Chapter 17: Frank and Alice Longbottom.

Harry and Hemione spent the next day setting up the equipment for the procedure. The staff at St Mungo's were surprised when Augusta informed the staff at St. Mungos that her children would undergo an experimental treatment, and that she wanted them released immediately. There was much protesting until Augusta started to use the obscene language that she had picked up from Harry.

It was very effective.

But even more impressive was when Master Healer Priya Singh had accompanied the Longbottom regent. The St. Mungo's staff had received her newly disseminated spells, and they looked on in awe. Even the stretchers that had been brought along seemed to float in the air, and there had been an entire suite of new artefacts that were present. Of course, when the French Minister had heard from Priya herself that she was about to try a dangerous experimental procedure for her son's godbrother, he had sent French Aurors to guard the transfer of the couple. With Antione, Jacques and the others guarding Frank and Alice, soon enough the other gossipmongers, had been forced to clear out.

The pistols that were on display looked intimidating. Amelia who was visiting a friend, was surprised to see French Aurors carrying a new type of body armour. Magical England had requested the armour previously and the French had passed along a message. Amelia Bones had winced, and Fudge had gotten nervous when the letter was opened that day, in the Auror Office.

"No weapons or armour. Too much Death Eater Scum in your MInistry and Government. Get Fucked – the Artificer and the Priestess."

As the entire group touched the portkey, they found themselves in a small empty room.

"Good luck with your patients Ms Singh. If there is any team that can fix them, it might be you. My best wishes. Your son and his sister impressed us much. We respect his accomplishments, and he is honourable."

"Thank you, Jacques. I will continue to keep him in line then!" Priya laughed. As Antoine and the other two men left, Grace appeared after being summoned.

"Hi sweetie, to the madhouse!" the woman instructed as Grace transported the patients to Peverell Manor. As soon as both Alice and Frank were stable, Priya returned to France to assemble her team. Then she handed out the files, and the giant surprise was revealed.


At Hogwarts, Hagrid was busy preparing Christmas trees around the Great Hall. As Neville and Luna had breakfast at the Hufflepuff table, Fred and George who were plotting something, looked almost disappointed. Percy was running through a combination of handwritten notes with his tablet at the Ravenclaw table - It seemed that Penny Clearwater was now a part of the research team. As Hagrid placed the twelfth and final tree in the hall, Flitwick and Pomona helped with the decorations.

The teacher's table was rather quiet. Albus was pondering as to why not a single complaint had been made in the Wizengamot about the troll attack. He suspected that from the conversations that he had with "Ms Greengrass" and "Mr Weasley" that the students of the darker houses did not want to be punished by their parents for owning a life debt. It seemed that young Draco Malfoy could be made to shut his mouth under the right conditions.

The life debt was not magical, but rather a cultural standard. And naturally, the more powerful you were, the more people wanted in return. If you were not powerful, and your life had been saved it mattered little – what could your saviour ask of you? What would you give? A magical debt was owed only when action was so great, that magic itself acknowledged the favour. At that point, it was up to the person to decide what they wanted within reason. Often if no verbal agreement was made between the two parties, magic itself took what was needed. Albus wondered what the Storm-Bringers would ask of House Malfoy and any other of the darker families.

Many of the darker Pureblood families for all their complaints did not have a true understanding of magic.

Albus was rather pleased to find out that Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis had an amicable relationship with the "trio". He was somewhat saddened by their admission - the girls had indicated that the tensions inside their House, were not exactly friendly and conducive for the open acknowledgement of their friendship.

"It is a start, at least." Albus Dumbledore whispered to himself.

At the Hufflepuff table, the other badgers were speaking to the claw and the lion, and they found it easy to have polite conversations with Luna and Neville. Most of the Hufflepuffs found Neville to be a "mild lion" and Luna a "relaxed claw". After the other badgers had cleared out, the boys erected a silent proximity ward and the trio began conversing among themselves.

"Luna, you ready for payday?" Neville asked.

"From the redesigned uniforms? Sure. But Clementine pays me good bezants too. I have done a lot of minor touch-up work. I earn more than my father. Some days if I touch up forty portraits I make 1200 bezants. That can work out to be 7000 galleons for four days of work for the month. As much as Shirley Temple's father."

"Aren't you supposed to go to the studio today?" Ronald asked.

"Yes, but I wanted to relax today. Clementine considers art to be something that cannot be forced – and I am not in the mood."

"Well, the train is in two days. The only thing left to do is to feed the squid?" Neville remarked.

Two tables across the hall, the snakes were having their conversation.

"Daffy, are you excited?" asked Tracey.

"Maybe? But I don't know. I have no idea what is the big news besides the alliance?"

"I am praying to Lady Hecate herself that I am getting a drum kit that I can bring to school. I hope Neville was serious."

"Who knows?"

Suddenly both of them were alerted by Neville, on their communicator.

"See you guys later. Don't hang out by the Great Lake tonight, in case we get into trouble." Neville explained.

"Have fun!" Daphne replied.


By the time Saturday had arrived, Frank and Alice were placed in the new human sized cradles. Harry had retrofitted his new reactor to the device. Hermione was double checking the runes, and Remus was doing a general clean-up on the machines. The area was being sealed off, and Lorna was organising all different sorts of unique potion ingredients.

For Amba and Molly at the Kitchen, it had been hectic to see the long lines outside their establishment. Ved had stockpiled even more ingredients in the recently acquired premises next door. He regularly walked between both places, as the vegetables and other things were consumed. The majority of the customers as Harry had predicted were university students. It seemed that the word had gotten around quickly enough. Molly and Amba continued to cook magically, and the food came quickly enough to the hungry customers at the front line. They had received a constant influx of two hundred customers easily, as people left and other people had joined. The people loved the value – the box felt physically heavy and the customers were surprised as to how much food was being sold.

"Having fun Molly?" Amba asked as Molly wiped the sweat off her forehead.

"Certainly. Maybe I should truly aim to have the best onion soup in England, both magical and mundane."

"We better pray that we don't get too popular. We would not want Gordon coming by to investigate what we do here! We are cheating?" Amba smiled.

"Oh Amba, he is a world renowned chef. I would still be dead nervous if he tried my soup." Molly explained as she scratched her head. Both of the women shared a hearty laugh, while elves and Ved helped with the labour. At the front, no members of the public had any reason to suspect that magic was being sued to prepare their meals.


