Stirrings

The wine country of Southern France was a beautiful sight to behold. Endless hills of green, striped with vines, like a quilt woven into the earth itself. Some of the finest and most award-winning vintages had been produced by this region. During the daytime, the hills would be bustling with the activity of all the people striving to continue that tradition. Tonight, however, bathed in the light of the full moon, something different was taking place. In this particular region of Fronton, the hills were running red with blood.

Perched on top of a tall tree sat a large owl. His name was Odysseus, a noble post carrier for Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His name was given to him to symbolize his great strength for undertaking long deliveries and he was a proud bird knowing he was given the most important assignments that other birds would not and could not undertake. However, for this one, he would wait to make his delivery until the morning.

Odysseus had made sure to fly much higher the moment he passed over the walls surrounding this particular winery. The walls themselves were nearly twenty feet tall, made of thick stone, and topped with spikes made of silver that glinted in the moonlight. Every so often along the top of the wall sat a large and fearsome-looking gargoyle, though they faced into the property, not outward. The next thing he spotted was the decimated carcass of a boar, blood reflecting the moon like a crimson mirror. As he flew closer to the large house at the top of the hill, he passed over many other carcasses of deer, sheep, cows, pigs, and goats. All of them had been dispatched with great amounts of violence. Some parts appeared to have been eaten, but the rest of them were just tossed around like playthings.

From his perch in the tall tree, he looked down on the perpetrators of the massacre. Large predatory beasts, most with blood staining their fur and teeth, lay sleeping next to the glowing coals of several bonfires surrounding the building. The owl could tell something odd was going on because one of these beasts was the recipient of the letter he was carrying, though he couldn't tell which one. They did not feel like people, but they also did not feel like animals either. Odysseus was not stupid and would wait for a better time to pass on his missive than right now. If nothing changed, he'd just drop it from the sky rather than approach such massive killing machines as these creatures.

He sat, watching their slumber for many hours until the sun peeked over the horizon and the groups collectively shifted into piles of sleeping, naked men and women. Now the great owl could tell which was the recipient of the mail he was carrying. As quietly as he could, both to avoid waking the sleeping man, and to make sure that the monsters he had seen last night were truly gone, he floated down to the ground and placed the letter next to the recipient.

In bright green ink on the front of the envelope was written:

Remus John Lupin

La Cicatrice de Fronton

France

Nearly seven hundred miles north, a group of men and women sat around a long conference table. There were many pictures of large and gorgeous-looking boats adorning the walls. They varied in that some had sails, while others didn't. There were catamarans and trimarans, older styles and newer ones. Some looked like they were built for speed, while others looked like luxurious rafts meant to just float on the open sea while their occupants indulged in all that their money could afford them.

At 9:00 am, sharp, there was a knock on the door to the room. The door was opened from the outside and a young woman led a tall man into the room. He wore tall black boots with buckles and tight black pants adorned with a silver skull belt buckle. On top, he wore a Victorian-style, long-sleeved trench coat with silver embroidery along the lapels. He had a neatly trimmed mustache and beard and his hair was cut in a way that looked militaristic. Across his back was strapped a large black tube, approximately four feet long.

The young woman who had opened the door introduced him, "This is the Longbottom referral." The large group around the table stood to greet him.

He shook hands with the man at the head of the table, "Please, call me Brandt."

"We received your referral from Madam Longbottom," the man replied carefully, "The Longbottom family is one of our oldest business associates. However, we haven't had a contract with them for nearly fifty years. They helped our company off the ground and instructed us to assist you in whatever you may need."

Brandt nodded. Many people in Britain referred to Augusta Longbottom as "The Dragon Lady." She was universally feared by nearly everyone she came in contact with and had incredible power to match it. When her son and daughter-in-law were attacked after the fall of Voldemort, it was she that managed to take down the three Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr. single-handedly, sustaining only minor wounds herself. He suspected that even Dumbledore would think three times before angering the lady with the stuffed vulture on her hat.

