Hogwarts One Half
Chapter Twelve

by Lionheart

I O I O I

Around noon, two Hogwarts students were heading across the back lawn to Hagrid's cabin. The older one, a sixth year blonde girl, was carefully instructing the younger, a boy.

"Harry, you get an invitation to dine with an important person and you are expected to bring your girlfriend along if she means anything to you. That way she knows the same folks you know and you build your social circle together with shared contacts. Shared friends is one of the best ways of cementing a relationship. Now if a girl is uncertain of you, or you of her, she doesn't have to come along. But we're playing as though this is serious because anybody can have a shallow relationship. It's the deep ones that take effort. And that means that I get to come along. Besides," she smirked. "This is too good an opportunity to show you how to act at parties. Hufflepuff starts having our own around the second week of the year, but it never hurts to get in an early start. And you could use an opportunity to catch up to the rest of the first years in social skills anyway."

The pair of Hufflepuffs walked in the open door to Hagrid's cabin to find themselves awash in conversation, with over a dozen girls and several adults already in there talking.

"I don't see what's so special about Hogsmead." Cologne was saying from nearby. "Okay, so Britain has only one all-magical village. Too bad. China has dozens, if not hundreds. Our own Ministry of Magic can't find them all. I come from an all-magical village myself; I know of a handful Japan has. Over in the orient we never got into the 'Pureblood Magician' farce that hit so hard over here in Europe. We'll marry how we please, and as a result our numbers expanded instead of contracted and are much higher than the inbred morons over here who have been married to their cousins for hundreds of years."

Hagrid was listening to this, enthralled by it, while other conversations went on behind.

Nodoka smiled gently, arriving with drinks. "Magic use is a dominant trait. Our percentage of the population over there is so high magic lines have actually gotten lost among the muggle majority. We don't have anything over there like the Hogwarts Magic Quill that writes down names of magical children as they are born. So descendants of powerful magicians have grown up ignorant of their heritage. Ukyo is one such."

"I thought she was a Bones." Hagrid blinked, and appeared to be somewhat drunk. That had happened much less of late, but he still drank heavily sometimes. Apparently this was one such event.

"Oh, Harry!" Nodoka clapped her hands in delight upon seeing the pair standing uncertainly in the doorway. "Look everyone, our guest of honor has arrived!"

The next moments were so awkward that Harry could never have made it through them without his date's expert assistance. But she knew how to deal with the sudden cheer, and showed him how to wave and bow and smile then move on to something he found more interesting.

"Hagrid, you asked me to lunch today, right?" The famous boy inquired.

"Aye, Harry. That I did." The gentle giant beamed a big grin then shoved himself unsteadily to his feet, making slow deliberate steps over to the nearest table. "At firs I was gunna wait an ask ya ta tea on Friday, after yer firs week o classes. But Professor Malfoy, she's a gem, she is, anyway she came up wit an idea we jest couldn't wait on."

As the half giant seated himself at the table, the Boy Who Lived saw in the center of it a big cloth thrown over what looked to be a bowl. Hagrid beamed, then removed the cloth from concealing it. Underneath was a broad yet shallow stone basin surrounded by racks and racks of bottles, carefully marked with dates and places, with short descriptive sentences.

From his side as he stood looking wondering at this strange object, Nodoka bent low to inform him. "It's a pensieve, Harry. And seeing as how I missed your birthday I give it to you as a late present. Once I'd heard your story, how you grew up without your parents, I went about to all of their friends still surviving and collected memories. You get to see how they grew up, who they knew, what their homes were like, several of their dates, the first kiss and wedding, and bringing you home from the hospital. Even how bravely they fought in several battles. It's all here for you."

Everyone was speechless in anticipation as Harry reached forward and grabbed any old bottle from the nearest rack, uncorked it and poured the contents out into the bowl. Then he touched it with his finger and was gone, mind reviewing the events of the memory while his body stood frozen. The wait was still and breathless, and when he came back to himself his smile was so broad it had to hurt, then tears spilled out all over and he broke down in mindless crying. His date held him to her chest, granting comfort to him and a slight shrug to the rest of them. "Harry is very grateful. Thank you." She supplied warmly on his behalf.

"But that was a happy memory." Ginny said, confused.

"I know." Ranko answered. They'd made sure the rack of happy times was closest for him to grab, but she understood and explained for the rest of them. "It's only now that he knows who he's been missing all of these years. He now has people to grieve for. Before it was just names and shapeless longing. Now he has a mother and father, but they're lost before he could share his life with them."

Nodoka patted her daughter on the shoulder. "Exactly why we are doing this, so he knows them for the wonderful people they were."

