[010]
This was not how I imagined meeting my siblings, mostly because I hadn't given the matter much thought at all. This entire situation as so outside my wheel box that I had no idea how to even face it and now it was right in front of me.
The conversation had shifted slightly as I was distracted by my shock.
"You missed the party last night, Luna. Ginny was there and you know how hard it is to get her to wear a proper dress, you missed it." Rose told Luna while stealing glances at me. "Where were you?"
Luna tilted her head. "I was a bit tied up yesterday. Nargles you know."
Rose narrowed her eyes. "Anyone I need to break the knees of?"
Jim stopped staring at me with a goofy look on his face to slowly turn to his sister. "Break their knees?"
Rose sniffed. "Kneecaps are a privilege, not a right."
Luna just giggled. "No, I was saved by a wonderfully beautiful Heliopath, it was explosive."
Rose rolled her eyes but seemed reassured by Luna's response even if I don't think she thought Luna was being entirely accurate. I realised quickly that Rose may be a bit protective of the little blond and had a sudden moment of sibling understanding. The Luna was precious and must be protected.
As Jim interjected with a tale about the party and having to escape the attentions of a buxom redhead I observed the two potters.
Rose was still stunning. Looking closer and now knowing my our connection I could see hints of our relation in her face. The green rings in her eyes were as vibrant as my one emerald ones and there was a similarity in the shape of our jaws.
Rose's eyes flicked to meet my own as I observed her while Jim talked and she blushed and smiled before looking back to Luna and Jim and commenting on how someone named 'Susan' had tracked down her brother by the end of the night which caused Jim to wince at the memory.
Jim didn't look like a carbon copy of what I had looked like while at the Dursleys. He was tall with a slim yet muscular build like a swimmer. 'That could be from quidditch, I guess.' He also had a different colouration and looked a bit more like Rose whom I was guessing took after her mother… our mother. He had pale skin, expressive brown eyes and burgundy hair that shone with red highlights when the sun hit it right. Did he dye it or could magicals have naturally burgundy-red coloured hair?
He wore a fitted black leather jacket and a maroon button shirt up with muggle jeans, he appeared the picture of casual wealth which was a direct contrast to the oversized hand-me-downs that was all I could wear in my past… I might be a little jealous.
I paused. Jealous… I was jealous of Jim. I frowned and tried to examine my own feelings towards either Jim or Rose and I thankfully found only mild to moderate jealousy and resentment. It was my parents where most of my ire was directed after all. That said, Jim being the renowned as the Boy-Who-Lived has already kindled some annoyance and sympathy given the way he preened from my mentioning of the name didn't do him any favours. Is this how Harry… how I would have grown had I been given the title and not locked away under the stairs? I hoped not.
Rose… was another matter. My primary thoughts were curiosity. She didn't exist in canon and she didn't have an analogue like Jim did as the BWL. Of all the Potters she was the one I had no real negative feelings for because she would have had no ability to affect the history between us nor did it feel like she was stealing something from me like Jim did. Now I had to wonder how much of that leeway I was feeling were my real feelings and how much was my hormones going 'hur dur cute girl!' And wasn't that an entirely new form of fuckery? I was attracted to my sister. What was wrong with me?
My spiralling thoughts were derailed as another star fell from the night towards my soul…
+100 CP
900 CP - Rolling…
Anezaiku Crafting Anthology (Golden Sky Stories) – 100 CP
Amezaiku is typically viewed as more of an art form than an expression of culinary ability, though kids might argue that there is no shortage of the latter. Essentially the art of moulding candy into specific shapes, like animals or symbols, this crafting practice originally had religious implications, but has since become an artistic demonstration.
This book teaches you this craft, and as you get more practice you'll be able to craft them more proficiently. With sufficient magic, you might even be able to awaken the spirit within them – and bring these living taffy sculptures to life.
Declined.
900 CP Banked.
… and was swiftly dodged.
