I woke up with the sun already streaming through the window. I blinked and then rolled over to glance around the room. Everyone else was gone, which made sense. It was a Saturday and everyone would have headed down to the great hall for breakfast, cryptic message on the bathroom wall or not.
Rolling to lay on my back, I once again started to lose myself in a spiral of thoughts. What was I even trying to do anymore?
It was at that moment that the door to my dorm room literally slammed open and I blinked as I sat up and looked at all of my girls filing through the door, Taylor and Luna at the head.
Before I could question what was going on, I was knocked back onto my back by a leaping Ahri in her cat form.
It was Luna who then broke the silence. “Here you are, my friends. However, scaring away the Nargles is still up to you all… for now.” With that she walked out of the room, and knowing her, was probably now headed out to find some magical creature to pet or something.
Once again feeling my chest ache looking at Taylor I started by saying. “Girls, I am so sorry I…”
I was once again interrupted, this time by Taylor pushing me down with a small peck to my lips to shut me up.
After a moment to consider, I put my arms around Taylor and let out a shuddering breath, which I felt her return.
The moment of silence was broken when Amy sighed. “If you are going to spend the afternoon cuddling, you might as well do it in your mature body so we can all enjoy it.”
Amy’s usual crass humor was enough to break the mood and I slowly and softly chuckled before I looked at her and the bags under her eyes and internally winced. It was clear she wasn’t as unaffected as she wanted us to believe. If she hadn’t been distracted, there was no way she would have forgotten to heal any effects like that away.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded before slowly opening a portal into our pocket home. After stepping to the side, I waited as my girls all walked through before I closed the portal.
Now feeling distinctly out of place, I spent about two minutes putting Ahri back in her nine tails body while Amy and Sabah made us some late breakfast, the rest of us all sat down.
No one said anything, but I noticed that everyone once again touched Taylor’s shoulder or arm as they passed as we waited for breakfast. Probably to reassure themselves that she was once again fine.
What I didn’t expect was the girls doing the same to me. In fact, it wasn’t until Sabah ran her hand down my arm as she brought me my breakfast burrito, that I realized something was going on since she was not normally one for physical contact outside of Amy.
Smiling up at Sabah I reached up and patted her hand which actually made her give me a small smile. Then she turned and sat herself down next to Amy.
However, seeing the two of them so close, I once again felt my heart seize up. Was I forcing Sabah to be with me and the rest of us when all she really wanted was Amy?
Opening my mouth, I was about to ask… something. But I closed it before I could actually figure out how to ask.
Internally, I tried to shake these thoughts away, I needed to focus. Taking a deep, shaky breath I started my apology. “I am sorry. I was a moron and nearly got us all killed. Especially when there were so many other, better ways of going about this.”
There were some uncomfortable looks before Taylor spoke up. “Look, Max, Luna told us that you were beating yourself up about this… and about some other things, but none of us stopped you because it did seem like a reasonable plan at the time.”
I blinked, disbelieving, and shook my head. Taylor rolled her eyes. “Ok, so obviously it could have gone much, much better, but it also could have gone much, much worse. Especially with our trump weapons out of commission.”
I must have looked confused, so she sighed and elaborated. “Amy and I had already decided that using our normal bugs or Amy’s biokinesis pokes weren’t really an option right now.” Waving her hand for emphasis, she continued. “Did you know there are like 14 different spells I could find that would kill all the bugs in a sphere around a wizard. Plus, Hogwarts seems to be periodically killing my bugs so it is hard to build up any kind of swarm. And even if that wasn’t the case, Amy and I still have no idea how much venom is necessary or safe for wizards, since we don’t want to practice on the other students.”
Then Taylor gestured toward Amy who cleared her throat before continuing. “Meanwhile, I have never tried to take down anyone other than a squib and an untrained 14-year-old witch. It might have worked, or it might have turned into a protracted battle while I fought for control of his body. So yeah, our trump cards really weren’t an option until we had more time to practice and prepare.”
I blinked as I thought about that and then nodded slowly. “Ok… yeah, I guess you do have a point there, but I really should have brought it up.” Taking a deep breath, I looked up at the ceiling and frowned. “And that is the problem. I still didn’t ask.” Running a hand through my hair, I sighed. “I guess I was just too caught up in the magic of magic, pun intended, and started thinking in terms of solving the problems here only using magic.” I paused then continued. “And I was doing that in Runterra as well. We had Irelia teach us a crash course in fighting with a blade, but I never encouraged you to fight with your abilities to combine the two.”
The girls looked at each other before they slowly murmured their agreement when Amy spoke up. “That is true, but once again, it isn’t your responsibility to solve all the problems yourself.” She smirked at me while patting Sabah’s leg, which made my heart tighten as a part of me considered the two of them leaving me. “You knew more about the worlds we were passing through than us until now, especially about what was happening on Earth Bet, but we know almost as much as you do here, especially with this world already being non-canon. So, No… You don’t need to come up with every plan and idea yourself, let us help.”
I slowly took a breath before letting it out just as slowly. “Ok, but that does bring up the elephant in the room.” I winced. “I don’t know what to do to fix this… the fact I kidnapped you all…”
That was as far as I got before Dinah came flying over the edge of the sofa to cling to me. “No!”
