Mist of Shadows
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Hermione and the Watch Part 24
🕑 Added 2019-02-06 01:31:46 +0000 UTCMacnair scowled as Corban Yaxley walked into the rundown muggle house he’d been summoned to. “Why the bloody hell are we meeting here?”
“It stinks to high hell, like wet socks,” Selwyn complained as he looked around the living room in distaste at the faded orange walls and lime green furniture.
Yaxley snorted. “How should I know? Crabbe called the meeting.”
“Bullshit, Thorfinn called the meeting,” Crabbe snapped from where he was standing by the kitchen, more than a little annoyed at getting called to a meeting in the middle of the night.
“I believe you’re mistaken,” Thorfinn said as he looked around the filthy muggle home they’d been summoned to. “Though Macnair is right, it stinks.”
Selwyn snorted. “I thought Travers called it-” whatever else he was going to say was cut off as a bottle with a burning rag came through the window and ignited the natural gas that had been pouring into the house for the last hour.
Snape’s lips curled up into a slight smile as the rundown house exploded thanks to his molotov cocktail. “And nothing of value was lost.” He twisted out of the way as someone tossed a blasting curse his way.
“Someone is being naughty,” Bellatrix teased with a mad grin, keeping her wand at the ready as she closed the distance.
“I could spin a story about how I just got here but really, what’s the point?” Snape slashed his wand at Bellatrix while he turned sideways to minimize his profile.
She laughed as she deflected his curse. “Decided to show your true colors and side with the old man?”
“Not really, I was just cleaning up loose ends,” Snape replied as he tossed a couple spells her way.
Bellatrix deflected the first two then dodged the third, making it look easy. “Loose ends, is that what you call your friends?”
Snape snorted. “Crabbe was an idiot, much like his son. Macnair just liked killing things. Rowle might have been something interesting but there is no future in working for Riddle.”
“How dare you spread that lie!” Bellatrix spat as she redoubled her efforts to kill him.
Snape ignored the spell that slipped through his guard and ripped into his jacket as he taunted her, “Voldemort is nothing but a half blood with a near squib mother, from a line of inbred idiots and a muggle father.”
“Die!” she screamed as she banished a car into him pinning him to the side of a building. “Any last words Snivellus?”
Snape scowled slightly as he found himself trapped but curiously intact, maybe it was just shock but he felt fine which didn’t really make sense given that he’d just been hit by a couple tons of metal. “Of course you can marry my daughter, Snape.”
“How hard did you hit your head?” Bella asked with a touch of confusion then collapsed as a flash of green hit her in the back.
Peter glared at Snape. “You’re a bastard, you know that right?”
Snape dropped his anti apparition ward he’d tossed up over the area and apparated out of the wreckage. “Sadly, not so much.”
“How the fuck aren’t you dead?” Peter asked with annoyance as he looked at Snape’s shredded robes, seeing no blood or any sign of damage to the potion master.
“I have too many people to kill,” Snape snapped, not sure why he wasn’t bleeding out from internal injuries but seeing no reason to tell Peter that he didn’t know. He glanced at the twitching severed silvery hand that Peter was stepping on then at Peter’s mangled wrist. “We should probably leave.”
“Any suggestions? We’re quickly running out of friends. Not that any of those people were ever my friends, not really,” Peter muttered the last part, still trying to come to terms with his memories being restored.
“One or two,” Snape replied as he walked over, grabbed Peter’s shoulder, and apparated back to headquarters, hoping he had enough time to explain before they started hexing Peter with anything permanent.
0o0o0
Remus wrinkled his nose as he watched Rose drag Harry and Hermione off. “You know she has feelings for him, right?”
“He’s her long lost brother, of course she loves him,” Lily replied a touch amused at Remus trying to dance around the issue. She took a sip of some of the wine she’d gotten from Frank as she waited to see how Remus would try to explain things while she played innocent.
“I didn’t mean that sort of love,” Remus grumbled after a couple of seconds trying to figure out a polite way to tell Lily that her daughter was lusting after her son.
