OMG...A chapter. Sorry, I've been distracted from this universe. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for
her wondrous work on this. I do plan on finishing this story, just so you all know.
Chapter 32: Coming Together
**********************Hogwarts, Astronomy Tower**************************
January 31, 2020.
8:20 pm
"I'm not stupid, Makaila," a small girl shivered slightly in the cold atop the tower but did not move otherwise except to wrap her arms more tightly around herself. She glanced back, deep blue eyes looking almost black in the gloom. She walked to the edge of the parapet and looked down at the ground far below.
"You are acting like it," a seventeen-year-old girl muttered, just loud enough for the red-haired, eleven-year-old to hear. She glanced over at a faint shimmer standing on the top of the next tower over. It vanished totally, leaving no doubt to give them privacy. "Why are you so against this? I know you, Cat, you bloody well love them, I saw it in your eyes at Christmas."
"They are not Mum and Dad," she snarled, and swallowed heavily, "I...we saw those bastards kill them." She turned around and leaned back against the low stone wall. "I...ah...don't want to f...forget them," she whispered, her voice cracking as a hint of the brogue that sometimes filled her sister's voice as well crept into hers. She folded herself into her sister's arms as the taller girl stepped to her.
"They can't replace Mum and Dad, and they don't want to, they want to give us a family, Cat," Makaila muttered into her hair, as she slowly ran her hands down the small girls back. An owl flitted by, looking at the pair standing close together under the starry night. She hooted softly, and settled down watching them closely, her alabaster feathers glinting in the scattered light from lit windows on the tower over. "We've been alone all these years, Caitlin, I'm tired of it, aren't you?" she whispered as she held her sister to her chest. Hesitantly, Caitlin nodded against her chest, sobbing softly.
Hedwig watched the two girls for a moment longer, and then took flight, gliding silently through the night as she looked out over the buildings and grounds of the ancient fortress. She slipped unnoticed above two silent, almost invisible eight-foot hulking figures guarding the main doors, which were open, spilling light into the night. A faint, almost invisible barrier held the heat in the castle. She turned sharply right, her amber eyes glowing softly and seeking for something or someone.
She hooted quietly, and dove towards the trail along the lake and braked to a halt, landing perfectly with a single back beat of her wings as she settled onto Harry's left shoulder. Hedwig hooted softly as Hermione turned into Harry, never letting go of his right hand, which she was holding onto tightly, and petted the owl. "Thanks for watching them, Hedwig," Harry whispered as he reached up with his free hand to run his fingers along her feathers as well. She hooted at him, and reached out with a wing.
"She hates us, Harry," Hermione moaned, not speaking about Hedwig. "We pushed it, too fast, Makaila was wrong too. I just wanted to give them a home."
"It will be alright, Mione," Harry whispered as he wrapped his arms around her. Hedwig remained precariously on his shoulder and gave a soft hoot of acceptance. Hermione snorted a sniffling laugh at the owl's words.
"You're such the optimist, Hedwig," Hermione said against his shoulder. Hedwig seemed to shrug and pushed off, vanishing into the night as her masters began to slowly walk along the lake again. Harry squeezed her hand, watching as the squid reached up to drag something underneath the water. "We are going in soon, aren't we, Harry?"
He shrugged, "I suppose," Harry agreed, recognizing her attempt to move the subject away from the painful one, or rather to a less painful one. You're sure about the ward wall, Mione?
Yeah, Harry, I am. You know the true history of his place. We have enough power here to establish the wards...or rather to reestablish them. It's why Salazar built the original chamber here...It gathered magic from around the world, yes, but it needed the original powers to kickstart it to function.
Fine, but we just need to what...retake the whole of Scotland first?
We've already taken the Northern half; he lost it the instant the school reopened. With the Armor regiment worked up and doing raids, they had to start pulling back, contracting their lines. The whole of the country is de facto ours; only Edinburgh and Glasglow are still in their hands.
Let's see about that, Glasgow is much less defensible from their standpoint, the X'Sheen refuse to barrack it for some reason. Perhaps if the resistance can put a touch more pain their way, they'll withdraw everything to Edinburgh...they almost have anyway. Harry yawned slightly and closed his eyes for an instant, Let's head back to the castle, Love, we haven't slept for like two days now, cause of this and...other things.
Hermione did not comment on the "other things", but nodded and turned them around, and started to head back towards the castle. In the shadows trailing them, a brief sound of foliage against cloth came their ears, but neither turned towards the detail keeping station on them, that just so happened to have to be in the area.
