Professor Silverwood didn’t introduce the class to Buckbeak and the Griffons until they’d put a couple of months of school behind them. Griffons were temperamental after all, and prone to temperamental outbursts. Seeing Buckbeak bow to Aerie as she approached was a bit of a surprise. Granted that if they’d known of certain rumors among the sentient creatures of the forest they’d not been too surprised.

There was still the issue of dementors so Professor Lupin instructed all his students on how to cast a Patronus charm. When Dementors showed up at the quidditch match they were assaulted by an army of ephemeral creatures that drove them right into the guns of security who dispatched them post haste. Aerie caught the snitch and began the first of a winning streak that would result in Gryffindor winning both the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup for the first time in years.

One thing that had come out of the mushroom event was that the entire school now knew that Aerie could transform into a winged unicorn. Her attempts to correct the record, pegasi with a unicorn horn, typically fell on deaf ears. It did at least make it possible for her to fly under her own power without having to worry about it and during breaks she was often seen with Aurora and Scootaloo.

Finally, the year was up. Tests were taken, the end-of-term dinner was over, and time to head home on the Hogwarts Express.

“Aerie…” Flora began shortly after retrieving the morning mail. “You have an invite from the Weasleys to stay with them and attend the Quidditch World Cup.” The envelope with the invite was covered in stamps, some of which may have been out of circulation for years. Aerie, Aurora, Basil, Justin, and Luna were gathered around the table, eating breakfast. Hoshiko had returned to Japan for the summer.

“That’s the event Mrs Silverwood is taking us to,” Aurora offered. Aerie had her nose in a book. She sighed and set the book down.

“To go with them or not to go… whether it is nobler to suffer the Weasley family, friends they may be, or to decline and go with Mrs Silverwood, that is the question.”

“We could visit them, but I’ve no desire to give up luxury accommodations,” Aurora remarked.

“Sorry, the invite is for Aerie only.”

“What about me?” Louise asked. “When Ginny and I are such good friends?”

“Breaks continuity,” Aerie told her. “Originally, before I stepped into the role I now play, the invite would have been for Harry…”

“You mean Zap,” Louise suggested.

“Perhaps I should say before Nova Silverwood stepped hoof into the Wizarding world. I suppose I should send them a reply. And don’t say anything to them about Zap.”

“You going?” Aurora asked. “Though I will say you don’t seem too surprised. Annoyed even.”

Aerie let out another sigh and leaned back. She’d already discussed the issue of the ring with Mrs Silverwood.

“I fear that I may just have to. For continuity's sake. I think that if I’m to find that last quest item I’m just going to have to go with them.”

“How is that going to help you find it?” Aurora asked.

“Well… I’ve got a hunch that it will present itself to me sometime next year.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“I’m transferring out of Hogwarts to the Eques School of Technology at the end of the year.”

“And you were going to tell me when?” Aurora asked in an almost scolding manner.

“Personally, I think we should all get out of Hogwarts, but I’ve got a mind to make an announcement at the beginning of the school year. I figure that if the ring has indeed fallen into the hands of someone who has an unhealthy interest in me it’ll light a fire under them. Force their hand.”

“Sounds rather dangerous to me,” Flora commented dryly.

“I can’t go the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. Bad enough I’m straddling three worlds. I want them to come to me when I’m expecting it.”

“Gain the high ground, make your enemy come to you,” Luna, Aerie’s real mom offered from behind her coffee cup. “A sound strategy. Let us hope it works.”

No sooner had she finished talking when a small owl burst into the room via the fireplace bringing with it a cloud of suit. Around and around it zipped.

“Be so kind as to land and deliver thy missive,” Luna commanded, resulting in the little puffball dropping to the table. It looked about and then hopped over to Aerie.

“We are coming for you whether the Muggles like it or not…” Aerie read from the letter a moment later. “It’s from Ron. They’ll be here around five o’clock.”

“It’s not like we were going to forbid you from going,” Flora protested. “Does he think we are no better than the Dursleys? And dropping in during afternoon tea of all things. Not to mention that we already have plans.”

“The closest thing to a muggle here is me and I think that I’d technically count as a squib,” Basil offered.

“More of Dumbledore’s waffling, I’d imagine,” Aerie offered. “They’ll be coming to pick me up on Sun’s day. Whether I like it or not it seems. The owl is named Pig. Here’s the juicy bit, Percy’s started working for the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He finishes off with a warning not to mention anything about ‘Abroad’ if we don’t want our pants bored off.”

“No doubt Percy thinks he’s an expert on everything outside of England now that he’s got that job,” Aurora drolled. “Now that he’s got such an important job.”

