"On your left, Krinos," Melody called out.
Krinos shot his head in that direction and saw a demon hurling a fireball at him. But Krinos vanished in a swirl of flower petals and leaves before it could hit him. He soon appeared behind the demon.
"Behind you," he smirked.
The demon turned around to only get a sharp tree branch stabbed into its chest. After Krinos pulled it out, the demon was vanquished as it disintegrated into ashes.
"You really are getting the handle of your floral swirl," Melody smiled at her brother.
"What can I say, never underestimate Father Nature," Krinos smirked. "Wow, that really does not have the same ring to it as Mother Nature. But it's not like I could control that I was born a boy."
"True," Melody agreed.
Another demon shimmered in front of them with a fireball in its hand. But before it could do anything with it, it was snatched up by an anaconda spirit biting into its shoulder. The demon was vanquished before it could reach the tree branches, where Harry was smirking as he sat on a branch.
"Can I just say that Thrull Demons are very easily vanquished," he smirked. "It's a wonder that they are still around considering how easy they are to get rid of."
"Probably because a lot of them stay in the Underworld before they get cocky enough to try and kill someone magical," Melody said.
"I once saw a Thrull Demon get knocked out by an oracle that dropped her crystal ball onto its head," Krinos laughed. "Bet it didn't see that coming."
Melody and Harry groaned a little.
"That was a bad one, Krinos," Harry shook his head. "There is no middle ground for puns. They are either good or bad, nothing in between. And that one was terrible."
"Well, there are only so many oracle and fortune teller puns a person can make, you know," Krinos playfully pouted as he crossed his arms.
"Awe, we made little baby Krinos pout," Melody teased her brother.
"I can turn you into a thorn bush with a blink," Krinos threatened.
"I know, but a sister must do her sisterly duties," Melody giggled. "And that always includes teasing her brothers. Wait until you start dating. That is when my fun really begins. Hahaha."
"Yeah, I'm gonna back away slowly before I get rangled into this twin taunting session," Harry smirked as he backed away.
The twins quickly pulled their brother into a hug.
"You know we love you, Harry," they both said, making him laugh.
"You guys are so weird, but normal is boring," Harry chuckled.
"We've been saying that for years," Krinos laughed.
The three then made their way back through the forest outside of Crystal Rose. The forest made it to the outside of the wards surrounding the school. The forest was a weak point in the wards where there were certain points where demons could slip through. It was why there were always fights in the forest between the students and demons. But the students always chose to go into the forest, the school did not make them. But in the thousands of years that Crystal Rose had been open, barely even a dozen students in total died while defending the school. Considering how powerful some demons are, that was a minor miracle.
"So, how many did you guys get," Harry asked as they walked back. "I vanquished six."
"Lucky you," Melody said. "I only got four."
"Suck for you both," Krinos smirked. "I got seven."
"What is with the demon attacks lately," Melody was confused. "This is the third one just in the past two weeks."
"Maybe someone is trying to take the throne by attacking those that other demons have failed against," Harry guessed. "The previous Source of All Evil was vanquished two years ago by those witches in the States."
"I mean this in the nicest way possible, but demons need to stop bothering us and go after them," Krinos crossed his arms. "We're on summer break and we deserve a break from demons."
"At least this was only lower-level demons, so far," Melody pointed out. "Thrull Demons, Scavengers, and Kazi Demons are all easily dealt with. We should only worry once the higher-level demons start attacking us."
"Do not even mention that possibility," Harry said. "We just spent the last hour finding and vanquishing demons in this forest. I do not want to think about how difficult the more powerful demons would be."
"No kidding," Krinos agreed. "I already got one monster headache from fighting a banshee and I do not need another."
The three were very happy to be back home. After a year of dementors, secrets being revealed, escaped criminals that were really innocent, and corrupt politicians. It was an interesting year, to say the least. But the general term they used for last year was that it was an utter disaster filled with night terrors and flashbacks of events that they preferred to stay forgotten. They were still trying to get over all of the memories that the dementors forced to the surface. Not to mention when Olivia was forced to bring up Harry's past at the Dursley's.
The Prophet had a field day with what had happened when Olivia stormed into the ministry. Normally, stories where Harry was involved were written by some woman named Rita Skeeter. But this one was told by a man by the name of Alain Pucey. They suspected a relation to their schoolmate Adrian Pucey. He had written everything without a single word of lies in his article. Usually, stories by the Prophet were ninety-nine percent lies and falsehoods. But whoever this Alain Pucey was, he was a reporter that had honor.
The article showed the ministry in about the worst light that they could possibly be shown in. He even included how Olivia stopped the Guards from attacking that woman in pink after she insulted them. And it was obvious that he was also not a fan of Dolores Umbridge. He really hated her and he made it known. In his article, he referred to her as "The Pink Toad" and that got all members of the Gardna family laughing their heads off.
