MOLLY'S POV
As Molly waited at the train station, she once again sighed.
Being a stay-at-home mother for seven children is hard.
You have to run the house constantly, teach your children how to behave, make food, and still be energetic enough so when your husband comes back from work he won't feel like you don't appropriate it.
Yet there was one thing worse.
Being a stay-at-home mother for seven redheaded children.
As a redheaded herself, Molly can tell you most of the rumors about redheads are lies.
They don't stink in the rain, they don't glow in the dark, and they do have a soul.
Yes, all of those are lies, but if there was one thing that is true, is that redheads have much more energy, especially in children.
Every one of her children was a little devil, accidental explosion magic, taking a broom to fly, sneaking a ghoul into the attic or creating a potion accident after sneaking into her potion ingredients cabinet, they did it all.
Except for Percy, non of them grew out of it.
Bill became a curse breaker, going around Egypt sneaking into ancient graves.
Charlie went to Romania, taming dragons for a living.
Ron's grades didn't improve and he keeps getting into trouble each year.
And Ginny keeps sneaking around to fly at night.
Even Percy, who she felt like she did right with, decided to cut connection with his family as long as they support Dumbledore's came about the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named
Yet, if she had to choose her greatest failure, she would have to choose the twins, who not only started selling products instead of studying, but convinced her husband to join them!
It felt like everything she tried to instilled in her kids failed.
She tried to instill a sense of duty for the ministry and responsibility for their family in her two oldest children, who as a response decided to run away from the country.
She managed in her third to install the duty for the ministry, but as a response he cut ties with his family.
And now her twins are up and about, doing whatever they want, and the worst part is their father choosing to support them, making her disapproval meaningless.
They just didn't understand that she knew what is the ending for each path.
Her grandfather was a curse breaker and she can't remember him with both ears and all fingers.
While she didn't have a dragon tamer in the family, Arthur's uncle had a famous creatures circus... until he was Easter m eaten by them.
As for opening a store?
Arthur's dream was to open one, and the failure broke his heart.
Working at the ministry is stable, it pays, and you get to keep all of your body parts!
Why don't they understand that?!
And even if it takes all summer, even if they hate her, she will make sure they stop the nonsense and make sure they study next year seriously, before starting to work at the ministry, joining their father as he reapply to his old position.
Another sigh escaped her lips as she saw the train arriving.
After all, mother knows best.
GEORGE'S POV
Getting off the train, George took one, quick look at the stormy look on his mother's face, stole a glance at his twin brother, who nodded, and steeled himself for what to come.
Since midway through the year, when their dad agreed to join them and their company, secret letters have been exchanged between the three of them.
According to their father, their mother didn't take the news of him quitting his job for a new one too well.
Firstly, he started to sleep in a different room, as she said 'she won't sleep with him until he sees reason'.
The twins seriously were shuddering when the read it.
Then she started talking about financial problems they are about to experience and her unwillingness to use a single Knut from her children.
Something that their father said he dealt with by refilling the coin jar at home everyday so she won't notice it is with that money.
And lastly, she made him promise that if they agree to work at the ministry he will go back as well.
Which meant one thing, they are about to not only get an earful like they usually get and ignore, but suffer for the rest of the holidays.
Of course, they had no intention to do such, therefore creating a contingency for such a case, which they are about to activate.
"MOM" he heard Ginny yell from his left before seeing her running to hug their mother, who hugged her only daughter back, the stormy look disappearing for a second and a smile appearing instead.
Quickly, George casted a silencing charm to make sure no one outside of them can hear what's about to happen, there was no need to embarrass their family.
"Hey mom, we missed you too." Fred said.
"Though apparently not as much as Ginny." George said getting a scowl from Ginny who finally let their mother go.
"Fred, George. I missed you two so much." She said hugging them before letting them go and her stormy look is back on. "Though that doesn't mean you aren't in trouble!"
"Trouble? What for? Didn't you see how much our behavior improved this year? We barely got detentions!"
That was true, with the work on the TV, the band, and hanging out with their friends in Gryffindor and Slytherin, the amount of pranking this year was at an all times low, and even the pranking that did happen was much more subtle then dungbombs, instead they did things like glueing toilet sits or casting a ward on the entry point of the grand all that wrote on everyone's back 'kick me', you know, sophisticated things.
"You know damn well what you did!" Their mom's voice started raising. "You not only kept selling the game after I specifically told you not to, but you convinced your father to leave his job to come work for you!"
"Dad quit his job?" Ginny asked shocked.
"Don't worry sweetie, he would get it back." Their mother didn't even looked at her daughter saying that, if she did she would see the shock quickly becomes happiness, as they all knew that while their father loved his job, his true passion is inventing new things.
"As for you two, you are grounded for the rest of the summer, and you will stop any sells and inventing! Plus, you will apply to the internship program in the ministry, where you will make connections to prepare to your future job there!"
George's eyebrows couldn't go any higher, neither could Fred's.
The fact their mother didn't realize how poorly they respond to threats made it clear she didn't know them at all.
They spent the first two years of school using all 437 band items from Flitch's list, third year by stealing all the ones he kept in his office and stealing a toilet sit.
Forth and part of fifth by becoming illegal animagus and part of fifth and six by making a business that their she forbade them from doing.
What did she think would happen when given this order.
A quick look and simultaneous nod with his twin was all that was needed for them to say at the same time ""No.""
"What do you mean no?! As long as you live at my house you will do as I say!"
"So I guess we aren't coming back home." Fred said.
George could see it shocked their mother.
"What do you mean you aren't coming home? Where would you go?" Ginny asked.
"We will be fine," George said "We have enough money from the game to buy a place."
Listening to them keep talking seemed to snap their mother out of her shock.
"Listen to me carefully!" She said in a low seething voice. "You are coming home and stop this nonsense! With the return of You-Know-Who it really isn't safe. You are still children, and you will listen to your mother!"
He could feel his blood boiling and freezing at the same time. Was it how she talked to Bill and Charlie when they made their choice of job? Or was she trying to reach those two more reasonably?
"I'm sorry mom," he could hear Fred talk in a mechanical voice. "But we had our 17 birthday months ago, though you forgot to send us anything to show you remember."
He then could hear his own voice saying. "We will open our store in two weeks, we hope we will see both of you there."
Turning around, they saw Ron and his friends walk toward them, just now leaving train.
As they four friends reached the Weasley matron, George canceled the silencing ward, hearing Ron say "Where does the twins go to?"
tears seemed to drop from his eyes as he and his twin went out of the barrier to the muggle world, both of them crying even as they reach the place where they are going to stay for the next two months, Harry's apartment.
HARRY'S POV
Apparently the twins were right and their mother really does have them ultimatum, which meant that he has roommates for the next two months, not that he cared too much about it, especially with him taking a vacation for the next week.