“I suppose I might as well…” Flora mused. “Tell them we’ll be having tea at five and to please let me know how many Weasleys to expect.”

Aerie picked up a blank piece of paper and in her best calligraphy wrote out: You are cordially invited to Tea, Sun’s day, at five. Please RSVP as soon as possible. This she tied to Pig, and with a touch of her index finger the owl was gone.

“Aerie, must you do that?” Aurora scolded.

“You’re going to get in trouble with the ministry if they figure out it was you,” Flora added.

“What’d she do?” Louise asked.

“I teleported Pig back to the Weasley’s kitchen. I expect he’ll be so startled he’ll be going round in circles.”

Luna was forced to put her coffee down as she started to laugh.

When Sunday rolled along Aerie had her trunk waiting by the front door just in case. She’d given the Weasley family the address for the floo, reluctantly I might add, everyone was dressed for Tea, the table set, and they’d but to wait for the arrival. Five O'clock came and went. Kreacher had been tasked with greeting the guests at the vault, and at ten after Aerie decided to go check for herself. Nothing. She placed her hand on the mantle to feel for activity but got no indication that anyone was on their way. When she stretched her hand into the hearth itself she could feel that there was some unusual activity that gave her to think that someone was attempting an illicit connection to the house.

“They wouldn't dare…” Aerie said quietly, felt out the location of the source, and a moment later found herself in a ministry office facing the Weasley family, Hermione Granger, and a couple of Floo technicians. The whole family. Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron, Ginny, the twins, Percy, Hermione, Bill, Charley, and two young men she couldn't identify and were more than likely Ministry employees. They all looked back in astonishment given the floo hadn’t activated. She was simply there without even so much as a fizzle.

“Aerie?!” Ron exclaimed once he was past his initial surprise.

“Anyone care to explain what in blue blazes is going on here?” Aerie asked crossly. "We have a perfectly functional floo and yet it looks as though you are trying to connect directly to the house. The house is warded! Are you trying to kill yourselves!?” She stopped to take a breath. “Now, undo whatever it was that you were attempting to do.” Deep down she knew that they could have ended up in between with no way out. A fate far worse than death. Worse yet they could have ended up in Equestria.

“There’s a floo connection already?” Mr Weasley asked in astonishment.

“I did try to tell you they already had a connection,” Mrs Weasley reminded her husband.

“But there’s nothing directly to the house?”

“Ron? Did you not get the address for our floo connection? Mrs Weasley? I sent Ron a reply via your owl.”

“I tried to tell him,” Ron replied. “He was dead set on impressing your family.” Molly Weasley turned and slapped Mr Weasley on the back of the head.

“I guess the presence of a ward explains why we couldn’t get a proper connection,” one of the techs offered. “Real strange that house, like half of it isn’t even there.”

“Mr Weasley, by any chance did Professor Dumbledore put a bug in your ear?” Aerie asked.

“Ah, now that you mention it, he might just have.” Molly slapped the back of his head again. “Molly, please. It’s not like it was entirely my idea.”

“I’d think that we'd have learned to measure well Professor Dumbledore’s suggestions by now.
Mr Beaumont, what might have happened if it hadn’t connected properly and we attempted to go through?” Molly asked.

“Happened? Nothing, a whole lot of nothing, that is to say, you’d just be gone. Maybe you’d reappear somewhere... We’ve had testers vanish into the matrix to reemerge months later mad as a hatter.”

Hermione suppressed a gasp.

“Aerie… that didn’t happen to someone you know, did it?” Ron asked.

“I… I get premonitions. I saw myself, or perhaps another version of myself, go in and come out years later in the wrong direction and everything was different. Call it a nightmare if you like. It just left me very apprehensive about people mucking about with stuff like this, and why I learned the Akkadian teleport. Far less chance of getting it wrong.”

“That what you did just now?”

“It’s Akkadian magic. I’m especially good at it, and yes, I know I’m not supposed to do magic outside of school. It’s just that I had this feeling that someone was about to do something very foolish and very dangerous. The way the Akkadian teleport works is I can feel out the where, when, and the in-between. It’s really hard to get it wrong because a bad connection just won’t work. I felt the in-between getting mucked with… I thought I’d better do something before you permanently screwed up our floo connection.”

“I will have to admit that it didn’t look anything like Apparition. I’m Edward Beaumont, and this is Henry Harriman.

“What say we undue what we were trying to do,” Henry offered.

