Project Motherhood: Emilia and Rem

by Gamer95

Subaru never came to Lugunica. Instead, the ones transported to another world were Emilia, Rem, Beatrice and Puck. Shortly after arrival, they find themselves learning the story of the Boy Who Lived, and discovering he lives right next door to their gracious host. Upon realizing he is harshly treated, Emilia and Rem take it upon themselves to raise him. Co-writer: francoslama2005

1. Chapter 1

The bright rays of the Sun shone all over Lugnica, bathing the entire country in warmth and light. Beasts, both natural and magical, awoke ready to start off a new day. The people of the kingdom were no exception, men and women of human and non-human alike waking up, most already walking around, setting up shop and preparing for work.

The Mathers estate also felt the full brunt of the Sun's rays, practically glowing as it was showered by the light. A few stray rays shone through the window on the east side of the mansion.

We cut to a luxurious green room, walls lined with golden markings, with a large canopy bed sitting in the middle. The blankets shifted to reveal a head of long, white (and rather dishevelled) hair, a pair of small, pointed ears sticking out on the sides. The hair framed a beautiful pale face, unblemished skin as white as snow. Soon, a pair of purple eyes blinked open, before squinting, the owner grunting as her vision was assaulted by the pesky sunlight shining through the curtains.

"Nnnghh...and I had such a pleasant dream..." Groaned the elf girl, lamenting at the end of such a nice experience. She stretched her arms, before shaking her head awake. A smile formed on her face, as if the tiredness she was feeling previously never existed.

"Right! Time to start off a new day!" She exclaimed happily. But before she could continue, the sound of the door opening caught her attention.

"Emilia. May I come in?"

Emilia perked up. "Oh, of course you can, Rem!" The door slowly opened, and the blue haired Oni stepped in, looking dutiful as ever.

"Good morning. Breakfast will be ready shortly. Afterwards, I would heavily advise you return to your studies." Emilia nodded her head.

"Right, right, I'm reaaally sorry I haven't been on top of that lately, it's just been such a chaotic few days, y'know? There was that big storm, and then a bunch of mabeasts showed up while we were in town and Puck and I had to help the best we could, and then I sprained my ankle on the stairs, and..."

"Yes, I know, you've had a difficult week, but things have calmed down significantly. I'd recommend using Beatrice's library for today. You can distract her with Puck and focus on your studies."

Emilia nodded. "Yes...But um...Rem? There's a few things I'm...kiiiinda struggling to understand, do you think maybe later you could come and lend me a hand...?"

Rem nodded, her expression unchanged. "Very well." A small, barely noticeable smile formed on her lips. "I have noticed you falling behind on a lot of different subjects which should be rather easy. Perhaps we should return to the basics?" She teased.

Emilia flushed in embarrassment, crossing her arms in a pout. "Mouuu, don't tease me like that Rem! You know I'm not that bad!" She yelled out.

The blue twin giggled in amusement at the witch lookalike, before her face was set back to it's neutral expression. "Let's not waste time anymore, Emilia-sama. You have much to study today, and it'd be preferable if we started as soon as possible. I still have the rest of my maid chores to attend t-"

"No you do not." Another voice interrupted Rem. Both girls looked to see a second maid bearing a striking resemblance to Rem, only with bright pink hair instead of blue.

"Ah, sister. Good morning." Rem greeted her twin, Ram.

"Good morning Rem. And good morning to you too, Emilia-sama." Bowed the older twin, greeting the two other girls.

"Morning Ram!" Greeted the white elf enthusiastically, waving at her with a smile.

Acknowledging the greeting with a nod, Ram turned to look at Rem. "As I was saying, you won't be doing any chores besides helping Emilia-sama with her studies today, Rem. I'm going to take care of everything today."

Rem attempted to voice a protest, but a finger on her lips shushed her. "No. You've been overworking yourself afraid too much these days, sister. Something as easy as helping Emilia-sama study will be beneficial to your health..." Ram blinked. "...although I wouldn't exactly call studying with Emilia-sama easy..."

"Hey!" Protested the royal candidate in question.

"Regadless..." Ram continued, casually ignoring the annoyed elf. "...something as easy as that should serve as a refreshing activity for you." She put a hand on Rem's shoulder. "I only want you to be in good health sister. Besides, I've done every last chore in the mansion on my own before. It's not like it'll present me a problem."

The two sisters smiled at one another. "Very well, dear sister. I will help Emilia study. Come now... Let's go eat breakfast, and then we will go to Beatrice's library."

And so, after a hearty breakfast, the half-elf and the oni knocked on the door to the spirit's designated area. "Hmph. Enter if you must, I suppose." Came the youthful spirit's snooty voice. Emilia was quick to push the door open.

"Hello, Beatrice! Sorry to bother you, but I reaaally need somewhere quiet to study for today, so can I please come in?" She asked with a bow.

"Do what you must, I suppose. Just try not to make too much noise. A library is supposed to be a quiet area."

"Yes, of course, I understand, you'll barely even know I'm-" Emilia stubbed her toe on the table as she entered the room and cried out loudly in pain before forcing a smile. "...Here. Heehee..." Beatrice simply rolled her eyes.

"How very reassuring, I suppose." She huffed.

Rem giggled and took a seat next to Emilia. "Now then... Where were you again?"

And so the two of them spent several hours studying thoroughly, looking through every book they could find that was important to the royal candidate's studies. Puck had come out at one point to keep Beatrice satisfied, but after a point, his mana ran low and he had to return to the spirit world, leaving the young girl pouting.

Emilia sighed as she closed the last book for the day. "That was certainly difficult." She spoke up. "Being a royal candidate is hard work, but it must be done for the good of the kingdom!" She clenched her fists and nodded in determination,

"Yes, indeed. You've done well today. I'm impressed how well you've managed to retain information this time." Rem nodded with a smile. Emilia beamed.

"Hmph. She should have known most of these topics months ago, I suppose. She's going to have to pick up the pace if she plans to win the runnings." Beatrice huffed. Emilia pouted.

"Aww, come on, Beatrice, be nice to me, I'm doing my best!" She protested.

Beatrice opened her mouth to speak, but she noticed what appeared to be a flash of light. "Hmm? A strange trick of the light, I suppose..."

Rem tilted her head, but she saw the same light. "Wait... What in the world?"

"What is it, you two?" Emilia asked curiously before she too saw the flash of light. "Huh?"

All three girls' visions blurred. It was as if they were about to fall unconscious, the world around them fading away... Until the strange feeling ceased. They all opened their eyes. They found they had gone from within Beatrice's library in the manor to a small rocky mountain in the middle of a heavy snowfall.

"Ah! Wait what!" Yelled out Emilia, stumbling back at the sudden change of scenery and falling on her butt into the snow, before jumping back up with a squeak. "Eek! Cold!"

"Wh-what just happened?!" Rem asked, alarmed at their new location, her oni senses on high alert. "We...we were in the library a second ago? How did we get out here? An illusion?"

"No. If it were the case, Betty would have sensed the shift in mana in fact." Spoke the drill loli. "This is no illusion I suppose. This is one hundred percent real."

"B-but...if this isn't an illusion, then...how did we teleport here? Betty would have sensed if it was a teleportation spell of some kind, right?" Emilia asked.

"Correct I suppose." Nodded Beatrice. "However, the Forbidden Library has several wards placed to make sure outside spellcasting gets canceled out upon immediate activation. This could only mean that what sent us here isn't magic." Observed the spirit.

"Not magic?" Rem asked, dumbfounded. "Is such a thing even possible?"

"Yes. Though the only methods that do so are in the possession of the Witches of Sin."

"S-so, that means..." Emilia stuttered.

"The witch cultists..." Rem seethed out.

A cold silence grew amongst the trio as they considered the meanings such an idea.

"We should move. Now. If we're correct, and the witch cult has broken into the manor, it's only a matter of time before..." Rem stopped, the implications of such a scenario too much to bear.

Emilia placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It's okay Rem. Your sister is powerful, some cultists won't be too bih of a problem. Though we should still hurry."

Rem nodded, slightly comforted, yet still worried sick. "Indeed. Let's move."

"Don't order me around, I suppose." Beatrice snarked.

"C'mon girls! Let's not bicker and star-wh-whoa!" Emilia suddenly lost her balance and fell onto the snow covered path. However, instead of stopping, she began to roll down the hill, going faster as she rolled further down.

"Emilia-sama!" Rem yelled out and was about to follow, before Beatrice grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Beatrice-sama!" What are you doing!? I need to help Emilia-sama!"

"And risk slipping and suffering the same fate as her I suppose? You idiotic maid, think for a second in fact!"

"Aaaahh! Soooommmeeeboooodyyyy heeeellllpppp!" Tze two girls looked down, and Emilia yelled as she felt herself getting dizzier as she spun down the hill. She was also slowly getting covered in snow, and before one knew it, she was encased in a huge snowball that seemed to get larger by the second.

"This doesn't bode well."

"That it doesn't."

Soon, the giant snowball slowed down, rolling towards a snow covered tree. However, instead of slamming into the tree and stopping, the snowball actually continued up the tree, bending it under it's massive weight, the tree creaking and groaning in protest.

After a few seconds, the tree somehow broke the fundamental laws of physics and launched the snowball high into the sky like a makeshift catapult. The snowball, Emilia still inside, flew through the air, making a funny whistling sound as it soared...right towards Beatrice and Rem.

"Uummm...shouldn't we be running by now? Asked the maid, watching the snowball rapidly descend towards them.

"Even if we did, factoring in the speed at which the snowball is flying at, as well as the softness and depth of the snow beneath our feet, we wouldn't be able to move in time. The only logical and plausible conclusion to this situation is-"

Beako didn't get to finish, as the snowball finally landed on them, a massive splash of snow accompanying it's crash. For a few seconds, nothing happened, before two heads dug themselves out of the huge pile of snow.

"Pwooof!" Beatrice spat out some snow that got in her mouth. "...that, I suppose."

Rem shook a small pile of snow off her head. More digging was heard before Emilia dug herself out as well. "Wooh! That was kinda fun, let's do it again!" She exclaimed...only to immediately be faced with Beatrice and Rem, both glaring daggers at her, and growling as they were surrounded by a purple aura of malice.

Emilia promptly shut up.

The other two girls dug the rest of their bodies free from their snowy tomb, and Rem let out a soft sigh before she extended a hand to Emilia. "Here..." The half-elf smiled and accepted the oni's offer for help, and soon she was pulled free from her confinement.

Emilia set to dusting herself off, as did Rem. Beatrice? She simply used her wind magic to blow the snow off of her body. Unfortunately for Emilia and Rem, it all ended up blowing onto them, as well as several feet of snow from the ground near the spirit, leaving them completely caked in the cold white powder, save for their eyes, which were both giving Beatrice an unimpressed look.

The spirit huffed and stuck her nose up in the air. "Well it's hardly my fault you were standing too close, I suppose!" She snorted, refusing to take responsibility for her actions. Sighing, Emilia and Rem shook themselves off. They looked down at the path once more.

"Okay... So we don't want a repeat of that... But it's the only way down, and we're in a hurry, so... um... Oh, if only Puck still had his mana, he'd be able to get us down there..."

Beatrice huffed. "As long as you take it slowly and carefully, you should be able to make it down without much hassle I suppose. Now get moving! We've no time to waste, in fact!" The little spirit was now perched atop Emilia's shoulders.

"Um... Beatrice...? Why are you riding on my shoulders?"

"Well you can't expect me to walk in such weather, I suppose! I'm far too delicate for such grueling excercise in fact! Now let's get moving already!"

Emilia huffed with a pout and began to slowly, carefully walk down the steep slope, Rem trailing along behind her. She was careful to watch her step this time. And she managed to make it safely to the bottom. Rem's crunching footsteps indicated she did too. She turned with a smile. "Great! We're making progress now!"

"Yes, but be careful, the ground ahead looks unstable." Rem warned.

"If you cause us to plummet to our doom, I'll kill your ghost I suppose!" Beatrice threatened.

Emilia pouted. "It's not THAT high up..."

And so the trio carried on. It was a rather narrow ledge, so they were forced to stay as close to the wall as they possibly could. They made it about halfway before they felt the ledge crumbling away beneath their feet. They tried to pick up the pace, but they were just inches away from safety when the ground beneath them was rendered nonexistant.

"YOU FOOLISH BRAT!" Beatrice shrieked as they all plummeted down to terra firma.

Their landing point? A trio of abandoned snowmen.

Unable to set themselves up for a safe landing, the trio screamed as mistress gravity forcefully pulled them towards the snowmen, and through some kind of miraculous (but not necessarily good) luck, each of them was heading towards a single snowman.

*Whoomp!*
Emilia fell first, crashing headfirst into her snowman, and pushing through it with her entire body. The branches fell off to make way for her legs, which took the place of arms, with her skirt ending up as a makeshift collar, one a renaissance nobleman would wear.

"Mmmmwwww..." Groaned the elf, both from cold and exasperation.

*Whoomp!*
The next one to fall was Rem. Unlike her white companion, she managed to land upright, having flipped in the air as to not land face first. She fell through the snowman entirely, the head obliterated and replaced with her own, same with the arms. Just as Rem was about to get out, something landed on her head. She looked up and deadpanned, realizing it was the hat the snowman was wearing before she landed on it.

"If this is a joke, it is not funny." She said bluntly, more than a little miffed at just how convenient the whole situation was.

*Whoomp!*
The last person to land was Beatrice. Due to being the lightest of the three, not only did she fall slightly slower than the other two, but she didn't even sink all too deep into her snowman. Just like Emilia, she landed headfirst, but only her head and torso was buried inside the snowman, her legs left to swing uselessly in the air. The snowman's arms were replaced with her drill tails, her own arms sticking out of it's head.

"Mmmrrrrrrffffff..." A growl sounded from inside the snowman, it's newly arrived denizen seething in barely restrained fury.

Rem kicked her leg out of her snowman, planted it into the snow and jumped out of the snowman, landing gracefully and patting herself off.

"Ah, there." She said. "Emilia-sama? Do you need...any..hel...p.." Rem trailed off, her eyes glued to the scene before her.
Somehow, Emilia managed to free herself out of her upside-down position and was now standing back on her legs. The problem?

Her entire body besides her legs was still buried inside the snowman.

"Mmmf! Mmmffgghh! Hllph!" She called out from inside the snowman, stumbling around and barely holding her balance.
"Wait, Emilia-sama. Let me help you with that!" She said, running over to help.

"Rmm! Hmmph!" Emilia called out, stumbling towards where she heard Rem speak.

Rem approached the stumbling elf and attempted to catch her and disperse the snow, only to move out of the way when Emilia nearly crashed into her. "Wa-wait! Emilia-sama, please stay still!" She said, only for Emilia to, again, almost crash into her. She kept stumbling around in an effort to catch Emilia and always having to move out of the way, lest she be buried in the snow alongside the elf. This went on for a minute, Rem constantly failing to catch the elf without the risk of getting covered in more snow.

Suddenly, Emilia yelped when her foot caught on a rock. She tripped and felt herself getting pulled towards the ground by the weight of the snowman...

...and slamming right into Rem, who stopped to take a breath, and suddenly found herself buried under the snowman alongside her elven friend.

"Mmmff..." Groaned Rem, exasperated at her terrible luck. Spitting out a bit of snow, she shook off a small pile on her face, and found herself...face-to-face with Emilia...who was lying on her...with her face way too close for comfort.

"Uuuhhh..." Emilia broke the silence, a small blush on her face. "H-hi, Rem."

The oni blinked, and then swiftly crawled out from beneath the elf, a small blush accompanied with wide eyes on her face.

Shaking herself out of her stupor, both girls got up and patted the remaining snow off their clothes. Suddenly, Rem realized someone was missing.
"Wait. Where's Beatrice-sama?" She asked. Emilia and Rem looked around trying to spot the third member of their little entourage, before a...sizzling...sound, caught their attention.

They looked towards the source of the sound, their eyes landing on the third snowman, whose body was...letting off...steam, for some reason.
The two girls watched as the snowman started to wobble, before it began rapidly shrinking and melting, it's buttons falling off one by one. Soon, the snowman was gone, along with a circle of snow beneath it, a very angry-looking and red-faced Beatrice balancing upside down on her head in the grass beneath the freshly melted snow.

The smaller spirit turned her head (while still balancing on it, somehow), looking towards her two compatriots. "And pray tell, what exactly is it you're gawking at, I suppose?" She growled out through her teeth, some of the snow around her still sizzling and evaporating.

The two girls did the smartest thing to do in a situation like this, and opted not to speak, lest they incur the wrath the likes of which the Wrath Witch would be proud of.

The little spirit huffed indignantly and rose back to her feet, crossing her arms over her chest, her cheeks puffing out from the indignity of it all. "Neither one of you will speak a word of this to anyone or I will make your life a neverending torrent of pain and misery, I suppose."

Emilia giggled into her hand. "Aww, you're kind of cute when you're angry, Bea-EEP!" Beatrice blew her into a large snowbank with her wind magic, covering her in snow once more.

Rem frowned at Beatrice in disapproval. "Now really, was that entirely necessary?"

"Hmph! Of course it was, I suppose! She was insulting me, in fact!"

Emilia burst her head out of the pile of snow with a pout. "I was not! It was a compliment!" Beatrice responded by dislodging more snow from the tree above her with her wind magic to bury her again. "Hmm, ths jst mn!" Came the half-elf's muffled protests.

After digging Emilia out of the snow, Rem let out a sigh. "Well... It's all right now, we've made progress at least. We're further down this trail. I just wonder how far away we were sent... I recognize none of these landmarks... They must have sent us to the mountains..."

"Yes, that would explain the mounds of snow I suppose." Beatrice shrugged. "We'd best hurry along now. Hmm... It appears to be a simple descent from here on in." Emilia and Rem turned to look where Beatrice was to see that they were standing at the top of a large hill, the type used for skiing or sledding.

"Yes,but we could run into some icy patches on the way down, and...Hmm? What's that?" Emilia looked over and saw something. It looked to be a long piece of... a strange substance she was unfamiliar with. It was flat in shape, blue and black in color, and it looked like it was...

"It's something we can slide down the hill on!" Emilia exclaimed. "We'll be at the bottom in no time if we just ride down on this!"

"...You will not convince me to get on that thing, I suppose." Beatrice said flatly.

"Oh come on, it's fun! I've done it plenty of times with Puck, except it was with little ice things... But anyway, just give it a chance! "

Rem turned to Beatrice. "It IS the fastest way to get to the bottom of this hill." She reasoned. Beatrice groaned and rolled her eyes.

"I suppose..." She muttered angrily.

And so they all sat upon the abandoned sled. Beatrice in the front, Rem in the middle and Emilia in the back. "Okay, girls, just lean in the direction I tell you to, and everything'll be okay!" She assured them.

"I very much doubt that, in fact." Beatrice snorted. With that, Emilia kicked off the ground with her feet, and down they went. Beatrice promptly began to scream in absolute terror as they picked up speed.

"STOP THIS THING AT ONCE, I DON'T WANNA DO THIS, STOP IT, STOP STOP STOOOOOOOP!" She shrieked in a panic.

Emilia, meanwhile, didn't know just how rough this trip down the hill was going to be. It was extremely bumpy, for one thing, constantly jostling the three passangers on the sled, and there were various rocks and branches under the snow that very nearly tipped them over at multiple points during the ride.

Emilia gave directions the best she could, but that didn't do much when there were dangers they couldn't even see, nor avoid no matter how badly they wanted to. Such as a massive ledge leading towards a huge drop. There was a good reason the no sledding sign was set up there, they were just unforunate enough to miss it.

