Waking up early so we would arrive before the Hogwarts breakfast, we got dressed and were greeted by Lara, Hinata, Ahsoka, Chell, and Ahri. We had already planned on asking for Ahri to be admitted as a transfer student. We didn’t need to hide anymore and we didn’t need a potential parental figure, so there was no reason to keep Ahri as a backup. Not with Dumbledore tentatively on our side.

  The question was, would the other four join us as well. I had given them some time and they looked like they had made their decision.

  Looking over the said four, I asked again. “You know you are essentially going to be catching up, so the first few months are going to be especially difficult. Doubly so, since my girls and I are already significantly further along than our classmates. It would be easier for you to wait for us to stop by in the evenings and go at your own pace.” I then turned and faced Lara, “Plus I thought you were looking into the Trinity group I mentioned.”

  Unfortunately, the explanation of her first game and the basics I knew of the second were all I could give Lara. I really wish I could have given her more, but as I had said before, I hadn’t played it all the way through.

  To my surprise, Hinata interrupted my swirl of thoughts and gave what should have been the obvious answer. “True, but if we are behind, that is all the more reason to start catching up.”

  Lara nodded in agreement. “I still want to research Trinity, but Hermione said Hogwarts has its own library and I want to understand magic if I keep running into it. I am tired of dealing with the supernatural and not being able to do anything about it.”

  I glanced around for any last-second doubts before I simply nodded and said, “Very well, lets get started.”

  After a quick application of Amy’s biokinesis that made Lara and Ahsoka and look a bit younger, we got them spare robes. They were young enough that they looked vaguely late teenager-ish but Amy hadn’t changed much else. We weren’t trying to fool the Hogwarts book of admissions this time.

  In fact, the only real issue was an early morning trip to Olivander's. I was prepared to stand outside until the shop opened, only to find him at the door, waiting.

  Not only was I now convinced he had some seer blood in him, but I didn’t think he was fully human either. He just gave off a sort of creepy feeling. My money was on some sort of Fae, but it didn’t stop us from buying a wand for Ahsoka, Hinata, Chell, and Lara.

  I was only mildly surprised as each of them got dragon heart string, except for Hinata, who got unicorn hair. I noticed that Ahsoka was nearly in a trance as she hovered her hands across the various wand boxes before pointing at one in the corner. The wand that Ahsoka pointed out was a perfect fit, of course, and we managed to make it back to Hogsmeade before 7 am.

  The last issue was Ahsoka and Ahri’s appearances. I hadn’t had time to deconstruct and create a glamor ring that could hide Ahsoka’s lekku or Ahri’s tails, so Ahri would have to use her abilities to hide their non-human traits for another couple of weeks. I was still confident we could make the rings, but it would take time.

  Walking up to the castle again for the second time in two days greatly ruined the gravitas for us, but Lara and Chell got the full effect since it was their first time.

  It was actually pretty fun to watch. Lara had spent her whole life studying ancient mystical ruins. Now she was seeing one for the first time as a living example, albeit not at its peak, since the Voldemort blood war had devastated the number of magicals in Britain. Chell had spent most of her life in a sterile laboratory and testing center and now was able to see both a few magical animals on the grounds and the sheer majesty of the ancient castle.

  It was clear that it was almost an overwhelming experience for the two of them.

  Thus we kept quiet as we walked up the steps in the early morning and pushed open the large entry way doors before stepping inside.

  What I wasn’t expecting was a fist to come flying around the corner from said door. Hard enough that it would have bruised my shoulder before Amy’s improvements.

  “Where the bloody hell have you all been?”

  Looking over, I spotted the annoyed faces of Holly and Ginny who seemed to be alternating back and forth between annoyance and relief. However, they both turned quickly to Hermione as she rounded the corner behind me.

  They were about to hug her when they both paused, giving Hermione a once-over. Ginny frowned and actually stepped forward and grabbed Hermione’s shoulders, giving the less-fuzzy-haired book worm a closer inspection.

