Visitors

A few days after sending the letter to Brandt, Harry and Lyra received their response. Most of it was for Nestor, and it informed him that he needed to speak to Cesario and have his girlfriend Nenita present. Moody grumbled when he read that Brandt was bringing a team of Bloodhounds to investigate the sunken ship and the poachers.

At the time of the letter, Brandt was unsure how many of the Dwarves would be joining, but he told them to assume at least a few. No one was quite sure why he told them that Nenita should be there, but Nestor said she didn't need an excuse to spend time on the island.

The Giver managed to translate for the Dwarf that his name was Tugen and he was from Mongolia. There were a few other Dwarves that worked in a muggle quarry that spoke the local languages, and they mostly kept to themselves, so he didn't have a language barrier to worry about between them. He had started to open up now that Pelayo had been banished.

The translation was rough, but The Giver told the others about how he liked spending time on the island because of how the earth felt under his feet, and he could feel metals in the mountain where the hoohoos nested. The volcano that served as the grave of the basilisk felt like an empty spot in his senses, almost like a hole in existence.

Tonks tried to ask about the basilisk grave and to see it, but Harry replied with a solid no, while Lyra told her if she could spend a whole day at the other volcano, they would let her see it.

Harry agreed and told her, "Good luck."

Two days later, Tristan arrived on the island. He came in a white and silver cigarette boat and tied it up at the dock where the dragon-sail ship had been over the winter break. The vacationing auror wore khaki shorts and a flowery shirt. This was not the beginning of his vacation as his hair was bleached from the sun and had almost as deep of a tan as Harry and Lyra's.

Harry and Lyra gave him a big hug as he departed the pier, but he pushed them aside and drew his wand, firing off half a dozen spells towards the treeline. Several of them were intercepted out of the air by other spells as Moody came out onto the beach, and the two had a furious duel that lasted for nearly two minutes.

He managed to land a few minor hits on Moody, rusting his prosthetic foot, tearing his clothes, and making cuts in his skin but nothing debilitating. The duel finally ended when one of Tristan's spells melted a large patch of sand into glass, and Moody bounced a light spell off the surface of it into Tristan's eyes while a pink spell curved around and hit him in his wand arm, causing it to go limp. He tried to snatch the wand with his offhand, but the sand underneath him erupted and coalesced into a giant fist and held him in place until he called out his defeat.

As the sand dispersed and he fell to the ground, Tonks exited the treeline with the others following. "Damn, Tristan! That was amazing! I can't even land a hit."

While fixing up his limp wand arm, he asked, "Have you used the trump card I told you about yet?"

As she shook her head, Moody asked, "Are you giving away my secrets?"

"I didn't know you had any, sir."

"Just my magic nose," he replied. "Now, get to the point; what was the surprise you had for the kids?"

"Well, it will be up to you, but I want to take them off the island and to a Pencak Silat championship in Indonesia in two days."

Nestor and his team perked up, while Tonks just looked confused. Moody looked thoughtful.

"That actually might be interesting," the old Auror said. He appeared deep in thought for a moment before turning to his trainee and announcing, "Nymphadora, you wanted a break? You've got it on the condition that training doubles when we get back. We are going to a regional martial arts tournament."

"What is it?" Harry asked.

Tristan jumped in to explain, "Most notably, it's one of the biggest fighting tournaments in the region. It will be mostly hand-to-hand fights, but they also have some light competition and demonstrations with weapons. Have the two of you kept up with your knife practice?"

They both nodded vigorously, though Lyra had been doing a lot more.

"There will be some professionals and masters doing knives and other weapons demonstrations. It should be educational for sure."

"So we can go?" Lyra asked hopefully.

"We'll go," Moody told them. "Rules for the trip - never go anywhere without one of us. Don't stab anyone. No magic unless I say so; there will be muggles everywhere, and we don't want to upset the law enforcement in another country; I don't know what they're like there."

