The Registry
Nearly the entire castle emptied of students after breakfast, many of them pulling trunks with them down to the waiting carriages. Harry had his trunk, shrunken to the size of a briefcase slung across his shoulder on its strap. However, before he reached the carriages, he stopped. All of the thestrals pulling them had turned to look at him, the closest one had even started to unfurl its wings.
Harry slowly backed away as some of the students who could see them noticed Harry was causing the disturbance.
"I guess I'll walk," he said to Lyra, a little depressed that he couldn't get anywhere near the magical horses.
"Don't worry, I'll join you," she told him.
"No, it's ok. Get a carriage with Lavender and Parvati, you won't see them for a while."
"Then Whispers is going with you," she put down her trunk and opened it to the mango tree calling the Hidden out. "Go with Harry, he needs some company."
Whispers jumped onto Harry's back to avoid walking on the snowy ground and despite the added weight, he let him do it and started walking down the shoveled path.
When he was about halfway to the train station, he heard someone call out from behind him, "Hey, Potter!" it was Draco, leaning out of a carriage about a hundred feet behind him. "Get off the path! The thestrals won't move with you there!"
Draco was right, the carriages were all stopped and they weren't advancing. The skeletal horse at the front of the line was scratching the ground in front of it, almost like a challenge to him. So pulling the strap on his briefcase/trunk a bit tighter, he trudged into the snow to the side of the path and waited until the carriages had passed him by before getting back on the road and continuing to walk. He had to do that three more times as the carriages returned to get more students and then made another trip.
Lyra was waiting for him outside the station, and they walked in together to the waiting train. Just like on the way to school, there was a contingent of Aurors there to guard the train, and after looking around, they spotted Tristan having a conversation with Brandt.
The two children ran to Tristan and gave him a big hug which he returned. When they were done, Harry turned to Brandt and gave him a kind of awkward handshake.
"You'll probably be seeing a lot of me for the next year or so," Tristan told them. "They are putting the younger Aurors on train duty for the Hogwarts kids. Also, this summer, I'm going to take a short vacation back in the Philippines, so I'll make sure to visit the island now and then."
Both Harry and Lyra were delighted to hear it.
"Maybe you can come to visit the hoohoos again?" Lyra smiled.
"Probably not…" Tristan said while gritting his teeth. "Once, might have been enough." Turning to Brandt, "When you go, make sure to be ready to apparate out if the animals get hostile."
Brandt nodded, "I'll be sure to do that, from the picture that these kids have given me, it sounds like this island is quite dangerous."
"The demiguises can be cuddly and fun but the protectors are serious business."
Brandt looked like he was starting to regret the decision to visit the island, "Durmstrang was a dangerous place but not as bad as this island the way you describe it. I'll just stick close to Harry and the Scamanders while I'm there."
"Good decision, you don't want to end up like the warders that ignored Harry before."
"Harry mentioned some of the worst injuries they got, I will make sure to follow their lead."
"I'm going to get on the train. It was good to see the two of you, and good to meet you, Brandt." The two of them exchanged a quick handshake and he headed back to the train.
"So what are you doing here?" Harry asked.
"I'll be meeting you again in London, you will be staying at a Black property near Diagon Alley for the next two nights. Until the party, we will do your holiday shopping, and we will meet with Arcturus briefly. Also, Lyra, on the day of the party we will meet with your cousin, Nymphadora Tonks, who you met at Dumbledore's party, she will help you get ready and with your hair." Seeing a little apprehension on her face, "Arcturus asked for her personally, she is not a threat, I'm sure the two of you will get along."
Harry whispered something into her ear and passed her Whispers from his shoulders. "What about me?" he asked Brandt.
"I will be assisting you, of course. The vest from the shed you gave me is prepared and since it was slightly transparent, we laid it on top of dyed mooncalf leather to give it some weight. It ended up being dark green in color. I hope that matches anything you've already picked out."
Harry nodded, "It does." Then his eyes widened, "Everything is back in the wardrobe!"
"Don't worry," Brandt assured them, "that's the other reason I'm here, to collect the wardrobe."
Harry and Lyra breathed a sigh of relief.
Brandt pulled a shrunken broom out of his bag and shook it to bring it to full size. "I'm going to head up to the castle now, go spend some time with your friends before you get back to London. I'll meet you at the station."
