Family Ties
The morning after Draco signed the contract, he showed up to breakfast with four purple marks on his face. He also scratched at other places on his body as he ate. By lunchtime, everyone in the school knew about the details of the contract. Many students, mostly Gryffindors, took to goading Draco into saying something and cheered when he yelped in pain. Harry asked everyone in Scamander House not to do that after he saw others provoking him. Draco didn't need additional reasons to hate his friends and housemates.
Harry noticed that Greg had started to be a bit depressed. The boy used to spend most of his time outside of classes with Draco and Vincent, but they had begun to push him away. He still tried to sit with them every few days at lunch but he didn't seem to be involved in their conversations. Harry felt bad for him, but at the same time knew that Draco was breaking his hold over the boy, and this way Harry could finally bring Greg over to his side.
Whenever he was in the common room, Harry took it upon himself to help the boy with whatever he was doing. He helped him with his homework, with trying to climb trees, and he even talked Greg into helping him test out his flobberworm jerky.
Harry had started to marinate the dried worms in juices of different fruits as a way to improve the taste. He would soak them in different juices for a few days and leave them to dry again. Other than Lyra, only Luna and Greg were willing to try the jerky with them. Harry would have guessed that the sweeter fruits like strawberries would be the best, but it turned out to be the opposite. The ones that seemed to both retain the most flavor and the ones that everyone enjoyed were the tangy ones. Limes, oranges, and cranberries seemed to work the best. Harry and Lyra enjoyed the mango ones but they were the only people who did.
At dinner on Monday night, Dumbledore made an announcement, "On Wednesday will be an important day for a few reasons, most relevant to the students, you will have a day off." There were thunderous cheers from the student body. Dumbledore waited for the students to calm down before continuing, "There are two reasons for this day off, the first is an old German holiday known as Ancestors' Blot, which I think everyone would enjoy partaking in, to celebrate one's family and ancestry. In that regard, Hogwarts will be opening its doors for all of your parents to come for a visit."
This announcement got a mixed reaction. Some students were thrilled, others were nervous, and many muggleborn students were questioning how theirs would even be able to visit.
"Your parents will be arriving at 11 a.m., on the Hogwarts express. Those adults who haven't been here before will get the experience of taking a boat across the lake, the rest will be taken by carriages. There is a full day planned for them to see your activities at school as well as the evening's quidditch game of Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff."
Oh, right, quidditch. Harry and Lyra shared a look across the table. There had been another match three weeks ago between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Slytherin had won but it had been near even score before they caught the snitch. Harry and Lyra had seen the cold rain in the morning from their windows and decided to spend the day reading rather than going outside. Unlike on the island, the rain here was freezing cold and not fun at all. They didn't even realize they had missed a quidditch game until everyone came back talking about it.
"Additionally, in the evening, we will be having a feast with all of our families, and distinguished guests from the ministry and around the world will be joining us. My chocolate frog card may not specify the date, only the year, but on the 11th day of the 11th month of this year will be my 111th birthday!"
There was shock around the room, followed by applause. Harry and Lyra shared a look while other students spoke about how 111 was such an interesting birthday, and for it also to be on November 11th too. Harry stood up and spotted Hermione who also was looking for him and they both smiled and nodded.
"There will be many important people here from many different places. Should you play your cards well, you may make connections that will serve you well in the future. Be sure to be on your best behavior. Rudeness and behavior unbefitting of a student of Hogwarts will be dealt with most severely. Just so you are all aware of it, the security of the parents and visitors for the feast will be handled by the DMLE and Senior Auror Alastor Moody."
A lot of the people at the Slytherin table looked nervous, though many elsewhere looked impressed.
As Dumbledore finished, an extra-large raven descended on the Scamander table, landing in front of Lyra. It had one note on each leg, and it offered Lyra the on its right. As Lyra opened it up, the bird took off towards the Ravenclaw table and presented the other letter to Hermione.
"Uncle Arcturus is visiting on the 11th," Lyra informed the people around her. They hadn't seen him since their first meeting, so it must be important. There was something more, but Lyra folded up the note and gave Harry a look that said they would speak about it later.
In the evening, Harry joined Neville in his climbing room. It was quite an interesting setup; he had several rock walls, artificial trees, and ropes to climb and exercise with. Neville was a nice kid but he always seemed a bit over or under-focused. Some tasks he was extremely dedicated to, like climbing or Herbology, and others he would barely engage in at all. Sometimes he seemed to forget where he was and space out for a minute before remembering what he needed to do and running off.
His magic was also strange. His theoretical and wandwork were perfect but he never seemed to get much power out of it. Harry had heard some people call Neville a squib but he knew it was just an insult as they were all at Hogwarts because they weren't squibs. However, Harry still couldn't figure out why his spells lacked power compared to other students who even didn't perform the wand movements correctly.
Tuesday evening, Harry found Lyra in her tree with Whispers after 4 p.m. He had been getting a bit concerned with Lyra as she didn't spend much time with anyone other than him and Whispers. Their common room was nice, but he did have to push her to spend time in the real outdoors. Today was probably one of the last few sunny days of the year according to Neville, so he told Lyra they should go outside and get Whispers to rebraid her hair.
Whispers had been doing a good job of keeping Lyra's hair braided in a tight weave but occasionally it had to be redone. When braided, Lyra's hair now reached down to the back of her knees, and when it was undone, it was at least two feet past her feet. She and Harry had started to read The Lord of the Rings, so Lyra would wash her hair, and then they would go outside and spread her hair out on the lawn as the two of them read the book while Whispers spent nearly two hours braiding her hair. If today was going to remain clear until sunset, it seemed like a good excuse to go out despite the chilled air.
The spot they normally went to was a large rock overlooking the lake. Lyra could lie down near the pinnacle of the rock and have her hair undone down the backside of it. Unbraided, it looked like a huge sunburst all splayed out. As Whispers was getting done with spreading it all out, Harry saw two Gryffindor girls approaching them, a blonde and an Indian girl.
The blonde spoke up as they got close, "Hello, we've seen you out here before, and we just wanted to say we love your hair."
Lyra couldn't really move her head with it all spread out around her, but replied, "Thank you, I have to do this every so often after washing it, it takes a long time." She saw that the Indian girl also had her hair braided in an intricate pattern that brought it down just below her shoulders. "I like your braid too, but I don't know the pattern."
"Who does your hair now? Does Harry do it?" the Indian girl asked.
"He's done it before, but now Whispers does it mostly."
Whispers had been on the other side of the rock, finishing spreading out Lyra's hair. Having heard his name, he climbed over to their side eliciting an 'oooh' noise from the Gryffindor girls.