“Eh, she knows I’m not old enough to be a grandmother, they’ll be fine,” she said, deciding just to say it outright.
Remus sputtered, “What?!”
“Birth control spells are fairly easy to do wandlessly,” she pointed out, “at least for those of us who have studied the native magic traditions.”
“They’re siblings,” Remus complained, not sure if Lily was messing with him or had gone insane from having to deal with James for years.
“Remus,” she said seriously, “we don’t have venereal diseases here or if we do, our immune systems are boosted enough that it doesn’t matter. I haven’t been sick since I got here. Not to mention the various charms we can use to prevent problems if, or probably when, they decide to have children in the coming years. I’m not really worried about it, they’re not hurting anyone and the island’s society doesn’t have any taboos against it, since the population was quite limited for the last couple of millenium.”
“Still... “ Remus trailed off not sure what to say.
“Pretty much all of the people raised on the island are rather omnisexual. It might be a result of magic or the culture,” Lily said, rather amused by the look of disbelief on his face. “I’ll admit it takes some getting used to, but the way the children actually get along with their siblings as compared to the way they fight in the outside world… it’s a welcome change.”
0o0o0
“This is my room,” Rose said, releasing Harry to close the door behind them, her touch activating half a dozen locking and silencing charms.
Harry and Hermione both raised an eyebrow.
“I have five sisters,” Rose said, “and they like pranks.”
“You have a very nice room,” Hermione said, noting the enormous bed and overflowing bookcases, as well as a collection of paintings that were signed by Rose.
“One of only two places I can get a little privacy,” she said with a smile and started getting undressed. “I think you two are a little overdressed.”
“Well, it is your room,” Harry said, starting to strip.
“Ours,” Rose corrected him happily, moving forward to help Hermione with her bra as Harry kicked off his shoes.
“How did you know you would meet Harry one day?” Hermione asked curiously.
“Dreams, a whole lot of dreams,” Rose said, “so I have been waiting really impatiently.”
“Well, you are a Potter,” Hermione noted with a soft smile as she watched Rose lead Harry to her bed, her hand trembling in his. ‘They really are rather cute together.’
“We don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to,” Harry assured her.
“I want to!” she quickly assured him. “There is nothing I want more… it’s just… I’ve waited so long, and..” She sniffed, her eyes tearing up. “I can’t believe this is real. I feel like at any moment, I’ll wake up alone in my bed again…”
Harry knew he was suppose to say or do something romantic at this point, but his experience with women was rather limited so he did the first thing that came to mind.
“Ouch!” Rose rubbed her right nipple.
“Now do you think you’re dreaming?” he asked pulling her naked body against him.
“No,” she said smiling broadly, pleased he’d snapped her out of it while Hermione face palmed behind them. She spun around and tossed him on the bed, before leaping after him, bouncing on the bed.
“Potters,” Hermione said with an amused chuckle, watching the two slowly explore one another, softly stroking and nuzzling each other.
0o0o0
“I can’t believe they went to bed so early,” Bell complained as she looked at the living room clock. “It’s barely nine o’clock, who does that?”
“Boring people,” Dora said, a bit annoyed that she wasn’t going to be able to watch her sister fuck Harry. ‘Maybe Hermione will let me watch it in a pensieve.’
Lily looked up from the book she was reading as she felt a burst of magic from upstairs. “Speaking of ‘sleep’, you might want to grab some sleep while you can, tomorrow is going to be a long day.”
“Why?” Bell asked as she pulled her attention away from the clock.
Lily grinned as she looked at her daughters sitting next to each other. “Because Hermione said she’d take us shopping tomorrow while Rose shows Harry around the island.”
“Us?” Bell asked excitedly.
“I figured you’d want to look around a bit and see London with us.” Lily wanted to show the twins some of the museums in London and maybe Diagon Alley if they could come up with decent disguises.
“Sounds fun,” Bell said, wanting to pick up a couple books on broom making to see if they could improve their homemade brooms.
