Disclaimer: Usually I write out a very specific disclaimer explaining exactly what it is I don't own but I find myself not really interested in doing so this time as it is very tedious. Suffice it to say I own nothing that was created by anyone else and I am not making any money off of this story or any of the other stories I have written.

AN: This story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance.

Chapter 35: Rebuilding the Future

The next couple of hours were spent cleaning and repairing the Great Hall so they would have a secure place to camp for the night. The first thing they did was clear out all of the garbage and debris that was cluttering up the once grand dining room. The remains of the damaged tables, chairs, and benches (all of which were too far damaged to repair) had been stacked off to one side out in the courtyard so Harry could use them to fuel a magical fire or two at some point in the hopes of drawing a few fire salamanders or an ashwinder or two. The centaurian census records were unclear on whether or not those two particular magical species had survived (magical fires rather difficult to produce when magic was in short supply).

As Harry and the others worked, the little thestral filly dutifully followed Harry every where he went; constantly trying to get at the meat Harry was still carrying around with him. Harry ended up passing the ground beef to Cathy and asking her to feed the young thestral, after warning her to be careful of the filly's teeth, just so he wouldn't keep tripping over the persistent creature. Once the room had been emptied of debris, Harry used magic to clean the walls and floor of mildew, old spider webs, and blood stains (the last making him more than a little ill).

He then repaired the chipped stones of the walls and floor, fixed the broken windows, cleaned and repaired the iron wall sconces as best he could, and lit a handful of magical torches he'd gathered from other sections of the castle to make it easier to see. The doors leading into the interior of the castle were too far damaged to be repaired so Harry replaced them with a couple of the less damaged doors he pulled from elsewhere in the castle.

When they'd finished cleaning up the hall, Harry propped open one of the two doors to the courtyard so that the thestral could leave if the adult pair returned for her. He then cast a series of low level protective wards and charms to prevent any of the less friendly magical creatures drawn by his magic and the commotion their arrival caused from sneaking into the hall if their intent was to cause trouble or harm. That of course, didn't prevent those that meant no harm from entering the hall either to seek shelter or to study the first humans to step foot in Crystal Valley in over four centuries.

The first to work up the courage to enter the castle was a small flock of feral postal owls that were most likely the descendants of the school's old owls. The owls were predominantly barn owls with a few spectacled owls and some of the smaller hawk owls mixed in. All of the owls, of which there were only about thirty, were rather on the small side and looked as if they'd not been eating well. He was slightly saddened to find not even one snowy owl amidst the group but he supposed it was unrealistic of him to think there would have been any since Hedwig had been the only snowy at the school during the years he'd attended. Most wizards had avoided the brightly colored owls because they were far too noticeable; one of the reasons that she'd been picked out for Harry but he'd loved her anyway.

Harry, once he could coax a few of them down out of the rafters beneath the enchantment free ceiling (the enchantments long since having ceased functioning), treated them for internal and external parasites and common avian ailments and diseases. He then brought out a bunch of the mice and rats that he once stocked in his supply trunk for Seth while they were in space (having never bothered transferring the colonies out of his trunk) and was soon surrounded eagerly by all of the owls. Once all of the owls had eaten at least one rodent each and been given a cursory health check, they returned to the rafters and Harry set up a few quick spells to automatically vanish any waste the birds expelled while they were in the Great Hall.

The little thestral tried snatching an owl or two out of the air but Harry quickly (if gently) flicked her on the nose to discourage her from eating the birds (not yet aware that owls were one of the thestrals' natural prey). Even if he had known, Harry wouldn't have allowed the youngling to eat any of the owls since there were so few of them to begin with. The moment the owls were out of reach (the filly still too young to fly) she promptly ignored them again as she searched Harry's pockets for more food. Not knowing how much a thestral her age could safely eat (or how much of her skeletal appearance was natural and how much was starvation induced) Harry decided that fifteen pounds of ground beef had been enough until at least the morning when he could see if her minders had returned.

