FILFY teacher

by Vimesenthusiast

A Harry Potter who has tried to take control of his destiny from second year on finds himself in need of a fresh start. Armed with some abilities beyond the norm, a Mastery of Defense and a muggle-style teacher's license, Harry takes his daughter Lily Luna and takes a job offer at Kuoh Academy, not knowing how big the world beyond the Wizarding World is. Pairings Harry/Rias/many.

7. Chapter 7

I can't draw boobies, nor am I British.

For those with ATP questions, I have the next chapter somewhat outlined and one scene written, but I am waiting until Mordreek and I can communicate on a set schedule before promising I can get the next chapter out: RL sucks that way. Once we can communicate more routinely, work will proceed quickly, but at present I am in no position to promise anything.

For August this month FILFy Teacher one again, if barely. Here on fanfic it brought in 593 votes, gaining a total of 1719. The second story in the small (Splinter voice: Hahaha, I tell a funny) story was not ,alas Stallion of the Line as I had hoped. Instead Gods and Devils and Wild Horse with a total of 1707, though it only brought in 275 votes here on fanfic.

For those of you interested, Semblance of Hope was with only 420 total votes. Why does it get so little love here, a measly 120 votes? Sword bow and Horse a concept story which i would have posted over on patty r on, brought in 424. I love that this is getting so much attention over there, since i think the idea of Ranma in the world of Lord Marksman and Vanadis would be a lot of fun. just wish it was enough to overcome the existing fics LOL. Fate Touched in Middle Earth brought in 385 votes here putting it in second place of the fanfic only poll, but in total only 941 once patty r on votes were accounted for. Anything Goes Game Changer 958 votes total, with only 173 coming from fanfic. In third place was my personal choice, Stallion of the Line, It brought in 240 votes here and with my votes added earned a total of 1,355.

This has been betaed by Michael and Nad Destroyer, so there shouldn't be many mistakes.

And just a warning, some controversial things go down in this chapter, so i know there will be people complaining about bits of it.

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Chapter 7: Overwhelming Response

Immediately after dealing with the initial rush of having to erase so many minds and delete so much evidence from not only the phones of the passersby but the five security cameras that witnesssed Harry's transformation, Akeno had called in her King. In turn Rias had ordered Kiba away from his date and he, Akeno, and Rias herself had begun to canvas the town from their locations at that point.

Rias also sent Koneko straight to the Potters' home, feeling that Harry had a better chance of finding Lily faster than any of them, and, if he did, he would send her home. There she would need someone to look out for her while Harry dealt with whoever had attacked her.

Right now, Koneko stood in front of the house ringing the doorbell incessantly, her finger mashing it down so hard she was in danger of breaking the device, despite not using her Rook-given strength. Not that she cared. The only reason she wasn't smashing the door down entirely was because it belonged to the Potters, and that would be bad.

Her Nekomata ears twitched out from under their illusion as there was the sound of a thump inside the house, and a girl's voice she didn't know let loose an 'ugggh!' followed by Lily's voice, so low that even Koneko had to strain to hear it through the intervening door. "Yeah, portkeys are not fun the first time."

Was it Lily's turn to save someone, then? Koneko thought, calming down slightly. This did not stop her from ringing the doorbell again, and this time she forgot to hold back her strength. The doorbell died with a squawk and a dying squeal that could only charitably be called a bell ring.

For a moment Lily felt fear at that sound, and she was about to rush and find the ward's anchor stone to bring them up to full power and blast whoever was out there into dust. Daddy had explained the power of the reinforced wards to her; he had even used her favorite term, "'Kazzaam,' and then, 'fwoosh, no more baddy.'"

But instead she moved over and opened the door very slightly.

Or at least, that was the plan. The moment she unlatched the door, Lily had an instant to recognize her older friend before Koneko pushed the door wide open and grabbed Lily into her arms, ignoring the slight tingling feeling of the wards as they responded to her presence. Thankfully Koneko had been read into the wards even before Rias had. So despite Harry's work on bringing their power up, they still recognized Her and did not fricassee Koneko for her temerity.

"You okay?" Koneko asked, giving the younger girl a hug that would probably have broken any normal seven-going-on-eight-year-old girl's bones.

Lily simply hugged back, smiling warmly if wetly up at her older sister figure, though her voice was rather tremulous and weak. "I'm okay. Asia helped me, then this other woman, er, I think I recognized her from somewhere, well, she arrived to try to make the crazies who attacked me leave me alone, and then Daddy arrived, heheh, just one after another. It's kind of funny when you think about it."

Koneko's eyes narrowed at that, and, still holding Lily in her arms, she moved deeper into the Potters' home where she found another girl, as she had thought she would. She was young, maybe the same as Koneko herself, the Nekomata estimated, and had just pushed to her feet as Koneko moved into the main hallway. She looked up and smiled wanly, holding her stomach. "A, ano, hello? Erm, my name is Asia Argento. Erm, I, um, I could say Lily-chan and I have had a bit of an adventure. Um, I understand this is her home?"

"Mm," Koneko said, looking her up and down. Then she nodded. "Thanks for helping." She then looked down at Lily, who was still wearing the conjured cloak that Harry had thrown over her after her transformation had ended. "Getting this one dressed," she said with a nod. "Wait here. Will make snacks after."

A moment later Asia joined the other two on the sofa as Koneko handed her some sweets and gave Lily some sweets and a fruit bowl. Sitting down next to Lily, who was now dressed in her normal t-shirt and shorts pajama combo, Koneko pulled her into a sideways hug as they munched on sweets. Luckily, by this point the slight shivering and trembling of Lily's limbs that Koneko had noticed while she was hugging the girl earlier had gone away. She still twitched occasionally, but it was only obvious once Koneko was actually touching her, though she couldn't tell whether it was coming from fear or aftershocks of adrenaline. "Going to say what happened? Thought you had a protective port thing?"

Lily groaned a little, looking sheepish. "Didn't think of it at the time," she muttered. Then, when Koneko made no effort whatsoever to release her from her sideways hug, Lily sighed and began to speak about the issues that she had been having with her werewolf side, about how she had tried to hide it and why and how thinking about them had led to her forgetting about her necklace and it's portkey.

She would have gone on to describe the attack, but at that point Koneko did let her go so she could to smack Lily upside the head, the same kind of light smack that any older sibling would give a younger one when they were being an idiot. A sentiment Koneko gave voice to a second later. "Idiot," she said, now pulling Lily into an even tighter hug. "Potter-sensei, never see you as a burden. You are not a freak. You are just Lily."

Asia piped up too. "While I am still a little leery about how, erm, Potter-san? Is that the way you address him? Anyway, about, um, how he appeared on the scene, I could already tell you within a few seconds of his arrival that your father cares for you very much."

"I know,…" Lily said, though there was a slight hitch in her voice as she said that before she went on. "But I thought if I could handle it I on my own I could prove I was a big girl."

Koneko shook her head. "Little girls are cuter," she said with a serious nod of the head, glancing down at her chest. "Better to be small than to be big."

Lily blinked, and then frowned as she saw Asia nod almost automatically in agreement. "Why do I think we're talking about two different things now?" she asked, looking between them.

The two older girls looked at one another, then, as one, said, "Nothing."

From there Lily explained what had happened: how she had been chased by the crazy people and how she had lost control of her werewolf side. How, after that, she had simply run, afraid and unable to control herself. Koneko in turn just hugged her again, while Asia sighed, sad that so many exorcists had turned away from the meaning of God's words, instead simply picking and choosing both the words and how to follow them to best serve their own madness.

For a moment the three fell silent, until Asia asked hesitantly, "So, um, so what happens now? Specifically, what happens to me? I don't mean to sound egotistical, of course," she added hastily, though she still looked worried. She was very willing to take people as they came, and Koneko seemed as nice as Lily did. But she still could not forget the fact that not only had she been working with Fallen Angels and not know it, but that she had now been captured by the enemies of that group.

"Safe here," Koneko said with a shrug. She had noticed the girl's religious outfit, but didn't really have much of an issue with the Church. She hadn't met any Angels, exorcists, or church people, after all, though she knew that Kiba had a major issue with them for some reason. On top of that, this little girl most definitely was not a threat. Well, not physically, anyway. There was one thing they had to talk about before anything else.

She looked down at Lily, then let the little girl go and pushed her lightly in the back to get her off the sofa. "Find something to watch. Will stay up until your father returns."

"Ooh, that sounds like fun," Lily said, hurrying around the low table towards the TV, sitting down on the floor, and sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth as she thought about what she wanted to watch.

She didn't notice behind her that Koneko had leaned in and locked eyes with Asia, her voice a low hiss as she went on. "The Onee-san position is mine!"

Asia backed away rapidly. "I, I'm sorry?"

"Big sister position is mine," Koneko said, still glaring as she translated the term into English. Doesn't seem to have the right impact though. She kept that glare on the younger woman until Asia nodded.

"O, of course. I wouldn't dream of it," Asia said, still not quite understanding, but Koneko released Asia from her glare, turning back to watch Lily in silence.

Despite the fact that she was acting nice and calm, Koneko was rather angry, not with anyone else, but with herself. Twice, twice now, her adopted imouto had been in danger, and twice Koneko had not been there. Sitting on the couch, watching Lily rummage through the various DVDs that she and Harry had bought since arriving in Japan, Koneko vowed to herself that there would not be a third.

OOOOOOO

Harry was coldly furious, and whatever control he was able to exhibit over his Demigod aura was gone. To anyone with any senses of the supernatural, Harry looked like a living embodiment of wrath now, and that feeling bore down on Kalawarner, pressing her down to the ground and causing her to feel so much fear she couldn't even breathe. She could barely twitch, and she couldn't look away from the wrathful creature that was now pointing a sword at her. It was demanding answers, yet she couldn't give it any.

In his paternal fury Harry didn't realize this or that he was being rather unfair given the fact that Kalawarner had been defending Lily rather than attacking her when he had found them. With the memory of his daughter crying into his shoulder in his mind, it was all he could do not to kill Kalawarner where she knelt, but he needed answers to what had happened tonight. Only that thought was able to get through his rage at first, as he growled at Kalawarner, "Well, are you going to say anything, Kalawarner?"

Fortunately for the blue-haired Fallen Angel, Harry's unfettered aura acted like a flare to everyone else in the area, and this included Rias. Kiba was a little too far away, and his ability to sense magic and auras were not nearly as developed as Rias or Akeno's had become since becoming aware of their own. Akeno was at the other side of the city by this point, still cleaning up from Harry's sudden display of magic. It turned out that one of the stores whose security camera had spotted him stored their recordings on a server rather than in the camera or in a computer on campus.

Coming upon the scene, Rias took one look and noticed that Lily was nowhere in sight and that there were several dead bodies nearby as well as one possibly still living one besides the Fallen Angel that was now currently quailing underneath the sword point of Fragarach. The sight of the Fallen Angel made her eyes narrow, and she quickly moved forward, pushing through Harry's aura with an ease that would've astonished many Devils who had known her even a scant few months ago, given the strength of it. She put her arms around Harry from behind; feeling him stiffen slightly, then slowly release his tension as she said softly, "Harry, calm down. She can't answer you right now; your aura is affecting her too much."

Looking down over his shoulder, Harry gazed into Rias's eyes and slowly nodded his head. He let Fragarach slowly dip down to rest point first on the ground as he concentrated, pulling in his aura.

As he was doing that, Rias let go of Harry and stepped around him to kneel down in front of the older woman. She was still shaking now, even as Harry pulled back his aura. "Look at me, fallen," she said coolly, grasping the older looking woman's chin and turning her so that they met eye to eye. "Do you know me?"

You're the Gremory girl," Kalawarner replied, her dilated eyes slowly returning to their normal size. "Damn," she muttered, "I knew he was strong, especially after the spike of power I felt a few weeks ago, but being in his presence is an entirely different thing."

"I agree, but Harry is not your only problem," Rias replied. "I am your problem, because you, fallen, are operating in my territory! Further, Harry seems to have apprehended you at the scene of an attack on his daughter, someone who is under my protection just as she is his." She lifted a finger to gently touch the Fallen Angel's forehead as the hand behind that finger started to glow with the Power of Destruction pulsing slightly toward the finger but not traveling along it just yet. "So when we ask you anything, I expect to be answered very, very promptly, as honestly as you possibly can. Do I make myself clear?"

To Rias's surprise, the woman simply nodded, showing no further fear. Then a hand rested on her shoulder, gently urging Rias to her feet. "I don't think we need as much threat Rias," Harry said. "I'll even apologize to you for my anger Kalawarner, but I take my daughter's safety very, very seriously, and you seemed to know those three who were attempting to kill her."

Rias stood up, moving to one side and looking at them both before very deliberately moving to Harry's side, looking up at him and standing on the incline of the aqueduct so that she was equal to his own height. "I take it you sent Lily home?"

"I did," Harry said with a nod, looking at Rias now.

"And you know this woman?" Rias asked, her voice very deliberate, and he cocked a wintry eyebrow at him. "You called her by name."

Harry nodded again. "I know her and knew she knew about the supernatural, but I had no idea she was a fallen angel. I thought she was a devil like you all after I learned about you in the first place, anyway. But before that I had cut off contact with her."

Rias's eyes narrowed, and then she threw up her head. "And of course, because we didn't say anything about her, you simply assumed she was just another devil in the area." I am really glad Akeno isn't here just yet. We so do not need to make this situation any more volatile.

"I guess I accept your apology," Kalawarner said in response to Harry's words to her as she slowly got to her feet. "Your anger is understandable, even if the magnitude surprised me. What is that about, anyway? You surely didn't have that kind of power when you and I were dating."

That caused Rias's body to stiffen angrily, but Harry simply shook his head. "From what I remember, we attempted to date. It didn't actually work out, now, did it?"

That caused Kalawarner to deflate, and she looked away down to the small river going by them. "True enough."

"Nor does it have anything to do with why we are gathered here now," Harry went on. Fragarach rose, pointing at Kalawarner again. "You owe me some answers, Kalawarner."

"I also owe you an apology from that time," Kalawarner started, then she looked a little surprised, staring at Harry in confusion and then at the sword. "What the.…"

"This is Fragarach. You won't be able to prevaricate or lie with its point on you. I would suggest that you don't even try," Harry replied, though he had cocked his head to one side and was looking at her with something other than suspicion now.

For a moment Kalawarner stood still, pride, hurt, anger, and hope warring in her face so obviously that both Harry and Rias could see it by the light of the nearby lamps then she simply seemed to sag. She sat back down on the incline and stared up at Harry, who kept Fragarach pointing at her, seemingly ignoring Rias's presence entirely now. But instead of being disturbed or even angry at the idea of not being able to lie, it seemed to buoy Kalawarner on.

"Well then, I might as well get it over with. First, my apology: Harry, I'm sorry. I think losing you was the most perfect example of not knowing what you have until it's gone I've ever come across, certainly have ever felt myself. I didn't realize how important our interactions, how just being around you—talking, flirting, everything—had become until I attempted to try to subvert you with my aura and you shut me down. I couldn't even say you were wrong to do it. I made a hash of us, of you and me, and I am sorry for that, for not taking you up on your offer to become something more and for trying to subvert you."

Harry sighed, and his body released the last of its tension and anger dissipating as his aura already had. But he didn't lower Fragarach from pointing at Kalawarner. "I understand, Kalawarner. We all make mistakes, and I can understand yours, though I will never forget it. But now I think you need to tell us everything you can about those three. Who are they? Why did they try to attack my daughter?"

"And what are you doing here?" Rias cut in to add. She had been content, if not happy, to let the two of them talk for a moment, but now she really wanted them to concentrate on the important things.

For a second Kalawarner simply stared back at them, then she breathed in once and began. At first her voice came out hesitantly, but then it was as if the floodgates had opened, and she told them about everything she could in a wild jumble.

She first started to talk about Raynare and why they had been sent into the area in the first place. From there she described how their mission had expanded over time and why Kalawarner had pushed to see if she could seduce Harry in the first place. "I'm sorry about that too," she said, shaking her head. "I thought it would be just another mission, but by Father, I was wrong."

Kalawarner then spoke about how she had been utterly emotionally wrecked by Harry's rejection, how she had begun to think and feel things that she had not felt for centuries since she had fallen. Halfway through her story, Kalawarner began to cry. It had started when she started to talk about her feelings and the emotions that Harry had brought out when she said she had asked her Father for help, only to not hear a reply. Replaying the roller-coaster of emotions and feelings and thoughts that she had been on for the past few weeks, it would have been surprising if she hadn't begun to break down.

At that point Harry sighed and set down Fragarach so that it still pointed toward Kalawarner. He then sat down, pulling her into a loose one armed hug. He felt somewhat guilty about forcing the truth out of Kalawarner like this, but not overmuch. Lily had been in danger, after all, and, frankly, it looked as if Kalawarner had wanted to do say all this anyway.

But before he could say anything, Kalawarner went on, switching to talking about how she had been trying to figure out a way to protect herself from the inevitable fallout she could see coming from Raynare's growing anger and how Raynare had then seduced Saji as part of a side project, which caused Rias to jolt in surprise as Harry twitched, glancing up to Rias, who looked back in surprise. "B, but I always thought I needed something there, something to tell you or show you I was willing to change, so I tried to see if I could influence Saji's thoughts away from Raynare. That, and I even started to feel sorry for the kid on my own. So I started to try to influence him, tried to convince him to question what Raynare was saying.

"Then, then I came back to the church after Saji once more didn't question me about what I had said, the stupid boy! And then I found that Asia had decided to leave without anyone noticing, and then when I started to search for her, I came upon Asia and those three exorcists! Not only were they going to attack her, but they were also going to attack Lily and already had done so! I, I didn't even think then. I just couldn't let them hurt her!" she shouted, tears falling freely now from her face.