Why on earth would I want to bring to life sculptured candy? No, really? Even if it would be cute, I could do almost the same thing with a transfiguration and an animation spell… or at least I could as soon as I learnt how to cast those spells.
Still, figuring out how to reject perks was already paying off as I would rather hoard the points and wait for something better to come along.
Luna not so subtly elbowed me to bring me back into the moment and I found both my siblings looking at me expectantly; both with flushed hopeful faces.
"I'm sorry, I missed that." I said having completely missed whatever they were asking of me.
"I was asking if you were visiting for the world cup and if you wanted to meet up during before the game. We're both attending, you know." Rose managed to reply without stuttering, while Jim's eyes were softly glazing over.
Shit! I suddenly realised that I was leaking a low-level allure as a reaction to my own attraction to Rose and it was hitting both of them. I pulled it in quickly and glanced around but luckily no one else seemed close enough to have been caught. Did Fleur have to deal with holding her allure in all the time? If so my respect for the French Half-Veela was growing.
"Oh, ah, yeah. Luna's invited me to go with her as part of her father's press pass." I replied, glancing at Luna who nodded.
"Sweet! We can hang out there. We're going to be in a private box, I'm sure if I asked, I could get you in too." Jim Potter glanced at Luna. "BOTH! Um, that is, I mean, both of you."
I struggled not to cringe away from the boy's enthusiasm. I was already dealing with finding Rose hot, my brother thinking the same of me was just… ergh, ick.
"I'm not sure. It would depend on Luna's father." I hedged and leant back a little from the overeager lad.
Rose tilted her head. "Xeno?" she glanced between Luna and I? "How do you know Luna, if I may ask?"
I had no idea what I was saying as it was already leaving my mouth. "Luna is my…" What? Friend? Tease? Support? Fellow kidnapping victim? WHAT?!
Luna glanced at me and interjected as I struggled. "Cousin!"
"…Cousin!" I quickly agreed.
"Second cousin on my mother's side." Luna added sadly and leant into my side so I wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
I did the math and that would mean that we would — hypothetically — share grandparents. I didn't even know if Pandora Lovegood had any siblings but I doubt anyone was going to ask. Luna's mother had still passed in this reality and pressing questions would be considered rude.
"Oh, so you're staying at Luna's with your parents until the cup." Rose deducted.
"Just me." I intruded.
I didn't need anyone searching for hypothetical parents that didn't exist.
"The folks are still in… ah…" I was drawing another blank! I couldn't say France because I don't know how to speak French! Curse you Mrs Blanchet and your lacklustre high school French language classes!
"Australia." Luna saved me again and I squeezed her tightly for having my back.
"Australia?" Jim asked with a look of confusion on his face. "Does Australia have Veela colonies?"
"Sure do." I lied. Or at least I think I lied. I honestly had no idea.
"Huh, I've always wanted to visit Australia." Rose spoke up though her brother gave her an odd look.
"What? Since when? You've always said you want to visit Japan." Jim contradicted her and received a sharp elbow to the ribs from his sister.
"And Australia. Japan and Australia. I want to see those weird muggle animals that were almost added to the statute of secrecy. The… um, water mammals with the bill of a duck," struggled for the name of the animal then found it and so exclaimed, "the platypus!"
Jim frowned as he rubbed his side. "What are you talking about? Platypus aren't real."
"Platypuses." I corrected him. "Or less commonly platypi."
Jim accepted my correction. "Platypi aren't real, then."
The sudden yank as Luna's emergency portkey activated saved me from any further awkward conversation.
Jimmy and Rose stared at the spot where Luna and Holly had been standing when they had swirled away in the tell-tale blur of a portkey activation.
"What?!" Jimmy exclaimed, already pulling out his wand and scanning for trouble as his father had taught him.
Rose on the other hand just facepalmed. "Fuck! That's her emergency portkey passphrase!"
Jimmy turned to her. "Huh?"
Rose rolled her eyes at his eloquence. "Luna's emergency portkey phrase is 'Platypi aren't real.'"
