The Shadow Vampire

Like most days this time of year, the next day started sunny and warm, without a cloud in the sky. After the events of the previous day, it was decided unanimously that Sunday should just be a day off. There had been too much going on the past few days even without Lucius's release from prison. When Lyra hadn't come back down from the mountain by breakfast, Harry gathered many of their family at the beach and laid out in the sun. Harry also finally got to play some music for the Hidden, which got mixed results.

All of the ones he had invited to the beach seemed to have similar reactions to every song he put on. They did not like rock music at all. Every single one of them seemed to dislike Guns n Roses and would move as far away from the gramophone as they could when he played similar music. Newt and Kailee were observing the process and taking notes on their behavior to each song Harry put on.

Brandt continued to try to get Harry to check on his sister, but he just told him that she'd come down when she was ready. Brandt wouldn't go up himself due to his very legitimate fear of death by fire, so he just bugged Harry about it every fifteen minutes or so. Finally, a little before eleven, Nenita pointed out Lyra flying down, her platinum blonde hair trailing after her and sparkling in the sunlight. Brandt fired off a small firework with his wand to direct her toward the beach.

She landed and ran up to Harry to give him a big hug. They held each other for nearly a minute before letting go. The adults had gathered around meanwhile.

"So what did I miss?" she asked while smiling at everyone.

"You made Newt's list," Tina told her. To her look of confusion, "My husband keeps a running list of all the most amazing animal interactions he has seen in our travels. You playing with the hoohoos made #5 on the list."

"Well, I'm going to do that all the time now, I can't wait to fly more." Her eyes got a bit watery, "I've been dreaming of flying since a little after I met Harry."

She reached over and gave him another big hug. Harry knew what she was referring to about wanting to fly after meeting him. Since they came back to England, she would read the scene in The Hobbit, over and over, where the eagles rescued everyone from the wargs.

"Well, today, we are just taking some time off," Brandt informed her. "Harry is playing music for the demiguises, and the rest of us are catching up on some work. Tomorrow, we are going to the mainland to do some shopping, and then on Tuesday is the meeting with the Filipino Ministry. We will be staying with Mr. Balindong's family for the night."

"Who's going to be here on the island?" Lyra asked, repeating Harry's worries from the night before.

Nestor went over with her how the ward stones worked and told her about how most times there was no one on the island anyways. It didn't reassure her as it had with Harry. Luckily, Whispers decided to change the topic of conversation by scampering over to them and waving a piece of flobberworm jerky at them.

"The flobberworms!" Newt exclaimed. "I nearly forgot about them."

"What flobberworms?" Kailee asked.

Harry explained, "We learned about making fertilizer in school, and I have a project for making demiguise fertilizer. I figured we could set up the same thing here to help the Hidden with everything they're growing."

"Do you think they could learn to make it?" Kailee asked.

"They don't need to do much," Harry shrugged. "I taught Whispers easily enough to use the toilet in less than a week, and then when I started the fertilizer project, he just started going there instead. And he gets a limitless supply of flobberworms as well."

"Well that's interesting, but will they be able to apply the fertilizer on their own?" Kailee asked.

Harry frowned, he had been doing all of that for their plants at school. "I guess I could get The Giver to help, and teach them. I'll need to talk with him."

Brandt had an idea at that moment and cursed that the children hadn't learned occlumency yet, so he could communicate it to them without the others knowing. He would need to send a letter to Lord Black when they were on the mainland and ask him to arrange a tutor as soon as possible. This island could be a goldmine in the right hands, though right now, those hands were small and a bit naive. Best to just help them grow as much as he could.

"How did you want to construct the containers for the fertilizer?" Brandt asked them.

Lyra answered, "I figured we could get some material from the garbage beach, and use magic to help put them together. With brooms, it shouldn't be hard to transport what we need."

"Why not transfigure or conjure something?" Thao asked.

"Could we?" Harry asked. "Minerva drilled into our heads that even permanent transfigurations aren't actually permanent. I wouldn't want the fertilizer containers to vanish at the wrong time."

Newt smiled, "I'm going to mention that to your professor when we get back so she can properly award you points." He chuckled, "Yes we should use real material to build the containers. Let's head over to collect things in an hour. I need to dig out our flying carpet."

"You have a flying carpet?" Brandt asked, then continued, "Of course, you have a flying carpet."

"While brooms are great for speed and sports, if you want to relax or travel in style, nothing beats a carpet ride," Tina said with a smile. "Plus, we can put the record player on it and listen to music as we go. I've got the perfect album to start us off."

