Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Harry Potter or Oh My Goddess.
Thursday morning's edition of The Daily Prophet was full of the extraordinary events that had taken place in the Wizengamot the previous day. The front page had obviously been a struggle for the editor, with so many juicy headlines available, but he had obviously been able to resist temptation and ran with a single story on the front page.
SIRIUS BLACK INNOCENT!
INFAMOUS "DEATH EATER" NEVER GIVEN TRIAL!
EMERGENCY MEETING OF WIZENGAMOT EXONERATES AFTER YEARS IN AZKABAN!
The actual details of the trial didn't start until page 2. Here the emergency meeting rules had worked against the journalists at the Prophet, as no reporters had been allowed in. Consequently, the rest of the paper was filled with stories derived from the official press releases and the few interviews with Wizengamot members that Rita Skeeter had managed to get overnight.
That some of her information had been obtained in a less than legal fashion was overlooked by the editor of the paper. He'd worry about it if the Aurors ever came knocking, and he already had a dozen headlines waiting for such an event.
The special edition of magical Britain's most popular newspaper hit the community like an overpowered reducto, and was the cause of a considerable amount of heated discussion up and down the British Isles. Somehow in the clamour over Black's innocence, the manhunt for one Peter Pettigrew was overlooked, garnering just two column inches on page 15.
At a certain house in Ottery St. Catchpole, a pet rat noticed the headline as he was being fed breakfast scraps. Said rat nearly had a panic attack there and then, before it calmed down enough to start planning.
The rat had not survived as long as it had without the ability to make plans quickly. That little talent was something he owed to his former colleagues. Such a shame that they'd never benefited from his extra education.
In Hinckley, Urd was engaged in an awkward phone call. She was making the call in the privacy of her own room while the rest of the household was involved in clearing up after breakfast. She wanted privacy for this.
"Look, this is not me asking for a personal favour. This is an official request." Urd said tiredly. Her conversational partner said something that drew an annoyed frown.
"I don't care if you're booked solid for the next few decades. I checked the official roster and you're not assigned to any Yggdrasil approved tasks, which means that you're available now."
The voice on the other end of the call made a dismissive sounding retort.
"What Loki says or wants is irrelevant. This is an official job we're talking about, it takes priority."
More dismissive comments came back.
"Look, if you want to play hardball I'll send the request via the Almighty. He'll get you assigned faster than you can blink. And if that isn't enough, I can invoke the Ultimate Force. You want that to be running your diary for the next few years? Or do you just acknowledge the official request I've sent through regular channels and make it less painful for yourself?"
This time the response sounded grudging. Urd smiled slightly.
"Excellent. Oh, and be aware that you are required to be on your best behaviour. If you start to mess around, I'll have to sic Belldandy onto you."
The response sounded mischievous. Urd's expression hardened.
"If Belldandy isn't enough to restrain you, I'll just have to call in your old friend. I'm sure that he'll be able to keep you on task."
A comment that sounded defeated floated back.
"Good. I'll see you this afternoon then, we need to at least introduce you even if training doesn't start in earnest for a week or so."
After a listening to a final, somewhat sarcastic farewell, Urd hung up the phone wearily.
He really is the best choice. And if I repeat that enough times I might even persuade myself of that statement.
Sirius Black was having a fairly confusing morning. The previous evening he had gone directly from the Wizengamot chamber to an Auror office for further questioning. After that he had been given some decent food, which had served to make him practically fall asleep on his feet.
Now he was in a room that looked suspiciously like a private suite at St Mungo's. Apparently the act of regaining consciousness had triggered some sort of monitoring charm, because he was joined by a Healer.
"Ah, good to see you awake. I am Healer Cutteridge, and I am in charge of getting you over your recent incarceration at Azkaban. The Wizengamot has directed that you are to be given a full rehabilitation program at the Ministry's expense to ensure that you are fully fit and ready to rejoin society."
Sirius thought about this, and wondered if it wasn't just another way of keeping him locked up. "How long will this take?"
Cutteridge smiled slightly. "That really depends on the patient, but in your case...the fact that you used your animagus form to give yourself a natural buffer against the worst effects of the Dementors means that you're in far better shape than most prisoners would be in after your experiences. On the other hand, being in your animagus form for extended periods of time in prison conditions is fairly unhealthy in itself. I expect you to be out of here inside of six months, hopefully sooner."
