Aftermaths
"Good grief!" said a bleary-eyed Susan.
Everyone looked at her.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, do you all realise that it's 3 am?"
"Doesn't feel like 3 am," said Parvati and stretched, "I mean, I wasn't quite tired, so I was reading ahead."
"Yeah, Me too," said everyone else at the table.
Susan rolled her eyes, "That doesn't sound healthy at all, find a stopping spot and come to bed."
.
"Here Harry," said Padma.
"What's this?"
"Owl order form, everything from Parvati's shopping lists, that can also be drop-shipped from my parents' company."
Harry looked at the first sheet: an order form, like she said, the other sheet was the total it came to in pounds.
"The prices are a rough estimate," she said, "for a list this big, and I wasn't sure if you'd cross things off, I didn't see the point in figuring cents without a calculator. And that's retail before taxes. They might let us have a wholesale price on some of it, but I don't even know if it's worth the politics to ask."
"It's fine," he looked it over twice, "Go ahead and order it. Within reason, I don't mind buying extra non-perishable consumables if that lets us get wholesale on those. On the other hand, if their business is opening pallets worth of freight, storing it, and selling it a case or less at a time. It's not fair to want them to do exactly that without pay."
"Exactly," said Padma, and relaxed significantly.
"What's left that they aren't selling?"
"Mostly perishable food, and linens," said Padma.
Harry stared into the wall, then nodded, "Thank you for doing this."
Padma grinned, "Parvati started it, but then went to her potions collaboration with Lavender and co. I finished it, I'm faster at it."
Harry shrugged, "Still, thank you. Would you also make a list of what's left? I'm thinking of giving it to Ginny and Susan to work on next Saturday."
"Why?" said Padma.
"To help Susan feel included in the adventure," said Harry, "and give Ginny a chance to feel in charge of something."
Padma's eyes widened, "Oh!"
"Also, I think they're both over-thrifty on some things, and maybe a bit under thrifty on others, hopefully by pairing them, they will balance each other out. And give them practice with the feeling of spending money on needs."
Padma frowned, "Yeah, but … I'd give them the non-perishable list first, see how they do before I'd give them the other."
Harry shrugged, "fine. Also, I'm not sure how far we want to go with the perishable goods before we're actually planning on being there in long enough stretches to use it up."
"Of course."
.
"Alright everyone," said Harry, "I happen to notice that Valentine's Day is next month."
There was a tense and awkward silence.
Harry shrugged, "I'm aware that one of the traditions is gifts. Yet, a couple of years ago I overheard a couple of older girls talking about the gifts they received, and universally they thought they were overpriced, and not particularly needed, in fact, proof that their dates hadn't listened particularly well. And what most of them wanted was … not so much the more personalised gifts that might have proved that their dates had listened, but the listening better to start with."
"Oh," said Luna, "Maybe elephants are so wise because of how big their ears are."
"This leaves me with two obvious options, or three, depending on perspective, do you all want to choose gifts, or shall we forgo gifts, in preference for dates that intentionally defy the commercialisation of St. Valentine's Day."
"So, you're saying not spending money?" said Susan.
"Not necessarily," said Harry, "I'm saying if you didn't want chocolate or roses or jewellery all the rest of the year, why would you suddenly want those things in February, conversely if you do want those things and February is merely a good excuse, tell me."
"You don't have to wait until February to give us chocolate," said Ginny.
"Hear hear!" said Padma.
"He buys it by the case," said Luna, "and he doesn't even think of it as 'his own' enough for the anti-theft charm on his satchel to keep from letting it back out, you can just stick your hand in and ask for some."
Everyone stared at her.
"Since when?" said Susan and went to try that.
"Since the dementors," said Harry, "Or since Leona, not sure which."
Padma scratched her temple, "Since you ate chocolate as a girl?"
Harry nodded.
"Is there an addiction problem?" said Parvati.
Harry shook his head, "Leona is aware that it is important medicine, and keeps it on hand. I don't spend enough time as her to eat it all. Also, I'm aware that Luna and at least one other were taking it for their monthlies and grown to like mine better than their normal source, so I just assumed buying it by the case made sense. You're all welcome. But yeah, I've heard addiction could be a problem, I don't want you replacing meals with it, but feel free to supplement your supplies from mine, or grab an extra dose or two for your healer kits in case of dementors."
"Oh," said Padma, "That kind of security stockpile."
Harry nodded, "I'm willing to be advised that there's a better chocolate or better value out there than Läderach Wholesale Standard Milk, but … it might take extensive testing to prove that to Leona and I."
"Extensive testing sounds like fun," said Susan.
Luna laughed, "Pass some here, Susan."
Soon they all had a bar, (or a half bar) and had agreed that Läderach was sufficiently better than their normal source that Harry should continue buying it by the case, and that additional testing was not a priority.
.
"I want roses growing in my yard," said Ginny, "Not dying in a vase on my table."
"Same," said Luna, "Daddy and I are growing some the same colour as our hair."
Harry blinked, "fair enough."
Ginny raised her hand, it was very tentative and jittery.
"What Ginny?"
"I didn't say anything."
"You raised your hand."
"I didn't … err what does that mean again?"
"Muggle students in class wanting their teacher to assign them permission to talk or ask questions."
Ginny blinked hard, "I should have remembered that from dealing with Hermione. I wasn't raising my hand, I was …" she shook her arm so her bracelet rattled.
"I don't want expensive jewellery," she said finally, "I want … a portkey anklet from you."
Both the Patils nodded.
"I almost would rather it was steel or copper actually."
Luna shuddered.
"For cheapness or for strength?" said Harry.
"Both," said Ginny.
"Gold is stronger than silver or copper," said Harry.
Both the Patils winced.
"Stainless steel has nickel and is allergenic for some people," said Susan.
"Right," said Harry, "I think I've gathered that copper and gold have unfortunate implications in various traditions, and we'd better just stick with silver."
Both the Patils and Luna nodded.
"Alright," said Harry, "do you want matching, or unique, or matching shape but with your own house and/or family crest and/or favourite gemstone?"
"Just house crest is fine," said Ginny.
"Bells or coral or both," said Luna.
The Patils looked at her sharply.
"Not?" said Luna.
The Patils looked at each other. Padma said, "Do you consider yourself his consort? Or is he just a friend who happens to be protecting you with a thrall mark for a while, and also one of several people that are safe to tutor yourself about sex?"
Luna shrugged, "At the moment, I'm …" she turned to stare at Harry and swallowed, she stared for several breaths, with only a couple quick glances at Ginny, "Even when I get old enough to take off his mark," said Luna, "I think I'll still be a member of House Potter, unless, maybe I ever find a husband or something to buy me from them."
"Do you want a sher-mark on your anklet?" said Parvati, "To keep anyone from seeing or hearing it except Lion's-Keep members?"
Luna frowned, "wouldn't socks work just as well for that?"
"Sort of," said Padma,
"Do you ever wear socks?" said Susan.
"Never mind that," said Parvati, "the anklet either means 'married and protected,' or it means 'protected by tribe well enough to boldly look for attention.' Or 'able to protect yourself and boldly looking for attention.' It's contradictory enough of wearing a sher-mark for invisibility all the time that I had to ask."
Luna shrugged, "I guess I could try wearing a house mark outside my robes instead of a sher mark inside them."
"I think," said Padma, "We've been top five in the house duels for long enough, that you should be safe."
"Am I ineligible then?" said Susan.
Harry shrugged, "your contract implies but does not quite dictate I visit your house monthly, not that you visit mine. It does imply your children by me have an escape route to my estate. I think it makes sense that you'd have access to the same escape route, if for no other reason than to come to pick them up again after the danger is passed."
She nodded.
"Alright," said Harry, "Everyone wants portkey anklets with their house or family crest."
"House and Family," said Padma.
Harry nodded, "We can go shopping for those next Saturday, I don't have any idea if they'll be ready by the ides of February. Anything else?"
Padma sent him a weird expression, then looked away. Almost always that look meant he was being weirdly dense but she'd let Hermione explain it.
"Padma," he said.
She shook her head minutely.
"Hermione isn't here, and according to the way things look, will be around less and less. If I need advice, you need to give it to me, maybe here, maybe take notes to tell me elsewhere."
