Tom woke a bit early Sunday and wandered out to the garden, meeting - to his pleased surprise - a rather affectionate Wylda. Tom stroked her back gently and smiled at her. "I haven't been as attentive to you as I should have been, have I? You know how much I care about you, though - don't you?"

Wylda nodded, blinking her large, expressive - and adoring eyes at him.

Tom smiled; he could grow used to her affection quite easily. He didn't know why he had been so hesitant to form this sort of bond. Wylda leaned into his caress momentarily, but then Wylda moved away - clearly wishing to show him something and then she looked down. Tom's gaze followed hers and his good mood vanished.

"Wylda! How could you?" Tom hissed angrily. "I don't need a baby to take care of right now - I'm already up to my neck in things to do."

Wylda just looked at him smugly, her expression clearly stating his objections were much too late. Tom fumed - females - you just couldn't trust them, clearly. Wylda simply didn't have enough to do these days, obviously, so she comes up with ... this!

"Now, now, Tom. Continuation of the species tends to be on both male and female minds." Yvane chuckled in amusement.

Tom turned and left her, storming into the house, leaving Wylda to look at his stiffly angry back with amusement. Tom hoped Severus would know what to do. He flounced into the dining room, beating Severus to the coffeepot by a millisecond.

"Something troubling you, Tom?" Severus took in Tom's stormy face.

"Wylda! She...she's decided now is a good time to ... to procreate!" Tom said angrily.

"Well, there are charms to prevent..." Severus began, why do teenage boys never think of them?

"Too late." Tom broke in sullenly.

"Ah...well." Severus said in understanding. "I know that now is not a good time to take on more responsibility, but I'm sure that Petunia will be willing to help - and Harry and Dudley should learn how to take care of babies as well."

"Won't she be doing most of the work?" Tom said with alarm.

"I'm sure that all mothers prefer help with babies." Severus answered patiently. "And she is your responsibility."

Harry and Dudley came in during that, hair still damp from their showers, dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Petunia was close behind, also dressed for outdoor work.

"Babies?" Petunia said a bit eagerly. The boys were getting too old for any real ‘mothering' and they were at the age where coddling by her horrified them - unless they were injured - they still expected a bit of ‘mothering' if injuries occurred.

"Wylda - she's picked the worst time ever to plan motherhood." Tom said with resigned resentment.

"Oh, Wylda." Petunia answered. She'd been introduced, of course - Wylda was very pretty and Petunia admired her greatly. It would be fun to help out.

Percy made his way down at the same time as Rosemerta, Lucius and Draco arrived. Draco had already eaten, but he still took the offer of more bacon and eggs. Lucius grimaced - apparently another growth spurt was coming on for Draco - after new clothing had been bought, of course. Lucius and Rosemerta took some coffee, and then Lucius noticed Tom's sulking.

"Any problems?" Lucius asked.

Harry piped up happily. "Tom's Great Horned Owl, Wylda, is going to have babies - he forgot to put the charms on her to prevent it."

Lucius and Rosemerta shared an amused glance with Severus and a chuckling Petunia.

Tom grimaced and slumped in his chair. He supposed he had over-reacted when he looked down to see those three eggs in Wylda's nest. But, he was sure to hear jokes about sex education all day.

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Rosemerta watched Petunia and the three young boys wander out to the field, keeping their pace slow, so Petunia would not tire quickly. They were accompanied by the proud Percy, who had been flattered into ‘protecting' the group on their walk. The boys were eager to demonstrate their skill in identifying plants and were also hoping to show her a unicorn.

She smiled, Percy was just fourteen, and maneuvering him was not difficult as long as you didn't offend his pride. Percy had obviously understood that the four of them had serious business to attend to that didn't concern him -or the young boys. Severus, though, had impressed on him that watching over Petunia and the boys was also important.

Her smile faded a bit. Severus' last visit to the Three Broomsticks on Friday night had been not been all fun. He had eventually had to explain Voldemort's plan of immortality via Horcruxes. She shuddered; she hadn't even known what they were. The explanation had left her queasy.

