The Tour
Present Day, Nighttime December 23rd, 1992
Lyra grumbled some more as she and Harry approached the burning feather and the bowl half-filled with blood. The Giver exited his tree and the Usurper dropped down from the canopies above them.
Taking the knife, Harry cut his tongue and let the blood flow into the bowl. The Giver healed it and killed a rodent, then they repeated the same process with Lyra. The four of them activated the blood in the bowl and it bubbled before they painted their faces and tongues with the blood and activated it again.
The Giver nodded to both of them,
§It is good to see both of you.§
§Life has been… uneventful… without you here.§
Lyra smiled,
§It is good to be home,§
§We brought you many things of magic,§
§Our escort, Brandt, says to exchange gifts in two days.§
The Giver smiled, and asked,
§He is the one that you will not speak in front of?§
Harry told them,
§Alastor and Minerva have not told us that he can be trusted.§
The Usurper got impatient,
§What news do you have for me of my quarry?§
§Have you found the place which he resides?§
§Do you need to be reminded of your oath?§
Harry responded angrily,
§I do not need a reminder.§
§The castle is huge!§
§Every couple of feet, there is a secret room.§
§None of them have led us to the King.§
§There is one room that may even be bigger than this entire island!§
§I spend as much of my time as possible searching for the secret chamber.§
Lyra chimed in,
§Harry is right, there are at least nine floors to the castle,§
§We haven't even finished searching for the first one.§
§Some rooms can only be entered on a rainy day or when you are angry or need to hide.§
Looking to The Giver,
§Have you found any other information in the memories as to where it is?§
He nodded,
§I'm not sure how helpful it will be, as I said before, the memories are fragmented.§
§I've seen a long corridor,§
§I've seen water around the entrance,§
§I've seen a crying girl.§
§I saw the crying girl killed by the King.§
Harry looked annoyed,
§Yes, that's not helpful at all.§
The Usurper grumbled in a way that only a giant snake could, and said,
§Then you will return and continue your search.§
Harry grumbled right back.
The Giver asked,
§So what new magic have you learned?§
Lyra perked up,
§We got wands!§
Harry and Lyra took out their wands to show them off. Lyra told them that there were other firebirds in the world, other than the hoohoos. The Giver showed great interest in this. Harry told him about Dumbledore's phoenix and the Ho-eee 'I'iwi from someplace called Hawaii. Harry showed off his wand and told The Giver that it contained the extra Lampong antler branch he had carried before they left and that he still had the black core that remained after the outside had been powdered.
Harry and Lyra started to show all the spells they learned, starting with the wand lighting charms. When they got to the wood-to-metal transfiguration, Lyra hesitated.
She explained,
§My transfigurations sometimes catch fire or explode,§
The other three took a few steps and slithers backward as she placed a twig in front of her. With a focused look, she slowly transformed the stick into a metal spike with just a little bit of smoke. Happy with the result, Harry also performed the transfiguration flawlessly.
Harry picked up a rock, and said,
§We also can turn small objects into birds, but we haven't gotten it perfect just yet.§
He turned to Lyra and tossed her the rock, with a flourish of her wand and precise movements, she incanted,
§Aviflors!§
There was no smoke, no fire, no explosion. The rock simply transformed into a tiny version of an adult hoohoo and flew around the clearing before landing next to her.
Everyone was staring at the tiny bird in shock, but Harry and Lyra were the most surprised. Harry congratulated his sister,
§That was incredible! You did it!§
To the Usurper and The Giver,
§She hasn't been able to cast it properly yet, her birds don't fly and they normally explode.§
The Giver thought about it and said,
§Maybe it is the language of the snakes that is the cause.§
Harry and Lyra thought about it, and she responded,
§Maybe, but then why did my wood-to-metal still smoke?§
Harry told her,
§You didn't use an incantation for that.§
§Since the incantation takes the place of the Concentration for the spell, maybe the parseltongue helps adjust the other aspects of the spell?§
The Giver nodded,
§Harry will need to teach me more about the methods you use,§
§I will also like to find a way to acquire a wand for myself.§
§If you have made this much improvement over your staves, maybe my father's staff could do with a replacement.§
§Have you learned any other spells?§
The children demonstrated the locking and levitation charm and told them about the different plants they had worked with and the potions they had completed. Harry told The Giver they had brought many ingredients for potions that he would give him in a few days with the other presents.
