Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or Little Einsteins. Not going to bother making some goofy disclaimer this time around. Just read the story.

Chapter Twelve

Today was the day everyone would try to become their secondary form. The boys shuffled into line once again. The only difference was that they were asked whether they had a magical or nonmagical form, although Chase swore the tunics were itchier this time around. The potion they had to take was designed to force their magics to align to the not-as-easy form. It still just tasted like berries, though.

Harry settled into his circle, laying on his stomach like last time. The experienced spiritualists started their chant up once more, and the color-changing smoke covered everyone once more. His magic waved him goodbye, grabbed some magic from the earth, and summoned Death from the flames once more. Those watching the proceedings were not as surprised as last time to see the form enter Harry Potter's circle. And finally, Harry went to sleep once more.

Harry awoke in the now-familiar surroundings of Death's – no, his – mansion. Death sat in its favored chair, Harry's greats to a great power grandfather and uncles lying around him.

"Why not that fog bank like last time?" he asked.

"This is all in your mind," Death replied, "you tell me."

Harry had nothing to say to that.

"Anyway, let's get on with the boring stuff, shall we? Blah blah blah, congratulations. Your new friend is right beside you."

Harry turned to see a great white form shape into being beside him. It was a large dog, Harry could tell. It was tall enough that its head would probably reach past Harry's waist. Its floppy ears gave a strangely puppy-like look to a rather intimidating animal. Its square-ish head reminded Harry of a Pitbull he saw in the news once, although he couldn't remember what for. Its bulkily muscled body had a strange elegance to it, and its tail wagged happily when it saw him.

It whined at him and rested a slobbery head on his lap.

Harry petted the beast, for there was no other way to describe this hulking mass of canine. From what he could see, the only color not white on the dog was a black nose and its pink, gaping maw. Harry turned to Death, preparing to ask what kind of dog this was.

Death lifted a hand to silence him. "I will not tell you what he is. The only reason I told you what your other form is was because no one would have been able to identify it anyway, and you now work for me, so I figured you might like to know why."

Harry could understand that. Even so, "But why won't you tell me?"

"Because half the fun is being surprised!" Death gestured grandly. "But I would suggest that when you go back to England you don't walk around in that form. One of those people you are with this summer can tell you why."

"O-okay…" Harry decided not to ask. Death could be really stubborn if he chose to be.

"Now, go on back to your little camp. I'm sure you don't need to be one of the last ones like last time. After all, early bird gets the worm! Oh, wait. That won't work. Early dog gets the bone! Hm… No, doesn't have the same ring to it… Early dog gets the bird! No, it should rhyme… Early dog gets the hog! There we are! Yes, that works perfectly…" Death muttered to herself. Harry needed to find a good pronoun for Death soon, or he would confuse himself.

Antioch huffed while Cadmus and Ignotus rolled their eyes in obvious exasperation. Death startled at Antioch's sound (if Death could startle). "Oh, yes. Right, right. Have fun figuring it out! Tell your magic I love the black and white color scheme! Bye!"

With Harry's tutors howling in goodbye, Death waved its fingers, and Harry woke up in his bubble, in a great white form. Well that was 'informational,' Harry's magic huffed. You didn't even need to talk to them! How rude!

Harry huffed in laughter. It was nice seeing them again, he tried.

We saw them, like, yesterday! No point in that whatsoever, I'd say!

…

Harry wasn't as exhausted by the transformation this time around, and he could feel his hellhound and… dog… personalities playing in the background. Maybe he should consider giving those two their own names sometime soon. He should talk to Sirius about what a good Marauder nickname should be for them. Harry was excited at the potential bonding moment he could have with his godfather.

He sat at the lakeside, waiting on the other boys to either get their forms or wake up from their rest. The rule was that if you didn't transform by sundown, then you were woken up and couldn't try again for another year. Then, your magic might be ready to undergo a second transformation. If you couldn't transform then, it was assumed you could not reach your second form. That was why these ritual sessions were earlier in the morning than the last: Everyone wanted to give you as much time as possible to reach your second form.

