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.

12. Chapter 12

Can't draw boobies or speak in a British accent. Can barely write one if I'm honest.

FILFy teacher didn't actually win March's poll. It wasn't even part of the poll. However, it had done so well back in February that I had hoped to update it in March to make up for the fact I hadn't been able to get to it. Yes, it's taken a long time to be updated, but hey, it's also a large chapter LOL.

This has been edited by Nad Destroyer and Michael Duggan. Please give them thanks because, even if it is coming out way later than I hoped to post it, the chapter won't have nearly as many mistakes because of their efforts.

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Chapter 12: Interlopers, Guests and the Differences Between Them

Later that day, Harry and several others dressed formally and left the compound to head to the New Year's celebration they had been invited to by the Onmyodo government. The group consisted of Akeno, Rias, Harry, Tonks, and Kalawarner. Tonks had been invited to the ceremony by Master Husukai and would be receiving something there that would help her join the Shinsengumi.

Kalawarner had asked to go with Harry as his plus one; the invitation Harry, Akeno, and Rias had received having said they could bring another person. She had been showing an interest in runes of late, even evincing some interest in magical weapons and armor. She hoped they might have time to talk to some of the locals about that kind of thing. Whenever Harry tried to bring her reasoning for this new interest up, though, she would become evasive. It was not as if she was trying to keep a secret, but more like she was trying to work the answer out on her own.

Still, Harry had no problem with helping her. Although he had teased her for abandoning her cooking, for which he'd gotten teased back about just wanting to keep her in his home for his own nefarious reasons, to which he had replied, "Really, you are accusing me of nefarious reasons? Pull the other one; it's got bells on."

"Oh, so that wasn't you that was staring at my rear when I was cooking this afternoon? And it wasn't your eyes I felt on my chest when I was leaning over the table and putting plates down?" Kalawarner had riposted, to which Harry had no reply.

Akeno and Kalawarner were the first to show up after having left the girls' house and walked back out the gateway and across the lawn towards where Harry was waiting for them by one of the trees Yubelluna had planted, while Titan perched above him. As they approached he turned away from having a staring contest with Titan, smiling as he took in their outfits. Both wore mid-formal dresses fit to move around in rather than ultra-formal gowns. Kalawarner's emphasized her bust very subtly, raising and pressing her breasts forward. Akeno's had a slit along the side, letting more of her leg be seen, while being tight up top, actually pressing her breasts down, though even so that just seemed to draw the eye more.

His eyes raked down them both, taking in every curve, swell, and inch of their bodies before concentrating on their faces, not even realizing he had done it until he was finished. When he was done he smiled, moving towards them and bowing over their hands in turn before gesturing back to the main house. "You both look amazing," he said honestly. "I'm afraid I might find myself mobbed by an unhappy populace, showing up with four of the most amazingly beautiful women on the planet. Still, I'm prepared for it now, so shall we?"

Kalawarner surprised herself by blushing at the praise and the look in his eyes just then, while Akeno let loose a 'fufufu' sound, though her face, too, was rather flushed as they both took in Harry's own suit and cravat combo. Kala had seen desire in Harry's eyes many times before directed towards her, mostly when the two of them were cooking together or when she accidentally flashed some skin. But every time before Harry had shut down almost immediately, distancing himself. Yet, in the past few days, he hadn't been.

Akeno too had seen that look; indeed, she had reveled in it while they had been going out. But even then Harry would have seemed guilty over it, which had contributed to the problems between them that had led to their breakup. Yet she too had seen that, over the past week or so, that seemed to be no longer the case. Harry felt… Akeno wasn't certain how to put it, but the closest she got to it was less controlled or regimented. Whatever the case, a part of Akeno was confused while another part of her enjoyed it, leaving her somewhat off-balance, but in an oddly good way. Confusing, she thought, letting Harry lead them into the house.

There they waited, watching with smiles as Yubelluna and Asia organized a final movie night for everyone but Kiba, who was out on a date with Tsubaki. With school starting up, they wouldn't be able to continue watching a movie every night, and the debate was fierce about what kind of movie they'd watch. Tonks was cheerfully taking part, making it all the more hectic. She had already changed. Unlike the other two, she hadn't gone home, instead simply hopping into the bathroom and transfiguring her clothing for the night into some formal European style robes, easy to move in and easy to modify at need.

Rias soon joined them, wearing a formal kimono, the colors black with light gold and dark red flowers in patterns here and there across its surface. It looked magnificent, and all the women there, and indeed the kids, all cooed over it. As they all moved aside, she looked at Harry for his reaction, and he moved forward in turn, enfolding her in a hug. "You look magnificent love, but remember to me it's always the woman who makes the dress, not the other way around."

"What do you think?" Akeno asked from behind Harry while smirking at him and a now happily blushing Rias. "Personally, I think that line was trying too hard."

"Hmm, but it was heartfelt, and the recipient obviously liked it, so I'd give it a seven out of ten," Kalawarner replied, having also overheard Harry's compliment, smirking at the younger redhead.

"Ara, I rather think it would be a six at most, but perhaps you're right, the heartfelt nature should add to its score," Akeno replied mock-musingly.

"Ouch," Harry mimed, holding up a hand to his heart, emerald eyes beaming with merriment. He linked arms with Rias and led the way to the door, holding it open for the other ladies. The message from the Onmyodo government had said it would act like a portkey at seven on the dot, but none of them were certain how a portkey created by someone else would act under the wards around Kuoh, nor were they willing to find out. With a final farewell shouted into the TV room, Harry led the four outside, where they quickly took to the air, Tonks smiling happily and reveling in the power of flight, her wings flapping strongly but without much training as Harry flew alongside.

As they traveled, Tonks studied Harry closely for a time before speaking up, taking his attention from a conversation with Kala on a cooking competition she had heard about that would occur on the first of February. "You've changed, Harry."

Harry turned to look at her as did the others, moving closer through the air so they could hear the response. "I mean it, and I think it's a good thing. You're not as paranoid, defensive, or reactive. I mean, there was a time you'd never think of going to a shindig like this, regardless of who invited you, afraid to leave Lily alone. Even if you left her with Luna, Ron, or the rest of us, you'd be calling every hour to make certain nothing had happened. You'd be doing everything you could to stay with her as much as possible."

"You know bloody well why I was like that," Harry replied, looking aside with a grimace. "Fucking Rowle and his bunch."

At the looks of the girls around them, visible in the light of the setting sun, Harry explained, his tone almost whimsical, but his eyes had begun to glow in the old 'AK Eyes' manner. "Rowle was a loyal Death Eater, one who escaped the Aurors after the war. He targeted Lily the instant he heard about her. The first attempt on her life came before she had even been weaned off breast milk. I wonder how many kids can say that? Or would even want to? Anyway, Rowle and a few others attacked St. Mungo's, the hospital Lily and Ginny were staying in after the birth."

He smiled a wintry little smile. "Rowle gathered some would-be Death Eaters, six of them, and attacked St. Mungo's, shattering the hospital's defensive wards like they were nothing. But they missed a ward I put up on the stairwell leading to the floor their room was located on, warning me someone was there when there shouldn't have been. Lily and Ginny were never even hurt, but I've often wondered since our divorce how much of the distance between Lily and Ginny was because Ginny couldn't deal with being a target because of giving birth to Lily than Ginny just not wanting to become her mum."

"So, when it came to Lily's safety, Harry would go through these moods sometimes where he'd never leave her alone unless Ron, Hermione, Luna, or myself were watching her. Or, well, the rest of the Weasleys when they were all at home, but that was rather rare," Tonks supplied, before laughing. "Longbottom was on that list once, but he actually lost Lily in one of his greenhouses during her terrible twos, and Harry's never left her with him since."

While Kala and Akeno jeered good-naturedly at the name Longbottom, Harry hummed, thinking, and then slowly nodded, a faint smile coming to his face as he looked at Rias and the other women. "I suppose I have. I've learned to not be so overprotective or controlling."

"Nah, it's not that. I don't think ya were ever controlling of Lily, just any adult who came in contact with her. Ya never hesitated ta let Lily explore or fight her own battles to a certain extent. But…but it was like, you just weren't willing to trust adults near her, not just with Lily but, to a certain extent, around you either." When Harry made to speak, Tonks held up a hand. "Harry, I'm serious. There were these, these dark places. Some of them had to do with the war; those were the only ones you ever shared with any of us, the ones we could relate to. But I think you've opened yourself up more here with these lads and lasses for some reason, be it a new start or what-have-you, and it's done you, and through you, Lily, a world of good."

"Ah," Akeno said with a faint, sad smile, flying over to hug Harry. "I think that might be because everyone in this family has been wounded in some fashion. Harry-san could not only see it, but help each of us through it in different ways. To hear that we, in turn, helped him makes me feel quite happy, even if we hadn't consciously realized it before this."

Tonks looked at them and then over to Kala and Rias. The blue-haired fallen smiled somewhat sadly—after all, her circumstances were quite different than the others—but Harry had still somehow managed to help her. Rias just nodded, acknowledging what Akeno had said.

Harry too looked like this was a revelation to him, and he gently hugged Akeno back before the black-haired woman moved away, blushing lightly. Then Harry turned to Tonks, his smile turning wry. "I hadn't actually noticed that before. Huh, who would have thought, a revelation like that coming from Tonks? The world is going to end soon."

"Oy, what's that supposed to mean, Potter!" Tonks growled, while everyone else laughed.

"Can I ask what this incident was in France?" Kalawarner asked as the laughter died down. "I mean, I've heard about what happened, that you two were attacked several times and the group was after Lily to kidnap her, but you've never explained why that ended up with Magical France not wanting to have anything to do with you and even banning you both from entering their territory."

Harry winced, and that was another thing, Tonks thought, watching him. There was a time when he wouldn't have regretted what they had been forced to do. He'd even mellowed to that extent, too. In fact, huh, there's a thought… Tonks remained silent, though, letting Harry reply.

"Ah, have you ever heard of the castle of Ys?" Harry asked.

"I've heard of the city of Ys. It's part of some French legend, isn't it?" Akeno asked.

"That's kind of the same thing. But while most of the city was destroyed in a magical civil war in France—no relation to the French Civil War—a single tower of it remained. It was the only portion of the city remaining after the first surprise assault in the war." Rias and Akeno both looked like they wanted to ask questions, and he shook his head. "Don't ask. I don't know what they were fighting for, since there are several contradictory reasons given in historical books. What was known was the group on one side had the aid of giants, werewolves, and other beasts along with the help of 'muggle' slaves. Or at least, that's what the winning side put down in the history books. Anyway, it was a major historical site."

"Think of it as the magical equivalent of the Eiffel Tower," Tonks supplied.

"Exactly. It was a symbol like that, though it was never dedicated to anything like the Arc de Triomphe. But, unlike the Eiffel tower, the castle of Ys was independently owned. Still an attraction—the owners had, you know, organized tours and all that, but it wasn't government owned, and a family still lived there. A family which both funded and fought alongside the group of insane fools trying to kidnap my daughter," Harry finished with a sigh.

"Ah, I see where this is going," Rias said with a wince.

"Yep. The government knew they were there and were trying to talk them down, all the time the family was basically putting a hit out on Harry and Lily, and the locals refused to even put a cordon around the place. So Harry and I did what we had to: we stormed the place, and, well, afterward the whole place was kind of, sort of wrecked. And melted. And burning with Fiendfyre," Tonks replied, and then turned to look at Harry. "Um, by the way, have you ever actually, um, apologized for that?"

Harry blinked, looking at her. "Uhhhh…"

"Oh dear," said all three of the other women around him, and Harry cringed at the amount of recrimination they could put into those two words.

"It's not my fault! I was kicked out of the country as we were standing beside the ruins and, ever since, I can't get anyone in France to even talk to me," Harry replied somewhat defensively, making no mention of Gabrielle, since she had hardly been in a position to act as a go-between, and, besides the pictures she had sent him, they hadn't actually talked in years.

Then he caught the look in Rias and Kalawarner's eyes in particular, and he sighed. "But I suppose I wasn't really in an apologetic mood for a while there either. Um, I suppose a written apology would work, right? A really formal one?"

"For a start. That and some monetary compensation, to help pay for the refurbishment of the site," Rias replied firmly, glaring at Tonks, who winced and nodded agreement. She hadn't ever apologized for it either, though in her case that was just because she had forgotten. Harry, though, she doubted it would have occurred to him to apologize for anything he had to do in order to protect his daughter until recently.

"Yes, dear," Harry replied mildly, somewhat amused, but also realizing he had been in the wrong at the time. They might not have been willing to listen at the time, but it's my fault for not trying to reach out to them even if only through letters since.

The talk shifted to other things at that point by mutual consent, all of them wanting to set the serious stuff aside for now. Tonks and Harry had the other three in stitches explaining about Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and some of their products, although Akeno returned the favor by musing aloud, "Ara, I wonder if a combination of, say, five of their products at any given time would be enough to convince the two remaining perverts to change their wicked ways." The line 'wicked ways' coming from Akeno just made it all the more hilarious.

Moments later they touched down in a small park well outside the environs covered by the wards. A few minutes later Akeno finished turning the message they had been sent into an origami crane as the message instructed them to do in order to activate the portkey. A bare minute after she finished the last crease, the paper glowed, and all of them hurriedly touched it, which, given the size of the crane, was somewhat difficult, something Kala sniffed at disparagingly. "Form before function, quite saaaa…."

Her voice was interrupted as they found themselves elsewhere, standing in a large flat meeting square in an area marked off by a small series of talismans. This was obviously one of many receiving zones, going by the fact that other people were popping in all around them. Kala stumbled, as did Harry, with both of them knocking into Rias and nearly taking them all down to the ground, while Tonks and Akeno quickly stepped away to avoid joining them.

"Well, I suppose that they are organized, at least," Kala huffed, pushing lightly at the other two before her hand went to her dress and smoothed it out.

"Not as bad as some portkeys I've been through," Harry replied with a nod.

They were soon approached by an Onmyouji in a formal black yukata, who took one look at the crane still in Akeno's hands and quickly bowed from the waist. "Please, sir and madams, this way."

Rias smiled pleasantly at the man and moved to stand beside Harry as the others spread out behind them. "I wonder if our invitation to this event is the only thing going on here. Or if there's something more going on; it's obvious that we're among the high and mighty here."

Looking around, Harry understood Rias's point: everyone around them was very well dressed, so well dressed that Tonks looked out of place, really, or she did until she moved between the others and transfigured her robes into something more formal. They were also getting a lot of odd, appraising looks from more than one group, each of which had their own guide. "So, what, we're on display because our very being here is thanks for the spot of action with the Truthspeaker? They're showing off to their own people that they reward such actions? Or…is this showing any Shinra supporters that the government has external allies it can call upon?"

"Actually, I don't think that's it. Oh, I agree this whole night is because we helped oust the Shinra clan and what it was doing in the Onmyodo magical observation system, whatever its name was," Rias replied, frowning as she tried to remember the formal name for that tower and what it had been a part of. "But they wouldn't want to be public about thanking us for that lest they lose face for there having been a problem in the first place. Face is incredibly important in Japanese culture. No, they would gift us in private." She frowned, looking over at Akeno, who, after a moment nodded agreement to her previous points, and Rias went on. "Our being on display like this is a side benefit."

Harry grunted at that, having become somewhat resigned to thinking about such things, but not liking being on display even now. I've been an object of public interest far too often in my life. Thankfully for Harry, the guide soon led them up a small side path out of the clearing. It led up the side of the mountain for a time, and eventually they came out of the woods into a small sitting area, complete with soft benches raised out of the ground in a half-circle facing out and away from where the path led into it.

The other side of the sitting area ended abruptly at an edge of large ravine, which almost, but not quite, looked natural. About forty feet below them a large stage began moving to the right of the area assigned to the Kuoh group, their seats being right over the front of the stage. At the back of the stage was a huge bell.

Moving forward, Harry could see several other small, private sitting areas to either side of their own, across and down below, carved into the rock face of the ravine. Below those, on the ground of the ravine, were lines upon lines of cushions, leading back into an area that was obviously made for standing room only.

As Rias began to explain about the kind of ceremony this would mean among the nonmagicals, Harry scanned the area, looking for anyone looking in their direction in turn, but set that aside save for mentally preparing a few defensive spells, just in case.

The others sat down, but they were soon joined by Mr. Husukai, who quickly engaged Tonks in a discussion. She had sent in her application to join the Shinsengumi, and he had evidently decided to take her on as a partner for a time. They would exchange spells, train together every other day, and he would be in charge of making certain she got up to speed on Japan's laws, both magical and nonmagical. Kala and Akeno both took an interest in their discussion, listening intently, while Rias was more interested in watching the crowd, and Harry split his attention between the two.

The crowd began to gather below them, the other small private areas filling at a slower pace, and Husukai took his leave. At nine sharp the ceremony began. Rias had been right: it resembled a traditional formal Shinto New Year's celebration. The difference between the magical and nonmagical was evident in a few ways. The first was in the special effects. The second was in who smashed the large log into the bell at the end. Instead of using a log, a half dozen men and women stood and cast a series of talismans onto the bell, each of them peeling off talismans already there before replacing them, and then activated them, each move ritualistic, their words amplified via magic.

The most amazing things were the dragons though. Each time a new talisman was added, an image of an eastern dragon would appear around the bell. Made of different colors of energy, the dragon would appear as if conjured by the talisman, circling the bell as the person emplacing it chanted. When he shouted the last word of the chant, the dragon let loose a roar and twisted away into the air, causing an ooh of sound from the crowd. Its tail would then smack into the bell as it left, causing a deep "BONNNNNNG!" The echoes of the sound built up in the stones of the ravine, held there by other talismans until the next dragon started to form.

All in all, it was an amazing ceremony, but far too long. It was kind of boring to sit through at first, even with the magical effects, right up until the end with the dragons. Those were kind of fun—going to have to show Lily and the others that part of the ceremony in my pensieve, at least. But I'd bet they'd make a great distraction… Following that thought, Harry cast a spell and waited.

Halfway through the dragons, Harry addressed the air around him. "Can I help you?"

Rias, Akeno, and Kalawarner looked at him, but Tonks tensed, her hand filled with her wand a second later as she internally cursed. She turned slightly to see a faint shadow in the small trees surrounding their private booth. Before she could say anything, though, a voice came from the darkness. "Nothing is wrong, mistresses, master. I am simply here to make certain you do not forget all your belongings."

Rias quickly made a chopping motion when Tonks made to speak, smiling as she replied for them all. Her serious tone and action, though, was somewhat diminished by the gleam in her eyes and the fact a bright grin had begun to grow on her face. "Of course. Your diligence does you credit, as does your circumspection. Please be certain, though, that we will be most cross if anything has been added to our items that should not have been."

"You would not be the only ones annoyed by such an event, but I have it on the authority of the Truth Speaker and other good gentles that your belongings have not been tampered with in any way. They will…continue to aid you in days to come," the voice said, sounding somewhat grateful for Rias's understanding before going on. "There is another matter I wish to address now that my presence has been discovered. Another person wishes to speak to you at the end of the ceremony. My masters have stated that you will have the use of this booth for as long as you wish."

Harry exchanged looks with the others, but nodded. "Yes, I think we would like to talk to this individual as well. If you could convey our agreement, we would be grateful."

"I will do so." When it began again, a hesitant note had entered its voice. "Might this humble one ask how you detected him? We of the hidden order pride ourselves on not being noticed."

"A small bit of Western magic called Homenum Revelio," Harry replied. "I cast it and kept it going since I arrived, just in case."

"Ahh." The voice fell silent.

After a moment Harry nodded to the others, signaling that they were alone. With that done, he silently cocking an eyebrow at Rias, silently indicating that he wished an explanation.

She held up a hand, though, breathing in deeply before bursting out into a giggle. "Oh my word, a ninja! An honest to Maou ninja, eheheheh! Hehehe, I wonder if any of them has any desires or wishes they would be willing to become a Devil in order to fulfill. Heheheh… a ninja… in my peerage…" It was only when Akeno reached over and lightly slapped her forearm that she came back to herself, blushing at the fact the others were all looking at her in amusement.

"Ahem, um, well, yes." Rias coughed to regain control before replying seriously, though Harry's smirk was not helping, nor was Akeno's 'fufufu'ing in the background. "I did say they would be circumspect about giving us any rewards for our actions with the Truthspotter, Harry. Face, it's all about keeping face. If they gave us those gifts in public they would admit that outsiders were the ones who spotted a problem the government was ignorant of. If they didn't do anything, well, the loss of face would be a bit less and an internal matter, but still there. So they go out of their way to show us favor but then hide the fact that they are doing more."

Akeno nodded. "The fact that my family tried to launch their attacks on me is one thing, but the fact that they lost, and so very badly that the Shinsengumi were called in, no doubt smarted even worse. Appearance, face, they are much more important in Japanese culture than Europeans are used to normally."

"I see," Harry said, though his tone implied he really didn't. Rias chuckled at that and then turned her head back to the next dragon as it appeared.

The ceremony ended with seven dragons soaring across the sky and a final, booming bell note, the sound reverberating from all around them, followed by a moment of silence, startling in its suddenness. Then, at some unseen signal, the Torii gates at the end of the ravine shone, and the people standing at the far back of the crowd began to make their way out, small magical paper lights shining here and there, including right above the Kuoh group's head, giving them light but not carrying far to anyone else.

Harry and the others waited for a few minutes, looking over the items that had been left at the far back of the booth. One was a book, a huge one, about the length of Harry's forearm. The other was obviously some kind of clothing wrapped in a bundle. The third looked like a series of books, but how many, they couldn't say given the wrapping. The clothing read to all of them as something magical; the books didn't.

Before any of them could wonder about whether they should open the packages here or not there came a rustling, and a woman walked into the booth from the small trail. She was a woman who looked around Kala's physical age, that is, in her early thirties, and she wore a traditional kimono in dark blue and black with a flash of green here and there. This was paired with pale skin and long, flowing black hair, falling straight down her back, and violet eyes much like Akeno's.

To Harry's shock, however, the family resemblance didn't end there, because this woman's breasts looked to be the same size as Akeno's or perhaps bigger. Bloody hell, I never even thought that was possible! While he kept that thought to himself, Harry couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "Good grief. If that's what you're going to look like in the future, Akeno, the man you settle down with is going to be truly blessed."

At that Akeno blushed so red she seemed a beacon in the darkening area, but she shook it off to concentrate on the older woman as she stepped closer. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she tried to place the woman's face, which was a little thinner and with slightly higher cheekbones than Akeno's own, coupled with a beauty mark on one cheek.

Before she could try to remember where she had seen this woman before, though, the woman caught sight of her and smiled a joyful, happy smile as she stepped into the viewing area. "Akeno-chan!" With that she made to move forward, but Rias and Harry scowled at that, and she nodded, halting where she was. "Ah, I see. Yes, I doubt the Himejima clan has ever made the best impression on any of you. However, I am here to show that is a thing of the past. My name is Himejima Suzaku, and I am the new Himejima clan head."

"Suzaku, that… You babysat, I think…" Akeno said, tapping her lips with a finger as she tried to think. "And I think it was fun. I'm sorry, but I can't place you more than that."

"That's all right. I didn't think you would remember me very well. Yes, I babysat you several times. I loved you and Aunt Shuri very much."

At that Akeno stiffened. Anger and remembered hate and fear crossed her face hearing someone from the Himejima clan saying her mother's name, and her hands clenched into fists.

But Suzaku went on unhurriedly. "I was deeply saddened by the clan's attitude toward you both and tried to argue for you, but until recently I had little power to force others to listen to me." Suzaku's sad yet loving smile shifted, baring a few teeth in a smile oddly reminiscent of Akeno when she went into Sadist Queen™ mode. "Now I do, and that is something I have you to thank for."

Akeno looked away, not knowing how to answer, somewhat blindsided by this. The woman before her did fit into many of her few happy memories with her family, and being reminded that there were good moments even after her mother and she had had to rejoin the rest of the clan was throwing her off-balance. This was not helped by the look of unvarnished affection on Suzaku's face, a face so similar yet different from her own.

It fell to Rias to answer for her, and she did so, moving forward to shake hands with the older woman. "I'm Rias Gremory, as you no doubt know. Can I ask what you mean by that?"

"Of course I know who you are, Gremory-san," the older woman said, using the handshake to pull a startled Rias into a hug with a laugh. "You're the little redhead who helped our Akeno-chan when I couldn't. I can't begin to thank you for taking her in and even going so far as to say she is a Gremory as you did during that last bit of idiocy. Not even one of your favored servants, rather a true family member, that was amazing."

