Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

May 10, 2923

A wagon and four ponies arrives at the stables. Not an unusual occasion. The driver gets down and walks to the front ponies, speaking quietly to them. I get a quiet, “Just a moment.” As they walk to the back ponies. They’re untied and talked to quietly while bringing them to the front. “It’s their first long trip. They know they are safe here and will be quiet for you. I do not know how long I may be here. Two hours? Two weeks? Can my wagon be somewhere accessible? I’d like to camp with it if needed.”

“Yes ma’am. I’ll take it to the Market field, across from here. Will the ponies pull it for me? I can walk them back?”

The ponies in harness stamp their feet. “Oh hush you, of course I’ll let you pull the wagon. You be nice here but don’t let anyone pick on you.”

“Thank you Sir, I’ll walk to the Mayor’s office.”

Natalie walks along with the ponies. She doesn’t know what the reception will be. She doesn’t know what Tabitha will do if their help is refused. She should be here but she is still healing. We should have waited. Or come earlier.

One last pat to her pony and she turns towards the pond, continuing on her walk, pausing at the collection of signs and rough map that stood in front of the pond thinking she didn’t remember the hospital. She walked around the pond and into the courtyard of the Mayor’s Office. Here, she pulled the rope that ran up into the Office and rang the bell in Isengar’s office. A few seconds later and the slap-slap of hobbit feet could be heard on the stairs, shortly followed by their owner.

“Yavanna’s blessings” Natalie bows, “Is the Mayor still Harry, son of James? May I speak with him?”

“Eru blessings upon you this day. He is. Please come sit while I let him know you are here. Who should I say is calling?”

“I am Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, but I do not believe he knows me.”

Natalie is offered tea and scones with jam, one of theirs actually. Knowing just how good their jam is, she digs in. The scones are just as good as their jam.

Harry walks in, startling her, a quick wipe of her fingers and she’s standing to bow. Harry just stares at her.

“Mahal’s blessings. I’m am Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, of House Rosewood. I bring greetings from Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, of House Firewheel.”

“Rosewood is a wizarding name. Is Firewheel?”

“Yes.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Since 2913.”

Harry just stares at her for a bit. “How long can you stay? I have questions and I’m sure the others will too.”

“A couple of months if necessary, I brought my traveling wagon just in case. Maybe my tale will answer your questions.”

“Let me show you to our meeting room and I’ll call a few people in.”

A patronus is sent to the original group: Fred, George, Lavendar, Colin, Remus, Tonks, James, Lily, Sirius. "This is Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, of House Rosewood. She brings greetings from Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, of House Firewheel.“

“Wizard name?” “Why didn’t the point-me find them?” “Do you remember the Family?”

A shrill whistle sounds but no one has a wand out. Natalie just raises an eyebrow. She is also staring at George.

“Maybe you should hear my tale? You may have questions but I do also.”

Nods all around.

Natalie sits up straight and takes a deep breath and slowly lets it out before speaking, “Tabitha was working with the Unspeakables when that May happened. She and Wilson had issues about Harry, even if it was “by the book”. Nothing changed and she wanted to follow Harry. He might not have been able to bring much other than what Hermione sent with Teddy but she could. They started to make plans.”

At this point Lavender raises her hand, “What happened in May?”

Natalie is speechless. Her and Tabitha’s whole plan revolved around helping Harry and his group. What if this wasn’t their Harry? Natalie looks around before saying, “Maybe we should start with how all of you got here and what you remember last?”

Harry speaks, ”Sure, we’ve all talked about this. My relatives killed me after fourth year. I was having nightmares about spiders and Cedric. Fred and George had a potion accident caused by Ron and Ginny. Dumbledore got my parents and later got Sirius. Umbridge got Lavendar and Colin for being muggleborn. She also got Remus for being a dark creature which he isn’t anymore. Tonks was killed by a co-worker.”

”I don’t know what to do. Most of my story isn’t going to make sense because you didn’t live through what I thought you did.

”In my world, the V man came back at the end of the Triwizard Tournament in Harry’s fourth year. Peter killed Cedric. There was a fight at the ministry building during Harry's fifth year and Sirius went through the veil. James and Lily had died when Harry was a baby, we were told it was Voldemort. There was a final battle at the school where the V man was killed and Harry arrested. Fred, Lavender, Colin, Remus, Tonks and a bunch of others died that day but not George. Harry was sent through the veil with Teddy. Tabitha and I, with a lot of help followed Harry.”

”While we were preparing to follow Harry, we got a package from Gringotts that had Harry’s journey while here. We’ve had two updates to the story but if this Harry wasn’t sent through the veil, the whole story was wrong.”

Lily raises her hand, “Who is Teddy?”

Chapter Text

Natalie looks at Remus and Tonks then at the others. “um, are Remus and Tonks together?”

Head shakes and nos around the room.

Natalie sighs, “In my old world, Remus and Tonks got married and had a baby. They left Teddy with Tonks’ mom but both died during the battle at the school. Umbridge lived and the ministry wasn’t going to rescind the werewolf laws. Teddy wasn’t a were but no one cared. Hermione sent Teddy with Harry because they were going to kill him as soon as a new Minister was chosen, meaning the day after Harry went through the veil. Tabitha will be sad that Teddy doesn’t exist but also happy because she was worried about him. We knew from our package that Harry was doing a great job but she still worried.”

“Maybe you could share who is here and I could get a tour of your village and what everyone is doing? Do you have a map?”

Harry looks around before speaking, “As I said, I died the summer after the Triwizard. I had been having nightmares about the maze where I saw one of Hagrid’s spiders get Cedric. I remember passing out then woke up on a beach. Hedwig was with me. She had a trunk and a letter. The letter mentioned doing a temps et locus to find out where I was. A point me scan for any magicals, a hide in plain sight spell and the Lost, Abandoned and Discarded spell-chain.”

“It was getting light out so I enlarged the trunk and found my wand on top along with my invisibility cloak. I shrunk the trunk, covered myself and Hedwig with the cloak and found out I was in Dol Amroth. I heard splashing before I could do anything else. I saw two people coming out of the water. It sounded like Fred and George but didn’t look like them. I saw them sit down and enlarge a trunk so I sent a message patronus to them. Boy were they startled.”

Harry continues telling his story and it is very similar to the story that Tabitha and I had. The storm, finding Lavender and Colin, traveling to Bree, finding this property. Lavender even got her Grand-Mastery! Snape is helpful, Dumbledore is not. The Prewett twins are here, Gina and her family, Luna’s mom and Neville's parents. The Hobbits love Harry. And he has met Thorin!

“Wow. That’s almost the story we got. If Hermione didn’t send books with Teddy, did you have a lot in your trunk? Because, we have books.”

Natalie looks at everyone and sees anger. “There are obvious differences between what happened with you and what happened on my world. Yes?” Nods around. “On my world, Hermione was a friend. So was Ron but he had fits of jealousy so I’m not surprise about the potions accident being his fault.”

Harry is shaking his head. “Neville and I were in Ravenclaw and bullied by Ron and Hermione who were in Gryffindor. Flitwick and the other teachers tried to protect us but McGonagall and Dumbledore would revoke the detentions and the points system was a joke.”

Natalie looks down while shaking her head, “So many differences. It changes my story. On my world, we didn’t get a copy of the Black library because Hermione sent it with you. If you don’t have it, we’ve lost it.”

Sirius interrupts, “I’ve got the library. All of it.”

Natalie perks up, “Because of what happened on my world, the Queen Mother got involved and soon ALL of the Ministries were involved. We have so many books but I don’t have any of the Black library. Gringotts sent a letter to Tabitha and Wilson in July of 1998. It was your story. Or what we believed to be your story. We knew you had bought property before we left Earth. Wilson found me and I was included in the plans.”

“We trained, learned many skills, gathered all those books. Gringotts sent metals. The Unspeakables used Hermione’s LAD to gather gold. Gringotts helped us claim Family vaults. Many vaults with knowledge and money that we brought with us.

“Imagine our surprise when we land in Belfalas in 2913. Years before you.”

There was silence.

sigh, “We did like the Harry in our story did and found Tavric in Dol Amroth.”

“Tavric, Joss and Dafid were under secrecy oaths. We had just gotten back from a trip to see them when the time accident happened. They all mentioned you. Could I have some tea please?”

There were gasps when a tea tray popped in.

“Yeah, more than just us was sent. We had a trunk with several expanded greenhouses, and 50 house elves.” Natalie holds her hand up in the universal stop sign. “All those books? We also had a library trunk with 30 more house elves. Think that's a lot? All our female house elves have gotten pregnant more than once and half are helping in the library trunk.”

Natalie pauses while she takes a sip of tea, ”You know how I said the Queen Mother and all the Ministries got involved? We have copies of all the books, and scrolls, from 150 libraries. Magical and non-magical. The house elves want two or three per library, at least.”

Natalie sits back with her tea as the group mutters among themselves.

“Maybe you’d like to read it?” She holds up a package of parchment. “A copy for each of you?”

~time skip~

Harry says, “So you live at Ravendreams Hold. You make jams and jellies. You have ponies. You have gardens. You have animals. We have missed you every time once we started daily point-me spells. Why are you here now?”

Natalie’s turn, “Good question. Tabitha’s greatest fear was getting here after Teddy was grown. Did you notice the time accident? The accident happened at the end of July, 2920. We came out of the spell two days ago. Tabitha is still recovering.”

When we came out of the time spell, we received an update of your story. Not that it actually is your story.

Helping Harry is why Tabitha came. You aren’t our Harry but you are still a Harry and it seems that your story closely follows the story we got. I’m sure Tabitha will still want to help and we can start by trading copies of books. The rest I’ll have to talk to her about.

“Can you explain the accident?”

“Not really. We are researching what happened, we are sure zeros and a decimal point are involved but have not discovered how it happened. We have used time spells in our training and our teaching for years. Twenty-four minutes out here is 24 hours in there. We spent over 900 days of outside time in a time spell where only 14 days passed inside. To make things more strange, Dis had received a note, supposedly from us to say that we would be out of contact.”

Harry doesn’t know how he feels. “This is a lot to learn about even without the not your Harry part. I need some time to talk to the others. Can we met the day after tomorrow? Maybe do the tour the day after?”

“Sure. I brought our first house trunk, would you like to come to my wagon for a Hogwart’s Feast?”

I see jaws drop and heads nod so fast, I’m laughing inside but at least they know the school.

Next day, May 11, 2923.

Natalie didn’t walk around much, she wants Harry to show her around and introduce her to people. Give him a chance to show off. Of course she goes to the stables to see the ponies. She actually goes for a ride, taking the other three with. All of them like the area and are glad they came.

Dinner time, May 12, 2923.

The house elves are so excited. The visiting room has been made into the Great Hall, on a smaller scale and there are chairs not benches.

I’m waiting by my wagon as they arrive in a group. “When Tabitha and got I got here, we knew we needed to be by the Shire. How best to get there? Wagon. This is our first wagon. Now, if you’ll come inside, the trunk door is open to the left.”

Exclaim is made over the room and the food is just how they remember.

“Let me take you on a tour of this house. You started in the Foyer room which opens up to this room which is usually a visiting room with chairs and sofas. Opposite from the Foyer is the sleeping hallway.” I start with the corner sleeping room and attached bathing room. I mention that there are four as I walk down the hallway and around the corner. “There are two more rooms like those here in this corner.”

”The two sleeping rooms in the far corner from here are bigger but share a bathing room. That’s where Tabitha and I slept to start. Around the corner is a classroom. The room on the right is our training room with a bathing room across from the door. The next room on the left is the kitchen and dining room with a hallway to the sleeping rooms. And back to the visiting room.”

“When this was made, we had need of sleeping spaces for teachers. It started with just the two of us, our Apprenticeship Master and his mother who was our first teacher. Teacher Bela taught us what she taught her children growing up. The house elves found a way for our teachers to dream the lesson then make a training memory for us. Or directly transfer the memory.”

“You’ll notice we helped Dafid with his ponies. Really his whole business was saved. We did that so he would have ponies for Harry. We also found two children and needed to add outdoor spaces to our house.”

“I don’t know how well you read our tale, but we started sharing food from our greenhouses once we settled. We started with Dis and the Blue Mountains. Then the Hobbits, starting with Gorbadoc, who was Master of Buckland when we got here. We read “your”, finger quotes, story in 2919 so it would be current knowledge and had a plan worked out before the time accident. Food from our greenhouses have made it to Tharbad, Bree, Minas Tirith, Pelargir and others. I know you paid for the food but remember, we had what we thought was your story and we weren’t in it. We know you’re planning to help or follow Thorin to Erebor. Our greenhouses can feed Erebor for the first couple of years.”

“Have you heard of The Librarian?” A couple of nods. “That’s Tabitha. She’s really upset that she might have missed Masters coming to see her while we were missing and I didn’t get an update before I left. You see, Masters come to her and dream. They dream about teaching the general knowledge and the specialized skills that not as many are interested in. Soon those Masters will die and the specialized skills will be lost. As well as their teaching style.”

“Except for Tabitha,” says Harry.

“Yes, except for Tabitha. And the others working with us. Not all who show up in Middle-Earth know what England is. Our first girls were actually from an Anne McCaffrey novel. We have had many from earth but they arrived before you got here.”

“Our goal when we got here, the whole reason we came was to help Harry. We didn’t know about everybody when we started. Now most of us speak ten languages. Or at least we read them. At the beginning, Tabitha thought she’d be your teacher or teach the teachers. Jam was a joke that the Unspeakables took seriously.”

“As far as I can tell, this place has been a success and will continue to be a success because of Harry. It’s true, you may not be doing it all by yourself but tell me Fred, George, think about what would have happened to you if Harry hadn’t found you. It’s true that this Harry didn’t have Teddy to spur him on but he had the two of you. You all needed each other to survive.”

“Harry is the catalyst and like the rest of you, we’re just here to help Harry.”

There is a solemn mood in the room. I decided to break it up.

”Remus does paper and book binding?” Nods, “Fred does wood carving?” More nods.

