Plans and Action

When the Diviner's Broth was finished, the potion began to give off lazy golden sparks that floated through the air like fireflies in the early morning before vanishing. As he was technically in charge, Brandt took over the end of the process, retrieved the mango peel from the broth, clumped it up in his right hand, and tossed it over his left shoulder. Nenita took pictures as the peel flew through the air; it twisted and snaked in unnatural ways as it flew until it hit the sand and continued to expand for a few seconds more before stopping.

The group approached the peel as Nenita took a few more pictures to make sure they didn't lose the password that had formed. Harry couldn't read it, the words as they were twisty and looped together. He could see some letters, but most were different characters than he was used to. He looked at his sister, but she just shrugged as well. Brandt looked a bit confused too.

Nenita broke the silence, "I wondered how it would make individual letters… It came out in cursive, and it's also in Filipino; it says, 'nalpas ti ani, awan ti garami,' which directly translates as: After the harvest, there is no hay. However, what it really means is that some actions are permanent and cannot be undone."

"Let's see what's inside," Tonks said as she wiggled her fingers in anticipation.

Nenita transcribed the message onto paper for Lennix as Ivan hoisted the cabinet out of the cauldron and placed it on a table. The smaller werewolf pulled out his wand and tapped the front of it while reciting the password. Everyone could hear a small click from inside. Cautiously, he opened the door. Stacked neatly inside the cabinet was a large number of books, maps, and scrolls, all completely dry and untouched despite having been at the bottom of the ocean for years.

"Jackpot!" Lennix said with a grin.

They repeated this with the other boxes they had found, with the same password opening each of them. Inside one, they found thirty invisibility cloaks neatly folded in sets of five. Harry and Lyra both growled at the sight of them. The next chest contained an assortment of odd objects, but many of the adults recognized them immediately. Brandt fished out what looked like a shriveled hand; there was a large blue and green stone with white veins running all over it embedded in the palm.

"This is a Hand of Glory," he told the others who didn't recognize it. "I don't recognize the stone, though. Moody, have you seen something like this before?"

"No idea, I'm more interested in this. Oh wait, this is different."

He pulled out an oddly shaped skull engraved with runes and ornamental designs. It was placed on a base of some kind and had metal tubes sticking out at two points.

"That's a demiguise skull," Lyra said angrily. "What is that thing?"

"Something similar was once possessed by Gellert Grindelwald." That comment elicited gasps. "Albus told me about it once. It allowed him to show large groups of people his thoughts and plans. Working something like a pensieve, you light on the top and breath in through the smaller tube. When you exhale, the smoke projects your thoughts for others to see over large areas. His device was made from a human skull. I have no idea what a demiguise skull would do."

"I'd imagine it would have something to do with their foresight," the mysterious wizard chimed in as he was suddenly noticed while looking through the trinket box. "I can't imagine what else it could be. If a seer could share their visions, that could be incredibly useful." He fished out an iron coin with ripples engraved on both sides, "This is a Loud Coin. I think this is an original."

He dropped it onto the sand, and instead of a dull thud sound, there was an extra loud slap.

"You can find coins like this one with limited uses in prank shops these days, but this one looks very old," he smiled and leaned down to pick it up.

They continued to root through the trinket box. Among the items, they found a monocle that could see through invisibility cloaks and spot hidden demiguises; a whip that Kailee determined was made from the tongues of many Balbal; a bag of about two hundred teeth, that only some looked like they were human; a silver dragon scale that no one could identify the species it came from; and a jawbone of some kind of animal that had fangs about ten inches long. There were strings on the end that made them think it was meant to be worn over one's lower face. No one dared to try that on.

The last box was filled with gold, just a big box of gold coins. Brandt took hold of that one and promised the mercenaries they would all get their share. Tonks, Nestor, and Kailee, looked on with the hope of a little extra the way anyone on a government salary would.

Moody just shrugged at the sight and muttered, "Blood money."

The ledgers were written in some kind of code, so it would take a while to crack them. Other than that, there were plenty of maps of the region. While the adults were going through them, Harry felt a pang of excitement from Flare, so he grabbed Lyra to go check what was going on with his familiar. Ever since the cobras had hatched, Harry had been feeling a multitude of emotions from Flare, though this one felt different for some reason.