Jimmy just stared without comprehension. "Why? Ours is 'Emergency Evac Now', why would you make is something like that?" He said, purposefully shortening 'evacuation' so as not to trigger their own portkeys.
"Because Luna." Rose explained and Jimmy accepted the explanation because it really did make sense.
"Oh, and dibs." Rose added with a smirk.
"What?" Jimmy stared at his sister.
"Holly. I call dibs." Rose explained.
Jimmy shook his head. "You can't just call dibs!"
"I think I just did." Rose laughed. "And anyway, from how close Luna and she were, I think I have a better chance than you."
Jimmy pouted. "Her and Luna? Even if that's true, that doesn't mean you have a better chance."
"Of course it does." Rose smirked again. "Luna's the type to share."
Jim blushed heavily and looked away. There were just things you didn't want to know about your sister.
"Kids, you done window-shopping?" A voice spoke up from behind them and they turned to see their father, James, approaching a frown engraved on his face.
"Just gotta stop by Flourish and Blotts." Rose replied. Hermione's birthday was annoyingly just after term started and it was easier to get something in advance.
"We have time." James confirmed with a glance at his watch.
"Mhmm, you know, you just missed Luna and her cousin." Rose added.
"Yeah! Hey Dad, did you know that Luna's cousin is half-" Jimmy started to add but Rose elbowed him in the side again.
"Australian! She's half Australian." Rose interjected.
James was already leading the teens down the street as he replied absently. "Huh, that's interesting.
Jimmy glanced at his sister who subtly shook her head and whispered. "You want to tell Dad that we're both trying to hang with a girl with Veela heritage? He'll go all paranoid about gold-diggers again."
Jimmy winced but didn't argue. Being the Boy-Who-Lived meant that were many families that were willing to throw women and girls at him and James got more than a little defensive of his kids dating prospects. Ginny and Susan were two of the few girls that James didn't have a problem with and that was only because he was close to the Weasleys and knew that Amelia Bones was about the most honourable person in the ministry… though that wasn't saying much given how much of a cess-pool their government was.
"So, Dad, what did the Goblins want?" Jimmy asked to divert the conversation.
James' frown deepened and Rose noticed his fist clench around a singed roll of parchment that he was holding.
"There were some issues that needed to be sorted out. Someone attempted to access the Potter accounts but the Goblins had it covered." James's ground out.
"Does this have anything to do with Harry?" Rose frowned.
She didn't know what do feel about her missing sibling. It was just so confusing and well… annoying more than anything. She didn't like what the whole situation was doing to her family but then she would feel guilty for having that thought.
But it wasn't like she had ever known him or anything. She had, at one point in her childhood, mourned the loss of the idea of him — mostly when Jimmy was being a prat — but she recognised that she didn't actually know him enough, or at all, to really grieve.
James nodded sternly then released a weary sigh. "It does. Someone… someone has him or his body or… I don't know."
The Goblins were out for blood and it was only his magically sworn oath that had convinced the little green bastards that he had nothing to do with the would-be thief.
He didn't know who this Veela woman who had somehow masqueraded as his son was but her attempt to steal from their accounts infuriated him and, well… it made him feel ashamed. How could he fail his son at every step? Even now he was missing or dead or worse. The inheritance test he had been given by the Goblins — for a price — was proof of the woman's nefarious yet unknown agenda but also a grim hope that Harry was still alive. The test would have greyed out his name had he been deceased.
Rose seemed to understand that he didn't really want to talk about it, at least not here and he swallowed thickly as he continued to lead his children to the bookstore.
It was everything he had feared when he made the discission to disinherit his firstborn. Someone had taken Harry and used him to make a claim against the family. He didn't know how though as most methods to steal a bloodline would have been negated by the disinheritance yet he couldn't claim he knew all that could be done with Blood Magic as the dark practices one could do with it were as varied as they were sickening. There was a reason Blood Magic was illegal after all.
