6

Chapter Text

Luna looked around the room, watching as almost everyone else went off with the Aurors after Madam Bones had given them a few more orders. The blonde waved to her friends, Ginny and her brother along with Neville leaving too, all three looking exhausted and clearly in need of medical treatment. Neville nodded back with a smile while Ron peered at Harry and Hermione, shook his head in a sort of baffled wonder, then helped his sister limp out of the room. The other girl was swearing under her breath with every step but managed to give Luna a quick smile too.

Eventually, the only ones left were Dumbledore, Madam Bones, that fool who thought he ran the magical world, Harry, Hermione, and for some reason Professor Lupin and Sirius Black, who seemed mostly to be hanging around to see what happened next. Professor Moody and Tonks had clearly wanted to stay, but Bones had had a quiet word with the pair and after a few seconds of argument both had nodded and followed Kingsley Shacklebolt out, casting odd glances at Skitter as they did. She suspected the three of them would be going back to the Veil room to have a good poke around on the DMLE director's orders, to see if there was any hint left of how Skitter had ended up here, once they'd taken her friends back to Hogwarts. It's what she would have done, so she had to assume the Director was at least smart enough to think of that.

Glancing at Hermione, who had also watched the others leave the Minister's office, she saw her friend was probably thinking much the same thing. Hermione was, after all, far more than smart enough to think of that. Luna knew full well she was well above average intelligence, especially for a magical, but Hermione was simply incomparable in that area. Which was one of the many reasons she adored the older girl, along with the way her friend reacted when she mentioned one of the special creatures…

While she wasn't completely sure, she suspected that Hermione might be onto her own little game, which amused her a lot. Harry, too, might well realize more of the real truth than most people did. Harry was a perceptive chap when he wanted to be. Pity dear Ronald was so good at distracting him with silly things so often… The black-haired boy would easily be right up there in the academic stakes along with her and Hermione if he applied himself, although that said he did remarkably well even under the stresses of his rather odd life.

Stresses Luna strongly felt were going to be a lot fewer due to Skitter.

Luna was enormously impressed by the costumed girl. Somewhat scared too, of course, because that was only sane when faced with something as hilariously dangerous as Skitter obviously was, even before she'd acquired Fiendfyre as a pet, and after that?

Anyone who wasn't scared of her wasn't paying attention.

On the other hand, Luna didn't get any impression that Skitter was malicious. She had a very, very good sense of people and their motivations, and Skitter gave off the feeling that while if you made her come to you, you'd likely regret it extremely briefly, she also gave off the feeling that if you left her and hers alone she'd leave you and yours alone. And would probably help if asked. Luna could respect that.

Looking at Hermione she knew full well that her friend was also rather taken by Skitter, for a whole series of reasons, and desperately wanted to learn how she was doing all the things she did. And also about her world, and the future, and what Skitter had worked out about Fiendfyre, and… probably everything, actually. Hermione was nothing if not an ever-absorbent sponge for knowledge combined with a burning passion for learning. Luna could respect that too because in many ways she was the same, although not to quite the level Hermione was.

No one was quite that enthusiastic to learn, she thought with an inner giggle. It was almost frightening sometimes.

She and Skitter would make a good combination, if you wanted everyone in range to end up running for their lives…

Hermione gave her a side-eyed glance as she started giggling audibly, and raised an eyebrow. Luna just winked at her.

Everyone sat down in the first row of chairs, Dumbledore conjuring himself something more comfortable next to the Minister's desk, which caused Madam Bones to look at him and visibly sigh faintly before she just used one of the ones that matched the desk itself. With a wave of his wand Dumbledore vanished the remaining chairs, leaving the large room looking much emptier in their wake. Skitter was watching him with interest, leaning back comfortably in her own seat as if she was casually visiting a friend, but Luna could almost literally feel her watching everything around them.

Moody would be proud, she thought with inner amusement. Skitter practiced constant vigilance better than anyone else could manage. She wondered if he'd realized that, and that was why he'd had that weird little smile on his face alongside the wariness…

Madam Bones glanced at her and her friends, then looked towards Dumbledore for a moment. Eventually she shrugged slightly and didn't say anything. The elderly wizard, on the other hand, frowned a little. "Mr Potter, is there a reason you and your friends are still here rather than accompanying your other friends back to Hogwarts?"

Harry, who had sat next to Skitter without any apparent worry, shrugged with a small smile. "Yes. We're curious."

Sirius snorted with laughter, and even Professor Lupin looked amused for a moment. Madam Bones clearly wanted to but kept her expression severe, although Luna could see from her eyes that she found it slightly funny.

"I feel that it would be best if you left," Dumbledore said after a couple of seconds. His eyes weren't twinkling quite as much as normal, Luna noticed. "We have to discuss some serious matters, and…"

"I have no problem with them staying," Skitter cut in tonelessly, making him abruptly stop speaking. "They saw what happened, Hermione worked out what was going on before anyone else, and Harry is the one those lunatics were after in the first place. They have as much right to be here as anyone else."

Dumbledore studied her, his face blank but a muscle in his cheek twitching slightly which Luna thought interesting and unusual, but finally nodded. He clearly wasn't sure just how much he could push and had decided to err on the side of caution, which was probably sensible under the circumstances. She glanced at Hermione who looked satisfied when she met her friend's eyes.

"I agree, for what it's worth," Madam Bones added.

"Amelia, surely we don't want to have children involved in this…" Minister Fudge commented, his voice uncertain. The man didn't look happy, and hadn't from the moment everyone had sat down and Bones and Dumbledore had taken charge. Luna felt that he was frantically trying to work out how to turn this to his advantage, but with his biggest backer ash downstairs and all the evidence that 'Lord Thingy' had not only returned but very suddenly left again in a dramatic fashion, had entirely run out of ideas. She didn't really sympathize, since she knew full well from her father among other sources that Mr Fudge was a terrible Minister, even if he wasn't nearly as bad a person as many people were.

He was just stupid, lazy, and venal, which sadly was far too common. In most jobs that wouldn't have been more than a local problem, but in his position he was definitely responsible for some fairly nasty things, such as the current situation at Hogwarts. And the Pink Toad.

Luna suppressed a smirk at what she thought might happen if and when Skitter met Umbridge. She felt it would be memorable… As in the witnesses likely would never forget it, no matter how much they tried.

"They're already involved, Cornelius, or did you miss how all this started due to Mr Potter's connection with the Dark Lord?" Bones snapped with some asperity, giving her nominal superior a glare. He shrank back in his seat and nodded somewhat hastily. "So I see no reason not to let them remain, especially as Miss Skitter appears to feel it's a good idea. We need to learn all we can about what happened downstairs, which includes not only these memories…" Here she tapped the container of vials she wasn't letting out of her sight, "...but eye-witness reports in more detail than we've already had. I'm sure we'll have questions only they can answer and I'd like to work out our next step tonight before I go back to bed."

He nodded again, looking both worried and somewhat confused, which Luna thought was a fitting expression for the man.

"Ah… well, yes, I see your point I suppose," he managed to say somewhat weakly before looking around at Luna and the others. "They can stay."

"Thank you," Bones replied, barely hiding what Luna suspected was an eye-roll, then turning back to the much smaller group. Dumbledore was listening and watching, stroking his beard slowly in a way that made it look like he knew much more than the blonde thought likely. But then their headmaster did so like his little affectations…

"Well, then, Miss Skitter, I suppose we should learn more about what brought you here and try to come up with a method to reverse it," Madam Bones said after a moment's consideration where she seemed to be trying to get her thoughts in order. "Perhaps you would like to tell us a little more about your own world to begin?"

Skitter looked back at her, then nodded slowly. "I suppose that's fair," she replied. Appearing to pause for thought while everyone waited, she finally continued, "Like I said we don't have magic. Or at least no one has ever managed to prove that we do. What we do have is Parahuman powers." She shrugged a little. "I'm not an expert on the subject but we learned quite a lot about it at school and I've read more on the internet."

Luna could see that none of the adults knew what she meant by that, and she was puzzled too. Hermione seemed intrigued. "What is… the internet?" Madam Bones asked as Skitter paused.

The girl sighed faintly. "Right. Of course. Nineteen ninety six, you guys barely have that yet, and I guess your little private world knows even less about technology…" She glanced at Hermione who nodded.

