"I told you that you should have brought me along."

Harry just rolled his eyes as he stared down at Leon. "The first thing you choose to say to me after we've been separated is that?"

Leon lazily rolls his shoulders and stretched out like a Glameow. "You act like we haven't seen each other in months. This isn't the great war and I'm not some blushing bride waiting to receive a letter from the Front from you."

Harry shuddered. "I did not need the mental image of you in a wedding dress."

"I would pull it off so well!" Leon teased as he padded out of the hotel's transporter room. He let out a long whistle as he looked about the hotel lobby. "How this is a nice place!" He paused. "Wait… you mean I can't get full body massages every day of the week yet you can afford this?"

"Those aren't connected at all," Harry pointed out. "And we are using Sirius' credit card."

"…so I need to convince HIM to get me some massages."

"Why would you even need a massage?" Harry asked. "Aren't you mostly plant now? Last I checked roses don't need kinks worked out of their shoulders."

"That is speciesist!" Leon complained. "Have you ever ASKED a rose if it wants a massage?"

Harry frowned before a thought occurred to him. "I suppose I could catch a Roseade and ask one-"

"You would dare add one of those little petal sluts to our team!?" Leon exclaimed.

"Petal sluts?"

"They give it up for any Combee that happens to wander by. Always showing off their pistols… its disgusting."

Harry rolled his eyes at that and motioned for Leon to follow him outside. "I didn't bring you here to discuss what other grass types do in their free time."

"I'd hope not because that is super kinky and I'm not nearly drunk enough for us to do something like that."

"Drunk?"

"You left me with Sirius."

"Point."

Leon smirked before falling serious as they headed around the building towards the Pokepark that was available for the guests. Hermione, Luna, Tonks, and Neville were already out there, watching as their Pokémon frolicked about, working off some tension after being kept cooped up in their balls for the last few days. They had a selection of pastries sitting out, including a box of thick round donuts that looked like they were fit to burst with filling and had been coated in crystalline sugar.

"Okay, so it is actually night time for me but screw it I am always up for treats!" Leon said, diving at the box and snatching up a donut, gobbling it down before going for another one.

"Uh Leon, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Hermione said.

"God these are better than I imagine sex is like!" Leon exclaimed.

"Eh?" Harry and Tonks said before glancing at each other.

"Eh?" Tonks said, glaring at her cousin. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you are fucking my guardian so you don't get to judge."

"…eh it is," Tonks stated.

Hermione ignored the two. "I wouldn't eat that many if I were you."

"Come on," Leon said, swallowing down a mouthful, "I've taken out entire boxes of donuts before. I think its because I have Snorlax in my family tree."

"…how?" Tonks said, looking over at the grass type.

Neville was the one who answered, though. "Snorlax is in the Monster Egg Group. They can mate with Nidokings which are in the Field and Monster Groups. And Nidokings can mate with Eevees."

"Great grandma was into thick thighs," Leon commented.

"That's nice," Hermione said, "but I still would stop."

"Why? Just a few donuts."

"Except those are malasadas."

"Mal-what now?" Leon asked as he licked his lips.

"Malasada. Thick fried dough pastries."

Leon looked at the half eaten box before him. "Uh… those did taste a bit richer…."

"Like double the calories and sugar richer?" Hermione asked.

The Leafeon crinkled his nose at that before shrugging. "Meh, that's future Leon's problem." He went back to destroying the box.

"If he poops a golden turd we all have to agree to destroy it," Luna stated. "If we don't it will lead to seasons long distractions to the main plot."

"…decided to get out of the Mistress of Veela mindset for a bit, I see," Harry commented.

Luna beamed. "I missed being me!" She hugged herself and murmured happily. "Oh Luna… your breasts feet so good…" she began to rub her hands along her body.

"I WILL get the spray bottle," Tonks warned her as Harry poured himself some orange juice. "Alright, everyone's all here… so you mentioned last night you had an idea what we're supposed to be doing here?"

Harry nodded, knowing that it was time to get serious. "I ran into someone, a young woman. Maybe a few years older than me. Probably around Jasmine's age. Lillie Aether."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Tonks asked.

"Because she's the corporate face of the Aether Foundation," Neville said.

"I've heard of them!" Hermione exclaimed, growing excited. "They are the premier Pokemon rescue organization in the world! They do so much work to help out both wild and trained Pokemon."

"Really?" Harry asked.

Hermione bobbed her head rapidly. "With trained Pokemon they take them in if there were cases of abuse or if the laws have changed and forced their former owners to give them up."

"What would cause that to happen?" Tonks asked.

