The silence was broken by Marcus bursting into laughter, everyone looked at him as if he were insane.
Hermione looked ready to throttle him if it were not for Alice being in her arms she would have probably jumped on him and started slapping.
Emma was just looking at him with a blank face while Luna just sat there with a dreamy smile, the rest of the crowd did not know how to react.
"She just adopted a new hatchling, "Marcus got out between chuckles.
Everyone looked back at the dragon who was still curled up around the boy, the occasional growling could be heard from her.
Hermione finally got some control and stood while holding Alice to her chest and stomped over to stand in front of Marcus, "What makes you think she has adopted him instead of eating him those growls say otherwise."
Marcus waves her off which only makes her furious, "She is singing him a lullaby, it's just you can't understand parseltongue, right now it's a song about flying through clouds."
From the judge's stand that was not all that far away, Dumbledore asked, "And how do you know this?"
Standing and pulling a necklace from under his shirt, "I found a nice trinket in Japan that allows one to understand animals, it's mainly used for the care of magical creatures, to aid in their care I got one to find out why Emma's cat didn't like me."
In the stands not far away Hagrid stood knocking a lot of people over as he turned and looked at Marcus and the necklace with a look of wanting it.
"Snowball didn't like you because you always left the door fully shut so she couldn't get outside," Emma said while slapping Marcus on the leg.
Dumbledore waved Marcus to the judge's stand, weaving his way to the judges while pulling the necklace over his head.
All the way he was glad that he had made the translation necklaces a few days ago after Alice said that she wished she knew what Zeke was trying to say, it made a good way to hide that he could speak parseltongue.
Reaching the stand he hands over the necklace, "While touching the necklace you need want to understand animals."
Dumbledore took the necklace and examined it his eyes then cast detection charms most likely looking for harmful enchants, after the necklace flashed a few times he nodded and then took hold of it his eyes losing focus for a second before chuckling.
Marcus knew that the headmaster had heard the dragon saying it would need to hunt as soon as possible to feed her new hatchling and fatten him up.
Passing the necklace around to the other judges so they can see that Marcus had not lied about its purpose, then handing it back to Marcus, Dumbledore cast a privacy charm around himself and the others.
"We've all agreed that he must compete even though he did not enter, by entering the arena and being there for more than five minutes do we agree that he has met the requirements,?" he asks the other judges who all nods.
Marcus holds up the necklace getting their attention, " While it can allow you all to understand the dragon, it's keyed to my magic and will let me speak to it, think of it as a reverse of the charm that lets you understand, once you have decided to end the match I can try to talk her into letting Harry go."
After resetting the privacy charm and a little back and forth between the judges they all agreed, " Very well Mr. Phoenix we will give it another few minutes to ensure the contract is fulfilled." Dumbledore said.
Marcus nodded and made his way back to Emma and the others where he found Hermione asking about the necklace, Emma was doing her best to answer the questions.
"It's something we picked up last summer in Japan, no I don't know what charms or runes were used to make it work, I can ask Marcus if you can have a look at it later," he heard Emma saying as he got near them.
Sitting down Marcus reaches into a pocket and pulls out a roll of parchment and quill, looking at the dragon he begins to write a few lines before sketching the dragon, he had just finished the sketch when a cannon blast sounded signaling the end of the task.
Putting the quill away he hands Emma the parchment to let the ink dry, "Gonna go see if I can save our hero from the ferocious dragon," he said getting a death glare from Hermione.
The crowd had gotten tired and watching the dragon doing nothing but lying there, most of them had left by the end, this made it easy for Marcus to get to the entrance of the arena.
Entering the arena Marcus walks up to the dragon's side tapping a spike to get her attention while waving back the handlers who came to collect the dragon.
"The reason you are here is over and the hatchling needs to go back to school to learn," Marcus said once she turned an eye to focus on him.
"I'm not a hatchling, but yeah I do need to learn," Harry called out from the nest.
"He needs a good feeding, I'll take him to my nest and cook up a bleeter," the dragon stood picking Harry up by the collar of his robes, and started walking out of the arena.
Shaking his head he turns to the handlers who are watching the dragon carry the boy off ignoring the eggs, " She wants to feed him, said that he was too skinny, oh and the eggs are fake I found where you had them hidden, talked to the horntail and short snout fed them each to sheep to get them to agree not to kill us but anything else was fine."