"The wizarding world for the most part thinks that about the mid nineteenth century is high tech," Hermione said to the unasked question, shaking her head. "A lot of them aren't that advanced."

"Jesus." Skitter stared at the other brunette, while Dumbledore and Bones looked at each other. Professor Lupin was listening with great interest and Mr Black was as well although he also looked somewhat puzzled. "That bad?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Very insular people I'm afraid," Hermione nodded.

"Wow. OK, that's going to make all this even harder to explain." Skitter turned back to the DMLE director. "Do you know what a computer is?" she asked with a faint tone suggesting she desperately hoped the answer was yes.

Bones slowly nodded. "A very big… adding machine… I think? Using electricity somehow?"

Luna suppressed a small grin as she recalled how Ginny's father pronounced that word, which even she was well aware was wrong.

Skitter bowed her head in dismay, while Hermione appeared to bite the inside of her cheek. After a moment the costumed girl lifted her gaze again. "That's… not completely wrong," she said with even through the lack of emotion a sort of mildly stunned horror coming through. "But it's a very long way from right too. A computer is basically a machine that can take a list of instructions in a special language and follow them very, very quickly. They were invented around the time of world war two and yeah, at that point they were very big things. But they got faster, smaller and cheaper really fast." She glanced at Hermione and whispered, "Do I try to explain Moore's Law?"

Hermione shook her head.

"Well, anyway… there are still really huge computers right now, but they're massively quicker than they were back then. Big companies and governments use that sort. Most other people, assuming your world is roughly the same as mine in the mid nineties, probably use a typical desktop computer which is about this size," she moved her hands apart indicating something roughly two feet square and half that high, "and is probably thousands of times faster than anything from twenty years ago. They basically more or less double in speed every year or so as the technology improves. By two thousand and eleven you can put them in your pocket and they're faster than almost anything the non-magical world has at this point in time, even a lot of the huge systems. And they're all connected together, all over the world, into a huge network."

"That's already happening right now, Director Bones," Hermione commented. "The internet is growing very quickly. From what Skitter is saying, that doesn't stop."

"No, it doesn't," Skitter confirmed. "In my world, almost everyone can use it, either with a computer like I described, or even through a phone."

Even Hermione looked startled by that, Luna noticed, then got a very intense expression as she thought. Minister Fudge was looking utterly lost, while Dumbledore seemed somewhat baffled although interested.

"And what does one do with this… internet?" Madam Bones queried, sounding out the word slowly.

Skitter shrugged. "Pretty much everything. Shopping, research, watching movies, looking at photos, communicating with people, you name it. Everything is connected. If you want to know something, you look it up on the internet, and it's probably there somewhere. Think of it as the biggest library in the world, combined with newspapers, radio, everything like that. Your owl post, which by the way is really weird, we don't need that to send messages. Sure, physical objects need something else, but information can be passed around instantly to almost anywhere."

Luna was astounded, and wondered if her father had any idea what the mundane world was doing. Hermione was nodding, with an impressed look, and Harry appeared to get the idea too, but all the adults were showing varying levels of amazement and disbelief.

"And this is all done without magic at all?" Dumbledore asked, looking intently at Skitter, who nodded.

"Yeah. No magic, just ordinary technology."

"Remarkable."

Luna wasn't entirely sure he fully believed her, but she did. And she could instantly see how if her world went the same way as Skitter's had, that was going to cause some significant problems for the Statute at some point in the future… Hermione had told her how many cameras the mundanes had all over the place, and from what Skitter said that probably meant that sooner or later they'd also be on this 'internet' thing, and when that happened...

Oh dear.

Hermione gave her a meaningful look and nodded slightly, showing she was way ahead of her friend. And had probably already realized all this although possibly hadn't put it together until now.

After a moment's silence, Skitter went on, "Anyway, that's an entire series of conversations all by itself, and while I know a fair amount about it like I said I'm no expert. The point is, we have a lot of information about Parahuman powers available through various methods, and what everyone knows is that in the early nineteen eighties, the very first Parahuman appeared. He's called Scion, and he's… strange." She shook her head a little. "And since then, more and more Parahumans appear every year. Under the right conditions, people end up with powers."

"What conditions?" Dumbledore asked, looking interested.

It took Skitter a moment to reply, then she answered in a low voice, "It takes some sort of horrible stress. People usually say 'the worst day of your life.' Something… unbearable… happens to you, and sometimes you end up with powers. No one knows why, or how, but that's how it works as far as I understand."

He looked at her with raised eyebrows, then got an expression suggesting he'd realized something unpleasant. "Ah… And you, yourself…?"

"I don't want to talk about it. No Parahuman does. But yes."

Luna felt a wave of sympathy for the strange girl, remembering very abruptly the worst day of her life.

She didn't want to talk about that either.

"I see. And what sort of… powers… are involved? Like your ability?" He and everyone else was looking at her jacket of fyre. Skitter snorted slightly.

"No. No two abilities are identical as far as I know. They fall into common groups but how they manifest is different for everyone." She took a breath, thinking, then went on, "In the US there's a federal organization that's probably more or less what your DMLE is, but for Parahumans. They've broken powers down into twelve categories, and every power we know about falls into at least one of those."

Director Bones, who was listening with care, asked, "What can these powers do?"

"Basically anything." Skitter looked around at them. "Anything you can do with magic, there's likely a Parahuman power that can do it too, or something that's close enough to count. Your magic is definitely more versatile, but from what I've seen I think Parahuman abilities are probably often more powerful in their specific category. Or can be at least. You've got invisibility, right?"

"Several methods, yes," Dumbledore nodded.

"That would fall into the category of a Stranger power. A Stranger might be able to turn themselves literally invisible, or they could make you forget they were there even if you were looking right at them, or make you think they were your lifelong friend, and lots of other things too. There are plenty of examples. Strikers have powers that need contact to work, which includes our world's best healer, people who can kill with a touch, that sort of thing. Blasters can act at a distance, so pyrokinetics, telekinetics, weapons manifestation, energy beams…" She went on to briefly explain the other categories, which Luna paid full attention to, trying to understand the world the other girl came from.

It sounded both amazing and horrific in equal quantities in her opinion.

Dumbledore, by the end of her explanation, was staring in shock, and Madam Bones seemed worried. Fudge was sweating still and clearly trying to understand, while the other two adults appeared to be fascinated.

"Merlin! That sounds… very strange indeed," Madam Bones finally said faintly.

"Which is kind of what I feel about this place," Skitter commented, sounding mildly amused. She looked at Dumbledore, then Bones. "There are things about your world that from my point of view are totally unacceptable. Love potions? We'd call them date rape drugs at a minimum and anyone caught using them would end up in jail for years. Most of them would probably be considered Tinker drugs, and that could get you killed. That Imperious spell? Human Mastering. The PRT would have your head on a spike if you tried that and got caught. Obliviation is probably worse."

Almost everyone was looking at her with various levels of horror. "What about the other unforgiveables?" Harry asked curiously.

"Instant death and annoying pain?" Skitter replied, turning to him. "We have lots of ways to instantly kill someone. And that crucio spell wasn't that bad. Stung a bit, but I've had worse. Imperio is the one that's going to get you shot, because we really don't like human Masters."

Bones and Fudge were gaping at Skitter's dismissal of the crucio spell as 'not that bad.' Everyone else had witnessed what had happened when Voldemort had tried it on her, and wasn't as shocked, although they were still somewhat disbelieving of what they'd seen.

"What in Merlin's name could be worse than crucio?" Minister Fudge sputtered when he recovered.

Skitter looked at the man. "A weapon designed by a crazy woman that was designed to inflict the maximum possible pain the human body is capable of feeling on anyone in a particular area," she replied flatly. "That hurt. The crucio is nowhere near as bad, trust me."

There was dead silence in the room for some seconds, broken by Fudge swallowing nervously. "I see," he said, lying through his teeth as far as Luna was concerned.

"If I may be so bold, Miss Skitter, your world sounds rather frightening," Madam Bones finally said. "Are you entirely certain you really do want to go home?"

Dumbledore looked sharply at the woman, making Luna think he very much wanted to say he wanted Skitter to go home. As quickly as possible. She was fairly sure that Skitter's pet fiendfyre was making him extremely nervous, based on how he was looking at the girl every now and then. But he also clearly didn't want to upset her by actually making the comment.