"I could do no less for a woman who I have grown to love as a sister," Rias replied, although, to be fair, some of her thoughts on Akeno were very un-sisterly over the years, although Akeno had never shown any interest in that direction. Now she hesitantly returned the hug, feeling the older woman's larger breasts pressing into Rias's own and biting back a bit of jealousy before moving away. "But, um, could you explain…"

"Oh yes." Suzaku stood back, moving to one side to face Akeno directly, something Harry allowed by stepping to Akeno's other side.

Tonks and Kala stood back, watching but not taking part in this odd bit of drama, if that was the right word. Family reunion might be closer, even if Akeno doesn't seem to know what to do about it, Tonks mused idly.

"Ahem. To explain, you have to realize that face is very important and becomes more important the more powerful you are." As Rias shot Harry a small look he rolled his eyes, but Suzaku didn't show whether she had seen it, going on calmly. "The Himejima clan is allowed a lot of autonomy because our family magics set us apart, but with that independence comes some constraints, which the people who attacked you overstepped magnificently. And, even in internal clan matters, face is vastly important. The former clan head lost a lot of face having been the one to organize that debacle. His heir even took part, leaving the decision of who would next be clan head to a traditional method we have used to make that decision before: we asked our Sacred Beast to bond with the one it felt most worthy."

"What is a Sacred Beast?" Harry asked, his eyes gleaming with the desire to learn new kinds of magic.

"A Sacred Beast is a remnant of the divine, a representation of the ancient gods, long dead. There are few of them remaining in the world, but the Himejima clan met with and reached an accord with this one hundreds of generations ago when Nippon was new, Potter-san," Suzaku said simply, though her words left Harry more confused, not less. "It serves as guardian of our clan and can be invoked in moments like this, when our clan is in turmoil, as to its direction, place in our society, or simply who should lead us."

Suzaku smiled the almost vicious smile again, highlighting the resemblance between her and Akeno even more while she held up a hand on which a small image of a bird glowed briefly. "It chose me. It also expressed its displeasure with the previous head's lack of compassion and arrogance in no uncertain terms. Its name is the Vermillion Bird, and it is bonded to me now, making me the clan head. That rather neatly also saddled me with the need to make reparations to you, Akeno-chan."

She held up a large, thick scroll. "This was your mother's, Akeno-chan. She had developed an entirely new school of magic based on our family magics and the use of a whip and then entrusted it to the clan head at the time. He did not do as he ought to have, and I am here to finally hand it over to you."

Akeno slowly took it and then found Suzaku stepping close, hugging her even more tightly than she had Rias a moment ago. "Akeno-chan, I know I can't make up for not being there, for not being able to help you or Aunt Shuri. But I do love you and did love her. She and I were very close, and I hope to one day be as close to you. And to prove to you that not everyone in your family hated you for your mixed blood. Some of us could look past that to the wonderful person you are, to the amazing woman your mother was, and not judge her by her choice in men."

The younger Himejima's eyes had gone almost owl-shaped at the hug, but she returned it with slightly trembling hands as the knowledge that she had a family member, a blood-related family member rather than simply someone who she thought of and treated as family, who loved her. Who didn't hate her for who her father was. Who, in fact, was offering the kind of unconditional love she had been denied for so long. Tears sprang to her eyes as she felt something inside shift, almost, the last vestiges of self-hate disappearing from her mind. So she hugged back, while around her, her self-chosen family looked on with wide, accepting smiles.

The emotion of that moment couldn't last for long, and she stepped back, beaming a smile at the older Himejima woman. "Thank you for that, Suzaku-anee (big sister informal version). I, I think I really needed to hear that from someone." She smiled, looking around at the others, and then asked, "Um, that hidden ninja person did say we could use this space as long as we wanted, didn't he? I don't suppose you all would mind if I spent some time getting to know my anee-san for a bit?"

"Of course not," Rias replied, while Harry and the others nodded. "We'll all move to one side of the room so you two can have some privacy."

Harry simply gave Akeno a one-armed hug before moving with Rias to pick up the items they had been given. Tonks pulled out a book from somewhere and leaned back in her chair, while Kala moved to look at the items with the other two.

Turning to Suzaku, Akeno paused at the look on the older woman's face. "You have some very good friends, Akeno-chan. I'm happy for you." Akeno nodded, feeling a bit shy for some reason, but that didn't last long as Suzaku smiled at her, taking her hands and pulling her to the opposite corner. "Now, what kind of questions do you want to ask?"

While the two Himejimas got to know one another again after more than a decade apart, Harry opened up the cloth bundle first, having some flashbacks to when he had been given Weasley jumpers or had gotten the Invisibility Cloak in his first year at Hogwarts. Inside he found a note, which he read as he handed the package to Rias. "This is the kimono of Empress Suiko, who was the first woman and also the first magical to sit on the throne of Japan in 592 C.E. Huh, that's interesting. It's got a lot of spells on it, and they were recently renewed: protection, antiperspirant, a series of glamours you can activate on command, a small expanded pouch hidden inside one of the sleeves, a lie detector—huh, wonder how that one would work?—and, for some reason, a see-through function."

"Why do you sound so uncertain about that? I can think of dozens of positive reasons to have the ability to see through things," Rias asked, confused, while Kala lifted up the large book and began to remove it from its wrappings. She was also thinking that perhaps this gift was of particular import because the Onmyodo wanted to curry favor with them as well as thank them. Reared as she had been on politics, that meaning was obvious, whereas Harry's questioning of the see-through spell was not.

"I didn't mean the wearer, which would be you, would be able to see through walls. I meant the kimono itself becomes see-through." He smirked as Rias blushed hotly. "On the other hand, you're right. Why, I could think up a dozen uses of that spell right now."

Rias blushed, but actually thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. "Right, well, that sounds fascinating, especially the spellwork. I've heard of those spells, of course, and know the devil equivalents, but I've never seen most of those placed on clothing before."

Nodding, Harry turned his attention to the book in Kala's hands, which she held out to him before moving behind him, leaning against his back and putting her chin on his shoulder. Her blue hair ruffled against his and the back of his neck, and the feel of her pressing against his back was all sorts of distracting, but he manfully pushed through it to finish the job of unwrapping the book, only to gasp as he stared at the cover. "Magics of Ancient China: What is Known, Hinted at, and Hidden. Hmmm, I presume that hidden, in this case, means spellwork that no one has figured out how to do since China's magicals were wiped out?"

"I'd say so," Kala said excitedly, while Rias too looked at the image on the cover. "I've heard about the terracotta soldiers, of course. But are they really magical?"

"Hmm, perhaps. There are a few mysteries about them and why they were made. If they were magical in nature, that could by why," Harry replied, thinking. "Hmm…"

"The Chinese specialized in Earth magic, from what I recall."

"Did you ever go into China in the centuries before you met Harry?" Rias asked 'innocently' with a wicked twist to her grin belying her tone.

Kala glared. No woman liked to be reminded of her age, even a Fallen Angel, but she answered Rias's question despite the desire to thump her one, pushing herself away from Harry and to one side. "I did, but I never stayed anywhere for very long outside of Spain and Athens in Greece. I do remember meeting a few Chinese cooks a time or two, but only a few magicals. Like Harry's wizards, they were able to hide from us, like we did from you all, far too well. But trust me, I'd remember anything about, about…what should we call these soldiers if they were magical?"

"Depends on the spells or, more probably, the runic arrays that were worked into them. If they could actually move fight and such, than I'd say the word golems make sense," Harry replied.

All three of them fell silent, looking at the image, then Harry blinked and used a silent Accio to pull the last 'gift' towards them, opening it quickly. "This one seems to be the most unassuming gift. It's a series of the primers for Onmyouji-style magic, except for this one…" Harry pulled the bottom-most book out of the pile, looking at it thoughtfully. "It's a bit heavy and thick for the book it's supposed to be."

He pulled that book out of the pile, seeing a note attached. "'For the young lady who liked to play with lightning.'" He looked inside and smirked before shaking his head and looking over to Akeno. "Akeno, this is for you,", he said, tossing it in her direction.

Akeno looked up from where she had been giggling at something Suzaku had just told her and then grabbed the book out of the air, frowning at the weight of it. She curiously opened it, only to find that the book was hollow and had a hidden panel, which she had to twist this way and that like a puzzle box.

"Ooh, like some of those spy movies," Suzaku enthused, shifting around to stare into the box as Akeno opened it, smiling in delight as she saw what was within. "Fufufufu. Well, someone seems to have thought in a similar manner to your mother, Akeno-chan. That's a Lightning Rod. Don't be fooled by the blasé name, though."

Inside was a small handle, or what looked like a handle anyway, the sight of it almost making Akeno think of Star Wars. The handle-like object was wooden, but had two nubs on it that looked like buttons. But when she pulled it out and flicked the button, a long whip started to extend from the end. When she touched the next one, the whip receded, to be replaced by a long rod with a rounded tip on the end. "Fascinating."

"And useful too," Suzaku replied, but smiled as Akeno put it away and turned back to her. Their conversation from then on wasn't always happy, and many a tear was nearly shed, but, in the end, Akeno could honestly say she loved every minute of it.

Eventually, though, Harry realized that it was pushing midnight, and they had to cut it short. Moving over, Rias interrupted the two Himejimas, apologizing but saying that they had to get home. She needn't have bothered, though, since Akeno was close to falling asleep, and Suzaku looked much the same. Smiling, the older woman stood up, bowing toward Rias. "It has been a very emotional night for both of us, I think. Would you be willing to let us correspond together?"

"I would even like to invite Suzaku-anee to our home at some point," Akeno said, standing up and leaning on her friend as she yawned.

"I have no problem with that," Rias said with a smile, with Harry echoing her. "It's always nice to meet new friends, after all. Especially if they have replaced old enemies."

OOOOOOO

As Harry and his extended family were welcoming in the New Year, the Khaos Brigade were welcoming back one of their members, who had headed home on both a honest visit and an information gathering trip. Le Fay Pendragon sat next to her brother, Arthur, happily holding his hand and leaning against his shoulder. She had gone home to her family and, after spending a few days with them, had disappeared into the Wizarding world, which her family, descendants of the original King Arthur, had known about since its creation, even though that knowledge had become severely limited among the current royal line sitting on England's throne. Indeed, many of the books and scrolls she had used to train herself in magic came from the Wizarding world.

"So, wait, there is an entirely different sect of magic users out there, and we've never even heard of them?!" Bikou exclaimed, looking shocked.

"You've sort of bumped into them occasionally. That one group in Russia when you tried to see if those magic bears were intelligent? They were a group called Aurors in England, magical police, though most Russian magicals were wiped out during the Communist era by infighting. But yes, for the most part the European wizards remain separated," Le Fay said with a nod. "Those wards they have up are ancient and powerful beyond belief."

She froze at that, looking over at Ophis fearing she would take that comment negatively, as if she had implied that they were more powerful than her. Oftentimes Ophis was touchy about such things, always remembering how the Great Red had cast her out from the dimensional gap.

But Ophis simply shook her head. "Not so much powerful as insidious. They could be shattered at any time by myself and many others. But you have to know where they are and then find one or two of the wards stones or ward pillars. Even for one such as I that would be difficult. The wizards do not have much power, even their so called Dark or Light Lords lack in that area to a High class angel, Fallen or Devil. Yet they have guile, or perhaps a better term is dexterity, in how they can utilize magic."

"Well, regardless, I fit right in," Le Fay said with a relieved giggle, touching her hat, which lay in her lap, and then her long robes, which were marked by several different glyphs: star and moon shapes. "In fact, I had several people asking me where I had bought my robes; I even had some people compliment me on my 'Dumbledore look.' But I did have to scramble for a reason to cover my not being in school. Apparently I should be in my fourth year or so at Hogwarts, but, of course, I'm not."

"There's actually a place called Hogwarts!" shouted Bikou with a laugh, while Kuroka giggled.

"Oh yes, I've even seen pictures. It's a magnificent castle," Le Fay said, almost longingly. "It probably wouldn't be able to teach me much about magic, but it would have been nice to interact with many other kids who are able to use magic in the first place."

"We are getting off track here, sister dear," Arthur said, gently thumping his head sideways against his sister's. "Perhaps you could tell us about Harry Potter?"

The two had not been more than a few feet away from one another since Le Fay had returned, causing Bikou and Kuroka to smile occasionally and think quite long and hard about teasing both of them about being sib-cons. But there was something almost sweet about their devotion that caused Kuroka, at least, to hold her tongue, while Bikou's tongue was held by Ophis's presence. She could see the numerous jokes piling up behind his eyes, though.

Le Fay frowned a little. "Okay, but I'm going to have to preface everything here by saying that I don't think everything I learned is accurate."

"Explain," Ophis said, leaning forward a little. "You were lied to, the information was not there, or is there some disinformation campaign at work? Was your identity discovered?"

"My identity wasn't discovered," Le Fay said, causing many a sigh of relief.

The Khaos Brigade had been dealing with their bases being hammered worldwide by Bikou's ancestor, the Monkey King, as well as a few others, and had lost more than seven bases in Japan thanks to the Onmyodo becoming aware of their machinations as well as their allies within the society being found out. Ophis's earlier comment on the wizards having dexterity and guile rather than brute power was entirely accurate, but a lot of their grunts, low level Sacred Gear users or magicians contracted with various Devils they had allied with, didn't have much in the way of power either, so their forces had been on the losing end of many a clash.

The last thing Ophis or any of the others wanted to do was to bring another wizard sect into conflict directly against them, especially one which seemed to be quite happy going its own way for the most part. If they could perhaps aim it at one of the three factions, who most decidedly held the reins of power with a capital P in terms of magic, that could be interesting, though, Cao-Cao thought, leaning back in his chair and stroking his chin. But even as he was thinking that he also continued to listen to Le Fay, eager to hear more about the man who so disrupted his plans and the Khaos Brigade's.

"I do not think it's a disinformation campaign, or, if it is, it's one built upon rumors and hearsay rather than anything deliberate." Le Fay paused, thinking how to put it. "Some of what I heard was colored by simple dislike, in many cases, but that clashed with an almost society wide hero worship. And fear too. Lots of that in many areas, which I found strange."

"Hero worship?" asked more than one, and Le Fay smiled, a little blush appearing on her face as she poked her fingers together. "Harry Potter is seen as something of a hero, and I think he actually earned the title. You see, there was this Dark Lord who first rose to power about thirty years ago or so and launched his war against…"

From there Le Fay described what was known by the public of the story of Harry Potter from beginning to end. She prefaced nearly everything with the words 'what the public thinks happened is,' or 'what the storybooks said.' When she used that line the first time her brother couldn't help but interrupt somewhat teasingly, "Storybooks? Like those you bought?"

Le Fay blushed in embarrassment, smacking her shoulder against his. "Yes," she said, huffing and looking away. "They're cute."

"Of course," he said with a smile, moving an arm around her shoulders, which she promptly leaned into, her momentary irritation with him quickly forgotten as Le Fay continued the tale.

"Dementors," Ophis had asked later, sitting upright and almost glaring at the two Pendragon Siblings.

Le Fay nodded grimly, her hands on her hat, clenching it out of shape. "Yes, the description of them worried me too."

"It should," Ophis said with a shiver, something that everyone around her noticed.

When asked, however, she refused to go into any detail, simply looking at Le Fay and silently demanding that she go on. That left many questions in Cao-Cao's mind, because anything that could bother Ophis to that extent interested him greatly. Yes, he reflected, this wizarding world is looking interesting in many ways. The Khaos Brigade can provide the power if need be, but perhaps we need some guile, as Ophis put it, of our own.

Much of what Le Fay had explained was astonishing to many there, though not to Ophis. She had long known of the hidden wizarding world but had disdained it before this, believing that no wizard would be powerful enough to help her against Great Red, and even their vaunted spellwork wouldn't have bothered the Great Red at all, given his armored hide and magical power. Further, they had no information that would help her bridge the dimensional gap to get back home.

As Le Fay continued to chatter on excitedly about all she had heard about Harry Potter, though, Ophis was reassessing that thought. When Le Fay stopped to breathe, Ophis was finally able to get a question in.

This was an inordinate amount of time later, something Ophis didn't notice, but that Kuroka did. It looked to the stray Nekoshou that the young witch had become something of a fangirl towards this Harry Potter fellow, which made him all the more interesting in her eyes.

Yet Ophis's question grabbed everyone's attention. "How?"

That one word froze Le Fay where she was standing, and everyone else there who had been listening interestedly to the tale of Harry Potter's life, start to finish, which included even Herakles, looked at their patron. "How what, miss?" Le Fay said respectfully, going so far as to bow her head.

The Dragon God disdained that, simply asking, "How did this Harry Potter become a demigod? I have little respect for Devils, but they are good at analyzing the power of those around them, and if he was just a regular wizard, he would never be able to convince anyone he was a demigod. What changed? What is his patron deity?"

Le Fay frowned, tugging at the tip of her hat. "I don't know, miss. There are tales that he was able to match this Voldemort person power for power, and it's well known that he became a werewolf. In fact, for a time there was even talk about their werewolf laws being replaced and everything, but the fear of werewolves seems to have been too strong. Instead it's tainted a lot of people's thoughts about Harry, and his daughter too, for some reason. Which is weird to me, since the curse isn't supposed to pass on like that if both parents aren't were-creatures. I got the impression that Harry tried to change things in the society, but it didn't work so well or something. It was, um, just really confusing to try to get a handle on how Harry Potter was viewed by the society as a whole."

"These werewolves," said Bikou, coming in for a second. "How is it that we know about werewolves—hell, I think we've got a few in the Khaos Brigade; um…those Croatian guys, right?—but we've never heard of this 'wizarding world' before?"

"Wizarding world werewolves normally stick to themselves or the wizarding world itself," Le Fay replied knowledgeably, having looked up that very fact. "I doubt many of that sort even knows that other werewolves exist. And those that do keep the secret from everyone else. Or, or are obliviated."

"Indeed," Cao-Cao said, speaking up for the first time. "Remember how insular every pack is. Werewolves tend to stick together, and the older the pack, the more insular it becomes. We had a major issue when recruiting that Ukrainian pack and only did so by wiping out another pack they were competing with. But what is 'oblivated?'"

"Um, a kind of memory erasure and modification spell. It sounds really easy to use and kind of powerful, but not as useful for just modifying memories as Faction spells. But it might be just as good at getting rid of memories," Le Fay replied.

"Are there any gods associated with werewolves?" Ophis asked abruptly.

"There are gods of the moon, I believe," Arthur replied, pushing up his glasses thoughtfully. "I've not studied much in the way of mythology, however. Hmm…perhaps something from the Norse pantheon, or perhaps Lupa from the Roman? she was a minor goddess though. There might have been a tale about Zeus in the Greek pantheon and some king? At any rate, you're thinking that, if there is, perhaps he somehow was able to invoke him or her and gain power from it?"

"Yes," Ophis said with a nod. She looked over at Herakles and Cao-Cao. "Is there anything unusual about his werewolf form in comparison to others?"

Herakles grunted, but under Ophis's stare went on to describe Harry's appearance as best he could without any added embellishments or boasting. As he did, Arthur and Kuroka looked at one another in surprise, with Kuroka giving voice to their thoughts. "That's not a normal werewolf, nya. That does seem to imply something special happened."

"No, it's well known that the curse came from a Professor Lupin, who was a friend of his family," Le Fay interjected helpfully. "Apparently they were out of the castle at a time, and he had forgotten to take his medicine, attacked Harry and some other students, but Harry was the only one who was bitten. That kind of thing is used over there to offset Harry Potter's example, showing how dangerous they can be rather than people just afflicted with a sickness."

"It matters not," Ophis said, waving her hand to silence the other short girl. "There is cause there to believe that he had contact with divinity, if after the original curse, perhaps. Unless there is more known about this form?"

Le Fay shrugged apologetically. "There were some rumors going on that Harry had figured out some way of somehow bonding with the curse of the werewolf rather than having it take him over at turns. I don't know the truth about that; I'm sorry."

Ophis blinked and then, to the surprise of everyone there, said, "Do not be. In war there is something called the fog of battle: one can never know everything one wants to. We will continue with our plans to see if we can recruit him."

She turned to look at Kuroka, staring hard at her. "You will be our go-between." This caused Kuroka to wince, having no desire to attempt to enter Kuoh again after the creepy feeling of the wards from the last time she had tried to get close to her imouto. Still, she knew she had no choice and so nodded. With that Ophis abruptly left the room.

There was a moment of silence then Bikou turned and launched into a tease assault on Le Fay and Arthur, causing Le Fay to blush, and Arthur to start scowling, his hand reaching for his blade at his side. Kuroka sat back, pulling out a tub of popcorn from somewhere as she watched her friend at work, waiting for Arthur to take offense, or Le Fay to start shouting back.

None of them saw Cao-Cao leave the room, still looking thoughtful. "The world is vaster than I thought I knew," he said to Herakles who had followed them out. "This requires some additions to my plans. Perhaps a new recruitment drive is in order."

OOOOOOO

Dawn broke over Kuoh and, as the light began to shine through a few of the loft windows, Harry stretched luxuriously in bed, cracking his neck one way then the other before looking at where Rias too was stirring. She smiled blearily up at him kissing his bare shoulder then up to his neck as her eyes cleared. "Hey," he said, his emerald eyes nearly shining with affection.

"Hey yourself," she said back, kissing his shoulder again, her own look an extremely cute mixture of sleepiness and love.

Harry chuckled and leaned down, kissing her. At first it was a very light kiss, and then, as the arm Rias had around his chest tightened its grip, Harry deepened it, their tongues beginning to play against one another. Rias thrust her tongue out into his mouth, but Harry pulled back slightly, leaving her tongue out in the air for a second before licking and sucking at it, causing her to moan.

He pulled away then, kissing her cheek then her neck, pulling her up slightly in order to do it. Her breasts rubbed against his own chest, her nipples hardening at the contact, and she slowly started to undulate against him. A second later she returned the gesture, kissing the side of his neck before nibbling at his ear, which caused him to growl, and Rias smiled in delight. She had found out that Harry's ears were especially sensitive, along with his neck and a few other places.

They kissed again, tongues out once more and questing. Harry's arms went around her, hugging her onto his chest, then twisting them around so that he was above her. Once above Rias he pulled back from her lips, trailing kisses down her chin neck and into her breasts, which he began to play with, licking and sucking at each and every inch of them for a few moments, luxuriating in the feel, the size and heft of them.

When Harry's fingers began playing with her nipples, Rias moaned louder than before, tugging hard at his hair pulling him back up to kiss her again. As they kissed she ran her hands and nails up and down his back, feeling his muscles move and shift under her touch a shiver of delight going through her. When Harry began to rock against her, Rias opened her legs slightly, allowing him to move in between them, his rising manhood sliding along her cleft.

This was how the mornings always began with them: slow, languid, ecstatic lovemaking. Both of them simply enjoying waking up to one another and also greatly enjoyed starting the day with lovemaking. "It's better than coffee, both to wake you up and to put a smile on your face," Rias had said at one point, to which Harry had laughingly agreed.

Now Rias shifted her legs further apart, looking down while Harry kissed her neck and collarbone, one hand rubbing through his hair, the other having traveled down to his rear as Harry rested his manhood directly upon her moistening crotch. Rias always marveled at how large it was, how deeply Harry's staff would embed itself within her body when they joined.

However, both of them had neglected to remember at that moment that it was a school day, the first such since they had taken the step to full lovers. And, just as Harry was about to pull his hips back in order to slowly work his length inside of her, his alarm clock decided to go off, reminding them both of this unpleasant fact.

With the noise of the alarm going on to one side they both looked at one another, then down to where Harry's hardness was still resting lightly along her cleft. Then they looked over towards the alarm clock before groaning. Rias actually went so far as to thump her head back into the pillow as she repeated the phrase "Darn it!" several times.

"That is a remarkably blasé way of putting it, but yes," Harry said, very reluctantly pulling back. A part of him just wanted to say screw it and then screw Rias down into the mattress, but that wouldn't do. Even a quickie would take a while, and Harry wasn't going to let his time with Rias mess up his time with the rest of his family or his job as a teacher. Damn it.

Rias was thinking much the same and gently pushed him off her, moving over to the side of the bed and sitting up. Harry stopped her, though, one arm going around to her waist and pulling her back into his chest as he kissed along her collarbone and up to her ear, whispering, "I love you, Rias."

Rias giggled, kissing him. "Mmmm, I love you too."

She then hopped to her feet, very deliberately shaking her rear at him and stretching before running her fingers through her hair and then giving him a look over her shoulder. "Nothing more would please me more than to call in sick, but I suppose my public image wouldn't survive it."

"And I surely can't," Harry said with a sigh.

With that Rias turned away and began to use a few spells to pull items of clothing towards her. She dressed quickly but with much bouncing and swaying in order to give Harry more of a show, which he wordlessly sent a note of approval for as he looked at her.