Sirius sagged slightly. "Six months."
"Hopefully less. A lot of it will depend on how cooperative you are." Cutteridge glared at Sirius with a gimlet eye. "The more you work with us, the faster this will go. Understood?"
Sirius nodded. "Am I allowed visitors? Heck, am I allowed to owl anybody?"
Cutteridge relaxed slightly. "Yes to both questions, though we'll wait a week first. After that, we encourage visitors as it will help your recovery."
Sirius nodded again. "OK, so what do we do first?"
"First? First you have breakfast. And as the Ministry is paying for this, you actually get food that is good enough to eat as well as being nutritious and healthy."
Sirius' face developed a broad smile.
Urd had once again taken advantage of Harry's presence in the bathroom to have a quick, private discussion with her sisters.
"OK, this is important. I've sorted out Harry's instructor in self-defence." She began.
"Self-defence?" Skuld asked innocently.
"Yes," Urd said seriously, "poor Harry is going to need to know how to defend himself in the future. We can't be there all the time, plus he needs to know how to stand on his own feet. If we start now, he should be in a good position to take care of himself by the time he goes to Hogwarts."
"Oh, OK." Skuld said as understanding dawned. "But why don't we teach him?"
Urd had an answer to that one ready to go. "Our fighting styles don't suit him at all. We have natural elemental affinities that we tend to rely on, but Harry doesn't. We also tend to go airborne at the first sign of trouble to give ourselves extra mobility. Harry can't fly. Well, not yet at least."
"Urd is correct," Belldandy put in, "and the same can be said of most of the Valkyries as well. So, who have you asked to teach Harry?"
Urd struggled hard to keep a grimace off her face. "The only person I could think of who fitted. We needed somebody with good martial arts abilities as well as an innate knowledge of magical combat. Plus they needed to be ground based, at least most of the time. Finally they couldn't rely on elemental attacks. All things considered, the best option I had was-"
"-me." A new voice interrupted. The Norns turned to look at their visitor.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Skuld said.
"Urd, are you really sure this is the best person to teach Harry?" Belldandy asked with the slightest trace of acid.
Urd pinched the bridge of her nose. "You weren't supposed to get here until this afternoon. You're way too early."
"Yes, well, I was bored anyway. Besides, it was afternoon where I was when you called." The guest said with a smirk. "So where is my student?"
Belldandy looked up. "He's on his way down now."
Sure enough, Harry entered the room not long after Belldandy had finished speaking. He saw the extra person and halted. "Um..."
Belldandy took pity. "Harry, we have arranged for you to have lessons in self-defence. We aren't very suited to teach you this, so we have organised for a tutor to train you. I would like you to meet your new personal teacher for self-defence, Mr-"
"I'll handle the introduction from here," the apparent self-defence teacher said. "My name is Sun Wukong. And I must say that I am very happy to meet you, Harry Potter."
Harry blinked. "Er, thank you. It is nice to meet you, Mr Wukong."
Sun Wukong looked amused. "Please, no need for formality. You can call me Monkey."
Harry walked over and tentatively offered his hand. Sun Wukong gently took it with a small bow. The Norns looked more than just a little apprehensive.
He's the best instructor for Harry. He's the best instructor for Harry. He's the best instructor for Harry. He's the best instructor for Harry. He's the best instructor for Harry. Urd repeated to herself in a mantra.
In a cheap bedsit located in one of the seedier areas of Glasgow, a rather dishevelled man in cheap, worn clothes was working hard to get his brain to start working again. In front of him was the reason behind his current mental difficulties; a copy of the latest edition of the Daily Prophet. The headline screaming about the innocence of the man once considered to have been You-Know-Who's most loyal lieutenant was clearly visible to anybody who cared to look. The sole occupant of the room couldn't tear his eyes away from the headlines, which contributed to his slow reboot time.
There was just one thought that kept repeating itself in his mind. He's innocent. What do I do now?
