The next morning I woke up while a few of my girls were still asleep. Hermione and Hinata in particular seemed a little tired after yesterday, so I got up to make a small snack before we headed back to the castle for breakfast.

  However, when I exited the captain’s cabin, I came face to face to Taylor, Lara, Holly, Ginny, Ahri, and Ahsoka as they came back through the Hogsmeade cottage portal. All of them were dressed for battle and looked triumphant.

  I probably shouldn’t have left said portal open, but it had been helping keep the chakra and magic flowing through the pocket dimension and we had purchased the standard protection wards on our cottage.

  Blinking in confusion, not fully awake, I could only ask, “Huh, what’s going on?”

  Lara looked guilty, but Taylor looked determined. “We assaulted some of the Trinity bases that Ahri was able to identify in the leader’s mind yesterday.”

  I blinked and then frowned. “... You did what?”

  Taylor looked momentarily guilty before her face firmed. “We needed to move before they pulled their people out of those locations. In fact, they were already pulling out when we hit them, so we only managed to hit three. By the time we got to the rest we could identify, they were empty.”

  I felt a moment of panic, followed by anger, followed by fear, before I took a shaky breath and forced myself to calm down.

  Behind me I heard a shuffle as Amy, Sabah, Hinata, and Hermione came out from the master cabin while Chell poked her head out of her room and Thea’s monitor turned on as she focused on us.

  As the second group arrived, I heard the exasperation in Hermione’s voice as she murmured to Amy, “What did they do now?”

  Amy’s voice sounded frustrated. “The hot heads decided they couldn’t wait for the rest of us.”

  On the first group’s side, Ginny glared at Hermione’s comment while Holly elbowed her in the ribs.

  Surprisingly, it was Lara who looked apologetic while Taylor and Ahri looked even more determined now.

  There was a moment when I felt a part of me wanted to punish the girls. They had rebelled against my leadership and instructions, if not in letter, definitely in the spirit of putting the Family first.

  It was a hot and angry ball in my chest, wanting me to lash out. Yet as I looked at Taylor, one of my two original wives and arguably the most invested in keeping the Family together, I pushed it back.

  I forced myself to remember that I was talking to Taylor, the queen of escalation. She had Ahri, a lone-wolf vixen. Ahsoka, who was a front-line commander. Lara, who routinely assaulted armed military camps alone. And Holly and Ginny, who are the poster teens for charging into trouble instead of asking for help from adults. Hell, Hermione probably would have been with them if they had asked her for help, even if she would have probably done the right thing and woken the rest of us up.

  I also needed to remember that this group was our heavy hitters. They had the two best shooters besides me, between Lara and Taylor (even if Taylor cheated by lining up her bugs). It also featured a crowd control monster, Ahri. A nearly unbeatable hard point via pure martial skill, Ahsoka. Then they had Holly, who was slowly approaching the raw magical power of Dumbledore, able to drive back a horde of dementors this year. She even had Ginny to watch her back.

  Yet, despite my mind realizing that these girls could probably handle themselves as long as they weren’t surprised, the frustration didn’t want to pass.

  Closing my eyes, I counted to 10 before opening them again and giving her a sad smile. “Taylor, I am really, truly glad you want to help. I also trust you to handle just about anything we may come across on this world. But Please… PLEASE don’t take on missions without the rest of us knowing. I can’t guarantee the soul gem will work against everything. We haven’t even seen an HP killing curse before, and I really don’t want to have to figure out how to pull your soul back via our soul bond.”

  Hesitating at her still conflicted look, I still took a step forward and wrapped her up in a hug. “Just let me know what you are planning so we can have backup ready, just in case.” My voice was shaky as I continued. “There is nothing I care about more than you girls. Please, I love you and I don’t want you to put yourselves in more danger than you need to…”

  Taylor stiffened in my arms and the silence stretched for several seconds before she slowly hugged me back. It was clear that she had expected a chewing out and was now was having to change gears. Finally, she cleared her throat and gave a soft, “Yeah, I will.”

  Breathing in and out for a moment, I thought back to the first time I saw her. I hadn’t really cared much about anything other than getting these girls in my bed. To make them mine. I wanted them to be happy, but it was more of a desire to ensure they stayed rather than actually caring about them.

  Yeah, some of that was the compulsion that had been put on me, but as we had already determined, it was more of a reinforcement of what I was already thinking. Hogwarts-type compulsions were not the Imperius curse. It only made you focus on something you would already have done.

  Yet, I could say with certainty that the only reason I focused on actually doing good was because of these girls.