The owls had barely settled themselves back on the rafters when a scraggly kneazle (the cat's tufted tail an indication that it was a pure kneazle and not of mixed heritage) entered the hall carrying a single kitten in her mouth. She walked right up to where Harry was sitting on the floor and stared at him with bright gold-orange eyes before she dumped the kitten in his lap and left again. The reason for her seeming abandonment became clear when she repeated the process twice more before joining her kittens and making a nest out of Harry's lap. Harry half expected to see a male kneazle following in her wake but after noting how old the mother looked he wondered if the father of her kittens had passed recently or if they tended to wander off like most male cats did once they'd fathered their kittens.

By the time Harry fell asleep that night, he was surrounded by a small hoard of magical creatures with many more occupying various corners of the Great Hall. Even some of the other teens and adults present found themselves being used as temporary beds (after a thorough inspection by the creatures) by a few that couldn't find room on or near Harry. In fact, there were so many animals crowded around the small eighteen year old that the others with him could barely see him through all of the fur, feathers, scales, and assorted limbs. There was even a pair of acromantula (no bigger than half-grown tarantulas) sleeping beside one of Harry's shoes inside of a thickly woven web to protect themselves from the other creatures. Wolfstar watched over them all with barely hidden mistrust from his self-claimed post directly above Harry's head with his shrunken hands buried in Harry's locks.

When he woke up shortly before dawn, Harry needed a good twenty minutes to extract himself out from beneath his living blanket. A number of the creatures protested at being displaced from their various perches; much to the amusement of Duo (who was currently standing watch; each of the pilots having taken a turn during the night out of habit). Once he was clear (a few persistent critters ending up as passengers in Harry's pockets, on his shoulders, and in his hair), Harry headed outside to await the arrival of Obduro.

The proud old centaur arrived with the rising sun and carried with him a pair of twin Aethonan foals (a type of winged horse) that had been born just the evening before; their mother not having survived the dual birth due to her advanced age. All of Harry's family and friends joined them a moment later, startling the aged centaur as he had not known that Harry was no longer alone.

"Obduro, honored centaur, I just realized that I forgot to properly introduce myself yesterday," Harry stated respectfully as he carefully bowed to the centaur (his passengers protesting over the movement). "Allow me to correct that oversight; I was born as Harry James Potter though these days I'm known more often as Taliesin Bard. The humans behind me are a part of my family and close friends; I trust them with my life and by extension have no fear of them harming those you have entrusted me to watch over. They are also fully aware of magic in addition to at least five of them being the squibs I spoke to you of yesterday."

"Please allow me to introduce you to my family, starting with my adopted brothers; Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton, Duo Maxwell, Wufei Chang, and Quatre Winner. Next is my adopted sister who has quite often been my surrogate mother as well; Catherine Bloom. Lastly, is one of my numerous adopted uncles and don't tell him I said so but he's also one of my favorite uncles; Abdul Kurama. The rest of these ladies and gentlemen are close friends; Zechs Merquise, Haddock Cole, Brian Weaver, Takoda Jacobs, Hilde Schbeiker, Patricia Campbell, Jack Martin, Ricardo Ruiz, and Eric Wagner. A few of them will be staying here with me to help rebuild the castle and watch over the creatures. Everyone, this is Obduro; the last centaur. Though, if he is willing, I hope to change that."

"The stars were silent and expectant last night," Obduro intoned once the introductions were over. "Mars is still bright and war hovers near. I fear for my charges for they can not survive another war."

"My brothers taught me how to protect myself and others; the war will not touch those here. That I can promise you," Harry solemnly replied. He then smiled wistfully as he glanced up at the fading stars and added, "All of the planets are bright when you travel through the stars; even Earth shines in the vacuum of space."

"Mortals can not visit the planets and stars."

"But we can," Harry countered as the centaur stamped in disbelief. "I have walked on the moon and looked upon Jupiter, Mars, and Earth. I could swear on my magic if you'd like… or if you truly wanted to see with your own eyes; I could take you to see them for yourself."

"I am too old for such adventures," Obduro stated sadly after a moment, though the longing in his eyes said he wished otherwise. "Your word is enough for me young mage. Should you bring forth the children you said you might breathe life into through what you called science; then I shall see the stars through their eyes as my sire and dam still see them through mine. Only one thing worries me, my time in this world is drawing to an end; who will teach my unborn children the ways of our people? We have no written records that speak of our way of life and while we are born with the history of our forefathers in our memories, understanding requires guidance of one who has unlocked that knowledge."