In the end, Lyra told them,
§We also learned how to make fire,§
She nodded to Harry who pointed his wand at the pit where hoohoo feather was burning, and incanted,
§Incendio!§
A very precise stream of fire pulsed from his wand and seemed to wrap around the pit, like a snake circling its prey. The shock at precision of the spell shocked Harry and he ended the spell quickly
§I think the parseltongue does help with the spell.§
Lyra nodded,
§I'm getting extra classes to control my fire since it tends to be too powerful to control.§
§Harry's is normally a bit weak and hard to be precise with.§
§If the parseltongue does help this much, then I wonder what it will do for me?§
§I wanted to try to burn down the Creeping Death while we are here,§
§I want to try to do it like this.§
The Giver knew about her intentions to do so but was hesitant to let her try.
§You need to be careful.§
§We don't know how that tree will react to an attack.§
Harry suggested,
§I can try to attack it with my magic,§
§Since I have a longer range.§
§We will see how it reacts to that.§
The Giver nodded,
§That sounds acceptable.§
§The Usurper and I will visit you in two days' time.§
§We will come when you are exchanging gifts.§
§Is there anything else?§
No one else had anything to say, so the three with staves tapped them on the ground and ended the spell. Then came the unpleasant vomiting for them as they puked blood on the ground and passed out.
The Usurper, as usual, picked up Harry and Lyra onto its coils and allowed them a more restful night's sleep. The Giver was always comfortable with the ground.
When they woke up in the morning, Lyra went to get a shovel to clean up the blood, but Harry stopped her.
"We have a better way now, remember?" he said with a smirk.
The Giver was about to go back into his tree, but Lyra stopped him, "We learned one more spell we forgot about."
He gave a grunt and turned back around to watch, the Usurper also picked up its head to watch.
Lyra pointed her wand at her patch of dried blood, and with a twist and a pull, incanted, "Sanguinesco!"
About a quarter of the blood vanished. The Giver's eyes opened wide at the effect. She and Harry proceeded to cast the spell a few more times to vanish their puddles and The Giver's as well.
The Giver prodded the spot where he was with his staff and told Harry,
§That is a very useful spell.§
Harry translated his comment to Lyra who said, "We learned it after Harry stabbed another student who attacked him."
"He can't understand you anymore," Harry told his sister, who had forgotten that the spell had ended. Then translated what she said to The Giver.
The Giver gave a strange smile and nodded in approval, then just proceeded to go back into his home, disappearing into the black, smokey door that covered the entrance.
They made a quick hike back to the village and had breakfast with their family. Whispers was enjoying a lot of the attention he was getting and seemed to be telling many stories of his adventures to the other Hidden children. When they had finished eating, they collected Whispers and headed down towards the beach.
When they arrived, all of the adults were waiting for them. Dougal was laying in the sun on a lounger, wearing his favorite straw hat, and a pair of gold-rimmed sunglasses. Whispers ran over to him and inspected the dark glasses as Dougal showed them off.
"Looks like Whispers might get another clothing accessory obsession," Newt said while watching them. "Though Dougal just got this one from Nenita," he tilted his head towards the woman, who was wearing the same glasses.
"So what is on our schedule today?" Kailee asked the children.
Harry spoke up, "We can show you around the village, then take a hike to the garbage beach, then visit the buffalo and the deer, then go to the hot springs in the evening."
"Is there any chance you can show us the scary tree?" Thao asked.
Harry and Lyra shared a look.
"Maybe at the end of our visit," Lyra told them, hoping that it would be dead and gone before they left.
Harry reached into his pouch and pulled out some pieces of the shed of the Usurper. "These come from the Usurper. I recommend using a sticking charm to put them on your hands and ankles when we walk around. There are snakes everywhere, but when you have these, they will stay away from you."
"What about the two of you?" Than asked.
"We are emissaries of the Usurper," Harry informed them and pulled out his staff. "I will also be carrying my staff which is covered in the shed. Most of the snakes know Lyra's scent and know she will kill them if they attack."
