Now that Goran had moved to the island, his old stone house had been fully converted into the Magical Research Project room.

Waiting for Harry to get back however was distracting everyone.

Luna, Astoria, and Ginny (Team LAG) were looking over the notes Hermione had made from last years research, and quickly finding out that they could barely cast any of the spells once or twice, much less the dozen or so times that the rest of the group did almost subconsciously while explaining the material.

Finding out that a boy had molded their souls, making everyone massively powerful (And part of some sort of harem?) had been a bit of a conversation starter.

Daphne was less than happy about how eager Astoria was to 'join in', so to speak, and was trying to keep herself busy looking over materials from the Island on her bangle. Crime had spiked a bit when Harry left for school (The ISF told her it was expected), but the legal system that had been slapped together was handling the load so far without issue. The worst case was an attempted murder, but since the island itself watched for trouble elves had separated the two before anything could happen. Both men would be fined of course for letting things escalate that far.

Hermione had quickly moved to working with Neville, Susan, and Hannah. Well, mostly the girls, but Susan had dragged Neville over so the four were designing how the new text books would work. The runic team had started accepting Hermione's schematic's after the fourth of fifth time Harry had passed along her template to them, though they kept her stuff low priority unless the King was involved.

Tracey and Padma were both whispering.

Padma sighed. "She won't even talk to me now. Something about how I shouldn't hang out with snakes and all that garbage."

Tracey gave a short squeeze. "Look, I don't know a lot about being a twin, but from watching Daphne I know that sisters were made to be annoying and unreasonable. I'm sure Parvati will come around soon enough."

The Indian girl humphed. "It's her loss if she doesn't want to come join our club. Hermione and the others didn't mind when I asked, and we already have a couple of Gryffindors already! I don't understand her sometimes."

The Slytherin sighed. "The hatred between the snakes and lions is epic at this point. That Ginny and Astoria hang out together already started a couple of rumors I had to keep watch over."

Padma looked concerned. "Do you think there is any risk?"

Tracey chuckled. "Not for the trio, Harry's keeping an eye on all of us at this point. First person to cast a spell against her will likely be buried where they stand."

Their giggles went unheard as Hermione wiped her stressed brow. "Alright, as Harry has a habit of doing impossible things we will just assume that he gets everything he asks for tonight rather than being put on a waiting list."

Neville nodded. "He got that dangerous creature license back BEFORE he became royalty, and he has enough coin to make any official wander away. So I assume we will need seven books per subject?"

Hermione shook her head. "Only for the core classes, several start at third year."

Susan hummed. "I've seen training booklets for Aurors before, I think we should copy how they do it. Nothing but the bare basics, but with references if more is needed."

Hermione nodded, pulling some paper closer to check her notes. "I've helped Luna and Windy when they were making those pamphlets released earlier, parts of the information are condensed until you spend a certain amount of time reading them, then they expand."

Hannah frowned. "Wouldn't people skip sections thinking there wasn't much there?"

Her response was lost when Daphne stood up in shock, the room focusing on her as she began speaking to Glen on her bangle. "He did WHAT? He was only gone like an hour or two! How could he make the front page of the Quibbler and the Prophet?!"

The room got quiet as they turned to the hologram. Glen chuckled. "Well... he bumped into Carmilla just outside Ministry and somehow bound her and her clan to himself and his island. There was something else about her being saved... or kidnapped..." Her expression faltered. "I'm not sure at this point, really. Windy won't answer any questions after she dragging the woman away."

Daphne's astonishment broke. "Carmilla? Who's Carmilla?"

Glen sent a second hologram. "His social secretary."

Everyone gaped at the vision of raw sensual lust, a three dimensional illusion of sexiness as a dark clothed woman gently sat on a gravestone under the full moon.

Daphne turned toward an amused Veela. "Is he trying to build a Harem? I mean really, he only needs a Siren or Dryad to corner the market."

Glen sighed. "I wish... uh." She coughed, blushing. "As far as I can tell, he hasn't been searching anyone out, these things just... happen. Though he has a body built from muscles, unlimited money and power, and is a very nice person in general."

Hermione raised a hand. "Umm... how common is the whole Harem thing?"

Glen shrugged. "More common than a 12 year old being over six foot tall and becoming a god king. I'll be honest, none of us really know the rules in this case."

Padma shrugged. "I've talked about it with him, and he is deliberately avoiding anything beyond light kissing, hugs, and holding hands until we are all older. Having his soul be so unstable has made it difficult for him to connect with people."

Seeing the stares she blushed. "Well we don't just hug puppies when he visits my mind. We're friends."

Neville sighed, turning toward the holographic woman. "Aside from shocking the nation and making even more women swoon, did he actually get the material for new books?"

Glen focused one of the few males in the room, her face grimacing. "Unfortunately, yes. Apparently the Ministry is as corrupt educationally as it is in general. All unwritten bonus questions and spells, and uncorrupted details on the actual material rather than the trash they throw at non-purebloods."

Hermione's face fell. "How... how bad was it?"

The Veela sighed. "If you studied all school material without the additional items and corrections, you could just manage an Outstanding if you made no mistakes. With all the additional materials, you would have to actually work a bit to get lower than an Acceptable. Basically, those in the know would score better than the rest by almost two grades with equal abilities."

Everyone frowned at that.

Daphne sniffed. "Well this clearly is something passed down closer to O.W.L. testing, or Malfoy and the rest would have bragged about it in the common room." Seeing the expressions she waved them away. "Talking in the Slytherin common room is about as sneaky and subtle as the boy gets."

Glen turned back toward Hermione. "Harry has filled me in on the plan in general, and I have tasked the construction crew to study Luna's publishing machine and set up a more general version for your upcoming project. We were going to just create a rune machine to conjure temporary copies, but Harry wants actual book production on a much larger scale and is using this as an excuse."

