I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

Extended Family

Chapter 129 – Sticky Solving

Takes place at the same time as chapter 108.

Castor frowned at the vial in her hand, inspecting the fluid within critically. "I think you're right. Something's off about it."

Alicia growled and glared at the cauldron, personally offended. "It was made with the usual methods. No deviations."

Castor stirred the cauldron slowly, watching the potion swirl within the vessel. "Hmm." She lifted a ladle full of potion and slowly poured it out. "It's watery. And the color is not quite right either."

"That's why I asked for you to inspect it," Alicia sighed.

"These the materials?" At Alicia's nod, Castor looked over the things still on the desk. She poked through the mortars and touched some of the unprocessed materials. "Everything looks okay. Smells okay. Hmm. Strange. I wonder what the difference is."

"The only thing I can think of is that we had a different source of the glasswort," Alicia said.

"Oh that's right, we're trying a different supplier." Castor picked up a sprig of glasswort and held it up to the light. "You know what, it's slightly cloudy, not as clear as we're used to." She shook the sprig, listening to the tinkle of the glasswort bulbs rubbing against each other. "Sounds funny too."

"Bloody hell," Alicia swore.

"Quite," Castor agreed. "Well, I guess this is what we get for trying to skimp on cost here and there."

"We bought a rather large amount of them, I hate for them to go to waste," Alicia grumbled.

"We're going to have to run trials and see if we can get our usual results by changing the ratio maybe. Hopefully it's something simple like just adding more of this substandard stuff. We can do that later. I'm going to call and yell at the distributor. Quality supplies my arse," Castor sighed.

They looked up in surprise when they heard yelling outside of the lab room. "Check that," Castor said. "First we find out what that yelling is about."

"It sounds like Daphne," Alicia said, slightly worried and intensely curious.

"Now I have to know what's going on," Castor said eagerly. "I've never heard her shout like that before."

"I have but it is usually reserved for one of three people," Alicia said. She followed Castor into the hall and the full force of Daphne's shouting could be heard.

"HOW DID IT HAPPEN?!"

Other apprentices and people that worked for Castor were either staring at Daphne's office with wide eyes or were fleeing the scene. Despite her door being closed, the woman could be heard clearly and like Castor, the vast majority of people have never heard Daphne sound so loud or angry. At Castor's gesture, they all left and Castor opened the door and poked her head inside, eyes sparkling and smile wide.

"Look, it's not my fault!" Tracy's voice came from a small mirror that Daphne held in a white-knuckled grip. "And you should be proud of me for calling you first to ask for help instead of throwing it about and have I mentioned how beautiful you are today?"

"NOT THE TIME TRACY!" Daphne shouted. "What happened?! I thought you were helping with some sort of miniature project! How in the world did this happen to her?!"

"You know how little banshee gets into things!"

"Stop calling her that!"

"She likes it! And like I said, she got into things and then ran off and Harry and Katie and Luna are here and if she can avoid all of us, then that's more a mark on how slippery she is and not a mark against us! Which her being slippery yet being in this situation is kinda an oxymoron if you think about it-"

Alicia dashed over and pulled on Daphne's hands, angling the mirror to show her own very angry face. "Wait, what happened to Dally?!"

"Oh hey Alicia," Tracy gulped, smiling weakly in the mirror. "Didn't know you were there too-"

"My lair is next to Daphne's and what happened to Dally?" Alicia shouted.

"She's fine! Really! Just kinda stuck."

"What is she stuck in?!"

"No I mean, she's literally stuck, to many things." The mirror image moved and Alicia and Daphne looked on in shock at a giggling Dahlia stuck to a wall. She was covered in thick sticky webbing, as if she was daubed and partially cocooned by a spider. A myriad of random household objects were stuck to her as well and despite being stuck and covered, the little girl looked very happy.

"Oh Dally," Alicia groaned, smiling despite her irritation.

"She does look unreasonably adorable," Daphne said with a similar smile.

"Harry can't untransfigure the webbing," Tracy said, reappearing in the mirror. "And we tried greasing her and have you touched greasy webs? It's really weird. So I went home to grab the sticky solvent but there aren't any instructions on it so I called Babe. See, I'm being responsible."

Daphne rubbed her eyes. "I will ask Mistress Castor if I may leave for a few moments. I do not feel confident telling you how to dilute it over the mirror like this."

