Wormtail watched as some of the other Death Eaters set the Dark Mark in the night sky, above the home of the family they had just killed on the Dark Lord's orders.
The other Death Eaters had done most of the fighting, but he had managed to make himself useful with a few carefully cast spells and curses here and there to prevent the family in question from escaping.
Another Wizarding family was wiped out of existence tonight, just like that.
For someone who claimed that Pure Bloods were superior and should rule everything, his Master sure liked killing off a lot of them...
He shook his head and shuddered.
Thoughts like that were best not had if one wanted to live while under his service. There was no hiding things from him, after all...
"Come on! The job is done! Let's go!" one of his comrades called out to the others.
As he Apparated away just before the Aurors could come, the thought passed through his mind of his former friend's son having a hell of a time trying to put his Master down for good even with all the supposedly intense training he'd been getting in that Magix place.
Over the first semester, Harry had become more driven than ever before.
He ignored the remarks of certain people (Tony!) and focused on his training and other school obligations, all the while trying to provide remote support for those back home.
Hogwarts had become a fortress in the midst of the war going on back home. People who wanted to stay safe had fled there, knowing that it had some of the strongest protections even above that of the Ministry before it had fallen, which had only been reinforced since Voldemort had moved out into the open two years ago.
The teachers, his friends and even others around Red Fountain whom he was only mildly acquainted with also noticed his drive and for the most part, left him to it.
Even Roxy supported him in her own way, even though her own fairy training was also starting to get hectic and she was beginning to feel a bit of Enchantix envy as a few of the other fairies in her year had managed to earn their Enchantix already.
After the semester had finished, he'd spent only a few days with Roxy and Hermione on Tir Nan Og, before heading out to Isis to visit the De L'Ors.
At this very moment however, he was on their estate, practicing some of their spells, under Garnet's supervision, imagining one of the targets that he was currently shooting razor sharp sapphires at from his wand was Voldemort.
"Come on, Harry! Step it up! Do you feel that this Lord Voldemort creature is going to be like these targets?" Garnet barked, showing a side of him that was quite different from the reserved scientist, researcher and doting father that he had known him as before.
The change would have rattled him, had Harry been of weaker constitution and not used to stranger things happening.
"I will step things up for you!" Garnet snapped his fingers and the target dummies, which had been generic in appearance before, changed to take on Voldemort's appearance.
Since Garnet had never seen Voldemort even in a picture and Harry had only described him to the older man, he thought the depiction was quite accurate.
Particularly when the Volde-dummies raised their wands and started firing green jets of light at him.
He ducked and rolled on the ground, narrowly managing to avoid being hit.
"Those aren't Killing Curses, as I'm sure you're well aware, but it still wouldn't be wise to let them hit you!" Garnet called out.
Harry found out precisely why, when seconds later, one jet of light clipped him on the arm, stinging him.
"Ouch. Did these things have to be so realistic?" Harry exclaimed while rubbing his arm and dodging another set of blasts.
"I'd rather not have the young man who helped to save my children from death or fates worse than that, taken down by a homicidal maniac." Garnet spoke wryly.
"I'd rather not have that happen either..." Harry breathed as he created an energy shield that deflected some of the blasts.
"There is your answer then. Yes. 'These things' do have to be so realistic." Garnet's tone and expression appeared to have no sympathy for him whatsoever.
Harry somersaulted out of the way of the next volley of shots and before he landed a spell was already shooting out of his wand that created a giant, protective dome around him made of diamond.
He clenched his free hand when he landed, causing the shield to shatter.
Swinging his wand out in a wide arc, the diamond shield shattered and the pieces started flying towards the dummies, going straight through the beams of the light they were shooting at him and hitting each of them in either the head, neck or chest.
Garnet looked mildly impressed as he shot out an energy blast that circled around all the ruined Volde-dummies and made them disappear.
He started a slow clap as he walked towards Harry and put a hand on his shoulder. "Well done, Harry. The Diamond Defence spell isn't always the easiest spell to learn and you managed to create not just a frontal shield, but a half-dome one as well. Plus shattering it like that was pretty impressive- and the aim was excellent as well!"
"Thanks," Harry breathed, wiping his brow.
"The praise was deserved. You've proven yourself more than worthy over the past couple of days of wielding the spells in the De L'Or grimoire. Plus I understand that for your kind, conjuration transfiguration, wordless and wandless spells do not come easily, so for you to have accomplished this in such a relatively short space of time... That Voldemort fellow isn't going to have a chance." Garnet allowed himself a small smile at those words.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. It's much appreciated." Harry said.
Hearing footsteps behind them, they turned to see Topaz, with Amethyst and Jasper trailing behind her, levitating a large tray of refreshments and setting it onto a table that Garnet conjured upon seeing her.
"I see we arrived just in time," Topaz smiled. "How did today's session go?"
"Excellent. Harry still has a couple of problems with some of the spells we tried today, but most of them he has done pretty well with." Garnet conjured some chairs and sat in one of them before Jasper loaded up a plate and handed it to him, with Amethyst doing the same for Harry.