Eventually, though, even Harry had to get out of bed. Rias waited by the hatch, staring in turn as he got dressed, licking her lips as she looked at him from top to bottom. "Suddenly the idea of heading back to bed has even more going for it," she murmured.

That, she thought, was putting it mildly. Making love to Harry was the next best thing to intoxicating, calling out to a part of her devil heritage she hadn't ever consciously acknowledged before. Lust was a very tough thing to break out of, and that part of her, aware that they had to head to school, also wanted to show off in a very exhibitionistic kind of way.

Rias found herself fighting the idea of going to school after a bout of lovemaking in which Harry left a few hickies here and there or even going around with his load still inside her, kept there by her panties, an idea that somehow made her shiver at the sheer Sinful nature of it. But that would be more than a little beyond the pale. That didn't stop it from being very tempting, though. Yet eventually Rias shook herself. No. I may be a Devil but my Sins do not control me; I control them.

That thought was helped a moment later as she heard the pitter-patter of feet below. With a sigh Rias opened the hatch and slowly started to descend. She spotted Lily and Kunou exiting their room and racing downstairs while the smell of breakfast, held at bay thanks to the closed hatch, wafted upwards. She called back up, "Yasaka is here and seems to be making breakfast."

"I can smell it too, love," Harry said with a laugh before appearing in the hatch and following her down. Down below, they did indeed find Yasaka cooking in the kitchen, with Lily and Kunou sitting at the dining table already in the next room over.

Smiling, Harry moved up behind Yasaka, hugging her around the stomach. "MMmmm, smells good. Is that salmon and rice? What, no fried eel?"

"That's a stereotype, and I don't think you're reacting to just the smell of the food, Harry. Or is your wizard's staff really reacting to the smell of salmon?" Yasaka quipped, feeling her heartbeat starting to race as she slowly moved her rear against his still turgid length, feeling it jump in his pants.

"Heh, just a bit of coitus interruptus, nothing I'm not used to. One of the few downsides of kids, I guess," Harry mumbled. One hand moved her hair to one side as the other arm tightened around her, followed by Harry nipping at her neck, his teeth grazing her skin between each word, leaving bite marks. After all, Yasaka doesn't have to worry about anyone's reactions to that kind of thing. "Although, seeing you standing there in that housewife dress complete with apron is a more than a bit of a turn on. HHrrrmmm…."

While Rias grinned and began to make up plates for the kids from the rice balls, fruit and sausages that had already finished cooking, Yasaka chittered in pure kitsune delight as she rubbed her rear harder against Harry. Yasaka, old girl, you did a yeoman's job when you convinced Harry to let loose more, she thought excitedly. Pity only Rias has benefited so far, but that won't last forever. Although, I wonder if it'll be me or Kala who'll be the next recipient of his now-released affections?

Both of them stopped as one as Koneko and Asia's smells came down the stairs, signaling the end of their little moment. Harry resignedly moved away from Yasaka, moving to prepare drinks, while Yasaka moved back to her cooking of the salmon, and Rias moved to start work on the lunchboxes. Akeno, too, came in, moving to join her King quickly, the two girls talking, with Akeno teasing Rias on the fact that she still looked a little flushed and red in the face.

Koneko and Asia sat down at the table with Lily, Kunou, and a newly arrived Teddy. While Teddy looked just tired being up this early, Asia looked as if she was hyperventilating. Though it was somewhat against the rules of the house, she had pulled out some of her books and had begun to go through some of her notes as she sat there.

Starting by ruffling Koneko's hair, Harry moved around the table before resting both his hands on Asia's shoulders from behind. "Asia, calm down. You're ready for this. All of your studying will pay off. You were able to take all the placement tests and score very well. You'll fit right in," he said quietly but firmly.

At the touch and the reminder, Asia slowly started to calm down, yet even so one problem continued to reverberate through her mind. "But what if they don't like me?" she whispered, giving voice to that thought.

Lily laughed. "Who cares? A lot of kids at school still don't like me, and you wouldn't believe the stuff girls say about people they don't like behind their backs. But Rias and Akeno taught me what to do about that, and I can fight fire with fire now with the best of them."

"And it's not like you won't have friends there," Kunou said with a smile, pointing at Koneko and then over to Rias and Akeno, all of whom nodded in turn, the latter two turning from their work on lunch to do so.

"You'll also make new friends," Harry said soothingly. "The girls will love you almost immediately; you're just too likable for any other response. The boys, you've seen how Issei and Saji act around you. They like you a little too much, in my opinion."

She blushed at that, her fingers starting to do that twiddling thing that she always did when she was embarrassed.

"They're right," Koneko said with a firm nod. "You won't have any trouble school-wise or social-wise." She then smirked. "And if anyone tries to bother you or take advantage of you in any way, I get to try dwarf tossing, only with normal people instead of dwarves. That might actually be fun."

Asia actually laughed at that before remonstrating with Koneko about being mean to people like that. But Koneko was unrepentant, and Harry smirked, reaching over the table to high five Koneko.

While Rias and Akeno continued to work on lunch, Yasaka and Harry transferred the rest of breakfast to the table, where Harry and Yasaka started to make certain that the three youngsters had all of their homework and such like prepared. Teddy had been assigned several pages of homework in order to bring himself up to snuff, but while Tonks was no Hermione, she had made certain that Teddy, at least, was ahead of his age group in reading and writing. Math was a different matter, and he would struggle for a while to catch up in science and social studies, but his basic reading skills were good, although writing in Japanese was surely going to give him conniptions.

All three had, of course, finished their work before the party the day before. But twice Teddy and Lily had to rush upstairs or over to the boys' townhouse to grab their work and stuff it into their bookbags.

As they were doing that, Yasaka made certain that her daughter remembered that her ears and tails could not be shown at school…again. She had gotten into the habit of letting them both out over the holidays, simply because being in her kitsune form was more fun than being in her human form, giving her faster reflexes and a better sense of smell and a bit more in terms of strength. Lily wasn't quite the same in that way. She, like Harry, was often confused by what their noses were telling them, and a goodly portion of their strength and reflexes carried over, so Lily kept her werewolf form for roughhousing with Koneko and her father or running through the woods in Kyoto.

Looking at how excitedly her daughter spoke to Lily about heading back to school and seeing their other friends, Yasaka could barely keep herself from being misty eyed. The amount of changes that Harry and Lily's friendship had wrought in her daughter was profound, and she absolutely adored seeing it. She treasured seeing her daughter light up as Harry patted her on the head, smirking at his own daughter about some homework or other that Kunou had done better than her. Good Lord, he really is filling in for her father, isn't he? Is it any wonder I've come to lo…

Yasaka's thoughts stammered to a halt, and she looked down at herself in shock for a second. Thankfully, no one else noticed. No, this quickly? Affection, yes, but, but, yes, that's all it is. It's affection, not, not love, she thought, very, very firmly to herself, banishing a sense of guilt that she felt as she wasn't really certain if that could be the case. No, I loved my husband. I can feel affection and a heaping of desire towards Harry, but that depth of emotion, no. It would be a betrayal of my anata's (darling's) memory, especially to feel it so quickly.

Eventually the breakfast was finished and everyone was ready to go. Yasaka, still unable to stay away from Kyoto, prepared to leave for the day. Kunou kissed her mother goodbye before standing aside to let Lily do the same on the older woman's other cheek. After the two of them were done, she received an awkward blushing hug from Teddy before Harry swooped in, holding her by the sides of her head and kissing her very, very thoroughly, leaving her blushing and a little wide-eyed.

"That wasn't very nice!" she said after a moment. "Now I have to go back to Kyoto and do all those fiddly bits of leadership that I have to with your kiss on my mind! If I get propositioned because I'm blushing and staring off into the distance and the idiot I'm meeting with thinks it's because of him, Harry, I'm going to blame you."

Harry smirked unrepentantly, while Rias muttered something about Yasaka knowing her suffering as she led Lily out the door. She would take both Kunou and Lily to school that morning, with Harry walking with Asia to school, and Koneko walking with Akeno from the girls' house.

Rias walked with Lily and Kunou to school, the two little girls chattering excitedly about seeing their friends again so excitedly that Rias reflected, It seems like that they have forgotten the fact that they will actually be forced to do work at school. Now if I was Akeno I would point that out to them. As it isn't, and I'm not, I think I'll wait until they figure it out on their own. On the other hand, Teddy, at least, seems fully aware of that, if his forlorn expression is anything to go by.

She spent much of the walk to school keeping the young boy's enthusiasm at just above lukewarm, and the four of them reached the elementary school quickly. Rias, though, had forgotten that she had only been seen picking up Lily and Kunou before a bare handful of times. Her being there in the morning garnered a bit of attention, particularly from parents who hadn't seen her before.

But Rias ignored them for now, figuring that if anyone spread any nasty rumors, then that was what memory charms were for. Instead she knelt down in front of the three kids. "Now, remember what Yasaka-chan said, Kunou. No letting your other form out," she whispered. "Lily, no punching boys just because they're annoying. Even if you've gotten used to roughing around with Teddy and Loup you have to deal with normal boys just the same as you would with a girl. Teddy, don't be afraid to hang out with Kunou or Lily just because they're younger than you. Don't let peer pressure get to you like that."

Lily rolled her eyes. As if I'd ever let something as weak as peer pressure get to me, she thought. This, of course, showed that for all her intelligence, Lily retained the shortsightedness of her age: she had forgotten that, indeed, peer pressure and rumors certainly had impacted her thinking for quite a while until she had come clean about it to Harry and Rias several months back.

For his part Teddy simply nodded and hugged Rias around the shoulders. The young, somewhat handsome (if in a shaggy kind of way) foreign-looking boy was already getting some looks from the other kids around them as well as from the parents, who were still looking at Rias in particular speculatively. Again, she didn't care, exchanging hugs with Kunou, who raced off to join Teddy as he entered the crowd around the entrance way.

Lily, though, stayed behind, hugging Rias tightly around the neck. "Thanks, Rias," she said before racing off, linking arms with a young, black haired girl who she quickly started to chatter to excitedly, pulling her over towards Kunou as Rias turned away a wide smile on her face.

She soon met up with Akeno and Koneko, and all three of them entered the school as a group, where they were, of course, met by the usual whispers, calls of delight, and side comments. Koneko, in particular, was amused by a few she was overhearing about Rias. "Wow! Gremory-sempai looks even prettier than normal!"

"I know. That smile she's wearing, it looks, I don't know, more real? No, not quite. It's always been real; what am I thinking? More heartfelt, maybe?" said a second girl

"Whatever it is she did, it looks amazing. I want some," said a third, slightly whiny-sounding girl.

Knowing precisely what, or rather who, had made Rias's smile become so much warmer caused Koneko to nearly collapse in laughter, but another conversation quickly caught her attention. This was coming from a few of the older third-year students who were rumored to have long term boyfriends off campus. "That is the look of a young woman in love."

"Screw that!" said the other one more coarsely. "That is the look of a woman who has recently gotten laid! That is the, 'I got laid, and it was good,' smile."

Scowling slightly, Koneko elbowed Rias lightly and then whispered, "There're rumors about you starting up. What do you want us to do?"

Rias looked at her quizzically, and Koneko pointed to her own face. "Your face is showing a lot of real happiness, and there are a lot of rumors about why."

At that Rias looked over at Akeno, who shrugged and then offered a solution. "Perhaps start a rumor in turn about a bit of the truth? We could mention you getting out of your arrangement with Riser, or at least something to that effect."

"That makes a lot of sense, Akeno, good idea," Rias said with a nod. "Okay, we'll talk to Sona and the others, perhaps pass along the rumor that I had been forced into an arranged marriage but talked my parents out of it. That will work."

Akeno nodded. Koneko was a little more dubious but agreed.

OOOOOOO

By this point Harry and Asia, of course, had already reached the school, where Harry had been walking her around, helping her through some last minute paperwork, and, in particular, working with Sona to help Asia pick out a club she could join. Asia did not have to join the Occult Research Club, obviously, since she basically lived with the vast majority of the club.

At that point, though, Harry had to leave Asia with Sona, as the intercom went off asking him to come and talk to the principal. "I wonder what that's about."

Sona winced. "It might be a lecture about proper conduct. The principal here is a joint client of both the Gremory and Sitri Clans."

Harry's eyes narrowed at that, but he nodded. "I'll be back to walk Asia to her first class," he said, with a ruffle of Asia's hair. "And if you come by during lunch time, I think we need to talk about adding some more to the warding scheme."

"Hai. Rias already explained how all of you figured out a way to bury the ward stones for those gateways of yours. It's a good thought and removes a bit of weakness in their design," Sona said, pushing her glasses up her nose as she looked at Harry.

"Exactly," Harry said with a nod. "I'd also like to borrow Momo and Tsubaki. Kala said something about starting a new project that sounded extremely interesting to me. She'll need help with it, but I don't think we'll have the time to devote to it."

"Certainly," Sona said with a nod, understanding that that probably had something to do with the New Year's Eve celebration that Harry, Rias, and Akeno had been invited to. Tonks had gotten her own invitation, but Kala's going as Harry's plus one had been a bit of a surprise. But it was true that she had evinced a lot of interest in weapons and rune craft in the past two weeks.

Harry walked through the school, exchanging hellos with other teachers and the students who had already begun to arrive before he entered the principal's office, finding the older man behind his desk, typing away at something on a computer.

"Sit down," the old man said without looking up. Harry did so and then basically zoned out, waiting for the man to acknowledge his presence. This waiting game was obviously intended to intimidate, but it failed horribly.

The older man finally looked up, and pinned Harry with a glare. "I understand that a certain number of our students here are of Devilish origin. I understand they do not share the same sense of right and wrong, legal or illegal. I understand that, and I understand that you too are connected to that world. However, this is a place of learning. If I even hear a hint of anyone catching you and young Gremory-san doing anything you shouldn't on school grounds, I will be forced to take action against you. Given our unique situation, she would probably be exempt from any such move. You are not, Potter-san. Do not assume your relationship with Gremory-san gives you any special status."

Harry rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't even know about our relationship if not for your own Devilish connections, so I think we've both proven that we can be professional and properly formal in public."

The man glared at him, obviously affronted that he hadn't even seen a hint of their relationship himself before he learned about it from Lord Gremory. "See that you keep it that way," he said warningly.

"I understand and accept your warning in the spirit is given. Don't worry, neither of us have any interest in being public with our relationship," Harry replied in a slightly more conciliatory fashion.

The man thawed noticeably at that and nodded. "I understand, and I do see how it could have occurred. Gremory-san is a gorgeous woman, after all. But the school does have a reputation to uphold."

Harry nodded, and the two of them talked about Harry's upcoming classes for a time, allowing the tension between them to ease before Harry left to pick up Asia.

He dropped her off at her homeroom with a kiss on the cheek, nodding slightly over towards where Koneko was already sitting before sending a smile at the homeroom teacher. "Here is your promised transfer student, Mrs. Tachibana. Be gentle with her would you?" he said with a wink to the older woman.

She smiled in reply and indicated that Asia should come in. Asia gulped as she saw all eyes on her, then saw Koneko giving her a surreptitious thumbs-up and felt Harry's hand on the small of her back, pushing her in gently. "You'll do fine, lovey," he said one last time. "We all know it, and we're all here for you; remember that."

With that thought Asia straightened her shoulders, smiled, if a little tremulously, and entered the room. Harry gently closed the door as the teacher began to speak. "Good morning, everyone, we have a new transfer student here. Please introduce yourself, miss."

"Hello, I'm Asia Potter. My transfer papers finally arrived, and I was able to test into joining you all this year rather than being forced to wait until the next school year. I hope we can all get along," Asia said with a smile and a bow to applause and even a few whistles at the hot foreign girl.

She'll be fine, he thought to himself, heading to his own first class of the day.

OOOOOOO

Throughout the day, Harry and the others settled into the groove of school once more with varying levels of difficulty. Harry had the easiest time. He enjoyed teaching, and even teaching a larger class like this rather than the more intimate setting of the family was still fun for him.

In contrast Akeno and Rias had the hardest time of it. Koneko simply had to deal with rumors about Asia and glaring a few students into submission when they asked questions during class, forcing her to wonder if maybe she should stick a sign on her back saying, 'Ask at lunch!' Koneko took her studies seriously.

But Akeno and Rias had to deal with a few issues. For one thing, they obviously had to address the rumors going on about Rias. That was a little harder than they had expected, simply because there were more older third-year students who had boyfriends and thus thought they knew what they had seen in Rias's face as she entered the school than they thought there would be.

Akeno also found herself out of sorts for an entirely different reason. And, as they were walking down the corridor to their science class, she voiced that reason. "It's boring."

Rias nodded slightly. "The classes?" This was one of her three major issues with being back in school again too.

"That and everything else." Akeno smiled blandly as they passed by a boy, shifting her body just slightly as if one of her shoulders pained her. The little jiggle this caused in her breasts made the boy nearly run into another student. "It's just boring," she muttered, moving on. There's no challenge here, no real joy in teasing someone who responds so easily. It's going for pure quantity of teasing over the quality of the tease.

"There's no challenge here?" Rias supplied.

"Exactly, yes," Akeno said with a nod. "Most of the students here aren't any real challenge to get to react in a certain manner. The girls are easy to manipulate, one way or another, and the boy are just that: boys. Not men, if you understand what I mean."

"I think I do," Rias said somewhat sensually, causing Akeno to look at her and then giggle and link arms with her friend as they moved down the hallway. The smiles on their faces caused many a blush among both the male and female population. Yet despite their pleasure in one another's company, being back at school was not nearly as much fun as it had been before.

OOOOOOO

Lunch for Asia and Koneko was a bit of a circus. No sooner had the teacher left and the bell rung to signal lunch, every student in the room had leaped out of their desks and rushed towards Asia, shouting questions at her. These ranged from the ubiquitous, "Are you really related to Potter sensei?!" to, "Are you really blonde; did you dye your hair?" And, of course, a few of the boys even felt daring enough to shout out that she was cute and offered to show her around the school.

The doorway even filled up with other students looking in on Asia, rumors of her having spread throughout the day. This included the Perverted Duo, but thankfully they couldn't get through the press of bodies into the classroom. They had a lot of fun trying at first, and their screams after the girls got fed up with their wandering hands were music to Koneko's ears.

"What's living with Potter sensei like?" One girl asked.

Another one shouted, "Have you ever seen him come out of the shower or something?"

This caused several others to look at her, but she just shrugged. "Come on, I can't be the only one who wonders what Potter-sensei looks like under those shirts he wears. I swear he's got to have at least a six pack!"

That caused Asia to blush hotly, and Koneko growled, pushing through the crowd until she stood like a sentinel in front of where Asia still hadn't been able to get out of her own chair. "Ask questions with your mouths, not your body; no crowding," she said, her voice and face still deadpan, but her body language radiating anger.

That shocked the class unto silence, and the class rep finally got some control in the classroom, and she too started to glare around her, pushing the others away. "Nonetheless," she said, turning back to Asia "could you explain the adoption process and your actual relationship with Potter-sensei?"

Asia nodded and then started the spiel they had come up with, which she had practiced several hundred times to get just right. She didn't like lying like this but knew it was necessary when dealing with those who had no knowledge of magic or the occult world. "I come from Italy originally, so if any of you are thinking about taking Italian as a third language beyond English, I can help you there. I can even help you with English. I've learned quite a lot of it from Potter-sensei. A, ano, I am actually Potter-sensei's cousin twice removed. It took him a while to find me because I had been taken in by a Church-run orphanage, and their paperwork isn't very organized. The Church also had trouble passing along its paperwork to here in Japan, and I only joined Harry two and a half months into the school year."

From there the story became easier, mixing truth with fiction, her tone becoming less rote. "My Japanese wasn't good at the time, so we made the decision to hold off on my joining the class until I was ready. We also ran into issues because I didn't have Japanese citizenship yet, but Harry was already pushing to become my legal father, and he only had a work visa. But it eventually went through, and now I'm living with him along with Lily and a friend of Lily's that Harry is watching as she goes to school here for her commuting mother, Yasaka. There was some issue at her older school with bullying she wanted to get away from."

"Are Potter-sensei and this Yasaka involved?!" shouted more than one voice, leaping to that conclusion with all the speed of a teenage girl sensing romance in the air. A response which could, Koneko mused, put a striking cobra to shame.

Asia blushed, poking her fingers together and looking up at Koneko, who shrugged her shoulders. "A, ano, hai," she said hesitantly. "That is, I think they are seeing one another. They're not… They don't do anything around us kids, though." That wasn't quite true, but beyond kissing and hugs, all the adults were careful to keep their relationships behind closed doors. The most they did was kissing, as Harry had done earlier that day.

There were a few squeals at that of, "How romantic," and, "Wow, that's awesome!" A lot of them had already seen Kunou around the place with Lily, of course, the two of them routinely being brought back to the Academy by Harry or Koneko. But they hadn't heard about Yasaka before. And to all of the girls of this freshman class, this sounded incredibly romantic, a single father and a single mother getting together through their kids.

After the squealing subsided, one of them asked again, "How is it, living with Potter-sensei? And do you like living with him over living where you were?"

Asia smiled brightly, nodding her head. "Hai! It's great. Tou-san is the best, and I love Lily and Kunou-chan," she said, glancing apologetically at Koneko for not being able to say her name there.

Koneko simply shrugged her shoulders a little and then began to take charge from the class rep who had just pulled out her own lunch. She did too, including the bag of ever-full candy that Harry had given her. After dealing with this, she figured she'd earned a few pieces. "One question at a time," she said, sitting down next to Asia. "No perverse ones, nothing about asking her out either. Get to know her first."

She finished that last sentence with a glare at the boys who had said how cute she was before she went on, a tiny uptick of her lips signifying a smirk. "Remember who her father is and what he did to the Perverted Trio a time or two."

That caused the five boys in the classroom to back off, scratching at their cheeks or looking away sheepishly. Was it their fault they had been completely blindsided by the cute transfer student? It was like something out of an anime to all of them.

Thankfully for Asia, after lunch ended the students went back to normal, and the day continued with her making several friends right off the bat, including the class rep and several girls who were interested in studying Italian. She left the school with Koneko to pick up Lily and Kunou before heading home with a happy smile on her face. The school day had been fantastic, everything she had dreamed about.

OOOOOOO

After school Rias flopped down onto one of the couches in the ORC room, pouting furiously as she lay out on her stomach. Rias was a very unhappy young woman at the moment. She didn't look up as Harry entered, though her pout turned into a smile as she felt his hands caressing the back of her neck and shoulders. "Rough first day back?"

"Not rough physically or anything like that," Rias said, though she did arch a bit into his touch. "It's just, I missed this. I missed this a lot more than I thought I would after we sealed the deal, to put it crudely."

"This?" Harry asked with amusement, moving up to one side and sitting on the table, looking at her thoughtfully.

"Exactly. This," Rias emphasized, gesturing between them, though she didn't sit up, simply waving the hand nearest Harry lazily. "I missed acting openly, the little touches when we're around each other. You had to walk past my desk in class, and you treated me just like another student. You couldn't look at me or even smile at me as you normally would during PE. A part of me is happy for that—I certainly know being open about our relationship would cause issues. But I really, really enjoyed those little touches and caresses, those looks, and I'm missing them far more than I had thought I would be."

And I really missed this morning's love-making, she thought irritably. Starting a day after a session of lovemaking really was the best way to start any day. But getting up two hours before they had to get up for school, which was around six thirty in the morning as it was, was not a viable option.

Harry somehow read her mind. "And you didn't like the fact we couldn't make love this morning. I can't say I am in favor of that either. Having some fun like that as a start to my day always puts a bit of a spring to my step and helps with my urges in that direction quite a lot. In fact," he said, leaning down to nuzzle into the side of her face, pushing Rias's hair aside with his nose to whisper in her ear. "It's taking all of my willpower not to simply take you from behind right now."

Rias shuddered at that, but it was a very good kind of shudder. Thank you, Yasaka! By Lucifer, but I am going to have to give her a gift of some kind. Harry was a flirt monster before, but this is just…fuck! It feels so good to hear that, to hear him talk about me like that. It's empowering in a way I never thought it could be.

"Or to simply sit here with you," Harry said, pulling back and taking her hand in his. "Holding hands, with our friends and family around us."

"And that's the other thing," Rias said with a nod. "School is boring now. I'm not… I'm not getting as much fun in simply being a normal student any longer as I did before. Part of my reason for coming here to Earth at all has fallen by the wayside, in a way, and I suppose my perception has changed dramatically in the past few weeks."

"That makes two of us," Akeno said as she entered on those lines, sighing and moving to make the three of them some tea. "Something is most definitely missing, a bit of magic, perhaps."