  Looking up and into Taylor’s eyes, I tried to explain. “You know, I don’t think I have ever said it so bluntly, but you probably saved me. I am not sure what would have happened if I hadn’t had you all… it actually scares me a little. If I had picked villains to join me or just people that didn’t care about others… well, there would be very little that could have stopped me as long as I hid in my pocket dimension and only reached out to grab any girl who caught my fancy then found ways to control them… brainwashing or compulsion powers are common across the multiverse, it wouldn’t have taken long. Hell, I originally grabbed Bakuda and Squeeler with that intention, even if I don’t exactly regret pulling them away as they would have done a lot more harm if left alone.”

  Pausing, I tried to explain. “So, despite… or maybe because of your story, Taylor… you and Amy, with a little help from Dinah and Sabah, got me to focus on helping others. It isn’t that we are perfect, but I think you girls made me a better person.”

  That made Taylor hug me tighter, while I noticed the shocked expressions from the new arrivals. They may have not realized what it was like in the beginning. On the other hand, my original wives just looked pleased and joined the hug as I acknowledged that I loved them and they had saved me. Even Taylor re-tightened her hug.

  It was that affection that probably got the new arrivals that got the rest to calm down. It wasn’t easy to hear that the man you were living with had been considering forcibly kidnapping women, even if they were monsters and had once considered doing more. But seeing the group hug certainly cut the tension back down to nothing.

  Turning, now that everyone had calmed down, I made sure to hug each girl individually. I didn't feel the need to say anything else, so I didn’t.

  When it was her turn, Ahri smiled knowingly at me, and I was reminded that she was still older than the rest of us, put together. I considered that this might have actually been her attempting to help Taylor’s tendency to try to do things herself. However, Taylor had looked determined enough that this might just have been Ahri using this outcome to push for more independent movement that she had wanted. Or maybe it was some combination of the two.

  Ahsoka and Lara were awkward as I stepped up and gave them hugs. I had been pretty light on the physical affection with them, so it made sense, but it meant that I was surprised when Lara only hesitated for a few seconds before she hugged me back tightly.

  Chell continued being awkward. However, because she didn’t pull back at all when I hugged her, it really did seem like it was just inexperience.

  Ahsoka hesitated for even longer before, with a huff, she returned the hug back in a tight embrace. I didn’t comment on the long, deep sniff she did along my neck. Maybe Ahri wasn’t the only one with predator instincts… or Amy had been messing with my biology again.

  Meanwhile, Holly and Ginny were the 16 and 17-year-olds you would expect and hugged me back while blushing furiously.

  Still, as I led us over to the breakfast table so they could explain the details of their counterattack, I couldn’t help but consider how to make them safer.

  Everyone except Holly and Ginny was older than Taylor and should have known better than to run off without backup. Yet, I probably should have expected something like this, all of them had done this exact thing in their stories. Yet as I looked into their eyes, I saw some understanding, so maybe they would at least let us know so we could back them up next time.

  Plus, it wasn’t like I didn’t know why they had done it. Just the memory of yesterday still made me mad.

  Shaking her head, maybe in regret, maybe trying to forget Tonk’s wound, or maybe just to dispel the distractions, Lara spoke up. “So, we did manage to recover a bit more of my father’s things.” She swallowed, “And we were being fairly safe. Taylor scouted each location before we moved in. Ahri kept us under illusions the entire time. Ginny was feeling for magical wards while Holly kept up her shields. Ahsoka then was able to rush forward to take out anyone who noticed something was wrong while sensing for traps. I played overwatch and looked for anything worth taking.”

  Lara paused and then actually smiled, “I think I can backtrack what they were looking for if I search through these records. It just may take a while.”

  Nodding, I had to agree. “That was an effective setup and I am very glad you got more of your father’s things back.” Then I scowled, “I am also certain that we don’t want Trinity to get anything they are searching for this hard. In the meantime, we can get back to work preparing.”

  I then paused and took a deep breath. “I am not trying to keep any of you trapped here, but yesterday proved we are not safe. So I would like to request that no one go anywhere alone and that you tell me before you leave. I will open a portal and attach it to Thea so she can keep an ear out and tell me if you need me to open a portal for a quick getaway.”

  There was a chorus of nods and, after grabbing some fruit and other snacks for our own private breakfast, we portaled back to the castle for another Sunday with the pensive and Hogwarts’ Library.

  Said private breakfasts, either in the Shuttle or by walking down to talk to the house elves directly, was something that Hinata had requested on the weekends. The Hogwarts Castle’s food was extremely good, but it was still a fairly heavy English breakfast and got a bit much for someone used to much lighter breakfasts.