After all of the bad press that the article gave the ministry, Fudge and the rest of his corrupt staff finally backed off and stopped trying to get to Harry. Olivia was still communicating with honorable ministry workers like Amelia Bones and Arthur Weasley to try and find a way to get Fudge out of office. Plus there were also their allies in Kingsley, Lord Greengrass, and Lady Zabini. But since most of the Wizengamot enjoyed having an easily bribed, threatened, and tricked man as a minister, they were not going to vote him out of the office without more evidence against him. They were going to find a way to get rid of them or they were going to lose it over having such a moron running a magical government.
For now, they just wanted to relax. They haven't had much relaxation during school and they were finally getting the chance. And while it might seem strange for some, but vanquishing demons was relaxing for them. It was like when a boxer would punch things in order to relax. And after being around that human-sized bowling ball, they really needed to punch something.
"You three okay," Hestia asked as their friends approached them once the trio got back to the school.
"We're fine, Hestia," Melody said. "Just glad to be rid of those pests."
"What kind of demons were they this time," T'challa asked. "I'm still trying to get the slime out of my ears from the Scavengers I vanquished a few days ago."
"Thrull Demons," Krinos answered.
"Odd choice for an attack against mystic souls," Abby crossed her arms. "Their only powers are shimmering and fireballs. They stand no chance against us no matter how many of them attack at once."
"We think the demons are trying to make themselves look good by killing tough opponents," Harry says. "Trying to raise their status up in the Underworld and try to make themselves worthy of being called the new Source."
Most of their group rolled their eyes. They were all pretty sick of demons trying to make a name for themselves by trying to kill them. Mystic souls, Wiccans, and guardians were always targets for demons trying to make themselves look more powerful. It drove them all nuts, but it was still better than demons attacking mundanes, who have no defense against magical demons.
"So, anything happen while we were busy," Krinos asked.
"Wyatt blew up another cauldron," Hailey said.
"Another one," Harry facepalmed. "That's the third one today. What is he even working on?"
"I asked him after the second cauldron blew up," White says. "He said he was trying to change his Twice Baked Spicy Do-Over Sole recipe. He was trying to fix it so that it would have the same power to turn back time, but did not have to be so spicy."
"That actually makes so much sense," Melody said.
"No kidding," Abby agreed. "I normally love fish, since I am from an island, but when I had that dish from him to go back to that morning... I have no spice tolerance at all. As an ice mage, I prefer my food nice and cool. Or, at the very least, not have any spice in it at all."
"Well, that recipe does require enchanted diablo pepper," Krinos chuckled. "And diablo means devil in Spanish for a reason."
"No joke that it means devil," Abby said. "I had to drink basically a gallon of milk when I was finished. I was also fully intending to eat ice but the recipe sent me back in time to that morning before I could, so the spicy sensations stopped."
"Wyatt may cause a lot of disasters, but his magic is certainly unique and quite amazing when he gets it right," Harry said.
"I remember when he made that Root Beer Float Away," Krinos laughed. "Nearly half the school was stuck on the ceiling before he could come up with a reversing recipe."
"Yeah, but I think people forget that the only reason that happened was a prank gone wrong," T'challa pointed out. "Wyatt may have made it, but it was that jerk Tommy Reverse that stole it and then miscast a spell that spread it to more than just the goblet he was trying to place the recipe in."
"Some people are just stupid," Harry shook his head.
The rest of their group nodded in agreement.
Tommy Reverse was the resident jerk of Crystal Rose. He had the power of Backward Speech magic. He cast spells simply by speaking backwards. He was from a very traditional family, but their ways were more of the whole "women need to be barefoot and in the kitchen" type of old traditions. He was the most sexist person any of them knew and many of the female students had to force themselves not to vanquish him right where he stood. But that did not mean that they did not torment him as much as they could.
Celest, as a water mage, enjoyed it when she caused a ball of water to fall on his head. She would always fake innocence and say that she just lost her concentration. She was always believed. Sofia also always took advantage of his known fear of rats. There were rumors that he had a bad run-in with a rat demon a few years ago, but they did not know if it was true or not. But Sofia always loved shapeshifting into a rat and chasing him at random points. The entire female population of Crystal Rose hated him.
"Hey, guys," Percy approached them.
"Geia, Percy," the trio greeted their friend.
Percy had been speechless when the trio had given him a paper at the end of the school year. He had graduated, but the only job opportunities that he knew about were at the ministry. As much as he wanted to make his mum proud by doing what she wanted, he did not want to go anywhere near the ministry after hearing what they tried to do to Harry.