Ginny and Arthur had spent a lot of time fixing their new premises. While they had not moved the personal effects across, Molly began to immediately use the new kitchen and dining table in the new building. Arthur had installed the old but now upgraded ward stone and had dusted out the family jewellery. All of the rings house rings had been reforged to fit his children, and the Grimoire and other books were now openly available on many bookshelves

"Well Ginny, what do think?" asked Arthur.

"The walls are very bare. I think Luna's art will look great in our home. Oh, Harry did this!"

Ginny touched her data slate to the wall, and suddenly many pictures that she had taken with Astoria were now on a full slideshow because the wall contained illusionary emitters.

"Fantastic! I think we should take pictures regularly. Augusta had a chat with me, and Harry and Hermione were away on a mission. They saved everybody. Of course, you know what else they had to do?" Arthur replied sadly.

"They killed the whole lot of them? They were probably horrible people." Ginny answered.

"They are not any older than Ronald. It is a huge sacrifice to do such a thing. I don't think I could do that, as an adult." Arthur explained.

"I know. But Harry and Hermione are good people. Mom and I could have died. I see Harry and Hermione all the time. They are always worried. They want to defeat the He-who-must….No, I am not saying that. They want to defeat Lord Voldemort!"

"I know Ginny. They want everyone to survive the war. But will their spirits survive? I do not know."

"I want to fight daddy. They should not have to do it alone!"

"And you will – we all will. But you will be properly trained first. Doing well at Hogwarts is part of that. Before Harry and Hermione became who they are now, they studied very hard. You will have to do that also. Even Ronald is putting out large amounts of work."

"I know. Harry and Hermione changed him?" Ginny replied as she considered that her brother's real reason for his improvement, was that he wanted to impress Hermione.


"I am glad we are leaving soon. I think many of us will want to speak to our parents. Our world is under attack!" Pansy screeched at Millicent Bulstrode.

"The news is that Lord Black has turned on his heritage. Except for a few of the Most Ancient and Most Noble houses, many of the smaller truly pureblooded houses continue to stay silent. The rumour is that they owe him hundreds of thousands of galleons. I have no idea how we can fix that. A lot of us have to thank Draco's father for a bailout!" Nott complained as he looked around carefully.

"It is all towards shared goals. He won't survive long. Not to worry." Draco said, in a smug tone of voice, completely detached from the recent spectacle that would haunt him many years later.

"This great house, House Slytherin! Its legacy had been torn into tatters. It has been soiled. Slughorn will disappear one day. Mark my words!" Draco continued.

Little did Draco know that he was already approaching three weeks late. The men that his father had employed to kill Lord Black, had arrived at his house bearing a small tracking device. As Invictus had listened in on the conversation, he had GPS tagged the location at the end of November.

"Lord Black possesses a manticore? A domesticated manticore" Lucius asked, genuinely confused.

"We lost our hands to its fearsome bite. He said he likes man flesh and man cock. The manticore told us whoever sent us, would be next!" the man answered, under Harry's compulsion.

"Take the galleons and go – I am not responsible for you losing your arm. I am, however, still compensating you." Lucis explained, with his voice dripping full of disdain. Invictus who was listening along laughed as he pondered to himself:

"So Wiltshire eh….Harry has forgotten about this. Might be a good Christmas present, I think" Invictus said to himself, as he placed all the important recordings into a folder. While they had sent bugging devices that would only transmit audio, Invictus felt like he could troll the Malfoys, and he suddenly had an idea.

"I wonder if their wards protect against magical drones. Maybe mundanes can't see anything, but I am not a living person in any case. Grace? Ask Snaggletooth to carry you to Wiltshire. And then I will give you directions on which direction to apparate. Time to deal with legally blond and his son, Shirley Temple!"

Grace looked at the portrait and nodded. It was time for some shenanigans.


The trio sneaked away and Mipsy and delivered stacks of pizza boxes and bags filled with footlong sandwiches to the edge of the lake. The trio had piled the food items into a wooden wring and had slowly let the ring float deeper into the lake. For the next twenty minutes, nothing happened. Suddenly a tentacle could be seen and a large bulbous eye arose from the water. When the lake dweller had finished eating all of the fast food, he slowly made his way over to the group and offered the tip of one of his tentacles. Luna then stretched out her hand, and tried to convey that "they" were "friends". While the squid could not speak, he stopped touching Luna's forearm and slowly positioned his tentacle where he could lightly touch Neville and Ronald. Luna snapped many pictures after the squid had gotten enough tickles from all of them.

"He is pretty smart isn't he?" asked Neville.

"Sure! Maybe he can't speak but he understands intention. He liked the food – at least that is what I felt when he touched me." Luna replied.

"This was entertaining. All right, let us get back to our dorms. We can relax tomorrow before we hit the train. I can't wait to see the look on everybody's face when Harry reveals himself!" replied Ronald.

"That was the same way we felt when Harry said that he was letting you into our circle. We were kind of disappointed that you handled it rather maturely. We were hoping at least for a single….Bloody Hell!…" Neville joked.

"I could have not disappointed you, but then I would have been disappointing to someone else who was there?" the red-haired boy answered.

"Oh. Nooooow it makes sense!" Luna laughed.


Priya had just apparated into the workshop via Grace, and in tow were some of the familiars who Harry and Hermione had met previously. The three musketeers as Harry had called them – Antônio, Otto and Gris had arrived, along with Priya and Camilla. The other three people were healers who had been sworn to secrecy. These people were seeing the workshop for the first time. For most of them, hearing that their co-worker was the famed mother of "The Artificer" and the "The Priestess" was enough of a resume. Rumours had never left the administrative staff and ventured out into the public as oaths of service had been declared, but that did not stop the gossiping among themselves.

The entire group were greeted by a closed off partition. However, there were some tools and materials that were available just in case the pair needed to build something. Hermione had moved a great deal of her lab equipment via Grace and now the potioneers would have every ingredient or reagent they could ever need. Lorna was standing by to fetch items and give advice on what they could use, as she generally did sourcing for Hermione's experiments. Harry and Hermione also had every single elf available and ready.

"Welcome to Peverell Manor. Or as I like to call it, the madhouse. Come let me introduce you to my little family," Priya paused as everyone looked around.