Chase wandered over to him. "Hey," he greeted. "Come with me for a second."

Harry shrugged and stood up, wandering over to the other. They circled around the lake, Chase explaining as they went.

"I hope you don't mind not being surprised," he said, "but I know your birthday was coming up, and I wanted to get you something really cool. Unfortunately, I need you there to order it."

"What is it?" Harry asked. "You know you don't have to get me something."

Chase snorted, "I call B.S. on that. Besides, think of it as a 'welcome to America' gift, or something like that. It's a quilt made by the 'Ailey sisters."

Harry thought for a second, "Who?"

"You know, you met them the other day. Hailey, Bailey, Kailey. The triplets with the different hair colors? Their family is well-known in California, and maybe even America, for their quilts. They're magical, see. People think their family was the reason the Ancient Greeks believed in the three fates. Every generation has a set of three triplets, and all the different triplets are seers that work together. Their quilts are designed to change as the time changes."

Harry was intrigued, "Really? That's neat."

"Yeah, everyone knows about them, and their prices are pretty fair, too. I know quilts are lame, but it's tradition to get one in a life-changing year. I… I know this summer probably isn't life-changing for you, but I do want to get you one."

Harry smiled, "I don't know. Learning more about my magic than I ever could back home? Seems pretty life-changing to me."

Both boys smiled, then Chase smirked and said, "No more mushy feelings for today, okay?" He punched Harry's shoulder. It didn't take long for them to get into a play-brawl. They didn't go for too long, but it did reinforce their growing bond.

When the boys reached the opposite side of the lake, there was a sight to behold. A set of boys were being flung as high as possible by an elephant spiritualist. They'd get as close to the water as they could before transforming into birds and flying away.

Some of the other guys in the area were making bets on who could get closest to the water without landing in it. The girls were either giggling or muttering something about "idiots" under their breaths.

Harry and Chase watched the spectacle for a moment, then continued on their quest to find the triplets. The girls were on the fringes of the group, snacking on chips at a bench, and watching the show.

"Hello, girls," Chase said, "I'm here on business matters. Got any time for two ol' boys like us?"

One of them, the blond that had whiter hair than Malfoy, tittered. "Just because we told you we like old western films doesn't mean you'll get a discount by talking like that."

"Darn it," Chase smiled. "Anyway, this is Harry. He's the one I was telling you about."

"Hello, Harry," the blond smiled. "I see you can't remember which of us is which, not that I blame you. My name's Bailey, this one" she gestured to the red-haired girl beside her, "is Hailey, and that one," the dark-haired girl at the end of the line, "is Kailey. Chase said you wanted a quilt?"

Harry nodded, "Nice to meet you, er, again. Yeah, yeah. A quilt."

"Okay, well, I'm the one in charge of new orders, so you came to the right sister." She smiled jokingly and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen. "Now…" she scanned Harry intently, muttering to himself, "at least six feet long, though preferably longer. Maybe… four to five feet wide? That should work." She wrote some numbers on the paper, tapped the end of the pen against her lip, looked back up at Harry, and wrote a few more.

"So, here's what I can do for you," her tone was all salesman… saleswoman. "You can start off at six feet long, and we can increase in six-inch increments if you so desire. I would recommend seven feet long, maybe seven and a half, but six is workable."

"Why not any less?" Harry asked.

"Your potential height is somewhere around six feet tall. Unfortunately, height is never guaranteed. You could be even several feet shorter or a few inches taller. The minimum amount of feet long we can give you while keeping to our customer satisfaction contract would be your potential height, but we would recommend going a little bit longer than your potential height for maximum comfort. Don't want your toes to be cold, do we?"

"He'll take seven and a half feet long," Chase interrupted.

Bailey regarded him for a moment. "Alright, then. Standard width, unless you were planning on packing on a few more pounds?" She regarded Harry.

"No, no," he assured.

She smiled, "Yeah, I got the feeling you'd say that. You seem to hate the idea of getting too big. Healthy habit, I'd say. Watch out, though. It could become unhealthy if you fixate. I believe the term is… anorexia?" She turned to her sister for confirmation, getting a nod in return. She turned back to her questioning. "For how many years would you prefer this quilt to span?" she asked.