“Great, Remus, did you know you could use chicken feathers to make paper? You need to transfigure them first, just into mush but they are usable. They can also be transfigured into wood planks for building or a toilet paper size log to spiral slice. Fred can duplicate his wood. Change it a little, maybe not cut off toes, and it doesn’t change back.” Natalie hears Colin snigger so that must be the same. “Did you find burl wood on your trip here?”

”I did. I found a lot of it.”

”Duplicate a piece then carve the copy. The copy will last because you changed it and you still have the original to copy later.”

“This trunk has duplicated planks that were then changed with a tongue and groove spell. It has lasted since 2013.”

“Harry is successful. I’ve offered copies of the books. You do want copies, right? Do you want to send someone over to see what we have? I didn’t check to see if our index book would travel. Maybe I could check that out when I get back and if it travels you could use that to see if you want all the books.” A note pops in, “I love magic. The house elves say a copy can come here with full indexing. To use a book, comes here or copy for there. I’m assuming by here they mean our home.”

“Is Remus still a bookworm?” nods “You’ll love our library. And the house elves can help you learn the different languages. We started coping the English books first so that can get you started. It is possible that you could put all your books in one of our trunks and the house elves can help copy.”

“Why don’t I go home while you talk it out. I have a communication book I could leave. The story we got showed they worked here. It will take time to make copies of all of them. To be of maximum use, you’ll need to learn the languages.”

The group leaves the trunk then the wagon. Shaking their heads. Natalie hands Harry a book. “Can I come back with Tabitha and do the tour?” Harry says sure.

Natalie goes to the stables and says she’ll be leaving before lunch tomorrow.

Next morning, after breakfast

Natalie has the wagon hitched up. She is standing in the stables holding the hitched ponies while also holding the other two. She has two ponies touching one arm and two ponies touching the other. She looks up to see Squire and says, “It was nice to met you, thank you taking such good care of my ponies. Ruby Slippers.” And she’s gone.

When Squire tells Harry about it, he realizes she had trained her ponies to use a port-key.

Chapter Text

Friday, May 8, 1998

Unspeakable Crafter is unhappy. Understanding but unhappy. Unspeakable Firestarter has called in sick to work. Again. He knows she isn’t really sick, she is heartsick, just as he is. But she needs to get to work or quit. She’s a smart girl and could do a lot of good if she stays. Maybe I can get McGonagall to recruit her. She’d be able to help all the muggleborn students. Crafter is off to find his communication book. He really doesn’t want to do this. Dang it, he’s messed up his hair again. He keeps it long as too many said he looked like a blonde Potter, but short hair that he can grab in frustration would be nice right now.

Tabitha Firewheel is currently at Palmer Park Sports Stadium running. She’s stressed about her job and life. It’s been good so far but things are happening that she isn’t happy with. She loves where she lives and can see herself staying here for years taking more classes at Reading College. She likes her house and how easy it is to get to work and do all her errands.

She gives up on running today. She should have gone to Parthian, climbing requires more concentration. If she stays, could she continue working for the Unspeakables? Or is it just the Ministry she’s unhappy with. Are other Ministries just as bad? Anywhere she goes, she has to tell the local Ministry she has moved there. Maybe it’s better with the devil you know. She cleans up and heads to the play park by the library. The children are why she does what she does maybe watching them play will remind her of better times. Even if they aren’t magical.

You would think a 5’11” woman would stand out but with brown hair, she seems to blend in. Crafter, as Wilson Evergreen, continues to scan the park. Crossing his fingers no one worries about the strange man watching the children. Oh, there she is. Sitting, no wonder I didn’t see her sooner.

Tabitha is spacing, looking at the kids without really seeing them and is startled when someone sits on the same bench but there is a soft “Firestarter” so she doesn’t panic.

Speaking softly, “You know what,” laughing, “I really need a new codename.” Both continue to sit quietly, “It’s Friday Wilson, why are you here?”

Wilson huffs, “You missed all week. You don’t have your communication book with you. You can’t get a new codename unless you come to work on Monday.”

“Let’s walk to my house.” Both stand up and start walking, “I’m thinking of leaving. I don’t know if I can continue working at the Ministry after Tuesday. I don’t care if it was “by the book”, it was heart wrenching to know it happened.”

“Where would you go? You love this area.”

“I know but all the cool toys are not worth the stress of working with them. We did so much to help Harry and now he’ll never know. He had people on his side that he didn’t know about and, grrr… I really don’t know if I can work with those people. I’m only 25, surely I can pull up stakes and move?”

Both continue walking.

“Maybe I can stay a little longer just to see what Ms Granger is going to do.”

Wilson is laughing, “I’d like to see what she does too. Will you talk about options? Maybe you can work for Hogwarts? Help the muggleborn stay up with their other lessons?”

“I don’t know but I’ll be at work on Monday. Write up what options I have and we can talk it out.”

Tabitha spent the weekend walking around the neighborhood feeling like she was saying good-bye. She’s looking around her house, wondering how she’s going to take it all, electronics don’t like shrinking… maybe she can box them up and shrink the box? Maybe it was time to think about downsizing.

Monday, May 11, 1998

“Okay, I’m here. What are my options?”

Crafter gives her a parchment but it’s not even half full. “You know, if I left here I could use paper and pens again at work. What’s with this list, it only has four things on it?”

Firestarter looks at the paper again, “I don’t want to stay but don’t know where to go. That’s the first two. If I could help the muggleborn at Hogwarts I’d tell them to keep up their regular studies, concentrate more on them than magic. Study just enough for As and leave the country after O.W.L.s. and taking Muggle Studies as a N.E.W.T.”

“How the hell am I suppose to help Harry!”

“Shhhh!” Crafter is whispering now. “It was an idea I had. He was pretty confident that it was a Judgement not a death. How much are you willing to give up to help Harry now?”

Tabitha sits down, she no longer feels like Firestarter. She wonders if Magic is telling her something. “What can I do? My family is messed up and I only have three friends but other than you, I don’t see them much anymore. Not being able to talk about what you do at work hurts outside relationships.”

“Harry wasn’t able to take much. He really only has what Hermione was able to send with Teddy.”

“And doesn’t that rip out your heart. It was better to send a baby to possible death than stay with his Grandma. All the more reason to leave here.”

“I know, but what if you follow Harry? What if you take money and books? We could use Hermione’s LAD spell to summon gold dust or nuggets. I don’t think it would work for veins but all the nuggets tumbling down rivers? The gold dust that settled at the bottom of lakes? Oh yea. I’ve sent pairs of Unspeakables out to do this already. You get half to split between you and Harry. We want to make sure that money isn’t a reason to stop whatever it is you need to do.”

”And if I don’t go?

”The Unspeakable could use the money.”

Crafter is watching Tabitha, why didn’t he think of her as Firestarter? He’ll think about that later, Tabitha has her thinking face on.

“um, I heard that the house elves can’t go but what about some of our other animals. I heard Gina went to the Goblins. Thought she and her family were going to Australia, there was some kind of psycho after her. Heard she had packed everything, including her animals, and the Goblins sent her somewhere else. Do you think the Goblins will help us? If I go through the veil, how do I get to the same place as Harry? What if I arrive and Teddy is all grown up? What if Harry had to do horrible things to keep them safe because I wasn’t there yet? What if…”

Croaker grabs Tabitha around her upper arms, “STOP. You’re panicking about stuff we need to think calmly about and maybe plan for.”

Tabitha’s eyes are still a little wild but her breathing has calmed down. “Okay?” Tabitha nods and takes a deep breathe, letting it out slowly. “I’m okay now. You said something about plans?”

Crafter and Tabitha are clearing up all her projects. She’s making good notes so someone can continue what she’s doing. She’s also making notes for muggleborns. Merlin, I hate that word. It’s time someone tell them everything they need to know. It might be worth staying a little longer to get the right knowledge into their hands. Maybe.

June 10, 1998

Tabitha is pacing “Do you think he’s okay? Do you think a couple more people would like to escape? What should I be thinking about to help me end up with Harry?”

Wilson is sitting comfortably, trying not to laugh at Tabitha’s pacing. “If we’re going to do this, let’s figure out what he’ll need. We don’t know where he is. What if there are others? Money will always be welcome, so would knowledge. Ollivander sent wands with Teddy. Let’s start with knowledge, we’ll send a copy of every book we can get our hands on. Non-magical too. And fiction.”

Both go back to work.

The next day, Wilson says “Rowan Tofty was able to speak with the Prime Minister and with the Queen’s approval, we can copy all the books in the British Library. I’m not sure how but we’re working with the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Someone knows someone, some how and every Ministry is sending people and house elves to each main National Library. Instead of buying one of every book, they’re going to let us copy the whole collection at, say The Library of Congress in the United States and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Even China is sending copies. It’s almost like they’re hoping to keep the information safe. They know they won’t get them back and aren’t sending originals. Only copies of print items are being made but some of those are scrolls. With so many sending copies, we’re going to need to send training memories of more languages so you will be able to read them! I think we can have one trunk with a wizarding space for each library so you know what language most of the books will be in. Indexing will be a headache! The trunk will also have a classroom and a couple study rooms in each language space.”

Tabitha continues working on her muggleborn, new magical?, book while Crafter is off doing something with books.

August 10, 1998

“That was an undertaking.” Wilson still looks exhausted. “We had 50 people inside and warded the building as a temporary time chamber. We had 30 people making copies and another 20 were working on deep cleaning, book repairs and painting. It had to be realistic in how long the library was closed for painting but they were able to do extra work that wouldn’t be seen like cleaning or replacing pipes. House elves helped to keep us fed plus did a lot of fussy cleaning. Someone must really like what we’re doing in order to get things done so quickly.”

Tabitha is thinking, “I love magic!”

“We didn’t make a copy of all the print works, we made three. One for you. One copy goes into a “simple” expanded trunk for each library to keep in a safe place then the third copy is a duplicate of your trunk. We found a space everyone can agree on to store it. This is the just in case trunk and I’m sure it will be updated every year by everyone.”

”I was wondering,” says Tabitha, “If I’m to give Harry a copy of my library trunk, why don’t we make a copy to take with me?”

Wilson sighs, “Not all of these books will be of use to you but I’d rather send them all than have you need one we didn’t send. We don’t believe that Harry will need a copy of every book so we thought you can make copies of the ones he wants. Also, as the Queen has directed us to get a copy of ALL family books, She is having them copied twice. Once for you and once for her. She was quite happy to be able to do this for you as it helps Her. She’ll have people in the know and under oath to read and index them. Some knowledge is only for family and She won’t share it but if that knowledge is used for harm, they will know where to start looking. Gringotts is going to help Her.”

Meanwhile, Rowan, as an Unspeakable, is in front of the Wizengamot: “By order of Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. All families are charged with producing a safe copy of each book they own. Blank everfill books will be provided. There are spells to count all titles in a building, no matter what warding is used. I you have two copies of a title but made notes in them, you must copy both books. You will be assessed for not complying and the fine may not be monetary. Think twice before risking the loss of some or all of your family’s magic, maybe even your Family Magic. We mean every title, even the journals and children’s books.”

Rowan is looking around at the shocked faces, “This includes the Department of Mysteries, the Ministry of Magic’s libraries, Hogwarts and all the small schools, tutors too. Every copy will have NO MAGIC on it for harm. Each book will be completely safe for anyone to pick up and read. We will be testing each book you give us.”

September 15, 1998

Crafter sits by Tabitha’s desk, quietly staring at his hands. Then whispers, “Gringotts sent a team of curse-breakers to Hogwarts, to deal with whatever they could. The ICW ended up sending a specialist team, to deal with the worst of it. The good news is that the ICW took extra people to copy all the books in the building. They got the ones Dumbledore had hidden and ones from a hidden room called the Room of Requirement. I guess someone remembered that Harry taught students there. The wonderful thing is that the ICW were able to “require” every book and found ones lost in rooms that been closed off. Pince is over the moon with happiness. She’ll be able to bring the library back to how it was before Dumbledore started teaching.

September 30, 1998

Crafter sits by Tabitha’s desk, “How is your info book coming along? Will you get it done before the end of the year? Before school ends? I’ve got a list of students from 6th year to just turning 7. I wasn’t able to get any younger. After you start this off, I’ll assign someone to keep it up. The sooner we catch these kids, the sooner we can check up on them. And the sooner all the good families can make plans.”

October 5, 1998

“The Unspeakable teams have come back and our budget is now flush! Well, maybe not, we’re going to be using a chunk of it the pay for anything we’re sending with you. We need to stop by the Bank and ask for training memories.”

Tabitha is nodding her head, thinking of what she needs to learn.

Crafter breaks her train of thought, “Next is what you’re going to take and what you’ll do when you get there. Where are you hoping to end up? We’re not sure when or where you’ll land so we need to make different plans.“

Tabitha thinks and then says, “I’ll need a way for me to carry everything, an expanded trunk works. A way for me to travel. I could have a horse to ride and a pack animal. With a tent for show when camping, I could set up a trunk door inside of it. We have to be careful. Someone is going to to wonder about my supplies so maybe a single pack animal isn’t going to work. Same with the size of the tent. We need everything I do and have to be logical and to NOT draw attention to me. H.I.P.S. can only go so far. If I’m camping in a more public place, I can’t have three pack animals worth of stuff out but only one pack animal. What if it’s not rural and I need a car. That will limit space also.”

Tabitha gets up to pace, “This is so frustrating, not knowing where and when I’ll show up. I’m still worried that it will be years later and Teddy will be all grown up?! What if I don’t show up where or when Harry is?”

After another two days of making lists and pulling hair, not realizing that Harry isn’t alone, nor is he still human, a package arrives from the Bank. The cover letter says they can help and the details matter.

Tabitha and Crafter start reading about Harry and his journey.

”Wow, he’s a Dwarf.”

”He’s doing a good job with Teddy.”

”Fred! Could you check up on George, maybe tell him?”

”A home. Harry has Sirius and his parents back.”

”Can we tell Neville about his parents?”

Tabitha exclaims, “Look, there’s more of them and they’re having kids. They’ll need a teacher!” pauses to think, “I’m also going to make jam…maybe. I’d need help with the plants. I don’t know if I can actually make a living teaching. Jam might be a strange “trade” but if a school could adjust for milking cows, it can adjust for planting and harvesting.”