He hopped on the broom and took off as Harry, Lyra, and Whispers boarded the train. They had barely entered the first car when Tracey popped her head out of a compartment.
"Harry, Lyra! In here!" she called them.
As they entered, it was just Tracey and Hannah, no other Slytherins, so they sat down with the girls.
"You two are going to love the party," Hannah told them. "Since I started Hogwarts last year, we didn't have any muggles there, so everyone is a bit more relaxed. My parents hold the local society party in the summertime and make full use of the grounds outside with the warmer weather."
"I remember the one I went to, it was the best part of my year," Harry told her.
"What do you do at the parties?" Lyra asked. "All Harry told me was there was food and people to talk to, and something about a stuffed unicorn."
"You remember Roffle?" Hannah asked.
"Roffle?" Harry was confused.
"I named my stuffed unicorn. His name is Roffle."
"Yeah, I used to go home from school by that pub with the unicorn on it but my cousin never could see it, he just told me it was a horse. So I didn't know what it was until I saw your stuffed animal."
"We're going to see the unicorns the weekend after the break!" Lyra said excitedly.
"Hannah's dad took us to see some a few years ago, they were amazing. I don't know how to describe them, they just seem… so… perfect… I can't figure out any other way to say it. We still haven't got our turn to go to the ones in the forest though. They have a baby right now who is golden in color for another two years before it turns white."
Tracey's eyes were glittering as she described them. Harry wanted to feel that way. He reached into his pouch and started to touch the tip of the Lampong antler that was there.
"I'm just afraid they won't like me, like thestrals," he said glumly.
"That was weird," Tracey commented as she had been there. "I couldn't see them but I could see how you reacted. What did Mr. Scamander say about it?"
"Just that he'd look into it, he hasn't found out anything yet."
They continued to chat for a bit as the train moved out of the station, talking about classes, the party, and various things they had found around the castle during their explorations. About ten minutes into the ride, they got a knock on the door and Lavender opened it without waiting for a response.
"Hey, Harry! Can I borrow Lyra for a bit?"
Harry just shrugged, not being sure why she was asking his permission. He looked at Lyra who smiled and grabbed Whispers to go along with. He had been sitting quietly and looking at one of his children's books with thick pages since the start of the ride.
Lyra, Lavender, and Whispers walked to another car where they joined Parvati and her sister Padma. Lyra and Whispers were quickly introduced, and Padma returned to a book she had been reading before they came in. Whispers slowly crept up to Padma's side, spooking her for a moment, but then she relaxed as he just stared at her book along with her.
Parvati and Lavender pulled out a few magazines they had shown Lyra before - Teen Witch Weekly. It wasn't actually a weekly periodical and came out every two weeks. It was filled with various fashion advice and pictures of young witches and wizards involved in various activities around Europe. Lyra liked all the hairstyles in the pictures and some articles about a man named Guryon who toured the world and found various extremely dangerous exotic animals. However, she didn't understand what her friends liked about all the quidditch stars and dueling champions the magazine featured… They didn't even like those sports.
Suddenly, Whispers's eyes glowed and then he vanished. Lyra went on edge as well as her friends as they knew something was about to happen. Padma picked up on the energy as well.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Something that's about to happen spooked Whispers," Lyra said as she looked out the window.
"How does that work?" Padma asked. "Does he really see the future? Has anyone ever figured out how they do it?"
Before she could say anything the door opened and Vincent Crabbe walked in, sitting down across from Lyra, between Padma and Lavender. None of the girls moved as he just stared at Lyra and flexed his fingers.
"You need to watch yourself," he said coolly. Just as Lyra was about to say something, he continued, "Draco seems to think that Harry is keeping you away from your family but I know better. It doesn't matter, because things are going to be changing soon and you'll get one last chance to do the right thing."
Lyra's hair was starting to spark, "They aren't my family," she said in the same cold voice he was using.
"You shouldn't have a choice in this, just remember you were given one. Next time, there will be consequences, you can run to Harry for him to do something but..." he reached over to grab Lavender by the back of the neck, causing her to cry out, "the consequences will not be just for you or Harry."