"Dobby will clean, cook and make sure you have everything you need for, so you can just focus on finding the right place to set up our shop in Diagon alley and set up the store." He said to them as he took his two bags with him, one with the giant spiders in and the other with all the things he might need.
"Yes mom, we know." George said with an eye roll.
"Besides, we already have a spot we want to buy, now we only need to close the deal and get the place ready for business." Fred added with a grin.
"Well, if you need me just activate the earring and I will be back in a second."
"Have some fun Harry, you really need it!"
"Thanks." He said before leaving to the airport, about to begin his magic-free vacation.
A WEEK LATER
(Still Harry's POV)
A week was more then enough to rest, in fact, even if he ever planned to stay more he wouldn't, he was bored.
Resting just wasn't for him, his mind was constantly drifting to his projects.
He tried water sports, but jet sky just isn't as fun as broom riding.
He tried adventure parks, but couldn't stand the lines.
He even went to a circus, but when you saw basilisks, dragons and have more then 300 sleeping giant spiders in your bag, it just isn't that interesting to see a man put his head inside a lion.
Yes, Harry was addicted to the magical world.
Which is why he was happy to come back and meet his friends, who managed to secure a location on the alley.
"We know it's small," Fred said "but as it is only a place to sell out dueling products, we don't really need much room, and when we finish school and make movies part of the magical world we can get another, bigger space."
"What are you talking about?" Harry asked "Can't We just use expansion rune scam to make the place bigger?"
"No." George said, shaking his head "the entire Alley is built on expansion rune scam so we can't expand the shop."
A thoughtful look appeared on Harry's face when he heard that.
"But there is no problem for expended bags and tents to be sold here?"
"We asked the same time when we were told about that, it is just that the space in Diagon alley is expended to the maximum, and trying to expand it more will make it unstable, there is no real problem in putting something expended into something expended."
Harry knew about expended bags being one inside escorted to be no problem already, considering that people slept in expended tents with their bags in side and put the tents inside the bags.
The reason he asked is because he wasn't sure if the ministry had real reason to forbid it or only did it because of ignorance.
The only real problem is that an expansion bag needs a steady supply of magic when it has stuff inside, therefore not recommended to have it inside of another, as it means the magic flow from their owner stops, which, of course, would have raised the question where do they get the magic to keep Diagon Alley like that all the time if he didn't already had the answer from Hogwarts, they get it from the residue of spells cast inside of it, making him not the first that thought of the magical population as a battery, only the first to make it in such a big scale.
"We might have a way around it," Harry said, and with one look at their expecting expressions he explained.
"We just need to create a door like box that is expended to contain our entire shop." He said with a shrug, that was answered by two maniacal grins.
"We can make a new alley," George said "full of different shops and places of our own."
"We can make a place young children can duel, turbo duel, or even play quidditch." Fred added with eyes shining.
"Not to mention that we can hire all the muggleborns who find it hard to get a job." Harry reminded them.
The twins looked at each other before rushing forward and hugging him, confusing Harry.
"You know, Harry," Fred said "Since coming to Hogwarts we heard a lot of people from Gryffindor talk about the injustice Slytherin does to muggleborns."
"We heard many in Hufflepuff cry over the unfairness of the connections those in Slytherin has that make them get better jobs." George continued.
"Even people in Ravenclaws told us how the way Slytherin graduates rule the country is terrible and would destroy us."
"3/4 of the school, no, the country, cry over the injustice the rest cause, and while there are rich purebloods inside the minority, there are also the same in the majority."
"They all cry and complain about injustice, but there are still muggleborns without jobs, still only those with connections can advance to better jobs while those with ability stay behind."
"It was one of the reasons we wanted to open a shop in Britain instead of moving out of it like so many including our brothers does, to show people that even as blood traitors, even without money or connections, with courage, hard work and magic, you can't be stopped."
"And then you came."
"A fourteen years old boy who by working harder then anyone else, and also being incredibly smart, managed to come with an idea to give so many people hope without them knowing you even exist."
Their speech was really pretty and would have made Harry emotional if not for the fact the idea wasn't altruistic, it was to make their place the one where everyone goes to, thus making money and spare magic grow in size.
Instead, the speech made him really embarrassed.
"It isn't like that, I'm not the altruistic visionary person you make me sound like."
"We know that," George said "But actions are more important then words and thoughts."
"Dumbledore is someone who keep talking about loving everyone and helping those in need, but does nothing." Fred said "You might have selfish reasons, but actually helps."
Hearing that, his embarrassment grew while at the same time he felt a fuzzy feeling he hasn't felt in a long time, not since his parents died, something that is different yet similar to the feelings he has toward Luna, it was the feelings of family.
MELISSA'S POV
Melissa was walking away from another interview, cursing not just the company, but Purebloods, her teachers and even her young self for ever agreeing to come to this wonderful terrible place.
When Melissa was eleven years old an old woman by the name of Minerva McGonagall appeared at her house to tell her she is a witch, magic and potions included.
She was excited of course, how could she not? It was magic!
She read all her books before even starting the year, and couldn't wait to go to school.
The excitement didn't wane when she saw the castle, nor when she was sorted to Ravenclaw.
The first time the excitement faded a little bit was at the welcoming feast, when she spoke with her new classmates and told them she is a - as the called her- muggleborn.
While some didn't seem to care, the ones that did seem to be the popular group.
It took her a week before she understood what it meant to be muggleborn in the magical world.
It meant she is less, she is to be ridiculed or pity, but, at least according to her head of house, who is part goblin! If she worked hard enough, she can make people see her for who she is, not her blood.
So she did.
She spent seven years making sure she has an O on every test and homework.
When offered she agreed to take all the optimal classes, taking the time turner that was offered, and even continued in all classes until seventh year.
She became perfect and headgirl.
Her parents didn't know a lot about the magical world, and she didn't tell them much about the discrimination in fear they would take her out of it, which, while sometimes seemed enticing, meant having all of their mind obliviated.
At the end of the seventh year, she became one the overqualified for entry level ministry job students, and, at the encouraging of her parents, decided that instead of going for that, she would try get an apprenticeship at her favorite subject- Runes.
She tried for multiple known rune masters, only three replayed back, each saying they aren't interested at having an apprentice.
She then started going to broom companies, traveling stores and other rune using places.
Each company and store either rejected her or gave her a low paying contract for 12 years, only after which she would get apprenticeship and would continue to work for them for another 28 years at the lowest price possible for a new rune master.
It took her a year from when she graduated school, but she finally finished going to every shop in Diagon alley, non of which would hire her fairly.
As she walked toward the exit of the alley, thinking about her future, and if maybe she should go back to one of the more interesting companies and agree to sell her life for the next 40 years, she saw a new shop at a place that used to sell second hand brooms, one that seemed to be struggling for a while.