He grinned at their gobsmacked expression as he lifted the necklace and then waved his hand canceling the eggs back into rocks, he then looked to the judges while pointing from the golden egg to where the dragon was going with Harry.
After some more back and forth Dumbledore nods so Marcus picks up the egg and follows the dragon waving over his shoulder to tell the girls to follow along.
Once he caught up with the dragon he spoke again, "They said you passed the task, but not sure what points you will get they will probably let everyone know later,"
"I don't care about points, I just want to survive this year and hope next year will be peaceful," Harry said while crossing his arms.
After a few minutes of walking, they made it to the place where the other dragons were with their real eggs warming them up even though they didn't need to it was their nature to do so.
The handlers were happy to see the fireball's eggs were whole and in the nest, they went about checking the other nests, and after finishing they backed off.
By now the others have caught up, but Hermione still holding Alice stops further back than the others, Luna is walking from dragon to dragon letting each smell her before she pats each on the snout.
Emma was with Marcus and Harry who were sitting beside the horntails nest and chatting about something she couldn't understand, they were soon joined by Luna who hopped into Marcus' lap.
It was a few minutes later that they were joined by Madam Pomphry who looked frantically around for Harry and almost passed out seeing the young man sitting so close to the dragon, getting a hold of herself she started to cast diagnosis charms until the horntail growls causing her to step back rapidly.
"Easy she is a healer it's her duty to make sure he is unharmed by facing you," Marcus said while throwing a cushioning charm to catch Pomphry just as her legs gave out.
It took Pomphry drinking a calming drout to be able eventually be able to do her job once she was assured Harry was well she stumbled back to the school to find Minerva and a bottle of Glennfinick.
Hermione finally got up the nerves to get closer but everyone could see her shaking, Alice had turned in her arms after she sat and was hugging the scared teen.
"Two legs bring the bleeter, I shall roast it for the hatchling," the horntail said after looking over her eggs.
Sighing Marcus stood up and walked off, "Family magic I need to do the spell privately," he said walking around a tree and hiding he pulled out his phone and dialed Cameron to tell her to send five sheared sheep to his location, telling her one needs to be gutted.
After the sheep arrive he lifts the gutted sheep to his shoulder glad it was wrapped up so he did not have to worry about the blood getting on his clothes.
The four living sheep he tied up with conjured ropes and led them to the dragons who gave happy roars scaring Hermione a good bit more.
Conjuring a spit for the sheep he had on his shoulder he went about setting it up and once it was ready he stepped back just in time to not be set on fire by the dragon's fire.
These actions got the attention of the handlers who had gone to their tent, smelling the roasting sheep their mouths started watering, and Marcus waved them over, "Let her feed Harry first she said he needs to fatten up."
Seeing the Weasley's red hair Marcus got his attention, knowing how the man was nearly as dragon crazy as Hagrid was he told the man about the necklace, explaining how to get one of them, and that he would most likely have to go through Grengot's bank, making a mental note to send the design to them to sale.
It was funny to watch as the dragon pulled strips of cooked meat and tried to feed Harry, what none knew was that dragon saliva was similar to mammals' milk, to help the young grow in the first weeks after hatching packed with nutrients they would need.
Hermione had finally calmed down somewhat it seemed Alice was helping a lot, she did jump a bit each time the dragon moved to feed Harry.
Luna was being Luna she did not seem to notice the large beast any more than the people talking to all as if they were the same sometimes it was like she understood the dragons even the two that did not speak parseltongue.
Harry had ended up eating nearly four lbs of the meat before he could not take another bite, pushing away the last piece he hissed out, "I can't take any more,"
The others had been eating small pieces of the sheep until he spoke well most of them were Hermione was barely keeping herself still both wanting to hug Harry and to run from the dragons that were near when she heard Harry hissing she jumped, she not truly heard the hushed talking around her.
"You ate more than I thought you would, but that should be fine with her," Marcus said waving to the dragon who was sniffing Harry all over before licking his face to clean the grease, this knocked him over and got quite chuckles from everyone other than Hermione.
After a few more minutes of talking about nothing important with the handlers while the dragon finished her inspection and cleaning of Harry, they finally got away.
