Hogwarts One Half
Chapter Seventeen

by Lionheart

I O I O I

Due to a promise they had made to Miss Harmony, Ranko and her friends had spent the previous evening teaching those extra friendship charms to their classmates. This included Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, and getting all three of them together to cast those special charms not just within those Houses, but between them, so every Ravenclaw knew each and every Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, and vice versa.

It was her idea to get wizarding unity back together, jump-starting the whole thing with extra members. Ravenclaw had even caught the spirit and had offered access to their private library and some studying charms they knew for faster reading and better comprehension and memory, that in their bailiwick proved just as useful as Hufflepuff's bonds of friendship.

Gryffindor had been embarrassed to admit they had no such special charms of their own, but Professors Malfoy and Cologne (who'd insisted on being involved in this charm-fest), had suggested that maybe they'd once had them, then, like some of Hufflepuff's spells, the charms had been lost.

This set all three allied Houses on a research kick to rediscover them.

With her mom busy and being vastly ahead of the rest of the school on her classwork (even despite taking more classes than any of them, with electives from the regular staff PLUS being taught by centaurs and merfolk) Ranko led her whole advanced study group back to meet Miss Harmony, who was very glad to see them.

Interestingly enough, they did not start off on music. They'd arrived conversing about a stray comment made by Professor Kettleburn, their Care of Magical Creatures instructor, who'd mentioned all of those fairies that now infested the Forbidden Forest, and how he wouldn't mind having them around if they did something useful, like pick up muggle garbage and dispose of litter.

That had struck the kids as a grand concept and Hermione was leading them all in vocalizing thoughts about what to study so they might research a way to do that. Miss Harmony had joined this discussion so expertly that she'd stunned them all, and the beautiful poltergeist had to explain.

"Miss Harmony, I thought you were a Music Professor. How do you know so much about magical creatures?"

The pretty professor smiled softly in silver. "Like all of you I had to take the full course of study before I became a teacher. So I had to pass my own Magical Creatures class, and I admit that I did rather remarkably well. But I don't think anyone alive can realize how boring it is to be a ghost, so I've long since begun floating through walls to find my way into those sealed sections that were close enough the wards blended, so I can reach, and a part of our old Magical Creatures lab is one of them."

Seeing she had an audience, Miss Harmony expounded. "Professor Granchmoor, our Care of Magical Creatures Dean three hundred years ago, was a certifiable genius, and his department's teaching team had several more as well. They'd had a contest, interrupted by their deaths mere days before they were to declare the victor. The goal of that contest was to take the minds of the magical community off how much they were losing by presenting them with something new and useful. Cromwell heard of this event and had them all killed at once, destroying the reassurance value it had been aimed for and getting active resistance to his edicts for the first time among wizards. But the subject of Granchmoor's contest was who among his staff could create the best new servant race for magical Britain, in addition to the House Elf, which we already had."

Seeing her audience was now captivated, Miss Harmony permitted herself a twinkle. It had been ages since she'd given a lecture, and now an off-subject one as well! "As you may or may not be aware, House Elves were created from wild stock to perfectly fit the roles of maids in the old aristocratic households; the traditional female servant's job, and containing a wealth of specialties. Combined responsibilities included cooking, cleaning and laundry, with a side order of hairdressing and fussing over noble ladies. Good maids are supposed to go about their duties almost invisibly, both unseen and unheard, but appear nearly instantly when called for. About the only part of a maid's position they were not perfectly suited for is that no one in his right mind wanted to have an affair with one. And that," she said primly, "was all to the better."

Turning a sly smile upon her pupils, the silvery ghost gave a sidelong glance, artfully pulling them in to the mystery. "As good as they are, House Elves set a near-impossible standard to beat. Servants in general are supposed to be tireless workers and all of that. Humility was another quality they got graded on, as well as when seen they had to fit their station, and for some ranks of servants that meant wearing appropriate livery. Also, an ideal servant would cost the household practically nothing for their services. So the staff had their work cut out for them, as they couldn't simply copy House Elves, but couldn't afford a major article of spellwork, either. Their new servants must breed true, to provide a labor pool."

