17 Chapter 17 - First attack of the summer break

"And this is the guest wing. You can pick your own rooms. Just drop your luggage and give your choice to Ilia, our house elf," Ash said as he finished the house tour with Luna, Hermione, Harry, and Sirius.

"This house looks so cool. It's like 50% glass. You can see so much of the beautiful landscape," Hermione said for the third time. The fact that most of the hallways had the same enchantment as the great hall in Hogwarts that would allow you to see the skies outside made her whisper unendingly that she would do the same to her house when she moved out.

"Lunch is in 30 minutes, Ilia can guide you if needed. I'll prepare something for the spa tour later. Luna, I think my great grandmother wanted to see you in her study," Ash explained before heading back to a higher floor in the Starkey manor.

Inside his study that looked from the inside as if it had no walls or a roof, only windows, Ash wrote a few letters and signed a few contracts at the last minute.

Ash was the last to sit down at the lunch table with a stack of letters on his side. They were all gilded, all except for one that changing colors non-stop. Luna's eyes were glued to it for their entire meal. When they finished eating, Ash handed out a letter to each of them and gave the rest of the stack to Ilia. Luna received the colorful one.

"What's this, Ash?" Sirius asked.

"Well, it won't be finished this week, but before my workers can find trouble with you during your stay if you test something out, I wrote you four a lifelong 100% off discount for all services," Ash told them with a shrug.

"Oh, they also smells really good. Or is it just my letter?" Luna said sniffing her letter like a dog. It prompted the others to smell it, too.

"Oh wow, what's this? Vanilla? Caramel? Both?" Hermione asked excitedly.

"Uh guys, it's a 100% discount. For life. Why are you sniffing it? Aren't you excited about the wrong thing?" Ash asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Haha, the professor is right," Harry admitted with a laugh.

"Don't make it a habit for next school year, but just call me Ash while we're in my home, Harry," Ash admonished with a wink.

"If you need to freshen yourself up, do it now. Otherwise, we will leave now."

With Hermione on Harry's broom and Luna on Ash's, they flew to the place the spa would be built in. Right now, it was just a clearing on a hill. There was a small, natural waterfall there with roughly the height of a regular two story house.

They arrived last. There were already over a dozen people present.

"Finally, you're here, Ash," Nym said.

"Can't believe they'd let a star like you go on such a boring assignment, Nym. Hey to everyone, by the way," Ash quipped before greeting the rest.

There were the 7 people team of aurors and hitwizards, two of the Burke sisters, a magical construction company that sent four wizards with a huge stack of chests behind them and two of Ash's future staff.

Anita Lawson, a young first-generation magical who had a knack for business and a non-magical mother who ran a beauty salon and a father who owned a public swimming pool. She was perfect for the job of running the day-to-day business.

And then there was Mark Rudder, another first-generation magical in his early 30s, who would most likely become head of security if nothing happened. The man was banned for life in the British dueling scene because of the plot of a bigotted pure-blood who was a very sore loser. Though, he was a very likable man anyway.

"Well, I volunteered. Don't forget I already experienced first hand what you want to create here," Nym said with a smile.

"Your mom said she will arrive only two hours later. Did she tell you why?"

"Nope! Not a lick, maybe she wants to make sandwiches for everyone and had terrible time management," Nym shrugged.

"I see. Okay then, everyone. Let's get started. Eddie, Robert, Lance and.. I want to say Robert again? You guys received the blueprints, right? Start with the cave system next to the waterfall. Linda, Lena, your mom said you had the best style out of all your sisters, so keep an eye on the aesthetics. Anita, stay with me please and Mark," Ash looked at the man and nodded. He nodded back and jumped on his broom.

Everyone got busy, Hermione and Harry followed the construction team, marveling at the spell work, Luna just went and did her own thing, and Sirius followed the Burke sisters. Apparently, his plan was to get together with both of them because his flirting was very obvious.

Two hours later, another witch appeared in the clearing. It was Andromeda Tonks. She had a chest with her and looked very pleased altogether.

"Nymphadora! Would you please come and properly greet your mother!" Aunt Andy shouted towards the patroling aurors.

Nym raised her middle finger with a smile. Apparently, those two were in a joking mood today. Or maybe not, because Andromeda pursed her lips a few moments later.

"Aunt Andy, glad you could come. What did you bring?" Ash asked the woman as he stepped closer with Anita next to him.

"Ah, Ash, my boy. Please help this old woman get justice and spank my daughter for me," Andromeda pleaded. Okay, it was a joking mood.

"Uh, maybe another time. So? The chest?"

"Huh, another time? Ah, never mind. I can't put all the teasing in a single day. I have weeks, I can savor it. I brought with me something for you to use your family magics on. That recipe you shared for the scar removal solution, I think I may have succeeded in combining it with a skin-care lotion I made for myself in my years at St Mungo's. Please look it over, the recipe is written on a parchment in the chest," Andromeda monologued as she handed over the chest and walked toward her daughter to give her an earful.

Ash set up a table for the vials of the promised new lotion, sent Anita to oversee some of the construction work, and began appraising Andromeda's work. It was very promising, though between two variants, there was probably a middleground that could work even better.

Ash discussed it with Andromeda, and she immediately agreed with him, giving him a firm hug and a thank you.

"Ah, it feels so nice to invent stuff! Ugh, if only I met you 25 years ago before I met my Teddy. Your family magics is simply broken for this stuff. Or was that your pure talent in finding that middleground thing? I'd believe both," she said while still hugging Ash.

