Quirrell looks at the Devil's Snare, that's just below the trapdoor of the off limits suite, with disgust, "Master, what sort of protection is this? A first year could get past this."
"Approach it carefully, the headmistress is obviously more canny than the old fool, as she's even clearly labelled the room."
Cautiously, they use light to make their way past the plant, searching the walls for any sign of more complicated traps or snares. As they get to the bottom of the chimney, the sound of a large amount of flying objects starts to reach their ears. As they cautiously make their way down the short corridor towards the sound, a wooden sign illuminates in the middle of corridor.
'This room is off limits to all staff and students who do not wish to die a horrible and painful death.'
As they cautiously step past the sign a flash of light illuminates an obstacle course that looks like it came out of a nightmare, with flying blades suspended in mid-air, spikes sticking out of the wall, and impossible jumps through holes that look barely big enough for a man to crawl through. A second flash shows that the blades have moved, and there are some additional swinging blades. When Quirrell tries to cast a spell to illuminate the room, the whole area is blanketed in smoke like darkness leaving him barely able to see the wooden sign that's only a pace behind him. Once he extinguishes his wand, the flashes of light start up again, and over 5 minutes become faster and faster, until they can no longer tell that the light is flashing. The effect of this is that the blades no longer appear to be flying, instead they appear to teleport from place to place, same is true of swinging blades. High, in the upper reaches of the room, a doorway can be seen in the far wall.
"Master, how are we going to reach that doorway?"
"First of all, you're going to try using a broom. After that, we will be seeing what we can do to bypass the obvious route."
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Thwau'tha-Than looks at the door to his suite that has just closed with a grinding noise, and the completely spotless interior with something akin to concern. The concern is mainly because he used his own locking program on the door, and it hasn't been accessed since he went to the meeting with matriarch with the other Arbiters. Stalking across the room, he pulls down one of his weapons and inspects it before throwing it on his bed in frustration. It is perfectly clean and maintained, and ideal for a show piece that only lives on the wall. Even the acid scars he'd left on the blade, as a sign of how it had survived against even hard meats, were gone. As it neatly slices through his bedding, he re-emphasises the fact that it's perfectly maintained.
With a growl, he pulls out his maintenance kit, only to find that the oil rag has also been spotlessly cleaned and repaired. Which is a problem as the it takes a lot of work to get just the right amount of oil into the rag so that it leaves the thinnest possible coating on the blades and trophies. As he reaches around for the weapon, he finds that it has been placed back on the wall, and the gash in his bedding repaired. Mandibles open, he puts the maintenance kit down and inspects the bedding. Turning back to the maintenance kit, his mandibles open as it is no longer on the side where he left it.
"Pauk!" He roars before storming out of the room. A faint pop behind him has Thwau'tha-Than spinning around, only to see nothing in the room.
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Sally-Anne carefully pushes the door to her mothers room at St Mungo's open before padding in and transforming into a human to sit on one of the chairs.
"Hey Mum, how are you feeling?"
Her mother looks at her for a long moment before saying, "Sally-Anne?"
"Yes mum, it's me. How are you?"
"I was able to wiggle my toes today, and I know you're my daughter. Though I don't remember you getting so big, and what happened to your leg?"
"My foot had to be amputated when I was a toddler, and they just kept taking more and more leg as things went wrong with it."
Theresa hits her head with the heel of one hand and cries, "Why can't I remember. Why did they do this to me?"
Sally-Anne flows around the bed and smoothly transforms back into a human before grabbing her mothers hand, "Mum, Arry was able to restore all of my memories. I'm part of her hive now and they can never do that to me again. Maybe she can help you."
Theresa looks at her with hope and tries to bring her other hand around, "Really?"
Sally-Anne nods, "She's back on Earth too, so I could ask her if you'd like."
"I think I'd like…" Theresa's body spasms as she starts to smile, and Sally-Anne calls out desperately for her Queen.
A moment later Arry appears with a face hugger already around her hand.
Once Theresa finishes spasming, she looks around blankly, "Oh, hello, when did you come in?" Looking at Sally-Anne she furrows her eyebrows, "Do I know you?"
Tears start to fall down Sally-Anne's face, "I'm your daughter."
"Sally-Anne? You've grown up quick, what happened to your leg?"
"Mum, this is Arry, my Queen. She was able to restore my memories, and I think she could do the same for yours."
Arry stares at Sally-Anne, "I think you give me too much credit." Looking back at Theresa she holds out the face-hugger, "Mrs Perks, if you take this face-hugger and put it on your face, it will adopt you into my hive. Once that's done, your brain will stop deteriorating and you'll learn how to use your limbs again. We might be able to restore some of your memories too, but we can't know until your brain is stable enough for me to look at you."
A look akin to hope crosses Theresa's face as she reaches out with her good hand to try and take the face-hugger. She manages to get it almost to her face before she has another fit. Gently, Sally-Anne guides it the rest of the way and watches as it latches on.
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Donald comes in, after his own appointment with a mind healer, to see Sally-Anne balancing on one leg as she looks at Theresa. As the door clicks closed behind him, she turns to look at him before flowing into a black horror and running at him. Before he can scream, she's changed back into his Sally-Anne and is hugging him, "Daddy, I missed you."
Donald nervously strokes her hair, "I missed you too buttercup. What was that?"
Sally-Anne beams up at him, "That was my animagus form, it's lovely isn't it."
"Er, yeah, sure. Erm, how are you doing?"
Sally-Anne bounces slightly on her leg, "I'm doing great, I've got my memories back and they can't do it again. We're trying to heal mum now, though Arry said that her memories may not come back, but at least her brain will work again and we can make new memories."
Alarmed, Donald looks up at Theresa, "What's that on her face?"
