AN: This one shouldn't have taken so long but I had a bit of trouble staying engaged. Honestly, it's filler. It is nothing but filler. A dumping ground for minor incidents I wanted to include but did not rate a full chapter individually. Still it was all stuff that needed to happen it's just… not as engaging or in depth. Hope you all enjoy.

{}{}{}{} Taylor

There was something I had been putting off doing. A hope I'd nurtured in secret for more than a month now. I'd not had the chance to test it until coming to Hogwarts and then… call it a fifty fifty split between nervous indecision, and having more important things to worry about.

But the junior terrorists were either dealt with or keeping their heads down. The news that I'd dealt with half the group personally made everyone reevaluate me as a threat. Someone would get it into their head that I was all hype and try again eventually, but for right now… I was as safe as I was going to get for the time being. My weaving was well in hand.

I was out of excuses.

I walked back and forth in front of the blank stretch of wall, once, twice, thrice.

Nothing.

A breath I hadn't noticed myself holding rattled out of me.

Well. That had always been a long shot. But what if I tried something a little less ambitious?

Once more I got what I wanted firmly in my mind and started to pace. On my third lap a door appeared from nowhere.

A breathless relieved laugh wrenched itself out of me. Then I ripped the door open in my haste.

The room was small, with walls and floor of bare stone and only a few torches for light, a polished mirror, and an hourglass. Well maybe not an hourglass. For all I knew about ancient timepieces it could count fifteen minutes or three hours.

I took a deep breath and shook myself. I stepped into the room, shutting and locking the door behind me. I moved to stand before the mirror, my nervous face reflected back at me.

"Ok, Hogwarts. Show me my Dad."

I would check on my team eventually but they could survive without me. Dad… I was less sure about him.

The time piece flipped and sand started running through the glass. Quickly. This wouldn't even be a half hour. Fifteen or twenty minutes maybe?

Color flowed like someone tossed water on a fresh canvas of paint, then flowed in reverse until a new image swam into view.

Dad, slumped behind his office desk at the union. He looked more run down than ever with bags under his eyes that could carry groceries and days' worth of stubble.

"Dad!"

His head snapped up and his eyes blew wide open even as he tumbled out of his chair in a rush to get around the desk.

"Taylor!" He took in the whole scene in a few seconds, relief giving way to confusion. "Taylor?"

Shaking my head I pressed a hand against the glass and bit down on a dozen different curses, wishing I could step through this like a portal. But the room couldn't manage that. Even this much was a small miracle magic or no magic.

"Hey, Dad. Sorry it took me so long to get in touch, interdimensional communication is a bit of a trick." I got out, and if my voice was a little rough no one was around to call me on it.

"How-" Dad choked on his words, but I got the idea

"I- I'm Skitter, I know that much is public, did anyone tell you anything about me turning myself in?"

Dad managed a shaky nod.

I nodded back.

"Right, right ok. We don't have time for the entire story. We're on a timer, and I don't know how often I'll be able to call, I don't know what the limitations are. Fuck, I wish there was more time… Ok, the original plan was to be a hero, things happened, I, it was stupid but I decided to go undercover in the Undersiders, but the Heroes were awful and the Undersiders were nice. And things got out of control. Our boss was a monster who kidnapped a kid, a powerful precog. After we dealt with him she slipped me a message. Told me to cut ties with the Undersiders because it improved the odds for everyone. There's some disaster coming in two years and…" I shrugged helplessly.

"I listened to her. I shouldn't have, but I did. I turned myself in. Only someone else got involved. I don't know who she is or who she works for, but she claimed if she didn't interfere I'd end up killing Alexandria for some reason. She shoved me off into an alternate earth that's running a few decades behind ours and I'm up to my neck in local issues now, I'm coming back. I don't know how or when, but I'm coming back."

Dad looked… overwhelmed. But then he shook his head and set that aside.

"Are you alright? Are you safe? How long can we talk for?"

