Another chapter, finally...I've had too many distractions. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter.
Chapter 30: A Family Dinner
***********************South Pacific, near Fakfak, New Guinea ****************
December 3, 2019
2:00 pm
Dozens of black-clad, armored forms spun from behind rocks and trees, bushes and came out of the very ground and unleashed a torrent of spellfire, energy and glowing projectiles on a black mass moving quickly though a valley. Scores of the cloaked figures fell to the assault, but it wasn't enough. The dark horde of X'Sheen below turned as a mass and returned fire, horrible green and yellow curses erupted from their hands, and at first a few, then more and more armored suits began to fall.
The X'Sheen poured spellfire into the hills surrounding their open position, not bothering to take cover, as they tried to kill the American, British and Australian forces desperately contending their match towards Australia, following, purely coincidentally, the path that the Axis powers had taken almost eighty years before. Behind a large, moss-covered bolder, an armored suit paused and lifted his dark visor, revealing tired blue eyes set on a haggard and careworn face. His armor was stenciled on the right shoulder with a fluttering American flag that was almost scored away and on the chest with "Grierson, M, MAJ." A pair of subdued oak leaves were barely visible on his shoulders, as he looked at a smaller, mostly because the wizard he was looking at was in BDUs not the heavy armor, he and the rest of his force were wearing. "You wanted to see this, Admiral," Grierson growled. Behind the Admiral, several more armors, each stenciled with a grey trident on the left breast above the names and ranks of the sailors, stood looking outward, watching for movement in the jungle beyond.
"It's your show, Mark," Nimitz replied shrugging, "I'm just here to stretch my legs." The leader of his protective detail, a Lieutenant named Simons rolled his eyes, visible as he, lone among his men had his visor up and was facing the Major and the Admiral.
"As you say, sir," Grierson replied, with the tone that lower ranks often took when they thought their bosses were insane. "Valkyrie Flight, this is MudDog Six," he muttered to the air.
A soft crackling noise was barely audible over the sizzling hiss of spellfire and plasma bolts, and the ripping sound of miniguns, and a slightly drawling, Southern American accent answered him, "That you, Mark?" it asked in a tone of amazement, "I thought you were in Coronado?"
"No, Sam, I'm here, got bored," he replied laconically as a green bolt snapped past the rock formation he was sheltered behind to fell a two-foot thick tree in the forest beyond. "Listen, bud, I have a bug problem..."
"Lay it on me," the voice replied, its tone growing serious.
A loud yell of pain sounded over the air, and Mark groaned under his breath, "Danger close, a two-battalion sized force of X'Sheen in the open, in the valley, elements of the 4th and 7th are on the south and east canyon walls, the Brits are on the west walls, be careful."
"Always...One minute out, MudDog," the voice paused as a loud, whistling whine rent the air, "Smoky, Gorgeous, lay down incendiaries. Tequila, Farmboy, clean up after them, ladies and gentlemen, tally ho."
From out of the sun, a pair of mottled grey dart dropped from the sky like meteors, thundering down towards the valley below. Armor suits dove for cover as the planes pulled up, meters from the valley floor and streaked along it. A pair of six-foot-long, smooth cylinders tumbled from each's wake. As they hit, a wave of flames ripped down the valley floor, incinerating countless X'Sheen. The flames started to fade away, revealing many, many fewer cloaked figures and then, it was over.
Another pair of craft popped up from behind the south ridge where the Admiral was overseeing this ambush of an X'Sheen raiding force. They slipped over the top of the ridge, their field drives soundless, and their noses exploded in the cyan blue of gigawatt range Reductors. The craft swiveled slowly, moving the lines of energy like huge brooms of death, sweeping the remaining X'Sheen before them. Another two craft appeared from behind the East ridge, and the opening two returned, howling in on a reciprocal course to the one they had before and joined their brethren. A shocked silence fell over the valley as the craft stopped firing. The ships rose silently on field drive spells waggling their wings before they shot off to the south, towards the heavily defended waters surrounding the Australian coast where the USS Tiamat, and HMS Merlin sat waiting, patrolling for new incursions.