All three girls cried out as they sailed over the edge of the cliff at breakneck speeds, and they quickly found themselves unable to maintain their grip on the sled. First it was Beatrice that went sent flying off. Then Rem. And Emilia soon after. All three soared through the air as the sled continued moving a few yards behind him.

"EMILIA, THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Beatrice shrieked, completely dropping her usual dialect in her blind rage and terror.

"I'M SORRYYYYYYY!" Emilia screamed.

After what felt like years, all three girls finally made impact with a huge pile of cold white snow.

The white substance flew in every direction, a cloud of snow rising up from the impact. The white mist settled down almost as soon as it appeared, revealing quite the unusual sight.

The three girls have been buried inside the snow with their entire bodies. However, by some comedic, universal coincidence, their butts were somehow sticking out of the pule, their undergarments thankfully still covered by their skirts.

"Mmmff..." Emilia groaned, becoming a bit angry herself.

"Hmph." Rem was just done, grunting once and remaining silent.

"Hhhrrrrrrmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhh..." Beatrice growled as her fury began to seep through, the pile of snow already beginning to steam from her anger alone.

Emilia attempted to dig herself out of the pile, her behind shaking as she desperately tried to wiggle herself out of the pile of snow.

Unfortunately, that set her up for a painful surprise.

The sled they fell off of didn't fall to the ground as of yet. It was actually still soaring through the air at high speed.

Straight towards the pile of snow the trio was stuck in.

Emilia managed to dig one of her legs out of the giant pile of snow, and was in the process of digging out the rest of her body, when the sled flew over her, running over hers and the other two's behinds at full speed.

Three simultaneous yelps of pain and surprise rang out in the pile of snow, Emilia practically exploding out of the pile with how hard she jumped. Landing on the snow with a small *poof*, Emilia let out a relieved sigh when she landed butt-first on the snow, the cold helping ease the sudden pain from the sled.

Unfortunately for them, the sled didn't stop there. It continued on it's trajectory until it finally stopped when it crashed into a tree directly above the pile the trio was stuck in. Rubbing her behind to soothe the pain a little more, Emilia was about to get up and help Rem and Beatrice when something hit her head.

"Ow!" She yelped, the object that hit her landing on the snow before her. Curious, she picked up the object, and realised she was looking at...

"A...piecone?" Emilia asked no one in particular. Suddenly, a crackling sound from above caught her attention. She looked up...

...and paled at the sight of hundreds upon hundreds of piecones heading straight towards them, as if the rain decided to stop using water and moved onto plant matter.

*gulp* "...Uh oh."

Famous last words, these were not.

Emilia quickly covered her head with her arms as the piecones finally reached them, a shower of spiky pain causing her and the others to yelp, the two others grunting as their butts took the full brunt of the impacts.

Soon, the giant pile of snow has been covered by an equally massive pile of piecones, the little wooden painbringers having covered the entire pile, including Emilia, who whimpered at the world of hurt she was in right now.

"Oooowwwww. That huuuurt." She groaned, her entire body aching from the painful experience, a groan

Said pain served a great deal to distract her from the sound of rumbling approaching their location. A massive machine with large wheels came into view, pushing the snow and cleaning the path for the people to walk on, simultaneously firing out snow from a long pipe on the side.
A snowplow.

As the snowplow pushed through the pathway, it eventually came near the pile of pinecones our group had been buried under. Suddenly, the machine stopped, letting out several loud sounds that suggested something was wrong with the engine...

*PFOOOFFF!*

...that is, until it ejected an absolutely ludicrous (and physically impossible for such a small pipe) amount of snow on the pinecones, burying the trio with EVEN MORE SNOW.

The strange noises finally ceased, and the snowplow continued forward, now driving so much faster than before.

As for the trio, silence permeated through the small clearing they landed on. One would assume they were dead. But the shifting of snow, followed by several pinecones and a head of white hair, would prove otherwise.

"Wh-what is go-going on?!" Emilia asked, in utter disbelief at the sheer amount of bad luck they've been showered with since they came here. While the first time was fun for her, the rest of it was just ridiculous. Is it a curse?

She would be snapped out of her musings when her senses picked up an unnatural spike in magical energy. Following her Mana Sense, Emilia turned around, spotting a faint rainbow glow buried deep under the snow.

The exact spot Beatrice was at before they got burned.

Emilia gulped, slowly turning around, pulled out a blindfold out of nowhere, and put it over her eyes. "Best when you don't see it coming." She whimpered, knowing full well what was about to occur.

And then, the forest erupted with magic.

"DARN THIS CURSED SNOW TO ALL HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECK!" A fierce, if a bit childlike, voice screamed out towards the Heavens as the pile of snow and pinecones was dispersed in a microsecond. Beasts, statled by the noise, fled as far as they could, carnivorous or not. Emilia and Rem were blown away, just barely managing to catch onto the trunk of a tree before they got launched into the stratosphere. There, amidst all this chaos, stood Beatrice, her face sporting what could only be described as demonic fury, the likes of which even the Witch of Envy would be startled by.

Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, Yin and Yang magic united around the spirit, and with one flex of her hand, all of it erupted in a wave of magic that spread through the entire forest, carrying the concepts of 'snow' and 'destroy' in it's core. In an instant, all snow in the entire forest was annihilated, erased from existence. Every last snowflake and piece of ice having systematically been removed from reality. Not just destroyed, but outright REMOVED FROM THE FABRIC OF TIME AND SPACE. The clouds were no exception, for they produced the snow in the first place, and were forced to feel the full brunt of the magic as it rewrote their existence and removed them out of reality, leaving behind a bright, sunny sky in the middle of the clouds that surrounded the rest of England and continued to spill snow onto the ground.

The snowplow, which was several miles away from the girls at this point due to getting faster after dumping the extra snow. Unfortunately, that didn't mean it was exempt from Beatrice's magic. It carried the word 'snow' in it's name, and since Beako's magic was sent out to annihilate all things snow, the machine was no exception. The wave of magic reached the vehicle in an instant, and it's massive amount of pure FORCE, ripped the top half of the vehicle, revealing a young man with a shocked expression on his face.

The magic soon dispersed, and the young man was left in utter silence at the event that had just occurred. He looked over his window and saw the top half of his snowplow sitting on the ground unceremoniously.

"What the f-"

Back with the girls.

Beatrice huffed and panted, having nearly exhausted three quarters of her mana reserve. She fell backwards, sighing as she finally calmed down.

"I hate snow." She mumbled. Her eyes scanned her surroundings, soon landing on Emilia and Rem, who had foam on their mouths and were obviously unconscious from the whole ordeal.

"Uuurghh." She groaned. "Stupid elf I suppose." Shd got up, and went to prepare a fire to let them stay the night.

Now how did this go again...? Rocks and a pit. That was what she needed. That was simple enough. She prepared the pit she needed, and then she aimed her hand at the small bundle of sticks and cast the spell...

There was a large eruption of flame that cleared to reveal her standing in place completely charred black from the explosion. She coughed up some smoke, then her eyes began to twitch. "...This must be some sort of curse, I suppose. It is the worst curse anyone could possibly be burdened with, in fact."

Well, they'd narrowly avoided the far worse 'return by death', so she was entirely wrong on that front.

She turned to her unconscious companions and stuck her nose up in the air. "Hmph... Weak..." She muttered. She looked up at the sky to see that the snow clouds were already beginning to come back. "Tch... Well, a temporary fix is better than none at all, I suppose." She walked over to Emilia and tapped her with her foot. "Wake up, I suppose!"

"Urgh...Too... much..." The half-elf whined. Rem was quicker to recover. She rose up with a groan, clutching her head.

"B-Beatrice, you really must learn to control your anger."

"Excuse me?! I have plenty of control over my anger, I suppose!" A small acorn fell on her head and she furiously kicked the tree responsible for it in a fit of rage, hurting her foot in the process. "OW! I WILL MAKE NATURE RUE THE DAY IT CROSSED ME!"

Rem noticed Beatrice tearing up slightly and let out a sigh. "I understand your frustration, you haven't been out of your library much before this instance..."

"Hmph! That's only a small reason I suppose!" The spirit huffed. "I refuse to take such embarrassment and indignity lying down, in fact!"

The oni picked the spirit up and embraced her. Beatrice glared up at her, lips formed into a pout, but she decided to allow it. "We have far more pressing matters at hand, Beatrice. What in the world was that sound outside of the snow? It was unlike anything I've ever heard... And...what is that strange black river?" They both looked out at the road before them.

"River? Hmph! It's obviously some sort of stone, I suppose, foolish maid."

"It does certainly look like stone." Pointed out Emilia, getting up and dusting off. She approached the road and reached down, feeling the unknown material with her hand. It felt, rough and coarse, as well as rather cold due to being recently covered in snow.

"It feels...unfamiliar." Spoke the elf, looking at her hand. "I've never seen this type of stone before. Certainly nowhere near or inside Lugnica." She turned towards the other two. "Did...did we get teleported all the way into a different country?"

Rem widened her eyes at the prospect, her worry suddenly increasing. 'Sister...' She thought, fear rooting istelf in her heart.

Beatrice meanwhile scoffed. "That's impossible, I suppose." She said. "Not even the Witches of Sin had the ability to teleport across countries in fact. Only Sekhmet of Sloth managed to do anything similar, and even then it was through the usage of a flying beast. Not even I am capable of such a feat, as powerful as I am."

"We can't discard the possibility, Beatrice." Rem spoke up. "Whatever that light was, it somehow managed to teleport us to a place filled with snow, and I clearly remember there being no snow whatsoever around us this morning. Us being in another country doesn't seem so out of place, wouldn't you agree?"

Beatrice pursed her lips in mild frustration. Loathe as she is to admit, they were right. She clearly remembers the sky being pristine and sunny back at the mansion. She saw so herself. A different country doesn't seem so out of the picture as she previously thought. "Hrmmm..." She growled slightly, frustrated at not being right. "Fine. I suppose you're right, as much as I hate to admit so. There was no snow before, that much was clear I suppose. But I still don't believe such an ability exists, in fact." She said.

Emilia giggled. "Awww, you look so cute when you're embarrassed, Beatrice." She cooed...

...only for Beatrice to point her hand towards her, a small magic blast gathering in her palm.

"Eek! It was just a compliment! I'm sorryyyy!" Emilia whimpered, jumping back.

"Hmph." Beatrice grunted. "At least you apologized." She dispersed the magic.

Rem decided to speak up. "Need I remind you we have no time to waste? Let's hurry up and find some civilization. We can ask the people there for directions towards Lugnica. I'm willing to bet this path leads to people, so let's quit our yapping and get moving." She said, worry for her sister lacing her tone.

"Hmph. At least the maid here is moderately smart. Unlike you, elf." Beatrice snarked. Emilia huffed, but nonetheless agreed. And with that, the trio began to head walk the road in hopes of finding a way back home.

Meanwhile, a certain old wizard widened his eyes, a massive influx of foreign magic present in the air.

It was unlike anything he'd ever felt before in his life! This... This sheer level of power... It was absolutely TERRIFYING! It put Lord Voldemort himself to absolute shame! Where had it come from?! Who was responsible?!

All he could do was send someone to look into it, and pray from the bottom of his heart that whoever it was was on the side of the light...

The three girls finally found their way to a nearby town. It had taken about two hours to arrive, and a few incidents had happened along the way. Emilia had fallen facefirst into some mud, Rem stubbed her toe on a rock, and now Beatrice was sopping wet from a car driving by and splashing her with a puddle of water.

It was obvious which of the three was the most angered by their accident.

"It's okay, there there, Beatrice, we're here now, it's all behind us..." Emilia tried to reason.

"An elegant being such as myself should NOT be subjected to such hardship, I suppose!" The little spirit shrieked.

"It's all right, you'll be fine..."

Rem noticed a pair of friends walking by and approached the two men. "Um... Excuse me, but... would you happen to know where Lugunica is from here?" Emilia and Beatrice approached.

The men stared at her weirdly, before they blinked and seemed to realize something. "Aw, dude, check it out, cosplayers, that's awesome!"

Emilia tilted her head. "Cos...players...? I... don't really know what you're talking about..."

"Ah, I gotcha, you're in character right now. Great acting!" The man knelt down to Beatrice's level. "Ah, got your little sister in on it too, huh?"

"Hmph! I have absolutely no relationship to this simpleton, I suppose!" Beatrice huffed, sticking her nose up in the air.

"Hey! That is SO mean, I'm not a simpleton, I'm smart!" Emilia protested.

"Ah, I love this one, she's so cute!" One of the two men ruffled Beatrice's hair, and she pulled away indignantly.

"At what point did I give you permission to touch me, I suppose?!"

"Ah. Right. Apologies, oh fair princess." The man said with a wink. "All right, you girls have gun, we'll just be on our way!" The two went off laughing, and the three girls watched them go.

"...That was...unusual." Emilia said simply.

"Hmph! The nerve, I suppose..." Beatrice pouted as she fixed her ruffled hair.

Rem was concerned. "They...genuinely didn't seem to understand what we were talking about..." She murmured. "That... That doesn't make sense! Lugunica is one of the most prosperous kingdoms in the world! How can they not know of it?!"

"Well, obviously it's because they're a pair of simple-minded buffoons, I suppose. Could you really expect someone of such lacking intelligence to know such basic knowledge, in fact?" Beatrice huffed.

"But it's not just them! What were those strange metal carriages?! There were no horses, no ground dragons, they were moving all on their own!" The maid insisted.

Emilia looked thoughtful. "You're right... The magic here is unlike anything I've ever seen... And just look at this place... These buildings are so much higher than anything I've seen when I went to town... And what's this?" She approached a nearby crosswalk and pressed the button on the light, jumping back with a squeak when it made a mysterious beeping noise. "Oh no, did I do something wrong?!"

"Don't go touching unfamiliar objects, I suppose!" Beatrix exclaimed.

"Right, sorry!" Emilia squeaked. She looked around nervously. "This entire place is so... unfamiliar... I don't know what any of this is..." She murmured.

"Yes, and that's what has me so worried." Rem nodded. "It's unlike anything our world has ever seen... We would have known of all of these strange sights somehow, surely. There would have been some record of it all. Where have we ended up...?"

"First time in the Muggle world, dearies?" The three girls turned at the hushed voice to see a middle-aged woman giving them a smile. "Ah, I can only assume it was a magic incident that brought you here, was it?"

The three girls looked at the woman suspiciously. Rem was already setting up her magic in the case of an attack.

Deciding to be the voice of reason, Emilia, still cautious, approached the woman with a smile.

"Hello, miss! Me and my friends here are a bit lost, and we'd like to ask you for help. Could you by any chance tell us which kingdom this is, and point us towards the nearest path to Lugnica?"

At that, the woman adopted a confused expression. "Well, Britain hasn't been a kingdom in years. And...Lugnica? I'm afraid I am not acquainted with such a kingdom. It certainly isn't on any map I've seen."

"That's impossible!" Rem exclaimed. "How could you not know! Lugnica is one of the most prospherous kingdoms in the world, right next to Kararagi! And...Britain? I've never heard of such a place. What do you mean it isn't a kingdom?!"

"Now now, there's no need for yelling. I'm sure we can figure this issue out if we all calm down."

"Calm down? Calm down?! My sister might get killed if we don't hurry, and you're telling me to calm down?! Who do you think...you...are..." Rem suddenly began to quiet down. Her eyes fluttered, and she stumbled forward.
"Ah, Rem!" Emilia exclaimed and quickly went to catch her friend, and looked at Beatrice, who simply stared passively.

"It was necessary, I suppose. If I left her awake, her magic would have spiraled out of control, and collateral damage would be inevitable. You should be thankful, in fact." She said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Figg looked at the trio in her own suspicion. 'She didn't pull out a wand, yet I could tell she used magic to make that other girl fall asleep. Wandless magic, while not impossible, is incredibly rare. For someone so young to do it so casually...I'll have to report this to Dumbledore.'

She spoke up. "Erm, excuse me." The two looked at her. "Your friend here seems to have a lot on her mind right now. I can tell she is greatly worried, so why don't you come to my place and we can talk your problems out over a cup of tea?"

Beatrice narrowed her eyes. "Why should we trust you? For all we know you could be leading us into a trap, I suppose!"

The woman tilted her head to the side. "Hmm... I see... Are you on the run from someone?" She asked.

"Not...exactly. We're just concerned our home is under attack by the witch's cult. You must at least know about them, right?" Emilia asked.

Ms. Figg's expression turned confused. "Well, you'd have to be a little more specific, dearie, many witches have made cults for many reasons, you see. Why, I know of a cult that worshipped a gaming console of all things, those magic folk can get truly mad sometimes."

Emilia blinked. "A...gaming console...? What is... Wait... There are real witches?! Here?!" Ms. Figg clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Hush now, that's a secret, you cant go screaming it out at the top of your lungs!" She chided.

Beatrice narrowed her eyes. "And are YOU one of these witches, I suppose?" She was ready to attack at a moment's notice with that knowledge.

"Hmm? But aren't you a witch yourself, young lady?" Beatrice squawked indignantly.

"How dare you, I suppose!"

Suddenly, something began to glow next to Emilia, and finally, her guardian spirit came out for the day, perched atop Emilia's head as he cleaned his face off. "Ah... That was a nice little nap... Uh... Huh?" Puck looked around in confusion. "...Okay. We...are DEFINITELY not in Lugunica anymore. In fact... I don't recognize this energy at all... It feels so... otherworldly..."

Emilia's eyes widened. "Other...worldly...? Y-You don't suppose we've..."

"Another world...that's...there's no...but it's..." Beatrice stuttered as she failed to comprehend this new information. Otherworldly travel was practically a myth among the more magically attuned populace of the kingdoms. Some enthusiasts believe it to be real, but the majority often writes it off as a baseless fairy tale. For them to suddenly find themselves in a real parallel universe...it was just...

"I mean it does seem plausible, when you think about it." Spoke up Emilia. "The sudden change of weather, the unfamiliar buildings, a kingdom we've never heard of...it all seems to point to that." She said, in one of her rare moments of seriousness and intelligence.

Beatrice didn't want to believe it. It was far too absurd of an occurrence to be true. Nothing she ever knew about magic and non-magic ever pointed towards this being true. And yet, she found herself unable to refute Emilia's statements. The proof was just too solid.

"U-um..." Called out the woman. "Is everything okay dearies? Your friend here seems to have-"

"Lead the way, I suppose."

"Huh?"
Beatrice looked at the woman expectantly. "Well? You said you'll lead us to your house and talk about our problems with us. What are you waiting for?"

Puck looked at Beatrice in surprise. "Beatrice...do you really think it's true? That we're really-" Before he could finish, Beatrice raised her hand and stopped him.

"I haven't decided anything yet I suppose. It's still far too absurd for me to truly believe it. But..." She hesitated. "...I can't discard the evidence in front of me I suppose. As much as I loathe to admit so, you might be right, in fact. And if this woman can give us the answers, then I'm willing to cooperate, I suppose."

Puck chuckled. "Hehe. Wow Beatrice, never thought I'd see you like this. It's kinda adorable."

Beatrice immediately became flustered. She blushed and looked away. "Th-thank you Bubby." She jumped up and caught him in her arms, and began to affectionately nuzzle him with her cheek.

The woman smiled at the sight. "Alright, then. If that's solved, follow me. My house is a few streets away, but it's not a long walk."

Emilia quickly picked up the unconscious Rem and slung her over her shoulder, and with that, the group headed towards the woman's house.

