Golden Opportunities 5

Back with Triss…
November 1st, 2001
Hogwarts

It was Thursday, I hated them! They were between Wednesday and Friday… And I wanted this week to be done with already! I wanted to do some lazing around in my bed. I was completely knackered from over channeling magic last night. The Festivities yesterday had gained in intensity in Folkvangr, the Greengrass had brought musicians with them! Or at least some of the squibs were a family of musicians; they did folk songs, and modern songs such as the Beatles and Evanescence and other less known rock bands.

This had been the best Samhain ever; and I hoped that the next Sabbat would be as good to celebrate. Though, it had been strange to see the villagers who saw my blessing from Freya act so deferential with me in the end. It seemed that Merigold priests enjoyed a special status on the island.

We were back to school at 5:30 AM. Daphne didn't come back with us as the effects of the ritual had more of a profound effect on her as it boosted their magic and changed their body, so their physiology had to adapt to the overflow of mana; she was in a magic induced coma. She would wake up in a day or so, I know how having too much magic can actually be detrimental to your body.

It was time for the sports club to gather like they always have since its creation. All the girls and boys from years 1 to 6 who signed up to join and saw the value of having a healthy body gathered at 6:00 AM before breakfast and traveled on the enchanted paved road leading to the running track. We divided into year groups, not caring about school house; the club had promoted school unity over the petty differences that Dumbledore and Snape fostered.

Why? Pansy Parkinson had joined our group rather readily after showing her some exercises and a balanced diet plan which wouldn’t stunt her growth. We first started with stretching for ten minutes, next we started to go run in our designated lanes.

Harry was leading, he had come a long way from the emaciated little boy that I met in the train. He put on some meat on his frame and was developing a runner build; Healer Pomfrey had prescribed him nutrition potions to supplement his growth after we showed her what his relative did to him. We convinced her that Dumbledore was the problem and that steps were taken to take Harry’s magical guardianship from him.

Healer Pomfrey was encouraged by Daphne and Raven to go to Saint Mungo to check herself for mental manipulation and Potion that might have been given to her by the Headmaster. Since all the tests had come positive, Healer Pomfrey had accepted to be part of the Sorcerer’s Lodge and decided to help Harry get better. Having a master Healer in our organization was definitely a boon.

The sky was slowly lighting as sunrise approached , the moon disappeared in the horizon. The woods were dark and unwelcoming, I think the Forbidden Forest needed a culling soon. Letting all those acromantula roam free was stupid; Hagrid had goofed. It was with those thoughts that I continued to run in rhythm with my friends around me on the running track; professor Flitwick and McGonagall helped create the track, mimicking a municipal running track from Glasgow.

Pansy and Tracey were running at Harry’s side, it was funny to look at. Such complex relationships building amongst the students, Pansy didn't like Draco Malfoy one bit and Tracey didn't realize that she liked Harry as more than a friend. Teasing Harry and the two girls has become a good exercise as they didn’t know how to interpret their feelings; but somehow the rest retaliated when I did it, singing about Raven and Triss sitting in a tree… but I didn’t see Raven this way, she was my sister! My friends often looked at me in disbelief when I told them that.

It was 7:00 AM and we needed to all go back to have our showers, prepare for breakfast and catch up on our studies or homework. Hermione was the first to run from the running track to the castle mumbling about re-reading her charms essay.

Looking at Hermione run toward the school part of the castle was comical. Padma, who knew how our bushy haired friend could be, simply shook her head and followed after her as well as Su Li.

"That girl works too hard." Tracey commented.

Chuckling I said, "Do you think we should tell her to work on her mundane education as well?"

"Eventually." Tracey shrugged and took my hand, pulling me toward the castle.

After our shower, breakfast was a swift affair. Some waffles, bacon and eggs and I was good to go. Today in charms class we were learning the severing charm; a spell invented in the 15th century by a seamstress and witch called Delfina Crimp. Professor Flitwick regaled us of the tale about its invention, apparently Delfina made the spell because prior to her discovery, cutting spells were apt to burn or shred things.

This was why I loved this class, the short professor always gave us context and trivia with how spells were made. It was like studying why the spells from Dungeons and Dragons were made, the books about them didn't give any context at all; it gave me insight into how to combine the two magic systems as well.

Raven was at my side, taking notes when I continued to cut the bit of wooden stick the professor had provided us. "You know, this cutting spell isn't that bad, I can already see how I can add some light magic into it to make a conceptual evocation spell to cut away at dark creatures or mages."