"That's enough, Kalawarner," Harry said at last, tightening his arm around her, even running his hand through her hair soothingly. "That's enough," he reiterated, looking up at Rias.

Rias had heard all of this and was now looking at this scene with decidedly mixed feelings of her own. On the one hand, Rias didn't like the fact that Harry and Kalawarner had almost dated or the fact that Harry looked as if he felt guilty about what they had just had to do to Kalawarner now. But, on the other hand, if Kalawarner had returned his feelings then, would I have been able to be with him now? I could all too easily see Harry not giving me or Akeno a chance given the issues he initially had about getting involved with me at all with our teacher-student relationship. And I doubt a fallen would've been open to sharing, to let me have a chance with Harry in the first place.

Shaking that thought off, Rias nodded to Harry. "Yes, Kalawarner. Thank you," she said. "But we need to think about what to do. It's obvious that Kalawarner here told the truth, but we still don't know why your daughter was attacked simply because she doesn't know. Was this something Raynare kept from her, compartmentalization, or just some psychopathic exorcists acting out? Further, were they truly sanctioned to be in my and Sona's shared territory at all?"

Harry nodded, still standing upright and pulling Kalawarner to her feet before releasing her and looking over at the one still living exorcist. "Then we get some answers out of this one."

Kalawarner gulped then wiped away her tears before shaking her head. "That one's name is Freed, and I really doubt you'll get any information out of him. Not that he'll have nothing to share, but I bet he and the others simply decided to go after Lily the moment they somehow realized she was a werewolf. They're crazy like that. That's why they were all among the last batch of exorcists we brought in."

Rias frowned at that, understanding the implications. The Fallen and their allies were ready to move against either Issei and had already gotten to Saji. But that doesn't answer the one main worry I have: was this a prelude to war? Were they really here on orders from Azazael? From what she knew about the head of the Grigori, that sounded unlikely, but only Azazael could have ordered them to be here, in territory owned by two of the 32 Great Pillars.

Gesturing in the air with one hand Rias concentrated and a small magic array appeared, out of which came a small bat which hung from one of her fingers. "I'm going to send a message to my brother. We need to figure out if these fallen and their allies are acting alone or if they are real representatives of their faction."

Harry shrugged his shoulders at that. Whatever the answer was, it wouldn't change his response to this attack on his daughter. "You said he's crazy?" he asked over his shoulder, looking at Kalawarner.

Kalawarner nodded, looking at Rias who was speaking into her familiar's ears with the information she needed to relay. The bat would then head back to the occult research room where it would use the main teleportation array to her family's mansion, where it would seek out her brother. "And tell Onii-sama that if he doesn't get the information to me quickly, I'll know he doesn't love me anymore," Rias finished, sending the bat into the air.

At those words Kalawarner and Harry both looked at her in shock, and Rias shrugged. "Desperate times call for desperate measures," she said calmly.

Shaking that off, Kalawarner turned back to Harry. "Yes, he's crazy, literally insane. Exorcists like him don't care about missions or causes or getting caught! All they care about is continuing to kill unbelievers. And, of course, devils count as unbelievers."

"Would that also include our clients?" Rias asked, scowling.

"Yes," Kalawarner replied simply.

"If he's insane, I can't use my Legilimency on him," Harry said, staring down at the still unconscious man. "Entering a crazy person's mind is like entering some kind of new age painting. The rules of the world shift and change every second. You can never be certain what you're seeing or doing.

"However," he said, pointing a finger at the man, "Imperio works just as well on them as on anyone else. Enervate," he intoned, and then intoned, "Imperio," as the man jolted awake. He ignored the somewhat horrified worried looks that came from both Rias and Kalawarner as they watch those spells hit the exorcist, looking over him intently. "What is your name? What color is the sky?"

"What in the Seven Hells? That spell feels so foul," Rias muttered, with Kalawarner nodding agreement. "Did, did you just dominate his soul, Harry?"

Harry nodded, his face grim. "I mentioned the three Unforgivables to you before, Rias, during one of our magic question and answer sessions. I realize it's horrible, but it is also rather useful, especially at a moment like this."

"I understand the necessity. I just was not prepared for the wrongness I would feel from the spell itself," Rias replied. "Let's get this over with."

Kalawarner just shook her head, watching everything. There was evidently a lot more to Harry Potter that Kalawarner didn't know yet, beyond even the recent power up he seemed to have gone through. But the fact he can use a spell like that and only see it as a tool rather than something he could get addicted to, the feel of controlling someone like that, speaks well of him.

With those questions setting a baseline, Harry went on. "Why did you target my daughter?"

Freed replied easily. "She's a little werewolf bitch and should be put down. It's that simple."

His jaw clenching uncontrollably, Harry nodded slowly. "Fine. How did you realize she was a werewolf?"

"All exorcists are trained to recognize anything unusual or otherworldly. We saw straight through her paltry disguise and acted to save others from her curse!"

"How many of you were there in this attack?"

"Six, originally," Freed replied, still completely unable to fight the effects of the spell, Harry's will dominating Freed's own easily.

"Where are the other three?"

"Two of them turned back after we couldn't capture her in the initial rush, and the other went with them a few minutes after we lost the trail the first time," Freed replied. "They were cowards: always so fearful about being spotted, always so scared of letting blood fly! But who cares what happens so long as we are doing God's work and doing away with sin!"

"How did you cover your attack, why didn't people see anything?" Rias asked leaning forward intently.

"We use magical items to get by your detection array, and to erase the minds of those around our target of course!" Freed said with a slight cackle to his voice. "Its an old trick that everyone uses demon girl!"

Harry shot a look in Rias's direction and she winced shrugging in ignorance. "Looks like that detection 'bubble' you told me about isn't all its cracked up to be." Rias scowled and looked away and Harry turned back to the psychotic exorcist. "And are you situated in the rundown church here in town?"

The man simply nodded convulsively, and Harry smiled, grimly. "Excellent. That will make it easier to kill you all at once."

"Hold on, Harry," Rias interjected, reaching forward take his arm, not at all incidentally pressing it in between her breasts. "We need to wait. I need to make certain they were rogues. If you want to kill this one, that's fine. He's entirely unimportant, but we can't move against the rest of his group until we make certain that they aren't really representatives of the Fallen Faction. If they are and are operating here in our territory, that's huge, especially if they were ordered to attack someone under our protection. But we can't be the ones to move against them first even if they are here."

"I'm not part of your peerage or involved in this factionalism at all," Harry replied, his voice mild, but his eyes hard emeralds. "There were three others working on this attack on my daughter, and, judging by what Kalawarner said and the threat they represent, I am not going to wait around."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't prepare to move against them, Harry, just that we need to wait," Rias almost pleaded. Then she began to smile. "Not in a way that will lead anyone who investigates what happens back to us, anyway.…"

"Well, that we can do. There are other ways of cracking an egg than straight on, Rias. We're going to mix something between the Western and Eastern philosophies of magic," Harry replied, smiling thinly.

From there he outlined his plan, and the reactions of the two women were rather telling. Kalawarner looked utterly shocked, but her breath began to come in gasps and a slight blush had come to her cheeks. It was evident that Harry's ruthless idea on how to deal with Raynare and her allies met with her approval.

Rias also felt mildly turned on. If there was one thing that that Fallen and Devil women would agree on, it was that power and ruthlessness was rather attractive. On the other hand, I am still glad that Akeno isn't here. After hearing that kind of ruthless and, above all, bloody plan, her face would be simply obscene.

"That actually is workable," Rias said with a smile, pushing down her devil induced emotions. "I'll call in Kiba as well as Akeno. The three of us can stand by with you, just in case. I had them looking around the city for you and your daughter before this, but I sent Koneko over to your house, and I want to leave her there to watch this Asia girl and your daughter."

"Wait, really?" Harry asked, cocking his head. "You pulled Kiba out of his date with Tsubaki because of my ending my date with Akeno like I did?"

"I've told you before, Harry, you're not the only one who cares for Lily," Rias said, wagging a finger at him. She then blushed as Harry took that hand and pulled her into a deep kiss. "Thank you," he whispered just before their lips touched, and Rias hugged him tightly, deepening the kiss as much as she could.

To one side Kalawarner looked on, shaking her head with a faint frown on her face. So, that's how it is, then?

Eventually, Harry moved away from Rias, leaving her somewhat breathless. Then he began to think about what he would need for this.

While he did that, Rias called Kiba and Akeno on her cell phone before questioning Kalawarner about the Sacred Gear extraction device. She was not pleased to learn that the machine would probably kill the individual whose Sacred Gear they were extracting, but she supposed it made sense. There had been a few times she had read about when a person's Sacred Gear was forcibly taken from them. Every time the process proved fatal, but it had also resulted in the Sacred Gears simply breaking apart, 'dying,' in other words, before returning to wherever they came from when they weren't implanted in a human's soul.

Despite having farther to come, Akeno arrived first, appearing out of a teleportation array to one side rather than racing over the rooftops or flying. She nearly stumbled as she alighted on the incline of the aqueduct and took a second to glare at Kalawarner before turning to Rias. "Buchou, we have a problem!"

OOOOOOO

What Harry and the others had not considered was that the pressure Harry had released after sending his daughter home might be felt by the other Fallen, which was what had occurred here. Raynare was close enough to feel it before even Rias had, but instead of racing towards the center of the pressure, she had decided to race away as any sane person would.

With the feeling of Harry's fury hounding her heels, Raynare known knew the jig was up. It's like the feeling from two weeks ago, only magnified many times over! I don't care what is causing it; we need to get out of Kuoh before whatever it is comes for us! Fuck, I hope whatever it is hasn't found that fool Freed! She paused on the top of a streetlight, looking around her. And that means the time for subtlety is over with. With that decision made, instead of racing back to the church, Raynare turned and swiftly made her way across the city towards where their initial target lived.

Since it was pushing midnight, Issei was in bed, reading a magazine of some kind. Raynare shuddered once as she looked in on this, and then smiled. Wait, I can use this. We do have the extraction machine, after all. With that thought Raynare knocked on the window, then, when Issei looked around, she pulled the window open from the outside with ease before leaping inside.

Issei sat straight up in bed, staring at Raynare, who was wearing her normal garb of a black string bikini with skintight boots rising to mid-thigh and equally tight gloves, the bikini barely encompassing her chest. The black of her outfit matched her hair and her wings perfectly, and, in the light of his bedside light, her light pink skin seemed to shine enticingly.

All in all, the image this woman was giving him was beyond anything he had ever seen in any magazine or even hentai anime before. Thus, it could almost be understood why the first words out of Issei's mouth were: "Wh, wha, is this a dream?"

Raynare smirked and decided to quote a movie she had seen at one point. The boy looked idiotic enough to fall for it. "Come with me if you want to fuck."

"Oh, so it is a dream. Wow, my imagination is getting pretty damn awesome!" Issei muttered. With that he actually got out of bed and moved towards Raynare.

Before he could even let out a squawk, Raynare grabbed him up in her arms, leaping back out the window. A second later she was away, her wings flaring out as she flew with the boy back to the church. "Stay quiet, boy. We need to get you away from here before our pursuers find me. Then we're going to have some fun."

Again, this, coupled with the fact his head was pressed between her glorious oppai, was enough to make Issei think this was all simply a very lucid dream. So he gave her a thumbs up and didn't struggle, concentrating on motor-boating her to his heart's content, something which caused Raynare to develop a twitch in her eye.

Behind her, in Issei's room, the two little familiars on duty stared out into the nighttime air and then back at one another. "Desuuu!" Translation: Oh, shit!

OOOOOOO

After Akeno finished telling the others what her little Oni had passed on moment they were all quiet for a moment then Rias said simply, "This changes things. We can't just send in Freed now; we need to send in actual people to get Hyoudou-kun out of there and possibly Saji too. Being so blatant like that, Raynare is running scared. She'll try to cut her losses and run." She scowled, biting at the end of her hair that normally stuck out from her forehead in a light curve. "And that means we can't wait for my brother to get back to us either."

Before anyone else could say anything, she whirled to Harry, her eyes suddenly gleaming. "Harry, have you played around with your new powers of illusion?"

"Not often. I've been concentrating on bringing up the powers of the wards around my house as well as learning about my aura. Why?" Harry asked.

"I think I have a plan. You see, I've developed these crystals which can use the Power of Destruction for other things.…" Rias began to explain, only to be interrupted by her bat familiar returning like its wings were on fire.

In its claws it held a message the likes of which Harry recognized from his time at Hogwarts. "Is that a Howler?" he asked incredulously.

"Um, kind of. It's our version of it. Oh dear, maybe I shouldn't have pushed my Onii-sama's buttons so harshly," Rias mumbled.

Akeno, Kalawarner, and Harry all looked at one another then leaped away as one when the bat reached Rias and Harry hastily threw up a silencing spell around the redhead. Dropping the message at its master's feet it turned, racing away, its wings flapping so fast it almost looked like a hummingbird.

An instant later the slightly smoking message went off. Rias winced, covering her ears as a tiny image of her brother appeared from the top of the message, and her brother began to scream, the image bowing with each word.

"No, no, no, no, Rias-tan! Your brother will always love you, I swear it! But there's only so much I can do quickly. No one told us about any kind of Fallen presence in your area, and it would be highly irregular if there was one. I sent off a message to our contacts both official and unofficial within the Fallen Faction, but I can't possibly hear back from them so quickly. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please forgive this incompetent brother for not doing more!"

At that point a hand appeared in the image, pulling sharply on an ear. "Ow, ow! Grayfia-chan, that hurts! Can't you see I'm trying to.…"

At that point the message thankfully cut off, and Rias, looking a little windswept, looked over to Harry, who obligingly removed the silencing spell. "He can't tell us anything tonight. We're on our own, which means we need to be sneaky and underhanded about this. So here's my plan…"

OOOOOOO

Kalawarner feigned injury as she pushed the door to the church open, with Freed following her in, looking like death warmed over. He was missing fingers from both of his hands, but other than that looked in one piece. Indeed, he was still wearing his trench coat.

Behind them, Kiba was there as well, portraying one of the other exorcists Harry had killed, hidden under an illusion to that effect so powerful and accurate that even Kalawarner, who had seen Harry place the spell around the Knight, would have been hard-pressed to tell it wasn't real. "Remember," he said quietly as the doors creaked open and he followed her inside. "We need to get Hyoudou-kun out of here if we can."

At first it looked as if they needn't have bothered with Kiba's disguise or with Freed's bedraggled, near comatose appearance. No one noticed them enter until they were well into the inner chapel, where Mittelt looked up as Kalawarner entered. "Where the hell've you been!?"

"Out rounding up our exorcist 'friends' and trying to find Argento!" Kalawarner replied tartly, falling into her normal attitude easily. "Which, you'll note, I haven't been able to do. I found a few of the exorcists and the scattered chunks of one of the others." She gestured to Kiba. "This one, at least, was just trying to find the others after getting lost. But Freed, he ran into something tonight which made frappe of his fellow psycho before he cut and run."

Mittelt nodded at that, and then turned to where Raynare was standing in front of the chapel, holding up her hand in exultation. "That explains why Raynare decided to act like she did tonight. She must've felt what was going on."

"You didn't?" Kalawarner asked, frowning as she stared at Raynare's arm, where something was beginning to take shape. Over the heads of the crowd, though, she couldn't see anything more, not even the Sacred Gear extraction machine which had been placed between the place where the church's cross had been and the front-most pews.

Mittelt shrugged. "I was asleep until Raynare started to shout a few seconds ago. Though, if I were you, I'd present the idiot before too much longer."

The taller fallen nodded at that and pushed Freed forward, leaving Kiba behind her at the doorway alongside Mittelt. If it came to it, Kiba was close enough to neutralize Mittelt, though, given what Freed was hiding under his cloak, Kalawarner doubted it would be needed. Or rather, Kalawarner thought that right up until she saw the item that had finished appearing on Raynare's forearm. "That…can't be…" she whispered.

Standing on top of the pedestal where the original cross had been placed, Raynare saw her friend, who stood nearly a head taller than most of the exorcists. "Look at this, Kalawarner! Look at it! The Boosted Gear, Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor! It's all been worth it! All the humiliation, all the irritation, putting up with that blond brat's mindless pawing and inane fantasies, needing to tiptoe around those young bitches with their freakish power levels, hiding from that fucking werewolf teacher and his weird senses, all of it worth it! With this, with this K, I mean our superior, was right! With this we'll have both Heavenly Dragons on our side!" Darn even when she was ranting she didn't' slip about Kokabiel there.

Kalawarner stared past Raynare to the Sacred Gear extraction device, which was covered with hundreds of thousands of tiny glyphs and runes of all different sorts, scattered around everywhere. It was basically a crucifix with wires situated to tie someone to the wood of the cross, while several long tubes ending in vacuum ends would attach to the individual over the head, stomach, spine, and heart. Once attached via suction, the tubes would then extrude long needles of magical energy directly into the victim's body, while more would be attached to the individual who was taking the Sacred Gear from the victim.

At the foot of the device lay Issei, left to drop there like a piece of dirty clothing. He looked unconscious, his eyes wide and unseeing, and his chest barely rising and falling as he lay on his side. At the sight Kalawarner felt sad. Sad the boy was dead, or dying, sad that she would never be able to repay him for the advice he gave her, sad that she hadn't realized this was even a possibility, sad that they hadn't arrived in time to save him from this fate.

But she kept all that from her face as she moved through the crowd of fifty or more exorcists until she was near the front. "Raynare, I see your search was a lot more profitable than mine. Did you leave the boy alive, though? His chest is still moving."

"He'll die soon enough," Raynare said with a shrug, not even looking at the boy she had callously manipulated. "The brat didn't even put up a fight. I convinced him to come with us with a line from a porn flick, and he thought it was some kind of weird bondage when I plugged him into the system! How pathetic is that?"

