The Prophet the next morning was rife with speculation about the new rune stone in the centre of Hogsmeade. Specialists hadn't yet been called in by the time of publication, but the special edition that hit the school at lunchtime had their findings, as well as their confusions as to how it had appeared. They figured out all the protection wards, but they were especially confused by the inactive rune series that needed the other set of runes on the satellites before it could activate.
Harry enjoyed the following days listening to his classmates argue about who would bother putting wards around the small village that was awash in the wake of the Hogwarts wards, or what those inactive runes were for. Everyone had an opinion, though none of them had the right opinion. For the most part, they seemed to believe it was an act of some kindly group – the Order, said those who knew of it, while those who didn't suggested a group much like it – who was set on protecting them from the muggles or the Dark Lords. Others thought it was a ploy by the Dark Order to make the residents of Hogsmeade think they were safe, and then when they least expected it... BOOM! The whole village gone in a second.
It was all the students – and the Prophet – would talk about for weeks. Specialists were sent in from all over and pleas for information were sent out, but no one came forward and it eventually died down, especially when everyone reported back that there was nothing strange about the stone.
Of course, Harry considered as he and his five friends finished their last-minute preparations, it's all about to start right back up again, as soon as that rune set is active. And we get to miss the whole thing. I hope the others can cover sufficiently.
It being the weekend, no one should notice the six missing students, especially with Morag, Hermione, Neville, and Lillian running interference. If there were any questions, Harry had created a golem of each of them and placed it in their beds. A magical scan would show them to have a relatively mild stomach bug, and they were programmed to respond to any inquiry with, "I'm sick, go away." Not the most sophisticated piece of magic that Harry had ever done, but it should be sufficient to fool any worried professor or, worst-case, Madam Pomfrey. As long as they didn't look any closer than the most rudimentary scans, there shouldn't be any problems.
"Everyone ready?" Harry asked as the others all finished fiddling with their food sacks. They all had enough food for sixty hours, and enough potion to keep them awake for the same amount of time. They had all also been equipped with protective amulets and a magical headset that would enable them to keep in some form of contact, in case of emergencies. The four who would be in orbit the entire trip would always be in contact, but once Harry and Luna got approximately one hundred fifty thousand kilometres away from the planet, they would be on their own.
"I think so, yeah," Terry agreed, pulling on his fingertip-less gloves. They'd been created special by Harry with extra warming and protective charms worked in, so they would have full use of their hands when adding the runes. Only their fingertips and face weren't covered by the protective clothing that Harry had put together with Hermione's help – the girl had wanted to feel useful, so Harry had left her to stitching together the robes and adding the protective runes to them with thread.
Harry nodded. "Okay. Remember, if the solar flare alarm goes off, get back into the atmosphere immediately."
"We know, Potter," Tracey replied, huffing. "You've already warned us that these spells can't stand up to that level of solar activity."
"But what will you and Luna do if that happens?" Li asked, dark eyes worried.
It wasn't the first time she'd asked, and Harry's answer was the same as ever: "We'll manage." He pulled his own hood up to cover his hair, smiling when the others did the same. "Excellent. Let's head out, okay?"
Everyone nodded and mounted their brooms. Harry floated slowly up first, peeking his head over the tree cover of the Forbidden Forest. Sharp eyes looked around for anyone still awake and wandering the grounds in spite of the sleeping agent the house-elves had added to dinner. Not seeing anyone, he touched his ear piece and murmured, "Okay. Slow and easy until you're out of the trees. Let's go."
The weekends over the Pacific on the new brooms had paid off relatively well and the group were able to rise up and out of the tree-cover at a normal speed before shooting off into the sky, picking up speed the further up in the atmosphere they got.
Harry and Voldemort hadn't been completely certain which satellites returned pictures of the planet and which had been created for other things. Instead of worrying about which satellites were which, they had decided to get runes on all of the active ones, so Terry, Li, Tracey, and Millicent followed Harry and Luna out to about one hundred thousand kilometres above the planet to put the runes on the Vela satellites before making their way back towards the planet.
It took them twelve hours to reach the one hundred thousand mark, so they stopped together to flip their time-turners, then separated to either hunt down the satellites or continue their trip to the moon.
It took Harry and Luna another thirty-five hours to reach the moon. They'd had to switch out their brooms for new ones around the two hundred thousand kilometres mark, and their current ones were starting to fall apart. Once they reached the surface of the moon, they incinerated their brooms and took a moment to enjoy being on a solid surface again without a broom between their legs.
After twenty minutes or so of freedom – and a meal – they pulled out their last set of brooms and started off over the surface.
"Other than Usagi Tsuki, what are we looking for?" Luna wondered through their magical communication sets. Sound didn't travel in space, so it was the only way to talk.
"A nice place where the magical community can live," Harry replied, scanning the surface with his eyes. "Tom and I agree that finding a spot on the far side of the moon would be the best, and from what I've learned about this rock, the soil composition is slightly different over there, since there's no atmosphere to protect it from the sun's radiation." He paused and frowned a bit. "Speaking of, how are you holding up?"
"Feeling a little shaky, but mostly okay," Luna reported honestly. "The lack of gravity helps, I think."
Harry sighed and glanced at his own pale fingertips. He had known there was a chance that all of them would develop some minor radiation sickness symptoms, although he and Luna would be the worst off. The protective amulets and robes would help with most of that, and his own vampiric and Death-given gifts would give him even more protection, but still... He shook his head. "Tom promised he'd have a potion waiting for us when we got back," he commented, half reassuring himself, half reassuring Luna.
"Coming back pale and shaky will lend credence to our weekend in bed," Luna reminded him. Hermione had mentioned the same thing the first time Harry had brought up radiation sickness.
"There's a difference in having the shakes from low haemoglobin and having them because of an upset stomach," Harry retorted, shaking his head. "Never mind. The potions should keep that from being obvious to any medical scans. Everyone knows to go the Madame Pomfrey if they don't feel better in a few days." He sighed again. "Why did I agree to let a bunch of kids come with me?"
"Because Tom wouldn't get on a broom and you needed the help to finish in a weekend," Luna reminded him, smiling when he chuckled. "It's sort of pretty up here."
Harry smiled and rested against his broom, glancing up at the Earth above them. "It really is. Living on the moon was a good idea."
"We won't be able to see the Earth if we settle on the other side," Luna reminded him.
"Not normally, no," Harry agreed. "But you can always take a broom out and go have a look. We're also not certain what sort of consequences will come about from giving the moon real gravity and an atmosphere. For all we know, it'll start rotating a bit faster and we'll be seeing the Earth regularly."
"That completely destroys the reason for us settling on the far side," Luna pointed out.
Harry chuckled. "I know, trust me. It would also be sort of like waving a red flag at the mundanes, 'Hi! We're on the moon if you feel the need to destroy us still!' " He sighed. "Well, it would take them a while to develop the technology necessary to reach us on the moon, factoring in the rotations of both Earth and the moon and the gravitational pulls of both. Not to mention, any damage they do to the moon with have consequences on their own planet..."
Luna giggled. "You've been eating too many scientists again."
"Ah..." Harry shook his head. "Yeah, a few. It was the best way to get information on the moon while still training you lot and keeping up with school. People would notice if I starting reading material on the moon."
"The purebloods would sneer at you for it, too," Luna pointed out.
"No one wants that. Here, what's this, then?" He brought his broom to a slow stop over what appeared to be a mountain range. It was broken up by some craters, but the mountains that remained were huge.
"Is it another crater?" Luna wondered, moving down to get a closer look at one of the craters that had formed in the mountain range.
"A big one," Harry agreed, glancing back up towards where Earth was vanishing behind the horizon. "If I'm remembering my geography right, this might be the South Pole-Aiten Basin. Largest crater on the moon, second largest in the solar system. Some of the mountains that make up the rim are larger even than Mount Everest back on Earth."
"How big, exactly, is the 'second largest'?" Luna wondered. "Does it take up the entire far side of the moon, or..."