"I'll reach out to my contacts," Nestor told them. "I'll make sure someone is at the tournament looking out for you, just in case."

"We need to be back in five days," Harry told them. "It's just one day?"

"It's been going on for a week already. We are going for the championship matches and the weapons exposition," Tristan replied. "What's in five days?"

Kailee butted in, "The monsoon. We have a bet with Harry. Our weather diviners say it will hit the island in six days, while Harry says that Charlie predicts five."

"I'd put my money on the Demiguises for that," Tristan said with a smile. "I want to see the family. Where's Whispers?"

Since arriving on the island, their little brother had been spending much time with his family. He only showed up once or twice daily to do the occlumency exercises with Harry and Lyra. The mental projection of the Simon game was progressing slowly. Each of them could picture the game in their minds, but interactions with it were complicated. They could get up to ten sequence conversations before the landscape collapsed, and they had to start over. Harry didn't think it was possible to get up to forty as their instructor expected.

Whispers was also enjoying an elevated status among his family. Due to his constant dominance practice with Harry and Lyra, no members of his family twice his age could keep up with him. Some of the younger Hidden, who no longer clung to their mothers and had a complete covering of hair, had begun following him around, and he led them on chases around the trees, teaching them how to climb, jump, swing, and scare each other into vanishing.

The days before going to the tournament, Tristan got to see Harry joust with the Lampong and Lyra fly with the Hoohoos. He made sure to stay far, far away after getting his hair burned off the last time he was in close proximity to the firebirds.

The game of flying with the Hoohoos had evolved into a more combative experience, with her dodging as the flaming birds performed strafing runs at her or tried to knock her from her broom. Harry was slowly getting over watching her spar with the birds at such great heights, mainly after realizing how much danger he was putting himself in when he jousted with the Lampong.

This had been discovered a few weeks prior when he saw just how much the glowing deer of the island was holding back its strength to play with him. One particular night, they must have disturbed the pygmy re'em nearby, and one came out to challenge the Lampong. After seeing one of the magical buffalo push around a ten-ton boulder, he didn't know what to think, but the glowing deer just met the charge head-on and, with a mighty crash, knocked the re'em on its own side on the first charge.

After seeing the power of the creature toying with him, Harry decided to ease up on Lyra for her dangerous flying, as they seemed to like her as much as the Lampong was a friend of his.

On the day of the tournament, Harry and Lyra got up early. They had been told they could bring their wands but not their pouches as those would stand out too much and dressed in some warm weather clothing they had bought in Manilla. When everyone was ready, and after Tonks took a dirt nap for trying to poison her boss's breakfast, they piled into Tristan's boat and headed for the mainland.

On the way, he explained that they would need to take a few Floo jumps to reach their destination. Since they were going to another country, there would be one part they would need to wait in line as crossing into new magical jurisdictions was restricted. When they got to the port, they went to the same floo station that had taken them to Manila, with the seemingly blind man guarding the door covered with strange fish skeletons.

There were three floo jumps until they arrived at a large room with a line of people heading towards an extra large fireplace. After each group went through, the flames were extinguished, and men in blue uniforms called the next group forward.

"They're turning off the fire to prevent ashwinders, right?" Lyra asked.

"Five points to Scamander," Tristan smiled. "That is correct. I hope my little sister makes it into your house in the fall. Her name is Rachel. Do you have any tips on what she should say to the Hat?"

"Be fierce and determined," Lyra said immediately.

Harry followed up with, "Be ready to do anything for your family. From what we've seen at Hogwarts, they say that your house is your family, but only the Hufflepuffs treat it that way."

"Thanks, I'll pass that on. Can you two look out for her in any case?"

They nodded as they stepped closer to the front of the line. When they arrived, one of the blue-uniformed guards scanned them top to bottom with a silver rod before letting each pass by. When it came time for Alastor, he held out a card for them before getting scanned. Upon seeing it, one of them took it and left through a side door. He returned a minute later with another older guard.