"Heh, that is funny." Kalawarner nodded at that, and then pushed Freed forward, stepping to the side and away through the others, moving towards Issei and staying away from where Dohnaseek was standing. "That's good and all, but Freed here has something to say about what he and the other idiots with him were up to tonight. I've already heard it, but I think you all need to hear it too."

With that Kalawarner turned, moving even further to the side, out of Raynare's direct line of sight. She nodded almost imperceptibly towards Kiba, who blanched a little underneath his disguise but tensed himself resolutely.

"I suppose we should hear about it even if we are going to be getting out of here within the hour," Raynare said.

"Oh? What about Saji and Asia?" Kalawarner asked, stalling for time as she moved through the crowd of exorcists. Unfortunately, there were many of them, and they weren't very willing to move aside for her at first.

"The brat? Meh, I suppose I'll pick him up as we're leaving. I've put in so much time on that brat I don't want to leave his Sacred Gear behind after all this. As for Asia's, bah. I'd bet that was found by the Devils by this point. And we couldn't have extracted it in the first place; the device broke down after the transfer was finished." Raynare shrugged unconcern, holding up her arm with the Boosted Gear on it once more. "It's not like her Gear is anywhere near as important as this one, anyway.

With that she turned her attention back to Freed, who had also been moving haphazardly through the crowd, moving like one utterly exhausted, or rather, someone who wasn't quite under his own control. "Now, what the hell did you and your fellow brain dead idiots do, Freed?"

"Indeed," Dohnaseek said, moving through the crowd of exorcists towards Freed and glaring at him angrily. "Even I felt a flicker of that power here in the church! Did you run into a visiting Demon Lord or something?"

Freed shook his head at that, his eyes staring straight back at Raynare as he gripped his trench coat with his mutilated hands. "Have, have a message," he slurred, causing more than one pair of eyes to widen. Dohnaseek, in particular, frowned as he realized that something might be wrong here. "Don't fuck with the Potters!"

With that he pulled open his trench coat, and for an instant everyone there could only stare at was hidden inside. There were hundreds, thousands of talismans of some kind. And on each of them was the same runic array. If any of them knew European-style runes, they might have realized they were looking at what were called explosive tags.

These talismans wouldn't last very long. European runes did not last when placed on something so flimsy as paper. But, then again, these didn't have to.

With Freed's words as his cue and with no one looking in his direction, Kiba lashed out to one side. A massive claymore appeared in his hand, created by his Sacred Gear, Sword Birth. The flat of the blade smashed into the unaware Mittelt's head, sending her down and unconscious. Kiba then leaped to stand over her and pulled out a small ruby, flinging it into the air between him and Freed after sending a pulse of his own magic into it to activate the spell embedded in the crystal.

By the time Freed had opened his trench coat, Kalawarner had made her way to the front of the crowd. Now she flung herself forward to land on top of Issei, throwing a ruby exactly like the one Kiba had into the air above her after activating it with her own magic.

At the same time Dohnaseek flung himself forward, pushing past the stunned and now quickly dispersing crowd, a Light Spear appearing in one hand as he did. Raynare too hurled herself into the air but she moved away, trying to get some distance as she called on her new power. Several more exorcists nearer the back of the chapel dove for the entrance to the back of the church. Two more at the back of the crowd raced for the doorway, ignoring the sight of one of their fellows knocking out a fallen.

But all their responses came too late. An instant after Freed opened his coat the tags went off. There was an explosive boom, and the chapel from one end to the other was filled with fire and fury. It was as if someone had snuck in a few bunker busters and they all went off at once, their impact spreading out in every direction.

An instant before the explosions went off, a bright red oval umbrella appeared in front of Kiba and over Kalawarner and their charges. The explosion slammed into them but the fire and fury disappeared, almost looking like it was absorbed, but rather it was destroyed. The wind of the explosion came around the shields, but couldn't do more than push Kiba off his feet.

Outside Rias and Akeno waited, having helped Harry create a Notice-Me-Not array around the church before taking up position in the door. Now they blinked as the loud boom from inside reached them. "Ara, I think Harry might have overdone it, don't you, Buchou?"

"Not at all," Rias replied, a vicious snarl on her face. "There's no such thing as overkill when it comes to protecting your family. I just hope that Harry got into position in time."

To that Akeno could only nod in agreement, blushing somewhat as her body responded to what her friend had just said. An instant later two of the excommunicated exorcists came racing out of the church. However, before they could take two steps they were instantly struck down by cutting spells. Difindo was one of the few spells the two of them had learned so far from Harry's books well enough to not need to verbalize, and they used it now so that there would be no hint that Devil-style magic had been used.

Even the rubies, loaded with protective spells powered by Rias, would not register as Devilish in origin. When she created the spells in the crystals, what Rias did was to put her own powers within the crystal, a very, very tough process given how, well, destructive the Power of Destruction was. But after that was completed, she could impart a spell into the crystals surface which would then feed off the magic within to activate at a later date. It was a bit like the enchantments concept Harry had come up with, only more limited in scope since the spells Rias could power like that were very limited in type. She could put offensive spells on them, or rather she could, the effect just wasn't what the spells were supposed to be.

But she could create shields, though they did not react like any shield spells Harry had ever heard of. Instead of casting a magical barrier to block spells or objects, the shield spell the crystal created was like a solid version of the Power of Destruction. It annihilated anything that came in contact with it, be that thing energy or matter or anything else.

Even better for tonight's operation, the crystals would read like an unaligned magician's magic, someone who had built up power without making a long-term contract with a Devil.

That was the whole point behind this sneaky method of attack: If anyone investigated they would have no clue that Rias or her peerage were involved, and so few people among the Three Factions knew about the Wizarding world that it was incredibly doubtful they would recognize the spells used.

Akeno and Rias then raced inside quickly, only to pause and stare for a second. The interior of the chapel was wrecked. Not a single pew had survived, nor were any of the exorcists in one piece. None of them were alive, and those closest to Freed had, like Freed himself, been simply immolated, blown apart. This included Dohnaseek, though his fedora had survived, flung into the air by the explosion, and his body had stayed somewhat intact unlike the humans caught that close to the source of the explosion.

Even the wall separating the chapel from the small entranceway had been destroyed, as had the wall at the far end where Harry now stood, moving over the rubble and the bodies of another few excommunicated exorcists that had tried to escape that way.

Seeing Kalawarner hovering over the body of Hyoudou-kun, Rias raced over to them, kneeling next to the boy. "Akeno, get over here. Kiba, make certain that other one is unconscious!" Taking Mittelt alive had been the only request Kalawarner had made before joining this operation.

Seeing the two girls dealing with Issei, who he thought was just unconscious; Harry looked around, his eyes hard as he looked around for the mastermind of this operation. "Where's the one called Raynare?"

Kalawarner looked up from moving to one side of Issei and pointed. Harry turned in that direction, and saw Raynare pushing herself to her feet. "That's her."

Half of Raynare's body looked broken and seared, including her wing, which had been turned into ash and burnt flesh. While her other half looked only bruised, that would have been enough to kill any human being just from the pain alone, yet there was a light of madness in her eyes and Raynare lifted up an arm clad in a red metal gauntlet, the only thing on that side of her body which looked undamaged. "No," she slurred. "Not like this! Not when I've finally gotten this! BOOST!" she shrieked, launching herself towards Harry, who was the nearest enemy. Magic visibly gathered around her broken, dying body concentrating into her gauntlet where it started to gutter out slowly.

Without any change in his expression, Harry flicked a hand forward, and a cutting spell sliced Raynare's arm off at the elbow before her attack could gain further momentum. She screamed, but didn't have very long to do so. In the next instant a full powered Reducto caught her in the face, turning it and much of her upper body into mush.

Striding forward, Harry picked up the severed arm and looked at the gauntlet thoughtfully. "Is this what this was all about?" Harry could feel the power radiating off the thing, but it really wasn't all that much…or was it? He couldn't quite tell. The surface feeling wasn't all that much, but something about the red gauntlet gave him a very odd feeling of buried power.

Rias's eyes widened as she looked up from pulling out what looked like a pawn, the chess piece gleaming black and red with power. "That is the Boosted Gear, Ddraig the Red Emperor! It's a mid-tier Longinous, a Sacred Gear able to kill a god. Their infiltration of my territory and their attacking people under my protection now makes much more sense if it was for something that important."

Kneeling next to Rias, he looked at the boy. "How is he?"

"Hyoudou-kun was dead the instant his Sacred Gear was taken from him," Rias said with a sad sigh. "For now, anyway. It's been a short enough time that I can resurrect him as a devil."

Behind them Kalawarner smiled at that. For some reason she was happy they could save the boy from permanently dying, at least.

"And what about this?" Harry asked, pulling the gauntlet off Raynare's severed arm and tossing the arm away to join the blood and scattered bodies that covered the church.

Rias stared at it and then down at the boy. There was no visible wound on him beyond a few suction marks, the extraction process seemingly leaving no other physical mark on him. She stepped back, staring first at the gauntlet, then down at the boy, her eyes narrowing. "What do your senses tell us?"

Harry frowned at that, and then activated his aura reading ability, wincing as he looked at the gauntlet. "All right, that thing is a lot stronger than I expected! And it seems to have a soul?"

"The thirteen strongest Sacred Gears have souls within them, or at least that is what I've read. Most of them are…I suppose you could call them dormant most of the time, but the two Dragon Emperors are supposed to be a little more 'awake' then the others," Rias mused before shaking that off and concentrating on the current issue. "But is there any connection between the two of them?"

"I can't see one," Harry said after a moment, shaking his head.

"Nor can I," Rias said with a sigh. "If there had been any kind of bond there, if the Sacred Gear had been awakened before it was extracted, we would probably have had to use that extraction machine to somehow reverse the process in order to keep him alive. But, as it is, that won't be necessary. My chess piece alone will be able to fill the damaged areas of within his soul."

"But he will live as part of your peerage?" Harry asked, turning away and beginning to use cleaning spell and vanishing charms to get rid of the blood and viscera everywhere. After he was done there would be no physical evidence to explain what had happened to any of the exorcists or the fallen. If anyone came around looking for answers, they weren't going to find any here. "And what about the Boosted Gear? That woman attempted to use it but didn't seem able to."

Rias looked at the Boosted Gear for a moment in Harry's hands, her eyes narrowed as she tried to sense the soul within and failing. "Yes, Hyoudou-kun will live on as one of my peerage. If the Sacred Gear had been awakened at all before it had been extracted, it would have taken far more than a single pawn piece."

"As for the Sacred Gear, I don't know," she said after a long, silent minute's thinking. "I would love to add its power to my peerage, but I don't know if its style would work with any of my friends or I myself. And we might have to somehow communicate with, or bond with, Ddraig's soul in order to use the power of it. That would not be pleasant at all. There's a difference between wearing it and using it."

She turned and looked at Kalawarner and Mittelt, then to Kiba who was standing over the unconscious fallen who was dressed, Rias now noticed, like some kind of gothic loli. "Kiba, Akeno, please escort Kalawarner and Mittelt to our home, would you. The basement should be secure enough to hold Mittelt for now. After that, Akeno, please stand by. I might need your help to rearrange some more memories of the family Lily was supposed to stay with tonight. Kalawarner…"

Rias looked at the blue-haired fallen, her eyes narrowing, then she sighed. "While I trust you, Kalawarner, I must err on the side of caution here. You can take one of our guest rooms, but Akeno will be placing wards on the door and window so you cannot leave without our say-so. This will probably last only for the night, but I have to keep you under lock and key until I get word from my Onii-sama."

"You don't have to do that, you know," Kalawarner said mildly, her eyes flashing in stark contrast to her tone. "I gave you my word that I wasn't going to try to fight, that I was trying to change. With that, where would I go?"

"I realize that, and I would personally be willing to trust you. But I also have to act as a leader should, and that means keeping both you and Mittelt under lock and key until I figure out whether or not you all were really sanctioned to be here by your higher-ups or if something else was going on. If something else is going on, I might be forced to hand you over. You realize that, don't you?"

Harry winced at that, looking up at Rias, his work on cleaning up halfway done. "I would not be comfortable with that. If push came to shove, I would offer Kalawarner my protection. She was prepared to defend Lily tonight, and she apologized for what she nearly did to me. She's trying to redeem herself; that has to be worth something."

"It is to me personally," Rias said once more with a sigh and a fond look at Harry. "However, this is politics."

"They won't ask if we were acting under Raynare's orders rather than the Grigori's. They'll cut their losses," Kalawarner predicted with a shrug and a glance towards Harry. "Still, I'll go along with this for now."

As the others left, Rias moved over to Harry, who was still carrying the Sacred Gear. Rias looked at it quizzically. "I take it you're going to take command of that?"

"It seems fitting, since I was the one who disarmed Raynare," Harry replied with gallows humor, which caused Rias to smack his upper arm with a scowl. "More seriously, given some of the things that Manannán told me about how I had power over souls and the undead, I might be best able to actually speak with the soul within."

Nodding thoughtfully at that, Rias fought down the greedy, and wholly idiotic, urge to demand that Harry give her the Boosted Gear. The amount of power the Boosted Gear would add to her peerage was beyond tempting to Rias, but, as she said earlier, there was the question of compatibility to consider. And even if there wasn't, it certainly would not be cause enough to argue with Harry right now.

By this point Harry had finished cleaning up the church, even repairing the majority of the pews, the walls, and the floor. Some of the pews and the weird device that had been used to extract the Sacred Gear in the first place did not come together correctly under his Reparo. For the pews, Harry supposed that pieces of them had simply been burned to smoke, the spell unable to reform those bits. The device, however, had seemingly fought his spell in some fashion because of the leftover Fallen magic within it. "Well, I think we're done here."

Nodding, Rias moved to put her arms around Harry's waist, looking up at him with a smile. "Then let's go." At Harry's inquiring look, she shook her head. "I told you, Harry, you're not the only one who cares about Lily. I want to make sure she's all right too."

"Mmm, so you said," Harry replied putting his arms around her in turn and enjoying the feel of her pressing against him, his hands staying firmly at the small of Rias's back despite an urge to explore further. Harry knew that this was not the time for that, but he could not stop himself from leaning down and kissing Rias lightly on the lips. He pulled back quickly, however, and warned, "Brace yourself, the first apparition is like the first use of a portkey, only worse."

"Wait, wh,…" Rias began, and then they disappeared from the interior of the church only to reappear in the Potters' backyard. She stumbled and would have fallen but for Harry's arms around her. She had to close her eyes for a moment, recovering slowly as Harry hands moved in a soothing circle on her back as the protective wards around his property welcomed them both, a light buzzing sensation going through their bodies.

"Oooh, ugh. Harry, I think I know what we're going to be doing, first thing: placing a teleportation array in your house. Gah, I do not want to ever use that method of teleportation ever again," Rias groaned, then looked up at him with a wan smile. "But don't let that stop you moving those hands like that.…"

"I see you're feeling better," Harry replied, letting go of her gently, his hands sliding down her sides and away. As the door to his house opened he had already moved away and smiled at Koneko as she appeared.

Rias too turned to face her youngest peerage member, moving toward her with Harry. "Has everything been okay here, Koneko-chan?" she asked, rubbing Koneko's head.

"Un. No problems. The puppy's attackers?" Koneko asked, staring at them both, her body a tense bowstring waiting to be released.

"Dealt with." At Koneko's murmured sound of 'mmm?' Harry went on. "We exploded them for the most part. Beyond that, Rias can tell you about it later. Right now I want to talk to Lily. Is she still awake?"

Koneko nodded and turned to lead the way back into the house. But before they entered, Rias put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry, would you mind telling me what you're going to talk to Lily about?"

"Lily hid from me the fact she was having trouble with her werewolf side, which was why she wasn't able to remember to use her portkey, something that should have gotten her out of trouble. She told me why, but I want to make certain she understands she isn't a burden, that I could never see her that way," Harry replied firmly.

Nodding thoughtfully, Rias asked, "Can I talk to her, do you think? Some things are better handled from an outsider's perspective, a friend rather than a father."

"Or from a young woman to a younger girl?" Harry asked sardonically.

"Exactly," Rias said with a smile.

Inside the house, they found the two younger girls still on the sofa. Asia was asleep, curled up to one side of the sofa as Lily watched the TV avidly, a bowl of popcorn between them. She looked up as Koneko and the others entered and smiled wanly at her father, waving her hand and whispering, "Hey, Daddy, Rias."

"Hello, lovey," Harry said with a smile, moving over to hug her tightly, the same feeling of fear he had felt when he smelled Lily's blood going through him just then. But he controlled it with difficulty and just hugged her as tightly as he could. "The bad men and their friends have all been dealt with, and Asia here is going to stay with us for now. Do you like that?"

"Sure, she's nice, though she doesn't know anything!" Lily whisper-shouted while rolling her eyes and freeing an arm to gesture at Asia. "She says she's never been to school, and worse, she's never even seen cartoons except in commercials and only has seen a few anime on the plane ride to Japan."

"Then I'm certain you and Rias will have a lot of fun educating her in that area," Harry replied before falling silent and just hugging her for a few minutes before he sighed and forced his arms apart. "For now, however, I am going to put her in bed, and then you and I need to talk, okay? And Rias has decided to join us for this talk too."

With that Harry gently lifted Asia into his arms and, after settling her against his shoulder, made for the door. Koneko moved with him to open the door to the guest bedroom and also to allow Rias start the talk with Lily. Koneko had already given the little girl her opinion, but she knew that her King was a lot better at this kind of thing.

Without a word Rias sat down next to Lily, pulling her into her lap and running her fingers through the little girl's hair as Lily nuzzled into Rias's prodigious chest. "Lily, sweetheart, would you like to talk to me? Just woman to woman?"