They had a ton of questions to ask on the trip, and the woman was happy to answer each and every one of them. Emilia had taken the liberty of carrying the woman's grocery bag for her, since she was so kind as to let them into her home without really knowing who they were, and the woman was immensely grateful for it.

Meanwhile, Puck was maintaining his focus. "Hmm...If I can just focus my mana... The spirit world is connected to all realities... I might be able to contact someone..." He kept his eyes shut...before he gradually began to vanish from Beatrice's hold, much to the little spirit's displeasure.

"Hmph! Bubby left..." She sulked.

"Don't worry, he'll be back soon enough... Oh, is this your house? It...kinda looks like every other house in the area..." Emilia murmured.

"Yes, it's not very exciting, but I have to blend in, please come in, come, come." She led the group into her home, and almost immediately, multiple meows were heard as a herd of cats of varying shapes and sizes ran in to greet their owner.

Beatrice's eyes suddenly began to sparkle and turn starry. "IT'S A WHOLE BUNCH OF BUBBIES!" She squealed excitedly, kneeling down and extending her hand to pet one of the cats. Lucky for her, she chose one of the more agreeable and better socialized kittens, who was more than eager to lean into her touch, purring softly as she gently rubbed its head.

The lady chuckled at the spirit's happiness. "Make yourself at home sweetie. I haven't had the time to play with them in a while, so they're certain to enjoy the attention." She said, before ushering Emilia to come in.

The elf looked around the room, surprised at how...normal, it looked. She supposed it was likely because she was so used to the grandiose rooms in the Rosvaal mansions that a common room would seem rather scarce.

"You can place your friend on the couch over there. I'll go and set up some tea." She said that, and left for the kitchen. Emilia turned towards the couch and walked over, gently laying Rem down and covering her with a blanket. She then sat down and decided to watch over her friend until she woke up.

She giggled softly. Rem was kinda cute when she slept. ...She was kinda pretty, actually, she was kind of jealous. She was stuck looking like the widely despised witch of envy, while Rem's beauty was all her own.

Her thoughts suddenly stopped as her face reddened. She really WAS pretty...

Suddenly, she was snapped out of her musings when the sound of footsteps reached her ears. She looked up and found the woman carrying a tray with several cups and a teapot that is still smoking. She placed the tray on the table, and poured herself and Emilia a cup of tea each. She then sat down.

"Right. Now that we each have some tea, let's introduce ourselves." She offered her hand with a kind smile. "Arabella Figg. Pleasure to meet you."

Smiling at the kindness, Emilia shook hands with the nos named Ms. Figg. "Emilia. I...don't have a last name."

She looked sheepish at admitting that last part, and then looked over to the sleeping Rem. "That's Rem. I... don't think she has a last name...? If she does, I don't know what it is... And that's Beatrice playing with your kitties over there... Aaaand my own kitty was Puck, but he went back to the Spirit World, I think he's trying to do something..."

"Yes, I was going to ask about that one... The talking cat is a little out of the ordinary, after all."

And so Emilia set to explaining their situation, telling her everything that had happened since her day started. Well.. ALMOST everything, she didn't think Beatrice would appreciate her telling Miss Figg about their little misadventures on the trail.

It quickly became apparent to both women that Emilia and her party had come from another world entirely. And that was a very harrowing concept for the young half-elf. They were just... abruptly ripped away from all they knew and placed in this mysterious, bizarre world where nothing made sense!

She looked at Rem with a worried frown. If the Witch Cult really was responsible for sending them away, then who knew what they were doing to her sister right now... She really hoped it was someone else that was responsible for this sudden turn of events...

At that moment, Rem stirred, then slowly sat up with a groan, rubbing at her aching head. "Mmm? What? Where... Where am I...? Emilia...?" She turned to see the half-elf.

"Hi, Rem... Beatrice... kinda knocked you out... Because you were starting to panic, and... well... You know how you get when you panic..." The half-elf said softly, fiddling with a strand of her hair.

Rem's eyes widened. "E-Emilia... We... We need to find a way back... We have to get to Ram, who knows what they're doing to her-"

"Well, actually, everything's perfectly fine back in Lugunica." A familiar male voice echoed through the room before Puck materialized.

Emilia and Rem blinked at the sudden info. "H-huh? Puck, what do you mean?" Emilia asked.

Puck adjusted himself into a more comfortable floating position. "I meant what I said. Lugnica is a-okay! Nothing to worry about!" He answered, not a hint of deception in his voice.

"Then...does that mean...Ram...she's..." Rem stuttered, her mind and heart slowly coming to a steady calm as the realization of the spirit's words caught up with her. She felt something soft on her shoulder, and looked to see Puck sitting on her left shoulder, a kind and caring expression on his face. "Don't worry Rem. Your big sister is perfectly fine. I saw to that myself. We can't contact them yet, but I can still keep you informed on her wellbeing. You don't have anything to fear."

Seeing the spirit's honesty, the blue maid allowed a small, teary smile to settle on her lips. Emilia smiled warmly.

'It's always nice to see others happy when they hear their loved ones are okay.' She thought to herself, still looking at her friend's happy smile.

Soon, a light cough caught their attention, and the trio looked over at the woman opposite, who was watching them with a smile. Emilia spoke up.

"Oh right! Rem, Puck, this is Ms. Arabella Figg. Ms. Figg, this is Puck, my spirit."

"A pleasure." Said the tiny cat and shook Ms Figg's hand with his tiny paws.

Puck noticed the rather befuddled look on the woman's face and laughed. "Aw, what, never seen a talking cat before?"

"Well... No? None of my cats have said a word for as long as I've had them, and that is saying quite a lot..." Ms Figg murmured sheepishly. "And...what, pray tell, is...a spirt, exactly?"

"Oh wow, we really are in a different world entirely. Spirits are common knowledge back home! I... feel like we have a LOT to share with each other." The cat spoke with a tilted head. "Just looking out that window, I can tell there's a LOT that we don't know about either."

"I would imagine so..." Ms. Figg said, perplexed.

What ensued was something of a Q and A between the two groups. Ms. Figg wanted to know just as much about how things worked in their world as they did about this one.

She was quick to realize that their world was far more medieval, even in the Wizarding World. She learned that Emilia was half elf, which was strange to her, because the only elves she knew of were house elves, and this girl was... well... far too beautiful to be related to those funny looking little creatures.

She learned that Rem was meant to be an Oni. Like Emilia, she noted Rem was far too attractive to be any Oni she'd seen in pictures.

She learned many interesting things about their world, and in exchange, she did her best to teach them of hers.

Beatrice herself soon joined in on the conversation, gaining interest in this seemingly new (she still found it hard to believe) world. The trio listened raptly as Ms. Figg explained them all about the wizarding world. How almost all of it is governed by the Ministry of Magic, how people used wands to cast spells far more often than in their world. Emilia was surprised to find out that elves existed in this world as well, but was slightly saddened by the fact that they're seen as nothing more than slaves. Beatrice was surprised to find out that spirits don't exist here, despite the existence of magic, as well as many other things.

"So..." Emilia began. "...the people here use magic with primarily wands, and the people who can't use magic are called "Muggles", am I getting it right?" She asked. Ms. Figg nodded.

Rem then continued. "This world's elves are actually small and ugly creatures who work as slaves and servants, and demons and oni only exist in legends and myths."

"The closest thing this world has to spirits are these 'dementors', which are monsters that feed on people's happiness, and 'Patronus' who are spell-made spirits used to ward off dementors." Beatrice finished, each explaining a topic that seemed to catch their attention the most.

Ms. Figg nodded her head in affirmation. "Yes, that sums it up nicely." She was absentmindedly stroking Puck's back as he happily ate from a small tin of tuna, much to Emilia's amusement. It was always surreal to see her spirit acting like an actual cat.

He looked up from his meal with a tilted head. "Wow. This place...honestly already sounds a lot safer than our own world. Haha... No giant flying whales, no vicious man-eating rabbits, just stuff you mostly seem to have under control."

Ms. Figg shuddered at that, terrified of the mere description of the White Whale or the Great Rabbit, immensely grateful she wasn't living in the same reality as such... THINGS. "Yes, well... It isn't all as safe as you'd like to believe, little cat... Sometimes a powerful wizard will go rogue, and will move on to become something to truly fear..."

All parties in the room were paying rapt attention now as Ms Figg went on to tell the story of a powerful dark lord that she refused to speak the name of no matter how much they pried. The man terrorized the wizarding world, made it his point to wipe out any who may have been born to muggle parents. Commanding an army of dark wizards and powerful dark creatures to kill and torture at his leisure.

And then, at the end , he had been stopped by one person: A little tiny baby by the name of Harry Potter, though the poor child had lost both of his parents in the process. The boy had been the first one to survive an attack from the dark lord, and had ultimately defeated him, and so he was given the name 'The Boy Who Lived'.

"The Boy Who Lived." Emilia said, in awe at such a wondrous tale. To think that such a great evil was slain by naught but a boy. A baby at that! But, his parents..."Oh poor boy. It must be so sad."

"To have lost his parents at such a young age, without even knowing them properly at all." Rem muttered somberly. Even she wasn't so ill-fortuned, and she had witnessed both of her parents die in front of her! At least she knew them enough to love them. This kid had no such luck.

Beatrice was instead pondering about something else. "Hmmm. This "He who must not be named" reminds me greatly of our own evil magic user I suppose. Satella, the Wicked Witch of Envy." She then crossed her arms. "Hmph. This "dark lord" sounds like nothing more than a charlatan. The Witch of Envy singlehandedly nearly drove all of humanity insane and almost wiped out the world, in fact. This self-proclaimed "dark lord" got bested by a baby of all things, when it took the entirety of our world's armies, the Great Dragon and the White Sage's combined efforts to defeat the Witch, and even then, it only got her sealed away. Pathetic I suppose."

Ms. Figg paled at those words. For someone to just casually dismiss THE most evil wizard in all history as a...*charlatan*...and this "Witch of Envy".

'She said this Witch of Envy nearly drove the world to insanity and destruction...all on her own...and she still wasn't able to be killed, just sealed away...'

Ms. Figg internally prayed to all existing and nonexistent gods out there that said witch NEVER came to this world. She doubted even Dumbledore and *him* combined would be able to stop her otherwise.

"Le-let's move onto something more lightheaded. Tell me about yourselves."

Oh boy, she shouldn't have asked that.

It seemed all three of these girls had an extremely tragic backstory that they weren't comfortable sharing the details of. Emilia was the last of her kind essentially, the only reason she was even still alive being that she was protected by her spirit, a small cat. Rem had lost her entire village save for her sister in an absolute massacre. And Beatrice was abandoned to spend her entire life waiting in a library until she was pulled into this whole other world away from her library.

Ms. Figg was more than a little disturbed by these stories, and that was not helped by the fact that it was clearly the abridged versions, there was much more that these girls did not feel comfortable sharing with someone that was more or less a stranger to them at this point.

Still... These girls were far from home, in a world they were unfamiliar with, stranded from the few loved ones they had. She couldn't in good conscience just leave them alone to wander. "...I see... Those stories are very tragic indeed, and your separation from all you knew certainly can't be helping..."

"I feel it may be for the best, I suppose." Beatrice spoke. "I believe...perhaps this was what mother told me to wait for... That I may find purpose in this new world..."

"But the other two had very important things back home, did they not? A campaign to become ruler, and a sister... I can't very well allow the three of you to fend for yourselves in an unfamiliar world, especially not one that works as differently from yours as the Muggle world. The three of you are welcome to stay for as long as you like, all right?"

"Ooh, thank you SO much! I promise we'll be the best house guests we possibly can!" Emilia spoke with a bow, Rem quickly following suit.

"Yes... Thank you for your kindness and generosity. I don't know what we might have done without your help." The maid spoke.

"Yes... Thank you, I...don't know if I could handle being stuck outside, I suppose." Beatrice mumbled shyly.

"Oh, you're very welcome, dears. No worries, I can't leave you in the cold now, can I?"

Beatrice pouted as she glared at the snow outside. She'd cleared snow out of that one specific area, but the snow here was still intact.

"I just have one question though." Emilia raised her hand. "You said you came from the wizarding world? But why are you all the way out here in the Muggle world?" Ms. Figg sighed.

"Well, for one thing, I was born without magic. Squibs like me are not treated kindly over there..."

"Squib?! How utterly derogatory, I suppose!" Beatrice exclaimed, outraged. "It is a backwards society they live in if that's what they call people born without magic, in fact!"

Ms. Figg smiled gratefully. "I agree wholeheartedly. But there is another reason. I've been tasked with watching over Harry Potter."

The girls blinked. "Wait... He's HERE?" Emilia asked.

"Yes. He lives right next door, actually." She looked out the window and nodded at the house just next to hers.

The three girls followed her gaze, and soon their eyes fell upon the neighbor house. Rather simple building, that one. Nothing but brown bricks, some windows, yada yada.

Emilia simply stared at the house, confused as to why someone so famous and heroic would live in something so...simple. That's the only word she can find to describe it.

For the other two, it was different.

"That house...something is VERY wrong with that house. My senses are on overdrive simply from looking at it." Thought the blue oni.

Beatrice held similar thoughts. "I can feel some sort of magic attached to that building, in fact. And the house itself...it reeks of despair. I suddenly have an irresistible urge to blow that wretched building sky high, I suppose."

While Emilia was unaware, the maid and librarian looked at each other, and nodded in a silent deal. They would watch over the house, observe it from afar.

Something isn't right, and they intend to get to the bottom of it.

They looked back at the house and frowned. Ms. Figg noticed their change in demeanour. "Hmm? Is something wrong, dears?"

"I dislike that house, It's aura mocks me." Beatrice spoke.

"Ah, yes, well... the folks running it really are the worst sort of muggle, as Minerva always said... Loud, rude, abrasive, and what an awful, awful child they're raising, he's spoiled and disruptive and he has absolutely no respect or regard for his elders..."

Emilia narrowed her eyes. "What kind of example is that setting for Harry?!"

Ms. Figg nodded. "Indeed, I ask myself the same question frequently. But at the very least the boy doesn't seem all that effected by their toxicity."

Rem tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I babysit the boy frequently, they bring him here when they have an important outing to go to and he can't come along. They say he was misbehaving, but... I can't believe it when they say that, really, the way he behaves when he's actually here playing with the cats..."

"Ooh! I wanna meet him! I bet he's soooo cute!" Squealed Emilia, her childish love for cute things going full overdrive. She was already imagining pictures in her mind, a cute, tiny baby boy dressed in a striped little sweater, playing with a toy on the floor. Her heart melted just from thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Rem thought that asking questions about the boy was more important than fantasizing about how cute he would be (although let it be known that she was VERY temped to choose the latter option). That way she could be prepared and know how to behave around him in case she ended up meeting him.

"Ms. Figg." She called out, the aforementioned lady turning to look at her. "If you don't mind, I'd like to ask a few questions regarding the boy. Would it be a problem to indulge my curiosity?" She asked curtieously, as befitting of her duties as a maid.

"Not at all, my dear." Said Ms. Figg, waving it off. "And please, no need for such formality sweetie. I am flattered, but I'm no Queen of England" She said with a giggle. Rem nodded and began to ask questions. How he behaved, what he liked, etc.

Meanwhile, the third member of the party simply continued to stare at the house, eyes narrowed in suspicion when she spotted movement behind one of the windows. She watched as the door to the house opened, and a small boy came out.

Or, well, more like *flew* out, if anything.

The boy was small, about five years old. He wore baggy clothes, which Beatrice had a hunch served a purpose of sorts. One she couldn't quite figure out. His face, framed with short black hair, was rather tired and...was that...fear...in his eyes?

'Hmm. Most unusual I suppose.' She thought. She watched as the boy picked up a shovel and began to pointlessly try and shovel snow out of the backyard. '...What an utterly pointless and useless task, I suppose...'

She narrowed her eyes. That kind of hard, grueling work was not suitable for a child that young and small. The boy's family evidently had no business raising a child if they thought that was even remotely acceptable. And he was so... tiny...

Her eyes widened in surprise at the realization that he was tiny enough for even her to pick him up if she needed to. What were they DOING to this child?!

Rem learned from Miss Figg that Harry was extremely well behaved in spite of what his relatives insisted regarding him. He was soft spoken, polite and he didn't get in the way at all, he simply sat, watched the 'television', whatever that was, and played with the cats, one of which was rubbing up against her legs. She picked the small animal up, set it on her lap and absentmindedly stroked it as she asked her next question.

"So, he likes cats, we've established this, but is there anything else?"

"Well... He doesn't talk very much... Truthfully, I'm worried about him... He seems nervous and on edge much of the time... I've tried to tell Albus, and he said he would look into it as soon as he found the time, but... he's an extremely busy man, you see..."

"How so?"

"Well... He's taken up a lot of very high ranking and notable positions, dear. Positions that demand his constant attention."

"Like...?" Rem inquired, interested as to just who this "Albus" person was. From the tone of her voice, he sounded important.

"Well, for example, he holds the position of headmaster on Hogwarts, Britain's most famous school of witchcraft and wizardry."

All three girls looked at Ms. Figg incredulously, even Beatrice stopping her observation of the boy to look at her in confusion. "Hogwarts? What kind of moron would be stupid enough to name their school "Hogwarts", of all things?" She asked, her eye twitching at the fact that such a name was attached to a *magic school*. Something so prestigious shouldn't be holding a name so...so...disgusting, that's the word she was looking for.

Emilia put a hand on her mouth, struggling to suppress a giggle. "Hrm...hehe...Hogwarts...what kind of name is-hahahahaha!" She couldn't hold it back anymore, and broke out into a melodious laugh. "Hahaha! Ho-Hogwarts-ghahahahahahaha!" She held her stomach as she began to double over from her giggling spree. Even Rem chuckled a bit, finding it funny how a magical school held such an unorthodox name.

Ms. Figg snorted lightly. "Yes, yes, we've all questioned him about the name, but he was adamant on keeping it that way, I can't imagine why, it's hardly the most dignified name for such a prostigious school, but then Albus always did have a sense of humor..."

"Now you said he had other jobs?" Rem asked.

"Ah, yes, he helps run the transfiguration department at the Ministry of Magic. He is a columnist for Transfiguration Today. And most important of all, he's the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confedration of Wizards."

Emilia stifled another laugh. "M-Mugwump... Mugwump, that's a silly word, why...Why MUGWUMP, HAHAHAHAHAHA!" She started laughing again, and Beatrice rolled her eyes.

"It's hardly THAT amusing, I suppose." She mumbled grouchily. Puck was snickering right alongside his 'daughter'.

"Sounds like this Dumbledore guy's biting off way more than he can chew at this point. If I were him, I'd try and get someone else to run things at that school, no way a ton of stuff doesn't fly by right under his nose if he's working so many important jobs at once." The great spirit remarked.

"I've wondered about that Severus boy myself, I have relatives that complain about him quite a lot..." Ms. Figg mused.

"Okay, so we know why he hasn't come to check on the child... but is the child okay?" Rem asked.

"Why don't you decide that for yourself, I suppose? He's outside right now." Beatrice spoke up about Harry's presence.

At that, both girls perked up. They moved over to the window and peeked through the glass, their eyes immediately landing on the boy. Rem immediately knew something was wrong. Her experience with children told her that that boy was FAR too thin for it to be healthy. She narrowed her eyes when she saw him wince when he accidentally stubbed his toe on a rock under the snow. She could even see a small tear slide down his face.