The store windows seemed to be full with cards that seemed familiar, though it wasn't until she saw another object on the side of the window that she remembered what those cards are.
'Duel cards!'
It was a game that everyone at school seemed to play mid way through her seventh year, which meant, as it was her final, and most stressful year, that she barely notice it existed, this year though, even with her stress over not finding an apprenticeship, she did start seeing people playing it everywhere.
Finding it has a store though, have been a surprise, as she knew it's inventors were the younger brothers of her partner headboy-Percy Weasley, self-proclaimed best pranksters of school, and, if she remembered correctly from their brother's constant complain about them, about to begin seventh year.
She were about to shrug her thoughts off and continue in her way when she noticed the sigh on the other side of the window.
NEED HELP!
IF YOU ARE GOOD WITH PEOPLE, SMART, AND ARE LOOKING TO WORK IN A FUN PLACE WHERE YOU CAN ADVANCE BASED ON ONLY YOUR OWN ACHIEVEMENTS. THEN COME WORK FOR US, AT WONDER ALLEY, WHERE THE ONLY LIMITS ARE THOSE YOU PUT ON YOURSELF.
FOR DETAILS SEARCH FOR ONE OF THE WEASLEY TWINS.
If Melissa saw this ad a year, half a year or even just a month ago, she wouldn't have given it a moment notice.
But right now she considered to sell her life for a dead end job, and the Weasley family is known as 'blood traitors' which meant they at least won't just see her as a muggleborn.
Steeling her emotions, Melissa opened the door and walked in.
MELISSA'S POV
Walking into the store gave Melissa quite the shock.
It looked nothing like what it seemed to look like from outside, it wasn't a small sized shop with cards, Duel disks and brooms on display. Instead it felt like she came out to the outside world.
The blue skies, the streets, the stores, and of course the enormous size of the place.
The weirdest thing was that instead of reminding her of Diagon Alley, it reminded her streets in the muggle world.
Each shop had giant lighted signs either on top of it or the window that if she didn't know about technology not working with magic, she would have sworn them to be muggle.
The shops themselves, Mellisa noted as she walked through one of the streets, weren't all working and the signs of most were only saying 'grand opening soon', in fact, only four seem to work right now.
Duel cards store, Turbo brooms store, a snacks store, and what appeared to be pranking products store, every one of them had a few children and a.d.u. inside.
As she finished looking around, she went inside the cards store to ask where can she find one of the Weasley twins, now much more interested in working in this place, where she saw one.
You can't really say you were a student in Howard's for the last six years in Hogwarts and not know who the Weasley twins are.
You were either pranked by them or they made you smile, most likely both.
That, including with their red hair made them memorable even before the invention of the card dueling game.
Swallowing her spit and nervousness, Melissa walked toward the boy, no man who might be her future boss.
"Mr. Weasley" she called and he turned toward her having an annoyed look on his face.
"I already said it! Mr. Weasley is my grandfather, everyone should call me Forge."
She felt her heart drop stomach as she apparently made a bad first impression without barely saying anything
""YES, MR. WEASLEY!"" Everyone else in the store answered and he laughed at that.
"I'm sorry," he said after stopping his laugh and seeing her confused look "it's a joke we have in the store." His eyes seem to brighten with those words. "Can you believe it? Only three days have passed and the store already has its own jokes!"
"It certainly is great." She said smiling politely as she sighed in relief in her heart.
"Anyway, what can I get you today Mellisa? A duel disk? New cards? Actually, I don't remember you being a card dueling enthusiastic?" He said questionably.
"You remember my name?" She said surprised. No one really remembered her in Hogwarts, even with her being a perfect and head girl.
"Of course I do, you helped me and my brother once in our first week in Hogwarts to find where is the charm classroom."
She didn't remember doing so, not surprising as it was almost six years ago, but it warmed her heart that other people did remember her help.
"Well, I didn't really have time to play card dueling as it was my seventh year and I had 12 NEWTs to study to." She said, answering his question about not being a card dueling enthusiastic.
"12? Ouch! Well then, what can I help you with?"
"Actually, I wanted to talk about the job in here." She said, playing with her hair nervously.
"Oh," he said raising his eyebrows before smiling an even bigger smile.
"Well that's great! How about we go inside this store's office?"
"But don't you need to be here? I don't see you having another person working here."
"Na." He said, waving his hand. His smile being replaced by a smirk that said 'we are awesome'. "Everything in this store is enchanted to work without any human working inside, I think muggles would call it automatic."
With him saying that, it was the first time she looked around the shop for more then just a glance.
While before she only searched for a worker, and only took superficial look at the store, now she seemed to notice the incredulity of the store itself.
On the right side of the store where many cards on display, and it was also where most of the children were, there appeared to be a few magical mirrors that when a child asked about a card brought up its relevant information.
She also noticed that there were a few coin holes to put money inside and when one of the kids put some inside and said the name of the card he wanted, said card seemed to move toward the glass and make the glass disappear at its location before returning after the card was extracted.
On the left side of the shop, there were a few different kinds of duel disks.
There appeared to be the ones like the twins distribute in school last year, but there also appeared to be a few that looked like different creatures like dragon heads, snakes, and, weirdly enough, one that looked like a Flobberworm.
There were also ones that seemed to be put on different places in the body like shoulder belt duel disks.
In the middle of the store, where most of the a.d.u. seem to be there were a few mirrors that explained about the store, the payment method and the game itself.
All of it seemed incredible, less like the magical world that while amazing seemed to be stuck in the last century at least, and more like a futuristic world from muggle tv shows like Doctor Who.
As Forge (she seriously thought the names were Fred and George, could she be mistaken? Or was it another part of the joke?) took her to his office, she kept thinking about the store, and more importantly, the runes needed for each enchantment, making her more and more determined to work at this place.
"Please have a sit." He said as he sat down at a sit in front of him.
Sitting down she waited for him to talk.
"Well, as you know, we have just opened the store, but as you can see, we don't need store workers, instead, we need people who can be store managers, who can deal with situations on their own, who is willing to put the extra work, and who inspire to become more then just have a stable job, what make you think you are the right person for this?"
This was different then any other interview she got until now.
The other shops and companies seemed to only care about her blood status, her grades and her willingness to compromise, instead, this man's words, without even telling her what this job will be, told her he didn't care for blood, didn't want her to compromise, and didn't want her to be at the bottom, unable to even advance.
She quickly took out her grades as references to her ability before starting to talk.
"Well, as you can see here, I have Os on every OWL and NEWTs, showing not only that I am smart enough, but that I'm willing to work hard for them. I was also a perfect and head girl, so I know how to work as both underlying and supervisor. As for inspiring to be more then just a regular worker, I'm unemployed right now because I refused to become a worker in shops for the next 12 years before starting to study to become a rune master, and then after becoming one to work for them with minimum wage for another 28 years, not considering the period of time I will spend as apprentice there." The words came so fast from her mouth that she barely managed to breath in between.
