Queen Potter

Alien


Magic is a strange and wonderous thing, it allows people to change into animals of all shapes and sizes. It can protect, nurture, and destroy. It is also rare. Only a fraction of all the planets that give rise to sentient and sapient life have magic. The other thing that's strange, though far less wonderous is that alien abductions are real. The vast majority of abductions are never detected, and never attributed to aliens. The child that goes missing, only to maybe show up on a distant shore years later. The homeless person that just stops being around. The babe left on a doorstep on a cold November night.

Harry never knew what happened when he was teleported abord the shuttle. He slept through the shuttle docking with a ship hidden in the shadow of Pluto. He was barely aware when an egg hatched amongst the acquisitions the aliens had made prior to his stop. He cried when the same aliens started to scream as an apex predator stalked amongst them and consumed them one by one. After all, he hadn't been fed or changed in 12 hours. When death came for him with acidic blood and a hidden mouth, he changed to match.
The lone worker looks down at the chest burster in surprise. This quickly gives way to instincts honed over eons to keep her species alive. Grasping the chest burster to prevent it from feeding itself, she consumes a specific combination of materials that allows her to produce royal jelly. This she feeds to the chest burster to change its role in the hive into the new queen. The chest burster makes happy noises as she feeds it, leading to being fed more. A year later the chest burster forms a pupa and the worker goes into hibernation while her queen undergoes metamorphosis.
Arry looks down from her ovipositor at the Yautja that has dared to invade her nest. This one, despite its size, is barely more than a child, its hunt mates lie dead, or dying as her children take them down from impossible ambushes. An intelligent child to have made it to her laying chamber, but not so experienced they didn't freeze when they saw the trophy wall to one side, decorated with the skulls of those Yautja that had sought to take her own skull. With a couple of thoughts the Yautja is suspended spreadeagled in the air and their weaponry joins the others on the wall. Disengaging from the ovipositor, Arry climbs down to the ground and changes into a humanoid form. Her tail swishing behind her as she stalks forward towards the prisoner. Reaching up with her taloned hands, she carefully removes the facemask her prisoner is wearing and grasps their head.
"You are unblooded. Let's see why your clan would send an unblooded youngling to my ship."
The Yautja's pupils widen when they hear her speak, and she uses that to dive into their mind. Pauk, she isn't a standard Yautja, taken in as a foundling when her Bad Blood family was killed. She faces the choice of becoming a blooded hunter or a brood slave. Double Pauk, she's only a couple of light years away from a clan ship. No wonder they mounted such a strong offensive. Pulling out of her mind Arry walks over to a console and taps in a few commands.
The heavily scarred face of a Yautja elder soon fills the view screen, "Who are you to call the Dark Blade Clan!"
"I am Arry, the owner of the ship that your hunters just invaded. I am calling to inform you that I don't currently have any designs on your ship. Unless you wish for it to become my new nursery, you will refrain from sending any more hunters or children to hunt my children. Unlike you however, I do not kill children."
"You are an abomination, and we will hunt you to the end of the stars as we have for the last 5 cycles."
"You say such lovely things. As long as you remember not to hunt me when I'm only 5 ticks from your own home, you'll survive to carry out your threat."
"You dare?"
"I dare," – She steps to one side – "Oh, and I'm keeping this one. Unlike some, I, don't, kill, children."
Switching off the communication she turns back to her captive, "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. As I said, I don't kill children, I've lost too many of my own to do that. Of course, that was before I worked out how to modify my eggs to have the same abilities I do. That was 5 years ago now, 3 years after the worker that converted me died to Skarli raiders. They were the first to incubate my children you know."
Arry walks over to an egg and reaches a taloned hand into it, before withdrawing it with a face hugger wrapped around her wrist.
Her captive starts to struggle, "Don't worry T'o-Ba'sall, this is from a very special egg. I call it an adoption egg. I took your name from your mind if you're wondering how I knew it. Back to the egg, this face hugger will still implant an egg. But rather than hatching to form what your people call a chest burster, it will instead latch onto your stomach and become part of you. In a few hours you will feel the hive and it will be safe to let you down. Try to relax, it's going to happen anyway, and it's less painful if you let the face hugger do its job."

T'o-Ba'sall swallows convulsively as the alien queen brings the face hugger up to her head, where it skuttles off her hand and latches around her head. True enough, nothing she's capable of doing is enough to prevent the face hugger from depositing its egg deep inside her stomach. As the face hugger maintains its hold around her head the queen continues talking, "Did you know that I'm only 8 cycles old? I have vague memories of a life before I became a queen, but we mature quickly. Unsurprising when you consider that we're the galaxies punching bag. When we were first attacked, my mental maturity hadn't caught up to my physical maturity, and I wasn't aware I could take on a humanoid form either. Our ship was just floating through space while the two of us lived off the specimens the previous owner had collected. It was when the Skarli killed the worker that I discovered I could do more than any other queen in our history. I used my power to throw them against the walls. It was a year and several raids till I could do it at will. I can also teleport, and I discovered that I can force a type of hive link on people. It's how I learnt to speak and use the ship. I hope you're not too uncomfortable there. The hugger is almost done, did you know that our face huggers provide all of your needs while they're attached. Food, oxygen, water, you can even survive brief exposure to hard vacuum. I considered laying some eggs just for that purpose without the possibility of implanting a burster. That was before I discovered it was impossible for my kind to trade with anyone.
"Anyway, the raids continued, and so I lost and replaced more and more children. I've had 500 since that first raid, and the current 50 aboard the ship are coming up on a year old. I'm hoping that when they reach a couple of years, they'll start being able to reason, rather than being big balls of emotion that I have to control. I might have to actually seek out a drone for that though. Oh, yes, all of us are female unless we find a drone. Your face hugger is about done, if you relax I'll take it off."
Arry carefully removes the face hugger, then holds up a drinking container, and releases her control over T'o-Ba'sall's mouth.
Once she'd taken a drink T'o-Ba'sall asks, "Why? Why save me? I came to kill you."
Arry runs the back of a claw down her face, "You should never have been here. I remember my original parents, they had skin like this." – Arry points to a patch of skin on her chest where mammary glands are prominently displayed. – "I remember that the female tried to save me, at the cost of her own life. If they were willing to do that, children must be precious. So I made a decision to never kill a child outside of self defence. If you had managed to fire your shoulder canon, your head would already be decorating my wall."
"What happens to me now?"
"Well, you're part of my hive. I hope that you'll join in, and maybe also trade for food and supplies. I don't like stealing just to survive, but nobody will trade with me. Now, I need to take my position, as the surviving hunters that came with you are being brought here by my children. I'm just going to move you over by that wall. Don't try to talk, as I'll prevent it if you do."
T'o-Ba'sall watches helplessly as the room spins around her as she is floated against the wall, still spreadeagled. Arry on the other hand, transforms back into the Xenomorph Queen, her crest far larger than it has any right to be, as she settles back into the ovipositor.

Less than a tick after Arry is seated, T'o-Ba'sall watches as her maimed and beaten clan mates are dragged in. Most of them are missing their left arms below the elbow. Those that aren't are missing their wrist-comps. They are all lain on the floor with their heads towards the queen, and their arms and legs covered with resin. She can see the fear in their expressions as the Queen looms over them. Arry manipulates the ovipositor just ahead of each head, before she lays an egg for each of the 8 captives. Sensing a victim nearby, the petals on each egg open one by one, and a face hugger crawls out and blindly finds the mouth of the Yautja in front of them. All T'o-Ba'sall can do is watch mutely as 8 more abominations are added to the Queens hive.
A few months later, Arry has her claws deep inside a Pirates guts as T'o-Ba'sall had located a distress call. Despite her rocky introduction, she was proving to be a valuable member of the hive, and hunting pirates satisfied that part of her that craved the hunt. A woman screaming at the back of the room is a good sign that they got here in time. She winces in pain as one of the other pirates shoots at her, briefly losing control, she throws the body she's holding to one side and launches, claws first, at the pirate.
The pirate raises his armoured forearms, catches her claws on them, and then electrifies the armour. As Arry shakes with electricity, over the top of her head, her tail spears out, passing through the pirates mouth and out the back of his neck. A spray of blood covers Arry's face as he slumps to the floor and she licks her lips. She turns to find that T'o-Ba'sall has dealt with the other pirate while she was busy. Seeing that the only other adults in the cabin are trying to protect a couple of children, she deliberately calms herself down.
While scraping some blood off her face and licking it off her claw, she asks the family, "Are any of you in need of medical attention?"
The acrid scent of a Laprey relieving themselves fills the cabin as the male indicates in the negative.
"In that case, some of my children will be along to get the corpses, and we'll be taking the pirates ship. I'm Arry, have a good day."
Arry and her hive are on an ice ball hunting Bad Bloods, T'o-Ba'sall having being able to pick up the bounties with one of the wrist computers. Her oldest children are starting to communicate in more complex concepts, and she thinks they might start using basic words in the link soon. Unexpectedly, T'o-Ba'sall has started to grow a tail and her fingers are turning into claws. Together they form an efficient hunting team by being able to out think, out run, and out flank their prey. By the end of the hunt, she only needs to take one captive as one of the younger children jumps ahead of the formation, and is killed with a flying disk for her trouble. Only the thought that she has a nest already, allows Arry to leave the planet without leaving any eggs behind.
It's everything that T'o-Ba'sall can do to land the ship safely as they respond to a distress call about a xenomorph hive attacking a Skali colony. Arry was hoping to claim a drone in order to be able to birth some males. However, when they got to low orbit, the feeling of the other hive started to press on their own hive. This hive is much larger than their own, and it feels like their numbers are swelling quickly. Xenomorph instincts are battling in her head, driving her to crash the ship into the hive, and take it over for her Queen. Withdrawal is not an option she has, despite not being a full Xenomorph herself. So while Arry is lost in her instincts, T'o-Ba'sall landed the ship on a rise on the opposite side of the hive to the colony. T'o-Ba'sall, uses every bit of experience she has being part of the hive, to send memories of hunting Bad Bloods, or the pirates. By doing this she is able to prevent her hive mates from just suicidally charging the other hive. Fortunately, Arry is too far gone to overrule her assumed authority. With that freedom T'o-Ba'sall is able to arm herself from the trophy wall, as well as the oldest of her siblings. Nothing complicated, only handheld weapons and thermal webbing.

The war is long, bloody, and victorious, with the total elimination of the rival hive. The strange abilities and increased cognition and tactics allowing them to triumph over the numerically superior hive. When she comes back to her senses, Arry cries over the children that the hive took for breeding, until a child's cry reaches them from another part of the hive. That's when T'o-Ba'sall learns that a queen can kill rival hive members without a queen by sheer force of will. She also gains some new siblings, far younger than would normally be considered healthy. But there's no way the colony would have let them live.
On the positive side, they are now able to trade through dead drops. She suspects it's because the colony is hoping that any future incursions will be dealt with before it becomes an actual problem for them.
T'o-Ba'sall has now killed 10 hunters in hand-to-hand combat, and started showing the same abilities as her siblings. The number of hunts sent against them increased after they saved the colony. She knows that her own honour is intact, even if the hunters are proving to be purely glory seekers than true honourable hunters. Arry is still brooding about losing control in the presence of the other queen. Worried that someone might try to exploit that by capturing a Queen. An answer occurs to her, Praetorians. Carefully, she modifies one of her adoption eggs to include the Praetorian code, hopefully without the full instincts, as she needs T'o-Ba'sall to be able to think more clearly in the future.
"T'o-Ba'sall, this hugger contains the imprint of a Praetorian. I would like you to have it."
"Why Arry?"
"It will give you more freedom if I am incapacitated by another queen. I don't want to lose you, so I've tried to strip out the instincts as much as I can."
"Thank you for honouring me like this." With that said, T'o-Ba'sall takes the face hugger and guides it to her face, unafraid this time. Arry was right, it does hurt less when you don't fight it.
Arry is mounted on her ovipositor when a flaming avian appears in front of her. Instinctively, her inner mouth snaps out and bites off its head. The avian bursts into flames and falls to the floor as ashes. Her echo location detects movement in the ashes, so she transforms and kneels down to look at what's happening.

Home?


As she kneels there, Arry watches as a tiny, featherless, version of the avian crawls out of the pile of ash. Carefully cleaning the ash away from it with a talon, she studies it intently as it squarks angrily at her. With a thought, she transforms and climbs back into her ovipositor. There she starts laying a very special adoption egg. As clearly the standard face hugger would swallow the small avian, that can survive having its head bitten off. Arry can see that it is growing rapidly, so she's not so worried about how small she makes it. As she finishes, raggedy feathers are starting to grow in, so she quickly climbs back down and returns to her humanoid form. Reaching into the egg, she feels the face hugger wrap itself around a finger before she pulls it out.

Fawkes can't believe it, she was doing a favour for her human by locating the child he misplaced 10 years ago. When she appeared, something killed her before she could even register her location. Unexpected burnings were always so uncomfortable. Then whatever it was stares at her from inches away. Well, it looks human so it could be the child, though she thought they grew slower than that. Then it grows into a monster and climbs up some awful creature before settling itself on top of it. Not liking the feeling she's getting, Fawkes tries to grow faster, to get to the point she can flame away. Two burnings in one day would be worth it, and, when she's recovered, she can have a loud word with her human. Oh, she thinks weakly, it lays eggs, why would it suddenly be laying eggs?
"No, no, no no no no, no. There's no way you're bring that thing anywhere close to me. Keep away or I'll mmmmph."
Weakly she tries to burn whatever it is, but it just holds onto her head harder, so she goes limp, very aware that she is at her most vulnerable at this moment in time. Whatever parasite she's been implanted with, can be burnt out later, she just has to survive to later. It detaches not too long later, and she coughs up the tube. Her stomach is bloated with whatever it left behind, but she can't cough it out. Tiredly she fights to say awake so that she can flame out as soon as she's recovered enough. It's a few hours later that she realises with a panic that the thing is getting smaller and part of her. The thing watches her in interest as she weakly bursts into flame, to no avail. It's still too early for another burning, and that also means she can't use the flame to travel. No longer having the energy to stay awake, she falls asleep in the puddle of ash.
As Fawkes wakes up to the sound of a room full of people talking loudly to each other, she calls "Would you shut up, some of us are recovering from an unexpected burning day."
As everyone shuts up she lays her head down on the side of the nest, and then opens her eyes in alarm. Someone has wrapped some clothing into a nest and placed her in it. What becomes more alarming is the fact she's in a room on her own.
"I'm glad to see you're awake. I'm Arry, your new Queen. Who are you?"
"I'm Ptiana though my human calls me Fawkes."
"Hello Ptiana, why did you appear in my laying chamber?"
Ptiana can't help herself as she answers, "I was doing a favour for my human, he lost a male child 10 years ago. I followed the magic from one of his devices. It was obviously incorrect my Queen." - Where did that come from? – "What has happened to me? Why am I sharing so much?"
"You're part of my hive now, and I'm your Queen." Ptiana grumps as Arry obviously thinks that explains everything. In fairness, it probably does.
Arry continues, "I hope you don't mind, we moved you from your burnt pile, as you were rather small and I didn't want you to be stepped on accidentally."
Ptiana suddenly realises something, "How comes you can understand me?"
Arry sounds confused, "You're part of the hive, that means your memories are part of the hive too."
T'o-Ba'sall says, "Arry, you're forgetting that it takes longer to access the memories than it does to become part of the hive."
Ptiana squawks indignantly as she exclaims, "Why do I know your name T'o-Ba'sall?"
Sounding cheerful, Arry says, "That would be the accessing memories part of the hive."
Panicking, Ptiana flames back to her comfortable perch in the room her human uses. The voices all mute with the distance, until suddenly her Queen is right there.
Albus sits at his desk, doing paperwork to take his mind off the fact that Minerva will be sending out the school letters in the next few days, and he still doesn't know where Harry is, only that he's alive, safe, and happy. If those enchantments had failed as well, he'd have spent more effort trying to find the child before now. However, he reasoned that if Harry couldn't be found with some effort on his part, then the Dark Lord's followers certainly wouldn't be able to find him. Fawkes should have found him, but the still empty perch says he probably ran into some difficulty, or a plum tree. Fawkes reappears on his perch and ruffles his feathers irritatedly. Probably difficulty then.
"Fawkes, I'm glad to see you're safe." Putting his quill down, Albus stands from his desk and is walking around it when something else flames in. Whatever it is, it fills most of the room, and has wicked looking talons on its hands and feet. With instincts honed through war, even if they are slightly atrophied, Albus pulls his wand and fires a brace of spells designed to put down a dragon. Each of them pierces it's hide, and he is bringing his hand around to send another brace, when he loses feeling in his hand and legs. It also feels like he's been punched and it's hard to breathe. He looks down stupidly to see the creatures tail protruding from his chest, as it lifts him up from the floor. How did he not notice the tail before? There's a sucking sound as the creature shrinks down into a young woman, who is holding her side with a taloned hand.

"What do you mean I have to heal him? Ptiana, does it look like I have tear ducts? Oh, fine, I have something that will help but you'll have to find someone we can explain the situation to."

Albus wonders why the young woman was using four different languages while talking, at least he thinks it's four. Curiously he touches the hole in his chest wondering why it doesn't hurt more. The young woman picks him up surprisingly easily, and flames form around them. Is she a new species of phoenix? When the flames clear, she puts him in a coffin, and he weakly raises his hands to stop the lid from closing. As the coffin fills with water, his last thought is of Tom's return and the missing Harry Potter.
Ptiana screeches loudly in frustration, how is she supposed to find someone to explain things to. She can't exactly talk. That's not true, but only Arry can understand her. Oh, hell, she can't escape her Queen as obviously she's learnt to flame, so she might as well share the pain. She knows just the annoying cat to do it to too. Trying to tell her human not to keep feeding her those candied fruits indeed. Flaming back to the hive, she locates the eggs and carefully picks out an adoption egg.
"Hey Ptiana, have you found someone?"
"Yes my Queen, however they can't understand us. I'm taking an adoption egg so that we can talk to them."
"Well, I've put your human into a regeneration tank. It's Skarli design, but at least they're bipedal. The machine currently thinks it will take a full 2 cycles to finish healing him. Wow, your form of teleportation is much better than the method I came up with. Anyway, take this one, it should knock your human out so they don't try to kill anyone while it's working. I designed it for small children when we get to pirate raids too late, or we find a hive attacking a colony and there are children there."
"Thank you my Queen."
"You can just call me Arry like everyone else does. Of course, you have to accept the hive before your new instincts will allow that."
"Yes, my, Queen." Ptiana grinds out before flaming out with the egg.
Minerva looks up from her transfiguration research as Fawkes flames in with a leathery egg.
"What's this then? Did Albus send it?"
Fawkes just trills at her in his mocking way. She casts a couple of spells at it to see if it was some new puzzle she needed to figure out, and is surprised when it comes back as mundane. She stands up to look at it more closely and sees four flaps on the top open up.
"Fawkes, I really think this should have been taken to Grubby urk." Whatever she was going to say next is cut off, as a face hugger leaps out and forces its ovipositor down her throat, at the same time it's tail wraps around her throat. She has enough time to attempt a single spell before the world goes dark.

A few hours later she's awakened by the sound of voices. As she opens her eyes, she finds herself lying on a hard bed in a spartan metal room. Her wand is on a desk that's too tall to be for sitting at, and too short to be stood at. A chair tucked under the table is similarly mis-proportioned, and has 4 armrests for some reason. What can only be described as a monster, pokes its head into her room, and she freezes instinctively. The monster turns and leaves quickly, and she hears a child shouting "She's awake, she's awake."

Standing up off the bed, she winces as she catches her ankle, because the bed is slightly higher than expected. Retrieving her wand, she conjures a goblet of water to soothe her aching throat. Now that she's standing, the fact that everything is uncomfortably too large is even more apparent than it was. With nowhere else to go, she makes her way through the doorway. Outside the room, the corridors are all covered in some sort of resin, putting her on guard. She jumps and whirls around when someone says, "Wait right there, I'm just coming to find you. Please don't fire any spells, our instincts are a little trigger happy."
Still not seeing anyone, Minerva quite deliberately puts her wand in its wrist holster and braces herself. What she sees doesn't match expectations in any way, as a naked young woman with a tail and claws, blood red hair, and killing curse green eyes, comes around the corner. Her arms and legs have black leathery skin that gives way to human like skin on her torso and head.
She lifts a clawed hand and waves, "Hi, I'm Arry, queen of our hive. I asked Ptiana to find someone we can explain what happened to the human I accidentally skewered with my tail. If you follow me I'll take you to see, him? Is him the right word?"
"Before we go anywhere, where are your clothes?"
"I don't normally need them. However, when I appeared in my normal form the human fired at me, leading to his skewering. So I figured this would be less likely to lead to bloodshed."
Minerva pulls all of her experience, in unexpected situations, around her like a shield as she responds, "That is, considerate, of you."
"Anyway, this way. Oh, and nobody that you see here will harm you. You're part of the hive now."
As she follows Arry, Minerva misses a step with that last sentence, "I'm a what of the what now?"
"You're part of the hive. Ptiana decided that it was the only way that you'd be able to understand us."
"Who?"
"You'll meet her in a moment, as she's watching over her human."

True enough, after a few minutes of walking through an alien environment, she is led into a room with a row of metal coffins, where Fawkes is perched on one.
"Fawkes! You're here."
"I'm not Fawkes you stupid human. My name is Ptiana, as I keep telling people. I'm also female!"
"What?!"
"You can understand me! Happy days. This is my, and now your, Queen, Arry. My human sent me to find a child he lost, and I appeared in front of her. She followed me back to him and he attacked her, thinking her a monster. Admittedly she is a monster, but she's not a needlessly aggressive monster."
"Oi! I resemble that remark, and good on you being able to make it now."
Minerva staggers at the vehemence in the phoenixes tone, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
"Of course you didn't, you never even questioned it. Just like you never question anything my human does. Not that he helped matters, never actually asking anyone else except the stinky human if their plans are ok. As if the stinky human as any sort of good judgment after joining the snake human. While I'm at it, what do you have against me eating those sugary fruits? I'm a phoenix! I don't need to eat, I only do it for pleasure. I get reborn every few years, which clears out anything that might have been bad for me. I can't wait until you have your own first burning day. Oh, and you can flame back to the nest on your own. I'm going to raid the sugared lemons now."

Once Ptiana flames out, Arry turns to Minerva, "I guess she had a few unresolved issues."
"I, uh, had no idea." – Something the phoenix said trickles through her mind – "Does the name Potter mean anything to you?"
"Eh, it's familiar somehow."
Wracking her brain for any sort of idea, she tries to remember that night. Hagrid had brought Harry on Sirius' motorcycle, in a moses basket. Then Albus had tucked the letter into the blue blanket that covered the baby. "Accio baby blanket!"

"Hey, what's that?"
"Dunno, let's chase it."
*fun* *chase*

A moment later, a filthy blanket with the odd blue spot, where a fold had protected it from the grime that accumulated, flies through the door, followed by a few monsters, one humanoid with 4 arms, another arachnoid with 3 fingers on the end of two of it's legs. Finally a couple of pitch black creatures with elongated heads, vicious looking claws, and a sharp barbed tail. Following shortly behind them is a massive humanoid with a hideous maw and beady little eyes. They proceed to crowd around her, the ones with hands picking at her robes.
"Who's this? What's she wearing? Why does she smell strange? Did she bring food? *hive mate*"
"Children, you're being disrespectful."
The humanoid and arachnoid both jump back as though they've been bitten. The arachnoid lowers itself to the floor, "This one is sorry, this one is known as Krizror. Would that one be willing to share their name?"
The other one puts all four arms down by their side and bows, "I'm sorry, we should have introduced ourselves. I am Brugroch."
The break and introductions are enough for Minerva to gather her wits, though the monsters rubbing their heads against her thighs aren't helping, "I am Minerva McGonagall. Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"What's a school?" "What's witchcraft?"
"A school is a place where children go to be taught how to do the things that adults know how to do. Witchcraft is magic involving potions and rituals, while wizardry is magic involving spells and enchantments."
"Children, Minva will be able to talk later ok?"
"Awww."
The two that backed off leave, while the others keep rubbing their heads against her. Deliberately raising her wand and enunciating the spell, she says "Scourgify". All of the dirt and grime flake off of the blanket, revealing a golden 'Harry' embroidered in a corner.
She turns to Arry, tears in her eyes, "You are, were, Harry Potter. I knitted this blanket for you when you were a baby. Can I hug you?"
Arry looks at her strangely, "What's a hug?"
"I don't know how to describe it, but it's gentle."
"Ok, go ahead."
Minerva steps up to Arry and pulls her into a gentle hug, just how tall Arry is, becoming apparent by the fact the top of her head only just reaches Arry's chin. "I'm so sorry I never looked for you. I trusted Albus when he said that you were safe and happy."
Awkwardly, Arry returns the hug, "I was safe and happy, well mostly safe. I have my children."
"You should have been raised in a loving household, not taking on so much responsibility so young."
"I wasn't, and instead I have seen so many amazing things, helped people, and even built up a good trophy collection. We can talk about my life later. At the moment, you need to know that the healing chamber says that the old human will be healed in 2 cycles."
Minerva looks up at Arry's face, "What happened?"
"Ptiana ran away so I followed her, when I arrived the old human shot me three times in the side. Reflexively I speared him with my tail and, well, you can see if you look through the window there. Ptiana demanded that I fix him, so I brought him here, and told her to find someone we could explain the situation to."
Minerva is surprised at how well she's taking this news, "I see. How long did you say it would take him to heal?"
"2 cycles."
"I have no idea how long that is."
"There's 360 ticks to a rest period, 360 rest periods to a cycle."
"I see, I think. You wouldn't know how long that is on Earth?"
"Dirtside it depends on the rotation of the planet."
"Earth is the name of our planet."
"You call your planet Dirt?"
"Some people call it Gaia?"
"I'm going to need a little more than that." – Arry walks over to a console on the wall and presses a few icons – "What colour is the star?"
"Erm, yellow I think."
"How many planets does it have?"
"9?"
"How many gas giants?"
"3 or 4, Jupiter has a large red spot, and Saturn has rings."
"Ok, which planet starting from the star do you live on?"
"The third one."
"Does it have any distinctive features?"
"A large moon?"
"I have 4 possibilities in this galaxy, do you recognise any of these?"
"That one."
"I see, it has been surveyed, and it apparently is part of a hunting preserve for the Yautja. There are currently debates about listing it as a developing world, after the last failed hunt showed significant technological development, that may preclude remaining unnoticed within 30 cycles. An average rotation of the planet is 4 ticks longer than a Rest Period."
Finally, tears prick Minerva's eyes as she walks over to the window indicated, and looks at her mentors face and the gaping wound in his chest. It takes her a moment, but she notices that the tiny arms inside are removing his beard and hair as well as working on the hole. Stepping back sharply she exclaims, "What are they doing to his hair?"
Arry glances over from the console, "Oh, the machines are fixing any deformities. It's a Skarli design healing pod, Brugroch was one before we rescued him from a Hive, the one with 4 arms. They don't have body hair."
"You have to get him out of there."
"He doesn't have a heart, can you fix that?"
"Ah, I don't know."
"Could you get him to a human that can fix it before he dies?"
Minerva's shoulders slump, "No. I see, I'll need to go back and tell people that he's currently in a healing sleep. How do I get back?"
Arry shrugs, "The same way Ptiana did. Give it a couple of rest cycles and your connection to the hive should firm up enough for you to understand how to do it."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's a natural ability isn't it. Like being able to control your tail and talons when they grow in. It would be a little awkward if you disembowelled yourself accidentally while scratching an itch, or sliced your foot off with your tail because you forgot where it was."
Minerva just stares at Arry in horror.

Discussions


"Good afternoon Madam Marchbanks, thank you for seeing me at such short notice."
"Not at all Minerva, you said in your letter it was urgent."
"I did, I was expecting to need to come to you though. Tea?"
"Yes please."
"Tilly, would you get some tea for the both of us, and some biscuits. Oh, and do you still have any of that sweet meat you served the other day?"
"Tilly does. Tilly will bring Miss Kitty a plate."
"Sweet meats Minerva?"
"I've, discovered, that it's possible for your animagus form to change."
"Ah, I see. Well, the law only says you must be registered. It doesn't say anything about updating your registration."
"Thank you."

They continue to exchange pleasantries until the tea has been served. Once they both have a cup Marchbanks sits back, "What is so urgent that you needed to contact the Education Department?"
"Albus is taking an enforced 2 year leave of absence. He suffered a grievous injury and has been placed into a healing sleep while he recovers."
"I see, I have not heard of him being admitted to St Mungo's"
"When I saw him a few days ago, he was still missing his heart and large parts of his lungs and spine."
"I, see. You didn't feed him unicorn blood?"
"Oh Merlin, no. Miss Potter was able to get him to a healing artifact. It's the artifact that has put him into a sleep."
"So you are informing us of this…"
"I am the Deputy Head, so I will be Acting Head Master during his infirmity. As there is a known recovery period, he will maintain his position until he is able to defend any calls to replace him. I wish to petition for a new introductory potions teacher, and an assistant to help me with the paperwork while I maintain my teaching position."
"I understand the assistant, but why the potions teacher?"
"Severus is a brilliant potions master, and I have every respect for him in that capacity. However, he is unable to teach the basics. So I would like a potions teacher to take over years 1 and 2. They would only need to be a journeyman, as nothing students of that level will be learning should be that problematic."
"I see, and come third year, they should have the basic skills to take advantage of a potions master of Severus' calibre. I assume it doesn't hurt that is also when Albus should be taking over again."
"There is that, yes."
"There's more to it, isn't there."
"There is."
"What has you concerned about the dear potions master?"
"Miss Potter."
Marchbanks raises an eyebrow, "I was under the impression that there was a boy who lived, not a girl who lived."
"Oh, it's far more than that. Arry is physically a young woman, and she has 50 children of her own. Not including those that have been adopted (like me)"
"Sorry, I didn't catch that last bit."
"It was nothing important."
"I see, are you worried about her chastity?"
Minerva laughs, "Not at all, I'm more worried about needing to expand the graveyard."
Marchbanks frowns, "The school graveyard is only for staff and students that die on the grounds."
"I know. She killed 5 Gringotts guards, in the arena, before she got her wand."

