
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/7508914.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Underage
  Category:
      F/F, F/M, Multi
  Fandom:
      Harry_Potter_-_J._K._Rowling, Fate/stay_night_&_Related_Fandoms, The
      Legend_of_Zelda:_Twilight_Princess, Highschool_DxD
  Relationship:
      Harry_Potter/Harem
  Character:
      Harry_Potter, Altrouge_Brunestud, Midna_(Legend_of_Zelda), Zelda_(Legend
      of_Zelda), Fleur_Delacour, Ravel_Phenex, Kischur_Zelretch_Schweinorg,
      Arcueid_Brunestud_(Tsukihime), Farore_(Legend_of_Zelda), Primate_Murder,
      Sirius_Black, Medea_|_Caster, Rias_Gremory, Himejima_Akeno, Marie
      Antoinette/Rider_(Fate/Grand_Order)
  Additional Tags:
      Mama_Altrouge, Auntie_Arcueid, Grandpa_Zelretch, Uncle_Sirius
  Collections:
      My_Challenges
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-07-17 Updated: 2018-03-11 Chapters: 6/? Words: 47835
****** Harry Potter and his Princesses ******
by Zephyr_Fauchelevent
Summary
     Harry James Potter is what known as a World Jumper. Accompanied by
     his mother and one of his many lovelies, they sow chaos, mayhem and
     disorder everywhere they went. Who said the Legendary Hero chosen by
     the Gods had to be a paragon of virtue and couldn't have some very
     nice benefits on the side?
Notes
     Prompt:
     This challenge is a crossover between Harry Potter and The Legend Of
     Zelda: Twilight Princess, in which Harry is raised among the Twilis.
     For more information, please read the challenge thoroughly.
***** Prologue *****
                        Harry Potter and his Princesses
                     Details of the Challenge and Prologue
                                        
Author’s Notes: Yes, another story. I just couldn’t help myself. After
brainstorming with my new friend DalkonCledwin, to which I give plenty of kudos
since he let me borrow some of his own ideas and concepts, I just had to write
this. It will be based on my own challenge of Harry Potter raised by the
Twiliis, originally a simple crossover between Harry Potter and the Legend of
Zelda: Twilight Princess.
But to make it more challenging, interesting and all around better, there will
be heavy usage of elements and characters from the Nasuverse (TYPE-MOON), the
Legend of Zelda Franchise and also of High School DxD. Now, I’m warning you
ahead of time, it’s going to be a harem pairing and it’s not always going to be
harmonious! The girls won’t always get along with each other’s and Harry won’t
always be able to juggle them adequately.
Addendum: The differences between a Magician, a Magus and a Wizard are not only
on a philosophic level but also on how exactly they cast their magic. A
Magician needs to learn his family’s magic circle or create its own circle
before being able to use his or her imagination to cast adequately. A Magus
needs to awaken their magic circuits (It hurt like a bitch.) before learning
the family craft or inventing their own. Their approach to the Mystical Arts is
the most scientific of the three.
 A Wizard is a human born with the power to manipulate their innate magic just
like the other two, but to control it adequately and for official schooling,
they need a focus. Wand less magic and circle less magic are possible, but it’s
not reliable for anything delicate and/or precise. On the contrary, focus less
magic is really great for anything extra destructive. Circuits less magic is
biologically impossible without a magical core.
What the Wizards call Squibs can learn Magus Style magecraft if they are
determined enough, but won’t ever become a top class spell caster. All three
classes of spell casters can learn magic from the other classes if they are
dedicated enough, but it’s frowned upon by the Magician associations, the Clock
Tower/ the Magus Association and the International Confederation of Wizards.
Mostly because the higher ups don’t like each other’s and it can become a very
tiring battle of jurisdiction to decide to which institution/community’s laws
said spell caster must answer to.
 The Wizarding Unforgivable Curses are only deemed so in the U.K without a
special authorization and heavily restricted everywhere else. Also, all three
classes of human spell casters are bound to the International Statute of
Secrecy or a variant of it that can be resumed to this: Nobody who doesn’t need
to know should be told about magic.
Universal_Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, the Legend of Zelda
franchises, the TYPE-MOON franchise and its subdivisions and neither High
School DxD. Please support the original releases. Thank you.
Big_Warning: There is a rather strong possibility for this story to describe
incestuous relations. If it isn’t you cup of tea, feel free to not read this
story or skip those interactions. You now have been warned and future flamers
and/or haters will_be thoroughly ignored.
Last Edit: May 19 2017.
                             The Challenge itself.
What if the Twilight Realm got closer to the ''Light'' Realm as millennia
passed and the Kingdom of Hyrule is now just an old legend? What if that
fateful Halloween night when Voldemort marked Harry as his equal, the magical
backlash of the rebounding Killing Curse opened a portal to the Twilight Realm
and baby Harry was catapulted into it? A Harry Potter raised by the Twilis.
Requirements:
- Harry is able to stay human in the Twilight Realm. Dalkon and I already
outlined the source of this capacity.
- Harry is raised with love and care; I'm really tired of Abused! Harry
stories. Yes, this Harry will know what love is. A bit too much sometimes even!
XD
- Harry MUST come back to the Light Realm to deal with Voldemort. When he does
it is and how he does it your decision but do try to be original. The Prophecy
is, sadly, real. Neither can live while the other survives.
- Dumbledore knows that Harry is alive somehow, somewhere. He doesn't know
where to look but somehow, something, maybe something like an intuition or like
a gut feeling, is telling him that Harry will be fine. Good guy Dumbledore in
this story. Flawed and imperfect, just like everybody else.
- Harry is able to use his own brand of magic without a wand and Twili Shadow
magic with a certain ease, but seems to have better results with Shadow magic
than ''Light'' magic. Probably for a lack of a proper focus for his magic.
Alright.
- No_Male_Slash_for_the_main_pairing. Harry is going to almost drown in
oestrogen lol XD
- Midna or another Twili companion must be able to use and eventually be the
master of the Fused Shadows. (It's too bad that this power doesn't have more
screen time in the game. In the context I'm looking for, it would be a really
nice fight scene against the Basilisk or against another giant beastie.) As if
we wouldn’t include those splendidly powerful relics! XD
- A Twili Healer must recognize Harry's curse scar as something related as Soul
Magic and sometime in his life in the Twilight Realm, the Horcrux is removed,
destroyed or absorbed, it’s your decision. (Something original here would be
great, I'm really tired too of Martyr! Harry Potter stories.) Yup, Harry
shouldn’t have it for long.
- The Shadow portals can override anti-apparition wards but it's not as precise
as apparition is. This too was thought off.
Recommended:
- A remake of Wolf Link and Imp Midna travelling together with Midna or another
Twili in disguise in Imp form and Harry in his animagus form(Your choice for
the animal, but he better be something big enough for that, like again a wolf,
a coyote, a jungle cat or a giant eagle. A silver back gorilla like Kerchak in
Disney's Tarzan could work nicely too.) Two words; Animagus transformation.
- Gentleman/Old Fashioned clothes and Manners: I see this Harry raised in a
certain old fashioned way, with a cool, polite and crisp temperament with
strangers and/or important people. He will be trained on how to deal with
politicians and various important people.
- Hero chosen by the Gods! Harry. (Maybe not dress him with the green garb of
the Hero, but something similar, maybe with a kick-ass trench coat and Wind
Waker Ganondorf style twin swords that can slide in and out of his sleeves.)
This too is already fleshed. ^_^
- Involuntary Lady Killer! Harry! : I can see that as well, with his ancient
but polite manners, helpful behaviour and just a great personality, he breaks
hearts left and right in school(If you make him go to Hogwarts of course)
without knowing. Thus a bigger fan club! Poor Harry! And Midna or his Twili
companion can tease him a lot with that later. Not too sure on the Involuntary
part, but he is going to be a heart throb for teenage girls everywhere.
- Giving Harry the Quest to find where is the Master Sword resting place and
sees if he can claim the Blade of evil's Bane as his own. Yup, a Legendary Hero
needs a Legendary Sword.
Forbidden:
-M/M pairing as said in the recommended section.
- Wuss! Harry. He has been raised as a warrior/battle mage/diplomat, Come on
people, he won't take shit from anybody.
- Harry/Ginny, I have nothing against Ginny but I want something different from
canon.
Well, contact me for more info or if you want to take the challenge.
 
Resume about the Dead Apostles Ancestors: The twenty-seven Dead Apostle
Ancestors are basically the nobility of all Vampire Kind and are ranked not
only by their level of strength but also by the danger they can pose to
Humanity. Their powers surpass exponentially those of the more common breed
found in the margin of Wizarding Society and are also immune to the common
weaknesses, such as going too long without feeding, holy relics, swift water,
silver, garlic and sunlight.
They do not need to sleep in a coffin either. Some likely do, just for the fun
of it. They are classed as “Phantasmal beings”, which gave them very advanced
shape shifting powers, thus they can alter their body shapes at will but have a
favoured and/or a default form. Magic is part of their very beings, thus they
are able to use all three main branches of Human magic without drawbacks. Their
supernatural physical capacities permit them to fight against Servants (Heroic
Spirits) on more or less equal grounds.
 They possess an extremely durable body imbued with a natural resistance to
magic, similar but higher than Giants.
Some are more psychopathic than others and many members of the original group
had been either executed or sealed away by the Church before extensive
“reforms” were made into the organization. Most of them tend to respect the
International_Statute_of_Secrecy if only to not have to deal with belligerent
Wizards, Magicians or/and Magi each time they go out in public.
Dead Apostles Ancestors can reproduce sexually but it is a rare event since
most are too obsessed with their passions to settle down long enough to raise a
child. Their bio-vampirism is only contagious at will. The Ancestor must want
to change his/her victim in the first place and their fledglings are eternally
loyal to their sire.
                                   Prologue
Lily Potter nee Evans was on the verge of a full panic attack. She was only
holding it together for her only son’s sake. Lily was a gorgeous young woman of
twenty one with long thick dark red hair falling to her shoulders, a fair
complexion and gorgeous almond shaped emerald green eyes. She cursed under her
breath, fortifying the nursery as much as she could without her wand. She had
allowed herself to leave it in the kitchen and lowered her guard. They were
supposed to be safe! She should have held the secret, but no, her husband just
had to play a prank on the Dark Lord!
 Now look where it got them!
Out loud she said to herself
“If we’re getting out of this alive, Pettigrew is a dead man walking!”
Downstairs she could hear the sound of spell fire, her husband was shouting and
Voldemort laughing manically, well until he got sloppy and a spell went through
his guard, injuring and hurting him badly judging by the inhuman howl coming
from downstairs, floating through the floor. Letting her magic flow out of her
as best as she could; she then tried to overpower the wards keeping the window
shut and unbreakable. Oh, she was terrified for their son’s life, for her
husband’s and also for her own life, but for Harry, she had to be strong! Her
baby boy needed her!
Frustrated by her lack of progress and hearing James bellow in pain since You-
Know-Who had tendency to avenge the pain and humiliation done to him seven-
fold, she snarled out loud and something happened! Her green eyes went wine red
temporarily and a strength she didn’t know about started coursing in her veins!
With a mighty punch, she finally overpowered part of the wards and the window
broke in pieces! Then her faint hope of getting out of this deathtrap alive
with her family went out like a blown candle at Voldemort’s next spell
“AVADA_KEDAVRA!” 
Lily couldn’t help it, she started to sob. The love of her life was dead. Then
panic overwhelmed her sorrow when she heard the stairs creak. He was coming
here! Then Harry started to talk in his crib where she had put him as soon as
she had closed the door
“Mama, where Dada? Hawwy scared…Want Dada…”
Lily was quick to shush her little one
“Shush sweetheart, Dada…Dada is away…”
She didn’t manage to explain more before the door of the nursery blew open.
Lily shrieked in fear, not for her safety, but for her son’s. Tall and
menacing, wearing black robes and a black hooded cloak, a disfigured visage
with red eyes glared at her. Voldemort was in the room with them and she
couldn’t do anything against it! She could grab Harry and jump through the
window and apparate in mid air, but the Dark Lord had always been an
unnaturally quick caster.
 She would be gunned down before she could manage to muster the concentration
required to teleport away.
Something was breaking the silence; it was the sound of his rasp breathing and
his blood falling on the ground. James had gone down fighting, since unlike
her, he had his wand on hand when the Dark Lord made intrusion in their home.
He was bleeding heavily on his non dominant arm due to a very big bite mark
from a transfigured animal and his torso had hooves marks having almost caved
in his rib cage. With everything she had in her, she stood in front of her
child, her arms extended as far as they could go. She was ready to lay down her
life for her son, even if she wished she could live to raise him.
The self styled Dark Lord Voldemort wasn’t having a good evening, even if it
had started pleasantly enough. A turncoat of Dumbledore’s Pathetic Order of the
Phoenix had given him the Secret of the Potters’ location recently and after
much planning and debate, he decided that a Halloween social call would be
perfect. He just couldn’t wait to get rid of one mighty torn into his side.
James Potter had fought well; Voldemort could at least give credit where it was
due. Perhaps even too well, since the Transfiguration prodigy had managed to
draw blood and wound him before he put the other man down for good with trusty
ol’ Killing_Curse.
Now, he had no intention to hurt the woman, much. Severus had been such a
dedicated follower and Lord Voldemort, magnanimous, rewarded good service. Even
a being such as he could see the Mudblood’s beauty. She was talented too. Lord
Voldemort rewarded talent. Deciding to do what he came to do he stated with his
raspy voice
“Step aside! Step aside silly girl and you get to live another day!”
Lily was incensed! Stepping aside?! Sacrificing the fruit of her womb, the
result of the love she shared with her husband?! For a life with no more
meaning without her loved ones? Never!
Deep within Lily Evans Potter, her true self was starting to awaken. Sometimes
it took over when her more pacifist self was in mortal danger, like during her
last duel against Bellatrix Lestrange. Too bad the divide between both Lily’s
personas was still too strong to make use of her true powers at will. A
situation that would soon change though…
“Not Harry! Please not Harry! Take me, kill me instead!”
She pleaded.
“Stand aside you silly girl! Stand aside now!”
Was his answer.
“Have mercy! Not Harry, not Harry!”
Lily would not back down. She would not let this monster near her son!
“MOVE! OUT OF THE WAY!”
“NO! Not my son! I will not let you harm him! He’s innocent!”
She was resolute in this. She would take death before allowing that monster to
harm her baby!
Voldemort, furious and achy all over, snarled with barely contained rage and
with a quick movement of his wand, he shot his second Killing Curse since his
arrival. He had offered her to live three times and she had refused! Severus
would just have to get over it!
“ AVADA_KEDAVRA !”
While Lily could have easily dodged the green jet of light, even with all her
fears and doubts, she stayed resolute. Her last breath was used to call her
son’s name.
“HARRY!”
Then like a puppet with its strings cut, she fell to the ground, her body still
thrashing in its death throes as the Killing_Curse sent a signal to her brain
to shut down her body, for good. The ignorant purebloods though that the
Killing_Curse was removing the soul from the body. In this situation, it was a
very fortunate boon. Had Voldemort known what would happen, he would have used
other means of ensuring Lily’s demise.
Voldemort casually kicked Lily’s body out of the way, approaching the crib
where the teary eyed boy was looking alternatively at him and at his mother’s
body. The Dark Lord had no shame to admit that he would do everything in his
power to attain his goals. He had sacrificed too much to back down and frankly,
he never regretted it or looks back. On the other hand, he never enjoyed
torturing children since he became an adult. Hence why his faithful had for
permanent consign to kill any unworthy children quickly.
Better the quick oblivion of Death than the atrocities some monsters worse than
him he held the leashes of could and would inflict on them. It was why he
decided to finish this quickly. Contrary to an adult, there was just no
challenge in torturing information and secrets out of children. There was no
need to boast to someone who couldn’t understand. He was feeling a bit
melancholic tonight, so why not send the young one to his parents quickly?
Pointing his wand on the forehead of the prophesied one, for the third time
this evening, he pronounced the incantation of the Killing_Curse.
“Avada_Kedavra.”
Just as the green light formed on the tip of his wand, an out of this world
feminine voice was heard saying from nowhere and everywhere at the same time
“By the Crimson Moon and my Black Blood, I, Altrouge Brunestud, accept your
contract. Our child shall not be harmed by this man! “
The bolt of energy flew out of the Voldemort’s wand and impacted on the
toddler’s forehead. Instead of killing the child instantly, the spell rebounded
after the boy’s skin flashed with a gold coloured light, flying back towards
its caster at the speed of a freight train. Needless to say, Voldemort didn’t
manage to dodge and the combined energy blew straight through the wards and the
nursery’s wall, leaving a gaping hole. Voldemort’s body had been turned to
ashes, leaving his wand and his clothes on the ground. Strangely, Lily’s body
was completely untouched! Harry was also surprisingly still alive, bawling his
heart out. His forehead was now sporting a jagged cut in the form of a
lightning bolt. Then some sort of spectre came out of the ashes of the Dark
Lord, screaming in anguish, fleeing in panicked pain.
Then something never before seen happened! A tear into reality formed some sort
of shadowy portal visible just outside the hole in the wall. A thin black beam
of energy shot from the portal and engulfed the bawling in pain and fright
toddler in ethereal shadowy ropes, doing nothing at first glance. Then a golden
light coming from nowhere illuminated the dark night, forming a strange golden
triangle mark on the little boy’s right hand!
The mark stayed illuminated even as Harry was seemingly disintegrated into
shadow particles and suck up by the strange portal, leaving no living beings
into the cottage. Well, that was the case, until Lily’s body started to show
new signs of life by first standing up and then changing. Within the woman that
was Lily Potter’s mindscape, two very different persons where staring at each
other’s. A pale teenager girl with black hair and red eyes was facing an adult
woman with red hair and green eyes. Both stayed silent and then they embraced
each others, merging.
Outside in the Real World, Lily’s body changed a bit. First of all, she awoke
to her real self, Altrouge Brunestud, the Vampire_Princess_of_the_Dead_Apostles
and the #9_of_the_Dead_Apostles_Ancestors. Then her mortal witch body took back
her true nature. While she was still magical, her powers were greatly enhanced.
Having getting used to a mature body; Altrouge decided to stay close to her
mortal form, merely correcting the flaws. When she opened her eyes, they were
no longer emerald green though, but a wine red.
Taking sight of everything around her, it seems that something was missing.
Frowning, she waited for her mortal memories to come back. It was a good thing
that the spell she was hit with didn’t target the soul or else she would not
have been able to revive herself. When the merger was completed, her wine eyes
flew wide open, since she had closed them to concentrate.
Harry! Her baby boy! She had a son as a mortal?! She knew that her husband was
dead and while part of her had loved him, Altrouge couldn’t condone his
decision to not move away from the war when they found of she was pregnant. She
had tried to make him see reason, but he didn’t heed her advice. Now, see the
fiasco they were just in! James’ pride cost him his life. She had survived due
to being in reality a Dead Apostle Ancestor. Now where was her baby? It was
then that Altrouge saw the still open Twilight_portal, even if she wasn’t sure
what it was. In walking toward the reality tear, she walked on her attacker’s
wand and snapped it by accident. Oh well, no big deal. Using her mystical
talents, she managed to piece back what happened.
Voldemort came in to kill Harry. He played with James too much and got a few
painful hits until he finally disposed of the man of the house. As a mortal,
she had been unable to use much focused magic without her wand and the intruder
had sealed the house against every possible attempts to leave it. He had
intended for the cottage to be their tomb. He had offered her to live, three
times. She had refused also three times. The number three was a magical number,
then a contract of protection was sealed and the killing spell aimed at her
child had rebounded.
Altrouge as Lily had unknowingly set up an old ritual to protect a life in
mortal danger by sacrificing her own. She would have to research the phenomenon
first before making any more assumptions.
Now, she was in an impasse. On one hand she should just jump into the portal
that had taken her son from her but in the other, she should make sure to take
care of the traitorous rat. Lily and Altrouge weren’t much different on this
point, they did not suffer treason. Then, the roaring of a motorcycle was
heard. Her mortal memories were telling her that Sirius Black, her now deceased
husband’s best friend and son’s Oath sworn godfather, had such contraception
and charmed it to fly. By his anguished cry, he had just found her husband’s
body.
She now knew that if she did not intervene, he would likely do something
reckless and she felt that a male influence in her son’s life would do well. So
to not freak him out, she willed her eyes to go back to green and let a few
superficial wounds appear on her body. She would have to go shopping though.
Altrouge may have accepted to look like an adult, but she would not dress as an
old maid! What was her mortal shell thinking?
In the end, Altrouge and Sirius jumped into the portal. Once they landed in a
strange world illuminated by a half light, the portal they came through shut
completely and Sirius was immediately forced into his animagus form. Now to
find her baby boy in this strange place…
 
 
***** Chapter 1 *****
Chapter Summary
     Harry, Altrouge/Lily and Sirius/Padfoot are separated due to the
     unstable Portal
     Harry is found by a patrol
     Midna and Harry meet each others
     Harry staying Human in the Twilight Realm is an anomaly
     Midna weight her options and decide to foster Harry herself for the
     time being
     Sirius is stuck in his Animagus form
     The Twilis tolerate better people who are clearly not Human
     Taking care of a toddler is hard, doubly so when he is not potty
     trained XD
     Bye bye Horcrux!
     Altrouge and Padfoot finally arrive in front of the Palace of
     Twilight
                        Harry Potter and his Princesses
                                   Chapter 1
                                        
Author’s Notes: Well, let’s work on this one now. I got to flesh it better
though. I got too impatient and rushed the prologue a bit too much. Anyway, in
this story, Harry’s childhood will likely have a few chapters before jumping to
his late teens. While a half Dead Apostle Ancestor kid would be cute, I don’t
want to delay too much to get to the good stuff. Said good stuff will be how
Harry build and handle his relationships and how he handle the troubles that
follow him.
He is a Potter after all; he doesn’t need to go looking for trouble. Trouble
finds him on its own. This is the famous love/hate relationship between the
Potter Family and Murphy’s Law. *sigh*
 While Harry and company are bound to travel between the parallel worlds thanks
to the Twilight Realm being in the stark middle of both just like Hyrule, they
will have their headquarters on the world in which the country reside. You can
only travel for so long after all before the need to go home make itself known.
Home is where the heart is as the saying goes. Well, let’s go see the stats. We
have 8 Reviews, 76 followers, 61 Favourites, 3 C2 Communities and 770 views.
Thank you everyone. Now let’s get this show on the road!
Addendum: For my peace of mind and due to lack of info on the subject; in my
story, Twilis will age at the same rate Humans and Hylians do until they reach
their twenties. At that age, they start to age much slower than the rest and
can live up for thousands of years. A quirk in their biology also keeps them
infertile until they reach their twenty fifth birthdays. The Twilis can
reproduce only with other Twilis, Hylians and magical Humans.
Most of the time; the child born from Twili/Hylian, Twili/Magical Human will
take more from his Twili parent unless the Human or Hylian in question possess
something very out of the ordinary in their genetic code that is worth adding
to the offspring’s.
Last Edit: May 19 2017.
 
