Bubona surprises herself when, instead of freaking, she gently takes Murph from Madam Bones when she drops by for a surprise visit.
As the chest burster turns into a baby with a tail, Bubona looks up, "Thank you for bringing her over. Do you mind if I ask what happened to her?"
Amelia smiles, "We found what we thought was a wild hive in Russia, and the Russians tried to take care of it with magic. That's why we had to leave for Easter."
Vesta comes running over, "Mummy, mummy, is Murph home?"
Bubona looks down at her daughter, "Yes dear, though something's happened to her. Madam Bones, do you have time for a cup of tea while you tell the story?"
Amelia cocks her head before nodding, "Certainly, call me Amelia as I'm not on duty at the moment."
Once they're sat down for some tea, with a plate of biscuits sitting next to a bowl of Acromantula legs, Amelia leans back as she crunches on a leg thoughtfully, "I guess the story starts a few months ago, when Moody and E'jeah finally made their way to the area that Raka, the wizarding name for Murph's species, are most commonly seen in. Originally we, that is Arry and the Yautja, wanted to scan the planet from space. However, they found that they couldn't just transport themselves to the moon, as none of them had ever actually been there. It's funny, we can flame to a couple of dozen planets halfway around the galaxy, and a couple of spaceships, but we can't flame the 240,000 miles to the moon." Shaking her head she continues, "Sorry about that, a lot of this is still unbelievable to me. Anyway, they used some of the equipment from Arry's ship to locate the actual hive. When they found it, they started to map it out with magic and that bit of equipment. Shortly before the Easter break, E'jeah realised that the planned attack, the were going to use, wouldn't kill all the Raka in the hive, because of some complicated bit of technology that I don't understand. Anyway, they tried to tell the Russians about it, but they just heard the word technology and stopped listening. After all, everyone in the magical world knows that technology doesn't work around magic."
Bubona nods along until she remembers her Christmas present from Murph, a pair of very fancy non-magical glass windows that show changing information and react when you touch them, "I think, I don't believe that anymore."
Amelia nods again, "Your Christmas present?"
"Yes, not the creepy one though. So what happened after that?"
"As the Easter holidays came, we, that is the human adults, decided that it was too risky for the students if we stayed on earth while the Russians tried to clear out the hive, so we all headed to Arry's ship for the holiday. E'jeah, and surprisingly Moody, joined us a few days before the holiday finished. That's when we knew they'd started. It took us a couple of days to persuade the children that they weren't allowed to take part in the attack on the hive, at the same time we planned our attack and arrival based on E'jeah and Moody's memories of what was there. Good thing we did, as the fight was brutal. I wasn't there, as Sue pulled the if you can go, then I can go, card because she can turn into a xenomorph and I can't yet."
Amelia takes a drink of her tea while she thinks about what to say next with Vesta in the room, "I won't go into details, as they are far too disturbing for young ears, but we lost 10 humans and veela, and around 20 xenomorphs in the fight. Murph there took a blow for Moody, who was then able to kill a handful of xenomorphs with a fire whip. We didn't realise until after the battle and we got back to the ship, well they got back to the ship, that we'd also got the phoenix rebirth as well as their flame travel. The house elves had just been transporting our 'dead' back to a room on the ship. Anyway, we were all sombre and morning on the ship, when the first baby woke up and started crying, and Minerva, Professor McGonagall, screams over the hive 'Someone better get over here and clean me up right now, or so help me I will hex first and ask questions later'."
Bubona bursts out laughing, "She really said that?"
Amelia nods, "She did, as she turned into a newborn baby, with the same control as a baby."
Bubona considers it for a moment, "I can see that, at least she can tell you. I remember how much trouble we had with Vesta. Why is Murph like this though?"
Amelia looks at the sleeping baby that Bubona is cradling as she considers her answer ultimately deciding on, "I think that's why."
Bubona looks at the baby with a confused expression, however Vesta immediately looks excited, "I get a baby sister. Mummy, is that true, is Murph now my baby sister?"
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Filius stands up as the last of the students file into the Great Hall from the Express, "Good evening everyone. There is an, unexpected, yes, let's go with unexpected, announcement I need to make." He glances over at the highchair in place of the Head Masters chair, "Due to unforeseen circumstances, both Transfiguration and Runes are cancelled for the next week. Classes will resume next week, once your teachers are old enough to teach for a couple hours without a nap." He sighs, "Instead, your classes will be supervised by Miss Dunns and Master Pince in the library where you'll be given research assignments to do. These assignments have been set by the Head Master and Master Babbling, and should stretch your knowledge of Transfiguration and Runes in preparation for when they are able to resume teaching. Enjoy the Feast everyone."
Slightly uncomfortably, Filius sits down to his own meal as a house elf bottle feeds Minerva, and further down the table, Septima bottle feeds Bathsheba.
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Once the other Yautja leave the training complex, a ship touches down outside the battlefield, and three hunters disembark before the forth takes the ship back into orbit. Slowly and meticulously, they survey the battlefield taking careful note of where each participant should have fallen, and looking for their remains. With the surface battlefield surveyed, they cautiously make their way into the hive keeping a careful eye out for any traps that were left behind.