"OK," he said sounding amused "breath."
Taking a few deep breaths she calmed herself.
"Now, while Os in all tests are impressive, it doesn't really tell me much about your ability in runes beyond your ability in memorization." She was about to open her mouth but before she could he already continued "But it does say you have a good head, and the ability to be much more then a lowly worker so here's the deal." He took out a paper from a drawer that seemed to be a contract.
"We will hire you as a store manager for our card store till you become a rune master, your main job will be to every morning and evening pour most of your magic inside the core of the store to make sure it is functional, and to calm down any problem that raises between customers, in return, we will pay you the minimum wage and make sure you have every needed book to become a rune master, plus help once a month with every question you have.
Once you become a rune master you will open a shop in Wonder Alley and pay 25% of your profits to us for 10 years as long as you keep it above a certain number, if you can't do that or not wanting to work in a shop anymore, then you will either continue to work here or go to work at one of our research places.
10 years after you become a rune master You can go wherever you want."
This was the best offer she got.
Sure, she won't get apprenticeship, but she could still become a rune master, she wouldn't have to wait, and even her job would make it possible for her to study most of the time, there was only one thing that stopped her from signing the contract, magical contracts are binding magically, and she still doesn't know what is the penalty for breaking it.
"What is the penalty for breaking the contract?"
"You will have to pay us the amount of money the books you read and the help you received cost, which will be calculated by a Gringots' goblin plus an additional 200 Galleons for the time you wasted us, if you can't pay that, you will have to move to the location where we make our products where you will contribute to the effort the best you can for double the amount of time you wasted us so if you spent two years in here you will spend four years there. Of course, contract breaking include revealing our store secrets to anyone who isn't employed by us."
All in all, it sounded entirely reasonable, and five minutes later she signed the contract, becoming the third employee of Wonder Alley.
HARRY'S POV
It took two days of studying different expansion rune scams on GAI and combine them, one day of making the new scam work by changing the runes into the language he created, one day of finding the right intent he needed and smithing the metal to the right shape, and another day that he had his AI attach the runes on it.
But at the end of those five days he created a big metal closet which once inside seemed to be as large three football stadium. (AN: not American football.)
Then another two days where FACTORY and all of its workers worked non-stop while Harry, Fred, George and Dobby worked on organizing the world inside with the needed equipment, products, etc... and add a few needed enchantments like the sky enchantment from the Grand hall in Hogwarts, temperature adjustment, indestructibility, etc...
By the end of it, the magic the closet took to maintain itself was like that of Three average wizards a day, and every store inside of it took another wizard's magic but Wonder Alley was ready to open.
With the time being summer vacation, and many children have parents working in Diagon Alley, and those that didn't often go with their parents shopping, it didn't take long before children started to flock into the door, and once they did, more and more came in.
Getting people to work for them was even easier, with the twins convincing their friends to work for the summer as a way to get money for themselves, and people coming to apply little by little for jobs, in two weeks they went from having four shops, in which two were for card dueling, one for snacks and the last one being a prank shop, to have a card dueling field where people can duel for free, a paid dueling field, where they can get advice how to improve a restaurant that has both muggle and magical food and drinks, and a cloths shop that made use of the Acromantulas' silk.
The best thing is that with them putting a couple of workers at the entry of Diagon Alley with flyers about Wonder Alley, not only did more and more wizards and witches heard about the shops and bought dueling disks and cards, but when the 11 years old muggleborns and their parents came to shop for Hogwarts for the first time, they stopped at Wonder Alley to buy clothes made from silk at cheap prices, and sometimes also bought the game for their children.
But, of course, for every positive there is negative, and with their influx of muggles and muggleborns, came the reaction of the purebloods and their lackeys.
They didn't stop shopping in the new Alley, why would they? Not only were they able to get cheep Acromantula silk cloths in here, but more then half were addicted to the feelings card dueling gave them, instead, the purebloods wanted the muggles and muggleborns gone, and the lackeys wanted a percentage of the money.
It started with a ministry worker coming first, talking about how it is forbidden to expand shops in Diagon Alley, and hinting that a few Galleons can make it go away.
Of course, it was then explained to everyone that Wonder Alley is inside a closet that was expanded and that there is no laws forbidding it.
After which there were a few tries by the minister to pass a law that make you need to pay to do something like that but it never passed with the help of Voldemort telling his followers to stop it because Harry told him, and surprisingly Dumbledore saying the same thing to his followers as Remus and Professor Snape shared.
After which there were a few tries to cause havoc and destruction either inside Wonder Alley or to it from outside, non were successful and were dealt with by stunning the ones that did it and forbidding them from ever coming back before calling the Aurors.
All in all, it took till a week before the start of the school year for everything about Wonder Alley to calm down.
As Harry is a secret partner, the twins were the ones that dealt with most of those things.
Harry instead gave a few advices and worked on his own things.
In regard to the Death Eaters, other then make Voldemort tell them to play card dueling as a way to train their mind to react to different situations, and to prevent the destruction of Wonder Alley as 'it would be a great place to make a statement and kill those mudbloods!' He only told them to focus on retrieving the prophecy from the ministry, something that as the books made clear, was taking time.
Both Remus and Snape kept informing him about the Order and all the things it didn't do. Seriously, waiting patiently while trying to prevent Voldemort from getting the prophecy instead of just destroying it? Reaching out to Giants and werewolves and ask them to not take Voldemort's side without promising any benefit? It is like they want Voldemort to win.
All of the above weren't the things that took most of his time, what did was the Acromantulas, or more specifically, their fangs.
After making the four first shops, Harry spent two days creating an additional closet like Wander Alley, where he set the giant spiders loose, and by loose he meant gave them an order to make much silk as possible and put it in baskets, and cut off each other's fangs every few days as they grow back, and put it in different baskets.
While the silk went to be sold as cloths at a price that covered their food intake, their fangs were put into research about their properties and how to purify them, which, after researching it for over a month, reached completion.
The thing is, it isn't hard to completely purify magical ingredients like fangs, feathers or hair, but if you do so completely, they will lose their unique ability to strengthen a person's ability to the spiritual realm, if you want it to still have this ability, then the core needs to have a little of the same characters as the creatures it came from.
Which meant Dragon cores aren't loyal, instead they are searching for the strongest wizard they can get to 'mate' with, Phoenix cores are prideful and search wizards that have fame or want fame, and unicorn cores are loyal to the core, and search for pure hearts.
Olivander use those three because he managed to reach the perfect balance with them, they aren't rebellious, but their will isn't dead.
Harry went to a different direction, he had the Acromantulas' behavior changed already, they are now hard working, compliant beings that obey his orders, he only needed to clean the intent inside the magic in the fang that makes it grow by will and the knowledge that he is their master, and everyone could use it, though the second someone does it gets imprinted on him and can't be changed.