After a long pause as she drinks her tea, Marchbanks says, "Miss Potter was the one that got Mr Dumbledore to the healing artifact. Miss Potter also called the goblins out on their behaviour, and won. Finally, you want a journeyman potioneer to teach the first and second years."
"Yes."
"I see. I will of course ensure that we have up to date contact details for some Druids."
"That would be appreciated."
"How are you planning to pay for these two new staff members?"
"Albus is only required to retain his job. Not get paid for it."
"And your existing positions?"
"I will be approaching Vector and Babbling for each of the positions I'm vacating. The Deputy position was only supposed to be temporary anyway until Albus found a suitable replacement."
"Indeed, they were both significant extra workloads."

Marchbanks pauses to eat a biscuit, "What of Mr Dumbledore's personal effects?"
"Those that belong to him will be placed in the Gringotts vault. Other items will be returned to their owners where possible."
"I am satisfied that you are fulfilling all of your duties, I will make arrangements for some candidates to be passed on to you. What of the defence position?"
"Albus has already signed a contract with one Quirinus Quirrell, he taught Muggle Studies here before leaving on a sabbatical."
"That's unfortunate. I hope you will do better next year."
"The issue is that the charter states that they must have a mastery in their subject."
"How are you going to hire the journeyman then?"
"The Master's are allowed to have assistants that teach the basics. We just haven't had enough students to use that clause since Dippet's time."
"Yet the other schools are overflowing with students."
"When it's the aristocracy that control the board, there's not much that I can do about our admissions requirements."
"Yes, well you didn't invite me here to talk politics. I think I have everything I need. Thank you for inviting me to tea. And please give Tilly my complements."
Minerva stands as Marchbanks does, "You're most welcome."
As Marchbanks leaves, she turns back, "Oh, you might want to think about filing your nails before you put gouges in your fine china."
As Pomona breaks up a clod of soil with her fingernails, she notes with approval that it's far easier to do now they've started to harden. She smiles at a shriek of laughter from her niece, over by the spitting tulips. She's staying with her for a week while her parents go on vacation. It helps that she seems to have taken a shine to the xenomorph child. Though giving her then name Murph is probably not a good thing. She absently fends of the devils snare while she thinks, she's been getting flashes of memories. Xenomorph against xenomorph in an eternal struggle for food and dominance. Hopefully, neither of those two will ever see such a thing happening. Honestly, she admires Arry's restraint at only having 50 children at present. With those memories, when she's honest with herself, she doesn't think she'd be happy with less than 10 times that number.
"That's why my nest is on a ship. T'o-Ba'sall is now starting to chart suitable planets for us to fall back to if we get attacked."
"My Queen, I didn't realise you were here."
"I'm not, I'm being dragged around Diagon Alley to get all of the necessities that a 'young lady' of my station needs."
"Still."
"That's not the worst thing, I'm being badgered by a girl called Hermione. She keeps asking what it's like to have a tail and claws."
Pomona laughs, "You could just offer it to her."
"That's actually a good idea, thank you."
"Wait, that was a joke." Alas it's too late Arry has already turned her attention back to her own situation.
"But Arry, surely it must be possible to describe it. How does glass feel for example?"
"Hermione, I don't know any differently. How could I describe what it's like any more than a cat could describe what their body is like compared to a humans? You could find out though?"
"Oh, but what about my parents."
"You could then write a book about the experience. Maybe get published in one of those journals you mentioned."
"Maybe, but we're supposed to be shopping."
"Who says right now? I've heard of something called a sleepover, and I've never had one. Maybe you could ask them if you could go on one with me."
"Where?"
"To my home of course, silly. I could then show you my trophy collection, watch the stars for a bit, and maybe even look at the computers."
"Oh, you have computers, what sort do you have? We have a brand new 486DX50, and I've been able to program a couple of games on it from the manual."
"I think I'll let you guess, after all if I tell you everything you won't have anything to look forward to."
"Mum, Dad, can I go to a sleepover with Arry?"
Henry looks at Vivian, "What do you think?"
"How will you get home honey?"
Hermione looks at Arry expectantly, who replies, "I can transport myself very long distances, so I should be able to get her home. If not, I can certainly get her back here."
"Are there any responsible adults at home?"
"Yes.", Arry thinks of T'o-Ba'sall when she answers.
"Henry, I think that we should let her. It's always nice to have new friends when you go to a new school."
"You're right dear, and if she should make a friend before school, all the better."
Arry is sure that there's something being communicated that she doesn't have the context for. But never mind.
Professor Babbling just sighs, having a phoenix on tap is just cheating, "Arry can travel by phoenix fire, it says a lot about her character that she's not actually showing off her bonded phoenix. Indeed, I was brought here with that method of travel, and I never even saw the phoenix."
Vivian looks askance at the professor, "What's the significance of a phoenix?"
"They're considered to be creatures of the light, and are considered to be a symbol of a great and powerful good wizard. It's said that if a wizard ever strays from the path of the light, their companion will leave them."
Arry struggles not to laugh given what she knows about Ptiana.
Once their shopping is, in Arry's opinion, thankfully over, she grabs Hermione's hand, "Do you still want to find out?"
Hermione looks unsure until Henry says, "Go on dear, you've got some money for a payphone if Arry can't get you home tomorrow."
Hermione nods, "I'm sure."
They both disappear in a flash of fire, much to the surprise of bystanders.
"Little Moon is that you?" A dishevelled man staggers out of the nearby street and comes over to the group. The eyewatering colours of his outfit muted by the accumulated dirt of not having cleaned them in over a week. "Did you see it? Did you see the fire chicken that took my Little Moon away?"
Professor Babbling looks at the man sympathetically, "I'm sorry Xeno, Luna wasn't here."
"I know, she found a new mummy and didn't come home for dinner. She was stolen by a fire chicken, I saw the flames. I know the nargles are stopping you from understanding me, but that's ok, I just need to find my moon. She's the only one that can put hope back in the box."
"Viv?"
"It's supposed to be my day off Henry." – Henry just looks pointedly at the distressed man – "Fine."
"Professor, what's happened to him?"
"His wife died in February and he's been losing touch with reality since then."
"Losing touch how?"
"Talking about things that don't exist, saying that certain things are causing other things. Neglecting both himself and his daughter."
Vivian sighs, "Is there somewhere we can have a semi private talk for a couple of hours? I'm a licenced Prescribing Psychiatrist, his symptoms seem very similar to things that I deal with day to day."
"I can talk with Tom in the Leaky Cauldron."
"What's his surname?"
"Lovegood why?"
"I want to talk to him, and knowing his name is the first step." – Vivian walks over and carefully puts her hand on Xeno's arm – "Mr Lovegood, I'm a doctor. I don't know where your daughter is, but I would like to talk to you about what happened. Maybe understand what you're trying to describe to people about how she disappeared. Will you come with me and have a chat?"
"You're not brushing me down? Nobody else believes me."
"No, I'm not brushing you off. I do want to talk to you."
Relief is visible on his face and he looks down at himself, "But I'm not presentable."
Vivian laughs, "That's perfectly fine. A lot of people I talk to aren't at their best. A large part of what I do is find out how to help them get back to their normal."
"That would be good, normal hasn't been around since hope left the box and joined all the other ills in the world."
Vivian looks up to see Henry waving at her, "Come on, my husband has arranged somewhere we can talk privately."

A couple of hours later, Vivian comes out and hands Henry a sheet of paper with a prescription written on it, "Can you head to a hospital and get this filled please, I think he had a psychotic break when his wife died, and it's just been getting worse since then. Oh, and book a room, as we're going to be here overnight."
Arry and Hermione appear in one of the sleeping rooms, and Hermione's immediately looking around curiously, "Is this a magical dwelling?"
Arry laughs, "No, this is a ship. We're currently in the Scutum–Centaurus arm of the galaxy and your planet unobservable due to the black hole in the centre. Come on I'll show you."

While subdued, Hermione still manages to ask questions almost faster than they can be answered. At least until they get to an observation deck. As she stares at the stars, Arry turns off the lights, then slips off to her laying room and retrieves a face hugger. When she returns Hermione is still staring at the stars.
"It's beautiful isn't it."
"I never imagined they could have so many different colours."
"It's the atmosphere. It absorbs some of the light, it's even more pretty in X-ray and Radio."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not human Hermione, I was once as a baby, but I haven't been since then. That's why I couldn't explain what it's like to have claws and a tail, as they are the normal parts of me. Naturally, I see the world through what your language calls X-rays, Radio waves, and infrared. Even like this, I have superior senses to you."
"Are you going to eat me?"
"No Hermione, I'm not going to eat you. I'm holding something that translates as a face hugger. If you accept it, it will deposit a seed inside you that will make you part of my hive. Over time you will grow claws and a tail, you'll also be able to communicate with the rest of the hive when they're close enough. Professor McGonagall can even turn into a furry one of my kind. Professor Sprout is also a member. So you wanted to know what it was like, and I offered to let you find out."
"Ok? Will I still be able to see my parents?"
"I don't see why you wouldn't. They're still your parents, you'll just be part of my family too."
"But what about going out in society?"
"You're entering the magical world, where people didn't say anything about my own appearance. You'll also learn how to read and speak the languages used in the ships computers, as well as the other space faring people. I'm sure that there are ways that you could go out in the rest of the world with your parents too. After all, I doubt that Goblins and Centaurs are completely restricted to the magical world."
Lured by the siren song of computers so advanced they make her home computer look like a calculator, Hermione turns to Arry's voice, "What do I need to do?"
"I'm holding a face hugger, when I hand it to you lift it up to your face and allow it to hold onto your head. It will push something down your throat, so try not to panic. If you do it will knock you out and you'll wake up with the whole thing finished. You won't be able to make any noise, because it will be taking care of your air supply. Once it starts there's nothing you can do to stop the process. So be sure this is what you want. If you don't, it's not a problem, they'll just be parts of the ship that are unsafe for you to visit. And you'll need an escort everywhere else for your own safety."
Hermione turns back to the stars for a long time as she tries to think like an adult and be sensible. The truth is that she is an 11 year old girl who loves books, science, and knowledge, and doesn't trust other children due to a chronic case of ostracization and mild bullying. She's an 11 year old child who is desperate for friends and acceptance, but doesn't really know how to go about achieving it. As such her thoughts are really rationalisation for why doing what she wants to do is the right thing. After nearly an hour, she turns back to where she thinks Arry is and holds out her hands, "I'll do it."

Hermione eeps as Arry says from behind her, "I did wonder. You'll want both hands, I'm going to give it to you now. Do you think you can prevent yourself from panicking and trying to pull it off?"
Hermione just nods, and recoils slightly as the thing is placed in her hands. Bracing herself against the window, she brings it up to her face, and can't help but scream when it jumps out of her hands. Eyes wild, she grabs her head instead of the face hugger and some how manages to not claw at the thing on her face. Arry gently takes her wrists in her hands and pulls them down, and over the next few minutes Hermione calms down.
"Are you doing ok?"
Hermione nods, mutely.
"Would you like me to turn the lights back on?"
Hermione nods and Arry lets go of her hands. Slowly the lights come back up and she can see part of what's around her face in the edge of her vision. Pulling a compact mirror out of her handbag, she holds it up and, in detached curiosity, explores the face hugger with her fingers and her eyes. It's leathery like a snake rather than bony like it's appearance would suggest, and it's weirdly warm.
"Would you like to see my Laying room?"
Hermione sends a questioning look at Arry even as she tries to answer.
"It's where I lay my eggs, including the one that came out of. Luna's there too, she's a girl who was looking for a new mummy."
Hermione looks frustrated with her inability to ask questions, but nods anyway.
"Come on this way, you can meet T'o-Ba'sall too, she's the first non-xenomorph I changed a couple of years ago. She's the responsible adult, and plans most of our hunts and bounties. Oh, I must take her to Earth so that she can find me if there's a rogue hive. Ptiana has been a most fortuitous addition to the hive. She's a phoenix, and is why we can now travel by phoenix flames. You'll be able to do it too in a tenday or so once you've finished mentally joining the hive. That's also when the physical changes will start too, beginning with your claws."

"Anyway, this is my laying room, over there is my trophy wall. Most of the skulls are from people that were trying to kill me. The others are all from pirates or people that got a bounty for killing other people. Underneath them is the weapons they were armed with when I fought them. Let me just say, don't bother trying to fight any goblins, they're just too meh. I faced 5 of them and they had no idea how to combat something that was faster than them and not stupid."
Hermione finds out that it's very hard to panic when something else is controlling your breathing, as she continues to take slow, deep, measured breaths.
"Anyway, this is my ovipositor, isn't it great. I laid all of these eggs. Not like this obviously, I'll only change briefly, as you won't be able to understand me once I've changed."
Hermione's eyes widen even more, and tears start to form, as Arry changes and towers over her, before briefly climbing into the Ovipositor and waving the laying tube around. A moment later Arry's back and Hermione's been tugged over to a large window. Arry presses a barely visible button and the whole thing lights up.
"This is the command computer. I normally keep it off as the light is annoying. But this is the galactic map, and I've got Earth marked over here." – She points at a location on the left of the screen – "We're all the way over here. Then in the middle is a massive black hole. This red/blue line around it is the minimum safe approach distance. It's also highlighted in a couple of other colours, but you can't see them yet. When you can, the line just looks white, but as most species that travel out here can't see every part of the spectrum the light is shown in, at the same time, it's not a problem."
Hermione loses track of time as she and Arry look at the computer, and Arry shows her zoomed in parts of the galaxy, where major population centres are located. She never realised there were so many planets that could support life in the galaxy. Suddenly, the forgotten face hugger withdraws its proboscis from her throat and falls away from her face, leaving her coughing.

"How are you feeling?"
"My throats a bit sore, and I feel empty. I just forgot it was there."
"That's brilliant, I knew my idea would work."
"What idea?"
"I had this idea a few years ago, that I could lay face huggers that wouldn't have a baby or seed. They could then be used as emergency life support. But nobody was willing to try it voluntarily, and pretty much everyone else panics and tries to pull them off. At which point the face hugger restricts blood flow to their brain until they pass out."
"I can see why, I half expected it to happen, and I screamed. I think I'm still in shock."
"Na, you're all good, it's the seed starting to change you. It has to start in the brain otherwise the suddenness of some of the changes could kill you. Not to mention that your link to the Hive is there too. You'll probably start hearing the others in another hour or so. As we've got a break, Luna's over here. She formed her chrysalis yesterday, which is why I ended up shopping with you today."
Hermione looks at something that reminds her more of a caterpillar, turning into a butterfly, than the creature that Arry showed herself to be.
"I'll move her to the school once it starts, so that if she finishes earlier than expected, I'll be around. If I'm not she may not bond to me, and could attack me when she next sees me. She'll eventually want to start a hive of her own, but until she does I'd rather she sees me as kin than an uneasy ally."
"What do you mean?"
Arry sits on her tail, "You have to understand, that for the most part xenomorphs are animals. If they survive long enough they can develop intelligence, but they never really develop empathy. I guess that's where being born human has changed me. Anyway, we all have ancestral memories passed down from queen to queen, though a surviving drone if necessary. You'll start accessing those before we return to Earth in the morning. They also come with a very strong sense of instincts that can be impossible to override. You'll see what I mean later, and you can write about the experience in your book. Part of that is that other hives are the enemy, and the only way to ensure they're not the enemy is to eliminate them, or subdue them. In the face of a stronger hive, it's always eliminate. It's especially hard for queens like me, and also Luna, as we cannot willingly submit."
"Why did you change Luna to a Queen and not me?"
"Two reasons, the first is that she said she wanted lots of children, and I didn't know that all human females could birth children. Myself included, if I'm willing to stay humanoid for the entire pregnancy, apparently. The second is that a chest burster, the form that the babies grow into, has to be fed royal jelly to cause the change into a queen. When I forced Luna to change, she was right on the edge of her first moult. As she's younger than you are, you'd probably have already gone through your moult. Oh, and Luna's going to be in that cocoon for the next 6 tendays. I think that works out at 2 months. We'd have definitely needed your parents' permission for that one."

"That reminds me, I need to ensure she has enough food. Do you want to see the onboard lab, I need to see what's so special about this sapphire that makes it valuable."

Rescue


"Glass, they think coloured glass is valuable?"
"Erm," Hermione ventures, "I don't think it's glass that's valuable. I remember someone using a hammer to prove that sapphires were the real thing. Oh, I've got a drink with me. They come in glass bottles. This is Coke Cola."
Arry takes the bottle of coke and breaks the top off with a claw, "Kinda fragile isn't it? How's it supposed to stand up to micrometeorite impacts?"
"I guess, dad did walk through the back door once. He's got a massive scar he likes to say was from a tiger."
"Anyway, let's see what this is made from. Oh, hey there's a lot of sucrose in this drink, and some poison too, don't let Krizror drink any till she's older, it might kill her. Hmm, Silicon Dioxide, no discernible structure. Absolutely useless, no wonder that sapphire is so valuable. Probably a chip off of something important."
"Actually, they're found in the ground and mined out. I think they're valuable because we can't just make them."
Arry stares at Hermione like she's grown another head, "Huh? You mine it? Why? I could understand if it was something useful, but Aluminium Oxide?"
"I don't know, I'm only 11. I just know they do."
"Oh, yeah, humans grow slower than we do don't they."
"Arry, am I going to grow up quickly too?"
"What? Huh, probably not. The other two are still growing, and they've been with me for a couple of cycles."
"Aww, I wanted people to treat me like a grown up."
"Don't worry about it. So, I'm going to print out some coloured glass into a small box or something, do you want me to make you one while I'm at it?"
"A new compact mirror would be nice. Mine keep breaking under my books."

"That's another thing I don't understand, why books? Why not computers like this, or share information like we do?"
"So far as I know, we don't have any computers that could do that and be portable."
"I'm sure we've got some in the junk that pirates leave around, I'd give you a Yautja one, but they take minimalism to an extreme with their computers. Probably the small nuke they carry around with them taking up too much space."
"Nuke?"
"What, oh yes. All Yautja hunters carry a nuke with them. As they are often involved in clearing out Xenomorph nests, it's a prudent safety precaution. My children have all learnt to disarm them first, then deal with their weapons."
"How many have you had to face?"
"Oh, a hunting party every 30 rest days or so, they're actually… Oh wait, here they are. Let's get you to the laying room, as I don't want you to get caught up in this until you've got the means to defend yourself. Luna's also there so she needs defending."
Arry breaks into a jog and Hermione struggles to keep up, that is until Arry just changes form mid stride and throws her on her back.
Arry paces backwards and forwards in front of a suspended Yautja hunter, "Why is it always the children that get here first?"
"I made my way here unopposed, I passed up the opportunity to gain lesser honour for the honour of taking out the Queen."
"Yeah, that would do it, well you're the first one in a couple of cycles that didn't just attack as soon as they saw me."
"You have an Ooman, I might have hurt her and lost the chance to take her for my breeding stock."
Arry pulls open his loin covering, "Oh, you're male! I wanted to see what would happen if I adopt a male. I don't think you'll be male for long though, as I've not found any drones yet."
"Let me down and fight honourably!"
Arry cocks her head, "I'm using my natural abilities, and you're using weapons. I think you'll find I'm the one fighting honourably here."

At the back of the room, Hermione bites her hand to keep from shouting. She was going to ask for leniency until he said she'd become a breeding stock. She's not cattle for crying out loud.
Arry looks over her shoulder, "Oh, I forgot you don't know. Yautja are all Hunters, with the capital H. Earth is considered to be a Yautja hunting reserve, different clans visit every 50-60 cycles, sometimes more often, sometimes less. But many clans don't want to lose the challenge of fighting a species as inventive as you, so they kidnap a few every time they visit. They also use them for stress relief, whatever that is."
"That's… Horrible. How could they do that?"
Arry shrugs, "You're not Yautja, so they don't have to go through the social rituals to force you into being a brood mother. I've sent an instruction to my children that any unbloodied should be brought here alive if possible. I'll let T'o-Ba'sall decide their fates."
The male struggles vainly, "That abomination needs to die, she's betrayed her clan and her species."
"See, here's the thing he's not saying, T'o-Ba'sall had the choice of becoming a bloodied hunter too young, or becoming a brood mare forever. Like this one she made her way straight here to attack me, though in her case it was because having the skull of a queen is an undeniable honour that can't be put down to luck."
Hermione nods and then says, "Wait, how comes I can understand you, you haven't changed back yet."
"It's the seed working, in another few ticks it will be completely gone and part of you. Language is the simplest aspect of the Hive to pick up so that's what you picked up first. What's interesting is that the male here hasn't considered the implications of a Xenomorph being able to speak, let alone speak Yautja."
The male stills, and his eyes seek out the trophy wall, "Pauk, you've been listening to us!"
"There is that implication too however we weren't. I was thinking more along the lines of it takes actual intelligence to use language. And actual intelligence means the ability to plan beyond basic ambushes and pack tactics."

A too young female appears in a pillar of fire, with a worker, her legs glued together with resin, and the stump of one hand sealed to prevent her bleeding out. The other hand is encased in resin. The worker runs out of the laying chamber as quickly as it arrived.
"Pauk!" Arry swears, "T'o-Ba'sall stop having fun and get here now. I need you to confirm clan markings."
T'o-Ba'sall looks down at the unbloodied female, the memories that Minva and Pomona have added to the hive making her emotions roil even more than they would normally. "She is of the same clan that claimed me, I also see an erased clan marking."
Arry flows down into her more human appearance as she crouches down next to her, "I see, and am I right that she's too young?"
T'o-Ba'sall can only nod.
"Youngling, can you tell me why you are on this hunt when you should still be in your creche learning your ways?"
The female glances at the male suspended in mid-air and shakes her head.

An older female appears in a pillar of fire, in much the same condition as this one. A moment later, another male appears, also older.
"T'o-Ba'sall I leave their judgment in your hands, I need to take this young one to have her hand reattached. Come Hermione, you may as well see this, rather than watch what T'o-Ba'sall is going to do."
Once Arry and the new ooman Ermione have left, T'o-Ba'sall turns back to the three captives. "You have all shown yourselves to be without honour. A youngling like that has no place on a hunt, and yet you did not speak up against her. The males I understand, they just want the chance for a Breeding female if no chiva are available at the appropriate age. But what of you? Should you not have defended her right to be a full member of the clan, and not be forced into the path of failure?"
The older female spits, "She had h'chak when she was found, her kin had no yin'tekai so she need to show she not pyode."
"Am I pyode?"
"M-di."
"I thought so, I was like her. All younglings are pyode, that's why they're younglings. R'ka will become her family because you are without honour. She will have the chance at chiva, R'ka or not, when she's old enough to choose. I am going to show you mercy, you will all return home later. However, I am going to remove your tusks, so that you have the same mercy she was shown."
All three of them start to struggle, and the female says, "You can't do that, we'll be Eta."
"Isn't that what would have happened to her? Never mind, they'll certainly have the space for you, as my queen has just found out that there are others that were captured at the same time. One of whom has already been declared Eta for not doing her chiva."
T'o-Ba'sall stalks across the ceiling of the clan ship, while the Yautja on console tries to raise the hunting craft again. For one of her hive, getting aboard was as simple as finding a window to look through. Slowly she makes her way to the building shared by all the orphans, those who have been taken when their family were declared bad bloods, or those whose family died during a hunt. There may be a few more joining the house soon. As she teleports through a window, she makes her way around the bunks and training area, noting with disgust that there are no males with markings from another clan. Idly she wonders what the Adjudicators would make of this. Fortunately, from the 20 or so younglings, only three have the erased markings of another clan. Silently, when they leave the group and are out of sight for even a few seconds, she captures each one, and returns them to her hive in a flash of fire.

Leaving the building the same way she arrived, she makes her way to the Eta quarters. Where those who failed their chiva's, or refused to take them, reside. There she finds a place to relax until the rest period ends, and the Eta return to take their rest at the beginning of the next rest period. While resting she records a message for an Adjudicator, she'll send it just before she leaves.
"Adjudicator, forgive me for sending a recording. However, my concern is for the life and honour of my charges. Each one of the Yautja that I have taken from the Dark Blade Clan today were denied their chiva's or forced to take them so early they could not succeed. I and my R'ka will give them family and a chance to earn their own honour, rather than having it stolen from them. Feel free to trace this message, as it will lead you straight to the clan ship I'm recording it on. I'm sure their records will show my name somewhere, I am T'o-Ba'sall formerly of Dark Blade, formerly of Jungle Hunter Clan."

Soon enough, the Eta are gathered in the social room. Releasing her grip on the ceiling, she drops silently to the floor and spits resin around the main door. It won't prevent them from leaving, just delay them until she's finished with her tasks. As she enters the communal room, she spots three tuskless Yautja. They look at her, anger in their eyes, before rushing her. After a short, but frenetic fight, T'o-Ba'sall is victorious and all three of them are lying on the floor bloodied, but alive.

Paying the three of them no mind, she turns her gaze to the shamed Yautja in the room, "I am T'o-Ba'sall and I could have been like you. Instead, I chose to take my chiva early. I was then sent on a suicide mission to take on a Queen with a small hive. I didn't know it at the time, but she has been attacked regularly for years, and never once been defeated. I was lucky, I made my way directly to her chamber, as I knew only the most prestigious of trophies would secure my future. She didn't kill me. She doesn't kill children. Instead she gave me a gift. At the time I thought it was a punishment from the gods, now I see it as it truly is. These three accompanied another youngling that should have still been training for her chiva. Though, she, like I, was taken from another clan because her family were declared bad bloods. My queen has decided that all those who were denied their chiva should be given the opportunity to join our family. Ne'stbei said that Ce'jaun was taken just before she chose to leave early, having no opportunity to undertake chiva until after her name day."

"I am Ce'jaun, is Ne'stbei safe?"
"She is, she was still having her hand reattached when I left."

A male calls, "How do we know this isn't a trick?"
T'o-Ba'sall laughs, "You don't, but these three didn't have the tusks to stand up for a youngling, so I took them from them. I will be leaving in 2 ticks. Any of you that wish to come with me can hold my tail. Where is your communication hub?"
Ce'jaun points to a console in the wall.
"Thank you."

For those ticks, T'o-Ba'sall busies herself looking up as many Arbitrators as she can and attaching their details to her message. Ce'jaun was the first one to take hold, but another 4 also have the courage to do so. Two of which are also from other clans originally. What surprises her, is when the Female from the ship crawls over and takes hold, and a male does too. She feels him look at one of the other two, ah, he's mated then.
Hermione looks up from her conversation with Ne'stbei as T'o-Ba'sall reappears in the infirmary again. The surprising part being how many chose to accompany her. Arry was already talking to the three younglings that were kidnapped. Turning back to Ne'stbei, she sees her smile at one of the people that just arrived, she blinks a couple of times, how does she know that's a smile?
"Hey, Ne'stbei, how are you feeling about the process now?"
"It's disquieting, I should be dead or glued to a wall waiting to die. R'ka shouldn't save you then patch you up."
"R'ka?"
"Our word for these creatures, means hard meat."
"Do you think you could wear a face hugger without panicking so that those three can see it doesn't hurt?" Hermione indicates the three younglings.
"Why do you ask so softly?"
"I think it's a human thing, my mother does it too."
"Ooman. I believe that I am ready. I was ready to face my death for my chiva, so facing this for my death seems a small thing."
Hermione raises her voice, "Arry, would you get a face hugger for Ne'stbei?"
Arry looks up, "Really? That was quick."
"I was able to describe my experience with it. I think it made it easier to swallow."
Arry frowns, "I don't see how it made it easier to swallow. It should make it easier to swallow but Ne'stbei hasn't had one yet."
"It's an English expression, it means easier to accept."

Arry disappears with a pop and reappears just as quickly, a face hugger wrapped around her hand. Hermione stands up and walks over, "May I take it?"
With a curious look, Arry allows it to transfer over and wrap around Hermione's hand. Hermione then walks back to Ne'stbei, "This is the way that Arry did it for me a few hours ago. When you're sure, take it in both hands then bring it up to your face. It will jump at you, just remember, if you try to bite it, or pull it off with your hands, it will knock you out until it's finished."
Ne'stbei confidently takes the face hugger, and then discovers that there is a vast difference between choosing and doing. Everything she's ever been taught tells her that this is a death sentence. A painful death sentence. Yet across from here sits a soft meat that wouldn't harm a pjaque if she was starving, and she's already done it. Not only that, but she was able to give advice about it.
"Don't worry, it took me a long time to lift it up too."
How did she know what she was thinking?
"Because it's written all over your face, and I had the same thoughts."
Closing her eyes, she enters meditation, and then, with her thoughts centred, lifts her hands to her face. When it leaves her hands she almost tries to rip it off, but gentle hands take hold of her own and she opens her eyes and stares at Hermione. She could rip her arms off accidentally, and she's just smiling at her.
"See, it's not so hard is it. It's not strangling you, or clutching your head too tightly. Here, I've got a mirror, have a look."
She holds up something that absorbs heat, and is absolutely useless for her to see her reflection in. Fortunately, Arry calls over, "Hermione, they can't see visible light naturally, they see heat sources."
"Oh, I'm so sorry. You must think I'm so insensitive."
Of course, now that she can't reply, the ooman has decided to retell her life story. Under the watchful eyes of every other Yautja in the room, Ne'stbei resigns herself to how ever long it's going to take this process to finish.
Henry hands Vivian a coffee, "How's your patient doing?"
"Better, he's more able to order his thoughts to communicate what he wants to say. It turns out that fire chicken is phoenix, and it appears that Arry took Luna."
"Is it me, or did that girl behave more like she'd read about how a girl behaves and tried to do it, rather than growing up."
"It's not you. But then again, she does have a tail, so it could well be that's exactly what she did. That's beside the point, I think he's going to need regular counselling, to help him come to terms with the death of his wife, Pandora. That's why he kept saying hope left the box. When they get back. If Hermione had a good time, I'm going to ask if Arry can look after her for another week so that we can put Mr Lovegood up in our spare room."
"That bad?"
"I think he might be suicidal, and I want to get him on some Prozac and keep the anti-psychotics going for a week while we have daily chats. If we can find out if Luna is ok, then that will help. Especially if we can determine a timeline for her to see him again, it will give him a target to work towards."

Yautja language reference https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Yautja_Language

Note: In story they use R'ka for xenomorphs in a non-hunting setting.

