Author's notes:

Standard disclaimer: It all belongs to JKR. Except where I might use some song lyrics which I will call out at the time and give proper credit. Thank you JKR for letting us play with your toys.

HARRY POTTER AND THE MUGGLE'S DAUGHTER

Sharpening the Blade

Part I

HPHPHP

"This has been lovely," Malala said.

"That it has," David agreed. "I'm so thankful you brought, Daniel to my dojo, I can't even tell you."

Lily smiled at Hermione's parents. It had been two weeks since Harry's discovery that Hermione was a witch. He had been hounding her to talk to her parents ever since. She and Remus had finally invited the Grangers to dinner with the intention of trying to speak with them. Harry and Hermione had disappeared after dinner to his room an hour ago and she still hadn't found the nerve. Only the thought of how devastated Harry would be if she failed to go through with things forced her to find her courage and start. "Well, it has been lovely, but I must admit to having a bit of an ulterior motive in asking you to dinner tonight."

"Oh?" Malala asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

Malala considered her for a few seconds. "You're not sick again, are you?"

Lily smiled. "No. Though that might have been an easier conversation."

Remus placed his hand on hers and gave it squeeze. "You're making it harder, Evanna."

Lily took a deep breath. "I just want to start by telling you what I have to say isn't anything bad; at least it doesn't have to be."

"Alright," David said.

"I think, maybe the easiest thing would be a demonstration," Lily said. She turned to Remus. "Would you mind?" He released her hand and triggered the release for his wand.

"Where?" Malala gasped. David simply raised a brow. But the tensing in his body was evident. He was ready to defend his wife and himself if needed.

"Magic is real," Lily said as Remus flicked his wand and started clearing the table.

"Oh my," Malala whispered. Her husband did nothing but watch as Remus directed his wand about. With the last of the table cleared he sent his wand away again.

"There is a whole world, living alongside you that you know nothing about," Lily said. "Witches are real. Wizards are real… Magic is real."

"How?" Malala asked.

"Not how, Love," David said significantly, "Why?"

"Why?"

He focused on her. "Why are they telling us this?" he asked pointedly.

"Hermione," she gasped.

"You've noticed, then," Lily said. They turned to her. "Things you can't explain happen around her, yes?"

"She does things at practice sometimes," David said. "Not so much recently, but she threw me once and I don't even know how it happened. One second we were playing around, the next I'm flat on my back with the wind knocked out of me."

"I swear one time I saw her jump ten feet into a tree," Malala said. "The neighbor's dog got loose and was chasing her. I blinked and the next thing I knew she was up that tree. She went straight from the ground to sitting on that branch and I didn't see a thing in-between."

Lily nodded. "That sounds like accidental magic."

"Accidental?"

"When they're young, magical children suffer bursts of accidental magic. I'm not sure what happened when she threw you, David, but the incident with the dog and the tree sounds like she apparated."

"Apparated?"

"Magical people can travel a number of different ways. One of them is a near instantaneous method called apparating. John," she said. "Just across the kitchen and back please."

Remus nodded. "Might wanna catch your breath. It's a bit eye opening." They both nodded. With a turn and sharp crack, Remus popped from his chair to the stove. Another crack and he was in his chair again."

"Bloody buggering, hell!" David exclaimed.

"Can we learn to do that?" Malala asked.

Lily shook her head. "I'm sorry, you can't. But Hermione can."

"She can?"

Remus nodded. "Your daughter is a witch. With proper training she can learn to do some truly amazing things."

"What kind of training?" David asked.

"There's a school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that all children in the UK who are magically powerful enough are invited to attend beginning the year after they turn eleven. Because of when her birthday is, Hermione won't receive an invitation till she's almost twelve. If you elect to have her attend the school, she and Daniel would be in the same class."

"And what if we decide she won't be going there?" David asked.

"That's where it gets a bit ugly," Lily said.

"Ugly?" Malala asked.

"Hermione will be invited to attend. I have no doubt of this whatsoever. You've seen her perform accidental magic. Even if she's unaware of doing so I've seen her deliberately performing magic. The August before she turns twelve, a representative of Hogwarts will visit you. They'll explain everything John and I are to you now. Perhaps they'll do a better job, perhaps not." She shrugged. "What you won't get are all the truths I'm going to give you. If you elect to have her attend the school, life pretty much goes on as normal. It's a boarding school though, so she'll head off around the first of September and you'll get letters and she'll come home on holidays and yeah, fairly normal. Having attended the school myself, all in all, I can pretty much promise she will love it. She will love it because something has been off her whole life and at Hogwarts she will learn what that is and find other people who are like her. That's the rosy, pretty picture.

"Now I'll give you the part they won't tell you. And to be fair, part of the reason they won't, is whomever the school sends doesn't actually know this. Just remember John and I are not representatives of the magical government either. You are in no danger from us. We'll answer questions from now till next Tuesday if that's what it takes. We just want you to know the truth about your daughter, and the choices you are going to have to make."