Skitter chuckled a little. "Yes. My friends are there, my family is there, my life is there. This place is interesting when people aren't trying to kill you, and it's got some neat things I'm glad I found, but I don't plan on staying here if I can avoid it." She stroked the arm of her fyrecoat in a possessive manner.

Luna watched Dumbledore, Fudge, and Bones all visibly relax a tiny amount, which was rather amusing.

"Well, then, we should work on finding a method to achieve that goal, I believe," Dumbledore said after a second or two. "Which, I have to confess, may be somewhat difficult. Can you describe exactly what happened to you before you found yourself here?" He leaned forward with interest.

"I was walking down the street behind a couple of friends of mine and a portal formed right in front of me without any warning at all," Skitter replied immediately. "It was much too close to avoid and I just walked into it. Next thing I knew I was surrounded by crazy wizards wanting to kill me." She shrugged. "That didn't work out for them."

"...No, it would appear not," the old wizard replied after a moment. He looked thoughtful. "Describe the portal as you put it, please?"

"A glowing opening maybe seven feet tall, about four wide, roughly oval," Skitter said after thinking for a second. "I couldn't see through it, it was kind of a blank dark orange glow about the color of a twilight sky when the sun's just setting, if that helps. I didn't feel anything at all when I went through, it was just on the street one second in Brockton Bay, downstairs the next step. As soon as I was through it vanished."

"Fascinating," he murmured, tapping his fingers on Fudge's desk. "That doesn't sound like anything I'm familiar with, I have to admit. Miss Granger, you said both Dolahov and Bellatrix fired spells which hit the Veil arch?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, Headmaster. The one Dolahov fired was a brilliant sapphire blue with a hint of an orange outline, from what I recall, which doesn't match anything I've read about. I didn't hear the incantation well enough to make out the words. It was rather noisy at the time." She looked apologetic. "And I think Bellatrix used some form of piercing spell, but it wasn't one I'm familiar with. Both spells missed their targets and hit the Veil arch at the exact same moment, in the same place. Skitter appeared less than a second later roughly…" She looked at Harry, then Luna. "Twenty feet in front of the Veil?"

Both nodded agreement.

"There was a blue glow for a fraction of a second then she was standing there," she added.

"I didn't recognize Dolahov's spell either," Sirius put in, sounding thoughtful and making them all look at him. "Considering the number of dark spells in the family library, that's unusual. It's probably something either very esoteric or something very old, I suspect. Or both of course."

Dumbledore nodded slowly, stroking his beard with one hand and thinking. After some seconds, he sighed. "I cannot think of anything I've encountered that matches the description, I'm afraid. But I will research it. Never fear, Miss Skitter, we'll work out some method to return you to your home, but it may take a little while. Travel to other worlds is… well, it's a thing of legend to be truthful. We have tales of people attempting the feat, but I can't recall any where anyone succeeded. Or, in general, survived the attempt. I've never honestly believed that it was possible but… here you are. It's only a guess at present but I feel the Veil is the key to the conundrum, as we suspect it's a gateway of some sort, although no one is entirely certain to what. Nor has anyone ever returned from entering it."

"The Department of Mysteries may know something helpful," Madam Bones remarked. "Tomorrow I will arrange to check."

Luna, for some reason, felt that Skitter probably disagreed with that comment, but she said nothing. The blonde had a fairly shrewd suspicion that if the DoM did have anything helpful Skitter already knew about it…

"At home we know for a fact that other worlds exist, since we're in communication with at least one of them, but I've never heard of a portal like that either," the girl said. Dumbledore peered at her with interest.

"Oh? How intriguing. At some point I would like to hear more about such things." Skitter just nodded. "However, at the moment, I fear you're at least temporarily stuck here. Which presents a certain amount of inconvenience for everyone, of course. We'll need to arrange for you to stay somewhere. Cornelius, I believe it would behoove the Ministry to cover Miss Skitter's costs while she's our guest, don't you?"

Fudge seemed to snap back into something approaching normal behavior as he looked at Dumbledore, then Skitter. He frowned a little. "Cover her costs? How much would that be? The Ministry doesn't have infinitely deep pockets, Albus. We're already going to have to spend a lot of Galleons repairing all the damage in the Atrium! Did you see what happened to the floor? That's magic-resistant marble, you know, a simple reparo isn't going to do the job. It will take expensive expert work to fix. And I dread to think what happened down in the Department of Mysteries during that… that… chaotic mess earlier!" He seemed to be working himself into a state of irritation, now he was back on something approaching the understandable for him, Luna though as she watched.

Harry raised a hand diffidently, and waited. Madam Bones, who was massaging her forehead as she listened to Fudge sputter, peered at him. "You have a suggestion, Mr Potter?" she queried.

Lowering his hand Harry nodded, smiling. "Isn't there a reward for dealing with the Dark Lord?" he asked innocently. "Surely getting rid of the man who nearly started the second wizarding war and did start the first one comes with some sort of payment? After all, I got a thousand galleons for just winning a silly competition last year and that was nothing like as important or difficult as turning Voldemort into ash." His grin was pure evil, and Sirius started snickering. Hermione had a hand over her mouth trying not to laugh, while Luna was desperately holding in a giggle. His tone was so helpful and honest while his expression made it totally clear he was finding this hilarious.

"The lad has a point, Minister," Professor Lupin commented, smiling a little. "I do seem to recall that there was a long standing reward for information leading to the capture or death of certain people implicated in Death Eater attacks going all the way back to the first time this happened. Quite a lot of those rewards were never collected, because some of those people mysteriously managed to persuade the Wizengamot of their innocence. But since we have eye witness reports of those very same people oddly being involved in yet another dastardly attack on this very building, and indeed the DMLE itself has actual bodies, clearly the rewards should still be considered valid. I certainly don't remember any of them being revoked…."

Dumbledore's beard twitched slightly as he looked at both Bones and Fudge, the latter of whom was looking annoyed, apparently the idea of giving money away having overridden his worry about the whole situation. Bones was carefully blank-faced, Luna noted. "I believe that argument may well be valid, Cornelius. The Wizengamot did authorize a fairly substantial sum during the first war with Voldemort and to the best of my knowledge that was never reversed after he was killed in nineteen eighty one. It slipped our minds at the time, I fear, as we had more important things to concentrate on. But if that's the case, it's still on the books, and still available to be claimed. And Miss Skitter would appear to be a valid recipient."

"After all this time I hardly think it's wise to bring up long-forgotten rewards, Albus," Fudge snapped.

"When better?" Dumbledore replied calmly. "Surely you don't want to give the wrong impression to a young woman who has after all saved innumerable lives with her prompt and effective action? A visitor to our shores, as accidental as it was?"

"Laying it on a bit thick there Dumbledore," Harry murmured, almost inaudibly. Luna only heard him since she was almost next to him, and both she and Hermione had trouble not giggling.

"See here, Albus!" Fudge complained. "That's uncalled for. Obviously we are grateful for Miss Skitter's help in dealing with this horrible matter, but there is the fact that she has killed a number of very important upstanding citizens in cold blood! Do you feel that such behavior should be rewarded?"

"Cold blood is about the exact opposite of what happened," Sirius pointed out helpfully. Fudge glared at him. "And they were hardly upstanding citizens. They were Death Eaters."

"That is merely a rumor at this point for several names, Black," the minister snapped.

"Considering they spent quite a lot of time trying to kill us while singing the praises of their noseless leader, I think rumor is a rather disingenuous term, Minister," Professor Lupin said with a certain amount of annoyance. "I can guarantee your friend Lucius was involved in Riddle's plots up to his eyebrows. I'd suggest that the DMLE have a close look at his house, for that matter. It's probably stuffed to the rafters with dark artifacts. The same with all the other upstanding citizens who bought their way out of Azkaban fifteen years ago."

"No one who died tonight didn't deserve it," Sirius added.

Luna noticed that Dumbledore seemed to disagree, but he glanced at Skitter and didn't say anything. The other girl was just watching quietly as the argument went on.