October 9, 1998

“We are told that several metals exist and we can take them from here.” Crafter mentions. “It would be best to refine them and shape into rods. Gringotts will do 18” long rods that are 1/2” in diameter. Trunks will not be expanded but will be over-sized, filled and shrunk. The shrunk trunks will be stacked in a wizarding space in your storage trunk. (copper, bronze, iron, steel, gold, silver, brass, zinc) Yes, there will be money gold and crafting gold. It’s the same thing but it will be easier to craft starting from rods.”

“Can we take Marine Grade Metals like Aluminum, Stainless Steel? I don’t know why or how much. Can we send titanium? It was just an idea, I don’t want to waste what money we have on something that is too expensive.”

“I can have it researched,” Crafter says. “We can also send gems. Looks like they use smaller size gems for beads. Since there are two jewelers in Harry’s group now, we should send training memories for identifying gemstones. At least the ones available. We can have the memories of all gems here on Earth even if we aren’t able to send samples of everything.”

Tabitha wondering, “Could we get emerald opals? They have a lot but it might be nice to have one for me, just in case.”

“Another thing to put on the research list. Some of the knowledge you must learn is expanded space, wizarding space, time compression and maybe time-phased sideways. Also, have Hermione teach you those three spells.”

A week later, Crafter sits next to Tabitha’s desk. “Why am I the one coming to you? Shouldn’t I be able to have you come to my office? Never mind, I found out that Irma Pince has a cousin, a much younger cousin but with bad parents, her name is Natalie Rosewood. She had tutors growing up so that Irma could not help her at Hogwarts. Irma contacted her once she became of age and was able to help on the sly. Natalie is ready to run, anywhere to be safe. As she knows who you are, she’s happy to come along. It’s too bad that Irma can not come but she won’t leave Natalie’s sister and Sarah isn’t old enough to come with you without us being charged with kidnapping.”

“I don’t know why you don’t send for me. I’d like to meet Natalie. Maybe now that Dumbledore is gone, Sarah can be helped.”

A couple of days later, a message plane lands on Tabitha’s desk. She gets up and heads to Crafter’s office. “Getting lazy?”

“huh?”

“You do remember why you sent for me?”

“Oh right. Unspeakables are declaring this an emergency. We’re sending you and Natalie into the Time Chambers. We have heard rumblings and want to get this “project” started. What do you have at home that you are going to take?”

“I’ve actually thought about that. All my electronics are staying, movies, music, my computer. All of that stays. I’ve started buying print copies of all the ebooks I want to keep but I’m no where near being finished with that.”

“Could you give access to the list of ebooks to someone? Don’t you want copies of all of them? Could they be printed instead of bought?”

“I don’t need to take every book and some of the titles are embarrassing so I don’t want just anyone to have access. I’ve never tried to print an ebook but I don’t think they can be.”

“Are you renting? Can we bring everything to storage so you can cancel your lease? Or do we need to buy it from you?”

“I own it, here are my keys. I have no pets currently or house plants. Just the outside landscaping. All my bills are automatic. If I don’t get all my ebooks purchased as print, I’ll have to do without.”

Crafter secretly decides to get all of Tabitha’s ebooks as print and writes a letter to MI5.

October 19, 1998

Tabitha and Natalie go into the time chamber for lessons. Training memories as well as actual teachers. Non-magical info from University professors as well as Primary teachers. Tabitha feels that the longer she waits, the more chance there is that she won’t be needed.

When she confesses this to Natalie, Natalie laughs. “We could take as long as necessary even with out the time chambers. There is no reason we can’t go back to when Harry landed.”

The Unspeakables tell us we have time to learn what we need to before we leave. Natalie and I spend five years learning all we can but only five months have passed. The Unspeakables have taken my joke about jam seriously. We had lessons and a separate cavern had plants. Not only will we take established plants with us but fruit in stasis. Natalie and I also had glass and metal lessons. Gringotts also shared what musical instruments will be available so we also had music lessons, lute/guitar, flute and violin/fiddle. The bank sent many languages. Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, and their’s too. I don’t know if we’ll ever need Ghukliak but maybe they’ve sent books too.

I’ve got the knowledge on how to be a teacher. I’ve got knowledge to teach. I’ve got books for study and for fun. I’ve got a trunk that can be used for a classroom and a library. Copying books is fairly easy and there are shrunken supplies so we can copy the library over several times. It is possible that I can teach the teachers. I’ve kept copies of the training memories. Some of my knowledge is State Secrets knowledge (time chambers) but Harry will know who needs it and how to use it.

“You know, Natalie, I’m sure, with the things we’ve been taught, if we stayed and tested we’d have multiple non-magical Doctorates and magical Masteries. Still don’t think I’d do well on Jeopardy!”

I don’t know how many greenhouse trunk spaces they sent but if even one is like the one I saw, I could feed Erebor! Or all of The Shire if another hard winter hits the area. We’ll need to figure out how to blend in before we start sharing. No one would want stuff were they can’t figure out where it came from.

March 20, 1999

Time is over and we’re cleaning up our living space. Making sure we don’t leave anything behind.

Wilson brings over notices from Gringotts for both of us. They want us to do an inheritance test before we leave. “Me too. Apparently they’ve been asking everyone to come it for testing but Dumbledore has stopped it every time.”

Chapter Text

March 21, 1999

“Greetings Grankar, May your sword ever be sharp and your books always balance.”

“Thank you Ms Firewheel. May your enemies die in agony at your feet. We have noticed that you and your friends have not been to the bank in several years. We believe you have been, let’s say, discouraged, from coming and that it would be profitable for you and for us if you would be tested.”

“As you are here, Gringotts would like to offer you an opportunity to take a Magical Transference Test. Sirius Black was the last Lord Black and did leave everything to Harry Potter. However, some of the Black Family died after Sirius or he didn’t know he had control of them and as Ms Natalie is related to the Blacks there maybe Families available to you. Gringotts believes that Ms Tabitha is related to Harry Potter. It is recent knowledge that had been hidden and you would not have been able to go against Dumbledore.”

"Why is Gringotts doing this? I thought the Bank stayed neutral in wizarding business?"

"Good question, Ms Tabitha. We have tried to stay neutral in the past. Mother Magic is demanding that we help you. Our Seers have seen that to help you is good for Gringotts. To not help you, Magical Britain continues to fail. And the Goblins with them, not just the British Goblins, all of them. It is true that the Death Eaters have died but their heirs hold the same beliefs. In order for there to be true freedom from the beliefs of the man they called Lord Voldemort, the under lying belief system must be purged. With the three of you holding so many seats, the purge will be forced."

”Will this not put a target on Wilson?”

”Not necessarily, once you go through your families and learn about others, there is no reason not to ask someone to be your proxy for some of your votes.”

”What you need to understand is that Mother Magic is angry at Wizarding Britain and is willing to take down Magical Britain to save the rest of the world. We have been told that many Families have lost their Head of the Family, even if that person is not yet dead. We do not know, at this time, just what Families are available but can have you test for many.”

All three of us are flabbergasted. Each of us, silently vow to do what we can to help Mother Magic.

The three of us are testing together. We do the magical transference test first.

While we are waiting for our results, Grankar is talking about Sirius. “While Sirius was able to take the Lestrange vaults, the others still had living heirs when he wrote his will. These families are now available for many but it is given to the first one that tests and qualifies. He may have been joking about being related to everyone but it is true to some…”

As Grankar is speaking, our test parchments lift up off the desk, stack together, and flash gold before settling back on the desk. Only there is a single sheet where there once was three and it is bigger. “I’ve never seen it do that before.”

Abbott, Adamson, Addams, Allenbys, Aiken, Anderson, Applebees, Armani, Avery, Babbling, Bagshot, Bailey, Baker, Barclay, Beckley, Binns, Black, Bliss, Blishwick, Bones, Borgin, Bradstone, Brown, Braun, Bryce, Bulstrode, Burbage, Burch, Burke, Carole, Carrow, Chang, Chase, Clark-Day, Clarke, Cole, Copeland, Corner, Court, Cox, Crabbe, Crawford, Cresswell, Crouch, Crowley, Crutchfield, Curling, Dale, Dawlins, Diggory, Dippet, Dobson, Doge, Dolohov, Doyle, Drake, Dumbledore, Dursley, Edgecombe, Edgerton, Edgewood, Ellis, Ellsworth, Evans, Evergreen, Fawley, Figg, Filch, Finley, Finnigan, Firewheel, Fleamont, Fletcher, Flint, Ford, Francis, Fudge, Gamp, Gaunt, Gibbs, Gilbert, Goyle, Greengrass, Greyback, Grindelwald, Gryffindor, Hardcastle, Haskett, Hawkworth, Haywood, Hilton, Hindmarsh, Hitchens, Hobson, Hodgson, Hooch, Hopkirk, Hoyle, Hufflepuff, Hurley, Jackson, Jacobs, Jigger, Johnson, Jones, Jordan, Kingsley, Kirby, Kline, Knightley, Kramer, Larkin, Lauren, Lestrange, Lewis, Liddell, Lockhart, Longbottom, Lovell, Lovegood, Lowell, Lupin, Lynch, McLaggen, McKinnon, McGonagall, McTavish, Macmillan, Macnair, Malfoy, Malkin, Marchbanks, Mason, Max, Mitchell, Moody, Morningstorm, Montague, Neeve, Nethersole, Newcastle, Newsgate, Northcott, Nott, Oakley, Ogden, Oliver, Ollivander, Osgood, Owens, Oxspring, Padgett, Parkinson, Patil, Payne, Peakes, Perks, Pettigrew, Peverell, Pitt, Potter, Prewett, Prince, Proudfoot, Pucey, Quirrell, Ravenclaw, Rawlins, Riddle, Robinson, Rockefeller, Rookwood, Rosewood, Rosier, Ross, Rowle, Runcorn, Sayre, Scamander, Selwyn, Shacklebolt, Shafig, Sinistra, Slughorn, Slytherin, Smith, Smithers, Snape, Sparrowflight, Spencer, Spinnet, Stallworth, Stebbing, Stewart, Stokke, Stone, Streisand, Stump, Sutton, Sykes, Thicknesse, Thomas, Tinley, Tonks, Travers, Travis, Trelawney, Tripe, Umbridge, Upton, Vane, Vector, Walker, Walsh, Warren, Warrington, Weasley, Wenlock, Westcott, Whitney, Wilson, Wilkes, Wood, Woolworth, Woosley, Wright, Wrightwood, Yaxley, Zabini

All of us are staring at the paper. Finally, Grankar clears his throat, “I need to bring someone else in on this.”

After what seems like forever, Grankar comes back with another Goblin. This one has guards so we all stand up. Grankar says, “Granlok, may I present my clients?” The Goblin nods. “Mr. Wilson Evergreen, Ms. Tabitha Firewheel, Ms. Natalie Rosewood.” We bow as our name is called, making sure we keep eye contact, arms to the side, empty palms facing towards the goblins. As we stand, Grankar continues with, “This is Granlok, Director of the British branch of Gringotts.” We all do a second bow but from the shoulders.

Granlok picks up our parchment and starts reading. He looks at us then reads the paper again. He turns to one of his guards and says something before turning back to us. The guard leaves the room. “We need more people and a table. Come.” And he leaves the room still holding our parchment, guards following. Grankar has a look of panic on his face but waves us to follow him.

We’ve all had a chance to calm down by the time we’re lead into a conference room. There is a fancy chair at one end with parchment laid out to the side. Granlok sits in the fancy chair at the head of the table, while a goblin with the whitest hair we’ve ever seen is sitting in the chair by the parchment. Two more Goblins are sitting on that side of the table. A guard stomps a staff and says, “All be seated.” The three of us have no clue but Tabitha and Natalie both look to Wilson who sighs and sits down, leaving a space between him and Granlok. The girls sit next to him. Grankar sits at the foot of the table.

Granlok looks at each of us before speaking, “Many of these names are Sacred 28 Families. The Head of the Family must have upset Mother Magic for none of you are directly related to most of these. We believe that has happened to many of these families. As all of you qualify for all of these families, you’ll need to decide what names you want to test for. Some would be better for one over the others. Firewheel, for example. All qualify for the name but it would be better if Ms Firewheel tests for that one first.

“Many of these do not have a title but if their name is on this list they have a vault and/or property. As an example, Mr. Dumbledore did not have a title. He also did not have a will. There were questions when he died so his vaults were frozen. If you test, and qualify, we can unfreeze his vaults for you.“

“Let me tell you that most of these Families Head of House follow the male line. The qualifying female may only be Regent. The regent has more power than is taught in Britain. There is much damage you can do before you leave here. There is also much good you can attempt. As an example. If you qualify for Longbottom, you can have Mr. Longbottom's parents brought here where the Goblins can examine them as the current Regent is blocked from doing so. Yes, for many of these, there is a child with that last name but until they come in and test, it is not actually theirs. Still using Longbottom, you can nominate Neville to be your Heir.“

”Not all these Families have a Seat and some of the seat holders are doing so illegally but no one has called for an audit. Dumbledore just okayed their usage when he okayed his illegal usage of the Potter and Black seats. If we can get you in a seat legally, I’m hoping someone will be stupid enough to call for an audit.”

“Yes, Gringotts knows what you are doing and we can make sure you arrive in time after spending enough time here. We would like each of you to write your will, leaving all your assets where you’d like taking much with you and assign your proxy to Mr. Evergreen. Look through your families for the “bad-eggs”and for those that can be rescued. At this point, we, as a people, would like Ms. Natalie and Ms. Tabitha to adopt Mr. Wilson. This gives a stronger link to using him as your proxies and allows you to leave him the family titles.“

“We also have Time Chambers. We would like you to spend Time together to make plans for your assets. Also to train. There are some gifts you may have an affinity for that we can teach you. There may be some subjects you have an affinity for that we can teach you. Also, at the very least, we can teach you Potions.“

All of us chuckle at that.