"If you allow it, I can preserve a magical copy of every single memory you have so that if we are successful your children can still learn from you even if you are no longer with us. And if you have no objection, I too would be honored to learn from your memories so that I can one day tell my children of the heroic centaurs that sacrificed so much to preserve our legacy."

"Even if my children never walk this land; knowing that the knowledge and history of my kind will not pass completely from this world would be a treasure without equal."

Harry nodded solemnly, knowing just how much the centaur was trusting him with (the history of an entire species or culture no little thing after all). He then looked to his brothers for help because while he could deal with Obduro's memories, he had no clue what was needed in order to attempt to clone any being or creature. He knew the basic concept behind cloning and test-tube babies thanks to the lessons that Quatre had given him but he'd never studied it in depth.

Quatre ended up contacting his father for help since while the blonde teen knew far more than Harry did; he wasn't prepared or currently equipped to initiate the process. Zayeed in turn got them in touch with the doctor that had been involved with the creation and cloning of the Winner children and arrangements were made for the elderly man to join them on earth. While that was being done, Harry talked Obduro into allowing him to treat him with healing potions so that the aged centaur would be in optimum health when the doctor that would hopefully be helping them finally arrived.

The fact that the treatment would also extend the centaur's life for at least a couple of months if not a couple of years was a bonus in Harry's eyes. Harry also used that time to start the preparations for copying Obduro's memories; a task that would take nearly a month because there were over two thousand years worth of memories to copy, sort, and store. The majority of those memories were the inherited memories that all centaurs were born with and represented the history of the centaurs.

The older memories (those older than two hundred years) were nothing more than highlights of important events and not the day to day life of ancient centaurs; simply mere summaries and anecdotes dating back to the dawn of the first centaur herd. They were important but not as important as the memories of the lessons that had taught Obduro how to read and understand those earlier memories. Those lessons were important because they would potentially teach future centaurs how to deal with their inherited memories.

Two days after arriving, Abdul, Zechs, Wufei, Duo, and Heero returned home; Zechs back to the Sanc Kingdom and his sister (where he'd begun spending more and more of his time), Abdul to resume his duties as second in command of the Maganacs, and Harry's three brothers to resume their duties to the Freedom Fighters. Quatre, Trowa, and Cathy opted to stay (as did the rest of Harry's squad) in order to help Harry take care of the creatures and make arrangements for a magical creature reserve to be built upon the former school grounds.

Quatre would help Harry find out who owned Crystal Valley (no one since it was magically hidden – the only reason the muggles had found the refugees centuries earlier was because they'd been sold out by a few squibs and a wizard). The blonde had gone on to create an electronic paper trail that showed the land had been in Harry's family for several generations. That was to protect the land from being taken from Harry at any time in the future should the government learn of his presence before he was ready to announce himself (chances were slim but better safe than sorry).

The Winner Heir also had the most experience managing a large estate and he gladly helped Harry put together a business plan for managing the reserve, order the supplies and equipment the older teen would need to rebuild the castle (for those things that couldn't be fixed with magic), hire contractors to design and build the facilities he'd need (though most of the work would be done by the Maganacs), and write out a list of things that would be needed to be done to make the reserve successful and virtually self-sufficient.

Cathy and Trowa helped Harry take care of the numerous creatures that continued to migrate out of the forest; both of them readily accepted by the creatures. It helped that both teens were good with animals and had plenty of experience in dealing with non-domesticated animals from their experience in working with the various animals that had belonged to the circus. Cathy was especially fond of the orphaned Aethonan foals and the unicorns that had instinctively migrated towards her and the other two females in the group. Trowa didn't really have any favorites as he treated all of them with the same care he'd once used when handling the lions and tigers for the circus. His inborn talent as an animal charmer helped to put some of the older, untrusting creatures (including the recalcitrant minders of the thestral filly) at ease enough to tolerate Harry giving them any needed magical medical treatment.