Chase saved Harry from potential embarrassment. "When did you learn about the magical world, again?"

"I was eleven," Harry replied.

"And you become an adult at seventeen, right?" Harry nodded.

"That timeline, please," Chase turned back to Bailey.

She nodded. "Perfect, we recommend timelines of five to ten years whenever possible. Now, we can set the magic in several different ways. We can put so many pieces down that are a set amount of time per year, and which is the most important moment during each set time, we can put so many down, and let the magic decide what is an influential time for you, or let the entire quilt be hidden until after your chosen amount of time has passed."

"Uh…" Harry helpfully supplied. It was too much information too soon that he didn't really understand, anyway. "What's cheapest?" he asked.

"There's no change in price between the first two options, and only ten bucks more for the third. Most of the money is based on the design than the magic. I would suggest," she supplied helpfully, "the second option. Most people enjoy seeing what comes up on their designs over the years rather than wait for the end. And with how much trouble seems to be attracted to you, I'd suggest not setting a specific time span for each piece."

"Okay," he said, "that one then."

"Yes, she muttered, "and it'd be better to do at least two per year, possibly three or four." She redirected her attention to Harry. "It might be better to ask you about that until after you decide the design," she decided.

Bailey pulled out several swaths of cloth. "Okay, now we need to decide your two primary colors. These are the options we have." The pile was larger than one hand could hold. "Anything you were thinking about?"

"Uh… red and gold?" Harry supplied.

She hummed. "Okay, we only have one true gold, here's the different reds we offer." She must have pulled out over ten different swaths!

"Any of these stick out to you?" she asked.

Harry pointed out the Gryffindor red immediately, but couldn't help but stare at a deeper, darker red. There were five others that to Harry looked exactly like it, but he couldn't help but stare at it.

Noticing his hesitation, Bailey pulled out a gold swath of cloth. "Here's a comparison for you." She held the swath against first the Gryffindor red, and then against the darker red. "Which of these do you prefer?"

Harry honestly thought the darker red looked better with the gold, but his house loyalty staid his hand.

"If I may," Bailey interjected. "It's better to go with your gut than your head, sometimes, especially you, from what I can see."

Harry smiled and pointed at the darker red. There was a flash of approval in her eyes.

"Good," she said. "That other combination can really wear on the eyes." She smiled good-naturedly. "Now we decide on design," she said.

"The back is easier to decide than the front, normally," she said. "We normally either do a checkered pattern, a solid in one of your chosen colors, or mostly solid with a muted design. With the gold being this flashy, I'd personally suggest either making the back a solid red or a simple design on the back in the gold."

"What kinds of designs?"

"Our most popular is a vine design, but we also do swirls and waves. I can draw out anything you can think of. Most of the designs are done free-handed, so we don't have anything on hand to compare to."

"Can I see the vines?" The more questions he answered, the more confident Harry became.

The moment he saw the design flow onto a spare piece of paper, Harry knew it would look stunning.

"I'd like that one."

"Okay." She checked off a box on the paper and wrote a note on a line beside it. "Now for the design on the front." Bailey pulled out another several sheets of paper. "These are standard designs, though we can do something else."

Harry and Chase shuffled through the various pictures. The final four options were the standard square design, a stacked circle design, a swirl design that looked like an old-time hypnosis wheel, and a three-dimensional design that looked like it was several windows.

"Nice, nice," Bailey muttered. "I can tell you this, the standard is simpler, but we will need to get several other colors to balance. The circles can look cluttered with how many memory pieces we will need to do, but some people like the complexity of it. The swirl can limit how many memory pieces we can use, but many who get it love the effect it makes. The window design can look off-putting to some with several opposing memories, but others like the idea of looking into different 'windows' of their lives."

Harry thought for a second, before deciding on the window design.

"Great. Now, I would suggest two to three memory pieces per year, depending on how many memories you would enjoy remembering."

"What are memory pieces?" Harry finally asked.

