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Chapter Text

As Harry looked away from the Skelator Horse thing, his eyes fell on a girl with blonde hair in Ravenclaw Robes. Suddenly, he felt a spark of Magic quite unlike what he felt when he first looked into the eyes of his Mates. As they looked into each other's eyes, Harry saw an Eagle feather burst out of her neck and surround it as if it were a choker. Harry found he still had complete focus and control of his body, unlike when he bonded with the others, as he started to walk towards the strange girl. However, with a shake of her head, he stopped in place. The strange girl, his Alpha, pressed a finger to her mouth as the Eagle father was reabsorbed into her skin.

Harry almost shouted in alarm as he heard a voice inside his head, "Not now, Harry. You will know when to come to me. Do your fake bonding with Draco to make sure everyone knows you are with him and Viktor. I will give you a sign, but also send you some help via my brother, even if he does not look like it. I will explain everything later, my Angel." With that, the voice fell silent as Harry watched the girl enter her carriage before he joined Fred in theirs.

"You ready for the show?" Fred asked, thinking Harry was getting cold feet in "Bonding" with Draco in such a public manner.

"I am fine, everything will go smoothly," Harry said, taking Fred's hand and bringing it to his mouth to kiss his First Mate on his knuckles.

"Yes 'cause we are all such thespians and actors," Fred said, elongating both words to make Harry laugh a little.

As the carriage pulled up to the front entrance, Harry and Fred got out, seeing a familiar blonde hair. Harry once more stopped in place as Draco's hair color was so similar to the color of his new Alpha. He shook himself as he realized he had almost missed his cue. "Shove off," Harry said after a longer pause than they had planned. As they had planned, Harry looked into Draco's eyes and let a shocked expression come to his face as he called out in a slightly higher voice, "Mate." Draco ripped off his cloak to let his silver Veela wings out while Harry made his single wing flutter as if it was leading Harry to jump into Draco's arms. There were gasps of shock as Draco wrapped his arms possessively around Harry's form.

"Well, lucky me, Bonded to a Malfoy," Fred said as he followed Draco to the Slytherin table as if afraid to leave Harry alone with Draco at the Slytherin Table. Fred looked annoyed as he sat next to Draco who had repositioned Harry into sitting on his lap, the red-head doing his best not to send a wink to George at the Gryffindor table or wiggle his eyes at Theo since the other Slytherin boy was one of the few in the know about Harry's mates outside their group at the moment.

It was a good thing that no one knew how long one of Harry's bonding to his Mates normally lasted, for he was able to 'come back to himself' as soon as the food arrived. Though he made no move to leave Draco's lap. Harry looked around as Draco began to put food on a plate for him, thinking that the blonde was giving their story away as he knew what Harry's favorite foods were without asking.

"Wow, Draco, wait until your parents hear about this, I mean Krum is one thing, but Potty and a Weasel," a voice said, making Harry, Fred, and Draco glare at Pansy, who cowered at the combined look. With a nod of satisfaction, Harry shifted his gaze from the bully of a girl only to catch the eyes of a tall, dark skin male sitting on her other side. The teen looked like he was about to point out that it was strange that Draco knew Harry's choice of food before he tilted his head to the side. Looking deep into Harry's eyes, he winked before letting out a feather from the back of his neck and letting it settle in like a collar just as the blonde-haired girl had done back at Hogsemead Station.

"Just go with it, my Angel," the voice in his head said.

Acting as if the dark-skinned male was his last Mate, Harry shouted out " ALPHA." The Hall fell silent as Harry used his wings to fly off of Draco's lap and flew over the table to settle in on the stranger's lap.

"His name is Blaise, Harry, Blaise Zabini, and while he does not look it, he and I are Creature Siblings. Not only that, but we both come from the line of Merlin. I will explain later, as well as why I had you do this. Everything is fine, my Angel," the voice in his head explained as what felt like a kiss was planted on his forehead.

"Blaise. Alpha," Harry muttered as he buried his face in his real Alpha's Creature Sibling's chest.

"Hello Little One," Blaise said in a deep voice so unlike the one Harry was hearing in his head, which was higher and almost sing-songy if that was a word. While he had not connected to his real Alpha yet, Harry was shocked to feel his wings retract into him. As Draco passed over Harry's plate of food, the conversation in the hall was silenced again as over at the Ravenclaw table, Harry's real Alpha stood up screaming as if she was about to die.

"It is alright, Harry, this is part of my plan," the voice in his head told him as the Eagle feather sprouted from her neck again before she collapsed in a heap on the floor of the hall. Even if it was not his Alpha, Harry would have liked to think he would do the same thing as he brought out his wings again and flew over to the Ravenclaw girl's collapsed form. He felt a powerful spark as he gathered the girl into his arms before heading back to Draco and Fred.

The voice in his said told him this was all an act, but he wanted it to look good, so he gently laid his Alpha at the pair of Healer's feet. "Please heal her," he said, making his voice sound like he was begging them for help while staying on his knees to remain close to his Alpha.

As Fred and Draco pulled out their wands to look over the girl, Harry worried about what would happen when they scanned her, for if this was all an act, there would be nothing they could do for her. Before they could do anything, however, an unfamiliar voice said, "Put those away, you two, and let a train a professional deal with this... girl."Something about the woman's tone and manner, even if she looked like a toad dressed in pink, raised Harry's hackles.

"Get away from her," Harry barked and might have launched himself at the toad-like woman if not for the fact that his Alpha shifted her body slightly and gently placed a hand on his arm to calm him down, and Severus appeared as if one of the others had summoned him.

"You might want to be careful, Dolores. Potter seems to be acting purely on instinct. And from his tone, he sees you as a threat. I think for the safety of you and everyone else, it might be a good idea to send him to the rooms Professor Krum had worked on before term started. Heir Zabini, please help your new Submissive along.  Heir Malfoy, see to Miss Lovegood if you don't mind," Severus said before leading them out of the hall.

Viktor soon joined them as they headed up the main staircase, taking over the lead to show everyone to their rooms, a side corridor in the sixth-floor lakeside hallway. "The password to get inside is Avalon," Viktor said at the door, making it open and ushering everyone inside.

"Alright, let's see to Luna," Draco said as he laid his distant cousin on her father's side onto a couch in what appeared to be a sitting room.

"That will not be necessary," Luna said, shocking everyone apart from Harry and Blaise as she sat right up.

"Dear Merlin Luna, what gives?" Draco asked, clutching at his heart.

"It is for Harry and all your protection," she said simply.

"Our protection?" Severus asked.

"Yes, I am afraid I had to do something that made it seem like Blaise is Harry's Alpha, not me," she said.

"Say, What?!?" Fred asked.

"I don't know the full story, but when I caught Harry's eye on the platform and my creative side was awakened, I got a let's say crash course in what is going on. Harry has gained an inheritance that is not only rare but powerful, which was last seen, though not documented, in the Hogwarts Founders and their combined mate. I don't know what happened back then, but at one point, something happened that even with all the power Harry's predecessor had, one or more of the Nest got hurt and nearly died. It seems that the ones who got hurt were the Healers, so they turned to Merlin for help. Whatever Merlin did caused his family to be added to the Nest and passed over the family line to the person who goes through the inheritance, so we can know when we are needed to help. As all but Harry know, it is customary for a large Nest to hide a member of their number for the protection of the others. Well, from the sending I got when I caught Harry's eye, the Magic of Merlin bade me to keep my identity secret as well.

"But if you are the Alpha," Severus said.

"And that is the rub, one of the two members of a Nest that can not be hidden would be an Alpha. Thankfully, Blaise was around as my Creature's Sibling, so he could step into the role. Now, everyone will believe Blaise is Harry's Alpha and will not know what is really going on. Besides my role being added to the Nest by Merlin, and while I will care for and protect Harry, there will never be any sexual attraction between us. Well, obviously, since the magic of his inheritance sought you all out, showing he prefers males," Luna explained while Harry curled up next to her on the couch. It should have made him annoyed that she was speaking as if he were not there, but it did not bother him at all.

"So, how would this work exactly?" Draco asked. "Don't get me wrong, I am glad that Blaise decided to help, he did decide and is not being forced to do this, is he?"

"I am not being controlled, Draco, stop worrying. As Luna said, we are Creature Siblings, which means I am also of the line of Merlin and thus was groomed to protect those who went through Harry's inheritance if it happened during my life. And while I don't feel the same need to protect Harry as any real Alpha would, through my sibling bond with Luna, I feel a part of it. But I also will not be doing anything of a sexual nature with any of you. No offense," Blaise explained.

"None, taken," Fred said.

"So while Blaise distracts everyone being Harry's Alpha, I shall work behind the scenes to protect not only him but all of you. Starting with this," Luna said, as she reached into Harry's robes and pulled out the test he had gotten done at Gringotts, which showed everything that Albus, Molly, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione had done to him. "I will also compile a list of crimes that anyone has committed against any of us. Such as Granger, who must have done something to Viktor to get him to take her to the Yule Ball last year."

"That's right, why would you go with her?" Harry asked, perking up.

"Draco, if you would be so kind," Luna said, leading the Slytherin Ice Prince to cast a diagnostic charm on Viktor. As the physical healer of their Nest got the results, Luna called out, "Can any House Elf who works with Hogwarts please bring the plates of food anyone here had made down in the Great Hall?" With a chorus of popping sounds, plates of food appeared in front of everyone.

"To stay hidden, I will not be staying in these rooms obviously, but how will I explain your presence here, Luna?" Severus asked as they began to eat.

"Due to how rare it is for someone to go through a Creature Inheritance before they are of age, and if people were paying attention, they might have noticed that Blaise and my creatures have the same features. It would be best to let everyone know that to make sure I remain healthy I need to bond a little with Blaise during the day, and since I am only a Fourth Year and not in Slytherin House like he is the best way to do it is to give me one of the spare rooms here," Luna explained.

"How will we work that out anyway?" Harry asked. "I assume there are spare rooms?" he asked, turning to Viktor.

"At the moment, there are three bedrooms, one of which is for you to share like at Potter Manor. Since I knew Severus would not be staying, I set aside paired rooms for Draco, Fred, and me to share when we are not with you. I guess for the moment, one room can be used by Blaise for his personal use. And you can just share your room with one of us or all of us each night," Viktor said.

"Why not just make more rooms?" Harry asked.

"Since I knew who was all in our Nest at the moment, I set the rooms up as I did. I also saved them just to prevent, say, Dumbledore, not liking you being here with Draco or someone who is not one of his pawns, and he tried to interfere it would not update. The only way the rooms can be changed now is if you get pregnant, so we need to add space for any kids we might have. We can do a full tour after our meal, but besides the three main rooms, there is a Master Bathroom connected to your room, Harry, and two secondary bathrooms, which are just a toilet and sink that can be reached through the hallway. One room is just a shower that can change into a bathtub if you like. There is this sitting room," Viktor said, pointing over his shoulder at a pair of wingback seats before the fire. "We can sit anywhere, but those two seats are reserved for Harry and, I guess, Luna. There is also a kitchen, which Professor McGonagall said we are free to use to make our own meals during Friday nights and the weekends. And just like at the Manor, Draco, I forbid you to enter it." Viktor then turned to Luna to explain, "While Draco is our physical healer, he can not cook and one time even set water on fire, so by the order of the Manor's House Elves, he has been barred from the kitchens even to pick up food to pass on to everyone else."

"That sounds rather impressive, Draco," Luna said, making Draco blush as he continued to look over the scan he took of Viktor.

"It was not my intention," Draco muttered before saying in a louder voice. "I found what she did to you."

"Hm?" Viktor asked.

"When Granger got you to invite her to the Ball. She used a love potion, or at least I hope she did, for it made your body react as if it was exposed to scents Harry might give off when he wants to have sex," Draco said.

"Did you have to put it that way?" Harry asked, his face turning completely red as he buried it in his hands.

"Sorry, kitten," Draco said. "That was just the best way to say it."

"Do better next time, then. Not that I want there to be a next time, but still," Harry said, his response muffled by his hands.

Helping Harry by changing the topic, Luna asked, "So is there anyone I can contact to help me make the list of stuff done to Harry and the rest of you?"

"I would suggest Bonebreaker, Harry's Account Manager," Viktor said. "Last we heard, he was doing an audit of Harry's vaults, so if anyone messed with them, it would be on the list.

"I see," Luna said thoughtfully. "Draco will not be the only one who has to do better, it seems."

"What do you mean?" they all asked.

"Well, first off, Draco, you made some mistakes after you "Bonding" with Harry earlier, you began to fill his plate with food without asking him what he wanted. Granted, you have been keeping a close eye on him for a while, but it might make you look like some sort of stalker if anyone saw you picking out his favorite foods without getting any input from him. Secondly," Luna said, shifting her gaze to look at everyone, apart from Blaise and Harry, in the eye, "you need to watch out for your placement in the Nest."

"What?" Harry asked.

"I am Alpha, and while I will be an untraditional Alpha, I would still be seen as the leader of the Nest, with Blaise serving as a basic puppet leader to anyone outside the nest or possibly our families. Harry is the Nest's Submissive, so his rank is obvious as well, but from what I have been able to see and sense, Viktor, you would be my right hand or the Nest's Beta, followed by Severus, Fred, and then Draco. While this might not be an issue but if Severus comes to ask you, a new teacher, even if you are part of the nest, when to anyone else he is an outsider, about the others in the nest, it might seem strange to outsiders."

"Hm, now that she mentioned it," Draco began.

"I guess we never noticed," Fred said.

"Now there is another issue," Luna said.

"What now?" Severus asked simply, not sounding annoyed as he might have with anyone else who was not part of their Nest.

"Classes. Most particularly Harry's classes," Luna said, turning to Harry, who was still curled up at her side. "Are you taking any class that no one else in this room is taking?"

"Well, Charms, History of Magic, and Herbology," Harry answered.

"That is easily solved since everyone saw you 'Bond' not only with Draco but Blaise as well, your schedule can be changed so you have lessons with the Slytherin Fifth Years," Severus explained.

"Good, that means that at least in all your classes, you will be accompanied by Draco and Blaise for your protection. Though if it comes to this trust Draco more than my brother," Luna said, causing Blaise to just shrug his shoulders as he ate his meal, not taking any slight from her comment.

"Speaking of classes," Severus said as he finished off his supper. "I want you all to be wary about Professor Umbridge. She has a very anti-Creature Stance, and since you have all been revealed to be Creatures, she might target you." Harry would have pointed out what harm she could do, for the woman who looked like a toad dressed in pink, but he recalled the sense of danger or evil about her when they were in the Great Hall, so he heeded the Nest' Attacker's advice. "And now, since I have finished with my supper, I should get going. I will not be able to come every night, so I might have to give you both detentions," Severus said, giving Fred and Harry a peck on the cheek to indicate who he was talking about, "so that we might cuddle sometimes." Harry and Fred blushed a little at the thought of cuddle detentions with Severus as everyone bade him goodnight.

After he left and the rest finished eating, Viktor gave them all a tour of their rooms. Showing off the simple bathrooms and shower room, the paired bedrooms, which Blaise claimed one of them right off the bat, rather than finish the tour with the others. Viktor showed that the beds in each room could be magically joined together or separated if they wanted to. When he finished the tour, it was decided that unless Harry wanted to do something with one of the others, he and Luna would share the Master Suite with the bed separated into at least two versions. Draco, since he had shared a room with Blaise in Slytherin, joined his old friend unless he was with Harry, while Viktor and Fred took the other double room. As Harry fell asleep that night, luxuriating in lying on his back which he had been unable to do since his wings had immerged with his Inheritance he felt complete even if he and his new Alpha would never sleep together, unless one counted him sleeping with his head in her lap or leaned up against her.

Chapter Text

Everyone settled in for the night after the short tour of their rooms from Viktor. Since it was the first night there, rather than sleep in a cuddle pile with Draco, Fred, and Viktor like he wanted to, Harry let his mates set up the shared rooms as they wished. With a small adjustment to the giant bed in the Master's Suite, Harry and Luna had separate king-size beds to sleep in. Before falling asleep, however, the pair sat up and talked for a bit. Harry shared with her everything he had found out since he had come into his inheritance. How the Gringotts test said he had specific skills, but he had been unable to access them yet, making him believe he had to find all his mates to do so. Harry shared with her all about Sirius and Remus, knowing that she would not turn his Godfather in.

Harry explained about how he had found the others, including Severus, and how, when he looked into the man's eyes, he had seen that the Potions Master had been under enchantments. Enchantments he could easily break before he found out Severus was one of his mates. Harry told her that Severus had been confused about how they could be mates since he had no recollection of even going through an inheritance of his own, leading him to take Harry to meet with Remus and Sirius. "He did it for we bonded right after I woke up, but before I had gotten fully dressed. Severus did not think he could ask anyone else for help with me clinging to him in nothing but my underwear," Harry said, making Luna giggle. "There was a problem when Severus and Fred took me to see Sirius and Remus, but I could pull myself out of my Bonding with Severus, seeing both of my Godfather and Remus had been enchanted as well. So I cleansed them."

"That is a powerful skill," Luna said.

"Well, the Goblins did say that my power increased so much when I went through the inheritance to whatever creature I became that I would be akin to the sun compared to the candle of normal Magicals. Since I also increased the powers of my Nest, I guess that makes you and the others akin to the planets that orbit me," Harry said.

"You mentioned a book you found in Camelot," Luna said, propping herself onto an elbow to look at him better. "Can I see it?"

"Sure, though I am the only one who has been able to see any writing in it," Harry said, digging the book out of his trunk.

"Ah, but while they are part of your/our Nest, I may have better luck since I am your Alpha," Luna said as she accepted the book from him.

"Good luck," Harry said as she opened the book at random.

"Fascinating," she said.

"What?" he asked.

"I can not only see the script and read it, but I can see the original writing. This book was written in a little-used Old English that was only ever used in Camelot, known as Merlanic Runes. Which makes perfect sense, of course," she said, flipping through the pages.

"Anything good?" Harry asked since he had barely read past the fifth page due to how busy he had been.

"Yes, but I think you will need to read it for yourself. Think of it as homework," she said, passing the book back to him. "From what I skimmed of the book, there are instructions on how to access the special skills of your inheritance if they do not develop on their own."

"Why would they not develop on their own if they were listed?" Harry asked.

"There are a couple of possibilities. One, despite them being unblocked, someone could have attached leeches to them as well, so they are around but are under someone else's control. Or two, your body might need to develop more before it can access the gifts. Think of it as all that power in your body, like air in a balloon; too much power and skill could make you pop and die, but if you developed more, it would be like adding other balloons to the fold. Those are just guesses, mind you," Luna said with a shrug. She waited until Harry climbed back into his bed after putting the book away again before getting out of her bed to tuck him in a little. While she was younger than him, her role as the Nest Alpha was one of guidance and protection, rather than being one of his Mates. "Now to sleep with you, my Angel," she said, laying a hand on his chest and giving his forehead a small kiss. Harry, who had almost no memories of the love of a parent, could not help but feel as if Luna was like his mom as his eyes closed and he drifted off into a deep and dreamless sleep.

The next morning, Harry awoke to find Luna was no longer in the room, letting him change his clothing in peace. He found her chatting with Fred in the main room. "I like the graph you placed in your and Viktor's room, displaying everyone and their connections to the Hogwarts Founders. And while it is out of the way, I would like you or Viktor to place a spell on it so only members of the Nest can see it. Just in case, Albus comes to our rooms when we are all attending class. For it reveals Severus's placement in our Nest but also a connection to the Founders he might not want or even fear us having."

"Good point," Fred said as he rushed back to his room to make the poster look like a team poster for Viktor's Quidditch Team.

"That was why I brought it up," she called after him, making Harry chuckle.

Once Fred came back from fixing the poster, the group left their rooms and headed down to the Great Hall. Since their room was not near any of the Common Rooms for a while, Luna walked with her arm around Harry's shoulders, but as they got to the more populated areas, she drew back, letting Blaise come forward and take Harry's hand before he began to swing their arms. Reaching the Great Hall, Harry, Draco, Fred, and Blaise went to sit at the Slytherin table while Viktor headed to the Head Table, and Luna sat at the Ravenclaw table. She did sit near them with her back to the group since the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables were right next to each other. Harry had a feeling that if she wanted to keep an eye on him or pass on a message, she would have sat on the other side so she could face them, making him decide to check out where she was seated before he sat down from now on. An upside to sitting so that Luna and he were back to back was that he did not have to watch his former friends and their reaction to his being bonded to Draco or "Blaise."

Fred, who was seated across from Harry and the others, was able to watch his younger siblings and Granger, seeing the trio had their heads together in a private discussion. Fred knew he would have to ask George, Katie, and Lee about what the trio had done the night before, as well as ask them to keep an eye on them. Based on the cursed gifts Ron and Ginny had sent Harry on the submissive's birthday, he could see the trio trying to pull something, thinking no one would be watching them. And while Fred was the one responsible for the Mental Health of their Nest, it did not mean he would not use the friends he had in Gryffindor to help protect Harry and the others. Almost as if his twin was waiting for Fred to catch his eye, George used some magic to send a parchemt folded up like a paper football over to the Slytherin table. Catching it, Fred read over the message before passing it on to Harry, Draco, and Blaise. George had warned them that while Ron, Ginny, and Hermione had been telling everyone in Gryffindor that Harry had just been enchanted, the group would also have to watch out for Seamus Finnigan since the Fifth Year was following the Ministry line when it came to Harry and his mental state.

