Aftermath

It took quite a while for all the Hidden to have their nerves settled. However, it did turn out that Jared and Pants had gone out to fight the creatures with the spears they had constructed from plastic pipes that they usually used to kill fish, snakes, and rodents. Between the two of them, they had managed to kill one Balbal and one crocodile. The tribe celebrated their victory a great deal. Whispers had also cooperated with Lyra on three of her kills, mainly as a distraction.

The Dwarves had also taken their share as well. Despite their small size, they were strong. They celebrated their victory with the tribe of Hidden and reenacted their battles, throwing each other in the air to demonstrate how they tackled the flying Balbal before the others ripped them to pieces with their bare hands. A large group of crocodiles and Balbal had come ashore near Mango's village, which was why The Giver had not arrived at the beach until so late in the battle.

Harry was still a bit sad as he could feel Flare's grief over his children's deaths and had confirmed that the one named First had been among the losses. Flare told him that he didn't want to be that defenseless ever again and his children should start learning to kill soon. They were already being fed freshly born rodents, but it would be quite different to attack something that could hurt them in return.

It was in that line of thought that Lyra gave him an idea that would help both of them. They each took turns conjuring small snakes without venom that would spar with the hatchlings. The ones that could camouflage themselves were still the only ones to demonstrate a magical ability though it was still far from perfect. They would often adapt to the wrong color near them and, instead of matching a more dominant color in their environment, would pick a minor one and stand out even more. Through it all, It gave them a lot of practice, especially for Harry and Lyra to learn how to fight with their conjured creatures through their willpower.

While they were waiting for Kadin to return with the team of harvesters, they got to speak with Newt and Tina. Apparently, things were going on at Hogwarts that they weren't supposed to talk about just yet that needed their attention. Harry and Lyra were told they would probably get the full story at the beginning of the school year, so they didn't need to wait long. When Harry asked about their expedition to find the Bakunawa, Newt groaned.

"When we started to talk to the Australians about organizing the expedition and sought assistance with those who speak to the Rainbow Serpent, word got out about what we were doing."

Tina picked up the story, "So now we have multiple countries interested in joining, and they all want bigger roles. So we just gave up on organizing and let them figure it out. When they get all the pieces together, there will be an exploratory dive to see what's down there and a larger one if it pans out."

"Can we go?" Harry asked hopefully.

The two adults shared a look, and Newt replied, "We both would like to apologize for the way we left you when we entered the castle to fight the basilisk. However, we also stand by our decision as well. Despite defeating the creature, you should not have needed to do it. Something bigger than a basilisk, a World Serpent that scares even the Usurper, needs to be handled by adults who have been experts in their fields for a long time. We can let you meet the team before they depart, as there will be at least two other Parselmouths going, and I'm sure you will want to meet them, but until we can make sure it's safe, or at least relatively safe, neither of you will be going that far deep into the ocean."

Harry tried to identify and process the emotions he was feeling through his occlumency practice. Even if he was angry, he knew that there were some things he shouldn't be doing. Remembering that he had just agreed a few days ago with Lyra that he needed less adventure in his life this year, he quashed his anger and nodded.

"I understand. I would like to meet other Parselmouths, thank you."

Tina smiled in approval of his mature response, "That will definitely be arranged."

The day before Harry's birthday, Kadin returned with the team of Harvesters. Since he left, Brandt had placed numerous white orbs, like he had done with the sheep in the Chamber of Secrets, all over the piles of dead Balbal and Crocodiles to keep them from rotting.

Shortly before their arrival, Nestor received notification that his grandmother would also be coming. Kadin and his team arrived by a normal portkey with equipment and supplies being delivered to the mail platform on the water minutes later, and after they took that time to stare in shock at the piles of corpses on the beach, they began to set up. However, just as they were getting ready to start, they were interrupted by the sound of a bell. Even though the sound echoed everywhere, anyone who heard it could pinpoint precisely where it came from on an empty patch of the beach. Nothing was there except sand.

