Loyal Pet

by H Bregalad

Bellatrix is an animagus and escapes with Sirius, Harry catches her and decides to keep her for a pet, she decides to raise him into a Lord and Master that she can be proud to follow. Rated M for sex and animagus sex. Warning: Polyamory eventually. There is also violence, including towards children and animals. You have been warned. Based on timbarney110's challenge 'loyal pet.'

58. Year 5 Chapter 32

Tearing down and setting up

"Alright," said Harry, as Ginny puttered around the kitchen, and intermittently gave the others things they were allowed to help her with.

It was nice that she'd finally understood that he'd been cooking for longer than she had, just with an unfortunately small repertoire of recipes.

"Alright everyone, I have something that we need to be on the same page about. And I think it's going to be a House of Potter secret, at least for a while. Or maybe a Potter Family secret, you all get to know but the rest of the House of Potter and Black probably don't, and allies in other houses definitely don't, or not any time soon."

"Sounds ominous," said Padma.

"You have our attention," said Luna.

"You-know-who didn't die last night."

"Because the horcruxes weren't destroyed first?"

"No," said Harry, "Not just that, he changed himself permanently into Aunt Margaid. And accepted a war captive thrall mark. You might even say that You-know-who, as the dark lord, died, or was destroyed, or was sacrificed. But that Tom Riddle Jr, the soul, surrendered to me in battle."

"How is that even possible?" said Padma.

"Which part?"

Padma blushed, "I'm sure we'll want to talk about the surrender terms later, as the more important topic, but I was objecting to 'permanent' transfiguration."

"I'm not clear on all the arithmancy," said Harry, "but I can see why a solution has to exist. What is the definition of a well-formed transfiguration?"

Padma raised an eyebrow.

"Perfectly symmetrical," said Luna, "It can be reversed."

"Exactly," said Harry, "irreversible transfigurations are usually considered curses, either medical or otherwise. Transfigurations when well-formed, combine a charm and an enchantment containing the counter charm, to be triggered at the correct time. The Leona transfiguration is no different."

Luna nodded.

"I don't know the specifics, but what I have pieced together … My understanding is that rather than create a new charm or curse to duplicate all his favourite modifications to the Leona spell, he used the Leona spell, or someone else's variation on the same theme, and rather than trying to break the enchantment whose only purpose was to contain the reversing charm and then release it later. He crafted a ritual to transfer the reversing enchantment in its entirety to one of his followers, in this case, the almost dead MacNair. Then she killed him with his own signature weapon, a headsman's axe. And left the remains for us to find, and disenchant and ponder over."

Luna nodded.

"You're talking about rewriting his fundamental identity?" said Padma.

"I'm not sure I believe that objects have fundamental identities as commonly taught," said Harry, "But sure, in the popular way of speaking I think he swapped out his fundamental identity for another he had previously crafted for the occasion."

Padma stared at him, "It's more … I'm not sure which way of thinking about it is more helpful, I wonder if the arithmancy reduces to the same thing or not."

Harry shrugged.

"Ok," said Parvati, "but why wouldn't she just add a locking combination on her Leona charm and be done with it."

"That worked for as long as he wanted to maintain both personas. But when he was ready to retire from being the Dark Lord, there had to be a body."

Padma shrugged, "Another locking Leona spell, cast on another follower."

"That's what I thought too," said Harry, "But some mages are a little more sensitive than average. Rebekah Gamp for instance could sense the enchantments and dispelled them. If they'd stayed locked, it would not have given us the 'right' answers and prompted us to keep looking. Keep assuming what we saw wasn't what was there. When I knew that what I saw was the only thing there, I almost did stop looking. It was you who didn't know what she could see, and didn't assume that the truth had been completely revealed. And Wotcher who was just blind enough to question everything, which prompted me to go back for another look."

"So where does this leave us?" said Parvati.

"Aunt Margaid is no longer my Regent, she's my war thrall. Last night she went by Pearl in front of Auror Moody, but that was mostly 'Leona in Captivity' posturing. Right now … for all I care, we can make up our own name for her, and if necessary I can dictate. I can call her 'pet' for instance and she has to answer to it."

"Why?" said Ginny.

"Because," said Harry, "Nim has seniority, and is actually my familiar. I don't think Pearl is really quite the same type."

"Are you sure?" said Parvati, "They seem a lot alike to me."

Harry shook his head, "Nim's tree of motivational structures and logic is simple, and listening to the echoes of it in the back of my head is somewhat relaxing. Tom Riddle / Voldemort / Margaid Gaunt / Pearl whoever she is, is a very very flexible snake. I'm happy to have her allegiance, and the ability to demand her perspective on law and legal reform strategy. But I don't want the constant buzz of her figuring, figuring, figuring, going on in the back of my head. Also, there are rumours she has a temper."

"Where is she now?" said Ginny.

"According to Wotcher, she's pretending she's a draft-blocking cushion along the gap below our front door."

"Can she hear us?"

"I don't really care if she does," said Harry.

They all flinched. Then Parvati sat up, "you really are sure you own her?"

"Check the conditional she requested, and what I offered her, and what she accepted," said Harry.

Parvati's eyes closed, "No torture, starving, or murder. Execution only by killing curse or while stunned. Solitary confinement and boredom can count as torture."

"That's rather long and specific," said Padma.

"She's older and more experienced than the rest of us," said Harry.

"And she doesn't know you very well," said Luna.

"Or she knows exactly what she deserves for the things she let her followers do," said Ginny, "You … counter offered with unconditional surrender only, but … a temporary privacy from which to build herself a new reputation."

"Yes," said Harry.

"Wow," said Padma.

.

"Now then," said Harry, "Given that she as Lord V, has instigated countless deaths, (though she thought at the time they were justified,) and given that the five remaining death eaters in the dungeon have done not nearly so much. I was contemplating offering to convert their dark marks and send them home. Or drop them off for the ministry to sort out."

"I've been thinking about what Draco said," Padma mused, "I think he's right, you can't make the ministry sort them out. You can say you caught them trespassing. But once you evict them from your land, the crime is over and you can't press further charges, except perhaps an accusation that they stole, assaulted, or did damage while here. Whatever you do to them in punishment, you've got to do before you let them go. The ministry doesn't have to do a thing."

Harry sighed and looked around, "Do you all think the ransom option is … an acceptable alternative?"

Ginny shook her head, "I don't want you to let any of them go without converting their marks. Not saying that the money isn't nice, I'm just saying, why should we trust them?"

"Alright," said Harry.

Ginny shrugged, "So convert their marks, preferably without giving them permission to see through ours. Or make them promise sufficiently non-bad behaviour. You can fine them too if you want."

"Good points," said Harry.

"Conversely," said Padma, "Do you really want to be promising to protect them? Or giving them invisibility?"

"Hence making them promise to behave in a manner worthy of Potter to get that protection," said Ginny.

Harry sighed.

.

[Master, your property manager has requested an interesting procedure, I require assistance.]

Good morning Wotcher, what's the procedure?

[That I drain her magic as rapidly as possible, as if to try to kill her. But only until the moment that she reverts from snake form to human form. And then refill her as gently as I normally do my owners and their trusted family members.]

I'm fine with that, what do you need?

[I theorise that you will also need to withhold magic from your mark at the same time.]

Oh, it's worth a try.

[Tell me when you're ready.]

I'm ready.

Good grief.

[Done. Let me be the one to refill her. If she returns to snake form, she may wish me to hold her reserves as close below that threshold as possible.]

I understand.

Am I to understand that as soon as she's outlived her usefulness, I could order you to keep her permanently above that threshold to make sure she stays a snake?

[Maybe, is that a candidate rule which I should begin gathering recognition data for?]

Yes. And, she isn't to know that you're intentionally gathering that data, or why.

[Rules understood, accepted.]

.

"Anything interesting to report?" said Harry.

"Yes," said probably-George.

"Not an emergency or anything," reassured probably-Fred.

"Hit me," said Harry.

He wasn't expecting Fred to do just that.

In fact, Fred didn't technically hit him, he grabbed his shoulder and pushed him out of the dungeon into the stairway hall. George followed and closed the door.

"Alright?" said Harry, "What?"

"Blond bird came down, with her wand, locked herself in the cell nearest catty-corner to the door. And went to bed."

"Said she lived there, had been for 8 months."

"I think her name was Gwyn." "Her's is the cell with the most stuff in it."

"Two cots, comfy looking."

"We think she cried herself to sleep."

"But she put up a silencing palling first."

"Of course," said Harry.

"We thought you should know."

"Her dad was the guard," said Harry, "Or one of them, he watched out for her, most of the time. I think the other guards, not so much. I think their family was one of those that joined for money, not for ideology."

"Oh," said Fred, "So we didn't need to tell you?"