Hearing this, Harry cursed Ron and Hermione for a moment, thinking that if the pair had not separated him from others in his year, Seamus might have known him better to see that the Prophet and Ministry were lying about him. But Harry decided he would not try to force his former dormmate or anyone else to believe him. Hedwig did come to deliver a letter, sent by Bill, Sirus, and the others back at Potter Manor, asking in code, if the plan had been successful. Harry wrote back in the same code that not only had their plan worked, but he had found his Alpha. After what Luna had said the night before, he did not tell them who his Alpha was, not knowing how closely Luna wanted to keep her part in his Nest a secret even to their families.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, I was asked to give you this from your head of house since you find it necessary to darken the table with your presence," Severus said in his normal tone, though with a sparkle in his eyes at his young mates. Draco and Fred shot him some dark looks, though those also did not reach their eyes as the Potion Master hands out their new class schedules. Harry looked over the parchment and saw that he had double potions right off the bat, followed by lunch, and then a single period of Charms, and finally History of Magic. For once, Harry was actually looking forward to Potions after the tutoring during the last month; he felt like he could actually stand on his own in Potions.  That, plus the added fact that he would be near his eldest mate, was great. The only downside was that Potions was with Gryffindor, so he would be in the same room and possibly interact with Ron and Hermione for the first time since he had bonded with Fred.

"I am so ready to prove I am no dunderhead this year," Harry said for the benefit of all around him, apart from Theo and his mates.

"I really don't see that happening, Potter," Pansy said with a chuckle as she found his enthusiasm quite a stark difference from the normal atmosphere of the table.

"Stranger things have happened, Pansy, after all, what are the chances Blaise and I would be the golden boy of Gryffindor's mates?" Draco asked, ruffling Harry's hair playfully.

Harry arrived at Potions earlier than the rest of the students, apart from Draco and Blaise, whom he dragged along with him, just so he could have some alone time with his eldest Mate. "Did you sleep well, Sweetie?" Severus asked, hugging Harry tight to his chest.

"I was out like a light after some talked with the Alpha," Harry said, not saying Luna's name just in case. "We found out something interesting. We can both read the book I found while we were house hunting."

"That is remarkable," Severus said, his eyebrows raising in surprise.

"Alpha told me to take time to read the book like it was homework, so I know what I will be doing in the free period, which I used to have in Divinations," Harry said.

"You will have to tell us what you learn," Severus said as he gave Harry another hug before pushing him over to Draco and Blaise, as his enhanced hearing from his Drak inheritance let him know that the rest of the class was approaching.

Severus started his class with a ten-minute lecture on what would be expected of everyone that year, since they had their OWLs rather than an end-of-term test this time around. When he had finished, he had them start on the lesson portion before walking around the classroom to check on everyone's progress. Severus did his best not to linger too long around Harry and Draco's table, nor take out the anger on Granger and Ronald for what the pair had done to his Submissive. Severus decided he was going to stick it to Albus for what the bastard had done by going against the man's wishes and ingratiating himself with Longbottom.

Reaching the table where Longbottom was brewing his potion, rather than spurning the teen's efforts, Severus stepped in, shocking the boy as he gave Neville a one-on-one lesson on how best to prepare his ingredients. "Mr. Longbottom," Severus said in a low voice so as not to distract the other students, "I think to better prepare you for your Potion OWLs, I need to teach you the best way to prepare your stock. Not to be rude, but we can not have to disrupt classes this year with melting cauldrons every week. So I want you to come to my office after supper on a night that works for you so we can get you better prepared for your test."

"Um, thank you, Professor," Neville said, a little shocked.

"I can not understand how you can have such trouble with the plant-based items here. Professor Sprout always said you are the best student in your year in her class. I want to find out if your issue is with the non-plant ingredients or if perhaps you have a Block on Potion Making that I need to report," Severus said as he began to talk Neville through how to cut up his dittany.

Ron's POV

He just could not figure out what had gone wrong with the plan the Headmaster had told him and Hermione about. The man had said that he had placed blocks on Harry, making it impossible for him to go through an inheritance and thus easier to control. If perchance Harry had somehow gotten his inheritance, measures were in place to make sure his mate would be Ginny so that they could take over all his vaults. But seeing Harry become mated to one of the twins of all people, and their plan seems to fall apart, was hard enough. Now seeing Harry and one of the twins mated with two snakes one of which was Draco Malfoy was enough to lead Ron to plan a way to get Harry back under their control, so as Hermione worked on their potion, Ron thought of a way to get Harry sent to the Hospital Wing so they could put Harry back under his compulsions and potions.

Remembering his second year when he and Harry had to cause a distraction in class that had caused a cauldron to explode and douse people with the potions. It was all too easy since Harry was well known for his poor potion-making skills; it would not shock anyone to see him cause an explosion, so he would not even get any blame. Making sure Snape was still busy with Neville, he pulled out his wand and cast a hovering charm to cause some porcupine quills to go into the cauldron while it was still on the fire, making it begin to bubble. He watched excitedly as the cauldron began to rock back and forth, but just as it was about to explode, Malfoy pushed Harry out of the way and took the brunt of the explosion. Ron just shrugged, sure he did not get Harry, but at least Malfoy got hurt.

Normal POV

Severus looked up from Neville's cauldron, seeing that Longbottom was doing better and the Potion looked like it was supposed to, when he heard an explosion. His heart sank seeing Harry's Potions had exploded, and to protect their Submissive, Draco had pushed Harry out of the way, taking the explosion right to his face. While he wanted to comfort Harry and make sure Draco was alright, Severus had a part to play in his Nest's protection. "Can you not follow simple instructions, Potter?" He almost winced seeing Harry's reaction to his harsh words, but he could not comfort Harry with everyone else in the room. "Blaise, take that Submissive of yours and follow me as I see to Heir Malfoy," Severus said, gathering his Godson and the lowest-ranked Dominant of their Nest into his arms.

Blaise, while he was pretending to be Harry's Alpha and did want to protect him, was not fully focused on Harry's mental state or even Draco's injury as he turned to Theo. "Theo, make sure that Harry's potion is not cleared away or anyone gets close to the cauldron," Blaise ordered his friend, having been informed by Draco last night that Theo knew all about Harry's Nest.

"Um, sure, but why?" Theo asked.

"Well, Harry has never messed up a potion so badly before. So I want to make sure his Creature side did not cause him to get worse at it, or if there is another reason it exploded," Blaise said, making Theo nod his head. Theo had not only heard but sat in on several of Severus and Draco's tutoring sessions with Harry in Potions during the summer, yet nothing had happened then. Blaise took the nod from his friend as agreement as he helped Harry out of the room, following Severus. Since the Potions Master had to act like he normally did towards Potter, he had not slowed down, forcing Blaise to hurry Harry along to catch up with them.

Reaching the Hospital Wing, Severus had to stop himself from biting Poppy's head off when, rather than start healing Draco, she only focused on Harry. Granted, the Submissive was in a small state of shock, making Severus guess he was afraid he was responsible for the accident. His anger toward the Medi-Healer would not even be anything new since her actions towards students in Slytherin had always been disgusting, as she either did not treat them or gave them the wrong potions or procedures, making their healing take longer.

It was thanks to her that at the beginning of each year, he would connect each of his students to a special sensor that would track any damage they might experience outside the classroom or at Quidditch that might require him to seek medical attention. As Severus made Poppy treat Draco, he wondered if he should create a sensor package for the members of his Nest just in case. For while Harry's magic might be overpowered now, he was still only mortal as far as Severus knew, and thus could still get hurt. "And not just physically," Severus thought as he watched Harry sit beside Blaise, his Avada-green eyes never leaving Draco's form.

Severus wanted to stay by Harry's side, but there was no reason to do so, and while Blaise was good, he felt Harry needed a real member of his Nest, so he made his way out of the room to get Fred to stay with Harry by Draco's bedside. Kicking himself for not working out a non-verbal code to pass messages to Harry and the others, Severus made his way out of the room to collect Fred. This turned out harder than he thought it would be since the Seventh Year male was in Dolorus's class and she utterly refused to let him leave the room. Severus could not get Viktor to go either since their Nest's Beta was in the middle of teaching at the moment. And unfortunately, just like if he had stayed, there would be no logical reason to send Luna to the Hospital Wing. He just hoped he could catch the young Alpha and explain what had happened and why he had to leave Harry basically alone for a while.

Having nothing else to do, Severus headed back down to the Potions Classroom to check Harry's cauldron to see if he could find out what had gone wrong with the Potion. "Heir Nott, why are you still here?" Severus asked as he entered the room to find Theo the only one still there. While he had not dismissed the rest of the class, he had not expected anyone to stay after he left with Draco, Harry, and Blaise.

"Blaise asked me to stay behind and make sure Harry's cauldron was not cleaned," Theo said.

"I see," Severus said approvingly of Blaise's actions while he had been distracted by what had happened to Draco. "I thank you for your work, I shall take it from here."

"Yes, Sir," Theo said as he gathered his bag and left the room, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he was alone, Severus began to study the contents of Harry's destroyed cauldron and what little potion was still inside it. Not sure if it might still be dangerous, Severus got down on his knees to take a sniff of the potion to see if the senses he had cultivated during his time to gain his Master's could detect anything. After a couple of sniffs, Severus was able to detect a faint whiff of porcupine quills. This confused him since there were no quills to be added to this potion. Even before the tutoring Draco and he had given Harry during the summer, this was not a type of mistake Severus could see Harry making. Nor had there been anything in class that might have distracted Harry, at least until Draco got hurt, which could have led to him pulling out a completely unneeded ingredient.

During the tutoring session at Potter Manor, Draco had mentioned that in the past, he had sometimes thrown stuff into Harry's brew to mess it up. Severus's anger at hearing this had almost led him to attack the lower-ranked Dominant for his carelessness. But knowing it had happened in the past could mean that someone could have tossed something into Harry's cauldron today. Unfortunately, if this were the case, he would be unable to know who did it. That is, unless the perpetrator was dumb enough to do so by magical means. Just to rule it out, Severus cast a spell on the lump of melted metal and ruined potions, thinking he would get no magical trace besides Harry and Draco. Possibly Blaise, but that was it. He was therefore shocked when he found traces of Ron Weasley's Magic attached to the Cauldron.

Severus saw red as every instinct he had as Harry and Draco's Nestmate called for him to flay the young redhead alive with his Drak talons. Only a couple of things prevented him from acting on his instincts. One was that he was not sure what his actions would do to Fred, for even after everything, Ron was still Fred's brother. Secondly, if he acted now, it would reveal his placement in the Nest to everyone, and his Drak would not allow that. Finally, a more powerful instinct was also calling for him to inform Luna so she could pass her judgment on what to do as the Nest's Alpha.

Seeing that it was almost the end of the period, Severus went to look for Luna to explain what had happened. He would use the idea of him having just figured out about her needing to stay in Harry and "Blaise's" rooms every night so she would remain healthy as an excuse for why he had sought her out. After he figured out what she wanted to do about Ron, he would stop by the Hospital Wing to see how Harry and Draco were doing.

In the hospital wing, Blaise had gone to have a private chat with Madam Pomfrey over her treatment, or lack thereof, towards Draco, thus giving Harry some alone time with an actual Mate. Once he was alone, Harry could not fight back the tears that came to his eyes just knowing, no matter what Severus had said on the trip up here, that it was his fault the potion had exploded and hurt Draco. Harry was so lost in his misery that he did not hear the loud voices approaching the Wing until the doors crashed open.

"I Don't Care, Let Me See My Son!" Lucius screams as the doors to the wing bang open. "Dra.... why is Potter here?" Lucius asked, seeing the boy next to his son, before whirling on Severus. "Severus, why is Potter here?  Parkinson informed me it was the potion he and Draco were working on that exploded, and I know the mistake was not caused by my son?" Harry's heart fell at the words, hearing that someone else knew this was all his fault.

"It was not Potter's fault that your son was injured, Lucius," Severus said angrily at his old friend, seeing the hurt flash across Harry's face from Draco's dad's words.

"Then why is he here at all?" Lucius spat.

"Because he is my mate," Draco said weakly, sitting up in bed, having regained consciousness while everyone had been looking at his dad.

"He's your what?" Lucius asked, getting weak in his knees, that his son was mated to his Master's target, and what the boy's death might do to his son.

"Yes, last night when they came into the hall, the pair locked eyes and Harry found your son to be one of his Dominants," Severus said, speaking the lie they had all come up with

"Oh, Draco," Draco's mom said, moving past her stunned husband and hugging both her son and his new mate.

"Mum," Draco said, letting out a slight cough, which caused her to let him go.

"Heir Potter, it is nice to meet you, I am Narcissa Malfoy," Narcissa said, holding out her hand to Harry, who looked at it wearily before he saw Severus give him a small nod behind Draco's parents' backs.

"Hello Lady Malfoy," Harry said, taking her hand, but rather than shaking it, he found himself pulled into a hug by the woman.

"Enough with the Lady Malfoy, Harry, do you mind if I call you Harry?   You are one of my son's Mates, call me Cissa or Mum," she said as he ended the hug and held him at arm's length to give him a once-over.

"Narcissa, we can not," Lucius started, only to stop at a look from his wife.

"Now, Luci, you know a person has no control over who Lady Magic chooses as their mate," she said, making Severus chuckle as well as Draco, which turned into a racking cough. At the coughs, Narcissa turns to her son and casts some diagnostic spells on him to see what was wrong, wondering where bloody Medi-witch was.

"Ah, not too bad, Dray, the potion just caused some build-up in your throat, a simple cleansing potion should clear you right up," Narcissa said once she read the results of her scan.

"Cleansing?" Harry asked, turning to Draco and letting his Mage Sight come forth to see if he could spot the problem.

"Yes, it is a Potion made only by the highest level healers or Potion Masters, Sev dear, do you think you could," Narcissa said, but Harry did not hear any more as he spotted the problem, a black aura clinging to the side of his mate's throat.

"That should not be necessary,' Harry said as he reached forward and, with a tap of a finger and a small portion of his magic, performed the cleansing. Both Lucius and Narcissa look on in shock as Harry's magic becomes visible and performs the cleansing. Once his blonde Mate was cleansed, Harry smiles and, without thinking, climbs into the hospital bed beside him and curls up against Draco's chest. "Thank you for protecting me, Dray," Harry whispers as he grabs two handfuls of Draco's robes and begins to let his tears out onto the other boy's chest.

"It is alright, Kitten," Draco said, laying a kiss on Harry's forehead, not caring that his parents were watching them. Suddenly, the doors to the Hospital Wings burst open again as Fred and Viktor walk in and stop at seeing the sight of Harry curled into Draco's chest as Sev and both Malfoy's parents look on in shock.

"Ah, Viktor, it is nice to see you again," Narcissa said, spotting her son's other mate breaking the awkward silence that had developed since Harry had cleansed Draco with a single finger.

"Cissa," Viktor said with a bow before going to his two mates cuddling on the bed.

"You are a Weasley, correct?  You do not appear to be hurt, could you leave this is a private affair," Narcissa said a little haughtily, making Fred glare at her.

"I know it is private, but I will not let you block me from making sure one of my Mates is okay," Fred said as he walked past her to join the others around the bed.

"Mates, my son is mated to both Potter and a Weasley," Lucius said as he finally faints dead away while Narcissa is left speechless as Fred reaches Draco's bedside and kisses her son's forehead and ran his fingers through Draco's perfect blonde hair; something Draco does not even allow her to do as he was very specific when it came to his hair.

While Narcissa went to check on her husband to make sure he had not been hurt when he fainted, Severus moved in and had a quick whispered conversation with the members of his Nest. "Harry, it was not your fault. After trying to get Fred out of class, I went to check on your cauldron. It seems Ron decided to add some extra ingredients to your potion, leading to its explosion. Draco, Fred, and Viktor's faces turned thunderous at the news.

"This was an attack, plain and simple," Draco said through clenched teeth. "And if I had not taken the brunt of it, Harry would have. Ron targeted Harry; this can not go unpunished. Sorry, Fred."

"Sorry, nothing, the little bastard deserves to be thrown into a spider's nest for going after Harry," Fred said.

"It is the Alpha's job to pass judgment, though," Viktor reminded them.

As the members of the Nest tried to imagine what sort of punishment Luna would choose for Ron, they all looked into space. Harry's gaze fell on Draco's dad's prone form, which Cissa had propped onto one of the spare beds. Without being conscious of doing so, Harry left his Mates and headed over to Lucius's form. "Harry?" Draco asked.

"Bad Magic," Harry said, seeing what looked like a line of tainted magic connecting Draco's dad's head and right arm.

"Bad Magic?" Narcissa asked, confused.

"It seems Potter can detect foreign and dangerous enchantments on people," Severus explained. "And he sees some attached to Lucius."

"Can he... can he fix it like he did to Draco?" Narcissa asked.

"It is possible," Severus said, not wanting to give too much away regarding Harry's power increase.

"Then, Harry, please help my husband," Narcissa bade him. Giving her a nod, Harry approached Draco's dad and laid a hand on the man's head and arm. As he touched the two points where the bad magic was coming from, his mind was filled with a vision. In the vision, he saw Lucius proudly get marked, knowing he was joining the movement to stop Albus Dumbledore from weakening Magic and outlawing Creature-Blooded Magicals. Yet something happened about a year later as corruption started to bleed from the mark, making Lucius and everyone else who had been Marked go slightly mad.

Gone were the ideals to bring Dumbledore down using legal means and non-violent protest. Now, anyone who had been Marked started to see Muggles and Muggleborns as a threat to them, leading to countless attacks. The corruption also made the person who had been Marked fall in line with what Dumbles classified Slytherins and Death Eaters as. Harry could not help but wonder if the corruption had somehow come from Dumbles in the first place, thus making the Death Eaters into an enemy he could face, so the bastard could play the hero to the public.

Harry wished had had not just cleansed Severus completely but had taken the time to look into all the enchantments he had been under.  Sure, Draco had scanned him afterwards, but something like this enchantment, which seemed to be transferring to the 'host' via the Dark Mark, would not have been logged.  Severus had been keyed to be loyal to Voldemort, but what if the enchantment had not been placed by Voldemort himself but by Dumbles? Harry could not tell if the corruption attached to the mark had been done by Voldemort or another, since while there was a connection between the corruption and Lucius, there was no way to determine the origin of the corruption from this end. He hoped that Lucius might be able to share what type of man Voldemort was back when he got Marked, since the man had been proud to have it done to him. So, hoping Draco's dad was not a bad guy despite being Marked, Harry began to get rid of the corruption, which tired him out a little, for it kept coming back until he placed a magical block around the Mark on Lucius's right wrist.

Chapter Text

Unlike when he cleansed Severus, Sirius, and Remus, Lucius did not wake up right away after Harry blocked the negative magic from seeping out of the Dark Mark. It may have had to do with the fact that Harry had to repair the damage done to Draco's father from the cursed mark and block off any more of the curse from invading the man's body, but Lucius fell into a small coma. Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey was still in her office being berated by Blaise for her mistreatment of Draco, so she had not seen Harry cleanse his lowest rank mate or Lucius. Narcissa, being a fully trained Healer, ensured her husband was alright, but did not want to tax Harry anymore in trying to get him out of the coma. She had decided that when she saw Harry move away from her husband after getting Cleansed and nearly collapse into Severus's arms.

Thus, Narcissa Malfoy learned that Severus Snape, the man she and her husband had chosen to be Draco's Godfather, was now part of their son's Mateship along with the Weasley boy and Potter. She was almost glad Lucius was not awake to learn this, having a feeling he would have fainted right away again after he found out. She made a vow to protect the secret of Severus' involvement in their Nest even from Lucius until they felt right to do so themselves. "Thank you, Narcissa," Severus said after passing a weak Harry over to Viktor. "I would suggest you get Lucius out of here before anyone discovers he is in a coma, but I believe Blaise is dealing with Madam Pomfrey in her office at the moment."

"I should at least say hello to your group's Alpha so they know your Nest's secret member is safe with me," Narcissa said, heading to the door.

"Alpha is busy," Harry said quickly before he told her why Blaise had left him alone with Draco to talk to the Matron. Keeping their Nest's other Secret of who the Real Alpha was.

"The Bitch," Narcissa swore shocking Draco who had never seen his mother do so. "I will file a full report on her actions not only to the current Hogwarts Governors but the Healer Oversight Committee. Though that does leave us a problem of how to get Lucius out of here without anyone seeing."

"I can help," Fred said, giving a wide smile.

"How can you possibly help Mr. Weasley?" Narcissa asked.

"First off, you can just call me Fred," Fred said with a somewhat flirty and playful wink.

"Dude, knock it off and explain," Draco groaned at him.

"Right well, apart from Peevees, my brother George and I know this castle the best, so tell me what you need and I will help you get it," Fred said, performing an overenthusiastic bow to her.

"She will need a fireplace that is not being watched by the Ministry or a way to exit the castle easily while handling Lucius," Severus said, cutting to the chase.

"I know just the place," Fred said, bouncing to his feet, giving Harry, then Draco a kiss, before moving over to help Narcissa move Lucius' body out of the Ward before anyone saw him.

Ron's POV

Ron was happy that his additions to Harry's potion, while not hurting Harry, had ended up sending Malfoy to the Hospital Wing. The only downside was that he had been unable to clear up the remains of Harry's Potion thanks to Nott standing guard over it while everyone else left the class after Snape dealt with Malfoy's pain. Though Ron could not see what that would do for even if he could not clear the failed Potions away, Ron did not see Snape checking it before doing so. After all, the old dungeon bat hated Harry and always complained about his lack of skills. That 'Harry's mistake' hurt one of Snape's precious snakes would make it even less likely that the man would try to find the reason Harry had failed. Ron thought he should talk to the Headmaster about it, for surely Snape would assign Harry a detention, which the Headmaster could take control of, letting them reapply the potions, enchantments, and other spells they had placed on the famous boy to make him follow their plans.

