Epilogue:
A/N:
I had a couple reviews ask if Dumbledore fell for Harry's trap too easily. In my opinion, Dumbledore likes to think his options through and take time to plan his moves. But he is not as good at thinking on his feet. Dumbledore did ask for a recess, but did not get it. If he had been given more time, I think he would have twigged to the danger, but Harry basically called on him three times very quickly. I am thinking less than two minutes from the time Harry started to the time before Harry started to label Dumbledore an oath breaker. Harry didn't give Dumbledore time to think and plan.
Some Years Later:
Luna Potter looked up from her painting and smiled. Harry had entered the conservatory wearing a business suit.
"Another one?" Luna asked, all the while knowing that there was only one reason Harry would be home this early and wearing a suit.
"Yes, the Ministry just let me know, they found traces of some accidental magic from a little girl in London."
"Let me get changed then, counselor Potter."
"I personally think you could go exactly as you are, but we know I'm somewhat biased in your favor," Harry teased.
Luna looked down at her paint splattered smock towards where she believed her slipper covered feet were located and smirked. "I thought we were trying to make a good impression. Mum and Dad Granger would not be pleased if we chased their potential new student away. It is a good thing this happened now. Next month, I will achieve the size of a large whale."
"Twins will do that I'm told." Harry smiled at the thought of the twins he and Luna were expecting.
Harry helped her up and supported her through the house to their bedroom, where two house elves stood ready to help their oversized mistress into a more appropriate set of clothing for meeting a non-magical family.
"Have Mum and Dad Granger said anything about how they are going to handle next year? Hermione is expecting now as well you know," Luna asked while she was being transformed.
"They have talked Aunt Cissa and Uncle Snape into helping for the year."
"What! Snape teaching again? He has refused to even come close to a classroom for years."
"He isn't going to be teaching potions, Luna; he is going to be teaching the tadpoles you would normally be teaching," Harry explained, pleased he had surprised his wife this way.
Luna looked closely at Harry's face and convinced he was not having her on, Luna's brain froze trying to comprehend Severus Snape teaching students how to read, write, and do sums.
"I knew he had finished that degree, but..."
"Aunt Cissa will be teaching potions for Hermione, and I have been asked to create an alternating schedule with Bill, so we both won't be away from the school at the same time."
"Which will leave Dad and Mum Granger the time they want to play with the babies."
"Well, your clan is doing its part to repopulate the magical world: Thomas and Amantha's first will be joining the tadpoles, and Blaise and Tracey's youngest will be joining the nursery for the first time this year. Oh and I heard a rumor that a certain red-head has started dating someone we know."
Luna smiled and Harry felt a shiver of fear. "You aren't seeing, are you?"
"What? No, as I've said, I'm no longer a seer; I was remembering one of my past visions. I really did think Charlie and Daphne would go well together. I'm glad he grew up some and that he survived the hexes Daphne likely cast at him when he showed up on her doorstep."
"As I understand it, Bill and Hermione arranged for them to meet in public the first time so the number of hexes Daphne could cast was limited," Harry smirked.
"But the person Charlie is dating is not Daphne, it's Tonks. Daphne seems content to have the same kind of relationship with Hermione and Bill that Hannah has with Susan and Neville. Arthur has given his consent and Daphne will be taking the Prewett name."
"Will Arthur ever marry Amelia?" Luna asked.
"Oh, he has asked several times, but Madam Bones does not want to become just Mrs. Weasley, so the two of them continue to just live together at Hogwarts."
– – (()) – –
"Do you have any questions, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor?" Harry asked after the normal casting of some simple spells to prove that the magic their little girl had performed was both real and controllable.
This was the type of meeting that Harry loved. The parents were worried about their little girl, but they also cared for her greatly and were not going to turn their backs on her.
"What can you tell us about this school you mentioned?" Mrs. Taylor started the ball rolling while continuing to hold England's newest confirmed muggle-born witch. "We can't afford a boarding school, and I don't want Jenny to be away from home so long."
"Grangers has some boarders, it is true, but most of the students return home every evening," Harry explained while Luna just beamed at the family she was seeing.
"Grangers?"
"It started out being called the 'Granger's School for First Generation Magicals', but we all just call it Grangers now. And it won't cost you anything. This school is funded jointly by the Ministry of Magic and the non-magical government."
"I thought you said earlier that Magic was a super secret or some such," Mr. Taylor chimed in, looking up from the notes he had been taking.
"I did say something like that, and when I was your little Jenny's age there was no one and nothing to help me when I first did some very impossible things. But we are getting better," Harry answered. "Some children were and are treated very harshly by parents that couldn't understand, or a child could be treated even worse by an orphanage. Some years ago, there was a civil war in the hidden magical world, caused by one such orphan. Enough people saw what was happening that steps were taken to prevent such a thing from happening again. Grangers is one of those steps. The children born into magical families now must attend classes about non-magical things when before anything that wasn't magical would be discounted. That is another of the steps."
Luna sighed and joined the conversation. "I've been told that the government political sociologists have been fascinated by our world, and the changes we are making."
"I'm not going to lie and say your little girl will be the equivalent of our Prime Minister someday. There are no laws to prevent it, but those sociologists don't think our world will be ready for that yet. But they are saying that thanks to the progress we are making your little girl's little girl might be."
"Likely one of the biggest changes I've seen is that Grangers is more than a school." Harry took up the conversation again, his eyes almost glowing with the enthusiasm he felt for the subject. "The founders were parents, just like you, that had their little girl disappear into the hidden magical world. They have sworn not to let that happen again, if they can help it. You will be welcomed, and will be even encouraged to visit the school. There are support groups where you can meet with other parents that are dealing with the same kinds of issues you are. There will be field trips into the pure magical world that you will be encouraged to attend with your daughter."