"Gentlemen!" Madam Bones raised her voice sharply just as Fudge started to respond to Professor Lupin. "Enough. The DMLE has the memories of everyone involved, and I personally will view every single one of them and gather proof of who did what to whom. This argument is pointless. We know that the Dark Lord is now dead once more, and likely so is his entire inner circle at a minimum. By the end of tomorrow we will have all the evidence we need to satisfy everyone as to what precisely happened. I would suggest that we wait until then to decide what rewards are applicable, wouldn't you?" She looked around the room sternly. "As it happens, I agree with Mr Potter, that Miss Skitter is undoubtedly owed a fair sum for her help tonight. I will raise that at the Wizengamot myself if no one else will. Right now, we need to work out where our guest can stay while Dumbledore and anyone else required attempts to locate a method to return her to her home."

Looking slightly embarrassed Fudge grudgingly nodded. Dumbledore appeared satisfied.

"I think Skitter should stay at Hogwarts," Luna said a moment later, making everyone look at her. "She'd find it interesting. And it wouldn't cost the Ministry anything, would it? There are loads of empty rooms." She smiled faintly as Bones examined her with interest, Fudge looked pleased, and Dumbledore gave the impression he was trying to think of a reason that was a very bad idea.

"That sounds like a capital idea, Albus!" Fudge exclaimed excitedly. "We certainly don't want the general public running around getting in the way after all this chaos! If she's at Hogwarts we can keep all the busybodies away! An excellent suggestion indeed. And the place is set up for large numbers of young people, after all."

"I'm not entirely sure that's wise, Cornelius," Dumbledore began, giving Skitter a wary look. "The current situation at Hogwarts is somewhat… involved. And Miss Skitter is hardly… well… with no disrespect intended, of course, she is rather memorable. She might attract a certain amount of unwanted attention from the student body…"

"Nonsense, I'm sure there would be no trouble," Fudge remarked with a broad smile. "The students are more than capable of being discreet if the situation is explained to them properly. Dolores has assured me she has things well under control there."

There was a distinct wince from the old wizard at the comment. "Ah. Dolores. That is also something of an issue, I fear. One I believe you need to deal with immediately."

"Whatever do you mean?" Fudge asked, looking puzzled. Dumbledore sighed slightly.

"You do recall that you appointed that woman to High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, don't you?" he asked.

Fudge nodded, then looked startled. "Good lord! In all the excitement I completely forgot you're a fugitive from justice, Albus. Shocking!"

Luna stared at him, as did literally everyone else in the room. He was serious.

Apparently he'd been so terrified by what happened in the Atrium he'd genuinely forgotten what he and Umbridge had been up to for literally months. Which was impressive, she thought, but for all the wrong reasons. She was already writing an article for the Quibbler in her head about how possible the Minister had been hit by a particularly powerful confundus and was probably in need of medical attention. Her father would find it amusing, if nothing else.

"Amelia, arrest Dumbledore, will you?" Fudge said as he turned to look at Madam Bones, who was giving him a look of disbelief.

"Cornelius, and I ask this with all due respect, are you insane?" she sighed. "You've spent the last two hours talking to Albus and asking his advice and now you remember that you and that woman have been running a smear campaign against him for weeks? Have you been overindulging in firewhiskey, or is it just the stress of your job getting to you?"

"I've been distracted by recent events, Amelia," Fudge said stiffly, looking insulted.

"How can anyone be that distracted?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

He pointed at Skitter. Everyone looked at her, then back to him. "All right, I suppose that's a fair point," she allowed, while Dumbledore rubbed his forehead tiredly. "But even so this is ridiculous. I'm not arresting Dumbledore, and I agree with him. That odious woman needs to leave Hogwarts and Albus needs to be reinstated."

"But she's doing such a good job of dealing with all the disorder there!" he whined. "Some of the things she's reported going on are completely beyond the pale. Without her steadying hand who will guide the school?"

"Steadying hand?" Hermione exploded next to Luna, almost vibrating with indignation, and making everyone jump. Even Skitter turned to look at her. "Steadying hand?! That horrible woman is doing everything she can to destroy the school and terrify everyone there except for some of the Slytherins. Her 'educational decrees' are absurd, her teaching ability is non-existent, her morals would horrify a depraved werewolf, her attitude is reprehensible, and her color sense is incomprehensible! She's the most vicious, petty, bigoted, and arrogant person I've ever encountered in my entire life! And I go to school with Draco Malfoy!"

The brunette was glaring at Minister Fudge as if she was about to curse him without even bothering with a wand and he looked more than a little startled by the vehemence of her sudden outburst. "Minister Fudge, if you don't remove that… that… pink toad from Hogwarts immediately you won't have a school. She's determined to utterly ruin it."

Panting a little from her near-shout, Hermione sat down from where she'd jumped to her feet and folded her arms, looking around at everyone who was gaping at her. "Sorry, I feel rather strongly about it," she added in a much calmer tone, flushing slightly. Luna patted her on the shoulder, feeling that her friend had eloquently said exactly what she herself thought.

"Miss… Granger, is it?" Fudge finally said. She nodded curtly. "I believe you may be feeling overtired after such a long evening filled with violence. I assure you, Dolores Umbridge has my full support and I'm sure she's doing a fine job at Hogwarts."

Hermione looked at him with icy eyes for several seconds, then turned her head. "Harry?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Show them your hand."

Harry winced, but she kept looking at him, so rather reluctantly he held up his right hand, then turned it to face Dumbledore, Bones, and Fudge. The latter squinted at it, seeming puzzled, while Dumbledore's eyes widened and Bones froze. After a moment, the woman stalked over and grabbed his hand, holding it up to the light. "What did this?" she asked in a worryingly even voice.

"Professor Umbridge makes us write lines during detentions with a strange black quill, and everything we write appears on our hands," Harry said in a low voice, looking embarrassed even though he had nothing to be embarrassed about in Luna's view. "It writes in blood."

"How many times has this happened?" she asked, her voice nearly as flat as Skitter's. Skitter herself was watching completely motionlessly.

"I've lost count. Lots."

"And this happens to other students?"

"Yes."

Bones nodded, let go of his hand, and turned to glare at Fudge. Sirius and Professor Lupin were doing the same, and Dumbledore too. "A blood quill. A Morgana-damned blood quill! Your undersecretary is torturing students, Cornelius! Underage students!" She slammed her hands down on the desk and leaned forward menacingly. "You will recall her immediately and reinstate Dumbledore, and revoke every single order and decree involving Hogwarts, or I will arrest you right here and now for conspiracy to commit assault before I go there and drag her out by her ankles! Nod if you understand me!"

He opened his mouth, and she pointed a finger at him. "No. Not a word. After tonight you won't have enough support to pull this rubbish. The people bribing you are either dead or will already be running for their lives. Recall Dolores now or join her in a cell. You know I have the authority to do it, and I will without a second thought if you push me."

Minister Fudge swallowed hard, wilted, and nodded meekly. Then he pulled out another sheet of parchment and began writing. She watched like a hawk until he'd finished and signed the document, then snatched it from him and read it carefully. "Good." Tapping it with her wand she made several copies, then handed one to Dumbledore who scanned it before folding it up and putting it away in his robes. While he was doing that she stalked towards the door of Fudge's office. As she passed them, Luna raised her hand, causing the woman to pause and turn to her.

"Yes, Miss Lovegood?" Madam Bones sighed, apparently feeling that she'd had enough bad news for the moment. Luna felt for her, but she also thought this was relevant.

"One thing Hermione didn't mention is that the centaurs carried Professor Umbridge off before we left Hogwarts," she commented with a smile, making Hermione look embarrassed and also a little amused, and Bones to stare then massage the bridge of her nose. "They were very angry."

"Oh, spiffing," Madam Bones growled. "That won't make this entire situation even worse in any way at all!" She threw her hands in the air and sighed, before resuming her walk to the door. Opening it, she leaned out.

"Smith! Has Moody come back from Hogwarts yet?"

"No, Madam Bones," came the answer from outside, clearly audible in the room.

"Good. Take this document, round up Harris and Kelly, then meet him there. Go and talk, very politely indeed, to the centaurs and see if you can retrieve Dolores Umbridge from them. Do not insult them, belittle them, or do anything else stupid, or I'll have your hide for making boots out of. Show them the order, apologize profusely, and blame everything on Umbridge. Bring her back here. If she resists, stun the bitch and carry her back here, you understand me? I want a word with that woman assuming she's still alive." She did not sound happy. Luna, Hermione, and Harry looked at each other, feeling satisfied and also slightly amazed that just like that the Toad was gone.