It was Taylor who followed up, nearly yelling, face panicked. “We ASKED you to bring us along…”
I cut her off as I responded. “Coercing you to come with me is still kidnapping.”
Sabah winced and then cleared her throat loudly to get everyone’s attention, “You might be right with an incredibly strict interpretation of the definition, but you need to think about this.”
Amy followed up, nodding, voice rising. “Warning us of danger, and offering an escape, is hardly kidnapping. Especially when, as I understand it, Dinah literally stopped you on the street and basically demanded you save her.”
Wincing, I slowly nodded, acknowledging the point, but Amy shook her head, narrowing her eyes. “No, I don’t think you understand yet. All of us are here because we want to be. We aren’t going anywhere.” Reaching forward, she put her hand on mine before frowning and sighing low and frustrated. “You don’t believe we would want to be with you…” taking a breath, she let it out slowly. “Well, we will just have to prove it” She got up to probably initiate something, but I held up my hand in a wait motion.
Sighing, obviously frustrated, she sat back down before I turned to Dinah. “Ok, even if I accept the others, you really can’t be expected to have understood the consequences of coming with me. Especially not the romantic consequences.”
Dinah puffed out her cheeks in a way I could tell was exaggerated. “I was nearly 12 at the time I joined you, and it has been nearly two years now. Do not call me a child.” Then her face dropped to a neutral one that was all the more jarring from it’s previously innocent facade. “And I was always mature with absentee parents.”
She took a shaky breath, eyes going glassy. “I triggered when I watched the news about the plane my parents were supposed to be on crash after a villain attack. After I woke up, I was able to find out they were completely ok, which was nice, but then I got to see the futures of everyone else.” She shuttered hard before she took a shaky breath. “I couldn’t really be a child again when I realized I could know the answers to questions like, is one of my classmates going to die this month and finding out it was nearly 100%. My second trigger was being unable to stop my best friend from being kidnapped, then killed.” Now shaking she bit her lip but continued. “Even after that, I realized I was going to be captured by Coil and kept as a slave in a basement. I… I…”
Looking at the obviously traumatized girl, I slowly got up and sat down next to her before pulling her across Ahri and my laps. As she laid down, I slowly ran my hand through her hair and patted her head while Ahri drowned her in her nine tales.
There was a moment of silence where we realized that Dinah might have been just as traumatized as the rest of the group which was saying something when put next to Taylor’s extreme bullying and Amy’s emotional ping ponging growing up.
It was Amy who finally broke the silence. “Ok, so we all agree that we are happier with Max than before, and we don’t want to leave even if we could.”
Dinah gave a little twitch and I blinked down at her, which made her sigh. “When I asked if you could figure out a way to let us leave, the answer was nearly 100%... eventually.”
Ignoring the angry sounds my other girls were making, I looked at our connection and got to thinking. I was wrapping around each of their souls, holding them in place, but also reinforcing them slightly.
There was a little bleed through where our very souls were mixing together ever so slightly, but I realized that with being able to see through my soul, I could see the edge where my girl's souls started. So yes, for lack of a better word, I could tear the girls out of my soul. I could even make sure the tear was on my half of the bleed through, so the girls wouldn’t lose anything and with my soul’s nature, it would probably heal eventually. It was probably something that only I could do since, as far as I could tell, only I would be able to see through my own soul.
I opened my eyes. When did I close them? And looked at Dinah cutting off the angry muttering in the room. “Yeah, I can free you all.”
Amy stood up, but it was Taylor that beat her to it, by leaning over and slapping me across the face.
It wasn’t excessively hard, but it took a moment to realize that while obviously furious, Taylor also had slight tears in her eyes. Looking into her eyes, I had a moment of clarity. She looked like she was about to run away, I caught her hand and after a momentary tug back and forth I pulled her down into the sofa next to me before she could run off.
Taking a deep breath, I tried to chuckle but it came out weakly, cheek still stinging. “I… I am sorry, everyone… I am sorry, Taylor, I understand that that might have come out especially wrong with your past.”
After a moment, Taylor nodded jerkily, and so I sighed. “I… I understand… I understand that I am not in the right headspace right now.” Swallowing, I tried to smile. “I will even believe that you want to stay… just… just promise me you will talk to me if you want to leave. I really do care about you all, and I want you to be happy.”
There were a chorus of nods, so I continued. “So, besides my… concerns… about your choices to come with me.” I gulped. “I also have been having some concerns about who I am and what exactly I am doing. I felt… something… break last night. It felt like what our textbooks describe as a magical compulsion… to collect women. That and to not think about my past or powers.”
Amy rubbed her forehead. “I was asked to examine a lot of case 53s. I don’t know if it is the same advice everywhere for those who can’t remember their pasts, but you need to stop worrying about it.” She sighed. “Focus less on who you were and instead focus more on who you want to be.”
Once again, swallowing, I nodded.
Surprisingly, it was Sabah who spoke up next. “Putting aside where a magical compulsion came from, for now, how do you feel now that it is gone?”