Altrouge had to admit that she felt somewhat amused. That dimension was
something she never saw before, but anything that could silence the Great
Casanova Sirius Black was not so bad in her books. Stuck in his Animagus form
and unable to change back, it was like having the pleasure of his company
without him opening his big mouth and saying stupidities. Sirius’ sense of
humour was low and lower. You could only go for so long at hearing lewd or
Serious/Sirius jokes without snapping. The dog wasn’t enjoying things as much
as the Apostle though, if his whining was anything to go by.
 Talking about dogs, it made her think about her beloved Primmy. It had been
more than twenty years since she last saw her beloved Primate Murder. Even as
Lily Evans Potter, she had kept her affinity for canines of all sorts. After
all, how else could she have managed to train Padfoot and tame Moony? She just
couldn’t wait to introduce her beloved son to her adored pet. But for that, she
had to find him first. And she would have to make sure Primmy understood that
Harry wasn’t a snack.
Asking Sirius, she said
“Padfoot, can you get Harry’s scent from here?”
The Grim Animagus was not feeling all that well to be honest, but he knew he
had to suck it up right now. It had been a very rough evening for him, what
with everything that had happened. It started with the very bad feeling in his
gut after finding Peter’s hideout deserted with no sign of fight, then he had
flew like mad to the cottage of his brother in all but blood and the woman he
came to love as a sister only for him to find it in ruins at his arrival with
his flying motorbike.
Then it was the horrible shock of seeing his sworn brother’s cooling body
between the door and the stairway, bloodied and totally inanimate. Sirius had
howled in despair at what he saw! James was dead! Peter had betrayed them! Then
suddenly, hope! Lily’s voice came from the nursery upstairs! She was alive! Was
Harry alright?  Naturally Sirius had bounded up the stairs three at time only
to stumble upon a wrecked room with a wall all but blown up, a pile of ash with
a broken wand and a deserted crib.
Lily was there, oddly calm in such a situation, seeing that her husband was
dead, her baby was missing and she had survived one more encounter with the
Dark idiot himself!
 Then after assuring him that she was more than fine, she pointed to him what
seemed to be a tear into the fabric of reality, hovering near the hole in the
wall. Somehow, she managed to convince him to follow her in it since she was
sure that her baby had been sucked into what seemed to be some kind of door
going who know where. Thus leading them to his current situation; stuck as
Padfoot in this strange place of half lights. And Lily’s scent had also
changed! It was much more potent and much scarier than it was before!
It was something he would likely talk with her about it once he managed to go
back in human form.
But now was not the time for those questions, they needed to find Harry.
Pronglet needed them! So Padfoot put his nose to the ground and tried to find
any traces of his Godson. Everything else could wait. Sirius would mourn the
passing of his brother in all but blood when the little tyke would be in
security in his mother’s arms; not before.
On the other side of the Twilight Realm, a beautiful woman with light blue skin
and orange eyes that had dark tribal markings around her arms and thighs was on
the move, answering to a strange call coming from a cohort of soldiers in a
routine patrol near a zone where the Realm’s reality fabric was noticeably
thinner, thus the possibility of Portals forming naturally were rather high.
The previously mentioned woman also had long luxurious orange hair in a very
elaborate hairdo that was kept in place by a barrette, and wore what appeared
to be a dark robe and a loincloth.
With the centuries passing through, the parallel world that the Goddesses had
banished her tribe into had ceased to be a prison soon after her return after
Zant’s ultimate defeat. It was their recompense for helping the Hero chosen by
the Gods in defeating Ganondorf and in restoring the peace in both Realms.
While Hyrule was somewhat harder to visit, what with the medieval mindset of
most towns’ inhabitants to burn at the stake the monsters and her, in insight,
foolish decision in shattering the Mirror_of_Twilight (The Zora and Goron
tribes could care less if the Twili were gallivanting around or not), other
versions of the Light Realm were more easily accessible and glamours also
helped a long way in their exploring, well for those born with the ability to
stand the light though. Midna was the ruler of the Twili, the Twilight Princess
and the most powerful Mage in the entire Realm.
If her specially trained forces were calling her even with the help of one of
the Mages on duty that she had personally trained, then it must mean that
something drastic must had happened, which is why she was currently hurrying.
Once arrived at destination, she saw the patrol, most members were still in
alert, with one hand on their sheathed short swords, standing guard into a
circle, but the two women among the eight soldiers still on guard forming this
ten persons patrol unit were currently sitting on the ground, making strange
noises, strange smiles and were they cooing at something? Midna had no need to
make her presence known since the soldiers saw her coming a mile away. The
leader of the patrol stepped forward, saluted and reported without being
prompted
“I am glad to see you, your Majesty. We were patrolling this end of the Realm
since it was the sector assigned to us and everything was just fine until
something much unexpected happened. The fabric of reality distorted and a
Portal leading to an unknown Light Realm opened on its own. Our squad’s Mage
was about to close it, but something came through before she could do it. Your
Grace, you will not believe it. I saw it with my own two eyes and I still have
trouble believing it! A Light dweller child was somehow absorbed into the
unstable Portal and was rematerialized here, hale and hearty in our Realm!”
Midna blinked in incomprehension at the information her Sergeant just gave her,
then answered once she regained her wits
“Sergeant, if the spirit of the child is still here, why your assigned Mage did
not reopen a Portal to send him straight back? Light dwellers do not keep their
bodies in the Twilight Realm; it is common knowledge after all. If we don’t
hurry to return them to their home Realm, they risk staying a spirit for all
eternity. It is now the standard procedure the Advisory Council and I put in
place after the Usurper Zant’s Rebellion was put down; you know that.”
She finished somewhat reproachfully.
The Sergeant continued after ignoring the scolding tone of his Sovereign
“My Lady, I’m afraid you do not understand completely the situation, please
allow me to explain. The Light dweller in question is not in a spiritual form
at all, but really is a human boy made of flesh and blood! He is right there,
on the knees of Anya, our Tracking Specialist! As for the procedure in those
cases, we did not have time to do anything, since our unit’s Mage, Cibelle,
barely managed to catch the child before he could hit the ground at terminal
velocity since he rematerialized high into the air! “
Gesticulating in a way that somehow made it easier to understand what he was
explaining, he then continued
“Furthermore, since the Portal was unstable to begin with and was somehow
opened by unknown means from the other side, we were unable to determine which
specific Realm the boy came from before it closed on its own. The boy also had
a rather nasty gash on the forehead when we found him, so we cleaned it as much
as we could and bandaged it once we managed to sooth him down, but field
medicine is not good for a toddler. The child will need to be examined by a
real Healer sooner than later, Highness.”
What Midna was hearing was supposed to be entirely impossible. Humans, Hylians,
Zoras and Gorons always became incorporeal souls when they stepped into the
Twilight Realm! It was something as sure as the fact you had to breathe oxygen
to live! Well there was one particular exception at the rule that she knew of,
but she wasn’t certain if it was possible so soon after the passing of the last
recorded exception in question. The Princess was rather quick to move towards
the women if only see for herself what her Officer had just told her.
With a determined gait, she approached the two younger women who were both
sitting on the ground, cooing and playing with the child. And by the lack of
cries and tears or other common reactions of fear, Midna could adequately guess
that the kid was not at all afraid of their strange appearances. It was a good
thing, since the Twilight Princess had quite a temper on her and a panicked
child was not something she would have liked dealing with.
Even if she had technically accepted her Sergeant’s words as truth, The
Twilight Sovereign was still taken very off guard when she came face to face
with a human toddler with wild raven black hair and almond shaped glowing
emerald green eyes. Yep, there was effectively a human boy; the round ears, the
general shape and pink skin were both obvious clues about what he was and his
gender, in the Twilight Realm. A toddler more precisely, not much older than
two years old, likely a bit younger, from what she could actually guess.
Not that Midna was actually a font of knowledge in children, since she was
still unmarried at her age (Don’t ask, it’s not worth having her slam a Shadow
Bolt somewhere very painful for only trying to satiate your curiosity
*shivers*) and never had any offspring. Well, there was that scare a while ago
after a wild few weeks with a male friend, but it was just that, a scare.
You see, the Twili as a race were very long lived, able to live for thousands
of years if they were not killed by blade, poison and/or sickness. In exchange
for this longevity though, they were usually not very fertile. Due to their low
birthrates, children of all sorts were considered sacred to the highest point
in their society’s eyes. Voluntarily endangering a child’s life was bound to
give the culpable a one way ticket to the gallows by their laws.
 It was how Zant managed to corner her and curse her into an Imp form during
his Rebellion leading to his false rule, by threatening to feed the children to
the Beasts her People had became under the influence of his vile magic, since
he had taken many of them hostage in his bid of finally taking over the Palace.
The Tracking Specialist and the Mage, Anya and Cibelle, were fraternal twin
sisters, with a skin a tad lighter than the princess, yellow eyes and red hair
of various lenght. Cibelle’s hair was in a pixie cut while Anya’s was left long
and wild. Midna was not one to stand on ceremony when it was not needed, so she
quickly waved the girls’ attempts at getting up and bow in respect. She sat
down on the ground near them without any ceremony, and then began a silent
staring contest with the boy.
Two eyes with yellow sclera and sunset red pupils stared into two other eyes
with white sclera and glowing emerald green pupils. Then the boy broke eye
contact first and his little hand seized a lock of Midna’s hair, pulling a bit.
Not enough to hurt mind you; but enough for her to notice. The boy then said in
a tongue she hadn’t heard in a very long time
“Pwetty! Hair pwetty! “
Midna had to rack her brains as to where she heard that language and the lack
of correct pronunciation didn’t help, but you couldn’t really blame a child
that young for that. While she wasn’t exactly sure what the child was babbling
about, Midna knew by his body language that he was fascinated by her hair.
Well, a girl could get used to be the centre of attention. It was at this point
that Cibelle said
“I’ve rarely seen Humans before, but this one is very cute, Highness. He will
grow up to be a real heartbreaker for sure! I’m not sure if I understand his
language, but he seems to be already quite taken with your hair.”
Midna had an amused smile at hearing that, having already guessed, but she
wanted to trade banter a bit, thus she shot back with false vanity in her voice
“Well, the boy has good taste at least, since everyone knows my hair is simply
fabulous!”
That boasting had for effect of making all three Twili women erupt into fit of
giggles and making the men roll their eyes in fond exasperation. While Harry
didn’t understand the dialect spoken, he liked the laugh of these pretty
ladies, thus he laughed too all the while clapping his hands. It was then that
something weird happened. Harry hiccupped and a shock wave of accidental magic
was let out of his tiny body. It had for effect of coloring the skins of the
women near him similar to a rainbow, like they had been dunked into a multi
coloured dye!
While everyone was gawking at the results, little Harry was giggling almost
impishly. Midna and Cibelle, who were the most sensible to the Mystic Arts
among the group, were now looking at the Light dweller child in a whole new
light and with clear awe! While they both knew that magic could be learned by
Humans if they were determined enough, it was generally mostly the trade of
Hylians.
That a child so young could have outbursts of uncontrolled magic, it was very
surprising. And now the little imp was laughing at them! In a good mood, Midna
decided to show off a bit. With a snap of her fingers and a small explosion of
smoke, a similar shock wave of magic erupted from her like it had previously
erupted from Harry and had for effect to cancel their new skin colouration. It
had for secondary effect to also cheer the child, to the point he was happily
babbling into his childish mangling of his home language, clapping his hands
with joy.
 What the Twili didn’t knew, was the fact that their own language had evolved
from the Hylian language when their Ancestors were exiled and imprisoned in the
Twilight Realm and that in a twist of fate or a divine prank with the
collaboration of multiple pantheons, the old and new Hylian language were both
very close to Harry’s native modern English. Magic had also a way to help its
chosen when they were either in great need or when they expected it the less.
Or sometimes it is just a Deity who got bored and decided to do something new
to get rid of said boredom. Who knew really?
After dawdling a bit more, Midna decided it was now time to return to the
Palace. It was also decided she would take the child with her and let the
Palace’s Healer examine the little tyke. Then they would see about finding his
home Realm and send him back, but in the meantime, the Twilight Princess would
foster him. Finding a Light dweller keeping his human form into the Twilight
Realm was already an oddity in itself; but add the fact that the child was also
a magic user, it was Midna’s responsibility to look after the child. After all,
looking after a toddler shouldn’t be that difficult right?
The ruler of the Twili would soon learn that looking after a small child was
anything BUT easy. And she started to learn about it right as she prepared to
teleport back to the Palace. The boy hadn’t been happy to have his body changed
into twilit particles without prior warning for fast travel, not at all. He had
been fussy when she was opening the Portal but once back in a solid state in
front of the Palace of Twilight, he was quite vocal in his displeasure.
“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”
The Leader of the Twili had to make a very big conscious effort to not throw
away the brat still in her arms- He was no longer a sweet kid, what with the
horrible bawling- so she could clap her hands on her ears to tone down that
detestable sound! The Twili woman tried everything to calm the child down.
Rocking, singing (Which only made it worse since Midna couldn’t sing to save
her life *snickers*) conjuring soft magical lights of different colours,
nothing was working. The problem was that while Harry had liked all the Twili
women he had met so far, he was now acutely missing his mother.
Then to add insult to injury, a foul odour was soon smelt and Midna didn’t lose
any time reacting.
“EWWWWWW!Gross!”
Yes, Harry also now really needed a change of diapers. Life was cruel like that
sometime. Like that time when it was Sirius’ turn to change the boy’s diapers
during one of his visits and Harry decided that he suddenly needed to pee once
the soiled nappy was removed from his bottom end. James, Remus and Lily were
literally rolling on the floor in the aftermath, laughing until they could no
longer breathe! In Sirius’ case though, not so much. In the end, it took a
powerful sleeping spell to calm the boy down.
 While she would have preferred to manage to calm him by her own means, she had
lost patience and couldn’t endure anymore of that Gods awful racket! Midna’s
impatience and temper had brought her many troubles in years past, but with
time passing and character building, her flaws weren’t as obvious and as bad as
before. Finally able to enter the Palace in peace, she soon ordered a nearby
guard to fetch the Palace’s Healer and to send her to the royal quarters with
everything needed for an exam on a Human child.
 While Twili, Humans and Hylians were very similar, they were also different
enough to likely be affected differently by various substances and spells. Then
she asked a nearby maid
“Please, send for a member of the Palace’s staff who is or was parent to a
young child to my quarters. I need advice on how to take care of a toddler and
I also need to know what is needed for taking good care of the child. Ah, I
will also take my meal in my chambers; pass the word to the kitchens.”
The maid who Midna addressed was too young still to have conceived and birthed
a child; she was only just leaving her teenage years behind. By a quirk of fate
or simple biology, the Twili, male and female alike, were only fertile starting
around their twenty fifth birthday. Oh, as a race they were maturing at the
same pace than Humans and Hylians until hitting their prime, and then they
would stay frozen in that prime for thousands of years, aging very slowly.
Before she was executed by Zant, Midna’s mother was around six thousand years
old and only looked like a woman in her early forties. After her orders given,
Midna walked to her quarters where she was quick to put the sleeping child on a
nearby table usually used for when she was taking her meals in private. After
making sure that the boy would not fall down and hurt himself, Midna was quick
to take a few steps back to get out of range of the smelly diapers. Now what
was she going to do with a Human toddler coming from a Light Realm of all
thing?
 She supposed she could always travel to Hyrule and drop him off in an
orphanage at Castle Town, but leaving a young Mage to be to be raised among the
ignorant populace left a sour taste in her mouth.
 It was bound to end in a disaster, since magic wasn’t very common in Hyrule in
this Era. But what else could she do? The Princess Zelda she got to know during
her Exile following Zant’s Rebellion had passed away a few decades ago and
while the same Royal Family was still reigning over the country, the Triforce
of Wisdom hadn’t made an appearance on the last few princesses’ hands, making
their claim to the Hyrulian throne rather shaky. So she couldn’t exactly
entrust a magical child to a family at risk of being dethroned in a country
where a civil war could ignite.
 The Gorons and the Zoras tribes would be in the same boat as she, not knowing
how to properly care for a Human child, thus they were out of the equation
also.
 Even with the increasing number of her people now able to walk freely into the
Light Realms without being fatally wounded, there were still frictions between
Twilis and Humans. Asking her subjects for a volunteer to foster a Human child
would not be well received. Hence it was why Midna had decided to foster him
until a more adequate solution could be found. At least, until they could find
a way to send him back to his home; even if she had honestly no idea on how to
take care of a child that young.
Her internal debate was put on hold, since the Palace’s Healer had arrived.
Said Healer was a woman of a certain age, but with Twili physiology, it was
rather hard to tell her precise age. She looked like to be in her late forties
and was short and stout. Her hair was a burgundy red and kept in a tight bun.
She had grey eyes and her skin was a deep blue. She had been the Palace’s
Healer for generations because she was the very best at what she did. Though
her bedside manners could be improved, not that anyone around the Palace was
brave enough to tell her that to her face though! No_one wanted to aggravate
Agitha. Not if you didn’t wish being the subject of a thorough cleansing.
*shudders*
Midna had made the mistake to antagonize her during her troublemaker youth and
she had deeply regretted it. Agitha ruled her domain with an iron fist and you
only crossed her at your own risks. She was kind of gruff and had also a no
nonsense attitude to booth. So the fact that she entered the Princess’ chambers
without knocking or be announced before entering was not alarming, it was just
how she was. Those piercing grey eyes took size of her and when Midna was
judged healthy enough, the Healer asked
“Hmmff. Why did you summon me for, girl? You don’t look sick. Do you need
another contraceptive potion because you went to Hyrule for another booty call
and the locals still don’t believe in protection?”
At that, Midna turned bright red. After two years of separation once Link,
Zelda and she had defeated Ganondorf, Midna had cracked and opened a Portal
directly to Hyrule. Once there, she tracked down Link, found him, took him back
to his home in Ordon by force, threw him on his bed and after getting rid of
their clothes, she made him a man. It was like a mini honeymoon since for two
weeks they did nothing but lazing around, eating, sleeping and having sex at
all times during the day and night, except when he was needed at the Ranch or
for one chore or another around the village.
At the time, the Twilight Princess hadn’t known that Twilis and Hylians were
compatible enough to possibly produce together an offspring. So when she
realized she was a few days late in her monthly cycle, Midna naturally panicked
and went back home in a hurry, begging Agitha to help her fix her mistake.
Fortunately for the Twilight Princess, Midna was not pregnant yet, but there
was a chance that she could be. Sadly, the contraception potion tasted
something awful and since her paramour was very virile, she was required to
take one dose every day until she was menstruated, just in case. It was not a
good experience and Midna didn’t want a repeat anytime soon.
The problem was later identified as coming from the remnants of Zelda’s soul
energies that had been housed in her being. Having almost fused permanently,
Midna’s cycle had almost become like Zelda’s. But since the remnants of the
soul energies had faded, her body had been thrown out of whack. The Twilight
Princess had learned from her mistakes though, so her next visits to Link were
not followed by such unpleasantness. While they never married or even entered
an official relationship, Midna and Link were lovers until the Hero entered a
serious relationship with another woman.
Only then Midna backed off. She still came around for platonic and friendly
visits once in awhile though.
Back to the matter at hand, Midna was quick to point out the still sleeping
human toddler.
“No Healer Agitha. I didn’t ask you to be fetched for me. A patrol found a
Light dweller, a human boy who somehow kept his body in our Realm, who had been
sucked in by an unstable Twilight_Portal. His arrival and the fact that he is
clearly not a soul was of enough importance to call for my help immediately.
The boy is an anomaly and has supposedly a nasty gash on the forehead. The
soldiers patched him up with some first aid field medicine, but it’s not enough
for a young child. Thus it’s for his sake that I’ve sent a call for you.”  
Agitha wasn’t certain if she could believe the tale the lass was weaving. But
seeing a human toddler asleep on a nearby table with her own two eyes, she
couldn’t refute what her Ruler just told her. Not needing to be told anything
else, the older woman approached the sleeping boy and as a sign of being used
to smell and see more disgusting things than a soiled diaper, she only crinkled
her nose at the foul scent. With a simple snap of her fingers, the soiled
diaper was cleaned and refreshed and then she showed her experience in handling
children by removing the shirt part of the night wear made of strange material
with no problem at all.
The Healer then put a dainty looking hand on the child’s torso and after a
profound breath in and breath out; she focused her magic into healing energy.
Her hand then started to glow a soft purple colour. Midna watched the procedure
with interest. Despite being the most powerful Mage of her Tribe, even without
the use of the power of her Ancestors, the Fused_Shadows, she knew very little
about healing others.
Soon, after a battery of tests, Agitha removed the bandage around little
Harry’s forehead. Cleaning the wound with water and sanitizing it soon after,
she could see a wound that would left a scar, already taking the shape of a
lightning bolt. But while the shape was rather original, this time it was Midna
who caught wind of something very wrong mystically speaking. Hissing like an
angry cat, the Twilight Princess muscled her way near her new ward and then put
a glowing finger like a blinding sunset on the throbbing scar.
Usually, Agitha would have thrown the impudent girl away, but right now, even
the irascible Healer was afraid. Her ruler was using the power of their
Ancestors and by the Gods it was as awesome as it was terrifying, even if she
was only tapping on a mere sliver of it! The older woman didn’t have to wait
long before the younger hissed venomously
“Someone tried to turn this child into a phylactery! Some sicko of a Dark Mage
somehow left a shard of his soul inside the kid’s scar! Sacrilegious!
Blasphemous! ”
At hearing that, even the unflappable healer let out a horrified gasp! It was
horrible and more than disgusting, doing that to a child! It went against all
the Twilis believed in!
Midna, now with her entire body glowing like a blinding sunset, used her power
to exorcise the soul shard. Even in his forced sleep, Harry was fussing, mighty
uncomfortable with the foreign magic now flooding his system. While the
Twilight Princess was successful into getting rid of Voldemort’s soul shard
since it had not properly bonded with the child’s psyche and magical core yet,
even with the Black_Blood_Contract protecting him, the rebounding Killing_Curse
had left some sort of spiritual wound in Harry that had not had time to close
and heal yet.
 And while she had used only a bit of her true power, Midna’s impulsiveness and
Harry’s hybrid nature played against her, creating a situation never seen
before. By using her undiluted power on the child, she had accidentally gifted
him with the capacity to use Twili Shadow Magic in the future! Children were
nothing if not adaptable. It was doubly true for magical children. Harry’s
magical core would still permit him to learn and use Wizardry but said core
would also produce Shadow magic on the same wavelength for now on.
After that outburst, Agitha was able to finish her exam while Midna was still
fuming silently. If she ever got her hands on the Heretic Mage who had done
that to that sweet little boy, she would make him pay a thousandfold! Once
Agitha has declared the lad in good health after healing his scar to the point
where in a year or two it would totally disappear, Midna was given a quick
lesson on how to take care of a toddler by another older maid who was also
quick to send for anything needed. Needless to say, it would be a long few
days.
The upside to the situation, while Midna and Harry had many difficulties to
communicate verbally, the princess had no problem reading the language she
guessed the child was speaking and in inspecting his dirty clothing, she came
across what she guessed was the boy’s name stitched into his shirt. The guess
pay dirt when she remarked that the boy was answering to the name. Harry.   
As for Padfoot and Altrouge, they had had the bad luck of being dumped into a
sparsely populated part of the Twilight Realm by the Portal. While their
appearances got them strange looks from the locals, somehow the mother on a
Quest was able to reassure them. What the Wizard stuck in a dog body hadn’t
seen was the fact than in manifesting her fangs and red wine eyes instead of
emerald green, Altrouge was sending a clear signal that she was in fact not
human at all. While she was clearly a Light dweller, her lack of humanity
worked in her favour, since the Twilis were more used to deal with non-human
 beings.
 Her now unlocked ancient knowledge did come to use also. By using old English,
the locals were able to understand her better and they now could communicate.
Apparently, the news of a Human child being fostered by the Ruler of these
lands was still making much noise. The fact that the kid also stayed human and
wasn’t transformed into an animal like Sirius or a spirit like the regular
people coming in contact with the local atmosphere was even more hot news.
By doing various exchanges of services since Wizarding money was useless here,
they were fed and sheltered as needed during the long trek toward the Palace.
Altrouge was happy to finally have a clue as to where her baby was and to know
that he was well looked after in her absence.
While most of the population could use magic in one way or another, magical
transport was not something common. In fact, only the Mages trained and
approved by the Princess had the right to use the Portals. And even then, not
all the Mages had the ability to use them. It was why nobody around had offered
them to teleport them directly to the Palace. Even as a Dead Apostle Ancestor,
Altrouge couldn’t apparate to a place where she never went and never saw
before. It was the same for a portkey. No coordinates, no instant
trnasportation.
Visualization was a vital component in both methods of magical transports. Thus
it was why Padfoot and she were forced to walk. She could have grabbed the Dog
Animagus and ran at super speed all the way to the Palace and reclaim her son,
but doing so would expose her true nature to Sirius and he had been a faithful
and brave friend for too long for her to just dump it all on him. She would
explain everything when he could take human shape once again and could discuss
with her. Altrouge felt she owed him that much.
In the end, it took three long weeks for our duo to arrive at the foot of the
Palace of Twilight. While her physical strength was far from depleted, Altrouge
was mentally exhausted. She wanted to find her baby, took him into her arms,
press him against her heart and rain on him multiples kisses. In all her
immortal life, Altrouge Brunestud would have never thought she would become a
mother. But now she was one and nothing, nothing was more important than her
son in her eyes.
She would drown the entire world in flames and blood if she had too for him.
Vlad Tepes’ reign of terror would be seen as a simple temper tantrum compared
to the lengths she was willing to go for her baby boy! She would have also to
send something nice to Grandpa Zelretch, since he was the one who suggested a
mortal lifetime and helped her become Lily Evans Potter. Maybe a few restricted
books from the Department of Mysteries would please him? Never mind, it was
something she could consider later, for now, she had to go fetch her
sweetheart.
Finding her voice, she said
“Well, they don’t do things halfway do they? What do you think Padfoot?”
Sirius was also exhausted. More mentally than physically, but his muscles and
joints would need a rest too. He had never spent so much time as a dog before
and it was starting to show. His emotions had dulled considerably and become
much more primal than before. While still capable of deep thoughts, he was
starting to think more like an animal than a human and frankly, it was scaring
him. He just couldn’t wait to get Pronglet back and leave this strange
dimension behind.
 He really needed a good beer and a shower. He was brought out of his thoughts
by Lily’s voice and he had to agree with her. He gave his answer with a short
bark, and then nudged her closest hand with his snout. Lily acted like he knew
she would, lightly scratching and caressing his face and his ears. They stayed
in silence a moment, before she broke it with a voice hardened by resolution
“Let’s go get Harry, Padfoot. Then we’ll go home.”
Sirius answered with a determinate bark and followed the woman he loved like a
sister toward the Palace’s entrance.
“Don’t worry Harry, we’re almost there!”     
Were Sirius/Padfoot’s thoughts.     
 
 
***** Chapter 2 *****
Chapter Summary
     Altrouge and Padfoot are received into the Palace of Twilight.
     Tearful reunion of mother and son then dogfather and godson.
     Settling down in Hyrule for the time being since the Twilis doesn't
     know where is our Light Dwellers' Original Realm is.
     Good relationship between neighbours.
     Harry is a future Marauder.
     Harry is growing up.
     First visit to Earth after 11 years of absence.
                        Harry Potter and his Princesses
                                   Chapter 2
                                        
Author’s Notes: I was really undecided which story I would be working next. I
thought about settling down on another chapter of Sacred Magic, but the muse
was suddenly not very motivated. I prodded her a bit and while she was becoming
quite lethargic, she seemed to perk up quite a bit while mentioning this story.
So who am I, lowly mortal, to deny her? XD This chapter will feature Harry at
different stages of his life. I have no interest of going through all of his
years while growing up; I have enough stories with those threads and no
inspiration to do another entire childhood.
 I have many things I would like to talk about here, but it would take too much
space. Oh, since Harry is supposed to have his mother’s eyes, he won’t need
glasses in this story either. So before getting this show started, let’s have a
quick peek at the stats. We have 16 Reviews, 151 Followers, 124 Favourites, 5
C2 Communities and 3 069 views. Thank you for your continued support.
Last Edit: May 19, 2017.
 
Harry._age_15_months.
 
