Ch.9

A calm set over me hearing her sing the song and I closed my eyes, leaning against the tree. I felt two heads on my shoulders and felt a small measure of peace return to me that I hadn't felt since my wives were taken and I was thrust into this cycle of living.

It was odd but I enjoyed it while it lasted as a few hours later all three boys were hauled away by the Auror's and I'd told them my side. Not an easy thing to do when Mad Eye was eyeing me suspiciously. He at least suspected me of killing Fenrir but with Dumbledore telling him of my power and clear skill though lack of training in some areas, it'd solidified in his mind and I could see it with the look he was giving me.

After the Auror's left, Dumbledore asked. "Is it true you killed Fenrir Greyback?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Is it true you killed Gellert Grindlewald?"

He declined to answer and I nodded. "It seems we both have things we'd rather not talk about. Good day headmaster, I've a detention to get to."

I left and headed to the transfiguration teacher's room. There I was asked to turn all the failed transfigurations back into the pets. It was as easy as a wave of my hand and very little concentration per fury and feathery chalice.

My secret was long out already as unlike Snape, Flitwick hadn't been so reliable to keep it a secret, not that I'd asked him to, but some things you shouldn't have to ask. Then again he was just showing his pride for a fellow claw so I'd let it go.

The professors had been frustrated by my unwillingness to help them and become their understudies. Flitwick has of course invited me to his charms club and I would be happy to participate in my third year but for now I was already abusing the shit out of my time turner just to keep up with my own problems.

With winter break almost here today was the last day I had in Hogwarts and I needed to make the most of it. After detention was over I went to finish the source book and return it to the library for the next highly intelligent person to find.

When I was done with that I met up with Peeves and gave him a list of, while annoying, were far lest harmful, pranks. Things like putting a bunch of bowtruckles in the Christmas trees and starting snowball fights on the lawn while the teachers were walking by.

I gave him the last of the prank items and promised to pick up and make more over the winter break. I left Peeves to his own devices and went back in time with my time turner to finish my projects. I managed to finish making the suitcases for the goblins and fixing the rune work on all the broken toys and various objects including the brooms from the room of requirement but I still needed more time to finish grading the last of Snape's papers and help him on a Felix Felicis potion he was brewing to sell to the general public for extra money for his own ingredients stock.

Most of what the students use they either bought themselves or came from his personal stock and while Hagrid does help refill it on occasion from ingredients from the forbidden forest, some of the things are simply to rare or to hard to get even in the forest. The deadly beasts in there are wide ranging and will attack on sight and in some cases not even Hagrid is an exception.

Thus he's forced to back off and Snape has to but them himself for the upper year students to complete their exams and studies. Especially when in most cases those that borrow from his supply are muggleborns or orphans with no money or background and are on the scholarship program.

Most of the younger year stuff is relatively easy to find in the forest and what isn't can be grown in the school greenhouses. It's the ingredients for the potions for the fourth year classes and up that are a problem.

Even now with the revised book on potions I'd written and he'd personally tested, they still had to be approved by the school board as acceptable substitutes before he could legally have the students start using them. That is actually on the agenda for the current school board debating along with Lucius's replacement and which brooms should be purchased not just for training the first years but for the Hogwarts teams as well.

By next year all three subjects should be handled as they're leaning towards putting Arthur Weasley on the school board,through Dumbledore's influence no doubt, and my father, madam Bones and Augustus Longbottom as the current leaders of school board factions, are leaning towards agreeing.

My father because Arthur is a pureblood and while he may be poor, he's been raised to at least respect our traditions and values. Madam Bones because she knows he's a hard ministry worker and clearly values the job for what it is and Lady Longbottom because of Dumbledore's influence and the same reasons as my father.

It's a bit of a mashup but it's certainly interesting. He most certainly won't be leading a faction but with Dumbledore's influence on his wife and himself, he'll be supporting Lady Longbottom at the very least. Not that it matters much to my father as the pureblood families on the school board mostly follow him now since he took on Lucius and won both politically and magically.

