Harry woke up the next morning to a pair of big eyes staring him in the face.
"Ahhh!" Harry exclaimed as he rolled out of his bed in shock.
"Hector is sorry, Master Harry but, Master Harry bes having guests in the master study so Hector bes coming to wake master up," Hector apologized to Harry as he snapped his fingers to lift Harry off the ground.
Once Harry was on his feet thanks to Hector he asked, "Hector would it be possible for you and the other elves to speak, you know, normal English?"
"Is that being an order, Master Harry?"
Harry just simply nodded his head in response not really being able to order the elf and letting him think it was an order.
"Very well then, Master Harry," Hector started, "Would you also like us to assume our proper forms then if you wish us to speak like you do?"
"Proper forms? I thought that this is how you guys are supposed to look."
"No master this is not the proper form of my people. This is the form we were forced to take when our enslavement to your race started… in this timeline at least."
That bit of information surprised Harry and seeing as how Hector had mentioned timelines was even more shocking.
"H-how did you know?"
"Master Harry, we elves are more in tune with magic than most other magical beings, other than humans themselves. But we can see that your magic is much more mature than that of your physical body should be producing not the mention the arrival of one of you guests that are waiting in the master study."
"O-oh ok well if assuming your proper forms would make you more comfortable please do so."
"Very well, Master Harry. Shall I inform the others before or after taking my proper visage?"
"Whenever you please, for now I guess I should get dressed to meet my guests. Would you mind showing me where the master study is again once I finish getting dressed?"
"Of course, Master."
A short time later Harry had bathed, brushed his teeth and gotten dressed. After putting on his shoes Hector led the way to the master study. Upon arrival Hector opened the door for Harry and then disappeared with a snap of his fingers to inform the other four elves of Harry's order. Harry was shocked to say the least of who his guests were. One who he had expected from his conversation with Hector was no other than Hebe who was wearing a Cheshire like grin on her face and the other was a person Harry didn't expect to see till his second year in Hogwarts, Luna Lovegood.
"Well Harry, I gotta say you sure work fast once you know what needs to be done. I'm impressed," Hebe commented with a content look upon her face.
"Hello Harry, I'm so glad you are finally here I've waited ever so patiently for you but you took a lifetime," Luna said dreamily.
"Hello to you to Hebe," Harry replied with a smile on his face, "Luna, um… what are you doing here and how did you get here?"
"Well I took the Knight Bus of course. How else would I get here silly? Well I got as close as possible on the Knight Bus since no one else is allowed to know the exact location of Potter Manor. I got as close as the wards would allow me, then I walked the rest of the way," she nodded.
"Ok but that doesn't explain why you are here and how you knew to come here though so um… um –"
"As cute as you are trying to figure this out-" Luna gave Hebe a look that screamed back off he's mine-"I will just give you the answer you are looking for. You see Luna here is clairvoyant at least in this timeline."
"Clairvoyant? What do you mean Luna's a seer?"
"Mmmm not quite a seer she is a little bit better than a seer for starters she can remember what it is she sees. Although she is unable to tell you what it is, she sees in a direct way. Enough of that now. Now back to the reason I'm here."
At this Harry managed to clear his confusion and provided Hebe with his undivided attention… at least until he had Luna tell him why she was here and how she knew where here was.
"Well good news and bad news which would you like to hear first?" Hebe questioned.
"Let's get the bad out of the way."
"OK, well for starters our plans have been altered to say the least, and by that I mean you have to now form a coven because some douchebag told the big man up top that not all of your current and future lordships have a wife to produce offspring for," Hebe started her explanation.
"Even though you don't need a wife for each they somehow convinced him that despite your soul bonds you needed other wives, because this dick wants me to lose my job!"
"Wait, what? I need a coven now? And what do you mean future lordships?" Harry asked.
"Well in reality its only one future lordship and that's for the House of Black as the current lord Sirius Orion Black, is sterile due to his stay in Azkaban. So now thanks to the biggest dick in the afterlife you now need a wife for Gryffindor, Black, Hufflepuff and Peverell as you already have a future Lady Slytherin in Daphne Greengrass, Lady Ravenclaw is of course this little lady with us at the moment Luna and Lady Potter is Hermione in case you didn't figure that out. So to help you out I have compiled a list of your other potential soulmates, and don't worry none of them will turn into soul bonds. Here is the list."
Harry took the list from Hebe and started to read it to himself. The names on the list read out as follows:
Lady Hufflepuff candidate, Nymphadora Tonks.
Lady Black candidate, Aquarius Belladona Malfoy.
Lady Peverell candidate, Tracey Davis.
Lady Gryffindor candidate, Katie Bell.
Having to reread the list at least three times to make sure he wasn't seeing things he looked at Hebe with a questioning look.