“Mrs Weasley,” Aerie began as she stepped away from the Ministry hearth. “Before we go, I do so hate to have to ask, but would you be so kind as to deprive the twins of the toffees they have in their pockets?”

“Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes… Mr Weasley said under his breath as he turned on the two boys.

“Ton-Tongue Toffee, wasn’t it?”

“We’ve told the two of you to stop with this nonsense,” Mrs Weasley scolded.

“I didn't tell her,” Hermione protested at the boy’s look of dismay directed her way.

“Their antics tend to proceed them,” Aerie offered as Mrs Weasly began pulling things from their pockets, the lining of their jackets, and just about anywhere else they might hide things.

“Mrs Weasley, they can keep the fake wands, in fact I think we should all have one when we go to the World Cup. To thwart wand thieves. I hear that’s an issue at big events like that. I’m just concerned they’ll ‘test’ something dangerous on someone I care about and the Ton-Tongue Toffee is especially dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Fred scoffed indignantly.

“By enlarging a person’s tongue you risk shutting off their airway which could result in brain damage or death... and the two of you spend the rest of your life in Azkaban.” Aerie scolded.

“Hadn’t thought about that,” Fred admitted.

“I guess we hadn’t thought about how it might be dangerous,” George admitted as he reluctantly surrendered toffees.

“That’s got it,” Mr Harriman announced.

“I’ll just dispose of the contraband for you,” Mr Beaumont added, he picked up an old coal bucket that was by the hearth and loaded it with the confiscated candies.

Aerie looked at the hearth and brought up a small screen of blue fire which she peered through, appeared to make some adjustments followed by green flames erupting in the hearth her audience looking on with a mix of emotions.

“That’s got it. Now… Ron?” Aerie prompted. “The address I gave you was?”

“The old vault.”

“The old vault.” And with that, she stepped into the hearth and vanished.

“She didn’t use any floo powder?!” Mrs Weasley said in surprise and alarm.

“Mrs Silverwood can do that too,” Mr Beaumont informed her. An odd look fell over his face as a rather curious thought struck his mind but he decided to keep it to himself for the time being.

“Ed, something on your mind?” Mr Weasly asked after his family had all gone through.

“I was just wondering if the Potter family had been more complicated than we realized?”

“Just how complicated?”

“Aerie is Mrs Silverwood’s daughter complicated.”

“That… that is not something I wish to contemplate. And how exactly? You're not suggesting Mrs Silverwood used some kind of gender-swapping potion? And what about that Luna Moon woman? Granted that while she is rather young to be Lily, there is definitely a strong family resemblance among the lot.”

“Do gender-swapping potions even exist? No, I’m thinking Potter had two wives but kept it on the down low. Well, thanks to everything going on with ‘You Know Who’ they’d kept their whole life on the down-low. As for Luna Moon, yes, she is too young, but she is definitely related. Aerie probably started calling her ‘Mom’ as a joke.”

“Lily was closely related to Mrs Silverwood in some way. Thinking back I suppose Mrs Silverwood was just keeping an eye on Lily given how sudden that marriage was... Aye, Mrs Silverwood had it in for anyone who supported You Know Who, she did. Especially after they went after the Potters,” Mr Harriman confirmed. “Between her and the Nightmare, a lot of his supporters never made it to Azkaban.”

“More than good friends, possibly kin in some fashion... Probably best to keep such speculation to ourselves. Not to mention it flies in the face of the news that Snape is Aerie's father. Just what in Blazes was going on anyway? No sir, I'm not going to speculate because trying to figure it all out might drive me to madness. Good day.” And with that, Mr Weasley stepped into the hearth and within a few moments found himself in an old storage room lit by a single light bulb.

“Is that an eclectic light bub?” Mr Weasley asked as his hand reached out for it.

“Don’t touch it,” Aerie scolded. “And no. Turns out it’s a warding crystal transfigured to look like a light bulb. The funny thing is, no one could remember ever replacing it. The switch activates the charm resulting in anything nasty fleeing the moment the light is turned on. Brilliant, whoever set it up. Now that we have everyone, if you’ll follow me…” Aerie went to the exit and opened the door.

“Where’s the other door go,” Fred asked.

“Into the access tunnels under the street, I’d imagine. Muggle service tunnels. Likely all manner of cables and pipes running along a long shaft the length of the street. No one has opened that door since the war with Germany. How about we save that for another time?”

“There was a war with Germany?” Mr Weasley asked as they filed out. Hermione was good enough to educate him.

“So, why is the floo in a storage vault outside the house?” Ron asked as they made their way up the steps.