“If you like, we can have ICW testers in. There is no upper age for testing, or re-testing, with the ICW. Many who attend Hogwarts go on to re-test at the ICW level. It may be difficult to test for some while inside the time chambers but I believe the only one is muggle studies” Granlok shudders. “However showing your non-magical ID may be enough. We'll ask.“

“Now, let’s look at your magical abilities test.“

Air Elemental, Animagus, Apparition, Beast Speaker, Earth Elemental, Eidetic Memory, Dimension Jumper, Fire Elemental, Flight, Focusless Magic, Languages, Legilimency, Magical Languages, Metamorphmagus, Mind Magics, Natural Healing, Natural Sword Fighter, Occlumency, Shadow Walker, Silent Casting, Water Elemental, Wordless Magic

“Mother Magic really likes you. You have four of the Elementals, usually it is only one or two. This is most of the list of what you can have on your test. I’ve never seen someone with so much of the list and there are three of you.“

“Now the list of subjects taught that you may have an affinity for.“

Alchemy, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Conjuration, Curse Breaking, DADA, Dark Arts, Enchantment, English, Geography, Healing, Herbology, Languages, Magical Arts, Magical Languages, Magical Theory, Magical Transportation, Mixed World History, Music, Non-Magical Studies for General Living, Non-Magical Studies, Potions, Spell Creation, Transfiguration, Warding

“Once again, Mother Magic really likes you. This is the list of what you can have on your test. All three of you have the whole list.“

“Would you like lessons in these abilities and subjects? Would you like to retake your tests with ICW?“

Tabatha asks, “Do we have enough time to do all this?“

“Yes. Not only do we have time chambers, we have someone with the skill to make shadow clones. We basically make a copy of you so you can study multiple subjects at the same time. When each shadow clone is finished with a subject it fades and the information they learned is given to the main person while they sleep. We will need to plan how many clones are used at a time and which subjects.”

“Testing will be done in a different chamber. It will be prepared ahead of time with anti-cheating wards and rooms for the examiners. There will be plenty of time for testing. We will test written O.W.L.s in the morning, written N.E.W.T.s in the afternoon. Practical testing is after dinner or the next day.“

“Aren’t shadow clones from Naruto?“

“Yes, he is in hiding.“

Natalie giggles a little, “If he ever wants a change of scenery, send him to us. Just let him know we can’t send him back. Actually, will you be able to keep track of us? Could you send people to us? Could we be taught how to do shadow clones?“

“I will. Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.“

Tabitha, Natalie, and Wilson are looking down then glancing at each other before looking down again, up to the ceiling. They all seem to settle themselves, the girls look to Wilson who shakes his head looking at Tabitha. Tabitha grimaces then looks at Granlok. "There are some I don't understand. Didn't Harry leave the Potter title to Hermione? The non-magical subjects? One just says Non-Magical Studies while the other says for General Living. Then on the abilities list, I understand silent casting but what's the difference from wordless casting and what the heck is Focusless Magic?"

"Mr. Potter did leave the Title to Ms. Granger but she hasn't been in to test for it, just to use the money. General Living is how to hide that you are a wizard. Money, television shows and movies, what things are, how to pronounce words, how to dress, and others. Non-Magical Studies include Mathematics, Literature, Languages, Communication, Philosophy, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. It's a very broad category that could take years for each section. Wordless casting is thinking about what you want to do but not actually thinking of spell words. Focusless Magic is being so in tune that your magic does things seemingly on it's own. "

Tabitha looks at Natalie and Wilson, both are nodding so she says the only thing she can, “Yes please. Yes to the blood adoption. Yes to the lessons. Yes to the ICW testing. Yes we are willing to having people show up.“

“One last question. With as many families that you qualify for, I’m tempted to have you test for more. Would you be willing to try?“

Natalie asks, “How, if we don’t qualify now?“

“With Mother Magic’s help, I can certify your attempt.“

Worriedly, Tabitha speaks, “It won’t hurt us? Will it help us? Will it help you? Will it stick it to them?“

“No. Yes. Yes. Most certainly.“

Tabitha smirks, "There can really be only one answer, “Yes please.“

The three of them are given some time to discuss the families. Most everything Natalie and Tabitha qualify for will be left to Wilson. Natalie still has a favorite Aunt and a younger sister to think about.

It is a given that each will test for their last names. Natalie doesn’t want anything to do with Molly so that leaves out Prewett and Weasley for her. They decide to split the Hogwart’s founders so Wilson has support at the beginning.

Natalie and Tabitha each take six seats on the Wizengamot but Wilson takes the extreme ends, the “Dark” and the "Light" families. We’ll just have to wait and see if the Family Magic likes us.

Wilson tests for: Avery, Borgin, Bryce, Burch, Burke, Carrow, Clarke, Crabbe, Crawford, Cresswell, Crouch, Crutchfield, Curling, Dale, Dawlins, Diggory, Dippet, Dobson, Dolohov, Doyle, Drake, Dumbledore, Evergreen, Fawley, Flint, Gamp, Gaunt, Goyle, Greyback, Grindelwald, Gryffindor, Hopkirk, Hoyle, Hurley, Jigger, Jones, Knightley, Kramer, Lestranage, Macnair, Malfoy, Montague, Moody, Morningstorm, Northcott, Nott, Oxspring, Parkinson, Proudfoot, Pucey, Quirrell, Riddle, Rockefeller, Rookwood, Rosier, Rowle, Runcorn, Sayre, Selwyn, Slytherin, Snape, Streisand, Stump, Sutton, Sykes, Travers, Tripe, Umbridge, Vane, Westcott, Whitney, Woolworth, Yaxley.

Every one accepts him as the new Head of the Family. Sixteen of these are part of the Sacred 28. He now has 16 seats on the Wizengamot.

Tabitha tests for: Abbott, Anderson, Armani, Babbling, Barclay, Black, Binns, Braun, Brown, Bulstrode, Burbage, Cole, Copeland, Corner, Court, Cox, Crowley, Doge, Dursley, Edgecombe, Edgerton, Edgewood, Ellis, Ellsworth, Evans, Firewheel, Fleamont, Hitchens, Hobson, Hodgson, Hooch, Jacobs, Liddell, Lockhart, Lovell, Lowell, Lupin, Lynch, McLaggen, McGongall, Max, Mitchell, Newcastle, Newsgate, Owens, Patil, Payne, Pettigrew, Peverell, Potter, Prewett, Prince, Ravenclaw, Ross, Sinistra, Slughorn, Sparrowflight, Stewart, Stokke, Stone, Travis, Trelawney, Upton, Vector, Walker, Walsh, Warren, Warrington, Weasley, Wenlock, Wilkes.

Every one accepts her as the new Regent or Lady of the Family. Six of these are part of the Sacred 28. She now has 10 seats on the Wizengamot.

Natalie tests for: Adamson, Addams, Allenbys, Aiken, Applebees, Bagshot, Bailey, Baker, Beckley, Bliss, Blishwick, Bones, Bradstone, Carole, Chang, Chase, Clark-Day, Gibbs, Gilbert, Greengrass, Hardcastle, Haskett, Hawkworth, Haywood, Hilton, Hindmarsh, Hufflepuff, Jackson, Johnson, Jones, Jordan, Kingsley, Kirby, Kline, Larkin, Lauren, Lewis, Longbottom, Lovegood, McKinnon, McTavish, Macmillan, Malkin, Marchbanks, Mason, Neeve, Nethersole, Oakley, Ogden, Oliver, Ollivander, Osgood, Padgett, Peakes, Perks, Pitt, Rawlins, Robinson, Rosewood, Scamander, Shacklebolt, Shafig, Smith, Smithers, Spencer, Spinnet, Stallworth, Stebbing, Thicknesse, Thomas, Tinley, Tonks, Wilson, Wood, Woosley, Wright, Wrightwood, Zabini.

Every one accepts her as the new Regent or Lady of the Family. Six of these are part of the Sacred 28. She now has 10 seats on the Wizengamot. Now she’ll need to plan which family she’ll leave to her sister and which family for her Aunt.

“There are going to be some surprises for everyone.”

Chapter Text

March 21, 1999, still

One of the nameless Goblins speaks, “I’d like to decide on goals and lay out a plan. If Ms. Tabitha and Ms. Natalie are leaving, when will that happen. We have levels of Time Chambers that can be utilized, we just need a timeline.”

Wilson speaks, “I’ve been thinking about the Wizengamot. Do we need to show up at the next one? Do we need to claim all our Families publicly? The three of us were not raised to have a seat, are there lessons we could be taught? Even just books to read would be helpful.”

Tabitha’s turn, “Things are really going to change with this many seats changing. If the Potter and Black seats were being used illegally as well as others, will we need to go over all the laws that were passed, or not, by those votes? What about trials? Is there a point in time where we can say ‘laws made after this date are invalidated’?

Natalie speaks up, “We really need to know who the good guys may be before getting our feet wet. We might hold a hand out for help and have it bitten off by a hidden shark!”

All the Goblins relax in their chairs. Grankar smiles, showing more teeth than Natalie has ever seen and there is a weird gravelly sound coming from the other end of the table. The white-haired Goblin throws out her? his? hands and does a gimme movement with their hands, “Pay up!” Grankar is practically bouncing in his chair as the others are muttering about how did you know?

“It seems that some Goblins didn’t believe this would work.” says Granlok. “The three of you have hit upon the main issues you’ll have. You do not need to claim all your Families publicly. Claim one privately to get you inside legally then maybe claim one or two ‘showy’ ones.” Tabitha’s eyes open wide at seeing a Goblin do finger quotes! “You should be at the next main meeting which is always the third Thursday. They actually meet three times a week but not everyone goes to every meeting. There is suppose to be a rotational list. They have to attend the main monthly meeting. Wizards have lost their jobs over not attending.”

Another unnamed Goblin speaks, “Wizards may not like it but we can teach you rules, regulations and laws around the Wizengamot, even it’s history. This lesson can also be made into a training memory for your heirs.”

“That’s great and we’ll definitely need those lessons but it doesn’t seem like we have enough time if we only have three weeks before the next meeting.” Tabitha said. And no, she isn’t pouting. She is thinking that everything is sifting through their fingers and out of their grasp.

“I mentioned shadow clones for school lessons.” All three nod their heads. “They can be used for this as well.” Well, that perked up everyone.

Granlok is nodding his head, “Good move Grankar. Bograst make note to get the recording crystals of all the Wizengamot meetings, even the secret ones. We can use clones to watch the crystals. We can discover true votes and sabotage. Some are better at wandless than they let be known but the recording crystals will show up the spells.”

Tabitha looks around the table before speaking, “Is this a case of wizards in charge not bringing something up because it would catch them out? Them not trusting anyone to be unbiased?”

All the Goblins are nodding their heads. “Also, wizards have forgotten that long ago we were Record Keepers as well as Warriors.”

Tabitha could hear the capitalized letters in that. “You’ll need to include history lessons, we had Binns at Hogwarts and I don’t think he met anyone he liked. It’s almost like… Could someone have spelled him? It could be great having a ghost teach history, especially if he brought in guest teachers that lived at that time but he only teaches one lesson. The same lesson and the history books are crap!” Natalie puts her hand on Tabitha’s arm. “Sorry, pet peeve.”

Natalie glares at Tabitha before speaking, “So our only problem is time?” All the Goblins are shaking their heads. Which is really weird to see.

“We have Time Chambers. This most know about but there is a special set of caverns that will be used for this. We take all the time you need then bring you back. Very few will know you have returned because they won’t know how much time you’ve used. Others know that the Chambers can be rented and it will be let slip that you have done this, after the fact. They just won’t know, or suspect, just how much time you’ve spent with us.”

The unnamed Goblin, “The Director has spoken.” A spine-tingling wave of magic rushed through the room and the three of us sit up straighter.

Granlok laughs, “And the Director speaks again. Let us break for lunch.”

After Lunch

“The next meeting of the Wizengamot is April 15th.” The unnamed Goblin is very good at keeping us on track. “We have the rest of today and tomorrow to plan our timeline and gather supplies. This drops us out of Time on the 13th giving us 21 days. Then we’ll go back to March 30th. You can be seen shopping in the alley on the 31st. People will expect that you spent longer than a week but won’t know just how long.”

“I had thought to do this in parts,” said Grankar, “but it looks like we can do it all at once. I don’t want to give away Goblin secrets but feel a few might be needed.”

“What secrets are left?” Bograst asks. “The Time Chambers are an open secret. We’ve talked about how extensive they are. We mentioned Shadow Clones and coming back in Time. What’s left?” Bograst waves his hands around, “There are secrecy spells in place in this room, just spit it out!”

Grankar stares at Bograst then looks to Granlok, who nods, before speaking. “I was thinking of splitting up our 21 days, maybe inviting others to join them?”

Tabitha hits her head on the table and pretends to bang it repeatedly before sitting up. “We have so much to do and too many options and the only people I trust right now are most of those in this room.”

“Most?”

“Sorry, but it’s hard to trust those we don’t know the name of. Or at least, the public name they are known by.”

Granlok glares at Bograst.

Bograst’s eyes go wide as he looks around at everybody then he looks down at the table before lifting his head up, “That’s my fault. Everything was so exciting and flowed so well that I forgot we didn’t introduce everyone.” He pushes his chair back to stand. With a slight bow he speaks, “Barkrast, Ellspeth, may I present Grankar’s clients?” Both nod. “Mr Wilson Evergreen, Ms Tabitha Firewheel, Ms Natalie Rosewood.” The three of us stood when Bograst did. And now bow as our name is called, making sure we keep eye contact, arms to the side, empty palms facing towards the goblins. “This is Barkrast, lead Account Manager of Britain and Ellspeth, Head of our Time Department.” We all do a second bow but from the shoulders.

Natalie is thinking, ‘Oh man, shit just got serious!’

Granlok is shaking his head, “Grankar, what was your thoughts?”

“I was thinking of using the first 7 days to study for their O.W.L.s. I’m sure their magic needs to settle. They could even test for them during this time instead of at the end. We could start their Wizengamot training. We need to keep up with their language and music lessons. We should start Martial Arts training and dance. Maybe animagus training. Exercises used for Occlumency will help with their Eidetic Memory which will help with everything else.”