Lily looked up at her and slowly nodded. "When, when we were living in Britain with Mother, I…"

From there Lily described how she had always wondered how many of the problems between her parents were because of her. How she had often overheard people when they went around with other magical people that thought she was a freak, including many of the other kids she occasionally met. How her thoughts on that had been made worse by the revelation of her and her Daddy's odd blood.

Halfway through this retelling Harry came back down, and he stood in the doorway, silently listening, his eyes flashing in the old 'Avada Kedavra eyes' look his friends and former enemies knew all too well. But as it continued, he bit his lip, his anger retreating in favor of another emotion: guilt that he hadn't spotted this problem building up in his daughter. I noticed she was having trouble in her new school, but where was all this? How did I miss it? How could I ignore the fact that rumors could hurt her?

Rias listened silently, simply stroking the little girl's hair with one hand as she hugged her. When Lily wound down, she said, "I understand why you might think you're a burden to Harry, but I think you know he would never look at you like that, don't you? I know you might think that's because fathers aren't supposed to think like that, but it is also simply because he loves you, Lily-chan. If you love someone, helping them with their problems, big or small, is just something you do. And you do need help in this area, don't you?"

Lily hesitated then nodded, Rias feeling the movement against her chest more than seeing it given how tightly Lily had pressed her face into the older girl's body. "Good. Now let us move on to the word, 'freak.' Has your father ever told you about his own childhood, Lily?"

"Some. Not a lot," Lily muttered.

"Hmm.… Well, I think he needs to tell you about some of his time with the Dursleys. He knows that words hurt, Lily-chan. He won't think less of you for letting them get to you. As for you being a freak, though, there is no way you could ever be called that!" Rias said, her voice becoming stern as she gently pushed Lily's face away from her chest so that she could see the girl's green eyes. "Lily-chan, look at me."

When the girl had no choice but to do so, Rias went on. "Would you say the first of something is a freak? The first butterfly in the world? Or the first bird who had evolved from a dinosaur?"

"Um…no, no, I wouldn't," Lily said, actually having to think for a minute there. So absorbed in her discussion was she that she didn't notice her father's presence until he sat to one side of them, putting a gentle arm around her shoulder. But she still didn't look away from Rias.

"That is what you and Harry are, Lily-chan: the first of a new breed. You're not a freak; you're unique, like a snowflake or a butterfly. And in many ways you're better than normal werewolves: stronger, faster, in more control, and far prettier in your other form too!" At that Lily laughed, and Rias smiled, but went on seriously. "Never be ashamed of being different, Lily-chan. Be proud of it."

"She's right, sweetheart," Harry said, and Lily turned, nuzzling into his chest in turn as his arms went around them both. "We might be different, but that is a source of strength, not a sign we're freaks. I was called that a lot when I was younger. My relatives hated the fact I was able to use magic. They used words and…actions…to try to beat me down and make me conform to their idea of normality. But I learned then, and later on, that being different isn't something to be afraid of. And I'll help you realize that too."

"As for the rumors about you, Lily, How would you normally deal with someone saying something bad about you to your face?" Rias said with a faint smile, enjoying the group.

"Punch them in the nose!" Lily said, causing Harry to laugh and Koneko, who had come down by this point as well, to nod in agreement.

"Ah, but that is how a silly boy would deal with the issue," Rias said, putting as much derision in her voice as she could when she said that word while making a face at Harry. "It might solve some problems, but not all of them. Would you like me to teach you how a girl would deal with this kind of thing? So if there is ever another rumor campaign against you, you'll know what to do?"

Lily thought about it for a minute then nodded. She was also looking a lot cheerier now. The idea of striking back at the rumormongers without violence had never actually occurred to her before, and the fact that Rias and her Daddy hadn't just waved aside her concerns but had addressed them made her feel a heck of a lot better. I'm not a freak; I'm unique! she thought to herself.

"That, however, will have to wait for another time, since it is well past midnight now, and little girls need their sleep," Harry said with a smile, lifting Lily out of Rias's lap and standing up in one motion. "And tomorrow we will talk about harnessing your werewolf side further and some of my own experiences about name-calling and how to not let rumor get to you."

"After that, I will start teaching you how to fight rumor with rumor, like every girl should know," Rias said, standing up and following after the two Potters. "I'll also have Koneko-chan stay over with you tonight."

In actuality, given the look in her young Rook's eyes, Rias knew she would have had to order Koneko away, and it would have been a wrong move. Instead, Koneko nodded at her King, relief shining in her eyes.

Given the lateness, the physical exertions, and the emotional turmoil (and the fact that Koneko hadn't let her have any sugar-type sweets), Lily was practically asleep before Harry put her in bed. She clung to him for a moment, kissing his cheek. "Love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, sweetheart; never doubt it," Harry replied, kissing her on the forehead. Then, to Koneko's shock, he did the same to her as she got in bed with the younger girl. Koneko's eyes widened at that, and she froze as Harry smiled warmly at her before turning away.

Outside Harry and Rias were silent as they walked back down the stairs to the entryway. There Harry paused, pulling Rias into a hug and kissing her gently on the lips. He pulled back after a moment, murmuring, "Thank you for your help tonight, and not just with Raynare and that bunch. You were right. You really were able to get through to Lily more than I would have. It would not have occurred to me to separate the werewolf issue, the name-calling, and her own thoughts on the matter into three like that. I would have just told her to turn the other cheek to the rumors because I stopped caring about what people said about me and forgot they could hurt other people."

"Girls are always more susceptible to nasty rumors like that than boys. Boys normally deal with problems far more physically as I mentioned,," Rias replied, leaning up to kiss his chin and then his neck, nibbling at the skin as Harry's hands moved down her back, his fingers beginning to wend their way through her hair while his other hand gripped her rear with just a bit of pressure.

Harry let loose a rumble, leaning in to capture Rias's lips once more before reluctantly turning away. "We have to stop now, or else I'll never let you leave."

"Who says I'd want to," Rias replied, leaning in to give Harry a kiss this time, her tongue out and pressing into his mouth.

Even more reluctantly, Harry pushed her away gently. "It's late, Rias, and we both need our sleep. And if you stayed, sleep would definitely not be on the menu."

Rias giggled. "Too true." She then became serious. "I will tell Sona about what happened tonight, tomorrow morning. I think, after that, we might need you with us when we go to talk to Saji, just in case.

"And Kalawarner," Harry replied with a nod. "Call me when you decide where you want to meet, and I'll meet up with you after breakfast. But I will want some time to talk to Lily before that. And Asia too."

"Mmm, I'd almost forgotten about her," Rias mused. "Still, we'll talk about her tomorrow. Till then, Harry."

"Till then, Rias," Harry replied, watching as she moved away and, pushing her arms to either side, created a teleportation array and disappeared.

OOOOOOO

In the now totally abandoned church where Raynare and her people had operated, a single person walked through the repaired interior, looking around with a faint frown on his face. He was a young man, seeming to be of high school age or thereabouts, with a pointed chin, high cheekbones, and a slightly European cast to his features, though his dark green hair certainly did not fit that image. His amber eyes also were highly unusual, as was the fact he was dressed in incredibly fine robes to be walking through what amounted to a ruin.

"What exactly happened here?" he mused, scowling as he pulled out a small holy cross in his gloved hand while also pulling out a small crystal ovoid in his other hand. He set that one down on the floor, tapping it twice before moving away as it began to emit a violet glow and scowling as he looked down at the cross he was still holding.

"Hmmm.… She is either hidden under powerful wards or…perhaps dearest Asia has rejected her faith? Mhmmm that would be a most fascinating thing to hear, though I would have preferred to break her of that belief myself. Still, there are other expressions I can make her show me," the man went on; talking to himself like it was an everyday thing.

A low pitched sound distracted the green haired man after a second, however, and he turned with a scowl to stare at the ovoid, which had just stopped glowing. "What? That's impossible. There had to be some magic used here.…" His scowl deepening, he stared around, and then pulled out an even larger ovoid. "Can't use any spells myself, blast it. Those two slut heiresses are, no doubt, on high alert. Getting in here in the first place was hard enough with all those familiars on watch, along with the Gremory Knight and Sitri Bishops hidden and watching."

He placed those magical items in different locations, this time near where the cross should have been, and then placed the larger one in the center of the chapel, placing the original ovoid on top. So reinforced, the magical scanners did get a response this time, though the one he'd placed near the front of the chapel didn't get anything once more.

Even the two which worked created a return that he did not understand. "Green and white? Not Demonic or Fallen? White… that could be an uncontracted magician's magic, but green.…" The young man grit his teeth, shaking his head. "I dislike mysteries intensely, especially when they get in the way of me attaining the prize I want."

His amber eyes lit up with something that could only be called a sadistic desire. "But don't worry, Asia-chan. I will have you eventually, whatever happened here. You will be mine!" Sighing, he turned away, pulling a cloak around him which covered him from head to toe, causing him to disappear. "For now I will have to seek out my new patron for aid in figuring out this mystery."

OOOOOOO

Asia woke up the next day, and, for a moment, she didn't realize where she was. She was in a room she hadn't seen before and in a bed slightly larger and far softer and more welcoming than any she had slept in before. And there was a smell coming from somewhere nearby of breakfast being prepared. She pushed herself upright, yawning and stretching before looking around, remembering much of what had occurred the night before.

As she finished stretching and was about to get out of bed to perform her morning prayers, the door to the room opened. She recognized the girl named Koneko from the night before, who looked back at her with a slow, catlike blink. "Food," she said.

"Ano, I'll, I'll be down in a moment," Asia replied hesitantly. "I have to do my morning prayers."

Koneko paused, looking at her thoughtfully, then nodded once and exited quickly.

Now alone, Asia knelt by her bed, putting her elbows on the bed while pressing her hands together as she held her rosary. Because she had forgotten to pray last night, having fallen asleep on the sofa, Asia performed two prayers while apologizing for missing her prayer last night, ending with, "And please, Lord, I do not mean to sound selfish, but could my new acquaintances be my friends? That's all I ask of You, Lord, that I continue to do your will and make friends doing it."

With that she pushed herself to her feet and moved to the door, which opened before she could reach it as the young werewolf man from the night before poked his head in. "All done, Asia?" he asked, a slight smile on his face. "Come on, we saved breakfast for you."

"Oh, thank you. You didn't have to go the trouble for me," Asia replied hesitantly, moving towards him as Harry held the door open for. Now, in the light of day, she could tell a lot more about Harry's appearance than she had last night by the light of the lampposts. Harry was a rather handsome man in his mid-twenties, fit and with emerald eyes that made her flush a little as she passed him.

Asia hadn't been around very many handsome people in her time, of course. Mostly she had been around older priests and younger and older nuns. The nuns and the young priests weren't allowed to mingle in the Church, after all.

"It wasn't any trouble. This just let me talk to my daughter some before breakfast rather than after or during," Harry replied.

To Asia's surprise she found an actual place already made for her at the table, with Koneko across from her, Lily to her left, and Harry to her right, sitting on the other sides of the small table.

"Hi, Asia!" Lily said, waving her hand. "Come on and sit! It's always more fun to have meals with friends."

"Friends?" Asia asked, halting in the doorway into the kitchen. "You, you think we're friends?"

"Mhmm. You saved my life last night, then we watched movies and ate snacks together, so that makes us friends," Lily said, holding out her hand to shake Asia's. "I love making new friends."

Asia smiled tremulously and shook her hand firmly. "So do I! I just don't have much experience in it…" she mumbled.

"Come on. Sit and eat before it gets cold," Harry said, putting a gentle hand on the small of Asia's back and urging her forward. "We won't bite."

Asia blushed at that, since in all the werewolf tales that was precisely what they were supposed to do. Although a small niggling part of her mind wondered if being bitten by Harry would be so bad. Before that thought could gain momentum enough to cause her to blush again, she quickly sat down and looked at the food in front of her, which was a mix between English and Japanese, with an emphasis on breakfast sausages. "It all looks so good!"

"Thank you for the compliment," Harry said, smiling and bowing at that as Koneko added a murmur of agreement to it. "Now, dig in."

Lily instantly began to dominate the discussion, asking Asia a lot of questions about where she came from, what she had been doing, and about the magic she used to heal Lily the evening before. Asia answered hesitantly at first then got into it more as she saw no condemnation or anger in any of their faces, even sharing how she had been kicked out of the Church.

Even with that, none of them responded with anything but understanding towards her. Towards the church not so much, but Asia attempted to calm their anger at her predicament, even if she honestly didn't understand why she had been kicked out either.

She occasionally noticed Koneko wince when she mentioned God and praying, but neither of the werewolves responded to it, which was surprising considering, again, what she had been told about werewolves. But, then again, if I really listened to what I was told about werewolves, I should have stepped aside last night. I wonder how many other teachings of the Church are…misguided.

Even thinking that was rather hard for Asia, but she was being forced to reevaluate that kind of thing of late. She still firmly believed in the Bible and God, but while the Bible was used to create Church doctrine, Church doctrine had, in many ways, grown past the great book, and in possibly the wrong directions at times.

However, despite her young friend chattering away, Asia could not help but wonder what was going to happen to her from now on and what had happened last night to Kalawarner. Had she or any of the others come looking for her? Where was Asia supposed to go from here? She had come here because she had thought that, by working with Raynare and the others, she could make good her mistake from a few months ago: that of healing someone who turned out to be a Devil. But with that having proven a false hope the instant Kalawarner showed her Fallen Angel wings, Asia was left rather adrift. She had felt that last night, too, but had been able to push the thought away.

As they begin to finish up breakfast, however, Asia asked hesitantly, "Ano, excuse me, but, um, what happened last night after you sent Lily-chan and me here, Potter-san?"

"You don't have to use honorifics with us, Asia. We're not from Japan ourselves, after all. First, you have to understand that this is Devil territory, two of them. They're the nicest devils you could ever meet, just like Koneko-chan here," Harry said with a faint smile. "Your fallen 'friends' were not actually supposed to be in this area according to the state of peace that exists between the Factions."

"Oh," Asia said, looking around herself fearfully, then at Koneko who allowed herself to smile at the girl.

"Don't worry. Gremory-san, one of the two devils who control the area, already heard testimony from Kalawarner last night that you had no idea they were Fallen at all, let alone that you shouldn't be in the area. So long as you don't become violent or anything like that, you'll be allowed to remain in the area. That just leaves one question, of course: what do you want to do?"

"What?" Asia asked, blinking in shock. "A, ano, what do you mean?"

"What do you want to do with your life going forward?" Harry asked intently, leaning back and folding his hands at his waist. "What do you want to do with your life? Do you want to try to get back into the Church? Do you want to travel the world? What do you, Asia Argento,want to do?"

Asia blushed, looking away for a moment. "Um…I, I don't know. I've no place to go, really.…"

"Bah, you don't have to worry about that!" Lily said, reaching over and grabbing one of Asia's hands and squeezing it with her own. "You can stay here with us, if you want."

"R, Really?" Asia asked surprised.

"If that's what you want to do," Harry said with a nod. "But don't let my little daughter browbeat you into something you don't want. What do you want?"

Asia blushed again under Harry's emerald gaze, looking down at Lily's hand and squeezing back thankfully. "A, actually that sounds really nice. I want to, well, I'd like to act like a normal girl, I suppose? Go to school, that kind of thing. But I'd also like to make friends."

Harry looked at her steadily for a moment, then a slow smile crossed his face, and he nodded. "That sounds like a very familiar refrain to me. Being unusual or abnormal, that is a hard burden indeed."

Looking from Harry to the others, Asia saw all three of her nodding at her. "Yes," she said with a sigh. "I wouldn't give up Twilight Healing I was given this power by God for a reason, after all. But I would, I would like some normality, I suppose. Friends and a, a family, though I suppose that last one is beyond me."

"We can see to most of that right now, Asia-chan. And don't give up on the idea of a family just yet. For now, why don't you let Lily show you around the grounds—I doubt you saw much of the house last night—and take a nice shower? Koneko, why don't you head home and grab some sets of exercise clothing and maybe a skirt for now? I'll either ask Rias or take Asia out myself later today to shop for some more. Asia, I'll have a questionnaire for you to fill out after your shower, so I'll know what grade you should join. Koneko, when you come back, I'll want you and Lily outside.

Koneko nodded and hopped to her feet, moving around to take Asia's hand and pulling her quickly out of the room with Lily following. Harry watched them go for a moment as he began to pile up the plates, smiling widely. Heh, it seems like my family has grown, if in an unusual manner, and more than just Asia and Koneko, I think.

OOOOOOO

While cleaning up after their own breakfast in her mansion, Rias and Akeno both sneezed, the redhead quickly holding a hand over her mouth as Akeno grabbed at a paper towel. "ACHOoo!"

"Ara, is someone talking about us, do you think, Rias-chan?" Akeno asked, pulling the paper towel away from her nose and going back to washing dishes without a beat.

"Maybe," Rias replied with a shrug. "I wonder who?"

"Ufufufu. Rather spoiled for choice there, Rias-chan," Akeno replied with a giggle.

OOOOOOO

Issei too woke up that day around the same time the others had, though full wakefulness took more time. When his brain finally came online, Issei's eyes snapped open and he pushed himself out of bed, rolling away and staring around him, his arms up between him and anything that might attack him. But there was nothing there, and Issei looked around wildly, realizing he was in his own bedroom once more.

"Wh, what the? Was that a dream? What the hell?! I've never had a dream turn into a nightmare like that, especially when oppai are involved!" Issei practically shrieked to himself, looking around in abject confusion.

But he saw no sign that anyone had been in his room. Then he looked down at himself and saw no physical sign of the odd thing Issei had first taken to be some kind of bondage device, which he knew had left suction marks. "Maybe it really was a dream? Maybe, maybe it's a sign that I need to give up on my goal. Maybe my subconscious mind is trying to tell me that oppai can turn on you."