I sighed and rubbed my hand through my hair. “Well, to be honest, I still feel like trying to find, help, and maybe even… yes, seduce… some of my favorite women in fantasy. I mean, the very idea sounds incredible, but now it is less of an all encompassing desire and more of an unreachable dream.”
Sabah actually scoffed at that. “You have a literal vixen, a beautiful hero, and two bisexual women, all of which semi-regularly visit your bed… how are you not already living the dream?” She leaned forward and smiled. “Especially when all of us in the… family… are perfectly alright with you finding others to join as well.”
I blinked and then looked at my girls again. “What…”
Amy rolled her eyes across from me while patting Sabah’s knee. “None of us seem to have been under any compulsions, and we are all still completely fine with your goals.” She smirked and rolled her eyes. “As they say here in Britain… Max, what the Bloody Hell is wrong with you?” Amy smirk grew a little bigger, “Sabah and I are even hoping you find another girl soon who is interested in a little bit of,” her smirk turned mischievous, “girl fun on the side.”
Sabah blushed as Amy finished before Ahri actually spoke up. “We understand being worried about your past and what happened to you. You know I do especially… but we are going to be with you the entire time. For now, let's just focus on that. Plus, if a woman you like wants to join us of her own free will, understanding the binding and we all agree, why shouldn’t you let her join us?”
I slowly swallowed and sighed. “You.. you are right… it will be a Family choice, which does make me feel a little better.” I paused, a little more contemplative now. “However, part of me wonders if the compulsion is actually gone… and how a compulsion from a ROB would wear off. Plus, why would a compulsion from a ROB behave exactly like a compulsion using Harry Potter Magic?”
Shaking my head, I smiled a little. “However, if nothing else, the compulsion did push me to actually contact each of you. Without that push, I might have just attempted to leave Earth Bet by myself as soon as I could, without doing anything to help.” I frowned. “Well, either that or I would have tried to do something alone and gotten myself killed, since I was nearly powerless in direct combat at the time…”
There were a few scoffs that seemed to imply that I was still fairly powerless, but I took them in the good fun they were probably meant as.
I then continued. “But it also makes me wonder where exactly my powers came from. Now that I can sit and think about them, moving a shard super computer into a soul isn’t just dimension shifting. It is full-blown reality manipulation…” I frowned. “But If I can do that, why can’t I do anything else?” Everyone looked at each other, uncomfortable, but no one offered an answer.
After a moment of silence, I cleared my throat. “Ok, so… ignoring questions we have no way of knowing now, back to the question at hand since Amy is probably right. What should we do? What are our priorities.”
Taylor looked like she was going to speak up, but Amy beat her to it. “First priority is always the safety of the family.”
I blinked before I nodded. “You know, we never really figured out a name, but I like calling our group, The Family… capital letters and all.” Amy rolled her eyes but then nodded.
Taylor cleared her throat and then nodded back. “True, but I think that the next priority should be Minimizing suffering.”
It was Sabah who tilted her head and asked. “I agree we should minimize suffering, but why not saving innocents or something… I don’t know, heroic first? I mean, I was a Rogue on Earth Bet, so I didn’t exactly want to fight, but I thought you wanted to be a hero.”
Taylor sighed. “I know I was called the Queen of Escalation. I often did anything and everything in pursuit of my goals. Yes, I was trying to improve things, but I think I let the mission cloud my judgment sometimes.”
I blinked before I nodded slowly. “I guess I understand what you are saying.” I took a deep breath. “I think we need to get someone to watch us, maybe a few members of the Family to double-check our plans. They would be there to make sure we don’t fall down the ‘greater good’ paradigm.”
There were nods all around, even if some nods were thoughtful, others firm.
Dinah took a breath before speaking up. “After that we can go about saving, or avenging, the innocent, right?”
Amy nodded instantly. “We can’t always save the innocent, but we can try… and if we fail, we can sure as hell punish the ones that did it.”
Ahri was the final one to speak up next, which surprised me as she was often alright just to follow along with the group’s decisions. “If none of that is required, then we should just try to improve people’s lives.”
Smiling, I reached over and ran my hand through the fox girl’s hair. She was shorter than me even in this 15-year-old body, so the action wasn’t too awkward.
Amy tapped her chin pulling my attention back to the group. “Ok, we actually have a name and goals to work for. Plus, from now on, we will speak up if we find any faults in Max’s plans.”
Cutting her off, I shook my head. “Or even if you have another idea on how to do the exact same thing. We should always look for options.”
Nodding her head, Amy continued where she left off. “Yes, we will brainstorm together. However, with our first rule being to protect the family, we are probably going to end up doing more covert work than going up and punching a villain in the face.”
I nodded before I tilted my head. “Plus, I will probably be moving leadership of any conflict to Taylor soon.” Turning towards her on my other side I smiled. “I know you haven’t had the experience of your counterpart, but your multitasking abilities should help us organize and execute our plans, significantly.”
At the confirmation from everyone, we ended up in a snuggle pile. It was then that Taylor spoke up once more with a small smirk. “As someone who was only ‘mostly dead’ yesterday I demand we watch the Princess Bride.” Smiling, we all agreed.
By the end of the first half hour, I had to admit that even my insecurities couldn’t escape that movie completely intact.