After a minute of everyone wondering what had just happened, The Giver, Chief, Teacher, Jared, and Pants exited the treeline to check on the mysterious sound. Even though they hadn't been on the beach, they also seemed to know exactly where it had originated. The harvesting team stopped what they were doing to gesture at the strange creature with dark hair and the enormous Demiguises, two holding improvised spears looking like some sort of honor guard but weird because one of them was wearing jean shorts.

As everyone continued to be transfixed on the spot the noise had come from, a small Jasmine plant started to grow from the sand. It didn't stay small for long as the vines grew large, and a single white flower the size of one of the cabins blossomed. Once it opened, the petals folded into stairs before a puff of pollen came out, which, when subsided, revealed Aurora Balindong in a gray dress and her two guards, dressed in white robes with blue sashes, wands at the ready.

The group watched as the guards stepped down from the giant flower, followed by her. The whole plant behind her withered and died the moment they were on the sand, turning to dust in seconds and blowing away with the wind. Nestor started to step forward to introduce her, but she held up a hand towards him and walked to the pile of dead Balbal and spat on them before muttering a string of curses, many that Kadin had said in his rant at seeing the deadly monsters.

When she was done, she motioned to Nestor, who approached and announced, "For those who haven't met her, my grandmother, Seeress Aurora Balindong."

She turned to address her grandson, "All of you did this?" he nodded. "You did good," she told him with a smile.

She slowly walked over to where Harry was standing and held a pink crystal toward him. It was an intact version of the diviner's crystal that had reacted to him the last time they met.

Harry felt uncomfortable but tried not to show it as tiny blue and pink sparks started coming off the crystal before she put it back in her pocket.

"I thought so," she smiled at Harry. "There is a question plaguing you since you killed these evil creatures. You are afraid to ask it because you might not like the answer. You may ask me, and I will ease your mind."

Harry's eyes widened in shock. There was something he was afraid to ask that had been gnawing at his mind the past few days. How did she know?

Harry summoned a bit of courage and asked, "What if these creatures come back? I can't leave the island anymore. The wards that were supposed to keep the island safe didn't help at all."

Those from England looked shocked that Harry might not return to Hogwarts. Lyra nodded to Harry to signify that she, too, was thinking the same thoughts.

Aurora reached out and stroked Harry's face, "Don't worry, child. I will fix it so you may return to your friends."

She turned to each of the others as if she was looking for something specific. Eventually, her eyes landed on The Giver. She slowly walked over the beach to him; the guards followed her with their eyes and wands but did not approach. The eyes of Jared and Pants glowed as she came closer, but they didn't point their spears. The Giver was nearly twice her size but seemed almost smaller in presence. She gestured at his waist toward a crystal on a string that had been one of the Dwarven gifts. He looked confused as she pointed straight at a large white crystal with rainbows dancing inside it. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out the diviner's crystal she had been holding earlier.

The Giver looked curious, so he plucked the white crystal from where it hung and passed it to her, taking the pink crystal from her in exchange. Having what she needed, the seeress drew her wand and walked back towards the piles of corpses. When she was at the water's edge, with the waves lapping at her sandals, she raised an empty hand, and water siphoned out of the ocean into a swirling sphere above her head. When it was nearly five feet in diameter, she gestured for it to float between the two piles of dead crocodiles and balbal. With her wand, she gestured towards both, causing two Balbal and two crocodile corpses to hover from inside the preservation charms that Brandt had laid down. Aurora made a firm twisting motion with her wand, and the four bodies slammed together and began a grinding noise as they began breaking and twisting and collapsing into a smaller and smaller space.

While everyone looked on in horror, she pulled the white crystal from her pocket and began several incantations while tracing patterns all over it with her wand. After the corpses were liquified and swirling in a sphere equal to the seawater, she made a circular motion with her wand, and the two spheres combined until they were thoroughly mixed. When she seemed satisfied with the process, she threw the white crystal into the pink liquid orb. It took about ten seconds, but the crystal absorbed all the mixture and then fell into the sand with a thud.