Breakdown

Bubona looks out of her window as her daughter is playing in the early morning sunlight with that creature again. With a sigh, she's about to turn away to floo her sister, when her daughter turns into something else, and suddenly darts into the undergrowth. Hurrying to the floo, she dumps a handful of powder into the floo, far more than is needed, "Hogwarts greenhouses." As soon as the fire turns green, she's on her hands and knees with her head through the fire, "Pomona! Pomona! Are you there. I need you!"
A minute later, her sister comes into view, brushing dirt of her hands, "What's the matter?"
"My niece, she was playing with that creature and she changed."
"You mean Murph?"
"Yes, that. I tolerate it because it can seemingly come and go when it wants, but I draw the line with Vesta changing into that. Not only that, but she's disappeared into the undergrowth somewhere."
"Fine, I will find my… someone that can help. Be warned that you may not get the result you're hoping for." Pomona walks away from the floo, and a burst of yellow light illuminates what Bubona can see of the room.
"Ok Hermione, ready to go?"
Hermione looks up at Arry from where she's reading to the youngest of the Yautja that have joined the hive. Honestly, she feels sorry for Ne'stbei, as she was subjected to a massive battery of medical scans by the older Yautja as soon as the face hugger fell off.
"Do I have to?"
"Yes, we promised your parents."
"But they can't read my books."
"All of the new members will be moving to Earth soon, so you can read to them then."
Reluctantly, Hermione stands up, "Fine. But they were going to tell me some of their stories when we finished the book."
"Now, do you know where you live?"
"Of course, it's 72 Beech lane…"
"I don't mean the address, I mean can you really picture it."
"Ah, no?"
Arry hangs her head, "Right, the Alley it is."

Together they appear in a flash of fire, before walking into the Leaky Cauldron from Diagon Alley. There, Hermione sees her mother waving at them. So she grabs Arry's hand and pulls her over to the table, "Mum, Dad, what are you doing here?"
Vivian smiles at the two of them, "Take a seat both of you. I'd like to introduce you to Xenophilus Lovegood. Widower and father. He's also my newest patient."
Reflexively Hermione says, "Pleased to meet you."
Xeno looks up at Arry, "I remember you, you took my Little Moon away."
"I did," Arry admits, "you weren't taking very good care of her."
"I know, I was doing my best but…"
Vivian puts her hand on his, "Mr Lovegood, you don't have to explain yourself. Just ask what you want to ask."
"Thank you Doctor. Luna, is she alright?"
"She is, she's currently in a cocoon, but she should emerge in just shy of 6 tendays. That's 60 rest periods, which are almost an Earth day."
Hermione's eyebrows furrow, "I still don't get that, why rest periods and tendays?"
"Multiple spacefaring species. The Yautja didn't have a concept of anything but ticks, rest periods, and cycles. So tenday got adopted."
Henry laughs, "Much like many English terms then."
Xeno finishes processing what was said, and organising his own thoughts, "Arry, why is she in a cocoon?"
"When she met me, she said that she wanted lots of children. Then complimented me on having lots of children. So, I frightened her into becoming a xenomorph to survive, and then fed her royal jelly to turn her into a queen like me. As a queen, I am able to produce Royal Jelly pretty much on demand, so she did in a tenday what it took a cycle for me to do. Pretty much all she did in that time is eat Jelly and sleep."
"Could I see her?"
Vivian speaks up again, "Mr Lovegood, why don't we set meeting Luna as a goal for you to aim for. If Arry agrees, then if you have made good progress by the time she's about to emerge, you can watch her emerge."
"I can do that, but I'm worried about her."
"Write it down in your journal, and we'll go over it together tonight. Which brings me to the next thing, Arry, would Hermione be able to stay with you for another week please? Hermione, Mr Lovegood is going to need to stay with us for a week, and you know what that's like."
Hermione bounces in her seat with excitement, "I get to spend more time with Aihrein and Cadta, oh, but first can we go to a bookshop please dad? I don't have enough books to read them."
"Can't they read themselves?"
"Of course not silly, they don't see with visible light, they see by heat."
"Oh, silly me, why wouldn't I know something nobody told me."
"Dad, you're making fun of me."
Henry laughs, "Whatever you've been doing with my daughter, keep doing it. I've never seen her this animated about visiting someone elses home."

There is a flash of fire and Pomona appears standing next to the table, "My Queen…" Pomona takes in her surroundings, "I wasn't expecting you to be on Earth."
"Just call me Arry Professor, what can I do for you?"
"Murph has been playing with my niece most days, and Vesta has just changed. Bubona called me in a panic, so I said I'd find someone that can help."
Arry looks at the ceiling, then looks at everyone around the table apologetically, to which Henry laughs, "Go, I'll take Hermione to Foyles after breakfast and meet here when you're ready. (Can't exactly leave without her until we're ready to go, as there's no way back in if I do)"
Standing, Arry takes Pomona's hand and they both disappear in a puff of fire. The pub, which had gone dead silent when Pomona arrived, erupts with noise as the workmen all start gossiping about the phoenix flames, with no phoenix to be seen.
Arry and Pomona reappear in Bubona's house, where a frantic witch is watching the garden intently.
"Bubona, I've bought Murph's mother. Can you show us where they were playing?"
Bubona spins around, vitriol on her lips to die stillborn when she sees Arry, "You can't possibly be that things mother."
There's a loud crack as Arry's tail goes through the floor, and then she disappears with a pop, to reappear in the garden. Pomona points through the window, and Bubona turns around just in time to watch Arry turn into her normal form. Pomona steps up beside her sister, and they watch as Murph and a chest burster come out of the garden, then start playing with the massive queen.
"You know, you should try socialising with more than the Malfoys and their toadies. Sometimes the things you see aren't what they appear. Murph is only two, so she doesn't understand language yet. However, she's fully grown, and will probably start speaking in a year or two. Vesta treated her as she would another child near her age, and they both got on because of it. Now I wonder why Vesta would feel the need to change into a Xenomorph herself? Let me know when Dennis gets home, I'd like to have a chat with him."

Arry appears outside with a pop, and feels around for Murph. When she finds her, it's clear that Murph is protecting something. Sensing that she looks too human, she returns to her xenomorph queen form and looks expectantly in the direction of Murph. She doesn't have to wait long, as the cutest little chest burster comes hurtling out of the underbrush and climbs up her leg. Murph quickly follows and soon enough they're playing king of the castle with Arry being the castle and random monster at the same time. After 15 ticks, Arry decides they've had enough play time, so she returns to her human form and sends a feeling that the chest burster should do the same. Surprisingly she gets a feeling of reluctance, and the chest burster moves closer to Murph. Frowning in thought, she sends a sensation of returning to human with Pomona. There is a sense of reluctant acceptance at that. Returning to her queen form, she gathers them both up and flames to the greenhouses at Hogwarts.
"Pomona, the child didn't want to return to human at home, so I'm at your greenhouses. I need to get back to Hermione, so could you come and look after them please?"
"Of course my…" – Arry sends a strong sense of disapproval – "Arry. I'll be right there."

Once Pomona arrives, they are able to coax Vesta back into a human form, and Vesta immediately latches onto Murph.
"Dennis, I'm worried about my sister. I'm sure that she's shouted at you about Vesta turning into a thing. I think it's something to do with Murph. What's going on?"
Dennis sighs, "Bubona. Bubona has developed some very fixed views about what's acceptable. Because Murph isn't human, or from a known species of animal, magical or mundane, she has decided that it's an abomination. This isn't helped by the fact that Murph hurt her quite badly a few days ago when she decided that Vesta had had enough play time."
"I see, I assume this was for lessons?"
"It was, it's also why she called you rather than trying to get Vesta today."
"How bad was the injury?"
"Deep gashes on the arm, nothing an episkey and some essence of dittany didn't solve. But still bad enough."
"I see, I don't think I can stop Murph from going to play with Vesta. But maybe I can get Murph involved in her lessons. She should be getting to the point that she understands speech, and can start speaking a few words in her own language." – Pomona hangs her head – "Which Vesta will also need to be taught. Also, Arry said that you should try not to feed her when she's transformed. Xenomorphs mature very quickly when there is a ready supply of food. Reaching their first moult is roughly equivalent to being physically 8-9 years old."
"Just how old is Murph?"
"2 or 3 I think. But she's fully grown, and her intelligence is coming through quickly."
"Merlin, just a toddler. No wonder Bubona is having trouble with her. She had the same trouble with Vesta, until she worked out that Vesta could be bribed with carrots. I'll have a word with her later, and we'll see what we can do."
"Just make sure you do it before Arry decides to adopt her. She did that with Luna, Xeno's daughter."
"Oh, bad business that."
"He's getting help now, and will hopefully be ready to be a parent again in a couple of months. But Luna is becoming a queen like Arry, and she's currently in a cocoon for the next 2 months."
"What are you saying?"
"Vesta would be a xenomorph with a humanoid appearance. Imagine a butterfly that could turn back into a caterpillar, that's what it would be like for her. She'll also know things that no 6 year old ever should. I'm having trouble coping myself."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you have any fire whiskey?"
"I do, I didn't think you drank?"
"Normally I don't, as it's a good way to get killed in the greenhouses. But if I'm going to talk about this I want a drink."

Once they both have a glass of amber heaven, Pomona starts, "Natively, Xenomorphs are a parasitic species. They reproduce by implanting their young into suitable warm bodies, where they mature and then kill the host by bursting out of the chest. Thank Merlin, Morgana, and any of the gods that are listening, that Arry was born Harry Potter, and that Lily sacrificed herself for him. Without that, she could easily have been a more typical Xenomorph Queen. Instead, she has a strong belief that children are to be protected. That only extends so far though, as if the child is old enough to attack her, then they're old enough to die. But that's still an infinite improvement over her predecessors.
"Ptiana, the Merlin damned phoenix of Dumbledore's, used me to get into Dumbledore's lemon drop stash, and then dropped me into Arry's egg room. I was lucky, so very lucky that the egg she dropped me next to was the egg that detected my presence first. I would probably be dead if it hadn't."
Pomona takes a pull of her drink before she continues, "I'm also thankful that T'o-Ba'sall didn't attack Arry when she first met a couple of years ago. It was for her that Arry made the modifications to some of her eggs that mean I'm now part of Arry's hive. I'm not human anymore, and I'm becoming less human by the day. At the moment, Vesta is just a girl with an animagus form. Oh, gods, the instincts. I have memories of being the equivalent of rats on a planet, where just about everything else saw us as food. It's why xenomorph hives usually number in the thousands once they're established. We, they can eat just about anything, and will do too. Then someone, thousands of years ago, took a queen off the planet and didn't take enough care. That queen escaped and multiplied unopposed on a world that wasn't adapted to them.
"Do you have any idea what it's like to feel your own lifespan pale in insignificance against the backdrop of something so vast? Of course you don't, I didn't either. Some of the queens, they developed intelligence. But that just made them worse, as it was age rather than birth that granted that intelligence. They don't see anything outside their own hive as worth consideration, unless it's stronger than they are. We're also biomimetic, did you know that? When implanted, Xenomorphs take on the strongest traits of their host. Add in a touch of magic, and that works across the entire hive. I can phoenix travel now, all because Ptiana is part of the hive. Even if she somehow died, that would still be there. Even her memories are now part of our ancestral memories too. I can't stand it, and I don't want to end it, our desire to live is too strong to even consider suicide."
Pomona refills her glass and takes another long pull, "If you don't want that for Vesta, you'll treat her and Murph right. Course, that doesn't mean she won't decide to do it on her own when she's older. Just that Arry won't take the choice away from you because Vesta is suffering."

Dennis looks at Pomona, his own drink untouched. Glancing down he lifts the glass and downs it in one go, "How are you so composed about it?"
Pomona laughs, "It's easy, I can't change it, so why worry. It's done, and most of the time the memories don't intrude. Just in my dreams, and when I dwell on them. It would be so easy to lash out at someone, and things are getting more fragile."
Dennis watches as Pomona runs her fingernail around the top of the whiskey bottle a couple of times, before just popping the top off, leaving a clean cut where her fingernail went.

"Is Arry safe?"
Pomona can't help laughing, "Define safe? Will she lash out for no reason? No, she's an 11 year old girl that's had to grow up far too fast and experience too much. She's not going to suddenly snap and go on a murder spree. Will she kill someone? Absolutely yes, if she's attacked she will retaliate, and her first instinct will be to kill. When her brain catches up, she'll be remorseful, but that won't bring back the dead. If someone kills one of her children, she'll ensure that they replace them. And not with one of the nice eggs."
"What about the school?"
Pomona looks positively predatory, "Oh, I think that most of the students will be just fine."
Shuddering, Dennis just goes back to his thoughts, and Pomona goes quiet too.

Bored meetings


Minerva looks up as Brugroch and Kirzror come charging into her office carrying an acromantula, a small one, but it's still a 5x beast. Drawing her wand just in case she says, "What can I do for you 2, 3?" she corrects herself when the young xenomorph comes in after them.
"Arry always says that anything that attacks us without us doing anything to it can be eaten. But she also says that we shouldn't eat anything that begs for its life. This did both, so we decided to come and see you to see if we are allowed to eat it or not."
"I think it's dead already."
"Oh great, that means it's fair game."
"Wait, where did it attack you?"
"In the forest, we were exploring."
Minerva melts down into her new animagus form, "Would you show me where you found it?"

As she races out of the school with the others, Minerva reflects that she probably wouldn't be handling her changes so well, if she didn't have her animagus form to run around in. As it was with the cat, things are so much simpler as a Xenomorph.
Like Xenomorphs, acromantula are creatures that gain intelligence with age rather than birth-right. This means that unless they've been acclimated to humans from birth, they don't differentiate between them and any other animal. At the moment, she needs the stress relief of acceptable targets. Especially given her meeting with the school board this afternoon. The school's budget is a shambles, and the accounts haven't been kept properly for years. There's money in the vaults, but it would take a team of goblins to go through everything. Or one of those computers Arry has.

The landscape turns from a flat plain to a playground of places to jump to and from in her senses as the children lead her deeper into the forest. Not so deep she's in centaur territory, but deep enough that casual visitors, like students, are unlikely to notice. She can already sense the gossamer thin threads of silk running from tree to tree, and the local wildlife has all but disappeared. With only the distressed call of the occasional bird that's got caught in a web to be heard.
"Thank you children, you should go and enjoy your meal. I'm sure that Arry will agree with me later when I say that you can treat these like a rival hive."

As the children run off with their dinner, Minerva looks ahead, her senses already tracking all the movement around her. Melting into the shadows, she quickly starts to hunt the apex predator of the forest. As she moves through the swarm, she hunts larger and larger prey until her frustrations have all been worked out. Each of her kills are taken back to her hive to feed the guardians there. The sun is high in the sky when she trots out of the forest with her own meal and takes it up to the Head Masters office to gorge on it.
Magorian looks at Firenze, "Sagittarius has moved."
"Indeed. Mars is still bright."
"Two foals will survive that previously wouldn't have."
"Many humans will die because of it."
"They have their fair chance, unlike our foals."
"To go against the stars is folly."
"For us, that is true."
"This is true."
Minerva walks confidently through the Ministry, the hunt earlier was just what she needed. She licks her lips at the remembered taste of Acromantula. As she walks into the meeting room, she sees Lucius Malfoy seated at the head of the table.
"I believe that you're sitting in my seat Mr Malfoy." Her voice comes out a low purr, and she can see the effect it has on him in the way heat flushes through his body. Still, he reluctantly stands up and moves to his own seat.
Smoothly she moves around the table, aware of the fact her movements are far more predatory than they were before. Taking her seat, she sits and waits for the couple of stragglers to arrive, idly carving designs into the table in front of her, with only a fingernail. She smiles as Malfoy swallows, hard, at the display. When the last board member arrives, she reaches into the pouch at her side and draws out a scroll. Laying it on the table she flicks it with a finger so that it unfurls down the table.
"Gentlemen. Thank you for finding the time to attend this urgent meeting before the start of the school year. Originally, it was just going to be a proforma meeting to inform you of the fact that Mr Dumbledore is taking 2 years of medical leave." – it really is cheating being able to see Malfoy flush with excitement – "However, in my capacity as the Acting Head Master of the school, I came across the school charter, amended 1865. In it you can see the formation of the school board, and their duties therein. As specified in amendment 4, section 3 paragraph 6, I am exercising my right as the Head Master to put you on notice. You have until Easter next year to come up with a viable plan to increase student numbers, to at least the same level as they were in 1800, proportionately to the current population of the country. Failing to do this will see the penalties in sections 8-9 levied on you. Any questions?"
"What authority do you have to do this?"
"That is outlined under amendment 2, penned in 1362."
One of the other members asks, "Why have we never seen this document?"
"Oh, but you have. You signed a copy of it when you became a board member. As per the charter, your copy was then deposited with Gringotts bank in the Hogwarts vaults. I checked, they're all still there."
"(I've been a member for 40 years, how was I supposed to remember that)"
"The same way you remember every other business deal you make."
The board member looks up guiltily, as he was sure that was muttered quietly to be inaudible to everyone except his neighbour.
"How do we get a copy of this?"
"You petition the Department for Education, they will then give you a slip that you take to the Hall of Records and petition for a copy. I believe that the law was changed in 1984, wasn't it Mr Malfoy. Prior to that they would take a minor fee, and you would be owled your copy within a week. Now, you have to pay for an access panel to be assembled. They will then assess your claim and judge whether it's necessary. After a month, they will reconvene, also on your knut, and ask any additional questions they have, you also have the opportunity to appeal any prior decisions they made at this time. They are allowed to do this 6 times before they are required to make a final decision on if you are actually allowed your document or not. In fact, Mr Bellevue I believe your name was one of the sponsors of that particular law too.
"Any other questions?"
"Are we allowed to read this copy?"
"This meeting is scheduled for another 20 minutes. Until that time is up, you can inspect it to your hearts content."

Minerva sits down with a smile on her face as all 10 of the men around the table scramble to read that amendment. They should really be reading amendment 6, which was the last amendment made. As that details the punishments to be levied against a corrupt school board, the first step being to ensure that they were aware that they have responsibilities, and what they're supposed to be. She's not entirely sure why Albus never used this. She suspects that it's because he was the Chief Warlock before he became Head Master. Beyond that, she's not sure if he never took the time to read the entire charter, which at 12 foot in length, written in tiny script, was a dense and headache inducing read. Given the well thumbed book of laws that should have been in the library, she suspects that it was actually down to a conflict of interests. Especially given that every single board member is politically powerful. Once the time of the meeting is up, a quick tap of her wand has the scroll furled and in her pouch faster then the men can see. Without another word, she leaves the room despite the calls for just a few more minutes.
Making her way to the education department, Minerva smooths out her robes and tries to ensure her smile isn't quite so predatory as it was before. Between one step and another, she flames home to the Hive.
"Arry."
Arry looks up from her ovipositor, "Yes Minva?"
"I have a vague idea that there are handheld computers around. Would you have a couple of them that wouldn't look too out of place on earth?"
"Hmm, maybe. Meet me in storage room 1", Arry teleports away with a large pop, and Minerva follows.

"Nope, nope, nope, too thin."
"Actually Arry, could I have that one?"
"Sure, there you go. Nope, Nope."
"Why not that one? It looks a bit like a muggle boxfile."
"If you're sure, it's a bit overkill for what you want though."
"Why?"
"It's a colony assistance tool, so it's not just a computer. It's also got a medical scanner, surveying sensors, and a communications package that can reach half way across the galaxy."
"That's not the important thing though, it looks like something you might find in the muggle world."
"Ok, here you go then."
"Thanks, I'll be off then, I'm interviewing potential teachers for the rest of the day."
"Enjoy."

With a flash of fire, Minerva is back in the corridor and finishes walking to the department. As she enters, Madam Marchbanks looks up from some paperwork, "Good afternoon, I wasn't expecting you for another 30 minutes at least."
"The meeting was only scheduled for 30 minutes."
"Albus has never had a board meeting last less than an hour."
"I found the school charter."
Marchbanks looks pleasantly surprised, "Oh, you did, did you. I thought the Hogwarts copy had been lost."
Minerva laughs, "Not lost, sat beside the library copy of the ministry laws. I'll note that Irma was most upset at the condition of that particular book when I returned it. As saying it was well thumbed would be generous."
"I see, I take it you're thinking about making a bid for your temporary position to become permanent then."
"The thought had crossed my mind."

After a cup of tea to pass the time, Marchbanks leads Minerva to a small meeting room with a couple of reading chairs, a coffee table, and a dining chair set up on the other side for the applicant to sit on. To one side there's a small fireplace, that thankfully doesn't have a lit fire in it. There they start interviewing for the potions position first. These pass easily, as it's a simple matter of checking their qualifications, and then asking each applicant how they plan to teach first year students. They end up choosing a young Romani whose plan is to not even start them out with a potion for the first term, instead focusing on teaching ingredient and workplace prep and clean-up, along with refining their stirring techniques, timing, and temperature regulation. With those out the way, Minerva takes out the colony assistance tool and places it on the coffee table, after using muscle memory she never learnt, to set a small section of the screen to blink red while the rest remains dark.

Madam Marchbanks looks at the device curiously, but the first applicant comes in before she can ask about it. After that, they interview candidate after candidate with no results. Finally, they come to the muggleborn candidates and they start showing some interest in the box. Eventually a young woman comes in and looks at the box on the table curiously, "Is that a Tri-corder?"

Minerva looks at the young woman and smiles, "Why don't you tell me about a Tri-corder and I'll tell you if it is one."
"Are you sure, I thought this was an interview."
"Count it as an interview question."
"Oh, well in that case. It's a computer from the original Star Trek that they used on away missions. Usually by Mr Spock, but Dr McCoy has his own version. In the show they use them for everything from medical diagnosis to surveying."
"Would you be interested in learning how to use it if it was?"
"Oh hell yes. Sorry. Before I got my Hogwarts letter, I used to pretend I was in Starfleet. My mother used to take me to meetings with the local women, and they'd talk about it there. I even wrote a letter asking them not to cancel it. It cost a small fortune in stamps. Of course, then the war happened while I was at Hogwarts, and they got my parents shortly before that Halloween. Sorry, just bad memories."
"Don't be sorry, you've got the job."
"What? Really?"
Marchbanks echoes her, "What? Really?"
"Yes, I need an assistant to help with paperwork. Part of that is going to be loading all of the accounts onto this, doing the math necessary and then copying it out into the ledger. As the school can't afford the team of goblins it would take to do it without one."
"Wait, that's actually a tri-corder?"
"I was told this is a colony assistance tool, so no, it's not something from your show. I picked it as it looked like something that you might see in the muggle world." – Minerva pulls out the smaller, lighter, and vastly thinner computer she picked out for herself – "It will probably be more like this."
"Wow, they've got those in the new Star Trek series, TNG. Can I be frank for a moment?"
Minerva smiles gently, "Go ahead."
"I would never have expected a pureblood like yourself to know what those were, let alone have one."
"That's ok, I don't think Madam Marchbanks did either. What made you apply for this job?"
"I couldn't get anything in the magical world after I graduated in 82, so I went to evening college in the non-magical world and got my O levels. From there I did a secretarial course, and paid my way by working odd jobs waitressing in both the magical and non-magical worlds. After that, I didn't have enough experience for the better jobs, I was too old for the entry level jobs. And I just got laid off from my waitressing job. This was my last ditch at trying to find something that would pay the bills, though I didn't think I'd get anywhere. What with purebloods being put at the top of the list."
"What's a secretarial course teach?"
Madam Marchbanks pays attention to this answer too, "Well, you need good English scores to get in, and they teach you shorthand. So that you can take notes quickly and efficiently. You need to also get a level 3 pitman qualification, that means I can touch type at 60 words per minute. Then there's classes on filing, data retrieval, and things like using card indexes. How to answer the phone and operate a switchboard and a few other things like professional letter writing."
"I'm sure that you'll be making good use of those skills in this job. You'll be paid 13 galleons a week, and get room and board during the school year. You'll be screening my owls and floo calls, as well as helping to catch up on the paperwork, and make notes on staff meetings. Do you have any questions?"
"Can I store my stuff at the school?"
"Not typically, though you will need a vault at Gringotts to receive your pay. For a modest fee, they allow you to store non-monetary items in their vaults."
"I don't suppose I could get an advance?"
"No, but you could start work tomorrow."
"That could work, my flat's paid up to the end of the month. So if I could get the vault sorted out next week, I could move all my stuff over the weekend."
"I think we can do that."

Madam Marchbanks asks, "Head Mistress, why Miss Dunns and not any of the other candidates?"
"She recognised this, she was curious enough to ask about it, and she had the courage to ask about it. An assistant won't be much assistance if they're not willing to speak up when they don't know something. Or even worse, when they do know something and I don't."
"You are going to be a breath of fresh air, I can tell."

Lead up to School


"Miss Dunns, welcome to Hogwarts, while you're working for me. Please call me Minerva."
"Please call me Priya, I've got rather used to the modern non-magical way of addressing people"
"Very well Priya. If you'll follow me I'll take you to your suite. As with all staff members it has a bedroom, bathroom, receiving room, and a small study for personal research and correspondence. I assume you're familiar with the layout of the school, as you attended for your own schooling in the 70's. I looked up your scores this morning, and I have to say I'm impressed. It's not often we see anyone achieve 7 O's on their NEWTs, especially after a tragedy such as yours. We do have some unusual children running around, of distinctly non-human appearance. I am their somewhat caretaker while they're on earth. I'm sure that we'll meet them at some point today, if not I'll make sure you're introduced at the evening meal."
"When you say non-human, given your computer, do you mean aliens like from Star Trek?"
"While I have yet to see that show, I have no doubt that it's highly unlikely to be anything like Star Trek. In my experience, stories, whether in the theatre or in a book, always paint the world in a far better light than it actually is. If only because most people would never believe just how bad the world can be. The children represent 3 of the 4 major space faring species in the galaxy. I'm sure that you will meet members of the 4th​ soon enough. With one known exception, one of those species is very much like acromantula, except structured like ants instead of spiders. The only members of that species you'll meet here belong to that exception."
"I see." Priya says nervously.

"Well, we're here, Isabella, this is Miss Priya Dunns, she will be using these quarters from now on."
A painting of a Spanish Queen jerks awake, "Oh, Head Master, I didn't see you there."
"Good Morning Isabella. This is Miss Priya Dunns, she will be using these quarters from now on."
"Oh, good morning. I do hope you have more suitable attire Miss Dunns, what you're wearing is completely unsuitable for appearing in court."
"Miss Dunns is to be my assistant, so court appearances should be few and far between."
"Oh that's a terrible shame. Well, if you ever do make a court appearance, do let me know and I'll help you with your outfit."
Priya smiles, "Certainly Highness."
"None of that I'm just a portrait now, call me Isabella."
Minerva nods, "Well, I'm off to the Head Master's office. Once you're settled in meet me there, I'll instruct the gargoyle to allow you free access."
Priya finally makes her way into the Head Masters office, and stops in dismay at the parchment work everywhere. In the mundane world, she thought that piles of paperwork you couldn't see over was only something you saw in cartoons and comedies. Minerva stands up from her desk, "Come in, I've put your desk by the window. Don't mind Ptiana, she's sulking as she's been banned from having any lemon drops until Christmas."
Priya looks at the phoenix Minerva waves at in surprise, "I thought the phoenix was called Fawkes."
Minerva laughs, "So did everyone else, until she met someone that could understand her. All the rumours about Phoenixes being creatures of the light, all false." – Ptiana squawks irritably – "Personally, I think the only reason they tend to stick around with Good wizards is that good wizards are less likely to try to vivisect them." – Ptiana warbles – "Vivisect is similar to dissect, however the subject is still alive."
Priya is astonished to see the phoenix shudder and then nod vehemently.
Minerva continues, "You see, in the official texts they say varying things, from they are merely hard to tame and live reclusively on mountain tops, to they will occasionally choose a wizard or witch as a companion. Obviously, common belief is the 'creature of the light'. The truth is that they're nigh on immortal and pick wizards that can persuade them they'll be interesting to be around. This tends to be those like Dumbledore, who has been in 2 wars, was quite an adventurer in his youth, and is arguably the most powerful wizard alive today. They are also highly intelligent, even if they don't speak a language humans can understand."

"Minerva. This might be presumptuous, but given that you can understand her, and you said that humans can't. Does that mean you're not human?"
Minerva carefully reviews what she just said before sighing, "It means that I'm no longer entirely human."
"Does this have anything to do with the computers we'll be using?"
"It does."
"Figures. Magic exists, so why not aliens too."
"I did say this morning."
"I know, it's just now starting to sink in what it actually means. My inner Star Trek fan is jumping up and down, but you seem so certain it's not a good thing."
"Life is cheap out there. That's by the by, and you'll probably end up learning far more than you ever wanted to as time goes on. For the moment, this is all of the neglected paperwork for the school. What I'm currently trying to do is sort it into correspondence, bills, receipts, and internal matters. Once that's done the most urgent thing to do is go through the schools finances and get those sorted out. After all, we can't make any plans without knowing just how much money we have coming in and going out."
"What do we do with anything addressed to Mr Dumbledore?"
"We read it to see if it has anything to do with the school. If it doesn't then we'll write a quick letter back to explain Mr Dumbledore's absence and add it to the trunk in the corner. It's the 3rd​ such trunk I've started since taking over as Acting Head, in many ways it would be simpler if he was dead, as only family heirlooms would need to be considered. All of his other personal effects would become school property."

"Professor."
"Minerva please, you're my assistant not a student."
"Minerva then, I've found a receipt for a subscription to Honcho Magazine, what should I do with it?"
Minerva sighs, "Check to see if it's billed to the school or Dumbledore, if the latter add it to the trunk."
"Minva, Minva, this one's still alive." Krizror, Brugroch, and the as yet unnamed xenomorph all bundle into the office carrying another acromantula. As she looks up from her desk Priya's mouth drops open and she can't help but stare at the three children.
Minerva stands up from behind the paperwork and walks around her desk to crouch down beside the children, "So it is, well done. Do you remember what I said about acromantula?"
Krizror, the spider like one, says, "Err, no sorry?"
"That's ok, you can treat them like a rival hive. That doesn't mean you should go hunting them deliberately, as some of them grow big enough to rival Arry."
"But other hives can't talk properly."
"Well, why don't we talk to it, and see what you think afterwards. Hello, I can see you're awake."
The acromantula says in a sibilant voice, "Let me go, I promise I won't try to hunt not-food again."
"What makes us not food?"
"You hunts us. Not prey, not food."
"What about my assistant over there." She waves at Priya and the acromantula turns to look.
"It is not yet food. Agog still king, say not kill prey that live in stone hill."
"And how do you determine what is prey and what isn't?"
"Prey is food, not prey makes us food."
"See, what do you think now?"
The three children seem to converse for a few minutes, though Priya can't hear anything, "We sees. Yay! We have lunch, acromantula yummy."
Priya finally gets her wits back in some semblance of order, "Hello?"
"Oh, children, I'd like you to meet my new Assistant, Priya Dunns."
"Hello Peeya." Two of the children chorus.
"My name is Priya."
Brugroch nods seriously, "Peeya."
Minerva shakes her head, "Don't bother, it's your name now. I've given up asking why they call me Minva."
"Why do they call you Minva?"

