With only a couple of days left of the summer holidays, Naomi lies back on the floor in the old ballroom, her head laying on a cushion. Harry is lying on the floor next to her while Sebastian, Dora, and Hermione are all watching from the chairs.
Reaching out with her hand, Naomi grasps Harry's hand, "You don't have to do this. Hermione or Dora could do it instead."
Harry shakes her head, "No, I'll do it, if something goes wrong, I'm the only one that can help you."
"Well, I'm ready whenever you are."
Harry licks her suddenly dry lips before pulling both of them to see her mum.
When they arrive, Cruz walks forward and pulls Harry into a hug, "Harry, I'm proud of you for facing your fear."
Harry puts her arms around her mother and just allows herself to be held while Naomi looks around.
"It's nice to finally meet you Miss Silva."
Cruz looks up from Harry's hair, "Cruz please. I'm no high born that requires that sort of respect."
Naomi smiles, "Cruz then. How have you been doing? As letters are hardly a replacement for conversation."
Cruz nods, "It has been somewhat lonely, but in a good way as Harry was here almost all the time last year. I've even had Dobby turn up occasionally. Come, I actually have some dedicated furniture now, as Godric was able to guide Dobby to some spare furniture in the school."
As Naomi follows Cruz and Harry, who is still hanging on to her mother like a limpet, she asks, "What do you mean dedicated furniture?"
Cruz smiles softly, "Has Harry told you about how the Mistle can be used to store items?"
Naomi nods, "She has. Though the how of it still eludes me, and I consider myself to be an educated person."
Cruz nods in turn, "I believe that there is an element of what you call magic involved in the process. But on my world we didn't have an organised magical community, so it was subject to scientific study and analysis. Anyway, people don't tend to store things that are designed as furniture, myself included. So I had to make do with chairs made from crates and clothes."
As she's talking, Cruz leads Naomi through a gap between a couple of bookcases to a section with an old panelled double bed, the panels of which are intricately carved with scenes of daily life and battles around a castle. Above the area colourful lengths of linin provide a ceiling of sorts as they sag between the bookcases that make up the walls, and the top of the bed.
Gesturing to a straw stuffed chair, Cruz says, "Take a seat, would you like some tea?"
Naomi looks around with an impressed expression, "Yes please. This is nothing like Seb described. I like it."
Cruz smiles, "It certainly makes a difference. Hermione even has her own bookcase on the outside."
Harry nods, "I like it too, as Mum and Ricky were…" she turns away with bright red cheeks.
Naomi laughs, "I'm glad that you've both discovered you're compatible. What did you do before…?"
The faint sounds of Hermione's voice comes through the gap in the bookcases as Cruz answers, "As I said, I used crates and clothes. I'll show you the training area later, that's where the crates are now, as they're all full of weapons and armour."
Naomi nods with a grimace, "The invasion?"
Cruz sighs, "Yes. Though, they've been used against the second and third generation Revenants far more often than they were ever used against the monsters."
"Is that something that Harry will ever need to worry about?"
Cruz shakes her head, "No, well, hopefully not. We didn't have the Mistle network at the beginning, and so if a Revenant took too much damage in one go, their BOR parasite could take over and they'd become what we called The Lost, or just Lost. Without any Lost around there isn't any miasma either."
Naomi interrupts, "Miasma?"
"A mix of spores and pheromones that the BOR parasite pumps out to attract a mate. Don't worry, the Mistle would absorb them if they ever existed, and Harry knows how to use the network to retreat from a fight, so she should never be in a position where she could ever become Lost."
Sebastian walks through the gap in the bookshelves with a smile, "I like what you've done with the place."
Cruz looks over at Hermione, who's got her nose in a book as she's following her father, "Hermione, would you fill the teapot and heat it up please. Without your wand." Looking back at Sebastian she smiles, "Thank you. Ricky has been a great help. I had no idea that there was so much spare furniture at the school."
Hermione keeps reading until Sebastian turns around and puts his hand in front of the page. "Dad!"
Sebastian shakes his head, "Hermione, you're in someone elses home. Now, I believe Cruz asked you to do something."
Hermione looks around for a moment, "Huh?"