As she went toward it, she called her grandson's friend, "Cesario, how many wardstones are around the island?"

He jumped to attention, "Fourteen on land, ma'am. Three underwater."

When she was a few paces from the fallen crystal, she waved her wand above it, and a small, dark cloud began to form above her head. She raised her empty hand, and the crystal floated upward until it was at her eye level. The sound of thunder came from the dark cloud, and a bolt of blue lightning shot out of it, hitting the crystal and shattering it. When the light died down many fragments were still floating in the air when the light died down. She plucked one out and walked towards the large, black wardstone on the beach near the dock. Without any additional magic, she slapped it onto the side of the black stone. Once it was there, it sank into the side, disappearing from view.

She then turned to her two guards standing there and ordered them, "Go, place them in the other stones."

They looked as if they wanted to stay with her but didn't want to disobey her. So they approached the remaining floating crystals and divided them up between the two of them. They took the blue sashes from their waists and tossed them to the ground, revealing them as small, one-person flying carpets. They both took to the sky in opposite directions to fulfill the order from the Seeress.

She turned back to Harry, "Worry not, child. Neither Balbal nor Crocodile may ever set foot on this island again. You may return to your school without worry."

Harry could piece together what had just happened on an utterly observational level. Even if the magic was insane, it was pretty self-explanatory. She had created a blood ward similar to the amulets from the blended bodies of the encroaching animals. He wasn't sure why the salt water was needed nor how the blended mixture had been able to fit inside that crystal. She had also conjured a thundercloud to split the crystal but had no idea how it could be precise enough to divide it into the exact number of pieces she needed. The shock he felt at the magic he had observed was also mirrored on the faces of everyone else present.

He had a million questions but settled on one response, "Thank you."

She smiled back, then turned to Nestor, "Could you arrange tea for me, the one with the dark hair, and Nenita? Thank you, dear."

Aurora motioned to The Giver and Nestor's girlfriend to follow and walked into one of the cabins. Nenita and Nestor followed right away, but The Giver approached Harry first.

He asked with great curiosity.
§Who is she?§

Harry told him,
§Nestor's mother's mother.§
§She sees the future, like the Hidden.§

The Giver gestured for Harry to join him, presumably for translation. However, when they reached the door to the cabin, Nestor exited and motioned for Harry to stand aside.

"If she didn't invite you in, you shouldn't go. She tends to deal with people once in any given meeting. That she already did an exchange with The Giver and is also inviting him to tea for a second meeting with Nenita is strange. However, she kicked me out after I made the tea, so you might as well stay with me and wait."

Harry shifted nervously, then translated to The Giver to enter by himself. He looked unsure but walked in cautiously, closing the door behind him. Seeing that the general excitement was over, the harvesters returned to their work setting up while Brandt took the Scamanders to the side with the Bloodhounds and Lyra. Whispers had shown up in the meantime and joined his parents, along with Jared and Pants, to sit and wait for The Giver with Harry and Nestor.

As a former member of Law Enforcement, Nestor had trained in both Occlumency and Legilimency. However, when he tried to perform the demiguise dominance rituals, Nestor got knocked on his back each time. Chief seemed happy that the only one who could still outlast him was Charlie and would occasionally allow Harry to engage him in a contest. He compared the experience to how he imagined it would be to get in a boxing match with his friend Greg Goyle's father. It didn't matter how fast he could dodge if the fists were so massive that he couldn't get out of the way in time. So after quick mental sparring with Jared and Pants, which he lost as well, Harry went back to his occlumency training with Whispers trying to repeat patterns on the mental construct of the Simon game in his mind.

The problem he was having was that Whispers felt like he was beating on the construct to add patterns instead of tapping them lightly. It was increasingly difficult to keep it from failing as the levels of communication got higher and higher. Harry and Lyra had tried explaining it to their little brother, but he seemed unable to be more gentle with his mental intrusions. Neither of them could try their exercises with someone like Nestor as Símone Ides had warned them against having anyone else give them instruction in their training as she had sworn an oath not to reveal any secrets they held or exploit them. Until they could hold their own against someone as strong as her, they shouldn't let anyone else enter their minds willingly.