He thought about it for a moment, and then shook his head. "No! No way! Just because a dream went bad just then is no reason to give up on my own goal to become a Harem King! For the Oppai, I will never surrender to my fears!"

OOOOOOO

At the Potter household, Harry had finished cleaning up from breakfast and, as Asia began to fill out the questionnaire, he took Lily and Koneko out into the backyard. There he took up meditative pose on the ground with his daughter in his lap, as he slowly walked her through changing forms. "Now that the genie is out of the bottle, Lily, you'll need to practice more self-control. Maybe you'll even have a better time of it given the fact that both you and your were-side are so young."

Lily hesitated, and Harry could feel that in her body, and he leaned in, kissing her hair and hugging her gently. "Remember what Rias said last night, Lily; remember what we talked about this morning. You are not a freak. We, you and I, are simply unique and unique means special, which is a good thing, not a bad. Your werewolf side is not your enemy or a burden; it is simply part of you. Accept it into you, but don't let its instincts control you."

Koneko leaned in, pressing her face against the side of the younger girl's, allowing her body to shift to her normal form from the human body she usually retained. Lily felt the nekomata's cat ear rubbing against her and opened her eyes to look into Koneko's golden ones. "Lily, watch," the older girl ordered.

As Lily and Harry watched her, Koneko stood up and moved away, her twin tails swishing. She looked down at herself, then back up at Lily, her eyes fierce. "I, I'm not just a nekomata, but nekoshou. Rare breed: stronger, tougher, but wilder, able to use Senjutsu, take power from world. It can be very, very bad. But it is senjutsu that is bad, not being nekoshou. Being nekoshou, being phoenix werewolf, not bad. Being different, not bad. It what you do with it that matters."

The white-haired girl's words raised more than a few questions in Harry's mind, though he had heard the story about her sister before, both from her and a very short, abbreviated version of it from Rias's perspective. At the moment he set those questions aside and smiled proudly at Koneko, who had just said more words in a single moment then he had ever heard from her before outside of class. But there was one thing he just could not let slide. "Phoenix werewolf?" lol

"Heard about the phoenix tears getting in your bloodstream," Koneko muttered, blushing and looking away. "First name for you two I thought up. If you don't like it, can always come up with your own."

"True." With that minor point taken care of, Harry looked down at his daughter. "Well, Lily, that's another person who believes that being special is good. Are you ready to use what makes you special rather than be afraid of it?"

Staring first at Koneko, then her father, Lily could almost feel the words she had heard back in Britain wash out of her mind, and she threw back her shoulders proudly. "Let's do this!"

"That's my girl," Harry said with a smile. "Now, what you need to do is.…"

Harry helped Lily through a few simple meditations, taken not from the European school, but the Onmyouji style. That way Lily would start to protect her soul first, which she could do without any repercussions to her mind or its structure. Harry also felt that this would allow her to better access her werewolf mind, which, now that he had realized that the werewolf side of Lily would be as young as Lily herself, he was willing to see occur.

With Harry's help and the fact the full moon had been just last night; Lily was able to get in touch with her inner puppy. And it was, indeed, a puppy. When Lily stood in front of it, while around them was the unformed mass of her mind and soul, her werewolf side was just a little puppy! It barely came up to her knee, and it was sleek, with red fur and emerald eyes just like Lily's own.

Lily blinked down at it, and then got down on her hands and knees, though what she was actually kneeling on, she couldn't tell. The puppy growled at her, its lips peeling back, but then paused as Lily just looked at it before slowly holding out a hand. "You and I, we're supposed to be one and the same. So let's show Daddy, Koneko, and the others we can handle this, okay, and um… get together?"

The puppy sniffed her hand, then allowed her slowly start to rub its ears before slowly dissipating into a fine fog, which then 'whooshed' into Lily's own 'body.' A second after that, Lily opened her eyes and found herself back in the real world, though her perspective had slightly changed.

"You okay, Lily?" Harry asked calmly, running a finger through his daughter's fur.

"Mm.… Feels weird; so many smells, tough to concentrate," Lily said, turning to look at her father, feeling an urge to run, to play, to be active that she would normally think was from a sugar high. "Weird, but fun too."

Lily looked down at herself and found her body had indeed shifted, but it wasn't quite the same as it had been last night, though she didn't realize that until Harry explained while Lily hopped out of his lap. "Your muzzle's smaller, which I sort of expected, but your limbs are also more shapely. And you seem far better able to stand up on your hind legs."

Indeed, Lily now looked almost like a much shorter version of Harry's own werewolf, or phoenix werewolf form, standing a few inches taller than she had been before, with her body covered by a light covering of red fur, her hands a little longer and her nails sharper. Her shirt and shorts had expanded to accommodate her new size, thanks to some hasty spellwork from her daddy, but her shoes had been a lost cause, her toes bursting out of the front of them.

"Yeah, but all these weird smells. I didn't realize…" Lily muttered, pawing at her nose.

"Yes, those do get some getting used to, but you will have to learn how to control it. Still, for now, why don't you and Koneko have some fun?" Harry said, standing up.

With this cue, Lily turned to Koneko and leaped toward her, shouting, "Tackle attack!"

Koneko dodged to one side and then hopped back towards Lily, bearing her to the ground as the two of them rolled around. Nekomata, while being cats, actually had a bit more in terms of socializing in common with wolves and other pack animals. So Koneko loved to roughhouse and couldn't do it very often before Lily had come into her life. And even then, she'd had to act merely slightly above human normal. Now, however, she let loose some of her Rook-given strength, and Lily, though younger, was able to match her slightly enhanced speed, if not her strength and exceeded her sheer exuberance.

Watching this wrestling match turn into a race and then a game of pounce, Harry chuckled, looking at the damage they were doing to his yard. "Hmm.… I'm going to need a bigger backyard."

After watching this for a while, Harry felt a frown try to fight its way onto his face. I nearly lost her. I nearly lost Lily. And not because of those psychopaths, but because of my own complacency! Not again. It's not going to happen again. Someone is going to be with her at all times, if not me personally. And I also have to do better at spotting it when Lily is hiding something from me. That's.… My guilt over that is going to take much longer to get over.

Shaking off his guilt on those two points, Harry called the two girls over to him. "Listen, girls. I need to leave to talk to Rias and Sona about more of the aftermath of last night. Koneko, I'm leaving you in charge here. Neither Lily nor Asia are allowed out of the house without me with them unless Akeno or Kiba come by to accompany you. There's food in the fridge for lunch if I don't return before then." Harry would have added Rias to that list, but he knew she would be out with him.

"Ahem!" Koneko said, a bright smile on her face, easily the most expressive of its kind Harry had yet seen from the girl as she thrust out her chest self-importantly. "Count on me!"

"Good girl," He said, leaning down to kiss her forehead and then Lily's furry cheek. "And after I come back we'll have a special Magic is Amazing day, okay? Oh, and if Asia comes out to play, girls, remember she's not as durable as the two of you."

"Ooh!" Lily said, then began to chatter about what that meant to Koneko as Harry walked off, leaving the girls to their fun.

He checked in on Asia, finding her barely a third of the way through the tests. He told the blonde girl that he was going out and to take her time filling out the tests. "Just do your best; don't try to finish them quickly. And tonight, if you have any requests for dinner, I'll see what I can do about treating you, okay?"

Asia nodded and bent down to her work resolutely, flushing in happiness at the head-pat Harry had just given her. With a final nod, Harry turned away and left the house.

OOOOOOO

Sona waited somewhat impatiently at the school gates, going over what Rias had told her about last night. Of course, Sona and Tsubaki had both felt it when Harry had lost control of his aura, but Sona had long since decided that anything to do with Potter-sensei fell under Rias's purview, and she had decided not to investigate at the time. And while she wasn't happy with everything that had occurred last night, Rias had been fully within her rights as co-owner of the territory to deal with everything that occurred without consulting Sona.

She didn't like the fact that Rias had gambled so heavily on Harry and her own abilities, but couldn't deny the results or that soon enough Rias could need the help against Riser, despite Rias's own words on that subject. I could wish she hasn't taken the phrase, 'who dares, wins,' to heart, but that is almost certainly my own predilection to caution. And I can be hopeful that this will pave the way for Saji to join my peerage. As for the Boosted Gear…

Sona was not happy that she hadn't detected a hint about the Boosted Gear, not a one before this. Even Tsubaki, who was slightly better at sensing Sacred Gears than Sona, had only detected a hint of power from the boy, nothing to show the signs of such a powerful Sacred Gear. And now Harry has possession of it. Odd that Rias didn't comment on that, but I suppose, given everything else that occurred, that might seem a minor point.

Still, given what Rias passed on about what Kalawarner said about Saji's Sacred Gear, it could be very powerful too. And, unlike Rias, I can afford to play the long game when it comes to building my peerage and my power base. Sona smiled a grim little smile. And besides, I have made quite a bit of progress on my own given Rias's hints and my own research into the storing and releasing of magical power.

She looked up as Rias came into view, walking from the ORC's building. A moment later, as Rias reached her, exchanging a smile of greeting, Harry walked into view from down the street. At least they had the good sense not to be seen arriving together, Sona thought sardonically.

The two girls exchanged a few meaningless pleasantries as they moved to join Harry, who smiled wanly at them, a package under one arm. "Gremory-san, Shitori-san, good morning. Do you have the young man's address, Shitori-san?"

"I do, sensei, but what is that?" Sona asked, gesturing to the package. It was wrapped in brown wrapper and looked like a bowl of some sort.

"This is something that might help the two of us and Kalawarner convince Genshirou-san of the truth of what we're telling him," Harry replied, winking and not giving any details.

Sona's lips pursed at that, but she refused to give the man the satisfaction of rising to the bait. "I see." Now that all three of them were walking together once more, Sona gestured lightly with a few fingers, releasing a spell that she had prepared to cover the trio. If anyone came close enough to overhear their conversation they would hear nothing more than a mundane discussion about school work.

With that in place, she turned to more serious matters. "Rias-san, have you heard back from your brother?"

"I did. According to Onii-sama's contact within the Grigori, Raynare was only supposed to observe Hyoudou-kun and take action if his Sacred Gear looked to be going out of control. Taking action as she did, in particular bringing in those exorcists, was well outside her mission parameters. Therefore, anything that happened is on her head and has nothing to do with the Fallen Faction, and we can do anything we want to them," Rias replied, her tone somewhat exasperated. "So we could have just gone in last night guns blazing instead of being sneaky about it!"

Sona's lips twisted into a full scowl at that. "What? How did they even know he had such a powerful Sacred Gear dormant within him? Why did they not simply approach him once they were aware of it? And why did the Grigori think we'd ever be happy with the idea of one of their agents operating in our territory!? Are we supposed to just forget that, to believe everything that occurred was some kind of mistake and overlook it?"

Shaking her head, Rias replied dryly, "In order: yes, that's what I was told. I have no idea. Possibly because they were not in a position to, given the fact Hyoudou-kun has lived his entire life here and this was our clans' joint territory long before you and I moved here to take it over. I daresay they didn't expect to be caught, and yes, we are supposed to believe the Grigori as a whole had nothing to do with it."

"Impossible. I do not know much about how the Fallen Faction organizes itself, but the idea that four fallen were able to gather more than two dozen excommunicated exorcists and create that extraction device without twigging anyone to what's going on is laughable. I realize that Azazael might not be the best leader, but he has very good subordinates for that kind of thing."

"I came to much the same conclusion," Rias replied, hiding a grimace as she remembered one such subordinate and the connection, however strained, he had to her best friend.

"You devils seem to have your own different political leanings. Is it so odd to think that this Grigori group is just as broken?" Harry asked mildly, the tone a teacher took when reminding his students of something obvious.

Both devil women turned to him then slowly nodded at that. "Warmongers," Sona said, her voice one of dawning horror. "Someone set this up as the first move in trying to restart open warfare between the Three Factions. That's…not good at all."

"Could it be the Khaos Brigade?" Rias replied, far better able to internalize the idea that someone wanted the bloody conflict between the Factions to resume than her friend, having heard about and begun research into that group. "They could have someone in the Grigori after all. That would be marginally less worrisome than someone in the Grigori itself trying to do the same."

"A possibility, but don't go borrowing trouble," Harry cautioned. "Just realize that this group might have your territory in their sights as the most visible weak point to force the Devils to resume the war." He paused then, watching as both girls nodded, and then went on calmly, though there was nothing calm in his emerald eyed gaze. "It seems to me to be a very good idea to up your training, hmm? And tomorrow, after school, we are going to talk about defense. Don't think I haven't forgotten that this Faction and their exorcists were able to not only hide from your 'detection spells' but also use magic, which I was told was impossible without your knowledge."

Realizing the older man was quite angry about that, Sona fell silent, looking away uncomfortably as Rias sighed, but nodded, her hand tapping against one of Harry's own. Sona watched that hand flex, but since they were only covered by a spell that kept their discussion from being heard, Harry did not take Rias's hand, which would have been far too personal a thing to have occur between a teacher and a student. Despite that, Harry calmed down, the hard look in his eyes fading as he smiled at Rias, who smiled back.

Rolling her eyes at her friend while also feeling a flutter of girlish glee in her heart for the romance in front of her, Sona gnawed at that problem that Harry had just brought up. The fact was, she was…unhappy was too small a word...with the way her and Rias's detection array had worked out. Or not, which was far closer to reality given the fact the exorcists had bypassed it through the use of simple magical amulets rather than proper spellwork.

I feel that we were sort of set up once more by our parents in this. Just like with our auras we were supposed to learn about the detection array's holes and fix them on our own. But they did not know there was this group out there which would take advantage of such for such a dangerous purpose. The question is what can we do about it?

Before she could voice that question, Sona realized they had nearly reached their destination. "We're here. Now we learn if that Kalawarner woman's word to you was worth the breath it took her to say them."

Harry simply pointed, and the two girls looked in the direction he was pointing.

In front of them was a large, upscale apartment complex, one of many around the Kuoh area. This one had a full security gate and its own parking area, pool, and everything. It was here that Saji Genshirou and his family lived. And, as they looked, Kalawarner came out, walking beside Saji.

Saji took one look at the trio waiting outside the complex and made to turn away, looking at Kalawarner in shock. But she gripped his arm below the shoulder, shaking her head. "Sorry about the lie earlier, kid, but there's something we four have to tell you. Don't worry, you won't be harmed or anything like that. You just have to listen."

While Saji could have broken that grip if he summoned up his Sacred Gear, he couldn't do something like that in daylight like this and before he could wonder if it might be worth it, Harry tried to allay his fears. "Don't worry, Genshirou-san. Kalawarner is telling the truth; we're not here to harm you, just to talk. The problem is that you've been lied to before this, which is what we have to correct."

"Indeed, Saji-san. You have only heard what the one called Raynare has told you. Surely you are intelligent enough to realize you should learn the other side of things before deciding where the truth really lies?" Sona asked.

Saji glared at them before looking back at Kalawarner and then back to them. "Fine. It doesn't look like I have much of a choice anyway. But we stay in public. And no spells, or else I'll go down swinging!"

Even with his Sacred Gear activated, this was much like a young lion cub trying to overawe a group of elephants, but, despite that, Harry and the two women with him simply nodded. "Perhaps a nearby park, then? There are places in the park we can go and be undisturbed without the use of spells."

"Fine."

The walk this time was a tense one, and none of them talked much until they reached the park, moving through it to a small out-of-the-way bench. Ironically, it was the same bench where Hermione and Rias had had their confrontation, which she recognized immediately. It almost caused her to giggle, but she refrained.

Harry squatted on the ground in front of the bench, gesturing for Saji and Kalawarner to sit down while Rias and Sona knelt on the grass around the bench. "Okay, so talk," Saji said, clenching his hands into fists. "But first, what did you give this traitor to get her to betray Raynare!?"

"That would be a tale in itself, but first, you have to know what Raynare didn't tell you. You see, she was not here to simply try to get you out from under our thumb or whatever she told you. Raynare was here to retrieve the Sacred Gear held in Issei Hyoudou for her superior. You were a side benefit," Rias said, her voice like a scalpel, trying to make the cut as painless as possible but also getting it over with quickly.

Saji scowled at that, but Kalawarner spoke up before he could say anything. "I told you not to believe everything Raynare told you, Saji. There was a reason for that. Raynare was using you, would have continued to use you as a feather in her cap. But it all came undone on her last night, when some of her subordinates acted out and attacked Lily Potter."

"Wait, what? Why?" Saji asked, his shock at that making him forget he was supposed to not listen to the lies these people told him. He, like every other student at Kuoh, had seen Lily by this point and knew her as a cute, if somewhat aggressively active, young girl. And he also knew that Harry was fiercely protective of her.

"She's a werewolf like me," Harry replied softly. He had no desire to go into the differences between regular werewolves and he and his daughter, and no need to, either. "The excommunicated exorcists that Raynare and the others were bringing in spotted her walking around town and attacked her that very night. You can talk to her about it if you want, but I would prefer she not have to relive the chase if she doesn't have to."

"…" Saji just stared for a moment, and then nodded slowly. "Okay, say I believe that happened. That doesn't mean that Raynare didn't care for me, and it certainly doesn't mean I'm going to jump ship and join with the Devils like you and this one seem to," he spat out, gesturing to Kalawarner. "If you people really want me to believe you, you're going to have to show me some real evidence."

"That is why I brought this with me." With that Harry pulled the cover off the item he had been carrying under one of his arms.

It was a large, misshapen bowl made of either ceramic or some kind of rock, Sona wasn't certain, the sides of it about an inch thick, the bowl itself a foot wide and half that deep. Along its edges were a series of tiny designs etched into the material. The inside of it was covered with what looked like a thin paint of gold. All in all, Sona decided it looked like one you could find in any knickknack shop, a thought that Saji shared and gave voice to with a snort. "Sensei, I didn't think you'd be the type to go for curios like that."