I glanced at the timer.

"I'm ok right now, and safer than I was most of the time after putting on my first costume, but I got dropped into the middle of a revolution gearing up to be an ethnic cleansing."

Dad reared back wide eyed so I waved my hands.

"Hey, hey it's…. Alright it's not ok, and it's not safe, but these idiots are… kind of mediocre fighters, in general. I've got allies, and I'm going to help train up more. I've got a lot of guns and a colony of car sized spiders. It's not safe. But I might just be the deadliest thing on either side."

"Car sized spiders?" Dad looked skeptical, and intimidated.

"Yeah, they don't have capes here, but they do have a whole magic community." I shook my head. "But the giant magic spiders follow orders just like any other bug so for once I'm not just trying to stall people with flies and moths. Going to be a very nasty surprise for someone."

"Magic? Really?"

"Yeah." I knew full well how that sounded but what else was I supposed to say.

"Oh, Taylor. What have you gotten yourself into?" Dad asked, looking exhausted, but still better than my first look at him. Like some of the weight had come off his shoulders. Then he blinked and narrowed his eyes. "Is that a wedding ring?"

Ah, shit…

"Yeah, so um, the crazy bitch who dropped me here, might have left me drugged in Vegas, and magic marriage doesn't allow for divorce?"

"What?! Did someone trap you in a marriage? Taylor I swear, you get that boy back here and we will deal with it. It's been awhile but a few folks in the union still know how to get rid of a body."

"No! Jeez no, Dad. Harry's a good guy! He was drunk which was stupid because he's my age, but the wedding was his cousin's fault and he's been a perfect gentleman and we're both dealing and, and..." I trailed off, not sure what else to say.

Dad looked about ready to kill someone but he took a deep breath, held it, then looked me square in the eye.

"Explain from the beginning. If we get cut off you're going to explain more the next time you manage to call. And next time you are going to bring this boy so I can have a word with him." Dad demanded.

Honestly, what was I even supposed to say to that? In the end I just nodded and started with waking up in a strange outfit in a sterile room with no insects in my range. And if I didn't mention the tether we had needed to break?

… Fuck it, I just was not revisiting that mess.

{}{}{}{} Harry

The room of requirement was packed. Despite being half the size of the great hall this new casual crowd was… probably a solid forth, maybe even a third, of the castle.

Taylor stood off to the side looking resigned. Hermione was open mouthed in shock next to her.

Well, no time like the present. I stuck my fingers in my mouth and whistled as loud as I could. Everyone quieted down as I stepped up onto a stage at the front of the room.

"Right, so," Merlin, this was ridiculous. I'd felt odd enough running the DA last year and that had been a lot smaller. I glanced at Taylor, and something settled. If I was going to do this, I might as well take a little inspiration. Deep breath straight back, I'm the second deadliest thing in the room and they had better know it.

"Right. You're all here because suddenly the war isn't just a thing for the adults to worry about. The war is here, now. It's in the castle. It's out there waiting for you. It's a threat to you, your family, your friends, everything. And you can't trust the professors to keep you safe."

No one said a word. Some of the older students were nodding, some of the youngest were shaking.

"I think this is the part where professor Dumbledore would assure you all that you are perfectly safe here and everything will be fine." Deep breath, be honest, be blunt. "That's a crock of shite."

Whispers everywhere loud enough to drown me out unless I shout. I whistled again and they all shut up.

"I know I'm a trouble magnet. I know I always end up in the middle of messes here. But I've sort of lost count of how many times I've nearly died or worse in this school. And I'm not the only one, the basilisk in my second year petrified a few people and it's a miracle no one was killed. The Dementors the year after swarmed a quidditch game. We've had multiple people infiltrate the school on orders from the undead wanker."