The hatchlings were growing at an impressive rate and were now around three feet long. Harry and Lyra were both enjoying conjuring snakes for them to fight. Harry was also experimenting by conjuring some with two heads, without a mouth, different colored eyes, or with different types of crests similar to the Usurper or the basilisk. It made for a fun exercise in creative magics. The hatchlings were also starting to develop personalities which were annoying as they weren't listening to Harry or The Giver when they tried to leave the general area around the nest. Fortunately, they did listen to their mother, and a lesser degree, their father.

Entering the clearing below the nest, they found the family of cobras sunning themselves on rocks that Newt had enchanted to stay warm, even at night. However, to the side, Flare had cornered a rodent and was trying to teach the white hatchling how to kill the weasel-like creature. Being a bit larger, it was trying to fight back and wouldn't stand a chance against Flare, but the smaller white cobra might have a problem.

Harry and Lyra watched as the white hatchling tried to move its way around the side of the weasel, but it kept its back to the log it was cornered against so nothing could get by it. It hissed and snarled whenever the cobra got close, which made it flinch and back off. Flare tasted the air and looked back at Harry.

§Commander, you have come at a good time,§

To the hatchling, he said,
§Stop playing with your food and do it.§

The little cobra hissed back with an exasperated tone,
§Fine...§

The little one extended itself to try to get around the side of the weasel but left its body stretched out, giving the rodent a perfect spot to attack, far from the deadly fangs on its head. As the weasel lunged for the vulnerable section of the snake, its tail whipped up, and the tip sank into the neck of the attacking animal, piercing straight through until it came out the other side. The weasel gasped one last time and then went limp, and the tail was removed from its neck in one clean movement.

Flare hissed proudly,
§A perfect kill.§

The not-so-little white snake wiggled back and forth,
§May I eat it now?§

Harry and Lyra were impressed. Even if Lyra couldn't understand what was being said, she had been around enough snakes to read their body language and asked Harry to tell Flare that his child was an excellent killer.

He passed on the message, adding,
§May I examine this hatchling?§

He held out his hands to show he wasn't going to hurt the child.

Flare pushed his child closer to Harry as the white snake seemed a bit apprehensive about the situation. In one quick movement, he scooped up the snake and held it by the head and the tail to ensure it didn't attack him from either end. Both he and Flare spoke to the young snake and told them to be calm as he performed his examination. He could feel the hatchling didn't like being held, but he wanted a better look at this new magical snake.

The body was stronger than other snakes he had held this size, and he determined that the hatchling was female from the tail shape and the scale patterns. Harry wiped the blood from her tail that had pierced the weasel and examined it closer. The end felt less like a regular snake tail and more like a solid bone or horn with a loose amount of skin over the top, like it was right before it needed to shed. It should have broken off when it made the kill but must have stretched or hardened to keep that from happening. Harry changed his grip on the head while telling the young snake to open its mouth and found that this cobra's fangs had three barbs on them, giving them a frightening appearance. If they went in, they were not coming out easily.

"Lyra, pass me a vial," he told her. Then switched to parseltongue.
§I want to take your venom.§
§I want to know how powerful you are.§

The little snake argued a little bit, but with prompting from Flare, she eventually agreed. When she bit down on the container that Lyra provided, it filled the vial almost immediately instead of the slow trickle that the snakes in Severus's classroom gave. It was also a milky white instead of the yellowy color that he had seen from other cobras.

When the container was full, he passed it to Lyra and put the hatchling back down, telling her,
§Thank you.§
§Go enjoy your kill.§
§You earned it.§

She didn't respond and just started positioning herself and stretching her mouth to swallow the weasel that had been killed. The rest of the day, Harry and Lyra conjured snakes for the other hatchlings to fight. The white one stayed out of it as she would be spending the next few days digesting the weasel she swallowed.