Emilia meanwhile simply observed the boy, unsure of exactly what to think. She had expected the "Boy Who Lived" to be some kind of rich, well-dressed, all prince-y like boy. This boy was nothing like her fantasy.

'My gosh, he looks so malnourished.' She noted. Even she, as naive as she was, could clearly see just how small the boy really was. Those baggy clothes did nothing to hide that fact. 'If I didn't notice the details, I would've thought he was two years old. He's so tiny. But not in the cute way I imagined.' She thought, her face adopting an expression of worry.

"Hm. It seems even the idiot elf knows when things are serious. Good job, I suppose." Beatrice said, before looking back out. "But seriously, you're right. A child so thin should NOT exist. Especially if he truly is 5 years old."

"Whoever the guardians are, I hope the magic I can sense around the house is a protective ward. Otherwise I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to stop myself from reducing it to rubble." Rem spoke, a subtle line of fury lacing her words.

"I believe Albus claimed those are blood wards." Ms. Figg spoke up. THAT got Beatrice and Puck's full attention.

"You need to get that Dumbledore guy here. NOW." Puck spoke seriously.

"WHAT was that madman THINKING, I suppose?! The fool! He's endangered not just the child, but everyone in that house!" Beatrice exclaimed.

"Huh? What? What's going on?!" Emilia panicked slightly.

Puck turned to her with a frown. "Blood wards work like this: they're powered by the relationships and bonds we share with our blood relatives. Harry over there is living with his aunt and uncle, and his cousin. The wards are tied to not just the blood of the people they're protecting, but also their emotions. And no family stays in perfect harmony all the time... All those negative emotions? They can twist and destroy the original point of the blood wards and corrupt them. Corrupt the people they're protecting... It amplifies their feelings and emotions. Anger, paranoia, distrust, hatred... And looking at Harry... their sadness, their fear... their misery... If I had to guess... because he doesn't look mad at all... I'd say they never liked the little guy... And all the time he's spent with them, they've been...systematically tearing him down... trying to make him feel like he was...less than them... And at his young age, he completely believes it... And when you combine that with what the blood wards are doing to him... Increasing those negative emotions... Ugh... I don't even wanna think about what's going on in that poor kid's head right now... And I REALLY don't wanna think about what's going on under that shirt of his..."

Emilia gasped, covering her mouth in shock. If what Puck said was true (and she knew her beloved spirit would never speak lies to her), then the poor boy has been suffering both physically, emotionally and mentally, all at the same time, TIMES A HUNDRED, or possibly even worse.

Rem's hold on the edge of the couch tightened, the fabric gaining holes when her sharp nails dug into it like a beast would with it's prey. She had witnessed many horrors in her old world, a majority of which were the result of the witch cult. While this kind of thing was nowhere near what she saw back then, it was still terrible. No, terrible doesn't cut it. It was horrific.

And she was just a step away from bombarding the house with an army's worth of icicles.

The only thing that stopped her was the risk of catching the child in the crossfire. That's the LAST thing she would want to do right now.

While the trio was distracted with the kid, Ms. Figg got up and left the room, the trio too distracted to notice her. She walked over to a corner of the kitchen, approaching a golden cage with a brown owl. The bird screeched as it's owner walked over, opened the cage and pulled her out slowly, as to not disturb it too much. While the three otherworldly visitors were too preoccupied with observing Harry, Ms. Figg wrote a short letter addressed to Dumbledore, planning to let him know of the three otherworlders. She tied the note to the bird's leg, opened the window, and let the bird fly, it's destination already in it's mind.

Ms. Figg was certain of one thing. Dumbledore will have quite the surprise waiting for him once that bird arrives at Hogwarts.

Puck turned to Beatrice with a serious expression. "Betty? You and I need to work together to bring that barrier down. Let's get that window open now, come on..." Emilia hurriedly threw the window open and the two spirits turned their attention to the house.

Puck and Beatrice both closed their eyes and their magic began to activate. Every ounce of their focus went into the blood wards with the full extent of completely eradicating them from existence entirely. It took a few seconds for the process to begin, but eventually, progress was made.

It was as if several threads were beginning to come undone, unwinding and unraveling, slowly disappearing into the ether as the two spirits put all their energy into getting rid of this vile corrupted source of 'protection' that had been turned into a living hell.

As they worked, both Beatrice and Puck quickly found that their fears were entirely valid a thousand times over. Never in their life had they EVER felt such hatred, scorn, disgust and raw malice, and all directed at a child that looked no older than an infant!

It was absolutely revolting... It was the source of pure, raw envy, contempt and anger. The owner of the house harbored an overwhelming grudge against SOMEBODY that was related to the boy, and as a result, they were taking that anger out on the child.

It took a good twenty minutes, but soon enough, the blood wards were entirely removed from the house. Puck let out a sigh. "Well... We've prevented the problem from getting any worse but... I'm afraid the damage is done now... It won't take away from the anger and contempt these people feel for the little guy..."

"We need to go and get him!" Emilia exclaimed. "We...We CAN'T just leave him over there with those people! What if they hurt him some more?!"

"That is ill advised, I suppose." Beatrice spoke up. "If we simply take him, they'll involve this world's authorities, in fact. It would be considered kidnapping, regardless of what our intentions were I suppose."

"B-but...we-we can't just leave him! What if he gets hurt even more?! What if..." A hand was slapped over Emilia's mouth, before Beatrice shook her head with a sigh.

She spoke. "I understand your concern I suppose. But rushing things is never a good option, regardless of one's worries in fact." She spoke, her words carrying wisdom in them.

"Believe me, I too wish to bring the boy to safety, away from those monstrous humans in that house, in fact. But we can get in serious trouble if we make a wrong move. Our non-existence in this world would already be a cause for concern I suppose, but if they find out about our abilities, we could bring even worse problems to our doorstep in fact."

As much as she loathed to admit so, Emilia couldn't help but *know* the spirit was right. Them catching the attention of this world's authorities, coupled with the fact that a majority of this world know nothing about magic or even about it's existence, would only bring more harm than good. She realized the boy would definitely be negatively affected too. As much as she wanted to save him, she would listen to Beatrice...for now.

Emilia begrudgingly nodded, lips pursed. Beatrice accepted it at that.

She continued to look out the window at the boy, however, face scrunched up in worry. He didn't seem to notice that anything had changed... He was continuing to work on the garden as if nothing had happened. Seemed these barriers were extremely subtle.

At one point, Harry seemed to notice he was being watched. He turned to look as Ms. Figg's house, and then he saw the unfamiliar woman with long silver hair looking back at him. Emilia blinked, then waved at him with a warm smile, trying to establish she was no threat.

Harry responded by flinching away and returning to his work, and Emilia bit her lip. "Aww... Poor little thing... He can't even respond to kindness... He doesn't know how to..." She moaned sadly, resting her chin atop her arms as she watched him work.

Harry was worried. Who was that new lady? That was Ms. Figg's house, did Ms. Figg move out and that was the new homeowner? Did that mean Ms. Figg wouldn't babysit him anymore and he wouldn't be able to spend time with the kitties?

He nervously continued working on the garden. He struggled to toss the snow out of the garden. He didn't know why he was doing it... He was convinced that it was just an excuse to make him work more...

He wiped his runny nose, taking great care not to accidentally sneeze. If he did, he was afraid they'd hear him. Uncle Vernon certainly wouldn't be happy, and neither would aunt Petunia. He didn't need any more beatings for today.

Not like he didn't deserve it, but still.

It hurt.

He lifted up the shovel, continuing to dig through the harsh snow. Despite it always being so cold, he did like snow. It was one of the few joys he had in life. Even if it was, admittedly, a bit too cold for his liking sometimes.

He stopped for a second, and looked back at Ms. Figg's house. The window has been closed, and the curtains were draped over. Looks like the white lady was no longer watching him.

Harry trembled. What if.. what if it really was true? What if Ms. Figg really has left. What if he won't ever see the kitties ever again? What if...

Meanwhile, Emilia observed the boy as he continued to dig through the snow, her fingers trembling at the sight of the poor boy. It took all of her self-restraint to not just barge out of the house and take the little one in her arms and away from that accursed house. A small tear escaped her eye, and she sniffed. She then felt something soft on her shoulder, and looked back to see Puck, a gentle and knowing expression on his face.

"I understand your worries, Emilia." He said. "As your father, I can't possibly sympathize with you more on the matter of that boy. But as it stands, we are currently in no position to help him without bringing even more trouble to him. Trust me, we WILL save him. It's just that now is not the time."

"But it's so unfair, Puck!" She snapped, a rare occurrence for Emilia. "He's out there, freezing to near death, under the care of those...horrible people! And what are we doing? We're sitting here, when we could be helping him, healing him, ANYTHING!" She said, before slamming her face into the couch, staining the fabric with her tears.

Rem looked at her with a sad frown, then out the window at the child. Then, she turned to Beatrice. "Beatrice, do you perhaps know of any spells that could help ease the poor thing's burden, even the slightest bit?" Beatrice looked up at her.

"Yes... Yes I do, in fact..." She looked back out at the child and held up her hand. She focused her magic, and Rem noticed a nice golden glow surrounding the little spirit's outstretched palm, the same glow that seemed to envelop the little boy outside.

Harry suddenly felt... warm...? He felt all the cold and exhaustion seemingly...wash away. He felt energized, and he felt like he was working on a nice summer day rather than a freezing cold winter evening. He looked around, confused, trying to figure out what was going on.

The weather hadn't changed in the slightest. It was still a grey, cloudy, snowy day... Was he doing the freaky stuff again? ...No... He didn't think he was... He didn't feel the familiar tingling sensation that he always did when the freaky stuff activated...

He looked back at the house. The pretty lady with the white hair wasn't there anymore. Instead there was a woman with blue hair, as well as a girl a few years older than him with long blonde hair that kind of looked like drills. The blonde girl nodded at him.

...Did...Did she do it...?

Suddenly, the door threw itself open. "All right, boy, back in here now, you're done shovelling for the day, come and make dinner!" His uncle's voice barked.

Wincing at the sudden yell, Harry gingerly picked up the shovel, and began to head towards the house, Vernon already waiting there for him.

"Move it boy! Get in!"

He didn't get to say anything, and was immediately grabbed and tossed into the house, the door slamming shut behind him.

All the while, a certain blue maid and a drill spirit watched, their faces morphing to expressions of what could only be described as pure, unadulterated hatred.

Meanwhile, in the massive castle that contained the academy of Hogwarts, a certain headmaster was pacing around the room, his hand on his beard.

'This is absurd!' He thought. 'First, a massive pulse of pure magical power larger than even Voldemort and myself combined suddenly appears in the nearby forest, and now the blood wards he had set up around the home of the Dursleys have been dispersed. Just another concerning occurrence after another.

He had personally made sure that the blood wards on the house were reinforced to the very brink, so that even Voldemort himself wouldn't be able to unravel them. And now...now they're gone. Just like that.

He had sensed that the wards have been tampered with, and attempted to try and push back the magic that was doing the whole thing, only for his efforts to prove futile when the magic not only completely ignored his own, but outright dispersed it alongside the wards.

'This is a cause for concern.' He thought. 'If he has returned...I don't want to even imagine the possibilities.'

He made a decision. In a rush, he quickly left his office and headed down towards the classes. If he wanted to get to the bottom of this, then it would be for the best if he gathered some backup, just in case his fears were proven true.

The moment he left, a screech was heard. Fawkes, the red phoenix and Dumbledore's most loyal pet, looked towards the window, where a small owl, one he recognised was from Ms. Figg, had just landed, a slip of paper on it's leg.

Fawkes shook his head in exasperation. If only his master would stop leaving the room mere moments before something important happened. God knows things would be a lot more interesting.

Back at Ms. Figg's house, the group of four, and now Ms. Figg, were watching the house like hawks, Ms. Figg catching onto their concern. "...There has to be SOMETHING we can do... There just HAS to be... Who knows what that man's doing to him in there...?" Emilia murmured nervously, twirling a lock of her long silver hair on her finger.

"My owl is exceptionally fast, dear, he'll have made it to Albus by the end of the day I'm certain." Ms. Figg reassured her. Emilia turned to her with a worried expression.

"But what if Harry can't wait that long? What if that man ends up going too far this time and permanently injuring him or worse?! I can't just sit here and ignore this! I just can't! We have to help him somehow! I don't care if I get in trouble for it, I need to get him away from that house!"

Puck let out a sigh as he floated atop his daughter's head. "Okay, okay... I do know one spell that'll let you get ahold of the little guy without them seeing you, buuuut if I use it, it'll put me out of commission for three days. It takes a LOT of energy to pull off."

Emilia looked up at her spirit with determination. "Okay, Puck. Let's do it. It's a risk I'm willing to take... I'll be able to handle myself for a few days, anything to save that poor little boy." She held her clenched fists up to her chin and nodded her head.

Puck chuckled. "I knew you'd say that, you can never leave someone behind when they need you. Okay. So. Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna freeze time."

"What? But I thought your specialty was ice magic." Rem asked, confused.

"It is. I'm literally going to FREEZE time."

"That-That doesn't make any sense!" Ms. Figg exclaimed in pure disbelief. Puck tilted his head at her.

"Yeah, well... spirits on MY level get that kind of response quite a bit. We all have at least one unconventional power that a lot of people would say isn't physically possible." He turned to Emilia and Rem. "Okay, girls, so here's the deal. Practioners of ice magic like you two are completely unaffected by this spell. That means you'll both be able to go next door, grab the little guy and beat it out of there, and they won't be any the wiser. You can even smack the fat slob around a little if you wanna, he won't know who did it. But you only have about ten minutes to get it done. I'm gonna go ahead and scout things out first, make sure you know where you're going."

"But what if they see you, Bubby?" Beatrice asked worriedly.

"Nah, that won't happen! I'm small, I can hide no sweat! And besides, I'm a cat! We're born to sneak around and stay outta sight, it's not even hard!" Puck replied confidently.

Beatrice reluctantly bit her lip, unsure if her Bubby could actually make it. Puck immediately placed a soft paw on her forehead, making her look up with a slight blush. Puck gave her an adorable smile, which made it hard to believe he was really the mighty spirit everyone knew him as. "It's okay, Beatrice. I promise you I won't get caught. I swear it on my honor as a spirit! If I don't come back, you're free to haunt me for the rest of eternity." He added with a mischievous smile, making Beatrice giggle a bit. Rem sweatdropped.

"Uuh, I don't think that's how haunting works..." She said, only to promptly be ignored by everyone, causing her to pout.

Emilia clapped her hands, catching everyone's attention. "Alright, if you're sure this is going to work, let's do it." She said, looking out the window. "I don't want to see that boy suffer any longer. If we don't save him now..." Her face adopted a horrified expression, before she shook it off and replaced it with bravery. "...let's hope it doesn't come to that." She looked at Puck. "Are you ready?"

"Yup! As ready as ready can be." He said, doing a small salute (which Beatrice found extremely adorable).

Emilia nodded. "Then let's do it. Let's free that boy, once and for all." She exclaimed.

Rem smiled at Emilia. She always was like this... Utterly unable to let innocents suffer if she could do anything to stop it. She always had respected that about the half-elf.

"All right, I'm gonna be on my way now!" Puck then proceeded to effortlessly squeeze his way underneath the crack of the closed door. Everyone but Ms. Figg was flabbergasted at the way Puck just slipped right through that small crack.

"The term is cats are liquid." Ms. Figg said with a shrug.

Puck made his way to the house next door, and slid his way underneath the crack of the door just as he had at Ms. Figg's. He then hurriedly ducked behind a large pair of workboots, nose crinkling at the odor that came from it. "Urgh... This guy needs to wash his feet every once in a while..." Slowly, he peeked his head out from behind the shoe. His eyes promptly widened in shock and disbelief at what he was seeing. This sheer, unrelenting brutality forced upon a child that looked barely out of infancy... It was hard to watch, but he couldn't look away. He felt rooted to the spot in pure shock. All he could think was how devastated Emilia was going to be when she got wind of what was going on in here.

After what felt like several hours, the obese man dragged the limp, bloodied and exhausted child back to the cupboard under the stairs and harshly threw him in, making the spirit wince. "And you'll be STAYING there for a bloody WEEK, boy!" The man barked angrily. Puck scowled as the man stormed out of the room.

"Not if I have anything to say about it he won't..." He squeezed his way back outside and rushed to get back to Ms. Figg's.

Upon entering the room, he floated above them all. "Okay! Right as you enter the door, you'll find a cupboard underneath the stairs. That's where they keep him." Emilia was taken aback by her spirit's demeanour. He was visibly distressed, none of his usual laidback and playful attitude showing.

"Puck... how bad was it...?" Emilia asked softly. Puck looked at her and sighed.

"It's...it's bad, Emilia. It's REALLY bad... We need to get over there as soon as possible..." Ms. Figg went pale. What has been happening right under her nose?!

"Alright then!" Puck called. "If everyones ready, here goes."

Puck activated his powers, small trails of cold air dancing around him. Everyone in the room felt the sudden increase in strength as more and more cold whisps danced around the small cat. Everyone watched in anticipation as Puck began to bring his paws together...

...and then, he just clapped, and everything turned white.

Emilia blinked.

Rem blinked.

Then both blinked at the same time.

"That was it?" They asked at the same time.

"Hey, it's not flashy, but it's effective! Look!" Both girls looked at Beatrice and Ms. Figg. They were frozen in time, completely unmoving.

"Wow..." Emilia breathed before her eyes widened. "Agh! We have to hurry! Rem! Come help me, let's go and get him!"

"Yes." Rem nodded as the two women rushed out the door. They hurried over to the identical house where Harry resided, and Emilia nearly tore the door off its hinges trying to get in. When she saw the cupboard under the stairs, she was quick to yank it open... and she screamed out loud as soon as she saw what was inside.

Rem followed Emilia's gaze into the cupboard, but instead of screaming in horror, her face remained calm, her fury burning like the fire that destroyed her home.

Lying in the cupboard, covered in bruises, with nothing but a blanket on his tiny person, was Harry Potter, the boy they came to rescue. The sheer extent of the abuse the two were looking at could not ever be put into words. All that needed to be known was that Emilia was right to push them into saving the boy.

Rem sincerely doubted he would have survived if they didn't act sooner.

She put a hand on Emilia's shoulder, causing her to look at the maid, the expression of horror still plastered on her face.

Rem began to speak. "Stay calm, Emilia. As a royal, you need to show your bravery as unwavering. What we're seeing here is no doubt terrifying, but we can't show fear now. We came to help, and that's what we'll do. Besides..." She looked at the boy for a second. "...I doubt the boy would want his savior to look at him in fear when he wakes up." She spoke, her voice seemingly cold. Yet Emilia could sense it. That unbridled rage, waiting to be let out.

Honestly, she would be lying if she said she wasn't angry herself.

Taking a few deep breaths, Emilia nodded, steeling her nerves. She walked over to the cupboard, knelt down, and scooped up the boy in her arms. Making sure to adjust him so he wouldn't be hurt.

Once that happened, the girls began to head towards the exit, the door still slightly broken from their earlier break in. As soon as they arrived in the living room, they noticed the three people frozen in time, a fat walrus of a man, a horse-faced woman, and a pudgy kid that resembled a younger version of the walrus.

Just by looking at them, Rem knew who they were. The feeling she got from them was proof enough.

These were Harry's abusers.

"Emilia-sama, go back to the house." She said.

"H-huh!?" Emilia exclaimed, puzzled by this sudden development. "But why? We only have eight minutes 'till Puck's spell wears off! What are you-"

"Perfect. That's seven minutes enough." She answered simply, not letting Emilia finish.