Much to their surprise, they don't find any, and everything that could be stripped out has been. Including one of the massive thermal converters and the reactor. What they don't find has them far more concerned, as there are no human remains, or even the remains of xenomorphs from the other hives. There are piles of ashes, that are almost scattered to the winds, that might have come from those casualties, however there are no discernible organic traces left in those piles. Something that should be impossible for the amount of energy they detected being used in that battle.
Returning to space, they start to discuss their findings and planning of a grand hunt.
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Luna smiles as she looks over her new batch of eggs. Her new nest is still uncomfortably close to her mother's nest, she sighs in contentment at having a mother again. However, it's in somewhere that Henry Granger called The Mess. Though no one in her hive could understand why somewhere that was so neat and tidy would be called a mess. Maybe once she gets her own mobile nest, she can offer the mess there to her mother. It's still better than any of the larger rooms near the outside of the ship though.
As she's looking at the walls, trying to decide where to place resin for reinforcement, and where to leave bare so that she can paint, violet lights in the ceiling start to flash, and an irritating screeching tone starts to echo around the room. Holding her ears, she quickly finds the feeling of T'o-Ba'sall and pops to her location.
"What is that noise!?"
T'o-Ba'sall looks up from the console she frantically working on, "It's the emergency broadcast system! We just repaired it with parts retrieved from the enemy hive!"
"Well, unrepair it then!"
T'o-Ba'sall looks back to the console, where she was working on just that. It takes her a few minutes to change the display to one that she can actually use, and then a matter of seconds to shut off the speakers.
Luna sighs in relief, "Oh, that's better. Can you do something about the lights too please?"
T'o-Ba'sall looks slightly confused, until she takes her mask off to use her more human eyesight to see the flashing violet light at the edge of what she can see, "I really must remember that I can see some human visible colour now."
Luna blinks a couple of times before her eyes finish clearing, idly she looks at the alien script on the console, "So, was there anything else that was fixed, and do you know anyone who could teach us to read these consoles?"
T'o-Ba'sall looks at Luna in surprise, "You can't read it?"
Luna sighs, "Sort of, I've got your memories up here, so I can use them to read and understand what's there. But it's not automatic like it is when there's a hive member close enough that understands."
T'o-Ba'sall stops for a moment as she considers that, "I hadn't considered that, though if that's the case, how are you understanding me?"
Luna laughs brightly, "I learnt your language silly, it's much easier than learning to read after all. Anyway, was anything else fixed?"
T'o-Ba'sall nods, "The elves have been remarkably eager to learn how to maintain the ship, once they worked out that there are instructions on how to repair things properly. We've been able to use the fusion generator from the enemy hive to repair the main powerplant on the ship. The elves were able to get new power runs from somewhere, so the ship is now all wired up properly. Replacing the last of the… Ah, here it is."
Luna looks down at the display curiously, "Here what is?"
"The emergency beacon. It's been broadcasting our location since Arry took over the ship. Right, I'm heading to Arry's nest to change course, and increase our speed a little
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Arbiter Thwau'tha-Than walks briskly back to his personal ship after he, along with the other Arbiter's, moved out of the guest quarters during the lull in strange occurrences over the last tenday. Something that, in hindsight, was a good idea, as where before they were merely annoying, they're now becoming dangerous. Only the other rest period did the ship power down for five minutes. When they got the power back up, they discovered that the main power run had disappeared. Not damaged, clearly removed from it's runners around the centre of the ship, and to the engines. Now they're running on ¼ power, as that's all the redundant energy runs can handle.
On top of that Thwau'tha-Than and the other four Arbiter's are very close to revoking the clan's status and ability to declare bad-bloods as the evidence is damning. The only thing they're missing is the victims or their bodies. When they do, it's likely that they'll be facing a host of honour challenges from the elders of the clan.
Suddenly he comes to a halt, and draws his blade, as a short bipedal creature appears in front of him. While it looks at him curiously, he lunges towards it weapon first. While he's closing the gap between them, it raises its hand and clicks its fingers. As it does, all of his equipment clatters to the floor as it appears two paces behind him. The Arbiter doesn't hesitate, though the loss of his weapon means he missed the creature with his first strike. His follow up only passes through wisps of fire as the creature nods before disappearing in a flash of fire.
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A much fitter and slimmer Draco rubs his chest where they cut him open last time they caught him. Despite perfecting the apparition that he did accidentally, and being able to keep away from the hunting parties for almost a month, they did eventually catch him. When they did, they cut him open while he was still awake, and placed something inside his chest.
"Dr'co, stop lazing and get some water!"
"Yes Matriach!"
Draco quickly apparates out to the river that's a few hours walk from the settlement and fills two leather buckets. That's another thing that's happened, he's learnt to speak the local language, and has been turned into the villages water boy.
Once he returns to the village, he drops the buckets and abases himself on the floor as he sees a Yautja in the village. Oh how it rankles, but it's clear he can't fight against them.
"Dr'co, come."
Draco's eyes widen in fear as he hesitantly gets to his feet. Together they walk outside the village to the 'sparing' ground, where there's a rock sat in the middle of the cleared earth.
"Move rock."
Draco walks forward to pick up the rock, however the Yautja back hands him to the floor, "Stay there, move rock."
"But I can't do that."
The Yautja points at rock then looks up, "You have half rest period, move rock. No move rock, hunt tomorrow."
Draco's eyes widen in panic as he wracks his mind for how he could possibly do what they want him to do.