Severus had also explained his and Lucius' quest to destroy all of the Horcruxes with Albus. She wholeheartedly approved, but was terrified as well. Clearly they would be top of the list to kill if - or rather when the Dark Lord returned.

She turned back to Severus when the floo sounded. It was Auror Savage, perkily asking to come through. Tom welcomed him cheerily enough, and introduced him to a blushing Rosemerta. Hugo kissed her hand suavely. They all sat in the family room, drinking tea. Severus and Lucius watched Hugo the way one watches an unexploded land mine, to Hugo's amusement.

"I had a remarkable firecall with Albus recently, Professor. He was curious about what I thought of your tutor." Hugo said, and watched with interest as Severus' face darkened. Lucius muttered something uncomplimentary about the Headmaster's ancestors. That was also fascinating, as the elder Malfoy rarely showed any emotion - even when being questioned by Aurors about being a Death Eater.

"Nymphadora Tonks is actually their tutor at present. Tom had too many responsibilities piled up and we decided to cut the pile down." Severus answered levelly. Tom bit his lip, he hated appearing weak in front of the old Auror - he liked him a little and didn't want to lose his respect.

Hugo took in the suspicious looks, as well as Rosemerta's mystified glance. "He also said that Tom was researching magical daggers. I did lend him a book by Udo. Perhaps I can help with that - weapons were an interest of mine for awhile."

Rosemerta and Hugo both watched Severus and Lucius closely. The two glanced at each other, a whole conversation apparently taking place in that moment. The two Slytherins had worked closely together for a long time, and their minds had always run along the same ideas where strategy was concerned. They were both thinking that the benefits of having a trustworthy Auror of Hugo's caliber on their side, assisting them outweighed the risks. Tom's true background would have to remain a secret, and they would have to be judicious in what they told Hugo, but...he could be helpful, and Tom would have another champion in his corner.

Hugo waited patiently - not that it seemed to take long for the pair to reach a silent agreement. He knew that they would not be swayed at this point by anything he said. Either they would trust him, or they would not.

Tom and Yvane also watched with interest. Yvane trusted the old Auror and Tom felt that if there were truly anyone in the ranks trustworthy - it would be this man. The only difficulty would be if there was something he felt the ministry should know and they felt it should be secret. They would have to give out any secrets slowly and carefully.

Severus turned back to Hugo slowly. "We're working with Albus Dumbledore to ... prevent the Dark Lord returning, or at least to make his return a short one." At Hugo's raised brows, Severus explained. "We know the Dark Lord isn't truly gone, just temporarily defeated. He had been searching for a way to defeat death, and I'm afraid he found out about Horcruxes."

Hugo abruptly felt every one of his hundred-plus years. Of course ‘he who must not be named' would find the foulest spells ever created. He could almost feel his shoulders hunching tiredly. "What is your plan?" He asked halfheartedly.

"We've destroyed two of them. Fiendfyre works well." Lucius watched the Auror perk up.

"Well, that should be about the end of it. He couldn't make more than three - two was risky enough." Hugo felt relieved - the worst was over, then.

Severus shook his head slowly, making Hugo's stomach clench. "We believe he intended to make six - so he would have seven pieces of his soul around - a magically auspicious number. He was interrupted we believe, in making the sixth with Harry's death. We've destroyed two and have a third in our possession; Albus is on the trail of the others."

"So, you have two more to find and know how to destroy them." Hugo mused, some of his horror fading. He looked even more closely at the group, he was no Legilimens, but he could usually sniff out a lie well enough. All his senses said they were in earnest, though. "It sounds like you have a good handle on things, how may I help?"

"The Horcrux in our possession is embedded in a ring that we prefer to not destroy, if possible. We felt that an ancient weapon with a lot of power could kill the Horcrux and keep the ring intact." Tom explained, "I ... inherited a dagger that we could tell was very old and powerful. We feel we have identified it and it should do the trick."

Severus had silently summoned the book Percy had used to identify the dagger and opened it to the relevant page and handed it to Hugo.