It took a moment for my new name for Voldemort to register. Several people choked on spit, but if that was related to the nickname or the fact we'd had multiple people stalking through the school on his say so…

"I'll tell you right now. Every time things have gone to hell and I had to fight to survive? I've never had a professor come in and help until the battle at the Ministry, and most of that group weren't professors. If there's an attack don't wait for them to save you. Your best bet is to work with your friends to get away. Run if can, fight if you have to."

Louder response this time; upset, afraid, offended. I couldn't make out the words, but those tones carry clearly through the din.

"Quiet!" I barked. They shut up and I started to pace back and forth keeping my head turned to watch the crowd. "I know this is scary. I know it's not what you wanted to hear, but it's the truth and you need to accept it. The Professors will probably try to help if they're close enough to hear a fight start, but the castle and grounds are too big to rely on that.

"I've been having this argument with my best friends all summer." My voice picked up a bit of a sneer but I couldn't help it. "The school is safe. The dark tosser wouldn't recruit school kids. The Professors will handle it." I glared across the crowd. "Well I told Dumbledore Malfoy was marked and he told me to ignore it. We had to all but drag Professor McGonagall to that ambush because she didn't want to believe it. Then she got knocked on her arse because she thought she could yell at baby terrorists and they would listen to her. It's not safe out there, and there is no guarantee it's safe in here either.

"I don't have the time or energy to train you all to fight Death Eaters. And frankly if I tried all I'd be doing is painting a target on your back, but training you enough to keep yourselves alive? That we can do. The bare minimum I expect all of you to be able to do is cast a shield, stunner, disarming charm, at least one potentially lethal spell like a blaster, or a piercing hex, and you need to be able to run all out long enough no to get away. If we can find a spell that creates any kind of smokescreen we'll add it to the list as well. Your priority is to stay alive and free nothing else."

I took a deep breath and glanced at all the nervous faces.

"Break up into pairs. We're starting with shields and disarming."

A lot of them looked uncertain, but they came to me to learn and rumors about the DA had spread. They knew I could teach. Some of the old DA members paired off immediately. Others followed their lead and soon the entire crowd was breaking up into pairs for practice.

{}{}{}{} Taylor

Opening the door to the room of requirement I grinned. The room had taken on the guise of a small office. Two floor to ceiling bookshelves sat across from one another on opposing walls, between them was a desk and a very comfortable looking wingback chair. I took a moment to set my writing supplies on the desk then started scanning the shelves. A lot of the books looked rather niche and advanced but there were also several beginners' guides to rituals.

Ideally I'd jump straight to information about horcruxes, but if I wanted to actually contribute I would need a foundation to build from first.

This was going to be a long shot. Like trying to teach myself an obscure branch of physics and all the supporting math from base principles. But I had the time, and if I could find some simple rituals I might find myself with a few extra surprises to fall back on in a fight.

Besides, it was a much better use of my time than just sitting around my room weaving. Especially when I could weave from here while I read and took notes.

{}{}{}{} Harry

Taylor and I had both gotten a bit distracted, me with the DA and debating what oath we should swear the advanced group to, and Taylor with research. Still we did get around to it. Watching the vanishing cabinet burn in a carefully cleared patch of this massive junk room felt like a weight lifting off my shoulders.

"This room is absurd, you know that right?" Taylor said as she eyed the stacks of junk appraisingly.

"I'm getting that more and more, yeah." I answered. "It really made a magic mirror call to your Dad?"

Taylor nodded. "Yeah."

"… Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm kind of glad there's a dimension between us right now. I really don't need more people trying to kill me."

Her Dad wanting to kill me for getting married to his daughter would at least be a better reason than Voldemort's, but I had enough problems.

Taylor snorted and shook her head.

"How are your classes going?" She asked.

"Silent casting is a nightmare and none of the professors have done much to explain it." Granted most had tried, but their explanations were… lacking. Snape didn't even try, he just insulted us for not already knowing how. Like we weren't in classes to learn. The wanker.

"Have you tried asking the room for books on the subject?"

Blinking, I looked at Taylor blankly.