"Most importantly," Remus added, "we want you to understand how the choices you make will affect your daughter. We won't lie. You're not going to like some of what you hear. You could even try to fight back. It's doubtful you'd succeed, but I don't discount that you might."

"The biggest thing you need to know," Lily picked up again, "is the magical government is ruthless when it comes to keeping their world separated from the non-magic world. Wizards and witches have great powers available to them, but the entire magical population of the UK is about twenty-five thousand people. There are more than sixty million non-magical people in the country. That is a ratio of more than two thousand to one."

"Good reason to be frightened," Remus added.

"If you elect to not have Hermione attend the school," Lily continued, "your memories will be modified to forget the conversation ever happened. They will also remove any instances you might remember of Hermione doing something magical. Hermione's memories will also be modified. She will then have her powers bound to prevent her performing accidental magic. In most cases, that's it. Though she will almost always feel some sense of discomfort with who she is, without use, her powers will slowly wither and go dormant.

"But in some cases, the sorcerers are too powerful and they break the bind. This results in the memory charm breaking as well. If this happens three times the memories of the child's parents are modified to believe their child died in an accident of some sort. The child's memories are modified to believe the same of their parents. The child is then taken and trained, either privately or at one of the various schools around the world. Usually it is not the school from their home country, but one far away. Because their magic is no longer bound, they almost never break the memory charm and life goes on." She stopped and waited.

After a fairly long and uncomfortable silence David asked, "How much more do you have to tell us?"

"A lot."

"And what if we told you to stuff it, and Hermione was never allowed to see or speak with Daniel again?"

"We'd honor your wishes."

He continued to eye her. "You've broken about a thousand laws speaking to us, haven't you?"

"I'm not particularly concerned about them."

"Why not?"

"Because it is much harder to deal with a fully trained witch or wizard than a child or someone who is non-magical. We are also exceedingly well hidden."

"You don't seem to be particularly hidden to me," Malala said.

"Only because you don't understand the wards and protections on this house and the surrounding property."

David turned to his wife. "Well?"

"I think I have about a thousand more questions."

He turned back to John and Evanna. "Got anything a bit stronger than coffee?"

HPHPHP

Petunia Dursley was walking down the hall past an antique dressing table she had found and was using to display her prized tea service when she stopped dead in her tracks. Lily's image in the mirror stared coldly back. "I know what you did," she said.

The image did nothing more but stare at her and Petunia began to shake. "G–go away," she croaked. The image did nothing. "He's not here. Go away!" The image still did nothing. "Get out of my house!" The image remained motionless. Petunia snatched a teacup from the table and threw it at the mirror. The cup and mirror shattered and the image vanished. "AND STAY OUT!"

HPHPHP

"Hello, Harry, how are you today?"

"I'm good, Mrs Tonks." Of all the teachers he'd had in his life, Andromeda Tonks was his absolute favorite. She never once got frustrated or short with him. She was always willing to answer his questions and she always explained exactly what she was going to do so he knew what to expect.

"And have you been practicing extra hard like I asked this week?"

Harry nodded. "Every night. Just like you told me."

"Shall we see what you've accomplished?" Harry grinned and nodded eagerly. "I'll give you one minute to prepare," she said.

Harry took a deep breath and blew it out. His eyes went out of focus as tried to clear his mind and retreat into his Dreamscape like he'd been practicing before bed each night this past week. Really he'd been practicing this part of his Occlumency since the very first week close to seven months ago. It only took him about twenty to thirty seconds now to retreat into his mind and the misty white fields he'd been constructing. But the goal for the week had been to accomplish the task without having to close his eyes to do so.

"Time's up," she said gently. For quite some time it seemed nothing at all was going on, but inside his mind, Harry was searching hard. Mrs. Tonks was out there somewhere, quietly walking along through his mists searching for the next layer of his defenses. His job now was to somehow find her before she did. The trick was in knowing what was his mind and what wasn't. It sounded like it should be easy. A person should know his or her own mind. In reality, it wasn't that easy. And Mrs. Tonks was very good at disguising her mind to make him think it was his. It could be somewhat confusing. It was kind of like looking for a puff of off-white in a sea of cream.

Or, if he were to become the mist, it would be like having her walk through him! He very silently tried to form a bucket of ice water and dump it on her. An umbrella instantly appeared over her head.

She smirked at him. "Thought you had me, didn't you?"

"How did you know?" he demanded.

"You didn't think silent enough."

Harry glowered at her. "I'll get you yet."

"You did very well today. How did you find me?"

"If I told you then I won't be able to use it again."

"You became the mist, didn't you?" Harry glowered at her. "Harry, I have been doing this for nearly forty years. You are just turned nine. I had only just turned eight the first time I made the leap that I could become the mist. But I had been training for three years already. You have been training for seven months. You should be very proud of yourself, Harry, you took a significant step today." She held out her hand. "Come, take me to your citadel."