"Ok first of all who is Aquarius and why haven't I heard about her before if she is related to Draco Malfoy? Second why is a Malfoy one of my soulmates? Third shouldn't I just let the girls decide who should be the lady of which house if I'm truly required now to have a wife for each family line?"
"Those are all good questions and I will answer them in order. Aquarius Belladona Malfoy is the eldest child of Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy Nee Black, and the reason you've never heard of her is because this is the only timeline where she wasn't stillborn or miscarried, most of which is due to Moldyshorts and/or Bellatrix using cruciatus on Narcissa during said pregnancies as a means of punishment for not taking the Dark Mark. While she was raised with those bigoted ideals, she, like her sister Andromeda Tonks Nee Black, she didn't put faith in them. It was only her being a dutiful daughter that saw her married to Lucius Malfoy. Now the second question is quite simple to answer both of you have complimentary personalities the same could be said for all of your soulmates and soulbonds. As for the last question that is something you can bring up with the girls once you form the coven after all the list is only complied with suggestions of suitable witches."
Harry simply nodded his head in understanding and stared at Hebe waiting for her to continue with all she needed to tell him.
"Now as far as the coven thing goes once you have formed it you and the seven girls will basically be married in the eyes of magic, unlike Tom Riddle's faulty attempt at making a true coven you know them as his Death Eaters, more specifically the inner circle of his death eaters make up his 'coven' which of course failed."
"How did it fail? It doesn't seem like it did to me."
"Well that's quite simple; his is a mockery of a coven due to the several simple facts the first, and most prominent, being that instead of sharing power with each member of his coven he takes it all for himself like a parasite. Doing so not only drove him mad but it also drove most of his death eaters mad as well."
Harry looked thoughtful at that for he did remember from a previous timeline Sirius telling him that Bellatrix wasn't always the psychotic murderer that she is now and how she was a very loving and sweet child while they were growing up, even if she did believe the pureblood bigotry.
"Now back to what I was saying you may need to slowly add members to your coven because you need to form a sort of intimate bond with each girl. Hermione and Luna won't be a problem since you already have such a bond with them, even though you are in a different timeline your bond with Luna didn't change so don't worry about that. As you know Hermione is also from the same timeline as you so we just made sure that bond stayed in place."
After this a soft pop sounded behind Harry who proceeded to turn around to see which elf had showed up. What he saw was not what he had expected instead of the small creature he had been expecting he saw a much taller, more human like version of Nixy. This Nixy looked like the elves that were described in Lord of the Rings but instead of a human skin tone it was the same that Harry saw her have when he first arrived in his ancestral home. Actually, aside from looking more human in form, everything else was the same.
"Nixy?!"
"Yes, Master I am Nixy. I have come to inform you that you have another guest who just arrived one Hermione Granger."
"Hermione's here? Ok let her in and Nixy, show her the library. That will make her happy."
"Of course, Master Harry," Nixy said with a curtsy and popped away to do as instructed.
"Well that solves the next thing I was going to bring up you need to get all of the coven members to move in with you as soon as possible it will make things easier and your home is large enough to do this," Hebe stated.
"Why is the size of my home matter? It's not like you are having their entire families move in, right?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying! Fuck you can be so stupid sometimes!"
Harry had the sense to look embarrassed at the lack of common sense he had just shown.
"Now start using that brain of yours, I know for a fact we fixed the damage that Dumb-ass-door did to your learning capabilities. Don't make me have to tell you again," Hebe all but growled at Harry.
"Yes ma'am."
"Good! Now the reason behind getting their families is to provide protection to said families because they will become targets the only thing is you need to take care of one particular person before you can allow one family into your home. And before you ask who I will just tell you Lucius Malfoy and he needs to be dealt with after your second year this way you can destroy Tom Riddle's diary. So, I would suggest you do so during the summer going into your third year."
During this time Luna has been writing out the coven vows for the binding ritual. She pauses mid-sentence as she stares into space.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore had finally gotten back to his office at Hogwarts after dealing with several important meetings at the I.C.W. and was about to relax when he noticed that one of his many devices was no longer running. This particular device was to keep him informed that Harry was still at his muggle relatives' house.
"This week just keeps getting worse," Albus says with an exhausted sigh.
He turned on his heel and with a quiet popping sound, disapparated. A few moments later Albus apparated into the house of Arabella Figg.
"Sweet Merlin, Albus! Please inform me next time you nearly gave me a heart attack!" Mrs. Figg shouted.
"I'm sorry Arabella but this is a matter of utmost importance and I didn't have time to owl ahead," Albus said in a rush and immediately left out the front door without so much as a backwards glance.
Albus, much faster than anyone would've thought an old man can move, made his way to Number 4 Privet Drive. Once he arrived at the front door, he knocked on it and waited for a response. A Few moments later Albus heard the sounds of activity behind the door and a man screaming out, "I'll be there in just a moment!"