“Afraid I don’t know,” Aerie offered. “Our best guess is to prevent access to the house by uninvited guests. You know, like that time I popped in when I hadn’t meant to. What’s to stop someone who’s not exactly on good terms from popping in?”

“I will admit that’s been a concern of mine,” Mrs Weasley admitted.

“The old vault also doubled as a shelter during the big Muggle war. Given that they still had viable floo powder in there when I arrived I imagine the inhabitants of the house were still using it. Bombing gets too close just pop off to some other location.”

“I read that some wizards would sit on top of their houses redirecting bombs,” Hermione stated as Aerie opened the door.

“Given the moral dilemma along with the possibility of missing the one that hits the house, I’d say it’s better to just get everyone to safety.” As Aerie stepped through she shouted out, “They’re here!”

Brightstar Mustang was the first to greet them. “So you’re the ones who plan to kidnap our Aerie.”

“Kidnap?” Mollie Weasley sputtered out.

“Brightstar, please, it’s just a miscommunication.”

“We have tickets to the Quidditch World Cup, and Aerie is invited,” Mr Weasley informed her.

“So I gather. We also have tickets.”

“You have tickets?” Mrs Weasley asked sounding just a little confused.

“To the Quidditch World Cup. We are going by airship shortly after we finish tea. And Aerie, I loaded your trunk.”

“It’s a tug of war with me in the middle is it?”

“Airship?” Mr Weasley asked, his interest peaked.

“A ship that flies through the air. It’s above the house, but you can’t see it because it’s cloaked. Thestral hair is weaved into the outer skin. Apply just the right frequency of thaumaturgical energy and the whole thing vanishes.”

“Can I see it?”

“Actually, no. After all, that is the point of an invisibility cloak, is it not?”

“Ah, that’s… so I can’t see it then?”

“No, sorry, it’s invisible.”

“I can’t see it because it’s invisible.”

“Precisely.”

“Tea is served, if everyone could please come in,” Flora called as she exited the kitchen. Nor did it take her long to herd the Weasleys into the dining room where Basil, Justin, Captain Hardrock, Aurora, Louise, Luna, and Mrs Summers waited. Sweetie was in Canterlot at the moment getting special tutoring from Princess Celestia, and Apple Bloom was home on the farm.

“You have a lovely dining room,” Mrs Weasley offered as she was directed to a chair. The table was set every bit as fancy as the head table at Hogwarts with the fine china out and even gave the impression that the occupants were a little more than just middle class. In the center of the table there was a dozen three tiered serving trays loaded with little sandwiches, cakes, and sweet breads. There was an equal number of small teapots and the most amazing sight of all was Kreacher standing in the middle of the table dressed like a butler. So befuddled were the Weasleys that they were presently on their best behavior.

Kreacher secretly delighted at the gobsmacked looks the Weasleys gave him as he saw to everyone's needs. No, the outfit had not been given to him. It had been made clear that he was to return it unsoiled when the tea party was over. That said, Kreacher was beginning to delight at his mistress's sense of humor even if he couldn't begin to understand why she insisted on having a dormouse in a sugar bowl who quoted “keep your head” if poked, or why Basil was wearing a top hat with a tag in the hat band that said ‘in this style 10 and three quarters’.

Hermione would be the only guest who’d get the joke once she figured out what was going on.

“I must confess I may have been under some misconceptions,” Mr Weasley offered. For a brief moment, he’d sworn he’d seen a large purple tabby cat on the mantle with a most inscrutable smile. Moonie playing her part.

“No more hauling me off whether I want to or not, is it?” Aerie asked kindly enough.

“Well, no. Not as we are both heading to the World Cup tonight. Which leaves me with an extra ticket.”

“Perhaps Mrs Weasley would like to use it?” Aerie asked, Molly was about to protest but failed when she realized that Aerie had guessed that they’d intended to give Aerie her ticket in the first place.

“How were you going to get there?” Flora asked. “I ask because Aerie has had enough of people deciding for her following the last Dumbledore debacle.”

“By way of port key, I imagine,” Aerie suggested, knowing full well they’d be using a port key in the middle of the night to arrive at the crack of dawn.

“Trust me, Aerie does not get along with port keys,” Brightstar Mustang offered considering her reaction to the things. There had also been an incident that very summer during a planned outing. “It’ll be much safer this way.”

“Safer?” Molly asked.

“She’s fully capable of overriding a port key in mid-transit,” Flora explained. “The port key was supposed to take us to the beach, she panicked, and we ended up in downtown London.”

“Dressed for the beach too,” Basil added. An announcement that caused the two sons of chaos to bust up laughing.

