CHAPTER 8:

DISCUSSIONS

Over the next week or so, Harry, despite himself, grew closer to Alpha, Beta, and Delta. Beta was perhaps the hardest of his mother's co-teachers to bond with, though not by that much. He was reminded uncomfortably of how Ginny acted in her first year, prior to her drinking the Neville Longbottom Kool-Aid. At the time, Harry tolerated her, partly because the Twins claimed she was a good kid, just shy, albeit with their mother's temper boiling just beneath the surface. And the Twins, for all their faults, were good people.

But then, after Ginny was kidnapped, and then rescued by Neville, something changed, and not for the better. He would later learn from Croaker (who had learned from Dumbledore) that Ginny had been affected by a Horcrux in a diary once belonging to Voldemort, and which had been placed on Ginny's person by Lucius Malfoy. All as a means to discredit the Weasleys and Dumbledore. Croaker chalked down Ginny's attitude change to trauma from being possessed, and being rescued by her knight in shining armour.

Harry could accept that, to some degree. Ginny was such a fangirl of Neville, and now that she had gotten his attention, she would probably parrot his attitudes. Ron certainly did. But he also thought that, unlike Neville or that bitch of a grandmother of his, they had less malice, or rather, their malice was just a childish, bratty, unthinking one (and Ginny's was less malicious than Ron's). Augusta, however, was (theoretically) an adult, while Neville had no real reason to attack him other than his own arrogance and egotism, combined with the knowledge that Harry was afflicted with a Horcrux in his scar. Maybe he blabbed about that Horcrux to his hangers-on, but Ron wasn't known for keeping his mouth shut, either with secrets, or with eating food, and Ron had never accused him of having a Horcrux affect him.

But regarding Beta, Alpha and Delta helped smooth things over, especially as Alpha was Beta's childhood friend. Beta did worship Lily quite a bit, and given that Harry was her son, Beta wanted to know about his life. She'd heard a summary of what had happened from Croaker, Sirius and the Tonks, but Beta wanted to know for herself.

A little reluctantly, Harry did relate some stories, mostly of his first year, particularly how he saved Hermione, as well as saving the Philosopher's Stone at the end of the year. Beta hung onto his every word, noting things down in a notebook (she clarified that she wasn't going to write a novel on the matter, not without his permission, anyway, but she was writing the chronicles of Dun Scaith, and the lives of its members). It was something of a surreal experience, to say the least. Here he was, having lunch with his mother and a trio of buxom girls his age, clad in bodysuits, with two of them being honest-to-God Elves out of Tolkien or something, and the third being a wolf-girl.

Of course, it wasn't like they weren't easy company. Delta, when she wasn't being aggressive and scary, was friendly and cheerful, more puppy dog than wolf. Alpha was more reserved than Delta or Beta, but her warmth was gentler and subtler, and no less welcome. She also knew what to say to Harry, at least intellectually, while Delta, while she could do so instinctively, occasionally let loose a howler of a faux pas (pun intentional). Beta was shyer than the other two, but she was more overtly cheerful than Alpha, paradoxical though that seemed. Perhaps it was more correct to say she was excitable, at least more than Alpha.

He found himself idly wondering who would go into which House at Hogwarts. Delta would go into either Gryffindor or Hufflepuff, no questions asked. Then again, given their immense loyalty to his mother and their hard work in training themselves, he reckoned most if not all of the Seven Shades would be in Hufflepuff. Alpha would probably fit in all Houses, even Slytherin, if only for her cunning in leading Dun Scaith as its second in command, though he would lean more towards the other three Houses. Beta seemed to lean more towards Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, though he would also think of her as having a chance at Gryffindor.

From what he had heard, both Eta and Gamma were definite shoe-ins for Ravenclaw, with their genius, and Gamma could be a Slytherin, given her cunning, though she was also far more pleasant than the vast majority of Slytherins. He didn't know enough about the others to mark them down as potentially coming from any House. And in any case, it was somewhat irrelevant.

It was not long after Harry related the time Hermione set Snape's robes on fire while trying to save Harry during a Quidditch match (it was Quirrell rather than Snape who did that, but Snape was such an arsehole, Harry felt it was fitting, especially as Snape's panic caused him to break Quirrell's concentration, so it worked out) that Delta asked a question that had been preying on her mind. Or at least that was his impression. "Was Hermione your girlfriend?" she asked.

As Harry cringed, Lily snapped, "Delta! Show some tact!"

After a moment, Harry said, quietly, "We were very good friends, but I hadn't even turned thirteen when I saw her last. We could've been boyfriend and girlfriend later on down the track, but…" His fist clenched. "…Someone took that opportunity away from me. And cast the Dark Mark over her home."