"There you go, Admiral," Grierson said, waving towards the wrecked valley floor as his sergeants and lieutenants led the troops in sweeping the valley floor for X'Sheen that had not escaped or hadn't been killed. There were no bodies, of course, as the ancient enemy tended to vanish when killed. A fusillade of fire erupted as they watched as a hidden enemy popped out to attack, and died as a half dozen suits hit it before it could release its spells. "As long as we catch them in the open, we can stop them, but if they get in close, it gets...dicey."
"Unfortunately, you were the lucky ones, Mark," Nimitz replied tiredly, "They overran Port Moresby, this morning. It's under orbital bombardment right now. Unconsciously, they glanced to the southeast, and found faint streaks of fire trailing down from above. "Let's get back to the ship, John."
Behind him, Simons reached back and pulled a small, pulsing orb from a compartment on his armor. The other three members of the security detail crowded around, not a easy thing to do in full armor, and touched the orb, touched someone touching it. "Portus," Simons muttered and in a rainbow fall of colors and a rush of wind, the Admiral and the four SEALs, vanished.
******************************Hogwarts**********************************
Half a world away, the travails of the forces fighting for their freedom was the last thing on the minds of almost five hundred students as they sat in various classes listening to Professors drone on about the most mundane things. In one particular room, set in on the second floor off the ancient castle, a tiny Professor stood on a stack of books, piled on top of his desk and pointed to the board, "I can tell you from experience," Flitwick squeaked, pointing back at the board, "That one of the most used charms you will use will be the Warming Charm." He stood, and held up his wand for everyone to see. Emilia looked on, slightly bored, and glanced over at her brother, who was, as usual, not even pretending to pay attention.
She sighed softly, and propped her chin on her hand as Flitwick gave his wand a curious little shake, "The wand movement is as such," he announced, "and the incantation is Tepidus." Emilia dutifully took notes, even though she knew quite well that both the incantation and the specific wand movement were only mnemonic devices to properly focus magic to a given task. She looked up as Flitwick looked around the room, "Does anyone care to perform this spell?" Instantly, Emilia's hand shot up, she didn't glance over to see Horatio roll his eyes. She did hear the soft pop as Harriet, punched him lightly under the table. Harriet smirked at his pained look as Emilia pointed her wand, a twelve-inch long, English yew wand, carved with subtle runes and cored with a feather from the tail of a California Giant Phoenix, the pristine white variant of the breed. Hers was the first wand that Olivander had ever made with samples from that rare subspecies.
Em flicked her wand at a beaker of water sat on the table in front of her, "Tepidus," the beaker started roiling slightly, and Flitwick clapped.
"Excellent, Miss Potter, five points to Gryffindor," Flitwick proclaimed and waved his wand at the board. Words appeared there, replacing the text already there, "For next class, chapter ten please of the Standard Book of Spells, Grade One, two feet on the manipulation charms therein." A distant bell rang, and Flitwick nodded, "Very well, class dismissed." A flock of black robes vanished from the class in moments, leaving Flitwick chuckling under his breath.
The Gryffindor pride of first years, exploded into the hall, and stopped immediately as, "DAD!" Elliot yelled and ran forward, to hug his father with absolutely no sense of embarrassment. Neville returned the hug, before letting his son free. "Where's Mum?"
"She'll be down in a bit, she's getting a cut fixed up," Neville replied patiently. Elliot looked worried, but Neville waved him off, "She's fine, she cut it on a broken piece of glass," he explained, not mentioning it had been in an old abandoned house, in the midst of a firefight in France.
"Uncle Neville, are Mum and Dad here?" Horatio asked, and Emilia and Harriet perked up, Harriet because where Harry and Hermione where, Ron and Luna were sure to follow. He nodded and waved towards the general direction of the dungeon.