"Rem, what are you doing? What's going on?" Emilia asked.

"Emilia-sama, I need you to leave. Prepare a bath and clean up the boy. Try to heal him using your magic if you can without Puck. Don't worry about me." She said.

"B-but-"

"I'll be back shortly." She said, her eyes fixed into a small glare pointed at Emilia.

The elf in question gulped, and nodded. She quickly left the house, Rem closing the door behind her. Rem then looked out the window to make sure Emilia was heading towards the house. She turned around, and stared at the three disgusting peo...no, demons, in the room with her.

"Consider yourselves lucky that murder would only bring us more trouble than it's worth." She said. She then reached behind her back, the rattling of chains was heard, before her hand came out from behind, holding a familiar black chain attached to a black handle on one end, and a large ball with red spikes on the other.

"Trust me however..." She held the chain in her left hand, the handle of it in her right.

"...you'll be surprised to find out just how much the human body can survive."

Emilia heard the sound of Rem's weapon making impact with something, and she winced when she heard the sounds of bones shattering. It was very surreal to hear that without the sound of agonized screaming to go with it, though she knew it was going to happen as soon as time started once more.

As she entered the house, she snuck a glance out the window and saw Rem was relentlessly assaulting the Dursleys. All she could see was silhouettes, but she winced at the sheer brutality she was inflicting on the fat man in particular. She briefly wondered if it was too far... And then she looked at little Harry in her arms and those thoughts were squashed down immediately.

She went to do as Rem had instructed and prepare a bath for the poor thing, Puck floating alongside her, visibly tiring out. "Well... Little guy's looking like he's gonna be okay..." He let out a yawn. "Ugh... Time's running out..." Emilia hummed in response as she ran the bathwater.

"Please hurry up, Rem..." She murmured. Thankfully, Rem had finished with only thirty seconds to spare. She calmly left the house, hands clutching at her apron as she made her way back to Ms. Figg's house, her weapon dispersed. Her tracks were covered. They would never know it was her who had done this to them.

She had shown the parents no mercy, but the little round child, she had decided to let off with a spanking. She didn't know if he was anywhere near as bad as his parents, but his eyes told her he had a vicious mean streak, and he was very much undisciplined.

As soon as she closed the door to Ms. Figg's house, time resumed, and the sound of agonized screams could be heard from next door. Beatrice and Ms. Figg were visibly shocked at the sudden noise. "D-Did you... You were just supposed to bring the child back here, I suppose! What were you thinking?! If you harmed them, it could lead to severe consequences in fact!"

"They deserved it." Rem said swiftly and coldly. So coldly in fact, Beatrice almost (almost) flinched. In all the years she had known the blue oni, she had never seen or even heard her sound so cold.

"...I'll go check on Emilia." She said, heading up the stairs towards the bathroom.

Rem watched Beatrice ascend the stairs, before looking at her hand. She could see small, barely visible patches of red on the skin of her hand, from how hard she was gripping her flail. Rem stared at her hand in silence for several seconds, her gaze unblinking.

"Tch. Monsters. The lot of them." She said.

Meanwhile, the drill-haired spirit reached the top floor of the house and walked over to the bathroom door. She knocked on the wooden surface twice, the elf inside responding.

"Who is it?"

"Beatrice. May I come in, I suppose?"

"Oh. Yeah sure."

Beatrice blinked at the sorrowful tone in the elf's voice. She opened the door, her eyes treated to the sight of Emilia kneeling next to the tub.

She gently shut the door, and walked over to the kneeling elf. Her eyes wandered into the bathhub, landing on the sleeping form of the boy, his cheeks stained by trails of tears.

"What..." Suddenly, Emilia spoke, catching her attention. "I don't understand. What..." Emilia slowly turned her head to look at Beatrice, the spirit slowly gaining an astonished expression at the sheer...no, despair would be far too mild a word.

"...what did this boy ever do wrong, Beatrice?"

Beatrice's lips formed into a thin line as she looked down at the injured child. There was no answer to that question. Nothing she could say could ever come close to explaining why he'd been treated the way he had. The injuries marring his tiny form were abominable.

"...I don't know, I suppose. There is no reason, in fact." Was all the little spirit could think to say. She approached the tub slowly and leaned down to look at the little boy resting in the bathwater as the half-elf gently cleaned him off the best she could.

"Y-Yes... You're right... There IS no reason, none at all, this just..." Emilia took a deep breath and shook her head. "Stay focused, Emilia, stay calm, just clean him up..." She muttered to herself, trying to force herself not to succumb to her anguish.

Beatrice remained silent as she watched Emilia tending to the child. The water was absolutely filthy and disgusting by the time she was finished, turning a sickening mixture of red and brown with the combination of the dirt and the blood...

Rem stepped into the room a few minutes later to see if everything was well, Ms. Figg trailing behind her, feeling guilt for not making a stronger effort to save the child. When Ms. Figg saw the state of the bathwater, she fainted on the spot after a choked sob. Rem caught her and carried her out of the room, sparing a sad glance back at the bathtub, laying Ms. Figg down on the couch before going back up to check on the child and her two companions.

"...How is he?" She asked softly as she took a kneeling position next to Beatrice. "Oh... He hasn't woken up yet..." She was just beginning to wonder if Harry WOULD wake up, when suddenly, he twitched slighty, and his eyes slowly began to open.

"Hm...wha...?" Harry's senses began to return as his eyes blinked tiredly open. His sight blurred as he tried to adjust himself. Suddenly, he realized something. He was sleeping.

He wasn't allowed to sleep during noon.

"A-ah!" He quickly got up. "I-I'm sorry uncle Vernon! I didn't mean to...fall..." He suddenly stopped when he realized he was no longer in his cupboard. Instead, he was in a bathhub, warm water surrounding him.

What's going on? Wasn't he in his cupboard? How did he get here? Is this a dream? Where is he? What...

He began to hyperventilate, unable to calm down, fear coursing through him.

Suddenly, a gentle feeling appeared on his shoulder. He flinched and looked to the side, his eyes squeezed shut, expecting to get hit. To his surprise however, the gentle feeling didn't go away. He slowly opened his eyes, and looked at his shoulder, finding a pale hand gently placed on him. His eyes followed the path of the arm, and soon he found himself staring at a pair of purple eyes on a beautiful pale face, framed with equally pale hair, and with a loving smile on it.

"Hey. How're you feeling, little one?"

Harry shrunk down in on himself slightly, looking nervously downward, not sure how to answer the pretty lady's question. He looked up at her. "Um...I...I...I feel...Um...Good..." He lied. After all, he was never supposed to tell ANYONE about what his uncle did to him...

Rem and Beatrice saw right through his lie. He looked around and noticed them... as well as the fact that he was in a very familiar bathroom. "M-Ms. Figg's house...?" He murmured softly. Emilia nodded with a smile and gently ran her fingers through his hair.

"Yes, you're at Ms. Figg's house right now..." She said softly. "And we're going to make sure you NEVER have to go back to that horrible place ever again... You poor thing... How could they treat you so horribly?" She murmured softly. Harry leaned into her touch. It was kind of like a kitten. It was cute!

Rem rose back to her feet. "I believr we should bring him out of the bath now... He's been cleaned off... Here." She grabbed a towel from the nearby shelf and unfolded it before reaching over and gently grabbing the small boy out of the tub.

She carefully bundled him up in the towel, leaving his tiny face peeking out, and then held him up against her shoulder, gently patting his back. "There there now, child, it's all right, you're safe now..." She whispered, gently patting his tiny back.

Harry flinched when he felt his back getting pat, expecting for it to transition to hitting him, but none of that ever came. The blue-haired lady continued to gently pat his back, while hugging him against her shoulder.

Despite his initial fear, Harry could feel himself getting more...comfortable. He winced, realizing it won't last. The lady and her friends will hit him, just like uncle Vernon did. Not like he didn't deserve it. He is a freak after all.

And freaks only deserve to be hit.

He heard the blue lady sigh, and she soon turned around, with Harry finally getting a better look at the other two. His eyes first fell on the white lady, who had gentle purple eyes with blue pupils, inside which Harry could feel himself getting lost, as if he was looking at an angel.

'She's so pretty.' Thought the little boy. He then looked at the smaller girl, the one with weird hair, and realised her eyes had pink butterflies in them.

'Is she...is she like...me?' Harry asked, wondering if her eyes were like that because she was a freak like him.

'No, there's no way.' He thought. Why would someone like her be the same as a freak like him? It was ridiculous.

Maybe it was something he did?

He probably did, he supposed. He can't control the freaky stuff, so he's probably gonna make the yellow girl angry. Maybe then she'll hit him.

Beatrice noticed the way he was looking at her and tilted her head to the side. "Hmm. He seems to have less than pleasant thoughts on the mind, I suppose..." Emilia frowned at that and stepped forward, gently cupping his cheek with her hand.

"Aww, you poor thing..." She said softly, stroking his cheek with her thumb. Harry winced, then leaned into the woman's touch. It was nice... One of the pretty ladies was holding him nice, and the other was also being nice to him... He felt his fears and doubts slowly ebbing away...

Rem smiled at the half elf, and then held the child out to her. "Here you are, Emilia. I can tell how badly you want to hold him." Emilia blinked, then accepted Harry into her arms with a big smile and gave him a gentle squeeze, nuzzling the top of his head.

"Aww, look at you... You're so tiny..." She cooed gently as she began to rock him back and forth in her arms. Harry timidly looked up at her as she showed him affection. She was still being nice... When was she going to drop the facade and hurt him...?

But... WAS it a facade...? She looked so... genuine. She was being so careful and gentle and her voice sounded so... soothing... Was... Was she actually worried about him...? Did she care...? But why? Why would she care about HIM?

It didn't make sense. None of it did. Why would such a pretty lady like her be so kind to a freak like him? Why didn't she start hurting him from the get-go? Harry didn't know, and he was afraid he'd be punished if he asked.

Emilia looked at Rem, her eyes speaking her intentions for her.

"Right away, Emilia. I shall prepare the bed for him." She said, bowing slightly before she left the bathroom, and headed towards the room.

Emilia looked back at Harry, giving him a gentle smile. "Say little one, are you hungry? I can make you some food if you'd like." She offered.

Harry looked at her confused. "But...I'm not allowed to..."

"Huh?" Emilia asked, blinking. "What do you mean you're not allowed?"

"I'm not allowed to...to eat normal people food...I'm too freaky for that."

Emilia widened her eyes subtly. 'Too...freaky? Just...just what did these people do to him?!' She thought in horror. She shook her head and spoke up. "Nonsense Harry. You're not a freak, you're a wonderful little boy, and you-what's wrong?" She asked, seeing how Harry was staring at her with a horrified expression.

"You...your ears..."

Emilia winced as he looked at her ears. "Y-You have different ears... You're different, just like me... That...That means people are mean to you too... That... People shouldn't be mean to you... You're too nice and too pretty for people to not like..."

Emilia gasped and teared up slightly at the little one's words. To think, this child was so pure, wholesome and innocent that just the thought of her being mistreated for her own appearance was more disturbing to him than the abuse that he himself received...

"Oooh... You're such a sweet little thing..." Emilia whimpered softly, burying her face in the child's hair. "And you're wrong about what you said... You are NOT too freaky to eat food... You're too much of a sweetheart, too cuddly and adorable to be hated like that, to be... to be HURT like that..."

Harry looked at Emilia. He noticed that she didn't have any signs of real injury anywhere. She didn't have any bruises, any cuts, any scrapes, welts or dislocated facial features. He wondered if they were all under her clothes... But that didn't seem likely.

She also didn't have any signs of being really hungry like he did. Her body looked normal. Proper. Where he looked like he was mere moments away from turning into a skeleton, she looked like she was eating a healthy diet every day. Harry felt relieved. He was glad he wasn't being treated bad like he was. Only he deserved that.

Emilia squeezed him gently. He had no idea how right he was... While she was never hurt physically [Puck would never allow it], she had received her fair share of emotional and verbal abuse over the years. This child's sympathy meant the world to her.

She took a breath and gently cupped his chin to look at her. She gave him a stern look [though she really couldn't pull it off and just ended up looking cute.] "Now you listen to me, mister. I don't wanna hear you say all that mean stuff about yourself anymore, okay? You ARE allowed to eat just like everyone else. You are NOT a freak. And you did NOT deserve to be treated like that. You're an adorable little boy and I fell in love with you the minute I saw you."

Harry looked down, uncertain. He didn't fully believe her, but he knew better than to argue. "Um...M-Miss...?"

"Oh! Emilia. You can call me Emilia!" Emilia said with a closed-eyed smile.

"Oh, sorry... Miss Emilia... Um...How do you know my name...?"

"Oh! Right! Ms. Figg told me! She told all of us!"

"Ms. Figg?!" Harry perked up at that, a small smile appearing on his face. He thought Ms. Figg had left and had taken all the kitties with her. He was afraid he'd never see them or play with them again. To hear that she is still here, that she didn't abandon him...

It made him happy.

It made him so so happy.

Like nothing ever did.

"Oooh, you look soooo cuuute!" She nuzzled her cheek against his head, cooing at him all the while. Harry didn't know why Miss Emilia was acting like that, (probably his freaky stuff ruining everything), but...he liked this. He liked the feeling she was giving him. He leaned into her touch as they soon began to walk down to the dining room.

Once they were there, Emilia sat Harry down on a chair and booped his nose. "I'll go make us something to eat. Do you have preferences?" She asked. Harry shook his head no, and Emilia nodded, deciding to improvise something, before heading off into the kitchen. Harry sat in the chair by the table, silently waiting for Miss Emilia to return. Suddenly, footsteps caught his attention, and he looked behind, recognising the girl from before, the one with butterfly eyes.

The girl walked over to a chair and sat down, likely waiting for food as well. After a minute or so, she noticed he was watching her. Harry flinched when she looked at him, causing her gaze to soften. She adopted a kind smile, and spoke.

"Hello there little one."

Harry blinked, then looked down nervously. This girl was bigger than him by at least three heads, but she was still smaller than Dudley. Either way, he was nervous about talking to people around his age, they would normally end up harming him.

Dudley and his friends made a game out of hurting him as much as they possibly could, and he was worried this girl would want to do the same thing. He looked back up at her, and noticed she was simply looking at him with a tilted head and a small frown.

Beatrice was a very prickly spirit, and many would say she was difficult to get along with. And...well, those people would be right, she supposed. But she had to admit that she had an extreme weakness for things that she thought were cute.

Her precious Bubby was among those things. As well as the small army of cats that lived inside this house. And she had to admit, this little boy was very much on the list of things that she thought was adorable. Was it because he was smaller than her?

She idly wondered if it was possible for her to pick him up. Tilting her head, she moved closer to the chair, outstretched her arms... and she took Harry into her hold, the boy letting out a small squeak as she did so. "...Goodness, you are VERY small, in fact..."

"Mm...m' sorry for being small...you can hit me if you'd like..."

Beatrice was at a loss for words. "Hit you? Why would I ever want to hit you I suppose? And why are you apologizing for being small? Do not ever do that again, do you understand?" She chastised him lightly. Harry looked down in shame, causing Beatrice to sweatdrop.

"Sorry...I didn't wanna make you angry..."

'Oh dear.' She thought. 'Now I've made things worse. I don't know how to work with kids, in fact.' She thought. She heard someone entering the room, and saw Rem approaching the table. Seeing the opportunity, Beatrice got off the chair and walked over to her, before lifting Harry towards her.

"Here. I don't know how to work with kids I suppose. Keep him entertained." She said, more demanding than offering.

Rem blinked, before nodding and accepting the boy, taking him in her arms. Beatrice huffed and sat back down, pulling a book out of...somewhere, and losing herself within it.

Rem watched Beatrice for a few seconds, before her eyes moved over to Harry, who noticed her and looked at her in curiosity, but also fear.

Rem chose to simply ignore the large amount of the latter.

She adopted a smile and looked at Harry with as much compassion as she could. "Hello Harry. It's nice to meet you. My name is Rem."

Harry looked down nervously. "Um...H-Hi Miss Rem..." He mumbled shyly. The maid gently ran her fingers through his messy dark hair with a closed-eyed smile. He really was a precious little thing, he was so tiny and so desperately in need of affection...

"There there now, little one, it's all right... You're all right..." She said gently. "I've dealt with those people that put their hands on you..." She spoke softly. She idly wondered what had happened with them. Luckily they had passed out from the pain, and Dudley had fainted when he saw the state his parents were in, meaning the authorities were unlikely to be called, at least for a while.

Harry looked at her with a tilted head. "Wh-What do you mean?" Rem frowned and winced slightly. She...REALLY did not need to share the gruesome details of what she had done to those pigs in human skin, it would give him nightmares for certain.

"Oh... You don't need to trouble yourself worrying about it..." She said softly before hugging him against her chest and gently stroking his hair. "Right now, you just need to focus on getting some rest... That way your natural magic can heal you faster..."

Harry tensed up in the blue-haired woman's arms. She sais the bad word like it was nothing! ...Was it a grownup word that only grownups could say? He remembered how much trouble he always got in if he ever said that word in his family's presence...

Rem noticed his distraught expression, and asked with a raised brow. "Is everything alright, love? Did I say something wrong?"

"You...you said a bad word...you can't say that word...you'll get hurt if you do." He said.

"Bad word?" Rem asked, now thoroughly confused. "What bad word?"

"The..." Harry hesitated. Was he allowed to say that word? What if Miss Rem hit him? But...she was saying that same word so easily, so...maybe it's alright? "Magic." He said, before looking away and expecting a hit.

Only it never came.

'Magic? That's what I said?' Rem thought in confusion. Why would he be afraid of the word magic? It didn't make sense...

...unless...

'Hold on...could it be...' Rem looked towards Harry, a small frown dripping with unimaginable anger settling on her face.

'Did those PIGS seriously torture him into thinking magic by word alone was bad?'

Safe to say, Rem was sad that she didn't do something worse to them now.

She narrowed her eyes at the house across the street. 'No...No, I can't kill them, I can't kill them, I can't fall onto that path again...' She exhaled through her nostrils as she realized she may have made a mistake in attacking those people.

Yes, they were awful, awful people that MORE than deserved it, but she very much doubted this world's law enforcement would agree with that... She was more or less enacting vigilante justice. If she had been acting in self defense, it would be one thing, but no, she had made the choice to strike while they couldn't defend themselves.

...She would accept the consequences of her actions should it come to that. It would be more than worth it to stand up for this helpless little one when he was harmed so horribly... Emilia would still be here. She could work everything out with the child.

She sighed and have the little boy a gentle squeeze. "Magic... is a wonderful thing, Harry... It's nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to feel you'e worth any less over. It can do truly amazing things... I can show it to you if you'd like..." She whispered softly.

Harry looked at her in awe. She was saying everything his uncle thought was wrong, but she sounded so genuine, so sincere, that he felt like he HAD to believe her... She gave him a smile, and he felt that doubt melt away just a little more.

"O-okay..." He said. "I...I wanna see m...m..." Harry hesitated. Looking up, he saw Rem still giving him a kind smile. She nodded, urging him to continue.

Harry gulped, but note continued. "I...wanna see...ma...magic." He finished, and looked up. Rem's smile widened.

"There, was that so hard?" She asked, playfully booping his nose. Harry giggled at the touch. Rem then raised her hand, before a white mist gathered in her palm. She breathed out, more white mist coming out of her mouth.

"Goa."