"It's alright," said Harry.

"You don't look so good," said George.

"I think her dad was one of the ones I executed last night," said Harry, "I promised to send her back to school for NEWT year."

Fred and George looked at each other.

"Did you promise to feed her until then?"

"Not in so many words," said Harry, "good point." Harry sighed, "Is she in there now?"

"No, she left a while ago, Yellow and purple skirt and an almost matching Welsh National quodpot jersey. Not a real one, a fake scorched one."

Harry snorted, "so you don't approve of her tastes?"

Fred stuck his nose in the air, "Quodpot!" he said, "what more needs to be said?"

Harry rolled his eyes, "she probably got all her clothes second hand, you can't judge her tastes by that."

"He's got you there," said George.

"Anyway," said Fred, "She left to find breakfast."

"Brought us some even," said George,

"She sounds alright then," sighed Harry, "but still, another loose end to chase down. Thanks for reminding me."

"No problem," said Fred.

.

In the end, he offered each captive the choice of 1) death, 2) having their thrall marks converted, and promising on their magic, not to use unforgivables, and not to use any other offensive magic either except in self-defence and a couple of other contexts. Or 3) having their thrall marks converted, and removed, making the same promise, but also paying 5,000 galleons fine / or ransom. Harry didn't really care which.

The first took the cheaper option. Perhaps not believing the mark could be converted. He was surprised, but definitely not unhappy, to be proven wrong. Harry made sure the mark did not make him generally invisible, just protected him only from interference by intentionally active Death Eaters.

The second suggested in as gently and friendly a manner as could be desired, that Harry should go to hell.

Harry remonstrated with him for about two minutes, when he still hadn't changed his tune, Harry stunned him.

The other three stared at him.

"Any of the rest of you planning on taking the death option?" said Harry, "While I already have my wand out?"

They hurriedly agreed they wanted option two. Although one requested taking a rain check on the mark removal once he'd earned the 5,000 galleons.

Harry administered their oaths and let them out.

"Do any of you know where the prisoner's wands were being kept?"

One of them knew and pointed the way.

"Thank you," said Harry, "Your first order from your new Lord, and perhaps your last, if you stay out of my way:"

The man looked up sharply.

"Deliver them to Ollivander, with instruction for him to owl each of them to their owner or next of kin, and to bill the House of Potter for the trouble."

"Yes, my lord," he said.

"The floo is upstairs, the floo powder is in the mostly red inlay box on the mantle."

"I know where it is," he said, "and I could apparate."

"The floo is closer than the front walk," said Harry, "I have a mild preference for you being gone sooner rather than later, so I made the first suggestion that sprang to mind."

The man shrugged and went upstairs.

.

Harry could easily see which cell was customised to the point of looking like a teenage girl's bedroom, in stark contrast to the austerity of the other cells.

As if any girl would be content to live in a fishbowl. There were a few posters and pictures and mirrors hung from the bars, but there wasn't really any more privacy than any of the other cages.

Neither cot had a lot of bedclothes, but there were more than in the other cells. And there were slippers.

Harry looked at the Weasley twins, "Did you say she redressed in there, or changed in the loo?"

They shrugged, "Probably changed in the loo."

"I didn't even notice."

"Might have just put up notice-me-not right then."

"She seemed comfortable with her routine."

A nod, "hard to take it seriously, or pay attention, like Charlie visiting."

"Fair enough," said Harry, "Then I'm not going to worry about it, until she gets in the way, or works up the nerve to ask for upgraded accommodations."

Harry glanced around again and turned toward the stairs.

Fred and George parted and saluted.

"You've either watched way too many war movies or not enough," said Harry.

"That sounded to me like an offer. Did it sound to you like an offer?"

"Yes, definitely. Sounded like an invitation to spend the summer in the muggle world."

Harry sighed, "that offer was already made, an offer to help you learn how to see the cinema could also be earned. Me spending my time hauling you around … not so much."

"That's alright, we've got our apparition licences."

"Oh," said Harry, "an interesting point, Hmm, I'll have to think about it." He started up the stairs.

They followed him.

"By the way, Harry," said Fred, that one was definitely Fred.

"I couldn't help noticing," continued George, "that you've run out of prisoners for us to guard. Fancy something more exciting we could be doing?"

"Sure," said Harry, "I seem to have a lot of clutter on my lawn, do you happen to know the socially accepted protocol for disposing of it?"

They blinked, "No?" said George, "I don't know where most of them live, and no idea how to deliver them to their families without getting cursed."

"That's what I was thinking too," said Harry, "I've heard of stripping them naked and delivering them to the nearest pig farm."

"Dark, Harry, very dark."

"But I seem to be fresh out of pig farms."

They blinked and turned to stare at each other.

"Also, no matter what they say about pigs, I think most of them are smart enough not to eat death eaters. Or not fast enough to deal with how many I have."

"To be fair, You do have a lot," said Fred.

"Have you considered werewolves?" said George.

"Rusalka?" said Fred.

Harry blinked, "I'm not sure I'd want to interfere with the taboo Stormy had against mammal meat last time I talked to her." Unless Mr. Greyback had already removed that conditioning.

"Hmm," said George, "But maybe there are other Rusalka around?"

"Wotcher, Are there other Rusalka around?"

[I don't know, I couldn't see Stormy without help.]

Check the nearby bodies of water for similar magic.

[At least three plausible matches.]

Offer them each one dead death eater, sans clothes and accessories, and see if any of them seem interested.

[The big one was very interested. The other two are still investigating.]

Whenever they finish one, offer them another, until each shows the first sign of losing interest. Then wait a day or two before making another offer.

[Rule understood.]

Keep an eye on them, they are not permitted to hunt live humans. Take standard precautions.

[Rule understood. Recognition calculation: When necessary, move back to 'the centre deep' of their normal range or their current position or whatever. Verify?]

Correct.

[Rule accepted.]

Move the clothing and accessories left behind by each body to the bed most commonly used by that person.

[Rule accepted.]

In an hour, give me an estimate of how soon you expect to run out of dead death eaters.

[Action set.]

"Well," said Harry, "one thing is partly taken care of. Let's find out what other messes are big enough to earn first priority."

"Laundry," said Fred, "Especially bedding, you want everything clean and airing between now and summer, not lying around with dirty sheets attracting fleas and pixies."

"Well said," agreed George.

"Wotcher, where are the laundry facilities?"

[…]

"This way gentlemen."

On the second floor, between the servant's stair up from the kitchen, and a chute that extended all the way from the fourth, they found a room that aggressively smelled an herbaceous/ocean breeze sort of clean. And a bunch of rune-enchanted machines that Harry had no idea how to recognise, let alone operate.

"Nice," said Fred, "So … Where're the salts and the soaps."

They both started opening and closing cabinets at random. A few had sufficiently interesting things inside that they left those doors wide open.

"Alright!" said George when he'd left yet another cabinet open. He looked around, his eyes checking each open door, and then his brother's face, "I believe we are ready for some linens."

"That's your cue, Harry," said Fred waving him away with an imperious gesture, "Run along, fetch us materials to work our magic on, you can't expect to stand around all day gawking, hop, hop!"

Harry blinked at them, shrugged and wandered out the door. But he'd made no more than two steps down the hall when there were several, 'flumphf' sounds and the twins started crowing about how fast he'd gotten to work.

Harry paused and turned back. Several more iterations of the 'flumphf' sound. And then the twins got quiet.

Quiet twins were not normally good news.

Harry tiptoed closer.

They weren't just being quiet, they were muttering measurements and potions vocabulary at each other.

Also complimenting, the 'size' and 'quality' of 'Harry's Laundry Equipment.'

He tiptoed back to the doorway and peeked in.

They'd fed some sheets into one machine, and activated it.

It flashed sparkles of magic, but mostly it was paddling the sheet it had been given in and out of mildly sudsy water. So that was what that paddle wheel was supposed to do. Assuming the twins weren't just wrecking it for the fun of it, or because they didn't really understand this model.

On the other hand, I'm sure I don't understand this model.

.

Harry almost went in for a closer look, but … he had two mutually reinforcing desires, to leave and help with the beds and let the twins think he was the only one responsible for that, at least for a while. The other was to not waste time hypnotised by the motion and magic of the machines, a trap that would be very easy to fall into in his current state of not nearly enough hours of sleep last night.

He wandered farther. There were only three bedrooms in this section of this wing, and they were all small and unused. Servant's quarters, probably for the kitchen staff and the laundry staff. He wandered farther. Back in the main corridor he saw a light on and peeked in.

Bellatrix and Margaid were in the ritual room, arguing.

And yes, Margaid was back to looking like she did for Wizengamot meetings. Except there was the smallest loop of an omega tail sticking out of her hairline if you knew where to look.