Lunch was served without much talking, but it gave Harry time to collect himself and by the end he was still teary eyed, but effusive in his thanks that at last he'd get to know the parents he had no other memories of.

Nodoka broke in as they began to serve dessert. "Oh, Harry. I was going to ask: Would you like to spend the Christmas holidays with my daughter, her friends, and me? You don't have to worry about Draco or his father, they are spending the vacation separate from us."

The loyal Hufflepuff looked up from his food. "Can I bring my sister?"

Nodoka crouched down to look him level in the eye. "My dear boy, you are allowed to bring along anyone you like. Just so long as you like them and they aren't some stranger trying to catch a free ride to my party."

"I'd love to come, Ms. Malfoy. Thank you for inviting me." His date answered, unruffled.

Harry was chuckling. "I don't think she meant that as a jibe at you, Aphrodite. But loads of people have been trying to, I dunno, but I could probably invite half the school if I wasn't careful."

"I know it wasn't meant for me." The perky blonde responded cheerily. "But I wanted to point out that she was a little careless phrasing things that bluntly with me here beside you. If I was anything but a Hufflepuff I might have been offended."

"That reminds me." Harry spoke up, looking out over the crowd of well wishers. "Why don't we all do that charm? I'm sure to forget people otherwise."

There was blinking among the audience.

"What charm?" Hermione asked.

Aphrodite drew her wand, standing up. "We do this in Hufflepuff House every year. This is a simple spell to help recall names and faces. I don't know why everyone doesn't use it."

I O I O I

The staff had been ruthlessly threatened, on pain of their jobs, not to reveal that Snape was on probation until the Board of Governors had a chance to meet and review his case for a suitable punishment.

To everyone's surprise, this prohibition on talk had not come from Albus Dumbledore, but from Lucius Malfoy, a member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors, and through Minister Fudge who was very much in Lucius' pocket.

Several eyes had gone to Nodoka for explanation, and she had merely shrugged and told them she had never been very close to Lucius, and she would not have been in the least surprised to find out that her brother was a private customer of Snape producing potions (and Dark Arts supplies) on the side.

Either way there was very little she could do about it.

Apparently the lure of a barony was insufficient to draw her brother's support away from his favorite supplier of questionable potions and Dark Arts objects, and without the security, influence and tools available as a Hogwarts teacher, Snape's abilities to produce potions, poisons and illicit goods for sale was going to be greatly reduced.

Dumbledore winced greatly when Nodoka conveyed that conversation to him in front of the other staff, and it got revealed that Snape had been running a Dark Arts factory for illegal and forbidden objects right under the Headmaster's unsuspecting nose.

He was saved the outright hatred of his staff by admitting, "I am done protecting him. I had already concluded that the greatest good came from no longer defending Severus."

That had relaxed the crowd and they had then adjourned for dinner.

The Defense teacher stopped the Headmaster on his way into the Great Hall bearing the Sorting Hat. "Oh Albus, I've been wanting to ask you: Did Voldemort take Arithmancy?"

Pleased at the normalcy of that request, or at least the indicator that her attention was shifting off of him, Albus smiled in response, pausing to explain, "I don't believe he did, at least not formally. However, he did devote an exceptional amount of time to independent study. So it is possible that he picked up a thing or two."

"Thank you." She nodded in gratitude.

Albus walked into the Great Hall smiling, and set the Hat down on a stool. "I know that another reSorting has been requested. It seems that young Percy Weasley is not yet done trying his luck. He and his brother Ronald both still want another House. So if there are any other interested candidates, please let them come forward."

"No." The Hat objected from where it sat.

The smile fell off the Headmaster's face in astonishment. "I'm so sorry, what did you say?" He bent around to look toward the Hat.

"I've got a headache." It complained. "And I want a drink."

"A what?" Dumbledore could not believe his senses.

"I don't ask for much, just a little drink now and then!" It shouted out loud across the hall.

"I suggest that you start singing." The Headmaster informed it in unusually frosty tones for him.

"Oh, very well." Opening up it's mouth, it began a long hymn.

"Beethoven's gone, but his music lives on,
And Mozart don't go shopping no more.
You'll never meet Liszt or Brahms again,
And Elgar doesn't answer the door.
Schubert and Chopin used to chuckle and laugh,
Whilst composing a long symphony,
But one hundred and fifty years later,
There's very little of them left to see.

"They're decomposing composers.
There's nothing much anyone can do.
You can still hear Beethoven,
But Beethoven cannot hear you.

"Handel and Haydn and Rachmaninov
Enjoyed a nice drink with their meal,
But nowadays, no one will serve them,
And their gravy is left to congeal.