Finding the right amount of cleansing needed to a month and he finally had the chance to do the last thing he needed to do before summer ends.
The ritual with Nagini
NAGINI'S POV
Sometimes being born to a certain family is a curse by itself.
This is a lesson Nagini learned by the time she was three and transformed for the first time.
Well, at the time her name was different, it was Mega
She can still remember her family.
She had a father, a mother, 3 brothers and a sister.
Her father being a strong man, who spent his time between his job, where he farmed rice. Her mother, who was raising them to the best of her ability.
Her biggest brother, Cahaya, who used to go with their father to work.
Her second brother, Ifran, who always seem to make the house shine with laughter and joy.
Her sister Vina, who used to play with her everyday.
And her little brother Ridwan, who she could only remember as a baby.
It was on a sunny day, Vina and her were playing hide and seek near the house when her sister, whose turn was to hide, suddenly screamed.
Running to her she saw a snake, even today she can still remember it's black and white coloring, and the fear that her big sister seemed to be in.
At that moment, she wished she could have talked with the snake, convince him to leave her sister.
If she had wished for the snake to die, their father to show up, or for them to appear in another location, her life might would have been different.
She might would have never been captured, might have never found out about the curse, but more then all, she would have probably been dead.
But wishing for history to change is pointless, and she still wished to talk to the snake.
With the wish activating her curse, she transformed into a snake and talked with the snake, making it go away.
Wishing to change back into a human was much more exhausting, but she does it, and both Vina and Mega ran home to tell their mother about her change into a snake.
While Mega told her mother excitedly, their mother didn't return the enthusiasm.
Instead, she started crying.
After calming down her mother sat and explained to Mega about her own family, about Mega's grandmother and the magical world.
Learning her mother was a regular person born to a magical family was a shock, but not as much as finding out about the blood curse that runs in her family, one that now she carries.
Her mother made her promise that day to never use magic again, to never transform.
Her mother really should have known better then to trust a three years old.
It stopped her for a while, the fear her mother instilled in her, the fear about being stuck in a snake form.
But by a month passed by, she couldn't help but remember the sense of relief her change caused.
It was like she was stuck in the wrong body for years, and finally found the right one.
She started change in secret.
Sneak whenever she could to the forest and change for a while, only to feel that sense of relief once more.
It was two months into that when they caught her.
It was magical creatures hunters, people who find a magical beast, capture it and sell to the highest bidder.
Catching her was almost certainly by mistake.
She would later find out her transformation is special, the snake she can transform to is a magical snake by the name of Ichchadari who while in legends can change into any shape, actually can only change size.
If it was a different kind of snake, she would have transformed back into her human form, but with her snake species, the cage they put her in was enchanted to prevent changing size and form.
She was with them for six months, as they traveled the forests of Indonesia, collecting many kinds of magical creatures, before taking a ship toward where she would live in the future, Europe.
In that time she listened and learned bits of their language, and by the time they arrived, she knew basic English.
She was then sold to a man called Skender, who, when finding out that he bought a Maledictus instead of a Ichchadhari, was angry for a moment, before changing his attitude and deciding that a Maledictus is much rarer and more interesting.
He gave her a new name, something he said was better suited for her, and after a few years she had to agree.
she wasn't a cloud (Mega), she was a half snake half person, her name is Nagini
Her next 16 years were spent in a cage, going from city to city all around Europe and America and put on an act.
The only upside is that she found her balance between snake form and human form, one that let her transform back to human without any big problems, one that let her push back the enviable, her full time transformation.
And while she dreamed about the outside world, she no longer had any hope for more then stay human a little bit more.
And then came Credence.
Having a boy around her age, sitting next to her in a cage of his own, still full of life, ready to find his identity and family.
She might have had a small crush on him.
Escaping together, they went around Paris, almost dying for him a few times, but by the end of it, Credence still chose to leave her and join those who tried to kill them, breaking her heart.
It took some convincing on their part as they needed help from her, but in the end she joined Dumbledore's battle against Grindelward and Credence, but in the end she did, as Dumbledore said he knew how to break the curse and promised he would if they can get help from her.
The final battle was messy.
There were fight everywhere, deaths every other second, and while the main battle was between Grindelward and Dumbledore, with Newt helping Dumbledore to even the scales, her battle was with Credence, and instead of magical battle, it was a battle of words.
It took her a while, but Credence, who was dying because of the Obscurus, decided to do the right thing and stop Grindelward, managing to knock the wand out of his hand.
Dumbledore didn't let the chance be missed, and killed fired to kill Credence before stunning Grindelward and leaving with him locked.
Of course, the battle wasn't over with that, no, the rest of them fought for hours, killing and dying, even her, still in grief over her first love, killed over half a dozen Alliance members, but in the end, with less then twenty of them still alive, it was over.
When she came back from the war, a nasty surprise awaited her.
Not only did Dumbledore lie about his ability to cure her, but with all the transformations she did while in battle, instead of the 10 years she had before the permanent transformation, she only had 5.
Leaving in rage, not listening to his or most of her other 'friends' explanations about the 'need of many', the only one that took her side was Newt, who decided to travel with her around the world, trying to find a cure or just a way to slow the curse down.
In the end they managed to get her 8 years instead of the 5 she were supposed to have, spending that time traveling together made them develop emotions for one another, but with the curse over her head, she didn't allow herself to completely fall for him, and when he finally left after telling her he loves her and her rejection of him, she decided to stay in the forest, to live where she knows she were loved.
It wasn't till almost 3 years ago that she found a conversation partner after all those years stuck in a snake form.
It was someone that seemed to have a smoke like form, just like Credence, someone who could talk to snakes and who seem to hate Dumbledore just like her.
And his name was Tom
NAGINI'S POV
In her years of travel with Newt, they have come to find that her life span became like that of the Ichchadhiri Naagins, which meant she will live for a two hundred years without growing old.
While most people would have considered it a blessing, she had to deal with the fact that she would live those years as a snake, alone and bored, she was about to consider attacking strong animals with intention of them killing her when she met Tom.
The smoke like body, the snake like face and the pained look on his face when she saw him made the man was a child of Credence and her, that, and the fact that he was capable to understand her, made her agree to help him survive before even knowing the man's name.
She hunted small animals for him, always keeping them alive for him to either kill or possess, it took a year before he managed to have a conversation with her not about hunger.
That's when he told her his name- Lord Voldemort.
She had the first laugh she had in years, before asking him what was his real name.
When he insisted that this was his real name she threatened to leave, and he was forced to tell her his original name, Tom.
He explained why he hated this name and his chose to get another, and she agreed to call him Voldemort, even if in her head she called him Tom.
