If there was one thing that the trio hates right off the back when they got back from Yule vacation, it was having to deal with the Gryffindor Harpy. Melody, was the music mage, had been searching their family library for a permanent silencing spell that they could use on her. She was driving them mad.
Not only was she still pretty pissed on getting caught making the Polyjuice potion and her plan to sneak herself and Ron into the Slytherin common room, but she had finally caught on to Harry celebrating Yule and not Christmas. It seems that since in her mind, Harry was supposed to be the grand savior of muggles and muggleborns, he would celebrate muggle holidays. But an overheard conversation between Neville and the Weasley twins had told her how Harry celebrated Yule like Neville does. It sent her on another rant about Harry needed to act "like he was supposed to."
"Somebody shut her up," Harry slammed his head onto the Ravenclaw table.
The trio sat there for their first breakfast back at Hogwarts.
"Maybe if I practice enough, I can use my powers to take her voice and bottle it," Melody glared at the seething brunette.
"We'd have the whole school thanking us if you did that," Krinos stated.
"It be totally worth it," Melody smiled.
"If she seriously starts on one of her ego-driven rants again, I will maul her," Harry said. "Not like anyone would miss her."
"That that third-floor corridor is still abandoned even after removing the Cerberus, we can stash her body in there," Krinos says.
"Probably the one time we wish that the Cerberus was still here," Melody said. "We could have fed her to him."
"What are you guy," Fred started, sitting next to them.
"Talking about," George finished, sitting down as well.
Neville and Percy also joined them. Cedric, who had been slowly joining their friend group, also joined.
"Plotting to murder the Harpy of Gryffindor," Harry admitted like it was a normal conversation to be having.
"If you do, watch the carpets," Cedric said. "My mom told me her first job was a maid at the Leaky Cauldron. She says that blood is a hard stain to get out."
"Do we even want to know what happened," Krinos raised an eyebrow.
"Probably not," Cedric answered.
"Alright, then," Krinos accepted.
"Why can't she just learn to leave me alone," Harry hit his head on the table again. "Why does she always have to try and make people think just like her? It's irritating and makes me want to feed her to one of the Nemean Lions back home."
"Is that an option," Melody asked. "If it isn't, can we make it one."
"Should the fact that you three are casually talking about murder ring any alarm bells with the rest of us," Percy asked.
"We won't actually kill her, but it's healthy to get these fantasies out of your head before you actually try and make them a reality," Melody says.
"How is your brother friends with her," Harry asked the twins and Percy. "I may not like him and find him generally a pain in the butt, but you'd think he be the first to run away from a girl that loves school so much."
"Trust us," Fred says.
"We don't know neither," George said.
"We think he's just," Fred starts.
"Using her to get his," George continued.
"Homework done," Fred spoke next.
"When all he does," George says.
"Is copy her work," Fred said.
"And present it as his own," George finished.
"And... now I have a headache," Cedric stated. "I've lived near you guys my whole life and I still am not used to your twin speak."
"We would take offense, but," Fred started.
"Even we know it gets confusing," George finished.
"Here, Cedric," Krinos gave him his homemade headache remedy. "I made tons of this stuff to help us deal with the Harpy."
"How do you know about these things," Cedric asked, drinking the remedy.
"Nature and plants are what I grew up with," Krinos explained. "Our mother taught me about homeopathic remedies and natural medicines. They might not work as fast as potions, but they have better tastes and get the job done. What you just drank was just some chamomile tea."
"England is supposedly known for its tea," Melody giggled. "But, pardon the pun, that beverage is not my cup of tea."
"We all have something in our lives that we would be considered experts at," Harry says. "Me with animals, Melody with music, and of course Krinos with nature. It's what we have all always loved and have grown up learning about."
"We have these stables, back home," Melody started. "We keep dozens of animals and magical creatures there. It's Harry's favorite place to be in all of Greece."
"Not like you can blame him," Krinos says. "That is where we found Wolf, Selene, and Frost. A lot of young mages back home go there to find their familiar."
"Magical creatures are just so misunderstood," Harry says. "There have been many cases of them being hunted and killed for no reason. They are animals just like any normal creature in the animal kingdom, just a little different. The only difference between a lion and a Nemean Lion is that the Nemean is two to three times as big and has impenetrable fur."
"Wow, really," Neville was amazed and frightened.
"I read about them, but didn't think they were real," Percy said.
"The magical world is a lot bigger than a lot of mystics think," Krinos says. "Every country, every community, every magic-user. We're all different."
Easing them slowly into mystic soul existence, that's what they were doing. They were all purebloods, even if the Weasley's were defined as "blood traitors" by the jerks of Britain. And by most pureblood's definition, mystic souls were dangerous creatures that spread destruction wherever they go.
"She is just so irritating," Melody turned the conversation back to the Harpy.
