Intermission 1

"Jelly."

"Yes Mia?"

"Did we do the right thing?"

"Apart from being too late to back out now. Which particular thing are you asking about?"

"Coming back to deal with the clinic."

Danjell lets out a sigh, "I don't know. What I do know is that there were things they wanted to talk to our little fairy about that they felt they couldn't do while we were there."

"I know, but she's not going to see us for months."

"It was the same when we sent her to that blasted school."

"I know, it just. I dunno, feels different?"

"My grandparents told me that when mum and dad came here to escape the war it felt like their family was breaking apart. It's not like they lived close, a few towns over. But suddenly the distance went from being something you could decide to do in an afternoon, to something you had to plan in advance. They also didn't even know if they'd made it until the war was over, as there wasn't any reliable post."

"I know, but, I know I'm not making any sense."

"You are, it's just hard to accept. It's Clark tech. It might as well be magic and Hermione's going to a magic school."

"You know, you're right. Spaceships, lasers, moon bases, sentient robots. It's right out of Dune or Star Trek. Even the fact that we're slowly being turned into sentient robots."

"There you go. I think we should let Anne know that we'll need to close the practice for a few weeks soon."

Amelia nods, "I think I'm going to pack Hermione's library. She'll want reading material."

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"Good afternoon everyone, I'm sorry to be interrupting your lunch. I've asked the house-elves to prepare a buffet for this meeting. As you probably know, the headmaster had to take over my classes this morning. What you don't know is why. Normally none of you would find out, however the result is going to be rather obvious."

Severus sneers, "Does it have anything to do with why Prince Potter missed his potions class this morning?"

Minerva nods, "As a matter of fact it does. Mr Potter has a condition that means he requires special sleeping arrangements. Albus and Hagrid are both aware of this, however the only other member of staff that is aware is his head of house, me. Filius, Pomona, Severus, if he'd gone to either of your houses you'd have been informed of this and why.

"The place that Harry grew up is like living in a Fairy Mound, though it would be more true to say that he lives on the other side of one. This is why the Rip Van Winkle laws were used. He was also drenched in fae energies for a few weeks, along with thousands of other people. Only the children survived, of which Harry was the youngest. A consequence of this is that those energies have become part of him."

Filius frowns, "Why are we even letting him attend this school? We all know the old stories."

"Harry isn't fae, the people he grew up with have developed ways to contain and use fae energy. They also developed, I suppose you could call it a suit of armour, for them. This allows them to interact with the world while also keeping the occupants safe."

"The golem." Albus exclaims, "He was the golem. Why didn't he talk to me though?"

"They don't speak English. When I visited they," – remembering what Dan said about Clark tech – "used a sort of magic to teach me their language in only a couple of hours. While we were at Diagon Alley he purchased a tutoring portrait to teach him English."

"That doesn't explain why Fawkes refuses to take me to him."

Minerva wants to say that it's because the solar system is still recovering from a war that spanned the entire solar system, and took centuries to resolve. Or that their technology was so far in advance of the muggle world that it looks like magic. Or even that Harry has been fighting in conflicts that make the last wizarding war look like a playground skirmish. Instead she says, "You'd really need to ask Fawkes about that."

Pomona huffs, "While this is all well and good, I don't see what it has to do with us. Or what happened last night."

"Last night, due to reasons that I am already dealing with, Miss Granger was in a position to follow Mr Potter to his sleeping accommodation. When she saw his armour she had a flashback to the troll and called out to him. Startled he turned around and fired fae energies at Miss Granger."

Madam Pomphrey shakes her head sadly, "When's Miss Grangers funeral?"

"She's still alive. Mr Potter sleeps in a special pod that is designed to keep him alive, and syphon off excess fae energies. The same pod kept Miss Granger alive long enough to get her to his home, where they were able to heal the damage the energy did to her. However, as she was exposed to levels of fae energies far in excess of those Harry was as a babe, she has also adapted to it and it's part of her. Last I saw before I brought her parents home, she was adapting to her new armour. It is likely that she will be able to return to school in 2 weeks, 3 at the outside."

Quirrell, the defence of dark arts professor, clears his throat, "C c c, will M m m the girl b b be a able to c c c finish her edu edu schooling?"

"Yes, I have tested her and she is still able to use her wand. Though she wasn't very well coordinated when I left."

Filius looks thoughtful, "What about the other students, will they be in danger from her?"

"Assuming that they stop bullying her, they should be fine."

Albus nods and strokes his beard while he thinks, "Is there anything else Minerva?"

"As a matter of fact yes. I will need to take a leave of absence in a few weeks. Hopefully it will coincide with the winter break, however if it's early or late you all need to know in advance."

"That's unlike you. Why is this?"

"I have taken, call it an alchemical elixir, that is changing me so that I'll be able to handle Miss Granger safely if there's ever an issue. It's safe and well tested, however I will need to be. Examined during the final part of the process, so that if there are any problems they can be resolved before they're irreversible."

Albus explodes out of his chair, "Why would you do that?"