"Do you think that would work?"

"Honestly? After giving me a way to call home? I wouldn't be surprised if the room could pull every anecdote and explanation ever said or written in the castle and bind them into an original book."

Looking over the hills of discarded junk I had to acknowledge the point. More importantly no matter how much of an arse Snape could be there was no denying the sheer value of silent casting, if we really could master it. More than worth the effort of walking back and forth 3 times and a bit of extra studying.

{}{}{}{} Taylor

I glared into the cauldron I'd used for my first attempt at making a very basic potion. Evidently whatever trace magics I could lay claim to was insufficient or incompatible. I'd half expected that when trying the room of requirement with a request for a place to learn magic I could use, produced only books on rituals. But I'd stubbornly wanted to test it myself. Here I was rewarded with a delightful cauldron of nasty sludgy soup. Not a potion. On the bright side I'd be absolutely ignorant of whatever ingredients went into the damn things if I didn't learn to brew them myself.

Sighing, I resigned myself to waiting for the mess to cool so I could dispose of it.

{}{}{}{} Harry

The quidditch team sat on a bench outside the locker rooms. I stood across from them trying not to look too nervous.

"Ok, I think we have a good team here. We have a lot of new faces this year, but that just means we have a lot of new potential to refine."

Our new faces perked up.

"And, I know this is going to be controversial… but that's what this year is going to be about. This is not a normal year. I love quidditch, being up in the air is my favorite feeling in the world. I need this or I'm going to go mental. But it's not the most important thing going on."

About half the team started to protest loudly.

"I'm not saying we won't play to win, or that we won't train hard! But I'm not going to push like Wood used too. I've got the DA to run and my own defense practice to get in. And I'm married, to a woman who I have to remind not to shoot Snape when he gets crotchety and tosses me in detention to make himself feel better. Quidditch is important, but it's not…"

I trailed off helplessly. No one looked happy. They did look like they understood what I was trying to say. Malfoy might not have driven the lesson home, but the failed ambush had. Heck, I was pretty sure everyone here had signed up for at least the basic defense group.

"We're still going to win!" Ron declared mulishly.

I laughed, relieved.

"We'll certainly stomp Slytherin with a third of their team gone!" I agreed.

The mood of the team bounced back after that. Maybe not to the heights of before this little talk, but certainly better than I'd expected.

{}{}{}{} Taylor

Playing hostess for a small mob was decidedly different than playing hostess for one person I actually liked. And despite her peculiarities I was genuinely starting to like Luna Lovegood.

Oh she could ramble for hours about magical cryptids and conspiracy theories. But Lisa could talk just as much about fashion, or conspiracy theories she was in the process of proving with her power. Luna was nothing like Lisa, though. Our talks were mostly just… fun. She might say things in a way that required a moment's thought to work through, but for all that, she had a way of seeing straight to the heart of whatever we discussed.

Which was great! But not always pleasant.

"I'm honestly jealous." The blonde said airily between sips of tea. "You and Harry have such a wonderful relationship."

I, very impressively, did not do a spit take.

"Luna, we got drunk married in Las Vegas."

She waved that off with a cookie in hand.

"Yes, but you compliment and support one another. The beginning was certainly unconventional, but you two are making it work splendidly."

Which was more or less true, but…

"I suppose, but that's…" I struggled to find the words. "We're good teammates Luna, friends at this point I guess, partners even. But that's not the same thing as a romantic relationship."

Luna hummed.

"Maybe not. But I think what you have is the more important part. Romance is all well and good, but you two respect and support one another. Besides, it's not as if you or Harry are hard on the eyes."

Luna's eyes danced with mirth and in spite of myself I could feel a flush rising on my cheeks.

"I'm not…" I trailed off as the younger girl raised an eyebrow at me. Huffing, I looked away. Luna had made her opinion known and debating my looks with her wouldn't change her mind, not if she could cling to her conspiracy theories in spite of ridicule.

