The Guile of the Traveller

by Kingmaker'sUmbreon

After being hit by the Killing Curse, Harry finds herself in a limbo that looks a lot like Kings Cross station. Deciding that the remnant of Voldemort's soul does deserve a chance at redemption, Harry finds herself in London, 1944. However, Harry soon makes a name for herself, and discovers that adventure and drama followed her everywhere, including into the past.

54. Chapter 54

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Harry was secretly rather happy that she went to bed early the night before. She almost regretted promising Malum and Felix that she would help them train the new Seeker for Slytherin. The girl in question was Antonia Grey, who was the sister of the Victoria Grey Arcturus had once kissed drunkenly under the mistletoe at a Yule party hosted by Professor Slughorn. Something poor Antonia was rather ashamed of. Harry had hoped she could stay in bed a little while longer, but Felix's tiger shark Patronus kept coming back to bug her with annoying songs that were sung completely out of tune.

As one can imagine, Harry and her friends were not best pleased by this. Pillows had been thrown at the Patronus, and the Lady Regnant had already promised herself that she was going to get her own back at breakfast for the rude awakening as she got up groggily.

"Felix is lucky I can't aim for the life of me, or he would have a Bludger heading his way," Druella growled as Harry quickly dressed and packed her bag.

"I was thinking of bribing War to deal with him," Ophelia put in with a tone of vexation.

"I think I may actually pay Harry to prank him," Ygraine added moodily.

"I may take you up on that," the grumpy Mistress of Death grumbled as she left. Her irritation had only been multiplied by Malum and Felix's smug countenances when she met them and a tired Antonia in the common room.

Whatever Loreley saw in the young Grey, Harry admitted her Sighted friend was onto something. On the face of it, Antonia was indeed built for the Seeker position. She was small, lithe, had speed – Harry saw that during the pillow fight Antonia participated in – and was skilled on a broom. The bottlenecks of the girl became clear during practise.

What Antonia seemed to struggle with was predicting the moves of the Snitch. Plus, her movements through the air were not as smooth as they could be, so that was what Harry decided to focus on. She gave Malum a list of drills Oliver Wood made Harry do back in her original timeline to iron out the clumsy elements in Antonia's movements. Harry also got onto a broom in order to fly after Antonia to watch her movements closely and so that she was able to give the young Grey a clearer demonstration of the techniques she needed to practise.

Malum and Felix eventually decided to time Antonia and released three Snitches for her to catch. Harry had gotten out of the air and stood with the boys as they watched her fly. Antonia did try to take everything onboard; she had managed to catch the Snitches in just under fourteen minutes. By the time training was over and they needed to prepare for breakfast, the young Grey looked tired but quite happy.

As for the Captain and his second-in-command, they looked rather satisfied with what they had seen. As for the Lady Regnant, she hoped Grey would not forget everything Harry had taught her. Harry, Malum and Felix joined their friends at the Slytherin table this time, because the tutors – including Rachel Langley, who had recovered from her cold – asked to convene at the Snakes' table to discuss some replanning of lessons.

Druella, Walburga, Ophelia and Ygraine were still not incredibly happy with Felix, given the cold looks he received as the three of them approached the Slytherin table. A few people braced themselves for a nasty outburst from these pureblood heiresses, especially when it came to an angry Black heiress.

"Ah, here comes the colossal O-grade idiot," Walburga commented coldly as Harry placed herself between Altair and Heron, and thus opposite Orion and Druella.

Uh-oh. Walburga was slinging ad hominem arguments; this was not a good start.

"We should send our Patronuses tomorrow morning into your room to wake you and your dorm mates up!" Ygraine added, executing her poor croissant. Heron, Malum and Tom paled at hearing this.

"We needed Harry for morning practice!" Felix protested.

"If you ever do that again, Mulci, I will use a Bat-Bogey Hex on you," Druella threatened, the three other girls looking on in silent agreement. "And put a Singing Charm on your for good measure."

"Oh come on, Rosier," Felix huffed in protest. "You know that us lads are not permitted to enter your corridor, despite the fact that you girls can simply sneak into ours!"

Harry could not resist smirking smugly at this point. Her girls ignored this reaction, still boiling with irritation.

"You could have sent her a note!" Walburga thundered. "Instead you send your Patronus into our dormitory and wake us all up with your tone-deaf notes! If you ever to that again, you will be my target for my next dagger throwing session."

"But first she is likely to turn you into a melon," Orion added with glee.

A few Snakes and Eagles started chuckling, much to Felix's embarrassment. It was at this precise moment that the pettiness in the Lady Regnant of House Peverell decided to rear its head.

"La, la, la, coffee, coffee, coffee," Harry hummed to herself, keeping to the melody of the theme song of The Smurfs, as she poured herself a very much needed cuppa. She took a biscuit and started dipping it. "Dippy, dippy, dippy, Dippy the Diplodocus."

Orion, Artemis, the Weasleys and the Prewetts started giggling. Druella and Ophelia were trying to maintain an annoyed countenance, but failing miserably. Walburga and Ygraine had to bite into their cheeks. Loreley simply shook her head fondly at her strange Traveller friend. Minerva's countenance looked half amused and half resigned.

"You OK there, Harry?" Heron asked with a degree of concern, also trying not to laugh.

Before Harry could stop herself, the words that came out of her mouth were, "no, the coffee gremlin needs its fill."

Her friends spluttered at this; Altair and Arcturus very nearly choked on their pumpkin juice. Tom and Caius came to their rescue, but were also trying not to die of laughter themselves. Even some of the eavesdroppers who caught that were struggling to breathe.

"I think our Hera needs a nap," Minerva commented in disbelief.

"No, because then I turn into a dragon," Harry answered, completely deadpan. "Or a Grim, or a hind, or a stag or a wolf – whatever I seem to feel like. Either way, someone is likely to get hurt if they wake me."

While Tom and Altair's eyes bugged out of their sockets at this blatant admission to her different Shadow forms, the rest of their friends – who had not the foggiest idea that Harry could Shadow Transform – all broke again.

"Oi, Evans – could you not kill half of our tutors, please?" War called from where she was sitting with Pucey, Bletchley and some of their other friends.

"I am not trying to kill them," Harry responded bluntly, sipping her coffee. "Yet. I would need a feather for that."

Artemis recovered quite quickly. "Right, you clown, here is some toast and several spreads. Just have breakfast, please. We need our ability to breathe a little while longer. It's boring, I know."

Harry happily complied. Unfortunately, the strange Cursebreaker was not yet through with being petty because she mixed strawberry jam with the forest fruits jam and smeared them both onto her toast, causing a cacophony of facepalms. Caius shook his head at her. "What the hell has gotten into her today?" he demanded.

"Malum and Felix woke me up before I wanted to wake up," the slightly potty Lady Regnant stated crisply. "Now you will suffer through Harry at her most random. Orion, may I have the honey, please?"

"Oh Merlin. Good luck dealing with that in the future, lads," Ignatius told Altair and Tom with a grin.

Tom smiled serenely. "We don't see anything too concerning at present."

"Except perhaps Harry putting honey into her coffee," Altair sighed and shook his head fondly. He looked to the culprit. "Orion, why did you give her the honey?"

"She asked for it!" Orion protested with a slight smirk.

Loreley was the one who actually managed to knock Harry out of her odd vindictive mood. "What lesson are you planning for Friday?" the Sighted Malfoy heiress asked curiously.

Harry lit up instantly. "I was thinking we could focus on Magical Mischief in History. It's one of the few topics I didn't get round to cover and I am bloody relieved that Binns didn't put them on the exam because I realised too late I forgot one topic."

"Oh Merlin," Septimus and Octavius paled at hearing that.

"Yeah," Harry agreed awkwardly. "I felt like a complete moron when I realised, I am not going to lie."

"To be fair, there was a lot to cover, so it doesn't surprise me!" Tessa reassured.

"Magical Mischief?" Tom repeated, frowning curiously.

"Mmmhmm!" Harry hummed happily. "It is quite an extensive topic with various different events to study. I have gone through our curriculum and some topics from past papers, and I am picking the best ones. You are going to love it."

"What kind of topics?" Malum asked eagerly.

Those verdant eyes of Harry's began shining with mischief. "I am afraid you're just going to have to wait and see."

"We're not going to get a single clue?" Altair pouted.

"Well," Harry teased ponderingly. "I suppose I could tell you to look up funny magical military campaigns and magical mischief used in military campaigns …"

That made her friends light up; they made mental notes to find some books on the topic in the library. Suddenly, Oizys, Eileen and Octavian's voices rang out. "Gringotts owl! Gringotts owl!" the three began shouting.

Eyes turned upwards to see a Brown Fish owl, wearing the Gringotts medallion around its head, heading straight for the Slytherin table. Harry felt her heart skip a beat or two; she really was dreading what the owl could be bringing her, given what Loreley had told her yesterday. The Cursebreaker was not the only one who had tensed up; her friends were watching the owl anxiously. The owl landed in front of her elegantly, carrying a letter and a rather odd package.

Oh boy, was all Harry thought as she untied the letter and the package; the owl flew off after being fed some bacon by Arcturus.

With a deep, resigned breath Harry broke the seal and unfolded the letter.

Dear Lady Hera,

I write to you to bring some good news, and some news that is quite concerning. I do not wish to alarm you unduly, but there has been a breach in our security regarding your identity. So far, we have not seen anything or heard anything that suggests that Mr. Weird-Eyes is either going to test you or coming after you. We are keeping a vigilant eye on anything new that comes into our walls. The King and I will be conference with your family to discuss how best to protect you under these circumstances.

As for the good news, recently we finally got ten of our people who had been stuck abroad back home and a few of them returned with some interesting artefacts. Two of them had been in the Middle East, where they had actually discovered an old Temple of Hekate. Your colleagues managed to discover a cache of wand-wielder paraphernalia; we thought it would be a good idea to give you something fun and new to work with. The artefacts in the package were two of the first things discovered; to be honest, none of our people are quite certain what they are or if there is anything wrong with them. If you wish, we can send you the rest of the finds at a later date.

Stay safe, my Lady.

May your enemies always fall at your feet,

Griphook

Harry, breath wavering slightly, nodded. "That was to be expected," she stated simply.

"New assignment?" Caius was the one who dared to speak up.

"Yes," Harry answered curtly, clearing her throat as she conjured a heat proof bowl and sent the letter up into blue flames.

"Any special conditions we should be aware of?" Altair immediately wanted to know.

"None, just to tread with caution," Harry replied, eyes still on the dancing flames.

She jumped with a start as she felt a hand on her right arm. The Traveller raised her eyes to meet the worried ones of Tom. "Harry, what's wrong?" he asked gently. "You're shaking and jumpy."

Harry swallowed, guilt rising like a river after a bout of torrential rain. She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. "It's nothing. The goblins just want to meet with my family, that's all."

"About what?" Orion inquired immediately.

"Orion!" Walburga and Druella hissed.