  Thus, the following two weeks were spent studying, crafting, sparring both magically and physically, and chakra training. The only interruptions were a few trips to Diagon Alley that Ahsoka, Sabah, and Hermione made for crafting supplies, sending Ahri, Taylor, and Holly out to look for a new manor we could add to the pocket home since I wanted something other than this shuttle long term, and the Valentine's dates.

  The plan we had come up with for dates was that each girl would pick a dinner location and an activity, while I would use a time turner repeatedly so I could give each of them their own individual date. However, that was when we found another limitation on the time turners. When I tried to go back and have more than four instances of myself at a time, I felt my soul start to strain.

  This made me incredibly curious to know if the limitations were due to my soul, the time turner, or some sort of magical limit, and I made a note to investigate this later. I also asked Anko about the shadow clone technique, but she said we weren’t ready quite yet, even if we had enough chakra for one now.

  So, since neither method was something I could use yet, we had to break up the dates into three days across the 12 girls, including Thea.

  Yet, even if they all couldn’t be on Valentine’s day and even if I demanded everyone use a few glamor charms to ensure we weren’t recognized, everyone seemed to enjoy their dates. Even Hinata and Ahsoka, both of whom had been unfamiliar with said holiday since it didn’t exist in the Elemental Nations or Star Wars. Yet despite the difference in courting customs, I think they found themselves enjoying the evening based on their smiles.

  Taylor had requested heading to the coast and having a private dinner with some fresh fish followed by a quiet evening reading together in the shuttle.

  Amy wanted a day away from responsibilities and pressure so we simply watched movies before I took her to a spa. There was then a dinner at a local restaurant where I simply focused on her.

  Sabah asked me to take her around London to look at different clothing designers so she could get inspiration, followed by a quiet dinner in an Arabian restaurant where we ate a traditional rice and mutton dish.

  Ahri asked for a quiet walk through a normal forest that turned into a playful chase using all of our chakra enhanced skills. Obviously I couldn’t catch her until she wanted me to, which let to a bit of a… distraction in said forest before we went out to dinner.

  Hermione simply wanted another day in the London Library followed by a standard dinner date and a movie where she snuggled into me and smiled.

  Hinata simply wanted to walk down the beach while holding hands, although we had to portal down to Spain, since Feburary in the UK was pretty cold, before I took her to London’s Chinatown for the closest thing I could get to Elemental Nation’s cuisine.

  Holly continued her pattern of wanting to experience everything that she had missed growing up so I took her to explore London followed by a trip to the Sandcastle indoor Waterpark in Blackpool, which had just opening.

  Ginny took me some time as I needed to find tickets to the Holyhead Harpies for their valentine’s day match before having lunch and retiring early so she could practice the moves she saw them perform.

  Lara ended up wanting to head to some of the London Museums… before being snuck into the back so she could inspect some of the items more closely. However, her dinner date was just a standard steak house before sitting and watching the stars in the restaurant’s garden.

  Ahsoka enjoyed our spar, followed by also going though some of the museums of this world. Yet instead of spending all day there, we moved on into a brazilian styled steak house where she could sample a vast assortment of roasted meats.

  Chell actually requested that we take a portkey to America so we could visit some american styled dinners. We then walked around New York as she tried to come to terms with all the time she had lost being trapped down in the Aperture Science Center and then being pulled away to this world. Yet as we tried some new yorker pizza, I was happy to see her lean her head against my arm and smile slightly.

  I was happy to see that Thea enjoyed her date, even if it was just moving a portal north to above the Arctic Circle so she could see the Northern Lights. That was when she once again proved she was our cinnamon bun, as she even insisted that all of the other girls be invited to see the northern lights as well.

  In the following weeks, I noticed that Anko seemed intent on increasing our speed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for us, the process involved adding a kilo, or about 2 pounds to each limb, every session. Worse, even after training, we were told the weight shouldn’t be removed outside of battle.

  It was Ginny who finally tried to put her foot down as she grumbled while adjusting the new weights. “How am I supposed to fly if I double my weight? Plus, what if we get ambushed again? Isn’t it risky to have to stop and drop the weight during a battle?”

  Besides Ginny, I saw Holly rubbing her wrists, obviously wondering the same thing.

  Ginny had managed to become one of the chasers on the junior quidditch team last year as a second year. I hated to admit it, but I hadn’t been paying attention to her last year and didn’t even realize that there was a junior team that played their own matches for half points. There was even a club that set up pickup games, just for fun.

  Still, it made sense. There were at least 50 students per year, would it really make sense that only seven players played for the entire school across all seven years?

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Anko just smirked at their discomfort. “You get used to the weight by growing a pair and trying harder.” Then laughed in their faces as they spluttered.