She narrowed her eyes and stared at him for a second then drew a piece of parchment toward herself grabbed a quill, then sighed and put it down.
"It's funny and … it's amusingly transgressive to wear betrothal or wedding ornaments from a different culture, to parade our status under everyone's noses. It's an altogether different kind of subtlety or foolishness, perhaps even deceptiveness to neglect to wear the signals of the culture where we are." She gave him a little bit more of a stare then turned to Susan, "Do British mages wear betrothal rings or wedding rings or do they do something else?"
Susan blinked, "there are enough muggle-borns around, that it's not uncommon to do that anyway. But the mage tradition is more like, from about age 16 if not earlier you'd be wearing your house and family crests on your chest or shoulder. When you get engaged or married or transfer to another clan or family you'd change crests, or if your shoulder crest is staying the same, or you're waiting until marriage to remove the old one, add a symbol from the family crest of your betrothed below your own crest, it's not a positive identification who you're betrothed to, but it gives everyone a hint who to check for a major change of crest. Also, Harry might wear his crest, from the left side of his belt. In either location, it is symbolism for shields. 'This is whose shield I'm hiding behind,' or 'this is whose shield I'm carrying.' Except as mages often we use magical or conjured shields not wood, leather, or wrought or cast metal. Therefore the crest is merely symbolic."
"And this difference is because he's male?" said Parvati.
Susan shook her head, "Because he is head of house and…" Susan shrugged.
"So would it be an appropriate warning," said Harry, "or giving the enemy too much information, for me to give belt crests rather than shoulder crests to my warrior princesses?"
Susan wiggled then smiled, "speaking of amusingly transgressive, that's fine but … that's more like … what Bellatrix might wear, or Auntie might have worn before she became regent. Also … it implies that your house is at war or gearing up for war, or has some kind of royal mandate to maintain a standing army."
"Would … wearing it be a subtle tell to the other purebloods that House Potter is aware that you-know-who is back, without giving anyone any ammunition to demonise me, yet again?"
"Possibly the opposite," said Susan, "anyone who drops neutrality before there is a threat, is by definition a threat."
"Ah," said Harry.
"As a personal affectation," she shrugged, "Hanna for instance could do what she wants, as an underage member of the house, her clothing choices mainly reflect on her personality and only fractionally reflect on the house. But as the future head of house, I can't get away with war declarations as merely a stylistic choice."
"Understood," said Harry.
"Which is not to say," said Susan, "that I wouldn't start wearing that, the day you told me it was time. But they're kind of annoying as accessories go, and how often do you really wear a belt with your robes, outside of January and February when it holds a nice amount of extra heat in?"
"That's an important consideration," agreed Parvati.
"Am I hearing that it would be a good accessory to have handy, and hope to never need to wear?" said Harry.
"Yes," said Susan, "And it only becomes a more emphatic statement if you normally wear a chest or shoulder crest, and one day start wearing the belt crest also. It implies that it is not merely a stylistic choice you made when you ordered your robes, that you'd rather be wearing neutrality, but aren't today. There's also a bit of, 'I'm on a war footing today, but don't plan to be for long enough to buy new robes before the danger is dealt with.'"
Harry nodded, "What's the difference in meaning between shoulder and chest positioning of crests?"
Susan shrugged, "mostly artefacts of history. Different cultures, and even just different weight shields, imply the need to strap it on in different positions when travelling long distances with it but not using it." She shrugged again, "at the most practical level, you can see that most of the sixth and seventh years that choose to do so: To wear their clan and/or family crests on their shoulders because their school uniforms already have their Hogwarts House on the chest."
"Right, I knew that," said Harry.
"Are there other commonly understood crest locations?"
Susan nodded, "you know wrist for slaves and thralls."
"Sure," said Harry.
"Tattooed forehead or cheek for war captives that are … basically long term hostages, the understanding is that they will always belong to their new house through no fault of their own, but given that they will almost certainly be killed rather than allowed to be rescued, and having the mark itself may block them from ever re-integrating into their own house or the rest of society even if they were rescued, there's a certain amount of expectation that they will either act dangerously loyal to their new house, or to live like their life is already over, or in such a way to get killed or executed as soon as possible, (thereby freeing up their family to act). Depending a lot on the circumstances of their house, and that of their captors."
"Alright," said Harry.
"Are our holsters mixed signals?" said Padma.
"Not really," said Susan, "maybe a little, mine at least puts my sher-mark on the outside of my forearm, more like a shield actually being worn, less like a thrall mark. Second, it's a personal mark, not a house crest, so it means personal things, not house things. Even if the things that Harry means by his protection are vaguely family-like rather than house- or war-related."
"So our sher-mark holsters are already a more warlike declaration than belt sashes?"
Susan nodded, "Yes and no, having your wand handy, yes, it signals readiness for battle, but it also signals readiness for everything else you do with your wand, it doesn't mean war, because it doesn't mean anything house-related, it means ready to act. It means … citizen."
"But they ar—" said Harry.
Susan held up her hand, "it is possible to be a citizen, without being a citizen of anything, certainly not anything so small as a country."
Padma nodded, "Certainly."
"But?" said Harry.
Padma turned to look at him, "Not all of us are kings of the jungle, some of us are gentlemen of the forest."
Susan nodded, "Some dogs run and hunt in packs, some dogs save the day in other ways."
"I'll have to think about that," said Harry.
Padma tapped his shopping list.
He added house and family crest badges to his list, then rings also.
After a minute he smirked and looked up, "thank you for answering the question I asked. Now let me try again to ask the question I actually meant: It's coming up on Valentine's Day, it's going to be on a Wednesday, not a weekend, and only one of those weekends is a Hogsmeade weekend for non-NEWT students, what do each of you want in an ideal Valentine's Day date? Or are our normal dates, and our normal date rotation, sufficient?"
"Flying and mossy sex, and arithmancy," said Luna, "but all the moss is frozen over, so…"
Harry nodded, "Fair enough. Does anyone else want to volunteer for the non-Hogsmeade weekend?"
"Given the time of the month that will be," said Susan, "I might want one-on-one time and not sex."
Under the table Ginny held his knee for a moment, then relaxed and sat back again.
He looked at her.
"My wishes conflict with each other, and with reality," said Ginny.
"Tell us anyway?" said Harry, "maybe we can only do some of them."
"I like the way we do our normal Hogsmeade weekends. Sometimes explorations, sometimes shopping missions, sometimes other missions. And the way we normally manage alone time as needed in the midst of revising chaos. But … for a special occasion," she shrugged, "I wouldn't mind longer alone time. Maybe like what other people do for dates."
Harry nodded, "That sounds possible."
"I also … would like to … cook-breakfast-for-everyone-in the Old-Cottage-kitchen."
She glanced at him so tentatively and then away, that she didn't seem to see him smile, nor that the idea only barely surprised him.
He found her arm under the table. She looked up.
Harry smiled, then nodded, "Which would imply all of us sleeping there."
She nodded.
"Hmm," said Parvati, "And I've been wondering how soon we were going to start adding exploration trips to Potter Estates in place of Hogsmeade."
"How about," said Harry, "Let's start doing that all weekends that aren't Hogsmeade weekends, and revising schedules don't preclude it."
"From what you said, I'm not sure it's a good idea to be that predictable," said Susan.
"More to the point," said Padma, "I'm not sure that any of us want to be spending alone time there, but our normal date style might already be optimised for exploring … nominally neutral territory with suspicions of hostile people around."
"Stay together as a team, while exploring," said Harry, "makes sense."
He looked at Ginny.
She nodded, "And there's plenty of bedrooms, well … plenty of rooms and we can transfigure beds."
Padma shrugged, "I for one will not be sleeping alone there until I've had a chance to interview that ward monitor entity you mentioned very thoroughly."
Parvati took her elbow and whispered something to her.
Padma relaxed and sat back.
"So what I'm hearing," said Harry, "again, one thing that doesn't need to wait for Valentine's Day to provide the special occasion, and several things that sort of can be. Let's add Potter Estates, or at least the muggle side where the death eaters nominally aren't permitted, to our places to explore. And perhaps spend whole weekends there, not just Saturday mornings, or whatever."