Daphne sighed as Glen transferred her call to Hermione's Bangle, their group with Neville, Susan, and Hannah quickly dropping into very nitty-gritty details. How was she supposed to ignore the quality of education here at Hogwarts if her distractions keep becoming busy?

~~~Core Threads~~~

Harry flexed his fingers, several tools floating near his hand from his shop walls as he absently kept an eye on the mirrors Windy had set up back before kidnapping his assistant. The new super sexy one, not the other magically sexy one.

Focusing would be tough soon, based on how his Aspect of Sexuality was getting distracted.

Glancing back at his work bench, he gently adjusted the floating clamp a bit to move the wood slightly, exposing more of the surface.

There were things he should be doing right now. A number of them, really, that he was trying to mostly ignore at the moment so he wouldn't just sweep in and try to do it all alone.

Wisdom was actively avoiding the book project, focusing on enhancing the process of decoding mind copies used by his Tree of Knowledge. Jim (After he had finished complaining that Harry had dragged him out of his mind for no reason earlier) was back to documenting worlds and realities farther and farther from Harry's home.

Windy was... very thoroughly distracted. Nothing sexual, surprisingly, but she had basically dragged Carmilla to Glen and the three were having drinks at a bar on his Island. Watcher was making sure nothing went wrong, but the three were just having a good time for now.

As it was the first time in weeks that Windy was all in one place... mostly... well, he just let her relax a bit.

So while Watcher watched everyone, Harry was only focusing on a few. One on Snape, to ensure he was properly being handled by his new restrictions. One on Lockhart, making sure the man couldn't take advantage of his position for anything inappropriate. Based on the classes so far, he was more dangerous trying to help you than if he attempted an attack spell.

The other mirror was showing something more... strange. Water, structures, strange machines, and more than anything a dream that fell apart when faced by reality. And possibly a part of his future.

Call it fate, call it destiny, but whatever it was had the Countess declare her allegiance at the exact moment that he had finally crafted his 1,647,086th core. Right when the second 7^7th sphere was built.

Just as he completed his second Soul Cluster.

It had bond her people to his Island as expected, perhaps on a level deeper than planned for. But her darkness, her source of power, her cleansing... she wasn't an Aspect of his, but she was dangerously close to being his Familiar at this point.

The magic wasn't the same exactly, but her near-infinite life was likely bound to his existence at this point. It was almost like a prophet to deity relationship, now that he thought about it.

Blinking, he shook his head at the odd thought and carefully ran his palms over the rough wood in front of him, the sharp and small tool in his right hand moving close but not touching the surface.

Wrath had answers, and annoyingly enough they caused more questions.

A sigh rumbled in his chest, as he felt a soft pull, almost his imagination. The sharp metal blade in his right hand was covered in runes to keep an edge, to avoid cutting flesh, to stay clean and resist catching material. Even with the raw power of a dozen souls connected to it the tool could only make the smallest of carvings from the wood before him.

Harry's green eyes glowed as he gently touched the surface, verifying that the cut was not too deep or too harsh.

This wood was almost as metaphysical as it was solid, and was normally carved through the years of use by its master.

The Wand of Destiny, the Branch of Decay, the Death Stick.

Absorbed by his souls so long ago, reforged by his determination, his will, his love and goals. A raw material massive in size due to his potential, carefully refined by his own hand using his soul as a scalpel and his will alone the sculptor.

Wrath claimed that this carving, this refinement, normally occurred naturally over centuries of trials and failures. That it was originally a staff when he gave it to the fool, Antioch Peverell.

That decades of deadly magical battle had refined that staff into the thin and deadly wand, the Death Stick that Dumbledore had guarded. So soaked in death and rage that simply being near it could cause a horrifying rampage.

His thumb gently touched the reduced block of wood, now almost eight feet tall. Somehow, he could feel that in the end it would be less than that... but more than seven certainly. Likely something silly like 7.777777 feet or something.

The wood was... strange. Like foam, unweighted by future actions or past deeds. Once crafted, it would slowly reflect some inner part of himself, showing the growth and decay he suffered through. Bound to something essentially Harry James Potter itself, some part of him beyond soul and magic.

He risked a quick glance at the mirrors to verify that the fool was still doing... some sort of play? Well, it wasn't dangerous at least. Snape was being very stereotypical as he stirred a cauldron in near darkness.

His hand firmly gripped the near weightless yet unspeakably strong wood, his right carving a graceful dome at the top. This would be the hilt, the grip that would rest in his hands, that his worn fingers would grasp in times of trial. No leather wraps, no glorious metals or rare gems, each sliver of carved wood decayed into dust, flowing particles sinking into the mass of wood itself as he carved.

The massive wooden obelisk was somehow more real now that it had been drastically reduced, each carve of his tool allowing that power to refine, to reinforce the art that was slowly being born. If he were to carve this mass down to a splinter, the power that he could refine into that thin sliver of wood could destroy nearly any foe, rip reality itself apart. An unbeatable wand indeed.

Harry didn't need a wand, he needed a more physical weapon.

Wrath explained that there had been many paths he could have taken back when he was dying. That his decision to create a large number of stable 'normal' souls instead of crafting a more godlike structure had granted him options most more powerful creatures were unable to take advantage of.

He had been sent to Rose's world, a world nearly devoid of magic but still connected to his reality cluster, close to his home region. Sent to heal.

Even then, his souls had nearly collapsed. Had he attempted to rebuild his magical system in any other nearby reality, the local magical pressure would have likely set him off like a bomb.

Crafting the second Soul Cluster so soon had caused his system a bit of a shock, but the newly designed body, his stable separation of mind and soul, all his changes had been just enough to handle the situation.

Stepping back, he gazed at the wood. So black that it seemed to be a hole in space, each sharp edge carved exposed a grain as white as bone. Green veins like mold or blood vessels pulsed along the surface, but never seemed to care as his sharp tool made tiny cuts.

Now that his soul structure was stable, Wrath had offered some options for how to handle the pulse of power when the third Soul Cluster was completed, though 2,470,629 cores seemed so far away right now.

As it was, the idea that he already had over 1.5 million souls refining and generating MORE magic made him feel a bit dizzy. It was already silly levels of power, he had no spells that could use that much or any system in place that could use them all yet.

If he stood still and let a thousand Voldemort clones cast Avada Kedavra at him every 10 seconds, it would still take like four and a half hours or so to die. He could just... walk away. And be fine.

With a sigh, he gently touched the slightly warm wood, feeling something inside him whisper another slice into the nearly untouchable surface. If it wasn't a blade that had been soaked in his blood and powered by his soul, it likely would be impossible to nick the grain.

A slightly larger chunk of wood escaped due to his actions, exposing a wood eye socket of bone white lumber, solid black wood creating the illusion of a void within.

Barely feeling his fingers twitch, the sharpest corner of his blade exposed a tiny green vein in the center of the black wood.

The skull hilt would have no jaw, but it was going to take time to free each vertebrae.

Even as the mass stood between his hands, somehow he could feel the sculpture waiting to be carved free.

And why not? It was a part of himself, a representation of his perfect weapon.

Harry frowned. Did he even know anyone who could teach him to use this thing?

Crud.

With a sigh he continued to carve, slice by slice. He needed this done before his next 'Trial', as Wrath had informed him.

Harry could have visited a realm that would enhance his ability to multi-task to unheard of levels, or one where he could enhance his soul crafting abilities by studying a society run by souls alone.

But when he heard that he could refine his reality navigation, it seemed more important for now.

There were draw backs. The other realities had powers and abilities so varied and astounding that magic would fit right in... this one would not. He would stand out a lot if he just started slinging power around.

Secondly, this cluster had at least one, if not three or more guardians. A reality guardian was a being that had ascended enough to comprehend the beyond of their own universe, simply existing added many layers of protection against intrusion or manipulation by others.

Could he kick their butts? Probably. Wrath had informed him that separating one's power, soul, and thought process was something almost unheard of.

But to gain his advancements, he needed to kidnap one of those guardians in such a way that the other two (or more) would not notice anything off.

Harry chipped another flake of wood away from the bone white skull gazing absently. Wrath of course existed anywhere that death did, and had a plan.

If he could avoid screwing it up.

Unlike many other realities, this cluster was very interconnected. Beings traveled throughout it without care. It was also one that had 'Time Travel', which Wrath hated.

Time Travel worked in only one way: Forward. Even 'Stopping' time just slowed it to an imperceptible speed, but it was still progressing.

If this reality cluster was a bush, it would have so many stems that it would look like an infinite forest. Every time someone 'went back in time' they were switching to another near-duplicate stem that grew at a different rate while another temporal version of that person from an unrelated near-duplicate stem popped in at the expected time in the 'past'.

Should Harry just pop in with unlimited magic, his power would enforce his personal rules and warp that one stem... causing all the many bouncing 'time travelers' to freak out, possibly explode or show up in unexpected realms and...

Well it would mess stuff up.

He felt the wood. Each sliver carved caused harsh heat, as the surface fought each change individually.

Wrath had laid out the rules, and they were simple enough. Each Aspect could grant one boon, and he could modify himself at least internally (Healing, regeneration, low levels of body modification), but beyond that could cause the entire house of cards to fall, catch on fire, explode, and then start doing a waltz while drunk.

What external magic he could get away with had to be done with skin contact only, and had to be pure will and power only. No structured spells or runes could be used without dragging the entire magical system into a world without one.

Death's boon of course had been direct access to the Death Stick, to carve a weapon to protect himself and others in a world with only guns. Harry frowned as he made another chip... it was SUPPOSED to be only guns, but Wrath had chuckled when saying that.

Wisdom was constructing an mental interrogation contact spell, one so efficient and low powered that he could use it every hour or so without anyone on higher levels of existence noticing. That should allow him to learn the local language quickly, automatically translating it into the English he was used to.

Watcher had already set up an interface using illusions so Harry could keep track of the world, warning him of multiple enemies, the direction attacks were coming from, even attempting to analyze other's body expression and other visual cues to determine intentions.

It wasn't fool proof of course, but at least it was all internal so he could actually use it.

Windy had found both of their projects interesting enough that she did something similar, but in her line of expertise. Her 'subroutine' as she called it would allow him to scan unknown technology, hopefully find flaws for him to gain control over it, and over time develop a near instant and subconscious understanding of the technical world around him.

Jim had basically flipped him the bird. The wing?

He was not happy that Harry had dragged him away from that project.

Feeling something like a scream, he jerked his hand back from the wooden surface. That... that had almost been a mis-cut.

With a will and a much stronger focus, he went back to shaving the smallest of scratches into his future weapon. He wouldn't risk visiting a realm almost guaranteed to be hostile without magic until he could defend himself.

Thankfully the number of projects currently being done on his Island, Soul World, and Hogwarts were power-taxing enough to slow his rapid magical growth somewhat, and crafting his soul weapon was burning through raw energy as well.

As it was, each shave of this substance took enough magic to kill a dozen wizards.

He would probably make it to summer before the trip.

Glancing back at Lockhart's class, he flinched seeing the newspaper on a student's desk, his muscular form displayed holding one of the most attractive vampires he had ever met. The girls surrounding the document were clearly ignoring their professor and giggling.

Maybe he could leave sooner?