Arry appears in a flash of fire, "Oh, hey. I'm Arry. Sorry to interrupt Minva, but the Yautja we rescued have finished their initial adjustments, but they need to be near me regularly over the next cycle. Is there any chance you could put them up in the school?"
Minerva thinks about it for a moment, "I think we can do that, though Ne'stbei will need to be enrolled as a first year, and Ce'jaun as a 4th​ year on a remedial track until she's caught up."
"Thanks Minva. Oh, do you mind if I go and hunt some acromantula, as they went down really well."
"Feel free, just remember to leave some alive."
"Yeah, yeah, I know breeding stock. Life was simpler when I didn't know these things."
Priya ventures, "Erm, Arry was it? Why do you mispronounce Minerva's name?"

Pomona chooses that moment to flame in with Murph and Vesta, "Hey Minerva, sorry to drop in unannounced, but I'm just taking this little one home. I will be gone most of the day, as Dennis and I are going to try and get Murph involved in Vesta's lessons."
Minerva sighs, "Ok, thanks for letting me know. Priya, don't bother asking, something will just come up every time you do."
"What? Really, every single time you ask about the pronunciation of your name?"

Professor Babbling walks into the office and stops, "Oh, sorry. The gargoyle just let me through. Minerva, when you have a minute, could you go over some of your head of house notes with me? I'm not entirely sure why the Weasley twins have a note about never letting them find out about laxatives."
"I'll tell you later about the time Lily Evans told James Potter about them, and the results of the week afterwards amongst the snakes and badgers."
"Oh… Oh! Right, that makes sense now."
Professor Vector walks in and Priya looks at Minerva beseechingly, "I didn't say anything."
Arry appears in Diagon Alley with a whoosh of fire, Ne'stbei and Ce'jaun holding her hands on either side. Both the Yautja are geared for a safe hunt, having left their shoulder mounted weapons behind. As they appear, there are shrieks from a few of the bystanders and people start to give them a wide berth. Arry looks down at herself "Pauk, I forgot how prudish they are about clothes."
Looking at her companions, she swears again before stalking to Madam Malkins, the crowd averting their eyes or, in a few cases, staring lasciviously at the three females. When the first man, obviously drunk despite the early hour, steps forward and slips his hand around her waist before fondling a breast, he gets as far as, "So how much for an hour with…" before his arm is removed at the shoulder by Arry's tail. Grabbing the arm before it lands, she just carries on walking with the arm slung over her shoulder dripping blood on the cobblestones behind her.

By the time she arrives at the shop, witches are gossiping things like, "Such shameful behaviour." "Yes, about time someone taught that sort a lesson." Meanwhile the wizards are gossiping things like, "Did you see what she did?" "Yes, most uncalled for. A polite no thankyou would have been more than enough." "I know, how are you supposed to meet witches if you're in fear of your limbs."

When Arry shoves open the door to Madam Malkins, the madam looks up at the eep from one of her assistants. Seeing the bloody arm, she sighs, "Please leave the arm by the door, what can I be doing for you Miss Potter?"
"Oh, right, sorry. I forgot about the human custom of wearing clothes before I arrived, so I'd like three outfits suitable for shopping today. I've only got 50 galleons on me at the moment, so just something cheap. We'll be back later when I've been to the bank to get school outfits for these two."
The girls just glance at each other bemusedly while the madam sighs, "Changing room 3, Dora, Trixie, please take their measurements. Sandra, you've seen hags come in here before with their afternoon snacks. Just treat them like that, or lamia if you must."
As they're being led into the back, another door opens and a blond boy has his eyes quickly covered by his mothers hand.
Arry, Ne'stbei, and Ce'jaun all exit the store, now clothed appropriately for the location, if not for their own tastes. As they do they come face to face with a pink woman that stinks of perfume, oh wait, it's a human wearing excessive levels of pink, and too much blusher. Just behind her are a few thuggish looking men, wearing large grins on their faces. One of them is carrying a large double bladed executioners axe easily in one hand. Around the three, a large crowd has formed, and a group of Aurors along with Mr Ollivander are trying to push through.

"By order of the Ministry, these three creatures are to be summarily slaughtered after showing themselves to be a clear and present threat to wizardkind."
A witch to one side jeers, "Only if they get too handsy."
Ignoring the jeer, the woman in pink calls out, "McNair, Tallfellow, the order has been served."
Slightly confused, the two Yautja look at Arry before they're forced to duck as Tallfellow fires some sickly yellow lights their way. Arry almost casually sidesteps the axe that McNair is wielding before taking his head off with her claws. In a smooth motion, Ne'stbei has donned her own claws, and stabbed the woman up through the stomach, and out the back of her lungs with 40cm of steel bladed claws. Tallfellow falls to the floor with a chakram between his eyes, and the cheering crowd steps back to avoid the blood spatter. This also allows the Aurors and Mr Ollivander through.

Ollivander hurries through, ahead of the Aurors, and, heedless of the blood, abases himself in front of the two Yautja.
"Great hunters, please forgive our government. These people do not deserve to suffer for the arrogance of a few."
Arry looks confused, "What are you talking about?"
"The Yautja."
Ce'jaun crouches down, "You know of us?"
"My father was a child when you arrived in 1815, hunting dragons. The village of Bridgeshear ceased to exist that day, with only the children and two pregnant women spared."
"How did they offend the honour of the Hunters?"
"They drew wands and attempted to drive them from the village for being non-human. They killed one, and the other three slaughtered the rest in retaliation."
"Those Yautja were without honour, as our code says that only those that are armed should be hunted. Whether they have natural or manufactured weapons, they must be armed."
One of the Aurors stammers, "I…I'm so…sorry to interrupt. Could we have the arm back please?"
Arry looks over in surprise, "Huh? I was going to have it for lunch later, but sure."
"Thank you. Also, I have been sent to ask that you attempt to refrain from such grievous injuries unless they have attempted to do you harm."
"What about these three?"
"Obviously self defence due to overreach of the Department for the Regulation of Magical creatures. We won't be arresting you for that."
As Arry flames out with all three bodies, and the axe, another one mutters, "Not that we could 'old em though."
The last one discretely vanishes the warrant for arrest that Dawlish gave him after speaking to the Minister.

Ce'jaun reaches out and, taking one of Ollivander's hands, pulls the old man back up to his feet. "Unlike those that had no honour, we will not attack those that have attacked us. Personally, or cowardly by proxy. I am to understand that we will be visiting your crafts hall soon, as we require a wand for our stay at the school."
"Thank you for your mercy."
"This is not mercy, it is just plain sense. If we do not act with honour, then how can we expect others to do so. Tell me, are there any other stories of visitors from above?"
"Only the Raka, who were said to be the most fearsome non-magical dragons. Instead of having magic, they were fast, lean, stealthy, and deadly hunters. A famous war wizard slew the last one present in the British Isles, the muggles have named him St George. This was around 1700 years ago. It's also rumoured that a Raka dragon killed the muggle explorer Captain Scott in 1912 while he was exploring Antartica."

Arry reappears in a flash of fire, "Did I miss anything?"
"Only that there have been R'ka here before, maybe less than a century ago."
Arry frowns, "That's concerning, I don't feel any at the moment, but they could be in hibernation. Remind me to bring back some heavy duty scanning equipment, as the last thing we want is for them to awaken while I'm at school, and all of us lose ourselves to our instincts while in class."
The first Auror speaks up again, "Excuse me Ladies, would we be able to escort you around Diagon Alley for the rest of the day. Just so that we can ensure no other wizards attempt to assault you."
Arry shrugs, "Sure, if you want. I need to go to the bank first, I've got a trinket box to sell."
Xeno looks around the Rookery sadly. Evidence of months of neglect are clearly apparent throughout the house. With a sigh, he pulls his wand and begins the process of making the place somewhere that Pandora would have been proud to live in again.
Pomona and Dennis both watch as Vesta and Murph play with paints, and Vesta shows Murph how to hold a paint brush.
"Murph, this isn't food. It's for painting, watch. See how it adds a different texture to the paper?"
Vesta changes into a chest burster briefly before changing back, "It's a shame you can't become a girl like me, you're missing out on the colours. Let's try charcoal. Can you see that against the parchment?"

Softly, Pomona says to Dennis, "I think that's working. Shall we go and get your wife?"
Dennis glances out the door, "I'd like them to get a little more involved, and maybe see if I can get Vesta to read a story to Murph. Her current favourite is 'Harry Potter and the Princess of Gold'."
Pomona laughs, "Arry will probably be tickled pink by the existence of those books once she finds out."
"Why?"
"She was born Harry Potter."
Dennis just gapes at her, "Bubona will be so upset, I'm not sure if it's because she shouted at Arry, or because Arry is clearly no longer human."

A couple of hours later, Bubona is brought in, with a silencing spell, to watch the two children doing their lessons together. Vesta explaining to Murph what everything is.

Part of the mythos of Harry Potter is that the magical world in the UK is stuck in the victorian era, I'm moving this slightly earlier than the late Victorian that most stories use. Part of this is that violence is still the primary means of free public entertainment. Whether that is an execution, or a public arrest.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/45197000

Did we forget something?


"Hermione."
Hermione looks up from her breakfast, "Yes dad?"
"Is there anything you'd like to tell us about your new friends?"
"What do you mean?"
Henry just lifts up the glass that had her orange juice in it, and turns it around to show the gouges her fingernails put in it.
"Er."
"Er?"
"Arry said that I could experience what it was like to have claws and a tail and write a book about it. She also lives on a space ship which is on the other side of the galaxy and gave me computer so that I could take notes and make recordings easily. I'll just go and get it."
"Wait right there, and repeat that slowly."
"Arry said that I could experience what it was like to be like her. With claws and a tail, I could then write a book about it."
"Yes, go on, I heard something about a space ship too."
"She lives on a space ship, it's on the other side of the galaxy at the moment, but it's really cool, I'll show you."
She grabs her father's hand and flames them to the Hive, though not the laying room. Feeling around with her mind, she then flames them to T'o-Ba'sall, who was meditating until she arrived.

"Hermione, honey, where are we?"
"We're at the hive. Dad, I'd like you to meet T'o-Ba'sall. T'o-Ba'sall this is my father Henry Granger."
"I'd say I'm pleased to meet you but I can't see a bloody thing."
T'o-Ba'sall looks at Hermione, "Ermione, what have I told you about the hive?"
Hermione sulks as she replies, "Don't bring anyone here without letting you know ahead of time."
"And what have you just done?"
"Brought my father here, to you, to let you know I'm bringing him here."
"I don't suppose anyone would mind speaking English, so that the person, that can't see in the pitch black room, has some idea what's going on."
"Enry was it. I was just scolding Ermione for bringing you without informing me first. This can be a very dangerous place for non-hive members."
"I'm not sure whether to be happy to hear that or not."
"I am just turning on lights, one of the older hive members is also on their way."
Much later, and after a couple of glasses of beer, Henry will be very proud of the fact that, when the lights came up so that he could see, he only took 1 step backwards. With her crab like mouth, red eyes, claws, and tail, T'o-Ba'sall looked like something from a horror film. The sleek hunter that nudged him out of the way as he entered was the last straw and his legs gave way beneath him.

"Enry, Enry. Ermione, is your father unwell, as he just collapsed."
"What, no, I'm fine. I think. It was just the shock."
"I am just telling Rula here to come and find me if there is any trouble till I get back. Ermione will then return us to your home where we can talk without endangering you unnecessarily. I understand that Ermione also starts school today."
"Shit, she does. I forgot all about that."

After a couple more moments to gather his wits, Henry asks, "Why do you keep dropping the h's in some words?"
"We simply cannot speak that sound."
Henry peers at her mouth thoughtfully, "I suppose I can see that. What do you do about dental work?"
"We use a sterilising beam one a week, and we also grow new teeth if they fall out. Our tusks don't regrow though."

T'o-Ba'sall then speaks to Rula before saying something to Hermione.
Vivian comes down after getting dressed to remind Henry and Hermione that she's due to go to school today. Looking into the dining room, she can see Hermione's cereal, half eaten.
"Where did they get to?"
Heading out to the garage to see if they're there, she misses Hermione transport her father and T'o-Ba'sall back into the dining room. When she comes back from the short trip through the kitchen to the garage, she stops and just stares at everyone in the room.
"Hermione, what did you do?"
"Why do you assume it was me?"
"Because you're the only one with magic, and Xeno teleported out of the house often enough for me to understand it's just something you can do with it."
Henry pulls his eyes away from T'o-Ba'sall, "Dear, I think we should leave the recriminations alone for the moment, get Hermione to the station and then talk to our guest."
T'o-Ba'sall shakes her head, causing her dreads to flick from side to side, "My Queen will be attending the school today, Ermione is more than capable of transporting herself and others to the station. If you feel the need to accompany her, I can transport you back afterwards. We only need to wait for my Queen to arrive at the station."
Vivian looks at T'o-Ba'sall in concern, "Who is your Queen and why do you call her such?"
"Arry is my Queen, and it is because she is the Queen of the hive."
"When you say Queen of the hive, do you mean like bees?"
Hermione mutters, "More like ants."
"What was that dear?"
"I said, more like ants."
After thinking back to her ancient biology lessons, Vivian asks, "How often do you go to war?"
T'o-Ba'sall shakes her head, "Hopefully never. Arry does not like the loss of control it causes. Especially in her. Those of us that are not born of the hive are able to resist the instincts somewhat. So far, it has happened 3 times since I joined the hive. Two of those times we were able to save a child that was being used as an incubator by the hive. It is one of the things I was going to talk about later, Arry isn't ooman, and neither Ermione, at least not entirely anymore. My Queen, Arry, is learning to be more ooman, but until she saved me from a life of servitude, she was a lone R'ka Queen. I remember the first time I showed her how to use the ships computer properly."
"My Queen, this is important."
"Why, I've been doing fine so far."
"But now the location of your ship is known. We need to change course so that they have to work to find you."
"I don't get it."
"Watch, you have been starting the ship and stopping it. As well as using the communications."
"Well, yes. I'm not stupid."
"The ship is still following the original course set. See here, this is the local Galactic map. We are here and the ship is heading here. If it was in full repair, you would have already arrived. However, most of the systems have been heavily damaged, as you can see here."
"How are you doing that?"
"It is part of the functions in the computer. I'm going to change our course, and then I'll show you how to learn how to use the computer. This text here says the name of our location."
"What's text?"
"Writing, language drawn out."
"I had no idea."
Blinking at the memory, T'o-Ba'sall continues, "Arry learns fast, all R'ka queens do. Also, every hive member has access to the ancestral memories, and contributes to them. I was the first non-R'ka to join a hive, and it was hard. Ermione will have her own difficulties, as there is a lot that oomans don't seem to experience. Owever, she will not have to be worried about becoming lost in those memories like I was."
"T'o-Ba'sall, T'o-Ba'sall, what are you doing?"
"The hive is not big enough, the Queen almost wiped us out. These will make fine hosts."
"T'o-Ba'sall, you know that's not what I want. I only keep those eggs for boarders and pirates. Let them go, you're better than that."
"Queen, you are the hive, and your safety must be assured. I can only do that with more bodies."
"No, remember, we talked about this. Your tactics allowed us to win against the Queen, that's why I gave you the new seed, to give you more freedom. To have more freedom, not less."
"You did, and now I understand. You are the life of the hive, and without you we are all dead. As such you need as many workers and warriors as possible to hold back your enemies."
"I am taking you back to the hive until you are yourself again. I'm really sorry about this, we normally try to just rescue you from pirates, not turn into a different set of kidnappers. T'o-Ba'sall, Hive Now!"
Arry appears in a flash of fire, "T'o-Ba'sall you felt distressed. Oh, hello, sorry for barging in like this."
Vivian says faintly "Oh, no, don't worry."
T'o-Ba'sall shakes her head, "I was just talking to Ermione's bearers, and remembering my early periods as part of your hive."
"Hermione's taught me this human thing called a hug, it helps." Arry barely finishes talking before she pulls T'o-Ba'sall into a hug.
"My Queen, we're in company."
"Meh, they're as good as hive members anyway. Minva is trying to work out how to get the three of us to the station, so why don't we just all head over to the school and maybe that will help her decide."

Vivian retreats to organisation to help her cope, "What about Hermione's luggage?"
"Do you have your bookbag?"
Hermione disappears and reappears with a couple of pops, "Yep."
"Then it doesn't matter, she can just come back to get anything she needs." Vivian finds out that it doesn't help.
"But…"
"Right, that's decided then." – Arry takes hold of Henry and Vivian – "Follow me to the school."

Vivian and Henry have a brief moment of panic as they feel like they've left the oven on, and they're standing in midair, then they're standing in a stone office surrounded by sheets of parchment everywhere. Professor McGonagall looks up from her desk as a young woman drops the paperwork she was carrying with a thud and a slight shriek.

Minerva shakes her head, "Well that solves that problem. Priya are you alright?"
"Yes Minerva. They just surprised me. (I should be expecting it by now)"
"You've only been here a week, give yourself time."
"I still can't believe how good your hearing is."
Arry says brightly, "You too could have equally good hearing. All you have to do is volunteer to join my hive. Side effects may include claws, a tail, and violent memories that don't belong to you. Did I get that right Hermione?"
Hermione sighs, "Yes Arry, it sounds just like one of the TV adverts that you've never seen. What she failed to mention is that if you don't have magic, then you gain magic. You also gain the same innate abilities as Ptiana, such as flame travel and healing tears. You become part of a family that will never reject you or push you away. Oh, and you can access the communal memories, such as the ability to read and speak the language used on those computers you've got there."

Tilly pops in, "Did Tilly hears right, you's give new family?"
Arry looks down at her, "Er, yes?"
Tilly disappears with a pop, and Arry looks up, "Well that happened."
With a sigh, and a wave of her wand, Minerva covers all of the paperwork in the office with boxes. Not a moment later, with a sound like popcorn cooking, every single surface is filled with poorly looking house-elves wearing cleanish tea-towels. Tilly reappears perched on the corner of the desk.
"Queenie, all theses house-elves need new family. Hoggywarts does her best, but it not the same as have family."
Minerva surveys her office, "Is this all the elves in Hogwarts?"
"Oh noes, these are the ones not bound to the school. Head whiskers wouldn't accept their bond. Said school couldn't handle it."

Arry looks around, "I'm going to need my ovipositor, I'll meet everyone in the big room by the entrance. Oh, and I'll need a lot to eat too, so if you could get some of those acromantula that would be great. Those large slabs of meat with the black and white fur will do if you can't." That said she disappears in a flash of fire.
Minerva looks at T'o-Ba'sall, "She never even considered saying no, did she."
"Our Queen has a generous heart and a small hive."

There's the sound of cooking popcorn, and the jarring sensation of their eyes catching up with the fact they're in the Great Hall, the tables and decorations all set up for the evening feast. Seeing that Arry isn't back yet, Hermione jumps onto the teachers table.

"Everyone, Arry is about to come back and look really scary. Don't worry, she's the same person, just like Minva is the same person when she's the cat xenomorph. She will be laying eggs, and a creature will come out and attach to a face. If it's yours, relax as best as you can. If you don't fight it, it will stay with you for around an hour and then come off. If you do fight it, it will knock you out, then stay with you for an hour before falling off. It's not distressing once your body accepts it's not dying, which takes a minute or so."

A couple of pops occur and 3 sides of beef are laid out on the floor behind the teachers table. It's only a minute after that when Arry reappears with her ovipositor attached. Clumsily she scarfs down the beef before climbing the wall, between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw hourglasses, and spitting out some resin to hold the ovipositor. When they recognise her species, all of the house elves freeze instinctively and turn invisible to visible light. Which prevents 3 people from being able to still see them.

Over the next two hours, Arry lays egg after egg, getting so into the process that she forgets that it's only the house elves she's supposed to be laying for, excluding Tilly who is frozen with the rest of them. As 4 more eggs pop out, Priya, Vivian, and Henry's eyes widen in shocked realisation, and they turn to run as the flaps on top of the eggs open. Exhausted, Arry disengages from the Ovipositor as a final egg slides down the tube and stops unnoticed at the end. Shrinking down into her more human form, Arry says, "Is that everyone? Minerva, I think we need to get the train. If you or Pomona can go to the platform, I'll tell Ne-stbei and Ce'jaun to find you. Hermione," – Arry yawns – "could you help me to the platform, and maybe bring some more food too."
A picnic basket appears on the table, "Oh, hey, thank you house elves."
Minerva disappears in a flash of fire. With a last look around at the elves that were able to not panic mutely tending the ones that did, Hermione follows Minerva to the platform carrying the picnic basket.

T'o-Ba'sall shakes her head at the sounds of the three humans trying to outrun the face huggers, as the empty eggs start disappearing as the Hogwarts elves tidy up the hall again.

Train Ride


As they arrive on the platform, it doesn't take long for a crowd to form, made up of a combination of Gawkers, Wizards holding their arms behind their backs, Witches cheering, and students trying to get through the crush, as Arry gets mobbed from a respectful distance by well-wishers. A robust woman, with a monocle, forces her way through the crowd followed by a young girl with, vibrant red hair, and pulling a trunk.
"Headmistress, Miss Potter."
Minerva bristles, "Head Master please, that's two words, not the useless twaddle that other schools have. It's a point of pride that the head of Hogwarts is a Master of their art, and is thus the Head Master amongst the other Masters of their art that teach the various subjects."
"Head Master then, my apologies. I wasn't aware there was a distinction."
"That's all right, the two words were generally combined a few hundred years ago, it's only Hogwarts that continued its usage. May I introduce Miss Hermione Granger, Miss Ne'stbei, and Miss Ce'jaun. Of course you already know the Lady Arry Potter."
The woman raises an eyebrow, "Lady Potter? Where are my manners, I am of course Regent Bones, and this is my niece Heir Susan Bones."
Susan rolls her eyes as Arry and the three girls all look confused.
"Yes. She beat 5 goblin warriors in the Arena with no weapons or wand. They gave her the head of house ring immediately afterwards."
"I see, which also brings me onto the subject I hoped to broach. As no wands were used during the events on Diagon Alley, what you did to Mr Pines, and Lord McNair was technically reasonable self defence. I would appreciate it if you would try to keep the casualties and maiming to a minimum in the future. Miss Ne'stbei and Miss Ce'jaun, if you weren't in risk of your very lives I would currently be forced to arrest you. However, you had just been illegally declared dangerous creatures to be put down, so you are in the clear. In the future, please refrain from using weapons, and either use your wands or your hands to disable your assailants."
Susan doubletakes at her aunts words before looking at the 4 girls more appreciatively. As her aunt turns back to Minerva, and the conversation turns to adult things, Hermione holds out a hand and looks pointedly at the train. Glancing at the crowd, and the increasingly incomprehensible discussion taking place, she makes the decision to take the girls hand. A pop and a brief sensation of spinning later, and they're standing at the far end of the platform, there's another 3 pops and Arry, Ne'stbei, and Ce'jaun appear.

Ne'stbei looks at the young human in amusement as she's looking back down the platform and then back to Hermione confused. Picking up the girls box awkwardly, as no matter how light it is, it's sill half as long as she is tall, she says, "We have never used a conveyance like this. Would you be able to guide us to the place we're supposed to be?"
Susan looks at her, "You have a strange way of speaking. What country do you come from?"
"This would be easier sitting down."
"Oh, right, up these steps and Aunty told me that there's narrow corridors in here so be warned. Would you mind if my friend sits with us? She hadn't got through the crowd when my aunt pushed through."
"Seats would be good Qu…Arry needs to sleep for a few hours. Your friend is welcome."

It doesn't take them long to find an empty compartment that isn't right next to the stairs. This far down the train, most of the compartments seem to be empty. Almost as soon as Arry has arranged her tail comfortably on the seat, she's asleep. With a sigh Hermione puts the picnic basket of food on the overhead rack before taking a seat next to her. "Hi, I'm Hermione, in non-magical culture it is considered normal to introduce yourself by your given name. Our surnames only tend to be used in more formal occasions, or where there could be confusion."
Taking a seat, Ne'stbei says, "I am called Ne'stbei of hive Potter, in Yautja culture there is only the one name. I was formerly off Dark Blade clan, formerly of Dachande's Clan."
Taking a seat on the opposite bench, Ce'jaun smiles, causing Susan to flinch, "Finally, I am Ce'jaun of hive Potter, formerly of Dark Blade clan, formerly of Tartarus clan."
Swallowing slightly, Susan takes a seat next to Ce'jaun, "Well then I am heir Susan Bones. In magical culture it is considered rude to refer to someone using their personal name unless given leave. You may call me Susan. Do you mind if I ask what country you come from?"
"We do not come from a country, we live in space as Hunters. Travelling from planet to planet in search of honourable prey. Those of us in Clan Potter are discovering that our way of life may not have been as honourable as we thought. Especially if a R'ka has more honour than our clans did."
"I don't understand."
"Ermione, do you have your computer?"
"I do."
Susan looks confused, "Why did you refer to Hermione as Ermione?"

The door slams open and a red headed boy with a mangy rat on his shoulder looks in, "Has anyone seen Harry Potter, no obviously not." Then leaves the door open as he moves to the next compartment.
After getting up to close the door, Hermione pulls out her computer, "Here you go."
"But what about my question?"

The door slides open again, "Susan, there you are. Why did you get a compartment so far back down the train?"
Susan sighs, "Everyone, meet my friend Hannah Abbott. Hannah these are Hermione Granger, Nestbei of Clan Potter, Ce Jaun of Clan Potter, and I think the sleeping one is Lady Arry Potter."
Ne'stbei flares her mandibles slightly, "Close, my name is Ne'stbei, and the one sitting next to you is Ce'jaun. Miss Abbott would you like some help with your trunk?"
Hannah looks relieved, "Please, and call me Hannah."
Hannah takes a seat while Ne'stbei picks up the trunk as though it weighs as much as a loaf of bread. Susan then gets up so that Ce'jaun can sit in between the two witches, and they stare in amazement as she turns on the computer. They are so engrossed in the device and discussion that they don't notice Susan's aunt looking through the window with a smile, or the train pulling away.
Arry wakes up after a couple of hours sleep, feeling refreshed and ravenous. Opening her eyes she looks curiously around the compartment they're in. Seeing that there's two non-hive members she deliberately yawns.
"Hey everyone, I think I saw you on the platform, but I'd just laid 37 eggs so I was a little tired."
Hermione looks at her in alarm, "Arry, there were only 32 house elves that wanted to join the hive."
"Huh? I'm sure I counted more non-hive members than that. I was pretty exhausted towards the end though. It's why I always keep a dozen or so eggs laid in my Laying Room."
Susan looks confused, "Sorry about this, but what are you talking about?"
"Oh, hey. Sorry I didn't mean to ignore the two of you. Would you mind terribly if I introduced myself and gave a brief explanation while I eat?"
"Er, not at all."
Nodding, Arry hooks the handle of the picnic basket with her tail and lifts it down to her lap. With a sigh, Hermione lifts the table out of the bracket under the window, and folds it down between the two benches. Arry plops the basket down on the table and lifts one side.
"Oh, cool, it's expanded. The elves really know how to treat a person. Ohh, acromantula yummy. They've even included some of those things with bread. Help yourselves anyone that wants them as I don't particularly like bread."
Arry pulls out a large platter of sandwiches and places it on the table. She then pulls out an acromantula the size of her forearm and pulls a leg off to start eating it with relish.
"Anyway, I'm Arry. Just Arry, it's already rare enough for my kind to actually have names rather than positions. I'm not actually human, despite appearances. If you want to use magical terms, this is my animagus form. Once upon a time I was a human baby called Harry Potter. But that was before I was abducted by aliens. Life was simple until three years ago, I knew who and what I was, and how I differed from the other Queens. Then T'o-Ba'sall came on her chiva a year earlier than she should have done. I knew from my human memories that children were important and should be protected at all costs. So rather than killing her, I used my magic to prevent her from being able to attack me; then questioned her using what little language I'd picked up. I ended up making a new egg so that she would become part of my hive rather than being a host for one of my children. That was three cycles ago, close enough to three of your years. Since then, things have become more complicated. Especially the last 5 tendays. I don't think I would go back now, even if I could, but I'm still trying to catch up with going from hunting pirates, outlaws, and the occasional hive that's threatening a colony; to the complex social landscape of humans. Not interested in sandwiches? There's a few more acromantula in here if anyone wants one."

Not taking her eyes off the acromantula, Susan hesitantly takes one of the sandwiches, and bites into it. Cheese and pickle, certainly not what she was expecting. Hannah follows her lead, and, somehow, she's unsurprised when Ne'stbei and Ce'jaun both find an acromantula for themselves.
"Arry, what did you mean things were simpler?"
Arry leans back, thoughtfully gnawing on a leg, "Xenomorphs are animals. They're like, I think Hermione said ants earlier. So they're like ants. They have a Queen that births all of the workers and warriors, and they build hives. They will also ruthlessly exterminate any other hive in the area. Until Minva became part of my hive, the only human memories I had, were from a 15 month old baby. It was enough that it gave me a different perspective on the eons of ancestral memories I have. It also helps that humans are naturally sentient, so as I grew so did my sense of self and identity. According to my memories, those Queens that do gain sentience do so after hundreds or thousands of cycles. The other way that Xenomorphs are different from ants, is that we are all psychic. Non-magically psychic. Because of that all the members of the hive are always connected to me, and I know that there are 33 house elves, and 7 humans as part of the hive. Oh, hey Hermione, your parents are part of the hive. Something about the addition of Ptiana to the hive also means that distance no longer seems to be a concern with the connection. As I can feel the main hive, even though it's very muted."
"What do you mean you have 33 house elves as part of your hive?"
"Oh, right, that's why I was laying so many eggs earlier. They all needed a family, and the hive is one very large family. Ooohh, Apple pie, I love apple pie. They even used the least pastry they could. Anyone want some before I eat the lot?"
Cornelious Fudge opens the morning Daily Prophet and immediately starts to choke on his mid-morning crumpet. Splashed across the centrefold is a picture of the late Umbridge, with Lord McNair and Mr Tallfellow standing behind her to either side. The picture starts with her reading from a proclamation, before the Late Lord McNair walks forward with his axe, and the Tallfellow fellow fires some spells. Their targets then dodge and swiftly defeat the ministry personnel with lethal results. The crowd in the background cheering tells him that there's no way to spin this now. Recovering from his choking fit, he looks down to read the story.

