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: High Mind Speech:

SPRB

After flying for about 3 hours, in a plane that was not truly airworthy, Hermione tensed up. "Shite!" She had been looking out the window.

"Bail, Bail, Bail!"

Harry was already moving. He had the Door open, with Hedwig tucked under his arm.

Soran dove out, morphing into a blue winged blur as he fell away.

Kyra Trusting her new friends, followed, morphing into a half snake woman, to create wind drag.

Hermione bolted out in her Gryffin form.

Harry kicked off, falling away before releasing Hedwig. He saw what scared Hermione. A bird… an eagle twice the size of their plane, ripped into said plane, shredding it.

Harry released Hedwig, while Drawing his wand and firing off a feather light hex on Kyra. Stowing his wand, he morphed into his own form and snagged her backpack in his talons.

The four flyers, Gryffin Hermione, Drakon Soran, Hedwig, and Owl Harry, quickly landed and got under cover.

Kyra looked about from where she 'stood' the top of her tail vibrating in her agitation. "What the Hell was that?"

"Which?" Hermione stretched up as she regained her human form. "The Roc killing our ride or…"

"Yes, the Roc, but I was talking about your furry nature." Kyra hissed. "I thought you were Human!"

"Technically we are." Hermione spoke as she watched the sky. "How about we continue this on the hoof. I don't want to face that thing.

Harry snorted. "No, that's my job." Hedwig resettled on his shoulder. "Allow us to fully introduce ourselves. What do you know about Magical England's Society?"

"Random Gossip rag shit." Kyra shrugged as she slithered along. "Why…"

"What my friend is saying, we are a bit renowned." Hermione smiled. "Allow me to introduce Harry Potter, Storm Rider, Dragon Racer, Lord of Potter, Lord of Black, and the Next Dark Lord."

"You enjoy doing that… Miss Baggens." Harry snarked.

Kyra had stopped… "The Harry Potter? The TriWizard Champion? Death-stalker Himself?"

"Death-stalker?" Harry and Hermione chorused.

"Death either walks in your shadow, or runs from you." Kyra smiled. "It all depends on who is spinning the tales."

Hermione smiled at Harry. "Quarrel, Tom's Diary, Cedric." She gripped his shoulder. "Not all of them had it coming… but Death follows you like a cloak." She kissed his cheek. "And only those who stand at your side are safe."

"Say what?" Kyra frowned.

"You called him the Death-stalker." Hermione shrugged. "He fought a troll at age eleven for me. I have not stepped from his side since, and I am still here. That will be five years this Samhain." Hermione checked her Wayfynder, before she took off into the forest.

"So…we stay close to you and we will get to Snow Point alive."

"I can promise that 'Alive' is in your favour." Harry smiled. "Arrival is not promised this year, but should we fail to make it… I can promise you a year of study on an island just north of Rio."

Kyra raised an eyebrow. "I think we will take you up on that." She slithered up to match Hermione's pace. "Now what?"

"We travel as far as we can by foot, then camp." Hermione picked her way along the thick forested floor. "We want to avoid the jungle, but the direct route leads us deep into it."

"Do you know where we are?" Harry scratched under the pouch.

"Whereabouts." Hermione sighed. "The location veraint of the Tempus charm is not as accurate… but I can guess. We are a few hundred miles north of Cordoba."

"Would it be to our advantage to go there?" Harry asked.

"Not really." Hermione climbed over a log. "Too many muggles… and if there are any Winx, they are Followers of Grinwald and their descendants."

"So… either we have people who would not be helpful or have to fight our way out." Harry nodded. "And no big river to ride south."

"So …" Kyra huffed as she followed Hermione out of the woods on a ledge overlooking a valley. "Now what?"

"We fly." Harry answered. He drew and fired a feather-light hex on Kyra before he shoved her off the edge.

"Fuck you very much!" Kyra twisted about to give double fisted Harry the bird.

Soran barked before he dove out after the falling female.

"What?" Harry asked Hermione as she glared at him.

"I wanted to push her off the edge." The witch blurred into a burrowing Owl and followed the others.

Hedwig dusted his crown before following.

Harry shrugged, before he stepped off the edge and enjoyed the free fall… as he streaked by the others. He blurred into his owl shape, flaring his wings and, catching the updraft, landed lightly on the branch… only for the branch to break and drop him to the ground. Only because of his reflection and wing spread did he avoid being hurt.