"And don't think we will be ignoring your daughter's education. To teach at Grangers you need to get what amounts to a degree in both the magical and the non-magical world. We can't really teach children younger than eleven the true casting of magic because they aren't ready for it until then, so we continue teaching maths and sciences, with a sprinkling of magical subjects like potions, and we teach the children how to better control their growing gifts."
"Once Jenny reaches the age of eleven, she will be given an invite to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That is a boarding school, and is considered one of the finest teaching institutions in the magical world right now. During the summers, Jenny could continue to learn her non-magical subjects at a satellite school some of Granger's graduates have started. She won't be quite ready for a higher education when she leaves Hogwarts, but it would only take a year to bring her up to snuff."
"You teach there?" Mr. Taylor asked, his notes forgotten by the zeal of Harry's presentation.
"I do, although I am mostly an administrator now. Luna, would normally be teaching as well, but she will be taking at least a year off to be a mother."
"You do look like you could give birth in our dining room," Mr. Taylor said to Luna.
"Not quite, Harry and I are having twins; I've more than a month to go before I'll be able to see my toes again. And while I will miss a year, I'm already missing the teaching I was doing, so I'm pretty sure I'll be teaching the tadpoles again soon. Maybe even in time to teach your Jenny some before she moves up to the newts."
"And just so there is no confusion," Harry felt moved to say, "tadpoles and newts are Luna's terms, they are not officially sanctioned by Grangers. Although to be honest, I think I've heard every instructor there use the terms."
"It sounds nearly perfect," Mrs. Taylor said.
"I could wish it was perfect, Mrs. Taylor," Harry sighed. "It isn't perfect, there will still be some biased people that may belittle Jenny both for being a witch, and for not having a wizard and witch as parents. But it is getting better. It is getting much better. Enough of our friends who also went through that civil war are people in important positions now. The changes needed to make to the world better are in place, now we just need for the people to catch up so the changes feel like they aren't changes, but the way it should be."
"I'll help," little Jenny piped up. "I can help make it all be good."
The End
A/N:
And thus ends my story, Help of a Seer. As with all my work, a major thank you to NettieT for acting as my beta and sounding board. I also want to thank Annihilis and his family for acting as pre-readers and helping pointing out the errors of my way.
What did I learn from this one? It is better to triple check your references. I made a mistake while reading the Black family tree when I named Neville as the head of the Black Family... And when several irate readers pointed it out, it was too late to fix. I had finished writing this tale and chapters 1-5 were back from final beta before I started posting.
What happens next? I have the start of no less than three shorter things and one longer tale. In other words I have too many things going at once. How long will it take to finish one or more of those tales? I don't know. But I hope I can get a couple of those shorter things out while working the my new longer work, named Kidnapped.
Thanks to all of you that took the time to read this tale, and a special thanks to you that reviewed.
References from all of the chapters, relisted:
The description of the inside of the fairy mound is based on Pellucidar as created by Edgar Rice Burroughs ( en . Wikipedia wiki / Pellucidar).
The Horcrux definition came from the HP Lexicon; they credit it as being from a notebook from JKR.
'Dismissals' as a type of magic comes from a book by Brian Daley. "Starfollowers of Coramonde" (first printing 1979) which is a second book of a duology. The first was Doomfarers of Coramonde" (first printing 1977). I have expanded the concept of dismissals to fit my requirements.
The Great Forest or Wood idea comes from "Hexwood" by Diana Wynne Jones (first printing 1993).
Some of the Druid 'powers' came from the TV show "Hercules the Legendary Journeys", the episode titled "Resurrection", which first aired in 1998.
The Flipendo spell came from the HP Lexicon and is listed as being used in the Harry Potter video games.
I found the information about the 'cap and ball' pistols at the following:
en . Wikipedia wiki / Colt_Army_Model_1860
en . Wikipedia wiki / Remington_Model_1858
The Carpe Retractum spell was listed as being a part of a Harry Potter video game by the HP Lexicon Pulls objects toward the caster, or vice versa.
Harris Hawk in England:
en . Wikipedia wiki / Harris's_Hawk
"Birds are sometimes reported at large in Western Europe, especially Britain, but it is a popular species in falconry and these records almost certainly all refer to escapes from captivity."
www . peregrinefund explore_raptors / hawks /
"Since about 1980, Harris's Hawks have been increasingly used in falconry and are now the most popular hawks in the West (outside of Asia) for that purpose, as they are the easiest to train and the most social."
news . bbc . bo . uk / 2 / hi / uk_news / england / devon
"Harris hawks are being used to deal with the growing seagull problem at a Devon shopping centre."
Group hunting
www . youtube watch ?v=Ai3eVjr0Pzg
Christopher Fry:
The Lady's Not for Burning (written in 1948).
Shakespeare:
A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Taming of the Shrew,
Much Ado About Nothing
A Winter's Tale.
Barrett M82 .50cal Rifle
en . wikipedia wiki / Barrett_M82
AW50 (Accuracy International Rifle) anti-material weapon
www . eliteukforces . Info / special-air-service / weapons / aw-50 . php
www . armusa AccuracyInterRifles . htm
Note: The AW50 .5 inch rifle did not start production until 1998, and so was not a part of the British military at the time of this story. It is mentioned as a prototype in story. On the other hand, the US military purchased some of the Barretts in 1990, and so it was in use by the US armed forces during this tale.
I also found a reference that the M79 Grenade Launcher was used in the Falklands war by the British army ( wiki/ British_ground_forces_in_the_Falklands_War #Infantry_weapons ).