"Two thousand five hundred kilometres in diameter," Harry reported as he pulled out a case to put a soil sample in. He had room for about thirty different samples and he intended to use it all. "That's the length of Britain twice, plus the width once. Approximately."
Luna whistled. "Impressive. Do you think we could all settle here?"
"Tom and I discussed it," Harry admitted, moving out of sight of Luna to find another spot for soil collection. "It's large enough that we wouldn't be stepping on each other's toes, but small enough that we wouldn't have to stretch our resources overly much. The soil of the moon is so varied because of the various impacts over the billions of years that finding a common element to transfigure over the whole moon to make the soil compatible with our plants is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack."
Luna shook her head. "Okay. I'm going to go see if I can collect some soil outside the basin, if that's okay?" she asked, pulling out her own container for soil collection.
"Mm-hm. Check in with me every ten minutes, though."
"Sure thing." Luna turned her broom around and traced the edge of the basin, occasionally veering off to one side and collecting samples in nearby craters. She made sure to check in with Harry every eight to ten minutes, calling, "Harry?"
"Mm-hm?" he'd reply.
"I'm still alive."
"Good. How're you feeling?"
"Little shaky, still. No change."
"Carry on."
Three hours later, having finished filling her sample container, Luna put it away and lowered her broom to the surface. There, she reached into her bag and pulled out ten rabbits she'd picked up in the Forbidden Forest a few days before they left. She'd dyed them lilac and given them some potions to let them survive on the moon. It had been a lot of fun, though a few bunnies had, sadly, died in the process.
"Okay, my pretties," she said to them, uncaring that with the vacuum of space they almost certainly couldn't hear her, and smiled down at their confused faces, "it's time for you to do what you do best: breed. Breed so much that in a few years, we can fill that entire basin with you, okay?" She paused and cocked her head to one side. "And when you meet the Usagi Tsukis, tell them I'd like to meet them. I know they're really shy, but I'm a good human, right?"
"Luna? Are you ready to go?" Harry asked over the headset.
Luna smiled down at her small, lilac-coloured army. "Be good," she ordered them before activating her headset and getting back on her broom. "Sure thing. Where should we meet up?"
"The south pole," Harry said with certainty. "Where we came over the ridge. Think you can find it?"
"I'll be fine. I know how to cast point me."
Harry chuckled. "Good point. Okay, I'll meet you there."
Crossing the basin was the quickest way to get to the pole, so Luna did so, enjoying the craters passing below her and the stars above. The sun was glimmering on the eastern horizon, casting shadows over everything. From what Harry had told her when she'd asked, the moon took about twenty-nine and a half Earth days to make one full rotation. On Earth, that was referred to as a 'lunar month', but Luna wondered if they shouldn't start calling it a 'lunar day', since they'd be moving up here.
"It's not anywhere near the amount of sunlight that we'd be used to," Harry had admitted, "but there are spells that can simulate sunlight or block it out when we're stuck with it for days at a time. Where the mundanes might fail due to a lack of vitamin D, we will manage with our magic. It won't be easy, and it may not be fun to figure out the mechanics, but we will manage it, and we will flourish in spite of it."
"We can do this," Luna whispered into the cold fields of rock and stars. "With Harry and Tom leading us, we can do anything."
By the time Luna reached Harry at the south pole, he'd already created a portkey out of a thermos he'd had tea in. "Let's see if this works," he offered, holding the thermos out to her as she slowed to a stop next to him.
Luna smiled and grabbed the top with one hand – ensuring her uncovered fingertips were touching it – and her broom with the other.
Harry smiled back at her and activated the portkey with a tap of his wand. Like any other portkey, it started with a tug behind their navels, but then things went a little odd. Instead of the sound of wind and swirling colours that they were used to, everything went deathly still for a long, terrible moment. Then there was a deafening 'boom' and a flash of light, before they crashed to the floor.
"Should have got off the brooms before we did that," Harry commented through gritted teeth as he let go of the portkey. His own broom had snapped on impact and the handle had impaled him through the stomach. "Fuck."
Luna scrambled to her feet and hurried over to Harry's side, feeling a little useless. She knew Harry couldn't die, but... "What do I do?" she whispered, reaching out a hand, but not quite touching the handle jutting out of his back to one side. "Harry, I don't–"
"Move," a new voice ordered and Luna scrambled away as Riddle knelt next to his partner. "You idiot," he added as he magically extracted the handle.
Harry laughed around the blood bubbling from between his lips. "I'm ninety-nine years old," he whispered, grimacing as the Death-magic that kept him alive set about sewing together his most recent failure to die, "I'm allowed a few mistakes."
"Don't go senile on me yet, Potter," Riddle retorted, getting up and going to fetch the potions he'd kept for the teens' return. "I'd be lost without your pretty face to charm the masses."
Harry snorted, letting Luna help him to his feet. "You think I'm pretty, Tom?" he wondered in girly voice.
"Not right now, you're not," Riddle said, coming back with the potions and a hand towel. "Wipe the blood off your face," he ordered, holding the towel out. Once Harry was doing as told, Riddle turned to Luna, who looked pale with a tinge of green. "I have been told that this may exacerbate any current nausea," he told the girl, holding out her potions to her. "The bathroom is over there."
Luna took the potions with an unsteady curtsy. "Thank you, my Lord," she whispered before dashing into the bathroom.
"Other than getting killed by your own broom, how did it go?" Riddle asked, trading Harry's potions for the bloody towel. A snap of his fingers called a house-elf to deal with the towel.
"Pretty well," Harry replied, knocking back the first potion with a grimace. "Snape made these, didn't he?"
"I have no time to be holed up in some dreary potions lab," Riddle replied, settling on his bed, since the two teens had appeared in his bedroom. Admittedly, that had been the plan all along, but still... Riddle was almost used to having Harry invade his bedroom, but the girl was making him feel distressingly vulnerable. He blamed it on Harry.
Harry knocked back the other potion and waved his usual chair over to fall into. He could worry about blood stains later. "We went through two brooms to get out there and it took us about forty-eight hours." He waved towards the discarded thermos and brooms. "Clearly, portkeys are possible, though there is a strange change during interplanetary travel."
"Oh?" Riddle leaned forward, curious.
"You know how usually there's the sound of the wind and weird colours when you're travelling by portkey?" Riddle nodded, grimacing a bit. "Well, I guess it's because most of the travel is through a vacuum, but there's no light, no sound. And then, once we hit the atmosphere, there with this blast of sound and light. And then we'd landed."
"Did it take longer?" Riddle wondered.
"Definitely. The travel through space seemed to go on forever." Harry chuckled a bit, absently wiping away the trickle of blood the action had brought out of his oesophagus. "It should be interesting to see what travel from the planet to the moon is like."
"Perhaps we'll try it tomorrow, while waiting for the rest of your posse."
Harry snorted. "Posse? Seriously? And I thought I'd been hanging out with teenagers too much."
Riddle sneered. "I spend my days surrounded by ex-Azkaban prisoners."
"Ah. Good point." Harry glanced up as Luna stepped from the bathroom, looking tired and somewhat unwell. "Hey, luv. How are you feeling?"
Luna sighed and walked over so she could sink to the ground at Harry's feet and rest her head on his knee. "When are we going back to the school?" she murmured as Harry ran a gentle hand through her hair. She'd pulled the hood off in the bathroom, so the older Ravenclaw had easy access.
"Not until the others are back," Harry offered gently. "Tomorrow evening sometime, hopefully." He glanced up at Riddle. "I should probably hunt down Lucius for some rooms, assuming he's not already asleep."
Riddle shook his head. "He probably is. He set up the room next to this one for you after that first lab attack. A 'just in case', I believe. If you and Lovegood don't mind, you can probably manage in there together for the night."
"Hmm. Luna?"
Luna shook her head against Harry's leg. "Don't care," she murmured.
"Bed time," Harry decided, slipping out of the chair and picking his best friend up. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fell into a light doze as he offered Riddle a quiet 'good night' and slipped out of the room and into the one next door. It had been done in shades of blue with bronze accents; Harry smiled a bit at Lucius' sense of House pride even as he set about getting Luna into the large bed and transfiguring her protective robes into something more comfortable to sleep in.