Apparently not all adults ignored the evidence in front of them, Luna mused. Pity the ones that didn't were so rare…

Closing the door again with a loud thud, clearly not even slightly happy, Bones walked back and glared at Fudge, who was trying to hide without moving from his chair. After some seconds she shook her head and turned to face the others. "Mr Potter, you have my apologies. What happened to you and your peers should never have been allowed to happen, and will not be allowed to happen again if I have anything to do with it. School is supposed to be a place of safety, not somewhere where sadistic bigots can run rampant doing as they wish."

Fudge made a sound and very slowly she turned her head to fix him with a gaze that could have bubbled the varnish on his desk. He went nearly as pale as he'd done when Skitter had mentioned her objections to obliviation and shrank away from her. "You had something to add, Cornelius?"

He shook his head rapidly.

"Excellent. I would hate to think that the Minister of Magic himself felt that school was somewhere where sadistic bigots could do what they wish. I'm not entirely sure what I'd do if that occurred to me." She was still holding her wand, Luna noted with an inner smile, rolling it between her fingertips. "After all, my own flesh and blood goes there, and if anything were to happen to her, I might have to…" She shrugged very lightly, not looking away from his eyes. He was sweating hard but apparently didn't dare reach for his handkerchief. "Well, let's just say that Miss Skitter isn't the only person who can solve problems with the application of a suitable amount of fire and leave it at that, shall we?"

Dumbledore was looking at her with a small frown, and somewhat wide eyes, and Sirius was grinning darkly and in a rather approving manner. Hermione also seemed quite pleased overall, while Harry was just watching carefully.

After pausing a little longer to ensure that Fudge was sufficiently aware she wasn't joking, Madam Bones turned back to them. "Hopefully you and your friends will have a safer and less traumatic time at school from now on, Mr Potter. And thank you, Miss Granger, for bringing this appalling matter to my attention."

"It could have been worse," Luna said idly, affecting the light tone she amused herself with when introducing a topic to confuse other people. "At least Umbridge wasn't another basilisk."

Bones froze and stared at her while Dumbledore closed his eyes and appeared to brace himself. Everyone else was looking at Luna with various expressions. She kept her own face in a small smile, one she'd practiced a lot. It was always hilarious to see how people reacted to little verbal bombshells and this one had the advantage of being provable and something that should have been dealt with long before.

"Another basilisk?" Madam Bones repeated very carefully, her face like stone. "What precisely do you mean by that, Miss Lovegood? At which point has there been a first basilisk?"

"Oh, back in my first year, Harry killed one when he found the Chamber of Secrets and rescued someone from a possessed book," she replied cheerfully, with a sidelong look at Dumbledore, who winced much harder, his eyes still closed and a look of dismay on his face. She'd got the full story out of Ginny a couple of months after it happened and was not at all pleased about how everyone had apparently silently agreed to ignore what had happened to her friend, even including her parents. She'd been wondering why ever since and had some fairly uncharitable ideas.

Harry shuffled his feet uncomfortably, not meeting anyone's eyes, and Hermione touched his shoulder for a moment, her eyes worried. Luna felt guilty about his discomfort because she knew he didn't like attention, but she also thought this was the perfect opportunity to get certain things aired out and it would be daft to let everything go back to the status quo, which clearly didn't work. Skitter had stirred things up enough that all manner of possibilities were now open if only someone took advantage of that…

Director Bones was gritting her teeth and had her hands clenched. Apparently she wasn't entirely happy about hearing such things. And presumably Dumbledore hadn't bothered to mention any of it to anyone outside the school, which Luna wasn't surprised by. He did like his secrets, their headmaster did. Bones looked at the old wizard, just as he opened his eyes with a pained grimace, then back to Luna. "Please explain, Miss Lovegood," she said with forced calm. "I find myself fascinated by your comments."

"Now, Amelia, surely this isn't the time or place to go down yet another tangent, is it?" Dumbledore tried, rather optimistically in Luna's view. Apparently Madam Bones thought much the same.

"I think that this is the perfect time and place to clear the air, considering how bizarre this evening has already been," she retorted acidly. "I'm learning all sorts of things that I would have expected to have been told about when they happened. Go on, Miss Lovegood."

Luna smiled airily. "It was simple enough, really. A book was possessed by Voldemort and then possessed a friend of mine, and that caused the Chamber of Secrets to be opened. The guardian of the Chamber was a thousand year old basilisk, and it was wandering around Hogwarts for weeks petrifying people. Then Harry and Ronald Weasley discovered what was doing it and went looking for it along with Professor Lockhart. He betrayed them, and ended up in St Mungos in the end. Harry killed the basilisk with a sword then killed the book with a basilisk fang. It was very brave."

She thought for a moment, as she watched the various expressions on Madam Bones' face, and how Dumbledore looked both resigned and angry, and Minister Fudge was gaping. "He only got bitten a little, luckily," she added when she judged the moment was right.

"He was bitten by a basilisk?!" Bones shouted, her eyes wide, after nearly choking then recovering. "How is he even alive?"

"He got better," she replied with a smile. "Phoenix tears can heal anything."

Harry had his face in his hands by this point and Hermione was obviously torn between comforting him, laughing hysterically at the expression Madam Bones was wearing, and scowling at Luna for bringing this all up. On the other hand she also clearly agreed with the blonde that this sort of thing should have been told to someone in authority quite a while ago, so she said nothing. Harry's godfather, who she knew was aware of the story, looked both proud and upset, and Professor Lupin was shaking his head although she wasn't sure whether at her or the situation in general.

"He killed a basilisk with a sword. In his second year. In the Chamber of Secrets, a place that's supposedly a myth. And got bitten by the bloody thing, then healed by phoenix tears, then killed a Voldemort-possessed book that was the cause of all this. The basilisk was petrifying students," Madam Bones recited in a voice nearly as flat as Skitter's. "And I find out about this three bloody years after it happened?" She turned to Dumbledore with a look of fury, making him step back. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU NOT CALL FOR HELP WHEN YOU STARTED HAVING STUDENTS PETRIFIED IN THE HALLS OF HOGWARTS? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR BLOODY MIND YOU OLD IDIOT?" she shouted in absolute fury. Her wand was in her hand again and Luna hadn't even seen her draw it. Dumbledore certainly noticed though, as he was looking uncharacteristically concerned.

"We weren't sure what it was at the time and didn't want to cause panic," he said in a deliberately calm voice.

"That is not your call to make! Nothing that petrifies people is in any way safe! You are not an expert on class X creatures and you should have called the DMLE the instant the first case occurred so someone who knows what they're doing could stop the damn thing, you complete fool!" She stopped shouting and rubbed her eyes with one finger and thumb, apparently trying to calm down. "Morgana's tits, Albus. Do you have the faintest idea what you've done? You risked the lives of most of the children of Magical Britain and it took a child to save you from your own stupidity. A basilisk is beyond lethal. How it didn't kill everyone in that whole place is beyond me."

"It turns out that a basilisk's gaze only petrifies you if you see it in a reflection," Sirius remarked, making her look at him. "Hermione worked that out, and that it was a basilisk. Luckily she wrote it down before she got petrified, and Harry found the note."

Bones stared at him, then Harry, then Hermione, before walking quite deliberately over to the nearest wall and banging her head lightly on it. Faint, rather obscene, mutterings emanated from her for a few seconds before she turned around again. "You…" She glared at Dumbledore, then shook her head in disbelief. "I dearly hope that you're not hiding anything else that catastrophic. You're in enough trouble as it is. I'm half minded to arrest you on the spot, and tell Minerva she's in charge." Stalking over to him she prodded him in the chest. "You are a wise and powerful wizard, Dumbledore, but you are not a god. Stop playing with people's lives before someone gets killed."

She glanced at Skitter who seemed to be listening with interest, and added, "Someone who doesn't deserve it."

"No one deserves death, Amelia," Dumbledore replied quietly.

"You haven't met the people I have if you believe that," she retorted, shaking her head. Rubbing her temples after putting her wand away, she sighed heavily. "Bloody hell, what a mess. Basilisks. Possessions. Is there anything else I should know about, or is that it?"

"Well, I've got this prophecy about me and Riddle..." Harry put in helpfully, holding out the glass globe he'd retrieved earlier that night. Luna was slightly surprised because she'd genuinely thought he'd probably lost it during the fight, but it was sitting there in his hand completely undamaged.

