There was a loud bang on Harwood West that nobody seemed to notice, anymore than the large purple bus that had suddenly appeared. Out of it stepped a young woman wearing an outfit thst would give anyone non-wizard pause, her bushy hair stuffed into the large hat sitting on her head. She hurried to the front door of Number 10, knocking quickly. The door opened after a minute to Alisaie with, bizarrely, human ears? "What happened to your-?"
"Glamour. We've all been using them when we need to go out, answer the door or, rarely, when we have Muggle guests. Come on in, Hermione, so I can drop it."
Hermione did, watching as Alisaie's ears returned to normal.
"Where is everyone?" Hermione asked.
"Harry and G'raha are out back getting ready for the next step of your training, Estinien is picking up ingredients for lunch and dinner, and Krile is reading up on magical history and getting ready to be on hand in case anything goes wrong with your training. Come on, out back."
The back of Number 10 was a garden for potion ingredients that had been designated Neville's personal playground, with a sunken down fire pit in the back.
Harry was sitting on one of the benches, a needle and small bottle in his arm filling with blood. G'raha was tending to a small purple rift. Finally, Harry pulled the needle from his arm, switching it with a stopper for the bottle.
"Good, you're here," Harry said, Krile walking out with a crook, "Now, what we're doing is kinda dangerous, so don't take offense if me, Raha, Krile or Alisaie intervenes. We really can't afford this going wrong."
"What are we doing?"
"We're attuning your Aether more to Darkness. The way you're gonna do it is by taking this," Harry held up the vial of blood, "and throw it into that rift Raha opened. It will draw out a relatively powerful Voidsent, likely an Ahriman or a Succubus, your job will be to kill it and then absorb its Aether. This will both increase the amount of Aether you can draw on, but also turn your Aetheric balance more towards Darkness."
"Is that safe?" Hermione asked.
"So long as you don't do it too many times," Harry said, "Overload yourself and you'll turn yourself into a Voidsent yourself. But we're here to make sure that doesn't happen. Alright, here we go."
Harry handed the vial of blood to Hermione, who turned to the rift and threw the vial in. Everyone waited for a minute, before a yellow, one eyed demon came out of the rift. The moment it did, G'raha slammed his staff against the ground and the rift shut.
"Fire," Hermione said, a bolt of red flames flying out and hitting the Voidsent, the next one was white, and then blue, "Firaga!"
A large explosion of blue flames exploded out of her staff, completely scorching off the creature's left wing. Switching back to Fires, she continued to scorch through the Voidsent. Finally, the creature exploded into black Aether, which was immediately captured in a barrier by Harry."
"When I let it go," Harry said, "stick your Soul Crystal into it. It'll do the rest. Ready? Now!"
Hermione did so, feeling energy merge with the crystal and flow into herself. She felt stronger, like she could keep casting past her limit.
"Very good, Hermione," Harry praised, working with Krile to heal a few wounds she had been too busy casting to notice.
"Harry!" Ron's voice came from the house and he came running out into the yard, "Sorry to barge in, but Mum sent me to act as the runner. She wants to know if you all wanted to come to dinner at our place. Hermione too, of course."
"I was gonna cook something, but sure," Harry shrugged, "Right guys?"
"Sure!" G'raha said.
"Fine, fine," Alisaie waved.
"I'd love to see what a traditionally Wizarding house looks like," Krile said
"That everyone other than Estinien," Harry said.
"What about you, Hermione?"
"I'd love to, but I'm not sure my parents want me out that late. Did you get the telephone installed?
"Last week, one of those fancy cordless ones," Krile said.
"Then let me call them," Hermione said, rushing in to pick up the phone and dialing her home number, Dad picked up the phone.
"Hello, who is this?"
"It's Hermione, Dad. I was just invited to dinner at the Weasleys. Can I go, please?"
"Of course," Robert said, "I'm just glad you have friends now, Hermione."
—
Ginny heard the floo go off downstairs, several times in a row, and ran down the stairs to see what the fuss was. Standing in the cramped kitchen were several men and women. One short as a dwarf, another white haired with it bound in a braid that went down her back, one brown haired and bushy. The men consisted of a grim man who stood taller than any of the others, a man with cat ears and a tail, and a scarred man wearing a shirt, short sleeves showing off more scars on his arms, and pants.
A man Ginny was very interested in, because he was Harry Potter. She had dreamed of the day she could finally meet him, wanting to get to know him, but…
Ginny shot a look at the white haired woman as Ron came out of the fireplace with a girl wearing an abnormally large hat. Alisaie. Harry's fiancee.
That had thrown a wrench in her dreams. Oh, sure, Harry being nineteen had been a shock, but despite what Ron said. But the fact that he was engaged to be married had basically torpedoed any chance of her childhood dreams.