Luna's extra broom and their packs were dropped in one corner – Harry's snapped broom had been left for Riddle to vanish – and Harry went into the bathroom to strip out of the ruined robes and take a quick shower. There was no point in going to bed with flaking blood everywhere.
Once he was out of the shower, he checked his most recent scar, somewhat amused to find that it looked like a crescent moon. "Ha-ha. Very funny," he whispered to the room.
The armoire out in the bedroom had robes in Harry's size, and he quietly thanked Lucius and Narcissa's usual attention to detail. He hunted down some sleep trousers and pulled them on, absently touching his headset – he'd put it back on once he was out of his shower – and murmuring, "Hey, you lot still alive up there?"
There was a moment of silence, then Terry asked, "You two are back on the surface?"
"Yeah. The portkey worked, so maybe everyone can go up to the moon next weekend. For now, how are the satellites coming?"
"They're coming," Tracey retorted drily. "Maybe another nine hours before we're done."
"Give or take," Terry agreed. "We're running into a lot of dead space-junk, at this point, but there are still a couple of running things floating around."
Harry nodded and set an alarm to wake him in eight hours. "Okay, then. I'm going to get some sleep. As soon as you're set to come back down, let me know and we can plan a place to meet up."
"Are we going straight back to Hogwarts?" Millicent wondered.
"No. I'll bring you all back to a safe location and you can get some rest. The potions I've got are a bit stressful on the body, especially after you've been awake for almost seventy hours; Luna conked right out. Everyone can get some rest and some proper food – and get used to real gravity again – and we'll go back to the school before breakfast tomorrow morning, okay?"
"Sounds good," Terry agreed. "We'll see you in nine hours."
Harry nodded to himself and pulled off his headset and glasses, then climbed into the bed and curled up to sleep.
They had been above Greenland when they finished, so Harry had directed them to land on Illorsuit Island, which was both in a fairly easy area for him to direct them to, as well as a home to a small magical community that Harry had visited during the magical-mundane war.
After leaving the still-sleeping Luna a note explaining where he'd gone, Harry donned his Xerosis appearance and went in search of Lucius. He found the blond enjoying lunch with a group of Death Eaters and Narcissa in the large dining room. As soon as they recognised him, they all stood and offered him bows, murmuring, "My Lord."
Xerosis smiled at them, then focussed on Lucius. "Lucius, might I borrow you for a few moments?"
"Of course, my Lord," Lucius replied, hurrying around the table and to where Xerosis awaited him in the doorway.
"Gentlemen, Lady Malfoy," Xerosis offered politely as he ushered Lucius out of the room and down the hall to a small sitting room. "Lucius, I was hoping you could put together a few rooms up on the third floor near mine? A few of my fellow students need to recuperate from a mission I sent them on, and it cannot be done at Hogwarts."
Lucius cocked an eyebrow at that, but agreed, "I'll send some house-elves to do it immediately, my Lord. How many would you like? Most of that floor is empty at the moment," he added, shrugging. "My Lord doesn't like having other people sleep near him."
Xerosis snorted. "That sounds like him. Uhm..." He glanced up as he thought for a moment, then decided, "Four should be sufficient. Also, Miss Lovegood is currently sleeping in my room. Could you see to it that a house-elf attends her as soon as she wakes?"
"Consider it done," Lucius assured him. "I'll have the house-elves place an 'X' on the doors of the rooms that have been prepared for the students."
"Excellent." Xerosis smiled. "Thank you, Lucius."
"Your words are my command, my Lord," Lucius replied, bowing.
Xerosis chuckled and left the man to make his way to the designated apparation point. On his way, he cast the Parseltongue communication spell and said, :Tom, I'm off to collect the rest of my friends. Lucius is already preparing rooms near ours for them to sleep in. When I've returned and they're settled, I'll meet you in your room.:
Just before he could apparate away, Voldemort replied with, :Very well. I'll leave the potions in your room, on the table next to the door. Don't take too long, or I'll start testing curses on your 'favourite minion'.:
Xerosis laughed to himself and apparated in an abandoned area of Illorsuit Island. Deciding he'd be best in his current disguise – Harry Potter was too well known to wander around as, and the students already knew he was Xerosis – he made his way towards the village. It was still early – just after nine – but enough people were up and about that he got that chance to dust off his knowledge of Danish, which most of the islanders spoke. He knew about three words of Greenlandic, from his first trip to this part of the world, but he'd swallowed a couple of Danish souls, so his grasp of that language was far better. (Given, enough of them knew English that he could have gone that route, but he never passed up a chance to test out his language knowledge.)
When his friends found him, he was busy haggling with a sharp-tongued old witch who had some lovely arctic fox figurines with rubies for eyes. They gathered behind him, staring as he argued in fast-paced Danish with the woman.
When money had changed hands and Xerosis was putting his new figurine into the hand-sewn bottomless bag he'd bought from a few stalls down, Tracey enquired, "Is there a language you don't speak?"
"Greenlandic," Xerosis replied with an easy smile. "Come on, let's get you back on British soil, hm? You lot look like you're about to fall over."
"I hate brooms," Li informed him as he ushered them away from the stalls and towards where an earlier seller had told him he could portkey from.
"Hey, Harry, is there a reason you look like..." Terry trailed off, uncertain how to refer to Xerosis.
"The Dark Lord," Millicent offered.
Xerosis shrugged. "Sure. My other face is a bit too well known to be seen outside Britain when I'm supposed to be at school. Xerosis, on the other hand, can do whatever he damn-well pleases and no one can say a thing about it." He flashed them a smile, vampire fangs obvious, and the two Ravenclaws shook their heads in amusement while the Slytherins just sighed. "Right, this should be good." He pulled out a rock he'd found during his wanderings and held it out. "Portkey."
Once everyone was touching the rock, Xerosis activated it and they all crashed into his room at Malfoy Manor.
Luna was smiling at them from the bed, a bowl of porridge balanced on one knee. "Welcome back," she offered.
"Hey, Luna," Terry said with a tired wave as he picked himself up off the floor. "Have I mentioned how wrong it is that you lot don't land on your behinds?" he added, looking at where Millicent, Tracey, and Harry were all standing. Li had hit the ground too, and Terry reached down to help her up.
"Harry and I landed on the ground when we got back from the moon," Luna offered.
Xerosis grimaced. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." He walked over to the table next to the door and picked up the potions. "Tom didn't do anything to you, did he?" he asked Luna as he brought the potions back to his friends. "He made vague allusions to testing spells on you, and I really wouldn't put it past him."
Luna laughed and shook her head. "No. I haven't even seen him since we got in last night."
"Hn. Well, with any luck Lucius distracted him or someone blew something up. Merlin if I know." Xerosis returned his attention to the others, smiling at their surprised looks. "Oh, yeah. Welcome to Malfoy Manor, by the way. I had Lucius prepare some rooms across the hall for you lot."
"You're going to want to be near a loo when taking the green one," Luna helpfully commented.
Xerosis considered the others, all of whom were looking a little green, for all that they'd been just pale in Greenland. Maybe it was the portkey? "Whatever. Come on. The hallway should be clear of Death Eaters, at any rate. Except maybe Lucius, who knows you're here and won't say anything about it anyway."
The four teens were led out into the hallway and told to each pick a room with an 'X' on the door. Once they were decided, Xerosis handed them their potions and wished them pleasant dreams before slipping back into his own room.
"Have you eaten?" Luna wondered as Xerosis slipped off his new bag and made his way over to his pack to find his extra set of protective robes, as well as the set he'd made for Riddle.
Xerosis considered that for a moment as he slipped out of his current purple robes. "Mmm... I had some sort of pastry made with crowberries in Greenland, but nothing substantial. Why?"
Luna shook her head at him. "Harry, eat a sandwich. Something. Especially if you're about to go back to the moon."
