The End of an Era
Brandt didn't return until the following morning. Instead of the floo, he came through the front door, in a muggle wheelchair with his left leg raised in a splint. The house was quiet, except for Opal who was fussing over his injured state in silence, though she kept looking behind her for something.
Suddenly, Harry and Whispers appeared from thin air and gasped, "What happened to you?" Brandt spat out his coffee at their reveal.
"Theys be fighting in shadows," Opal scolded them. "It being verys distracting to my work."
"I was in a duel," Brandt explained. "After you left, someone didn't like the proposal of Lyra's mother and he insulted me personally. I couldn't let it stand."
"Is he dead?" Harry asked, not even questioning the outcome of the duel.
"I let him live, though he's in a lot worse shape than I am. I also claimed his wand." Brandt pulled it out and placed it on the table.
Harry stared at it for a while, then asked, "Can I have it?" When Brandt looked for an explanation, he said, "My friend Hayden wants to be a wand maker and told me about how wands have tons of runes in them, Lyra and I don't have any in our staves. I want to ask him to take this one apart and show me."
Brandt thought about it. He had been considering putting it under glass in the trophy room of Black Manor as his first victory against a member of the Wizengamot. However, he also had always been curious as to how wands differed between makers as his wand came from the Scandinavian master, Ragnar Ericcson.
"Two conditions," he told Harry, "I want to be there when he takes it apart and I want it back when you're done. Whatever condition it is in."
"I'll let you know when we can get it done," Harry told Brandt with a smile.
By the time they finished breakfast, Lyra and Tonks came out of their respective bedrooms and were shocked by Brandt's condition.
"Have you heard of a bone petrification curse?" he asked the Auror, and she nodded curiously. "Try to avoid getting hit with it. The counter curse shatters every bone that is affected, though it is better than losing the limb completely."
"So what was going on there anyway?" She gestured towards Lyra, "She says her mom gave some crazy speech to half the wizengamot in Black Manor."
"The half that matters," Brandt told her. "What remains of the 'Sacred Twenty-Eight' plus the foundations of society and business. Basically, every family that can be considered a traditionalist whether they are light, dark, or grey. We occasionally have meetings to discuss various things. Lord Black called this one because Narcissa found out that the orphanage that Lyra was supposed to go to was underfunded and she might have been worse off if she had ended up there. She took all the children away and burned down the building. She is starting a new home and school, here in the country, for squibs to hopefully keep them with their families and try to create greater ties between the magical and muggle world."
"That… sounds… fishy…" Tonks said slowly. "What's the catch?"
"Nothing gets by you, does it? We want to put squibs into influential and potentially powerful places of industry in the muggle world in order to expand our influence and wealth. We also don't want the children of squibs we have spurned to come seeking empty seats in the Wizengamot and put forth policies that contradict family traditions."
"Maybe you can even get someone to marry into the royal family?" Tonks joked. Seeing his reaction, she gasped, "Oh shit, you're considering it!"
Harry and Lyra had moved to the other end of the table to eat and discuss the previous night's events. Harry had tucked Lyra into bed immediately after returning, so they had not got a chance to discuss what had occurred or her mother's speech.
"It sounds like she really did listen to you…" Lyra told Harry, "though maybe with other motivations."
"I don't know," Harry replied, pondering the situation. "It sounds to me like she was more about the plight of the children and your uncle is motivated by his ambition."
"Maybe both?" Lyra suggested. "If she wants to meet me again, you'll be there?"
Harry nodded as he gripped his staff deep in his pouch.
After a full day of rest, the group met Hermione and Penny to go to the Knitter Critter the following day. Everyone gasped in shock at Brandt in a wheelchair.
After prompting, he told Hermione, "A man on the Wizengamot called me a mudblood. I beat him within an inch of his life and forced an apology." She was stunned at his explanation.
"I met a few of the Wizengamot over the summer at the…" she trailed off, looking around.
"Penny might not know," Brandt told them, "but it's not a secret and everyone will know soon enough."