I glanced at the two black boards flanking the professor’s table; there was the arithmancic formula, the wand movements and the spell's incantation 'Diffindo' written on them. In my head I could already have some vectors and elements such as range, power, angles that could be added on the fly as well as an elemental attunement.

“Diffindo” With a light green horizontal wave of magic, Raven cut only part of the white stick in her hand, she had almost perfect control of the charm. I guess she wanted to be able to slice it bit by bit to train herself.

My sister turned to me and said idli without leaving her eyes from her stick. "Don't you have something like that already, didn't you call it… what was it? Starlight Breaker ?"

A smug smile appeared on my face as I thought about the spell I ripped off from Nanoha, it was a strategic spell that I could barely power at my current level of magical control. The arithmantic formula was so complex that I needed five minutes to set it up; if I had a Casting Assistant Device (CAD) from Mahouka or an Intelligent Device from Nanoha that allows the processing of all the necessary components for magic spells in a single moment, I would be a truly terrifying mage. But all we got are wands right now, I guess Raven and I will have to develop them.

Shaking my head, I replied, "No, that's too powerful, that spell is a Eff You Beam to kill XXXXX magical creatures and raze part of a city; this cutting spell could be used as a base to take down the little minions."

Raven put down her stick on the table, held her wand over the piece of wood and decided to do away with the wand movements completely -Who needs them anyway?- and from her focus, multiple blades of light green mana began cutting the stick into little round slices.

Smiling in triumph, my sister simply shrugged. "Sure yeah Trissy. Just make your spell and we will test it, you know where."

The forbidden forest, full of dark beasties who need a culling. We were going to go there soon and start to kill an acromantula colony and harvest them for alchemical reagents. A pure evil smile appeared on my face, mirrored by Raven’s.

Padma, who was at my side today, looked at us with a worried glance. "You girls scare me sometimes."

Raven cutely cocked her head and asked her, "Just sometimes?"

Before Padma could even answer, Flitwick’s voice boomed before our table on the first row. "Miss Merigold and Roth come to assist the others if you have time to gossip."

Raven and I stood up in sync and replied at the same time. "Yes, professor!"

The tiny professor smiled at us and continued his round between the rows of desks to look at the Hufflepuff students’ attempt to master the spell. It was hard to teach the spell, my friends and the other kids didn’t know how to perfectly balance the mana needed to fuel it.

It was a real chore to teach the wand movements for the cutting charm, but after two or five tries it was easy for the others to do it; for example, Hermione took four tries to do the charm and she overpowered it; it was nothing compared to Neville who had to adjust having a cooperative wand and magic surges.

The hour of charm class ended and we proceeded to move to the next classroom at break. At least that’s what six of us did, we had a personal tutor while Dumbledore had to teach DADA for the rest of school while we had our tutor, Dean Colt.

Today in DADA we studied the Flipendo jinx, more colloquially called the Knockback Jinx. It was fascinating how such a simple spell had much in common with a telekinetic push; I taught Hermione and Harry how to do it wandlessly. We learned how this spell was used by Aurors to help in a riot situation to help knock back people. I still think that a high pressure water spell would be more efficient.

When we finished class and got to lunch. Harry avoided once again that Weasley kid; Ron, who seemed to have been compelled by Dumbledore to try to become Harry’s friend. The old man was back to his shenanigans, despite how in hot water he was. The redhead started to follow our group wherever we went, trying to insinuate himself into conversation he had no business entering. And he kept insulting the Slytherin with us, like Pansy or Blaise who got absorbed by the group.

This caused me to give an impromptu lesson in practicing the Disillusionment Charm. I had to stress that this wasn’t true invisibility, but more like camouflage to other people. I had to show off a bit and show the effect of the D&D invisibility spell. As it was a family secret, I couldn’t teach them that, they’d have to make do with an invisibility cloak.

Those weak wizards and witches need the work around of an enchanted item to use invisibility, that’s… quite sad. After this, some of us memorized the spell and were able to use it, mainly Harry, Daphne and Neville; we always moved in groups, so there were more than Raven and I to cast it.

Later this evening while we had dinner, mom sent us a text through our cell phones and she informed us that Dowager Longbottom was willing to switch to our political faction if we successfully healed both her son and his wife. This was in the bag, Spell damage and side effects were easy to cure with the alchemical secrets of the Merigold family.