Clearly in her element Hermione began to speak all the quicker. "Okay, so the best example is the Slaking line. At the turn of the century labs all over the world used them to test all sorts of medicines. Skaloths are incredibly docile so they are easy to handle and their slow metabolism allowed scientists to see how medicines would react long term in a body since they didn't burn off as quickly as in humans or more active Pokemon. They were also better for…" she frowned, jaw twitching, "…medical experiments."

"You mean cutting them open," Leon growled in annoyance.

"Yeah," Hermione stated. "And then their evolved forms, Vigaroths, were great for doing the service when it comes to examining how living beings may react to certain medications. Their rapid heart rates meant that medicine would quickly go through them so one could see if there was a risk of stroke or heart attack. As for Slaking they were larger, naturally, but also more sedate unless truly aggravated so you got the best of both worlds."

"Well this is ghoulish talk for breakfast," Tonks complained.

"Its oaky though!" Hermione said quickly. "20 years ago there was a major push to make laboratory research more humane and as a result experimenting on the Slaking line was outlawed. Labs could not longer experiment on them and they had to ensure what specimens remained in their labs were cared for. Several homes for pokemon sprang up but the biggest one is the Aether Foundation." She began to tick off other points. "Then there are circus Pokemon that grew too old to perform, some Pokewood actors who have gone into retirement but couldn't afford to go into a rest home…"

"And of course there are just matters of abuse," Neville stated. "Rockruff puppy farms, for example. The Aether Foundation brings them in and ensures that they go to good homes… and NOT those that buy from such places. Very critical in who gets one… though often they work to try and get the Rockruffs or other pokemon to be released back into the wild."

Luna let out a little awwww at that.

"As for wild Pokemon there are occasions where a small subspecies finds its natural habitat threatened." Hermione tilted her head, looking skyward in thought. "I think the last major one was a group of Psyduck and Golduck from a salt water lake in the northern Kanto mountains. They had developed faster swim speeds in order deal with the Tentacools and Tentracruels that used underwater passages to move between the lake and the sea. But then a rock slide happened that caused the nearby river to divert course and the lake began to dry out. Aether moved in and transported the entire Psyduck and Golduck population to one of their Foundation centers until they were able to discover another saltwater lake where the species could be introduced without impacting other wildlife."

"So basically they are good honest people just trying to help Pokemon," Harry asked.

"…you sound suspicious," Luna asked before beamed. "OOOO! Are we thinking conspiracy?" She lowered her voice to a lower sinister growl. "I vote super virus that turns Pokemon into zombies." She wiggled her fingers. "OoooooOOOoooOOooo!"

"Sadly I could honestly believe that at the moment," harry grumbled. "We need to look into them though, figure out if they are working on anything that might be dangerous, especially to Lillie Aether."

"Why?" Hermione asked, clearly concerned.

"When she was leaving Lillie told me that everyone at work called her the team 'cheerleader'."

Tonks groaned. "Save the Cheerleader…"

"…save the world," Harry finished. "Yeah, that's my thought. I think something is going on, or will be going on, with Lillie Aether and we need to figure out what it is and make sure Lillie is protected."

Luna raised her hand.

"…and if it is zombies we will let you have your first choice of weapons."

"Crossbow!" Luna said, clapping her hands.

"Have you tried contacting your Head of House?" Tonks asked. "He's from Alola."

"Hey!" Harry said, grinning. "You're right." He pulled out his dex and sent a text. "Alright, we'll do some investigating while we wait for Professor Kurak to call me back and then-"

His dex instantly fired up the holoprojector and Prof. Kurak appeared… dressed in a white shirt, sunglasses, and with a beer in his hand.

"Yo, you're messing with happy hour!" he declared.

"Uh… Prof. Kurak?"

"Hogwarts ain't paying me so its Guzma at the moment," his, apparently, former head of house told him. "So-"

"Boss!" Prof. Kawa called out, emerging in the projector's range… only she was wearing a belly-baring tank top and her hair was done up in long multi-colored pigtails. "You going to leave me to handle these asshats on my own or what?"

"I'm talking to Harry, Plumeria," Ku... Guzma informed her. "I'll be there in a moment." He paused and drained his glass in one long swig. "Tell the bastards that's one." Prof. Kawa walked away and Guzma looked back at Harry. "I'm in the middle of some important work so let's get a move on. Why are you interested in the Aether Foundation?"

"Anyone tell you that we ended up in your home region?"

"Sirius informed me this morning. Now I'm regretting not joining up with you guys… ya, sure, I ain't exactly a spring Torchic anymore but I'm young at heart… ooo!" He grinned and grabbed a Jaegar Bomb from a passing waitress. "But yeah, you're in Alola, looking at Aether?"

"We are," Harry confirmed. "We wanted to know if you knew anything about them."

"You in public?"

"…yeah but we are alone."