Details started pouring out of the excitable girl, "I hate secrets! I was invited by Mr. Bagman to a big event to talk about a magic Olympics at Hogwarts! It's going to be so amazing! There were wizards from all over the world. It was chaos! They kept trying to figure out events and games but everyone had different versions so they couldn't decide on anything! I lost Mr. Bagman and ended up following around Lord Black until he just vanished and I couldn't find him either. At the end of the day, the only games they could decide on were basics like banishing and summoning. Brute force showings of magic… and muggle weapon duels.
"We know about that!" Lyra told her. "We might compete in that!"
"Your knives?" Penny asked as they continued walking. "Some people study things like that their entire lives. If you want to be competent enough in that to compete, you'll need to do a lot of practice."
Brandt watched with interest as, after Penny's statement, both Lyra and Harry stopped for a second, took a deep breath, then continued along. The two of them would be making amazing strides forward in their studies and strength over the next few years.
Inside the Knitter Critter, Madison had one of her assistants start working on resizing Whispers's yeti gloves, marveling at his growth as the lawyers started to fix up the contract for the Aurora wool project and Hermione showed how the tag worked.
"I met so many other wizards at the committee meetings too!" Hermione gushed. "There's so much magical history from all over the world we don't study because Binns just goes on and on about goblins. I get to officially take runes this year and I want to study all the foreign ones to help with projects like this one. I just hope we get a better history teacher this year too. Only the minister's undersecretary could even quote from the statute of secrecy when planning the events."
"Would the games end up being close to muggles, or something?" Lyra asked.
Hermione shrugged, "Maybe I can bring my parents? It seemed like it was mostly another committee that was having issues with it."
Madison gave another explanation, "The ministries and ICW are already going to be overloaded with the Quidditch World Cup a few months before. Even contained in Hogwarts, so many witches and wizards in one place have a way of creating chaos in other places. Some will arrive by muggle transportation or want to be tourists while they are here. If it were me as a student, attending an event in a foreign country, I'd sneak out to do something fun with my friends."
When the contracts were signed, Hermione kept the scarf she had made and they ventured out into the alley for celebratory ice cream and to do some of their school shopping. With a few weeks before school was set to begin, the alley was full of people running about. Penny split off when she saw some friends while the rest continued to the ice cream shop. Harry's face brightened when he saw Tracey already sitting by herself at the shop.
He was about to say hello when Whispers vanished and started to sneak up on her. Harry stopped the others from alerting her and watched closely. When he was about to pounce, she seemed to shiver from head to toe then looked around. Spying Harry and the group her face brightened but then ducked with her arms over her head seconds before Whispers appeared and knocked her out of her chair.
Harry rushed to pick her up and received a big hug and several punches in the chest.
"I knew it was that furry menace! I hadn't even eaten any ice cream yet! I shouldn't be shivering." Harry smiled as she greeted the others. "Daphne is inside getting our ice cream."
She took that moment to reemerge with a double scoop for Tracey and a full banana split for herself. She looked embarrassed at first for having so much, but Lyra broke the tension.
"All hail the ice cream queen! Long may she reign!" They all dissolved into giggles.
Brandt and Tonks took ice cream orders and hung back as the children spoke about their summers. Daphne was eyeing Hermione's scarf and finally asked about it.
"Aurora wool, with a special enchantment based on Harry's magic." She touched the runic tag with her wand and Daphne and Tracy watched in awe at the light show.
"I need one of those," Daphne drooled.
Quite a few other patrons seemed to be listening as Hermione told her about The Knitter Critter. The conversation turned back to their summers and eventually, Lyra mentioned their task of beginning the process of becoming animagi.
"I'm doing that as soon as McGonagall allows it," Tracey sighed. "I have no idea what I would become though it would be spectacular to try."
Hermione frowned and flexed her prosthetic hand, "I'll never be able to do it with this thing."
Daphne leaned in close and looked at it, "How much is alchemical bronze? If the whole thing was made of it and mixed with your blood and magic, it should still work. I know prosthetics are made for animagi, but I don't know if it would work the other way around. I could look into the matter for you…" she added slyly.
"You'd do that for me?" Hermione asked with hopeful joy.
'I'd do it for one of those scarves."