He looked at Ginny, "and you may reserve meals that you wish to cook for us, compared to when we each cook for ourselves, or whatever else might make sense at any point."
She nodded, "controlled chaos and on-the-fly negotiations."
He nodded.
"Works for life, crazy for planning a multi-course meal."
He nodded
Parvati said, "We probably will need to work out a system of reserving ingredients as well as reserving responsibility for special occasion meals."
Padma nodded.
"Harry, what's wrong?" said Ginny.
Harry wondered how she'd tracked the plummet of his emotions even before he realised what he was trying to understand. To deal with.
"I want … a kitchen where I'm allowed to cook and eat without … fear of reprimand," he said, he left off the 'or worse punishments.' Though he'd already figured out that she'd been able to tell so much from the set of his shoulders.
He was surprised that it was Parvati who started stroking his back even before Ginny even got her eyes back down from the size of saucers.
"Do we really have to wait until after dealing with you-know-who to destroy your relatives?" growled Ginny.
Harry shook his head, "we're not going to do anything to them."
"Why not?" said Ginny, "I mean, besides that it's against the law?"
"Because it's mostly not their fault," said Harry.
Ginny sputtered.
"Ginny," he said, "How would your family have treated a, hmm not nundu, … an occamy or a wild crup or something, maybe, if Gallert Grindelwald … or maybe just … Headmaster Karkaroff appeared one day, demanded they take care of it for ten years, for no pay, or not enough to buy the special feed it needed, no other instructions other than, it was illegal for them to have it, and more illegal plus the end of the world, for them to get rid of it?"
Ginny frowned, "Bill and Charlie would have rigged up a nice kennel or whatever for it. And tried to teach it to play fetch or whatever. But … maybe … fewer of us would have been born if there wasn't enough money to go around."
Harry nodded, "and maybe let it go by accident sometimes, for the fun of having something more interesting than a snitch to chase from a broom."
She nodded, with an indulgent smirk.
"I lived in a kennel under the stairs," said Harry, "The lock was on the outside, 'Harry hunting' was the name of the sport my cousin and his friends invented. The wizard who put me there, did so with no more than a note, without speaking to them to find out how much they could handle, negotiating an appropriate rate of pay, or who to contact about accidental magic reversal. After my first year at Hogwarts, I was moved to a bigger kennel, but I was let out even less, that's where your brothers stole me from."
She frowned, "You weren't even a pet, you were a … captive wild creature?"
Harry nodded, "'torture pet,' was the term my cousin used for the behaviours he was apologising for when he requested my protection."
She frowned, "Can I refuse him House protection?"
Harry shrugged, "I already gave him a mark … (Oh, that's whose mark was between us and Rookwood.) At a minimum, I owe him protection until he is of age."
"But I don't?"
Harry shrugged, "you're co-ruler of my mark, you get to decide how much protection you want to give him. That's not the same as the House of Potter."
"Where's his mark," she said.
"Roof of his mouth," said Harry, "I never noticed it making him invisible, but … the only protection he requested was from dementors and bad mages, it might not need to make him invisible from hardly anyone most of the time."
She frowned at him, then turned to Susan, "is that considered a face mark?"
Susan shrugged, "'Spoils of war' is 'spoils of war,' regardless of how it's marked, voluntarily wearing a thrall mark where it's visible is a different statement entirely. Or where it's never visible." She frowned, "How did you get it in his mouth, was that intentional?"
Harry shook his head, "battle circumstances, involving dementors."
Susan nodded, "Battlefield surrender?"
Harry nodded, "it was sort of a continuation of a previous conversation, sort of not, it ended up there."
"But he's your cousin?"
"The circumstances of that battle caused his perception of reality to switch from shall we say, 'Potter being an unwanted family in the House of Dursley,' to 'the Family of Dursley being a rather unworthy family in the House of Potter'." Harry shrugged.
She nodded, "it might not fade when he comes of age, or not without a lot of help."
Harry shrugged, "We'll see what kind of adult he turns out to be."
Ginny sighed, "So … they aren't criminal because your presence was imposed on them by an outside force?"
"It was still criminal," muttered Susan.
Harry nodded, "It was criminal, but understandable under the circumstances, I blame the outside force for imposing me on them, more than I blame them."
"Who was that?" said Ginny.
"Dumbledore," said Harry.
Ginny frowned, "That … doesn't make sense."
"But it is historical fact," said Harry, "Public record, even, I checked, Rather than let the standard ministry protocol be followed, Dumbledore petitioned the Wizengamot, under the rights of an allied house, which he was not, to raise me as his own or place me with a worthy client family of his house. Which is not what he did, but everyone knew he was a master of the Fidelius charm and didn't know how many client families were in his house that they'd merely been forced to forget existed."
"No," said Ginny, "I'm not saying it's not true, I'm saying it doesn't make sense. Professor Moody says, 'When your ally or your enemy takes actions that don't make sense, it might mean they're making a mistake, but it probably means they know something that you don't. (Or don't know something that you do, but assume it's the former.)'"
...-...
Research
"Harry," said Luna, "What are you drawing?"
"Hi Luna, just trying to piece something together, I've seen this symbol at least three places. But I can't find its name. Is it just a wizard fleur-dis-lis or something? or does it have a specific meaning?"
"It's the Peverell Family crest," said Luna, "you know, the Brother's three, eventually giving rise to several of the great houses, the most famous being, Slytherin, Gaunt, and Potter."
Harry blinked at her, "Hence why I might see it on some of my heirlooms, and Padma might have it on her anklet?"
Luna nodded, "may I see?"
"You've seen my cloak before."
Her eyes lit up, "So that is the Peverell cloak, I wondered how you afforded one that could last longer than a year."
Harry shrugged, "and Padma's has the same symbol inside a notched box like this."
"So their heirloom is the resurrection stone," said Luna.
"Resurrection stone?" said Harry.
Luna widened her eyes even farther, then said, "No, Harry, please don't go that way, read the book." She hopped up and ran to her trunk. She came back a few minutes later with a little book he'd seen before. She flipped through it to The Tale of the Three Brothers."
She read it to him. She even did accents: for the brothers, she chose South East England, and an abyssal and crusty Normandy accent for Death, and the thief.
Harry suddenly suspected he knew where Mr. Lovegood fell on the anti-Norman scale.
Her accent for the lady loves of Cadmus and Ignotus were of course Cornwall accents, so close to hers and Ginny's that he had to work to suppress a laugh.
And then when Death returned as a friend, she changed it to an abyssal and not-so-crusty Cornwall accent.
"Why are we reading Beadle in the middle of the day?" said Susan.
"Harry's seen all three heirlooms," said Luna.
"I haven't seen the stone," said Harry, "I saw that Padma's grandmother had put a sketch of the stone on her anklet."
"Fine then," said Luna, "Where did you see the wand?"
"Dumbledore has it," said Harry.
"Ahhhh" and "Ohhhh," said the two girls.
"That explains so much," said Susan.
Luna nodded seriously.
"And your cloak is that cloak? … of course, it is or Luna wouldn't be acting this way. Also hints at why your personal rune is a variation on the theme. Damn. Damn." She froze, "The same wand that you took from him in your duel last night?"
Luna froze.
Susan flinched and held up her hand. "Don't answer that, I need to not know. We need to not know. This information doesn't leave Lion's-Keep. It doesn't even…"
"Wha?" said Harry.
"What is the opposite of being murdered in your sleep, because someone wants your wand?" said Susan.
"Living a long and happy life and dying of old age?" said Harry.
"Going to meet death at last as an old friend," said Luna.
Susan nodded, "and what is the opposite of bragging that you have an invincible wand."
She looked between the two of them, "All three of which describe Dumbledore's life fairly well until you took it from him."
"It's not that invincible if I took it from him."
"It would not surprise me if he wanted you to have it," said Susan, "in which case letting it fall into your hands might amount to a victory in some kind of roundabout way."
Harry shrugged, "I won't argue with that, I mostly was just wondering, what are the chances it is the elder wand and not just some wand that some Grindelwald enthusiast decorated with that symbol because it signalled coolness at the time."
"Dumbledore wouldn't bother with a wand like that, Ollivander sells better wands than Gregorovitch."