Lady Potter, inhuman monster or peer of the realm
by Tobius Inkwell

I'm sure that many of you have heard of the events that happened in Diagon Alley last week, from someone that was there. Many more of you will have read Ms Skeeter's article on the front page the day afterwards. The author has since been doing further digging to uncover the background of the event, and to hopefully answer the question: Is the Lady Potter an inhuman monster, or a peer of the realm.

This story starts with the law that the lamented Madam Umbridge was attempting to use. This was passed in 1723 and legalised the hunting of Werewolves on the night of the full moon. Those of you who know of the law will be aware that it specifies that the werewolf must be a clear and present danger to others. What most won't know is that the drafters of the law wrote it in such a way that they could add new creatures to the list at a later date. To be covered by this law they must fulfil the following criteria.

• They must be a human at least some of the time
• They must behave as beasts when not human
• They must be contagious through curse or magical disease.

The Lady Potter certainly seems to have an inhuman appearance, however she was seen shopping for clothes before the confrontation. Indeed, if it wasn't for the inciting event of a man groping the lady and his subsequent dismemberment, there would have probably only been a salacious article talking about her predilection for going about naked.

The author then looked into the laws on inheritance. What he discovered is that the only thing the law says about it is the following

• The inheritor must be born a witch or wizard, or of another recognised species. It is interesting to note here that Goblins are not recognised under this law, however Veela and metamorphs are.
• The inheritor must be of sound body and mind when they inherit, this has been interpreted to exclude werewolves due to the fact they are by definition not of sound mind during the full moon.
• The inheritor must be within 3 degrees of the family they're inheriting from.

What is not mentioned is that they must still be human, witch or wizard at the time of inheritance. With a lot of investigation, the Daily Prophet can confirm that Lady Potter was in fact born Harry James Potter on the 31st​ July 1980. If you look carefully at the above photo you can see that she is wearing the head of house ring.

These two things then beg the question, how was she able to inherit if she is only 11, despite looking at least 17. The answer lies in her first appearance at Gringotts with the then Professor McGonagall. [See page 36 for speculation about Albus Dumbledore and the various positions he holds] The author expected that it would be hard to discover what had transpired on that day. Instead the Goblins seemed to be eager to share the story. Lady Potter was left to wait for a manager to become available, and the guards had their customary sneers. The Lady Potter is then reported to have said, "You can either stop showing teeth or I will make you." As any pure or half blood can tell you, this is a sure fire way to get into a fight. And so they exchanged words. Those words ended up in the Arena, where the Lady Potter faced 5 guards at the same time. After an epic battle she defeated them with only her natural weapons.

We at the daily prophet can only conclude that the answer to the original question has to be no. For while the Lady Potter is indeed now the head of her house, she does not yet fulfil the other requirements necessary to take up her peerage, namely being of age and having completed a ministry accredited course of magical instruction. To quote someone that was there while the Lady shopped for clothes, "She's no more a monster than a Hag or Lamia, and we don't try to slaughter them." She may well end up being the last of her line unless she can persuade the Ministry to add her new species to those who are allowed to inherit under our laws.

"Deloris, what do you…" Cornelious trails off as he remembers his chief advisor is now dead. Maybe Albus will, no he's healing. Making up his mind, he folds up the paper and heads down to the DMLE, Madam Bones should be back in her office now.
It's late afternoon when the first interruption occurs since the train left the station. A blond boy pulls open the door and pokes his head in. Behind him stand two other boys that look like bruisers.
Ignoring everyone else in the compartment, he says imperiously, "Heir Bones, have you heard whether Harry Potter will be attending this year?"
Arry bristles, "I can categorically state that nobody by the name of Harry Potter will be attending Hogwarts this year."
The boy looks her up and down, "Oh, it's you. Did you finally pull enough tricks to afford the tuition? And your monstrous companions are here too. My father says it's the only reason you'd have been walking the Alley dressed as you were."
Arry gets a slightly glazed look on her face as she accesses specifics of her hives memories, then she goes bright red and Ne'stbei, Ce'jaun, and Hermione all lunge for the boy. Fortunately for him, Arry is faster as she grabs his wrist and disappears in a flash of fire. Just after she disappears, Minerva and Pomona appear in the compartment with a flash of fire, along with T'o-Ba'sall.
The other two boys quail as the three members of the hive, that were in the compartment, are still murderously angry.
Minerva pushes away the anger she's receiving and turns to survey the compartment. Seeing that there's only 2 people that aren't currently looking for a target, she turns to Susan Bones, "Miss Bones, I'm the Head Master. I felt Arry's anger, can you tell me what happened to cause it?"
A bewildered Susan and Hannah both respond to fill in the gaps, though fortunately neither of them are aware of what pulling tricks means in an adult sense. While she's getting the story Arry reappears with a flash of fire, without the blond boy.
"Arry, where's the boy?"
"He's alive if that's what you're asking. I took him somewhere that will look after him until he's not likely to die as soon as I turn my back. Where did he get off calling me a prostitute anyway?"
And there goes that bit of innocence, "I understand. Pomona, if…"

A new boy interrupts her, "Excuse me Professor, w…would you be able to help me find Trevor?"
Minerva turns around slowly to look at the boy who starts quailing, "Certainly, what is Trevor?"
"He's a toad."
With a flourish of her wand, and a quick, "Accio Trevor the Toad" The problem is solved.
"In the future, please wait until the conversation finishes."
"I'm sorry, it's just I was waiting, but you seemed like you were going to disappear again."
"It's ok, no harm done. Now run off back to your compartment, and try not to lose Trevor again."
"Yes Professor."
"Do any of you know the name of the boy that almost got himself killed?"
One of the bruisers says, "Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."
"Thank you Mr…"
"Gregory Goyle."
"Thank you, you two should be returning to your compartment too. Pomona, I'll head to the DMLE and fill out the forms, could you head back and keep an eye on the guests."

A few hours after they leave, the 4 hive members have calmed down, and the train pulls into Hogsmeade station.
Minerva appears in the DMLE lobby, and walks up to the desk, "Good afternoon, would I be able to talk to Madam Bones please?"
Without even looking up, the Desk Auror says, "Do you have an appointment."
"I don't believe I'll need one, as this is a heads up about house business."
The Auror looks up, "Oh, Professor. I wasn't expecting you. Please, follow me."

Amelia looks up as someone is let into her office, "Head Master, I'm surprised to see you here today."
Minerva takes a seat, "To be honest, I'm surprised to be here too. I was made aware of an incident on the train, and I've just investigated. Mr Malfoy gave grievous insult to the Lady Potter."
Amelia becomes serious and pulls out a form from her desk, "What happened?"
"According to your niece, the boy pulled open the door to their compartment before asking if Harry Potter would be attending this year. The Lady Potter then answered to categorically state that nobody by the name of Harry Potter would be attending. He then looked Lady Potter up and down, and said, and I quote your niece, 'Oh, it's you. Did you finally pull enough tricks to afford the tuition? And your monstrous companions are here too. My father says it's the only reason you'd have been walking the Alley dressed as you were.'"
Amelia looks up sharply, "Are you sure?"
"I arrived mere moments after it happened, so as sure as I can be without being there. I'm sure your niece can let you view a memory of the event tomorrow. Hogwarts does have a pensive you can use."
"You do? That's been kept quiet. Merlin, if we'd known there's so many cases we could have resolved."
"My understanding is that when Hogwarts stopped doing apprenticeships, it became something only the Head Master knew about. Prior to that it was commissioned as a tool for Masters to show particularly tricky or dangerous aspects of their craft in."
"When did that stop?"
"According to the portraits, 1792 with the introduction of NEWTs."
"Fascinating, well back on track, I understand the insult given. I have to ask, how did she?"
"May I have your word that this won't leave this office?"
"The office is as secure as I can make it, and I won't say a word unless it's in my official capacity as part of my duty in pursuit of a crime."
"That will have to do. I saw the Daily Prophet, so I'll preface this with: None of us are infectious. You are aware of the fact that the Lady Potter is inhuman in appearance. What you are unlikely aware of, is the fact that's her animagus form. Her natural form is completely alien. Her new species reproduce by implanting young into living hosts. Because of her human heritage, she came up with a way to bring someone into her hive using a variation of her eggs. Her species also has an ancestral hive memory. This means that the Lady Potter has access to all of my memories, and I hers. It's not an automatic process, it's like remembering a book you read. But it's still there."
"I see. So she accessed your memories to understand the insult in that statement."
"Or one of the other hive members."
"What of Mr Malfoy?"
"The Lady Potter removed him from the planet to a safe location. Well, safer than the planet currently is anyway."
"When can we expect his return?"
"Probably when he won't be killed on sight. Or longer if Arry forgets about him."
"I do have to ask, why isn't the planet a safe location?"
"We have a phoenix as part of the hive, and Arry inducted 33 house elves this morning before she boarded the train. All bar one of which wanted it, though Tilly isn't unhappy with the change."
"What are you implying? Wait, no I think I've got it. There's been rampant speculation that Lady Potter and Pomona Sprout have both gained access to a phoenix. But that's not quite true is it. As the phoenix has never been seen. That implies that they can travel like a phoenix, and you have a phoenix in your hive. You've just gained house elves, and house elves… Merlin, Morgana, and Maeve."
"Correct on all points, 1 point to Hufflepuff."
"I'll leave a note at the desk that the Malfoy's are to be directed to my office if they turn up."
"Thank you, I must be off I have a sorting feast to prepare for."
"Thank you for taking the time to bring this to me before it blew up."
As if to just prove her point, Minerva flames out of the heavily warded office back to Hogwarts. Amelia just puts her head in her hands.

Sorting


Beth is concerned, she's poked her head in the hall multiple times over the day, and that monstrosity is still there. She heard the whistle for the train not a couple of minutes ago, and nobody else seems to be bothered by it. Minerva even promised that it would be removed that day, but it's still there. With a sigh, she comes down the stairs in her official robes and pokes her head in again. It's still there and she knows that Vector is talking to both the hat, and Minerva, about her role in the up coming feast. Drawing her wand she casts a few diagnostics, and comes up blank. A basic finite does nothing. Grumpily she walks over to it and inspects it more closely, running through a few more standard diagnostics that should show if it's a prank. When all of the spells she can think of come up blank, she pushes the pillar it seems to be resting on. It has a bit of give and seems to be hollow. Heaving it away from the wall, so that she can see how this thing is attached she notices something roll out the end of it. Of course there would be something inside it. With a flick of her wand she rights it and settles it off to one side while she's examining the wall behind the contraption. A moment later, she feels one of the teachers, probably vector, run their fingers up her back.
"One moe, I think I've got it."
They continue up her back and tickle her face, turning her head, she sees a flash of white and then something is forcing itself down her throat. Spinning around with her wand ready to fire a stinging hex at whoever played this prank, she's surprised to see that nobody is there.

Suddenly there's a flash of fire and a young woman with red hair, claws, and a tail, appears and looks at her face then down at the thing that rolled out.
"Hi, I'm Arry. Sorry about the face hugger, I didn't realise I'd laid that egg. Could you move back a tad, I need to get this back to my laying room, and I don't want to accidentally squash you when I change."
Beth puts her hands on her hips and just looks at the young woman, before looking cross-eyed at the thing on her face.
"Oh, don't worry, it will come off on its own in an hour or so. Welcome to the family."

Beth stumbles back in surprise as the young woman turns into a 15 foot tall animal with no eyes, a vicious smile, and lethal looking claws on all four limbs. It then jumps up to the top of the thing and settles into it like some sort of saddle, and the whole thing comes to life. A flash of fire and she's left alone in the great hall with something wrapped around her face for the next hour or so. Just as she's about to leave to find Madam Pomphrey, to see if she can do anything to speed it up, the first carriage load of students arrives. Glumly she takes her seat at the table and keeps an eye on the students. Pomona is the next to arrive and she takes one look at her before placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry that you're going through this. At least you didn't panic. Let me guess you thought it was a prank?"
Beth nods.
"You may want to think of it as a gift, and remind yourself of that fact repeatedly over the next few weeks."
Beth's eyes widen as Pomona gouges a rune into her plate with her finger.
Susan's eyes widen as Arry reappears in their boat while they're still on the water, "How did you do that?"
Arry looks confused, "Do what?"
"Appear on the boat?"
"Erm, I just found Hermione and appeared next to her. Oh, and the hall's now cleared, one of my eggs got stuck in the ovipositor and one of the professors found it."
Hannah rolls her eyes, "How do you lose track of an egg?"
Arry turns around and looks Hannah in the eyes, "Laying eggs is easy, I could do it all day and I would depopulate the school just as quickly. My body is designed to lay eggs for workers and warriors, as they live and die in droves. Laying eggs to change someone, and make them part of my hive is hard. I have to fight my instincts and only include the parts that make them part of the hive. 32 house elves came to me this morning and requested, note they asked me, to join the hive. It took me 2 hours to lay all the eggs needed, all I could do at the end of it is count non-hive members in the room and compare it to the number of eggs I'd laid. I probably started laying the last one before the last needed one hatched."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realise it was like that."
"It's ok, I just refuse to sully my mothers memory by deliberately endangering children that haven't attacked me. It's why I removed the boy to a safer place despite wanting to kill him. I know he was only repeating something he was told, but he is still the one that said it to me."
"Wow, Arry look at that!"

Arry turns to look at the castle framed by the setting sun, the windows lit by candlelight create a magical looking spectacle. The scene doesn't last long, as the last of the daylight disappears below the horizon, at the same time a huge man in a boat on his own shouts "Mind ye 'eads."
"Who's that?" Arry asks.
Hannah looks at Arry for a moment, "I forgot you weren't here when we got off the train, that's Hagrid, he brought us to the boats."
"Huh, so that's his name. I've seen him coming and going from the forest a few times while I'm hunting for snacks."
Susan and Hannah follow the rest of the first years, even as Arry, Hermione, Ne'stbei, and Ce'jaun seem to know exactly where they're going, and are chatting amongst themselves in that strange language they occasionally used on the train. They watch as Hagrid goes through some sort of ritual at the door, though he stumbles a bit when the person standing on the other side isn't who he expected.

"Good evening children, I am Professor Vector, acting Deputy Headmis… Head Master. My apologies, there is a reason for the change in terminology, and the Head Master will be announcing it at the feast later. If you'll all follow me to the antechamber, I will prepare the hall for your arrival. I understand that we have someone joining the 4th​ year?"
Surprised, Susan and Hannah look over when Ce'jaun replies, "I am."
"You'll be sorted first, as there is a place set for you closer to the other members of your house. I will show you which one once you're sorted."

The time they spend waiting is amusing, as the red headed boy from the beginning of the train ride, is going around asking each of the other boys if they're Harry Potter. The scene is so amusing that they completely miss the Ghosts come through the wall until someone screams. They can also see the different groups that are already forming. Of particular interest to Susan is how the absence of Malfoy is changing the way some of the other children are mingling.
Arry yawns as Professor Vector leads them into the Great Hall, the shine of the room having being taken off by her frequent visits to the school over the last few weeks. She smiles as Hermione mutters, "Apparently Rowana Ravenclaw did the enchantments on the ceiling." As all of the children line up, she watches Vector walk out of a side door, and then come back in carrying a wooden stall and a battered leather hat. When she puts the hat down, the shape of the hat changes to form an impression of eyes and a mouth.
"La la, la la la la. Hmm, this year I think I'll forgo singing and tell you a story instead.
"For the first time in 200 years, Hogwarts has appointed a new Head Master. One who is embracing the ideals that my creators envisaged for the school. For this was the first school of its kind that they knew of. Here was supposed to be a refuge for all magical peoples to learn from the masters of their art without fear of the politics of the world around them. The Head Master was to be the most experienced and knowledgeable of the Masters that made their homes here. They, and the other Masters would then pass their knowledge on to their apprentices and their apprentices and journeymen would then pass the knowledge on to you, the students.
"Originally, each Master was to have their own house, and I would only be called in to sort those who were ready to begin their apprenticeships. In respect for the founders, the following Head Master declared that their houses would last in perpetuity, something that was agreed to unanimously by the other Masters at the time. Over time, other schools began to form around the world, and the need for a centralised place of learning diminished. However, Hogwarts kept to its roots, and Masters provided instruction to all. Over time the reason for this structure faded from the minds of witches and wizards until one, Wren Tadpol, bowed to pressure from the government to standardise the exams across the country. This introduced the OWL exams. The last recognised Head Master was Jose Kelpis, who not only introduced the NEWTs and did away with the apprenticeship system, he also introduced the board of governors in response to political pressure. Since then Hogwarts has closed its doors to more and more students.
"I am happy to announce that the new Head Master has opened the school to Yautja. May the school continue to return to its aim of educating everyone that seeks an education in magic and has the ability to learn it."

There's a long pause before the hat says, "Well, get on with it, I'm done here."
While the Professor is unrolling her scroll, Arry nudges Susan, "See the teacher with the white face mask? That's a face hugger. Can you see how she's under no distress whatsoever, though she seems a little miffed at being unable to stop the professor next to her talking."
Susan nods, "I don't get why she's wearing one though."
"Remember I said one of my eggs got stuck in the Ovipositor? She's the professor that found it. Good thing it wasn't a male professor though."
"Why's that?"
"I don't have the necessary information to make male hive members, so everyone is female once they join the hive. One of the Yautja is having difficulty with that change, and they are far more egalitarian than Witches and Wizards are."
"Egalitarian?"

Professor Vector's cough brings an end to the conversations, "Slightly unusually, we have a 4th​ year starting today. Ce'jaun, please come forward and take a seat on the stool."
Once Ce'jaun has taken a seat, she places the hat on her head.
"Hmm, what do we have here. Non-human, it's been a very long time since I've sat on a non-human head. Right, I think I understand you now, let's have a look see.
"AARRGHH! It's going to eat me, it's going to eat me, get me off here… Oh wait false alarm, it was only a memory. What do we have here, AAAARRRGHH! Warn a hat next time. Oh, hey this isn't your head, what's this? I've already sorted you, and you. You as well. It's going to eat me, it's going to… Damn that was close, lets have a look again. That's a lot of memories, there's no way I'm going through this again so let me see, well Slytherin is right out. I do not want to encourage those tendencies. Let's see, you have a fine mind, and so do you, and you, and you, and you, and you, you, you, you and all of you too. Why exactly are you attending this school again? Oh that's why. You're about as likely to jump at the chance for excitement and adventure as a niffler is to jump on a gold coin. But the over riding trait I see here is loyalty, because of that it better be. Hufflepuff!"

Arry smirks at the hat while Ce'jaun is led over to a space amongst the 4th​ years. Poke around uninvited indeed.
"Abbott, Hannah."
"Oh good, a normal child, what do we have here? Hmm, Friendship, Loyalty, willing to get your hands dirty. Better be. Hufflepuff!"
"Bones Susan."
"Oh, another normal child, I've never been so relieved to…" Arry tunes out the hat's mumbling as it goes through it's process again, and again, only paying attention when Hermione's name is called.
"Hermione Granger."
"Hufflepuff! Do not let that head anywhere near me."

There's shocked silence throughout the hall as the hat says that, and Hermione looks up at the professor in confusion, "Erm, well off you go then."
When it comes to Malfoy there is silence as no student steps forward. After repeating the name Vector moves onto Ne'stbei.
"Ne'stbei"
"Hufflepuff!"
"What about sorting her?"
"I just did, are you arguing with me?"
"No, but."
"Then she's in Hufflepuff."
"If you could take your seat please? Lady Arry Potter."
"Erm, why does that name seem familiar?"

Arry walks forward and sits on the stall, her tail waving lazily behind her, as the hat lands on her head it lets out an agonising scream.
"Get me off! Get me off! Hufflepuff! Hufflepuff! I need brain bleach!"
Daintily she stands up again, hands the hat to a shocked professor and takes a seat at the Hufflepuff table.
Susan leans over, "What did you do?"
"I shoved all my ancestral memories at the hat."
"I can't imagine what that would be like."
"Painful, I don't like delving into them, and they're my memories."

The only other surprise was when the red headed boy was put into Slytherin, after he muttered that he wanted to go into Hufflepuff. As the last student is sorted Minerva stands.
Minerva looks out at all the new and existing students, "Good evening everyone. Normally, Mr Dumbledore would make a quip and then we'd start the feast. However, I'm going to take advantage of the fact you're all awake now to give the customary notices. Firstly, you'll notice that there are now two additional tables in the hall behind me. The first is the Journeyman's table, this is where the Professors and staff that don't hold a mastery will be sitting. Around that table are Valodja Bagley, Journeyman in Potions. He will be teaching first and second year potions, as well as learning from Potions Master Snape who is sitting to my right. Then we have Priya Dunns, my assistant, she will be dealing with much of the administrative side of Hogwarts, so you are likely to see her around. Also at that table are Madam Poppy Pomphrey, the schools Mediwitch, Mr Rubius Hagrid, groundskeeper and keeper of the keys. You may be interested to note that he is an apprentice to our Care of Magical Creatures Master, Silvanus Kettleburn, seated to my left. Professor Quirinus Quirrell, who will be teaching Defence against the dark arts this year. Professor Bronze Spindlewheel is the Muggle studies Professor. Rounding the table off is Mr Argus Filch, the school caretaker. The other table is for guests and residents that are not staff members."

Minerva takes a sip of water as the students take in this information, "Moving to the Masters table, at the end we have Master Sybil Trelawney, who has a Mastery in Divination.
"Next we have Master Bathsheba Babbling, who has a Mastery in ancient runes, and is also the new Head of House Gryffindor. No she hasn't fallen foul of a prank already, there was a misplaced creature, which you can currently see seated on her face.
"Next we have Potions Master Severus Snape, head of house Slytherin.
"Master Septima Vector, has a Mastery in Arithmancy, and is also the Deputy Head Master.
"For those who don't know, I am Master Minerva McGonagall, and I hold a Mastery in Transfiguration. I am also proud to be the acting Head Master.
"To my left we have Charms Master Filius Flitwick, who was also the Duelling champion 3 years in a row before he started teaching here. He is also the head of house Ravenclaw.
"Master Pomona Sprout is next, she holds a Mastery in Herbology and is the head of house Hufflepuff.
"Master Silvanus Kettleburn is seated next to her, though I can see he's itching to talk to Master Babbling.
"Master Aurora Sinestra is our resident Astronomer, and holds a Mastery in Astronomy, as well as a muggle Masters degree in Astrophysics.
"Master Rolanda Hooch is not only an ex-professional quidditch player, she also has a Mastery in Enchanting, with a speciality in brooms.
"Finally, but most certainly not least, we have Master Irma Pince, our school librarian. She holds two Masteries, the first in Librarianship, and the second in History."

Minerva can see the whispers going around the tables, as the revelation of just how many people with actual Masteries are in the school, sinks in. She lets them whisper for a few minutes before she continues again.
"As the hat said, we have some non-humans studying with us now. They come from two species, Yautja and Xenomorph. Both of these species have cultures that are very different to your own. Because of this I must stress that wands should not be used outside of your class or common rooms unless you are taking part in a club that requires them. Yautja culture especially is a very martial culture, and replies to violence with violence. Xenomorphs, are different yet again, and the Lady Potter is an example of one. What you can see now is her animagus form. If you want to know more about her history, ask her politely. However, if you attack her you are likely to die before she is aware of the fact you have attacked. This is what happened to Mr Dumbledore when he first met her in her natural form. Fortunately for us, she was able to get him to medical care before he passed away, however he was missing his heart and a large amount of his lungs and spine. At the guest table, you can see two xenomorphs in their natural form, please wave for the students Murph."
Once Murph has waved her clawed hand at the students Minerva continues again, "The forest beyond the Quidditch pitch is off bounds to students. We have recently discovered that there is a record-breakingly large colony of acromantula in there, so unless you want to end up as an appetiser for them you will stay clear. Yautja and Xenomorph students are exempted from this, as they are helping to bring the colony under control. Newt students may seek permission from Master Kettleburn to accompany a Yautja or Xenomorph on a hunt if you wish. All others must steer clear for their own safety. Newt Herbology students will continue to take lessons in the forest with Master Sprout.
"Lastly, the Lady Potter has a number of Vassals staying at the castle with us. They all take her safety and reputation very seriously. This is why Mr Malfoy will not be joining this institution for the foreseeable future. On the train he delivered grave insult to the Lady's face, and has been removed to a safe location. Let this serve as a lesson to all of you about politeness and manners.
"Lastly, all students are required to attend breakfast tomorrow morning, as you will be receiving your timetables at that time. First years will note that they have Flying lessons on Thursdays. These start later in the month as the school Quidditch teams need to hold their trials to replace members that graduated last year. Instead, Master Pince has agreed to hold a class on common knowledge in the Library for the next 3 weeks."

Minerva looks around the students, "Does anyone have any questions, that are not about the students or Master Babblings facial attachment?"
One of the students puts their hand up, "Yes Miss Geldings?"
"Why are you placing so much importance on Masters and Masteries now?"
Minerva looks over at Irma, "Master Pince, as you helped me with the school charter, would you like to give a lecture on this in the hall one day next week?"
Irma looks even more pinched than normal, "I suppose I should really."
"We will answer that question at another time. Anyone else?"
"When are we going to eat?"
Minerva laughs good naturedly, "If there's no other questions?... Tabpenny please present yourself."
A house elf appears on the floor in front of the Masters Table, "This is Tabpenny, the head house elf of Hogwarts. Everyone give the house elves a round of applause, and Tabpenny, we are ready to eat now."
There's a round of applause as the food appears on the tables.
Beth looks mournfully at the food on the table. She then melts as Septima steps up behind her, and begins massaging her shoulders, "Don't worry, I've asked the elves to save you some for later. Are you doing ok?"
Beth nods. No sooner has she returned to her own seat, than Silvanus comes over to examine the face hugger.
"Absolutely fascinating, it seems to be implanting something inside you. Whatever it is, it's not a parasite or an egg, so you don't need to worry about that. It would also be extraordinarily dangerous to try to remove it, as it has the most potent acid in it's blood I've seen outside some oozes that live off of rocks."

Just as the desserts disappear from the table, the face hugger loosens it's grip and falls away, it's job finally done.

Breakfast


Susan wakes with a yawn and opens her eyes, as the light in the girls dorm brightened up to mimic the sun. Looking out of her partition she sees a massive xenomorph, curled up in a ball and sleeping on the floor. Rubbing her eyes she lays back down to bed. Obviously she must be dreaming. When Hermione's voice calls over the dividing partition, "Hey Susan, sleep well?" her brain starts to wonder if she is actually dreaming.
A scream forces the cobwebs out of her brain and she bolts from the partition in her nightdress. From her partition, opposite the entrance to the dorm, Megan Jones has frozen in fear, and the xenomorph is stretching languidly. The other girls all, apart from Ne'stbei, come out from their own partitions, and watch open mouthed as it stands up, and has to bow its head under the ceiling. It then pads out of the dorm towards the common room.

Finally, Ne'stbei comes out of her own partition, "Hey Hermione, is it me or did she look Hungry?"
"Nope, not you. I'm just glad I'm her vassal, just about any other human would probably be breakfast."
"Did you hear that the girl that Murph hangs around with can turn into a xenomorph?"
"I did, she's the second one. The first was Luna Lovegood."
Susan looks between the two of them, absolutely certain that they were priming the room for something, but unable to help herself as she became more and more scared with each sentence. Suddenly there's a scream as an acromantula runs into the dorm followed by the monstrous xenomorph. When the xenomorph pounces on the acromantula, Susan screams and vaguely realises that it was the acromantula that was screaming initially. She stares frozen to the spot as it crunches its way through the poor thing, as thoughts of the same thing happening to her flit through her mind. As it gulps the last mouthful down, Megan tries to run, and its head whips round. With a sudden leap, it jumps at Megan and, with a scream, she disappears, in her place is another xenomorph, much smaller than the monstrosity that jumped at her. It then turns and leaps at another girl, then another, and another. Not even Sally-Anne Perks is spared, even though she's left her leg behind. Finally, it turns to her, and all thought about the fact this must be Arry, and Arry wouldn't hurt her, flies out the window. As her vision goes dark, she hears Arry laughing, "Got you all!"
Ne'stbei is also laughing too, though Hermione sounds annoyed, "Arry, if I didn't know you wouldn't harm them, I wouldn't have played along. But it's not actually that funny."
"But it is Ermione, but it is. Don't you see? Every single one of them has done an animagus transformation, with a little psychic pressure from me, and being primed into it. Look at Minva's memories and how hard she had to work to achieve hers."

Susan feels confused, Animagus transformation? "What, neugh, m ongue"
"Xenomorphs don't talk, we're psychic, your mouth works differently. Try thinking about talking but without talking."
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"
"Just like that actually."
"Hey, I've got my leg back.", That must be Sally-Anne.
"Xenomorphs can regrow just about every limb, I don't know if it will carry over though."
"A…Are we part of your hive now?"
"No Hannah, you're not part of my hive. You're not part of any hive. Well, grab your book bags and let's go to breakfast. Just remember not to change back until you're back here, even if you work out how."
Someone Susan thinks is Alice Tolipan says, "But we can't see."
"That's because you're expecting things to be like a human. You're not human at the moment, you're not related to any creature native to earth. Hmm, this might be uncomfortable as you're not part of my hive, but try to accept this from me."
Susan drops to the floor, as a massive presence steps onto her mind, and seems to hold out a parcel. Struggling to rise, physically and mentally, she manages to take the parcel and her mind is flooded with alien sensations and instincts. As she writhes on the floor, she gradually becomes aware of the room around her, the sound of the boys talking in their dorms, and the smell of the kitchens nearby. Unsteadily she gets to her feet, only to find that she has perfect balance and proprioception.
"What did you just do?"
"Hmm… Oh, I just sent you all the memories of a scout, before it had left the hive for the first time. It was only a couple of days memories so I hope it doesn't affect your personality. Now can everyone see properly now?"
There's a chorus of affirmative thoughts.
"Good, now let's play follow the leader, do your best to keep up everyone."