"Someone needs to slap her with reality," Harry crossed his arms. "She still believes that those stupid Harry Potter books are all fact even after we won that case against the authors and got them taken off the shelves of bookstores everywhere."
"And have you heard her latest brand of crazy about how Lockhart was forced to 'lie' during court," Melody rolled her eyes.
"And that is only because she thinks there is no such thing as a truth spell," Krinos pinched the bridge of his nose. "She only even believes that because she has not read about it. News flash, Harpy, you don't know everything about everything. No one does."
"Maybe you should put that on a sign and charm it to follow her," Cedric chuckled.
"Sounds like a prank," Fred smirked.
"Our cup of tea," George snickered.
"I think you just gave them an idea, Cedric," Harry snickered. "Mind if I help you two with this one?"
Krinos and Melody shared a look with each other and smirked. They may be young, but they were still going to encourage their brother to spend time with his two crushes. While they knew their precious adoptive brother was gay, the fact that he liked two boys and wanted to be with both of them at once was a shock. They didn't mind it, it was just something new to them.
"I wanted to ask you guys something, actually," Neville says.
"What is it, Neville," Melody asked.
"Well... Snape," Neville was nervous about asking this. "He's... well... he's horrible to you guys. Why not... I mean... after Lockhart..."
"You're wondering why we don't sic Olivia and her law power on Snape like we did Lockhart," Krinos finished for him.
Neville nodded his head.
"We would, but he has not really done anything against the law," Harry says. "The closest that we could get him on would probably be harassment or even child endangerment."
"We get the harassment part, with how much he directly insults you constantly," Percy shocked his brothers since he usually obeyed anyone in authority. "But where would child endangerment come in?"
"Well, he teaches potions, doesn't he," Melody reminded. "Except that he doesn't really teach. He puts a recipe on the board and then walks around and insults everyone."
"What Melody is trying to say that by not properly teaching potions, he is endangering us," Krinos says. "We are given no warnings, no safety equipment, no instructions on how to prevent disaster, nothing. And anytime someone does something wrong, he yells at them, calls them dunderheads, and doesn't even tell them what they did wrong in the first place."
"It wasn't like he was much help in my first potions class," Harry scowled. "There was no warning about not putting the porcupine quills before the cauldron is off the heat. The instructions were clear, but there was really no warning or danger sign. If I hadn't stopped Neville, he would have done that."
Neville went a little red at the reminder of his first almost-mess-up in potions. If it hadn't been for Harry being next to him, he knew that he would probably have had a lot more.
"We grew up learning about the dangers in potions," Melody says. "What ingredients not to mix together, the proper ways to brew potions that would not have them melting, and how to not blow up the potions lab."
"That last lesson was more because of our friend Wyatt," Krinos chuckled. "Before we came here at the beginning of the previous school year, he blew up another cauldron and unleashed pink smoke that smelled like cotton candy and bubblegum."
"How is that even possible," Percy asked, confused.
"Don't even ask," the trio say at the same time.
"He just really loves to experiment with potions and food," Harry said. "We go through a lot of cauldrons because of him."
"Good thing we know some good conjuring and repairing spells," Melody giggled. "I'd hate to think about what would happen if we didn't."
"Wyatt and his family probably would be broke from aiding the school in replacing all the cauldrons," Krinos snickered.
They finished their breakfast and since it was Sunday, they had no classes to go to. The trio wrapped up some of the food that they knew their familiars loved. Frost, since he was a bird, loved the seeded bread that Melody crumbled up for him. Krinos always brought Wolf bacon and sausages with some fresh vegetables, satisfying the white wolf's hunger for meant with some balance to his diet. Harry bring Selene fresh fruit and vegetables, the unicorn liking carrots and strawberries most but never at the same time.
The three familiars were definitely growing right alongside their bonded. Wolf used to be the size of a puppy and could be held in Krinos' arms. While he could still do that, it took a little more effort. Frost was now his full size in terms of height and his wingspan had expanded by two inches since last year. Selene had also grown about a foot in height, but was still very much a pony and not a horse yet. Definitely not big enough for Harry to ride.
"You should be ashamed of yourself, Harry Potter," an annoying voice scolded them as it got closer to them.
"Oh, may the gods help us," Melody prayed.
The Gryffindor Harpy was stomping toward them.
"I have told you time and time again, Granger," Harry glared at her. "One, you do not have permission to call me by anything other than my last name. Which brings me to two, my name is Potter-Gardna, not just Potter."
But that, like every other time he told her this, went in one ear and right out the other. But with how little she seemed to care about being repeatedly told that, it was more like it just went right over her head and was never heard by her at all.
"How dare you not celebrate Christmas," Hermione glared at him. "It's the best holiday of the year!"
"Somehow I knew this was going to happen," Krinos got out vials of camomile tea and gave them to his siblings.