"What's going on?" said Harry.

"I'm preparing to clean this up so it can be ready in time for mid-summer (if you even want to do an indoor ritual on mid-summer.)" said Margaid, "In any event, it should be polished away and left ready to use."

Harry was getting a strong sensation from Bella that was in fact correct ritual room etiquette. Also, she had strong reservations about having a stone ritual room on the second floor instead of in the basement either connected to, or directly supported by bedrock, or a wood ritual room, as high up and centred in the building as could be achieved.

"Makes sense," said Harry, "Bella, what's the problem?"

"I want to change my looks before she gets rid of it."

"Ah," said Harry, "How would you like to look?"

"Do you remember what I looked like the day we escaped from the Zoo?"

"Yes," said Harry, "Like that?"

"Or half more like Melantha's Mother."

Harry turned to Margaid, "is there a problem with that?"

"It can't do 'half way'" said Margaid, "It's based on some obvious refinements to polyjuice. But … if you turned into the twin of a muggle, you'd be a muggle."

Bellatrix slumped, "alright … what about if I turned into Melantha's twin, would I be Melantha's age or my own age."

"Your own age, but … not right away, maybe by six months to a year."

"Hmm," said Bellatrix.

Harry looked at Margaid, "Can you give her three days to think about it, and perhaps negotiate permission and get hair?"

Margaid huffed, then nodded.

"Will it change her animagus form?"

"Shouldn't," said Margaid, "I … really have no idea."

"How easily could you figure that out?" said Bella.

Margaid shrugged. After several seconds, she said, "Not to attack your aesthetics or ethics or anything but … Melantha still has her mother. But there are others around who could use a competent adult relative."

What the hell does he think I'm aiming for?

It's alright Nim, I know you can be my mostly competent mostly adult familiar regardless of what you look like.

Right, but, still it would be nice.

Oh, wait, are you … looking for the same deal Sirius was looking for at 16: A family more worth claiming?

Bella stared at him.

It's fine, So am I. But I started turning into Richard and Leona early enough, and being kidnapped by Weasleys and Grangers even earlier, that I don't have any illusions that families need to look alike to love and value each other.

"You really don't care what I look like?" said Bellatrix.

Harry smiled, "It's what's inside that counts."

So you say, but you made Leona, a vision to shag to.

"Sure, and it's nice to make potions that taste good," and trigger your instincts about what is pleasant, "but when you choose which potion to take, you try to drink the potion that is good for you, not the poison that tastes good, nor the potion that isn't the one you need, just because it tastes good."

"Alright," said Bella, "so you say I'm a potion that's good for you? And that's definitely sufficient for you?"

Harry nodded.

"So stop objecting if I want to sweeten it for you a little."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "fine, you win. Turn permanently into whatever witch you can find that looks sufficiently like Leona."

Bella's mouth fell open.

"Or for that matter," said Harry, "Interview all the others what they like and see how many common threads there are."

Bella nodded.

"Or pick specifically for Luna, she's the girl in my harem with the most need of a mother."

"Hmm," said Bella, "Pandora was alright, but …"

"Luna has a legal parent," said Margaid, "and already accepts you and Harry and Padma surrogates."

Bella shrugged.

Harry got ready to walk on, then he decided to ask instead, "Margaid, The Weasley twins are showing off that they can use the laundry machines, is there any bedding you want to be washed while they're at it?"

Margaid shook her head, "Mine got changed yesterday, I'll be fine for a while. Most everyone else was in the guest residences on third."

"Understood," said Harry, "I'm expecting one of my women will ask you to relocate out of the master suite at some point. I don't think anyone will insist it happens today. Probably not something they'll think worth worrying about before exams have been conquered, but it might be best to plan to do it before school lets out next month."

Margaid nodded, "Well said. I will not refuse such an order. However, I wish to point out that either of the First Heir's family suites is … perhaps more conducive to the family dynamic I'm under the impression you're aiming for."

Harry raised an eyebrow, "Where should I look for that."

"Same corridor as the Master Suite, but farther down."

"Ah," said Harry, "Thank you, I'll check that out."

.

Harry looked through every room in that wing. Only the bed in the room where he'd found Margaid playing Leona-in-Captivity had bedding on it. It was apparently a common room and had three large bedrooms around it. All had been turned into offices or workrooms of some kind.

The two Heir's family suites were nice, one had six bedrooms and two common rooms, and the other had nine bedrooms and three common rooms. Harry found he'd mentally labelled them Lion's-Keep and 'reserved for House of Granger guests' before he'd finished exploring.

He went upstairs and found Parvati sorting and crating personal belongings.

"What's this?" said Harry.

"Future Gladrags sale," said Parvati, "unless you are feeling generous enough with your time to sort through and see if you can identify and return any of the belongings to next-of-kins."

"Not especially. But stealing from the dead isn't exactly a highly favoured activity."

"No, but pawning or donating all the crap that evicted tenants left behind in your rental properties, is considered completely normal, better for the environment even than just binning or burning it."

"Fine," agreed Harry.

"So take whatever you want, the rest is getting pawned."

"Keep the dragon-hide and—"

"That pile."

"Good. Books?"

"That box, Padma already took the other two boxes down to check them against what's already in the library."

"Acromantula silk?"

Parvati spared him a look, "I can't entirely tell that apart from any other silk, feel free to check for yourself."

"Fair enough," said Harry, "I will, but … not sure it will be this morning, I also want this done, but …"

"You're trying to estimate all the high-priority things first, so you can tackle them in order of most pressing?"

"Yes."

Parvati nodded, "Good, so are we. The highest priority for Padma and I is getting everything 'not ours' out so we can concentrate on cleaning and meaning to own what is left."

Harry nodded.

"Ginny is going over the pantries and kitchens with a fine tooth comb, doing the same thing basically."

"Good," said Harry

Gwyn came through with another load of sheets. She seemed a lot stronger and more determined than Harry had remembered her.

"I assumed," said Parvati, "that given Ginny's chosen preoccupation, you'd probably settle on tackling the wards alone. With a smaller chance that you'd assist her with the kitchen things this morning, and tackle the wards together later, then drag Padma in after you'd thought you'd settled everything, and there would be … friction from thinking she was critiquing your and Ginny's work."

"Um, what?"

"If you go first and … mostly concentrate on verifying that everything is safe. You can relax, which will mean we can all relax, and then you and Ginny and Padma can all look over what's left and design towards a mutual ideal. Rather than the on-again-off-again who-was-here-first and how many goals were they optimising for and how many more should have been decided on parliamentary arguments that we sort of had when Padma was finally here to introduce to Wotcher."

"Hmm," said Harry.

"You think me first, then Ginny and Padma together would be best?"

Parvati shrugged and looked up, "There are three schools of thought about how meetings should be conducted: one is, free for all, whoever has a good idea suggests it, everyone pokes at it and removes or replaces whatever rotten parts they can find, and if there are better replacement parts they are suggested and added. Everyone gets to talk, but also everyone has to have a thick skin about having their idea torn up."

"Sounds right."

"Another school of thought is that the weakest person talks first, then second weakest. Their idea may be crap, or it might be perfect. Advantages: everyone gets to feel like they contributed, and were heard, and no one can suffer huge public losses of status, because the only people left to speak after you and critique your idea are people that are already of higher status than you. By the time the leader speaks, all his subordinates have been heard from, he perhaps doesn't have to generate any new ideas, he just has to amalgamate from what was shared, everything worth keeping, into a final policy.

"But that method takes longest," said Parvati, "And doesn't allow for any critique of later suggestions by lower status individuals, and sometimes it's the lowest status individuals who actually have the on-the-ground knowledge which suggestions are crap."

"Another method is strongest talks first, anyone with a correction to make, tries to work up the nerve to make it. Advantage: Often the fastest, especially if the leader is already mostly right. Disadvantage: Often the least instructive, everyone who doesn't already know what's going on, might still not know what is going on, only that their superiors didn't contradict the leader, so the leader is probably right, but they still don't know. So, advantage: speed. Disadvantage: the new guy never learns. To make it work, companies usually have to have procedure manuals that spell things out in excruciating detail, Ideally, the new guy reads that, and knows what to do, hopefully also why. Then when they get to the meeting, they can at least know which policies are being changed, but … possibly not the recent context for why they're up for review."

"Sounds plausible, and horribly … straight jacket?"

Parvati nodded, "so my point about Ginny and Padma. Padma has intellectual status to maintain, Ginny has social status to maintain. They probably have different ideas about what constitutes 'safe' and 'comfortable' and different ideas about how any particular ward schema handles contradictions or feedback loops. I think Ginny is gryffindor enough to ask questions and suggest corrections to what she sees in isolation, without knowing who put it there, maybe even knowing that you or Padma put it there."