"Get further alone," Guzma said. "Call me back once you are. Do all that scanning securing bullshit you paranoid kids do nowadays. Hurry because I don't remember what my booze tolerance is right now." He turned and called out, "This is two!" and the holocaster turned off.

"Well… I guess since he asked nicely," Harry and his friends quickly packed up their breakfast and recalled their Pokemon before making their way back up to Harry's room. "Tonks?"

"On it," she said and Harry felt a pang of sorrow as she began to move around the room, making sure there were no listening devices or bugs or anything like that. Normally that would have been Ginny's job. He could hear her complaining the entire time… not because she HAD to do it but rather over the poor quality of the listening devices themselves. He could practically hear Ginny whining about how it was insulting that they were using such low quality and debating if she should even keep the devices and try and repair them or just trash them completely. And Ron would be rolling his eyes or asking if they could just take them to a pawn shop or a scrapper…

Luna dropped her hand on his shoulder and at once Harry felt his mourning dissipate. It was still there, wiggling and twitching like a baby Ekans in a basket, but it was far deeper now, not leaving him paralyzed in grief.

"They are still alive."

"How can you believe that?" Harry whsiepred.

"Because I don't," Luna told him, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "I know it. They are out there and they are doing just as much to find us as we are doing to find them."

It didn't feel like they were trying to find them. Not them personally. The Pack was searching, going over footage from the attack on Hogwarts not only to try and determine what they would be up against when they finally went after Hogwarts and freed it but if they could see what had happened to those that were missing. They had sworn that if they discovered something they would let Harry in on the plans to track down and bring Ron and Ginny and Snape and the other missing Hogwarts students and teachers. But until they he couldn't just sit around and wait for them to return.

"Thanks," Harry murmured to himself.

"So… anyone else a bit worried by Professor Kurak?"

"Considering he's getting drunk?" Harry asked. "I'm used to that at home."

"Sirius?"

"Remus, actually," Harry said with a smirk. "Sirius can hold his booze, Remus can't, but Sirius likes to egg Remus on all the time. I've woken up many mornings to find Remus passed out with a dick scribbled on his face."

Neville frowned. "You and I lead very different lives."

"No drunken parties at Longbottom Manor?"

"Have you actually met my gran?" Neville asked with a chuckle. "I'm honestly shocked I am here right now. I thought for sure she'd bundle me up in bubble wrap after Hogwarts fell and never let me go."

"That would have required you to return home," Luna said sweetly. "You didn't, remember."

"Oh yeah… that's not going to be a fun conversation at all, is it?"

"Not in the slightest." Luna puffed up her chest. "I get to go because I'm reporting on all of this for daddy." She rummaged through her purse and pulled out her dex. "I just sent in my first article."

Harry leaned over. "HARRY POTTER SPOTTED ON SEXCATION WITH HIS HAREM" He looked up at Luna. "You didn't."

"I was very complimentary towards your penis size." She leaned in and whispered, "Neville is your lead bitch."

"I'M the lead bitch?" Neville asked.

"Birthing hips," Luna commented with a smirk.

"And on THAT lovely image," Tonks declared, "I think we're ready to call Guzma back."

"I'm just sayin'," Guzma declared as his image appeared via the holocaster, "I got the birthin' hips to pull it off!"

"…" Harry just sighed.

"What?" Guzma asked, turning to them. "I'm secure in my masculinity and my gender identity!"

"This is not how professors should talk around their students," Hermione chided.

"Out of a job considering I refuse to work for Spooky Pooky." He grabbed another Jaegar Bomb and slammed it down.

"Why are all the adults in my life fucking insane?" Harry moaned.

Neville placed a hand on his shoulder. "You are acting like all the teens in your life aren't insane either."

"Fair point."

"Why didn't I get booze drinking professors when I was going to Hogwarts?" Tonks complained. "Best I got was Flitwick dancing on a table at the Halloween party."

"He did that too our first year, or so I hear," Hermione stated. "We were too busy trying not to die."

"A sentence we say oddly too much around here," Harry commented before looking at Guzma. "Sorry to pull you from your party but… Aether?"

"Right, right," Guzma said. "So how much research have you done into them?"

"Not a lot," Harry admitted. "Hermione has heard about them… charitable group."

"Yeah, their good eggs," Guzma stated. "After Team Skull shifted our goals from just being asshat teens to actually helping others and defending those that needed to get away from their abusive homes we worked with them a lot. Passed them a lot of information and they in turned supplied us with homes. They bought us Po Town and Shady House outright so we could turn it into the…" he paused. "Yo! We ever come up with a good name for our base?"

"Nah man," someone called out to him. "I wanted to call it the Bone Home but Plumeria threatened to beat us all if we did!"

