Chapter Title: Chapter 78 Part ONE
Author's Notes: It is suspected that I have a concussion. My brain is slooooow. I'm trying. Here's part one and I'll get part two done this next week, I promise!

Thank you Arnel for beta'ing.

Happy holidays everyone.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Chapter 78

"Lily?" Nat called out as she entered the fireplace of Lily's sprawling house. Nat glanced out at the stunning view of the fall leaves which were just beginning to turn for the season. It was only the beginning of October but an unseasonable cold snap had started the change early.

"One minute," Lily called from somewhere near the kitchen. Nat used that moment to remove the dust from her clothes and light an actual fire in the grate. The house was so large it was difficult to heat and Nat knew Lily wouldn't keep a fire going in every room. But they needed to talk and the cold was seeping into every fiber of Nat's body.

A moment later Lily's cat, Ducky, came sauntering out from the cat room, which Nat had found extremely amusing. Lily had so many rooms that she'd been able to dedicate a whole room to places for the cat to climb. "Hullo Duck," Nat said as she bent to scratch behind Ducky's ear. Ducky purred loudly and then turned and left just as quietly as she'd come.

Sera's clacking nails told Nat that Lily was on her way and a moment later, Lily came through the archway of the kitchen holding a tray with tea.

"Lovely," Nat said as she came around to sit while Lily set the tray on the coffee table. "I'm freezing! This cold is only supposed to last a few days, but I can't wait for it to be gone."

"I know," Lily agreed as she poured them each a cup of tea. "I was just saying to Scorpius that even with the house well insulated against the cold, it still feels drafty!"

Nat waited until Lily was settled before she said, "Alright, lets discuss the Halloween party."

"No," Lily replied with a big smile. "I know that's why I said I wanted you to come over, but actually it has nothing to do with that."

Confused, Nat could only stare at her. Lily had sent her a note asking her to come around to discuss throwing a massive Halloween bash at their house that year. Lily's house was huge and it could accommodate everyone in the family, so they were swapping over to using Lily and Scorpius' place for the legions of family. It wasn't traditional to do anything on Halloween, but Lily had said in her note that she wanted to start something and asked Nat if she'd like to help. Nat had always liked the big Halloweens at Hogwarts, so she'd readily agreed. "Well… then what did you want to talk about?"

Lily fiddled with the hem of the sweater she was wearing. Nat could see the baby girl floating around in her stomach. She glowed so brightly and it was good to see. Alright, it was also a little bittersweet, thinking about her friends all getting to become mothers when Nat wasn't likely to get there. Even if she did marry, at some point, her cycles were a bit wonky and well… she wasn't going to think about that right then. She was going to enjoy her friends' children and love being an honorary 'aunt' of sorts in the family. Lily's baby was currently sleeping and it was sweet to see the baby growing and developing. She was a powerful little one, as well. All the babies who were magical glowed with a light of power, but this little one had something extra about her. Nat hadn't told anyone about it. She didn't want them to know ahead of time and treat the baby differently. Also, there were a lot of babies being born and they didn't need a competition.

Odds on the baby would have a single magical ability that was making her stand out, rather than something extra like the boy from America that Harry had been talking about.

"The thing is…" Lily hesitated. "It's about Al."

"What about Al?" Nat asked curiously. They both turned as the fireplace flared and Al tumbled out. "Nat, Dad needs you at the Ministry."

"What?" Nat questioned, wrongfooted at his sudden appearance. He didn't look exactly right, either. He was holding the invisibility cloak out to her, but his eyes were definitely strained. "What's wrong?"

"Is everyone okay?" Lily asked in alarm as she studied her brother.

Al waved his sister off. "Yeah, yeah, it's fine Lils. It's just some Ministry business that we need Nat for."

"It's not just some Ministry thing," Lily shot back. "I can tell! Something is wrong."

"It's…" Al hesitated and then shrugged. "She's going to meet the American bloke who is like her, but he's more like Dumbledore. I'm just worried for her safety, Lily. But she'll be protected, you know, it's just me worrying."

Nat glanced to see Lily open her mouth to argue, shut it again, consider her brother, and then nod. "Alright. I'm going to host a Halloween party. You'll tell Lena I'd like her to come, won't you?"

"Sure," Al agreed absently as he held out the cloak again. "Come on, we need to get going."

