution. Doctor Wright looked around the pyramid, sniffed the air, and scowled.
"Too dark, too gloomy, the air is stale. This just isn't a good site for healing. I also don't want to risk infecting the Hogwarts students with any spreadable disease. If you could construct a small, light, airy, warm building on the Hogwarts grounds, that would be ideal. I realise that won't be cheap. I also realise how many popularity points your government will win by improving healthcare and allowing Witches and Wizards to live longer. Does an extra decade of life make up for losing one's Elf? If a person is at all rational, I think that must be an improvement. Well, my patient is very ill, she'll have to deal with this gloom until she regains her strength."
He was gone and I was left feeling very guilty about the working conditions of my pyramid guards, really their living and working conditions. With Harry's approval, and making sure they were tied into Stone alerts, I sent half of the pyramid crew home for a week. At least several of us needed to stay here with Odin, so the defence wouldn't be terribly depleted. We were our best triple-curse team. We would decide if more defenders were needed when Harry, Ron, McGonagall, Shacklebolt, and their aurors left.
Hermione decided to empty Odin's pockets. He carried a variety of whistles, a single stone, two brass keys, and the two purple diamonds we had found hidden in Ve's fortress. Hermione spent close to an hour closely studying the stone and the keys, finally declaring: "this definitely is the stone, which is supposed to permit safe entry into Ve's fortress. The keys have no more intense charms than a Hogwarts staff key. It will take me a little longer to examine the diamonds. It's possible the fortress homed in upon them. Would it be terrible if I ran off to consult one of the professor uncles?"
I continued to give an excruciatingly detailed description of our travels on the ribbon. Cissy filled in a few details that I missed. "I am increasingly concerned about the Vanir," Harry interrupted when we reached the point in our story where Aagog discovered a purple-diamond circle in the Village Vana. "First we discover Miomor has a secret and powerful almost modern circle in Government House. Now there is a secret purple diamond circle in Village Vana. It seems all the Vanir are duplicitous. And now Odin is almost killed by what is surely Frijjo's trap. Percy needs to know about the purple diamond circle. I see little benefit from continuing to try to help the Vanir."
I was indignant and let my husband know as much. "As I promised before we left on this leg of the Quest, I kept both you and Percy fully updated on what we found. Percy doesn't need to know. Percy already does know. Let's hope he made appropriate use of the information - it was not easily or painlessly acquired!"
Harry was extremely apologetic. Of course, he remembered my promise. Of course, he had received my updates. This current report provided a lot more color, but he was already aware of all the key points. Of course, he assumed that I had kept my pledge to send the same updates to Percy. He had simply misspoken. The attack on Odin had spooked all of us. We needn't be so quick to take offense.
Harry decided that the best way to lower the tension was to tell us what was going on here on Earth, so that I and my team did not feel so put upon the spot. I had expressed an interest in Prudence. She was normally teaching at the new Diagon Alley school but was spending the summer session at Hogwarts. Dad had stayed away from her, as promised, but Harry checked in on her periodically. She was reasonably happy. Harry couldn't vouch for more than that.
"She is perfectly fine!" McGonagall emphatically declared. "She doesn't wish to be fussed over."
Harry recaptured the conversation. "The former Lord sent another missive via his favorite auror. The auror in question played it straight. We got a look at the message, carefully resealed it, including the former Lord's little tell-tale, and posted it to the intended recipient, who is a major recipient of largesse from The New Start Society. We have that individual under very close, yet very discrete surveillance. Tony is finding out all that he can about her. She hasn't popped up as a concern with British law enforcement or the intelligence services. She is studying to be a pharmacist and will graduate in the Fall." Harry pulled a folded page of paper from his pocket. "Here's what the note says: "The Society has helped you a lot. We would appreciate a minor favor in return. There is a package in a safety deposit box at the Santander Bank in Cambridge. The box is in the name of Mallory Marshall. You will find the key for the box on the table inside the door of a house a block north of the bank. The door has a numeral lock. The code is 4-7-3-6-6. When you get the package, you are to deliver it to Roger Smythe, Esq. in Sheffield and to tell him that the delivery is on behalf of Mortimer Smedley. Thank you for your service and good luck on your final term."