He scampered over to them and held out his hand, "Whhisssperrrs."
By now, everyone had heard of the talking demiguise, but that didn't stop people from being shocked and amazed the first time they heard it for themselves. After they recovered, the Indian girl knelt down to him and said, "I'm Parvati, this is Lavender," she gestured to her friend and then shook Whispers's small hand.
Whispers looked back and forth between them and said, "Pa-va-ti, Lav-der"
Lavender shook his tiny hand too and corrected her name. "Where did you learn to braid hair, Whispers?" Off to the side, Harry smiled, not many people spoke to their brother like a person.
Whispers seemed to take a moment to understand her before responding, "Leeern braid, Weee-ver."
The girls were confused by the answer, so Lyra explained, "Whisper's aunt is named Weaver, she wove her hair into mine and Harry's, that's why we have the silver streaks."
"That's why Harry's hair is like that?" Parvati exclaimed like she had uncovered some secret. "People keep wondering why your hair looks like that."
Harry had been just watching everything so far and just shrugged, "It seems to be permanent now. I had my head shaved a few years ago and it just grew back like this."
"Magic is weird," Lavender commented. "Can we help Whispers with the braiding?"
Lyra looked at Parvati, "Can you teach him to braid it like yours? I like how yours is done."
She smiled wide, "Of course! This will take at least an hour, so we should get started."
Harry just watched as the three girls chatted and taught Whispers a new style of braiding. After about ten minutes of him watching, he stood up and said, "I'm going to head in, do you think you'll be ok out here?"
Lyra looked a bit frightened at being left alone and gave him a pleading look to stay. He gave her a tiny shake of his head and looked at Whispers. When it was clear he wouldn't be giving in to her look, she gave a small nod of her head since she was still laying down on the rock.
"OK, I guess so," Lyra said with a note of defeat.
Harry pulled a small bag out of his expanded pouch. It contained all the feathers from Lyra's hair. He handed the bag to Lavender, "These are all the feathers for her hair, you can add them in when you're done."
Harry walked slowly back to the castle to work on a potions essay. Despite his desire to leave Lyra alone to make new friends, he found an empty classroom that overlooked the rock by the lake to work on his assignment in. He made sure to look out every few minutes to make sure she and Whispers were doing alright. He was still their big brother after all.
The castle was buzzing with preparations when everyone got up for breakfast Wednesday morning. Harry and Lyra ate large breakfasts, knowing they would have a full day ahead of them with Arcturus arriving. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood with the day off, their parents visiting, and Dumbledore's birthday feast in the evening. Even Mr. Filch was in a good mood but that was probably because all detentions for the last few days had been re-assigned to him with students scrubbing the castle top to bottom while he watched their struggles.
So while Harry walked back to the common room, he was surprised when he heard crying coming from a dead-end corridor. What was more surprising was that he had explored that particular area with Colin a month ago and they had discovered that if you were at the end of the corridor, there was some kind of silencing charm that made it so you couldn't be heard from the main hall.
Cautiously, Harry walked down towards the end to find a skinny boy, in Hufflepuff robes, with black hair curled up near the end, "Are you ok?" he asked, startling the boy who quickly stopped crying and wiped his eyes, and stood up.
"I'm fine," seeing who was there, "I don't need your help, Potter."
Harry didn't know who the boy was, but he wasn't going to leave a crying child alone, "I still want to help."
"Not your problem, you wouldn't understand anyway, you don't have any parents," the boy grew a bit angry now.
That stung a bit, but Harry understood the boy was just angry, so remained there, "I might not be able to help, but maybe just talking about it would help." Harry pulled a hoohoo feather out of his bag, and then his wand. Concentrating for a moment, he whispered, "Incendio." A tiny wisp of flame came from the end and lit the feather. He couldn't activate them the way Lyra could but this achieved the same results, though the feather burned much quicker.
The boy stared at the feather, some of his anxiety melting away, "What is that?"
"Hoohoo feather, it helps. We light them once a week in Scamander House, they help to take the edge off of school and your problems."
The boy stared at the feather before taking a deep breath, "I tried to change houses for the re-sorting. I was in Slytherin, and I hoped to get your house or Ravenclaw. I didn't like constantly fighting in Slytherin for a spot at the table. My father would have been happy with either of those houses, instead, I got Hufflepuff. My father will kill me, Hufflepuff is the leftovers, the losers. The Sorting Hat said that I would do best in Hufflepuff. I still have ambition, I still have cunning, but I got the worst house."
Harry listened to him, "Your father doesn't sound nice but he was happy with you in Slytherin, right?" The boy nodded his head. "Then convince him you're still a Slytherin. In the first week, Gemma told us that a Slytherin will always recognize another, regardless of their house. She said 'sometimes you need to be a snake in the fur of a lion.' You might even be more cunning to hide in the fur of a badger."
The boy took in Harry's words and nodded, "I didn't know what to do, so I just came down the silent corridor here and asked out loud for help." He chuckled and held out his hand, "Theodore Nott. Thank you, Potter."
Harry shook the boy's hand, "Harry's fine." They shook hands and Theodore walked off with purpose in his steps.
At 11 a.m. The students all gathered outside for the parents to arrive. Everyone was chatting nervously as they saw the smoke from the Hogwarts express arriving at the station beyond the cove. Some students were watching the lake for the boats to start coming out of the cove while others were watching the path to the station that the carriages would come by.
A second plume of black smoke inside the cove grabbed everyone's attention and it started moving out into the lake. As it cleared the cove, everyone saw a large riverboat with two large wheels on either side clearing the cove. The smoke was coming from a large chimney in the center of the boat. There were three levels to the vessel with the top deck wide open for people to stand on. People were standing clustered tightly on that deck as the wheels on each side propelled the craft across the surface of the lake. After the shock of seeing the riverboat wore off, many students turned their attention back toward the trail to see the carriages approaching. Many students headed off in that direction, including Harry and Lyra.
The carriages each had an Auror sitting on top of them, directing the thestrals, not that they needed it. Many students ran to their parents as they unloaded. The boat hadn't arrived yet as the last carriage emptied. There was no sign of Arcturus in the carriages.
"Harry, Lyra!'' they turned around to see Auror Kirkland running up to them. "Lord Black told me to forward a message, he will be a few minutes late, he wants to make an elaborate entrance."
Not exactly sure what she meant, so they were forced to just wait. In the meantime, the riverboat pulled right onto the shore in front of them, and a large group of parents disembarked. Most of them were obviously muggles, as one could tell by the way they were dressed. Also, each muggle wore a pendant with a large red stone and was escorted by an Auror. Harry and Lyra could hear several students around them saying disparaging remarks about the presence of muggles at Hogwarts.