Harry shrugged his shoulders at that even as he and Rias chuckled at the line, though he had to admit he'd felt somewhat the same before he got into the groove of teaching again. "I'm sorry to hear that, but hey, at least you'll get your magic quotient filled after school." With that he moved over into the small kitchenette, moving around Akeno to create a small plate of snacks.

As he did, Akeno smiled, calming down further. She wasn't certain why, but something about that act, making tea and having Harry working beside her, calmed her down a little. Rias, watching this, noticed, even if Akeno did not realize why it was happening, and smiled faintly.

The three of them didn't have to wait long before Sona and Tsubaki arrived, whereupon Harry began to explain what they wanted to do with the ward scheme. The five of them spoke about that issue for a time as the girls devoured Harry's snacks, then they moved down to the basement where they found Harry had set it up once more as they had when working on the wards and began to get to work. If there was any way to bury the foundations of the runic array, the pillars, as it were, then they wanted to do it, just like they had done to the Ankhsera runes Rias and Sirzechs had used to create the permanent gateways connecting the compounds.

OOOOOOO

Perhaps because of this work, for Harry, Rias, and Akeno the next two weeks passed relatively quickly. Rias and Harry's irritations at no longer being able to be open about their relationship didn't go away, though Akeno slowly started to get used to her general disappointment of the level of the boys in school. She did so by going back to flirting occasionally with Harry very subtly, something Harry noticed but also responded to with looks, eye-rolls, and perhaps a bit more of a smirk than he should have as a teacher, something that Akeno was amused by.

It wasn't as if they had been going out again. No, it was as if it had been at the start of Harry's time at the school, when she had been trying to get his attention. Doing this gave her quite a lot of pleasure, and Harry was actually willing to go along with things more than he had been back then, though he didn't realize this consciously.

But three things happened during those two weeks that stood out. For one, Asia had her first gym class that Thursday. This in and of itself wouldn't have been anything noteworthy, except that Harry had, of course, prepped her for it and gotten her clothing for it. The clothing was a bit baggier than most of the other students, but that simply made the girls laugh about Harry being an overprotective dad.

He simply looked at them and said blandly, "This surprises you?" to gales of laughter. His picking Asia up and dusting her off when she fell over her own feet a few times also won a chorus of 'awws' from the girls.

Harry had been popular before the break, but after coming back, all the students had noticed his more laid back manner, and his teaching was still very student-oriented and just plain fun. Akeno teased that his fan-club had grown, but now it didn't just consist of girls who fantasized about him as a man. Rather, they just really liked him as a teacher, which was much more wholesome in his opinion.

However, after the class ended was when things started to go a little sideways. As he was cleaning up after a class spent going through various track tests, Harry found his cell phone beeping. He looked down at it, somewhat irritated but praying that it wasn't an issue with any of the kids. He didn't think it would be: Teddy was a young boy and had dealt with issues like that before in a typical Tonks manner, by laughter and low-key violence when authority figures were looking elsewhere. He pulled it open and was surprised to see Issei's phone number.

"Issei," he said mildly, "don't you have class right now?"

"I'm in the bathroom," the other young man said in a whisper. "Listen, you know I'm still kind of sort of friends with Matsuda and Motohama?"

"I would say that on a scale of one to ten I think you're a four in terms of friends with them at this point, whereas before you would've been a ten. Still, yes, I know you talk to them. Is there a reason why you're calling me?" Harry asked, frowning openly now as he moved away from the freshmen girls and boys still around.

"Well, yeah, I guess I'd rate myself around there too. But anyway, they were talking about wanting to see how Asia looked under her clothing before. I figured I'd give you a heads up and sort of, um, beg you not to kill them?" Issei asked. "Er, I know they don't have many redeeming qualities, but, like you said, they were my friends once. But um, this time I think they are going to go a bit too far, even for me."

"Consider me warned," Harry said, his voice now glacially calm. "And don't worry, I won't kill them. I won't even do anything physical to them beyond dragging them to the principal. After that, though, I am afraid your friends might find that certain policies have changed."

In the bathroom stall, Issei winced but slowly nodded. "I suppose they have to learn sometime, sensei."

"Good attitude and well done here, Issei. You've come a long way." With that Harry hung up and moved around the gym quietly, covering himself with his fog of invisibility, sniffing the air, and finding the scent of two dirty, if physically washed, young men on the breeze. In the small back alley-like area between the gym, the back of the gym, and the pool area, Harry once more found the thorn bushes there that were supposed to block the area off.

Looking at them, Harry crouched down and stared at the roots but didn't see anything that would tell him that they could be pulled out. I wonder how they got through them? Further examination revealed that they hadn't, and he slowly backed away, looking around thoughtfully and then up to the away, Harry then leaped into the air, flying up onto the rooftop, which was not designed to have any rooftop access.

He moved across the roof quickly and then looked down between the two buildings. Sure enough, he found the two perverts there, staring into the window of the girls' shower area. Both of them had heavy cloths around their mouths and noses and even wore sunglasses in an effort to hide their identities if they were spotted. And hanging to one side of Harry's current position was a rope leading down. Impressive, or it would be in the pursuit of anything but spying on girls, he thought dryly. But what was really telling was that one of them had a phone in his hand and was taking a video.

Snarling at that sight, Harry moved back slightly, thinking about how to deal with this. I could deal with this right the bleep now, but unless I really wanted to use some spellwork to take away their ability to get a stiffy or something similar, I couldn't solve the issue permanently. No, best to use the system to deal with this. I did promise Issei that I wouldn't do anything too horrible, after all.

With that thought Harry backed away, pulling out his cell phone once more to call the principal. Then he moved over towards the other side of the area. "Yubelluna, could you come to the school right now? I need a bit of your Bandrui magic." Harry's own magic could, of course, grow the entire bush, but for this he wanted something a bit more subtle than that…

Several minutes later the two perverts became aware that the rope had fallen behind them. "How the heck did it do that without us hearing it?" whispered Matsuda to Motohama.

"I don't know, but look at it! It came loose from its claw! We're so screwed!"

"We'll have to go through the brambles," Matsuda said, shrugging his shoulders. "Think of it as just a little pain for what we've seen this glorious day."

Motohama nodded, pushing up his fake sunglasses to further cover his glasses. "True."

But when they tried to push through the bushes, the Perverted Duo found that the bushes had changed from what they had thought they would be like from the last time they had tried to do this trick several months ago. The thorns had grown several inches longer than they should have given the size of the bushes. When Matsuda tried to push through he suddenly screeched in pain, quickly pushing back out, shouting angrily, "Holy hell! Those are painful!"

"Let me see if I can get through," Motohama replied worriedly, looking back over his shoulder. "That shout might've told the girls we're here!"

He tried to go under the bushes only to find his way blocked, the same thorns Matsuda had run into also blocking his way, with several of the bushes' lower branches having warped around one another, creating a natural barrier. "W, what in…? That's weird; I thought it took years for that kind of growth to occur."

He pulled back, not noticing that he had dropped his cell phone. A very low-powered Stupefy shot at his hand had seen to that as Harry moved from where he had been hiding to one side of the entrance to the small alley-like area. Before Matsuda could grab it, Harry's hand reached in from the other side and pulled it out, seemingly unharmed by the thorns. "Well, what do we have here? Not only are you two caught trying to peep on the girls again, but you even brought a recording device. Even if I can't actually access this phone without erasing everything, that means you both were caught red-handed."

The two perverts paled behind their disguises, and when the principal moved around from behind Harry they backed away, but there was nowhere to run now. Behind the two teachers, more and more girls exited the gym and came around the corner.

The principal slowly shook his head sadly. "Boys, the word disappointment cannot begin to explain what I feel right now. We have given you every chance, every chance to move beyond these perversions, this desire to break the law and invade the privacy of the young ladies among your fellow students. However, this is the final straw."

He took the cell phone from Harry, shaking it angrily while many of the girls gasped, staring at it in shock. "What you have been doing is criminal. This is a criminal offense! I have no choice now. Strike three, boys; you are expelled. And if, after talking with your parents, they do not have any solid idea on how to stop further occurrences like this from happening, I will turn this cell phone over to the police and let them deal with you as you should be."

The two perverts looked absolutely crushed, and the principal turned to Harry. "Now, Potter-sensei, if you please?"

Harry pulled out a pair of heavy duty gloves from around his waist and reached through the branches of the bushes, pushing them this way and that to let the two young men out. By the time he had finished creating a path through the bushes they looked properly mangled, but the two perpetrators were free. The instant they were out they were both accosted by the principal, laying a firm hand on their shoulders and pushing them on.

The rest of the students, boys and girls both, watched stonily as the two perverts were led off. Not even the boys in this, the freshman class, said anything, simply shaking their heads. The girls looked properly affronted, and more than one looked at the cell phone in the principal's pocket, hoping he'd wipe it quickly, embarrassed and furious.

Asia was the exception, looking on sadly at the two boys who had let their base lusts overcome the goodness she felt was in every child of God. She was even about to step forward and plea for the two to get a second chance, when Koneko took her by the shoulder and leaned in, whispering. "They had way more than two chances. Besides, what they were doing is criminal, like the principal said. Better they learn they can't get away with it now rather than later when they might end up doing jail time."

At that Asia subsided, but she still crossed herself, bowing her head over her joined hands. "I will pray for their souls regardless."

Koneko shrugged at that but led Asia away along with the other students.

Soon enough the area was empty, and Harry turned to a seemingly empty section of the school lawn next to the gym building. "Thank you for your help. That worked quite well, I think."

"It certainly did for everyone but those two idiots," Yubelluna said with a chuckle, coming out from under a cloak Harry had put up, the cloak fading away like mist around her, shifting towards Harry as it did. "But did you have to treat those poor plants so horribly? They were only doing their job, after all."

Harry blinked at that and then chuckled as Yubelluna turned towards the plants, touching them lightly on their leaves and gently reforming them while whispering that the bad man was sorry and that they could now grow to their hearts' content. The next day, when someone came by to look at them, they would be astonished by the fact someone had already filled the entire area between the gym and indoor pool with more thorn plants. There was no way anyone could get back into that area now.

OOOOOOO

The next incident of that first week back happened on Saturday, when the group working on trying to shift the anchor points underground met up once more in the occult research club's room. Although the incident didn't actually start there…

Tonks cracked her neck and shoulders, rubbing at somewhat bleary eyes as Lily, Kunou, and her son walked around her. They were heading to check in at Kuoh with Harry before heading home, but she was, despite having volunteered to pick up the kids, dead on her feet. Her mind was just overloaded with the new laws and regulations she was expected to memorize before she could really start her job as a Shinsengumi.

Dammit, can't we just get to the actual solving crimes part of this already? she whined mentally. This Metamorph needs some action, darn it! And where's old Husukai? I thought we were supposed to be partners, training one another, not me training with these young newbs. Despite doing so in a setting straight out of an action flick, learning spells from them and vice versa is not interesting enough, and it's all so bloody slow! Bloody hell, if I'm being put through this due to some Zen rubbish, I'm gonna hit the ponce in the nose.

Her thoughts juddered to a halt as she watched Sona racing from the main school building towards the ORC building. "Wonder what's up with her?"

Around her the kids shrugged, but then Kunou and Lily gasped and raced forward, shouting, "A magical girl!" "Oh look, it's Magical Girl Levia-tan!"

The girl in question turned, and for a moment Tonks had to stop herself from using her Metamorph powers to compensate, because, while short, this girl was quite stacked and very pretty to boot. She looked vaguely like Sona, but that was the last observation she could make before the two girls had raced over to her, while Teddy followed slightly slower, a faint flush appearing on his face.

The girl had stopped at the two kids' shouts and smiled, waving a wand around as she posed. "Hello, dear fans, how are you all? I don't suppose you have seen my darling Sona-tan around, have you? I'd be willing to part with some official Levia-tan wands if you have."

"Sona-tan?" Tonks asked querulously. The cutesy nickname did not fit her image of the cool, almost regimented student council president at all.

"Hai. She's my little sister," the girl said simply.

As Tonks goggled at that and internally wondered which of them was really the older sister, Lily smiled. "Ooh, does that mean you're here to put on one of those live action shows? We haven't been to any of those yet dealing with magical girls, but we saw a few dealing with ninjas and stuff in Kyoto."

At the mention of Kyoto, Serafall's eyes widened and she put that and Kunou's presence together, figuring out who the two young girls had to be. "Ooh, well we can't have that can we?" she said, and then a great idea came to her. "Actually, how would you like to be magical girls for the day with me? We can all search for Sona-tan together."

"Um, I hate to say it, but I'm not a girl, and I sure am not going to dress as one. I'm not Gasper," Teddy said very firmly. He had the typical young boy's views of boys dressing in girls clothes: they were weird, plain and simple.

"Oh, don't worry! I have the perfect role for you. In fact, in many ways it's the most important!" Serafall said, eagerness gleaming in her eyes, the eager joy of a prankster on full attack.

That look roused Tonks's interest and energy level, and she grinned. "Don't suppose you have one of those getups for someone my size, do ya? If not, I can always change…"

At the clubroom, Rias, Harry, and Akeno were there first as usual. Rias was telling the other two about an anime that had just started which she thought the entire family would get a kick out of as Akeno prepared tea and Harry made snacks, also as usual.

This normal scene was interrupted as the door opened soundlessly, and Sona came in looking extremely harried. Her hair was looking out of sorts, and there was a kind of wild look to her eyes that Harry had never seen before. She quickly moved through the room then and, as the three of them watched, dove behind Rias's desk, poking her head out for a second to stare at the startled trio before she whispered, "Whatever she asks, you didn't see me!" With that she covered herself with a Disillusion charm, one of many spells she had begun to learn from Harry's books.

"What is that about?" Harry asked. "Who is 'she?'"

Rias began to chuckle, looking over at the doorway as Akeno giggled. "Well, you've had the pleasure of meeting one of the imouto-obsessed Maou. I think you're about to meet the second, Harry."

Harry barely had time to blink at their reactions when the door was smashed open with a bang, the hinges becoming dislodged. In walked a girl far shorter than even Sona, who was only of regular height herself. But while this girl looked marginally like Sona in the color of her hair and eyes, their body types were very different. Sona had a sprinter's build, with thin hips, small bust, and long legs. This girl was exactly the opposite. She had wide hips and a large bust, far larger looking paired with her small frame, something like Yasaka if a bit less so.

Further, while Sona was rarely ever seen outside of her school uniform, this girl was wearing a pink version of what Harry had come to know of as the normal cosplay version of a magical girl. Although this version looked intended for more adult audiences with the amount of skin it showed, not covering the girl's stomach and showing quite a bit of under-boob to go with a short skirt. The fact that she had long gloves and stockings on really didn't detract from the amount of skin on display. She even was waving around a wand, one of the large, sparkly pink things with a star-shaped knob on the bottom that always made Harry chuckle when he saw them, the pink of the rod matching her outfit's main color.

To Harry's surprise, behind the newcomer came Lily, Kunou, a wildly grinning Tonks, and a shame-faced Teddy. The two little girls and Tonks were not wearing the outfits they had had on this morning. Rather, they too were wearing magical girl outfits. Thankfully for Harry's blood pressure, the version the girls wore was not as sexualized as the lead girl's, though Tonks was wearing something similar to her. She had shifted her body to match the lead girl in size and bust. Her hair was also practically glowing neon green to match her outfit. It was almost blinding in its intensity, but not quite to the point of being painful.

Teddy's outfit took the cake, though, and Harry heard Akeno and Rias start to giggle at the sight of it. Indeed, even Harry had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. Teddy was dressed in the sort of shorts a young boy of the gentry class would wear in the Victorian era, paired with a tuxedo top complete with tie. A half-mask covered the top of his face. In one hand he held a wilting rose, and on his head he wore a top hat at a jaunty angle, which did not match the scowl on his face or the slump of his shoulders at all.

"Oh ho! Here are the villains who have stolen my sweet sister away!" the girl in the lead shouted, pointing her wand at Harry. "Hand over my Sona-tan, you foul beast! Never will you use her to sate you unwholesome desires, for I, Magical Girl Levia-tan and the Heroes of Justice, will save her from you!"

"Right!" Lily shouted, with Kunou echoing her and Tonks flourishing her play wand. "Release your prisoner, Dark King Potter, Red Witch, Sado-Queen, or face the consequences!"

Now, Harry could have played this two ways. He could simply have stared for a bit and then ask where his daughter had heard the meaning of the word sadist, especially to the extent that she could shorten it and use it as a title for Akeno. He could have been the cool, professional teacher and adult while helping Sona deal with her apparent older sister who had apparently come along to bother her. Or he could go along with things, possibly making Sona's day even worse while also giving his daughters a fun time after a hard week back to school.

Really, for the son of a Marauder, especially one being challenged by Tonks's wide grin, there was only one way forward. With a gesture, Harry shifted his clothing to that of a long, sinister looking cloak while Answerer appeared in his hand in the form of a staff topped by a large crystal mace-head, which he whirled around dramatically as he declaimed, "MWHAHHAHA! Foolish heroes, you should know never to beard a true Dark King in his lair!" From the tip of the staff came a series of flashes which filled the area, while Harry transfigured the sofa and the rest of the furniture bar the small table with the chess set on it into a series of large dogs and cats made of the same material the original furniture had been. "Now go, my puppets, and defeat them!"

The lead girl's eyes widened in surprise and delight, and she leaped to the side, pointing her wand at one animal. A blast of magic lashed out and froze it in ice, showing both the girl's basic magical attribute and the fact that Sona had already written her into the warding scheme, since that attempt hadn't backfired or caused her any pain. "Hah, that's what you think, Dark King! Feel the power of the Heroes of Justice!"

With that command and with grins on their faces, the two little girls quickly moved into the room and began blasting out spells, or, rather, waving the wands frantically, the wands creating splashes of color and tiny, finger sized ice bolts. Tonks too got into it, her hair flashing through a rainbow of colors as she had some good, kid-type fun to liven up a week out of her personal version of hell.

Harry noticed that Teddy, for some reason, stayed in the background. Over the flashing of spells he could hear him saying something that sounded like an inspirational speech in a monotone, his heart definitely not in it. Then he was tackled by one of Harry's conjured dogs, who prepared to lick him to death. That seemed to break him out of his shell, and he started to wrestle around with the conjured dog, growling.

To one side Rias stared wide-eyed at this for a second, but quickly got into the act too. She stood up but didn't quite trust her transfiguration spells enough to change her outfit, instead conjuring up a cloak to match Harry's and a long pointed witch's hat. The sight of Rias using conjuration like that also drew a wide-eyed gaze from the so-named 'Levia-tan,' but she didn't stop her attack.

"You don't only face the Dark King, though, you also face his loyal servant, Red Witch!" Rias shouted. With that she started to launch tickling charms and tripping hexes indiscriminately into the melee at the other end of the clubroom. She then locked eyes with the girl in the lead. "And I'll have you know, Levia-tan, that Sona certainly wouldn't be used to slake the Dark King's unwholesome desires! That's what he's got me for, after all."

"EEEWWW!" shouted three voices, one male, muffled under the body of a leather sofa dog, while Levia-tan looked affronted for some reason.

She didn't have the chance to speak, though, as Akeno had decided to get into the act too. She had stepped back into the tiny kitchen, where she started to try and transfigure her clothing into a suit suitable for a Sado-Queen. It wasn't perfect, but, as the 'battle' raged, she was pleased with the results. Her skirt was much the same as before but had become much shorter, and black gloves covered her hands up to her elbows, while her blouse had shifted into a loose, leather dominatrix outfit, though Akeno hadn't gotten it quite right. There were no tie downs going down the center between her breasts, and it wasn't as formfitting as she had wished.

When she was done, Akeno decided to use this rare opportunity to tease Sona. From one hand a glue spell flashed to where the girl was hiding. The next second Akeno raised her hand to her mouth and thrust her shoulders back, channeling a character she had seen in an anime last night with Rias. "OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO, OHOHOHOHOHOHO! Indeed not! Your darling sister is not for the Dark King, but for me, the true power behind the throne, the Sado-Queen. I will instruct her in the ways of Sado, and then she will turn to the Dark Force willingly! Come ye all, Heroes of Justice, find the pleasure in pain!"

"Never!" Tonks shouted, moving to engage her by sending out tickling charms and blasts of colorful light from the hand holding her kiddy wand. Akeno replied by concentrating on her over the others, while Harry and Levia-tan began a mock duel in the center of the room.

Sona was now stuck against the far wall, the glue covering her entire body in a somewhat lewd manner, though thankfully it was more solid than viscous, saving some of her dignity. "Damn it, Akeno! When I get out of here I swear I'm going to get you back for this!" she roared.

"Don't worry, Sona-tan! I'll save you and your tight little body in just a second!" Levia-tan shouted, pushing through a series of color change spells, batting them to the side even as others hit her arms and face, changing her skin to various different colors.

Lily paused from where she had been about to tag Rias in the back with a spell. "Um, for some reason when she says that I'm not certain we're fighting on the right side any longer," she said to Kunou.

Before Kunou could reply, she was mobbed under by tiny furry cats, who sat on her while Lily was hit by a tickling charm from Rias. That took both of them out of the mock-battle, not that either were complaining.

Rias then turned her attention to Tonks, then fake-collapsed as a stray spell seemed to hit her. Harry too took a fall, collapsing next to his daughter and winking at her. This left Akeno against Tonks and Levia-Tan, and after a few more dramatic shouts from all side, she too fell, canceling the spell on Sona as she did. At that Harry, still on the ground, did the same, transforming the animals back to what they had been before, minus the cats and the sofa-dog. Those he ordered to back away, returning to their original position as he lay there.

"As always the Heroes of Justice have prevailed!" The now neon green, blue, and dark purple Levia-tan said with a grin, moving over to pick Sona up from the ground, hugging Sona to her. "And now I will claim my prize: Sona-tan snuggle time!"

Waving his hands, Harry canceled the final few transfiguration spells and stood up, discarding his cloak as he did so before pulling Lily to her feet. Setting her down on a sofa, he then did the same for Kunou before watching in amusement as Tonks tried to lay out over both of them only to be smacked with their toy wands. Turning away from Lily and Tonks starting a mock sword duel, he looked over to Sona and the new girl. "Well, are you going to introduce your guest, Sona?"

Sona was too busy glaring at him and the others while trying to push the other girl away to do that, so it fell on Rias to do so. Moving over to help Teddy to his feet, she called out, "Harry, meet Maou Leviathan, or Serafall Sitri when she's not being formal. Serafall, meet Harry, my lover. Sona had told me that someone from her family was going to stop by today, but I didn't know it would be you, though I should have."

"Ara. "'My lover,' you're so possessive, Buchou," Akeno said with a laugh, half-teasing in delight and half something else she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"Not so much possessive. After all, I'm not his only lover. I'm just very certain about my own position," Rias retorted, causing Akeno to laugh again.

Serafall laughed too, letting Sona go for the moment as she turned to the older redhead in the room. "Rias-chan, you were so awesome during that rating game, using your family's powers like that. And the way you and your peerage fought together showed a lot of forethought and intelligence along with new kick ass powers!" the girl whooped, throwing the hand with the wand in the air.

"Thank you, Serafall-san. That is most kind coming from you," Rias replied with a curtsy before she sat back down where she had been before the excitement began. "But may I ask what brought you to Kuoh today?"

Serafall blinked, then waved her hand around at them, not airily, rather, expressively. "Oh, Grayfia mentioned the wards you all had put up, and I was interested in them. I also wanted to talk to Sona-tan about this whole agreement she and you made with Yasaka." At that she swooped in again, lifting Sona into another hug, squeezing her like she was a plushie. "Oh, I am soooo proud of you, Sona-tan! You have no idea how amazing it is that you were able to get the Youkai Association just talking to us again, let alone the rest of it!"

Harry smiled as Kunou crawled into his lap, leaning back against his chest as her ears and tail popped out, stroking one hand down her ear lengths tenderly as she spoke to Serafall, a little tired from the bit of excitement. "Mmm-hmm. My momma was really happy about that too. Recently she said something about getting the rights to some kind of plant seed, that it made the formerly Indian Youkai clans really, really happy."

"Well, I'm just happy we became friends in the first place, hmm, Kunou?" Harry said, leaning down to kiss her ear tip, causing the young kitsune to let loose a truly foxlike rumble-purr.

Serafall laughed, then blinked as Lily and Teddy sat on either side of Rias, with the littler redhead laying her head against the taller one's side, her eyes on Serafall. That last bit Serafall didn't see anything odd about. After all, Serafall knew she was awesome. It was the closeness between the two that was startling. I knew coming here that Rias was in a relationship with Harry Potter, the wizard that started all these changes, but to see it is something else.