Brian, Haddock, Ricardo, and Eric were the unofficial security guards of Crystal Valley as they frequently patrolled the entire valley in their mobile suits (once the remainder of the suits had been collected from the Winner Estate) keeping an eye out for potential intruders and magical creatures in need of help and/or medical attention. Takoda became the reserves official transport; Dogstar uniquely suited for hauling large amounts of supplies due to all of the extra storage cupboards that Harry had built into the suit's exterior in addition to the ones inside.

Hilde took it upon herself to maintain, upgrade, and repair all of the mobile suits belonging to the squad and the assorted equipment being brought in to rebuild the castle and other buildings (the teen rather mechanically inclined). Lastly, Jack helped Trowa deal with the injured and sick (both human and animal) since he was the only member of Harry's squad with formal medical training (Trowa and Harry both being mostly self taught). All eight pilots also readily lent a hand clearing away debris when they were on the castle grounds. Harry greatly appreciated the help from all of his companions; knowing he'd have gone crazy if he'd attempted to just take care of the animals all alone (not to mention the hundred other little things that needed to be done).

Two weeks after having the truth about what his godfather had done and what had happened to the world he left behind dumped on him, Harry and the others broke ground on what would become the veterinary clinic for all magical creatures on the reserve. The clinic would sit right up against the Forbidden Forest on the ground that Hagrid's cottage and his pumpkin patch had once sat on. Along with the main building (which would be the actual clinic) there would be three barns, an extensive kennel, a large bird coup (which would be more aerie than coup), and several paddocks to house various animals until they were ready to be released into the wild (as well as those that ended up being permanent residents of the castle).

It was an important day for Harry since the clinic was essential to his plans for repopulating the world with magical creatures; including some long extinct species if he could find intact enough remains to draw their D.N.A. from and the cloning process was compatible with the genetics that made magical creatures… well magical. That was also the day that Obduro learned about Harry's wings, since Harry had kept them hidden out of habit during the preceding weeks. Hauling away the rubble and digging through the hard, rocky ground in preparation for laying the foundation was hard, hot work though and Harry had stripped out of both his shirts (freeing his wings) in order to prevent himself from overheating.

At the time, Obduro had been tending to several of the young hoofed animals, the various equine-like creatures long considered distant kin of sorts by centaurs, when he happened to look up and catch site of Harry's wings unfurling. The curious centaur had immediately tried to get a closer look at the strange wings which had Harry yelping in indignation and shock as he still loathed having his wings touched. Obduro had immediately apologized for startling him and then grilled Harry for an hour on the origin of the wings (his memories clearly telling him that mages and other humans most certainly did not have wings).

The revelation that Harry believed his wings to be a product of accidental magic, extreme negative emotions, pure desperation, and the lingering magic in the phoenix tears and basilisk venom intrigued the centaur; especially when Fawkes confirmed that belief with a few trills and head bobs (the phoenix one of those that never left Harry's side). That in turn led to a discussion on Harry's de-aging upon arriving in the future but no answers were forth coming from either the centaur or the phoenix on why or how that had happened.

The presence of his wings was actually a big hit with the various flying creatures that had made an appearance; they especially enjoyed flying alongside Harry when he flew using his wings or his broom. Unfortunately for Harry, keeping the various creatures from climbing all over his wings when they were not safely tucked into one of his button down shirts was near impossible and the constant contact drove Harry up the wall in the beginning.

The fact that the contact was near constant, on the other hand, meant that he eventually grew desensitized to the sensation of having his wings touched to the point where he no longer flinched when anyone brushed up against them (even if he still didn't particularly like having them touched). Once that happened, he ended up allowing both Cathy and Obduro to examine them a bit closer (Cathy long curious as to what they felt like and the centaur still fascinated by them). Trowa absently commented that the desensitization of his wings to casual touch was a good thing since it meant that it would be easier to treat any future wing injuries Harry received.

The veterinary clinic was just starting to take shape when Takoda arrived from his most recent supply run with a bunch of medical equipment (anything requiring power of some sort dismantled and completely removed from their power sources until they could be warded against magic least their systems be fried) and a man that would eventually become the first official employee of said clinic. Doctor Satoshi Watanabe, one of the leading authorities in genetics and a good friend of the Winner family, would be working closely with Harry to hopefully establish a cloning program for the endangered magical creatures.