"Probably because she aint' getting' a good bonin' in years-OW!"

"I threatened to beat you if you called it that and you were stupid enough to make jokes in ear shot?"

"Big Sis, come on-OW!" There was the sound of something breaking and Harry winced.

"She'll sleep well tonight, Guzma said before grinning and snagging what appeared to be a basket of cheese sticks. "But yeah, Aether are good eggs. We helped a lot of kids escaping neglect and wives running from their abusive husbands thanks to them and in turn we helped them move Pokemon about. Got some real interesting team members out of that by actin' as a foster trainer to them."

"So nothing shady about them?" Harry asked. "Nothing they are doing out of the public eye."

"oh, they're into fucking shit like that," Guzma declared, dipping his cheese stick in some sauce. "Ain't no doubt about that."

"But you just said-"

"There is a difference between illegal shady and 'better the world don't know' shady. Sometimes you have to do the morally gray stuff. Hell, doing that shit is what allowed me to get my degree."

"And Aether?" Harry asked.

"Oh, they are doing stuff that is protecting this entire mud ball we call home," Guzma stated before turning and roaring out, "Sing us some songs, ya bastards!" He reached over and fiddled with his dex just as the rather loud and off key singing of his pals filled the air… until he filtered it away, leaving only his voice. "Alright, that should protect us a bit."

"I'm not liking this cloak and dagger stuff," Tonks muttered. "Guzma… what is Aether up to?"

He scanned all their faces.

"You ever hear of the Ultra Beasts?"

"Can't say that I have," Harry admitted. "But I spent my formative years with a group of fanatics who hated Pokemon."

"Yeah," Neville said, "but I haven't heard of them either." The rest of the group shook their head… save for Tonks who grew still.

"When I was made a full auror I was informed of something called the Ultra Beast Protocol," she said softly. "It warned that if we ever encountered a Pokemon that couldn't be scanned by our Dex we were to give a code and then flee. Don't engage. Don't do anything. Just flee."

Guzma nodded. "Yup, that sounds about right."

"So what are the Ultra Beasts? Some new kind of Pokemon?" Harry's mind went back to MissingNo, created by Team Rocket in an attempt to clone a Celebi. 'I could see that being something Mewtwo would want to deal with, seeing as he was a genetically created Pokemon as well. Want to make sure that these Ultra Beasts weren't harmed or used as weapons.'

But Guzma shook his head. "No… not new Pokemon. Not… even Pokemon at all."

"What?" Harry said, startled out of his thoughts. "What do you mean not Pokemon?"

"Well, that's not entirely fair," Guzma admitted. "They do share many similarities to Pokemon… they just aren't Pokemon. A… cousin to them, if you will. Like Alolan Vulpix to Kantoian Vulpix. Or maybe better to say Vulpix to Eevee: have similar traits but vastly different."

"How so?" Neville pressed.

"For one… they aren't exactly native to our reality."

"…you're fucking with me," Harry said with growing dread.

"Wish I was." Guzma sighed, leaning back in his chair. "We really should be getting someone else to do this because I barely paid attention when all this happened. I hadn't truly joined up with Aether yet… I was still looking to change Alolan society and was gathering the dregs that had been cast aside to help me. It wasn't until the Invasion was over that I joined up."

"I don't like the word Invasion," Hermione muttered.

"Believe me, from what Kukui told me it wasn't something to like at all." Guzma sighed. "Thousand and thousands of years ago a portal opened up in Alola and a creature from another world appeared and began to rampage. It was like a Pokemon but… not. Alien when compared to what we consider life to be like. It was alive but… it would be like someone telling you they smelled through their ears. Not how we work but its how they worked. The thing that came… it fed off of light like you might eat a Razz Berry. It was only driven back by the Island Guardians but there was always a worry that one day it would return.

"It did... but that was much later. First came the Ultra Beasts. Aether was the one that realized what was happening and they worked with… wel, believe it or not there were people in that other dimension, same as us. Trainers like us. And they caught Ultra Beasts, just like us. Honestly our Pokemon seemed wild and strange to them as much as the Ultra Beasts did to everyone involved in that madness. But the point, kids, is that the Ultra Beasts came… and still come. And Aether does all they can to make sure they don't destroy the world."

"Are they that violent?" Neville asked.

"Nah," Guzma said, waving off that fear. "Its just like any invasive species. Introduce Copperjah to Galar and suddenly native species are getting pushed out because they have no predators to take them down. Same with the Ultra Beasts… Aether just acts as their natural predator, removing them from the board."

"And… let's just say… Mewtwo told me to save the head of Aether?"

Guzma grew quiet.

"Professor?"

"I'd say you need to find some Beast Balls."