All Ron had to do was figure out when to go see the Headmaster to give him the news. Thankfully, now that he and Hermione were Prefects, they had an excuse to head to his office, unlike the previous years when they had to sneak out after he borrowed Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Ron also wanted to visit the Headmaster without Hermione, who had begun to get stressed out at all the homework they had to do that year; she had not found it as funny as he did that Draco was the one who got hurt during Potions. Ron had wisely decided not to tell her after seeing how unfunny she had found it that he had been the one to cause the potion to explode. Ron had shared it with Ginny, making them both laugh and try to figure out a way to get Harry away from the likes of Malfoy, Zabini, and their older brother.

Normal POV

Fred was able to help Narcissa get Lucius safely out of the castle without anyone spotting them, apart from the Magic Portraits, who he knew would never tell anyone else. After all, they never snitched on him and George when they set up pranks around the castle. As he started back to the Hospital Wing, Fred ran into Luna, looking as if she was just wandering the castle by herself.

"I sensed something.  What happened?" Luna asked after the pair of them were alone.

"There was an incident in Potions," Fred said before explaining what had happened and what Severus had found. Fred was so used to seeing Luna happy and go-lucky no matter what happened to her, that he had to stop himself from giving a small chuckle as he saw her bristle in anger.

"It is your brother, Fredrick," Luna said, shocking him by the use of his formal name. "What do you suggest be his punishment?"

"I would want him to be sent to Azkaban for his natural-born life, but that might upset Dad," Fred admitted.

"As would his death, I take it," Luna said in such a casual tone it sent a small chill down his back.

"Um, yeah. But he did attack Harry, and after the display during the feast last night, it clearly showed Harry is a Submissive, so a targeted attack towards him or one of our Nest must be answered. I guess the best we could do to show him leniency is to expel his fucking ass and have them snap his wand. Place a Black Mark on his record so no other school would take him in as a student, and he would have trouble getting a job."

"Seems the least we could do," Luna said with a smile. "Anything else?" Fred then reported Madam Pomfrey's actions once Severus had brought Draco to the Hospital Wing, the Malfoys' arrival, and Harry performed a Cleansing on Draco's dad.

"Draco's Mom also learned about Severus being our "hidden" Mate and vowed to keep our secret even from her husband until we agreed to share it with him ourselves. She also said she was going to report Madam Pomfry to both the Governors and the HOC," Fred explained.

"Good, we can send her the list of what she had done or failed to do to you, Harry, Draco, and Blaise since you started," Luna said, feeling she could leave the Matron to Narcissa.

"You might want to get in contact with Harry's Godfather and Remus to see if they have anything to add to that list," Fred advised.

"Good point," Luna admitted, "and if they have stuff, I guess Sev would as well."

Arriving at the Hospital Wing, they found Madam Pomfrey in a bad mood. "Miss Lovegood, what do you want?" she nearly growled at the girl when Luna walked in beside Fred.

"I asked Mr. Weasley to bring her here so I could inform you both what I found last night," Severus said, sounding annoyed as well.

"What's going on, Professor?" Luna asked her voice nearly dripping in innocence.

"After your collapse in the Great Hall last night and Potter's reaction to it, I had them take you to their rooms. Which I assume you were not so much of a dunderhead to realize you woke up this morning," Severus said.

"I did find it strange but nice," Luna said, moving to an open bed and hopping on to swing her feet.

"While you were in the rooms, I ran some tests on you to find out why your creature came out so soon," Severus growled as if he was annoyed with her laissez-faire attitude. "I found out that you and Heir Zabini are considered Magical Creature Twins. So when Potter found Heir Zabini to be his Alpha, it awakened your Creature. While you are not a part of your twin creature's nest due to your early inheritance to make sure you remain healthy, you will have to stay in their rooms every night. When the holidays come around and summer, we will have to discuss options with everyone's families to find further solutions to this hiccup."

"Surely when I am of age next year, this will not be a problem," Luna said, not sounding anywhere disturbed that she was being told that she would be moving in with Harry and the others.

"It is actually hard to say due to how rare twin creature siblings are, especially ones whose human parts are of different ages," Severus explained. "I will be sharing this with Professor Flitwick but since you stayed in the Nested rooms last night you at least do not have to waste everyone's time in moving your stuff into the rooms," Severus said as he turned on his heels and left the wing to go share the news with her Head of House.

When Flitwick learned of what needed to be done for his student, he was a little worried but also thankful since he had noticed some members of his house tended to pick on the young girl, but she never came to complain about it to him, so he could not get involved. He still planned to check in on her every once and a while since she would be staying with a Mated Nest, maybe give her distractions so she would not be in the way if Harry's creature had a Heat Cycle.

After Severus left the Hospital Wing, Harry and the others were quick to follow lest they stay with angry Pomfry who continued to glare at Blaise The group only talked again at the end of the day where Luna passed her judgment on what was to be done with Ron and Madam Pomfry's actions during the day. Luna then directed Blaise, acting as her puppet Alpha, to hand their judgment to the Headmaster. Blaise had Theo join him in heading to the Headmaster's rooms, accompanied by Viktor, who was showing them the way, as well as Severus, since the incident with Ron happened in his class.

The group arrived as Albus was meeting with Umbridge, just missing the old bastard passing over a set of cursed Blood Quills for her to use on the students. But thankfully, they arrived just in time before she thanked him by riding him. "Ah, Severus, Viktor, what can I do for you both? And why are Mr. Nott and Zabini with you?" Albus said with a grandfatherly smile that did not reach the man's eyes for stopping his fun with Dolores.

"Heir Zabini wants to deliver some judgment on someone who tried to attack a member of his Nest," Severus explained, moving to his normal spot in the office and leaning against one of the bookshelves.

"I see, I was unaware that Mr. Nott was a part of that nest," Albus said.

"Theo is not a member of my nest, but after Draco moved to protect Harry from his exploding cauldron, I had him watch over the cauldron until it could be tested. I know Harry is not good with potions, but he never made one of them explode before. I just wanted to be sure that his newly awakened creature side did not have something to do with it," Blaise explained.

"And since this would finally get Potter out of my class, I jumped at the chance to make certain," Severus said with such glee that Albus flinched a little, seeing the dark looks Blaise and Krum sent the man.

"And, Severus, what did you find?" Albus said to distract the two creature-blooded freaks from attacking his spy.

"It was neither Potter's dismal potion skill nor his creature that caused his potion to explode, but someone throwing an extra ingredient into the mix," Severus said.

"Oh dear," Albus said, sounding horrified. "Hence why Mr. Zabini talked about it being an attack, but if they just threw it in."

"Potter's attacker was dumb enough to use his own magic to send the ingredient into the cauldron, letting me find out his identity," Severus explained. "I had to share it with Potter's Nest before coming up here, which is why they are not all present for this meeting. For the attacker was none other than Messor Weasley's young brother, Ronald."

Albus silently swore to himself, knowing that because he was found to have attacked a Submissive member of a Nest, his main male pawn to deal with Potter was about to be killed. "Because he is Fred's brother, we decided to show him some sympathy," Blaise said, taking over the dialogue. "We are not calling for his life, but he will be expelled from the castle, his wand snapped, and a Black Mark placed on his records for attempting to attack a Submissive."

"Now, while that is generous of you, my boy. You must understand that Ronald's actions are due to how strange it was to find his best friend being bonded to you and spending so much time with you rather than him and their other friend, Miss Granger. I am sure we can drop the whole expulsion thing," Albus said quickly, not wanting to lose one of his pawns.

"If he is not expelled, I shall get in contact with your Ministry to have him arrested, which could lead to his death or life imprisonment. Something we agreed that none of us wants Fred having to deal with," Viktor said with a growl, playing the part of the Nest's Attacker rather than its Defender.

Seeing he had no choice, and knowing out of the two options, Molly would prefer this to her youngest son getting killed or sent to jail for life, Albus agreed to expel Ron from Hogwarts.

To make sure he kept his word, they stayed in his office as Ron was summoned from Gryffindor Tower to have his Wand snapped and sent home. Viktor and Severus made sure the parts of Ron's wand were not given to the young redhead, knowing that Albus might try to find a way to repair them or put them in something like what happened to Hagrid's wand. After the wand halves are tossed into the fire to dispose of them, and a Floo connection is opened to the Burrow to send Ron home, Severus and the others leave the Headmaster's office. At this destruction of his plans, Albus was no longer in the mood, so he sent Dolores away to try to figure out how to fix things.

When Viktor and Blaise returned to the Nest rooms, the Puppet Alpha moved to his bedroom to do his homework while Viktor shared what happened in Dumble's office. Everyone gave a small cheer while Luna ran a line through Ron's name on the list of anyone who had betrayed a member of their Nest. Knowing Draco's mother would handle Pomfry, Luna had already crossed out her name as well, leaving the Dursleys, Dumbles, Granger, Molly, Ginny, McGonagall, and Fudge for the moment. Viktor then asked how everyone had gotten along while he and Severus were dealing with Ron.

Fred and Draco had mostly been doing their homework, while Harry had been looking up in the Camelot book about how to recover some of his abilities. "I think that I will try one of the rituals that allows me to reclaim any abilities that might have been leeched from me to be given to another. That way, if they are attached to someone we don't have on Luna's list, we can add them," Harry explained. The trouble was for him to perform the ritual he could only get Luna's help in setting it up, since they were the only two who could read from the book, so at the earliest, it would be the weekend before they could perform the ritual.

Chapter Text

Before the group could return to their rooms after supper, Harry was accosted by Granger and Ginny. The good news was that while the pair were angry that Ron had been kicked out of school due to sabotaging Harry's cauldron, they could do nothing but chew him out due to the presence of Draco, Fred, and Blaise. Seeing what was going on, Viktor had gone over to "chat" with Severus about something as an excuse to make sure Harry's third-ranked Dominant did not reveal his role in the Mateship by targeting the two girls.

Luna, on the other hand, just skipped by the confrontation with a smile plastered on her face until she was out of sight of Granger and Ginny, where, if anyone could see her, they would be surprised by the scowl she now had. Since her role as Harry's Alpha was hidden, she had to trust her Creature Sibling and the two lowest rank dominants to protect Harry for the moment. As she skipped back to the Mated Rooms, Luna started to create plans on how to deal with the pair of girls for going after her Submissive, starting with letting it slip since it was not a well knowned fact that it had been Ginny who had opened the Chamber of Secrets back in their first year due to being enchagned by an evil artifact but had never been punished for it. The only problem was how to deal with Granger, since the girl's flaws were already known to most of her, using books as bludgeons, and shouting out answers when she felt others took too long.

"You made a mistake," Granger was saying, not technically screaming at them but speaking in a rather loud voice.

"You don't say," Blaise said, feeling a little awkward as he wrapped an arm around Harry's waist since he was meant to be the other's Alpha. Blaise knew things could be a lot worse, since Longbottom had not come forward yet. Blaise knew at one point that he would have to get away from everyone, since the results of his test at Gringotts had revealed that he was really Neville Longbottom's Alpha, not Harry's, and was only covering for his creature sibling.

"Yes, Harry made a mistake in Potions; there was no way that Ron did anything to his work. You may be his Alpha now, but you don't know him like Ron and I do. He always makes excuses when something is his fault rather than take the blame," Hermione said, shaking her head sadly as if disappointed in Harry.

"Oh, you mean like you apologized to Neville after casting the body bind on him back at the end of our First year? No wait, that was me," Harry shot back.  Harry was a little surprised to find Blaise's hand around his waist tighter at the news, but could not figure out the cause.

"That was not a mistake and you know it, Harry," Hermione said.

"If you had cast it just a few seconds later or earlier, Neville could have fallen a complete other direction and really hurt himself," Harry said, knowing this to be true since Neville had talked to him at the start of their second year to explain why he was avoiding Hermione for a bit since he had still been having nightmares about it.

"That is neither here nor there anyway, Granger," Draco cut in. "We were not the ones who found that Ronald had messed with Harry's Potion; it was Professor Snape. So, unless you think he would lie to get Ronald out of school for Harry's benefit, I don't see what the problem is."

"Ah, but due to Harry's mistake, you got hurt. He knew he could not send Harry away due to him going to be the one to stop You-Know-Who. So he got rid of my brother, knowing you have issues with our family," Ginny said.

"And while it would help Draco, Ron's being falsely blamed and kicked out would benefit me how?" Fred asked.

"Well, duh, you may be one of Harry's mates, but Ron is Harry's best friend," Hermione said.

"Professor Snape shared with me the results of his test, and due to my mother's job was able to verify they had not been altered before I passed my judgment on Ronald," Blaise said, trying to modulate his voice to make it sound like he was putting an end to the discussion before pulling Harry away from the two girls.  Though Blaise wanted to attack Granger, hearing what she had done to his submissive back in their first year.

Draco and Fred made sure the pair did not follow them to their rooms, not wanting to find the girls starting camping out to try to catch Harry on his own. As soon as they were sure they were clear and had entered their rooms, Blaise let go of Harry and made his way to the kitchen table to work on some homework as Fred, Draco, and Harry talked to Luna about the short confrontation with Harry's former friend and Fred's youngest sibling. "Fred, would you mind if I reveal that your sister was not punished for her actions concerning the Chamber of Secrets?" Luna asked.

"Go right ahead," Fred said. "Dad had wanted her to see a Mind Healer, but Molly absolutely forbade it. If the news spread, even though it has been several years, maybe we can finally get her to see the Healer."

"I can't see Molly taking that quietly, I would expect a Howler," Harry pointed out.

"First off, I have ways to deal with a Howler, and secondly, do you think I would be so careless that the information could be traced back to me, Angel?" Luna said, booping Harry's nose with a finger.

"Can you teach us that? The Howler thing, I mean," Fred asked.

"Of course," Luna said.

"Speaking of asking for help, Alpha, can you join me in performing a ritual I found in the Camelot book that will recover any abilities that the Goblins had on my list but I have not been able to access yet," Harry asked.

"Of course, Harry," Luna said, pulling Harry out of his wing-back chair and into her lap.

"Good, I had a whole spiel on how I would convince you if you said no," Harry laughed a little.

"Oh, you did, did you?" she asked, wrapping her arms around Harry's waist and making him feel protected and loved, unlike when Blaise did it, which made him feel like he was with a good friend.

"Yes, I was thinking that there is a chance that some of my abilities might have been given to others whom Dumbles sent money from my vaults to," Harry said.

"There is a possible chance of that, I admit. Which would give me more names for my list," Luna said, nodding at his reasoning.

"The thing is, the ritual the book talks about takes a couple of hours, so I think we will only be able to do it on a weekend," Harry said as he summoned the book over to them so Luna could take a look at it. Possibly seeing that the ritual could be done faster than he thought.

"I believe you are right," Luna said, giving the ritual a once-over.

"So what is this ritual?" Fred asked since only Harry and Luna could read the book Harry had found in the Warded city of Camelot.

"Last night, Harry pointed out that some of the magical abilities that were on the Gringotts test of him having, he had no access to. According to the book, the ritual that would require the use of both standard runes and the runes known to Merlin's family would be able to let him to gain access to his abilities again. Think of it as if someone had a Magical Leech on them sucking out magic from a person, yet rather than affecting the person's Core, it was removing their abilities. Once the Leech is removed, the magic, or in this case, the ability, would be returned to Harry. Harry is right that it might give us names for others who are working with Albus, since after the ritual is over, a roll of parchment would appear to inform us who had been given Harry's stolen abilities," Luna explained.

"Does it require anyone else, besides you and Harry?" Viktor asked, having entered the room during Luna's explanation of the ritual.

"Such as needed everyone in the Mateship?" Luna asked. "It does not appear so," she said, answering her own question. "It just appears that Harry and I are needed. Though it might make the ritual easier to perform with you taking part. Well, apart from Blaise," she said, getting the dark-skinned male to look over for a moment before looking back to focus on his homework, not bothered by it. "But we would not have a harder time if Severus can not take part."

For the next three days, Harry and his mates avoided Granger and Ginny as best they could. Never eating at the Gryffindor Table, and since Harry's schedule had changed to match Blaise's, he sat between Draco and his Alpha's Creature Silbing as well as surrounded by other Slytherins to prevent Granger from getting too close. Thankfully, Ginny was too young to attend Viktor's classes, and Granger was in the same class as Harry and the others, so he could focus on Harry rather than taking his anger out on the bushy-haired girl. As for Severus, he acted like he normally did when the pair of girls were in his classes. The only problem Severus really had was grading Harry, Draco, Fred, and Luna's homework. He tried to do it fairly and not give them extra points due to them being his mates. He knew that Viktor had to have someone else grade their work, though in his case, the person had to also grade Blaise's homework so as not to show favoritism.

Luna, while being Ginny's 'friend' only cause Ginny thought it would show she was a 'Kindhearted person,' did not have that many classes together due to being in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, respectively. The few times Luna hung out with Ginny before the weekend, the redheaded girl would complain first about her brother being expelled, Harry being stolen from her by a pair of baby Death Eaters, and one of the twins. She did not seem to mind that Viktor was one of Harry's mates, Luna noted as she wondered how the girl would react to find out that Luna was Harry's Alpha and that the third highest dominant was Severus. After the second day of class, Ginny started another to complain about people somehow now knowing she had opened the Chamber of Secrets. Luna had such fun as she pretended to be astonished by the news, as she asked Ginny how she had done it. Ginny had told her off, and it was all Luna could do not to start laughing at the girl, feeling as if she was a hunter playing with its prey for the girl's attack on her Mates.

Lacking the room to set up the needed runic symbols inside the Mated Dorms, the group headed out early so Harry could take them into the Chamber of Secrets. Thus, preventing anyone else from coming across them as they performed the ritual. While Severus had not been able to join them, Blaise had, but only after hearing about the Basilisk's corpse within the chamber. As Draco, Fred, and Viktor placed the normal magical runes on the floor and Luna inscribed the ones from Camelot, Blaise moved the corpse out of the way before he started to study it. Harry stayed out of everyone's way since he did know runes, making him guess his Rune-Reading ability, which had been on his Gringotts form, was one of the skills that had been taken from him. He had helped Blaise move the corpse since it had been a two-person job, finding out that the Slytherin Boy took Care of Magical Creatures but was in the secondary class due to having Aritmancy when Harry and Draco took Creatures. Harry was amazed at how into studying the Basilisk's body, Blaise was, as he put on some protective gear and actually started climbing all over it, taking numerous samples, and even extracting one of the fangs that had still been in the thing's mouth.

It took Luna and the others over an hour to inscribe their runes on the chamber's floor in the design from the book, however, that was the easy part. They next had to perform the ritual, which would take another hour. A ritual that involved both movement, as those helping Luna and Harry perform it, had to move in perfect unison while Harry and Luna spoke lines that were in the book to reclaim all of Harry's stolen magical abilities. What was worse was that the lines were all in old English and they could not be sure if the ritual would work if they were changed to modern speech, so it had taken both Harry and Luna a while to learn how to pronounce their respective lines correctly lest their mistake have unintentional consequences.

As Harry and the others began the ritual, the Healer's Oversight Committee had their hearing for the charges against Madam Pomfry. Since Narcissa had been the one to raise the issue, she was at the hearing and wishing she could have had Lucius there as her Barrister rather than the one approved by the Committee. "We call the hearing against Medi-Healer Poppy Pomfrey to order," Healer Vanswela said, using her gavel to start the proceedings.

"I object to this hearing," Poppy said.

"I advise you to wait until you are called on," Healer Vanswela said, sending Poppy a warning look. "Healer Malfoy, as you were the one to raise the complaint, please share it with the committee."

"I was called to Hogwarts during the first day of term, due to my son ending up protecting one of his new mates from a Potion explosion," Narcissa began.

"Which said mate caused," Poppy muttered.

"Don't make me warn you again, Medi-Healer Pomfrey," Healer Vanswela said, glaring at the woman. "Healer Malfoy, please continue."

"My husband and I arrived in the hospital wing to find my son not even being treated for his injury." Narcissa began.

"My client wishes to speak," the Barrister assigned to Poppy said.

"What is it?" Healer Vanswela asked, a little testily, though glad the woman was finally following proper procedures.

"I was unable to treat Healer Malfoy's son due to another of her son's mates forcing me into my office and disrespecting me until after Healer Malfoy and her husband arrived," Poppy said, sneering at Narcissa a little.

"I see, and your response to this, Healer Malfoy?" Healer Vanswela asked.

"I was informed later that the reason the Alpha of my son's Mateship was talking to Medi-Magical Pomfrey was due to going to "treat" the group's Sumbissive, who was not even hurt when the three of them arrived. I have also been informed that this sort of thing is not new to Medi-Healer Pomfrey by my husband. Who told me that during his time on the Hogwarts board of Governors, they often received complaints about her treatment methods from students. A Gryffindor would be seen right away, a Hufflepuff maybe after five minutes, ten minutes for a Ravenclaw. While Slytherins like my son and his newly discovered Alpha would wait for at least half an hour, and were often given the wrong treatment in the first place. I would like to remind you all that I once complained about Medi-Healer Pomfrey putting my son's arm into a cast after he was hurt by a Hippogriff a few years ago, a procedure that neither I nor any other Healer I know of would ever do for such an injury."