"You celebrate Christmas," Harry tells the girl. "I celebrate Yule. It's a part of our culture and we do not plan on ignoring it just because you throw a tantrum that a five-year-old would be jealous of."
That did not seem to lower her temper. If anything, it doubled it.
"There is no 'Yule' in Greek culture," she snapped again. "They celebrate Christmas just like everyone should."
"Wow, someone seems to hate Hanukkah and Kwanzaa," Krinos remarked, crossing his arms.
"I didn't mean... that's not... You're taking my words out of contexts," Hermione glared at the nature mage.
"You're the one that seems to believe that everyone should celebrate Christmas," Melody crossed her arms like her twin.
"We don't celebrate Yule because it's a Greek holiday, we celebrate it because it's a magical holiday," Harry tells her. "Yule is a part of magical culture, which we mix with our Greek heritage to perfectly blend our cultures."
"How dare you celebrate something so fake," Hermione yelled.
"It. Is. Not. Fake," Melody looked ready to strangle the bushy-haired know-it-all. "Just because you don't believe something doesn't make it any less real."
"Magic doesn't have a culture," Hermione sneered enough to make Snape proud of her. "Magic is just a tool, not a way of life."
"Do you even realize that you just insulted about ninety-percent of the world's magical population, right," Krinos said. "Everywhere else in the world, magic culture is taught to all magical children, and magic thrives more easily in those areas."
"With first-generations like you around, I see why this country does not have a high opinion of 'muggleborns," Harry stated.
"EXCUSE ME," Hermione screamed.
"You come into the magical world, not knowing a thing about it but what you read in books, and spit on it," Harry glared at her. "You treat this world like it is nothing more than pathetic renaissance fair when it is nothing like that. There may be things that may seem ancient, but it is still better than the mundane world."
"The muggle world is a million times better than the magical world," Hermione argued. "You still use quills and torches and parchment. Completely barbaric."
"Magical Britain still uses all that," Krinos corrected. "This country's magical enhancements are behind by, at least, two centuries. But even then, they still have things that the mundane world hasn't even come close to being able to do."
"With magic, we can fly on brooms, mundanes can't," Melody started a list. "We can move a dozen to hundreds of miles in seconds, mundanes can't. We can conjure objects out of thin air, mundanes can't. We can turn wood into metal, mundanes can't. Mortals have nothing on the magical world."
"The magical world has existed for thousands of years," Harry said. "Long before the mundane world even had working governments. While the mundane world was selling humans as slaves and declaring war because of Helen of Troy's beauty, the magical world had running water and a working postal system. Don't try and make it seem like the mundane world is more advanced than its magical counterpart. Magic will always win."
"You're the Boy-Who-Lived, this is not how you should be acting," Hermione screamed at Harry.
"Your precious 'Boy-Who-Lived' is nothing but a fictional character that this country made up to make themselves feel better about being on the losing side of a war," Harry threw at her. "We researched the war before we came here and it was a disaster. Those Death Eaters killing anyone they could hit with a spell, Aurors arriving late each time they attacked, and most of the time they never even fought back with useful spells. Stunning and disarming them does nothing if the others revive them or they have a second wand. Then they think that because some miracle happens, meaning whatever happened between me and Moldyshorts, that they did not have to change how they fought criminals since the war was over."
"Idiots, the lot of them," Krinos scoffed. "At least I've turned a demon into a tree. More than what anyone in this sad excuse for a magical community does to killers and criminals."
"To be fair, you were already angry before that demon attacked," Melody giggled.
"Can you blame me," Krinos asked. "Tommy was being his usual sexist self and told you that girls had no place vanquishing demons."
"Point made," Melody shrugged.
Hermione, seeing that she was getting nowhere with Harry, stomped away in a huff.
"About time that annoyance left," Harry said. "Right, Selene?"
The unicorn neighed in agreement.
By the time the three got back into the castle, it had gotten dark. They had spent a lot of time with their familiars. Going down on corridor, which was particularly dark because the torches had been extinguished by a strong, icy draft that was blowing through a loose windowpane. They were halfway down the passage when Harry tripped over something lying on the floor.
"You alright, bro," Krinos asked.
"I'm fine," Harry answered. "Mind shedding a little light on us, Nos."
"Sure thing," Krinos says. "Nature's flashlight."
A glowing sunflower bloomed in Krinos' hand. It let out a beam like a more powerful flashlight. They turned to what Harry tripped on and all felt as though their stomachs had dissolved.
Justin Finch-Fletchley was lying on the floor, rigid and cold, a look of shock frozen on his face, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. And that wasn't all. Next to him was another figure, the strangest sight Harry had ever seen.
It was Nearly Headless Nick, no longer pearly-white and transparent, but black and smoky, floating immobile and horizontal, six inches off the floor. His head was half off and his face wore an expression of shock identical to Justin's.
The siblings shared one look with each other... then screamed.