"It's just a meeting. It's nothing to worry about," Harry responded dismissively. "At least, for now."

The Mistress of Death could not help but make eye contact with Loreley at this point. The Seeress was smiling sadly, but nodding covertly. Harry felt her hands clench into fists for a moment before relaxing.

"So, what have your employers decide to send you this time?" Malum decided to steer the conversation away from what he could tell was a dangerous topic.

"Magical artefacts from one of my colleagues' recent trips," Harry responded easily. "Apparently they discovered some interesting things at an old Temple of Hekate and two of the artefacts are mine to study."

"Any nasty surprises we should know about? Has it poisoned anyone? Burned someone's face off?" Arc asked carefully, eyeing the package unblinkingly.

For the first time that morning, Harry snorted with laughter. "Not that I know of. Gringotts doesn't even know what it is or if there is even a curse, hex or jinx on this thing. So, this will be another full research project."

"One you should probably write a thesis on," Artemis commented with a grin.

Harry laughed shortly. "You know fully well I have neither the time, nor the energy to write a thesis. I still have a first draft of a Herbology dissertation to worry about!"

"Oh, don't remind me. We have to hand in the first drafts soon," Altair sighed in despair. Heron looked just as worried. Loreley continued peeling her apple serenely, with Abraxas trying not to roll his eyes at her.

"I say we have a look and see what Harry is dealing with, though," Felix stated. "I hate to say it, but curiosity is killing me here!"

The Cursebreaker rolled her eyes but started unwrapping the package, eager eyes on it. Harry peeled the paper back to reveal two strange metallic snakes, one made of silver and the other made of bronze. They were had dirt particles covering them here and there. The snakes were also coiled in a manner as though they were sleeping. There were some symbols carved into the snakes – one their foreheads and backs. Harry conjured herself a magnifying glass to inspect them.

Whatever the markings were, they were runes of some kind; unfortunately, they didn't look like any of the ones she was familiar with, which likely meant they were likely runes used in Ancient times. Which would make logical sense, considering they were discovered in an old Temple of Hekate.

"Odd," Ophelia stated breathlessly. "Two metallic sleeping snakes – what could they be?"

"Could be that they were a guard for something. Perhaps they only react to an enchantment?" Arcturus suggested.

"Maybe," Harry mused out loud, frowning thoughtfully as she studied them. "But I feel there may be something more to it than a simple guard."

"Hey guys, I hate to be a party pooper but we do have to start getting to our first lesson soon. We have fifteen minutes," Minerva spoke up.

The group sprang into action. Harry gathered her new assignment and carefully put the snakes, wrapped in their paper, into her bag. She ignored the looks of concern she spied Tom and Altair shooting her way.

###########################################################################

"Is everything prepared?"

"I doubt the Burkes and Miss Rollins are interested in tea, Your Grace, but yes," Griphook answered dutifully as the King continued to pace up and down the meeting room that they had booked for that morning. Both goblins looked like they needed coffee more than tea, because neither had slept all too well the night before. Indeed, Goldheart looked better than the both of them, and one of his shoelaces was untied.

Rollo, who was dressed as though he was attending a funeral instead of a meeting, was sitting in one of the chairs around the tables, looking pensively at the table.

"No, indeed, I think they would be more interested in fried goblin," King Ragnok stated nervously.

"I would not go that far, Your Grace," Goldheart answered easily.

"I would! I hope they do not bring the Lady Hera's uncles," the King confessed; Rollo decided it was best to pour him some water at this point. "My reign may not survive the scandal of being the Monarch who put the last Peverell in danger, even if it is for a very good reason."

"We will be lucky if the Burkes and Miss Rollins will show an ounce of empathy," Griphook agreed.

It was at this precise moment – as though right on cue – that the door opened and in walked Ironfang, who looked a whole lot less annoyed than normal; mainly because he and the rest of the Council had been apprised of the situation. The goblin knew better than to try his King's patience further than necessary. "Your Grace, I have the Burkes and Miss Rollins here for you."

"Show time," Rollo muttered bleakly under his breath.

"Thank you, Ironfang," the King smiled smally. "Show them in."

The Accountant of the Black Vaults stepped aside. Thomas Burke was wearing an expression on his countenance that could only be described as the 'guardian who was really getting fed up with Gringotts meeting' look. Melanie's eyes were assessing the goblins and Rollo with a cold look and Henry simply looked concerned. Thankfully, they didn't bring the Three Brothers along with them.

"This is really becoming a bad habit," Melanie commented as Ironfang closed the door behind him as he left.

"We apologise for the inconvenience, Miss Rollins, but I am afraid this is a matter we cannot simply discuss over a letter," Goldheart stated. He bowed. "I am not sure if we were introduced, but I am Goldheart. I am the Head of Security here at Gringotts."

The strange witch's eyes started dancing menacingly. "Been sleeping on the job, have you?"

"Melanie!" Henry hissed. Thomas smirked in agreement with her.

"Please take a seat," the King answered carefully. "We will explain as best as we can."

"I would hope so," Thomas Burke stated in a tone full of authority as he took the chair that was directly in front of him. "Because 'identity breach' is not a term that should be thrown around lightly."

"Indeed," Griphook agreed readily as the goblins too sat down, Henry and Melanie followed suit. "As you know, we had a situation with a spy belonging to Grindelwald within our walls. While the situation has been contained and is no longer a grave issue, the Alliance managed to get through a weak spot in our security through the use of a Muggle invention known as bugging technology."

Judging by the wide eyes of the three enigmatic wizards, they had somehow heard of this already. Griphook was rather glad that he didn't need to explain the concept; it still gave him a headache. "The bugging thing was inside a pin that was sent to Rollo," Griphook continued. Thomas, Henry and Melanie's eyes widened further. "Unfortunately, we did not catch it in time."

"I had kept the thing under a few spells because I simply didn't trust it, which in hindsight was a good thing. Otherwise it would have … caught too much," Rollo put in, looking at his hands in shame. "For some reason I didn't put it under an enchantment when I went out to speak with Norton Lament."

Henry's head shot up. Melanie frowned. "The father of the boy who got expelled from Hogwarts a few months ago for attacking a first year and three familiars? That same Lament?"

"Indeed," Goldheart confirmed. Thomas and Melanie looked in his direction, but Henry's eyes stayed a little while longer on Rollo. "You see we got intelligence that Lament had information that Grindelwald wanted and so we sent Mr. Rowle to investigate. As it turns out, Mr. Lament's son has a grudge against the Lady Hera and told his family everything. In turn, Mr. Lament tried to use what he knew in order to buy himself into the Dark Lord's good graces."

"Why would he tell Rollo?" Thomas wanted to know.

"He assumed that I am the agent in Gringotts' walls," Rollo answered easily. The Head Cursebreaker was very pleased with himself at how easy this half-truth was to tell. "Mr. Lament did not ask too many questions."

"How remiss of him," Melanie half smirked. She sobered quickly. "But Mr. Weird-Eyes got the information anyway because of that pin." She looked to Goldheart. "And you didn't think to check the damn thing properly?"

"That was my initial reaction too, Miss Rollins," Griphook put in.

Goldheart scowled. "There was not enough time; the thing went over my head."

"Yes, well, it has now resulted in us in having to find a way to protect Lady Peverell from her family's hunter," Thomas stated crisply.

"Well, it would be foolish indeed to take her out of Hogwarts. Ironically, she is, right now, safest there," Henry spoke up for the first time. "I say we turn her training up a notch."

"I can get behind that," Melanie agreed.

Thomas turned to look at the Goblin King. "Has our ward been informed of the danger?"

"Naturally," the King answered with a curt nod. "We sent her an assignment that is rather fun and should not pose too much of a threat to her person in order to help keep her mind off things, and to naturally give her something to do."

"What kind of assignment?" Melanie wanted to know.

"Two artefacts from a Temple of Hekate two of our Cursebreakers explored in Turkey," Rollo replied with a small smile. "They came back with some interesting statues and objects that we have no idea are the function of – we decided the Lady Hera should investigate them."

"Hmmm. Just as long as no one else ends up in St. Mungo's I am all for it," Thomas informed crisply. "I would rather avoid giving Harry's uncles another fright, because I am pretty sure Anthony will find a way to curse someone from inside his portrait."

"We would like to avoid that as well," Griphook reassured with a short laugh.

"I think the best cause of action we can take is, to convene with Harry and plan," Melanie got the train of thought back to the matter at hand very quickly. She gave the goblins and the Head Cursebreaker a sassy look. "Just check your packages a little more thoroughly next time to avoid kerfuffles like this."

"We sincerely apologise, ma'am," Goldheart bowed his head contritely.

"Yeah, yeah. Nothing we can do about this now; what's done, is done. No use trying to squirt milk back into the cow's udders," Melanie grumbled as she, Thomas and Henry got to their feet. The goblins and Rollo got to their feet as well.

"We will keep you apprised of any further developments," the King promised.

"Thank you, Your Grace," Thomas smiled smally. "We will see ourselves out."

The bookshop owner and the student left without so much as a backward glance; Henry shot Rollo a look full of promise that made the Rowle heir flush red before following his brother and his cousin out as well. As soon as the family was gone, the goblins felt relieved.

"That went better than I expected!" Goldheart exclaimed.

"Masterfully managed, Griphook," the King praised.

Griphook smirked, looking pleased with himself. "Thank you, Your Grace." He then looked to Rollo, the smirk only grinning. "Your heart recovered yet, Rollo?"

The double agent scoffed, his blush only deepening. "Very funny."

The three goblins started laughing at his expense, which really did not help matters. The Head Cursebreaker tried to save what was left of his pride by heading to work; he did have several meetings with his people to get through before lunch.

#########################################################################

Despite the extra stress with Grindelwald knowing her identity as Lady Peverell, Harry found that the day flew by quite quickly. True, a trip to the archives to continue diving into the manuscripts and the extra lesson Rhona Percy and Altair held on the proper care of the Sopophorous Plant had definitely helped in that regard. The forced outdoor study session during lunch also helped.

Malum and Felix had essentially bribed their friends to study on the bleachers while they trained poor Antonia a little further. They even got Orion and Harry to improvise a hilarious routine in order to make sure Antonia did not fall off her broom laughing and could still concentrate on finding and catching the Snitch while the commentators worked their magic on the audience.

It was at dinner that the Traveller had a spike of anxiety, which resulted in her appetite decreasing back to unhealthy levels. Harry found she could only eat one treacle tart, one bowl of soup and some fruit loaf before she felt the urge to flee to the common room and begin finding out what kind of artefacts the snakes were.

As usual, Harry set up her place in front of the fire: books, protection runes around the snakes – just in case – and music on the radio. Athenaïs, who had spent the majority of the day hunting and visiting Mr. Ogden and checking if Aragog was still alive, joined her. As Harry conjured her magnifying glass again and started sketching the runes on the snakes as best as she could, she was busy fighting an internal battle.

Perhaps you shouldn't always listen to Loreley about these things. Tom and Altair deserve to know the truth.