"Alright," Nat sighed as she grabbed the cloak. She hated using the Floo with the damn thing. It was hot and awkward. She often tripped, but Al knew that so he went first and she followed immediately after, falling predictably into his arms while he stood at the fireplace waiting for her.

"It's safe," Al whispered as they arrived. "No one else is in the room, which was the plan but we couldn't guarantee it."

Nat squeezed his hand through the cloak and then let go. She knew what to do and it was to silently follow along behind Al to whatever meeting space they were going to.

It turned out they were going to one of the Minister's private rooms. She wanted to ask, but when he hit the button for the Minister's floor on the elevator, Nat knew. She'd been to that meeting room before and apart from the Auror's private room, it was the most secure in the building. The only problem with the Auror's room was it was inside of the Auror office, which was teaming with people. The minister could empty her outer office without arousing too much suspicion, making her meeting room truly private.

Nat didn't ask questions, didn't say anything at all, until she followed Al into the room and spotted the boy. She guessed he was technically a man, at seventeen, but she knew for a fact he'd only just turned that age. She couldn't help but stare at him as he stood off in a corner, speaking to the Head Auror from America. It had been a long time since she'd found the remains of the man, Louis Kingston's son, but she would never forget the boy and what he'd looked like. He'd been a skeleton, but she'd known. She'd been able to put a face on his son and she saw a lot of that face in the aged man before him. He was a tall man, although not as tall as his son. He was powerfully built with a wide, broad face and the deep brown eyes and skin that spoke of his heritage as African from probably only a generation or two back. He was a powerful man, but it had to be said, it was nothing compared to the power radiating off of the seventeen-year-old Patrick Hassel. She'd heard stories about Dumbledore and she thought she could have imagined what he'd have been like. She'd seen powerful witches and wizards in her years in the magical world.

But it was nothing compared to what she was seeing now. He glowed with a light so bright she almost wanted to stop being able to see it. It was pulsating off of him in waves that rippled out father and faster than any other magical being she'd ever encountered. It was interesting, because he didn't yet have control of what was spilling off of him. She wondered if he knew that. She also wondered just how powerful he actually was and if he'd sense her under the cloak, but he fixed his gaze on Al and didn't once glance her way.

She knew the cloak was one of the Deathly Hallows. She'd heard the stories and the legends. She'd seen the power of the cloak, but admittedly she'd never seen another invisibility cloak so she had nothing to compare it to.

She wondered what the power of the three Deathly Hallows together would have looked like. Then she wondered why she was wondering about that when they had pressing issues and Al seemed to be stewing next to her.

Oh right, Dumbledore. This kid was going to be the next Dumbledore if he ever figured out how to keep his power inside. What she knew about Dumbledore is that he was a very contained and reserved man and she was still staring at a teenager, so he had time yet.

As long as he didn't go rouge.

She really had to stop thinking.

"Natalie."

Nat turned to see her father was in the room and she was surprised enough that she grinned, even though he couldn't see her. She hadn't realized her dad would be here for this. But she didn't speak, because she realized she'd been wool gathering and missed whatever instruction she was supposed to have heard. If they needed her to do something, they would repeat themselves. It wasn't like this was the first time she'd zoned out.

"Cloak off," her dad told her.

Nat pulled off the cloak and she saw his grin. She heard the boy's small intake of breath and she turned to find him staring at her.

"That's incredible!" he said in clear astonishment. "Where did you get that cloak? I can sense things through every other cloak!"

Harry turned to him and smiled. "It's been in my family for a long time. Rick, I'd like you to meet Nat and you met my son earlier. I don't think I explained it, but my son and Nat have been very good friends for a long, long time and I thought she would feel more comfortable meeting someone new with both her father and her best friend here."

Nat kept her smile fixed in place, but had to wonder at what Harry was going on about. Nat had no problem meeting new people and going new places. She'd been raised from infancy to do just that. Still, Harry would have a point so she didn't say anything.

"Hey," Rick said with a wave to Nat. "Can I see that cloak?"

Harry nodded for her to hand it over and she did, watching the way his magic interacted with the material. Interestingly, the cloak seemed to soak up some of the magic coming off of him, making it glow a little brighter to Nat. Curious.

"This is really cool," he said again and then handed it back to Nat. "Well," he said to her as he finally looked her up and down. "Yeah, your magic looks just like it does in the picture I saw of you. Can you do that?"