The following weeks were a little strange in that every time I started to get lost in my thoughts, Dinah, Luna, or one of the other girls, probably sent by Luna or Dinah, would show up to pull me out of my worries.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I also realized we probably looked kinda strange to the rest of the student body. I just didn’t know what to do about it, as we couldn’t exactly fake the fear everyone else had about the chamber of secrets now that we knew it had been taken care of. We also couldn’t exactly explain any of this either, so we just came across as oblivious.
There was a major difference from cannon, however, as I overheard two third years speculating that Draco was the heir of Slytherin. I wasn’t sure how that had happened, but I suspected that one of my girls had been pushing the rumor.
It didn’t hurt that it seemed reasonable after all. He was probably the one student who was the most openly dismissive of Muggle-borns and frequently questioned their attendance at Hogwarts. Honestly, it was amusing to see the boy attempt to defend the Heir of Slytherin’s actions while also denying he was said heir. If nothing else, it really did show how the boy wasn’t much of a Slytherin at this point in the story. Almost no cunning or guile, just like in the books. It was arguably only the sixth year that saw him showing planning and subterfuge, as simplistic as his attacks on Dumbledore were.
Shaking my head, I walked after the rest of the Gryffindors who were all heading towards the Quidditch field.
It was time for the infamous rogue bludger attack. The Quidditch match that had ended with Harry being hit and breaking is arm as he caught the snitch to end the match. Then was accosted by Lockhart who vanished his arm bones and was forced to regrow them all.
To prepare for the match the girls and I had been practicing our levitation spells, momentum canceling spells, and cushioning spells. However, most of our effort had been in starting to learn the banishing spell to push the bludgers away or the explosion hex, bombarda, to blast the bludger out of the sky if needed.
The problem was, we quickly found out why they were considered second and third year spells, respectively. They were significantly more difficult, but our practice did eventually pay off.
The practice once again made me wonder if we were doing something wrong, as our spells weren’t particularly powerful.
Still, we watched our first Quidditch match and I had to admit two things. One was that Holly was an incredible flyer. The second was the entire sport was incredible to watch. Even with the slight drizzle, it was completely worth the discomfort from being wet and a long hike to the field in the rain. In fact, I would probably be out here for all of the matches.
The only negative was watching the chasers flying around, I had wished this universe was one where the seeker wasn’t the only position that really mattered. From what I could understand, it was rare for one team to be up more than 150 points, so the win almost always came down to the luck and skill of the seekers… which made quidditch, as beautiful as it was to watch, an incredibly stupid sport.
Maybe if we stayed long enough, we could convince the wizards to do something reasonable, like making the snitch 10% of the team's scored points. Or making the Snitch worth about 20 points, so it was just how to end the game when your team was ahead. Basically anything to make the chasers and keeper positions actually relevant to the game.
Shaking my head, I focused my attention back on Holly and the bludgers. I didn’t know when they were supposed to start going crazy, but they seemed normal for now. While that was good, the wait was making me nervous as we were continuously on edge waiting for the attack.
Yet despite our vigilance, nothing happened. In fact, the game only lasted another ten minutes before Holly caught the snitch, completely out flying Draco. I watched bemused, only vaguely remembering to cheer before looking around in confusion as she took a lap around the pitch in celebration. As I turned away from the sight, I looked at my girls who looked back at me in mirrored confusion, even Luna and Dinah.
Taking a deep breath, I was about to ask Dinah, who had predicted an attack, a question about what had happened when everything changed.
Holly, who was flying above us, suddenly jerked to the side. Then before anyone could say anything, we were all hit by a sudden gust of wind and rain. Yet out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Holly being yanked from her broom backward while still over 20 feet in the air. Watching her fall Amy and I managed to get off a levitation spell and a cushioning spell, but to our surprise neither one seemed to work. The two spells just seemed to fizzle when they made contact with the quidditch pitch. Did the pitch have some sort of enchantment on it to prevent spell fire around it?
Chest tightening, I watched as Holly twisted around as she fell before landing badly and letting out a small cry of pain. When she rolled to her side, it was obvious her wrist was broken, as it was snapped backwards at a nauseating angle.
My girls and I tried to push forward to the pitch to help, but we found ourselves unable to get down the stairs until we pushed a few upper years out of our way.
When we finally made it to the pitch, despite it only taking less than a minute to do so, we slumped in defeat when we heard that idiot, Lockhart, proclaiming. “Don’t worry, My Girl, I will have you right as rain in just a second. Brackium Emendo!”
I turned away after I watched the bones in Holly’s arm simply disappear, leaving a nauseating tube of flesh behind instead of an arm. Except, now said arm analogue was bleeding even harder from a hole. A hole that had previously been filled with the now vanished bone. It wasn’t enough to make me or my girls vomit, but someone behind us wasn’t so lucky.
Really, as I watched Madam Pomfrey who was running forward and now appeared ready to murder the idiot, I winced and motioned to my girls to stop and head back to the castle. We had somehow lost our chance to help and would just be in the way for now.
In the end, despite basically waiting for it, we had somehow been caught unaware.
The question was what happened. Is this how it was supposed to play out in this universe? Did someone warn Dobby? Did Dobby realize that we were watching for the bludgers? Or did something else we did butterfly Dobby’s method down the line?