Xerosis smiled a bit sheepishly, caught. "Yeah, okay, Dobby!" he called, turning back to his robes. He always called for the odd little elf when he was at Malfoy Manor. Lucius had, at one point, commented that, "If my Lord Xerosis is truly so fond of him, you can have Dobby." To which Xerosis had replied, "And rob you of his daily antics? I could never be so cruel, Lucius."
Dobby, prompt as ever, popped into the room as Xerosis was pulling his robes on. "What can Dobby do for the great and powerful Lord Xerosis?"
Luna giggled from the bed and studiously turned her attention to her porridge when Xerosis shot her an irritated look.
Xerosis looked down at the happy elf. "I'd like a roast beef sandwich. One sandwich, Dobby, not however many you can carry," he added, knowing how his excitable friend could get. "Oh, and," he reached into his pack again and pulled out his thermos, "fill that with tea, would you?"
"Dobby will be back!" the house-elf replied and popped away.
"I don't know how long we'll be up on the moon, but it shouldn't be too long, I hope." Xerosis rolled his eyes. "Knowing Tom, we'll be installing that rune stone today– Oh!" He dove back into his pack for the soil samples, then grabbed the other container from Luna's own pack. "Mustn't forget these. He might start testing curses on me."
"Only if he can catch you," Luna replied, having heard about how the two Dark Lords usually 'fought'.
Dobby popped back in with a gigantic sandwich and a new, larger thermos of tea. He handed them over with a devious smile, saying, "Here is the great and powerful Lord Xerosis' lunch."
"Sometimes, I think Lucius despises you simply because you can out-Slytherin him," Xerosis commented, taking the sandwich in one hand while he slipped the thermos into one of the extended pockets of his robe. "Make sure you put that other thermos back in my pack once it's cleaned, right? The last thing I need is Michael wondering where it got to."
"Dobby understands," the little house-elf replied before vanishing again.
"What makes you think Michael hasn't already noticed it's missing?" Luna wondered as Xerosis stuffed the soil samples and Riddle's robe into his robe pockets.
"He only uses it during the school day. As long as I replace it before breakfast tomorrow, it should be fine." Xerosis glanced at her over his sandwich. "You'll be okay in here alone?"
"If I get bored, I'll ask a house-elf to bring me a book. Or something."
"Hm. Well, if you need human company, you can probably call for Barty. Merlin knows he has nothing better to do." Xerosis smiled. "If the others wake before I return, make sure they get some food and know to stay in this area of the manor, right? Lucius and Barty – and probably Narcissa – won't freak out on seeing them, but some of the other Death Eaters might, and it won't do anyone much good if I only curse the idiots after they've caused irreparable harm."
Luna nodded seriously. "I know. Go take care of your evil plans."
Xerosis detoured to the bed long enough to drop a kiss on the top of her head, then made his way over to Riddle's room, knocking once before walking right in. "I brought the soil samples with me," he offered as he slipped inside.
"Were you particularly hungry or something?" Riddle wondered, taking in Harry's giant sandwich, which he'd only managed a bite of so far.
"Dobby is determined to feed me as much food as he can, in spite of my own wishes on the matter," Xerosis replied drily, taking the open seat across from Riddle at the table. He set the sandwich down long enough to pull out the soil containers and shift back into his Harry form, then started in on the monstrosity while Riddle waved away the paperwork he'd been working on and pulled the containers over.
"What all did you two get?" the Dark Lord wondered as he cracked open Luna's container.
"I collected soil and rocks from inside the South Pole-Aiten Basin while Luna collected some from outside the basin. I think she mostly collected from craters, but it's hard to find un-cratered land on that side."
"Well, we do what we can," Riddle decided, waving over some parchment and a quill. He set about magically finding out about the composition of Luna's samples and writing it down. As soon as Harry finished his sandwich, he called over his own writing equipment and got started on the same thing.
Once they'd finished, they shared their findings and discussed the elements they could transfigure to make it close enough to Earth soil to sustain life. Decided, Riddle pulled out a rock and cast a transfiguration on that one rock to change one element to another.
All of the lunar soil in their possession changed.
Riddle and Harry gave the soil odd looks, then looked at each other. "You focussed your spell on just that one?" Harry asked.
"What sort of idiot do you take me for?"
"A genius one," Harry retorted, trying his own transfiguration on a single rock and coming up with the same response. "Huh. Well, you know that old wives' tale about how magic is stronger at the full moon?"
"Maybe it's more factual than everyone thought," Riddle finished, considering the moon rock in front of him. "You think some mineral in this soil boosts magic?"
"Why not? We all know Hogwarts was built on a ley line, right? Maybe it's less a 'ley line' and more an underground mineral deposit which boosts magic." Harry glanced over their findings again. "I'd have to say it's probably iron or aluminium."
"Possibly calcium," Riddle pointed out. "At any rate, one must then wonder what sort of power we'll get out of this rune stone."
"What if we figured out which element it is, then made the rune stone out of that element," Harry suggested, leaning forward over the table. "It might not matter how long it existed, it could just keep powering itself."
Riddle stood from the table and called over all their notes for the rune stone. "Come on. We can make it out of rock from the moon itself. Easier than testing each element."
Harry chuckled and stood himself, pulling out the robes for his partner. "Here, you crazy old man. I know neither of us can die, but there's no point in half killing yourself when we've got protection already."
"Oh, very well..." Riddle sighed and set the parchments down to take the offered robes. He quickly changed, took the headset Harry held out to him with a grimace, then picked the parchment back up again and held out a hand to the portkey the teen had made out of one of the rocks on the table.
The portkey travel to the moon was a reverse of the trip back to the planet, with the sound and lights first, then the unending silence. They landed with a bit of a bounce, earning a chuckle from Harry and an irritated sound from Riddle.
"You should try it in zero gravity," Harry told him as Riddle flailed a bit. "This is sort of boring, comparatively."
"We are making real gravity for this rock or I'm never moving here," Riddle snapped as he finally fell back towards the ground. "This is ridiculous."
"You're just upset because you have no practice," Harry retorted, coming to rest next to his fellow Dark Lord. "And because it's hard to pull off dignified when you can't stay on the ground."
"Potter, do yourself a favour and shut up. Before I see how much stronger the Cruciatus is here."
Harry chuckled and knelt, touching the soil lightly. "How big do we want this stone? Same size as the one in Hogsmeade, or a little smaller?"
"Same size, I think. I'd rather have too much space than too little."
"Given." Harry nodded and started carving some rock out of the ground, pleased to find it so much easier than on Earth. "Hey, have the ostriches noticed the activation of the runes, yet?"
"Yesterday afternoon," Riddle reported, shuffling through their rune notes. "It took them a while to spot the change, the idiots. As of this morning, they were still trying to trace the rune set to the other side, but it's too far out of their spell range, or some such nonsense." Riddle sniffed. "Amateurs."
Harry chuckled and shook his head. "No sensible wizard would think to power their tracking spells enough to get into space. Okay, the stone is done. Give me my half of the notes."
Riddle handed over the requested notes, then hunched down on his side and got started on carving the notes into the rock. Likewise, Harry worked on his, smirking a bit as he changed the rune sequence to regulate gravity. He kind of liked having a bit of a bounce in his step, though he agreed that the tendency to soar off into the sky after a slight bounce was a little too much. But that lighter step was nice.
Other than the runes to regulate the gravity, they had a rune sequence to create an atmosphere, as well as to help the lunar soil sustain life. There were runes to protect against solar radiation, regulate temperatures, and help water form on the surface. There were also a slew of protection runes to keep mundane technology with harmful intent away from the moon.
Once they were done, they cast a few exploratory spells to find out how far below the surface the core of the moon was, and what the composition was like. Upon finding it to be much like Earth's, with a solid inner core and a liquid outer core, they added some additional runes to protect their rune stone. Excess stone was cut away and a small portion of the core was vanished, then the rune stone was activated and set into place.
The effects were almost immediate. Gravity came to bear and the spells on the robes that enabled them to breathe slowly faded away as the oxygen naturally in the moon's chemical make-up was circulated in the forming atmosphere. In silent agreement, Harry and Riddle both cast spells to transfigure the soil and add hydrogen to the air to help water form.