The man was a scientist through and through and he'd not wanted to believe in the existence of magic even after seeing a centaur, unicorns, thestrals, and a handful of other odd creatures with his own eyes. Harry's explanation that magic was nothing more than an inborn ability to manipulate energy and matter along with his usual demonstration helped the man to accept the idea of magic a little easier if not the label it had been given. It helped that the challenge of cloning dozens of unique species not seen by humans in over four centuries and bringing dozens more back from extinction appealed to the man's inner scientist.

The fact that there would be new genetic discoveries involved (since magic was a genetic trait – even if it was an obscure one) only helped since genetics was Dr. Watanabe's chosen field of study. Harry's reluctant agreement to allow the man a chance to study him personally (once he agreed to never create a clone of Harry without his express permission) saw the good doctor losing the last of his hesitance in accepting the position of Director of Magical Genetics for the magical creature reserve that Harry was creating (on a temporary basis at least since the man was fairly old).

The doctor's first patient was Obduro and he took numerous samples from the centaur (hair, hoof trimmings, blood, and other bodily fluids) that he then took with him back to the Winner Estate to analyze (since the equipment Harry had purchased still needed to be warded and set up before it could be used). Quatre had had another lab set up back at the estate in order to allow the doctor to start working immediately; intuitively knowing Harry wouldn't wish to have the research held up by technicalities and the lack of lab space. Thankfully, none of the samples from the centaur contained enough active magic to affect the un-warded equipment or skew the results (unlike similar samples from say a phoenix or a unicorn whose entire bodies were suffused with magic).

Half of the Maganac Corp flew in within a few days after the doctor returned to the Winner Estate in order to speed up the raising of the clinic. Harry left them to the construction of the building and instead set up a workshop in the antechamber off the Great Hall (where the Tri-Wizard Tournament champions had been sent after being selected) and began the painstaking process of warding the various medical and computer equipment for the clinic. A process made more difficult by the various creatures that insisted on following Harry; especially those like the thestrals that were drawn to the scent of fresh blood, the little female filly (whom Taliesin had named Orsa) was a particularly troublesome intruder. The silly filly had emptied more than one vial of warding blood by sticking her nose in it until Harry started using the smaller mouthed vials and charmed them to be non-spilling.

By the end of Harry's second month at Hogwarts the medical and research equipment had been warded and sat ready for installation (Harry leaving that job to the professionals). The clinic was nearly complete and Dr. Watanabe had been back twice more to run a few tests on Obduro and consult with Harry about the possibility of obtaining a second sample of centaur D.N.A. from another source. That of course led Harry to starting what could have been a highly offensive discussion with Obduro; respectfully disturbing the bones of long dead centaurs so that they might extract any traces of D.N.A. from them. Harry probably could have done so without speaking with Obduro but he felt that would have been dishonest and only give rise to resentment (something he wanted to avoid).

The centaur hesitantly agreed, providing that no one but Harry learned of where the centaurs were laid to rest and that the bones be returned to their final resting place as undamaged as possible when they were finished with them. That was how Harry learned that centaurs were 'buried' among the trees when they died so that they could be closer to the heavens; their bodies hoisted high up into the branches after being wrapped with giant magical dock leaves and acromantula silk.

Harry carefully chose nine centaurs from three different centuries that were completely unrelated to Obduro or each other and under Obduro's watchful gaze (from where he stood supervising beneath the trees) removed three bones from each centaur; a rib bone from the human-torso, a second rib from the horse-torso, and the bone from the base of the tail. The bones were carefully cataloged, packaged in special boxes, and labeled with the name, age, and death date of the centaur from which it had been taken (information that was provided by Obduro). The bones were then turned over to Dr. Watanabe with a request that they be returned as undamaged as possible (some minor damage expected due to the D.N.A. extraction process).

About that same time, there were a flurry of intense battles around the world and their small contingent was called to defend the Sanc Kingdom from OZ soldiers. OZ forces were in pursuit of a small regiment of Treize's men that had been herded into the peaceful nation's borders for the sole purpose of using their presence as an excuse to attack the small pacifist kingdom. Cathy and a couple of the Maganacs stayed behind to watch over the animals while Harry and his brothers led the rest to the Sanc Kingdom where they'd be meeting up with Zechs.