Miss Harmony swept her skirts out artfully and pretended to sit upon a chair, teasing them into attention with the motion and her expressive face. "The dean's personal project was a magnificent conversion of gnomes from pests to useful farmers and landscapers, tending to lawns and food plants, soil and herbs almost as well as House Elves are suited to indoor work. His improved model, newly dubbed Garden Gnomes, were aimed to be the perfect gardeners, carefully tending and shaping plants for great health, maximum productivity, and of course immaculate loveliness and ravishing taste. The Dean proved in tests they would fully control weeds and bugs, promote order and beauty throughout their owner's domains, and remain unobtrusive at all times while providing fresh produce to the household daily, along with newly cut flowers and other decorations as seasonal or appropriate. They were, in every way, a magnificent success and a tribute to Granchmoor's genius."

The Music Professor twinkled. "His Garden Gnomes would almost surely have won the prize, but there was some stiff competition. His second in command had originally wanted to work with Goblins, but that race had been getting restless so he wasn't able to acquire permission to procure any. So he worked with Erklings instead. Now, as new students you may or may not known that an Erkling is an elvish creature standing roughly three feet high, originating in the Black Forest of Germany. Their high-pitched laugh is particularly entrancing to children, which the Erklings will attempt to lure away from their guardians and eat. This clever professor modified them into stable hands and grooms, altering their laugh to grant influence over animals instead of people so they could the more easily train and handle horses or other large beasts. This man achieved excellent results, but not quite a perfect success, his initial product having a few weak points and flaws. So while still quite usable, they were rendered less than an ideal servant. However, Dean Granchmoor was not a jealous man and his aim was to comfort the wizarding community, not to earn any personal glory. So he'd helped his second on his project, and between them achieved a process of expanding Erkling powers and channeling their minds to make the breed wonderful animal husbandmen of an absolute first rate sort, caring for a wide range from horses and hounds through sheep, pigs, cows and goats, chickens and eventually some of the magical beasts. The Stable Erks would comb, groom and shoe where necessary, clean stalls, gather eggs, butcher, breed and nursemaid their beasts. A certain portion of their best could even train circus animals in their tricks, getting bears and elephants to balance on balls and the like."

"Between a Garden Gnome and a Stable Erk, a bit of land and something to put on it, and it sounds like you'd never go hungry." Ukyo observed, whistling.

"It would be hard to be so impoverished those servants could not feed you, yes." Miss Harmony agreed with a brilliant smile. "However, only one teacher came close to those first two projects in his success. Many others made attempts. Trolls were tried as huntsmen with some flawed results, nothing extraordinarily good and many drawbacks. Their duties were to track and manage wild animal populations, protect from poachers, provide wild game for the table, and accompany the master on hunting trips to drive animals out of concealment to where they could be shot for sport. Of these, they were good at none of them, being too dim witted and slow for adequate service. So poor it made me wonder what they eat in the wild until I learned they were omnivores and scavengers that would as soon eat a branch or rotting carcass as fresh meat, even though they preferred it. On the plus side their violence was somewhat reduced from wild mountain trolls, and they were somewhat controllable."

The poltergeist giggled, hiding that in her hand. "Red Caps were also tried with no greater success than trolls were. As you must know, Red Caps are dwarvish creatures that dwell in holes on battlefields where human blood has been spilled, and they like nothing better than to sneak up behind and bludgeon people to death. An attempt was made by one teacher to turn those into guards, since they can be very easily controlled by certain charms and hexes. He made good progress but their violent tendencies and desire to hurt humans remained, so they couldn't be trusted to protect anything, only to destroy. And that same ease a wizard using charms and hexes found controlling a Red Cap to make it guard his home also made it useless against another wizard wanting to break in, using those same charms and hexes to get past it.

"Another flawed project was to make Leprechaun butlers, harnessing their ability to make a temporary form of gold to create tableware and dishes instead of coins. They could be any style or make, in theory, and vanish after an hour so you didn't have to wash them. The idea had great potential, but never truly made any ground. An attempt to make Pixies into good nurses similarly had great room for success, but never realized it, and Fairies were also tried with very limited results. But that's enough said about the failed projects. The last of those entries that was a great success was turning common ghouls into footmen."