"Maybe," said Harry, "When I tried to buy one from Ollivander, I had to try out most of the store before he found mine. If Dumbledore has an equally difficult or even more difficult time finding one that fits him, it's totally plausible he hasn't managed to find one that matches him as well as a piece of crap he happened to grab on a battlefield that by random chance happened to match him really well."
"You've almost convinced me," said Susan, "I'll try to stay convinced. In the meantime, would you mind taking this seriously, and maybe asking Dumbledore for that wand, before you head into any more real battles?"
"Ah, alright," said Harry.
"I'm going to go floo to London to get obliviated, no McGonagall …. No Tonks."
"Seriously?" said Harry.
"Very," said Susan.
She left.
Harry looked at Luna, she seemed very serene, at least compared to earlier, and compared to Susan.
"What do you think?"
"You'll see the stone again, if you're supposed to, you won't if you're not. It's not really that important, it's just an interesting thing to know. Which of Padma's relatives do you suppose has it?"
Harry stared at her, "What?"
"It's almost more fun to suspect that to know," said Luna sadly, "'who has the deathly hallows?' is one of my father's favourite mysteries, and it does make history more fun to read, that you have it two-thirds solved and the other third narrowed down to only a few people out of the whole world … it drains the world of some mystery."
"Are you going to get obliviated also?" said Harry.
"No," she said, "But I won't tell anyone, either that would be bad for you like Susan says, or it would be bad for them, like my father." She narrowed her eyes, then stared at the ceiling behind his head, "Maybe it would please him for me to taunt him that I've seen two of them and that I'm sure all three of them are usually in Britain."
...-...
Breakfast at the staff table
"Headmaster?"
"Severus?"
"You've been … unusually quiet this morning."
"You're aware of Harry and Susan's section-28 organisation?"
"Yes," said Severus.
"They invited me to give a talk about using transfiguration in combat."
"Ah," said Severus, "that does sound like something they'd do. How did you respond?"
"Seemed like the best excuse I was likely to get."
"Certainly," said Severus, "how did it go?"
"Well enough," said Albus, "Until I let my foolish pride get the better of me."
"How did it go?" said Severus.
"They close each session either with target practice, dodging practice, one on one duels, trio duels, or house duels. Sometimes tournament style, as fast as possible, sometimes one group at a time with commentary and analysis to teach tactics to the audience too."
"So I've heard," said Severus, "It was a house duels tournament the night I taught the disillusionment and muffliato."
"Ah!" said Albus, "How did that go?"
"I worked my way up until I had beat House Potter, then lost to House Granger, she had Draco and Theo coaching her."
Albus nodded, "They all have all of them coaching them, in a roundabout manner of speaking."
"True," said Severus, "That is the point of the learning format."
Albus nodded, "Harry challenged I and Fawkes to face him and his cat."
"How badly did his cat get roasted?" said Severus.
"Roasted, no, they did both lose some blood."
Severus shrugged.
"Severus," said Albus, "Harry dove so hard into the path of my fire rope that he broke his elbow again."
"He was matching you well enough that you used your fire rope?" said Severus in wonder.
"Mostly his cat had hold of Fawkes sufficiently that they were both flaming in and out all over the piste. The whip is a generally convenient way to control a large volume of air and help Fawkes at the same time without risking hurting him."
"I understand that part," Severus said, "you healed his elbow again after?"
"Didn't get the chance," said Albus, "I was rather startled that he'd interposed himself rather than call his cat off."
Severus nodded.
"Why did he do that?" said Albus.
"The rumours two years ago were that the cat had phobias strong enough to affect Harry's boggart, I think there was a whip involved, along with knives and cages."
Albus grunted. Then shook himself, "He also used his animagus form to leap across the piste fast enough to cover the distance in time. Which meant he'd had to drop his shields in the process. It was the changing back before making a solid landing that caused the broken arm. He was in a hurry to raise a new shield, you see."
"Right," said Severus, "he often has a certain amount of bad luck with his timing, I've remarked on it before."
Albus grunted, "Not sure if it's fair to call it 'bad timing,' he did get the shield up, to keep the whip off his face and clothes, and of course off his cat."
"Hmm?"
"Still caught him a glancing blow on the back of his left ear. Seems like he also had something interesting going on with his braids."
"Ah," said Severus, "yes, now I understand how fine he was cutting it."
Albus nodded, "he commanded his cat to retreat and try again to flank while rebuilding his buckler shield, I'm still not sure if he expected to fight with it, or if it was a stopgap measure to immobilise his arm for a little longer."
"Ah," said Severus.
"And then he disarmed me."
"What?"
"Everything I just told you he did between when his hand touched the ground, and when his feet landed."
"Merlin," said Severus, "and did he catch your wand, or did it fly back to you?"
"His cat caught it," said Albus, "and took it straight to him, I caught a vague impression that he directed the disarming charm to cause exactly that effect."
"Oh," said Severus, "That's … that does fit his interests, and his style…"
Albus shrugged.
"After I admitted that I surrendered, he gave me the wand back."
Severus sat up and looked at him, "But?"
"But he has its allegiance, It's just a wand to me now, it is not my wand. Still powerful, but not invulnerable."
Severus nodded.
"I had hoped to pass it to him, eventually. But I had also hoped that perhaps I could significantly weaken Tom for him first."
Severus grunted, "So what happened to his arm and ear?"
"We exchanged the formalities, he gave me my wand, and managed to get to a seat, and our head girl patched him up. I must say her bedside manner seems to be developing into all that Minerva could wish for."
"What are you saying about me?" called Minerva.
"That our head girl must admire you," Severus called back, "Because imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
"Well," said Minerva, "Miss Urquart is my great-niece."
"Then he turned the meeting over to Miss Carmichael, and took his cat across the hall to get her attended to."
"Yes well," said Severus, and he counted off a minute of eating quietly before he gave in to his desire to try to assess Potter's state of mind.
...-...
Explorations
After appropriate permission expansion from Harry, Padma stayed behind in the Old Cottage, to converse with Wotcher.
The rest of Lion's-Keep wandered down the lane, Susan doing a fairly good job at hiding her self-consciousness about wearing muggle clothes. Though she seemed significantly more comfortable after Parvati explained that denim was what muggles who couldn't afford cowhide used for imitation dragon hide. Also given its breathable nature, they could cover larger portions of their anatomy with it, with less discomfort, all the more so in winter, and when it was flannel-lined like Harry had bought them all.
The lane they were following usually had a fence or ditch or bank or both marking at least one if not both sides, but in places, it was just a track between two fields, and no mark to differentiate it showing through the snow, except maps from Wotcher delivered directly into their imagination.
Nim rode on Harry's shoulder.
Intermittently Luna rode on Ginny's shoulder.
At one particularly barren stretch of road, they had found the snow untouched, and for the fun of it, they all turned to animals and left paw and hoof prints for fifty meters before switching back and continuing on their way.
Several times they came across a grouping of four or six farmhouses, sometimes there were children playing in the snow, or out walking with dogs or sheep or sometimes both.
Eventually, they reached one of their destinations, a small house almost due west of the Manor, (and its extensive 'decorative grounds' where death eaters were allowed, and therefore Lion's-Keep would stay away from until a lot more information on the lay of the land and the 'political' situation there became obvious.)
So they'd taken a circuitous route to skirt the danger area and found the house and its mostly walled courtyard, and huge greenhouse, maybe another greenhouse beyond that.
It was part of a group of 9 houses, one of the smallest, and the only one with a greenhouse, (or maybe two greenhouses, but only one seemed to be in use). Evidently, it had been built for a younger sibling to stick close to a larger farm, but who'd chosen a profession that needed less land but a longer growing season. According to its location on what appeared on the map at least to be a main-ish road between the nearest city to the north and the bigger of the two villages within the wards, and the small concrete-block roadside shop. Harry was guessing it had been a roadside stand to sell flowers or vegetables.
But it was all boarded up now, and the greenhouse was missing some glass, which had intermittently been replaced with wood or cellophane.
"Mumah," squealed a toddler's voice, "There's teenagers coming."
"Littler than me or bigger than me?" said a young woman's voice.
"Littler."
"Coming from which way?"
"… Alright, and you can hear them over the wall I suppose."