"Honestly, if you were as bold as a young woman as you are now, you could have probably landed me," Ash suggested with a wink.

Andromeda only laughed, patted his cheek, and whispered to herself that she would tell her daughter to be more bold.

Like that, three days passed without any incident. The cave system was done, but still needed finishing touches. The first of many houses was done, well the exterior. The Burke sisters started furnishing it with Anita according to the rough outline Ash set.

It was getting late, the last hour of their work day had started. Mark had just sent out the agreed upon signal for suspicious happenings. Ash discreetly guided the three kids into the caves and gave them something to do so they wouldn't leave.

He changed into his animagus form for recon, which hid him from view in the dark forest.

"That blood-traitor thinks he is so special. Let's see how special he is when we level this place and send them all to St Mungos for a year," a man gloated in a drunken slur.

Ash made out four people in dark robes staggering through the woods. They all boasted on what they would do to all the blood-traitors. Since they weren't close to any of the 'civilians' of their group, Ash left them alone for now. Mark had clearly already found those four, so Ash only observed for now.

They were getting closer and closer to the construction site when Ash noticed a fifth person lurking behind the four drunks. And that fifth figure was not part of Ash's group either. It stuck close to the shadows.

Since they were loud and made their intentions clear, the fight taking down the four drunks was over almost instantly. However, the fifth figure used the diversion to get closer to the caves.

Ash followed the figure, and when it was about to enter the cave, Ash silenty transformed back and shot a Stupefy at it. The figure dodged and turned around to look at his attacker.

"Ahh, Ashbert Starkey, the Animagus. No wonder I couldn't smell you," the intruder spat as he dodged another Stupefy.

The short fight that was going on ended when the man lept toward Ash. The man swatted away a curse sent by Ash, but that stopped him from swatting away a vial filled with purple liquid at his feet. It splashed into fumes as the glass shattered.

The man breathed in only a bit of the fumes and immediately started screaming in pain. Ash cast another few curses that the man was having trouble dodging or blocking. The screaming became muffled at first, but the more curses hit, the more the screams picked up again. A jelly-legs curse managed to connect with the attacker and Ash threw another vial at the kneeling adversary, this time with a sky-blue liquid inside that stuck to the attacker like glue, eventually making it impossible for the enemy to move most of his limbs as they were glued to his body.

Once his attacker was almost immobile, Ash chucked another two vials toward him for good measure.

"That's certainly interesting. Those four drunks were a diversion then. What was your purpose? Harry Potter, maybe?"

Ash got a good look at his attacker now. It was a brutish, bulky man with a lot of facial hair. A flash of recognition shone in Ash's eyes.

"Fenrir Greyback... where is your pack? Attacking alone is not your modus operandi," Ash mused. He sent out a patronus to inform the others.

Before they arrived, Ash took out a syringe and pushing its entire contents into Greyback's mouth, followed by him taking out another bottle and dropping half of the yellow colored liquid on top of the syringe's liquid. With a quick wave of his wand, Ash made the werewolf swallow it all.

"Ash! Ash, are you okay!?" Nym shouted as she was the first to arrive.

"Yeah, here. I'm fine. I got the drop on him and thankfully had enough potions with me to defend myself," Ash replied.

"By Morgana's fat bottom, what did you do to him? What is that blue mass? Wait, is that Fenrir fricking Greyback?"

"Yeah, probably it's him. And Nym, I clearly remember sending you a notebook of mine titled 'Potions for field work'. Did you not read it?"

"Uh, dunno, honestly. I think I remember reading that title, but your notebook had a secondary title, no? 'Potions for field work: How to not die fighting idiots' I think it read," Nym shot back with a glare.

"Oh yeah. Well, in my defense, it was an apt name for it. What you see here gluing his limbs to his body, that's the Full-Body-Blue-Glue-potion. Name not final. The purple dust in his hair, that's from a potion I managed to create a year ago. It explodes into airborne mist upon shattering the vial. It's made with Broder Devil Hair extract and hurts like you didn't scratch a full-body itch for two hours. It's probably the most distracting and enveloping pain you can feel outside a Cruciatus curse," Ash explained. It was about his creations, his potions. So he was in his element.

"And what dumb name did you come up with for that?" Nym asked as she kept up her vigilance and looked around. She wasn't the only one who thought Fenrir Greyback usually hunts in a pack.

"Purple Mists of Distraction. Name not final..." Ash said in a flat tone.

Before Nym could respond, the three hitwizards arrived, dragging with them two more werewolves behind them.

The aurors had already called for reinforcements, so the four drunkards that were just a diversion were already in shackles.

The eventual commotion from more people arriving with apparition managed to get the attention of not only the three kids he tricked into staying in the cave but also of all the workers currently present.

"Ash, you managed to take down Greyback? Or did my Nymphadora manage to conconct some of those amazing potions you shared with her in the 'Potions for field work' notebook?" Andromeda asked as she arrived.

"You use my full name, so why not give the full name of the notebook lest people think I'm an idiot, mum?" Nym asked with pout.

"What's the full name? Can I get a copy?" Hermione inquired excitedly.

"Uh, 'Potions for field work: How to not die fighting idiots' is the full name. Nym has the only copy, sorry," Ash said, avoiding Hermione's eyes. She looked ready to cry.

"How about I give you another notebook later? I think I curated some potions for herbologists in a booklet named 'Ever tried doping? Ever tried doping your garden?'... name not final..."