All of the adults gave the tiny blonde girl a reappraisal at this statement. Harry called Whispers and attached a couple of pieces of the shed to his body with sticking charms, then did the same to Dougal.
"The snakes can still smell the Hidden, so when we aren't hunting them for meat, we make sure they will flee from them," Lyra explained.
Newt looked interested, "The demiguises will hunt the snakes?"
"There are a few who will," Lyra told him, "the best are Jared and Pants." We made spears for them out of plastic pipes and sharpened glass. Their future sense makes them incredible hunters."
"I'd imagine it would," Tina said, with a sharpened look. "Dougal has always been incredibly passive, so it never even occurred to me."
Brandt was busy scribbling as much as he could into his journal, and Nestor spoke up, "Well I'm sure you can tell us more as we walk, let's get this tour underway."
As they started walking, Nenita pulled out a piece of parchment and an extremely long red feather with a multi-colored plume at the end. She tapped the parchment with the quill and they both hovered in place next to her as they walked. When they got to the fields, there were a few of the Hidden tending to the crops, nearly all of them vanished as the humans walked through them. When they looked closely, there were still small disturbances in the soil that showed they were still working, just without being observed.
One large cobra approached them, but then screamed (in Parseltongue) and fled. Shortly after, Flare approached the group and caused most of the wizards to draw their wands when it continued to slither right up to Harry.
Lyra motioned to them to put their wands down as Harry approached the extra-large cobra. "This is Flare," he told them. "He was the first to start guarding the crops, and is not a threat." Harry reached out and pet the snake, and it leaned into him to absorb a bit of his body heat.
Newt looked on with great interest and asked, "Would it be alright if I were to perform a spell on the two of you?"
Harry nodded and reached over and gripped the snake around the neck, just below the head. Newt muttered a little under his breath as he drew a red circle with his wand above their heads. When it was complete, it fell around them and glowed, turning gold, and then melting away.
"I thought so," Newt said. "This King Cobra is bonded to you as a familiar."
"He is not a king," Harry told Newt firmly. "He is a lesser snake."
"You mean he is not magical?" Newt asked. "The name King Cobra is the name given to his kind by muggles."
"Fine, just do not address him as King on this Island, or the Usurper will kill him." Harry was very serious.
"We did that test with Whispers at the ministry..." Lyra said.
Brandt interrupted her, and glared at her, "We did the test at the ministry in September and determined that Whispers is Miss Black's bonded familiar."
Tina caught the interaction and rolled her eyes, "Sure, he is. You did it for protection?" Brandt sighed, knowing she caught him and nodded. "Don't worry, Dougal is also Newt's bonded familiar, through the ICW." She had used air quotes when saying 'bonded familiar.'
"What does that mean for Flare?" Harry asked.
"Just that you will be accountable for any crimes he commits, and that if anyone attacks him, you will be able to treat it as an attack on yourself," Newt informed Harry. "I will personally register it with the ICW." Looking to the Steward, he said, "Brandt, be sure to take photos of the two of them and Flare independently before we leave the island."
Harry and Lyra proceeded to tell them all about growing their first group of mango trees, and how that developed into more trees, and berry bushes, and the field further away, of fallen trees, that was their bug farm. Newt reminded Harry that they should introduce the demiguises to the concept of fertilizer and the flobberworms in the next few days.
When they got into the village, most of the Hidden vanished, with the exception of Chief, Cynthia & Hannah, Charlie, and Teacher. Newt looked at Hannah with adoring interest. Brandt was admiring and taking pictures of the Seeing Staff in the center of the village trees.
"I've only seen a few demiguise babies," Newt told them. "This one must be close to a year old?"
"She was born maybe a month after we left, so approximately four months old," Lyra told him. "Harry named her after Hannah since her mother is Cynthia."
"Can you take pictures of them?" Harry asked Brandt. I want to take them back to Hannah and her mother.
Brandt approached cautiously and knew to wait a moment when he saw her eyes glow blue as he raised his camera. When she was relaxed, he took several photos of the mother and her child.
"Do you know how they choose their mates?" Tina asked the children.