"Then there's me, unable to separate a gem cluster without something weird happening..." Amethyst pouted.
"Hush, Amethyst. You're even younger than he is and it's expected that you'd have less control over your powers than him..." Topaz pointed out.
"But Mom," Jasper started, a mischievous smile on his face. "trying to separate gem clusters doesn't usually result in them exploding. And I must say that Ame's explosions are pretty entertaining to watch..."
Amethyst glared him down as a slight growl escaped her throat.
"I often wonder if this is what it would have been like if I'd grown up with siblings had my parents lived..." Harry remarked casually as he watched the two bicker.
"Eh... They've had fights worse than this, it's just that they've toned them down quite a lot since you rescued them." Garnet explained.
Harry let his thoughts wonder off for a bit as he ate.
"So, do you honestly feel that you could take Voldemort in a fight if he were to show up right now?" Garnet's rather pointed question broke the silence between them a few minutes later.
"I don't know." Harry shrugged. "Honestly, it's anyone's game at this point. I've had a lot of training here that he hasn't, but he's still got much more years of experience and learning of his own than I do..."
"Fair point," the older man nodded. "All I can do then is ensure that I help as best as I can to make sure that you live."
"He plays dirty. I figure that I'll have to start playing dirty to win against him. He'd never expect that I could, apparently having the image of being such a 'Golden Boy'," Harry scoffed. "and all."
"Doing the unexpected." Garnet chuckled. "I like it."
"Plus the dark bastard's gone and done something that he can't be properly killed unless that matter is taken care of properly beforehand." Harry muttered.
Garnet raised an eyebrow but Harry didn't elaborate.
"I see. Likely dark magic of the worst kind, knowing of what he's done." he nodded knowingly.
Amethyst and Jasper finally stopped squabbling and settled down to eat as the conversation drifted to other topics.
The day before classes resumed, Harry dropped off his things in the dorm early then headed out to meet Roxy, who had also returned to Magix early that day.
"I trust you had an interesting holiday after I left?" Harry queried as the two bought some ice cream from a vendor in the park and strolled away.
"Oh yeah. I got to go to Romulea with the roomies and meet one set of Athena and Anahita's grandparents. The Clairmonts."
"Isn't Nadora Clairmont their grandmother?" Harry asked. "The famous author?"
"She is," Roxy nodded. "She's actually pretty nice. Gave me free copies of two of her books to start me off. It's actually pretty good. Hermione was invited as well, once they heard she was with me and as you can imagine, getting free books completely won her over to them."
Harry chuckled. "I can only imagine..."
"Things got even more interesting when we were touring a potions lab there and the place exploded."
Harry's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"
"You've not been keeping up with the news while you were gone, have you?"
"I was, but I can't know about everything everywhere!" Harry exclaimed. "Were you okay? What about the others? Were they okay?"
"I was, but that aside, apparently it was some disgruntled former worker there who got fired and decided to blow the place sky high in revenge." Roxy scowled. Rainer, Krystal, Hermione and I did our best to help people out. As for the twins they had to work together to get their grandparents out of the chaos. A lot of dangerous chemicals and precariously perched debris around them... Things were done and when next we saw them when the dust had settled, they'd gotten their Enchantix. Both of them."
"Congratulations are in order then, I suppose. Good on them!" Harry spoke between licks of his ice cream.
"Yeah. A power up and their grandparents get to live another day. That shit was scary though. And not everyone was as lucky as they were..." Roxy looked down.
"Did they ever catch the guy who did it?" Harry asked as the two finally reached their favourite spot of the park and picked a bench to watch the lake from.
"Yeah... About four days afterwards. We watched the whole thing go down on television. It looked like something straight out of an action movie, the chase and the fight..."
"And here I thought my holiday was interesting enough..." Harry remarked. "At least I didn't have to deal with disgruntled employees making highly volatile potions explode... Although there were a few other explosions of my own to deal with..."
"I won't question what you were off doing since you last left Tir Nan Og. I realise that you didn't seem to want me to know where you were going. I guess you have your reasons for that." Roxy said. "As long as you weren't doing anything illegal or cheating on me I'm not concerned." the animal fairy shrugged.
"Well, at least you won't ever have to worry about me cheating on you. I love you way too much for that." Harry chuckled.
His eyes widened when he realised what he'd said.
And so did Roxy's.
"You... what?" Roxy's voice lowered.
"I... you heard me." Harry kissed her. "We've been dating for a while now and I guess it's just so natural to me, so it slipped out..."
Roxy mulled it over for a moment, still slightly dazed by the kiss.
"I guess I love you too. In fact, I know I do. It's just that... with everything going on and well, never being in love before..."
"We'll figure it out. We've got time." Harry reassured her. "There's no rush."
"Voldemort?" Roxy raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not about to let him mess up my life now that I'm in such a good place. His days are numbered." Harry assured her. "But talking about him puts a bit of a damper on the mood, so let's find something more pleasant to talk about, shall we?"
Roxy giggled. "Yeah. Let's."