Shortly after the boat was unloaded, the Aurors started to clear a large area near the shore and threw out some red glowing orbs in a long line in the cleared area.
"Look, over the trees!" one student yelled.
Everyone turned, Harry and Lyra saw a group of four thestrals flying in a wide bank over the trees. Knowing how they might react to him, Harry backed up the hill away from the obvious landing zone. One student commented on the group of flying men but was corrected by an older student who told them they were flying on thestrals. People began to mutter about who would be arriving on such well-trained and evil horses, but Harry understood this must be Arcturus 'making an entrance.'
Lyra stood near the landing zone as the four touched down and trotted to the end. Several of the adults applauded as they dismounted. Arcturus had been leading the group. To his left was a man in brightly colored robes that seemed to change colors as he moved. He had long hair that was down to the middle of his back with a metal pendant at the end that sparkled in the light. To his right was a very large man who looked like he could have carried the thestral he was riding on if he wanted to. Bringing up the rear was Brandt, though today instead of just having a mustache, he had a very sharp beard connected to his sideburns. As they dismounted, Brandt pulled out Arcturus's large staff from his pouch and passed it to him.
Lyra approached and gave him a customary bow that she and Harry had been learning in their lessons with Brandt. He returned the bow with a simple nod of his head and asked, "Where is your brother, Lyra?"
Lyra turned around and waved to him, "I'm guessing he's staying up there because the thestrals won't like him. The ones in the forest don't."
Arcturus turned back to Brandt who nodded his head, "I informed you of the incident, if you wish, we can test it again later when there aren't as many people around."
Up the hill with Harry, the students were chattering about the man in the colored robes. This was Augustus Stevens, the dueling champion who had represented Arcturus in his duel with Lucius Malfoy. Greg was incredibly nervous because the man who was built like a tank was his father. The Black family entourage started up the hill towards Harry. Many of the families had turned back to their own children but a large number of them continued to stare at Arcturus Black and his escorts.
Harry gave the customary bow when the group reached him, with Greg doing his best to mimic it next to him. Receiving a nod back, they both relaxed.
"It's good to see you again, Mr. Potter. Mr. Goyle, your father would like to speak with you for a little while," Arcturus informed them. Greg's father nodded to his son and the two of them walked off. "Mr. Potter, I would like to introduce you and your sister to Augustus Stevens; World Cup Dueling Champion, sworn defender of House Black, and your newest tutor in combat magic."
A few of the other students around gasped in awe. To have the most famous duelist in the world giving private lessons to first-year students was something unbelievable. Stevens stepped forward and shook hands with Harry and Lyra who were also shocked but not knowing anything about the man, they were not as astounded as everyone around them.
Before any more introductions could be made, Dumbledore, who had been standing at the entrance to the courtyard let off a thunderclap spell from his wand garnering everyone's attention. "Welcome, welcome all to Hogwarts!" he announced with a magically amplified voice. "Please follow your children to their common rooms to get settled in, and then at 1 p.m. come to the Great Hall for lunch."
The large group of adults and children filed into the castle. Harry and Lyra led their group, with the exception of Brandt who had disappeared somewhere, to the tapestry and into the common room. With all the visitors, there was a sign at the first clearing inside the door to proceed straight to arrive at the common room. A large number of tables had been set up around the room while they had been out, so they settled into one of them. Greg and his father were speaking in the corner near the banana trees.
Stevens cast many privacy charms around the table before Arcuturs began to speak. "You won't be attending the events to demonstrate your progress in classes, nor will I be with you either. I will be meeting with some of the other parents as this is a prime opportunity to have discussions with other notable families. We will have lunch together, then meet afterward with the Granger family, and then you will be on your own again until dinner."
Harry and Lyra weren't exactly sure what to say, so they let him continue.
"Because we have some time right now, I want to see your progress in the dueling room. Stevens will provide you with pointers as we go to create a baseline for your studies. I have already heard from all of your teachers about your progress and they all say you are near the top of your classes. The exception being Lyra's transfiguration and charms."
Lyra looked embarrassed, "Everything just catches fire! Now that we're floating feathers in charms, I was given a metal feather to practice with so I don't keep burning them up!"
Stevens chuckled, "We will work on that, I'm going to let you go all out today. I want to see as much fire as you can make."
The group got up and Arcturus motioned for Mr. Goyle to follow, Greg plodded along after him. They reached the dueling room through the maze and entered. Upon seeing the dueling room, Stevens let out a whistle. The group sat down in the first row and Stevens jumped onto the platform.
"Let's see you first Lyra!" he called and Lyra hopped over onto the platform.
"Should I use my wand or staff?" she asked.
"I assume the staff has more power, so let's go with that. Send as much fire as you can at me. I guarantee you won't hurt me."
Lyra was a bit scared and looked to Harry for support.
Harry nodded back and told her, "Imagine he's the tree."
Lyra turned back and fixed a burning glare at Stevens. He took a step back at the determined look on her face and proceeded to cast several flame-freezing charms on his clothing and body. Lyra pulled out both her staff and her wand. Holding her wand in her left hand, she also braced the bottom of her staff against it, then steadied the larger focus with her right. As she focused, waves of heat began to rise off of her body and staff, creating a distortion in the air around her. After nearly thirty seconds of focus, Lyra's hair burst into flame, creating a whip of fire in her braid as it swung around behind her. Stevens's eyes widened and he cast another shield in front of him.
Lyra waved both her staff and wand, together, and called out, "Incendio!"
A vortex of flame lept from her wand and staff at the same time, both swirling together, the flame from her wand having a reddish color while the staff's flame was tinted orange. The fire blanketed Stevens as Greg and his father stared in amazement at the torrent of flame covering him. After about ten seconds of continuous fire, it went out and Lyra dropped to her knees, catching herself before she could fall forward on her face. Stevens was standing there with a big smile on his face, though the floor around him, as well as the seats behind him to either side, were burnt black.
"I think we forgot to activate the dueling wards," Harry mumbled.
"That was impressive, even though you exhausted yourself, I don't think I've ever seen that much power from someone so young," Stevens remarked. Lyra smiled as she pulled herself back to her feet with the help of her staff. Stevens waved his wand and levitated Lyra back to the seating area. "Your turn Harry."
Harry handed a small bag to Lyra. She pulled out a piece of flobberworm jerky and Harry hopped onto the platform.
"What was that?" Stevens asked.
"Flobberworm jerky, I've been making it. We found it helps with magical exhaustion," Harry said with a bit of pride.