"Harriet," he added quickly, before the red-haired girl could follow her friends, "Your Mum and Dad went up to their quarters, I think your Dad wanted to change clothes." She grinned and gave the twins a wave before sprinting off towards the staff quarters.
The twins broke into a sprint, jumping past and through throngs of students as they meandered through the halls on the wall to the library, or their dorms or in the case of an unlucky few, towards detention or extra assignments. They ran up several flights of stairs, jumped over a trick stair and looked over as a huge, ginger Kneazle matched them stride for stride. Em stopped at a landing on the fifth floor near a large painting of Edward the Handy. She looked to each side, waved Horatio close and touched the lower right corner of the painting. It swung open on silent hinges, and the pair of them slipped in.
Behind them, unseen in the hall, an older student in an unmarked robe slipped from the shadows and headed off towards the Library wing.
A wing away, several minutes later and six floors down, a bronze statue of a serpent came to life and slithered aside, revealing an opening, through which the Potter twins and Crookshanks emerged into the Dungeons somewhere directly under Gryffindor Tower. The statue of Grezzle, the familiar of Osborne Snark, hissed a greeting at them, and Emilia gave it a small smile, {Thank You,} she hissed and waved as they started down the dimly lit halls.
They passed the main Potions classroom, and jumped slightly as a muffled explosion shook the closed door. Emilia giggled softly as she heard Draco's drawling voice berating some fifth year for mixing Moonstone and Nitric Acid. A small cloud of smoke wafted from under the door, smelling of iron and vomit.
The twins passed on further, slipping into darker and darker regions of the corridor, the torches lighting the halls becoming sparser and sparser. Finally, after looking to each side they slipped down an utterly black cul-de-sac, with the darkness seeming to close in behind them. Horatio could barely see the tip of his wand as he tapped a blank wall with his wand in curious, seemingly random pattern.
An ancient presence seemed to evaluate them for a long moment, then with clearance from unseen entity, the wall in front of them creaked and folded, and a dark archway appeared in the stone, though which they passed without a thought. Behind them, the stones of the arch ground against themselves as the wall repaired itself, and with a series of loud puffing sounds, dozens of torches lining the walls came to life, illuminating twin lines of polished suits of armor. The twins and familiar walked to a glowing circle and waited, looking towards a polished oak door emblazoned with a Phoenix ensign, as the colors in the room suddenly inverted and righted themselves. The door opened and they headed though.
Several uniformed and civilian clothed, wizards and agents sat at desks, or moved between them, working at what had become by default the center for the fight against Malfoy in England.
"Oi," a familiar voice yelled from the open door to a side room, the twins turned from their path towards the offices at the back and passed though a door way under a sign that said "Warning: Secure all Appendages before entering." Emilia and Horatio came to stand behind a clear barrier with Fred. It had taken the Death Eaters to finally make it easy to tell them apart, the thin white line of hair that ran through his red mop outlining a scar picked up years ago in London provided instant identification...except when Fred spelled it red as well. Beyond the barrier, set down a tunnel off the main workshop George was setting up a dummy in a chair. He ran back and looked down at the twins.
"Watch this," he said with a grin. He flicked his wand towards the dummy, which stood and floated upright towards a door. It crossed a invisible line...BOOM...A loud explosion shook the dungeon, causing several cursed threats from the main room towards the elder set of twins. A plastic arm inscribed with a green skull bounced off the plexiglass barrier and Fred pumped his arm up and down.
"Cool, it works," Fred said and looked out into the main area, as if waiting for someone. Not seeing them, he motioned the Potters closer, over to one side. George handed them a box.
"A few new surprises from the shop, a couple of vials of the ImpEEious, the usual You-No-Poo, and our newest rendition of the Puking Pastille, this one stops automatically after ten minutes, no need to take the antidote." George said.