Harry laughed but set the bowl down on the ground between them all with a certain amount of ceremony. It was only then that Sona realized that those designs flickered with magic under the spell she had on her glasses to let her see inactive magic.

"This is a pensieve. It's a magical creation that allows a person to share memories with several other people. Kalawarner, can we see your memory of last night?" Harry asked, looking up at the tall, blue-haired woman.

She gaped down at the bowl, nor was she the only one. Sona did the same before gritting her teeth while Rias attempted to mask a smile, very poorly. Damn it! A whole school of magic with a lot more versatility than ours, and I can't partake in it!

"Um, is it painful?" Kalawarner asked.

"Not at all. It does feel rather unusual, but it isn't painful. At least, not for wizards. It might sting a little, but it certainly won't hurt more than, say, a mosquito sting," Harry replied.

"And I'm supposed to believe her memories? Or that they haven't been altered or something?" Saji asked irritably.

"Memories can't be altered like that. They can be erased, but not altered. I could take a magical vow to that effect. If I lied, my magic would desert or possibly kill me," Harry said, his voice calm as if he was talking about the weather, not something that

That in itself was telling, Sona reflected. She had, of course, heard about several of Harry's adventures second hand and even one or two first hand by this point. But to hear how blasé he took such threats to his person was another thing entirely. It was like listening to her older sister or one of the other veterans of the war against the Old Satan sect speak.

Saji was struck dumb by that same attitude, and he nodded silently, looking down at the bowl and then to Kalawarner. He still didn't like what was going on here, but he was willing to listen.

Nodding thoughtfully, Kalawarner looked over at Saji and then down at the bowl. "Would you mind if I added more memories beyond the one from last night? If we're looking to convince the kid here about how Raynare felt about him, then its best she state it herself, right?"

Harry nodded at that and then stood up, placing a finger to the side of Kalawarner's head. "Think of the first memory you want to share; hold it in the forefront of your mind." When Kalawarner did so, he slowly pulled back his finger to reveal a long sliver of silver foil or something similar.

"Fascinating," Sona murmured, staring at the thing in Harry's hands. "It looks almost solid but also like something made of water. How very odd. Is it the user of the spell or the individual whose memories are taken that create that imagery?"

"As far as I know, the memories always look like that," Harry replied absentmindedly, placing the silver thing into the bowl where it instantly acted like a quart of silvery water had been poured into the bowl. The runes on the outside started to glow lightly, accompanied by the glow of the water.

"I'll just throw up a minor obfuscation spell, shall I?" Rias said hurriedly. "Good grief, Harry, that is rather obvious, isn't it?"

"I suppose it is, Rias. Sorry," Harry said with a shrug.

Saji blinked at the familiar way the two spoke to one another but set that to one side as Harry went on. "Place your finger in the water and close your eyes. The magic of the pensieve will do the rest."

Frowning, Saji, Sona, and Rias did so, followed by Harry, who looked at Kalawarner for permission first. She waved him off, since that memory wasn't of anything personal or something she didn't want the others to share. It was the memory of Raynare coming to Kalawarner and speaking about her plan to approach Saji to gain an in with the boy as a 'secondary goal.'

Once the four of them came out of that memory, Kalawarner shared another.

The next memory was of the night when Raynare came back from the first date she'd had with Saji. How she had ranted and waved around, shouting about how it had been the most boring date ever, and that human teenagers were easily the stupidest thing in all of God's creation. But that stupidity made them equally easy to manipulate.

The third memory was of the same night when Kalawarner had talked to Saji. Raynare had later crowed about the ease with which they had convinced Saji to follow them, convinced him of the rightness of their cause. Kalawarner had then asked Raynare how she felt about being a seducer, and Raynare had scoffed, saying, "It's just another means to an end. This whole emotions thing these humans place so much weight in, they are worthless in the face of power. But if his emotions convince Saji to think with his little head rather than his big one, it doesn't matter so long as he obeys me."

The final memory was of Raynare's rant right before Kalawarner and Kiba had launched their attack. There was no need, after all, to show the full battle. But even cut short rather more obviously than the others, this memory served to wear away the last bit of resistance in Saji to the fact that Raynare had never really cared about him, had, in fact, seen him as a minor objective if anything at all.

They were all silent for a moment as they came out of the last memory until Kalawarner spoke. "I tried to warn you, kid. I hoped that the way I went about it would convince you to try to talk to me about it. But you never did. I'm sorry you had to learn about it like this."

"I, no. If I hadn't seen those memories like that, I doubt I'd have believed you," Saji muttered.

"Now that you have heard the truth from her own mouth, do you have any more questions on whether or not we are telling you the truth rather than Raynare?" Sona asked, pushing her glasses up her nose while she tried to concentrate on Saji's face rather than looking over at Harry or down at the pensieve. That had been a fantastically interesting experience.

"I, I suppose," Saji replied, leaning back. "I guess it was too good to be true. A girl who turns out to actually be into the same things I am, striking up a conversation out of the blue with me after running into me like a lame anime cliché?"

"Hey, I'll have you know some clichés are fun," Rias said with a huff before smiling at the younger boy. "You don't have to criticize yourself for being so open to Raynare's manipulations. Fallen are always good at that kind of thing,"

"So are devils, historically speaking," Saji said now, looking at them rather sharply and glancing toward Kalawarner out of the corner of his eye. "What exactly do you want to get out of telling me this?"

"Right to the point, then. Excellent," Sona said with a smile. "I offered you a position on the Student Council several weeks ago. You turned me down because of your relationship with Raynare. However, you know what I am now and what I was really offering, do you not?"

The blonde boy nodded, looking away slightly. "I do. Are you here to offer it to me again?"

"I am. A newly trained Sacred Gear user will not survive very long on his own. Even within our territory, your being alone will act like a lodestone, grabbing attention from the Fallen, possibly even the Angels and other more esoteric groups that are out there. As part of my peerage you will be protected by my name and by your fellow members. You'll be able to grow stronger far faster and in a more organized environment."

Saji looked down at her, the gentle rise of Sona's chest, her sharp but still gorgeous face, and the gleam of her violet eyes behind her glasses, so compelling. Even though he knew she wasn't really human, he could not help but remember that this was Sona, the girl he'd had a crush on since before even going to school with her. Just from seeing her walk around the town, Saji had fallen in love with her. "Um, w, who is part of your peerage?"

"The entirety of the Student Council," Sona replied promptly.

The images of those girls passed through Saji's head, almost visible to those who were looking at him. It was obvious that, despite the shock to his system he'd just taken and his self-control, Saji was at least in one way rather more like the Perverted Trio than he would like to admit.

Harry interjected at that point. "You don't have to answer right away. Just think about it for a bit, and if you have any questions about the supernatural world or just want to talk, call me." Harry held out a small card which had his personal cell phone number on it. "Just don't call after ten or before seven in the morning, okay? Students aren't the only ones who need their sleep, and ten is Lily's bedtime."

"Ah, thanks, Potter-sensei," Saji chuckled wanly and took the card with nod, looking away from Sona so as to not be drawn into those alluring violet eyes of hers, or be bewitched by the rest of her body. "Right," he said, standing up and bowing to Sona and then to the others. "I'll tell you my decision tomorrow, Kaicho." He then paused, looking at them closely as he gulped. "Ex, exactly how was Raynare dealt with?"

Sona paused to think about how to answer, as did Rias, but Harry answered promptly before any of them could. "While her subordinates had attacked my daughter, Raynare herself attacked one of your fellow students, the one she was here for originally the one whose Sacred Gear she was ranting about in that last memory Kalawarner showed you. The extraction process would have killed him if not for Rias's intervention. She also had more than forty psychotic excommunicated exorcists ready to fight. We decided to respond in like kind."

Saji gasped as the two girls winced, thinking there was probably a much better way of putting that, but Saji surprised them. After a single moment of shock, he nodded his head, looking back at Harry with grim, understanding eyes. "Understood, Potter-sensei, and thank you for being honest with me. Sitri-sama, I will give you my answer tomorrow."

"You're welcome, Genshirou-san, and remember to call if you have any questions." Harry shook the younger boy's hand before stooping to pick up his pensieve as Sona replied in the positive to his response to her, then watched as he left the park.

"Huh, he took that better than I feared, frankly," Kalawarner said, to which the two younger women could only agree. She then turned to look at them and Harry, her eyes lingering on him before twitching over to Rias. "So, what now?"

"Return to my home. Harry and I will be by in a few minutes. We have one more errand we need to do before we talk to you and Mittelt."

Kalawarner seemed to hesitate for a moment, her eyes glancing toward Harry again, but when he just nodded at her, she sighed and, after covering herself with the Fallen equivalent of a camouflage spell, she changed into her normal body and flew up into the air and away.

When the fallen angel was gone, Sona turned to look at Harry, her eyes flashing dangerously behind her glasses. "Why did you stop Genshirou-san from agreeing to my offer right away? The sooner he is part of my peerage, the better, for all concerned."

"I did not want him to me to be rushed into the decision, and you were acting rather like a vulture circling a weakened animal, trying to force him into something he might not want," Harry replied mildly. Sona's flare of anger did not matter at all to him, and he once more felt like a teacher trying to correct a student's actions.

"I was not!" Sona said angrily. "I was simply offering an alternative to being alone. There are a lot of things that, as an independent, he will have to do on his own, whereas if he becomes part of my peerage he will have a structure and a logistical base that can aid him in getting stronger, acclimatizing to the occult, and even helping him achieve any mortal wish he might have, both for the long and the short term."

"I'm not saying you are right or wrong. I am saying that the timing was suspect," Harry said, while he did not think that Sona had offered purely the out of the goodness of her heart, it hadn't been entirely self-serving either. "I just believe that he needs to think about whether or not he's willing to give up his humanity. It's a decision he needs to make from the head, not from the hormones."

The three of them walked to the park for a moment silently, and then Rias said dryly, "That doesn't quite scan, Harry."

"Well it's better than the alternative: that he needs to make that decision with his big head rather than his little.…"

"All right, enough! I understand your point," Sona said, rolling her eyes as Rias giggled. By this point they had left the park and had come to a crossroads. "Here is where I leave you." She paused, looking at her friend, and then smiled. "You did not deal with the Fallen as I would have, but I think your way might well have been the better way. And I am really looking forward to Riser's face when you deal with him."

Rias smirked back before hugging her friend. "I hope Saji comes around, Sona. I think he could be a breath of fresh air for you and your peerage. I'll see you tomorrow." She then turned away, moving down the streets with Harry.

Sona stood there, looking after them for a moment. Once Saji calms down, both from his hormonal attack there and from his grief at his ex-girlfriend's deception, the logic that had made me want to approach him instead of Issei will come into its own and point him in the correct direction. Yet beyond the issue with Saji, Harry and her inability to partake in this entirely new brand of magic like Rias and her peerage were was bothering Sona quite a bit.

She had spoken to her Queen about it, and Tsubaki said that some of the things Rias had let drop in terms of meditation practices and gesture-based spellwork sounded familiar, things she might have seen when she lived with her family, the Shinras. Sona had long known that Tsubaki had come from a magical family, but that there could be an entirely different world beyond them was astonishing. To the best of Sona's knowledge, no one in the Devil Faction had dealings with the Onmyouji beyond the Shinra, Nodachi, and Himejima clans, who themselves were almost entirely separate from their fellows. That was both worrisome and fascinating, something Sona desperately wanted to take advantage of.

Yet Sona had her pride. She could not simply go up to an independent operative like Harry and ask that she and her peerage be allowed access to his books and information. Even if she considered Harry an ally of Rias and her house (she didn't since Sona knew the Gremorys would have conniptions once they learned their daughter had taken up with a 'human'), such a thing would not be proper between two of the 32 Pillars. No, she had to have something to offer in return, if not of equal value, then something that could grab Harry's interest enough to serve in terms of payment.

But with Rias offering all she has on Devil style magic, does that leave anything? Think, what would Harry be interested in? Something for his daughter perhaps? Something that can help them protect her, for certain, especially after this latest issue.

Sona shuddered at the memory of the look in Harry's eyes as he talked to them about wanting to sit down with them and talk about the detection bubble that she and Rias had put up. I am not looking forward to that conversation, almost as much as I dislike how limited that bubble really is in what it can and cannot spot.

But then an idea came to her. Of course. Familiars, specifically, access to the familiar forest. That way Lily will always have a companion around her to protect her when her father isn't able to. Yes, that is an excellent idea. And perhaps even Harry would be able to find a familiar there. Booking a time frame for an allied independent rather than my own peerage will take a lot of paperwork and time, however, Maou-cursed politics! And I must remember to warn Harry about that perverted lolicon who owns it, but yes, I think that will do nicely.

OOOOOOO

Harry and Rias walked slowly down the streets of Kuoh, having no need to hurry and wishing to have a few quiet moments together. Now covered with a full Notice-Me-Not array, they clasped hands, fingers entwining around one another as they walked. "So you decided to put Asia up at your house? Is it just me, or does someone here have a soft spot for young damsels in distress?" Rias asked teasingly.

"Heh. I must admit that my people saving thing does seems to come on stronger when saving girls," Harry replied in like kind, squeezing her hand in his, enjoying the sensation of Rias's hair gently touching his arm and the feel of her beside him.

"More importantly, Asia seems to be an innocent, wrongfully accused and then forced into circumstances outside of her control," Harry went on, looking down at their joined hands with a smile on his face that almost made Rias melt. "Why in the world she was kicked out of the Church for an honest mistake, I don't understand, but I'm not a Catholic. I suppose it must have made sense in their twisted little minds."

Rias laughed aloud at that, highly amused at Harry's irreverent attitude given what Sona had coined his demigod status.

"So, will you try to adopt her formally?" she asked after a second, frowning thoughtfully. "I can help with some of the paperwork. My family has numerous connections throughout Japan's governments that can help, if Asia has any paperwork at all to speak of in the first place, anyway. She might not. She was a ward of the church for her entire life, correct?" When Harry nodded, she sighed. "Yes, they don't often actually bother with the paperwork of that sort unless it's absolutely needed. On the other hand, my people have always loved paperwork, far, far too much!"

"Why am I not surprised that Devils like bureaucracy? Did one of your relatives invent it, perhaps?" Harry asked teasingly before becoming more serious. "In answer to your question, yes. If, after a week living with us, she has fit in and she and I think this is something she wants going forward, I'll look to adopt Asia legally. You don't have a problem with her staying with me?"

"Not at all," Rias replied promptly. "Normally I would have an issue with a representative of the Church living in my territory at all, but, as you said, she seems to have been caught up in events well outside her control. And while I would like to see if I could convince her to join my peerage—Twilight Healing sounds like an amazing power—if she does still believe in God, that's going to be a very hard sell. Asia will be safe with you, which is always a good thing, and, given our own agreement, it will protect her from the interest of other devils. And, Rias thought to herself, unlike Kalawarner, Asia is in no way a threat to myself or Akeno.

"Now we need to deal with rest of the aftermath from last night's events," Rias said after they had walked about another half block in comfortable silence.

"Issei?"

"He shouldn't remember anything concrete, but we will continue to keep an eye on him. He is technically part of my peerage now, but I want to wait on that."

"And the Boosted Gear?" Harry asked.

"I have no idea just yet. It depends on how sentient it is, really. If it wants to go back to Issei, then I will watch the boy, see if he is getting stronger in some fashion to build up his magical potential, and then reintegrate the two somehow. If not, I would prefer to see if one of my current peerage can use it if you don't want to keep it yourself. Issei's personality is such that I am very afraid of wrecking our team dynamic by bringing him in, although I will admit that I've seen flashes from Kalawarner and your own reported interactions with him that might indicate he has hidden depths."

"As Kala put it, very, very deeply hidden ones," Harry replied with a grin. "So, will you assign someone to watch out for him? After all, if he doesn't seem to be part of your peerage or Sona's, won't he also be possibly targeted by stray devils and other fallen? That is, of course, until we finish putting up a true defensive array," he said, his voice turning into a low growl that sent a shiver of both fear and arousal down Rias's spine.

"I'll assign Akeno to it. Koneko is going to be too busy helping you with Lily. Kiba isn't the best when it comes to sneaking around, and he doesn't have any familiars that can help him do so. Whereas Akeno is decent at sneaking around and already has a few of her little Oni assigned to the task."

OOOOOOO

Akeno looked up from where she had been trying on a dress, looking over at her five little Oni, two of whom had just shivered and turned to one another to share looks of horror. "Ara, that was not the reaction I was expecting."

OOOOOOO

Harry and Rias soon reached the mansion where Rias stayed with her peerage, save Kiba, though he spent most of his time there anyway, as shown by the fact that he was the one to answer the door. Akeno soon joined them, wearing a dress that came down to her knees and a blouse that matched, blue on the black dress, and showing an inordinate amount of cleavage. She preened a little as she saw Harry, quickly moving to his side and asking him if he liked the dress.

Harry smiled slightly, reaching out to gently hug Akeno. "I've always found myself interested more in the body under the dress than any kind of fashion statement the dress might be making, Akeno."

"Mah, now there's an idea, Harry-sen~sei~," Akeno purred.

While trying to ignore the bit of her that didn't like seeing the two of them flirt like that in front of her, Rias sent one her bat familiars through the teleportation array to Koneko, who came back a moment later, looking a little disgruntled at leaving Lily with only Asia to watch out for her. Indeed, if not for the fact that the wards on the Potter House were quite nasty, she wouldn't have left Lily at all. But then again, neither would Harry, for all that Koneko would have been there to protect her.

"I'm sorry to pull you away from your big sister duties," Rias said with a smile, putting an arm around the younger girl's shoulders as Harry ruffled her hair, moving slightly away from Akeno as he did. "But I want to talk to you all about something. As you all know, we took two prisoners last night, or rather, one prisoner and one possible ally."