Following the situation in The Chamber of Secrets, and the slow recovery of her grandson along with the reason for his incapacitation, Brandt had reached out to her for help with his project. Unfortunately, the scale of luxury he was looking for in his endeavor was not in line with the industrial nature of the Longbottom ship builders' current business model, so she helped him with a basic design and then sent him to the Netherlands to meet with another company they had been long-time investors in.

"Thank you," Brandt replied. "I didn't have many contacts in shipbuilding, and Madam Longbottom's company did not meet my needs. I am seeking the construction of a luxury sailing yacht. Her people were able to help me with the basic blueprints, and said you would be able to continue from them."

He took off the large tube and passed it to the young woman who had brought him into the room. She took it around the table to an older woman who uncapped it and pulled out several large blueprints which were distributed and laid out on the large conference table. A few shocked expressions at the scale and whistles were heard as the examination proceeded.

Brandt decided to do a little bit of narration on what he was looking for, "I wanted to take a classic style and make it modern. The Longbottom designers and I settled on the Greek Trireme style and turned it from a ship of war to that of luxury. I would like it to have an extended bow with some kind of figurehead that I haven't decided on yet, along with a larger than average helicopter pad on the rear of the ship along with a docking area for a smaller shore-craft."

One of the designers at the table replied, "Impressive ambition. However, your plans don't include the type of motor you want. The entire section that usually contains the mechanics for the ship is empty."

Brandt braced himself for what would be the difficult part of dealing with muggles, "There will be no motor on the ship. It will be powered entirely by the sails on the top. There will also be no electronics of any kind. I have a crew of veteran sailors who will be able to command a ship of this size."

Many objections were heard from the team around the table. Finally, one of the people in charge replied, "It's your money. We can only make suggestions. The ship will need to be equipped with radar in accordance with maritime law. To compensate for the lack of motorized propulsion, we will need to increase the number of masts on the ship from three to five and the height by at least twenty feet."

Brandt groaned internally. One of the largest costs for the ship was going to the sails and they were nearly doubling the amount. He hoped that Arcturus would support the additional material. He had been elevated in his status for finishing his most recent project and his Lord had informed him he was well on his way to finishing his Dark Arts mastery in the next year. This ship was hopefully going to be his final project. He met the gaze of the team leader and nodded his approval.

"That will be fine. I will also be supplying your architects and designers with specific materials to be used for the ship including wood, glass, and various gems and crystals to be used in decorations. There are also some sections of metals marked on the blueprints that I need to be given the exact final specifications for their size and I will provide those as well before they are installed. When the interior is being finished, I will be bringing in an additional team of my own for certain modifications."

There was a bit of mumbling at the secretive nature of the project, but it didn't slow down the discussions between the group of shipbuilders.

One of them pointed to the designs of the rear of the ship, near the helipad, "These crew quarters… they seem too big for people and more closely resemble stables than anything else."

Brandt sighed, "That's because I'm planning on using the helipad for flying horses and they need a place to sleep after long journeys." The group chuckled at the idea and continued pouring through the designs.

When one of them started drawing lines through the lower hold of the boat, Brandt interrupted him, "This area needs to have 110 feet of uninterrupted space. I understand the need to create support structures, but it is just the hull and ceiling that will need to have added reinforcement, no separated rooms."

They continued to pour over the strange project with quite a few more peculiar additions being added. Finally, they got to the end of the initial assessment, some bean counters worked up an estimate for Brandt. It was about 20% more than the amount that Arcturus had allotted to him for the project. He would need to find another way to supplement the rest. This was not a place where he could haggle for a lower price. He nodded in approval at the cost.

The man who sat at the head of the table pulled out several contracts, and told him, "Even with Madam Longbottom's recommendation, we will need your full name and identity documents for the paperwork. Also, do you have a name for the ship?"

He smiled. This would be his first opportunity to use his elevated status in public.