"Thanks, guys," the twins said as one, and after skillfully hiding the items in their robes, they headed back out into the main room. They walked past a tall, pale, almost albino man, dressed in khaki utilities, with a large handgun strapped to his thigh and a wand holstered just above that. His uniform had a patch on the sleeve neither youth had seen before, a red and gold Phoenix perched on a sword, set over a Union Jack. They looked at him oddly, before he gave them a small smile and a casual, waved salute. Emilia frowned slightly, looked over at Horry, who shrugged, and pushed open a closed office door at the back of the open office area.
They stepped in and "MUM, DAD," Emilia groaned as she found her mother perched on the edge of Harry's desk, next to his chair, leaning down and forward. The elder Potters broke apart; Hermione smirked slightly, and slid down to sit in Harry's lap.
"Yes, Emilia?" Hermione said lightly, "Though I do seem to remember that I taught you to...knock before entering a room." The twins shrugged as one, before Horatio pushed the door closed, and the two of them sat down in the guest chairs facing Harry's desk.
"Oh like you guys would be doing anything in your office," Horatio said, offhandedly, Hermione's gaze shot to Harry's and a slight, faint blush dusted her cheeks, "and besides that's so gross," he added absently. Harry dropped his head, looking down and grinning. Hermione gave him a light tap on the back of the head.
Behave, Hermione whispered, before she turned enough to look at the kids. "What do you guys need, or are you just coming along for the Twins' goodies?" she asked perceptively, and both Potter twins suddenly wore expressions of utter innocence that would have fooled anyone else but her.
"We...uhh, just wanted to see you, Mum, Dad," Emilia said with a grin. Hermione and Harry laughed together. "We miss you," Emilia said softly, jade eyes glistening. Hermione seemed to float up out of Harry's lap and around to her daughter. She pulled Emilia into her arms as Horatio rolled his eyes, muttering; "girls." Harry shared a smirk with his son.
Harry waved absently in the general direction of his desk and several non-alcoholic butterbeers appeared, and a pair flew over to the kids, and dropped in into their hands. Hermione stood and perched on the edge of the desk looking down at the kids as they both looked around the office. A small orrey moved in the corner, several silver instruments spun in place on a small table in the corner, and behind them, set on the wall opposite the desk, images of the castle and surroundings competed with a map of the UK with glowing dots and moving indicators of people and entire units, both friendly and enemy.
"Yeah," Horry agreed, "we wanted to see you...it gets so boring, here." Harry glanced to Hermione as she looked back at him, they shared an eyeroll. "So how long are you here...Mum, Dad? Are you going to be here for Christmas?" Horry added in a soft voice, and Emilia looked at him worriedly.
Mione? Harry whispered, we could, it'll be about the right time anyway...
I dunno...Hermione muttered, we could drop them off at the Farm...I don't really want to take them to the next site. We have to be there on the twenty-second...
"We'll be here for a couple of weeks at least, at least through the end of term," Harry said looking at the two of twins. He caught Hermione's eyes again as the twins flinched slightly at the implication they would spend the second Christmas in a row without their mother, and the eighth without their father, "But then, I think all of us might take a trip together," he didn't even have a chance to finish as Emilia squealed and jumped up, almost bowling over her mother as she dove into Harry's lap.
"Where are we going, Daddy?" Emilia asked breathlessly, she glanced back to see her brother hanging on the answer as well.
"Well," Harry looked to Hermione, she nodded, "your mother and I need to pick up a small item on the equinox, you two are not coming," he looked at kids pointedly, and they nodded reluctantly, "but then I expect that we can spend Christmas and New Years together at the Florida House." Emilia hugged him hard enough to cause him to gasp, "air..." She let go with an embarrassed giggle, and sat back on his lap.
"That is, of course," Hermione put in firmly, "that I don't hear any reports of you two skiving off." A chestnut eyebrow crooked, and gave each a meaningful look to each one of them in turn.