Seeing their blank expressions, Miss Harmony backed up to do some explanation. "I see none of you was raised by one of the great houses. Just as maids are the traditional female role for servants, footmen are the traditional male servants of the old aristocratic households. Unlike maids, they are to be seen regularly by the family and guests so their appearance matters a great deal. How impressive they look is a mark of status, improving or shaming their employer's social station. The footmen's primary duties are to carry what needs to be carried, set places around the table, bring serving dishes from the kitchen to the dining room and back again for every course of each meal, answer bells, run errands, assist persons of quality into and out of their carriages, and to be available at all times for running and fetching, or to perform special services like preparing the house for parties. Proper footmen are the hands and feet of an aristocratic household. They are to wake and dress the male members of the family (all but the Head of the Household who is to be attended by the butler). Their side duties include a bit of protection, and for this they are occasionally armed. But to turn anything as ugly and truculent as a ghoul into a proper footman was quite an ambitious bit of magic, made even more amazing in that it worked very well indeed.

"The man created a spell giving a ghoul ability to alter its outward appearance into just about any costume, from armor to splendid livery or variations on those themes. That settled the question of appearance, whatever household they worked for, and whatever uniform was set, they could match that and often even improve upon it. Then he made them willing and obedient footmen. His only fault was they couldn't breed those traits right, and he was very confident that he could have that problem fixed by the due date. Unfortunately, he died and that never got completed."

"Wow." Hermione breathed.

"I've heard of chameleon ghouls before this," Ginny offered in excitement. "And my family has a ghoul in our attic. It's not obedient, but it seems to like people, in a standoffish way."

"A few of that professor's ghouls did escape, I believe, disguised as Cromwell's soldiers using their chameleon powers," Miss Harmony agreed. "And from what you say they did not entirely lack changes to their breeding traits, as the ghouls I once knew were fiendish flesh renders who liked humans not at all, except as meat. But what other experimental servants were not destroyed got sealed away inside those labs where the department had been working on them after those professors got destroyed. Fortunately for me, they kept copious notes. So I was able to read up on them. Also, the Dean kept track of everyone's progress and kept his own separate notes on how he could improve their processes, if he had time to assist them. And he stayed around as a ghost for two hundred or so years teaching me what he knew and putting the finishing touches on his Garden Gnomes, Stable Erks, and on the Foot Ghouls that remained. He polished them all to perfection, also I've been playing with those theories on other subjects that did survive and got incarcerated, and after many generations I believe I've improved on them greatly.

"I'm not the magical creature genius Professor Granchmoor was, and yet I haven't had to be. I've had three hundred years to improve upon and perfect what he gave his team only two years to create. And I know everything he taught me in those two centuries he had before he crossed over." The Music Professor giggled once more. "I even fixed the problems with Troll huntsmen and Red Cap guards by pairing them together. I've made both far more civil and obedient than before, then placed the still rather violent Red Caps as leaders of small squads of Trolls. A Red Cap is quite clever, but brutal. However once trained and modified right, it uses both to make up for the deficiency in thinking that Trolls still have. Once a Red Cap thinks of plans it can get the attention of its Trolls by smacking them about. It's too small and weak to truly hurt the Trolls it commands, who heal quickly anyway, but it does get the Trolls doing what it wants rather quickly. So it thinks and they obey, which solves a problem of the Red Caps because Trolls are NOT easily kept at bay with spells!

"I've domesticated the Trolls a bit further so if their Red Cap leader gets out of hand they'll catch him and sit on him until it calms down. It's not perfect, but they can all recognize 'good human' versus 'bad human', and so make adequate guards for protection, and huntsmen for managing forests both. The Red Cap has an outlet for its remaining brutality in slaughtering the wild animals the huntsmen are supposed to provide for the household's dinner table. It calms them down greatly to shed blood, even if I've made them dispatch their prey quickly and humanely. It disgusts me, but they make eager and skilled butchers, and never cease plotting how they are going to defend their owner's territory from attackers of any shape or size. They've become really quite paranoid and territorial, I'm afraid. But loyal, at any rate."

The students were silent for a long moment, before Padma asked, "Miss Harmony, do you know any special charms that Gryffindor House might have once had? They've lost them."

I O I O I

Responding to a taunt by their brother Percy (that they weren't Gryffindor any more than he was), backed up by dares of their classmates, on this, the last day of reSorting to take place this year, Fred and George Weasley came forward to try the Hat on, sitting back to back on that stool with wide grins on their faces and the Hat resting atop both of their heads.