And well, Harry wasn't going to win contests for his looks, but he wasn't bad looking. A bit short with lean muscles from his insane sport. All hidden under that bathrobe the school claimed to be a uniform.

Brian had been taller and broader… But Harry wasn't bad looking.

Luna shrugged, recapturing my attention.

"It might be unconventional, but I think friendship and respect are a marvelous base to build a relationship from."

I eyed the terrifying little blonde over the rim of my tea cup. She smiled brighter.

"Is this the part where I offer to help you find a boyfriend in the hope of changing the topic? Or are you going to push this?" I asked.

"Well, I'd say Ronald looks scrumptious." Luna's eyes twinkled. "But he and Hermione seem to have fallen afoul of a red breasted snipe."

Now it was my turn to grin. Luna's creatures seemed like a fifty fifty split of magical cryptids and creative ways to insult people. This was sounding like one of the latter.

"And what pray tell is a red breasted snipe? And why does one's attention eliminate the boy from the dating pool?" I asked.

Luna sighed dramatically.

"It's a magical species of bird, prone to making nests near populations of young adult humans. If they take an interest in a human, or a pair of humans, it clouds their judgement in romantic matters. It can take the unfortunate couple months or even years to realize obvious mutual attraction. They can even end up doing incredibly foolish things to get attention, sticking their foot in their mouth, sending mixed signals, flirting with different people to inspire jealousy."

Luna rolled her eyes.

"Hogwarts has been a marvelous chance to observe the effect in person, and it's certainly nothing anyone with sense should ever get in the middle of." She concluded before taking another demur bite of her cookie.

Laughing at Luna's explanation for teenage stupidity all I could do was shake my head.

"Ron and Hermione." I thought about it. In hindsight I could see some of the signs now that I'd been told to look for them. Even still… "That sounds like it would be a disaster without the red breasted snipe. With one it sounds like a nightmare."

"It might work out." Luna offered thoughtfully. "But yes. They are very different people."

Shaking my head I refilled the girls tea cup.

{}{}{}{} Harry

"Merlin, the first Hogsmeade weekend can't come soon enough." Ron groused, shoving away an essay. Hermione and Taylor looked up from where they had been going over some of Taylor's research notes for rituals. On the opposing couch in my wife's suite.

"It's still a couple months off." I answered absently as I scratched out another sentence for my Charms essay.

Ron moaned miserably and slouched back into the couch.

"I know, mate." He answered. "But the whole castle's been on edge for weeks now. Everyone is afraid that if they relax for more than a few minutes they'll be attacked. It's wearing down everyone."

I looked up from my essay. Hermione and Taylor were both frowning thoughtfully. And very much not disagreeing. Thinking on it, Ron had a point. Our group was holding up better. With all the misadventures and stress the school had put us through, never mind Taylor, we were almost used to this. But most of the rest of the school… wasn't. The feel in the hallways was an awful lot like it had been when the chamber of secrets was opened in our second year.

Sooner or later all of us were going to need to fully relax. I was keeping my wand on me even during Quidditch practice now. Frankly, here in Taylor's room was the only place I could fully relax and that was mostly just the fact I was certain she was monitoring everything in the general area… Which was going to become a lot more difficult in the coming months as the temperature plummeted. Shit, she might start feeling the stress even more than the rest of us when that happened considering how much she relied on her swarms senses.

We were all going to need that Hogsmeade weekend. Still, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. I really was looking forward to introducing Taylor to the stupidly large variety of chocolate available.

{}{}{}{} Taylor

It had taken a month of bickering and planning and nonsense, but we'd finally gotten to the point where Harry could induct people into an advanced defense group. Maybe it was Harry's influence, or Hermione's. Or maybe it was just the fact that even while preparing for the worst most of these people still didn't have the kind of drive I did. But it was very obviously not a small army, or some kind of pseudo military team, or even as organized as Dumbledore's group.