~~~Core Threads~~~

Harry had returned to the castle from his workshop reluctantly, his new weapon having heated the area so much that it was close to causing damage. He had tried to ignore it, but the amount of magic required to work on the thing was silly enough without burning one's hands while crafting.

He had returned to Hogwarts and stopped by the Headmaster's office, informing the man of his actions and his plan for the new literature. Professor Dumbledore had offered him a honey glazed ham and sent him away, just in time to bump into his 'dear' Professor Lockhart. Sadly the gooey ham missed the man when Harry dropped it.

It was like stumbling into a fog, as the man talked at rapid speed and flashed his teeth in absent minded grins. Nothing of value was said, but the fool (Probably a fool, or an amazing actor) proceeded to offer his services as a famous celebrity.

The posturing professor took a minute or two to even notice when his victim faded away to Merp Headquarters.

Harry's grin at escaping the silly man froze when everyone looked at him with one of THOSE looks. "Uh... I'm back?"

Daphne stalked over, crossing her arms as her foot tapped. "Harry, we had a rough idea of what happened hours ago after talking with Glen. We had the files from the ministry just after that." She flicked her wand, the time glowing near her hand. "It's been hours since then."

Harry sighed as he patted her shoulder and moved to one of the larger couches he favored. "I know, and I'm sorry. The whole thing with the newspapers caught me off guard. I needed some 'me' time."

Neville was still with the group messing with the book information, but as the least interested in the project he moved over to Harry's side of the room. "Why now, Harry? You've been in the paper for months before this."

Padma slid to his side and he absently wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Well before it was mostly amazement or whatever in the stories... but this is the first article since I made my new body. If you think the newspapers went nuts, there are adult wizarding magazines that have lost their minds completely."

Daphne blinked before grinning. "Gossip then?"

Harry grumbled. "Apparently there is a large section of the female population that would do ANYTHING for or to me, and were more than happy to write massive articles within moments of my picture getting out."

All the women in the room nodded, then broke up into giggles when Harry groaned.

Susan chuckled. "Harry, you've been on the 'most eligible potential bachelor' lists since the day after you defeated the Dark Lord. Showing up in public like a sex god just accelerated the time table before stuff like this would happen, it didn't start anything new."

Slumping in his chair, Harry absently took a look at the kingdom evening reports while floating a glass of apple juice. "Well if it doesn't die down soon, I'm changing bodies. It is a bit annoying to be this large anyway, the world wasn't made for people this big. I may use it for battle or something, but I've been told I would theoretically hit eight feet or more in my prime, and that's just silly."

Daphne sat near, blinking. "So what? You would go back to how you looked before?"

He frowned. "No, that body was surprisingly unstable. Wisdom has a secondary, mostly normal form I can use that is enhanced but not so massive. Weighs about half as much too, although it drops my physical abilities down a few notches."