Harry took her hand and they set off through the mist. "Perhaps a bit of sun?" she asked. In a blink they were walking through a scorching desert. "Cheeky little, bugger," she muttered. Harry giggled. She always asked him to walk with her like this and always requested a bit of sun and warmth to replace the chill fog. How long have you been working on this one?

"A few weeks."

"It's very impressive."

"But you're not sweating yet."

She grinned at him. "Because you haven't convinced me it's real yet."

"But how, you're attacking me, you'll always know nothing here is real?"

She turned to him. "A bench?" she asked. Harry sighed and concentrated on creating the park and river from the town square. He was quite skilled at this scene as well and it took only a few seconds to coalesce and become solid. She sat down and patted the bench. "Sit, my Little Protégé." Harry blushed. He was gaining a few pet names from the various adults in his life; Remus and Sirius called him, Pup, Mr Granger favored Tiger, Mum called him Sweetie or Love, Hermione usually called him, Prat and Mrs Tonks liked Little Protégé. It was the only one that made him blush and Hermione teased him mercilessly about it.

"Harry, we're in your mind. What is the one thing I have said over and over about that?"

"That everything in it is as real or not real as I want it to be."

"And what are the three things that are not true about that?"

"My memories, because they're me. You, because you're attacking me. And me, because I'm always me."

"But are you real?" she asked. "I mean I see you sitting before me." She took his hand and raised it between them. "I can hold your hand. So you seem real. But earlier you became the mist. And was that not you also? Is this you, the one sitting before me whose hand I'm holding real, or was the mist the real you?"

"Erm," he managed.

"Am I the real me?" she asked. "Or am I?" a bird sitting on the branch above them asked. "Or perhaps me?" a squirrel asked. "Or perhaps even me?" Harry whipped his head around between the voices. "Down hear, Harry," Mrs Tonks said. "In the river."

Harry gaped at the face in the water. "Y–you're the – the r–river?"

A hand on his cheek drew his face back to hers. "Or am I all those things at once?"

"How did you do that?"

She smiled and pulled him to his feet. "Come, the citadel."

They set off down the path, walking silently for the ten minutes or so it took them to reach the cliff overlooking the fortress. Harry's inspiration had been the descriptions of Sauromon's towering black spire Orthanc and the surrounding ring of Isengard from the, Lord of the Rings, trilogy. It was centered in a massive cauldron like plain and with the tower being just over five hundred feet tall surrounded by walls near seventy feet high, was very imposing. But the truly terrifying bit was Kaa. Coiled inside the walls at the base of the steps to the tower she was enormous, close to a hundred feet in length and at her thickest more than ten feet in diameter. Harry was well and truly pleased with her. Inside all that, buried in the bowels of the citadel he had locked away his memories. Each carefully sorted into various chambers, further protected by the trunks strapped with steel bands they were locked in.

"Impressive indeed," Mrs Tonks said. Harry beamed with her praise. "This is what we need to set you on a path to protecting your mind. I'm very pleased with what you've accomplished. However, there is one very significant fault within your work that is not particularly difficult for me to exploit. Can you tell me what it is?"

"A fault?" Harry asked. He looked out on his creation, wondering if he would have to start all over again. He'd spent at least an hour a day for the last seven months creating this and starting over was not something he fancied doing. It had been hard exhausting work. "I – I don't know."

"Harry, as you look out on what is before us, what is real, and what is fabricated?"

Harry's stomach dropped. "It's all fabricated," he said dejectedly. "The only things that are real are my memories locked in the tower."

"And the mist from earlier, was it real or was it fabricated?"

"Erm," he stammered.

"Do you know how I knew that you had found me?" she asked.

Harry shook his head. "Not really?"

She turned to him. "Harry, when you became the mist, it suddenly smelt of the sea, it turned damp and chilled me to my bones. It became…

"Real," he finished.

"Yes." He furrowed his brow in thought. "Do you understand?"

"The only real thing in my mind is me and the invader?"

"And for the next step of your training you must work to become these defenses you have fabricated. The tower, the walls, the plains, the Ents, Kaa; as you did with the mist earlier, you must now make these real."

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"At the same time?"

"Yes."

Harry eyed his creation dubiously. "Bugger."

Mrs Tonks laughed. "Harry, my darling, Little Protégé, in time all you see before you will be but one small portion of your defenses."

"One?" he croaked.

"Indeed," she answered.

Harry blinked a number of times, trying to regain his bearings at suddenly finding himself back in the parlour. "Whoa," he gasped.

Mrs Tonks reached out and palmed his cheek. "I'm very proud of you. Now rest for a bit while I visit with your mum." He nodded and lay down on the couch. Mrs Tonks spread a blanket over him and quietly left him with Kaa, coiled on the back of the couch, to watch over him.

"Hello, Andi," Lily said when she entered the kitchen. "How did it go?"

Andromeda sat down and poured a cup of tea. "Astounding, Lily, utterly astounding."

"Oh?"

"It's instinctual with him, Lily. He actually became the mist he's been trying to confuse me with today."