"Mates?" Lyra asked
"Who they decide to have children with," she said delicately.
"The village leader normally has just one... mate," Lyra told her. "Though the others seem to pair off regularly with the rest of the tribe depending on how much room there is to grow. Occasionally the leader will pick another mate, but will return to his regular one." She thought for a moment. "Whispers is a good example, Chief is his father, and when he was the leader, he would normally have children with Cynthia. However, in Whispers's case, his mother is Teacher who is now only having children with Charlie. Even though Chief is no longer the leader, he is still only with Cynthia." She thought about all of that again in her head like she was making connections between the tribe, and then nodded. Harry nodded as well.
"That's fascinating," Newt told them. "I have only gotten to observe them in small groups, so I never knew about large group dynamics."
"Can you tell us more about the Seeing Staff?" Brandt asked.
Harry nodded, "After Lyra and I built our staves, we considered the possibility of making a staff for Whispers. We couldn't find any materials on the island that they could interact with to produce any magic, so we tried making a staff using their hair… One moment," Harry ran over to one of the trees and quickly scaled the side, and went inside the shelter at the top.
A minute later, he jumped from the side and caught one of the hanging vines with one hand, swinging to the ground. His other hand was carrying a small bamboo rod that had been coated with some kind of darker substance. Whispers grabbed it out of Harry's hand and his eyes glowed blue for a moment, and then he set it back down.
"We found that this little staff we made for Whispers allowed his future sense to be slightly longer, but he doesn't like carrying it around. We took it from the bamboo that grows near the other mountain, and stuffed it full of Hidden hair, then treated it with the same potion we did for our staves."
Lyra continued where her brother left off, "When we couldn't convince Whispers to carry it around, we just planted it in the center of the village. The other Hidden seemed to use it now and then for a few seconds, so we experimented by creating a larger one. That one was around ten feet tall, and Chief and Charlie seemed to be able to use it to see further into the future, while the younger Hidden would get headaches if they used it for too long."
Remembering the story they were told when they met, Tina added on, "And then you built this one after the incident with the poachers, right?"
Harry and Lyra both nodded with grim expressions.
"And this one is completely stuffed with demiguise hair?" Brandt asked, receiving nods from the children. "What happened to the ten-foot staff?"
"It's in Mango's village now," Kailee answered for them. "He took it with him when he started building there."
Harry and Lyra showed them around a bit more but didn't take them up into any of the shelters in the canopies of the trees. After they were shown the various food storage they had in the village, Harry and Lyra started to lead them on the long walk to the garbage beach. On the way, Harry picked a few of the green scaly fruit for everyone to eat. Nestor told him it was called cherimoya and used a spell to neatly remove the poisonous skin and the seeds, making it safe to eat. After being at Hogwarts, he knew that the sweet flavor that they had was like custard. He placed a few in his pouch to take back with him.
When they arrived at the garbage beach, he and Lyra showed Newt, Tina, and Brandt the warehouses that the warders had built for them to store the various materials they found after the big storms. Nestor showed them another area they had built for themselves to help the demiguises and assemble tools they needed from the junk. They were trying to avoid bringing in any materials they couldn't find from the garbage, though the Hidden were quite industrious in their ideas. However, most of their creations were just to play and have fun rather than being useful for anything.
Following the beach, they climbed the cliff to the north of it, to end up on a plateau where they found a herd of Philippine deer grazing. They were a bit skittish at the sight of so many humans, but Harry seemed to calm them down. Still, they continued to move away when anyone got too close. Harry said that there wasn't much interaction with them because they didn't allow anyone to come very close.
Following the plateau, they arrived at a spot where the buffalo were grazing. Brandt began taking a large number of pictures of the animals. Harry warned everyone not to approach them, as they would not run when confronted, choosing to attack instead. The group separated a bit as they took a look at the miniature buffalo from many sides. Harry went along with Brandt, Nestor, and Nenita, while Lyra went with the others.
When they were further away from the others, Brandt asked Harry, "These are interesting animals, other than the horns, have you noticed anything magical about them?"
"Like what?" he asked.
"Anything magical," he shrugged, and started listing off magical characteristics, "Do they fly? Breathe fire? Run fast? Show feats of strength?"