Word travelled faster than anything else in this Realm and Midna was well aware
that Harry’s mother and a canine companion were coming to reclaim the boy. So
she had instructed her guards to let the foreigners enter when they would
arrive, to call servants to offer them sanctuary for a few days and to notify
her when they would arrive. Due to the low luminosity of their Realm, the
Twilis didn’t possess linen and cotton made clothes since they couldn’t make
them grow. They were a metal rich people, but rather fabric poor. Thus they had
learned to solidify shadows and give them the look and texture of clothes.
Since Harry had only his pyjamas when he arrived into the Twilight Realm, the
seamstresses had to make him a whole wardrobe, diapers included. Midna had also
gotten a severe ass chewing from Agitha once the healer had recovered from her
scare. The irascible healer had immediately scanned the boy after the forced
exorcism and while it had not left permanent damages and did what the Mistress
of the Fused_Shadows had intended; the child had absorbed enough of her power
to assimilate and replicate it. In other words, her rash actions had given a
Human child the capacity to use the magic of their Tribe!
It wasn’t a recognized taboo only because it has never been done before, but
the Twilis were usually very conservative as to who were allowed to learn the
secrets of their crafts. Normally, Midna would have never let the Healer take
her to task like that, but even as proud as she was, she was able to recognize
that she really had screwed up big time. Now even if the child left with his
mother back to his home Realm, she would have to spare a Mage to teach him how
to use their tribe’s magic when he would be a little older. After all, it was
not like he could reverse engineer it on his own at his age.
Yeah, she really screwed up on this one. It didn’t help that she didn’t have
much Mages to spare either. They were needed to man the portals to the Realms
they were in contact with and scouting the Twilight Realm for anything
abnormal. Man, what a mess her indignation and enthusiasm to get rid of the
piece of soul inside little Harry caused. Or…Or maybe she could take
responsibility and take a much deserved vacation? She hadn’t left the Twilight
Realm since Link’s funeral, sixty years ago. It was food for thoughts…
When Altrouge and the big black dog she called alternatively Sirius or Padfoot
arrived at the gates of the Palace of Twilight, they were well received per
orders. While it was rare to see Light dwellers among them, the soldiers and
servants did their jobs as expected. An older maid showed Altrouge to a sparse
furnished room. There was a bed, another door leading to the water closet, a
wardrobe and a nightstand near the bed. There was a real fireplace embedded
into stonework with a protective grille and a poker. There was also some sort
of fur rug half way from the bed to the fireplace.
The maid bowed to the guest and said
“Her Highness will be warned of your arrival. I may not have interacted much
with your son Miss, but I can tell you that he is very healthy and was also
well taken care of. “
Once the maid was out, the Dead Apostle Ancestor let herself fall in sitting
position on the bed while Padfoot, done with his recon of this new place, let
himself fell down on the fur rug in front of the fireplace, letting out a big
sigh. It had been a really exhaustive journey, but they were very near their
goal. Well, part of it. For all her extensive knowledge on Magecraft and
Wizardry and the hidden secrets of the world, Altrouge had to admit that she
wasn’t exactly certain how her baby boy, Sirius and she were going to return
back to Earth. For it was clear in her mind that they weren’t on their planet
any longer.
Her time as Lily had increased her patience even if a few fools around her had
tested its limits quite a few times. She had to be pragmatic in this situation.
Only the local Mages could open a Portal out of this plane of existence and
they answered to their Ruler. Thus Altrouge couldn’t go on a bloody rampage
like she used to pull during the Dark Ages when someone or something pissed her
off. Thinking about her past bloody rampages, it put her in quite a conundrum.
She would need to feed soon and even if these feeding times were inter-spaced
by decades, with the technology always advancing, it would be very difficult to
find a large enough feeding ground and remote enough to not attract the
Enforcers, The Burial Agency from The Church or any local Magical Law
Enforcement officers. Not that any of them were a match for a Dead Apostle
Ancestor of her level, but the most powerful were not always those who came up
on top after an altercation. While nothing short of a High Class Servant could
kill her, a sufficient crafty opponent could find a way to seal her away. She
refused to take the risk. Her child needed her!
She guessed that she could hold out without any drawbacks for about five years,
ten at most if she conserved her strength. You see, the older a Dead Apostle
get and the more blood they needed to consume to stay “alive”. Fortunately,
they could go a long time between feedings. Altrouge had drunk until she was
entirely wasted before undergoing a mortal lifetime. Normally she could go
around thirty to sixty years between feedings, but a successful pregnancy and
resurrecting herself from the Killing_Curse while she was still mortal had
burned a lot of her reserves.
She guessed she could always go drain a few villages in lawless zones in some
countries of Africa, but before planning for her needed dose of blood, she
first had to get her son, find a way out of here and wait until that Harry was
old and mature enough to babysit Sirius when she would be away. Even with her
true self awakened, there was no way in hell she would bring two children with
her for what would be a bloody massacre! Hum, maybe she could ask Remus if he
could babysit the kids in her absence. He was always the more level headed of
their little quartet and she would feel more at ease having a responsible adult
in charge. Harry was an angel, but Sirius was a veritable hellion.
And if she was lucky, maybe she would find the traitorous rat during her
travels.  Oh, Gaia! With the Dark Lord defeated, the Wizarding press would have
had a field day in publishing all sorts of things about what happened at
Halloween. Well, she would have to do some damage control when she came back.
There was one thing she was one hundred percent sure though. Harry and she
would steer clear of the Clock Tower and the Mage’s Association’s jurisdiction.
Those Magi would simply love to slap a Sealing_Designation of her sweet child
and vivisect him to find how such a being was possible. A hybrid of a Wizard/
Dead Apostle Ancestor was bound to make many unwanted heads turn, even if his
Apostle traits were still dormant at the moment. Altrouge was many things, but
overconfident she was not.
As powerful as she was, she didn’t fool herself to think that nobody had
developed a way to neutralize a being of her level long enough to grab her
child and leave before she could do anything about it.
She would only meet with Grandpa Zelretch away from the Clock Tower if he
wished to meet them until her child was old and strong enough to protect
himself. Altrouge wasn’t fooling herself, the Old_Man_of_the_Jewels may act
like a Troll but he was far from being an idiot. He likely kept an eye on her
mortal shell if only to document the experience. She would have kept brooding
over her thoughts but they were interrupted by the sound of knocking.
Altrouge was quick to give the permission to
“Enter!”
A different maid from the one who guided here maid slipped inside the rooms and
after a polite but definitively old fashioned bow, said
“Her Majesty has been informed of your presence. She is currently busy with
State affairs right now and do not wish to be disturbed barring an emergency. I
was told to also inform you that young Harry is currently napping. Her Highness
will be ready to receive you for a private audience in a few hours and your son
should be awake by then. One of us will come to fetch you when she will be
free. In the mean time, do you require something special from the kitchens? We
are used to catering for many species, thus our selection of food are rather
varied.”
Altrouge frowned a bit at that. She missed her sweetheart. She really wanted
her son into her arms right now. She was seriously considering destroying
everything into her path and reclaims the fruit of her womb by force. Harry was
hers. She had carried him in her womb for nine long months and she fell in love
with him the moment the midwife put the little tyke into her arms. But, she had
other things to consider.
Their Mages held the key to leave this strange dimension and they had taken in
her son, taking good care of him in her absence. The Vampire_Princess_of_the
Dead_Apostles felt that she owed them her gratitude and she also had to think
about Padfoot’s well being. She wasn’t the most knowledgeable in Animagi,
having never pursued that branch of Transfiguration during her time as Lily,
but she was pretty sure that it was not good for their mental health to stay
locked in their animal form as long as Sirius has been. Thus she accepted the
message from the maid but with reluctance.  Believe it or not, she was starting
to miss hearing his lame jokes for Root’s sake!
She denied the maid’s offer of a meal though. While she could consume normal
food and drinks easily enough, as a Dead Apostle she would not receive any
benefits by eating and/or drinking it. And she wasn’t about to try drinking the
blood of the staff. She requested a big juicy steak for Padfoot though. The
poor dog was famished. Altrouge thought that the girl would leave and come back
after a while, but she stayed where she was, snapped her fingers (The sound had
somehow been echoed in the room) then a strange mosaic formed itself on the
floor with a perpetual spiral in movement. One second later, the requested
steak materialized in a burst of shadow particles!
While Altrouge was admittedly very fascinated by the foreign magic since it was
clear that it wasn’t Magecraft or Wizardry, Padfoot had jumped upon the very
large steak. After sniffing to see if it were safe and it passed muster, he
simply started to eat it with relish. The maid, her job done, snapped her
fingers once again and the mosaic, some kind of Portal, closed and disappeared.
After a bow, she left the apartments the same way she came in. It seems that
the citizens were telling the truth after all. Only the Mages and the Royal
Family were allowed the use of the Twilight Portals for travel means.
Not that she had thought they were lying to her per see, but she had taken the
information with a grain of salt so to speak. Oh well, as long as she could get
her beloved son into her arms and find a way back home, she would be happy.
Deciding that categorizing her memories as Lily Evans Potter was one way or
another to pass the time; she sat cross-legged on the middle of the bed and
dove deep into her mind. Twenty one years of memories to sort was a big feat
after all, even for somebody like her.
Soon enough, the Wizard forcefully turned into a Grim like dog and the newly
reawakened Dead Apostle Ancestor were led in the maze of corridors that was
making the interior of a remade Palace of Twilight towards the local ruler’s
apartments. Once they were granted permission to enter and her son entered in
her field of view, Altrouge blew her prepared speech and with an unnatural
speed, she dashed toward her baby boy, who was sitting, awake, in an improvised
cot.
Crying freely despite herself, she managed to regulate her strength when she
took her beloved son in her arms for the first time in weeks.
“Oh Harry! My baby boy! Oh! Mummy has missed her Sweetheart so very much!”
Very emotional, she just couldn’t stop herself to rain motherly kisses all over
her little boy’s face and hair, hugging him tightly to her bosom. Of course,
little Harry had recognized his mother too even with her new appearance and
therefore, was hugging her like his life depended on it all the while crying
too.
“Mama! Mama! Hawwy luv Mama! Want Mama! No leave Hawwy!”
If Midna had any concerns about that stranger’s ability to take care and love
the child before, they were now long gone. That woman had walked far and wide
across the Realm with the sole purpose to rejoin with her child. Yes, she had
gotten attached to the little guy, but she had been very careful to not replace
his mother. Not that she exactly knew how, but hey, it’s the thought that count
right? She then trailed her eyes to the canine following the woman and at
first; she thought he was the Hero chosen by the Gods reincarnated. But she
soon revised her opinion.
While there was indeed something mystical coming from the strange canine, it
wasn’t anything similar to her deceased lover. If she had to guess, the magic
in the air had put him into a form he had mastered prior his introduction into
the Twilight Realm. And since regular humans became spirits in the Twilight, it
was only a logical guess that the dog was in fact a human with a specific power
or powers.
Once Altrouge was calmed, she put her struggling son down and the boy walked
unsteadily toward the big black dog all the while saying out loud
“Pa’foo! Pa’foo! Hawwy luv Pa’foo!”
Then he started to babble happily, mangling his native tongue to the point that
Midna couldn’t understand it anymore, all the while gripping the dog’s fur and
nuzzling the now very patient and quite affectionate animal.
Padfoot wasn’t inactive at all during all that. He was whining long and loud,
barking out loud a few times all the while waggling his tail like mad. Between
nudges with his muzzle and big sloppy licks all over the now giggling boy’s
face, you could accurately guess that he was very attached to the child. While
he was the size of a big wolfhound, Padfoot was being very delicate with the
son of his brother in all but blood, always keeping his strength in check. He
was strong enough to fight jaw to jaw with a fully grown werewolf but in
control enough to play safely with a toddler. 
In the end, the tree Light Dwellers ended up staying one more week into the
Twilight Realm. Midna had to admit to her guests that she had no idea not on
how but rather where to send them back since she hadn’t seen their home Realm.
But she also did her best to reassure them that the best minds she had under
her service were currently working on it.
The Twilight_Portal that had sucked in Harry had been an anomaly and it would
take time to reverse engineer it. In the meantime, she could drop them in a
Light Realm where they could settle down for a while. Like it or not, even with
all the goodwill of the world and the efforts of her staff and herself, the
Twilight Realm was no place to grow for a toddler Light Dweller.
 It was thus decided by Altrouge that her little family would indeed settle
down in Hyrule, for it was the name of the land where Midna would drop them to.
Little Harry really needed a safe place to grow up, Padfoot needed to change
back to Sirius and the Dead Apostle was seriously missing the feeling of the
wind and the sun on her skin. Altrouge wanting to make an informed decision;
was permitted access to the Royal Library, where she studied the most recent
maps of Hyrule.
She was pondering between settling in a town and moving further away in the
wilderness. Both had their advantages and disadvantages. In town she would have
access to much of the offered services and the needed products for her son and
friend, but not much of true privacy. Add to that the anti-magic feeling
running around the local Human populace and it would be like the Dark Ages all
over again. On the other hand, living recluse in the wilderness would put a big
damper on Harry’s social life, but they would not need to hide their nature and
powers.
It would also be harder to buy the necessary products, what with being far from
a Market. And there was also the problem of obtaining the local currency.
Apparently Hyrule used gems of different colours commonly called Rupees.
Altrouge had on her Lily’s emergency’s stash, safely contained in a Mokeskin
pouch tied to a string around her neck, but it was a mix of British Pounds,
French Francs and quite the pile of Galleons, Sickles and Knuts.
She guessed she could always go to a Blacksmith and have him melt the gold,
silver and copper then exchange the bullion for the local currency if she
really needed it. Or maybe she could guilt trip Sirius into taking a job since
he would effectively be the Man of the House and thus responsible to bring food
on the table for her son and himself? There were so many things to think about
in so little time. Oh well, she would take it one day at the time. Rushing
those steps would only come back to bite them on the ass later.
 In the end, they decided to take residence in the now vacant Fishing Hole in
the Upper Zora River Region of the Lanayru Province. From what Midna explained
to them while they made their choice; the Zoras were very responsible and
discrete neighbours. The Zoras were an aquatic, blue-skinned humanoid race that
existed in Hyrule and where tasked by the Royal Family to protect the water
sources of the Country.
They were monarchical, with a Queen and/or a King to govern them. There was
also a cave system that leads from their Domain to the Northern Hyrule Fields
for a land route or there was also a waterway leading closer to Hyrule Castle
Town. Going to Castle Town by foot at a mortal pace would make a few days
journey, but once Altrouge and Sirius had the locations in mind, they could
apparate there to save time.
In the end, Altrouge and a very glad to be human once again Sirius, had to use
Wizardry in tandem to spruce up the lovely but now tatty log cabin into a real
home. While Midna had given them enough provisions to hold for a while, they
would have to head into town to restock sooner or later. As precautions since
Harry’s little trip into the Twilight Realm had made him even more precocious,
(The tyke had somehow taken to apparate flawlessly at will almost everywhere…)
Sirius had to erect powerful wards near the banks of the lake and also on the
door leading out to the River. The child loved to play outside and the adults
encouraged actively that habit, but he was still too young to swim alone and
unsupervised yet.
Their second night back into a Light Realm, once Harry was put in bed for the
night, Sirius approached Lily with his questions that were plaguing him since
he found her and Harry alive following Voldemort’s social visit during the last
Halloween.
“I’ve waited long enough. We now have Harry back and he’s safely tucked away
for the night. Can you explain to me the changes you went through? You are
still Lily but somehow you’re not only her anymore. I’m not blaming you or
anything Lils, but I think I earned the right to hear the unvarnished truth
from your mouth. Seriously after weeks in Dog form, you owe me big time.”
He finished with a bit of humour in his voice.
Sitting on a carved wooden chair staring at the fire in the newly erected
fireplace of the remodeled wooden cabin, Altrouge allowed her disguise to fall
after a weary sigh. Her skin became almost deathly pale and marble like, her
green eyes bled to a wine red colour and her aura of predator skyrocketed.
She then said
“You are right, of course. I owe you the entire and unvarnished truth. But I
ask that you do not interrupt me or question me until I am done. Can you do
that?”
After a solemn nod from the Black Heir and once he was seated in turned, she
started to explain
My true identity is that of Altrouge Brunestud. I am the Ninth_Dead_Apostle
Ancestor. To resume that title to something you would understand, you could
call me a Super Vampire. The Ancestors are the nobility of all Vampire kind. We
aren’t classed by our strength by the way, rather by how much we could
represent a menace to humanity if we could be bothered. I have none of the
weaknesses exhibited by those degenerates that roam the slums of Magical
Societies.
Garlic, Holy water, crosses, running water, sunlight, Holy grounds and wooden
stakes don’t do shit to me. All their powers the most megalomaniacs of them
boast? I possess them but about a hundred to a thousand times stronger. Plus,
my kind of Vampire is known to have a very high level of magical resistance. In
that form, I could tank a hundred Killing_Curses back to back and I wouldn’t
even be fazed. Before my time as a mortal Witch, I was also an accomplished
Magus. “
She took a quick break to gather her thoughts and when she was done, she
continued
“I do feed on blood but I have a pretty good head on my shoulders, so I won’t
attack a person randomly. I can eat and drink regular aliments, but I get no
sustenance from them. I can’t even get drunk on alcohol for Root’s sake!
Immortality is a double edged sword to be honest. Twenty-one years ago, I was
bored out of my mind and was just about to do something very stupid and
dangerous if only to cure said boredom for a while. So my surrogate
grandfather, who I was visiting that day, suggested that I underwent a mortal
lifespan instead. He had tried it in the past once or twice and found the
experience very refreshing.
You have to understand that my favourite form before becoming Lily was that of
a Fifteen years old girl, so you could guess that it was a very explosive mix.
Hormones in constant flux, teenage mood swings and power to spare with little
to no morals to temper it were just the evident issues. You could also tell
that I really lacked the lessons regular people learn when you must deal with
whatever consequences fall upon you when you screwed up badly. Sincerely, this
stunt as a magical human was the best thing to ever happen to me, after my
Sweetheart’s birth of course.
Magecraft may be more powerful than Wizardry in general; but in your case you
have the advantage of versatility and also the option of quicker travel, what
with Apparition, Floo Travel and Portkey. Many Magi at the Clock Tower were
foaming at the mouth in rage of seeing your kind of Spell Casters invent those
first. So I decided to undergo a mortal lifespan to have a new experience under
my belt instead of going into a killing rampage somewhere. Thus with the help
of Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg, the Fourth of the twenty-seven Dead Apostles
Ancestors, I was reborn as Lily Evans.
My ungodly strength, true nature and powers would be unavailable to me until I
was in a true and extreme life or death situation or after my mortal lifespan
was all used up. And even in such mortal peril, it wouldn’t be a full
awakening. I think I awoke briefly in a fight against your cousin on the wrong
side of crazy Bellatrix, but I would have to be close to her to be one hundred
per cent sure. I think I turned her into a Dead Apostle, so if I did we have a
possible sleeping agent in the Death Eaters since as her Sire; she would be
beholden to me. Back to the real story, when Voldemort came to kill us, he
offered me to live in exchange of Harry’s life. I refused categorically of
course.
When he hit me with the Killing_Curse, I went into a coma similar to those who
drank a Draught of Living Death, it broke the remaining bindings on my true
self though and after he failed to kill my baby, I awoke to my real self.
During my awakening, I guess Harry was catapulted into an unstable Twilight
Portal, you then arrived only a few minutes after he was displaced and after
that, you know the rest.”
She ended her tale there. She would keep her specific powers over contracts be
they magical or not under wraps for now. The fact that Harry was half Apostle
combined with the protection_Contract her two selves sealed together and the
Love_based_sacrificial_ritual were why he was still alive after being hit with
the Killing_Curse would not be shared with anyone until she had an interest
into doing so. If his hybrid nature had been awakened, Altrouge felt sure that
Harry would have survived the Killing_Curse without the need of the Blood
Contract and the Sacrificial_Ritual.
Sirius had to accept the “new and improved” her first before she made more
confidences. She also wondered how he would react in seeing Primate Murder.
Sirius was flabbergasted for lack of a better term. He knew about Magi and
Magecraft, of course. How could he not when it was two recurrent subjects in
the Household he grew up in? Well it was mostly inflammatory comments, but he
knew enough since he had been an Auror. Aurors and Enforcers tended to work
together in many cases during the war. The Dead Apostles Ancestors were
something new though. So Lily or rather Altrouge, was some sort of aristocratic
super vampire? She was the ninth most dangerous in the whole twenty seven? That
one threw him for a loop, but it kind of made sense.
It would explain why she was always so scary when she would confront the
Marauders after bullying Snivellus or after a prank she was a witness to. It
was probably a bit of her predator aura that was leaking out. In the end, he
could accept it and move on or he could stay in denial and isolate himself. He
needed to grieve for James’ death but he was also needed to help raise Harry
into the good man his father wished he would be. So his answer was
“Give me a night or two off each week with a few bottles of alcohol to get
pissed to help me mourn James, get used to every changes in my life and the
rest of the week I’ll take the job of the male role model in Harry’s life. I
will be able to deal with the fact that you were a super vampire aristocrat in
human form so long as you don’t try to make a meal out of me and Harry. The
rest I’ll deal with it as it comes. Oh, don’t get on my case if I still call
you Lily okay? It’s going to take a while to get used to your new name. Do we
have a deal?”
Altrouge’s answer was thus
“We have a deal. Don’t worry though Sirius, I would never feed on my flesh and
blood and for your case, I don’t like Dog’s blood, so you’re safe.”
Harry,_Age_8
Little Harry Potter had grew up quite nicely these last few years. He was very
healthy and a bit tall for his age, measuring a whooping 1m22. His skin was
tanned by the sun since he was almost always outside. His hair were a bird nest
and untameable just like his father. His green eyes were luminescent just like
his mother and he seemed to have inherited Sirius’ roguish grin. Quite the
social butterfly, he was great friends with a couple of Zora kids around his
age.
In fact, he would be often found playing around outside the Domain or inside
the cave, up the cliffs. Harry was very agile and strong for his age, courtesy
of jumping and climbing up and down the Cliff-side pathways like a monkey
around the Domain day after day. The Zora tribe had also well taken to their
new neighbours. Altrouge and Sirius were their contacts to the Realm of Man and
their official suppliers. The Zora gave them a list of what they needed and
then, the Dead Apostle and the Wizard would go buy the supplies needed with the
Rupees collected for a fee and bring the shipment back. It was a win-win
situation for everyone.
In exchange, the King and Queen ordered their guards to also patrol the area of
the River all the way down to the Boat Rental Cabin and the Royal couple would
babysit Harry during his mother and godfather’s absence. That region of Hyrule
was peaceful, quiet and didn’t have many visitors; most of those visiting the
Lanayru Province went down to Lake Hylia or Castle Town, but it was better be
safe than be sorry.
King Ralis was even the one who taught the boy how to swim while his wife was
teaching their first grandchild, Laruto, how to catch Reekfishes. While the
young boy would never be as good as the Zoras themselves in the water, he was
already leagues ahead of his mother and Sirius.
It also seems that Harry had inherited more than a bit of the mischievousness
of his father. And with his Zora friends, he had no shortage of willing
accomplices. Such as the time they managed to dye Altrouge’s hair a bright
green by slipping some sort of seaweed that grew on the bottom of the pool in
the centre of the Zora’s Throne room in her home made shampoo. That day they
all learned that Altrouge was even less fond than Lily was to be the butt end
of the joke.
 One by one, she caught the miscreants and each of them, boys and girls alike,
were spanked until their bottoms were red and they could no longer sit without
pain, no matter how much crying or begging they were doing!
The Zoras were not so isolationist in their ways to the point of protesting
against the fact that another responsible and respected adult gave a justified
punishment to their misbehaving children. It would not be the first time an
adult Zora would have to drag a misbehaving Harry by the ear to reprimand him
either. It didn’t help that Sirius was egging the little miscreants on. He was
laughing a bit less though when Harry and Laruto had the brilliant idea to
spell his bed waterproof, charm it to float on the water surface and then let
him get carried by the strong current all the way down to the Boat Rental
Cabin.
 And it was after somehow managing to sneak the bed and him out of his room
without anybody noticing anything before it was too late! That one made
Altrouge laugh so hard that she had very hard time breathing! 
Harry, Age 10.
For his tenth birthday, Harry would be getting a tutor in the way of the swords
to balance his lessons in Wizardry and Twili Shadow Magic. (Midna came around
about every two weeks for at least a few days, thus she was repenting for her
mistake in the first place by tutoring him) A recently retired Royal Knight was
hired to teach the boy since Altrouge had never taken any interest into
swordplay in her long life and Sirius had forgotten his fencing lessons during
his teenager years while messing around with the Memory_charm one day.
The Knight was rather gruff and seemingly had the personality of a rock, bur he
knew his stuff. He was sparse in compliments and generous in critics, but not
in a malicious way. He was just rather hard to please and was now currently
staying at the Boat Rental Cabin. The Knight, one Sir Augustus Rook, had him
first learn the basics with a wooden sword. Harry was quite disappointed that
it would likely be years before he would be even allowed near a real one.
But just like his magical studies and pranks with his Zora friends, he gave his
all. His physical training only increased when his Apostle constitution awoke,
thus giving him supernatural speed, reflexes and strength. Harry had recently
learned, much to his depends, that Sir Rook could be an even harsher taskmaster
once he was made aware of Harry’s new limits…Those bruises sucked…
A few weeks after his Apostle body awoke; his family had taken the boy to
Hyrule Castle Town with them to go buy the next cargo since he was now old
enough to make the trip on foot. It was also time to make him see a bit more of
the Country. Altrouge and Sirius usually rented a big cart and a couple of
horses from a Ranch on the way there to stock up, took it all the way to the
tunnel leading to Zora’s Domain.
Then they would send the merchandises at the reception point with magic before
leading the horses and cart back to the Ranch. The deception was needed since
magic wasn’t actually a common sight in Hyrule in this Era.
Harry had greatly liked the roundabout trip, even if the atmosphere was
somewhat tense in Castle Town. There was some ruckus up by the Castle and when
the Royals weren’t happy, it was generally the populace that suffered. There
was a little downside to the trip though. Harry was supposed to stay close to
his mother while Sirius suddenly decided he had to go do a few personal errands
alone. But his mother had become totally absorbed into a big conversation with
the local Potions maker and it was in terms that a hyperactive ten years old
boy couldn’t understand and even less force him to stay still. So with a quick
“Be right back”,
Harry tracked down his Godfather into a rather shady alley not so far from the
Potions shop were her mother and the clerk were talking business.
What he found would be marked in his memory forever. It hadn’t dawned yet to
Harry that Sirius had “needs” and that he would seek the help of a professional
to satiate them since Altrouge and Midna weren’t about to indulge him with
that. Altrouge loved Sirius like a brother and he just wasn’t her type and in
Midna’s case; they were buddies in mischief, nothing else. Yes, young Harry had
just caught his Godfather having sex against a wall with a prostitute. The
sight had gotten him to freeze in incomprehension until his mother tracked him
down and dragged him away with an amused smirk on her ruby red lips after
seeing the scene.
The boy would get “The Talk” once they would be getting back home, the poor
lad. Not.
“You see Harry, when a mommy and a daddy love each other’s very much; they
decide to have a baby…”
It was to be as much as Sirius’ and Harry’s punishment. One for not been
discrete enough with his dalliances and the other for having disobeyed the
clear directive to not wander from her sight in an unknown place. Needless to
say that Harry couldn’t look at a woman in the eyes for a few months without
blushing like a tomato.
In Harry’s magical studies, Altrouge had made a breakthrough. Since a Dead
Apostle Ancestor was classed as a Phantasmal creature, they were more in tune
with the energy of the Earth than other beings. By truly focusing her will, she
found out that she could perform all her Wizardry spells without a wand. It was
even easier for Harry to learn the trick since he didn’t had the bad habit of
relying on the artificial circuit that a wand was.
Thus if they ever returned to their world, the Ministry of Magic could no
longer threaten to snap his wand if he did not follow the Decree_for_the
Reasonable_Restriction_of_Underage_Sorcery. Not that she would actually permit
the Ministry of Magic to have any authority over her child anyway. She was more
willing to obey Zelretch’s Decrees than anybody or anything else. The man
defeated her “father” for God’s sake! He might play the fool but he was strong
enough to defeat her even in his weakened state. And if nothing else, Altrouge
respected personal and proved power.
Harry, Age 12.
For Harry’s Twelfth birthday, Midna came by with good news during one of her
bi-weekly visits. Her people had finally found Altrouge, Sirius and Harry’s
original Realm and after visiting it herself, she could now take them there
easily. In the last two years, Harry and his family had scoured about every
corners of Hyrule now that the lad was old and solid enough to travel
(Apparition and Twilight_Portals were very useful to cut travel time when
needed, but sometimes taking the long way around could be more rewarding), but
after a while on the roads, they would always come back home in the Fishing
Hole.
Taking a break of sword training since Sir Augustus was heading to Kakariko
Village to visit his daughter and grandchildren, the family packed for travel
after Altrouge informed the Zora Rulers of their absence and Midna opened a
doorway into reality with an ease that was very baffling. While he was
progressing well in Shadow Magic, using the Portals were still out of Harry’s
league for now. So seeing the Twilight_Portal forming on the ground by the
Twili’s will was bound to get a reaction out of him.
“Whoa…! That’s so cool!”
Even if Harry hadn’t been on Earth since his toddler days, he had picked quite
a few expressions from Sirius, since during his rebellious teenager phase;
Padfoot had delved deeply into Muggle culture to get back at his blood bigots
parents.
Everyone took place in the portal once he was completely formed. After all, by
this point, the Twilight Princess was an old friend of the family, thus trusted
unconditionally. She was the only woman around with whom Altrouge could have
“Girl Talk” with. Don’t get her wrong, she had quite a few Zoras friends, but
despite their humanoid looks, they were oviparous, thus the female Zoras were
not subject to “That time of the month” like Midna and she was.
 It turned that after having a successful pregnancy; Altrouge’s reproductive
cycle had stayed human, and no matter what she tried, she could not get rid of
the “Monthly visitor” much to her eternal frustration.
When everyone was ready, Midna activated the Portal and they were changed into
Twilit particles and teleported away.
They materialized back into the Twilight Realm. Even if it was in a region that
Altrouge and Padfoot hadn’t explored, it was easily recognizable due to one
little fact. Yes, Sirius had been forcefully transformed into Padfoot once he
was exposed to the local magic. Since Altrouge and Harry were not human or not
fully human in the boy’s case, they weren’t changed by the magic of the Realm.
Then there was another big clue as to why Harry would have stayed himself one
way or another.
It seems that the Golden Goddesses had a wicked sense of humour, since in a
bright display of holy light; a golden mark made of three triangles superposed
appeared on the back of Harry’s right hand! When the mark was settled, the
triangle to the right seemed to be brighter than the other two!
Altrouge had seen drawings of the mark and knew the local tales and legends
since her new friends were kind enough to educate her on the subject, but she
had always thought it was just that, legends. It seems she was wrong. Now it
seemed that Murphy was working in concert with the Divinities of Hyrule!
Midna’s reaction was to curse out loud. The Goddesses loved to screw with her!
She now had known two Chosen Heroes in her lifetime! Harry had somehow been
gifted the Triforce of Courage!
After much grumblings, Midna teleported them once again, but not before
morphing into her Imp form and fusing with Harry’s shadow for more stealth,
since Earth had never seen Twilis before and having heard of the Magi from
Altrouge, she had no interest of being the next thing slated for vivisection!
They reappeared into a part of the deserted countryside at the frontier between
Scotland and England. Sirius was quick to take back his human appearance,
grumbling to himself like every time he was subject to a forceful
transformation.
But now what to do? They hadn’t been back here in a bit more than eleven years!
They had to find what happened from a trustworthy source and then they could
plan how to go forward. Turning around, Sirius offered to his sister in all but
blood
“What would you say if we went up to Hogwarts to pay Professor Dumbledore a
little friendly visit? At least he will be a good source of info. I’m not much
of a planner really, but even I know better than to walk up to Diagon Alley
without knowing the current lay of the land.”
The Potter Matriarch nodded absently, taking the time to don a more human like
disguise. Her skin became more tanned and lost its marble like constitution and
her wine red eyes became emerald green. She consciously lost her supernatural
beauty, allowing some imperfections and a bit of age to be seen. After all Lily
would be in her early thirties by now. Once as human as she was willing to be,
she took her son with her for side-apparition. He may be able to do it
flawlessly by himself, but he had never seen Hogwarts Castle before.
After some motherly admonishments to behave and not start a prank war with
Midna and Padfoot on the Staff, they disappeared in a loud crack and reappeared
near the gates of the majestic castle.
Seeing her son looking at the magical castle in awe, she said to him with a
found smile on her still kissable lips
“Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Harry.”
 