I managed to get to the dungeons two minutes before Snape required my assistance while he dealt with the last class of the day. He was both released and peeved at me for recent events. The students had been Slytherin's that were called and with my direct involvement, they'd been forced to call them instead of going by Dumbledore's forgiveness policy.

Not that they had much of a choice as the first year in question had been tortured into a coma and was now in Saint Mungo's hospital. The curse was evident and bound to come out for what it was so in the end both the school faculty and the child's parents were having a sit down this holiday to determine what can be done to compensate the child's parents.

The muggles in question were angry and hurt beyond belief but they'd been informed at least that this society was no better than theirs through my book so all they could really do was request the school dismiss the students involved and have them legally punished.

As with Dumbledore's way though he was trying to get them not to press charges as it wouldn't go over well and not to mention the families involved was one of the sacred twenty eight and two random pureblood lines that had no bearing in court but supported them nonetheless.

It truly was a rock and hard place situation as it would hurt the current balance of power if they did and if they didn't then it was like saying there was no consequences for torturing mugglborns other than a short ten year trip to the minimum security wing in Azkaban and while it wasn't pleasant, there were no dementors in the minimum security wing except for at the entrances.

And as for the time, it was a drop in the bucket to a wizard who can naturally live as long as three hundred and fifty five years old by the late headmaster Dippet's example. And that's not to say there aren't ways like potions to lengthen that time if you're powerful and smart enough to find them and pull them off.

As it was all that lead me to doing paperwork and occasionally stirring the cauldron every fifteen minutes in various ways while Snape taught the six year Newt class different potion concocting ways and the difference between a nearly brewed potion and a over done potion while they made their batch of Amortentia, the worlds most powerful love potion.

He'd taken my words to heart though and had insisted on using the familiars for testing purposes to encourage students to get it right. When I finished the stirring for the evening, I left a note like had become usual and left through the classroom.

He was busy correcting the students errors but noticed my leaving with a stiff nod. Even with him angry at me he still appreciated my upholding our deal and continuing to help him. I set the stack of graded papers on his desk and turned waving my hand and freezing one of the students in place.

I growled at the idiot. "Three quarters turn counter clockwise you fool. Any more and the rose thorns will over saturate the ashwinder egg extract and explode! How is a fool like you in this class?"

The sixth year Ravenclaw didn't like my admonishing him or stopping him from stirring the pot but Snape was there to stop and admonish him further and correct his error. I left while Snape handled the rest.

I headed to meet up with Flitwick and Tina for dueling training. I'd come really far in my straining and only used my hands as a habit and to reduce the stress on my mind and body as I did magic now. In actuality I could just will the magic in me to do whatever spells I wished unless it was a new spell I was practicing then it required my hand motions and saying the words until I had it memorized.

With more practice I can reduce the hand motions and go silently or at least to a whisper before not having to say the words but that took serious time and effort which was another reason I was abusing the time turner more than most should ever do so. If I didn't have so Damn much lifeforce and essence then I would probably look as old as Snape by now.

After a vigorous battle practice against both of them at the same time, to get me used to the feeling of multiple attackers, I ended up being sent flying against the back wall with a soft thud as the room was currently padded as per our need.

I'd yet to win against them individually but I was in fact improving. I could chain spells like it was nobody's business but their experience was vast and fluid as they were well practiced for their own efforts. I did happen to put up a better fight then last time but I was stunned and blasted onto my ass like any other day in the end.

Saying goodbye they left and I checked the time with a Tempus spell. It was nearly time to join the current timeline as my old self went back in time. I left the room of requirements and waited until my old self passed going into the room of requirement to do the time turning. As soon as he did, he faded and I was back on track as I entered the room.

I then required a library of all the books that were repaired that had either dictations in them or weren't copied of in the school library. It was still a vast library even with all the books there. At least ten times the amount actually in the school library.