The Slytherin voice answered immediately. No, Lorri is right. They will only freak. Besides, one does not simply argue with the Fates.

But they know almost everything now – bar the fact I am a Traveller.

The Gryffindor voice spoke up next. As do most of your friends.

Yes, and I do not particularly like lying to them either!

Harry finished the last few sketches, set her sketch book aside and then took a closer look at the snakes' anatomy. Through a few gaps in the scales of their underbelly, Harry was able to spy some very old gears. This made the Cursebreaker frown. Was this another magical device that had caused havoc due to a mistake in the magic that helped to create it? If that was the case, Griphook would have warned her immediately. No, the snakes had to be something else entirely.

Athenaïs studied them closely too for around a minute. She looked up and then let out a mystical cry. 'They look really weird,' Harry translated for herself.

"Indeed," Harry concurred readily with her familiar. "They look like they're some kind of Ancient piece of technology; there has to be something more to them. So," she drew her wand at this point, "let's see what it is we are dealing with."

Her Gargouille nodded emphatically in agreement. The Cursebreaker cast her History Revelation spell on the two snakes. The witch and the dragon watched as the golden scene unfolded in front of them. They watched the two snakes be forged by a young man and woman – a priest and priestess, Harry guessed. The young sorcerers had used their skills with the Element of Quintessence to create two automatons; from what the images showed, one snake was meant to assist in healing. The other snake gathered toxins and venoms that could be used offensively and defensively. The automatons both had another function, but the images were not clear on that.

"Interesting," Harry found herself comment as the images faded. "Ancient automatons. I wonder if those two's fellow priests and priestesses knew what they were up to."

Athenaïs chirped excitedly.

"The question is now, how do we wake the two snakes up?" the Cursebreaker frowned ponderingly, eyeing the two snakes unblinkingly.

Kyyuuuooo? Athenaïs howled.

"I am afraid automatons don't usually have something as simple as an on button," Harry sighed in irritation. "They do have an activation spell, though …"

Harry dived into books. It was at this point that the common room started filling up with Snakes heading to their rooms to take showers and begin doing their homework. Harry barely paid them any mind; she was too busy comparing the runes she had sketched with some of the runes and sigils in her books in the hope to find some kind of overlap.

As for her friends, Abraxas, Felix and Caius decided to try and get an early night so they went to take a shower while the rest joined her at the fireplace. Naturally, they made sure to avoid approaching her from behind. Tom and Altair joined her on the floor, as did Orion, who sat opposite Harry.

"So what have you discovered about our little friends so far?" Orion asked eagerly.

Harry exhaled sharply. "They are automatons, created by a priest and priestess; they were mostly created for healing and gathering of dangerous toxins and venom to use as part of healing potions and other things. They were also used for something else, but my spell didn't make that all too clear."

"Healing?" Altair repeated with interest. "That's awesome!" he then frowned. "How do we wake them up?"

"No clue. I am hoping the runes etched into them will help with that," Harry replied, turning her attention back onto her book. "The issue is, I can't seem to find the runes at all. I must be seeing something over my head."

Harry rubbed her eyes at this point, shaking her head.

"Do you want Heron and me to have a look for you?" Orion asked, Heir Lestrange lighting up instantly.

The Cursebreaker was very tempted to negate the offer out of her own stubbornness to try and solve the puzzle herself first, but it seemed that the stress of having to hide the fact the Dark Lord had her true identity had already worn down said Cursebreaker's resolve. "Go ahead."

Orion and Heron immediately jumped to their feet and ran to get their Ancient Runes books from their rooms, much to the amusement of their friends. Harry leant back against the sofa behind her, eyes closed. Druella, who was on the sofa close to her, began gently massaging her head, much to Harry's quiet delight while Arc, Malum, Walburga, Ophelia and Ygraine went to get their books as well to start doing homework and studying. Tom and Altair stayed put.

"Everything all right, my darling Sun?" Altair asked Harry quietly as he patted Athenaïs' head.

"Could be better," Harry felt like she could admit.

"Something has been bothering you. Was it something that Loreley said?" Tom inquired as Harry lifted her head out of Druella's lap and put it on his shoulder. Tom immediately nuzzled her and then lay a kiss on the top of her head.

"Yes," came out of Harry's mouth before she could stop herself. She winced at how sad and solemn she sounded. The Traveller found herself laughing mirthlessly. "I think you can already guess that it is just something I can't talk about."

"There really is more to Loreley's madness, isn't there?" Altair sounded very sure of himself.

"Indeed," Harry smiled smally. "She is acquainted with three weavers, let's just say."

"Her Boggart," Druella observed out loud.

"Yes," was all Harry was comfortable with admitting in such a public setting.

Tom wrapped his left arm carefully around her and pulled Harry closer to him, almost as though he feared she was about to cry. Though Harry didn't want to admit it, the move gave her a momentary peace of mind. It was at this point Orion and Heron returned with their books – they both carried a massive pile in their arms. Harry watched with a smile as her brother-in-all-but-name-since-Ron and her friend set to work, carefully pulling Harry's sketches and the snakes towards them. It was at this point that the others returned with their books and homework as well.

The Cursebreaker spent a good hour and a half ping-ponging ideas back and forth with Orion and Heron over the types of runes that they thought the runes could be. Tom divided his time between listening in on their debate and helping the others with their revision. Altair refereed a game of Ingredient Ping-Pong between Arc and Malum. It was around ten o'clock when the common room began to become increasingly abandoned until it was only Harry, who had been planning her lesson, Tom, who had been reading and Altair, who had started his Charms homework.

Once more, it was Tom who was the first to decide it was time to go to bed. "Come on, you two, I think it is time we slip into Hypnos' Realm, before we fall asleep in class tomorrow."

"Sure," Harry readily agreed because she was just done with the last simulation anyway.

"One moment! Just finishing off a sentence," Altair responded, eyes still on his parchment.

Harry rolled her eyes and chuckled. "Sweetheart, you will still be here at ten-thirty if we let you finish off your sentence, because it isn't a sentence – it's a paragraph!"

"I am almost done!" Altair protested.

Athenaïs, Harry and Tom exchanged a look; no he wasn't! Fortunately, the Lady Regnant had a trick up her sleeve to get her future Consort to stop. She knelt down next to Altair and gently made him look up at her with two fingers under his chin before claiming his lips in a loving and teasing kiss. Altair reacted immediately; his homework was very quickly forgotten. Harry pulled away rather quickly, causing her lover to whine a little in disappointment.

"To bed," she stated teasingly.

"Fine," Altair pouted a little as he finally packed his things away and got up from the floor, helped by Harry.

"We need to get a good night's sleep," Tom added with a grin.

"Indeed," Harry concurred and she lay a quick, longing kiss on Tom's lips, which was happily returned. "Good night, my loves."

"Good night, Harry," both boys chorused.

The last Gaunt and the Nott Heir watched their lover and her familiar quietly slip down the corridor to the older girls' dorms with slight frowns on their face.

"She is hiding something again," Tom stated bluntly.

"I know," Altair confirmed. "I hope she is able to tell us what is bothering her soon."

Tom nodded in agreement as he took Altair's hand and guided him towards the boys' dorms.

###########################################################################

Ophelia had been trying to find a good moment to spend some quality time with Harry in order to study and observe her friend a little more. Loreley had told her that she wasn't going mad, but the Rowle heiress still felt she was indeed mad for even contemplating that Travellers were not as fictious as perhaps she once thought.

What Ophelia had quietly hypothesised, was that Harry was very likely to betray something – anything – about who she really was, even if the Mistress of Death wasn't aware of it. The Lady Regnant had left a trail of breadcrumbs about who she really was; an entire heap was left because Harry had no choice, but still. Harry left clues without ever meaning to.

It seemed that someone was on Ophelia's side because she found herself awake at six o'clock in the morning and was utterly unable of getting back to sleep. She could still hear Sigyn snoozing next to her bed, Ygraine to her left and Druella to her right. Ophelia groaned into her pillow, until she heard shuffling and the creaking sound of a trunk from Harry's area of the bed. The Rowle heiress sat up carefully to watch Harry take out her daggers and rapier, and it was in that moment, Ophelia knew she had an opening.

"Harry?" she hissed quietly.

There was a moment of silence before Harry answered. "Ophelia? I am sorry. Did I wake you?"

"No, I was already awake," Ophelia swung her legs carefully out the left side of her bed and tiptoed out of bed. "Where are you going?"

"Just going to do some morning training," Harry admitted. "Would … you like to come with me?"

Ophelia could have danced for joy. "Yes, please."

The Rowle heiress was pretty sure that she had broken her person record for getting dressed. She gathered her own weapons, which she had managed to disguise as wooden staffs during her trunk inspection from her mother, and followed her friend out of their dorm. The two witches in black set off for the Room of Requirement. Ophelia was surprised to see the Room as a magical dojo, with different targets and arenas. There were diverse targets – some that looked human and some that didn't. She couldn't shake the feeling that the Room was used to providing this version of itself.

"What do you want to do? Sparring? Knife throwing? Duelling?" Harry asked amicably with a grin, clearly seeing the gobsmacked expression on Ophelia's countenance.

"Well, what were you planning on doing?" Ophelia wanted to know.

"I was planning on training one of my powers that is by bottle neck," Harry admitted awkwardly, chuckling lowly. "But I guess I wanted to start with a good dose of knife throwing to wake myself up."

"OK," Ophelia agreed. She followed Harry to the strange hooded, wooden dummies with targets on their chests. The two girls got into their throwing stances and unsheathed their first daggers. "Just so you know," she plucked up the courage to talk at that point, "I won't judge you or talk about what I have seen if you don't want me to."

Ophelia let the first dagger fly. Second ring; she huffed at that. She sobered quickly. "I will even strengthen my Occlumency shields."

Harry was silent for a moment; she let her dagger fly. Bull's eye; Ophelia had no idea why, but it made her laugh. Her mythical friend looked to her as she drew a second dagger. "I am more concerned about freaking you out," was the admission the Rowle heiress had only half expected.

Ophelia didn't know why but she snorted. She drew her second dagger too. "Freaking me out," she repeated. The Rowle heiress let out a short laugh. "I am pretty certain nothing will freak me out more than being in the presence of Queenie Goldstein and surviving. Not even your duel with Melanie was scary; that was just … pure magic." Ophelia threw the dagger; bull's eye. "I am sorry that I was such a coward. That I … practically let you face her on your own."

"There was nothing you could do!" Harry let her dagger fly; just under bull's eye. "She's a damn General, Ophelia. She's one of Grindelwald's best!"

"Harry, you were shielding me," the Rowle heiress's eyes flashed dangerously. She drew the third dagger. "Shielding me! That's what bothers me about it. You put yourself between me and her, and I should have been by your side, not cowering away! I know your past – but seeing the proof before my eyes …"

She let the dagger fly; it hit the top of the bull's eye.

