Chapter 125: Ch.10
For the rest of the week everything was fun and everyone of age even joined us for the solstice ritual. It was only a drop of blood so even Molly couldn't argue it as evil especially when my father called it an old tradition that helps witches and wizards stay youthful.
Arthur couldn't argue as while he worked for the ministry we weren't in Britain or the English isles. We were in Hawaii after going through Macusa customs. They each, including Bill and Charlie after they begged, took a silver needle and prayed with us until the solstice magic's kicked in.
The Weasley's were the most obvious change almost us as their skin became fairer and they seemed more empowered having not done it the first time. Molly lost her crows feet and looked to de-age ten years. Arthur was much more effective as he'd been a seriously overworked man and was rapidly de-aging from it's effects now.
He looked to have gained nearly twenty years and could pass as Bills older brother albeit by a large margin. As he looked to be around thirty now. I told him. "If anyone at the ministry asks just say you went to a muggle spa. They won't question it so long as you don't mention the small solstice ritual."
He nodded absentmindedly but looked at his wife adoringly as they looked about the same age now. Ted and Andromeda has done it last year with my father's recommendation so their changes was more subtle as they looked reinvigorated.
Nym, Charlie, Bill and I were full of energy now so we raced off to the beach to play. When I got tired of playing children's games, as fun as they are, I laid back under a sun umbrella on a beach chair and read the margins of books.
Nym, Charlie and Bill joined me as I loaned them books from my personal library. Bill was fascinated with the books on ancient curses and tombs. Charlie was focusing on a dragon raising manual and Nym was working on her third year history of magic and potions.
When the adults joined us, I gave them magazines on sports cars and feminine care products. Well, except for Molly who wanted my recipe books. A few days later it was Christmas time and damned if I didn't make it big. I'd bought everyone presents.
I got Arthur a remote control car he could use his collection of batteries to run on as well as a hot wheels collection. I got Ron a smorgasbord of chocolates and candies as well as a wizards chess set and Bill promised to teach him to play.
I got Ginny a Harry Potter book collection set about all the supposed tales he'd done with his mountain like strength and detailed his fake battle with the dark lord like an action movie when in reality he was only a baby at the time.
I got the twins an extra prank set and a list of pranks they could try along with a chemistry set. Percy was much easier as I just bought him a book on how to be the perfect prefect as well as a copy of all his Hogwarts books for every year.
Molly had almost called me out on it until I shrugged her off saying. "I don't really know him that well and Charlie doesn't go into details so I got him what seemed appropriate."
She let it go and I gave Charlie my personal collection of bestiaries including everything I knew about dragons including a moving poster of a Chinese Fireball and a Hungarian Horntail fighting round the death.
Arthur spoke up now. "That really is too much!"
I snorted. "He's my second friend I've ever had that Isn't family and he's been with me through a lot. I'll give him what I please, besides, this is my personal collection meaning I've already read through them and memorized everything in them."
I turned to Charlie with a smile. "I also happened to have written helpful suggestions and had them personally signed by Newt Scamander. He approved of the suggestions by the way so-"
He launched himself at me like Nym was want to do and we fell over laughing while he squeezed the air from my lungs. Nym helped us up and he thanked me but I shrugged it off. "It's nothing in the face of our friendship."
He nodded seriously and I gave Daphne and Astoria their presents next. It was replica Diadems of Ravenclaws I'd had the goblins forge for them. I told them as much. "That's goblin silver forged by them and especially made for you two. I enchanted them the best I could to make the wearer read faster and help memory retention. I wanted you two to have the prettiest replica out there but I promise if one day if either of you want the real one I'll find it for you."
They hugged me at the same time showing a rare bought of emotion. When they released me it was my Father's turn. I gave him a crate of muggle wines from across the globe and told him how to store them. I then told my mother. "I didn't know what to get you so I had Nagnok use my account to buy you an island in the Greek isles next to the Phoenix preserve. I named it after you."