I started with the seven hundred that had dictations in them as I stored them in my bottomless pouch. I'd come back and trade them out when I needed to but until then I'd no use for the room of requirement except for training purposes.

I required a door to my common room and left easily enough. When I went to head to bed the pissed off Ravenclaw I'd called out and corrected was there. "Think you're so smart huh? Ruining my reputation as a potions prodigy! I actually lost house points because of you!"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't particularly care about house points and neither should you. If you truly belong to this house then you should appreciate the learning experience instead of being held up on being corrected by a second year."

He sneered. "I'll give you a learning experience!"

The moment he pulled his wand, I vanished him into McGonagall's personal quarters and damn did I regret it as soon as I'd done so as the magic for such a feat was enormous thanks to the schools protections and wards.

It actually required more magic than was in me and as soon as I felt it draining away faster than I'd given it credit for, I pulled out my coin and began channeling magic from it in the hopes that the spell didn't actually kill me for the cost instead. After four minutes and twenty seconds I felt the spell finish as it overcame the school's wards and circumvented them.

Even still the massive drain and constant channeling had exhausted me and grown my ping bong ball sized core into an apple size. It was quite the strain as it would have in fact killed me if I'd not had such a magical stone.

I got to bed and closed my eyes as elsewhere the sixth year Ravenclaw was having the scare of his life as he'd landed on a very naked Professor McGonagall who'd then used a fast spell to hang him by his ankles from the ceiling and questioned him.

Unfortunately for him he'd been partially stunned by the wards so he literally couldn't look away. He was interrogated while McGonagall yelled at him and got dressed in front of him but it was already too late as the image was branded in his mind for life.

He'd never look at a female again without remembering his old professor McGonagall in the buff and as such he would eventually turn gay as an acceptable alternative. As for the punishment for getting into a professor's personal quarters without a real excuse, he was forced to take detention with her for the rest of the school year once winter break ended.

A punishment that would give him nightmares as he constantly was forced to look at the same Professor he'd seen nude and remember this moment. His destiny was forever altered as his grades were effected by the sleepless nights and nightmares while his grades went from the top ten in transfiguration in his year to the bottom three percent in all years.

He caught what would later be known as Longbottom syndrome. Coined by a student after his time for famously being constantly on edge and nervous around teachers. I personally never saw him again as he avoided me like the plague thinking I'd send him back to her embrace if he annoyed me.

The next morning I woke up yawning and feeling tired still. My investment plans were paying off in spades so I had little to do today. All I really needed to do was catch the train to London and say goodbye to my friends Nym and Charlie.

I had other goals for today as well but that was mostly it for my priorities as I could push everything else off until tomorrow if necessary but then my brain fog had to go and lift, waking me further so I droned about mindlessly doing my morning routines.

When I sat by Nym and Charlie at breakfast and put my head down, Nym asked. "What's wrong with you today? You never sleep at the table."

I groggily told her. "I used a lot of magic yesterday and overextended my core. My body is exhausted as a result. I need more rest."

Charlie asked. "How'd you overextend your core? Wait, better question, how are you not dead or in the hospital wing?"

I raised my head long enough to let him see the dark circles under my eyes. "It's a long story I'll be happy to answer once you've mastered Occlumency. For now though just let me sleep please?"

They agreed and ignored me while I went back to resting until Nym woke me to join her and Charlie as we headed to our dormitories one at a time to pack and wait on each other before heading to the Thestral drawn carriages.

Once I was in I leaned against Charlie and fell asleep once more while they helped me load and unload my trunk and made sure I got on the train in time. I slept until Nym woke me up with a shake saying. "We're almost at the station. I'd have like to talk to you about this before now but it can't wait any longer. My father wanted me to invite your family over for a Christmas party. Charlie's is already coming as well."

I grunted. "I'll make sure to inform my parents. Owl me when and I'll make sure we show if nothing else."

She smiled happily but still looked slightly worried. "Are you going to be ok? You look dead tired and even a bit pale."