Harry answered no to all of those, but then said, "I saw one push a really big rock once to get at some bugs underneath."
Brandt spoke as quietly as he could, "How big of a rock?"
Harry walked to the edge of the plateau and looked down, pointing, "That one."
Brandt walked over to the edge and looked down, to see a boulder at the bottom of the valley. His eyes widened at the size of it, it must be close to 10 tons. He took a few pictures of the large rock, then scribbled a bunch of notes in his journal, and looked over towards Nestor and Nenita. They were just looking off the other side of the plateau at the water while she was pointing toward something.
Looking back to Harry, he asked, "Is there anything else interesting about these buffalo?"
Harry made a thinking face and then said, "I've used their manure in potions. Though it only works when it's fresh. After it dries, it loses its effect."
"What kind of potion?" Brandt asked.
"It's part of the potion to make our staves more durable," Harry said with a shrug. "I wanted to use some kind of manure in the potion, as it has been processed by a living body, and ended up choosing the buffalo. Having been digested would make it the most durable part of whatever was eaten, and I could transfer that strength to my staff."
"And that helped you dent a bludger with the antler, as the rest of your staff didn't snap in half from the impact," Brandt nodded. "The antler is one thing, but I had been wondering how the rest of the staff held up to the impact."
"That sounds right," Harry said innocently.
"If you gathered more of the fresh manure, I could put a preservation charm on it," Brandt told him. "Then could you try and make the same potion at Hogwarts?"
Harry nodded quickly with a smile. The hardest part of the potion he had made was getting it back to the other side of the island before it dried out. "I've also been thinking of a few ways to improve the potion since we got to school, but I had no way to test it."
"Sounds amazing, after you learn the charm, we can come back here and collect some." He smiled down at Harry, "The preservation charm is great to learn, I don't know whether it will be Professor Snape or Sprout that will teach it, but it probably won't be until next year."
"Could you teach it to me?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I'm not sure, but I'll give it a shot in the evening one day. You can use it to bring some of those scaly custard apples back to school, as well."
Harry looked excited at the possibility of learning such a useful spell. Most of the potion ingredients he used on the island would go bad in just a few days, or even a few hours. To be able to keep them for longer would save endless hours of searching for fresh ingredients. Harry thought about the Potions classroom at school, all of the ingredients there had to be preserved somehow. Since they were constantly taking ingredients out of their bottles or cabinets, the charm must be on the containers themselves.
He asked Brandt, "Is it possible to cast the charm on a container? So that you don't need to cast it on the ingredient or potion?"
Brandt smiled at Harry's deductive reasoning, "Yes, it is. Though now you are getting into runic studies and enchanting. That is above your current level of studies."
That annoyed Harry a bit, but he remembered that Hermione had started studying runes in her first year with Penny. He would ask the Ravenclaw girls about it back at Hogwarts. He wanted to talk to Penny anyways about figuring out how to make the aurora wool glow without his staff.
After spending a little more time observing the buffalo, Nestor and his people apparated back to the beach, while the rest of them walked, as Dougal didn't like to be apparated. They encountered a few snakes along the way who fled from them upon tasting the scent of the Usurper. When they arrived, Nestor had prepared an evening meal for them consisting of many local dishes. They had chicken stew, rice, and beef steak with caramelized onions.
For dessert, Trao and Tran fixed up something they called Halo-Halo. It translated as 'mix-mix' and was a mélange of crushed ice, nata de coco, beans, sago pearls, jelly, sweetened saba banana, sweet potato, coconut, ube (purple yam) jam, evaporated milk, leche flan, ube ice cream, jackfruit, and fried pinipig (flattened immature rice grains).
Dougal and Whispers both loved it and went crazy to get seconds. After dessert, Harry suggested that they all visit the hot springs before going to sleep. Trao and Tran made about twenty more of the desserts for any of the demiguises they met at the hot springs. Brandt gave swim clothes to both Harry and Lyra as everyone else changed into theirs for the walk-up. Nestor confessed, on the way, that they hadn't yet actually gone into the springs, only measured the water quality and magic saturation. The others said they had tried to visit a few times but were a bit hesitant to get in because there were always other demiguises there when they arrived.