"First, we have Grace Storm-Talon our phoenix and trusty Uber. Yes, we were apparated to England directly from France. Our family use her to get around. Yes, Grace is a she and she is my son's magical familiar."

"Oh, she fantastic! How did you find her?" one of the new healers commented.

"She appeared at Harry's house and decided she was adopting him and was skipping on the rent. And yes, she is sentient and can speak, but only through a direct mind link. She has a rude mouth, just like her owner." Priya replied.

"Ewe!" grace replied, as she nodded her head. The newbies took this to mean that Harry was probably powerful and destined for great things. The potioneers and Camilla on the other hand, who knew Grace understood that she loved flying and had no problem doing mundane things. What if people found out that she was excited about delivering food?

Priya then pointed to Harry and Hermione who gave polite waves…

"Gris, Antonio, Otto and Camilla already know these two. But for the three of you, this is my adoptive son Harry Potter. This one here is Hermione Granger and she used to be his school friend until their magic decided that they were better off as siblings. Look strange things happen here all the time, I have learned to go along with it, as it comes…."

There was a small pause, almost as if Priya was thinking about how to eloquently word her explanation. The facial expression reverted into a statement that very much resembled "I give up" and she continued to speak:

"Then a lot of complicated stuff happened and one morning I work up to Palatine Artificer Lord Peverell and Rune Priestess Lady Granger as accorded by magic. I will have to tell you the entire story over a drink."

There were suddenly a lot of raised eyebrows among the newcomers, as they realised that this was no small thing.

"As for all of you, and the people you don't know - we have Lord Black, head of House Back, who is my son's godfather. And we have Mr Remus Lupin, our in-house manufacturing expert. Both of them are friends of Harry's deceased parents, Mr James Potter and Mrs Lilly Potter who sadly died in the last Wizarding war."

"My apologies to both of you Lord Black, and Mr Lupin. We are familiar with the Death Eaters. My English born cousin had fled to Brazil. And my colleagues know the story. They are brutal animals."

"Thank you, Gris. We are dealing with it as best as we can, which includes what we are about to try this evening. I hope we can do something for them. They were friends of mine at the Auror Academy." Sirius replied.

Priya continued:

"We also have Lorna, my roomie and long-time friend. Logistics and sourcing? She can find or acquire anything. Want a business deal closed and in your hand? This is her. She got me started when I adopted Harry. Then a lot of other things followed, and then we got the Medi-bracelet sorted. She is a big part of all of this, as she has done a lot of run around. She is also a fully qualified lawyer and a magical retainer. Tonks and Findlay if you need legal business sorted out. So our legal arm.

Finally, we have Augusta Longbottom, regent for House Longbottom, a long-time friend and ally of House Potter. And our two patients, Frank Longbottom her son and daughter-in-law Alice Longbottom."

Lorna then began to hand out files and diagnostics as Priya continued:

"Assisting us are our elves and Lorna. They will be fetching anything we might need. As for all of you, we have Gris Albanoz, Head Potions Overseer here at the I.C.W Pioneering guild, accompanied by Master Potioneer Antônio Paulo and Master Potioneer Otto Adelheid. The new people are Apprentice healer Safiya Mohammed, Apprentice Healer Obi Odekunle and Apprentice Healer Takeshi Kawahara. And finally, Camilla, who is not a stranger to us here."

The identification of the assembled people was followed by a random set of confusing handshakes before everybody decided that waving at each other was better. Priya was now explaining the procedure:

"So, as you can see in the file, both of them were tortured into insanity with the Crucio. This is a misapplication of the spell, as the spell is a Peverell Spell that went out into the wild and became something else. Son, could you put up the Peverell notes please?"

The next ten minutes were used to explain how Lucretia Peverell had developed the Unforgivables for medical work by surveying world cultures for magic and combining the various ideas. Then she let Harry and Hermione explain their contributions, that were going to be used to attempt the radical procedure.

"The basis of the Medi-bracelet was developed a manner in which we treat magic like electricity from a battery. From the ability to store enough magical energy in an external device we were able to trigger the same spells consistently." Harry explained.

For the three apprentices, this was a shock. Hermione continued:

"And Runes while esoteric are completely built upon whatever ideas a language can describe. What I did was chain modern computer logic conditionality and standard data structures and loops into runes. With Harry's power source, and the ability to describe magical spells as arithmancy, runes and abstract mathematics, you can see where the Medi-Bracelet, which was a genius idea by itself, was made easy to reproduce."

"Ms Singh explained that the Cruciatus can damage the nervous system. How are we targeting that?" Takeshi asked.

"I have developed a runic array that will restore the neurons, and rebuild that which was lost by getting stem cells to convert into what we need. If we restore a lot of the damaged myelin sheaths, the connectivity between the brain and the body should fix itself." Hermione replied, and Takeshi understood that a lot of muggle medicine was going to be used along with magic. There was a short question and answer session, and Hermione and Priya cleared up the misconceptions.

"Well, the clock is ticking. We should get started?" Otto replied as everyone took their stations.

Harry then attached a small, streamlined device to the back of Hermione's and Priya's necks. Harry then activated the main runic array that Hermione had reverse engineered from the magic they had experienced in the mission. Suddenly Harry, Hermione, Priya and Grace were one entity.

"Well, it is crowded in here. Good thing I love this particular set of primates." Grace teased. While there was a smile from the other three, they did not reply. Their game faces were on and it was time to do an extended analysis of the patients with some of Priya's new spells and some of Lucretia's more esoteric notes.

"Alright let us begin," Priya told Harry and Hermione via mind-link, as she spoke to the others externally.


As soon as Priya began the diagnosis, she began to realise that not only were many of the myelin sheaths in their spinal cords damaged, but their brains possessed a lot of scar tissue. Usually, this was not removable via mundane medicine. Hermione had thought about the issue on the fly and decided that getting the body to break down the material by hijacking the phagocytes would suffice. The runic array had the parameters for co-opting the cells, and Priya's magic would guide the rest.

"Alright. I will be running the first procedure. Magic can heal the body, and perhaps with the brain damage, they cannot command their magic to do repairs. I am going to make modifications to their core." Priya announced. Her eyes began to glow as she utilised Harry's mage sight. She found that the process seemed almost natural this time. Harry's magic almost seemed to recognise Priya's ability to sense issues, in a motherly manner. As she flexed and swished her wand, the magical core of the couple were were linked into the machine. The potioneers then began to brew some of Hermione's more esoteric and experimental potions. One of them cleared lactic acid from the body. The other potion stimulated the body to produce stem cells. As Priya's wand flicked over both patients, Kreacher started the machine and it began pumping large amounts of magic into the cores of the people.

