Getting back had both been a relief even if seeing the Hogwarts castle without Luna and Dinah was a bit bittersweet.

  Arriving on a Saturday morning we were pleasantly surprised to have the weekend to get everything squared away before classes resumed.

  The first order of business, namely dropping off the survivors from Portal, had taken almost no time. After discussing it, both the middle-aged man and teenager had opted to have their memories of us removed. I think they understood that we were uncomfortable letting them run around knowing most of our secrets and there would be other restrictions if they pushed.

  I was actually a little amused when we actually gave them the Isekai experience where they just woke up in a new world with powers and a bit of money in their pockets. We even paid someone to find them and get them situated.

  We didn’t have contacts in France so we could only pick a family in France’s magical district and point them to him and give them some money to help him before leaving. So the newly renamed Darrell was found in a pub, having no memory of how he got there and we watched as he was given a place to stay while he got his feet under him.

  In England we contacted the Weasleys and asked them to visit Hogsmeade and then placed the girl, Tami, in the snow along Mrs Weasley’s path. Obviously that got her a new home, and we insisted on helping Molly out when she showed up with Tami. Handing her enough money to take care of her before she started Hogwarts we moved on. Plus that should solve a bit of the Weasley’s money issues as well.

  The second order of business was finding an enchanter that could make a permanent beauty enchantment on a ring. That actually was pretty expensive, a whole 20 Galleons, which still was at a 50 to 1 exchange rate with British Pounds.

  Apparently, they were considered vanity items as it was much easier just to cast a beauty charm. It was like paying someone thousands of dollars to make a machine to apply makeup when you could do it yourself just as well and in the same amount of time.

  It was also a bit dangerous as you needed to trust the seller because they were basically cursed items which forced your body to change in a way it didn’t want to. That was why temporary charms or polyjuice were almost universally preferred, as both were inherently controlled and reversible.

  I absolutely wouldn’t have trusted the seller, but if we studied his wares we could make something that combined a bit of transfiguration and illusion to hide her lekku. Specifically transfigured hair so people could feel it while hiding everything else. It would also be a bit secure allowing Ahsoka to go wherever she wanted without us. I understood that it wouldn’t be done immediately but as I examined the beauty ring, I was sure it wouldn’t take too long. Maybe a month or two. That said, I planned on making it a toe ring as we didn’t want it easily removed in daily life here and pranks at Hogwarts were still fairly common.

  For now, Ahri would just have to help Ahsoka by showing an illusion of hair and change her skin to be a bit darker. Maybe try for a more native american tone. We didn’t even need to do anything about the tattoos as they looked suitably musical. Magicals in this world did stranger things to themselves on the regular, especially some of the more remote disciplines like the shamans from America’s magical interior.

  Thus Sunday morning, we were able to visit the ministry while it was almost completely empty and submit documentation for Ahsoka Tano, Hinata Hyuga, Anko Mitarashi, and Chell Porta (which was Latin for Portal) as visitors.

  Admittedly, we didn’t have to do so for Anko, but it would have been a tad awkward to leave her out since she was standing right next to us and we weren’t going to leave Hinata out since she had basically been told to marry me. That wasn’t guaranteed to happen, but with ninja loyalty to the mission and the fact her kind demeanor was growing on us, it was becoming more and more likely. She also was starting to look happier the longer she spent with us.

  The only one not getting an identity was Thea. Really, I felt a little bad about leaving Thea out but she still didn’t have a humanoid body, and the Ministry of Magic would not have reacted well to what looked like a non-magical golem in their offices.

  The last stop we made was to Sirius Black in Iceland to make sure he was still doing ok in what was effectively exile. Since the Ministry of Magic was sticking their heads in the sand and denying that Peter Pettigrew was ever caught in the first place, there was no call for Sirius to get a trial.

  Hell, I half expected Fudge to return the dementors to the castle if even someone sneezed too much like Black did.

  Stepping through my portal, we were greeted with the sight of bottles of whisky across the table and two mostly nude bodies lying across the sofa.

  Sighing, I rubbed my hand across my face. “Really, Sirius?”

  Attempting to jump up and only managing to fall off the edge of the sofa we were greeted by Sirius wincing as he clutched his head before Taylor rolled her eyes and threw his pants at him.

  Next to him, Sherrel didn’t even bother getting up and just flipped us off before rolling over to go back to sleep, pulling one of the sofa cushions to cover her head from the light and noise.

  Seeing Sirius actually starting to sober up as he got his bearings, I shook my head. “We just wanted to check in on you and make sure you are ok.” Looking around, I frowned. “Where is Lin? I thought she was staying with you to look after you two.”

  Sirius groaned a few times as he put on his pants before rubbing his eyes a bit longer and looking around the small cottage. “Lin and her lass followed Remus back to Hogwarts. She talked with the headmaster and got permission to move into his teacher’s quarters as a spouse and daughter.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Wow, I didn’t think she would move that fast.”

  Sirius gave a rye chuckle. “No, Remus managed to knock her up. She’s got another bun in the oven now.”

  I blinked in surprise. “What…”

  Sirius shook his head.