  Yet as the laugh died down, Anko turned serious, “And no, once we get you up to a reasonable weight, we will make them full-blown resistance seals so they resist every motion you make. You will be able to turn those off with a thought and a flex of chakra. It is how the elite ninja stay in shape during extended undercover or guarding missions. Chakra will keep you stronger longer, but it isn’t completely automatic, you still need to train and exercise your muscles if you want to keep your edge.”

  Despite not being directly involved in the conversation, I did a double-take at that as it made way too much sense. I felt like this was something I might have read in fanon, but realistically, how else would the Junin stay sharp on long-term undercover missions?

  Speaking up, I had to ask Anko, “How close do you think we are to being able to use shadow clones.”

  Anko hummed and tilted her head looking more serious than I had seen her in a while. “Honestly, you all have the chakra reserves and chakra control to pull it off… the problem is… Max, I don’t think you should try. Or if you do, make sure you do it while I am present.”

  That was shocking enough that I had to ask, “Why?”

  Anko grimaced. “I have been thinking about it now that I understand the issues you had with your soul. I have been studying the copy of the forbidden scroll Lord Hiruzen gave you and the shadow clone pulls a tiny fragment of your soul off and uses it to puppet a shell of chakra. That fragment then returns when the clone is popped. It is why it is the only technique that allows you to get some memories from your clones. It is why even the Hokage can’t make more than a few clones. The Ninetails’ influence is probably the only reason that Naruko can manage it. The problem, from your own explanation, is that your soul is a patchwork and probably shouldn’t go through any more stress. And I don’t think you will be able to control which section of your soul the clone gets.”

  I shivered as I thought about a fragment of Thanos’ soul getting control of a clone with my abilities and being partially tied to my girls.

  Swallowing, I tried to consider what to do about that when Anko took a step forward and put a hand my shoulder. “You said you were healing yourself, it is just a matter of waiting until your soul is in one piece… or you could just fucking use it to make a new technique… you brats seem to be good at that…”

  I frowned, about to object that the suggestion was ridiculous, but as I thought it over, I paused. What was stopping me from puppeting a second body? I could already move my soul around and control different bodies… why not find a way of making a clone and see if I couldn’t figure out a way to control it as well?

  I wasn’t going to make any progress any time soon, but it was certainly something to consider. I also should probably go back to meditation, as it was something that had helped before.

  It was the next day, when I was questioned again as to why I only hung out with ‘bints’. I had momentarily seen red when he had called them thots, and I had nearly punched the stupid boy in his face for insulting my girls like that.

  It was only when I realized that he was just an older-looking first-year, and thus just 15, that I took a step back. Deciding that I needed some time away from what was essentially high school drama, I opened a portal back to the shuttle.

  Apparently, most of the girls agreed because, an hour later, just about all of us were studying or hanging out in the shuttle. It was nice to have them around, even if I had to hide my secret project by doing everything through a portal.

  Hermione certainly was curious, but didn’t ask as she sat down next to me. “I heard about your talk with Anko, so I finished brewing some more of the purifying hot springs water.”

  I blinked as I had wanted more of that, but I hadn’t gotten around to doing it myself or asking someone else to do it.

  “Thanks, Hermione.” I paused and then turned towards Holly, who had also just walked in and sat down her stuff to begin working on her inanimate to animate transfiguration. Specifically, turning a book into a mouse. “Actually, Holly, I think you need to start taking these baths as well.”

  I saw Holly blink in surprise and then turn to me, visibly amused, but also with a hint of red to her cheeks. Before she could make this into some sort of joint-bathing joke, I interrupted her. “No, not like that.” My smile turned playful along with my tone. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

  Holly spluttered slightly, but everyone could tell it was just some light flirting. Yet I continued, now serious, realizing that Holly hadn’t been on our Christmas trip and thus didn’t actually know what I was talking about. “We traded for the recipe of a healing and purifying water from some spirits in Japan. I have been trying to use it to slowly heal my soul, but I think it will help weaken Tom’s influence on you as well.”

  There was a moment’s silence before Holly gave me a bit of a hesitant smile. “Yeah, thanks Max, thanks Hermione.” Then Holly gave a little jolt. “Oh, and before I forget, I finally pestered Professor Moony into agreeing to teach us the Patronus charm. He kept saying it wasn’t necessary now that the dementors are gone, but Ren finally pulled him aside and put her foot down. Practice on Sundays at noon.”

  Not looking up again, I smiled. “Great, I suspect that could be useful against a lot of evil or dark creatures across the multiverse.”

  It was then that Taylor walked over after finishing what looked like our charms essay. “What are you making?”