Wolfstar and Harry dealt with the OZ troops while the rest rounded up Treize's soldiers (most of whom were injured and barely in any condition to fight) and removed them to the capital of the kingdom where Relena had offered them refuge. Harry was less than pleased to be forced to deal peaceably with men who willingly followed a man he couldn't stand but he did so in order to prevent any problems from cropping up between the Sanc Kingdom and the Freedom Fighters. Once the battle was over and the threat of invasion removed, Harry was the first to leave so he could return to Crystal Valley.

He'd fully intended to return to the former school and burn off his frustration by spending a day or two blasting the shit out of whatever he could find but the moment he dropped down out of Wolfstar's cockpit, he was swarmed by a crowd of magical creatures that had missed him. Seeing those creatures that relied upon him to protect and nurture them (his magic integral to their survival) made him realize that he could no longer give into his rage whenever he felt like it. So instead of potentially laying waste to a good portion of the old school grounds, Harry spent the two days it took for the others to return clearing the stone and debris from the collapsed section of the castle.

He really should have expected it but the uncovering of the first skeleton really shocked him. He'd stopped and stared at the broken remains for nearly an hour before he shook off the shock and he felt sick at heart when he realized from the size of the bones that whoever it had been would have been in their third or fourth year if they'd been attending Hogwarts as a student. His first inclination, once he could think clearly, was to give the child a proper burial and then he paused as he glanced between his own hands and the bones of the broken child. The torn feelings between what was proper and what was needed weighed heavily on him and Harry felt a whole new level of respect for Obduro's agreement to desecrate the graves of his ancestors for the D.N.A. samples needed to make healthy clones with a full range of genetic variances.

With that in mind, Harry swallowed thickly and carefully gathered up every single bone chip and boxed them in a warded box with the date, time, and location of where he or she had been found. He then set the box well back out of the way and continued with his work. By the time the others made it back there were eighteen such boxes stacked neatly in the Entrance Hall; each one of them filled with at least one skeleton and some of them filled with multiple skeletons in the cases where more than one person had been caught beneath a section of the castle. There were two infant skeletons in the group and three more children that were under the age of ten and Harry had cried when he'd found them.

By the time the damaged section of the castle was mostly cleared out two weeks later (all but the most unstable areas being cleared), he had uncovered just over three hundred skeletons; more than two thirds of them belonging to children and young adults that would have been of an age to have been attending Hogwarts as students. The rest of the skeletons were adults and younger children that had been taking refuge inside of the castle at the time it collapsed. Harry mourned each and every life lost that day and performed a memorial rite for them to set their spirits to rest before he allowed their remains to be sent to Dr. Watanabe for carbon dating and genetic testing. He then went about finding a large, open plot of land overlooking the castle and a good portion of the valley where he could bury the witches and wizards of old once the doctor was finished with their bones.

During that time, Harry also entered the forest to seek out the nest of the acromantula to speak with the elders, hoping that they (like Aragog before them) would understand and speak human speech. Luckily for Harry, they did, even if it was far more broken and disjointed than Aragog's speech had been, making them far more difficult to understand. The treaty Harry made with the flesh-eating spiders was simple and straightforward; they were to leave magical creatures, magical beings, and all humans unmolested and release any magical creatures or beings and humans caught in their webs.

Harry in return would not wipe their species off the face of the earth and would see to it that the forest was stocked with plenty of non-magical creatures for them to consume to maintain their modest numbers (the magical plants those non-magical animals ate while living in the forest would provide more than enough magic for the colony since the magic would build up inside the creatures' bodies over time due to them not actually needing the magic). Needless to say the semi-intelligent spiders wisely chose to accept the treaty as offered after Harry demonstrated his ability to destroy a fully grown tree with a single spell.