"My full name is Brandt Black. As for the ship…" he pulled out a slip of paper and passed it to the man in charge.

His eyes looked strangely at what was written, and replied, "We aren't in a theater. You can say it out loud."

"I figured it was best not to risk it," Brandt told him. "I did write it down while I was in the theater. I felt like it was very fitting for a few reasons."

The team leader shook Brandt's hand and told him, "We will start working on the "Macbeth" immediately."

Back in England, Andromeda Tonks stared at a photo in front of her. It was always eerie to look at pictures of her younger sister, as she purposely applied cosmetic potions to lessen their similarity. It had taken quite a while to get through the files for Bellatrix Black. The file kept her maiden name, for whatever reason, instead of it being filed with her husband and his brother, the Lestranges.

It had taken nearly a whole week to go through her file making sure everything about her crimes was properly documented and Andromeda wanted to make sure she had been held accountable for every crime she had committed. To that mad woman, Andromeda might have been considered the blight on their family line, but as a free woman, Bellatrix would always haunt her due to their similarity and family history.

Now, finally, she was able to close the file and seal it, knowing that she would be in prison for the rest of her life, and die in Azkaban prison.

"Cindy!" Andromeda called one of her interns. "When you and Mischa are done with your break, please bring me the next file."

She had given them a long lunch break while she sealed up Ballatrix's file. Mischa had been given the day off at the beginning of the week when going through her crimes as they made her too sick to work. It made all of them a bit nauseous, but the youngest intern couldn't take it.

When Andromeda was about halfway done with her tea, Cindy came into her office with a thin file, "This one appears to be missing… well… all of it."

Andromeda took it and placed the file for Sirius Black onto her desk. Flipping through the pages, and examining the file numbers, time, and date stamps; she realized that nothing was missing.

"This is impossible," she said out loud. She grabbed her bag from the hook on the wall and shoved the file inside. "Start making summaries of the next file and cross-reference the sentencing with other similar past crimes of the same nature. If I'm not back by the time you finish, proceed to the next one, and so on. I need to make another trip to the prison."

Cindy shivered as both she and Mischa had accompanied their boss to the prison for the minimum and medium security prisoners. However, when they got to the end of the group and they were closer to the pit of dementors, both of them couldn't take it anymore and bowed out. Their boss was now headed to the maximum security levels. People always thought that hell was burning hot, but it was actually quite cold, and rainy, and called Azkaban.

On the other side of the world, it was also raining. Though it was also quite warm. North of the Philippine island of Luzon was a small island that had been lost to the world for some time. Long ago, it had been home to the King of Serpents, a basilisk. The great serpent had been visited by a creature that was unknown to much of the world, though historical documents and long-dead men knew of it as The Champion of Asclepius. Asclepius was known through magical and muggle legends as being a great healer and fighting the gods. He was known in wizard legends also for being a great healer and fighting against Dark Lords.

His champion was also a serpent, powerful beyond compare but with no desire to be a king itself, though would not suffer being ruled by another. It referred to itself as a Usurper of Kings. Not the friend of Asclepius, but another Usurper, found its way to this mysterious island in the Pacific and killed the King of Serpents that resided there. The corpse of the Serpent King salted the earth where it died and made sure nothing was allowed to live on nearly half the island where it had resided before its death. Not only that, but its spirit also remained, attempting to instill fear in the very air and water as far as could be reached from where its bones were entombed. This aura of fear kept anyone from approaching the island for centuries, giving any who stayed too long nightmares of being attacked, petrified, subjugated, or consumed by the King of Serpents. The Usurper who had killed the Basilisk had long since passed on and their progeny had taken up their post to guard the island from the tyranny of another would-be King.

On the other side of the island, away from where the bones of the King lay deep in the earth, life flourished. Creatures of all kinds were plentiful and those who had been cursed by the slewn tyrant grew in abundance. Nonmagical snakes prospered greatly but made sure to keep their distance from the Usurper who had dominated their king. Spiders who could not flee the watery borders of the island carved out their own patch of heaven creating thick webs that captured traveling insects and even birds passing by the island on migrations.