Cruz chuckles, "I asked if you could fill and heat the teapot without your wand."
Hermione looks crestfallen, "But…"
Naomi curiously asks, "Why without her wand?"
Harry looks up from her hug, "Godric says that it's because Hermione needs to practice her visualisation and willpower. Doing things like this help with that, and also keep her magic loose."
Naomi and Sebastian both look down at Harry, and Sebastian asks, "What do you mean loose? Like stretching before you exercise?"
Harry shakes her head, "No, more like the hot tub after exercise. Um, using a wand needs a lot of control, so does using a sword. So, so using sorcery is like forcing yourself to relax afterwards and do things with less precision."
Naomi and Sebastian share a glance and Naomi says, "Sharing a pint after work to unwind?"
Sebastian nods, "Sounds like it. Well, I trust that you'll ensure that Hermione keeps doing that at school. Hermione, how's the teapot coming along."
Hermione's head jerks up from her book and hurries over to a low table in a corner, "I'm doing it, I'm doing it!"
Naomi looks at the gap in the bookcase, "No Dora?"
Sebastian looks back briefly, "She's determined to do it herself. I think she's got a large case of hero worship, and she doesn't want to lose access to her idol."
Naomi laughs and the conversation turns to lighter things.
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"Professor, I've just discovered something strange in the Forbidden Forest."
Professor Sprout looks up at the large bulk of Hagrid as he speaks from the greenhouse door. "What sort of thing?"
Hagrid scratches his beard awkwardly, "Well, I rightly don't quite know. It looks like a pure white plant, but I tried to take a cutting and the cutting just disappeared a moment after I took it. Might be some sort of mushroom or toadstool, but I ain't ever seen a one with leaves. It's also glowing slightly, and the air smells weird around it."
Sprout turns back to the plant she's caring for, and gently pats the soil down a little firmer before she stands up and brushes her hands off on her coat. "Well, I suppose you'll have to show me where it is then."
A few minutes later, Sprout walks past Hagrid to look at the small plant that seems to be surrounded by smaller seedlings. Drawing her wand, she casts a few spells to try and narrow down the classification of the plant, and how large it is. "Hmm. Curious. This seems to be both a plant and a fungus. This part seems to be taking in air and something else and transporting it to the more fungus like mass underground. Plant itself is also the spores for the fungus, so when you tried to take a cutting, it just broke down into spores that were then carried away on the wind."
Hagrid crouches down next to Professor Sprout, "Should I destroy it where I find it?"
Sprout shakes her head, "We're going to need to report it to the Ministry. Destroying it could just make it spread faster, until we know if it needs to be contained to protect the statute, we shouldn't disturb it."
Hagrid nods, "Alright professor. Do you want me to keep an eye out for more of them?"
Sprout nods, "Yes please, I'll be back later to sketch it."
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In his room, Dobby reverently puts the training book he was reading back onto his little bookcase on the shelf below his most precious possessions. Namely books by the likes of Mrs Beeton, Mrs Patton, and Mrs Smith. With his daily independent reading practice done, he takes Perfect Cooking off of the shelf and opens it to browse the different recipes and their associated pictures.
"Soon, soon Dobby will be able to make these without help from the Great Naomi Mistress. Maybe Dobby can find his own books too…"
Dobby's eyes distastefully glance over to the wardrobe where he has a growing selection of clothing, hats, and dark glasses that allow him to spend short periods of time in the muggle world. Something he strenuously objected to, until the Great Naomi Mistress showed him to a shop dedicated to cleaning and mending, and the bookshop, with its shelves upon shelves of books dedicated to cleaning and cooking. All ready for the taking, if he's willing to wear clothes long enough to pay for them.
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Harry grabs her sword from the hooks that Sebastian put up by the garden door, and starts to fit the blade cover onto it as she calls back into the living room, "Come on Hermione, we need to get our practice in."
Hermione looks away from the book she brought back from the other place, "But Harry, we've just been practicing for an hour."
Harry shakes her head, "Hermione, you know Godric said we have to do half an hours practice here after every lesson. Otherwise our bodies won't keep up with our development."