Lily set her cup down. "It took me two years to reach that stage. And I was seventeen when I did it."

Andromeda nodded. "It took me three. I was eight. At the rate he's progressing he'll start Hogwarts where I finished."

"You can't be serious."

"Lily, your son is going to be exceedingly powerful. He uses his magic instinctively. Given enough time, he'll rival Albus."

Lily looked contemplative for a moment. "All I really want is for him to be happy."

Andromeda smiled. "He seems quite happy to me."

"We're getting there. It's been a few weeks since he tested Remus or myself. It about gave me a heart attack when he and Hermione blew up the picnic table. But I think the fact that he really and truly did something he shouldn't have and found that we would punish him, but would do so fairly, finally convinced him he could trust us."

"That girl is good for him."

"They're good for each other," Lily said. "I can't tell you how relieved I am with how her parents are handling things."

"I always just assumed every Muggle-born actually attended Hogwarts, or wherever, when they found out. I should have realized there would be some who didn't."

"I never considered it either. It wasn't till I became an Unspeakable that I realized some didn't, and the extremes we went to silence them."

"It's not right, is it?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know what the answer is. The fact is, if the general population of non-magical people found out about witches and wizards they would wipe us out. My bitch sister and her bastard husband are proof enough of that. The problem is witches and wizards are being backed further and further into the corner and they don't even know it."

"You're convinced they're going to find out, aren't you?"

"We had three people dedicated to developing bigger, better and faster ways of Obliviating ever-growing numbers of non-magical people who saw something they shouldn't when I was with the Unspeakables. Bagnold was called before the ICW because Voldemort and his Death Eaters nearly exposed us a few dozen times." She shrugged. "Honestly, I'll be surprised if it doesn't happen in Harry's lifetime."

Andromeda nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose those are thoughts for another day.

"Yes," Lily agreed. She glanced at the clock. "The Grangers should be here any minute now."

"I'm looking forward to meeting them."

"Can you really teach her parents Occlumency?"

"Mind magic is different than other magics. I'll never be able to teach them Legilimency, but if I can teach them to go into their mind, then I think I'll be able to teach them how to defend it." She shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."

"It would be amazing if we could give them some form of protection."

"If for no other reason than as a way to stay connected with their daughter."

"Yes," Lily agreed. "There is that."

HPHPHP

Lily leaned against a post in the barn and watched as first Harry, and then Hermione levitated a feather from the floor. "Excellent," Remus congratulated them. "Now, how about the stones?" The two turned their attention to the fist sized rocks and went to work. Both were struggling with the application of practical magic. Hermione, Lily suspected, mostly because she was using James' old wand and it wasn't particularly suited to her. There were a number of old family wands stored in the Potter and Black vaults and, as Sirius had access to them both, he was supposed to collect and bring them next week to see if they could find something better suited to her.

Just then one of the two rocks rocketed from the floor and smashed thorough the roof of the barn. About three seconds later there was a solid thud on the roof as the rock crashed back down again. It rattled down the roof and fell to the ground in front of the open barn door.

"Damnit," Harry said.

Lily smirked. His problem was a bit different. Her old wand seemed fairly well suited to him, but it seemed it went from barely levitating a feather to launching boulders off the underside of the wards.

"Harrrry," Hermione hissed.

"It's just a word, Hermione."

"It's vulgar."

"Damnit. Damnit. Damnit."

"Funny you don't' swear in front of Mrs Tonks," she taunted.

Harry blushed while glowering at her and then broke into a big grin. "Hey, Sirius." Hermione whipped around and Harry broke into peels of laughter. Red as a tomato she whirled back to him.

"Just you wait till practice tonight."

"Alright you two," Remus said, "back on task. Harry go back to the feather again."

"Actually, let's try something different," Lily said. She waved them over to where she had set up a ring toss game like Hermione had played at Thorpe Park. Only for her game there was a single bottle at which to throw the rings. "Hermione, you're up," she said offering her a ring. Hermione pocketed her wand, took the ring and went through her routine. Like clockwork the ring flipped through the air and settled into place around the neck of the bottle. "Excellent, Hermione," Lily praised. She handed a bag of rings to Remus who dug one out and gave it to Hermione. "Now," Lily said, "I want you to keep doing exactly what you just did. You already know you can so there should be no reason for you to miss. I know it might get a bit boring, but I want you to keep doing this till you've gone through that whole bag, alright?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, Mrs Potter."

"Good girl." She waited till Hermione had tossed and landed her second throw on the bottle. "Wonderful, keep going." She turned to Harry and beckoned him to follow. "You, come with me."

"See you," Harry said and followed his mum out of the barn.

She led him around the side of the barn where she sat on a hay bale. She pointed to a feather on the ground. "Levitate that please." Harry sighed and took out his wand. She held her hand out. "Without your wand… no incantation either. Just lift the feather off the ground." Harry frowned at her. "Harry, don't you remember the day Remus came and got you? You nearly levitated a picnic table. Tell me how you did that."