Minerva calmly faces him down, "Because, Mr, Dumbledore, Harry was the one that stopped the troll, and he could have done it with his bare hands. I do not trust elements in the Slytherin house, or a few elements in the other houses for that matter, not to provoke Miss Granger until she snaps and lashes out at one of them. If she does snap then it may not be possible for us to stop her without killing her. I will not see that on my conscience, so I took the risk of using this elixir so that we would have more options than just kill."

"Surely they can't be that bad."

"Professors Quirrell and Sadler, you've both taught muggle studies. What do you remember of the muggle side of the Grindelwald war?"

Professor Sadler thinks for a moment, "It was brutal, more than a few magical settlements were crushed by metal monstrosities called tanks."

"Those suits of armour can, and do, take on things like tanks in hand-to-hand combat, and win."

Albus collapses back into his chair in shock at the news, "But what about prisoners? Innocent lives?"

Minerva looks at Albus sadly, "Harry doesn't live in a peaceful world. You can't put your own experiences on his shoulders. I don't know what you saw when you fought Grindelwald, but I know it killed a part of you. We can talk more later if you want, as I don't think you want to open old wounds in this forum."

Albus nods, "Over dinner in my office?"

"Certainly."

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Natah watches the sensors and camera feeds sadly as Hermione talks animatedly to one of the Steel Meridian. As she feels Xeno come in she waves him over.

"You have heavy thoughts."

"I'm watching another childhood being stolen by the Zariman Ten-Zero, nearly 1,000 years after the event took place. I feel like we should have take steps to prevent this from happening in the first place."

"Such as killing all the children like you were told to?"

"How did you know?"

"I wasn't always a bumbling reporter. I started the Quibbler when Pandora fell pregnant. Before that, I was a hunter. The magical world has its share of monsters, things like werewolves and dementors. Newt Scamander did a good job chronicling them, but there are some that he didn't include. Relics of the Fae. My blessing, the blessing of our family, allows us to see them. Most of them are small and harmless, like Wrackspurts that feed on discordant thoughts, or Blibering humdingers that can make people do stupid things. This solar system is mercifully free of those pests. However there are worse remnants out there, ones that can take people over and turn them into insane killers.

"I found one once, in a child. It hadn't killed anyone, but I was supposed to kill their hosts wherever I found them. I passed on. A few months later I had to go back because of a spree of murders in the area. I thought it was my fault for leaving the child alive. When I finally tracked the killer down, it was a man not the child. The man was a monster before he was possessed, and killed the child that I'd spared.

"What you need to ask yourself isn't 'did you do the right thing in not killing them.' Rather it's 'Would the Monsters that they've fought still have existed if you did?'."

Natah indicates the display, "It's still a childs innocence that's lost."

"Without Harry, she would most likely have been killed by the Troll. Is her innocence worth her life? I think that both she and her parents would say yes. I know I would if it was Luna."

As Xeno leaves Natah brings up the scans she made from Hermione's Titania. The sensors start out detecting the expected drain from the void energy reserves, and the mannequins all show the expected effects. And then the mannequins continue to show the effects even though her warframe is showing it's running on a deficit of energy. Bringing up some of the early test results from Harry's testing, before they implemented the simple interface, she sees the same thing happening.

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Ironjaw looks at the results of the Lestrange vault audit in concern. It was a good test of the new scanners, as it was able to locate even hidden items. Such as the cup that contained a Horcrux buried under a mound of coins in a cupboard. Of course, the cost of recalling one of the Egyptian curse breaking teams to deal with it was subtracted from the vault, and there was roast pig that night. What's worrying is that the Horcrux was less than a century old. They also have no idea who it belongs to, as standard practice is to vacate the area and then let the professionals deal with it so that it doesn't kill anyone. It's also clear from the test that these scanners won't find anything that's hidden magically. Something they were fairly sure was true, but nothing beats fairly sure except testing to make absolutely sure.

He then turns to the reports from the miners and craftsmen, with the new tools they've expanded their living space 500% faster than this time last year and they're still getting used to them. The mining lasers are helping them identify missed pockets of ore, though they're not so good with veins, as goblin experience and magic has long been up to the task. He turns to one side as one of the apprentices comes over with a slate, probably unable to read something.

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"Croaker, Shade, thank you for seeing me."

"What's the problem Malscent?"

"The veil of death has been fluctuating. The fluctuations mirror the ones that occurred on the 2nd November 1981. Only these have been happening with some regularity."

"I see. If that was the only thing then I'd be reading about it."

"There is also a low level of fluctuations occurring several times a day. Some of those fluctuations marry up perfectly with the new owl detection ward that Shotgun put in place. Down to fractions of a second. Every single one of the owls in question is a Gringotts owl."

"I see. Can you locate the source of the larger disturbances?"

"Not with just the veil, and we are having to rely on observations of the veil rather than detecting it directly."

"Yes, yes, it doesn't interact with magic, and anyone that so much as puts a finger in will die a horrible death after going insane and killing all their loved ones. We call it the veil of death for a reason. I'm worried that it means the return of the Fae."

"I understand, we'll work on trying to detect these fluctuations independently then."