Great beasts of magic also became numerous. The island hosted two volcanic mountains. One became completely extinct as the rotting corpse of the Basilisk sank into the core of the earth. The other spread magic of fire into the earth and into the nests of local avian life, giving birth to firebirds known as Hoohoos. Strong and powerful, capable of quick bursts of fire travel to avoid predators and kill prey of their own using blasts of fire from their tail feathers.

Down in the hills below that volcanic peak, a great titan of magic adapted to the smaller island and grew smaller. A herd of Re'em grazed peacefully while everything else avoided them for fear of their monstrous strength, even if they were just pygmies. The survival of these animals would be attributed to their small stature as all other magical bovine cousins were instantly recognizable because they would be as big as a semi-truck or larger.

Nearby these miniature buffalo lived an interesting specimen. Throughout the world there existed opposing creatures of dark and light. Most of the world knows about and hosts different types of unicorns. These magical horses are some of the purest creatures alive and are able to see the purity in the souls of those around them offering friendship to those whose light shines the brightest and knowing instinctively who their enemies are as well. The island hosted a similar creature of light, one that seemed only to come out at night, a large spectral deer known as the Lampong. At night, it shone so brightly that it would turn light into the day while it patrolled and protected the island from the darkness.

Many other small creatures roamed the island, however, when it came to intelligence, two stood out. The first was a bipedal creature called a Duwende. When he was younger, around fifty years of age; he was small, barely four feet tall. He lived on this magical island with his parents of similar stature. All of them had a very distinctive nose the size of an eggplant. They kept almost entirely to themselves and did not interact with the other residents of the island.

The final residents were creatures who were hidden from all whom they did not want to be seen. They were a magical type of monkey known to Wizards as Demiguises. Their hair was a prized commodity and their primary magical attribute was the ability to turn themselves invisible. They would also be able to gaze into the immediate future and predict the next few moments of time to escape potential predators and avoid danger.

However, despite the magic from the fallen King keeping others from discovering this sanctuary of magic, a ship ended up becoming a wreck on the island long ago. The sailors were injured and were found by the Duwende who healed them with their magic. Had they been kind wizards, that might have been the end of the story. However, when they saw the bountiful possibilities of the island and killed their benefactors who had saved them: orphaning their child who managed to escape. From there, these evil men proceeded to pillage the island for its natural resources and cull the population of demiguises for hundreds of years.

All of that would have continued if it weren't for a series of events that began with a prophecy predicting the fall of a Dark Lord on the other side of the world, in Britain. This prophecy orphaned a young boy named Harry Potter who was sent to live with his relatives who despised everything about him. After years of abuse and neglect, they finally got rid of him by unknowingly sending him toward this island of magic. When he finally arrived, he was also not alone.

Harry Potter washed up on the island alongside another magical child known to him only as Lyra. The two of them were slowly adopted into the tribe of demiguises who they learned to call the Hidden. They met the older Duwende who was still alive after the demise of his parents, some three hundred years later. In that time, the Duwende, known to the Demiguises as a giver of knowledge had used his magic, originally intended for healing, to turn himself from a small, feeble creature to something else; larger and more powerful than he had been before.

The Giver, as he became known, sensed a great evil dwelling in Harry Potter and used his magic along with the natural elements of the island to weaken what lay within him. He took Harry and Lyra to the most dangerous place on the island to fully destroy the evil within the boy - a tree known in the tongue of serpents as The Creeping Death. When the evil was destroyed, it released the fractured spirit of a disfigured man who introduced himself as Lord Voldemort. Banished from where the spirit had been lodged inside Harry's scar, it slowly vanished into nothingness, leaving only a blackened liquid behind where it exited Harry's body.