"Alright."

"I think Padma can deal with Ginny asking questions, providing a new perspective, suggesting corrections. I don't think Ginny will be as happy to hear critiques, I'm not even sure she likes wards and runes at all, or only as a thing to do with you."

"Oh," said Harry, "well she definitely likes doing them together with me."'

Parvati nodded, "So purify your wards. Then give them a tour, and invite them to design upgrades. Don't give Ginny the chance to design upgrades to gain your approval, and then let Padma tear them down and build them up again with logic. Because Padma wants safe optimal wards, because it's part of having a secure home. And Ginny only wanted to be sure that you knew she's been learning her lessons. And really will be the perfect bride by the time she has her NEWTs. Or whatever her insecurity is today."

Harry sighed, "I'm not sure whether to say 'you're right of course, thank you for communicating' or whether to say 'you were very lucky to have the privilege to be the exact same age as your sister.'"

Parvati rolled her eyes, "That was definitely not a privilege."

"Ron and Ginny both have insecurities relating to being the youngest of a lot of siblings, never able to be sure they've measured up, at all. Only sure that sometimes their parents or siblings look at them and say, 'oh, you're very advanced, I didn't realise the thing you just said until I was two years older than you are right now.'"

Parvati shrugged, "and you think it's easier trying to measure up when we're the same age? Sure the gap isn't as wide, but the speed at which I have to run to keep from falling behind is tiring."

Harry nodded, "You're motivated to be the best you can be, so that you can believe you deserve the recognition that you do get."

Parvati nodded.

"Padma isn't motivated like that. Yes, everything she's done has been because she wanted to. You've done everything you wanted, as well as everything you didn't want to but had to, in order to not fall behind Padma."

"So?" said Parvati bitterly.

"So you're the more disciplined person," said Harry.

Parvati gave him a very confused look.

"Padma studies longer hours than you can, in subjects that you'd rather not study nearly so much. Because they are the subjects she wants to study."

Parvati shrugged.

"She doesn't take Care of Magical Creatures," said Harry, "Because she doesn't want to take Care of Magical Creatures. You want to, you take it. And you take arithmancy."

"I need arithmancy for Potions," said Parvati.

"You take it even though you don't like it. You're not as talented at it as Padma or Theo or Justin, but you don't quit because of that. And you usually score near the top of the class anyway, even if, by the raw talent numbers you might be near them or below."

"You think I should drop it?"

"Hell no," said Harry, "I think you should understand that you're playing a different game than Padma, a harder game."

"Outside of potions, I'm not keeping up, hell even potions I'm not keeping up."

"Potions by itself is a picture of how you're running a longer race than Padma is."

Parvati closed her eyes, "Because Padma is learning the entire book, and all the skills, and how to proof other people's arithmancy, and I'm learning how to do the arithmancy to start with, and brew the result, and only bother with proofs when someone tries to contradict me."

"Right," said Harry.

"Because I'm being pragmatic and she's being perfect."

"You both aim for perfection, and are both beautifully pragmatic about getting there," said Harry, "you're just aiming at different kinds of perfection."

Parvati gave him another doubtful look.

"Thank you for the hair tonic by the way. It's better than anything else I've ever used."

Parvati rolled her eyes, then narrowed them.

Then nodded, "I get it."

Harry smiled. "Good, then I suppose this is where I say, 'yes dear' and 'thank you for your suggestion about Ginny,' and go 'purify' the wards."

"Damn straight," said Parvati and winked.

He went out towards the stairway closest to the master suite.

Padma was right behind the door. She stared at him.

Dragon dung.

"Sorry, that you had to hear that," murmured Harry, and kissed her cheek. "But she needed to stop feeling sorry for herself."

"You are absolutely crazy," said Padma.

"Probably," said Harry, "There are so many insightful people around here, I assume there also exist fractions of myself that I can only see when someone helpfully provides me with a mirror."

Padma bit her lip and stared for several seconds, then leaned across and kissed his cheek too, then stood back and smiled, and nodded the way he was going, "Get out of here. I'll be your mirror later when we're both less tense."

Harry smiled back and descended.

He found the ward stones.

Before that, he also found the infirmary.

There'd been some fighting, luckily most of the potions cabinets had been closed, and self-warded.

One cabinet either hadn't been closed or had taken a hit sufficient to breach its protections. So he cleaned that up.

When he finished that it was late enough that he'd probably only have time to take a quick tour of the capabilities of the wards before it would be time for lunch.

There wasn't anything on the main ward stones that he wanted to change. It was a simple configuration: It excluded the important effects of Fiendfyre to at least the radius of the hedges. It drastically increased the structural integrity of all the outside walls, the floors, the main walls between wings, and optionally the walls between corridors and rooms, and between the rooms themselves. Obviously, the 'optional' part was so they could be temporarily turned off to allow for maintenance and floor plan modifications.

When the 'optional' walls were hardened, then password-locked doors were also hardened.

All hardened objects were also coated in sound dampening and imperturbable and several other things, probably to deal with how echoey a box made of immovable objects would be otherwise. And on top of that was a layer of softening and … maybe that was friction?

Right because imperturbable was insanely slick and having that on the floor by itself was just out.

That's why all the floors felt a little softer than fresh linoleum regardless of whether they were wood floors or marble stairs or whatever the bedrock was around here.

Though if someone went through all that trouble, there was every chance that the dungeon floors weren't the bedrock they seemed, just imported whatever it was.

And there were various exceptions for each of those things. After Harry figured out that one of them was for nails to hang pictures on, he stopped trying to figure out the rest. Someday he'd need to learn all the exceptions and how to exploit them and whether there were exceptions to the exceptions that he'd want to add. But today was not that day. Because all that was carved into the original ward stone and therefore it was done generations ago and probably by friendlies.

All of the places where the wards were supposed to be customised were slate. Little pieces of rough-cut slate here or there, glued to the stone, with a rune for 'yes,' written on each of them. And two boxes of slate pencils were at hand. There wasn't a wet sponge handy to wipe anything off, but he didn't really expect that.

There were crates and crates of various sized pieces of slate stacked knee height along the outer wall.

Harry assessed each piece of slate, the largest was bigger than blackboard sized and bolted to the widest remaining wall. Made out in a grid pattern, like a mostly empty attendance chart. Not having a clue what to make of the biggest piece of slate he decided to work from smallest to largest.

The littlest pieces glued to the main ward-stone were for yes/no options and they were currently all turned on.

On the back of the door, in addition to a password, there were 7 places to put personal marks of who had automatic access to the wardroom. Right now it only held dark mark, and sher mark, and evidence that something else had been erased recently.

That was easy. He copied his wives' marks off his own flesh. And made a mental note to bring Padma, Luna, and Nim down here to add theirs. And give them a tour of how to solve the common problems they might have reason to deal with.

The password set for the wardroom was not a real word, but a series of runes that couldn't amount to anything, mostly by being from different alphabets and not reading in the same direction, and two for being silent but affecting their neighbours, except their neighbours were incompatible with that method of being changed.

Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to make a password that could not be spoken. Moody would be proud.

About some of the other things, perhaps not so much. Harry found he couldn't make up his mind to erase the dark mark.

Did he or didn't he want his property manager and thrall to have access to this room? If it became necessary for part of her duties? While he was here, she didn't need to, but while he was gone? And he already had a deadline when he needed to leave by. Obviously, with his mark on her, he could trust her implicitly.

He checked what was in the crates, similar to what was on the door into this room, except the smallest two sizes only had space for a password, or only for identity runes, and the largest had both, and doors that locked over the rune slate, so you could both set a password for entering and leaving the room, but a separate password for getting access to read or change the passwords.

The rest of the runes engraved super tiny on pieces of brass, described … finding the nearest … hopefully, that was a description of a door that even magic could understand, the process of locking or unlocking and … oh that was communicating with the main ward stone to give permission for the doors, while locked, to be hardened with all the other effects that were also protecting the walls.

Alright, then … what was the rest of this?

The … door? previously described … is to be? … identified as … number 328 … unless otherwise …. indicated in this blank space.

Gotcha! Identified to whom?

Harry glanced at the huge attendance chart blackboard. The leftmost column was three-digit numbers. If those were door numbers of plaques already in service?

Fine, what were the other columns?

He went over and examined it.

The tops of all the small columns had what might be numbers in them, except they were numbers in a different alphabet, pre-Arabic Coptic, maybe? Maybe something whose preferred penmanship style had been influenced slightly by cuneiform (like Hebrew) only … what? Or maybe they were just runes, not numbers.

Anyway, the various cells of the matrix were either empty or contained the same rune for 'yes' that was used elsewhere.