Setting that aside, she addressed Kunou. "Yep, and believe me, it worked out on our end too. That seed is from a plant in the Devil part of hell, the Underworld, that is sort of like a shrub weed. Its properties are nothing we can use, so it was really cheap to gather and pass on, and then she can sell it to those clans at whatever price she wants. Apparently it's something like turmeric, a kind of spice thing, but only Tiger and Elephant Youkai can taste it. So the trade aspect between the Youkai and the Underworld keeps growing, moving money around and making more. Plus there's the way a lot of Youkai are now available for recruitment into peerages."

"And did you find out what you wanted about the wards?" Harry asked, looking between Serafall and Sona.

"Yep," Serafall said as Sona nodded imperceptibly. "Oh, the other Maou or I'd be able to overpower them with a lot of effort, but I'd say they'd just reform later. And Sona-tan said you were thinking of modifying them further?"

"A bit, yes." Rias replied before thanking Akeno as she handed her a cup of tea. Akeno had not yet changed back to her normal school uniform and, indeed, seemed quite comfortable in the half-uniform, half-S&M ensemble she was wearing. Rias noticed that Harry seemed accepting of it too, making no comment about it being inappropriate around Lily, which was somewhat amusing. Although I suppose in comparison to a lot of the outfits she's seen in anime, Akeno's outfit is rather tame at the moment.

"Heheh, playing your cards close to your chest there, aren't you, Rias-chan?" Serafall replied with a laugh. "Well, whatever." She then clicked her fingers. "Ooh, by the way, with Sona-tan's debut in the Rating Games coming up, I wanted to ask if you could create a banner like the one you used during Rias's game against Riser? One that was just as large and charmed against damage?"

Sona's eyes widened and she frantically shook her head from behind Serafall, her worst fears coming to life right in front of her. But Harry simply smiled beatifically. "Certainly. Stop by before the event, and we can work together to create a design, and I'll make the banner to order."

While Sona slumped in mixed relief—the timing meant she wouldn't see the banner until the event at least—and anger at Harry's encouraging her sister's attitude, Serafall laughed, clapping her hands together. "Great! I knew I'd like you the moment you chose to play along with my game, Potter-san!" Then she became serious. "But don't think that just because I like you you can court Sona-tan! That tight body and those sensitive curves are all mine!"

"GAHHH, onee-sama!" Sona squeaked with a rosy blush to her cheeks, while Harry blanched and Rias and Akeno started to laugh.

"Ahem, um, sorry, but that idea never even occurred to me," Harry replied. It was true, too. Even back when he had been affected by the devils' auras, he hadn't reacted to Sona or Tsubaki's bodies. Moreover, he felt their personalities were very different.

"WHAAT?!" Serafall spluttered, her face going red with anger as she shook her wand in Harry's face, an angry aura beginning to surround her, dark blue and laced with red. "Why not!? Is my little sister not good enough for you, Potter!?"

While Sona's head whipped back to stare at her sister, Harry shook his own. "No, nothing like that. But I think our personalities are not very compatible. Sona's more business oriented, and I'm very much family oriented."

Sona nodded at that very firmly. Unlike Rias, who wanted to be a mother as much as she wanted to become the strongest head the Gremory clan had ever seen, Sona wanted to become successful in business and diplomacy, and pure strength, to the point where she could eventually take over Serafall's position as Maou. Despite her attitude towards Sona herself, Sona deeply respected her older sister and wanted to stand at that same level of political and social power, if not magical. She had no time for family, little time for romance, and, to be honest, didn't like kids all that much. The idea of having some of her own while so young was practically anathema, one of the many reasons she had discouraged Saji's initial interest in her—Saji had an impregnation fetish, although he was a lot better at hiding it than Issei was about his fetishes.

"Aww, but don't you see, that would make you perfect!" Serafall teased before abruptly changing the subject, her tone somehow serious despite still being upbeat and cutesy. "Still, I'm nearly done here; I have to get back to hell. Something's going on with the Church. Heck, it's been going on since I returned that holy sword you passed on to me. Don't know what, though." She then whined and flailed her arms around, dispelling the serious image instantly. "All I know is it's making more work for me! Mou, and here I wanted to spend more time with Sona-tan!"

She reached over and once more pulled in a feebly fighting Sona, rubbing her head against the side of the younger girl. "Mmmmm, but first I need to recharge my Sona batteries."

"Gah," Sona gurgled as she was squeezed. The odd thought, I'm not thin, I'm compressed, went through her mind before she was let go, set down on another of Rias's sofas. She had added two more to the original two, both love seats, in order to accommodate more people.

"Well, I'm off, then!" Serafall chirped hopping to her feet, her body practically glowing with vitality as if hugging Sona so often had indeed helped her refill some kind of internal energy. "See you all the next time I stop in! Oh, and girls, you can keep the outfits."

Tonks, who had remained silent after the game had ended, laughed. "Heh, now that's right nice of you. These outfits might come in handy when I'm in that weird place over in downtown Tokyo, um Akibahara or something like that? It'd definitely be a hiding in plain sight sort of deal. Although, I think you should probably take back the suit ya had for Teddy."

"Yes, please!" Teddy said fervently, a large pout on his face. "I don't care if it's necessary that every magical girl team have a single uselessly weak male member. I'm a wizard, not a magical boy. I'm not useless, and I definitely can do more than 'inspirational speeches.'" He groused, holding up fingers to indicate the last two words were a quote.

Serafall pouted at him but nodded, and Teddy scampered off into the small bathroom set to one side of the ORC's main room. A second later he was out and huffing irritably as he tossed the prince costume to its owner. Serafall caught it but couldn't help teasing him again. "It's a pity, especially since you made it look so good, Teddy-chan."

Teddy flushed at that and then blushed even hotter when Serafall pulled him into a tight hug. She was so short that his head came up to her chest, and he found his face buried within that large chest, only barely able to turn to look over at Lily, wondering how she was taking this. Lily, though, wasn't even looking in their direction, having turned her attention to the tray of sweets.

"Oy, yah can't have me kid; go get your own," Tonks said, pulling Teddy out of the chasm he had found himself in.

"No, he looked so cute! Let me have him! With Teddy in my show, I could seriously hit the shota market!" Serafall replied. The slight flush on her face seemed to hint at the fact she would rather like that for her own purposes too.

"Hah, I don't know what that is, but I seriously don't think so!" Tonks retorted.

After a few minutes of tug-of-Teddy, Serafall finally let the young boy go. With a final sigh and another tight hug with Sona, she stepped into the teleporter. "Bye-bye, everyone. Sona-tan, I'll see you some other time!"

A second later, and the energetic, childish Maou Leviathan was gone. Sona breathed a sigh of relief, slumping down into a sofa as Teddy did the same. The two of them shared a glance and nodded at one another in commiseration before looking away, both embarrassed for reasons out of their control.

"So that's your sister. Funnily enough, I think she was bang on to how I imagined her after hearing her description from you three," Harry said with a smirk, leaning back and still holding Kunou against his chest. Using a spell to grab a sweet from the tray on the table, he split it in half for the two of them as he watched Sona for any reply.

"Yessss…." Sona groaned, then glared at him with honest fury in her eyes. "And if she shows up on Parents' Day with a banner like you were describing, I swear to Lucifer I will roast your balls over a low fire!"

"Please don't; I rather like them where they are," Rias said with a sinful little smirk, leaning against Harry's shoulder while he laughed and Akeno giggled.

"You walked right into that one, Sona," the Sadist Queen observed, sitting down next to Sona.

"I know," Sona groaned again, leaning back. "But she's so embarrassing, so childish, so clingy and energetic, and I just can't handle it! I had to deal with it for years before coming up here! I like my normal, staid, calm life, thank you freaking much! And there is absolutely nothing calm about being around Serafall onee-sama at all!"

"I liked her," Lily said with a grin. "She was fun, she gave us these outfits, and they are so cool! Plus that little mock battle was fun as heck!"

"Ugh," Teddy groused. "I think she'd be okay, but I don't like the fact she made me dress up too and act the part! I hated the idea when I saw that Kamen guy in that Moon anime Lily made me watch, and I hated acting out the part worse."

"Aw, come on, kiddo, don't every boy dream of being a prince? Now you have experienced it, and ya had princesses fighting for you too," Tonks laughed, ruffling his hair.

Kunou too spoke up in favor of Serafall, and Harry chuckled, finishing his tiny cake and then using both hands to stroke the tiny kitsune's ears and hair, turning her into a tiny ball of bliss. "Well, there you have it, the two tyrants have spoken. We're going to have to put up with her antics, then, every time she comes by."

"Actually…" Rias said musingly, "I think we can make a deal here." Sona looked at her quizzically hope blossoming in her eyes, and Rias went on. "You know that she's going to show up randomly, right? Unless, of course, we want to block her out entirely."

Sona winced. "No, I don't want to do that. I love my sister, and I respect her too. Negating her access like that would be rather hurtful, especially after allowing her through in the first place."

"In that case, whenever she is around, why don't you make your way over to our compound? There will certainly be someone there that she can hang out with, the walk with you to the compound will feed her imouto-obsession, and then she can have fun with her other obsession, that of playing magical girl, while you get a break and don't have to be embarrassed in public here in the Academy."

"No, just walking her through the town…" Sona drawled before she shook her head. "Well, I suppose that could work, but what's in it for you?" It took both sides gaining something to make a deal, after all.

"There's a walk in chef competition over on Honshuu that Kala's mentioned she wants to take part in. And I remember your family owns a vacation home there," Rias said. "Give us access to it, and we'll call it even."

Sona nodded in agreement, and the deal was made. After which, much to her relief, the others took pity on her and moved the conversation on to the wards.

OOOOOOO

Somewhere in France, a young blonde girl lay out on her bed. That party tired me out something fierce, but it was a glorious break from my work. She looked over at the piles upon piles of notes, smiling brightly at the tight red binder to one side of them that was half-full. She was about three or perhaps four more days of hard work away from completing the analysis which would earn her a potions apprenticeship with Madame Rosenthal, one of the premier potions experts in the world.

Gabrielle Delacour desperately wanted to earn that potions apprenticeship, having had a passion for them since she was twelve. But they didn't grow on trees, and the best out there were, of course, the hardest to earn.

That is why I never bothered trying to convince my parents to let me go to Hogwarts, even if it would have let me be closer to Harry Potter, she thought with a scowl. Severus Snape had been a god-awful human being, let alone a teacher, and the standards of potions and potion makers in the United Kingdom had yet to recover from his years at that post.

Speaking of Harry, I wonder if he liked my present this time more than the others. It is the first time I've sent him something so risqué. Perhaps it will be enough to break through his self-control. And he's no longer married, too. There's nothing morally wrong about using my image to…relieve some stress any longer, she thought, a sinful little smirk appearing on her face which would've horrified her father. The poor dear still thought of Gabrielle as his little angel, alas.

At a noise from one side, Gabrielle looked over at the large portrait of herself set to one on one wall and was astonished to see that the image from the postcard was there, leaning on the chair that routinely held the image of Gabrielle from when she first became old enough to go to Beauxbatons, her first wine cup set to one side of the image, the engraving the Delacour crest prominent on the side of the cup.

She wasn't certain how the magic of portraits worked, that subject being one she hadn't much interest in, but an image of a person could not occupy the same space as another image. The most recent image would take over that picture for the time that 'it' was using that picture before disappearing again, leaving behind the original. Or they would merge or some such, something of that nature, anyway.

At the moment, though, Gabrielle wasn't thinking about that, she was thinking about why the poor dear looked exhausted. "What is wrong?" she asked, moving over to look into the image. "Take some of that wine and calm down. Whatever has occurred, it cannot be nearly important enough to kill yourself over."

The image looked at her wryly through a waterfall of sweat-matted hair. "You know that I am just a portrait, correct, silly girl?" she said between gasps as she reached for the wine cup and slumped into the chair at the same time, spilling some of it onto the table. "I can't exactly kill myself, ma petit."

"Figure of speech," Gabrielle said tartly, glaring at the image of herself, who shrugged back unrepentantly. That was a problem with talking to images, of course: they were often rather stroppy.

"What day is it?" the image asked. "And let me tell you, it is so nice that this portrait at least lets me talk. You really should splurge on the spells that would allow your postcards to do the same. Don't tell me you haven't thought about being able to whisper sexy nothings in Harry's ear occasionally over the years."

Gabrielle flushed at that because she had, but figured that would have been a step too far. Besides, it wasn't so much splurging as buying far more than the original postcard's worth. A personalized postcard cost two galleons, complete with the spellwork on it to allow the image to move, four if the image was sexual in nature as this last one had been. If you wanted an image to speak, however, that was thirty galleons, and Gabrielle did not have nearly that much money. She would've had to ask her sister or her parents for it or save up. And one thing Gabrielle was not was very good at saving her money.

"It's the first Saturday of January," she said in reply. "Why?"

The image blinked. "Interesting. I think I left my original postcard on the twenty-seventh. So distance really does have an impact on traveling through this…picture world…I suppose, though not as much as in the physical world." She grimaced then. "And if I ever see another wolf, tank, or Slavs of any stripe it will be too soon! You would not believe what I had to put up with passing through other magical portraits to get here!"

"Surely you're exaggerating," Gabrielle said with a shrug, giving the portrait a look that said get on with it rather eloquently in her opinion. "You wouldn't have been in that much of a rush if there wasn't something wrong."

"Oh, there's something wrong, all right! You missed your shot, you, you slow limace (slug)!" the portrait growled.

"What?" Gabrielle asked, blinking

"Harry's already moved on," the image spat. "He's taken up with this…this redheaded tart, this putain (slut)! And they were all over one another! And it certainly wasn't the first time either!"

"Start at the beginning," Gabrielle said, slowly sinking into a chair and glaring at the image, crossing her arms over her modest bust.

She stayed that way as the image explained what had happened since Harry had pulled her out of the envelope, activating the magic on the postcard. She spoke about how she had been set aside almost at once, while Harry went through a lot of other correspondence, and then had been picked up causing the moment of surprise Gabrielle had hoped. Then things went wrong as this redheaded woman rested her head on Harry's shoulder to look down at the image.

Then she explained how the redheaded tart had teased her, rubbed it in her nose that Harry was with her, and then made love to Harry in what was obviously a shared bedroom. "At that point I left," she confessed. "There was nothing I could do there. I couldn't speak. I tried to get out of the portrait but that didn't work either, of course."

"And, and she's our age?" Gabrielle asked.

"Yes, I think so, at least that's what her face seemed to imply, or perhaps a bit older. But you wouldn't know it if you looked at the rest of her!" the image said, gesturing with her hands to something like three or perhaps a little more times Gabrielle's own chest size. "She's got a chest out to here, hips and rear to die for! She literally can't be human!"

"Yes, I got that, thank you," Gabrielle snarled, looking down at her modest chest in irritation.

She would never be called voluptuous and knew it. Gabrielle, standing at four feet nine inches, had a gymnast's body, a discipline she had followed for years. Her older sister had inherited their mother's bust, while Gabrielle resembled more the other side of the family. Yet she was very, very flexible, which Gabrielle had hoped to show Harry at some point.

Now Gabrielle leaned back, thinking about the emerald eyed wizard for a moment and why she had latched on to him so many years ago. It wasn't something as spurious as believing that Harry had saved her life in the lake at Hogwarts. The hostages hadn't actually been in any danger, something she and the other hostages had known along with their parents, even if the champions hadn't.

No, it came from two factors, one, being more general than the other. Veela powers were nothing to Harry Potter. He could see them for who they were, something that was very rare and very prized among Veela. It was why her sister went for that oaf, Bill, although why Fleur had decided to go for Bill rather than Harry was utterly beyond Gabrielle. Gabrielle liked Bill well enough, but in comparison, well, there just wasn't any comparison in her opinion.

And second, Harry was a natural born hero! There was no other way to describe him. Harry was simply that good, that kind of larger than life character. Gabrielle had wanted him because of that for so long, but he had never looked at her in that manner, not when she was younger.

This was why Gabrielle had started her little game with the postcards, trying to get Harry to notice her. There had also been a certain risqué aspect about it when he had been married. Sending postcards of herself to a married man had been illicit, taboo fun, something that she had greatly enjoyed even before she had decided to make this last one so sexual. There had been many a night after she had gotten home from school or had come home from a silly stupid date with some little boy that she had thought of Harry the married man using her pictures to gain some relief. Of course he had never really used them as she had hoped, but he had certainly looked at them very carefully several times, which the images had relayed to her. That had been often enough. Still, she thought, looking at her image. "And you're certain this wasn't a one-time thing?"

"She had her own dresser, her own mirror, her clothing was hanging around the room, the bed was large enough for the two of them, and there was a simple bath in one corner. Nothing I saw seems to indicate that she was intruding in any way. Rather, that room was as much hers as it was his," the image said wearily.

Gabrielle winced at that, shaking her head. Merde! I really did miss my chance, then. He's already in love with someone else. And I'm not certain I want to share, even to get a piece of someone as magnificent as Harry.

"Worse, he's in Japan now, and I'm here in France. Setting aside my family's, even my country's issues with him, what are the odds of us even seeing one another ever again?" Gabrielle growled crossly, flinging her arms over her head and nearly upsetting the chair she was sitting in in her irritation, causing the image of her to laugh. That in turn caused a flaming row between them, which did nothing for Gabrielle's current mood.

OOOOOOO

With work on moving the ward pillars continuing apace and all of the kids getting back into the swing of things, the second week back to school went a bit better for everyone concerned. Kunou and Lily had once more learned that school didn't equate to fun and had buckled down to the workload, although Teddy was still having trouble. He wasn't quite as intelligent as Lily, nor did he have as much actual knowledge, not having had as much interaction with Hermione or Luna, growing up. He had a lot of trouble at first getting into a groove at school, and also trouble getting up in the mornings.

But Teddy was also a likable boy, very easy-going and not nearly as prickly and defensive as Lily had been when she first started there. So he didn't have much in the way of trouble with the other kids. It was simply the workload that was getting him down. Harry quickly took to helping him in the evenings, while Rias helped Lily and Kunou or helped them teleport to Kyoto to get help from Yasaka. Each of them tried to make it as fun as they could, with various levels of success, mostly predicated on the class in question.

Tonks was nowhere to be seen for any of this. Indeed, the most interaction she had with anyone that entire month was during the mock fight with Serafall. With her job, Tonks was out the door almost on the heels of everyone else in the morning, and she would come back very late at night, dead on her feet and with her head ringing from monotonous spellwork. She barely had time to do anything more than just wave at Teddy at night before heading to the girls' dorm, out like a light.

A few of the others frowned at that a time or two, but Harry told Rias that was simply Tonks. "There's no wand back home I'd have rather have at my back, and, Lord knows I love her, but Tonks isn't really a natural mom. She needs to stay busy, and she is a natural policewoman. She likes solving crimes, helping people, and getting it stuck in, and she excels at all three. But she isn't really good with kids, generally speaking, not unless they're having fun, and even then, well, the less said about Teddy's baby and toddler years the better," Harry said with a chuckle.

"Tonks loves Teddy, and the time she does spend with Teddy, she's pretty good with him even now. But helping with homework, being around to be a role model in anything but what's right and wrong? That's not her way of doing things." Harry's chuckle became a wry laugh. "Mind you, I think she'll be great to have around when they all get to their teens."

"As an example of what not to do, you mean?" Rias asked in amusement.

"Pretty much," Harry relied with another laugh. "But seriously, she's still a good mom; she's just more of a workaholic than she is a mom."

"So you step up to the plate instead?" Rias asked. "I'll also note, Harry, that your own work ethic is rather on the high end."

"We all have our strengths," Harry replied. "Mine is dealing with family and death defying adventures, although I like to think the first is something I come by naturally, while the other is more a product of my environment growing up."

Rias thought about what Harry had said, and much of her irritation with Tonks disappeared. Harry was obviously fine with it, and if Teddy also had no problems with it and didn't resent his mother not being there, then really no one else was in a position to comment. All Rias could do was what Harry was doing already: being there for Teddy if he needed parent-type help and being there for Tonks when she tried to push herself too hard. That last job she handed over to Yubelluna and the others who lived in the girls' dorm, who took it upon themselves to make certain she didn't drink much at night, got enough food, and so forth.

Akeno's solution to her time in school continued to work, though she wasn't quite as happy as she was on the weekend surrounded by her friends and family. Any lingering sense of being uncomfortable or resenting the happy family atmosphere Harry had built with Lily in comparison to her own father who had abandoned her had disappeared in the months since she and Harry had broken up. She had settled into her natural position of teasing older sister figure and enjoyed it immensely.

Moreover, Harry's view of her had also changed over time. This was something he consciously realized that first Sunday after school had started up once more.

Saturday night Harry had put up several magical spells on the bottom of the hatch to the attic, and he and Rias spent more than half the night and most of the morning up there, making love, although one round, at the very least, could have more precisely been called screwing one another's brains out, as Rias had pointed out afterward in a rather ecstatic tone. Since during the week they had only been able to get away with a single round every night before needing to get some sleep, this was a complete delight.

As the day wound to midmorning, Harry left Rias on the bed, still recovering from her last orgasm and smiling blearily up at him as he kissed her on the forehead and pushed himself out of bed. "I'm going to go check on the little monsters, make sure they're not getting up into any trouble."

"And if they aren't? Or, as is more likely, they are already being watched by someone else?" Rias asked, turning slightly to take his hand in hers, giving him her best bedroom eyes despite her body still trembling with aftershocks and biting her lip for good measure.

"If the others are looking after them," Harry said, feeling himself rise to attention once more as he leaned over to kiss her tenderly, "I'll be back, and we'll have round seven. It is the magical number, after all."

Rias giggled at that and then leaned back into the bed, watching him get dressed and humming appreciatively at the sight. But she closed her eyes as he made for the hatch, wanting to take a brief rest before her next bout of exercise.

Downstairs, to Harry's surprise, Lily and Kunou were still around. He had partly expected them to head to Kyoto to spend time in the forest with Yasaka. Then he remembered. Oh yeah, Yasaka had said that she was going to be in an all-day meeting today and wouldn't have been able to spend time with them anyway. And on a Sunday too, ouch.

Tonks and Teddy were out on the town, as were Kala and Yubelluna, Harry knew. The two women had bonded over shopping and were off to get Yubelluna some more clothes, while Tonks and Teddy were having some fun somewhere, just the two of them, before Tonks had to report back to work. Kiba was out with Tsubaki, Loup might be out with Sona or elsewhere, and Mittelt had proven her utter disdain for the idea of watching the kids several times by this point despite the fact that she could so easily blend in with them, appearance-wise.

Instead, Akeno had taken it upon herself to watch the two girls and was teaching them a few tiny house cantrips, to help them clean up after themselves, in a very fun, Akeno-like manner. With the music of Fantasia playing in the background, she had the two kids clean up the main sitting room, standing in the center and pointing them this way and that to direct them cracking a tiny ribbon like it was whip.

Dust bunnies appeared and chased one another around the room, combining as they caught one another. The game cartridges, DVDs, and their boxes flipped end over end in the air until they smacked into the shelves. Stains were wetted down, then came alive and pulled themselves out of the various sofas and bean bags. Board games came alive and started to move, colliding and joining together before shutting themselves away in their boxes.

And, in the center of the room, the girls worked, waving the toy wands Serafall had given them this way and that, directing their magically imbued mess creations. It was a sign of only a few spells, but they were using those few spells very imaginatively, and Harry could barely keep the pride out of his voice as he asked, "And what is happening here?" from where he leaned against the door jamb.

Akeno had been giggling as she watched her little minions at work but smirked over at him evilly. Taking a page from Serafall's book, she pointed at him dramatically and shouted, "There he is, the dread tyrant of cleanliness! Will you two join me in rebellion with your soldiers, or will you send them to their deaths, all uncaring, in the Eternal Wash?"

"Down with the clean king!" Lily giggled, turning her hands and gesturing. The dust bunnies coalesced into several vaguely gorilla-like monsters and charged forward, followed by several liquid slimes created from the various spills that had accumulated over the week.

"Down with the king!" Kunou shouted, turning and directing the game cartridges at Harry as well as everything else that she could levitate into the air. This included Titan, who spread his wings and roared towards Harry, the roar rather respectable given his size, and her own Okuri-inu, who barked excitedly as he found himself in the air.

"Rebellion, is it?" Harry said, making his voice deep and dark, once more playing along. "Well, we know how to deal with rebels around here!"

This attempt at rebelling ended with a slightly sticky, quite dirty Harry sitting on Akeno and tickling her mercilessly with one hand, while the other directed Lily in a loop, via a levitation spell. To one side Kunou was buried under a teddy bear he had hit with an Engorgio, while the two familiars hung nearby, unable to move.