I nodded. "I'll be fine. It'll just take a few days to balance out my core as it's being constantly depleted by my house elves and growing further because of it."

She raised an eyebrow. "So depleting you're core constantly helps it grow?"

I nodded. "That's pretty much the gist of it yeah. Though you should keep it between us three."

Charlie asked. "You have house elves?"

I nodded. "I've a lot of house elves, more than are at Hogwarts at least."

Charlie frowned. "Hogwarts has house elves?"

I nodded. "They're the ones that make the food and clean the common rooms. There's a hundred and fifty house elves at Hogwarts managing the castle's current status but they're constantly busy so the empty classrooms aren't able to be cleaned by them. It's one of the many reasons the castle's in a state of disrepair."

Nym frowned again. "But the castle isn't in disrepair, we just got me tables and chairs for the classrooms and everything!"

I snorted. "Those were old ones my own personal house elves fixed and stored in the room of requirement. The house elves replaced the old used ones with the new ones and stored the old ones in the room of requirement. As we speak my house elves are repairing them all as well as cleaning up the school classrooms. Soon the bogarts and pixies in the castle will all be captured and stored away while the old classrooms cleaned and repaired. Even the ones no one remembers where they are."

Her eyebrows shot up. "Why are you doing such a thing?"

I shrugged. "My house elves don't have a lot to do except plant and take care of my farm family's lands while helping repair things for me. I've been teaching them new things like care of magical creatures and making wizarding items along with business. So they're basically bored with little to do and that's never a good thing for their self esteem."

Charlie asked. "Can I have a few? I'm sure mum could use a few at the house to help her out and manage the grounds."

I summoned three. "This is Pipsy, Dolop and Boggy. You three are free, this is Charlie Weasley, my best friend, he has a lot of work and needs help and while you're good house elves, I'm wasting your talents with me now, so you'll be bonding with Charlie from now on."

I erased their minds of the location and work I'd had them do before handing them pairs of socks. They were a bit upset about my freeing them and a bit distraught but they saw I wasn't angry with them but happy for them and accepted my orders.

They bonded with Charlie and were excited about all the possible work they had ahead of them. They hadn't forgotten their training so they were popping away to Charlie's home and building a magical garden while cleaning the house and repairing the house.

Soon enough it was a proper and stable three story house with an attic and basement with a solid foundation and expanded inside rooms including closets and cabinets. All this was happening while the Weasley family was out of the house heading to the station to meet up with Charlie and Bill whom I'd not spoken to in a week because he was cramming for the upcoming Owls.

The elves were capturing all the garden gnomes and caging them as well like I'd taught them and adding the ghoul to the list before writing down what prices I put on them for selling them to myself and Newt. It was one of our methods to retrieve the magical beasts that were unwanted.

The Weasley family sure had a big surprise waiting for them to come home to. Even the forested area they owned around their property was being picked clean of magical plants and beasts were being boxed up and prepared for sales while the plants too young to be sold were transplanted into the gardens that now spammed an acre of land and growing.

They were certainly influenced by Charlie though as they were building a quidditch pitch with old scrap metals they repaired and growing turf for it. Charlie has joined the Gryffindor quidditch team this year and was happy practicing while I tutored Nym for her classes.

He'd been made the seeker and was damn good as well. He was a natural flyer and was on his broom, an silver arrow from his parents time that I'd repaired for him as I'd done the rest of the old brooms.

They were good enough to practice with but little else. Even quidditch with them was a sore sight as they were so ancient it made the game rather slow and not very anticipated. It didn't mean I didn't watch his games, it just meant I read a bit unless Nym told me it was time to cheer. That's right, I cheered for Gryffindor even against my own house team.

I know it's not very supportive of my house but I didn't care. Charlie's friendship and happiness was more important to me than showing Ravenclaw solidarity which made up for my lack of interest in the games in his eyes. He was cool with it as I'd at least cheered for him when he was doing his own thing even against my own house.