They knew they would have to fight. And they were committed to being ready to put people in the ground when the time came. But there was no grand plan in the works to send them out after targets. Just the certainty that they would fight when they had too.

Part of me wanted this to be more. But knowing some of these people now… I didn't want Luna or Neville to have blood on their hands, they weren't like me. I wasn't sure they could handle it. But they were determined, and it might keep them alive. This should have been Dumbledore and the Ministry's problem to solve. Just like the Protectorate should have handled the gangs.

So here I was again. With another group of teens getting ready to fix things ourselves. And somehow I had a better idea of how to train and fight than they did. I couldn't teach them magic. But I'd seen Coil's mercenaries run military style operations. I'd fought a bizarre mix of powers and guns always needing to adapt to a new challenge. And before ending up here I'd occasionally done research on actual combat training looking for ideas.

Thanks to the room of requirement I was going to show off some of that.

The small crowd trailed in after me taking careful steps on the transparent floor.

"The idea is pretty straightforward." I spoke up, grabbing attention. "You go down the stairs and run through the course. Hitting the death eater targets while not shooting at the allied or civilian ones. For this first time it will only be enemies. I'll run it first, to give you an idea. Only fair really, I got the idea from a tv special about police training."

No one objected and I took a moment to make sure my pistol and extra magazines were all in place, and to put in a pair of earplugs. Then I went down the stairs and spread out my swarm. The rest of the group stood above looking down through the transparent floor.

I moved through hallways of a simulated building quickly, always aware of where the next target would pop up. Always ready in advance even if the gun didn't feel quite natural in my hands yet.

I'd learned at least one important lesson from the failed ambush. One bullet isn't a guaranteed kill. Two or three weren't either. Not really, not if my aim was off. But I couldn't empty the gun on every target and everyone had heard the phrase double tap at some point. Every target got two to the chest.

Three minutes later when I came back up the stairs it was to an array of intimidated, impressed, and excited faces. Harry beamed at me and I had to look away. It was… nice. It was really nice to be appreciated for my skills.

"Alright." I glanced over the group. "Who wants to go next?"

{}{}{}{} Harry

I stared blankly at one of Taylor's pixies. I had gotten used to their presence; you can get used to almost anything with enough exposure. The problem was this wasn't just some new horror with too many limbs. No this was the sort of absurdity I would almost have expected from Luna, but with a twist that was entirely too much Taylor's personal trademark.

"Taylor… what the hell?" I asked, staring straight into the beady little eyes of pixie that wore a tiny little winter outfit dyed a charcoal grey and carrying a minuscule spear.

Taylor hummed happily as she dipped a bundle of equally tiny spears into a teacup with only a very shallow pool of some kind of clear liquid.

"The temperature is dropping fast. Most of the local insects can't handle it. Even the magical varieties are starting to die off or hibernate." She grimaced. "A few more weeks and I won't be able to weave any more silk until spring. The pixies are hardy enough to stay active, but they tend to find somewhere out of the elements and sleep a lot. If I can keep them warm… it won't solve all my problems, but it will give me something to work with. Arming them with poisoned spears isn't the best option, but it will leave me with at least a little bit of extra firepower."

It made sense. It was ridiculous, and a little terrifying, but it made sense.

"I'm glad you found something to work with for the winter." I offered carefully.

"Wasn't about to leave myself with no options." Taylor smirked. "Not when I've proved I can be a threat."

I very firmly decided that this wasn't something to debate. Taylor wouldn't feel safe without a swarm and the cold was already pruning her options. If she needed to dress and arm pixies to maintain a semblance of control… No, the fact that clothed and armed pixies would disturb me until I had time to adjust wasn't worth asking her to feel unsafe.

"Well, I'm glad you found something to help tie you over until spring."

Taylor hummed; a small smile graced her face as another pixie donned a tiny winter hat.

I firmly told myself that nothing about this was cute. I was just happy to see Taylor happy. Pixies in hats were not adorable.