"Permission granted." Castor smiled at a suddenly embarrassed Daphne. "Provided I can come along. It sounds hilarious and I love new problems to solve."

"Oh! Uh, I am sure it will be fine," Daphne stammered. "Harry? Are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." Harry appeared in the mirror too, looking exasperated and amused in equal measure. "Come on over. All of you and I'll make extra lunch for us."

"On our way," Alicia said. She shook her head when the mirror became a normal mirror once more. "The daughter is like the father! Trouble maker!"

"I am so sorry," Daphne said, mortified.

Castor shook her head. "Don't be! I never heard you shout before and I just had to come over and find out why. Plus it sounds like a fun problem to solve and it's the little one that you have a picture of?"

Daphne looked at the picture on her desk. Little photo Dahlia was snuggling against photo Daphne and Tracy, all of them laughing. "Yes it is," Daphne said lovingly.

"I've always wanted to meet her," Castor smiled brightly. "Plus with the small bits I've stolen from Alicia's lunches sometimes, I know Harry's a good cook so lunch sounds grand."

-0-

"Dahlia Kaitlyn Potter, what are we going to do with you," Alicia said, shaking her head but smiling at the stuck Dahlia.

"Rawr!" Dahlia said cheerfully, wiggling happily.

"Wow, you're incredibly adorable," Castor cooed. "Even covered in sticky webs. Wait. Tell me a spider didn't make these and it's still not around."

Harry grinned. "No, I transfigured them."

"Thank goodness," Castor sighed. She touched a strand of dangling web. "Wow. These feel like high-grade acromantula webbing. Like seriously."

"There's a colony in the Forbidden Forest so I've been able to practice with the real thing," Harry explained.

"There's an acromantula colony in the Forbidden Forest?!" Daphne shrieked, appalled. "Why? How?!"

"Uh, no one knows," Harry said evasively.

"Mind if I take a sample later?" Castor asked, still playing with the strand. "I'm really curious to see how it works in potion applications. What was it transfigured from?"

"Half conjured but nominally from another spider web. I've learned it's better to transfigure something that was pretty similar to begin with if you want it to be more stable."

"Oh, it might work just fine then," Castor said excitedly.

"I'll transfigure a bunch for you. Thanks for coming over to help," Harry said.

"Wait a second, why are you transfiguring spider web in the first place?" Alicia asked, frowning.

"Miniature golf course," Katie said.

"What," Alicia said flatly.

"For a miniature golf course hole," Katie repeated. "What, it's fun." She glared back at Alicia.

Castor took the bottle of solvent. "Oh this is good stuff. Super strong. Good thing you didn't just drip this over everything. It's more than slightly corrosive."

"See? Responsible!" Tracy said loudly.

"I am going to web your mouth shut," Daphne hissed. She flushed at Castor's grin. "Ahem. I generally dilute it with saline, one to ten."

"For general use?" Castor asked. "Let's do it by ten again and step up. Don't want to damage anything, especially not the cutie. Ah thanks!" She took a metal plate that Harry handed her with a mass of webbing on it. "You even have it on a test plate."

"Alicia and Daphne taught me how you do it and I think it's pretty great," Harry said.

"You're not even my apprentice and you learn faster than most of my apprentices," Castor groused. She took the beaker from Daphne that diluted the solvent in. She used a dropper to apply drops of the solution onto the webbing, watching the webbing sizzle a little. "Wow, okay, guess we can go up a little then. Didn't do much at all. You must be good at transfiguration."

"I'm doing a mastery with Mistress McGonagall," Harry said proudly.

"Check that, you're great at it then," Castor said admiringly. She applied drops of the new solution and they watched the webbing react.

"It's dissolving, but rather erratically," Alicia observed. "Patchily as well."

"Don't like how it's not even," Castor said, humming in thought. "It might spread too randomly and if it gets on the skin, it'll do worse. Or hair."

"How about an ointment?" Katie suggested. "Can you do that? Something thicker and oil based? We can control that a little better."

"Good idea," Castor said. "We can mix this liquid solution with an oil. Do you have any neutral oils?"

"Does olive count?" Harry asked.

Castor smiled. "It'll do in a pinch."