 
 
***** Chapter 3 *****
Chapter Summary
     Lily, Harry and Sirus' arrival at Hogwarts.
     Hagrid demand explanations from Sirius.
     Harry is truly his father's son.
     Daphne's actual and future problems.
     Midna plots against Sirius.
     Albus got the "official" version of our World jumpers' story.
     Sirius grew up!
     Lily and Severus' private talk.
     Stalking is not good!
     Daphne Greengrass VS Harry Potter.
                        Harry Potter and his Princesses
                                   Chapter 3
                                        
Author’s Notes: I tried to start chapter 20 of Greek Kunoichi, but the words
wouldn’t come. I also pondered on doing a new chapter for Sacred Magic or even
Heaven’s Feel, but I don’t have enough ideas for both right now. So since my
muse seems to be pushing me more or less subtly in this direction, who am I to
deny her? So Harry and his family are all finally back on Earth 1after more
than a decade away. The times had changed. Some things are the same, others not
so much. I’m still a bit unsure as to how go about the whole Chamber of Secrets
debacle, but I’m sure I’ll figure something eventually.
Now let’s take a look at the stats shall we? We have 31 Reviews, 242Followers,
203 Favourites, 5 C2 Communities, and 6 880 Views. Before anything else, I’ve
chosen Harry’s Animagus form for this story. Believe me it’s very original, I
never saw that particular animal been used before in the many Harry Potter
fanfics I have read. And I also have an interesting idea for his Animagus form
in “Where in the world is Harry Potter?”, but for more, you’ll have to wait
until I write it lol XD Thank you very much everyone for your continued
support. Now let’s get this show on the road!
Additional Note:For future references in this story, I won’t write any accents
from any characters known to have one, like Hagrid and Fleur for example. I
have two reasons for that. First, I have absolutely no idea how to do it
properly and second, I feel that trying to do so would kill my inspiration.
Thank you for your understanding.
Last Edit: May 19, 2017.
 
Hogwarts Castle was a large, seven-storey high building supported by magic,
with a hundred and forty two staircases throughout its many towers and turrets
and very deep dungeons. The castle was built in the late Early Middle Ages by a
wizard Architect and the four most celebrated wizards and witches of the Age:
Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and last but not the
least, Salazar Slytherin. The Castle housed Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and
Wizardry, regarded as one of the finest Wizarding School in the world.
Hogwarts was built in a valley area — surrounding mountains were part of the
epic landscape — with the fairly large Great Lake situated to the south of the
main building. The huge main oak front doors leading into the Entrance Hall
faced the west, and opened up to sloping lawns. The deep Forbidden Forest
extended around to the west of the Castle. There were also exterior greenhouses
and vegetable patches on the School Grounds. Hogwarts was located in the
Scottish Highlands, near the all-wizard village of Hogsmeade and "not very far"
from Dufftown, in Banffshire, and Achintee, in Lochaber.
That was what his mother and Sirius had told him about the Castle in front of
them. While Hyrule Castle’s exterior was grand, it would be found lacking
comparing to this Fortress of learning in his mind. Harry could literally feel
the magic in the air as they waited for the Gates to be opened. It was still
rather early in the morning after all. While his mother and he could have
smashed down the said Gates easily and make their way to the Castle, it was
unnecessary. They were trying to stay above all suspicions after all. And while
waiting was a bit bothersome, the local scenery more than made up for it, what
with the big and gloomy looking forest and the mountains all around.
Then a very big man was seen walking in their direction at a good pace. When
Harry saw him up close, he was totally stupefied. He was almost twice as tall
as a normal man and at least five times as wide! He looked simply too big to be
allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of
his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather
boots were like baby dolphins! While Harry pondered in the silence of his mind
if the man was a distant relative of the Yetis of Snowpeak, his mother and
Sirius had big smiles on their faces.
In fact, it was Lily who said with fondness in her voice and a big smile on her
lips once the huge man was nearer
“By Merlin, Hagrid! It’s good to see you again! You haven’t changed one bit in
all these years!”
Rubeus Hagrid, the Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts, was an incredibly
warm, kind hearted man, and would often forget his exceptional size and
strength when patting people on the back or when hugging them. This would
explain as to why the second he recognized Lily Evans Potter; he opened the
Gates in a hurry and swept her into a rib-breaking hug all the while sobbing
with joy.
“Lily?! Is it really you?! Of course it’s you! You’re alive! You’re alive!
Merlin, I can’t believe it! I’m so glad to see you again! Everyone feared the
worst when we learned what happened and saw that you and the little tyke had
vanished! Dumbledore was sure you two were still alive though. Never gave up
hope the Headmaster.”
Lily did her best to reassure the half-giant and to play the role of human, she
said with convincing strain in her voice
“Hagrid! Air!”
The gentle man jumped like he had been scalded and then fussed with many
apologies. Then the Gamekeeper’s mood seemed to plummet when he recognized
Sirius. With a grim face rarely seen on the no longer jolly half giant he said
“You better have a very good explanation Sirius Black or else you are in for a
world of hurt before I call the Aurors. You are the principal suspect in the
Potters’ betrayal. Where you not their Secret_Keeper? Did you really forsake
seven years of friendship with James and everything Charles and Dorea Potter
did for you from the goodness of their hearts? All for the sake of what
exactly? Power? Fame? Money? Women perhaps?
You swore up and down to everyone in hearing distance during all your schooling
years and beyond that you would never go Dark, Sirius! Now it’s time to prove
it! I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt only because I saw you grow up from
a boy to a man and I just can’t believe the mischievous boy I saw become a man
would do that, so you have only that one chance, DO_NOT squander it.”
He finished by crossing his enormous and muscled arms around his torso, his
imposing figure guarding the Grounds’ Gates, preventing the Marauder from going
any further until his say so.
Harry wasn’t expecting at all that their party would be met by open mistrust.
While his mother and Sirius had explained in broad strokes the Blood War and
who the big players had been, there was a difference between been told about it
and seeing some of the results firsthand. The big fella, Hagrid, was suspecting
Sirius of having told their location to this Voldemort character? What could
have motivated such a thing if it was true? Chasing those thoughts out of his
head, he took the parole for the first time since the Gamekeeper’s appearance
and said
“Well I’ll leave you all to your adult stuff, guys. In the meantime I’m really
hungry so I’ll go in the Castle see if I can find something to eat. See you
later!”
While his voice snapped Hagrid out of his suspicious mood and glaring contest
with Sirius, albeit temporarily; the two responsible adults in Harry’s life had
different reactions to his speech. Sirius just told him to
“Go ahead and have fun. We’ll find you when we’re done here.”
Lily, thought, had wanted him to wait with them for conveniences’ sake, but
before she could rein in and catch her impulsive offspring, the lad had already
dashed ahead out of her grasp, barely keeping his supernatural speed on the
down low. While she could have used Wizardry to summon him back and made him
wait, he would only make a scene. Harry was every bit as a Drama Queen as his
father had been around his age when he was on an empty stomach.
Hagrid, who had only just remarking the boy since he had been quiet so far,
tried to grab him. That’s the keyword here, tried,since the kid dodged his
grabbing hands with a very disconcerting ease. After all he hadn’t given the
party permission to enter the Castle Grounds yet. His title was not a made up
one after all. Hagrid was the one who guided the newcomers in and those wanting
to leave, out. While the Headmaster was the master of the wards, the Keeper of
the keys was the master of the gates. Rubeus Hagrid took his duties very
seriously. Thus the fact of seeing a youg’un getting passed him so easily was
rather vexing.
 Turning his head toward a now sheepishly smiling Lily and giving her the stink
eye, he said, a bit annoyed
“That’s James’ son alright. Not even a student of Hogwarts and he’s already
breaking the School rules left, right and centre. Oh well, It’s not like a
twelve years old boy can do much damage on his own. Besides, it’s Saturday so
he won’t disturb any classes. Never mind the kid, the Professors will surely
take care of him; you still owe me an explanation Sirius. I am waiting.”
He finished with his countenance grim once more.
Lily was half a mind to intervene, wanting to resolve this in the privacy of
the Headmaster’s office, but she knew that Hagrid wouldn’t budge. And if she
wished to keep her cover intact, she just couldn’t make him move no matter how
strong the temptation was. At least Harry should be safe around the school.
Even at his young age his magical resistance was insane! He shrugged off most
of the Wizarding spells doing physical damage as if they were annoyances at
best!
Of course, both Sirius and she didn’t put their full power behind the spells,
not wanting to seriously hurt their (god) child, but the facts stayed the same.
If they were at the Clock Tower though, now she would have reined him in
immediately. Lorelei Barthomeloi, the Queen_of_Clock_Tower, was an expert at
ferreting, fighting and killing Dead Apostles. She could even take on a few
lower level Ancestors all by herself for Akasha’s sake! That was one human she
was wary of and with good reason.
While Loreilei was entirely outmatched against Altrouge or others Apostles
stronger than her, Barthomeloi was one of the few people she didn’t want
anywhere near her son until he was fully trained, grown up and armed up to the
wazoo! Probably with a sub-machine gun enchanted to shoot magic enhanced
bullets or maybe a few Holy swords if she could find some. Or at the very
least, he should been able to use the Twilight Portals at a moment’s notice
before going anywhere near the Clock Tower.
Grandpa Zelretch was much more powerful than the Barthomeloi bitch, very true,
but his brand of “fun” was preferable to the next great adventure and to be
fair to the Old man of the jewels, he wasn’t omniscient. Then Sirius began his
tale.
(Sirius and Lily had rearranged the “Official” story of what happened that
Halloween night beforehand. In place of talking about new Planets, Realms,
alternates Dimensions and everything “impossible” for Wizard kind, they would
tell that they went abroad on an unplottable Potter propriety to raise Harry in
secret and safety and also for them to grieve James’ death. Only a few chosen
would get the “Real” one.)
How he felt he was far too obvious for making an effective Secret keeper after
James asked him since everyone knew they were like brothers, how there was a
leak in the Order and since Remus was often abroad in some top secret missions,
the suspicions fell on him. Thus James and he both decided to prank the Dark
Lord and his Followers. Peter, shy little Peter, who would have suspected him?
While quite talented in some things, I mean becoming an Animagus at fifteen
years old was nothing to sniff at, he always had crippling self esteem issues,
and thus those same issues were stunting his powers. He had never been a high
profile person so they had decided to make him the Secret_Keeper of the
Fidelius. Albus had offered himself for the job but James had refused, wishing
to keep things tight with the Marauders.
Thus Lily had cast the spell since Charms were her specialty, Peter accepted
his role but it turned out that he was the traitor in their ranks, feeding
information to the other side! Sirius was only meant to be the decoy, thus it
was why he had let slip things and hinting at being the Potters’ Secret Keeper.
It was all to keep the heat away from Peter. Next, Sirius told about having a
very bad feeling that fateful evening.
He had mounted his motorbike, rode all the way to Peter’s bolt hole, but found
the place deserted with no signs of struggles. Almost panicking beyond reason,
he had pushed his bike to its maximum speed, in direction of Godric’s Hollow.
He had hoped to arrive in time, but unfortunately he was too late. James was
gone to his next great adventure and while Lily and little Harry were both
alive somehow, she was devastated. Only the bawling toddler in her arms kept
her from going into a catatonic state.
Thus Lily had suddenly decided to go abroad on a hidden Potter propriety in
self appointed exile, to both mourn her husband’s passing and to raise their
son. Sirius, as the Oath bound Godfather, had then impulsively decided to
follow them. He was now the principal male influence in Harry’s life after all
now that James was no longer with them.
Then Hagrid had to bust the sombre moment by saying
“Merlin, Lady Vivian and Morgana, I sure hope that the boy won’t be as bad as
you were when you finally realized that girls were interesting Sirius! Hogwarts
doesn’t need another man-whore roaming her corridors so soon after the last
one! How you managed to never catch any STDs is beyond me.”
The comment had for effect of sending both Lily and Hagrid into hysterics while
a very flustered Sirius started spluttering denials after denials in vain.
While the adults were hashing things out between them, Harry was making a good
time towards the Castle’s entrance. Midna was currently silent, but was
extending her magical senses all around since she was curious. She was in awe
with the feeling of sheer magic floating freely in the air. So that’s what it
felt like to be around a magical building that stood for a millennia and served
as a school for magical children? Bringing back her senses to her current
partner in crime, she saw him sneak inside the school and then sniffing the air
like a hound looking for his prey. He was trying to find the odour of food
among everything floating in the air of the Castle.
When he was out of the Entrance hall, he saw various students of various ages
head to somewhere in particular. Many were wearing robes of all things! Even in
Hyrule, who was rather medieval on many things and renaissance on others, there
was nobody who was wearing those. Braies, overalls, canvas pants and long
tunics were often seen on men where women generally dressed in dresses and
gowns of various styles. There was always the exception to the rule of course,
but they were rare.
To be honest, Harry wasn’t a boy who was much concerned with fashion. His
mother bought raw fabrics in Castle Town and made clothes for everybody in the
family. At home Harry was often wearing only his Bermuda style shorts since the
weather in the Upper Zora’s River was always very mild and humid at the
minimum, his Apostle constitution rending him very resistant to capricious
weather and his leather boots were also easily removable since he was often in
the water with his Zoras friends. While he may have been born here on Earth,
Harry had grown up in Hyrule, so home for him was there, not here; at least for
now.
 Since they were going to a more modern world, his mother had sewn for him what
she had called Jeans. Honestly, it wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was a bit
weird. Well, after transfiguring the fabrics into the right one that is. They
were black. He also had a long sleeve sweater that was grey-white and since it
was still chilly due to being in April, he also had on an earthy brown homemade
jacket she made from a few cloaks. Of course his feet were adorned with his
Adventurer set leather boots.
Figuring the students were eating in the Great Hall, he pondered about joining
them or finding the Kitchens. Sirius had told him a lot of stories about his
time at Hogwarts and had emphasized on some places more than others. Like the
fact that the boathouse could make an excellent and discreet love shack if you
knew which way to go. Almost nobody went there. Not that he was very interested
in girls in that way to begin with, so that info was not very useful.
Deciding that the Great Hall was closer and too hungry to go in search of the
Kitchens, Harry covered himself with a powerful notice-me-not charm. People
would see him but he wouldn’t register really in their minds. He would be just
like a passerby. That way he could eat without the drama about the return of
the Potter Heir.
Seeing the four House tables plus the Staff table, Harry then pondered lowly
under his breath
“Okay, to which one I should go?”
Midna then decided to piped up
“Why not go to the one with the silver and green banner? Slytherin I think was
the name? I remember Sirius saying that it was the rivals of his own table/
House, Gryffindor. I owe him a good prank, so why not give him a nasty shock by
seeing his godson “fraternizing with the enemy”?  
Since she was part of his shadow, only he could hear her, so she could talk
with no fear of being detected. It was a trick she had mastered during her
partnership with the previous Hero. Nodding with acceptance with an amused
smile, the black and wild haired boy with luminescent emerald green eyes
followed other people wearing green and silver to their table. Once seated near
a rather tall and gorgeous long blonde haired girl and a slightly taller
brunette with hair in a pixie cut, he served himself from the plates around
him, not really paying any attention to the conversations around him.
While Harry was eating his fill and trying the new dishes around him all the
while profiting from his anonymity, he had not taken in account that some
people around him might have possessed Gifts that could likely see through his
attempt to be inconspicuous or at least register his presence. While his
Notice-me-not charm had fooled all the members of the Staff including the
Headmaster, Daphne Greengrass could feel an unknown presence very nearby.
In fact, it was a part of her gift. There were unknown vibrations on the bench
and on the table, thus making her wary and to be honest, a bit nervous since
she could not focus on the newcomer sitting on her right side and she didn’t
like that one bit.
Normally she wasn’t that paranoid, but with the number of students that were
found petrified since Halloween still going up and with seemingly no end in
sight to the attacks, her nerves were rather frazzled. The Staff were utterly
useless in this crisis, running around without a goal like a beheaded chicken.
And to make it worse, Malfoy and his cronies were crowing out loud in joy and
dare she say patriotic pride each time a Muggleborn was found petrified. Even
he was smart enough to not call for their deaths were authority figures could
hear him though. Draco knew that if he was expelled, he would ruin his future,
it was the principal reason as to why he was toeing the line.
While Daphne was not admittedly very fond of Muggleborns in general since most
of them sneered or looked down on centuries of traditions and the fact that
they always wanted to modernize things without trying to learn exactly why
Magical Society operated the way it was; she also knew that fresh infusions of
unpolluted blood were needed to keep the ancient bloodlines strong.
Look at her family per example; they almost always looked for partners outside
of the U.K Enclaves! And also they never married close relations, since
inbreeding was a one way trip to extinction. Her father was from Northern
Ireland, like the rest of the Greengrass Clan, but her mother was a half-blood
witch of Viking descent hailing from Norway.
While it may not have looked like it from an outside’s point of view, Slytherin
House was not entirely ruled by the Blood Purists. They were just the most
vocal faction inside the House. But gold talked and while the Malfoy family was
not all that high in the British Wizarding World’s nobility ranks, they
seemingly had cash in abundance to burn. Draco was buying support for his views
and ideas with his insanely high allowance. Daphne was still too high in the
current hierarchy to be threatened or blackmailed into “service” like a few
unlucky others girls who were devoid of a powerful patron’s backing, but if she
was anything, it was a realist.
The day was likely to come sooner than later, what with her blossoming figure
and the male population starting to leer disgustedly at her. And to add insult
to injury on her situation, she had started to have her menses a few months
ago. Now that she had crossed the teenager threshold, it was only a matter of
time before the male Blood purists started “asking” her for favours. Her status
and family wealth would buy her some time, but sooner or later she would be
asked to “contribute for the Cause”.
And it would not end well, not at all. Daphne knew that if she put herself into
the right mindset, a specific application of her Gift could make a blood bath
before they could do anything to her. But she was not a killer, which was why
she was already looking for alternative solutions. There was always the Metal
manipulation side of her Gift, but to be honest she wasn’t sure that she could
use it fast enough to restrain every Blood Purist in Slytherin House before she
would be incapacitated.
She would have to practice that side of her Gift more and ask her father and/or
grandfather for more advanced lessons this summer. Maybe her mother had some
tricks that she could share with her to discourage overly amorous boys?
Professor Snape was always trying to come down hard on them for this kind of
behaviour, but there was little he or the other teachers could do without
proof. Those who talked generally ended up in worse situations than before. It
was already a good thing that the man had managed to pound into those inbred
nitwits’ minds with the help of Headmaster Dumbledore that that sort of conduct
would get them into heaps of trouble outside of their House. Professor Snape
was also brewing in batch every week potent contraception potions and had the
House Elves put it in every student’s drinks during meal times. There would be
no Line Thefts and/or teenage pregnancies so long as he was a teacher at
Hogwarts!
Back to the Blood Purists’ case, It was one thing for them to insult the
Muggleborns with derogatory names or been sexist in public, but it was another
ball game all together to try to exert their dominance on those they felt were
lesser than them by force. There was always a high risk of retribution in those
situations. The Purists weren’t the only ones inside the School willing to use
other spells than schoolyard jinxes and hexes… One particular thing made her
laugh when she was in private though. Her frosty disposition had earned her the
moniker of “Ice Princess” by the Rumour mill. It was entirely erroneous but
still amusing, since her family gift had her tied with the Earth itself.
The Greengrass family were what was called Earth benders. Earth bending was one
of the four elemental Bending Arts which consisted of Water, Earth, Fire and
Air. Earth bending was the geokinetic ability to manipulate earth and rock in
all their various forms. Daphne, using her bending, could use a sixth sense
that was called seismic sense.
With that she could identify the various persons around her by their way of
walking. It was with this sense that she was able to concentrate on the
stranger next to her. Of course, it wasn’t the same as seeing it with her eyes,
but with the seismic sense she could deduce that the stranger was male and
likely around her age due to his size if she wasn’t mistaken.
The boy wasn’t doing anything overly suspicious, he was likely just eating a
big breakfast, what with the food disappearing from the plates at the centre of
the table and going to his own. But if he wasn’t planning anything nasty or
forbidden, why was he hidden? The guy must be under a very powerful Notice-me-
not charm to be able to fool the entire school population except her! Well,
Astoria and her father could have likely detected him too, but her sister
wasn’t due to start school until next year and her father wouldn’t come to
Hogwarts unless there was an emergency or a parent-teacher conference.
Letting your children go to Boarding School and putting them into the Teachers’
care and to intervene only when called by the Head of House or the Headmaster
during the school year was a part of letting your child grow up in the U.K
Wizarding World. It seemed rather like a hands off approach to raise your
children, but it was tradition since the founding of the school. The Wizarding
World was very attached to their traditions. Thus she was the only Earth bender
currently attending Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Daphne had also heard many theories citing that the Castle was alive and
somewhat sentient. She could attest that it was the truth. Logically, it would
have been far too risky to Earth bend inside the castle except for minor
things, but it could regenerate itself very quickly!
She saw it with her own eyes when she used her Gift one day after the Yule
Holidays last year, to get rid of the pests following her everywhere that were
Draco and his flunkies by raising a wall at one intersection once she was out
of their field of view. It had the expected result of forcing them to take the
long way around to join the Great Hall. Normally she wouldn’t have misused her
Gift for something so petty, but she had lost her cool that day. As soon as the
pests were far enough, the wall had came down automatically without any outside
help and the corridor had also lost all traces of the damages done by bending
the stone floor!
After that day, she started to get nudges, for a lack of a better term, coming
from the Castle’s consciousness. It almost never talked to her with words, but
mostly with feelings and images. When they really needed to communicate by
words, it would talk to her through either the Bloody Baron or the Grey Lady.
She was often asked to reinforce a few sections of the Castle with the help of
her bending, where the wards and the magic seeped into the stonework were now
weaker nowadays, thus more vulnerable to the ravages of time and bad weather
than elsewhere.
Realizing that during all this time lost in her thoughts she had been on auto-
pilot, Daphne came back to reality and offered her best friend and sister in
all but blood Tracey a somewhat sheepish smile. Daphne was answered by an
amused grin and twinkling in amusement sky blue eyes. They both knew each
other’s enough to have non-verbal conversations, what with having grown up
together. After finishing eating, both girls decided to have a little digestive
walk around the school. They hadn’t much better to do anyway and the Library
wouldn’t be open until one in the afternoon anyway.
Once the duo was gone from the Great Hall, it was the exact moment that the
doors leading outside opened to let in Hagrid followed by Sirius and Lily.
Having now eaten his fill, Harry guessed that if stayed around that he likely
would be asked to take part in a boring discussion between adults; he made a
snap decision. Harry, still under his Notice-me-not charm, decided to make a
tactical retreat while he still could. Midna was a bit miffed that Sirius
hadn’t seen them, but she could still one up him by telling him later where
they had eaten.
Being a shadow had some nice advantages; the Twilight Princess had consumed a
few plates herself without being seen. Maybe it was Fate or maybe sheer
coincidence, but Harry’s tactical retreat took him on the same path previously
taken by Daphne and Tracey. What both Daphne and Harry didn’t knew, it was the
fact that their meeting would be what was needed to change her destiny. Daphne
Greengrass and Harry Potter’s meeting would be the boy’s “official” start at
collecting “Princesses” affections.
Back with the adults, once the uproar from their return died down, Albus was
quick to direct everybody involved to his office. While overjoyed that his
hunch had been proved correct with Lily and Harry’s survival and his unfounded
doubts about Sirius’ guilt been just that, he knew there was bound to have a
story behind their sudden return. Quite frankly, it would change from his
routine of trying to find where the damn Chamber of Secrets was and what was
petrifying his students.
Minerva would have likely joined them but she had elected to go back to her
office to grade assignments. While she had been close to the Potters and
Sirius, what with being their Head of House, she knew that Severus would need
closure first. She could seek her former students later. And if she had time,
she could try to track down little Harry. If Lily was here, her son was surely
near too.
So once everyone was seated, Albus was suddenly quite surprised by Sirius’
maturity. As soon as Severus’ presence was accepted, the Dog Animagus walked to
the Potion Master and bowed low before saying with a formal tone of voice
“Mr. Snape, I wish to officially apologize for my ill treatment of you during
our schooling years. I had no excuses to act like I did and I can only point
the fact that I was an immature bully for the reason of my misdeeds. I am
sincere in the fact that I regret my actions. I do not seek your acceptance or
your forgiveness since I crossed the line one too many times, but you were due
an official apology of my part.”
Once done, Sirius ignored Severus entirely (it was an improvement to be honest,
in the past he would have constantly antagonized him for no reason other than
he could) and went back to his chair, resisting the temptation to smirk at
seeing Dumbledore and Snape’s shocked faces. While it could have been a great
prank, this time he was very sincere. He had crossed the line one too many
times and Snape was due an apology at the very least. He would never like the
man, they would never become friends but they likely could learn to tolerate
each other’s by small doses when necessary.
Severus Snape was totally flabbergasted. Did that just seriously happen? Did
Sirius Black have really apologized formally to him of all people? To be sure
he wasn’t dreaming, he casted on himself a wand-less stinging hex. The pain
registered, nothing had changed so he was sure that it was real. Well, he will
have seen everything. What’s next? Dumbledore will shave his long beard, have a
much needed haircut and then wear regular robes? *snort* Yeah, he wasn’t
betting anything on those odds.
Dumbledore was quick to steer his guests to the much needed conversation. He
offered tea, biscuits and Lemon Drops, but almost no one took him on his offer
for the candies. Sirius hated anything that tasted sour, Lily/Altrouge
preferred Blood Pops anyway and Snape, well he decided to dash Albus’
expectations by taking one. His face was priceless! Who said Severus Snape
didn’t have a sense of humour?
After a bit of grumbling since he knew he was being teased by one of his Head
of Houses, Albus took the parole
“It does my old heart good to see you both again after so long, Lily and
Sirius. But something is bothering me, where is young Harry? I didn’t see him
with you when you entered the Great Hall.”
Lily smiled a bit and answered with the tone of a proud mother
“My son ran ahead of us when we were discussing with Hagrid at the Gates. My
Harry is quite the adept in the stealth department, so I think that he might
had cloaked himself with one spell or another to stay incognito. He was feeling
hungry, so I guess he likely sat at one of the House tables in the Great Hall
or found the Kitchens.”
Albus was rather surprised. A twelve years old child could already do that?
Well, he might not have been taught in a magical school then, since those kinds
of spells weren’t on any curriculum before the NEWTs years. Lily and Sirius
must have tutored him then. The educator in him was very curious to see the
boy’s level, but that could wait for later. There was need of a serious
discussion. Young Harry Potter’s schooling would be a topic to be brought out
at a later time.
Severus really didn’t know what to feel at the moment. He had bound himself to
the Headmaster at the time where his mind was addled by his grief, in attempt
to obtain redemption from his mistakes. For it was he who had brought part of
the Prophecy to the Dark Lord; the very same Prophecy announcing the arrival of
someone able to vanquish him. Because of his information, the Dark Lord hunted
the Potters and the Longbottoms without rest. In his heart of hearts, Severus
couldn’t care less for James Potter and his accursed spawn’s lives, only Lily;
his only light in the darkness that was his life had counted.
He was admittedly elated that she had survived the Dark Lord’s visit to her
home but he was rather disappointed that Potter’s crotch spawn had had the same
luck. He had only seen the babe once, but seeing Lily’s eyes and her cheekbones
on James Potter’s face had been too much for him. He had refused to look upon
him again. Severus did not know if the Dark Lord had truly spared her like he
had begged him to or if Lily’s survival was due to other factors and frankly,
he did not care enough to find out. She was alive and it was all that truly
mattered to him.
He had loved her more than anything and anybody else in the whole wide world,
but she had given herself to his most hated nemesis. Now, about eleven years
later, she and her son were both back from where ever they had been and while
Lily didn’t seem to hold any more ill will towards him, she had not greeted him
with warmth either. Severus honestly didn’t know which situation was worse.
Been hated for turning to the Dark Arts and uttering that disgusting slur
during one of the lowest moments of his life or been brushed off as a mere
acquaintance or as an old childhood friend you lost contact with years ago.
But what else could he do about the present situation? Honestly, Severus wasn’t
even sure what he was truly feeling for Lily Evans (She would never bear the
name Potter in his eyes and in his heart) was lust, familial love or even
romantic love. After all she had made her choice years ago. But she should have
been his! Not Potter! He would have even given her his blessing if she had
accepted another man’s ring! But no! It just had to be Potter! Potter who had
stolen everything from him and who even had the gall to save his life from
Black’s ill planed prank!
Potter who had fathered a child with the woman that should have been his! Even
dead that man was still haunting him! And he couldn’t just go turncoat again
and go back to his old ways to get rid of the obstacles in his path, for the
Life Debt he owed the father had been transferred to the son! Even if the boy
wasn’t as arrogant and insufferable as his late father has been, Severus really
wasn’t looking forward to teach the boy. For where else the child would be
educated now that Lily was back?
Every members of the Potter family had attended Hogwarts after all. And even if
he really wasn’t looking forward to it, he couldn’t just abandon his students
by resigning from his current post, so he would swallow his distaste and teach
the Potter brat.
Severus emerged from the depths of his thoughts to find out that the
Headmaster’s office was now empty except Lily and him. Now able to look at her
with more attention, he remarked that those eleven years had been kind to her.
She looked hardly passed her mid-twenties while she normally should have shown
a bit more of her thirties. Where ever she had been during this dozen of years
had been good for her musculature, since his Spy’s gaze could see the lithe but
efficient build she possessed. Had he known who she truly was behind her
facade, her musculature would have been rather deceptive.
Then she broke the silence by saying rather neutrally but with a smidgen of
amusement in her voice
“The years haven’t been good for you, Severus. Pardon my language, but you look
like shit. I’ve told you quite often to leave your Potions lab for a few hours
each day and enjoy some sun and fresh air, that way you wouldn’t look like a
vampire.”
When he started to talk, she interrupted him just after her name left his lips
“Lily…”
“Shush Severus. Let me talk please, it’s important. First of all, I want you to
know that I forgave you for the words you said to me after our OWLs. Second,
yes I married James of my own free will. Yes we had sex numerous times before
and after the marriage, yes it was great, yes James gave me orgasms and yes we
had a son that looks like him with my eyes, cheek bones and nose. It happened,
now get over it.
 I never loved you like that Severus and even now that I’m a Widow, it hadn’t
changed. You always were a good friend. Yes, a friend. Yes, I am and was aware
of the torch that you carried for me, it was kind of obvious to be honest, but
I was too young and not enough experimented in life to let you down gently.
I honestly apologize if you felt that I lead you on, it never was my purpose to
do so. Now, it’s time for you to let go of your school grudge. James is dead
and buried, Peter betrayed us to Voldemort before doing a runner- oh stop
flinching! It’s not even his real name for God’s sake! - Sirius finally grew up
somewhat and Remus is God knows where, trying to live with his affliction. The
Marauders are no longer your tormentors, Severus.
We are no longer school children; it is time to leave petty grudges behind and
look forward. I know that you are better than that. Now, my son and I are going
to be guests of the Castle for a few weeks, to give us time to adapt to the
current climate in the magical and mundane societies. My boy will surely be
seen running around, but I don’t intend to enrol him as a student. Knowing him
he wouldn’t tolerate the uniform and I really don’t want to be out of his life
for nine months a year. If you can’t be polite with him, simply ignore him. I
will instruct him to return you the same courtesy.
I trust that you will be able to act as a rational and responsible adult and
not as a petty and immature bully holding a grudge against a dead man? However,
I am warning you only this one time. If you take your past grievances with
James upon my son, I will cut off your balls and fed them to you. Believe me
you don’t want to provoke me. Now, excuse me, I’ve got to find Harry before he
get in trouble. Have a good day, Severus, I’ll see you around.” 
And with that, she left him alone in the Headmaster’s office, with only the
sleeping portraits of the previous Heads as witnesses. Severus would likely
never know, but compared to what Altrouge could have done to him if she had
been who she had been about thirty years ago, he had gotten off quite lightly.
The ninth Dead Apostle Ancestor wasn’t someone you crossed lightly, not if you
wanted to keep living that is. Being Lily had tempered her character and made
her stop to kill people left or right for nothing. But if you so much as
threatened her family, all bets were off.
Back to the many corridors of Hogwarts, Daphne and Tracey were followed by a
still under Notice-me-not Harry. The boy had nowhere in particular to go, his
mother and Godfather hadn’t called him back, Midna was mapping the castle with
her eidetic memory, so following two pretty girls around was better than
nothing. He was wondering something though, why almost everyone here were
wearing strange bath robes as uniforms? And what was it with the hats he saw
several adults wear at the meal?
Was it the fashion here? To be honest, Harry couldn’t see himself wear
something similar; it looked way much too restrictive! How could he still run
around, hunt, forage or climb if he was dressed like that? What Harry didn’t
understand yet was the fact that Earth was not like Hyrule where the towns had
much distance between them. Here the villagers who were not living in larger
cities didn’t have to find their subsistence from the wild or from farming.
Progress and modernization had changed their ways of life.
But he would not have long to think about the differences between his birth
place and his home, since Daphne had decided that she was now quite fed up of
having a stalker. Once they were in a deserted corridor where nobody was
around, not even a ghost, the blond haired girl made a silent sign to Tracey to
stand aside and when the taller brown haired girl did so, Daphne then took a
martial art stance before stomping powerfully on the ground. Her stomp had for
effect of creating a two metres tall wave of rock and with a straight punch in
the air, the wave was sent at high speed towards Harry.
Showing that the training Sir Augustus Rook had pounded into his head was
working, Harry used his supernatural strength to jump in the air, dodging the
wave of rock sent toward him. Since he was now actively doing something that
would make him stand out, the Notice-me-not charm cancelled itself, thus
letting the girls register his appearance. Tousled neck length raven black
hair, luminescent almond shaped emerald green eyes and aristocratic cheek bones
on an oval shaped face and dressed with Muggle clothes.
To the girls, it was clear that he wasn’t a student, since he was their age and
they had both made their business to recognize their year mates, no matter
their House affiliation. They were willing to cross House borders if it could
bring them powerful allies. Then they saw him leap metres high in the air to
dodge Daphne’s attack! What the hell?! Tracey, with a sharp movement of the
wrist, called her wand in her hand from her wrist holster and was ready to
start hexing.
But Daphne wasn’t done and with a shake of the head, Tracey now knew to not
intervene unless the situation was dire. Kata after kata, she sent multi shaped
projectiles made of stone to the boy who, to her growing frustration, was
dodging them with an incredible grace and speed. That smile on his face was
starting to do strange things to her insides, so she decided to wipe it from
his face!
Then after letting the castle regenerate, the Earth bender decided it was time
to change her tactics since ranged attacks were not very effective. While
normally Daphne would have stopped and talked things through by now, she had
been really frustrated for months and the stranger was a welcome if unexpected
target on which she could unload all the aggressiveness she had been
repressing. With a quick move, she put a knee on the ground, and then thrusting
one hand directly into the stone floor! There was almost no resistance, similar
as to what happened when you stabbed a hand into a water source. Then Daphne
brought out a spear made of stone!
Harry was frankly in awe at the blond girl’s powers. He had never seen anything
like that before! He just had the time to let out a low
“Whoa…!”
Before his eyes widened and he had to scramble away, since Daphne was now
surfing on a wave of rocks toward him at great speed! She was very quick and
agile since he barely managed to escape been hit and she had managed to nick
his brand new jacket! The one his mother made just for him! The blade of the
spear had torn a long gash into his right sleeve all the way to his shoulder!
Now very annoyed, he said with a strange accent in his English that the girls
couldn’t actually recognize
“Now that does it! You wish to play rough Milady? Then let’s play!”
Jumping back a few metres, Harry took advantage of the distance to use Shadow
Magic. Bringing his hands together in a rough sphere shape, a red sphere of
light with tiny black squares in it started to form in between his hands! A few
seconds later, after a loud and grave grunt of exertion, a strange obsidian
coloured sword with soft blue glowing lines along the upper part of the blade
and a strange carving in the form of an eye at the head of the pommel appeared
from nowhere, floating in the air until the boy took it in hand! Now properly
equipped, he took a guard stance and said with the same smile that gave Daphne
butterflies in her stomach
“Now, shall we dance Milady?”
Mistaking his jovial tone for a mocking one, Daphne growled with anger and with
another thought, she started surfing on the stone made corridor again to gain
supernatural speed. Harry, with his Apostle constitution, could and did match
that speed of hers on his own two legs. With a loud “CLANG!” both Rock Spear
and Twilight Sword clashed once, twice, thrice, before Daphne had to retreat
since Harry was clearly the better trained weapon user of the two. Showing her
innovative mind, she managed to surf up the nearest wall and on the ceiling,
trying to spear him with her weapon.
Tracey was left there, gaping at the skills of her best friend and their
strange stalker. While she knew Daphne could do things like this, there was a
difference between knowing about it and seeing it firsthand! While she was
rooting for her friend, Tracey was a realist. Daphne was now starting to tire;
Earth bending so much was hard on her still developing body and on her magical
reserves. Daphne was matching the strange boy blow for blow right now, but
little by little, he was clearly taking the upper hand. He had so far showed
supernatural speed and reflexes and she could now add endurance on the list,
since he was clearly not winded.
Then it finally happened, the end of their duel. Daphne was now clearly huffing
and puffing, her face was red with exhaustion and she could almost no longer
bend successfully or so Tracey and Harry thought. In a flash of precise
movement, the boy successfully disarmed her, launching the Rock Spear away from
Daphne’s hands. And since her hold on her Earth bending was slipping due to her
fatigue, the Castle reabsorbed the stone spear all the while repairing the
impromptu battle ground. With a little flourish, Harry put the tip of his blade
under Daphne’s chin and with a smile that in two to three years would be
considered quite roguish, he said
“I am the winner! Do you yield, Milady?”
Defiant forest green eyes glared back to the twinkling emerald green ones. So,
he thought it was a game huh?! She would show him! You did not mess with Daphne
Greengrass with impunity! With the last of her reserves, she slammed the ground
with a fist, which had for effect of creating a wall between the girl and the
swordsman and faster than he could react due to the cheap shot and the fact
that he had lowered his guard, Harry was propelled fast against the closest
wall.
Hitting his head hard against the said wall, he slipped down until he was
sitting on the ground dazedly, his back on the wall. The girls had taken
advantage of his disabled state to get away before the noise made during the
duel got the attention of someone in authority. The last thing they needed was
a loss of points and a detention for fighting in the corridors. Since Harry
could no longer concentrate, the Twilight sword he had created vanished away in
Twilit Particles.
With a slurred voice, Harry said with a rather dopey smile on his lips   
“I think I’m in love…”
And that was the first meeting between Harry James Potter and Daphne Ophelia
Greengrass.
 