With stringy clouds forming over them, Riddle bounced a bit, pleased, then frowned and shot Harry – who grinned at him – an irritated look. "You altered the gravity runes," he accused, secretly relieved to not have to use the headset to communicate.
Harry's grin widened a bit. "Admit it. It's nice to have a natural spring in your step."
"Potter, Lord Voldemort does not have a 'spring in his step'. Ever."
"Well, now you do. And there's nothing you can do about it."
Riddle grunted and turned away to consider the still mostly-unchanged landscape. It was true that, once activated and put in place, the rune stone was designed to stay there until it fell apart on its own. There would be no pulling it out and playing with the gravity from time-to-time.
Harry chuckled to himself and knelt to run some soil through his fingers. "We'll probably want to start with greenhouses, I think, and work our way up from there. Some plants can be transplanted, but greenhouses would be the best, especially with how long it takes the moon to make a full rotation."
Riddle sighed. "I suppose. Maybe we'll luck out and some new breeds of plants will pop up that can survive with the strange sun cycles."
"I hope so." Harry stood and dusted off his hands, considering the barren fields. "Maybe I'll get myself a grass sample this week and see if I can alter it to survive on a monthly dose of sunlight. If I can get a specimen, I can bring it up here to take root. Neville should be a big help with that, too."
"He's a natural herbologist, you said?" Riddle enquired with only a slight grimace of distaste at having admitted to remembering anything about Harry's little friends.
"Yes."
"Set him to the task of setting up the greenhouses and getting the plants to survive in this climate," Riddle suggested. "Perhaps that genius mudblood friend of yours can help him with the spells."
Harry rolled his eyes. "And what will I be doing during all this?"
"Brainstorming ways to get the sheep up here with minimal fuss," Riddle retorted. "Oh, and talking to the castle."
"If she ever contacts me again." Harry sighed. "Talking to her has got me nowhere. I'll just have to wait until she's ready to contact me."
Riddle sighed and glanced up at the stars. "Have Lovegood find ways to get the animals up here. Especially the magical ones. Portkeys could work, but most magical creatures will need it explained to them or they'll fight you."
"I know. I'll see if she can get her dad to start publishing alternative living arrangements in the Quibbler, as well. If nothing else, it should get the idea into their tiny brains. Maybe we won't have to fight so much to get them up here."
"Yours is a happy nature," Riddle commented.
Harry stuck his tongue out at him.
"Your maturity astounds me, sometimes."
Harry decided the most mature thing he could do was ignore Riddle and shuffled a bit away to start transfiguring chunks of rock into parts of a greenhouse. He'd have to bring some materials from Earth to complete it, but he could at least get the structures put together.
Riddle shook his head, but recognised that Harry had a good idea. He had no interest in creating greenhouses, so he set about creating a building that he could use as a base for himself and his people. He could spend his free time creating buildings for businesses – shops, Gringotts, the Ministry – and homes for the people.
Four hours later, there were seventeen skeleton structures for greenhouses, Riddle's base, four large buildings, and at least a dozen small buildings to be used for houses or shops. After about two hours, Harry had remembered his tea and shared it with Riddle, who had been so grateful he'd actually managed a 'Thank you'.
But after four hours of work – plus the time spent making the rune stone and figuring out the composition of the lunar soil – they were both tired and quite ready to return to Earth. Riddle found an untouched rock and made it into a portkey. Once Harry was touching it, he activated it and they both went crashing back to Earth, ending up in a heap on the floor of Riddle's room. For a good ten minutes, both were content to just lie in a heap.
Then a knock came at the door and Lucius called, "My Lords? Are you in?"
Riddle groaned and shoved at Harry's shoulder to get the teen to move off his legs. "This better be important, Lucius!" he called back.
"I apologise, my Lord, but Severus came with news and happened to see one of the students in residence," Lucius explained, a faint tremble to his voice.
"Bloody fuck," Harry growled, lurching to his feet and pulling off his headset as he cast his Xerosis disguise.
Riddle changed into Voldemort and pulled off his own headset. He slammed the door open as soon as Xerosis was finished, ordering, "Xerosis, see to your minions. Lucius, where is Severus?"
"The meeting room, my Lord."
Voldemort swept past Lucius down to the meeting room, leaving his Death Eater with a scowling apparent vampire. "What, exactly, happened?" Xerosis demanded.
Lucius swallowed and looked away from the irritated pale eyes. "I'm not completely certain, my Lord. None of us even knew Severus was here until he came flying past the sitting room, headed for the floo. Barty was the one who caught him, and I believe he is with Miss Lovegood at the moment."
Xerosis nodded and went next door to his own room, walking in without knocking. "Alright, someone start talking," he ordered of the group that was gathered there.
"It was me," Tracey volunteered, flinching when the young Dark Lord's sharp gaze came to rest on her. "I was..." She swallowed. "I was going to visit Millie, since she was just next door. And Professor Snape was down the hall, poking his head into another room. I tried to sneak back into my room, but he saw me anyway." She shuffled a bit closer to Millicent, who sat next to her on the bed. "I'm sorry..."
Xerosis sighed and reached up to rub at the bridge of his nose. "Barty, what was Severus off to do when you caught him?"
"Returning to Hogwarts, my Lord," Barty offered quietly. "I'm not sure what he intended to do once he was there, but I told him that Miss Davis' presence would be explained by one of my Lords. He agreed to stay in the meeting room until one or both of you returned from whatever evil plans you were working on." He glanced at Luna, who smiled knowingly at him. "Luna assured me you wouldn't be much longer."
Xerosis sighed again. "Very well. Stay in here, all of you, while Voldemort and I sort this out." He turned and made his way out of his room and down towards the meeting room, muttering, "It's never easy, is it? No, no, of course not..."
"Has he finally lost his mind?" Millicent wondered.
"He's just tired," Luna assured her, still smiling knowingly. "He and Lord Voldemort were busy."
"My brain," Terry whimpered.
Down the hall, Xerosis snorted to himself as he slipped into the meeting room and out of hearing range of his friends. Snape was curled in a ball in the middle of the room, recovering from his most recent brush with Voldemort's Cruciatus. Voldemort, himself, looked somewhere between drained and furious.
:If you continue to curse him, he won't be able to answer our questions: Xerosis pointed out drily as he dropped into his chair. :Never mind how undignified it would look for you to collapse from magical exhaustion.:
:Potter, do me a favour and stop making sense: Voldemort hissed back.
:I'll get right on that.: Xerosis rolled his eyes, then focussed on Snape, who was pulling himself back to his knees. "Severus, would you care to explain to us why you were headed back to Hogwarts? Make it good, would you? Neither Lord Voldemort nor myself are in the mood for your bollocks today."
Snape took a moment to gather his thoughts, then carefully offered, "My Lords, I saw one of my students in the hallway–"
"Miss Tracey Davis, fifth year Slytherin," Xerosis reported impatiently. "I already heard as much from Miss Davis. I also heard that, upon sighting her, you ran for the floo, probable destination Hogwarts. I want to know why."
"Miss Davis has been sick abed for the past two days, my Lord. I needed to see if she was still in bed at Hogwarts, and how she could apparently be in two places at once." He paused for a moment, then offered, "Miss Bulstrode has also been sick."
"Hm." Xerosis rested back against his chair, glad that he'd never set himself to the same, rigid standards that Voldemort did. "Both Miss Davis and Miss Bulstrode are working on something for me that required them to be outside of Hogwarts for the weekend without their disappearance being noticed. Golems are currently occupying their beds." He smiled at Snape's surprised look, which he hadn't quite been able to hide. "Oh, yes, I already have my claws in your students, Severus. If only I could get them into you and not question how much Dumbledore would dislodge them in a day."
Voldemort let out an irritated hiss. "Discuss the allegiances of your little minions some other time, Xerosis. Severus, what did you need so desperately to tell us that it couldn't wait until when I usually call you?"
Snape focussed on Voldemort, his eyes on the man's knees. "My Lords, Dumbledore found some changes to the school's wards that mirror the new rune stone in Hogsmeade. He's talking about finding a warding team for the winter holiday and getting rid of the changes."