"We are aware of it," Healer Decon, the committee's historian, said.

"I am just saying to show that it was not her treatment or lack thereof of my son, which is why I lodged my complaint against her," Narcissa said.

"We understand," Healer Vanswela said. "Healer Decon, do we have the records of the complaints against Medi-Magical on file from Hogwarts?"

"We don't, Madam," Healer Decon said, rifling through all of Madam Pomfrey's paperwork he had gathered for the hearing.

"Did the Governors never pass on the students' complaints?" Healer Vanswela asked.

"According to my husband, they did send them after each governor's meeting. Which is three times a year," Narcissa said, getting confused.

"We have nothing like that. We have the standard records, when Madam Pomfrey earned her Medi-Healer's license, when she was hired at Hogwaa...." Decon said, trailing off a little.

"Is something wrong?" Healer Vanswela asked, turning to him.

"Medi-Healer Pomfry was hired at Hogwarts the very day she got her Medi-Healer's license," Decon said, shocking everyone in the room besides Poppy.

"Yeah, and what of it?" Poppy asked rather defensively.

"One normally has to work for over three years after gaining their license before they would even be allowed to work at Hogwarts as an aid, let alone primary Healer or Medi-Healer," Healer Vanswela said, shocked that the woman did not know this. "Out of curiosity, who was the Hogwarts Healer before her, and why did they leave?"

"Just a moment," Decon said as he summoned the proper documents to his magical bag and pulled them out. "They have been redacted? How is that possible?"

"It should not be," Healer Vanswela said, rubbing her chin in thought for a moment. "I am going to have us do something a little out of current practice for a hearing."

"What?" Medi-Healer Gilgan, who was acting as the scribe for the hearing, asked.

"There was an old procedure that has gone out of practice, but not specifically removed from actions that can be done during a hearing. We are going to perform a Diagnostic Charm on Medi-Healer Pomfrey to see if she is under any enchantments to make her act the way she is," Healer Vanswela explained.

"When you say we?" Healer Decon asked.

"I mean, everyone involved in the hearing, apart from Medi-Magical Pomfrey herself, will cast the spell, and we will compare the results to look for any issues or discrepancies," Healer Vanswela said.

"Now wait just a moment," Poppy said, but everyone, including the Healer acting as her Barrister, cast the charm on her.

"WHAT?!?" everyone shouted as their results printed out, and they read one of the first things on the list.

"What?" Poppy asked innocently enough.

In answer to her question, Healer Vanswela turned her wand on the woman again and cast a spell to remove a Magical Leech before asking, "Madam Pomfry, can you explain to the committee why the first item on your list has you receiving nearly ninety percent of someone's magic? Um, did anyone's results reveal whose magic she was taking?"

"Not me, Madam," Decon said.

"Me neither," Medi-Healer Gilgan and the two Healer Barristers announced.

"I did, but it makes no sense unless there is more of leech on the person," Narcissa said, confused as to why her results differed from the others unaware that thanks to her connection however distantly to Harry thanks to her son, it gave her a slight boost in magic as well as blocking the Elder Wand's "protection" on the results that Dumbles had cast on the Magical Leech.

"We can worry about how impossible it is later. Who was on the other end of the leech?" Healer Vaswena asked.

"Argus Filch," she reported.

In the Chamber of Secrets, the ritual finally came to an end, making Harry, Luna, and the others nearly collapse in exhaustion. As they recovered from their strenuous physical activities from performing the ritual, Harry felt a rush of magic as a scroll appeared before him. He could determine what abilities he had recovered just by the feel of the magic that had rushed into his body, so he grabbed the scroll to find out what he had gotten back. "Well, anyone new for my list?" Luna asked, scootching over to him.

"Someone named Nymphadora Tonks had my Metamorphmagus ability, while Granger had my Rune-Reading," Harry said, making him look around the ritual circle and see that he could understand all the runes the others had written out for the ritual, and not just the ones Luna had put down.

"She is a member of Dumble's order. Plus, didn't the results of your cleansing of Sirius and Remus mention her?" Fred piped up, sounding rather breathless from off to one side.

"Remus and Sirius also had us add her to the Manor's Mail Wards when she kept harassing them over the summer," Viktor reminded Harry.

"Oh yeah," Harry said, trying to recall it, but he had other things to deal with back then.

"I know of her; she is my cousin from my mom's eldest sister, who was also banished from the Black family," Draco said, leaning against Viktor's form as the pair recovered from the ritual.

"Which means she should not have been able to access a Metamorphmagus ability in the first place. How did I miss that?" Fred asked, sounding disappointed in himself.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, before going to each of his mates and helping them to their feet, his very touch seeming to refill their energy and magic.

"During the summer, we moved into the Order Headquarters for a bit. If Tonks was there for a meal, she would entertain people by using the Metamorphmagus ability to change her appearance," Fred said. "I also believe I heard Sirius talking about her mother being removed from the Black Family, remarking it was impressive that she could still use the ability."

"Well, she can't use it now," Harry said, smirking down at the list and hoping Granger's and Tonk's lives would become harder after taking the abilities they had stolen from him back.

As if in answer to his wish, at that very moment Hermione had been working on her Study of Ancient Runes homework and became confused when she was unable to read any of the runes. Since she had been given Harry's stole, Rune-Reading ability before taking the class, she had not bothered to pay attention to Professor Badding when she had taught the newcomers to the class how to read runes. Thus, Hermione was unable to read a single rune, and she was unwilling to go ask for help to understand how to read them now that she had lost her stolen ability.  This led her to try to fake it as she planned to send a letter to her folks to get them to send her the first book she had needed for the class, in hopes it would explain how to read runes.

Meanwhile, Tonks had been in the middle of a training exercise for Aurors when she suddenly lost her ability to change her appearance, leading her to be hit by a spell, taking her out of the exercise. As she walked off the training field, Tonks tried over and over again to change her appearance, but it did not happen. As she was unaware that her mother had talked Albus into giving her Harry's stolen ability, Tonks had no idea what was going on. This did not mean she was completely innocent since it had been her idea to dose Remus Lupin with love Potions to make him fall for her so that he could use his position as the Black Family Consort to bring her and her parents back into the Black family line.

Chapter Text

As Luna adds Nymphadora Tonks to her list of people to take revenge for messing with her Mates, Blaise felt it was time to let her know about a problem which might develop if they did not act quickly enough to stop it. So as Harry walked around the ritual circle and took in the fact that he could now read all the runes they had used, Blaise moved over to his Creature Twin Sister. "Um, just wanted to let you know there is one slight problem with your plan for me to stand in as your Puppet Alpha to your Mates," Blaise said in a low voice, not to let the others know.

"Hm, and what would that be?" Luna asked.

"I know I agreed to pretend to be Harry's Alpha, but the main issue is that I totally forgot until you guys were discussing what had been done to Harry," Blaise said.

"Okay," Luna said, not getting it.

"When I went to Gringotts to get tested to see if I had a planned mate, I received notice that I was destined to be with Neville Longbottom. Who is another Wood Elf by the way," Blaise shared.

"I see. Yet you still agreed to pretend to stand in as Alpha to my mates, why?" Luna asked.

"I came to Hogwarts due to this being where my father went to school. I live in Italy with my mother," he reminded her. "I don't keep track of all the students who come to Hogwarts, and I forgot Neville came here. I expected to find him after we graduated from Hogwarts, thus, you would not need me to pretend to stand in as Alpha full-time."

"I see, and have you noticed Neville's reaction to you during this last week?" Luna asked her Creature Twin Brother.

"I have not noticed anything from him. I don't know if that is due to him not getting tested himself, not knowing my full name, or some other reason I can't say," Blaise admitted.

"Severus did state that the Headmaster had ordered him to harass both Harry and Neville in his classes. While I don't like it, I can understand his focus on Harry. As for your mate, I don't know, but considering what he did to Harry, the bastard might have enchantments on Neville as well."

"THE BASTARD!" Blaise growled out, making Harry, Draco, Viktor, and Fred look over at him.

"What's up?" Draco asked, having never heard his friend seem to lose control of his anger before.

"Blaise has just informed me of something which might cause us issues. The fact that it has not done so yet is also a little troubling," Luna said, not wanting to reveal any suspicions she had just yet.

"What's up?" Harry asked.

"Have you noticed anything wrong with Longbottom?" Blaise asked.

"No, but I have not really looked," Harry admitted.

"We will have to rectify that," Luna said, coming up with a plan. "Viktor, is Neville taking your class?"

"No, he isn't," Viktor said, wondering like everyone else what was going on.

"I guess I will have to talk to Severus about it then," Luna said, more to herself than the others

"Talk to him about what?" everyone but Blaise asked her.

"Blaise informed me that Neville Longbottom is his Magic Approved Mate," Luna revealed, making her Mates gasp in shock.

"And he has not said anything about 'Blaise's bonding' to me?" Harry asked.

"We can't be sure if he never found out about their connection. However, due to Severus saying he had been ordered to harass you and Neville, I fear that Neville might have also been under enchantments. Hence why I asked if he was in Viktor's class and needed to talk to Severus about it. I can only hope that Neville just did not get tested at Gringotts, so does not know that he is Blaise's mate. But just in case, I think we need to deal with this as soon as possible," Luna explained.

"But why do you need Severus to do anything? Can't I just check to see if he has been enchanted?" Harry asked.

"You could, but we can't take chances that he knows Blaise is meant to be his mate and either lets it slip to Granger, Fred's younger siblings, or anyone else. Or worse, either gets violent towards us or accuses one of us of enchanting Blaise," Luna said.

"That is a fair point," Draco conceded. "But what do we do about it in either case?"

"I may have an idea or two," Luna said, but did not elaborate as she had them leave the Chamber of Secrets before their presence was missed in the main castle.

Hermione's POV

In the library, Hermione was growing frustrated that she could not get through her Study of Ancient Runes homework. She wished she had not left her earlier books for the class at home under the mistaken belief that she did not need them anymore. Besides sending a message back to her folks to order them to send her books to her, the only thing Hermione could think of doing was finding a third-year student who had just started the class, and 'tutoring' them as a way to learn how to read runes. She could not figure out how she had lost the ability to do so, since she was unaware that the Headmaster had given her Harry's Rune Reading Ability to make sure she maintained her good grades, knowing some students found the study of runic languages rather difficult.

Hermione was brought out of her thoughts as Ginny arrived at the table, shooting a look around to make sure no one else was nearby. Not that anyone sat anywhere near Hermione in the library lest she get mad at them for being 'too loud' and get on their case. "I think I found a way to deal with the Death Eaters and the twin who are with my Harry," Ginny said after making sure no one was about and the librarian was not heading their way. The pair of girls were left alone due to Hermione's habits while she studied, as well as the recent reveal that Ginny had been responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets back in her first year. Though for once Ginny was a little happy that people were leaving her alone so she could share her plan with the older girl.

"You do?" Hermione asked, rather surprised since Ginny rarely came up with plans besides dosing Harry's food and drink. Which she only thought of due to that was what Mrs. Weasley did to Mr. Weasley.

"Oh, yes. I am actually surprised you did not think of it yourself," Ginny said, as she stealthily pulled out Moste Potente Potions that Hermione had kept after making the Polyjuice Potion back in her second year.

"We can't kill them, Ginny," Hermione said, rolling her eyes at the younger girl.

"Hey, I am not a monster. I don't want even George dead," Ginny said, still unable to recall which of the twins had stolen her Harry from her. "The pair of Baby Death Eaters, yeah, I would not mind them dying, but this is perfect," Ginny said as she flipped through the book before sliding it over to Hermione.

"The Potion for Bond Breaking?" Hermione asked as she read the heading of the page.

As Hermione read the page, Ginny talked about what the potion would do. "If we can get Harry to drink the potion, it would break the bonds between him and the others. It would actually hurt them to be near each other," Ginny said proudly. "What's wrong?" she asked, seeing the look on Hermione's face.

"Um, this potion may take a while to make/ It is more complicated than the Polyjuice," Hermione lied as she saw the amount of runic magic that was required to brew the potion correctly.

"But you can still make it right?" Ginny asked.

"Of course," Hermione said, trying to sound confident as she hid her worry about it.

Normal POV

After returning to the main school, Luna left the others as they headed back to the Mated Rooms, and she headed down to Severus's office. She could not help but skip a little, happy that since no one knew she was really Harry's Alpha and the leader of his Mateship, she had more freedom of movement around the castle than the rest of her Mates or even Blaise. Having been informed where the Potion Master's private room and office were by both Draco and Blaise, Luna checked them out first, hoping to have a private conversation with the oldest member of the mateship. Knocking on the blank stretch of wall where Severus's office was located, Luna got confirmation that he was inside as a voice called out, "Speak, Friend and Enter."

Not knowing if she had to answer in Latin, English, or the Elvish from the Lord of the Rings books, Luna started with the source material, "Mellon."

"Please state your business," the voice said.

"I need a one-on-one meeting with Professor Snape," Luna informed the wall, knowing it would not be a good idea to mention anything about Mateships, Harry, or the others when not in a protected part of the castle.

"Just a moment, please. I will see when he has some time to see you," the voice said. Not knowing how long it would be, Luna half-expected the wall to play some sort of music as if she had been put on hold like a Muggle telephone call.

"Ms. Lovegood, what can I do for you?" Severus asked a little over ten minutes later as he opened the door.

"I need to discuss something with you, Professor," she said, putting some emphasis on his title.

"I see, having trouble with having to stay with Potter and his Mates?" Severus asked in a tone of voice as if he could understand any issue she might have as he ushered her into his room. Closing the door before making sure the Privacy Wards were in place. "What can I do for you, Alpha?" he asked once they were protected.

"After we finished performing the ritual, Blaise informed me that we might have a small issue with him pretending to take my role as Alpha," Luna said before quickly explaining what her Creature Sibling had told her about Nevlle as well as some concerns she had about the boy.

"Well, you are correct, Albus did order me to specifically target Harry and Longbottom. And I would not put it past him to also place enchantments on him. I can even guess why he would do so," Severus said as the pair sat down and sipped some tea together.

"And why would that be?" Luna asked.

"The Prophecy that led to Harry being targeted actually could have applied to both Longbottom and Harry. If I was to guess, Albus is hedging his bets just in case Harry would be unable to stop the 'Dark Lord," Severus said using finger quotes as he said 'Dark Lord' since Harry had shared with them all what he had experienced when he had treated Lucius after the man fainted in the Hosptital Wing earlier that week.

"Not that I think that if he had to, Harry could not do the job thanks to the boost in his magic," Luna said.

"Quite," Severus agreed. "So what do you want me to do, Alpha?"

"I want to have Harry check out to see if Neville has been enchanted somewhere safe that we can also control. In other words, our Mated Rooms. If perchance he was not enchanted and does not know of Blaise's identity or did not get tested at the bank to reveal his mate, we should still handle it away from others. I think the best way to do this is to have a member of staff bring him to our rooms. That would mean you or Viktor, but he did not take Viktor's class this year," Luna said.

"And if he causes any issues or has revealed that he and your brother are mates?" Severus asked.

"It would be a blow, and I might have to reveal my real role as Harry's Alpha. I can only hope he has not done so," Luna said, having not come up with a plan, at least yet, for everyone's protection if she had to fully assume the role of the Group's Alpha.

"I assume you are not planning to hurt him in either case?" Severus asked.

"Of course not, the only ones I am targeting are those who have targeted our group, maybe our extended families," she added, thinking of what Harry and the others had told her had been done to Professor Lupin and his husband as a means to prevent them from helping Harry after his parents' deaths.

"Sorry, just wanted to be sure," Severus said.

"Also, to hurt Neville would be the same as Blaise hurting Harry. Due to Blaise and my connection, he may not care for Harry as a true Alpha would, but to attack him would be like hurting himself. The same would be true if I attacked Neville," Luna explained.

"I see. Sorry for questioning you, but Creature Twins are quite rare. I actually looked it up after you revealed it to us," Severus said.

"Perfectly understandable," Luna said. "So, when can I expect you to bring Neville to our rooms?"

"I still have some potions to brew for Madam Pomfrey," Severus said.* "I think I can get him to the rooms tomorrow at the earliest."

"Very good," Luna said, getting to her feet to leave the room.

"Ah, before I forget, Bonebreaker sent me this to pass on to everyone," Severus said, summoning a roll of parchment and giving it to Luna. "It is the audit he took on Harry's accounts. He also said that he is in the process of talking to Downax, the Black Family Manager, to get him to do an account on the Mutts' vaults."

"You know Harry does not like you calling them that," Luna said in a somewhat disapproving voice, making Severus blush a little. "But I think it is alright, since you say it in a tone of gentle humor as if it were a friendly nickname rather than the insult it used to be. I will also discuss this with Harry, so he won't get upset with you if you accidentally slip up and use it around him."

"Thanks, Luna," Severus said. "Bonebreaker did suggest that Harry and you take a close look at both the money being removed from his vaults, but also some of his family holdings. From the note that was with the scroll, there are some issues that he thinks Harry might need to deal with," Severus said, not knowing what the issues were since while he was one of Harry's mates until either Harry or Luna looked through the document, his Drak-side refused to let him take even the slightest peek at it.

"Thanks we shall do it today, that way we can avoid Neville if was not enchanted and knows Blaise is he Mate," Luna said, slipping the scroll into an inner pocket of her robes which she had magically expanded and placed a special charm on to make it and everything inside of it undetachable.

Luna was as good as her word, for as soon as she rejoined the others back in the Mated Rooms, she had Harry join her in the dining room to go over the Gringotts document. As she looked at the amount of money that Dumbles was embezzling out of Harry's accounts and the people the bastard was sending it to, she got a few more names for her list. She already had Harry's Muggle family on her list, but it turned out that a woman named Marge Dursley and Arabella Figg were being paid over a thousand pounds a month. Dumbles brother, Aberforth, was also getting paid some money from Harry's vaults, not that it appeared the man knew about it, since the money, as far as Bonebreaker could find out, had not yet been touched.

When it came to Harry's other holdings, Luna quickly saw why her new Submissive's Account Manager wanted to bring them to his client's attention. First off, one of the properties owned by Harry's family had been given to Molly Weasley, who was at the moment holding on to it, possibly as a safe house or getaway known as Shell Cottage. According to the bank, the house where Harry's parents died did not even belong to Harry's family at all, but was owned by Albus. Who had used its destruction to fine Harry's accounts back when he took control of them, before he evidently found a way to access Harry's funds that he had before Harry's cleansing. Then there was Hogwarts itself, whose Wards had not been looked over by a Goblin team for over fifty years. While that was alarming to Bonebreaker, the Potter Account Manager had looked further into it and found that despite the Goblins being unable to come in and take care of the Wards, they had been altered almost yearly.

It was not that hard to guess why, especially based on what sort of things had happened to Harry since he had come to Hogwarts, which could have been prevented if the school's Wards worked at optimum efficiency. "Fredrick," Luna called out to bring Harry's first Mate into the room.

"Yes?" Fred asked, sticking his head in.

"I was told that you informed Draco's mom that besides Peeves, you and your brother know this school the best. Would you happen to know where the Ward Stone is?" Luna asked.

"Not a clue, sorry," Fred said.

"That is too bad," Luna said, trying to think of who else might know where it would be.

"Would an Elf know?" Harry asked.

"Yes, but with some of the enchantments that are attached to the Wards, make me wary about trusting a Hogwarts Elf not to report our interest to Albus," Luna said.

"There might be one that won't," Harry said with a growing smile.

"I doubt it," Luna said, though unable to stop herself from smiling back at his oh so trusting naivety.

"I can bet there is one that would not share," Harry said.

"That is a bet I would not take," Luna said.

"I would," Fred said, knowing that if Harry trusted an Elf, it would be alright; if not, he could possibly use some of his magic to prevent them from informing the Headmaster about what they were doing. "So what, Elf, don't you think would help us out?"

"Dobby," Harry said simply, causing said Elf to pop into the room.

"Youse called, Master Harry Potter, Sir?" the Elf said, shocking Luna with the outlandish clothing it was wearing, including what looked like a shrunken red sweater with an 'R' on the chest, a pair of plaid shorts worn as slacks, and a pair of mismatched socks.

"Hello, Dobby, I was just wondering if you knew where the Hogwarts Ward Stone is located?" Harry asked.

"Dobby regrets to inform Master Harry Potter, Sir, but Dobby no know. The other Elves not share with Dobby such things. Not liking Dobby is Free Elf who getting paid," Dobby said, making Luna understand why Harry believed Dobby out of all the Elves at Hogwarts, he could be trusted not to inform Dumbles of their concerns for the Wards.

"Could you find out about it?" Luna asked.

"Who youse?" Dobby asked, turning to her.

"Dobby, this is Luna, my Alpha," Harry said.

"Master Harry Potter, Sir, has Mates?" Dobby asked in shocked surprise. "Master Harry Potter, Sir is a Creature, Dobby not notice before?!?"

"It had been blocked, but they were destroyed when I came into my inheritance," Harry explained, thinking it would not be a good idea to bring up that Draco was one of his mates to Dobby just yet.

"Someony Blocked Master Harry Potter, Sir's Creature Side. They being Bad Peoples," Dobby said, getting angry.

"Focus, Dobby," Harry said gently to the Elf as he pulled Dobby into his arms to prevent Dobby from doing anything. "I also found out I have inherited the lines of the Founders, so I technically own Hogwarts. That is why we are wondering about the Wards since a report from my Account Manager states they are in bad shape and some strange enchantments are on them."

"That explains it," Dobby said, nodding his head, understanding the coldness he received from the school's Wards, which no other Elf working at the castle seemed to even notice. "I looky into it, Master Harry Potter, Sir," Dobby said, smacking one of his fists into his opposite palm before popping away, making Harry's arms flair around a little as the Elf suddenly left them.

As there was very little they could do at the moment regarding Hogwarts Wards until Dobby reported back to them, Luna and Harry let the others look at what Bonebreaker had discovered in his audit of Harry's accounts. Hearing that Molly and his two younger siblings were getting money embezzled from Harry's accounts, as well as Molly having ownership of one of Harry's properties, Fred started to write a letter to his dad about it. Considering everything else that had come out since he had bonded with Harry, Fred also suggested his dad undergo a full screening or test done at Gringotts to make sure he was not under any enchantments or potions himself.

Shortly after breakfast on Sunday, Neville followed Professor Snape to a tutoring session that his most hated Professor had talked him into taking. Neville knew he had needed it for his upcoming O.W.L.s, but had been gathering his courage to take the man up on his offer. He had doubted the offer was genuine, let alone the man approaching him right after breakfast and saying he had some time to tutor him right then, rather than waiting for Neville to come see him after supper, as he had brought up during class. "Where are we going, Professor?" Neville said, seeing they were heading upstairs rather than down to the Potions classroom.

"I have prepared a special room for our sessions. As I plan on teaching you how to better prepare your ingredients before allowing you to actually brew, the location will not be a problem," Severus lied as he led Longbottom to his Mate's shared rooms. Severus could not tell if Longbottom was too scared of him to say anything else or if, like Harry, he was too trusting, but the lad did not say another word for the rest of the trip.

Reaching the entrance to the Mated Rooms, Severus gave the password, 'Avalon," to open the door. He then used his larger body to block what was inside, just in case, as he led Neville through the door. "What's going on?" Neville asked, seeing there was nothing set up for any potion tutoring.

"Well, Harry?" Severus asked as he got out of his Submissive's way. Neville arched an eyebrow at hearing the Potions Master call Harry by his first name, as well as a strange tone in the man's voice.

"Harry, what's going on?" Neville asked, looking to his friend.

"Bad Magic," Harry said, reading the enchantments placed on Neville.

"What?" Neville asked as Harry moved forward and, with a tap of his finger, cleansed Neville of the enchantments and potions that he had unknowingly been under. As one of the spells Neville had been subjected to had blocked his Creature from emerging, Neville cried out in pain as his Wood Elf was released.  Unlike Blaise and Luna, whose creatures were revealed by an eagle feather coming out of their neck and wrapping around it like a choker, Neville's Wood Elf was rather different.  His ears elongated into points while his hair grew out until he reached the middle of his back.  But most surprisingly was that his eye color changed from neutral brown to vivid orange.

"Neville," Blaise said, moving forward to check on the newly unblocked Submissive Wood Elf.

"What the fuck was that?" Neville asked, almost letting out a small sigh as Blaise wrapped his arms around him.

"Mr. Longbottom... Neville, you appeared to have been under several enchantments," Severus said, moving further out of the way to allow Draco to reach the new Creature to perform a scan on him.

"But why?" Neville asked, flinching a little as Draco pointed his wand at him.

"Because of Blaise," Harry said.

"Why do you care about me?" Neville asked, looking into Blaise's eyes before starting, as he felt a spark with the other male.  "WHAT?!?"

"I assume you are wondering how it is possible due to Harry's very public bonding with Blaise during the start of term feast," Luna said, drawing Neville's gaze away from the dark-skinned Slytherin boy to see the small blonde girl for the first time seated in a wing back chair before the room's fire place.

"Luna?" Neville asked, a little surprised to find her there.  Sure, he heard that she was sleeping in the same rooms as Blaise due to the circumstances of her Creature coming out so soon, but he had thought she would not be in the rooms besides at night.

"As you just felt, Neville, Blaise is your Dominant partner.  So I can guess you are wondering how that is possible since he is Harry's Alpha.  The thing is, Blaise is not Harry's Alpha; I am.  But due to the nature of Harry's creature, plus my place in his mateship, measures had to be taken to protect everyone.  Unfortunately, these measures involved getting Blaise, who is my Creature's Twin, to act like he is Harry's Alpha.  We had only planned to do so until Harry could safely be away from those who had betrayed him.  However, we reached a small snag when Blaise revealed to me that on his test at Gringotts, you were listed as his submissive Mate.  As you had not reacted to his and Harry's bonding, we wanted to find out how much you knew about it yourself," Luna explained.

"But I did not go through an Inheritance," Neville protested.

"That was something else we thought might have been the case, you being enchanted.  The thing is that due to some of Harry's Creature-side's abilities, he can actually perform a cleansing quite easily.  So just by seeing you, Harry was able to see what had been done to you and fix them.  This does leave us the problem of Blaise being your Alpha rather than Harry's.  I know it is wrong for me to ask, but will you help us keep Harry and us all safe?" Luna asked.

"How?" Neville asked, seeing a bit of parchment printing out of Draco's wand.

"As Blaise is acting like Harry's Alpha, I would like to off to pretend to have just found out I am your Alpha.  That way, you can come here to spend time with Blaise under the guise of being with me," Luna said.

"I don't know," Neville said.

"Maybe this will help you decide," Draco said, passing over the results of the scans he just took on Neville.

Neville Longbottom

Creature:

• Coastal Wood Elf (Submissive)

Mate:

• Blaise Zabini (Dominant)

Magical Damage/Spells:

• Creature Blood Block (Cleansed by Harry Potter)
• Magical Core Block 45 % (Cleansed by Harry Potter)
• Submissive Potion geared towards Albus Dumbledore, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger (Cleansed by Harry Potter)
• Fear Potion geared towards Severus Snape (Cleansed by Harry Potter)
• Magical Leech (Cleansed by Harry Potter)

"Who cast these on me or dosed me with the potions?" Neville asked, noticing that piece of information was left off the list.

"From what we have seen, it is mostly Headmaster Dumbledore who has done it," Harry said.

"Though that might not always be the case," Blaise said, thinking that no matter what sort of family life his new mate had, members of his family would have noticed if part of his core was blocked off or that he had not come into his Creature Inheritance.  "Can you see if it was just Dumbles who did this to him?" Blaise asked in a pleading voice to Harry.

"I will try my best," Harry said, approaching Neville again with a hand outstretched,  and closing his eyes for a moment.  To the others in the room apart from Luna, it almost looked like Harry was trying to grab a dust mite in the air or something as he waved his hand before Neville opened it and closed it every once and a while.

"That was harder than I thought it would be," Harry said after five minutes as he finally opened his eyes before tapping Neville's form.  "This was what your form would look like if you had gotten tested at St. Mungos or Gringotts before they had you undergo a cleansing."  Looking down, Neville saw that the top of the form was the exact same, but there had been some changes under Magical Damage/Spells.  It turned out that while the Headmaster had blocked his creature and dosed him with the potions, his Uncle Algie had been the one responsible for blocking almost half of his magic.  The only problem was that behind the Magical Leech, rather than saying who had cast it, the document now read who the magic had been sent to.  Neville was glad that Ron Weasley had been expelled from Hogwarts since it turned out he was the one who had been receiving some of his magic through the leech.

"Okay, Luna, I agree to your suggestion.  I will pretend that I am your submissive to allow Blaise to keep acting as Harry's," Neville said.  "On the condition you deal with Dumbles and my Great Uncle."

"I shall add your Uncle to my list," Luna said, pulling out her list and writing the man's name down at the bottom to prove she was not just telling him what he wanted to hear to make him agree to it.

"Now there is one thing I don't get," Neville said.

"Just the one?" Fred teased.

"For the moment.  What I don't get is how you got Professor Snape to agree to help you?" Neville said with a small smile.

"That is quite easy to explain, Neville," Harry said as he grabbed the older man's hand.  "Severus is also one of my mates.  I don't know if, since your creature was blocked, you were informed about what may happen in large Mateships, but one mate's identity is usually hidden for the group's protection.  However, as Luna said, due to the strange set of circumstances that led to her being my Alpha, her identity needs to be hidden as well.  This does not mean that we would reveal Severus being one of my mates, and not just because we acted like Blaise is my Alpha.  Especially since Severus is thought to be a spy for both Dumbles and the Dark Lord, so his connection to me must remain a closely guarded secret," Harry explained, though not sharing his belief that the Dark Lord was only an issue due to the man also under enchantments from Dumbles.

"Okay, did not see that coming," Neville said.

"I shall take that as a compliment, Mr. Longbottom," Severus said giving Neville a smile which, before his recent cleansing would have sent him running but now that he no longer feared the man,  it just slightly weirded him out due to how usual it looked on the normally dour Potion Master's face.

Chapter Text

While Neville agreed to pretend to be Luna's Submissive in the main castle, the two Mateships did not leave the Mate Rooms for a while. Severus was the first to leave, so he could return to brewing potions for the Hospital Wing and did not want either Poppy, when she came back, or Albus to come looking for him. Otherwise, the rest of the group did not leave the rooms until it was time for supper. Since it was the weekend, they had permission to eat in their rooms for every meal, but decided to eat in the Great Hall so they could reveal 'Neville and Luna's bonding' to the rest of the castle. As the group hung out in the rooms, they debated having Neville use a Glamour, just like Severus was under, to maintain his greasy-haired look.  That way, Neville would appear in his pre-Inherited state, but then it would be hard to explain him being 'Mated to Luna.'

In the end, they used the Gringotts form that Bonebreaker had sent them as an example, as well as the results from the first diagnostic charm, to make it look like Luna had used the freedom of the weekend to get tested to find out more about herself. One of the fake documents they created, which, thanks to Harry's overpowered magic, looked and would be read as an official Gringotts document. 'Luna's document' listed her creature as a Wood Elf, her having a special bond with her Creature Twin Blaise, which needed to be topped off at least once a day, and that her submissive was Neville, who was listed as Compromised. This would have led Viktor, who had taken Luna to Gringotts in their story, to go and collect Neville, allowing the Goblins to cleanse him of all the enchantments he had been under as they unblocked his creature and awakened his bond to Luna.

Everyone was a little worried about using this story since they feared Goblin justice for creating forgeries of outright lines in the form of bank documents. Harry was not concerned since he informed the others that before Bonebreaker had become his account manager, he had been working with the current Goblin King, who had ordered his son and Heir to help Harry as much as they could after going through his inheritance. Harry shocked everyone as he told them that the Goblins had personally trained him for a bit before he had accidentally caused the earthquake.

While they were still a little wary of it, even Neville and Blaise trusted Harry that they would not get in trouble with the Goblins for their story. Harry still wrote a letter and sent it to the Bank to let Bonebreaker know what he had done. Making sure to say they were only doing so to protect both his Mateship and Blaise/Neville's Mateship.

As they walked to supper, Harry and Luna walked together while Blaise and Neville walked in front. When they got closer to the Great Hall, Blaise stepped back while Luna went forward as the pair of Alphas changed position and wrapped an arm around Harry and Neville's waist. Harry, who had gotten used to Blaise's touch, even if it did not produce the same feeling as his actual mates, was able to look like her normally did. Neville had a harder time adjusting to Luna's arm around his waist, which Harry and the others hoped would be misread as how new the experience was after his Creature side had been unleashed.

Those who were already in the hall fell silent as they saw Neville's new look as well as Luna's arm around his waist. Luna led Neville to the Ravenclaw table and sat down so her back was to the Slytherin table. This allowed Blaise and Harry to sit back-to-back with their partners without raising suspicion of their real Mateships. While Fred and Draco sat down nearby, Viktor went up to the head table, passing over the 'Gringotts documents' to Professor Flitwick and McGonagall to show off the pair's new mateship. Watching Viktor turn in the documents, Harry watched the rest of the staff at the table. Noticing Severus's eyes widen a little since he had left before they had come up with the idea of the fake bank documents for their story. But it was the headmaster and Umbridge who really caught Harry's eye.

Dumbles had a grimace as if he had just had some of Hagrid's cooking, while Umbridge looked in hatred at Neville in particular. Harry guessed it was down to the woman's Anti-Creature beliefs, and thanks to Neville's Elf being unblocked and the nature of the blood in any case, Neville could not change his form back to pass as human. Unlike Harry, who, once he was able to pull his wings in, did not look that different than a "normal human."  Thought to be honest, he really hated that phrase since no one, in his opinion, was ever truly normal.

Thankfully, neither the toad nor the old bastard did anything during the meal besides giving Luna and Neville nasty looks. It did not really bother Harry that much, knowing that despite how Luna acted, his Alpha was rather tough. Blaise, on the other hand, was rather tense, not liking the looks being sent Neville's way. Harry gently took Blaise's hand to keep him in his seat while rolling his head to make the dark-skinned Alpha take in Luna's arm still wrapped around Neville's waist, and keeping him close. Blaise remained tense through the entire meal but stayed in place, trusting Luna to look after his new Submissive.

Unfortunately, their ruse also led to Dumbles visiting the Mated Rooms right after supper. "Good evening, everyone," the bastard said with a twinkle in his eye as he barged without even knocking. Thankfully, Harry had been doing some review with Draco and not curled up with Luna.

Blaise, acting as the group's Alpha, asked, "What are you doing here, Headmaster?"

"As I am sure you are aware due to Mister Krum," the bastard said, making everyone glare at him for neither using Viktor's title at school, 'Professor', nor his placement in his family, 'Heir ', "taking Ms. Lovegood to Gringotts today. It has been revealed that Mr. Longbottom is her Submissive. Now, the Hogwarts Charter states that all Mateships which are formed at school must stay in the same rooms. However, thanks to what happened to Ms. Lovegood during the Opening Feast, she has to stay here."

"And your point is?" Blaise asked.

"To follow the school's guidelines, we must alter your rooms to allow Ms. Lovegood and Mr. Longbottom room to live here as well. Without getting in your way, of course," Dumbles said, giving them his 'grandfatherly look.'

"Viktor told us on the first night the only way to change the rooms was if I got pregnant," Harry said.

"Mr. Krum, Harry," Dumbles admonished him.

"Harry can call me what he wants to outside of class," Viktor said in a growl, acting as the group's Attacker rather than defender since they had to protect Severus's role in their Mateship as well as his identity from others like Dumbles.

"If that is your wish, I will okay it then," Albus said, not looking happy about it as if he expected that forcing Harry to call Viktor by a title, even a wrong one, would create some issues within the Mateship. "Anyway, the reason I came is that you will need my permission, as well as Harry and Mr. Zabini, to alter your rooms to give Ms. Lovegood and Mr. Longbottom their own space.

"I am Heir Zabini, just as my Creature Twin is a Heiress and her new Submissive is also an Heir," Blaise growled.

"That is neither here nor there," Albus said, waving away Blaise's comment.

Not trusting what Albus was saying and not just due to what the bastard had done to him, Harry turned to Viktor to ask, "Is that true, only the Headmaster, Blaise, and I can change the rooms by working together?"

"Of course it is true, Harry," Dumbles said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Not according to Master Drake Vansel, who walked me through creating the rooms in the first place," Viktor said with a small smirk. "He informed me that once my Mateship had moved in, if any additional people came along, only Harry and his Alpha could approve of changes."

"You are right, of course, Mr. Krum," Albus began.

"Heir Krum or Professor Krum if you want to use his actual title," Blaise said, clenching his fist as if he was angry one of his Mates was not being shown proper respect.

Once more, Dumbles waved away Blaise's comment as he continued with what he had been saying. "But since Ms. Lovegood and Mr. Longbottom are their own set of Mates rather than being a part of your Mateship, my approval is needed to allow them access to change their rooms." On the whole, what the man said sounded logical and could be true, but Harry and the others did not trust it.

"We don't need that much fuss show towards us, a simple bedroom is fine. After all, we would not want to stay here all the time but only come so I can top off my bond to my brother," Luna said. "What about you, Neville, do you need much?"

"Just a bed and wardrobe, I guess," Neville said.

"See, we can just add another suite for them and they would be satisfied," Blaise said. "If they want to decorate their room in some way, since it would be there, I think Harry or I would see no problem making whatever changes they want."

"Yeah, I know Neville and I like the same sort of decorations and stuff around after living together in Gryffindor Tower all those years," Harry said.

"So thanks for the offer, Headmaster, but it seems you are not needed," Blaise said.

"Well, I had to offer," Albus said, giving them a pleasant smile, but Harry saw the man's normally midnight-black aura was going wild from the man's anger at being denied. If Harry had to guess, he believed Dumbles would have permitted them to allow Neville and his new Alpha to change parts of the room. But he would also possibly have snuck in some back door charm or spell that would allow him access to change or observe what was going on in the rooms at all times. "Well, I shall have a House Elf collect Mr. Longbottom's thing then."

"Once again, thanks for offering, but it is not needed; we had them collected after Viktor brought Heiress Lovegood and Heir Longbottom back to the castle," Blaise said.

"We also already created their rooms for them," Harry lied, so the bastard would not try to stick around and try to cast spells around the place as the rooms were created.

"I see you all are on top of things. Very good, I shall wish you goodnight then," Dumbles said with a small grimace as he left the rooms. As soon as he was gone, Viktor used his boosted magic, thanks to his connection to Harry, to improve the rooms' Wards to prevent anyone from barging into their rooms without permission from now on. As the room recognized Harry's Mateship as the normal occupants of the room, as well as Blaise's connection to Luna, they did not even have to update the dark-skinned Alpha or Neville's conditions to have them be always allow them in.  This would serve as added protection if the old bastard revealed the location of the room to Granger or Ginny to try to visit under the story of seeing Neville or Luna.

After the improved Wards were in place, Harry and Luna started to create a new Suite for Blaise and Neville to use. The room was half the size of Harry's suite but larger than the two-person room that Blaise had been sleeping in since the start of term. Harry had not been lying that he and Neville had the same design choices, both being very minimalistic due to their rough upbringings with abusive families, but Blaise more than made up for it as he put posters and other stuff up to make the place more homely.

Due to Luna and Neville being in two different years, Neville's schedule did not change, so he would only have classes with her, unlike Harry, who had classes with at least Draco or one of his mates at all times. Some students made use of this fact to start teasing Neville about his new Mateship. Unfortunately, for them, they did so during a Slytherin/Gryffindor class, so Blaise was able to get involved. "Man, Longbottom, you are pathetic," Shelby Lesky said as they waited for the Transfiguration class to start. "Not only are you a bottom subby boy, but you are paired with a girl younger than you." Harry had to quickly grab Blaise's arm to prevent the Alpha from coming to his Submissive's defense.

"At least see if Professor McGonagall does anything first," Harry whispered into Blaise's ear, shooting a look at the front of the room where his Head of House was in the middle of gathering stuff for when the lesson started.

"Your eyes are freaky," Granger broke in, shocking Harry a little, knowing Granger and Shelby did not really get along that well due to Shelby having a massive crush on Ronald and had always blamed Granger for spending so much time with him, meaning Shelby was unable to.

"They are a sign of a Coastal Wood Elf," Neville said simply, while wishing he had not sat in his normal place but close by Blaise and Harry.

"There is no such thing," Granger snarked, "The only types of Elves are those treated like slaves by normal and right humans.  You look more like a fairy boy."  Hearing this, Harry accidentally let go of Blaise's arm due to Granger saying 'fairy' as it would be used in the Muggle World as a Homophbic slut.  He wondered if that line had been a dig at both himself and Neville from the bitch but before he could do anything about it Blaise stood up.

"You reveal your ignorance, Granger," Blaise said, unable to stop himself, seeing McGonagall still not doing anything.

"What's it to you, snake boy?" Shelby asked.

"It concerns me due to Longbottom being the Mate of my Creature Twin Sibling," Blaise said, moving over to Neville to collect his stuff and move him over so that he would be on the opposite side of Blaise from Harry. From that point on, Neville would be in similar positions with Blaise and Harry during any Gryffindor/Slytherin joint class. Considering that most classes that Neville took were that way, he was only away from Blaise during History of Magic and Charms.

After being informed at lunch what had happened to Neville during Transfiguration and fearing what Granger or anyone else might due when he attended classes by himself, Luna, acting like his Alpha, placed some protection spells on his bag. She also transcribes some protection runes that would prevent hexes and jinxes from being sent his way. Luna added a protection so that by Neville speaking a code word it would cause a barrier would form around him to prevent physical or close-range magical attacks. The only thing she could not protect him from was Mind Magic or Compulsions being used on him, since such protections could only be done by Blaise as Neville's actual Alpha.

Blaise, on the other hand, did not have to take such measures to protect Harry, mostly due to Draco attending all the same classes he did with the Submissive. The only class that Harry did not have with Draco or Blaise, for that matter, was Warding, which, since it was taught by Viktor, would ensure Harry was protected during them. The biggest trouble, class-wise, that Neville and Harry had to deal with was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Having been informed by Fred that Umbridge, or as Harry's first Mate had called her Umbitch, had the class just read from the course book, none of their group had even taken their wands out. But before the toad-like woman assigned them a chapter to read, she began to talk about their past teachers. As well as mentioning 'dangerous half-breeds' If not for Draco's hand on his shoulder and the blonde silently casting a spell to make it sound like the bitch's voice was muffled that had prevented Harry from getting on her case.

After a few minutes, once everyone was reading their books, Granger started a heated discussion with Umbitch, both sending looks to Harry to see if he would respond to that.  Yet to their annoyance,  thanks to Draco, who had kept his spell in place, Harry just kept reading the book, doing his best not to fall asleep due to how boring it was. Umbitch and Granger did not get a response, even when they got close to shouting at each other. Most of the class was paying attention to the argument, finding it more fascinating than the course book, but Harry kept his face down due to Umbitch's voice being muffled and having long ago learning how to block Granger's voice out when she started to complain about something. Seeing Harry was not paying them any attention, the argument between the two women began to taper off, making Draco, Blaise, and Neville share a look, seeing the pair looking disappointed at Harry. When they informed Luna about the reaction, the blonde-haired Alpha decided to add Umbridge's name to her list.

On Wednesday of the second week of classes, Luna headed to Professor Flitwick's office accompanied by Neville. Explaining what she was doing there, the Charms Master sent a message to McGonagall to meet them at the Headmaster's office. "What can I do for you all tonight?" the man asked.

"I wish to lodge a formal complaint," Luna said, wrapping her arm tightly around Neville's waist.

"What about?" Dumbles asked, feeling rather confused.

"The treatment of my Submissive. It seems that when he is not attending Slytherin/Gryffindor classes with my Creature Twin, Neville is constantly harassed by Ms. Granger and Ms. Lesky," Luna said.

"I see, and what do you want me to do about it?" Dumbles asked.

"First off, they deserve some detentions due to the hateful and bigoted comments they had directed at Neville. Secondly, since my twin, due to our connection, acts to protect Neville, I wish for his schedule to be changed so they attend classes together," Luna said.

"I see. That is a very good idea, actually," Albus said, but before he could do anything, Luna interrupted him.

"And by changing their schedules, I mean Neville joining the Slytherin classmates sort of like what happened to Heir Potter," Luna said, guessing the man would try to change Blaise's schedule, which would force Harry to attend classes with Gryffindors again and away from the protection of actual members of their Mateship.

"That is highly irregular," Albus said.

"But not impossible to do. Since, from what Neville has told me, the people who are the ones harassing him are his housemates, I would feel better if he were attending his classes with the Slytherins and my twin," Luna said.

"I'm not so sure," Albus said.

"It does not matter, Albus. As Mr. Longbottom's Alpha, she has a right to call for this change just like other Mateships who have members in different years and are worried about their Mate's safety," Professor Flitwick.

"Then he will be attending classes with Heir Potter and my brother now?' Luna asked, looking as if she was rather relieved.

"The methods you mentioned, Filius, are usually done to allow a member of a Mateship to attend classes with a Mate in their same year, not the sibling of a mate," Albus protested.

"Do I need to get the board involved?" Filius asked dangerously.

"Don't you threaten the Headmaster," Minerva growled at the Charms Master.

"I don't think it was a threat, but I like the idea, maybe I can talk to the Governors. From what I learned while staying with Heir Potter, his family is connected to Gryffindor, so he could put a word in for me," Luna said, not revealing that according to Harry's results from Gringotts, her Submissive was actually connected to all four of the Hogwarts Founder lines.

"There is no need for that, of course, for Mr. Longbottom's safety, I shall have his schedule changed," Albus said quickly, not wanting the governors to get too involved in the school since they mostly let him run the place as he wished. And they had done so since he was able to oust Lucius from the board.

Chapter Text

After Poppy Pomfrey's hearing before the Healers' Oversight Committee and the reveal that she was leeching Argus Filch's magic, the leech was immediately terminated, and the board summoned Filch to appear before them. While the ending of the leech would allow Filch to reaccess his magic, it would take some time, so the Healer, who had served as Poppy's barrister, had gone to Hogwarts to collect the man. The man had grumbled the entire time as, once again, the entire room cast diagnostic charms on him. Just like they had found with Poppy, the results printed from Narcissa's wand had the most details of what had been done to the man. According to Narcissa's results Filch had his magic taken from him with the leech, a memory charm place on him so he could not recall his real past, the man was on several potions that caused him to hate the students at Hogwarts, but what was most surprising was that the man was wearing a Glamor covered ring that he was made to forget about.

While they trusted their abilities as Healers, the members of the HOC decided to send the man to Gringotts to get cleansed. They had some hope that by doing so, the Goblin's test might reveal who had cast the spells on the man, which had been missing from all their results. Both the Goblins and members of the HOC were rather surprised to find that the identity of the person who enchanted Argus was somehow blocked even on the Gringotts test. Having heard some stuff from her son and his new mates, Narcissa guessed the person's identity, but even with Albus losing his position of Chief Warlock in the Wizengamot, the man still had a lot of supporters.

Not wanting to voice her suspicions, Narcissa just joined the other HOC members as they waited for Argus to awaken from his Cleansing. She had a feeling the others would offer the man the post at Hogwarts, which they believed he had held before his magic had been stolen to allow Poppy to step in. Narcissa did not care either way if the man took the job, feeling anyone was better than Poppy had been. As they waited for Filch to wake up, Narcissa brought up the point that whoever took over as the new Healer at Hogwarts would need to be given the very best protection so this sort of thing would not happen again. She also knew that when a new Healer was hired and sent to the school, she would have to inform them about Severus being one of her son's mates. Yes, she knew that Mateships over a certain number hid one of their group's identities away for the Mateship's protection, but as a Healer, members of her profession were usually informed of the member for both medical and legal reasons. She could understand her son's mates not wanting to reveal Severus was their hidden member to Poppy, which she was grateful for at the moment, but the new healer would need to know about it.

After nearly three hours in recovery, Argus woke up, and the Goblins allowed Narcissa and the others to see him. The group saw right away that either the man's cleansing or losing the Glamor-covered ring had changed Argus's appearance. The man no longer had large jowls and a slightly sloping brow; in their place were a pair of angular, almost sharp cheekbones, and a wrinkled, if smooth, forehead. The man's hair was still a little ragged, most likely due to how he had taken care of it when he had been under the enchantments and potions, but they all knew it could be repaired if Argus wanted. "Ah, good, Mr. or is it Lord? Heir Filch? Anyway, you are awake," Healer Vanswela said as he held out a Wigginwell potion to help Argus recover from his Cleansing.

"Last I knew it was Heir Filch," the man said, giving the head of the present HOC a nod as he downed the potion. "Though that might have changed since I had last looked."

"Understandable," Vanswela said. "I guess you will be doing that. Any other plans at the moment?"

"Let me guess, you want me to head back and resume my post as Hogwarts' Healer?' Argus asked.

"If you wish to, we would allow it," Vanswela said.

"Bypassing the Governor's Board?" Argus asked with a small arch of an eyebrow.

"After what we found happened between you and Poppy, yes. We will make sure we can get a Healer at the school who can do their job correctly. Not to mention being protected from being enchanted or influenced by others," Vanswela said.

"Well, I wish you luck, but I fear that I must turn down the post," Argus said.

"But why?" Narcissa asked along with several others in the room.

"Two reasons, first of all, due to the potions I had been under, I had treated the students horribly. I can recall threatening to chain them up and whip them, which I would assume would have caused them to fear me, which you do not want the person treating the students to inspire in them. Plus, while I can recall my time at Hogwarts first as its Healer, and then while under the various enchantments I had been placed under, I can not recall how it happened. I think for my own frame of mind, just in case what happened to me causes me to suffer from some form of PTSD, I think I should look for a new place to work," Argus explained.

"Well, we can't fault your logic, but before we allow you to work anywhere, you will need to be recertified, just in case, you realize," Vanswela said.

"I perfectly understand," Argus said with a shrug as if he had expected it.

It took the HOC a few days to find a new Healer for Hogwarts, the committee being rather thankful that it was the start of the year. There had not even been any Quidditch tryouts yet, let alone any serious injuries, since the best they could do was have a Medi-Magical on Call at St. Mungos to Floo in if something happened. On the first Thursday night after Poppy's hearing before the HOC, the new Healer for Hogwarts finally arrived. The first thing the man did was to use his magic to prepare the Hospital Wing in what he considered the most efficient and welcoming state. After he had finished with that, he sent a message to Professor Severus Snape. The Healer, a dark-skinned man with short black hair known as Charlie Guster, did this for two reasons. Both harking back to a conversation he had with Healer Malfoy, who informed him about the Potion Master being the hidden member of her young son's Mateship. But also letting him know that, for some reason, the Hogwarts Governors tasked Professor Snape with brewing all the Healing Potions for the school.

As Healer Guster had originally come from America and studied at Illvermore, he had never met Severus Snape before, so he found it hard not to start laughing as the man almost flounced into the room like a mix of an oversized bat and a dancer. "I take it you are the new Healer the HOC has assigned to the school," Severus said with a small sneer, not sure if he could trust Guster even if it was the HOC that had hired him rather than Albus.

"I am, and I have a couple of things I need to discuss with you," Guster said, gesturing for Severus to follow him into his office.

"I hope this will not take too long, Thursday nights are the nights I visit my House's Common Room to see if my students need any help," Severus said, arching an eyebrow as Guster shut, locked, warded, and then placed a Secrecy Spell on the door. "What is going on?" Severus asked.

"After I was hired by the HOC, Healer Malfoy pulled me aside and informed me of a couple of things. I know that as a Creature-Blooded Magical, you would be aware that large Mateships hide one of their numbers for the group's protection. But in case you are not aware of it, a Healer such as myself has Secrecy Spells applied on us to do our jobs to keep such individuals' identities secret, as well as other information which could be used against our patients. Thus, Healer Malfoy informed me that you are mated to her son and several others at the castle," Guster said.

"I see," Severus said, unable to stop his body from tensing up as if to attack Healer Gustar.

"I just said that members of my profession can learn the identity of large Mateships, hidden members, without issue. I would not have even brought it to your attention, but due to your post as a teacher and some of your mates, being students, I feel that I should take over grading their work for you. I have a Masters in Potions as a Healer after all," Guster explained, not looking the least bit worried as the main attacker of Harry's Mateship attack ready stance.

"Then I should point out something that Healer Malfoy might not know fully about. Due to the strange occurrence during our group's Submissive finding the Alpha, it awakened a Magical Sibling Bond in another student. While said student is not part of my Mateship, I would like you to ask to grade her and her new submissive's homework, just in case," Severus said, keeping up with the lie that Blaise was the group's Alpha, not Luna.

"That can be arranged, just give me the names of all the students whose homework I will need to grade," Healer Guster said, passing over a scrap of parchment.

"You know this might be a rather good thing," Severus said as he wrote down the list, making sure Blaise was at the top while Luna and Neville were separated from the others.

"Why?" Gustar asked.

"Well, my group's Alpha's Creature Sibling found their Submissive is Heir Longbottom. Who, due to my somewhat tough teaching method as well as some other issues, which, if you want to know more about, will have to be discussed outside the castle, is rather fearful of me. I am ashamed to say that when his D.A.D.A. class was learning about Boggarts, I was his biggest fear," Severus explained.

"I see," Gustar said.

"I have started to change how I act towards not only him but my other students. And I say again, if you want to hear the full reason, we will have to discuss outside of the Hogwarts Wards," Severus said.

"I will have to find the time once I get settled," Gustar said. "Now, as for the second reason I wanted to see you, Healer Malfoy also informed me that you do most of the school's brewing yourself. Is that correct?"

"Unfortunately, it is," Severus said.

"While I am not sure how much time I will have to brew any potions I might need, I shall try to reduce your workload. Do you have any students in the fifth year who might need to do some review in brewing procedures, or any sixth year students who wanted to join your N.E.W.T. level courses but had not received the proper grades to do so?" Guster asked.

"I am sorry to say, I have many of those," Severus said.

"Then I think I can use those students. I will talk to the HOC to have the Governors start a program to tutor students in brewing by having them brew some potions I might need for the castle," Guster said enthusiastically.

"I wish you the best of luck," Severus said, though keeping his tone as neutral as possible. If he knew Albus, and he did, the bastard would do anything to prevent such a program from taking place. But then again, as Luna shared with them, she had threatened to use Harry's connections to the Governors to report it directly to them, so Severus guessed that if worse came to worst, he could find a way to use that approach as well.

On Friday, between the last class of the day and supper, Dobby showed up in the Mated Dorms. "Dobby, did it, Master Harry Potter, Sir," Dobby announced proudly.

"Did what, Dobby?" Harry asked.

"Dobby be discovering the location of Hoggywarts Ward Stone," Dobby said, still sounding rather proud of himself.

"Very good, Dobby," Harry congratulated the Elf.

"How did you do it, Dobby?" Fred asked who had been looking all through the map, and using his and George's friendship with the Castle's Ghost to try to find the Ward Room.

"Dobby being very Spyie like, Master Harry Potter's Mate Elf-Friend Fred Weasley, Sir," Dobby said.

"You can just call me Master Fred," Fred said, knowing he could not ask Dobby just to call him by his first name.

"Okay, Master Fred," Dobby said, beaming at him. "Anyways, Dobby talky to Head Elf Bastilan saying Dobby no liky the feels of Hoggywarts Wards. Dobby convince Head Elf Bastilian that Dobby feel betters if Dobby could see them and attune to them betters," Dobby said.

"And Bastilin took you to see them?" Harry asked.

"Yeppy," Dobby said.

"Very good, Dobby," Luna said. "Can you take Harry, me, and Viktor to them?"

"Dobbys can be doing that right aways, Mistress Luna," Dobby said, taking Fred's words as just calling Harry's mate by Master or in Luna's case 'Mistress' and their first name.

"Why can't we come?" Fred and Draco asked.

"Well, for one, we don't know how big the Ward Room is, and secondly, in case it takes us a while, we might need you to say the three of us are doing something if we are late for supper," Luna explained.

"Alright," the pair said as Dobby held out his hands for Luna and Harry to take as Viktor placed a hand on the Elf's shoulders.

As Harry, Luna, Viktor, and Dobby arrived in the Ward Room, Harry saw that Luna's worry about the size being able to handle all his mates would not have been a problem. The Hogwarts Ward Room was the size of Gryffindor Male's Dorm room. But rather than a furnace in the middle of the room, there was a pedestal which held the Ward Stone, which was a lump of pulsing stone about the size of a baby stroller or a pram. Harry also saw why the Marauders' Map had not shown the place since there did not seem to be any way in or out of the room besides Apparating. Apart from the pedestal, every last inch of the floor, walls, and even the ceiling was covered in runic symbols. Harry was rather glad he had regained his Rune-Reading Abilities, as he could see what each line of runes inscribed around the room was meant to do.

He knew it was 'meant to do' since he was also able to detect magic interacting with the runes. It was like when he saw someone had bad magic on them and his first instinct was to erase it, but he held himself back so he could study all the runes just in case there were reasons why some had been altered. While he saw that the majority of altered runes should be changed back, such as one that would prevent another Quirrellmort situation, others should not be 'repaired." One of the altered runes that he saw would have been a mistake to change would have made it possible for students to use an Unlocking Charm on the locks to the staff's rooms. According to what Harry was able to detect from the altered Wards, the Wards had been changed nearly one hundred years ago, thanks to a student breaking into the majority of the staff's rooms and taking some of their belongings. Granted, the student, from the records Harry was getting, was forgiven due to their help preventing a group of Goblins from taking over or destroying the school, but the Wards had been changed after that.

Harry, Luna, and Viktor spent nearly an hour and a half just studying the runes before Harry began to "cleanse them." When he was finished, Harry had repaired the damage done to the Wards which slowly sapped some of the House Elves serving at the school's power as well as their wills, he destroyed an enchangement that had been placed on the Headmaster/Mistresses' Portraits inside the Head's office making them unable to tell any of Albus's secrets or act against him.  The repaired Wards quickly banished any artifact not inside the special Wards around the Forbidden Section, which held traces of Evil Magic in its creation or attached to it.  If the banished objects had belonged to a family, the object was sent to their Account Manager so the Goblins could deal with it.  The Wards returned to tracking how much a member of staff worked for their job, which the Governors had applied to look out for cases of overwork or slacking off. 

Each Hogwarts House was affected by the repaired Wards as if a student did not see themselves as the Gender they had been born as and was comfortable letting others know about it, their belongings would be moved to the correct bedroom.  The Wards also prevented students from one gender from going to the other gender's rooms unless said student was Genderfluid.  Finding a way to make people's lives better, after living in the cramped dorms with Neville, Dean, and the other two previous to that year, Harry altered some of the Wards so that Hogwarts would produce more bedrooms, so there would be only two to three in each room.  With a suggestion from Viktor, Harry also made it so that the rooms would be inhabited in the same space, so no one got confused. 

A side effect that Harry, Luna, and Viktor would not become aware of until they returned to the main castle, from Harry fixing the Wards, was that the castle cleaned itself a little.  Or maybe it was down to the altered Wards that had prevented the House Elves from correctly doing their jobs, thus, with them fixed, allowed the Elves to clean when students were around.  Before they left the Ward Room, Harry also added some protections to the place to prevent anyone from modifying the Wards again without permission.  If, perchance, someone got into the room and tried to interfere with the Wards again, both he and Gringotts would be notified of it.

As they left the Hogwarts Ward Room, Harry, Luna, and Viktor could tell they had made a difference.  Not only did the magic of the castle feel warmer and more welcoming to them, but there was also the Ward Stone itself.  When they had arrived, the stone had pulsed with a dark purple color, but as Harry fixed the Wards, the color changed so that it now flashed between the four main colors of the Hogwarts Houses, red, blue, yellow, and green.

The first two people who became aware of Harry fixing the Wards, even if they did not know the cause of it, were Dumbles and Umbitch.  Dumbles noticed the change as soon as he returned to his office after supper to find that large areas of his bookshelves were now empty as the Wards banished all the books he had dealing with Evil Magical spells and rituals, which he had placed Glamour on to prevent anyone from noticing them.  He had been so focused on his missing books it took him a moment to realize that the sounds of his machines was not present making him look at the spindly legged table covered with various machines he used to track people with all the machines lying dormant having been turned off due to the Wards to prevent him from invading anyone's privacy.

It took Umbitch a little longer, as for 'safety' reasons, the Cursed Blood Quills Albus had gifted her were kept in one of her desk drawers.  She also had not used them yet, wanting the first person to feel their curse to be the Potter Brat.  Though after seeing what happened to Longbottom last weekend, she was considering having him use them as well, after Potter, of course.  Yet as she opened her desk drawer to look at the gift from her lover and patron, the Quills were gone.  In their place was a roll of parchment which, once she read, caused her to rush to Albus since she had been charged by the Goblins for having not only Blood Quills but also having changed them without the Goblins' permission.

As the night went on, more and more people became aware of the changes to the Wards as they found themselves blocked from going to one gender's rooms, or finding out their bedroom had fewer people in it.  Dean and Seamus did not notice much of the change since they were the only two in their room, though Seamus had laughed to see one of the older males getting pranked by having the stairs up to the rooms turn into a slide, preventing him from going anywhere.  Dean, however, had noticed that when the Sixth Year student had gotten to his feet after the stairs had turned into a slide, a roll of parchment had appeared before them.  Dean had looked back on one of the landings to see the student having the biggest smile as they went to hug some of their classmates for some reason.  But since it had little to do with him, at the moment, Dean just ignored it.

Chapter Text

A week after Harry, Luna, Viktor, and Dobby's visit to the Hogwarts Ward room to restore the castle's wards, an emergency meeting was called for the Hogwarts Governors. Besides the normal members of the board, Narcissa Malfoy and Remus Lupin were in attendance. Narcissa was there as a representative of the HOC to discuss Healer Guster's changes and plans for the school. While Remus was there as Harry's Proxy. Harry's choice was met with confusion and annoyance from Albus and Molly. "If Harry wanted a proxy, it should have been me. After all, my son is one of his mates," Molly protested when the Governors had asked Remus what he was doing there.

"No, it would have been me," Adriana said. "After all, my son is the leader of their Mateship, not your son. But I received a letter from young Harry, who did not want to have me to choose between my duties representing the Dark-Cored students of Hogwarts and his interest. Hence why he chose Signore Lupin as his Proxy. Not only due to the man's previous relationship with Harry, but also his background in teaching," Adriana lied since she was well aware of her son's puppet role in Harry's Mateship.

"He should not be allowed here. He is dangerous," Don Lesky said, sneering at Remus.

"It is nowhere near the full moon, so unless you are worried about him pranking you. Which is highly unlikely when I am a member of the board, I just don't see it happening," Severus said, coming to Remus's defense, making the other staff members on the board give him confused looks.

"I vow, I will not prank anyone here," Remus said solemnly. "And so long as we meet nowhere near a full moon. After being asked by Harry to stand in as his proxy, I found that none of the meetings that were normally scheduled for this year were. It should not be a problem."

"Let's just get on with this," Pomona said.

"I agree," Filius said.

"Very well," Albus said in a placating voice. "This meeting was called due to a large number of complaints that have been sent to the Hogwarts Governors from students and some staff around the castle."

"As I went to collect the complaints from our mail service, I was also given some notes about several staff members not doing their job properly, as noticed by the Wards," Drake Vansel interjected. Albus looked both angry and confused at being interrupted, since he knew that he had suppressed the Wards that monitored his staff, and he had not gotten any notice that his additions had been removed.

"We shall handle that after the complaints we have received," Albus said, hoping the complaints would distract the others from what Drake had mentioned.

"Do any of the complaints have anything in common with any other that we can handle at the same time?" Zhou Chang asked.

"Indeed," Drake said, who had sorted the massive number of complaints into several piles already. "Starting with the issue that has received the most letters, it seems that almost every member of Gryffindor House who is currently living in the dorms is complaining that the Common Room is not being cleaned."

"What?" many of the Governors asked, a little confused.

"It seems that it started about a week ago, just as some other complaints began to be sent our way, but the Gryffindor Common Room has not been cleaned since. All the dorms have been cleaned, the student' laundry has been done and dealt with, but the Common Room is not being touched," Drake reported.

"How bad is it, Minerva?" Wedge Bronta asked, knowing that as Head of Gryffindor, she should not be shocked by this complaint.

"How the hell should I know?" Minerva asked.

"Your weekly visits to the dorms as part of your Head of House Duties," Wedge said, looking at her as if he could not believe what he was hearing.

"She has not made any. At least not in the last week," Drake said.

"How would you know?" Zhou asked.

"It was part of the report I got that Albus wants us to discuss later," Drake said, making almost everyone write themselves a note to make sure they dealt with it rather than leaving while Albus ground his teeth a little.

"We can easily get to the bottom of this," Albus said, trying to distract everyone again. "As Headmaster of Hogwarts, I call the Head of the Hogwarts House Elves to appear before us.

With a small pop, Bastilian, the Head of the Hogwarts House Elves, appeared wearing their normal tiny uniform with a cape that was a Hogwarts School flag. "You called Headmaster Dumbledore?" Bastilian asked, bowing to him before doing it to the rest of the Governors.

"Why has your crew not been cleaning Gryffindor's Common Room?" Albus said, not asking or giving Bastilian's name since he had never bothered to learn it.

"We refuse to clean the room, since a student is setting out clothing for us to take to 'free' us," Bastilian said with a snarl.

"WHAT?!?" several of the board members asked in horror.

"Yes, it has been happening since the term started. The student would leave a few hats and socks around, under piles of trash to make us free if we dealt with them," Bastilian said.

"So why stop cleaning now?" Pomona asked.

"At the start, the mad already free Elf Dobby was kind enough to deal with the hats and socks the student was making to free us. But recently, they have started to help clean the rooms belonging to Lord Harry Potter and his mates. Since Dobby was asked to visit the rooms by name. With Dobby gone, we found out the student had increased the production of their cursed clothing and hid it all over the room. So until they stop trying to kill us, for our own safety, we are leaving the room alone," Bastilian reported.

"That is very sensible," Legvistus Nott said, nodding in approval of the Elves' actions.

"No, it isn't. Due to them not wanting to just avoid these hats and socks, my precious baby has to deal with utter filth," Molly protested.

"Who is the student who is doing all this anyway?" Severus asked, though from what he had heard from his mates about what was going on in Gryffindor, he had a guess.

"The student is Fifth Year Hermione Granger, Sir," Bastilian answered.

"She should be expelled," several of the board members called out.

"I am sure it is all just a simple misunderstanding," Albus said.

"I don't think so, Albus. I have heard her talk about some group she is forming, she has called Spew or something," Severus said.

"Spew?" some asked, turning to look at him.

"At least that is what my Godson has told me about when he comes to complain about her targeting Potter, saying he should join the group. From what my Godson told me, the girl wants to end, and I quote, 'House Elf Slavery.' She keeps badgering Potter to join her for some reason despite what my Godson tells me of him refusing her every single time," Severus said, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he wanted the issue settled so Draco would quit coming to complain about it, rather than Granger targeting one of his mates.

"Has she even talked to a House Elf before?" Drake asked.

"I don't believe so," Minerva said, wondering if she should take the girl to see the Elves just to stop this. If anyone in Gryffindor found out she was responsible for the Common Room not getting cleaned, Minerva saw Hermione losing what little respect and authority she had in the house. Which had fallen off since Harry had gone through his Creature Inheritance.

"She should meet them before deciding what she thinks is best for them. But still needed to be punished for this," Don Lesky said, knowing from his second youngest daughter, Shelby, that Granger was a bad egg. Especially as, according to Shelby, she had enchanted the youngest Weasley boy that Shelby had a crush on.

"Agreed," several members said at once, which, due to showing a majority, did not require the subject to be brought to a vote. In the end, Hermione was given detention until the end of the term and lost all Hogsmeade visits for the rest of the school year. When Hermione was informed of her punishment, it also spread the news to the rest of Gryffindor that she had been the cause of the Common Room not getting cleaned, making all but Ginny turn against her.

"What is the next pile of complaints about?" Minerva asked, a little testily since the rest of the board, apart from Molly and Albus, had not shown Hermione any leniency for her misguided actions.

"We have received complaints about room changes. Either students have been moved away from some of their friends, or they think that some students don't deserve a special room," Drake said.

"Room changes? What room changes?" Molly asked.

"It seems that shortly after Heiress Lovegood found out her submissive was Heir Longbottom and he was moved into Potter's Mated Dorms, some changes have happened in the rest of the Houses. I was informed myself during my weekly meeting with my students," Severus said. "While my students' rooms are still in the same place, the school's magic has made it so each room has only two to three people using it rather than possibly every student in their year."

"But some are complaining that some are getting a single special room?" Molly asked as she wondered what it would take to make sure her Ginny could get a single room. That way, her daughter could brew some love potions to slip into Harry's food to make him leave his mates for her perfect little princess.

"Those students are given their room since it seems that Miss Lovegood's having Mr. Longbottom move into Harry's Mated rooms seemed to have affected the Wards so that students' bedrooms are once more aligned with the gender they see themselves as, not as they were born," Filius said.

"Howarts is allowing such mental delusions to corrupt the students?" Don asked, vowing to look into his youngest daughter, Jo, to make sure the mentally unstable freak did not have a new room just cause the girl thought she did not have a gender. What poppycock.  Narcissa, Severus, and several others glared at the man for his bigoted views. And even Molly, who somewhat agreed with him, wished the orange Cheeto-skinned colored man would shut up lest he make Albus's job of fixing whatever had happened harder.

"If it was done by the Hogwarts Wards, it proves that the sentient of the school itself does not see the issue as a mental delusion," Filius said.

"I agree with Filius. Since the room changes were made by Hogwarts itself, we must trust its judgment," Pomona said, wondering what was going on with Minerva, as the woman was not acting like the person she had married all those years ago. She knew her wife was sometimes too busy to visit the Gryffindor Common Room like she was supposed to, but not to even be informed of what happened within it. Let it be how messy it had become, or that the students' rooms have been changed. Not to mention her wife speaking on Hermione not getting too harsh a punishment for targeting the House Elves in such a vicious fashion. Pomona even wondered if Minerva knew that Granger had been given their own room, since the fifth year had been boasting about it during Herbology class, as if to impress Harry.*

"Any other complaints sent to us?" Albus asked, wanting to skip what Hogwarts had done until he had a chance to look at the castle's Wards himself.

"Some Muggleborns have complained about seeing strange creatures around the castle, but from the sound of it, they have been seeing the House Elves," Drake reported.

"Anyone else besides Granger doing anything to them?" Remus asked.

"Most are just shocked by their appearance and wondering what they are doing and why they are doing it," Drake shared.

"Maybe we can discuss that during our normal meeting when we talk about the curriculum of the school," Albus interjected.

"Speaking of which," Narcissa interrupted him, causing Molly and Albus to glare at her.

"Oh, are you finally going to explain why you are here?" Molly asked, glaring at the woman. The glare was larger than normal since when the woman first showed up, she looked like she was going to come over and talk just because her brat was also mated to one of the Devil twins and Harry. She did not know why the bitch had not gotten even closer but she was thankful for it. Unkown to Molly was Severus, seeing Narcissa approach Molly, had given his old friend a minuscule shake of the head to show that, despite being Fred's mother, the red-headed woman did not approve of her son's mateship with Harry.

"I was asked to attend the meeting by the Healer Oversight Committee. Not only due to it being my complaint, which revealed an issue with Poppy leaving her to be removed from the school," Narcissa said.

"What happened?" the non-staff members of the board asked.

"On the first day of class, due to an incident in Potions, my son ended up in the Hospital Wing. When my husband and I arrived after we received notice of him being there, we found that Poppy had not only left him alone but had focused on Harry, who was not even hurt. I reported her to the HOC, and during her hearing, it was found that she had a leech attached to her stealing magic from Argus Filch. The leech had been removed, but Argus, who seemed to have been the previous school healer, refused to come back due to how he had treated the students while he had been enchanted. Hence why Healer Charlie Guster is now the Healer of Hogwarts. The HOC chose him themselves to prevent something like what happened with Poppy and Filch from happening again. We are proposing that the Healers post only be selected by the leading Healers Group in whatever form they are in from now on, rather than being done by the Governors.

Also, since I have heard Severus complain about it enough with my husband about how he is somehow in charge of all the castle's brewing, Healer Guster came up with a solution. We allow students in the upper years who want to improve their Potions grade so they can pass their OWLs, or gain enough credit to join a NEWTs level class take up the school brewing. Think of it like the old apprenticeship program we had back when some of us were students here," Narcissa said.

"The HOC has overstepped their authority," both Molly and Don protested.

"The thing is, Harry heard about this plan from a letter Mrs. Malfoy sent her son, and he has asked me to vote in approval of it," Remus said, leading to a vote being cast. While Don, Molly, Albus, and Minerva all voted against it, the others, including Remus, used all four of Harry's Founder's votes easily, allowing the motion to pass. As soon as the vote was passed, the copy of the Hogwarts Charter glowed as the addition was magically added, which only permitted the castle's Healer to be chosen by members of the Healers group who had the highest authority in the nation at the time a healer was replaced.

"Any other complaints... or issues?" Albus asked through gritted teeth.

"Just the standard ones we usually get," Drake said.

"Well, if that is the case, let's end the meeting," Albus said.

"Now wait just a moment, we still had the thing that Drake brought up earlier," Legvistus said, not going to allow Albus to sweep whatever the issue was under the rug before their next meeting.

"Oh, yes, I forgot about that," Albus lied as he bit the inside of his cheek.

"It seems that the Wards letting us know what each staff member is doing for their jobs went into overdrive this last week. Rather than giving us the normal list saying everyone does their jobs to Hogwarts standards, it lists timetables and work done. As I said earlier, the list made no mention of Minerva doing any portion of her job as Head of Gryffindor House. Unless you count her collecting Hogsmeade forms from her third-year students at the end of a class. I can attest that Severus had been brewing most of the school's potions for a day or two before it dropped off, as he oversaw students doing it. But besides the greater range of information from the Wards, there are a few issues I need to bring to everyone's attention. First off, according to the Wards, many of the staff are close to suffering from overwork. With a few exceptions. One of which is another issue I wanted to share. It seems our new Defense teacher is not teaching our students magic even during practical lessons. Since I picked this all up at our mail service, I sent a letter to my daughter and asked about the woman's lessons. All Professor Umbrige is having the students do is read their course book. Such lessons might be allowed in History of Magic, Divinations, Arithmancy, and the like, but for Defense, her lessons are useless. Especially for those in their fifth and seventh years as prep for their OWLs and NEWTs. She must teach spells or be removed from the castle at once," Drake said.

"Does she even have a Masters in Defense?" Remus asked only knowing the woman to be one of Fudge's underlings whose personal platform was Anti-Creature. Not someone he wanted around Harry and his mates.

"She must have if she was hired." Zhou said.

"Actually," Minerva began, only to close her mouth with a snap at a glance from Albus.

"Yes, Minerva?" Severus asked, having noticed the look from the old bastard.

"Well?" several voices said when Minerva did not say anything.

"We were forced to hire her by the Minister," Albus said as if shouldering the blame for it.

"But why place her in charge of Defense?" several asked.

"Because the only other people who had applied were Anna Brinkman, again, Seversu, and some crackpot Irish woman, Agnus Brown," Albus said.

"I get not wanting to hire Anna, but what was wrong with Severus or this Ms. Brown?" Filius asked.

"Mrs., actually," Albus corrected. "Anyway, after what was revealed a couple a years ago with young Mr. Longbottom, I did not want to place Severus in charge of Defense since it would place him, which if you recall the event as the one teaching our students how to handle bogarts when he was the bogart of a student."

"And the problem with this, Mrs. Brown?" Pomona asked.

"She wanted to bring not only her family but her best friend to live with her," Albus said.

"And what is wrong with that?" Pomona asked, shocked that Minerva did not seem to be as annoyed about it as much as she was.

"Mrs. Brown's family includes her elderly Squib father-in-law, her six adult children, some of whom have spouses of their own and even their own kids. Plus her friend, whose husband is going back and forth between St. Mungos and their home," Albus explained.

"I still don't see what the problem is. Last I checked, we have that old village across the black lake, which was changed into family housing twenty-five years back," Pomona said, recalling living there with Minerva during the summers as the pair courted before moving into a Mated room at the castle. Which is where she had their son nearly eighteen years ago.

"Yes, we still have the family housing, but no one has lived there for years; they might need to be repaired and updated," Albus said.

"Well then, do it, so this Mrs. Brown will take the job and just switch Dolorus to History of Magic," Legvistus said, leading to a vote. Once again, Albus's side lost the vote as the Governors decided to get in contact with Gringotts to send a team to check out the village filled with family housing.

"And where in the budget do you suppose we take the money for the Goblins to do all this, by the way?" Albus asked.

"Funny you should mention that," Drake said as he pulled out another item. "It seemed that, besides all the complaints and the information about the Wards, for some reason, the bank sent us a second book dealing with the Hogwarts account. Since you seem to always forget your copy back in the Headmaster's office." Albus felt his heart plummet as the Kitsune-Blooded Man opened the book to reveal the true amount of money the Governors had at their disposal, which would allow them to hire more staff and even bring back classes. Albus had lied to everyone about not having the funds to keep.

Chapter Text

It had taken a few days after Healer Guster had become the primary Healer at Hogwarts before he was able to find the time to have his meeting outside the school with Potions Master Snape. Guster was a little surprised when Snape took him to Winchester's Pub and found Healer Malfoy waiting for them. Before he could ask about the woman's presence at the meeting, Snape had the hostess show them to a booth. Rather than give Guster a chance to speak, Snape talked about how Guster's idea had helped him out and what the Governors were allowing them to do with it. "Governor Vansel, when he went to offer Mrs. Brown the job of Defense teacher, was informed that the woman's only daughter, Cathy Brown, is a recently licensed Mind Healer. Last I heard, Governor Vansel decided to offer Ms. Brown a job on your staff," Snape said, confusing Guster on why they were talking about it here rather than Hogwarts.

"This surely can not be the only reason you wanted to talk to me outside of the Castle's Wards. And why is Healer Malfoy here?" Guster asked.

"Narcissa is here to give credence to this being nothing more than a simple lunch to talk about work, if perchance someone is spying on us," Snape said in a whisper as he pulled out his wand and cast a Muffliato spell on them to prevent eavesdroppers.

"Okay," Guster said, still a little confused.

"Look, you informed me that as a Healer, you are under a Secrecy Oath that prevents you from giving out private information about my nest, right?" Severus asked.

"That's correct," both Guster and Narcissa said.

"Well, there are some things my mates and I have not been able to inform our extended families yet. And since Narcissa had witnessed a little about what I am going to share with you, I thought it prudent for her to also be involved," Severus explained.

"Very well, continue," Guster said, only for Snape to drop his Muffilato spell so the trio could order their drinks and meals.

"Starting off, Nacrissa, since we last talked, we found out that Blaise's Creature Sibling, Heiress Lovegood, had a mate that had been enchanted and is Heir Longbottom. To make sure she stays healthy due to how her Creature Side awakened, both of them have moved into Harry and the other's suite," Severus said, keeping up the lie that Blaise was Harry's Alpha, not Luna, even to Narcissa. "Due to you informing Healer Guster about me being Harry's mates, he is taking over grading their Potions homework. I also had him take over marking Heiress Lovegood and Heir Longbottoms as well."

"You said that was a good thing due to your past with Heir Longbottom," Healer Guster prompted.

"Indeed, and as I said, I would tell you away from the caste. The reason there is a small issue was that during the last war, I turned against You-Know-Who and became a spy for the Headmaster," Severus said, biting out the man's title as if it were a curse. "After You-Know-Who was defeated, the Headmaster 'protected' me, but he did not think the Dark Lord was truly defeated. So when Harry and Heir Longbottom started school, Albus made me harass them both so I could keep up the ruse I was still loyal to You-Know-Who."

"I get the idea of harassing Heir Potter, not that I approve of it, but why do the same to Heir Longbottom?" Guster asked.

"I could not tell you," Severus said, not wanting to get into the whole Prophecy thing, which might have been about either Harry or Neville.

"But you are making amends, right, Severus?" Narcissa asked a little edgily.

"I have, even before we found out Heir Longbottom was Heiress Lovegood's Submissive," Severus said.

"Good," Narcissa said with a sharp nod.

"Now, before I get into some special circumstances for my mateship, I thought I would share out placements in the group," Severus began.

"That is not really needed," Guster said.

"I think it is, you will understand later," Severus said. "First off I am our group's Attacker, while Viktor is both the group's Beta and Defender. Fred maintains our Mental Health while Draco is our primary healer. Though we have him on some restrictions," Severus said with a small quirk to his lips as if doing his best not to smile.

"Restrictions, what sort of restrictions?" Narcissa asked.

"While he can take care of most of our health concerns, we have found Draco just can't cook. So he has been barred from the kitchens, so if it was not for Harry and the House Elves living with us during the last few weeks of supper, we might have had to eat out every meal," he said.

"Okay, I can see that," Narcissa said with a small chuckle, knowing her son's trouble in preparing food.

"The thing is that our roles are rather different than what I have discovered in other Mateships," Severus began.

"Of course they are, they are yours and you are all different beings to anyone else," Guster said.

"That is not what I meant. Narcissa, you saw a little of this during your trip to Hogwarts. None of us understands it, but the identity of Harry's Creature is blocked; we have no idea what it is. What we do know about it is that it is powerful. The Goblins who told Harry about his creature compared him to the sun, and thanks to bonding with him, we are akin to plants compared to the magic of normal people, which the Goblins said is like the flame on a simple candle. I have not talked to the others about this regarding their roles, but I assume, like me, they were given knowledge of spells they never had before. You must understand, Healer Guster, I have a Mastery in Defense, but after I fully bonded with Harry, I suddenly knew spells I had never even dreamed of before. I think if it were to protect my Mates, I could cast a spell which could bypass the protections of Dragon scales, and Giant Magical Immunity, even if they somehow were able to both be used on the same person. I know that Draco has used some Healing spells that a Healer who had been working for over fifteen years could use, let alone a fifth-year student.

I mentioned Narciss saw something that proves this point. When Draco woke up after the potion exploded, Harry found the source of negative magic and was able to cleanse Draco with a tap of his finger. He did the same to me," Severus said.

"He did?" Narcissa asked.

Looking around again to make sure no one was looking, Severus removed the Glamor he had up to make him look like he normally did, so they could see his skin no longer looked pale and slightly sickly, nor his hair grimy due to all the brewing he did. After he reapplied the Glamor, Severus said, "After Harry's Creature Side awakened as soon as he looked me in the eye, he saw 'Bad Magic' and cleansed me. I had been under several spells and enchantments that would have prevented me from bonding with Harry; hell, one of the enchantments I was under made me hate him. But even without realizing I was one of his mates, Harry cleansed me with a tap of his finger and his magic. He is trying not to look into everyone's eyes these days to make sure that if he sees 'Bad Magic' on a person, he would not try to cleanse them as well," Severus reported. Narcissa reached over and took his arm after hearing that he had been under some enchantments, making her wonder if she should start testing Tom's other free supporters to make sure they had not been enchanted like Severus and her husband had been.

"There is one other thing that needs to be discussed," Severus said.

"What?" both Narcissa and Guster asked.

"While Harry bonded with Fred, not everyone in Fred's family supports this," Severus said.

"Is that why you signalled me not to approach Molly?" Narcissa asked.

"It was, while it seems most of the family supports Fred being in our Mateship, his mother, Molly, and two younger siblings do not, Ron and Ginny," Severus said, naming them for Guster's benefit. "We also found that Harry's other friend is not to be trusted since, from what Fred shared, she sent a cursed book to Harry on his birthday about the 'evils of Homosexuality," Snape said, making the two Healers shake their heads in disappointment. "Recently, we also heard back from Harry's Account Manager who did an audit on Harry's holdings, which found evidence that not only did Molly, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione have been getting money embezzled from his accounts, but the Headmaster has as well."

"We need to report them and press charges," Guster said, making as if to stand up to do just that.

"As it is an issue with our nest, our Alpha has already started working on something," Severus said, forcing the dark-skinned Healer back into his seat.

"Very well, I will do nothing but observe their interactions right now. But if no legal actions is taken by the time Heir Potter graduates, I will have no choice but to start actions against not only the Headmaster, the three Weasleys, the Granger girl, but members of your mateship for negligence," Guster said, proving his conviction by making a vow on his magic.

Arthur Weasley's Perspective.

After Ron had been expelled from Hogwarts, Arthur had immediately contacted someone from the Ministry's Department of Education to arrange classes for Ron so that he could learn how to master his magic. His youngest son might no longer be allowed to go to school, even abroad, thanks to his actions towards Harry. As the classes would help Ron's core stabilize, so there would not be a chance of his son becoming an Obscurial, a wand would be given to Ron during each lesson. Since Arthur had a feeling Molly would try to give Ron one of the old Weasley family wands stored in the Burrow, he passed them to Bill to hold in his eldest son's vaults. Something which would have a better chance of preventing Molly from reaching them than if he used one of the Weasleys' other vaults.

The first couple of lessons with the DOE member went smoothly as the ministry worker found a wand that Ron could use during class. Yet a few days later, there appeared to be an issue as the spells Ron cast for his lessons began to get weaker and weaker. This prompted another wand check, but no wand the Ministry could provide would work, leading to Ron having to get tested.