Before he could say anything else, and right as the sparks intensified from Lyra's hair, Whispers jumped down from the luggage rack and turned visible while hitting Vincent in the face. He looked scary with his eyes glowing blue and screeching as he hit the boy.
Vincent tried to grab at the Hidden, but every time he reached, Whispers was somewhere else, clawing and hitting at the boy. The three older girls were screaming and Padma was hitting Vincent with her book. Vincent managed to pull out his wand, but he couldn't get a spell off as Whispers bit into his hand holding the wand.
With Whispers out of the way, just for a moment, Lyra's staff came crashing down on his head, knocking him out cold. Just at that moment, two Aurors wrenched open the door of the compartment, wands drawn, and immediately cast a mass disarming charm.
Vincent's wand flew out of his hand and towards the two Aurors. Lyra's staff and Padma's book were also wrenched from their grips, unfortunately, the aurors were not ready for the larger objects as the staff hit one of them in the face before they could grab hold of it. Lavender was crying, while Padma and Parvati were both talking a mile a minute to explain what happened. Whispers was standing on top of Vincent's passed-out body and growling at the Aurors.
The Auror who wasn't fixing his bloody nose from the staff to the face, cast a silencing charm on all the girls. "You, Ravenclaw, tell me what happened here." He canceled the charm on Padma.
Lyra pulled Whispers onto her lap as he continued to growl and Padma began to explain the situation. "He came into our compartment and started threatening Lyra, then he grabbed Lavender here and the demiguise attacked him. He started to try to curse us and Lyra knocked him out with her staff."
The second Auror had a handkerchief stopping the blood on his nose and said, "Tat taff urts a lot."
"We will take him to the Auror car to get medical treatment, you can expect a visit from another auror over your winter break to follow up on this incident. Senior Auror Brasas here will take down your names while I deal with this boy."
He levitated Vincent down the hallway while the second Auror healed his nose and then took down their names. Lyra also took the time to wipe all the blood that she could from Whispers's face and teeth.
After the Auror had left, Lyra told the others, "I need to get back to Harry," and she took Whispers back to where Harry, Hannah, and Tracey were.
When she got back, Blaise and Daphne had also joined them. Harry took one look at her and at Whispers who still had some blood on his face and jumped to his feet, his staff appearing near instantly in his hand, "What happened?"
"It's over now but we need to make another amulet for Vincent this time," Lyra told him. Then she launched into the story, and Harry's face got more and more furious as she went on. The shock on the others' faces grew as well at Vincent's audacity and actions.
Ignoring that there were others in the room, Harry pulled out a lump of clay and placed a string through the top, while Lyra got out two small hoohoo feathers and a larger one. She pressed the feathers in the handkerchief to soak up as much blood as she could, though there wasn't much, to begin with.
Placing the feathers on top of the lump of clay, Lyra held it out to Whispers and signed, [Bite here].
As Whispers bit down, pushing feathers into the lump of clay, Lyra activated the feathers for a second with her staff. Once they were mostly inside the clay, Harry froze the larger feather and the clay in the air, as there was nowhere to stick the feather in the ground and Lyra lit up the feather to heat the clay.
When it was dry, Lyra took the amulet and placed it in her trunk, and sat back down.
Blaise furrowed his brow at both of them, and said, "That was a protection ward, right? Specifically for Vincent?"
Lyra nodded, "Our tutor taught me how to do it before Hogwarts."
Harry looked at the other girls, their faces showed different things. Hannah looked a little disturbed by what they did, Tracey was interested, and Daphne had on her emotionless mask which meant she was hiding whatever her real reaction was.
"Does that kind of magic require a staff?" Blaise asked.
"That's how we learned it," Lyra said with a shrug.
Harry reached into his pouch and pulled out some flobberworm jerky and passed it to Whispers as he said, "You did good, protecting Lyra." He stroked the Hidden's head, then turned to everyone else, "Does anyone else want some? I've got Mango, lemon, lime, and orange."
Hannah refused, Tracey and Daphne tried the lemon, while Blaise tried the orange. None of them hated it and Blaise seemed to be pleasantly surprised with his. As they finished, they saw Whispers's eyes glow, but he didn't vanish. A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door, and it was opened by Tristan.
"Hey Lyra, I heard there was a problem and wanted to check if you were OK."