"I've told you before. I can feel this Heat or something in my stomach. Once I find it, I can push it up to my chest and into my arm, then I pushed it out of my hand and around the table and lifted it."

"Well then, do it."

Harry slapped his wand into her hand, closed his eyes and held his hand out. He'd been with his mum and Remus for six weeks when he'd been given her old wand. He'd been told a wand would make things easier and just figured his struggles were similar to those all students had when he did try a spell. As such he hadn't tried doing any magic without his wand since arriving at the Briar Patch. He was then rather surprised when he almost instantly found that Heat in his stomach. His eyes snapped open. "The Heat is my magic, isn't it?" he asked. Mum nodded. Harry dove back into it. It still took a bit of effort to force it up and into his arm but the next thing he knew it was flowing out of his hand and the feather was lifting from the ground.

"Set it down now," Mum said. Harry did so. "And again." Once more the feather floated into the air. "And the pebble when you're ready." Very quickly Harry worked his way up larger and large stones to a hay bale, demonstrating good control over all of them. "Good," Mum said when he set the bale down. "Come sit." Harry did so gladly. He was thrilled with his success, but rather worn out from the effort. Mum absently twirled his wand, her old one, in her fingers.

"Only the most powerful sorcerers can routinely perform magic without a wand. You are one of those sorcerers, Harry. You are barely nine and you're already as powerful as I was when I graduated Hogwarts. We will work to develop your skill without a wand because some day you may find yourself forced to work without one. But Dumbledore uses one for a reason. Even Voldemort, at the height of his power, used one. It helps. Simply, when you and your wand are in union with one another, you can do more, easier.

"A wand is somewhat sentient. It has memory. I believe part of the reason this wand seems to be suited to you is because of the Heart's Shield I cast on you. There are remnants of it yet; likely you will carry some small traces of it your whole life. I believe some of the issues you are having with the wand are related to this. It remembers me, and is a bit confused. Add to that your instinctive ability to perform the spell and sometimes the wand doesn't know if it should pull or push. You would attempt to levitate the feather, but be afraid of launching it to the stratosphere. The wand sensed this and actively worked to help you control your magic. The result being that it blocked you from casting the spell entirely. When you moved to trying the rock you instinctively felt you needed to try harder and the wand responded by pulling much harder than you or it needed. The result being missiles blasting through the roof of our barn."

She handed the wand him. "No incantation, no wand movement, levitate the feather."

Harry took it, noting that it seemed the tiniest bit more familiar in his hand. He pointed it at the feather and floated it into the air. Without being told, he then moved to levitating the pebble and then larger and lager rocks, finishing with the hay bale; in each case, demonstrating near perfect control.

"Just like the wand is a tool to help us with our magic, incantations and wand movements are as well," Mum said. "They are designed to help the novice learn to focus their mind on what they want their magic to do. As a sorcerer gains mastery of a spell those tools become less and less important. They don't always go away entirely for every spell, but for many of them, like levitating a feather or lighting your wand they very often will.

"Andromeda has told me you're very instinctive in your practice of the Mind Magics. It appears you are the same with more practical applications of magic as well. Without any instruction at all you became aware of your magic. You began teaching yourself how to use it, forming it, molding it, to do your bidding. You did all of this without any of the tools available, to help you. You have an expert's instinct with none of the building blocks needed to help guide that instinct. In a very real sense you learned the levitation spell backwards; attempting, with no small success, the most difficult variation of the spell before learning the simplest.

"Your success without the wand, firmly imprinted in your mind what you needed to do. This very firm understanding was instantly learned by your wand and that is why you and it stopped fighting. I believe, going forward, you and it will have a much better understanding of one another." She stood and headed back into the barn. "Come, let's see how Hermione is fairing."

His mind a jumble of thoughts and questions he hurried after her. "How's it going?" Mum asked as they approached.

"Quite well, I should think," Remus said. "We're on our second time through the bag and she's not missed once the last twenty tries."

"I feel it, Mrs Potter!" Hermione said. "That's what you wanted, isn't it? You wanted me to feel my magic working."

Mum grinned at her. "I knew you'd figure it out."

"Does this mean I can do wandless magic?"

"It means you can do this little trick. As to anything else, that remains to be seen." Hermione frowned slightly. "There is little doubt, that should you choose to, you will be a very gifted and accomplished sorcereress, Hermione," Mum assured her. "You are even quite powerful. Remus tested you at 993 on the Rule of Merlin scale. You have more power available to you than all but seven in one thousand sorcerers. I, myself, was at 992 I eventually managed some wandless magic. I could levitate things up to about eight ounces. I could perform a few basic unlocking spells. I even managed a very weak shield. But that was about it. With growth, study and practice there will undoubtedly be a few spells you succeed with as well. But the power levels required to be truly proficient without a wand are astounding. Even a sorcerer at 9999 on the scale, more powerful than all but one in ten thousand, will likely manage to perfect fewer than a couple dozen.