Susan follows Arry and the others through the common room and out into the school, to the sound of screams and swearing. She only becomes aware of the fact that they are running on walls, and ceilings, as often as the floor, after they've been doing it for a few minutes, when she 'sees' some students standing on the ceiling and wonders why they're up there. Eventually, they all stream into the great hall, where Hermione and Ne'stbei have already sat down, and there is an array of appetising scents coming from the platters in the centre of the table. She, like the others, dives straight in, until the Queen says, "Everyone, sit back, sit down and remember your manners. You're students not animals."
Abruptly she scoots off the table and takes a seat, the shock of the statement allowing her to regain her wits, reaching out she takes a serving of what ever was in the centre of the table and places it on her plate.
"mmm, this is good, what is it?"
Hermione responds, "Acromantula. Freshly caught this morning."
With a shrug Susan goes back to eating, though there's a gagging sound from further down the table. Just as she's finishing her second acromantula the Head Master's assistant comes over to the table.
"Erm, Miss Bones?"
Susan looks up, "yes?"
"The Head Master would like to see you in her office, it's about the incident on the train."
"Should Hannah come too she was in the cabin."
"Certainly, if you'll both follow me."

As she leaves, she hears whispers of, "That's Bones and Abbott? Weren't they different last night? How did the Head Masters aide understand them?"
It takes a frustratingly long time for them to reach the office. Long enough that Susan and Hannah start to play stalk the assistant, by seeing how close and quietly they could get to Priya before she notices. Admittedly, this also slows them down, as she turns around every 20 seconds or so, to check they're still following her because they're so quiet. On one occasion even calling out for them when they were both hiding on the wall above her. After that, they both agreed between each other that they'd keep inside her sight lines.
As Priya comes back in, Amelia looks over at the door, and every instinct tells her to run as two creatures prowl in, radiating menace from their every movement. Then one of them looks up at her and leaps towards her.
Minerva's whip crack voice calls out, "Miss Bones, stop that this instant. Your aunt isn't accustomed to your animagus form, and you don't yet know how fragile humans are. Now approach like a proper witch."
To Amelia's surprise, the creature tumbles over itself and sprawls on the floor before somehow looking contrite as it stands up and slowly walks over to hug her. Awkwardly she hugs it back.
In a more normal tone, Minerva says, "Thank you Priya, I take it the other one is Miss Abbott."
"She is Head Mistress… Master, sorry."
"Thank you, over to you Madam Bones."
"Um, thank you. Susan, Hannah, I'm here officially, so could you change back to the girls I know please?"

When nothing happens for a minute or two, Minerva sighs before saying, "Imagine who you are, and just push yourself into that form. Some people like to imagine looking at their reflection in a mirror, and then stepping into it. I have to say, I never realised it was possible to scare someone into being an animagus."

After a little more coaching, Susan and Hannah are both standing in the office, wearing their night dresses, looking a little disorientated. Stepping out of her official role for a moment, Amelia says, "Sue, are you alright?"
"I, yes. I'm ok, the world just seems somehow less like this. I… couldn't see. I mean I could but not like this. Unless they spoke I couldn't tell which frames had paintings in them and which didn't. It was so easy to move as well, and communication…"
Hannah nods vehemently, "It was so easy to talk to each other, but it wasn't with words. We could… I don't know how to explain it."
Amelia looks at them both seriously, "I'm proud of both of you achieving this at such a young age. However, I want you to promise me that you're take care and try not to lose yourselves to the other form. I know many witches and wizards don't register, but the registry was set up to save lives. Every few years you hear of an animagus going native, I don't want that for you."
Minerva nods, "It's a danger I don't normally need to explain to people until their doing their NEWT's. I'll make sure all the Hufflepuff girls get the lessons, and are registered." – with a sigh she adds – "I may also know of a way to prevent that entirely, but that's going to be a personal decision they have to make after they've got all the facts. However, I believe you were here on business."
"Yes, thank you. Yesterday, Madam McGonagall visited the DMLE to report an altercation on the train. You were both named as witnesses. The Head Master has volunteered the use of the school pensive so that I can see first hand what happened. I have with me a pensive camera on loan from the Department of Mysteries. It will allow me to record a transcript of what transpires as well as take photos of the event. If you consent, the Head Master will aid you in retrieving the memory for me to view, and will then return them to you. Do you have any questions?"
Both girls shake their heads.
While the process of extracting the memories is fairly slow due to their inexperience, it is done quickly enough. After an hour Amelia comes out of the pensive sour faced, "I can't say that I'm surprised at the response. If it was Lucius that said that to me, it would have been a duelling offence. I have no doubt that when Mr Malfoy was told that statement, his father had no idea it was the Lady Potter he was talking about. It's also telling that Malfoy didn't ask for introductions from the non-humans before speaking either. I have no doubt that I will be receiving a visit from his parents. Thank you for allowing me to view your memories, it has made my job far easier than it would have been otherwise. Thank you for your time Head Master, I will take my leave."

After Amelia leaves, the memories are quickly restored, and Minerva talks the two through returning to their animagus forms without being scared out of their minds.

Sat on the ceiling outside the great hall, Hannah says, "Sue."
"Yes Hannah?"
"Is this ok?"
"What do you mean?"
"This, we're sitting on the ceiling, well gripping the ceiling and holding ourselves up, we ate acromantula as if it was the tastiest thing ever, that person down there looks tasty, and I just want to run."
"I do too. But I don't think it's any different for other animagus."
Arry's voice says, "Don't move, I'm just coming to see you. I've had this chat three times already, so what's a 4th​?"

They both almost let go of the ceiling when they hear that, but a minute or so later the Queen is wedged in a dark corner near by.

"Ok, so you're feeling all sorts of strange feelings and urges yes?"
Both Susan and Hannah nod, "We are."
"Some of that is my fault, as I shoved memories at you, rather than letting you come to terms with your bodies, and learning what they can do. Some of it is your bodies instincts, as Xenomorphs are hunters, and are naturally animals. It's only because of magic that I'm not an animal. The same is true of you as well. The closeness that you're feeling, is the beginnings of a hive being built between you. At some point, one of you may get the urge to sacrifice themselves to lay an egg. If you ever feel like that, or one of the others feels like that, tell myself, Hermione, Minva, Pomona, or Peeya immediately and we'll ensure that they are brought into my hive."
"Why not do that now?"
"The more people I get in my hive, the less I like the idea of taking peoples choices away. You're welcome to join whenever you want, but I'm not going to force you into it."
"What was that this morning then?"
Arry laughs, "That, was me finding out that I really don't like the sound of screaming as it does funny things to my instincts. So, I ensured that you would all know what it was like to be me. That way we won't get any other repeats of this morning."
"But what about the other Hufflepuffs?"
"They're not going to wake me up with their screaming. Besides which, I only have genetic templates for female xenomorphs. Which will entail a gender swap for any men that get included in my hive."
"Why would that affect anything?"
"That's your instincts talking. To a xenomorph, not being a xenomorph is a nonsensical idea. Why would anything want to remain prey? If I'd told you that joining my hive would force you to be a wizard, you'd probably freak. Then if you felt the need to make an egg, freak even more until you just did it. It's a hard thing not being the right gender, and if you're forced out of your own gender, it takes a lot of help and support to even keep going. Talk to Wild Mask, that's the English translation of his name, as he's going through that right now. Anyhow, we should get back to the Dorm so that you can both get dressed. We're then going to explore the castle with the boys, as it's the weekend. Hermione has your timetables so don't worry about missing them. If you'd like later, we can go into the forest so that you can play in the trees."
Amelia looks up at the expected arrival of Mr and Mrs Malfoy with a grimace. Smoothing out her face, she calls out, "Enter"

Lucius takes a seat in front of her desk, while his wife Narcissa looks at her for permission before sitting when she nods. "Madam Bones, I demand that you arrest Lady Potter for abducting the heir to house Malfoy."
Amelia shakes her head, "I'm afraid I can't do that, as I have investigated the matter and she was well within her rights as a Head of House to do worse."
"She had absolutely no right to kidnap my son."
"After he told her that she'd been prostituting herself in order to afford to go to Hogwarts? Are you really sure about that?"
"What ever do you mean? He has been brought up better than that."
"I have here a pensive derived transcript from the memories of two people that had a clear view of the entire situation. Mrs Malfoy if you would like to read this copy, Mr Malfoy here's the other."
The room goes silent while the two of them read, Narcissa, always being the more politically astute of the two even in school, blanches as she puts the pieces together. Lucius on the other hand explodes, "What? Draco asked me about some non-human harlot that was strutting around naked in Diagon Alley while he was being fitted for his robes."
"Lucius dear. I think you need to reconsider the article you were moaning about yesterday. The centre page spread."
"Morrigan take me, that was the same woman?" – Narcissa just nods – "I'd ask what the inhuman harlot was doing as the head of house Potter. But that's by the by. Is Draco alive?"
Amelia sighs, "I don't know. I know that he was, because wherever she took him was safer than here."
"Why not bring him here?"
"Mr Malfoy, they have access to a phoenix."
"Narcissa dear, I have an urgent appointment with Minister Fudge. Will you be able to finish up here?"
Once he's left, Amelia asks, "Why did you ever marry him?"
Narcissa shrugs, "He charmed my father, who then negotiated a favourable marriage contract. Did that for all three of us, Andy eloped and was stricken from the tree because of it."
"Well, he's going to have a very nasty surprise soon, as Fudge was here yesterday asking for advice. So I gave him some, and then explained the implications of going after someone who was as quick to violence as the Lady Potter seems to be, while also having access to phoenix travel. I'm sure you can already see the issues that could arise if you were seen to be the person that was trying to use the law to murder the head of a house."
"Is that a threat?"
"Not at all. I don't have access to a phoenix."
"What happened to the naive Hufflepuff that was a year ahead of me?"
"She grew up, fast. You may also want to inform your husband that his bigotry is likely to get him killed if he can't control it better. The Lady Potter has exceptional hearing."
Arbitrator Thwau'tha-Than looks at the recording again, a Yautja that is part of a R'ka hive. How very interesting. He may have given up the hunt centuries ago, but this is interesting enough to investigate. He's also only a ¼ cycle from the clan ship in question.

First Week


After a day and a half of exploring the castle as a group, and then the girls going off in their animagus forms to run around in the forest. Ernest McMillian finally snaps, "Arry, I know we don't sleep in your dorms, but you can't just leave us out of half the activities that you girls are doing."
Arry turns slowly to look at Ernest, "What are you asking?"
"You've helped all the girls in your dorm achieve their Animagus forms. W…" – he swallows hard as Arry's tail comes up over her shoulder, and changes his demand into a request – "Would you help us achieve ours please?"
"Is this something you all want?"
The other magic born boys all nod, and reluctantly Justin Finch-Fletchley nodded as well.
Arry sighs, "Let's find a spare classroom, I'll contact the Head Master as there are some facts you need to know before you make your final decision."
Once Minerva arrives, Arry looks at all the students with a serious expression, "Unlike the girls, you will all need to know just what the consequences of your actions could be. Part of being an animagus is that you gain the instincts of the animal that you're changing into. Xenomorphs have 4 stages of life, the first is as an egg that is held by a Face Hugger. Once the Face Hugger has implanted the egg inside an animal, it dies and the second stage of life begins. The xenomorph then becomes a parasite, living off of the host as it matures over a period of between 2 days and a week. Transitioning from a parasite to a chest burster invariably proves fatal for the host. At this stage it can be fed Royal Jelly to turn an ordinary Xenomorph into a Queen. We'll revisit this later as it will be important. Once the chest burster has fed enough, it will go through it's first moult. At this time it takes on the role that the Queen that laid the egg programmed into it. They are now considered mature, and will continue to grow to around half again as large as Murph. There is one very important thing about this whole process, that is the fact that Xenomorphs get their genetic diversity from their hosts, rather than through sexual reproduction. If that was the end of the story, this wouldn't be a problem. The fact is that there are male xenomorphs, they are just very rare. I don't know if you've had the talk about sex, and boys and girls. So while I'm laying some harmless eggs so that you can all see what you're letting yourselves in for, the Head Master is going to give you The Talk, and explain the differences between boys and girls."

It takes Arry around an hour to lay an egg for each of the boys, and so she flames all the eggs back to the classroom to see the boys all staring at the floor and shuffling uncomfortably.
"I see you've all had the detailed explanation now. Anyone want to back out now?" – when nobody gets up to leave she continues – "These are egg sacks, inside each one of these is a sterile face hugger. This is an experience that Masters McGonagall, Sprout, and Babbling have all been through, as has Miss Dunns, and everyone you saw at the visitors table. Just remember, relax and don't fight it, you can't win you'll only be unconscious when it's finished."
Arry dips her hand into an egg and pulls out a Face Hugger, "McMillian, you're first, remember this one is shooting blanks so you have nothing to worry about."
Nervously, Ernest takes the face hugger and jumps as it leaps at his face, "See how it jumped at him, this induces a startle response, which in most animals, humans included, causes them to open their mouths. Hopkins, here's one for you. Remember it's sterile so you don't have to worry about anything, just relax and enjoy the ride. Rivers, one for you. Entwhistle I've got one for you too. Finch-Fletchley, are you sure?"
Justin nods and Arry hands him the last one.

"So you now know about sex and boys and girls. Did Minerva explain how it's the man that determines the sex of the baby?" – all of the boys shake their heads – "So the non-magicals have known for a while that there are two sex chromosomes, they call them x and y. The vast majority of people only have one of two combinations. XX or XY. There are always exceptions, because nature is messy. This is true of Xenomorphs too, and I'm not one of those exceptions. I can show you the proof of that statement if you need me to later. But it's long and boring, and Hermione would probably enjoy showing it to you more than I would.
"Now, there is a very important thing about xenomorphs. Every single one can lay an egg like these, once. It will kill them to do so, but they can. Every single xenomorph can also create royal jelly, and a chest burster that's fed royal jelly will turn into a Queen. This is what happened to me. It's also how I know I'm not an exception to the rule about sexes, a converted queen goes through a chrysalis phase where, like a butterfly, she turns to goo and is completely rebuilt from the cells up, new chromosomes included. If the Queen of a hive dies, then all of the workers and warriors will split off and try to find a safe place to feed and live. They are like the girls are at the moment. On their own, they just live out their lives. However, if they meet up with other xenomorphs then a temporary hive will start to form. At a certain point, one of them will feel the need to lay an egg, and the others will bring it food until it is able to. When the egg is ready, they will capture a host and bring it to the egg bearer, who will lay the egg as their final act. The resulting chest burster will then be fed royal jelly until it turns into the queen of the temporary hive.
"There is only one way to stop this instinct once it has started, and that is for the xenomorph to have a queen."

Arry pauses for everyone to take this in and Minerva takes over, "There are risks to being an animagus, one of which is that you can become lost in your animal form. Going native it's often called. Every year one or two animagus' will go native and be lost to us. The reason for the registry at the Ministry of Magic isn't to keep track of witches and wizards who are animagi. It's there so that if you go native we can hopefully find you and force you back to your human form. All of you will turn into male Xenomorphs if you choose to go through with this. Every one of you will also be tutored by me in how to recognise the signs of going native in yourselves or others."

Arry takes over again, "I have a solution to this, I have modified the basic design of my eggs so that they are symbiotic rather than parasitic. This means that they will become part of you instead of living off you. It allows anyone to join my hive, however I don't have the information needed to make male eggs. This means that you will receive a female egg, and as it grows and becomes part of you, it will also discard the male parts of you and induce growth of female organs. All those thing's you've just learnt we go through? You'll have to go through them too. If you choose, you can become part of my hive whenever you want. If you lose yourself, you will be forced to become part of my hive, as it's too dangerous to let a wild xenomorph to run free. If you start to get the urge to lay an egg, you will become part of my hive. Until I am able to get some genetic material from a male, this means that you will become a woman. Now that I understand what's involved in getting that genetic material, you are probably going to have to wait for a decade or two before I'll even consider it, ew."

Minerva takes over again, "If, now knowing the risks, you still want to go ahead with this, I will want your verbal acknowledgment that you understand the risks and are willing to go ahead anyway. We will then arrange for you to go through the process. If you have any questions, speak up now."

Sally-Anne puts her hand up, "If I join your hive, will I get my leg back?"
"Even if it means looking like Arry? Or never being able to live in the non-magical world again?"
Sally-Anne starts to cry as she nods, "It's horrible. I originally lost only the foot as a toddler when it got run over by a car. As I've grown they've had to take more and more of my leg as the bones grow and splinter. I was 8 when they took my knee after a muscle detached and rubbed against the bone. I have to take my leg off as much as possible, and it's virtually impossible to keep clean enough. I struggle with the stairs here, and I'm constantly getting sores. Yesterday was the first time I remember ever being able to run. If joining your hive gives me my leg back, it will also give me my life back." As she talks, all of the girls take turns to hug her, ending with Arry.
Arry says softly, "I had no idea it was like that for you. We'll talk about it next weekend, and if you still want it I'll lay an egg for you."
Sally-Anne sniffs, "Being able to run to the classes and then sit without the leg is still far better than I had before."
Wayne Hopkins watches as the flock of Xenomorphs runs out of the school for the third time that week. Leaving to play in the forest where it was too dangerous for most students to venture. When a tear trickles down his cheek, he wipes at it with a finger in surprise, before turning to find the Head Master's assistant.
"Miss Dunns."
"Yes Mr Hopkins?"
"Would I be able to speak to my father about the animagus process on offer here."
Priya's eyes glaze slightly and she then nods, "You may, I will take you up to the Head Masters office after dinner. You may use her floo."
Samuel Hopkins listened to his son talk about this great opportunity he has to become an animagus. Of the benefits of the new form, and how the rest of his year mates were already animagi or were considering it. As Wayne continued to talk he started picturing how gaining this skill would increase the prestige of the house, and open new opportunities for business and trade. Especially if a marriage contract is required.
"Wayne, why haven't you already gone ahead with this? All I've heard are positives."
Wayne swallows, "From the way it was explained to me, there is a chance that I will succumb to the instincts of the animal."
"Yes, yes, that's a risk for all animagi, we'll just get you registered, and I'll pay someone to use a reversal spell on you if it happens."
"Part of those instincts is an urge to lay an egg, which would kill me." – Wayne quickly continues – "They have a cure for that, and the going native problem. But it involves becoming part of an established hive."
"What's the problem with that?"
"There are only witches in the hive. A few wizards have joined, and they're now witches or becoming witches."
"Absolutely not, I will not have my son and heir run the risk of sullying themselves, and becoming a witch because of it. I forbid you to go through with this."
He shuts off the floo and turns back to the living room.
Emmaline looks at him critically, "Don't you think you were a bit harsh at the end?"
"Absolutely not, you heard him. There's a risk that he will want to lay an egg."
"So it was ok for me to take that risk when we were just out of school, but it's not ok for Wayne to take the same risk?"
"It's not the same thing, you're a witch. And we got Wayne out of it."
"I see."
"I'm going to the Pot, I need a drink."
As Mr Hopkins turns away from the floo, Minerva's heart goes out to him as tears freely streak down his cheeks.
Gently she holds out her hands, "Mr Hopkins, come here."
As he comes closer, she pulls him into a comforting hug, "I know it's hard, but sometimes we don't get what we want. Master Sprout is on her way, until then, take your time and when you're ready you can return to your dorm mates."
While Wayne is crying in Minerva's office, her floo lights up again. Priya gets up and answers it, only to see Lady Hopkins in the fire.
"May I come through please, I'd like to talk to my son?"
Priya looks back at Minerva who nods, "Certainly, let me activate the floo for you."
A few seconds later, she steps through and kneels down beside her son to give him a hug, "Is there anywhere we can talk privately?"
Minerva nods, "The Head Masters quarters are just through there. We're still sorting through the accumulated stuff that Mr Dumbledore has, so I'm not using it."

Emmaline leads her distraught son into the bedroom and sits on the bed with him. After a moment, she says, "When you were growing up, I always knew I was going to have this talk one day. However, I always imagined it would be with your sister and not you. My mother had the same talk with me when I met your father in my NEWT year, and my father forbid me from seeing him. Wayne, this is your life, not mine and not your fathers. Ultimately you will always be the one that has to live with the consequences of your own decisions. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn't then as your parents, we will be here to help you with the consequences. If not doing this will leave you unhappy and feeling left out, then you should do it. But do it because it's something you want, not because others are pressuring you into doing it. I know what it was like to be a Hufflepuff, I was one too after all. That loyalty to your friends will never go away as you grow older, but you will learn to temper it with your personal wants and needs. Now, why don't you tell me about what else was discussed during that class where you found out about eggs?"

She sits there and listens as her son tells her a story that has a large similarity with the talk that Madam Pomphrey gave her dorm mates at the end of third year. Though with a practical example rather than a charmed replica to be passed around. She needs to hold back a laugh when Wayne describes the fact that this animagus form is almost risk free for the girls, as if something goes wrong they just join a hive and carry on as before. Much like the boys and pregnancy, Emmaline probably wouldn't have chosen Samuel as a husband, but he gave her Wayne and she wouldn't trade that for anything.

As Wayne finishes talking, she turns his face so that he's looking her in the eyes, "Wayne, that class you had. Your female classmates will be having an identical one in their 3rd​ year about men. Just because there might be consequences in the future, doesn't mean that you won't welcome them. After all, you are one such consequence for me, and I would never change it for the world. Do what will make you happy, and we will deal with the consequences as a family. You are my child, and you always will be my child. It doesn't matter if you're Wayne my son or Wayne my daughter, you'll still be my child. Ignore the Slytherins, like your father, who are always worried about positioning and prestige. It has its place, but it's not as important as you, your friends, family, and their happiness is."

"Mother, what do you mean it's the same as the talk the girls get in 3rd​ year?"
"Wayne, do you know where babies come from?"
"You always told me from the cabbage patch."
Emmaline smiles as she remembers that moment, "Well, that was sort of true for your sister. What happens is that men and women have a special sort of hug, and at the end of it the woman may end up pregnant. The hug itself is very nice, which is why we do it, and there are precautions we can take to prevent pregnancy. However, nothing is fool proof, and sometimes consequences happen. At your age you probably think all of this is yucky, but when you go through puberty your body will change, and…"

Wayne listens intently as his face goes redder and redder from embarrassment as, for the second time that week, he is subject to The Talk, this time about human sexuality instead of the consequences of becoming a Xenomorph animagus.
Arry and the rest of the Hufflepuff first years, all troop into the Defense Against Dark Arts classroom for their first class, which is set up in a circular auditorium style, with Professor Quirrell sat at his desk in the centre. His deep purple turban seated primly on his head, while he fiddles nervously with the tail of it. Making their way to one side, Arry ends up sitting on one edge of the benches looking sideways at the desk. Slowly the other houses filter in and take their own seats. Once everyone's there, the professor stands up and begins the longest and most drawn out introduction she's ever heard of, even in other people's memories. Most of which is down to the poor mans stutter. With a sigh she pulls out a computer and sets it to record the lesson. When she looks up from the computer, the Professor is facing the Ravenclaws on the far side of the room. As her gaze meets the back of his head, he flinches forward as though physically struck. Thinking it a coincidence she carries on trying to decipher what he's saying, and then it happens again. Deciding to turn it into a game, she looks for the exact spot where it happens and tries to stare at it as often as possible. Hermione tries not to giggle as she picks up what's going on from the hive mind. Instead, she gets a mock glare from her about interrupting the lesson.
Ne'stbei isn't even that polite, as she takes one of her pair of claws, and starts to do maintenance on the weapon.

"Miss Ne…Ne…Nest bei, am I boring you?"
Ne'stbei looks down with contempt, "You are focusing the children's minds on the wrong things. 'ighlighting the dangers of the Muggle World while not addressing the underlying cause. Every 'unt starts the same way, know your prey. This applies when you are the 'unted just as much. If you visit the muggle world without knowing it, it will be dangerous. If you visit another culture without knowing it, it will be dangerous. If you visit another clan without knowing it, it will be dangerous. What is important is respect, for if you do not have respect, you will not learn, and what you don't learn will kill you."
"f…f…five points from Hufflepuff for disrespect."
Ne'stbei shakes her head and goes back to maintaining her weapons.
Once the lesson is over, Wayne approaches Arry, "Arry, I've thought about it, and I'd like your help in finding my Animagus form."
Arry looks down at him and nods, "Tell the Head Master, and we'll arrange for it to happen. Incidentally, did you know the only thing a xenomorph won't eat is another xenomorph. Just food for thought."
As Arry saunters away, Wayne feels a chill go down his spine. However, despite that feeling he informs the Head Master when he sees her at lunch time. For some reason, Professor Quirrell seems to be having trouble not throwing his head forward violently at in opportune times. At lunch time it happens so badly he dunks his face in his soup while Wayne is talking to the Head Master. As Wayne looks over Minerva's shoulder, Arry's xenomorph form waves from a shadow, then disappears up into the rafters. When the professor looks down to check his clothing, he jerks forward again so violently he knocks himself out on the table. Priya mutters something next to him, before levitating him and heading off to the Infirmary.

That afternoon, they have potions with the new teacher. Wayne's not sure what he was expecting. However, a table full of carrots, turnips and celery wasn't it. He ends up standing next to a Ravenclaw girl by the name of Sue Li.
"Good afternoon everyone, I am Professor Bagley Journeyman in Potions. I will be teaching you this year and next. Hopefully you will be more attentive than the rest of your year. Normally, Potions Master Snape would have you brewing a basic potion in your first lesson, and for every lesson there after. However, my Master preferred people to have the basics down before you even touch a potion. This term, none of you will actually brew a potion, instead I will be instructing you in a technique in each lesson. At the end of the lesson I will demonstrate how that technique is used in a potion. Today is all about basic knife techniques, peeling, chopping, slicing, dicing, and also destringing. On the table behind me are the knives that you will be using today. They are very sharp so you must observe proper safety while walking around with them.
"Never ever have the point of the blade held out in front of you, or towards you. If you don't have a sheath for the knife then hold the handle so that the blade points down your forearm, and lays flat against it. A slight twist of your wrist will press the cutting edge against your clothing or skin. This is the safest way to walk around with a bare blade, you may still cut yourself if you're clumsy, however you will not stab yourself or someone else, and the blade won't be able to cause too much damage to your arm. Under your benches, you should find a wooden practice blade. I want you to hold it the same way I demonstrated. When I'm happy with each of you, go and get your working blade."

Once everyone has met his standards, they all have a knife on the table in front of them.
"Now that you have your blades, when they're not in use, they must be place at the far side of your working area with their edge facing away from you. This is so that when you are reaching for ingredients, the knife is out of the way, and if you do happen to brush it, you can't cut or stab yourself. I want you to take a turnip and place it on your work board. Then watch me carefully as I demonstrate how to use the knife to peel the skin off the turnip."

The lesson continued for the whole hour like that, with the teacher demonstrating a technique and they had to copy him until they had the basic idea correct.
Once their lessons were over for the day, Priya collected Wayne from the common room and led him out to the edge of the forbidden forest.
"Miss Dunns, what are we doing out here?"
"You are getting your request. The girls are going to help you to gain your animagus form, or you're going to be their dinner. You've heard about how their instincts can take over. Anyway, I've been asked to remind you that the only thing a xenomorph won't eat is another xenomorph. Anyway, here they come now, which is my cue to leave. I hope to see you at dinner. If not we'll hold a service for you at the weekend."
"Miss Dunns!" Wayne calls as she vanishes in a pillar of fire.
Looking back towards the castle he can see Arry clearly running towards him and the smaller black shapes must be the other girls. Frozen in fear they get ever closer, then the adrenaline starts pumping and he bolts. First along the forest line, but they veer off and a few even run ahead faster than he can run. Desperately he turns to run away from them, hoping that the trees would slow them down enough for him to escape.

He's been running for what seems like hours, and they've been dogging his tail every step of the way. Suddenly he breaks through into a clearing, and in front of him, outlined in the last of the sun, is a xenomorph. Then it leaps at him and he screws his eyes shut, no, they're not shut. He's not dead.
"Hey Wayne, it's Sally-Anne, you did it."
"Wayne did it everyone."
"Huh? What are they talking about?"
"You're an animagus silly."
"I can't be, I must have died. I can't see."
"Arry, I think you're going to need to give him the memories, otherwise we'll be here all night."
"What memories, why can't I see anything?"
"You're right. Wayne, apart from your sense of touch and hearing, you don't have anything that you recognise as senses. This is going to be unpleasant, and may also leave you feeling a little weird as the memories are for a female scout. But it's either this or you spend the next few weeks acclimating to your new body. Each of the girls has already gone through this."
"Do it. I chose this because I wanted to join in."
Suddenly, a vast pressure pushes down on him, it feels like it did when his father used to pin him down when he was younger. Or the one time he went to the Nott's and they forced him to eat a garden gnome. Too much of a Mummy's boy they said. He's not even aware of when the pressure recedes, as he's writhing on the floor while he gets used to having two sets of memories and his brain and magic work to integrate them both. He remembers forcing his way out of the chest of something and then gorging himself on some meat and bones until she moulted. With her new legs underneath her she was part of the hive for a couple of days before… the memories end there and he/she shakes their head and staggers to their feet. The forest around them opening up in a way it never could have before.
"Tag, your it."
Wayne looks around in wonder even as most of the girls disappear, only Arry left watching her, him. On impulse, he leans down in supplication in front of her, and recites the vassals oath that he learnt at the feet of his Father.
"My liege, in thanks for this most wonderous gift, I Wayne Hopkins, pledge myself to your hive and your house as your vassal. On my life and Magic I swear this. When I come of age and inherit, my house will follow my lead and become part of your demesne."
As the last words resonate in his soul and magic, it feels like he joins something larger than himself.
"Gkei'moun, Minva, I need you."
From a pillar of heat, someone appears in the clearing with them, they feel like family.
"What's the matter my Queen?"
His Queen changes into her lesser form and points at him, "This, can't you feel him?"
"I can. What happened?... Oh Merlin, I didn't even think of that."
"I'm sorry for interrupting My Queen, but what have I done wrong?"
His queen comes over and lays a hand against his face, "You've done nothing wrong. You've just done something that I thought was impossible. You've joined my hive. Now, go and play with the girls while I discuss things with Minva."
Feeling pleased that he hadn't done anything wrong, he leaps off into the forest to tag one of the girls.