His eye rapidly processed the reports. The building crews were busy of course, even if they could do most of the things Harry did they had to do things the slow 'use tools' and 'carve things' way rather than just willing the world to change. "Basically I would shrink a bit, a bit over five feet or so. And my muscles will be compressed using a trick Wisdom picked up from scanning some magical creatures, so I won't have these massive things anymore."

Padma blinked, reaching out and pulling up his sleeve. The massive cords of muscles flexed slightly. "Aww... why? They look great!"

Harry chuckled, shifting pages. Oh, they finally found a bee replacement for the flowering trees and bushes in public areas, a magical butterfly construct called a 'FlutterBee' that would capture pollen and glow like fireflies. Having elves manually pollinate the crops had been annoying, and bees were so temperamental to farm that they had to have separate hives for each type of honey to prevent shortages.

As it was several hives died off from various issues until the setup was fixed, and they had much lower time acceleration than other creatures. Still, better to have magical construct than to 'release the bees!' as Luna had suggested.

Looking over with a grin as Padma kept poking his arm, he nudged her. "I would have made the change earlier once I realized that some of my muscles were so large I couldn't reach in certain directions cause they got in the way. Hitting my head on stuff isn't fun either you know."

Daphne quietly accepted the reports he had just finished reading and began reading them herself. Susan put aside some notes her team were working on and grinned. "So can you show us what your other body would look like?"

Absently waving a hand, he checked the restaurant reports. The original 'Free Food' area near the Glass Spire now had much less variety and was being used to train the chefs and test new dishes for the Island Cooks, several having opened new restaurants and snack shops on Island Third as it rapidly began the transformation into a tourist trap/relaxation area.

There was some grumbling of course, but the only reason Harry was still allowed to offer free food after the deal with the Goblin Nation was thanks to the Spire Kitchens being considered a 'laboratory' and 'training facility' rather than a food service area.

Anyway, the newly produced runic machines being deployed were able to quickly produce finished dishes for sale that were the finest examples crafted by the chefs, at least the meals not reserved for the various restaurants. The listed options were growing daily, and auto-producing exact copies freed the chefs from repetition and allowed new dishes to be created.

Why was it so quiet?

Looking up, Harry checked the illusion of his 'version 3' body. Fairly tall, tight muscles, night black hair, near-glowing green eyes, dark blue scar on his forehead... and clothed this time. Looking around he realized the girls were... overly distracted. Was that drool?

Neville looked normal at least, if not a bit confused why the girls were all slack-jawed. Where was Terry anyway? Oh, watching Quidditch practices, thank you Watcher.

Giving a light cough, Harry grinned. "Well? Any changes I should make?"

Tracey had a vicious grin. "Maybe some male enhancement?"

He shook his head. "Wisdom already had to reduce my size a bit, said something about safety."