The day before they were set to leave the island, Harry and Lyra were called by the Bloodhounds to see their findings. They entered one of the cabins to find the mercenaries and Brandt sitting around one of the tables with a large map spread out before them. They took the two remaining seats, which were a bit taller than the others, to give them a better view. Brandt gave a nod to Lennix to begin speaking when they were seated.

"We're leaving tomorrow morning, so Brandt asked me to update the two of you on our progress and our next steps. First of all, we're still decoding the ledgers. From what we've figured out so far, most of them are listings of transactions between this organization and people buying things from them. We assume it is mostly demiguise-related transactions, but at the moment, we can't tell the difference between an entry for invisibility cloaks and another for toenail clippings. We're hoping that Brandt and Lord Black can get some information from that ghost he captured to help with decoding the information."

"What's this map?" Harry asked, not knowing what else to say.

"This is the only lead we have right now," Lennix replied. "This is a map that we retrieved from the cabinet. It had a few layers of secrecy charms on it that we were able to remove. It is a map of the entire region, though here is where it gets interesting." He pulled out his wand and waved it over the top, incanting, "Occultis revelatur completum!"

As the incantation finished, eight small islands appeared around the larger main islands of The Philippines where there had only been water before, and these new islands had a small sparkle to them. Lennix pointed to one of them.

"This is where we are. We knew as soon as we picked it up that this map must have hidden information as it was missing the island we were standing on."

"So what are the other ones?" Lyra asked, fearing the answer.

Brandt told her, "We assume they are other islands that have either demiguises or other plants and animals that this organization is poaching." Harry started to give off a bit of magic, tinged with his anger, to which Brandt reached over and flicked his ear so he'd snap out of it. "That's not helping now," and he gave a nod to Lennix to continue.

"Before we even try to set foot on any of these other islands, we're going to scout every one of them," he pointed to one of the sparkling land masses west of a city on the mainland marked as Candon. "Trent and Rowan have already left for this one. We are going to build our own map of the region. They will try to speak with the local merfolk and see if they can provide any help as well. Ivan and I are going to explore the mainland on foot and try to speak to any syndicates we encounter as mercenaries for hire." He pointed over to the mysterious wizard, "That guy is going to go a little deeper into the black markets of the region and probably dip into neighboring countries to see if anyone knows about an organization that can hide islands and deals in demiguise parts. Madeline has accepted a job as a secretary at the local Ministry of Magic and will try to get any information she can that way. We will stop back on the island every so often when we need to combine information or want to try something new in decoding the ledgers."

Brandt added, "Right now, Lennix and his people are just doing reconnaissance. Their contract includes the possibility of violence; it doesn't require it. Once we have actionable intel, I may ask to modify their assignments or bring in bigger wands."

"We have staves," Harry replied, pulling his out.

The others just stared at him for a moment before there were a few chuckles, and Brandt replied, "I mean, I will bring in people whose job it is to be violent and hurt people. I'm also hoping another project of mine will be complete by then, and we can use it in any future action we take against this organization."

Brandt left that ominous message hanging before ending the meeting.

Dinner that evening was a family affair. Most of the troupe of Hidden had ventured out to the beach, bringing fruits, insects, fish, and snakes for everyone to eat. Most of the humans ended up eating things they had made themselves, but Tonks and the werewolves ended up eating quite a bit of the snake and insects. It wasn't as raucous as the last meal on the island the previous year, both because it wasn't Harry's birthday and because no one was giving alcohol to the demiguises.

When the dessert was being served, The Giver and the Dwarves decided that would be a good time to arrive at the party. When he came onto the beach, he had his wand in his hand, and three large items wrapped in leaves were floating behind him. Two of them settled down in front of Harry and Lyra, and the third one was between them. The adults gathered around to see what they were being given.

Each package was more or less a cube and a little over a foot long on each side. Slowly, Harry and Lyra removed the leaves, their eyes brightening as it revealed they were given two giant chunks of nearly transparent crystal. The sides were completely flat, and the edges were slightly rounded. The look of astonishment on Harry and Lyra's faces was only surpassed by the adults, who were astounded by such an incredible gift.

Brandt was almost hyperventilating but controlled himself enough to ask, "Why did he just give you the purest quartz I have ever seen in my life? And where did he get it?"