She nodded, "That boy was the only one who was hurt. Whispers protected us."
"Good job, little guy," he reached down to ruffle his hair. "Harry, I wanted to talk to you about something else. Do you remember meeting Ginny's brother, Charlie, the one that works with dragons?" Harry nodded. "I told him about your hair potion and he thought that a bunch of the guys he works with would love something that could regrow hair from magical burns. If you can get a couple of samples for me, that could be a good place for you to sell the stuff in the future."
Harry nodded, if he was going to make any money, this would probably be the best place to start. It seemed like this would be a good place to start. Then a thought occurred to him.
"Do you think he's let me see some dragons?" he asked.
Tristan smiled, "Yeah, I bet he would. I'll write to him and see if he can arrange something for the summer."
Tristan checked again with Lyra to make sure she was OK and then left the compartment.
"You're going to get to go to a dragon reserve!" Tracey congratulated him.
"What's this potion he was talking about," Blaise asked.
Harry launched into the story of brewing the potion for Tristan when a hoohoo burned his hair off, then again for Olivander when he burned the man's hair off.
"So he doesn't have that horrible hair like Madam Hooch anymore?" Daphne asked.
"No, it was long as yours, but with a lighter fluff to it," Lyra told him.
"Would the potion work just to make someone's hair longer than it already is?" Hannah asked as she played with her hair.
Harry thought about it, "I think so? Maybe?" he guessed. "Part of the potion was applying it directly on the scalp, I'm not sure how it would work with someone who didn't have all of their hair burned off."
The conversation turned to potions and their exams. The second years seem to have a lot more interesting potions, plus they had started working with poisons and more specific antidotes than the ones Harry and Lyra were going to learn the next term.
Later, Harry and Lyra went to check on Lavender's car to make sure they were all ok. Lavender looked a little rattled but seemed to compensate by telling Lyra about how handsome the Senior Auror who came and interviewed them. Whispers played with Parvati's hair while Harry watched as larger buildings in the towns they were passing began showing up outside the window.
Just as he noticed this, there was a knock on their door as someone called out, "Thirty minutes till arrival!"
"But we've only been on the train for a couple of hours! The ride to Hogwarts was about ten!" Harry remarked.
Padma put down the book she was reading, "It's magic. The first train and the last train each year take about ten hours, presumably so you can spend more time with your friends. However, the train on the break is a little under three, so you can spend more time with your family. Remember everyone's parents arrived at school at 11 a.m.? Did you think they got on the train in the middle of the night?" Then she went back to her book.
The other two girls nodded but didn't add anything to the explanation. Lyra thought this was a great reason to use the train. She had thought on their first ride over that a train wasn't the best way to get there if wizards had brooms, floo, and portkeys. Now it made sense, the train was to put all the children together and have fun as you couldn't do that with the other methods of transportation. If they could modify the time of the journey, even better. They were able to make sure the train arrived at school on the first night after dark, so they would have the bright castle to see on their boat ride across the lake and the stars overhead.
With that understood, Harry and Lyra quickly made it back to their original compartment and got all of their things in order. As they pulled into the station, they saw Brandt waiting on the platform and waved as they passed by. He must have taken the floo or a portkey to beat the train.
When they got off the train, Tristan was already speaking to Brandt. They both had serious looks on their faces, Brandt was even wearing his serious-looking facial hair with sharp corners.
"Tristan told me about the incident on the train. Take out your staves and come with me," he ordered the two children.
Not knowing what else to do, they followed Brandt down the platform, they saw in a moment that they were heading straight toward Vincent and his father. They both took out their staves quickly but stayed behind Brandt. As they got close, Mr. Crabbe noticed them and turned to face them with Vincent standing behind with a bandage on his hand and his head.
Brandt didn't break his stride as he pulled a glove from his pocket and slapped Mr. Crabbe across the face with it. There must have been some kind of enchantment on it as the sound echoed across the platform and everyone, students and their families, turned to look.
"Mr. Crabbe," Brandt stated, "Your son has assaulted Mr. Potter and threatened Miss Black with her friends. Do you wish to settle this now with an apology or a duel?"
Vincent reached to draw his wand and walk closer but he suddenly winced and grabbed the bandaged hand with his other. His father saw the movement and pushed him back hard enough that he staggered and fell. Whispers made a chirping sound that Harry associated with laughter.