Another year passed with her feeding both him and her, each of them pass the time by telling each other stories about their life, and they found out they both have a deep hatred for Dumbledore, who used the years to change how people remember the battle to make it seem it was only a duel between Grindelward and him, making all their contributions, all of their sacrifice, be forgotten.
He even made Credence's Phoenix appear to be his, and with her knowledge of magical creatures that grew by her traveling with Newt, she knew Phoenixes were bound to the family of the person they bonded with.
With them bonding over the hate for Dumbledore, they became more then just people who keep each other alive and sane, they became friends.
She were fine with living the rest of her life like that.
And then came Wormtail.
If there was one kind of people she was jealous about was animagi, their ability to transform at will was everything she ever dreamed about, and they just showed it off as if they deserved in more then her!
Maybe she was a little bit unreasonable, but she was so jealous!
When she saw a man turned into a rat in the forest, she let her emotions get the best of her, and grabbed his rat form with her mouth, bringing it to Tom to drain or possess, yet when the man turned himself to a human and prostate himself to Tom it was found out he is one of Tom's followers.
That started the last year.
With the help of Wormtail, Tom managed to get himself a body of a baby to possess, which, while the action disgust her, made Tom grew stronger.
With her venom's help, Tom had Wormtail make a potion that will strengthen him in preparation for a ritual she found while searching for a way to help her keep her human form, one that couldn't help her as when she looked for her family to take the bone of her father she found the village was burned to the ground years ago by bandits, and her family dead.
With the help of both her and Wormtail, Tom grew stronger by the day, and she hoped he could regain his human form and kill Dumbledore as revenge for not only lying to her, but also making Credence be forgotten.
Yet, once more, her hopes were shuttered, as two weeks before the time planed for Tom to regain his body two man appeared in the house they lived in and captured Tom and her.
She was once more in a cage, just like all those years ago, but this time she wasn't afraid, she was furious!
He those man took her hope for revenge, her hope for justice, and she was ready to go all out when she has a chance and kill both of them.
The next time he brought her out of his bag inside her cage, even though she knew he couldn't understand her she cursed at him, yet surprisingly, he talked back, which, after a moment of shock only made her even more furious!
It is one thing to put a mindless beast in a cage, it is a different story to put an intelligent one.
So she started, every time he took her out and try to talk to her, to scream and curse him, being as colorful with her curses as possible.
Yet each day, he continued to take her out of his bag and try to talk to her, and when that didn't work, let her spit her anger on him.
It took three and a half months, but finally she was tired from it.
$What do you want from me? Why don't you just kill me? Why do you keep me prisoner$ She asked one day.
$Oh, finally decided to calm down and talk?$ He asked smirking.
$Just answer the damn question!$ She said.
$I never wanted to kill you, I only want to cure you.$
If she were that naive girl she was before the war she might have believed him, but she grew, she experienced betrayal and she knew from her life that no one gives free things.
$Oh really? And what would you like in return?$
$Oh, I get the return by succeeding$ He told her. $I was hired by a family of a girl with the same condition as you to cure it.$
Now she understood, he wanted to experiment on her.
'But why didn't he just do so?' She thought and with her knowledge of rituals she immediately reached the answer. 'It's a ritual in which he needs my willing participation for it to work.'
Knowing she had to be willing, she agreed to hear him out, have him explain the ritual, and if it sound feasible to undergo it.
$I researched the blood curse and managed to find its name is wrong, it isn't a blood curse, but inherent disease.$ he started, explaining to her how her body was in fact always a snake, and she kept using her magic to transform into human, but each time she transform to either form, her body gains resistance to belief and will based transfiguration, making her use more and more magic for the transformation, and by the end it can't be transformed by will alone, making her stuck in her real body, which is her animal form.
He explained how he modified the animagus ritual so it will let the person that undergoes it choose his animal form with the help of an outsider, who will connect to her spiritual realm to guide her.
He showed her the ritual, and from her experience she knew it can work, but she also knew that in order to become an animagus, you need great knowledge of the animal you transform to, and she didn't have said knowledge.
$How would you expect me to transform into human after the animagus ritual? Would you spend years teaching me about human anatomy?$
$No$ He said. $I will put the knowledge into your mind before the ritual takes place.$
$And how will you do that?$ She asked.
$I compressed my memories about the study of the human body to 3 months worth of study, you will choose a time in your life that is meaningless and I will replace the memory of that time with those memories.$
She was shocked, he told her he wants to delete a part of her memory! A part of who she is! She was about to refuse when she really thought about it, she spent years in the forest, surviving yet not living, does she really care about those memories? Is three months from the middle, when she either caught pray or slept really were more important then regaining her human body?
$fine, take three months from 7 years ago.$
He looked surprised when she agreed so readily.
$Great, I just need for you to think about the months you want to get deleted very hard, and I will obliviate you by shooting the spell toward your eyes, as other parts of your body are resistant to magic.$
She thought of those days of sleeping underneath a rock, the nights of catching rodents, bugs, and sometimes other snakes.
$I'm ready$ she said
"Obliviate."
And it was all gone.
NAGINI'S POV
For the first time since she heard about the spell Nagini understood why when you obliviate a person you have to delete his memory of the spell.
Knowing there is a period of time that you don't remember because of a spell is the most unbalancing thing you can ever encourage.
It did help that Harry put in their place different memories, but even those unbalanced her, in a different way, as she could remember studying the human body, remember learning about the cells, the organs, the blood, the skin, and the meridians, but it didn't change the fact that she also knew it wasn't really her studying it.
To combat that, she and Harry spent the next few days studying the human body in general to make those memories her own.
During that time they became sort of friends, as she liked the way he seemed passionate about the study of human anatomy, and he liked her attitude.
He even agreed to take her out of the cage once she took an oath to not try to kill him, making her stay whenever possible on his neck after shrinking herself as much as possible, as it was easier to move around like that.
In the end, it took her six days to get rid of that disorienting feelings and be ready to the ritual, and when she told it to Harry he brought her to a different location.
$What the bloody hell are we doing here?$ She asked him when they arrived near a manor like house.
$This is the house of my employer, we will do the ritual here as a demonstration.$ Sighing, she said nothing as she knew that no matter how much their relationship developed into friends, he would still consider the curing of her as nothing more then a demonstration.
A second after he knocked on the door a blond girl around Harry's age answered.
"Harry!" She said excitedly, only taking one look at her before ignoring her entirely. "Is what Luna told me true? Have you found a cure?"
"we might have." He smiled at her.
"Come in, come in." The girl said, pulling him inside.
"What would the ice queen fans think if they saw you like that, Daphne?" He chuckled as he let Daphne lead him toward the living room where another blond girl sat with a white haired girl and a man, drinking tea.
"Who the bloody heel cares? You found a cure for my sister!" Daphne's grin was threatening to split her face in two.
"We probably did, today we will know for sure." He said looking the other occupants of the room.