"Verdi and Wagner delighted the crowds
With their highly original sound.
The pianos they played are still working,
But they're both six feet underground.

"They're decomposing composers.
There's less of them every year.
You can say what you like to Debussy,
But there's not much of him left to hear.

"Claude Achille Debussy-- Died, 1918.

"Christophe Willebald Gluck-- Died, 1787.

"Carl Maria von Weber-- Not at all well, 1825. Died, 1826.

"Giacomo Meyerbeer-- Still alive, 1863. Not still alive, 1864.

"Modeste Mussorgsky-- 1880, going to parties. No fun anymore, 1881.

"Johan Nepomuk Hummel-- Chatting away nineteen to the dozen with his mates down the pub every evening, 1836. 1837, nothing."

By the end of this Dumbledore was not very happy, and some of the students were laughing. Amazingly, Ranko managed to beat the two unsatisfied Weasleys to the punch by jumping over everyone's heads to get to the stool. Hands perched on dainty hips, she asked of it. "Excuse me, but you said that first day I was all but perfectly suited to three Houses. I just want to know what the third one is."

"Hufflepuff." It told her in sour tones. "You're loyal to a fault. You have fought, bled, come close to death, and killed out of loyalty." It told her in tones that covered the hall. "So your foe didn't stay dead, but that did not stop your hand from slaying him to rescue the one you loved. All you had to do was turn away and let your friend die and your foe would not have pursued the matter, but you battled until you came close to being destroyed even though he was much more powerful than you at the time. Just about everything you've ever done you did for someone else. You sought to be the best at your trade because you thought your father demanded it, not for yourself. You'd make a terrible Slytherin. Already you've got enormous power, yet your only ambition comes from when someone you love wants you to do or be something, then you'd move Heaven and Earth to do it."

"He would've killed Ukyo if I hadn't killed him first." the redhead told the Hat, ignoring the rest of the hall that was listening intently to this speech. "And my mom does want me to be the best martial artist and... person, that I can be."

"There, you see?" It smirked. "If you were a Slytherin you'd want power for its own sake. No. You want it because someone you love wants you to have it. That's Hufflepuff straight through to the heart of it. Countless times you've fought someone else's battle, taken it as your own, for no other reason than loyalty. Bravery has taken you through abuse, torture and trials to learn things no other Ravenclaw could have survived. Loyalty held you in one piece, kept you from descending to evil, focused on a task bravery got you into, and your knowledge acquired from your insatiable desire to learn has often saved you at the end. You're a near perfect blend of those traits. The Founders would've loved you. In fact I think I made a mistake in not making you a Hufflepuff as well as those others. I'll rectify that right now. Triple House Student! Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor!!"

It spoke out to the silence of the hall, even the Hufflepuffs were a long second coming back to themselves and clapping.

Ranko bowed to her three Houses, then went to leave the hall when the Hat's voice stopped her, "Oh, and Ranko? Do you recall the Saotome Secret Technique? You have not yet lost your most important battle. You are still fighting."

The redhead gave the Hat a thoughtful smirk, thinking of Happosai and one of her mother's arguments: That she was actually defeating him right now. Just by staying away from him he was slowly dying, and thus she was winning and the old pervert wasn't. But thinking about that in terms of the Saotome Secret Technique, at last she could accept that maybe this was a valid tactic...

And that Ranko Malfoy never loses any more than Ranma Saotome did.

That gave her much of herself back to hear that, then she went to go join her new House to get to know them. And they also got to know her; not only would she be in for a whole House introduction that night, but the older two years would single her out as almost as abused as Harry. Hers was not an ongoing problem, as the prime crux of the matter had already been dealt with, to whit: she'd been separated from Genma, and general healing begun and she now had a parent and friends who loved and genuinely cared for her.

So she was coping with it better, and did not require the same levels of intervention. But an unavoidable point was that poor Ranko had missed out on most of what other children took for granted growing up, and had some significant social weaknesses, cultural blind spots (an appalling amount of those, considering she'd grown up Japanese and had caught very little of that social strata, and knew virtually nothing of the English ways - beyond the paper thin veneer she'd picked up to go through with this role) and so on.

So House Hufflepuff launched into damage control on the little lost maiden. Her revolted expression when someone suggested assigning a boyfriend clearly hinted at sexual abuse, so she got the Kodachi treatment of a trio of middle years to act as confidants and guides, to bring her up to speed as if they were older sisters as well as friends.

I O I O I

Kodachi had been ceaselessly studying her stolen cache of potions manuals and papers in every moment she could spare for days on end now, and had seen Snape's signature at the bottom of several of those loose sheets; so she knew who this Half-Blood Price was, and that he was clearly a genius in his field - too bad that it wasn't teaching.