"The duel would be against you, young man?" Vincent's father asked as he started stretching his fingers the same way Vincent did when he was trying to be intimidating.
"It would," Brandt replied, "Lord Black will also be paying you a visit later. Do you want to have it while you are in the hospital or at your home?"
The older and taller man stared down at Brandt, then looked around at all the other families watching before making his decision and relaxing his posture.
"I would like to apologize on behalf of my son and my house for any offense caused to Miss Black or Mr. Potter. I will do better in the future to educate my son," he gave a short nod and then grabbed Vincent by the arm, and dragged him off.
There was a collective sigh from all of the people on the platform, some from relief and others from disappointment, then everyone started to move again on their way.
"Sorry about that," Brandt told the children. "The insult couldn't have gone without an answer."
"Could you have beaten him?" Lyra asked.
"I hope so," he replied, though was unsure. "There is no way I could have defeated Mr. Goyle in a duel, and I've tried in practice a few times. I'd assume that Mr. Malfoy would choose his house's defender to be similarly skilled."
Brandt seemed to remember dueling with Greg's father and gave a little shiver, then glanced over at Whispers. "Now, we need to do a few things that start with a trip to the Ministry."
He turned and walked them toward a fireplace at the end of Platform 9 ¾ that had a large queue in front of it. Quite a few people were whispering to each other about the display they had put on.
When they reached the front of the queue, Brandt told both of them, "The destination is 'Ministry of Magic, Atrium.' You need to be clear when you speak it, say it back to me now."
Both children repeated back, "Ministry of Magic, Atrium." He made them repeat it twice more.
Just before they stepped into the green fire, Whispers gripped Harry tight around his chest and vanished. The floo travel was a bit shorter of a ride than they took to Tristan's commencement ceremony. They stumbled out into a large room bigger than the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Both sides of the room they were on had numerous fireplaces, the side they were on was for arrivals, while on the other side wizards were queued up to leave.
In the center of the room was a large golden fountain with a wizard, witch, centaur, goblin, and a house-elf. Jets of water streamed from the wands held aloft by the humans, and from various points of the other statues. Harry and Lyra followed Brandt past the fountain as he tossed in a galleon and out into a small hallway with a desk in front of it that had a sign above it that said "Security."
The man at the desk was lazily reading a magazine but perked up at their approach. Brandt passed his wand to the man who placed it on a device that balanced it on two Y-shaped stands with a bell between them. After a moment, the bell gave a small ding and another device printed out a small ticket of paper. The man at the desk just stared at it for a moment before looking up.
"Yes, my name is Brandt, just Brandt," the Black steward said with a note of mild annoyance. The security guard just nodded and passed his wand back.
Brandt nodded to the children to do the same. Lyra completed her check without issue but when the man read Harry's name, he stood up to look at him and stare at Harry's scar.
"Do you have a Dark Lord that needs to be killed or may we continue with our business?" Brandt asked.
"No, no, my apologies. Not often we get celebrities in here," the man said as he passed Harry his wand back.
Harry and Lyra continued after Brandt as he walked to the lifts down the hall behind the security desk. Entering one of the open ones, Brandt pushed the button for Level 4, and the elevator doors closed and they started to rise. Harry and Lyra assumed they would be told what they were doing here eventually, so they just stayed silent as the elevator announced each floor they were on.
"Level Seven - Department of Magical Games and Sports"
"Level Six - Department of Magical Transportation"
"Level Five - Department of International Magical Cooperation"
"Level Four - Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures"
Lyra looked over to where Whispers was still invisible and holding onto Harry's chest. "What are we doing here?" she asked, assuming that it had to be for Whispers.
"Just a moment, and I'll tell you," Brandt replied.
They walked down a hallway arriving at a door that had a small window next to it, like a ticket booth. The woman that was sitting behind the window was chewing bubble gum and had just popped a large bubble as they approached. When she saw they were heading for her, she stopped chewing and sat up straight.
"We need to register a familiar," Brandt told the woman.
From somewhere behind her, she pulled out a quill and a piece of parchment on a clipboard, then passed it through the slot under the window, "Please fill this out and come back." As she was passing it through, she spotted Harry and had a sharp intake of breath.