Hermione whipped the one from around her neck and wrapped it around Daphne.
"I meant as payment when I found something!" she exclaimed, nuzzling the soft fabric as she spoke.
"No, now you have to find me the answer," Hermione replied with the same slyness. "Or I could take it back." She started to reach for it, but Daphne backed away.
With their ice cream eaten, the larger group continued to the bookstore, meeting Colin and Meli along the way; he was busy taking pictures of the two of them, particularly shots of Meli. After the initial greetings and shock at Brandt's condition in the wheelchair, Meliandra informed them that she had taken Brandt's advice and gotten a license to perform divination in the muggle world and spent the summer working with her mother in the community.
When she asked if Harry's tarot reading was figured out, he told her, "Looking back, it seems very clear, a lot of it was about me and Lyra and our home, the elements of water had to do with Myrtle's bathroom or the lake, along with the five of cups for bereavement. No idea what the cards for the future mean yet. Dogs under the moon and a lobster? No idea."
"My dad says that lobsters are like immortal sea cockroaches that taste good with butter sauce," Colin added, though it may not have been very helpful…
"Do you want me to give you another reading?" She asked Harry.
He shook his head but Lyra seemed interested, "Could you do mine?"
She brightened up, "Sure, we can do it at school when I have my cards."
"Can you do one for me too?" Colin asked hopefully.
Before she could respond, they got to the bookstore and saw the large display in front which silenced all of them.
Gilderoy Lockhart: Vampires of the Mind!
Purchase today for insight into creatures you thought you knew, but have been feeding upon your essence this whole time.
This Christmas, stay tuned for the final book in the Lockhart saga, his unedited autobiography, Malevolent Me!
"He is dead, right?" Colin asked.
Brandt rolled up, "Totally dead. His severed feet were all that was left of him."
"His feet?" Meli gulped.
"The Basilisk ate the rest," Harry explained.
She looked sick at the remark and began to be dizzy. Colin jumped forward to steady her, so she wouldn't fall.
Flourish and Blotts had prepared for the influx of students in advance and packages of all the books each year level lay tied up in a corner for easy retrieval. Regardless, Harry picked up a number of other books on runes and potions while Lyra skipped on the runes books and purchased some on arithmancy and dragons. They also purchased one copy of Lockhart's new book to share between them.
Later in the evening, after Hermione went home, Brandt took them out to dinner. It would be Tonks's last night with them before she had to return to duty and have her commencement three days later. While they were eating, Whispers suddenly perked up and chirped resulting in a deep sigh from behind them as Blaise approached the group from around the corner.
"It's impossible to sneak up on you with Whispers there, you know?" The demiguise in question tried to jump on the boy to be held but had grown so big he knocked them to the floor.
They exchanged greetings and shared stories of their summers. Blaise seemed tired and explained that pretty much his entire summer had been preparing for his mother's next wedding.
"So have you gotten a present yet?" he asked them.
"Does anyone buy her presents?" Tonks asked. "After the first two weddings wouldn't people stop getting her things?"
"Oh, you misunderstand me," Blaise smiled. "It is Gorman Strauss's first marriage," Tonks coughed in a way that sounded like 'and the last,' as Blaise rolled his eyes and continued, "and my mother suggested that no one should buy her anything, just gifts for him."
"How altruistic of her," Brandt said with practiced sincerity. "However, would you happen to have any clothing measurements for him if he were to lose a few pounds?"
Blaise chuckled, "And grow a bit too? I'll send them to you by owl."
Just then, a man came out with a stack of food. After checking the contents, it was shrunken and passed to Blaise, who said his goodbyes and left.
"What just happened?" Harry asked.
"You've been told about Alessandra Zabini's husbands?" Brandt asked the children.
"They all die, right?" Lyra asked in a way that didn't seem to spare them any sympathy.
"Oh, Merlin…" Tonks groaned. "They aren't even hiding it, are they?"
It clicked for Harry, "So you're going to buy something for her husband but it's really going to be for her?" Brandt nodded.
"Can we get her something made of aurora wool?" Lyra asked
"I'm going to put surveillance on this guy," Tonks announced. "If she's killing them, I'm going to catch her."