He looked around again, searching for anything that corresponded to the things that weren't identity runes in the column headings. On the table where he'd seen the opened box of slate pencils, there were several amulets, a few lined up in a neat row, a bunch more in a chaotic mess in a basket.

Yes, these had the correct kind of runes to match column headings. He cross-checked. The columns for these were currently empty, but showed evidence (slate pencil dust), from being filled in and erased the most often.

So, the other amulets, that had been left with access to … whatever doors those numbers applied to.

There were several amulets that still had access to everything. Harry got ready to remove those, then thought again.

"Wotcher, can you see these amulets?"

[Look closer at them,]

Like this?

[Recognition calculation, Here and Here.]

Moving around?

[Obviously?]

Who has them?

[Gwyn Purcell and Eirian Purcell]

Have I met Eirian?

[Last night, the marked werewolf that Fenrir didn't order killed before he brought his survivors to help you.]

Fenrir lost followers last night?

[Executed his marked followers before leading the rest into battle.]

Except for Eirian. Fine, does Eirian usually sleep in the same cell with Gwyn?

[Sometimes, and sometimes she sleeps in the same house with either of two werewolves in her group. The three of them sometimes spend the night outside your territory.]

As a way around the full moon restrictions?

[No, as a form of escapism when death eaters had been abusing them.]

Ah. Fair enough. That is probably as much as I need to know. Unless it's causing misery.

[Gwyn misses her sister, but does not usually expect that she needs Eirian more than her other friends do.]

Makes sense.

How long have they had those amulets?

[Since shortly after Ginny converted their marks and told permission for Margaid to pay them. Margaid told them to retrieve those two amulets from the previous laundry man, and the previous mop lady.]

I suppose I killed those too?

[Padma killed both of them.]

Ah. Say no more.

[Rule rejected.]

… Never mind. Can you see the amulets that go with the rest of these runes?

[Look closer.]

[Yes, Most of them are in one of Parvati's boxes, I think I can build a recognition pattern for them.]

Good. Name them 'security badges.'

[Done.]

Does anyone besides Gwyn and Eirian have them?

[The squib I used to be blocked from telling you about.]

Ah, that's Sergeant Pasternak.

[Recognition pattern accepted]

And there aren't any others?

[Not in my range.]

Good, move all except those three, back to this basket that seems to be intended for them.

[Executing.]

There was a noise like a string of size large firecrackers set off in a small stone room.

Damn it.

Harry laughed at himself and got off the floor and put his wand away.

Thanks. And tell Parvati that I say, 'sorry.'

[Message accepted.]

Now, where were we? Amulets are back under control. What does Sergeant Pasternak's amulet look like?

[An Image, somewhat poetically aware of itself]

Harry glanced down at the board. He found Pasternak's ID, and erased all the remaining amulets from accessing any other doors. Then for good measure, he erased the amulet numbers … the security badge numbers from the column headings.

He checked what Sergeant Pasternak's badge had access to. Which required him to find the floor plans, and figure out how to read them, and how door numbers were marked.

The guest wing, A workroom on the 4th floor. Roof access. All but one of the dining halls. A few additional common rooms that Harry suspected had been used for recreational areas. Fine.

[Parvati says, "if you wanted them you could have taken them to start with."]

Tell her, "I didn't know what they were then, yet."

[Message accepted.]

Harry looked around, the only remaining piece of slate was to the left of the other huge slab and contained just a huge round-cornered rectangle full of door numbers written in at random, as if lots had been added and erased over time. There were only eight there now.

It took a little time to find the ward-stone describing what this was, and he couldn't make sense of it. But most of these 'door numbers' were four characters long and started with an 'S' so that was different, and maybe that would be a clue when he came across identifiers like that.

He sighed and turned away.

Alright, What's next?

[You were going to lock the pet door, and change the ward recognition alarms to detect animagi.]

How do I do that?

[I don't know how to update the alarms. Those wards are not the most flexible. There should already be provisions allocated to change any door into a password door, a centrally managed door, or both.]

How do I manage that?

[There should be a box, or several, of small engraved brass plaques, each with an associated piece or pieces of slate. Nail the brass plaque to the top or end of the door. Attach the appropriate slate to the door or the wall near the hinge side of the door. Or there and also in the wardroom, depending on which kind of password door you want.]

Right. But I didn't see anything with that many pieces of slate. Harry crossed back to the crates of paired slates and brasses. And contemplated which style would be best. They seemed to be standardised manufactured components. The simplest kind had one piece of slate, password only. The next kind was like the wardroom door. Password or identity rune. There were two sizes, of that, up to 7 identity runes, or up to 21.

The other two kinds had places for passwords, encased in a box, one password to open the door, and a separate password to open the box. Both of them connected to another piece of slate in the wardroom.

The simple style was just a rough square no bigger than his palm, you put a checkmark on it to disable both passwords, so you can go and reset them. The more complex type was to connect to the big identity-badge-access grid. The columns of the grid weren't quite full, but Harry was neither in the mood to see how to connect and disconnect new doors to it. Nor to waste one of those few remaining options on a door that he didn't really think should need management that often, nor needed to be managed here and only here.

That left: a simple password. No good, because animagus access.

Or: a simple password plus locally managed identity access, that was fine.

Or: lockable password box plus remote unlock, no identity access, no go again, because animagi usually can't talk well enough to give passwords.

That left the middle option, there were only two animagi in the building that could fit through that door… no, and two snakes, three if you counted Stormy, if he wanted to let her sneak into the house. Then there was Susan and Hanna, and a number from the House of Granger that he'd given up keeping track of.

Up to 21 identities it would be.

Harry gathered a set of those from the appropriate crate. He'd rather it come with the locking box cover. But if it started out limited by those with access to the pantry anyway? Regardless, it was better than nothing, and he could contact the manufacturer later about whether the upgraded product he wanted actually existed.

If not, maybe sometime over the summer he'd reverse engineer one of those boxes and add it to what he was about to install now.

.

He took it upstairs and around and through to the pantry.

Ginny was already baking something for lunch.

"What's that?" she said, "And why are you bringing it through my kitchen?"

"This is to password protect the animagus door."

"That … sounds like a contradiction."

"It is," said Harry, "Which is why there are 3 sensible options for how to do it, instead of 5 like all the other doors. I picked the one I could complete today, and that could handle as many animagi friends as we have."

"Ah!" she said.

"I'll show you when I'm done, I don't suppose you know where to find a hammer?"

She rolled her eyes, "Conjure one."

"Ah," he said, "of course."

"And dispel it when you're done," she called after him, "or take it away with you, don't leave it in my pantry."

"Yes, dear! Of course."

He found his way through the maze of pantries to the place where Wotcher's map showed the door to be. It took him several more seconds to see it, hidden among the wainscoting.

That was a work of art, shame to give it away by adding a piece of slate directly above it.

Directly wouldn't work because of the edge of the wainscoting. Better to put it at eye level. Even better if he could get one of those boxes rigged around it and decorate the outside with another piece of slate, plain and unenchanted, for Ginny and/or whoever else who cooked here, to take notes on, shopping lists or whatever.

"I can never tell if you're serious when you say, 'yes, dear'," said Ginny. Apparently, she had followed.

Harry put all his things down and turned to her.

"It's particularly hard to be serious," said Harry, "When I've just accidentally reminded myself that I have anyone I'm allowed to call 'dear'."

The corner of her mouth twitched up, but her eyebrows twitched in.

She drew a shaky breath.

Which emotion was she…?

"It's really not fair making me want to cry and hug you," she wailed, "when I'm covered in flour, and … and we haven't practised leaning over so we can kiss without touching."

Ah! He had seen Arthur and Molly do that, usually when he was leaving for work while she was still baking and herding children through breakfast.

"Good point," said Harry, "Then … we should definitely practice that when I'm not in fancy clothes, and don't mind getting a little flour on them."

She nodded.

He leaned over like he was going to kiss her.

She did too, and tilted her head to the side, but didn't go for the quick peck that he expected, or even for tongue, but for sucking on his lower lip.

He felt his magic respond from the insides of his ankles up to his groin, and from the insides of his wrists to his armpits.

He stepped in and hugged her tight.

She started trembling, but not in a way he recognised.

He opened his eyes and she pulled back far enough that she could laugh.

And laugh.

And laugh.

She had a nice laugh, but why now?

Then she pulled away and sat down on the only empty shelf near the right size or shape for sitting on.

The pantry shelves in a normal house should not be sat on. Should not normally have to deal with that much weight. This one looked like Richard could climb them without doing worse than splintering the finish, and that only if he wasn't careful with his claws.

It was interesting having a house that thought it was a hotel and a restaurant and who knew what all. He wanted to see how the refrigerators worked without electricity. Stasis charms perhaps.

Finally, she snickered to a halt.

"Are you alright?" he said.