"Oh! What have you got there, Dachi?" Umi came in to her room in her nightgown, brushing out her long blue hair.

"Yeah! It's had your interest for days." Hikaru jumped on her bed, similarly attired for rest. The trio had made it a habit every night of checking in on Kodachi to kind of catch up on each other's days and do some gossip and girl talk.

Kodachi sucked in her lip, but it was looking up to see Fuu's warmly accepting smile that decided her. "I was wondering if we ought to start a Potion Club. The old one is Slytherin-only, but Hufflepuff could use some extra study."

"That is a subject you're good at." Umi touched her lip, composed in thought, before she beamed to the younger girl. "I think it's a great idea."

"Yeah!" Hikaru jumped up and down on her bed. "Think of all of those extra treats that we could bake!" That bouncy redhead had loved the candy making lessons in the new potions class more than most had.

I O I O I

The original seven were gathered back into Nodoka's basement of the tower she'd chosen as her own: Nodoka herself, Cologne, Ranko, Shampoo, Ukyo, and the Patil twins. The redhaired mother of Ranko was speaking.

"I had hoped to use Voldemort's memories somehow, but they're curdled, protected by amazing Occlumency and in so many other ways that so far I can find no use for them. I fear that I may never, and have begun to plan on how to dispose of them." She brightened and moved on, considerably happier. "But I have succeeded in separating out the contents of the cauldron left over from Brain Burning Nagini. The black bowl holds his personality, white his curdled memories, and the rose one his skills. These last I've purified several times in countless different ways, including filtering them through a unicorn horn. I've found obliviating them doesn't destroy anything, as it targets memory, not skills. Personality affecting charms and spells have nothing to ground on, and so on. I've bathed those skills in the breath of a unicorn, and waved it around in a kneazle filled room without upsetting any of them, seen if a number of danger-sensing animals were afraid of them, then repeating that whole process with them quasi-attached to me in non-permanent ways. As far as I can tell, the separation is pure and complete, this is only skills distilled from our enemy, with no other mental aspect to contaminate them."

"So what are we getting?" Ranko confidently raised a question, fresh from an early evening with House Hufflepuff and their starting attempts to rebuild her into a whole human being.

Nodoka lifted the rose bowl in her hands, stepping out into another carefully prepared echo circle, with wards and protections just as extreme as before. "Voldemort is unfortunately an unsurpassed master of Dark Arts. But at the very least we'll know what we are fighting and might even have a chance to learn, or create, counters for that unfortunate art. Old Moldy is an expert on Charms and Defense as well as Magical Creatures, strong but not so great an expert on Transfiguration, Potions and Ancient Runes, and his weaknesses are Astronomy, Herbology and History where he is merely average in ability. So far as I know Moldy has no skills at Divination or Arithmancy, and no Muggle Studies, though he lived as one when he was a child. He Apparates well, and has been called the best Legilimens of this century, with Occlumency equally powerful. Merely being an expert in one field is usually sufficiently remarkable to ensure a good career, this is arguably a half dozen. Unfortunately, this will not copy those directly into us in a form where we can use them."

"What do you mean?" This time the question fell to Parvati.

The duchess set her bowl down on a careful arrangement of runes, and huffed in stress as she double checked everything twice. "The soul fragment in Nagini was implanted before Voldemort was nineteen years old, after graduation from Hogwarts but before most of what he disappeared to study. So we won't get everything, or even most things, he knows now. Also I had to divorce these skills from his memories and the other aspects of his mind or this would be closer to a possession. What that means is all of those mental triggers on which a talent relies for activation won't be there in us. We don't dare add his memories to ourselves - also personality has a strong effect on how skills are used, and adopting that is unthinkable. Basically, the way I've set things up we are going to have to train in everything Moldy knew at eighteen, to gain those skills over again. The advantage we are getting is that all we really have to do is recall them, give ourselves activation triggers for our new abilities reliant on our own personalities and memories, unpolluted by his, and that will take only a fraction of the time normally required to gain them up from nothing."

"And, of course, you've sped that up." Ukyo smirked, crossing her arms.

"Of course I've sped that up." The lady gave an answering grin. "What I have done is take a potion and charm combination that magical hospitals use to restore massively Obliviated patients using relevant memories donated by friends and relatives, then adapted those for absorbing this stuff. The setup is very gentle and gradual, and all that we are really doing is helping ourselves to remember skills we never had. There will be no memory of his training in them, or how he used them. But as we study those same arts over again, anything that Voldemort knows, or knew at eighteen, we can pick up really fairly easily because on some level we'll already know it."