"… Fine."
"Don't let them 'take off my clothes'?"
"Of course not," reassured the older voice, "Also, why aren't you wearing anything?"
"Not cold."
"Sunbathing in the snow, and you're not cold, Why don't you at least come into the greenhouse with me."
"The sun doesn't feel as sweet there."
"Alright, suit yourself."
"They've stopped to look at the wall."
"Humph."
A moment later a head appeared over the wall and her eyes quickly picked them out from the snowy landscape, "What do you all want?"
Harry compared her position with where Wotcher reported their quarry, "We're here to talk to you," said Harry.
"How do you figure?"
"Aunt Margaid suggested for us to visit because you might want to talk to witches your own age."
She stared, then her eyes seemed to take in Luna and Nim, after several more glances between them all, then she nodded, can you keep your animals from hunting my animals?"
"Yes," said Ginny
"Nim won't chase anything without permission," said Harry, "And even then, I've mostly trained her for chasing pets into their cages, not for hunting or random terror."
"Yeah, none of that either if you please," She nodded, "and will all of you also refrain from bothering my animals, or pulling or stepping on my plants? Some of them are shy, and so far I haven't met anyone who can tell the difference between my plants and my weeds, so don't try to help with weeding."
"Understood," said Harry.
"There's a gate over there, by the house," she pointed, "and another on the far side of the next greenhouse, unfortunately, the door on the end of the near greenhouse isn't working."
"Thank you," said Harry and turned toward the nearer of the proffered gates.
.
Inside the yard, they found two cats and four racoons, and the tracks of lots of squirrels and rabbits, though only two rabbits were visible, and a naked girl, perhaps 11 years old, sunning on a drab grey fur coat she'd spread out in the sun, which looked like it might have already gone wet and maybe even mouldy. Around the walls were broken bits of lumber, as if, back when this had been a going concern, there were counter-tops and work tables everywhere, but all that now remained was table legs. In a few places, the scrap lumber had been reassembled into kennels and nest boxes without doors to close them.
When she wasn't looking down at them from over a wall, it was more obvious that the teen was tall, almost as tall as Professor McGonagall.
The naked girl sat up, and stared at them, "Mumah?" She said, "how are they the same colours as your plants?"
The teen was quiet for a long time, then said, "Because they are witches and a wizard. Just like my plants are witch plants."
"Does that mean they're nice like you are?"
"What do you think?" said the teen.
"No," she said, "They're still teenagers."
"Plausible," said the teen, "Probably don't insult them until they earn it though, hmm?"
The girl wrinkled her nose very strangely and lay down again, then rolled over to keep an eye on them.
Susan poked Harry's back, he turned to her.
"Bounce your eyes," she muttered, "you have your wives present."
"I wasn't staring like that," said Harry.
Susan raised an eyebrow, "I was until I remembered not to. So what were you staring like?"
"She's not human," Harry muttered.
"Obviously," said Susan, "But I don't know what she is."
"And neither does Wotcher," said Ginny.
"I'm Parvati Patil, the future Lady Black," Parvati was saying, "This is my fiancé Harry, This is his other fiancée, Ginny Weasley, the future Lady Potter, and our friend, Susan Bones, the future Lady Bones. That's Luna, who is usually invisible if she turns human, and Nim is Harry's familiar, among other things."
"I'm Melantha Potter, I go by Mel. That's Adoraim, (though I've been thinking of changing it to something more English."
"My name is Stormy Petrel," said the little girl, "I don't need a hard-to-spell name."
Mel shrugged, "Adoraim was on her collar when Aunt Gwen decided that she really is a pet and that she didn't want to explain that to the county animal shelter, and gave her to me instead. That's how I got my first badger too."
"Wow," said Parvati, "What is she?" said Susan.
Mel shrugged, "I've been looking forward to having a mage school library to look that up in."
"Nothing that I recognise," said Harry, "I can't even put my finger on how I know she's neither human nor veela."
"Besides the blubber?" said Mel, "and yes, she eats enough to sustain it, regardless of how active she is at dawn and dusk."
"Hmm," said Parvati.
"She's definitely not merfolk nor grindelow," said Harry.
"Selkie?" said Ginny.
"That's my guess," said Mel, but … it doesn't completely fit."
"A lot of the muggle legends don't quite fit the animals that inspired them," said Harry.
"How about sirens?" said Mel.
"I was never confident if those referred to veela or merfolk," said Parvati, "Or one in Southern Europe and the other in Northern Europe, and rusalka in Eastern Europe."
Mel nodded, then shrugged, "Then I'll just describe what I've observed. She's strong and eats a lot, she's fat, but it's a thin layer under her skin, not a stockpile in her belly. She's got wicked accurate sonar, above and below the water, and it sucks her toward music and machinery like nobody's business. I infer that she's got such high resolution of frequencies that what we hear as the hum or whine of motors and engines is slow enough to be interestingly rhythmic to her. The first time she hears a new tractor operating in the area, she'll try to follow it around mesmerised for a couple of hours. After that, she usually just recognises it and ignores it."
"Our neighbours had a dog like that," said Parvati, "got run over."
Mel nodded, "I try to keep her inside the wall, then she'll only turn her head instead of wandering around getting into traffic, not that we have a lot of traffic, (now that most of the wine gets shipped off in big lorries full of bottles, instead of barrels in wagons, not that I can remember that time, but my uncles still talk about it sometimes.)"
Harry nodded, "How long ago?"
"Thirty years or more, I think."
Harry nodded. Then it wasn't a depression caused by no leadership because his dad had gotten killed, perhaps it was his grandfather's fault, or perhaps it wasn't technically a depression, just a different market out there, therefore a different shipping method to service it. Which didn't entirely preclude the difference causing insurmountable problems for small local businesses like roadside florists.
"So, are we related?" said Mel.
"Probably," said Harry, "Not sure how."
Mel shrugged, "are you resistant to …" she shrugged again then stepped very close and sniffed Harry's hair, then backed away, "You smell related."
Ginny and Parvati were tense.
"Are there any kinds of magic you've had to deal with," she mused, "that cause … sexual reactions?"
"Yes, he's resistant to at least one of those," said Parvati.
Mel relaxed, "Then you might also be resistant to Adoraim's curse, if you … detect it getting the better of you, just get farther away from her, and/or tell her to stop talking for a while. It seems to vector through speech, and I think smell."
"What curse is that?" said Susan.
Mel shrugged, "remember how one of the guesses was 'siren'?"
"Yeah."
"She's had a rather rough time of it with humans, especially 'human teenagers' though from observing her, I think that means fourteen through 25 not the regular definition of 13 through 18 or whatever. Apparently, her people's legends warn of human and otter teenagers as sexual terrorists, to the same extent that humans think sirens are 'dangerously alluring.' From what I can tell, you girls will be safe around her, but watch out if she ever brings a boy of her species back from the beach. Not that I can take her to the beach often enough to get her the exercise she needs."
"I'm bi," whispered Susan, "Should I go?"
"Stay upwind of her?" said Parvati.
"Like we are now?" said Susan, "Is that all?"
Mel shrugged and nodded.
"How old is she?" said Harry.
"Twenty-something, maybe thirty. Yeah, going on about nine."
"Mental problems?" said Susan, "Caused by the abuse?"
Mel shook her head, "Not so far as I can tell. I think 'going on human-age nine' is normal for adult sirens, … I mean, normal for whatever she is, just like 'going on human-age three to five' is normal for adult dogs and horses. Not that it's wise to generalise from one sample."
Harry turned and looked at Parvati.
"What?"
"Trying to decide."
"What?"
"If that statement reminded me more of Hermione, or your sister."
Parvati frowned, "neither of them is a horse or dog."
"Not the content of the statement, the style of … encoding and delivery."
"Oh," said Parvati, "it reminded me of you, actually."
"Oh," said Harry.
"And she was born with your last name."
"Right," said Harry.
"What's this?" said Mel.
"He called you a nerd," said Parvati.
Mel shrugged, "As long as you can keep botany and veterinary science nerds separate from maths nerds, I don't mind."
"Uh oh," said Susan.
"What?" said Mel.
"Can we please not have another herbologists vs. engineers debate, it's Valentine's Day weekend."
