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The Salem Witches Institute (in Salem Woods, twelve kilometres northeast of Boston), an hour before supper (London time: An hour after nightfall)…

"…he began to openly hunt those daywalkers — and yes, other types of vampires — in the wake of his being rescued from his tomb in Springfield by Rittmeister von Taserich, life became very dark and ugly for many, even those such as Henry Sturges who wouldn't have ever dreamt of harming any non-vampire humanoid if it could be avoided."

A deep breath escaped the youthful-looking, raven-haired tomboyish professor with the mischievous-looking grey eyes, now standing by the lectern at the front of the small classroom located on the ground floor of one of the small row of townhouses at the southern end of the forest southwest of downtown Salem. Sited near the Swampscott station on the Newburyport/Rockport Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system, the Salem Witches Institute was made to appear to normals as an abandoned Federal-style row of family residences overlooking the Forest River close to Swampscott Road six hundred metres east of south from the Hawthorne Square Mall. To ensure nosy normals couldn't try to learn what this place was all about, the whole of the city was littered with ward stones that projected a variation of the Notice-Me-Not Charm that blocked people from trying to inquire further into the history of that particular neighbourhood…to say anything of stopping attempts at trying to revitalize the buildings that had served as the home of the Salem Institute since well before the Revolutionary War. To further ensure that students of America's oldest European wand-style magical school didn't attract attention when they travelled to and from Salem, they always dressed in normal clothes away from campus; to people their age, the young witches of Salem were just normal junior high and high school students attending nearby public educational institutions.

"We're close to the end of the period right now," Professor Mollie Bean then declared after taking a glance at a clock on the wall. "Questions?"

Hands went up, which made the native of Tarboro seventy kilometres east of the North Carolina state capital of Raleigh grin. She loved doing summer tutorials for prospective students of the Mistresses Class in Magical History at Salem and their male counterparts from the Seven Hills Wizarding Academy near Lynchburg in Virginia; the people preparing for the Masters Class at the latter facility always travelled to Salem — usually at their own expense! — to spend their summers learning from the person they admiringly called "Miss Mollie." Or, if they were feeling mischievous, they called her "Marse Melvin," using the alias she employed when she had been part of Company "D" (the Castalia Invincibles) of the 47th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry during the War Between the States…while performing her proper duty as a United States Deputy Marshal (Magical) hunting and eliminating those vampires who were secretly influencing the leaders of the Confederate States of America to fight for their independence. "Jennie?" she called out, pointing to one.

Jennie Seward lowered her arm. "Didn't that bother you, Miss Mollie?"

"What do you mean?"

"Fighting alongside your friends in the Castalia Invincibles while actually still holding to your oaths as a Magical Marshal?" the native of south Chicago asked as she gave her teacher a sympathetic look.

The Terran-turned-Avalonian veteran of the War Between the States and both World Wars chuckled. Mollie was the first Earth-born woman to become a bioroid thanks to a Niphentaxian admirer who lived under the Earth name "Howard O'Connor" while performing his duty for his people; he would save her life via body-swapping when a vampire tried to kill her after the 1938 reunion of Civil War veterans at Gettysburg. Someone ALWAYS asked her that question in the first few weeks of classes, either during summer tutorials or at the start of the fall, winter or spring terms. Shaking her head, Mollie took a deep breath before waving to herself. As the students gaped in awe at the easy show of wandless magic, her business suit morphed into the homespun grey wool uniform she had worn as "Melvin Bean" while serving in the 47th. Her arms and collars were bare of rank; Mollie had — when she was part of the United States Army Magical Corps — advanced to the permanent rank of captain and the wartime rank of brigadier general by the time she had participated in the attack on Nurmengard fighting alongside Albus Dumbledore. "It was hard for Southern magicals of all stripes when Jeff Davis and his friends formed the Confederate government in 1861. Like many Southerners, we hadn't really developed the sense of American nationalism people elsewhere possessed. Using myself as an example, I saw myself as a North Carolinian more than I saw myself as an American. Now, I had it easy; as you know, after I graduated from here in '56…" — by this, she meant 1856, not 1956 — "…I was nominated by Provost Corey to become a Magical Marshal. When you become one, you take an oath on your magic to the Constitution. It's the very same type of oath all office holders at the federal level take before they can assume their office. Because we had taken that oath, we couldn't bring ourselves to resign when Fort Sumter happened and our home states began succeeding from the Union.

"While there were many problems in the Department of Magic at the time of President Lincoln's election in 1860, there was no cause in the eyes of almost all the magical residents of the states that would eventually join the Confederacy to support the rebellion. Those that DID put on a uniform were always normal-borns who had relatives who volunteered — or were later drafted — into service. While there were feelings of sympathy to Mister Davis' government, that didn't translate into forming a provisional Confederate magical department. The rules of the ICW at the time — just as the rules of the ICMC today are concerning that type of situation — were specific when it came to forming an independent magical ministry as was shown during the Revolutionary War in reflection of what happened in normal society. If — and this was a mighty big 'if' — the Confederacy HAD won its independence, the process of forming a separate Department of Magic in Richmond would have begun. I would have been involved in that. But that didn't happen thanks very much to the discovery of who and what were pushing Mister Davis and his friends into rebellion. Yes, Saul?"

"Miss Mollie, you're the one who's credited for that discovery," Saul Thornbridge, who had been at the top of his sixth year history class at Seven Hills, noted. "How did that feel? Your friends in the Invincibles were fighting for what they believed was right…and it was being perverted behind their backs by Sewell and his allies."

"Did you have relatives who fought?" Mollie asked as she transformed her old uniform back into her business suit. "You're from Mississippi, aren't you?"

He nodded. "Yes, ma'am. From Biloxi."

"I first encountered Adam Sewell when he was passing through Raleigh sometime before the war began," Mollie answered. "You all learn how to sense out vampires in your defence classes, right?" As the students nodded, she shrugged. "Well, even if he seemed like your normal Southern gentleman, what he really was made him stick out to my mage senses like a lump of coal in Marse Robert's sitting room at Arlington." She paused to let her audience laugh, then she breathed out, "I reported same to my superiors, then got orders to keep track of him. Others picked up on him and his friends over the previous decades — thanks in part to good people like Mister Sturges — and a clearer picture about what Sewell and his friends were planning had taken shape by the time Mister Lincoln elected to run for President. As you all probably know, that was a slap in the face to many vampires; Mister Lincoln had been hunting them for almost four decades by then and having him become President was a threat they couldn't tolerate.

"Sometime after Second Manassas — Second Bull Run to those outside the South — I was ordered by Chief Magical Marshal Bailey to go to Salisbury Prison in North Carolina and have a platoon of Northern normal-borns who were captured at that battle released from custody and returned to their relatives; remember that even at that time, we all strictly observed the Statute of Secrecy and they didn't want to use their magic to escape and abandon their normal friends along the way." As her audience nodded in understanding, Mollie sighed. "By the time I got there, I found out a half-dozen of those normal-borns — not to mention a company's worth of normal soldiers — had been killed by vampires, their blood drained from them. I moved to send the others to safety, but was caught in the act by a man named Wayne Rowan. He was one of the older vampires living in North Carolina and one of Sewell's supporters…but like most vampires in those days, he had no idea that so many magicals also lived in America. Naturally, he attacked me once he learned I was a United States Marshal. Called me a traitor to the South and every other damned profanity in the book." She fluttered her eyelashes in a suggestive manner, which made the students laugh. "Well, a properly-raised Southern lady like me wasn't going to put up to that from no uppity Yankee carpetbagger blood-sucker, so I used the Cote Argentea to make him docile, then probed him with Legilimency." She shuddered as the memory of doing that replayed in her mind. "That was no fun at all."

As her students nodded, Mollie reached over to the lectern to take a drink of spring water from a canteen; it was one of her prized possessions from her time in the Magical Corps during the Second World War. "After I got the full story from Rowan, I destroyed him, freed the prisoners — including the normals to make it look like your normal prison break — for transfer up north, then reported same to Chief Marshal Bailey. I was ordered to disguise myself as a man and join one of the new regiments being formed for service in the Confederacy to get a better clue as to what was going on. At least a dozen other magical marshals were serving under Marse Robert when Chancellorsville was fought and Stonewall Jackson was killed." The students were all quick to sense the tone of reverence in their teacher's voice on mentioning the fond nickname bestowed to one Robert Edward Lee when he was made the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia in 1862 and began pulling military miracle after military miracle out from under his hat against the Army of the Potomac. "By the time I was wounded at Gettysburg, most of the vampires who fought under Marse Robert had been targeted for elimination. While President Lincoln was dealing with Adam Sewell directly and his wife killed Sewell's sister Vadoma at the White House, my friends in grey teamed up with their counterparts in blue assigned to II Corps on Cemetery Ridge, then wiped out all the vampires in the Army of Northern Virginia during Pickett's Charge." Mollie smirked. "After Sewell and the vampires fighting with Marse Robert were destroyed, it was just a mopping up exercise to remove the rest of the vampires who were…"

A knock echoed from the doorway. People looked over to see a young African-American in the dark blue dress uniform of a soldier in the United States Army, a sealed envelope in his left hand. He had a first lieutenant's silver bars on his gold-lined light blue infantry shoulder straps, plus the usual salad bowl of medals and qualification badges on his left breast…not to mention Canadian parachute wings over his right breast above his name tag. "Captain Bean?" he asked politely as he gave her a proper West Point salute.

Mollie saluted back. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant…?"

"George Ballentine, ma'am," he said with a polite nod. "First of the Third Infantry." He then nodded politely to the students before he walked over to hand the envelope to the history professor. "From the President with his complements, ma'am."

She nodded as she took the envelope in hand. As the visitor from Washington assumed parade rest stance, she opened the envelope and drew out the paper inside. After scanning what was written there, her jaw dropped. "This confirmed?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," George replied with a polite nod. "The President stated that you can either be recalled to duty in the Army or be recalled to service as a United States Marshal or a special agent in the FBI. Choice is yours. Either way, you'll have full diplomatic immunity when you head across the pond to look in on this situation."

She gave him a curious look. "Magical or meta?"

"Meta, ma'am," he said with a nod. "Trained at General Raeburn's private school in British Columbia after I got out of Fort Benning before I was assigned to the Old Guard; that's when I got this." He indicated the jump wings over his right breast.