Nym did the same though and the Hufflepuff's while not happy, couldn't fault her loyalty as it was to our friendship. As for Nym, she avoided sports like the plague because of her clumsiness. Charlie and I actually walked with her most places to help her avoid tripping and falling to running into things all the time.

It truly was a full time duty and they in exchange put up with my reading and conversation habits where I talked over my books to them or morphed into a random person to prank someone. We had our quirks but it made our combination so much more interesting and would continue to do so for years to come.

They'd actually joined me in dueling training on occasion as Nym wanted to be an Auror and Charlie wanted to know more to best handle the dangers of taking care of dragons. As for right this moment we were unloading our trunks and heading to the exit while they kept me up and walking.

I truly was dead tired and they knew it. Surprisingly all four of my family members were there waiting for me today. They were talking to Ted and his wife Andromeda as well as the Weasley's Arthur and Molly while my sisters were talking to the twins and Percy.

Bill met up with us on the way out and asked. "What's up with him? He looks like he's been hit with an African dream sickness curse."

Charlie told him. "He's dead tired from using too much magic yesterday. He said he'd be fine in a few days though."

I grunted in acknowledgement and Bill surprisingly helped them help me off the train by shrinking our trunks and taking one side of me to help me stay straight. As soon as our parents saw us my father lost his composure for a moment and asked sounding worried. "What's happened to my son?"

Nym explained to him while his worry faded after she said I'd be ok after a few days. He sighed. "Perhaps we should cancel our surprise trip?"

I raised an eyebrow as he propped me up. "What surprise trip?"

My youngest sister told me. "Daddy rented a private beach in the America's and had a portkey made for our use. He's going to take us all there including your friends and their families."

That was news to the four of us but clearly not to the Weasleys and Tonks's. I grunted. "I'll be fine for the trip but I'll need your help settling our business today father. You'll need to be careful on some of it."

He nodded in agreement and suggested they all go home and pack while me and him set out to do several things. First came the Goblins and handing over the one hundred chests to their new hidden base. Then, after leaving the extremely happy yet disturbing looking goblins as it simply wasn't right for them to smile by their features, we headed to the shops and unloaded nearly a years worth of product to be sold slowly and as requested.

All the repaired items were amongst them as I'd unloaded dragon dung, tons of plants and ingredients in stasis and all the creature parts including pixie wings and venom and acromantula venom and silk. We didn't want to flood the market so we made deals with the goblins for the excess to be sold to foreign Magical markets through their new setup.

They'd agreed for a five percent cut off the top because of all the wealth we were providing them easy access to. If we weren't such profitable partners then they'd have charged us out the nose like the rest of the arrogant wizards they dealt with.

Next came my Christmas shopping while he went and dealt with his own matters. I had to take a Pepperup potion before speed buying all I'd needed and heading to Knockturn Ally to meet with Burke as planned.

I'd turned a quill into an illegal portkey my father had registered through his contacts without leaving a trail back to us and when I gave it to Burke I told him. "The key word is truth. Use it to head there and back and it'll return you to just outside your store entrance. Now, where's the new product?"

He only had a hand full of books and none were really worth much but I bought them all the same before buying his new stock of black market beasts. They were mostly dragon eggs and one actual Basilisk egg this time. He'd told me proudly. "I bread it meself and guarantee it's alive and well!"

I smiled and paid the hundred thousand galleon price he'd asked for it as it was fair. He'd taken the risk of being caught and it really was hard to guarantee a chicken's egg roosted by a frog with magic channeled into it properly would turn into a basilisk but this one had and it would hatch soon.

I gave it it's own continent full of herbivores all it's own. I'd need to be there when it hatched and be the first one it sees for it's loyalty to me to solidify. I couldn't look at it as even as a baby it's gaze would at the very least petrify but then I didn't need to, at least not directly.

I could also communicate with it with my mind and make a connection then and there to make it view me as it's master. The last few interesting things were chupacabra's that I'd bought. His stock wasn't that big because of the damage Newt and Nicolas were doing.