Bailey smiled reassuringly. "Each memory piece will change after a specifically impactful event in your life. It may hesitate to change if you have several events in a row, or not too many memorable ones at all. If that's the case, then the number of pieces determined may wait until the end of each increment – or in this case, when a large patch of time, often a year, after the fact. Now if, for some reason, the customer dies or goes into a coma before the total time span is finished, all the other memory pieces will be filled in. They are never filled in in any order, but there will be none left over at the end of the designated time period. Any questions?"

There was something over-explanatory in all magical Americans, Harry decided. He had zoned out not even a full sentence in her explanation. "No, let's go with three per year."

"Excellent," she muttered, writing and checking more boxes. "Any other recommendations you can think of?"

"No."

"Great, so just a few more odds and ends to finish up." She turned her check marked paper to Harry. "Does this all look correct to you?"

Harry checked it over, and it all looked correct to him, Chase looking behind his shoulder not raising any protest when he said, "Yes."

"Okay, well then we'll need your shipping address, contact information, and payment information." Chase stepped forward to fill things out. "Now please sign here, here, and here." She pointed out the spots, Chase signing as her finger went. "You have one week to contact us with any changes you may desire before you will need to pay extra. Here's a copy of your receipt." She ripped off an attached piece of paper behind the one all the information was filled on, handing it to Chase. "Any questions, please contact us at the information at the bottom of the receipt, and you two have a nice day." She smiled.

"You, too," Chase replied.

The two turned away to trudge back to the spot Harry was sitting at while Bailey turned back to watch the spectacle they had taken her attention away from.

"That was… strange," Harry finally breathed.

"That's how all seers are," Chase said nonchalantly. "They rarely know the entire future, but they know certain things that make most other people uncomfortable. It's kind of understood that there are no guarantees, and anyone who can see the future becomes at least slightly unhinged to the rest of the population to deal with it."

"They are all crazy?" Harry asked. "She was strange, sure, but I wouldn't say crazy."

"No, not like that!" Chase laughed. "More so that there's something… off. Most people can't describe it, but everyone can tell, even themselves. It puts people on edge, but most can accept it. I've heard that some can really be traumatized by what they see, and craziness can result from that, but even those who see completely innocent things can be slightly off. It's mainly a feeling other people get from them, rather than anything wrong with them themselves."

"So, let's say I have a Divination teacher who always predicts my death…" Harry started.

"There's several explanations," Chase shrugged. "They could be seeing actual potential futures, they could be seeing one potential in several different forms and can't interpret it properly, or they could be a complete fraud. Why would you be taking Divination, though? I never pegged you as a seer?"

Harry laughed, embarrassed. "I'm not. I thought it would be an easy class, and the others didn't look like they'd help me later, anyway. Arithmancy is just a numerical Divination, from what I could tell, and I couldn't find any practical applications for Ancient Runes. Muggles Studies would be pointless for me."

"Those were your options?" Chase asked. "Wow. Doesn't sound like you really learned what the courses were about, anyway. I don't know about for Europe, but over here Arithmancy is the study of numbers in magic. Theoretical work, but it explains the belief behind lucky numbers, from what I heard, and why there might be a repeated number of times a… chant, let's say, you have to say in a ritual. I would never take it, personally, because there's no real proof. Magic doesn't work under those types of logics, and for every theoretical rule I've heard of, I've also heard of at least five exceptions. It's like the English language of magic, honestly.

"Ancient Runes could mean a number of things. We have nothing labelled like that over here. It could be the study of ancient, written languages so you might know what ancient artifacts were intended to say. It could also be a study of different ancient symbols that were often carved or written that if you add your magic to, could create an effect without the wizard necessarily knowing what they were casting. Both those options sound specialized to specific jobs to me, though. I don't know what to tell you."

Harry nodded, those were the reasons why he was so reluctant to choose his second elective. After Fluffy in first year and the basilisk incident in second, he knew he wanted to know more about magical creatures, if only to save his own hide. He'd rather not have to rely on another phoenix pecking out a snake's eyes to save him and a magical hat giving him a magical sword, only to almost die from venom. Knowing his luck, other deadly magical creatures would be trying to kill him, too. The second – required – option, though, he could not decide on. None of the options he was given sounded useful to him, so he figured an easy class with Ron would beat trying hard in something that wouldn't help, anyway. He remembered lamenting that there were no healing or dueling classes. Now those would be helpful.