The five of them finished dinner in silence.
Measurements for Alessandra Zabini arrived that evening. Harry's owl, Hermes also showed up to express his displeasure at being forgotten for the whole summer. The owl chased Harry around the house for hours until he escaped into the alley and returned with several dead rats as a peace offering.
The following day, they returned to The Knitter Critter as large spools of nickel wire and sheet metal were being delivered. Madison had been receiving all sorts of orders for garments made of the Aurora wool the last day after word had spread from the people who had witnessed the effect in the ice cream shop. She was even more overjoyed when she found out she would be designing a bespoke dress for one of the largest fashion icons in the country.
Towards the evening, Brandt needed to do some of his own business, so he had Harry and Lyra agree to stay at Elmswood while he went out. Both of them had a lot of reading to catch up on, so they happily agreed and Opal lit a fire for them in a hearth that wasn't for the floo.
Before stepping out the door, he got out of his wheelchair and picked up a walking cane, then used his limited metamorphmagus abilities to grow a bushy beard, then used his wand to change all his hair to a light brown. Once his disguise was set, he made his way to the seediest pawn shop in Knockturn Alley, Borgin and Burke's.
There were plenty of better places to shop in the alley, though this was the best place to go if he wanted the wrong kind of attention. B&B was the spot for amateur criminals without a reliable fence and if you were looking for a last-minute present to give someone you hated.
Upon entering, Brandt approached the counter and put five sickles down, "I'm browsing. Leave me alone, I'll leave when I'm ready."
The man, who wasn't Borgin or Burke, growled and swept the silver coins over the edge. Brandt returned to walking aimlessly up and down the aisles. He did that for nearly twenty minutes before deciding it was time to go. After leaving, he continued further down the alley until he arrived at The Monarch. He had been there before to employ a blind whore at this brothel as a discrete photo developer, and now he had other business for them.
After arriving inside, he approached the bartender and ordered a drink, telling her, "I have a meeting later with Serenity, though I think I would fancy a chat with Lucille first."
Brandt found a seat in the lounge and took a sip of his drink, after hearing about it at the dragon reserve, he had ordered a Pulque drink, made from a cactus that was normally used in magical poisons for small animals. He squished his face at what must be an acquired taste.
After a few minutes, a girl dressed like an American cowgirl sat down across from him, crossed her legs, and glared at him.
"Do I know you?" she drawled in a practiced accent of the American South.
"Sorry, I had a different face last time I was here," Brandt replied. "I ordered the moonshine."
Her face brightened in remembrance, "Back again? This time for some business?"
"Not that kind, I have a meeting with Serenity, but I was hoping to purchase your services on behalf of another. The full rate in advance, though I'm pretty sure he will decline anyways."
"I'm listening…" she said slowly.
Brandt made a small gesture with his wand and set up a privacy ward, then placed a small pouch of gold on the table between them, "First, is there a back exit to this place?" she nodded. "This should be more than enough for two hours of your services. I would like you to show me the back exit, escort me to see Serenity, and then return to the lounge. Do not take any other customers until you feel three taps on your shoulder. Exactly three minutes after that, one of the other patrons in the room will look around and appear like they have lost something. Approach that person, man or woman, and tell them that they have an all-expenses paid trip around the world, courtesy of the man with big floating balls."
"What?" Lucille interrupted him.
"Inside joke. I am nearly positive this person will just act annoyed and storm out. Though they really could use a roll in the hay and I'm sure they would not be unkind to you. In any case, I'd like to know what their disguise was the next time I come back. Does all that sound doable?"
She appeared to think for a bit before picking up the money and leading him to the back rooms. Returning to the lounge, Lucille watched after all the other patrons, wondering who Serenity's associate's mark was. There were a few more women than usual there, maybe it was one of them? Maybe one of the usual ministry employees?
Forty minutes later, she felt a tapping on her shoulder. Trying not to look around, she began counting three minutes. On the dot, a young man who she had thought to be a virgin working up the courage to order his first woman perked up and looked around, fiddling with his wand. Lucille approached him quickly and sat down across his lap, startling him.