Amelia Bones was feeling just a little gleeful. She had one of the Ministry's most famous and intimidating personalities sitting in front of her desk looking like he was ready to relieve his bowels without the benefit of removing his trousers first. Considering how this person had once ruled the DMLE with an iron fist, it was...nice...to see him feeling more than just a little apprehensive.
The cause of said apprehension was the 5 minute dressing down that Amelia had just finished with. She had managed to summarise the complete and utter disaster that was the arrest and imprisonment of Sirius Black, concluding with the way both Bagnold and Dumbledore had managed to handball all responsibility to the head of the DMLE at the time of Sirius' incarceration.
That person was one Bartemius Crouch Senior, notorious as the Head of the DMLE who had advocated fighting fire with fire. It was his directorship that had seen Aurors authorised to use the three Unforgiveables when fighting Death Eaters, and he had personally been the judge for many of the Death Eater trials. Including the now infamous trial that had seen Crouch send his own son to Azkaban for a life sentence.
Now it had been revealed that Sirius Black had not had the same courtesy before being sent to what was arguably one of the worst prisons in the world. Now that the cat had been let out of the bag, Crouch Snr was left to try and explain exactly why the course of justice had been derailed.
"I didn't think it was necessary. He admitted his own guilt when he was arrested at the scene!" Crouch said nervously.
"Which would have been a wonderful piece of evidence to have been presented at his trial." Amelia replied with a frosty smile. "The apparent guilt of the accused cannot be a reason for immediate incarceration, else we would never have put the Lestranges in front of the Wizengamot."
Crouch winced. That particular trial had included his own son in the defence stand.
"Crouch, I'm going to put this simply. Sirius Black went to prison without a trial while you were the Director here. The emergency laws that we had at the time did allow for high risk prisoners to be sent there without trial or charge for short periods, but even that legislation required that all prisoners eventually be charged and tried or released. Not to mention that those emergency laws also required that records of extraordinary incarcerations had to be kept. Frankly, you stuffed it up completely."
Crouch remained silent. He knew that his goose was cooked, nothing he could say would improve the situation.
Amelia sighed. "The Chief Auror has already tendered his resignation over this, due to his role in Black's original arrest. I think Rufus is already measuring for curtains. As for you..." She held up a piece of parchment. Crouch suppressed his natural urge to flinch.
"You have a choice. If we maintain the status quo, the Wizengamot will come after your head. They want a sacrificial lamb and you are the best candidate for that. Alternatively, you can pre-empt everybody and fall on your sword."
"How?" Crouch asked.
"You are currently the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation. You can't stay there after this fiasco. Bagnold has unofficially told me that you can have a new job as the head of the Department of Intoxicating Substances. That should be enough to placate the Wizengamot, though just how the public will react is anyone's guess."
Crouch failed to suppress the wince this time. The Department of International Magical Cooperation was a bit of a joke at times, but it did have the benefit of offering a lot of overseas travel at the Ministry's expense. Plus he had only answered to the Minister. Intoxicating Substances, on the other hand, would put him under Amelia Bones' direct authority...not to mention the cut in salary and the loss of a lot of fringe benefits.
Still, it was better than being unemployed. Or being thrown to a lynch mob.
"I accept. I don't have much choice." He said at length.
"Excellent." Amelia said, beaming. "You can start moving your office now."
Crouch walked out of the Director's office with a defeated air. Goddamn war still hasn't finished taking things from me.
Sun Wukong had escorted Harry to the park that was practically next door to his new home. Urd was accompanying them, ostensibly to assist Sun Wukong in whatever training would take place but mostly to prevent the Monkey King from accidentally setting off World War 3 with some overblown prank.
She had good reason to be worried about that. Few people knew the prominent role that Sun Wukong had played in starting the Cuban Missile Crisis.
"Right then, this looks like a good place. We will do most of our training here, including magic once you're ready for it. We can use magic to make sure nobody sees anything that might raise suspicion, but for now we won't be doing anything too outlandish. OK?" Sun Wukong said as he came to a halt in front of Harry.
"OK." Harry said. The park wasn't much, mostly empty grass suitable for picnics and sport, but he supposed that if his new teacher was happy with it then it should do.
"Good. Now, just a little bit of etiquette. When I am teaching you, my title is Sensei. That is a Japanese word, and the rough English translation is 'teacher'. This is only during our teaching sessions, otherwise you just call me Monkey. OK?"