*********************Harry and Hermione's Quarters, Hogwarts****************
10:15 pm
Hermione sighed softly, and leaned back against Harry. She smiled back at him softly and used his knees as armrests as she looked back to the novel she was holding in one hand. She parked the mug of tea she was drinking in the air with the other, before yawning slightly. "Wanna go to bed, Harry?" Hermione asked, marking her page and setting the book down next to the couch. She closed her eyes and half turned, burrowing into his chest as his knees closed in to hold her.
"As long as you're there, sounds good to me," Harry muttered as he kissed her forehead. She nodded slightly, and gestured for her mug of tea to return to the kitchenette. It made a soft chinking sound as it settled into the sink. "It's been a long day, Love," Harry mentioned, rubbing her side idly. She nodded, biting her lip as she picked at a hole in his jeans. She slowly pulled on a long thread, opening the hole a bit more. "Ron wants to plan something for Luna's birthday," Harry mentioned.
"He's not going to give her Biting Roses again is he?" Hermione groaned, tilting her head back to look at him.
"Merlin, I hope not," Harry replied, shrugging. "He was sleeping on our couch for a week last time." Harry shuddered, shaking his head.
"No, that was when she was seven months pregnant;" Hermione reminded him, shrugging. "She turned him into a squirrel for the roses. He was trying to hide things for weeks after, remember?" Harry barked a laugh, and nodded.
"Yeah," he chuckled. Both of them turned quickly at a soft knock at the door. Harry glanced at Hermione and she shrugged, and sketched a rune in the air with a finger. A wall lit up with an image of the corridor beyond outside of their quarters. Two girls, one redhaired, one russet, stood looking at the door nervously. The smaller girl was holding onto the older one, her hand shaking slightly. Hermione took a deep breath and canceled the projection.
She moved slowly towards the door, knowing her as he did, Harry could see the trepidation in her stride. She opened the door, and smiled, nervously. "Can I help you...umph," Hermione grunted as Caitlin sprang from her post next to Makaila and wrapped her arms around her.
"I'm sorry," Caitlin muttered against her shirt. Hermione glanced back helplessly at Harry, he shrugged.
"For what, dear?" Hermione asked, looking directly at Makaila as she smiled back at her. Hermione started to stroke the girl's hair, "You have nothing to be sorry for."
"I yelled at you," Caitlin said sadly, "I shouldn't have."
Makaila looked at Harry as he stood from the couch and crossed the small living room to the door. Harry knelt next to Caitlin, "We understand, Caitlin, we shouldn't have, we ah..."
"I want to," Caitlin interrupted, her voice trembling slightly. She pulled out of Hermione's arms and gathered her robes around her more firmly. She swallowed and looked into Hermione's eyes, "please." Hermione closed her eyes for an instant to control the tears that tried to escape, she opened them and looked to Makaila, she nodded silently.
Hermione nodded, took her hand and led her to the couch. "If you really want to," she waved Makaila to the couch beside her, Hermione waited as Makaila settled herself next to her sister, "then you need to learn everything. And then make your decision, alright?" She held both girls eyes until they nodded.
"If you still want to go through with this..." Harry walked up behind Hermione and leaned against the back of the chair that Hermione dropped into across from the girls. "I won't lie to you, there is every chance that Hermione and I may not make it though this war, we've already been through so much..." He took a deep breath as Hermione reached up and squeezed his hand, "Also, this puts you in danger frankly..." Emerald eyes shimmered with the memories of seven years of pain, "Em and Horry were taken as almost the first act of this war...to get to us."
"We know that," Makaila replied, looking at her sister who nodded, "we talked about it, we know the risks..." She glanced down, and fingered the lion on the chest of her robes, "We still choose to...if you will have us?" Hermione nodded, and barely caught Caitlin as she hopped from the couch into her lap.
"This alright?" Caitlin asked and Hermione smiled at her. She curled up in a small ball, and closed her eyes. "Well, go on," she asked in an utterly adult voice and the other three in the room laughed.
"Since you've proven that you have as tenuous a grasp on sanity as the rest of the family," Harry said; Makaila pretended to laugh. Hermione gradually, unconsciously, began to rock Caitlin in the chair. "The deep, dark family secrets, some of this you know, some of it you don't, but I'll try to let you know everything I do...mind you, that's not always that much." Hermione snorted and Harry bent down and kissed her, "It all started, depending on which version you want to believe, in a tiny village in Wales about eleven hundred years ago or around thirty years ago. Or I guess you could say, that in a way, it began in a cheap room above the Hog's Head..."