"Safiya? Core? Takeshi? Brain activity?" Priya asked.

"Their cores are receiving energy?" she questioned, as she had never seen such a thing happen before.

"Still comatose, but there is a hint of an occlumentic trace." the Japanese man replied.

"Good. Expected behaviour. That is what the cradle provides the body – external magic. Hermione start running the runes for the Myelin sheath restoration for the spine. Gris and the rest keep the…."

"Beep - Beep! Beep - Beep! Beep - Beep! Beep - Beep!" the Medi-Bracelet blared. Priya then made a small incision, and then she began to draw out the substance, as the bracelet suggested that it was poison. However, no poison seemed to leave the wound. As the beeping got more urgent, Priya commanded:

"Kreacher cut the Generator. Obi, how are we looking on the body stats?" Priya asked.

"Good for now. No problem besides the poison. Or at least that is what I think?"

"Where did the poison come from? I thought we are treating Cruciatus exposure…unless…."

Priya ran through any of the possible reasons for at least half an hour with every spell that she knew. Nothing. Finally, Hermione suggested something sinister but sensible:

"What if Bellatrix probably poisoned them, and the poison is activated by the Crucio? She is a fucking psychotic bitch, that sounds like exactly something she would do?" Hermione explained. Priya began to use her magic as she explored the bloodstream. Something was there, although she did not detect any magical materials or reagents. Hermione tried and she also ran into problems.

Two hours later, there had not been any progress. Priya was now speaking to Harry and Hermione via mind link:

"Why can't we find this poison?" she asked both of them.

"What if the thing isn't a poison?" asked Harry.

"Meaning?" Priya asked.

"Sure, good ole Bella put something in both of them. What if the substance is like a contaminant? Draw some blood and let me touch it. Let me see if my House Magic might sense it as a material?" Harry requested.

Harry was now holding a drop of Frank's blood on his fingertip and he began to treat it as a material that could be transfigured. He began to quest for commonly known substances. That was when he was utterly surprised at what he found. He shared the mental image with Hermione and his mother.

"Is that….what I think it is?" Hermione asked.

"Is that an organic compound with…Lead? Like damned Lead? How are they even alive?" asked Priya, as she fed off Harry's advanced understanding of materials.

"Somebody check the scar tissue again and see if the tissue formed to protect the brain. If the lead began to compete against the calcium ions it would cause inappropriate signalling in the neurons. This is what happens in normal lead poisoning. The scar tissue could be a….magical reaction perhaps?" Hermione explained.

"But there is no consistent new supply of lead unless the compound releases the lead in the presence of magic?" Harry suggested.

"Why didn't the kidney pass it out?" asked Hermione.

"Probably too big to pass through a nephron which means…let me get an idea of the size of the compound and I can jury-rig some kind of filtration system. Time for impromptu dialysis?" Harry suggested.

"But why didn't we detect anything? We did so much extensive bloodwork? We checked everything? Why can you sniff it out, son?" Priya asked.

"Let me just take a look at this stupid thing again" Harry replied before he quested behind the organic bonds. What he saw, made sense and was unexpected. He continued:

"…..ah crap. The compound has nanoparticle Titanium too. There are no chemical bonds, the metals are just hitchhiking a ride. Let me put some magic in it, and let me see what happens."

Harry released a fair amount of magic into the blood on his finger. He then observed that the Titanium absorbed the magic, and the organic compound opened a latch that emptied the lead which had been stored in a pocket. Harry shared the full experience with his mother and Hermione.

"Gramps, check the Black repo for all poisons?" Hermione asked as she wonder if Bellatrix had gotten it from the Black Library. When Invictus found the recipe for the poison, the began to read the preparation method and the features. Priya then reiterated what she had read, because this type of poison was truly dangerous.

"So you are you telling me, it hides under the typical power of wanded spells? Then it absorbs the magic and that makes the compound release the lead directly into the bloodstream? What type of evil thing is this? This is…." Priya wondered.

"Wild and utterly evil. It looks like the Welsh dragon scales contain a trace of nanoparticle Titanium. It might be good to research the poison for further applications." Harry replied.

"So, this poison can be dealt with – Harry believes he can filter the thing out. How are we going to get rid of that dense network of glial cells? I can't do a runic array for that, right here and right now?" asked Hermione.

"How about we manually clear them away? I could repurpose a Protego to project a micron thick blade into the skull. It will be like a blade that appeared inside the brain. I am thinking we can cut away that huge wall of material that is stuck between both hemispheres." Harry suggested.

"But how will we control it?" asked Hermione.

"Spinal interface. Hyper conductive fields. Runes. We will magnify what you see, and scale down the movements. If we clear all of the material out and perhaps we might even get some assistance from Frank and Alice, as their bodies recover."

"It can't be that easy Harry. A person's personality is more than just neurons. We don't understand everything about how magic utilises the human body." Hermione countered.

Harry stopped for a moment and he began to wonder about his own experiences. He then suggested:

"How about if after we clear the blood, we can initiate a mind-link? The occlumentic landscape will give us an idea as to how bad things are, and if they aren't too good we can help them put their house in order?"

"That could work. I guess we are emulating your experiences?" Hermione asked as Priya reconsidered that the operation was equally a magical endeavour.

"Correct Mione. Time to make a blood filter and a pump. Off to the workbench. Mom, would you be able to interface an external pump into an artery? I don't know how magical surgery works?" Harry asked.

"We have a special procedure for that. It is a bit weird, but it will work." Priya replied.

To the rest of the people assembled, it looked like Harry, Hermione and Priya were in their own world. Camilla had to explain to the rest that due to a unique magical talent that Harry possessed, they could do direct mind-to-mind communication. She also explained how they could utilize each other's magic, but it was intensely private, and it was difficult for Harry to maintain more than three people at a time. Most importantly, it was best done with people with close familial ties.