As he tickled her, Harry reflected, I think my relationship with Akeno now is sort of a microcosm of what Tonks said Monday evening. I really have mellowed. I… I hate to say it, but I think part of it is that I'm no longer looking at every girl around me as potential mother figures for Lily, since Rias is filling that role so well. Nor am I judging them in a subtle way, either, for their positive or negative influence on Lily beyond that. I'm not even reacting negatively to the idea of someone being a bad influence any longer in the first place.

Moreover, Harry was coming to like Akeno as Akeno, rather than as simply a sexual object or a friend of Rias's. Her teasing was no longer able to get under his skin when directed at one of the kids, something he had seen several times over the last month or more. And he no longer held her interests in bondage and pain against her.

That had, oddly enough, not had anything to do with Yasaka's help in getting to know his wild side after he woke up from magical and soul exhaustion. No, it had more to do with her controlling those urges more, only letting them out in their training sessions at semi-appropriate moments, and the fact that even Rias had shown that she liked a little bit of bite and smack play in the bedroom. There really was a difference between causing pain to add to pleasure and causing pain to hurt.

Akeno gasped for air as Harry stopped and stood up from her, pulling her to her feet. "And that, I think, is enough of the rebellion. Now, who's hungry for lunch?"

As for Harry and Rias, while they didn't have time for the morning lovemaking Rias had wanted, after that Sunday they decided on a solution…

Rias smiled as she woke up a minute before Harry this time. Even as she felt his body start to shift next to her, she slowly moved so she was lying on him, her breasts pressing against his chest. Rias then began to kiss him, first on Harry's lips, causing a smile to appear there, then on his chin, on his neck, and then moving down his body, stopping to bite and lick at his nipples followed by his navel. While Harry's nipples weren't sensitive, the area about his navel was, surprisingly, and Rias loved the feel of his muscles under her lips, the shiver she caused as she raked her nails down his chest, moving further down, her back lifting and pushing the blanket back as she did so.

Realizing what Rias was about to do, Harry reached down, gently stopping her with a hand behind her head, his fingers moving through her silken hair. "Rias, I thought we learned last week that we don't have the time to make love in the morning."

Smirking, she captured Harry's cock in between her breasts and began to move, winking up at him. "Yes, but doing this would be faster than going all the way, wouldn't it?"

The look in Harry's eyes as her large breasts trapped his shaft between them made her shudder and bite her lip in pleasure. He was already at full mast, and Rias shuddered, feeling her own body reacting to the desire in Harry's eyes, the love and need. Knowing she could do this, could bring out that look from the man she loved, made Rias smile. "You just lay back, Harry, and let me do all the work this once."

Those loving eyes narrowed. "Oh hell, no!" With that he reached forward, his arms on her biceps, and pulled Rias up into a kiss that nearly overwhelmed her in its intensity, but Rias quickly began to give as good as she got, and then he pulled back. "If we're going down that route, I think it only fair we see to one another, all right?"

Biting her lip and pulling back slightly, Rias felt herself moistening further at the look in Harry's eyes and unconsciously humped against his shaft, longing to bury it once more within her. But mindful of the time, she just nodded and slowly shifted herself around so that her rear was facing towards Harry's head, raising a leg over so that she was straddling him but looking in the other direction. She had to cinch herself forward a bit to bring her breasts once more into play, but that was just fine by Harry.

Thus they both started the day with the taste of the other on their lips. Yasaka noticed this when Harry kissed her that morning and pouted outrageously at Rias throughout breakfast but promised herself she'd get some of that soon enough.

OOOOOOO

Two weeks back from vacation, Harry looked at Rias as she settled into her chair across from him at lunch time in the room in which he had been teaching the period prior to lunch. It was raining heavily outside, and the cafeteria was, perforce, quite crowded. So Rias, Akeno, and the others joining him in a classroom for lunch didn't raise any eyebrows even from the principal, who was still looking at both of them for any signs he could use to get rid of Harry, absolutely mortified by the fact that he had missed his and Rias's relationship. The face that Rias was currently wearing, though, was a little confusing to Harry. "So, what's wrong, and what's right?"

Rias smirked. "That's pretty much how I feel at the moment, yes. My brother contacted me and passed on a bit of an issue that's going on at home, one that is going to pull me away at an irritating time next month on the twenty-first."

Harry thought for a moment and then frowned, gesturing over to Akeno. "But isn't that the weekend when Akeno has her debut meeting with your… what was the company name again?"

"Soundbites, and yes," Rias said with a sigh, looking over at her friend apologetically. "I'm sorry, Akeno."

Akeno raised an eyebrow but indicated that she wanted to hear the full explanation before accepting Rias's apology. Rias smirked back at that but didn't object. "Actually, this is something all of you should be amused by. Apparently, Harry's show of mercy actually had a negative impact on more than a few of the watchers."

Harry groaned. "Let me guess. There are devils in the Underworld who felt I was weak for showing mercy. So they wanted to try to push us, to see what would happen when we were challenged for real rather than in a controlled setting? Or perhaps thought I was so soft a touch that they wanted to try to take hostages against me or both of us?"

"Pretty much. One of them was even from my own family," Rias said, her smirk turning into a snarl that was, oddly to Harry, rather sexy. "A distant cousin three times removed. I barely remember his name, but I know he had a scar going from here to here," she said gesturing to her bicep and then down to her elbow.

"Oh, him," Akeno said with a nod. "I remember him. He had wandering eyes."

"Not hands?" Harry asked. "Because, if so, I would imagine that you would have dealt with him in no uncertain terms, which would've made him far more memorable."

Akeno laughed at that, nodding her head enough to send her ponytail quivering. "Indeed I would have. And indeed he would have been."

"I believe you were saying something, Rias?" Sona said quickly, cutting off Akeno before she could elaborate on what she would've done to the man, her face a little flushed as she thought about all the ways she could have punished him.

"Most of those devils simply hit the teleportation lock and bounced. Two of them attempted to force their way through and burned out all of their magic accidentally. Another was so furious at us, his thoughts so negative, I think, he actually died. The ward let him through and then…didn't let him out the other side." All her listeners winced at that, and more than one reflected that the only good thing about it was that the man probably died before he could feel any pain. "And one other, my brother tells me, is missing after attempting something besides just using our own interdimensional teleporter."

"Idiots," Sona and Tsubaki both said as one, which caused everyone else to laugh.

"At any rate, my distant relative was found out and had to cover for himself. Obviously my family wouldn't have condoned any attempt to challenge me in such an underhanded manner, so he has been forced to issue a formal challenge to the Heiress position in order to save a bit of face. I'm going to destroy him," Rias said simply. "I've worked far too hard, learned far too much for him to even have a hope of beating me, and I won't give up my heiress position for anything. But I might let him live…maybe. If he was just being an idiot rather than working as someone else's dog."

"Is that why the wards activated a few days ago? Some devil traveled overland rather than through the dimensional teleporter to try and get into our territory?" Harry asked. The feeling had been so brief that it hadn't even pulled him from class. He'd felt the wards activate, a flash of bright power and energy, then nothing.

"It probably was. Whoever it was didn't leave much in the way of a body to investigate, though," Sona said. She had been the one to send out her familiar to scout the area at the time, all the others being in class. Examining the area in person later hadn't shown anything her familiar hadn't seen: a long, wide smear where someone had attempted to enter Kuoh with murderous intent directed at one of the people specifically protected by the wards.

"Well, that's probably the good news and the bad all in one, but it isn't enough to make that confused expression appear on your face, Rias. So what else is going on?" Harry asked shrewdly.

"Well, my mother and Onii-sama are going to be stopping in this weekend after school. My mother apparently wants to see where we're all living now, as my brother told her about the work we had done on the teleportation doorways, and she wants to come and see. Onii-sama said something about you asking about training?"

"…I did send him a message about it a few days ago. I didn't except him to respond so quickly, though, seeing as I mentioned it was Sacred Gear training rather than your training," Harry teased, causing Rias to poke her tongue out at him. "At any rate, we seem to have hit a brick wall on the whole Balance Breaker thing, and I figured he'd be the one to ask about training. After all, you've told me numerous times that he is the strongest of the Maou, and his peerage is known as the strongest as well." Harry had felt Sirzechs power a few times during and after the Riser issue had been dealt with, but hadn't really seen him in action, so to speak.

"Point," Rias said with a nod. "He says he'll meet you in the club room after school on Saturday with Mother. But he can only stay for a few hours before he has to get back to the underworld."

"That probably means that Koneko and I will the only ones there," Harry said, clicking his fingers. "Yubelluna told me she was going to plant a few more trees in the backyard around the edge of the boys' townhouse. Something about blocking one of the second story windows?"

Tsubaki coughed, looking away from everyone with a blush on her face, and Akeno, Rias, and Sona all turned to her, truly devilish smirks appearing on their faces. "Is there something you want to share, Tsubaki?" Sona asked, nudging her Queen with the end of her chopstick.

"No there isn't," Tsubaki said repressively, pushing Sona's chopstick away with her own. "In point of fact, that's the entire point!"

All the other girls laughed, while Harry just shook his head. "Ahem, back on topic, ladies? Kiba is busy doing something at college that day with Loup."

"He said that Loup and he are dealing with a few issues there, yes. Kiba apparently met someone he calls an arrogant ass of a kendoist, who thinks that, just because Kiba is younger, his comments on the ass's style doesn't really matter."

Kiba had taken to going to college with Loup at times to challenge the kendo teams there. Mostly observation, admittedly, since training with the others helped him in every way but with his personal style. Plus, though the girls didn't know it, he was preparing something with Loup's help for a date with Tsubaki near the college, using hanging out with Loup as an excuse.

"Ahh, and if there's one thing that will irritate Kiba, it's someone talking down about his swordsmanship. But what about Saji? Can't he join us for this training?"

"I'm afraid not," Sona said hurriedly. "Thanks to his training after school with you and the others, he performed very badly on a test last week, and I have demanded that he receive an A on a physics test this coming Monday."

And I in no way want him involved in any training with Maou Lucifer! That thought was, of course, known to the other women who knew Lucifer well enough, save for Rias who had a bit of a blind spot to her brother.

Akeno too understood this and smirked slightly behind her hand, wondering if Harry understood what he had basically volunteered for. I wonder if I can set up cameras? Some kind of magical recording device perhaps? Or I could always bribe Sirzechs for the memory. Hmm, I wonder what he would do for a Rias plushy or something similar…

So it was that, of the people who had Sacred Gears, only Koneko and Harry were able to meet with Sirzechs that Saturday. Sirzechs and his mother came through the teleportation ring.

Sirzechs immediately shot towards Rias, hefting her up in his arms in a tight hug around the middle before she could move. "Rias-chan, it's been too long! You seriously have to let me stop by more often, say, once every week, no, every other day! I'm going into imouto-withdrawal!"

"Oh, by the fallen tower of Babylon, hell no!" Rias growled, grinding the knuckles of both her hands into her brother's head from both sides. "Never! I love you, Nii-sama, but I couldn't possibly stand more of this kind of thing! Now, get, off!"

Pouting, Sirzechs deposited her on the ground, and now it was Venelana's turn to greet her daughter, having already exchanged hugs with Koneko and Harry. The older woman smiled and held out her hands in a hug towards Rias, who smiled back rather wanly but returned the hug. Her relationship with her parents had not truly improved since the meeting with them and Harry, but it hadn't deteriorated further, at least.

And she's here to try to further mend things. I need to remember that, Rias thought to herself. With that thought she temporarily read Venelana into the wards before the woman could even realize they were there before pulling back out of the hug.

"Where is the rest of your peerage, Rias-chan?" Venelana asked.

"Everyone is out doing their own thing most of the time on Saturdays after school. Sundays are the big all together day, but Saturdays we each do our own thing for the most part. Or everyone else does," she corrected herself. "Harry, myself, and one or two of the others always watch the kids after school."

"And whose turn is it today to watch the kids, as you put it?"

"Mine, of course," Rias said with a chuckle. "But I'll not be picking them up, at least. Kalawarner said that she would need the extra hands to bring in some groceries, so she's going to pick up the trio before heading home."

"Three? There's another child around the place? You're not talking about young Gasper, are you?" Venelana asked, looking worried. At that Sirzechs also turned from where he had begun to exchange a high five with Koneko.

"No, unfortunately Gasper is still far too shy to join us most of the time outside his room. We have, at least, begun to talk to him online in real time via video chat, and we've gotten him used to seeing unfamiliar faces," Rias replied before giggling. "Although, I have to say, he always wears a box over his head when he's talking to everyone."

"I rather think you simply extended the familiar faces he's used to," Harry said with a chuckle. He wasn't quite certain what to think about Gasper, frankly. The bishop's odd powers aside, Harry had met several vampires and killed more than a few, but he didn't hold that against Gasper. Rather, it was Gasper's odd crossdressing issues that bothered him. Harry was very afraid that the moment Gasper built up enough courage to join everyone else he would become Lily and Kunou's dress-up doll, which would do nothing for his self-esteem or his odd gender issues.

"The third child I'm speaking about is Teddy. He is the son of Tonks, my new Bishop. You remember her, surely," Rias said, rolling her eyes at Harry's interjection.

"Oh yes, the one with the odd changing hair and the large number of spells. I wonder, have you thought about the full extent of that, what was it called, her Metamorph powers?" Sirzechs asked.

"Full extent?" Harry and Rias asked as one.

"Ah, so you haven't," he said with a laugh. "I might stop in to talk with her about that if I have time. After all, if she really is a full-body shape-changer, then she doesn't really need to keep to merely a human or a Devil shape. She could come up with a kind of souped-up combat form."

Harry thought for a moment and then nodded slowly. "That could maybe work. Still, I understand that you are under a timetable, Sirzechs, so perhaps we should adjourn to the training area?"

"Certainly, Harry," said Sirzechs with a smile, gesturing him forward. "I've heard a lot about it, but I wasn't able to stop in and see it while I was helping Rias-chan with her projects."

"Why did a shiver of fear go up and down my spine just then?" Rias asked as the door closed behind the three of them.

"I have no idea what you mean," Venelana said insincerely. Artfully, Rias would recall later, rather than truthfully. "Now, how about you show me around? I haven't actually come up to Kuoh before."

OOOOOOO

"This is an amazing training area," Sirzechs said pleasantly as he entered the dimensional gateway, carrying him from the basement of the occult research club room and into the training zone. "And you say that this took, what, three, four days of work?"

"Barely half a day for Rias and Sona to create the dimensional pocket, the rest of the time was spent creating all the other spells to go along with it. In comparison to the work on the wards, though, that was downright easy," Harry said dryly.

"Yes, those wards. They are formidable," Sirzechs said with a chuckle. "I had thought my wife had been exaggerating, but having felt them when Rias called me help create those doorways for her, I realized the reality was exactly as she said it was."

"Surely that's not a surprise?" Harry asked cocking his head thoughtfully. "Just from my brief interactions with her, I don't think Grayfia's the type to exaggerate."

"She isn't, and that was a figure of speech, and you know it, Potter," Sirzechs said, giving him the finger.

Harry chuckled and gestured around them as the desert setting appeared everywhere. "So, how are we going to do this?"

"Let me set this up first," Sirzechs said, moving to one side of the entrance to the dimensional bubble. He knelt down and pulled out a large square thing that looked like a Steampunk version of a magical tome, leather, paper, and steel all mixed together around a large red ruby set into a pentagram. He pressed his hand onto the ruby, pulsing some unformed magic out into it, and the pages began to flip quickly. Runes started to appear in the air all around them, spreading out and disappearing.

"Ahem, and, um, what might that have been?" Harry asked.

"Ah, this is a gift from Adjuka. He says it's one of his finest creations, a sort of time dilation array. Essentially it will enlarge time in a set area. He says that it will make every two hours in here the equivalent of thirty minutes outside. Adjuka told me he got the idea from my Rias-chan; she's so smart," Sirzechs said proudly.

Harry just nodded, having some experience with devices which could affect time, though the idea of one being able to effect the time of a set area rather than an individual was different. Koneko, on the other hand sweatdropped slightly, knowing exactly where Rias had gotten that idea.

"Unfortunately, this is the only one he's been able to make. The ingredients are impossible to get. I mean, a jewel heart given freely by a Fairy of the Seelie court coupled with wings of fairies ground into paper?" Sirzechs shook his head. "Those two things would seem to directly contradict one another, and Fairies all retreated into their own pocket dimension along with the True Elves. I don't even know how Adjuka gained the gem in the first place; bastard just looks smug whenever I ask."

Shaking his head, Sirzechs returned his attention to the here and now, pulling off his cloak and setting it aside, revealing himself standing in slight, formfitting armor, something like leather armor, almost, with his arms free up to the elbows. His shoulder pauldrons were large with several spikes thrusting up from them, and his boots also looked like something out of a devil king's wet dream. "Anyway, that will let us have a lot more time for this training. But I think you need to understand exactly what this training is going to entail. To reach Balance Breaker with any Sacred Gear, you have to look at the one thing for which they are all known: the individual using them has to be pushed to the point that his or her life is in danger. You don't do that, you won't reach Balance Breaker.

"Harry," he said, his tone still pleasant while he rose into the air, an aura beginning to appear around him. "You probably have never felt that since training with the Boosted Gear simply because you were mostly on the other side of the training, being the one controlling it. And Koneko most likely knows and understands that you won't push her to that extent, so while she'll feel frustration, she won't feel honest to goodness fear. But fear has to be part of it."

Koneko whimpered at that, getting an inkling of what was about to happen here. At the same time Harry looked down at the gauntlet on his arm at the moment, hearing Ddraig telling him to run, and run quickly.

"And I have some issues to work out too," Sirzechs said, thrusting his hands forward with his fingers entwined as he cracked his knuckles and then his wrists, one after another.

"After all," he went on, his smile disappearing as if it had never been, "you are the young man who defiled my sister! The teacher who defiled my sister after I got you the job! I thought you would join her peerage but certainly never become her lover like this! And you, a grown man! How dare you, how dare you take advantage of my sister!"

As he spoke, Sirzechs let loose another aura, but this one wasn't based off magic at all. No, this was based off his sheer presence and was far more diffuse than the first. It blasted out around him, pure killing intent that made anyone who felt it fear for their lives, knowing they were against an enemy they could not defeat.

While Koneko whimpered once more and began to back away rapidly, already pulling in her Senjutsu power and shifting into her Nekoshou form, Harry prepared several dozen mental spells and several different scenarios in his mind. However, rather than being terrified like Koneko was, he was becoming excited. "Gryffindors charge," he muttered to himself, and then, in a louder voice, said, "Well, if we're being honest with one another, I have to say that Rias was fully onboard with her 'defiling.' In fact, you could say that she was the one who pushed for it at every stage."

"Liar!" Sirzechs bellowed. "My sister is as pure as the driven snow!"

Even Koneko couldn't let that one go, and she and Harry said in the same deadpan tone, "Are we talking about the same Rias/Buchou here?"

"Enough talking; time to die!" Sirzechs bellowed in fury.

Harry thrust out his hand and created several dozen protective shields, one after another, while his other hand worked in a few gestures, creating a fire dragon using an Onmyouji spell, which he sent roaring around in an arc to attack Sirzechs from behind. Need to work on cutting down on the movements. Silent casting is a good start, but fewer movements is the next stage.

At the same time he tried to teleport away. However, the shields he had thrust up didn't last even an instant. They shattered under a blast of Power of Destruction that was both faster and more powerful than any he had seen from Rias. Harry was barely able to dodge to the side, calling upon his werewolf form as he did so for the added speed and durability it gave him.

In that form he put some distance between himself and Sirzechs, casting spell after spell, most of them near invisible charms, at the floating Maou. At the same time Koneko tried to circle around Sirzechs as well, but both of them watched in shock as the fire dragon Harry had launched dissipated several hundred yards away from Sirzechs as if it had never been. At the same time none of Harry's spells were able to hit the devil.

Two of them had been rather high level spells too, and Harry frowned. He's using his Power of Destruction as an aura, and it's affecting my offensive spells, destroying the actual spells. I didn't even know that was possible.

"The silent casting's a nice trick, as is the dual casting, particularly from two different magical schools. The invisilibility charms are interesting. But there is one thing you lack to truly fight me, Harry Potter. Power!" Sirzechs shouted. "You may be a demigod, Harry, but in the great swing of things, that doesn't really amount to much. I've fought ten-winged angels and Fallen! I have fought gods! And you think you can protect my little sister!?"

"First you're angry at me for defiling your sister, and I do truly resent the implication, because everything I've done to Rias she has most certainly enjoyed, the next you're talking about me not being able to protect her. Which is it?" Harry growled out, honestly curious, before he covered himself with his cloak, the fog suddenly billowing out around him, covering both where he was and thousands of yards in every direction.

"Father, stop talking!" Koneko shouted, dodging to one side as Sirzechs roared, the Power of Destruction flaring out in a wide corona that ate into the fog.

But it protected and hid Harry just enough for him to gain some more distance, and he launched several more spells at Sirzechs, followed by several dozen conjuration spells that created lions, tigers, and flying eagles, which he sent towards Sirzechs at the same time as two more high-end spells, followed by a low-level spell chain. The spell-chain was mostly charm work, but all of the spells in it were invisible and silent, whereas a few of the transfiguration spells hadn't been.

Yet, invisible or not, none of the spells impacted Sirzechs. He simply waved his hand, and a blast of Power of Destruction flared out from him, destroying Harry's incoming spellwork before going on to slam into his body before he could dodge.

"GAAHHHH!" Harry howled in pain as he was flung backwards, rolling across the sand of the desert.

Koneko had closed, by this point, from behind, but even as she launched her fist, Sirzechs dodged to one side. The next instant Koneko huffed as a blow like that of a Rook on steroids took her in the chest, hurling her backwards to land next to Harry.

She looked over woozily to see Harry's body already slowly regenerating, but he had lost his arm up to the elbow and his leg down from the thigh on that side of his body. Both were regenerating at an insane rate, though, and a second later he twisted his new arm this way and that, glaring up at Sirzechs.

"You see how seriously I am taking this training! Come at me with everything you have, or else you may really die here!" Sirzechs shouted, his presence becoming even more powerful, making his words sound almost like certainty.

Grimacing, Harry conjured up Fragarach around the arm that didn't have the Boosted Gear on it, creating the chain form that he had used against Riser to finish the battle against him. He looked over at Koneko, nodded once, and then charged forward, flinging the gauntlet off of his one hand towards her as he charged forward with Fragarach shifting into a massive shield with barbed edges and a sword's blade actually sticking out of the top. As he raced forward he lashed out with spell after spell from his off-hand.

This time he went for spells whose angle of attack he could control, sending them around the avenue of his charge. But they were all low level, more to distract than anything else. Behind the kite shield the fingers of his other hand moved in a series of gestures, creating another several dozen fire beasts followed by two metal ones which bound along beside the werewolf before he sent them roaring forwards.

But just as Sirzechs launched an attack towards him, Harry disappeared under the cloak. Not by power, but by guile, he thought grimly. I can't match him blow for blow, the idea's ridiculous, but I wonder if he really knows what to expect from Fragarach.

Just as Sirzechs was dealing with those beasts, Koneko was in his face, having bounded forward through the use of her Senjutsu speed. "GRAH!" she yowled, the roar of the Boosted Gear sounding off at the same time with a "Boost!"

Yet Sirzechs just held up a hand and stopped her blow cold. "Very nice power there, Koneko!" he said, actually smiling pleasantly. "I see you've learned to embrace your Senjutsu side to a certain extent, but you should look into the ways it can actually add spells to your repertoire in the future. Sad to say, right now you're in over your head."

But then Harry was behind him. He had apparated back to the original position he'd been in at the start of the fight and turned, leaping into the air. Fragarach was coming around in an arc, this time in a large glaive form, the blade nearly as tall as Harry and the shaft shaped to resemble dragon scales, tassels flapping at the end of the shaft where it met the blade.

Sirzechs, however, flashed out another Power of Destruction blast which created a shield almost like those Rias had done via her crystals. And, just like against her experiments, the edge of Fragarach penetrated this shield, forcing Sirzechs to float backward, staring at it respectfully. "That's intriguing. A finite yet infinite magical loop," he said mildly before sending another burst of Power of Destruction straight into Harry's face, sending him flying backwards. That had been low powered, but it still seared Harry's face and eyes. "Not good enough, though."

Then Koneko was hurled after Harry to land next to them. "Good tactics and decent teamwork. You didn't even have to talk to one another. But again, it's going to take more than that to beat me!"

Koneko growled, standing in front of Harry protectively as his face finished regenerating before he put an arm around her waist whispering out his next plan. Alas, while this one was a bit more complicated, it ended up the same: the two of them were hurled away by Sirzechs, his overwhelming power overcoming their tactics and teamwork like a pair of infantrymen armed only with rifles against a super-heavy tank.