  Smiling up from my engraving table, I shook my head. “No spoilers, Love.” I enjoyed her blush tremendously before I turned the magnifying glass back down so I could see the tiny runes I was carving into the metal through a portal to keep the item secret. “Besides, the proof of concept is nearly done, so these should be ready soon.” I just needed to test the modified permanent binding curse and they should work.

  It was at this point that Ahri walked back through the portal I had left open to the forbidden forest. She had been looking for magical animals we could introduce into our pocket forest. Specifically, small herbivores that we could add without causing too many issues.

  It had started as a random thought. If dragons were the source of magic in a lot of fantasy, then maybe other magical creatures could produce magic as well. I mean, we could grab a real dragon or two.

  However, after talking about it, that seemed like a bad idea unless we restricted them to the corner of the woods somehow, away from our home. Then, even if we did, we would need to feed them and we had found out that even a medium-sized dragon could eat a roughly 2000-pound or 1000-kilo cow every few days.

  Thus, Ahri had spent some time hunting through the forest for other creatures hoping one of them might help. It even seemed to help slightly as the magic felt less stale at least as she had found and included a dozen or so Jobberknolls, a pair of mooncalfs, plus several magical ravens, and even a very confused but relatively docile giant purple toad.

  However, her main focus and the thing that all the girls had wanted was still a bust. No unicorns would come anywhere near any of us except Sabah, and they were still extremely skittish around her. I wondered if it had something to do with either our chastity or history of violence, but that still didn’t make sense. They had shied away from Chell, who had not actually had the chance to be intimate with anyone and hadn’t killed anyone even during the last attack.

  It was only when Holly did some discreet questioning of Hagrid that it turned out unicorns could warm up to anyone who generally had a pure heart, it just took a long time. How long exactly depended heavily on how good you were.

  Personally, I didn’t know whether to feel sad that they bolted when I approached to within 30 meters or so, or encouraged that they didn’t flee at the very sight of me from a mile away considering the evil that existed in parts of my soul.

  Coming back to the present, I focused on Ahri. Slumping into a seat, our vixen took a drink offered by a Thea drone. Looking at our interested faces, Ahri sighed. “Still no luck, the unicorns won’t even stay in the same meadow as me to talk. Their emotions are just too scared to do anything else at the moment and they seem to see through my illusions.”

  I nodded slowly before looking back down to make the last cut to the Chakra based storage rune, before I started inspecting each of the rows of seals. All of them had worked perfectly when I had tried them, but I still wanted to work on portkeys. Unfortunately they were still insanely complex and I wasn’t sure how they would behave in other worlds. Thus the progress was slow and only possible due to an ancient text with a nearly unreadable cover from the Room of Requirement.

  Looking up at Ahri I smiled reassuringly, “That is unfortunate, but I think we are just going to have to wait until Luna and Dinah get back. I suspect those two will be our best chance at getting a small number of unicorns to join us.”

  There was a chorus of nods or “yeahs” from the group.

  That was when she pointed to Taylor. “Taylor, Holly, and I found an excellent replacement manor house for us. It is a bit run down right now, but magic should fix that no problem. It had a cozy wood design and it already has a dozen rooms while magic could probably give us a dozen or so more. It had a garden behind it and a small lake to the side surrounded by forest.”

  I blinked in surprise before I rolled my eyes at the number of rooms. I knew that they were teasing me, but I still wanted my girls to sleep with me even if they weren’t in the mood, but more than that I understood and even encouraged them to have a place of their own.

  And to be honest, I was hosting 12 women now and there was no doubt that number would grow even if it was just Luna and Dinah coming back.

  Looking up I smiled. “Good work, I would love to see it. Have you discussed the price with the seller?”

  Ahri nodded. “Yeah, it is an old couple who can’t take care of it anymore and are selling it to a family that wants to restore it. At Hermione’s instruction, I actually already put the money into a normal bank’s trust via a transfer from Gringotts, so they know we are serious and there isn’t a question of where the money came from like if we rolled up and hand them cash.”

  Hinata then sat up and smiled. “I uh, finished the second ring of the wall around our land and finished the gatehouse entrance way. I just need you to carve the rest of the unbreakable runes into them, and I can put them up next week.”

  I smiled at the shy kunoichi and nodded. “Of course, thank you for the help, Hinata.”

  Seeing this was turning into an update on each of our projects, Sabah rolled up her own project in the corner of the shuttle and carried it towards us. When she arrived, she smiled before letting a form-fitting undershirt drop so it hung by her fingers. At first glance, it was a simple dark grey shirt and I wasn’t sure why she was showing it off, before I caught the shine of a pattern in the weave. “Huh,” was all I managed as I reached out and squeezed the shirt between my fingers. “What is this made out of, and what did you do to it?”