  Suddenly remembering what happened in the canon story and feeling a sense of anger I narrowed my eyes. “Is he going to stay with his kid then?”

  Sirius didn’t understand my anger, but he shrugged. “He seemed out of it for a day or something, but before anything happened, Lin grabbed him and told him that all of her children would be spirits. He couldn’t pass his curse on if he tried.”

  Breathing out a sigh of relief, I nodded. I reminded myself that in the stories, Remus was generally a good guy and was one of Harry’s teachers who actually cared. I just had huge issues with him not checking in on Holly for her entire childhood and abandoning Tonks and his kid when he found out she was pregnant. I couldn’t help but think that was nearly unexcusable, even if he went back to them later.

  It was only then that I turned around to see Anko taking a swig out of one of the bottles of what I now knew was fire whisky as her next burp let out a small tongue of flame.

  “Huh, not bad. How much more you got of this stuff?”

  Sherrel had apparently decided that she wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep as she got up, pulling on a long T-shirt and simply flipped us off again before heading towards the bathroom.

  Rolling her eyes Anko called out after her. “Nah, babe you gotta do better than that if you wanta get under this Bitch’s skin.”

  Turning around Sherrel gave the scantily clad ninja in fishnets another look up and down. “Uh, who the hell are you supposed to be anyway?”

  This time Anko’s glare was a bit more sadistic. “I am Anko Fucking Mitarashi and I will show you just what that name means.”

  I saw Sherrel’s eyes widen in recognition but she didn’t get to say anything because

  Sirius, clearly trying to get his girl out of trouble, cleared his throat. “Well, as fun as that would be to see.” And we all rolled our eyes, knowing what Sirius’s mind immediately turned to. “I have to ask. Where the hell have you all been?”

  This time, all of us sighed. Rubbing my forehead, I considered what to say before I just shook my head. “We can tell you the details later if you really want to know, but for now, you can know that we were attacked and had to make it back the long way.”

  Sirius seemed to think about it before he must have decided he really didn’t want to know right now. The hangover was probably making thinking in general a bit difficult. Deciding to drop the subject he asked his next question, “What are you going to do now?”

  I looked back at my girls. “I think we are going to head to school. We need to talk to Dumbledore about getting Hinata, Ahsoka, and eventually Chell enrolled if they decide to learn magic.” The last was a question I had directed towards said girls.

  They hadn’t made any firm decisions yet so I wasn’t surprised that they weren’t completely convinced. Hinata and Ahsoka didn’t seem eager to head back to magical high school and I couldn’t blame them. I had considered skipping it myself despite knowing the story of Harry Potter and wanting that experience.

  Anko was the one that spoke up to correct us. “Nope, if this world has a 24 hours day-night cycle then you all going to show up for your training every other night at 6, that way we can still get a solid 4 hours of training. I will just have to up the intensity to make up for it.”

  Suddenly feeling tired despite having had two solid days of recovery, I considered pushing back, but… but this was what we had asked for and what we would need if we wanted to take the next step.

  Looking up, and hating what I was about to say, I laid out our doom. “Honestly, it might be worth seeing if we could push our magical training forward as well.” Dumbledore knew about us now so there really wasn’t anything holding us back from asking for more training.

  We were already nearly a year ahead and Hermione was approaching being a full two years despite taking every elective offered. Then again, just like any school, the classes needed to be geared towards the slowest student. Really, the idea that Hermione wouldn't be pulling ahead of a school year that Crabbe and Goyle were somehow managing to pass was a little silly.

  Anko nodded, as if that was exactly what she expected. “You can pick me up here when it is time.”

  I blinked in surprise, but looking at her eyeing both Sherrel and Sirius I simply shook my head and turned around. Opening up a portal while ignoring Sirius and Sherrel’s confused questions, I popped us back to our little cottage on the edge of Hogsmeade. If she wanted to mess around with the two of them and they consented, then it wasn’t any of my business.

  It was then, as we arrived back in our cottage in Hogsmeade, that we were surprised by the appearance of Dobby. “Sir Max and his Ladies have all returned!” Then he eyed everyone here and frowned. “Sir Max has found more mates.” He looked conflicted “This is wonderful news-es, but where is the Lady Lunas and Dinahs?”

  Smiling at the bundle of energy and being glad I had finally got him to stop calling us ‘Master’, I sighed. “It is good to see you as well, Dobby. Dinah and Luna are staying with Xeno for a while. Thank you for taking care of things here. Are the soul pieces that we asked you to keep track of still safe?”

  Dobby nodded so quickly that I thought his head might pop off. “Oh, of course Sir Max. Both Lady Raven’s crown and the evil snake man’s diary are safe in the box under the house.”

  I nodded but then looked around, yet almost immediately, I realized that something was wrong.

  Very wrong.

  It was almost like the house itself looked darker, and maybe it was just the greater sensitivity after trying to feel both magic and chakra, but I could almost taste a corruption in the air.

  Feeling another complication coming, I sighed. “Bloody Hell, I think we need to move them to the Chamber of Secrets. I don’t think it is healthy to keep the soul shards around us long term, mental defenses or not.”