They'd reported to have found most of the beasts he'd given to preserves and while some did make it, most were sold on the black market. They'd recovered most of the sold ones but some had been killed for materials or were in hands of pureblood families who were trying to deny their claims.

It didn't matter much as Newt's reputation was formidable and he'd broken into their estates and reclaimed his beasts and they were left to cry about it to themselves as the beasts were illegal and protected under the endanger magical species act.

If they told anyone who'd done it they'd have to explain why and they'd be heavily fined while Newt would probably get a stern talking to and a reward for upholding the laws of the ICW or international confederation of wizards.

I left Burke's place and changed half a dozen times before meeting up with my father and heading to meet up with everyone else. By the time everyone at my house was ready, we took the floo to the Tonks's before heading to the Weasley's when they didn't show like planned.

There we found them a mixture of distraught and happy as Mrs.Weasley was the only one angry and she couldn't even see the house elves who were fixing everything to yell at them. The kids and even Mr.Weasley was happy to have more room in the house and the house itself looked like a proper one now.

Charlie was receiving his mother's ire at the moment while Ron and Genny were running around happily. A blonde was with them saying goodbye to them when we'd arrived.

Molly Weasley turned on me asking. "Are you the one who gave my son house elves?"

I nodded when my father turned to me curiously as well. "I have more than I need and he mentioned wanting some to help you relax and be less busy. If you're mad I'm sure I can find someone else that wants them though they're only there to help. If you'd rather they do something else all you need to do is have Charlie give them orders."

She turned to Charlie and Mr.Weasley asked me. "Why'd your give them away if you don't mind my asking? I mean you could sell them as most do."

I snorted. "Most aren't worthy of my house elves. While I don't have a lot for them to do I do not sell them, instead I train them to take on more and varied tasks. You'll probably notice a garden outside if you look as all my house elves are want to make. They raise and harvest only the best and most expensive ingredients. You'll probably also find whatever beasts you had running wild captured as they tend to make sure all beasts are captured for shipment to beast preserves."

The twins ran inside yelling. "Mom, Dad, there's a quidditch pitch full of beast cages and a lot of plants!"

We all moseyed on outside where the Weasley's were exclaiming. When I saw the sheer amount of gnomes, pixies and various small but magical creatures I turned to Charlie and an elf popped in front of him. It was Pipsy and she had a list on parchment of the number of beasts and their worth in my eyes.

All in all it was around ten thousand galleons give or take a few sickles. Charlie read the list and choked before handing it to his mother and asking. "What's the list for?"

I smiled. "That's how much I'm willing to pay for the magical beasts. Trust me, they'll make another list for the plants as well and when it's harvest season I'm sure you can sell them to Jugs and Jiggers for a fair enough price."

Molly choked and handed the list to Arthur saying. "It's too much, it's all just too much!"

Arthur calmed her down before saying. "We can't except this. You've already given us so much already."

I snorted. "I just gave Charlie, my friend whom I'd fight for, three house elves that needed work or they'd become depressed and self harm themselves. It hardly equates to what you're making it out to be. The elves are trained to give you the most for the least. The way of business If you'll recall and besides, you all already had the beasts and ingredients here to do all this, all you needed was trained professionals to get it done. Think of it like I'm buying things you owned but didn't want or know how to effectively use properly."

Percy growled. "Are you calling us dumb?!!"

I snorted. "Hardly, but you can't ask a potions master to do a perfect transfiguration can you? It's about your own area of expertise verses those of the trained house elves. By the way I recommend you have them give you massages. You'll understand the meaning of relaxation when you do."

They looked confused but my father spoke up. "Like the message parlor I told you about. If the elves are trained you won't need to go anywhere as you'll feel like you're in heaven right here at home."

Arthur nodded with a smile saying. "We'll keep them but as for the beasts, you'll have to let me check them for any dark creatures first. I can't be selling or owning anything like that while I work within the ministry."

I shrugged. "Knock yourself out but I gotta say, you're wasting your time if it's not on the list."