Dumbledore looked horrified, Bones' eyes widened, and Fudge stared in surprise. Even Sirius and Lupin seemed somewhat startled, but Luna wasn't sure if they'd even known about the prophecy orb before. Harry pulled out his wand with his other hand and added, "Hermione thinks I just tap it with my wand?"

"DON'T!" Dumbledore shouted, his own wand in his hand and a look of panic on his face. Luna rather got the impression he didn't want the prophecy to be heard which was odd since Riddle was fairly thoroughly dead. "Harry, stop." The old wizard half-pointed his wand at the boy as if he wanted to prevent him doing what he was about to do but didn't want to risk harming him either.

A moment later a rather large spider faded into view sitting on Dumbledore's arm, scuttled down to his hand, making him recoil in shock, then disappeared again, taking the wand with it. The whole sequence took no more than about two seconds. Every person in the room watched with a sense of stupefaction at what had just happened. Dumbledore gaped aghast at his empty hand.

Luna realized a moment later and looked at Skitter, who was examining the Elder Wand with interest. Hermione was doing the same. After a brief pause Harry completed the gesture he'd begun and tapped the prophecy orb with his wand.

The misty figure that appeared and recited a somewhat bad rhyme looked quite familiar to Luna and her friends. The rhyme itself made her realize just why Voldemort was so obsessed with poor Harry Potter.

It also caused total chaos.

Harry was staring at the ball in his hand with a look of complete disbelief, Hermione was thinking hard, Luna was watching both of them while also mulling the matter over, and all five adults were shouting at each other, even Dumbledore raising his voice in anger. Sirius did not take the news that not only was there a prophecy about his godson, but obviously Dumbledore had known about it since the poor boy was born and kept it a secret, at all well. Not even slightly. Lupin looked furious, even Minister Fudge seemed to have found his spine in a drawer or something, and Amelia Bones was angry enough to chew a bludger and spit out nails.

The sheer noise was incredible.

Luna suspected that Professor Dumbledore probably wouldn't be going back to Hogwarts tonight, and Madam Bones was unlikely to get a lot of sleep. Poor woman, she was overworked by the looks of it.

The four of them, Skitter included, watched and listened for a while as the argument grew more heated, until Hermione sighed. Leaning closer to them, she said, having to raise her voice a little, "Is there any point in sitting here right now?"

"I don't think they're going to stop anytime soon," Skitter commented wryly.

"No, neither do I. How sure are you that you have that fiendfyre under control?"

The strange girl shrugged. "Totally. It does what I want, and nothing but what I want."

"Even if you're asleep?"

"Yes. Trust me, it's mine completely. I can't explain it properly, but it's practically part of me at this point."

Hermione shook her head in wonder, but then nodded. "All right. Honestly, I'm exhausted, and I need some sleep. I'm even too tired to be properly scared of all this insanity. I expect Harry and Luna are the same. We could go to Hogwarts but until that horrible woman is definitely gone and everything she did is fixed I'm not sure that's a good idea. I'm rather certain that if some of the people running around there right now meet you they're going to die, and I can't quite bring myself to want that. But my parents live fairly near London in Guildford and we can get there by train in less than an hour. Or, thinking about it…" The girl glanced at Harry, then Luna. "Knight bus? It's terribly uncomfortable but at least it's quick. We should have enough for the fare." Luna nodded. Hermione looked over at where Sirius was leaning so close to Dumbledore's face their noses were nearly touching while shouting at him and shook her head again, this time in irritation. "They can contact us when they've finished discussing things."

Skitter followed her eyes, then nodded. "I guess that's as good a plan as any."

"May I come?" Luna asked. "I've never been in a non-magical house before."

Hermione smiled. "Of course you may. It's a big house, I'm sure my parents won't mind, although they'll be surprised." She looked at her watch. "It's nearly half past midnight now, so we won't be there until gone one in the morning which is going to annoy them a bit, I'm afraid, but it can't be helped." She turned to Harry, who was pondering the orb he was still holding. "Come on, Harry, let's get some sleep. We can think what that means tomorrow."

He nodded, appearing both tired and irritated although not at her, tucked the prophecy orb away in his pocket, and got up. The rest of them did the same. Luna noticed that Skitter put Dumbledore's wand on the chair as she left. Exiting the room they found one auror sitting in a chair outside, his head propped on his hand and a look of boredom and mild confusion apparent on his face when he spotted them.

"The Minister and the others are having a meeting," Hermione told him, smiling. Luna was impressed by the way she made it look natural. "I think they're finished with us for tonight and it's late. So we should probably get back."

"All right," he said, looking them over and pausing on Skitter. "Is… she… going with you?"

"The Minister and Professor Dumbledore discussed the situation and she's staying here for a while until they can work out how to get her home," the brunette replied, still smiling. Which was true, for a specific interpretation of the concept…

"I see." He glanced slightly uncertainly at the door through which raised voices could be faintly heard, Madam Bones' being one of them, and clearly decided that interrupting his superior or her superior was probably not on the cards if he wanted a smooth life. And Luna suspected he wasn't really all that keen on getting in Skitter's way either. Her leaving was probably something he was quite happy about all things considered. At least she wouldn't be his problem.

"Do you need someone to show you out?" he queried, still looking side-on at Skitter in a manner that said he'd prefer not to get all that close to the girl, thank you very much.

"Oh, we know the way," Luna assured him cheerfully. "Thank you for the offer though." She yawned widely, covering her mouth with her hand. "We really should get to bed as soon as possible."

Appearing somewhat relieved that he wasn't going to have to remain in the vicinity of someone or something far too dangerous to be comfortable he nodded. "In that case, you'd better run along."

"Thank you, Auror…?" Harry said.

"Williams," the man replied, glancing at Harry, then Harry's scar.

"Auror Williams. It was nice to meet you."

"Likewise, Mr Potter." Harry smiled, as did Luna and Hermione, then they turned and headed towards the lifts, none of them speaking until they were safely around a couple of corners.

"You know he thinks we're going back to Hogwarts, don't you?" Harry said as they stopped next to the bank of lifts, Hermione prodding the call button. She looked at him with a small grin.

"Of course."

"Professor Dumbledore is going to be annoyed when he finds we're not there," he added, stepping forward when the lift doors rumbled open. Skitter, who had dropped behind for a moment, walked around the corner as they did, and along with the other two followed him. Luna pressed the button for the Atrium, making the doors close and the machinery jolt into action. "And I'm feeling guilty about Sirius and Moony."

"We can contact them in the morning, Harry," Hermione assured him. "Hogwarts isn't safe until everything Umbridge broke is fixed, you know that. And if Skitter goes there while people like Draco are strutting around like they own it, well…" She glanced at the other girl, then shrugged. "He'd get what he deserved, admittedly, but it would… complicate… life a little more than is probably good."

Harry got a strangely evil look for a moment, until Hermione poked him. "Stop imagining what you're imagining."

"Oh, all right," he said with a deep sigh, looking sad. "But it was ever such a beautiful image."

"Prat."

They grinned at each other. Skitter leaned closer to Luna and whispered, "Do you think they know we're still here?" She sounded oddly amused, making Luna giggle. Both the others flushed slightly and looked away from them.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

As they walked towards the exit, as soon as they were out of sight of the cop outside that bowler-hatted twit's office, Taylor who was hanging back from her companions held out her hand to the side. One of the little insect-winged flying humanoids that were becoming some of her favorite creatures ever flitted out of an air vent, dropped an object into her palm, and zipped away before the others noticed.

She casually moved to a door nearby and unlocked it with the key she was holding, then slipped inside, closing the door silently behind her. Going over to the far wall she looked up at the old-fashioned air vent that was mounted just above eye level, the building being absolutely riddled with such things. Apparently even wizards had worked out that being a hundred or so feet underground needed some method to get fresh air in, and magic wasn't the solution to every possible problem. Whatever the reason it was very useful for moving her millions of little friends around at will.

And, of course, giving those same little friends all manner of hidden places to live in. The vents went down a long, long way, far below the inhabited part of this place, leading to some clearly very old levels that looked like they'd been abandoned for decades, possibly centuries. She'd amused herself while they'd all been assembled in that idiot Fudge's office by using part of her attention to thoroughly explore everything she could access, which she suspected was an awful lot more than the wizards could. Or possibly even knew existed.