Jared and Pants were helpful in their knife training as the two would try to poke them with the blunt end of the spears they carried for Harry and Lyra to practice dodging and parrying. It took quite a while to convince them to stop using their future sense as it was impossible to avoid an attack when your opponent knew where you would dodge. In the last year, Harry had begun to be able to sense Whispers trying to surprise him, and over the summer, Lyra had started to get a tingling feeling of it as well. Though with the older two Hidden, neither of them got anything more than a momentary feeling of cold but no direction to tell them from where it would be coming. After visiting the Pencak Silat, Harry gained even more desire to learn to use a spear to be like the Hidden warriors.

After just over thirty minutes, Aurora Balindong exited the cabin and walked to the edge of the water, with The Giver and Nenita coming out much slower with strange looks on their faces. Nenita's shirt was unbuttoned at the top, revealing the amulet the seeress had given her the previous winter. It had a chain that appeared either gold or blue, depending on how the light struck it. The amulet was a circular piece of jade with runes carved and inlaid with silvery metal that was not silver. No one had been able to translate the runic script in the last six and a half months. There were also three spots on the jade ring where gems could be mounted, and it came with a flat, teardrop-shaped, black opal in one of them. Now, there was a second spot filled with hexagon-shaped, reddish-brown stone. She held the necklace to Nestor as The Giver explained what had transpired inside.

§The woman gave us drinks.§
§She was silent for some time as we drank.§
§After a while, she produced that stone from her pocket and handed it to me.§

He pointed to the stone that Nenita was showing to Nestor.
§She also put this one on the table.§

He took out a clear stone with many imperfections, mostly brown inclusions.
§She pointed me towards the red stone, put her hand over it, and pointed to the clear stone.§
§I checked the red stone, and it had some sickness. I moved it to the other one.§
§She gave this woman the clean, red stone and fused it onto her necklace.§
§She gave me the stone with the sickness to me.§
§What just happened?§

Harry gave his teacher a very bewildered look and shrugged his shoulders. Then he added The Giver's story to the one Nenita was telling. After piecing them together, everything made even less sense. The Giver confirmed that there was magic in the necklace but couldn't say its purpose. While the first stone on the amulet had been determined to be a black opal, the new one was unknown to everyone present.

Nestor's grandmother and her guards used portkey to leave the island in a much less elegant manner than they arrived, while Harry spent the rest of the day busying himself with various projects. He had prepared a large amount of fertilizer, which The Giver, Than, and Thao had distributed to boost the production of berries and mangos in both Hidden villages. There was a constant struggle to keep the younger members of the tribe from sneaking out to the bins and stealing the flobberworms that helped produce them. However, since he returned to the island, they had been staying away from the areas that were drying some of the worms to turn into jerky, mainly because Charlie screamed at them once when they got caught doing it.

In preparation for visiting the dragon reservation, Harry had also been brewing large batches of the hair growth potion he had invented, using his own hair as the base ingredient. He had created it the first time a year before with the help of Severus Snape after recalling a story where all his hair regrew overnight. Harry had filled up both potion kits that Tristan had given for Christmas presents the previous year. He was very curious to know if the potion would work just as well on dragon fire as it did on burns from firebirds.

Finally, he had also been experimenting with the potion that he had used to give immense durability to his staff and Lyra's. The two primary ingredients had been the manure from the buffalo, which he now knew were pygmy re'em, and digested owl pellets. Both ingredients had been processed through an animal's digestive system, giving them great strength and resistance to external influences. Much of the power of the re'em that was used in other potions attributing strength was also included. After a year of studying potions at Hogwarts, he had a new ingredient he was experimenting with in the process, bezoars.