Molly spoke up. "But the ghoul stays, it's family."

I raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "Keep what you want but let me know when you're ready to sell."

They went over the list and checked in groups cage by cage until they took the ghoul as per Molly's demand and Ron's annoyance as it always clanged in the attic. They took a common garden rat that the elves insisted had magic in it for Percy.

The rest was sold to me and I promptly stored it all in my realm right then and there before handing the money to Arthur. He looked confused at first as he expected my father to buy them and have them shipped away but instead he had me.

The elves inside my realm were setting them free in their individual forests where they'd be happy. There was now so much magic in my realm that it'd saturated the plants and some wild magical herbs and fungi were growing all over the realm.

After they'd settled things and packed we were ready to go and a good thing to as by the time we got to the resort my father had booked, the pepperup potion had warn off and I was having a hard time staying awake. For the next three days I wasn't any good to anyone and without my coin I'd have been out longer as it wasn't a magical beach but a muggle one.

When I finally joined everyone, feeling better, they were a bit surprised. Nym told me why as soon as she saw me. "We thought you'd be out for the full winter break."

I chuckled. "Hardly. I just needed some time to adjust as my core was growing rapidly while I was depleted."

I wasn't lying either as it was the size of a grapefruit now though it's growth had pretty much halted now as it no longer grew even when exhausted. For now though I put away my deep thoughts and let my emotions show, morphing my hair rapidly to the point where it was a technicolored rainbow.

Nym looked happy and matched mine though through forcing it while mine was emotions based. I even let a smile appear on my face as I relaxed. Charlie, Bill, Nym and I raced away on the beach before we laughed and headed into the water.

We swam and played underwater tag for a couple hours before I headed in and they followed. I headed to a stone and metal beach grill and shocking everyone, I started a fire by hand and pulled out packs of meat ranging from hamburgers to sausages and even muggle beer is had my house elves procure.

They were shocked as I told my father. "Conjure up some plates and silverware and I'll start cooking. It's always muggle men who cook on grills so I want to try it."

He smiled and nodded while doing as I asked while Arthur asked. "Really?"

Ted confirmed it. "It's true. It's a tradition of muggle men to cook on grills outside. It's about who can cook the best food and some do so while drinking muggle alcohol like what Damien here has. Though it's not meant for kids."

I rolled my eyes. "Relax, it's for cooking not drinking."

I pulled out a pot and poured the beer inside before placing the bratwurst inside and covered it with a lid. Then I seasoned the hamburgers and put them on the grill and added a few steaks. The smell of cooking food had all the kids coming out of the water to see what was happening.

After fifteen minutes I took the bratwursts out and placed them on the grill while flipping all the meat for the thirds time. I put a block of cream cheese and half a pound of regular sharp cheddar in the leftover beer and simmered it into a pot of cheese.

Ron started complaining. "When's the food ready? I'm starving!"

I chuckled. "Three minutes and it should all be done though if you want something other than meat someone needs to wait a bit longer."

I wrapped corn cobs in foil and tossed them into the white coals while doing the same to potatoes before tossing a skillet on the grill as I tossed bacon in it. When It was time I told my father. "A table will be needed as it's a lot."

He set to work while I filled up platters and sent them levitating to the table where everyone gathered. I summoned fresh buns and bread with butter, sour cream, chives and all the additives you could want out of my realm and onto the table before showing them what I made them to be like.

Beer bratwursts with beer cheese, hamburgers with beer cheese, pickles lettuce, tomatoes, bacon and onions. I even showed them how to make a loaded baked potato with beer cheese. They fell upon it like a pack of starving wolves and if the groans and moans were anything to go by they thoroughly enjoyed it.

I warned them. "Don't go swimming until your food digests or you'll be racing to the loo. Give it an hour to settle down and you should be fine."

Ron was the only one who didn't want to wait as he'd been eating the entire hour everyone else was waiting and when they went in he followed wanting to join in on the fun.