"…Shit. Sorry, Boss Junior," Delta said contritely, her ears flat against her head.

Harry nodded. While he'd only known Delta for a week or so at most now, he got the impression that she lacked tact, and had a childish, impulsive nature to her. He was hurt and offended, yes, but he also was fairly sure Delta was just being inquisitive. She didn't mean any harm.

Not that it stopped the question from hurting, though.

"Someone actually cast the Dark Mark over her home?" Beta asked, frowning. "That is the calling card of the Death Eaters, isn't it?"

"Yes," Lily said. "But it could be cast by anyone with a wand if they knew the spell. It's possible someone cast it to throw the DMLE off the scent…not that they needed any incentive to ignore the death of a Muggleborn and their family." This last part of the sentence was said with a sneer.

"Sirius thought it might have been Wormtail," Harry said. "He escaped from Azkaban around that time."

"It's possible, but unlikely," Lily said. "Pettigrew, in hindsight, is an opportunistic coward. If he escaped Azkaban, he'd probably flee Britain as soon as he could. If he didn't know what Hermione meant to you, he probably wouldn't have done it. He'd only murder others on orders or to escape from a direct threat, I reckon. Oh, he might want revenge, but he prioritises his own safety over that. Though after so many years, why did Pettigrew escape in the first place?"

"…It doesn't matter. In the end, someone murdered Hermione," Harry said bitterly.

Lily nodded, before gently hugging Harry. "And I hope to find out who did it. I can't promise that, but I'm hoping to do some discreet investigations of my own in Britain later on. I truly wish I could have met her. Aside from her being your friend…she sounds like someone after my own heart."

"She would've loved to have met you, Mum," Harry said. "Though I'm not sure she'd have been thrilled to know her idol leads a vigilante group, or at least one that uses lethal force. I'm still getting over that. If they're as bad as Death Eaters, I can understand that, they're little more than terrorists, but…Hermione had her qualms about such things, more than I did."

"And that's understandable Harry. When you take someone's life, you take everything from them. Their potential, their memories, their dreams…everything," Lily said. "Too many people are cavalier about killing. I know that sounds hypocritical coming from someone leading a vigilante group that uses lethal force, as you put it, but it's still true. It's one of the reasons why the Killing Curse is so reviled. There are plenty of spells that could kill if used or misused. Cutting Curses can inflict grievous wounds, and some are powerful enough to pulp someone's skull like a shotgun blast. Bombarda, as an explosive spell, could kill. Levitation spells could kill someone if they are dropped from a height. But Avada Kedavra blasts the soul from the body. The irony is, it used to be an Aramaic incantation for destroying sickness. Now, in the wizarding world, it is two of the most feared words in that world. It is the only spell dedicated to murder, for one needs an intent to kill to cast it. It's too easy to kill simply by accident, in the heat of the moment. It's another to cold-bloodedly kill another person."

"Which is what Lily has been trying to counsel us in doing," Alpha said. "Beta and I wanted revenge on the Cult of Diablos. But Lily has been tempering that. Therianthropes like Delta are more inured to killing at a young age because of the culture in most of their tribes."

"Yeah, Boss has been trying to help me with that," Delta said. "She's helped Delta learn how to focus more, particularly on saving innocents, and not fall into a berserker rage."

"And she's had us think about our actions, not just in attacking the Cult of Diablos, but also why. Not just for revenge, but to help the victims of the Cult, knowing or not," Beta said. "The Cult has a tendency to betray its own members when they have no further use. We've recruited a few of our Numbers from their ranks in such a manner. We've made sure they're not moles either. Legilimency has its uses."

"Part of Unspeakable training relies on learning Occlumency, Harry, which will be one of the things I'll be training you in," Lily said. "While you can learn it by being hit by Legilimency probes, that's a very crude way of doing it. And if the person uses Legilimency in the wrong way, in a truly aggressive way, it's akin to mental rape. There's a difference between simply reading someone's mind like a library, and barrelling through it like a tornado. Or rather, a difference between simply violating one's privacy, and violating their mind."

"Got it," Harry said.

"Don't get me wrong, using Legilimency to attack the mind has its uses, and honestly, it's a good thing to inflict on the deserving, leaving them trapped in their own mind, unable to scream. But it should only be used on the worst. Anyway, back to the topic at hand…I've tried my best to temper the girls, ensure that, if they intend to fight a war against the Cult of Diablos, then they not only understand the stakes, but they win without losing what matters. It's one thing to be ruthless to a near-absolute evil, but don't let innocents get caught up in it, ever." Lily sighed. "I never thought I'd ever be training my son in the same way. I'm sure you still share my morals and mores, Harry. But I hoped you'd never have to fight, not in the way James and I did. Even in Britain, we fought in the shadows against shadows. The Death Eaters hid their faces behind masks, their crimes behind their Pureblood status and noble privilege. And they've been teaching their children all the wrong lessons, passing down their bigotry and entitled natures like a venereal disease. I saw it while observing them at the Quidditch World Cup, especially the Malfoys."

