A/N: Sorry about the slower pace on the updates, I've been crazy busy, just know that they're coming and I haven't forgotten the story.
The lessons were set to begin at the school after the winter holidays, but Harry and Tyler thought it would be best to start them during the break. The first lesson went without any incident, but also without much progress. Ian could make static form around him, and give Harry or Tyler a small shock when he touched them, but no clouds formed in the sky, and the only thunder they heard turned out to be a low flying aircraft. Harry didn't really know what to think, as his first experience with the ring had been a lightning strike so powerful it destroyed his desk.
"I think we should call it a day here," Tyler said, looking thoroughly exhausted. "We'll try again in a few days."
"Can I tell Ryan about the next one?" Ian asked, Harry had agreed when Tyler decided that Ian shouldn't tell his twin about the powers the ring had until he had learned to control it. "I don't know how many times I can disappear before he starts getting suspicious."
"I don't think you should tell him just yet." Tyler said, "Your dad sent it to you, somehow, and I have to assume that he meant for you to be the one to use it. One of the rules about these rings, was that the only people who were supposed to know about them were the wearers. Our organization started during the American Revolution, they called us the Sons of Liberty during the war, but we've gone by many names since then. Eventually, a society called the Order of Owls disbanded, sometime around 1979, and we took up the name. We generally stayed apart, until a threat against the no-Maj president was made, and we had to come together to prevent it. That threat happened to be a false alarm, but after we came together we decided to form a group to protect the Presidents of the no-Maj and Wizarding communities. Eventually, the no-Maj president decided that it was best for our worlds to stay as separate as possible. So, we focused our protection on the Minister. We modelled our group based on the no-Maj secret service, the six of us stopped more attacks than you would expect, turns out crazy people are all over the place." Tyler laughed softly, probably thinking about missions with his old friends, then his face became much more serious, "Everything changed after Allyn Castle, the Minister, seemingly lost his mind. We took him down, with the help of the entire FBMI, but we were completely unaware of the other threat. Less than a week after the fight, my best friend, Dathan Sniders, got attacked by a dark cloud and abducted. We spent months trying to find his attacker, before he found us. We were staying in a hotel in California, following a lead, when it seemed like all the light in the world disappeared. It was only dark for a matter of a few minutes, but when we woke up Marshal Elliston, and Jaiden Chandler, two of the other members of our team, were gone. After that night, your parents, Zach, Kayla, Kaitlyn, and myself decided that it would be safest to go on the run and regroup. The rest you know, pretty much."
"So, he just took three of the most powerful wizards in the country without a fight?" Ian asked, after a few moments. He seemed taken aback by the sudden outpouring of information from his father's friend. "How does that even happen?"
"I'm still really confused about that part myself." Tyler admitted, "We searched the scene of the abductions and nothing was out of place, somebody even made the beds in the hotel. I believe they used Golems to repair any damage to the rooms."
Harry sat, listening to their conversation, and he thought back on his own adventures. He had spent his entire life fighting one thing or another. Voldemort, obviously, was the worst of them, but there were others, like the Jennings brothers, Amadeus and Loegaire. The pair had been Death Eaters, but the lowest level of them, and they hadn't been called to the battle at Hogwarts. They weren't even on the Ministry's radar, until they started kidnapping muggle children and using the Imperius curse to send them home with instructions to kill their families. Harry and Ron caught up to them for the first time after a six month investigation. The duel that erupted was, by all accounts, spectacular to watch. Harry and Ron had only been Aurors for a few years at that point, but they had seen more combat that most of the department combined. The brothers managed to slip away and evade capture for more than two more years after that, and they wreaked havoc on the muggles in Britain. They never killed a single witch or wizard in their time, and even amassed quite a following during their reign of terror. Their following became their downfall, though. Draco Malfoy had contacted Harry one day, saying that he had been approached by the Jennings brothers. He allowed the brothers to hold one of their meetings in his home, and alerted Harry. That night, Amadeus was killed and Loegaire was captured, along with their entire following.
Harry pushed the thought from his mind, as the shadows of all of the children flew past, apparently, a game of quidditch was about to begin. He smiled and turned to Tyler and Ian, who were looking up at the flock, "Why don't you go ahead and get your broom," Tyler was saying, "we'll pick this back up in a couple days."
Tyler disappeared at a sprint, but reappeared a few moments later, joining in the game. It looked to be the Potter/Weasleys versus the Americans, who were holding their own incredibly well, especially considering they came from the United States, where quidditch often took a back seat to Quodpot. Harry watched as James raced Tyler's son, Payton, chasing the snitch. Ginny had gotten quite a few professional level snitches for James to practice with, and judging by the struggle the two children were having to gain any ground on it, they had decided to use one of them today. Harry lost track of time as he watched them play, eventually James managed to catch the snitch, but Payton kept up incredibly well. "What a game," Tyler said, Harry hadn't even realized he had stayed to watch.
"Any idea who won?" Harry asked, James had ended the game, but both teams seemed to be celebrating.
Tyler shrugged, "I'm sure we'll find out at dinner."