“We’re going to need a lot more than just one day to see London,” Dora pointed out.
“It’s a start,” Lily said. “Besides, I want to get some tomato plants and pineapple and a bunch of fruit trees we don’t have and a couple other things I’ve been missing.”
“I wouldn’t mind picking up plants for Violet,” Bell said, thinking about her friend and what she’d do for a decent purple dye that didn’t fade.
“That’s the spirit.” Lily smiled slightly another burst of magic gently rocked the house. “Speaking of magic, I would have thought you’d be with Rose, Harry and Hermione?”
Dora shook her head. “We promised Rose the rest of the day with Harry.”
“That was nice of you.”
“We have each other, I love Bell and she loves me.”
“Usually,” Bell replied playfully as she rested her head against her twin’s shoulder. “But she’s right, we’re a set, if she wants her chance with Harry, we’re not standing in her way.”
“Though the day ends at midnight,” Dora said gleefully.
“Nah, we’ll give them until 12:01, we’re not savages,” Bell replied with mock dignity.
Lily chuckled. “In that case, you have three hours, get some sleep.”
“Probably a good idea,” Bell said as she sat up and stretched.
“If nothing else we can watch the triplets fuck the veela girls,” Dora said as she stood up.
‘Could be worse I guess, they could hate each other,’ Lily thought as she went back to reading, trying to avoid thinking about what she wanted to say to her sister or do to the bitch for what she’d put Harry through.
0o0o0
Harry smiled from his spot spooned behind Rose at where Hermione was sandwiched between Dora and Bell, breathing hard and looking sort of dazed. “I think you broke her,” he teased.
Dora giggled as she wiggled against Hermione. “She’s almost as fun as Bell.”
“Hey,” Bell complained playfully as she swatted her twin’s bare butt.
“I said almost,” Dora said with a mock pout.
“I guess that’s acceptable,” Bell said as she grabbed Hermione’s foot and started massaging it.
“I’m keeping her,” Hermione said as she gave Dora an affectionate squeeze.
“Which one?” Harry asked with amusement.
“Both.” Hermione smiled at Harry. “On second thought I might have just to start a collection of Potters. All the Potters!”
Harry laughed. “Just as long as you don’t start saying ‘My precious.”
Rose giggled as she moved Harry’s hand back to her crotch. “Have you figured out a way to sneak me into Hogwarts with you?”
Harry slipped his middle finger inside his sister, enjoying the way she moaned slightly. “If you really want, we could probably talk to Dumbledore about it but that requires coming clean about the island or claiming you’re a cousin or something.”
Bell giggled as she wiggled Hermione’s toes on her foot. “If we didn’t look a fair amount like Mum, I’d say you could get away with pretending she’s just a random muggle born from the States, but I can’t see that working long term considering how some of her teachers are still at Hogwarts.”
“You could always use polyjuice and replace one of the more annoying students,” Dora suggested.
“Not happening,” Rose said as she pressed her back against Harry’s chest and enjoyed the attention. “Using polyjuice to impersonate anyone long term is a stupid idea, too many things can go wrong, plus it tastes horrid according to the potions manual.”
“We could always ask Sirius if he has any suggestions for getting her enrolled or at least a visitors pass,” Hermione pointed out.
“We’d have to move, I’m comfortable,” Dora pointed out as she snuggled up against Hermione.
Paulette grinned as she poked her head into the room and saw everyone on the bed. “You should probably get up and take a shower, Mum is making pancakes.”
Hermione turned to look at Paulette. “Thanks for telling us. How are the twins doing?”
“They’re having fun, we’re making sure they get lots of hugs,” Paulette said as she walked over to the bed and sat down. “When are you heading back to Hogwarts?”
Hermione looked at her watch. “In about sixteen hours.”
“That’s hardly enough time to explore our section of the island, you’re going to have to come back.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be bouncing back and forth a bit,” Harry assured his sister as he continued teasing Rose, leaning in to kiss the side of her neck.
“Good,” Dora said firmly.
“If for no other reason than Bell’s foot massages,” Hermione added.