“I know it sounds like a lot but Time is truly flexible for us right now. Do we want 60 seconds to equal 60 minutes or 60 hours. We could do every second equals a day or week. One week is 168 hours, 10,080 seconds, 420 days. That’s over a year in 7 days. We could do that in 3 days. We could do that each day. That’s how we could bring in others. Not many will question them being gone overnight.”

Ellspeth is writing stuff down.

“Even as I say O.W.L.s. study, it isn’t just the subjects available at Hogwarts. The ICW has more available and just working with the basics, botany goes well with earth elemental and herbology.”

“Ms Tabitha and Ms Natalie could blood adopt Mr Wilson at the end of this time. He could adopt them also. We could test for more families.”

Tabitha is shaking her head, “In trying to have fewer choices, you’ve given us more. I like the idea of splitting the 21 days.” She looks at the other two and they nod. “We like the idea of splitting the 21 days. I’m thinking of using the first 7 days as 420 days. Since we’ll be taking ICW exams, should have ICW teachers? And what subjects should we be taking? Just the 12 available at Hogwarts? If we take Care of Magical Creatures, shouldn’t we also take Introduction to Animal Species? I feel that we wouldn’t have so much on our ability and affinity test if Mother Magic didn’t want us to learn these. Could we use the last set of 7 days to make sure we have learned everything She may want us to learn?”

Natalie is nodding her head, “I think there is a non-magical saying we need to keep in mind. KISS. It means to keep it simple so what is the most important thing right now? Wizengamot. Let’s go back to what Grankar was saying.” Natalie is counting on her fingers. “1. O.W.L. studies to help settle our magic, 2. Wizengamot training, 3. Continue language and music lessons, 4. Martial Arts and Dance, 5. Occlumency lessons which will help with our eidetic memory which will help with everything else.”

“Harry is a dwarf now.” Tabitha says, “Ancient and Noble House Training translate into Administration knowledge on Arda. We can get a bead for it and beads are very important to Dwarven society.”

Ellspeth holds up a hand to stop Tabitha. “Dwarf? Arda? Bead?”

Tabitha looks around, “You didn’t know? I thought the package was from you guys. Natalie do you have the package with you?” Natalie shakes her head. “Can I call a house elf?” Granlok nods his head.

“Flopsy, come here please.” Flopsy pops in and hugs Tabitha’s leg. “Hey, Flopsy, I need you find a package for me. I received it at work before Time training. I need to you check my trunk from training, my desk at work, and at home.” Flopsy looks in my eyes as I’m thinking about receiving the package. Her ears perk up and she pops out and in again. As I take the package and dump the parchment out I can see it is what I asked for. “Thank you Flopsy, this is what I was looking for.” I give her a hug before she pops out. “Should I make copies?”

I hear yes please around the table so I get out my wand and make copies for everyone and pass them out. All is quiet as we read.

Granlok puts down his last parchment and steeples his hands. “This brings to mind many questions. First of all, who sent it. Who can help and what details? I don’t want to get bogged down in the details and forget something big.”

Tabitha looks at Wilson then speaks, “Another thing to consider, what if this is all to improve Magical Britain instead of helping Harry like we thought? You have handed us keys to fix most everything that is wrong. What if what we’re doing is what Mother Magic wants us to do and helping Harry is just our motivation to fix everything?”

Natalie clears her throat and asks, “How long do shadow clones last? Could we make clones to send to help Harry? Or to stay here? How would that even work?”

“Is this where I say KISS again? I really want to help Harry. I really want to see how we can help, not just Wizarding Britain but Magical Britain. I really want to improve Hogwarts. Does it matter when we leave? Can we stay long enough to fix things here and then travel to when we’re needed there?”

Everyone is looking around. Finally, Barkrast says, “The next meeting of the Wizengamot is April 15th.” Tabitha hears giggling. “Let’s keep it simple but combine several thoughts. We’ll use the first seven days as 420 days. we’ll concentrate on the five things Natalie said. Also adding Ancient and Noble House Training because that will help with the Wizengamot.”

“We’ll use shadow clones with the recording crystals. I think Occlumency and Eidetic Memory should be the first things taught and I don’t believe a shadow clone can do it for you. They can learn Wizengamot protocol, etiquette, history, rules, regulations and laws. The shadow clones can also do most of the House training. After Occlumency, we’ll start relearning from first year. As you relearn, start on Silent Casting, Wordless Magic, Wandless Casting, Focusless Magic. This will also help settle your magic and all are on your tests. I’d like shadow clones to start on English and History while you do Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Charms, and Transfiguration.”

Tabitha leans forward with her head in her hands and growls a little. “Can I have a piece of parchment please, and something to write with?” A quite thank you and the rest of us are watching her.

School subjects - Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Charms, English, History, Transfiguration
extra studies - occlumency, music, dance, martial arts, languages
ability/affinity - Silent Casting, Wordless Magic, Wandless Casting, Focusless Magic

Ancient and Noble House Training
Wizengamot voting history
Wizengamot training

420 days = 60 weeks = 15 months …
15 weeks equals a semester = 4 … 2 years with no breaks

“What happens when we’re finished learning everything? Right now, we have four semesters of learning but don’t include any breaks. That’s two years of nothing but study. I know the shadow clones are helping, that’s the only way this will work. Is there any way to double the time using the same 7 days and add breaks and fun stuff? I’m working on a non-magical info book to warn the incoming new-magicals, of course, we may be fixing the issues I’m warning them about. I’m also doing needlework I could bring. What about fiction books? What about house elves?”

“Instead of doing 420 days in 7 days, we could do the 420 days in 7 hours.” Ellspeth is laughing at us. “It will give us more time to plan the downfall and rebuilding of Magical Britain.”

Granlok sighs, “She’s right. We are trying to overthrow the Government. Peacefully but still tearing down and rebuilding. Let’s do the 7 hours. Today is Sunday, go to work in the morning but leave early because of issues with your magic. Tell them you’re traveling to a special retreat to work on the issue. Go shopping in the alley on the way home so you’re seen. We’ll have hidden Goblins in the alley in case of problems. Plan to be gone 7 hours on Wednesday and again on Friday. Is there anyone, at this time, you’d like to come on Friday? Think with your gut on this one and use Wednesday to see if you’re right.”

“So Monday and Tuesday are used to pack for over two years? Will we be able to use an expanded trunk? I don’t have any animals or plants at home and could just pack everything except electronics in a trunk.”

Grankar asks, “Yes, an expanded trunk will work but why would you leave your electronics at home? The internet won’t work but movies, music, anything you’ve downloaded will work just fine. I’ve got a very nice coffee maker at home, a Keurig.”

The three of us are staring at Grankar. Then Tabitha growls a soft ‘I hate Dumbledore’ before sitting up straighter and asking, “Is this one of those things the “old mans club” doesn’t want anyone knowing about?”

Granlok is nodding. “I agree that too much change too fast can be harmful but no change is more harmful. Our society can not continue to stagnate and we, and Mother Magic, are counting on the three of you to fix things. Not everything, but get us going in the right direction. Bring others to your cause to carry on your work after you leave.”

”Are there any questions before we leave for the day?”

”Yes.” says Tabitha, “I’ve got exercise videos and a treadmill at home. Will I be able to use them?”

Wilson waves his hand, “What about the Treaty that Hermione was worried about and should we tell the Queen what we are doing?”

“Good questions. Yes. Your television won’t pick up stations but it can be used to watch videos. If your trunk is big enough you can put all your electronics in it. Or I can send a portkey for the treadmill, send it just before you come on Wednesday. Owl me if you need it. As for the Treaty, we,” as he waves his hands towards himself and the other Goblins, “aren’t doing anything against the Treaty. When it was signed, no one believed a wizard would work with us. We are helping you do things but not doing the things ourselves. The Queen Mother is a different story. I’ll send a message and let her know where we are in our plans.”

”Now, this has been a very long day and it isn’t dinner time yet. We're going to make it an even longer day by sending you out a Time door so you’ll get home before lunch. You’ll be tired the rest of the day and a little wobbly tomorrow. You’ll be fine by tomorrow night and we’ll plan on an apartment here to spend your down time. We could do several seven hours. Pets can be left at home all day but not over several days. Do you have any?” All of us shake our heads, “I’m like Tabitha, I don’t even have house plants.” Wilson says his brother kept the dog when he moved out.

Chapter Text

March 21, 1999, still

Tabitha leaves the bank and heads to the trunk shop. She needs the biggest trunk they have. Oh, not that big. “Can I get a 50x50 space with 10’ ceilings? I’d like a vertical door opening.”

“Sure can do lass. One big space?” I nod. “What wood would you like? Would you like any additions?”

I’m handed a catalog of options. We’ve got to learn how to do this. I need book shelves, clothes space, food space, hobby, rest and play spaces. Maybe I should have gotten smaller rooms. “I can’t decide what I want without seeing my stuff in it. Can I take it home and come back later if I decide to add rooms?”

“Sure thing lass and if you want it in Mahogany I’ve got a slightly different size made up. It’s got the 10’ ceiling but it’s only 45x45. The family that ordered it can’t afford it now and no one else has wanted a “used” trunk.”

“Used?”

“Yes,” Mr. Staghart huffed, “I’ve opened it up to show people. It hasn’t left my shop or been used for anything but showing off.”

“Well, in that case,” Tabitha said as she smiled, “Why don’t you open it up and show off.”

Tabitha went home with a new trunk. It even had the door set up how she wanted.

Natalie leaves the bank and heads home. She has a lot of thinking to do. She needs a better trunk but plans to buy it after work tomorrow. What she wasn’t expecting is her parents.

Wilson leaves the bank after the girls deep in thought. If Tabitha brings her computer, MI5 won’t be able to work on her ebooks. He shakes his head, seven hours not 2 years. There is plenty of time to get her books. He looks around but decides to go home and eat before heading to bed.

Tabitha likes her home. It is a safe haven for her that she wishes everyone could have. She feels like she has been gone forever instead of just half a year. First things first, fridge. Empty. Oh, that’s right, Wilson said someone would come over. I’ve got to remember my keys. Looking around, looks like dusting still needs to be done. Let’s see, she waves her wand around her head in a circle thinking of home, “lleoli llwch” (locate dust in Welsh), points her wand down and circles like a cyclone, “casglu llwch” (gather dust in Welsh), “le yma” (place here in Welsh), as she points her wand at her trashcan. “I love Magic”. She walks into the room she laughing calls a black hole that she never seems to have time to go through. There is wall space to put her new trunk and she can just pile everything in the room in a corner of her trunk. As she’s thinking of a spell to use to “dance” everything into her trunk she feels a nudge on her wand arm. Almost like someone is trying to get her attention so she stands still, takes a deep breath, and just relaxes. There. Oh, she’s an Unspeakable again and is needed.

She summons her cloak and extra wand, a couple of knives then stands tall. “Please take me where I need to go.” She disappears.

She’s confused at landing at a house she’s never been too but knows is where Natalie lives. “sylwch fi ddim” (notice me not) thinking of herself. “amddiffyn Natalie a'i ffrindiau” (protect Natalie and friends). “sêl” (seal) thinking of Natalie’s home. “dim hud yn niweidiol i Natalie a ffrindiau” (no magic harmful to Natalie and friends). A silent thanks to Mother Magic and she walks towards Natalie’s door, another silent ‘thanks Mother Magic’ as the door opens when she gets there and she walks into hell. She yells like an angry mother, “What are you doing?” and everyone freezes. There are three adults trying to yell at Natalie and they’re stunned. Tabitha doesn’t even try to catch them. Oh, that must be what focusless magic means, another thanks Mother Magic as she rushes towards Natalie only to be stopped by a growl.

I thought Natalie didn’t have any pets? “Can I check on her?” She hears a meow so she goes to Natalie, muttering “gwiriad iechyd” (health check) and seeing that she was stunned too but has a head wound. She backs away from her and looks around. “She was stunned and is bleeding from a cut on her check.” She hears soft meow and doesn’t feel as silly now. “I’m going to need a damp washcloth and to wake her up. I think she will feel safer if you are by her, maybe on her lap when I do so. She may startle since I don’t think she saw me.” I walk to the kitchen and gather a damp cloth and a dry one then go back to the front room. “Whoa.” There is a large dog leaning against Natalie’s leg but looking at me and three cats on and around her lap. “Let me do another health check, “gwiriad iechyd”, okay, her breathing is more steady and her pulse is down.” The dog is nodding it’s head. “I’m going to gather these other ones, send a message to a friend, then come over to wake Natalie.” The dog nods and puts it’s head on Natalie’s knee.

I leave the three stunned, lay them out like logs and conjure ropes. Once they are tied up good, I stand in the middle of the room and send a message to Wilson. “Expecto Patronum, message to Wilson. My patronus opens it’s mouth. “Wilson, three hostiles laid out at Natalie’s. Firestarter.” I nod and the patronus closes it’s mouth and takes off. Less than five minutes and Wilson is there as Crafter. Once he lands I walk to Natalie. I can tell Crafter is scanning the surroundings as I place my hand on Natalie’s arm and softly call her name. It wasn’t my spell that stunned her, it was the hit. She startles like I thought she would but the cats are purring and the dog licks her hand. I vanish my Unspeakable robe so she can see me then take her other hand and put the damp cloth in it and bring it to her face as she opens her eyes.

“Tabitha? What happened?” I smile at her to let her know it’s all good now. She pulls the cloth away from her face and looks at it. “Blood?”

“You’re okay now. I felt a nudge to come here. The others are over by Unspeakable Crafter.” I could see her relax after hearing that then she looks at her lap and up at me with a questioning face. “They were here when I got here.”

“This is Daisy. She’s a Bernese Mountain Dog and belongs to the house three down from here.”

I hold my hand out, palm down, fingers lightly curled, for Daisy to sniff. She does and lets me pet her. “Thank you for protecting Natalie.” Daisy tilts her head and looks at me. “Oh, I’m sure without your growling, Natalie wouldn’t be here when I arrived.” Daisy nods then nudges my hand so I continue petting her.

“And these lovely felines?”

