Looking at everyone in the room, no one else had anything to say after that double bombshell from Professor Trelawney. Not sure what to think, I considered for a moment longer before simply slowly closing the door.

  Walking back to my chair, I slumped before I looked around the room. “So, that just happened.”

  Holly audibly groaned. “Damn it, another bloody prophecy about me?”

  I hummed and considered for a minute, but then shook my head. “Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We should probably go through what it said again more carefully.”

  Hermione had taken out a sheet of paper and had obviously recorded Trelawney’s words, so I wasn’t surprised when she held up her sheet and read it again.

  “The daughter beset on all sides will fall.”

  “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.”

  Listening, I bit my lip.

  Sabah spoke up in an unsure voice, “Does anyone have any ideas of what it might mean?” At my head shake, she continued. “Maybe, maybe we should go get Luna and Dinah.”

  For a moment I considered that while I ran a hand through my hair. I had already admitted that I missed them. Now I had to face the fact that I had also grown accustomed to relying on them to make plans. Their powers were certainly not perfect, but it was worlds better than the indecision we had now… Would it really have been so bad to go back and pick them up?

  Yet as I thought about it, I remembered the faces and excitement they had as they set off on their Pokemon journey. Was I really going to cut that short and force them back here when all they asked for was 6 months?

  I shook my head. “No, they deserve their break and it was their choice to leave. Plus, I think this is another example of a useless prophecy. I mean, it could apply to Holly, Lara… hell, even Ahri, Hermione, or Taylor could fit the description of a ‘lone daughter’ if it means having no siblings.”

  Leaning back, I started to bounce my foot as I continued my thoughts on our options. “Worse, the prophecy doesn’t even give a method of identifying them. It only warns that a female will fail if singled out and that there is a secret order and a rising darkness. The thing is the ‘Order’ the prophecy mentioned could be Trinity, but it could just as easily be the ‘Order of the Phoenix’. The only real thing I feel we can say for certain is that a threat is coming. But we already knew that with the return of Tom and his death munchers.”

  Rubbing my forehead, I let my leg bounce higher. “Damn it, this is why I said prophecies were useless last year. All they do is make you overthink everything.”

  A few moments later, I was surprised to feel Taylor sit down next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “At least the first and last line imply the girls will be in more danger if they are alone.” Glancing around the room, she gave everyone a look. “That is something we can mitigate. Just about everyone here wants to be part of the Family. Just formally make them the offer.” Then, probably trying to avoid pushing me too far too fast, she continued. “Plus, they know all our secrets, so there is nothing to hide. We will just always move in groups and ensure that no one goes anywhere alone.”

  I blinked in surprise as I scanned the faces of the girls in the room, as I hadn’t realized that apparently they had been leaning towards joining. Hell, I was pretty sure that Ginny was going to decline as she seemed pretty set on her Quidditch career dream, Chell looked conflicted, and I had no idea how to read Ahsoka even if I completely ignored her past of being a monk that shunned attachments.

  Then again, we had everyone training with us as if they had already joined. At this point, everyone had chakra, everyone had magic, everyone was training with Anko, and only Ahsoka had still declined being tied to a soul gem, possibly due to some issues with those attachments.

  For a moment, I felt the same hesitation rear its head. Was I forcing them if I wasn’t really giving them any other option?

  Taking a deep breath, I straightened my back. No, If I cared about them, then I needed to respect their choices, including joining.

  Slowly, I started working through my thoughts “... You are right, Taylor… there really isn’t a good reason to keep delaying it. I need to actually give you the option and let you decide for yourselves.”

  I met each of their eyes before I continued. “This last month has only confirmed my opinion of you all. Everyone in this room is what I have always said I wanted in one of my wives. You are all smart, kind, and powerful.” Taking a deep breath and looking around at everyone in the room. Making eye contact with the Hogwarts trio, Hermione, Holly, and Ginny, followed by Thea’s camera, Ahsoka, Hinata, Lara and Chell before I said it. “So… I would like to formally invite all of you into the Family.”

  Then I tried to break the tension. “And even if you don’t join, I would like you to stick with us so we can watch your back because even if you don’t join the Family, I care about you.”

  I saw the surprise as most of these girls had never seen me being this serious before, but I was happy to see Amy, Sabah, Ahri, and Taylor smile and relax at my declaration. Obviously, I had been worrying them with my constant self-doubts and recriminations, which made me want to kick myself again. A healthy relationship requires support, understanding, forgiveness, and determination from both sides, and it was past time for me to contribute my share.

  There was a moment of silence before Amy’s smile turned a bit more mischievous, and her tone turned husky. “Sabah and I would also love to get to know you all better as well if you will have us.”

  I cut her off, amused, but also to remind her that this wasn’t the time. “You don’t need to answer now, especially as I have preparations to make.” Then my smile turned back down into a frown. “Also, we need to know what that fire Professor Trelawney mentioned was about.”

  Yet before I could turn away, I was interrupted by Thea’s computerized voice. “No, I want to join.” at the same time that Hinata stammered out agreement that then trailed off. “I would like to join… you… too.” Followed by a moment’s pause, where Hermione looked hard at Holly before she turned to me. “As long as you promise that we will be there for Holly, I would like to join as well.” Holly looked touched for a moment before she grimaced. “I think… I think I would like to join, but if we are going to bond our souls together, I would like Tom out of my head first.”

  I winced as that was another good point about delaying any potential bond with Holly.

  Still, I felt something in my chest warm as I looked at the three girls, so willing to join their lives with mine. Thea didn’t have the most experience, but I had already started to like her earnest can-do attitude. Plus, we absolutely would not have gotten through operating the shuttle as easily without her… maybe even at all, based on how little time we had to learn. That was even ignoring the half dozen little things like making sure we got cameras watching the Angels in Dr. Who.

  Yet Hermione, Hinata, and Holly were each wonderful girls, but they also had bodies and the decision basically equated to marrying me, so it was more of a monumental decision for them.

  I smiled at them. “Thank you…” Taking a deep breath, I continued. “We can bond you three after we find out what is happening with the fire Trelawney mentioned. ”

  Then I turned to Holly, serious. “I am sorry we haven’t helped you with getting Tom out of your head sooner. I was worried about the potential magical defenses of his soul shard and I wanted to ensure I wouldn’t disrupt your mother’s protection. Still, I will promise we will get it out of you by summer.”

  Holly's slightly relieved smile made me feel a little better.

  I quickly glanced at Chell, Lara, Ginny, and Ahsoka, but the four of them were mostly passive. Lara met my eyes with what almost looked like frustration. Chell looked confused and a little weirded out. I couldn’t read Ahsoka at all even if I thought I saw her Lekku twitch. While Ginny looked guilty.

  Not feeling the need to say anything else, I led as we started cleaning up the room, grabbing the memories out of the Pensieve, and putting said memory vials away. Not sure how long this would take, I opened up a portal to let Thea head back to the shuttle and dump our school supplies somewhere safe before I led us out and down the stairs.

  Said trip down to the entranceway was made in silence as we all started to wonder what exactly had happened and which Auror was waiting for us. What did they mean by arson? Holly had no connection with the magical world until recently and the Auror’s wouldn’t know about her Muggle apartments. Was this a pretext? Did they find something wrong with Lara’s records? Did someone at the ministry realize she had gained magic and was now looking into how?