Brandt just ignored it and took the clipboard and quill, walking with the children to a small table on the other side of the hallway.
He cast several privacy charms around them, then started to fill out the form while he spoke. "We need to register Whispers as your magical familiar, Lyra. Oftentimes, magical animals form a bond with witches and wizards and will respond to their emotions and magic and enable them to act on their behalf. When the bond is with a non-magical animal, the familiar may gain magical traits through the bond."
Lyra started to object but Brandt continued talking. "I assume you've read something about them, and I know you consider him your brother but he needs to be registered as a familiar. Right now, under the law, he has no status and is effectively a pet or wild animal. As an animal with no status, he would have to answer for any of his own actions, like attacking and biting a child. Should the elder Mr. Crabbe lodge a complaint and pay off the right people; he could have Whispers executed." Lyra's hair began to spark.
"I would kill Crabbe first," Harry seethed.
"I'm sure you would try," Brandt said. "However, as a registered familiar, under the law, you would be responsible for his actions which are much easier to defend in court. He bit young Vincent after he put his hands on your friend, Lavender, so he could have been acting as a result of your desire to defend your friend, but first, he needs to be registered."
Harry didn't like how that worked, so he just looked to Lyra to make the decision and got a meek nod back. Brandt had finished filling out the form and took it back to the window. Inside the privacy bubble, they couldn't hear anything from outside, but they saw Brandt pass the woman at the window two galleons before returning to them. They sat there for a minute longer before the door to the office opened and the woman called them inside. She led them past a few smaller desks to a larger one towards the end of the hall.
The man sitting behind it had wispy hair down to just above his shoulders, and it was combed in such a way that it looked like it was covering up a bald spot. He had a gaunt but joyful-looking face with round spectacles. He smiled at their approach and stood up, walking around the side of the desk that would put him right next to Harry.
"Thank you, Janice," he told the woman who had escorted them, then turned to the group. "Harry Potter! Absolutely splendid to meet you. This will be quite the tale to tell people later, the Boy-Who-Lived, in my department! How may I help you?"
Brandt stepped forward, "Mr. Potter is just here with his sister. I am Brandt, Steward of House Black. We need to register a familiar for Miss Lyra Black."
"Of course, of course," the man replied. "I am Amos Diggory, Head of Records for the Beast Division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures"
"You're related to Cedric?" Lyra asked.
"He's my son!" the man said proudly. "He's told me quite a bit about the two of you, thank you for giving him this opportunity. MY boy! He'll be the first prefect of Scamander House!" He grinned widely, "I assume you're here to register that demiguise everyone is talking about, Mumbles?"
"His name is Whispers," Lyra corrected.
"Of course, of course, my apologies. Though you need to have Mr. Whispers present with you for the registration."
"He's right here," Harry said and started petting Whispers's invisible head until he became visible, staring at Amos Diggory with his bright blue eyes continually sensing the future.
"Astounding," the man gasped. "I guess that I should have expected that. Please place him on the desk and I need to run some diagnostic spells to approve the familiar bond. Miss Black, please stand next to him."
Harry placed Whispers on the desk and signed [Stay here] to him. Lyra stood next to him while Brandt and Harry took a few steps back.
Amos took out his wand and Whispers reared back a bit and continued to try to sense the future. The man raised it above Lyra and Whispers, then started to spin the wand while muttering. A circle appeared at the tip of his wand and grew while falling to surround Lyra and Whispers. It stayed in place around them for a few moments before producing a sound like a snap and then vanishing.
"Odd," Amos said, "there doesn't seem to be a familiar bond between them."
"I thought this might happen," Brandt said. "The two of them grew up together, their bond is more like family than magic. However, we need to complete this registration, and we also need to backdate it to September."
"If there is no familiar bond, I cannot register this animal as a familiar," Amos told him.
Brandt pulled out two silver cylinders like the ones in Harry's vault and placed them on the table. There was a seal and the number 25 printed on each. He placed them next to Whispers on the desk.
"It will need to be for September 1st, time-stamped for before 10:00 a.m.," he told Amos.
"This is not the Accidental Magic or the Goblin Liaison office, that kind of behavior is not tolerated here. I will need to summon someone from the DMLE now to deal with this." Amos's face had turned from jolly to angry in a matter of seconds.