 
 
 
 
***** Chapter 4 *****
Chapter Summary
     I'll be back for a summary later. I just want to post this chapter.
     Took me way much longer than I thought.
                        Harry Potter and his Princesses
                                   Chapter 4
                                        
Author’s Notes: Well, my muse was undecided if we should work on this one or on
“Where_in_the_world_is_Harry_Potter?” , but the ideas seems to flow more easily
for here than on the other works. I really don’t have much to say this time to
be honest. I have a vague plan in mind, so we’ll see where it’s going. Let’s go
see the stats then. We have 45 Reviews, 391 Followers, 315 Favourites, 9 C2
Communities and 14 470 views. Wow! I’m always amazed of the response obtained
by my stories! Thank you so much for your continued support! Let’s get this
show on the road now shall we?
Additional notes: As I write these additional notes on this day, 2017-03-07, I
received a review concerning Sacred_Magic;_Wizard_and_Dragons and my recent
habit to put in bold the names of powers, epithet, institutions and whatnots.
At first I wasn’t really inclined to change things even with the guy’s very
logical arguments, but the conversation stuck with me and tonight, I came to
realize that it was indeed a bit much. So I decided to change the habit by
underlining the previously mentioned things in place of putting them in bold
print.
I don’t have a schedule set, but I do plan to go back to previous chapters of
my various works and do the change. Thanks Dracco. Also I’d like to give kudos
to Sakurademonalchemistwho was thefirst to came up with the idea of Midol being
very useful into easing the symptoms of Lycanthropy. XD
 