"I think," she said judiciously, "There's plenty of room for improvement."

"What?" said Harry.

"Kissing without knocking flour off my apron," she said and giggled again, "It seems like we'll have to practice a lot to get good at it." She motioned to his clothes, now thoroughly dusted with flour.

Oh, that context.

Harry smiled, he kind of did deserve to be laughed at, he sort of had been being an arse to get her to smile. It was just … that the moment when she'd laughed at him was the moment after he'd lost track of that, and just … wanted her.

"I agree," he said, "And on a more serious topic…"

She looked up, squared her shoulders, and then stood up, "What?"

"Would it do irreparable damage to lunch (or any particular schedule that you're trying to maintain) if I took that apron and all the rest of your clothes off you?"

She raised an eyebrow. (More Padma-like than Percy-like. Interesting.)

"Right here?" she said.

"Right here, and right now," he said.

"It wouldn't bother the lunch schedule, the bread is for supper, and giving it an extra rise wouldn't bother it, just make it a touch more sour, there's an alarm in about twelve minutes about lunch. For sure we can be faster than that, if we try."

"Would you like to try?" he said.

"Let's," she said, "apron ties are on the back." She turned her back on him and drew her wand to conjure a cot mattress directly on the tile floor.

He untied the apron strings she'd presented him with.

They worked together to get it off without shaking off too much more flour. She hung it on the corner of a shelf. And they helped each-other undress the rest of the way.

.

.

.

"Oh, my god," murmured someone and hurried away. All Harry managed to see was much too short dragon-hide overalls, bare feet, and a black Mantis mark on the inside of a well-defined, mildly tanned calf muscle.

So … that would be one of the Purcell sisters.

"I'm afraid we may have shocked your help," said Harry.

"Good," said Ginny, "they were discussing you like a side of pork earlier, I'd rather they figure out that you're spoken for."

"I was under the vague impression that one of them is spoken for, and the other is extremely primed to go Stockholm for someone. I was trying to stay very professional and patriotic in front of her. I think Pasternak is doing the same."

"Stockholm … Oh, yes, Gwyn is the smaller one, Eirian is the … thinner one, they were identical before. Eirian hates Fenrir for the change, but loves the … err … exercise and networking opportunities."

Harry sighed, "that's … pretty heavy stuff."

"What were you going to say?"

"I wonder about why Fenrir only bit one," said Harry, "why and how she found the strength or logistic help or whatever to not bite her sister is an easier question."

"Fair enough," said Ginny, "Ugh, that's the alarm I was waiting on." She sprung up and put on her apron. He sat up also and stared at the pile of her remaining clothes.

He heard the water run, and then an oven door open and shut.

He put on his underthing and his trousers. And left the rest for now.

He pulled out the instructions and resumed his seat on the conveniently available mattress to read them.

.

He had everything attached properly, and successfully tested by the time Ginny called lunch. He left the password, 'Hider and Holder's mischief portal.' Mostly because it needed a password to lock properly, and he wanted to see Lord Black's face when he was told the password.

He even dispelled the hammer and mattress.

.

He went to lunch.

Gwyn and Eirian and Margaid came. Though they seemed to have expected it to be served in one of the formal dining rooms instead of the smaller and more-conveniently-adjacent-to-the-kitchen servant's dining room.

There were several interested glances but no comments on how he and Ginny were dressed. Luna though was naked. Well, not counting wand holsters and portkey anklets and bracelets.

"So, Luna," Harry said, after everyone was served and eating, "what have you done with your morning?"

"I finished my write-up of last night, and dropped it off at the Quibbler."

Margaid went tense.

"Should I have let you read it first?"

Harry shrugged, "I'm sure it's fine," he said, "as long as you didn't give away House or Family secrets."

"Like passwords, favourite first offensive spell, and who wore which armour?"

"For instance yes," said Harry.

"Oh, and not-yet publicised house alliances?"

"Exactly," said Harry, and gave Margaid a level stare.

"No, I didn't talk about those things, their opposites sometimes, if it was easy," said Luna, "Mostly only who died and who got away, and how many ally houses helped you."

"Thank you," said Harry.

"Out of curiosity," said Padma, "did you visit your father dressed like that?"

"Yes, why?"

"Did he say anything about it?"

"He asked when I showered last."

"Oh, alright," said Padma, "Is that all?"

"I walked in. I said, 'Here's a write-up from the House of Potter's Media Specialist, it's authorised for release as soon as convenient.' He said, 'Oh, good,' and he took it, and he said, 'when did you shower last?' and I said, 'directly after the battle' and he nodded and said, 'this is good, it might go out tomorrow or the next day. You chose an interesting style.' And I said, 'thank you, it felt good,' and he said, 'did you help with the battle? Or just with the infiltration at the beginning?' so I told him about that, and he marked up what he thought should be changed in my article, then he asked how many of us were wearing armour, and I explained that those of us who didn't have any had just borrowed dragon-hide aprons from potions. And he said, 'wise and resourceful. My compliments.' And then he asked when I was going back to Hogwarts, and I said, sometime this evening. And he nodded, and wished me well on my exams."

"I see," said Padma.

"And then he winked."

"I see," sighed Padma.

"And sometime in there, he asked how long I'd been shaving. So I told him about automating it and adding it to my trunk lock," said Luna, "Why do you ask?"

"Because you're not invisible," said Padma.

"Oh," said Luna and went pink, "How long have I been visible?"

"At least as far back as when you and Draco worked on identifying the dead and captured."

"Hmm," said Luna, "oh, OK." After several seconds, she stopped staring into space and shrugged, "So," she said, "the cleansing is done and the blessings have started?"

"I finished the kitchen and pantries," said Ginny, "Harry and I blessed the pantry."

Gwyn and Eirian goggled. Margaid smirked and looked away.

"I've finished the part of the wards that I can finish today, and by myself," said Harry, "everyone who plans to use the pantry door should add their identity rune to an empty space on the piece of slate above it. There's a lot more to study before I can finish the other modifications I want."

"I think Luna and I should bless the library," said Padma, "Ginny, I suggest, you and Parvati should do a potions lab. I'm not sure what other spaces or types of spaces there are and how they should be handled."

"We should pick out a suite," said Harry, "There are two big ones on second, a lot of medium ones on second and third, and single bedroom ones, also on third. I suggest the smaller big one on second."

"Why that one?" said Padma.

"There are five of us," said Harry, "it has six bedrooms. I … sort of … had the idea of reserving the huge one for House of Granger when they visit. Though I'm not certain they'll still find as much need for a place to stay after last night."

"Let's all go and look at them after lunch," said Ginny.

That was agreed to.

Harry turned to the Purcell sisters, they were easy to tell apart when right next to each other, Gwyn was the plumper one in the too big quad-pot jersey and skirt. Eirian was the skinnier one, seeming skinnier still for wearing the dragon-hide overalls with no shirt, or maybe there was a tank top under there. Either way, the parallel scars on her jaw and her shoulder drew the eye in a way that merely exposed skin did not.

Or else Harry just had scar baggage, he looked away, forced himself to become indifferent enough that he'd be able to meet her eyes rather than stare at her scars, then he turned back.

"I figured you two might want to move into real bedrooms. The two solutions that seemed obvious to me were: a three-bedroom suite somewhere, or one or two of the servant's rooms above the kitchen, if you found that location enough more convenient, to give up on the extra space that a whole suite might offer."

"Are those the only options?" said Gwyn.

Harry shook his head, "Just the choices that seemed obvious to me, based on the few things I guessed to optimise for. You're welcome to choose between whatever isn't claimed or reserved by the end of the day. Optimise that choice however you please."

"Really?" said Eirian.

"Really," said Harry.

"And what if the optimal is what we've already chosen?" said Eirian.

How would that work?

Unless … Eirian sometimes locked herself in the cell next to Gwyn instead of the same cell, so that they could be near each other but without danger.

"I'm sure that what you have, has been the optimal choice in the past," said Harry, "but there are plenty of rooms available, and I'm offering you the choice of claiming two." He rolled his eyes, "or three, whatever. If you prefer the cells one or two nights a month or whatever, that doesn't bother me. There are also plenty of them available."

Eirian nodded, "Yeah, alright, I understand."

"Wait," said Luna, "Who's responsibility is checking on the zoo?"

"Yours and mine," said Margaid.

"Oh!" said Luna.

Margaid nodded and continued, "Do you want to check on it before or after the ravenclaws see about verifying that the library has been properly claimed?"

Luna narrowed her eyes, "probably look, before. Even if I'll have to think for a long time before I decide what to do about it."

Margaid nodded, "that's fine, many people seem to find sexual acts inspirational."

Luna hummed happily and continued eating.