"Well, I can't go over there as an army captain; ICMC rules forbid it," Mollie then reported. "I'll go over as I really was during the Civil War." As his eyes widened in shock, she winked. "If you've read my file, Lieutenant, you know how old I am."

"Ma'am, I'm from Boston," George stated with a respectful voice. "My grandmother would curse me from the grave if she found out I was being impolite to a lady." He winked. "Even a white lady."

Jaws dropped, then everyone in the room laughed…


Romney Marsh (located two kilometres west of north from New Romney in Kent, twenty kilometres west-southwest of Dover), Wednesday 21 July, after dawn…

A tired sigh escaped from under the covers as a hand came up to gently push the sheets clear of Camellia Matthews' head. As the silver-haired woman groaned, a gentle pop! echoed through the room to announce the arrival of her personal house elf. "Mistress, tea and breakfast is on," the tiny creature announced in a squeaky voice.

She nodded. "Thank you, Boxy."

With another pop!, he was gone. Grunting, she got up and stretched herself before she plodded into the bathroom to wash herself up and prepare for a new day. That took her about fifteen minutes; Camellia had always been fast in everything she did. Once she was dressed in casual normal civilians, she made her way into the living room. There, Boxy was placing a tray full of her favourite breakfast foods on the coffee table beside rolled copies of the Daily Prophet and the Saxon Sorcery Times; the latter was the regional magical paper for the southeast of England. As she sipped her tea, the young heiress of the Matthewses of Sutton reached over to flip open the Prophet and gaze on the headline there. And sure enough, it had the power of a blasting hex:

SCHWARZE MÄDCHEN ALIVE!

Camellia then sputtered in shock on reading the subtitles:

Famous Brigade of Normal-Born Witches from Grindelwald's War Found Alive by Immortals and Her in Cave at Nurmengard Yesterday Morning!

All 4,400 of Brigadier Elizabeth Gibbon's Command now Avalonians! Rittmeister Josef von Taserich Believed Responsible for Saving Heroines of the Battle of the Gates!

Minister for Magic Shacklebolt Announces 1950 ICMC Convention Exonerating Black Maidens "Law of the Land" in Britain! No Legal Action to be Taken!

Zauberwelt Reports Gellert Grindelwald "Very Happy" on Learning Good News!

Elder Mother of Avalonians in U.K. Alicia Holmes Reports Schwarze Mädchen Recovering from Sixty-five Year Imprisonment in Cryogenic Suspension Aboard the Bioroid Factory!

Yomigawa Tsukiko Reports She Confirmed Quickening from Sacrifice of Immortal David Wisden at the Blade of the Protector of All Life during Battle of the Gates Responsible for Long Imprisonment!

Stunned to see that wizarding Britain's main national broadsheet was putting out such inflammatory statements, Camellia sipped her tea before plunging into the articles in question. Noting that all of them had been written by Betty Braithwaite (a normal-born from the NEWT Class of 1982, alumnus of Gryffindor), Renée Amorin (a half-blood French expat who graduated from Beauxbâtons in 1978 and came to work for the Prophet after the Triwizard Tournament in 1995; she was the Security Editor of the paper) and Elliott Limus (a pureblood from the NEWT class of 1985, alumnus of Hufflepuff), Camellia could only shake her head in disbelief at such a public throwing down of the gauntlet to the dark-aligned families by Harry Potter. And it was easy for her to conclude that the Man-Who-Won was ultimately behind this; his wife and Camellia's former housemate Pansy Parkinson-Black had managed to acquire a controlling share of the Prophet with the help of her brother Michael after she reacquired her magic over a week before.

"Pansy, what in Merlin's name are you DOING?!" she hissed out aloud.

"Is there something wrong, Mistress?"

She looked over before smiling at Boxy, who was standing at the doorway to the kitchen. "I'm just annoyed at what I'm seeing in the paper this morning, Boxy. Don't mind me."

He nodded in understanding. "It's still good news, Mistress."

She blinked. "Why did you say that?"

"When the Undying Lord grants his favour, it is NEVER to be ignored," Boxy said. He knew his mistress' feelings concerning the Avalonians and how their presence in Britain was causing such a ruckus…but he loved his mistress very much and wanted to make sure she understood the WHOLE situation before she made the mistake of committing herself to support a war that her current "allies" wouldn't be able to win, which could possibly see her either killed or sent to Azkaban. Or worse, That Place. "It is no different than if the Protector of All Life, the Earth Angel or the Friend of Dragons gives their favour to anyone, Mistress."

That comment made Camellia blink. "Why equate her to Rittmeister von Taserich, General Raeburn or Lady Negako? According to what Luna Lovegood and her father reported in the Quibbler, her staff is only twenty thousand years old at the most!"

Boxy shook his head. "No, Mistress Camellia! The staff itself is twenty thousand years old! But the crystal of the staff is as old as the Tears of the Stars!"

THAT made her gape in shock. The term "tears of the stars" indicated the Power Jewels, the galleon coin-sized multiple-layer crystals of mesonium on intricate necklaces scattered across the Universe by their omnipotent creators three billion years ago before they disappeared from all of Existence. As was well known, the Power Jewel placed on Earth — after spending all those eons accumulating impossible levels of life energy — had been found in 1889 by a Canadian woman named Dean Raeburn, thus becoming the planet's "jewel warrior"…or the "Protector of All Life" as mystics and magicals respectfully came to call her, especially after her incredible feats during Grindelwald's War.

And if Boxy was right — and he wouldn't lie to his mistress about something like that — and the mysterious "her" had a device with similar levels of power…!

A chill then flooded her from head to toe. While those who might do what was often called "evil" worldwide had reason to fear the Protector of All Life — after all, thanks to the Power Jewel, Raeburn literally had the power of the Gods Themselves at her very fingertips — they were often relieved to note that the quasi-immortal Ontarian and adopted British Columbian didn't want to waste time being a "superhero" or "mystery man" for the helpless fools other than those who might need rescuing from their own idiocy or ignorance. Since her retirement from active military life in 1954 to the start of July, Raeburn spent most of her time AWAY from Earth, going out in the vast Universe beyond to teach what she had learned between 1920-37 thanks to Hosan Hirosuke to eager young Jewel Warriors on other worlds who found themselves being forced into the position of becoming their home planets' own "protector of all life." And while she could be called back to active duty by the Prime Minister of Canada in case some horrid crisis came up like last year's threatened invasion by the Urusians, that had not been done…until Raeburn was somehow enticed into helping reform her old military corps; that had been done at the very same time the Protector's magical friend from Québec, Heather Thompkins, had been made the commander of the Earth Defence Force.

The Earth Defence Force…

Shaking her head, Camellia turned back her attention to the Prophet to read about what might be happening with the Black Maidens and the Avalonians who had clearly accepted the deadly brigade of magical fighters among them as new sisters without hesitation. That overwhelming sense of family and clan the bioroids felt for each other was quite beautiful to watch…and could potentially spell disaster for those who might want to desire them harm. And while Camellia had performed the gestures and said the words when her old housemate Theodore Nott invited her to Lundy Keep to meet Adam Sewell, she wasn't as against the Avalonians as people like Draco Malfoy. Unlike that strutting peacock who always acted more like an idiot Gryffindor than a true heir of Master Salazar Slytherin, Camellia always understood what being in the Serpents' Den had been intended to ultimately teach her. She was ambitious and cunning, two things one needed to have a successful and safe life full of wealth. As the second child of a senior Wizengamot lord with a two-point seat vote — not to mention was the potential heiress of another Wizengamot lord with a one-point seat vote…even if Camellia's mother hadn't been able to actually claim the seat until last week — in that chamber, she had known all along that she could be the target of potential marriage offers the instant she came of age in the winter of 1997, though it wouldn't be as bad as what poor Achelois Runcorn ended up dealing with! Doing that — as it had been done time and time again in the past — helped cement family alliances in the Wizengamot and make the Matthewses of Sutton power brokers in the eternal game of wizarding politics in Britain.

And she wanted that influence!

Let Charles…

Charlie…!

A sob suddenly surged up from her heart as her pale eyes teared. Immediately, Boxy was at her side, gently dabbing Camellia's face as he said soothing words to her and used his magic to ensure his mistress didn't spill her tea. Taking a moment to compose herself, the silver-haired apprentice ward-breaker turned to tenderly kiss her servant on the forehead, which made Boxy squeal with embarrassed delight before he vanished with a pop! Once he was off doing his morning chores, she took a deep breath before she sat back in her love seat, gazing at the ceiling of her living room.

Why does it still hurt me so much…?!

In a pragmatic sense, Camellia understood and accepted what had happened to Charles during Death Eater Season. He had chosen poorly and paid for that choice with his life. And while Camellia had mourned his death and railed at the fact that her father had banished Charles from the family once Orion knew his son had taken Voldemort's mark — which effectively served him up to be chopped down by Harry Potter and a soulsword that July day near Birmingham in lieu of seeing him imprisoned at Gonebren to become a spiritual chew toy for the Hollows — and vowed to help restore wizarding Britain to a "purer" state, the practical side of her accepted her change of circumstances with ease and Camellia moved on with her life. She showed her disagreement with her father's decision concerning Charles by moving out of the house after she graduated in 1998 and began her apprenticeship training under Ulysses Cuffe — the son of the editor of the Daily Prophet and the man credited with saving Romney Marsh's large population of normal-borns from the Death Eaters in 1979 thanks to creative ward use that was as deadly to Voldemort's people as employing the Morsmordre Avada Kedavra — here at the small magical village overlooking the English Channel…but that didn't mean that she hated her parents. Yes, she found it hard to care for either of them these days because of Charles and wouldn't really care if they died, but she didn't wish to do as some had done in the past when they wanted to move up in the world!

She had time and she could wait it out.

Besides, committing patricide might not go as far these days as it did in the past.

Harry Potter and his allies were always on the lookout for such things…

…and among those allies were people like Rose Potter and Raven Malfoy.

Avalonians.

She shuddered before moving to finish her tea and eat her breakfast. Even if the truth behind people like Rose and Raven hadn't been revealed until earlier this year, it had been quite obvious all along that the ninety-seven unborn witches who had been given new life thanks to Alice Holmes in the early 1980s would cause massive waves no matter where they went. Their training at Meridiana shielded them from any tracking by the Ministry of Magic even when they were underage; the Treaty of Ynys Môn guaranteed that. The apprenticeship training several had endured under the Dark Lady of the Orient after their graduation in 1995 made people like Rose and Raven deadly human killing machines…as several Death Eaters learned to their cost at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. And their telepathy worked even better than any form of Legilimency even if it normally had to be done up close and personal.