"OK." Harry said agreeably, while Urd wondered why the Monkey King was using "sensei" and not "sifu". Sun Wukong smiled gently and wagged a finger.
"As this is a lesson, that should have been 'yes sensei' but we won't dwell on it. The whole point of this is to establish a mindset that while we are here, we are in a classroom and we are here to learn. Calling me 'sensei' and all of the other little rituals that we will learn is just a part of establishing that. It also helps to drive home the difference between when we are together to learn and when we're just being together as friends. OK?"
"Yes, sensei." Harry replied.
"Excellent. Now, just as a foundation, I need to find out just how fit you are. Have you ever exercised much in the past?"
Harry winced slightly. "I have a lot of practice at running away from my cousin and his gang. I've also spent a lot of time tending to my aunt's garden."
Sun Wukong's expression was strained, but he kept a smile fixed to it. Urd didn't bother to restrain herself as she was outside of Harry's field of vision. "OK, so short distance sprinting. Let's start by working on your endurance a little. We'll have a gentle run around the park, let me know when you start to feel winded. But before that, we need to warm up. Watch me as I stretch various muscles to get them ready, and then perform the same stretches. I'll help you get the moves correct."
Urd moved into her own set of warm-up exercises as she watched the Monkey King start to teach Harry the fundamentals. So far, so good. But I knew he was a good teacher before I even invited him here.
Albus Dumbledore sat and brooded in his office at Hogwarts. The events of the last week were starting to wear on an already badly frayed temper.
First of all, he'd lost control over Harry Potter. This was critical, as the ultimate demise of Voldemort hinged on Harry's future actions. Without proper guidance, the Dark Lord would remain a threat for a long time, maybe even centuries.
Albus was certain that nobody else knew the key facts that held the key to Voldemort's destruction. As such, only he could help Harry fulfil his destiny and eliminate the Dark Lord. The interference of the Odinsdotter sisters threatened the plan drastically, as he would now have a hard time gaining Harry's trust. That trust would be vital for the perils to come, and any delay in winning it could be more than just a little problematic.
The Odinsdotter sisters themselves presented a concern beyond their current status as custodians of the Boy-Who-Lived. Their demonstrated skill had driven home the fact that Britain now had a new set of magical heavy-weights. The wards they had erected were proof enough that the sisters knew more about magic than most British wizards or witches, while Urd's apparent legilimency...
That worried Dumbledore the most. Nobody had ever penetrated his occlumency barriers since his final confrontation with Grindelwald, and even then his old friend had been using every trick and nasty memory he could wield. Urd Odinsdotter had effortlessly bypassed his mental shields with nothing more than a quick distraction and lightning fast probe that he hadn't even detected.
It all spoke of skills far beyond the average. Dumbledore was well acquainted with the muggle expression "tip of the iceberg" and was wary of any group that could demonstrate such power with so few examples. He was left wondering what else they could do. Especially considering that they were completely new players on the chessboard that was British magical politics.
On top of these worries, however, came Sirius Black. Albus was convinced that Black's reappearance on the political scene of magical Britain occurring at the same time that Harry Potter had been removed from the Dursleys was no coincidence. He had no evidence that the Odinsdotters were involved, but the timing was just too convenient.
What rankles me the most is that the trial has reminded me, again, that I've not handled this situation as well as I could have. First I made an error regarding the Blood Wards that would have made a 1st year blush, now I squander a valuable resource for nearly a decade due to simple neglect. Sirius Black would have been a very useful asset in cultivating Harry's trust and curbing the Dursley's worst excesses, but thanks to my inaction...
He knew, with the benefit of hindsight, that he should have at least gone to confront Sirius in his cell at Azkaban prison. Even if he had held the view that Black had been a Death Eater, the potential information to be gained should have had the old Headmaster on the first available boat to the desolate fortress.
Instead he had gotten himself lost in the machinations of keeping Harry Potter secure from the forces of Death Eaters and bureaucrats. That and the turmoil of rebuilding magical society in the wake of the Death Eater trials. More than a few important Ministry officials had ended up in Azkaban at the end of that fiasco, and the daily battles to keep the system functional while keeping the influence of the dark families at bay had kept him occupied almost 24 hours a day.