"An entire Hogwarts education in a couple years at most, and the man whose skills we are to be acquiring scored perfect marks in all of the examinations he chose to take." Cologne whistled, favorably impressed. "I wouldn't mind knowing more of this Western version of magical education, and not just to understand what I'm fighting against, what curses are more important to dodge than others and so on."

"Yes. But best of all we'll know something of his style, and gain a really good idea of what he knows and doesn't. At least at first, Ranko and the girls will have a magical dueling style very comparable to Moldyshorts. Since we know that beforehand, we can intentionally add emphasis to our natural drifting away from that, based on having very different personalities than him, while also training to defeat him." Nodoka stood up and addressed her daughter's allies and friends. "But this is the last thing we'll be taking from Old Moldy, and we'll each be sleeping with kneazles and unicorns until I can be sure that this worked out to our benefit and not otherwise. Any sign of personality corruption and this terminates, as before. I've drunk an almost dangerous dosage of Liquid Luck, as before. And I will be the filter for the rest of you, as before. Unlike before, we are each going to drink a vial of phoenix tears after this is over, so that hopefully any harm done gets undone, and for at least a month afterward we are all of us going up to Albus Dumbledore's office daily, as he has the nearest phoenix, and we're going to listen to it sing while we have tea with him. I've told him you are all very naughty girls and need to do this as punishment. But since phoenix song grants courage to those of good heart and weakens those of evil, it should be as good a countermeasure as anyone is going to get if there are still any lingering traces of evil in these skills, and let us assimilate them as ourselves without pollution."

The duchess drew a deep breath and released it. "There remains a very slight risk in spite of all I can do, just on the odd chance that I forgot something. But ultimately we're doing this in spite of the risk because sixty years of study and experience is a difficult thing to counter in less than sixty years, and by the time you've all gotten that much Moldy could well have doubled his to a hundred and twenty. I've done all that I can to reduce the risk and make it safe, but we need a boost if we are to fight him, and the more I look around the more I see that no one else can. I still don't want to fight him. Yet if I run I want to do so from a position of strength, an orderly retreat without casualties. To do that successfully means we must be able to fight successfully, even if we don't want to, and if we are forced to fight I want to win as quickly as possible."

"Shampoo agree."

"Yah, so do we all, Sugar."

Parvati smiled at Padma and both stepped out onto the magic circle, fully confident of the lady's protections and precautions. The rest of the five girls followed, with Cologne being the last one to step into place around Nodoka, a flash of concern nearly hidden from her eyes. The duchess gave her a questioning glance, but Cologne shook her head, waving off her concern. So they proceeded, and with a flick of her wand, two passes and a slash, the rosy liquid contents of the bowl flew up and into that noble woman, triggering a flash from her echo circle and blazing lines of chalk as each of the seven lifted up and swirled about, turning a soft rosy glow that turned deep red and vanished, allowing each of them to settle back down to the ground, suddenly exhausted.

Immediately after this effect was over, Cologne shoved herself to her feet and with a slash of her wand the ashes and remnants of the ritual was scoured clean. Another flick and a door came open and a small herd of unicorns came into the room, sniffing and shuffling about with an equal pack of fully adult kneazels. A last twirl and flick and empty packages and wrapping paper for unicorn treats and cat toys became evident on most surfaces, with enough open but uneaten ones for the unicorns to begin to nuzzle and eat while the kneazels pounced on the toys. With that last effort she collapsed and began to snore.

The basement door came open a half second afterward, and Dumbledore stuck his long nose inside, caught an eyeful of treats, wrappers and toys and the animals enjoying them, and smiled at the exhausted bunch. "Ah, Nodoka, I just wanted to inform you that evening is fading fast into night and it is time for these youngsters to be in their beds. Good night, all."

The Headmaster disappeared, closing the door behind him.

After a minute's worth of shock, and waiting for it to be safe, Nodoka mumbled, "I warded that door with my most potent spells."

"I sensed his presence nearby, and knew we had to hurry or get caught in the middle, with who knows what consequences." Cologne responded from where she pretended sleep. "Luckily none of what we did tonight was so dark it could be detected... actually, I'm not truly sure it could be called dark at all. But I'm sure he felt the surge of magic. I just hope it was so muddled by the animals and my spells that he couldn't determine what it was."

"The children should go to bed, for that matter so should we." The Lady Malfoy gasped from her seat on the floor. "Don't forget to take your potions on the way out, they are in that drawer. Drink them before you leave."

Everyone said their goodnights and left, before Nodoka muttered, "I can't believe he was fully fooled, misdirected at most, and that means we should not do more of this until we have better security."