"It's fine. Thanks for the help though," Harry smiled. "You know, over-explaining everything."

Both boys arrived back at their tent that night bruised and muddy, but both supporting smiles.

…

Harry awoke that night back in his mansion. The three hellhound brothers were snoring away in a corner close to the fire, while Death was looking through a picture book and muttering to a nearby shadow. "She'll need to be picked up tonight. Wait for him, I think Fate wants to wake him up once he's off life support. Miracle work, and all that. Ah, Harry! Come sit! Come sit!" Death patted the sofa beside him. The shadow flitted back into the mansion, no doubt to do Death's bidding.

"What can I do for you this fine night?" Death asked.

"I don't know," Harry answered. "I thought I went to sleep."

"Ah, that's the beauty of the Realm Between. Mortals can access it in their dreams under the right conditions. This is your property, so you get to come here. Not a bad gig, if I do say so myself."

Harry nodded along. He was nudged by his magic, reminded of a promise he made. "Oh, yeah. Can nightmares and dragons live here?"

Death hummed, "Not here, per say, but there are paddocks and a forest behind the mansion. Come, I'll show you where."

As they walked through the mansion, Death hummed, "We're going on a trip, in our favorite rocket ship…" Harry decided not to ask.

They walked outside, wisps of fog swirling around their legs. They walked down a path to a shed. It looked strong and steady, although not large enough to hold the entire herd Harry saw the other day.

Death smacked him on the back of the head. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" it reprimanded him crazily. "Remember, magic." Its hand brushed against its own temple, tapping as if to reinforce 'Remember.'

They walked into the shed, large barn doors opening without a squeak. There were at least a hundred stalls lining the edges of the room, and a great open space in the center.

"It was designed with the assumption to keep all the horses together whenever possible, like a real herd," Death explained. "As the realm between is ruled by both Life and Death, most of the worries in your world are mitigated. Of course, there are still stalls incase that design was not possible."

"Amazing," Harry breathed. He often forgot the abilities of magic.

Death giggled giddily, "I know! And you still need to see the forest!" It skipped out of the stables.

The forest was looming. Something was off, though Harry couldn't identify it.

"In this forest is one of every species of plant Life ever created," Death explained. Oh, that was why. None of the trees matched, and every few steps the grass would change. "There's also several species of animals, but they stay in the trees or brush they would naturally stay in. The dragons are mini, correct? Perfect for all the squirrels in the area. The forest replenishes naturally, so they won't completely destroy any animal population here."

It was beautiful, Harry would give the morbid being that.

They walked back to the mansion in silence. When they reached the room Harry had spent most of his time in, he noticed that Cadmus was awake. The hellhound yawned in greeting, sharp teeth glinting in the firelight. He didn't bother getting up, seemingly comfortable sandwiched between his brothers, both using him as a pillow. Harry waved in greeting.

The two settled into their seats. Death broke the silence. "You will be able to summon them here fairly easily. Just say something along the lines of 'you are welcome to enter my home in the Realm between,' and they will be transported in the clearing between the forest and the mansion. I will warn you once again, do not bring a human here. Creatures of the mind such as them will at least lose them, probably die as well, but definitely lose their minds."

Cadmus yapped quietly.

Death snapped its fingers. "I knew I forgot something. Thank you, Cadmus." He turned back to Harry. "Because you will be welcoming both types of animals here at the same time, there is an itty bitty, teeny tiny chance that their magical abilities will change. There's no way to tell what until they get here, but still, you might want to mention that to them. Luckily, due to the nature of this place, it will not affect them negatively. If you brought in one, took it back out, and then accepted a new species, nothing would go wrong. If both need to be here at the same time, though, something may change."

Harry nodded in understanding.

Phew, his magic muttered, we've got our work cut out for us.