"Why do you think we'd care about the school wards?" Voldemort asked, glancing at Xerosis out of the corner of his eye. The teen frowned in response.
Snape swallowed. "My Lords, no one has come forth, admitting to having placed the ward stone in Hogsmeade, and Dumbledore, himself, didn't do it. The only people who could have done that much work without anyone catching on, and not come forward about it, would be yourselves."
"Clever Death Eaters aren't all that beneficial when they're straddling the line," Xerosis commented, smiling when Snape flinched. "Oh, I'm not going to curse you, Severus. If Dumbledore has already checked the wards thoroughly, he'll know it was us." He glanced at Voldemort. :How do you want to play this? We can try moving everyone up to the moon before the holidays, or we can try talking to the old man.:
Voldemort sighed and shook his head. :There's no way we can move a sufficient number of people up to the moon in two months, not with the way they'll fight against us. You think Dumbledore believes you to be the sane one?:
:Less insane, yes: Xerosis agreed. :You want me to try setting up a meeting with him?:
:Yes. Send an owl tomorrow morning at breakfast, when you can watch his reaction. If it's favourable, go ahead with the meeting. If not, we'll do what we can to nullify his need to change the wards.:
Xerosis nodded and looked back at Snape, who was trying his best to look uninterested in their hissed conversation. "Severus, you now know two of my spies in the school. Don't betray my trust and you won't meet any unfortunate accidents." He offered the Death Eater an evil little smile.
"Dismissed," Voldemort added.
"My Lords," Snape whispered with a bow before hurrying from the room.
"How will you know if he betrays your confidence?" Voldemort wondered. "Have your brats tell you if he's watching them too closely?"
"Mmm... Something like that," Xerosis agreed. "I'll let everyone know that Tracey and Millicent were compromised and all of them should keep an eye out for any professors who seem overly interested in them. Severus keeping an eye on them isn't unusual, but if one of the other professors – especially Dumbledore – is suddenly paying an inordinate amount of attention to them, we'll know he squealed."
"Very well." Voldemort sighed and rubbed at his forehead. "This has been a very long day."
"It's barely started," Xerosis replied, smiling tiredly and standing. "Well. I'm off to kick a bunch of teenagers out of my room so I can sleep."
Voldemort snorted and got to his own feet. "Potter, don't be stupid. There are already wards on my room that will keep the little buggers out. You might as well sleep in there."
Xerosis let out a mock gasp. "Tom, are you propositioning me?"
"You're lucky I'm too tired to curse you," Voldemort replied waving his wand in Xerosis' face. "Yes or no?"
"Yeah, thanks," Xerosis decided. He wasn't much interested in kicking his friends out, especially when he knew Luna would just come back in. He waited until they were back in Voldemort's bedroom and the older man was bringing his wards up to whisper, "Dobby."
The little house-elf popped into view next to him, eyes wide. "What can Dobby be doings for the most majestic and magnanimous Lord Xerosis?"
Riddle snorted from next to the door.
Xerosis sighed. "Has Luna been widening your vocabulary?" he wondered.
Dobby beamed. "Loony has! Loony is so kind."
"I'm glad you like her," Xerosis decided. "Now, go tell her I'm indisposed until further notice. Also, tell Lucius that if anyone disturbs myself or Lord Voldemort during the next twelve hours or so, we'll kill them on sight."
Dobby nodded. "Dobby understands," he agreed seriously, then popped out of sight.
"Excellent," Riddle said, moving to his bed.
Xerosis dropped his false appearance and climbed into the other side of the large bed. "Good night, Tom."
"Good night, Potter," Riddle replied, waving the lights out. "You'd better not snore."
"You'd better not be a kicker," Harry retorted.
Riddle snorted and they both closed their eyes to sleep.
Harry and his friends crept back into the school just as the clock ticked over to one in the morning. At the stairwell, Harry waved his Ravenclaw friends on, whispering, "I need to talk to the Slytherins for a moment. Luna knows how to vanish the golems."
Terry, Li, and Luna all nodded their understanding and stole up the stairs while Tracey, Millicent, and Harry made their way down to the dungeons, Tracey muttering, "What's this about, Potter?"
"I need to tell Lil, too," Harry replied, "assuming she's up. I'd rather tell all three of you at once."
Lillian was awaiting them on the couch nearest the fireplace, looking sleepy. She jerked her head up as they slipped in, eyes widening when she saw Harry. "Is something wrong?" she wondered, getting to her feet.
"Something happened, but I don't know that you'd say it was 'wrong', exactly," Harry replied, motioning for them all to sit down. Once they'd filled the couch, Harry perched on the table in front of them and explained, "Snape saw Tracey at Malfoy Manor when we stopped over there to rest. It was easier to explain to him that she and Millicent were doing something for Lord Xerosis than to deny her existence completely. The Dark Lord and I aren't quite certain where Snape's loyalties lie, so I need the three of you to keep your eyes out for any professors who are suddenly overly curious about your free time. Snape I expect, other professors, not so much. Let me know right away if any of them stand out."
"Understood," all three agreed.
Harry smiled and stood from the table. "Excellent. Let's meet up after lunch in the library."
"Ooh. Does that mean you have more evil plans for us to assist with?" Lillian asked, leaning forward excitedly.
"I'm full to bursting with evil plans," Harry assured her. "And I do have one or two you can help with, yes." He smiled at the excited looks all three girls wore at that. "Come now. Let's get rid of those golems so you can actually sleep, hm?"
Harry had sent his missive about a meeting to Dumbledore at breakfast and his expression, when he read it, seemed open to the idea. Harry had suggested the Three Broomsticks as a meeting place and left the time and day up to Dumbledore. He'd also mentioned that he would come in disguise, so as to not upset the residents of Hogsmeade.
After lunch, Harry had handed over multi-use portkeys to the moon to his friends and explained what he needed them doing up there. He warned them, also, that Voldemort might be up there, working. The Dark Lord knew that they'd be in and out and he'd agreed to ignore them, for the most part. If the students needed anything, they should come to Harry about it and he'd see that it was provided.
Since they'd had a little extra time before Hermione and Neville had to go to Charms, Harry took them all up to the moon and grinned through their murmurs of awe – not even Luna knew what all had changed since the last time she'd visited.
"So, about how many plants do you think you can get into one of these?" Harry had asked Neville while the others went exploring. He'd ensured that everyone had a magical headset, just in case they needed to contact one another in a hurry.
Neville considered the nearest greenhouse. "Depends on what kind they are. I can get almost three hundred smaller plants in here, with the right storage. Larger plants... probably between fifty and seventy-five." He glanced back at Harry.
Harry nodded. "If you can give me sketches of what you need in the ways of pots or storage bins – whatever – I'll have them in the greenhouses by the end of the week." He waved at the ground. "I'd like you to try to use the soil that's up here, but if you honestly think it won't work, let me know how much Earth soil you need and I'll transport it up here."
Neville nodded as he knelt to check the soil. "Mmm... I can't use just this, it's not alive enough, if that makes any sense?" He glanced back up at Harry, who shrugged a bit helplessly. Neville laughed. "Well, yeah. If you can provide me with a couple tonnes of Earth soil, I can mix it in with this. Get the plants used to this new soil, but make sure they've still got the extra nutrients they need."
"I can do that," Harry agreed, smiling. "I'll try to finish a few of these in the coming days, so you can start moving stuff into them."
"Cool. I'll see if I can't sketch you what I need during Charms," Neville promised. "I've got all of tomorrow afternoon free, so I'll come back up here then and get to work on stuff."
"Sounds good." Harry checked the time and touched a hand to his headset. "Hermione, time for Charms."
"Oh! Thanks, Harry! Neville?"
"I'm heading down now," Neville replied. He offered Harry a wave before using his portkey to return to the school – Harry had set them to let out in an abandoned classroom on the fourth floor.
Harry touched his headset again and offered, "I'm heading back down to the planet to get some things I need for these greenhouses. Anyone need anything while I'm down there?"
"Paint!" Luna called. "This place is so monotone."