“Strays as far as I know.” All the cats lower their heads, “But I’m happy to keep them.” All three cats have raised their heads to look at Natalie. “I won’t be here Wednesday or Friday. While it will be a short time for you, it will be a couple of years for me.”

It was funny watching all four animals trying to crawl onto her lap. “Looks like they want to go with you. I’ll send an owl and ask.”

“Tabitha, I need Firestarter.” Wilson says from over by the hostiles. I summon my cloak back and respond.

“Firestarter here.”

“I need a sit rep.”

“Yes sir. I was at home and received a nudge on my magic. I relaxed and came here, outside in front of a single family residence on a non-magical street. I cast four spells in Welsh from outside, notice-me-not, protect Natalie and friends, seal, and no magic harmful to Natalie and friends. As I came to the front door, it opened for me. I saw verbal abuse from three adults to one adult sitting on the couch. All three hostiles were stunned before I cast a spell. I went towards a sitting adult but stopped when I heard a growl. I explained to the growl what I was going to do then did so. I cast three from inside, two health checks and a message patronus before your arrival. The growl has made itself known. Once you arrived, I took care of the patient as I saw the situation was under control. Since your arrival, the patient is awake and talking. Treatment includes a damp cloth to a cut on patient’s left cheek and cuddles from growl and friends.” Crafter is trying not to laugh at my report. “Growl has been identified as Daisy, a neighbors dog. The friends have been identified as no-name neighborhood strays and have since been adopted by patient. Patient is adult female, goes by name of Natalie Rosewood. This is my report.” Crafter lets out his laugh with Natalie joining him. Daisy is looking at me with her tongue hanging out of her mouth, I’m sure she is laughing also. I can hear the cat purrs from where I’m standing.

“Thank you Unspeakable Firestarter. To continue your report, three persons of interest have been found stunned and bound in rope. Magic-suspression handcuffs have been applied. Persons are still stunned and bound. Magical items gathered from persons include one contract, 7 wands, two portkeys. All three persons will be transport to DoM holding cells. I will accompany them and await your written report or memory. Report and or memory to be on my desk by close of business tomorrow.”

“Off the record, I’m glad Natalie was accepted as Head of the Family. I glanced at the contract and it isn’t a good one for her.”

“Wilson, if you take my parents, someone needs to check on my sister.”

“Report amended, possible injury or containment of minor, Sarah Rosewood. Protective custody needed. Will take Firestater and Regent Rosewood, named Natalie, to attempt retrieval. end report.”

Wilson looks to the animals then goes to Natalie’s parents, wraps them up together and sends them off with a crystal report portkey. He concentrates on the animals again. “You heard?” Daisy and the cats nod. “I’d like Daisy to come with us.” Daisy nods and stands up so Natalie can get up after the cats move. “Cats? You’ll be needed for cuddles when we get back. If we don’t come here first, one of us will come back for you.” Wilson conjured a pillow for them and they pile up on it. “Okay,” he pulls a chain off his waist, “this is a locator portkey. I need Natalie to crab the chain first and think of Sarah then the rest of us will grab hold. Natalie needs to say “find her” to activate the portkey.”

Luckily Daisy is a large dog and just sits up like she’s begging. I touch her, um shoulder area, and place the chain between her paw and my hand. Wilson grabs hold and with a “find her” we’re off.

We land in Sarah’s bedroom. I’m thinking of protection as we land and “amddiffyn Sarah a ffrindiau” comes out almost without thinking. I hear a thud in the hallway and whisper a ‘thanks Mother Magic’ as Crafter goes to check. In the meantime, Daisy has walked up to where Sarah is sitting at her desk. Turns out the parents left without telling Sarah. The guard is processed and sent to be with the parents. I go home, grab my trunk and come back.

Everything in Sarah’s room goes in the trunk. Natalie goes outside to the backyard. “Locate any living item deemed important to my parents or the man with the contract. Transport item or items to this backyard space.” We wait until there is a pop like house elves then three more. One is a child, about two. One is a puppy and two are house elves. The house elves stand by the child, “Whys you take child?”

All of us know an angry house elf when we see one and sit down. Natalie speaks, “I said a spell, looking for living items that were important to my parents or the man with the contract that was with them.”

The house elves are relaxing but still prepared to attack. “My name is Natalie Rosewood. My parents showed up at my home with a strange to me man with a contract.” The house elves’ ears are perking up. “They have been arrested. If this child belongs to that man, I will hand him over to Unspeakable Crafter for safety. If this child belongs to my parents, I will take him into my family.” At this point Sarah runs out of the house yelling, “Bradley” and the house elves relax. Apparently Bradley is Natalie’s younger brother.

The adults are still sitting on the ground watching Sarah and Bradley. One of the house elves walks over to Natalie and bows. “Yous is Ms Rosewood. Regent of alls Rosewoodies.” Natalie nods her head then says “Yes, I am.” Wow, you could see both house elves relax. “Is has much to tell. Gives perm, pers-missive to tell?” Natalie looks at Firestarter who nods their head. “May I have your name?” The house elf is bouncy now, “I is called Mossy.”

Natalie smiles, “Thank you Mossy. I, Regent of Rosewood, give House Elf Mossy permission to tell Unspeakable Crafter all he wants to, all he needs to. Permission to answer all questions Unspeakable Crafter may have. Permission to share information with Unspeakable Firestarter and all who they think needs to know. Mossy has permission of Regent Rosewood to show Unspeakable Crafter and or Unspeakable Firestarter everything.”

Mossy is practically vibrating with excitement. He bounces over to Sarah and Bradley, takes their hands saying “Bradley safe now. Come. Come to see.” And leads the both of them over to Natalie. Once here, he gestures to the other house elf. This be Tossy. All safe now. I show Crafty to Farm.”

By this time Tabitha is laughing, Daisy is cuddling with the puppy, Sarah looks stunned and Bradley is smiling and clapping his hands. “We need the cats.” Tossy looks at Natalie and pops away. When she comes back she has the three cats still on the pillow. “Thank you Tossy. That was a nice thing you did.” The cats are looking around but come to Natalie when she motions them closer. “Many things happened since we left you. Sarah is fine, didn’t even know the parents were gone. I did a spell that asked for important living things and got Bradley, a puppy and two house elves.” The cat are looking around and meow at Natalie. She laughs softly, “Unspeakable Crafter?” Another meow. “One of the house elves took Unspeakable Crafter to someplace called farm.” All the cats nod their head and walk over to Daisy and the puppy.

“Tabitha? If I request all important parchments will it mess up Wilson’s case?”

“I’m not sure. What if your request was just in this house? What if Regent of Rosewood requested all property deeds?” Natalie is smiling at this point.

“I, as Regent of Rosewood, require all property deeds connected to any persons connected to the name Rosewood. All property deeds to appear by my feet.” She is only expecting three deeds, here, an office and wherever Bradley was. She was not expecting a pile a foot high!

Natalie goes back inside and conjures up a box. She casts the expand as necessary spell on it and changes it’s color so it will last. She locates all important to her parents papers located on this property and has them go into the box. She’ll need to give it to Wilson, or Tabitha. After that she conjures another box and asks for anything left that is important to or for Sarah. Another box for Bradley. Another box for everything else. She’ll let the Unspeakables have it. They can start with the pile of deeds! As she stands there looking at the box, she’s wonder if she should have done a box for her. She thought she took all her things when she moved out, but, um… Fine. She conjures up a box and asks for things important to or for her to relocate to the new box. There is stuff in there!

Natalie finally hits her limit and she sits down on the floor and stares at her box. That’s where she is found when Tabitha comes looking for her.

Tabitha sits down by Natalie and holds her hand. “Too much?” Natalie nods. They’re still sitting there a few minutes later when the cats wander in and climb up Natalie’s lap. Daisy follows with the puppy then Sarah and Bradley with Tossy. “I don’t think I can do it now. You’ll need to take my names.”

Tabitha squeezes Natalies hand while shaking her head, “No, what we need is a babysitter and an owl.” Tabitha goes to get up but Tossy stops her. “I can take voice message. Yous all be comfy. Just tells me what to say.”

“Thank you Tossy, that will be a big help. This message is for Account Manager Grankar.” Tossy nods their head. “Greetings Grankar. May your enemies' blood flow at your feet and their wealth increase your vaults. Natalie has had an increase in her family and her parents have been arrested. If possible we need space for a large dog, 3 cats, a ten-year-old, a two-year-old and possibly two to six house elves. This is Tabitha, thank you for your assistance. End message.” Tossy repeats the message and pops off to deliver it.

”Okay, Tossy told us to be comfy so why don’t we sit in chairs?”

“Flopsy” Flopsy pops in. I’m still sitting on the floor. “I’d like to introduce you to Natalie.” As I point to her, Flopsy nods. “This is Sarah” and I point her out, “and Bradley” I point him out. “Sarah and Bradley are Natalie’s siblings.” Flopsy is bouncy. “The new animals are Daisy, three unnamed cats and a new puppy.”

“You know Natalie, you really should name the cats and maybe Sarah and Bradley should name the puppy.”

“Can we move to chairs first?”

Everybody laughs as they stand up. Sarah says the couch isn’t comfy in this room and leads us into another room. The room is dark but I spell some lumos balls into the corners and the center and I take a chair. Natalie is lead to the sofa. Sarah sits on one side of her with Bradley. Daisy leans against her leg on the other side. The cats pile up on her lap and the puppy sits by Sarah’s feet. They look like a family.

Tossy pops into the middle of this. She’s still bouncy. “I has message.”

“Thank you Tossy, please say the message.”

“This is Grankar. Room has been made in the apartment you’ll be staying at for Ms. Natalie’s extended family. Please arrive with everyone and all things needed by 0900 Wednesday. End message.”

“This is wonderful news. Sarah, I put everything from your room in Tabitha’s trunk. Tabitha and I will be staying at the Bank and you’ll be stuck in our apartment. It will be like you staying at my house while I go to work. Think about anything you’d like to have while you’re there?”

“Tossy, do you know where Bradley lives?” Tossy nods her head. “Would you be able to pack everything important to him? He won’t be going back to the house but will need all his things.”

“Tossy, before you go, I think we should explain what will be happening to everyone.” Tabitha calls all her house elves before explaining about moving to the Bank apartment. Spending time in the Time Chambers but only taking seven hours a day. How the three of them are Head or Regent for many families and need to learn about them and the Wizengamot. How their magic is a little wobbly and they’ll be taking classes to help settle it. They’ll be moving to the Bank on Wednesday so they only have Monday and Tuesday to pack or buy everything they’ll need.

The house elves gather together and whisper for a while. Zippy comes back, “Wes be needing families names. Wes be spying. Wes be talking to all house elves to find truths. Tossy take care of Sarah, Bradley and animals. Pooky do time with you for lessons. Mossy help Untalkies with farm. Flopsy take care of house places there be fours. Rest be spying. All take turns.”

Zippy, Flopsy, Pooky, Topsy - Tabitha
Tossy, Mossy - Natalie

“I’ll agree to that as long as everyone can be safe. We need to decide where we’re staying until Wednesday morning, pack, and find a secretary.”

“Tossy, I need another message sent to Grankar.”

Tossy walks over to stand my my chair, “I ready.”

“Greetings Grankar. May your blades and mind ever be sharp. I was wondering if a Goblin would like to join us on Wednesday to be researcher, organizer of parchments lost. We need someone to organize our life. I see no reason not to have a Goblin do this. If you have another suggestion, I’d be pleased to hear it. End message.”

Tossy repeats the message and pops out when I tell her it is correct.

“Now, as for the rest of you. Those four homes need to be packed up and sent with us. We will all be going back to one of them so any food storage that will still be good in 45 days can go to that house. Other food storage can be sent to wherever it will do the most good. All parchments and paper type things should be boxed together by house. Quills and inks or other things to write with can be boxed together. All of Bradleys things should be in it’s own box, same with Sarah’s. In fact, do a box for each of us. Check for curses and box them separately.”

Topsy, can you take a message to the trunk maker?” Topsy nods her head. “Thank you. Begin message. This is Tabitha. I love my trunk. I have since discovered I need an office type trunk. May I borrow, or rent, your catalog? Maybe see an inventory of ready-made trunks? This elf is Topsy and has access to coins. End message. Thank you Topsy, here is 10 gallons, I don’t believe it will be more than 1. Please wait for a reply.” Topsy repeats the message and pops out.

Tossy pops back in, “Message received. I have a Goblin that will go in the Time Chamber with you. They will meet you inside Wednesday. End message.”

“Thank you Tossy. Do you know of a small lap type table in any of our houses? I want it to slide over this chair.” Tossy pops out while she’s still nodding. When she pops back in, she has a board that’s twice her size. Most of us exclaim “What?”. Tossy is trying to bounce.

“Is show you.” She lays the board down and pulls a leg from two corners then splits the legs and slides one to the other corner. She flips the now table over and expands the top by sliding it sideways. The whole table is slid over the arms of my chair and the legs shorten. the board she brought is now a nice table like desk over my legs and the chair I’m sitting in. As I’m about to thank her, she pulls at one of the short ends and a drawer opens, pops up even with the desk then slides back so I can reach it. Quills, ink, parchment, sealing wax and ribbons.

“Wow, this is a great desk! Where did you find it and is it the only one?”

Tossy looks so happy I think her smile will split her face in two. “I found at old home in attic. Is check no harms magic. Must dust and add drawer stuffs. Lots more in back of quill place. Also, can duplicate then add more drawer stuffs.”

“Natalie, I think we should get two for the apartment while we’re gone. Maybe a couple so we each have one in the Chamber.”

I start to make a list. First, just names or position of all of us. Wilson, Tabitha, Natalie, Sarah, Bradley, secretary, Daisy, cats, puppy, house elves.

House elves have sorted themselves out. Pooky needs to gather what she needs as I have no idea.

Starting with the cats, add:

Cats - need names, toys, food, food dish, water dish, bed, blankets, scratching post, climbing on things, litter, litter box, scoop, trash can.

puppy - needs name, toys, food, food dish, water dish, bed, blankets, potty box, share trash can with cats, play space.

Daisy - toys, food, food dish, water dish, bed, blankets, potty box, share trash can with cats, play space-outside trunk?, talk with owner down the street.