"Yes, Mum," both twins sighed. They got up from their respective perches, and crossed to the door.
"We are having dinner in our quarters tonight, if you two would rather eat with your boring parents than in the Great Hall," Harry added as the duo started to leave.
"Ok, Dad" Emilia grinned, and gave a little wave before the pair of them left. Hermione flicked her fingers at the door; it closed with a soft squelch.
"Is this a good idea, Harry?" she asked quietly, her voice slightly nervous for some reason. Her eyes were soft as she looked on.
"I'm not spending another Christmas away from my kids, Love," Harry growled, he gave her a wry grin, and shrugged, "It's not like we are taking them to Alaska, they'll be at the Farm, thousands of miles away, we go and get the next piece, and are back for Christmas, and take everyone down to the beach."
"We are taking Makaila and Caitlin too?" Hermione put in knowingly.
"If they want to come, we still haven't talked to the twins about it," Harry reminded her, "maybe tonight at dinner."
********************Harry and Hermione's Quarters, Hogwarts*****************
7:15 pm
Hermione slipped past Harry with a large steaming bowl of pasta, as he tossed a salad with a pair of tongs, and set it down in the center of a small butcher's block table already set for four. Harry set the salad next to the pasta and a pan of meat sauce, and a loaf of garlic bread. Hermione looked over at the couch set in the other half of the open space connecting the kitchenette, dining area and living room, "Food."
She rolled her eyes slightly as Horry flipped over the back of the couch, almost sprinting towards the table. He dove past Harry, sliding into a chair and grabbing a slice of bread, which he devoured immediately. Hermione slowly crooked an eyebrow as her daughter approached at a more sedate pace, and sat down opposite her brother, "You could have waited, glutton," Emilia said, and looked down at the meat sauce, "Mum, what's that?"
"Spaghetti," Hermione replied, shrugging, "sorry it's not what the elves have."
"No, Mum," she replied, sighing, "I mean what did you make it with, turkey?" she added hopefully.
"Cow," Harry replied, as he scooped up a plate of pasta and handed it to Hermione, before filling his own. He gave his plate a generous dollop of sauce and dug in, he then frowned as Emilia grimaced slightly. "I'm sorry that's not up to what you wanted..."
"It's ok, Dad," she shrugged and served herself, filling half her plate with salad and the other half with pasta, barely tinged with red as she put a small amount of sauce on it, "I was just hoping..."
"What's wrong, Em?" Horry said around a mouthful of bread, "I bet Xander would eat it." Harry looked over the table and shared a meaningful look with Hermione. She looked away an instant, to hide her face, and then back, her expression carefully hid. "I seem to remember you watching him eat the other day closely enough."
Emilia blushed slightly, "We were talking about Quidditch, Horry..." She smirked slightly, and cocked her eyebrow. She sat then back and took a sip of Pumpkin Juice, "Though if we're on the subject, of interesting conversations, just what were you and Elliot and Harriet up to Tuesday, when I saw you three huddled together outside of Potions..."
Hermione glanced up at Harry as she heard his laugh in her thoughts, Harry?
Someone spiked Draco's coffee, turned his hair bright pink...he didn't even know until Tonks congratulated him on his fashion sense after his first year class, Harry explained, shrugging mentally.
That's tame...they are our kids right? Hermione inquired, as she started to turn and regard her son with a gimlet eye, that isn't even a patch on...
Gets better, Harry assured her, that was just a distraction...when he unspelled his hair, it set up a backspell on his wand so that every time he used it for the rest of the day, he started singing, "I'm a little teapot..."
Hermione giggled silently and dropped her eyes to the table, rolling her tongue around in her mouth before she looked up to catch Harry's eyes. He could still see the laughter hidden in hers as she looked back at Horry, "You are lucky that you didn't get caught," she said firmly with the exact same tone she had taken in regards to many of Harry and Ron's adventures, those that didn't involve mortal peril of course, "I should turn you into your head of house..."