Gormadoc stepped forward to explain, "The Giver was going to present these to the children, but they were rough, and the edges were sharp. We took the time to remove the impurities and polish them properly." He walked up to the children and picked up the last package, opening it up to reveal a whole range of tools. All of them were tipped with more clear and sparkling gems. "My team also made these for the children as thanks for bringing us here. We will return to our home soon but wish to return from time to time."

Now Brandt was hyperventilating. Everyone was looking at him now. One of the other Dwarves spoke up, "What only the big guy seems to understand is these are diamond-tipped Dwarven tools. The highest quality we could craft on this island. The only thing we couldn't do our best on is the durability of the handles, though they should still last a very long time."

"Sounds neat," Tonks told them. "But what are the cubes of quartz for?"

Lyra smiled and replied cheerfully, "It's for the Animagus ritual!"

That confused everyone, so she tried to explain, "The potion needs to be kept in a crystal container, so we thought the best way to do it was to make them ourselves."

"You don't need to," Nestor told them. "You can just buy a crystal vial at a potion shop."

Harry turned and had a brief hissing conversation with The Giver before turning back to the others.

"He says it's better to make it ourselves. Crafting it with our own hands will make our forms stronger."

"You're not doing the ritual until next summer, right?" Brandt asked. Harry and Lyra nodded, so he continued, "Then you have plenty of time. However, be sure to speak to your transfiguration teacher to see what she thinks."

They shrugged and agreed.

When the morning came, it took nearly an hour for Whispers to pry himself away from his family. The entire generation of Hidden younger than him seemed to see him as some kind of legendary figure mixed with everyone's big brother. He wanted to leave to join Harry and Lyra back at Hogwarts but ended up having to get some of the younger ones forcibly removed from him that didn't want him to leave.

The three of them gathered their trunks with all their things and met Brandt, Moody, and Tristan on the beach. The mysterious wizard served them breakfast and was told they just needed Tonks to finish up before they could leave. Half an hour after they finished eating, Madeline exited one of the cabins, her skin glowing and hair leaving a trail of sparkles as she walked across the beach and laid down in the sun next to Nenita, who had a drink waiting for her.

It took another ten minutes before Tonks exited the same cabin and joined the others in silence. She shared a glance with Tristan before Brandt pulled out a long length of rope.

"We've got two jumps today," he told them. "First, we are meeting Kadin and some of his associates so Harry can kill a couple of sigbins." He looked to Harry, "I want you and Lyra to negotiate for the parts or money you want for the service. I'm going to stay out of it." Looking back to the others, "After that, we've got a delightful international portkey to an island near Antarctica for Lyra to see a nest of Vulkatross, and we will be there for two days. I have a chest of warm clothes for everyone, as it will be freezing and dark most of the day."

Brandt ran the rope he was holding through all the trunks that were accumulated around them, and then everyone grabbed hold of the remaining bits. Whispers used one hand to hold the rope but kept his second arm firmly around Lyra's waist for support. When Brandt's countdown reached zero, they felt the hook pulling them forward and into the transport. The journey lasted for about ten seconds before they were deposited onto open ground near a large barn-like building. Everyone except Harry and Whispers kept a hand on the rope and landed well. The two of them let go too early and got thrown into the dirt. Their luggage had no problems and landed firmly without a problem.

Kadin was standing near the entrance to the structure, arguing with two other men. There were many large floodlights set up around the building, all pointed toward it, projecting their light. After the group arrived, he walked over to greet them. Whispers vanished as he approached.

"We have a problem," Kadin started right away. "My associates did not give an accurate accounting of the situation here. They've had the sigbins trapped in this barn for nearly four months, sending in various animals to keep them fed. They only think there are two and have no idea how big they are."

"What does it matter?" One of the men came closer; he had dark hair and was a bit overweight but not unhealthy. "You've been bragging since the winter that you've got some powerful warlock at your disposal that can kill them properly. Now I see you may have been stretching that as you've brought a bunch of puti and children."

Kadin looked a bit embarrassed but turned to the man, gesturing back towards the group, "Joriz, allow me to introduce you to Harry Potter, wielder of a staff of the Lampong."