As such the isle of Rachel was officially apart of the Greek islands. She smiled and I continued. "The Phoenix's come there to mate and roost on occasions so I figured it would be a place where you and father could relax once in a while."
She kissed my forehead saying. "That's more than enough my precious boy."
I wasn't even a bit embarrassed as I was mentally older than this world. I'd spent over a hundred million years in hell and had billions of years worth of memories from Maloker in my mind along with hundreds of millions of years from the ancients repository of knowledge.
Suffice it to say I basked in my mother's love before turning to Ted and Andromeda and handing them their presents. I'd gotten Ted every law book and scroll copy of every law muggles had from around the world and wizards had in their archives or were mentioned in Hogwarts along with a pair of enchanted translating glasses.
I'd had to hand him a bottomless pouch and explain it all like the others because it really was physically too much to carry at once. It'd taken me several trips and some workings with Nagnok to get ahold of it all.
As for Andromeda, I got her a lineage chart from not just the black family but from nearly every family out there that was linked to the blacks saying. "You may not be apart of the black family anymore, but that doesn't mean you're alone or cut off. There are plenty of families out there linked to the black family by marriage and birth that would be more than happy to accept you. The Weasley and Potter families are the closest except for the Lestrange and Malfoy families. And even if we aren't related by blood it doesn't mean I can't adopt you into the Lestrange family once I officially take over on my majority."
She'd shed tears and hugged me while actually crying. I patted her back while saying. "It's ok, I get it. I've seen enough families fall apart because of the war. Yours may have happened before the war but the reasons were the same. Prejudices on both sides caused the destruction of many led by a mad man."
She let it out before collecting herself and hugging Ted and Nym. Arthur said. "My grandmother was a Black and as such that makes us family. Whether this helps or not I'd happily claim you as a Weasley."
I looked to Nym and sighed. "I'm giving you this, it might not make sense but it's incredibly precious to me and it's magical at the same time. I stored some of my magic in it as a key so all you need to do is touch it with you magic to activate it's effects. It is something I value over my life and I wanted to give it to someone who meant the same to me."
It was my old mother Nyx's necklace I'd finally found a work around for. Nym took it and put it on before touching it with a bit of magic like using a wand. A cloak of stars covered her as she looked like the night sky. I smiled while the others gasped in amazement. "Just think about being invisible and it'll do the rest."
She did so and damned if she didn't disappear to everyone else's senses but my own. She launched herself at me like a human cannonball and I barely reacted in time as I was hugged half to death.
When she got off me and revealed herself by taking off the hood, the others laughed and Ted asked. "Where'd you get an invisibility cloak?"
I shrugged. "I have my ways. Besides, it's older than it looks. There's a myth much like the deathly hollows but about the goddess Nyx. She was one of the witches of old that showed herself to the Ancient Greek mortals as a goddess. She was said to be the personification of night."
I smiled and told them. "It's said that she watches over the mortals and protects them while they sleep and dream, and one day she became pregnant. On this day, out of all the children she'd had with her husband, she loved this one the most. So she gave him her cloak of night and told him it would protect him always as she was as much apart of it as she was of him."
They smiled and I continued. "It's said that he went on to be an average mortal, wanting to live as peacefully as the night itself and his mother. He married a local village girl and they had children but lived out in the grassy plains. There each night he would slay in the grass and during the day he'd work and tend the fields of cattle. When his children had grown and his wife passed, he lay on the grass one last time and it's said he became living green grass."
I smiled as my father caught on. "He was our ancestor?"
I nodded. "From all I've managed to dig up, yes. His children passed down the cloak until the Roman wizards invaded and killed half the family, steeling it away. After spending a lot of gold and an ungodly amount of time I was able to find out what happened to it. Old Burke had managed to get it for me after I paid him a visit and a free trip to Bulgaria where it'd ended up in an antique shop from the descendants of the Roman family."
My father nodded before smacking the back of my head. "Why'd you give it away?"
I shrugged. "It was mine to give and I wanted to give it to someone important to me that I wanted to protect. I'm having all our family wards upgraded soon so we'll be protected, but Nym is my best friend and if anyone deserves a piece of my magic, it's her."