  Sabah looked proud of herself. “Taylor and Amy have been playing with the acromentula and figured out a mix of silk types that should be both bulletproof to mundane firearms and heavily magic resistant. Taylor can directly control the spiders to weave the base cloth. I took that cloth and embroidered the runes you gave us for protection, comfort, cleaning, sizing, and durability using silk thread.”

  My eyebrows shot up in the air, incredibly impressed. At Sabah’s growing smile, I took the cloth in my hand and attempted to tear, or even stretch the cloth. When that obviously failed, I pulled out my wand and sent a point-blank cutting charm at the material. The shirt visibly strained for a second or two, but as I put down my wand and gave it another tug, the shirt was still in one piece.

  Shaking my head in wonder, I looked up at Sabah who smiled. “Wow, this is incredible. How long do you think…”

  I trailed off as Sabah huffed, but her grin looked mischievous, and she reached back and threw a pile of cloth at the girls who had begun to gather around us.

  It took a moment before I realized that she had thrown a pile of bras at the girls who were taken aback. However, after a few seconds of silence, there was a small cheer as they inspected the items.

  My original wives showed how comfortable they were with casual nudity as they didn’t even bother leaving the room before they took off their tops and started trying out the new silk undergarments, obviously thrilled with the upgrade. Hinata and Hermione hesitated for a moment before stepping into the hallway for the master cabin while everyone else retreated into their bedrooms to try them out.

  Sabah, not waiting for everyone to return, simply handed me a pair of pants and boxers to go with my new shirt and I huffed in amusement before joining my girls by changing into them right here.

  I had never worn silk before, but I would have thought that silk would normally have been a little hard to get used to with how smooth it was. This was not the case. The silk was indeed smooth, but either due to the magical nature or the comfort runes embroidered into the silk it was amazing. Honestly, they felt better than any other clothes I had ever tried and I found myself moving around just to feel them.

  Yet as good as they felt, I was thrilled with the increased defense they would give my girls.

  Thus, it was only a few minutes later that everyone returned wearing the new clothes and Sabah pushed Ahsoka forward.

  Ahsoka looked a bit nervous at being put on the spot, but after a moment she seemed to collect herself and she put on a cocky smirk. “Sabah told me about your comments about more materials, especially for armor, so we talked with the goblins.”

  I blinked and then suddenly got a lot more invested. “What? Did you manage to get them to sell you goblin silver?”

  Sabah and Ahsoka sighed, but shook their heads as Ahsoka explained. “Not quite, we we convinced them to sell us some of their goblin silver as a dagger, but without the absorption aspect.”

  Sabah huffed, obviously annoyed, but she clarified why they were excited. “I think it is basically mythril.”

  That got Taylor’s attention. “Like Lord of the Rings mythril? Isn’t that supposed to be indestructible?”

  Sabah nodded and then pointed towards Hermione. “Hermione was the one to point the Lord of the Rings books out to me, but after seeing this stuff, I have to agree. I had Holly shoot a blasting hex at the bar, and it didn’t even mar the surface.”

  I nodded, mind racing. “Nice, but do you think they would be willing to sell us more of it?”

  Ahsoka’s grin took on a hungry edge. “Yeah, I can do that.”

  At this point, Sabah was snickering to herself.

  Confused, I looked back at Ahsoka and she just shrugged while not dropping the grin. “Well, I had heard the goblins liked to fight so when we were selling off some more of the gold to get supplies, I asked them about what it would take to get goblin silver.” Her smirk dropped as she remembered, “The goblin made some comments about how I was a stupid wench and that he wished he could just rip out my intestines.”

  My mouth fell open in shock before Ahsoka took on a thoughtful tilt to her head. “Actually, in retrospect, that might have been in a different language and he seemed surprised when I understood him. Maybe that is why they are constantly muttering in their goblin language.”

  Shaking her head, she continued. “I told him that if he wanted to have his ass beaten up and down the street, he could just step out of Gringotts.” She blushed and I remembered that under her discipline, this was still the hot-headed Ahsoka that had fit so well with clone wars Anakin.

  There was a moment where she obviously tried to rephrase what happened before, after another moment, Ahsoka just shrugged. “There was some back and forth before the goblin told us about an arena under the bank and to come back in an hour once the bank was closed. Long story short, we came back, they took us down into a basement where there was an undergrown ring with a cage, and I smacked him around until he yielded. Then, as part of paying off his insult, I was offered some of the unenchanted goblin silver.”