Stevens made a bit of a disgusted face, but then looked thoughtful. "Well, if it works for you, great. If it works the way you say, it could make some money for professional duelers. There is a limited amount of time we get to recover between matches which makes people conserve their magic instead of pushing themselves more. No potions are allowed, but food and water are."
Turning his attention to the matter at hand, "Harry, from what I've heard, your skills come from the shield you can make with your staff. Though your wand is made from the same material, correct?" Harry nodded. "Have you tried to make the same shield with your wand?" Harry shook his head. "Then that will be your homework to attempt later. Let's see your staff." Harry pulled it out, "What purpose does the snakeskin have?"
"It belongs to an Usurper," Harry informed Stevens. Seeing his confusion, "It's a large magical snake. I was given the shed to increase the staff's power and to remind me of a promise. The skin will also keep other snakes from attacking me."
Stevens whipped his wand over his head and incanted, "Serpensortia!" A large, muscled snake burst from his wand and landed with a flop on the dueling platform. It started towards Harry but then stopped and tasted the air before turning and fleeing towards the pit around the edge. Harry had heard it call out in fear for its life near the skin of the kingsbane but he kept quiet.
"Interesting, I'd love to see how that worked around magical snakes. Go ahead and cast your shield, Brandt told me that it is vulnerable to elemental spells. I'm going to test it for other weaknesses."
Harry tapped the ground and the bubble spread around him. Stevens threw spells at him, with most of them melting into nothingness on contact. He threw a lot of simple spells that didn't take any strength away from the shield but cast them at different areas to observe how it reacted. Then he conjured a torrent of flame similar to Draco's spell and watched as the shield shrunk but stopped before it collapsed. He observed closely as the shield expanded back to full size. Harry was breathing a little heavier now.
This time he cast a tiny amount of lightning. Most of the spell was diverted around the shield, but a small amount got through and shocked Harry into dropping his staff and the bubble disappeared. "Good, activate the shield again." Harry picked up the staff and tapped it to activate it.
Stevens threw another very short arc of electricity at the shield, aiming for the top. This time, the lighting didn't penetrate at all. He nodded and then conjured a stream of water toward Harry. The stream bounced off the shield, but small amounts did get through near the bottom, and after twenty seconds, his shoes were soaked.
"OK, I've seen what I need right now. Harry, work on getting the shield to work with your wand. Lyra, before you go to charms and transfiguration classes, try to wear out your magic a bit. Don't go full exhaustion, just until you feel like you're running low. That will make you more aware of how little magic you need to cast your spells and hopefully keep you from burning down the castle when turning a beetle into a button. Greg, I hope you learned a lot while watching, I would like your father to test you to see if you share the same skills as he does, and then I will develop a lesson plan for you as well."
While Greg looked at his father curiously, Stevens jumped out of the ring with Harry and was given a few pieces of the flobberworm jerky before they all headed to lunch.
The Great Hall had been expanded to at least three times the size as usual. The house benches were half the size they normally were and there were dozens of smaller tables around the rest of the room. Harry, Lyra, Stevens, and Arcturus took a table near the entrance, but close to the wall.
About halfway through, Harry saw Blaise approaching carrying a large cylindrical case, followed by a woman who was presumably his mother. She had the same skin tone as him and was wearing a very form-fitting robe. The neckline was incredibly low, allowing one to see a remarkable amount of cleavage, the fabric finally came together right at the bottom of her ribs. The robe, if you could even call it that, was all black except for a red patch on her stomach in a V-shape along the sides where her skin was visible. While her face looked kind, Harry and Lyra both saw the eyes of a predator in her.
Arcturus stood in his seat, "Mrs. Zabini, it is lovely to see you again."
The woman allowed Arcturus to kiss the back of her hand before responding, "Actually, it's Miss again. Mr. Fitzpatrick thought he might impress me by going on a solo nundu hunt. Had he been successful, I would have been very impressed."
"I'm sorry for your loss, I'm sure one of these days, you'll meet someone who has more sense and longevity." Arcturus kept his hand on Stevens's shoulder or the man would have also risen to greet the beautiful woman. "How may I help you today?"
"My son, Blaise," she gestured to the boy, "made an arrangement with your niece and Mr. Potter. I wanted to apologize for the time it took me to bring the portrait he promised them. I would like to meet Whispers myself before I leave."
Blaise stepped forward with the portrait in the black bag, "I also apologize for taking this long. We had acquired a few new house elves and they were in the middle of their training."
Harry thanked Blaise, "In about an hour?" he looked to Arcturus who held up two fingers, "Two hours, we can meet you at our common room entrance."
"I look forward to it," Blaise's mother told them, then the two of them walked off.
When they had gone, Lyra asked "Who was that? She felt like a snake, looking at us like snacks."
"You have good instincts, Lyra. She has been married seven times and is likely to take more husbands in the future. Each one has died in unusual situations. The one she mentioned, went hunting for probably the most dangerous magical creature on the planet alone and without training or assistance. The smallest nundu hunt in history consisted of eighty-six wizards. So, why Mr. Fitzpatrick thought he could do it by his lonesome is a mystery." Stevens was still staring at the woman across the room. "Just so it's clear, as long as I'm alive, I forbid you from even entertaining the idea of approaching that woman. Do not do it after I die either," Stevens took a big swallow and nodded slowly.
They finished up lunch and saw Brandt giving them a wave from the door to the antechamber behind the staff table. Hermione and her parents were heading in there with him. Harry and Lyra were a bit anxious, as while they knew what the meeting was supposed to be about, they didn't know how it would turn out with Arcturus meeting along with muggles to do business.
Arcturus and Agustus Stevens led Harry and Lyra to the room behind the staff table. The room seemed to be larger than had been when Harry had been there previously with Draco for the contract. The table there was larger for sure with chairs for all eight of them. Upon entering, Brandt stood immediately followed by Hermione and her parents.
Hermione's father started to introduce himself, but Brandt cut him off with a more formal introduction.
"Mr. Granger, may I present to you Lord Arcturus Black, of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Accompanying him is Augustus Stevens - World Cup Dueling Champion and Sworn Wand of House Black, Lyra Black - Heir Presumptive to House Black, and Harry Potter - Heir Apparent to the Noble House Potter."
Harry and Lyra had learned their respective statuses in their lessons with Brandt. Lyra could have her position changed but was most likely to inherit the Lordship of the house, even if she didn't have much idea what that entailed yet. Harry on the other hand had no other family, so upon reaching his majority he could take up his family's lordship. From what had been explained to him, it mostly consisted of voting things in the government and going to parties. Brandt had told him quite a bit more, but that's all he understood.