  Holly was still notably a little less willing to be touchy after her childhood, but still leaned forward to inspect her. Yet after a moment to admire the small improvements that Amy had made with Hermione’s hair, acne scars, skin tone, and teeth, they both wrapped their arms around her for a firm hug. Ginny enthusiastically, Holly only after another moment of hesitation.

  Hermione let her motor mouth fill the slightly worried silence. “Sorry we have been gone so long. I didn’t want to leave you alone for so long when you were probably worried about your connection with Tom, but our trip was mental. I mean our trip went well at first, but then we were attacked by a twat who was trying to kill Max and his girls. Then we jumped away from that when we got stuck in a war and we were stuck there. That was when we helped a few people only to have …”

  I wanted to stop her as the entrance way was not the place to be discussing this. Worse, I spotted Draco Malfoy glaring at Holly and the rest of us from the entrance to the Great Hall so this was probably going to be getting back to the blood purists soon enough.

  However, we didn’t get to say anything else as we were interrupted by Professor McGonagall who swept into the hallway with a stern frown on her face. “Mr Alcott, where have you been? The semester started over two weeks ago.” That seemed to have given her the chance to count us as her frown somehow grew deeper. “And where is your sister and Miss Lovegood? And who are these four?”

  Remembering that we had pretended that Dinah was my sister, I sighed. “Can we have this talk with the Headmaster? It is a bit long, and I don’t want to have to explain it multiple times. I am actually a bit tired and still recovering from an attack.”

  I could see the annoyance in Professor McGonagall’s eyes, but at my explanation of exhaustion, she did soften ever so slightly before she heard about the injury and her worried gaze seemed to inspect me. “If you need to visit Madam Pomfrey first…”

  Already shaking my head, I gestured towards the stairs. “No, it was weeks ago now and I am getting better, but it was why it took so long to get back. Still, I would like to get this meeting out of the way first. I can visit the hospital wing after that if the Headmaster believes I need it.”

  Holly and Ginny fell in behind us as we headed towards the stairs only to have McGonagall turn and frown at them. “I am sure that Mr Alcott, Miss Herbert, Miss Granger…” She actually hesitated at that, realizing that she didn’t know everyone’s names as we hadn’t given them, but after a moment she rallied. “...and everyone else, would appreciate your support, but perhaps it would be better if you went to breakfast so you will be prepared for your classes?”

  The statement was given as a question, but it was obvious that she meant it as an order, but to my surprise Holly firmed her stance before shaking her head. “We have been worried sick and Max promised us answers.”

  I had in fact not actually promised them anything, but I really didn’t mind so I cleared my throat to say so only to be beaten by Hermione. “Professor, Holly and Ginny are our friends, we don’t mind if they stay.”

  Professor McGonagall frowned, but Ginny quickly nodded in agreement before adding, “We already had breakfast.”

  I wasn’t sure if that was true, but the professor seemed to have realized that it was easier and quicker to just agree and so she sighed before she gave her permission. “Very well Miss Weasley, Miss Potter.”

  Thus the climb to the Headmaster’s office was done in relative silence as all three of them just wanted their questions answered and correctly assumed the fastest way of accomplishing that was to climb quicker.

  As we arrived at the Gargoyle and Professor McGonagall gave the password, “Tootsie Rolls”

  I was a bit surprised as I thought the headmaster only used magical sweets, but as we were told to enter even before knocking, I spotted a bowl of assorted candies on the desk I realized he was a man who did not discriminate when it came to lining his veins with sugar.

  I was amused to see the surprise in Dumbledore’s face and widening eyes as our group of roughly a dozen people filed into the office.

  It did make me a bit worried about how insecure the castle was, but then again, Peter Petigrew was literally here in the dorms for years and no one noticed.

  Moving that thought to the back burner so I could focus I was just in time to see Dumbledore collect himself and ask the question that I was sure everyone wanted to know. “So, what happened?”

  Sighing, then breathing in deep I started my story explaining everything. Obviously I left out my ability to leave this reality entirely and Amy and my’s ability to give people powers, but other than that we really weren’t hiding anything. In fact, this world had some contact with the spirit world like when we visited the bathhouse from Spirited Away, so I decided to just leave it vague. It wouldn’t be strange if we didn’t know exactly where we all ended up.

