Chapter 35: Goofing Off

Thursday 6th April 1995.

Sirius smiled as he laid the final steps of his plans into place in his mind.

This was going to be a lot of fun. Not only was he able to be with the kids during their testing, instead of sitting at home worrying all night like the others. But he would be the one tasked with 'attacking' them in their sleep. Something he'd not done since the Hedwig incident of '89.

He shuddered slightly at the memory of the tiny owl's revenge. Those yellow eyes were truly haunting when you earned Hedwig's displeasure and her claws… he had learnt his lesson well enough to never toy with the bird again.

Not to mention that the way nine-year-old Harry had looked at him afterwards had affected him far deeper than any disappointed look his mother, surrogate or biological, had ever fixed him with. Being stuck to the roof of the canopy bed and left there for two days, trapped out of sight of the nearby portrait while Harry and Hermione had spent the time at the Grangers, had simply sealed the deal.

His attention was drawn from his memory to the plinth as the two teens settled into place, Harry seated with Hermione reclining against him. Apparently, after Harry's first success at the previous session, Lurlor had wanted to try the same particulars on Hermione and see if they could replicate it quickly.

Mostly though, Sirius was simply glad to be out of the house with the pair again.

He certainly loved Potter Manor even more than he hated Grimmauld Place, but after the experience of freedom and nostalgia he'd gathered over the past few months, even a nice house began to look a little like a cage. And Sirius'd had quite enough of being locked up.

While he could always come and go as he pleased from the Manor, it never felt as fun getting out and about without Harry or the others alongside him.

He closed his eyes for a moment and assessed that relationship. His godson had done more to cement him in reality after his release than anything else. While Padfoot had kept him sane in Azkaban, Harry convinced him that he was outside its walls.

At times he lapsed, wondering how long before the delusion would collapse and he'd find those dark stone walls around him once more. But a single hug from Harry could ward it off for days, if not weeks.

"Shhhh…" Harry whispered, Sirius now adapted to notice his godson's voice like a radar found his eyes tracking the boy's subtle movements once more. "Sleep."

Harry was running his fingers gently through Hermione's wild hair and Sirius smiled that Harry was likely going to make the Potter family's hair issues even worse if the two ever had children of their own.

James had embraced the family trait fully, playing it up as part of his dashing charm, and somehow a little of that had rubbed off on Harry as well. He had kept his hair longer, around shoulder length since he was ten, something about making it easier to manage.

But between stories from his father and Sirius's own influence, he was sure that Harry felt it gave him a sophisticated look as well when he tied it back.

With Harry's focused attention on her hair, Hermione's breathing slowed quickly and Sirius was sure she was fast asleep within half an hour. He had seen both teens sleeping many times as his most common sleeping place was still perched at the end of their bed.

The ridicule had stopped a year ago after even James had seen what comfort it brought all parties and he had finally grown bored of mocking his mate. Sirius had Harry nearby, his touchstone keeping him settled. And Harry loved having his godfather nearby on the odd occasion he woke from a nightmare.

Sure, Hermione did the lion's share of the actual comforting, but Sirius was buoyed by the fact Harry always gave him a firm hug before the pair settled back to sleep once again.

Sirius was drawn from his thoughts once again as a rock hit him in the chest and his hand shot up to prevent it from tumbling all the way to the floor. He glanced in the direction he believed it had come from to see a frowning Lurlor watching him as her eyes moved to Hermione and back.

He nodded and drew his wand, the plan replaying softly in his mind. He'd spent days perfecting the ability to cast two spells simultaneously just for this specific task and now was the moment of truth.

Sirius took a deep breath and noticed Harry was watching him out of the corner of his eye as he continued massaging Hermione's scalp. "Stupefy."

The maroon-coloured spell left his wand and quickly hit the sleeping witch and just like that, she was gone.

The shimmer of a portkey was the only change before Harry was left holding only air between his fingers. Even though they both knew it was coming, Sirius still felt a stab of pain at the look of loss on Harry's face.

He knew the boy was fighting the instinct to follow her, even though he knew she was now lying on her bed at the Manor, Remus and Nemea watching and waiting to ensure her safety during both legs of the trip.

Seconds ticked by and Harry's discomfort grew. Sirius began to feel a little bad for his godson and wondered if his prank had upset the process. He was about to speak when a slight pop rent the near-silent air of the small chamber.