That was also about the time that the portraits of the past Headmasters and Headmistresses taught Harry several spells to help in the reconstruction of the castle. First they taught him a series of construction spells that would help him repair and rebuild the damaged sections of the castle. They then taught him the spells to re-enchant the ceiling in the Great Hall, reactivate the moving staircases, make announcements to the entire castle, and lock down the entire castle. They also taught him a spell that would channel a wizard's excess magic into the castle which would gradually reactivate the secret passageways and strengthen the wards. Most of the spells, bar the one to make announcements heard throughout the castle and the one to siphon magic into the castle, required an insane amount of magic in order to perform; the enchantment on the ceiling was particularly costly to cast.

Towards the end of October, Quatre and the Maganacs made plans to return to the Winner estate now that the clinic and the first of the three barns were finished and the weather had turned too cold to continue building. Harry was sad to see his brother and surrogate uncles leave but understood they had other obligations. Trowa would be staying a little longer to help Harry settle all of the critters for the winter before he too would return to the Estate.

On the other hand, Cathy would be staying to watch over Harry and his squad and to act as a chaperone for the two young women in the squad (both of whom were not yet adults); saying she couldn't trust seven men to look after themselves properly or behave themselves around the young ladies. Doctor Watanabe and his three assistants joined them about the same time now that his new lab within the clinic had been completed and he brought with him the welcome news that there were five viable centaur embryos currently gestating; three females and two males.

The good doctor wished to start gathering genetic material from those creatures most at risk; those with the fewest numbers. Fawkes was one of such creatures, as like Harry and Obduro, he was the last of his kind and when he finally passed so too would the phoenixes if he didn't allow them to clone him. Harry almost feared the phoenix wouldn't allow the samples to be taken but in the end the steadily fading phoenix willingly shed tears, blood, and more than half of his tail feathers after disappearing for two days. Sadly, Fawkes passed away immediately after giving said donations; having used up the last of his magic to provide the offering.

Harry grieved for the loss and carefully gathered the ashes of the phoenix's last body and diligently preserved them so that they might be used to create nests for any new phoenixes that were successfully cloned. Something that wasn't guaranteed to happen because there were no phoenix graveyards from which they could take additional samples (dead phoenixes leaving nothing but ashes behind) and the chances that there might be some in Harry's potion supplies were slim since phoenix ingredients were exceedingly rare (though Harry had promised the good doctor that he would look for any such samples when he had the time to spare).

Harry was also roped into subjecting himself to a series of tests and giving numerous samples. He warned the doctor that his D.N.A. might present far more problems when it came to cloning due to influence of the tears and venom wrecking havoc on his body along with his magic. Not long after those samples were taken and tested, Dr. Watanabe actually set Harry's mind to rest about whether or not he could still be classified as human; since despite the changes made to his body, his basic D.N.A. was without a doubt clearly human and very much still compatible with other humans. Whether or not any children cloned from his D.N.A. would end up with his wings and hollow bone structure was yet to be determined (a single clone the doctor produced with Harry's grudging permission would answer that question in about nine months).

By the time December first rolled around, Harry's heart was feeling the first threads of hope for the dying world with which he had been entrusted protect and rebuild. Magic would have a future; Harry could and would make certain of that.

Translations: Latin to English

Orsa – beginning, start

AN: It's a lot of work trying to keep track of everything that Harry needs to do in order to rebuild the wizarding world and I'm certain I've left out a number of things and other things won't be brought up until later. It's a start at least. And I finally got the pilot introductions in for Harry's squad, though I've left their physical descriptions out. Their ages range from sixteen to twenty-three, I think, but I didn't develop them as much as I usually do when I throw an OC into a story because they don't play as big a part as the Gundam pilots or even Zechs does. They will have a bit more screen time in later chapters though and you'll learn a few small tidbits about what they do.

Anyway, the next chapter, as promised, will introduce Harry's love interest as well as show what is happening with the rest of the world as we move forward with the GW timeline. I'll be posting again either Thursday or Friday; not sure what day yet as I'll have company on Thursday and need to get a few things done about the house.

I do hope everyone had a merry Christmas or other happy holiday. There's extra pie for those who'd like some but I'll warn you now, the turtles and the popcorn are mine and I will defend them! I tried to talk Seth into guarding them for me but I have to make due with my demonic cat because all my other snakes are taking a winter nap and Seth said it was too cold here. I mean really, the pond only froze over twice this week… so it's not that cold; wimpy cobra. ~ Jenn