Skulduggery was very tired when she finally saw the sign for Liverpool, She may have been an immortal skeleton who shouldn't even exist but it didn't mean she couldn't get tired, especially driving in the dark which seemed to really drain her. Her fingers stretched for the rear-view mirror and twisted ever so slightly so that she could see her new young ward.

Harry Potter.

The young 1-year-old boy was still passed out after the events of earlier in the evening. In fact, he slept for the full 3 hours and 20 minutes since the battle against the monster pretending to be his uncle. He was so out of it that she had managed to get him into the car and made several deep turns when she had been turning that made him ragdoll slightly in his seat yet he still slept.

She wasn't too worried about him though. From what she had seen of him over the past two days he was just as resilient as both James and her sweet Lily…she missed them. He definitely had gained more of James traits growing up but the emerald green eyes were identical to Lily's.

Before she could allow herself to fall back into memories, she turned to face Skulduggery Plesant who was resting his ghost skull on the black leather chair of the Royce and she said to the pain in her immortal backside "Can you quickly check that he is definitely still breathing back there before we arrive at the ferry. As I'll need to carry him out of the car when we get onboard."

Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw him lift up into the air, "And Valkryie, how do you expect me to do that? I don't exactly have any hands" She turned to glare at him which didn't work anywhere near what she would have liked it to, not having eyeballs or eyebrows and replied "Magic, Skulduggery. Magic."

Quickly she snapped her head back onto the road just in time to swerve out of the way of a car that was swaying side to side. She could curse the drunk drivers but knew they weren't worth the effort. Keeping her vision on the road she called back to the back of the car "So is he still breathing?"

It was barely a second before she got her response "Actually I think he's about to wake up." Looking back up into the rear-view mirror she noticed the groaning and she was 90% certain that Skulduggery had used some kind of magic to wake him up. Because there was no chance that he just randomly started to wake up when she sent her former mentor to check up on him.

She rolled her eyes but reached for the two ferry tickets in the glove compartment for when they needed them. From behind her she could hear Harry start to groan but she didn't bother looking back, Skulduggery would tell her if there were any issues.

Harry's head huuuuurt.

When his eyes opened he was disoriented by how dark it was, and the small sparks of light flashing by him. Along with the pain it through him out of sorts. Had he been hit by a bludger? No, he was back from Hogwarts…He was getting picked up by Skulduggery Cain, had she picked him up?

His question was quickly answered as a woman's voice spoke gently "Hi Harry, how are you feeling?" with a groan Harry chuckled "I feel like I've been hit by a bludger but other than I'm okay. Where are we, Miss Cain."

Looking around, Harry realised that he was in a car and that the lights were street lights and it was very dark outside, How long had he been out? As he continued to look around he could have sworn he saw something white fly around his face. "We're in Liverpool, We're going to get the ferry to Dublin and then I'll drive us to my manor where we will be staying for the next couple of weeks, Now what do you remember?"

Harry rubbed his temple, moving past the confusing dream he had been having to what he last remembered "You arrived to pick me up, I was taking my stuff to your car when Uncle Vernon…turned into this thing. You fought him. And oh my god you're a skeleton."

A light laugh could be heard from the front seat "Bingo. I'm a walking pile of bones. Held together quite literally by magic."

Harry scrambled to the back of the seat and tried to find the seatbelt clasp while keeping his eyes on the undead woman in front of him "Who or what are you really? What did you do to my uncle, how did you change my parent's will."

He was taken aback as she sighed "Harry, My name is Skulduggery Cain, well It's actually Valkyrie Cain but when I'm working I go by Skulduggery. That thing was not your uncle, it was a Tomhaltóir draíochta, if I had to guess your real uncle's been dead for over a decade. I didn't change James's and Lily's will. I have known James since his dad introduced me to him when he was 5 and I've known your mum Lily since she was 16. An absolutely brilliant woman. Anyway, I didn't change the will, I have no reason to. As your mum mentions in it. I don't particularly like kids."

Harry shuffled down back into his seat, his hand relaxing. For some reason, he knew she was telling the truth. Looking at her in the Rear-view mirror, he noticed that she wasn't covering the front of her face and he could see the empty eye sockets. "Okay…so what should I call you then Miss? Skulduggery or Valkyrie?"

The woman didn't look like she was smiling but Harry got the sense that was "Call me Valkyrie, unless we're on the job then call me Skulduggery."

Harry rubbed his temple "That's confusing. Do you want to tell me why?" Valkyrie chuckled and her bones rattled "I'll let you in on more of the truth when we're on the ferry. Speaking of, we're here." As they pulled into a small garage.

A sigh escaped Valkyrie's mouth as they pulled into the garage. They had 25 minutes until the Ferry left the shore. It was more than enough time to get there but she had been worried for a while that they were going to miss it and have to stay in Liverpool which meant she was more likely to deal with the British Wizards and Witches…and she was not ready for that headache.

Getting out of the car she held the door open for a few more seconds to Allow Skulduggery to fly out of the car. Closing the door she then went and opened the back door for the car to allow Harry to get out.

The boy stepped out of the car and said "Are we not driving onto the ferry?"