Camellia then quaked as a memory came back to her…


Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Friday 26 September 1996, after lunch…

A frightened cry echoed through the third floor corridor of the academic wing near the entrance of the library, making Camellia Matthews and Achelois Runcorn spin around as they scanned for potential threats. "Where did that come from?" the latter hissed.

"Over there," the former calmly said as she nodded towards an alcove near the entrance to the Administration Tower where the offices used by Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall were located. She then perked as hissed voices echoed from that location. "Shit!" she spat out in disgust. "One of them sounds like Charlie Vaisey! Arrogant prick!"

Both girls exchanged a knowing look. They hadn't exposed themselves as much as people like Draco Malfoy and his clique had done over the years. They hadn't participated in the Inquisitorial Squad the previous year, though they hadn't been stupid like Alice Tolipan and Luca Caruso were and joined the Defence Association; like many others at Hogwarts who found themselves caught in the ugly feud between Dolores Umbridge and Harry Potter, Achelois and Camellia had done a lot of private self-study to ensure they passed their defence OWL examinations with respectable marks and could advance to the pre-NEWT classes. With the Dark Lord now confirmed as having been reborn thanks to his blundering mistake at the Department of Mysteries, the politics of the Serpents' Den had become SO radicalized that everyone in the dungeons now felt themselves under a microscope, especially from seventh-years like Charlie Vaisey, who was a known blood-purist even if Camellia and Achelois hadn't confirmed if he had taken the Mark. What was worse, Voldemort was actively recruiting from the senior years at Hogwarts; many other NEWT students — Camellia's older brother, for example — were being enticed by Draco Malfoy to accept the Dark Lord's offer to join the ranks.

But when one put that up against the potential presence of the Dark Lady of the Orient — who had been asked by the International Conference of Magical Communities to take the Boy-Who-Lived on as her apprentice — here in Hogwarts as rumours leaking from younger members of the D.A. now stated, the irresistible force of the pureblood movement under Voldemort was going to run into an immovable wall named "Tsukuyomi."

The bitter lessons of the War of Liberation loudly demonstrated what getting on the wrong side of the Dark Lady of the Orient ultimately lead to.

And while they weren't the smartest people around — if they were, they would have been Ravenclaws — Camellia Matthews and Achelois Runcorn didn't see themselves as idiots.

To get caught in that…!

"BACK OFF! LEAVE THAT GIRL ALONE! DIOS TUKOS!"

Both girls croaked out on hearing that outraged scream, which was echoed with the ear-splitting sound of thunder and a cry of agony. As they watched in wide-eyed awe, a flying body being burned alive thanks to a massive bolt of electricity was tossed clear out of the alcove to smash against the opposite wall. The lightning dissipated as the target of whoever just used the Axe of the Lightning God — it was one of the most famous battle spells practised by Meridiana-trained magi; it was said to be a personal favourite of the Thousand Master himself when he engaged in combat — slumped to the floor in a dazed, burnt heap. Shouts then echoed from everywhere around the scene as someone calmly walked out of the alcove to inspect the damage she had unleashed.

On seeing her…

"Oh, Merlin! It's TRUE?!" Achelois gasped, her brown eyes wide with disbelief.

Camellia found herself faintly nodding in shock as they took in the full measure of one Rose Jamie Potter. Beautiful rusty-red hair that flowed in gentle waves from a well-shaped head down to the waist; given that she was currently dressed as a Shintō shrine miko, she had styled some of that hair in a hanging braid at the level of her neck. Vibrant green eyes that were now behind round-frame reading glasses; this was the clearest hint that this girl was also James Potter's daughter and Harry Potter's sister. And she clearly had magic to burn; both Achelois and Camellia had developed rudimentary mage sight in their self-study when it came to DADA…and the aura that now cloaked Rose from head to toe was almost too bright for them to gaze upon.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!"

Both girls spun around as footfalls from the Administration Tower announced the arrival of Minerva McGonagall. Coming out of the stairwell, the deputy headmistress paused to see Charlie Vaisey on the floor at Rose Potter's feet, the former definitely the worse for wear. Taking a moment to register that, she gazed on the reborn daughter of two of her favourite lions from the 1970s. "Magi Potter, what just happened here?"

Rose sighed before making a beckoning motion with her hand to someone behind her. To Camellia's and Achelois' stunned disbelief, a third year Japanese-Briton from Slytherin named Ichijō Manami came out. Face wet with tears and her body shaking in fright, she moved to hug Rose from one side. On seeing how distraught the poor girl was — not to mention noting that her clothes were dishevelled and ripped in some places — it was quite obvious to Minerva what nearly had happened. "As you can see, Professor, Miss Ichijō was accosted by this waste of magic and was in the midst of being forced to give herself to him sexually when I caught him while doing my patrol of the academic wing," Rose said before giving the now wide-eyed Manami a tender smile. "I stopped him."

Minerva scowled. "I see…"

"What's going on…?!"

Both Camellia and Achelois relaxed on hearing their own head of house…

"…L-l-Lily…?!"

before both paled on hearing that croaked, stammering gasp from Severus Snape, a man who had a well-earned reputation for maintaining control over his emotions while in public regardless of what was going on around him. As they watched, a wide-eyed potions master/DADA teacher slowly approached from the direction of the north hallway that helped frame the courtyard located in the middle of the academic wing and connected to several unused classrooms that had been closed in the wake of the school's enrolment dropping over recent decades, his dark orbs fixed on the living ghost now standing beside his fellow head of house. Noting that Severus was staring in wide-eyed disbelief at Rose, Camellia and Achelois exchanged another look. The man's hatred for Harry Potter — stemming from what happened between Harry's father and Severus when they had attended Hogwarts — was a known fact to all…but only a scant few were privileged to know that such hatred stemmed from a deep crush Severus Snape once had for Lily Evans before a misspoken word destroyed a long friendship. To confront Severus now with Lily's reborn daughter…!

"Not exactly, Master Snape," Rose calmly stated before she gazed at Camellia and Achelois.

Severus looked himself before he nodded. "Miss Matthews, Miss Runcorn, take charge of Miss Ichijō," he bade before gazing down at the still-unconscious Charlie Vaisey. "What on Earth happened here? Who caused this?"

"He was trying to rape his housemate, Master Snape," Rose calmly announced.

THAT made Severus' head snap around as Camellia and Achelois both came up to stand protectively close to Manami, who was now trying to get control over herself…even if she now stared in confusion at the Boy-Who-Lived's sister. That was more than understandable, of course; thanks very much to Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter had come to long distrust all Slytherins. So the question Manami was probably asking herself was obvious: Why was Harry's sister protecting a Slytherin?! "Magi Potter was close by when the assault happened and put a stop to it," Minerva added.

Severus' jaw dropped. "'Magi Potter?!'" he sputtered before staring anew at Rose. Taking a moment to gaze upon the white kimono and red hakama trousers she was wearing, he then shook his head in disbelief; no doubt, like Camellia and Achelois, he had a very hard time accepting the existence of the "Girl-Who-Lived" that made her first appearance in wizarding Britain at the Department of Mysteries in mid-June as reported in the Daily Prophet, the regional magical newspapers and magazines like the Quibbler.

But to have the proof slammed right into his face like THIS…!

"Then what is she doing here, Minerva?!" he demanded. "Meridiana alumni have no right to visit Hogwarts, just as Hogwarts alumni can't visit Meridiana…!"

"The ICMC cleared it for Magi Potter and the Lady Tsukuyomi's other students, not to mention some of Magi Potter's other peers who were apprenticed elsewhere after they graduated from Meridiana last year," Minerva calmly cut him off as she gave him a knowing look. "Since the Lady Tsukuyomi has taken Magi Potter's brother on as her apprentice, they'll be staying in the castle to make sure he doesn't fall…"

"WHAT?!"

That was Albus Dumbledore, who had just managed to stagger down from his office. As Camellia and Achelois gazed on the aged arch-mage, they were quick to note his slightly shrivelled and clearly badly infected right hand. They also noted that his blue eyes were wide with shock and outrage; no doubt, the fact that the Dark Lady of the Orient's students were practically running loose inside his school clearly was news to him. As he stopped to glare at Rose, both Slytherins sixth-years were quick to see the mixture of anger, fear, delight and sadness in the older man's eyes. It was easy to conclude: No doubt, Dumbledore was quite overjoyed to know that Lily Potter's daughter had gained a new chance of life…though that was tempered by the fact that Rose had been forced to go to Meridiana to learn her magic — thus effectively cutting her off from her brother's home society thanks to the Treaty of Ynys Môn — and was then apprenticed to a woman whose hatred of all things European was quite well known.

And to have Yomigawa Tsukiko's students HERE at Hogwarts…!

"Why was I not informed of this, Professor?" Albus demanded as he glared at Minerva. "If there were guests coming to the castle from Meridiana, I HAD to be informed!"

"So you could stop Lady Tsukuyomi and her students — especially Mister Potter's very own SISTER! — from coming here and helping Mister Potter find some way to put down Voldemort once and for all time?!" Minerva snapped, causing the Slytherins present to gasp in shock on hearing her say the Dark Lord's battle name without stuttering.

"Tsukiko will turn Harry into a killer, Minerva! We can't have that here!"

"Oh, so the Dark Dunderhead can kill all he wants and Big Brother can't kill him?!"

Severus gaped, his mouth opening and closing like some fish out of water on hearing Rose call Voldemort THAT. "Killing leads to darkness, Miss Potter," Albus chided as he slipped into his "caring grandfather" mode that had won over students in the past. "Do you really wish Harry to walk down that path, young lady? I wouldn't."

"Well, I'm afraid the half-blood bastard child born of RAPE of all things decided it would be different once that pathetic Seer you have on staff now said that prophecy before Big Brother was even born!" Rose snarled before raising her hand to cut off Albus' protest. "And stop treating the people here like they were total morons, Headmaster! They're far smarter than you think!" As the others all gaped in shock at Rose's defence of their right to know things, she added, "It was YOUR stupid 'forgive and forget' policy concerning the Dark Moron's followers back in 1981 that guaranteed that half-blood freak of magic came back last spring when poor Cedric Diggory was…!"

"How…DARE you…call…?!"

"MORSMORDRE CRUCIO!"

A wailing scream escaped Charlie Vaisey as a bright bolt of red energy slammed into his left arm from somewhere behind Camellia. As she and Achelois moved to get Manami clear of a VERY pissed off Harry Potter, Minerva moaned with grief on realizing that the man who had attempted to rape poor Manami had clearly vowed himself to Voldemort. Before Albus could summon something to block the Cruciatus from burning Charlie's nerves to ashes through his Dark Mark, Harry lowered his arm and dissipate the magic he was using; it was only THEN that the others had noted that he hadn't used his wand to unleash the Cruciatus on the older student. As the Boy-Who-Lived stopped protectively close to his sister's side, Severus braced himself. He had the Mark himself, which made him just as vulnerable to the Morsmordre Crucio or any other application of the Unforgivable Curses on the modified protean charm burned into his arm as Charlie just proved himself to be. And given the past five years of bitter hatred between him and Harry, the latter wouldn't need much of an excuse to turn such frightful levels of power on Severus. What was worse, since the Dark Mark was a magical construct and not a living sentient being, Harry could unleash all the hate and desire to destroy it without any recrimination…

and that didn't count the fact that Harry had just done that wandlessly!

"HARRY! How could you do that to him?!" Albus demanded.

"He was threatening my sister, Mister Dumbledore!" Harry coldly declared, his use of the basic honorific causing Severus and the other Slytherins to gape in shock at such an open, public display of the break between the Boy-Who-Lived and the Defeater of Grindelwald. "And I don't give a damn that she was forced to go to a much BETTER school of magic because of the way she was given her life back after Riddle struck Mother down while Rose was still unborn!"

Camellia, Achelois and Manami all gasped on hearing that before they exchanged horrified looks. They had all read that Rose had died when Lily was killed, but they didn't know THAT! To kill or bring permanent harm to a pregnant witch — even a pregnant muggleborn witch! — was seen among most traditionalists as the lowest of the lows as such acts naturally threatened the life and magic of of the unborn child within the mother's womb. Before any of them could comment on that fact, Harry added, "Every convention in every magical society worldwide permits the defence of family from lethal attack! It's not MY fault this leicheblut schweinhund and his friends can't accept the truth behind Riddle!" he snarled as he jerked his chin with contempt towards the moaning Charlie.

Gasps of shock and stunned disbelief escaped all save Rose on hearing Harry say that obscene phrase. It was with good reason. The term leicheblut schweinhund was a vile counter-insult to "mudblood" and its Continental translations devised by the legendary Schwarze Mädchen who had fought under Grindelwald and had sacrificed themselves to stave off an invasion from Nerio through the World-Gate at Nurmengard at the Battle of the Gates. It was a combination of one of the German language's most wounding insults with a term that implied that the target's blood had no life — and thus, by extension, no magic — within it; back during World War Two, it had often been used against people from families with a known history of inbreeding. "Mister Potter, that will be fifty points from Gryffindor and a detention with me this evening!" Albus then sternly declared. "And your sister and her friends will be made to…AWWWK!"

"Oh, shut up, you senile old idiot!" Rose snarled after she sent an invisible bolt of energy into the older man's right arm, driving him to his knees in agony. Watching this, both Camellia and Achelois were quick to note a faint smile cross Severus' face on seeing his other "master" brought down so easily; they knew of his being forced to serve both Dumbledore and Voldemort as a spy in both the Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters…though out of both respect for the older man and simple self-preservation, they stayed quiet about it when dealing with their housemates. "Didn't what Sensei did to you in the Department of Mysteries when she destroyed the Elder Wand finally make you see that it's time you retired?!" As both Severus and Minerva gaped in shock on hearing that the infamous Deathstick their employer had won in battle against Grindelwald had been done away with by Rose's current teacher, Harry's sister added, "It's bad enough that you're stinking up this castle with that rotting arm of yours! Leave Big Brother alone…or you will answer to ME!"

With a powerful bubble-burst of energy, she effortlessly swatted Albus into the stairs leading to his office. As the impact knocked the older man out, Rose turned and slipped her arm around Harry's as she moved to beckon him towards the main doors of the library. Before the Potter siblings went off, Rose then gazed on Severus. "Uncle Severus, warn the idiots that took that moron's mark," she hissed at him while nodding with contempt at the barely-conscious Charlie Vaisey. "They step out of line, they die!" She then made a squeezing motion with her left hand's thumb and index finger. "You are all THIS close to having Gonebren reopened at the Queen's command! You want to see your charges face the Hollows?! You realized your mistake! Please, in the name of the Heavens, make them realize theirs!"

As Minerva croaked in fright on hearing the name of the Maze Among the Rocks, the Potter siblings headed off. Severus watched them go, a contemplative look crossing his face. The younger Slytherins remained still as they watched Harry and Rose walk away before they relaxed themselves. "Miss Rose is nice, isn't she?" Manami then said as she looked up to Camellia.

The older student nodded. "That she is," she whispered…

as she noted the look of wide-eyed awe on Achelois' face…


"…Rose…love me, Rose…!"

Camellia moaned on hearing that passionate voice echo from the open doorway to the other bedroom in the house she shared with her best friend. "Oh, Merlin…!" she hissed out as she got up and marched over.

Pausing at the doorway, she shook her head on seeing a nude Achelois Runcorn in the midst of what had to be a VERY saucy dream concerning one Rose Potter. The signs of the level of lust Camellia's best friend felt for the sister of the Man-Who-Won had always appeared whenever Achelois was reminded in any way of the gorgeous redhead who had terrorized the junior and would-be Death Eaters during the 1996-97 school year while she was helping Harry train himself to fulfill his destiny and finally dispose of Voldemort. No matter what others who had tried to woo the dual heiress of the Runcorns of Halton and the Collinses of Widnes away from finding a way to win the love of the "half-blood freak magi" — who later came to be called the "half-blood golem pretending to be human" when the truth of Rose's origins came out in February — so she could marry a more "acceptable" life-mate, Achelois' desire for Rose had never gone away. Even with her being seduced by Theo Nott and Draco Malfoy in supporting Adam Sewell's move to kill off the Avalonians, her desire to win Rose over…

"…Rose…beautiful Rose…I'll love you forever…"

This is a mess! the silver-haired heiress of the Matthewses of Sutton mused…


Islington in London, 12 Grimmauld Place, that moment…

"'Morning, Aunt Rose."

"'Morning, Teddy," Rose Potter said as she gazed over her shoulder at the young metamorphmagus, who had just stepped into the kitchen. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah," Ted Lupin replied as he sat at the kitchen table. "At least Uncle Harry, Aunt Pansy, Aunt Mandy and Mum didn't keep me up last night."

"Well…"

He looked at the young apprentice healer, quickly seeing the amused look now on her face and the slight blush on her cheeks. "What did you do?" he hissed.

"I might have hit the girls with the Diliges Pupa to make them leave Big Brother alone for a night," she noted before she sighed. "It was a pretty harrowing meeting last night at the Palace."

He snickered before blinking in curiosity. "What happened?"

Rose sighed. "It appears the staleblood inbred fools that Big Brother has been fighting ever since he first went to Hogwarts aren't going to give up," she announced as she moved to make some tea. "A whole slew of them are trying to make an alliance with some daywalker vampires — supposedly lead by one that was reported to have been destroyed by President Abraham Lincoln himself during the American Civil War — to steal magic from people and find a way to kill off all the Avalonians." As Ted squawked in outrage on hearing that, the healer smirked. "Of course, Raven's brother and Ariel's brother should have been smart enough to keep their thoughts to themselves, but…"

She wiggled her fingers in emphasis, which made Ted laugh. Being raised in a "grey" household — even if many people in wizarding Britain would loudly assert that Rose's brother was truly of the "light" — meant that EVERYONE who fouled up for one reason or another got it with both barrels from the Man-Who-Won and his wives. It didn't matter what sort of philosophy one followed; if you did something that brought harm to someone — regardless of who or what that person was and regardless if it was physical harm or emotional harm — it wasn't accepted in the Potter-Black household on Grimmauld Place. Of course, most of Harry's vitriol since long before he had broken away from Albus Dumbledore's influence at the end of his fifth year had been aimed at the pureblood traditionalists who had backed Voldemort for so long…but as soon as the real extent of the late headmaster's meddling in Harry's life became known, the forces of the "light" soon found themselves also earning the Boy-Who-Lived's ire. That won him allies from the moderates in the middle, thus allowing him to build his own public support base in the wake of the Battle of Hogwarts and move to unleash long-overdue reforms to help wizarding Britain finally come into the Twenty-first Century.

It had been hard, of course. Atop the pressures of keeping a powerless pair of would-be wives safe from vicious relatives or vengeance-seekers — not to mention being forced to raise his godson practically on his own — Harry had to deal with unending attempts at trying to force wizarding Britain back to the "proper" path thanks to the surviving relatives of those who had either been killed or incarcerated at H.M.P. Gonebren during Death Eater Season. From allowing technomancy to be introduced at Hogwarts to ensuring that relations with Meridiana graduates — especially those who were blood relations as Harry was to Rose — were maintained and even enhanced, it just never seemed to stop. Even the arrival of the Avalonians back in February hadn't eased off the pressure; the traditionalists saw in the bioroid race a threat that couldn't be controlled thanks to their being metahumans — thus beyond any realistic sort of purview of the Ministry of Magic — and possessing technology that seemed to trump any magic employed against it! Even after Harry's would-be wives, Ted's mother and Ginny Weasley had been given their magic — and effectively their lives! — back, the complaints just kept on coming.

You'd think that those berks'd have something better to do with their lives than act like complete arses! Ted mused to himself as Rose began to prepare a ham-and-cheese omelette for the younger boy. He then shook his head. After all, if the way most normal folks look at idiots like Malfoy and his goon-boy Goyle doesn't give them a clue…!

"Mistress Rose!"

Rose looked over to see a wide-eyed Winky standing by the doorway to the kitchen. "Winky, I'm cooking!" the healer stated. "You know not to interrupt me when I'm cooking!"

The red-haired house elf sputtered in shock before she began to cry. "Winky is ashamed Mistress Rose is cooking!" she sobbed. "Winky is a bad elf…!"

"I'll make Big Brother pay you more!"

Winky yelped in fright on hearing that sing-song threat from her master's sister, then wailed before she vanished with a pop! Seeing that, Ted tried not to fall off his chair laughing; Rose — and yes, even Harry — had this sort of argument with Winky all the time whenever either of the Potter siblings wanted to flex their culinary skills, which clashed HARD with Winky's traditional outlook on life that mandated that kitchens were the places of house elves, not humans. And while Winky wasn't actually paid in coin, she was one of the best treated house elves in Britain; the threat of more "payment" actually meant more vacation time from her duties to the household. Which she tried to NEVER take, thinking such behaviour quite "improper."

