The Whimsical Wands
Tonks watched Brandt disappear into the crowd. She thought the offer was placing her between a rock and a hard place. Arcturus and the Blacks were about the darkest families around but they were giving her an opportunity to change that for the next generation. Brandt's intentions seemed sensible enough, but she would also be exposing herself to Arcturus and his schemes. She really needed to speak to her mother, she was raised a Black and would have more insight into the manner.
A bell rang in the room which broke her out of her internal deliberations. The assembled guests looked around and from the sides of the rooms, dozens of platters of food drifted from open doors around the main hall, starting to settle on the different tables. Tonks gathered up Harry, Lyra, and Whispers to return to their table. As they all sat down at the table, Tonks could feel the scrap of paper Brandt had given her earlier getting warm in her cuff.
"Where's Brandt?" Harry asked.
"He said he needed to speak to people regarding various Black family businesses," Tonks answered. "He also said that you, Lyra, were not involving yourself properly in the conversations."
"They were boring!" Lyra exclaimed. "Half of the people wanted to just ask me questions about Harry, and the other half just ignored me after I was introduced. So I just played with Whispers while Brandt talked to them."
Whispers moaned out, "Boooooring."
"Next time if you're bored, excuse yourself to the bathroom. Your actions insulted Brandt a little bit."
"Fine…" Lyra mumbled.
Five covered platters descended on their table, they switched their order as they settled in front of each person and an empty seat, presumably Brandt's. Even Whispers had a plate, though a bit smaller than the others. They each took the lids off the plates to reveal the contents.
Each one had a bowl of soup in the center of the plate, surrounded by several small salads. Whispers on the other hand had grapes, cut-up salmon, and what looked like about a dozen snails with some kind of sauce on them. He gave them a few cautious sniffs. On the island, when they had started to catch fish from the ocean, they had come across a kind of sea snail. The Giver quickly discovered that they were venomous, and everyone stayed away from them in the future. Though if they were being served tonight, they should be edible, right?
Tonks observed their reactions to the snails and informed them, "It's called escargot. The French love them."
She picked one of them up from Whispers's plate, grew the nail on her index finger into a long spear, and plunged it into the meat. After digging around inside the shell, she pulled it all out and ate it, then licked her finger and shrunk her nail back to normal size.
"It's pretty good," she commented. "Plenty of garlic."
Harry, Lyra, and Whispers all slowly picked shells off of the plate, sniffed them, and plunged their seafood forks into the meat. Whispers just used his skinny index finger and pulled out the meat. All of their eyes opened wide at the taste of the snails in butter and garlic sauce and continued eating them until they were all gone.
They looked disappointed, so Tonks told them, "Finish the rest of your first course, and I will request more from the kitchen."
They continued until the first course was complete, and the plates vanished when they were done. As new platters began to float out to all of the guests, Harry saw Tonks tense for a moment and her eyes twitched behind him. He turned around to see Theo Nott waiting behind him.
"Good evening, Mr. Potter, Miss Black, do you mind if I joined you for a moment?" he asked cordially.
The others hadn't met him, so he introduced them, "Tonks, Lyra, Whispers, may I introduce Mr. Theodore Nott. We met shortly before Dumbledore's party." Tonks's eyes narrowed at his introduction, but she still shook his hand when it was her turn before the boy sat down next to Harry.
"Thank you for allowing me to join you for a moment," he began. "I also wanted to thank you Harry for your assistance at the last party, it made dealing with my father a little easier for the next month."
Both Tonks and Lyra were a little confused, and Whispers had just ignored it completely and started to eat the fish on his plate.
"It's not a problem," Harry responded. "I would do it for anyone who was in that situation."
"All the same," Theo said quickly, "I would like to invite the two of you to a party in the Hufflepuff common room the Friday night after school resumes."
That sounded like fun and after sharing a look with Lyra, he agreed, "We'll be there. Do we need a password or something to get in?"
"Nah, it's Hufflepuff, we'll just leave the door open for the night." With that, he stood up, and shook hands with Harry and Lyra again, before wandering off.
Once he was gone, Tonks exclaimed quietly, in disbelief, "Lord Nott's son is in Hufflepuff?"
"He was in the resorting," Harry responded. "I had tried to help him out so his father wouldn't be angry with him for the switch."
"That's good of you, but you know who the Notts are, right?" Tonks asked, and Harry shook his head. "All of the older Notts worked for You-Know-Who, back in the day, but were cleared of charges, like Lyra's father."
That shocked the two children, but Harry reasoned that Theo obviously didn't like his father, so it would be just one more snake he would need to break away from its commander. A friend would also be welcomed, like Greg.
"Heads up," Tonks said as she stood up, her wand slipping into her fingers, "here comes the old man, himself."
Harry stood up and turned around to see the man that Theo had been arguing with at the party approaching with a determined look on his face. Tonks circled the table to stand next to Harry as the man arrived.
"Mr. Potter, I would have you tell me right now what your business was with my son," he demanded.
Before Harry could respond, Tonks interrupted, with steel in her voice. "Lord Nott, I believe tradition dictates introductions come before issuing demands from children in a public setting."