"Hmm, brilliant minds." The Sorting Hat said aloud. "Loyalty also. A tough one, as you about as brave as it's possible to get. I guess there is no choice but to make you: Triple House Students! Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff!"

Percy went off into a quiet corner and refused to cry, but the tears and sobs would not obey him any more than the Sorting Hat did.

McGonagall quietly winced that she'd have to reschedule another year's worth of classes to accommodate this change.

I O I O I

Nodoka was working hard all day in her tower, preparing for the ritual that was to take place that evening. First, she got her notes and redrew the circles and signs she'd used before as both an attempt to keep her promise and as a security measure.

Because the object to be destroyed was very specific. It had to be, in order to arm those wards and runes correctly, and this one was created and calculated to work off destroying a snake of a certain species and age, named Nagini.

Using it for anything else could be a disaster.

After dinner, which she had to leave to attend, Nodoka came back to her work room in the company of Molly Weasley and her husband Arthur, along with their eldest two children. In her opinion Dumbledore was mad to have made them all dine at the head table where they could all be seen and speculated upon; but that was his choice, not hers.

Double and triple checking her work both by the set of notes she'd carried with her and the secret set she'd hidden inside of a stuffed goose in another room, she found there'd been changes made, runes switched around and symbols altered or destroyed. Impossible to tell who'd done it in a room crackling so thickly with magic, but she chalked it up to enemy action and went on, this time double and triple checking the wards outside of her room.

During this time she kept up a lively conversation and got to know the two oldest Weasley boys enough through chatter and a plethora of scanning devices and spells that Nodoka felt comfortable with assisting them with this rather hefty power boost.

At this point Dumbledore came in leading Nymphadora Tonks and Arabella Figg. "Ah! I see you are almost ready, Professor Malfoy. I was wondering if you could accommodate a last minute change. Professor McGonagall has elected not to join us, so I will be taking her place."

The others didn't even see her move. One moment the Defense teacher was bending over rechecking and carefully charming down her runes so they'd not be disturbed. The next a flash of silver flew through the air and Dumbledore had a bowie knife slammed up to the hilt through his left shoulder, several inches sticking out his back. If he hadn't moved from a good set of reflexes it would've hit him in the heart.

The Weasleys all drew wands on the woman, startled and terrified that she'd do such a thing to so trusted a wizard, but then the wounded wizard's face and image blurred, replaced by those of Snape wearing a set of Dumbledore's robes and clutching a desperately injured shoulder with a look of terror on his face.

Nodoka summoned her knife back to her hands, ignoring the startled family as she stared down her nemesis. "Tell Dumbledore to stop fooling around and come down with Minerva - and Snivellus, if you want to live, never interrupt one of my rituals again."

The Potions Master scrambled out of her room.

In truth, she believed he was not so stupid as to have played around with her symbol set if he was going to try and participate. So Dumbledore had to have leaked what was going to happen in her little tower room that night, almost certainly to Snape himself, who probably let that information roll on to other ears who, it seems, decided to wage a bit of war against the Light during this time of peace by messing up her ritual and destroying any participants.

Considering all angles, her brother was a likely candidate, but by no means the only Death Eater Snape might've talked to who then decided that a little murder was in order. Costing the Light seven people in a botched ritual would not only deny them considerable power, but they could then blame her for doing it and send her to Azkaban prison for a Dementor's Kiss, framed for multiple murder.

Curse Albus and his wagging tongue! Did he not see that anything he told Snape was no longer a secret? This was dangerous enough to do without hostile interference.

"How did you do that?" Young Nymphadora asked, startled beyond belief.

Rising after having completely rechecked everything and sealed it down, Nodoka smiled at her effective niece - she was almost sisters with her mother, after all. "Turn him back? Very simple, really, I put a few drops of Aging Potion on the blade, enough to overcome the duration of Polyjuice. He's now a few years older, and let's hope wiser, but that's probably too much to ask."

"How did you know it was him?" Molly leaned close, after dropping her wand arm.

"Severus Snape has sworn an Unbreakable Vow to marry me, break my will, make a loyal Death Eater out of me, and breed servants for the Dark Lord using my body. If that were you instead of me, wouldn't you take precautions to always know where he is? Forgive me for not telling you specifics, but one of you would probably tell Albus, and anything Albus knows he tends to tell Snape!"