  I made a note to put them away in another warded box tonight. Sighing, I thanked Dobby again before starting the long walk to the castle.

  We could have portaled, but I didn’t want questions of where we came from and it gave us some time to relax before dealing with Dumbledore. Plus, it was getting late, but we had some time before dinner.

  As we approached Hogwarts, I felt a swell of emotion as the closest thing we had to home appeared in front of us over the ridge. Next to me, I saw the smiles on the faces of Hermione, Amy, Taylor, and Sabah and I realized that it had become home for them as well.

  Internally, I worried about that as that probably wasn’t healthy. Putting so much investment into a school that we would leave relatively soon. We probably weren’t even going to stay all seven years at the rate we were going through the material.

  However, ultimately, it was something most people needed to do as they grew up. We needed to build our own home and family outside of school. I had no desire to be one of those people who never left their small towns and constantly reminisced back to the good old days of high school.

  Not to say small towns were inherently bad, as some memory fragments seemed to tell me, they were quiet and personable and usually had less crime and pollution.

  What I wasn’t expecting was a distressed beep to break the quiet atmosphere of the path. Turning I realized it had come from the small hovering robot that Thea used as her remote controlled body. We had had it with us the entire time, just covered by Ahri’s illusions and a notice-me-not. That was relatively easy as it had actually gotten smaller since Thea had joined us. While it still looked like Eve from the Wall-e movie, it was now only about 6 inches tall and thus easily hidden.

  I knew she wanted a human-ish body, but I was wary of trying to shove her artificial soul into a flesh body, as I had no idea if it would translate. Her mind might have been too alien to function in such a vessel. Basically the Cyberpsychosis from Cyberpunk in reverse. It was why I had been considering Android platforms from other worlds. I just didn’t know which one to pick.

  Turning, I asked worriedly. “Thea, you alright?”

  Thea let out a frustrated hum. “I am experiencing a number of computational errors with this suit.”

  I frowned and then realized we were approaching the outer castle wall, but there didn’t seem to be any thing else around us. “You didn’t have any issues with the Ministry of Magic or Diagon Alley in London.” I tilted my head. “Does Hogwarts itself have wards that inhibit electronics?”

  Taylor spoke up. “It would make sense. All the magicals seem convinced that electronics and magic don’t mix. It would make sense if they experienced magic not working here at Hogwarts and just assumed it was due to magic and not the castle.”

  Ahsoka hummed. “There are similar things that I have seen done with the Force. Areas or creatures that just refused to be scanned by technology, sometimes outright breaking the droids or space ships they come in contact with.”

  I frowned. “We will have to look into this, but I am sorry. I guess I will just have to keep a portal open on my shoulder that you can use to look through, Thea.”

  Thea didn’t respond, but the silence was answer enough. Really, I needed to get her a body and then figure out how to ward it against magical attacks. She didn’t deserve to be stuck in a box at home.

  My musings and our return trip were broken again, this time by an owl flapping angrily at us. I wasn’t sure how I knew the owl was angry, but a few seconds later I had to duck as the owl came swooping down and tried to release a letter directly into my face and nearly clawed my forehead as it turned around.

  Before I could say anything more than a “What?” and a “Hey!”, the owl was already swooping away, headed back south.

  Taking a deep breath, I shook my head before I looked down at the letter that Taylor had picked up and handed to me. I was surprised to see that it was addressed to a ‘Hermione and Max at Hogwarts, or Hotwarts, or Hogtarts’.

  That was weird enough as I doubted any magical using owls didn’t know what Hogwarts was, but after checking to see if Hermione wanted to be the one to open it and only getting a shrug in return, I opened it. Pulling out what was clearly a modern page of printer paper, I unfolded it to find a handwritten note.

  Reading it out loud so everyone could hear it, it read:

  ‘I have no idea where you are, as everyone seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.

  Everyone has started denying that Yamatai even happened. Sam decided to try to travel to clear her head without telling me anything.

  Absolutely no one is answering my mail or phone calls anymore. I have to assume someone is intercepting them or something. I am even getting hounded by letters from people that claim my father owed them money.

  I don’t know what to do. Finding one of your damn owls seems like my only option. If you find this, please contact me by New Year's.

  Lara Croft.’

  I glanced around at the girls and we winced. It had been over two weeks since New Year's. No wonder that owl had been angry at us if it had been searching for us this entire time. I was honestly surprised that it hadn’t given up by now.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Sighing, I turned away from Hogwarts and started leading our little group back down towards the road to Hogsmeade. I was pretty sure we could summon the Knight bus before we made it all the way back to the village. It would be quicker then trying to figure out where Hermione lived and portaling there.

  Hermione had taken the letter from me and was looking disturbed as she read the letter over again. Turning to us she asked, “While it makes sense she couldn’t contact us while we were off world, why can’t she contact anyone else?”

  I grunted in frustration. “I don’t know. I started the next game in her story, but I don’t remember finishing it. Only something about how she would find clues in her late father’s apartment and then try to track down some sort of artifact that would produce immortality.”