"If anything had happened to you, and I could do nothing to help you or stop Goldstein," Ophelia tried to blink the tears away. "I don't care what Tom, Altair or Malum, or any of the others, would have said or done – I would have never forgiven myself."

The Rowle heiress pinched the bridge of her nose, trying desperately to fight the tears of frustration that had built up for over the Yule holidays. Ophelia was not happy with herself.

Pull yourself together. You're being pathetic, she berated herself.

Before she knew it, Ophelia found herself being pulled into a warm embrace. It made her freeze for a moment, but the Rowle heiress soon relaxed into the hold and didn't hesitate to return it. Harry's strawberry scent also helped Ophelia calm down much quicker.

"Better?" was all Harry asked gently.

"Yeah," Ophelia readily admitted.

"Good," Harry released her and Ophelia found she could only smile in reply to Harry's lopsided grin. "Now, let's get our daggers back and if you really don't mind seeing me train one of my worst powers, get ready to laugh."

Ophelia laughed shortly and nodded in agreement. Once the daggers were gathered, she watched the Room provide several different skeletons, of all things, and then watched in awe and Harry summoned five animal souls and used Soul Fire in order to bring those skeletons to life.

It was indeed rather funny to watch. The bigger animals were easier for Harry to animate, but the smaller ones were the most challenging. Some of the bats and birds flew a little lopsidedly because one wing was crooked. Watching these skeletons play, though, was eye-opening – there was so much more to the Peverells and to being Master or Mistress of Death than anyone could have predicted.

That does not mean that Harry is a Traveller, the rational part of Ophelia's mind insisted.

Yet, it doesn't disprove it either, the other voice in her mind answered almost immediately.

Ophelia pushed the thought aside when Harry challenged her to one duel with their rapiers before going back to the dorms to prepare for the day. It was true that Harry spent most of her time coaching Ophelia, but the latter was happy to note that quickly the girls were focused on gauging each other's moves, rather than on Ophelia's footwork or parry abilities.

"Have you and Malum gone on a date yet?" Harry asked with a grin as the pair of them gathered their things.

Ophelia flushed bright red as they left the Room of Requirement. "Not yet," she hated to admit it. "Mostly because Malum wants to make an official offer. But, he's taking his time."

Harry chuckled. "Oh I know that problem all too well!" she laughed wryly. "I am betting he is refusing to send it unless he knows it's perfect."

"That's the thing," Ophelia sighed deeply. "He could send me a simple red rose and I would say yes. But he just … doesn't."

"Hmmm … or you could take my example, and do it yourself," Harry smirked as they reached the stairs and began making their descent down.

Ophelia blanched at that. "What?!" she squeaked.

"Hey, you helped me with mine. I think it is time I return the favour!" the Lady Regnant pointed out. "Just tell me if and when you have an idea of what you want me to do to help you, and I will do it. Think of it this way: it would be a very interesting story to tell your children."

Ophelia found herself laughing heartily. "I think I have more than enough of those thanks to you, my Lady!"

"Touché, my friend," Harry admitted readily, laughing along.

The two girls continued to laugh and gossip all the way down to the Slytherin dungeon with Ophelia quietly dismissing any theories she had about whether her already semi-immortal friend had another mythical secret to hide.

###########################################################################

Arcturus Rosier did not believe in worrying unnecessarily or overthinking matters; it simply made one end up in a muddle. Both he and Druella were very straightforward people in that regard, and they both took pride in being no-nonsense people. So when Arcturus found that his mind would, in regular intervals, return to the matter of the mark on Altair's stomach, he knew something was awry.

Altair was hiding something major and Arcturus could not help but be concerned. Sacrum Vinculum was a sacred bond but because it was so rare, there was still much that was unknown. Thus, Arc spent one of his free periods alone in the library, trying to find as many books as he could on the matter of magical marks and how they were formed, especially in relation to Sacrum Vinculum.

The Rosier heir had spent fifteen minutes trying to track all the books down, which – as it turns out – only amounted to a total of eleven books in the entire library. Restricted Section not included, since Arc did not dare to ask a teacher for a permission slip. That would only lead to awkward questions.

Arcturus settled himself at one of the secluded tables in the library, going through all the indexes of the books to see if the chapter titles held anything pertinent to what he was looking for, his heart skipping several beats as he did so. Five of the books were mostly on magical birth marks and marks left after magical injuries, such as scars – this was not applicable here, Arc was certain of it.

Three of the books had topics that all centred around marks made during dangerous rituals and types of marks that could be left by the use of Blood Magic. Arcturus quickly pushed these books away as well; Altair would never dabble in Blood Magic or have tried to perform a dangerous Dark ritual.

The other three books were on the studies of Soul Marks. Arcturus was about to dive into them when he sensed he was no longer alone at his little corner of the library. He raised his head and saw the Malfoy twins – both of them – standing there, silently watching him.

The Rosier heir frowned. When did they get there?

"Malfoys," he stated simply in greeting. "How can I help you?"

"I think we should be asking you that question," Abraxas was surprisingly the first one to speak as they approached and put their bags down, then taking their seats opposite him.

Arcturus frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You are sticking your nose in business that doesn't concern you," Loreley responded simply, not even bothering with her riddles.

Arcturus regarded her coolly. "I don't think you have the right to tell me what my business is, or isn't, Miss Malfoy."

"I am afraid that when it comes to Harry, it most certainly does," Arcturus nearly gulped at the ice that had formed in those usually whimsical saffron eyes. "This is not your concern, because Nott is not the only one involved here."

The Rosier heir looked to Abraxas, and saw that he was not going to get any help from the Malfoy heir in this regard. Arcturus sighed. "The mark … is it something to be concerned about?" he wanted to know.

"Absolutely not," Loreley answered crisply. "They have not broken any rules or conventions."

Arcturus felt himself relax, his heart rate slowly returning to normal, his head nodding despondently. "Then … why is that mark there?" he found himself wondering out loud.

"It hardly matters," Abraxas replied. He then smiled momentarily. "Shall we try and see if we can revise for Hera's lesson this afternoon?"

There was no room for argument, Arcturus knew that so he simply nodded in agreement. He cleared his books away and helped the Malfoy twins hunt down books regarding magical mischief in military history. Unbeknownst to him and Abraxas – but known to Loreley – Malum Avery slipped away before he was noticed by them. Almost at the same time, Caius joined the trio for revision.

###########################################################################

Harry spent a good deal of time, while preparing for her double history session, mulling over her morning training session with Ophelia. It wasn't like Harry was disappointed that she had a partner for morning training, but she also suspected that her friend had some kind of ulterior motive for wanting to join her.

The inner Slytherin inside the Lady Regnant could smell a fish from a mile off, and Ophelia was stinking slightly of tuna – or, in the case, a plot. Harry could only guess at what Ophelia wanted to fish at. Did it perhaps have something to do with the fact Harry was helping Malum and Felix with Antonia's training? Was Ophelia worried or jealous about that? It didn't seem like it, but then again Harry sucked when it came to emotions and the illogical nature of humans.

It had been plaguing Harry in intervals during the day, especially when she spied Malum giving her, Tom and Altair strange looks and Ophelia was still watching her whenever the Rowle heiress thought Harry didn't notice. The Traveller could not for the life of her think about what had gotten into both Ophelia and Malum.

To be frank, she wasn't entirely certain she wanted to know the answer either.

"-I am telling you, that strange raiding parties that raided Ancient Egypt that Muggles and magicians alike known as the Sea People count as magical mischief! Especially since it was likely they were aes sídhe!"

Harry smiled brightly as she heard Arcturus' emphatic tones, soon followed by more incoherent babbling. Her class had arrived!

"The Druidic and fairy magic used to get rid of the Ninth Legion should definitely count too," she heard Caius put in as the class came debating up the stairs.

"I am glad to see that you are already fired up for this topic," Harry commented with a smirk as her students dumped their bags in a corner, getting out their notebooks, quills and inks. "While I know there are things we need to discuss in improving your grades further in time for the real exams, I think it is best to go through Magical Mischief first. I am glad we have a double session because we have a bunch of topics to get through. Let's see how awake you are – in 279 BCE, what magical methods were employed by magical priests and priestesses of Apollo to help force back the invading Keltoi?"

"Weather magic and Elemental Manipulation," Abraxas was quick on the draw. "Lightning and fake earthquakes."

"Correct," Harry grinned. "When Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmed II on 29 May 1453, it was often said that a divine sign above the Hagia Sophia was a major catalyst. It wasn't a divine sign; what was it?"

This one stumped more than half the class, but it seemed Edward Diggory had been doing digging in the library because the Hufflepuff lit up. "It was a joke made by two kids who came from the magical nobility in Constantinople. They were fed up with Emperor Constantine XI and his cowardice and fickle nature so they came up with a trick to mess with everyone's heads."

Harry chuckled. "Well done, Mr. Diggory. Do you remember what the children's names were?"

Edward drooped a little. "Nope. Sorry."

"Don't apologise! The reason why you don't know is because likely there were conflicts between their identities – historians can't seem to agree who was responsible," Harry huffed irritably. "Next one – in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, it states that before Lindisfarne got raided in 793 CE by a viking raiding party, there were 'immense whirlwinds, flashes of lightning and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air'. Were the Muggles incorrect in this observation – yes or no?"

"No," Tom was the one to answer. "There was a feud between two wizarding families going on at the time and one of them had two Animagi who could transform into dragons. Unfortunately, the Muggles didn't entirely overlook this. Fortunately, though, no one believes the scribes were being serious because it was all attributed to 'God's vengeance'."

This made more than a few people snicker.

"Indeed," Harry confirmed with a small smile. "So, I think you can see the theme of Magical Mischief in History: military campaigns, tricks of the people and what I call 'Ooops the Muggles noticed too.' So bearing this in mind, we will cover three important Ancient campaigns, three Medieval ones, three Renaissance and three Early Modern ones. The same with the other two. It will keep things bitesize. Now, let us begin with a non-human campaign: the taking of Ireland by the Túatha de Danann after the Trojan War."

The moment that the Room started providing her class with diagrams and simulations Harry simply lost herself in her teaching. It also helped that there were so many differing opinions amongst the group; the debates were kept interesting. Especially when it came to the effectiveness of the lightning and earthquakes employed against the Keltoi. There was funnily enough barely any disagreements amongst the group about the tactics used by Druids and the Fae against the Romans.

Despite trying to keep each topic short and snappy, Harry soon found that her lesson was at an end and it was time for everyone to head to dinner. They hadn't been able to make it through the Renaissance oopsies and onto the Early Modern ones – Harry promised to finish those off next session. She had to admit to herself that she was rather glad that time had flown; the Lady Regnant was starving.

Fortunately for her, Orion and Heron were happy to take over talking everyone's ears off about their topic of passion. This time, it was regarding the runes on the two snakes that were Harry's assignment.

"You know, I have been wrecking my brain this morning about those snakes of yours, Harry – I went through all of Spellman's old work, Blishen's articles and every runic dictionary that I have and those runes do not seem to be categorised by anyone, which made me think … what if they are not runes that were not commonly used, in that no one else knew them?" Orion was practically radiating as he babbled, eyes shining.