  By the time we made it to the bottom of the stairs, I had started to feel nervous enough that I let out a sigh of relief when I spotted Tonk standing at the door, observing the students, clearly waiting for someone.

  Holly smiled, speaking up before Tonks could say anything. “Hey Cous’, what have you been up to?” Before sliding over to give the older woman a hug.

  Tonk’s hair flashed from a surprised yellow to a slightly embarrassed red before it returned to it’s normal pink and she put an arm around Holly.

  I blinked in surprise at Holly and Tonk’s attitude. Not sure what had happened I decided to ask as I raised my eyebrow at the pair as they started to elbow each other. “I hadn’t realized that you and Tonks had gotten that close.”

  Holly reddened then, to my confusion, so did Tonks. “We spent a lot of time taking walks through the woods and down the beach.” Spotting the lack of understanding, she continued. “Frequent walks… due to the two couples in the cottage with us.”

  I paused as it took a moment while I tried to think of what she was talking about before I remembered that Sherrel had hooked up with Sirius and Ren from Spirited Away had practically claimed Remus. Now realizing what had happened, I snorted in amusement, followed by giggles from just about all the other girls.

  I had to wipe a tear before another thought occurred to me. “Why don’t you call Ginny ‘cousin’ then too?”

  Ginny and Holly looked confused, and I shrugged. “Everyone forgets that the Blacks married into just about every family, including the Weasleys. I am pretty sure all three of you are all mutually like fourth cousins with each other or something, even if it isn’t through the Blacks.”

  It took a moment where Ginny and Holly were confused why this would amuse me, but then they remembered the Harry Potter stories we had begun to share with them. Specifically, the fact that their alternate versions had ended up married to each other, and they both rolled their eyes at me.

  Clearing her throat, Tonks turned to Lara, posture and tone formal again. “Sorry, we haven’t met, but I am Auror Cadet Tonks. Would you be Miss Lara Croft?” she stated gently while reaching out a hand for a handshake.

  Lara swallowed and then shook Tonk’s hand back. “I am.”

  We all watched as Tonks took a breath as her hair cycled through yellow, red, purple and then back to pink wherein she schooled her face into a mask of professionalism. However, we could still see how uncomfortable she was under that bravado. “I regret to inform you that there was a fire in your manor home in Hampstead. It was unfortunately burned to the ground. While there was no proof, the Muggle authorities believe it was arson.”

  I turned to watch, worried as Lara looked shocked. That shock quickly turned to heartbreak as her eyes went wide and she grabbed her chest, slumped forward, head bowed.

  Immediately, I tried to give her a side hug, but I was beaten by Hermione, Sabah, and Amy who were closer.

  Instead, I could only watch as she realized what she had probably just lost. She had grabbed a lot of her personal effects from the house when she joined us at Hogwarts, but she had grown up there. There had to be memories of the home she had missed or not taken that were now gone. I didn’t remember when her father had killed himself, but I was pretty sure it was recent. The loss of her mother, father, and then childhood home with all said memories, must have hit like a triple punch.

  Thinking quickly, I asked. “Do you know when the fire occurred?”

  Tonks shook her head. “10 days, I think. The Muggle firefighters have a more exact time, but we only noticed when they weren’t able to put it out, and we got a message through the ministry that something was wrong. By the time we arrived, there wasn’t much left to investigate. It took a few days to determine the owner and then to find out how to contact you. I was sent because Susan Bones told her aunt that Miss Croft was friends with Holly.”

  I cursed inwardly, we were too late to go back. The school time turners we owned were limited. I had done some research on them once we had gotten back from our trip. Apparently, the risk of doing some sort of damage to the time stream and erasing yourself out of existence increased exponentially with each hour you went back. Thus, the ones handed out to students for their studies were hard locked to a maximum of 3 hours. Just enough to attend a double class period. 10 days might be out of the question for even a theoretical version kept by the unspeakables.

  It still didn’t fully explain why teams of Aurors didn’t just use Time Turners to be ready and waiting for any Death Eater raids during the last war. I mean, if Dumbledore had used one to arrive in time to stop Tom when he first attacked the Potters, this would have been a very different story. But the limitation did at least explain why people who lost their entire family didn’t grab one of the unlocked ones and go back multiple years to try to stop Tom or Grindelwald before they rose to power.

  Or it could be some other issue I didn’t understand yet. Still, it seemed so obvious I had to hope there was a reason they weren’t being used to at least warn people of natural disasters or something… really, I needed to make a note of grabbing a few longer time ones from the ministry when we could.

  Focusing back on Tonks and Lara, I realized I had frozen up for several seconds. Amy and Sabah had stepped back now, so I gave Lara a side hug. Lara wasn’t crying, she was too tough for that, but I could tell she was distraught. Her family and their legacy was incredibly important to Lara. I remembered that more than half her motivation for archaeology seemed to be living up to and restoring her father’s legacy.

  Tonks broke the murmur of condolences and cleared her throat. “Don’t feel pressured either way, but I have permission to make you a portkey from the edge of Hogwarts to the remains of the manor if you would like to inspect the damage. I just have to warn you, the damage is… expansive.”

  Lara hesitated for a moment, considering and seeing that we were making a bit of scene, I pulled us to the side so we could talk in more privacy. In particular I was annoyed to see Draco walking by smug. I didn’t think he knew what was going on, but he was happy to see us distressed. I suspected I was going to have to deal with his taunts more now that our group was more visibly connected with Holly.

  It took a few more moments, but Lara seemed to have made up her mind as she nodded. “Yes, I would like to go now if you are willing to take us.”

  Technically, even with Tonk’s addition, everyone here now knew about my portals. Tonks had sworn to keep it secret, but pushing a portal all the way south would have taken time. A portkey was simply faster if you knew the destination, albeit not nearly as pleasant with all of the twisting around as it flew.

  I paused and considered that, that might be something I needed to consider as well. Alternate travel methods could be useful.

  The walk to the edge of the grounds was quiet. In fact, it was only as we crossed outside of the Hogwarts wards and Tonks took out a length of rope that she told us to “Hold on tight.”

  A muttered ‘Portis’ and a second later we were hurtling through a spiral of magic and space before landing heavily in a small grove on the edge of the Croft Manor.

  Walking forward, I looked around the grounds.

  It was a mess.

  The home that we had visited just a few weeks ago was a pile of charred wood and collapsed brick on top of a stone foundation. Even now, there was still the smell of charred wood that permeated the air.

  Behind me I heard Lara give another wet sniff as she stepped forward and the rest of us followed.

  Lara made it up to where the front door had been when she simply stopped and fell to her knees.

  Again, all of us gave her a pat or a shoulder squeeze before we made our way forward to look for things that might have made it through the fire.

  Well, everyone except Hermione, who hesitated for a moment before she sat down on the front step and just put an arm around Lara while Tonks didn’t know what to do and just ended up standing a bit further away watching the road.

  The following half hour was sobering. I managed to find a pocket watch that seemed to have the Croft crest on it and a discreet mending charm got the little timepiece to start ticking again.