September


Over the rest of the month, Arry learns that just because she has the knowledge needed to perform magic at her fingertips, doesn't mean that she's any good at it. This is shown in both Charms and Transfiguration as she is consistently in the last half of the group to achieve the exercise of the lesson. Matchstick to needle, lagging, making a lumos change colours, lagging. Even Ne'stbei was doing better than her, even if Master Flitwick had needed to look up an obscure spell, in order to see the colours of light she was producing on her wand. Potions, herbology, and even defense were fine, she was frequently in the top 25% of the classes. Except Defense, where often as not, the class would end up cancelled because Professor Quirrell would have a fit or whatever it was that happened whenever she stared at the back of his head.
History of Magic was a loss, it was word for word exactly the same as it was when Minva, Pomona, and Priya all attended the school. After pointing Hermione to the memories, even she agreed it was a waste, so as a group the Hufflepuff first years started to use the lesson to do their homework. Much to the disgust of the Ravenclaws they shared the class with, who didn't have the advantage of 3 sets of memories to compare the lesson with.
Astronomy was, awkward. Ne'stbei couldn't actually use the telescopes as her vision wouldn't allow her to see through the glass. For Arry and Hermione, who could also see heat naturally, trying to see the stars was like trying to see through fogged glass. No amount of cleaning would clear the fog though.
In the common knowledge class in the library, they learnt about things that were considered common knowledge. Some of which, weren't very common for 11-year-olds. Such as the fact that House Elves need magic to survive, and that the bond they have with a family is a symbiotic relationship where they trade magic for services. Or the fact that much of magic is symbolic rather than structured, that accidental magic and wand magic seem to be incompatible, and so learning wand magic cuts down on bursts of accidental magic. Oh, they also cover things like how to use lamps, how the toilets work, and the other mundanities of life.
Henry and Vivian returned to work two weeks ago, after getting their own wands and a crash course in the most basic magic. They, along with the older Yautja were all having weekend lessons to bring their capabilities up to par. Today, Henry got out of bed as normal and had a decidedly abnormal bowel movement. As they are having breakfast, he doubles over clutching his abdomen, as it felt like he'd just been kicked in the guts or something.
"Henry, are you ok?"
"No, there's something wrong, it feels like, AARRGH! Something's clawing at my insides."
Concerned, Vivian grabs Henry and transports them both to the infirmary in Hogwarts.
Madam Pomfrey comes bustling out of her office and only pauses for a single beat before coming over to see what's going on, "What seems to be the problem?"
Henry groans in pain, "I don't know, there's something wrong inside my abdomen."
"Well up on the bed, and we'll see what we can see."

After she finishes her scans, she puts her wand away, "Congratulations Madam Granger, you are having your first menses. I can tell that you have the beginnings of the female reproductive system. The pain that you're feeling is partially simply because of the natural process, and partially because the uterine lining doesn't currently have anywhere to go. I can give you a couple of pain relief potions, though they should only be taken at night so that you can sleep. Applying heat will also help. I'm sure that your wife will have her own solutions too."
"Fuck, is there anything you can do to undo this?"
"I'm afraid not, I can't even give you a contraceptive potion as your body and magic are still developing. If you're worried about children, order 'Line continuation and you, a look at fertility options for non-traditional marriages' from Flourish and Blotts or Wizz hard books. I'd recommend the latter, as they're better for international imports. It's written with healers in mind, but you should be able to understand it, being doctors yourselves. It's about fertility for witch's witches, and why the same is impossible for wizard's wizards."

"Viv, does this mean that you go through this every month?"
"Oh God no, I know some women that do. However, mine aren't usually anywhere close to that bad. We'll get you home and dose you with some ibuprofen, and make you a hot water bottle. I'll deal with the practice and bring home some chocolate."
Henry gives her a disgusted look, even as Vivian transports them both back home.
T'o-Ba'sall growls, as another hunting party boards her ship. She was just starting to get the House elves trained up on the systems, so that they could maintain the ship. And the stupid inconsiderate arseholes, English was such an expressive language, decided to just punch a hole in the hull of the ship rather than using one of the perfectly serviceable airlocks, or even the docking bay. Stalking forward she transforms in to the biggest xenomorph she's ever seen, apart from Arry. Pauses for a few heartbeats as she examines herself, then disappears with a pop.

E'jeah knew this was a bad idea. She'd heard stories about this ship, and the vendetta the Dark Blade Clan seems to have with it. But Ma'ytun had persuaded the rest of the hunting party that it was a good opportunity to gain much honour and prestige. Initial scans of the ship showed only 50 life signs; apart from one Yautja, all of them R'ka. This in and of itself set her instincts buzzing, but the young bloods were so hyped up on finding such a small hive they ignored her pleas for leaving it alone. Even her objections about the sensor ghosts they were seeing, life signs so small and appearing and disappearing all over the ship, were ignored. She still can't believe she was once this rash a century ago. Then they completely ignored the Yautja, and cut through the hull rather than sending a message, or even just using an airlock.
Her instincts go absolutely haywire when the scanner that she's using to keep track of the Yautja loses track of them. Carefully removing her weapons, she places them on the floor then steps back and kneels on the floor. Suddenly there's a Praetorian in their cabin and it leaps past her to attack the young bloods. It takes all of her experience to stay kneeling on the floor rather than reaching for her weapons. Something that pays off when the young bloods are all disarmed, quite literally. She watches open mouthed as it opens one of the compartments and takes out a medical pack. It uses that medical pack to cauterise the wounds it inflicted on the young bloods. Then, using its inner mouth, it plucks their tusks, and swallows them. Turning to her, it reaches up to another compartment and pulls out a facemask rated for hard vacuum, and places it on her face. Whatever is going on, this is far too abnormal for any sort of xenomorph hive. It's far too small to have a Praetorian for a start, and then there's the missing Yautja. Finally, there's the fact she's still alive. Even if she was armed, however it got onto the ship without setting off any of the alarms, it had her dead to rights and even if she'd still been armed, the first she'd have known about it, in a normal hive, is a tail through her chest. She flinches when she watches it operate the navigation computer as if it knows what it's doing. Finally, it grabs her by her dreads and scoops up her weapons before dragging her out of the ship. As the airlock closes behind them, the hunting craft pulls away and heads back to their clan ship. The sudden lack of a ship in the hole causing sudden decompression. Which her captor ignores with about as much effort as it took to kill 3 blooded hunters. Once she fell back to the floor, with a thump she could hear through her bones, they disappear and reappear in a cabin. Effortlessly lifting her off her feet she's held against the wall as it… let's go? She struggles and turns her head to either side, but cannot see what's holding her to the wall. At some sort of hidden signal, some of the Drones come in and coat her joints with resin, pinning her to the wall. When it leaves and comes back in carrying an egg, she resigns herself to a messy death. It turns and leaves slowly, taunting her with the fact she is no threat. As it reaches the door, between one step and the next it becomes a Yautja with a xenomorph tail and claws, and waves at her as the door closes.

As she starts swearing, she realises that the facemask was removed at some point during her restraint, and so she watches with mounting dread as the petals of the egg open.
Draco runs, desperate to keep ahead of his hunters. It's not the first time, or even the 10th​ he's been through this. Intellectually he knows that they're trying to provoke magic out of him, after he had a bout of accidental magic when they tried to kill him the day he arrived. Honestly, he's not sure if he'd have rather died at this point. His wand's broken, the expensive expanded pouch he kept his books and spending money in is gone. And he's dressed in the same rags as the other humans here. Panting for breath, he checks around him to see if there's anywhere handy he can escape down, and runs between two boulders. When he doesn't produce magic, they hurt him until he does. Then they inject him with something that burns through his veins, though it also heals all the wounds they inflicted. Additionally, the other humans have made it clear, through gestures and body language, that he doesn't get any food unless he does his own share of helping around the village, shanty town, dump? Even if he's been hunted for half the day.

Not for the first time in the last few weeks, he curses the tutoring he received with a wand before school started. As it's common knowledge that regular wand usage reduces the occurrence of accidental magic. The sort of magic that he needs now. The most insulting part of this whole thing? He's been hunted by children. It's the adults that hurt him later, but this is just a game to the children.
Bubona watches, with a look of mild disgust on her face, as Vesta and Murph are doing some painting. Vesta turns her painting around, to show it to Murph. Bubona knew enough about Murph now to know she wouldn't be able to see the picture.
"This is mummy, this is daddy, this is me, an this one is you."
Murph's claw follows Vesta's finger and Bubona can see the frustration in its body language. Drawing her wand, she prepares to disable it if it finally snaps. Instead, a young girl, no older than 10 or 11, takes its place. Her midnight black hair flows down her naked back and her tail flicks back and forward in irritation. Her hands are still clawed, but far more human.
"'Ee" she says pointing at the picture.
Hermione reluctantly troops out with the others for their first flying lesson. Despite being part of the hive, she's still very much afraid of flying. Specifically, not having a solid floor beneath her feet. It's why she always uses the stairs at those shopping centres with glass elevators. She's also jealous of her year mates, as she hasn't been able to achieve an animagus form yet, being part of the hive means she can tell what Arry's motivation is. Why's Wayne looking at her strangely?

"Everyone, stand by a broom." Madam (don't call me Master) Hooch's bullhorn voice calls out over the Quidditch pitch, distracting Hermione from her thoughts. Quickly she scrambles to stand by a broom and watches attentively as their teacher comes to the front of the class.
"Everyone got a broom? Good. Make sure the broom is on the same side as your wand hand…" – There's a little shuffling as a couple of people change sides – "Good. Everyone, hold your wand hand out over the broom and say 'Up!'"
Hermione says "Up." and her broom barely twitches.
"You need to mean it, try again those of you who don't have your broom in hand."
"Up!" On the floor, her broom rolls over pathetically.
"For the moment, everyone that doesn't have a broom in their hands, just pick it up. Hold your arm straight out in front of you, with the bristles facing the floor, and the tip of the broomstick should be inline with your chin. If it isn't, change your grip until it is… Now bring your hand down to waist level, and the bristles should be just brushing the floor behind you. Lift your thumb and place it on top of the broom facing forward. Now step over the broom so that it is between your legs. Your second hand comes in to hold the broom behind your wand hand, the thumb also facing forward beside the palm of your wand hand."

While Madam Hooch goes around checking everyone's grip, Hermione looks down at her hands as the position feels unnatural and uncomfortable.
Startling Hermione, Madam Hooch says from beside her, "You need to loosen your grip. If you hold on as tight as that, you won't be able to control the broom properly. Muggleborn yes?" – Hermione nods – "Imagine it's a bicycle, and you were as rigid and tense as you are. Do you think you could steer or respond properly?"
She moves on before Hermione can reply, though she does try to relax her arms and hands.

Moving back to the front, Madam Hooch turns back to the class, "Good, now everyone kick off gently, and you should feel the cushioning charms activate. Well done, everyone. Your broom will go in the direction that you're leaning. If you want to go up, pull the broom towards you, and down push it away from you. I want you to all lean forward gently to start moving at a slow walk. Once you're moving gently pull the broom towards you until you're at around head height off the floor."
Hermione follows the instructions, and then freezes as she sees the floor fall away beneath her. She's up by the lower seats when she feels her Queen in her mind, forcing her panic away, and showing her how to return to the ground. Over the rest of the hour, with her Queens help, she gets more relaxed and comfortable with controlling the broom.

Halloween

E'jeah slumps to the floor in despair when, after the face hugger has fallen from her face, Xenomorphs come and release her from the resin. She knows she should kill herself, to prevent an abomination from being loosed on the galaxy, but she doesn't even have the will to do that. Besides which, her weapons aren't here. A small creature with floppy ears appears, puts something on the table and disappears with a pop. With a grunt, she pulls herself to her feet to see what they've given her, to make her final days more pleasant. A computer tablet, how, kind.
Not even a day later, she's starting to feel the gnawing sensation of hunger. She's quite prepared to ignore it when one of those small creatures pops in.
"Can Twixie get Missy Dreads like something to eat?"
E'jeah's mandibles drop open as not only does it speak, but she can understand.
"Twixie can tell Missy Dreads is hungry, Twixie will get acromantula."
This time it disappears in a flash of fire and reappears just as quickly with a spider thing.
"Not Queen likes these, Twixie thinks you will too."
Carefully, she pokes at the spider thing with a talon before ripping a leg off. When it doesn't move she bites into it and sates her hunger.
"Master, I can't keep doing this. Are you sure we must be here?"
"You saw McGonagall retrieve the stone, where else could it be? Get me the stone, and we can use it to make me a new body. Then we will reclaim what was snatched from our grasp 10 years ago."
"But what of your seizures? If they happen at the wrong time, I may not be able to stop them from revealing you."
"You forget Quirrell, I can take over your body when you fall unconscious. Just steer clear of the castle walls and you will be fine."
"And the girl?"
"Kill her if you can. Ignore her if you can't, the stone is more important."
Minerva stares at her hands, and how the skin on them is starting to darken after only 2 months. It seems that humans are more susceptible to these changes than Yautja, as none of the Yautja guests have started showing the same level of changes. Pomona's have gone even faster than her own. Wild Mask, he was complicated. At times it seems like he's absolutely ecstatic about the changes and what it means for her status. Other times he falls into a rage and only his life partner is able to calm him down. He's already started growing again, taking on some of the attributes of the other female Yautja Minerva's seen.
"Head Master, Minister Fudge is asking to come through with Madam Marchbanks."
Minerva looks up tiredly, "Let them through. Tilly, would you be able to get tea and snacks for the 5 of us please?"
"Tilly would like to remind kitty that two plus two is four not five."
"Kitty would like to remind Tilly that Tilly is as much my assistant as Priya is, and will be recognised as such. Especially since you joined the same hive I belong to."
"Tilly is house elf, not human. No need for silly rituals."
"Tilly is Family, therefore Tilly will be included in silly rituals because it makes non-family more comfortable."
Over by the fireplace, Minerva can feel Priya laughing through the hive even as she keeps her face professional.

"Good afternoon Minister."
"Good afternoon Headmistress."
"Head Master please, it's two words. I am after all a Master of Transfiguration, and I am the Head of all the other Masters in the school."
"I'm afraid I don't understand."
"When you get really good at something, you master it, you never mistress it. The same is true when you are recognised at having achieved mastery in a subject. Hence Master. In the non-magical world it's a little easier, as they use the term Doctor, which indicates the person has a doctorate in philosophy. Of course, because their healers are also called doctors, that has its own source of confusion. They also have what is called a Masters Degree, which is equivalent to journeyman in our culture."
"I think I see, I must confess, I never thought of it that way before."
"No reason for you to have done so, to my knowledge Hogwarts is the only school that requires a mastery to teach a subject. Tea?"
"Thank you. I'm sorry to dive into business straight away, but I have a meeting to get to soon."
"Not at all. Though I have to wonder why Madam Marchbanks is here."
Marchbanks lifts a teacup to her face to hide a smile as she smells the tea, "I thought it would be interesting, and as I had to point the dear Minister your way, due to this being an internal school matter, I decided to tag along."
"I see." – idly she takes an acromantula leg and starts to crunch on it – "What is so urgent you couldn't make an appointment?"
"I have had a number of concerned parents complaining to me about the number of non-human students you have here."
"We have 3, why?"
"I was told you have more, most of the Hufflepuff first years by reports."
"Ah, I see. No, this is just a new technique for achieving an animagus form, that relies on accidental magic. I'm planning on writing a paper on it over the summer next year. Entwhistle and McMillian have been unable to achieve the change, despite being primed and undergoing severe enough trauma to require an obliviation. Speaking with their parents afterwards, I discovered that they had been practicing with wands for a couple of years before arriving at the school."
"I will need to report that to the DMLE."
Minerva just looks at him, while Marchbanks sighs, "We know it happens, and it's technically legal. As the law about the reasonable use of underage magic was added as a rider on the statute of secrecy several years ago. Back when you were first voted in as Minister as I recall."
"What? How can that be?"
Minerva sighs, "Tilly, would you mind getting the book of laws from the library?"
When Tilly returns, Minerva uses a very useful spell that Madam Pince taught her, to locate the specific phrases in the book, rather than needing to thumb through it, and potentially damage the parchment.
"Right, here we are, 'Until they reach the age of majority, all witches and wizards will be prohibited from using wands in locations that may endanger the statute of secrecy. On the first offence, a warning will be sent out. On the second offence they will be brought to the DMLE and a fine issued. On a third offence, they will be expelled, and their wand snapped, and magic bound. Each of these stages may be appealed on the grounds of self-defence, or the defence of others."
"Oh, right. Well that seems reasonable."
Minerva sighs, "It does, until you consider that it affects muggleborn and the poor far more disproportionately than those that can afford to live in wizarding areas."
"Well, yes. They are obviously more likely to expose magic aren't they."
"Minister, is a student practicing magic in their bedroom a danger to the statute of secrecy?"
"Well, no, probably not."
"I had 3 students get warnings the year this came in for doing just that. We now tell all student's that they're not allowed to use magic during the holidays."
"But what about the non-humans you have attending the school?"
"I am following the school charter, that states that anyone with the capability to use magic must be allowed to learn here."
"But surely that only applies to people…"
"How many people are sitting here?"
Fudge promptly replies "4"
"What about Tilly?"
"She's a house elf."
"Why does that matter?"
"Because house elves are house elves."
"Minister Fudge, without using the words Human, Witch, Wizard, or non-human, I want you to tell me what makes a person a person."
"Well, she can't use a wand."
"Why's that?"
"It's illegal."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"What about non-magicals, are they not people because they can't use wands either?"
"Ah…"
"Consider this homework, I expect you to write a 12 inch essay on this and give it to me after the Christmas holidays."
"But I'm a busy man, I have so many things to do."
"Minister, you were elected to serve the people. How can you do that properly if you can't even tell me what makes a person a person."
"What can I do then?"
Marchbanks smiles openly, "That I can advise you on. Put together a panel of advisors. They will need to go over all the laws and ministry rules for the last 15 years, in combination with the minutes and decisions of the Hogwarts school of governors from the last 22 years. Oh, and you should try to include at least one muggleborn."
"Why? What do they have to do with each other?"
"In the last war, a key number of board seats changed hands over a few years. They then scrapped the culture and customs class, as it only lasted two years, and didn't have any exams associated with it. This was touted as a money saving exercise. A few years after the death of Voldemort, I was handed new ministry guidelines that stopped me from hiring anyone that doesn't have at least 1 magical parent and grandparent. As those that don't have any magical family have no understanding of our customs or culture. Could it be that the two things are related? Or how about the end of the Ministry run werewolf enclaves, again for money saving reasons. Then the late Umbridge starts proposing laws to control the werewolf population because they are now a danger to ordinary witches and wizards.
"Oh, and Minerva, I hope that you're going to do something about that curse."
Minerva's eyes just sparkle, and she gives a predatory grin.

Desperately, Fudge says, "What do I say to the parents who are pressuring me?"
"If they can provide their own essay about what makes a person a person, without using the words Human, Witch, Wizard, Magic, or Non-human, I will grant them an interview where they can explain their reasoning. Until then, those three students will be staying, and I will accept any other students that seek an education at this school."
"What if they hurt or kill one of the witches or wizards?"
"Then I'd say that's Darwinism in action."
Minerva gets blank looks from everyone else around the table, and she reviews what she said. Tipping her head back to cover her distant look, as she follows that phrase to where it came from, she continues, "Er, it's a muggle phrase that means evolution in acti… Evolution is the term given to the muggle discovery, that nearly all of the species that exist on earth became the way they are through very small changes, that happened repeatedly over unimaginably large periods of time. Mr Darwin was the person that brought all the research together last century and published it under his own name."
Priya has a glazed look in her eyes, and Minerva feels a faint touch on her mind as she tries to find out how she knows this. So she points Priya to the section of memories that come from the Grangers.
Marchbanks looks at Minerva speculatively before putting her empty teacup down, "Minister Fudge, I believe the time for pleasantries is over, and you did say that you had a meeting to get to."
"Oh, yes. I do, I do. Sorry to cut this meeting short, it was most informative."
Minerva smiles at him, "Don't forget your homework, Minister."
Hermione looks at Susan with a confused expression, "Susan, where are we going?"
"It's Halloween, so we thought we'd include you in a girls only game."
"But what about the feast?"
"We've got permission to do this, because we don't want any of the other students to get hurt."
Hermione stops and looks at her friend, "Susan, what do you mean you don't want any of the other students to get hurt?"
"Well, the other girls and I have these brilliant new forms, and they come with all sorts of wonderful instincts. What we really like is chasing things, and humans are so smart."
Hermione backs against a wall, as she sees the xenomorph forms of the other girls, while Susan continues, "Of course, we've chased Wayne, Entwhistle, and McMillian, but we've always been stopped before the hunt can come to its natural end. Of course, you can't change, and the others know that you're desperate to change. It was easy enough to lie to the Head Master and persuade her that we're going to try and force you into your change. But what we really want is to know what human tastes like." – Susan flows down into her animagus form and, using the mental speech of xenomorphs, continues – "We are going to give you a head start, so that if they review our memories we can honestly say we tried. It's not our fault if our instincts over come us later."
Hermione looks around and all 5 of the Hufflepuff girls are arrayed around her, on the wall as well as the floor.
"You have 15 seconds to run, then we're following you."
Hermione doesn't even wait for the rest of the sentence, at 15 seconds, she's dodging around her classmates and running pell-mell down the corridor. Somewhere in the back of her mind is the thought that this is another setup, but as she vaults over a balustrade and slides down a banister to a lower floor, that thought is buried under the primal instinct to run from the predators. Spotting a black shape fly past her to land on the flight of stairs below her, she leaps off the stairs down a corridor that leads further away from the Great Hall.
A few minutes of desperately playing keep away later, one of the girls comes out from a corridor to the right. Dropping to the floor, she slides along the age smoothed stone underneath them, before some how pushing herself into a roll to get back to her feet. Grabbing the corner with her hands, her sharpening fingers grip in just enough to pull her round the corner and to a spiral staircase that leads up and down.
Her heart in her mouth, she heads down knowing that going higher will just see her trapped. Much to her dismay, this is one of the weird staircases in the castle, and a few seconds later she recognises the tapestry of someone teaching trolls to dance. Praying to whatever deity is listening, she runs for the far end of the corridor hoping to get there before the others do.
She skids to a halt as two xenomorphs come from either side of the T junction, and start to prowl towards her. Turning around, she sees the one she slid under stalking behind her. The one she's looking at glances very slightly to one side, and Hermione spins around to see a xenomorph heading straight for her, claws out. With a pop, she disappears and reappears in the second floor girls bathroom.
Minerva looks up in surprise as Professor Quirrell comes running into the Great Hall a few minutes after the Halloween feast has started.
"Troll, there's a troll in the dungeons. I just thought you should know." The poor man then faints before he can give them any useful information like, what sort of troll, where in the dungeons, and why he was even in the dungeons rather than at the feast.
Putting her wand to her throat, Minerva amplifies her voice to say, "Prefects, close the doors and do a head count. Can we have a moment's silence for the Troll please, as the first year Hufflepuffs are playing in the school."
A Slytherin Prefect holds a squirming red headed first year by the doors, "All accounted for now, this one was trying to sneak out though."
A Gryffindor prefect then says, "All Weasley's accounted for, and so is everyone else." The other two houses are equally present, apart from those first years.
Hermione's heart is just starting to calm enough to think, when the most awful stench fills the bathroom. Something almost knocks the door off its hinges and a massive, grey skinned, humanoid ducks, as it forces itself through the doorway. In its meaty hand is a cudgel longer than she is tall, crudely shaped out of a log. As its beady eyes latch onto her, it brings the cudgel around in a whistling arc, catching her in the side and sending her through a cubical wall. She bounces off the castle wall at the back of the cubical, and lands on the floor. Unsteadily she climbs to her feet and shakes her head, her tail whipping around behind her. Ducking to the floor as another swing smashes its way through the walls of the cubicles behind her, she leaps over the ruins of the cubical she landed in, and swipes at the troll as she passes.

Howling in pain, it spins to follow her and brings its cudgel slamming into the wall that she'd come to rest on. Acting purely on instinct, Hermione launches herself over the Trolls arm. Then latches onto its back by digging a claw into the gap between the collar bone and shoulder blade to act as a pivot. Desperately, the troll tries to grab her as she brings her jaw up to the back of its head and, with a sound like a gun, her inner jaws pierce its braincase and it falls to the floor, dead.

Only a few minutes later, the other girls find her contentedly gnawing on a leg, and swiftly join in.

Metamorphosis

E'jeah broods quietly in her room, it's been several days and, apart from the ship becoming far more noisy, she is depressingly the same as she was. Those strange creatures have kept her well fed and watered, but she's still expecting to die at some point. Looking up from the bunk as the door opens, she's surprised and then resigned when a R'ka pushes the door open.
"Rula wonders why you are moping in here."
E'jeah fair jumps while lounging as it speaks to her, "Did you just speak?"
"Obviously, I can also reason and use a computer configured for Yautja too. Though I can't read, as I can't feel the characters properly."
"I must be losing myself. This is a hallucination."
"I don't know what one of those is. But this is real. I'll take you to your Queen and you'll see."

E'jeah was expecting a lot of things, but being bumped with a snout and then being engulfed in flames wasn't it. Appearing in a room full of pyode amedha [an:soft meat, humans] with one Yautja and one hybrid sat amongst them.
"Rula, what are you doing here? And Who's this?" the hybrid says.
"Lady Potter, please can this wait until the class is finished. Rula, Ma'am please take a seat over there and Arry will be able to deal with whatever has come up. I'm presuming it's not an attack or something as I can't feel any urgency."
E'jeah's mandibles drop open as the female points a stick, and two chairs appear, one suitable for her stature, and a lounging style chair suitable for a kiande amedha [an:hard meat, xenomorphs], or R'ka if you're not hunting them, which she supposes she isn't. Stunned, she allows the xenomorph to nudge her over to the chair.

She watches in amazement at her ability to understand what's being said, though the meaning of what's being said eludes her. As the lesson comes to a close, she feels another surge of amazement as nearly half the pyode amedha become kiande amedha, before streaming out the door.
The youngling walks over and kneels in front of her, "Greetings Honoured Elder. This one would learn from one so honoured."
Despite the situation, E'jeah laughs, "Stand youngling, I am but a blooded hunter. I have not grown so bored of the hunt I seek the rank of arbiter, or so tired of life I wish to be an elder."
"Thank you honoured hunter."
"Tell me youngling, what is your name, and what clan do you belong to?"
"I am known as Ne'stbei of Potter Clan, formerly of Dark Blade Clan, formerly of Dachande's Clan."
"So many clans."
"Dark Blade claimed my family were bad bloods, and claimed my youngling brothers too. My Queen saved me on my chiva, and gave me her clan."
"You have no markings, you are not of age."
"I am not. I chose to go early after my clan sister was unable to achieve her chiva within one half cycle after coming of age."
E'jeah makes an Yautja frown, "Why would you go early rather than train harder?"
"There were no Chiva available for my clan sister. Yet a tenday after, there was a chiva for a clan born."
"Do they have no honour?"
"I am learning that honour may not be what we thought it was."
"Youngling, honour isn't some set thing that you can weigh. It differs from species to species. Our honour is there to control the bloodlust we suffer as we come of age. To give it a safe outlet. Others have their own honour, and we should always strive to recognise that, while not ignoring our own."
"I do not understand."
"We are nomads, hunters seeking to expunge the scourge of the R'ka from the galaxy. A scourge that our stories say our ancestors released from their cage."

Arry steps up next to Ne'stbei, "This is all very interesting, however Rula brought you here for a reason."
"E'jeah has been staying in the room that T'o-Ba'sall placed her in when she left the adoption egg."
"I think I am going to need more explanation than just that."
E'jeah shakes her head, the beads in her dreads tinkling with the movement, "I have been waiting for my death."
"Rula, would you tell T'o-Ba'sall to meet me here, now. There's obviously stuff I don't understand going on, and I don't want to go wading through years of memories when someone can just explain it. While we're waiting, would you explain what's happened and what you think is happening."

E'jeah describes the events leading up to her impregnation, and what she thinks is happening.

Once she finishes, Arry exclaims, "Wait, you're the senior hunter, why were the younger hunters even allowed to do that hunt?"
"Being a senior hunter is a position of respect, not authority. Hunting pods are a team, and like other teams, decisions are made by the collective. I have not faced every threat out there, no Yautja has. So it would be foolish for my word to out weigh the rest of the pod. They respect it more, because of my experience. The only Yautja with that sort of authority is the clan Matriarch, and even then only so long as she doesn't use it too much."

T'o-Ba'sall appears in a pillar of fire, and Arry immediately rounds on her, "T'o-Ba'sall, why did you use an adoption egg on E'jeah here?"
T'o-Ba'sall looks confused, "She clearly submitted to me, and so I followed our traditions and inducted her into our clan. I was waiting for her to finish the tradition and come to find me."
Arry rubs her forehead with the palm of her hand, "Does being inducted in a clan normally mean having a face hugger attached to you?"
"For us it does, as it's the only way to ensure their safety."
"Did you bother… No of course you didn't. T'o-Ba'sall when I said nobody should be forced into our hive, I didn't mean 'Except for when it gets in the way of traditions'. Accidents happen, and that's acceptable, but you deliberately exposed E'jeah to a face hugger without explaining anything." – turning back to E'jeah Arry sighs – "Are you aware of the tradition that T'o-Ba'sall is talking about?"
"I am. A Yautja that submits will be given food for the body and mind, a bed to sleep in, and shelter from the weather. They will then have a tenday to seek out the clan elder, either to receive the clan mark or a quick death."