The Giver used his magic of healing to take the black residue of Lord Voldemort and incorporate some of that power into his own. He gained many memories of the evil spirit, along with the ability to converse with serpents, something he now shared with Harry Potter. With the ability to engage in proper conversations, The Giver began to impart more knowledge to Harry and Lyra, about the world, the island, and magic itself. Harry and Lyra used their knowledge to grow alongside their new family with the tribe of the Hidden.

A few years later, when the men returned who had killed The Giver's parents, and those who came to cull the hidden for their precious hair, whose greed was greater than any morality, they were met by Harry and his sister, Lyra. Through their direction among the great animals of the island saw to the slaughter of these men, disrupting any future plans to rape and pillage the island.

When Harry's presence was discovered missing by those who were supposed to be looking out for him, a search party was sent out. It took a full year to find him and would have taken longer if not for the mother of his sister providing a needed element to track down their shared location. With this magic, they were found by those who sought their return to Britain. They did not appear to be the same children as were discarded years before, both were stronger and had silver streaks through their hair. Harry was as wild as a windstorm while Lyras was so long it had to be braided to keep it from trailing on the ground behind her.

At first, they did not wish to leave but were convinced by The Giver who informed them of a King of Serpents who resided at Hogwarts, discovered through the memories stolen from the spirit of Lord Voldemort. To fulfill an old promise to the Usurper, the children reluctantly embarked on a journey to their homeland. This reason was not shared with the other wizards for nearly a year, keeping their hunt a secret.

The search for the King of the Serpents took nearly an entire year and ended with injury, death, and the Usurper locked in a strange cocoon; while undergoing some sort of metamorphosis. With the Basilisk dead, a great burden had been lifted from the shoulders of Harry and Lyra, and despite their reluctance to leave the island at the beginning of the year, they would be returning to Hogwarts in the fall again.

Now, on the rainy island, Harry Potter was relaxing near the base of the mountain half submerged in a hot spring. Rubber ducks floated around him as silvery Demiguises floated among them as well. Every so often, one of them would approach Harry and stare into his eyes for several minutes before going back to floating in the water.

A few pools away sat another two men, Alastor Moody and Nestor Balindong. Both men were in law enforcement, though they looked dramatically different. Alastor was covered from head to toe in injuries and scars. His face was missing one eye and replaced with a glowing blue one set in bronze metal around the socket. Always open… never blinking. Nestor was much younger and had no scars; he had enjoyed a life where very little criminal activity crossed his path and would regularly wish for others the same peace he had experienced.

As they soaked in the relaxing water, Moody quickly raised his hand out of the water, holding his wand and shooting a trio of red, blue, and pink spells behind him. He waited a few moments and went back to relaxing. This had been a regular occurrence for quite some time, as Alastor's trainee - Tonks, and Harry's sister - Lyra had been trying to ambush him all day.

However, this was the first time that neither of them had been hit by one of the spells. Harry smiled to himself as Lyra had been pushing herself for the last three weeks since arriving on the island. After being kidnapped by the Heir of Slytherin at the end of last year, she was determined never to be a victim again.

Harry was about to pick up a book that Nestor had waterproofed for him when in the back of his mind, he felt a ping of excitement that did not belong to him. Knowing exactly what was happening, he jumped out of the spring, grabbed a pair of pants, and started running down the hill toward his home. As if it were some kind of omen, the rain decided to stop at that exact moment

One of Harry's companions for the time he had been on the island was a large cobra, named Flare. He had been the first of many snakes to be recruited to help guard all the crops against rodents who would seek to steal the bounties of their hard work. However Flare was the only one to have a name and had been found to share a familiar bond with Harry, so each could draw on the other's emotional states for a deeper understanding between the two of them.

About six months ago, Flare had set out to the far side of the island to find a mate and to make so his progeny would be the guardians of the Demiguises instead of the other nameless snakes that were also in the area. The Usurper had allowed more snakes to that side of the island on the condition that Flare's children killed and ate all the other snakes they replaced. Upon returning to the island, Harry found that Flare had returned with a mate who he called Ivy for her green coloring.