Harry and Lyra shared a big smile. Music AND flying? How amazing would that be?

An hour later, Lyra had changed into new clothes and a team of six Hidden led by Whispers and Weaver had rebraided all of her hair, while everyone else had gotten prepared for their excursion. Harry collected the dragonhide gloves for himself, Lyra, and Whispers. Before Hogwarts they had to be very careful while handling the various trash that washed up on the beach to avoid getting cut, now they would still need to do that but it would be safer with gloves. Being herbologists, Than and Thao provided gloves for everyone else, the only one without gloves now was Dougal, but he would probably relax most of the time anyway.

Tina had brought out a large carpet and rolled it out on the beach. It was quite long and had enough space on it for four lounge chairs, a small table, and a little more. It was primarily red with designs on a square border and other designs within that. Everything was symmetrical in both color and shape across every dimension of the carpet. Each corner had small tassels hanging off them, though on the front the tassels were much longer.

While Nestor was loading up the record player, Dougal just claimed one of the chairs on the back end without hesitation, bringing along a large beach hat with a swirling pink color that made it look like peppermint candy and his new sunglasses. Nenita had the black hat she had previously borrowed from the demiguise and claimed the seat next to him.

Whispers very hesitantly climbed onto the same chair as the older Hidden, stopping every two seconds for his eyes to glow, and then moved again. Tina and Nestor claimed the front two chairs while Newt sat directly on the rug and called out, "Is everyone ready?"

The rest of the group started to rise on their brooms as Newt took hold of the long tassels on the front end and made a whipping motion with both of them and the whole carpet started to rise in the air.

Amazingly enough, none of the people or things on the carpet sunk at all, the only parts of the carpet that moved were the areas that didn't have anything on them, and the tassels on the back end. When they were up well above the trees, they started to move forward slowly.

Whispers was running around, back and forth, on the carpet. He would peer off the edge and take glimpses into the future, then jump back and run to another side. Harry and Lyra were watching him closely but seemed to relax when he didn't seem like he was going to jump off. After a minute, Tina stood up and walked to the table with the record player and placed a record on top, and dropped the needle.

What played to them as they flew, was a great song with incredible guitar, that was all about flying on a magic carpet.

"Do muggles know about magic carpets?" Lyra asked as she pulled in closer to the flying rug.

"Not really," Newt said, as he steered the carpet with the tassels. "They know about magic, but don't believe it exists, like just imaginary stories. Also, this song isn't really about magic carpets, it's just a metaphor."

"A metaphor for what?" Lyra asked.

"We'll tell you when you're older," Tina interrupted.

"Is it like the Marvin Gaye album that Alastor wouldn't let us take from my vault?" Harry asked as he dipped in close.

"No, but it's for a similar reason," Tina said with a small laugh and a smile.

They all continued flying at a leisurely pace along the coastline and arrived at the garbage beach in four songs on the album.

The larger pieces of debris were not really of much use to the Hidden. The lighter ones, like the plastic paneling, had taken a lot of work to drag back to the camp to be used for shelters in the canopies of the trees, but many of the larger pieces left unused in the sheds that the warding teams had built for the Hidden when they were on the island.

Harry and Lyra tirelessly practiced their levitation spells, moving many large pieces out of the sheds and placing them on a large net that Brandt had conjured for them. They tested the weight at one point by connecting the sides of the net between two brooms and seeing if it would lift. It almost worked, so they had to remove some and try again.

When they found the right weight, Brandt conjured three more large nets and they filled up those as well. This time, the others helped as well as the children were getting a bit tired. They teamed up: Than with Thao, Brandt with Kailee, and Harry with Lyra. The last net was secured underneath the flying carpet. The carpet made no sense to Harry, as with a broom, the stick was rigid so it could support weight when it flew, but the rug should be folding and bending with all the weight that was being put on it from the top and bottom. He didn't like the answer of 'magic' when he asked how things worked. For now, he'd just have to accept that answer and try to learn about it in the future.

The flight back was much slower with the added weight and ended up taking twice as long. The slow flying made Lyra bored and Harry had to tell her a few times to slow down so their load didn't spill. They did get to listen to the entire other side of the Steppenwolf album they had been listening to before plus Magic Carpet Ride again from the side they had been on before.

They lowered the four nets of parts nearby to where the village had the pits they were currently being used for them to relieve themselves. Then they started construction. Harry and Lyra weren't much use at this time since the magics to fuse the various materials together into large bins were well beyond their half a year of magical education. However, six adults with Nenita and Dougal 'supervising' the process managed to construct four large bins, with reinforced sides, and deposit chutes, completed in less than thirty minutes.