As it turned out, nobody knew who won even after dinner. The entire night was dominated by arguments about the final score. They couldn't seem to agree, James claimed the final score was 400-380, but Harry never really trusted James to keep score. The Americans were claiming that the game ended at 390-360, which Harry secretly thought was more likely. After what seemed like hours of argument, Ginny lost her patience with the conversation. "We'll replay the game tomorrow, and I'll keep score." This seemed to appease the children, who wouldn't ever turn down an excuse to play quidditch instead of finishing schoolwork or doing chores.
The next days passed without incident, Ian began to gain more control over his ring's power, he could encase himself in static, which he joked made him look like something called a Saiyon. Harry had asked what the word meant, but the explanation had made his head hurt, so he had just let it be. The game ended with James once again catching the snitch, but the Weasleys losing the game by 40 points. Harry also learned that the reason the children were so invested in who won or lost the first game was a bet that they had made. Two days after the lost bet, Harry had looked out of his window to see the entire losing team flying in circles over the snowy ground, in nothing but their underwear. James seemed to be taking it all in stride, though, he was flying much higher than everyone else, only flying down to joke with his cousins, who didn't seem to be taking it all that well.
On Christmas morning, Harry woke to the sounds of the children already making an ungodly mess out of his house with their new gifts. Hopefully George didn't send anything too insane this year. He was thinking this, as an impressive castle made entirely of exploding snap cards collapsed. This, of course, set off a chain reaction within the rest of the cards, and Lily, who had been building it, was so startled that she jumped up and landed on the roof in a display of accidental magic. She stood on the roof for a few moments, examining the room from her new place on the roof, before she fell headfirst toward the ground. Harry reflexively cast a nonverbal cushioning charm and she landed lightly on the ground.
James and Albus were watching miniature quidditch players fly around a small pitch. Ron and George had created them on one of Ron's whims, and the small sets of players had become hugely popular in the last two years. He had gotten both of his sons their favorite teams, James' Appleby Arrows were trailing Albus' Tutshill Tornadoes by nearly sixty points. Both boys were shouting instructions at their players, which were enchanted to, at least somewhat, follow their owner's commands. George said that he had modelled them after Wizard's Chess pieces. The players also got better as they played more games, and the players were interchangeable, so that the owner could buy more players and put them in their squad. As he was watching, Albus' Seeker broke into a dive and caught the snitch before James' seeker had even seen it. James yelling at his players reminded Harry of Oliver Wood during his Hogwarts years, and he chuckled. Albus' team had landed just in front of him and they were all celebrating when Hugo appeared in the fireplace with his Cannons set under his arm.
"I'll play Hugo next," James said, clearly wanting to put his defeat behind him. "He's got the Cannons, so it shouldn't be too hard."
Hugo didn't take offense to this, and began unpacking his set before the next member of his family arrived. It was Ron.
"Already at it, then." He said, laughing. "Don't let me down now, Cannons."
Hermoine and Rose came through the fireplace soon after Ron had, Rose and Albus moved to one of the couches and started looking through their new books. Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermoine all moved to the kitchen. Harry heard "Oh, no fair! You've got Krum!" from James as they entered the kitchen.
"He's not going to have a good time with the Arrows," Ron said, "Galvin Gudgeon is ancient, especially for a seeker."
"Galvin's a fine seeker," Ginny said, "James is just an abysmal coach, I'm afraid."
"I heard that!" James' voice carried into the kitchen, "Galvin, move! Krum's already seen the snitch!"
"It's going to be a long holiday." Ginny said.
"I'm afraid it's about to get even longer," said a familiar voice, Harry looked up and saw Adam standing in his kitchen. That's not right, thought Harry, Adam's dead. Harry drew his wand and raised it, his wife and friends followed suit, and Adam smiled. "Those won't be necessary," Adam said, "You see, I'm not physically here, I can't even see where I sent this. Anyway, I'm just here to see if you've thought any more about my offer?"
Harry laughed, "You mean the one where I have to hand over an innocent man, and you'll leave my family alone. Yeah, not going to happen. I learned pretty early on that negotiating with psychopaths never turns out quite the way they say it will."
"I assure you, the man you're harboring is far from innocent," Adam said, his friendly demeanor disappearing all at once. "But, that's beside the point. You obviously know that refusing my request will make you my top priority. The chaos I will bring into your life will make your years running from Voldemort seem like a cake walk."
"Poor form, making threats you can't make good on." Said Harry, laughing sarcastically. "You brought up Tom, he had a tendency to do the exact same thing, you know how that turned out?"
"Tom Riddle was a delusional lunatic," said the projection, "He was lost from the moment he cast the first curse on you. I, however, am not on some crusade against the no-Maj population. I think you call them muggles. I actually think that some of their inventions work better than ours. Take the fidelius charm that your home is under, it blocks anyone from finding the house, or using magic against it." He paused, putting on a look of contemplation, "I wonder, though, if a bomb were to go off, say, right in the road in front of the location that used to be your house, would the charm protect you from that?" As soon as he said this Harry and Ron sprinted into the room where the children were still playing.
"Everybody down!" Harry yelled, diving on top of James and Hugo, and casting a shield charm, just as the windows of the house exploded inward.