  Holly found her way to a corner of what must have been a library or study which somehow hadn’t burned completely and a few cleaning and repairing charms saw a dozen ancient looking texts on Middle Eastern and Far Eastern civilizations resurrected.

  Taylor managed to find enough pieces of a portrait and thus restored most of a picture of what must have been Lara’s mother or grandmother based on the resemblance.

  Ahsoka collected enough personal effects to recreate what seemed to be Lara’s childhood diary and part of a photo album, or at least the first four pages of one.

  However, it was Hinata who unsurprisingly had the most success when she unearthed a buried safe which held several journals from her father, a locked box, two ancient texts, and another locket with Lara and both of her parents when they were all still together.

  That is when everything went to hell.

  It must have been all the training about sensing intent from Anko or I somehow noticed Ahsoka jerk from what must have been a warning from the Force, because I actually twisted away even before I heard the first sharp crack of a rifle.

  The first bullet had not been aimed at me, but the second was, and even with another desperate roll to continue my movement, I still felt the pull as a bullet went through the corner of my jacket under my armpit.

  Now with my mind running off of what I was pretty sure was pure training from the dozens of times Anko had appeared from nowhere throwing kunai, I turned, jumped, and rolled towards the largest group of my girls around Lara.

  My winter solder instincts told me that this was a stupid thing to do. I should have been diving for cover away from the others, not making a bigger target. However that was only true if we didn’t have powers. We did have those powers so an overlapping defense where we could watch each other’s back was suddenly our best option.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Holly and Hinata, who had been still looking through the rubble, do the same, while Ahri and Ahsoka, who had been searching further away around the edge of the manor grounds, ducked into the trees for cover.

  Unfortunately, there was one person with us who had not been trained by a sociopathic assassin ninja for over a month and was out of position. She was also the person they had aimed for first, probably assuming she was the biggest threat in her scarlet Auror robes.

  That was why, even as I lunged towards the safety of our group, I couldn’t help but watch in horror as a fountain of blood burst from Tonk’s back as she fell to her side, a surprised look on her face.

  My blood ran cold as I saw the shock and pain on her face. It might have been because of how much I liked the funny and punk rock attitude of the pink-haired auror. It might also have been my possessive nature seeing someone hurting something that I desired. Yet I suspected it was most likely the memories of Taylor going down to a piercing hex through the chest from a possessed Ron. In fact, the longer I watched, the more those two images seemed to overlap.

  I saw red.

  I had been too nice to these murdering psychopathic Illuminati wanna-bes.

  Too passive when they had been threatening me and mine.

  … no more.

  No longer worrying about stealth, I yanked Tonk’s body to me with a summoning charm on her clothes and found it only somewhat effective. Probably, some enchantments on them to resist magical attacks. Yet it wasn’t enough to stop me in my desperation.

  A part of me started trying to calculate the firing angle from a full metal jacket round from a Russian Dragunov sniper rifle. The rest of me told that fraction of what must have been the Winter Soldier to focus on getting to cover first. We didn’t have a super serum with healing capabilities running through our veins yet.

  As Tonk’s limp summoned form arrived at our defensive line the same time I did, Amy didn’t need any prompting before she lunged forward to get her hands on Tonk’s skin and start healing her.

  With that taken care of, I reached through a portal and fished around for a second in our supplies before I found my rifle. The same one I had modified in Star Wars. An AK-47 had no business being involved in a counter-sniper duel, but I wasn’t about to play fair.

  Now lying prone across the ground in the vague direction of the enemy sniper, I opened a portal in front of my gun to cut the distance and searched for a target.

  Not turning away from my scanning, I raised my voice to get the girls’ attention, “Holly, full-powered shields to give us time. Hermione, Ginny, Sabah, I need transfigured walls around us. Hinata and Taylor, I need targets, watch for traps.”

  Trusting them to handle that, I focused momentarily on multitasking and opened up another portal and reached through it to search for the bullet-ward headbands we had used on Yamatai.

  The Winter Soldier’s instincts told me that said headbands might not be enough to completely deflect a sniper round that powerful, and I cursed under my breath. Yet it was still better than nothing. It also explained why Tonk’s Auror robes, which must have had some defensive enchantments woven in them, had been overwhelmed.

  Internally, I vowed that I wasn’t going to let us go anywhere in public without defenses after this. It was stupid that we had come out here in nothing more than our school robes.

  That was when Hermione, Ginny, and Sabah finished transfiguring a wall by pulling up a ring of soil about chest height and turning it to stone. The wall wasn’t pretty, but it was quick and gave us a chance to evaluate our situation and counterattack.

  I could only find six, slapping a headband on Taylor and myself before handing the rest to Holly, Ginny, Hinata, and after a moment of hesitation, Lara, who had gotten over her shock of the fire and reverted to fury.

  It was pretty obvious that these people must have been involved in the arson of her childhood home as a trap to bring her back and catch her. They were also playing for keeps as they had gone lethal from the start.

  That was all the time that Hinata needed to spot all our attackers. “Two snipers in the apartment building, roughly a mile to our 11 o'clock. Two more circling to our right 200 meters about 4 o’clock street level”. There was a pause before she grimaced. “Three more just portkeyed to the street on our left at about 9 o’clock. One of them has what you described as a RPG.”

  I could practically hear her frustration as she took a breath before continuing. “Four more just appeared plus a wizard behind us at the edge of the property behind the trees, about 7 o’clock. Ah, damn it, one more just appeared on the roof of the building directly across from us with binoculars.”

  Taylor was staring blankly as well and cursed before speaking up next. “There is a camera set up in that apartment with the observer on the second floor pointed at us.”

  I was reminded that Hinata’s version of X-ray vision was focused on seeing people with their chakra systems. We had determined fairly quickly that she could still see people who didn’t have chakra, but they were harder to spot. Ironically, now that she knew what she was looking for, wizards stood out almost as much as chakra.

  The problem was she wasn’t used to having to look for technology yet. It existed in the Elemental Nations, but it rarely mattered with the relatively low framerates and resolution. Plus, without teleportation, even if they were spotted on screen, it was unlikely you could get there in time to capture the ninja in question.

  There were still other options we could look into though, including magic. In fact, this might be something Thea could straight up solve for us if we could get the Star Wars tech working since I knew they had scanners for this type of counter-surveillance stuff.

  Taylor spoke up again. “There are explosives in the lower levels of the building with the sniper and trip wires. The two at 4 o’clock seem to be carrying more packages, maybe explosives, hard to tell while they are moving. More bombs in the hallway leading to their overwatch camera.”

  That was when we ran out of time. This time the trinity sniper’s shot punched its way through the stone wall next to my shoulder and even penetrated Holly’s shield. The fragments struck Sabah’s arm as she was helping Amy pull the edges of the Auror cloak away from Tonk's wound.

  I had a moment of panic as my wife let out a grunt, but a heartbeat later I realized it was more of a grunt of annoyance. Apparently the two layers of defenses and Amy’s bioengineering had managed to turn the shot into no more than a bruise. It might have even hurt less than Anko’s kunai.