“It’s not funny,” Aerie muttered.

“Not to worry dear, we all have things that frighten us,” Mrs Weasly offered reassuringly.

“Just, how exactly does that work?” Percy asked.

“I can see the stream of the apparition,” Aerie explained. “If it doesn’t look right to me I’m able to take control of it and redirect it to a known location. Some place familiar.”

“Even so, to be doing any form of apparition without a license…”

“Akkadian Teleportation magic is administrated by the Akkadian government, not the Ministry of Magic,” Mr Weasly cut in. “It’s different. Oddly enough, only those with Akkadian lineage are capable of doing it.”

“It’s white magic, related to Unicorn magic. Most witches and wizards use a gray magic that is connected to the earth. Say, I’ve an idea,” Brightstar offered as she was explaining. “How about Ron and Hermione join us, and then they can join you tomorrow?”

“What? Ride in an Airship?” Ron asked his delight at the idea showing on his face.

“Can I go too?” Ginny asked.

“I suppose, if it’s all right by your mother,” Brightstar offered.

“Can we go?” The twins asked to be answered by a chorus of no from several people.

“See, this is what becomes of not behaving yourselves,” Molly scolded.

“Given their History, I fear they’d pull a prank that could get us all killed,” Captain Hardrock offered. “An airship is not a place for misbehaving of any sort. Perhaps in time, when they have proven themselves trustworthy they may have the opportunity, but not now. It might be Brightstar’s yacht, but I’m the one with the greatest responsibility, and I’m saying no on this trip.”

“I’d say that’s that then,” Brightstar replied. “What about Miss Ginny? They’d stay the night on the ship and meet up with you in the morning.”

“Please Mom, can I?”

“Well… oh, alright.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Ginny repeated and rushed to hug her mom.

“They’ll need their school trunks,” Luna prompted.

“School trunks?” Hermione asked.

“Depending on how long the game runs we might have to go straight to Hogwarts,” Mr Weasly supplied, glad he’d something to contribute.

Author's Note

Yes, I managed to cobble together a chapter. Right now this is all I've got. Maybe I'll just post as chapters are ready, it's just that I hate to do that just in case I need to go back and change something. No promises.

For a while there life was just getting way too hectic. Not only did I lose a cat of nearly eighteen years, the car I'd been driving for twenty five years finally had to go. Well, technically it didn't have to go, it was only a radiator hose, but it was a 28 year old car. When I drove into the dealership they took one look at me and announced it'd be a month before they could even look at it. Me and my ratty T-shirt and frayed blue genes. The T-shirt was an exclusive direct from the artist and the pants were designer flared pants that came that way. And when someone is driving a twenty eight year old car it's not because they can't afford another one! In my case I'm like borderline on the spectrum. I didn't want a new car because I didn't want change.

Knowing that it was going to be difficult just getting a new hose I quickly worked out the logistics, over a month in a rental car... and I asked to see a new car. Just show me a new car I said. They were like... excuse me???
OK, I wasn't exactly hurting for money, which is why I'm so bad at posting my Ko-Fi, and I'd recently gotten a settlement from the VA.

I bought an Audi Q5. I loved that thing. For the first time in my life I had a luxury car. Unfortunately she had a drinking problem. Sucking oil and jettisoning it out the exhaust. While this was going on I was in the middle of getting my entries out to the local fair. And if not for my driving back and forth to the fairgrounds I might not have realized there was a problem.

Would you believe the blasted thing has no dip stick? There's no way for the owner of the vehicle to physically check the oil level! After two weeks of this shit I took it back to the dealership. Oh, they were so accommodating. We'll just get you into another vehicle. And they were like, but we can only give you $X amount for a trade in. And then I'm like, either fix the vehicle you sold me, or we do a straight trade, dollar for dollar. Pretty sure if push came to shove they'd be forced to fix the Q5. It probably needed new pistons and everything related, as in a whole new rebuilt engine. They reluctantly agreed to do the trade. Pretty sure they just pwned off the Q5 on some other unsuspecting person.

Don't buy older Audis. The irony is that if I hadn't been back and forth to the fair, and then my kitty got sick, I might never have noticed the problem until it was way too late.
Loosing my kitty was horrible on multiple fronts. Not only was I minus the kitty who'd been there for me for the past eighteen years not having him there was a huge disruption in my life. I actually found myself lamenting not having to clean the litter box.

Anyway, I have a Chevy now, a little grey cat, and I got blue ribbons on all my entries.
My Fair entries on Ko-fi
My entries actually gained me a whopping $45.80. Woo hoo!