Harry and Lyra had been a little remiss in their assignment from Augustus Stevens. He had told them to be casting spells on everything, even the ocean, and they hadn't been doing much of anything besides spending time with their family and flying. So now, they made sure the adults let them fill all the bins on their own with magic.

They couldn't levitate much dirt at a time, so they started with everything that had been in and around the pits, taking many breaks to recharge and munching on flobberworm jerky the whole time. By dinner time, they were very hungry, and they had only one of the four bins full of soil, and a big hole in the ground next to it.

Following dinner, they added around thirty flobberworms to the mix and showed Charlie and a few of the others how to make a deposit. They were very curious about the flobberworms, but Harry told them not to eat them. He told them that Than or Thao would give them some to eat now and then. When they multiplied too much, the two brothers would have to remove the extra ones and give them to Charlie to eat and give to others.

The next day, the children hesitantly said a temporary goodbye to Whispers while Newt seemed to reassure both himself and Dougal that everything would be ok when he left his friend on the island with the demiguise tribe and boarded the boat back to the mainland. Much quicker than before, they were able to open up the sails on the ship and build up their speed to cross the ocean back to the mainland. When they got into shallower waters and started seeing other boats, they had to furl the dragon-wing sails and turn on the motor to enter the port.

After disembarking from the ship, they didn't go to a car but instead headed for a small shop close to the dock that had many strange fish skeletons all over the side of the building. An old man was sitting out front who appeared to be blind, his eyes entirely white.

When they got closer the man looked up towards Nestor and gave him a nod, with the door next to him swinging open. When they got inside, there was just an empty room with a large fireplace on the wall and a pot filled with floo powder on a pedestal.

Nestor turned back to the group, "Ok, my team is going to go with me to the office. We need to report in and file some papers. Nenita is going to go with the rest of you to the Manilla Bazaar to do some shopping. She'll probably pull you over to the muggle side as well. If she does, be sure to put your wands away or wear long sleeves over your holsters. Try to avoid disturbing the muggles, as we don't have many obliviators to respond to infractions very quickly. We will meet this evening at my family's villa. I will tell my mother to expect you all."

The group nodded and Nestor lit up the fire and threw a large handful of floo powder in while saying, "Ministry, Balindong Office!" All four of them walked into the erupting flames and vanished.

Nenita turned back to them, "We will start at the Manilla Magic Bazaar. It will be a very long floo journey and we will end up arriving in a pool of water. Don't worry about throwing up, the water will be cleaned immediately." That made Harry and Lyra a bit nervous, though everyone else seemed to be used to this kind of thing.

She spoke specifically to Harry and Lyra, "Don't worry about it, magic may be uncomfortable at times, but it always is more convenient. When I throw the powder in, make sure to start walking into the fire with everyone else." They nodded along.

The six of them stepped up in front of the fireplace and Nenita took a big handful of the powder, throwing it in and calling out, "Manilla Magic Bazaar!"

Brandt kept his hands on the backs of Harry and Lyra as they walked into the green flames that came out of the fireplace, sucking them into the floo network. The spinning that was for whatever reason inherent in floo and portkey travel seemed to stretch for nearly a minute before they were spat out of the end into a large pool of water.

The first thing that Lyra thought as her face hit the water was falling off the ship with Harry, and she started to panic. Even as she felt hands grabbing at her to pull her back above the surface, all she could think of was, 'don't look down… don't look at the falling containers… don't look at the bodies.' Finally, a spell hit her from somewhere and she popped above the surface and floated above the water while struggling like she was still under it. Her head was spinning and could hear Harry calling out for her as she floated down to solid land.

The rest of the group was next to her and Nenita was apologizing, "I'm so sorry, I thought she could swim. You both lived on an island."

"We can swim," Harry told her. Then he asked Lyra, who was recovering slowly, "What happened?"

Slowing her breathing down, little by little, she managed to mumble out, "The ship… it felt like falling."

It took Harry a second to make the connection, but then his eyes went wide. It was just like when he was in Filch's office, but without the water.

"Ok, no more water. Next time it will just be solid ground," he reassured his sister. "We're safe."

Finally, she got up and looked around, everyone was just staring at her. They were in a small room with a fireplace perched on the edge of a large circular pool, with a single door on the opposite side.

She looked over to Nenita, and asked, "We can do magic here, right?"

After getting a nod, she pulled out her staff and tapped it on the ground to place a warming charm over everyone, as they were still damp from the arrival pool. As soon as the water had steamed away, Tina cast a spell that got rid of the orange glow over all of them and they ventured through the door.