Shaking my head, I headed back to the common room. Hopefully we would be able to visit Holly tomorrow.
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, an entire week passed where we were unable to catch the golden trio alone. Apparently I had underestimated how much attention Holly would get after quidditch games.
The problem was the next event was coming up, and I didn’t know how to organically bring up Parseltongue and how it was viewed in this country.
We even considered letting it play out without interference. However, pushing to become closer to Holly while she was being ostracized by the rest of the school felt too much like some sort of manipulation to join us for me.
Taylor was just as adamant to stop it. The possible bullying was probably too close to home for her.
In the end, we showed up in front of the dueling club before Holly could arrive. We then waited for Holly to get into hearing range, before I started talking about what I ‘learned’ about Salazar Slytherin’s ability to speak to snakes.
“Yeah, the ability to talk to snakes was one of Slytherin’s most famous skills. It is called Parseltongue. Apparently this country’s last dark lord was able to do it as well, which has made people in this country think it is a sign of an evil wizard or witch.” Seeing Holly freeze for a second as she obviously heard us, I continued. “Which is of course strange since those Native American tribes have quite a few who could speak Parseltongue, and they didn’t think anything bad about the skill at all.”
I wasn’t particularly proud of how blunt I was being, but I kinda doubted these school kids would be able to realize how ham fisted I was acting. Plus, it wasn’t like I really cared about what they thought. I was just trying to warn Holly about displaying her skill in public, while explaining we didn’t think she was evil.
After a few moments I turned to Taylor who cut off the fake conversation with a quick, “Let's get going, we don’t want to miss out,” then leading the two of us into the expanded dueling club practice
The sad thing was I was actually kind of happy to see Holly, Hermione and Ginny after so long. Which was a shame because this was possibly going to be even more of a disaster than in canon. This Hogwarts school already had a dueling club after all, but Lockhart had somehow managed to either bribe, blackmail, or sweet talk his way into making a special session for ‘a demonstration on how to protect one's self from the terrible and horrible threats around us.’
The seven of us watched in fascination as the man managed to somehow bluster his way through the formalities and demonstrations. By the end, I was actually looking forward to seeing Snape knocking the idiot on his ass, but the iconic duel between the two professors didn’t happen.
I glanced at my girls, wondering why that particular point from canon had been skipped. However, before we could question it further, Holly and Draco were dragged up on stage for a demonstration. Again, why they decided to have the second years demonstrating when there were literally seventh years, who actually knew what they were doing, was beyond me. Yet, the practice duel continued.
I was a little surprised when both students actually managed a few stunners, disarming spells, and shields even if they were obviously amateurish compared to when Professor Snape demonstrated them. Yet Holly in particular was just plain better as she cast then ducked and shielded the return fire with relative ease. Holly managed to actually disarm Draco two times before they lined up for a final duel.
We all waited for the finale with the expected summoned snake, but this time when Draco summoned the cobra, Holly simply took a step back and Snape nearly instantly vanished the snake back into nothingness.
I blinked and looked towards my girls. I would have thought he would leave it there to taunt Holly longer. Snape even called Holly the victor and dismissed the two. However, my girls didn’t seem to have any ideas as Amy just shrugged, while Sabah looked thoughtful, and Dinah bit her lip.
After practicing a few spells with the rest of the students attending the demo we walked up to our dorms while my mind whirled. We were changing things. Heck, we were changing things just by existing. We also had no desire to see the canon ending with so many students dead or mauled.
The problem was what happened if the changes made things worse and we weren’t able to fix them.
Yeah, it was kind of late to be worrying about that now, but this was the longest we had ever stayed in a world and I had to admit that the butterflies were only going to be getting worse.
We would probably need to abandon any canon knowledge sooner rather than later.
I wasn’t overly surprised that the final month of school saw Holly avoiding us. I had suspected that Holly wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about her ability to speak with snakes after overhearing what it meant, but I was still a little disappointed. We had given her one of our secrets, so I had been hoping she would return with one of hers as well and we could become closer.
Then again, the ability to tell if someone is lying might not seem as big of a deal as the supposedly evil ability of Slytherin to speak to snakes. Especially with the attack over Halloween by the supposed heir of Slytherin who was theoretically still running around.
It was only when we passed the second floor bathroom and smelled a potion brewing that I realized that the trio were probably brewing Polyjuice potion to try to find out who the heir was from Draco.
Part of me was once again a little disappointed they didn’t want to involve us, but I reminded myself they probably assumed we couldn’t do anything to help as only first years.
Pulling the Family into a group discussion, I sighed. “We have been getting ahead in classes, but I think it is about time that we really start pushing ourselves. I am thinking we should try to join the dueling club. Then we do our own practice with our full abilities when we are by ourselves.”
It was Luna, who walked around the corner just in time to hear my entire plan, who spoke up excitedly. “Oh, goody” Then something changed with her voice and I felt a shiver run down my back. “I am looking forward to our practice.”
Turning towards Luna, Sabah seemed to get the same feeling as she eyed the little blond warily. “Do you know how to duel, Luna?”
Luna’s smile just grew. “The Humdingers will teach me.”