  At this point, by both following Hinata’s instructions and spotting the muzzle flash, I found the sniper pair’s position just in time to see the second one fire again. I was momentarily worried until I saw the stone wall had been turned to steel in that direction and Holly had renewed her shield.

  My anger now had a target and I fired, not even attempting to take prisoners as my first shot passed right through the first gunman’s head, startling his spotter who was acting as a secondary sniper into sitting upright by the shower of gore he was hit with. Then, before he could lean back down to take another shot, I shifted aim and fired again, hitting him in the chest, causing him to fall backwards.

  I felt the vindtictive glee and let out a smug, “Take that assholes.”

  Releasing the reflexive breath I had held while firing, I considered trying to grab them to look for radios or equipment. However, before I could do anything else, I noticed the two disappear in a swirl of a portkey.

  Cursing quietly, I turned away from the portal. That confirmed that Trinity had gone full magical in their deployments.

  Behind me, I heard Ahsoka and Ahri approach under illusion cover before jumping over our wall into the defenses.

  Taking a deep breath, wishing I could remember where the rest of the bullet-ward headbands were so they could each have one, I started to make plans. Ahri and Ahsoka probably didn’t need them anyway with their illusions and Force senses..

  Taking another quick look at Tonks and Amy, I opened a portal to our shuttle. Amy and Sabah wasted no time in pulling Tonks through. As they did, I got a better view of her injuries.

  Tonks had been shot center mass and the only reason there wasn’t a fist-sized hole going all the way through her chest anymore was Amy’s efforts to pull flesh across the void to stop the bleeding.

  Focusing, I noticed that Tonk’s soul was weakening quickly and starting to disperse. Snarling in wordless frustration, I reached out and started pulling her soul back into her body. Then, to make sure it couldn’t drift off if I was momentarily distracted, I tied a tiny part of her soul to a ruby ring in my soul jar vault. I would drop that ring off in the Chamber of Secrets if we needed to leave Tonks here during a Jump.

  That done, I now returned to focus on the attackers. No longer under direct fire, I had time to pick our targets. I turned my head towards my girls. “Get in position and wait for my signal.” At everyone’s nod I continued. “Ahoska, Holly, and Hermione, take out the four flanking us to the left. Taylor and Ginny, flank the two to the right.”

  They didn’t waste time as I opened a portal hundred yards or so behind their respective targets. However, after they were through, I didn’t close the portal all the way so we could still communicate.

  I made a note to figure out radios we could wear discreetly as this took a tiny, but still noticeable, sliver of focus to maintain.

  Turning back to Ahri, I pointed to the man on the roof. “Ahri, I want that man’s info which means taking him down alive. The problem is the portkeys, I will focus on pulling him halfway into another dimension. Maybe it will work the same to block portkeys as it did with Earth Bet powers.” Not even bothering to wait for me to open a portal, she activated her illusions, jumped out, sprinted across the street, then up onto the wall to the roof.

  Turning to the remaining three girls. “Hinata, I want you on overwatch. We need to know about any new threats. Chell and Lara, you are with me, we are hitting the wizard’s group from above.”

  Portaling away from the ring of stone meant we no longer had any defenses, but it was dumb to stay where your enemies expected you to be, especially with an RPG being brought into play.

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  As I stepped through, I took stock of our position on the roof to the south of the final group. I reached into our armory and handed Lara and Chell each one of the AK 47 rifles. As they were both mundane humans and still had limited experience with magic or chakra, they weren’t ready for a magical battle. Instead, this would be an execution.

  I waited a moment before I barked out a “Now!”

  Any cries of pain or other sounds were drowned out by the bark of the two AKs next to me since I hadn’t silenced yet.

  Below us I watched dispassionately as the men with guns tried to take cover as their training kicked in, but quickly fell under a growing red mist from the rain of bullets.

  I had focused my fire on the wizard and I was disappointed to notice that the first three shots were blocked by some sort of magic. However, that shield shattered and the next three bullets caught him across his shoulder, arm, and hip. The last one punching in and through his stomach.

  A moment later, the wizard gasped out something and another portkey whisked the group away.

  I would have loved to block that as well, but I wasn’t sure what the wizard would have noticed and I hadn’t wanted to give them even that few seconds of warning.

  From my communication portals, I could already hear the muttered curses and annoyances from the other girls as their groups probably disappeared as well.

  A quick check confirmed my girls were all safe. However, as I saw their battlefields, I momentarily felt conflicted as I noticed that all my girls had been using explosion and piercing hexes. Yet as sad as I was about any remaining innocence, I couldn’t fault them, they were obviously just as angry about the attack as I was.

  I wasn’t about to use kid gloves when they were attacking my girls… even if Tonks hadn’t actually joined us.

  The only balm for my rage was the fact that my shots should have been lethal in just about any other world and it would still be excruciating in this one. However, HP magic was pretty overpowered when it came to healing the body from most mundane wounds unless they were dead, fully lost a limb, or it contained dark magic.

  I paused and considered that as well.

  As distasteful as it was, I might have to look into either dark magic like Snape’s Sectumsempra spell or a curse placed onto my bullets if we were going to be fighting wizards more often. Something that wouldn’t let the enemy get back up again when we got to this point. It was actually one of my major issues with how the Order of the Phoenix had fought in the books.

  Shaking my head and focusing back on the present, I moved the portals to allow us to gather on the rooftop that Ahri had been tasked with assaulting.

  I stepped through to see Ahri smiling ear to ear, rocking her hips and letting her tails sway hypnotically behind her. It was almost enough to distract me from seeing how she discarded the now-dead man she had been holding up by the neck like he was trash.

  My mind was momentarily confused as I had wanted him alive until I remembered that while she seemed very human, she was also a predator that preyed on humans. A predator that could gain the memories of the people she ate.

  Actually, as I eyed her victorious smile, I realized that I might have to give her more opportunities to hunt if this is how pleased she was at even this small attack.

  Also… it had been too long since I had last played with those tails.

  Looking at Hinata, I didn’t have to ask before she answered my inquiry. “All hostiles are down. I don’t see any other threats.”

  Taylor stepped through and focused before she shook her head. “I don’t sense any other threats either. I had my bugs eat through the cables, including any denonators. You can drop it through a portal now if you wish to study them.”

  I nodded and paused for a moment doing that before I opened another so we could return to the shuttle. However, as I stepped through, I immediately honed in on Tonks and Amy.

  At this point, Amy had pulled enough biomass from Tonk’s limbs into her chest that the hole was gone, even if her arms now looked like she was a concentration camp survivor.

  It was then that I was surprised when, instead of bringing food for biomass, Sabah ran back into the room carrying a jar of water. Not wasting any time, Sabah began to pour it over Tonks’s wounds while Amy was still working.

  Yet before I could wonder what was going on, I watched in real time as the remainder of Tonk’s injury smoothed over into healthy skin with muscle being built back up underneath followed by her limbs which began to grow out rapidly and in only a few seconds they were once again a healthy size, color, and texture. Not even any scars were left when Amy leaned back in triumph.

  Behind me I could tell I wasn’t the only one shocked and Amy finally seemed to notice us as she gave us a tired smile.