"So the point of this exercise wasn't to teach me wandless magic, it was to teach me to recognize where my magic came from and how it felt?"

Mum smiled. "Exactly."

"And that will help me with my wand, right?"

Mum nodded towards a random feather on the ground. "Why don't you try again."

Hermione took out her wand. Very precisely said, "Wingardium Leviosa," accompanied with an equally precise swish and flick, and the feather floated into the air.

"Better?" Mum asked.

Hermione beamed. "Much."

"Try the rock now." Hermione repeated the exercise and somewhat jerkily floated a rock, about an inch around, into the air. "Very good," Mum said. "You'll continue to struggle because that wand isn't suited to you. But now that you understand the magic comes from you and not the wand you'll mange a bit better. And once we get you a wand that's even half suited to you, you'll find this impediment has actually helped you."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "It's just like training with weights, right? Resistance makes us stronger."

"Correct."

Hermione looked thoughtful again. "Mrs Potter, where did Harry test on the RoM scale?"

"For all intents and purposes, he was off the scale."

"Like more powerful than one in ten thousand?"

"Higher."

"Higher?" she squeaked.

"Much." Harry blushed and focused on the ground when Hermione's eyes darted to him. "That bit of information will be something for you to keep well protected," Mum said significantly.

Hermione drew herself up. "Don't worry, Mrs Potter. I'll keep it safe."

Mum smiled. "I know you will, Hermione. I wouldn't have told you if I doubted that."

HPHPHP

"STOP!" Harry cried. "I GIVE!" he gasped around convulsive fits of laughter. "I GIVE!"

"Not a chance."

"P–p–ple–please," Harry begged. "I–I'll nev–never c–call N–Nym–Nympha d–dora a–again."

Nymphadora Tonks, or Tonks as she insisted she be called considered the writhing boy on the floor before her. "You'll apologize and pay me the respect I am due as your most wise big sister or I'll put you under it again."

"ANY–ANYTH–THING!" Harry cried.

She waved her wand and canceled the spell. "Maybe that'll teach you not to mess with a future Auror," Tonks said pompously. Harry simply lay sprawled on the floor gasping. Tonks stood over him, twirling her wand. "I'm waiting."

"I'm breathing," Harry retorted.

"You'll be begging for mercy again if you don't start groveling."

Harry wiped the tears of mirth from his face and rolled to his knees. He hadn't just been breathing. He'd been calculating. He grabbed her ankle and pulled hard. Even as she was falling to the floor he was going for her wand hand. He had her disarmed quickly, but hadn't counted on the fact that she might actually know how to fight. There was also the bit about her being sixteen while he wasn't even ten. She spun, punched him square in the nose and dove for her wand.

"OWW!"

"Ha! That'll teach you." She flicked her wand and the next thing he knew Harry was floating upside down in the air like his leg was caught in a trap. "As a matter of fact, someone's going to get a real drubbing."

"PUT ME DOWN!" She directed him across the room, through the door and into the kitchen. "HEY!" Harry protested.

"Hi all," Tonks greeted the various adults sitting around the table cheerfully. "Don't mind us. Just, I've got to introduce my new little bro here to a snow bank or two."

"WHAT! NO! STOP!" Tonks paid him no mind and none of the adults seemed inclined to stop her as she floated him across the kitchen to the back door. Harry latched onto the doorframe but she hit him with another tickling hex. "ARRRGH! MUM, HELP ME!" he cried.

"Sorry, Love," she called, "But some lessons just need to be learned.

"MUMMMMPHLFF!" Harry's pleading was abruptly cut off when Tonk's stuck him head first in a snow bank.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Tonks said. Harry's arms and legs locked together and she bounded down the steps, intent on stuffing snow up his shirt right up to the moment she saw the scars across his back. "Bloody hell," she gasped. There was a sudden crack and Harry's previously petrified body sagged.

He scrambled from the snow bank, grabbed Tonks by the arm, twisted and threw her, dislocating her elbow in the process. "I hate you!" he screamed over her shriek.

"Oh no," Andromeda gasped.

"HARRY!" Mum shouted.

He bolted. "LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Go, Lily," Andromeda ordered. "I'll deal with Nymphadora." Lily took off after Harry and she hurried to her daughter.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Tonks chanted while cradling her injured arm tightly.

"Alright," Andromeda soothed. "Let me see." She eased Tonks' good hand from her injury, revealing a badly dislocated elbow, bent nearly ninety degrees the wrong way. Tonks whimpered. "Yep, that's a bad one. I'm going to stabilize it so we can take you to St. Mungoes. They'll have you sorted in a no time." Tonks gave a shaky nod.

Some three hours later Tonks knocked on Harry's door. "Hey kid, can I come in?" When he didn't respond she cracked the door open and poked her head in. Harry was on his bed with Kaa on his lap, gently stroking her head. She forced that last bit from her thoughts. Really, she thought the snake was cool. It was stunning, actually. But in a perilous, I'll kill you, kind of way and it took a bit to get used to. "Wotcher," she said cautiously.

