~*T*~

"That's just," Harry shakes his head, tempted, for a moment, to bang his head on something.

"What's up?" Hermione asked, turning from where she and Luna are tracing the building plan Harry laid out in mites.

"Kaiser is Max Anders, of Medhall."

"Joy."

"Even better?" Harry asked.

"What's even better, Harry?" Luna took the prompt.

"Kayden Anders, Purity, has been trying to go straight without being targeted by E88. She has a two-year-old, Aster, who Max has been using for leverage. Custody."

Hermione pulled out her phone, dialed, "Mom?"

"She teared up," Harry said softly.

Hermione blinked, "Yeah, I've got a line on a bit of lawyer-heroing you might be interested in. Purity? She shares a child with Kaiser, and needs custody help, because she wants to be a hero." Hermione nodded, "I knew she hadn't been seen with the rest of the E88 crew, but I only just found out why. If you can help with the legal side," Hermione nodded again, "Yeah, my girls and I are working on the Nazis. If we can get Purity on our side, or just off the board?"

"Thank you, Mom. Love you, too."

~*i*~

Monday morning Harry walked into school, Luna at her side. Emma watched from the reduced "in-crowd," Sophia hadn't arrived on the bus yet, and Madison's eyes lit up at the sight of them.

Madison bounced to a stop in front of Luna, hands clasped under her chin, looking up through her eyelashes in cute pleading, "Can you teach me? I'll do whatever," she fluttered her eyelashes, "You want. Anything you want to do to my nubile young body," she husked, a little red dusted her cheeks and made her ears burn, "Please," she leaned forward, "Help me, Luna-wan Kenobi, you're my only hope."

Luna's lips twisted, then she broke out laughing, gave the little brunette a one-armed hug, "Taylor's right, you are kinda cute."

Madison threw her arms around Luna, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she said, bouncing happily to punctuate.

Harry tightened his lips, trying to keep a straight face, then burst out laughing, and wrapped both of them in a hug.

"What?" Sophia said from behind them, "A group hug without me?" and wrapped her arms around the three of them. Harry's eyes bulged a bit in shock.

~*i*~

"I think Emma's gonna cry," Madison said.

Harry was leaned back against his locker while he ate his lunch. Madison was sitting down a couple lockers away, repacking her lunch bag, have already finished.

He glanced at the redhead, who did look distraught, "Maybe you should give her a kiss?"

"I don't know," she played with her bag, "She's so mean sometimes."

"Part of that is that she's scared. Not sure how much, or why, but a chunk of that is defensive."

"You'll help me if I need it?"

Harry nodded, "I'll come to your rescue if you need it."

"Wish me luck," Madison requested, standing.

"Luck."

Madison walked up to Emma, and wrapped her hands around her head, held her still. Emma stared down into Madison's eyes with the occasional twitch as she got more and more uncomfortable, her hands on Madison's shoulders.

"Kiss me?" Madison asked.

Emma leaned forward, her hands slid over Madison's back as she pulled the smaller girl into a hug, and their lips met.

Harry finished his lunch, packed up his lunch bag, and left the girls to their snog.

~*i*~

Hermione grabbed the old man's hand, "If nothing changes, you're gonna die in a few months, and it'll cost about four hundred thousand dollars."

"That's what we figured," he sighed, fingers trembling, "Can you get me out of here? Get me a taxi home? I can find a cheaper way to die."

"I can do better than that, if you want," Hermione tells him, "But you need to know that there is a non-zero risk of it going horribly, and probably painfully, wrong."

"Expensive?" a crooked smile twists his wrinkled brown face.

"No, just experimental, and you might not like the primary effects."

"Primary effects?"

"You know the old X-men comics?"

"Yeah, I read a few to my kids."

"Wolverine's big thing was the healing factor, and I'm trying to replicate it."

"So I'd be an old man forever?"

"Once it works, about twenty-five to thirty-five."

"So, unaging, heals fast, growing younger for a while," he sighs, "Unless I turn into a blob of goo."

"Pretty much," Hermione nods.

"My wife's still doing better than me, but she's always been tough."

"One at a time, but I wouldn't want to leave you alone."

"Yeah, let's see how this works, then, please."

~*i*~

"Alabaster and Hookwolf will be here tonight," Harry told Rachel, "The dogs will get here at seventeen, and the fights are supposed to start at eighteen."

"Seventeen and eighteen?"

"Five and six PM."

"Oh, so you don't have the same time twice a day. Why doesn't everyone use that?"

"Because they're dumb."

Rachel nodded, "You want to catch everyone?"

"I do. I want you to get the dogs out, and keep the people in. Can you do that?"

"I can."

"Then we wait," Harry said. Luna and Hermione nodded from their corners of the mostly abandoned warehouse.

~*i*~

Hookwolf fell to a stunner before he finished forming his metal shell.

Alabaster dropped, head wrapped in an oxygen-excluding bubblehead charm. He flickered every few seconds.

"Hello, this is Amy Dallon, my team and I have captured Alabaster and Hookwolf at a dogfight they were planning. I've got about a hundred and eighty paying customers as well, who should be good for a hefty fine each, at the very least. If you could get here in less than half an hour, so we don't have to worry about the rest of E88 showing up while you get everyone loaded? That would be great, thank you so very much."

"Your sarcasm is showing."

"Yeah, it happens."

~*T*~