Hermione's still sleeping body had returned with Nemea holding her hand softly, but its skin was a bright pink colour, exactly the pink Hermione had once threatened to change Sirius's animagus form.

Harry's hands quickly found their way to Hermione's shoulders while his eyes turned immediately to Sirius. The marauder smiled at him, his eyes bright with the typical mischief he carried and brought anywhere he went, yet Harry did not actually speak to reprimand him for his actions.

He turned away and faced the goblin woman who was frantically scanning Hermione with the occasional dark glance up at Sirius as well.

After a few moments, the pink colouration disappeared, leaving her looking as normal as ever and Lurlor finished her scans. "Wake her." She snapped sharply.

Harry's eyes flicked to Sirius for a fraction of a second once more before they locked on Hermione, the boy leaning forward so that his face would be the first thing that she saw upon waking. Sirius cast the spell to remove the stunner and Hermione quickly woke, her eyes locking on Harry and a smile spreading across her face.

Without a word passing between them, Hermione gave Harry's face a gentle touch before she turned to glare directly at Sirius.

Yet there was a depth of mirth there that he hadn't expected to see so soon after she woke. While so far as he knew no one had told her yet of the manner of his prank, he knew that she would have expected one.

He gave her a cheeky smile in return and Hermione gave a light chuckle before she turned away and covered her mouth as the laughter built. Sirius was once again uncertain why she was so pleased before he moved to place his wand back in his sleeve and noticed that his own skin was now an even brighter shade of pink than he had turned Hermione.

Shock spread through him for a moment as he wondered when and how the pair had reversed his efforts back against him. Harry had not spoken or moved his hands at all, and yet Hermione had been asleep the entire time.

How had they managed it?

"How?" He asked, looking up at the pair who immediately broke down into intense laughter. Even the Gragnar guards were shuddering slightly at his condition.

"You really thought we weren't absolutely expecting you to pull something?" Hermione asked.

"Of course. I knew you'd expect it. My question is how you did it. Neither of you actually cast a spell. I know what it looks like when you two cast. Even your other magic."

Hermione's smile widened and she looked up to Harry. Neither spoke a word, but he knew that they were communicating. They couldn't directly hear one another's thoughts, he had asked Harry about these odd moments a few times, but they were so intimately familiar with one another that they could still pass general feelings and ideas without a word.

The pair refocused on him and Harry moved to talk before Lurlor interrupted.

"You might be paying for this, but my time is still valuable. You can discuss this foolishness on your own time."

Sirius moved to speak, but the severe look the goblin gave him in return quickly quelled the desire. He sat back down and watched as Lurlor softly discussed the result with the two teens before Hermione once more settled into place and Harry resumed gently stroking her hair, sending her once more to sleep, though this time it took somewhat longer for her to drift off.

Harry would occasionally glance in his direction and begin to chuckle softly to himself, but Sirius was too busy focusing on the memory of what had happened to take too much notice.

The kids had escalated their casting ability without him noticing if they had managed to pull off such a masterful reversal. He barely even noticed the next two larger stones that were tossed into his chest, casting the required stunner without much focus at all.

How on Earth had they done it?

ϟ

Sunday 9th April 1995.

The beetle darted near silently through the corridors of the ancient school, flitting between sappy couples wandering about hand in hand and the study freaks who were perched in every spare quiet corner studying frantically even though the exams were still months away.

None of which interested her in any way at all. Nothing this lot was doing was the slightest bit newsworthy.

The most newsworthy of all was frustratingly absent. Since her first nugget of genius where she had managed to catch the famous child departing a broom cupboard with another of the champions, she had been unable to lock him or his permanent tagalong down long enough to garner any extra inches out of the biggest mystery of the modern wizarding world besides banal nonsense pieces related to the Tournament itself.

She settled on the wall for a moment, catching her breath as she watched the corridor empty, most of the children far too bothered with frivolous things to waste their time standing about indoors on a bright spring day. And yet, the sound of skipping soon met her tiny ears and the blonde child of her former competitor came into view.

Normally, Rita would ignore her and move on to something far more interesting, but for once the girl was not alone.