Nym smiled brightly saying. "I'll cherish it and never take it off, I promise."
I nodded with a smile and my father sighed before mentioning a marriage contract to Ted whom shook his head. "I'm sorry but if my daughter marries I want it to be her choice."
I stuck my tongue out at my father before grabbing Nym and Charlie and running while they laughed. The adults finally broke out in laughter with the kids who were eating sweets and joking while sipping eggnog.
Later that night almost everyone had gone to bed after a giant turkey dinner. Even Ron was stuffed though I think that was more physically than anything else as he'd looked at the pies with regret when his mother warned him he might burst if he ate any more.
His stomach had extended a lot for a five year old. He looked like he'd swallowed half the turkey while in reality he'd eaten far more than that. I told him nonchalantly not to worry as Hogwarts fed it's students like this every day.
He'd been almost excited until Charlie added. "Yeah, only so the trolls in the dungeon could eat better when they catch the fat ones."
Ron had literally cried with regret for eating so much until he fell asleep with a turkey leg in his mouth. He was a stress eater for sure. Fred and George caught on to the joke and teased him every chance they got until he'd ran to his room and passed out on his bed.
I sat on the deck of the private house we were renting and watched the stars until Nym appeared next to me wearing the cloak. She asked. "How much of the story was true and how much was a lie?"
I raised an eyebrow and asked her. "How did you know the campfire story wasn't real?"
She snorted. "It is real it's just not beasts that were the bad guys."
She stilled and narrowed her eyes as I smiled. "Which one are you? Buffy? Faith? Alice? River? Sam? Betsy? Lexi? Tayla? Adria?"
She sighed and sat down beside me. "I'm all of them and not. They couldn't keep up with your growth so Gaia gave them another way. It's a technique only known to a few goddesses that allows them to fuse like Hecate did. Where she became the crone, mother and daughter, we became something more as well."
I went wide eyed and she snorted. "Don't worry, we can split whenever we choose and rejoin as we like so long as we're not in a human vessel and bound like right now."
I sighed. "And Tonks?"
She morphed into Alice who spoke to my heart. "Tonks is the human soul that joined with us when we gave her the option. In this way you can have all of us and not have to be all places at once to protect us. Not to mention as we take on more sister wives our overall power multiplies when we ascend again and fulfill our goal in each world."
I sighed with relief. "You all chose this?"
She nodded and morphed back into Tonks. "Even me. Though I don't know all of it I do know enough to call you out on your crap so, I ask again, how much of Nyx's story was real?"
I smirked. "Ask Betsy, she knows the full story and if it helps, I'd have chosen you next anyway. I'd already made up my mind to give you the necklace long before I'd even thought you were one of my wives reborn."
She smiled and sighed. "Betsy is asleep like I was. She's had it the hardest as there was a lot to accept when she joined with them. She reliving their memories. It's why I don't know it all, because you're so old!"
I snorted playfully before sighing. "I'd spent over a hundred million years as the devil of the last reality we were in or apart of me did anyway. I remember it all and while it was hell, I had Betsy and all of my wives to think about and look through my other selves. Other parts of me were in different time distorted places like hell including the underworld and the worst place, the labyrinth. Time is so wonky there you could sneeze and loose a year or a century and not realize it until you reached the surface."
Her eyes went wide as I described events of that world that passed including how I met Betsy and ended up with her. I didn't describe sex as she was for all intents and purposes still only twelve but my wives knew there was sex to be had.
I told her of the challenges we faced and all I did to ensure that world at least would keep on spinning. I told her of Lucifer, Amenadiel, Chloe and evening Maze. I described the gods and goddesses and even told her and mentally told them of Persephone and Hecate separately.
In the end I confessed to having a child with Hecate and destroying almost all the gods in that world. I admitted to destroying the gods of an alternate reality world as well and forging my blades of death. I told her of the flaming sword and my suspicion that the Christian god there was a lot stronger than he pretended to be.