"It's not often we see this kind of clearance," he said in heavily accented English. "May I give you a scan anyways?"

Moody glanced at the baton they were using before he nodded, and the superior officer started scanning from Moody's feet, where the rod immediately began to vibrate and turned yellow. When it reached his waist, it turned orange and red at his stomach. It stayed red and vibrated up to his neck, where it rang like a bell, then turned the same shade of blue as his eye when it reached that point.

The two original guards looked shocked, while the older one just nodded and told them to carry on. He smiled and took back his card as Tristan threw a handful of powder into the fireplace and lit it with his wand, gesturing everyone to follow as he called out their destination.

At the last stop, right before they set out, Tonks made some last-minute changes to her appearance, shortening her hair and turning it brown, darkening her complexion to a deep olive shade, and adding a little more toned muscle to her arms and legs. Moody took out a large leather patch to cover his blue eye and started to put a boot over his prosthetic foot.

After all the time he had spent with Moody, Harry was confused about something, so he asked, "Why did you let the man scan you? It seemed like you had a choice. He probably saw all your secrets!"

Tristan and Tonks chuckled as if they had a hidden joke. Alastor smiled and replied, "That was an old model of a Probity-probe. It can't pick up anything I want to hide."

"So you're just building your legend?" Lyra asked, getting a nod in return.

Exiting the building, they found themselves on a busy muggle street. Tristan hailed a large cab, and they all piled in.

It ended up being held in a large indoor auditorium. Harry couldn't read the sign outside, but there were symbols of people doing all sorts of gymnastics, so he figured it was used for other acrobatics, not just martial arts. The inside had stadium seating on both sides of a long arena about the size of two or three basketball courts. In the center of the floor were eight large mats with divisions drawn into them. Overhead was a large screen with pictures of the competitors in the same language as the signs outside.

What surprised Harry and Lyra the most was that it wasn't as noisy as the Quidditch match they had attended before. There was a constant drone of people talking, but the loud, raucous noise they had heard at the stadium was missing. Harry assumed some of it was because the fights hadn't begun, but there had to be something else. Their seats ended up slightly to the side of the center mat, halfway up the stands. They weren't boxed seats, but they were still pretty good.

Tristan looked at his watch as others sat down all around them and told them, "It should start in a few minutes."

An announcer came out and began to give a speech in a language Harry didn't understand, and everyone looked to Tristan for an explanation.

He shrugged but replied, "Not sure what's being said, but how this will go is that competitors will square off, and they'll need to fight or force their opponent out of the ring. During the fight, they'll only be allowed to use four specific moves each. They can use the same one over and over, but not more than four different types. They don't need to decide on them in advance, so each fighter will normally have one big opener, then have to adjust based on their opponent's style until the match ends. In the championship, matches can last up to two minutes, but they normally last less than twenty seconds."

"That's quick!" Lyra exclaimed.

"Fighting isn't Quidditch," Moody replied. "You need to disable your opponent as quickly as possible. Wizard duels have the point system, so people try to score high rather than finish things quickly."

"I wonder if they'll have the club this year without Lockhart?" Harry pondered. "Who is going to replace him and Professor Binns?"

"Knowing Dumbledore, he'll probably make Peeves into the History Professor," Moody grumbled as Tonks and Tristan laughed.

"He'd be better for defense," Lyra added. "Everyone fights with him more often than anyone else."

"That's true," Tonks said thoughtfully. "Maybe the curse on the position would get rid of him too."

Further conversation was stopped as competitors started to move to the mats. With eight fights going simultaneously, it was hard to watch them all, but they certainly tried. It was just like Moody and Tristan had said; each bout was swift and had some very skilled defenses. Kicks seemed to be used primarily for opening moves, with punches and similar attacks used as the distance was closed between the fighters. Limiting themselves to four movements each seemed challenging, and now and then, someone was penalized for using more. It seemed like the fighters that won the most could read the other's opening move and strike the other down in a single hit.