  Thea flew her drone over to us, and I winced as she had once again been forced to stay in the shuttle while we fought. Despite not complaining, I could tell she desperately wanted to help, but was limited by her little body. Her current synthesizer didn’t have the capability of creating the human-sized battle Mechs that her mother, Dragon, used.

  Making another note to find a reality with a humanoid body, or getting the supplies for a larger fabricator, I turned my attention back to Tonks. “When will she wake up?”

  Amy frowned and looked over the still-comatose woman lying on the table. “She was nearly dead upon impact; that sort of trauma is something that the human mind doesn’t process very well. I would recommend we let her subconscious process it for an hour or two before we wake her up unless we can get her to family or loved ones. It was what I tried to do during endbringer battles on Earth Bet. Waking them up immediately resulted in a much higher rate of hysteria or depression upon awakening.”

  I was a bit surprised, but after a moment, I had to agree that the delay made sense. As familiar as Tonks was with us, we weren’t her family. If her unconscious mind was still processing her near death and Amy could ensure she was properly asleep and not in a nightmare, then it was a good idea to let her mind recover a bit.

  Ahri was the one to change the topic and ask about the water. “So, how did you do that?”

  We were all intimately familiar with Amy’s healing speed and this was an order of magnitude faster.

  Amy just smirked. “I finally got Bacta to work for me.”

  I blinked in surprise. I didn’t know she had fixed her issues with Bacta since I had watched her first attempts using the healing gel from Star Wars and they were no faster than using any other sort of biomass, only requiring less cleanup as the Bacta healed any only-partially healed areas. I had left her to experiment with it, but I had lost track of that project with everything else going on.

  “What did you do?”

  Amy smiled. “Bacta is a tiny bacterium that produces what are basically semi-universal enzyme markers for rapid cellular recomposition and division. I just needed to increase the rate and then add in their ability to create triglycerides for biomass storage.”

  I could feel the collective blink as we all tried to process that and Amy rolled her eyes. “I made the bacteria from the Bacta tanks work slightly faster and made them store a small amount of fat so I can use them as biomass as well.”

  I felt my eyes widen as that was truly impressive. Being cut off from the supercomputer shard with a database of every possible biological recipe had made Amy have to actually experiment to get what she wanted. Bacta wasn’t a simple organism and modifying it had proved difficult.

  Ahsoka seemed equally impressed. “Is that what you have been working on during our nights off?”

  Amy nodded, then paused. “Well, yes, but also I have been trying to understand what is going on with the chakra plants.”

  I tilted my head, but Taylor was the one to ask the question. “What do you think the issue is? I can feel the bugs here in the pocket dimention and they just feel bloated and… stale, I guess.”

  Amy paused and then actually smiled. “Thanks Taylor, that may have just confirmed my theory. I think we need to create an entire ecosystem here. We have a lot of plants, as you can see,” she said while gesturing to the bit of the forest we could see from the cargo ramp. We often left it open as it made the shuttle smell nice. “A river, even if you had to make it loop via magic, and the fungus and microbiotics for decomposition, but we don’t actually have any predators or large herbivores… Well, except for your cat from Brocton Bay. Actually, I think it is actually a little lonely since Luna took the two red pandas as Eevees. Regardless, I think the area should really be bigger for proper flow, but it also needs that ecosystem, not a small garden to keep the chakra moving.”

  Hermione paused and then tilted her head. “I wonder if she would like to hang out with Crookshanks? What did you name her, again?”

  I looked over at her and shrugged. “She might like that? Also, I don’t actually remember if I named her anything… I kind of feel bad about that.” I then paused and thought about it. “Between Amy and me, I am pretty sure we could make her half kneezle like Crookshanks. I guess that could solve the predator issue, especially if they have kittens. I guess we could also have Hedwig hunt in here and add in a few more owls as well, but where would we get large herbivores?”

  I saw Sabah turn sheepish. “Do you think we could convince a unicorn to join us? Also, I have kind of been calling the cat ‘Mini’… as she kind of looks like Professor Minerva McGonagall.”

  I paused for a heartbeat before I snorted along with just about all of the other girls and we all devolved into a chorus of giggles and chuckles. Clearing my throat, I nodded. “Sounds good, just as long as we don’t ever tell the professor about it. I don’t want to be in detention until I graduate.”

  Now that the tense mood after the battle had been well and truly broken, I took a deep breath and looked over at Hermione, Hinata, and Thea. Clearing my throat and then swallowing for good measure, I asked. “Are you three sure you really want to join us?

  Thea did not even hesitate and simply answered with a firm. “Yes.”

  I watched, slightly amused, as Hinata blushed heavily and proceeded to tap her forefingers together and nod. “I, uh, yes…”

  Hermione visibly hesitated again, glancing back at Holly before she answered. “Again, I would like you to promise that we will focus on helping Holly and Lara… but yes.”

  I smiled and sighed, looking between the two. “I swear we will do everything we can to help you defeat Tom.” I then turned to Lara. “We aren’t going to be leaving you behind either, Lara. I promise we will be there to help you the best we can, the entire way.”

  I couldn’t help but smile as I watched as both Holly and Lara actually smile at that.

  Taking a deep breath, I gestured towards the sofa. “Alright. Let's sit down. To be blunt, this isn’t a quick process. Taylor, would you push Thea’s server closer as well?”

  Reaching through a portal, I picked up the necklace that had started this all. Even if we were no longer hiding our souls away, I still liked the symbolism of each of us being a gem here with my soul weaving between us all to create something together.

  I paused, chagrined as I realized I needed to explain this out loud. “This is the necklace that I used to store each of my girls souls in when we first started. Doing so protected our minds from mind control, but we learned in the Elemental Nations that it limited both our ability to use chakra and even our magic.”

  I smiled ruefully. “It might have been important at the beginning, but honestly it was only one of the many things I've messed up with over the years.”

  I didn’t get the chance to spiral as behind me Taylor put a supportive hand on my shoulder and Amy gave me a little side hug while Ahri and Sabah smiled at me.

  I swallowed before continuing, “Anyway, I still want to use it as a very literal symbol of each of us coming together and becoming something beautiful.”

  Holly snorted. “I can see like 40 gems on that thing. Are you really planning on having 40 wives?”

  A few months ago I might have deflected and denied, but after a moment, I looked at her and simply raised an eyebrow. “If I can find 40 women that want to join me… so, maybe?” I let the silence continue for a few moments, then I shook my head with a wider smile. “Nah, I am mostly joking. There is no quota, I just liked the necklace and robbing a neo-nazi jewlery store was a good dead by itself.”

  It was Hinata’s turn to look a bit nervous. “Uh, so how does this, um…. work?”

  Patting the sofa next to me I gestured for her to lay down with her head in my lap. She blushed even harder but did it. “I just put my hand on your stomach, like this… then slowly pull your soul from that temporary diamond we had it in before, into this ruby here.” While pointing at the small ruby next to what had been Luna's ruby and what was still Sabah’s sapphire.

  Pointing at each of them was enough to distract Hinata as I worked. Because her soul had already been attached to a gem, I was a little surprised that bonding her soul to mine only took about 15 minutes or so. I just needed to transfer the gem bond and wrap her soul with mine. And I had gotten much better at manipulating my soul.