Harry blinked as several girls blushed VERY badly. Why were they embarrassed about how tall he was?

~~~Core Threads~~~

After an absolutely wonderful conversation with a laughing Windy, Carmilla, and Glen, Harry was both able to understand the situation and determine that he could never look the girls in the eyes again. At least his advanced soul vision allowed him to modify Luna, Astoria, and Ginny's core without blocking their wand access... binding their wands with his current emotional setup would just be begging for embarrassment.

In other news, Windy let him know his body was running towards puberty with all cylinders. Great.

Wisdom wouldn't let him change his current huge body to prevent it ('You have to deal with this sometime') nor would she let him change to the new body she was still working on ('Your new body is past the puberty stage anyway, so it wouldn't help'). Not to mention she was still working on the design, trying to stay almost 100% human to create a new 'base' Harry Potter for future experiments while still being as advanced as possible.

Thus Harry was enjoying the teasing of Susan and Tracey (Because of COURSE Windy would share his situation with the girls) while Daphne and Padma gave silent support sitting next to him at dinner.

He took another bite of roast beef, chewing slowly with a small grin. At least THIS change was applauded (literally) by the whole school, as the exact same recipes already used by the elves was improved by orders of magnitude after being supplied with fresh high quality ingredients.

As a result the evening meal was louder than average, with people forcing friends to try various dishes to show how much better everything was. Glen said that even with the markup, the new contract with the school had drastically decreased costs, even after Professor McGonagall had elected for the higher tier food offerings rather than take the standard order with a discount.

Both orders of food were great quality of course, but the 'normal' shipments had to go through magical filtering systems to prevent non-magical people from eating highly magic saturated food.

It wouldn't hurt them if they got the good stuff, but people would ask questions about why their fruits and vegetables didn't rot.

For magicals though, the high tier food not only enhanced flavor and lasted longer, but could help them recover from magical exhaustion. Scientists on the Island even theorized that it could increase the amount of magic expressed in family lines should they eat enough of it over time, even if the change would likely be minor.

It would be interesting to see how many new-bloods were born on Drake Island after a generation or two of eating highly magical food and living in basically an ocean of raw power.

Harry generally ignored the teasing and random conversations around him, adding some garlic roasted potatoes to his plate. Dropping this huge body would be great, it took way too much food to keep it going. At least the dishes tasted good.

Hermione was showing a prototype that 'Island Publishing' had bangle-mailed (B-Mailed?) her to Susan, the two using some runic tools his people had designed to check of issues. Terry was ignoring most of them talking about how the 'new' brooms Harry had provided first year had really put Slytherin at a disadvantage (Their large size and high quality equipment was a large factor in their multi-year winning streak.)

His attention was pulled by Daphne. "Yes?"

She rolled her eyes. "I said, 'when is the team getting here to check the wards'? Harry, you've been very distracted recently."

His grin made her smile. "Sorry Daphne, it's a side effect of the new body and my current situation." Adding some really juicy chicken with some sort of white sauce on it, he took a few large bites and continued. "While my brain can process faster and multi-task better, Wisdom said she messed it up a bit and it makes me a bit more introspective than before. She's working to fix it."

Waving a fork a bit he twitched his other hand, pulling the creamed corn closer. "My situation however is that I have certain power levels that I will hit as I grow as a magic user. The last one happened right when I tried to bind the Countess to my Island... and it basically converted her into a familiar, or my priestess or something."

That pulled Padma and Hannah into the conversation as the others got quieter. Padma leaned on him a bit. "What does that mean for you?"

Harry absently conjured a basic napkin, cleaning his hands. "Aside from a power boost that is basically useless to me, it bound her to my existence I think. Over time she might be able to use a portion of my power as her own... or maybe I will start gaining Vamperic abilities. Or nothing. Not sure, and Wisdom and Wrath don't have examples of this sort of thing happening before."

Hannah blinked. "But you are okay, right?"

He shrugged. "The second tier boost caused more problems for Carmilla than me really. I mean, I don't have any abilities or spells that can use more than a few dozen magical cores or souls, so gaining over a million and a half to use doesn't really change anything for me. I mean, it is a larger number sure, but functionally it is ignorable."

Thankfully he missed their shock and sighed. "No, when I make my third soul cluster and hit two and a half million, Wrath said I had to make a trip to make sure it won't cause problems."

Daphne was better at recovering from absurd statements, having spent a good portion of her summer as a high level member of his court. "A trip? Like when you went to Rose's world? For how long?"

He nodded. "Yeah, like Rose's, but farther away from this reality. The downside is that the length of time will be objective based. Could range from a few minutes to years, though thankfully age doesn't mean much to me. The upside is that the reality is so far away, it won't match up with this one."

Susan blinked. "So... what, you could be gone for like years?"

Harry shrugged. "For me, yes. For you guys, no. It is too far away to interact with our world naturally, so time literally isn't a factor. I could stay there for a thousand years and be back the same day I left, since they are so far apart. If Rose's reality wasn't so close to ours, I could have done that entire adventure in less than five minutes."

Daphne felt her breath return, the deep pit in her stomach feeling better as she wasn't facing the idea of her friend literally vanishing for the rest of her life. She weakly smacked his shoulder. "Please don't spring stuff like that on us. You vanishing for the rest of our lives would make us really sad."

Padma just glomped onto his arm, hers wrapping his tightly. Hannah herself felt the numbness fade. The boy may not be her best friend, but he was important to her and their group.

Harry awkwardly tried to eat with one hand since Padma wouldn't let go, and Daphne 'helped' by 'accidentally' moving various dishes around when he reached for them.

His chuckles were interrupted by a call as Glen's hologram hovered. "Sire, the Research Team is prepared and ready for deployment. They wanted to know anything you might have concerning the Ward System for Hogwarts."

Swallowing, he put his fork down and flicked a cleaning spell over his hands and face. "Well I did incorporate a third of Cerberus's soul into a search enchantment for the library and hook it into the warding system. The ward stone itself is at an intersection of two magical ley lines under the school, surprisingly deep, encased in a solid mass of treated stone."

He waved an illusion, pointing. "I'm not actually sure about how deep it is or how large the encasing is, as the stone is seamless and multi-layered, with runes carved on the inside and outside of each section of stone shell. There is no physical method of reaching the actual ward stone inside without magical passage."

Glen frowned. "Well that seems... unhelpful."

Harry chuckled. "Thankfully Headmaster Dumbledore gave Professor McGonagall a hint. I think there is a magical access point on the seventh floor that can get us to the stone, though I am currently unaware how. Anyway, we can't attempt to force our way in because the school itself tends to absorb low levels of magic not used in classrooms, and we may trigger something dangerous if we just go bashing around."

She nodded. "So Seventh floor. Will you be joining the team when they arrive?"

He sighed. "Nagnok made me promise to let them make the first attempt. My brand of unusual might get in the way otherwise."

She nodded. "And the Countess was planning on scheduling a meeting with Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin, as the two have finally met up."

Pulling a sound buffer around them, Harry chewed his lip a bit. Finding out that two of his father's friends were alive had been a shock after his research back at Christmas, the unexpected present catching his attention. Small amounts of time per day with Watcher was spent getting all the details about the two men.

Finding out that Sirius Black had been framed had thrown ALL his self control out the window, especially since he had initial been ready to carve the man after hearing the man accused of betrayal. Months of plans were initially directed toward the 'rat' Petter Pettigrew, when Watcher had found the 'man' had already been captured by a surprisingly competent Arthur Weasley.

He had spent time raging in his mind, screaming at his Aspects (which he regretted nearly as soon as it occurred), and several nights crying in Wisdom's arms at the massive loss he had suffered due to one man's cowardliness and treachery.

Thankfully, by the time he was aware of the situation his father's friend was being cared for by very nice people. Remus Lupin on the other hand was a totally different situation.

After Watcher had found the man, Harry had worked up a bit of an emotional high. Unlike Sirius this man WASN'T bound in a prison filled with demons, nor a betraying scum jerk.

Again, he was denied vengeance. It took less than a week of observance before his rage faded and sympathy dug in.

Remus was a quiet man, near poverty, his wand work the only thing keeping him feed and somewhat presentable. In the non-magical world he had no references, no friends, and no documentation. These things were horribly abused by his temporary employer, and signs pointed to similar situations happening in the past.

When Harry saw the man sneak into the Magical Alley, he had been more than slightly shocked at the outright disgust displayed by normally upstanding citizens.

Now that his kingdom had a werewolf population of its own, he understood the situation on a much deeper level, but even back then watching a very polite man with torn clothing spending what little coin he had earned to try buy things from shifty sellers... well, no wonder he didn't attempt to approach Harry James Potter, the child wizards and witches treated as both Elvis and Jesus. Probably thought he would be killed on sight.

For all Harry knew, he could have been right.

So Harry had done some subtle things, since unlike Sirius, Remus had no one supporting him. A 'fake' will found for one of Remus's extended Uncle who died gave him some basic income. The Uncle had existed, though he was actually a bit of a jerk in real life when he died from a heart attack and had nothing to his name.

Asking one of Jade's Family Contacts to hired the man for manual labor in one of their shipping fronts had taken almost no effort on Harry's part, but within a week the werewolf had newer clothing and looked far less hungry.

With a hesitant shake he nodded. "I... sure. Let her know Glen. Can... can we wait though?"

She gave an understanding smile. Harry had been postponing this as much as he could, unsure how to handle meeting people his parents had loved so much. Waiting until Sirius was healthy was reasonable... but the man was very much on the mend now. Remus wasn't living on the Island since he had employment and stable income, but Harry could have stopped by... any time now...

She made a note. "How about at the end of the month, on the weekend?"

Harry felt Padma squeeze his arm and gave her a small smile before turning back. "Thanks Glen, that would be great."

Daphne sighed and pushed some warm rolls onto his plate. "Enough of this emotional stuff, you need to relax a bit Harry. Eat something, Merlin knows your stomach is a bottomless pit at this point."

With a laugh Harry waved bye at Glen before rejoining the feast and releasing the sound barrier. Even with the slight dread of meeting the men, he felt a load of pressure vanish having finally made a decision. And maybe, just maybe, because of the people surrounding him who had wormed into his life.

~~~Core Threads~~~

A couple days later, Harry stared at the mess Windy had reported.

Notes everywhere, students backed against the walls, torn and horrified paintings hiding near their frames, desks toppled, chairs scattered.

Looking at the mix of students (ranging for shock to rage), he turned toward the swarm of Cornish pixies. There were dozens of the things, all currently floating from Harry's spell. They seemed to mostly enjoy the experience at least.

Finally he turned toward the shaking desk. "Professor, you can come out now."

Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award. Currently peeking over his own desk, hair messed, makeup ruined, and covered in small bite marks.

Truly an awe inspiring sight. Sigh.

The coward quickly stood, brushing his robes and attempting to do some damage control. "Ah yes, Mr. Potter. While I appreciate the assistance, I had been gathering these pixies for several weeks to allow some hands on experience if you will for all the students."

Harry tilted his head, the dozens of creatures slowly orbiting behind his left shoulder. "If I am disturbing your lesson, I am more than willing to return them to you."

The overdressed man paused in his searching for his wand (Watcher saw it go out the window), frantically waving his hands. "NO! I mean, not needed my dear boy! I am more than willing to move the lesson forward, I'm sure everyone is convinced of the deadly nature these beasts promise!"

Harry glanced at the surprisingly cute electric blue humanoids as they floated in random orbits, some giggling and others making faces of awe as they floated along. "Yes. Vicious." Well, as far as he knew there was nothing to harvest from these creatures and they were clearly too mischievous to publicly release them on the island randomly.

He pulsed his magic, feeling the desks snap back into place as cracked sections repaired, parchments moved back to their owners seats and smoothed away crinkles and ink smears. Quills unsnapped, ink floating back into pots, books moved and the portraits began straightening and being cleaned/repaired.

The world looked like a snow globe as the dozens of objects flowed back into place, Harry walking calmly toward the windows as a cloud of creatures floated behind him. "Did you get the pixies from the forest, or were they captured elsewhere?"

Professor Lockhart was still looking for his wand when it flew through the window, smacking into his back. With surprising competence, the man rapidly began to repair his makeup, hair, and clothing. Clearly that particular set of spells were well practiced. "Wha? Oh, I just asked Silvanus Kettleburn, Professor of Care of Magical Creatures. Strange man but knows his pixies. I was supposed to show these deadly monsters much earlier in the year, but he said the Frolics having gone deeper into the forests since last season. Something about muffins?"

Ah. Well, it HAD been a large explosion. "Well, do you require these for further examples or are you done for the day?"

The man looked at the mass of creatures... which all turned toward the decorative professor with tiny, sharp grins. He gulped. "N... No! Quite done for now. In fact, if you could just return them for me, being busy teaching and all, I would be quite glad to give 10 points to Ravenclaw!"

Harry chuckled as he flicked a palm, the window opening and expanding into a door sized opening. "I suppose I must do my part, if points are on the line."

It wasn't really flying, he didn't have any spells for that yet (Or at least, hadn't taken the time to find them in the massive mess that his mind was), but he dug magical cords into the walls and used the ropes of his soul to float toward the woods, allowing the window to close and revert to its usual size.

A boy in the class, red headed and red robed, shook his head. "Right, if I have to do all that for some points I'm going to end up putting our Hourglass in the negatives."

One of the green robed boys snorted. "At least for you Weasleys that's a family tradition."

Watcher chuckled as the room dissolved into arguments as the 'teacher' tried to restore order. At least this class had actual examples, even if it had all gone wrong. Windy was already going out of her mind listening to the drivel this professor spouted every class.

~~~Core Threads~~~

Harry grumbled as he walked through the halls.

After going all the way into the forest and releasing the pixies... they turned right around and started following him.

Talking was useless, if they understood English at all. He had tried to scan their mind... but while they communicated it wasn't on a level that he could duplicate without BECOMING a pixie as well. And when he tried, it somehow attracted even MORE of the things.

When the group hit around four hundred or so, he shifted away to the edge of the forest.

And they found him.

Somehow the magic he had used had been enough for them to track, even though most of it was hidden now thanks to his new body and methods.

After a few tries shifting around the castle, he realized that they found it even MORE entertaining to find him... like a massive game of hide and seek.

So he sucked all the groups into a weightless sphere again (They were ecstatic about that, which sounded like dozens of birds going a bit nuts), compressed it a bit, then shifted THAT deep into the forest.

It didn't stop them, but at least it gave him about ten minutes of respite before they began trickling back.

He tried asking Windy and Wisdom to craft notice-me-not or avoidance charms that target individual species... but they found the creatures both cute enough and the situation humorous enough that they refused to help.

Thankfully the majority of the creatures were tiring of the game, as only seven kept hunting him now... and of course it would be a magically significant number, because what WASN'T in his life?

He wasn't really angry, and the creatures were house trained (Thankfully) being mostly magical in nature also gave them an intellectual level somewhere above a pet but below a person.

Harry was just feeling a bit frustrated because of how determined the things were.

At this point, he had two on each shoulder, three on his head. He was currently attempting to ignore them completely, hoping they would get bored like the rest and move on.

Based on how happy they sounded riding him like a horse, this attempt seemed likely to fail.

The ward crew had already arrived, and was examining the seventh floor corridor. They had already found the probable location of the ward room entrance, but from what Watcher informed him they were stumped on how to get in. He had offered assistance.

Nagnok still said no. For now.

Harry was distracted in his aimless wandering by a wild Neville suddenly appearing. "Harry, could we talk for a... are those pixies?"

Harry sighed, the creatures on his shoulders chirping in joy as his shoulders slumped. "Yes Neville, I accidentally gained some tiny hitchhikers. I'm trying to ignore them for now."

Neville examined the identical creatures before forcing himself to focus. "Huh. Anyway, could we talk for a bit?"

He nodded, two of the three standing on his ears while the third one had his hair gripped like reins. Moving to the side, he led Neville to one of the many empty classrooms.

The other boy began pacing in the room, ignoring Harry completely. With a sigh, Neville leaned against the wall. "Did I tell you what happened to my parents in the war?"

Harry blinked. "No, but I assumed from some of our conversations that they had passed away like mine did."

Neville jerked slightly. "No! Thank Merlin, no. But they were hurt. The unforgivable, the Cruciatus Curse. Tortured them until... well, they have problems. Dad... Dad's pretty bad. But Mom can move a little, and I'm sure she knows me. I know it."

Harry gave a weak nod, ignoring Neville's tears. "I'm sure she does."

Neville began pacing again. "See, she can do some things, loads of things. And while she can't eat gum, she can unwrap them, and she gives them to me, see?" He pulled open a small bag, holding up aging paper.

Harry absently accepted one of the many paper items, keeping his face expressionless. A thread of power touched it... this one was over three years old.

Neville accepted it back and replaced it in the bag. "Now we've tried asking a lot of people, but we haven't found anyone who could... well, we are still looking for help. I know this is asking for a lot, but I got permission from Gran and I want you to see if... well, if you could do... anything."

Harry watched the young man, his friend, trying not to fall apart.

Neville's hand angrily swiped tears away, handing Harry a piece of parchment. "This document gives you our complete permission. Even if you can't fix their mind, anything would be appreciated. The smallest improvement... just... let me know that they are still in there? Gran and I can pay, we've been saving just in case we found someone who could do anything..."

His rambling was stopped by Harry's massive hand resting on his shoulder.

Harry squeezed slightly, before leaving the room. "Let the others know I'm taking the afternoon off. I apparently have a bit of work to do."

Neville desperately fought down the hope that blocked his throat, watching a boy king stride with purpose from the room.