As Ted turned back to his fruit juice, he then perked on hearing the familiar tinkling sound of a materialiser beam echo from the direction of the main entrance. "Who could that be?" Rose wondered as she looked over, her eyes narrowing…before she relaxed herself. "C'mon in, Lisa!" she called out. "Big Brother's still asleep!"

"You stopped Pansy, Mandy and Dora from going at him?" an amused Lisa Turpin asked as she came into the kitchen, walking over to kiss Ted on the forehead before sitting.

"I subjected them to the Diliges Pupa until Big Brother wakes up to unfreeze them."

The magical researcher gaped. "You unspeakably evil woman, you!" she hissed out with a look that was half-horrified and half-amused; the Diliges Pupa was one of the more effective jinxes in Rose Potter's personal grimoire of spells.

"Big Brother was tired after the meeting with the Queen last night," Harry's sister stated as she flipped the omelette onto a plate to give to Ted before moving to make some more tea. "His wives and Teddy's mum need to learn to pace themselves. Their bodies won't start properly ovulating until after the start of August; all the sex is doing is just tiring him out when he needs to stay alert and active." She then sighed. "So how are they, anyway? Do they need a healer to go up and see them?"

"There are sections of trained magical healers in each of the battalions and in the headquarters companies," Lisa reported. "And there are a metric tonne of psionic healers up on the factory that could step in and help." She nodded her thanks as Rose handed her a cup of tea. "They're still in a state of shock over what happened, but they've got each other to fall onto for emotional support in the end. There'll eventually be many cases of survivor's guilt, especially after they get back to their home towns and find all their relatives either gone or very old in age. But they're closer to each other than any traditional coven of witches I've EVER heard of or met." She shook her head. "Nott's stupid to try to mess around with the Schwarze Mädchen. Neuwied Tests all put them at the mid-to-high four hundred mark range thanks to the automatic power boost becoming Avalonians gave them all." Lisa's Neuwied Test score jumped from a respectable 157 to an eye-popping 339 points after her body-swap; Rose — who had been "born" as an Avalonian in 1986 — had scored 419 points on her last test in March. "Even the most junior combat witch who graduated from school the summer before the Battle of the Gates could potentially mop the floor with any of Nott's friends — either wizard or vampire — if it came to that." A sigh escaped her. "Did Harry get the keys to Gonebren, Rose? If we're going to use the Vindictam Sanguinis…"

"It's in the attic safe now. Sealed away from Thérèse's reach."

Lisa nodded. "We have to show that we trust her, Rose."

A tired sigh responded. "We do trust her, Lisa. But Gonebren is Master Salazar's grave site and the place where his main research laboratory was located after he left Hogwarts. The whole of the prison is supersaturated with the Slytherin family magic; it's been growing and evolving ever since it was turned into a prison. As soon as Thérèse fully awoke in her new body, she felt the power of Gonebren reach out to her. It's helping her adjust to being a woman and recover from the soulsword strikes used against her horcruxes when she was still Tom Riddle and his soul parts were scattered all over Britain, but her magic is becoming more attuned to that place every day. Sooner or later…"

The blonde magical researcher nodded. She had been a latecomer to the secret of Project V, the plan to effectively resurrect Voldemort in a way of ensuring that all he had done from the day he entered Hogwarts in 1938 to when he was effectively killed in 1997 was recorded for future posterity, especially when it came to understanding the true cost of the First Purification War and what led to it. Of course, the original plan was to NOT give the purified surviving soul fragment inside Helga Hufflepuff's cup — which was within the Lestrange family vault at Gringotts when Death Eater Season shook Britain from Land's End to John o' Groats — true life again. Even if the spirit of the being that had been born Thomas Marvolo Riddle at the end of 1926 was still alive in a sense, FOUR soulsword strikes had been used to destroy his horcruxes and his own core soul from the Battle of the Department of Mysteries — when Rose used her soulsword to burn away the horcrux buried in her brother's famous scar — and the Battle of Hogwarts…though given the subtle magical links between the various horcruxes, their power and memories would eventually coalesce in Hufflepuff's Cup when Voldemort himself was finally destroyed. The four resulting backlashes from the use of the soulsword damaged his soul fragment far more than the horcrux rituals that fractured Voldemort's living spirit over the years did; that had been confirmed when the soul had been examined by William and Fleur Weasley after Bellatrix Lestrange was coaxed into retrieving the cup shortly after her own body-swap a week before.

However, when the Avalonians got wind of Project V, they immediately offered to give the soul fragment which had been trapped in the Cup of Hufflepuff since the murder of Hepzibah Smith in 1946 a chance at real life and not be forced to exist in some sort of mental limbo; to any of the bioroid race, that type of existence was repulsive. At first hesitant on the idea of giving Voldemort the chance to have his life back, Harry and those who were in on the project gave their nod to it, hoping that the magic governing Life Debts would come to their aid if necessary. With that, a body that was loosely based on Tom Riddle's late mother Merope Gaunt — though with all the genetic defects stemming from generations of inbreeding expunged from the DNA itself, then mixed with a freshly-created DNA constructed from a mixture based on scans done of the remains within Salazar Slytherin's grave at Gonebren and the grave of Tom Riddle's father in Little Hangleton — to create a stunning beauty blessed with sunflower blonde hair, eyes the shade of a clear sky and Mediterranean-tanned skin, an eye-popping combination that would turn heads no matter where she went. To add to it, the special genetic modifications that were designed for the replacement bodies of the Steel Angels as arranged by Moroboshi Negako were tossed in to give the effective spiritual "daughter" of Voldemort a much better chance at controlling the magic she would inherit from her "father."

Exit Thomas Marvolo Riddle, the Dark Lord Voldemort…

…enter Thérèse Ariana Peverell, the future Duchess of Kyme Eau.

"Why didn't it happen to Tom then?" Lisa asked.

Rose gazed at her. "What?"

"Why didn't Tom's magic chime in with Gonebren? He was Master Salazar's last true blood heir, so there should have been some sort of connect between him and Gonebren."

Harry's sister shook her head. "Tom was cursed because he was born out of an act of rape, Lisa," she said as she moved to sit down across from her friend. "Master Salazar had his standards. The idea of forcing someone to submit to a love potion would have had him spitting fire. There was no way that the Kami of Gonebren would have accepted Tom even if it really wasn't his fault that he came into the world that way." She sipped her tea. "Master Salazar was quite the elitist little prick back then."

"Rose!" Lisa gasped before she gazed on Ted.

The metamorphmagus grinned as his hair morphed colours to mark his amusement. "I've heard worse, Aunt Lisa. Aunt Pansy and Mum swear a lot worse than Aunt Rose does!"

The magical researcher moaned…


Buckingham Palace in the City of Westminster, London, an hour after breakfast…

"It's all clear, Your Majesty."

"Thank you, John. Please make sure we're not disturbed."

A deep bow was given to the Queen. "Aye, ma'am."

With that, the young Royal Navy commander stepped out of the Audience Room, located in the north wing of the main residence of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Once she was alone, the Queen then smiled before she gazed off to one corner. "I hope you don't mind keeping yourself invisible, Abraham," she stated. "I don't wish to see these poor ladies hurt. Given they effectively came here straight from the Battle of Nurmengard — even if they don't have their wands — they can be frightened quite easily."

A chuckle responded seemingly out of mid-air. "I'm long used to keeping myself invisible, Elizabeth," the cloaked Abraham Lincoln replied. As he was a former head of state — not to mention a peer of the Queen's own great-great-grandmother when he was still "alive" in the normal sense; the Great Emancipator had been ten years Queen Victoria's senior — he was permitted the right to address the British monarch by given name when they were alone or with other heads of state. Then again, given that most of Earth's heads of state were in on the secret of magic — as mandated by national laws that were written to accept the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy near the end of the Seventeenth Century — it didn't take long for people at the Queen's level to learn the truth about the man respectfully called the "Rail-Splitter" by magicals and mystics worldwide. "Can't tell you how many times I did this to mask myself from vampires after Josef was so kind to give me that power before my encounter with Mister Booth at Ford's Theatre."

She nodded. "Don't you ever get tired of it?"

A sigh responded. "Sometimes I do," he admitted. "But then I remember what happened to my mother back in Indiana. Yes, there are decent people among the undead. You've probably met some over the years. But the hunger for blood that lurks deep inside their hearts never goes away no matter how hard they try to control it. Sooner or later, someone loses control and surrenders to the hunger. And if people such as young Miss Summers aren't available to deal with them, then who will do it?"

She shuddered. "I rather pity that poor girl."

"Why's that?"

"Being named 'Buffy?'" She made a face. "Whatever was her mother thinking?"

A wry chuckle responded…just as the telltale ring of a materialiser echoed through the Audience Room. The Queen turned as two columns of light showered down from the ceiling, allowing a man and a woman to appear. "Christian," she said as she held her hand out for Christian Wulff, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, to take so he could deliver a courtly kiss; the room had been augmented with Avalonian universal translator technology to allow her to speak English and be understood by all who stepped in regardless of their native language. "I trust you're having a good morning?"

"A most interesting morning indeed, ma'am," the former ministerpräsident of Lower Saxony stated before he waved his companion up. "May I present the chief administrator of the Bundesmagiemuseum in Berlin, Verwandlungherrin Julia Hoffman."

"It's an honour and pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty," the middle-aged witch stated in almost accent-less English — the Queen was quick to note the sync of her words and lip movements — as she came up to give the British monarch a polite curtsy. Like her companion — who had stuck to German — she was dressed in a modern business suit with skirt, though her wand was tucked in a hidden holster wrapped around her left arm.

The Queen was also quick to sense the excitement bubbling from every point on the transfiguration mistress' body. "I don't wish to sound particularly rude, but when exactly were you born, Mistress Hoffman?" she asked with an amused grin.

A laugh responded. "I was actually born in 1949, ma'am. My father was a member of the Magische Reichsarmee and told me all sorts of wonderful tales when it came to the Schwarze Mädchen. After the war ended, he settled in Köln and became the curator of the Bundesmagiemuseum in Bonn. After I graduated from Nibelung, I began working there myself. I succeeded him when he retired just before we moved the collection to Berlin after Reunification." She then drew out her wand. "With your permission?"