"Her Luna, I'm glad you could make it." He said.
"Of course Harry, I will never miss this, even if it does mean my dad will have to do the shopping for the school year."
"Well maybe if you didn't spend the entire summer in Rome searching for clues about the Rotfang conspiracy you would have had the chance to buy them before." He said in a teasing tone.
"Well, you try to explain to my father that gum disease has to do with with tiny creatures living in your mouth without breaking him out." She said in a funny condescending voice before adding "Hey Nagini." with a smile toward her, making Nagini decide she like that girl.
"Hello Harry," The man nodded expressionlessly when Harry looked toward him. "you would be happy to know we let your Golems sat the runic scheme in our ritual room, which we made sure is clean from any sort of magic, though I would like to talk to you later about them and the runes, at least before e we do the ritual on my daughter.
A nod from Harry was all it took for the man to drop the subject as he looked at her.
"And that's the other patient with 'Blood Malediction'?"
"Meet Nagini, she agreed to be the first it is performed upon and took all the needed studies seriously."
Nagini couldn't help but laugh sarcastically at that, as if she had any choose in both those matters.
Giving her a pointy look Harry continued.
"Now, I know you would like to know what we are about to do today-" he was interrupted mid sentence by the man. "That won't be necessary, miss Lovegood was nice enough to explain it herself, I do have some questions she said was best to wait for you to answer."
"She did? Great! Well, ask away!" Harry said.
"First of all, how do you propose Astoria learn about the human body?"
"Well Basitill, there are two ways I can think about, either you buy her books to read and have someone to teach it to her, something that will take about 10 years as she also has her Hogwarts education, or you insert those memories into her by replacing them with different memories she has, as Nagini did."
Basitill frowned at that.
"Who would you propose teach her? You?"
"Oh, god no! I have other projects to attend to, you should probably have a muggle doctor who has a magical child to teach her, with me adding the things that are different in magical people." Harry said quickly, showing he already thought about it.
"We can talk about it later, another thing I wanted to talk to you about is side affects, will there be any?" That perked Nagini's interest, She didn't notice anything in the ritual that could create a side affect, but it could be that Harry did.
"Well, there shouldn't be any except her animal nature and appetite appearing more pronounced then when she suppress it right now, but with it being a modified ritual there could be, that's why we don't use it on a child first, and instead testing it on a consenting a.d.u.l.t."
It disturbed Nagini a little bit the way he didn't mind excitement on her but it also felt right.
No matter what, she already lived her life, and was already considering finishing it, it made more sense to use the ritual on her before using it on a child with her life only started.
"Well, shall we go to the ritual room?" Basitill said after asking a few more questions.
"I need to be alone with her in the room, we can't have anyone interrupt it." Harry said, having the rest nod.
Walking inside the ritual room, Harry placed Nagini in the middle of the weird rune scheme before going toward a circle in the corner of the room.
$I need you to pour all your magic into the circle.$ he said and she did as he said.
$ready?$ he asked and she nodded.
$Here we go!$ he said, pouring his own magic and everything gone back.
HARRY'S POV
The now extinct eastern sects had different, sometimes opposed opinions over almost every subject.
Each had its own philosophy, its own spells, its own artifacts, even their own locations for the meridians.
The only thing they seem to have little to none disagreeing upon is the spiritual realm, which is why while he had, with GAI's help, to collect parts from each text for each subject to piece together his own complete understanding of each subject, while discarding the rest, he had as full understanding as possible.
The spiritual realm is the acc. of spirits of every single living being in the world.
It is the hopes, fears and beliefs of everyone that ever lived.
It is, as Harry calls it, the world's belief.
Having said that, every living being also has a small spiritual realm of his own, one that has many names- soul, mind, heart...
The process of doing magic is half of your energy to to push your belief from your own spiritual realm to the world's spiritual realm, and half to manifest it in the physical world.
Saying that, the process to become animagus is different.
The animagus ritual is about changing your own spiritual realm to become a combination of animal and human and then convince your body it's real with your knowledge of the animal before using magic to change.
No matter if it's the original ritual or the potion, the process is about changing you to the animal you are the most similar to automatically, thus doing it with the least resistance and pain.
Of course, the difference between the two is that the ritual creates a less balanced result then the potion, thus making you become more animalistic and your descendants to suffer from the 'Blood Malediction'.
The new ritual works differently.
Instead of working automatically, the person who helps in the ritual is able to direct the spiritual realm toward the wanted animal by being inside their spiritual realm and talk to the person that undergoes the process.
And this was exactly where Harry is right now, inside Nagini's spiritual realm.
He didn't have a body in here, nor did he needed one, what he did need is to convince Nagini's spiritual realm to change into more human-like.
He could see that Nagini had never trained in Occlumency, as her spiritual realm wasn't organized at all.
It was like being inside a little child's finger painting, different colors everywhere, each seem to convey its own emotions and sensations, yet the colors that were seem the most were green and red.
If Harry wanted to convince Nagini's spiritual realm that it is also a human, he would have to create order in the chaos.
He started small, making the everything be organized by colors.
Green and red were in the middle, turning into a big long rope with stripes that Harry quickly understood is her snake part of herself.
The other colors quickly turned into different animals.
Blue turned into a wolf, yellow into a horse, brown into a bunny...
Every parts of what makes Nagini herself turned into an animal, yet non of them were human, and Harry's could see that her spiritual realm is deciding on one when the Black crow was being drown into the snake.
Unwilling to let it be like that, Harry started adding the colors that became animals into the black crow.
Adding the wolf turned the crow into a sparrow, adding the bunny turned the sparrow into a vulture, adding the horse turned the vulture into a hawk.
Each and every color turned the animal into a different one, yet non turned into a human, and the more colors were added, the faster and stronger the pule of the snake was to the animal.
Seeing that there isn't any other option, Harry, unwilling to admit defeat, did the last thing he could, he used his magic to transfigure the swan, the animal that when adding all the colors appeared, into a human form before pushing it into the snake.
The reason that Harry didn't w want to use this method was that there was no say what would happen when his magic is mixed with a person's spiritual realm permanently like it does now that the human form is part of Nagini's spiritual realm.
'Yet, at least the experiment succeeded.' Harry thoughts as he stopped feeding the rune scheme magic and came out of Nagini's spiritual realm.
Nagini was still knocked out, and with Harry's own tiredness because of his magic almost running out, they both just laid on the floor, waiting for energy to return to their bodies.
LUNA'S POV
Waiting for the ritual to finish was unbearable, after working together for a year with Harry toward the goal of curing the disease, Luna felt the wait for results is torture, not like how it is probably for Daphne and her family, but still.
A little bit after the three hours mark has reached when the door from the room opened up and Harry came out with a Indonesian woman in toe.
The squeal of joy that was about to burst out of her died in her throat when she saw Nagini's aura.