After an hour, the outside mats were closed, and the finals began between the last eight fighters on the center mat. These fights mainly went the same as the others before them; the only difference was that each competitor took longer to size up the other before executing their first move. They got to see one fight that did end up taking the entire two minutes as all the blows were blocked or avoided on each side until the round was called a draw.

The championship match was incredible. Both fighters looked exhausted after so much fighting but seemed to draw up more energy to do it one more time. In the first fight of the match, they spent nearly an entire minute sizing each other up before beginning to fight. It didn't seem like either was trying to intimidate the other with the delay; they were examining the other for openings before making an attack. The crowd was silent during the fights, but as soon as a hit was scored, they burst into cheers, then silenced immediately as the referee called for them to set up again. The cheers were deafening when the final hit was scored, and the victor declared.

On the way back to their seats after getting food, Harry and Lyra tried some of the moves they had seen to an amateurish degree, though against each other, it was just fun. When they got to their seats, the tournament held an award ceremony and moved on to a weapons exposition. Tristan explained that many of the weapons they used were too deadly for the actual competition, so they would mainly see choreographed fights or no direct hits. Muggles couldn't heal quickly from fatal wounds, so they couldn't engage in the level of competition that wizards did.

Among the weapons used were sticks, staves, knives, different types of swords, and daggers, though the ones that interested Harry the most were the spears. The staves were interesting, but they weren't like his. His staff that he used for magic had the Lampong antler on the end, making it closer to a spear, even if he didn't think of it as such. There were many kinds; long, short, some with blades, and others with multiple tips.

Lyra had a similar experience observing the knife fights though most of them were being performed with short sticks to keep the competitors from getting slashed or stabbed. The most significant difference between what she and Harry did and what was being done here was that these fighters used two weapons instead of keeping one hand free to use a wand.

After hours of demonstrations, the crowd started to break up, but many children began to take to the mats to either wrestle or examine the weapons on display. Lyra grabbed Tonks and went immediately for the knives. Harry looked to Tristan and asked if he could take him to the spears.

When it was his turn with one of the performers who had handled the spears, Harry pointed to one of the short spears he saw to hold. The man said something he didn't understand, so he looked to Tristan for help. Tristan pulled out a small book and flipped through it quickly before responding in what sounded like the same language… sort of.

It took them a bit of back and forth before the spear-man turned to the side and whistled loudly and yelled at some people there who ran off for something.

"I told him you had some experience with a spear," Tristan told him. "I couldn't tell him you killed a basilisk, so I said you gored a boar to defend your sister… at least, I think that's what I said."

"Not a boar, it was a pig with horns," Harry corrected Tristan as the men who had run off came back.

They carried a large bale of hay and delivered it to where Harry was on the mat. It was taller than him when it was set on its end. The man guided Harry out in front of it and handed him one of the short spears, gesturing to attack the bale.

After getting a nod and a look of determination from Tristan, Harry took the spear and examined it. It was nearly the same weight as his staff and slightly longer. He felt the balance and shifted his hands to where he thought was the proper place to hold the spear. Dipping through his memories of when he stabbed that pig with horns, when he played with the Lampong and the Unicorns, and when he stabbed Draco and the Basilisk, Harry adjusted his feet to a strong stance and struck the bale with a good thrust.

One of the men who had brought the bale started gesturing for Harry to hit it again, but the one who had passed him the spear stopped him and called Tristan over, pointing to where Harry had hit the hay bale and speaking slowly to Tristan with a lot of gestures.

After a minute, Tristan asked Harry, "Did you mean to hit it exactly where the heart would be for someone this size?"

"I think so?" Harry wasn't sure. "It seemed like the right place to strike the target."

Tristan used his book to try to translate what Harry said, and after a few minutes of back and forth between the two, the man passed a card to Harry as he took the spear back and walked away.