In truth, she had put a charm on his wand when it was under Ministry control so she could always tell where it was. And wizards carried their wands with them everywhere. She'd put a few charms on his wand, actually. That was just one of them. She'd also hung a Foe Glass under a table where she could glance at it easily while she was bent over working on runes. She stood up, brushing locks of hair out from her eyes. "That gives the Dark side a terrible advantage, as Snape tells virtually everything he hears to the rest of the Death Eaters. Albus cost many of his followers their lives doing that, trusting an enemy with important secrets. It almost cost you yours, as these symbols had been tampered with while I was away at dinner. Now unless you can think of another reason for that to happen, consider that only Albus knew this was going on. I only told him and thereafter kept my mouth shut. He invited the rest of you, so for Snape to know he had to have told him. And Snape would not have tampered with these runes if he wanted to try and participate, getting the power this offered. So he must have told someone else, who decided to murder you all by sabotaging the ritual. I've fixed the damage now, but you all would have died if the alterations had gone undetected."

A whiff of cold air metaphorically blew through the room as the Weasley family had to contemplate for the first time that Albus Dumbledore was not exactly the most secure person in the wizarding world. They'd not believe it, not yet anyway, but the seeds got planted for later growth. Albus would have to add fuel to that fire to warm them, however.

It was both amazing and dismaying to her how much trust that man had, and how little he deserved it. Not that he was evil, just careless and too trusting of some wrong people, too certain of his own, often questionable, judgment. Nodoka considered herself very wise for not having joined him during the last war.

After about twenty minutes of silent thought, Albus arrived trailing Minerva McGonagall, and Nodoka went about checking everyone for Polyjuice or spells.

"Nodoka, I..." Dumbledore began.

"I'm not interested!" The Defense teacher snapped at him. "I'm very angry at you for having told Snape and tried to get him in on this. Obviously he told someone else, and they tried to get creative with my runes after you INSISTED I go to dinner with the rest of the school! It has taken me almost another hour to remove that few minutes worth of sabotage. One of these runes, a very critical one, was even hexed to switch to a massively harmful one the moment this circle got activated. Now will you shut that filthy hole and check over my work to see if only my magical signature remains? If there are any other traps I've missed, now is the time to fix it, before we get started on the dangerous part. After you've done that why don't you think about how your utter lack of concern for secrecy almost cost these friends of yours their lives! AGAIN!! You certainly killed enough of your followers during the last war by sacrificing them through similar acts of stupidity. One could think you are almost as bad as Voldemort, with lives only tools and playthings for you to throw away at will!"

Nodoka checked her anger and stopped speaking, while a shamefaced Dumbledore checked her circle for unwanted magical signatures. The rest of those in that room saw his shame and noted it, experiencing a few moments in fear that he really had been so careless as to put them in danger of their lives to further some manipulative plan.

"Really, Albus!" Minerva huffed in outrage. "How do you expect anyone to trust you when you are wedded so firmly to the Dark through that enemy spy you insist on trusting?"

The Weasleys just stood stunned at these goings-on, while Nymphadora scowled at the Headmaster, and joined her mother's best friend for a whispered conversation. Arabella said nothing, but watched everything.

"You have found and removed everything." The Headmaster stood up. "Nodoka, I..."

"Shut up!" she snapped at him angrily. "I said before, I'm not interested in whatever you have to say to excuse this reprehensible act! You know, you've certainly been told enough times you ought to know, how much of a danger that man is to me. Yet you are so willing to give him advantages over me..." she shook her head sorrowfully. "Albus Dumbledore, I cannot be your ally. You constantly betray my best interests, and the whole side of Light, to that monster you stubbornly insist on trusting despite every evidence of his horrible treason and dark nature! If you cannot display even the level of sense God gave to rodents about detecting danger then I'd far rather fight you than be your ally. It seems so much safer to oppose you and your self-destructive instincts than rely on you. Now get out! I've changed my mind about letting you watch this. I'll still go through with augmenting your people because I've agreed to and they seem nice despite the horrible lack of judgment on their part they show by being your friends."

"I shall remain." Dumbledore stood tall and stern.