Oh, “Sarah, is Bradley potty trained?”

“No but that woman was lazy and he wears special pants.”

“Thank you Sarah.

Bradley - toys-lots of toys, food, bed, blankets, share trunk with Daisy?, board books, coloring things, stuffed animals, adopted by Natalie? more special pants or diapers, diaper pail.

Sarah - toys, food, bed, blankets, share trunk with Daisy?, books, hobbies, stuffed animals, adopted by Natalie?

Natalie, Tabitha - female hygiene supplies, books, toys, food, household items, blankets, bed, hobbies, pack up whole house.

Wilson - pack up whole house, toys, books, food, blankets, bed, hobbies.

Secretary - office trunk, ink, quills, parchment, file folders, personal things.

“Natalie, look at this list and tell me if we need something else.”

“This is a good list, especially since we don’t know what the Goblins will provide. The only thing I can think of is a quiet place for each of us that isn’t our sleeping space.”

Topsy pops in at this point with all the gallons, an inventory list and a catalog of options. I look first for filing cabinets, desks, bookshelves. Too many options. I take a look at a the inventory list. There, Hickory, vertical door, 10’ ceilings, 20x20, all one space. I make note of the inventory number then look at filing cabinets again. Once the office trunk order form was filled out, she looked at the inventory again. Nothing, looking back at the options. Here it is. “Okay, I found what I think will work. One trunk, vertical door. First space is 15x15, set up as a parlor. First door leads to a more casual sitting area that can have play corners set up. Each wall has a door in the center. One is an outside-like area for play. One is an apartment for Wilson. One is an apartment for Natalie’s family. One is an apartment for me. We can add a door for Daisy so she have run of the whole trunk. There will be house elf doors. Each apartment has a kitchen but we can add one in the casual sitting area. If you want Natalie, I could share your apartment and help with Bradley and Sarah. We can make your apartment bigger and use my door for the kitchen, eating area and add a bathroom.”

“I’d like that.”

Tabitha fills out the house trunk order form and asks Topsy to take everything back to the trunk shop. Knowing that everyone will have a nice place while they’re in the Time Chambers will alleviate some of the stress of having Sarah and Bradley. Just that outdoor space will be awesome.

At that point Mossy pops in with Crafter.

Chapter Text

We land and fall in a tangle of limbs and start laughing while we get straightened out. More giggling while trying to be quiet. We stay down once we’re apart and look around us. It’s dark but there is lots of moonlight to see. Maybe not details but there doesn’t seem to be anyone near us. We seem to be between fields. Since Gringotts didn’t tell us where we were landing, my wand is the first thing I look for in my duffle. I do a quiet sylwch fi ddim (notice me not in Welsh because I can). We both move closer to the side of the road we’re on.

“I’ve got my wand out, why don’t you get your’s too, just in case.” A quiet Lieu et heure (time and place in French).

3:28am
March 20th 2913
Belfalas, Gondor, Arda

“Natalie? Did you read the package from the bank? Do you know if was sent with us?”

“Yes, I did and I don’t kno… Um, didn’t Harry land in 2920? What are we suppose to do until he gets here?”

“Yes he did and I don’t know.”

We just sit there. Tabitha is thinking that in all the plans thought of before we got the package and after. No one thought to ask what happens if we arrive before Harry does. Tabitha finally says her thoughts out loud, “We have almost five years before he’ll even show up and we can’t stay local. We weren’t mentioned at all in the package we got from the bank. We can’t buy his place in The Shire. Could we buy a different place near the Shire? Or, um. The Fell Winter was 2911. Tharbad was flooded in 2912. I don’t believe we can settle there. We’re going to have to go North. Unless we want to give up finding Harry in The Shire. Harry was the whole reason for coming. Maybe we can rent someplace North or West of The Shire.”

Natalie found her wand, she laid her wand on her hand, pointing at herself, and said the magic words. “Ad Illud Istari.” The wand spun on her hand until it pointed just fractionally to the west of directly north. “Okay, that’s the direction we’re going and according to the package from the bank, it’s the traitor. Harry’s group was safe, I think we will be too.”

“I agree but let’s be careful anyways” as I smile at her. “Do the map charm.”

We’re still whispering so a quiet Visio Terra then a “Ostende Dol Amroth”.

“That’s great, Dol Amroth is Northwest but how far away.”

“How far can you walk in a day? Twenty miles? Let’s try Visio terra twenty miles”

“Now, do ostende Dol Amroth, see it’s still on the map so we should be able to walk there. Keep up the notice-me-not until we know what we should be wearing.”

“Oh, do a mirror and see what we look like. Maybe a ruler also.”

“That’s me, and a ruler shows I’m,” squinting, “you look for me please.” Standing tall again.

Natalie, leaning closer to the mirror, “You’re 4’7”. That’s a dwarf height right?”

“Yes, trade places.” Natalie and Tabitha trade places and It’s Tabitha’s turn to check out the ruler. “It says 4’6”.” Tabitha moves next to Natalie. “At least we’re still cute.” As she giggles.

“Do you think we can still walk twenty miles?”

“I don’t know Nat, we can try. I like the idea of keeping up the charm. We can hide our hand in our duffles when it’s time for something to drink. Let me look in the trunk bag.”

Natalie gets rid of the mirror as Tabitha sits down to look for the trunks. “Here it is. Hey, look. This one says tent on it.” I don’t know how big a tent so we may not want to do it here.”

“You’re right, let’s start walking and if we hit an open field, maybe we can try it.”

“Oh, you know what? We should do Hermione’s LAD spell so we have local money instead of just gold dust.”

“You’re right, I’m so glad we’re together. It shows just how smart Harry was even if he doesn’t believe it.”

Are we going to ask for coin purses or just coins? I don’t want to summon anything from Dol Amroth but here would be fine. Hang on a second, let me use this shirt and make a bucket for everything to land in first.” A quick transfiguration, then thanks be to Hermione for the spells she shared with us, the hide in plain sight, as needed space and the lost items. I had read them when Harry did them but it was nice to be taught by Hermione. I would not have known to ask her if I hadn’t read the package from Gringotts.

Natalie took a deep breath and focused on her magic and what she wanted it to do. “Amissa locus desertus et abiecta coins, within 10 miles but not including the city of Dol Amroth.” She made sure to speak clearly and calmly, as she did the wand movement. She counted to five and spoke again. “Sita est celare items.” And did the wand movement again. Another five count and she spoke again. “Contrarium relegare desertus et abiecta coins, within 10 miles but not including the city of Dol Amroth.” And again waved her wand. Another five count and she was flicking her wand in the air above the bucket.

Within five seconds of flicking her wand, the first coin fell from the spot where her wand-tip had been. For the next five minutes they watched as coins fall into the bucket, glad the expand as necessary charm worked so well.

“Oh, wow. We’ve hit someone’s stash. Let’s make a pouch for each coin, think drawstring.”

“Let’s use socks.” So we do. I release the bucket once it’s empty.

“Ad illud Dol Amroth”

“Let me try something, “directionem lucis Dol Amroth” (the direction of the light of Dol Amroth ). Tabitha walks around and the light stay in place until she walks towards it. “Cool. I’ll just “sylwch fi ddim” (notice me not in Welsh) at it, we can follow the light.”

Both look around to make sure they have everything and head out, walking towards the light. They glance at each other, “I’m hoping there is not another meaning to follow the light for us.”

Tabitha snickers, “oh, man, I hope not, at least for today.”

Tabitha and Natalie walk for three hours. “You think we’d have found someone by now.”

“Let’s do a map again, I think I can hear the ocean and we need to be careful.”

“You’re right, this spot looks like it could be water. We’re going to need to go East.”

“Um, wait a minute. Visio Terra ostende roads”

“Oh good idea. Now show us, hey, that worked.” Tabitha giggles, “I LOVE Magic. See here, that’s us and the road we’re on ends without showing something going East. We need to backtrack to the road we just passed and take the second left.”

“I see, that should take us straight to Dol Amroth. Let me try something. Nox. Good that worked. Now directionem mollis lux (the direction of the soft light) and another sylwch fi ddim at it.”

Backtrack. Second left. They see buildings and fences but no people.

This is a pretty big area, cast a notice me not at the tent and open it up in the middle of the crossroads.

“Sure, cast a HIPS too. It shouldn’t be up very long, just need to see how much room it takes up.”

“That’s small. Good thing we shrank. Five foot tall? Looks like a cube. Pack it back up and let’s go.”

They continue, trying to be quiet. After what seem like days instead of hours, they come to a road on the right and curving into the road they’re on. There are people on it, maybe they can figure out how they’re suppose to be dressed. They really should have paid more attention when Harry was talking to Lavender.

Tabitha stops, touches Natalie and nods her head back the way they came and starts walking. Natalie follows.

“We were stupid. Let’s look for the package and look up where Harry was talking to Lavendar.”

There still aren’t people on this road so we sit down at the edge and Tabitha digs around in her duffle while Natalie keeps watch. Tabitha finds a pocket with the package in it and starts flipping through it.

“Oh, here’s Colin so I went too far.” Tabitha turns back and quickly finds where Harry’s talking about clothes for Lavender.

“Here it is. Looks like under things are more like a drawstring boxers, longer for skirts and shorter for pants. I don’t know about you but I’d like pants right now.”

“Me too.” Natalie pulls out a pair of undies but leaves them alone. “Hey, can we not do these right away? We could buy some when we get to Dol Amroth?”

“Yes, I like that idea.” Tabitha reads, “okay, Harry says the dwarrowdams wear a camisole, with a shirt under a bodice and stays. The bodice laces up in the front with the stays under the lacing. Some dwarrowdams leave the shirt off, if it’s hot or just don’t like them. It’s personal choice. Trousers are slightly more shaped for dwarrowdams than for dwarves, it makes them stay on your hips better. They tend to be longer than what we’re used to and bunch up on the top of your boots. Some dwarrowdams wear pretty jerkins. Sometimes in leather and sometimes in fabric, usually with embroidery, leather-lace or beads sewn onto them. Boots for dwarves are heavier than for the dwarrowdams.

Tabitha sighs, “Without pictures or samples, I don’t know what our clothes are supposed to look like. We’re wearing pants and boots, let’s change the pants a little so they bunch up on our boots. We’re going to need to buy new boots.”

“Did Harry mention how much things cost?”

“He did, let’s get through clothes and I’ll look for it.”

“I’m leaving my bra on for now but my shirt should be more of a blouse with short sleeves and I make a corset like something out of my t-shirt.”

“Oh, wait. Leave the bra and the t-shirt but add a top like a button-up over that but tie it under your breasts. Here let me show you. See?”

“Yes. We can go shopping, mentioning we know our clothes are wrong. Maybe use an illusion before we drop the notice-me-not.”

Tabitha smiles and starts looking for the cost of things. “Here it is. Five Sovereigns will get a pair of boots, one for a shirt. Ten Sovereigns equals a crown. The crown is a large gold coin with a hole in the middle. Two crown gets a pony, another one for the saddle. Three gets a wagon. Twenty-five gets a Sceptre, I don’t think we got any of those but we’ll get one each at least at the assayer’s office. Empty, they’re 25 crown and they hold 25 crown so that’s a lot.

“Let me bookmark this page, we’ll need to read it again because it talks about food and hotel rooms.”

“Okay, you look good. How do I look?”

“You look good too, let’s get going.”

They look around to make sure they have everything and nox their light. They come up to the people again and look for the dwarrowdams. “I see one. Let me do a glamour on you, I’m going to use different colors. Okay, you’re done, now you do me.”

Tabitha does a glamour on Natalie with the same colors, just a lighter shade so they aren’t exactly the same.

They cast a HIPS then and just like Harry did, they walk along side a wagon before slowly losing the notice-me-not. “Let’s hit the assayer’s office first. Glamour me as a male so we won’t have any problems.”

“Good idea. Wait, we’ve got coin, what we need is a room to count it in and someone to tell us where to shop for new clothes.”

“Right, we can do the gold dust tomorrow. Let’s find the Dwarven trade-master.”

Meeting Tavric

”Hello Trade-master Tavric. I am Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo. This is my assistant Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward. We have an interesting story and a need of help. Some of our story is State Secret level of need to know but we feel that you could help us best if you know. We could leave you a way to contact us when we leave so if you know most of the story, we can also help you at a later time.

Tavric is watching the girls, something is off about them but they are dwarrowdams, “This seems like it will be a long conversation so let me get tea. Please have a seat.”

Tabitha nods while moving to a seat, “Thank you, I do believe tea will be needed.”

After the tea arrives and they each have a cup, Tabitha continues, “Others will be following us. None of them to our knowledge will share what we will or tell you in anyway that they have this knowledge. However, if someone comes to you and asks about Tabitha and Natalie, you can contact us and we’ll help. We will not be telling all of this story to very many and ask you not to share with others. It will be necessary for you not even to hint at others that you know this.“

Natalie takes up the tale, “We’ve escaped a war and are looking for peace. Others have also escaped but we do not know where they are at this time or how many there are. We are also not sure that all that escaped also survived. There should be no need to look over our shoulders for past enemies as those we escaped from are not here. Those that helped us escape will not help our enemies. Any that follow should also be seeking peace.”

Tabitha’s turn, “We travelled to Dol Amroth from the South along the coast from Belfalas but in actuality, we come from a land far from here, where the magic that we use, is more prevalent, but still fairly rare. Where those with magic hide from those without in fear of their lives.” Seeing Tavric sit back in his chair, Tabitha is quick to say, “Not like Istari, we are not Gods nor are we God-like even if it sometimes seems like it. We’re simply people with a talent that want to live in peace.”

Natalie talks while Tabitha drinks her tea, “We don’t have someone to certify our training like you do so help finding someone to do that will be needed. Because of the type of magic we use, we have space to carry sufficient coin with us to start afresh but do need help putting them in the right places. The coin itself is not magic at all, just the space needed to store it. We’re headed towards the Blue Mountains but may end our travels sooner if we find others.”