Just like they said, there were already quite a few other demiguises soaking in the springs when they arrived; including Chief, Pants, Mango, and Teacher. Chief got out and approached Dougal raising his hands to initiate a challenge. Newt looked to Harry for approval, who just shrugged as Chief was no longer in charge of anything, and let them start the staring contest. When it passed five minutes, they turned their attention to the others and Thao started handing out the desserts. Nenita snagged one to give to Chief when the contest was over. Everyone else slipped into the springs to soak in the warm water, letting out sounds of contentment as they sunk in.
Newt had started his stopwatch at the beginning of the contest and held up his hand when they passed the ten-minute mark. A few of the Hidden started crowding around Than and Thao, bothering them for another, which they didn't have. Kailee and Tina weren't even paying attention to any of it, and just soaked with their eyes shut in one of the further pools. When the twenty-minute mark came up, Newt waved his hand and displayed the time. Now everyone was paying attention, even the other demiguises. Just as the time was getting to twenty-five minutes, Dougal started to raise one of his hands, while not breaking eye contact. When his hand was fully raised, he reached over and lightly slapped Chief on the shoulder.
Chief jumped up, looking around like he had been punched by an unseen attacker. Then just stared in amazement at Dougal's hand, still raised in the air. Nenita reached over and passed the melting dessert to Chief. He took one bite and then passed it to Dougal, bowing his head in respect. Dougal happily accepted it, ate what was left, and then joined Nenita in the spring. They both let out a noise of contentment as they slipped into the warm water.
Tran looked over to Harry, and asked, "Hey, Harry, do you think the demis would let us use the springs all the time?"
Harry didn't think they ever had a problem with it but still said, "I'm not sure, they can be territorial at times. You could probably try bringing more of the halo-halo snacks whenever you come. That might help."
"Sweet," he said happily, then reached over and gave his brother a high five.
"We used to relax like this at least every three days when we lived here," Lyra told everyone. "I just realized I was about to say, 'two or three times a week,' but we didn't even have weeks back then."
"That must have been quite nice," said Tina, from the pool she was sharing with Kailee.
"Now, do you see why we want a hot spring at Hogwarts?" Harry asked Newt.
"I still don't think it would be allowed," he replied.
Harry took a glance over at Dougal who was floating on his back. Tiny movements from his toes and fingers were propelling him in a circle. "Take a look at Dougal," he told Newt. "Wouldn't you want him to be this happy all the time?"
"Yeah, Professor Scamander," Kailee spoke up, "Look at Dougal," she giggled and put her head back down.
"Fine, I'll speak with the headmaster again when we get back. I'll try to think of another approach to make the request."
Brandt had just been listening to the banter and he smiled, then said, "If I may make a suggestion? Maybe just ask for the Scamander quidditch lockers to be built? It is my understanding that they all have a jacuzzi for the teams. Maybe later you can get something in the castle, but this would be a good first step."
"I can pitch that to the headmaster, all we would need now is a quidditch team," Newt said.
Harry groaned, and looked over at Lyra who was staring at him with large eyes and a big smile. He just closed his eyes and sank underwater. When he came back up, he noticed the sun was starting to set and the Hidden were starting to get out. One of the younger ones, who obviously had a good memory, ran over to where Lyra was and started to point at her staff. She climbed out of the water and cast a warming charm on the young one. The water steamed off his fur, and he was left with his hair all puffy, like some kind of strange, silver poodle.
The others laughed at the fluffy demiguise, but then just lined up for Lyra to dry them off. Eventually, the other humans asked her to do it as well, despite that most of them knew how to do it themselves.
They walked back towards the village, relaxed and happy. When they arrived at the village, Charlie came out to greet them and grumbled unhappily, probably because he had to watch after their homes when the others went to relax.
As the kids were climbing up in a tree to sleep, Brandt told them, "When you get up in the morning, come to the beach. We will open all the presents, so bring the whole tribe."
Harry and Lyra looked back at everyone and nodded. Then Lyra turned back and said, "The Giver and the Usurper will also join us tomorrow for presents."
The adults all looked anxious to meet the most mysterious residents of the island and continued their walk back to the beach to sleep for the night.