"Not while I live." Nodoka unwrapped her bundle and assumed fast draw position.

Startled by this, and more than a bit offended while still somewhat fearful, Dumbledore gave a sorrowful nod and took a step toward the door before stopping. Her thumb touched her blade enough to pre-draw it an inch, ready to clear the sheath for a lighting slash, but the Headmaster smiled wanly. "I have yet to give you the cup, Nodoka. So unless you'd like to perform this ceremony without it..?"

"Put it on the table by the door, then leave." She told him.

"Ah. Yes. I suppose that I must at that." Dumbledore took a packet out of the sleeve of his robes and placed it on the table, then removed the golden cup and put it atop that.

"What is the package?" Nodoka did not mince words or move from her ready position.

"Charlie Weasley was good enough to bring a collection of dragon claws with him. I'd asked for him to do so because of my wish to provide arms to my friends. They are not the equal of your silver weapons, yet they should serve more than adequately. I spent the morning transfiguring the raw claws into a knife for each of them."

Nodoka blinked. "A knife? One each? Are you sure, Albus? This circle is outfitted to handle as many as three per person."

"What I have selected should be more than enough, Nodoka. Nor should we have too many of these lying about. One can only use one weapon at a time, and the rest might fall into the wrong hands."

As she shook her head disbelievingly, she said, "As if you of all people have a right to be concerned about that. You've provided so much aid and help to your enemy that it is safer to oppose you than be your friend. But no matter, get out and we'll get on to business. If you ever decide to treat your allies better than your enemies, come talk. Other than that, stay out of my way and I'll stay out of yours."

Albus left with a pained look to his features.

I O I O I

After Albus had left, Nodoka stood taller and sighed mournfully. "Excuse me," she told the assembled participants, summoned the cup to her hand, then stepped into a wardrobe and closed the door behind her. Spinning her Time Turner back twelve hours, the duchess left the now empty tower basement and went up two stories to a completely different room in her private quarters, where she cleared the floor and rewrote all of her symbols and signs anew, no longer capable of trusting Albus to have checked properly - or to have refrained from tampering with the circle on his own, adding tracers or other monitoring spells so he'd always know where the subjects were or what they were up to, or something.

Besides, the lady just felt better doing everything over again once that one circle had been gotten to and tampered with. She summoned an owl and used that to send off a letter, then ate in her room, having cast sealing charms and silencing wards around herself so as not to alert her past self to her presence as the earlier version of Nodoka came into the tower basement and began to work on the magical circle that was going to get sabotaged.

Safeguarding her new circle against any and all tampering, Nodoka took the opportunity to get to work on the cup, going up her tower into a highly secret and secure vault and fetching out one of her newly hatched basilisks.

Nagini had been an immature basilisk, locked in adolescence before its gaze developed by having a chunk of Voldemort's soul lodged in it. She felt certain the Dark Wanker had been planning to have close, intimate control of a fully dangerous, completely developed basilisk, and freezing the reptile in an immature state had been an unwelcome and unforeseen side effect of turning the animal into a horcrux.

Even great wizards can make mistakes, especially in areas poorly researched, like horcrux creation and basilisk soul implantation. But, since a horcrux and split-souled technique was a method of reaching a form of immortality, having it freeze the age of whatever living beings were involved made sense in a way. That was what it was supposed to do to the casting wizard, and what use would an animal horcrux be if it died of old age on you?

If it was supposed to be immortality it was supposed to last, not expire in less years than the average human is supposed to; as virtually all normal animals would. So naturally it had to freeze a living horcrux in age. But that was one of those 'of course!' moments that made sense after you'd run into the fact, but was hard to predict beforehand.

And Tom Riddle had still been quite young when he'd made Nagini. She'd also been one of his first horcruxes, so a minor misstep even in so gifted a student was understandable.

Taking this new, finger-long hatchling to her Potions lab, Nodoka fed it a carefully measured dose of Aging Potion, transforming that hatchling into a snake the same size and age Nagini had been before its death. One reason this wasn't done normally was that it had a tendency of stunting the magical growth of the animal so affected, and it did not teach it anything at all, so its mind was still that of the animal of the age it was without the potion. So it was spoiled as both a guardian pet and a source of magic ingredients.