Finally I described my time in the past and helping America win the wars and growing the coven I'd left behind. I'd continued talking into the night and well into the morning until everyone else started to wake up.
She'd listened the whole night and finally said. "You've done a lot before coming here."
I chuckled. "You should've seen the reality i was in before that one. Lucifer destroyed it utterly. Something about them being trapped in a never ending time bubble that fractured the reality beyond repair. It needed doing though as it was a danger to the reality cluster around it if left alone. It would've shattered and destroyed the whole cluster."
My wives were shocked from their thoughts but I just let them know it was a necessary evil. She told me of her inner world that was growing and I transferred a dozen house elves to her to drain her magic core and help it grow faster. I told her as we went in to take showers and grab breakfast. "Let me know when you need more and I'll transfer all I can without loosing the necessary ones. If nothing else I can have them breed more."
She nodded and thanked me while George asked. "Breed more what?"
I smirked. "Trolls my friend, giant trolls that eat humans."
He rolled his eyes and Charlie shook his head as he heard. "He's not joking George, he has trolls, even Mrs.Scamander says so."
George paled and looked at me with fright while I just smirked. "Hazard of running preserves is that you need to preserve even the dangerous things."
My father walked in and asked while looking chipper. "What dangerous things?"
I shrugged. "Just trolls and dragon preservations."
He nodded seriously. "Good but dangerous business. Nagnok says the werewolves we're hiring are doing damn fine work and none have died yet. They even started taking them on as curse breakers and their clearance rate is astonishing thanks to all the extra training you're making them do. They even caught a few Sphinx and Nundu that Nagnok wants to talk to you about. He says you have a special preservation you're running off the books for the more dangerous and endangered species."
I nodded. "Yeah, I don't intend to let any more magical species die off except perhaps the dementors. I have several lethifold and nundu as well as all sorts of dragons and even sea serpents and a basilisk on the preservation. The lands like this island we're on though warded against all those who don't know about it or where it is. It's also unplottable. I'm working with Newt Scamander to turn it into a paradise for beasts of all sorts so they can breed and grow without worry of being hunted into extinction."
He nodded. "I take it that's why Newt is running around stealing beasts?"
I shook my head. "No, he used to give the babies to his contact to give to preservations but it turns out his contact was turning around and selling them. He found out and he's out to reclaim all the beasts his contact sold on the black market. All the families that are whining quietly because they bought them on the black market and refused to return them so he took them. He's outing them all on the islands and is swearing off helping preservations except our family's."
My father looked both enlightened and pleased by the news. Arthur asked as he walked by with a toaster. "Does he have any proof they're stolen?"
I shrugged. "The fact that they're mostly endangered species that need licenses to own and that he's tracing the beasts through their parents bloodline but then that's why he's also not waiting for authorities as if given enough warning the purebloods who don't want to give their prizes up will kill them to get rid of the evidence. He's trying to save beasts lives and it's not like they can actually have him arrested without getting caught and getting fined."
Arthur looked sour but nodded. "Just warn him to be careful. Some of the families can use their wards to hold him off until the authorities get there and have him arrested for trespassing."
I shook my head. "He's already finished and taken them all back except a few that were killed for their ingredients and the ones out of the country. He's going abroad right now to retrieve them and find more for the preservation. Any wild nundus and sphinxes the goblins plan to sell to mine and Newt's preservation will not be leaving the island so there's no chance of them being used for inappropriate means anymore."
Arthur nodded and Fred spoke up from beside George. "Are there any wild beasts left in our area?"
I nodded. "Sea serpents, free dragons on the Scottish isles and the forbidden forest next to Hogwarts though you shouldn't enter the forest without Hagrid ever. There's an acromantula colony that numbers in the hundreds in there and perhaps thousands of babies as they eat there own when food is scarce but they're basically spiders the size of Mr.Weasley's car and bigger that eat humans and animals and are extremely poisonous."
Ron who'd heard me paled. "Giant spiders?"