As a bonus, mom asked us to finally start the plan to free Harry from Dumbledore’s clutch by looking for and capturing a certain rodent…

~~~ G.O ~~~

November 2nd, 2001
Hogwarts Castle
7th floor’s corridor

It was the night of Friday the 2nd when we enacted our plan to free our friend, Harry Potter, which had multiple objectives. Enter in a collaboration with the Weasley twins to slowly bring them to the Gray; was it too cold on our part when we’ve been ignoring them all this time? Yes, but who cares about that? Certainly not me. I’m afraid that I’ve developed the mind of a politician as I dealt with the utter bullshit and stupidity of the sheep of Britain’s magical world.

Anyway, Raven and I followed the Weasley to the seventh floor; they were obviously looking for the Room of Requirement. We stopped before them next to the tapestry of Barnabas the barmy and released the invisibility spell. “Hello, Messrs Weasleys.”

The two redheads stared at us in surprise, despite having the Marauders map in hand, they couldn't detect us or see us coming. This was a beneficial side effect from the Invisibility spell, the spell’s arithmantic formula for it wasn’t accounted for in the Hogwarts wards. This is why I think the Ministry discouraged new spells from being researched, they didn’t want anyone to have too much advances on them magic wise.

However, the two boys’ faces smoothed and became neutral and they looked at each other and said, “Oh, Fred, are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

The second redhead replied, “Yes George, the Lightning Witch and Princess of Ravenclaw and her little sister the Shadow Witch in person; did you smite any ghosts lately, my Lady?”

Urgh, I had read in the books and fanfics that they did this; but I didn’t think that seeing it happen in real life was going to be so… annoying. Raven, of course became smug as she was called something corny like the Shadow Witch. Despite it meaning that she was my shadow. She turned to me and said proudly, "Did you hear how they called me, Trissy? I really like my nickname, it's cool."

Say the Goth who is in her chuuni phase. As for me, I didn’t really like how they called me at all. I raised an eyebrow at them and asked, "Princess of Ravenclaw, really?"

Putting a finger on her chin, Raven thought about this. “Well you do hold court for the first years and superior years… it should be Queen instead of Princess.” She whispered at the end of her sentence.

I dope slapped her behind the head. “Hey!”

She scratched her head and showed me her tongue. “I was just saying.”

I harrumphed and turned toward the laughing Weasley twins. “And for your information, my dear Weasley twins; I only smite the bad ghosts, as a matter of fact I didn't smite anything lately… at least nothing admissible. Huh, is that why the castle’s ghosts are avoiding me now?”

I sighed, this wasn’t the first time that kind of thing happened to me. How sad that even ghosts avoided me… Raven put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I think so, Trissy.”

With a shrug I deflected my sadness with a joke. “We’re going to have to find them and negotiate their stays on this plane of existence.”

But as they didn’t know me, the Weasley twins stepped back from me and said conspiratorially:

"I hope she's joking, Gred…"

"I don’t think she is, Forge."

I don’t know which was which yet, but they often switched their names… What were we doing again? The twins are distracting. "Oh yeah, I wanted to talk to you boys because I discovered something you need to know. It might… impact your family.”

The two older redheads' smiles were wiped out off their faces; they became more serious. When the Gray’s Faction princess came to speak about a matter of importance they were bound to listen.

“This is getting serious Forge, I think we should stop the jokes.”

“For now, yes, Gred.”

They straightened their robes and stared back at the two younger girls. “Okay what do you want to say?” Fred (?) asked.

I guess this was their way to be in a formal setting, I couldn’t forget that they lived in a society that was still steeped with Victorian era traditions. Damn, I can’t wait to go to France and stop that whole politicking shite. “Before that, gentlemen. We must look for spies beyond the obvious paintings reporting to the Headmaster. Raven if you please?”

The two boys’ eyes widened like large saucers as we revealed how the Headmaster was spying on students. Meanwhile, Raven took her twelve inch pine wand with a magical raven feather as a core. We had to go look for the material of our wands ourselves all over the world; that’s why they differed so much from the British made ones.

“Homenum Revelio.” Raven chanted, and nothing appeared around us. “Hmm nothing, that’s good. But just in case… Detect Life.”

This time Raven looked next to George and brandished her wand blindingly fast. “Stupefy! Hold Person!”

The short chain produced two bolts of magic, one red and another purple and struck the spot Raven pointed at. George jumped out of the way when an old house elf wearing a sack of potato as clothing landed on the ground on his back with a thud sound.

I used wandless levitation and brought the old elf in the middle of the group. “Ah, the classic House Elf being the spy plot. It never gets old, but I had hoped the Headmaster would be smarter than this.”

Raven rolled her eyes at my bantering while the twins looked at the elf with apprehension. I noticed that their own wands were drawn, and I smiled at their skittishness.

“Joanne!” I called out the name of the Merigold house elf.

With a 'Poof' sound, a female house elf with black hair, big blue eyes and wearing a French maid outfit sized for her body appeared. She asked, “You’ve called, Mistress Trissy?”

All my house elves had proper names, were educated and lived in the Houses, Manors and other properties my family own. They didn’t suffer the same speech impediment as the other house elves. “Yes, my dear, could you take this elf here and interrogate him?”

She looked at the floating elf, and nodded. “Ah, I recognize him. His name’s Doopey. I’ll be right back.”

All the elves knew each other, they must have a really small community… “Sure, Joanne.”

She primly walked to Doopey, touched him with her gloved hand and disappeared with him. The Weasley twins commented when Joanne left:

“You girls are scary fast with your wands.”

"That house elf was so classy though."

I agree, Joanne was a classy elf… Finally I walked to the tapestry and here was the door to the RoR! I imagined a meeting room warded to be completely secure, then I opened it. “Come with us, Gentlemen.”

I didn’t look if they followed me inside… I needed to tell them what was going to happen and that I needed their participation to avoid their family being safeguarded from the shit storm the Gray faction was about to unleash.