Neither of which is an excuse for wasting such a valuable asset. I should have known better. I cannot believe I would have been so negligent back in the 1940s.
Sighing to himself, he withdrew a fresh piece of parchment from a desk drawer and took up his favourite quill. It was time to stop worrying about his setbacks and start planning for the immediate future.
Harry will be here at Hogwarts in two years. Unless the Odinsdotters decide to send him elsewhere. I must make sure that Hogwarts is the most appealing option for Harry. How to do this...
A thought occurred. He dipped his quill into a nearby inkwell and started to write.
Step one. Persuade Sirius Black to influence Harry into attending Hogwarts.
While Harry had his first lesson with Sun Wukong, Belldandy had gone to visit the architect that her divination had indicated would be the best choice. She had taken a full set of diagrams of the church and house that Skuld had prepared, along with suggested design ideas from all three Norns.
"I must say that I see few clients as prepared as you are," Adrian Fletcher said as he flipped through the drawings. "These will be extremely useful for any designs. You said you wanted to convert the old church to a residential building?"
"Yes, we thought we could split the main chamber into two floors," Belldandy said, "upstairs would have bedrooms with ensuites, while downstairs would have more bedrooms along with a kitchen, laundry, living room, dining room..."
"Say no more, Miss Odinsdotter, I can see what you're driving at." The architect said. "The height of the building allows for an extra floor quite easily, though I'd suggest leaving a few areas at full height to allow light to penetrate through. If we put a stairwell here..." Fletcher started to make pencil marks on the diagrams, as Belldandy leaned over to inspect.
Meanwhile, Skuld was busy with Sigel and Banpei as they finished clearing the site of her future laboratory and workshop. She had a rough sketch of what she wanted worked out using her own personal CAD software, and was busy working out the details with her two assistants.
"The key thing is getting enough power for everything," Skuld explained, "if I try to run the simulator gear and a local Yggdrasil unit off the mains, we'll cause brown-outs for the local area. So, I want a basement area that will contain a generator capable of powering all of my equipment plus the house and church. Here's what I have in mind." With that she sent a file from her terminal to both robots.
Both Sigel and Banpei examined the plans internally, and combined them with the scans they had made of the local geology. Banpei promptly went in search of his excavation attachments, while Sigel grabbed a can of spray paint and started to mark out the new building outline.
Skuld nodded approvingly, while she started to work on the designs for the special equipment she would need to establish a local power system. I can't buy this stuff off the market, it would attract too much attention...
Sun Wukong nodded approvingly as Harry finished his final set of basic moves for the day. Excellent start for somebody who's only experience in fighting has been to run away from a bunch of bullies.
Today had been more about evaluating Harry's abilities and laying the groundwork for his physical training. While Harry had fairly good stamina and excellent sprinting skills, he needed a lot of fundamental strength and endurance training to get him on a level that the Monkey King would like to see in a student.
"Good work, Harry. Let's stop it there for today. It is about time for lunch, and I don't want to go too far in our first lesson. Let's head back to the house and we can discuss a schedule for future lessons."
"OK, sensei." Harry said as he straightened up.
"To finish off, we'll do some gentle exercises to help our muscles cool down. I'll do this slowly, just follow along." Sun Wukong said, as he started with an arm stretch.
Urd followed along, noting the efficiency of the movements. Finally, the Monkey King stopped and faced his student directly. Harry followed suit.
"At the end of the lesson, we bow to each other. This is as much about acknowledging that the lesson is finished as it is about any sort of seniority or rank. Don't go overboard, just a short bow will do." Sun Wukong explained.
After the bows had been exchanged, Urd clapped her hands to get Harry's attention. "Good lesson, Harry. Go ahead and have a quick shower before lunch, I have to talk to your teacher here."
Harry nodded. The house was not that far away. "OK, see you at home."
Following Harry at a short distance, Urd looked at Sun Wukong curiously. "Why 'sensei' and not 'sifu'?"
"Because there is a native Japanese speaker in this household and no native Chinese speakers. Except for you and your sisters, but you know what I mean. I'm guessing that you'll teach Harry to speak Japanese at some point. And I won't use English terms either - 'master' has the wrong connotations and 'teacher' has been degraded in this country." Monkey explained.