They were greeted by bright colors and a large circular plaza with a statue in the middle of some dragon-like creature with a glowing white orb in its mouth. Along the side they had just come from were many doors, the same as theirs was, presumably other floor connection points. The far side had six paths that led off away from their arrival point. People were moving about everywhere, not packed, but enough that they would have to avoid bumping into others as they moved around.

Nenita informed them, "This is Bakunawa Plaza, if we get separated, we will meet back here. The paths only go two ways, so anyone can point you back here." Brandt fished out a few more of the warning vials he had before and passed them to Harry and Lyra.

Looking at both her husband and then Nenita, Tina asked, "Bakunawa, that's the name of one of the world serpents, right?"

She nodded, "Maybe, but it is only a myth. Bakunawa is said to be the cause of eclipses, earthquakes, rains, and wind. The stories also say that it devours the moon, hence the statue here."

Harry interjected, "But you've said you've seen the world serpent, right Newt? Your number three sighting?"

Newt nodded, "Indeed, I have, but not that one. There are supposedly four world serpents that are known in recent history. Bakunawa hasn't been seen by anyone for nearly a thousand years and is said to live deep in the oceans. In Norse legends, there is a similar serpent known as Jörmungandr, who might be the same creature or might be just another who hasn't been seen in a long time. There is an air serpent that lives in South America and is rarely seen by anyone other than the priests that guard it. A fire serpent is only assumed to exist just due to the natural balance of the elements, but has never been seen."

With all the talk of serpents, Harry and Lyra both gave a quick look to Tina, who just gave a small nod back to them.

Newt continued, "In Australia, there is a nomadic tribe of Aboriginals, native to the land, who celebrate the coming of an earth serpent, also known as The Rainbow Serpent. This is because it lives deep in the earth, and when it surfaces, will nearly always bring water and create a lake or river in the spot where it surfaces. Every generation of the tribe has a seer in their tribe who can predict when and where it will surface. I spent time with them when I was younger and got to witness the event."

As Newt had been speaking, Nenita had been slowly guiding the group over to a table set up in front of the six paths heading into the bazaar. When Newt finished speaking he looked at her and the table which had a small golden die on it.

"Thank you for the lesson Mr. Scamander, I didn't know about the others. However, back to the market here, there is no organization. Nothing is near anything else, there is no map, and occasionally the shops move around. So someone decided to just set up this table so people can randomly pick a path. Once we are inside, we can always ask the shops for specific places to get things."

She picked up the golden die and gave it a roll, it stopped on the side with two dots. They proceeded down the second path from the left. They had only passed a few shops when someone jumped out in front of Brandt and said, "Hey, my friend!"

Brandt jumped backward and looked at him, "I don't know you."

Nenita rounded on them and said, "He's just saying hello, everyone greets people that way, particularly foreigners."

"Yes, yes, this is true," the shopkeeper said. "Let me apologize, come in, and I will pour you something to drink."

A bit cautious, but with the promise of a free drink, Brandt led the group into the shop, which looked to be a boutique clothing store. The clerk brought the adults over to the counter while Harry and Lyra started flitting around the store.

"My name is Waylon, what would everyone like to drink?" he started, as he opened up a large cabinet filled with liquor.

Tina shrugged and said, "Well, since you're offering, I think we'd all enjoy a glass of Tuba."

Waylon smiled, "You do not look local, have you spent much time here?" He reached up and grabbed a large unmarked bottle filled with milky white liquid.

"We've been around," Tina remarked casually.

Waylon poured all of their drinks, ending with Brandt, and asked him, "So, you're traveling with the parents and the kids?"

Nenita laughed, "It's far more complicated than that, the children are a celebrity and an heiress to an old family, the two over here are a world-renowned author and adventurer plus his wife and muscle, my friend here is just the minder and tutor for the children, and I happened to land the role of tour guide for the day while my boyfriend is at the Ministry catching up on work."

Waylon looked back and forth between everyone looking for any of them to laugh. Tina was smirking at being described as the muscle. Finding no signs of deception, he just poured himself a small glass and they raised them for a toast. The liquor was sweet, but very strong, and tasted like coconuts. It was quite delicious.

"So what are you shopping for today?"

"We're just wandering, though the children have an important meeting tomorrow," Brandt informed the man. "I already had their outfits picked out, but if you've got anything formal that could also be construed as vaguely threatening or imposing, that would be nice to have with a local touch."

"Maybe something with a classic style, dark colors, blacks, and reds. Let's take a look around."