After Harry’s fateful meeting with the Greengrass heiress followed by his close
introduction to one of the castle’s sturdy stone walls, it took him a good
fifteen minutes before the foggy sensation and the following headache finally
went away. Even when he was back at one hundred per cent, the boy stared a
while in the direction the girls had escaped before snapping out of it.
Remembering what the pretty blonde girl who made the earth move with martial
arts’ katas had done to his jacket, he looked at the result once more and
groaned out loud. It would take him forever to fix it manually! Especially
since his mother and Sirius hadn’t taught him the specific spell to repair
damaged clothes yet...
“Aw man! Mom’s gonna flip when she see this! What’s more, it was brand new! I
really didn’t need another ass chewing so soon after the last one… Who cares if
I’ve super glued “kick_me” signs on the backs of two guards that were stationed
on the road leading up to Hyrule Castle the last time we were there? Uncle
Sirius thought it was quite funny. They shouldn’t have been sleeping on the job
and being such tantalizing targets. Bunch of incompetent morons…”
Harry mumbled to himself.
Midna of course, just had to add her two cents since between the girls’ leaving
and Harry’s concussion vanishing, she had came back from her little solo
expedition and was now back inside Harry’s shadow
“Did you know that talking to yourself is seen as a sign of madness? Be careful
Harry. You didn’t have much sanity to begin with; do try to not lose what
little you have left in your possession!”
She finished with a crystal like laugh. Midna always enjoyed needling the
people she cared about. It was the way she showed that she cared. Not everyone
liked her particular display of affections though.
Harry grumbled an answer
“Shut up you annoying Imp! I swear to Farore, some days I wonder who’s more
mature between you and Padfoot…I’m perfectly sane, thank you very much!”
Midna was quick to answer somewhat hotly
“Hey! Don’t compare me to that flea bitten mutt, munchkin! And you don’t get to
talk to me about maturity either! Not until you at least hit puberty mister!
We’ll come back to this argument when you’ll be at least old enough to shave
and not one moment before!”
Somewhat vexed, she cut the communication between them before starting to sulk.
The nerve of that child sometimes! Humph!
Sighing with fond exasperation, the boy then simply decided to go elsewhere,
since there was no longer anything worth seeing in this corridor. Trying to
track down the interesting girl so soon after their little match would only
result into more problems. He was already in for a solid scolding for letting
his brand new jacket get damaged; there was no need to add more to his case.
Now concentrating on where he was walking, Harry could say that he really liked
the feel that the castle gave off. The magic seeped in the very stones and
foundations felt very welcoming to his acute senses. Reapplying his magical
camouflage spells since he was not cleared to roam the castle yet by the staff,
he then let his instinct guide him. It had never steered him wrong before.
Back with Altrouge, Albus and Sirius, since they had returned to Albus’ office
once Severus had departed to likely digest all the world tilting information he
just received, they were now conversing back and forth about their recent
experiences under very heavy anti eavesdropping wards subtly enhanced by her
Magecraft. It wasn’t paranoia when there was someone out there to get you after
all. The elderly Headmaster had much difficulty into wrapping his head around
what one of his favourite students of all time just told him. The first subject
was about tears into the very fabric of their reality that could be leading to
whole new worlds or dimensions?! If he hadn’t knew beforehand that Lily was not
the kind of person to lie just for the hell of it, he would have called
bullshit on her story.  
Another subject of conversation was about a Shadowy Realm that was in a state
of perpetual twilight, filled with peaceful denizens whom wielded strange but
powerful and never before seen magic. Then soon after it was about a whole new
planet where the country where they had been residing in all these years was in
a late medieval, early renaissance time period, technology wise. It was almost
unbelievable, but after being a teacher for so long, Albus simply knew when
someone was lying to him. He didn’t even need to use passive Legilimency.
Sometimes students would fabricate very tall tales to try to escape detention
and/or point loss. It was one of the staff’s favourite subjects of conversation
during breaks between classes in the Staff Room.
As the younger generation would say, his “bullshit-o-meter” was quite developed
and very fine tuned. And Lily hadn’t lied to him even once. Oh, he wasn’t blind
to the fact that she had withheld some information, but he wouldn’t begrudge
the woman her secrets. She would share what she wished to and only when she
would be good and ready. Albus was sometimes too curious for his own good, but
this time he had a good grasp on that particular flaw of his.
From what he could glean from what he had been told when he had asked, Hyrule
was very avant-garde socially for the supposed Era they were in, what with the
strictly enforced gender equality laws, the universal ban on slavery with the
addendum that any slaves stepping foot in their Kingdom’s borders would be
automatically freed. And also with the string of Queens that sat on the
Hyrulian Throne, ruling the Kingdom with a consort these last few generations,
it was yet another sign of avant-garde.
The things that were the most fascinating for him though were the tales about
the various races found in that Realm. There was an aquatic humanoid race
called Zoras, living, breathing and quite intelligent rock golems, for lack of
a better comparison, called Gorons, the differences between Hylians and regular
Humans and so many other things that actually made his head spin from the
overload of information he received!
Albus was an educator first and foremost, but he was quite the avid scholar
also. He had always loved learning new things and later on, he had also come to
enjoy teaching the next generations some of what he knew. Before he had been
roped in his current political posts, thus eating much of his precious free
time; Albus used to teach a few classes for various Years per week, on top of
his Headmaster’s duties.
He also used to be one of the first people you could go looking for a willing
substitute when a teacher had some problem and could not cover his classes.
While his specialties were Potions, Alchemy and Transfiguration, he was not too
shabby with the other courses. If worse came to worse, he could always follow
the Professor’s teaching plan.
Dumbledore believed that by teaching the students, by being closer to them so
they could learn from his example, he could help them achieve their goals in
life, whatever those may be. He wanted them to grow in themselves. He would
love to restart the habit but for that he would have to let go of either his
Wizengamot or his ICW posts. He would happily let the Ministry deal with its
own business by itself if only the current Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge
would stop constantly pestering him for advice.
Seriously, it was feeling like he was doing the man’s work for him. If Albus
had truly wished to have the top job, he could have asked for it and he would
have likely gotten it the very same day. Not that he wanted it one way or the
other anyway, absolutely not. Albus would prefer dealing with children over
politicians every day of the week. He already had too much paperwork as it is
as Headmaster, he wouldn’t survive the work load as Minister! He was lucky that
his other two posts were mostly ceremonial and had little paperwork.
As it is, he wasn’t really feeling very confident in trusting Fudge to run
things all on his own without the fool making a mess of things or asking the
wrong persons for advice, but on the other hand Albus really didn’t want to be
in power. He couldn’t be trusted in those circumstances… His past was the proof
of that. Thus he was letting the now Minister pestering him for advice and
helped the man as much as he could since it was a somewhat adequate compromise
in his mind.
He was not in power but he could try to mitigate the damage that Fudge could
likely cause with his blundering by accepting to help advise the younger man
when asked. How that man had managed to make it all the way to the top job
without the full backing of a major Faction and without any bribes flowing one
way or another, Dumbledore would likely never know and sincerely, he wasn’t
certain that he wished to know either. Some things were better left forgotten.
Albus suspected that the various Factions had decided to compromise since
little to no progress was made and Fudge was likely the less intimidating
candidate they could choose from the candidate’s pool. That was the current
political landscape of Magical Britain in resume.
Wishing to talk about something else, the elder man then went with the domain
of his chosen profession: Education.
“Are you sure you do not want to enroll Harry into our beautiful school, Lily?
The lad needs a good education if he wants to be able to forge himself a good
future in our society. I admit it’s somewhat late into the scholastic year, but
we could always try to arrange something. After all you know that no one in our
society will hire a Wizard without his OWLs and NEWTs. “
Albus was well aware that the Potter family was pretty well off and that Harry
could afford to not work one day of his life and not suffer from lack of funds,
but the Headmaster wasn’t the kind of person to encourage the next generation
to be layabouts. Seeing the still forming thunderous face of his temperamental
ex-student, Albus was quick to add all the while making a few quick warding
gestures with both hands
“Not that you and Sirius did not do a great job tutoring him already I’m sure!
But surely socializing with children around his age would do the lad some good?
He needs to make connections with people around his age for his future after
all.”
Altrouge was somewhat annoyed with Dumbledore’s suggestions. She had no plans
to sequester her only child in an ancient magical castle in the middle of the
Scottish Highlands for nine months or more a year for six or seven years with
so few occasions to see him! She told so to the bespectacled headmaster with a
deadpan tone
“Albus, would you stop beating around the bush and simply tell me frankly what
is it you want? Even if Harry makes some friends around his age, my son was
raised into the wilderness far away from the city life and we lived in a
magically expanded wooden cabin near a mountain fishing lake; we are no longer
used living in society. Harry may have been born here on Earth, but for him,
Hyrule is his home now. When my child needs something that we don’t have, he
either works to obtain the needed money to buy it or else Harry barter for it.”
She took a break to take a breath and a few sips of the water in her glass
before continuing where she left off
“We hunt, we trap, we forage, we fish and we barter as we need Albus. If the
soil would permit it, we would also likely grow crops. We do go in town once in
a while; we’re not entirely hermits after all. Hell, it’s me who make clothes
for my boys and I with raw fabrics that I buy at the Market. We are mostly
living a secluded life into the wilds. It was for our long term benefit and
protection in the end even if we had to adapt to a new lifestyle. The common
people of Hyrule are rather fearful of magic, so Sirius and I couldn’t teach
Harry how to use his powers safely in a village filled with people who fear the
supernatural.”
Stopping once again to keep the illusion of her humanity, she crossed her arms
under her considerable bust, and then started again to talk
“Enrolling Harry into your school would mean that Sirius and I would no longer
have any say in his life except during the summers up to his graduation years
later.  Our lifestyle does not permit us to send him away in a boarding school.
And at seventeen years old, he would be considered an adult. No, in my mind
it’s Sirius’ and my job to raise Harry into a good man, not the job of the
Hogwarts teachers. Make no mistake, you have a great teaching staff Albus, but
I’m not comfortable into sending my only son into a boarding school without any
visiting policies bar emergencies with the notable exception for Hogsmeade
week-ends. And even then, it was only for Third years and up.
Due to how Sirius and I raised him and the location of where we made our home,
I wouldn’t be surprised if Harry simply ignored the rules that he couldn’t make
head or tail of and simply decided to go explore the Forbidden Forest or
Hogsmeade on a whim when he would simply get tired of being cooped indoors or
on the grounds. My child has freedom and wanderlust singing in his veins Albus;
I won’t do him the disservice of shackling him unnecessarily. If it means to
keep home schooling him, then so be it.”
Deciding to throw something that was sure to destabilize the older looking
wizard simply because she could (Her surrogate grandfather Zelretch’s Trolling
ways must have been rubbing a bit on her…), she then added with a self
satisfied smirk
“And anyway, Harry doesn’t need a focus at all to do magic. So, many if not all
of the theory taught in the classes would be utterly useless for my boy. I’m
not denigrating Hogwarts, far from it; it’s a great magical school but it is
just not what my Harry needs really.”
Albus knew a losing fight when he saw one and also when it was time to abandon
ship so to speak. He was also rather doubtful that young Mr. Potter could do
controlled magic without some kind of focus since casting without one was very
tiring and rather inaccurate, but he was not in the mood to argue with his
former student. It would only lead to a headache. Appealing to the Potter
family’s tradition of schooling their children in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry for centuries since the school’s founding would likely not be well
received.
 Lily had already expressed her opinion about what she truly felt about
mindlessly following some ancient and archaic traditions in place of looking
for better options. The redhead was a very firm believer of free will. If James
was still alive, things might have been different though. Deciding to cut his
losses before things got worse, he then said
“Well, it’s simply too bad. But if your mind is truly made up, then I know I
won’t be able to make you see things my way. You always were very stubborn even
as a young girl, Lily. Just know that Sirius, young Harry and you are still
welcome to stay between these walls for as long as you need and that my offer
to enrol your son will still be standing if you happen to change your mind.”
Lily smiled graciously and thanked sincerely the Headmaster for his generosity
after assuring him that she would keep his offer in mind. Lodging in the castle
would save them all the hassle of going down to Hogsmeade or back to the modern
world to rent rooms. It would also give her time to teach Harry how to behave
in a modern era. It wouldn’t do for him to look to out of the norm; after all
it was when you were standing out that you were garnering attention. Their
family couldn’t afford to fall under the Enforcers’ scrutiny.
While she could fight them off without any problems, she wasn’t about to take
any chances while she had her one and only son to protect. The Enforcers were
not as bound by laws and strict rules as the Aurors were. Caution was the
mother of safety after all. Albus then called a House Elf to him. The House Elf
in question was female and Albus asked her to clean and air the Guest quarters
for three guests and to send another one of her kind to find Sirius Black to
guide him later to the said quarters when everything would be ready. Once
everything was settled, the Dead Apostle Ancestor in disguise engaged anew into
various topics of conversation with the elderly but still vivacious Headmaster.
Sirius Orion Black was currently bored out of his mind so he was rather glad
that Lily (He still tended to call her by her human name and she had grown used
to answer to both so it was no skin off his nose) had asked him to go get Harry
to get settled in their quarters when they would be ready while she continued
to discuss politic matters and whatnot's with Albus. It was also for the
benefits of the others to see the canine animagus leaving, since a bored Sirius
had the tendency to regress back to his teenage self. Once regressed, he then
started planning chaos, mayhem and general disorder.
A House Elf would find them once everything was set up, but for now he had to
track down his elusive godson. Sirius had never been much of a political animal
since the Pureblood supremacist dogma espoused by the majority of his family
had killed any and all interests he could have possessed into politics. And the
name Cornelius Fudge wasn’t ringing any bell for him to be honest. (And it
would be one hell of a surprise when he would find out later during his visit
to the Bank that he never was officially disowned, thus still in the running
for the Headship of the family if he wished to pursue it)
 Admittedly he had been far removed from their little corner of the world for a
bit more than a decade so he could be excused for his lack of knowledge of
recent events. Once he was out of Dumbledore’s office after waving off the old
man’s plea to please not set any pranks, after all Marauder one day, Marauder
always, he changed into Padfoot with a single thought and started to sniff the
air and the ground once the spiraling staircase dropped him down on the
hallway.
 He was searching for the particular scent of his Godson, and also for the
rather strange but quite unforgettable smell of Twili Shadow magic. The scent
had been integral part of Harry since he started using it on purpose years ago.
It was not something other Animagi or even animals would recognize, since they
haven’t being at ground zero many times during its various uses like he had
been.
 Midna was rarely far from Harry these days when she was not in her Realm doing
her duties as a ruler, so Padfoot would more than likely find their scents or
their magic near each other’s. If the kid had been a few years older, he would
have teased him about being attached at the hip with a girl, but James’ son was
still firmly in the clueless phase. Sirius could be patient; Harry’s hormones
would wake sooner or later.
If worse came to worse, he could always tease Midna that she was prepping the
boy to be her future lover when he came of age or something among those lines.
Sirius was very proud of Harry’s progress with his education and of his boy in
general. (By that point, Sirius considered Harry as much as his son as James’)
And his prowess with the Shadow magic the Twilight Princess taught him was
simply astounding!
The fact that being born half Apostle gave him enough “magical creature’s
blood” for lack of a better term, to use wand-less magic like it was as easy as
breathing astounded the Dog animagus greatly. Sirius was proud of his own
talents; he had worked hard to get to his current level and to stay in fighting
shape; but Harry simply blew all expectations out of the water. Sirius was able
of using a fair bit of wand-less magic, but nothing approaching on his boy’s
level! The kid was in fact literally thriving in a world like Hyrule. He was
taking to the survival courses like a duck took to water!
He was learning how to wield and shoot with a bow for hunting bigger game like
Deer and other bigger herbivores, how to skin his prey with the help of a
hunting knife and cook his catch over an open fire, Harry was also learning how
to forage effectively, which herbs were comestible and which ones were not. Of
course being only twelve years old, Harry wasn’t expected to be a master of
survival yet. But he was making good progress!
It was things that young men from the Wilds were expected to learn if they
wished to survive out there and make a living. Sadly, those were skills that
were becoming more and more obsolete on Earth as time and society advanced
except in the remaining far reaches of the Wilds like in Alaska for example.
After a long while of searching a bit everywhere, (damn if the kid hadn’t
already explored half the castle in a couple of hours or so it seemed…),
Padfoot finally found Harry. The boy was currently in the Trophy room, his
longing gaze fixated on a Quidditch cup sitting on a shelf behind a panel of
glass with his father’s name carved on it. James Potter.
 Turning back into Sirius with a mere thought, he was quick to pull the boy
into a warm and comforting hug, resting Harry’s back against his own torso.
While Sirius had done a good job of being the male role model Harry needed in
his life while growing up, the kid would always be a bit melancholic while
thinking about his long gone father. Sirius would also get a bit maudlin when
thinking about his departed brother in all but blood.
Slowly, calmly, Sirius told Harry a new anecdote about his father
“James was a good man, Harry. He was far from perfect though, so don’t go and
put him on a pedestal. Your dad was flawed, imperfect like everybody else. We
had to give him that though, he was a very skilled orator. He managed to talk
himself out of trouble numerous times. Not as much as he was getting himself
into said trouble, but hey. Of course when he was a teen, around fifteen years
old, he also thought he was the Gods’ gift bestowed to womankind.
Needless to say, your mother and her girl friends were absolutely not of the
same mind. They weren’t shy into showing him their displeasure and their
disagreement to his thoughts either. It was still hilarious seeing him try
again and again only to crash and burn every single time! I remember the first
time your mother set her now infamous Bits_Buster_Hex on us. Let me tell you,
it hurt like a bitch and back then we really didn’t had much tolerance for
pain!
But your father, the brave idiotic fool, he went back and dared her to hit him
again so we could flee from her wrath when she was busy working on him. You
see, we were busted into trying to override the wards on the girls’ dorms’
stairs to go raid some knickers. Needless to say, we learned a valuable lesson
that day. That if we wanted to succeed in our goal, we would have to become way
more subtle and plan better after that particular incident.
It was also when your mother gained the reputation of being the Dragon_of
Gryffindor_Tower. What with her fiery temper and all the “roaring” she used to
do when sufficiently angered. Well now she’s way more dangerous than she was
back then, but to earn such an epithet as a simple teenage witch with a temper,
you’ve got to admit that it was damn impressive.”
Harry chuckled a bit at hearing tales of his parents’ past. It was good to hear
about his father like that. While his mother freely admitted to have being in
love with James when she was just Lily; but when she awoke anew as Altrouge,
she could no longer say the same. The Ninth_Dead_Apostle_Ancestor had not,
could not, simply forgive her deceased husband’s vehement insistence of staying
to fight in the middle of a bloody civil war that the “Light” side was slowly
but surely loosing with a toddler to think about. Any responsible parents’
priorities should have been their child’s and their own well being shortly
after. Even in the backward pureblood wizards’ logic, James should have at
least ensured his heir’s safety. After all, the Potter line had to continue.
 But no, he had sadly decided to put his Country and his patriotism for said
Country before his family’s well-being while he knew full well that the Head
Snake was hunting them. And then, he paid the ultimate price for his
foolishness. Oh, how Lily had pleaded, try to reason with him, that they had to
leave the country at least temporally, if only for Harry’s sake. But nothing
she tried had worked; not even the few new bedroom tricks she had looked up
just for this occasion. And as Lily, she just hadn’t being able to bring
herself to abandon the love of her life by running away with their child. But
she was digressing; it was now too late to do anything about it.
For all her powers, Altrouge Brunestud simply could not resurrect the dead
without turning them into Apostles or failing that, into Ghouls. Not that the
latter was much of a life anyway. She could have likely brought James back to
life as a Dead Apostle under her command if she had bitten with intent of
turning him soon after her awakening, but Harry’s unexpected tumble into an
unstable Twilight_Portal had kind of stolen her choice away. It was unclear if
the effects of the Killing_Curse would have hindered the metamorphosis or not
though.
Before her stint as a mortal to quell her sheer boredom, the Ancestors tended
to stay away from Wizarding communities as a general rule. The bias and the
spiel about “Dark” creatures got quite annoying after a while to be frank.
Also, even the most insane of Dark Wizards usually went very much out of their
way to avoid the Ancestors’ notice since it was safer for their health, so that
theory was still untested. Hell, even Gellert Grindelwald, for all his daring,
never tried to gather the Ancestors’ support for his Global War. And from what
info she had on Voldemort, he likely wasn’t even aware of the Magi community’s
existence or he had simply adopted the “out of sight, out of mind” expression
that was so rampant among Humanity.
 It was much too late to try to bring James back now one way or another even if
she had desired to. Once decomposition started, if his body hadn’t been
cremated beforehand that is, it was too late to do anything. James Charlus
Potter was dead and short of a divine intervention (Which was extremely
unlikely since The_Age_of_the_Gods had long since passed.) or another higher
power like Gaia or Alaya, he would stay that way. And even in the very unlikely
possibility of him fully coming back from the Other Side, Altrouge wouldn’t
take him back. While motherhood was an experience she truly enjoyed, married
life was not something she really wished to live again. While she currently had
no desires for the pleasure of the flesh, being tied to a unique partner no
longer held her interest.
After a bit more time passed in reminiscence, a House Elf finally appeared and
guided both man and boy to the quarters that had been prepared for them. Once
in the apartment, the House Elf popped away after a small formal bow. Seeing
Altrouge in her natural form, marble like skin, supernatural beauty and wine
red eyes sitting in a chair in their common room while looking at the fire
cracking merrily behind the protective grate, the two males approached her and
at her request
“Please sit down boys; we have some important things to discuss.”
They obeyed, but not before Harry asked her
“Mom, what are you doing here so soon? Weren’t you discussing politics and
other boring grown-up things with that Dumblydore guy?
Taking a fortifying breath, she answered soon after
“It’s Dum-ble-dore my Harry, not Dumblydore. Please be careful, some people can
be very touchy about their names, dear.”
She corrected gently with an amused smile, before continuing her answer to the
previously asked question
“Indeed I was, but he also had more important things to do than to talk with me
all day long, so I was escorted here by another House Elf. The school won’t run
by itself you know. I only just arrived a few minutes ago.”
Harry made a noise of understanding that sounded like “ah” before letting his
mother continue
 “Okay here’s the situation. The official details of what happened in Halloween
1981 when Voldemort came for a surprise visit are kind of sketchy. When the
Aurors got to the scene, they found James’ body. He was sent by portkey to the
Ministry’s morgue and put in stasis and lock-down while waiting for the
Ministry’s equivalent to a forensic pathologist to do his job. Standard
protocol and all since the Dark moron liked to turn his victims into Inferi.”
Seeing Harry’s incomprehension, his mother explained
“A corpse reanimated with dark magic or if you prefer, a specifically magical
made zombie, kind of like the Redeads found in the hidden crypts around Hyrule
or in the Arbiter’s Grounds, but without the crippling cry and the obvious
weakness to sunlight.”
After his nod of understanding, she continued
“From there the responding Aurors secured the scene and the following team of
Obliviators modified the memories of the neighbours since when the cottage blew
up from the rebounding Killing_Curse, the Fidelius_charm around our cottage at
Godric’s Hollow simply failed. They found the ashes, the dark robe and the
broken wand of the Dark Idiot on the scene but since we were now long gone, I
can only deduce that they never saw the Twilight portal.”
Sirius nodded and asked
“It makes sense, but what about the traitorous rat? Did the Aurors managed to
capture him or did he escape when he had the chance?”
Altrouge shrugged her shoulders and answered
“From what Albus told me, he’s wanted as a person of interest but as we have
kept everything hush-hush on purpose and since James didn’t name our Secret
Keeper in his Will and mine wasn’t activated since I wasn’t “dead” long enough,
the DMLE have no real clue about who is the true culprit. Since you hinted
heavily at being our Secret_Keeper; it’s also “known” that you’re also a person
of interest to interrogate and that you possibly might have something to do
with the whole mess.”
Seeing as Sirius was about to protest vehemently, Altrouge told him
“Harry, you and I know the whole unvarnished truth, but not the Ministry of
Magic and neither the general public. Which is why, tomorrow we will go setting
them straight and then ask the Department_of_Magical_Law_Enforcement to launch
a nationwide or even an international man hunt to find Peter. He has had almost
a dozen years to lie low; so of course we aren’t going to find him quite that
easily or quickly. But believe me, we will find him and make him regret to have
ever been born. We will let the Justice do its job but if Pettigrew happens to
have a “regrettable accident” while in his cell in Azkaban, well…oops? “
She finished with a small Gallic shrug, a frankly terrifying smile on her
pretty face and a false tone of regret.
Ironically, Peter was much closer than they knew, since he was currently
sleeping, completely unaware that his now former friends were near, on Ronald
Weasley’s four poster bed in the Second year boys’ Dorm inside Gryffindor
Tower. The Guests quarters they currently resided in were not far from the
entrance to the Gryffindor Common room.
After letting the matter hang a bit, Altrouge then said
“If the chase takes too long for my tastes, I’ll simply ask Grandpa Zelretch
for his help. I’m certain he could at least point us in the right direction.
Now, before we do anything else, I need to show you how to behave in a modern
era my Harry. It is very important to not attract undue attention on our family
when we are in public. London is where Clock Tower is located and the
Enforcers’ presence is also big in the city. While I could easily fight them
off especially if I call for Primmy, I really don’t want to risk it. Not with
your life and Sirius’ on the line. It is not every Enforcer whom concerned
themselves with collateral damage and/or civilian casualties. So we will go to
London tomorrow morning after breakfast.”
Harry went to open his mouth, likely to tell some boast about his strength or
using his powers to defend himself as needed, but his mother cut him off
“My Harry, Earth is completely different than the Twilight Realm or even
Hyrule. Here there is an international law that every human magic user must
follow or endure severe consequences. By the Root, most of the other
supernatural creatures out there around the Globe abide by it, if not to the
very letter of the law, at least to the spirit of it, because it makes sense.
No one remotely sane, be they Wizard or Magus and even most Ancestors, wish for
the revival of the Salem witches trials and/or the Spanish Inquisition. It is
called the International_Statute_of_Secrecy. “
Lily then went to explain to her son the fine details of the Statute. What was
permitted and also what was not. She touched briefly the Decree_for_the
Reasonable_Restriction_of_Underage_Sorcery, but since only Sirius was still
using a wand and he was an adult, Harry should just make sure to not use magic
in front of mundanes or in front of other wizards with some authority outside
of the castle and Hogsmeade. Once done, she did something that made Harry
highly uncomfortable. To bring him up to speed to be able to interact with the
modern world without looking like a fool and thus attracting the attention of
the wrong people, she shared her memories with him via legilimency or something
rather similar.
It was, in fact, a bastardized fusion of the wizardry technique and her
vampiric mind reading. For Harry, mind reading and legilimency were
interchangeable even if it was different in reality. But for a boy of twelve,
simplicity was the best bet. His mother was always gentle, but it was still
weird to have someone rooting into your mind even with your permission. Once
the necessary information was “downloaded”, for lack of a better term, Harry
was sent to take a nap for at least a few hours so his brain could process
everything safely. The boy didn’t protest, since even with his mother’s feather
touch, he now had one hell of a headache! And Midna’s whispered comments/jibes
at his expense weren’t making things easier either!
Once the youngest of their strange quartet was gone, Sirius asked his sister in
all but blood, one of the very few women he had absolutely no sexual attraction
to (The list so far was his deceased mother, the female staff here at Hogwarts
and Lily.)
“So what’s the plan then? Do we go shopping after a side trip to Gringotts
before clearing my name at the Ministry or do we go at James’ grave to present
our respects first?”
Hearing about her deceased husband out loud, Altrouge couldn’t help but scowl
briefly. One of her worse traits was that she was very rancorous. James may
have been gone for eleven years now, but she still hasn’t forgiven him for
putting his patriotism for his country before his family’s safety. But, she
supposed that her son should be given the chance to see where his father was
laid to rest. She owed it to Harry to help him in any way she could and making
her goodbyes to her deceased husband wouldn’t kill her either. It could likely
help her in moving on she supposed. He had been a good provider, great in bed
and also a good father for the short time he had gotten with their son.
Reluctantly, Altrouge said:
“I suppose we could make a trip to wherever my husband was put to rest once we
have cleared everything with the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts...”
Sirius had to fight back a smirk. Here was the big bad Ninth_Dead_Apostle
Ancestor, pouting like a little kid because she had to step on her pride for
her son’s sake. If she wouldn’t take it on his hide, he would have so much
teasing material to exploit! But he had to toe the line; her temper was
somewhat mercurial, even during good days. (Sirius thought she needed to get
laid and badly with that, but he wasn’t suicidal so he kept his big mouth
shut.)But well, at this stage of her monthly cycle, Lily’s temper was downright
dangerous, so yeah, Sirius kept it to just silent amusement. It was way much
safer for his health. It could never be said that this old dog couldn’t learn
new tricks!
After breakfast the next day, Altrouge, back into her human form, Sirius and
Harry walked down to Hogsmeade. They could have apparated directly once beyond
the gates of the Grounds but they had eaten much more richly than usual this
morning so they decided that a little bit of exercise would do them some good.
Once arrived at the Three Broomstick, the main pub, they entered and made a
beeline toward the fireplace. The place was not exactly crowded but it wasn’t
empty either. A few patrons looked their way, but since Lily and Sirius hadn’t
been seen in public for years, nobody recognized them.
After a quick explanation about Floo travel and how it worked for Harry’s sake,
the family of three (Midna was still intangible inside Harry’s shadow thus
nothing could affect her unless she willed herself tangible once more.) were
soon on their way to the Leaky Cauldron. While Lily and Sirius exited the Floo
like regular people, Harry was expulsed from the fireplace like a canon ball!
He was sent all the way to the other side of the room, barely managing to not
come face to face with the opposite wall from his exit point by turning in a
manner for his back to take the blow. Thankfully his Apostle body made sure he
was not wounded by the violent collision. He was only winded and a bit
disoriented.
There was some fuss made by some nearby customers since his exit from the Floo
network was not one seen often, but in the end the group managed to leave the
pub without any more trouble in direction of Mundane London. Sirius was still
snickering at Harry’s misfortune though, well that is until a nearby passing
car didn’t slow down while going through a puddle near the sidewalk and
splashed Sirius from head to toe. Now it was Harry’s turn to mock the older man
for his troubles. They had to find a secluded back alley so Sirius could use
magic to dry himself without being seen by the regular people.
Soon, after about ten to fifteen minutes of walking, they were arrived at the
Visitors’ entrance of the Ministry of Magic. The Ministry building was situated
underground in Whitehall. Harry had to force himself to not gape like an idiot
at all the buildings around him. After the trio squeezed themselves into the
phone box and since Sirius was the closest to the phone, he dialed “62442”,
which ironically spelled “magic”, after taking the handset. Once done, he had
to obey the instructions dictated by a recording and once the trio had their
badges pinned to their jackets, the elevator took them down to the atrium. From
there Altrouge had to hypnotize the Security Guard into ignoring her and
Harry’s lack of wands.
Hers was most likely gathering dust inside the Potter Family Vault and Harry
never had one. He simply had no need for one to begin with. They passed near
the rather tacky looking fountain and Lily knew the boys had just gotten the
idea to modify it just for laughs. So she subtly shook her head in a negative
manner, only to be answered by twin pouts and an inaudible, except for their
group, amused giggle from Midna. The trio then went towards the lifts at the
end of the Atrium. After determining that the DMLE was on Level two, they
shared the lifts with many employees and enchanted paper planes that were
hovering near the ceiling of the lift.
Being the more familiar with the Ministry of Magic, Sirius answered Harry’s
unasked question after seeing his questioning look at the paper planes.
“Those paper planes are in fact inter-department memos. Since electronics
doesn’t work well with too many magic if they are not properly shielded, they
had to find something to communicate with efficacy. The Floo Network was
envisaged but it would have been too costly to install so many fireplaces and
connect them to a separate network. Before the enchanted paper planes, the
Ministry workers used owls for the correspondence. It was messy, what with the
birds defecating all over the place. The Maintenance department was really
overworked as you can imagine.”
He finished with a smirk.
Harry and Lily answered with an amused snort.
Soon enough, the lift stopped at Level Two and a bunch of people and planes
left while another batch entered. Since the Dog animagus was more familiar with
the Department’s layout due to his days as an Auror during the Blood War, both
Lily and Harry let him take the lead. After a quick chat with the receptionist,
the trio were quickly hustled into the Head Auror’s office. He was answering to
the name of Rufus Scrimgeour. He was a man with a certain rangy loping grace;
he walked with a slight limp, and looked rather like an old lion with grey
streaks in his mane of tawny hair and bushy eyebrows. He had also keen
yellowish eyes and wore wire-rimmed spectacles.
The man let his eyes roam first on Sirius on the far right, then on Harry who
was sitting in the middle and finally on Lily, who was sitting on the far left.
To be honest, Rufus was rather surprised to see those individuals in his
office. The Potter case was very vexing to be honest and full of holes. Only
James Potter’ body had been recovered. Lily’s status was unknown but presumed
dead, what with You-Know-Who having made a personal House call and little
Harry’s status was also unclear at the time. Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew
were both persons of interest in the case, but no accusations had been
deposited.
After a little more than a decade with no new information, three of the five
people still alive involved were now in front of him just as he was about to
close the case definitively. Rufus had to admit, it was irony at his finest.
James’ widow looked very good, wherever she was had left her hale and healthy
with a stronger build than most magic users. Outside of the DMLE field
operatives and professional Quidditch Players, physical conditioning was a rare
thing on a wizard or a witch, since their magic usually kept them fit. Sirius
was also looking good. Age seemed to have tempered his youthful brashness. If
he were to reenlist, he would likely be a much better Auror than before. And
that was saying something, since even as a rookie, Black had been very
talented.
The thing that surprised him the most was the child’s appearance. James and
Lily’s son was tall for his age but what was showing that he was living a very
active lifestyle, was how little baby fat the boy had left on his face and also
a developing musculature if he wasn’t mistaken. It was also odd for the kid to
not be in school, but Scrimgeour wouldn’t make a stink about it, since Harry
was accompanied by his mother, who was his legal guardian anyway. Also,
frankly, playing truant officer was not his idea of fun. He couldn’t help to be
somewhat impressed by his character though. It wasn’t everyday that a kid could
stare him in the eyes and not start to fidget nervously.
After letting the silence continue for a few moments longer, Scrimgeour decided
to take this show on the road.
“So! After eleven long years away from the country, you finally decided to came
back home. If you haven’t been presumed dead Mrs. Potter, your absence from the
crime scene could have been labelled as an offence of escape and could have
landed you into very hot waters. Luckily for you, I’m the one currently in
charge of this case and I don’t believe in pressing charges before hearing the
whole story and all the facts first.”
Scrimgeour made a pause then set up on his desk a self inking dicta quill of
legal grade flat on a sheet of parchment. With a swish of his wand, the quill
was now upright and ready. What the Head Auror hadn’t seen or felt was a subtle
use of Magecraft during his brief period of inattention. Lily Evans Potter’s
true identity as Altrouge Brunestud the Ninth_Dead_Apostle_Ancestor wasn’t
something the Ministry of Magic needed to know. Knowing how prejudiced they
were against anything they didn’t consider human, if Scrimgeour found out that
she was a basically an ancient super vampire and not a regular human witch,
Wizarding Child Services would surely get involved.
 And when they inevitably try to take away her son’s legal custody from her,
she would get really mad and would likely go on a bloody rampage similar to
those back in her glory days, draining every employee present in the building
dry of their blood. Then her family would have to flee the United Kingdom
before the Enforcers got involved. With a blood bath of this scale, even
Grandpa Zelretch wouldn’t be able to help her family in getting the authorities
off their trail. Since she wished for her son to see the good things of the
Wizarding World, Altrouge cheated with some clever use of Magecraft so the
legal grade Dicta quill and the man in front of them would accept the “official
story” of what happened in Halloween 1981.
This way, she was reasonable and avoided a massacre of the level she used to
pull during her Glory days. It was a win-win scenario in her not so humble
opinion. Not that she particularly cared about the Ministry’s employee’s lives
one way or another, but Altrouge had to lead by example for her son’s sake.
Sometimes she really missed being a spoiled brat with much more power than
sense…life was way easier back then. She hadn’t to bother with pesky morals and
societal norms unless she truly wished it. But she would not trade her son for
anything else in the world. Motherhood was such a life altering experience; she
wouldn’t change it for anything.
Coming back to reality when she heard the older man clear his throat, Lily had
the good grace of looking embarrassed and after the tests were made to see that
everything was in order, Scrimgeour made sign for her to start her tale. Thus
went the official story. It began with how Voldemort came around for an
unexpected social visit that fateful Halloween night, refusing to take “no” for
an answer and barging in uninvited. Then it led to James fighting against the
very rude mad man to buy his wife and child some precious time to hopefully
escape. But Riddle was nothing if not thorough when he truly wanted somebody
dead. He had spelled every wall, every window and every door leading outside
the cottage imperturbable and put up personalized anti transport wards.
Then Lily related how James had managed to severely wound the Dark Idiot but
paid the price with his life. Riddle then made his way to the nursery where she
had barricaded herself and her baby for lack of other options. She had tried to
break the window in the nursery with the intent to escape with her son, despair
giving her greater strength, but only managed to make cracks. In her haste to
take her son to safety, she had foolishly left her wand downstairs on the
kitchen table and while able to do some spells without the use of her focus,
she sadly wasn’t strong and/or skilled enough to fight for her life and her
son’s without it. Then, the time to lie out of her ass came.
She had indeed plead for Voldemort to spare her child and to kill her instead,
but the truth about their survivals was not information to be shared with the
Ministry. A Black Blood contract, a willing sacrifice and being a Dead Apostle
Ancestor incarnated as a human were Top Secrets. So she said that the Dark Lord
knocked her out because she was categorically refusing to move from the side of
her son’s crib. But she had laced the said crib with experimental spells and
numerous protection rituals in hope that something would work.
When she came to, Harry was alive, relatively unharmed except a few scratches
but bawling his lungs out. (The now healed and completely gone lightning shaped
scar and the nasty surprise behind it were not something she wished to share
either...) The only things left of their unwanted evening visitor were a pile
of ashes, his wand and his robe. The wand had been broken when she had stepped
on it accidentally while rushing to take her baby into her arms. From there,
Sirius took the reins, willing to start explaining his part of the story.
Before he could start in earnest though, Scrimgeour wanted a clarification.
“So since you’re still in good terms with Mrs. Potter and her son, I can deduce
that you never were the Secret_Keeper of their Fidelius?”
Sirius was quick to answer
“Yes, you assumed right. No, I was not the Secret_Keeper, I was meant to be a
decoy. Everyone knew I was James’ brother in all but blood. I was too obvious a
choice. We though ourselves clever and wished to play a prank on the dark idiot
by making Peter Pettigrew the Secret_Keeper. He always had an inferiority
complex crippling his potential while we all knew that he was a skilled wizard
when he put his mind to it. We thought by offering him something this important
would make him feel wanted, to make him feel he was belonging with us. There
was also a spy in Dumbledore’s group of vigilantes, the Order of the Phoenix.
Remus Lupin was suspected due to his lycanthropy and the fact that he was so
often abroad. But we were wrong, Pettigrew betrayed us to the Head Snake and
now, James is dead.”
He finished with a tone mixed with regrets, anger and sadness.
The rest of the interview went rather well. What little holes the official
story left was covered by Altrouge’s Magecraft. They then left the Ministry of
Magic with Sirius’ name completely cleared once all formalities were done. An
arrest warrant would be issued for Peter and after paying a fine for being an
unregistered Animagus since they had to out the Marauders’ secret to make sure
the Aurors knew what to look for, they were also informed of where James was
laid to rest. He had been buried in the cemetery of Godric’s Hollow. Finding
Remus’ location would be more difficult tough.
While Werewolves had to register to the right office at the Ministry to be
eligible for their free monthly doses of Midol (A recent graduate Half-blood
Witch had found out that the muggle medicine for alleviate the menstrual cramps
was very effective on Weres, easing the symptoms of lycanthropy even more than
the Wolfsbane potion. The potion was a somewhat recent invention by Damocles
Belby. Thus the Ministry of Magic had started to buy it in bulk since the cost
of the medicine was much more reasonable than the ingredients for the said
Wolfsbane potion.) their addresses was confidential. Thus they would have to
track Remus down the old fashion way. That is sending him a letter via Owl post
and simply hope for a swift answer.
Sometimes, Altrouge was really exasperated by the Wizards. Even Magi, as
reluctant as using technology as they were, had at least embraced the telephone
and the use of an answering machine! Oh well, now that they were done with the
Ministry, they had to head back to Diagon Alley since they had to make
withdrawals to Gringotts. She would also have in the near future to open them a
bank account each in the Muggle world to not always go exchanging their gold
for pounds.
The trek there was quick and now they were ascending the marble stairs from the
street leading to the doors with nonchalance. Since Apostles like herself or
Hybrids like her son and Goblins didn’t run into the same circles generally,
Lily wasn’t really concerned of being detected by the Bank’s wards. Customer
confidentiality and their sovereignty on and under the bank’s soil were very
big things for the Gringotts Goblins.
It’s not like Goblin blood was good to drink anyway. On the contrary, it was as
unappealing as it could be for a blood sucker. She drank one dry a thousand
years ago as curiosity and it repeated on her for a whole decade! She swore to
never drink Goblin blood ever again after that particular episode! So with
those thoughts in mind, Lily was the first one through the doors. But it was
Harry who stopped for a bit to read the poem/warning engraved on the side wall.
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.
Harry wasn’t sure why, but reading that poem/warning gave him the willies. It’s
not like he had any thievery plans, so why would he be scared? He had been
raised to recognize the valor of honest and hard work after all. They were
ushered quickly into a spartanly decorated office once the family’s Account
Manager was made aware of their presence. In resume, their finances were
assured in the Wizarding World and would be in the Muggle World too once their
mundane bank accounts would be settled. Gringotts would take care of everything
for a reasonable fee. Also the investments his mother made back then had bore
fruits, replenishing the diminished Potter Fortune at a rather steady rate.
While the family was very comfortable cash wise, most of their gold was tied
into investments and their principal source of income came from the shares they
had bought in promising companies. From what Harry could understand, his father
was no business mogul when he was alive, but was smart enough to put the good
people in charge of managing everything in his stead while he was fighting in
the war against the terrorist who fashioned himself a Dark Lord. While he was
rather ambivalent about the supposed Dark Lord Voldemort, Midna felt nothing
but derision and sheer disgust towards him. Compared to Zant or hell, even
Ganondorf, the British Dark Lord was a mild irritant at best on the power
scale.
“Anybody who creates a phylactery and put it inside a child should be put to
death by beheading. The death of traitors is truly fitting for such a
blasphemous act.”
She was very serious when she uttered that sentence. When asked to give further
details on her possible plans, she simply changed the subject though. Harry
took the hint and didn’t try to pester her further on that particular subject.
After getting enough funds for the shopping spree in both worlds and after
Sirius made an appointment with the Black family Account Manager, Lily dragged
her boys, blind and deaf to any of their protestations, out of the bank towards
the shops of the Alley for what promised to be a hellish shopping trip. The
boys could only whine in defeat while Midna found the whole thing hilarious.
Let the shopping begin!
 