"Lord Black," Brandt continued, "I would like to introduce Mr. Lysander Granger, Mrs. Celia Granger, and Miss Hermione Granger."
Arcturus and Augustus sat at the table, with Harry and Lyra following suit. The Grangers shifted nervously and sat down as well, Brandt sat last among them.
Lysander looked to Brandt as if asking permission before speaking up, "I would like to thank you for meeting with us, this is all new to us. Last year we were convinced that Hermione was going to the safest school in Europe, only for her to be attacked by a troll. Then we find out that the 'benevolent' Board of Governors that assisted us in helping with Hermione's recovery were just placating us and providing us with the minimum they could to settle the situation. Now a Wizard Lord is trying to help us without knowing who we are. So I need to know, what's in it for you?"
Sitting next to Lysander, Brandt looked a bit shocked at the man's bluntness. Arcturus took it in stride, "Straight to the point, I can do that. What's in it for me is my legacy. I am dying," the Grangers all gasped. "I will pass beyond the veil in just under three years. If you were thinking of asking, it is not common for wizards to know the date of their own death, mine is a special circumstance. Lyra and Harry here are both fond of your daughter, and I am attempting to strengthen my relationship with them and teach them about making powerful alliances at the same time. Brandt will tell you more about why I believe in an alliance with your family."
The Grangers looked to Brandt as he began, "Lord Black was interested in your family history and put it to me to investigate it as many supposed muggleborns are actually from magical lines that have squibbed out; meaning they used to be magical, but successive generations had no magical children and began to marry other muggles instead of wizards. I am one such example, from the Black family, many generations ago. For your family, I had to search back to the late 1400s, but I was able to find that you do indeed have magical ancestors."
The Grangers, Harry, and Lyra were shocked but didn't know what to say, so they let Brandt continue the story.
"Something that often gets tied to the power of a wizard is their name. You may have noticed that many wizards have a name that fits very closely to their chosen profession or behavior. This is no accident. There is a type of seer that expecting parents will speak with, that will predict a name to empower the natural magics of their child. Alternatively, some families have a traditional naming scheme, like the Blacks, who empower their children with the names of the heavens. Other times a family will feel that naming a child after their ancestors will bring them power, a lot of names in the Black family are also reused over and over, and I am the third of my name. Hermione's name may have been chosen for a character in a William Shakespeare play but from my investigation, it becomes more significant as the last magical ancestor of yours was named Hieromina Velasco, who married a muggle named Eugène Grainger in 1479 near the city of Dijon, France."
"We have family in Dijon," Celia Granger commented with shock from the last revelation.
"Parts of your family have remained in the Dijon area for the last 500 years," Brandt informed them. "Eugène Grainger was a tax collector for the region when Hieromina fled the Spanish Inquisition and ended up in Dijon where she fell in love and got married. Unfortunately, none of her children were magical. For Hieromina's name to resurface in the same family through sheer coincidence may have potential significance."
"The Spanish Inquisition, huh?" Lysander pondered with a smirk. "I did not expect that." Celia grinned as well, for a second, before looking serious again.
Arcturus took over, "You will need to get in touch with the Spanish Ministry because you are likely eligible to inherit something from a thought-to-be-extinct magical family. The Spanish have kept very good records from the various inquisitions and their treaties with the Goblins do not allow those little monsters from confiscating abandoned vaults until 1,000 years have passed without a legal claimant."
Hermione spoke up for the first time, "So what am I then? Some kind of reincarnation? I've read about them in Buddhist teachings, and it says that the enlightened mind can be rebirthed. Does that mean that being magical is the same as being enlightened? Did I have other forms before being me?" She had started speaking slowly but picked up speed as thoughts were coming to her.
Arcturus broke her out of her stream of vocalized thoughts, "You are not a reincarnation. Wizards have proof of the existence of a soul but only know that it goes somewhere else after death unless it is completely destroyed or chooses to stay behind. There aren't any parallels to the full scope of this in a particular muggle religion." Hermione seemed to calm down a bit, so Arcturus continued, "Magic leaves an imprint on the world and tends to stay with similar sources of magic - family, and blood as the prime example. Many families will have hereditary traits in their magic. Blood carries magic, but it is not a guarantee that certain traits will be passed on. Your name comes from your magic, what this means for you is yet to be seen."
"So you are helping us because of Hermione's magical ancestry?" Lysander asked.
"I would have found another reason if I hadn't been fortunate to find this one," Arcturus responded. "Magic is the most important thing to our family and most others. I am under the impression that many muggle families treasure intelligence, artistic, or physical aptitude as being the most important thing to them. As a result, muggleborn children are treated the same as those without magic by most of our society. By declaring you are an awakened squib line, your status has been elevated to one that is to be celebrated instead of scorned."
"Forgive my bluntness, but your society sounds like it is centuries behind modern society," Lysander stated grimly. His wife shared his expression.
"This is the way things are but change always comes eventually. I am too old to change anything myself, I leave that for the next generation." He inclined his head towards the children in the room. "I need to wrap this up and take my medication. What I am offering your family now is a chance to correct the insult that the Hogwarts Board of Governors gave to you after your daughter's injury." He pulled out a parchment with gold trim around the edges and passed it to Lysander. "This shop in Leeds creates high-end magical prosthetics. If you take this to them, they will create for your daughter something that will enable her to be the best witch she can become. It will not be flesh but it will be just as good, with a few extra features as well."
With that said, Arcturus stood, Augustus alongside him, and reached across the table to shake Lysander's hand. With minor reluctance, Lysander clasped his hand and shook it. Arcturus turned and exited the room with Augustus following close to his side.
Lysander slumped back down into his chair, "Well…"
His wife's face mirrored his, "Yeah…"
Hermione's mind was running a mile a minute, "So I'm Spanish?" She removed her cloak, revealing her prosthetic arm. Looking it up and down, made her realize the quality of it was low. She had been amazed that it worked and she had feeling in her arm when they implanted it, but now she could see all the imperfections in the wood and metal. Magic didn't have imperfections like that, only someone without skill in their craft would create something with these kinds of mistakes.
She looked up to Brandt, "Will I have to change my name?"
Her parents looked to him as well, "I am uncertain, in this country, such a thing would only be necessary if you were taking up a hereditary seat in the government. The Spanish ministry seats are done through an electoral process, so even if you have a hereditary title, probably not."