  In the meantime, Sabah and Amy got up to make us lunch while I turned and put my hand on Thea’s server rack. Maybe I should have pulled her soul into a stone before now, but to my inner shame I had assumed she was safe in her server.

  It was another example of how she didn’t deserve to be excluded. Trying not to show any of my thoughts so it could be a big moment for her, I proceeded with the same process and pulled a small fragment of her soul into the sapphire next to Hinata.

  At this point, I was handed a simple beef burrito as the girls had made a point of trying to make other culture’s foods any time we were out of Hogwarts. As most of my memories were of being an American, I had to admit that I appreciated the variety, especially Mexican and Asian.

  Then it was finally Hermione’s turn. Once again she hesitated looking at Holly, but this time Holly waived her away. “Don’t worry about me. I know you won’t leave me behind…” Then her face turned a mix of mischievous and annoyed even as I got started. “That and you can let me know how good he is in bed… I need to know if I am going to commit to this.”

  Hermione jerked and turned as red as a stoplight before hiding her face in her hands.

  Amy wasn’t one to be denied a bit of teasing though, even if I wasn’t sure exactly who she was aiming this at. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. His stamina, taste, and technique are on point. I also figured out how to get his tongue to vibrate last week.”

  Cutting her off, I cleared my throat and gestured for Hermione to come over and join me.

  It was after I had begun that I overheard Holly throw up her hands and turn around muttering in a quiet but still audible voice. “Bloody Hell, am I being clam jammed again? Do I have to go on another bloody walk for my best friend?”

  Noticing Lara, Holly seemed to grasp the distraction with both hands. “Is there anything else you need, Lara? Something we could help with?”

  I noticed that Lara was studying the process more intently than I would have thought. It was her childhood friend being bonded, but she didn’t look worried, just blank. Shaking herself, Lara looked at Holly and smiled. “Uh, yeah, I could use some help, I guess, emptying my father’s flat.”

  Taylor interrupted. “Why were your father’s things in a separate apartment?”

  Lara huffed. “He wanted a place closer to London so he could visit the museums and the London library.”

  I frowned. “We have to assume that your father’s flat is under surveillance as well. Especially after this attack.”

  It was the usually silent Chell that spoke up next. “Why not just use a summoning charm and grab them through a portal then?”

  I blinked in surprise, but I really shouldn’t have been at the obvious solution. Chell understood portals better than just about anyone, including me.

  I nodded, opening a portal near the remains of the Croft manor house. “You will have to direct me, Lara, but I should be able to make a round portal in the center of the apartment. You can use a summoning charm to summon things through said portal. No need to go inside in case there is something like a ward or other invisible trap. Everyone can just stay safe in our shuttle’s cargo bay. Hell, a few illusions from Ahri and no one will even know anything is happening until it is already over.”

  That seemed to have given everyone something to focus on while I finished up with Hermione, so while the distraction of moving another portal did slow it down a little, the time flew by.

  When we did eventually find the apartment, Taylor spent a minute or two scouting the area remotely before Hinata demanded to be allowed to stick her neck through and look around. However, both didn’t see or sense anything nearby. The problem was Richard Croft’s flat was in a busy area of London and it was impossible to know if any of the neighbors going through their daily lives were a plant, stationed there to notify Trinity.

  Shrugging her shoulders at the news, Holly just pointed her wand at the apartment through the portal and a moment later a four small texts flew through only to be caught in Holly’s arms. Adjusting the load so it was in one arm and she gestured towards Lara. “Yeah, we should be able to grab everything. Lara and Chell, since you haven’t learned the summoning charm yet, could I ask you to organize everything? You can put it in your expanded trunk later.”

  Lara smiled and gave a small but firm, “thank you” as she took the first load and walked over to set it on one of the empty food crates to the side in the cargo bay.

  Realizing were were still here and giving a huff, Holly shooed us off. “Get out of here you three, I am sure none of us wants to get in the way of these two’s first night.”

  Lara glanced back, but after a moment of looking at Hermione she gave a small smile and nodded as well.

  That got the smiles to return, but we were interrupted by Amy who had her own smirk. “Do you want to go together or do you want your first time alone?”

  There was some stammering from Hinata and Hermione but I wasn’t surprised that the two slightly shy girls looked at each other before looking down.

  Amy smirked and reached out for Hinata’s hand. “Why don’t I entertain Hinata for a minute while you take care of our cute bookworm.” Then in a softer voice that she only pretended to hide, she flashed a grin at me. “It's about time that another girl who goes both ways joined. I was about to complain about false advertising when you promised me a harem.” In a louder voice she continued. “I will have her back in half an hour or so.”

  I knew she was joking from her tone, and so did Sabah, who outright snorted and visibly considered following Amy before turning back to help Lara.

  Grabbing Hermione’s hand I smiled and pulled her towards the captain’s quarters. When we were inside I smiled at her before pushing her slowly backwards until she fell across the bed. “Do you have any requests, my dear?”

  Hermione squeaked adorably as she landed and then blushed. “I… uh… maybe?”

  Raising my eyebrow, I bent down to smell her neck before giving her a peck across the jaw. “And what can I do for you?”

  Her eyes could not meet mine even as I reached down to start unbuttoning her shirt. “Could we do it in the library next time?”

  I paused and tilted my head with a smile. “Ah… I assume you meant under an invisibility cloak… kinky, I like it.”

  The squeak she made as I bent down and kissed her was only the first of the cute moans she made that afternoon.

  ----

  It was as Hermione was lying, only half aware, that Amy carried a slightly loopy Hinata into our room, each only wearing the oversized silk shirts that Amy preferred sleeping in.

  I sighed in amusement. “How am I supposed to blow her mind if you already blew it?”

  Amy smirked. “Taylor was right” That confused me and so Amy rolled her eyes. “She just let me know that Hinata here blushed while looking at you, but also while watching us.” Then her smirk got a bit more naughty. “Let me reward you for your help in growing my harem.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh until Amy moved herself south along my body before turning her eyes towards a now blushing Hermione, giving her a wink and opening her mouth wide.

  ----

  A few minutes later, as I was considering throwing Amy on the bed, Amy suddenly pulled away and grabbed a furiously blushing Hinata, pulling her closer. “We can teach you to do that later. For now I think you want to experience it, right?”

  Hinata squeaked as she was rolled onto her back in front of me and Amy gave her a kiss before pulling back. Wanting confirmation she wanted this, I simply raised an eyebrow and waited.

  At her blush and tiny nod, I smiled before moving myself into position, giving her a kiss.

  -----

  I woke up from our nap holding both of my new wives to either side with Amy snuggling Hinata’s waist from behind.

  A lot had happened, but I felt like I needed to state that despite everything, I was happy.

  Still, I was confused as to what had woken me up before I spotted an amused Taylor, Sabah, and Ahri standing in the doorway.

  Taylor sighed, but I could tell her exasperation was faked. ”We are going to have to expand the bed again, aren’t we?”

  I blushed a tiny bit even as I smirked. “Maybe?”

  Unfortunately, that had exchange seemed to awaken all three of my bedmates.

  Both Hinata and Hermione tried to hide themselves for a moment before realizing that no one else seemed to care besides Sabah, who gave them all an appreciative glance.