"Not to worry – they are figuring things out. They are trading thoughts faster than we can speak. Give them some time. They can usually stay aware of their environment and continue to communicate privately via the link, but it looks like they need to be closed off right now…"

Five minutes later after the group had Invictus pull up some notes, the three of them came out of the trance again, and Priya began to explain what they had discovered:

"We found the issue. There is a magically absorbent material that releases lead when it is activated. The poison slips below the detection of healers because the titanium can absorb magical energy. Harry is going to build a mechanical filter to clean their blood. Then we can restart the generator, and we will look at manually removing the scar tissue from the brain. We are designing a new surgical instrument to accomplish that."

Even for the three musketeers, this was a tall order as the general eyebrows of everyone raised in surprise. Harry seated himself before he transfigured a piece of polymer to act as a blood filter. The purpose of this filter was not to act like a dialysis filter but to brute force the filtration of a compound that seemed to have an average size of 900 micrometres, from Harry's rough average. At a pore size of 600 micrometres, the material would let most of the components that were in blood and plasma pass through easily but stop the invasive poison.

"Won't some of the lead stay in the bloodstream?" asked Safiya, as Priya explained what Harry was improvising at the workbench.

"Yes. But we will have to make do. This is a temporary treatment until we can figure out how to get the rest out. We can repeat the treatment as we refine the method." Harry answered.

"Nanites or something like that is the next project," Harry told Hermione privately. Hermione nodded as even an elementary application of such an invention could be useful for medicine.

"It seems like they have about a…half a litre of this material in their blood from what I am seeing through your eyes. How so much?" asked Hermione.

"Maybe they used a spell to force the substance into the bloodstream. I found it strange, the material wasn't attacked by the immune system." Harry replied.

While he was busily transfiguring the Perspex and other components to assemble the filter, Hermione began to prepare pieces of the surgical instrument. She was working under pressure to create an illusion that magnified tissue and projected it. Priya explained the other part of the operation to the others who were helping with the bodily upkeep of the couple.

"The second part of the procedure is where we will design a micro-scalpel. Something the thickness of probably 5 blood cells. The blade will be projected into their skulls and we will carve away at the dense material between their hemispheres."

Otto held his face and asked, "How will they control such a thing? That is utterly microscopic!"

"You will see. It is a recent invention they developed." Priya replied as she was dead happy that Harry and Hermione had decided to design spinal interfaces.

"The pump is almost done, Aunty. Harry is cleaning out the contaminants. How are we connecting it?" Hermione asked.

"Good Mione. Now while magical medicine does not have surgery per se, there are some things that we can do. We can often temporarily grow an artery into a piece of tube. And then we do have a spell for cleaning the tube but I don't think it will be as good as what Harry does. The magical world has its ways of doing blood transfusions. Observe. Obi?"

Hermione observed as an incision was made in the forearm and the tube was cleaned before it was stuck in the flesh. Obi then used a spell and Hermione could sense as a temporary artery began to grow, as it connected itself to the tube which had been pinched shut with a metal clip.

"That is utterly barbaric! But then we can transform partially into sharks if we want so, I guess it makes sense." Hermione laughed as Obi repeated the procedure in a lower artery.

"Yes, I was shocked too. The advantage of this method is that we have made a temporary detour for the blood, but the original artery is still there. Circulation will continue like normal and whatever we put between these two places will get pushed by the heart. The spell takes care of the pressure difference too, between the artery and the vein" Priya explained, as Hermione had not considered that little detail.

"All done. Right, how are we…." Harry asked, before he looked at the setup, and inferred what had happened. He continued, "Mum, that is very disconcerting"

"Obi has a talent for invasive surgery. That is the cleanest work I have seen." Priya replied.

"Thanks! I specialise in fixing men who get limbs cut off in traps!" the man replied jokingly, and the rest realised that Obi had seen and experienced some wild things as an unassuming, quiet young man. Harry then attached the filter into the tube system and then carefully opened a small valve to bleed off any air. As soon as a little blood trickled through the valve, Harry closed it. Harry then touched the filter as he examined if the improvised device was working to expected standards.

"Alright, it is picking up the compound. Let us hook the other one into aunty Alice. And then we can prepare to build the micro-scalpel." he explained.


Over the next four hours, Harry and Hermione continuously checked in on the couple, as they worked on making the micro-scalpel. The device did not look ominous – it only looked like a small helmet with a floating superconducting wand emitter. The coil arrangement had been not too difficult – Harry had merely borrowed pieces from their parts bin and had used a lot of intent guided modification to shape the blades. Hermione had used a combination of a magnification spell, a diagnostic medical charm and a lot of illusion work to get a graphical display of the brain.

Harry laughed as he mentioned an obvious observation:

"This feels like the days we were bootstrapping everything. We have been working with assemblies for a while, this is very back to basics. Are you getting good spinal feedback? I can't help but notice the illusion casting is effortless."

"Thanks. Yes, it has become more familiar. Your mom is going to have to help by showing me what needs to be cut off. I am tweaking the other runic array to do a phagocyte hijack." Hermione replied.

"right Mione, let me check their bloodstream for the material…and….."

Harry then touched both of their bodies and found that there was only a minute trace of the compound for both Frank and Alice.

"Did we get all of it out?" Priya asked.

"Almost all, if I go by a rough average. They look so much better. Some colour in the cheeks. Far less pale. That nanoparticle titanium is nasty business. We probably have microgram amounts of lead left, but it is hard to average. That approximation is very conservative." replied Harry.

"I didn't know I was qualified to do brain surgery. This has me nervous, even though my magic is telling me that this is what needs to be done." Priya joked.

"In Lady Magic we trust. Not to worry. Hermione will control the blade, but you will give her directions. Alright now time for the second phase. Get spinal links on their backs. I guess I am going in." Harry replied.

Hermione had argued during the construction of the filters that couples were people who were magically linked (if they loved each other) and that a direct interface between their brains could help them to "put each other together." Harry had decided that he would link them into a personal spinal network and that he would attempt to initiate a conversation no different to what he had done with Astoria.

"Here goes nothing!" he whispered as he initiated a link and found himself in a black and cold void after the spinal interfaces were connected.

Harry was immediately met by any number of traps and then he realised that Frank and Alice had formidable mental defences. Harry then tried another approach.

"I swear upon my magic that I mean you no harm. I am trying to help you. My name is Harry Potter. Let my magic strike me dead if I am lying."

"LIES! No servant of the Dark Lord is welcome here. You have violated our bodies, but never will I bend! How dare you take my godson's name in your filthy mouth!" a fierce female voice, had replied.