Celia turned to Harry and Lyra who had been quiet the whole time, "This whole thing just keeps getting crazier by the minute. Hermione has written a whole book to us telling us about the two of you," Hermione blushed with embarrassment. "And we also find out that you're that oaf Dursley's nephew? At least you don't take after him. Hermione didn't tell us why we haven't seen you since that first party."
"I was sent away," Harry responded meekly. "I met Lyra during that time."
"I read about the trial of Lucius Malfoy," Lysander said with a serious tone. "I can connect the dots, what I want to know is why Dursley isn't in prison."
Harry went on guard, they knew. His throat went dry and he felt adrenaline in his veins as his feet pushed him toward the exit. Lyra sensed his panic and grabbed his arm, holding him in place. Hermione just looked confused at her father's statement.
"Harry was told what might happen," Lyra was still holding Harry's arm tightly as she spoke. "Harry didn't want people to go after them, wizards would try to kill his uncle if they knew."
Lysander sighed but his face remained grim, "They don't need to know, the police can send them to prison without your people knowing. He shouldn't be walking free."
Hermione started looking back and forth between her father, Lyra, and Harry, and then her eyes widened in realization, "No!" she gasped.
"They can't go to jail," Harry said with fear in his eyes, "they would tell people." Looking at Hermione pleadingly, "Please don't tell anyone."
Hermione had tears in her eyes but nodded, "I won't tell."
Lysander nodded as well, "I won't reveal your secrets either, but I can't guarantee I won't punch Dursley in the face the next time I see him."
Celia also agreed but stipulated she might give Petunia a piece of her mind as well.
Brandt walked Lysander and Celia out of the room while Hermione stayed behind, "I'm so sorry for what happened to both of you. Something else must have happened for you to have been wherever you met Whispers and learned magic, can you tell me about it sometime?"
Harry looked to Lyra and back to Hermione, "Sure, sometime."
On the way back to the common room, Lyra stopped Harry outside the great hall and pulled him down to whisper, "Alastor is standing in the corner over there with someone else."
Harry couldn't make out the details like Lyra but he could see some of the signs of disillusionment in the corner. They had often seen Tristan try to sneak up on Alastor when they were on the island but never got the chance to do so themselves. So they pulled out their wands and were hit immediately by two body bind spells. Their arms snapped to their sides and fell over on their sides.
Alastor and a girl younger than Tristan appeared next to them. She was wearing the same red jacket with the trainee symbols that Tristan had when they returned to England. She was pale and had straight brown hair down to her shoulders with amber eyes. She stood leaning on the side of one of her feet, which looked like she could fall over at a moment's notice.
"You just hexed Harry Potter!" the girl exclaimed.
"You were trying to tag me, weren't you kids?" Alastor walked up and leaned over the fallen children. All they could do was blink at him as their entire bodies were stiff.
After waving his wand, they could move again and Lyra giggled a bit, "We saw Tristan try to do it all the time, and Kirkland told us it was a big deal to catch you while disillusioned."
"True, but you're still at least eight years away from being able to pull it off. You can keep trying if you want, though you'll just end up on the floor each time."
Harry thought this might be the perfect time to try again but as he raised his wand, his arms snapped to his sides again and he fell over. Lyra giggled again, and as he lay on the floor, he knew would never get tired of hearing her laugh.
"Good try lad, just remember, I've had forty-nine trainees before now, and three times as many dark wizards try to get me." He waved his wand again to let Harry up. "I would like to introduce both of you to my newest victim, trainee number fifty, Nymphadora Tonks."
"Wotcher Harry, Lyra. Just call me Tonks, please. Funny thing, Lyra, we're actually family," Tonks said gleefully. "I'm your cousin."
"All the old families are related," Alastor grumbled a bit, "but you two are a bit closer."
"My mum is your mum's sister," Tonks informed them.
Lyra immediately went on guard, Harry started to step between them with his staff flying out of his pouch to point directly at Tonks's throat.
Tonks raised her empty hands, "My mom's cool, I'm not going to hurt you." By now, Lyra had her staff out as well, the black hair coiled around it shifting back and forth like it was getting ready to jump off the wood. "I mean it! My mom was kicked out of the family, she doesn't like them much either."
"Harry, take your staff away from my trainee," Alastor barked, "I wouldn't have brought her if she was a threat. I will deal with her if she causes a problem."
Harry slowly raised the antler of his staff but didn't put it away, and the black hair on Lyra's staff stopped moving.
"The first time I met Draco, I had to show him he was a lesser snake and I stabbed him in the shoulder. I don't trust his family," Harry warned her.
"Wicked staff, by the way, must have been pretty painful for little Drakey to get stabbed by it," Tonks wiggled one of her fingers like she wanted to touch the tip of the antler, and as she stared, her hair started to get curly.
Lyra asked, "What's up with your hair? It's getting curly."
"Oh bugger," she moaned. Alastor looked over at her to see it as well.
"Yep, she got you," Alastor said. "Two stings coming right up," he pulled out his wand and sent two stinging hexes at her legs. When they hit, all of her hair went frizzy for a moment before going straight again.
"Now I'm really confused," Lyra stepped from behind Harry and looked at Tonks even closer. "Your hair looked strange when it was straight, but when it went curly, it looked less strange."
"You say it looked strange when it was straight?" Alastor asked with curiosity, looking at Tonks he told her, "Make it black and straight." Tonks half-squinted and her hair turned black. "What does it look like now?" he asked Lyra.
Lyra looked closer, "It still feels weird, but closer to normal than it was when it was brown."
"Does it look like when you see disillusioned people?" Alastor asked.
"I guess?" Lyra said. "I guess it looks like something is hidden but I can't tell what."
Alastor nodded to Tonks who said, "I'm a Metamorphmagus, which means I can change how I look by thinking about it. When I'm off the clock, I like to look like this," her whole face changed; her skin darkened, face flattened so her cheekbones didn't stand out, her nose became almost a button, the hair on her head shortened until it almost stood up almost straight and turned pink, then her eyes turned a deep violet. "That's better," she sighed.
"Why don't you look all the way normal then?" Lyra asked.
"That is a question for another time," Moody told them, with a note of finality. "We're going to be with the two of you for the rest of the day. Do not worry about Auror Tonks, she is not Narcissa and she is not Draco. We will stay out of your way." He reached over and tapped the girl on the head with his wand, letting her fade away, then did the same thing to himself.
Knowing they were going to meet Blaise and his mother, they kept their staves out, wary of the woman with so many dead husbands as they walked to the common room. Blaise was waiting there with his mother, he was in the middle of a conversation with her as they approached which ended when they saw the two of them.
"Thank you for waiting for us," Harry told them. "Are you ready to go in?"