Holding out the golden egg as they passed the arena that was being torn down by ministry workers, "Don't open it in a small room or near a crowd, I opened mine in the medical tent the thing made a god offal noise."
Harry took the egg and nodded his hair waving around, it was more of a mess than usual the dragon slobber adding to the mess, "Thanks," he said as he held the egg under his arm.
Hermione finally let Alice down as they passed the arena, stumbled along with the group shook herself, " How can you all be so calm, those dragons could have killed us, and you all are acting like nothing happened." her voice was nearly hysterical.
Emma reached over and pulled her kind of counterpart into a one-armed hug, "Didn't you read the book list, Marcus gave Harry after the weighing of the wands?"
Hermione nods slowly, "I did but didn't get to the books on dragons until last night, I only read as far as the Bulgarian dragons, they were listed by country in alphabetical order, "
Emma smiled at Hermione as Luna skipped past them scooping Alice and twirling around twice before letting the girl go and then jumping on Marcus.
"Fed dragons won't hurt children or young adults, the handlers were putting on a show getting each dragon into the arena, and Harry being smaller than the rest of us she decided to adopt him even for a while, after feeding him she was satisfied to let him leave, like most books in the magical world they put important information about feeding a female dragon will keep them mostly calm near the end because to the authors they don't see it as important," Emma said while rubbing Hermione's arm.
Hermione gave a moe of exasperation knowing how true that statement was from the years of reading her school books, "Yes I noticed that, I should have thought to read the last few chapters first."
"You do know that there will be a ball on Yule?"Emma asks throwing Hermione out of her thoughts about how stupid wizards can be.
Shaking her head Hermione looked at Harry who was several paces ahead of them so did not hear them, "No I did see the formal dress was on the list but I did not have time to get them also I planned to go home for Yule,"
Nodding slightly Emma smiled a bit, "We planned to go home well at least we were going to leave Hogwarts over the Yule break until Marcus was chosen, the champions will have to open the ball, also they are bringing the express back to take the students that attend the ball home for the holiday extending it by three days."
Hermione stopped forcing Emma to stop as well, the look on Hermione's face was priceless, turning robotically to face her Emma had to fight a laugh.
Marcus was telling Harry the same and being told Mrs. Wesley had gotten him the dress robes because he never left Hogwarts other than summer hols.
"We have to open the ball with our partners and I know I will be taking Emma but who will you take, you will have many options to choose from the girls in the school," Marcus was saying as he noticed that Hermione and Emma had stopped.
Luna who was still hanging from Marcus's back pipped up, "I am going home for the hols on the first train, Daddy and I are going to be taking a trip to Ireland to look into a report on a possible snorkak sighting."
Alice who had been following along spoke up, "I'm having a sleepover with Astoria and a few other nice girls from the house, the house elves said they would have snacks for us."
Harry was stunned and afraid of hearing that he was going to be in the spotlight and he couldn't dance plus who could he ask to be his partner for the ball?
Sighing Marcus rubbed his brow, this boy while sometimes entertaining was also pitiful, "It can be two friends going to be support for each other it doesn't have to be a full date,"
Harry's eyes darted to Hermione who was blushing, "But I can't dance," Harry whined shoulders slumping.
"You do know a perfect place to learn to dance and a person who is willing to help you learn," Marcus said pointing to Hermione, "she may also know who is a good fit for you to take," Marcus said while hoping that the boy would take the hint of asking the girl to be his partner.
Harry seems to be thinking about something while holding the egg between his hands and looking at it after a few minutes of silence he nods before turning to walk to Hermione, Emma seeing him approach said something to Hermione before she joined Marcus Luna, and Alice.
When Hermione gave a sequel and hugged Harry the others smiled and turned away from them to continue walking to the castle, looking up at it Marcus smiled seeing the building lighting up as night set in.
" Luna I need to know how much further we can push those two without causing too many problems, I know basically what's going to happen but this is your world so I do not want to cause trouble that will cause the future you have worked toward to be unreachable," Marcus said as he reaches back to pull Luna's legs so he could hold her up.
Luna hummed a few notes while laying her head on his shoulder, " They have a better Yule than I saw before, the weasel still blows up on Hermione after the ball but now his complaint is about turning him down over the cheater, I think this is as far as you can push before the weasels take steps they wouldn't until late this year and if they do neither Harry nor Hermione will be able to get away, " the last bit was accompanied by a shivering Luna.