"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, not all the Slytherins are like that. The Greengrasses, Tracy Davis, and Blaise Zabini weren't exactly my friends, but I was on decent enough terms with them," Harry said. "The problem is, too many are Purebloods, and with Snape as their Head of House, they feel entitled to do whatever the hell they want."

"Yes, Severus…" Lily said, a scowl touching her lips. "And yet Dumbledore thinks he's Potions Master material. I already heard horror stories before I ended up here in this world how much he went after…well, anyone who wasn't a Slytherin. Croaker told me that nothing has changed. Greasy-haired bastard."

"Can we hunt him, Boss?" Sarah asked, her tail wagging.

"As much as I'd love to, Sarah, we've drawn enough attention to ourselves in this world for now, and Severus is probably holed up in Hogwarts at the moment, prepping potions for the school year, and drawing up a curriculum, or what passes for one in his eyes."

Harry looked to Lily. "What do you mean? You want to kill him? I knew he was a Death Eater, but he was also Dumbledore's spy in their camp. Croaker told me."

Lily sighed. "Yes, but…I told Croaker not to tell you. Pettigrew may have been the one to betray where we were hiding to Voldemort. But…Croaker told you about the prophecy?"

"The one that drunk Trelawney uttered? Yeah. Some ridiculous crap about how either Neville or myself could have fit it, be the one with the power to vanquish Voldemort."

"Severus was the one to leak it," Lily said. "He overheard part of it while spying on Dumbledore and Trelawney."

Harry stared at her in shock. "…What," he said in a flat, dangerous tone.

"He leaked it to Voldemort, only to realise I could be a target. He begged Voldemort to spare me…and me alone," Lily said. "It's probably why Voldemort only knocked me out. But either Alice or Frank managed to do the ritual to save you and Neville from the Killing Curse. But knowing what Severus became, I think he would have been happy for you and James to die, and if I refused to be with him, he may very well have potioned me up as a sex-slave."

Harry felt a surge of anger and despair. All those sneering put-downs, his blatant favouritism…Dumbledore claimed Snape owed a debt to his father for saving his life, which turned out to be from Remus after Sirius tricked him going to the werewolf during a full moon. But Snape seemed to help only grudgingly, and Harry felt almost as despised by him as Snape despised Neville.

And yet, the greasy-haired bastard had sicced Voldemort on his family and Neville's, torn his father away from him, and sparked off the chain of events that turned Neville into the piece of shit he was today. Pettigrew's betrayal was greater, and yet, Snape always looked at him as if he had no right to live, no right to be. As if his very existence was an affront.

"How dare he?" Harry said quietly, voicing his thoughts out loud, before he screamed, "HOW DARE HE?! THAT BASTARD LOOKS AT ME AS IF I SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BORN, ALWAYS TREATING ME LIKE I'M JAMES POTTER REBORN!" He slammed his fists into the table, causing plates and cups to rattle. "HE'S SCUM! ABSOLUTE FUCKING SCUM! AND THAT STUPID OLD BASTARD DUMBLEDORE KEEPS HIM ON HIS STAFF?!"

Lily's hand gently settled over his fist. "I know. I know, Harry. In my mind, he's as bad a traitor as Pettigrew, and only avoided Azkaban because of Dumbledore vouching for him. The problem is, I know Severus. We used to be friends, until he drifted away, fell in with the wrong crowd, and then…well, did Padfoot or Moony tell you about the Mudblood incident?"

Harry nodded mutely, not quite calm or mollified, but able to speak more calmly. "After my first year, yes. It was all I could do not to curse him, and he set me a detention or two just for glaring at him."

"That was when our friendship ended. He tried to rekindle it, and I may have forgiven him for it, but he was unwilling to stop associating with the would-be Death Eaters. He made his choice between my friendship and theirs, all in the name of his ambition to be someone more than the Halfblood Prince." On his confused look, she said, "His mother's maiden name was Prince, an old Pureblood line. That was his nickname, one I made. And don't misunderstand me, Severus has a brilliant mind. But he let himself be seduced by the darkness, and he tried to arrange for the deaths of my husband and child. James died partly because of him. And one day, I will ensure he repays the debt he owes me, in full."

Harry was struck by the calm, cold tones, filled with quiet anger and loathing. More calm that he felt, especially knowing what that greasy-haired monster did. But his mother's wording held a promise, that Snape would pay for the part he had to play in their family's destruction.

A thought occurred to him. "And Augusta?"