She was skipping between a pair of students, one Gryffindor and the other Ravenclaw, as they moved up the corridor. Rita knew of the boy, he was the child of the Addled Aurors. But the darker-skinned girl was unknown to her. Still, the three of them wouldn't even warrant a mention in the paper at all, much less be the front-page headlines she so eagerly craved.

Rita was about to flutter off in search of more fascinating topics when the blonde suddenly charged forward and glomped heavily onto a pair that had certainly not been there a moment before.

A pair that she was a great deal more interested in.

"Nice to see you too, Luna. Neville. Padma." Harry Potter greeted as the tiny girl jumped from him to the brunette beside him.

"You stay away too much." The blonde replied, barely stepping back far enough to allow the others she'd been walking with to greet the newcomers.

"I know, we're sorry," Granger added as the group stepped back into a small circle. "But at least it hasn't been wasted time. We finished our GCSE studies. Just waiting on the results now."

"Hermione has been near frantic waiting to hear back." Potter lightly joked and the brunette went red at the gentle ribbing.

"How are things here?" The girl said in an attempt to refocus the discussion as Rita carefully moved closer to the group, hoping that at last, she might garner another story out of the most famous lad in their world.

"Quite boring without you two. All of my classes have been frustratingly mundane. And I'm learning magic." Padma replied.

"Neville?" Potter asked.

"Things are good. The Twins have stopped trying to get me to test their stuff. I'm not sure what you said to them."

"I didn't say anything, I put them in touch with someone who appreciates a good laugh just as much as they do. Hopefully, he can help reign in a few of their showier aspects."

Granger gave a disbelieving chortle. "Not likely. He'll probably make them worse."

"True. He was talking about finding property for them in Diagon once they finish up next year. Should be interesting. What about you, little one? I trust everyone is being nice?"

Potter focused on the tiny blonde, giving her hair a slight ruffle as she smiled brightly at him. "Yes. And the nargles haven't stolen anything in months. Even though you aren't around."

He smiled at her in return and glanced at the girl Rita assumed to be of Indian descent. "It is nice and quiet in the Nest actually."

Some cryptic message seemed to pass with the mention, but Rita was unable to discern it. She would see about looking into it later on. For now, she was focused on getting closer.

It didn't seem like the group was about to discuss anything openly that would make for interesting news. But if she could get aboard Potter or Granger, she could follow them to wherever he was hiding.

That at the least would be front-page news. And who knows what else she might find at such a place.

She allowed the chatter to drift to the back of her mind as she settled softly into the bushy hair of Potter's forever companion and let her mind drift over the accolades and awards such a revelation might furnish her.

Rita only turned her mind fully back to the teens when she heard footsteps leaving and noticed the three students were departing.

"I'm glad that Padma is still watching out for her. I was worried that, in your absence, her bullies would resume taking advantage. Luna is too innocent at times." Granger said as the three disappeared around the corner.

"I know. Seeing that lot messing with her made my blood boil. I just want to wrap her up in bubble wrap and keep her safe."

"You've never had much tolerance for bullies. Remember Mitchell? Or Robinson."

Potter gave a soft chuckle at the memory of the events. Rita wondered how she might go about uncovering the story behind them and bringing it to light. Either way, it would be an easy spin to make.

Either Potter would come out the shining knight everyone believed him to be, defending the innocent. Or an overly harsh and violent aggressor. She wasn't sure which would sell better. Likely the former with Potter's current public persona being what it was.

"Shall we go? Your parents had something they wanted to show us." Potter asked, and the brunette nodded, waving both her hair and by extension Rita, around rather violently.

Given how thick and bushy it was, Rita had to focus all her energy on remaining attached.

With the slightest soft pop, she felt displacement take hold, but it was unlike any form of magical travel she had experienced before. Unfortunately for Rita, even those other forms were far nicer than what happened next.

Something hit her hard!

Every inch of her body was suddenly sore as though she had been hit by one of those motor vehicles that the muggles used to get about. She quickly noted that her form had dropped and she was once more in human shape, but she didn't even have time to analyse how that had happened before she was painfully cold as well.

Thick churning waves tossed her about as she panicked. She was underwater and couldn't tell which way was up. She gave an involuntary shout and bubbles shot out of her mouth. They darted past her eyes and her mind made the link that air moved up in water.

She surged after the bubbles, her every muscle already screaming in pain from whatever had struck her.