The man glared at her for a moment before realizing that they had observers from the nearby tables watching. Taking a deep breath and adjusting his robes, he stood up straight, and said formally, "My name is Benedict Nott, Lord of the Ancient House of Nott, and Lord of the Wizengamot, I am honored to meet you, Mr. Potter, would you care to introduce me to you companions?
Harry didn't hide his emotions well from Mr. Nott's demands before and with a small glare, responded, "I wish to introduce you to my sister, Lyra Black, her bonded familiar Whispers, and our escort for the evening Auror Tonks."
He shook hands with everyone, though he purposely avoided shaking Whispers's hand, which led the demiguise to growl a bit at him.
"May I join you at your table?" After receiving a nod, he sat down across from them. With a quick look around, he saw that the nearby tables were paying less attention to them, so asked again, "I wish to know what business you have with my son, and what business Lord Black has with him as well."
Tonks gave Harry a look before addressing the man, "Your son was here to invite Harry and Lyra to a gathering once school resumes with other classmates. If you have any questions for Lord Black, I suggest you approach him directly."
"He has been unavailable for the last two weeks, citing whatever illness was supposed to kill him months ago."
Brandt approached the man from the side, "Then I suggest that you wait until he is feeling better, rather than attempt to interrogate his charges at a social function." Nott turned to stare up at him.
"Steward, you should know better than to speak to me like that." He stood up to stare Brandt in the eyes. "Your Lord is not here to back you up should you say something that cannot be taken back." He turned to walk around Brandt in a small circle as he continued to speak, "Everyone has heard of your challenge to Crabbe at the train station, and you were lucky to get off with an apology. The man has seen more fights than you have in your pathetic life. His magic, and mine, remain undiluted and pure. The next time you decide to challenge one of the older families, you will certainly regret it. When it comes to the dealings of my family, I will speak to whomever I want, however I want." At this point, he had completely circled Brandt and was standing face-to-face with him again. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"No, Lord Nott, I do not," Brandt said with annoyance. "My apologies for any insult you interpreted."
"Good, now I expect you to relay my message to Lord Black so that I hear back from him when he has recovered." He did not wait for an answer before turning around and heading back to his table.
Brandt grumbled a bit and sat down at his place and opened his platter and tasted his soup, then grumbled some more and cast a warming charm on it, then started on his salad.
After a few minutes of silence, Lyra stated, "I don't like him. Theo seems nice, but his father is horrible… like mine…"
"Why didn't you fight him?" Harry asked quietly.
Brandt sighed, "For two reasons, the first is that I wouldn't dare issue a challenge in someone else's house. The second is that there is no way I could beat him. He would liquify my internal organs and leave me to die before ending the duel."
"I read about that in a case file for the war when he was under the imperius curse," Tonks mentioned while using air quotes. "I wasn't sure how accurate it was… but if you're saying it..."
"It's probably worse than what you read," Brandt told her. The kids were a bit horrified at the topic. "It's old Nott family magic, so if there is a counter curse, they're not sharing it."
Harry opened his platter which had been closed since it arrived to find a large lobster, and he started to disassemble it. Lyra opened hers to do the same. Whispers stared greedily at the giant bug on each of their plates.
Brandt finished his soup and excused himself to go speak to some other people. Once he got up, Tonks addressed the children, "I want to talk to the two of you quickly about Mr. Nott." They both gave her their attention, while Whispers started eating the extracted lobster meat from Lyra's plate.
"You both need to tread carefully around that man's son. Even if Theodore isn't dangerous, his father is. I also want you to be aware of something potentially life-saving when dealing with people like him." She smiled a bit as she continued, "When they think they are in a position of power, they will like to talk a lot. When he was lecturing and threatening Brandt, he was oblivious to everything around him. He was monologuing, just talking to make himself feel powerful. He was so distracted by the sound of his own pompous voice that he didn't notice that both Brandt and I had drawn our wands in case he made a move."
"Draco does that," Harry remarked. "I've heard from some of the Slytherins that he used to talk a lot just about how important and powerful he was."
"Exactly like that," Tonks told him. "Now some people will do that when they have no power, but you need to be careful of those who do have power, they may think they are invulnerable if they are threatening your life, that is a perfect opportunity to strike first. Just wait for them to focus on themselves before attacking."
Both Harry and Lyra nodded, internalizing the lesson. Then the three of them went back to their meals. Tonks watched after Brandt a bit. He was standing at one of the high tables near the dance floor, speaking with a man she recognized from the ministry, but forgot what department. After they finished and the man had walked away, a woman in a low-cut dress approached Brandt with two glasses of champagne, intent on sharing. Tonks couldn't see the conversation, but Brandt did not accept the drink and shook his head, causing the woman to look a bit disappointed and walk off.
Lyra and Whispers had finished eating the lobster, and the plate had vanished. Harry was still working on his, trying to get all of the delicious meat out of each leg. As he worked, Gerald Abbott walked out onto the dance floor and tapped a knife to his glass, and an amplified ring echoed through the room.
"Thank you all for attending our Midwinter Sioreé!" he told the assembled families. "As dessert gets served, we are going to put up dueling wards on the dance floor for tonight's entertainment - the elemental performance troupe - Whimsical Wands!"