The following month showed us that something in Luna had definitely changed since our fight with the possessed Ron and the girl was downright scary in the ring.
However, surprisingly, it was Sabah that quickly proved to be the best duelist at the basic spell slinging level. Being able to levitate small stones in the way of the spells allowed her to devote herself to almost pure offense. I suspected that might change at a higher level where she would have to deal with things like the ground being turned into a swamp. Or a stone pillar being turned into a snake… or really anything else that wasn’t direct spell fire.
Luna, in contrast, was by far the most unpredictable and versatile of the duelists. Her spells always had a strange twist and often were both silent and with non-standard wand movements, keeping us on our toes any time we practiced with her.
However, in the end, it was Ahri who was just straight up unbeatable if she wanted to be. None of us could pierce her illusions, nor did we have any area of effect spells that could hit her regardless of where exactly she was. Even Luna struggled, despite pulling out some truly strange spells like the one that turned dust motes into a swarm of attacking butterflies. She also seemed to be trying to somehow see Ahri through the illusions, but hadn’t had any success in doing so just yet.
Taylor had the opposite problem, namely being able to spot Ahri by landing a bug on her, but being unable to dodge or shield spells she couldn’t see coming because Ahri was careful enough not to let a bug land on her wand. I suspected she would be able to block spells via bugs just like Sabah, but generally avoided doing so with the limited number of bugs in the Castle.
Dinah and I simply did the best we could. Sad as it was to be left in the dust, it was nice to have each other, as we simply couldn’t fight at the same level as the others when they brought out their abilities.
At least this time, we wouldn’t be blindsighted as badly if we needed to fight.
We all obviously stayed in the Castle over the holiday break. It wasn’t like we had any family outside the castle to visit. Even Ahri, who had continued a weekly schedule of studying through the week and then traveling to Gringotts on the weekends. Her strategy was just selling jewelry she found on beaches, along with anything that looked valuable in the room of requirement, but it seemed to be paying off.
With that, I found myself being woken up Christmas morning with a bang and a yelled, “Good morning! Happy Christmas!” Looking over, I saw Luna walking towards me with a comically large bow on her head. “Max, you were taking too long to wake up, so I decided to come find you. I am here as your next present.”
I blinked, then blinked again before I paused and I facepalmed. “Luna, I am glad you are eager to join our family, honestly I am, but you don’t even know what joining us means. Plus, you are not even 15 yet and I am pretty sure your father should be involved in this sort of decision.” Patting her head now that she was sitting next to me I continued. “We can revisit this again when we are all 18.” I paused and scrunched my brow. “Plus, how do you keep getting in here? This is the Gryffindor boy’s dormitory, and you are both a Ravenclaw and a girl.”
Luna pouted. “Oh, Poo.” before smiling again, “And whatever do you mean?”
Shaking my head, I had to remind myself that Luna was just being Luna, so I simply sighed and said. “Fine, it is about time that we explain everything anyway.”
Luna’s smile dropped a little and I blinked as she focused completely on me. “Please tell me, everything.” Her face remained serious as she continued. “I have seen a lot of things with you, but it hasn’t given the full picture.”
Sighing, I reached around to adjust the pillow behind me, so I could sit with my back against the headboard for the conversation. Looking around, I realized that I hadn’t confirmed that Ron was actually gone. But, much to my relief, there wasn’t anyone in the room, as Ron had almost certainly gone down to spend time with his family. That was good, as I really didn’t want to explain why Luna was visiting me in my dorm room.
In fact, that was yet another reminder as to why we needed to learn memory spells. Shaking my head, I tried to get myself back on track.
Casting what basic anti-ease dropping spells I could, I then turned back to Luna, and asked, “What do you know about the multiverse?”
The conversation took quite a bit longer, as Luna wanted to know exactly what would have happened in this alternate world we had seen, along with what had happened to the other students around her. When I finally finished explaining, she sighed. “I see… Yes, I am sure now. I don’t want anything to do with that future, besides the friends part of your family has been very nice. Really, Dinah and Sabah already have been taking wonderful care of me. The other girls in Ravenclaw haven’t been bothering me at all.”
I smiled before I patted her head. “Yeah. My girls are good girls, aren’t they?.”
Luna finally tipped her head back and looked at me, smiling. “So who else are you going to bind to you here?”
I sighed, trying not to let my discomfort show. “You are going to be another Amy, aren’t you?”
Luna simply tilted her head in obvious thought before what I said seemed to click. Looking back at me, she blinked in surprise before smirking. “That is funny. Amy is more interested in growing your harem than you are.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes, but before I could say anything else, I heard a voice from the door. “Maybe a little bit.”
Looking up, I noticed Amy and Taylor walking through the door with smirks on their faces, with Sabah and Dinah right behind them. Then the four paused before Ahri bounded into the room and the door was shut.
I sighed and motioned for them to wait. Standing up myself, I opened the portal and the seven of us filed into our pocket living room. Once we had all sat down, I smiled tiredly at Luna. “First things first. I will explain what joining us means so you can think about the choice.” She nodded, so I wrapped an arm around Taylor, who was sitting next to me and continued.
“So the women I am looking for are those who are powerful, smart, and kind. We also want people who want to join us willingly. I am trying really hard to build a family here. In fact we call our group The Family. So we are exceptionally blunt with our recruitment.”