As soon as she said that, the white mist began to swirl, whistling like a silent wind. Harry watched in awe as a shiny blue crystal began to form inside the mist.

After a few seconds, the mist disappeared, and the crystal gently landed in Rem's palm. She gave it to Harry, who hesitantly touched the blue crystal, widening his eyes at the cold feeling it had.

He quickly realized it was ice. He had seen plenty of it during all the time he'd spent shovelling snow out of the back yard for... um... he didn't know what the reason was, actually, he was pretty sure his uncle just wanted to work him to the bone.

But he had never seen ice quite like this before. This ice was sparkling in the light of the house, it was in the perfect shape of a diamond, and it was smooth and soothing. In fact, he felt some of the aches in his tiny hand ease slightly as he touched it.

Rem smiled. "It's a very special kind of ice too..." She looked over to the fireplace, approached it and held the ice directly over it for a full thirty seconds before returning to show Harry that it hadn't melted, not even the slightest bit of water dripped from it.

"It...It didn't melt...?" Harry asked with a tilted head. Rem nodded her head, scooped him up and set him down in her lap gently, running her fingers through the little boy's messy dark hair and giving the ice crytal to him to hold. He took it in both hands and looked down at it.

"That's right... The ice is extremely powerful." She gently tapped it with her finger. "It won't melt, and it will only shatter under the strongest forces imagineable... Some use these crystals for decoration. It's a beautiful gem, is it not?"

"Yes...it's...so pretty..." Harry whispered, amazed by such a wondrous thing. The ice that doesn't melt, doesn't shatter. He had never seen anything similar. It was...beautiful.

Rem put a finger on her chin. "Decoration...ah!" She gasped, catching Harry's attacks. He looked up, and watched as Rem pulled out a small string. She took the ice crystal from Harry, before creating a small hole in the middle of it. She then pulled the string through the hole, before tying it. She then slid her hand across the string, causing more ice crystals of various sizes to grow along the length of the string. Once done, she admired her handiwork for a second, before nodding and placing it on Harry. The boy looked at the new necklace, surprised. He looked at Rem, who smiled.

"Do you like it?" She asked.

Harry nodded. "Ye-yes. I like it a lot. Th-thank you, Miss Rem." He said. Rem giggled.

"Aww, such a well-mannered boy." She poked his tummy with her finger, causing him to giggle lightly. Rem smiled as she watched him laugh. The boy probably never had something so nice given to him.

She was glad that his ability to enjoy things wasn't killed by those pigs as well.

Suddenly, steps alerted the duo at the table, and they looked up to see Emilia walk in, a pink apron over her dress.

"Dinner is ready!" She said with a huge smile.

Beatrice looked up, then her eyes narrowed in distaste at the apron Emilia was wearing. "...And just where did you get that eyesore, I suppose?" She asked. Emilia squawked indignantly and clutched at the pink apron, offended by the remark.

"Hey, I think it looks cute, and I didn't wanna get my clothes all covered in food and stuff! Besides, it's not even mine, I just found it in the kitchen so it must be Miss Figg's, so there, you just insulted our gracious host and now you're rude!" She huffed and stuck her nose up.

Beatrice rolled her eyes. "Hmph... It doesn't matter, I suppose, let's just get the child fed..." She sat at the table, only to pout slightly as she realized her head just barely found level above the side of it. Well, at least she was taller than Harry, even on Rem's lap his eyes barely peeked over it.

That... was actually really sad.

He was so tiny, it just wasn't right. Children his age were not usually this small, it wasn't natural.

This bot needed to eat, and he needed to eat badly.

...So did she now that she thought about it.

"So then. What did you make, I suppose?" She asked the half-elf.

Rem smiled, before retreating back into the kitchen for a few seconds. She soon returned with a large black pot, something smoking from beneath the lid. She placed the pot in the middle of the table, before removing the lid. The trio (mostly Rem since Beatrice and Harry were too small to see anything, something Beatrice loathed with her entire being) looked into the pot, the steam clearing to show...

"Ta-da! Fresh rice sprinkled with yellow turmeric and a dash of pepper with pieces of carrot and peas." Emilia said, puffing her chest out in pride.

Beatrice sniffed the air, her nose taking in the smell of the warm dish. "Huh...it...seems I may have underestimated your skills, I suppose." Beatrice said, surprised at the fact that she just said that out loud.

Rem herself was also surprised. She never expected Emilia to be such a good cook. Then again, she DID teach her how to, and she was the best (and only) cook in the Rosvaal mansion, so she supposed she shouldn't be so surprised.

"It smells...so good..." Harry spoke up. Emilia's heart melted at his little voice.

"I'm glad you like it, Harry." She said. "Here, I'll...oh." Emilia then rubbed her head sheepishly. "I...think I forgot the plates." She turned around. "I...I'll be right back!" She scurried away into the kitchen.

"I take it back, I suppose." Beatrice said. "That elf is a bloody idiot in fact."

Rem looked at the little spirit with a frown. "Come on now, it was a simple mistake, you don't have to be so hard on her." She chided lightly. Beatrice simply stuck her nose up in the air and let out an adorable huff as she crossed her arms. Evidently the oni wasn't getting through to the spirit any time soon.

"She...She cooked for us, so... shouldn't...you...maybe be nice to her...?" Harry said timidly.

Beatrice looked at him with one eye open, and he winced slightly. The little spirit let out a sigh. "Very well. She is... adequate."

Emilia entered the room with a stack of plates, giving Beatrice a small glare as her cheeks puffed out slightly. "Hmph! So this is the thanks I get? You're mean, Beatrice, you're really really mean!" She exclaimed, making her disapproval with Beatrice's harsh words clear.

"Yes, yes, I hear that quite frequently, I suppose." Beatrice waved it off.

"...I think you should apologize to me." Emilia said with her hands on her hips. "I worked hard to make this dish special and you're being a big bully to me. If you wanna eat, tell me you\re sorry!"

Beatrice stared flatly at the half-elf. "...I suppose I'll starve then." She said simply.

Rem's brows creased in annoyance. "Beatrice, I understand this is your usual attitude, but there are times where it's best to drop the snark. I agree with you on the matter of Emilia being a bit clutzy..."

"Hey!"

"...but you shouldn't insult her efforts. She herself said she went out of her way to make this dish before us special, so you could at least show some appreciation. She's trying her best, after all." She said.

Beatrice was about to retort, when Harry suddenly spoke up.

"M-miss Emilia really tried...to-to make this good. Please don't say bad words to her Miss Beatrice. She'd be sad if you did." He spoke.

Beatrice simply watched them, Rem giving her a look that said "You know I'm right." She stared at them for a minute, before Sighing in annoyance.

"Fine, I suppose!" She looked at Emilia, before biting her lip, but otherwise continuing.

"I...I apologize...for insulting you." She finished, a crimson blush on her face.

Emilia giggled as Rem nodded in approval. The elf began to pat the little spirit on the head. "Aww, thank you, Beatrice. See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Beatrice's eyes twitched. "Don't push it, I suppose." She said lowly. Emilia removed her hand from the little spirit's back, deciding it best not to push her luck too far. She'd be happy with the apology.

It was rare for the little spirit to ever apologize.

She sighed before she grabbed the utensil she'd been using, scooping the food onto a plate. She made sure to give Harry the first plate of food, and Rem looked at it with a small frown and her head cocked to the side.

"Emilia? I feel this might be a bit too much for him to handle at this point in time."

Emilia blinked and tilted her head. "But... But he's so thin, he needs to eat..." She said softly.

"Yes, but we can't feed him too much at one time, Emilia, it's not healthy to suddenly over fill him with food when he's gone without for so long."

"That is correct. It could lead to genuine harm to him in fact." Beatrice nodded her head.

"Here..." Rem took Harry's plate and carefully portioned it by scooping some of it onto the other plates. "This will be enough to satisfy his need for food without hurting him."

Harry looked at the plate of food in front of him. It wasn't a big plate... but it was still more food than he had ever seen in his entire life!

"I..." Harry didn't know what to say. He genuinely didn't. He never expected this would ever happen. Him? Eating normal people food? It was practically impossible!

And yet, here he was.

Here he was, sitting at a table, being offered normal food (one that looked delicious too) without being deceived. He still couldn't believe it was happening.

He never wanted this to end.

"Th-thank you...Miss Emilia. F-for...giving me so much food. I'm sorry I can't eat all of it..."

Emilia patted him on the head. "Aww, don't worry about it, sweetheart. You need to eat, so don't apologise for that. I was just...a bit careless, is all."

"Mm..." Nodded Harry. Rem picked up the spoon, before scooping up a small bit of yellow rice, a single pea at the top, and offering it to Harry.

"Here Harry." She said. "Say aaahh."

Harry complied. "Aaahhh..." And the spoon was placed in his mouth, before slowly sliding out.

The three girls watched as Harry chewed the food, tensing in anticipation at his reaction. Did he like it? Did Emilia make a mistake?

And then...

He started to tear up.

Emilia began to panic. "Eep! No, no, please don't cry, I'm so sorry I didn't make it right!"

"N-No...I'm...I'm not crying because I'm sad..."

Rem giggled into her hand. "It seems he likes your cooking so much he's shedding tears of joy, Emilia."

Emilia put a hand over her chest and let out a sigh of relief. "Oh... Good... I'm so glad..."

She took a knee by the boy's seat and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into an embrace. He returned it. "Thank you..."

The half elf giggled and kissed his cheek. "You're welcome..." She rose back to her feet after pulling away, then went back to the pot.

Rem and Beatrice watched as she scooped some of the meal onto their plates. She looked back into the pot when everyone was served.

"Okay, good... Plenty left for Miss Figg. ...Um... Has anyone checked on her...?"

"Oh dear!" Rem squeaked before hopping to her feet and rushing to check on the unconscious woman.

"Hmph. Sloppy caretaking, I suppose." Beatrice huffed.

Emilia giggled, adjusting Harry in her lap, before she took her own spoon and began to feed him.

Both girls watched with smiles (Beatrice's barely noticeable) as the boy enjoyed his food. Emilia's heart melted at the smiles and happy sounds Harry made with each spoonful. She also played with him as she fed him, poking his tummy (and deciding to ignore how thin it was), and cooing at him constantly.

"You're going to spoil the boy, Emilia. Stop, I suppose." Beatrice said, but deep down she was grateful for Emilia's behaviour towards the boy. She knew the boy deserved every bit of love he could get, and if there was someone who could give him just that, then Beatrice was absolutely certain Emilia was the only person fit for such a role. This comment was more of a non-serious jab, and Emilia knew that.

Didn't stop her from playfully poking her tounge out at her, though.

Just as Beatrice was about to respond, Rem walked into the room, hands on her apron.

"Ms. Figg seems to still be unconscious. Luckily it's nothing serious. She's just asleep. She should wake up in a moment." She then looked over at Harry, who sat in Emilia's lap, munching on the rice in his mouth with an adorable smile that nearly broke Rem's calm facade.

Yes, facade. There's no way she wouldn't be internally squeeing at the sight.

At all.

She smiled, doing her best to contain herself. "Are you enjoying the food so far, Harry?"

Harry looked up at her with a smile and nodded his head. "It's the best food ever!" He declared happily.

"Awwww, thank you!" Emilia cooed, squeezing him gently. "Rem taught me everything I know, y'know! I bet she could make it even better than I can!" Harry looked at Rem with a tilted head, and the Oni let out a sigh of slight exasperation, smiling.

"Honestly, you heap far too much praise on me, I'm just a humble maid." She said softly. Sure, she was more or less the one doing almost the entirety of the work back at the manor, but she was, at the end of the day, still just an average, normal everyday maid.

...How were things going back at the manor now that her sister was working alone?

When would she reunite with her sister?

...WOULD she ever reunite with her sister...? Or was it possible that she was trapped here for good, far away from her, never to see her again? Well... at least Puck could travel back and help them keep in SOME form of contact, even if they couldn't meet face to face...

She felt a sudden pain in her heart.

She was already missing her older sister.

She prayed from the bottom of her heart that they would see one another again.

Emilia noticed her distress, and walked over to her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Rem looked at her in surprise.

Emilia smiled. "Don't worry, Rem." Said the elf. "If there's anything I know about you and your sister, it's that she's STRONG. Stronger than anyone I know."

"Ahem." Beatrice called, an angry expression on her face.

"Okay, ALMOST everyone I know." Emilia rolled her eyes. "Look, the point is, your sister is more than strong enough to fend for herself. You don't have to worry about a thing." She said.

"And besides, Puck said everything is perfectly fine back in Lugnica, so we know for a fact that nothing has happened that would be the cause for worry. So relax, and enjoy your meal, missy!" Ordered Emilia, but instead of pulling off a commanding look, she just looked adorable.

Rem giggled at the sight, before nodding. "Very well, Emilia. I shan't worry about it too much. I shouldn't be underestimating my sister like that." She said, and Emilia clapped in delight.

Beatrice blinked. "I sometimes can't decide wether or not to call you unbelievably intelligent or irreversibly stupid, I suppose."

Emilia narrowed her eyes as her cheeks puffed out slightly. "Heeey, that's mean, Beatrice, come on!"

"Hmph! Well then if you have a brain, you should use it more often in fact." Was the spirit's response.

Harry winced at the harsh words, worried she was gonna turn on him next.

Rem noticed this and gave Beatrice a frown. "Honestly, at least wait until you're not in the presence of the little one if you're going to berate her."

Beatrice looked over at Harry, saw how nervous he was getting, and let out a deep sigh. "Very well. I will only berate the elf for her lack of intelligence when the child is not in the room or is asleep I suppose." The little spirit relented very reluctantly.

"Or...you could maybe just stop saying mean stuff to me altogether...?" Emilia tried hopefully.

"Hmph! Don't push your luck, I suppose!" Was Beatrice's response. Emilia sat down and crossed her arms over her chest with a pout.

Rem sat back down, and continued to feed Harry, who happily enjoyed every bite. The other two decided to stop waiting and began to enjoy their own meals too.

Soon, the entire meal was over. Emilia made sure they saved some of it for Ms. Figg, before placing the lid over the pot and putting it back on the stove in the kitchen. She came back into the dining room to collect everything else, but Harry's yawn caught her eye.

"Awww." If Emilia knew what ice cream was, she would be certain her heart was made of it. How else could this tiny little baby before her melt it in mere seconds with naught but a yawn? "Is your widdle tummy making you sleepy, Harry?" She asked.

Harry nodded, not feeling like had to be afraid of sleeping around Emilia and Rem. "Mmm...m'sleepy..." He said, yawning again.

Rem smiled, shaking her head. "Come on, let's get you to bed, little one." She said, before getting up and heading towards the stairs, Emilia following suit.

Meanwhile, Beatrice watched as the two women headed to put the tiny boy to bed. She sighed as she shook her head. "They're so going to spoil that boy rotten, in fact. Not like he should get anything else right now, I suppose." She said to herself...

...before noticing the still uncollected dishes and utensils.

Which Emilia was supposed to take into the kitchen.

"What the heck am I supposed to do here!?" She angrily exclaimed.

No response. She huffed and stuck her nose up. "Well, whatever, I suppose. I'm not dealing with it."

But the dishes were cluttering up the area and seeing them just sitting there when they weren't in use was annoying her to no end, she needed to properly organize this. No, no, she would not relegate herself to cleaning up after the white haired brat!

"...Uuuugh... I HAVE to clean it up, I suppose..." She relented, hopping down from her seat and grabbing all the plates and utensils before carrying them towards the sink. She quickly found she wasn't quite tall enough to reach it unfortunately. "...This is highly degrading." She huffed as she stood in place holding the plates. One of Miss Figg's cats was feeling mischievous, climbing the shelves, and it decided it was going to knock a bag of flour off the shelf and empty it all over her. Beatrice glared up at the cat. "You're lucky you're adorable, I suppose." The kitten mewled in response.

Emilia and Rem found the first bed they could, and Rem gently set the child down and tucked him in up to his chin.

Harry nestled into the warm blanket. He'd always wondered what one of these things felt like to sleep in, and it was better than he ever could have imagined.

Emilia crouched down beside him, taking a knee, and then gently rested her hand on the top of his messy dark hair. "There we go, nice and cozy..." She whispered softly, stroking his messy dark hair. Harry hummed softly and turned to look at her with a sleepy smile.

Rem remembered something and quickly left the room for a moment.

As Emilia tended to Harry, Rem came back holding two items: a small blue blanket and a teddy bear wearing a bow tie.

"I made sure to bring these along when we rescued you." The maid explained, gently setting them in the child's arms.

"Puddles!" Exclaimed Harry the moment his eyes landed on his beloved toy and his favorite blanket. Rem walked over and offered Harry the plush, which he immediately embraced tightly, as if afraid it will leave him.

"I see you're attached to that toy, Harry." Emilia said. "Did someone give it to you?" She asked.

"It was...aunt Petunia said...it used to be my mama's...she hated it...so she gave it to me..."

He hugged the bear even tighter. "Puddles was always there for me...whenever he would get torn up, my...freaky stuff would fix him back...he always listened to me when I cried...I was scared I lost him..." He said.

Emilia and Rem looked at each other in a somber manner, their faces wearing expressions of sadness. Emilia then spoke.

"Don't worry Harry." She said. "Those bad people will never hurt you again. We...made sure of it." She looked at Rem in silent gratitude.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Harry asked, confused.

"Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about." Said the blue maid. "All you need to do now, is go to sleep and rest. You've had a long day, and you need sleep." She spoke, placing his blanket over him. Harry immediately hugged the fabric, nuzzling his face into Puddles' soft wool.

Emilia placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. "Good night sweetheart."

"Sleep well." Rem finished. And with that, they left the room, gently shutting the door behind them.

Harry watched them go tiredly, silently wishing that they would stay with him, but he knew he couldn't ask too much of them, they had already done more for him than he could ever ask for. He closed his eyes once more, and silently waited until sleep claimed him...

Emilia and Rem stood outside the door for several seconds.

"...Do you think he'll be okay...?" Emilia asked softly.

Rem turned to her with a tilted head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean... do you think he'll be...okay to sleep on his own...? What if he has a scary dream and needs us and we're not there...?"

Rem smiled softly. "Don't worry... I'll come and check on him frequently." She assured the half elf.

Emilia was pacified by that. "Oh, good... Thank you, Rem..."

The oni nodded her head. "Now then, we'd best go and see what Beatrice is up to. And I should check on Ms. Figg again to see if she's awake now..." The two of them went downstairs and heard something in the kitchen. It sounded like something shifting.

Peeking in, they saw Beatrice in the process of struggling to push a chair towards the kitchen sink. And she was covered head to toe in flour.

The little spirit noticed their presence and turned to them with a glare. "And just WHAT do you two find so amusing, I suppose?!"

Emilia put a hand on her mouth, struggling to contain her laughter. Rem was far more subdued, though she too found the scene to be comedic.

"O-oh...pfft...nothing...Bea-haha-Beatrice...y...pfft..you look so...hehe..." Emilia sputtered as she talked, finding it hard to suppress her laughter.

Beatrice glared at her in barely restrained contempt. Her fist balled up, small arcs of electricity briefly sparking before dissapearing.

"You're lucky execution would only bring me more trouble than it's worth." She hissed out through her teeth. "But at least I can still do this!" She summoned a portal under another bag of flour on the shelf, causing it to sink in. She opened another portal above Emilia, causing the bag to fall on her head and burst, covering her head to hip in flour.

"Pfoo!" Emilia spat out some of the flour that got in her mouth, before shaking off the flour on her head. She blinked at Beatrice, before crossing her arms. "Awww... Why do you always have to be such a bully, Beatrice?" She said, stomping on the floor in annoyance. "What did I ever do to deserve this?"