"Please do."

Reaching into her jacket pocket, the director of the Bundesmagiemuseum drew out a shrunken-down chest. Placing it on the floor, she then whispered, "Engorgio!"

The chest exploded in size until it became equal to that of a queen-sized bed; Julia had positioned it in such a way that it wouldn't tip over any pieces of furniture or block traffic. "My heavens!" the Queen gasped. "You fitted the personal effects of ALL 4,400 Black Maidens into that one chest?!" She then gazed on Hoffman. "Or is it…?"

"The chest is a multiple-compartment affair that allows personal effects to be stored there using space-shrinking charms, ma'am," the visiting witch from Berlin explained. "No different than using multiple layers of the Reducio charm. Trunk-makers have long been able to create these sorts of chests; it was all scientifically thought out centuries ago." She then winked. "Of course, some traditionalists…!"

"Would hex you if you ever used a word like 'science' in association with any form of magic," the Queen finished as she exchanged an amused look with President Wulff.

"It's not so bad in Germany," the German leader noted. "That's one of the several good benefits the magicals back home ultimately gained from Herr Grindelwald's actions. The same is true across most of Europe. And in some places, here in Britain as well."

"Sometimes I wonder," his host breathed out…

…as a knock echoed at the doorway. "Enter!" the Queen called out.

The door opened, revealing one of her butlers. "Your Majesty, the Director of Magical Law Enforcement, the Most Honourable the Marquess of Taunton Deane and Grimmauld," he politely announced. "Accompanied by the former general officer commanding the Black Maiden Brigade of the Magical Army of the Greater German Reich, Brigadier Elizabeth Gibbon of Knottingley in West Yorkshire; and the regimental sergeant-major of the Black Maiden Brigade of the Magical Army of the Greater German Reich, Master Staff Sergeant Margareta Hecht of Gardelegen in the State of Saxony-Anhalt."

She nodded in appreciation at his excellent self-control on mentioning Harry Potter and his friends. This particular fellow was a non-magical magic-born; half the servant staff at Buckingham Palace were either like him or were normal-borns who wished to have nothing at all to do with magical society…even now, thirteen years after Voldemort's fall. "Send them in, please," she bade.

The butler bowed before heading back out. Three people walked inside next, all in fashionable yet proper business clothes. The Queen was quick to note that the two women accompanying the Man-Who-Won looked quite uncomfortable wearing form-fitting slacks over their legs…before she remembered that Elizabeth Gibbon and Margareta Hecht were children of the Depression years of the 1920s and 1930s, when women were always expected to wear skirts. "Good morning, Your Majesty," Harry then said as he stopped before the monarch, bowing his head politely. As Elizabeth and Margareta came to attention beside him — with the latter doing the proper clicking of the heels to show her respect to the Queen — the Man-Who-Won then nodded to the two Germans present. "President Wulff. Transfiguration Mistress Hoffman. Good morning to both of you."

"Good morning, Herr Direktor Potter," the President said before he smiled at the two women beside Harry. "Frau Brigadegeneral Gibbon, Frau Oberstabsfeldwebel Hecht. There are many people in Germany — and if I may be bold to speak for them, Austria, Italy and Spain as well — who are overjoyed to learn that all of you are alive and well, thanks to the Space Angels."

"With no offence, Mister President, it was most likely Rittmeister von Taserich who saw to it we would survive trying to destroy the Nurmengard World-Gate. As you no doubt know, our new sisters weren't in control of their destinies back in 1945," Elizabeth stated with a polite smile and a bow of her head before she turned to curtsy to the Queen. "Your Majesty, good morning to you," she said as she gently took the monarch's hand in her own. "On behalf of all of us of the United Kingdom who joined Master Gellert before the Second World War began, I deeply apologize for the actions we took that cost those of your late father's subjects their lives when we carried out operations here."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Brigadier Gibbon," the Queen stated, making the native of West Yorkshire gape in stunned shock on hearing that rank title applied to her. "At the time you and your friends graduated from Hogwarts — to say anything of many of your fellow normal-born alumni who went to that school for years after that dreadful war ended — you all came to feel that you really had no place in the magical side of British society. Turning your back on wizarding Britain does not have the sigma in my eyes as those who would commit treason against the nation in the normal world would possess. I'm fully aware of how hard normal-borns and those born of magical families yet not blessed with magic had it back in those days. Many of the staff here at the Palace are either non-magical magic-borns or normal-borns, all of whom would sympathize with you and those who fought under your command and the command of Colonel Dietrich before you replaced her as the leader of your brigade." Her eyes then narrowed as all the magicals in the room immediately sensed their host drawing on the nigh-timeless power of the Crown to emphasize her next point, "And since there was never any demand for some overwhelming loyalty oath unto Our Crown to be enforced onto Our Subjects within Our Realm like what Mister Hitler forced on you before that horrid war began, any call by anyone in Our Realm to mark you, your sister and your friends as 'traitors' to Our Realm will not be tolerated by Us. That was decided by the International Conference of Magical Communities five years after you 'died.' We will not stand for Our Father's acceptance of the rulings of that body being ignored or spat on by any of Our Subjects. If necessary, We will release a Proclamation towards that end which will drive the point home very clearly."

Elizabeth deeply bowed her head. "You are too kind to us, Your Majesty."

"You deserve it, Brigadier," the older woman said as she relaxed herself before a sympathetic look then crossed her face. "I realize — as does President Wulff and his counterparts elsewhere in Europe — that to you, it was practically yesterday when you were fighting for your lives and freedom at Nurmengard, electing to sacrifice those lives when the Nerioites turned against Master Gellert and moved to invade Earth. That act alone ultimately exonerated you from whatever 'war crimes' you might have been made to perform beforehand…even though it has long been proven that in comparison to the normal soldiers of the Wehrmacht — to say anything of those monsters in the various elements of the Schutzstaffel or other parts of the Nazi Party — your actions were always governed by a love of humanity in all its forms and a desire to simply allow those enslaved in the name of Empire to live their lives free as was guaranteed in the Statute of Secrecy in 1689. All those under your command, Brigadier Gibbon, helped see that happen. I take it you've had time to review the history of the past sixty-five years."

"We have," the leader of the Schwarze Mädchen said with a nod of her head.

"And how do you feel about that, Frau Brigadegeneral?" the German President asked.

"If I may be so bold as to speak for my commander, Herr Präsident, everything we fought for ultimately came true to one extent or another. Ja, even here in the United Kingdom…and I say that with no offence intended," Margareta stated with a light smile. As the others chuckled, she added, "Those magicals who are brought in from the normal world in recent years — especially after that Riddle monster was done away with in 1997 — have much better chances than we did at making good lives for themselves without having to kneel before some powerless 'lord' whose only claim to such a lordship was that he could trace pure magical ancestry back to the time of Merlin and Morganna." She shook her head. "I would like to express it a little more forcefully than that, but common politeness forbids me to say more in the presence of our most gracious host."

A startled laugh escaped the other witch in the room. "Is there something that amuses you, Mistress Hoffman?" the Queen asked the director of the Bundesmagiemuseum.

She rapidly nodded. "Forgive me, Your Majesty, but after hearing Master Staff Sergeant Hecht speak like that…" She shook her head. "Father told me you had a sharp tongue and weren't afraid to use it no matter what, Tante Gretta!"

Margareta blinked before her jaw dropped as she recalled what Harry had called this woman. "You're Willie's daughter?!"

The older-looking witch beamed. "Ja!"

"Who?" a confused Elizabeth asked.

"Willie Hoffman, Elise," the native of Saxony-Anhalt replied, using one of the German diminutive forms for "Elizabeth" when addressing her commander informally. "He was part of the Sechste Magische Jägerbrigade; he was an Oberwachtzauberer in Magische Jagdbataillon Einundsechzig. They were surrounded and forced to surrender by elements of the American Magical Corps after that stupid thing in the Ardennes Forest at the end of 1944." As Elizabeth nodded in understanding, Margareta breathed out, "He was lucky."

"Why is that, Master Staff Sergeant?" the Queen wondered.

"Members of the Magische Reichsarmee who were captured by the British were always portkeyed directly into Gonebren Prison, Eure Majestät," Margareta replied with a polite bow of her head. "If the Americans caught them, they were portkeyed to the prisoner of war camp located in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey."

"Where the descendants of the Jersey Devil live, ma'am," Harry added.

The British monarch nodded. "Ah, yes. I assume, Mistress Hoffman, that when they were repatriated to Germany, people such as your father had a better time of it?"

"Much better, ma'am," Hoffman stated with a delighted smile.

"Why wasn't that island prison I've heard about used?" the German President asked.

"Right after the declaration of war in 1939, Mister President, a company of our group led by my predecessor, Livia Dietrich, attacked Azkaban to render it useless as a potential prisoner of war camp," Elizabeth immediately answered. "The Dementors were all incinerated by Fiendfyre while the prisoners themselves were allowed to escape to Germany. Most of them later volunteered to help the Magische Reichsarmee in a support capacity to pay off the Life Debts that resulted from that attack."

"Several of them resettled in Germany after the war," Hoffman added. "They elected to surrender themselves to the Americans rather than face Gonebren in 1945."

"So how did the Dementors return to that place if Fiendfyre was used?" the Queen asked.

"Even though all the Dementors that were in Azkaban at the time were wiped out, the Schwarze Mädchen didn't destroy the ward stone that allows the souls of dark wizards and witches to be transformed into those things, ma'am," Harry answered. "Mun Aesup did it with her meson bomb in 1997; that's the reason we haven't seen any since the Death Eaters were done away with."

"I see. Very well, then. Director Hoffman, would you please return Brigadier Gibbon's and Master Staff Sergeant Hecht's property back to them?"

"Ja!"

With that, the director of the Bundesmagiemuseum walked over to the chest. Opening it, she reverently reached into one compartment to draw out a pine box emblazoned with the insignia of the Deathly Hallows over the Japanese kanji 黒女, which was read kurome for "black maiden"; these boxes had been personally prepared by Yomigawa Tsukiko after the end of the War of Liberation to hold the mortal remains of her German ally's most loyal fighters, who had also spent time learning from her and her subordinates before America joined the war near the end of 1941. At the bottom of the lid, the name of the person in question had been cut into the wood in both Roman script and katakana. Julia Hoffman — who had handled the surviving artifacts for years — knew which box belonged to which person practically on sight. Taking the box she had in hand now, she came over to present it to Elizabeth with both hands, bowing her head.