“Happy to help.” Bell let go of Hermione’s foot. “That said, we probably should clean up so we don’t freak Remus out. Well, anymore than outsiders often are before they adapt anyway.”
“Probably a good idea,” Hermione agreed as she let go of Dora.
“On that note, I should make sure my sisters aren’t having too much fun,” Paulette said as she bounced to her feet and headed toward the stairs, “without me.”
Dora giggled as she turned and kissed Hermione. “Thanks for not being grumpy that we’re being greedy with Harry’s time.”
“You’re family, it’s allowed,” Hermione assured her.
“Good.” Dora turned to look at Harry. “Let’s grab breakfast then we can show you around the island.”
“Sounds good to me,” Harry said as he reluctantly pulled his finger out of Rose and released her from his arms. “We’ll have to finish later.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” Rose agreed, happy that Harry was so accepting about the ways of the island. “You’ll love Mum’s blueberry pancakes.”
“I’m looking forward to trying them,” Harry said as he quickly got up off the bed and vanished from sight. “Be right back.”
“Hey!” Rose complained as she grabbed for where she thought Harry was and missed. “That’s cheating.”
“Toilet,” Harry said as he shut and locked the bathroom door.
“I guess that’s fair,” Rose admitted reluctantly. “How did he do that?”
“Do what?” Hermione asked, not quite sure how Rose had missed grabbing him.
“He just vanished from sight,” Rose complained with a pout.
Hermione quickly put the pieces together, “That would be the Thestral in him.”
“It was in me a little while ago and I can’t turn invisible,” Rose complained, smiling at the memory of having Harry inside her.
Hermione laughed. “Not that. Harry has Thestral traits, one of which is the ability to turn invisible to those who have never seen death.”
“Not really all that useful,” Rose said with a frown. “He should have chosen phoenix like you did.”
“What else can you tell me about the island?” Hermione asked, changing the subject and hoping for more details.
“It grows larger the more magic users that live here, so each of the families have miles to spread out in, which is nice when you want to get away from the latest family prank war.”
“Prank war?” Hermione asked, curious how bad James’ pranks were.
Dora said, “Every so often something sets the triplets off and they test out a new prank idea, water balloons filled with conjured glowing slime or sparkles, conjured snakes in our bed or Dad’s recreated dung bombs. Thankfully Mum put her foot down on the dung bombs.”
“What about books and magic?” Hermione asked, curious what type of education the girls had.
Rose said, “Modern books are kinda hit or miss, depending on what people remember or had with them, and we get plenty of practice using our magic since we don’t have any silly laws against using it, but we don’t have wands so we don’t really bother with learning the overly complicated wizarding crap, mostly just The Will and The Word. Sure, it takes a while to master, but once you get good with it, it’s actually easier, as you don’t need to remember a bunch of very specific words and wand gestures.”
Bell said, “As for current technology, we got lucky. One of the families that Snape sent here a couple years ago had a complete encyclopedia set with them, so we have a pretty good grasp on it.”
“I’m a little shaky on how a computer does what it does, but a television is simply a device for showing previously recorded plays, much like a pensieve, right?” Dora asked.
“It’s slightly more complicated but basically,” Hermione agreed, glad that the girls were at least more knowledgeable than most of the purebloods at Hogwarts.
“Cool, Mum has told us stories about Star Wars but I think something got lost in translation because it sounds like space knights and pirates to me with some weird not quite humans tossed in.”
“We probably could have watched in a pensieve, but we really weren’t curious enough to try to get them to grab all of the sections and put them in order,” Rose said.
“Sounds about right. We’ll have to have a movie night one of these days,” Hermione decided.
“Sounds fun,” Bell replied, looking forward to seeing a bit more of the world. The island was great and she’d never want to leave permanently, but she was understandably curious about the outside world even if they didn’t have to look for a man to give them children anymore.
“Pancakes!” Lily called from downstairs.
Hermione rolled over and grabbed her wand. “Might as well hit everyone with a cleaning charm.”