"I'm sorry," he answered, not looking at her. "I'll understand if you don't want to be around me. You don't have to stay."

Tonks stepped in the room and gently closed the door. She crossed to the bed and squatted down in front of him. "Harry, Kiddo, look at me." He refused to, so she slowly reached out with her good arm to lift his chin. "I'm perfectly aware Kaa could kill me right now, Kiddo. I'm not going anywhere till we figure this out." He didn't answer so she pressed on. "Look, I'm fine. Just gotta wear a sling for a couple days. But Mum explained it to me, and I had no idea. I mean I kinda knew, but I didn't, you know? And I never wanted to make you feel helpless. I swear. We were playing and I tripped your trigger. So we both messed up, yeah? But it's alright, we can be fine, can't we?"

"But I hurt you. I really hurt you."

"Trust me, I know. And it's something you'll have to work on. But you didn't really mean what you did. Those people, they were animals, Kid. And what they did to you… I know we've only known each other a few days, but after Mum talked to me tonight… Damn, Harry, I don't know how you're as normal as you are."

"Yeah, normal," he retorted bitterly. "Normal people don't go around breaking peoples' arms because they got petrified."

"Harry, you could have killed them. All you had to do was tell Kaa to do it and she would. To me that makes you a pretty cool dude." She smiled at him. "Come on, Kid, whatdaya say?"

He seemed to consider for a bit but then the corner of his mouth quirked up. "Not as cool as frosted blue hair."

She concentrated and changed her hair for him. "Says the bloke with the baddest assed pet—" Kaa hissed, sending her scuttling back. "Right, sorry, not a pet. My bad. Yesh, you try and pay someone a compliment around here and you get your head bit off."

Harry smiled. "She likes you, you know."

"Yeah, well, I'm a bit rusty on my adder intentions interpretation skills. But I'll be sure to brush up on them next term." Kaa hissed softly for a few seconds. "What'd she say?"

"She say's you'll know she intends to bite you by the puncture wounds she'll have left behind."

Tonks eyed her for a few seconds. "You know, a few more years and you'll make a really nice pair of boots."

"I like her," Kaa said. "Ssshe may handle me if ssshe likesss."

"No bites, no boots," Harry said. "And she says you can hold her if you like."

"Really?" Tonks asked eagerly.

"Yeah, sure," Harry said. Kaa quickly coiled around his wrist and he slid off the bed. "Here, just hold your arm out." Tonks did and Kaa moved from Harry to her. "Just let her move as she likes. And if she's around your hands, try to divide her length evenly." Kaa slithered up Tonks' arm, across her shoulders and back down again. She held her other hand up and she spanned the distance and wrapped around Tonks' wrist.

"Wicked," Tonks gushed. "Man I'd give anything just to turn her loose in the Slytherin common room. Pansies are all proud of their snake statues and little embroidered cobras on their robes. You'd have the lot of them pissing their pants, wouldn't you, Gorgeous?"

"Did you mean it?" Harry asked.

"Mean what?" Tonks asked, still focused on Kaa.

"You called me your little bro," Harry whispered. Tonks stopped paying attention to Kaa and focused on him. "Before… well, you know… before."

Tonks grabbed him around the neck with her good arm and pulled him to her. "Aww, man, how am I supposed to give you nuggies when I got a snake wrapped around a busted up arm?"

"I really like her," Kaa said.

HPHPHP

"Harry, have you seen this?" Harry glanced up from his book to see what Hermione was talking about. It was mid January 1990 and the two of them were sat in the parlour of the Briar Patch. There was a delicious fire going and they both had large mugs of hot chocolate to keep them company. He had a fair idea of what she was looking at. Obscure Magical Talents of the British Isles was a comprehensive volume of every unusual magical talent ever recorded in what was now the UK and Ireland. It had been his gift to her for Christmas.

"What?" he asked.

She turned the book and showed him the page. "There's an entire chapter on people who could speak to animals."

"Cool," Harry said. He scooted over next to her so they could share the book.

"Look at this," she said. She pointed to a passage. "Perhaps the most well known speaker of an animal language in the history of the UK is none other than Salazar Slytherin of Hogwarts fame. Slytherin, one of the four founders of the venerable school, is well known for his, perhaps infamous, ability as a Parselmouth. A Parselmouth is a witch or wizard who can speak Parseltongue, the language of serpents. Slytherin's eventual split from the other founders of Hogwarts and fall into the Dark Arts has significantly added to the perception that the skill is a mark of darkness upon its purveyors. The perception is not without some merit; as, at the time of this printing, less than a handful of sorcerers known to have the ability can be confirmed to have not eventually fallen under the sway of Dark Magic."

"Does it list the Light sorcerer's who could speak it?" Harry asked.