"Oh I have plenty of cushioning oil in my med bag," Katie said, returning with it. She watched with interest when the potion experts mixed the oil with the solvent solution until it was completely incorporated. When they gently daubed it onto the webbing, the rate of dissolving was more even and controlled.

"Better, but still slow," Alicia frowned. "I doubt Dally will continue to find the situation humorous and stay there patiently. Despite not being able to go anywhere else right now."

"How about drying out the webbing a little first?" Luna asked. "Would that help?"

"I bet it would," Castor said, warming to the idea. "We can desiccate it some. Not completely embrittle it in case it brittles other things, but drying it out should help it dissolve faster."

"Should one of us go back to the facility?" Daphne asked.

"No need." Castor opened her purse and shook it a certain way. It rolled out revealing vials and capsules tied firmly to the bag.

"Wow, I only have money in my purse," Katie admired. "And pictures."

"I have snacks in mine," Luna said.

"Here we go, drying dust." Castor sprinkled a very fine bone-colored sand over the webbing on the plate. The webbing changed when the dust was sprinkled on, becoming visibly drier and stiffer. When they applied the oil, it reacted much more swiftly and smoothly, dissolving the webbing completely leaving no residue or traces behind.

Castor dipped a thin flesh-colored stick into the oil and dust mixture and looked at it carefully. "Seems okay on skin too. That's good."

"That's not really made of skin, is it?" Tracy said, looking at the stick queasily.

"Well no. The tip is something that's very similar though," Castor smiled. "To be on the safe side, let's apply it to situation in stages."

It took some time, but they eventually managed to free Dahlia. They removed the large objects one at a time before freeing her limbs first, then her torso and the rest of her body from the wall. Once completely web free, Katie took her and bathed her clean of all the remnants of the sticky situation and brought her back while the others removed all the webs from the trail the little girl left when she ran into the house.

"There! All clean," Katie said, smiling when Dahlia wriggled in her arms. "For now, anyways. What do you say, Dahlia?"

"Thank you!" Dahlia said brightly. She toddled over to Tracy first for a hug and a kiss, then Luna, then Daphne, then Alicia. She finally looked up at Castor and shyly opened her arms.

"Oh my goodness, you are so cute," Castor gasped and picked her up and hugged her. "Totally worth coming over!"

"Wow, I know Mistress plays up the cold and calculating heartless professional for most things, but I don't think I've genuinely seen her like this before," Alicia remarked, watching Castor smile and talk with a babbling Dahlia.

"Dahlia melts another heart and enthralls them forever," Luna said proudly.

"And good timing, lunch is ready," Harry said. "Vegetable soup, ham and chicken pie, and salad." They all ate together outside, with them looking at the miniature golf course in progress, and chatting. Dahlia sat comfortably on Castor's lap and the older woman fed her while eating at the same time.

"We can take her," Katie said.

"I'm fine," Castor said soothingly. "She's not a picky eater, is she?"

"Nope," Katie said happily. "Thank goodness. I mean she has things she doesn't like or gravitate to as eagerly, but she'll try anything once and will eat almost anything her daddy makes."

"That must be a relief. My niece is terribly picky," Castor said. "Something you want, little Dally?" Castor asked when Dahlia wriggled a little.

"Sticky," Dahlia said, pointing at the webbing course.

"Very, and no more going into it," Daphne said sternly. "No, you pouting at me will not change my mind."

"I know why she wants it again," Katie smiled. "She wants to stick to her daddy. Even more so than usual."

Harry chuckled and picked her up when she held her arms for him. He patted her back warmly as she snuggled close to him, making happy noises. "We don't need webs for that," he said comfortably.

-0-0-0-

Ghostwriter - Thank you, glad you enjoyed.

alix33 - No it wasn't her fault. It was more that Muriel can be judgmental and unpleasant and Molly knows that.

poka - Probably being their twidiot selves that Muriel couldn't stand for reasons. Yeah, I figured people could empathize with a situation like that where a family member or friend feels like they know better but don't and are unpleasantly overbearing.

DOOOOOOM Lord of Waffles - True but you know how some people can be quite unpleasant thinking they know better when they don't. But Fred has a good support network to assuage him.

odonnellzoo99 - The bunnies are indeed awesome, super awesome. Yup, family are family for good and ill sometimes and you gotta do what you gotta do.