~~~ G.O ~~~

(Rachel ‘Raven’ Roth)

Room of Requirement

Our revelation that their rat, Scabbers, was in fact an animagi passing himself for their pet wasn’t well received by the twins. Raven could understand, if it is true, then they’ve been sleeping with an old man in their bed all this time; and it could have bad connotation for them. Raven hoped that the whole family went to Saint Mungo to check themselves for memory spells or strange things happening to their body they had dismissed.

“Can you, Ladies, back up what you’re saying?” George (?) finally asked.

With a grave nod, Triss replied, “Of course.”

Raven scowled at the two boys and snidely added, “As proof, why don’t you use that handy little map you’ve been using to cause mischief and look for your brother and who is sleeping with him in his bed?”

The Weasley twins shouted in sync, “How do you know about that?!”

Triss’ knew about the map, so obviously Raven did as well as they shared everything. Triss threw a deadpan glare at Raven for her lack of diplomacy. “Raven, girl, could you be more… delicate with them.”

Raven shrugged, took her wand and waited for the two boys to whip out the map. Triss wanted to analyze it to make her own; they weren’t thieves and didn’t intend to steal it from the twins.

Raven breathed in and apologized. “Sorry boys, I’m just a bit frustrated that you’d doubt us like this...”

They were doing this from the good of their heart to not let the Weasley be blamed for sheltering the rat animagus. The twins then took a leap of faith and produced the magical map and chanted the magic password. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The map visibly unfolded and magical ink came alive, and Raven subtly cast Analyze Item on the map. This was a D&D inspired spell created between Triss and Raven which allowed them to determine the true properties of an item. The material, alchemical recipe, the runes, the arithmantic formulas as well as how to activate the functions, and determine the remaining magic charges left to operate the item targeted.

At this point several Dark aligned Enchanters were put out of business by Triss and Raven because of this spell as they could now replicate the items or service they offered.

Triss’ eyes were filled with stars. “Blimey, this is… this is a work of art!” The youngest redhead gushed.

Raven transferred the data from the Analyze item spell into the crystal set into her silver signet ring. They will check this later… Triss was a good actress and asked questions to the two boys who could barely keep up with the deluge of scientific terms she used about the map.

The map obviously used Hogwarts’ wards to work which acted like sensors and some kind of IFF charms to identify everyone it was showing on the map. Raven couldn’t believe that a bunch of schoolboys came up with this… but then again she and Triss were still children and had kept pushing the limit of magic together by coming up with new spells and making new magitek technology when they were barely seven years old.

In bold letters, they found the name of ‘Ronald Bilius Weasley’ and at his side was the name of ‘Peter Pettigrew’; there was even a little icon of a rat next to his name.

“Huh, how come the map can detect which animagus form someone has?!” Triss questioned aloud as if she was really surprised by this fact.