~~~Core Threads~~~

"Sire?"

Harry was already moving towards St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. While he had sent his people here (Indeed, everywhere) for any werewolf cases, he had never personally visited before.

The walk was both to allow more magical marking of locations, and give him time to calm down a bit. With his raw power, it could cause issues.

He strode down the sidewalk, using raw magic to form the runes in the air itself so Glen's face appeared in front and to the right of him.

Harry was focusing on keeping his walk calm. "Glen, what do I have to do legally to provide medical care for a pair of patients that I have full legal custody over?"

Aside from her wide eyes and rapid document handling, she handled the situation smoothly. "To prevent most issues it would be best to sign at least citizen contracts. As Drake Island citizens, they would be completely under your jurisdiction, even if your treatments have not been tested or authorized. I assume you need two contracts sent by bangle?"

He nodded, absently tagging each intersection he passed with his magic as he walked, along with each bus and taxi. Could be useful later. "I shouldn't have any issue fixing anything less complicated than soul damage. At the worst, I can just fabricate a body and shove them into it."

Glen Cooper was already filling out documents. "Should I offer your services at a larger level? We can offer it through the Goblin Nation, though they will require us to charge non-islanders."

Harry gave a shake of his head. "As much as I would like that, Windy can't manipulate raw magic on the same level as I and Wisdom can't create multiple bodies. Maybe the very rare case, or the difficult ones that can wait long enough for me to get to them."

She gave a nod, her soft white hair glittering as she began sending orders to her team. "A very expensive or peculiar specialist then. That way most people won't try to force you to fix scraped knees or coughs, but you can still treat someone even if they can't pay if you wish."

He gave her a warm smile. "That sounds perfect Glen, but make that setup low priority. I would much prefer medical tools to be developed that any magical doctor can use rather than be personally sent everywhere trying to heal the globe."

Glen nodded. "I'll have anything else you need when you arrive at the medical facility. I assume you are heading to St Mungo's?"

Harry nodded. "Neville's parents are alive, but very damaged. Hopefully I can give him his family back."

Her warm smile made some tense part inside him relax. "Just call me if you need anything. Oh, and Sire?"

He blinked. "Yes?"

Her smirk was epic. "You have a bit of a blue something... right there."

Looking up at the seven blue creatures that were attempting to play 'King of the Mountain' with his head, he sighed. "Thank you Glen."

"Anytime Sire."

~~~Core Threads~~~

Sally Green sighed as ANOTHER patient walked up. Today had been very busy. "Please press your wand to the blue paper, use the purple quill to sign the yellow paper, and a specialist will be with you swiftly. If you don't hear your name after an hour, please come back and let me know."

The chuckle was deep... and she realized this shadow was LARGE. Looking up with wide eyes, she felt overwhelmed at how MASSIVE this patient was. Made her desk look small.

She gulped. "Swallowed a growth potion?"

The massive (If handsome) man gave her a tilted grin that made her insides sizzle. "Sorry, I'm just a bit big boned. I'm actually here to withdraw some patients of yours for private care."

Focus, paperwork first, ogle the hunk later. Practiced actions helped her keep on task and soon she was helping him sign, check, this one in duplicate... and done.

Watching him leave made the room seem larger, and watching his flexing back made it feel hotter as well.

It took over five minutes for her to recover, which was good because after reading the paperwork she just helped him fill out caused her to freak out more than just a bit.

There was no bloody way that beefcake was 12 years old.

~~~Core Threads~~~

It took him longer than he wanted to admit to even find the 'Janus Thickley Ward', where the long term spell damaged patients were held.

Gently opening the door to their room, Harry sighed as he observed the situation. Frank Longbottom was on the left bed, his eyes vaguely staring into the wall, while his wife Alice was actually sitting up in bed, gently clasping her fingers.

Both were thin. VERY thin. Even with magical health care, years of no activity made muscle mass drop. They also seemed aged, the stress of their torture having stolen what youth they should have still.

Alice's hair was white, wispy, dead looking. Her eyes were dark... brownish? Almost glazed looking. While she looked far more damaged, she also seemed... more alert.

With a tag each, he gently moved forward. "Alice?"

Slowly... her eyes moved so slowly. But there was no recognition of him as a person, in her eyes he was just another piece of the background.

Well, it wasn't like he expected much to begin with. Gently, slowly, he waved his hand, the tagged magic casting a very slow acting sleep spell, followed by low level calming charms. Within moments the two were asleep, at which point he pulled them both into the air and horizontal.

As long as his magic remained connected, the two would remain asleep and hopefully prevent any stress for this process. A quick strand of power and the two's thin hospital gowns expanded into a thick, well fitted set of robes that wrapped them warmly. The various charms monitoring their condition were disabled, the room itself was cleaned, the beds cleaned and then made.

Nothing came when Harry summoned their belongings (Though he DID restrict it to the hospital, no reason to drag half their house across the world), so he gently pulled them closer.

As he was currently legally and magically their guardians, he had signed their citizen papers before reaching the hospital itself. Still, where to go? The workshop would be useful, but it was still molten hot with soul wood floating in the middle. The island may be a good choice, but Neville would probably like to see them sooner than that.

Hogwarts it is.

A thought later and the three were in an empty classroom near the Gryffindors common room. As the only vertical and conscious magical in the room, Harry decided that he got to make the decisions.

And for this...

Green eyes glowed like gems as he flexed his power. Floor stonework smoothed, melted, flowed into a solid sheet, sterile and clean. All furniture melted into wood and metal cubes that vanished into his inventory, the walls rough exteriors rapidly melting into smoothness.

After a thought, he reached forward and gripped the world. Stone shifted, island sand appeared and melted into the wall, and the entire side of the room was now a very thick, magically reinforced window. Self cleaning, one directional, illusioned outside to appear unchanged.

Striding to the center of the room, he called. "Doreen, I require attendance."

The house elf appeared, then nearly stumbled as she viewed the room. "Oh! Master Harry has been very busy." She focused on the two floating magicals and gasped.

Harry chuckled. "Doreen, I am exercising my right as a Lord of House Potter to house my vassals within the castle. I require two beds to be brought in that corner, no curtains required. I may also require the use of personal elves for their care, depending on how the healing session goes."