With a shake of her head, Valkyrie replied "I have a car here and a car over in Ireland. I'm not a fan of driving the same car everywhere." Before closing his door and going over to the boot, clicking it open and grabbing her hat, scarf and glasses.

Of course, once she had wrapped the scarf around her lower head and neck, along with making her glasses stable, she helped Harry with his trunk, going as far as to keep his birdcage wrapped in one of her bony hands. The pair walked out of the garage and behind the pair, the door shut closed. Faintly Valkyrie could hear the lock's snapping and could feel the magic sealing around it.

Nobody stole her car.

Looking to the left and right for a few seconds she tried to remember which direction it was to the ferry before she heard the horn of it. A few seconds later her entire body shifted to the right and she said "This way Harry!"

Behind her, Harry dragged his trunk behind them and they walked in relative silence the entire way. Valkyrie was sure there was plenty that Harry wanted to ask but was trying to work out how to say them and she just knew Skulduggery was using every bone in his non-existent body to stop himself from speaking.

Before long they arrived at the Ferry and joined the queue to get on it, Once they were at the end of the zig-zag kine designed to stop people who wanted to get ahead of the queue, she pulled out the tickets from her pockets and passed them to an elderly ticket inspector who had been doing it for years. With as much warmth in her voice as she could muster she said "Here you go Charlie"

The ticketmaster took the tickets "Ah Miss Skulduggery, you've made it just in time and ah you've got a companion with you again. I haven't seen that since young Miss Evans. I would get on board soon, It's full steam ahead in 5 minutes."

With a small nod, She grabbed the torn and inspected tickets from his hands "We will, thanks, Charlie." Before the pair rushed up the ramp onto the boat. Leaving his chest with the rest of the passenger luggage, Valkyrie up to the main bar of the ship which was oddly quiet and ordered herself a rum and coke, and a coke for her new ward.

`Sitting down at a table with their drinks, Valkyrie took a small sip. The fizz of the coke and strength of the rum hit against the top of her skull before vanishing into thin air, "Okay Harry, what do you want to know?"

"If you're a skeleton, how are you alive and speaking to me right now?"

Downing her drink, she quickly reordered a new one and sighed "Well, to answer that, I should probably very quickly go over my history. So to put it simply. I was born in the universe before this one."

Harry's eyebrow lit up "What does that mean?"

Valkyrie chuckled "So basically the universe has existed nine times now. After who knows how many billions of years the universe resets itself. The only thing that remains is the source of all magic which exists outside of the universe. This current universe is the 9th version. I was born and lived as a normal human in the 8th."

She watched as the boy nodded confused but she carried on "I was born in 1995 and when I was 11, my uncle was murdered and a couple of days later I was attacked by this Sorcerer. I was saved by a friend of my uncle, a man named Skulduggery Plesant who happened to be a walking talking skeleton like I am now, and I took on the name Valkyrie Cain. Over the next decade and a half, I learned under him, became friends with him, saved the world several times, fell out with him and saved the world some more. Then at the age of 28…I died."

"How?"

Laxkyrie shrugged her shoulders, sipping at her new drink "No clue. Anyway that's all I remembered and then 3000 years ago I woke up around 1190 BCE-" She saw the even more confused look on his face and she corrected herself "-Sorry 1190 BC, forgot we don't transition over to using common era until like 2018. Anyway, I woke up in Ireland during that time and I basically lived through all of history like the Greeks and Romans. Found out that my style of magic still existed in this new world which was cool but there were some differences which confirmed that I hadn't just time travelled…again."

Harry's eyes widened "You've time-travelled?!"

Valkyrie nodded "Yup, I'll tell you about it sometime. Anyway, I watched as your style of magic appeared and watched as our two worlds of magic grew to hate each other and almost started a war that let through an ancient evil…which wasn't fun at all. I'm not really liked by either side because of that…despite the fact that none of them were alive at the time now…but I work with the Irish Sanctuary."

Finishing his drink Harry went on to ask "Okay so you keep mentioning different worlds of magic. What do you mean by that?"

Valkyrie stretched out slightly while still trying to avoid showing all of her bone and said "Well let's see. Your magic is based on Spellcraft and you harness your natural magic typically through wands, sometimes staffs depending on how powerful you are. Some exceptional wizards and witches can even do it without a focal point. In many ways, your magic is more free-flowing and less restricted by rules. But in other ways, it's the opposite. Your stuck by incantations and Wnad weaving. Us sorcerers on the other hand are more bound by rules but we have fewer loopholes. As a sorcerer, I could have been either an Elemental Sorcerer or an Adept Sorcerer. The specifics we can get into at a later date. But we're limited to one of the two."

Scratching his head, Harry asked confused "Wait then why did my mum want me to learn under you?"

With a slight chuckle Valkryie "A good question young Harry, with a very simple answer. The limit on a Sorcerer's magic is just a limit between elemental and adept, which means a wizard or witch can become a sorcerer too. So what do you say, Harry? Want to learn to become an elemental Sorcerer alongside being a Wizard at Hogwarts?"

The chuckle became a full-on laugh as she watched Harry excitedly bob his head up and down and she said "Great. Now you'll just need to pick a chosen name to use while being trained under me such as how Valkyrie Cain is mine. But that can wait for another day. We're almost at your new home. Harry welcome to Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland."