Interview

Kitty is wandering around the castle that Harry and Hermione go to school in, wearing Nezha. Around the corner comes a kavat of some description, clearly well kept by the plump middle. It takes one sniff of her and before disappearing back round the corner as though a bigger cat had just turned up. Probably smelled her own kavats. Before she can continue, an old man walks round the corner, back bent with age, but still standing with a wiry strength. The cat from before is perched on his shoulder.

"Ere, what are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just looking around. I'm Kitty of clan Potter, who are you?"

"Argus Filch, caretaker of the school. How did you get here?"

"Oh, I came with Harry and Hermione. They're in class at the moment, so I decided to explore."

Argus grunts, "You'll have to come with me to see the Head Master, I wasn't notified about any guests."

"Oh, certainly, lead the way."

Consideringly looking at the weapons attached to the Nezha, Argus turns and walks back the way he came, Kitty following good naturedly. Eventually they come to a stone gargoyle, where Argus says, "Filch to see the Head Master."

After a few minutes the gargoyle steps to one side, revealing a spiral staircase with moving stone steps. Stepping on the steps, they are carried up to the Head Masters office.

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"Good afternoon Mr..."

"Hi, I'm Kitty. I just love your school."

"I'm sure you do, however I do have to ask how you found your way here."

"We landed in the forest over there, and I walked in after having a look around the forest for a bit. Did you know you have some very aggressive spiders out there?"

"Indeed, I did, though most who find out are unable to ever report that fact. It is, in fact, one of the reasons it is forbidden. That still does not explain how you were able to get past the wards."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Ah, I see. Would you by chance be afflicted with the same condition as Miss Granger?"

"Kind of, more like Harry though."

"Hmm. Would you humour an old man, and exit your magical armour?"

Kitty shrugs, and transfers out, "Sure."

"No confusion, still tracking the items in the room. Mr, ah, my mistake, Miss Kitty, are you experiencing any feelings of fear, disorientation, or visual hallucinations?"

"What? No why would I be experiencing those?"

"Not even a sense that you left the oven on at home?"

"I have no idea what an oven is, so no."

"Would you be willing to indulge me once more in an experiment?"

"If it involves blood I'm back in my Warframe before you can say corpus exec. I've heard of the things you lot can do with blood, and na ah, not happening."

"That was my first idea, but I think I have a trinket called a Merlin orb. Though it was invented in the 17th century, and nobody called Merlin has ever touched it. It was all the rage for a few decades until people realised that it had no practical use. You see, it measures magical potential. However, as it doesn't work on children, the only age group that people would want to use it for, all it really tells you is how long you could last in a slug fest. Which given how many people in the duelling circuit were winning with scores that would suggest they should lose. Ah, here it is. If you could just hold this in your hands for a few minutes, it will begin to glow. I will then be using a small spell to read the result."

Kitty decides to humour the old man and hold the glass orb. Sure enough it starts to glow, a tiny pinprick of light in the centre.

"Absolutely fascinating. You score 2, which is below average for a muggle."

Kitty smirks and void jumps to the other side of the office, "Just because you can't detect it, doesn't mean I don't have magic of my own."

"Absolutely fascinating. That would also explain how you were able to walk around the castle. I will write you a note for today, but if you are visiting again in the future, would you please turn up at breakfast, or find myself or Hagrid so that I can notify the relevant staff that you're here."

"Sure. Hey, one question. How comes Harry's disappearance was never noticed?"

Albus sighs, "It was, by myself. I was the only one that could notice. You have to understand that Harry's parents were dear friends of mine, and I would have raised him myself if I wasn't such a public person. Death eater attacks were still happening for a year after and the trials didn't conclude till 1984, though we advertised the end of them in 82. I have devices linked to his health and wellbeing, and when I couldn't find him within 6 months of searching I concluded that as he was healthy and mostly happy, he'd probably found himself in a better place than his aunts house would have been. Sadly, I'd have left him at his aunts even if it wasn't the perfect location. As the only other places that would have been hidden enough to keep him safe would have been a workhouse or orphanage, and I've already seen the results of growing up in one of those places."

"Well, I'm going to be around for the rest of the week, and probably next week too which I think leads up to. Oh what did Hermione call it, that was it, Christmas Holidays."

Albus sighs and conjures another sheet of parchment before writing the note again, "You may want to visit the village of Hogsmeade rather than just sticking to the school. It probably won't be that interesting walking around on your own all day."

"Oh, don't worry, I've got plenty of things to do on the Moon. I've just been coming down when I need to stretch my legs and relax my brain."

"I see. Have a nice day Miss Kitty, if you're on the third floor. Please try to avoid opening any locked doors. There are some things there that would be dangerous for students to just stumble across."

Kitty pulls her Warframe around her so that the old man won't see her shock, before taking the note and walking out.

Once she's left, Albus leans back in his chair and considers what he saw in her mind. A laughing wall wasn't expected in any way. Then there was the fact she just disappeared from the wards and his own monitoring enchantments when she demonstrated her own magic. Maybe that's the secret of the new magic that Minerva has found.

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The last few weeks before Christmas passed quickly, and in the Orokin system Amelia and Danjell's main chassis's grew in perfectly much to Natah's immense joy. The fact that they are not magical means that Xeno and Pandora weren't flukes assisted by their own magic.

Pandora's and Natah's experiments in transplanting Oro's hits a minor snag in that the natural born sentients on earth don't have them. This doesn't slow them down for too long, as they are able to implant artificial Oro's in Kubrow's and Kavats without any side effects. With carefully controlled, humane testing, they find that the Oro's are working as expected.

"Pandora, I think we're ready to try transplanting now."

"Indeed, Sofa and Plush?"

Natah thinks for a moment, "Because they have such different personality traits?"

"Yep. If sofa starts begging for food rather than her toys we know there's personality bleed."

"We should do Scritch and Scratch too in that case."

"I see, trying the same thing with Kavat."

"Who shall we use for the control?"

"Blackie and pounce?"

Natah nods and makes a note in the computer, "How long should we allow the experiment to run before we conclude that it's not deadly for humans?"

"I think a year and a day should do."

"Why the extra day?"

"Magical significance. It's the naturally weak point in any long-lasting magical ritual and the main reason why learning astronomy is so important. As it's the sidereal day that matters, not the solar day. There are echoes of this that can be used, and careful probing of an active ward can tell you when the next weak point is. If you're really good, you can even calculate the exact time the ward was cast. It's much harder with contracts and curses, but if the person is still alive after that time, it is much easier to break them. Though with contracts, that doesn't help much, as your own magic is keeping the contract alive as much as the initial magic used. As such, it's something only usually used in breaking slave contracts, like the ones forced on Veela."

"Veela?"

"A human subspecies that originates from a type of nymph that is now extinct. They had the beauty and charm of a Siren, and the ability to fly and use magic of a Harpy. They were hunted down and exterminated by witches, due to the fact there were very few wizards that could resist their charms. Charms that invariably proved fatal to the wizard. They found the half breed babies and mistook them for stolen children. Being raised in a human environment allowed them to retain their human features. Over the last 2000 years or so, they have become more and more human. However, they are still all astonishingly beautiful, and they retain some of the magic of their ancestors."

"That's fascinating, I'd love to look at their DNA to see if I can find anything that separates them from humans, or if it's all magic."

"I hadn't considered that. How are the farming trunks doing?"

"Marcus Sinistra has moved his entire family here, something to do with feeling disgraced. Maria has opened a Café on the Strata Relay with a couple of the house elves from the trunks, and some of the staff who want to learn how to cook. They signed contracts saying that they wouldn't go to work for the Corpus for at least 10 years after they've finished learning how to learn to cook. Revenue on that station is already up 20% outside what the café is bringing in. The Tenno only take the rent from them, and Clan Potter receives 10% of their profits."

"That's astounding, how are they making so much money?"

"They've priced themselves as they would in your home world rather than as the luxury goods they're actually selling. I've heard them talking about setting up a butchers and greengrocers, what ever they are, with a sign clearly stating that the produce is for personal consumption only."

Natah thinks for a moment as they're making their way to the pens where their experimental animals are kept, "How's your leyline project going?"

Pandora laughs despairingly, "It wasn't until the farming trunks arrived. Now a leyline has started to develop naturally between the Rookery and the Sinistra holdings. That single event has thrown out every single theory they had on Leylines in the Department of Mysteries. Until now, the assumption has been that leylines caused magical creatures to start to exist. Now it's become a chicken and egg situation."

"I don't understand that metaphor."

"You've seen the chickens in the trunks?"

"I have, though I don't see how that is relevant, as all avian species lay eggs, so it stands to reason that they evolved from a common ancestor."

"What you're missing is the fact that the people that came up with the question didn't know about evolution."

"Oh. Oh! So, you're saying that you no longer know what causes magic to appear in plants, animals, and leylines, and it could well be some undiscovered third thing that ties them all together."

"Essentially, yes. Though I hadn't considered the latter."

"Maybe we can import some other magical plants and creatures and make an enclave on Earth for them."

"There's a lot of primordial forest down there, I'm sure we could. Though doing so without them being wiped out before they can reach sustainable levels could be problematic."

"Start with the small animals, and those herbivores that are good at remaining unseen. Same with the plants."

"Garden gnomes and fairies should be easy enough to come by. Maybe some of the magical mushrooms and vines."

"There you go, what about the infestation?"

"So far as we can tell, it doesn't really exist on Earth. I'd be more worried about the trees and other plant life that Silvana developed. Once we get over the hurdle of the local plant life outcompeting the magical plants, you'll probably start to see Ents and Dryads start to appear naturally in areas where Leylines exist."

"Maybe we can transplant some Sentients to those areas and see what happens to them too."

"Why don't you head back with Harry and Hermione next weekend and see about gathering some plants from the forest."

Pandora laughs, "Oh Natah. Redo your calculations."

"Oh, it's the holidays, so they'll be here for a few years."

"That does have me thinking though, Marcus' children are going to need a magical education. By the time they get their Hogwarts letters it will be far too late for them. Maybe I can put out an advert for muggleborn to emigrate here, non-magical family included."

"What if you get magical applicants?"

"Doesn't really matter, I just want to keep the bigots away. I'll need to talk to the people of Cetus though, as I think I'd want them to join their community first."

"Why not one of the other earth colonies?"

"They're already a high profile Grineer target, so adding a magical community isn't going to change that. The others all survive because they're hidden or live in locations the Grineer don't want."

"I suppose, there's also the Quills representative there. They might be able to help design a new magical focus. They did design the amps for the Tenno after all."

Reaching the pens, the two of them turn back to their research.

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Harry frowns as Tau appears in front of him the day before the Christmas holidays starts. Opening the letter, he scans it and then sighs.

"Kitty, have we introduced you to Ironclaw or his son Ironjaw yet?"

Kitty looks up from Orokin desk toy she's practicing with, "No, not yet."

"Right, here's their details. I'm going to include you in chat, and you'll want this letter too."

{Harry} @Ironjaw @Ironclaw Good morning. Sorry for contacting you so early.

{Ironclaw} Gringotts is open at all hours. What can we do for you?

{Harry} First, I'd like to introduce you to @Kitty, one of our clan members.

{Kitty} Hi.

{Ironclaw} May the blood of your enemies flow as swiftly as your vaults are filled.

{Kitty} And may their entrails make good sausages.

{Ironclaw} asdfghjkl;

{Ironclaw} Sorry, I was laughing too hard to type properly, I will have to remember that one.

{Ironclaw} What can we help you with?

{Harry} My mother wants you to buy out all the stock in a couple of nurseries and magical component farms. She also wants 2 dozen each of Garden Gnomes, Fairies, Pixies, Nifflers, Bundimun, Billywig, Horklump, Clabbert and Jobberknoll.

{Ironclaw} She is aware of the fact they can't be owled?

{Harry} She is, though we have successfully transported two farming trunks and 3 unicorns using our own transportation. We will want all of those in an expanded trunk. As Hermione and I are in classes for the next two days, can you work with Kitty on this?

{Kitty} @Harry How am I supposed to help? I'm not magical.

{Ironjaw} Good morning.

{Ironclaw} @Ironjaw Good, just the person I needed. You need to meet @Kitty in the Three Broomsticks and escort her back to Gringotts. We have an urgent commission.

{Ironclaw} Harry, if you are willing to transport a shipment to Cephalon Simaris we will waive the Gringotts fees.

{TheFairyQueen} That explains a lot.

{Harry} Sure, just make sure it's separate from our lot and labelled clearly.

{Ironclaw} Do you know why your mother needs this stuff?

{Harry} Not entirely, but they say they're planting them on Earth as an experiment.

{Ironclaw} We'll include a few boxes of flobberworms too. Just pour them out on the earth and they'll burrow in.

{Harry} Thank you.

Harry has left

TheFairyQueen has left

{Kitty} That's just not fair of them.

Ironclaw has left

{Ironjaw} Do you know where the three broomsticks is?

{Kitty} I've been there, the village isn't all that interesting though.

{Ironjaw} It mainly exists for the school and forest.

{Kitty} ok, how about I message you when we get to earth?

{Ironjaw} I await your message.

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Kitty spends the next couple of days cursing magical transportation and moving all around the UK buying things from different farms and nurseries.