“Works for me,” Harry said as he walked out of the bathroom wearing his pants.
“I’d rather have a shower but we can grab one after breakfast,” she said as she gave Harry a look he knew well.
“Sure, I’ll wash your back if you wash mine,” Harry agreed as he headed for the door, unsurprised when Rose reclaimed his arm.
Hermione zapped Harry with a cleaning charm then turned her attention to his sisters.
0o0o0
Rose giggled as Harry spun the broom around so they could get a view of the cliff where her private spot was. Secret in-so-much that her sisters didn’t know about it as she’d carved the cave entrance in a deep crevasse to make it harder to find. Her mother had helped her make sure the roof wasn’t going to collapse on her and with practicing the magic she needed to make the basic furniture but the cave was basically her hiding spot when she needed to get away from all the noise and chaos at home. “You’re going to have to get a bit closer, see that crack in the cliff? It’s in there.”
Harry flew a bit closer to the crack in the cliff. “Now what?”
Rose climbed off the broom then grinned as she stepped into her cave. “Now you come inside and look around.”
Harry carefully climbed off his broom and slipped through the narrow opening that was hidden from the outside world. He set his broom against the wall as he looked around the cosy looking room, lit by blue flames trapped in a collection of glass bottles. He glanced at the cross between a couch and a beanbag chair sitting in the middle of the room then looked at the well crafted wooden bench along the stone wall. He smiled as he looked at the various nooks that had been carved into the wall that looked like the perfect place to curl up and read a book. “How do you keep the birds out?”
“Animal repelling charm.” Rose said as she flopped down on her ‘couch’ with a grin. “So, what do you think?”
“I think it’s amazing, they don’t bother teaching stuff like this at Hogwarts, it’s too bad really.”
“It took some work, but I did everything myself.” Rose glanced at the ceiling. “Well, other than the structural support spells on the ceiling, Mum wanted to make sure it was safe.”
“I can’t really blame her for wanting to make sure everything was safe...” Harry trailed off as he noticed the portrait on the back wall that he was fairly sure was him, at least he hoped she didn’t have a half naked portrait of their Dad on the wall. A bit hypocritical, true, but he never claimed to be a saint. “Is that me?” he asked hopefully, smiling as she nodded.
“One of the girls in town is an artist. We saw a picture of you from the triwizard tournament and she drew it for me.”
“How’d you get a picture of that?” he asked curiously.
“One of the muggleborn that Snape saved had it, she would have been a first year.”
“I like it.” He smiled as he noticed several portraits of naked girls on the wall. “Friends or art pieces?”
“Most of them are friends, though the mermaid is just from my artist friend’s imagination. Well that and half of a self portrait.”
“I’m guessing the human half,” Harry asked with amusement, glaring around at the various spell books that lined the shelf. “You’re quite the scholar aren’t you?”
“I certainly try,” Rose said as she patted the chair next to her. “With our life spans there really isn’t a rush to learn everything, but I enjoy it.”
“Sounds peaceful,” Harry agreed as he sat down next to her.
“Very,” she said as she leaned over and kissed him. “You have no idea how many times I have laid here and thought of you…”
“Really?” he asked pulling her on top of him. “And what was I doing in those thoughts?”
“Let me show you,” she said slipping her sundress off with a flip of her fingers.
0o0o0
Sirius frowned slightly as a letter dropped in his lap then Fawkes flew over to the window sill. “Oops, busted.” He grabbed his wand and cast a couple detection spells on the letter then dispelled the tracking charm. “Sorry, it’s not going to be that easy...” he trailed off as Fawkes vanished in a burst of fire. “That can’t be good.”
“Probably not,” James grabbed his wand from behind his ear and hit himself with a spell to change his eye color and another one to nudge his appearance closer to Harry’s fifteen rather than his early twenties. “Just go with it.” He put his wand back behind his ear and smiled as Albus appeared in a burst of flames with Fawkes.
Sirius snorted as Fawkes flew over to the window sill. “It’s traditional to wait for a response before showing up, what can I help you with?”