Taylor somewhat got the impression that the modern wizarding world had forgotten some of the things it had done way back when, for one reason or another. Perhaps just through bad record keeping and all the deaths in the last war, based on some documents she'd found. If they'd had this building for as long as it appeared, and maybe stolen parts of it from the non-magical world too which they did seem to do from what she'd read, it was quite likely that no one alive had ever even realized everything that lurked below.

If they had she strongly suspected they'd be quite worried, because some of the things living down there were weird even in this new normal she'd found herself mixed up in. And, absent her ability, probably dangerous beyond easy imagination. Luckily most of the deep down deadly dark dwellers seemed to be happy enough to avoid the upper levels or there might be the occasional wizard who quietly vanished now and then.

She wondered if that had happened… Oh well, it wasn't her problem right now. There were more important things to work on.

Like arranging to bring some of the more useful ones up here where they could come in handy, such the teleporting spider she'd used earlier. Those guys were really cool. And there were even stranger creatures amenable to her control, which she and her power had happily seized on and used. She'd been careful not to disturb the overall balance of the bizarre magical ecosystem too much, because if nothing else she might want to come back and collect more at some point and it seemed wasteful and kind of wrong to accidentally wipe out all the neat bugs and things running around below. But she had enough, including plenty of breeding groups, to be going on with.

Because of course she was going to take some home with her. It would be foolish not to take advantage of an opportunity like this to get all the fun toys.

Which led to the vent, and what was inside it when she reached up and popped it out of the wall. Several pixies had cut away the woodwork holding it in place from the inside, and it came loose easily. Reaching in she grabbed the item that was waiting for her, flipped it over her shoulder, then put the grate back. A number of spiderlike things immediately started gluing it into place solidly enough no one would realize it had been removed, while more bugs spread dust around and quickly removed all traces of any disturbance at all.

Taking the artifact she'd acquired from her shoulder she looked at it, smiled, and buckled the belt around her waist under her fyre coat, making sure it was comfortable. While she'd been doing all this, she'd been monitoring everyone else in the building, and listening to the raging argument in Fudge's office as well as keeping track of Harry and the other two, who were nearly at the elevators now. Going back to the door she slipped out, closed and relocked it, then handed the key to the pixie that flew up to her. As it vanished back into the vents to return the thing, she hurried after the others who didn't seem to have noticed she wasn't right behind them, smiling slightly to herself.

Part of her felt a little guilty about what she'd done. But a larger part of her was very annoyed at the whole 'being yanked into another world and shot at' thing. It had completely wrecked her plans for the day, and overall she'd decided that she could hardly let an opportunity like this go to waste, could she?

No. No, she could not. Lisa would never let her live it down.

And in all probability, based on the amount of dust on everything, no one had bothered for years, possibly decades, with anything in the storerooms absolutely packed with cool and extremely useful magical Tinker widgets she'd found hiding way down in the basement.

Along with copious notes as to what they were, how they worked, and what they did. Wizards might be idiots in many cases, certainly in her so far admittedly limited personal experience, but at least whichever particular bunch had put everything away many years ago had kept good notes.

Which was very helpful of them, really. It hadn't taken very long to get a swarm of pixies working on wholesale looting the place to the bedrock, since it turned out they were surprisingly strong and had amazingly good eyesight and very deft little hands. The first item she'd located had been the key to the process and made the entire exercise viable. The belt she was now wearing had a whole series of pocket dimensions built into a set of pouches, a little like something she'd heard a Tinker that group Toybox had could do. It would have made that old comic superhero Batman green with envy. Taylor assumed such a thing would be hideously expensive and difficult to lay hands on back home. This had just been sitting there along with a dozen more as if it was about as rare as a stapler or something. A total waste of something very useful in her opinion.

So the pixies had opened all the pouches, and started shoving everything useful inside them, which turned out to be pretty much, well, everything. Including the ledger which held the records of what it all was, any documentation, and even the other belts of holding. Which she'd carefully checked the relevant book on to make sure it wouldn't do something horrible, but according to the instructions you could indeed put an expanded space equipment belt into another expanded space equipment belt. It was like magic!

The whole thing was giving her slightly surreal flashbacks to a conversation she'd overheard between Greg Veder and some of his friends about some sort of role playing game. She wondered what he'd make of all this.

And if he'd actually stop breathing in excitement or not…

Two of the pouches also held a lot of bugs and other such creatures. Like, seriously, a number large enough that even she thought it was impressive. She hadn't been entirely sure that her ability would still control them inside the magical artifact, but it didn't seem to have any issue at all and if anything found the whole process enormous fun. So now she was carrying enough magical and mundane creepy crawlies to blanket half of Brockton Bay if she wanted, which was just about the right amount, she felt. Quantity did, after all, have a quality all its own.

She'd heard that somewhere and it seemed appropriate in this case, because one thing she definitely had was quantity.

And there was still that intriguing forest right next to the school to have a poke around in. Taylor wasn't certain if she could get an acromantula into her belt, but if not, she'd figure something else out, because she was absolutely taking some of those home.

The guys were going to be impressed with what she turned up with, she was pretty sure of that.

Especially the two little hourglass widgets on fine chains, which she could see coming in incredibly handy in the end… Even as she felt somewhat worried about the multiple hideously dangerous potential failure modes of the devices, which the magicals really didn't seem to be nearly as concerned about as they probably should be. But that summed up an awful lot of these people, from what she could tell. They were worse than Parahumans and that was saying a lot.

So she'd reserve those particular gadgets for the right occasion, so as to not tempt fate too hard. But it was nice to have them in reserve.

Speeding up, her long-legged stride had her catch up with the three teenagers just as they reached the elevators, Hermione reaching out and pressing the button as soon as they did. Luna glanced her way and smirked for a moment, making her grin inside. She liked the little blonde from what she'd seen of her so far, as she was clearly very bright and, Taylor suspected, an adept troll considering some of the things she'd said. They were far too appropriately timed to be total coincidence, and the tone of wide-eyed innocence had to be at least partially deliberate. Luna, she thought, enjoyed watching other people react to the odd things that came out of her mouth. Which was hilarious since it seemed likely that most magicals didn't realize that.

In a number of ways Luna reminded her of Lisa, and she couldn't help wondering how they'd get on with each other. It would likely be something that would worry poor Brian rather a lot.

Harry and Hermione looked at her, then each other, but didn't seem prepared to ask why she'd been momentarily delayed, and she didn't volunteer.

The elevator arrived moments later and they were soon going upwards. "Um…" Hermione looked a little nervous, then glanced at Harry and Luna. "Skitter? If we're going to walk through London streets even at this time of night, you… might… rather attract some odd attention?" She made a small gesture to Taylor, who looked down at herself.

"Isn't this the current fashion in the UK?" she asked wryly, raising her eyes again. Hermione sighed, although she was also smiling a little, and Luna was giggling.

"You know very well it isn't," the other girl said. "Leaving aside the literal demonic flames you're wearing, the mask isn't exactly common."

"If it was Halloween we could claim we'd been to a costume party," Harry commented with a grin. "Pity we're several months early for that."

The elevator door opened and the four of them exited into the Atrium, which was now empty of people and any real signs of the fight earlier. Taylor had watched as the magical cops revived all the wizards who'd found her polite request a little much and pushed them into the various teleporter fires after ordering them, probably pointlessly, to keep their mouths shut about what had happened. All the bodies had been collected and removed, while a couple of wizards had gone around cleaning up the ash and detritus left behind, until the only evidence that something unusual had occurred was the long melted scar in the black marble floor, the undulating glazed patch reflecting the lights oddly as they walked past it.

Taylor examined her fyre coat again, thought for a moment, then prodded it mentally. The orange/purple/white glow, already weirdly dim, faded away to reveal a matt black surface, the fyre changing the light it emitted in ways that went against normal physics understanding but made sense when you could see what it was actually doing from the inside. She also lengthened the coat into something that came down to her ankles, thinking that she should have done that much earlier because it was a useful defense since the fyre appeared to completely block, and indeed eat, magic.

"How does this look?" she queried, turning to the others. Luna tilted her head to the side and examined her with interest, Harry shook his head in amazement, and Hermione nodded approvingly.

"Very good. How on earth did you make it stop glowing?"