Blaise stepped forward, "Yes, but we missed introductions before, I would like to introduce you to my mother, Alessandra Zabini."
Transferring his staff to his left hand, Harry shook Alessandra's hand. The touch of her hand was a contradiction in itself. It was soft as silk, but her fingers felt like they might pierce through stone. "You may be aware, I am Harry Potter," he said with a smile. "I can present to you my sister, Lyra Black." Harry could see a similar reaction on Lyra's face as she shook the woman's hand.
Turning to the tapestry, Lyra placed her hand on it and spoke the password, allowing them entry. There were tables set up all over the common room and they could see many of their house-mates speaking with their parents. Lyra could see Alastor and Tonks move off to the sides of the room to watch them. Lyra ran off to find Whispers while Harry sat at a table with Blaise and his mother.
"Would either of you like something to drink?" Harry asked. "We have plenty of fresh fruits."
Alessandra looked around at all of the trees, "Are those mangos? If so, I would definitely like a glass."
Harry was about to get up when Astray stepped out from under the table with a tray holding three glasses of mango juice. Harry smiled and took them as he ducked back under and vanished. Blaise and his mother looked startled at the appearance of the Urisk. Blaise looked under the table to see where he went but found nothing.
Placing the drinks on the table, Harry explained, "That was Astray, he works in the common room and on the grounds of Hogwarts because the house elves don't like to deal with dirt."
Alessandra took a sip of the juice and let out a sigh of contentment. Harry didn't notice, but her sigh seemed to attract the attention of many of the men in the room. "This is delicious, I have had mangos before, but never this good. What's the secret to the flavor?"
Lyra came back right then carrying an invisible Whispers. "The secret is him," Harry pointed to the nothing in Lyra's arms. "We learned about how to make fertilizer in Herbology, and I have a room where I make demiguise fertilizer along with all the compostable material from our house."
Alessandra made a bit of a sour face at hearing about the fertilizer before Whispers took the opportunity to jump out of Lyra's arms and turn visible in mid-air, Harry saw it coming and caught him easily, though it shocked Blaise and his mother. Harry turned his little brother to the two of them and said, "Whispers, I need to introduce you to Blaise and Alessandra Zabini."
Whispers walked across the table and extended his hand, "Whisssperrs, goood tooo meeet yoo." Then he looked to each of them in turn, "B-Laze... Al-san-ra."
Blaise shook the little guy's hand, then his mother did as well.
"I have to admit, I was skeptical about a talking demiguise," Alessandra admitted. "However, I have been wrong a few times before." She nodded to Blaise who pulled the case they had seen him with earlier out of a pouch on his waist. She took it from him and passed it to Harry. "This is a portrait of Liborio Montessi. When he was alive, he worked with various members of the Italian aristocracy teaching their children to speak properly in Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Spanish, and English. I inherited the house he was in and I've been using him to teach our house elves. I am very curious to see if he can work with Whispers."
"How long does it take for the house elves to learn?" Lyra asked.
"To satisfy me, around two months, sometimes a little less. Though that is also alongside their regular work, I can guess that it will take significantly longer for a creature, even one as smart as Whispers."
Following the conversation, Whispers spoke up, "Whiissperss smart, Whissspeerrs learn."
Alessandra smiled, "I'm sure you will Whispers, when you think you're done tell Lyra and I'll come back." Turning to her son, "Please escort me to your dormitory, I would like to see if the accommodations compare to this." Picking up her glass of juice, "I'm guessing there is no mango juice there though."
Blaise shook his head. Lyra and Harry thanked Blaise and his mother for the portrait and the two of them headed out to Blaise's dorm. Harry passed his remaining juice to Lyra who drank it quickly. They took the portrait to Harry's room and placed it on the wall. There was a man in a tall black hat and a white coat with a high collar sleeping in the frame.
"Hello?" Lyra asked him but he stayed sleeping. She knocked on the frame but the man continued to snore. Harry pulled out his wand and tapped the frame, causing the man to snort and open his eyes.
He looked at both of them and smiled, "While the two of you are much less gorgeous than Madam Zabini, it will be nice to teach children again instead of the gremlins she has been giving me. I am Liborio Montessi; linguist, speechwriter, vocal coach, scholar, and teacher of eloquence for the greatest that Italy has to offer."
Harry smiled back, "Mr. Montessi, My name is Harry Potter, and this is my sister Lyra Black. You are currently in Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry." The man's eyebrows rose at the mention of Hogwarts. "I apologize, but you weren't brought here for us, but for our brother Whispers." Lyra motioned to Whispers who was lying on the bed, he jumped up and bounded to the picture frame.
"You would have me teach a creature? I have never seen such a monster in my life! Such an insult, to be reduced to a minder for a monkey, I would ask you to return me to Madam Zabini this instant, so I can resume my work teaching the gremlins in her home."
Lyra got angry, "Don't talk to my brother like that! We need you to teach him to speak properly. Whispers, introduce yourself."
Whispers looked strangely at the portrait, but still held out his hand hesitantly and said, "Whissspers, I leeern, I un-der-stand."
"Interesting," the portrait of Montessi mused. "The creature can speak, this would be quite a challenge to accomplish, teaching a monkey to talk. I will need to speak with him every day, though I do want something else."
"You won't get anything if you keep insulting our brother," Harry told the portrait. "What do you want?"
"You said we are at Hogwarts, I assume there are many children here, yes?" Harry and Lyra nodded. "Good, school and children mean homework, send them to me and I will assist with their writing. Also, any history homework from 1850 to 1937, I may be able to assist with it."
The portrait was offering them help with their homework as a favor to him? Harry and Lyra didn't think anyone would have a problem with that.
"We will place you in the common room and tell the other students here to come to you for help," Harry told Montessi.
"Excellent! My days of teaching the brightest young minds have returned again!"
Harry and Lyra left Montessi's portrait in one of the study niches of the common room with a note explaining who he was next to him. Whispers stayed with him as well to try to start his lessons. On the way out of the common room, they ran into Colin and his parents.
They spoke quickly about Colin's darkroom and his first animated photos that would be developed soon. Colin had just finished learning the developing potions. He had negotiated with the Slytherin students tutoring him to develop fifteen animated photos for their help teaching him. They thought they were getting the better end of the deal because the most expensive element of the fixer potion contained firebird feather ash which was incredibly difficult to get. Unless you were Lyra Black who wore the feathers in her hair and would regularly burn a feather in their common room.
Colin was going to make a large batch at the next club meeting to develop nearly all of the pictures he had taken since the year began. Developing that many pictures would take at least a month. He wanted to bring as many pictures home for the winter break as possible because his brother Dennis wasn't allowed to come today.