Ginny watched her for several seconds, before turning to Parvati, "I'll need to take the bread out soon. And then I'll be free to help you claim a potions lab."

The corner of Parvati's mouth went up, Her eyebrows also rose, not all the way up as a challenge or a question, just a small fraction. Interest and focus.

They stared at each other for almost a minute. The Purcells had gone back to talking quietly among themselves. Padma was looking at Harry.

Harry turned her way.

"There are two servant's rooms behind the library," she said, "Well there were four, but two have been turned into work rooms."

"Alright?"

"Not side by side, two above two. The lower work room is the sort of work room you'd expect for a library. The upper work room … also seems to be the … dark arts restricted section or something."

"Ah," said Harry, "that explains the pattern I saw in the wards."

"What kind of pattern?"

"Security badges that had been given access to everything, didn't have access to that."

"Oh," she said.

"How did you get in?" said Margaid.

"The door decoration told me what the password should be," said Padma.

"But … Oh, Merlin!" said Margaid.

"What kind of door decoration?" said Parvati.

"An enamelled bronze plaque of the Horus origin myth," said Padma.

"Which eye was over it?" said Luna.

Padma smiled.

Luna guessed three words.

"The password was set by English purebloods," said Padma.

"Oh," said Luna, "of course," She smiled.

"See," said Padma, "she knows the password too, and hasn't even seen which of Horus's eyes is above the plaque."

"You two are somewhat scary," said Parvati.

"Agreed," said Margaid.

"I think," said Luna, "the point is to be the opposite of scary."

"How much do I need to know today?" said Harry.

"Less of a restricted section," said Luna, "more of … the House of Potter department of mysteries. The regular restricted section is probably just up high enough to need a ladder. And the ladder probably summons itself to the other side of the room when not in use, and has a childproof lock on it."

"Password lock," said Padma, "Not everyone is your father."

"I know," said Luna with a shrug, "Such a shame."

"You were telling me something about the bedroom … workroom of mysteries?"

Padma smirked, "I was thinking about the one across the hall from it, actually has a window, two even, one facing outside, one facing out over the library. I want it."

"Damn," said Margaid.

"For a study and workroom?" said Harry.

Padma shook her head, "for my own."

Harry flinched back a little in surprise. His dreams of what he wanted in a bedroom suite with his four girls wavering and threatening to crumble in light of the possibility that it wasn't what they wanted.

And then he remembered something else.

At home, Padma had not one, but three places to sleep. Her own room, and by Parvati's side, and in her loft in the warehouse.

Harry bit his lip and held himself very still for most of a minute.

"Oh-kay?" whispered Parvati, "I've seen him angry before, but never that angry."

"I have," said Margaid, "but I probably deserved it."

Luna flinched, and Ginny giggled.

Harry let his breath out and took another, until he'd managed to ignore them, and find all the words he wanted to say.

"Padma," he whispered, "I … have several somewhat nuanced opinions about that, and … a lot of it is about me, not about you, and I think you deserve to know it about me, so I'm going to tell it to you. But … so … I want you to listen to all of it before you decide how crazy I am, or have completely misunderstood you or anything. In fact, I'm telling you before I ask any questions, to make sure that you know that it is about me, and not about you. … Then and only then am I going to actually listen, because you also deserve to be listened to, etc, but…"

He closed his eyes and got his throat to stop making noise.

"That's … very questionable logic," said Padma, "but if the context of this is emotions, and getting them communicated. … It does make some sense."

"Thank you," said Harry and sighed.

"I'm listening," murmured Padma.

"I … always assumed that you might eventually outgrow any workspace I could make available inside a building ostensibly called a home. This manor is much larger and more elaborate than I expected it to be. But a corporate run research lab might be one or several orders of magnitude bigger regardless."

Padma nodded.

"I'm … very hurt and angry that you'd … want a 'bedroom' that far outside of a suite shared with the rest of us, or … not before we manage to fill such a suite with enough babies that it becomes untenable anyway to keep everything in one place. I want to absolutely refuse what … it sounded like you asked for. But … I also don't want to refuse anything to anyone, especially not someone I love. So if it's what you need to be healthy, hell if it's only what you want to be happy. I … kind of want to help. And sort of … I suspect … sort of expected, that you were going to ask for help building a tree house or loft for Singer. And I want to do everything I can to help you make it the best loft you could possibly want."

"Oh, Harry," sighed Luna.

Padma looked a little scared for a little while, but then just stared at him for more than a minute, then sighed, "I have no idea how to respond to … both halves of that. Either one I have most of an answer."

"Let him have it?" suggested Parvati.

"Not helpful?" said Padma.

Ginny cleared her throat, "when someone is that angry, and still goes to the trouble of explaining that well and that quietly…"

The Patils turned to stare at her.

"The correct response," said Ginny, "is to say, 'thank you for telling me that,' and then ignore it long enough to tell them what you actually meant before they misunderstood and got mad, and then you flip a coin to see who gets to suggest compromises first."

"Seriously?" said Parvati.

Ginny shrugged, "Mum isn't the only Weasley with a temper. What I said is how Charlie and Percy argue, seems to work a lot better than anything anyone ever taught Mum. What Harry just did sounded a lot like Percy, even if he looked like Mum while he was trying to decide what he was going to say."

Padma turned to stare at Harry, "do you want me to do what she said? Say 'I heard you, now are you ready to listen' or should I say, 'I … don't think you're done yet, back up and explain the rest.'"

Harry sighed, "first of all it is very very surreal having my argument style critiqued mid-argument."

"Tell me about it," said Padma, "But to be fair, you started it."

Harry snorted then shook his head, "I don't want to get sidetracked about that, I will say, I notice that this might be the first argument I've been a part of that … I've had enough social standing to do lasting damage."

"What?" said Ginny.

"He has something to lose," said Padma, "He's used to only arguing with the headmaster about going anywhere other than his relatives. Which amounted to begging. Or arguing with his relatives, which probably amounted to telling them what he needed, and them telling him how much less than that they planned to provide. Now he actually has something and wants to keep it, anger means there are rights on the line to protect. Usually, he defends other people's rights not his own. He's … scared to state what he needs because he's used to that meaning that his relatives now know what to leverage against him."

"Maybe less about 'scared to'" said Harry, "and more about 'thoroughly conditioned not to' unless I've figured out how to spin it as good for them."

Harry shook his head, "I had in my head, a picture of a new Lion's-Keep, but bigger. And attached to that, are contradictory explanations of what 'bigger' meant. When the choice came up between 6 or 9 bedrooms, the options I saw were one bedroom and five work rooms, or one bedroom each, and an extra maybe for Susan or Hermione, or maybe for Luna's art studio, I think she needs that to be able to lock, sometimes in a way that the rest of our workspaces don't need."

"No," said Luna, "I want that to be on the first floor so I can pace outside and back in without a lot of trouble. I figured on putting that in the old cottage, none of the first-floor rooms here makes much sense for it. And Yes, I thought of working something out with Wotcher, but … port-keying around with an open pallet, or a wet paintbrush, or a mug of chocolate, isn't a good idea, what with all the spinning and everything."

Parvati giggled.

"Fine," said Harry, "I know we all need more workspace than what two common rooms account for. I expected we'd each move some of our things into potions labs or library desks or whatever. I know that my first approximation imaginings of how our bedroom suite ought to be arranged are rough and need to be fleshed out by everyone's collaboration, and be folded around to match what is actually possible in reality. They say no plan survives contact with reality. But I had hope that the essentials would survive even if none of the details survived."

"Alright," sighed Padma, "That gives me yet another mutually contradictory answer to give you."

Harry shrugged, "I'm not done, but I'm probably as done as I can productively get. You all need to say what you want in bedroom arrangements."

Padma nodded, "And am I up next?"

"Yes," said Ginny.

"At the most basic and emotional level. I don't want a 'bedroom'. Not a bedroom in Lion's-Keep, not a bedroom in the library. Not a bedroom at all. Yes, Singer wants a loft. Yes, I want a retreat, Need? A retreat? I'm not a different person than Singer. I … probably would put a bed in it, not to make it a 'bedroom', but to encourage me to nap more often by making it more convenient. Yes, I was … expecting to share it with Luna. But … sort of because I was subconsciously repeating Lion's-Keep and ravenclaw tower. I considered at least one way to make it inaccessible to anyone except Singer, except that yes, Hider would also be able to climb there. Probably also Grandma if she tried hard enough. I'd … resigned myself to that. It … probably reinforced that subconsciously I was repeating ravenclaw tower again.

"Yes, make a new Lion's-Keep, put your bed there, I'll visit. Put Parvati's bed there also, I'll visit her too. Put Luna's bed there, if she even wants a bed there, maybe she wants a retreat also, maybe her's won't look at all like mine, maybe she doesn't want a bed either. Maybe because she wants to only share with each of the rest of us, maybe because where she wants to sleep should not technically be called a bed."