Hugo's eyebrows tried to crawl off the top of his head. Boadicea's dagger! No wonder young Tom had had a book on women's magic.

Tom correctly interpreted the Auror's look and commented with a smile. "It's spelled to kill or disable any man who uses - or tries to use it. Rosemerta is here to see what she makes of it."

Hugo looked at the smiling witch with renewed appreciation. This should be an interesting and momentous moment - the Boadicea dagger unearthed and about to be held in the hand of a witch. Severus stood and led the small group into the library. They gathered around a table as Tom hovered the dagger from the cabinet.

The bag with the ring on the next shelf seemed to hum with malevolence. Tom eyed it briefly, with resolve. ‘We'll get to soon enough, and I'll have another piece of myself back - and the other, out there - you'll have one less piece to fall back on.' Tom promised.

Yvane hummed happily, "Yes, we'll have another part of you back and another nail in the Dark Lord's coffin."

Tom hovered the dagger out and let it land gently on the table in front of Rosemerta. The dagger was simply made, compared to the bejeweled swords of legend like Excalibur and the Gryffindor sword. The handle was ivory with runes carved into it - they seemed to fade in and out, with other runes sparkling into sight. There was a single Moonstone embedded in the hilt. The blade was long and curved. There were shimmering designs on the blade that weren't really runes, but they were all willing to wager they meant something.

The four men watched tensely as Rosemerta leaned over the dagger, looking at it closely. Most magical weapons had an ‘aura' of power about them that wizards could feel if they had the level of power necessary to sense magic in other wizards or objects. Rosemerta's hand hovered over the dagger - there was a soft pulsing in it, strong but not with the threateningly violent power that most weapons had. It was the strength and power of the earth or the seas.

Yes, Rosemerta thought, a definitely female power. A subtle power that could be savage when necessary - as a lioness could be when defending her cubs. Rosemerta slowly lowered her hand, half expecting the dagger to object in some way. Her hand closed around the handle and gripped the knife, raising it slowly before her. The power ran slowly up her arm, flooding into her senses gently.

The males in the room breathed a sigh of relief; the dagger apparently accepted her without difficulty.

"When will you destroy the Horcrux you are holding?" Hugo asked with interest. "I would be happy to assist."

"We've identified and removed three curses on the ring, but there are two more - one is a strong suffocation curse - we've been having trouble finding the right cancellation - there are so many of them. The other is a curse that ...well we're not sure what it does other that it causes withering and is most certainly fatal." Lucius glared at the cabinet housing the ring. His knowledge of dark arts and curses was a matter of pride to him and having unknown curses frustrate him in this manner was a definite blow.

"We feel we'll have the spells broken and be ready by Christmas break, perhaps even before." Severus added.

"I'd be happy to look at the curses and ask around - others may recognize them." Hugo asked.

There was another silent exchange of glances, this round of looks including Tom. They preferred that no one know what this ring was. The Deathly Hallows might be something few believed in, but someone as old and well informed as Hugo might recognize the stone.

The result seemed to be that as long as Hugo knew this much; they may as well chance the rest. The bag with the ring was brought out and Hugo drew out his wand. The waves of dark magic rolled off the ring and made Hugo's stomach lurch. He'd rarely encountered something so evil. It was hard to separate the curses from the darkness inherent in the Horcrux itself.

Hugo didn't recognize the curses, but he had friends in the Unspeakables Dept. that very well might know of such curses. "I'll let you know if I find out anything about the spells." Hugo shook hands all around and flooed home; he had a ‘mission' once again. The whole babysitting the Minister and sitting on the Wizengamot was getting boring. Helping defeat the Dark Lord all over again would keep him quite busy.

Rosemerta placed the dagger back in the cabinet, and the ring was hovered in as well. Rosemerta kissed Severus and waved goodbye. She knew they would be plotting now and not in need of a Hufflepuff to listen and not understand the convoluted and tortuous plots.

They heard the floo sound and the three Slytherin plotters sat around the table. There were further plans to be made before the hikers returned.

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