Swallowing any worries I still had about my girl’s desire to be with me, I smiled. “Between Amy and me, we can make ourselves more or less immortal by maintaining the body and soul, respectively. With the two of us, we can make you a new body and return your soul to the new body if you are ever killed.” I took a deep breath, “As for what we are going to do. I can also jump between worlds, and we have every intention of seeing as many as we can, eventually.”
I then looked Luna directly in the eye. “The thing is, I am still a male and if I am going to keep a woman with me forever, I want her to be my wife. That isn’t to say that intimacy needs to happen, as at this point I am already fairly well taken care of on that front, but I do want that commitment to stay and be only with the Family.” Swallowing, I continued, “That said, even if you were to join today, I am not touching Dinah or you until you are older.”
Then, wincing, I sighed. “The only exceptions to the willing requirement is if they need to be removed from the world in question, but we don’t want to kill them or feel we still could make use of them.” Luna frowned for a moment but then nodded firmly, so I finished after a little nudge from Taylor. “In the past, we have also considered forcing women to come with us if it was for their own good or if our family desperately needed their skills. We just haven’t run into that situation yet.”
Luna frowned harder before nodding slowly again. “Are you talking about forcing people like Bellatrix LeStrange then.”
I raised my eyebrow, but then shrugged and nodded, “If we can stop her from being evil she would be an extremely powerful witch to have on our side,”
Luna bit her lip before she sighed. “She is my second cousin once removed… since my mother was once a LeStrange.” There was a moment where Luna paused and then bit her lip again before nodding. “Yes, better your sex slave than letting her rot in Azkaban, having her soul slowly sucked out by dementors or dying after breaking out.”
I hummed but shook my head. “Again, I admit that I won’t abstain from sleeping with any of my girls once they are old enough and they desire it, but I have enough wives that I am not really interested in forcing anyone into anything. Well… not unless one of my wives is into that kind of role play, I guess.” Despite my discomfort in the discussion, I was still amused at the blushes I saw on my girls.
Luna actually smiled at that. “I will be happy to join your family as well then.”
I chuckled to myself but shook my head. “I think you should wait. You can think about it and we can make a decision in a year or two.”
Luna smirked then held up a note. “Don’t worry, I brought a note from Papa.”
As I read it, the blood drained from my face. Around me, my girls noticed something was up and circled around to read it over my shoulder.
Hello Mr Max Alcott, formerly Max Noname
I formally give you permission to bring my daughter Luna Lovegood into your coven, harem, or family unit, as she has been quite certain that she will be happier there than anywhere else.
In return, I hereby formally request that you take care of her and make her happy in any way you are able. I also hereby request that her children continue the Lovegood name as I have no other children by which to do so.
While this notice may serve as permission to wed my daughter, I still wish to have a formal wedding when you have both graduated along with your other wives.
Happily your father-in-law,
Xeno Lovegood
It was dated September 11th, the second week of the semester, well before we told her anything about any of us. Heck, I had probably only said a few hundred words to her total at that point, and I doubted my girls would have said much more about our secrets.
Looking up, I just stared for a while at Luna. That was kind of scary. How did she manage to not only organize this all, find us, befriend my girls, and convince her father via owl mail that this is what she wanted. All without letting any of us know what she was up to.
Shaking my head again, I paused and considered a little longer. Luna would be a great friend for Dinah since they were almost the same age. I wouldn’t be touching either one until they were about 18, and so it would give them the chance to change their mind, wherein they could leave.
Turning to Luna I sighed, “Last chance to back out.”
With a shake of her head, Luna simply said. “Nope”.
Smiling ruefully, I shook my head back. After placing my hand on her stomach, I smirked and motioned to my girls to grab Luna’s arms and legs. The six of us enjoyed tickling our little troublemaker until she called ‘Pixies’. That was a little different from calling ‘uncle’ but still funny.
However, soon enough, I got back to work. Putting my hand on her stomach, I started the binding process. The entire time I bound Luna, I stared into her silvery eyes. She had a little button nose and silvery blond hair, but she was a little, petite thing that reminded me of the stories of the fae.
It seemed like only a minute or two, but must have been over twenty when I felt the snap of her soul being bound to mine. Once again, something felt right about the process. Like I was somehow more whole, but the feeling was gone before I could really examen it further. Yet despite how strange it was, I couldn’t help but smile at our little Luna, who was smiling back just as brightly.
Sitting her up slowly, I then extracted and bound her soul into a gem in our necklace before sitting her up on my lap.
“Well, I am glad you have found your sisters friendly because we will be with you forever. So welcome to the family.” Smirking again, I rolled her over and gave her a little smack across her bum. “Now stop being such a little troublemaker.”
To my surprise, the little minx just giggled. Rolling my eyes, I watched amused as she just rolled her eyes back. Giving up, I sighed. “As I was saying, you will be with us forever now. You will have us as friends, family, and in a few years, lovers, if you want us to be.”