Harry could understand that he wasn't being introduced for a handshake and needed to back up Kadin's boasting about him. In a smooth motion, he pulled his staff from its pouch and struck the ground with the base giving off a bit of light from the antler as he twisted it slightly, focusing on the Lamassu fang and where this man, Joriz, was standing. The man's knees buckled slightly from the sudden loss of strength but rallied quickly, giving Harry a strange look.

"Harry Potter is real?" he said, surprised. "Not just from the children's fables?"

Providing him an additional backup, Tonks jumped in, "Not just the slayer of dark lords, he is a friend of the demiguises, a tamer of cobras, befriended a Lampong, and slew a basilisk. He fights alongside his sister, Lyra Black, who has roasted a minotaur, flies with hoohoos, and has consumed the soul of a heliopath."

She gave a wink to Lyra at the last line and turned her hair red. Lyra understood immediately, and lit her hair on fire, giving the man in front of her an evil stare, and growled at him as sparks showered the area around her. Harry tried hard not to giggle at how adorable it was.

The other one of Kadin's associates was older, with a bit of gray hair on the sides of his head. He looked strong, but less like Ivan the werewolf, and more like Stevens, the dueling champion. The man had walked over and witnessed Tonks's introductions, saying with a friendly smile, "That's pretty amazing, can Harry sign my daughter's books when we're done?"

Kadin stepped back in, "Autographs are extra, and we need to renegotiate now that I know you don't have them properly imprisoned. I'm still taking my cut, but I need to know if Harry wants more than the skin and teeth now for the extra work."

Lyra butted in, "Do they have any more sarimanok feathers?" They both shook their heads.

"What kind of potions do you make with the other parts?" Harry asked.

"Quite a few," Joriz told them. "One of the most potent blood replenishers can be made with their stomach acid. Their bones can be grounded into the darkest magical eyeshadow in the world. The tongue can be processed into an anticoagulant, and the claws can be sold to the Aurors because they function as shadow stakes, anchoring a person to the ground. The teeth do it as well, but you're taking those. The brain can be used in tracking potions, and quite a few other things. The blood is disposed of because it is tainted from the feeding"

Harry seemed to think for a moment before replying, "In addition to the skin and teeth, I want one dose of each potion you make and half of the eyeshadow… and the recipes for each." Looking at Brandt, he said, "We can sell that to Ricki, right?" Brandt nodded back, not wanting to interrupt.

The second man countered, "Not the anticoagulant, we don't make enough to give any away."

Harry looked to Brandt for advice, so he replied, "Fine, as long as you cover the costs to cure the skin into leather."

"Done," Joriz jumped on the deal, extending a hand to Harry, which he shook. "What do you do with the leather anyways?"

Lyra went over to her trunk and pulled out some of the leather they had received before. She had been working bit by bit over the summer to try to keep the shadows from pouring out of it immediately when she handled it and eventually succeeded. She carried the piece of scrap over to them and then pushed her magic into it, causing the dark fog to flood the area, sending Kadin and his associates into a panic, so she stopped quickly.

"I want to make a whole robe out of it," she declared.

"That's a bit terrifying," Kadin said, his eyes wide with fear.

"Before we do this, I would just like to say that's a remarkable demiguise you have there," the second man said.

He was gesturing to the empty spot next to Lyra, where a set of footprints could be seen. She drew her staff defensively as the older man put his hands up, apologetically.

"I mean no harm. They're just such fascinating creatures. I have some dried mangos if he would like some," he continued and pulled out a handful.

Seeing food, Whispers slowly became visible and walked forward, his eyes glowing blue the whole time. He took the offered snack and ate one.

"Tank yoo," he said before retreating to Lyra's side.

Joriz exclaimed, "He speaks?" Both of Kadin's associates were shocked.

"Just basic phrases," Lyra commented as if it were nothing. "He tried mimicking us when he was a baby and got speech lessons last year for better pronunciation."

"How did you know him as a baby?" Joriz asked. "He's full grown and you're not."

"He's six years old," Harry informed them.

"Astonishing," the other man said with wide eyes. "Well, we better get started or we will be here all day talking about demiguises."