  Everyone looked at me a bit shocked and I huffed. “Hey, I haven’t played every game and seen every movie out there. Hell, part of the reason I didn’t want to live in Little Witch Academia or Dr. Who was because I didn’t know their stories nearly well enough to know the risks.”

  Amy spoke up next. “You mentioned something about an evil organization.”

  I winced. “Yeah, I am sure I mentioned it while we were dealing with Yamatai, but there is some sort of organization that searches for relics and wants to gain power, obtain immortality, and control the world regardless of the risks or costs to everyone else.” I paused and sighed before I chuckled. “... Just like every other secret organization, cult, and terrorist that has ever existed… ever. Hell, we should probably just include every bureaucrat and politician on that list as well, since it seems to apply to them too.”

  There were some snickers as we finally managed to summon the Knight bus and brace ourselves for the trip back down to England. Hermione gave Stan the directions to a park near her house and only about two minutes later we were walking towards the Croft manor.

  The outside of said manor was actually starting to look overgrown with moss growing on the brickwork and the shrubs and grass hadn’t been trimmed in a while. Worse, as we approached, the hair on the back of my neck prickled.

  Next to me, I noticed the rest of my girls seemed to pick up on something being wrong as well. It was one of the skills that Anko had been beating into our skulls. The ability to sense when someone was looking at you was a crucial skill. Especially when dealing with a literal ninja.

  Without looking around, I whispered, “Hinata, Taylor, can you spot him?”

  Taylor and Hinata were good enough that they didn’t even break stride as they followed me up the stairs towards the door. After a moment Hinata spoke up. “One man, third floor balcony behind us. He has one of those guns that you guys showed me, but it is still in a case next to the window.”

  Taylor took a moment longer before she agreed. “Yes, there is also another man in the house to our right that smells like gunpowder. He isn’t watching the manor, though.”

  Hinata hummed but nodded. “Yes, he has one of those pistols but doesn’t seem to be aware of us yet.” Then she paused and bit her lip and I couldn’t help but note it was a bit cute. “Correction, he seems to be listening to a radio of some kind and is now walking towards a room that has a window towards this house.”

  I considered for a moment but we were already too close to pretend we weren’t here for Lara. If I had known she was under this close of surveillance, I would have come under a disguise or at least tried to use Ahri’s illusions.

  Too late now.

  Shaking my head, I whispered to the girls around me, even as I reached out to ring the doorbell. “Keep an eye on our observers. I doubt they will do anything yet, but they might try to stop us if we take Lara with us. I think it best if we don’t make them think that Lara left with us or that we disappear mysteriously. That means leaving in a normal manner before we portal out. That way they don’t expect us to be able to teleport. After that, I can portal us directly into the shuttle.”

  Seeing the nods around me, I pushed the doorbell and waited.

  And waited.

  And waited.

  Looking at Hinata. “Is there anyone actually…”

  Of course, that was the moment that the door was opened fairly violently as a somewhat disheveled Lara yelled. “What do you bastards want now, you…”

  There was a moment of silence as we all stared dumbly at Lara, who had suddenly turned a bit sheepish as her cheeks began to flush.

  Hinata decided to break the silence as she spoke up somewhat timidly. “Uh, the man behind us has begun talking into his radio.”

  That got Lara to momentarily jerk her head up and glance around before she caught herself and tried to play it off as being surprised at the larger group. That was probably even true as she didn’t know Ahsoka or Hinata.

  Pausing to glance around one more time carefully, Lara finally gestured for us to follow her inside. “Come in, come in. Let's get out of this London drizzle.”

  Gathering inside in what must have been a receiving room that had the curtains drawn and the walls plastered with news articles and ancient texts I studied Lara’s attempt at a conspiracy board.

  No, that wasn’t fair. It wasn’t paranoia if they really were out to get you and it wasn’t just myths when most of the magical artifacts were real in the Tomb Raider world. Doubly so in this crossover. I mean, Hermione Granger was standing right next to me and we were all carrying a magical wand in an enchanted pocket.

  Moving to look around Hermione studdied the board, visably impressed, but it didn’t distract her from looking back at Lara. “What happened, Lara?”

  Lara huffed and then to my shock, she sniffled. “I don’t know… Everyone was impressed with what we found. They were talking about calling it the discovery of the decade. Hell, I was even going to therapy and things were going well. Then the news started calling it all fake. They kicked me out of my Master’s degree in Oxford. Even my therapist told me he wasn’t willing to work with someone who was faking an attempted sexual assault. Worse, all the people I knew that made it back from the island stopped answering my phone calls and letters. Even Jonah and Sam seemed to have disappeared.”

  I blinked back at the anger and frustration, but it made sense. Hesitating, I reached forward and gave Lara a bit of a side hug. “I am sorry we weren’t there. We were trying to help Amy and Taylor and were out of the country for a while. We will tell you more when we are somewhere secure. However, the short story is that someone is trying to gaslight you, hard. Really drive away all your support and make you question your sanity.”