"You're seriously asking that right after laughing in her face?" Rem asked.

"I mean what specifically!" Emilia shook her arms, getting more annoyed by the second.

Beatrice stuck her nose up in the air. "Hmph. I will not apologize for who I am."

Emilia crossed her arms over her chest. "Well who you are is really mean, so maybe you should!" Beatrice responded by dumping more flour on her head, and she let out a groan of frustration. Rem gave Beatrice a stern frown.

"Beatrice, leave her alone, I understand you're in a bad mood but taking it out on Emilia will solve nothing."

Beatrice pouted and turned away with her arms crossed. "Hmph... I'm upset because the adorable little fluffball betrayed me, I suppose..." The kitten that had initially knocked the flour on her head hopped down and rubbed against her legs affectionately.

"I think he's trying to ask for forgiveness." Rem giggled softly. Beatrice was too grumpy to forgive the tiny adorable kitten. She crossed her arms and stuck her nose up in the air. The kitten began to mewl up at her, trying to get her attention. She tried to hold strong, not wanting to give in. The kitten leaped up into her arms and batted lightly at her face with its paws. "Awww, who can stay mad at that widdle face?!" Beatrice cooed and nuzzled the kitten.

"Can someone help me clean off please...?" Emilia asked softly.

Beatrice used a spell to drop water on the half-elf.

"I didn't mean it like that." Emilia said, and tried to wipe the flour off of her...only for something sticky to latch onto her hand. "Huh?" She looked at her hand, finding some yellow substance on her hand, covering her entire body. "What is-?"

"It seems like the combination of water and flour caused you to get covered with wet dough." Rem said, Emilia's eyes widening.

"A-ah!" She exclaimed. Lifting up her arms, her face morphed into disgust. "Uuuughhh...I feel so disgusting." Shd moaned, wet dough dripping on the floor, even forming a small puddle under her feet.

"Hmph! That's what you deserve, I suppose." Beatrice stuck up her nose again, as unapologetic as ever.

Rem narrowed her eyes, a plan to punish Beatrice already forming in her mind. She turned to Emilia. "Go take a bath upstairs. Call me if you need help." She said. Emilia nodded, slowly turning around and walking away up the stairs, moaning at the wet sounds her steps made as she walked.

Rem turned around and approached a closet, pulling out a broom and a rag. She tossed the broom towards Beatrice, who caught it and stared at it in confusion.

"And want am I supposed to do with this?" She asked.

"What else? Clean the kitchen." Rem said, soaking the rag on the sink, before starting to scrub away at the wet dough.

"What?! Such manual labour is out of my jurisdiction, I suppose!" Beatrice protested.

"Well, it entered your jurisdiction when you started to misbehave." Rem replied simply.

"I will not be degraded like this, maid! I am a powerful spirit and I demand respect!"

"Well if that's the case, then perhaps you should stop behaving like an impudent child." The maid responded with a shrug as she continued to wash the dishes.

"Hmph!" Beatrice sulked, but didn't say much else as she reluctantly began to do as she was told and sweep the floor. She slipped on some of the wet dough and fell into a small pile of it facefirst. "UGH!"

Rem smiled. "Karma is very much real, Beatrice. What you inflict onto others, you bring onto yourself." She said simply. The spirit began muttering under her breath as she brushed the wet dough away from her face and returned to her assigned task.

The two of them worked for close to an hour, Rem making certain Beatrice was doing her task to her best ability.

Soon enough, the kitchen was completely spotless. And Emilia came back downstairs,her clothes somehow cleaned off from the dough. She was so grateful Puck taught her that one spell to keep her outfits clean... Speaking of which...

Emilia narrowed her eyes at Beatrice. "I'm telling Puck."

Beatrice immediately paled at those words. She adopted an expression of fear, nearly dropping the broom. "Ah! No!" She ran up to Emilia. "Please, don't tell Bubby! I promise I won't bully you any further, I suppose! Just please don't tell him!" She begged, her hands clasped together.

Emilia stuck up her nose this time, crossing her arms under her chest. "Nope. That won't work on me. You've been bullying me ever since we first came to this world. Even I have limits, Beatrice. And you just crossed them." She said.

Beatrice nearly had a tear escape her eye. "I'm sorry, okay! I apologize for all the things I said, in fact! Just pleeeease don't tell Bubby anything!" She said, ignoring her dignity to apologize out of her own volition to Emilia.

The elf for her part continued to ignore her. Beatrice now felt her tears falling down her cheeks. "I'm truly, truly sorry for all the abuse you've had to go through because of me. I don't want Bubby to stop playing with me, so please, forgive me! I'll do anything!"

At that, Emilia reacted.

She opened one of her eyes and looked towards Beatrice. "Anything?" She asked, suspicious. "Really?"

"Yes, anything, I suppose!" Beatrice said, now having regained some hope.

"Hmmm..." Emilia put a finger on her chin in thought. Rem watched, interested on how this will unfold. Beatrice gulped in anticipation. What kind of demand would the elf place upon her?

After a minute, Emilia finally decided. She bowed down, getting to eye level with Beatrice, and opened her mouth.

"Be a big sister to Harry."

Beatrice blinked. "A...A big...sister to Harry...?" She looked confused. "H-How am I supposed to do that, I suppose?" Emilia noted the little spirit's demeanour. She didn't seem angry or indignant about the request. She seemed... uncertain. Worried...

"Well... It's simple. You have to be very nice to him. You have to spend time with him. And you have to be there for him if he needs someone and Rem or I or anyone else aren't around. Just... think of him as a part of your family now. Because... he needs a family..."

Beatrice looked down at the floor uncertainly. She... Could she...? What if she... How was...

Her head was swimming at the moment with many different thoughts, all of which involved heavy amounts of self doubt and confusion. COULD she do this? What if she messed it up? She didn't know how she was supposed to interact with the little one!

What if she messed it all up?

She looked up at Emilia, and the half-elf had to admit, Beatrice did look extremely adorable.

"I...I...What if..."

"Go on, Beatrice, whatever you have to say, get it off your chest." Emilia encouraged.

"...I don't know if I can do it..."

"And why not?"

"Because I'm not a good person, and he won't like me, and he'll want nothing to do with me, I suppose..."

"Huh?" Emilia asked. "Why? Why would he not want anything to do with you?" Beatrice looked away, a pained expression on her face.

"Mother didn't want to..."

"Eh?" Emilia rose her brow, confused. "What did you say? I couldn't hear-"

"Because Mother didn't want anything to do with me! So why would Harry!?" Beatrice suddenly yelled out, more tears falling down her face.

"Huh?" Rem tilted her head. "Mother? I didn't know you have a mother, Beatrice."

"Had." The spirit corrected. "The Witch of Greed, Echidna, was my mother."

At that, both girls' eyes widened. "E-Echidna?" Emilia stuttered out. "THE, Echidna? The woman said to have had all the knowledge in the world? THAT Echidna?!"

"She...was..." Rem looked astounded. Words couldn't express the sheer surprise she felt at this revelation.

"Yes, she was my mother, I suppose, and she didn't want me anymore so she left me waiting for something..."

"What were you waiting for?" Emilia asked softly.

"I don't know, I suppose... I've been waiting for that answer for centuries..."

Emilia and Rem exchanged glances.

"What were your exact instructions, Beatrice?" Rem asked.

"To...To wait in the library until my purpose became clear, I suppose."

"And where were we when we were transported here?"

"...The library..."

"Beatrice... Do you think it's possible your purpose resides here in this world?" Rem asked gently.

Beatrice's eyes widened. Was... Was her purpose to help Harry...?

"Do..." Beatrice whispered, just enough for the other two to hear. "Do you...really...?"

"Perhaps? It could be true." Rem said. "The details are all there. The place we were in at the moment of transportation, your instructions from Echidna.

It all comes together and makes some sort of sense." Rem said, the pieces in Beatrice's mind falling into place.

Beatrice considered the idea. Was...was this really what Mother intended? Was caring for Harry the key to her purpose? Was caring for Harry her purpose all along?

"It...makes sense, I suppose." Beatrice said, the possibility hanging in the air. "Mother DID say my purpose will come at some point, and this...this seems to be the most plausible idea."

Her expression became worried again. "But what if I fail? What if I end up hurting him in some way? What if I make him cry? What if...what if..."

"We all make mistakes, Beatrice!" Emilia chirped lightly. "You don't have to worry about that, if you do make a mistake like that, you'll learn from it and you won't do it again! Just give Harry a big hug, and I'm sure he'll forgive you, and everything will be okay again!" She assured the little spirit.

Beatrice sighed and looked down. "I...I suppose...? But... This is a very big deal for me, I suppose... If this IS the mission mother left me with, then... then I mustn't fail it... I can't... I have to succeed..." She donned a determined expression. "I WILL succeed in fact."

"Yay! That's the spirit! You can do it, Beatrice, I know you can!" The half-elf cheered on Beatrice, who felt her confidence rise slightly. Suddenly, they all heard a soft groan from the couch in the living room, and they looked over to see Ms. Figg was awakening from her fainting spell.

"H-Harry... What happened...Harry? Harry, I..." Rem was quick to rush to her side, clapping a hand on the woman's shoulder. Ms. Figg snapped her head over to look at her. "Where's Harry?! Is he all right?!" She asked frantically. Rem nodded.

"Harry will be just fine... He's resting in your guest room. Is that acceptable?"

"Oh thank goodness." Ms. Figg breathed out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Her face then became worried again. "But...will he be okay? All those injuries...the poor boy..."

Emilia placed a soft hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to worry. We bathed him and he was healed. His injuries were quite severe, but with a bit of healing magic, he will be perfectly okay." Spoke the elf with a smile, calming Ms. Figg's heart, if only just a little.

Ms. Figg walked over to the table, Beatrice pulling out a chair for her to sit on. The woman fell back on the chair, placing a hand on her forehead.

"Oh, dear..." She said, her voice laced with hurt. "If only I had seen it sooner...he was so skittish all the time. Always flinched whenever I gave him a pat on the head." She shook her head. "And those...people..." She struggled to call them that. "The way they behaved around him...always so roughly dragging him away. I thought it was because he didn't want to leave, because he loved it here...oh, how could I have been so blind!"

The group of girls all looked upset when they heard those words.

"...It...was fairly clear what was going on, I suppose..." Beatrice spoke tentatively. "Perhaps you could have put a stop to it... Perhaps you couldn't have... It's difficult to say for certain, in fact..." The little spirit let out a sigh. "You were...merely following your orders, I suppose?"

"Yes... Yes, Albus told me to keep an eye on him and not to involve myself too much to avoid drawing attention, but... But... Ooh... I've failed...!"

Emilia and Rem exchanged glances. "It's not too late to make it right though!" Emilia insisted. "Sure... it happened, and I wish so badly that it didn't but... we CAN make it better... It'll be hard... And it'll take a reeeeeally long time... But we can do it!"

"Are you certain?" Ms. Figg asked, unsure about Emilia's optimism. "He has been through so much. So much suffering, and I could've done something to help. And yet I didn't! How can you be so sure he'll ever trust me again?" She asked.

Beatrice spoke up. "Like I said, it isn't certain that you could have done something. But the boy still clearly loves you. And I can tell that the cats aren't the only reason." Saying that, a cat jumped into her lap, and Beatrice smiled as she gave it a big hug. "Although they are a big part of it, I suppose."

Rem shook her head at Beatrice's childishness. "Look, the point is, while you may have failed him once, that doesn't mean you will again. He still trusts you completely, and he still loves you unconditionally. All you need is to apologize. Show him that you're truly sorry for the mistakes you made, and I'm certain he will forgive you. My sister always did so when we were kids, so I don't see why Harry wouldn't as well."

Ms. Figg looked down at her feet, he fists clenched. Could...could she really do it? Could she actually fix it? She didn't know...

...but she can try. She can at least try. It's the least she could do for the boy. If she couldn't help him before, she can certainly try now.

She looked at the three girls before her with a small smile. They... were something truly special. Frankly, the way she saw it, someone like them would have been MUCH better suited to the job Albus had bestowed upon her, she felt undeserving of it after this had happened.

She let out a soft sigh. "Thank you... I must admit... Harry and I were never...close, per se... He is a good boy, but I never know how to act around children, I usually just let him play with the cats or watch the telly... But I am glad that he still liked me well enough..."

Emilia and Rem smiled at that. "Aww, that's all right, Miss Figg. You tried even if you don't like kids and that's good enough, you were nice to him and that's all that matters in the end. He'll be okay. Just leave it to us! We know how to handle children!"

Rem nodded her head. "I did come here with two of them after all."

"Hey, I am much older than you I suppose!" Beatrice protested.

"I am not a child! Don't be mean to me!" Emilia whined.

"Then why are you whining like one?" Rem asked with a cheeky smile.

Emilia crossed her arms, huffing and she looked away. The maid was about to tell her she looks like a pouting child, but decided against it. She's already been bullied enough by Beatrice today. She needed a break.

Not for long though.

Beatrice was about to say her own part, only to suddenly freeze up. She stayed silent for a few seconds, not even moving.

Emilia noticed this. "Uuh, Beatrice? Is everything okay?" She asked, a confused expression on her face.

Beatrice remained silent, but turned around to look at the entrance to the dining room. She stared at it in silence for a minute, not moving a muscle or even making a peep.

"Uuh, hey. Beatrice, are you oka-" Emilia attempted to ask again, only for Beatrice to suddenly raise a hand to silence her.

Beatrice lifted her other arm up and began to gather some magic into her palm, pointing it towards the entrance.

"Beatrice? What are you doing?" Rem spoke up.

No response.

"Hello? I'm talking to you, Beatrice."

No response again.

Seeing how the spirit was still silent, Rem spoke up again. "Beatrice! Are you listening to us?!"

"Three."

At that, the trio in the room got confused. "Huh?" Emilia asked.

"Two."

"Wh-what is going on? Beatrice what are you doing?!"

Just as she said that, the space in front of them suddenly distorted in a swirl.

"One!"

Beatrice fired the blast she had gathered up, a magical explosion engulfing the strange swirl.

There was a brief cloud of smoke from the spell that filled the room.

Ms. Figg and Emilia coughed from the sudden spell, and Ms. Figg rushed to open a window.

Rem narrowed her eyes suspiciously at the spot Beatrice had attacked.

What had gotten the little spirit so spooked...?

Then she noticed it wasn't just Emilia and Ms. Figg coughing.

It took several seconds for the smoke to clear...

And when it did, they saw a group of people standing in the spot where Beatrice had struck.

An old man, a stern looking woman wearing glasses, a rather greasy haired man with a large nose.

All charred black from the spell, coughing and sputtering, the greasy haired man cursing indignantly.

Rem acted quickly. She pulled out her morning star. "Identify yourselves immediately!"

"We...could be asking the same of you..." The woman spoke between coughs.

"You lot are the ones that tried to slip into Ms. Figg's house unnoticed, I suppose." Beatrice huffed.

"Tch... Impudent little..." The greasy haired man spoke up, trying to approach. Beatrice cast a spell to hold him in place.

"Come no closer." She said firmly. "Who are you and why did you try to break into her house?!"

"The first question should be asked by us!" The lady of the group spoke. She got up, pulling out her wand and pointing it towards the trio. "Who are you three? How did you get here? And..." She stopped when she looked at Beatrice."...how is she using magic without a wand?"

"We asked first." Rem said, tightening the hold on her flail. "Answer. Are you friend or foe?"

"Impudent little-" Spoke the greasy haired man, attempting to break Beatrice's spell, but to no avail. Before he could speak again, the elderly man spoke up.

"Now now-*cough*-I think this is all a misunderstanding on both ends." He got up, dusting his robe off and fixing his hat. He took off his glasses. "Ooh. Might need a replacement." He said, before throwing them away. He straightened his robe and cleared his throat.

"Now then, it appears we have guests over. Minerva, Severus, you know it's impolite to point weapons at a guest." He said.

"Professor, these people just attacked us out of nowhere! You can't possibly-"

"Yes, I can, Minerva." Interrupted the older wizard. "And besides, the blue haired one asked if we were friend or foe. They clearly did not expect our sudden arrival, so we can't blame them for making countermeasures, can't we?"

"I...I suppose not." The woman said, lowering her wand. She still kept a tight grip on it though, just in case.

The elderly wizard clapped. "Well, now that that has been resolved..." He offered his hand. "...allow me to introduce myself and my colleagues. I am Albus Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. The woman next to me is Minerva McGonagall, and the man you currently have restrained is Severus Snape. Both are my mist trusted associates." He spoke. "And you may be...?"

Emilia was the first one to step up. "Hi! My name is Emilia, and this is Rem, she's a maid as I'm sure you can tell by the outfit, and this is Beatrice! She's a spirit. And we're from another world!" She revealed with a chipper smile. Rem and Beatrice looked at her flatly.

"...Do you take us for fools, girl?" The greasy haired man spoked in a dull tone.

Emilia sweatdropped. "H-Huh...?"

"Do you honestly think you can fool us by weaving some sort of ridiculous tall tale? From another world... Absolutely ridiculous, how did you expect to get anywhere when that absurd fantasy story is the best excuse for your intrusion your feeble mind can muster up?"

Emilia winced. This man's words felt much... harsher than Beatrice's. There was no haughty arrogance or amusement in his tone, just bitterness and distrust.

"Don't you dare talk to her like that! That's my job, I suppose!" Beatrice stepped up, eyes narrowed.

"It's no one's job, Beatrice." Rem rolled her eyes. "But I agree that he is out of line."

Beatrice's eyes widened as she looked at Dumbledore.

"...You said your name was Albus Dumbledore?" She said with a suspicious glare. The old man tilted his head, then nodded. "...So you're the one that made the foolish decision to erect blood wards and leave Harry with relatives who hated him, I suppose!"

"Mistake?" Dumbledore asked, confused. "I am afraid I don't follow. And...Harry? Are you talking about Harry Potter?"

"Yes, I am, I suppose!" Yelled out the spirit. "And I'm also talking about how you made the mistake of giving Harry to a family that despises his very existence, and has been abusing him for years in fact! And the abuse was only strengthened thanks to those blasted blood wards of yours! You're lucky we removed those blasted enchantments when we did, otherwise the boy would have died, in fact!"

Dumbledore looked surprised. "So you were the ones I sensed unraveling my spell." He said.

"Yes. That was us." Emilia spoke up. "And if we didn't do it, something terrible would have happened." She walked up to Dumbledore and SLAPPED him in the face, before speaking as tears leaked out of her eyes. "How could you have done that?! Do you have any idea what that boy has been through?! When me and Rem found him, his wounds were so severe I wouldn't have been surprised if he DIED in my arms while I was carrying him!" She yelled in an uncharacteristic bout of rage, something both Rem and Beatrice knew was uncommon for Emilia.

"She is right." Rem said. "I haven't seen such gruesome injuries since..." She stopped, before continuing. "Regardless, that boy would have been dead if we hadn't found him when we did. If we arrived even a mere few moments too late...I shudder to imagine what we would come to witness." She said.

Dumbledore stared with wide eyes at them, not believing what he was hearing. The woman turned to him with a furious glare. And the greasy haired man looked... unreadable.

"But... But how...? The blood wards... They were supposed to... They were supposed to protect him, how could this have happened?! This was never supposed to happen, how could..." He panicked internally over his lapse in judgement causing a child this much pain.

Beatrice scoffed. "Protect him? Those things protect no one, in fact!"