"No one else knew them?" Arcturus repeated incredulously.

"Yes," Heron looked just as excited. "Personal runes. Runes made by a witch or wizard for a specific purpose, known only to that witch or wizard."

Harry lit up at hearing that. That could definitely be a lead! "That actually sounds like it could be the answer. So how do we go about dissecting the magic in those runes to see if that is the case?" she asked eagerly.

"Well, unfortunately I decided not to take Magical Theory as a subject because it is an extracurricular class and I didn't fancy dying of stress," Orion admitted bluntly. "But there is more than enough on the subject in the library," he added happily. "We just need to raid poor Madam Ellis' books again."

"Or Harry could get in contact with her bookshop guardian," Druella pointed out, rolling her eyes.

The group chuckled at Orion's slightly put-out expression.

I will send you some books tomorrow, Harry smirked as she heard Thanatos' amused tones in her head through their Link.

Thank you, Tosti.

I hope Phobetur makes you dream of cooking Dementors.

You're weird.

Harry could feel Thanatos smirking through the Link. So are you, Madam I Sing About Coffee and Dipping Cookies.

I never said I was normal!

"Well at least those goblins sent you something relatively easy in comparison this time around," Arcturus commented to Harry with a smile as the group entered the Great Hall and headed towards the Gryffindor table. "We didn't need to be saddled with a life-threatening artefact the first week back at Hogwarts!"

"I hope they save the intelligence-gathering pithing needle for Valentine's Day," Caius put in with a grin. "Might be the first time that day may actually be bloody bearable!"

Artemis could not resist taking a very easy opening at that point. The Potter heiress snorted. "You're just saying that because no one in their right mind – OWWW! Harry, what was that for? You zapped me!"

"You're being unnecessarily mean," Harry stated simply as she plonked herself next to Artemis. "So I am unnecessarily mean to you, dear doppelgänger. But I agree with Caius – a dangerous artefact would make that stupid day more tolerable."

"What? You hate Valentine's Day?" Tessa could not believe her ears. "How? You have two suitors-"

Harry launched into a rant that she had always wanted to go into but never did because she felt she took the wind out of Hermione and Ginny's sails. "The day is just complete nonsense! You're supposed to appreciate your significant other every flipping day – with hugs and coffee and whatnot – and not just on one singular day of the year. It's just a day to find an excuse to spend money needlessly and to embarrass people quite publicly."

The Traveller went red as she remembered the love poems she got from Colin, Nigel, Susan (yes, this one took her by surprise too), Terry Boot, Terence Higgs (another surprise) and another Hufflepuff she couldn't remember the name off. Fred and George had jokingly sent her own too at one point, but she never counted that one!

The 1940s Weasley twins caught onto her expression very quickly. "It would appear-"

"-that our Harry-"

"-had more than-"

"-one admirer-"

"-in the past," they chorused gleefully.

While Harry busied herself with her stew, trying desperately to hide her blush, her friends chuckled and laughed at her expense. Tom and Altair, though, did not find it as amusing. "They may have had interests in me; I never returned any of their feelings," Harry informed candidly. "I was too busy trying to survive and frankly, none of them interested me romantically. Most of them didn't see me for me anyway."

"You're joking, right?" Billy couldn't believe his ears. "You're an amazing person! How could they not?"

Harry shook her head. "Thank you, Billy, but they were never interested in me as Harry. They only cared about the General who could take on the Dark Lord and was meant to take him down," she huffed with a short laugh. "Whatever. It's over and done with. I just never liked Valentine's Day in general. Spent most of them with Luna and Neville, if you must know. And Ron and Hermione, but that kind of went downhill when Hermione started crushing on him."

Harry laughed at that.

"Oh boy," Ignatius commented, seeing Harry's expression. "That sounds like it has a story behind it."

"A long one," Harry agreed. The daughter of Prongs, though, could not resist not divulging some of the story. "The long and short of it is: Hermione started crushing on him when we were fourteen. She didn't do or say anything for two years, and then when he got a girlfriend – an associate of ours, called Lavender – Hermione enlisted my help to try and … sabotage his dates with her."

Harry was soon splitting her sides at the memory of using her latent pranking skills on Lavender Brown during her sixth year.

"Oh Harry," Walburga, Ygraine and Ophelia chorused.

"Did her hair get turned dandelion yellow?" Abraxas commented.

"Or fake shit and butterflies in her trunk?" Caius added.

"Switched books?" Tom could not help but throw in with a smirk. Harry knew he was not going to let that go any time soon.

"Nooooo," Harry looked suspiciously innocent at this point. One could almost see the fake angel wings, halo and hear fake harp music. "I put a Hiccupping Hex into her mouth wash on the morning of one date, and then when I followed Ron and Lavender to the café, I put an Opera Jinx on her lemonade." She was biting into her cheek to try and keep a straight face. "She was still hiccupping when she drank it so she ended up alternating between hiccups and singing opera songs, sometimes one after the other."

Her friends were soon dying of laughter at the mental imagery of that situation.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Minerva sighed deeply.

"Harry … you evil little shit," Felix stated bluntly the moment he was able to breathe again.

"Oh my gods I should enlist your help to ward off any other suitors coming for Cederella's hand," Septimus agreed out loud.

"I think I will hire Harry to scare away matches I don't like," Caius added.

"No need. You do that all on your own," Artemis really could not help herself; Altair, Ignatius, the Weasleys and Billy spluttered. Even the girls, including Loreley, found it difficult to maintain their countenance.

WHACK!

"Harry!" Artemis protested, clutching her head and pouting.

"I am not wasting my magic when I am right next to you," Harry stated primly.

"This is borderline abuse!" the Potter heiress answered dramatically.

Harry gave her a pointed look; it was one of the few times she missed her glasses because Harry really wanted to pull a McGonagall on Arty. "You're being verbally abusive, missy."

"Lestrange, Riddle, Nott – control your women," Mallory made the mistake from behind them at the Hufflepuff table, much to the shock and anger of Edward and several other Hufflepuffs, including all three of Mallory's ex-girlfriends.

Harry and Artemis were on the same wave-length; they exchanged a knowing look. While Harry sent the lippy Badger a Tickling Charm, the slightly more vindictive Artemis shot the boy a Bat-Bogey Hex with a sneer worthy of Draco Malfoy on her lips.

The boys in question were sadistically pleased by this action.

"Why would we want to curb their behaviour? We see nothing wrong," Heron commented with a malicious glint in his eyes as bats began to fly up to the ceiling, out of Mallory's nose.

"Indeed not," Tom concurred readily with a nasty smirk.

"You should control your tongue, Mallory," Altair added maliciously. "Keep your opinions to yourself. It might save you from further humiliation."

Mallory looked like he wanted to retort something; the issue was he was too busy squirming and giggling and dealing with bats coming from his nose to answer. The teachers, though many were rather entertained by the spectacle, soon put a stop to the spells and the Hufflepuff had at least the sense to ignore the Gryffindor table for the rest of the evening. Edward and his friends kept a very close eye on Mallory.

"So, where are we studying tomorrow?" Minerva asked as she took a treacle tart before Harry could hoover up the desserts.

The rest of the group caught onto the hidden meaning immediately, being Slytherins and Ravenclaws.

"I was thinking the Room of Requirement would be best, just in case we do overtime," Harry answered nonchalantly.

"I think that is best," Tom agreed readily.

"You lot are mad!" Octavius shook his head at his friends and good acquaintances. "Studying on a weekend. Calm down before you get admitted into St. Mungo's because you lot can only start reciting dates and definitions instead of holding conversations."

"Octavius, you might not like thinking, but that doesn't go for everyone," Billy teased with a smirk.

Octavius mock-scowled at him. "Shut it, midget."

"Octavius!" Minerva protested.

"Hey Harry, at this rate we will have more than enough ammunition for when Slytherin or Hufflepuff face Gryffindor in the finals!" Orion stated excitedly to his soul sister.

Harry grinned broadly. "Agreed, dear soul brother of mine! It should be interesting."

"Oh no," Septimus, Octavius, Artemis, Wood, Huxley, Wolpert and Randall chorused.

"Hey, they have to get through our rematch first," Felix's eyes shone.

"Speaking of which," Malum stated, getting up, "I am going to see if Grey is done with dinner so we can get down to the pitch this evening."

Ophelia blanched. "Malum, it's Friday! Leave the poor girl alone! You still have an entire week to train her."

"But she needs the training," Malum pouted.

"Avery, she managed to stay on a broom while Orion and Harry talked about Dumbledore's questionable fashion tastes," Arcturus pointed out. "Give the girl the evening and tomorrow off and then start Sunday if you're really that concerned."

"But not Sunday morning!" Harry stated warningly, eyes shining with silver. Malum gulped. "Because if you wake me up before nine, I will turn you into a bouncy ball and give you to Athenaïs to play with for an hour."

The Avery heir was whiter than snow in an instant.

"I will extend the spell for Sigyn," Ophelia had no issue threatening her suitor.

"Indeed," Walburga concurred readily.

"I would help," Orion's eyes shone happily. "I even have the perfect spell!"

"You look way too happy for helping in a hypothetical situation," Malum told the Black Heir as he sat back down.

"Wake us up again with tone-deaf singing and it will not be hypothetical," Ygraine promised menacingly.

Malum actually shuddered at this. Abraxas too was a little terrified of his prospective future bride. Felix started chuckling. "Gentlemen, I hope you have strong stomachs because your future is looking interesting!"

"A little rich coming from the guy in love with War," Harry had no qualm in pointing out.

Felix was redder than a Gryffindor tie in about five seconds flat, much to everyone else's amusement.

The Lady Regnant of House Peverell soon had other things to worry about. "Wait a minute – who stole the treacle tart?!"

Indeed, the platter with her beloved dessert had gone missing. Very soon the Gryffindors, Slytherins and one Ravenclaw were forced to go sleuthing for the platter to make sure that they wouldn't have a near-homicidal Mistress of Death on their hands.

###########################################################################

Tom decided to spend the evening in his dorm reading. Dragon Land had taken over the common room and the younger years wanted to watch and-or join it too, and frankly, Tom didn't have the energy to deal with hyperactive children that evening. So he opted to read one of the wizarding young adult novels he was borrowing from Harry. It was called The Adventures of Sir Owain and Elyan the Warlock: The Faerie Knight and it was a pretty decent story too. It was about a young Knight of Camelot who befriended a wizard stuck in lion form and they had these, sometimes funny, adventures while trying to challenge the legendary Faerie Knight.

Frey was not so subtly reading along with him, judging by the hissing laughter at some of the really funny parts.

*Atty would love this book,* was one of his familiar's comments.

Tom chuckled at that. *Athenaïs loves most things in life.*

*All except mean walkers and anything that is plant based,* Frey pointed out.