Raven asked herself if Triss didn’t know that, so far she’s been sharing her metaknowledge with her; calling it a one time future vision of events bound to happen. The freckled girl could be taken by surprise, that’s what it meant.

The two boys began to panic, because the two first year girls were telling the truth from the start. Triss had her wand and was honestly analyzing the map and started cooing at it; Raven pinched her, the redhead yelped, then the Goth pointed at the Weasley twins.

They were discussing between themselves. George asked, “They weren’t lying…”

As for Fred he wanted to remove the threat immediately. “How do we do this?”

Triss happily wanted to light their lanterns. “Don’t worry boys! We got this!” The little redhead primly turned to Raven and commanded imperiously, “Raven, do the thing!”

She rolled her eyes, Triss was being a show off again. “Summon Familiar.”

Raven twirled her wand and a magic circle appeared in the air, it opened a small portal appeared in space.

Out of it exited Raven pixie sized bucket of trouble; Shemrie the Dragon Fairy.

The doll sized Fairy landed in the middle of the table and looked at Raven with an impish grin. “Ah, thou finally call upon me, baby Raven. I was getting bored in mine new grove.”

““Baby?”” The Weasley twins laughed as they looked at the purple haired first year.

Raven blushed and glared at her magical familiar. She was about to call the Dragon Fairy something nasty when Triss stopped her by catching her forearm and telling her, “Don’t let her needle you, Raven… we don’t have time to argue with her.”

Sigh. Raven closed her eyes and counted to ten. “Okay…”

The Weasley twins stared in wonder at the small creature that Raven summoned; ignorant of how dangerous the Dragon Fairy was, they continued their bantering skit.

“Fred is that a Fairy?” George asked.

The boy started rubbing his hands together and there was a greedy glint in his eyes. “Yes George. I wish I had a camera on me; how much do you think the Quibbler would pay for a picture?”

The Fairy perked up at this and turned to the twins; Triss said with an annoyed tone, “That’s Lady Shemrie. She’s my sister’s familiar.”

The Dragon Fairy sniffed the air, and bit her lip in an lusty way. “Oh, two new toys to play with, hmm twin wizards, they smell delicious.”

Stepping away from the table where Shemrie was standing, the Weasley twins finally understood that they were in the presence of a dangerous being.

“I’m getting a tight sphincter here, George…”

“You’re not the only one, Fred.”

Triss slammed her fist on the table. “Shemrie, those two boys are not to be eaten, okay?”

““Eaten?!”” The two boys squeaked together, they hugged each other in fright.

Shemrie cackled. “I was obviously jesting, Red one.”

“It’s hard to tell with you…” Triss sighed in relief.

Raven whispered, “Maybe I should have gone for a normal Fairy…”

Unfortunately, Shemrie heard her and flew at Raven and held onto her head tightly in a hug. “No take back! You’re mine now, Baby Raven. FOREVER AND EVER.”

The scene would be touching if Triss and Raven didn’t know how much of a glutton the Dragon Fairy was. They were basically a meal ticket to Shemrie. The Dragon Fairy was cunning, amoral and now considered the two girls part of her hoard. Relationships between True Dragon and human girls with mage blood often ended up this way.

The twins looked fascinated by the byplay and stayed silent, but still hugging each other.

Sigh. “You know that we only made a fifty year Familiar contract, Shemrie.”

At least she was progressively adapting her language from Old English to Modern as she said coherently, “No, I demand a renegotiation! I get delicious food everyday and live in an overabundant grove with a major ley line, blessed by Divine Magic. I’d be dumb to let thou go.”

While Shemrie climbed Raven’s head and sat on top of it like a throne, Triss started to converse with the Dragon Fairy. “Anyway… O dark one, we have a need of your services.”

“Is this going to be an adventure?” Shemrie passed from a seated position to lay on her belly on top of Raven’s head, her hands cupping her face.

It was better to not lie to Shemrie, they summoned her because her Fae magic made her a particularly hard being to detect, even for wizards and animals. “Not really one, it is just about capturing a wizard who has a rat animagus form.”

Shemrie lost interest right away. “Oh… no Wizard to kill or village to burn down? I’m disappointed.”