"All the magicals of the Fatherland have never forgotten your service unto it during such a horrid time, Frau Brigadegeneral," she declared. "When you were freed of the ghastly oath that bound you to the service of that monster Hitler, you and those under your command — even those from Germany and Austria who spent time in the Jungmädelbund before they were invited to the various schools to learn their magic…and yes, even those who maintained membership in the Jungmädelbund or the Bund Deutscher Mädel while attending school — sought to atone for things that were never really your fault to cleanse the stain of the Nazi poison from our people." As Elizabeth gently took the box in hand, the older-looking witch opened it. "You'll definitely need THIS back, of course," she then added as she reached in to draw out a beautifully-crafted wand.

The others stared at it. Harry was quickly reminded of the Elder Wand given how seemed to literally have been GROWN. "That's no Ollivander's wand," he noted.

"I snapped my original wand when I joined the Schwarze Mädchen, Mister Potter," the leader of the Black Maidens reported. "None of us who joined up from Britain wanted anything to do with anything that had been touched in any way by the Ministry of Magic; our counterparts from other countries were the same way. This wand was made by Hilda Behrens in her shop on Schwansteinstraße in Füssen." With a casual flick of the foot-long wand, she smiled as ghostly Japanese rose flowers bloomed from the tip to shower the room. As the Queen chuckled at such a cute display of magic, Elizabeth drew out her combat wand holster from the box. "It's completely hand-made," she added as Harry took the holster and moved to secure it to her left arm under her jacket sleeve. "Nerioite lily pine, thirty-one centimetres, with a core of ruby meson wrapped with the heart-string of a griffin-dragon; Tsukiko-sensei provided all the parts for Mistress Hilda to use."

Holstering her weapon, she then blinked on seeing the medals and decorations inside the box: Her Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds with the swastika in the middle of the cross replaced by a cluster of oak leaves; the Pour le Mérite Magique with Oak Leaves and Diamonds hanging from a Weimar Republic black-red-and-gold neck ribbon; her first class Iron Cross (also with the swastika replaced with oak leaves) along with the ribbon to be tied around a jacket button to indicate she had been also awarded the second class Iron Cross first; the Long Service Award of the Magische Reichsarmee with the Nazi eagle and swastika on the dark blue ribbon replaced by oak leaves; a Wound Badge in black for injuries taken during her time in Serbia, the swastika on the helmet removed; her Magical Assault Badge in gold with the Nazi eagle and swastika on the wreath of laurel over the crossed wands taken off and replaced by oak leaves; the Order of the Sacred Treasure and the Order of the Golden Kite from Japan, both in fourth class; and the Military Order of Savoy from Italy at the rank of Commander. "When did you have all the medals changed?" she then asked the German leader.

"In 1957; that was when the laws were passed forbidding any Nazi symbols to be shown in public," President Wulff replied. "I was told by Herrin Hoffman there were no Party insignia of any sort in your barracks when all your belongings were collected."

"We burned it all after our oaths to that man from Austria was lifted from us and we learned the truth about die Endlösung der Judenfrage," Margareta explained as Elizabeth examined her other belongings. "Believe me — even if I often found myself believing that 'Jews are subhuman' propaganda in the early years Hitler was leader of the country — there was no way in Heaven that I or anyone from Germany would EVER have condoned THAT!"

"When our loyalty oaths were broken, we remembered the times we witnessed atrocities of one sort or another when we were out in the field," Elizabeth added. "We spent time between V-E Day and the day Professor Dumbledore came to Nurmengard — when we weren't tracking down people like Himmler to see them either killed or captured by the Allies — copying our memories into a pensieve so it could be used as evidence at war crimes trials."

"They were recovered by Frau Generalmajor Raeburn and her people after it was all over, then turned over to the judges at Nürnberg for use," Hoffman stated as Elizabeth took out her Iron Cross and placed it it over her left breast pocket, secured the ribbon for the second class Iron Cross around the top button of her jacket, put the wound badge on her pocket to the left and below the Iron Cross as others would see it, then put her magical assault badge over the pocket opening itself. With a quick flick of her wand, the undress ribbons for her medals were drawn out over her pocket in a three-over-four formation.

The Queen gazed at that before she nodded. "Very nice. I look forward to seeing that on a proper uniform."

Elizabeth blushed. "Ma'am, with all due respect, I don't claim the rank…"

"You will have it," the monarch cut her off. "I take it Hermione and her friends told you what those vampires who came to Nurmengard yesterday were after?"

"Yes."

"Then you will have Our Royal Warrant to effectively AND permanently deal with those who threaten the safety of all Our Subjects regardless of what they are," the Queen then ordained as both Elizabeth and Margareta stiffened themselves to attention. "You and your entire brigade, Mistress Gibbon. That this potential threat comes from a creature that should have been destroyed at the hands of President Abraham Lincoln 147 years ago this month makes it all the more reprehensible to Us." To Harry. "Lord Potter, you and your friends will give the Black Maidens your full support to see this is done as quickly as possible with as minimal of innocent casualties as possible."

"I understand, Your Majesty," Harry said with a bow of his head.

"Any support the Bundesmagieministerium can provide is yours for the asking, Herr Direktor Potter," the German President said. "And yours as well, Frau Brigadegeneral."

Elizabeth nodded as she took the box holding her belongings from Julia Hoffman before she gazed on the chest holding her co-workers' belongings. "Master Staff Sergeant, if you won't mind gathering our things, we best be off to Gringotts."

"Gringotts?!" the others in the room asked all as one.

"Of course," the Yorkshire-born combat witch stated. "War — to quote General Sherman — is all hell…but it also costs money in the long term. I refuse to force our gracious hosts up in space to commit more of their resources to us when we can provide for ourselves. The goblins were totally neutral during World War Two, so I'm sure whatever accounts we have there are still able to be accessed and have accumulated some interest."

"Sixty-five years of interest?! Bloody likely!" Harry stated.

"Harry!" the Queen scolded as she gave him a disapproving look.

The others in the room laughed. "And people say I'M profane?!" Margareta demanded.

"Shush, you!" Elizabeth snapped.

A mocking click of the heels in response. "Jawohl, meine Generalmajorin!"

More laughter filled the room as Elizabeth gave her subordinate a mock-serious look. After Margareta got out her own box to put her service pins and undress ribbons on her jacket — in her case, she had a Wound Badge in silver for being injured four times in battle, plus also the Army version of the Parachutist Badge, which she wore opposite her first class Iron Cross on her jacket pocket from her Wound Badge — before she wandlessly shrunk the chest so she could slip it into her pocket, the two Schwarze Mädchen and their escort departed from the Palace to head to Diagon Alley. Once Julia Hoffman was allowed to beam back to Berlin so she could return to her beloved museum — not to mention visit her father to tell him the news about meeting her "Aunt Gretta" at last — the Queen of the United Kingdom and the President of Germany exchanged a look. "What do you think, Abraham?" the former then asked as she gazed off to where a certain former American president had hid himself.

The psionic masking screen faded away to reveal a man in funeral black. "They're upset, but not letting it govern their actions," Lincoln stated as he came up to shake Christian Wulff's hand. "It's a good sign. No doubt, Josef must have made sure they could adjust to their new bodies once the souls were transferred over."

"Why would the Rittmeister do something like that, sir?" the German leader asked.

"He was always sympathetic to the normal-borns," Lincoln replied. "And speaking of which, once General Gibbon and her friends are set, I'll go over to Nurmengard to meet some old friends."

"Gellert Grindelwald?" the Queen asked.

"No, much older, Elizabeth. On Hosan Hirosuke's scale of older."

She blinked before her eyes widened. "Oh! I see…"


Meanwhile, in a private office at a certain bank in Diagon Alley…

"Griphook…is this confirmed?"

"According to the researchers in our genealogy department, it is, War Leader. I had them look into this right away once the news came out of Nurmengard yesterday morning concerning the Black Maidens and what the Friend of Dragons discovered," Griphook stated as a shark-like grin crossed his face. On seeing his leader nod in approval at the level of forward thinking that the young account manager had demonstrated in this case, the younger goblin added, "We can confirm it with just a simple lineage blood test. If what Harry warned in his e-mail to me concerning the decision made by Queen Elizabeth last night about this potential threat to the Avalonians is true, Brigadier Gibbon and her warriors will be given a Royal Warrant to find wherever the walking carrion who defy the Sun…" — that was the normal phrase used by goblins to describe daywalker vampires — "…in the British Isles are currently based at and destroy the whole lot. I doubt the Rail-Splitter will have to do anything, though I wouldn't discount his involvement." He then sighed. "I don't have Neuwied Test numbers yet from Hermione and her friends concerning Brigadier Gibbon and her warriors, but given what normally happens when a witch undergoes a body-swap…"

Ragnok grimly nodded. "Kindly ask the brigadier when she comes here if she will submit to a blood test. And be RESPECTFUL to her when you do that, Griphook! The Nazis were pigs of the lowest form, but the military leaders of Germany back then never awarded Knight's Crosses to people who shirked from battle!" he then forcefully ordained. On seeing the younger goblin bow his head in acknowledgement, he then perked as something came to him. "Would their being of the same blood as the Space Angels mar the lineage tests?"

"No, sir," Griphook replied with a shake of his head. "As you know, lineage tests for any magical sentient is always based on one's magic and how that magic was passed down through the blood of one's ancestors. Getting a new and healthy body — even with the Avalonian psionic powers — doesn't affect one's magic even if the mesonium in the blood will automatically boost one's total magical power as we've seen many times before. It's long been proven that 'muggleborns' are — in ALL cases! — genetically related to a lost family line no matter how many generations separated the new witch or wizard from their last living magic-welding ancestor. We proved that with people like Hermione when they came to claim their family inheritances after the Death Eaters were all done away with in 1997. Not even the most idiotic stalebloods who are still in the Ministry of Magic will deny a blood lineage test from us. If they did, sir, they have equivalent tests in the Department of Mysteries that work just as good."

"And the current size of the family vault in question?" the leader of the goblins in Britain asked as he gazed once more on the parchment the younger account manager had given him when he came to report on the events surrounding the Schwarze Mädchen.

A happy grin answered him. "It would make Elizabeth and Jessica Gibbon very special clients, War Leader. We will gain much profit from them…and not just in gold."

That made the older goblin's eyes go wide…before a roaring laugh escaped him.