Everyone else was wandering the school with their parents, while Harry and Lyra walked alone. As they walked down a particularly empty corridor, they saw Fred and George duck out of a secret passage and scramble to open a door that was just pretending to be a door. Seeing Harry and Lyra, they ran quickly over to them, their faces in full panic mode.
"Hide us!" said Thing #1.
"Our Mum is going to kill us!" yelped Thing #2.
Lyra pulled out her staff and poked each of them in the stomach with the top of it. The silver hair wrapped around the wood glowed for a moment each time as they were turned invisible. Just in time too, as an older woman with the same red hair burst out from the passage they had come from.
Turning to Harry and Lyra, "Where did those two go?"
Harry just pointed in the direction she had been going and she started to run off, before skidding to a halt next to Harry. He heard a tiny intake of breath from the twins behind them.
"Harry! It's so nice to finally meet you," the woman said. "I've heard so much about you from my Ginny and Ron. I'm Molly Weasley by the way and, Ginny would love it if you could come by our place over the summer sometime." That surprised Harry as Ginny hadn't said anything to him.
"Don't be shy, the Weasleys are old friends of your family. We fought together in the war against You-Know-Who. It was such a sad day when they passed, we even asked Dumbledore to take care of you, but he assured us that you were in a safe place."
"What did the Headmaster have to do with where Harry was?" Lyra asked.
Molly turned to Lyra, noticing her for the first time, "Miss... Black is it?" she gave Lyra a grim look. "You might not know this but your family fought with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. The only person who was trying to keep Harry safe was Albus Dumbledore. One of your cousins even betrayed us and got poor James and Lily killed. The last place he should be is with your blood."
Harry was getting annoyed with this woman's tone, "Don't speak to my sister like that," Harry said firmly. He could feel his staff responding to his thoughts like it wanted to jump out of his pouch as it had done with Tonks. "She is my family, and Uncle Arcturus did not fight with Voldemort."
Molly gasped at the mention of the Dark Lord's name, luckily hers was loud enough to cover for the gasps of the twins pressed up against the wall.
"Potters and Blacks should not be together. You should ask your 'Uncle Arcturus' about the man who betrayed your family." With that said, she turned and ran off to return to searching for the twins.
After she turned the corner there was a large sigh of relief from the twins behind them. Lyra tapped her staff twice on the ground and the twins reappeared. Though the staff also revealed Tonks, who was just about to grab them. Abandoning the pretense of stealth, she snapped off two body bind spells making them fall to the floor.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," Tonks smiled, but her grin grew up the sides of her face towards her ears, showing more teeth than were supposed to be in a human's mouth. Looks of terror spread across the faces of the twins as they lay helpless on the floor. "I've got something for the two of you," she reached into a small compartment on her belt and pulled out a large roll of paper. "Harry, you should see this too. After all, you are the Boy-Who-Bludgeoned."
Tonks cast a spell on the paper to unroll it and stick it to the wall. It was a very detailed sketch of their year-mates standing in quidditch bleachers. With a tap of her wand, it started to move. As soon as a bludger crashed into the benches, they were reminded of the altercation. They watched as all the students scrambled for safety as the steel ball wrought havoc on the wooden bleacher seats. Finally, Arthur shoved Lyra out of the way of the ball, breaking his arm. Harry could hear the breaking bone in his memory. The sketch of him pulled out his staff and swung it at the bludger when it returned to finish the job. There was a flash in the sketch as the viewpoint of the animation shifted to show the ball shooting like a meteor into the pitch, burying itself in the ground. Then it started to repeat itself.
Tonks pulled the paper off the wall and unfroze the twins. She handed the roll to them and said, "I assume you will keep your lips sealed about what you know, Charlie is going to be in for a world of hurt when I see him, for his part in this. I'll be watching you." With that, she walked backward, keeping her eyes on the gingers sitting on the floor, then tapped herself with her wand, and vanished. Lyra could see her walking down the hall to where Alastor was observing everything.
The twins stared at the spot where she vanished and then turned back to Harry and Lyra.
"Thanks for the help hiding from mum," said the first one.
"Your quidditch exhibit will be up in an hour," said the other.
"To the museum!" they yelled together and ran off.
Both Harry and Lyra stood there in shock at everything that just transpired.
Lyra ended up speaking first, "We need to talk to Uncle Arcturus about this other cousin of mine."
Harry thought about what Molly had said as well but he realized something else. "I need to speak to Dumbledore, he was the one who put me with the Dursleys."
Author's Note: Harry and Lyra didn't actually forget about the first game of quidditch, I did. I just didn't want to go back and write half a chapter on the first game. Since Draco isn't on the team, there aren't new Nimbus 2001s, and Harry isn't going to break his arm, I didn't see much point in going back and adding it, so I went back and just wrote that they missed it.
Author's Note 2: I pulled the nundu hunt record from one of my Top 5 Fics - Harry Potter and The Other Path. That has been an inspiration to me in many ways, but I always recommend it as a good first read for people to start HP fan fiction before getting into serious fics. It has just the right amount of OCs, twists, and changes to canon events and personalities to make it an ideal first read.
Author's Note 3: I'll probably make references to it later, so here are the full instructions that I created for the development potions for animated photos. I'm still working on one for portraits and another for the specialized process for the Hogwarts headmaster portraits.
The development process is actually three potions: the developer, the fixer, and the stop bath. One of the most important elements is the blood from a creature I've created called a Thought Leech. It's about the size of a flobberworm and can wipe out short-term memory from people's minds. Here are the full directions -
Developing Potion:
Extract one cup of blood from a Thought Leech
Slice silver into pieces the size of a thumbnail clipping, add five pieces to a standard-sized pewter cauldron
Add room temperature water to the cauldron and stir once clockwise
Add a cup of Thought Leech blood, stir three times clockwise
Remove all pieces of silver from the potion using a slotted steel or copper spoon
Silver pieces can be reused up to eight times (Total 9)
Wave your wand over the potion once for each batch being prepared
Stop Bath
Prepare in a standard-sized gold-plated cauldron
Fill with fresh water
Add Bundimun Secretion in small amounts
Stir using an animation charm counter-clockwise twice after every addition of the bundimun secretion
Test the pH of the potion, and stop adding bundimun secretion when the potion reaches 3.5-2.5
Fixer Potion
Start with a base of fresh water in a standard-sized pewter cauldron
Raise temperature to a simmer
Add 3 mermaid scales
Sprinkle 2 pinches of firebird feather ash
Stir four times clockwise
Let the potion stew for three minutes for each batch being prepared