These were nearly solid balls of hair and fiber solidified in the stomach of a goat which were created over long periods instead of the more immediate creation of the regurgitated pellets from an owl. Harry's theory was that they would add even greater strength to the potion than the pellets. As the bezoars were used in brewing antidotes to snake venom, Harry wanted to try also to try to use the pellets in place of the bezoars, especially considering that owls were predators of snakes.

As he finished brewing a small batch of the durability-strengthening potion, Harry felt the hair on his neck rise. With the recent incursion of the Balbal, he didn't take any chances and whipped around to fire three bolts of magic and a knockback jinx at what he felt was behind him. The hex cut through the trees, and he heard a grunt followed by someone falling to the ground. There was the sound of something getting back up, followed by a voice:

"That was a good shot," the deep voice spoke, and Ivan the werewolf stepped out from behind a tree, completely unharmed other than dirt on his clothes.

Harry kept his wand focused on the werewolf and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to thank you for your help with that creature a few days ago. Now I'm also curious about what you're doing out here, by yourself."

"It's none of your business," Harry replied sharply. "I've read about werewolves. I don't think I should be this close to one by myself."

"You've read about us, have you? Maybe I could decapitate a whole village and put their heads on pikes. I could also cut out your spleen and drink the fluids. Sounds peachy, doesn't it?" He used one of his sharpened fingernails to pick something out of his teeth while he seemed bored with the conversation.

"You obviously want to look like you could be doing all those things," Harry observed as he kept his wand pointed forward. "And after seeing you tear one of those creatures in half, I think you might be able to do it."

"Maybe, though right now, I don't want to." He smiled to reveal that two of his teeth had also been filed down to appear like canine fangs. "Can you just tell me what you're brewing that smells like shit and old fingernails?"

Harry stared at the very tall and hairy man, then had an idea. "It's a durability potion. Could you help me test it?"

"You want me to punch something; I take it?" Harry nodded.

"Wait here," he told Ivan.

Harry ran towards the center of the village, coming back a minute later with a sheet of roofing plastic about as large as he was. Retrieving a painter's brush from his potion kit, he dipped it in the mini-cauldron of the completed potion and proceeded to paint both sides of the plastic. Even when it was complete, Harry continued to paint until all the liquid had been used. Then, using his dragonhide gloves, he picked up the plastic sheeting and waved it back and forth in the air until it had dried out. Ivan just sat and watched the whole process. When he was done, Harry dug a small ditch, buried the sheet halfway into the ground, and then stepped back.

"It's a little low," Ivan muttered. It was probably too short for him to deliver a solid punch.

He walked up to it and touched it with a finger, trying to feel how much give it had. Surprised at the lack of flexibility, he pushed hard on it, then backed away. Ivan jumped up and down a bit and danced back and forth between his two feet before charging and giving the plastic a devastating kick.

There was a loud THWACK noise that didn't bend or break the plastic, but it was strong enough to push the earth that it was buried in back a foot and tilted it at an angle as Ivan cried out in pain.

"Shit! That should have knocked down a brick wall!"

Harry waved his wand, incanting, "Wingardium Leviosa," and slowly pulled the plastic out of the ground. He passed the solid material to the werewolf, "Can you try to destroy this?"

The wolf seemed to take it as a challenge and swung the sheet like an axe into a nearby tree but ended up cleaving the trunk in two as the tree toppled to the ground. He slammed it into the ground like a hammer, jumped on it, and tried bending it while standing on it, but nothing seemed to have an effect. However, the noise brought Lyra, Tonks, and Moody to investigate.

"What are you two doing?" Tonks asked curiously.

"I made the potion!" Harry told Lyra. "I got it to work with the bezoars!"

Lyra turned to the plastic sheeting and drew her wand, unleashing a long blast of fire at it. After half a minute, she let it go, and the sheet had not been damaged. Tonks did start putting out other small fires that Lyra had started nearby but hadn't really caught anything on the incredibly moist landscape.

"You made a piece of plastic invincible?" Moody asked as Ivan took a few steps away from the old Auror.