  Lara took a shuddering breath and then I saw her logical and mission-focused brain start to examine my assertion and what she could do about it, and at that moment I had to admit that I was impressed. Really, Lara was a mix of Holly and Hermione in that way. She didn’t have powers, but just like Taylor, she had grit and smarts.

  There was a moment of silence before Lara straightened up and narrowed her eyes. “Wait, you know who is doing this to me?”

  I winced slightly and mouthed the words ‘again, not here, not secure.’

  I wasn’t positive, but I was pretty sure that Trinity would have bugged her home if they could get away with it.

  Lara took a moment before her eyes widened and she glanced around her home, probably trying to figure out where she was being watched from.

  Considering our options, I turned. “Can you pack up your things and perhaps meet us somewhere next week?” However, I shook my head and mouthed ‘two hours’

  Lara looked pensive and then determined and I saw her nod aggressively.

  Looking around, I spotted a small hallway with a curtained-off window that should have been on the other side of the house from her two watchers. Pointing inside, I opened a portal for her to move her things into and with any luck, her watchers would assume that she had ducked out the window when they weren’t watching.

  Turning to Arhi, I asked. “Could you discreetly stop by maybe Thursday and help Lara pack her things?” Ahri paused for a moment before she realized I meant right now.

  Ahri smiled at Lara and nodded. “Of course.”

  Preparing to head out, I started to concentrate. I wanted a portal behind each of the two watchers. It was too late to knock them out or edit their memories. Not when they might have already called in our visit to someone else via the radios they both had. The best we could do was make them think our visit was thoroughly unimportant.

  Aiming carefully, I poked my wand through both portals, one after the other, and shot a compulsion to believe that our visit wasn’t worth mentioning and not to think too much about it. Also, not to pay attention to Ahri. I would keep a portal open that Ahri could keep an illusion of herself up through, but she would probably be distracted and it may not have been perfect.

  Seeing as everyone had the plan, I turned and led the girls out of the Croft manor and down the street. However, with how well everything else was going, I wasn’t surprised when Hinata whispered to the rest of us that, “one of the two men has decided to follow us.”

  I sighed, annoyed. Someone must have told him to follow us which confirmed he had called it in. Otherwise, he should have believed we weren’t important enough to bother with.

  Well, either that or he was ordered to follow anyone who visited Lara. Either way, it was frustrating, but disappearing into the magical world was probably our best option at getting them to leave us alone since Thea couldn’t hack a 1990s system since most recordings were on tape, and it would take way too long to try to find everyone they had contacted to modify their memories.

  Thus, I focused on trying to stay bland and non-noteworthy as I led us down to the nearest subway station or the Tube as they called it here in London. The Tube wasn’t as extensive in the 1990s, so we had to walk well over a mile to find a station, but it wasn’t like that would exhaust us after all our training.

  It was only as we entered said station, and Hinata confirmed that we had broken line-of-sight, that I changed direction to duck into a blind corner and portaled us back to the shuttle. That should be believable enough that no one would question it.

  Again, I wished I could have just portaled directly into Lara’s home from Hogsmeade and skipped the entire thing, but I didn’t know where Hermione lived and thus her neighbor, the Croft family, nor could I portal that distance directly. I would have needed to send a portal flying down towards London and then followed the streets to find it.

  Conversely, it was easy to portal back to a place half-outside of the current reality so I could do it from just about anywhere. Distance didn’t matter in that direction. Which was annoying, but I was kinda bending the fabric of the universe to my whims.

  I gave a quick look around the shuttle, but Lara and Ahri were obviously still in Croft Manor. That meant that they were probably still collecting Lara’s things. There was only a pile of stuff near the entrance. Shrugging, I picked up the boxes of stuff and moved them towards the last remaining crew cabin. I was planning on offering her a room in our cottage in Hogsmeade, but we could deal with that later.

  I was about to head back out to the edge of our land and start engraving the runes into another set of blocks when I heard a groan coming from the cargo bay.

  I blinked while my brain tried to figure out what was going on before I suddenly remembered that Chell was in our last magical tent. Amy had said something about changing her body to attempt to filter out the foreign substances faster, but I hadn’t thought it would work so soon.

  I was about to walk towards Chell when I heard Lara behind me. “Oh, hey Max. Did you guys take my crap and put it somewhere? Also, Ahri said you would explain where your home went.”

  Remembering that Lara had briefly seen our previous pocket home I was about to answer before I heard another groan from the cargo bay.

  Frowning and realizing that I might as well do this for both of them at the same time, I tried to smile while gesutring towards the cargo bay. “Sure, we should probably get you up to date, but I would prefer to only have this conversation once so we should probably grab Chell so she can participate.”

  Lara frowned, probably surprised that I had apparently rescued another woman in the few minutes I hadn’t seen her. Still, she followed the rest of us as we filed into the tent.

  Inside we were greeted by Chell, still in her white tank top and orange jumpsuit bottoms. She was groaning as she rubbed her head and eyes before she spotted us and froze.

  Lifting my hand up, I waved, “Hey, is your name Chell? We saw you blast your way out of Aperture Science Center before the robots tried to drag you back in. We took objection to that and grabbed you before fleeing. You are safe now, and we would like to offer you options on what to do now and how we can help you.”