As he stood up and brushed himself off, he missed a pissed Kyra slithering up and slugging him across the jaw.

"You fucking Bastard!"

"I accept that." Harry rubbed his jaw. "Feeling better?"

Kyra glared at him, before punching him in the chest, and moving off.

SPRB

As the Sun began to set, Hermione double checked her Wayfynder, and adjusted course. She led the way to a clearing. "Okay. Harry set up Camp and get started on Dinner. I will get started on the ward line."

Harry slid the pack off and pulled out a Tent. "I have a chile in the pot." A flick of his wand. "Oh… Kyra. Hermione insisted on the Hot Tub." The single person dome tent popped up. He ducked into the tent.

"Did he say Hot Tub?" Kyra snapped about as the speckled git vanished.

"That's what I heard." Soran was by her side. "That and Chile. But How…"

"Oh, that." Hermione smirked. "As Harry would say, I love Magic." She followed Harry dragging his pack. The two Americans exchanged looks before diving for the flap…

And landed in the main room of a cottage. A cottage that looked like it was carved into a large tree. Everything was solid wood, not planks, panels, nor tiles. The Breakfast Bar that showed Harry in the kitchen and the accompanying stools looked like they were grown from the floor.

Hermione was setting Hedwig on a perch that was growing out of the wall… beside six shelves of books.

The centre of the room had a fire pit with a circular couch/bench around it.

"How?" Soran began to ask.

"A gift from the King of the Nation of Goblins… English Branch." Harry popped the lid of the cast iron pot that definitely was not a cauldron.

"A gift?" Kyra whispered.

"No." Hermione smiled as removed the vest to reveal a sports bra of dragon hide. "Gift. Capital G. But offering the King an Axe as big as himself, said to be welded by an Ancestor… you get the idea."

"Your vest doesn't match…" Soran looked annoyed with them using Dragon Hide.

"Because I am swearing Ridgeback while he is wearing Horntail. I borrowed the vest when we got to the café." Hermione tossed the vest onto the back of the couch… only for it to vanish. "Harry?"

"I didn't tell him to come." Harry had four bowls on the counter, as he was thinly slicing an onion. "But with her post pregnancy… Why do you think I spent so much time bathing Daphne?"

"Oh thank Merlin." Hermione sighed she collapsed on her section of bench. "Tasha thought you were tasting her like a blood pop."

"No. But it didn't hurt my bonding with her." He then minced the onion. "It was better than bathing the dog… at least her hair doesn't get stuck in my teeth."

Soran blinked before turning to the Lamia, "And you are okay with this?

"Hot food, hot tub and a fire." She turned to the Drake. "Throw in a massage and he could bugger me with her watching and I would call it even.

"Bath first?" Harry was now shredding cheese. "Of food?"

"Food!" Three voices.

As the four bowls were filled and topped and served, they settled around the cold Fire pit.

After three hungry bites, Soran looked up. "Ah Harry, what meat do you have in this?"

"I didn't use meat." He glared at Hermione, "Someone's Father insisted on having a BBQ on the night we're to leave. With a Dog, three big cats and a werewolf… of course the meat was gone."

"I didn't eat that much."

"No, but Crookshanks ate his weight as did Daphne."

"The way you speak of this Daphne… is she a cat or human?" Kyra asked, coiling her tail about her.

"Yes." Hermione smiled at the Female snake- woman. "You know our names and a bit of what is in the papers. We will tell you a little more tonight. The rest is for us to keep until we get to Snow Point." She relaxed as her Ears popped up and her tail coiled and lashed behind her. "We decided to try to brew Polyjuice."

"Doesn't sound that impressive, but the Ears are a nice touch."

Harry chuckled. "Do you know what the Polyjuice Potion can do?"

"Never heard of it." Soran frowned at his Chile like it betrayed him.

"Potion that can make the imburer look like another." Harry stirred his chili.

"Sounds tricky." Kyra all but liked her bowl. "Not seeing the point here."

"She was thirteen, with just over a year of potion instruction, if that's what you can call it."

"Okay." Kyra smiled lazily. "So she's good."

"Very good. A Potion that is tricky for Sixth year's, brewed perfectly by a second year." Harry grinned at her. "I know that it worked perfectly. Two of us used it to prank someone."

"Not seeing the problem."

"The triggering agent is a hair from your target." Hermione spoke softly. "The hair I collected from the witch I was going to impersonate actually belonged to her cat."

"Still not getting it." Soran set the bowl aside.