  “Well Headmaster, it all started when we traveled back to see Amy, Taylor, and Dinah’s home. The problem was we made a few enemies when we left and they attacked us and came damn close to killing me before we escaped….”

  Watching the faces the four people made as we walked through our adventures was actually hilarious. This started when they were worried and angry as we explained how I had my soul nearly ripped apart and we were blasted into some other jungle. I knew there was fighting in Central America so again I left it vague.

  They were then surprised and pleased when we explained how we had saved Alice and the other kids. Obviously not mentioning the many deaths we had directly and indirectly caused. After hearing about the trauma the kids were put through, I wasn’t sure McGonagall would have cared about the deaths, but Dumbledore probably would have.

  Mentioning that Luna and Dinah had decided to stay with Xeno and study the animals there for a few months got worried glances, but Dumbledore seemed to trust Xeno so McGonagall didn’t interrupt me and I continued on.

  That uncertainty morphed back to worry when we were tracked down by Hinata’s people only to explain Hinata’s potential suitor status and get some surprised glances.

  Finally, mentioning that Chell was picked up from a Muggle laboratory where she was being treated as a lab rat got a few more sympathy points.

  For Lara, I mentioned she was Hermione’s friend but she had been studying abroad and had some issues with stalkers.

  At the end, I was about to request they be given a chance to study with us when Dumbledore simply smiled. “Would you fine ladies like to attend our fine institution?”

  I blinked in surprise.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amy, Taylor, and Sabah doing the same.

  “… uh, what, Headmaster?”

  His smile drooped a bit. “Were you not interested? You are all clearly magical to one degree or another as you made it into the castle. The Muggle wards would have kept you back if you weren’t.”

  I cleared my throat and nodded, maybe a bit quicker than I should have. “Sorry, Yes. Yes, we would like to invite them if they are able. We were hoping they could join us in our year, we would make sure to tutor them to help them catch up.”

  Professor McGonagall frowned and was going to disagree but Dumbledore cut her off. “Hmmm, I suppose that could work. You are all at the top of your classes.” His eyes seemed to consider something before he turned back and looked us all over. “I haven’t asked specifically, but how much further along are you?”

  I noticed McGonagall’s piercing glare and cleared my throat nervously. “I think we could probably pass our third-year-exams right now and I think Hermione could probably pass her fourth… despite taking every class available.”

  McGonagall’s nostrils flared and she took a step forward. “Have you been practicing all this time unsupervised? Why didn’t you come to us for help. We have classes for a reason Mr Alcott. Some of that magic is dangerous…”

  Dumbledore cleared his throat and glanced over at her. “Minerva, I am sure they are being quite safe. That said, I am worried. It is not good to only study all day. Children need time to relax and socialize as well as learn. A childhood is a terrible thing to lose.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Dumbledore then turned and looked at us, studying our group and tapping his finger against the desk.

  As the seconds ticked on it was Hermione who broke first. “I am sorry, Sir. We wanted to learn more. Magic is so amazing and Holly needed our help. I mean with Tom coming back next year and the Death Eaters getting broken out we thought we needed all the help we could get and…”

  I winced as she trailed off noticing that she might have said too much.

  McGonagall had gone pale and Dumbledore looked troubled. “... That is very worrisome. Where did you hear that, young lady?”

  I sighed and decided to interrupt. “I believe that you both know I have access to a seer. It is actually several seers, each of which can give me different levels of information. So unfortunately as we told you before we left, Tom is indeed coming back.”

  It was Holly who spoke up to interrupt me, showing more backbone than Harry ever seemed to. “Professor, I haven’t had a childhood yet. My relatives hated me and Tom attacked me on my very first year here. I want to live without his influence, and with Max’s help, now I can. That means I have to get stronger so I can beat him.”

  Dumbledore seemed saddened as Holly reminded him of her childhood. Then saddened again with the mention of the soul shard in her head. We had all but explicitly told both of them that connection before we left.

  The uncomfortable silence stretched and I had to fight the urge to fidget.

  Finally, Dumbledore sighed. “I can’t just let them start the middle of their second year if they don’t have a firm foundation. And the story you gave seems to paint that as the case.”