There was muttering and applause from the room. Tonks looked interested but just said, "I won't ruin the surprise with an explanation. I'm sure you will both love this."
Once Mr. Abbott was done speaking, a group of men and women in solid black robes started setting up a set of very complicated wards surrounding the dance floor. Hannah ran up to their table along with their friends and other students their age.
"We're going up to the balcony to get a better view, come on!" She said before running off towards the entrance hall.
Harry and Lyra jumped up and followed. Whispers grabbed his hat and joined them. When they got to where all the children were gathered, they all looked up to see Tonks had followed them.
"What?" she asked, "I want a better view too."
A lot of the other children laughed at this as Hannah led the group out of the main hallway and opened a narrow door that revealed a tiny spiral staircase behind it. It looked too small for an adult, but all the kids crammed their way in and climbed up.
They exited the stairs onto a balcony that overlooked the entire room below. There were several couches with small tables that everyone started to pile on. As Lyra exited, she looked behind her to see Tonks climb out of the stairs. However, she was carrying her shoes in one hand and holding up her dress with the other as she had shrunken herself, smaller than Lyra, in order to fit into the staircase. Once she was out, she started to grow back slowly to her normal size.
"Are those house-elf stairs or something?" she asked out loud.
Hannah turned back to witness the end of Tonks regrowing in size and laughed, "No, we just expanded the main hall so much for the party, other parts of the house ended up shrinking to accommodate." Tonks nodded in understanding.
"Stevie!" Hannah called out and their elf popped in next to her. "Would you please deliver desserts and drinks to everyone up here?" The elf bowed and vanished.
Tonks conjured an overstuffed chair above where the children had clustered on the couches. Whispers squeezed himself between Harry and Lyra desserts started appearing on the tables along with some fizzy drinks.
Lyra turned to Hannah, "Can you ask Stevie to bring more of the snails? Whispers loved those, as did we."
Remembering Tonks had promised them more, Harry said, "Yeah, thank you for thinking of him with the escargot, they were delicious."
Hannah smiled from the appreciation and asked Stevie to bring up a plate. This time, there were small toothpicks in each one to help extract the meat. Some of the other children looked on with a bit of disgust while they ate their cake and ice cream.
The performers finished setting up the wards and the dance floor was surrounded by a shimmering veil on all sides. As soon as it was done, the men in black robes levitated out three barrels and placed them towards the back of the dance floor. From where the children were sitting, when the covers were removed, they could see that they were filled with rocks, water, and dirt. Then the lights dimmed over all the tables and sitting areas, and the orchestra struck up a quiet tune.
One at a time, performers appeared on the dance floor, though they didn't just apparate in. First, a large stone golem dropped from the ceiling, shaking the ground as it hit, then the stone cracked and fell away, leaving someone standing there in green robes. Then came a tornado of fire, appearing out of nowhere, and leaving another standing there in red robes when it cleared. Water spilled out of one of the barrels and flowed over next to the other performers. Once it was still, someone in blue robes rose out of the puddle to stand next to the others. From there, a bolt of lightning crashed into the floor next to the others, leaving someone in light pink robes. Then from each side of the dance floor, there was a bright flare of light and a swirl of shadows, almost with tentacles or fingers of darkness reaching out from the center. From the light and darkness, two final performers stepped out, one in pure white, the other in pure black, as the orchestra started playing heavier music.
Everyone cheered for the assembled performers as they all drew their wands and unleashed streams of colors that matched their robes. The colors danced and twisted around the area, sometimes mingling with the others, or bouncing off the wards until there was a flash of light and all of them vanished and the music stopped.
Then they could hear a flute playing gently as water started to seep out of the barrel until it covered the whole floor, less than an inch deep. The water moved and swirled in many places until nearly a hundred tiny figures rose and began to form couples to dance with each other in tune with the music that was playing. Then one lone figure approached the assembled dancers, though this one was made of ice and had shadows pouring off it. The figure raised a hand and blasted fire and lighting at the other dancers of water, causing some to disperse on the floor or turn to steam. The lights dimmed and all the water fell to the floor.
There were sounds of movement in the dark, and when the lights came up again, the rocks and dirt had been spread across the floor to create a mountainous terrain. There was a roar as a dragon, made of stone flew down from the ceiling, and landed in the valley. It roared again, and from the sides of the dance floor, there were the thundering sounds of hooves as hundreds of knights on horseback, made of water, charged toward the dragon. There was a roar as it blew an inferno of fire and decimated about half of the riders, turning them into steam. The others circled the dragon and proceeded to attack it with weapons made of ice. The dragon continued to attack the knights, with flames and talons until they had all fallen, and it let out a mighty roar and spewed fire skyward.
However, its triumph was quickly halted as a bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of it, and a small figure appeared, made of crystal and glowing with light. This smaller figure appeared to be dressed like a wizard and did draw a tiny stick that was assumed to be a wand. The dragon tried to fight off this wizard, but with every blast of fire, there was a flash of electricity and the wizard apparated to the side and cast more magic at the creature until it finally let out one final roar and collapsed.