I nodded. "We have our own acromantula colony off the coast of Scotland that makes the silk we sell to Madam Malkin."
My father nodded. "Damn fine business though it's as dangerous as handling dragons if not more so. Acromantula's are smart and crafty and we lose a few people a year to accidents and their new crafty ways of catching wizards by surprise. Our own colony isn't nearly as big as what you've described at Hogwarts though. I don't want you going anywhere near there you understand?"
I nodded. "I've no intention of going near the forbidden forest. I've played with dragons but I'm not dumb. Acromantula's don't like humans for anything but food to feed their young. One bite and I'd be toast in minutes."
He nodded and Ted turned to Nym. "You too young lady."
She nodded innocently saying. "I'm already clumsy I don't have a death wish. I still want to be alive long enough to become an auror."
Her father shuddered but nodded all the same. Molly Weasley who was listening while cooking turned to Charlie, Bill and Percy who would be starting in two years. "I want the same promise from you all as well. Don't you dare go near that forest!"
They nodded obediently and I chuckled. "Besides, if the acromantulas in the forest don't get you the troll groups just might. They wander the area of the forest killing and eating everything in there but even they're not smart and end up falling to the acromantula horde. Then there's the Hippogriff herds and the thestrals, not to mention manticores and the occasional Wampus cats."
Molly shuddered while Fred and George asked. "What's a Wampus cat?"
My father answered for me. "They're six legged big cats like lions that are extremely fast. They can hypnotize you and read your mind like a master in the mind arts and are notoriously hard to kill. There skin is said to have inspired the impenetrable Nemeon lion myths from Ancient Greece. They're as dangerous if not more so than dragons and have a body count as high as nundu's who can wipe out villages with a single breath."
Even the twins looked quelled by his words as I smiled. "I actually have one on the preserve. It was Newt himself who caught it and brought it to the preserve when he found a black market smuggler trying to sell his creatures. He freed all the beasts and put them on the reservation. Unfortunately only one female Wampus cat was amongst the goods or we might've had a mating pair. We already have three four nundu and five lethifold by the way the lethifold are breeding so they might not be endangered much longer."
My father shuddered as did the other adults and Bill said. "Why would you let them breed?"
Fred asked. "What's wrong with lethifolds?"
Bill scowled and told them. "Lethifold are called the living shroud. Think dementors that slip under door cracks and instead of feeding on joy they wrap around the human victim and smother them to death before eating them like a cocoon. They're also immune to all spells except perhaps the killing curse and the patronus spell that actually effects dementors. There's no other known ways of fighting them off."
I chuckled as the kids looked afraid and I summoned my girl. She wrapped around me and my father shouted until I commanded her to shrink into a scarf. She hugged me sensing I wanted to show her off to these humans.
I told my father. "Relax, I pulled her out of my connection to the preserve. She's tamed already see?"
Molly screamed but Arthur looked both curious and afraid. "How did you take it?"
I smiled and lied easily. "Newt taught me how. He has one himself on the preservation and both ours are females. We found a male and he bred with them both. This here is Selene. She's a single mother to a baby lethifold and she hasn't eaten humans in a long while. You can pet her if you want, she won't bite or anything unless you try to attack me or her."
Nym didn't hesitate and petted Selene while her parents looked nervous until they all. Sort of relaxed. My father asked. "Newt really taught you to control her?"
I nodded. "That and so much more. While I can't speak with her directly, it's more like a familiar bond. She understands my meaning even if she doesn't understand the words. It's the intention behind it I guess."
Fred and George came over and petted her as well now before saying. "Cool!"
I nodded. "Just don't go trying to pet other lethifolds or you'll not be saying cool as you won't be saying anything else ever again. There's a reason they're class five magical beasts. They eat humans and they're really hard to fight off or stop. Even with a patronus you have to be able to say the spell before it smothers you and lethifolds can be incredibly fast."
Ron came over and frowned. "It doesn't look that dangerous."