  Twisting, he looked towards his wall as he considered and then sighed. “I still want you to have a childhood. You can disregard it as the sentimentality of an old man if you wish, but I truly believe that a childhood is precious and it will build the men and women you will grow up to be.”

  A part of me wanted to point out that was a bit hypocritical since he had sent Tom back to an abusive orphanage and Holly back to her neglectful relatives. But maybe that was the exception that proved the rule. That and didn’t I encourage Luna and Dinah to get a chance to be young together before deciding if they wanted to actually join us?

  Shaking my head I focused back on Dumbledore as he sighed and then continued. “I have a method that you may use to help catch up.” Glancing at Hermione, he smiled. “If Hermione is willing to share her memories, notes, and time turner. I may be willing to share the use of my pensieve to let you experience your first two years and catch up with your friends.”

  Hermione’s eyes lit up before she frowned. “I have read about those, but wouldn’t it still take a year to go through a year’s worth of memories?”

  Dumbledore chuckled. “Ah, you have heard of them then.” then he shook his head. “And yes and no. Penseives are exceptionally rare. It can take a master enchanter as much as a year to make a single one. That means they are also exceptionally expensive so most people have never used one.”

  His chuckle turned a bit wry. “That and the people that are using them are generally old men examining old memories so we play the memories back at the same speed or sometimes even slower. However, our minds can work much faster than that. I have been told that entire dreams can occur in a matter of seconds. So a pensieve can play a memory at a 20 to 1 ratio. So an hour in the pensive is only 3 minutes outside.”

  His eyes twinkled at that as he smirked. “That said, it still takes time to comprehend what you are hearing and seeing so I doubt you could understand anything at that top speed, but it does make an excellent way to, as the muggles say… fast forward. Still, you could probably drop Miss Granger’s memories and play them back at say… five times speed and be caught up before the end of the year even if you have to watch each class two or three times to remember it all.”

  I looked at the Headmaster shocked that he would do this for us. “... Thank you, sir…”

  Dumbledore just looked smug as he waved it away. “I will have a classroom set up that you can use and we can show you how to copy memories and place them in the bowl later. Your friends can still attend classes with you as it is a good chance to make friends. This should allow all of you to both learn and socialize.”

  Then, standing up he clapped his hands. “For now, I would recommend we all head down to the great hall, I am famished and would love a good cup of tea before I start the day.”

  Ushering us out of the door we all walked down the stairs. I let the two professors outpace us so a minute or two later we were alone.

  Looking at my girls I smiled. “That… that might solve most of our problems. We needed time to study magic, chakra, and train and there wasn’t simply enough time in the day unless we were doubling our time with Hermione’s time turner and I wasn’t eager to put us through that stress…”

  I ignored Holly whispering to Ginny, “What is a time turner?” I would let Hermione explain that later.

  I continued. “Now we can review Hinata’s memories of training and Hermione’s memories of studying. Hell, we should try to purchase one of our own so we can use one permanently. That said, this route will still take a lot of work, but it will be doable…” I paused and looked at both of them a little sheepish. “...I mean, that is if you would let us see your memories.”

  They both looked uncomfortable but after looking at each other they slowly nodded, with Hermione adding, “As long as you don’t expect me to do your homework.”

  I chuckled. “I am pretty sure that you don’t need to worry about that. We have seen what is out there and we need to be ready.”

  That, of course, made the girls pester us to explain what exactly we meant by that. Finally giving up I agreed to explain that evening since we were now nearly late for Potions and I knew we were already going to lose points for being absent for the last two weeks.

  The points were still just as useless as every fanfiction writer I had ever read had already pointed out. But as long as the bragging rights still mattered to teenagers, the social pressure would mean that we couldn’t act out too much without making enemies of our own house and the Weasley twins were far from the only pranksters in the school, just the best at it. We could probably avoid them now if we tried, but it really was easier to just keep our heads down.

  The thing was, that might not be an option anymore. We were now officially part of Holly’s friend group, which meant the entire castle now seemed incredibly interested in everything we were doing.