I swam away against the current and around him before getting out of the water quickly as not five minutes after he entered his face scrunched up and he turned the crystal clear water around him into a toxic brown.

I took a magical picture with my camera before making copies. Nym and Charlie had seen my actions and desperation to get out of the water and followed but the rest including Bill hadn't been so observant or lucky.

They all raced out screaming as the toxic water chased them. Ron followed, continuously going number two and bringing with him the smell and a toxic wave that had crashed over them.

The adults helped them clean up while a tied had floated up and stuck to Ginny causing her to scream and wail like a banshee. Damned if I didn't get a picture of that as well. Molly berated Ron for not waiting like I'd warned and fouled the water ruining it for us all.

I waved my hand, sending it all much farther down the coast and used scourgify on the area as well as on everyone hit with it. Bill asked indignantly. "Why weren't you three in the water?"

I chuckled. "Because I saw Ron eating just before I saw him get in. I warned each of you before and you should've paid attention. I raced out to avoid the inevitable."

Bill looked even madder now. "Why didn't you warm me?!!"

I sighed. "To be fair I didn't warn anyone, these two just followed when I left."

Charlie spoke up. "Damien goes where the fun is and if he was leaving it was a good enough reason to follow. Besides, I've seen that look on his face before and things tend to turn out bad just afterwards so I followed to see if I could help."

Bill scowled and turned to Nym who shrugged. "I thought he was up to a prank and wanted to see what he was doing."

I held up to moving pictures to Bill and he took them before chuckling. "Alright, I'll call it even so long as you don't have any of me."

I shook my head. "Nope, just those two. You can keep them to annoy them later in life. It'll be a fond remembrance."

Ron had red ears while his mom marched him away to the bathroom. My sisters hadn't been in the water yet as they were laying on beach chairs next to my mother, sleeping off the food. After a few hours and a personal guarantee from me, they all returned to the water except Nym, Charlie and I.

We rinsed off and changed before resting on beach chairs with muggle fizzy drinks of different sorts. When it began to get dark, out parents called everyone in as my sisters had finally coined them in the water.

I was busy with Ted making a bonfire and conjuring seats around it with clean sticks and marshmallows. When everyone was sitting around, I introduced them to s'mores and ice cream. There was plenty to go around and the females particularly loved them while Percy fed his cracker to the rat.

Ron was busy making a pile of them on a plate while everyone sat around with a pint of different flavored ice cream. Mine was Rocky Road while Nym's was mint chocolate chip and Charlie's was fudge brownie. Swapped on occasion while I put an old shadow caster in the fire and told them of the creation of earth or one of them.

They listened as I spoke in monotone as the shadows appeared at their feet. "First, there was the EARTH.

Then there came the BEASTS.

After demons came MEN.

The men found a GIRL to slay BEASTS.

They chained her to the earth.

Filled her with DARK.

You cannot be shown, cannot just watch.

You must see for yourself, but only if you are willing to make the EXCHANGE."

My voice was hollow as they were spooked out. Fred asked scared. "What is the exchange?"

I sighed. "You must sacrifice what you love most for the sight to see into the past."

He looked freaked until he saw mine and Nym's smiles. And I burst into laughter. "It's just a spookie story. I heard that muggles tell them around campfires and thought I'd tell you one I read a long time ago in an African book on creation."

Arthur asked. "Is it a true story?"

I shrugged. "Truth is what those who are willing to believe view reality with. It's subjective to the person whom believes it."

My father raised an eyebrow. "Is it possibly real though?"

I shrugged. "The story is real, but then so is every other story out there until they're proven false. It exists though in a tome I got from a reliable source so it could be how magic began, with the beasts I mean or perhaps it's as old as the earth as ley lines of magic run through the earth. I just don't care enough to sacrifice what I love most to find out."

They all grimaced and nodded before Fred and George teased Ron. "We love you most little brother of ours, care to be our sacrifice?"

I rolled my eyes as Molly Weasley berated the twins.