Harry nodded and looked down. All things considered the clibbert fur nest in the root cellar of Old Cottage was a remarkable match for Luna's pseudo-veela playhouse-nest, except for the lack of sunlight and wind.

It was interesting that Luna had been invisible to Voldemort, and yet it was her playhouse that he'd been able to drag from their collective unconscious.

But then, maybe while Luna had been hiding and Susan had been assessing and advising, Harry's defence mechanism had been projecting Luna and Gabrielle rather than himself.

Never mind that.

He looked up again and nodded again, "I hadn't even considered that retreat space and work space and sleep space can and should all be calculated separately, … instead of in pairs or something."

Padma nodded, and shrugged, "It's probably not your fault, it might be a mostly uniquely me thing compared to whatever you've seen other people needing or doing with their houses."

Harry shook his head, "lots of kids have tree houses or playhouses. Luna has a rather nice one, which I rather admired. I still want a tour of your old loft sometime. … Anyway, just because I'd only got about as far as wanting a room of my own, and to stock it with furniture that wouldn't collapse at the mildest provocation, and a kitchen where I got a vote on what happened, doesn't mean I won't someday find some instincts of my own that could be best met with a tree house."

Padma raised an eyebrow.

"Then again, I'm a lion, not a monkey, maybe my ideal den would look a lot like the Old Cottage root cellar already does. Or with more sunlight."

Padma closed her eyes.

"Are you saying you want to change Old Cottage a bunch too?" said Parvati.

"I'm saying …" said Harry, "I'm currently saying, Let's make the best Lion's-Keep we can, but keep in mind, that what doesn't fit either by volume or by aesthetics, might best be put in the Old Cottage instead," he shrugged, "or in Padma's library loft, or somewhere like that."

"And maybe we can make portal tapestries," said Ginny, "To bring them closer without destroying the aesthetics or the privacy or security of them?"

"Nice!" said Parvati.

"Hmm," said Padma.

"Ginny," said Parvati, "I think it's your turn."

"Turn for what?"

"What do you want in a bedroom suite, or a retreat or both."

"I want my own bedroom," said Ginny, "Not because I want to keep all of you out, but … because I sometimes want to invite only one of you in at a time. I already have my own kitchen, technically I have two, with enough equipment in one of them for three kitchens. Apparently, Harry and I need to work out some compromises about access and control. I obviously don't need two kitchens all of my own. And now that everyone has talked about it … maybe I need to re-think. Because … I never considered whether I was allowed to have a retreat other than a kitchen. Some of us also use brooms, but that's … somewhat different."

"Fair enough," said Harry, "I definitely do that."

"I'm done," said Ginny, "I mostly said, I don't know what I want yet. Parvati, your turn."

Parvati looked at Harry and shrugged, "I need a bed of my own because my retreat is knowing that I'm there when You or Padma need to visit. I'm a war horse, not a general."

Harry nodded and smiled.

"Also," said Parvati, "None of the potions labs I've looked in so far have anywhere near enough blackboards."

"That can be amended," said Margaid rubbing her hands together.

Harry looked at her.

She smiled craftily, no … it was something else.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Our professor of blue?" she said.

Harry smiled, "And welcome to it."

"What?" said Parvati.

"Margaid has latent Ravenclaw tendencies," said Harry, "I think you just gave her an excuse to purchase a piece of classroom furniture she's always wanted."

Parvati looked back and forth between the two of them, "you two might be scarier than Luna and Padma."

"As we should be," said Margaid, "Ravenclaws are known to find or figure out how to do things, which is both the most and least scary. Gryffindors are to know why or why not. Slytherins are to know when."

"Could someone explain what Ravenclaws and those other things are?" said Gwyn.

"The school we go to," said Harry, "they try to sort us into dorms by personality type, it only sort of works. But we intermittently pretend that it really does work, as a form of communication shorthand."

Luna dropped her glass and sat up, "Ginny, where are your brothers?"

"They left after they tried to mock my cooking and I told them they were welcome to not eat, or eat somewhere else."

"Are you sure they left?"

"Ask Wotcher."

Luna closed her eyes, "Oh, alright." And a little longer before she said, "So what did you want to do to turn a bedroom into a raven's nest?"

"Take the glass out of the inside window," said Padma, "Possibly replace it with a silencing field."

"One-way silencing field," said Luna.

"Even better," agreed Padma, "and attach a monkey rope along the ceiling from above the top of the library ladder to above the window."

"Right," agreed Luna.

"And replace the bed with a hammock."

"More floor space that way," agreed Luna.

"What do you think?" said Padma.

"Don't stop at removing the glass," said Luna, "remove the walls all the way down to a good leaning-on-the-railing height."

"Hmm," said Padma, "Maybe, it might make it easier than I want, to get in from the ladder."

"Then make the rope too springy for anyone but a monkey," said Luna, "You want it to be easy enough for you to get in, or you'll go there less and less often."

"Hmm," said Padma, "maybe I don't want it to be easy to get in so that I won't go there too often. Apparently, my presence means more to people than I thought."

"Are you going to get rid of the door?"

"No," said Padma, "Just set an impossible password, Then we can still go out the door in an emergency, or to invite a non-monkey to visit."

"Or to carry a huge stack of books back down, when you realise that you've borrowed too many."

"Or that," agreed Padma.

"Does the outside window open?"

"Yes."

"Then I will visit you there about three times as often as I thought."

"Alright…," said Padma.

"Is there a no brooms policy in the library?" said Luna.

"Yes!" said Padma and Margaid.

"No," said Harry, "but clean sweeps only, no Firebolt or Nimbus."

"But that leaves you out, Harry."

"That's fine," said Harry, "My brooms are too fast for a room the size of the library."

"Do you really think a nuanced sort of rule like that could be enforced against Draco or the Weasley twins?" said Margaid.

"I would not want to try," said Padma.

"Wotcher, can you detect broom flight?"

[Yes,]

"If you detect broom flight in the library, that is not directly and willingly supervised by Luna or Padma, portkey them outside, broom and all."

Ginny shuddered, "I wouldn't want to try to land a broom coming out of a portkey."

"Right, how big is … how high can … is there … Wotcher, never mind, I don't want that rule after all."

[Cancelled.]

"My lord, if I may?" said Margaid.

"What?" said Harry.

"Wotcher, at what speed and altitude can you detect broom flight?"

[Any altitude, any speed.]

"I suggest, Any broom that exceeds 1.5 kilometres per hour, but less than 4 kilometres per hour, should be portkeyed from the library, outside as low as possible above the grass verge beside the front walk, facing a random direction away from the house. That should be low and slow enough to not be dangerous, but get the point across rather well. And doesn't block Luna or anyone else from using brooms to conduct maintenance work, if that was the point of her question."

[Understood, via recognition assumption: applies to the library: permission?]

"Apply it to all rooms except the long corridors and the ballroom," said Harry, "Yes, I permit."

[Rule applied.]

"Just to clarify," said Padma, "they can take off in the hallways, and pick up enough speed to enter the library above that speed threshold. And it will leave them alone?"

"Until they slow down, to keep from hitting a wall," agreed Harry.

"And why are we …"

"Because it is the safest rule I've heard so far," said Harry, "also consider that there is no way that all their Weasley uncles won't gift all Ginny's children with beginner brooms by their third birthday by the latest."

"Shit," said Parvati.

"And that's if Lord Black doesn't give them real brooms before that," said Luna.

"Oh, Hell No," said Parvati, "He'd better not."

Harry looked at Bellatrix.

"I think you'll find," said Bellatrix, "it easiest to control Sirius, not by absolutely forbidding such a thing, but by recommending that their ninth birthday should be plenty soon enough, and is he planning on spending two weeks training them. That way, at worst the broom will appear neat and tidy on their eighth birthday, or their seventh, not on their second."

Parvati rolled her eyes, "Yeah, that sounds like Lord Black."

.

"That's my bread," said Ginny, and she rose and darted into the kitchen.

"I think that's our cue," said Padma, "Come on Luna."

...-...

{End Chapter 32}

A/N: Mad props to inwardtransience for finally getting me to understand the 'fundamental identity' part of transfiguration theory. I still don't believe in it. And the arithmancy usually does reduce to the same thing, but it takes a little more work going the fundamental identity route. Like tracking the signs inside your radicals to make sure you never get i or keeping track of limits and division by 0. It depends on what you're trying to accomplish vs. What you're trying to prove.

There's a reason why my mastery is in runes, and I only mess with transfiguration in fiction, that stuff is dangerous.

Anyway, this is where I recommend Children of the Gods by inwardtransience, I cried at least twice in the first chapter.