"Oh, Harry, Alisaie, G'raha," her mother said, walking forwards and giving them each hugs before looking over to the tall man before giving him a hug around the gut, as far as she came up to him. He looked incredibly awkward, and relieved when she pulled back, "and you are?"
"Estinien," the man said.
"And I am Krile," the short woman introduced herself, accepting the hug with good grace, "and you must be Mrs. Weasley?"
"Oh, call Molly dears, I don't mind! After all the help you gave the twins and Ron over the year, you deserve it. Fred is taking time out of each day to learn the harp you gave him! Couldn't believe my ears the first time I heard it. Now, we need to gst a pair of tables set up outside. I hate to ask guests but-'
"Me and Raha will do it," Harry said, and it wasn't the voice of a Prince Charming she expected. It was lower, with a slight rasp to it.
Harry and G'raha vanished into the garden. Krile coughed politely and said, "do you mind if I have a look around? I am quite curious about what a Wizarding Home looks like.
"Oh, feel free!" Mum said. "Ginny can give you and Alisaie a tour. Estinien, is there anything I can help you with."
"I'm going to see George," Estinien said.
—
Alisaie was getting rather irritated, which shs knew was nothing new. She got irritated a lot. But in this case, it was for the very justifiable reason the the red haired girl kept shooting her looks like she killed a cat.
"So, Harry," George said, "Estinien said you're pretty good with mechanical stuff. You mind helping me and Fred with something after dinner?"
"Course not," Harry said, "Hogwarts is so old I didn't really get to do anything Machinist there. What is it?"
"Secret," George said, shooting a look at his mother, who was happily talking with Krile about charms that made day to day living easier.
"Sounds like chaos for Hogwarts," Alisaie said, taking the plate of roast beef from Harry and beginning to add it to her plate. Noticing another glare out of the corner of her eye, she finally snapped, "What did I do to make you so angry at me?"
The table went quiet, and the girl, Ginny's glare didn't let up. Finally, Ron supplied, "she's jealous."
"Ronald!" Molly snapped at once.
"This needs to be talked about so it can be put to rest," Ron shrugged unapologetically, "Ginny's had a crush on Harry for as long as I can remember, grew up on bedtime stories about him. She's glaring at you because you have what she wants."
"Ron!" Ginny snapped, face turning very red.
"Oh, Ginny dear," Molly sighed.
"And how realistic were those bedtime stories?" Alisaie snapped back, "did they tell you about how he grew up penniless on the streets of Ul'dah? How he signed up for the Thaumaturgy Guild as soon as he could? Did it tell you about Nael, or Carteneau? Bahamut, Ifrit, Titan, Garuda?"
"Alisaie," Harry said softly, touching her hand.
"No!" Alisaie snapped, "I'm not going to be glared at for loving someone who has done so much for my family and the world! Especially from some little girl who doesn't love anything but a fake version of you she made up in her head!"
Ginny was blinking back tears now, and the family patriarch, Arthur, a balding man, signed and placed down his fork and knife, "While I don't appreciate you yelling at my daughter, this was something that needed to be said. Ginny, you should have accepted those two's engagement when Ron told you about it. You most definitely shouldn't have made a guest uncomfortable in our house. Harry, may we ask your opinion, so the matter can be put to rest?"
"I'm not going to leave Alisaie," Harry said softly and shortly, taking her hand in his own, "I'm sorry you fell in love with an idealized version of me for the Wizarding World, but that's not who I am. Come on, Alisaie, we should go."
"Oh, no, Harry dear," Molly said, "You don't have to leave because of this-!
"It'll just make things more awkward if we stay, the rest of you stay, enjoy the meal, me and Alisaie will find something to eat at home. Maybe another time, Molly. Fred, George, bring whatever you need me to tinker with to the house tomorrow."
—
Ron rubbed his eyes as Harry and Alisaie disappeared into the house and, shortly after, there was a rush of floo travel, "Well, there goes any chance of tonight not being awkward."
Ginny was crying, there were two plates with food on them but no one to eat it. It was a right mess.
"We'll talk to Harry and Alisaie when we get home," G'raha said, "make sure there's no hurt feelings on our side."
"Wish we could say the same about our side, mate," Fred said, gesturing to Ginny with his head as she bolted from the table.
"As I said, this is something that needed to happen," Dad sighed, "You all warned her, she didn't accept the warning, and now she has to accept the consequences of her actions. She could have easily become friends with Harry and Alisaie like you all had, but she heavily damaged the chance of that happening tonight."
"I just wish Harry and Alisaie didn't feel the need to leave," Mom sighed, "We weren't going to kick them out for it."