***** Chapter 5 *****
                        Harry Potter and his Princesses
                                   Chapter 5
 
Author’s_Notes: Well, my muse seems to want to work on this one. I don’t plan
to write much time on Harry’s early teenagehood since my mind won’t stop
conjuring interesting scenarios from when he’s older. I will resume the events
of the Chamber of Secrets, but the school drama and the tension felt by the
students and the Staff due to the petrifactions are not what interest me. The
fight against the Basilisk is going to have more a significant importance for
Harry’s development than in canon though. I also decided to trim down the harem
I was planning for our protagonist, since I really don’t feel comfortable into
putting so many characters on the forefront.
The title of the story is still valid, Harry is going to attract many
princesses’ affections, but it won’t be classical relationships. Also I refuse
to have Primate Murder, the Beast_of_Gaia,have the size and shape of a small
dog with rabbit ears. It’s likely going to be closer in size to Moro, the Wolf
Goddess from Princess Mononoke. Also if I haven’t done it by the time this get
published, I will retcon something I said in chapter 2, about how Harry isn’t
able to use the Twilight_Portals just yet. He now can, but in exchange he won’t
have figured the way to create the Twilight_Barriers yet. Now let’s take a look
at the Stats. We have 54 Reviews, 564 Followers, 460 Favourites, 10 C2
Communities and 26 811 Views. Thank you everyone for your continued support.
Now, let’s get this show on the road.   
A_quick_reminder: In this universe of mine, thus contrary to canon, Pandora
Lovegood survived her spell crafting accident when Luna was nine. But her
attempt to play with out worldly forces made certain Ancient Beings take an
active interest in their family since the faulty spell gave them an unexpected
door to this world, that is Earth I. It is not know yet if the said interest
from those Ancient Beings is a good or a bad thing. It depend of your point of
view really. ;)
 