"Mrs. Toms had the solicitor and every other person or location mentioned in the note covered. She had a tiny tracker device added to the envelope. I had two strategically placed Elves in invisibility mode, one following the postman and one at the solicitor's office. The former Lord defeated all of us. The postman delivered the message to a predetermined address he had agreed, for a lot of pounds, while Bruce was on trial. Clearly an elaborate revenge plot by the former Lord. The Elf spotted the delivery of the note to a small house, as did Mrs. Tom's man. By the time they entered the house, the occupant had slipped out the rear and vanished. The note was gone.
"The former Lord was gloating about his triumph, telling one of the good aurors 'I'm certain I've achieved my revenge over all of you. None of you would do a thing to save my poor sick son'. He wasn't gloating as much when we turned him over to Mrs. Toms. At first, he declared 'you can't touch me, I'm a British Lord.' You should have been there to watch his face fall when she told him 'You're no longer a Lord. Your official status is Deceased. That gives me a large degree of freedom in dealing with you. I'm very confident you'll tell me everything I need to know. You are charged with treason and terrorism. I have multiple witnesses that you threatened a devastating explosion in our community. It is my job to make certain that doesn't happen.' The postman is also in prison, admitted everything, but knows next to nothing. We'll know more within the week.
"Other news: the Lesters are enjoying being together at their estate, Margaret and the twins are exploring in Greater Britain together - with a pair of aurors of course, and your father, really both your parents, expressed their desperation to meet with you - actually with us, and Ron and Hermione."
That last bit of news led to as long and heated a conversation as you might expect. I wasn't yet ready to meet with my father. Everything was still so raw: being forced to testify before the Wizengamot, being accused of throwing Prudence to the trolls, Percy accusing Hermione and me of being cold killers, I think largely because he was angry with Dad selling him a false role to benefit Prudence and with Dad's flash resignation dropping Harry into the mess of all of Dad's Ministry problems. Apparently, my parents greatly wished us all to come to the Burrow for dinner, so they could be on their own turf. I didn't feel up to cooking and Hermione was still off with the uncles, so that left a restaurant or not meeting, or meeting at a neutral spot not for a meal. I told Harry that I would accept one of those last three options, although I thought it was far too quick for a reconciliation meeting - almost no time had passed and my team had faced great danger during that little bit of time. This wasn't a decision I could make without Ron and Hermione. How could Harry and I agree to a contentious family dinner, which included them, leaving Ron responsible for any rejection of the invitation.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just go to the Burrow and not have to worry about food preparation or interference from outsiders?" Harry almost pleaded Dad's case.
"Have you forgotten how well the last dinner at the Burrow didn't go? A problem with that setting is that it puts my parents too much in charge and puts the rest of us in the position of children. That's why it can't work. I can tell from your tone that it will also plunge you back into the role of subservient Deputy Minister, trying to be a good son-in-law and never being allowed to succeed in either role. No! I'm an adult. I'm the Mother of the Future. You're the Minister. Dad walked away and threw all that onto you. I also realise that we all must meet with Hermione's committee. We can't agree to things with Dad which could take away our freedom of action at that meeting. I'm going to Stone-message Hermione. I won't decide to a meeting at the Burrow on my own."
As I left the message for Hermione, Ron returned. I asked if he knew of the invitation for dinner at the Burrow and whether he was in favour of that.
"I dunno. It's worse for you and Harry than for me. I can stand it. Mum is a good cook and you know she'll outdo herself for this meal. Have to talk to Hermione."
Rather than a return Stone message, I received a returned Hermione, and I only had to wait five minutes from my message. "It's a meeting we have to have sometime and delaying it will likely only make it worse. I think we should all be prepared for awkward. I promise to rescue you if things become awful."