Harry started to step forward but was stopped by Moody, "I'm giving you a short-range portkey, back to this spot. Activation will be simple, just yell for help, and it will bring you back out." He pulled out a watch and tapped it with his wand, causing it to glow blue for a moment, then strapped it to Harry's wrist. Harry squirmed a bit as he really didn't like watches. He wanted to get this over quickly so he could take it off.

"If I hear anything else; Tonks, Moody, and I are coming in," Tristan told him.

"Stunners only," Brandt told them severely. "Only Harry should kill them or their shadows will hunt you down."

"Sounds like a Tuesday," Alastor said with a hard smile but agreed.

All of the wizards stationed themselves around the perimeter of the barn and turned off the floodlights as they didn't want to create unnecessary shadows on Harry while he was inside. Then they opened the door.

The first thing that greeted him was the smell. Both he and Lyra, who was standing far behind him with Brandt, gagged at the stench. A spell splashed against Harry's head and the smell almost completely went away. He looked down to see that he had a partial bubble head charm covering his mouth and nose.

Looking inside the barn, it was almost completely dark, but he could see the shriveled bodies of a sheep and what probably used to be a cow. He only thought it was a cow because the largest bundimun he had ever seen was on top of it, slowly eating the carcass. As he squinted, he could see more of the gelatinous creatures moving around inside, some eating other corpses in the barn.

He had learned how to deal with these creatures under the unusual instruction of Gilderoy Lockhart in the past year and had gotten pretty good at the scouring charm that would get rid of small ones. However, the whole class had been warned repeatedly against handling the larger ones the same way. Regardless, he drew his wand in his left hand to attempt to deal with any that became a problem.

He walked past the first one, which seemed intent on just eating its meal rather than dealing with something alive. Since he didn't know where the sigbins were, he decided just a small amount of light would be appropriate in forcing them out of whatever dark corner they were hiding in. With a tap of his staff in his right hand, a radius of about thirty feet was bathed in a white glow.

When the light had blossomed, he heard a deep growl from the rafters above him. Stalking across one of the beams above him was a sigbin. While the one he killed before was the size of a goat, this one was almost twice that. It walked backward along the beam, keeping its eyes on him, trying to circle behind him. He still didn't see the other one.

Using his wand, he cast, "Lumos!" then focused the light into a beam and shined it on the creature. It screamed as the light hit it and fell from the rafters, landing with a smack on the ground, and flipping back to its feet almost immediately.

Harry ran forward, expanding his radius of light. As he did, the creature began making a noise of pain, with the light eating away at its shadow. However, when it ran out of space to flee, it turned around and charged. It may not be able to drink his blood in the light, but it was still a powerful dark creature the size of Hagrid's boarhound.

Despite its size and speed, it was still much slower than a striking basilisk, and Harry rolled out of the way of its leap with ease. It continued to make noises of pain inside the zone of light from the Lampong antler but wasn't dying as quickly as the last one. It turned again and readied for another charge, trying to flank Harry from the side before attacking again.

This time he was ready and wove his wand as he incanted, "Flipendo!" while it was airborne, hitting it in the face and knocking it into a support pillar. Now while it was dazed, Harry approached closer and twisted his staff to sap as much strength as he could while the light finished the job.

It tried to get to its feet a few more times before it slumped to the ground, motionless. Harry held the light for a bit longer and prodded it a few times with the antler to make sure. Now he needed to find the other.

The barn was huge, so he expanded the light as much as possible and used his wand to search in further places as he moved around. His efforts were rewarded after a few minutes with a small yelp. He followed the noise to its source.

In the far corner from the way he had come in, he spotted the other one by the glint of its eyes. It did not move to attack, so Harry put as much power into his staff as possible to illuminate the spot it was in. The creature was slightly smaller than the last one but still didn't move, growling fiercely at him as the light approached.

When the light touched it, it yelped in pain, but the light did not erase its shadow. It still stayed pooled under its body in a grand refusal of the magic being forced on it. He tried casting a knockback jinx on it, but since it was already cornered against the wall, it had nowhere to be knocked away. A few magic bolts were just absorbed, like he was punching Greg with his enchanted boxing gloves. He was hesitant to use a cutting jinx or fire on the creature because he didn't want to kill it without the light.