The Shopping trip could be resumed by three very simple words by the boys. Hell
on Earth. They had not only visited what seemed to have been every store on
Diagon Alley, but also almost all the shops located on Knockturn. One very
suicidal Hag tried to grab him when they passed past Borgin and Burkes, but
since there was no witnesses around, she became a quick snack on the go for
Altrouge. With a quick Vanishing_charm, there was no more body to be found once
she was drained of her blood. Waste not, want not. Or something similar. Harry
wasn’t troubled much, it was not the first time he saw his mother drain an
enemy dry of their blood after all. While the Upper Zora River Region of the
Lanayru Province in Hyrule had no true crime except for Harry and the younger
Zoras’ antics, it was not so in the entire Kingdom.
One time during a resupply trip for the Zoras where there was no sign of
civilization nearby, the family had been attacked by a band of roaming bandits
that had so far managed to escape the notice of Hyrule’s soldiers. Needless to
say the second Harry was grazed by a flying arrow, Lily took the back seat and
Altrouge Brunestud made her first carnage in decades once she was firmly set in
the driver seat. In the end, not a single outlaw escaped with their lives and
their bodies intact. It was also the day that Harry learned firsthand that life
was not fair, that the world was not black and white either and that sometimes,
you have to take a life in order to keep yours. Those were very valuable
lessons to be learned even if Sirius was of the opinion that the child had
discovered them too early. Harry, as a child, should enjoy a simple happy life
and his innocence for as long as it could last.
And once the trio was done with the magical shopping district, they begun anew
in the regular world. They took the Tube to a big Mall which name Harry
couldn’t recall for the life of him. The bright spot in the sheer torture of
having to shop for an entire wardrobe was trying some Fast food at one of those
restaurants inside the Mall. Harry had to admit that it was quite different
from his usual fare, but it was an enjoyable experience all the same. After
everything was over, Harry was ready to call it a day and go back to Hogwarts
to relax. Maybe he could take advantage of having at his disposition a near
infinite supply of water he didn’t need to heat beforehand for a good piping
hot shower? But they still had a stop to make. Sirius insisted that they had to
go to his father’s grave today and not tomorrow or in a few months.
“We are going today and that’s final. Lily, we already talked about this
before. Multiple times even. Harry deserve to see his father’s final resting
place. If you simply can’t put in the effort, then go back to the castle and
I’ll go with Prongslet alone. I am perfectly able to side-along_apparate him
safely to Godric’s Hollow and back to Scotland. And even then, he’s already
able to apparate himself as you very well know.”
He finished in a surprising stern tone of voice. It was on her insistence after
all, that he had enchanted their home with very powerful Anti-Apparition_Wards
when Harry was younger, to make sure he wouldn’t pop away somewhere randomly.  
Lily seemed to be about to argue against it some more but managed to hold her
tongue. She was about to let her resentment and grudges take over once again.
She really should work on those weaknesses of hers one day soon. Those and her
temper were her worse traits. Nodding her head to Sirius, she answered
“Yes, you are right Sirius. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t let my past problems with
James cloud my mind. We had better get a move on if we want to come back to the
castle for supper. I’m not in the mood to eat at another restaurant.”
Sirius accepted with a nod of the head, while Harry was wondering why his
mother simply couldn’t just let it go. His father has been dead for at least a
decade by now. In his opinion, holding a grudge against a dead man was kind of
dumb. But Harry wasn’t going to tell her that to her face though. The last time
he made a few smart-ass remarks about her obvious character flaws, she
literally showered him with chores for a month as punishment for being “too
disrespectful”!
He had to do all of his own, almost all of Sirius’ and also almost all of his
mother’s! No, this Potter had definitely learned when it was better to keep his
big mouth shut. There was nothing more embarrassing for a pre-teen to be forced
to clean his mother’s undergarments by hand in the laundry tub while she was
supervising to make sure he didn’t cheat by using magic...
Once outside the mall, they had to find a remote location where they wouldn’t
be observed so they could shrink their purchases to a more manageable size and
disapparate from London. Once they were in an appropriate private place, Sirius
went ahead and Harry’s mother took him with her. Side-along apparition was
still as uncomfortable as ever even after a few trips. Right here right now,
Harry decided that for going back to Hogwarts, he would open a twilight_portal.
It was much more comfortable way of getting around than apparition. He was
lucky that he had had the foresight to set a beacon on the castle. Maybe he
should do the same for other places they would visit in the near future? It was
food for thoughts.
Godric’s Hollow held a certain charm in Harry’s eyes. The whole rural feel
reminded him a bit of Ordon Village in the Ordona Province in the south of
Hyrule but without the feeling of a farming community. Frankly he was feeling
much more at ease in Hogsmeade and in this village than in central London. All
that technology and those lifeless buildings were making him feel quite out of
place. And don’t make him talk about the pollution! Bah! The information
download his mother gave him helped Harry to not make a fool of himself and to
not stand out in the wrong way, but it didn’t help him feel at ease with
everything that was the capital city of the United Kingdom.
The walk to the local graveyard was done in silence. Sirius was evidently
trying very hard to not let his emotions overwhelm him, Harry was trying to
soak up as much as possible the peace of the countryside (So far he really
didn’t like the big city. Too noisy and smelly for his tastes.) and Lily, well
she was now planning mentally to contact Grandpa Zelretch quickly, like in a
day or two, for a lift somewhere so she could feed. The hag’s blood from this
morning could only delay the inevitable for so long after all. Once the trio
found themselves in front of James’ grave, the trio focused completely on it
and the present moment.
It was no longer time to let their minds wander. Sirius was the first to fall
on his knees before the tombstone, a mournfully heartbreaking howl escaping his
lips that sounded more like a wounded beast than anything a human in distress
could emit. Harry was now feeling very inadequate. What was he supposed to do
now? What was he supposed to feel? Yes, Sirius and his mother had shared with
him everything they could about his dad. But for Harry, even with all the
stories and the anecdotes he had been told about the man, his father was still
basically a stranger. All he had of the man was an handful of half remembered
and fading memories.
The whole thing was turning into one hell of a clusterfuck for lack of a better
word, with Sirius now apologizing to the headstone for all his perceived
failures, both right and imaginary in between his sobs and beast like howls
filled with agony and grief, his mother was currently doing a great imitation
of a marble statue and him absolutely not knowing what to do. No longer able to
take any more of this horrible scenario, the boy snapped his right index and
thumb together, generating a small flash of grey smoke and a stronger sound
than normal with the movement. High in the sky just above their position, a
roughly square looking mosaic of green and black lights appeared with a green
clockwise spinning vortex in the centre.
Before Lily or Sirius could do anything to stop him, his body started to
dematerialize in Twilight particles starting from his head all the way down to
his feet and was quickly absorbed into the portal, which disappeared as if it
has never been there in the first place once the warp was completed. If Harry
had looked towards his mother when she saw him starting to warp away, he would
have seen her pinch her nose in slight irritation from the incoming headache.
Of all the powers available to him that her precocious son had to master first,
it just had to be an unique mode of teleportation none of them could copy or
even override… How to ground a child to his room when he had been misbehaving
when he could just vanish at will without anything to hinder him?
Back to Hogwarts, it was to an almost but not quite empty Great Hall that Harry
Potter rematerialised in a flurry of black squarish looking Twilight particles.
There was the odd older students having a free period sitting at their House
Table who saw the replica of the Twilight Portal appear on the enchanted
ceiling and the Twilight particles passing through the building and combining
together before taking the form of the pre-teen starting from his feet up to
his head. Not caring about having been seen using an unknown type of magic and
also not in the mood to stay here, he quickly made his way up to their
quarters, unaware and/or uncaring about the rumours already flying about
Sirius, his mother and his reappearance after Dumbledore made an announcement
concerning them during lunch.
It was once he was in front of the painting guarding the Guest Quarters they
had been assigned that Harry remembered that Sirius or his mother had both
forgotten to give him the password. While his Twili abilities were strong and
rather developed for a child of his age, Harry couldn’t alter his mass density
just yet. So he resolved to ask Midna’s help via their telepathic bond.
“Hmm, Midna? Sorry to bother you for something so trivial, but could you pass
through the wall an open the door for me please? Mom and Sirius seems to have
forgotten to give me the password to enter.”
Midna had been drifting in and out of unconsciousness all day, taking naps and
keeping silent while observing this new world from the safety of Harry’s
shadow. While she hadn’t participated in the conversations, it didn’t mean that
she wasn’t listening. So far she had seen the difference between the hidden
magical community and the rest of the regular society. The differences were
quite striking. She was brought out temporarily out of her pensive mood when
she felt Harry use her Tribe’s Shadow magic to teleport away from the cemetery
where his father was laid to rest but stayed silent during his trip in the
various corridors of the castle they were staying for the moment. When the
question came, she couldn’t help but snort in amusement.
Harry’s progress with her Tribe’s magic was rather weird if she was to be
honest. He was able to master the harder stuff like creating Portals, setting
beacons for future travels and conjuring things like weapons rather easily, but
he was still unable to alter his mass density or even create barriers yet. She
wasn’t even considering the idea of ever making him try the Fused Shadows
though; since it was highly inadvisable for any beings without Twili blood to
touch them. She didn’t want him to turn into a mutated monster that they would
have to inevitably put down for its own good. Back then, it had been sheer luck
that Darbus had survived his transformation into Fyrus and his defeat at her
and Link’s hands! It sure showed how Gorons had an incredible life force.
Chasing her morbid thoughts away, she answered him back
“Sure, no problem kiddo. Just give me a second will you?”
Midna was quick to pass through the wall and once on the other side, with nary
a thought she became solid and pushed open the rotating wall. Harry was quick
to enter and to close the door behind him. Shifting back to her real form, the
Twilight Princess followed the young boy who ran to his room. Once there, she
could see him sitting against the headboard of his bed, hugging his knees
against his chest. Silently, she joined him on the bed and offered him comfort
with her presence. She could have tried to make him talk, but the current
silence was not uncomfortable. He would tell her what’s wrong when he was ready
to do so.
Both were quiet for an unknown lapse of time. Then slowly, Harry began to talk.
“It was bad. Very bad. We had just reached my dad’s grave when Sirius just fell
on his knees and started to howl like a wounded animal out of the blue. He
started to cry and howl in between taking blame for everything under the sun
and mom was just staying there, silent and still as a marble statue. I couldn’t
take it anymore so I opened a twilight_portal and teleported back here. I
almost decided to go back to the Twilight Realm and then back home in Hyrule,
but without you or me, mom and Sirius can’t jump Dimensions. I couldn’t abandon
them here all alone.”
Midna couldn’t really say anything. She wasn’t in Altrouge/Lily and Sirius’
lives when James was still alive and part of their lives. Harry barely
remembered his father who had fallen in battle, trying to give his family time
to escape a monster. But she could offer him a good hug.
“Come on don’t be so glum, munchkin. Things will get better. Well, it will
likely be after a short while. Because if I know your mother, she’s bound to
give you a good tongue lashing for leaving like that without telling her where
you were going first.”
She finished with an amused tone of voice after putting the younger boy on her
lap, hugging him against her breasts all the while letting her fingers play
into his messy hair. Letting a pleased noise came out of his throat, his eyes
closing by themselves, Harry looked like either like a dog or a big cat blissed
out of his mind. Midna couldn’t help but chuckle with fondness and amusement.
He was simply too cute. She wondered if those traits were signs of his inner
animal. It was a subject of one of her late night discussions with Sirius, his
ability to turn into a massive dog at will. Admittedly the dog was not as good
looking as her deceased ex-lover’s animal form, but hey. Nobody was perfect.
Animagus transformation that he had called it. Was it safe to start Harry on
the process while he was that young or should they wait a few years? Thinking
back to the kid’s current schedule, that is learning how to survive off the
land, his chores, his tutoring in mundane and magical subjects and his sword
training on top of everything...Yeah, he was much too busy right now for
something that time consuming. She would bring back the subject in a few years
once his survival training was completed. There was no need to cut into his
precious free time for more training. And while she wasn’t a swordswoman, Midna
knew enough about swordplay that a teacher could only get you so far and that
you only improved past a certain point by regular and constant practice and/or
by facing more and more difficult challenges.
Once Sirius and Lily were back, they were too drained mentally and emotionally
to eat in the Great Hall with everybody. So they called up an House Elf who was
quite happy to bring them all something to eat. While lily/Altrouge had no need
to eat, it was still pleasant and she had a cover to maintain. Surprisingly,
Harry hadn’t been scolded for leaving without telling where he was going first.
The boy wasn’t about to look at a gift horse in the mouth, so he made sure to
stay far away from that subject when brought into conversations by the adults
in his life.
In Gryffindor Tower, more precisely in the First Year Girls’ Dorm, young Ginny
Weasley was currently pouring her daily doses of worries, woes, insecurities
and without her knowing, parts of her very soul, inside her diary. But it
wasn’t a regular magical diary, for it seemed to be sentient and wrote back. By
this point, she had tried to get rid of it many times after one blackouts too
many, but it’s hooks were deep in her young and fragile psyche. What no one
knew, was that the diary was the catalyst for the reopening of the infamous
Chamber of Secrets and all the attacks on the school population since
Halloween. Now, today Ginny was pouring her excitement about Harry Potter, the
Boy-Who-Lived, finally resurfacing.
Of course, earlier in the year, Ginny was asked to explain what that title
represented and why it was given to a eighteen months child of all people. The
most popular and frankly believable rumour about the events of that fateful
night said that You-Know-Who came to kill the Potters in person on the date of
October 31th 1981. It was said that he killed James Potter first before
climbing the stairs to the nursery and then killed Lily Potter. But when he
turned his wand towards baby Harry tried to kill him, something strange and
frankly unexpected happened.
The Killing_Curse rebounded upon the toddler’s forehead and before he could try
to dodge, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was quite ironically felled by his very own
spell. Baby Harry Potter had survived with only a lightning bolt scar on his
forehead as a memento of the attack that had killed his parents. Hence his
epithet. He had survived something that no one else had before him.   
It was also heavily believed that young Harry Potter had some sort of unknown
power that had activated that night, thus permitting him to survive what nobody
else before him had. The spell used wasn’t classed as Unforgivable for nothing.
The name of the curse told everyone about its effects. The Killing Curse. But
then, something happened to disprove at least part of what was the most
reasonable theory in the eyes of the “Ministry Experts”. Lily Potter had
survived that fateful night. All the inhabitants of Hogwarts Castle had seen
the woman hale and hearty walking about.
To make a long tale short, the being inside the diary was now very interested
into the surviving Potters. More into the boy than in the woman...The Mudblood
must have been very lucky or the Dark Lord must have had a very bad day when he
went to get rid of some problematic elements, there were no other possible
logical explanations. Tom, for it was the name of the “being” inside the diary,
categorically refused to acknowledge even the slightest possibility that the
Dark Lord could have been bested by such filth. But maybe it was time for a
change of plan? Cleaning the sacrosanct Halls of this prestigious learning
institution from all the riffraff and the unworthy (Mudbloods, Half-Breeds,
Squibs and Blood Traitors) polluting it didn’t seem to hold as much appeal as
before…
Later that night, in Ravenclaw Tower, also in the First Year Girls’ Dorm a
statuesque beauty of a green haired woman with elven like ears appeared near
one Luna Lovegood’s four posters bed. The woman exuded a definite supernatural
beauty what with her long forest green tresses falling to her shoulder blades.
Her skin was lightly bronzed, showing that she likely could often be found
outside under the sun. Her heart shaped face, her kissable lips and her forest
green eyes currently illuminated from an internal light were simply things that
added to her clearly supernatural beauty. Strangely, she was only wearing a
dark green chiton like short tunic with a black belt below her considerable
bust. In front of the belt, there was a golden symbol of tree distinct golden
triangles forming a bigger one. Strangely, this ethereal woman was barefoot.
One second there was no one in the dorm except those sleeping there, the next
the supernatural woman appeared from nowhere. With a casual wave of her hand,
the other girls went into a deep enchanted sleep. Nothing would wake them up
until she lift the spell. Then she went to the bed closest to the window where
a young blonde girl was currently sleeping. The greenette sat near the bed’s
occupant and turned into a way to be able to caress the young girl’s hair.
Then, on a whim, the woman started to sing quietly in the ancient tongue of her
people. After a certain time, young Luna Lovegood, a first year Ravenclaw
already shunned for her differences and for her strange beliefs began to
awaken. After making sure that it was not a dream, the little girl said rather
surprised
“Huh...Wha…? *Yawn* Who…? Lady... Farore?! What are you doing here?! I thought
the Gods had rules against meeting with mortals outside of Temples? Won’t you
get into trouble with your sisters or the Lady Hylia for breaking the rules for
Gods that Lady Nayru told us about?”
Farore, Goddess of Courage and one of the Kingdom of Hyrule and the planet it
rested on creators, smiled enigmatically for an answer. Usually, Luna would be
right. On her home planet, the Ancient Laws enacted by the Primordial Entities
that gave birth to her kind forbid any direct contact with mortals unless it
was in a Temple dedicated to her or her sisters. And even then, it was
preferred to do so via a third party. There were exceptions to the rules of
course, but they were quite few. It was because of these rules that there were
no Demigods running around in their world. But here, on this Planet Earth,
where the Age of the Gods was now long gone, there was nobody left to enforce
such Laws.
There was no Pantheons currently active here whose feathers would have likely
been ruffled at the very least by her current actions. There was that unique
metaphysical God whose presence she could somewhat feel, but so far He and His
supposed Agents had not made any moves in answer to their Golden Trinity’s
intrusion on their territory. Farore and her sisters were part of a divine
trio; her sisters were not her superiors, but her equals. Some of their
Followers had the weird idea, a few centuries ago, that Din was the leader of
their trio. But it was completely false of course. The goddess Hylia was also
not part of the “Golden Trinity” ; but she was not their superior either.
Hylia’s Domains were simply different than theirs. Farore’s introspection
having lasted only a second or two, she answered Luna
“Don’t you worry about me, my sweet girl. If there was a problem I would have
handled it. I came to see you because I need your help with something
discreetly.”
Luna, always eager to help one of her few friends, even if said friend was an
all-powerful goddess from another world taking a much deserved vacation into
this one, answered after pushing aside her irritation at having being woken up
in the middle of the night    
“What can I do to help you, Milady?”
Farore wasn’t one for stuffy titles and Court talk usually, but Luna seemed to
like to talk to her like that and since she was quite fond of the little blond
waif, the Goddess of Courage let her address her however she liked, hence the
reverential tones. Getting to the point of her visit, the deity explained
“ I am not certain if you knew it, but my current Champion is now back to his
world of origin, here. Something else you should you know, is that my sisters
and I both made a risky gamble a few decades ago. We decided to mess with the
eternal cycle of the latest Incarnations of both the Hero of Legend and The
Princess of Destiny fighting a war since time immemorial against the latest
Incarnation of the Demon King. Due to my sisters and I meddling,Young Harry
Potter is the current Host for the Spirit of the Legendary Hero. But before
subtly guiding him on the right path to help him accomplish his Destiny, he
must first be tested to see if he is worthy of the Legacy currently sleeping
inside him.”
She paused a bit to gather her thoughts and to give Luna a chance to process
everything said so far before continuing
“As much as I would wish that this new Incarnation could have had it easier
than his predecessors, my sisters and I truly needs to know if all that extra
work we did to set things up this Reincarnation Cycle was worth it. This is
where you would come in, my dear. Since I cannot appear in front of him right
now; you, Luna, would be my Herald; if you accept of course. My voice would be
your voice. My Decrees would pass through your mouth. To help you on this task,
that you accept my offer or not, I offer you this boon. “
This time, Farore had to pause because Luna was nos moving to sit on the
mattress, or else she would simply go back to sleep before the Goddess was done
with her and it would be very much impolite. Once settled, the divine being
continued
“There is an ancient and monstrous creature currently roaming the corridors of
this castle. It is that creature which is responsible for the attacks on the
student body. You would need to tell young Harry that he must slay the beast to
prove himself worthy of being the Legendary Hero. He can ask for help for this
trial, in fact he can look for all the help he may needs. After all even as
formidable he already is and even with the help of his rather unusual powers,
vanquishing such an ancient foe at his age won’t be an easy task. But also warn
him that he alone must deal the finishing blow or else he will have failed the
task set in front of him.
The infamous Beast of Slytherin is in fact a thousand years old Basilisk. Feel
free to tell him as soon as possible if he is nice to you. If he’s not, well
then you can get even with him by withholding the information for a while
longer or by simply go tell all you learned to a responsible adult. After the
Beast is felled, I will appear to him and explain what I expect of him or more
likely have another third party do it in my stead. After all, I need to keep
some of the mystery alive no? Now are you willing to be my Herald, Luna? ”
She finished while smiling impishly with an added mischievous wink.
Luna listened attentively to her immortal friend’s words and committed them to
memory. It was important after all, no matter her decision. When the offer of
becoming the mischievous Goddess’ Herald came up again, Luna said in a voice
getting drowsier as time passed
“Lady Farore, it’s the middle of the night. I’m sorry but I need to sleep. I
also can’t make an important decision just like that without thinking about it
first. I’ll write to my parents after classes tomorrow and see what they think
when they answer, then I’ll give you an answer after we have talked about it.
Mummy and Daddy would be disappointed if I did not ask them first.”
The green haired goddess blinked with incomprehension for a short instant, then
realized that Luna was still a young child of eleven years old and that she
truly needed her rest. Even as precocious and intelligent as she was, the girl
was still mortal and thus had limits that immortal beings like her tended to
forget to take into account. After a few more minutes of innate chat, and
seeing a visibly struggling to stay awake Luna, Farore took the obvious hint
and left. One second she was there, the next she was gone. No flash of light,
no spectacular departure, nothing.
A few days later, there was a secret conference between the Lovegood family and
the Goddess of Courage. For the occasion, Farore took Luna home for a few hours
since it was the easiest way to do things. In the end, after much explanations
and promises of not sending the girl into any dangerous situations before she
was old enough to deal with it, Luna was permitted to accept the Goddess’
offer. The Goddess was glad to have a trusted agent in this world, since
otherwise the message for her Champion would have been much harder to deliver.
Luna was then presented with a pearl with rather fetching tones of green. There
was a nice coloured band of forest green followed by a larger band of olive
green.
In the centre of the pearl were two half moons in forest green, the larger half
moon behind the smaller one, then a complete circle inside the smaller half
moon. Of course in between the shapes there were small bands of olive green
colours. When first conjured by the Goddess, the pearl was bigger than Luna’s
hand, but after a little adjustment it was resized to fit on a small chain to
form a pendant. When Luna asked what would happen if someone tried to take
Farore’s Pearl away from her, the emerald green haired deity only raised a
delicate eyebrow and answered
“Luna, with that pearl now resting around your neck, only the most powerful of
Curses will be able to hurt you. Also, only you can remove it from your neck
now. I also made very sure that the chain won’t hurt you if it’s pulled on.
Don’t misunderstand me though; you are not invulnerable because of my gift. For
example, if you accidentally fell you could still get scraps and scratches on
your skin. But any harmful magical spell or potions going in your direction
except for the darkest of magics will be blocked entirely. It will also serve
as a proof for those who don’t believe your words that you are now speaking in
my name.”
This was how Luna Lovegood, an eleven years old British Witch and First Year
Ravenclaw became part of Hyrule’s most distinguished individuals without having
ever set foot upon that world.
A few days later, down in the Dungeons, more precisely in the Slytherin’s
Common Room; in a secluded corner removed from where Draco Malfoy was currently
trying and mostly falling to endear the older students to him, sat Daphne
Greengrass and Tracey Davis. After their encounter with the strange
supernaturally gifted boy and venting her frustrations, the blonde Earthbender
finally listened to her common sense and reason. Yes, he was following them and
was under camouflage. But she shouldn’t have attacked him out of the blue like
that without warning him first.While her defeat at his hands had left a sour
taste in her mouth, she was feeling quite guilty about being such a sore loser
and sending him into a close meeting head first with a stone wall. What if he
had been badly hurt?
Then an announcement during Lunch the other day had elucidated a lot of
mysteries. The newcomers were Lily Potter nee Evans, Sirius Black and Harry
Potter himself! Mind you, Daphne never bought into the whole Boy-Who-Lived
craze since her parents weren’t the sort to start acclaiming somebody like a
deity at the say so of a government or a newspaper. Even less when that
somebody is a toddler when everyone with a lick of logic and common sense could
tell that it was likely something Lily Potter did that defeated the Dark Lord.
Not some sort of nebulous power possessed by the fifteen months old child.
While traditionalists and believing that a good pedigree was important to get
anywhere in their community, her parents and her grandparents before them had
never been part of the Dark Lord’s crowd and thus her sister and her had not
been raised as Blood Supremacists. The Greengrass family may be one of those
“Sacred twenty-eight” vaunted by the Ministry of Magic, but in fact they were
renowned for their neutrality.
But Daphne was in fact very interested into Potter’s magical capacities. He had
used controlled wandless magic and it was something that was seen as highly
difficult and extremely rare in their society. He had conjured a very
sophisticated looking sword with such ease that it was disconcerting! And the
blade had been of a very high quality if it could clash repeatedly against a
spear made of stone without breaking after a few hits! Maybe she could kill
three birds with one stone? She could apologize for her horrid conduct of the
other day, see if he was alright with no lasting sequels from his introduction
to one of Hogwarts’ stone walls and then discuss his strange powers with him.
No matter what Tracey said, it was not because he had beautiful green eyes and
not because his smile was giving her butterflies in her stomach!
She did_not had a crush on Harry bloody Potter for Salazar’s sake! She had only
met him once! To get away from such thoughts and the knowing smirk of her best
friend, the blonde with forest green eyes got up from her chair and stalked
with a determined gait towards the exit of the Common Room. Daphne would learn
in a few years that Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt… *snickers*
While Daphne and Tracey were now actively searching the school for Harry’s
whereabouts once they left the Slytherin Common Room, the twelve years old boy
was currently roaming the upper floors of the castle with no clear plans in his
head. Currently he was on the fifth floor and was crossing a corridor filled
with knights’ armours. Some were armed with flails, one or two even had pretty
menacing looking morning stars, other were equipped with maces of all sorts,
and quite a few had very realistic looking Scottish claymores in their hands.
Harry was trying to not let too much of his anxiety show and overwhelm him.
Midna was currently taking a nap in her true form and her mother would be gone
for a few days with her surrogate grandfather. Sure, Sirius was still around to
keep an eye on him, but he couldn’t help feeling unsettled since she would have
to let go all the savage instincts she had kept a tight grip on for years so
she could satiate her thirst for blood. It was one of the downsides of being a
Dead Apostle Ancestor. He was not afraid of her, but more afraid for her. What
if she couldn’t get her murderous instincts back under control once she was
sated? What if she couldn’t quench her thirst for blood at all? His mother was
the centre of his world. He truly loved his godfather, yes but it wasn’t the
same. Then he shook his head and told himself out loud:
“Stop doubting your mother, Potter. You know exactly what, who and how strong
she truly is. She’ll be just fine. Sit tight and just make sure Sirius doesn’t
do something stupid in the meantime.”
Then he stopped talking to himself when he heard two unknown male voices coming
near his position. The voices were similar to each others, but also different
at the same time. Following his instincts that were telling him to hide, Harry
melded with the shadow of the nearest suit of armour. From what he could hear,
the two boys were bantering back and forth about pranks done on somebody called
“Ronniekins” and on a few “slimy” Slytherins. They were also calling themselves
Gred and Forge. Likely nicknames based on the name of their twin brother. So
those two were pranksters heh? Maybe he could do something to prank them in
return. After all, there was no greater reward than driving other pranksters up
the wall in sheer insanity...
Once the redheaded twins were no longer in earshot and in his field of vision
but knowing they weren’t that far yet, he decided that he should get a move on
before they were too far away. Harry walked out of the shadow he had hidden
himself then he quickly brought his hands into a roughly spherical shape. After
a few seconds of concentration, a red sphere of magical energy with Twilight
particles inside it was formed and with a low pitch but reverberating sounding
grunt of effort, a Scimitar of Twilight similar to the one he had used against
the pretty blonde girl blessed with earth powers appeared, floating in the air.
But this time, the lines of light on the sword’s edges were an angry red rather
than a soft blue. Replacing the blade in the hands of one of the claymore
wielding armour suits with his creation, the red angry lines then travelled
from the blade, pass the guard, then up to the pommel and soon enough, all over
the armour. But they weren’t visible for long. After about a minute, the
glowing lines had entirely faded and were now visible only on the sword. Now,
if Harry had only wanted to terrorize the two pranksters, he would have sicced
the now enchanted knight on them without putting much more efforts into things.
A simple and quick Animation_Charm with a defined target and basic parameters
on how to act “programmed” into the spell and it would have been ready to go.
But a real masterful prank was not something potentially lethal if it got out
of hand. And traumatizing people with very obnoxious behaviours or with
allusions to weird adult things was much more fun than scaring them shitless by
making them think that they were going to die in his humble opinion.
So with a quick Colour_Changing_Charm, the suit of armour was turned a very
bright eye watering pink, the ominously glowing red eyes inside the darkened
helm were then turned into hearts of a softer pink colour to not clash with the
new makeover done to the steel plates. Then Harry began to ponder what else to
add. He truly wanted to scare his fellow pranksters and see if they could come
up with something challenging in answer to this. Then he remembered a witnessed
encounter with a specific male prostitute from Hyrule Castle Town that seemed
to had made it his life mission of making Sirius feel extremely uncomfortable
with his very presence each time they crossed each others.
After a mad cackle that would surely make Sirius’ sense of chaos tingle, Harry
didn’t cast a structured spell per see since what he wanted to do would take
too many of them and some were unknown to him at the moment. He simply imposed
his will on his magic and it did the rest of the job for him. Soon enough, the
suit of armour was now strutting in a very disturbing manner towards the same
direction the Twins went to. It was in times like this that Harry wished he
could levitate at will like Midna could do when she took her Imp form.
He would love to be a fly on that wall when his prank reached his intended
victims. Then, to make sure to not get caught, he was just about to teleport
away via twilight portal since the castle was warded against apparition, but
coming from the other end of the corridor, he spotted the girls he had been
following the day of his arrival. Apparently, the girls hadn’t expected to find
him here either by the looks on their surprised faces. A strange silence was
hovering around the trio, that is until Harry broke it with the very smile that
would become quite roguish and his future trademark in a few more years, then
said:
“Well, if it isn’t my sparring partner of the other day! Did you come looking
for a rematch, Miss? If it’s the case, just let me call my weapon and I’ll
humour you in a few seconds! ”
Tracey couldn’t help but giggle audibly at the boy’s declaration and also at
how flustered Daphne was acting. The blonde was currently trying to come up
with an adequate answer and control her  growing blush. Oh she had it bad! Then
the boy just had to make it worse by tilting his head on the side in honest
confusion. The blue eyed brunette that was Daphne’s best friend since childhood
also had to force back a squeal since he looked too cute when he was doing
that! But before Daphne could bring back her “Ice Princess” mask, there was two
very loud identical yelps heard not too far from their position and a weird
loud cooing voice that said out loud
“On my gosh! Aren't you two young bucks just too cute?! I could just hug you
and kiss you all day long! Come here boys! Come see Sorella! She will dress you
up real nice for the coming tea party, darlings!”
“No!”
“Leave us-”
“Alone!”
“Go-”
“Away!”
“Tea Parties are-”
“For chumps!”
“But I can’t do that, my darlings! You two are such marvellous specimens of
what strapping young lads should be these days! Also, you are exactly my type!
Don’t tell me you don’t enjoy having a pretty girl’s attentions on you,
gentlemen? Sorella is not an easy girl to impress after all! ”
One of the Weasley twins, for Daphne and Tracey knew their voices by now and
even then, their habit of finishing each other’s sentences was pretty much
their calling card, just answered with a trembling and clearly disturbed voice
“Well... there’s a problem with your logic, mate... You’re not a girl, you are
just an animated suit of armour!“
Then there was a very offended feminine sounding huff heard and the same weird
voice shot back
“Well, it seems Sorella will have to teach you both just how young men should
treat a lady before our tea party. And don’t talk back! You are both
participating and that is final! Frankly, I’m quite offended by your horrendous
manners! I think once I am done with the both of you, I will go speak with your
mother about your most unappealing conduct! At least shewill most likely set
the both of you straight!”
Fred, or was it George?, shot back with a clearly shaken tone of voice
“Well, go be offended by our manners somewhere else then! You’re seriously
creeping us out!”
During the argument, the trio of pre-teens had made it to where the voices were
coming from and it was needless to say that the girls were quite baffled by
what they could see while Harry had to bite the interior of his cheek to not
bust a gut right there. The modified armour was pursuing relentlessly the now
panicking redheaded pranksters around the fifth floor corridors and when they
tried to use the now currently moving staircases to get away to safety, the
overly feminized enchanted armour simply took a couple steps back before
running at insane speeds and power jumping at their pursuit once more, much to
their horror!
The armour was then chasing them downstairs all the while promising them
cuddles, kisses, new flashy and trendy clothes, pedicures and manicures, all
the while brandishing menacingly the enchanted blade that Harry had created to
animate the whole thing. The armour suit that called itself Sorella was still
rambling about makeovers and new high-heeled shoes when the now out of breath
fleeing twins stumbled upon Professor Snape doing his rounds on the third floor
on the left side of the castle. The sour faced and ill tempered Potion Master
was about to discipline them for running in the corridors and eagerly at that.
This time Minerva or Albus wouldn’t be able to let them off the hook since they
were visibly breaking the school rules.
Just as he was gathering his breath for a good rant at irresponsible
Gryffindors he then realized that they were pursued by something quite weird.
Suspecting that it was a prank that backfired on them but seeing the armour
armed with a very sharp looking sword, Snape decided to save his rant for later
and act like a responsible adult should and save the dunderheads. No matter how
annoying as they were, he didn’t wish them dead for all that. Quick as
lightning, the Head of Slytherin House drew his wand and used the general
counter-spell at the boys’ pursuer.
“Finite Incantatem!”   
The spell successfully hit the right breast plate of the strangely coloured
animated armour. But weirdly, it didn’t end the enchantment. The armour then
spoke like it was dizzy
“ Oh dear, my poor head is spinning! Running after those two red headed
hooligans must have been more exhausting that I first realized…”
Severus was frankly really creeped out by the deep masculine voice trying and
failing horribly to sounds feminine that was coming out of the suit’s helm. But
his feeling of being very uncomfortable would soon grow exponentially. After
getting hold of itself, the construct said
“Why hello there! My oh my! Aren’t you a sight for those sore eyes?! yum yum,
you are one fine looking piece of man! My name is Sorella. What’s yours, cutie?
”   
Looking up the banister a floor above but in a way they wouldn’t be spotted
immediately, the trio that was composed of Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis and
Harry Potter had to muffle the snickers that were threatening to escape their
lips. The horrified look on Snape’s face when he realized that an enchanted
suit of armour was flirting with him was simply priceless! Soon enough,
Professor Snape beated an abrupt retreat by turning sharply on himself, letting
his robes billow dramatically, but not after trying his best to immobilize his
new unwanted admirer. The Head of Slytherin House wasn’t five metres away from
his would-be suitor that the spells put on it broke. Literally at that.
“Sorella” had sliced through them with it’s enchanted blade and said out loud
in a rather cattily tone of voice
“ Oh my! I hadn’t imagined that you were into that sort of things, Sweetness!
Seriously, bondage? So soon into our relationship? Oh, you naughty boy! ”   
Severus was now officially panicking. That enchanted suit of armour had cut
through the spells used to restrain it with a few swings of its sword and with
such disconcerting ease! The more terrifying thing in all of this? The armour
was thinking that he was into bondage of all things! And since the armour had
changed targets, the Weasley Twins had rather wisely taken advantage of it by
making themselves scarce. Severus could likely destroy the suit of armour, but
he had no idea if doing so would trigger something else in the enchantments put
on it.
There was also the fact that it was part of the security system of the school
in case of invasions. He couldn’t just destroy it like that without
repercussions. As much as he hated to admit it, he would need either Minerva or
Albus’ help for this. With that in mind, Severus turned tail and ran with
“Sorella” hot on his heels. He was closer to Minerva’s office than Albus’, so
Severus took off in the direction to the Head of Gryffindor’s office.
When he was certain that the Potions Master was long gone, Harry simply lost
it. Loud laughter exploded from him and he had to held himself against the
nearest wall while he was gasping for air. While he had targeted the redheaded
twins with his prank, he had not expected to see it change victims but he
wasn’t complaining one bit. He wasn’t alone in sharing the mirth of the
situation. Daphne was trying to keep herself to dignified giggles all the while
covering her mouth with her hand, but Tracey had no such restrain, since she
was laughing herself to tears. Even if the intended victim(s) of the prank had
changed, it was still
“Priceless!”
Tracey had been faster than him with her words. But nonetheless, it was true.
Snape’s face and the Twins’ reaction to “Sorella” had been so funny that it was
without price. Now that the distraction was out of the way, Harry positioned
his hands once again in roughly spherical shape and started to tap into his
Twili Shadow Magic to conjure another Twilight sword, but was halted beforehand
by Daphne’s words.
“Wait wait wait! I’m not here for a rematch! You made it quite clear that you
were the better fighter the other day!”   
She finished by shaking both her palms from right to left quickly.
Blinking with incomprehension, the young man let his hands fall at his sides
before answering once his mind went back on track. Absently, both girls
remarked that the sphere of shadow and red light had vanished like it was never
here in the first place.
“Ah? Well what other reasons did you have to seek me out then, Milady? Or do
you prefer to be addressed as “Miss”? It’s the modern term, no?”
While Tracey was smirking at seeing Daphne try to control her blush, the said
blushing girl managed to tell Harry that “Miss Greengrass” was just fine. Then
Tracey, casual as nobody else, piped up
“Or you could just call her “Daph” like I do. No need for formalities. After
your duel against each others a few days ago, we’re all friends no?”
Of course, even if Tracey seemed to lack the qualities to be sorted in
Slytherin House at first glance, she knew that it was better to not mention
Daphne’s special powers and Harry’s supernatural physical capacities. While she
was sociable and relatively nice, she had goals in mind and was not afraid to
play dirty if needs be. After all, she was cunning enough to fool the Blood
Purists into leaving her mostly alone. Sincerely it was not that bad with the
exception of a few barbs here and here about her blood status and her
parentage. She had learned to ignore those remarks early in her First Year.
Tracey’s interruption won her an “Ice Princess of Slytherin’s” glare (trademark
still pending) from Daphne, but she shrugged it off easily enough. It wasn’t
the first time her best friend glared at her like that and it wouldn’t likely
be the last time either. After a bit of deliberation, it was judged too risky
to ask deeper questions about Harry’s wandless magical talents out in the open.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was Gossip Central after all, what
with the sentient portraits and the ghosts.
In another world somewhere in another reality, Altrouge Brunestud was currently
naked as the day she was born and bathing in a literal lake of blood that she
was currently absorbing slowly but surely through the pores of her alabaster
like skin. When she had contacted her adoptive grandfather, they had met
outside Clock Tower to not give the Barthomeloi Bitch an aneurysm since her
family had it bad against Dead Apostles. She was pretty sure that the Queen
Bitch_of_Clock_Tower had stopped trying to slay Zelretch only because she
realized that it was futile since nothing she could do to him would stick. The
usual jovial elderly man had only taken one look at her before moving both of
them in another reality with a serious look on his wrinkled face.  
Once in this war and disease filled doomed world, he then begun to give her a
lecture about responsibility of all things! The oddest thing was that for a
change, he was deadly serious.
“I can’t believe you, Altrouge. Frankly, I am quite disappointed with you. You
usually have a more levelled head on your shoulders than that. Well, when you
are not a brat with more power than sense. A mortal’s lifetime really did you
good. You really went to the limit this time, a day or two more of abstinence
and you would have most likely snapped and caused a bloodbath. What did you do
to get this thirsty? Stopped feeding completely for years until you couldn’t
take it anymore? Would it have been so hard to hunt once in a while to keep
yourself if not full then at least stable? How much energy did you spend to be
so in need to feed so soon?! You dropped off the map entirely for about dozen
years. I couldn’t find you and trust me, I looked. “
Before she could marshal her defences, Zelretch cut her off with a harsh
movement of the hand and said in a voice that brook no arguments
“No matter. Now go feed and we will have words when you will be feeling more
level headed. But mark my words, there better be a good explanation for this
severe lapse of judgment of your part or else we are going to have a problem
you and I.”
He trailed off rather ominously.
It was in times like this that Altrouge remembered that Zelretch had fought
Crimson Moon Brunestud, the first Vampire, her “progenitor” and won. The price
might have been high, but there was a reason as to why he was ranked as the
fourth of the twenty-seven Dead Apostle Ancestors and she as the ninth. Even if
their “Elite and Exclusive Club” wasn’t rated power-wise but more for the
danger they represented to humanity, he was still more powerful than her. Hence
why after massacring thousands of diseased and/or doomed people and improvising
herself a bath, her attention was brought back to her honorary grandfather.
Usually he would always have that twinkle in his eye showing his mischievous
side added to his usual smirk.
But now she could only see the hard stare and the grim look he was showing her.
Also he seemed to be ready for anything since he had taken his fifty years old
appearance. Last she had heard on the supernatural grapevine, he mostly stayed
in his seventy years old form and played the helpless old man card at random to
troll people in between traumatizing apprentices. The look in his eyes were a
sign that she should begin talking if she knew what was good for her and thus,
not caring about her nudity-If you have it, flaunt it (And it was not like her
grandfather was interested in her in thatway anyway)-she began her story.
How her mortal life as a Muggle-born Witch had been until her “death” at the
business end of Voldemort’s wand in Halloween 1981. Mentioning how her son was
the ideal blend of Dead Apostle Ancestor and Wizard, what with him possessing
all of their strengths but none of their weaknesses; what with a supernatural
strong and resilient body, access to wandless Wizardry, lack of any capacity
for Magecraft except the bare basics (Altrouge’s mortal self had been a Muggle-
Born Witch and the boy’s father had been a Pureblood Wizard, so that might
explain the lack of good quality circuits inherited by their offspring since
there was no Magus in either of their family trees) and not cursed with a
thirst for blood had the scholar in Zelretch quite interested. But the mention
of the Twilis, the Twilight Realm and Hyrule, all places and people he had
never heard about before now had the Wizard_Marshall cackle in sheer delight.
He so wanted to go there right now to meet and troll all those new
victims...err... people! To explore those new places! It was so new, a breath
of fresh air really! Learning that his own powers weren’t enough to travel
there on his own was also both vexing and refreshing at the same time. Vexing
because, like it or not, theOld_Man_of_the_Jewels was quite proud of his
achievements and refreshing because finally, it was somebody else’s turn to be
the inter-dimensional taxi! But if Altrouge thought that showing him shiny new
things would get her grandfather off her back, she was very wrong. Because he
was quick to jump back on the previous subject.
“Now explain to me why you were so thirsty. I know for a fact you fed until you
were punch drunk before going forward with the plan to reincarnate as a mortal.
You should have been able to stave the blood lust for much longer than this.”
The Eclipse_Princess_of_Black_Blood sighed quite noisily and then answered if
only to have some peace of mind from her pestering grandfather
“ I am not one hundred percent sure, but I do have a solid theory as to why I
am so thirsty so soon. It’s a combination of many things if I am not mistaken.
My successful pregnancy, my successful sacrificial ritual to save my son’s life
from Voldemort’s curse and my revival/awakening as my true self after being hit
by a Killing Curse point blank likely used quite a lot of my accumulated
reserves of power. Also I think I had a few partial awakenings when fighting a
few of the more powerful Death Eaters during the Wizarding War, which likely
didn’t help since my Dead Apostle abilities had to fight my mortal body’s
limitations without killing me in the process.
And I did not fast during my time away from Earth. Hyrule is not without its
population of outlaws, homeless and diseased, what with being a country in the
beginning stages of their version of the Renaissance, having only just left
behind their Medieval Era.The Hyrulian Soldiers can only do so much to keep the
peace after all so it’s not like my indulgence in the gutter trash brought my
family unwanted attention. When human blood was not available, I hunted
carnivorous animals in the wild. While animal blood is not quite as potent as
the blood of human beings, it can be of help in a pinch.”
Hearing that, Zelretch reluctantly backed off. He did not fashion himself as a
hero, oh far from it; but when members of his honorary family were straying
from the few morals he had to begin with, he made it his business to
investigate the reason(s) why. When they were still young and out of Crimson
Moon Brunestud’s influence, Zelretch had taught the Brunestud sisters the
virtue of restrain and gotten them into the habit of doing the best they could
to control the blood lust. Especially in this new flourishing age of technology
where the Moonlit and Magical Worlds were having even more problems staying
undiscovered by the regular populace, calling attention upon yourself by
massacring a populous city was not a good idea at all.
Zelretch did not know if a Dead Apostle Ancestor could survive a nuclear
missile in the mug and he had no intention of testing it. Humans were
particularly inventive in the domains of destruction and warfare, he wouldn’t
be surprised if somebody came up with something that could put down for good
any creatures from the supernatural without the use of Wizardry of Magecraft in
the near future. Hence why he threw his entire support and all his influence to
help the Wizards championing it when the International Statute of Secrecy was
first brought up. It was one of the few times Magi and Wizards had put their
differences aside for a common goal, even if only reluctantly. They might not
have the same methods to ensure the secrecy of Magecraft and Wizardry, but one
way or another, it got the job done and it was what counted.
Once that lake of blood was entirely absorbed, Altrouge cleaned herself up
magically, got dressed and went back to hunt while Zelretch satisfied his
curiosity with whatnots or maybe he was looking for trolling somebody, who
knew? She was still rather thirsty and that world was only a few months away
from it’s total destruction. The Humans here had dug too deep with their new
fangled super drill technology or something similar and the core of this planet
was now on the verge of catastrophic failure.
Unfortunately for them, their most intelligent scientists in about every field
that could matter for the crisis at hand had fallen to either the Global War
still currently going on or the plague that  was just cured a few months ago
and the survivors of both catastrophes were now off world. So their deaths at
her hands was only ending at getting ahead of their already scheduled demise.
There was some sort of plan to send some people to colonize a new world but
since the space ships had already left before her arrival, she was not
concerning herself with any moral debates. No, she was here only to feed and
she planned to go back to her son’s side as soon as possible. She would have
preferred having had the time to find Remus so he could keep an eye on the kids
in her absence, but it was not to be.
Back in Hogwarts Castle, while Severus had managed to escape “Sorella” long
enough to take refuge in Minerva’s office, it took the off hand remark of
Filius, who was having tea with his fellow Head of House at the moment when
Severus rushed in out of breath, about the irregular sword not matching the
regular claymores seen on the normal sword wielding armours in Sorella's hands
to find a way to end the frankly quite disturbing one-sided flirting session.
Once the strange shadowy looking sword was destroyed, the new enchantments
animating the suit of armour pursuing the Potion Master vanished without
leaving in prior traces of their presence, leaving the initial ones intact.
Thus it was quite easy for the Deputy Headmistress to order the suit back to
its original place. Of course, while his colleagues had the tact to not laugh
at his misfortune where the students could hear it or in front of him, Severus
knew deep in his heart that his misadventure would make the rounds among the
Staff sooner or later.
Filius then piped up, hiding his amused smile behind the rim of his cup of tea
“I don’t know if we should punish the perpetrators of this prank or give them
House Points for such exceptional spell-work. I mean, it is no small task to
put enchantments over the Castle’s defence system without both sets conflicting
and then disguising the source of it on something that seemed obvious at first
glance but truly was not. It show signs of somebody able to think outside of
the box and that this person also possess a certain understanding on how we,
adult wizards, tend to expect things to work. I am not an easily impressed man,
but this time I truly am. And to think this time the Weasley Twins aren’t the
perpetrators, but the intended victims of the prank…”
The Ravenclaw Head of House trailed off, shaking his head in a strange mix of
amusement and curiosity before sipping on his tea. It seemed that the Weasley
Twins had a new rival in the pranks department. And to think that his fellow
senior staff members and himself truly thought that things would finally calm
down once James Potter and his clique graduated. Oh things were calm for a few
years, but then George and Fred Weasley received their Hogwarts letter at their
eleventh birthday and both of them now seemed to be trying to outdo the
previous generation of pranksters. After a pleased sigh after another sip of
his tea, Filius then said to his colleagues
“It seems that we have some interesting times ahead of us. Well, at least we
won’t be bored.”
Minerva had to refrain herself from snorting and answered
“I would rather that we become bored than having to deal with a prank war in
between the Weasley Twins and whoever hijacked the suit of armour. Those two
won’t let such a challenge unanswered. Three more years...just three more
years…”
She trailed off while rubbing her temples.
The Heads of House had truly no idea how things would change. With Higher
Powers now focusing their attention on certain members of their Society, change
was truly inevitable. But would those so inevitable changes be good or bad? Now
that is the question. Only the future will tell.
 
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