The last Gaunt grinned. *True.*

Tom was half-way through chapter ten when Heron came into the room. The Lestrange Heir had an abnormally solemn expression on his countenance, his eyes downcast; perhaps it was because of the letter in his hands. Tom frowned at his friend.

"Heron, what's wrong?"

Heron shook his head. "Just an update from my parents regarding Nymera and her health. The potions have been helping her, but she still naps. A lot." Heron pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know how much Harry has told you but she has been helping our family with trying to find out who and what made my sister so ill. Turns out it was indeed a fake Blood Curse." This made Tom's eyes widen. "Rava and her goblins have continued their research – so far they have a theory that could help eradicate the illness but they need to know the make-up of the curse used on her." Heron's expression darkened in about five seconds flat.

"Which means, they need to identify the curse," Tom translated out loud for himself.

"Yeah. We have a good lead and Mother has just written me that everything is in place to get some answers soon," Heron sighed as he sat down gingerly on his bed. "I just hope their plan works and they get something useful out of it."

"So do I," Tom reassured genuinely, swallowing a little. "What … what happens if you can't get the information or the make-up of the spell?"

"I try not to think about that," Heron confessed darkly, his hands curling into fists in his lap. "Because there is likely only one outcome."

Nymera's death.

The implication hung over the two boys like an icy veil.

Tom had no idea how to comfort his friend with words, so he simply decided to switch the subject. "Have you figured out what has been going on with Caius of late? I have been meaning to ask him if something has been bothering him, but I admit I haven't had the courage to ask him."

"Me neither," Heron scoffed shortly. "I doubt he will tell us though. He … fears us, after all."

"Yes, but why?" Tom couldn't help asking, closing his book and sitting up. He began shaking his head despondently.

"Well, you can be pretty scary when you want to be," Heron pointed out carefully. "And we haven't always been … the most open-minded of people in the past. Maybe he is scared we will judge him."

"Judge him for what?" Tom wanted to know.

"I wish I knew," Heron shrugged. "Did Harry not say anything to you about it? She seems to know exactly what is going on."

"She says it is not for her to tell me," Tom replied with a small smile.

"Then we can assume it is personal to the nth degree," Heron mused. He then looked at Tom with a slightly concerned look. "How have the three of you been holding up? I mean, actually been holding up?"

Tom found himself becoming a little more solemn. "It's been difficult, I am not going to lie about that. But we're dealing with it as best as we are able." He frowned a little and eyed Heron suspiciously. "Why do you ask?"

Heron flushed bright red in the face and was now doing everything in his power to avoid Tom's eyes. "Well, Rosier noticed a mark on Nott's stomach and he is … concerned that you … may have … consummated your bond …"

Lapis lazuli eyes were now glowing a neon red; Frey hissed incoherently, sighing with exhaustion about 'silly walkers and their inability to stop gossiping'. "Did Malum say anything to you?" Tom demanded to know.

"Malum?" Heron repeated in surprise. "No, he didn't. Why? Did he notice the mark on Nott's stomach as well?"

"No," Tom responded curtly. He fixed Heron with an unblinking gaze. "Let me make one thing abundantly clear right now. We didn't consummate our bond – as much as we wish to, we are keeping to all the rules. Anyone who tries to say otherwise, will have to deal with me." Heron gulped at this. "I do not want to hear rumours around the school, Heron, is that clear?"

"Crystal," the Lestrange Heir reassured. "I will talk to Malum about it later and we will … keep an ear open if there are any loose tongues."

"Good," Tom stated crisply. He had no qualms diving into his more menacing persona at this point. "Because I will not have my courtship be put into jeopardy because of a bunch of idiots who are utterly unable to keep their unfounded suspicions to themselves."

"Indeed," Heron agreed readily.

Tom gave him a curt nod of dismissal. Heron quickly busied himself by fleeing into the bathroom to go and take a shower. As if right on cue – almost like a sign from the Fates – Malum came into the room, looking none too happy. "Tom, your suitors are absolutely vicious harpies!" the Avery heir complained. "If they were not stealing from my lairs, they used the Ancient Dragon powers to goad each other into attacking my dragons!"

The last Gaunt could not help but start chuckling. "You should know better than to underestimate them, Malum," he responded silkily. "Your miscalculation is on you, I'm afraid."

"Touché," Malum was forced to concur as he flopped onto his bed with a sigh.

Tom regarded the Avery heir coolly. "You didn't happen to mention my Mark to anyone, did you?"

Malum's eyes widened in an instant. "No!" he answered emphatically, sitting up slightly in an instant. "Tom, I wouldn't! I am not that stupid."

Tom was very tempted to use some Legilimency before the lesson tomorrow. "Are you sure about that?" he asked silkily. "You didn't accidentally let something slip to Ophelia Rowle or anyone else?"

"No," Malum reassured firmly. He flushed bright red. "I … I haven't had much courage to even talk to Ophelia that much, since I have no idea how to even ask her for a formal courting. I am not that romantically inclined by nature; not like Heron, anyway."

"Rosier knows about the Marks," was all Tom simply stated.

Malum's expression turned serious again. "I saw him in the library doing research. He knows nothing for certain. Rosier simply saw a Mark like yours on Nott's stomach and is slightly concerned that … something may have happened between you, him and Harry. But you will be pleased to know that Abraxas and Loreley put a stop to him sleuthing further."

The Heir of Slytherin visibly relaxed at this point. The Avery heir let out a small sigh of relief. But very soon, a sly glint had entered those burgundy-flecked blue eyes that narrowed dangerously. "Malum, what do you know about Travellers?" Tom inquired silkily.

Malum looked at him as though he were mad. "Travellers? Where did this come from? Why would you want to know about them? They're a myth! The only family that ever dived into the subject is House of Steward. They have always been gatherers of folklore, myths and legends, and tried to use them in order to power up their own Family Magic. No one actually believes in them; the Travellers were just characters in some children's stories passed down from generation to generation."

Tom really was not satisfied with that answer. "That's not what I asked. I want to know what you know about them."

It was at this point that the Avery heir seemed set to flee from the room, but he also knew it would mean sleeping with one eye open that night. Malum plucked up the courage to give his friend the information he wanted. "Travellers could be anyone – male, female, child. They were largely witches and wizards who were Marked by deities and had the ability to go from one timeline to another without the use of a Time Turner. The Travellers were supposedly ruled by divine law, not mortal law. That's about it," he exhaled sharply.

Tom raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"Yes, because most of the information on them came from the Stewards. My family doesn't have much Steward blood in our veins," Malum informed him. "The ones who do are the Rowles, Potters, Sayers, Blacks, Gaunts and," he sighed, "the Peverells."

As Tom processed this new information, Heron came out of the shower, towel wrapped around his lower half and it was Malum's turn to take the opportunity to flee into the bathroom, away from a potentially annoyed Tom.

*Chasing fairy stories is really not helpful,* Frey huffed.

*As I said, we can't dismiss something as a fairy tale anymore,* Tom replied primly. *It seems that I may have to try and use tomorrow to find out just how much Ophelia, Orion, Walburga and Artemis know about the Travellers.*

*Good luck with that!* Frey snorted. *That kind of information is going to be hidden by a fortress of mental defences.*

*Perhaps,* Tom agreed. He smirked to himself. *Fortunately, I have been doing some extra reading into Legilimency and I have one or two tricks up my sleeve that I have been dying to try out.*

The ball python did not look happy about this at all. *Just as long as you don't start causing issues between Harry and her friends. I do not like to see a civil war; your last one was enough of a headache. Atty, Sigyn and Seraphina took a while to get used to me because of it! Endor ignored me for almost a week!*

###########################################################################

"Ooooo, nice throw, Ygraine!"

"That was right in the snake's mouth! Whooohooo! Yeah, yeah, Wally, I know – over-excessive cheering isn't lady-like."

"I wasn't going to say anything about that! But I admit that I pity the poor elf who has to polish our bedposts later."

Ophelia watched her friends' dagger throwing competition in quiet amusement while brushing a very annoyed Sigyn. The girls had all woken up quite early Saturday morning. After they had washed and dressed, they decided to kill some time by seeing how well they had all improved in their throwing skills. They were meant to hit the targets, but they also enjoyed aiming for the posts on their four poster beds. Ophelia was the only one not participating, mainly because she was too busy trying not to die laughing and because she was too distracted by a funny feeling she was having.

For once, the funny feeling was not regarding Harry, but was about the duelling and Occlumency sessions Tom and Harry were hosting that day. Ophelia had no idea why, but she knew she needed to keep her guard up at all times that day.

Harry seemed to notice the Rowle heiress's silence because she came to sit at the foot of Ophelia's four poster. "Everything all right, Lia?"

Ophelia was momentarily surprised at the use of her old nickname but she smiled brightly. "Yes. I am fine, don't worry."

"You sure?" Harry asked with a small frown. "You're quiet today. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Well enough," the Rowle heiress reassured. "Don't worry about me. I think I just need some food in me."

"OK," Harry decided to drop the matter and grinned when she switched to another subject. "Have you given my suggestion some more thought?"

Ophelia flushed. "Some, but I do not think I am as forward as you or Artemis."

"Regarding what?" Druella asked curiously as she drew her third dagger and threw it into Harry right hand post. Seraphina gave her a judgemental look for that one while Athenaïs happily pulled the dagger out of the bed post.

"I suggested to Ophelia to be the one to offer Malum an official proposal of courtship," Harry answered easily while the red tinge in Ophelia's cheeks only deepened.

"I think it is a good idea," Druella smirked. "If we leave it to Avery, our Ophelia is not going to get a proposal until blinking March!"

The girls collectively snorted with laughter at that. Walburga was the first to cover though. "I think Avery is expecting to be the one to make the proposal, however."

"He can have all the expectations he wants; it will not be the first time a woman has decided to be the one to make a move," Harry pointed out with a grin. "Besides, Lia helped me with my Courting Boxes. The least I can do is return the favour."

Ygraine was smirking at this point. "Well, if Heiress Rowle decides to be difficult about this, I assure you that I will definitely ask you for help when I have come up with an idea for my courting proposal, my friend!"

Druella threw her dagger into her new conjured target and gaped at her Veela-Fae heritage friend. "So you're definitely going to go through with a courting with Abraxas Malfoy?"

"I have nothing to lose, and everything to gain," Ygraine shrugged, which took Harry by surprise. Ygraine drew her last dagger and threw it; Seraphina hissed as the dagger lodged itself in Walburga's left bed post, high above her head. "To be honest, I also think it is time to grow up a little more. I do not know if I ever will have a mate, and frankly I have always been of the opinion that if it doesn't happen, it is for a good reason. Besides, one does have a choice to whom one loves."

Druella snorted a little. "I am not sure I agree with that. I definitely do not love Cygnus, and I don't see myself loving him in the future either. No matter what my mother says about her past relationship with my father; I am not blind. I can see those two do not love each other."

"You don't have to love someone to be loving to them," Walburga pointed out.