I O I O I

Thursday morning promised a beautiful day, bright and clear with lovely little puffy white clouds scattered just right to make a picture.

Nodoka's study group, which by now also included Cologne, returned from the Forbidden Forest and began to change back into people while most of the rest of that school was just starting breakfast.

The centaurs had expanded what they were teaching those girls. Now it included Magical Healing, Archery and Advanced Astronomy in addition to Divination, all areas at which the centaurs excelled even over humans. And with the Astronomy portion they had to start in the pre-dawn hours anyway, so most of this they fit in very early.

Nodoka had them all change in a small circular shack just inside of the forest border. What the girls did not know was that she had a magic circle built into that structure boosting the effects of a Time Turner she carried so the girls all got many extra hours during the day and didn't notice the extra workload particularly. However, by including brunch and a substantial meal with their afternoon tea, along with a mandatory midday nap (excused by their getting up so early to study stars with the centaurs) all of their biologies had enough support to handle to longer days without stress or trouble.

Between two classes a day spent in the Forest, and one under the surface of the lake with the merfolk teaching them about all manner of underwater equivalents to Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures, and the salves and ointments they brewed out of them for the aquatic version of Potions, they were really getting quite a full course load as it was, above and beyond the usual Hogwarts classes. But with the Lady Malfoy's tutoring, the regular Hogwarts subjects were truly very easy, and came at a very slow pace, so they were all already ahead in their work in them.

Ranko, Shampoo, Ukyo and the two Patils were already surging ahead at an even more impressive rate. Often they only had to read a book to know its contents as if they'd been studying it for years, though it did confuse some of the rest of those girls why the duchess Malfoy had gone to so much trouble to hunt down the 1940's versions of their textbooks for them. It was all the same material, right?

Still, out of curiosity, many of the others also started to read those versions, and found many differences over their modern texts. Some were even better, so they stuck with them.

It would seem a bit extreme, but on top of their instruction by centaurs and merfolk, normal class load and homework, they had also decided to take all of the regular Hogwarts electives, and after a swift breakfast, that was where the group headed now.

Care of Magical Creatures class was fun. All summer long they had been helping Hagrid to look after the animals while Professor Kettleburn was on vacation, and now that nice old guy was back the fugitives from Nerima, plus their new study friends, were brushing down a set of nine unicorns before the first lesson of the year. Of course, the brushes they used were enchanted to collect and store all of the loose hairs, some of which they would actually be allowed to keep for themselves.

Only a few, because they were so valuable.

They dealt with unicorns so rarely that this was a real treat. Most of the time was spent with streelers and other magical creatures the Professor put on display that can be kept as pets.

Kasumi came trotting out from around by the lake as they were doing this, and the students got astonished as their brilliant white charges suddenly broke away and streamed toward the chestnut mare. Ranko leapt after them, not as fast as a unicorn could run but ready and willing to defend Kasumi if that became necessary. However, the herd simply crowded around the cursed girl and brushed against her on all sides, hemming her in and spooking her slightly. Then they all touched her with their horns, causing a globe of silver glow to spring up all around them.

At the first sign of injury to Kasumi Ranko was ready to start serving roast unicorn that night, protected creatures or no, but the brilliant white animals left Kasumi alone after that, and allowed themselves to be collected and herded back to their places in time for the Care of Magical Creatures lesson to start.

Professor Kettleburn was a fine teacher, one of the best Hogwarts had, and because of Nodoka the wizard now had a full set of limbs, and substantial chunks of flesh removed by previous accidents had been perfectly restored, including a disfiguring lump missing from one side of his face. The man was so grateful he'd decided to befriend the whole family and treated the girls like he was their rich uncle or something, giving them gifts and taking them out places to see things when they didn't have class time.

They were probably the only first years in six decades to get Hogsmead weekends, and escorted by a veteran merry maker at that. Diagon Alley trips were unheard of for Hogwarts students, but Kettleburn seemed delighted to take the troupe all over magical Britain.

It was a good experience for all of them.

An hour after the lesson, Kasumi's chestnut coat fell out and by noon was replaced with a sheen of solid gold fur, with a little nub of silvery horn on her forehead that Ranko noticed as she came out to do afternoon feeding.

Calling the parents, they came and examined her changes. Nodoka was speechless, while Cologne chuckled ruefully, shaking her head. "Oh, girl. Whatever this is, it is going to complicate curing your curse. We were so close, too."

Nodoka sighed, brushing the cursed girl turned horse, now something else. "Well, this does complicate our plans. Still, there's nothing to do but live with it, I suppose. Kasumi, do you think you could be a dear and let us work a few spells on you?"