I tried to be a tad bit teasing at that, but Luna actually teared up a little before hugging me tight. After a moment, I spoke again, trying to lighten the mood. “To answer your earlier question. If we get lucky, I am hoping to bind Hermione, Holly, and possibly Ginny. Fourth year I am also hoping to get Fleur and maybe Tonks to join us as well, but they might be hard as we won’t have nearly as much time together to convince them. Anyone else is just a bonus.”
I winked at her. “So, anyone you have your eye on, Luna?”
Tapping her chin, Luna seemed to consider it for a moment longer before nodding. “Those are good girls. Sabah and Dinah told me about the girls normally found in this world.” She smiled, but I noticed a little bit of a teasing lint to her eye. “It is too bad that the Padil twins are boys in this world. Twins could have been nice. So maybe we could get the Carrow Twins to join us.”
I blinked and then gave a fake sigh. “Yep, you are absolutely going to be another Amy, aren’t you.” Luna simply stuck her tongue out at me so I caught it in my fingers for a few seconds until she tried to nip at my hand.
As we sat up, Luna spoke up again and I froze as I heard her words. “Dinah said something about getting me a Pokémon. When can we do that?”
I slumped. “I don’t know why, but somehow, I should have known you would ask for that.”
After another quick breakfast, I set up several Christmas movies to play for Luna and Dinah before the rest of us went down to swap back to our original bodies.
As I finished the setup, I felt Amy stroke my arm as she walked towards the stairs and the bedrooms. With school, it was hard to get some time to ourselves, but it was about time we gave each other our Christmas gifts, very vigorously.
By the afternoon when we came back down from the bedroom, my girls and I were walking a little stiffly, so it was probably a good thing we were swapping back into our younger bodies for the Christmas feast with the rest of Hogwarts that evening.
Still, as we sat down in the Great Hall for the feast and I looked across the table in Hogwarts at my girls I just smiled, life was still good.
Interlude Luna:
(Yes, this Luna isn’t nearly as quirky as I would like, but I tried and will keep trying. I love good portrayals of her as excessively quirky, someone who cares for friends while being terrifying to enemies, a conspiracy theorist, and someone who just knows things she shouldn’t.)
Luna hugged Dinah as the two of them watched another one of what Dinah called an animated movie about a red-nosed reindeer saving Christmas.
Still, she wasn’t actually paying much attention. She was much more curious about the world the characters were in. Luna remembered when her father had taken the two of them to the actual North Pole to look for Heliopaths. It made sense that creatures of sun might migrate up there in the summer months when the sun never set.
Additionally, everyone knew that Santa was actually Lord Klaus, a Wizard in the 1200s, that went around with his elves giving presents to all the boys and girls in Denmark that helped out their parents. The stories even remember his army of house elves that helped him. That practice spread to the other communities until there was a Santa position for each country. The position even temporarily continued after the statue of secrecy, even if it died off soon after that when the Goblin and Centaur Alliance made the Ministry crack down on gift giving.
Sighing, she looked up at the ceiling and wondered where Max would take them first. Maybe she really should push for Pokemon.
Still, it was nice to have a friend. She had been so lonely after her mother had died and Daddy had retreated into his newspaper, as much as she understood how important it was to get everyone the truth in the Quibbler, she still got lonely at times. Especially last year when Ginny left for school.
She knew she was a little different, but she had to admit that she actually enjoyed messing with people. Especially since she now had a family to back her up and support her.
Leaning even more against Dinah she smiled. Things certainly could be worse. Heck, who knew what sorts of creatures she would find in other dimensions. Maybe the Wansportals would be in the next world they visited.
Wouldn’t Daddy’s critics be all sorts of embarrassed if she brought one back home with her?
Interlude Hermione:
Hermione huffed as she once again checked to ensure Millicent Bulstrode's hair was actually human. She wasn’t sure why that strange blond haired girl had walked by while reading about what would happen if you put an animal’s hair in Polyjuice potion, but it had scared her.
Really, what was with that entire group of first years. They were insane half the time and brilliant the other.
The Alcotts seemed normal the majority of the time, even if Max and Amy seemed a little overly focused on Holly, Ginny and her. Then they would do something completely out of left field. The Heberts seemed equally strange with Taylor’s occasional staring into space and Sabah acting way more mature than any 15-year-old should be.
Even their cat which always seemed to be on Max’s shoulders seemed extremely intelligent.
It was maddening because as much as she wanted to get to the bottom of it, they had bigger fish to fry. Like finding the damn Heir of Slytherin before they started attacking the students.
And in that it was obvious the Alcotts and Heberts were not said Heir. They weren’t even from Britain, nor did they seem to care about the Hogwarts houses at all, so their secrets would have to wait.
Turning back to her potion, she pulled up the vials she would use to transform Holly, Ginny, and her into Gregory, Vincent, and Millicent. Personally, she was thrilled she didn’t have to transform into a boy, but it was still going to be weird being Millicent.
Taking a deep breath, she put a cork in each of the vials and sat back and waited for Holly and Ginny to arrive.
Really, they needed to find the culprit before anything bad happened. Especially since a few people seemed to think that Holly did it, as someone seemed to have overheard when Holly told Ginny and her that she could talk to snakes.
Tonight they would find answers while everyone was relaxing after the Christmas feast. Really, it wasn’t like anyone else was going to do anything to help.