Taking his glass with them he started to lead them around the shop and show them various styles. Eventually, they found Harry and Lyra who had picked out some warm-weather clothing for themselves. That continued to be the trend and eventually, everyone except Nenita had a stack of nice clothing. She had picked out a nice beach dress, but nothing else.

"There doesn't seem to be something that fits what you are looking for," he told them. "But I tell you what, my cousin Rafe should have what you want. He has a lot of more formal outfits. Let me get a map for you."

He pulled out a map of what looked like the bazaar and waved a crystal on a string over it while muttering something. It ended up dropping on a shop in the fourth row, halfway to the end. He snapped his fingers and his wand jumped to his hand from a hidden holster and used it to mark the spot, then passed it to Brandt.

"Tell Rafe that Waylon sent you, he'll set you up with something good. There's a passage through to the next street in these shops," he marked them on their maps, "so you don't need to go back to the plaza."

"Thank you for your help," Brandt told the man. "Would you also mark the local post office as well?" Waylon smiled and marked a location near the passage between the third and fourth streets.

As they left the shop, Brandt chuckled and said, "That man was a good salesman."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"You caught on to it?" Newt asked as they started walking.

"Of course," Brandt responded, "but the kids wanted some things they found, so I figured why not stay and do some other shopping." Then to Harry, "I told the man we were looking for some kind of formal wear for the meeting tomorrow, and despite knowing immediately that he didn't have any of what we were looking for, he kept a smile on his face and tried to find other things for us. Then he also sent us to his cousin for what we actually needed, so he can get a sale as well."

"Oh, ok," Harry nodded in understanding.

They walked by numerous shops on the way to the shortcut to the next street. They were assailed by many more shopkeepers stepping out to greet them with, "Hey, my friend!" but they continued moving.

Finally, they arrived at the shop with the passage and found it to be a pet shop. The entrance had mostly small rodents, but as they got deeper in, there was a large chicken coop filled with nearly a dozen chickens that looked normal, except they had feathers of all the colors of the rainbow.

As they watched the colorful chickens, the shopkeeper approached, "Hello, my friends. Do you like the Sarimanoks?"

Newt smiled, "I do indeed, I have a flock of them myself."

The shopkeeper raised his eyebrows, but then squinted at Newt, and finally, his eyes widened dramatically, "You are Newton Scamander, are you not?" He nodded and the man gushed, "In my shop? The Fantastic Newton Scamander, such an honor, it is. What brings you to Manilla?"

"Just visiting some friends, and then investigating some rumors of rare creatures."

"Then I have something for you, do you know of the Sigbin?"

Newt pulled out his tiny notebook from inside his pocket and tapped it so it enlarged to the size of a tome. Flipping through the pages of many languages and clippings, he ended on one and said, "It is vampiric, somehow drinks blood from the shadows of its victims? I have conflicting information on what it looks like though."

The others looked a bit afraid at the description, but the keeper just nodded enthusiastically.

"Come, come, I will show you. I was going to feed it later today anyway," he reached into the chicken coop and grabbed one of the colorful chickens by the neck, and carried the struggling bird with him as he headed to the next room.

The next room was filled with snakes, at least thirty large terrariums filled with all sorts of snakes, nearly all of them, Harry and Lyra recognized from the island. They all started rising and hissing as the keeper came in holding the chicken. Lyra assumed correctly that Harry was hearing them yelling insults and demanding snacks. Brandt was watching their reactions to the serpents closely.

At the far end of the room, there was a door that appeared to be made of silver. The keeper opened it and entered a room that had a large cage taking up half of the room. The room was strangely lit, with all of the lights being inside the cage, none outside.

Harry asked the man, "Are the lights inside so our shadows don't get inside?"

"That's exactly right," he told Harry. "Even the tiniest shadow a Sigbin can use to drain your blood."

Inside the cage was a rock cave at one end, and various small plants and small trees on the other. He approached the end with the plants, opened a door on the cage with his wand, and tossed the chicken in.

The bird seemed to sense that something sinister was on the other end of the enclosure and held its position. Using his wand, the keeper adjusted one of the lamps, so the chicken's shadow grew until it was just outside of the cave. Slowly a creature came out that looked terrifying, but amazing.