This would unleash the kneazle among the puffskeins for sure…!

To be continued…


WRITER'S NOTES

1) Translations: MBTA — Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (nicknamed "The T" for its symbol [a black "T" on a white background in a black circle]); Marse — Southern American slang term for "Master"; Cote Argentea — Coat of Silver; Leicheblut Schweinhund — Literally "corpse-blood pig-dog," this combines the vile German insult schweinhund with a phrase akin to "lifeless blood"; Diliges Pupa — Literally "love doll," this is a jinx which combines the Full-Body Binding Curse with a preservation charm, yet keeps the body loose enough to allow it to be posed like a mannequin or silicon love doll (hence the name); Bundesmagiemuseum — Federal Museum of Magic; Verwandlungherrin — Literally "Transformation Mistress," this is the German title for someone like Minerva McGonagall; Brigadegeneral — Literally "Brigade General" (or "Brigadier General"), this is the modern German Army rank title for a person who would have been ranked Generalmajor in the old Wehrmacht (NATO rank code OF-6); Tante — Aunt; Sechste Magische Jägerbrigade — Sixth Magical Light Infantry Brigade (jäger literally means "hunter" or "huntsman" and implies the same concept as traditional light infantry or rangers); Oberwachtzauberer — Literally "Senior Guard Wizard," this is the male-format rank title which is equivalent to an Oberwachthexe (NATO rank code OR-7); Magische Jagdbataillon Einundsechzig — Magical Light Infantry Battalion 61; Eure Majestät — Your Majesty; Die Endlösung der Judenfrage — Literally "The Final Solution to the Jewish Question," the quasi-official code-name for all Nazi operations that unleashed the Holocaust.

As an aside, name endings like "-in," "-e" and "-frau" used by the Magische Reichsarmee for female magicals are not used for rank titles in the modern German Army.

2) The 3rd United States Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) (3 IR) is the American Army's oldest active duty regiment; it was first established as the "First American Regiment" in 1784. The regiment earned campaign credits from the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War (the Eastern Theatre), the Indian wars, the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War that followed it, the Second World War (the European Theatre), the Vietnam War and the War on Terror in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The regiment is divided currently into three battalions. The 1st Battalion and the 4th Battalion are both assigned to Fort Myer in Virginia (next to Arlington National Cemetery), serving as memorial affairs, ceremonies and special events units. The 2nd Battalion is currently based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma in Washington, where it serves as a Stryker infantry battalion assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd "Indian Head" Infantry Division (2 ID), the American Army's forward-deployed formation in the Republic of Korea; 3 BCT would be deployed overseas to reinforce the rest of the division in case of increased hostilities.

3) Harry Potter character notes:

The village of Romney Marsh and Ulysses Cuffe were both mentioned in Harry Potter and the Icemaidens.

The given names to Renée Amorin and Elliott Limus are my creation, as is their back stories. The former was mentioned in the film version of Order of the Phoenix. The latter was mentioned in the film version of Prisoner of Azkaban.

Charlie Vaisey (his given name is my creation, based on the name of the actor who played him in the movie) first appeared in Half-Blood Prince.

Ichijō Manami is a background character in the PlayStation 2 version of the video game for Prisoner of Azkaban; her name is Romanized in that game as "Manami Ichijoh," so I spelled it properly using Hepburn Romanization (and proper Oriental name order) here.

The concept of Thérèse Ariana Peverell was introduced in The Icemaidens and the Philosopher's Stone…though in that story, Thérèse was the sentience in the horcrux that was buried in Harry Potter's scar, not Hufflepuff's Cup.

4) Fans of Negima should be familiar with the Axe of the Lighting God attack spell used by Rose Potter on Charlie Vaisey in the flashback scene; it was first introduced in the manga story "(Secret) Tower for Two" (manga episode #63). The full incantation (including invocation) is as follows: Kenotêtos Astrapsatô de Temetô! Dios Tukos! (Greek for "Come forth from the void, Oh Thunder, and cut down my enemy! Axe of Lightning God!")

5) The Jungmädelbund (literally "Young Girls League", short-form JM) was the section of the Bund Deutscher Mädel ("League of German Maidens," BDM) for girls 10-14 years of age during the Nazi era. The League was the girl's version of the Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth," HJ), the Nazi Party's youth wing. Membership in the HJ or the various branches of the BDM became mandatory for all German youth in 1936. Membership in the main part of the BDM was allowed for girls 14-18 years of age, though they could join the Bund Deutscher Mädel - Werk Glaube und Schönheit ("League of German Maidens' Faith and Beauty Society") if they were from 17 to 21 years of age.

6) The magical shopping district in the southwestern Bavarian city of Füssen mentioned here, Schwansteinstraße (literally "Swanstone Street"), was taken from a mountaintop estate house located in the village of Hohenschwangau three kilometres south-of-east from Füssen, Schloss Neuschwanstein ("New Swanstone Castle"). This particular edifice — which was constructed from 1869-92 — later served as the physical model for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland Park in Anaheim outside Los Angeles. The Schloss Neuschwanstein has also served as a background scene for several movies, the most prominent being the 1968 British musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang starring Dick Van Dyke.

7) In this part of the story, I introduce the German equivalent of the Order of Merlin, the Orden Pour le Mérite Magique. Like the Order of Merlin, the Pour le Mérite Magique is Germany's highest magical-only award, though in the combined magical-normal order of precedence, this order ranks below pure-military valour decorations like the Iron Cross and its derivatives. The name of the order itself is French and literally translates "For the Magical Merit." I based this award after a similarly-named top-ranked award of merit from the old Kingdom of Prussia, the Orden Pour le Mérite, which was nicknamed the Blauer Max ("Blue Max"); this was the order that the famous World War One fighter ace Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen AKA the Red Baron (1892-1918) was given a year before his death. Going along with the inspiration of the Blue Max, the Pour le Mérite Magique is nicknamed the Weiß Max ("White Max") due to its medallion, a silver-white Maltese cross bordered in black, which is slung from a neck ribbon. Unlike the Blue Max, the White Max does not bear any markings on the cross.

Like the Order of Merlin, the Orden Pour le Mérite Magique is awarded in three classes (listed from highest to lowest, with the equivalent Order of Merlin post-nomials [as introduced in the first part of the first Wizards and Avalonians story] for comparison):

MO1 — The Pour le Mérite Magique with Oak Leaves and Diamonds (in German, Pour le Mérite Magique mit Eichenlaub und Brillanten) (short-form PlMM m. EL u. Brill.)
MO2 — The Pour le Mérite Magique with Oak Leaves (Pour le Mérite Magique mit Eichenlaub) (PlMM m. EL)
MO3 — The Pour le Mérite Magique (PlMM)

The reason why the Pour le Mérite Magique and its normal counterpart were given French names was that at the time of their institution in 1740, French was the leading international language of the world as well as the language of the Prussian royal court in Berlin. As the Iron Cross served as the primary award for bravery in Prussia during wartime, the Pour le Mérite Magique became the main award for magical merit in peacetime; this was why no swords were added to the Pour le Mérite Magique as they later would to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Despite the rise of German nationalism during the Nineteenth Century, the French tile of both awards were maintained.

However, after the Unification of Germany in 1871, the ribbon of the Pour le Mérite Magique was changed from the white-and-black of Prussia to the black-white-and-red of the German Empire. The ribbon's colours changed again to the black-red-and-gold of the Weimar Republic in 1918, then went to a red-and-white ribbon after 1935 to mark the change to the Nazi flag. Of course, after 1949 and the founding of the modern Federal Republic, the Weimar colours were restored to the Pour le Mérite Magique ribbon…and in 1957, when laws were enacted to ban the wearing of any Nazi symbol like the swastika, all Pour le Mérite Magique medals awarded between 1935-45 were changed to match the Weimar ribbon colours.

8) The other awards and medals mentioned at the end of this part here reflect the various medals, decorations, military warfare service badges and wound badges awarded to personnel of the Wehrmacht during World War Two. The primary military warfare service badge for the Black Maidens and the other elements of the Magische Reichsarmee is the Magical Assault Badge (Magische Sturmabzeichen). Like other warfare qualification badges used at the time, the Magical Assault Badge came in three grades as follows (from descending to ascending order):

Magical Assault Badge in Bronze (Magische Sturmabzeichen in Bronze) — Awarded when someone engaged in a duel with potentially lethal spells being used a minimal of five times.
Magical Assault Badge in Silver (Magische Sturmabzeichen in Silber) — Awarded when someone engaged in a duel with potentially lethal spells being used a minimal of ten times.
Magical Assault Badge in Gold (Magische Sturmabzeichen in Gold) — Awarded when someone engaged in a duel with potentially lethal spells being used a minimal of fifteen times.

It should be noted that with the wonders of memory recall spells, all recordings of such incidents had to be verified using BOTH pensieves AND veritaserum before it was added to the combat tally of the wizard/witch in question in official records.

9) Also noted in this part is the Wound Badge (Verwundetenabzeichen), which serves as the German equivalent to the American Purple Heart medal. Like many other Wehrmacht badges, it was awarded in multiple classes:

Wound Badge in Black (Verwundetenabzeichen in Schwarz) — Awarded for those wounded once or twice by hostile action (including air raids) or frostbitten in the line of duty.
Wound Badge in Silver (Verwundetenabzeichen in Silber) — Awarded for those wounded three or four times, suffered loss of a hand, foot or eye from hostile action…as well as suffered partial loss of hearing, facial disfigurement or brain damage via hostile action.
Wound Badge in Gold (Verwundetenabzeichen in Gold) — Awarded for those wounded five or more times, suffering crippling woulds such as total blindness or severe brain damage via hostile action…not to mention "loss of manhood!"

10) A final note about the Iron Cross and the Knight's Cross and how such were displayed on uniforms: Winners of the latter award would have to have been awarded the former award in both 2nd and 1st class before getting the "tin necktie". To that end, when people were elevated from the 2nd Class to the 1st Class in the Order of the Iron Cross, the ribbon of the 2nd class was wrapped around the breast-level button of the jacket at an angle to allow the 1st class medal to be pinned over the left jacket pocket over the heart. The Knight's Cross, as it was a neck order, would be worn separately even if it would be displayed in "undress" fashion at the primary position in a person's "salad bowl" of medals. This is the reason that those elevated to the Knight's Cross always wear TWO versions of the Iron Cross, one over the heart as a pin-on medal and one around the neck suspended by a ribbon.