"No," Nat told him. "I can only see the magic in the actual person or thing. I can get glimpses of what someone would have looked like as they age from a picture and I can see a person's face on their skull, but my father is a scientist that does that work, so I think I have that ability because of some training."

"You can look at someone's skull and see their face?" Rick asked, his brow raised in astonishment.

Auror Kingston cleared his throat and it was in not quite a steady voice that he said, "It was how she identified that it was my son who had died."

The young man fell silent at that. It was a hard memory for Nat, but she couldn't even imagine what it was like for Mr. Kingston. Nat felt Al's hand touch hers and she gripped it for a moment, sending him a grateful smile, before she let go and refocused on Rick. "Do you know your magic is spilling off of you in waves?"

"I…" he hesitated and then asked, "What exactly do you mean?"

"It's flowing off of you into the air," Nat told him as she studied it more closely. She moved around him and extended her hand, feeling the magic trying to connect with her. "You're losing a lot of your magic, all the way out to here. It's just dissipating after it leaves you if it doesn't connect with something. You didn't sense that?"

"No," Rick admitted quietly. "I see the magic I have in the mirror, but it just looks like a bright haze around my body. I see the magic of others, as well. Usually it's less bright, but yours is different. It's almost a different color. I have it, as well."

"Can I have a piece of parchment, please?" Nat asked Harry and he pulled some out along with a quill. Quickly Nat sketched a stick figure and then turned and studied Rick more closely before drawing what the tendrils were doing. "When you touched the cloak, you gave it some of your magic," she told him as she showed him the picture. "It's fine, as you have a lot of it, but I think you'd be even more powerful if you managed to keep it closer to you."

Louis let out a small snort. "I'm not sure he needs to be more powerful."

Rick grinned over at his mentor before turning back to Nat. "He has a point."

"I think what she's saying," Curtis told him, "is that if you let the magic out like that, you may unintendedly imbue things that weren't supposed to be imbued. That's the correct word for it, right?"

"Yes," Harry agreed.

"I do mean that," Nat confirmed, then she hesitated, not sure how to say what she was wanting to say next. She noticed Al pick up the parchment and study it and she waited. He was so good at strategy. She wondered if he'd spot it and see the flaw.

He did. "Mate, so here's what I'm seeing," Al said as he walked over to Rick. "With all this coming off of you, you might work a spell and have all this extra magic mess things up. Maybe I'm wrong, but how is your control when you're doing something really big?"

Rick hesitated and then glanced to Kingston. It was Kingston who answered. "If he's doing something complicated, the control can slip and the spell can go a little wild. Sometimes it's overdone, sometimes it just misses the mark. We weren't sure why. You think this might be it?"

"Did you mean to give the cloak more magic?" Nat asked him curiously.

He looked genuinely stunned for a brief moment. "No," Rick admitted sheepishly. "I didn't even realize I had. I thought I could see my magic as it is, but obviously I can't see as much as I thought I could."

It was a small comfort to see the humility in him. If he didn't have any, he could turn deadly… fast. Likely there wouldn't be any way to stop him, either. "I can't see any of my own power," Nat said quietly. "I can see what I'm doing. I can see the workings. I can see the magic in others, including babies who aren't yet born."

"Wait," Rick held up a hand. "You can see the magic in a pregnant woman?"

"Yes," Nat confirmed with a small smile. "I can even see the baby and what it is doing in there. I can see it all."

"Wow," Rick said as he let out a whistle. The same sentiment was echoed by Kingston. "I can't do that," Rick told her. "I can see a woman is pregnant after a while, but only because the magic of the baby increases her own and I have to compare it to what she had before."

"You each have your skills," Harry told them. "I'm hoping that, together, you can work to give us a better picture of the virus and what we are dealing with. We need to know how to tell the Muggles to kill it."

"But first," Kingston said as he glanced between them, "I think they're going to need to figure out how the other works. I personally want to know if Hassel is transferring power to other objects, be they magical or ordinary."

"That's a good idea," Harry said as he studied him. "Let's start with something that's not magical. Curtis, do you have any money on you?"

"I do," Nat's dad confirmed. He pulled some coins from his pocket and handed them to Rick.

Nat watched and saw the magic flow in through the coins, but then out again before dissolving into the room's atmosphere. She had to wonder if others were feeling the aura coming off of him. "Are you feeling his energy?" Nat asked, glancing around at everyone. Everyone, including her father, nodded.

"It almost feels like a vibration," Curtis told her.