The newly turned unicorn nodded her golden head twice.

Ranko's mother resumed petting her. "Thank you for being such a dear. According to what I've read you'll only have this beautiful golden coat for a year, then it will fall out and you'll have a fine silver one for a similar period. Only then will that fall out and you'll get your final coat of brilliant white. Now none of us expect you to be cursed that long, dear. But you are in a position to do the rest of us a great favor during your unfortunate wait. You see, unicorn hair has powerful magical properties, but even vast wealth won't acquire much of it. There just isn't all that much for sale. But if you're willing, I'd like to cast a few cosmetic charms on you: First to lengthen your coat out a good long bit, then to shave you back down to normal, and repeat that a number of times. It will be dull, but we'll sing to you as we go along. Will that be alright with you, darling?"

The former horse, former human girl nodded her head once again. So the group started an hour long sing along where they took turns casting the hair care charms Nodoka'd described a couple of dozen times each. Kasumi's coat was soft and silky, a beautiful golden color with a fine luster. No ordinary unicorn would have sit still for the procedure, or permitted the spell effects to get past its innate resistance, but Kasumi was content to let them, and by the time they got done petting and grooming and caring for her, not to mention singing in tolerable voices, the unicorn mare was content to go out for a run and the group snuck away with literal bales of golden hair stacked high and carried with levitation charms. In spite of all of its bulk it was still quite light, so even the Patil twins were managing their loads rather handily.

"Dears, let's move all of this to my tower. There I'll weave it all into thread with an enchanted spinning wheel I'll go buy first thing this evening, after official classes are over. We can all have unicorn threads in our clothes and dresses, which should give us powerful protection."

"Sure, but mom?" Ranko pleaded. "What of all those fairies? Aren't we going to use the cocoons of theirs we've been saving?"

"What's all this about?" Parvati asked.

Ukyo answered with a grin. "Fairies are really small, look like multicolor glowing people, but they've got wings and are only about as smart as butterflies. They also lay eggs, and the larva spin cocoons. The silk from fairy cocoons is very easily enchanted, and it has its own natural magic so it stays enchanted like, forever. But the individual threads are so thin that it takes something like a thousand cocoons to make a handkerchief. We don't have to kill the fairies, like muggles do silkworms, because we've got repair spells to fix the thread once they've chewed their way out of the cocoons. But that's still a huge breeding project."

"We have many, many sheds out in forest, breeding fairies. Gather million or so cocoons already." Shampoo felt compelled to add.

"Six million, two hundred thousand, and eight," Cologne corrected. "And the next batch is just about ripe, which should be our largest harvest yet. Luckily, those fairies don't live for very long or we'd all be awash in them. The forest has a disturbingly high number as it is, but thankfully no one's noticed so far."

"That thing might have something to do with it." Ukyo said, face white.

They had been cutting through the forest to go down by the lake, as Nodoka preferred to enter by the boat docks, where there was a secret door that could take them to her tower with very little chance of encountering Dumbledore in the halls. None of them wanted to take the risk of his deciding to exercise his authority and decree that since all of this hair was made on school grounds that it was school property, or some other petty revenge such as that. It had no legal footing in the wizarding world, as they'd used no school supplies, but that didn't mean he couldn't do it (or try to anyway).

All of that got chased from their minds in an instant, as the game trail they'd been following was encircled about by tall, strong webs, and multitudes of man-sized acromantulas sprang out of concealment and wove shut the entrance they'd walked in and the exit on the other side. The trap was all carefully hidden so that you didn't know about it until you'd entered it. Worst of all, a huge spider with a legspan fifteen feet across was lowering down above them, its many pincers clicking together excitedly as Ukyo pointed to it.

"Oh, goody!" Nodoka cried out in delight. "The Forbidden Forest does have acromantulas! I'd been concerned we'd have to go to Borneo to acquire a supply, and getting them past customs could have been a bear! Don't kill any of them, darlings, but break as many of their legs as you like. We want to capture them all more or less intact, but they can lose all of their legs and not be the worse for our purposes."

"Leave the big one to me, children." Cologne advised. "I want to take this one back to our classrooms so Nodoka can use it as a lecture model. After all, if we'd been ordinary witches this would've been trouble."

"Sticky web, huh?" Ukyo smirked, reaching into her bosom and drawing out two packages. "Flour Bombs!" She threw her weapons and the gumminess of the webbing instantly got covered in clouds of white powder, settling upon strands which lost their sticking power.

The younger martial artists leapt into the fray, while Nodoka stayed to protect the Patils. It was a reaction sufficiently different from the usual responses that the spiders hesitated, and suffered for that when the attacks hit.