There were a few more fight scenes like that, made up of various creatures and elemental structures until the final scene came. On one side of the floor was a full-size figure made of the purest white glowing crystal, while the figure on the other side was made of dark blue ice and covered in shadows. Both had wands pointed at each other. The orchestra played a piece that seemed to be building with energy, and as it reached its peak, the two figures of wizards unleashed huge currents of lighting at each other, though one was black, and the other was blue. They crashed in the middle and splintered with bits of electricity splashing against the wards. The shadow figure pushed more magic into his spell and pushed until his bolt of lightning exploded in front of the crystal wizard, and he fell to the floor.
The shadow figure stood above the fallen one and raised its wand, a pale green light glowing at the tip. There was a collective gasp from the entire audience. Suddenly, there was a burst of light from inside the crystal figure knocking the shadow wizard into the wards on the other side of the floor. The crystal wizard floated into the air and towards the fallen shadows. The shadow wizard tried to raise his wand, but there was a pulse from inside the crystals and his wand shattered. Then the crystal wizard raised his hand and a beam of pure light struck the shadows and they exploded, with nothing remaining after. The light dimmed in the crystal wizard and then over the entire floor until it was completely dark.
Applause erupted through the entire hall and Harry and Lyra found themselves cheering as loudly as they could as well. When the lights came back up, Gerald Abbott was standing in the center with his wand pointed at his throat.
With an amplified voice, he said, "I would like to thank the Whimsical Wands for their incredible reenactment of the wizarding war against The Dark Lord Penumbra of 693 AD! Cheer for your favorite as I call them back to the floor!" Everyone cheered more.
"The Human Earthquake, Umber Iomare!" There were cheers as the man in green robes strolled out into the light. The barrel of rocks spilled over and encased his arms in giant stone hands which he used to clap over his head, louder than his own applause.
"The Dragon's Inferno, Pyroc!" The sorcerer in red robes stepped out on the floor and threw back their hood to reveal a woman with blazing red hair. She threw out her hands and conjured two large balls of fire that she threw toward the dueling wards. They crashed against the sides and slowly formed into two tigers made of fire which sauntered back to her before vanishing.
"A tsunami of power, Steven Aqualis!" The man strolled out from where the band was playing while a black cloud rained down water on him, though it vanished as it hit the floor.
"Ride the lighting with Baraq Soliman!" The cloud above Aqualis started to shudder and pulse with electricity. He dove out of the way as a bolt of lightning came out of it and Baraq appeared after the light subsided.
"And finally, the twin masters of light and shadow, Disaris and Lumino" A large yin yang appeared on the floor, and from the light in the darkness rose Lumino, and from the darkness in the light came Disaris. They both waved as they joined their troupe members in the center to thunderous applause.
As the cheers died down, Gerald added, "And please give a special round of applause for our orchestra this evening, Daughters of Tranquility!" There was polite applause as a group of six women walked out and waved to the audience.
"Once the floor is cleaned up," Gerald began, "there will be music for dancing. If you haven't already, please visit the photographer in the inner courtyard. Family portraits will be sent to your homes by Christmas, should you desire them."
Gerald exited the dancefloor and the lights came up in the rest of the room. The wards on the floor stayed up as all of the elemental materials began moving back to their barrels and four house elves popped in and started polishing the floor.
Lyra was nearly bouncing in her seat next to Harry, "That was incredible!"
That statement was repeated by nearly all of the children as they started to head back down the tiny staircase. Once they were all out the other end and Tonks had regrown to full size again, the dueling wards had come down and music had started to play. A few brave couples had begun to dance.
Tonks led Harry, Lyra, and Whispers on a trek to find Brandt. She spotted him first, standing at one of the cocktail tables at the edge of the dance floor. Just as she started to lead them over, a young woman approached him and appeared to ask him to dance. He just shook his head again and let her leave. Once the woman was gone, Tonks led them over to Brandt.
"Did you enjoy the show?" she asked him. "Or were you engaged in nefarious dealings under the cover of darkness?"
He just rolled his eyes, but responded, "Why couldn't it be both?" Lyra giggled at his response. "We should get our photos taken before there is too much of a line. Miss Tonks, would you please collect Lyra's coat along with yours for the photos?"
Tonks seemed slightly miffed at being asked to fetch, but went anyway.
Once she had started across the dance floor, Brandt asked the children, "Did you enjoy the show?"
Lyra was all smiles, "I loved it! Can we meet the performers?" Harry nodded at that idea too.
Brandt started walking them toward the inner courtyard as he replied, "After photos, sure." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, with his wand, scribbled a quick note on it, and then tapped it, causing it to fold into a paper crane and fly off.
Tonks met them by the door with Lyra's coat and they stepped outside. Above them, they could see snow falling, though none of it seemed to enter the courtyard. There was a short line for the photographer and they were at the front of the line quickly. Brandt passed the man a few coins and told him they would be taking more than one photo.
Brandt arranged them into a few shots, with and without cloaks, with and without staves, and a few with just Harry and Lyra. As they started to head back inside, a man in the line reached out and stopped Brandt. It was Henderson Drake again.