Mel froze.
"First of all," said Harry, "Yeah, let's not, that sounds boring. Second of all, it's still January."
Mel squinted at Susan, "That … was some kind of inside joke?"
"Yes," sighed Ginny.
Mel shivered, "Yeah, alright."
Harry looked around, "you said something about it being warmer in the greenhouse?"
Mel nodded gratefully and led the way.
She found them three chairs. When that wasn't enough (and she could only find one additional bucket, and was protesting that she was planning on standing anyway because she had some more weeding to do), Harry transfigured the bucket and two additional masonry blocks into chairs.
"Oh, wow," said Mel, and accepted one of them, perhaps only to test it out. She looked at the empty chair, "Didn't one of you have a monkey?"
"Luna is asleep under your Stormy's arm," said Ginny, "Nim, Harry's cat, is on the roof of your house, watching out for weather or company."
"Oh," said Mel, "And … Stormy was alright with that?"
"Seemed to be," said Ginny.
"Yes! Am!" called Stormy from outside.
"Or maybe, probably not so asleep," said Mel wryly.
…
"So," said Harry, "Any other questions about mage culture in Europe or England?"
Mel shrugged, "Yeah, but give me a couple of days to think about everything you've told me so far."
Harry nodded, "That's fine, feel free to take notes of questions for next time, or even leave a letter at the Old Cottage for us."
Her eyes blinked wide, and then she described the old cottage fairly well, from the outside, by its relation to the road and its greenhouses.
Which is when Harry remembered another thing Aunt Margaid had said or at least implied.
"Um, Melantha?"
"What?"
"Are you interested in a Summer Job?"
Mel's eyebrows went up, "Like what?"
"Ginny might want some help getting the greenhouses by the Old Cottage cleaned up and running again."
"Sounds like a spring job."
"In the ideal case, yes," said Ginny, "But I'd mostly only be available on alternate Saturdays or so. And without knowing what's in there, and how long it's been going to seed, I'd rather not work without backup."
"They're not too bad," said Mel, "only one has really interesting things in it. Two have been taken over by jungles of mints that no longer know if they're English or Italian, and maybe some blue buttercup mutants. The last is onions, turnips, and radishes, trying to hold back the invading hoards of potatoes gone poisonous. And I don't remember which one has the climbing beans, but they've found the broken window and escaped."
"If that's the two safe ones," said Ginny, "Define interesting?"
Mel turned and pointed to the far end of her greenhouse. The last eight feet had been paved over with plastic tarpaulin, and out of two heavy cast iron pots grew several vines, which were trained to a trellis crisscrossing the door. A door that didn't look all that broken from here.
"What's that?" said Harry.
"It looks like venomous tentacula with its heads removed," said Ginny.
"Other than keeping intruders out," said Mel, "the only use I could find for it, is the flowers are good for snacks. Once you remove the spines."
Harry shuddered.
"Are they good for anything else?"
"Not especially," said Ginny, "some potions call for leaves or stems."
"So mostly just neat because they move?"
"Yes," said Ginny, "and the flowers become venomous, by late in the summer they can be lethal, and so can the strangler vines, I don't want to think about what state they're in if they haven't been forced to die back from frost or harvesting for several years."
"Humph," said Mel.
"Which is why I don't want you working in there alone without backup. Bet there are lots of other poisonous things in there. Go ahead and weed out the potatoes if you want, probably the Queen-Ann's-Lace too, if there's any. Not sure … if I want to check what the mints are before we just take them all out and compost them. Oh wait, did I see Queen-Ann's-Lace or mandrake? Um, if you see Queen-Ann's-lace in with the vegetables, feel free to pull it, if you see them in with the magical plants, it's probably mandrake, don't disturb them without really really good ear plugs, preferably also have a partner to watch your back while your ears are blind."
Mel nodded seriously, "I think the only carrot tops I saw were being crowded out by the potatoes. But thanks for the warning."
.
"So Mel," said Harry, "I have a question."
"Listening," said Mel.
"Keeping in mind that I'm not in charge yet, or anything, but sometimes Aunt Margaid listens to my advice. Do you have any complaints, suggestions, or advice on how the Potter Estates could be managed better?"
"Yet …" Mel stared at him thoughtfully for several seconds, then shrugged, "No, not really."
Harry shrugged, "alright."
"I will say that your aunt is a bloody manipulative hard-ass, and her selection of bodyguards is uniformly ugly."
Harry shrugged, "she might be compensating for something."
Ginny tried hard to suppress a chuckle.
"I mean," said Mel, "what's the point of being manipulative, unless you're trying to seem kind… why bother with being a hard-ass, unless you're using the tools of honesty to help people, and save yourself and others the time and effort to see through ambient advertisement and manipulation. Why bother adding more manipulation on top of that?"
Harry shrugged, "I'm not disagreeing."
Mel stared at him for several seconds then relaxed, "alright, I'll add bad landlord policies to the list of things you're interested in me questioning you about?"
"Sure," said Harry.
She nodded, "Alright."
She looked at her watch, "Are you staying for lunch?"
"We weren't planning on it, but if you really want us to…"
"No, we are not," said Susan.
"Susan, What's wrong?" said Parvati.
"You can trade favours with her," said Susan, "She's your tenant, I cannot."
Harry sighed, and rubbed his forehead, "Mel, if I insisted on catered food, and that I was paying, would it offend you?"
"No," said Mel, "maybe give me questions about how Mum's rent money was being spent, but no, not really a social faux-pas or anything."
Harry shook his head, "I assure you, at the moment my spending money is entirely from selling the remains of magical beasts I had to kill to save my own skin or that of my friends."
Mel glowered at him, "Like what?"
"He's famous for killing a dragon the size of a bus," said Parvati.
"And a basilisk, the size of three," said Harry, "I'm not comfortable claiming credit for the dragon."
"God," said Mel, "so … you're not going to just lash out and kill Stormy the moment you realise what she is and how valuable she is for … potions ingredients or whatever?"
"Only if she tries to kill someone," said Harry, "More likely, if she were to start bothering other tenants in a non-lethal way, or we figure out what she is, and it turns out to be illegal to keep her around here, I'd be more likely to give you train or bus fare and order you to release her to an appropriate environment, or take her to an appropriate magical wildlife reserve."
"Oh, alright," said Mel, "Don't worry, she's just about the gentlest creature I can imagine. It's just the smell thing that makes … her unsafe around normal humans. You, me, my cousins, seem immune."
"To be fair," said Harry, "I haven't yet tried walking downwind of her."
"Nor has she started singing with you in earshot," said Mel. She stared past Harry at Susan, "There's enough of her smell lingering in here, is it making you tense?"
Susan shrugged, "Maybe, so are the slightly wild varieties of a lot of magical plants. I'm not used to being in greenhouses this big, or without adult supervision, or with paths so wide between plants that there's no danger of them reaching out and grabbing me from behind."
Mel nodded, "Do you want me to go out first and get her out of sight before you leave?"
Susan shrugged, "I'm not really all that bothered. I have some level of self-control, or among other things, I wouldn't have managed to build the physique I have."
Mel blinked, "alright whatever. Then I'll just tell you that my one cousin who most readily admits to not being immune to her, manages the strain by redirecting his thoughts, and/or appetites to the girl he is in a relationship with."
"Makes sense," said Susan, "I might be doing a bit of that."
Harry looked over, "regardless of lunch, do we need to go?"
Susan shrugged, "Treat me with some dignity."
She was tense, and it was affecting her social skills.
Harry nodded, "It is not weakness to know your own limits and demand others respect them."
"My limits are vaguely two hours from now."
"But you're enjoying being here less and less until then?"
Susan shrugged, "Something like that."
"Melantha Potter," said Harry standing, "Thank you for having us, I think we'll be going. We'll be staying in the Old Cottage tonight, and part of tomorrow, should you feel like stopping by."
"Alright," she said and led the way to the door.
"Feel free to call ahead," said Parvati, "so you don't catch us napping or whatever. Most of what we have planned is walking around the neighbourhood."
"Which neighbourhood?"
"Exploring everything inside the outer ward-line and outside the manor where 'Aunt Margaid's enforcers have free reign," said Susan.