Rem nodded her head. "Beatrice told us all about what they cause..." She explained to the old man just what Beatrice and Puck had told them, and judging by the look on Dumbledore's face, she could clearly see that he was shocked, that he had no idea what the blood wards truly entailed. That made his transgressions SLIGHTLY better. But at the end of the day, that did not absolve him of all guilt. When she finished, she asked the one pressing question on her mind. "Why didn't you check on him?"

Dumbledore did his best impersonation of a fish at that question. "I...I didn't... I..." He turned to Miss Figg. "A-Arabella... Didn't you notice anything...? Why didn't you report anything like this?!" Arabella looked down and shook her head.

"They covered their tracks so thoroughly I didn't realize anything was wrong... You'd told me they'd be... cold with the boy, but I never imagined it was that bad...!"

"And do you know what the scariest thing is?" Beatrice asked. "Cold would've most likely been how they would've treated him if those wards WEREN'T placed, in fact. You could've spared Harry so much pain if only you didn't place those blood wards." She said, her voice steady and leveled.

Dumbfounded, the old headmaster stumbled back, McGonagall catching him in time. He was moved over to a chair, sitting down and leaning his head into his hand.

"To think...to think my foolishness...it nearly cost a boy like that his life...oh God...oh what have I done..." He said, the weight of his actions finally catching up to him.

The three girls said nothing, opting to let the old man reminiscence on his actions. Despite that however, Emilia, the ever-soft angel she is, felt even a bit sorry for him.

She walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look at her. She gave him a smile.

"You don't have to worry." She said. "Harry is healthy. We saved him in time. We gave him a bath, we fed him, and we put him to sleep. He's in the land of dreams as we speak."

Dumbledore gave her a grateful nod. "Thank you...if you hadn't shown up...I never could have forgiven myself if he...if he..." He couldn't finish, and returned to regretting.

"I told you we shouldn't have left him with those PEOPLE, Albus..." Minerva said in a low, unreadable tone of voice. "I told you they were the very worst sort of muggle... I... Oh... Damn it all..." She choked out a sob and buried her face in her hands.

Severus Snape, meanwhile, stood in place, taking in the information he had just learned.

So... Harry Potter, the son of his hated enemy, was, in the end, a victim of abuse.

He wasn't the spoiled, pampered brat he'd expected him to be.

Quite the opposite, he was treated worse than he had ever been,

At least he'd never been on the brink of death at the hands of his own family.

He didn't even know how he felt right now...

"While you question the choices that led to this whole ordeal, I'll go check on Harry." Rem said. She turned to leave, but stopped. "Emilia, would you like to come with me?"

"Ah! Yes, let's go together, I also wanna check on him." She nodded, and they both went up the stairs, heading towards Harry's room.

Meanwhile, Beatrice dropped the spell on Snape, causing him to stagger back and fall to the floor. Beatrice simply ignored him. Ms. Figg got up.

"Would anyone like a cup of tea?" She asked.

The two girls climbed up the staircase, soon arriving before Harry's room. Rem leaned forward and put an ear on the door to try and listen in.

"What do you hear? Emilia asked, twiddling her fingers.

"Nothing." Rem replied. "It seems like...wait." She stopped, her eyes narrowing, before suddenly widening. She quickly opened the door, rushing in with Emilia behind her. They entered the darkened room to find Harry shifting in his blankets.

Both women were heartbroken at the sight. They knew all too well what was happening right now.

After all, the both of them frequently suffered from nightmares as well. They knew exactly what it was like...

Emilia was the first one to react. She rushed over and took a kneeling position beside Harry's bed, placing a hand on his side and giving him a gentle shake. "Harry? Harry...It's me, it's Miss Emilia..."

He was too deep in his nightmare to awaken so easily.

Emilia sighed and carefully gathered him up in her arms, cradling him like an infant as she gently rocked him back and forth, humming softly.

Rem approached as well, and, recognizing the song, joined in, both their voices creating a soothing melody that chased his nightmares away.

And then, his eyes slowly began to open. Emilia pouted slightly, thinking that he looked so cute when he was asleep, but he was every bit as adorable when he was awake, so it was alright she guessed. Harry looked around with a soft grunt of confusion.

"H-huh?" Harry blinked tiredly as his vision slowly cleared. He looked around, noticing he wasn't in bed anymore. He looked up and found the smiling faces of Emilia and Rem looking down on him.

"Miss...Emilia...and Miss...Rem?"

"We're here, sweetie pie." Emilia said, brushing away a bit of hair from his face. "We saw you shifting in your sleep. Did...did you have a...nightmare?" She asked.

Harry shuddered immediately, causing Emilia to wince. She expected as much, but she was at least hoping it wasn't true. Rem sighed as she shook her head. She sat on the bed, inviting Emilia to sit next to her.

The Witch lookalike complied and sat down on the bed, adjusting Harry into a more comfort position. She took a breath, before speaking.

"Do you...want to talk about it?"

Harry looked down nervously. "C-Can I...?" He asked timidly. "W-Will they h-hurt me if I do...?"

"No. No, they absolutely will not." Rem reassured him gently. "I will make absolutely sure of it. I promise you will be okay."

"Okay... Okay... Um... I was... I was back home, and... And I was in my cupboard... And..."

Rem and Emilia listened on sadly as Harry described a nightmare about his abuse, the abuse that still and likely always would haunt him.

And the worst part?

They had no idea whether or not any of it was exaggerated by the dream.

"A-and then he took this big plank, and s-started to hit me again and again and again and..." Soon, Harry couldn't take it anymore. He let tears flow freely as the two girls watched with sadness, Emilia's heart breaking to pieces as she watched him cry.

Soon, her own dam burst. She began to sob as ger arms wrapped around Harry, his own little arms returning the gesture. The pair snuggled into each other, the smaller one seeking comfort, the bigger one seeking to grant it.

All the while, Rem observed from the side. On the outside, her expression was cold. Uncaring. As if she didn't even care that the boy had just experienced what might have been not just a nightmare, but a memory of his past.

Inside, however, she was shattered.

She has gone through many nightmares herself. Almost all of them were of...that night. Each every one of them would wake her up with a scream, causing her to break into tears each time. Not even as she got older did they ease up. In fact, they seemed to have simply gotten even worse as she aged. But she was an adult. She could power through it.

Harry? He was a child. A five-year-old boy. He isn't supposed to suffer the same, or worse.

She now regretted not killing those beasts when she had the chance.

She looked out the guest room window and showed her emotions with a deep scowl, a look of pure anger that made it very clear she desired nothing more than to finish what she had started with that sub-human vermin. ...No... It wasn't worth it...

She then noticed something. The old man and his two companions seemed to be... approaching the Dursleys' house. She tilted her head to the side. Were they... going to confront them on their treatment of Harry? Well if so, she prayed that it wouldn't end well for the awful people...

She took a deep breath and turned back to Harry and Emilia. Both were in tears. She winced. She couldn't just sit by idly while they sobbed in anguish.

She moved closer to them, and she carefully wrapped Emilia, and by extension Harry, up in her arms.

The half elf let out a soft gasp and turned to look at the maid. Rem gave her a small, sad smile. Emilia sniffled in response, but did her best to smile back in spite of it. She turned in the embrace, just for the sake of making sure Rem had Harry in a more comfortable embrace.

Harry continued to sob into Emilia's chest when he felt the second pair of arms around him.

He turned to look at Rem through his tears as well, and she gave him the same smile she gave Emilia.

"It's okay. Both of you." She said, her voice as gentle as a willow. Emilia's eyes widened. She had NEVER heard Rem sound so gentle.

Rem closed her eyes, remembering a fond memory of the past.

*the past*

*"AAAAH!" A young Rem screamed as she was jolted awake by yet another nightmare. She gasped several times as she touched her chest, not feeling the arrow that was lodged in her heart a second earlier. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she reeled back from the shock ofnit all.*

*Suddenly, the door to her room burst open, and her elder sister, Ram, jumped into the room, an expression of worry on her face.*

*"Rem!" She yelled out, when she noticed her little sibling sitting up in her bed, her pupils gone, her irises empty, with tears streaming down her cheeks.*

*Ram's face softened, and she placed the candle she held in her hand on the table in the corner, before walking over and sitting on Rem's bed. She grabbed her hand and stroked it with her fingers.*

*"Another nightmare?"*

*A nod.*

*Ram bit her lip. "Rem, look at me." She said. The blue twin looked up at the older sibling.*

*Ram immediately embraced her younger sister in a hug. Her heart sank when she didn't feel Rem returning the gesture. "You can speak." She said. "You know I'll always listen."*

*Rem didn't respond.*

*The present*

"I know you're scared..."

*"...I am too..."*

"...but we're here..."

*"...and that's what matters."*

"So don't let past fears..."

*"...hold you away from the now."*

"Look forward to the Sun of tomorrow..."

*"...and throw the past into the trash where it belongs."*

"And if you still cannot do it..."

*"...just know this. I am here..."*

"...for you." Finished the blue oni, her voice gentler than anyone has ever heard it be.

Emilia looked at Rem with wide eyes, in pure amazement of what she had just said to the little boy.

Her words were so... tender... So gentle and loving and full of care...

She felt her heart melting at them...

Harry looked up at the blue haired maid with wide eyes. Her words had brought his tears to a halt, albeit very briefly, because the gentle, soothing words were quick to bring a fresh set of them to the forefront. He'd never felt so... reassured in his life.

He timidly reached up with his tiny arms, reaching towards Rem, wanting to give her a hug.

Emilia smiled and held Harry out for the blue haired maid to take.

Rem accepted without a second thought. She reached out, Emilia gently placing the tiny boy into her arms. Harry immediately latched onto her, his arms wrapping around her as tightly as he could muster.

Rem chuckled, nuzzling his head with her chin, before beginning to hum a lullaby. Emilia watched with a smile as Harry's eyelids began to flutter, letting out a small yawn as he desperately fought to stay awake. Eventually, he succumbed, and was soon snoring away, not a nightmare in sight.

Rem sighed as she got up from the bed, tucking Harry back into his blanket, the boy nuzzling in as he hugged his precious toy.

She walked back to admire her handiwork. She felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, and turned around to see Emilia smiling at her.

"That was so beautiful."

Rem smiled, blushing slightly as she looked away. "Oh... I was only repeating something my sister said to me..."

Emilia giggled. "Well the fact that you remembered it word for word and knew just how to use it to make Harry feel better is still pretty amazing in my book. Thank you, Rem... I never could have thought up something so reassuring..."

Rem smiled at the half-elf. "You're welcome, Emilia..." She looked down at Harry. "...If we leave him, he might have another nightmare..."

Emilia let out a sad hum as she looked down at the sleeping Harry.

Taking a knee, she leaned down and kissed his forehead gently, stroking his cheek with her thumb.

"Hmm...I'll stay with him." Emilia said. Rem looked at her in surprise, before shaking her head.

"I suppose I should have expected it. You do have a bleeding heart after all." She joked, Emilia huffing before looking back at Harry.

Rem spoke again. "I'll let the others know you'll be here for the night. Take care of the boy. He needs it now more than ever."

"Mm." Emilia nodded, before climbing over and gently sliding under the covers. The boy immediately turned around in his own blanket, reaching out when a white hand wrapped around his own. She planted a kiss on his head, and watched as Rem walked away.

The blue maid turned around and looked at the white elf. "Good night, Emilia."

"Night, Rem."

The half-elf smiled back at the maid sweetly before resting her chin atop the little boys head with a content sigh.

Rem closed the door gently behind her and made her way downstairs to find Beatrice and Miss Figg at the table, Miss Figg eating some of the meal Emilia had made.

"This is quite tasty." Miss Figg spoke up.

"Yes. I taught Emilia everything she knows. But... where are the others?" Rem asked, looking around for any sign of Dumbledore and his three companions. Beatrice simply pointed outside the window, directly at the Dursley's house next door.

"Yes, they wanted to have...words with Vernon and Petunia." Ms. Figg sighed.

"And they wanted to speak with you afterwards as well." Beatrice finished.

"I see. Emilia as well? She just went to sleep with Harry." Was Rem's reply.

"No. They said they'll talk to her at a later date. For now, they want to speak to you, I suppose." She said, before turning her attention back to the book in her hands.

Rem nodded and headed towards the door. Opening it, she stepped out onto the porch of the house.

She looked towards the house. Her hearing could pick up the sounds of things moving, likely furniture. Deciding to get it done, Rem approached the house, soon arriving at the door.

Mentally preparing herself, she took a breath, before stepping forward, and entering the wretched house for the second time today.

She looked around to see the wretched family of three. The parents were unconscious while the child was asleep.

Seemed they took things easier on the boy. Good. A child shouldn't suffer the same price as his parents for their sins.

The trio turned to notice her. "Ah... Good... You have arrived..." Dumbledore said. "We were going to return to Arabella's to speak with you, but this works much better."

"Yes. What did you need?" Rem asked.

"Our first order of business is to thank you." Minerva said sincerely. "If it hadn't been for you and that other lovely young lady... who knows what would have become of Harry?"

"And the second is that I wish to offer you and your friends proper housing." Albus spoke up.

"Proper...housing?" Rem asked, tilting her head. "I'm interested. Please continue."

Dumbledore nodded. "Right. As I was saying, while I'm certain Arabella wouldn't be opposed to having permanent guests in her house, but I believe you'd likely feel...uncomfortable, if Harry continues to stay anywhere near the Dursleys. Am I correct?"

"You are. I don't want that boy anywhere near that dog pound of a house." She said, her brows already creasing at the very thought of them.

"Thought as much." Dumbledore nodded. "And as a way to repay you for what you did and all the help you brought, I'd d like to offer you a place to live, since I believe you have no other place to go to. Am I correct?"

A nod.

"Hm. I happen to have a good friend by the name of Hagrid. He is well-versed in searching for good houses due to him constantly travelling on errands I send him on. I'm absolutely certain he'd be willing to give you one of his many homes for perhaps use. Of course, that's only if-"

"We accept."

The old man blinked owlishly. "You... didn't let me finish."

"I don't care what the conditions are. We will do all we can for little Harry. I may not have known the child for very long, but I've already grown extremely attached to him, as has Emilia, and Beatrice enjoys his company as well. Any price is worth that child."

Dumbledore beamed at her. "I see. You will make excellent guardians indeed."

"Oh thank you... Thank you so much..." Minerva said gratefully.

Severus sneered.

So the brat was going to grow up in a house with two women that were no doubt going to spoil him, likely turning him into a carbon copy of that wretch that was his father. He felt the annoyance already settling in as he imagined the boy coming to Hogwarts with a sense of entitlement and arrgoance-

"What is that disgusting expression on your face?" Came the harsh demand of the blue-haired maid, her eyes narrowed.

"I suggest you watch your tone, girl." Snape hissed out. "Just because Dumbledore respects you, that doesn't mean I do too. That boy will be spoiled into a carbon copy of his swine of a father by you tw-"

He didn't get to say everything when his face was suddenly grabbed in a vice grip by the blue maid, who seemingly teleported right in front of him.

Her face remained calm as she began to lift the greasy haired wizard up, still holding his face in a monstrous grip. She looked at him straight in the eye as her voice rang out.

"You know, I'm not known for being kind to those I dislike. When I see someone as a threat or object of annoyance, I make no effort to sugarcoat my disdain for them. I make it very clear that they're an eyesore to me, and that, should it come to that, I would gladly execute them on the spot if it was needed."

She pulled his face closer to hers, her eyes narrowing. "So I'm going to say this once, and I'll say it to make it as clear as possible. If I ever, EVER, hear you insulting Harry or his parents, who I'm absolutely certain were lovely people..."

As she spoke, Snape and Dumbledore watched in shock as a pink horn grew out of her forehead, electricity sparking around it.

"...He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will be about as dangerous as a flea compared to the pain I will inflict on you. Am I clear?"

A nod.

"Good." The horn disappeared, and Rem let go of Snape...and by let go, we mean slammed him into the ground, leaving a crater and a cloud of dust.

Brushing away her hair, Rem looked back at Dumbledore. "Now, about that house."

"Ah... Y-Yes... Of course..." The old man nodded, still surprised by what just happened.

Minerva gave Severus a look of disapproval. "Do grow up, Severus, honestly..." She remarked, rolling her eyes.

"Indeed, you were out of line." Dumbledore nodded.

The greasy haired man scowled as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off, outraged at that woman for defending bloody Harry Potter... Well, at the very least the boy's treatment at his relative's hands would hopefully keep his narcicisstic tendencies curbed a little bit...

Rem gave him a warning glare and he promptly disregarded all thoughts such as that, convinced she could read his mind. Well, on the bright side, he would be able to talk about it all he wished in private... The blue haired maid turned away with a sigh.

"Is it possible that we could have housing that would allow us to understand and learn of both worlds?"

"Whatever do you mean?" Dumbledore asked.

"We're in a world far from home. And we've discovered that there are two separate worlds as well. I feel it's important we understand both the best we can."

"I see... Well... I do know Hagrid has at least one home on the outskirts of our realm, though reaching the wizarding world from there does require a spell..."

"That will do just fine." Rem nodded.

Yet again, Dumbledore was caught off guard by the maid.

"A-are you sure? Almost no one knows this spell besides a select few individuals. It might be hard for you to-"

"The three of us have the ability to sense magic, and Beatrice has a powerful teleportation spell that could instantly transport us to the wizarding world should the need ever arise. I assure you, headmaster. There's nothing to worry about. All we need is proper housing and a means of receiving income. The rest, we can solve on our own."

"Ah, yeah. Almost forgot about money." Dumbledore said, just now remembering. The girls will obviously need money to purchase resources to take proper care of Harry, and since they have no understanding of their value system, Dumbledore would need to teach them about it.

"Hmm... I'm sure we can find something for you to do without much effort..."

"You are a maid, yes?" Minerva asked.

"That is correct. I've worked as a maid at my lord's mansion for several years now, and I've been the best at my job since the day I started..." The maid nodded her head, wincing slightly at how much her sister struggled ever since she lost her horn.

"Hmm... If Beatrice can easily transport you to wherever you need to be, perhaps she could bring you to Hogwarts to work there... Or I could just as easily create a portkey that will bring you there almost instantly... But what of the other one...?"

"Emilia will likely stay home and tend to Harry, he needs someone by his side during the day." Rem explained.

"Ah, yes, that seems reasonable." Dumbledore nodded. "Well then, I believe those are all the matters settled. We shall return to our work, and I believe you should rest. It's been a long day after all."

"Indeed." Nodded the maid. "Good night professor. And good luck." She said, turning around and walking away.

Entering the house, she found Ms. Figg asleep on the couch, with Beatrice sitting on a chair near it, immersed in yet another book. Deciding not to interrupt her, Rem quietly sneaked through the living room, before climbing the stairs towards the room. After some walking, she eventually arrived in front of the room.

Gently pushing the door open, she took a peek inside, finding Emilia and Harry snuggled into each other in a warm embrace, the younger of the duo snoring softly. Smiling, Rem snuck in and shut the door behind her. Walking over to the bed, she took off her shows and apron, leaving her in just her black dress and stockings. She slowly lifted the blanket and snuck in, making sure not to disturb her two sleeping partners.

She pulled the covers on, only to suddenly feel something on her side. She turned her head to find that Emilia has unconsciously placed her hand on her side, a dumb, sleepy smile on her face.

Shaking her head with a smile, Rem snuggled into the pillow, her eyes fluttering to a close.

"Good night you two. Sleep tight."

And with that, our trio finally got to rest after a whole day od misadventure.