Once or twice during the fight they tried to break some strands, but found it too difficult even for the muscle power of Neriman martial artists. However, that didn't stop them from being on their way in a few minutes with dozens of spiders, bound, broken legged and bobbing along under levitation charms behind them. The largest was cocooned in its own web fibers that Nodoka had cut free with her omnipresent enchanted sword, and Cologne had charmed the strands together to form an inescapable binding, both net and mummification at once.

"Why do we want them, anyway?" Ranko addressed her mom over her shoulder, proving that even she was not in on all of her mother's secrets.

"Ordinary spider silk is bulletproof, if you gather enough to weave it properly. Or rather I should say that it is, strand for strand, far tougher than those fibers they do make bulletproof clothes out of. Gathering cobwebs is monstrous difficult, if you don't want to tangle them up. Acromantula silk is tougher yet, and better still plentiful. Since we took these alive I've got spells that will allow us to milk them for silk and venom until they die of starvation in a few weeks."

"Die?" Padma asked, in distaste. "Starve?" Parvati echoed in that same tone.

"These spiders are monsters, child, and humans are their favorite prey." Cologne told them in a very grave voice. "They've just tried to eat us, if you'll recall. Despite its intelligence and ability to speak, the breed of acromantulas is almost mindlessly violent and they are literally bloodthirsty. No sane person wants them living anywhere near human habitations. They've devoured whole villages of people, when they can. Men, women, and especially children. They find the flesh of young people like yourselves especially enticing."

"Why do we want them, again?" Parvati blanched.

"For silk and venom," Nodoka repeated. "The latter actually has some excellent and highly useful peaceful properties as a solvent, among other things. But our primary interest is for silk, because from this point on all of our clothes can be made of a blend of acromantula silk, unicorn hair (which is every bit as fine as silk), and thread spun from fairy cocoons. The first should help us resist most physical damage that isn't blunt trauma or enchanted, the second should stop most curses, and the last layer is going to be easily enchanted for our own benefit. The combination of layered silks should give us a most powerful protective composite in our ordinary day wear."

"And sleep wear, and beach wear, and swim wear, underwear and evening wear. You name it." Ukyo chimed in gladly, then answered their looks with a, "Hey! I've been around Ranchan's mom long enough to know that much about her. If there's a way to conceal a chunk of battleship armor in her panties she's done it!"

All eyes turned to Ranko's mom, who blushed rosy. "Uhm, well, not battleship armor per se. You see steel just isn't strong enough to stop most attack spells. Dragons, however, are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate."

"You're wearing leather underwear?" Ranko groaned. Some things you just never wanted to know about your mother!

"Not just her, child, and get your mind out of the gutter! It's more like a one-piece swimsuit or a gymnast costume we wear between our outermost and innermost layers. Think of it as a sort of concealed, spell resistant armor, if you like. But this type of thing has stopped more than one shot in the back during my lifetime. You don't grow as old as I do just over good genes kiddo."

"I thought dragonhide couldn't stop any strong spells?" Parvati asked the Chinese woman who had spoken.

"That's all in how the leather is tanned, dear." Nodoka informed her. "Cologne comes from a tribe that deals with magic a little differently than they do in the rest of the world, and she uses a process that diminishes the innate magic only a tiny bit, while our dragon farms here in the West use easier, more expedient methods to produce their vastly inferior product. She has made the gloves and aprons you've all been wearing, and the hats. And if it ever comes down to it you'll find they protect far more effectively than ordinary dragon leather you see in stores."

"We'll have you each a set of leather teddies in a few weeks, when I have some time on a weekend to go out to one of those farms and collect the raw hides I'll need." Cologne gave them all a wink.

"That isn't very reassuring." Padma groused, picturing hot underwear that wouldn't breathe getting soaked with sweat and chafing uncomfortably in tender places.

I O I O I

Author's Notes:

Now honestly, if it were you stuck in a Harry Potter universe, wouldn't you want someone like Nodoka looking after your interests?

I mean, you have a choice between manipulative old Headmasters who'll train you up to die gloriously for The Cause, much like terrorists train children to be suicide bombers, or Old Snake Face, who casts Crucio spells on his loyal followers for fun and stress relief, or the incompetent Ministry who'd alternately vilify you or demand you save them.

Ranma's mother has seen those sides for herself, and decided that none of them suited her, so she is rapidly building up her own faction; which, if you pause to think about it, compared to the resources of the others is still very much in its infant stages.

Or, I should put it this way, if any other side was to move against her, Nodoka would count the costs and decide to pack up everyone and go elsewhere.