"MUM," he pleaded, as Emilia carefully did not laugh. She reached for a slice of bread, keeping her eyes carefully on the food, while she reached down and petted Crookshanks as he rubbed against her legs, begging for a bite. She snuck him a piece of hamburger while Hermione was occupied with Horry, and Harry and her shared a small smile.
"But," Hermione went on, and sighed, "that would be hypocritical..." Horry perked up at the same time Emilia looked at her with a disbelieving mien. Hermione glanced at Harry, "I can't believe that no one told you..." the twins hung on her words, she shut up abruptly and shook her head slightly. "Um...never mind, just promise me two things, both of you. Nothing mean-spirited and harmful, if you are listening to the twins, they danced right on that line more than once. And don't pick on anyone who can't take it." She gave Horatio an examining look. Then glanced at Emilia, whom she knew darn well was not as innocent as she might be trying to act with her distraction from Xander. They both gave her a short nod and she smiled at them, "Draco...he should have been ready, Merlin knows much, much worse was done to him."
She bent down and took a bite of salad as the table returned to a compatible silence. Harry broke it after a moment,
asking if there was anything in particular they were wanting for Christmas. Hermione watched as both twins' faces
lit up as they talked to their father; she bit her lip and stood suddenly. "Excuse me," Hermione said softly
and walked down a small hallway towards the master bedroom and ostensibly the bathroom. She slipped in, closed the
door, and sat down on the bed. Soft, silent tears slipped down her face as she held her face in her hands. A faint
whisper of displaced air sounded in her ear, as she looked up to find Harry kneeling on the by her feet looking back at
her. She fell forward and buried her face in his shoulder as his hand came up to cup the back of her head.
"I'm sorry, Harry," she muttered into his shoulder. He cooed softly to her, rocking her for a moment. She
sniffed loudly and sat back. Harry reached up and wiped her eyes, before he leaned forward and kissed her softly.
"What for, Mione?"
"I...ah...I saw you there talking with the twins and it just hit me," she whispered, and closed her eyes for an instant, she coughed, "you've...we've missed so much of their lives and we'll miss more...our own kids must hate us, Harry..."
"They don't, Hermione, they love you more than they can say, just like I do," he reassured her, standing slowly and pulling her to her feet. His hands settled at the small of her back as he leaned in to kiss her again, more firmly than before. He broke away a moment later, eyes flickered and in an instant, Hermione looked as if she had never shed a tear. He stepped back and took her hand, and led her from the room, Let's talk to them and see if they are amenable to taking Makaila and Caitlin with us for Christmas. It's a first step, see if they are really that close, as everyone says. Hermione gave him a small smile.
As they returned to the living room, the twins were, once again, good-naturedly bickering over something. Harry coughed, quieting them instantly. Twin, emerald gazes looked up from the table, waiting. Hermione sat down in Harry's vacated chair as Harry stood behind her with his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. "Your mother and I were talking," he said, looking at both of them in turn, "and we wondered if either of you would mind if we asked if Makaila and Caitlin would like to go with us for Christmas and New Years. They don't have any family, and would otherwise be stuck at Hogwarts, though most students are staying, still they..."
"REALLY?" Emilia squeaked, jumping up from the table and running over to her parents and hugging them, "Can I go ask them, please?" Harry glanced back at Hermione, she chuckled and nodded, and with barely a "BYE!" Em vanished out of the main door, no doubt headed in a flat sprint for Gryffindor Tower.
Hermione looked over at Horatio who was sipping his pumpkin juice, "Are you alright with it, son?"
"Cor...it's cool, Mum," he replied, shrugging, "Cat's nice enough to hang out with, now that she's not so jumpy any longer...she's pretty good on a broom too, for someone who hadn't ever rode one before." He looked down at his empty plate, "Is there any dessert, Mum?"
Hermione laughed, "Yeah, I think there's some pie left."
There you go...sorry it's a touch short...