  Rather than answering us Chell just looked at us blankly. As the seconds crawled on I actually started to wonder if we had shocked her that badly. Did she think she was dreaming?

  It was then that we all heard Chell’s stomach rumble and there was another moment of silence before Ahri and Sabah chuckled softly. Chell still didn’t say anything, but we could all see her cheeks start to turn a bit red.

  I smiled. “I should have realized that you would be starving after coming out of your stasis. We can all have dinner before we talk. For now I am Max, this is Taylor, Amy, Sabah, Ahri, Hermione, Ahsoka, and Hinata.” I said while pointing at each of them as they gave a little wave or nod.. I paused, realizing that Chell might take this badly, but continued anyway. “As well as my good friend, Thea. She is an AI over in that computer rack.”

  I saw Chell stiffen when I mentioned the AI, but as she glanced around and noticed that none of us seemed concerned, I could see her slowly relax.

  My careful inspection was interrupted by Amy, who narrowed her eyes and cleared her throat at me.

  It took a moment before I realized that she wanted me to continue. “Ah, yes, I should also mention that we have two more members of this group named Dinah and Luna. They are currently with Luna’s father, exploring and getting some time for themselves.”

  That was vague enough that it wouldn’t raise more questions before we could eat and I gestured out towards the kitchen area.

  Thus, adjourning to the kitchen everyone else sat down for an early dinner. Working quickly Sabah, Amy and I were able to whip up a simple pasta dish with veggies and lemonade. The cooking charms made this a lot quicker even if we weren’t particularly obvious since magic was another subject that would raise even more questions.

  Chell just sat with the other girls around her and nodded quietly as they pointed out the different items in the shuttle and started giving her a bit of their backstories.

  Still, only about 15 minutes later we had the dinner laid out and I was able to smile as all of my girls enjoyed it, including Ahsoka and Hinata who had struggled with a few foods from our mostly western earth diet. The differences though, were not consistent. Most comically, Hinata wanted more spice in the curry while not handling hot sauce on her tacos at all, while Ahsoka had been the exact opposite.

  Lara looked like the food wasn’t anything special by itself, but being surrounded by people with a home-cooked meal seemed to be doing her wonders. Being gaslit for months while being purposely separated from everyone who cared for you would make you a bit touch-starved.

  However it was the still silent Chell that had teared up as she bit into the food while being surrounded by the rest of the girls. None of us said anything about it, just continuing the small talk about what tasted good and what they wanted to eat next, but it really seemed to hit Chell hard.

  It was only as Taylor and Ahsoka were cleaning up and the rest of us pushed back our chairs to be able to talk that the conversation turned back to business again.

  Looking both Lara and Chell in the eye I sighed and started explaining. “Let's get the big things out of the way first. Lara, you already know I can make portals. These are very similar to the ones that you can make with your portal gun, Chell. I can even turn this ability into a way of opening little pocket dimensions like the one we are in.”

  I demonstrated by opening a portal in front of me and then closing it. “What neither one of you know yet is that I can travel between realities with my power. We aren’t even on the same Earth that Chell came from anymore.” I looked at her and tried to smile reassuringly, “We can bring you back in a few weeks if you want to go back, but several of the others we saved with you wanted a new start. That and we have seen what you could do and were impressed with your skills.”

  The revelation that I could hop between worlds seemed to have blown their minds so I gestured to Ahri and Ahsoka. “I am sure that is hard to believe, but neither Ahsoka or Ahri are actually human. Ahri, please drop the illusion.”

  There was a moment before Ahsoka’s Lekku and Ahri’s nine tails were once again displayed for all to see.

  I gestured to them and smiled wryly, this time including Hinata in my look since she hadn’t heard this yet. “However, that isn’t actually the most unbelievable thing.” I smiled a bit sardonically, “We know of all three of your worlds because they exist in stories of our worlds, specifically, books, movies, and games.”

  Obviously, that was met with silence except for a little, “What?” from Lara.

  I simply shrugged. “I don’t fully understand it, but most people aware of the phenomenon either believe that it is because creative people are seers that actually peirce beyond the veil and look across the multiverse to other worlds, or because the simple nature of infinity most or even all fictional stories are true somewhere out there.”

  I gestured around. “I lost my memories and my soul is a strange patchwork of parts I will explain later, but I come from a world described in movies. Those three are from a dark superhero book series” while I pointed at Taylor, Amy, and Sabah. I then gestured towards Hermione. “Hermione is a witch that performs magic at a magical school in a castle in Scotland. We are currently right outside said castle. Lara, we know your story from a game named Tomb Raider. Hinata is a ninja from a ninja villiage in an story and animated tv show. Ahsoka is an alien monk peacekeeper from several movies and TV shows. Chell was a genius test subject using a portal gun that was made into two games named Portal.” then I pointed towards the server rack. “And Thea over there is an artificial intelligence.”