"Alice? Is that…you? Dearest is that you?"

"Husband? But how is this…."

Suddenly both of the parents had materialised and now they were staring at Harry. However, when Harry looked down at himself, he realised that he was in full battle armour.

"You there! Declare yourself! GET OUT!" Frank screamed as he sent off a stunner. Harry continued to stand, and he allowed the stunner to hit his armour as the spell fizzled out. Alice followed, and soon enough he understood his mother's journals. Alice could indeed summon a literal tempest with the speed of her attacks. It was a relentless barrage. After enough spells has been sent at him, they merely stopped and put their wands down as it seemed that nothing was effective.

"My mother had always said that you, Aunty Alice were indeed a tempest when you were ready to bombard people. I can feel the power coming off your spell, even though we are in your shared mind space."

"I am no aunt of yours!" she roared.

Harry decided to continue with his cheeky behaviour. He wilfully dispelled his armour, and then he made his eyes glow slightly as he approached both of them. That was when Frank saw the eyes and he immediately connected the dots…

"Harry? Harry Potter?"

"Who else has these eyes? But you might say that I am a liar. So, we can start with an oath once more to prove my identity. On my magic, I swear that I am Harry Potter and that as of right now, if your last memory was of good ole Bella and the rest of those fucking goats torturing you…."

The couple stiffened, and their wands were at the ready.

"It has been a long time since then. Both of you were hospitalised because they drove you insane. I am not honestly sure based on the extensive brain damage if you might even have all your memories. I came here to investigate that. As of right now, a new procedure is being done to heal you, and we are seeing some success. Lumos!"

"Is this real?" asked Frank.

"I have a better idea…come into my mind and watch my memories. And you will see how much has happened. I promise that you will see your son. I have been looking out for my godbrother but make no mistake, I have suffered greatly."

Harry then summoned his mental fortress, and then he opened up a memory vault as he began to play the crucial turning points of his life.

Twenty minutes later, Alice and Frank were crying long tears as the speed of the memory transmission had happened beyond the limits of needing vocalisation. There was no latency, as the understanding was a mixture of thoughts, sounds, fears, intentions and a large volume of pain. Alice and Frank observed Harry's initial attack by Lord Voldemort and his eventual growth.

He read his mother's journals, and he experimented. He began building his arsenal. The experiences were full of memories from his armour being built, springing Sirius with Remus, tender moments with his mother, experiments with Hermione and then the final encounter with Augusta. Frank and Alice observed as Harry and Hermione trained Neville mercilessly. Their first-year son could already shield and stun. Albus' musings showed him to be a manipulator, and now the Dark Lord was a real horror, who was teaching their son every day, as he hid his identity.

The freshest set of memories had been a recollection of the recent mission. Alice and Frank had approved – Harry and Hermione had splattered their opposition in the forest and the couple even reviewed the latest memories of the poison and the proposed surgical instrument to fix their shattered brain.

Alice and Frank held Harry's hand, in deep respect.

"Harry….son of my best friend, a person I called my sister…you have moved the afterlife and earth for us, and you have suffered greatly. You had to take life. And Hermione that brave girl – she decided to share your pain." Alice replied sadly.

"I manage well enough. I am on a timetable. Young Lord Longbottom is arriving in two days. I was hoping to give him something I will never have - A comforting word from my biological parents. I am like my father somewhat. This would be the greatest, most wholesome prank ever." Harry sniggered.

"We are truly blessed by Lady Magic…that even such a class of artefacts could even be conceived? I can't even wrap my mind around these ideas. And you Harry, you took it upon yourself to even look after my mother? Very cheeky young lad you are! But then you are James' son, no surprise there." Frank answered.

"I am so sorry for your pain. I saw your last mission. You did the right thing. Perhaps the vile creature was right. Perhaps we are looking at the next Merlin and Morgana. It is frightening the secrets that you hold. The Dark Lord flirted with immortality? And he is under a teacher's turban? I can see why you don't trust him. He is far more manipulative than we believed! I have come to realise Albus Dumbledore is somebody else!" Alice commented.

"The joke about that is that I surpassed him at manipulation if you think about it. How about we take care of your memories? Let me guide the process as I have access to the outside. I have blocked us off from Hermione and my mother, as they are on another network. You should be able to use my eyes and ears somewhat, so maybe you can look on if you want?" Harry replied.

"So you want to store our memories away? The ones that might be damaged?" asked Frank.

"Yes. There is a mundane medical operation called a hemispherectomy. It involves removing half of your brain. The funny thing is that children as old as eleven enjoyed normal lives with high functioning capability, after having the operation completed successfully. The brain rewired itself. We are not doing such an invasive thing. We are just cutting out this weird scar tissue between your both hemispheres. We also are purging your magical cores. We are hoping that time and smaller less invasive treatments will fix you?" Harry explained.

"Perhaps husband and I can freely offer to you what we think is broken. We will give these to you, and you will draw them out?" Alice asked.

"I think so. Let us get started. We are on the clock, as I like to say." Harry replied.

The couple then summoned the contents of both of their minds and he began to section the memories away. As Harry opened them, then he realised that most of the most recently damaged memories were of Neville as a newborn child. Others were during the war and some of their honeymoon. There were not going to be recoverable. Then Harry had a brilliant idea and he began to implement it immediately. He sectioned out a part of his brain and he began to transfer all the damaged memories – whether they were pieces or little scraps, Harry gingerly copied them into his mind and then removed them completely from both of their brains. Hermione had been right, as in the presence of each other the couple had used common experiences to repair a lot of the damage. It almost seemed as if magic was filling in some of the blanks.

"Alright, great! We are ready to cut out some of the dense foreign tissue that should not be there. My mother will monitor and ensure that we aren't cutting into your functionality. I am going to commit these memories to a crystal in the workshop."

"How can we thank you, Harry?" Alice asked.

"Keep fighting and keep hoping. You are with loved ones, and we will do our best. We promise." Harry replied as he buzzed Hermione and his mother through the protective barrier that he had erected.

"I need an empty ruby rod. We have confirmation. Aunty Alice and Frank are here. Only the memories of Neville as a baby boy and some of the memories of the Auror missions are damaged. Some honeymoon memories too. I am taking a copy and I am dumping all of them into this crystal for reconstruction at a later date."