After a few moments of struggle against the surging currents, she broke the surface and took in a deep gulp of near-frosted air. Dense dark clouds menaced her from above as the rough surface of the water tossed her about. She searched in her now ruined robes for her wand, angry as she realised that her glasses had fallen loose and were now likely somewhere deep in whatever blasted stretch of water this was.

Pulling it free, she tried to focus her mind on her apartment, and when she moved to turn into the apparition, nothing happened.

She remained in place, being tossed back and forth by black waves of freezing water. She cast a warming charm on herself, dispelling some of the chill and proving that magic worked wherever it was she had been discarded. She tried to apparate once more, and this time she felt something foreign and sinister squeezing her back in return.

Rita had never felt anything quite like it, but her main concern was the mouthful of disgusting saltwater that she was now spitting out. She was beginning to have trouble keeping above the surging waves with the strain on her already tormented muscles.

She jabbed her wand at a space above the churning waters and a simple wooden boat appeared atop the surface. Without delay, she hauled herself inside and slumped on her back in the middle of the plain conjuration.

It did not help with the growing nausea as the waves still tossed it to and fro without mercy, but at least she wasn't struggling to keep her head above water.

As she sat up and moved to think of her options, even the boat proved unsafe in her current location as a particularly large wave crashed down over the top and she was once more drenched in water. Spitting out the second mouthful of the dirty salty brine, she cast a shield charm over the boat and quickly tossed out the water that had gained entry.

Rita was worried now, wherever she was, she was in trouble. While she could cast simple enough charms, it seemed any form of transit magic wasn't working. She couldn't even get the boat to begin piloting itself in any direction.

Angry, soaked and without seemingly any other recourse, Rita conjured a pair of oars and despite the complaints of her muscles, began to row the boat slowly away from the point where she had landed. Using her wand, she identified north and set off in that direction hoping that eventually, she would find land. Or that her ability to apparate away would return.

Potter was going to pay for this. No more nice reporter.

ϟ

Hermione stopped as the pair arrived back in her garden and looked around at the air.

She had felt something bounce off the wards at the exact moment they had returned. Harry immediately noticed the concern on her face as she looked about herself.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Something just tried to follow us home. Something from Hogwarts." She replied.

How could something have followed them? The only people who knew they were visiting today were the trio they had just left. None of them would have told anyone else of their arrival.

Harry stepped over to her and placed his hands gently on her upper arms. "Focus, Hermione. Do you remember feeling anything odd?"

She stared into his eyes for a moment before she closed her own and tried to extend her senses over her recent memories. Looking for anything that might have been there that she didn't immediately notice as odd at the time.

There was a lot of magic all around them as they stood in the corridor chatting to some of their closest young friends. But that was to be expected at Hogwarts. The building itself was infused with centuries of it, and there were hundreds of students running through its halls at any given moment.

And yet, something was slightly off about the feel of the hallway. There was more magic there than there should have been. "Something is… there's too much."

Hermione opened her eyes to see that Harry's were now closed as he too was running over his memory of their departure.

"You're right. Something extra, more than just Hogwarts and the five of us in the space. But I can't see anything. I don't feel anything invisible, but there is something familiar about the texture of it. Familiar, but different."

He opened his eyes and their gazes met once more. Hermione felt a flicker of heat at the intensity of Harry's gaze, so focused was his thought when examining a recent memory, but she quickly squashed it down. She had more important things to worry about.

She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes again, but this time she did not dive into her mind but stretched out her senses into the present.

The familiar warmth of the wards around the property filled her up and she felt the connection she had to the tree and the petrified dragon egg Heartstone buried within its roots.

The immense magic of it would be overwhelming if not for her long and comforting link with all its aspects. Feeling the strands and waves of magic it wove in and out of the house and land around her, she plucked lightly with her magic on the individual pieces, trying to ascertain which of them had been stressed most recently.

"Definitely an intruder. Human. Magical. They ended up in the usual place." She said aloud as she assessed the feeling left behind by the impact. "There it is. The imprint is an animagus. But not one I can remember meeting before."

When she opened her eyes again, Harry looked mildly angry. "Every time I think things might be becoming somewhat normal… We'll have to be more vigilant. Maybe use that room the elves showed us if we go back."

Hermione pulled him close and wrapped her arms around his body. It aggravated her that Harry seemed unable to simply have a normal life. No matter what he did, people would always fawn over him and want to know more about his private life.