Nodding his head he started walking to the castle again, "Okay I don't think there is much more they can handle either, though maybe you can go with them when training more often it'll give Hermione more time to get used to you sooner than she would have,"
Slowly nodding her head without lifting it from his shoulder Luna sniffled a bit tightening her arms around him, "I will but I will lose some of the time I get with you three," the little blonde said tears flowing.
Hearing the sniffles Emma stepped behind them and tried to pull Luna from his back but the little blonde had an iron grip on Marcus causing him to stumble a bit.
"It's going to be alright Little Moon, but if we stay too long we could cause trouble with how things are supposed to be, plus nobody said we can not visit from time to time," Emma said giving up on getting the girl to let him go so she started rubbing her back.
Alice came to Emma's side and lay a hand on Luna's leg but didn't say anything, she too had tears in her eyes it was now hitting her that she would be leaving the friends she had made in the time they had been at the school.
By now they had reached the doors leading into the castle, entering the building they found Professor McGonagall walking toward them her face stern but her eyes showing relief.
"Miss Lovegood, please remove yourself from Mister Phenix, it is not proper for a young lady to be in such a position while wearing a skirt," McGonagall said as she joined the group.
Luna pouted a bit but let herself be put down she took his hand, and he waved his over his shoulder, McGonagall followed the wave and saw Harry and Hermione not far behind she seemed to relax a great deal upon seeing them healthy.
"I must let you know that we did tell them about the ball at Yule, I felt it was best for the boy so that he may have the time to learn to dance and Hermione will most likely help him learn," Marcus told the professor when he could tell she saw that the teens were blushing.
Nodding the professor smiles briefly before returning to her stern set, "Very well, the announcement for the ball was planned for two weeks before the ball, and as you said, Mister Potter needs to learn, I shall be speaking to the headmaster because you make a point and some other students may not have had experience in dancing."
When Harry and Hermione finally joined the group after getting their blushing under control watched as the hall filled with other students heading to the great hall for dinner, Hermione's stomach gave a small growl causing the teen to blush, the others having eaten with the dragons and handlers were not hungry but did make to join the other students after McGonagall was satisfied that her students had not been harmed by the dragons.
Splitting up the group went to their house tables and sat taking cups to drink they ignored the food, Astoria came over after speaking to Daphne and Tracey, once she was sitting next to Alice the two girls began talking about how Alice had eaten while the dragon was feeding Harry, Marcus watched as Astoria seems to grow hyper as Alice tells the story.
Up at the head table, Dumbledore stood tapping a glass with his wand causing a ringing to silence the hall just after Harry and Hermione sat, Hermione had just begun filling a plate but stopped as the ringing filled the room.
"Due to the end of the task being so unusual the judges wish to announce that Victor Krum received a total of fourteen points for failing to retrieve his egg and destroying the eggs in the nest, and Harry being an unintentional champion has agreed with the judges to receive only one point each," the headmaster told everyone the hall was filled with gasping to hear the low scores none of the students understood Harry not wanting to be first in scores.
Harry stood raising his hand getting the headmaster's attention and signaling he wanted to speak, after getting a nod, Harry tapped his throat with his wand casting a sonorous.
"I have said this before so I'll say it again I never wanted to be a part of this so last week I gathered the judges to let them know I would not accept a score higher than One point from each of them, the real champions need your support," he said before tapping his throat again canceling the sonorous then sitting down.
The hall is filled with students talking about what they just heard from Harry and the headmaster, several Gryffindors try to talk to Harry about the points, and others try to tell him to try and talk the judges into giving him better scores and try to win the tournament.
Harry ignored the people and Hermione looked ready to start casting hexes, especially at Ron who was giving Harry looks that could kill, even after the oath and teachers explaining to everyone Ronald Weasley would hear none of it to him harry was a cheat.
It took several minutes for everyone to leave him alone, Hermione had palmed her wand while watching the crowd while eating until it was time to leave for the common rooms before curfew set in for the younger years.
Marcus was watching the two with an amused look crossing his face, once they were back in the suite they sent the girls to the bathroom to bath before bed, while sitting on the couch, Emma pulled out her phone and opened the message about Cameron.