"Alright. On the sad side, there will be no complete treatment available right now. Takeshi had a look at the brain and he is certain that the voluntary control of the major muscles below the neck is shot. That includes the larynx. Only the involuntary systems are working, and your mother did things I have never seen! Metabolic pathways and endocrine systems were reworked." Hermione beamed.

"Well, it is my mother? Neville was born of both their magic. Therefore, he will be highly compatible with them. They can see through his eyes, and speak to him via a mind link. And if we are required to make innovations to give them functionality? So be it." Harry replied resolutely.

Alice and Frank were now observing the entire operation through Harry's eyes. For the couple, even a sliver of the connection hinted at a rather large mindscape. Harry's mind felt like an adult, and his knowledge about various topics was extensive. They continued to observe as a Protego which was only a shielding spell to them, was shaped into a microscopic blade. His ability to judge and transfigure materials was something else. For them, the runes and the computer logic along with the spinal interface was an idea that seemed outlandish, until Hermione confirmed that the device was working exactly as intended. Hermione tossed the ruby rod and then Harry dragged the memories out of his temple as he stored them in the gem. Harry was sweating as he seemed to be under strain. When he was finished, there was a little trickle of blood from his nose.

"Son are you okay? You have been doing this for hours now. I can feel the mental stress, even with the assistance from the interface?"

"I know mum, but I have to keep pushing. I can hold out. This is too important. Start the procedure immediately. I will still my mind and I will focus just the way grandpa taught me."

Harry then sat comfortably and folded his legs and he began to breathe deeply. As his body fell into a rhythm, he thought about absolutely nothing except being a bridge. He was not his body, his mind or his consciousness. He was something more, and in this place, he would let his body be utilised purely by the magic itself.

Frank and Alice who could feel the immense strain on the young man's body, made no comments as Priya and Hermione worked at cutting away the dense glial membranes. As Priya and Hermione did the micro-scale surgery, Gris, Otto and Antonio continued with a constant supply of potions. Lora had been integral to the effort as they did not even need to mention a word or tell her an ingredient. She continuously remained on point, and in some cases, did basic preparations so that they could focus on other important things.

Camilla continued to keep an eye on the vitals and now with the compound almost completely removed, the junior healers began to utilize the device that Hermione had created for the spinal cord repair. Takeshi used Hermione's other runic array, as he cleared away the material by having the phagocytes eat the offending waste. Harry held the line and Hermione tapped her House magic as she used it to be quick and precise. As Hermione began to understand what she was looking for, the speed and accuracy of her movements increased exponentially. Now the conjured scalpel was a blur as she cut away the unnatural membranes and areas, that did not exist in a normal brain, without harming anything vital. It almost seemed like she was weaving, as the Phagocytes were drawn into the Cerebrospinal fluid.

Harry was now praying, and Frank and Alice were touched by the boy's devotion, as he completely emptied his mind.

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

And he repeated the prayer over and over. It was at the crack of dawn and Hermione was now finished.


"Alight, begin to run the Grace's tears in both of their systems.

Grace thanks for sobbing regularly!" Priya replied. She and the rest looked like a mess.

"Harry still needed way more….and…... .Harry?" the bird questioned, as Harry was now unconscious. He had fainted from the exhaustion and was going to roll off the couch. Remus who had stood silently most of the night like a giant sentinel grabbed him.

"Got him….he is alive. Drained." Remus replied.

"We are all done. My instincts can guide the rest. Takeshi?" Priya asked.

"Strong Occlumentic presence. The excess materials are being broken down. We are looking good."

"Safiya?"

"Good vitals and breathing."

"Obi?"

"Fixing the artery now. Good quick response to the restoration charm."

"Kreacher cut the generator. I am going to rework their core back into its normal state." Priya explained.

While Harry would normally provide the mage sight for such a task, now Priya could feel the core instinctively and she wandlessly did the work, by herself. Hermione had taken over the hosting of the link, and while it was a great strain, they would only require two minutes. As the changes to their core were undone, Hermione let go of the link.

"All done!" Priya told the rest of the people who were assembled.

"Phew!" Hermione said as she sat down, and held her face.

When Augusta arrived to check on the situation, Hemione had merely clipped on the spinal interface and powered the device. Immediately Augusta could feel the mental presence of her son and her daughter-in-law, as their magic recognised her as blood. Augusta did not need to be told anything.

She just knew.

"Son, daughter is that you?" she asked with tears in her eye.

"Yes, mother. It is good to see the world of the living once again, even if it is through your eyes." Frank replied as a solitary tear dripped from his freely blinking eyelid in the cradle.

"Hello mother, it is your favourite daughter. I always knew you loved me deeply. But to experience it in your thoughts? I have been humbled." Alice replied.

"How is this possible?" asked Augusta.

"It is possible because of the brilliance of all these people here. We are very much in our bodies, but we cannot speak or move. We can't feel anything under our neck either. We can blink though. Some of the memories are missing but we have the majority of them, to know who we are." Alice answered. As Augusta looked at her only two children, there were long tears in both their eyes and in hers. Augusta then went to all the healers and the potioneers and began thanking them individually with a lot of sincere hugs and compliments.

Otto who was rather animated explained, "Ah this was an adventure. We need to come here more often!"

"It was. Easily the most demanding night of our lives. But this….what we have accomplished here? There is now hope for so many. People can come back from a vegetative state! Some more research needs to be done!" Gris explained, with a haggard smile on his face.

"Indeed Gris! We gave a young man his parents back. I don't pretend to understand how the artefacts work, but anything is better than nothing. And with this, I am much satisfied." Antonio commented.

Augusta was hugging Priya tightly.

"Oh, my child. You and these two troublemakers. Is Harry alright? " she asked.

"He is fine. He held the line. While the new spinal links ease the burden of carrying the connection, he had to push through ten hours of fatigue. Thank the universe for his stubbornness." Hermione replied. Remus had fetched Sirius to share the good news. Augusta, sensing that Frank wanted to speak to the both of them, relayed his thoughts to Remus and Sirius.

"My son, he says that he is pleased to see both of you. It seems like only yesterday was stakeouts, and then he arrives in a brand new world to find that a lot has been changed for the better and the worse." Agusta relayed.

"We are trying our best. Although you already know who does the heavy hitting around here. I am working hard to catch up, and to work responsibly towards the things that..matter." Sirius replied in earnest.