I frowned and backed away from him as Selene lunged at him. I grabbed her saying. "Selene no! Ron you idiot apologize!"
He went into a mental breakdown and I had to put her away while the adults drew their wands. I painted a bit because damn she's strong and she was angry to.
I sighed and leaned against the counter. "Others I might not call dumb or stupid but you Ron are an idiot. You pissed off a class five magical beast that's almost unkillable. If I didn't reverse the summoning spell linking me to the preservation you'd be strangled to death by now while your mother and father tried to fight it off from eating your corpse."
I grabbed a glass of orange juice saying. "Remind me never to bring you to a preserve with anything stronger than a bowtruckle else I fear for your life. I mean really, you hear me say she can understand intentions and you go and insult her."
I shook my head and my father asked. "What's the damage going to be?"
I shrugged. "One very unfortunate bear that's going to die with regrets in it's heart. It's her favorite meal besides human and the only thing other than me talking to her that'll calm her down. Since I can't be there, Newt will feed her in his free time. Perhaps I'll take you all to the preserve someday and let you see all the magical beast in their natural habitat, well, except Ron unless he has a silencing spell on himself. And even then I won't bring him near the lethifold caves because she doesn't forget and she rarely forgives and that's only me as the exception. The next time she's near him without me she will try to kill him."
Ron paled and my father nodded. "Then away from the lethifold caves but what else do you have?"
I shrugged. "A bit of everything I think. Or we will have soon enough with Newt out there bringing in new beasts. It's actually what most of my house elves are doing, settling the beasts in and growing food for the herbivores to feed to the carnivores."
My father nodded. "Do you need any help from me?"
I shrugged. "It's going to be one giant preserve but no, I'd like to keep it out of the businesses we do have unless you want to go all plant based and sell only magical plants."
He shrugged. "It's as good a business as anything though I doubt the customers would be to happy if we just cut off the supply."
I shook my head. "As long as I'm alive the materials the preservation makes can be included in the Greengrass businesses but once I'm gone our descendants would loose the primary income for the family it's the only thing I'm really worried about."
He nodded solemnly, not wanting to think about me dead at all but sighed. "Then we'll have to slowly convert the family business into plant based businesses."
I shook my head. "There's no need. Let the preserves remain. We already have dragons and once I become head of the family you can retire and I'll deal with the finances. At the very least I can set up a trust as we get paid for our training programs and the recruits the goblins buy from us. Not to mention the fact that by the time I'm ready to retire as the head of the family I will have made a trust big enough to set our family up for a few centuries so long as it's not squandered."
He sighed. "A topic for another time then, let's eat."
And eat we did. Even Ron overcame his fear and ate though he did slow down a bit until he realized he was actually eating and came out of his daze. He looked like last night all over again and I sighed. "No beach for a while or Ron might go in with us and have another accident."
Ron, who had been eating for the past hour while we'd finished, heard me as his ears went red. He finished his tenth platter and grumbled about using the loo before disappearing.
I chuckled and headed for a shower in my bathroom before laying on the beach chairs and reading while the others played. Nym coaxed me into playing on the beach for awhile before I decided I wanted to catch fish.
I cast a silent charm on my fishing pole and cast it out off the dock. I caught a few dolphins, not the bottle nosed dolphins but the actual legal kind, to eat along with a sword fish and a couple salmon almost as big as the sword fish.
I brought them back to the breach where I, in front of everyone, scaled cut and cleaned them before tossing the meat in a cooler for later. I added lemon pepper and garlic butter to the salmon cooler and let it soak in before adding ice water.
Next was the sword fish, I used Mediterranean seasoning and a nice creamy pepper sauce to soak it in before closing the cooler. The last cooler with the dolphin in it was filled with ice water to keep it fresh until it was time to pan fry some Mahi Mahi.
With the three cooler sitting by the grill for when it was ready nearly everyone watching me was already anticipating my cooking. I went and netted some shrimp next and leaned and deveined them one at a time until it was starting to get around lunch time.
I lit the grill and they all nearly shouted hurray!
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