The paper had been an apprenticeship offer from their teacher, Victor Milki. He was their professor of Mythology & History. But when he was not in school, Professor Milki was also a well-known archeologist. He had been looking for an apprentice for years, so he jumped at the opportunity when he heard that the trio had a friend that had interested in ancient artifacts. He asked the three to give him some information about Percy's grades, his desire to work with artifacts, and anything else that would effect his choice. He was so impressed that he instantly had the three pass along his offer.
Percy had been overjoyed and accepted the offer right away. He had always been interested in ancient times and the artifacts that have been left behind by them. The books that Melody had given him the past three Yules have shown him that there are also a great deal of magical artifacts out there. He wanted to know more. So he accepted the apprenticeship and Charlie got him a portkey to Greece from England when he got one for himself to get there from Romania.
But let's just say that Mrs.Weasley was less than pleased that her third child was not only leaving the country, but also not going to work at the ministry like she wanted them to. She sent Percy a howler every day for almost weeks before Headmistress Amaya found a way to change the school wards to keep the hexed letters away. They would now just simply explode when they tried to get passed the wards and Percy no longer had to deal with his mother's childish temper tantrum.
"How is working under Professor Milki, Percy," Harry asked. "We started going to Hogwarts before we had a chance to have him for a teacher."
"He is a very knowledgeable man," Percy actually looked over excited. "And as much as he is serious, he also knows that being serious is not all that he is and does tend to make jokes every now and again."
"Yeah, that's who he is," T'challa smiled. "He is a great teacher. He makes history come alive, and not just because he can use his illusion magic to literally bring it alive. But it's also the lively way that he teaches. He also makes jokes a lot as well. His favorite thing to do is make fun about how short Napoleon was, which is hilarious."
"Olivia met him once," Melody said. "She slapped him because she met him when he was drunk and he slapped her butt when she walked past him."
"And he was still alive after he did that," White smirked, joking.
"He was too important to the timeline of France," Krinos said. "Who knows what would have happened if he died in any other way then on the day he was meant to and in the way that history said that he would."
"I always feel so bad for time mages," Hestia says. "History is filled with events that have to happen, even if it is something horrible."
"Can't tell you how much Olivia hates when she has to be in the United States during the civil war," Harry said. "When she sees how African-Americans are treated back then, it leaves her heartbroken because there is nothing she can do about it."
"It would be like when somebody started the sexual revolution two centuries too early back in the 1700s," Abby shook her head. "That had been one Hades of a mess for time mages to clean up. It was disastrous since it was way too early before mundanes would accept such things as normal."
"You guys certainly live interesting lives," Percy said.
"Interesting is probably the understatement of the century," Harry remarked.
"Maybe I should be glad that my own powers are not like the rest of yours," Percy said.
"Be very glad, Percy," Melody said. "But, at least, your powers are very helpful for being an archeologist. We have always said that Lady Hecate gives us the powers that suit us best."
"Archive is definitely a more brainiac type of magic than offensive or defensive," Harry says. "Not only is is like your own personal internet, but you can also use it to do research, write up papers, and even use it as a translator."
"I'm still having a hard time controlling it," Percy admitted. "But Charlie is helping since he went through the same issues when his powers first came out. Being from a wand-user family only makes things harder for us since we have been subconsciously suppressing our mystic soul magic."
"Give it time, Percy," Krinos smiled at their British friend. "You only got your powers recently, so it is only natural that it will take time before you can use it whenever you want to."
"We've all been through that when our powers first came out," Abby added. "I could hardly touch anything without freezing it."
"I would pass out from exhaustion after healing a simple paper cut," Hestia said.
"Whiskers would randomly appear on my face multiple times a day," T'challa chuckled.
"Rome was not built in a day, Percy," White says. "And neither is complete control over magical powers."
"Where'd you hear that, a fortune cookie," Melody giggled.
"I told him that, actually," Sofia smirked. "I can not help it since I actually was born in Rome."
"Like I said, interesting," Percy chuckled as he went back to the professor's office.
The trio chuckled and then separated from their friends to go and find Sirius and Remus. The two were staying in one of the cabins near Crystal Rose. The cabins were for staff members that had families, so they were unable to live in the school. Headmistress Amaya gave the two men permission to stay in a cabin and offered both men teaching assistant jobs once they were well enough to accept them.
Sirius was still on potions to help against the lasting effects of being in Azkaban, but he was healing well. The three had found out that his mystic soul powers were known as Charmcaster magic. He was able to cast specific spells related to magic energy being given a specific form. He could also create magical explosives, golem-like creatures, and even could summoing a staff to enhance his offensive spells.
(AN: Charmcaster's magic from the original Ben 10 cartoon. I do not own them.)
Harry was really looking forward to getting to know his godfather.