Despite that, Sirzechs began to respect Fragarach, staring at the weapon each time it broke through one of his impromptu shields and nearly tagged him. But nearly was only useful with hand grenades or area of affect spells. And neither was able to get through Sirzechs's shield. Four times Koneko tagged him with a Senjutsu infused punch, but each time Sirzechs took the blow and returned one that hurled her away, the Nekoshou's punches or kicks just not enough to penetrate.

"Is that all you've got! Is that all the two of you can do!" Sirzechs bellowed after their sixth attempt, staring down at Koneko as she pulled herself out from a large crater that he had created when he'd smashed her with a blast of Power of Destruction.

That was a revelation to both Koneko and Harry: that Sirzechs had so much control over his strength that he could change the Power of Destruction into a physical force rather than a ravening beam of energy that ate everything it touched. Like this it hit like a bullet train going full speed, and Koneko was certainly feeling it, causing her to spit out blood as she felt her Rook durability pushed to the limit.

For his part, Harry was also feeling it. The number of times he'd been struck had pushed his body's regeneration several times, and he could feel his body beginning to give out along with his magical reserves. But that didn't mean he was giving up.

Pulling Koneko to her feet, Harry nodded grimly at her. He pulled off Boosted Gear, which he had used this last time, and handed it to her. "Take your time, let Ddraig build up at least four Boosts, and then get close and hammer him with everything you've got. I'll keep his attention centered on me."

Koneko looked at him worriedly, and Harry flashed her a grin. "Don't worry. Remember, Rias likes me. If he kills me, he'd have to deal with a seriously pissed off little sister."

"That's not nearly as reassuring as you think, Harry," Koneko said, using the word for the first time, which caused Harry to grin at her and ruffle her ears before he turned around and sprinted straight towards Sirzechs.

As he did so, both of his hands were moving as he dual cast, first a giant fire dragon which roared towards Sirzechs, then a metal giant which followed after. Sirzechs, however, dealt with them both in the same manner as he had every spell, simply raising up his Power of Destruction and aura around him and then sending it forward. However, those two spells had been simply to block his view for a second as Harry roared out "Fiendfyre!"

The black and red flames of the most dangerous fire-based spell Harry knew flared forward like a demon conjured into being from Harry's palms, its wings spreading up into the sky and its arms to either side, hands of red and black fire reaching for Sirzechs, each inch of its front marked by a different ravening soul.

Sirzechs blinked but sent forth his own Power of Destruction in the form of a hand which slammed into the oncoming fire Demon's chest. He blinked again as the fire seems to fight against the Power of Destruction for a brief second before he pulsed a tad more power into it. The area of the spell his attack hit dissipated after that, but he had to use his power several more times, the Fiendfyre spell an almost living thing as it tried to regrow until it was all gone.

This had bought Harry enough time to spread out his fog of Invisibility, blinding Sirzechs to Harry's current position. In its fog form it also covered a large portion of the battlefield, making it possible that he could escape Sirzechs's senses entirely.

That fog of his is quite irritating. Hiding even from my senses is no mean feat, Sirzechs thought to himself, even as he lashed out, destroying the fog and dissipating it. He spotted several hundred Harrys racing off in every direction, but again, Harry's power of illusions was such that even Sirzechs couldn't figure out which was which without being close enough to touch. All of them were also casting spells at him. But those spells were just lights and fireworks, further illusions which could do no damage even if Sirzechs let them hit.

Misdirection again, Harry? he thought, blasting out at ten at a time, tiny tendrils of Power of Destruction coming from each finger, and two from his eyes. It's honestly speaking your only viable strategy against me, but that doesn't make it any more effective. Now, which one are you?

In point of fact, Harry wasn't any of them. He had hidden himself not under the fog, as Sirzechs thought, but under an illusion spell that covered a crater Sirzechs had created earlier in one of their encounters. One that, as he moved forward, Sirzechs placed himself directly above.

Once Sirzechs was in position, Harry moved like lightning, dissipating the illusion around him and thrusting upward with Fragarach. The blade of the weapon, which was now in the form of a large pike for more reach, cut through his aura and into Sirzechs's ankle, causing him to hiss and pull back.

But it didn't really do any debilitating damage, and Sirzechs's aura dealt with all of the other spells Harry sent at him in that brief second of weakness. And Harry had no defense whatsoever against the vast pillar of the Power of Destruction that Sirzechs sent crashing down towards them.

Yet just before the blast would have landed and possibly fried Harry beyond recognition, Sirzechs suddenly redirected it, smacking out with a lesser wave of destruction at Harry with his other hand. This sent him hurling backward, his body burnt and blistered. But the larger attack twisted around until it was aimed towards Koneko, who had just come out of her own Senjutsu-based illusion directly behind Sirzechs.

Koneko saw it coming and knew she was going to die. Her King's own brother was going to kill her in a training accident. He would probably be very sad about it afterwards, but that wouldn't matter much to Koneko's ashes after this attack hit, if it even left any, which was doubtful. That knowledge, however, didn't mean she was going to go down without a fight. She reached deep, grabbing at the magical core within her, grabbing at the power of the Boosted Gear as Ddraig roared in her mind to take it, and thrust a hand forward with a yowl on her lips. "Break!"

A deep rumbling roar shook the entire underground training area, and Ddraig's voice was added to Koneko's howl. "Balance Breaker!"

From the Boosted Gear's gauntlet red light streamed, covering her arm from the elbow up to her face and then moving up and over her body so quickly it looked instantaneous. One moment she was standing there in her normal fighting outfit, a magically enhanced and slightly shorter than regulation school uniform, and the next she was wearing a full body suit of armor.

The armor was made out of red scales of metal, with gold and green highlights here and there in the form of golden spikes at the joints. The green highlights came from a large gem set in the chest between Koneko's modest breasts, and two more were set on the backs of her hands. Those hands were now covered in long, metallic claws which moved as her fingers did. From her rear came a long, whip-like tail, several yards longer than her own, the end barbed and pointed, the entire thing made of smaller red scales. The crowning change was in the helmet she now wore, which looked like that of a dragon's maw shifting back into cat ears sticking out from the top of her head and covering her real ones. The eyes of the helmet gleamed yellow, adding to the effect.

Koneko's armored palm thrust slammed into the incoming attack from the Power of Destruction and actually succeeded in knocking it to one side. Then she was in Sirzechs's face, her other hand thrown backwards. "Fly away!" she roared, her voice sounding oddly discordant, like it was multi-layered rather than coming from within the helmet. The attack, accompanied by a blast of magic of four Boosts and Koneko's Senjutsu and Rook strength, smashed through his defenses and slammed into Sirzechs's jaw, hurling him backwards and down into the ground.

"'Fly away?'" Ddraig asked incredulously in her head. "Fly away, really? The most powerful attack you are going to launch for a good while and you call it 'fly away?'"

"I didn't call it that," Koneko muttered as she landed next to Harry staring out to where Sirzechs had created a large crater of his own just then. "That was more in the lines of a heartfelt wish."

"I suppose that makes more sense, but when you attack like that you're supposed to shout out some kind of special phrase, like a spell," Ddraig said, sounding almost affronted. "There's a certain formula to follow for these things."

Koneko grimaced at that, having learned from Harry that shouting out spells was silly, and not at all necessary in the long-term. She was about to reply but then Sirzechs appeared out from the dust his impact had caused, waving his hand to dissipate it and smiling at them, his other hand touching his jaw gingerly. "That was a good punch! Even stronger than one from my own Peerage's Rooks could have given me! Very damn good, Koneko!"

Koneko smiled at that, and the Boosted Gear power dissipated from around her. The cost of the Balance Breaker hit her instantly, causing her to collapse. But Harry caught her around the middle, lifting her up easily into a princess carry before moving over to one side and laying her out gently. "You did good kid."

"Of course," Sirzechs said from behind him, "that only leaves you who needs to reach his Balance Breaker status."

Sighing, Harry pulled the gauntlet off of Koneko's arm and slid it onto his own. "What do you think, Ddraig? Are you up to doing Balance Breaker twice in a row? Hell, is it even possible?"

"This is all new territory for me, Potter, but…maybe? I, hmm… I might have to take more of your energy, merge it into my own spell, as it were, but yes, I think it's possible." The eyes of the gauntlet lit up eagerly. "Let's do this!"

Harry sighed, moving his neck and shoulders as he let loose a low rumble. "That was what I was afraid you would say." He then grinned, wolfishly, of course, his fangs gleaming. "Once more into the breach, then!"

"Well, are you done trying to give yourself a pep talk?" Sirzechs asked, laughing. "Don't think you're going to be let off so easily as Koneko did."

"I'd say go fuck yourself," Harry said mildly, racing away from Koneko in order to let her rest more. "But that seems to be your wife's job anyway."

"I'll have you know behind closed doors that I wear the pants in our relationship!" Sirzechs bellowed back as he roared in on the attack.

"Just not anywhere else, then?" Harry deadpanned, adding more fuel to the fire.

It took three more near death experiences, one of which nearly had Harry's head completely blown off. Each time Harry and Sirzechs clashed, Harry tried new spells, new strategies, and every time Sirzech's sheer brute power stopped them. A few high-end spells got through, and the one time Harry tried to weaponize the Patronus spell, it had an impact, but not anywhere near enough. It turned out that Ddriag's Boosts could actually enhance certain spells, but in the heat of battle Harry couldn't find a pattern to which they would impact and which they could not.

Still, eventually Harry too was pushed to the limit, staring certain death in the face. Harry reached deep inside, not to his own reserves but to Ddraig, and pulled out all his remaining reserves to defend himself before he, too, achieved Balance Breaker.

But when he did, it wasn't anywhere close to what it had been with Koneko…

Sirzechs stared as the dimensional bubble around them collapsed around a hole that had just been torn inside it and the blade that was stuffed well into the roof of the ORC building's basement. Then he looked back as Harry collapsed to his knees, Balance Breaker form disappearing around him. "Well now, Harry Potter," Sirzechs said mildly, feeling blood dripping down from a deep cut on his arm. "That, that was quite something. You are a very dangerous young man, I have to say."

Harry smirked up at him before unsteadily pushing himself to his feet. "Coming from you, that's a compliment I'll treasure."

The two of them looked at one another, then laughed and moved over to where Koneko lay, her eyes wide at what she had just seen. Harry reached her and lifted her easily onto his back, giving her a kiss on the forehead before doing so. "Are we done here?" he asked, looking over at Sirzechs, not at all surprised to see that his wound was already closing.

"Oh, I think so," Sirzechs said with a chuckle, hefting up the device he'd brought along, which was sputtering and sizzling. "I think we've both learned things today, and I need to drop by Adjuka's to explain how I just broke his fancy toy before going home to Grayfia's tender mercies. Even with this thing I'm going to be several hours later than I told her I would be."

For a moment the walk out of the basement was silent, then Harry quipped, "So, I was right about Grayfia wearing the pants outside the bedroom, then?"

"Gah! Enough of that, damn it!" Sirzechs shouted back while Koneko giggled against Harry's neck as they continued up the stairs, the two men now exchanging good-natured insults instead of spells.

OOOOOOO

At the same time that Harry and Koneko were being put through a series of life-threatening battles, Rias was showing her mother around town and then to the compound. Unlike the semi-easy camaraderie of Harry and Sirzechs walking down to the training area, the conversation between the two women was rather stilted, neither of them quite knowing how to break the ice between them. Eventually they reached the house the Gremory clan had bought for Rias when she moved to Kuoh.

"That was interesting," Venelana said with a smile as they stepped from the back yard of the house into the main backyard of the Potter-Gremory compound. "Some of you and your brother's work, I presume? That was as smooth a transition as I've felt from many of your father's experiments. Well done."

"Thank you," Rias said, smiling politely, and then ducked underneath a flying griffin as it rocketed through the air after a book that whizzed through where her mother's head had been a moment ago.

From where Rias was crouching, she saw Teddy, Lily, and Kunou tossing things into the air and across the ground for the Okuri-inu and Titan to pounce on. Even Raiter had gotten in on the act, but he stayed still on his small perch, flinging his neck around and blasting at the books as they soared past with bolts of lightning.

"Tough day at school?" Rias asked dryly, not getting up from her crouch until the trio stopped, looking at her in surprise.

While the other two looked a little worried, Lily just nodded, a growl in her tone straight from her werewolf side of things. "Irritating! Very irritating." She then flung a flute as if it had personally offended her through the air, watching as Titan soared after it, catching it in his forepaws.

"What exactly happened?" Rias asked as she stood up, moving around the kids while Venelana did so too, stiffly glaring at the little ones.

"We're supposed to pick an instrument and start to learn how to play it," Kunou said, shuffling her feet a little as the two women looked at them.

"But we don't get any of the fun instruments, nooo! We get cymbals, simple flutes, and fiddles, of all things. Come on! What's the point of those? They're so boring!" Lily groused.

Rias laughed. "Well, I suppose that and those quizzes they sprang on you the other day would eat into any child's self-control no matter how saintly. And you, by gosh, are not a saint, are you, Lily?"

"Nope, not a saint, not a lady, just Lily," Lily said with a chuckle, picking up another book, having taken Rias's words for permission to continue their play.

"And I presume you're all prepared to practice your repair spells later?" Rias asked crossing her arms and looking at them sternly, keeping her eyes primarily on Lily, knowing she was the ringleader here.

That caused Teddy to pale, staring at the destruction of several of his schoolbooks in chagrin, while Kunou also frowned, pouting as she thrust out her bottom lip. Lily, though, simply nodded, though inwardly she quailed a little at that.

"In that case, crack on. Just be prepared to deal with the consequences~," Rias said in a singsong voice as she turned away.

"That's it?" Venelana asked incredulously. "That's all you're going to say to them for nearly beaning us with those books and destroying school books and school property for no good reason?"

Rias shrugged. "They've had a rough few weeks coming back to school, and Teddy in particular has had issues with the school work. No, I'm fine with them having a bit of an outlet. I would've preferred that they had waited, and we would've taken them on a trip to Kyoto tomorrow or something. But this seems to be as decent a way of getting their irritation at being back in school out as any.

"It will also be a lesson on how their actions can have consequences. When they have to go back to school and explain what happened to their books… Well, in Japanese culture books, and schoolbooks in particular, are supposed to be treasured, so it will be an interesting experience for them."

Her mother frowned. "That's not how I would have handled it."

"Well, I'm not you," Rias said, with a bit more snap in her tone than she had meant to use. She could see the hurt in Venelana's expression and sighed. "Sorry."

"No, I should apologize too," Venelana replied, looking away. "It will take a lot of work for us to get back to where we were, won't it?"

"Where we were? I can barely remember where we were before Riser," Rias said with a laugh that wasn't really humorous at all. "So yes, I think we can say that."

Venelana winced but followed Rias over to a lounge chair where they lay out, watching the kids have fun for a bit as the two of them searched for another safe topic to talk about. "So, how is Yubelluna fitting in here?" Venelana finally asked. "I have to admit to having some reservations about how you and Harry Potter simply took her with you all, but seeing the remains of her Queen piece, I knew, at least, that she had no further connection to Riser."

The Gremory clan servants had found a pile of dust under where Yubelluna had been Blessed by Harry long after the party had ended, gleaming with residual magic but otherwise unremarkable. It took more than a week for anyone to figure out what the dust had been, but Adjuka had eventually identified it.

"Very well, actually," Rias said with a smile. "She designed all of this, you see," she went on, gesturing to the trees and the bushes that dotted the backyard and created a barrier around the edge of it that provided a physical block to anyone trying to look in, though, of course, the wards around the area made that a near impossibility. "She lives with the ladies over in the girls' dorm, and beyond a few…call them teething troubles and personality clashes, it's been going well."

"You don't live over there any longer?" Venelana asked surprised.

"No," Rias said with a smile, one hand going down her body once and then back up to her lips. "I live here. I've moved into the same room as Harry, sleep in his bed, and I haven't looked back since."

Her mother giggled a little at that, amused by how proud and happy Rias sounded at that. It is like looking at a mirror into the past, she thought with amusement, remembering how she and Zeoticus had been after they had gotten over their relationship jitters and the fact that their own marriage had been arranged, just like they had tried to do between Rias and Riser. Mind twitching away at that thought, Venelana asked quickly, "And Kiba lives in the other dorms?"

"Kiba, Loup, and young Teddy live in the boys' townhouse, yes. Issei also sometimes hangs out over there, but he's the only one among us with an actual family beyond our little compound, so he doesn't spend as much time here as the others. He trains as hard as anyone else at school however," Rias said quickly, defending her young pawn. "Mittelt is much the same. She's not very much of a joiner, but both of them join us at least three times a week for dinner. And Kala's food is to die for! She's such a good cook," Rias ended with a wide smile.

"Better than yourself and Akeno?" Venelana asked. She had never had to cook in her life, but both girls had shown a marked interest in cooking since an early age, if for very different reasons.

"Much better, unfortunately," Rias said with a small scowl at the admission. "But, then again, she's been around for far longer than I have."

She looked up as a shout of, "I heard that!" and a spoon whirled past her head. But Rias caught it easily as she laughed.

"And you allow her to talk to you like that?" Venelana asked incredulously. From what she had gathered, Kala was something of a servant, after all, a Fallen Angel serving the Potters in return for her life, like Mittelt had joined Rias's peerage. And while the House of Gremory taught their children to treat servants as family, there was a line servants just shouldn't cross.

Whatever Grayfia's attitude to the contrary, Venelana thought with weary amusement, having long gotten used to the dynamics of her firstborn's marriage. But this Kalawarner, she's a Fallen Angel to boot! Surely…

"It was a spoon, Mother, nothing dangerous," Rias said with a laugh, tossing it back through the open door before it could close. "Besides, she knows I meant it in good taste."

Venelana shook her head, then they both looked over as Yubelluna moved over towards the kids from where she had been helping another tree grow in the boys' dorm area. One of the books had flown over the teleportation zone, and she picked it up from the ground before corralling Okuri-inu with her other hand, hefting him into the air.

"I believe these are yours," she said dryly, dropping them both in front of Kunou. Like Rias, she then asked what had sparked this bit of destruction, and her eyes narrowed dangerously when she heard about the straw that had broken the camel's back. "Say that again," she said dangerously.

"I said they're boring!" Lily said, gesturing down at her flute, pulling it away from Titan who had been playfully gnawing at it with its beak. "And cymbals and fiddles, come on! They're all so boring. Give me a drum or a guitar any day!"

Yubelluna's eyes narrowed. "Challenge accepted," she said calmly, moving around the trio of kids and entering the girls' dorm through its gateway, coming back with her fiddle, and raising it to her shoulder. "Prepare to eat those words."

Despite how confident she appeared on the outside, though, inside the purple-haired woman was quailing. Fuck, Yube, you put your foot in it this time. I'm only an amateur; how am I going to pull this off? But anger at the insult given to her instrument overrode that moment of hesitation, and she put bow to string, beginning to play a song she had listened to several times over the years.

{Check out Lindsey Stirling's Master of Tides}

As the kids looked on and began to clap their hands, Rias and Venelana both watched, wide-eyed. There was some kind of magic at work there that they could sense, feeling deep and ancient. Rias felt that it tied into Yubelluna's new bandrui powers, but not quite. Could the bandrui have worshiped through song as well as through working with nature? But then why didn't Yasaka and Tiamat tell us about it?

The answer to that would later be all too obvious: they hadn't known. Tiamat had very little interaction with the Irish pantheon, and most of what she had was antagonistic. Yasaka, in contrast, had never left Japan even before becoming the Kyuubi no Kitsune, and her family had never been abroad either.

At the end of Yubelluna's song all three of the kids were looking wide-eyed at her. She was breathing heavily and trembling a little, but she desperately kept her own eyes from showing any of her own shock. I've never been able to play that well before! Instead of voicing that thought, however, she reached out with her fiddle's bow and pushed lightly at Lily's chest. "Well?"

"I'm sorry I said it was boring," Lily said, downcast and looking down at her feet now.

Next to her Kunou looked up at Yubelluna with new hope in her eyes. "Do you think you could do the same with a flute?"

"Ah, um, no." Yubelluna shook her head. "Not me, but I bet we could find a video online that would show you that it could be exciting."

"How about cymbals?" Teddy asked sardonically, holding up two tiny cymbals. His expression, though, showed that he didn't think it likely.

As he had predicted, that stumped Yubelluna, and she frowned, staring at them thoughtfully. "Those, I'm afraid, you're probably stuck with being boring. But at least they're easy to play and rather loud, right?" she said, figuring that would be something that would appeal to a boy.

The kids laughed at that but then twitched as Rias coughed gently, clapping her hands. "Thank you for that amazing display, Yubelluna, on many levels." The former Phenex Queen bobbed into a curtsy, hearing the many levels of meaning in Rias's tone, and Rias smiled before turning her attention to the kids. "However, right now I think it's time for these three to start practicing the Reparo charm."

She moved over to stand in front of them as Yubelluna moved backwards, her mind still reeling from the music she had found flowing from her fingertips. "Now, the repair charm is simple, Reparo, and the gesture is this way." Rias gestured with her fingers in the same manner she had found in Harry's books. "Concentrate on the image of what you want the spell to do, concentrate on it, and the spell will superimpose that image over the reality."

Kunou whined a little, her fox ears dipping as she poked her fingers together, but Lily rolled up her sleeves and pressed forward. That didn't mean she was any good at this spell, though. There was a reason why European wizards began magical training so much later than the Onmyouji did: the kids could better visualize the effects with their more formed minds. Onmyouji, though, started at Kunou's age, and they had had instruction before this. But the charm was a bit more like a transfiguration spell rather than a charm like the ones the girls had used under Akeno's instructions.

Of the three, Teddy was actually able to produce the best spellwork. But even so, after they broke off, gasping in tiredness, none of their books were in any shape to be seen in public. Teddy broke off first, his books looking like they had been attacked by a dog. Kunou and Lily took nearly twice as long to tire, but their books looked even worse.

Rias cocked one eyebrow, looking at the crestfallen redhead in front of her, the now openly whimpering kitsune, and the chagrined and quite guilty looking Teddy. "I believe we've all learned a lesson here, haven't we, about treating one's property well? And," she went on more softly, getting down on her knees in front of Kunou and gently chucking her on the chin to make her look up, "something about peer pressure? Just because Lily says you should do something doesn't automatically mean you should follow along." She winked. "Most of the time, from Lily, it's a good idea, I'll admit, but not when she's throwing a temper tantrum, darling."

Lily twisted in place guiltily as Kunou slowly nodded. But then Lily surprised her with a hug. "That's true," she said, then pushed forward resolutely to face Rias from closer. "It was my idea," she said stoutly. "I was the one who pressured both Kunou and Teddy into joining me."

While Rias hadn't seen anything of the sort, she had to approve of Lily's spunk and her willingness to stand for friends like this. Then her smile widened slightly as Kunou tried to push Lily aside, saying that it had been both their idea as Teddy did the same.

"Well then, in the spirit of the friendship you're showing, I think…" Rias trailed off gesturing with a finger towards the books. "Reparo!" she shouted from where she was kneeling. A second later all of the books were back in the one piece. A few were dented, and the flute still looked as if it had been chewed on, but that was all, since the fiddle hadn't been thrown yet, and the cymbals were undamaged. She then turned back and winked at them. "I think you all deserve a do-over. However, this is the only time I'm going to do this. You will treat your schoolbooks and school materials with respect from now on, or else we will be talking about timeouts and losing privileges, am I clear?"

"Yes, Rias," Teddy and Kunou said, with Lily nodding vigorously. She then reached forward and hugged the still kneeling Rias, kissing her on the cheek. "Thanks for not being so hard on them, and, um, I'll, I'll watch what I'm doing more carefully from now on," she said, pulling back and winking before racing inside, shouting over her shoulders at the other two kids. "Come on! If we hurry we can put the books back, shower, and still have time to play some games before dinner."

"That was magnificent," Yubelluna said, smiling at the younger girl.

Rias nodded with a pleased smile. "I thought it went quite well too." Her mother also looked on proudly, her earlier doubts having been completely dissipated by that little show. But then Rias turned back to Yubelluna. "So, that song, there was something going on there. Do you have any ideas what it could be?"

Yubelluna shook her head, and the two of them fell into a conversation about what it could mean, though their ignorance about the bandrui kept them from coming to any real answers. They stopped talking about it after writing down some notes on what they had sensed during the song, but unless someone else had some ideas about what it could mean, they were stumped.

Venelana continued to mostly watch Rias interact with the rest of the extended clan. She watched as Rias helped Kala cook while striking up a conversation with Venelana and Yubelluna on the latest fashion trends down in the Underworld.