"And outside the farms and premises of tenants," said Harry.
"So mostly roads and wild lands?" said Mel.
"Yes," said Harry.
Mel nodded, "I'm not sure why I'm surprised."
They all turned to look at her.
"I've only had one cousin like me about that before, stands to reason that when I finally meet another relative who can tell that my plants are magical, you also have the same wanderlust as I have."
"I think," said Susan, "There's a difference between wanderlust and pioneer spirit."
Mel narrowed her eyes, "one wants to know what's there, the other is hunting for something?"
"Hunting for a good place to call home, or is home, and hunting for everything there is to know about it."
Mel nodded and looked at Harry.
He took three steps backwards out of her gate, then toed his shoe off, removed his sock, and then put his bare foot in the snow. He picked it up again and cast a quick wind charm and put it back down again in the grass and icy mud.
"You're showing off, obviously," she said, "But I don't know enough to interpret."
"Playing at being Antaeus," said Susan, "except he's not claiming the whole earth as his mother, only the estate of his fore-bearers."
Harry's head snapped around and he stared at Susan.
"What?" she said, "Am I wrong?"
"No," said Harry, "Just not at all the way I'd have put it." He brushed his foot off and put his sock and shoe back on.
"Do you mind one more along?" said Mel.
"No," said Harry, "and welcome!"
"Let me grab my coat, and make sure Mum and Adoraim know when to expect me back."
.
[Yours]
What, Wotcher?
[Ginny gave me patterns to recognise the muggle-born as Melantha Potter, and the entity as Stormy Petrel / Adoraim, a new class of person. Do you permit it?]
Yes, I permit. Can I make a rule that all muggle-born tenants, when in their own territory, or within a quarter … no, an eighth-mile of plants that they've helped tend, may make enquiries of what is going on inside their territories, and have you give them that information?
[Yes, you may, why would you suspect that you might need permission for that rule?]
I'm vaguely aware that the information that I am permitted regarding what's happening within my tenants' territories is somewhat degraded, I wondered how much information I am allowed to permit to others.
[It is not that you are not permitted that information, it is that one of your ancestors left that the standard amount of information to present. You can change it. Or you can ask for more specific information when you wish it.]
It's fine. Make the rule.
[Rule understood, tenants who are muggle-borns, (currently Melantha Potter, and Caledvwich Weatherall,) are each permitted to request information regarding their territory, and be answered to the best of my information. As long as they are within their own territory, or within an eighth-mile of any plants that they've helped tend. Rule accepted.]
Thank you.
[I have suggestions.]
Sounds interesting, tell me.
[First suggestion: This rule simulates the effects of an ancient druid ritual, the simulation would be much closer if the rule only referenced the plants tended since becoming a tenant, and not to their territories.]
I don't want to give them access to information regarding territories not their own.
[Understood.]
I don't mind if they obtain information about public land, especially roads. Makes sense that only near plants they've tended though.
[Understood. Second suggestion, Caledvwich Weatherall spends a lot of time tending vines on corporately owned land. Seems like letting him access that does not violate human privacy traditions, at least as far as I understand human privacy traditions.]
That's fair, let me think about it.
[Third suggestion, Caledvwich Weatherall spends a lot of evenings with the woman who planned to marry him before leaving school but ultimately did not, they are a category I've noticed but do not have a defined pattern for. Leaving their separate legal contracts out of calculations, I would have assumed from observing their behaviours that all three of their territories belong jointly to both of them, not separate.]
Let's call that pattern an unofficial, long-term relationship. And yes, for the purpose of this rule, sexual relationships that have lasted longer than a year and a day, and non-sexual relationships that have lasted longer than five …. No no no, let's put it like this: people that commonly garden together, on both their territories, for longer than a year and a day, may be permitted to have information regarding … the outdoors areas of their friend's territory as if it were merely public land instead of blocked by a territory boundary.
[So still blocked by domestic structure boundaries.]
Yes.
[Patterns understood, rule changes understood and accepted.]
How old is Caledvwich Weatherall?
[51]
Oh. And his lady friend?
[also 51, she's three months older.]
Alright.
[One more suggestion,]
Listening.
[Allow them to carry a favourite stick, seed, or pebble, gathered from their own land or gardening endeavours, in place of being on their own land or near their own plants.]
Sure, as long as they carry it for … more than three months.
[Clarify: once they have carried it for so long, does it become the replacement way for them to be allowed to access my information or an additional way for them to do so?]
Contact with it becomes an additional way.
[Understood and accepted.]
While they are carrying such, and suffering from magical exhaustion, and when you have extra power to spare from everything else, you may supplement their magic. Prioritise whoever has done the most gardening … outside their land.
"What are you thinking about, Harry?"
"Making up a local religion," said Harry, "What did I miss?"
"You people have weird hobbies," said Mel.
"You have no idea," said Harry.
"You missed an explanation of the local watershed, and how to find your two waterfalls and three cutest bridges," said Ginny.
"Oh, dear," said Harry, "I apologise."
"I've pointed them out to Wotcher," said Parvati.
"Ah, thanks," said Harry.
"What sort of religion?" said Mel.
"Tiny subset of druidism, the more you garden, the more clearly Wotcher lets you see what's going on around the plants you help."
"What sort of deity is Wotcher."
"Less of a deity, more of a nymph or bound poltergeist," said Harry, "or to be entirely technical, a direct mind interface for the Potter Estate wards."
"What are wards?"
"To simplify a lot, Magical burglar alarms," said Harry. Wotcher can you detect fires?
[No?]
Not even big house fires?
[Not directly, I can tell when someone miserable is looking at a fire. Or miserable from being on fire, obviously.]
Better than nothing … wait, then can you actually tell when people help plants?
[Of course, I can also tell when plants are miserable, but it rarely comes up.]
Oh, can you use that to infer when plants are on fire, or too near a fire?
[Yes, I do that, and I have rules about how to warn the vineyard administrations when something like that is happening.]
And can and do they warn the appropriate fire departments? If it happens to be outside of their land.
[Not necessary. They are the fire departments of each of their villages. They're fairly good about responding quickly.]
Oh. Good. And can you add … helping animals not your own family, and not … that you're being paid to help, to the events that increase the ratio of when and why you earn help with magical exhaustion.
[Of course, shall I?]
Yes.
[Done.]
[Parvati has reviewed your new rules and suggested that the prised stick, seed, or pebble could also become a portkey to favourite locations. She does not seem to understand portkey dynamics, would you like to clarify.]
Perhaps she means … that while holding their 'prised stick, seed, or pebble' they may request you to portkey them to any location that they have earned information access, which is also unobserved by muggles.
[That is possible and acceptable, do I have your permission to do away with the rule that all portkeys that land outside of standard arrival zones must be re-portkeyed into the nearest standard arrival zone.]
No, just add a specific exception for tenants arriving by portkeys that they requested from you, or for that matter arriving by foreign portkeys as long as they are landing in a location that they are permitted to access your surveillance of.
[Rule understood, changed, accepted.]
"So … what are the practices of this religion," said Mel, "Just 'helping plants'?"
"Yeah," said Harry, "Helping plants, having a favourite stick, seed, or pebble, that you gathered while gardening, and carrying it with you, as a symbolic representation of staying in contact with your garden."
Mel turned to stare at him.
"How is that different from what I said?" said Parvati.
Harry turned to stare at her, "There's a major difference between 'an object containing a portkey,' and 'an object that is part of a symbolic trigger allowing a portkey contained in a completely different object, to activate.'"
"Oh," said Parvati, then shrugged, "I just wanted them to glow a little."
Harry grinned, "That's fine, but … I guess, achieve that some other way…"
"Hold on a second," said Mel.
"What?" said Harry, "Sorry about that."
Mel reached in her pocket and held up one of the biggest conkers Harry had ever seen.
"You … you made my conker lucky again?"
Harry smiled.
She glanced back and forth between it and Harry, "How?"
Harry shrugged, "it's not any more magical than it was, it's just symbolic of your gardening."
"Alright?" she said grudgingly and put it back in her pocket.
"Symbolic of helping plants and animals," said Parvati, "repayable in magical help from the wards. Kind of like … well money, if you interpret that as symbolic of help you've given, and repayable later for help you want or need."