February 1, 2020
12:25 am
Hermione stood at the open frame leading to the kitchen and looked back into the living area. She slowly sipped from a cheap, heavy coffee mug with the words "World's Best Mum", as she watched the two eleven-year-old girls snuggled together on the couch. Emilia had picked out the mug when she was three, and Hermione had found it in their offices downstairs when they returned. Soon after Harry had begun to relate both the known and unknown elements of their shared, complicated history, Hermione had sent for her...other children. She watched as Harry continued to talk quietly with Makaila. Emilia and Caitlin had fallen asleep an hour ago, now the two had curled up against each other, with Caitlin, being the tiniest, resting her head on her new sister's shoulder.
Hermione turned as she felt Horatio come up from behind her, he looked up at his mother and she smiled down at him, before wrapping her free arm around him in a hug, "You are still alright with this, Horry?" Hermione asked quietly, "Your dad and I won't love you and Em any less."
"I know, Mum," he replied and took a drink from the can of soda he had retrieved from the coldbox in the kitchen, a taste acquired over years of living in the States. Crookshanks rubbed against their legs before continuing on to plop down next to the two girls. He purred softly as he rested his head on Emilia's bushy, black curls and closed his amber eyes. Horatio yawned, "I'm going to sleep here, Mum," he said tiredly. She nodded and let him go, watching as he moved down the small hallway and turned into the room he had here in their quarters. Hermione watched as he closed his door quietly, You are so much like your father, when he was your age, Horatio Sirius Potter, Hermione thought tenderly, and sat down in Harry's lap, and joined in the conversation.
*************************Room of Requirement************************
February 1, 2020
10:10 am
"Thanks, baby," Parvati whispered as she took a black, conformal pack from Cho. She kissed her softly, "See you at lunch?" She ignored the soft gagging noises from Elliot, Horatio and Xander and the equally annoying, synchronized, "Awww"s from Emilia, Harriet, Abigail and Caitlin.
"Yeah, I should be there, unless Dumbledore sends me back to Hogsmeade with Sirius and Cordy, they were working to rebuild the defensive wards around the inns. If not, we're at Draky's tonight, remember?" Cho shrugged and kissed her again, before leaving, walking backwards for an instant and waving as she reached the door.
Parvati waited until the door had closed, "Seriously, you lot are almost enough to keep me from wanting my own." Her tone was serious, but she smiled as she said it. She shook her head, rolling her eyes slightly as she set the pack on a helpfully appeared table. She touched her wand to it and waited as it opened like a flower, laying out several items. "Alright, since I had to get up this early on a Saturday," she paused, waiting but none of the kids said anything, "let's get this over with. Technically, I'm supposed to be a Healer with a specialty in infectious diseases...Instead, I'm a combat medic these days. Unfortunately we don't really have enough, the ragtag groups that you will often see out and about are never with any healing capability...You wouldn't believe the things that Cho and I saw in Edinburgh when we were hiding there."
"But we're not Healers, ma'am," Caitlin put in hesitantly. She was standing very close to Emilia, and had not left her side, really, since late last night. She glanced over at her, and Emilia shrugged.
"I know, you won't be, at least not for a few years, some of you might decide to become one in a few years. Hopefully you'll be able to do it in London, where I did, but if not..." she made an odd, throwing away gesture and sighed. Parvati turned back towards the pack her lover had brought along and started to take items out of it. She arranged them on the table to best display the contents, leaving a few in, "This is the standard field Healer's pack that that's made to mate with the Shadow Suits that you've seen. It also cloaks along with the suit so it becomes invisible as well. That's a state secret, I'll have you know, so it's another thing that you'll get trained for only because of who your parents are."
"I am going to teach you, over the next several weeks to at least a basic level, what the Muggles call a EMT. So let's get started, shall we?"
*****************************Glasgow*******************************
Harry moved silently down shattered, empty streets, he froze, and glanced back towards where he knew at least one of his companions was, as he felt her heartbeat right alongside his own. She gave him an odd shrug, which he only felt as she along with him and the other four with him were effectively invisible in the rare shadow suits.
The suits were just now in mass production, the Twins' improved version of the Invisibility Cloak had been created almost four years ago during the time of Harry's imprisonment, but the Demiguise fur needed for their creation had been almost nonexistent since Malfoy's capture of their breeding grounds. The breakthrough had come when a researcher had found a way to imbue fabrics with a potion that duplicated the effect.
Harry waited as Hermione moved next to him, he felt her hand brush his arm unerringly as she bent close, This is...odd, Hermione whispered, as she looked around the area. Not another figure moved, not an animal stirred. She watched as an unlatched door swung in a soft breeze.