Nat glanced over to Al and waited. He hesitated only a moment before he said, "I can feel the power. It's clearly there."

"It's because of how much is pouring off of you," Nat told Rick as she turned back to him. "In some ways, that might warn an opponent not to mess with you, but with that it also means you lose the element of surprise."

He considered her for a moment and then closed his eyes, his brow furrowing and his jaw scrunched up. She watched him and then watched his energy and very, very slowly she saw the trickle of power start to pull back. "Yes," she whispered. "That's doing it."

But the second he let his breath go, it was back to pouring out. "That's hard work."

"Yeah, I don't think that's sustainable," Nat agreed as she pondered him.

"That thing you did with Snape…" Al began and then he stopped and turned to his dad.

Harry smiled ruefully. "Occlumency, which I was rubbish at. Actually, I'm still rubbish at it, but yes. That might do it. Do you have someone who could train him?" Harry asked Kingston.

The Auror nodded. "Yes, I do."

"Well," Harry said as he picked up a mirror. Nat realized, with a start, that it was one of the mirrors Hermione had enchanted for them a long time ago. She had hers… somewhere. Come to that, she didn't know where it was. It was likely still in her old school trunk. "Whose is that one?"

"Mine," Harry assured her with a long sigh. "I had Hermione make it for me after that one time in Brazil."

"Ah," Nat and her dad said at the same time. They all remembered that time she was kidnapped. It was the beginning of her major health crisis. She felt Al shift next to her and she glanced over, smiling sadly at him. It had been such a bad time for all of them, and he'd been there through it. His green eyes met hers and she knew he was remembering it, as well.

Rick cleared his throat and Nat turned back to see him holding the mirror. The magic was going straight into the mirror but some was leaking out again. Interesting. "It's not all staying in the mirror," she told them. "Some is, but not all of it." She focused again on Harry. "Do you have anything else that's powerfully magical in the room?"

Harry hesitated for a moment and then said he did. To her surprise, she pulled out the Marauder's Map, which was just a blank parchment at the moment. He handed it to Rick and sure enough, all the magic went straight into the map. "Alright, so the more powerfully magical an object is, the more it sucks up the magic," Nat told the group.

"What is this?" Rick asked the room.

Al held out his hand and then activated the map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"Woah," Rick said in awe as the map came to life. "Is that Hogwarts?"

"It is," Harry confirmed. "My dad and his friends made it when they were at school. It shows everyone in the school. I've kept it here in case of security issues."

"I did have it," Al told Rick. "It was dead useful for sneaking around, but honestly by the time we were getting set to leave, it was safer for Dad to have it. We had too many close calls and we weren't sneaking out."

It wasn't safe for Nat and it wasn't safe for Lily. That's what Al wasn't saying. And, realistically, James was the only one who used it to sneak about. The rest of them weren't as interested.

Nat hated to admit they'd been boring, but it was true.

"So can I see what you can do?" Rick asked Nat.

"Yes," Harry said as he pulled out a vial of green liquid. "Al, you ready to do the honors?"

Al let out a snort and shook his head. "This is why I was actually let in on this meeting."

"No," Harry assured his son unconvincingly.

Nat grinned, watched Al drink down the liquid which was just a mild sedative. She touched his hand and began pulling it out through his stomach and out of his skin before it even had a chance to take hold.

"Wait!" Rick said as he circled around her. "Wait, wait, wait! That was… what the hell just happened there?!"

Nat turned to him, keeping her hand on Al in case he swayed. Not that she'd be able to hold him up as he was massive, but it made her feel better. "What did you see?"

"I saw him drink it and then there was this energy shift in him… no, I guess it was a magical shift, and then the green liquid started to come out of his skin."

"Huh," she said as she studied Rick. "You couldn't see it moving through his body?"

"No," Rick assured her. "I could see and feel you doing something, but it just looked like a white haze as things moved around."

"I see the green liquid going down into him, and then I watch it as I pull it through him and out," Nat said simply. "It's how I cure all the women being poisoned. I see the poison and pull it out."

Rick's mouth dropped open and then he laughed. "Alright, that's seriously impressive. I can't do anything like that! I can't move the magic that way. I can see it and sense it, and to some degree I can manipulate it, but I need my wand to do that. You just… with your hand! You didn't even use a wand!"

"And that," Harry said slowly, "is why your silence on what she can do is absolutely vital."