He glanced at Jimmy as walked next to him and then down to the Heir's Ring that adorned his second son's hand. That was the other reason he had needed to disinherit Harry. A family's Heir's Ring was passed down to the eldest living heir on their eleventh birthday when they were to start their magical education. The old magics in the ring offered a large amount of protection and conveyed a certain level of social status. People would have questioned why Jimmy wasn't wearing it had he arrived at Hogwarts without it and he wouldn't have been able to answer them.
During his internal debate they had arrived at Flourish and Blotts and Rose dashed in with Jimmy following at a more sedate pace behind her and that gave James a moment to reign in his temper… and guilt.
By the time the kids had made their purchases; a few niche spell books for Rose and another book of prank curses for Jimmy, James had calmed down somewhat and he walked with his children towards the Leaky Cauldren and the Floo.
"Hey dad?" Rose asked.
"Hmm?"
"Think you could apparate me to Hermione's tomorrow?"
Jimmy scowled as the mention of the bushy haired girl but James just shrugged and rolled his eyes at Jimmy's annoyance.
"Sure, Rose. I'll pop you round in the morning, just call and make sure they know you're coming." James agreed and Rose's smile was a fitting reward.
It was odd that Rose was such good friends with a girl in the same year as her brother yet it was also humorous how much Jimmy disliked Hermione. Which was a shame as Lily loved the girl. Bookworms the pair of them.
James grimaced.
Lily wasn't talking to him at the moment, which… was fair, all things considered. Keeping the truth from his wife about Harry was never meant to have gone on this long. The fake funeral for his son might have been to protect him and to stop others asking questions and it's not like Lily had been there to offer a better idea.
When she had finally awoken, she had been inconsolable and James… well it was just easier to let her think that Harry had died. He had tried to spare her the pain of not being able to hold or see her infant son and had expected to have to confess in a year or so when Harry eventually passed away and when Lily was in a better mental state.
Except he hadn't died but had lived much longer than anyone had expected and each year the lie had grown and grown until it became too big to confess.
It had been heavy weight that hung over his head and had filled him with guilt every day yet also had given him a tiny sliver of hope. James had actually begun to think that Harry might eventually recover and they could then welcome him back into the family. Surely then Lily would have seen that he had made the right choice if their distance had eventually saved their son and brought him home, right?
He wouldn't even have cared if Harry could still do magic or not. A squib son might be seen as a disgrace in pureblood circles but James wouldn't have cared… and it's not like anyone would have ever needed to know.
But whenever he had expressed that hope to Dumbledore the man had shaken his head sadly. 'The damage was still there,' he would say, 'still fragile and still likely to break completely if they brought his son home.'
How was James supposed to tell Lily that? To give her hope and then, possibly, have to snatch it away. He wasn't cruel.
And now his son was gone; stolen by this half-veela bitch.
As James saw the kids through the Floo he made a promise to himself. He would find the woman who had taken his son and either take him back or extract terrible vengeance on her.
He grinned viciously and tightened a fist around the scorched parchment of the blood test. Dumbledore would help him. He always knew what to do.
With that thought he followed his remaining children through the fire back to the Potter manor.
Luna and I feel into a heap on the grass in front of her house as the portkey journey ended in a lurch.
Unprepared for the sudden travel I simply groaned while Luna laughed on top of my before stretching out her arm and staring at the bracelet as her laughter softened into a light sigh.
"Oh pooh. Daddy's going to not be happy."
I pulled myself up into a sitting position. "Why?"
She gestured to the portkey. "The charms on these don't last forever. Two or three trips at most and the entire thing has to be redone. If they could be used repeatedly without cost then everyone would use them regardless of the permits needed or lack of them."
Right. That made sense, I guess.
"Mistresses Stars and Moon are back." A high-pitched voice called from the kitchen door and both Luna and I turned to stare at the young house elf in shock.
Gone was the stooped and wrinkled form of a house elf and in its place was a creature that looked a lot more like how one of Santa's elves would be described.