Several overturned cars were laying in the street providing cover that they didn't need as Harry reached up and pulled down an invisible hood. His slim image shimmered into existence, and looked over as Hermione appeared next to him in the same black outfit. She unzipped the top halfway and fanned it a moment as Harry looked at her with a slightly dazed expression. She smirked slightly, and gave him a look that caused his heart to race, That's not fair, he muttered as she giggled in the back of his mind.
I suppose they really did abandon the city...we already knew that most of the civilians, she glanced over at a shattered car that had a large reddish brown stain remaining on the shattered driver's side glass. But why would they leave the city to us? She closed her eyes and sent out a visible pulse of magic, she gasped slightly, so that's it, they thought they could trap us, or at least someone.
Harry and Hermione vanished, and reappeared across town, in the center of an otherwise empty floor in what had most likely been a Muggle office building. A faceted, black crystal sat on a pedestal, pulsing and emitting a soft whine. As they watched the pulsing increased in tempo and the whine grew louder. "VAMPIRE, VAMPIRE, VAMPIRE," Hermione snapped over the wireless, and instantly she could feel the Apparations as the recon team they had with them leapt away, reappearing fifty kilometers away. Her eyes snapped to Harry as they felt anti-Apparation wards go up over the building.
Harry dove at her, grabbed her in his arms and vanished in a fall of flame.
Twenty kilometers away, a large phoenix appeared from nowhere, on the top of a tall grass covered hill overlooking the city, his wings wrapped protectively around Hermione. The wings slowly opened, as Harry SHIFTED back from his alternate Animagus form, Harry pulled Hermione back to him and dove to the ground as a green wave enveloped the center of the city. A horrible roar filled the air and a shockwave picked them both up and threw them down the hill.
"HARRY, HERMIONE!" Ron's terrified voice came over the wireless. "ANSWER ME, GODDAMNIT..."
"We're fine, Ron," Harry replied, standing slowly and pulling Hermione to her feet. She leaned against him, and took a deep breath. He looked back towards the city to see a large dust cloud hanging over the city. He concentrated slightly, changing the channel on the Wireless to the command frequency to Hogwarts, "Phoenix Command, Leo, authorization sierra charlie seven twelve five nine zulu..."
"Go ahead, Leo," a soft alto replied from the depth of the Hogwarts dungeons.
"I need a armor battalion and a Dragon wing to Glasgow and I need them here now."
"Negative, Leo," the voice replied, "All assets are committed...Fox battalion is raiding in northern England, and the American regiments are holding Hogwarts and...."
"Pull Fox, my authority, now, damn it," Harry growled, "The city is ours if we can take it right now." A brief murmuring conversation came over the background. A minute later, the voice returned, somewhat sheepish. Harry watched, eyes zooming in automatically as black suits Appeared from nowhere, as the advance part of the armor battalion appeared, Apparating in.
"All magic using members of the Battalion are on site now, Leo," she reported, "the rest will be in place within the hour as soon as the airlift gets them to your position. Air cover is coming, a Dragon squadron is inbound, and a fast mover squadron will be overhead in ten minutes."
"Thanks, command," Harry said softly, and didn't turn as a half-dozen Apparations sounded out around him. "Looks like someone just screwed up by the numbers, we just took a city without any casualties to our forces."
"Now if we can just take the X'Sheen from him," Hermione whispered and Harry nodded.
******************************Hogwarts******************************
February 2, 2020.
8:00 pm
By its very nature, a formal adoption into a Great Family, was a secret, closed affair, only attended by those either of the family or conjoined to it by ties of blood, marriage or oaths of fealty. A dark, dimly lit room occupied by only a handful of wizards and witches in deep black robes who stood quietly around the periphery of the room. Albus Dumbledore stood across from an unmarked oak door braced by a pair of lit torches. Next to him, Cordelia's eyes glowed slightly as she picked up the scent from a large golden cup set on an unadorned table in the exact center of the round, stone room. Next to her, Sirius stood impatiently looking around at the others. On the other side of the ancient Phoenix wizard, Tonks leaned against Remus, the two of them talking quietly, with their own children fidgeting beside them.
Ron and Luna stood next to them; Luna was looking towards the cup, her eyes not quite focused as if she were watching some scene, taking place just beyond the room they were in.
