~*T*~
"Get," the whale started, even as Taylor was hopping down, scooping the last piece of bacon off her plate.
"The mail," Taylor said, snitching the pony's last bacon strip as she passed.
She paused, finished the bacon, wiped her hands on her trousers, and picked up the mail, bill, bill, letter from Hogwarts, bill, invite to boring dinner party. She tossed the Hogwarts letter through the slats into her room as she passed, and handed the rest to the heron.
"Thank you, Harry."
Taylor blinked at her, then stole the heron's plate while she was distracted, scraping it onto her own plate and stacking it underneath.
The pony and the whale pushed their plates over as well. The whale, as always, hadn't touched his beans, bubble and squeak, mushrooms, or black pudding. The pony had left her a banger, a slice of toast, and she'd already finished his bacon.
The whale hid behind his newspaper until she picked up the plates to carry them to the sink.
~*i*~
"Deliver this to Minerva," Taylor told Hedwig, and held out the letter.
"Pre," Hedwig answered, nodding.
"Do you want me to tie it?"
"Eck," Hedwig grabbed it with one taloned hand, and took off. She vanished after a few wingbeats in a silent flare of blue light.
Taylor took off the old gardening jacket the heron gave her, and hung it back on its hook in the shed.
~*i*~
Lisa grabbed Taylor first, and pulled her in for a thorough snog. She pulled back, smiled at the scar, and gave it a kiss, too, "You obviously needed a lot more love and attention as a child, Mr. Riddle," and kissed it again.
"I've noticed it seems to be healing up."
"Yeah, he doesn't know how to deal with love at all," Lisa said, then sang, badly, "Love is like oxygen, you get too much, you get too high," her voice cracked painfully in the middle of the last word, "Not enough and you're gonna die."
Amy clapped her lips over Lisa's to make her stop singing.
It was a few minutes before she kissed Taylor, and her scar.
~*i*~
"Yeah, eight men, six women, two house elves," Taylor said, sitting on a tree branch next to Lisa and Amy, "Five kids, one baby. I think they're having a party."
"That'll make it hard to keep this quiet."
"Should we come back later?" Lisa asked.
"Since one of the women and two of the men seem to be locked up in a dungeon, I don't think so," Taylor said. She closed her eyes, forming a swarm-clone in the basement.
"Is this a game, or do you need a rescue?" the clone asked. Taylor couldn't see that well yet, the eyeball bugs still trying to find a way into the dark dungeon, but she could make out the woman's face as it turned towards the clone.
"Does this look like a game?" the captive asked.
"Some people enjoy the attention and pretend danger," the clone said.
"No, not a game, he killed Brad, I don't know what happened to Janet, and there were five of them down here earlier, they said they'd be back for 'fun' in a little while."
"OK, let's see if we can get you out, then."
"Send in the Bedem," Lisa said.
Taylor nodded, "Graboids should be able to tunnel in, the wardline has badger dens cutting through it."
"Bring me some biomass," Amy said, "And I need to get to the seaside before we head to Hogwarts."
Millions of bugs drove dozens of small mammals with them to Amy's waiting hands.
The four tunnelers dove, one by one, into the ground, out of sight of the Malfoy ward line.
As expected, the 'mundane' animals were ignored by the wards, ripping gaping holes into the floor of the dungeon.
"The graboids won't harm you. Get in the tunnels, follow the fireflies," the clone said
"Do you have any firefly bushes yet?" Taylor asked, "I haven't found any near your house."
"I was too busy with the Bedem, I," Amy went quiet, "Distracted myself," she said, "Get me some more biomass."
Taylor guided the captives out, dispersed her swarm clone about the dungeon, had the graboids dig to either side of the stairs into the dungeon, and flew a few thousand bugs to Amy.
"The men and one of the women are in a parlor, word-wanking what they're going to do to the captives, the other women are in a different parlor, watching the kids play outside, discussing politics."
"Hmm," Lisa frowned, thoughtfully, "See if you can bring me Malfoy alive."
"I think I can do that," Taylor said, even as she felt the first few fireflies take off, driven by their implanted instincts to disperse as widely as possible before digging in and metamorphosing into a bush.
"They should be spread all over Great Britain by the fall, and possibly Ireland," Amy said, "Total first-world problem, but do you know how hard it is to collect uranium without access to seawater?"
"I'm guessing pretty difficult."
"It took me most of a month to collect six and a half kilos for eight Bedem. Producing the antimatter was easier."
"I hope we won't need that much boom any time soon."
"Some things are hard to kill."
~*T*~
Note: Graboids are inspired by the creatures from the movie Tremors, the fireflies Amy makes are full of kerosene and thermite, and the Bedem are inspired by the bioweapons from Iczer-1, with 16 long, slimy, metal-tipped tentacles each. Each tentacle tip has a tiny amount of antimatter and 50 grams of depleted uranium, formed into a 4-ton yield explosive device.
Maxim 37: There is no "overkill." There is only "open fire" and "reload."