  Amy hadn’t even bothered to let go of Hinata’s waist as she just yawned before making Hinata squeak as she hugged the girl tighter from behind. “Remind me to fix you two,” Amy said. “I don’t advertise it as I don’t want to have to fight every woman in a hundred-mile radius off from joining the Family, but the second thing I did after getting my powers to work on me was completely removing period cramps.”

  Hinata and Hermione’s heads twisted towards Amy so quickly I actually had to chuckle.

  Yet the previous talk of our bedroom got me thinking. “Actually… I should probably go ahead and find us a new manor house. I was thinking a large one and putting it on a forest’s edge along a beach.”

  The thoughtful and somewhat excited faces were interrupted by Taylor. “As interesting as that is, it would probably be a good idea to get up. Tonks is starting to stir.”

  That got us all throwing ourselves back into our clothes and heading back into the kitchen in time to see Tonk start to flinch and twitch in her sleep.

  Amy reached out and put a hand on her arm and Tonk once again relaxed, only to slowly flutter her eyes open and look around in wonder at the obviously futuristic shuttle. I watched as her hair shifted in indistinct patterns as she got her bearings back. I didn’t really care if she saw it because without seeing the outside it was impossible to know exactly what we were in. It could have easily simply been a fancy home.

  Bringing her attention back to me I asked, “Hello Tonks, how are you feeling?”

  Tonks brought her hand up and rubbed her chest between her breasts. “What… happened… where am I?”

  I winced, but tried to smile. “I am sorry to say that you were shot. We had to heal you so we brought you back to our current bolt hole. We can drop you off anywhere once you are feeling better.”

  To my surprise Lara stepped up. “Tonks… Look… I am sorry. Those men were after me. I am sorry that they hurt you trying to get to me. I am sorry that you got dragged into this.”

  Taking a shaky breath and hair shifting to be a dark and limp purple, Tonks pushed herself up to a sitting position and looked around at the girls before swallowing. “I would like to go home… how long was I out?”

  Thea answered before I could. “Four hours, thirty six minutes, twelve seconds.”

  Tonks went even more white as she swung her legs off of the table. “I need to go.”

  Eyes widening, I caught her arm before she could apparate. I had no idea if she could teleport from my pocket dimension and I did not want her to try when she was this unbalanced. Hell, it might not be a good idea even if she were in the outside world. “Wait just a second! You aren’t in any shape to apparate. Why don’t we drop you off in Hogsmeade and you can take the Knight Bus or the Floo?”

  Tonks looked like she was about to deny it, but after a moment of hesitation, she slowly nodded. “Ok, yeah… yeah, that is probably wise.”

  Not wanting to make her wait any longer, I opened a portal to our home in Hogsmeade and led her through, followed by everyone else. “Please let us know if we can do anything else for you.”

  Then Amy spoke up next. “Be sure to go home and spend some time with your family. It will help.”

  With a shaky nod, Tonks gave us all a tight smile, hair shifting briefly to red then yellow before returning to the muted purple and was about to leave when Holly reached out and gave her a tight hug.

  I could practically see as Tonk’s tension spiked and her hair went through another set of colors too fast to track before slowly returning to a color closer to her normal pink as the tension slowly drained out of her. Holly didn’t stop Tonk’s stiffness stop her and slowly we watched the Auror slowly hug her back. When she finally did Holly murmured a, “I am glad you are alright, cousin.” which got the older woman to finally crack the tiniest of smiles.

  The hug lasted nearly a minute before Holly pulled back and Tonks’ smile finally didn’t look plastic. “Thank you,” Tonks whispered before turning around and leaving, hair turning a little closer to her normal pink.

  Hermione sighed. “Well, that could have gone better.”

  I winced, but couldn’t disagree.

  Holly suddenly stiffened. “Didn’t that prophecy state that a daughter would be attacked on all sides and fall?”

  Everyone was silent for a moment before a chorus of curses ran across the room.

  I sat back and tapped my knee. “Well, shit… We still can’t get much out of a prophecy that vague, but I think we need to be on guard.” Then a thought occurred to me. “Or… or maybe we should consider making a quick jump away to a modern world and try to find the rest of Lara’s story.”

  The silence was more contemplative this time. It didn’t erase the frustration of what had just happened, but it gave us a possible path forward.

  That was when our pity slash planning party was interrupted by a sadistic yell. “You lot are late for training!”

  A shiver ran up my spine and I turned around and quickly headed back through the portal into the shuttle. That allowed me to open the semi-permanent portal I kept to Sirius’ hideaway that Anko used to come and go.

  I was prepared to start running, but Anko stopped us. “What happened?”

  That made me pause. How did she know something was wrong? But I shouldn’t have been surprised, despite what the anime made you believe, ninjas were more than punch wizards. They were espionage specialists and we were still shook up about it all.

  Lara once again spoke up, voice harsh. “We found that the group tracking me burned down my home to draw me back. When we arrived they ambushed us and, before we could retreat or defend ourselves, they fatally wounded a member of the wizard police escorting us, who’s also Holly’s friend. Amy and Max were able to bring her back from the very brink, but…”

  I looked over concerned at Lara’s outburst. She must have been beating herself up about this, but Anko didn’t react.

  The silence stretched for nearly a minute before Anko sighed. “Well shit…”

  I was once again surprised, but it made sense after thinking about it. Anko must have lost friends to the war.

  Anko finally ran a hand through her hair, looking surprisingly somber. “We can go over the details later and what you could have done better to secure the area, but ambushes happen. It sounds like you all did the best you can and nothing but getting stronger is going to fix it.”

  Then the sadistic grin then came back and I winced. “Which means it is time we got you all started with training weights.”

  Interlude Chell

  Chell huffed as she ran.

  Anko had only demanded that they wear 5 kg on each limb and 10 on the chest to start with. That was 11 pounds on the limbs and 22 on the torso, yet she had demanded they not slow down at all.

  No one was willing to complain.

  It was probably a real fear of making the training worse, but also because no one had taken Tonk’s near-death well.

  It did, however, give her time to think.

  Really, she had been debating leaving the Family. …And wasn’t that a weird name for what was a man’s perverse harem… She had just been afraid to bring it up until now.

  She had minor concerns. What if he had decided to put her back in Aperture Science? What if he had decided to force her? What if he simply abandoned her in a new world with no support or help?

  Those didn’t sound minor, but they had been. She had watched him help the two others that had come with her.

  Those concerns were gone now. She didn’t think anyone could fake the care and anger she saw in Max or his girls.

  However, she was self-aware enough to know the real reason she hadn’t even considered leaving.

  She didn’t want to be alone.

  She knew she was strong. She knew she was self-reliant. She knew she was smart.

  She had endured, out-thought, and killed or at least seriously crippled Glados all by herself. However, the thought of being dragged back, being stuck, alone, down in those sterile halls and rooms for even longer gave her nightmares even now.

  Thus, she had to admit she wanted what the Family represented. A group of people that would never leave her, always care for her, a group to be with forever, and Max was… kinda hot… just… did it have to include joining a harem?

  Everyone else besides Lara and her seemed ok with it. Yeah she understood that Earth Bet was a death world, Ahri wasn’t human, Hinata came from a different world, and the witches had the influences of the backwards magical world. And even Lara wasn’t looking at the group affection like it was weird anymore.