  At this point, all of us were staring, impressed at her.

  This was not one of those Harry Potter universes where the goblins were all just misunderstood, honorable warriors being oppressed by the wizards. They were angry, violent little buggers that were much more in line with the folklore of goblins within the Fae.

  Thus, as much as wizards still looked down at them, no one wanted to get on a goblin’s bad side.

  Ahsoka’s smile turned back into her satisfied smirk. “They offered me a chance to earn even more. They even offered to teach me to make their goblin silver. The only thing they said that was completely forbidden was teaching me how to create the absorption aspect.”

  This was beginning to sound too good to be true and I had to ask. “They just offered that?”

  Ahsoka shook her head, “No, they told me that I had to wager something of equal value. When I asked what they would deem a fair wager, they insisted that if I lost the competition, we would just lose everything in our vaults.”

  Ahsoka seemed a little apologetic about that and tried to shrug as she justified herself. “That isn’t even that much anymore since we took a good chunk of the remaining basilisk gold out anyway when we started all this shopping and to buy the new pocket manor.“

  I thought about that for a second before I winced, going a tad pale along with Ahri and Ginny, who better understood goblins. I answered the implied question about our sudden concern before Ahsoka could ask. “I would need to know the exact wording they used but, if I am right, that bet might include everything we own, period. Vaults may be metaphorical for everything we have stored anywhere, potentially even in the future. In the worst-case scenario, they could even be talking about any future children, since in the stories they seem to like metaphors like fruits of your garden when referring to children.”

  That put an immediate damper on the mood as all joviality was now gone.

  Ahsoka had gone completely stiff before she sighed and visibly gathered herself. “It will be alright. I will be fine, and if not, then they would have to catch me first. Plus, I still think the risk is worth it since the knowledge of making a nearly indestructible metal could be a major step forward. It even stood up to my lightsabers. In fact it did better than anything I have ever seen, although it didn’t temporarily short out my sabers like Cortosis did.”

  I was momentarily confused until I remembered that there were a few semi-magical metals in Star Wars that could resist, fully block, or even short out a light saber. The fact that this goblin metal was on that same tier was pretty high praise. But it did make sense. Even if the enchantments that allowed the goblin silver to absorb substances it was exposed to, it first would have needed to survive being exposed to those elements. The fact that it survived basilisk venom meant it was better armor and weapon than literally anything else mentioned in the Hogwarts Universe, something that was supposed to literally dissolve anything and everything including magic itself, and went through a 5X beast like it was butter.

  Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “Yeah, it is almost certainly worth the risk if it is just the money in our vaults, or even everything we currently own outside our pocket dimension. Plus, even if they try to take everything else, we will just move most of our stuff in the pocket dimension. I doubt they have a way of getting there.”

  Then I scowled, my voice going hard. “If they try to demand your children… well we will have to have words with them then.”

  I noticed the rest of the girls in our Family nodding firmly, even Chell who was still keeping a bit of distance. It wasn’t like the reformed Bakuda, more like she simply didn’t really know how to relate after being alone for so long.

  Then I sighed. “Plus, I would assume that they would consider backing out now a forfeit anyway.” Then I tilted my head in thought. “Plus, you, Ahri, and Hinata are our best melee fighters… by a large margin. I suspect you could handle any one-on-one fight in this world relatively easily and are probably the best suited to the challenge. Especially if Ahri can’t use her illusions or Hinata her gentle fist.”

  Ahsoka smiled at my compliment before reaching down and kicking off her sandals. That allowed her to twist off her toe ring. The natural visage of her lekku and more vibrant orange skin and white tattoos returned and she smirked. “Yeah, they don’t allow any sort of magical item at all in the ring. We might also be overthinking it a bit. They were a lot more accommodating when they saw this form and they decided that I was some sort of spirit or creature.”

  I didn’t realize that she had been forced to expose her form to them, but it did make sense that they were being somewhat accommodating to a non-human.

  Holly looked thoughtful. “When is the competition?”

  Ahsoka shrugged. “Saturday, so the day after tomorrow.”

  I just blinked. “... Really?”

  I stood up. “Well, Let’s go. I think this deserves a celebration dinner for when you win. What would you like to eat? I need to make reservations.”

  Ahsoka paused in surprise before she smiled. “I wouldn’t mind a good steak.”

  Clapping, I smiled. “Right, I will make the reservations.” Then I paused and considered for a moment. “That said, there is a good chance they won’t give us everything and we may get more information about how to actually make what I am just going to straight up call Mythril from the room of Requirement. So we should probably look through those books.”

  Hermione perked up. “I will start the search.”