The dark creature didn't seem to be going anywhere, so he planted his glowing staff in the ground and tried to think of something to do. The sigbin continued to growl at him fiercely, refusing to surrender the dark shadows beneath it. Harry tried shining a spotlight from his wand, but even that was unable to pierce the darkness gathered there.

Tristan called in, "Everything alright in there?"

Harry called back, "I killed one, the other is cornered, but its shadow isn't going away."

"Can we come in?" Lyra asked.

"I guess?" Harry yelled back. "If Alastor thinks it's OK. Just stay in the light."

It took a minute for the rest of the group to get the appropriate bubble head charms to avoid the stench and arrive at Harry's position, stepping past the gorging bundinums. They all stared at the ebony creature growling fiercely at the group of them as the shadow under it did not budge.

Kadin whistled, "These are much bigger than the one I captured."

"So what do we do with this one?" Joriz asked.

"We could just stun it," Tonks replied. Getting a nod from Moody, she slung a red spell at it, only for the magic to splash away like it was nothing.

Brandt seemed to be deep in thought and turned to Harry after a minute, saying, "Invert your staff. Remember when Stevens gave you that assignment, and you reported that all it did was make the ground glow?"

Harry's face lit up in remembrance as Kadin drew his wand and said, "Whatever you're going to do, we will make sure it doesn't get away if it fails."

Harry holstered his wand, picked up his staff where it was planted in the ground, and prepared himself as the others aimed their wands at the snarling beast. With the light still glowing from the antler, Harry stabbed it straight into the ground in front of him.

The ground didn't just glow; it emitted a bright light, shining so strongly that it enveloped everything around them in whiteness up to their heads. The sigbin screamed at the light for nearly ten seconds before it went silent. Harry kept the effect going a little longer before yanking the antler from the ground and letting the spell die.

The second sigbin lay dead on the ground in front of them. Harry approached it slowly to check if it was dead, but when he got to his third step, he saw it twitch and cast a pulse of magic at it with his staff while jumping backward.

The pulse moved the sigbin to the side, revealing two smaller versions of it underneath the body. Unlike the ones Harry had killed, these had blood-red skin. The one he had killed had been protecting its children.

The three Filipino men began to curse repeatedly.

Joriz finally spoke in English, "A fucking nest. We need to kill these now!"

Harry looked a bit sorrowful, "I killed their parents…"

Kadin tried to reassure him, "Do not feel bad for these monsters; once they start to mature, they would slaughter a small village to gain their black skin. These children are even more dangerous than adults. No self-control, just pure bloodlust."

"So what do we do with them?" Lyra asked. "They don't die the same way as the adults."

Kadin's other associate waved his wand and conjured a box, "I will need to speak to an expert on these matters. I will make sure that you receive the cured skin from them once they are dead and a larger share of the eyeshadow we produce from the adults."

Harry was unsure and looked to Brandt, who also didn't know what to say but nodded his head all the same.

Lyra was looking around and said, "I also want all the bundimun secretions from the ones here when they get cleaned up."

"I see no problem with that," the man said as he levitated the conjured box to scoop up the infant sigbins, sealing the lid above them.

Brandt looked at Kadin, "I trust you'll handle all the arrangements and ship us the products?"

He nodded, a bit overwhelmed. The group started walking back to where they left their trunks, Kadin and Joriz levitating the corpses of the adult sigbins along with them. When they arrived, Brandt pulled out another length of rope and started to get them ready for the next portkey.

Kadin's other associate approached Harry as he was getting ready and tossed another slice of dried mango to Whispers.

"I would still like your autograph, Mr. Potter, for my daughter's books. Can I send them to you somehow?"

Brandt passed him a card, "You can send them through me… Mr…?"

"My apologies!" he exclaimed as he took the card. "My name is Datu Catacutan," he shook Brandt's and then Harry's hand. "I'm sure I'll see you both again in the future."

The three Filipino men took a step back in time for the portkey to activate and whisk the group away.