However, the duchess didn't want anything of this basilisk. The only enchanting she wanted to do came from using the spare backwash of ritually slaying a portion of Voldemort's soul. The basilisk itself was incidental and secondary. It hardly mattered at all, save for one crucial thing, and that was on the calculation side of the current matter.

Stunning the nearly mindless adolescent serpent, Nodoka lay it down in a ring, put the cup in the center of that, and drew a quick magic circle around them both. Before she closed the new ring, she pointed her wand at the mentally handicapped basilisk and told it, "Your name is Nagini," granting it the dead serpent's name for extra symbolic potency.

It took her an hour of gentle magical probing, but she located and isolated the soul fragment within the very highly magical cup. The isolation part was easy, Hufflepuff's spells had been blended masterfully, and Voldemort's soul did not fit into that weave. It had no rightful place in there, so once it was located the rest went quickly. After that it was a fairly simple, or at least straightforward, task to perform a switching spell to transfer Voldemort's essence out of the cup and into the new Nagini.

Why? Simple: to save on redoing all of her advanced arithmancy work redrawing the circle. Her runes were all keyed to astrological signs that had not gone out of phase, but the rest of her laborious work had been calculated to affect a snake of the same size and age and type as Nagini, and known by that name.

Also, Moldy's soul knew what places it called 'home' and Nagini was one of those. It did not matter much if this was a new Nagini or the old one, so long as there were not two at once. As far as the soul fragment was concerned, she'd only moved it from one proper and fitting residence to another, which is why she had been able to do that to it so easily.

Best of all, Hufflepuff's cup was now out of any danger. That was the real point of this, not to save on work she could have redone had she felt so inclined, but to get that priceless artifact out of harm's way. Horcruxes had to be destroyed, after all. And that almost always had to involve actual, physical damage of a non-reversible sort. Considering that this was Moldy who'd been doing this, he'd almost certainly warded his horcruxes against those few means to destroy the fragment of soul without permanently damaging the host object, and put in a few traps to severely harm a person trying any of the less-than-total destruction methods.

Total destruction was far safer to employ in eliminating horcruxes, and now the cup was free of any risk from that, while she could destroy this immature basilisk without a quibble from her conscience. It was not priceless and irreplaceable, or even particularly valuable. Illegal to the point of absurdity, but not valuable. Any wizard with a chicken egg, a toad, and twenty eight days could make one with a minimum of fuss.

Hanging the still-stunned serpent from a hook in her ceiling, she put a large cauldron under it and Brain Burned the thing a good dozen times. The rest of her detailed precautions from the earlier ritual would also be the same.

That was another thing. You could not Brain Burn a cup, only a living thing. So it had to be done this way if she wanted to remove any mental aspects or danger of contamination as she had done for her own group. Otherwise she would run risks that were unthinkable. She did not want to make seven clones of Voldemort. One Dark Moron was quite enough.

During the time her older self had left to go to dinner, she peeked invisibly down the stairs to find her brother, Lucius Malfoy, step in using a dark object to breach her wards on the tower door, go right to where her original circle was and do several things, including erasing lines she'd made of special, magical compounds, and redrawing them with ordinary chalk.

Seeing him do this she raised an eyebrow. She'd not caught that one. Neither had Albus; and it would have caused a dramatic, even catastrophic failure as those lines could not have conducted the energies as they ought to have done. She watched Lucius leave, seeing him donning an invisibility cloak again through a thin crack as the door slammed shut behind him.

At the same time, Cologne arrived in the second story tower window behind her, long blue hair flowing out behind her young, curvaceous body. "Daughter, why do you suddenly need dragon claws and fangs? You could have told me yesterday when I left to get hides if it was important and you knew you were going to need them. It must be something sudden or you wouldn't have posted me a letter to Rumania."

"How did your trip go?" Nodoka inquired, dodging the question for now.

"Great," the 300 year old teenager seated herself comfortably on the windowsill. "I got what I wanted for our present projects, and furthermore convinced the ranch manager to agree to double production starting this year by telling him you wanted your furniture all upholstered in dragonhide. He thinks that's frivolous, of course, and he's right. But he knows you've got the money for it; and told me he hopes that you start a trend."

"I may have to, if I'm to jump-start production up to the levels we'll need. So they are going to raise twice as many eggs? How much am I buying?"

