"So, Sirius, why is this house so dirty, anyway," Harry looked around the still pretty filthy kitchen as they all ate.
"That bloody house-elf that was supposed to be taking care of this place lost his mind," Sirius shook his head. "He hasn't been doing anything since my parents died while I was in Azkaban. He has even been taking orders from my mum's portrait."
"I take it you never got along with him just like with the rest of your family," Harry guessed.
"He is a Black house-elf," Sirius scoffed. "That, pretty much, means that he could be as insane and evil as the human members of my family."
"I am suddenly very glad that I have not met any Black's beside you, Sirius," Harry said.
"Actually, Harry, you will find that most wizarding families are related in some way or another," Sirius tells Harry.
"What do you mean," Harry was curious.
"Well, as you know, a lot of the pureblood families want to keep themselves as 'pure' as possible," Remus says. "So they tend to only ever marry other purebloods. But that also lessens the number of purebloods that are not related to each other. They tend to think that marrying their second cousins is more acceptable than marrying a half-blood or a muggleborn."
"Take your father and me as an example," Sirius said. "James was actually my second cousin since his mother was Dorea Potter nee Black, who was my... great aunt, I think."
"So that means we are related as well," Harry thought that Sirius was just his godfather.
"It certainly does, pup," Sirius smiled and patted Harry on the shoulder. "And if my memory of the Black family tree is correct, we are also distantly related to the Weasleys because I think Arthur's mother is Cedrella Weasley nee Black. The Blacks have married into almost every other pureblood family in Britain."
"With so many magical relatives, I should never have been sent to those horrible muggles," Harry grumbled.
Olivia eyed Harry as she took a drink. From what Sirius had told her and from what Krinos has managed to put together, Harry did not have the best home life. Sirius had told her that Harry had immediately jumped at the chance to live with him moments after he had learned that his godfather was an innocent man. That instantly rang alarm bells inside his head. He had thought that he was a murderer barely half an hour before and yet he still was so eager to live with him when he learned of his innocence. He may be his godfather, but Harry still did not really know him. So his instant excitement spoke volumes about his home life.
"Everyone wishes things were that simple," Olivia sighed. "As a member of my country's magic council, I see a lot of court cases involving families."
"What's a magic council," Tonks asked.
"It's the main government body of mystic souls communities all over the world," Olivia explained. "All mystic soul communities are run by their own magic councils. We are made up of twelve elected officials, representing the original twelve Olympian gods. I was twenty when I was elected, making me the youngest ever mystic soul to be a part of any council."
"That sounds a lot better than the idiot we currently have as minister," Kingsley grumbled as he ate. "He would rather stick his head in the sand than even consider that there might be a problem out there."
"Probably why your 'newspaper' has nothing on Voldemort in it," Olivia guessed.
"Not even just Voldemort," Kingsley says. "He's been like this ever since he was elected. It doesn't matter is if it about evil wizards, magical creatures, or even muggles. If there ever is a problem, he sticks his head in the sand and pretends that it's not there until it goes away. He is a peaceful times minister, so he has no clue how to handle actual problems. He's more concerned about lining his pockets, and his allies', with as much gold as he can."
"And here I thought that no one could be as bad as Bagnold," Sirius shook his head.
"Your previous minister, I am guessing," Olivia said.
"Yeah," Sirius says. "She was the minister during the last war. She might not have been the most competent, but she was the only one brave enough to be the minister at the time since all other possible candidates were too afraid of Voldemort to be in a seat of power."
"She did make a few good decisions, though," Remus remembered. "Like when she gave the Aurors permission to use more offensive spells against Death Eaters instead of just stunning or disarming them. It made fighting a lot easier."
"Back home, the Guards always have the right to use the necessary force," Olivia says. "But that is only if they see no other way. It usually results in some type of fight since magical criminals are not known for going quietly."
"Guards are your version of Aurors, right," Harry guessed. "Your form of magical police?"
"Right," Olivia answered. "Our current head of the Guards is Redus Guard. Yet there is no connection to him and the actual founder of the Guards. He has the power to create force fields and other protective shields."
"That's so cool," Harry said.
"Mystic souls come in all shapes, sizes, and powers," Olivia tells Harry. "No two mages in a single generation share the same powers. There are those with similar powers, but never that are the exact same."
"That is quite interesting," Remus said. "Has it always been like that or is it all just a coincidence?"
"Lady Hecate grants us our powers, so it is by her design," Olivia says. "She is the goddess of magic, after all."
"I take it that Greek magicals are very close to their gods," Sirius guessed.
Olivia nodded. "We are a very traditional community but also know how to blend our traditions into modern life so that we are not stuck in the dark ages like some magical communities. We celebrate the sabbaths, honor our gods, but we never forget what time period we live in."
Sirius knew what she meant when she was talking about magical communities stuck in the dark ages. She mostly meant magical Britain. Krinos certainly had gone on a lot of rants about how most of the other magical countries thought that magical Britain was about two centuries behind the rest of them in terms of magical advancements.