  This time the five new possible members of the Family were blown back by the revelation. Even Thea and Ahsoka who had followed us for a while had never seen us lay it out so clearly. Plus most of my games and movies had been lost with the loss of our first house so it hadn’t come up.

  I let them think about the implications before I clapped softly to bring their attention back to me. “The last thing for you to know is that I am building a team of people who want to stay with me. We call it ‘The Family’. In the most straightforward terms, we could probably describe our goals as, taking care of each other, trying to get stronger, and doing as much good as we can along the way.”

  It was Lara who turned around after glancing around the group and asked the obvious question a little pointedly even if there wasn’t any heat in the question. “And you only take women?”

  I took a deep breath and considered for a moment. It had been something I had decided back when I had been magically encouraged to grow my harem. Yet as conflicted as I had felt about it right after, I still did wanted to be surrounded by women who loved me. Plus, Amy and Luna in particular had been quite clear that I needed to let others join if they wanted to.

  Making my decision to open our family up to new members once we had a chance to vet them, I took a second deep breath and nodded. “Short answer is yes. We have traveled with both males and couples before, but The Family itself is basically just me and my wives. I don’t demand everyone sleeps with me, but we do demand that The Family comes first.”

  Amy huffed, amused with my word play. “I will make it simpler. We only have sex with Max or the other girls in ‘The Family’, at least for those who like girls too.” She then paused and looked more serious. “It is true that Max and his wives saved us, but not everyone we save joins. We only offer the choice. Just know that we are here because we want to be and we don’t appreciate any disrespect against Max, even if it is Max that is the one doing it.”

  I smiled a bit ruefully and nodded. “We are not yet making the offer as we want to get to know you better, but…”

  Amy cut me off again, now annoyed. “You are going to soft-ball it again. Look, he can give you powers. I can improve your body and make you biologically immortal. The Family actually cares about each other. And with all the practice and modifications I made, he is really, really good in the sack even if I cheated slightly by making us a bit more sensitive. I am even currently trying to figure out how to get him a vibrating tongue.”

  It was my turn to turn a bit red as I wasn’t going to be that explicit, but after a moment, I nodded.

  It was Taylor who cut me off before I could move on. Voice firm, she continued. “What he isn’t going to tell you is that he bonded our very souls together. We believe that once he is healed it should make us all stronger. However, right now it is all that is holding his soul together. If you formally join the Family, we are going to be asking you to join the bond as well so his soul is more supported and hopefully can heal faster.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her as the bond still made me feel a bit conflicted, but Taylor narrowed her eyes right back before huffing. “I am not apologizing. You need the support and if they are willing, you shouldn’t stop them. Luna and Dinah didn’t change when they left and you know they will want to join us again.”

  I paused and then slowly, reluctantly nodded. “I… I know. Still, we can talk about this later.”

  What surprised me was Hermione interrupting our staring match. “I will do it.” followed by Thea “I will as well.”

  We all blinked as Hermione was often quiet, but while she looked a bit red, the clench in her jaw made me believe she would be stubborn about this. Behind me I noticed Thea’s avatar looking the same.

  What I didn’t expect was Hinata slowly lowering her hand out of the corner of my eye, her face red.

  Sighing, I rubbed my forehead and then looked around. “Well, we can talk about the details later. We need to get to know Chell and Lara and everyone else needs time to think. In the meantime we need to get back to studying. None of us is ready to help Holly take down Voldemort if we can’t stop his return. I am not going to let him start another war and I absolutely don’t want to have to put kids onto the battlefield to stop him this time.”

  It was only then that Chell spoke for the first time. Her voice was high and cracky with disuse and I could see her flinch slightly with discomfort as she spoke. “... What?”

  I sighed. “It is a long story. Seven books long. And this version of the world is a bit different along with the changes we have already made. That said, I will tell you as much of your story as I know, Lara, because to be blunt, I didn’t finish your games. I don’t remember why, I just didn’t get the chance.”

  Shaking my head I sighed. “For now, I think we all need to rest and prepare for school. Each of you will need to decide if you are going to join us in classes or just practice on your own. We can tutor you just fine, but it will be a bit lonely.”

  I saw agreement, so with a quick look at the resynced clock, I sighed and gestured towards our beds. “Rest well, we will be talking with Dumbledore tomorrow.”

  Interlude Taylor:

  Taylor had to admit from the outside that it was a bit strange that she had pushed for Max to collect more women.

  A little over three years ago it would have been unthinkable.

  Then again, it would have been unthinkable that she would have had a lover period. She could admit that the bitch-trio had convinced her that she was a stupid, ugly piece of garbage that would struggle to even sell herself and she had let them. That she would never get a guy let alone one as handsome as Max, even if a lot of those physical changes were from Amy.

  Thinking about that was particularly ironic at the moment as she was being cuddled by Max in the afterglow of a particularly good climax.

  Amy had insisted that they all get at least one more good round before they started school again and Taylor wasn’t about to disagree. The dorms weren’t bad and she even enjoyed spending time with the other girls. However, being unable to even cuddle with Max did get frustrating after a while.