"Steward Brandt, could my family take a picture with Mr. Potter?" he asked loudly.
Brandt just glared at the man, brushed his hand away, and said, "No," then turned and continued walking.
As they got back inside, Tonks remarked, "I'm very surprised that there haven't been more people like that this evening with Harry."
Harry had noticed it a bit too, there were fewer people than even at Hogwarts tonight that were staring at him.
"I imagine that Lord Abbott mentioned something to some of the more insatiable guests. Though some, like Mr. Drake, may have ignored him or forgotten," Brandt guessed.
Once inside, they spotted Gerald Abbott standing with the performers near the orchestra. Some other attendees were speaking with them, and they waited patiently for Gerald to call them over. Gerald had the six performers gather around as he introduced them.
"The four of you already know their names, so I would like the Whimsical Wands to meet Steward Brandt of House Black, Lyra Cassiopeia Black, Auror Nymphadora Tonks, and Harry James Potter."
They all shook hands, and Lyra introduced all of them to Whispers.
Lyra cautiously approached the woman in red, and timidly said, "Miss Pyroc? I really liked your fire."
"That's sweet of you, do you know any fire spells?" Her accent sounded American and Harry coughed a bit at the question.
"I know a few…" she responded.
"Don't sell yourself short," Brandt stepped up behind her. "Miss Black has quite a tremendous amount of firepower, though very little control. She is learning though."
"Interesting," the woman said inquisitively, "Do you have a firebird as the core of your wand?"
"I have two!" she said happily.
"What species?"
Lyra drew her wand, "I have the tail feather of a phoenix in my wand," she stuck it back on the side of her arm, then pulled out her staff, "and I have seven tail feathers from a mating pair of hoohoos in my staff. Five from the male, two from the female."
"Woah…" was the woman's only reply and she stared at the staff. "My wand contains two feathers from a Ho-ee 'I'iwi. It is a firebird native to the Hawaiian Islands. I'd be very interested in seeing what you could do someday. The amount of power at your fingertips could be incredibly difficult to control.
Brandt smiled, "Maybe we can arrange a meeting then," he passed the woman a black card with silver writing on it.
She took the card and smiled, "When the winter shows die down, I'll be in touch."
Brandt looked towards the rest of the performers, "I was also hoping to speak with Disaris and Lumino for the same reason." Once he had their attention, "Miss Black also seems to have a specialty with the shadow element and Mr. Potter with the light."
Lumino, in the white robes, asked suspiciously, "They aren't related, right?"
Harry responded defensively, "Lyra is my sister."
"I mean no offense, Mr. Potter. Normally light and shadowmancers like myself and Disaris will be twins or opposites from the same birth family in one way or another."
Brandt passed a card to each of them, "Maybe when we meet with Miss Pyroc, the two of you could accompany her. This isn't the best location for light and shadow magic demonstrations." They both nodded.
Umber Iomare asked, "Got a gig for the rest of us?"
"Daphne froze someone at school, that's water, right?" Lyra asked. "She's around here somewhere."
"And William shocks people just by touching them," Harry added.
"And you've got another best friend who causes mountains to crumble?" Umber asked hopefully. They all looked at each other but couldn't think of anyone. He frowned at their lack of response.
Disaris pulled out a card of his own, passing it to Brandt. "Have Mr. Potter's friend, William, contact us and we will see if he wants any extra tutoring with Baraq. Maybe you can introduce Steven to Miss Daphne? And if you find someone who likes to play in the mud, I'm sure Umber would be happy to make their acquaintance too."
Everyone chuckled except for Umber.
"I will do just that," Brandt responded neutrally. "Mr. Aqualis, if you would like to come with me, I can introduce you to the Greengrass family."
Everyone separated, and Tonks brought the children back to the table. Whispers started to yawn and placed his hat on the table, then laid down on two chairs and vanished.
"Will he be ok, sleeping like that?" Tonks asked.
"I can stay with him," Lyra responded and sat in the chair next to him. Harry sat down as well, regretting a bit that he had eaten snails instead of cake, even if they were really good.
He asked Tonks, "Can I go look for some cake?" and just as he asked, a plate with cake and vanilla ice cream appeared in front of him." He picked up his fork and started eating.
Lyra looked at the cake but said, "I think I'm full," and proceeded to pet Whispers's sleeping form.
Tonks kind of wanted to get up and dance, but she needed to keep an eye on the children. She resolved to go out for New Year's eve into muggle London to make up for it. Brandt came back to one of the cocktail tables near their table and stood there for a moment before another woman approached him to dance. This one was very attractive, but he just sent her off like the others from earlier.
Walking the long way around to him, to keep an eye on the children, she approached where he was standing, and said, "That's the third woman I've seen you turn down tonight. Are you all business tonight or would you like another introduction to Ricki?"
"Only three?" Brandt responded. "I've counted five," he chuckled at her shocked response. "It's actually something else." He waved his left hand over his right and a gold ring appeared on his index finger. The ring itself wasn't a complete circle and was slightly separated at the top.
"You're betrothed…" Tonks whispered. "And you're obviously committed to it. Is it anyone I know?"