It was the size of a small goat and looked like a cross between a kangaroo and a thestral. Its body was all black, with the same spinal protrusions as the winged horse had. The head resembled a kangaroo in shape, with slightly longer ears and sharp teeth that were the same black color as its skin. Two fangs on the front were extra long, extending past its lower jaw. Its front legs were longer than that of a kangaroo, which enabled it to walk on all fours, though its hind legs looked like they had the strength to support its whole body. The strange thing about the legs was that the knees on each set pointed towards the middle of its body, to facilitate forward or backward movement easily. While most of the body had taught skin, like a thestral, the tail was long and smooth, slightly longer than the rest of the body, and it whipped back and forth, as it walked towards the shadow on the ground.

Harry and Lyra watched as the keeper slowly adjusted the light so the shadow retreated and the Sigbin continued to walk until it was in the center of the enclosure, then kept it still. The rainbow chicken had pressed itself to the back of the cage, falsely assuming that staying that far away would be enough. The sigbin just leaned down towards the shadow in the ground and drove its front two teeth into the ground. There was a loud squawk and the bird started to try to run away, but to where, it didn't know. The shadow seemed anchored to the ground, and it even stretched a bit as the creature kept its fangs embedded into it. Then, slowly but surely, the chicken slowed down, and as it collapsed it seemed to deflate.

When the bird was nothing but a colorful skeleton, the Sigbin took its teeth out of the ground and walked backward into its cave. Harry looked up to Brandt, who had Nenita burying her face in his shoulder to keep from looking. Lyra looked to Newt who was scribbling down notes while Tina was taking pictures.

Harry looked at the bird on the ground, and asked, "What do you do with the bird?"

"I'll pluck all the feathers, then chop up the rest and feed it to the snakes."

Lyra caught on, "Can we buy the feathers?"

"I've been saving them up to make a headdress for someone, but for a friend of Newton Scamander, I'll delay that woman's order."

Both Harry and Lyra felt a little bad about doing that, but they both really wanted the feathers to play with.

Nenita had taken her head out of Brandt's shoulder and asked, "Why do you keep that thing around?"

The man shrugged and said, "Honestly, I'm trying to find a way to kill it."

Brandt drew his wand, "I can help you with that."

"No, not like that," the man said. "If I wanted to, I could just cut its head off myself. The legends say that to preserve the eyes and internal organs, you need to destroy the creature's shadow. There is a Potions Master that is willing to pay handsomely for a sigbin that has been killed in such a manner."

"I can do that," Harry remarked casually.

Everyone except Nenita realized that was probably true, the man however had his doubts. "And how would a child with two or three years of schooling be able to accomplish that?"

"Four months actually," Harry corrected him. "I'm pretty sure I could, would you like me to try?"

Newt stepped forward, "Are you sure you want to kill it, Mr. Potter?"

"We just watched him feed a chicken to that creature, and I've killed plenty of snakes before."

"Not to mention, you've stabbed a small dragon," Brandt remarked with a chuckle. Newt and Tina both gave him a nasty look.

The keeper looked a bit confused at everything that was said, but just shrugged and said, "You're welcome to give it a try, let me go get another chicken to lure it out." He walked out of the room, leaving them to wait for him to return.

Nenita was a bit confused, "How is Harry going to kill it?"

Lyra asked her, "Have you seen the light of the Lampong on the north side of the island?" Nenita nodded. "Harry can do the same."

Tina looked thoughtful, "Maybe that's why the Lampong is there? Are there other predatory animals in this region that can be killed in the same way?" she asked her husband.

"I don't know, I'll need to ask the researchers back home to look into it," he told her.

The keeper came back in with a smaller chicken and inserted it into the cage. Adjusting the light, the sigbin started to come out, seeking its prey. Harry pulled his staff out of his pouch and waited until it was on the far side of the cage before slamming the butt of it into the ground as hard as he could.

Light erupted from the staff and filled the whole room as it seemed to appear from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Harry could feel himself getting stronger as well like his muscles were growing in size as the light held. Suddenly there was a screech and a cry as the Sigbin started running back toward its cave. Unfortunately for it, the cave held no protection from the bright light and it continued to scream and run for another ten seconds before falling to the ground, dead.

Harry held the light as the keeper approached the cage and poked the creature through the cage with the tip of his wand, then cast a few spells before saying, "Amazing, it's really dead."

Harry canceled the light and felt his strength wane back to normal.

"I felt like I could jump up to the ceiling," Lyra exclaimed. "That was new."

"I think that was the Lamassu tooth," Harry told her. "I felt the same way when I channeled my magic after getting the airplane cuffs off."

The keeper looked back to the boy he had been doubting and stared at his staff. "A lamassu... I have only seen them in books. And the horn on top?"

"It's an antler," he told the man.

"I've seen one like it, there's one on the wall of Old Man Pelayo's shop, he's our local wandmaker."