Urd nodded. "You know better than any of us what fighting style suits Harry the best. How much time do you need per week? Remember that he'll have human schools to attend as well."
Sun Wukong looked thoughtful. "He caught on fast today. Assuming that you and your sisters will be giving him the fundamentals of using his magic as well, I'll only need three sessions a week. Two hours for each session."
Urd looked slightly astonished. "Is that all?"
"Oh, you'll also need to keep his exercise regimen up while I'm not here," Sun Wukong went on, "but in terms of learning to fight, six hours per week should cover it. Of course, he won't be reaching his Mastery until he is an adult, but he should be good enough in two years to keep himself alive."
Urd nodded again. "Good. To be honest we don't know what kind of timeframe we have. The best we can work on is that things should remain quiet until he turns eleven. After that, he'll definitely need to be able to look after himself to a limited degree."
"No problems there." Sun Wukong noted.
"Fine. Let's have lunch...and please don't antagonise my sisters any more than you absolutely have to. They're half convinced that I've gone crazy, asking you here..."
The Monkey King's answering grin was malicious. Urd sighed. One battle at a time...
Contrary to Urd's expectations, lunch was a friendly and relaxing event. Harry had spent some time telling Belldandy and Skuld about his morning's lessons (Sun Wukong had chosen to adopt the inscrutable old martial arts teacher attitude and had simply smiled his way through the meal). Skuld for her part had talked about her plans for her new lab - not that anybody understood one word in ten of the technobabble. Belldandy had the provisional drawings that the architect had created for the church renovations.
Once lunch was over, Sun Wukong had departed after agreeing to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday training schedule. Once the Monkey King had gone, Urd addressed her family.
"I have to go to Diagon Alley this afternoon to get my store ready. I'm guessing that you have more work to do on your lab, Skuld?"
Skuld nodded. "Yep! We got the first stage of the foundations dug and the reinforcing mesh set up, now we need to start pouring concrete!"
Urd nodded briefly and went on. "Fine. Belldandy, can you start teaching Harry how to use his magic this afternoon?"
"Of course. Come on, Harry, this will be fun!" Belldandy said enthusiastically.
Harry beamed. Real magic!
Urd's new shop needed a lot of work. She was very particular about her workspace. For one thing, it had to be clean and well organised.
The rear of the shop had a few old offices and storerooms that she converted to a lab and ingredient storage with a few quick spells. She didn't want spectators when she was brewing, especially as some of the potions she planned to sell were her own creations. She had no illusions about the patent process in magical Britain, and how it was designed to allow established rich wizards to take anything they wanted, so secrecy was the order of the day.
To that end she had established an elaborate set of layered wards, starting with the basic anti-fire protections and working up to wards that made the walls impenetrable and spying impossible. Nobody was going to scry her workspace. Not without access to Yggdrasil, at least.
She was now working in the front, public area of the shop. This was an important space and she needed to get it right, as the ambience of a shop could seriously affect sales. Reflecting on the society she would be operating in, she chose a Victorian theme. Except that the whole shop was very cleverly laid out using all the tricks that marketers had come up with over the previous century or so. Victor Gruen would not have approved.
Now for a name for this little shop of mine... Urd thought. It would have to be something that wouldn't alienate the locals, but still reflected her own personality.
Ah. That will work. Urd gestured, and a sign appeared over the front door. It was large enough to be easily read across the road, but not so large as to be ostentatious.
Urd's Elegant Potions was almost ready for business. All she had to do now was brew up some basic stock, and then start the rounds of sales pitches to places like St Mungo's.
Belldandy and Harry were seated at the dining room table, which had a piece of green velvet spread over it. Belldandy looked across the table at Harry, before she placed a single marble in the centre of the velvet.
"This is an ordinary marble, used for a variety of games. I want you to look at it carefully, noting every detail. Tell me when you are ready."
Harry stared at the marble, noting the colour, the patterns, how the light reflected from it, the smoothness of its surface. Eventually, he looked up at his Aunty Bell.
"I'm ready, I think."
"Good," Belldandy said, "now close your eyes and picture the marble in your mind. Try to get as accurate and realistic vision of it as you can, including how it looked on the table."