"It certainly is someone you know of, but I doubt it is someone you regularly associate with, and definitely not someone I will tell you about. It will be a secret for another two years before it is publicly announced."
"Is that why you don't have a last name? You are planning on taking hers?"
"Yes and no," Brandt told her. "It is what will happen, but it is not why. I'm sure you and your mother had been racking your brains to try and figure out what branch of the family I come from. So I'll just tell you; my Great-great-great-great-grandmother was born Despina Bellatrix Black IV, sister to Phineas Black. Despina was born a squib, so she was never even added to the family tapestry, and also why you will not find any more Blacks with her name since. Her descendants were tracked by the Black family until I was found to have magic and sent to Durmstrang. My parents both died in an accident shortly after I graduated, and I started working as a Steward, though to be part of Lord Black's circles, I gave up my family name."
"You gave it up? Just like that?"
"Not just like that, I did it so that I can grow in the magical world. I still honor my parents in other ways." Brandt glanced back towards the table, Lyra was yawning. "I think we'll start to wrap up, and I'm going to need to get the kids some coffee. They have something to do back at Hogwarts later tonight."
Brandt didn't elaborate, so Tonks didn't ask. They walked together back to the table and told Harry and Lyra to start saying goodbye to all their friends. Tonks stayed at the table with Whispers after casting a creature-revealing charm to make sure he was there. Brandt wandered off to say goodnight to various people and returned to the table with two cups of coffee.
When Harry and Lyra returned, he explained to them, "Have you ever had coffee before?" They both shook their heads. "This will help keep you awake tonight when we go back to Hogwarts. Don't drink it too often when you're younger, it will become addictive. A lot of adults can't function properly in the morning without it. One cup now will not be a problem." He placed a small pitcher of cream next to them, "If it is too bitter, add a little cream."
Harry didn't seem to mind it black, but Lyra splashed quite a bit of cream in before it was good enough for her. Tonks watched with amusement as she saw the caffeine take effect and their eyes widened a bit. When they had finished their drinks, and with Lyra's help, Brandt scooped up the sleeping demiguise and slung him over his shoulder, then put on his hat with a sticking charm. The group tracked down the Abbott family and said their thank yous and goodnights, then headed out to the apparation points.
Brandt asked, "Will you be alright to get home from here, Miss Tonks?"
She was getting a bit tired, but responded, "I'll be ok to apparate from here. There was no drinking for me tonight."
They stayed with her until the apparation point became clear and Harry and Lyra said goodbye to her. Lyra gave her a sleepy hug before backing off and yawning a bit, "I think I need a little more coffee," she mumbled.
"Goodnight Miss Tonks," Brandt told her, "And I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before, but your dress looks lovely this evening."
She smiled a bit before turning and vanishing with a crack.
"We're going to head to Hogwarts now," Brandt told the children as he carefully took the invisible, sleeping demiguise off his shoulder and passed him to Harry. "We're going by portkey, so you'll need to wake up Whispers." He pulled out a length of rope from his pocket as Whispers started growling at being woken up, but then his eyes glowed blue and he wrapped his arms and legs around Harry's in his usual death grip. Brant applied a few sticking charms to make sure he stayed there in his tired state.
"Everyone grab hold," he said and passed the ends of the rope to Harry and Lyra. When they both had a strong grip, he said out loud, "Hogwarts Activate," and they were off.
Now they crashed into the ground outside the gates of Hogwarts. There was no pit of sand to help their arrival this time, which caused Harry and Lyra to stumble and fall, and Harry nearly landed on Whispers who had gotten out of the way in the nick of time and was now growling and screeching to no one in particular. Brandt had landed without issue.
Newt and Tina were standing next to the gate and walked over to greet them, "Well, you all look very well dressed," remarked Tina, "particularly you, Whispers."
"I think he picked up a hat fixation from Dougal," commented Brandt. "He tried on a lot of the fancier ones with the wide brims that your demiguise wears but didn't like them. Then he saw a store of tophats and ran right in, to find the perfect one."
"I'm very excited to see the habits of the rest of Whispers's family," Newt told them. "Are you two ready to proceed with your blessing?"
Harry looked alarmed, "All the materials are in my trunk!"
Brandt just spoke to the air, "Opal, please bring Harry and Lyra's trunks here."
Around twenty seconds passed, and there was a loud 'Pop!', and Opal arrived next to them with two trunks.
Lyra smiled at the little elf, "Thank you, Opal."
"Yous welcome, Missy Black. Will there bees anythings else?"
"No, thank you, Opal," Brandt answered, and Opal popped away while Newt levitated the two trunks on top of a carriage right inside the gates and they all climbed inside.
Harry looked around cautiously, and asked, "Where are the thestrals?"
"We didn't use them tonight, because of whatever their aversion to you is," Newt responded. "I still can't figure out why that is."
"How will the carriage move then?" Harry asked.
"Magic," replied Newt, chuckling at the ridiculous explanation for everything, and leaned out the window and tapped the wheels with his wand, causing it to start moving forward.
Whispers had curled up on the seat and started to fall asleep again and Lyra yawned again, so Tina called ahead to an elf and asked for hot chocolates with coffee for the children. The carriage took them straight into the courtyard and stopped at the castle gates. There were only a few lights in the castle as they arrived, with nearly all the students having gone home for the winter break.