That got Harry's attention, "Can we go see him?" he looked around at his escorts. "Where is his shop?" he asked the keeper.

"His shop is always at the end of the sixth street, it never moves," Nenita answered for them. "I got my wand from him."

"That's right," the keeper told them, then went over to the cage and stunned the chicken that was still alive, then summoned it and the dead one out. "Let me get this dead one plucked for you, free of charge."

As they walked back through the snake room, all of them started screaming about the kingsbane and moved as far from Harry and his staff as possible. When the keeper started wondering what was going on, Lyra just said in an unconcerned way, "Snakes are afraid of my brother."

That of course made the man even more interested, but he didn't say anything more. After taking them back to the front counter, he left them there and went into a back room, presumably to pluck the chicken.

When he was gone, Newt turned to Harry, "I normally wouldn't condone the killing of such a creature, but that was definitely a dark creature. Not a misunderstood one like a thestral or a werewolf, but a genuine dark creature. I'd also advise not telling anyone else about this until we can fully understand what you just did and how difficult it would be for someone else to do."

"We can ask Nestor's grandmother," Nenita said. "Nestor told me she knows all these old stories about the demons of the islands. I don't know how much of what she believes is true, but she probably knows something about this."

The keeper came out a moment later with a bag of feathers.

"Thank you again for your assistance, young man. Is there any way I can get in contact with you in the future in case I require your services?"

Brandt stepped forward, pulling out a card, "You may contact Mr. Potter here."

The man pulled out his contact information and passed it to Brandt, "Thank you all again, most people come through here just for the shortcut."

"That is actually why we were here," Nenita said with a smile.

"Well, thank you again, the exit is out that way," he said while pointing to a door behind the chicken coop.

The rest of the day was much less eventful than the beginning. After leaving the pet shop, they had lunch in a restaurant right outside the passage. Newt spoke the local language and dialect and ordered for everyone, just as he did in Istanbul. His grasp of the native language even surprised Nenita who said his accent was nearly perfect. They had fried squid balls, fried quail eggs, fried cheese sticks, and roasted chicken, then finished it off with caramelized bananas. They ordered a large quantity of the bananas to go, getting preservation charms on them so the Hidden back home could enjoy them.

From there, they located the post office where they were able to arrange a post-portkey for everything they had purchased so far to be sent back to the island. Brandt also paid for a post-portkey back to England to be sent to Arcturus. Brandt insisted on using his own red quill to write the letter, and when Lyra tried to sneak a peek at what he was writing, it looked completely blank to her.

On the fourth street, they found Rafe's shop very easily, and he did have the exact kind of formal wear they had needed. Waylon's cousin had been informed they would be coming sometime today with some special selections being laid out in advance. Brandt thought many of the outfits he had prepared were for adults or at least older children. However, they did find what was referred to as a Barong, a shirt made out of woven plant fibers, typically with embroidery along both sides of the buttons on the front and across the middle of the bottom connecting the two sides. Traditionally, it was very sheer and you needed to wear something underneath, but Rafe had more modern styles that were lined with satin that they could purchase. It was also traditionally a man's garment, but recently they had adapted the style into longer dresses for women as well.

Harry picked out a white barong to wear for the meeting with gold embroidery on the front. Rafe tried to also supply them with pants and shoes, but Brandt insisted they had that covered. Harry did however get the shirt style in a few other colors just because he liked the lightweight fabric and the feel of it. Lyra decided on a black dress in the feminized style of the barong, it had red and orange embroidery around the buttons on the top half that she liked for the colors of the fire from her wand and staff. She did not get another color, but Nenita talked her into getting a traditional orange scarf, called an Alampay.

Rafe made them promise to come back when the children were older to get some of the more 'mature styles' that Brandt had taken off the table, and then they headed out of the shop. They needed to start heading towards the exit, but Harry insisted on going to the Old Man Paleyo's wand shop to see the Lampong antler that was supposed to be there. Unfortunately after making it all the way to the end of sixth street, the shop was closed. Harry made Brandt promise that they would return and try again before they went back to Hogwarts.

Walking back towards the plaza, once again they were greeted by numerous shopkeepers inviting them in, a few even carried out a tray of drinks to entice them, though they were in a bit of a hurry. When they reached Bakunawa Plaza, there was a short queue at the exit floo, so they needed to wait a bit.

"Well, it looks like we won't be able to do any shopping on the muggle side of things today," Nenita told them. "When we come back to pay a visit to Old Man Pelayo, maybe we can go then."

"So are we just headed to Nestor's villa, now?" Tina asked.