  Would it really be that bad to join?

  Chell had even managed to stop flinching every time that Thea surprised her. AI or not, Thea was basically a golden retriever with her earnestness.

  Sighing, she ducked under the next kunai from Anko…

  At least Hermione and Hinata looked quite satisfied after their first time… so there was that to consider as well…

  Interlude Sabah

  Sabah felt like she should have been annoyed at Amy.

  The moment that a new girl that was old enough finally came along, she practically jumped into bed with her.

  It was a weird thing to feel because, as was painfully obvious since she was sleeping not 5 feet away from Max and 5 other girls right now, she was part of a flipping harem.

  Yet after Anko’s training had been finished and everyone had dragged their aching bodies back into the shuttle, she had been surprised by Amy, dragging an embarrassed Hinata behind her.

  She swallowed as she remembered the resulting shower and the fun they had enjoyed.

  She wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but Hinata had been one of her crushes growing up watching Naruto from Earth Aleph. Now she had the girl sandwiched between Amy and her in the Family bed…

  That was to say nothing of the fact that Hermione had joined and while she hadn’t jumped into the girl stuff, Sabah could admit that she was looking forward to having another quiet, studious girl in the Family.

  It wasn’t to say that the other girls weren’t smart. Taylor was a literature nerd, Amy knew biology better than anyone, Thea was an actual Artificial Intelligence, but none of the other girls had gone to university and learned to study like she had. Everyone except Hermione, Hermione had been at that level even as a 14 year old and it was nice to have another person like that.

  So yes, she felt like she really should have been annoyed at Amy… and at Max… but that would have been a lie.

  Interlude Lara:

  Lara knew she wasn’t thinking straight.

  Taylor had caught her making preparations to leave and had forced Lara to sit down and look at her. Behind Taylor, Ahri stood stone faced, simply watching the events play out.

  In the corner of her mind, Lara was able to admit that Taylor was unnerving at times like this. She was overly still and rigid, like one of the bugs she controlled. It was also pretty obvious that she acted as Max’s right hand.

  Amy was obviously in charge of the harem with Sabah playing support. Hell, Amy flirted harder than Max did. But Taylor was the one to organize the girls when Max wasn’t around, while Ahri supported her.

  Those two were kind of scary.

  It wasn’t to say they didn’t listen to others. Ahsoka in particular seemed to garner quite a bit of respect from the duo. Everyone also seemed to miss Luna and Dinah.

  But these two seemed the most invested in keeping the Family safe.

  After a few moments of silence, the question from the younger girl was a flat and hard, “Where are you going?”

  Lara had tried to deny, to deflect, but Taylor wasn’t having it. “We all know you are angry, but running off to get answers yourself will only mean that you are vulnerable while nothing else will change because we will follow you.”

  Lara felt her chest tighten and she swallowed. “...Fine. You know, you are a lot more pushy than you were when we first met on Yamatai.”

  There was a flicker of satisfaction before Taylor scoffed. “That was before we were attacked during a simple visit to our home where we arguably saved the world. Perpetrated by what were supposed to be the good guys.” Her hand squeezed into a fist and Lara thought she could hear bugs buzzing in the distance. “Hinata, Ahri, and I are pretty pissed that they managed to get the drop on us again.”

  Lara slowly nodded but felt like she had to point out the inconsistencies. “I understand that they had a camera watching the house from a distance and then portkeyed in. That would have been hard to spot for just about anyone.”

  Taylor shook her head. “There was more we could have done. The snipers were outside my range, but the camera wasn’t and I should have spotted it or taught Hinata what to look for.”

  Lara spoke up next. “What about normal CCTV cameras? London has been adding them all over the place.”

  Ahri spoke up at that. “I should have had the entire area covered in an illusion.”

  Taylor continued. “On top of that, we should have transfigured our clothes to look like we were firemen or investigators and kept one or two of us on watch.”

  Lara paused and then tilted her head in agreement. That would have been a better plan.

  There was a pause before Taylor let the anger show on her face and it was terrifying. “Don’t get me wrong, they are going to regret today.”

  Lara felt like she should have been worried about that, but instead she found herself smiling, eyes narrowing. “...Yeah.”

  Lara only paused for a moment when she spotted her own reflection in the mirror… she found that she was mirroring Taylor’s grim smile… good.

  ART (I tried to source the art, but some had to be AI as it didn’t exist):

  *Max ( image in front of a future pocket home in the stolen Konoha forest)

  *Shuttle

  WORM:

  *Amy by MonsterLover12

  Amy aged up ()

  *Taylor (Unsure on source)

  Taylor aged up ()

  *Dinah by FossileLord?

  Dinah aged up to current, trying to act extra mature, art by Lynarity

  *Sabah by LinaLeeZ

  Sabah made with Chat GPT (without the costume)

  *Thea (Drone) by MikeMoon1990

  *Riley (As Bonesaw)

  Riley after getting some help and growing up (Chat GPT)

  *Aisha by ArtofLariz

  RuneTerra:

  *Ahri by RynxieAi

  HarryPotter:

  *Luna by MoogleSorbet

  *Hermione by AlexandraCurte

  *Holly (Can’t find source)

  *Ginny by Sinjin77

  *Tonks by Feavre

  Tomb Raider:

  *Lara

  StarWars:

  *Ahsoka

  AliceMadnessReturns:

  *Alice by Dmitry Grebenkov

  Naruto:

  *Hinata by SugioSeduction

  Portal:

  *Chell by Quirkilicious

  AN (sorry lots this time):

  1) BLACK Family Tree is Madness! (Before anything else: Remember this is an AU so it doesn’t matter here… Also, Max wouldn’t have remembered all these details, I certainly didn’t)

  Anyway, yes, I am still making fun of the people who make a big deal of the Harry/Tonk shippers because they might be distant cousins… guys, EVERYONE who is at least a half-blood in the magical world is related to each other, including Ginny/Harry.

  However, as one or two of you pointed out (and I had forgotten), canonically Harry doesn’t have a recent Black ancestor:

  Harry Family Line: (Harry - James Potter + Lily (Muggleborn) - Fleamont Potter + Euphemia (unknown) - Henry Potter + Mrs Potter nee Fleamont)

  So Tonks and Harry are not directly related, nor is Harry directly related to Sirius. All we have is a vague statement of “Related to Dorea Potter nee Black”

  Admittedly, that might be a retcon so Harry and Ginny wouldn’t be third cousins since her family tree is:

  (Ginny - Arthur - Septimus + Cedrella Black - Arcturus Black - Phineaus Nigellus Black (Father of Cygnus who was father of Dorea Potter nee Black))

  2) New Recommendation: I have been really loving “The Placeholder, or My New Life As A Vampire Princess (VTM/Worm)” by Unders on SB. It is a great mix of crack and light-hearted adventure in a grimderp. I didn’t even know that much about Vampire The Masquerade and I am still having fun.

  3) I think I am going to try again for short chapters so I don’t get frustrated having to work for 2-3+ weeks on a 12k word chapter like this.

  On a side note, this pushes me over 400k words… that is insane.