"We need to decide whether or not to do this for her, we have talked about how she was showing something like emotions a few times just before we left on the train, she will possibly grow more emotionally, and as a machine, she will be a good bodyguard but she could be a good fit in the group but I read up on the upgrade it's a new thing the company came up with after an agent failed to start a harem, the guy was a little too much of a nutter and the women he tried to get ran from him, and the clones he ordered mentally broke after a time with him, so the company tested the hybrid option where they could program the personality traits to fit him and almost immediately regretted it the children turned out to be warlords, it was just lucky that they were not world hopers and could be locked out," Emma said while also pulling up the other documents as well.
Marcus took the phone and read the documents, as Emma continued speaking, " The T800s are great as support and all but in worlds like this one or another world with powers, Cameron will not be able to do her job and I am thinking that her inability to follow conflicted with her programming to protect us, I watched her the two months before we boarded the train and although she didn't show it she was ready to come even if the castles magic burnt every circuit throughout her system,"
Marcus was reading about how the upgrade would use biological circuitry a few magically resistant materials, and a partial cloning process, truthfully reading it gave him a headache trying to understand even the basic parts, his best guess was they would use something like bio-neurological jell packs in Startrek Voyager, for the nervous system and the other materials he couldn't understand at all, then once the body was finished the memories would be transferred.
As he finished reading he looked at Emma with a smile to hide the fact that he did not have a clue what it all meant, when she was talking about the crazy agent he frowned and then nodded hearing his offspring were not able to get out of their worlds.
"Okay say we do this, you know that she will have emotions and that she will most likely become more attached to me, what I want to know is how will you react when she joins us in bed, as she is now she can be told not to but making her biological we won't be able to make those orders stick plus she will have hormones that will well you know what hormones will do, " he said trying to play devils advocate.
Emma frowned for a second, she had thought about the situation where Cameron possibly would join them in bed but after reading up on the company and in a few parts of the contract the agents were compelled to build harems it had something to do with the company spreading it's influence and forcing the agents to travel from world to world.
On an emotional level, she knew she should not want to give him a chance to get into the nickers of other women, but on another level, she knew that they would live a possibly long life considering that some records Mia was able to get showed that agents could live up to several thousand years before retiring.
"I shouldn't be okay with this, but after reading a bit over some reports on agents and their long lives a harem is used in two ways, one way it is meant to keep the agent sane and the second thing is that to keep the agent moving forward with the missions, although you have changed the function on binding to lessen the attraction to you eventually you could grow bored with just me," the last bit was said quietly with tears falling down Emmas cheeks.
Marcus dropped the phone and pulled Emma to him as she started crying into his chest her hands gripping his shirt.
"I'll never get bored with you, I know we have only been together for around five months in reality not counting the time we've had implanted, so this is all still new but I don't think I can see that happening," he said while hugging her tightly and kissing her head.
They sat like that for a few minutes before she calmed down and pulled away, seeing the mess she made of his shirt she laughed at herself and felt she was being silly.
"We can go ahead with the upgrade on Cameron, if and when she wants to be with me you can talk to her and set the rules, but until I have your go-ahead I'll not touch her," He said to change the subject.
Emma nods while waving her wand to clean up the mess she made of them both, "The first message I received from the company stated that I'm the main wife, and all such decisions like this are mine to make."
Marcus nods takes out his phone and searches for the upgrade for Cameron, this takes him a few minutes to find it before passing it to Emma who goes over it tapping a few times and selecting the options to make Cameron as human as possible before passing it back to him.
As Marcus is about to finalize the purchase Emma stops him then picks up her phone dials Cameron, sets it on speaker holds the phone so they can both talk if needed.
After a few rings the call is picked up, "Yes mistress how may I be of service? "
"We have found an upgrade that should allow you to join us before we purchase this upgrade I want to know if you want it to be done," Emma said while looking at Marcus.
The line was silent for nearly a minute before they heard a barely audible, "Yes, please"
Emma nods to Marcus and hits the final purchase that costs fifty points, "The company will send a pod through the gate with instructions on what to do you and Alfred are to read and understand what is going to happen before using the thing,"
"Yes, master," was the only reply he got he could almost swear he heard a tremble of emotion in her voice.
Putting his phone away he looked to Emma, reaching out he took her hand not holding the her phone.