"Hey sweetie," she drawled with a bit extra of her faked Texan accent, "You have an all-expense paid trip around the world, courtesy of a friend with great floaty balls."
The boy jumped up quickly, nearly knocking her over, "Where did that man go?" he demanded.
"Ok, now your trip is revoked," she said angrily. "Leave or be thrown out."
The boy grumbled but slowly walked out, limping slightly as he went.
Further down the alley, Brandt slipped into The Dapper Bazaar and took off his invisibility cloak. The proprietor raised an eyebrow at him as he started laughing out loud. When he was done with his chuckle he approached the old man and laid the cloak on the counter.
"Remember this? When I woke the two of you up in the middle of the night?" After the man nodded, "This cloak cannot be seen through by every visual penetration enchantment I've tried… and I just had a successful test against Mad-Eye Moody."
The man's expression alternated between shock and greed over and over. He tried to reach for the cloak but Brandt snatched it away.
"I will give you three thousand galleons for it, right now." He pulled out a pouch of gold coins and poured it over the counter, most of them spilling over the edge.
"No," Brandt told him simply. "Though I have something better. One of the re'em I told you about is on its way here and I need the ritual circle to be prepared. This needs to be the bidding war to end all bidding wars. I need to walk away with one point six metric tons of gold and two, midrange muscle and bone strengthening potions for personal use."
"That sounds doable," the man smiled as he started to rake up the spilled gold.
"I also need it by the end of next week," Brandt added.
"That will be difficult."
Brandt pulled out a small envelope that seemed to be made of velvet and laid it on the counter, "Same as my cloak, good for hiding smaller objects. Unfortunately, they can't have extension charms put on them. Three of them are yours if you pull this off in time."
He snatched it, saying, "Difficult, but doable. Now get out, I'll send my raven with the time of the auction."
Putting his cloak back on, Brandt slipped off into the night.
Midweek rolled and Harry and Lyra got prepared for Tonks's commencement ceremony. It would be a bit different than the previous year with Tristan but now they would know a few more people who would be there. Brandt was also a bit nervous and when asked about it, he told Harry he played a prank on Moody and was expecting some amount of retribution.
When four other elves popped in after breakfast, Opal kicked them all out of Elmswood early in the day to prepare for Tonks's party after the ceremony. They spent the day exploring the more unique shops of the magical shopping district and bought an Akubra hat for Whispers, with a band of teeth around the middle. The proprietor of The Pointless Hattery told them they were fake crocodile teeth. Harry told his little brother they would replace them with real teeth later.
When they arrived at the event, the room was a sea of red robes with just a few others. They found Tristan sitting near the front with an empty seat next to him looking a bit glum.
Brandt apprised the situation, and asked, "I'm guessing you told her about Madeleine? You didn't have to, you know?"
"I kinda did," Tristan sighed. "It feels better this way, like a load off my shoulders."
"Do you mind watching the kids for a bit?" After a nod, Lyra sat next to him and someone jumped up to give Harry Potter a seat next to her.
"Why did your girlfriend care that you were with Madeline?" Lyra asked a bit loudly.
Tristan shushed her, then replied, quietly, "Some people like to be the only one, you know?"
"But she was, wasn't she?" Harry asked. "You didn't stay there, you came back."
"I don't think it's that easy to explain," Tristan shifted his mouth around to try and explain monogamy to children raised by demiguises. "Well, you know about oaths, right? Well, a lot of relationships have a non-binding oath that you will be only with that one other person."
"And you broke the oath?"
Tristan nodded, "And my punishment is I don't get to be with the one I swore the oath to again."
"That's dumb," Lyra muttered. "Just don't make an oath you don't think you can fulfill."
That seemed to make Tristan even more unhappy as he agreed with her statement. Harry looked around the room and spotted Tonks, standing with Remington Argent, who had received The Golden Wand Award the previous year along with Tristan. Standing next to him was an older woman, wearing a ministry uniform, who looked familiar but couldn't place. She shook hands with Tonks and then walked away with Remington.
