Two Marvelous…

Chapter 4: Tales

After having finished the luxurious meal, the participants started leaving. Luna seemed very tired and Ron offered to take her home. The others followed suite soon. Neville escorted Ginny, who seemed more relaxed now, after having drunk some wine, and was actually leaning on him on their way out. George made sure that Iris knew where to find him and only left after getting her promise to soon visit him at the shop.

"Would you like to go somewhere now? A dance club, maybe?" asked Iris.

"Not really. It has been a long and eventful day and we still have a few things to do..." Harry looked at Hermione, who blushed a little at his words.

"Don't you want to meet you aunt – our mother – at least?"

"Isn't it a bit late?"

"No, it's fine. We've already told her that we may bring you along. She is really anxious to meet you. She has only seen you once, as a baby. She saw Hermione when she was about ten, not really thinking they may become related in the future. She really wants to meet you both."

Hermione nodded slightly. Harry understood. "OK, but only a short visit. How are we going there?"

"Oh, our car is parked nearby. We shall take you, and you may then apparate home, or we could drive you there as well."

They soon reached the car. The twins took the front seats while Harry and Hermione sat on the back seats. Once they started moving, Harry noticed that all traffic lights were turning green as they approached.

"Isn't it lucky that we encounter no red light?" he noted.

"It's not luck – it's magic," replied Iris, who was driving.

"What do you mean? You said you weren't accepted at Hogwarts."

"True. Not because we weren't magical..."

"...but probably due to some politics."

"Would you care to explain?"

Daphne turned her head towards them, looking very serious.

"On our eleventh birthday we received a letter from Dumbledore, informing us that we were magical and stating that he would have liked us to join Hogwarts, but that due to circumstances beyond his control, it would be safer for us to study somewhere else or even be home-educated. He recommended a few people who could be contacted by normal mail or by phone."

Harry listened attentively. Was this another meddling by the old man or was there a real reason for this? He hoped to find out.

"Dad contacted all of them, one by one. Some weren't really interested. Others seemed to be interested only in getting the money for the job of teaching us. Only one seemed to truly consider what was best for us. She recommended going to another magical school, either in France or in the USA. Dad has never liked the Americans and Mom thought it to be too far, so we spent the rest of that year learning French and went to Beauxbatons the next autumn."

"So – you are really witches!"

"Yes, although the ministry doesn't recognize us as such. We are not even allowed to carry a wand."

"That's ridiculous. I'll have a talk with Kingsley. I'm sure he can handle this!"

"I wouldn't bother, really. You see, not being known as witches helped us during the war...

"... and we live very nicely as muggles."

Hermione frowned. "What did you do during the war, actually?"

"We were with Dad when the ministry fell. We've learned about it the next day, when the French press gave full report of Fleur's wedding."

"Dad said we couldn't go back and Mr. Delacour said the same."

"You know Fleur's family?"

"Dad knows everybody, actually, although we were never close friends. Anyhow, we stayed in France and tried to find ways to help from there."

"So what did you do?"

The twins smiled mischievously. "Oh, we found a way..."

"You know that Beauxbatons is excellent on charms, I suppose," said Iris.

Hermione nodded. Harry was completely out.

"Well, we know some very interesting charms, which are activated by the actions of the one they are cast upon..."

"...Somewhat like wards..."

"Well, we found something appropriate and modified it to be activated only by offensive spells."

"That's really advanced work," commented Hermione.

"Then there's a spell to allow one to see what's hidden under one's clothing. It is something quite French in concept," Dapne giggled.

"We also found out that many of the Death Eaters used to come and relax at some shady clubs in Paris, ones featuring almost naked dancers."

"So we applied for a job there. While dancing with the clients we used the revealing spell to check for the dark mark...

"… and then we used the other charm to bind their magic if ever they used an offensive spell."

Harry was delighted. "That's brilliant!"

"Unfortunately, none of the inner circle visited those clubs," pointed Iris.

"How could you do this? You couldn't use wands there, could you?" asked Hermione.

"We could use wandless magic..."

"...had we been able to master it..."

"...but we had some other means."

Iris was already parking the car near a house that looked almost like a copy of Hermione's house.

"We'll show you inside," Daphne promised.

They were greeted by a nice woman of about fifty. She looked at Harry appreciatively and then nodded her head. "Only that no-good Dursley could find any fault in this young man," she commented, and then opened her arms invitingly: "Welcome, Harry. I wish I could welcome you here long ago."

They all spent some time together, getting to know each other. About half an hour later, Mrs. Evans excused herself and left the youngsters alone.

"You said you had other means for using magic," Hermione reminded the twins.

"Oh, sure. See our rings?" Both twins presented their right hands. Each was wearing a ring on her index finger. Hermione looked at the rings and blushed slightly. Each ring had a short gold rod, adorned with a single small diamond in the front and two larger rubies at the back. It looked somewhat like a phallic symbol.

"These are our wands," said Iris.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"The rods contain our wands, shrunk to fit," explained Daphne.

"And the gems are there to mask the rod and make it look more...

"...interesting."

"That's very clever," commented Hermione, "but doesn't this pose other problems?"

"It poses no problems at close range and we can have the wand ready at all times..."

"...although it is not so good for accurate aim, like in duels,"

"And we hope to never engage in any such situation."

"Can you show me?" asked Harry.

Daphne pointed her finger at the vase on the corner table. She moved her hand up and the vase rose in the air and then landed on the coffee table.

"That's a very nice demonstration of wordless magic," Hermione said appreciatively.

"There was also a more serious reason for us staying in France during the war," commented Iris.

Harry and Hermione looked at her questioningly.

"Dad knew that the burden of destroying Voldemort was carried by Harry. He told us all he knew about it, which wasn't much, really…"

"...He then added that if things went badly and Harry failed, the burden would fall on us, as the only remaining witches from Lily's bloodline."

Daphne looked as serious as can be, practically a different person than the giggling carefree girl she had been moments ago. "We took some advanced dueling lessons and we also studied any tome of offensive and defensive magic that we could find."

"We actually intended to return to England that summer and try to join forces with you, hoping to be an asset for the light forces. Luckily, you've managed to finish him off before that."

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