"It's a face-hugger, dad. It's how she's going to become part of the hive. Then her memories will become part of our memories."
"Will she become one of those things too?"
Sally-Anne looks upset, "Yes daddy, she'll be like me. Is that such a bad thing?"
Donald doesn't answer as his eyes roll back in his head and he faints.
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As the students return to school for the new term, Susan and Hannah bracket Justin to provide comfort as he's still reeling from not only the events over Christmas, but also swearing on his magic to Arry afterwards, and joining her hive. He's still reeling from the fact that so many of the Professors are part of the hive, and the Yautja.
As Sally-Anne leaps over him and bounces off a wall before weaving her way through to the Hufflepuff table, he laughs at the expressions the other students make. Somewhat more cheered by the closeness of the hive, he picks up his pace and makes his way to the table.
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It's nearing March when Aberforth finds himself comforting a bawling Hagrid in the Hogs Head Inn.
"'s not fair, he never hurt anybody and they served him up like a deer. 'ow could they do that."
Aberforth just pours the man another ale and places it down in front of him, before he starts cleaning a glass.
A few minutes later Hagrid continues, "'e was with me since 'fore ah were expelled. Ah set 'im up in the forest, an' found 'im a mate. 's not fair, 's not like they were hurting anyone. 'e was paying rent too, acromantula silk 'as earned ta school a pretty penny."
Aberforth looks at Hagrid side-eyed, "So he kept acromantula?"
Hagrid nods, "Aye, 'is children. 'e used to give silk too till 'is glands ran dry in ta 70's."
"Who else knew about the arrangement?"
"Ta headmaster, an' anyone 'e told, ah gave 'im the money too."
With a tight voice, Aberforth replies, "Maybe the problem is that the headmaster didn't tell anyone else."
Hagrid sniffs, pulls out a tablecloth sized hanky and blows his nose, "Ya could be right. But 'e was harmless."
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E'jeah trudges through the deep snow alongside the shivering and crippled warrior Moody, though Moody seems to be trying to keep his distance. Bringing up her wrist, she checks the scanner again, though she's fairly sure that they're getting close.
"Ooman, we close. Can feel them. Queen still sleep, so safe."
"How is it that you aren't freezing your tits off here?"
E'jeah smiles behind her mask and tugs the netting she's wearing, "Combat Harness, keep warm, keep cool."
"Where can I get one of those?"
"Kill hard meat alone, bring proof of kill, and be declared blooded warrior."
Suddenly E'jeah stops, "Can go no further, feel rival hive. Any closer and will have to attack."
Moody clenches his teeth, "Well that's bloody great, can you find the entrance from here?"
E'jeah flares her mandibles, "I can if you give equipment."
Grumbling, Moody pulls out a shrunken trunk and unshrinks it. Then goes through a complicated process to safely unlock the trunk, before finally taking out a large rectangular device with a matt black polished screen on the top, "Why did I have to come on this trip again?"
"Your contacts in nation."
"It was rhetorical, bloody weather."
"You could join hive like leader did."
"What? You mean Amelia?"
"Yes, before male child joined."
Moody stews in his own juices as E'jeah sets up the scanner and does a detailed scan of the area.
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Hermione laughs with pure joy as she jumps, leaps, twists, and climbs her way through the obstacle course that the Masters at the school have set up to protect the students from Luna. Behind her come the rest of the xenomorph Hufflepuffs, though each one is taking their own slightly different routes due to the timing of the ariel obstacles. As she gets to the doorway at the top, she turns around while she's waiting for the others and shifts to her human form. At the bottom, she can just make out Professor Quirrell watching them, so she gives him a wave. As she does he seems to jump slightly before stalking back into the corridor.
As Megan makes it to the doorway, Hermione makes her way into Luna's egg chamber, smoothly switching to being a xenomorph as she goes. There she has a sort of conversation with Luna and Xenophilous. If asked later, the conversation would go something like.
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"Hey Luna, how are you feeling?"
"How dare you trespass in my egg chamber, prepare to… Oh hey Hermione. Sorry, I'm still getting to grips with my instincts. What do you think of my Ovipositor?"
"It's very pretty, and it looks like you're producing well. Are the elves feeding you enough?"
"Mmmm, though there's not enough Acromantula."
Hermione nods, "We've got all the big ones already, so we're now waiting for the smaller ones to get large enough to breed."
"That's a fascinating aspect of being a Queen and having my father in the hive. We didn't have a concept of preserving prey before Arry. Even those of us who gained an identity didn't think of it."
Hermione nods, "I remember, I still don't like looking at those memories. How are you getting on with the computer tablets?"
Luna laughs, "Slowly, we only have Arry's ancestral memories, not her genetic advantages. Father is doing slightly better than me, as his claws are more suited to using the tablets. He's going to take my first adoption eggs with him as soon as we mature enough to lay them. He's hopeful that he can find a phoenix to adopt, as we have come across a few nesting sites in the past."
"Have you not found your human form yet?"
Luna smirks, "I have, but it's uncomfortable, so I prefer to stay like this. I suppose I will need to learn to deal with it before school next year. How goes the search for another ship?"
Hermione nods in understanding, "I started feeling uncomfortable when I was close to moulting over Christmas. I think the search for a suitable ship is going slowly because Arry's ship is notorious in the region."
Luna nods, "I understand. It's why Arry is keeping so close to me, so that I see her as a mother rather than a rival. It's working too."
"I'm glad. Would you like any real books to read?"
Luna laughs, "Only if you haven't read them yet, as your memories are up here too, along with your parents."
"I'll see what I can do."
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However, as they are speaking telepathically, the conversation involves more imagery and visualisation than words.