"I'm sorry, Harry."

He pulled back from the hug and smiled at her. "Don't be sorry. My life may be complicated, but you are by far the best thing in it every day of the week. I'll never be sorry that you asked me that question so long ago. I remember it as clearly as anything. 'Why don't you stand up to him?' We've both come a long way since then."

"That is true. I can't believe I used to be that frail worried little girl."

"Not anymore. You're my powerful warrior princess. Keeping me safe from the masses at the door. Be they nasty animagi or teenage girls who can't take a hint."

Hermione smiled at the compliment. "You are mine. And I'm not giving you up to anyone without a fight."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Harry paused for a moment before he looked straight into her eyes. A serious intensity was now visible in his gaze. "I love you, Hermione. More than anything."

Her smile grew wider and she looked deep into his eyes as she replied. "And I love you, Harry. Through everything. Against all the world. Forever."

The pair leaned in and kissed softly, sharing the intense moment intimately between them before she pulled back and the moment passed, being just another Sunday afternoon at the Grangers once more. She glanced over to the nearby kitchen window to see her mother watching them with a smile before the blush rose on her cheeks and she looked away.

"Let's go. I sense some ribbing is coming our way." She said softly and allowed Harry to guide her inside, letting the residual feeling of that kiss wash away the last of the concern from the attempted intruder.

ϟ

Friday 14th April 1995.

"Alright. That is it, I am done." Remus stated as he marched into the forest of a nursery, still heavily overgrown from Harry's early efforts at controlling his elven magics.

Harry and Hermione looked up from where they were tending to some of the smaller plants to face the werewolf. "He is driving me insane. Please, tell me how you did it so I can at least look at him with a smug face whenever he asks me."

The teens both paused for a moment before laughing out loud at the attempt and Remus frowned at their reaction. He had expected it, he was a consummate prankster himself after all, but it was still not what he'd been hoping for.

"Sirius. I can feel you there. How did you get a hold of my cloak?" Harry asked the empty air just outside the doorway Remus had come storming through a moment before.

"Bugger." Padfoot groaned, almost too soft to hear but for Remus's enhanced hearing ability.

The werewolf heard the familiar sound of the ancient enchanted fabric sliding off his friend, but the soft yelp indicated it was not by Sirius's hand that it had been removed. The shimmering material shot past Remus's shoulder and into Hermione's hand and Sirius was revealed to the world once more.

"Hi." He offered pathetically and Remus rolled his eyes. He had told Sirius that such a boneheaded scheme wouldn't work, but they were bored.

"OK, so that didn't work. Knew it wouldn't. But come on. He is being truly insufferable." Remus pleaded.

"That is so unfortunate," Hermione replied, smirking as she rolled up the cloak and tucked it into Harry's pocket. "Our teachers would be most upset with us if we just gave you two the answer. How will you ever learn better if you don't figure a puzzle out for yourselves?"

Remus's stare narrowed as Hermione parroted one of his own teaching mantras back at him and Sirius snorted behind him. "You have a real cheek sometimes, Hermione."

"She really does. Isn't it great?" Harry praised and the girl blushed softly. "This isn't even a particularly difficult puzzle to figure out."

Harry turned back to face the small white flowers growing above deeply black stems, tending to the slight form as it twitched occasionally at his touch. Remus was proud of how advanced the pair was that they were easily handling plants that generally would have been NEWT level or higher, and how the two had tamed this room even if it was still thoroughly overgrown from his outburst so long ago.

In fact, Remus wasn't entirely sure that the two teens weren't occasionally adding a little more wild magic to the mix just to keep all the new seedlings growing just as eagerly.

Beside Harry, Hermione gave the white petal a light pet before she turned to the dittany in front of her and also returned her focus to the task at hand, once more ignoring the man-children begging for answers.

Without warning a purple spell flew past Remus's arm and he watched as the spell hit Harry in the back, something the boy had to have noticed. And yet, Harry did not turn. He didn't seem to react in any way as his hair changed colour to match the spell that had been cast.

When Remus turned to berate Sirius for his childishness, he froze as the man's hair had also changed colour and was currently making its way through the entire rainbow over and over.

"Er…" Remus was at a loss for words. He had heard the initial story of how the kids had somehow reversed Sirius's prank on him during the tests last week, but now he was witnessing it first-hand.