The blue-haired amazon shrugged, flicking aside her locks. "It will be years before they are old enough to harvest, dear. And by that time I fully expect they'll be preempted for robes. If not, I know my tribe would be interested in those extra hides. You're in no danger of an all leather living room."

"I wouldn't mind if I were. Money is no problem, as you well know. As for why I need those fangs and claws, I discovered another horcrux, only Dumbledore followed me and got to it first. Since I wasn't going to fight him for it I agreed to do an energy ritual for people of his choosing, so long as I got to approve the selection."

"Clever." The matriarch said in approving tones. "That way you at least know who they are, and have some control over who gets selected."

"Control that I needed, as his first two selections were Snape and Filch. I don't think I could have dissuaded him, either, except he let slip that he had no one else who could draw an appropriate echo circle. So he needed me enough that I was able to veto his worst choices."

"Good plan, so why fangs and claws?" The matriarch began to brush out her hair, enjoying the feel of it in the breeze.

"Dumbledore got Charlie Weasley to bring him claws and provided a knife for each of his people he'd made out of them. However, he also tried to get Snape into this ritual under Polyjuice - after I'd very specifically warned him I'd be checking! I'm sorry, but he's done so many cheats and tricks that I just can't trust him in the least. So I'm not going to use his knives for fear of some spell or other he'd built in to those blanks to give him an advantage in controlling his people. That is just the sort of thing I've already caught him doing!"

Popping off her perch, Cologne rolled up her sleeves. "What sort of weapons do you want them to have?"

"Swords, because I don't know how much, if any, training they'll be able to have and that's one weapon useful at any skill level. A novice picking it up for the first time knowing only that it is sharp can still be dangerous to an unarmed man, and that just improves as the user gets more skilled and better at its art."

Cologne nodded silently, drawing out seven fangs and beginning to shape them magically into prime blades. "Next?"

"Something that Dead Munchies won't be expecting that also doesn't require much training, a fanged frisbee."

"Good choice. And the last?"

"Dumbledore only wanted them to have one weapon each. I figure if we make shrinking swords that can look like knives we're clear there, and I can hold off on giving the frisbees to them until they've come around a bit. Because to give them to them right away runs the risk of them turning over any extras to Albus, and he's bungled so many things so far I don't trust him not to do something stupid with them, like destroy them or turn them over to Snape for safekeeping, where they'll wind up in Death Eater hands. So do you mind if we use the extra capacity to empower an extra set of weapons for our children?"

"Not at all, I think that's an excellent and highly appropriate idea. So far I approve of all your thinking on this, so tell me your thoughts: What more do you think our children need?"

"At first I was thinking a bow, but if we apply that same sort of shaping magic we're going to use on these swords to those unfinished spears of ours, we can have those be both."

"An excellent idea, daughter. When foes find out you are using missile weapons on them the first instinct of a fighter is to charge. Going from holding a bow to a spear you could catch that charge unexpectedly to get your point across."

"Precisely. Also, there is less to store, and both are very long objects awkward to carry in hidden space. This makes that problem less by carrying one fewer. Yet there was still the question of what to carry as our fourth weapon. I'd thought of another fanged frisbee, then I recalled that Hibiki boy my daughter told me about, and a weapon he'd once used before he'd lost the dexterity of his hands in becoming a pig-man."

"An umbrella?"

"Precisely. I'm almost done with Hagrid's new wand, and I can just make these the same way, out of the same base materials, and we have both a weapon and backup wand in the same perfectly innocuous object you can carry about anywhere."

"I have a few suggestions to improve your idea, but those can wait until later. From the sound of it, your argument with Dumbledore downstairs is winding to a close and you should truly be getting ready for your ceremony."

I O I O I

Author's Notes:

The saddest thing about this story is that so many go to lengths to tell me it was already posted elsewhere.

Don't you think I know that?

I am reposting these parts here for the simple reason that it's necessary to put up the beginning parts over again before covering any of the new material I have saved up, as I WON'T be doing any of that on the original posting site!

But I get so few reviews on this, and so much on my others, that it's hard to remember to do any posting on this one. I mean to, I just forget. And I deeply suspect that until I get all the previous material covered and start into the original stuff, I will continue to have that problem.