At the beginning it seemed she had the same greenish red aura as before only with a small colorful change that could have happened as a result of the ritual, but as she saw the both of them together she saw that the changes in color in Nagini's aura were identical to Harry's changes.
It was like Harry's aura and Nagini's were connected inexplicably.
"Merlin." She whispered as she took a step back. "Harry, what did you do?"
HARRY'S POV
It took Luna a few moments and a cup of tea to calm down enough to explain what she saw, and more importantly, what could it mean.
Harry didn't feel different, though the changes appeared to be in Nagini, and she said she just got her human body back without the constant discomfort that she used to be in so everything felt differently to her.
"I don't know what could it mean," Luna said "I have never seen a person get their aura inside another person's aura."
"So we are in unknown territory right now." Harry said, deep in thoughts, as he noted something strange Luna said. "We should keep ourself calm while we study the side affects.
"Well," Nagini said, looking happy as her kept touching different parts of her body. "No matter what happened I'm grateful for this chance."
"I will study the side affects," Harry said turning toward Basitill, Astoria and Daphne "But You should have Astoria start studying the human anatomy."
"I understand." Basitill said. "Is there something else she should focus about?"
"I'm not sure." Harry admitted. "If it was someone else I would have said Occlumency, but your family isn't focused about organizing your mind but icy defense and I wouldn't know how that would affect the Arctic fox body."
With that said they all got out of their chairs and went to the door.
Putting his hand forward for a shake, Harry stumbled when Basitill pulled it and hugged him.
"Thank You! Thank you so much!" He heard Basitill whisper in his ear as he felt two more bodies joined the hug.
"I know you had your own reasons to agree and help us but it doesn't change my gratefulness! Nothing ever will."
Basitill quickly let him go and Daphne did the same shortly after, yet it took five more minutes before they managed to pull Astoria away from him as she continued to cry and thank him, apparently already used every single part of her forceful composure the last few hours.
With Luna staying behind to use the fireplace, it was only Harry and Nagini that that had to use the best traveling agency ever made.
"Dobby."
DAPHNE'S POV
Daphne And Astoria with matching grins as they watched as Luna walked through the fire place.
She couldn't believe it, her dream came true.
While her goal was to cure her sister since the moment her mom died, and while she knew Harry was working on it, she never let her hope grow in fear of being let down.
But now she could, now she can feel her shoulders free from the worry, and it is only because of the help of one average wizard with enough ambitions to reach the sky and am equal amount of willingness to work toward them.
'A hard working ambitious wizard who saved my sister, and a good looking one at that.' Daphne thought, chicks reddening at that, once more matching her sister.
Apparently their father noticed that, because he sighed called to them.
"Daphne, Astoria, let's have a sit."
With both of them sitting on the couch, their father started talking.
"First of all we should talk about what is going to happen next. Astoria, I thought about the request you made during our wait for memory implants and as much as I want you to get healed quickly, you don't know what deleting three months from your memory would do to you,"
"But daaad." Astoria said interrupting him."
"No buts!" Their father said more harshly than he ever talked to Astoria. "This is for your own good!" He then soften his expression and said "Either way, it will take Harry time to figure what precisely are the side affects for the ritual, and learning about the body wouldn't harm you, would it?"
"I guess not..." her little sister said grumbly.
"As for your teacher, as much as I hope Harry might change his mind about teaching you as he IS the one who managed to cure someone already, I know he has other things to do and don't believe he will change his mind. I will start looking for a healer well-versed in muggles medical studies and if not possible a muggle healer with knowledge about the magical world, but meanwhile I have the list of books on human anatomy miss Lovegood gave me and should be able to get it to you by the end of first week, I WILL test you about the first four in winter break." It seemed like he finished talking about the subject as his face softened even more.
"Now that we finished with that subject, let's move to the next one, Harry, and your feelings toward him." At the reddening of both of their cheeks their father sighed.
"What I'm about to say might sound harsh, but I'm doing it for both of you.
You don't like him romantically!
You might think you do right now, as you just found out he managed to make your wishes come true, but you are not.
And I forbid you two from pursuing anything romantic with him."
Those words shocked Daphne to her core.
Her dad, the same one that talked about love as the most important thing in life just told them to let go of any romantic intent they have toward Harry? She could understand him telling that to her sister, as she is far too young to have a boyfriend, but her? She is almost 16!
"Is it because of his Muggle heritage?" She asked in a quiet voice "Or is it because he is an outcast of the Potter family?"
"Oh, sweetheart, I don't care He is an outcast of the Potter family, and while his muggles heritage would have bothered me, even if he didn't show show us the benefits of it by creating a cure thought impossible, I wouldn't have stopped you from pursuing a relationship with him."
"Then why?!" Her sister's outburst matched her feelings. "I love him, I know I do! He is handsome, smart, and he saved my life! He is like my own personal hero from the stories!"
Their father just shook his head at that.
"And that's precisely why I wanted to talk to you the second they left, to stop this infatuation before it take place.
Even if you do love Harry, which you don't, you don't know him enough to love him, you only think you do, Harry hold in his hands the key to cure Astoria, what would happen if you start something and break up badly? What if he decided to withhold the cure? No, the most you can be with Harry are friends, at least until Astoria undergo the ritual." Something about that reasoning felt wrong, but she couldn't pinpoint what is it.
"But with you wanting to do it the slow way it's at least three years from now!" Her sister cried. "He won't be available for that long!"
"I know." Their father said solemnly and that's all it took for her sister to run to her room.
Daphne was about to go as well, less sad yet more disappointed when something clicked inside of her.
"Do you really think Harry would do something as dishonorable as this?" She asked and her father seemed to evaluate her before deeming her worthy for a truthful answer.
"No," he admitted "he is an honorable man, in fact he already gave me most of the needed material to recreate the ritual."
"Then what is the real reason? While I won't say I'm in love with him, I can see myself falling for the man." She said honestly "What is the true reason you don't want me to try?"
"The reason is that he is also an ambitious man, and with the dark times that are arriving to magical Britain, ambitious man like him are the ones that are sure to fall. I just want to protect my little girls from the heartbreak of having your love ripped from you."
"I'm not a little girl anymore, and there won't be anyone same in those times."
"That might be true, but I've seen the fire in him, it is the same one my father told me Tom Riddle had as a boy, the one my grandfather told me Dumbledore had in school. He might not be as powerful as them, but think what he could do work his knowledge if he turned it into a weapon.
Our family survived for years by taking the natural path, and I won't lose any of you because I did differently, I already lost your mother, I can't lose you."
Daphne looked at the sad look on her father, one that asked for understanding, as she made her decision.
She threw away any thoughts she might have for Harry, any feelings that might have started to grow, as she looked at her father and smiled.
"I understand."
And that was all that was needed to be said, as her father once more adored his smile on his face, looking 10 years younger.