  On a side note I was actually incredibly amused to hear what the Hogwarts rumor mill had to say about us.

  My girls favorite rumor was that I was attempting to seduce every girl within two years of me. I caught Amy in particular winking at a few girls who were giggling in the corner of Charms before class started.

  My favorite rumor was that I was a slave to my girls who were using me to wait on them hand and foot.

  What surprised me was when we heard someone I didn’t recognize whisper that I was a monster that was trying to collect all the beautiful women in the world and enslave them to me while another said I was a vampire that was collecting women to strengthen myself after being weakened by the sunlight.

  Ignoring the completely wrong yet somehow partially insightful answers from the Hogwarts rumor mill… I knew there had to be magic involved somehow… I was practically dragged into an empty classroom at the end of the day by Holly and Ginny.

  Thus I was forced to give them the truth about how we were really traveling between worlds.

  They took it way better than I was expecting. Maybe their experience with Luna and Dinah and seers in general had made the idea seem less crazy.

  What I wasn’t expecting was Holly’s indignation at the characterization.

  “What do you mean I was a boy?” Her face was confused before her face screwed up in disgust, “And you are trying to tell me that Snape loved my mother and has been tormenting me because I look more like my Dad than I do my Mom?”

  I saw Amy and Sabah giggling in the corner before I sighed. “Yes, and yes. Look there are similarities, but I am pretty sure the nature of the multiverse means there are differences in each world. We haven’t actually visited the same world multiple times, but my instincts haven’t been wrong about this yet.”

  Hermione, who had been amused and smiling next to Taylor as they watched, spoke up in question. “But where did those instincts come from?”

  I paused and then tilted my head. “You know, I don’t know. The ROB who said he dropped me off must have given them to me, but…”

  The silence was less comfortable this time as we all remembered that there were things much, much bigger out there than Tom and his death munchers. We had seen quite a few of them on the last trip from a distance, but it was still sobering.

  Shaking my head I sighed. “Still, regardless, we need to get to work. We don’t want to be surprised when the next attack happens.”

  Ginny spoke up next. “Why do you think you are going to be attacked? Didn’t you fix this year’s problems from the books already?”

  I frowned. “I know I said that it is best to ignore prophecies way back when we first met…” then I paused as I ran a hand through my hair. “And I still think that is true, but… well, our attempts to fix problems hasn’t always worked. Especially here at Hogwarts.” My face turned stony. “It has been forcing me to question if fate really does exist.”

  Shaking my head I sighed. “That said, we need to get to Anko for our training. I don’t want to know what she would do if we were late.”

  Holly and Ginny looked at each other before they turned back towards us again, determined. “Do you think we could join you for training?”

  I looked at them and then sighed. “Why don’t you stick next to Chell and Lara. Those two need to decide if they will train with us as well. It will require a full body modification and it isn’t something to jump into without being sure. It might even be detectable and get you banned from Quidditch as some sort of magical augmentation.”

  That made the two of them hesitate, but after a moment, they shook their heads and Ginny, who I knew was more serious about going pro, answered. “That doesn’t matter if we don’t survive long enough to get there.”

  Tilting my head, I saw Chell and Lara looking like they agreed, so I sighed and opened a portal to our pocket dimension, with a second to retrieve Anko for the evening.

  Chell and Lara might have agreed to the augmentation immediately, but I still forced them to watch as we first ran, now occasionally across water for a step or two, then fought each other, then fought each other again with swords and knives.

  When we finally dragged ourselves back into the castle after Amy had healed us and I had soothed our chakra and magical systems, the four girls looked equal measures impressed, intimidated, and eager.

  Sighing, I made a note to take some time with Amy to modify them before Wednesday night’s practice.

  Thus, the first three weeks back passed in a blur of studying and pain. Yet I stole some time away and by the end of January, I finalized the glamor rings for Ahri and Ahsoka. It was a bit tricky, but it transfigured their heads to have only hair, shrank Ahri’s tails to fit under her dress, and covered up the more subtle non-human traits like pointed teeth and slit pupils.

  Neither one particularly liked it, but it allowed the two of them the freedom I knew they were starting to crave. They had basically been forced to stay together for the last month and I knew both of them were more of the independent type.