"I don't even want to be that either!" Druella huffed irritably. "It is not in my nature to give affection to just anyone. Frankly, I see myself battling my own husband within my marriage." The Rosier heiress's eyes darkened. "If there is anything I dread the most, is having children with the man."

"Why?" Ophelia heard the nervous concern in Harry's tone. "Do you not want children?"

"Oh I do," Druella reassured with a cold chuckle. "Just not with him. I fear Cygnus will only treat any daughters I give him as a pawn on the marriage market and will try and turn any sons we may have into miniature copies of him." Druella's eyes gleamed menacingly. "If he thinks I will be cowed into submission, he has another thing coming."

"Cygnus has many opinions and traits I do not agree with, or like," Walburga agreed quietly. "But my brother is not an inherently violent man."

"There is more than one kind of violence, Wally," Harry pointed out. "Emotional and mental violence can be as bad, or sometimes worse, than physical violence. Mostly because of the fact it is one of the easiest kind to hide."

Ophelia really did not like the knowing tone to Harry's voice – it just reminded her further that her friend had suffered heinous trials in her young life. It was at this precise moment that the dolphin Patronus and orca Patronus of Orion and Arcturus swam into the room.

"Hey, girls! Are you awake and dressed yet? It's breakfast time and Altair, Mulciber and Dolohov are acting like petty children because they're hungry," Arcturus' voice informed.

"Come on, girls! We want to get started as soon as possible. There are not that many hours in a day," Orion added happily, the dolphin doing tricks in the air.

As the Patronuses faded, the girls did a collective eyeroll.

"Typical," Ygraine commented.

"I had hoped those boys would one day learn some patience," Walburga agreed as she sent her snow leopard Patronus to tell them that they would be out in a minute.

Harry snorted at that point. "Orion and Altair showing patience? That will be the day we know Tartarus has frozen over completely."

"Or they likely would be changelings," Ygraine added with a smirk.

"And then we would have to rescue them," Druella sighed dramatically as the girls gathered their weapons and put them into their magically extended bags. "Yippee. That would be fun to explain to Dippet."

The girls chuckled away as they left their dorm, Athenaïs at their heels. The boys were waiting for them in the common room as they had predicted, looking a mixture of amused and exasperated. Especially when Orion launched into a story, together with Altair and Arcturus.

Those electric blue eyes of the Black heir were dancing with glee as the group set off. "Girls, you are not going to believe what happened after you went to bed! Flint, Greengrass and Parkinson got their butts whooped in Dragon Land by Oizys, Prince and Rookwood-"

"-and then Carrow, the Higgs twins and Bryant went against them as a team, with young Bryan practically carrying the whole team because Carrow and the Higgs twins could not stop arguing-" Altair put in quickly.

"-and Bryant's team only won because she managed to awaken one of the god dragons and use te buff, the lucky bugger," Arcturus finished, Altair and Orion nodding their heads enthusiastically.

Harry lit up at hearing that; she really loved the Ancient Dragon expansion pack. "Which god dragon did they manage to awaken?"

"The Ancient Fairy dragon," Orion sang happily.

"Oh boy, that one is just nasty!" Harry winced, laughing.

"Yeah, I almost regret buying that expansion pack because it's completely broken," Altair laughed as well. "I think when it's the next Hogsmeade trip, we need to go into Kelpie's Hollow as well to get some more games."

"Absolutely," Harry agreed readily.

"We also need to visit Clare's bookshop," Tom reminded them.

"Ah yes, we did promise the little monkey we would visit again soon," Altair stated fondly.

"Who is Clare?" Druella asked curiously.

"The daughter of the bookshop owner in Kelpie's Hollow, and she's really sweet," Harry answered with a grin. "Wily as a fox, though. She managed to talk Altair and me into helping her with her painting."

"Please! You didn't take much convincing," Altair teased.

"Neither did you, my darling," Harry reminded.

"Touché, my dear," the one half of Harry's heart readily agreed.

Ophelia took great pleasure in quietly fangirling and swooning internally. Druella too was maintaining her countenance; Ygraine and Walburga had to show some more self-restraint. It was at this point the group filed into the Great Hall and joined the Gryffindors for breakfast. It seemed that Merlin and Morgana decided to have mercy on the Slytherins regarding Lion exuberance, because none of the Lions were babbling animatedly about this or that.

Artemis, Minerva and Loreley were talking with each other about how Muggle aeroplanes worked. The Weasley twins and Ignatius were talking about whether there should or shouldn't be a change in courting customs with Jonathan Wood, Luke Wolpert and Katie Huxley. Billy Prewett was reading a book on Muggle cameras, ignoring the world around him. The rest of the Gryffindors also had their heads in magazines or were doing puzzles. Ophelia found it quite disconcerting.

"-I still think it is a little ridiculous – true, Muggles can't fly on brooms or on Abraxans, but still a giant hunk of metal that has things in it that can do kaput or explode sounds downright mad to me," the group overheard Artemis huff. The Potter heiress lit up as she realised her Slytherin friends had joined them. "Morning, everyone! Oh, you as well, Athenaïs? Good! Minerva was just explaining to Loreley and me how in Merlin's name Muggles can keep those eerie-planes up in the sky."

"Aeroplanes," Harry, Minerva and Loreley corrected at the exact same time as the group sat down around the breakfast table.

"Yes, that," Artemis stated jovially. "Anyway, Lorri hasn't given an opinion on the matter yet but I think the things are just dangerous, especially the ones that drop stuff onto the heads of other people."

"Suddenly the flying car idea doesn't seem so bad," Altair joked.

"It's the same bloody thing, except it is not as big and can't carry as many people," Minerva pointed out.

Ophelia poured herself some coffee, made herself some granola with yoghurt and proceeded to continue listening to the rather fascinating debate.

"Well, until Muggles invent a better, quicker and safer way to travel than flying or a boat, I am afraid we are stuck with the things," Harry commented as she tucked into a bowl of porridge.

"It almost makes me wish that we could just tell them to take a Portkey," Artemis huffed, shaking her head. "Imagine creating a giant metal bird with Merlin-knows-what inside of it and then launching it up until the air! It's utter complete madness."

"Madness that has been around for five hundred years, almost," Harry grinned.

"True," Tom joined the conversation at this point.

Artemis' eyes widened. "Muggles made giant metal birds four hundred years ago?" she squeaked.

"No, no, they have tried to find ways to fly that didn't constitute witchcraft in the eyes of the Church," Harry clarified quickly. "One of them was an Italian Renaissance master and possibly one of the most intelligent men to have ever lived: Leonardo da Vinci."

Ophelia giggled as Orion lit up at this point. "Great-Aunt Violetta actually told me about him. Apparently his skill in drawing was extra-ordinary, even for the time he lived. One of his most famous paintings is the Mona Lisa; no one really knows for sure who the woman in the painting is. But Great-Aunt Violetta does think it was perhaps a witch friend of da Vinci's."

"He was more than a simple painter, though. He was also an inventor and an inventor. Some of the early concepts of a tank and a hot air balloon were found amongst his work," Harry continued with a grin. "You know, Leonardo was so obsessed with flight that he would buy the entire inventory of birds from a tradesmen in Florence, and he would simply let them all go in order to study how they flew."

Felix's lips curled into a sneer. "He sounds like a batty old coot to me."

"True," Loreley sang mystically at this point. "All the best people are batty and have a tinge of madness. Because one needs madness in order to think of what could be and then dare to try and bring it to fruition."

It seemed that everyone was promptly reminded that Loreley was a Ravenclaw because no one knew quite how to answer that. Harry simply smiled knowingly, as she often did when it came to the strange girl. Ophelia frowned a little but soon distracted herself with her food.

After breakfast, the Slytherins, Gryffindors, Ravenclaw and one Gargouille headed straight for the Room of Requirement. Ophelia didn't even try to hide her amusement when she saw the expressions of her friends when they saw the dojo and arena the Room provided for them. As everyone began unpacking their weapons, Harry spoke.

"We will first start with Mental Magics, and then we will see how well you have been doing in your weapon training. After that, Tom will take over and focus on magical duelling and then, if we still have energy, I will teach you some magic that I have been studying in the archives' manuscripts."

This made everyone light up instantly.

"We get to study Old Magic?" Arcturus' eyes shone.

Harry grinned lopsidedly. "Indeed. We will first start with some basic Summoning Spells first, though."

"Fine by us," Druella reassured excitedly. She clapped her hands together once. "OK, Occlumency lessons. Let's see … Wally, you test Lestrange's barriers. I will test Dolohov's mental shields. Orion, you're with Malum. Altair, you will test Loreley's barriers. Harry, you take Felix. Ophelia, you will test Tom's barriers. Ygraine, test Artemis' shields please. Abraxas, Arc, you two will have to wait your turn. Minerva, Athenaïs – watch and learn."

Both Abraxas and Arcturus looked rather relieved that they were not up first.

"OK," Minerva agreed with a smile.

Athenaïs howled mystically in excitement.

The Rowle heiress was not going to lie to herself; she was down-right terrified at the prospect of looking into the head of Slytherin's Heir. Ophelia didn't doubt that Tom wouldn't have some highly creative and intricate barriers, but she was dreading what she would see in his head. Frankly, she did not want to feel or see something that was too … private, especially when it came to Nott and Harry. But at the same time, Ophelia was not about to pass up an opportunity of trying to get into the head of Tom Marvolo Riddle, the boy who had ruled Slytherin with an iron fist.

As for the boy in question, he was watching her like a wild horse would do a passing person.

"Ready, Tom?" Ophelia asked simply as everyone else paired off too, drawing her wand.

Tom smiled lopsidedly. "Whenever you are ready, Miss Rowle."

"As you wish," Ophelia raised her wand and pointed it at him, keeping her unblinking gaze on him. "Legilimens!"

Ophelia soon found herself inside his head, but very quickly found herself against brick wall after brick wall – or in this case, ice-covered lake after ice-covered lake. The moment she set foot on one, the ice began to crack; Ophelia quickly stepped away from the ice. It was at the second lake that she came face to face with a giant snake, a dragon and a golden jackal – all made of ice.

Someone has taken a leaf out of Harry's book, Ophelia found herself grumbling as she was forced to run into a nearby wood with the creatures hot on her tail.

As she ran deeper and deeper through the labyrinthine trees for what it felt like an eternity, the Rowle heiress had a crazy idea. What if these trees and the lakes were just a distraction? What if – somehow – the creatures were the keys to the memories?

Ophelia skidded to a halt in a clearing with an amphitere in the middle and turned around. The roaring, howling and hissing of the creatures came from the depths and soon they burst through the undergrowth. She stared down the three of them has they hollered towards her and waited for the creatures to get close.

Just before the golden jackal reached her and was about to bite her, Ophelia found herself being forced out of Tom's head. She stumbled a little back from the force, blinking twice and shaking her head, extremely disappointed that she didn't get to see one memory or feel at least something in that cold, ordered head of Tom Riddle.

"Well done," Ophelia was rather taken aback that her partner was complimenting her. In fact, Tom Riddle was full on grinning at her. "You figured out my little trick."