Where a house elf had creepily huge eyes for their size, Pixie's olive-green orbs simply made her look childish. Her large floppy ears were replaced with large slender knife-like ears that still protruded outward. She stood a little taller than the average house elf but only in that she certainly reached the three-foot mark that was the tallest their race usually grew. Her skin was no longer wrinkled and had become a healthy tanned tone that in conjunction with the light blue toga she was wearing gave her a distinctly Mediterranean appearance.
She looked good… in a distinctly non-human way. She certainly didn't look like a child even with her diminutive size as she somehow extruded an air of maturity, grace and mischief. The term 'uncanny valley' came to mind. She was cute but decidedly in a non-human manner.
"Pixie?" I asked and was certain of it even as the question slipped my lips. I could feel the connection of magic between us and it had somehow only grown stronger and thicker than before.
Pixie gave me and Luna a delicate curtsey. "Mistress Star and Mistress Moon. Pixie must apologise for consuming some of you most precious Royal Jelly and hopes that you will find it in your heart to forgive me."
Both Luna and I exchanged a glance at the elf's most un-elf-like way of speaking.
I cleared my throat. "Ahem, ah, that's ok, Pixie. You actually look much better now."
The smile that grew on the elf's face was blinding. "Thankyou! Pixie does feel much better. Things are so much… clearer now, you know?"
I didn't know but I nodded along.
"Pixie made lunch, please come in and enjoy it!" she said happily and snapped her fingers which banished the dust on both Luna and I's clothes before she turned around and skipped into the house.
Luna looked at me. "Don't ask me. I'm just glad she still made lunch."
She then stood and strode into the house without any hint of hesitation and I could only follow.
I really shouldn't have worried overmuch. Despite Pixie's dramatic changes, she was still a house elf at heart and took immense pleasure in serving her family. I did suspect that she was no longer as susceptible to being abused as a regular house elf yet given that I had no intensions of abuse the adorable elf, I think I'll be fine.
"Hmm, these are delightful~!" Luna bit into another scone with cream and elephant jelly and then a passively lewd sound as she savoured the taste.
My face a flaming red, I took a bite of my own scone and had to repress a moan of my own. How the fuck were these so good? It wasn't just the soothing energy of the Jelly which felt like it was filling a hole inside me that I never knew was so empty but the flavour was truly divine.
Though, despite how good the scones were, I had been worried that Pixie had used too much of the precious resource that the Jelly represented as a healing potion but a look at the jar and it appeared that whatever was taken slowly refilled. I was tempted to empty the jar repeatedly and gather a larger stockpile but the star within my soul thrummed at that thought and I got the impression that abusing it would be bad.
Glancing up at Luna who was now on her fifth sweet treat, I couldn't help but smile at how happy she seemed. There was magic in this moment between the two of us enjoying our meal that had been lacking in my life… both of them, I think. It certainly took the stress away from having to suddenly deal with my siblings earlier. With a little room to think about them I was actually looking forward to maybe meeting them again, either here or at the World Cup. I doubt anything James or Lily said would ever allow me to forgive them but Jim and Rose hadn't seemed bad.
I looked back at Luna and smiled. She was great and much like the original Harry in the books I could see how she was a balm to the soul. I reached over the table and wiped away a smidge of cream that was clinging to Luna's cheek and popped it in my mouth, the action causing the blond to freeze and look at me like a startled animal before her cheeks flushed a deep red.
"Sneaky, attractive, sexy Veela…" She muttered softly and I blushed myself.
Luna collected her thoughts and took a deep sip of the tea that Pixie had been keeping topped up for us as we ate. "So, now that you've got your wand, you know what that means right?"
I didn't. "No…"
"I get to teach you magic!"
My eyes widened. Despite already being in this world for one and bit days and drawing quite a few magical abilities from the Grimoire, I would finally be able to actually learn the magic of this world.
"When do we start!?"