"Yes," then turning to Harry and Lyra, "the floo point doesn't have any sand or water to cushion the arrival, so just keep walking as your feet hit the ground and you shouldn't have too many problems."

When it was their turn at the floo, she paid a man standing next to the point with several silver sickles and received a large portion of floo powder. She then drew her wand and cast a privacy charm around them before throwing the powder in the fire and calling out, "Vila Balindong! Lihatlah masa sekarang!"

As the green fire spewed out of the fireplace, the group walked in with Brandt making sure to keep his hands and the backs of the children to keep them moving forward. Lyra felt herself flying through the floo for nearly as long as it took for them to get to the bazaar. As she exited the connection, she tried her hardest to keep walking as her feet touched down. She staggered as she landed and spun in a half-circle and then fell on her butt. Harry wasn't as lucky. While it seemed like everyone else came out of the fireplace at the same speed, he looked like he was ejected twice as fast, tripping and rolling several times before falling on his back.

She ran over to pick up her brother as everyone else dusted the floo powder from their bodies.

"I don't like floo travel," Harry groaned as he rubbed his neck, "or portkeys… apparating isn't that much fun either."

"Do you like airplanes?" Brandt asked.

"The first time was fine," Harry said as he stood up, "I'd do it for Whispers if he ever got an aversion to portkeys like Dougal, but they're really boring."

Harry looked around them to see their arrival, they had landed outdoors in a grass meadow below a very large villa on the hill above it. It wasn't that tall, just two stories, but it was very wide and looked like it must have something on the other side. From the entrance, a woman of indeterminate age left the building and started walking down the path to them flanked by two men in lightweight white robes, both brandishing wands. Tina and Brandt both started to draw their own wands, but Nenita waved them down and walked up to the woman, hugging her.

"Do you need the guards today Tammy?" Nenita asked the woman.

"Probably not, but they cannot stand down with guests in the home, no matter who they are." Then in a lighter tone, "Come now, introduce me to my son's friends." Nenita turned around and led the woman back to the group, followed by the men in white robes.

Nenita started the introductions, "Everyone, this is Tamara Balindong, Nestor's mother. The men with her will need to inspect you for weapons, poison, mind-altering spells, dark artifacts, dark creatures, and other similar things."

Tina raised her eyebrows and asked, "I take it that you've been through this process before?"

"Any time I come without Nestor," she responded, "They will be checking me as well. Despite everything, I am still a guest in their home."

As the two men approached Newt and Tina, she introduced them first, "This is Newton Scamander and his wife Porpentina, the other gentleman is known as Brandt, and the children are Lyra Black and Harry Potter."

Harry raised an eyebrow at her skipping all the titles and occupations that he was used to hearing and watched as the men muttered all sorts of incantations and waved their wands over Tina and Newt. Even while being checked, Tina kept a tight grip on her wand.

Brandt was scanned next as Newt needed to explain some samples of potion ingredients he had on him to the guard that had been inspecting him. Their tutor had to pull out the red quill he had been using to write the letter to Arcturus, but after a hushed conversation with the guard inspecting him, he put it back away.

When it was Harry and Lyra's turn both guards stopped at once as Harry and Lyra glowed with a golden light under the first of the charms. They raised their wands to point at both children

"You both seem to be blocking us from detecting any mind-altering effects," one guard told them, as Tamara Balindong started to take a few steps back toward her house.

Harry and Lyra just looked around nervously, and Harry asked the men, "What do you want us to do?"

Brandt's wand was in his hand, but he hadn't raised it yet, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tina's arm was slowly raising as well, while Newt was palming a small object in his hand. Nenita just stood to the side, not knowing what to do.

"Deactivate whatever effect you have blocking our spells, now," the guard said with a serious tone.

Lyra said meekly, "We don't have anything, I swear,"

The second guard started to point his wands at Tina and Brandt, "Put your wands down now or we will put you all down."

From out of the house, an older woman started to march down the path towards them, she walked right past Tamara who was still backing towards the house, and right past the guards.

One of the guards made a move to grab her shoulder, saying, "Get back in the house now," but she just shrugged him off.

Walking straight up to Harry and Lyra, she just looked both of them in the eyes and turned back to the guards, as she started walking towards the house, "They're fine, leave them be."

The guards looked at each other and lowered their wands. Everyone seemed to relax from there.

Nenita just stared after the old woman and then turned to the group, "And that was Aurora Balindong, Nestor's grandmother."

Dream castings:

Aurora Balindong - Wai Ching Ho

Tamara Balindong - Alice Dixson