"What?" Harry looked at the card, which he assumed was contact information as he saw numbers, but the letters were unknown to him.

"He wanted to know if you were looking for a teacher, but I explained that you were from England and there was a language barrier. It would also be impossible with magic being involved."

Harry frowned; he would have liked to learn how to fight with his staff properly. He was a bit upset that there were so many people he could never be near because they were muggles.

When they regrouped, Lyra was going on and on about the knife fighting and learning to use two instead of just one when they returned to their lessons with Ransom at Hogwarts. Harry was still slightly disappointed but cheered up a bit as they went through a shop on the way back and bought the uniforms the competitors had been fighting in, sized for children. Moody purchased some of the body armor they had used in the weapon competitions.

It was a long floo journey back to Tristan's boat. The constant jumps were getting Harry and Lyra more accustomed to this version of travel, and they barely stumbled on arrival now. It had been a long day, and even though it was not yet dinner time, they were both hungry and tired.

The journey by boat was also quick, with the wind in their faces. Though as they got closer to the island, Moody informed them they had company, and they could see a large black wall at the tree line with bits of smoke coming off the top like black flames.

There was a large group of people on the beach, along with The Giver standing in front of the wall of shadows while Brandt was trying to talk to him along with a Dwarf. Everyone turned towards the arriving boat, but the wall did not dissipate.

Harry and Lyra jumped out and ran past the group to where Brandt was with The Giver.

§What's going on?§

Harry demanded.

The Giver gestured to Brandt

§He has brought monsters here.§

§They are not welcome.§

Harry looked back at the group he had just run past. He immediately saw four of the seven Dwarves they had met on Valentine's Day and gave them a small wave and back towards the one standing next to Brandt. One man seemed to fade into the background, having an aura of not being significant, but the other three stood out. A woman with impossibly silver hair and two men - one was very tall and hairy and the other shorter but with a similar fierceness in his eyes.

He looked back at Brandt, "The Giver says you brought monsters here. Who are they?"

Brandt sighed, "What I've been trying to tell him is that they are here to investigate the sunken ship. They might be scary, but they aren't monsters. He put up this big wall and wouldn't let us past the beach."

"Why would he think they are monsters?" Lyra asked.

Harry asked The Giver,

§Why are they monsters?§

The Giver gestured toward the two fierce-looking men,

§They have darkness like you once did. Their darkness is everywhere, not contained at all. They have no loyalty to others, only themselves.§

The Giver gestured toward the woman,

§She smells like a hoohoo; it is wrong for someone who isn't a bird to smell like one.§

Harry told Brandt and Lyra, "He says the two men are cursed, and the woman smells like a hoohoo."

"Remember when I told you about Bloodhounds?" Brandt asked. After getting a nod, he continued, "These are those people. The two men are werewolves, and the woman is a Veela. There are also two mermen swimming off the coast. Tell him to drop the wall, and I'll make introductions."

Harry had read about werewolves, they were supposed to be terrifying and bloodthirsty, but these two were just standing there.

"What if they try to eat us?" Harry asked Brandt, a little bit afraid.

"They're going to eat us?" Lyra asked fearfully in a pitched voice.

Brandt rolled his eyes, "No, they're not going to eat you. You remember Boovie? The minotaur? They are also cursed but have their own minds except for one night of the month. When that happens, they will be somewhere else. If they try to hurt us, they will die, painfully, through a blood-enforced contract."

Harry turned to The Giver and raised his hand, palm outward,

§The monsters swore an oath not to harm us. Brandt says if they break it, they will die in great pain.§

The Duwende raised his wand and staff, then walked toward the wolves, still unsure of what was happening. He grumbled something in his language before the dark wall behind him grew to be over a hundred feet tall, then grunted again and tapped his staff into the ground, causing the shadows to disperse and reveal the jungle. Then he turned and walked back into the trees.

One of the Dwarves approached the two stunned werewolves and said, "I can only offer a rough translation, but I think you got the gist of 'Don't fuck with me,' right?"