He started to reach for a large cone-shaped device on the wall and Harry realized that Brandt's attempt had backfired, he could even see the steward's hand starting to reach for his wand.
"Wait, Sir!" Harry called out and Amos stopped what he was doing. "This is important for my sister, can you please just do it? As a personal favor for me?"
Brandt relaxed his hand before Amos turned back around to stare at Harry. He seemed to think for a moment before looking angrily at Brandt but then softening when he looked back at Harry. He looked over at Whispers whose eyes had faded back to their golden color and was looking up at him like he was expecting food. He picked up the two metal cylinders and passed them back to Brandt.
"We all owe Mr. Potter so much, please put these in the fountain on your way out." He turned back to the form and pulled out a camera and a stamp from his desk.
Lyra put Whispers on a smaller table against a white sheet which Amos changed the color to black. They tried to take a picture of the demiguise but he continued to vanish before the photo could be taken. It took nearly five minutes for them to make sure Whispers wouldn't turn invisible before the picture could be taken. By that point, it didn't seem like Mr. Diggory was going to back out and Brandt had relaxed a bit. He took measurements of Whispers, as well as hands and footprints, had Lyra sign the papers, stamped their paperwork, and made a copy for them.
"Miss Black, you and Whispers need to come back every two years. Make sure to schedule your appointment with me in advance." Lyra nodded.
Brandt thanked the man and shook his hand, Harry and Lyra did the same. He took a little longer shaking Harry's hand than the others.
"Thank you again, Sir," Harry said as they exited the office area.
Once they were back in the lift, Brandt said, "I asked the secretary for a department head to process our forms. It's just our luck that we got the only honest person in the ministry who doesn't take bribes."
"The others do?" Lyra asked.
"For something simple as what we just did, yes. For more complicated things, the bribes need to be more complicated, as well. However, Harry, your life just became more complicated."
"Why?" he asked.
"Even though the man said he owed you, for your defeat of the Dark Lord, he may in the future ask a favor from you. You did not specify the type of favor he may ask, but he does not seem like the type to call in something serious. You should however do your best to be friendly with him whenever you see him in the future, he will also most likely be at the party on Monday night. However, even if he mentions your visit, make sure to also mention that it was the second time you met; the first being the morning before you left for school in September."
"For when we got the papers stamped?" Lyra asked, and Harry nodded as he understood too.
"Exactly."
As they exited the lift, Lyra's stomach growled loudly. Whispers seemed to feel the same way as he growled through his mouth and rubbed his stomach.
"Can we get something to eat?" Harry asked. "We haven't had lunch yet."
Brandt glanced at his watch, "It is after two now, I ate before I arrived at the station. We will go to Tangent Alley to grab something to eat."
They had arrived at the fireplaces again. Whispers jumped from Lyra's shoulders to Harry, causing both of them to stagger from the shift in weight.
Harry asked, "Whispers is getting too big to hold, can he get bracelets like the kind Lyra wore to the last party to keep his feet warm on stone floors?"
"There should be," Brandt replied. "We will look for them while shopping or you can visit an enchanter to get them made special."
"Could you make them?" Harry asked. "You did the enchanting for Hermione's arm and Colin's icebox."
"Given enough time, maybe, but I'm not qualified to do anything more than the basics. Without the proper knowledge, I might burn his feet by making them too warm to counteract the cold or make him unable to feel how cold the floor is which might lead to him losing feeling in his feet. It's always better to have expert help when dealing with something alive."
Harry nodded as Brandt added, "Though you could also study these kinds of things yourself until you trust your own work. I don't trust my work enough that I would risk any harm that would come to Whispers."
Just then, their turn came up in the queue. Brandt made them repeat Tangent Alley a few times before Whispers grabbed Harry's chest with a death grip and turned invisible before they departed.
Tangent Alley branched off from Diagon Alley, though if you were on foot, you needed to enter and exit the street from the corner where Gringotts was located or through a Floo connection near the entrance. Tangent held fewer stores for regular shopping, more fancy restaurants, boutique stores, exotic pets, and enchanters' ateliers. Whispers tried to stay on the ground as much as possible but with the cold winter air, Brandt volunteered to carry him to save the children from needing to do so.