"For once, Loony, we are in complete agreement," Morag offered. "Bring us a couple bucketfuls, Potter. We can change the colours in them ourselves, but we need that base ingredient."
Harry chuckled. "Alright. It'll take me about twenty minutes, though."
"Best get going, then," Terry replied lightly.
Harry rolled his eyes and portkeyed back down to the school, grumbling to himself when he landed in a heap. "Mental note, master long-range portkey travel," he muttered before transfiguring his school robes into something a bit more mundane and shadowing to a large hardware shop he knew of in Surrey. There, he gathered three carts, one full of white paint, one full of wood beams and the last full of bags of sand. All of that was subtly portkeyed up to the base Riddle had created on the moon. His next stop was a gardening shop he knew of not far from the hardware shop. There, he got himself a couple carts of soil to portkey up.
His last stop was to a grocery, where he actually paid for a cart of food and drinks to leave in the base for visitors. He also bought a couple jugs of water to leave on the surface to help generate more water in the air. The moon was still rather dry, all things considered. After portkeying his cart of food up, he unearthed himself a nice patch of grass and portkeyed up himself. He could work on changing the grass during breaks from the greenhouses.
Back on the moon, he created a cold box for the food and drinks and set the jugs outside to evaporate. Touching his headset, he called, "Back. If you want your paint, come on over to the large building we arrived near. I've got drinks, too."
There was no verbal response, but all eight students came at a run for the promised drinks. Once they'd hydrated, they took their paint, which Harry had cast ever-full spells on, and vanished back into the grey buildings.
Harry gathered his wood, sand and a can of paint and made his way back towards the greenhouses. The wood was set to one side to use as a base in transfiguring whatever shelving Neville wanted and the paint was set next to it to use after he was done. The sand was spilled on the ground of the greenhouses – he'd collected enough for six of them – and then used to transfigure glass, which the buildings were covered in. The glass turned out a bit tougher and less opaque than Earth glass, since he'd used the natural moon soil with the sand, but he was actually rather pleased with the turnout.
He took a break from the greenhouses to work on his grass. He also checked the time and warned, "We've got about another half hour before dinner." He worked with the grass until it was time for dinner, then portkeyed back down with the others, who'd come to join him.
"What are you going to do with the greenhouses?" Li wondered as they all hid their headsets and set off to fill their bellies.
"I was thinking of painting pictures of trees and flowers or whatever on them, but I'm not really an artist," Harry admitted.
"I'll do it!" Luna immediately volunteered.
"Millie and Morag are both pretty good artists," Lillian volunteered, smiling when her friends shot her irritated looks.
"Li's not bad, either," Harry admitted, smiling at the girl when she flushed. "Sure, if you four are done painting houses, you can have fun with the greenhouses."
"Cool. We were starting to run out of buildings to paint," Millicent offered.
"Oh, dear..." Harry sighed. "As long as you don't paint the big one."
They all laughed as they separated to go to their tables to eat.
After dinner, everyone met back up in the library, in agreement that they should work on their homework. Harry used the time to talk with Neville about his sketches, creating 3D images of the items Neville had sketched so Harry was sure he understood what his friend wanted.
That night, as Harry was getting ready for bed, Dumbledore's response came. He'd suggested they meet Thursday morning, when Harry would be in Potions. Harry sent back his agreement, then climbed behind his curtains and cast the Parseltongue communication spell. :Tom, meeting with Dumbledore on Thursday. I'll let you know how it went after. Also, bought some food and drinks and left them in the base. My friends talked me into procuring some paint for them, so the buildings are a bit colourful, though I wouldn't let them near the base. I'll be up there tomorrow morning if you need me for anything. Good night.:
The next morning saw Harry, Morag, Li, and Terry back up on the moon. The Slytherins and Gryffindors had Defence and Luna had Arithmancy in an hour, so had decided to just remain on the planet.
Riddle met them up there, scowling at the students, who looked back at him in surprise. Harry sighed and offered, "Ladies, Terry, this is Lord Voldemort. Voldemort, Terry Boot, Li Su, and Morag McDougal."
"Hn," Riddle replied before turning and walking into the base.
Harry rolled his eyes and offered his friends a helpless smile. "Sorry. Paint is there. I'm going to go talk to him for a bit. If you need me..." He tapped his headset.
"Good luck," Li offered honestly before grabbing a paint can and starting off towards the greenhouses with Terry and Morag.
Harry slipped into the base and raised an eyebrow at the furnishings. "You've been busy."
"I debated sleeping here," Riddle admitted from the couch he was sitting in. "No one bothers me, and there's food."
Harry snorted and dropped himself in a chair. "Sure, but if the manor burns down, you'd never know."
"What a loss that would be," Riddle replied drily, earning a chuckle from the teen. "I take it Dumbledore reacted well to your message?"
"Yeah. I mean, I didn't really expect him to react poorly..." Harry shrugged. "I'll see what I can do about him playing with the wards, at any rate."
"Good." Riddle leaned forward. "I take it your minions are going to be around fairly often?"
Harry nodded. "During the school day, yeah. We're taking meals on the planet and spending time after dinner working on homework, but otherwise, sure, they've got portkeys. Why?"
"I'd considered allowing a few Death Eaters to come up here," Riddle admitted. "But if your minions are going to be around a lot, letting, say, Bella come up here would be a bad idea."
"Hmmm." Harry frowned and considered the problem. "The Death Eaters with kids should be okay, though. Or those with nieces or nephews. Also, Barty should be okay. It would be nice to have an adult presence up here," he added, grimacing. "I have this image of one of my friends dropping a building on themselves or something and I'm in class on the surface."
Riddle sighed. "I suppose I can try being up here while you're in classes," he allowed. "If something happens, I can take care of it." He scowled when Harry beamed at him. "I'm not sure I'd want any of our people or your minions up here by themselves, anyway. Salazar knows what sort of trouble they'd cause."
Harry chuckled. "Well, yeah." He shook his head. "You know, anyone you allow up here will have to be okay with working beside Harry Potter and a couple of mudbloods."
"Don't remind me," Riddle grumbled before letting out a sigh. "We'll have to tell them who you are eventually."
Harry nodded. "I know. Why don't you have Lucius and Barty spend this week feeling them out for people who wouldn't react with violence to my presence or that of a couple mudbloods. We can tell them who I am this weekend and let them up here next week."
Riddle nodded. "Very well. Leave me with a copy of your class schedule before you disappear off to play with your greenhouses."
Harry rolled his eyes, but obediently pulled out his schedule from a pocket to copy. "And what'll you be doing? Taking a nap?"
Riddle snorted. "Hardly. I've been furnishing this building and making more buildings out there." He waved out a glassless window. "How did you make the glass for your greenhouses, by the way?"
"Hm? Oh, I went down to a hardware shop and made off with some of their sand. Mixed it with the lunar soil and transfigured that. Here." He handed over the copied schedule.
Riddle glanced over the sheet. "Hn. Right. I'll probably pop down to the surface for some sand, then."
"Feel free to get me some wood while you're at it," Harry offered a bit jokingly as he stood. "I don't think I have enough for all the structures Neville wants."
"We'll see," Riddle replied before vanishing.
Harry chuckled to himself and left the base for the greenhouses, summoning some bottles of water for his friends on the way. The water was met with smiles and, upon inspecting the greenhouse they were mostly done with, Harry offered, "That looks really good."
Li flushed while Morag scowled, though her eyes sparkled with pleasure. Terry just grinned and commented, "You were in there for a long time."
"Mm. We were discussing Dark Lord things," Harry replied, settling in to work on the structures Neville had asked for. "Here, Terry, you can hold pieces up while I transfigure." Once Terry was settled, Harry added, "Voldemort has agreed to stay on the moon while I'm in class, so if something goes wrong and you need help, one of us should always be around."
"Oh, great," Terry muttered while Li and Morag traded grimaces.