Both wolves nodded. Then the taller one tapped the shorter one on the shoulder and pointed him towards Mad-Eye Moody, who was staring directly at him. The old Auror walked over to him and stared him directly in the eyes before standing up straight.

"Is that you, Leonard?" Moody asked with a small smile.

The smaller werewolf looked like a child caught playing hide-and-seek.

"How do you know that name?" he squeaked.

"You don't remember me, but I assume you know the name Rakisha."

The younger werewolf's eyes widened, and he growled, "How do you know that name? She killed my family!"

"And turned you," Moody amended. "I caught up with her after that night after she attacked two other families and killed her while trying to stop her. It's good to see you didn't turn out the same."

Leonard… Lennix… stared at Moody for a minute before Ivan raised his hand and asked, "Do you know me?"

Alastor glared at him and asked menacingly, "Should I?"

The extra-large man shook his head and took a few steps back from the Auror, who had just admitted to killing a wolf during the full moon.

"OK!" Brandt called out. "We need introductions. Though we are missing two people, gaining another, I wasn't expecting."

Ivan looked over at Tristan, "Does that mean we can eat him?

Brandt rolled his eyes, "No, you can't eat him."

The Veela stepped up, "He's not wearing a ring. Can I have him?"

Tristan stuttered, "I-I have a g-girlfriend."

"That didn't sound like a no," Tonks snickered.

"Introductions!" Brandt yelled, trying to get control of the situation.

He pointed to the werewolves, "Lennix, Ivan."

To the Veela, "Madeline."

He pointed to the strange wizard still hanging around, "I forgot your name."

"I know. Don't worry about it." He replied.

Brandt reached into his coat, pulled out a conch shell, and blew it. A few seconds later, a splashing noise was heard along with a shrill scream from the docks, as two mermen had stuck their heads and torsos out of the water.

"Ronan with the black hair, Trent with the blue."

"Dwarves are - Gormadoc, Roltan, Dalnu, Lothar."

Brandt was speeding through things to prevent another interruption.

Pointing to everyone else, he introduced the people of the island and Harry and Lyra.

"We are missing Nenita and Cesario," Brandt stated. To Nestor, he said, "I wanted to make sure your friend knew we had Bloodhounds in the region, and I was hoping to hire your girlfriend to document their activities."

"They'll both be here in the morning," Nestor told him. "You can ask her then."

"You lot already have the rules for the contract, but here are some more rules for the island. Harry and Lyra can add or correct me on anything."

After exchanging a nod with the children, he told the Dwarves and Bloodhounds, "Don't eat anything not given to you. Don't go near the white light at night. Leave the buffalos alone. Nearly every snake is venomous. If you see a tree on a hill surrounded by red rocks, approaching it will kill you. There's a volcano on the island's north side, and you won't be able to stay close to it for more than a few minutes because the spirit of an ancient basilisk haunts the very earth there. The top of the larger volcano has invisible firebirds that will attack you. If you're on the island's west side and suddenly find yourself somewhere else, you just went near The Giver's home, and he sends you away. There are two demiguise villages to the north and northwest of this beach; Harry, Lyra, or The Giver must escort you to them. Did I miss anything?

"There's a nesting cobra slightly southwest of the closer demiguise village," Harry told them. "She has almost thirty hatchlings that are magical in some ways we haven't figured out yet, but at least a few can change colors. Stay away."

"You can go to the north volcano," Lyra told them. "It's not prohibited; it's just not that fun."

"And there's a monsoon coming in two days. We will be performing a blessing to lighten the rain on this corner of the island in the morning before it arrives." Harry seemed to go through a mental checklist before nodding to Brandt.

"Good?" Brandt asked. "I'll let you all get to know each other. I need to talk to the kids." He gestured for them to follow him into one of the shacks on the beach. Along the way, he tossed a newspaper to Moody, whose eye widened in shock at the picture on the front.