Ophelia scoffed. "I assume that there were at least some memories in the lake?"

"Of course," Tom answered readily. "But there is always an inherent fear in humans when it comes to ice on water, so I used that to my advantage."

"Clever," Ophelia readily admitted with a smile.

The Gaunt Heir smiled serenely. "So, do you wish to go again, or may I have the honours of testing your shields too?"

An expression of stone cold determination carved itself onto Ophelia's countenance in five seconds flat. "You can test mine, Tom," she stated with confidence.

There was a glint of something unreadable in those lapis lazuli-burgundy eyes that still scared the crap out of Ophelia. "Very well. Are you ready?" he asked kindly.

"Go right ahead," the words came out of Ophelia's mouth very easily.

A small smirk momentarily appeared on Tom Riddle's countenance but disappeared very quickly as he pointed his wand at her. "Legilimens!"

Ophelia quickly concentrated on making sure that each of her literal mental fortresses were prepared for any onslaught that Tom could prepare. Currently Tom was poking at the defences of the fortress that guarded her childhood memories with Rollo. Unfortunately, her invader managed to see one of the memories – the mud pie fight one – before her gargoyles had gotten to him.

Next, Tom assessed the defences of the Fortress of Friends; the place where Ophelia hid all her memories of Walburga, Druella, Ygraine and then Harry. First impressions, annoyances, memories of girls' night, the girls' day to see Persephone, first Occlumency lessons – it had a treasure trove that Tom no doubt would be interested in at least seeing.

Surprisingly, Tom could not seem to find a way through the mental portcullis, or through the mental bars that came onto the windows. He very quickly gave up and instead went to the Fortress of Secrets, which looked dark and broody – much more interesting. A bit stupid, in hindsight, Ophelia realised.

Mainly because Tom put in a lot more effort to enter it. The place held everything regarding Harry's identity as a Peverell, as the Mistress of Death, Ophelia's feelings for Malum, her secret hatred of not being named her father's heir, and – now – her research into Granny Steward's work on Travellers. Tom managed to see her kiss with Malum at the Yule Ball and their meeting at her house, and the fight Ophelia got into with her father when it was officially decided Rollo would be the next Lord Rowle, before she evicted him from the Fortress.

The Heir of Slytherin tried his hand again at entering the Fortress, this time via the catacombs. The catacombs – where one of her memories regarding the Travellers was hidden behind a stone door with a riddle engraved into it. Ophelia put in as much effort as she could to force Tom out of her head at this point. Her invader resisted her as best as he could – clearly Tom had been doing his reading and had practised a lot.

Eventually, Ophelia resorted to using the walls of the Fortress of Secrets in order to push Tom out the way he came, which in turn allowed Ophelia to push him from her mind; apparently Tom could not yet fight two mental forces at once just yet.

Once Tom was pushed out, both of them were panting with the effort they had put in, one staring down the other unblinkingly.

"Not bad, Ophelia," Tom was the first to speak, smirking slightly.

"You're not so bad yourself," Ophelia returned, straightening.

Druella's intervention cut whatever tension was starting to rise between them. "How did the pair of you do? You were both taking a long time."

"I didn't get to see anything in Tom's head, but he saw four of my own memories," Ophelia regretted to report.

Druella looked impressed at this point. "Well, unfortunately we don't have much time to continue Occlumency practise right now because our General Evans wants to see just how well we have been implementing our training. Ophelia, you're on dagger throwing with Dolohov, Arc and Abraxas. Tom, you're set to duel Artemis."

"OK," Ophelia agreed readily, Tom nodding in affirmation at the exact same time.

As the pair fetched their weapons and joined their friends, Ophelia could have sworn that Tom looked extremely internally annoyed with himself at something.

Quietly, Ophelia knew that she dared not think what about. Fortunately, she was soon distracted by a dagger throwing competition between herself, Arcturus, Dolohov and Abraxas.

###########################################################################

Saturday was always one of Albus Dumbledore's favourite days, because he could spend the day knitting patterns, marking essays and listening to the radio. Sometimes his old friend Fawkes the phoenix would come to visit on Saturdays too, which also helped. Especially since on this particular Saturday, Dumbledore found he really needed a friend to talk to.

Dumbledore had just managed to finish all his marking for the day and had knitted three cute scarves that would be fitting for a small familiar when there was an urgent tapping noise at his window. The Head of Gryffindor turned around to see a Brown Fish owl with a black ribbon around its neck – the man immediately jumped to his feet when he saw it.

The owl was Reginald's familiar. It was exceedingly rare for any member of the Resistance to communicate using their own familiars because there was a risk that they would be recognised. Even former members such as the Scamander brothers and the rest of the original group of misfits Dumbledore had gathered in the past didn't write often, especially not with their own familiars.

Something must be terribly wrong.

Dumbledore let the owl in. The bird immediately hooted and gestured animatedly to the letter around its left leg. The Transfigurations teacher frowned and quickly untied the letter. He broke the seal on the back, unfolded it and began to read.

Bumblebee,

Meg, Ghost and Goliath have disappeared – there has been no contact in over three days. They were ordered two days ago to come back to HQ. Did not show. Unable to find their magical signature.

Could you help us try and find them?

Wisp

This was not good; judging by the fact the parchment was blotted with ink, it had been written in a massive hurry. Dumbledore's brow furrowed in deep concern. Meg, Ghost and Goliath had some overly sensitive information that, if they fell into the wrong hands, could put the whole Resistance in danger.

Albus quilled an answer to Reginald quickly, and sent the owl on its way. It was almost at the precise moment that the mystical trilling that the Head of Gryffindor recognised as Fawkes' song drifted into the room as the phoenix flew in via the open window and landed elegantly on the back of the chair opposite Dumbledore's desk.

The man smiled sadly. "Hello, my friend. How are you?"

Fawkes chirped and cocked his head to one side at an adorable angle. Dumbledore knew instinctively what the firebird was asking. "I am perfectly fine, thank you. My friends have a problem, however. Key members of their team have disappeared into thin air."

Fawkes frowned and trilled again.

"Well, I have said that I would try and find them. The three in question are too important to lose," Dumbledore stated solemnly, getting to his feet. "You are welcome to stay for the rest of the evening, but I am afraid I will be more boring than normal."

The phoenix chirped mystically again. Dumbledore beamed. "Oh thank you for being so understanding. Now, we first write a letter to Tom, I think. He has seen them at the Leaky Cauldron. Perhaps he has some answers?"

Fawkes did not answer, and simply watched his friend begin theorising in silence.

###########################################################################

"Who was in my house?"

This was a question that Goldheart had not expected to come out of Rollo Rowle's mouth when the Head Cursebreaker marched into his offices quite early in the evening, those bright blue eyes blazing with fury. The Head of Gringotts Security raised an eyebrow and sat back in his chair.

"What in the name of Panxai the Blessed are you talking about, Rollo?" Goldheart demanded. "There was no one in your house today or yesterday, save for you and Mr. Burke-"

However, it would seem that the future Lord Rowle was really fed up with the games of espionage because he slammed his hands down quite forcefully onto Goldheart's desk, making the belongings on it rattle. "I am not talking about today or yesterday, and you know it! I am talking about the unknown and unwelcome visitor who entered my house, without so much as taking anything but was spotted by Henry and, I think, your goblins!"

Goldheart's eyes widened a little at this. Indeed, his goblins had seen Ghost investigate Rollo's home and decided not to intervene, just to see what the Hit Wizard was doing and what he was after. When the man left without taking anything, the decision was made to simply keep the event under wraps, especially from Rollo.

However, it seemed that another witness had seen Ghost. The issue was, no one reported to Goldheart that they saw Henry Burke standing outside Rollo's apartment block. That was definitely something that would have been mentioned, but it had not been. The Head of Security frowned to himself.

How had they missed the strange wizard who worked as a teacher to Muggle university students?

Rollo soon pulled the goblin out of his train of thought. "Do you deny it?" he demanded. "Was there someone in my house and I was not informed?"

Goldheart composed himself; he waved his hand lazily, shutting the still open the door and placing Silencing Charms on it before speaking. "Yes, Rollo. There was indeed someone in your house without your knowledge."

Fury danced in Rollo's eyes. "Why?" he snarled venomously. "Is it not enough that I have guards with me every second of the day?"

"They were not ours!" Goldheart scoffed. "Your intruder was Ghost."

"Ghost," Rollo repeated, anger still laced in his tone. "Ghost – you let a damn Hit Wizard sneak into my house?!"

"Indeed," Goldheart admitted readily.

"Have you gone barking mad?!" Rollo thundered. "Why did you let him do that?"

"To see what he would do," Goldheart responded easily, with a small shrug. "Fortunately, neither he, nor Goliath are a problem at present."

"Oh? And why is that?" Rollo sneered, straightening.

Goldheart smirked like the cat who caught the canary. "Because, as you know, all three of them are here in our custody. Ghost and Goliath came to petition us for Meg's release, and we made a deal with them."

Rollo calmed down; he had heard about this already but didn't know the precise details. "A deal?" he repeated tensely. "What kind of deal?"

"I think you know about that already. In return for not being imprisoned for threatening an employee on Goblin Nation soil, they will provide us with any and all useful information pertaining to the Alliance, Nurmengard and Grindelwald," Goldheart answered jovially. "So far we have a rather detailed map of the castle as well as around ten completed character profiles. Those three really are a treasure trove of knowledge."

Rollo swallowed. "Will the information help us protect the Lady Hera?"

Goldheart became serious in an instant. "One can hope to Gleipnir it does. Because if it doesn't, there is nothing that can save us from the retribution her friends and family will seek." The Head of Security leant forwards. "Have you heard anything from Grindelwald's side yet?"

"Nothing. Not even an order for tea or coffee," Rollo scoffed. "Not even one assignment meant for our freelancer."

"I have no idea whether to be happy about that or not," Goldheart confessed readily.

"Me neither," Rollo agreed solemnly. "Me neither."

###########################################################################

Meg, Ghost and Goliath's absence has been noted! Will Dumbledore discover where they are or will the goblins have a trick up their sleeves? Will the Lestranges be able to get the information they need? How will the Slytherin versus Hufflepuff match play out? Stay tuned to find out!

Oh my gods, I am sorry it is taking so long, everyone! My schedule right now is all over the place because of my new job and I still have other stories and projects that need my attention. I thank all of you for your patience and your continued support! It means the world to me.

By the way, I didn't miss a captial letter on the word 'viking'. You see, a 'viking' was the type of raid the Old Scandinavians would go on; it is not the name of a people. It would be like calling a group of people Firemen with a capital F and then calling them a type of people when it is actually an occupation. Just a fun fact!

Orion: You are doing really well, Umbreon, don't worry!

Harry: Indeed!

Tom: Just stay calm and don't get stressed.

Easier said than done!

Gellert: You need more tea and cookies in your life.

Agreed!

We will see you in the next chapter!

Kingmaker'sUmbreon