"It's hard to explain," Taylor replied, shrugging. "I just told it not to and it doesn't. I can see how it's doing that but trying to explain it would be tricky." She fingered the sleeve of the construct she was wearing, feeling the contented warmth through her gloves. The fyre was practically purring in the back of her mind…

"Fascinating…" Hermione stared, then nodded. "I'd love to know more about it but I need sleep more than I need to know."

Harry gasped theatrically and gave his friend a sad look. "Hermione? Not wanting to know something? Just because she's tired? What's the world coming to?"

"Be quiet, you tit," Hermione snorted, although she was smiling a little. Luna watched and giggled slightly. "We nearly died half a dozen times tonight and I'm allowed to be off my game."

"I suppose," Harry replied doubtfully, making the bushy-haired girl roll her eyes. "It's still strange though."

Gently pushing him towards the pretty dilapidated old phone booth at the back of the huge room, Hermione shook her head. Taylor got the impression that these two spent a lot of time arguing about things they both agreed on for their own amusement even if they didn't realize that. Luna and she followed, and when they arrived, Hermione yanked the door open and waved them all in. It was a tight squeeze and she noticed that Harry and Hermione hesitated before they pressed close to her, wary of her coat, while Luna just jumped in with a smile. As soon as the door was closed the booth ground into action, slowly raising itself through the ceiling.

Taylor watched from both inside and outside, wondering at why the wizards would go to all this trouble when a simple flight of stairs would have been a lot easier and made more sense. But apparently wizards didn't think like that…

Arriving on the street, Luna, who was closest to the doors, opened them and all four exited into the dark. Harry looked around for a moment.

"The thestrals must have left," he commented, apparently not seeing what he was expecting.

"Oh, yes, they'll have returned to Hogwarts by now," Luna supplied helpfully. "They're friendly and curious but they get bored easily and as soon as one left, the others would follow. Probably for the best."

There was no one around in the immediate vicinity, although nearby there were quite a lot of people wandering about despite the lateness of the hour, Taylor's swarms told her. Hermione looked around, apparently checking that the coast was clear, then pulled her wand out of her robes and held it up. Despite having read about it, Taylor still twitched when a few seconds later with a loud bang a bright purple… vehicle… appeared out of nowhere. She gaped at it, thinking that the Merchant Tinker Squealer couldn't have made something uglier on a dare, then shook her head in wonder as she followed her companions on board.

Wizards were bizarre.

Harry, who got on first, handed the guy standing staring gormlessly at them, mostly her, a handful of coins. "Hi, Stan," he said quietly, sounding very tired indeed. "Guildford, please."

Hermione added, "Trodds Lane, to be precise."

"You got it, 'Arry," Stan said, apparently knowing the boy. Taylor was looking askance at the beds scattered, completely unsecured, all over the bus interior. Some had people asleep in them, which struck her as unlikely, but there it was. All four of them made their way to the back, which was currently empty, and sat down on a bed each.

"Hold on, it's a bit…" Luna began to say, before the peculiar and probably totally unlicensed vehicle took off like Leviathan had kicked it in the ass as hard as possible. Taylor found herself upside down on the floor behind the bed, with Hermione grumbling somewhat irritatedly half on top of her. Harry had managed to grab onto something in time and was watching with a grin, and Luna was holding onto the bed and saying "Wheee!" with every sign of enjoyment.

Sighing, Taylor gave Hermione a hand up, then hauled herself onto the bed again, just in time to go flying off the other side as the bus swerved nearly ninety degrees in complete defiance of the rules of both the road and nature. The Breaker effect it was using was impressively effective, although was it too much to ask that it also do something about inertia, she thought with annoyance, climbing to her feet again and holding on tightly. If you were going to piss all over normal physics at least have the decency to a good job of it!

Again. Wizards were bizarre.

After a few seconds more, the last of the insects and other creatures back at the ministry and the area around and under it finally faded from her power's awareness, at a range far, far greater than she'd ever managed in the past. She found herself missing the greater swarm, but at least she had a goodly portion of it with her, so there was that. Before she got out of range she commanded all the creatures under her control to go back to their original locations and stay out of sight, which should prevent the magicals realizing where they were and just how many were left.

It only took another couple of minutes or so of watching the world zoom past at a preposterous velocity before the crazy bus slammed to a halt, making all four of them slide onto the floor and mutter about it. "Trodds Lane, Guildford!" Stan called out.

"Come on, if I stay on this thing any longer I'll be sick," Hermione stated, clambering to her feet and quickly making her way to the door, everyone else going with her. Taylor nodded politely to Stan, who was giving her a look as if he'd never seen a Cape before, then stepped onto the sidewalk, Luna bringing up the rear. A moment later the bus had vanished with a loud report, which somehow didn't attract attention.

Aside from a few cars passing occasionally, the leafy suburban street was quiet, no pedestrians in sight. Street lights illuminated properties that looked to be on the higher end of value, with decent sized front yards and trees lining the road. Most of the houses were dark and quiet with only a few lit windows to be seen here and there, and she could sense almost everyone in the area was asleep through her bugs. Hermione started walking in the opposite direction from that in which the bus had gone. "It's just down here," she said, glancing at Taylor. Luna was looking around with great interest, but Harry gave the impression he was about to fall over from exhaustion. Taylor moved closer to grab him if he did, because she could easily see the boy was running on fumes.

Shortly they arrived at Hermione's house, the girl leading them down the driveway past a pair of expensive cars to the front door. Fumbling inside her robes, she sighed heavily. "Oh, dear. I forgot, my keys are in my dorm at school." Wincing a little, she prodded the doorbell, which caused a faint sound inside to be followed a few seconds later by lights coming on. The door opened to reveal a middle-aged woman who looked a lot like an older Hermione. She had her mouth half-open as if she was about to demand what was going on, but closed it when she spotted her daughter.

"Hermione?" she said in surprise, sounding a little taken aback and somewhat worried. "What's going on? Why aren't you in school? Is something wrong?" Behind her a man of roughly her age in a dressing gown was coming down the stairs, looking confused.

"Hello, mum," Hermione replied, stepping forward and giving her mother a quick hug. "I'm sorry it's so late. We… ran into some problems. It's rather complicated to explain. Can my friends come in?"

"Oh, of course, come in, where are my manners?" the woman said sounding somewhat flustered. She stepped to the side and waved them through the door, giving Taylor, who was at the rear, an odd look as she passed. "Into the sitting room," she added, Hermione leading the way down the hall and turning left.

When they'd all sat down, Hermione's parents next to each other on the opposite side of the coffee table which had two chairs they were in and a long L-shaped couch on the other side, the adults glanced at each other, then turned as one to Hermione. "So what's going on then, dear?" Hermione's dad asked curiously. He kept looking at Taylor who was finding it somewhat funny even running on far less than the normal emotional response. "Who are your friends?"

"This is Harry, and this is Luna, you remember me writing about both of them," Hermione replied. After a pause, she added, glancing at Taylor, "And this is Skitter."

"Skitter?" Hermione's mom said in a puzzled tone. "That's a… unique… name. I have to ask, why the costume? Is this some wizarding thing I wasn't aware of?"

Taking a breath, Hermione shook her head. "Skitter comes from a completely different world. It's a long story, but it was an accident and she saved our lives."

They looked at her, then Taylor, then each other, seeming baffled.

"Another world?" Hermione's mom echoed, apparently finding that part the most odd.

"Yes. Something like a comic book, like those American ones with Spider-man and Batman and that sort of thing," Hermione looked a little lost, but shrugged even as she nodded. "Honestly, it sounds insane, I realize, but it's true. She has superpowers. Not magic."

Her parents seemed even more baffled now.

"So… she's… a superhero, then?" her dad said slowly, casting his eyes up and down Taylor somewhat dubiously.

Unable to help it despite herself, Taylor chuckled.

"I didn't say I was a super hero," she commented, finding the way Luna started laughing while the others gave her wide eyed looks absolutely hilarious.

It was possible she was also running on fumes, she thought as she finally took her mask off and held out her hand. "Taylor Hebert. Shh, it's a secret."

Hermione, looking pole-axed, reached out and shook her hand, eyes still somewhat wide. Harry just leaned back on the sofa and started laughing, and Luna was now leaning on Taylor helplessly giggling.

"I for one feel I'm missing quite a lot of rather critical information, Hermione," the girl's father finally said, giving his daughter a hard look. "Please, do explain."

So they did.