Arthur was prepared to join Molly and his youngest son to St. Mungos for the test, only to receive a message, under Anti-Molly code that his sons sometimes used to prevent their mother from learning what they wrote to him. Arthur was shocked to see the message that talked about an audit the Goblins had done on Harry's accounts, which had found evidence that money had been sent from them to Arthur's wife and two youngest kids. Fred also suggested that Arthur check to see if he had been exposed to anything, just in case.

So acting as if he had been called in due to a work emergency, Arthur had headed to Gringotts to get tested. He was a little surprised to find Bill waiting for him, but figured Fred had possibly sent word ahead to his eldest brother, since Arthur knew Harry and the others had stayed with Bill and Fleur at the end of the summer. Bill's presence also made some sense when Arthur got back the results of his test and discovered he needed to undergo a Cleansing. According to the results he had received, he had been under love and lust potions since the age of fifteen, geared towards Molly. She had also added a witless, and Yes-Man hex on him, which somewhat explained how, when he was around her or just at home, he relied on her to run things. Yet before he became the Head of the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, he had been the Head of the Aurors, which was a position he had earned through hard work and effort. Both of which he would have been unable to do if he acted like he sometimes did around the house and with his wife.

Unfortunately, the spells and enchantments were not the worst aspect of the results from his examination. The form stated that apart from Bill, Arthur had been forced to Blood Adopt each of his kids. Since he had not been cleansed from some of the spells and enchantments he was currently under, Arthur marveled that the Gringotts form listed not only who the sires of his 'kids' were but also some other startling facts. Arthur guessed that after he had gotten Molly pregnant with Bill, something had happened to make him immune to some of the effects of the love/lust cocktail she had him under or something else had prevented him from impregnating her again. Charlie's father was listed as Dirk Glamgo, the Magical Contractor that Molly had hired to expand the Burrow when she had decided to have more kids with Arthur. This made Arthur wonder if that was one of the reasons the man had returned and had not complained that much when Molly remodeled and expanded the Burrow as the kids grew up.

Percy's father was listed as Samuel Grayson, making Arthur cast a Memory Boosting Charm on himself since he could not recall who that was. He was a little glad to find that he had a memory of Sameul Grayson and that the man had not been just a one-night stand with Molly to get her pregnant with Percy. Thanks to the charm, Arthur recalled Mr. Grayson, the principal of the nearby Elementary School where Molly had sent their kids for their pre-Hogwarts lessons growing up. No wonder the man did not question their lack of Muggle paperwork when they enrolled all the kids in his school.

Fred and George, it turned out, were Molly's nephews and were the biological sons of her elder Mirror Twin brothers and their partner, Leia Prewett nee Fitspatrick. But then came Ron and Ginny, both of whom had the same father, but Arthur doubted Molly was aware of it. For while the same man was listed as Ron and Ginny's father, the Gingotts test revealed that when the man and Molly convinced Ron he had been using Polyjuice Potion to appear as Albus Dumbledore. While the man, when Ginny was conceived, had looked like Aberforth Dumbledore. Seeing how much she had slept around while having him under love/lust potions, Arthur was rather tempted to let Molly know that the father of her precious babies was in fact Mundungus Fletcher. Arthur also wondered if Mundungus had slept with her by choice after noticing how much Molly worshiped Albus. Or possibly Albus had noticed Molly's attention, so he sent Dung disguised as him to keep Molly away from him.

"How much to get a Cleanse and get Molly's spells out of me?" Arthur asked the Goblin Bill had brought him to, which was not the normal Weasley Account Manager.

"I would normally say it would be around 50,000 Galleons to get rid of everything, apart from the Blood Adoptions, since even we can't get rid of those," Bonebreaker said.

"I sense a but coming," Arthur said.

"Actually, there are two buts, as it were," Bonebreaker said. "First off, before they died, your parents placed an order in their Wills so that if you ever came to the bank to request a cleansing of anything done to you by Molly, it would be taken care of." Arthur was not that surprised by that, knowing that for some reason, which he now understood, his parents had not approved of Molly and did their best to prevent their marriage. Even going so far as removing Arhut from the line of succession for the Weasley family, leaving his Second Cousin, Barry, as Head.

"And the second but?" Arthur asked.

"Thanks to one of your blood adopted children being mated to my Client, and it was down to a letter you received from said child. Along with a promise my family has made to Lord Potter, even the money set aside by your parents for the Cleansing will not be needed. We will perform it free of charge," Bonebreaker said, shocking both red heads.

"Really?" Bill asked in shock, making Bonebreaker arch an eyebrow at him. "Sorry, it is just so rare, I thought that if I came along, I could get my dad a discount so he could get some of the leftover money for himself."

"Well, Lord Potter and all of his Mates are considered Goblin Friends. And while you would be his in-laws, my father decreed that for certain procedures at the bank, certain members of Lord Potter's mates' families would get the Goblin Friend rate. So you will be able to get the money your parents set aside for your cleansing, after you are cleansed," Bonebreaker explained, leaving Arthur and Bill utterly stunned.

After Arthur was released after his Cleansing, the first thing he wanted to do was file for a divorce from Molly, but he felt like he owed it to the kids, even if they were not truly his, and explain what was going on first. Bill and Charlie had been easy, but Arthur hit a snag when it came to letting Percy know what he had found. Percy either ignored him or went out of his way to avoid Arthur when he tried to catch him in the halls at the Ministry. Knowing Percy needed to learn this from him at least, even if it did not repair their relationship, Arthur went to talk to Madam Bones.

"Amelia, I need your help," Arthur said as soon as he was able to arrange a meeting with the woman.

"What can I help you with, Arthur?" she asked gently since he normally did not ask for help.

"I am going to state right off the bat, this is technically a personal issue. I recently found out something about my family. I hate to get you involved in this, but some of what I learned applies to my son Percy. I have tried to talk to him about it, but due to a falling out we had last summer, he has been either avoiding or ignoring me. I was hoping you would set up a mediation between us," Arthur explained.

"Not to be rude, Arthur, but isn't something like this normally handled by HR?" she asked.

"Yes, but well, there are some issues in this that would also concern the DMLI as well," Arthur said.

"I don't know," Amelia began.

"I really wanted to show this to Percy first, but I think it might be the only way to show you how serious this is," Arthur said, passing over his results from Gringotts. Amelia only had to read the first three lines and then quickly look for anything concerning the younger Weasley Ministry worker for her to agree to set up the meeting.

Percy dragged his feet a little, having no desire to attend this meeting. He really could not believe that his dad had gotten Madam Bones involved in all this. But Percy still believed in following rules, so he could not just skip the meeting. It also did not hurt that, currently, Minister Fudge was doing nothing but complaining that the Hogwarts Board of Governors had moved Madam Umbridge from teaching Defense to History of Magic. Minister Fudge was getting on Percy's case to find a way to force the Governors to move her back to her original teaching post, despite there not being a reason to do so.

"Madam Bones," Percy said as he entered the meeting room, not even acknowledging his father.

"Mister Weasley," she said with a small nod. "I have been asked to serve as a mediator between your father and you, as he wishes to inform you of some very disturbing news.
Percy could not help but roll his eyes as he turned to his father, wondering what sort of cockandbull story the man had fed to Madam Bones to get her to agree to this. he just could not see her believing the stories that He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Named was back, like his parents and the Headmaster believed. "Well?" Percy asked, arching an eyebrow at his father so they could get this over with.

"You may not have heard, but on Harry's birthday, he came into a Creature Inheritance and bonded with Fred. Between then and now, Harry has found all his mates. Due to some complications when he first went through his inheritance, the Goblins audited Harry's accounts," Arthur said.

"So what? This has more to do with Fred than me," Percy said with a small hurrumph.

"It has to do with you, due to some information Fred shared from the audit which led me to Gringotts to check things out as well as getting tested, The real thing that matters to you that I wanted to talk to you about is on my test, it was shown that I was only Sire by natural blood to Bill. You and the rest of your siblings were conceived as your mother slept around," Arthur said, and knowing Percy would want proof, passed over his Gringotts test to the other man.

At first, Percy wanted neither to look nor touch the document, but his curiosity got the better of him as he reached over and picked it up. Although it was only the three of them in this conference room, Arthur had passed the page face down. Percy somewhat expected the reason his father had done so was to pique his curiosity and make him read the document, but it did not matter, as Percy read the entire form. Despite the anger he still felt towards his dad at the moment, Percy felt a lot of sympathy towards him, seeing everything Molly had done. Percy was not blind or dumb he knew that something was off with their family, he just had never imagined it was something like this. Feeling as if he needed time to process this, Percy set the document down and got to his feet. "Thanks for sharing this with me." Percy then walked to the door and placed a hand on the doorknob before he spoke again without looking back, "I will need some time to process this. We will talk later."

Percy believed he heard his dad say, "Only if you want to," as he left the room, closing the door behind himself. Percy took a moment to collect himself before he headed to the Ministry's department of Life, Events, and Death to look up what had become of the Twins' mom since all he knew about his uncles was they had died trying to protect Francis and Susy Bones, Amelia Bones' brother and sister-in-law. Having never even heard about his uncles being married, Percy wanted to find out all about the woman before he tried to get in contact with Fred and George themselves, let alone his other siblings.

Chapter Text

Dumble's Perspective

After hearing that somehow the suppressing charm he had placed on the Wards to block them from registering what his staff did, not to mention what he had discovered a few days ago, with most of his bookshelves cleared out, Albus knew he had to inspect the castle's Wards. Just in case Pomona or Filius was watching, Albus waited a day to check the Wards out again. He was not worried about either Minerva or Severus due to the Enchantments he had them both under as a means to both control them, but also increase the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry in the castle.

Albus could not help but let out a swear as he Apparated into the Hogwarts Wards room. Somehow, all of his 'improvements' to the Wards had been removed, yet he had not received a notice from the tracking spells that he had also on the room that should have let him know that the Goblins had somehow gotten into the place. Before Albus started working, he checked the room out to make sure whatever changed the Wards had not left any tracking magic of its own. For once, he breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that there was nothing in place, making him wonder if there had been some sort of magical anomaly that had just reset the school's Wards somehow.

He knew that if he put everything back in place all at once, his presence would be missed, so Albus decided to make only a few 'repairs' to the Wards. The first thing he did was once more suppress the sensors on how much his staff did their jobs, as he planned on informing the board he had looked into the matter and found that the date Vansel had received was down to the magical anomaly. Not wanting to do too much, Albus decided to leave the portions of the Wards concerning the House Elves alone for the moment, though he did fix the Wards to make sure all the Previous Headmasters/Mistresses could not act against him. Albus then turned to not only 'fix' but also 'improve' the Wards he had put in place after Riddle had come in for an 'interview' where he had his enchanted pawn leave one of the Horcruxes within the castle. Albus had been particularly proud of this change to the Ward since it ensured that there was a different D.A. instructor each year since then.

Apart from the random magical anomaly when Dapu Domon had worked the job for seven years without a problem. Something Albus had never been able to figure out was how the small man had been unaffected by the curse. The best guess he had was that the man's Drak blood had somehow protected him, yet when Albus hired another Drak-blooded Magical after that to check out the theory, they had only stayed the single year of the curse.

Albus's improvements to the Wards would increase the potency of his curse, so rather than it taking a year before the Irish loon, the board had forced him to hire the woman would be gone before Christmas. Thinking that had been enough for the day, Albus smiled to himself as he Apparated out of the room, whistling as he began to go over some paperwork for the ICW.

Normal Perspective.

While Dumbles had not been able to detect them, the Monitoring spells Harry had placed on the Ward room registered the man's presence as well as his actions within the room. As soon as the old fool left the room, notices were sent to both Bonebreaker and Harry to inform them of what Albus had done. As soon as he had some free time, Harry Appartated back into the room to undo everything Albus had done. In the meantime, Bonebreaker made a copy of the notice he got of Albus's activities and placed it in the Hogwarts Governor's PO Box.

Granger's Perspective.*

Hermione had been overjoyed to have gotten their own room. While they had not talked about it with anyone before, Hermione sometimes felt like a male while other times being a female. The night before the Common Room stopped being cleaned, Hermione had gotten a note from Hogwarts asking them if they were alright with people knowing they were Gender Fluid. Hermione had not been so sure since They knew that some people disliked people who were Gender Fluid, including Ron, his mom, and Ginny. The thing that decided it for Hermione, however, was that the notice stated that if Hermione was alright with people knowing about their Gender Identity, Hermione would get their own room.

Thinking it would be a perfect place to do homework, as well as trying to work on the Potion of Bond Breaking. She did not want to brew the potion in Myrtle's bathroom again, nor around Ginny lest she reveal that she could not read the runes in the book anymore. However, after Hermione had let Hogwarts know to give her their own room, and she started to try to work on the potion, Hermione ran into some issues.

Getting into their new room, Hermione took a moment to luxuriate that she had the whole place to herself. After taking a moment to just smile at all the space, Hermione headed over to her desk and started to pull books out of her bag. Since Hermione had not wanted to leave Moste Potente Potions around, especially now that she needed to use it again to brew a potion, she had been keeping the book with her at all time. Yet Hermione was confused when They had pulled out everything in the bag, and the potions book was not inside. For a moment, Hermione wondered if Ginny was looking through it again for other ways to mess with the Death Eater spawn and freaks mated to Harry.

Hemione was just about to leave her desk to go ask Ginny where the book was when a scroll rolled out of the bag and onto the desk. Since the scroll was not the right size for any of her homework, nor anything else that she could think of, Hermione unrolled it and read it.

Hermione Granger,

Books from the Restricted Section should not be removed from the Library. As you were permitted to take the book out three years ago, yet had not returned it, you have earned a month's worth of detention.

Hogwarts

Hermione let out a frustrated snarl, wondering why the book had been taken from her now of all times. Granted, she could not use it at the moment since she was having trouble with reading the Runes, but that should be cleared up soon. Having nothing to do and feeling angry at the castle, despite her new room, Hermione focused on making her Elf Clothing, making more than usual in her anger.

Hermione's new room became even more useful at the end of the next week, when it was revealed that, thanks to all the Elf clothing she had been leaving in the Common Room, the Hogwarts Elves had refused to clean it. So not only did she have the months detention due to having kept the Moste Potente Potions book, she now had detention to the end of the school year, had her Hogsmeade privileges revoked, and now all but Ginny within the House had turned against her. Hermione had to hide the reason she had gotten a new room from the younger girl, telling Ginny it was due to Lavender being allergic to Crookshanks, Parvati being terrified of her cat, and Lily Moon and her never getting along. In truth, Hermione and Lily Moon never interacted much apart from their third year when the girl got on Hermione's case for her treatment of Crookshanks.

Normal Perspective

Harry did not know what to expect as he, Draco, Blaise, Neville, and the rest of their class went to the first lesson with the new D.A. Professor. The teacher, who informed everyone just to call her Mrs. Brown, began the lesson with a somewhat crude joke. "Now in America, two Nuns were smuggling some tequila across the border from Mexico in the trunk of their car. One of the nuns was freaking out, thinking they were sure to get caught. The other Nun said, 'Don't worry about it, they will not check us out, we are Nuns.' But as they got to the border, an agent approached their vehicle.

'They are going to arrest us,' the first Nun said.

We're fine. Just stick your head out the window and show 'em your Cross,' the Second Nun told her.

The first Nun rolled down her window, sticking out her head, looking at the approaching agent, and screamed, "Fuck Off, and Leave Us Alone!" Mrs. Brown said, making most of the class laugh at the joke.

"Just my way to break the ice," Mrs. Brown said as the laughter died down. "Now, from what I was told so far this year, you have not been allowed to perform any magic, and that is a bucking shame. I have been told I am a little eccentric by the people I have worked with, not that I have a problem with it, thank you very much," Mrs. Brown said, smiling at everyone. "Now, the one thing that I tend to do, which I have seen others in my line don't, is that besides having you learn to cast spells in my class, I will have you use them on yourself." At this, Hermione shot her hand up and waved it around to get called on. "Yes... Um, Miss Granger?" Mrs. Brown asked, shooting a look down at the class seating chart to find out Hermione's name as well as preferred pronouns.

"What do you mean we will be casting spells on ourselves?" Hermione asked.

"How is that confusing?" Mrs. Brown asked. "It is quite simple, while the spells I will be teaching you in class are meant to be used in defense, they can also be used for attack. I had notes that last year you had someone pretending to be Alastor Moody, and unless the imposter changed too much, Moody always preached 'Constant Vigilance.' Well, I have to ask you how one can be vigilant against something they have never faced or felt before. Also, casting a spell on yourself can help you learn better control of your abilities. Use too much magic and you can seriously hurt yourself, but let your fear control you and you will not feel a thing. Both scenarios are things you want to avoid. Take this spell, for instance," Mrs. Brown said, casting a spell that caused what looked like a bolt of lightning to shoot out of her wand. "It is a handy little spell that could act like a Muggle Taser against an adversary at close range. Yet if you put too much power in it," she said, turning her wand to her throat, before, to everyone's surprise, she blasted herself off her feet to fall behind her desk.

"It can knock you for a loop," Mrs. Brown said, crawling up from behind her desk, her hair standing on end and sticking out in random directions. "That was not the first time I have done that. The first time, I knocked myself out for over ten minutes before my children's Granddad stopped laughing at me and came to help. So what can you learn from this?" she asked the class.

"You are Mental," Seamus shouted out.

"Five Points from Gryffindor... Heir Finnigin," Mrs. Brown said. "Yes... Heir Longbottom?"

"That by using the spell on yourself with the same amount of power each time can also help you get used to it, since if you had the same power with both taser spells, the first time as well as this time, you were not knocked out for ten minutes anymore," Neville guessed.

"Very good, Heir Longbottom, have those five points from Gryffindor back," Mrs. Brown said before starting the lesson on how to cast the taser spell.

When they reached the part of her lesson when they were to cast the spells on themselves, Harry focused much of his control as he could to hurt himself. Draco was doing the same thing, knowing that thanks to his bond with Harry, everyone in their Mateship had increased magical powers. When they did end up casting the taser spell, both Harry and Draco did feel their spell hit, but were not knocked out. The same could not be said for some of the class, like Seamus onf Shelby Lesky, who had used too much power to show how 'strong they were.' While others, such as Granger and Pansy, got points taken from them when they barely used any magic to make sure they did not get hurt from their spells.

Later, when discussing Mrs. Brown's class with the rest of his Mates, Harry learned that the woman had done different jokes as a means to break the ice.  In Fred's class, Mrs. Brown had approached Lee Jordan and made a bet with him for an easy fifty points to Gryffindor.  All he had to do was guess a number between one and ten.  Lee had guessed three, only for Mrs. Brown to tell him he was wrong, and the correct number was four.  She then gave him another chance, leading Lee to guess seven, making Mrs. Brown complain that she had just told him the number was four.

While in Luna's class, Mrs. Brown had done a jokey little newscast.  Luna shared what she thought had been the best parts, which both concerned the weather.  One of which was Mrs. Brown saying she was taking a quick look at the weather, only to turn her head to the side for a moment before looking back at the class to report that it would be dry tomorrow unless it rained between the showers.  The weather report ended with an account of a farmer's wife stating it had been so windy one of the chickens on her farm had laid the same egg five times.

Fred's Perspective

Fred was shocked when Percy's Owl, Hermes, dropped a letter off for him before it went over to drop another letter off for George. Meanwhile, George got a letter from a strange owl before it came to drop a letter off to Fred. Both twins shared a look before they looked at the letters. While Fred and George had been confused to why Percy was writing to them, they read the other letter first. Both twins soon found that the unfamiliar owl had been sent by their dad with some news that he had discovered during his trip to Gringotts. On Fred's suggestion to get himself tested, their dad had discovered that he was only their dad through a Blood Adoption Ritual Molly had forced him to take. According to the test at the bank, only Bill was his full biological son; Charlie, Percy, Ron, and Ginny were half-siblings to each other due to Molly sleeping around with various people.

According to the test, Arthur wrote, the twins were actually Molly's nephews from her older twin brothers and their shared mate. This meant the pair still were the Lords of the Prewett family since they were both twins and the children of the last leader of the family, but technically, apart from the Blood Adoption, not related to any of their siblings. Arthur informed them that he was planning on divorcing Molly as soon as he let everyone know about what she had done. The man, whom both Fred and George still saw as their dad, also informed them about Molly placing some enchantments on him, without informing them of what the enchantments were.

While they were not Magical Twins and were separated as they read their letters, Fred and George reached the same conclusion that the reason their dad had not told them what he had been under was that he had gotten Cleansed at the bank. The pair also wondered why Ginny had not received her own letter from their dad. This made Fred guess it had to do with what his Mateship had found out about the girl getting money from Harry's accounts. Something that he had not shared with George since there was no reason for his twin brother to be informed about it.

Having finished with the letter from their dad, Fred and George moved on to the letter sent to them from Percy. At almost the same exact time, both males opened the letter and began to read from their respective letters. Percy started by stating that, in case neither twin had learned about it yet, Molly and Arthur were not their natural parents. Percy wrote that he had a feeling Arthur would be writing to them soon, and to wait to read his letter until after seeing what the man had to say. After a break in the letter, Percy went on to say that since they all knew about 'Uncle Fabian and Gideon's deaths,' Percy had looked into what had become of Fred and George's mother, Leia Prewett nee Fitspatrick. According to what Percy had found in the Great Britain's Department of Magical Life Events, their mother had not died but was listed as Compromised. Unfortunately, the department did not list where Leia was currently located, nor in which specific way she had been compromised.