"I am not certain I would have believed before the fight last night that Kalawarner-san's offer of or desire to redeem herself was real," Kiba interjected. "But seeing her sadness and desire to save Issei's life last night made me a believer."

"He gave her some good advice," Harry said softly. "It helped her, and she seems to have wanted to repay him somehow."

Rias nodded. "Exactly. Anyway, my Nii-sama got back to me this morning and told me that the two of them and Raynare were all operating well outside the bounds of their orders, which means we can deal with them however we want."

Akeno interrupted this time, lightning crackling from her fingers. "Oh, goody! Does that mean I get to have some fun~~?"

Harry reached down and gently took her hand, squeezing it, and the lightning in her other hand fizzled out at once, a light blush appearing on her face. "Just listen," Harry said, a little disturbed at this sight of Akeno's sadism and wanting to see if he could temper it. "And remember what I said: don't use a few bad examples to paint all the fallen as evil."

Pouting, Akeno nodded, looking over at Rias. She already had a good idea of what her King was going to say and didn't like it. Though Akeno was rather darkly amused about Kalawarner and how the woman's mistake had opened the doorway for her and Rias. And I suppose I do need to practice what I've been learning lately, as Harry would put it.

Rias looked at her other peerage members, smiling slightly at how Harry had so quickly diffused the unexploded Akeno. "I want to offer them places in our peerage," she said simply. "They could help us a lot, especially against other devils. Light Magic, as you all know, is one of our genetic weaknesses. Plus, they are both far older than any of us and have a lot of experience, if not brute power, and most of that experience will be in a real combat, an area where.…" She paused looking for the right word.

"Where we suck," Koneko said bluntly, shivering a little. "Don't like being off the ground."

"I could help you in that area too, I suppose," Harry said with a faint smile. "Remember, I told you I've been able to fly short distances these days since absorbing the Hallows, though I haven't had much time to experiment with it yet. But before that I was a star Seeker at my school."

Koneko giggled at that, nodding while Rias frowned. "You told me about that game and that it was on broomsticks, but you never went into detail with me."

"Lily showed Koneko-chan my old jersey, and we spent a night talking about sports and stuff like that a few weeks ago," Harry said with a shrug. "I could actually show you a memory of a game in my pensive if you want."

Rias's eyes lit up, and her frown turned into a smile. "That would be wonderful!" Then she pouted. "But what would you like me to show you in return."

"How about that time when you and Sona-sama had your first tennis match, complete with magic?" Akeno said, giggling lightly behind one hand. "But for now, however, I think we need to deal with our two guests."

Rias sighed but nodded, bringing her attention back to the here and now. "Do any of you have any objections to bringing them into our peerage?" Rias asked, her eyes on Akeno in particular.

When her Queen did not object, Rias smiled and nodded to the others who had also stayed silent. "In that case, they'll be downstairs in our basement. Akeno set it up for the prisoner last night, and I asked Kalawarner to be on hand down there as well."

Kiba led the way, with Koneko after him and Harry following, as Rias moved over to Akeno, holding her back for a moment before hugging her friend and whispering into her hair. "Thank you."

"I realize what a potential bonus they are to our peerage, my King," Akeno said, turning to hug Rias back. "And you and Harry are right. While I have reasons to despise both the Fallen and my father in particular, I can't use that to blind me to the fact that they are individuals and need to be judged as such."

Rias smiled down at her friend and nodded, then put an arm around her shoulder, and they both followed the others, with Rias looking at Harry, who smiled back at her. His werewolf hearing had allowed him to overhear that little conversation, and, like Rias, was happy with how Akeno was acting.

In the basement they found Kalawarner sitting against one wall of the small magical lab while Mittelt was pacing angrily, shouting at her about something. Kalawarner was simply taking it stoically, staring back at the pint-sized fallen until she wound down as Rias and her peerage reached the door. "Are you done yet?"

That seemed to work on the younger looking fallen like someone had doused her in ice cold water, and she first glared, then sighed. "Yeah, I'm done. Life sucks and then you die!" she said cynically. "I still can't believe that we got taken out so easily, though."

With that as a cue, Rias opened the door and walked in. "Considering you weren't supposed to be here at all, I can understand that," she said, stepping into the room and looking at them both. "Although the fact that you were here in territory claimed by the heiresses of two of the 32 Pillars should've made you realize that whatever happened there would be consequences."

Mittelt crossed her arms and moved backwards to lean against the wall next to Kalawarner as the rest of them trooped in, forming a loose semicircle facing the two fallen. Her eyes twitched as she saw Harry, standing slightly apart from the others as he braced up the back of the door. His being here was an implication that Mittelt hadn't realized before as well as being a sure sign of the friendship that Raynare had reported.

"All right," she said with a scowl. "Lay it on us. What are you going to do with us? Are you going to send us home with a slap on the wrist? I imagine our superiors would be willing to go along with some concessions or something. Or are you going to kill us or torture us? I don't see any whips or chains around, though."

"Ara, if that is what you want, I would be most happy to oblige~," Akeno cooed, her voice utterly at odds with what she was saying as a blush spread across her features.

"Ahem!" Rias said with a scowl for her friend before she turned back to Mittelt, visibly setting aside that last bit of repartee. "Your superiors might be willing to give up concessions for your return if your mission to retrieve the Sacred Gear within Issei had been an official one. It wasn't. The Maou Lucifer officially contacted the Governor of the Grigori, who professed to know nothing about your mission whatever."

The redheaded King let that sink in for a second before going on. "In fact, Raynare was the only one supposed to be here. She was assigned to watch Issei, not interact with him, and certainly not try to steal his Sacred Gear or seduce Saji to your faction. Here is a copy of the official missive from Azazael on that point to my brother, the Maou Lucifer," she said, holding out a printout while dropping that last bit in just in case one of these two hadn't realized how connected she was.

Mittelt scowled and held out a hand, and Rias handed over the small printout. Seeing the formal lettering and heading of the Governor-general of the Grigori, she gulped, then began to twitch at how blasé it was, saying aloud, "'Hey, man, whatever is going on in Kuoh doesn't have anything to do with us. Raynare-chan's orders were just to watch, nothing else. If she or anyone taking orders from her acted in any other way, that's on their heads and nothing to do with me and mine.'"

Her anger rising, Mittelt counted to ten for a moment before crushing the paper and flinging it to the side, growling, "Lazy, lackadaisical asshole!" With that Mittelt moved off, cursing like a sailor and punching at the side of the room with her fist for a moment.

Rias waited calmly while Akeno chuckled, taking a pleasure in the other girl's anger and, though she was careful not to show it, pain at being so easily cast aside. Kalawarner simply sat, having come to terms with this before and frankly having decided that she was going to jump ship anyway. Her eyes twitched over to where Harry was watching and saw him frown. "I'm not certain I want her around my daughter with that kind of a mouth on her."

"Oh, screw you!" Mittelt shouted, turning and glaring at Harry before turning her attention to Rias. "All right, so our boss says he doesn't know about our mission. But I'll tell you flat that I saw Raynare getting orders from someone."

"Agreed," Rias replied easily. "Still, given Azazael's known personality, I doubt he had anything to do with it or even knew about it at all. We think that someone within the Grigori has a personal agenda and was using you towards that end."

Despite her vituperative tongue and current state of mind, there was nothing wrong with Mittelt's basic intelligence, and she got it immediately. "Someone wants to restart the war. You and that other girl, you're vulnerable here. Visible and vulnerable. Making trouble here would be way easier than making trouble anywhere else and taking the Boosted Gear right out from under your nose would be a major step forward to any long term plan. But If not Azazael-aho, who?"

"We have no way of knowing, but hopefully the Governor-general is looking into that on his side of things. But that leaves the two of you at loose ends. And if we attempted to just return you, whoever was behind this could easily have you killed before you can take a stand against them. Despite not knowing very much about your orders or who was issuing them," Rias said caustically.

"Fuck," Mittelt muttered, then nodded. "Fine, you wouldn't be talking to us if you didn't have an offer. What is it?"

"I want you both to join my peerage," Rias said simply. "With that, you will gain both a place and the protection of my family and the rest of my peerage against anyone who comes after you. And I get access to Light Magic, which will be a force multiplier against any other devil."

"Agreed," Mittelt said immediately.

Rias blinked, and Kalawarner also looked at her friend in puzzlement.

"What?" Mittelt asked, shrugging her shoulders. "It's better than being up on the run and all that shit. Besides, you're the anime otaku, aren't you?"

Rias blushed hotly, while Akeno laughed behind her head, and even Harry smirked. "I think she prefers the term anime enthusiast, but how exactly did you know that?" He asked.

"Meh, the story about the demon princess being obsessed with the human world and Japanese cartoons in particular have spread to even the Fallen Faction," Mittelt said, waving that off. "You're not going to force me to go to school or anything like that, are you?"

"With that mouth on you, no," Rias replied tartly, recovering somewhat from her earlier embarrassment. "I think putting you with your apparent age group would be horribly damaging to them all. But why were you asking about my interests?"

"I want to go into dress designs. I've always wanted and been fascinated by fashions, especially some of the ones in those anime shows. They are kind of cool, so I figure, why not?"

"You're taking this rather well," Rias said, smiling at the idea of having her own dressmaker on hand. She and Sona would both get a lot of use out of that, for certain, and if she really was interested in some of the clothing shown in various anime, then Rias's own obsession would be very, very well-served.

Mittelt looked at her blankly, and then sighed. "Look, girl, I'm really low on the totem pole in the Grigori. I'm a one pair-winger; I've never shown aptitude towards combat or seduction, except for a very select sort of target. So I'm not exactly useful. I've got a mouth on me and there are few people I like and fewer I respect, and besides, it's all crap anyway. Devil, Fallen, Angel, all of that crap, good and evil, it's all a matter of perspective."

Kalawarner rolled her eyes at her friend, who was letting her age old anger at her underdeveloped body get the better of her. She looked up, however, as she felt eyes on her.

"What about you?" Rias asked. Rias was willing to give Kalawarner a lot more leeway than Mittelt, given the role she'd played in last night's events, but she wasn't willing to let Kalawarner operate on her own in Kuoh.

Kalawarner licked her lips, and then looked over to Harry. "Can I, can I talk to you for second?"

Harry's eyebrows rose, and he looked at Rias. That was the thing, Kalawarner thought. He looked to Rias and to Akeno. FUCK!

In reply to Harry's look, Rias frowned but, understanding why he wanted to both have her okay for this and why he also wanted to talk to Kalawarner in the first place, she acceded. "Very well." She gestured for Mittelt to follow her out the room, the rest of her peerage following quickly. "Let's go in and get you your piece now, then we'll decide where to house you."

"I'd think an apartment for myself and Kalawarner, maybe someplace nearby? You don't want us living with you all right off the bat, right?"

"Despite how well you're handling this, not right away, no," Rias replied dryly. "As for an apartment, that's not a bad idea. But we'd have to.…"

At that point the door shut behind them, and Harry turned back to Kalawarner, sitting down where Mittelt had been a moment before. Then he fell silent, simply looking at Kalawarner. She looked back at him, just as silent, but she couldn't keep it up for long. Under those eyes she simply blurted out, "Is there any chance for us?"

Harry had thought that this question would be coming ever since last night when Kalawarner had opened her heart up to him and Rias as she had under the influence of Fragarach. "What do you want there to be between us, Kala?" he asked gently.

"Love?" Kalawarner asked hesitantly. She looked at him, biting her lip again before going on. "I fell due to my lust for a mortal man," she said at last. "But I thought it was love at the time. The man I thought I loved…he betrayed me, rutted with a human woman right in our own fields. And ever since then, lust and a desire to use it to manipulate those around me have dominated my mind.

"But that, that stopped when you rejected me. When you did that, I realized all my lust couldn't make me feel what being in love did. I want to feel that again. I, I've tried my best, tried to work through my issues. Helped you last night, apologized last night. I just.… I know that it won't be the just the two of us, and I am fine with that. If I can have some of the pie, it's better than nothing."

She laughed wildly, suddenly, and shook her head, sending her long blue hair flying. "God, listen to me. Even without Fragarach pointed at me like the finger of a judgmental God, I'm still babbling. You've fucked my mind up something good, Harry!"

Harry shook his head slowly and said softly, "I'm not a priest. I can't grant absolution. Whatever you've done since falling, I can't wave that all away. You will have to think about whether or not you can possibly make all that right. I think you were trying to, and I'm very grateful for it. But I'm really uncertain why I was the one to get through to you after so many centuries."

"You denied me," Kalawarner said simply. "You wanted my heart and wouldn't take my body even though I offered it to you without the heart attached. Of course I became fixated on you."

So is this just an honest confession or simply lust, twisted, denied, and needing to be fulfilled? Damn, these Fallen and Devils have some mental issues, don't they? Lying to her won't do any good, though.

Harry sighed. "Kalawarner, I won't deny I was hurt, deeply hurt, by the way you attempted to influence me with your aura. But before that I tried several times to move beyond simply fuck-friends." The harsh way he put that made Kalawarner wince, but he went on inexorably. "After you tried to influence me, I moved on."

"With the redhead and that other girl, right? The one who was glaring at Mittelt and me? The half-fallen?" At that Harry's eyebrows quirked, but Kalawarner waved it off. "We can all recognize our own pretty easily. A kind of sixth sense, you might say."

"I wouldn't bring it up with her unless she does first, well, unless you have death wish," Harry said mildly, shaking his head. "It would be better for all concerned if you did not poke that particular anthill."

Kalawarner nodded but then went back to what she had been saying. "I understand that, and I can't blame you for doing it. Can't say I'm happy about it, of course, but I won't let jealousy control me." Kalawarner was very honest with herself at this point. She wanted a piece of Harry, if a piece was all she could have. "But is there a chance for you and me?"

"There is no you and me right now, Kalawarner. Can we start over, build a new connection? I don't know," Harry said, shaking his head. "Like I said, I'm with Rias and Akeno right now, and even that is a stretch for me."

"But you're not saying no," Kalawarner said, her heart pounding now as she stared at Harry.

Harry looked back at her, remembering the fun they've had on their dates despite what he had said to her earlier. Remembering how amusing she had been, her sarcastic sense of humor, her worldly air, entirely different from what Rias or Akeno had been, despite their best effort at times. But then he remembered how she had tried to use her aura to influence him. How she had continually pushed away any overtures of an emotional attachment.

Then Harry compared the woman who had made those choices to the woman in front of him and found himself smiling a little. "I told you that what we had was gone; that Kalawarner is gone. The Kalawarner in front of me is an entirely different creature, and I think I will like to get to know her. I will not say that there could ever be love between us, but friendship is possible. Will that be enough?"

"And if I don't want to join Rias's peerage? What then?" Kala asked, not answering his question, since at this point she honestly didn't know if friendship would be enough. "I don't think I want to become a devil just because I turned my back on my life as a fallen."

That, and if I become part of her peerage, she could just order me to stay away from you. Kalawarner didn't know Rias Gremory very well, but she had met many devils in her time. If the King of the peerage wanted to, they could do practically anything to their peerage, and, unless the individual in question was strong enough to stop it, then they were forced to obey. And as for settling for friendship, that's fine too I can play the long game.

Harry sighed. "I'll talk to her about it. We'll see what happens."

The two of them moved out of the stripped down magical lab to rejoin the others, and Harry indicated that Rias should step aside with him for a moment. The two of them entered the kitchen, where Harry outlined what Kalawarner had said.

Rias was not happy about this for a number of reasons. "I want her to be tied to my peerage, Harry. As part of my peerage she would not just be controllable if need be, she could be contained within my territory and traceable. As it is, she isn't. I realize that we're going to be working on the defensive array, but what's to stop her from simply running off?! I don't want to keep her in prison forever, but that would be the only alternative."

"You've already convinced Mittelt to join up with you today. Put this off for now, just for a while," Harry said soothingly. "We owe her. I owe her. She helped save my Lily."

"I understand that, but…but are you sure it's only that?" Rias asked, her eyes flashing as jealousy reared its head.

"I told her that what we had is gone, Rias. I also told her that you and I are and Akeno are together. I'm already having trouble with just being with the two of you; I'm certainly not looking to attract more," Harry replied, pulling her into a hug. "Is that enough to convince you that she's not a threat to you, me, and Akeno?"

A part of Rias wanted to scream no, because Kalawarner would still be around Harry, able to rebuild that foundation of interest and affection. But Rias loved Lily too, and Kalawarner had protected her last night. On top of that, Kalawarner had helped them a lot in dealing with the rest of her group.

"For that," she said at last, "For what she did, I will allow it. I'm not happy, but as long as Kalawarner isn't living with you, I am willing to allow her to remain with Mittelt and not be part of my peerage. Unless, of course, I could move in too," she said, her lips twisting into a sultry smile as she tightened her arms around Harry.

"Not a chance," Harry said with a laugh. "We've only been dating for less than a month, after all."

"Maou damn it," Rias muttered, looking away.

Harry laughed again. "Greedy girl." He leaned down, giving her a light kiss before pulling away, staring into her eyes seriously as he tightened the hug. "She won't come between us," he said, his tone making the words a statement of fact rather than simply attempting to convince her. "Even when I was with Kalawarner, I was comparing her to you. How different the two of you were, how much I preferred your personality in many ways. I can't say that I would have agreed to date a student if she had been willing to be a girlfriend rather than a friend with benefits, but, even so, I think in many ways that would've been settling for second best."

Rias took his hands from where they had been resting on her sides, gently pushing his hands down to rest on her hips below her skirt, then raising them, taking the skirt with them. "I won't be a student forever, you know," she whispered against his mouth as she pulled those hands upwards.

"Heh, you're moving fast again there, greedy," Harry murmured, smiling as he said it, pecking at her lips.