Harry did as instructed, quickly establishing a mental image of the marble on the table.
"Now, picture the marble rolling to your left. Imagine how it will look as it rotates, how the light will reflect off the pattern, how the pattern will change as it rolls along."
Harry concentrated and did as he was instructed. The distinctive pattern actually helped, as it made it easy to visualise how it would look as it moved.
"Very good. Now open your eyes."
Harry opened his eyes, and saw that the marble...had actually moved. He looked at Belldandy with slightly widened eyes.
Belldandy smiled encouragingly. "I did not touch the marble, Harry. Neither did you. That was your magic reacting to your will. Now, let's see if you can do it again. Close your eyes, and this time visualise the marble rolling towards me. Don't try to make the marble move, just concentrate on the picture of it moving."
Harry took a breath and closed his eyes again. It was a good start to a very long afternoon.
That evening, Harry excitedly discussed his day's activities with Keiichi over dinner.
"...it was hard at first, but I eventually got the marble to move around with my eyes open! It was so cool, I just looked at it and I could make it go where I wanted!"
Keiichi nodded and smiled broadly. "That is very good, Harry! Did you do anything more?"
Harry's grin seemed to be permanent. "No, Aunty Bell said that was enough for the day. She said that I needed to take things slowly at first."
"She isn't wrong, Harry." Urd said from across the table. "It might not have seemed like a lot, but moving that marble is tiring work when you start. You're certainly going to sleep well tonight."
Harry nodded. While he didn't want to admit it, he had felt quite tired by the time Belldandy had called a halt.
"We'll mix lessons on magic with other subjects, Harry." Belldandy explained. "You still need to learn everything else that students your age are taught. We'll also work on things like your bicycle, to break up the routine a little."
Harry nodded again. School was school, even here.
"My shop is just about ready to go, I just need to drum up some business with places like St Mungo's." Urd announced. "That will give me the publicity I need to gather a regular clientelle."
Skuld then launched into a discussion of her day's activities, which quickly became incomprehensible as she went into the finer details of what was planned. Harry started to nod off at the table about halfway through Skuld's discourse, which prompted Belldandy to usher him off to get ready for bed.
Later that evening, the Norns compared notes on the state of progress.
"We're pretty much established here in Britain," Urd said, "from now on we can concentrate on teaching Harry and healing his old wounds."
"Yes, there are still problems to be addressed with young Harry," Belldandy said with a sad look in her eyes, "I have placed listening charms on his room to alert me to any nightmares he might have. With his background, they are inevitable at some point."
"I'm afraid you're right," Urd said uneasily, "wretched Blood Wards. Well, stage one is basically complete. We're beyond Dumbledore's reach for the moment, even with the release of Harry's Godfather from prison, and we have control over the Potter estate. Time to get used to a new routine."
"Routine?" Skuld asked sceptically, "you mean like we had at home, with random demon attacks, the chaos of Keiichi's club, and the general mayhem that surrounded us?"
"Yes," Urd said with a grin, "that sort of routine. The type that doesn't revolve around world-shattering prophecies. And now I'm going to bed - my taste testing tour of the local drinks has led me to an urgent appointment with some of the few dozen bottles of Laphroaig Quarter Cask that I took delivery of today. Goodnight!"
Belldandy and Skuld looked at each other briefly, before they both shrugged. "Whatever. If she's going to do that, I have a few pints of ice-cream waiting for me..." Skuld said as she wandered off.
Belldandy smiled gently. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
Author's notes: Sun Wukong is a character from "Journey to the West", which was written in the 16th century. Needless to say that I don't own any part of the intellectual property associated with that epic. I suggest you Google for Sun Wukong if you aren't familiar with the character. For children of the 80s, a song about "monkey magic" might be a good memory prompt.
From now on I'll be indulging in time skips (YES, AT LAST!) so this day-by-day account will cease. Expect more on Sirius Black and exactly what Skuld is building in the yard.
Thanks to everybody who has left a review. I do value feedback, and incorporate bits of it (especially when people point out canonical mistakes). Congratulations to Tolotos, who correctly identified who Albert Haddock was based on (or at least where I got the name from).