  If they hadn’t been able to sneak out every weekend even she might have demanded they be put up in the married apartments. Starting Hogwarts at 14 meant that some students were 22 before they graduated. Admittedly, that would have caused problems as on paper they were only second years and only roughly 16, but she might have done it anyway.

  This was a good compromise for now. She could spend time with the other girls and still get some time with Max. Specifically, she really didn’t mind spending more time with the other bookworm that she had gotten to know on this trip. Hermione had been more interested in non-fiction, but she had been the only one who had understood what Iambic Pentameter even was when Taylor had mentioned it.

  Yeah, Taylor could admit that she had no problems letting Hermione into The Family.

  On that note, it also made sense for Thea. She was obviously happy to be here and exploring the multiverse… as strange as it still was to say that.

  Regardless, Thea didn’t have to consider the physical implications of marriage as she didn’t have a body yet. That was probably a good thing, as while it was a world of difference from when she was introduced to The Family a month or so ago, she still felt a bit inexperienced at times.

  As she relaxed while Amy and Sabah were starting their turn, Taylor focused on her body for a moment. The last month had been crazy, but as she lifted up her hand and clenched her fist with both magic and chakra running through her she had to admit that they had come out the stronger for it.

  Laying back down and focusing on her other senses, she tried to work her control with her bugs.

  It was then that she spotted something strange and she paused and then snorted softly. No wonder Hinata had volunteered even if she had gotten embarrassed. She was watching intently through the shuttle wall as they went at it. Plus, if she wasn’t wrong she seemed to be spending a similar amount of time watching Amy and Sabah as she did Max, with a blush on her face.

  Taylor snorted again. As Max liked to say. All of their stories were simplified, but they did give some glimpses into their characters. So it probably shouldn’t have been too surprising that Hinata might have been a bit interested in trying out both girls as well. Hinata had still fallen in love with a boy who enjoyed breaking out a sexy-jutsu to mess with the perverted ninja after all.

  Rolling her eyes Taylor snorted one last time. Maybe having another girl to fully dive into the group activities would mean Amy lay off the invitations for a while. She hadn’t minded a kiss or some cuddling, but she wasn’t really one for going all the way. Maybe that would change eventually, but not for now.

  Cleaning herself with a wave of her wand she let herself drift off to sleep. They were going to be back to the grind tomorrow and she didn’t want either the professors or Anko to decide she wasn’t giving enough effort.

  Interlude Dinah:

  Dinah glanced at herself and noted the phyiscal changes with a small smile. Max was going to be surprised alright.

  Glancing at their group heading towards Erika’s gym, she smirked as she spotted Ash currently dressed up as a girl.

  She wasn’t sure why Ash was so sure that Erika wouldn’t accept challenges from boys, but from another boy in more obvious drag, she assumed it was some sort of practical joke that had earned a life of its own and was now kept alive as every boy who went through it wanted all the other boys to have to suffer through the experience as well.

  Well, either that or the Pokemon League somehow were unaware of what was going on.

  That seemed especially unlikely as they seemed quite on top of everything else and the Pokemon league had been very clear that absolutely everyone was welcome to try to become a Pokemon Master and a gym that only accepted girl challengers made absolutely no sense.

  She looked down at her Eevee and smiled. Their group had decided they would each choose an Eeveelution, but she wasn’t sure exactly what type would match Mrs Figgles.

  Mrs Figgles simply looked back up at her before giving her a small nudge against her leg with a “Eve, Eee, Eevee, Vee.”

  She couldn’t understand her as well as Max apparently could, but she still got the meaning. “Lets worry about it after this gym.”

  Nodding she took a deep breath. It had been quite a while since they separated from Max, but she still had her sister Luna here and she had to admit that it was wonderful being able to be her own person and stand on her own strength with her own team.

  Being a thinker on Earth Bet meant you were always reliant on someone else.

  Now she wasn’t reliant on anyone but her team and she had to admit that it helped, a lot.

  Interlude Lucius Malfoy:

  Lucius swirled his wine as he looked at the back of his visitor.

  He was surprised to have received them so late in the night but something must have spooked them.

  Narrowing his eyes he spun around, silk robes billowing and headed towards the floo.

  They might need to advance their timetable if they were going to be pressured like this.

  He had only barely managed to reach Fudge soon enough to stop that retrial nonsense for Black before anything serious could happen.

  Yes, maybe they needed to move before anything else happened.

  Author Note:

  1) Sorry for the delay, but in my defense, I said the pace was going to be picking up. I was talking about the story’s pace, not the release schedule. That means more planning which takes time with quite a few moving pieces.

  Unfortunately, I am very busy with work and family, which has been killing my muse. It has made me come home and just want to veg-out. Still, I actually have another chapter mostly written so I will just have to keep at it.

  2) On a completely unrelated note, a recommendation: I have read through Project: Gamer Ver. 2 By Forgottem again (from the beginning) after his last few updates.

  Man I love that story… you don’t even need to have watched young justice before starting (I hadn’t the first time I read it) and it isn’t overly focused on the gamer aspect or numbers either. So, if you somehow haven’t read it and like character development and power growth, stop wasting your time and read that story instead.