Hermione looks back at the book, "But, I've still got half of our Arithmancy book to read. If I finish it tonight I can read our defence book on the train tomorrow."
Harry raises a finger, "Or, you can do what mum said you should do, and only read the first half of the book before your first lesson, and we can play Hero Quest after dinner."
Hermione huffs good naturedly, "It's moments like this when I almost preferred the person you were before we came home."
As Harry's body language droops, and she turns away towards the garden, Hermione drops her book on the sofa and runs over to catch Harry's arm, "Harry, Harry, I didn't mean it like that. Please don't shut yourself off."
Harry looks at Hermione with dead eyes, "It's ok Hermione…"
Hermione shakes her head, "No, no it isn't. I was trying to tease you, Mum and Dad agree that you've improved so much since you got here, and I like you just the way you are, even when you're stopping me from reading."
For her part, Harry looks up at Hermione and forces a smile onto her face as she says, "Come on, let's get the practice out the way, then you can go back to reading."
Hermione shakes her head, "Nah uh, we're going to get the practice out the way, and then we're going to play Hero Quest until you can smile properly. I'm sorry I said…"
Harry raises a finger, "No Hermione, it's my fault. I shoul…"
Hermione shakes her head, "It's not your fault, you can't help the way they treated you. I'm just glad you don't remember all of it."
Harry gives a wan smile as Hermione grabs her own sword and starts applying the protective cover over the blade. A smile that turns a bit more genuine when Hermione adds, "Besides, Godric said he'd stop teaching me if I didn't do my practice, and we're almost ready to start learning basic rituals."
Shaking her head slightly, Harry opens the door to the garden, "Never change Hermione, never change."
Absently, Hermione follows Harry out into the garden while she's still fitting the covering, "Any idea what's going on with Dora? I haven't seen her much over the last week."
Harry looks up from her own sword, "I think she's been doing the loosening exercises whenever we're home. Godric said something about not teaching her anymore if she doesn't make it to Mum's place on her own by the end of the school holidays."
Hermione glances up to the first floor of the house, "Um, do you think there's anything we can do to help? She did help me after all."
Harry shakes her head, "I don't think so, Mum thinks that she'll always struggle with Sorcery because she's an adult."
Hermione frowns, "What does Sorcery have to do with it?"
Harry looks back at Hermione, "Hermione, I love you, but you can be awfully dense sometimes. What is Sorcery again?"
"Sorcery is the use of magic without a focus or incantation."
Harry sighs, "And getting to Mum's place is an act of magic that's done without a focus or incantation."
Hermione's silent for a moment before her eyes widen, "Oh. Oh! So when I go and get books from the bookshelf at your Mum's place, that's Sorcery?"
Harry nods, "Yep."
With the edge of the blade now safe, Harry brings her sword up into a ready position.
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Cruz leans into Godric as the two children disappear, "Are you ever going to tell her?"
Godric leans down and kisses Cruz's forehead, "Tell her what?"
"That she's your heir?"
Godric shakes his head, "Maybe one day, if she ever masters Battle Magic. She's not the only one that could draw my sword after all."
"I thought you said she was a Sorceress."
Godric nods, "She is, but Sorcery and Battle Magic are closely linked, like Witchcraft and Wizardry are. Hermione will probably never be an exceptional swordswoman, and she will always struggle with Sorcery, but she will excel at Wizardry, and by extension Witchcraft. Now, what is it you're worried about?"
Cruz looks up at Godric, "Who says I'm worried about anything."
Godric captures her lips with his own, "I do. I might not have known you for long. But I know you well enough that you wouldn't be asking about her heirship if you weren't worried about something."
Cruz looks back at the space the children disappeared from, "I'm worried about those dementor things you were talking about before they arrived."
Godric lifts Cruz's chin and kisses her once more, "Being my heir wouldn't help with that. I rather think that your gifts are more likely to be of assistance that mine."
Cruz pulls back a little to look Godric in the face, "Oh?"
Godric smiles, "Did you not tell me that Revenant's were created to kill the unkillable? Or that you were the first ever Revenant?"
Cruz hits Godric on the chest, "What's your point?"
"Dementors are generally considered to be unkillable, along with other pseudo-creatures like poltergeists and boggarts."