"The potion is for human to human transformation." Kyra smiled as she caught on. "That explains the ears. I thought you might be a Mau."

"No… but I did meet a few and they helped with the form." Hermione set her empty bowl on the deck. It vanished as did the rest. "No, then just after the First of July, the Idiot and I took a potion, to unlock our core spirit animal. I found it was a burrowing Owl. But because I had the potion residue in my blood, I became a Main Coon cat crossed with a Lynx. Now because I was with him when I took the potion…" she blurred into her Gryffin form by passing through the Lynx. A count of five and she continued to the owl and then Human… with cat ears and tail.

"Shit!" Soran bounced in excitement. "Can you do Dragon?"

"Not unless we have 'Dragon' or something akin in our blood when we take the potion." Hermione sighed… but she noticed Harry's eyes widen. "Mr. Potter?"

"End of Second Year." He licked his lip. "Do you remember what bit me? How I survived it?"

"Oh… that means…"

"Will you tell us?" Soran roared.

"In time." Harry sighed. "I am going to want to explore this myself first. Suffice to say I currently have a cat, Gryffin, and owl form as well. Daphne is a cousin that while three years old, has been named my Heiress, and has taken her Animagus form, A Kneazle kitten."

Soran blinked. "Well I am going to go hunting. Need meat." He shimmered into a Doberman shaped lizard with wings wider than he was long as his tail was as long as his body. He trotted out the door.

"You said something about a hot tub?" Kyra perked up.

"It's more like a cross between a Turkish Bath and a Japanese Bath House. Cold wash followed by hot soak." Hermione stood and led the way to the stairs leading up. "One presumes that stairs are not an issue…"

"If they are too much, I can morph." Kyra flashed her perfect teeth. "Are the sexes separate or…"

Hermione nodded. "There is a divider, but it can be retracted."

Bark.

Harry watched them leave. "Nope. If they wanted me, they would have invited me." He responded to her, knowing that she understood english. "Dobby. A small fire in the pit. Minimum smoke. Then clean the clothes that need it. Include theirs. No starch." He stripped naked and took the form of the puma, and settled in for the night.

SPRB

Amelia was waiting for her Witches to return.

She had called back the Wizards, declared the Witches the Winners and their prize was to watch Mr. Potter.

"Director Bones." The Witch in the green shawl over her Auror Robes and a Bob haircut. "I was the only one who took the Portkey back. Brown, Tonks, and Tate are escorting the Potter/Black party home… the muggle way."

"And why?"

"There was a pregnancy involved." Vance answered with a straight face. "Mixing a pregnant female, only two months into the pregnancy, with a long distance portkey…"

"Good call." Amelia sighed. "And the reason you returned so Quickly?"

"Umbitch." Vance sneered. "She Compelled Brown to Kill Potter for resisting arrest for the crimes of Sedition, Murder and Abstention of Lawful Remand." She looked fit to spit. "The phrase: 'save the Ministry the cost of a trial' was used. What triggered it was Potter's Heir wanted to play with her Kitty. It ended during a rant that caused Brown to point her wand at the Child. Lord Potter decked her."

"Is she pressing charges?" Amelia frowned.

"No… but you should know, Lord Black takes very good care of his Hostages." Vance smirked. Stripped of our wands, all we could do was lay around in the sun, sipping fruity drinks, and being oiled up by the Cabana Boys."

"I'm glad you had a good time." Amelia followed her secretary into the lift. "Now… How long have you been Dumbledore's Bitch?"

"What?"

Amelia stopped the cage. "If I have to move this to the rooms, it will cost you your job. Depending on what you tell me here…"

"He got me the post as your secretary." Vance made a face. "Or so he said. He asked for who came to see you and when. I also did a few favours for him."

"Do you realize that you are involution or your Oaths?" Bones glared at the younger witch.

"Not quite, Ma'am." Vance smirked. "Because of his orders… 'tell him'... I couldn't write it down, and I forgot each evening. And the Favours were legal under his Authority as Chief Warlock or the Headmaster. Now those I could write down and were sent to your inbox."

"So… that's what those were for." Amelia backed off. "Are you going to report to him about Rio?"

"Yes. But Lord Black is very paranoid, His Archivist found a Ward Spell… the Fidelius. Lord Black cast it, excluded us, and included his identity to the common mind. If you focus you can deduce who he is, but you think about something else and you forget. You write it down and look away… and it vanishes."

TBC