"It won't be so bad. He knows better than to toss a Crucio at one of you, at any rate, so you should be fine. He's been working on creating more buildings and furnishing the big one. The couch and chairs are actually pretty comfortable, if you end up needing a real break." He paused to take his finished piece from Terry and set it up in the greenhouse. Once he was back outside again, he added, "We were talking about letting some of the more kid-friendly Death Eaters up here to help create the buildings and furnish stuff, but that won't happen until next week. Just a heads up, I suppose."
Terry grimaced. "Will they be okay with Hermione and me?"
"They'd have to be okay with Potter, too," Morag pointed out.
"That's why we're waiting a week," Harry explained. "We need the time to feel them out and decide which ones can actually be left up here without either Voldemort or myself hovering over their shoulders."
The students all snorted at that and they fell silent as they returned to their work.
Xerosis arrived at the Three Broomsticks well before the time he was supposed to meet with Dumbledore. He ordered a breakfast from Rosmerta – technically, it was his lunch, since he'd just left Potions, but they weren't serving anything other than breakfast – and settled in to a booth in the back corner. He pulled out some paperwork Voldemort had shoved off on him yesterday and got started reading over the reports from some of their Chinese agents – Voldemort had only really shoved it onto him because the man couldn't be arsed to learn Mandarin and the code they used didn't translate when the translation charm was used. Why Voldemort even had Chinese agents...
Xerosis had chosen to disguise himself with long red hair, held back in a clip, but had kept his pale eyes. He'd also aged his glamour a few years, so no one would wonder what a Hogwarts-aged student was doing outside the school on a Thursday.
When she delivered his food, Rosmerta stopped to chat, asking, "So what's a handsome lad like you doing around here on so nice a morning?"
Xerosis smiled at her. "Business, I'm afraid," he allowed. "I have a meeting with the Headmaster in twenty minutes or so."
Rosmerta sighed and dropped into the booth across from him. "We never see Albus down here any more," she offered. "He's always too busy with the war."
"Not much of a war, though, is it?" Xerosis commented. "Seems You-Know-Who's content to focus on the muggles, this time around. He's not even going after the muggleborns."
"It is a bit odd. Everyone I've talked to thinks it's because of that new kid. Lord X-ray or whatever."
Xerosis winced. "Xerosis?" he offered.
"That's it!" Rosmerta smiled at him, then frowned a bit. "Not sure why You-Know-Who would share power, though. Xerosis must be really powerful for You-Know-Who to bow to him."
"I think we all hope it's nothing so worrisome," Dumbledore commented from behind the barmaid. "Good morning, Rosmerta."
Rosmerta hurried to her feet, offering a pleasant smile. "Good morning, Albus. I'm glad to see you in the village, although I've been told you're here on business."
Dumbledore looked past her at Xerosis, who flashed him a smile with fake fangs. Dumbledore smiled back. "Yes, I'm afraid so," he said to Rosmerta. "Perhaps you could retrieve me a butterbeer?"
"Certainly." Rosmerta turned and hurried back to the kitchen.
Dumbledore slipped into the booth Rosmerta had just vacated, commenting, "I was surprised to receive a missive from you. Tom has never been interested, in the past, in speaking. I admit that I expected the same of yourself."
They were interrupted by the arrival of Dumbledore's drink, which Rosmerta set in front of him with a smile. "Alright. Anything else?"
"I think we'll be fine on our own," Xerosis replied with a friendly smile. "Thank you."
Rosmerta nodded and left them to it with a wave.
Xerosis turned his attention back to the Headmaster, who was watching him with a curious expression. "Normally, we wouldn't contact you," he allowed, "but Severus informed us you were talking about reworking the wards we added to Hogwarts. Tom and I agreed we needed to talk you out of that."
Dumbledore's eyebrows raised up towards his hairline. "So you admit you tampered with them?" he asked.
"I do." Xerosis cocked his head to one side. "I don't know that I'd call it 'tampering', per say. We strengthened them against the mundanes and Tom got rid of his curse on the Defence position."
"Indeed? I didn't think Tom would ever remove that."
Xerosis snorted. "Oh, he didn't want to. I was saved the trouble of arguing it with him when the school herself insisted we remove it. Something about cursing us terribly if we didn't?" Dumbledore chuckled. "At any rate, yes, Tom was talked around."
"You are far less insane than I gave you credit for," Dumbledore decided.
Xerosis offered the older man an ironic smile. "You mean I'm more personable than you gave me credit for. I assure you, I am quite insane. Just not in quite the same way that Tom is." He picked up the water he'd ordered with his meal – most of which he'd eaten while Rosmerta had been sitting with him – and took a sip.
The Headmaster hummed. "What sort of 'strengthening' did you add to my wards?" he enquired. "And why can't anyone figure it out?"
"You're not looking far enough," Xerosis replied. "For all that you are determined to protect the mundanes, you don't seem to know a great deal about them, and, often, what you profess to know is wrong." He raised an eyebrow at the strange look Dumbledore gave him. "Yes?"
"One of my students calls muggles 'mundanes'."
"Interesting." Xerosis turned his attention towards his meal. "I got it from a mundane friend I had a great many years ago, so I suppose it's possible for one of your students to be familiar with it." He shrugged. "Tell me, Headmaster, what do you know of the mundanes' space travel?"
Dumbledore blinked. "Space travel? Like their trips to the moon in those aeroplanes?"
Xerosis sighed. "Space shuttles," he corrected. "And they do far more than travel to the moon. They have satellites in orbit around Earth, the moon and other planets which record things that happen there. Because those satellites are so far beyond the reach of your average muggle repelling charms, they can see past them and to the thing they're supposed to be hiding."
Understanding had dawned on Dumbledore's face as Xerosis had spoken. Once he paused to sip at his water again, the Headmaster said, "So you added to the wards to allow them to reach out into space?"
Xerosis snorted. "No. There's not enough magic in the whole of this planet to do that. We traced a two-part rune set, one of which went on the ward rune stone, the other of which was carved into every active satellite in orbit."
Dumbledore blinked at him.
Xerosis rolled his eyes. "At any rate, without those modifications we made, the mundanes would be able to aim a missile at the school and that would be the end of that. None of us wants that, so I shall request that you leave our wards where they are." He offered the older wizard a bright smile.
Dumbledore sighed. "I see. In that case, I believe I will leave the runes intact." He paused. "I don't suppose there's any way I could talk you out of killing the muggles?"
Xerosis snorted. "Not going to happen, but thanks for playing."
The Headmaster sighed again. "You seem like a perfectly reasonable man–"
"You want to know why I think the mundanes should be wiped out," Xerosis interrupted. "They killed my family, just because they were magical." He leaned forward, pale eyes bright with silent hatred. "They destroyed everything I had, everything I'd ever known. They didn't care for my pleas, for the pleas of my wife or children. Why should I listen to theirs?" He sat back, smiling grimly at the appalled look Dumbledore wore. "Look at their response to our presence now: They bomb any place that might have a magical family living nearby, giving no thought for the mundanes who might be caught in the blast. They wish only for the eradication of our subspecies, giving no care for the danger their actions pose to themselves."
"You intend to punish the whole species for the actions of those who are already dead?" Dumbledore wondered.
"I do," Xerosis agreed, collecting his reports and slipping from the booth. "Good day, Headmaster. It was lovely chatting, but I have mundanes to torture." He offered the man an insane little smile before retreating to Rosmerta and offering the money he owed for his meal, saying, "It was lovely, Madam. I'll have to return again sometime soon."
"Please do," Rosmerta replied, smiling cheerily back as she counted out his change. "It's always nice to have handsome gentlemen such as yourself around."
Xerosis chuckled and caught her hand as she handed him his change. "It's even more lovely to have such a beautiful woman serving such delightful meals," he replied, dropping a kiss on the back of her hand.
Rosmerta laughed and waved her hand at him once he'd freed it. "Oh, go on, you!"
Xerosis tipped her a wink and left the pub in a pleasant mood. Once outside, he found a shadow and shadowed back to Riddle's room, where he left the translated reports. From there, he portkeyed up to the moon. Neville was always too nervous to ask assistance from Riddle, but he always seemed to need something. Since he had a couple free hours, he might as well see what he could do.