  Amy had spent most of her limited free time working on the chakra plants. She wanted to understand how chakra behaved in plants and the few bugs and critters we had inadvertently taken. I know it was partly because she was frustrated with her struggle to augment us in ways she hadn’t seen in other humans. It was understandable as she didn’t have a super computer the size of a state or two helping her. It was the same way that Taylor had never achieved the level of effortless control of millions of bugs simultaneously that her canon self had achieved.

  What Amy had managed to learn was the chakra seemed to be stagnating very slowly. That seemed especially bad and, with no better ideas, I had brought this dimension a little closer to Hogwarts and opened some tiny portals to try to let the magic circulate within the pocket dimension a little. Chakra and magic were subtly different, but I hoped it would help.

  Sabah had decided to go back to her roots and was now spending time trying to learn to layer multiple runes into our battle cloaks. It actually seemed to make her happy so we were happy to leave her to it.

  During that same time, it was Hermione who found the first crack in the electronics issue.

  I was actually incredibly impressed, but it made sense. She basically spent all of her time with Thea as they tested possible fixes and Thea was able to give feedback for even slight improvements.

  Ahsoka then got involved and between the three of them they figured out that the magical wards were pumping the equivalent of massive electromagnetic noise into the circuits within the castle. Older devices like watches could handle it for a while, but CPUs and especially RAM were very vulnerable to these issues.

  Mentioning that I remembered hearing somewhere about the concept of Faraday cages (where metal surrounds the processors), redundant computing (where the analysis is done multiple times to look for errors), and shortening wires (to avoid creating unintentional antennas), all seemed to have helped.

  Thus, a few days later, we were able to congratulate a floating Thea for being able to stay with us in our semi-official study room while Lara, Ahsoka, Hinata all had a finger stuck in the Pensieve, eyes glassy.

  They had been making massive improvements in their magic. Watching the lectures again after trying the exercises, then repeating until they had mastered the concept or spell was working wonders. In fact we had all started using the technique even if it was less effective without a teacher explaining the concept. Just watching memories of our dueling practice and spell casting as an outside observer was useful.

  As I looked at the four, who were currently reviewing the theory of the levitation spell, I considered the looks the other girls had given me when I handed Ahri and Ahsoka their rings. True, I had put sizing enchantments on them and asked them to use them as toe rings during the day. Better not to have an accident by having them slip off during some sort of practice or prank.

  Yet, as dense as I was sometimes, even I realized that I had really dropped the ball. I had talked about making them my wives, but hadn’t actually given them anything to make that official.

  I really needed to work on that.

  And, as I considered what I could do to make it special, an interesting thought crossed my mind while I looked at the Ninja Jutsu scrolls I was studying. Maybe I could make them both useful and meaningful. It would just take a lot of work, especially since I didn’t know any of those materials, magics, or jutsu yet. Still, if we were going to be inspired by xianxia I could perhaps do more with that.

  It was something to work on especially since my current project was nearly finished.

  I studied my notes one more time as the four jerked as they came to themselves outside of the Pensieve. “Hinata, would you come over here for a moment?”

  Hinata gave a little ‘eep’ as she wasn’t expecting my serious demeanor. “Ah, yes, one second.”

  Walking over, she knelt down on the cushion in front of me.

  Leaning forward, and ignoring her blush, I inspected her caged bird seal and the more I saw the more annoyed I got. “Damn this really is both impressive in how well it protects you from eye snatchers while being completely unnecessarily cruel in how it can inject pain directly into your nervous system.”

  It wasn’t the first time, or even the twentieth time that I had studied the seal on her forehead. I had wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before I made any moves, but it still made me mad.

  I heard several of my girls click their tongues in annoyance or give some grumbles. Hinata really was still the purest and kindest of any of us, despite being groomed to be a literal assassin for hire.

  Sighing, I glanced through my notes one more time before I looked at Hinata in her eyes. They were still the milky, nearly fully white orbs they had always been, but she was still extremely expressive so I could tell she wasn’t particularly mad.