On the other side of the room, Brandt was sitting with a large group of trainees that were also finished with their training today. Harry watched as he passed out small gifts to all of them. When they opened them, Harry saw that they were all wand holsters, similar to the ones that he and Lyra had. Once he had been thanked by the group, Brandt crossed the room and shook hands with an older group of aurors before starting a conversation there.
It took another half hour before the ceremony got underway with a few various speeches given to honor different graduates, though no Golden Wand awards were given this year. Harry and Lyra cheered loudly when Tonks was given her new insignia.
At the end of the ceremony, a stern-faced woman congratulated the group, and added, "We have one more speech, and for that, I welcome Alastor Moody to the podium."
There was silence as the Senior Auror rose from his seat with the other higher ranks and across the stage to where the podium was. He glared out at the audience, his magical eye twitching toward different people in a clear sign of intimidation.
"I know some of you expected Auror Tonks there to get the Golden Wand, as nearly half of my trainees do. Though I would like to tell you all why she didn't. This fine example of an Auror may have unique talents in her magic, but her skill is all her own."
All the focus was on the woman quite literally blushing scarlet as he continued, "While I knew of her before taking her on as a trainee, she impressed me greatly by exemplifying 'Constant Vigilance' before she knew me. During a prisoner check, she discovered dangerous contraband that I would have missed. Later, she earned my challenge coin by not just completing an unbeatable task I gave her, but beating me at my own game on her day off. After a night I celebrated a little too much; she took command of a group of mercenaries and paper pushers to successfully defend us when we fell under attack by a horde of dark creatures and led the search efforts afterward. Finally, she went through extensive preparations to transfigure hundreds of fireworks into grains of sand and camouflage transfigured attack animals in order to defeat me in a duel."
That drew gasps from the whole room.
"It doesn't end there. She took care of all but one of my countermeasures in case I am incapacitated and fled the area. I have since developed all-new countermeasures in case such a situation happens again. She evaded me for nearly four hours after I revived myself and finally found where I lay in wait for her. She is my fiftieth trainee, and the only one who has not been scarred or lost a limb while under my care."
"I told her that I would give her something better than a Golden Wand. I give her my complete trust. The Auror Corps is in good hands and I am announcing my retirement…"
That set off chaos as many denied that he could retire or cheered for Tonks. When the noise finally died down, he told them, "I am serious. Forty-one of my fifty trainees are still alive and thirty-six of them are still serving somewhere in law enforcement. Best record in the corps and I'm confident all of you will make sure to live up to their example. You don't want me to come out of retirement."
There was silence before a bit of laughter and Moody stepped down.
Tonks was the center of attention during the reception. More than once, she tried to escape to get back to Elmswood to start the party, only to be stopped by Brandt, Moody, or one of her other superior officers and directed back to be introduced to someone else. Finally, after nearly an hour, she just got up on the stage and called out, "Party at Elmswood Lodge in thirty minutes! See you all there!"
She then jumped off into a throng of her fellow graduates, shifting into the guise of one of them as she landed, then pushed out the door before anyone could figure out who she was and stop her. Brandt gathered up the children and Whispers and made their way to the floo.
The fireplace spat them out in a small room that wasn't the sitting room. Harry and Lyra were a bit confused at the different destination, though Brandt didn't seem concerned. There was a large, open closet filled with hangers to the side of the room and a wide stairwell leading downward at the opposite end of the room. Brandt took off his coat and threw it toward the hangers. An invisible force caught it and hung it up as he continued to walk. Harry and Lyra smiled and did the same with their coats. Whispers looked like he was considering it with his hat, but elected to keep it before scurrying after them.
The bottom of the stairs opened up into a large room, bigger than the entire ground floor of the house above them. There were two bars at either end of the room with house elves wearing black togas stationed at each one. Food was floating around the room randomly on platters and a small stage had a four-piece jazz band playing to the side of the room. Though the band was made up of skeletons.
Tonks was standing in the middle of the room staring at everything and turned around to see the others enter.
"Skeletons?" she asked incredulously. "Skeletons playing jazz? How is that one playing the saxophone? It doesn't have any lips… or lungs!"