  I chuckled. “Then we should get to bed, we don’t want to be tired for Goblin Fight Club.” I then paused and tilted my head. “Honestly, I am not sure why I didn’t expect them to have what is almost certainly an underground arena both figuratively and literally, already. It's completely on brand for them.”

  Most of the girls chuckled, and I made a note to explain Fight Club to the rest. I would have to get a copy when we visited a modern world.

  Interlude Luna:

  Luna smiled as she bowed towards her opponent.

  There wasn’t supposed to be any Lucario in this part of the world, but something like that had never stopped her before.

  Well, either that or Lord Arceus was pleased with their assistance to Ash during the last few months.

  Kicking herself just a little as she twisted too fast and the Lucario frowned at her, she started the routine again.

  Aura wasn’t easy to use, but she felt she was starting to get it. Dinah said it was really similar to nen from HunterXHunter, but they had never gotten any good at that, so she couldn’t tell the difference.

  Chakra progress was slower, but they were still making progress. They didn’t have the instructions from Anko like the others did, but they still had all the time in the world to practice.

  What had been a surprise was the new prophecy.

  Max had written them almost immediately after getting back from checking out the Croft Manor.

  Yet both Luna and Dinah couldn’t see or get any details of what, if anything, had changed. Despite having the knowledge and a link through his soul jar letters, neither of their powers could pierce the reality divide.

  All she could do was write back and tell him that she didn’t know.

  Dinah was taking it particularly hard over the last few weeks and had nearly demanded they go back. She had really liked Tonks when they had met while Tonks had been guarding Holly. She had seen the older woman’s self-confident attitude and was obviously trying to imitate it to a degree.

  Still, it wasn’t all bad news. The knowledge that Hinata and Hermione had joined the Family was fantastic news. Both would help Max heal much faster now that he didn’t have Dinah and her.

  Yet it all came back to the new prophecy. Why hadn’t she seen it?

  She had seen the trails that led to this point, why would it have changed?

  She thought back to the ascension she had been pointed to.

  Was it still possible? It has seemed like the only way the Family could survive.

  She blinked the stars out of her eyes as she noticed that the Lucario had stepped forward and bopped her on the forehead.

  “Ah, sorry Lucy… I was letting the humdingers cloud my thoughts again… Please let's go again…”

  Interlude Konstantin:

  “You fucking WHAT?”

  Sweeping the pile of books from the desk, he turned around to face the idiot grunt in front of him.

  “I, uh, Sir… SomeonemanagedtobreakinandtakeprofessorCroftsmaterials.”

  Pulling his pistol out, he pointed it at the private’s face. “...What?”

  Now completely white, the idiot swallowed. “Private Lance reported that someone hit the forward operating bases in London and took back the rest of Professor Croft’s research materials.”

  Cocking back the hammer back, Konstantin’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t going to tell me that they just got away again, are you?”

  Swallowing again the idiot shook his head. “No, the backup plan, the… uh… tracking charms on the materials worked for a while, and it has confirmed she is hiding somewhere around Hogsmeade and thus is completely aware of the magical world, but they stopped working before we could pinpoint their location. We have to assume they noticed and removed them.”

  Grunting, Konstantin was tempted to shoot the idiot on pure principle. But he wasn’t even the one that had failed, just the messenger.

  Huffing, he dismissed the idiot and turned towards his sister Ana, and the masked visitor. “What do you think?”

  Ana coughed a few times and then frowned. “Lara is still a Croft, she won’t miss the chance to find the source.”

  The masked man huffed, a sneer in his voice, while Konstantin could hear him licking his lips. “My master will give you any reward you wish, but only after he has it.”

  Gritting his teeth, he wished he could shoot this arrogant asshole, but these Death Eaters were good enough that the last time he had one of his men try, the man had returned fire with a green curse that killed the soldier on contact.

  These men weren’t the failures Trinity had been able to collect up until now, but he was going to have to set up some contingencies, just in case.

  Author’s note:

  1) Sorry, I wrote like 7k words in like 4 days… then life happened. Everything seemed to pile on one after another, we even had a sudden and massive gas leak in our house (which was terrifying). Good news, the next chapter is pretty far along, and I hope to release it in a week.

  So yeah, the fight club got cut to the next chapter, but we needed time to cover the upgrades anyway.

  2) As for Max commenting on his improvements, I am conflicted. Looking back on it, I got tired of receiving a ton of comments about how Max was a terrible person or Heartbreaker 2.0 and edited him to be much more neutral… but now this pay off is less impactful.

  It is to the point that I am considering changing it back since, the whole point was the girls were supposed to save him along with everyone else. It is the straight up title… Saved By Waifu