With a sharp nod the elf vanished, allowing Harry to focus on the two. Alice first, she was most mentally active and hopefully easily treated.

Some metal and wood cubes later and he had formed a wide operating table in the center of the room, magic runes on the ceiling focusing a spotlight on her slumbering form. A pulse of power and his clothing was clean, sterile, and lost all openings and edges as it flowed into a skintight form. No reason to risk contamination.

Resting his right hand on her wrinkled forehead, he absently tied Frank's floating form to the castle ambient magical field so he could focus.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breath in.

Release.

Power slammed into his back like a sledgehammer, forcing his massive muscles to twitch and his mouth to curl into a snarl. More and more cores began connecting to his form, reducing it as the raw energy began compressing his insides into a more compact unit.

It took everything to hold his hand still, to avoid damaging the fragile woman before him.

With boiling power screaming through his veins, he gently directed the tiniest thread of power into the woman before him.

Physical recover first.

Gently his threads began extracting small, nearly invisible amounts of material from her body. Blood, spinal fluid, brain fluid, skin samples, hair samples... within moments each was analyzed, scanned, compared with the multitude he had scanned over time.

So much damage. Most from age of course, but also magical damage. Like many curses, the damage would be near impossible to recover from using standard techniques, just like a cursed limb wouldn't reattach.

In layers then. Healing too much too soon could actually send her into shock and kill her. First her blood, even as it flowed through her body his power began touching each individual blood cell. Scanning them. Comparing them. Those that were damaged were torn apart and rebuilt in the image of the highest quality cells found so far.

Even as her blood began to rapidly improve in health and quantity, he began similar actions with her immune systems, those white blood cells drastically improving.

Allowing the cores to be set aside as they worked, Harry moved on to his other souls as he began working on her heart. Now that it was receiving higher quality blood, he was able to more easily cleanse the muscle, checking each muscle fiber, carefully repairing the most damaged rather than rebuilding it from scratch. Some age damage of course, expected at this point, and some damage from the rough nutrition over the years of medical care.

Thanks to her DNA and Wisdom's past experiments on his own body, he knew what her heart SHOULD look like... and if he happened to fix a few issues and make it a tad stronger than normal, no one would notice.

It was after he had finished doing similar processes to her other organs in her chest cavity when he ran into an issue.

He needed more raw materials. Her body weight was so low, that going further would damage her.

With a sigh he pulled forth one of his 'Rebirth Eggs' he stored in his inventory. A slurry of materials held within a small egg crafted from bone, it had an expanded interior that had everything needed for his current body to be rebuilt and runes on the outside to prevent damage or decay.

With a source of material to work from, it took a few tries before he was able to figure out how exactly to directly transfer material into her body where it was needed. Personally he would just conjure a temporary body then consume one of these eggs and let his magic figure it out.

Doing it manually was annoying.

Her chest cavity rejuvenated allowed him to gently send similar processes to her bones. And it was needed, as the calcium levels were low and the age related damage had hit the joints the worst.

Even as her muscles and tendons began to be rebuilt, the change from fixing her skeletal structure alone was amazing. Her back had relaxed and straightened, her legs no longer bent slightly wrong, her arms relaxed at her side.

Time began to slip by. Repairing certain sensitive areas required Harry to have Windy repress his emotions, as this level of healing necessitated some embarrassing touches and... well, at least he was only touching with his magic.

Merlin, he would be a tomato later though. And he WASN'T looking forward to healing Franks more private areas.

Repress.

It took... time. He wasn't sure how long, but eventually he was watching golden blond hair replace white wisps and rich red lips gently open as she slumbered.

Now for the part he wasn't looking forward to. He didn't know how to fix a brain.

But... he DID know souls.

After a careful deep scan of her mind... he mushed it. Converted the entire mass into raw cellular material, stem cells. These could change themselves into anything needed, as directed by the inputs given to them. If the environment was right, they would become fingers, or teeth, or anything.

If she had been non-magical, this would have killed her.

But magical witches and wizards were more than just flesh and bone. That was why a Pensieve worked, why a wizard could see something they didn't remember in a memory.

Their memories were a part of their soul.

Even as they aged, as their body failed, as their brain decayed... their soul would just ignore it and work as usual.

But if someone provided raw energy to a witches soul as it tried to 'work as usual', as it tried to 'repair the damage'...

Her soul was rough. Gently he reached skeletal hands forward... how long ago did he transform into a human sized skeleton? It didn't matter. His bones gently cradled the very dark blue, nearly black soul. Twists and turns, pulls and pushes, intricate and simple.

The world felt cold, like fresh fallen snow. He could smell mint in the distance, as his cold bones gently pulled away memories.

Not all of them, but portions could be lost without issue. She didn't need to remember years of being trapped in her own shell, drifting between struggling to talk to her son and begging God to let her die. Each lifted and separated wound lightened her color, her soul lightened as burdens lifted.

Oh she would know what was missing and what happened, but the emotional strain and torment would be missing. Trauma after trauma was carefully diminished and handled by his gentle bones.

Some part of him felt so... satisfied. He COULDN'T have done this sooner, he would have done this wrong if he had tried after first meeting Neville. He hadn't failed, he had unknowingly been working towards this all along.

As her soul began to sparkle with the light of the deep ocean, his skeletal grin grew. As he rested her soul into her body again, his power gently reached into her mind, forcing flesh to reform, to create the connections needed for a physical mind to be healthy and strong.

Retreating to his flesh again, skeletal form fading into muscle and bone, Harry couldn't help the grin that grew by the second.

He noticed that Frank had already been moved to one of the beds next to the window... and that it was dark outside.

And that there were several extra people in the room. Neville was clutching an older woman, both crying unashamedly as they gazed on their family member looking far healthier and fit than she had in literally years. Probably his grandmother.

Daphne and Padma were in the corner quietly talking to Windy, who waved when he glanced in their direction.

Talking quietly, he leaned toward Neville. "I think we are done healing your mother, but I want to make sure before working on your father. I put him in something like stasis before moving him here, so he doesn't need food or water for a few weeks. A day or so shouldn't cause problems."

The boy couldn't speak, though he tried, and his eyes had a level of gratitude Harry had been unaware existed.

Turning back to his patient, he relaxed his control over her slumber and gently nudged her shoulder.

Alice Longbottom's eyes gently squinted, fighting having to get up from the comfy table. As she blinked her eyes awake, they fell onto the massive man next to her.

She blinked. "Huh. Haven't had the 'Sexy Hunk' dream in a while."

In the dead silent room, Windy's hysterical laughter seemed a bit much.