Harry and Lyra ran over to watch the show as Brandt told Tonks, "There were some leftover skeletons in the cells while the elves were converting the lower level into the ballroom. Instead of throwing them away, we put them to use. What's the big deal?"
"There are aurors coming here! Probably my bosses."
"I'll make you a deal," Brandt smiled. "If anyone can figure out who they were, how they died, and if I or Lord Black is culpable for it in any way, I'll let you and Mad Eye slap the cuffs on me personally."
Further argument was put on hold as a trickle of people started coming in. They were amazed by the skeletons and went to get drinks. Twenty minutes later, the room was flooded with people.
One corner of the room got turned into a shooting gallery and people were stepping up to compete in various contests. The other side had a lounge set up with comfortable chairs and sofas for people to sit in and talk. Oddly enough, despite being a square room to the casual observer, there seemed to be way more than four sides.
Harry noticed it as he walked around occasionally shaking hands with someone though feeling isolated as he was one of the two children in attendance. If he focused on one side of the room, he was able to walk to it through the center, but if he walked aimlessly, he would end up somewhere different than before and not be able to see where he started. There was always a bar in sight and he could always hear the music playing.
Eventually, he found his way over to where Tonks was telling war stories with other Aurors. He stood there for nearly five minutes listening to one man telling Tonks about fighting a dark wizard who would conjure fearsome chimeras that could spit poison gas or cover their bodies with electrified ooze.
During a break in the story, someone noticed Harry, and exclaimed, "That sounds amazing and all, but Mr. Potter has killed a basilisk… what was that like?"
"Absolutely terrifying beyond words," he replied. "I had tons of help from Lyra, Whispers, the Usurper, and even Lockhart was useful before he got eaten."
"What about the Malfoy kid?" someone asked.
Harry grumbled to himself as he needed to repeat the lie that he was part of the solution instead of the cause.
"He was the one to strike the killing blow on the guy claiming to be the Heir of Slytherin." The Aurors seemed to think that was a worthwhile achievement, so Harry dug deep and remembered an insult he had heard a Gryffindor use once, "However, with the basilisk, he was about as useful as an asshole on my elbow."
More than one of the adults spat out their drinks as everyone laughed.
Remington Argent came over and gave Tonks a hug from behind, "I want to hear about you taking command and fighting off dark creatures. What were they?"
"Shapeshifting, corpse-eating, flying crocodiles with three-foot-long acidic tongues, known as Balbal," she smiled at their horrified expressions.
"How many were there?" someone asked.
Tonks looked around until she spied Brandt talking to a group of aurors and cast a spell at him which gave him a light punch in the back.
When he turned around, she yelled, "How many balbal were there?"
Looking annoyed, he reached into his pocket and looked through a small ledger, then yelled back, "Ninety-one!" He turned around, then back again, "Sorry, Ninety-three!"
"There were also more than five hundred saltwater crocodiles with them," Harry added.
Remington counted off, "Harry Potter, his sister, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, that Veela you told me about, and a couple of foreign ministry flunkies against four hundred lizards; either magical or enthralled… impressive."
"There was also The Giver, a troupe of dwarves, Whispers, Jared and Pants, two mermen, and two werewolves." Harry focused hard, "Oh, and that other guy."
Tonks perked up, "I forgot about that other guy."
Remington grew deadly serious, "Werewolves? You fought with werewolves?"
"It wasn't a full moon," Tonks chided him. "I sparred with the big one later and beat him two out of three."
"Did you bring back any teeth?" he asked maliciously.
"What? No! It was a friendly fight as I do with you."
"You allied with wolves and had one on its back twice and didn't kill it?" he shook his head and walked away.
As Tonks ran after him, someone else asked Harry, "She really beat a werewolf in hand-to-hand combat?" Harry nodded. "Waxing or waning moon?"
"Waning, a few days after the full moon," Harry replied, remembering when it was and his astronomy terminology.
"Still impressive," the auror replied. "It would be stupid to do that with a waxing moon.
Harry didn't see Tonks for the rest of the night, but he made sure to spread her legend in her place.