Hermione flipped to the appendices and ran her finger down the appropriate page. Hengist of Woodcroft, who is considered to have founded the village of Hogsmeade. Queen Mauve, a witch who taught magic in Scotland before the founding of Hogwarts and Norvel Twonk, who revealed the ability when he set an adder on a manticore to save a Muggle child. Twonk himself didn't survive the rescue… That's not many, she observed as she scanned the list of known dark sorcerers who had spoken Parseltongue."

"I think it'd be cool," Harry said. "I've always liked snakes." He scooted back to his side of the couch and went back to his quidditch book. She went back to reading but it was only a few minutes or so before he felt her shooting looks at him.

"Harry, you're a Parselmouth, aren't you?"

Typical Hermione, she went right at it. "Yes," he whispered, not looking at her. A few moments later her hand closed on his, drawing his eyes to hers.

"All it means is that you'll be the fourth person on the list who is a Light wizard."

Harry gave her a small smile. "You really won't hate me?"

"You're my best friend, Harry. You can't get rid of me that easily."

"Thank you." She leaned forward and enveloped him in a tight hug. He hugged her back for a few seconds before they both let go.

"What does it sound like?" she asked excitedly. Harry grinned and quickly hissed for Kaa to join them. "That just sounds like a bunch of hissing!" Hermione protested. Harry pointed to the doorway. " Oh my," Hermione gasped as Kaa slithered into the room. She remained completely frozen in place as Kaa went under the couch and climbed Harry's leg to his lap. Harry reached for her and she wound herself around his wrist. He lifted her up and bumped noses with her before turning her to face Hermione. "Meet Kaa," he said.

"K–K–Kaa?" Hermione squeaked.

"Yes, for Kaa from the Jungle Book; except she's a girl."

"G–g–g–girl?"

"Yep."

"Ha–Harry, s–she's an – an – add–adder."

"Yep. Wanna hold her?"

"Haarrrry."

"Yeah?"

"You're holding an adder," she hissed.

Harry glanced at Kaa. "So?" he asked, focusing on Hermione again.

"They're venomous!"

Harry moved his hand, allowing Kaa to slither from it to the back of the couch where she coiled comfortably next to him. "She's my friend, Hermione," Harry said seriously. "I meet her a few weeks before my seventh birthday. She's probably saved my life at least three times."

"Saved your life?"

Harry nodded. "Yes."

HPHPHP

Petunia Dursley stepped in front of the fireplace, intent on getting one last look at herself in the mirror above before she and Vernon went out for the night. Lily's face greeted her. "I know what you did," she said. Petunia grabbed the mirror and threw it on the floor where it shattered into a thousand pieces.

HPHPHP

"Lils," Sirius said. "He'll be eleven in a year. You aren't planning on keeping him out of Hogwarts are you? Because that would be a right kick in the pants to the Grangers after everything they've done to prepare Hermione to attend."

"No, I'm not going to keep him out of school."

"Then what's the big deal if he attends a quidditch match?"

"The big deal is exposing him before he's ready to deal with it."

"What about Polyjuice?" Remus asked. "We can all take Polyjuice and no-one will be any wiser."

"I can't," she said.

Remus gave her a look that clearly said she was being obstinate just to be obstinate. "Fine, we'll go… But pick a match where there won't be as many people as normal."

"I've got a better idea," Sirius said.

Remus and Lily eyed him dubiously. "I've got a bad feeling about this," Remus muttered.

"You and me both," Lily grumbled.

"Let's go on holiday."

Remus and Lily exchanged looks. "There has to be a catch," she said. They turned back to him.

"Come on, Lils," Sirius said. "What was that place you used to talk about in the States, that you always said you wanted to visit, the one in Florida?"

"Disney World?" she asked.

Sirius snapped his fingers. "That's it. We'll Muggle our way over for a few weeks of fun in the sun. Catch a quidditch match, maybe even take them to one of the wizarding enclaves. It won't be the same as Diagon Alley but they'll get a chance to see some day-to-day life in the magical world. And he'll be mostly anonymous. Probably won't even need Polyjuice."

"Them?" Remus asked.

"Any forays into wizard territory and we'll be using polyjuice," Lily said.

"Harry and Hermione, of course," Sirius said. "You don't expect him to go without his little girlfriend, do you?"

"She isn't his girlfriend," Lily said.

"Trust me," Sirius said. "Those two hit puberty and the Potter Curse is done for. He's doomed."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Shall we make a bet on it?"

"Terms?" Sirius pounced.

"Same as always?"

"Deal." He stuck his hand out and they shook on it.

Author's notes:

So a lot going on. Hermione and her parents know. We start to see how magic works in this world with Lily's lesson. We meet Tonks and see that Harry is still carrying scars from the Dursleys. Lily's revenge on her sister continues. Hermione knows about Kaa. And were about to set off on an epic birthday adventure.

Also, for anyone looking for an interesting story, head on over to Nifty Niffler's page and check out The Beast Within and Unity in Diversity! Actually, check out all her stuff. There are some really great reads there if you've not yet your way to her page.