"Oh, don't worry, she's in my sights too. I'm not sure whether she deserves to die, but believe me, she and her spoiled brat of a grandson are well overdue for a reckoning for what they've done." A cold smile touched her lips. "Time will tell what form that reckoning takes…"

CHAPTER 8 ANNOTATIONS:

Just some exposition, some discussion, and some development of characters, with All-Caps Harry making a brief appearance. Oh, and some admission to desiring some sweet, sweet vengeance.

When I think about it, Delta's berserker nature in canon, even after being trained by Shadow Garden, feels like a failure of training with Cid and Alpha. While I understand that most Therianthropes have a somewhat bestial mindset with a hefty side-helping of Social Darwinism, I don't think that Cid or Alpha ever tried to teach her how NOT to be a berserker, or at least not hard enough. Then again, to be fair, Cid was too busy indulging his delusions of being an enigmatic Shadow Broker, and Alpha, I suspect, was busy training everyone else to give much attention to Delta, at least to snap her out of her more berserk tendencies.

Lily, on the other hand, has all the patience of a mother. She raised Harry prior to her ending up in another world. Dun Scaith is, in a way, full of her honorary daughters, and she views them as such, more than she views them as her child soldier subordinates. She feels guilty about that, even though it was Alpha and Beta who effectively founded Dun Scaith and wanted to fight the Cult of Diablos, or at least by Lily's side. Lily would have taken on the Cult, but on her own.

In any case, Lily devoted as much time as she could to reshaping Delta's psyche. And while Delta is not truly OOC, she's a more refined version of her character. Still a somewhat ignorant and impulsive girl, true, with a tendency to ignore social graces and even tact, as seen above. But she's a little smarter, certainly much less of a berserker, and more aware of what constitutes 'operational security' than her canon self.

As for Lily not forgiving Snape for the 'Mudblood' comment, I'm just building on from canon. Snape is someone I have issues with. While Alan Rickman injected some much-needed humanity in the films, there's no denying that canon Snape is an intensely selfish, petty and cruel little man. You may argue otherwise, that he's an ultimately selfless man who sacrificed his life out of love to stop Voldemort, but considering his attitude towards, well, anyone and everyone in canon, I personally think I can make an argument for him doing so out of sheer petty spite. Don't get me wrong, I actually like a number of Severitus fics (The Best Revenge and Maybe I'm Amazed being major cases in point), and can write Snape as a more positive character, but canonically, he's a selfish and bullying piece of shit whose much-vaunted love for Lily amounted to him fapping over his erotic fantasies of her.

I also wanted to give some further insight into Alpha and Beta's psyches here. Well, I did into Alpha's in previous chapters, but I wanted to show the seeds of them becoming part of Harry's harem, along with Delta. Delta's rather tactless question about Hermione was basically her asking if he's available. She's not being malicious, just incredibly tactless, but Delta's like that, you know?

Review-answering time! Jlargent: I…hadn't thought of that. I'll consider it, though I don't know whether the Black Slime bodysuit Shadow Garden/Dun Scaith uses can be used like that. The thought of some webslinging is appealing, though.

KevenKitsune and waytodawn0: I'm glad you loved my allusion to Darkwing Duck, KevenKitsune. I remember watching that show years ago. As for The Eminence in Shadow itself, I haven't watched the anime, beyond clips on Youtube, but I HAVE read the first three light novel volumes, and the first four manga volumes. The franchise is a pretty good pisstake on the isekai genre, even if Cid's delusions about his own organisation and who they're fighting does get somewhat old quickly.

Serafina Fairway: I wholeheartedly agree. Plus, Cid's very self-centred and lacking in empathy, bordering on the sociopathic. He's not wholly lacking in empathy and morals, and I feel that, if he knew the truth, he'd be ecstatic. But I felt in this fic and my oneshot Ískios that Shadow Garden would benefit from a leader who was sane and had more empathy than Cid. It says a lot when I think Momonga from Overlord, for all the fact that he's responsible for far worse than Cid (so far), is a much better leader. Cid sets the bar pretty low, though.

As for who goes first, well, it's a toss-up between Alpha and Delta. Beta is a touch on the shy side, and Harry sees a bit too much of Ginny in her, and he's had bad experiences with this version of Ginny. Alpha is less likely to consider herself not good enough, and more to let her duty get in the way of their relationship, but, as the next chapter will show, she is perfectly willing to bond with Harry and discuss their troubles. If anything, she is more worried about supplanting the late Hermione in Harry's affections, a concern Harry himself shares, especially as Alpha reminds him of Hermione. As for Delta, she's very much a creature of impulse and gratification. She would never bed Harry without his consent, true, but given her canonical tackle hugs, she's already used to her own brand of affection…

No numbered annotations this time.