Neither of the children had made any move to cast a spell via any of the means he knew them to be capable of doing so. They had long ago mastered silent casting, but they still needed to move their hands or wands in order to allow the magic to leave their bodies to achieve the desired effect. And yet, without his knowledge as their tutor, they had somehow developed beyond even that limitation.

Remus turned back to the pair "Seriously? As your teacher, how?" He begged with exasperation.

Hermione's head dropped and Harry began to laugh as Remus turned back to face them. A strangled shout from the doorway indicated that Sirius had noticed how they had once more turned his spell back on him and he charged off down the hallway to the nearby bathroom and its large mirror.

"It's easy. The same way we knew Sirius was standing there." Harry replied as though that explained everything fully.

"Please. This is wonderful magic. I have to know how you do it. Is it something the rest of us mere mortals can achieve?" He ribbed as the two before him chuckled at his constant references to them being so much more than human at times.

"Maybe. It's been so long since either of us has felt magic normally, you'd have to experiment for yourself to be sure." Hermione replied as she finished tending to the dittany and turned to face Remus once more, leaning back against the table holding the plants. "You can feel the magic of others, yes?"

Remus nodded. He was not as adept at it as the kids were, but during their training, the adults had all noticed how the kids could often sense where a spell would be coming from by sensing the caster themselves. They had tested their own ability to do so and had noticed that when they really focused, they could indeed sense the presence of magic around them and follow its trail.

The answer whacked Remus in the face and he actually gave a start at how rapidly it had come to him. Hermione noticed the change in expression on his face and simply tapped her temple twice before she rounded the table and began tending to something on the far side.

"That is… fascinating. Incredible even. Down the trail of his own spell. And yet… invisible to the eye. Can it be done without taking the first spell?"

"Not that we've managed yet." Harry offered softly and Remus heard the stomping footfalls of his friend returning from the other room.

"Alright. I surrender. Please remove it." Sirius said as he re-entered the room and Remus lost all remaining control.

He burst out laughing at the sight of his best friend who was now entirely different colours from head to toe. They continuously changed from one colour to the next, seemingly at random, but each article of clothing and piece of skin and hair was different to the one next to it at any given moment.

It seemed that, not only had the kids figured out how to return a spell of their own down an incoming spell's trail, but they had also infused this one with resistance to removal. The more Sirius had tried to undo the spell, the worse its effect had become.

"Mercy, please," Sirius begged as the teens both turned to look at him and suppressed their obvious glee.

"Mercy. If you stop asking. If you can figure it out for yourself, we'll let you know if you're right. But we aren't going to tell you how to cast spells on people without moving or speaking. We aren't stupid, Sirius." Harry explained.

"I wouldn't use it on you!" He rebutted, drawing even stronger laughter from the now doubled-over Remus and a knowing stare from Harry. "Yeah, I didn't believe it even as I said it."

Hermione snapped her fingers and Sirius returned to normal. "Were you always such a sore loser?"

"Yes. Yes, he was." Remus said as he finally settled somewhat from the giggling fit he had been suffering through. "Don't pout at me, Padfoot. You know it's the truth."

"Fine. You all win. I'm going to commiserate my loss with James. At least he is nice to me." Sirius grumbled dramatically as he departed once more.

"I love him to bits, but he is such a drama queen," Harry said after a moment before he joined Hermione on the other side of the table. "Neville was right though. These are thriving with that new mix. I think I'm going to have to bring him here during the holidays. Get his advice on some of the other problem cases."

"He really knows herbology in and out. It's as natural to him as popping is to us. Now that his confidence is growing, I can't wait to see what he comes up with later on. There is a spark in him he was so afraid to tap." Hermione added.

"Just remember to ask your parents before you go bringing any more friends around. I don't need to listen to any more Lily rants because you've snuck someone in again. We can modify memories now." Remus informed them, having heard about the infamous birthday surprise where Harry had brought Hermione to the Manor for the first time.

"Of course," Harry replied sweetly and Remus didn't believe the two words for a moment. He was well experienced at spotting James's habit which Harry had evidently picked up.

He sighed and turned from the children, heading for the kitchen. "I need a drink. And people wonder why I never had children of my own. Such a handful."

Though he was incredibly proud of the both of them for their new discovery.