"After the upgrade is finished you will need to be careful you won't be able to take damage like you can now," Marcus told the cyborg.
"I understand master, Mia is displaying the files covering what she was able to receive from the company," Cameron replied
"When you are ready to go through the process call me before you begin," Emma said.
"Yes mistress, the pod has just been delivered Alfred is moving it to the house, we will have a report in two to three days," Cameron said while in the background they could hear things being moved around.
"That's fine go over the data carefully and call when you feel you are ready to proceed, for now, it is time for us to sleep," Marcus said when he saw the clock on the screen of the phone.
"Goodnight master mistress," Cameron said before ending the call.
Putting her phone away Emma moved closer to Marcus and lay her head against his arm, just as Alice and Luna came out of the bathroom wrapped in towels, Alice seeing the tear marks on Emmas cheeks ran over to them to hug Emma.
"You were crying, do I need to beat up big brother," she asked while looking at Marcus with an unhappy face.
Emma chuckles a little while hugging the little girl back, "No little one he didn't do anything bad I'm just being silly, you'll do the same when you grow up,"
Alice made a face, "I'm not growing up I'm going to stay your little girl."
This got a laugh from Emma and a contemplative look from Marcus, he started to speak but Emma did not let him.
"No, you have to grow up, even when you are a hundred years old you will still be our little girl," Emma said giving Marcus a stern look and getting a mock pout from him.
Looking at Luna who had stayed back to not intrude with their moment, he saw unshed tears in the girl's eyes, standing Marcus stepped toward her and pulled her into a hug as he did she broke down crying, "Oh my little moon no matter how far we end up traveling you will have a place in our hearts and be our little moon."
Alice and Emma joined the hug causing Luna to cry even harder, " I know that but it will take you so long to come see me that I will barely know you when it happens."
Sighing Marcus tried to step out of the hug but Luna held fast not letting him, "Emma my bag," he said while using his eyes to tell her that he meant an expanded bag on his hip where he kept small bits of circuitry and other things he could use his technomancy on.
Reaching into the bag Marcus wiggled his fingers, inside the bag a new watch formed the wristband was shaped like radishes, pulling his hand and the watch from the bag he held it up awkwardly in front of Luna's face, "I planned to give this to you for Yule,"
Luna looked from the watch to Marcus, she reluctantly let him go to take the watch, "It's not just a watch, this will let you contact either of us, but I'll let Alice show you how to work it."
Before letting Luna take the watch he held it against his then the ones that Emma and Alice wore, each time he did so the new watch screen flashed.
"Now it's time for you two to get to bed," Emma said getting whines from both girls, especially Luna who after putting the watch on was hugging Marcus again.
"You two know we have classes in the morning, and no trying to work with the watch it will need to charge off of the magic you give off for the night and most of tomorrow," Marcus said letting go of Luna who went to hug Emma while pulling Alice into a hug and kissing the top of her head.
Once the girls were in their rooms, Marcus and Emma went to their room to get ready for bed as they were changing into night clothes Marcus had only to strip, and then pull on a pair of boxers sat on the bed to watch Emma change with a smile on his lips when she got under the covers and he moved to lay down he felt the necklace move reminding he needs to write to Gringotts about making and selling them.
Sighing he gets out of bed and goes to the desk to write a quick letter asking for a meeting with his account manager.
Taking the letter to Burt and tieing it to his leg he spoke softly while walking to the window, especially meant for owls, "Take it to the Black account manager I've written that you will wait for a reply to save their owl from making the trip also you will need rest before coming back."
Once Burt took flight he returned to the bedroom and bed pulling Emma close and kissing her passionately getting a moan from her as she rolled to be atop him deepening the kiss.
AN: Okay first off thank you all for the fav and follows for this story.
Secondly, I have a few chapters written and I have noticed I have almost written chapters twice just different wording so I've decided to work on another story and bounce between the two and hopefully, I don't try to double-write chapters I'll have the first chapter next week or two if I do this I'll alternate between the two on a weekly release, I will say the new one is still in the planning but it will be a SI crossover with SgU and another world I've just not decided which the second world will be, the SI will be similar to the one in this story but he won't start with the gate as it is in this one, it will only take him from his island and the ship, I'm working on the powers he will have as well as his companion.
I was reading Twilight of my life and the idea poped into my head i recommend that one its short but good.