"Is that going to be your nickname for me?" Rias asked, arching an eyebrow even as she fought the urge to close the distance and kiss Harry in turn.

Harry looked down at her, their noses and foreheads touching as he felt that movement rather than saw it. "Maybe?" he said, his lips squirting into a smirk, his eyes alight with some kind of emotion that caused something inside Rias to clench with need. No longer able to stop herself, she leaned in, kissing him ardently, and Harry responded, deepening the kiss.

After that they found an apartment in a complex near Rias's home that had just gone on sale. A married couple had just moved out, intending to buy a house. The apartment was a two room apartment, one small guest room and one master bedroom, with a good sized bathroom, and the previous couple had even left the kitchen appliances and furniture in place.

The two fallen would stay there but would report to the ORC club room soon after waking, with one of the devils checking in on them periodically for a time. Mittelt had already agreed, however, to start taking jobs and raising her magical powers in the typical Devil manner. Kalawarner, on the other hand, who had remained a fallen, would make use of the training room. They had both been asked to prepare some lessons for the younger devils on aerial combat, which, after much grumbling, both of them had agreed to do.

With that, Harry and the others took their leave, with Harry leading the others back to his home. Koneko hopped next to him, eager to get back and see the puppy again. Playing rough-and-tumble that morning had been the most fun she'd had in years. Koneko had never actually been around anyone her own age or younger who she could play with like this, and, on top of being the Onee-san in this situation, it was just fun as heck, hearkening back to the good times she'd had with her sister before she went crazy.

They found Asia and Lily having finished the younger girl's homework for the weekend, having also walked Asia through some of the Japanese calligraphy. Harry picked up his daughter and looked around at the others. "Normally, once a month, we have a Magic is Fascinating day. Would you all like to join?"

He specifically looked at Rias, and Rias realized that this was his way of apologizing to her personally for the way he had stood up for Kalawarner earlier. Not that he had really needed to apologize in the first place, given how even Rias had realized that they did owe Kalawarner. Still, she wasn't about to turn it down. "Of course! In fact, we can put on a bit of a show for you, Lily. What do you say?"

"Well, besides me, anyway," Kiba interjected. "The only spells I know are combat related and I doubt Lily would be interested in that sort of show."

Lily's eyes began to glean eagerly, and she looked at Kiba. "Really! That sounds cool."

He blinked, and Harry laughed, kissing the top of his daughter's head. "My little girl is most definitely not a girly girl. You'd do best to remember that, although please don't let her actually hold any swords until she's at least twelve."

Getting the joke, Lily and Rias laughed, and Rias leaned down to buss the girl's cheek, winking at her. "Exactly. If there are any giant basilisks that need killing around here, leave it to the professional. And as for not being a tomboy, there are some things that girls just have to handle in their own way, right, Lily?

Lily nodded, winking back. "It's going to be interesting the next time someone tries to start rumors about me, for sure."

"Don't be afraid to ask for advice on that," Akeno said, smiling as she finished taking off her shoes and moved after the others into the interior of the house. "Both Rias and I could help you quite a bit to combat rumors. So, where do you put this show on?"

"Outside," Harry said, his other arm moving around Asia's shoulders almost automatically and bringing her along with them. "Come on, I'll show you how this goes." Asia flushed at that touch, and then smiled happily as she and the others sat down, and Harry stood in front of them, going into his regular spiel as he began his magic show.

He ended it with bringing out the pensieve and playing a memory of his playing Seeker for Gryffindor in one of the best games he'd ever played, which they all got a kick out of. There were a few sports like that among Devils, but none that were so freewheeling. There were midair races, some flying competitions, but nothing like Quidditch, though they had a ground based game that was called Conquers, which had some of the same accoutrements: numerous goals on either side, offensive and defensive players, and balls, though in that game it was more about taking out your opponents rather than scoring points.

As Harry handed off the show to Akeno, who willingly wanted to show off a bit, Harry sat next to his daughter on one side with Asia on his other and Koneko next to his daughter on her other side. The nekomata leaned over her, looking at Harry. "Question: can I move in?"

Harry looked over her at Rias, who had turned from Akeno, and nodded her head, indicating that Koneko had asked her about this before and that she agreed wholeheartedly with it, even if it technically put some distance between the girl and the rest of her peerage. The way Koneko had opened up since taking on the position of the Onee-san figure to Lily was a delight to Rias, and she hoped to eventually see her normal unresponsive façade crumble entirely. Some of that façade was real, of course, but certainly not all of it.

At Rias's nod, Harry smiled widely. "Well, I suppose I'm going to need a bigger house, not just a backyard. On the other hand.…" He held up his hands, wiggling his fingers. "Ma~gic!"

Rias joined in the laughter, and then they all turned back to Akeno's portion of the magic show. Then it was Kiba's turn, followed by Rias.

After that, Rias took Asia shopping while Harry roughhoused with Koneko and Lily, and Akeno began to examine the interior of the house, thinking about how to add new rooms as well as where to put a permanent teleportation array. Until it was in place, only Akeno and Rias would be able to teleport onto the property, using the larger array that permeated the entire town, now that they had been in Harry's home.

She and Rias had asked Harry about that before. He in turn had quickly acceded to the request, so long as there was some way of stopping other people from using it on their end, which was giving them issues.

Yes, wards could block teleportation, even via an array like the one Rias had set up around Kuoh. But to let some people through and create a way to block someone else, as if you were blocking a call on your phone? That was going to take some work. On the other hand, if Rias was able to figure out a way to do it, she could singlehandedly revolutionize the wards of Hell.

"Hmm…perhaps here would be good for the permanent teleportation array. Then, hmm, an expansion charm or the wizarding equivalent of a permanent type of said on Lily's room? Then we could divide it in two," Akeno murmured to herself, leaning over to the measure the ground of the small closet across from the bathroom on the first floor.

"Not a bad idea," Harry said from behind her, and Akeno smiled, twitching her rear just a bit as she looked over her shoulder.

"Ara, Harry-chan, you're not exactly catching me at the right angle. Or are you?" she teased.

Rolling his eyes, Harry moved forward, reaching around her rear to pull Akeno up by her stomach with one hand and moving her hair aside to kiss the back of her neck. "Hmm.… And what security are you going to put on this teleportation array of yours? You remember I wanted it to act like the floo network at home rather than an always open door."

Shuddering at Harry's touch, Akeno tried to concentrate on his question rather than his actions. "Ahh, nothing yet, but Rias-chan and I have been thinking about working on those defenses since you mentioned them. We're not ready yet to install such, but we think we should be in a few weeks."

"Heh, I would doubt that very much, considering I have an entirely different project I am going to force Rias and Sona to work on starting tomorrow," Harry replied, pulling Akeno away from the closet.

"Oh, you're going to force them, are you? Perhaps at whip point?" Akeno replied, pressing her body against Harry's side, her breasts pressing to either side of his arm.

Harry smiled at that but didn't reply instantly, simply leaning down and kissing Akeno before pulling back. "Actually, while I don't want to pull you away from your interior design work, that's an area I know I'm not very good at. But I do have a request."

Between every third word, Harry kissed Akeno on her lips, cheek, chin, and neck before biting at her ear lightly. "It's a very important request, and I want you to think about it very seriously."

Akeno, her eyes half-closed her body thrumming with the feelings Harry was giving her, murmured, "What is it, Harry?"

Harry suddenly pulled back, a wicked smirk on his face as he abruptly moved away. "Can I ask you to assign one of your little Oni to watching over Lily?"

Feeling the sudden lack of Harry's body against her own, Akeno opened her eyes fully once more, pouting. "Tease," she huffed, looking away and then back. The idea that Harry would tease her was fine. She liked teasing, though being teased in turn was a relatively novel experience for her. But she still had a bit of trouble really admitting to herself that Lily was more important to Harry than their relationship or even his relationship with Rias. She understood it intellectually but had yet to truly internalize it.

Still, after last night it is understandable. Even so, there is a slight problem with Harry's request. "Harry-san, I would agree to that, but if you think that my little Oni are a real defense, then you are wrong. They are spies and messengers, nothing more."

"Ah, but I have some ideas about that, never fear," Harry replied, an evil grin on his face, sending a pleasant shiver through Akeno.

"Oh?" Akeno mused. "That does sound interesting, but let me ask you a question in turn." When Harry indicated she could, Akeno went on quietly. "You and Kalawarner. I understand from Rias that she was the woman you nearly took up with before bowing to your desires for Rias and myself in turn. I.…" She bit her lip, looking up at Harry with her heart in her eyes. "You aren't going to be, that is…"

"I told Kalawarner that there was nothing between us anymore. I'm also still having trouble with being both with you and Rias. I know you think it's normal, but to me it feels too much like two-timing," Harry said with a sigh. "That's about all I can say on that score. But, like I told Rias, I owe Kala for helping to save Lily last night."

Despite twitching slightly at the nickname, Akeno nodded. Although, Rias and I are rather questioning only one side of the equation here, aren't we? We know Harry's intentions, but not Kalawarner's. "That, that will do for now, Harry. Now, tell me about this idea you have for my precious Oni."

OOOOOOO

That evening Harry had a nice dinner with his daughter, Asia, and Koneko. He then spent an hour or so talking to Lily about his childhood, about how the Dursleys had attempted to beat the magic out of him. About how they felt he had to conform to their ideas of normality. He then made the point that many in the magical world had acted in much the same manner. "I've been saying this a lot lately, but being different is not a crime, is not something to be ashamed of, Lily. Rias was right: you and I, we're new, we're unique. That doesn't make us freaks, just trendsetters."

Lily laughed at that, and Harry went on to describe how he had started to fight back against those rumors in Hogwarts after his second year and how you could tell who was a real friend and who wasn't by how they reacted to rumors. He described how sometimes being aloof was the best way to deal with rumors, while other times trying to fight back was important too. "But Rias and Akeno will, no doubt, give you some advice there."

After putting Lily to bed he said goodnight to the two other girls. Asia still retained the guest room, and Koneko would be joining Lily in her bed after finishing up some math homework she had forgotten about until Rias reminded her before leaving.

With all the girls accounted for, Harry retreated to his own bed, but not to sleep. As he had told Rias he would, Harry wished to see if he could talk to the soul of Ddraig, the Great Welsh hidden within the Boosted Gear.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Harry set the Boosted Gear down in front of him, his hand hovering over it as he began to gather his will the ring appearing on his finger. Given that it was the physical representation of Manannán'spower over carrying the souls of the dead t to their eternal rest, Harry felt if would be a help in reaching out to the soul of the dragon. "Legilimens."

Thanks in part to his connection to the realm of death via the ring, it worked, and Harry soon found his mental avatar standing in some kind of mental realm. Underneath him was stone which looked like a mix between barely cooled magma and some kind of simple brown rock. It had the look of some ancient battlefield of some kind, scoured clear of life. However, rather than sky all around him, there was what looked like some kind of mosaic of different images, or memories, each memory caught in a single moment and then pasted against the wall. Some of the scenes were peaceful, some of them not. "Interesting."

"This should be impossible, owner of Fragarach, yet here you are," said a deep rumbling voice to one side. "I remember battling Manannán Mac Lir and those who he lent power to before, but to see one like you, wielding all his might, that is…I suppose one could say, a sign of the changing tides. Pity. Unless you have come to test your mettle against me, of course. That would be glorious!"

Harry turned and found himself face to snout with a giant dragon. It was easily five times the size of even the largest dragon Harry had ever seen before. Its scales were a dull red color from snout to tail, which in turn was at least as long as the length of a Norwegian Ridgeback and was wrapped around its legs at the moment. Its wings lay to either side, rustling slightly at the moment as it shifted. It was so large that Harry felt that it could have bit him in half with little effort and possibly wouldn't even have to gulp him down, rather, just swallow him whole.

Harry wasn't afraid, though. He simply stepped back slightly so as to be looking up at the giant creature's eyes as he readied combat spells in his mind, just in case. "You would be Ddraig the Great Welsh, then? You certainly look the part."

Dragon let loose a rumble, though whether in amusement or irritation Harry couldn't tell until it barred its fangs at Harry in a most draconic growl. "What do you want here, owner of Fragarach?"

"How much of the outside world are you able to see from here? Do you know what's happened recently?" Harry asked, his body now tense, ready for action. I wonder if Fragarach would be able to get through those scales?

"If by that you mean if I know I am separated from my current possible wielder, then yes, I do. I did feel that process, it was not pleasant," Ddraig replied, his voice a snarl now as claws larger than pikes gouged the rock beneath him. "I then felt that Fallen bitch try to use my powers, the fool. Only by defeating my soul can anyone wield my powers unless I have been bound to their own."

There was something in the way Ddraig said that sort of implied that he was not happy in his captivity, but Harry had no idea what to do with that information, so let it pass for now. But before he could ask anything else, Ddraig reared up, flapping his wings and sending a buffet of wind all around him. But Harry stood firm, staring up at the towering dragon as it roared. "But tell me why are you here, Owner of Fragarach!? Have you come to defeat me or convince me to bond to your soul as I would my normal destined owner?"

"I don't need it," Harry said simply and calmly. "I have no need or wish for your powers. But there is another who might. But the way you talk, you don't have any kind of connection to Issei?"

The massive red-scaled dragon simply shrugged, the action coming from both his wings and forearms and being rather more expressive than the same would have been in a human. And when he spoke his tone had gone back to his version of a conversational tone. "I will wish to challenge any individual who wishes to use my power, as I would have Issei eventually, once he became strong enough to sense me. Not physically, rather their convictions. It's a pity; I feel he could have become something great. Though, it would've been very difficult to get anything combat-related through that 'oppai' loving head of his. But sometimes simpletons like that are the best: their one track minds can make them immensely powerful if given the right incentives."

"I suppose," Harry said with a shrug. "Certainly doesn't describe me any longer, though." Or Rias or anyone in her peerage.

"Hence my saying that if you wish to use my powers, you would have to defeat me in combat," Ddraig replied dryly. "It would be a glorious contest. But if you are just here to question me about my own preferences in terms of my wielder, then you have it: I prefer simple, combat oriented minds, people who have strong convictions and desires. I can sense that you have the last two, but not the first."

"And if, say, we wanted your help for a specific battle? There are a number of people here who might attempt to wield you, but I doubt any of us would be as simple-minded as you could hope for," Harry replied.

"Hmmm… It would depend on the battle, the opponent, and the reasons behind the battle. Although I have to warn you that my rival, Albion the White Dragon Emperor, will have felt my resurrection. Its wielder will feel compelled to come and search my own wielder out. I honestly have no idea what he, or them, rather, will think of this situation," Ddraig said, his tone somewhere between worried and interested. "If he shows up, I will willingly bond with whoever has a desire to fight him, forgoing my normal test. Although I won't tell you anything about his powers; the way they are used varies from one wielder to another in any event."

Harry nodded at that, and they both fell silent, wondering where to take the conversation. Then Harry asked, "Are you all right in here? I mean, is there anything you want, besides us destroying you and letting you rejoin wherever Boosted Gears go between users or to your next user entirely?"

"…I've never actually contemplated that one," Ddraig replied with a shrug. "I have no idea where we go, though it is an intriguing thought. But no, I don't need anything, although if you could come and talk to me or bring along one of the others that you think might eventually wield my powers so I can see if we are compatible, that would be a good idea."

Harry chuckled, though he was looking at the dragon in some surprise. "You're remarkably laid back for a supposedly combat-happy, all powerful weapon of mass destruction."

"Bah, I am thousands of years old, Owner of Fragarach, and I have learned to temper my passions in that time. And, to be frank, I think the human world is better without me and those like me rampaging across it. I do not feel regret for what I did when I had my own body, but nor do I have any wish to walk that path again," Ddraig rumbled.

"Understandable. I just wanted to make certain you really felt like that, rather than being simply resigned to your cage." Harry knew Ddraig was telling him the truth as he spoke. There was no way someone could lie to someone else when they were linked as Harry's spell had made them right now. Whatever feeling of discontent Ddraig felt wasn't because of his incarceration here, or, perhaps, not it in its entirety.

Ddraig shook his massive head, the move carrying down his long neck. "No. The Christian God was right to seal myself and Albion as he did. We were destroying the Earth with our constant battles, and none but He was strong enough to stop us. And I will say that I rather enjoy being used by humans. Indeed, that is my other stipulation for any wielder: that he or she be human or, at least, a former human. Such small creatures, but given the means they can battle those that should be far stronger than they. There is something very pleasant in that image."

"On that, at least, we are agreed," Harry said, barking a laugh. "For now, however, I will bid you farewell, Ddraig. And I'll see what I can do about stopping in occasionally."

Ddraig nodded regally, and Harry disappeared, finding himself back in his own body. Pulling out a phone, he dialed Rias's number. When she picked up, he began. "Well, Rias, I have some good news and some bad news.…"

End Chapter

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I know some people will be sad by how Issei was dealt with in this chapter, and indeed the whole idea of Ddraig remaining separate from him. However, to those people i must remind you that at this point in the story, Issei hasn't shown many of the good traits he might show later in canon, and he is still very much a teenage boy led by his base desires. Will that change, who knows? As for only a single pawn saving his life, this all happened a few months before canon and the Boosted Gear had been removed, so I felt that makes sense. Now, if he gets the Boosted Gear back, well if I go that route, some things will have to change, LOL.

As for the rest, while this chapter didn't cover much in terms of time, it covered quite a bit of events. The next chapter will be a step up in the passage of time. While events slow down in the first half, we have some more romance moments, Harry making moves to defend Lily and his now-extended family better and Koneko, Akeno and Kiba have time to shine as Loup arrives with a very interesting deal. After that, we see some more non-canon combat bits in the rest of the chapter as Rias and Sona decide that they want to search out problems rather than let them come to them at Kuoh.

As always, please review, and watch out later today for the poll for September to be uploaded.

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