It took a few days for her to not try and strike at Harry and Lyra, but when she relaxed, she revealed to them a clutch of eggs waiting to hatch. Using both magic and his physical labor, Harry reinforced the nest and made sure it was completely protected from any birds, rats, or lemurs, who might try to eat the precious eggs. He had also buried bits of skin from the Usurper around the nest to make sure other snakes stayed far away. Lyra had decorated the outside with feathers from the Hoohoos and the Sarimanok chicken they had received in Manilla.

Feeling excitement through his bond with Flare, Harry knew that the eggs must be about to hatch.

After a long sprint, Harry arrived at the nest and found his little brother, a demiguise named Whispers already waiting there. As a species, they had the ability to predict the immediate future, and Harry, Lyra, and The Giver had worked to extend that further. Even without his bond with Flare, Whispers must have predicted the hatching of the cobras.

The nest was not big enough for Flare, as he exceeded twenty feet in length, so he was circling the earthen fortress Harry had built, raised slightly above the jungle floor and protected by transfiguring the outsides of the fallen tree trunks covering it into metal. There was a small section at the top that allowed some sunlight to get in and Harry and Whispers peaked in.

Ivy was inside, as she was only twelve feet in length. She was pressed to the sides of the nest but blocked the lower entrance and watched as a few of the twenty-six eggs were quivering.

Harry hissed in Parseltongue,
§They will come soon? Flare is excited.§

Just because she no longer attacked him, didn't mean the mate of his familiar liked him as she hissed back angrily,
§Stay back speaker. I will be the first they will see and hear.§

Not wanting to upset the nesting mother, Harry and Whispers backed up a bit but continued to watch through the opening at quivering eggs. He could see Nestor, Alastor, Tonks, and Lyra approach the area, however, only his sister joined him to watch up close. Flare stopped slithering around anxiously and joined the three others in watching from above.

It took nearly an hour more before the first egg started to break. Slowly, a dark green snake pushed its way out of the egg. When it had fully broken free, it was nearly twenty inches long and had a reflective shine to its scales.

Its mother hissed,
§You are First.§

It hissed back with the sound of a child,
§I am First.§

Ivy uncoiled a section of her length to reveal a large number of baby rats Lyra had collected recently that she had been keeping alive for the newly hatched snakes. As First started to try and eat the pink rodent, the other eggs started to break apart. Though as they emerged, something strange was noticed.

While all of the hatchlings were unmistakably cobras, they were definitely not normal ones. Like the first one, they all had a dark green color, that was mixed with brown and bits of gold. However, after watching them for a while, it was observed that their patterns were shifting slightly. The last two to hatch were different than the rest and also complete opposites, one being solid white with yellow eyes, and the other solid black with orange eyes.

The group of baby snakes devoured the tiny rodents while their mother and father hissed compliments and platitudes towards them, though, other than First, none of them were given names. When they had all eaten their fill, Ivy ordered Flare, and by extension Harry, to gather more food for them or they would start eating each other. Just as they were about to start, The Giver approached the nest.

The oversized Duwende had been spending more time than usual around the Demiguises in the village than he had in previous years. Typically, he had been very reclusive but this summer, he could be found regularly assisting the Hidden with planting crops or attempting to educate the younger ones while they played with each other.

Ivy didn't like him at all and would regularly hiss at him, but any time she made to strike him, she would be rewarded with a slap on the head with The Giver's staff. He was too quick for her to be able to hurt. When he peered into the nest she hissed angrily at him, though he just ignored her.

He stared at the hatchlings for quite a while before raising one hand towards them which glowed and pulsed slightly. He held his hand above them, moving back and forth as they moved around the nest. When he was done, he lowered his hand and looked toward Flare.

§Your children have magic.§