"It's an improvement on the durability potion we used on our staves," Lyra explained. "Harry had been wanting to try it with new ingredients."

"I met a boy at school who wanted to see if it could also be used on wands. To keep them from breaking," Harry amended.

"And you were getting this big lug to beat on your creation to test the strength?" Tonks asked, and Harry nodded.

She picked up the sheeting and balanced it on its end a few inches into the dirt. Then proceeded to cast several spells on it that didn't seem to do anything to it, then stepped back. She pushed on it, but it didn't fall.

"Give a swing now, big guy," she told Ivan.

He looked at it funny and pushed it, which didn't move it. He squared off against it with a giant grin and punched it right in the middle. It didn't budge, and Ivan jumped back a bit, shaking his hand at the pain from hitting a wall. Tonks smirked, then took off her jacket and started warping her muscles as she did when they were at the fun fair. When she struck it, it was almost as loud of a whack as the werewolf, but she also jumped back, clutching her knuckles.

Ivan looked at her with wide eyes and a smile, "That was one hell of a punch. You think you might want to spar sometime?"

"Back off, toothy. My boyfriend is an Argent." There was a look of fear on Ivan's face. "Though if you want to spar, we can do it the week after the full moon instead of four days before it."

Ivan nodded and fled the area.

Moody frowned at his trainee, "Don't use your boyfriend's name to scare the wolf. It's overkill, and it's not your strength."

"What's an Argent?" Harry asked, the name ringing a bell for him somewhere he couldn't quite place.

"Old family," Alastor told him. "They used to hunt rogue werewolves. You met Tristan's friend, Remington. That's who Tonks is talking about."

"He's not a rogue?" Harry asked.

"Nah, he might be pretending to act like an Alpha, but he's playing second fiddle to Leonard… Lennix." Moody smiled, "Rogues are the ones who will seek just to create armies by making more werewolves, normally by killing off whole families to orphan the children, turning them into other wolves, and forcefully adopting them into their care."

Anyone who would make orphans would be someone Harry would forever hate and never forgive. With that thought in his head, he drew his wand and shot a bolt of magic at the plastic board before stomping off. Moody looked over and saw that it had made a dent.

Brandt was hard at work organizing the Bloodhounds. He took them on a tour of the island, ensuring they knew the areas and the animals to avoid. He still wanted to know what made the tree so dangerous, but with all the chaos of the attack, he didn't want to push the children more. The mermen started investigating the ship's exterior but had been told not to bring anything to the surface yet. He would go down with them in a few days to see everything for himself.

With the Balbal attack, he had also added that to the list of things for the Bloodhounds to investigate. Lyra had pointed out that when the two of them expelled the wandmaker, Old Man Pelayo had made a veiled threat toward them when he was expelled from the island. While it was a shock, Newt dismissed the possibility that he was directly involved, as the accumulation and starvation of the invading animals would have started too long ago for that threat to be related. However, his name was still added to the list.

With the full moon approaching, and their sense of smell peaking, The Giver provided the werewolves with many old clothes and other knives belonging to the poachers before the Usurper ate their bodies. As the event had happened over two years before, the only detail they could glean from the dry blood staining the equipment was that the men were wizards.

The mysterious wizard was having an incredible time with Than and Thao learning about the plant life on the island and had started cultivating a few things near the demiguise village after buying a large amount of fertilizer from Harry through Brandt. He had told Harry it wasn't the richest soil he had come across, but it was undoubtedly best suited to the region they were in now.

After hearing about Madeleine the Veela's transformation and fire magic, Lyra was following her around and badgering her about controlling her magic so much that she finally gave in and started juggling fireballs to entertain her.

Tristan, Cesario, Nestor, Nenita, Kailee, Harry, and a dozen Demiguises just decided to relax after the events in the hot springs with jazz playing on Harry's record player, while Tonks and Moody were nowhere to be found. Harry assumed Tonks was trying to escape the island, with Moody trying to stop her.