Hermione not so silently huffed and turned away from them. Sirius knew it was because she was one of those bigoted muggleborns that thought that the old ways were barbaric and should just be forgotten about. Someone like Olivia, who came from a country where their version of the old ways were practiced by everyone, annoyed the bookworm. She was one of the reasons why muggleborns are looked down on by purebloods in magical Britain. It's because she comes into a world that she is now a part of and does nothing to adapt to it and expects the world to adapt to her instead. She makes no effort to learn magical culture or traditions and is always saying that the muggle world is better.
"Since you are a time mage, it's probably a little harder for you, right," Kingsley asked, chuckling into his coffee. "You spend a lot of time in other time periods."
"You have no idea," Olivia sighed. "Not to mention I have to be careful about how much of an impact I make in the time period that I am in. Too many unforeseen consequences can occur from what first appears to be a simple act. I had a run-in with Blackbeard and I pretended to be a greatly feared pirate to get him off my back and when I got back to the present, I was somehow now the mascot for an American brand of rum."
"You wouldn't happen to have a bottle of it on you, would you," Sirius asked, smirking.
"Sirius," Remus playfully slapped his shoulder, making Sirius laugh.
"What," he laughed. "Rum is a lot better than fire whiskey to me."
"You are a strange bunch," Olivia stated.
"Nothing wrong with that," Harry chuckled. "Who wants to be normal when you can be magical?"
"As my cousin would say, being normal is vastly overrated," Olivia giggled. "I do have to agree with him on that, though."
"I am now really curious about your cousin," Harry admitted. "I'd love to meet him."
"I'm sure that can be arranged," Olivia smirked. "Krinos and his sister, Melody, would both be happy to meet you."
They finished dinner soon after and packed up all the leftovers into the cold box that was enchanted with a freezing charm for the freezer and a cooling charm for the fridge. Harry had yawned, so Sirius sent him up to bed. He had some things to discuss with Olivia and Remus, anyway. He wanted to wait after they did some more planning before they brought Harry into the fold and told him what they were up to.
Kingsley, Tonks, and Moody all left to go to their own homes while Mrs.Weasley sent the rest of the kids up to bed as well. She did think that it was late and that it was time for bed.
As Harry got up, Sirius had whispered to him where his room would be. Dobby had already brought his trunk into the room and made sure that only he, Sirius, Remus, and anyone invited by them could enter it. Dobby might not be the sanest house-elf in the world, but his loyalty was something to admire.
Harry was definitely looking forward to having his own room. When Mrs.Weasley had told him that he would be sharing with Ron, he was very glad when Sirius told him that a separate room had been prepared for him. He had barely gotten any sleep because of constant nightmares, night terrors, and the pain in the scar. So being in the same room with Ron's foghorn snoring would not have helped him at all. Besides, both of his supposed best friends had shown that their loyalty to him was fickle at best and non-existent at the worst. And being in the same room as Ron would give him even less privacy than he already had since Sirius had told him that Order members had been spying on him at Private Drive on Dumbledore's orders.
Harry had never been so glad that he had a room all to himself. One that was actually a decent size instead of Dudley's second bedroom that was mostly just his broken stuff. Sirius had also told him that his room was on the family floor of Grimmauld Place. The building was actually seven floors in total. There were five floors above ground, a basement, and a sub-basement. The two top floors and the sub-basement were all invisible to those outside of the family. They would never know that they were there even if the door or stairway to them was right in front of their eyes.
The top floors also held the two-story family library. The one that was on the normal floors had to be unlocked to stop all of the complaints from Hermione and because Dumbledore and Mrs.Weasley would also not stop badgering him about what types of books were in the library. So he had Winky move all of the "dark" books to the family library. The only ones he left in the downstairs library were plenty of history books, the leftover school textbooks that used to belong to him and Regulus, and other "normal" books. It served as a way to keep Dumbledore away from Black family magic books but also annoyed Hermione since there was nothing interesting in there for her to read. Didn't stop her from continuously looking around the library in hopes of finding something that was even the least bit interesting.
After Harry went into his room, Sirius let Olivia and Remus onto the family floor. They were only able to come up with his permission, which was how Remus also had his own room on the family floor. The three of them gathered in the family library for extra privacy.
"Can I just say that insulting those egotistical British wizards probably added years onto my life," Olivia giggled. "That was so much fun."
"I would be offended, but as a fellow mystic soul, I'm obligated to be on your side," Sirius smirked.
"Very true, Sirius," Olivia crossed her arms and snickered.
"I take it that you two have already started forming a plan," Remus guessed as they all sat in different chairs in the room.
"I'm a time mage," Olivia reminded. "I always need a plan or a lot worse things could happen than me becoming a mascot for rum."
"Olivia and Krinos have been working on things on their end of the country," Sirius explains to Remus. "We needed to find a way for Harry to become surrounded by those that will protect him while also keeping Dumbledore out of the loop of what is really going on. And that is only the beginning since we are still trying to find a way to unbind his powers."