The Weasley twins gaped at that; Triss shook her head and cast a privacy spell to not let the twins hear what she had to say. “If this pan out, you might get your wish…”

With wings spreading and her ears flapping two times, Shemrie’s interest was reignited. “Go on, I’m intrigued.”

~~~ G.O ~~~

(Shemrie)

Gryffindor Tower
Gryffindor male Dorm
20 minutes later

Shemrie was given passage inside the tower thanks to the Weasley twins who had an apprehensive face when they did it. Raven and Triss had pleaded to her to behave and respect the parameters of the mission. The two babies were cute, so the Dragon Fairy accepted to listen, for now. The Gryffindor’s common room was as cozy as the girls had told her, two animated portraits and there was a chimney with a comfortable fire burning, stuffed armchairs with a great view of the castle’s ground.

She was occluding herself from the view of the little wizard and witch babies inside; she jumped away from George’s head and flapped her silenced wings toward the male dormitories. It was strange that none of the wards stopped her, as if they were set to only hinder humans and elves and other creatures. Was her dual nature confusing them?

Shemrie didn’t care much, only on the mission, she wrangled a promise about a giant bowl of honeyed apple ice cream for the capture of the rat animagus. Nothing will stop the Dragon Fairy from succeeding! She climbed the spiral staircase for the boys' side, avoiding an older human with blonde hair and when Shemrie reached the dormitory her nose was assaulted by the bad odor of human waste.

It seemed that someone had bowel movement issues and clogged the toilet. She cursed the blonde boy for making her mission more unpleasant. She reached the first year dorm, and began looking for the rat in the bed’s location the twins had described. The stinker dropped by the troll bodied oafish student in the toilet made it more difficult to smell the rat. Then again, there were other familiars present in the room; cats, and birds mainly.

Surprise, surprise when she got to Ron’s bed she didn't see the brown rat in its cage. *Of course it would hast been too easy to find the deceitful and traitorous cur where he belonged.*

Shemrie resolved to use magic to find him. She used a dirty hair from his cage to locate him and what wasn’t her surprise to find him trying to go to the staircase of the girl's side of the dormitory. Something to consider later, Shemrie needed to capture him.

The Dragon Fairy launched a shadow bolt at the rat and… immediately started to sap at his lifeforce. SQUEAK!!

Swiftly, the man turned rat was unable to move as his vitality dropped by more than half. She landed at the foot of the spiral staircase and used telekinesis and occluded the rat from view; opened a spatial rift and was out of the Gryffindor’s Tower. She landed at the designated point, before the Room of Requirement -What a quirky name- and she knocked on the door three times.

The door opened and Triss the Red appeared, looking down where Shemrie should be. Allowing the girl to see her, Shemrie victoriously announced, "I got him."

"Good work, Shemrie!" Triss the Red crouched next to her, took a cage from her pocket space and floated the dumb rat animagus inside.

The Dragon Fairy accepted the praise, being appreciated for her skills. Just for that, Shemrie decided to give Triss more ammunition against the old Wizard, Dumbbells-something. She wasn’t keen on remembering the names of future dead people. "Oh, and I have something to report, he wasn't in his cage. The rat was trying to climb the staircase to the girl’s dormitory."

Triss almost dropped the cage in her hand as she looked shocked as she stared at Shemrie. "He what?!"

~~~ G.O ~~~

(Angela Roth)

Angela is a proud mother of two, her girls were smart and devious. She was proud of the fact that they’ve found a way to enter Hogwarts by bypassing the defenses and the Floo Network access in the Headmaster's office. Madame Bones and two of her most loyal Aurors, Moody and Spinner followed her inside the chimney burning with green flames.

Only to be confronted with the smell of burning and frozen tiles on the flooring.

“LET ME GO, I WILL KILL HIM!!” The shrill voice of her youngest rang in the room.

Fire and ice bolts raged against a dome shield held by the magic of Rachel who defended the cage with Pettigrew inside. Rachel tried to reason with her sister. "Trissy, don't kill him! We need him for now!"

Before she did anything she would regret, Angela threw a wandless Sonorous charm and yelled, "What is happening here?!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing. When Angela’s feet broke the magical ice, Rachel and the two older redheaded boys turned to the newcomers.

“Madame Bones, you’re here! Please help!” One of the boys practically begged as they were struggling with Triss in their arms.

“Mum.” Triss stopped what she’s been doing.

“Mom!” Rachel breathed in relief, but kept the domed shield up in case Triss tried to kill the rat again.

Triss always created some Drama, what was it for this time? “Triss, why are you crying? And why are you fighting your sister and two friends?”