Okay, I could do it. My husband seemed very relieved. I don't think he wanted me to return to a dangerous Quest with the family breach unresolved.
I Stone-messaged Mum that we would be at the Burrow at seven. She instantly messaged back her thanks, promising me that Dad had come to his senses and was truly apologetic. She also promised to protect me if Dad got too pushy in his quest for absolution. As I broke away from the Stone, it was clear that Hermione had been excitedly awaiting her chance to share what she had learned from the professors.
The purple diamonds are different. I'm sorry I didn't borrow the necklace from you to check the small diamonds, but the two pairs of larger purple diamonds are different. The two diamonds in each of the pairs are identical to the extent that my uncles couldn't find a difference. The basic structure of all four of the purple diamonds, that is the atoms that make the diamonds purple are the same, but... here is the big news and the uncles missed this on the last analysis: all of the purple diamonds have a very thin internal pattern made up of silver atoms. The first pair, what we thought were the only purple diamonds or Odin's diamonds, had the pattern of a six-pointed star. The copies I made don't have the star, which apparently is why they don't quite work in some applications and why the necklace pendant doesn't turn off our circles. The diamonds provided by ancient Yggdrasil have a five-pointed star pattern. Isn't that both interesting and incredibly odd? I must have the small diamond examined before we leave. Of course, I must make some more copies. Proper copies this time. Now that I know about the silver pattern, and Uncle Reg drew it out for me in precise detail, I can include it in my copies. I'll make diamonds with both types of star."
The four of us Apparated to the Burrow together. It was a surprisingly relaxed evening, in no small part to Mum's supplying a surprisingly un-Mum-quantity of both Witch sherry and port. Dad quite calmly announced that he had severed all communication with Prudence, that he and Mum were in a good place again, and that he felt a deep desire to end his pariah status with his children. "I am as sorry as I could possibly be. I know that you and Percy have been sniping at each other over your roles in helping the Vanir. I know that I caused this by setting up conflicting responsibilities during your joint trip to Vanaheimer and that I took that duplicitous approach to help Prudence. I didn't realise at the time that I was harming my own children to help Prudence, but I know that now. I also understand how unfair it was to force you to testify before the Wizengamot to solve problems largely created by Prudence and I. I was looking for, perhaps even expecting, you to work a miracle. I was disappointed when a miracle didn't appear, but it was very unfair to blame you for failing to fix that which you couldn't possibly be expected to fix. Everyone I've spoken to said that you did extremely well and that your appearance harmed the opposition. I was just way too emotional to be able to be satisfied with that. I just felt so much guilt toward Prudence and thought I had ruined her life. I measured the success of your testimony by whether it had redeemed Prudence's career as a diplomat. I also sensed myself failing as Minister. I was becoming far too rigid. I was unhappy. For some reason I convinced myself that I was protecting your mother and you by pushing you away. I instructed Harry not to share anything about the Ministry with you. I wanted you safely walled off from all of that."
"How could I be safely walled off while leading a dangerous Quest? And, of course I realised that you expected me to redeem Prudence's career. That's the big reason I didn't want to testify. I knew that what you wanted was impossible. I warned you that I would have to give honest answers. You forced me to testify, knowing in advance exactly what I thought of Prudence as ambassador."
"I know. Even now my thinking at that time makes no sense to me. I was feeling more and more worried and frustrated. Whenever I thought I was finally making good progress, another big problem showed up. I was too fixed on budget. Harry spent his own money to do what must be done, what I should have been brave enough to have the Ministry do. I became Minister to help the people who suffered under previous administrations, not to keep the opposition somewhat happy. I could have been bolder. Harry and Hermione pushed for bold. So did Professor McGonagall and even Shacklebolt, whom everyone assumes want minimal change. Again, I am sorry."
The food was excellent. Mum totally outdid herself. I did forgive Dad. We did end the evening with a non-awkward hug. I think Mum wanted us to spend the night, but we wanted our own beds in our own homes.