Albus glanced around the room then focused on ‘Harry’. “You should be in the castle.”
“I had things to discuss with Sirius,” James said in a slightly raspy voice, figuring he’d give him a reason for the voices not matching.
“What did you want Albus?” Sirius asked, curious how long it would take Albus to realize that James wasn’t Harry.
“Severus found Peter Pettigrew,” Albus said, bracing himself for his reaction.
“Did they kill each other?” Sirius asked hopefully, knowing that Albus would expect him to be a little childish about Peter and Snape both.
Albus sighed. “No and apparently Peter wasn’t a traitor after all.”
“What makes you say that? Snape’s word?” Sirius asked dubiously. “Did you use veritaserum?”
James snorted, knowing that saying nothing would be more suspicious but not wanting to talk more than he had to.
“He had his memories altered so that he could become a spy. There were passwords that allowed him to act normally and one to remove the blocks in his memories.”
“Or Snape is pulling something,” Sirius complained.
“I trust him,” Albus assured Sirius.
“I don’t,” Sirius replied not sure if he was lying or not. The picture James and Lily painted didn’t match the image he’d built up in his head but he was still an ass even if he was a bit of a hero for saving everyone he’d saved. “Either way, what does it have to do with me?”
“He’d like to see you, make amends as much as he can, he wasn’t in his right mind,” Albus explained, half expecting Sirius to explode.
“In that case, I suggest you pick up a decent bottle of firewhiskey, I can’t be seen in the wizarding world and you don’t want me having that conversation sober. Either way, I have some things to discuss with Harry before I head back, you’re welcome to see yourself out,” Sirius said, wanting Albus gone before he figured things out, not that it didn’t take some mental gymnastics to get from seeing someone that looked like Harry to James is alive. Of course if anyone was going to make the leap it would be Albus.
“I take it this is one of Harry’s properties?” Albus asked with a touch of reproach.
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t owned by a Potter. I’m certainly not going to chance using any of the Black Family properties until I can clear my name and change the wards. I’d rather not have Bellatrix showing up or Lucius Malfoy.”
“She’s dead.”
Sirius blinked in surprise. “What? How?”
“Peter killed her saving Severus’ life.”
“He always was a sneaky rat,” Sirius said, a hint of pride creeping into his voice despite his best efforts. “Yeah, I’m going to need that fire whiskey.”
Albus nodded then turned to look at ‘Harry’. “There is a curfew for a reason.”
“I’m quite sure that if you went back to the castle, you’d find Harry Potter laughing with his friends or fast asleep, dead to the world in dreamland.”
“Try not to be late for classes.” Albus turned to look at Sirius. “I’ll leave the fire whiskey in the kitchen, do try not to kill Peter or Severus.”
“No promises but I’ll listen,” Sirius replied grudgingly.
“That’s all I can ask,” Albus replied as he put his arm out. He smiled as Fawkes flew back over. “Thank you.”
James started laughing once Albus and Fawkes were completely gone. “That was more fun than it should have been.”
“We should probably tell Harry that he needs to get back to the castle before Albus sends Minerva to check on him.”
“Probably a good idea. What are you going to tell Peter?” James asked.
“Nothing, he’d been living as a rat for years, he’s obviously unhinged.”
James sighed. “He’s been through hell, cut him a little slack.”
“Fine, I’ll only torture him a little bit,” Sirius agreed.
“Who are you torturing?” Lily asked as she walked into the living room carrying a couple bags of clothes with Hermione and Lily following behind.
“Peter, apparently Snape used the code phrase and he’s back to his normal self, more or less at least.”
“It’s worth checking,” Lily agreed. “We were never quite sure if the memory tweaks were going to have long term side effects.”
“Great, so he might actually be crazy?” Sirius asked warily.
“He’s a marauder, his sanity was never in doubt,” James said proudly.
“I think you mean lack of sanity, dear,” Lily said helpfully as she set the bags down by the table.
“What did you think I meant?” he asked with a grin.
0o0o0