Ron rolled his eyes slightly and looked over to a knot of figures in white robes. He reached forward and placed his hand on Harriet's shoulder. She leaned back into him slightly and glanced up at him, giving him a smile before she looked back across the room. Ron watched, as her eyes didn't leave one of the four figures in white robes. He sighed slightly, as Harriet shared a look with Horatio. He grinned at her, and she gave him a small wave. The rest of the Weasleys that were actually present in this country, Ginny, with Neville and Elliot by extension, and the Twins with Angelina and Alicia waited next to them, waiting as witnesses.
The quiet conversation died as two more appeared in the center of the room, appearing silently and looking around the room. Hermione dropped her hood, and nodded to Emilia. She grabbed Horatio's elbow and after pausing to give Caitlin a hug, she pulled him over to stand next to Ron, Luna and Harriet. Dumbledore smiled and stepped forward. He looked to the four now standing around the table. He nodded silently as Hermione reached over and interlaced her fingers with Harry's. Both girls looked across at them, Makaila as tall as Hermione and looking almost as old, as Hermione could pass as a seventh year if need be, and Caitlin, even tinier than Ginny had been at her age.
"Let's begin, shall we?" Dumbledore said and waved his hand over the cup. White flames erupted from the cup. It sat, burning merrily as he looked to the newest Potters. "Adoption is one of the most sacred of acts both for the ones being adopted and for the those into whose home and hearts they are placing their trust. In the most ancient of times, the great families were often expanded by the adoption of promising young wizards and witches. Adoption is meaningless, however, without the love and devotion of a family, for it is for that, that single, most simple, but most perplexing of all emotions that all else hinges."
He held his hand out over the cup and motioned, the flames turned red then returned to white. "It is for that, that we are here tonight," he looked to Harry and Hermione, "Harry, Hermione, do you, here in front of these witnesses, wish to invoke the holy bond of adoption, to formally claim Makaila and Caitlin as your own as if they were your own issue? To protect them and care for them, shielding them from harm as you may, to give them succor as they may need in the lightest or most perilous of times?"
Hermione squeezed Harry's hand, she swallowed slightly and looked up at him, "We will," they replied as one. Makaila looked down at Caitlin as the small girl looked directly into Hermione's eyes. She nudged her, getting her to look up and gave her a small, reassuring smile.
Dumbledore just nodded and looked to the girls. "This part hurts a bit, I'm afraid..." neither of them looked concerned in the slightest. His eyes twinkled slightly as he continued, "Harry and Hermione have already donated of themselves to the cup in front of you...If you sincerely wish to join them, to formally be adopted into the Families of Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Potter, but more importantly to acknowledge Harry and Hermione as your parents, that while they are not the ones that may have given you life, they are the ones that will henceforth welcome you into their homes and hearts and to acknowledge you as their own." He motioned towards the cup, the flames extinguished. "If you wish this, and agree to shoulder the burdens that unfortunately must also be born by one of such a distinguished house, you must deposit of yourself in the cup and agree in front of all of these witnesses."
Almost surprisingly it was Caitlin who drew her wand first, and slowly drew it along the palm of her left hand. She winced, an expression shared by both Hermione and Emilia, as she looked into her new parents eyes and held her hand out over the cup. She squeezed it into a fist, drops of blood dropped into it and bright blue flames shot up, briefly wrapping around her fist before dropping down to dance along the lips of the bowl. "I do wish it," she said softly, though no one in the room failed to hear.
Makaila took a breath, and repeated the action. The flames shot up, enveloping her fist, before falling back to hover several inches above the bowl. "I also wish it," she said...The flames died for a moment and...
"Then by your own words and actions," Dumbledore said, evenly, and looked between the four, "so be it." He snapped his fingers, and the flames shot up, to hover in a bright white ball between the newest Potters and their parents. A beam of pure white light snapped from Harry and Hermione's joined hands as their eyes lit fully to impact directly on the hovering ball. The pair staggered slightly, Harry's other hand coming up to grab Hermione's shoulder as the beam cut off. The ball began to spin, faster and faster, then stopped, and twin white beams snapped out to touch the foreheads of both girls.
Dark brown and deep blue eyes lit blue for a moment...and the girls collapsed, their knees buckling, with Harry and Hermione appearing instantly to break their fall. She cradled Caitlin on her lap, pulling the unconscious girl to her chest as she felt her forehead. She's alright, Love, Hermione confirmed and smiled slightly as she saw his answering nod. Hermione glanced over and gestured their other two children closer as the rest of the Wizards and witches present filed out noiselessly, content to let the newly expanded family have peace.
Let's get them home, Mione, Harry said. Hermione reached out and grabbed his free hand with hers, eyes flickered and all six of them vanished silently.
A/N: There you go, next chapter, an eviction notice.