"Right, fine. It happened in the wrong order, but you've got the clan mark. The face hugger made you part of my hive. Congratulations. Now, do you want to live as part of the hive, or die now?"
Just as she's about to demand death, E'jeah looks at how young T'o-Ba'sall is, then at Ne'stbei, before slumping, "I will live, there is at least one youngling who doesn't yet know all she needs to know."
"Great, well you can stay on earth for the moment. Do you know how to scan a planet for other xenomorphs? As we thought it would be simple, but we can't get the equipment to work."
"You would need to be able to see the whole planet with your eyes before the equipment would work, as the scanners cannot penetrate the core of the planet."
"Great, we can put it on the moon then."
"I do not see any space worthy ships here."
"You were just transported half way across the galaxy by fire travel and you're worried about ships?"
"What do you mean? Where are we?"
"The human's home world."
"Pauk"
Minerva and Priya are sorting through Mr Dumbledore's belongings in the weeks coming up to Christmas when they come across a trunk of notes, a silky grey cloak, and an annotated copy of Beedle the Bard. Glancing through the notes to see if the Cloak belongs to him or not, Minerva collapses to the floor in tears as she flicks through a journal filled with his neat handwriting.

17th​ July 1981
With the Fildilus Charm in place, James has finally consented to allow me to examine his family heirloom. Initial examination shows that while it is unworn it appears to be a quite ordinary invisibility cloak. Though what plant or animal the thread that makes up the weave comes from is unknown.

15th​ October 1981
I think I have exhausted the research I can do on this cloak. So far as I can tell, there is no form of magical detection that will allow someone to know the wearer is there unless they are making tell tale noises. I have been unable to glean any further information about its origins, and I am unwilling to test its legend.

5th​ November 1981
I am going to put my research to one side now, as I fear that it has cost the lives of both Lily and James. When Harry returns, I will find some way to return his heirloom.

Vivian appears outside the rookery with a pop before knocking on the door. It only takes a few minutes for Mr Lovegood to appear.
"Dr Granger, this is a surprise."
"I've just received word that your daughter's chrysalis has started to move."
"Let me just turn the stove off and switch off the printing press."

A few minutes later, Xeno is back at the door and pulling on a coat, "How have you been doing Mr Lovegood?"
"Better, much better thank you. The pills have some horrible effects, but my mind is my own for the first time in years."
"I'm glad I could help. How's the process of getting your non-magical identity established?"
"The ministry has been dragging its heels, however I now have a few bank accounts through Gringotts with a mailing address in the nearby village. I have styled myself as a Hippy, and there is a drop box on the edge of my property. As you can see, I quite like the style, and iconography."
"I see, well if you take my hand, I'll take you to Hogwarts."
"I never did ask, but what happened? When we met you couldn't do magic."
"An eleven year old girl with a heart bigger than it has any right to be, especially considering her species. A whole bunch of House Elves asked to join her family, and rather than doing the sensible thing, that many adults would think of. She instead brought them all into the hive in one massive sitting."
"I must confess, I don't see how this caused you to be able to do magic."
"Ah. What we didn't know at the time, was just how hard it is for her to lay adoption eggs, rather than the eggs natural to her species. When she got to the last few eggs, she was exhausted and could no longer remember how many she actually needed."
"So she counted who didn't have one?"
"Exactly."
"I did that once for Luna's birthday when baking cakes. Each child ended up with 3 cakes each because I forgot that I'd already put a batch on twice. It was the last time Dora allowed me to cook after an all-nighter at the office."
Taking Xeno's hand, Vivian flames into Hogwarts entry hall, where Priya was waiting for them.

"Mr Lovegood, you're looking good. Though the 60's called and would like their clothes back."
Xeno laughs, "I happen to like that era, and non-magicals don't question my ideas or eccentricities when I forget they don't know where to find sasquatches or yetis."
"I suppose they wouldn't, would they. How many have asked you for mushrooms or the good shit so far?"
"Only 3."
"We have your daughter in a room off the third floor corridor on the right hand side. We decided that the old suite was hard enough to navigate that students wouldn't accidentally find their way in there. This will probably be the only time you can see her until she starts laying eggs, and Arry can teach her how to lay adoption eggs."
"I understand, how long will that be do you think?"
"Arry thinks she'll be laying by May, and probably able to produce adoption eggs by the end of June. We'll be informing the rest of the school, and putting up what protections we can to keep the students out."
"Won't she be lonely?"
Priya shakes her head, "Most of the 1st​ year Hufflepuffs will be there, and can come and go at will as long as they're careful."
"I don't understand."
"Arry discovered a new method for becoming an animagus. It relies on accidental magic, so it's not useful for most witches or wizards. It probably also explains the likes of Tarzan and Mowgli, it is going to be the subject of a paper the Head Master produces during the next break. Here we are. As you can see, this room has a trapdoor rather than the more traditional door. We have confirmed that this whole suite is on the third floor, and are putting the layout down to Hogwarts being Hogwarts."
Xeno chuckles, "I could fill the Quibbler with interesting facts about the school, and nobody would believe them. I can quite imagine this is one of those facts. Just like nobody believed my article about the sightings of serpentus mortis quietus, commonly called Raka, in Russia. Granted, this was published before I met Vivian and she helped me come back to myself, I think I called them double mouthed blimp headed hunters because I couldn't find the right words. Not that anyone would believe they exist." – Xeno points at Susan as they come through a door – "In fact, they look exactly like that from all reports."

"Arry! Arry! You need to hear this now before we forget."
Arry pops over from the chrysalis, "What's going on?"
"Mr Lovegood?"
"We were talking about sightings of serpentus mortis quietus, or Raka. I published an article about them in August, as there have been sightings in North Russia."
Arry frowns, "Thank you, that's ideal information. I haven't felt the presence of a queen, so hopefully it's just an isolated worker or warrior. I've just called for T'o-Ba'sall and E'jeah, I need to keep an eye on Luna, as there's a special thing I need to do to ensure that she's linked to my hive, not subordinate to it. Once she's eaten, you should be able to talk to her, though one of us will need to translate."
"You've brought people into your hive. Is there any way that I can become part of my little moon's hive?"
"I really think you should wait until she can lay adoption eggs."
"Arry, Queen, Dr Granger has given me back my mind. I just want to be with my Daughter."
While Arry prevaricates about saying anything, Wayne walks over and takes Xenos hand, "Sir, I gave the vassal oath, and that brought me into Arry's hive. While I don't think the Vassal oath will help you, maybe you can come up with something that will."

It takes Luna 2 hours to emerge from her chrysalis, and another 30 minutes before she has consumed enough that she's no longer trying to attack anything warm blooded. During this time, Arry is right next to her as a Queen, feeding her Royal Jelly as well as allowing her access to her meal. Once she's finished, Arry motions Xeno over, who immediately stops his conversation with T'o-Ba'sall and E'jeah.

Xeno walks up to his daughter with out fear. If she takes his life, then he'll be with his wife, if not he'll be with his daughter. Kneeling down, he takes both of her foreclaws in his hands, heedless of the danger.
"Luna Selene Lovegood, you are and always have been my daughter. No matter how bad my psychosis became, that was always true. Psychosis is what the non-magicals call what happened to me, and Dr Granger has helped me find my mind again. I'm taking non-magical medication and it's helping me keep my thoughts straight, and the hallucinations at bay. I have missed you so much, and I wish it hadn't come to this. But I think it was the only way for me to get the help I needed, but didn't know existed.
"Luna, I am your father, but we are currently not family. I pledge on my life, my magic, and my blood," – he jerks his forearm across one of her claws, leaving a deep gaping wound in the muscle – "that if you accept me into your family, into your hive, I will do everything in my power to ensure that you are given everything you need to grow into a strong and powerful Queen, and impart the knowledge and wisdom you need to be a good and just Queen. I will defend you while you are weak, and be there for you once you are strong."

Luna just looks at her father strangely, as if she doesn't recognise him. Suddenly, she lunges forward, and her inner jaws stop just grazing his forehead, and he continues to look at her without flinching. Ignoring Arry's demands that she stop, she leans down and sniffs at the blood, before sampling it, and still the food that speaks a half-remembered language remains passive. She takes her claws from its own blunted claws, and looks at her arm at the same place it cut itself open on her claws. Reaching out a claw, she makes a similar cut, and watches her blood drip onto the stone floor, sizzling as it slowly dissolves the stone. Slowly she reaches out her bleeding arm, and watches as the blood drops on the speaking preys hind limb and sizzles, that provokes a wince, but nothing more. The other queen is reaching for her, so she lunges forward and presses her own wound against the wound the food opened up. Just to see what happens. The prey screams, but also somehow holds on to her arm, preventing her from removing it as the stench of melting flesh fills the air. Then his scent starts to change, and becomes familiar, and the flesh stops melting. Quite why that would be escapes her. She's also no longer alone, she has someone with her. That someone is badly injured but still with her. The other queen tries to take her hive member away, so she stabs it with her tail, and they back off. Just because they're her mother, doesn't mean they can help themselves to her hive members. Hocking up some Royal Jelly, she smears it on the wound before immobilising the limb in resin. As the hive member has passed out, she forces their mouth open with her own, and vomits out as much Royal Jelly as she can, before forcing them to swallow it down. It's healing properties will help, even if it's slow to act and will promote it in the hive. That done she curls up protectively around the injured hive member and goes to sleep.

Together they dream a nightmare of forests, conflicts, and the stars.
Minerva stands up, "Good evening everyone, Prefects I know not all of your houses are here, so please ensure that they are told about this notice. Miss Dunns, are all the staff here?"
"Professor Quirrell and Hagrid aren't. The professor has taken to drink since the Troll, and Hagrid has games at the Hopping pot every Thursday evening."
"When they return, let them know that the third floor corridor is off limits unless they wish to die a very painful death."

"I have some good news, as some of you may have been aware. Miss Lovegood has been undergoing a metamorphosis for the last few months. This has taken longer than expected, however she hatched earlier today. She is being housed in a suite in the third floor corridor, and is not yet in full control of her facilities. I'm sure the rumour mill has told you all about what happened to the troll, and some of the NEWT students have given stories of hunting in the Forbidden Forest with the Yautja and Hufflepuff first years. Until Miss Lovegood has matured a little more, she is likely to attack anything that trespasses in her chambers. As such, until she comes back to her awareness, she will be confined to those quarters. We will be applying protections to deter the curious, and they will be a painful reminder that you shouldn't be there. However, that is still better than allowing some of you to commit suicide by stupidity. Does anyone have any questions?"

"Why is she even allowed in the castle then?"
"Because it's the least worst option. She sees Arry as her mother, and here there are others who can safely socialise with her. She, like Arry, is a Queen of her new species. As a Queen she can lay eggs, by keeping her here, we have some control over who is exposed to those eggs. If she was housed somewhere like the Rookery or St Mungos, then those eggs could hatch and cause the death of near by innocent witches and wizards."

"What protections are you going to put up?"
"All of the Masters are going to provide their own deterrents and we will not be sharing the nature of those to anyone. Lastly, Miss Lovegood herself is the final deterrent."

"What do we need to do in order to visit safely?"
"Achieve a xenomorph animagus form, like most of the Hufflepuff first years. Those that are interested in attempting this, let me know and we will see if the same method that worked for them will work for you. You will also be mentioned in my submission to Transfiguration Today when I publish this new method next summer. If that fails, then you will need to learn the normal method during your Transfiguration NEWTs."

Bah Humbug

Tremulously, Bubona approaches Murph. Since she's started changing into a person, it's been much harder to see her as an animal. "Murph, I have a dress here for you. Would you like to go shopping with Vesta and myself for more appropriate clothing for a young witch?"
Murph looks at Vesta who smiles and nods, then looks back to Bubona, "Yes, want." Murph then disappears with a pop, before reappearing a moment later holding a leather bag in her hand. She then holds the bag out to Bubona, who takes it and looks inside to see the glittering surface of Galleons. There must be a weeks wages in there.
"Where did you get this?"
"Arry." – Murph points at Vesta – "Want."
"Ok. Vesta, will you help me get Murph into a dress?"
"Yes Mum, this will be so much fun Murph."
"Fun."

After much struggling, an accidentally ripped seam that was caught on a claw, and an epic argument over underwear. Murph is finally dressed, and Bubona takes both of them to the Farmers Market on the Knight Bus. During the journey, Murph changes back into her natural form in order to get a better grip. Fortunately for Bubona's sanity, her clothes come back when she changes back. To the sound of a muttered, "Familiars get weird and weirder every year." the three of the disembark.
Once they enter the market, Murph sniffs and starts to drawl, "Want snack, want snack."
Bubona flicks out her wand to cast a reins spell on Murph, but she's just too late, as Murph runs off towards the smell. Vesta obviously following as well. Despite herself, Bubona starts to smile as Murph trips over again and again. First it's her tail, then it's her feet, then she stands on her dress. It allows her to catch up and put the reins spell on both children, followed by a quick scourgify to clean Murph off. She then takes them to the snack stall.
"Hello Bubona, here for your weekly shop already?"
"Good afternoon Jim. No, clothes shopping for this one."
"I didn't know you had another kid."
"I don't, she made friends with Vesta at her birthday party, and I've ended up her permanent babysitter."
"I'm surprised you let a kid with such obvious features in the house."
Bubona is about to respond, when she realises that she no longer knows how to explain it without also denigrating her own daughter. "Hmm, can we have two locust sprinkles please?"
"Sure. Honey?"
Vesta bounces, "Yay." And Murph copies her.
"I think that's a yes."

Once the two of them have their sticks, Murph tries to stick the whole thing in her mouth, and Vesta laughs, "No silly, like this."
With the two of them munching happily, Bubona is able to steer them around the seamstresses in the market and see the styles that catch Murph's eyes the most. Wistfully she looks back at the days when Vesta would chatter happily and exhaust herself enough to make standing still for being measured easy. Just think, that was only a month or so ago, since she learnt to transform, she seems to have endless energy.
"Master, they have declared a room on the third floor off limits to those who do not wish to die a painful death."
"I know you imbecile, I was there when Snape told you."
"What are we going to do?"
"We obviously aren't being invited to participate in the defences. Which is a genius move if she suspects us, or incomprehensible if she doesn't. Either way, I want you to place these enchantments in the corridor."
Minerva looks over at the children for the end of term feast, "Good evening. I know that most of you are going home tomorrow morning. Remember that you don't need to take your trunks, though you should ensure that they are packed and locked so that your belongings are secure. This is also the time I need to warn you all about the statute of secrecy. This is a law that codified the separation of the Magical and Mundane worlds in 1682. The reasons behind this separation are many and oft argued over by historians, so I will suggest you bother Master Pince or Professor Binns if you want to know more. What matters for you, the students, is that in 1905 camera started to become more convenient to carry around, and it was harder to tell if someone had a camera with them. In 1983 after several students were caught on film without noticing, the Ministry implemented the Reasonable Restriction on Underage Magic. This states that you are not allowed to use wands anywhere that may endanger the statute of secrecy. Due to the way the statute of secrecy is enforced, any magic performed outside of known magical areas or households is attended to by obliviators, who remove the memory of the event, and then a warning is sent out. As school policy, none of you are allowed to practice your wand magic or demonstrate what you have learnt. Failure to comply will lead to Detentions and point deductions for the first offence, and the confiscation of your wand, to only be returned for class usages for a second offense. This applies to all of you, not just the muggleborn. There will be no third offence as you will be held to the same standard as if you had been detected by the DMLE."
The hall erupts in cries of consternation and objections, that she allows to continue for a few minutes.
"If official enforcement of this law changes, then the school policy will change too."

The head boy stands up, "Dumbledore never implemented anything like this. It will surely negatively affect students ability to do their holiday homework and catch up on the things they've had trouble with."
"You're right it will. It will put those of you under the age of majority on an equal footing with your muggle born classmates, and those magic born with a non-magical parent, and can't have the protections put on their homes that the rest of you enjoy."
"That still seems unfair."
Hermione is unable to bite her tongue anymore and stands up, "That's only because you're used to having the privilege of being able to cast magic at home because the rules weren't applied equally. So now that they are, it feels like something has been taken away. You should be taking comfort in the fact that we are now all in this together, and so there is an opportunity to get the rules made more fair for everyone."
As she sits back down, applause erupts along the Hufflepuff table.

"Thanks for your help with the words Mum."
"You're welcome pudding."
"Mum! You know I hate that name. How's dad doing?"
"Not good, the changes are starting to affect his hormone levels and causing problems. I'm currently getting training in Transsexual diagnosis and care to help him. We may be able to get him Testosterone injections to counteract the fact his body is starting to produce Estrogen."
"I can't say I understand that, but he'll still be my Daddy."
"Glad to hear it. He's getting a blood test tomorrow morning to check his testosterone levels, and hopefully, they'll just assume that it's an undiagnosed medical condition and prescribe him Testosterone anyway."
"I hope it goes well, when will you have a result?"
"It's Christmas, so probably early Janurary, you should be paying attention to the school not me."
"Sorry, see you tomorrow."
"Love you, and I'll be at the station."

Hermione comes back to the sounds of a rather furious debate with the Slytherin's on one side, and Hufflepuff's on the other.
"Professor?"
Pomona looks up from her paperwork as one of her badgers speaks. Leaning against the doorframe with only 1 leg is Sally-Anne, "Yes Miss Perks?"
"The restriction on magic use, does that apply to our animagus forms?"
Pomona feels genuinely sad, "I'm afraid so, especially your animagus form as you can't blend in and pretend to be a new pet or a visiting wild animal."
Sally-Anne visibly wilts in disappointment, "Oh. It's just, this is the first time my stump hasn't hurt I can remember."
"I'm sorry to hear that, as it's not something you should have ever experienced. I can try to put a cushioning charm on it, and anchor it to last most of the holidays if you think that would help."
"Thank you, I'm not sure what I'll do over the summer though."
Pomona hesitates for a moment, "Why, what's the problem?"
Sally-Anne starts to cry, "Do you have any idea what it's like to be able to run around and play with the other children? Of not having to worry about stairs or even how fast other people are going, because your ankles just work. If it wasn't for my animagus form, I'd have probably dropped out already, not because of the work but because my body just couldn't take it."
Pomona conjures a couch and pulls Sally-Anne down into a hug while she cries. She isn't the first muggleborn to have quality of life problems with returning to the non-magical world. But she's the first one that Pomona's had in nearly a decade.
"There's nothing stopping you from writing to your classmates, or even visiting for a week or two. There's also nothing stopping you from talking about your friends and adventures to your parents, and other family that live with you."
"Sniff. What if I wake up in my animagus form?"
"Has that happened before?"
Sally-Anne sniffs again, then nods, "When I dream of running in the forest. I sometimes dream that I'm a xenomorph that can turn into a disabled human."
"I think that would come under accidental magic, and now that we know about the School Pensive, I'm sure that they'd let you submit a memory to prove it. Though I can't say I've had that particular dream, though I have plenty of nightmares these days. Usually finding new and unique ways to bring down prey so that they can be used as hosts for xenomorphs. I am seriously considering talking Miner… the Head Master into teaching me how to become an animagus, as she doesn't seem to have those nightmares."
"I don't know how they could be nightmares, dreaming of hunting deer is amazing."
Pomona laughs good naturedly, "Well, once I've learnt my own animagus transformation, you'll have to show me how to do that then."
Sally-Anne smiles, "I will, it will be great."
Minerva looks up from the endless parchment work that comes with being the Head Master, "Arry, thank you for coming. We found a family heirloom of yours while sorting out the previous Head Master's stuff."
"Erm, thanks? What's an heirloom?"
"It's like your ancestral memories, only something physical that's passed down, usually to the first born of the appropriate gender."
"Oh, cool, what is it?"
"It's an invisibility cloak."
"Huh? Why would I want one of those?"
"It doesn't really matter if you want them or not. If you ever choose to have a child the human way, you'll be able to pass it down to them."
"True. I suppose it would also be polite to ask how you're doing rather than just checking."
Minerva smiles, "Thank you, and I'm doing well. With Priya's help, my workload is actually less than it was as deputy and head of Gryffindor."
"I'm glad to hear that. How's she adjusting to..."
"It's been hard, she was hoping to one day get married and have a family. However she feels like that's no longer an option, and not because of you. She's worried about accidentally killing any partners she might have."
"Eww, I'm so not ready to know that."
"You've grown a lot over the last 3 months, when we met you wouldn't have batted an eye lid about discussing that."
Arry thinks for a moment, "I think it's having Hermione in the hive, she's given the rest of us a reference point that we were lacking. Yautja females go into season, and then it's a battle royal for breeding rights. They really don't have a concept of sex for pleasure. We, that is xenomorphs, no longer need males unless we want to join two hives together through a new Queen. Krizror and Brugroch are too young to know their own species mating preferences. So a lot of our views on that subject are being informed by her, with the adults like yourself and Vivian filling in too many details if we look too closely. I know a lot of my hive are watching Murph closely to see if it's worth learning how to human or not."
"What are your plans for Christmas?"
"I'm going to spend a week at home, as I've got an idea of something I want to do, but I can't work it out here as there's too many distractions. I'll send T'o-Ba'sall back while I'm gone."
"Susan Anne Bones, Hannah Jody Abbott, get down here this instant!"
"Shit, do you think your Aunt knows we used our animagus forms?"
Susan looks down from the 8 foot chimney stack on the end of the Bones Mansion, "No, but I think she has a fair guess, and I honestly don't think we can get down without them."
"What about one of the windows over there?"
"We always keep them locked, brooms you understand."
"Susan, Hannah, Don't make me get my broom!"
Susan winces, "We better go, it will be worse if she has to come and get us."

The two of them jump, bounce, slide and climb to the ground where Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE and single mother through circumstance sternly walks up to them, "Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"
Sheepishly, Susan turns human again, "I'm sorry Auntie, we're just used to changing most of the day between classes. Sally-Anne doesn't have one of her legs, so she uses her animagus form to get around the school, and all of us girls and Wayne change with her so she doesn't feel singled out. Unfortunately, the other boys either can't or don't want to change, it's about 50/50 either way. Oh, and Ne'stbei can't either, but she's Yautja, so she keeps up anyway. Both her and Ce'jaun say that navigating the school is great training."
"That is not a reason, it's an excuse and you know it. Changing while you're asleep is one thing, but you can't just accidentally change into a whatever and climb up to the chimney without knowing you're doing it."
Susan goes bright red, "You've seen that?"
"So has Madam Abbott." – Hannah goes crimson too – "Well, come on, we're off to the DMLE so you can both get your warnings."
"But Auntie, we weren't endangering the statute."
"Susan, our protections don't hide the house, only the magic on the grounds. They only go up to the roof, you know this."
"But Auntie!"
"No Susan, you know it doesn't work like that for us, the law says may expose, not will or has. If there were any muggles nearby they could have seen you climb onto the chimney and turn back to human. Also, I'm a witch that's not the head of a house, in a traditionally male job, I cannot be seen to show any favouritism whatsoever. While we're there we'll get your animagus forms registered. Do any of the other children change in their sleep?"
Hannah nods reluctantly, "We all do."
"I'll instruct Mafalda that all animagus use must be investigated and use the two of you as examples. Come along then, don't dally."
The two girls dutifully follow along.

"Mafalda."
Mafalda jumps where she was doing the crossword in the prophet, "Yes boss!"
"I need you to write these two up for underage magic."
"You know you don't need to do that, your house is protected."
"They climbed above the protections."
"But still, we've always turned a blind eye to that sort of thing in the past."
"We have?"
"Er, yes?"
"That stops right now. The wording of the law was brought to my attention by a rather irate Fudge last month. The law is created equally, and will be applied equally. Do you understand?"
"But…" Mafalda glances at the map where the underage trace is linked, and all the little pins that denote magical households that have protections.
"No buts. Also, most of the first year Hufflepuffs are Animagi, and are so familiar with their forms they change accidentally in their sleep. You'll need to investigate any such occurrences and withdraw any penalties you've already sent out if they were indeed accidental."
Mafalda looks mournfully at her outbox and reluctantly moves the entire stack to her inbox. Her crossword time is at an end it seems. "Yes boss, I'll just get the first-time warning forms."
Amelia picks up the stack of parchment, and flicks through it, "Mafalda, why are there three warnings for Miss Perks here?"
"Um, because she used magic 3 times?"
"Where's her interview transcript for her second warning?"
"It's not necessary is it, she's only a muggleborn."
"Robards! Get in here!"

A black Auror runs in at full tilt, "Yes Director!"
"Take Mafalda into custody for gross dereliction of duty and get someone to check on the Perks, if Miss Perks has already had her magic bound and memories wiped, add Murder by death of personality to the list."
"Simmons!"
"Yes Director!"
"Go through all of the files here, find all the 3 strike files where an interview transcript isn't available and put it on my desk. Then find all the two strike files without an interview transcript and send out an invitation for interview." – Amelia glances over at Susan and Hannah who have both shrunk down into their animagus forms, their tails waving ominously in their air behind them – "Also, get the person from records that deals with animagi to come here, as I have a feeling that it's not safe for me to take them anywhere they might see an obliviator. Susan, Hannah, I need you both to try and calm down. Merlin you're both scary like that."
When they don't change back, but instead start to advance on her, Amelia carefully moves around the room to the floo, before throwing a pinch of floo powder into the fireplace, "Hogwarts Headmasters office."
While she's waiting for the fire to turn green, she summons a dictaquill and parchment, then dictates a message, 'Need help, animagus trouble at DMLE. Amelia Bones."
As soon as the fire changes, she throws the letter through and hopes the response is quick, as Susan or Hannah has just noticed the door is unguarded. A flick of her wand and the door closes and seals shut, then the two of them turn back to her.
Experimentally she fires a stinging hex at one of them, to see if she'd have time to cast the reversal spell. They both scatter faster than she'd have thought possible, and the fastest spell in her repertoire is dodged like it was going in slow motion, then take to the walls. While she's hopeful that neither of them actually want to hurt her, she's not willing to take that chance.

When one of them lunges at her, Amelia dives over the desk and comes up with a shield up just in time to catch the other one, but still takes a slice to her leg as it's tail whips around her shield. The door is blasted off its hinges as Mad-eye steps into the doorway then sidesteps while swearing.
"Shit, Raka, Bludgeoners and Stunners only! We do not want to make them bleed otherwise things become ten times worse."
"Mad-eye, it's Susan and Hannah."
"You could have told me 5 seconds ago!"
"Why?"
"I wouldn't have used poxy English."
One of them jumps at him and he rolls out the way, trying to bring his wand to bear, however it seems to do an impossible twist in the air to keep him from tracking. At the same time its tail latches onto the ceiling allowing it to change direction. While the door is unguarded, the other one also leaves the room and the two of them start making their way towards the exit.
As the Praetorian of her hive, T'o-Ba'sall appears inside an office of some description filled with witches and wizards trying, and failing, to hit to of the human Xenomorphs from the allied hive. When one of them throws a coloured light at her she contemptuously decapitates them while dodging the clumsy shot.
Forcing her will on the two xenomorphs and bringing their flight to a sudden halt, T'o-Ba'sall stalks over to them, dispatching anyone that tries to attack her or them, "Little ones, why are you fighting humans?"
Susan manages to squeeze out, "Our hive member is in danger, and we are trying to reach her."
"Show me your hive member as you know them."
Susan and Hannah both struggle to do what T'o-Ba'sall asked them to, but after a few minutes where the witches and wizards circle around them, though they've stopped attacking, she is able to get the full feeling of Sally's mind.
Once she has the pattern, she casts her mind out looking for something similar and familiar. She only has a fraction of the range of her Queen, but that just means that only gets most of the country rather than all of it and Europe. A flare of fire, and the three of them are standing in front of a screaming human that's missing a limb, and two of the magical humans, who are rapidly back pedalling.
T'o-Ba'sall is aware of the two younglings guarding her flanks as she inspects the screaming human as she tries to escape. Flowing down to her normal form, she grabs the child and gently lifts her to eye level, where she uses the trick her Queen used to force a hive connection on the child. There's so much missing that she probably barely remembers her own name.
"Your hive-mates mind is damaged, I will take er to my Queen to see if she can be ealed. If you wish to accompany me, touch my legs. And if either of you oomans try to attack me, know I can kill you faster than you can wave your sticks. I am a blooded hunter and neither of you are fit enough to be worthy prey."

All 4 of them disappear in a flash of fire, leaving the two aurors and confused parents.
"Who are you people and where did that thing take my daughter?"
"Raywood?"
Raywood sighs and sends out a couple of stunners, "Check the mother, I'll get the father. If their memories have just been papered over, we'll take them to St Mungo's to have the obliviation removed. Otherwise, we'll remove the last 5 minutes."
"But the girl?"
"Look, this was done illegally because proper procedure wasn't followed. The director was on the warpath when I dragged you out of there. Do you want to explain that you did another illegal obliviation if it turns out those things are able to fix the girls mind?"
"What do you mean?"
"I did a gentle probe when we arrived, and who ever did the girls mind did a hatchet job of it. There was no way that we were going to be able to get those memories back. Swiss cheese has less holes than her mind did. Ok, the father is salvageable, though he'll have gaps, most of them should be fixable."
"I'm not that good at this, I can't tell."
Raywood sighs again, "Get the father to St Mungo's and explain why you've brought a muggle in. I'll have a look at the mother."
Arry is staring at an egg thoughtfully in her human form when T'o-Ba'sall, Susan, and Hannah all flame in, along with someone that seems like it might be Sally. As T'o-Ba'sall lets the last person go, she crawls along the floor to hide behind Arry.
"Please Miss, don't let them eat me."
"Sally?"
"How do you know my name?"
Susan and Hannah both change back into their human forms, "Arry, they obliviated her and bound her magic. She didn't even get her second warning properly. Can you fix it, please?"
More concerned, Arry turns around to look at Sally, "Sally, look at me please, this is likely to feel uncomfortable."
Arry briefly forces Sally into her hive and examines her mind, "I don't think these have healed over yet, so if we can get her into her xenomorph form she'll be fine."
"What are you talking about, you're crazy and this is just a bad dream."
With a sad look in her eyes, Arry says, "Open wide, and good night."
While Sally tries to scramble back again, a face hugger crawls up behind her before leaping under Arry's direction. In seconds she's asleep.
"You two will either need to do the same, or head home. It's not safe for you here any other way."
Susan and Hannah both go over to the unconscious Sally and sit down, "We're staying."
With a smile, Arry hands both of them a face hugger, and soon enough they're both sitting next to Sally with a face hugger around their faces.

A couple of hours later, Sally falls into a natural sleep and changes into a xenomorph.