"My daughter cannot believe that Sirius Black has been straightened out. She says that is the true accomplishment that Harry has achieved." Agusta laughed.

"Alice, Harry is a taskmaster, but perhaps it is good this way. No, I have changed much. I am Sirius to those I love, but to others, I am Lord Back. Evil will be made to kneel to the Obsidian. Evil will be made to kneel before the king of all snakes!" Sirius replied gently, while his ring glowed.

"My children, while they have seen Neville in my memories, they are anxious to be connected to him the way that they are connected to me right now," Augusta explained.

"I can remember when Harry took me to get my clothes, right after he had grilled me in Gringotts. He had said that he would give his godbrother his parents back, and while you are not fully healed, you will spend Yuletide with us. Harry is okay, he will be fine in about four hours. He recovers quickly. He is tough as a nail." Remus replied.

While Augusta was only too happy to let her children see the world through her eyes, Lorna who had sourced every single piece of equipment and item was now discussing the achievements of her "niece and nephew" with the others.

"Ms Findlay, thank you for being handy with the potion ingredients. You were sharp. I wish we had someone like you around our lab. Things were buttery smooth. You have what it takes to be a top-class potioneer."

"I would have liked that very much Antonio, but working for that boy over there is a full time job. Great pay, great benefits but hard work. However, if you want to keep in contact, you can take my mobile. Here." she replied. Camilla had been responsible for appraising the performance of her juniors said:

"Excellent work. We did something unheard of today. I will provide the memory to the medical board under the secrecy act. I think this procedure even as a one-off is worth much valuable information. I saw all the skills I thought you, and even some of Priya's new spells being used with a lot of finesse. I am applying for all of you to be fast tracked. Yes, you are getting a pay rise. You are competent, and I have no complaints. At this rate, all my interns will surpass me, and then I can retire!" she harmlessly joked.

"Sirius, should we tell Cyrus and the others?" Remus asked.

"Nope. Let Harry and Hermione have this prank. They were quite upset we revealed the ship." Sirius answered.

"That is fair enough, I think," Remus replied.


After morning breakfast had been served, the new healers had already returned to France. Hermione then fuelled the gunship herself, and then told the potioneers and Lorna, "Psst..you four…..you guys want a ride in our cutting edge gunship?"

"Gunship?" asked Gris.

"Follow me quietly, and do not make any noise. I will tell the rest I am showing you guys a project. I think we can get half an hour in."

Merely the sight of the aircraft was inspiring and Hermione gladly secured all four of them into their seats, as she took them on a fairly aggressive but not physically taxing ride. She stealthily returned and then brought the four of them back, quietly to the hangar.

"How long until we get a spaceship?" Lorna asked jokingly.

"If we can eliminate the g forces and speed up this thing about ten times faster, we could make it. Or perhaps we can apparate directly into orbit. We have the method, but we need a lot more power. We need a nuclear power plant to fit in a suitcase." Hermione replied casually. The rest of the people took her at her word, not because she sounded impossible, but because the challenge sounded like it was something that they would eventually crack. Lorna however seemed to be smiling.

On the other end of the workshop, Camilla had then told Priya, "I will tell them of the miracle we accomplished here today. Spend time with your son. There are no crucial cases on the ward. I will speak with the Minister. I will see you on the 26th!"

"Thanks, Camilla, you are the best," Priya replied.

"Au Revoir! Grace? Could I get a lift home?" Camilla asked.

ZAP!


Harry awoke to find himself in his bedroom about four hours later. He reached out to Grace and found her flying around the Manor.

"Ah, my human. You are awake! Yes, it worked, don't ask the obvious. How are you feeling sleeping beauty?"

"I am fine. I have some minor errands to do. When I am finished, I will relax?"

Priya who heard the speak-aloud conversation poked her head into the room. Harry decided to unleash his brand of deadpan humour.

"Mery Christmas Eve….Eve…" Harry said jokingly, as he referred to his favourite joke about the 23rd of December preceding Christmas eve.

"Gave us a little bit of a scare there, son. This has been a tiring month, hasn't it?" she asked. Harry nodded as he tapped his comm device.

"Mione, I am breathing oxygen and I am conscious. Coming down to eat everything in sight. We have one last thing that we have to do before that bunch of misfits come over tomorrow."

"Which is?"

"Gifts. We can make some small items to improve the quality of life for Aunty Alice and Uncle Frank. By the way, tomorrow I am supposed to tell the entire story not so? To the new people?"

"Ideally?" Hermione replied.

"Not having it. I have heavy news for them already. I need them up to speed. Give me a minute…."

Harry buzzed the trio, the Weasleys, the Greengrass and the Davis family.

"Harry! Good to hear from you. How have you been?" asked Ophelia.

"Hello?" Amy answered

"Hello there!" Arthur answered,

"Excellent, now that you are here. I would like you to do me a favour. I want you to tell your kids all the necessary information. On my magic, I permit all of you to get them up to speed with whatever is necessary. I had an absolute tiring day, and I rather deal with the pending issue directly at dinner. I think it might be better this way. That being said, don't think I am just tired. We did accomplish something amazing, that will be a cause of celebration. See the lot of you at Peverell Manor!"

Harry then hanged up and made his way to the kitchen. Then he turned to Augusta and said after he observed the device clipped onto her back:

"Hey Gran, how did we do?" Harry asked cheekily.

"All three of us think that you will give Neville the best Christmas present a boy could receive."

"All worth it. I am going to make myself scarce. Kreacher! I want the largest tub of chocolate-mint ice cream you can find. And I think I am taking a page out of Hermione's book. I want a whole cheesecake."

Alice and Frank who had Augusta's passive knowledge to contextualise Harry's unique talents and dietary requirements, smiled mentally.


James who had been looking on nervously at the procedure was now jumping for joy. Lilly did not bother to ask what was going on, as she took a look at what had occurred. That was when she realised that Alice and Frank, while crippled, were alive and possessed enough of their faculties. Lilly immediately summoned a scrying mirror and then began to replay all the events slowly.

"We thank God and we thank Lady Magic for inspiring our little family. We thank them, that two of our best friends are now with our children. We thank them, for giving Harry and his family the ability to bring hope, wherever they go." Lilly whispered reverently. Little did Harry and his family know, many young women, teenagers and children were praying this Christmas for the health and happiness of their mysterious rescuers.