Others came and went, including the little Fallen turned Devil who had been so instrumental in the Rating Game. She stuck her nose in, asked how long would be for dinner, and then disappeared again. Akeno came home and joined the two cooking quickly, sliding in between Kala and Rias with practiced ease, all of them working well together, the two devil girls taking instruction from the blue-haired fallen with no sign of resentment or irritation that Venelana could detect.

Harry and Koneko returned home soon after Akeno arrived with Harry carrying Koneko on his back, having teleported directly into the entryway of the main house. "We're home, and, may I say," he said as Rias poked her head out from the kitchen, "that I am very happy we can do that these days. I really don't want more rumors to start with me carrying Koneko home like this."

"And how did training go?" Rias asked as the two of them entered the sitting room, Rias quickly following and looking on in concern at her utterly exhausted young Rook. There Harry laid Koneko out as they both gave her thumbs up. "Really!?"

"Your brother is evil," Koneko said, almost glaring at her King. "Truly evil." Then she relented a little. "But his training works."

"It even gave me some more ideas for Kiba and the others too," Harry said with a small smirk.

"My heart just quailed there when you said that, Harry," Yubelluna said with a drawl in her voice.

"Oh now, don't be like that, luv; it won't be anything you can't handle. And the upside will be truly bloody amazing," Harry replied.

His tone changed slightly to a flirtier sort of tone when he addressed the purple-haired woman, something that caused Venelana's eyes to widen and Yubelluna to flush. But when Venelana looked around from the table she saw that no one else, not even Rias, was reacting to that. So, with a shrug, she turned her attention to the rest of the growing crowd.

Sitting there observing everything as she almost faded into the background, Venelana could only smile wanly at the homey, family-like atmosphere that permeated the entire place. She could almost sense a different kind of magic in the air here too, a very odd sort. It was something like what most people would have assumed Holy magic would feel like: loving, giving off an almost uplifting power. Of course, Holy magic wasn't like that at all, but that was the only way Venelana could think to describe the feeling in the air.

But, more than anything, she saw how Rias interacted with everyone else, how she fit in. She saw how everything revolved around her and Harry. In some cases it was subtle, like with Kiba or Loup, who came in together, and in some cases it was much more overt, like with Kala, Asia, Akeno, and the kids. But, whatever it was, Harry and Rias were the center of it all, the ringmaster and his assistant, the two people around which everyone else revolved.

Whatever the dynamic, what Venelana was seeing was a clan, a separate entity created through fusing two different groups, then adding others into it. And nowhere was there room for her or Zeoticus. She really has made an entirely new family of her own here. And the only place left, I suppose, is the grandmother position.

She blanched visibly at that, but she was broken out of her thoughts by Kala setting a plate down in front of her. "Don't make that kind of face until you try my food first," Kala said firmly.

Looking up at the blue-haired fallen, Venelana smiled wanly. "I apologize. That wince wasn't about your food, that was about my own thoughts."

"Deep thoughts for later, food now," Lily said as she scooted up into her chair next to her daddy.

Venelana smiled politely at that, and, as everyone began to eat, took a bite herself, only to pause and stare down at her plate before chewing enthusiastically. "This is excellent! Can I get the recipe for this?"

"I'm afraid not," Kala said with a chuckle. "Most of my dishes I make up on the spot. And this, in particular, is something I was testing tonight for a cooking tournament on the first of February that I want to take part in. I take it this meal meets with everyone's approval?" she asked.

She was answered with a chorus of yeses and smiled as she sat down across from Rias, who was sitting next to Harry. Akeno sat next to her, and soon the long table, which had enlarged itself at some point to allow for the number of people, was full.

Later that night, Rias escorted Venelana home. She had noticed her mother was silent during the meal for the most part, but with everyone there save Yasaka she hadn't been able to concentrate on what her mother was doing.

"I'm happy for you," the older woman said as they reached the entrance to the Occult Research Club room. "I'm very happy for you, though I am confused about why you are allowing Kala and Yubelluna around. It's obvious that both are interested in Harry, after all."

Rias shrugged. "If Harry comes to love them as they seem to be coming to love him, or does love him, in Kala's case, I'll welcome them into our relationship. I'd come to respect Yubelluna long before we freed her, and Kala and I have long since buried whatever hatchet we had in the beginning. I think it's only a matter of time before she breaks down and decides to take the risk to be with Harry, and the chemistry between Yube and Harry is obvious. As long as I can get along with them and no one tries to push me out, I'll be fine with them joining."

Heck, I think that other one might actually be coming back into the fold in the future too, Rias thought with some amusement. But we'll see. I won't make the same mistake as I did before, trying to push them together when they weren't ready for it, if for very different reasons.

"Whatever happens, it won't wreck my and Harry's relationship. I know that here," she said, tapping her chest, "and here," tapping her forehead. "That is enough."

"I'm proud of you," Venelana said again, pulling her into a hug. Rias stiffened slightly, but returned it quickly, squeezing tightly. "And I will say again, I am sorry about what we did. I'm proud of the young woman you've become, I'm proud of the family you've built, and I am sorrier than I can ever be that I wasn't there to see you do it. But I'm still around, and I will keep trying to bridge this gap between us, Rias. You have my word on that."

"I'll try too, Mother," Rias said with a smile, pleased with this less formal, more heartfelt apology and talk than she had been from the initial talk with her parents before they met with the Phenex clan. "I really would like you back in my life in some fashion."

"But I will not assume the grandmother role in regards to your family," Venelana said firmly. "If you even hint at that kind of position for me when it comes to Lily and the others, I swear I'll turn my Power of Destruction on you. Sirzechs has followed the path of wisdom there, and Milicas always calls me Auntie, that is the oldest mode of address that I am comfortable with."

Rias laughed, and, after a moment's stern glaring, Venelana started laughed too. It was going to be a long road, but both women felt that eventually everything would be all right between them again. Now to just get Zeoticus here to talk to her in turn.

Unfortunately, this somewhat staid, safe life was about to be interrupted in a big way…

OOOOOOO

Rias had decided to head to Kyoto after school the Friday of their third week back to talk about the trip to the cooking competition and whether they would be able to take Kunou with them. She had taken Kunou and the other two kids with her, but Harry stayed at school that evening with Akeno, Yubelluna, and Kalawarner, who had come over to use the sand boxes in the planning room. Momo was there too, working with Kalawarner, and occasionally Harry broke off working with the others to look over their work.

Thanks to the book Harry had been given from the locals as recompense, he and Kala had started an entirely new project. But while Harry would have to be the one to get involved in the final result, as it were, Momo and Kala were the ones working on it for the most part. Harry had given them a few suggestions and had basically put his foot down and told them to go for quality over quantity, but the two of them were the ones working on the nuts and bolts of the project. Kala was also working on creating various types of magical weapons and items that could give their users some help in a battle, but was running into many issues there, though Harry suspected that was because she had decided to run before she could walk in terms of the effects she wanted to create. Still, the two of them were making swift progress on the main project.

Until Yubelluna's little moment with her fiddle, that would have been the exact opposite of the work of shifting the ward pillars underground, which was what Akeno, Harry, and Yubelluna were working on. No one wanted to take the wards down, but everything they had worked out via the runes and arithmetics said they would have to. If they didn't, the first time they tried to move one ward pillar the others would be unable to connect to it, and that break would cause a reaction. What that reaction would be varied, but it began at explosive and went up from there.

However, the magic Rias had seen in Yubelluna's music had allowed them a way around this property. Essentially, the magic she played worked almost like prayer did for the Church: it called on her god's magical core and filled the surrounding area with his magic, acting something like a force multiplier. Learning that she could pull at his magical core like that had been something of a shock for both Yubelluna and Harry, but, as Harry put it, "I don't want worshippers; I want friends. So long as you treat me more as your friend rather than your god, we're golden."

But the big thing about Yubelluna's songs was that they created a large amount of ambient magic, making spells easier, and, and this was the important thing, created what Harry thought of as an extension cord, taking any nearby spell and just keeping it going for longer than it normally would. In this manner they could figure out a way to allow the other pillars to continue to contact the one they were moving until they were done moving them. They would have to be quick about it and use speakers and other means to carry the sound of the music to each position, but it was still doable now, where before it would have been impossible.

They were all hard at work with Harry leading Yubelluna and Akeno in the arithmantic equations through which they would devise the song to best achieve the results needed when the door slammed open, and in walked Sona and Tsubaki, both of them looking worried and grim-faced. "Damn, here I was hoping Rias would also be down here. Can you get in contact with her? And Harry-san, we'll need you for this as well."

"What exactly is 'this,' and is it an immediate threat?" Harry asked promptly, standing up and moving towards the door with the others doing the same, leaving their work as it was in the various sand boxes.

"No, not immediately, but it is a major issue. My family just informed me that our agents have discovered that the Church has sent two representatives to Kuoh, either to infiltrate the area and spy on us or to contact us directly. We're not certain which, but this is important enough I feel we need our peerages and you here to greet them."

Harry frowned. "Hmm, I wonder if they'd even be able to operate at all, to be honest. If they feel a lot of animosity towards Devils, it's doubtful they will able to stay in Kuoh for long. Or would even that cause a diplomatic incident?" His voice was entirely analytical. Harry honestly didn't care about the Faction politics and wouldn't until it started to threaten his family. Then he would deal with it, one way or the other.

"That's true, and yes, it would cause a major incident even if we didn't actively do anything. That means we must have someone meet them at the outskirts." Sona said with a sigh. "Tsubaki, can I count on you for this?"

"I'll go with you," Yubelluna said, nodding to the younger woman. "If there are two of them, there should be two of us there too. And it should be people who aren't easy to anger either. Even Church diplomats tend to be very arrogant and prickly."

Harry's eyes narrowed at that and asked, "Should we keep Asia away from them?" A part of him thought that meeting these Church people would help her grow in a way, help her to put the past even further behind her. The rest worried that the Church representatives might just attack her, given the way the Church had turned on her.

"Hmm, I would say keep her away but tell her they are here, let her make the decision to face them," Sona replied. "Now, where is Rias?"

About two hours later, Tsubaki and Yubelluna brought two young women into the ORC clubroom.

They were of equal or near to equal height with Sona, wearing robes that obscured most of their bodies. As they pushed their hoods back they revealed rather pretty faces of girls perhaps the same age as Kiba. One had blue hair, chopped short, the other brown colored hair in twin-tails, disappearing into her cloak. Their eyes were also somewhat unusual: violet colored for the longer-haired girl, and a yellow approaching that of Koneko's in the case of the blue-haired girl.

Both of them stiffened, seeing the sheer number of people waiting for them. Sona stood there with Saji, her two Knights and two Bishops, though her Pawns were nowhere to be seen, having been ordered to wait out of sight and trail the two Church reps once they left. Rias's whole peerage was there bar Mittelt, who, like Kalawarner, was being kept under wraps. Church people had an easy time discerning devils and Fallen from normal humans, and no one wanted to complicate an already volatile situation.

Harry and Asia were also there, the young girl having decided to confront these people as a part of her past she wanted to leave behind. They stood to one side of Rias's peerage, and Yubelluna moved to join them, stepping behind and to one side of Harry. When he looked at her questioningly she shrugged her shoulders and smiled, indicated that the two Church reps hadn't said or done anything offensive yet.

That ended now as one of them, the blue haired girl, spoke, gesturing to herself and her companion. "This many devils here to see just the two of us? Well, I suppose it is only natural, given your weakness to Holy magic, that you would feel the need to stack the deck. I am Xenovia, this is Irina. We are here to tell you we will be entering your territory to conduct a search for Church property. We are not here to fight unless we find evidence to link you to the theft of the item in question."

Kiba growled, but Tsubaki gave him a look as did Harry, and he subsided. Rias simply smirked, amused at the arrogance of the twosome. "Telling us, are you? This is our territory, Xenovia, Irina. You do not come here to tell us anything. Rather, you need to ask permission, and I rather think your higher-ups told you that. Indeed, if we had not been warned to expect you, you would never have been able to enter Kuoh at all, given that attitude."

Both Exorcists looked confused, and Sona smirked. "You are currently under a very strong set of magical wards which defend those read into them from those who have not been by magical threats, including magical weaponry. Please don't try anything against anyone here. You might die before we can stop it."

Xenovia scowled, reaching for a large covered item on her back, and then gasped as the wards activated all around her, watching, waiting for her to do something. Wha, what is this feeling!? It was like being a mouse facing a tiger. It was not really interested in you, but if you were cheeky it might decide to squash you all the same. What have these devils wrought here!?

Shaking her head, Irina held up her hands, moving around Xenovia. "We really aren't here to fight, please. We are merely here to search for an artifact stolen from the Church. We don't intend nor want violence with anyone here."

Her eyes had flicked to Issei when she said that, so fast it looked more like she was trying to look at everyone at once, but Harry had caught it anyway. Huh, I wonder what that's about? Regardless, the blue-haired woman slowly removed her hands from her sword's hilt, and the feeling of being targeted by a tiger went away.

"The Church is still looking for your stolen Holy Swords?" Rias asked, almost but not quite solicitously. She had even kept the contempt out of her voice, a remarkable feat in her opinion.

"Ara, and that after we went to all the trouble of returning one of them to you after finding and defeating the thieves who had stolen it," Akeno mused, shaking her head. She hadn't kept as much of the contempt out of her voice as her King, alas.

Both Exorcists flushed at that, but Irina continued to be their spokesperson and spoke calmly. "We are indeed in search of the last Excalibur Sword, and the Church thanks you for your peacekeeping gesture of returning it through diplomatic channels once you had retrieved it. But while the Church was able to track the last sword, it led us a roundabout route: first into Russia, then China, then across the ocean into America where we nearly lost the trail, then back to here in Japan. And here the route seems to indicate that the thief was making for Kuoh, although we can't be certain. The Church doesn't have many resources here in Japan."

"Indeed, heathens vastly outnumber the true believers here in Japan and most other Oriental countries," Xenovia cut in, frowning and pointing at Asia, which made Harry tense beside her. "But there seems to be one here, yet standing with Devils? Is that just an ornamentation, girl? If so, it is in poor taste."

Asia flushed, but Harry put his hand on her back, patting it lightly and she firmed her shoulders and replied stoutly, though carefully removing the word 'God' from her words as she spoke. "No, my rosary is real, as is my faith in the Most Holy. I give homage to Him and His laws, as I have always done, following the sense of the law rather than the letter. And I judge people, men, women, Devil, Fallen, or believer by their actions rather than what race they are."

Xenovia's eyes narrowed at that, while Irina frowned, looking at her closely. "I, you look somewhat familiar, but…could it be that you're Asia Argento? But she was completely blonde, not with just a streak like you have!"

"I am Asia Potter now," Asia replied softly, yet there was steel in her voice. "I left the Argento name behind. The Church cast me out, but I found a home with my new family eventually."

"Ah, now it makes sense! The girl whose holy power was discovered to be fake, a tool of the Devil with which she healed one of the unholy," Xenovia said, while Irina scowled at Asia. "Yet you still attempt to say you believe in God?"

All the devils winced at that while Asia simply sighed and shook her head, holding her rosary. "For how thou dost treat others wilt reflect upon thee in turn.' Kindness and a desire to help others, both things I was encouraged to feel by the Church, were why I helped the man who later turned out to be a devil. I had no prior knowledge of that, and yet, despite that, the Church still kicked me out. They did not even listen to my reasons, despite knowing for a fact that all Sacred Gears come from our Lord. That is why I still believe in Him, but not in the Church created by fallible men."

"You dare to question his Holiness and his Church!? You are not just a heretic, but an arrogant one!" Xenovia barked, reaching again for the hilt of her massive sword.

"If you touch that hilt you will not live to draw it," Harry said coolly as he put a protective arm around Asia's shoulders. "Asia has already told you she has become a Potter. She no longer answers to the Church and certainly not to you two attack dogs. Leave her alone or you won't like the consequences."

The two exorcists looked at him, and after a moment their senses told them what he was. "Werewolf!? What is an unaffiliated werewolf doing…"

"None of your business," Rias replied blandly. "Suffice it to say that Harry has done enough for Kuoh in general and for us to give him equal say in what happens in our town. And you two are not making a good impression. I also have to inform you that the same wards you felt a moment ago mean there is no chance of any magical item like a sword going unnoticed. Nothing could be hidden in our area without us knowing about it."

"That is precisely what the Church is afraid of," Irina said softly, looking back at Rias earnestly.

That caused Rias and Sona to both frown, while Harry scoffed, instantly getting it. "Someone thinks we pulled a feint? Gave back Excalibur Transparency so you all wouldn't suspect Rias or Sona of having the other?"

"They are devils, creatures of deceit and Sin, much like you are a vile corruption of the image of man and beast," Xenovia said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Truly Argento has chosen the correct group to join, given her own lies."

"Potter," Asia said before anyone else could respond to these insults. "I am Asia Potter. The least you could do if you wish to insult me is to use my proper name."

Xenovia scowled, but Asia simply stared back at her, unafraid, one hand clenched on the rosary, the other pushing Harry back to face the two exorcists alone. There was no hate in Asia's eyes, no condemnation or regret, simply acceptance and stern resolve. And eventually it was Xenovia who looked away, her hands falling to her sides.

Pushing her glasses up her nose, Sona bit back the urge to sigh or curse, she wasn't certain which. The idea that the Church suspected them of keeping a holy sword for themselves was something new which none of them had anticipated. And how do you disprove something like that? Prove the nonexistence of the sword? Damn it.

She exchanged a look with Rias, who nearly glared back at her before relenting, nodding her head. There's really no choice if we want to keep the peace.

"But really, I'm sad to see Issei-kun here. When did you become a Devil, Issei-kun?" Irina asked, interrupting the thoughts of the two Kings.

"Huh?" Issei said, jolting a bit at being put on the spot like that. "Um, what do you mean? Why would my being a devil bother you?"

Irina pouted. "Issei-kun, I thought it was the case, but you really don't recognize me. And after we used to play all the time before my father's job took us back to Italy. Still, that was years ago," she went on, seemingly becoming a little depressed. "I guess it's only natural that you forget your childhood friend, Irina Shidou."

Ruruko's eyes narrowed, and she slipped an arm through Issei's, smiling somehow sharply at the other woman. "Yep, totally natural. I'm sorry if you were hoping for some big reunion or something, but Issei, my boyfriend, has moved on."

Irina's eyes narrowed, and her pout hardened into a frown.

Blushing a bit at Ruruko's possessiveness while also wondering how to break the news to her about his dream of creating a harem, Issei blinked. Then, as her last name registered, he shouted in shock, pointing at Irina. "Eh? But, I though Shidou-kun was a guy! When did you grow such, um, I mean, were you always a woman? You um, didn't have a, um, a change there?" He tried to cover himself and even succeeded to most, though Harry and Akeno both knew what he had been about to say.

"Ugh, no! Do you have any idea how blasphemous even the idea is? I've always been a girl, darn it." Irina pouted even more and looked away, obviously trying to set aside some old, fond dream of some sort.

Rias rolled her eyes but looked over at Sona. "What should we do?"

Xenovia made to open her mouth, but Harry had had enough of her at this point and flicked his fingers lightly at her, encasing her head in a Muffliato. "Shush, the adults are talking." To Irina he added, "I'll remove the spell after you two leave, but I don't think she can offer anything constructive to any discussion at this point.

"Um, I suppose you're right," Irina replied, a little worried at the speed of that spell from the werewolf and the fact there hadn't been any warning either. "And for what it's worth, I'm rather sorry the higher ups are basically accusing you of this. But we do have a holy duty to retrieve the Sacred Swords."

Kiba's eyes narrowed dramatically at that, but he said nothing. Harry and Tsubaki had gotten him over much of his anger at the Church for the Holy Sword Project, though he would never look at them as anything more than threats.

Smiling at her Knight's self-control, Rias looked over at Harry. "Harry, do you have anything in your bag of tricks to help us here?"

"As I understand it, the problem's twofold. We know that the sword can't possibly be here. The Church thinks it can't be anywhere else." Harry sighed. "So we need to work with these two, even the blue-haired one, though I reserve the right to remove her head if she threatens Asia again or acts like those crazy Exorcists did and attack Lily. If the wards don't kill them after that, I will."

Irina frowned at that, wondering who Lily was, but figuring it was someone else like Asia by the way the werewolf was talking. Further, the simple way he threatened to kill two well-trained Exorcists of the Church armed with shards of the Holy Sword Excalibur bothered her, as did the way everyone else acted, as if the statement was easy to believe.

But Harry went on, showing no sign of seeing her reaction. "Further, we have to think that this could be something from the Khaos Brigade or some other faction attempting to cause trouble between the Devils and the Church."

"Yes, and?" Sona drawled, her tone and body language communicating an 'of course we know that, get on with it' statement without her actually needed to waste energy saying the words aloud.

Harry chuckled but went on quickly. "There'd be no point to this alone. No offense intended, at the moment, anyway, to the two young ladies, but even if they disappear that can't be enough of a reason for the Church to start open hostilities. They're young, probably inexperienced, and were chosen for this mission because they were expendable as much as the fact they are compatible with those swords of theirs."

"The Church would never do that!" Irina barked, angry now. "How dare you say that?!"

Harry sighed. "Perhaps not the Church as a whole, but a small portion of it? Who cut your orders Irina, the pope speaking, um, ex-catheter, or someone else?"

"It's ex cathedra, and no, obviously His Holiness is far too busy with more important matters to bother with something like this," Irina replied, scowling now.

"Harry, stop, please," Rias stated, sending her lover a look, part commiseration and part plea. She knew he wanted an excuse to remove the threat to Asia, but right now these two weren't an honest threat, and they had to put up with them. "You were saying something about them possibly having more attacks ready to go?"

Harry looked at her, felt Yubelluna touching his arm and Asia moving back to take his hand, and smiled apologetically over at Irina, surprising her. "Sorry, Irina. I think this meeting has not brought out the best in anyone. Just…don't threaten my daughter or let that one do so either," he said, gesturing at the scowling Xenovia, who had quickly realized she had been silenced but had decided to not make an issue of it.

As Irina nodded in understanding, Harry went on. "Anyway, yes, I think they might have more to this plan. But forewarned is forearmed. I say we turn this around on whoever it is and set up an ambush if we can."

"Agreed," Rias said sharply before looking over at Sona, who also nodded.

"Very well. For now you two can stay in Kuoh," Sona said, taking charge for now. "Do you have the means to find temporary accommodations, or should we provide some funds for you?"

Irina's nose wrinkled at that, and she shook her head. "No, we have our own resources, thank you," she said stiffly. "If that is all, I think we'll take our leave. We'll start our own investigations tomorrow."

"Very well. But don't be surprised to find that we've had some of our familiars or people following you," Rias replied dryly. She looked over at Harry who removed the spell over Xenovia's head. With that and a final glare from the young, blue-haired girl, the two of them left, and Rias sighed, leaning back in her chair before looking over at Kiba. "Thank you for keeping your head, Kiba. I know it could not have been easy for you."

"Actually it was much easier than I expected. Although I will still destroy those swords if I get the chance," Kiba said thoughtfully, looking off into the distance as if he wasn't quite certain if he should be happy his anger at the Church had diminished.

Nodding at that and leaving her Knight to his own thoughts, Rias turned to Harry. "So, what should we do?"

Harry smirked, stepping into the center of the room and holding up his hands, tiny lights flashing from his fingers. "Maaagic…" At the boos and hisses this response caused, he laughed. "Heh, but seriously. There are a few spells we can put up outside the wards that could warn us of anything going on out there. I think if we can spot the trouble coming, we can spring our own ambush on whoever is behind this and turn it around entirely."

His smile turned wolfish, a baring of teeth that would have looked more at home on his werewolf body. "You do, after all, have access to myself and Yasaka, who both specialize at illusions. We can create any kind of scene we want to in order to elicit the response we want."

"Hhmmm. Tricky, but with the wards in place…" Sona began.

"Actually if we extrapolate that someone is targeting us, it stands to reason they might know something of our resources, including the wards. Is there any way someone could destroy them before attacking in force? Even against an army, the wards could mean the difference between life and death," Tsubaki interrupted her King, looking a little apologetic at having done so, but also very firm.

"Take out the ward pillars using nonmagical means," Akeno said promptly, nodding at her fellow Queen. "If they can find them, anyway."

"Regardless of if they can find them, we need to expedite burying the pillars. Can we get that done in a day or so?" Rias asked, smiling thinly when Harry, after a moment's thought, nodded, while Yubelluna winced, not looking forward to how much work that much fiddle playing would be. "Good. If we can do that, then I think whoever is going to try and attack us is in for a very big surprise…"

End Chapter

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As you can see this doesn't really start to move the combat forward as much as I had hoped but I forgot several things needed to happen before that: Asia starting school, the pervs being dealt with, Le Fay returning, Serafall's intro, and other things. Sorry about that, but I hope you enjoy the chapter anyway.