“The lass went on a fine rampage.” Moody quipped as he laughed. “Maybe I should train her to become a hit wizard?”

“Moody, please shut up.” Amelia Bones sighed as she was getting annoyed at the amputee.

There was no way that Angela would allow her little girl to become an Auror, it was too dangerous. She glared at Moody who didn’t look repentant with the smile he sported, he mimed zipping up his mouth. “Yes, Ma’am director.”

Triss somehow wrestled free from the twins and appeared before Angela and was hugging her tightly. “Mum! This is so horrible!”

Angela’s arms closed automatically around her youngest daughter; she began caressing her head with a, ‘Here here’ then she looked at Rachel. “Rachel, honey, your sister doesn’t make any sense, please translate.”

Put upon the spot by her own mother, the purple haired girl lamented, "Why is it always me? Fine, here it goes… my familiar captured the rat." Rachel pointed at the mini-dragon on her shoulder who had its tail around her neck and lazily yawned. "And then she said something to Triss and then she went ballistic and tried to kill Pettigrew."

Angela knew exactly who the small dragon was; their meeting hadn't been going well when she realized how possessive the Fairy, Shemrie, was of her daughters and treated them like pets. That's what happens when she's not supervising the girls. Angela wasn't surprised that the Fairy caused chaos and made their lives difficult. If Shemrie wasn’t such a good bodyguard for Rachel and Triss she would have done something to the Fairy a week ago.

“The little dragon, it’s her fault. Of course.” Angela’s voice dripped with venom.

The Fairy Dragon stopped moving and put on a smug and unrepentant expression. Angela rolled her eyes at Shemrie; held tighter on Triss who was finally calming down in her embrace. “Triss must have a reason for doing this.”

Triss, Angel’s baby, finally decided to stop crying and explain herself. The tall purple haired woman took an enchanted handkerchief and began wiping Triss’ eyes. When she was presentable again, the little girl defended the Fairy. “Mum, Shemrie is not at fault… she just told me what she found the rat doing while she looked for him.”

This was interesting, something has clearly upset Triss and she was still… furious. “You don’t overreact unless something upset you. Tell me what she said to you.”

Her child nodded, and said in a whisper next to her ear, “He…” Triss explained what the rat… no, the adult man had been doing and Angela had to use all her Occlumency skills to keep herself calm.

*The animal! Did he take advantage of them this way?! No, I must calm down. But there’s implications I don’t like, this rat has been there for four years already. How much damage and crimes did he perpetrate?*

Standing straight, Angela turned to the Aurors, her eyes focusing on the Director of the DMLE. “Madam Bones, this situation has become even more complicated than we thought.”

“You don’t say…” The woman’s voice dripped with sarcasm. The scene of Triss going on a rampage must not have endeared Angela’s little girl to the Aurore in chief.

My eyes then turned to the cage with the unconscious animagus; sparks of purple lightning crackled in the air but Angela caught herself before her control other her elementism magic slipped. “Just… take him, I might be tempted to kill him myself.”

It was with a worried tone that Amelia Bones asked with pursed lips, “What did he do? Are we still going to wring him dry of information?”

Angela looked at the woman, the two male aurores were showing a neutral expression; but Moody had this knowing look in his eye. The man already suspected what was going on to have triggered Triss.

“Yes, Madame Director, we will use Pettrigrew as much as possible… and let me tell you that he might definitely get the veil after coming to know the information that my daughter has just given me.” Angela said, she stepped forward and said in a low whisper to Madame Bones, “I’m suspecting him of having done more than hide himself within Hogwarts walls. He may have despoiled some of the female students.”

With a gasp, Madam Bones looked at Angela, then at the rat in the cage. “Is… this true?”

Putting on an uncertain expression, Angela said, “I don’t know, we are just acting on deducted information. Rachel and her familiar, Shemrie, can share their senses, they found the rat trying to access the staircase to the Gryffindor girl dorm.”

The Director glared at the cage and with steel in her voice she assured Angela, “We will get to the bottom of this. We will be interrogating him quite vigorously; Merlin, we might have the biggest scandal since the war on our hands, the Wizengamot is going to call for his blood.”

“We’ve been funding the DMLE since that incident with Dumbledore, Madame. I hope that the facilities the Merigold house provided your department will come in handy.” Angela subtly told her to go nuts.

“Oh yes… they will.” Madame Bones said as she walked with purpose toward the cage with an unsuspecting rat animagus; the man was finally going to be useful for something.