"Repayable how?" said Mel, "or is it just … feeling lucky?"
"Ask in your head, to check on, for instance, your greenhouse, or your animals?" said Harry.
Mel frowned, then raised an eyebrow, "disconcerting."
"What specifically?"
"'Wotcher,' thinks facing north, I think facing west."
"Oh," said Harry, "Wotcher, can you make that adjustment for her?"
[She's only allowed to ask for information, not to set rules.]
"Anyone who is permitted to ask for and receive information is allowed to add or adjust rules about how they prefer that information presented, as long as those rules only apply to them. And don't add information they are not permitted to have."
Harry had the idea that Wotcher was angry at him.
Mel winced three times, then shook her head, "Wotcher, put it back! All north facing was better than a third west facing, and a third not facing any direction at all."
[Rule not possible to implement, removing.]
"Thank you," said Mel.
Harry shrugged, Thank you for trying.
[…]
.
"Well," said Mel, "Now it really is my lunchtime, I'm going home."
"Alright," said everyone, "bye," "Enjoy," "Have a good day" "See you later."
And then she was gone.
"That was a portkey," said Susan, "Where did she get a portkey?"
"I tried to make her giant hazelnut into one," said Parvati, "It didn't work, Harry fixed it somehow."
"The way the anti-portkey wards were implemented," said Harry, "was all unauthorised incoming portkeys are re-portkeyed to designated areas. I added a rule that authorised muggle-born tenants may also request to be portkeyed to unobserved locations that are deemed to belong to them in one of several ways.'
"Oh," said Susan.
"But that was rather disconcerting," said Harry, "Wotcher, change that rule to also specify they may only portkey away from locations where they are unobserved by muggles, and at least 3 meters from mages that they aren't trying to take with them unless they are portkeying specifically to escape violence by those muggles or mages."
[Understood, changed.]
"Speaking of violence," said Parvati, "Wotcher, can you … recognise the killing curse?"
[Only when it breeches the outer wards. Otherwise, no, not quickly. Though I can often recognise it after the fact from its effects. Nor can I recognise muggle bullets quickly enough to stop them. I can and do notify the authorities about human gunshot victims. Unless specifically requested otherwise.]
"Specifically by whom?"
[My heir or their direct family, or anyone else given a similar level of authority.]
Harry frowned and looked at Susan, "How common is that?"
"I didn't hear the answer."
"Heads of Houses leaving their wards set up in a way that makes it clear that summary executions are … plausible."
Susan shrugged, "Lots of families have lethal wards, even if that portion of them aren't activated most of the time."
"Oh," said Harry, "right, I wasn't operating in the right context there for a second. Wotcher, do you have lethal capabilities?"
[I do not have control of anything that matches the pattern 'lethal wards'][Did you know that standard portkeys only provide a fraction of power required to travel, and then to stop. Most of the remainder is borrowed from the mage being transported. This is why it's dangerous to portkey alone while magically exhausted, and never portkey with a dragon.]
Interesting?
[Some of the old mage properties are not heated and cooled the way the muggle properties are, that is why the snow on the roofs is thicker. The surface of the skin and clothes of the occupants are kept at comfortable levels, instead of all of the interior volume of the dwelling.]
And you have control of those enchantments?
[I do. There is a very deep lake only a few miles southeast outside your wards, for some reason I am equipped to monitor portkeys in that region in the same ways I monitor the rest of your estate for portkeys. Perhaps your ancestors once intended to buy the lake also.]
Perhaps.
[At any rate, I also have wards active there to help with the temperature control wards everywhere else.]
That makes sense. If they work on similar principles to muggle temperature wards.
[That pumping heat is the most effective way to heat or cool anything? yes. How it is pumped? No, not similar at all.]
Understood. Thank you for the summery, I'll probably want to look at that technique some time. But not right now.
[Not at all the same, but the big manor also has some fairly efficient pest-eviction and de-cluttering enchantments, which could rather inconvenience someone, if the parameters got … disturbed.]
"Oh, hell!" said Harry.
"What did she say?" said Parvati.
"He said, I don't have any wards 'intended to be lethal,' all my wards have well-planned safety rules to keep them from causing harm, and you have control of those rules."
"So?" said Ginny.
"I think he finished off with, the very subtle implication that if my sense of humour matches my father, the most amusing way of dealing with enemies would be inviting them into the manor on cleaning day, and calling them dirty pests, blights, and stains in such a way that the newer and much faster but not very intelligent cleaning wards might understand, which is to say, misunderstand."
Ginny smiled.
.
"What about me?" said Susan, "You got so bogged down with explaining to Wotcher about Padma that you never did introduce me or Luna."
Harry shrugged, "Sorry about that. Wotcher, This is Susan Bones, the head of an allied house, and …"
"You're my consort," suggested Susan.
Harry nodded, "At any rate, except when otherwise restricted, she's permitted the rights and privileges as if she were a mage tenant whose territory happens to be the grounds adjacent to the Old Cottage."
[Understood. Patterns and rules accepted. Are you going to offer her a way to buy access to local maps also?]
She can use the same one as Mel, except she'll have to start from now.
[No, you specifically said muggle-borns, you've made her equivalent of a tenant but you haven't told me to pretend she's a muggle-born.]
Ugh, you're right, I didn't mean muggle-born I meant mage and native, or mage and non-foreign, that doesn't already have ward access from you for any other reason.
[Rule changed. Do you want me to treat all mages that wear your personal rune as non-foreign.]
Usually, but … um ask me case by case when it comes up.
[What about your squib?]
I don't really care, come to think of it, I'm not sure if I'd mind if you allowed muggles also, but I need to check what's legal first.
[Understood. I will remind you to decide next time you visit.]
Sounds good.
.
When they returned to the cottage, they found Luna curled up on the doorstep, with a note on her side, "You left him behind with Adoraim. ~Melantha"
Harry picked her up and they went inside. She seemed intent on not waking up, so Harry put her in the only remotely warm place in the house. The nest of self-heating conjured rabbit furs in the root cellar.
They went to the kitchen and got lunch put together, and figured out how to convince Wotcher to form a map and let them all collaborate on it together to plan a hiking path to the nearest waterfall and footbridge and back. Rather than the more normal procedure of one of them designing that and sending it to the others as a message.
.
That night, as he lay with his back to Parvati and his hand under Ginny's chin, and Luna's demiguise form cradled under his arm. He heard both Patils sigh in unison, then his mind was fully awake.
[Harry,]
Yes, Wotcher.
[Padma suggested, Parvati ordered, and I am verifying permission: A rule that I should not replenish magical exhaustion between 9 pm and 9 am unless specifically requested. Because it interferes with sleep, and you've often ended up sleeping in animagus form to escape the treatment.]
I have no special wisdom, seems like a reasonable experiment to try. Try it, and remind me in a week or two to decide if it has in fact been better that way.
[…]
Do you have a different suggestion?
[Without the need to top up your magical reserves, you should need about three hours less sleep.]
Good to know, but I was getting four to six hours less sleep.
[Not good. I still think blocking from 12 pm to 6 am might be better than 9 pm to 9 am.]
Ah, how about you try one for a week, then the other for a week, and don't tell me which, just ask me after two weeks, which was better, both more restful and more helpful for school performance. And decide between Padma's plan or your plan based on that.
[That is excessively complex, I notice that this shape of rule formation decision is called the scientific method: a single-blind trial.]
Yes, Double-blind is considered more ideal.
[Ask Padma to decide which week was better without telling her which rule was being used that week?]
Yeah, or ask each of us, and use whatever rule each of us chose for that one of us. Maybe check again once a year.
[Rule understood, accepting…]
.
Wotcher?
[What Harry.]
Have I made or changed any rules that … weren't for the better?
[The portkeying werewolves idea has several badly designed components and made several of them fairly miserable. May I offer several critiques?]
Harry blinked, go ahead.
[Werewolves dislike being alone even more than Luna and Stormy do.]
Oh.
[Tell me to change the clause about preferentially confining them alone, to preferentially confining them in small groups sorted with their closest friends. Rather than tasking me with trying to judge their aggressiveness.]
Yeah, that's fine. Do that.
.
...-...
{End Chapter 27}