I don't know, seems pretty simple to say a few words.

Yeah, but only if we can find the herd again! Not to mention we must train the little puppy over here!

Harry heard a yap in the back of his mind.

Yeah, yeah, shut up! Hey, no! Do not pee on that!

What!

Kidding, kidding. No! That is not a chew toy! Harry, this is your fault. I'm the one who helped us decide on the hellhound, but it's because of your personality we got… this! I blame you! A puppy who can throw his weight around? I will never forgive you for this!

Oh, shut up, Harry rolled his eyes. Stop being such a drama queen.

Drama queen he says. Magic can have no peace, he says. Oh, thank you, Hell, for sitting on him. Thank you.

I leave you to figure it out. Harry decided.

Cheater, his magic muttered.

Hope the length makes up for how long I left this un-updated!

Mazzax Manacry: Yeah, I just feel like in real life we meet many people we only speak to once, or we talk to several times, but it never goes anywhere. Hermione will learn about the US, but with how much detail I've put into every interaction, I've realized that my original idea of this being a ten to twenty-chapter story went out the window, so it will be a while.

bob19h: Yeah, I get what you mean. Unfortunately, my knowledge about the 'multiverse' is shaky at best, so unless I get some random thought that something can go with what I'm writing, I wouldn't trust my own knowledge to supplement too many Death rants. Also, sorry about the headache. I'd suggest looking at the quotation marks. Almost everything else is either narration or Harry's POV. But I would argue that it's a trying time for Harry, too, and I'd think that if he reflected on his own thoughts, he'd get a headache, as well… If that makes any sense.

Zoran Dawn-Eclipse: If you want to see it that way, I'm not going to stop you, but honestly, if you just search 'Akhlut' on Google, you'll find many images that match up with the hybrid estimation. They all have their own design, but the general concept is the same. Yours works well, too, though!

PrototypeSaber15: While I like the idea, I don't see any need for Harry to be able to at this time. I'd see his abilities more so just darken or lighten shadows where they are, so no real color changes, if I put it in at all, and he won't need to escape the press until he goes back to Britain. Who knows, though? I sure don't. Just writing away, chapter by chapter, going wherever the wind takes me…

Darksnider05: Okay, let me go in order… If you are still reading this. Chapter 2: It's less more advanced and more options, in my mind. Options that are better for Harry. Chapter 3: Harry's a tourist right now, so most people would be reluctant to paint their country in a bad light for visitors. It'd be like having a guest over at the house and lamenting about everything wrong. You'd laugh off anything that goes wrong in their presence, or ignore it, and move on. Chapter 4: It's less of a vacuum and more along the idea of ley lines (can't remember if that's canon or head canon…). The magic's just congregated there. I have more explanations ahead (if I can fit them in), but I already add too much detail as is, so I'm trying to space it. The transportation issue will be explained, I promise. Chapter 5: Technically (can't remember if it was books or just movie), Snape killed Dumbledore, and I doubt it was with 'murderous intent.' Plenty of fanfictions use this idea, it's not original. Also, that was canon in the 30s-40s (I'm thinking this 'canon' you speak of is the Fantastic Beasts movie, neither of which I've seen yet). Plenty can change in that time span. Finally, I respect your opinions, but this is fanfiction, and if there's as much 'cringe' for you as you say there is, why did you go five or more chapters in? Seems almost masochistic to me. But hey, your life, your decisions. Don't let me stop you.

serenityselena: Of course not, wouldn't be a story if it was!

HerderOfTheStones: Wow, um… I'm flattered. I'm trying to continue this and complete it. My suggestion would be to continue reading, and uh… experiment with stories you don't mind ruining for yourself…? That's kind of what I did before I made a first chapter of a story I could be proud of. Thank you.

Okay… Lots of responses for this last one. Hope I didn't miss someone… Thanks to all the positive reviewers! Hope none of my decisions on where to take this story ruin it for you!

Anyone who wants to make suggestions for what is most influential for Harry each year is welcome to do so! I only have a vague idea, and mostly for first year.

Published: 11/24/18

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