When they arrived, Brandt unloaded their trunks and Harry retrieved all the different bags of the materials for their blessing. Standing in the corridor, Harry and Lyra laid out all the materials to double-check them before opening the tapestry and heading into the room, leaving their trunks in the hallway.
The maze had been deactivated, and when they got through the short hallway, it opened into their common room, but not the one they remembered. Exactly as Glen had told them, the room had been expanded by a factor of three. The five balete trees were still in the center of the room, along with the sunken fire pit, but now, there was a huge amount of space between the trees and the walls. The walls no longer had the illusion of the mountains or beachfront and were just solid grey stone. The fully grown mango and banana trees were in the same spot by the wall, and the saplings of the lemon, lime, and other new ones were on the side by the tea station. There was one open door on the side of the room that led to where the greenhouse that Neville had set up was. Additionally, the balete trees no longer came close to the ceiling as the ceiling was now far beyond the canopies of the trees.
Brandt, Harry, Lyra, and even Whispers stared at the transformation for nearly two minutes before Newt asked them, "Do you need any help setting up?"
Harry pulled his staff out of his pouch and walked out to the center of the room. Lyra kept everyone back by the entrance. When Harry reached the center, he turned back and realized how big the room was, seeing how far his sister and the others were from him.
Harry raised his staff as high as he could above his head and slammed the base into the ground, creating a huge bubble of light around him, with nearly a fifty-foot diameter. This time, instead of the most concentrated point of light being at the top, it was on the ground, all around the base of the bubble. Gripping the staff tightly, he twisted it where it stood in the ground, cutting an enormous circle into the ground.
Harry looked a bit winded at that showing of magic, back with the others, Lyra explained, "When we did this back on the island, it took Harry a full day to make all the circles. I hope he's able to do it all at once now."
"You should have told us that beforehand," Brandt told her. "We would have left the party earlier."
"I think he'll be ok," Lyra said hopefully. "The big one caused him to pass out the last time. He's still standing now."
Harry had taken a few deep breaths and planted his feet again. He slammed his staff into the ground again and a slightly smaller bubble appeared. It took him less time on this one to twist his staff and engrave the circle into the floor. He waited to catch his breath before repeating the process again and again until there were eight circles on the floor around him, and one large dot where he had repeatedly slammed his staff into the ground, then he slowly walked back to the group where Tina conjured him a beanbag chair to flop into.
Brandt pulled out the flobberworm jerky that Harry had given him before and passed him a few pieces to chew on, then asked him, "The shield you just made, you were able to do it like that on the island?"
"Yes, but it was very difficult."
"When you were taught to defend from water and earth spells by Augustus, couldn't you have just used that one with the concentration of the shield on the bottom?"
Harry and Lyra both stared and Brandt before Harry just said, "Huh, yeah, I guess so."
Lyra gathered up the materials and passed the nine yellow hoohoo feathers to Newt, the eight golden snidget feathers to Tina, and the seven moth-like feathers from the mystery bird to Brandt.
"They all need to be equally spaced around their circles," Lyra instructed. She then went to the center of the circles to place a very long red hoohoo tail feather and start working her way outwards.
The three adults all went to their circles and cast the same spell which made a long blue beam pour into the circles, slowly filling up the entire trench with the blue light. When it had finished, small beams of light grew at designated points around each circle.
"Well, that makes things easier," Lyra commented, watching their magic. "Last time we did it, we counted the distance with our feet."
"You did what?" Brandt said, in shock. Newt and Tina also looked shocked.
Harry had gotten up and approached, "Why, is that a bad thing?"
"While blessings aren't exactly rituals," Newt began, "They do have some parallels. One of them is making sure every measurement is as precise as possible. Walking off the measurements is a good way to cause everything to go horribly wrong."
Harry and Lyra exchanged a look before saying, at the same time, "Oops."
Brandt covered his eyes with his hand and shook his head, "Well, luckily, you are both still alive and didn't grow or lose any extra appendages, but we'll be doing it properly this time."
Newt, Tina, and Brandt proceeded to mark all the remaining circles while Harry and Lyra added all the materials to their proper, measured, places.
Then Newt raised his wand and called out "Finite!"
With that, all the glowing blue lines vanished, leaving only the materials and the circles Harry had drawn.
"So, what now?" Tina asked.
"Now, you all need to leave," Harry told them.
Harry and Lyra walked them to the entrance hall, taking a sleeping Whispers, who had fallen asleep in the beanbag chair along with them. Once they were back outside the room, Harry and Lyra re-entered the hallway. Before they got out of the dark tunnel, leading to the room, they stopped and took off their clothes. The Giver had instructed them that before they did the blessing on the island, that they should be completely bare so that nothing interfered with their magic. That made even more sense now that most of their clothing had its magic in them. The only thing they took in with them were their staves.
When they got out of the dark tunnel, they both looked at each other. This was probably the first time since the island that they had seen each other in the nude. Back then, such an occurrence would happen any time they went to the hot springs or just when they were changing clothes.