  “I am almost completely sure I can remove the seal now and give you a new one that will be able to give you the same protection. However, I would like to ask you to let Amy study your eyes while the protection is down. I wouldn’t mind being able to see through objects even it ends up that my brain can’t handle the 360 degree view.”

  I watched as Hinata hesitated, perhaps worried we would replace her or something before she nodded.

  Nodding back I reached down and took out the same blood sharpie I had used before when breaking the seals on Sasuke and Anko, and carefully started enscribing release, protection, and separation runes around her seal. I would have to refine the practice a bit if we were going to free the branch family clan as I suspected she wanted, but I was fairly confident it could be done.

  A few minutes later, I took a breath and then placed my hand on her forehead before I channeled my magic and a trickle of chakra into the seals and with a sound of breaking glass, the seal literally broke into motes of dust.

  Hinata gasped before she teared up and reached forward to hug me. It was soft, but I was happy to hear her whispering “Thank you, thank you… thank you.”

  It took several minutes to calm her back down but soon enough Amy had studied her eyes without the protection and I was able to inscribe new runes onto her forehead. The tricky part this time was that I was aiming for a self-shrinking seal like Tsunade had. I had designed this one to be a tiny crescent moon.

  There was, of course, no control mechanism and I was hoping it would even give additional mental protections. If it worked, I was considering giving the rest of us one as well.

  Hinata braced herself as I once again placed my hand on her forehead before the runes wrapped around each other and flowed up into her forehead to create a faint silvery crescent moon.

  Handing her a mirror, I smiled as she touched her forehead before lunging forward to give me another hug. It was clearly both because of what I had done for her, but because of what it would mean for her clan.

  After some time where everyone was able to relax and enjoy the first break we had taken in over a week, I considered what we had accomplished in under a month. We had made major progress on all of our skills and even made some progress on our various endeavors.

  I had even managed to finish the foundational ring of stones for our perimeter wall in the pocket dimension. I had been slowed down a little as I had decided to make a dowel joint between each stone. However, even if I still wasn’t directly casting magic on the stones, a check of the magical textbooks showed nothing was stopping me from enchanting my tools.

  We had finally even managed to crack Remus’ exterior and were now getting pointers on our spell casting. Although that might have been Lin’s efforts to help us. The fox spirit really did have the werewolf wrapped around her finger.

  I looked around and even though we hadn’t really taken a break since we had arrived, I had to admit that I was actually happy with how things were going.

  That was when we were interrupted by a knock on the door by none other than Professor Trelawny.

  Looking at her, I was surprised to see her eyes blank and her voice deep and raspy.

  “The daughter beset on all sides will fall.”

  My blood ran cold as she continued.

  “The beginning of the end will come for those who defy the order.”

  “The shadows will hide the rise of the darkness again.”

  “The daughter will fail alone.”

  There was a ringing silence as we stared at the divination professor before she seemed to shake herself and she looked around in surprise. Then, without another word, she continued in her normal aloof manner. “Ah. Miss Croff. There seem to be an auror that wishes to have a word with you in the great hall. They said something about an arson.”

  Then, she turned and walked away.

  Blinking multiple times I shook my head and turned around and without having anything better to say, all that came to mind was… “Shit”

  Interlude Dumbledore:

  Dumbledore frowned as he looked at the letter he had received.

  It had been very clear that he was needed urgently to deal with a possible escaped dragon and that the meeting would be tomorrow morning before they moved out on the creature.

  … so where was everyone?

  Suddenly, Dumbledore shivered. It was a sense he liked to think was as useful as the birthmark on his knee that mimicked the London Underground.

  Somewhere, someone was doing something stupid.

  The problem was, where?

  He had been hearing rumors of issues in Syria, Siberia, Peru, and even Mexico. Not to mention that nonsense off the coast of Japan.

  Maybe the people who had been telling him that having three positions was too much were right.

  1) As always, thank you for all of your comments and support. With how busy I am, I don’t get to answer very often across all three platforms, but I appreciate them.2) Did anyone really think that they would get an entire semester of peace at Hogwarts? In fact, it was going to be worse, but my wife said to tone it down a bit.