The restaurant they ended up going to served seafood. As they entered, the hostess stared at Whispers, perched on Brandt's shoulders, and said, "No pets allowed."
Brandt just pulled out the form they had just received and said, "He is a bonded familiar of the young lady here."
The hostess shrugged and said, "Table for three?"
Lyra spoke up and pointed to Whispers, "Four, he is my bonded familiar."
The hostess rolled her eyes and led them inside. After getting another glare from Lyra, she provided a kids menu and a high chair to the demiguise. Brandt used the water-making spell to fill their glasses and they looked through the options. Lyra looked through the menu with Whispers and spoke quietly with him.
When the waiter came to their table he stared for a moment at Whispers looking at his children's menu that was filled with drawings of sea creatures next to the items. Brandt ordered a half order of fish and chips and a drink called a Dragon's Breath. Lyra ordered salmon with a honied praline sauce. Harry decided on a large crab dish so he could demonstrate using the seafood fork after so much practice.
The waiter had obviously been warned about the demiguise and turned to him and asked, "And what would the bonded familiar require?"
Whispers pointed at the menu, and growled out, "Grubs."
The waiter stood there shocked for a moment, Harry silenced a chuckle while Brandt tried to figure out what the Hidden was talking about.
The waiter looked closer at what Whispers was pointing at and said, "Those are shrimp, not grubs."
Harry and Lyra both looked at the picture, and Lyra said, "It looks like a bug to me, what's the difference?" Harry nodded along with her question.
The waiter thought for a moment before saying, "It's a shrimp, not a bug." Though it sounded like he was trying to convince himself before taking their orders and heading for the kitchen.
While they were waiting for their orders, Brandt asked them about their exams, particularly Lyra's tests on the fire-making spell. Brandt was very impressed with their potions exams, especially with their quick completion of the Wiggenweld Potion and Harry's initiative to make such a large batch of the boil-curing potion.
Brandt informed them that Greg was still at school for the weekend while he completed his extra exams to test back into his second-year potions and transfiguration classes. From what Greg had told his father, who had told Brandt, he was doing very well but was incredibly anxious. Harry knew that he'd miss Greg in Potions and Transfiguration, but they could always study together later.
Brandt's drink came first, it was served in a brandy snifter and was a golden amber in color. Though what was particularly interesting about it was the smoke that hung inside the glass on the top of the liquid, occasionally cascading down the outside edge when it moved. The three children were all interested in the drink, so he passed it around for them to smell. The smoke smelled fresh and somehow sweet, but how that was achieved, they had no idea. Whispers, in particular, was especially confused and took numerous sniffs, tilting his head this way and that after each time. Whispers's eyes glowed blue for a moment before putting the drink back down on the table.
"Did he do what I think he just did?" Brandt asked.
"Probably," Lyra answered.
"I wish I could do that," Brandt smiled, impressed.
Their food arrived and Harry got to work preparing the crab for eating. Lyra tucked in her napkin before starting to cut her fish properly. Whispers just stared at his dish, there were small shrimp without shells and larger ones fully intact. He reached for one of the smaller ones and put it in his mouth. Immediately his eyes grew large and he picked up a few more and ate them too, he chittered with happiness after he swallowed.
By now, the others were watching him as he picked up one of the larger ones and after inspecting the shell, used his fingers to open it up and take the meat out. Before he could pick up another, Brandt reached over and picked up a small one with his fingers and dipped it in the butter sauce, then passed it directly to Whispers. The Hidden sniffed it then put it in his mouth getting an even grander expression of happiness than before. He looked at the sauce dish, and back at the shrimp, then proceeded to pour the entire thing on his food and then start eating again. Everyone laughed and went back to their food.
Author's Note: Yeah, it's Roffle the Unicorn, I was going to use Charlie, but then I realized there were already 3 Charlies in this story. The mailman, the Hidden named after the mailman, and Ginny's brother, so we've got Roffle because Lolz doesn't sound right for the name of a witch's stuffed unicorn.
I feel like some wizards might pay off the DRCMC to make their pets bonded familiars for the same reason as some muggles register their pets as service animals when they aren't.
Lyra's salmon dish is actually one that my father taught me to make. It is mouthwatering and delicious.
Dream Casting:
Amos Diggory - Michael Emerson