Harry looked at her, and himself, and said, "We're getting out of shape."
Lyra appraised themselves as well and responded, "I want to play quidditch, like the Gryffindors."
"You know what I think about that," Harry told her sternly.
"If you can dent a bludger, I'll melt one," Lyra told her brother fiercely.
"Not during a match, you won't. Maybe after the blessing, the trees will be bigger for better climbing."
"We need to get it done first before we can tell," she walked towards the center and stood next to the large feather, and Harry joined her in that spot.
"Well, let's get this done. Good luck to us."
They nodded to each other as Lyra raised her staff and slammed it into the ground. The red feather in the center glowed a bright red light, filling the room completely. They smiled at each other and took a step back into the circle with the two orange and black owl feathers.
They both activated them, causing them to give off a black glow and a sound bubble grew larger and larger until it filled the whole room. Simultaneously, they walked clockwise until they were standing at each others' feathers from before and activated them again. This time, the black glow grew even greater so it was a foot high off the ground and there was a small 'pop' as the entire room was silenced. No sound could be made or heard inside the room now.
They proceeded to the circle of three and activated the materials. When they had made the full rotation, the cracked egg reformed itself and a small halo of magic, connecting it to the sparking chick down, and the burning tail feather of the hawk.
The next ring, they activated the post owl feather and began to sprint to the next position. As they activated the second position, the first feather jumped up and shot off to the second position, where it hovered above that feather. Harry and Lyra were still running and when they got to the third position, both the first and the second feather shot over to the third. When all four feathers were activated, they proceeded to chase each other continuously around their ring.
For the five multi-colored feathers, they walked together counter-clockwise at a leisurely pace, stopping at each one to activate them and cause the feathers to glow brightly in their own colors. On the second lap around, the light grew even greater to the point that the glow was taller than they were.
The ring of the six green feathers was more difficult. They needed to stand on nearly opposite sides of the circle and walk to the third ring with the materials from the hawk and back out to the next position of the green feathers. They needed to do each walk with perfect precision, which was extremely difficult when walking back to the outer ring because they were facing away from each other and there was no sound in the room. They went very slowly so that they could make sure it went without fault.
Lyra went to stand in the center for the next ring and Harry at the first point in the circle of seven. When they were ready, Lyra tapped her staff on the ground and the top of her staff emitted a small orb of darkness that just hovered there. Harry concentrated and sent a beam of light at the orb of shadow. When it hit, a little bit of the shadows leaked out and wrapped themselves around his beam, tracing their way back to him. When they were right about to reach the tip of his staff, he pulled the beam down and tethered it to the feather on the ground. The beam held steady, and the shadow and light twisted and danced up and down its length.
Harry proceeded to repeat the same thing at the next six points along the ring, and upon reaching the final one, the orb in the center began to swirl with a mixture of shadow and light. They both felt a pulse of magic in the air and shivered at the feeling. Lyra left the center, leaving the orb to float where she left it, held in place by the magic Harry had connected to it.
For the golden snidget, they had to practice this one. They needed to run at the same speed and activate each feather exactly one second after the previous one. So even though Harry could run faster, they had to sprint at the exact same speed to accomplish this and not stop to observe the results until the ring was completed.
Standing together at the first location, Harry counted to three on his fingers before they both tapped their staves and started running. As soon as they got to the next point, they didn't stop and just tapped the staves as they were moving. The first feather didn't wait at the second's location like the fourth ring and just zipped by them. By the time they got to the fourth position, the first feather had flown by them again. All of the feathers were flying at incredibly fast speeds by the time they completed the circle. It had only been eight seconds, but it felt much longer.
Stepping out to the circle of the yellow hoohoo feathers, they watched in awe as the golden snidget feathers seemed to be accelerating, leaving trails of golden light behind them, slowly turning into one giant ring of gold with specks from the actual feathers inside.
Wanting to be finished, Harry and Lyra got to their position in the last ring, both of them together next to one of the yellow hoohoo feathers, and activated it. A yellow light bloomed on the spot they were in, with trails of yellow floating upwards into the red sky made from the feather in the center. Suddenly, they could hear a song, like the call of the hoohoo, even though they shouldn't be able to hear anything. Lyra tapped Harry and pointed to her ear and he nodded back. She mouthed the word 'wand' and raised a hand to her ear. Harry assumed that this must be like the music she heard when she first met the hoohoo or got her wand.
They proceeded to walk around the circle together, activating each yellow feather as they went. With each new feather, the music got louder and louder until they finished the ring. Then they reversed their course and the music got quieter with each activation, even though the yellow flames from each grew larger. When they got back to the first position, the music stopped. One of Harry's legs began to buckle under him and he felt weak. He could see Lyra swaying a bit as well, so they moved as quickly as they could back to the entrance tunnel.
They were nearly collapsing as they put their clothes back on. Harry didn't bother with his socks and shoes and Lyra barely got her tights and dress on before they started to stagger towards the exit. They both stumbled out, leaning on their staves, and falling into the arms of the adults waiting for them.
"We're done," Lyra mumbled as Brandt said something to her she didn't understand.
"Just need to sleep now," Harry muttered as his vision darkened and he blacked out.