"That would require a bit of planning," Remus leaned back in his chair.
"There are plenty of mystic souls back home that could help Harry with his powers," Olivia says. "Healers, alchemists, potion masters, even some that literally have the power to control magic energy."
"I'm not trying to be insulting, but I can see why most wand-users are terrified of your kind," Remus stated.
"Trust me, even we know that we can be scary," Olivia said. "I once saw my cousin, Krinos, turn a demon into a tree. That had other demons running away from him for a solid month before they got up the courage to start trying to kill him again."
"I can see why that would scare them," Sirius said.
Demons typically avoid magical Britain, for reasons that nobody in the mystic soul community ever understood. So Sirius never had to deal with any of them. It also helped that most of his training with his mystic soul powers happened at Hogwarts in abandoned classrooms. The wards around the school would have kept out any demons that tried to attack him or the school.
"What do you guys think of the first part of your plan," Remus asked. "Surrounding Harry with protectors?"
"Well, Dumbledore has been failing to gather allies since he has no actual proof that Voldemort is back," Olivia says. "If I can make it seem like other mystic souls would help him, the hope of getting powerful allies will force him to agree with me."
"What does that have to do with protecting Harry if any allies you get would be forced to continuously go on missions for Dumbledore," Remus saw a flaw already.
"We all know that with the ministry sticking their heads in the sand, they would stop all obvious attempts of Dumbledore to gather allies," Sirius explained. "So we will be tricking Dumbledore and the ministry by making the ministry think that it is a simple field trip while Dumbledore will think that it is an ally collecting trip."
"I'm... not following," Remus admitted.
"Crystal Rose," Olivia said. "My old school and the current academy where my cousins attend. We make it so the ministry thinks that the students are going there for a year of foreign education combined with keeping Dumbledore out of Britain for a while. Dumbledore will also be lead to believe that the teachers and older students would be willing to help him against Voldemort."
"It might be a bit of a longshot, given how the ministry feels about mystic souls, but we have to try," Sirius says. "We do plan on keeping that detail away from the ministry when the field trip is getting approved, but it will get back to them at some point. We just need to make sure that the trip can not be canceled and that Crystal Rose is properly protected from them."
"You want to take a school filled with wand-users to a school of mystic souls all the way on the other side of the continent," Remus summarized the plan.
Olivia nodded. "Mystic souls are very protective of each other. If Sirius is right about Harry being a mystic soul that has had his powers bound, we will do anything to keep him safe. Untrained mystic souls have been known to cause disasters."
"Like that fire that Krinos told me about," Sirius guessed.
"Like the weather mage that caused Mount Vesuvius to erupt and destroy Pompeii," Olivia deadpanned, causing both men to gasp.
"Mystic souls are that powerful," Remus could not help but stare at the time mage.
"You have no idea how powerful we can be," Olivia said.
"Merlin," Sirius gasped.
There were a few moments of silence before they all got their composure back.
"Are you sure that Dumbledore won't be able to just do to your school as he does in Hogwarts," Remus helped them see any possible flaw in their plan. "He has been manipulating people for over a hundred years. I am not doubting the intelligence of those in your school, but even some of the brightest people at Hogwarts have fallen to his manipulations."
"I would never send anyone to Crystal Rose if I was not one hundred percent sure that they could take care of themselves," Olivia stated. "I have already had a number of meetings with the staff and headmistress. They are all aware of his manipulative tendencies and will all be sure that they stay on their toes around him."
"Krinos has also made it clear that those outside of magical Britain are far more likely to not fall for Dumbeldore's 'kind grandfather' act," Sirius says. "And honestly, I see no reason to doubt him."
"Once he is in the school, Harry will be surrounded by other mystic souls," Olivia says. "They will make sure that not only that he is safe but also learns to think for himself and not try so hard to fit into the 'Boy-Who-Lived' image that so many try to force onto him."
"I also hope for some good food for him," Sirius crosses his arms. "Harry is way too skinny for a kid his age. He obviously needs a full medical check-up to see what types of potions he will need to fix any damage that those horrible muggles have caused."
"I watched Harry a lot when I was teaching in his third year," Remus admitted. "In the beginning, he would eat smaller meals and work his way up to more full-sized portions. But nearing the end of the year, he would decrease the amount that he ate. It was like he was preparing himself for a time that he would not be able to eat very much."
"I will ask Kingsley to help," Sirius stated. "As an Auror, he will know some healing spells. That might be enough until we can get Harry to a real healer. And not someone like Pomfrey, who only ever does anything when Dumbeldore tells her to."
"We have some healing mages as Crystal Rose that could help," Olivia offered.
"So now all we have to do is convince Dumbledore, the ministry, and the school board to allow the trip," Remus said.
"If it helps, that black book of Black family blackmail has to be around here somewhere," Sirius said, looking around the library as he did.
"That can be plan B," Olivia says.