Tabitha continues the tale, “Because of our magic talent, we are able to copy a memory. We have a devise to then view it. Or we could turn it into a teaching tool.” Tavric is nodding and is no long sitting back from us. “It would be a huge help for us to have a memory of you learning Khuzdul and maybe Sindarin. We would be more likely to be accepted. We aren’t in a hurry so even though we can only stay here for two nights, we are hoping we could camp elsewhere for a week and come back. I was thinking that we’d need 8 ponies at a minimum and if we don’t find them here, we could travel to Black Rock and back again. While we are gone our wagons can be completed. We’ll have another two nights to do all our shopping before we need to leave again. I’m hoping the week will allow you to gather judges for our trials during the second two nights.

Natalie says, “We can leave a way for you to contact us quickly. A single sheet of paper and a stick. What ever you write on the paper will show up on ours. If you put the stick in an empty room, even an empty horse stall, we will be able to travel to it with our magic. An enclosed empty room is best so we are not seen and don’t land on anything. The room doesn’t need to be much bigger than us standing together.”

Tabitha’s turn again, “We need help finding a place to stay while we’re here. Where to purchase new clothing because none of what we have with us is correct. We need a wagon to live in and maybe all the supplies that living needs. We’d also like a feed wagon so we don’t need to stop as often. I believe that this should also be covered to protect the feed from the weather. We plan to make jams once we settle and have no need to sell while we travel.”

Tavric gets a turn to speak, “The first part is easy. If you can share a room, you can stay here. We also have a pen for ten ponies and an empty stall you can store all you purchase so it is all near where the two wagons will go. I can introduce you to the master cart wright and point out on a map where to shop for clothes and feed.”

Natalie sighs, “We would love to stay here and thank you.”

Tavric says, “First stop should be your room. Do you have anything to drop off?” Both girls shake their heads. “Let’s go look at wagons and then go look at ponies.”

Chapter Text

3-20-2913

A few minutes’ walk and Tavric led us into another courtyard and stopped at the entrance to a large shed.

“Master Cartwright Joss.” He called through the wide door.

“Master Tavric?” A rough voice answered. “What kin we be doing for ya?”

“I’ve got a bit of a challenge for you. These dwarrowdams need a wagon to travel in and a covered feed cart. The trick is that if they find the ponies needed here, they need the wagons completed in two nights. If they don’t find eight ponies, they only need the feed wagon ready to go and will come back for the living wagon.”

“Ah, I’ve forgotten about the treaty. Let’s find the wagon bases needed then check out ponies. Do yer have far ta go??”

“Yes Master Cartwright”, Tabitha grinned. “The Blue Mountains. We’re not sure if we’ll find who we are looking for before that or not but we expect to travel a great distance.”

“Oh, stars above,…” Joss’ eyes widened in surprise. “That’s a journey and half.” Tabitha just laughed at the man’s expression. “Well, then… I’m thinking you’ll want a ten- or twelve-footer. Ya’ll need a pair of ponies to pull it, though, not jest the one.”

“That’s fine. I was thinking two pair for each wagon so we can switch them each day. I don’t want to hurt my ponies and I certainly don’t want to be stranded because of it!”

“Would you be able to advise them on the right ponies, Master Joss?” Tavric asked.

“Aye, I kin do tha’, but not until the wagon’s plans are put together.” Joss answered.

“Master Joss, I have no idea what constitutes a good wagon, so I am quite happy to defer to you and your knowledge as to which would be better suited.”

“Well then, I’d pick those two,” as Master Joss points to the back. “they be twelve-foot plains-runners, light and strong and we kin build on ‘em to suit ya.. Do you have an idea of how ya want the wagons changed?”

“I do, do you have somewhere that we can draw up a plan, Master Joss?” Tabitha asked.

“Aye.” The cartwright nodded. “If ya’ll come this way, we kin work on that and I’ll have me lads pull the chassis out and into the workshop.”

Back in the first shed, Joss laid out a rope on the floor of the shop. “This here is the space ya got to work with. Twelve foot long by five foot wide. Iffen I think yer over-loading, I’ll tell ya.”

Tabitha says, “Feed wagon first I’d think, just in case we have to leave and come back.” Tabitha walks around the outline. “Water barrels at the front and back. Four in the front and two in the back corner. A door in the middle on the back with a drop down ladder. Not sure about the door in the front, maybe in the middle but sliding open?

Harnesses hang on the wall in back, four to each side. Hay bales under the harnesses. Grooming tools one the water barrels in front and bags of grain and treats in the front.”

Tabitha stands back then looks at Natalie. “Can you think of anything I may have missed? Master Joss? I’m thinking most of the weight in the front will make it easier on the ponies?”

“Aye.” The cartwright nodded. “Bags of feed off-center leaning to the front. Theys heavier than bale and you need more. This looks well thought out. Since you’ve got a roof, I’m going to use it and have the harness hooks slide along the roof so you can reach the ones in back easier.”

Master Joss lays out another outline for the living wagon. “Okay, are you sleeping in the same half or do we need a bed area at each end?”

Tabitha and Natalie look at each other. “I hadn’t…”

“No, I didn’t either.”

Natalie says, “Can we layout both? If we have the kitchen in the middle with a door/ladder on one side. A bed at the end with a window above and a wall three-quarters across with shelves and hooks in the sleeping area and maybe shallow shelves on the kitchen side?”

“um, that only gives us one door. We get more shelf space but no back door for escape.”

Tavric exchanges startled looks with Joss. “How would you lay it out another way?”

“ah, a door behind the driver into the kitchen area. Also a door on the side in the middle. The beds in the back, one on each side with a window at the back. Make the beds 20 inches. Shelves above the beds and drawers underneath. Heck, we could make it a door in the back with a window in it.”

Tavric laughs, “You’d have almost as much storage in your sleeping area and three doors to escape.”

They all laugh but Natalie tugs on Tabitha and whispers, “Can we do bunk beds?”

Master Joss says it’s a good layout. “Anything special to do in the kitchen area?”

“Yes please and a change in the sleeping area. The sleeping area should have stacked beds on one side and shelves on the other. The beds should be two feet wide. It doesn’t matter which side, I’ll leave it to your experience.

“In the kitchen, I’m going to need a clear space on a wall for a storage cabinet that we’ll install. Can we have the door behind the driver slide on the outside wall? It doesn’t have to be centered but does need 18 inches on the left side. See here,” as Tabitha walks along the layout. “The wall on the side at the front needs to be clear for 3 feet then shallow shelves and hooks between that space and the side door.”

Natalie jumps in with “Oh, wait. Put hooks for weapons next to the door and can we have glass in all three doors? Just the top half will let in a good amount of sunlight.”

“Aye, id be extra but we can do that. Aye might start doing that on other wagons as well. Let’s have the back door slide on the inside with a ladder across the bottom outside that ya can hook up or leave in place. That will give ya a nice breeze if needed.”

The dwarrowdams glance at each other then smile at Master Joss, “Yes please.”

Master Joss calls over his workers and instructs them on which wagons we’ll be working on. Has another pick up the layout they weren’t going use and has them start on the feed wagon.

“What colors paint would you like? Would ya like a canvas awning across the side with the door? If ya find chairs that collapse, ya could hang them on the outside.”

“Yes please to the awning. Do you have a tan for the walls? Black trim and a red roof?”

“Maybe dark and light grey inside? With white trim?” Natalie speaks up while Tabitha nods. “The feed wagon doesn’t need the white trim inside.”

“Aye can do that. Aye’ll have Jacob sketch out where the colors will go. Hear that Jacob?”

“Yes Sir.”

Tabitha sighs, “Now that we have down what we want, how much is it going to cost us?”

“Each wagon chassis is Ç2. The feed wagon additions adds another Ç2 Š7 and can be done quickly. The living wagon will be the hardest to get done quickly and will be about Ç7, maybe Ç8. If you come back in a week you can save yourself 2 maybe Ç3.”

Tabitha and Natalie whisper then Tabitha suggests they start on the feed wagon looking to finish it fast and first while they look at he ponies before deciding on the living wagon.

“I’ll be needin’ a deposit.”

“How about Ç7 now and they rest when they’re finished?”

“Tha’ sounds fine.” Joss held out a hand and Tabitha shook it, while Natalie was digging out the coin purse and counting out the coins. “If ya want, I kin see to getting the ponies for ya or at least I kin go with ya when ya choose ‘em.””

“I’d prefer to be involved in that, but I would welcome your knowledge and assistance.”

“Alright. Let’s head down ta the traders and we’ll see about some ponies.”

“Thank you. Tavric, do you want to come with us to look at ponies?”

Tavric looks at the girls and shakes his head. “Yes actually. I’m interested in how you do this and it lets me avoid the paperwork for a little bit longer.”

Pony shopping

The group stopped at the tent that was the horse traders’ office and waited until the clerk was free.

“Master Joss.” The clerk nodded to Joss and after flicking a glance back and forth between dwarves and Joss, nodded to all of them.

“How can we help you, today?”

“Our young dwarrowdams here, need some ponies.” Joss answered. “We’re putting two twelve-foot wagons together for ‘em, and they’re thinking of eight ponies.”

“Eight?”

“Yes Sir.” Tabitha says, “We need a least four but with eight there should be less of a chance of stressing the ponies. I’d like to avoid injuries.”

“Oh, yes, I see.” The clerk nodded. “A lot of traveling to do?”

“Maybe as far as the Blue Mountains.”

“Eight ponies makes sense. Now, I think Dafid might have what you’re looking for. Let me call him in.” The clerk ducked to the back of the tent and pulled one of over a half-dozen ropes, once, twice, three pulls and he was back in his seat. “Dafid should be along in a bit. Have a seat if you would.”

They’d barely sat down, before a man entered the tent that made Tabitha blink in disbelief, and asked them to follow him. It wasn’t until they were back outside, that she realized that Harry was right, the only real similarity was the height and the way he moved.

Natalie is thinking that, This is the man that will help Harry.

“Now, then, Master Joss. What can I be doing for you?” Dafid asked.

“Our dwarrowdams, here, need some ponies. Eight if you’ve got them. They’re traveling north to the Blue Mountains.”

“Why eight?”

“We’ve got two wagons.” Natalie says, “We’re having the feed wagon covered to protect the feed and supplies from the weather. And a second wagon to live in while we’re traveling. With that long of a trip we figured it would be better to have the space than trying to cram eating, sleeping and pony supplies in one wagon.”

Dafid laughs out loud, “What size wagons? Mares, geldings or stallions?”

“Twelve-footer for both.” Joss replied. “A plains-runner chassis that we’re building on, keeping the weight down as much as we can.”

Natalie: “Wouldn’t mares and geldings be easiest?”

“That depends on the stallion. I’ve seen some geldings that were more work. Same with the mares.”

Tabitha says, “Okay, but let’s see the mares first and branch out if we don’t find the eight. Going to Black Rock is an option if we need to.”

“Aye, my brother Horf is at Black Rock, I’ll send a letter with you if you don’t find what you’re looking for here.”

Dafid rounds up 10 mares in a ring by them selves and I find five that I really like. I go to check them out and one of them is skittish. She calms down and walks with me but when I go to another mare and come back she’s skittish again. I pick out four of them.

Dafid shakes his head and says that I’ve picked his four best mares.

Then the rest of them laugh and Natalie says, “she’s got expensive tastes.”

Dafid puts the other mares away and brings out five geldings and three stallions in the same pen as the mares I want.

“I see what you mean about temperaments. They’re all calm,” says Natalie in surprise.

Dafid nods, “Go on, check them out.”

Tabitha walks around, rubbing noses and rumps. There’s one as nice as the mares I picked out. “This one too. Do you think your brother can match him?”

“If he can’t, I’ll write a note and you can trade him in. Or he can help you find a match with another trader.”

Tabitha is nodding and crossing her fingers. “Okay, I’ll take five and a letter. What’s the damage? What about harnesses and when were they last shod?”

“They all have harnesses and have actually driven together so you shouldn’t have any problems mixing them up. I had the farrier in two weeks ago and everybody has new shoes. I’ve got papers for all of them.” Dafid is staring at me then looking at Natalie. “Just the two of you are traveling?”

“Yes.”

“You’re going to Black Rock for three more ponies then coming back here?”

“Yes.”

Dafid sighs, “I’ve got three horses I’m taking to my brother. Would you be comfortable if I travelled with you?”

Tabitha and Natalie whisper then look at Tavric and Dafid before whispering again.

Finally Tabitha says, “Yes. We aren’t leaving until our two nights are up and we’re taking the feed wagon so we’ll be sleeping rough.”

“That’s fine. I’ve been putting this off because I didn’t want to go alone. I’ll take extra horses to ride there and back. I’ll be safer traveling with you, not just you with me.”

Dafid rubs his hands together, “Now, let’s talk price.”

“You’ve chosen four of my best mares and when we’re done I want to know why you didn’t like the others. Then you picked a stallion that’s just as good as the mares. Proven too. Now the mares are all 7 and have each had a foal naturally. The stallion is 10 and has bred 15 mares. All nice foals. All have papers, fresh shoes and harnesses.”

I’m nodding along and adding dollar, er crown signs in my head.

“I’ll take Ç2, Š6 for each mare and Ç3 for the stallion.”

Tavric and Joss exchange glances. Joss clears his throat but Dafid cuts him off before he can say anything. “I watched her. She’s gentle. Even with the skittish mare. My girls will have a good life with them and she’s prepared to double what she really needs so they can rest every other day? Yes, that my final price. Plus I saw another trader eyeing my mares and he’s not as nice to his horses and she was to mine.”

Natalie has a big smile on her face, “But you didn’t see me with them.”

Dafid nods but says, “No, but I can’t see Tabitha letting one of her ponies getting hurt. If you don’t know what you’re doing now, you’ll be taught gently. It will be good for all of you.”

“Done deal. Oh, with the papers? How do I know which belongs to which pony?”

“Each document tube has a tag on it and there’s two matching tags, one for the mare’s headstall and another for her harness.” Dafid answered as he lead them back to the clerk’s tent. “Let’s fill out paperwork.”

Tabitha says, “Tavric? I’m glad you said you had space for ten ponies.”

They all head to the office then back to the ponies to harness them up.

“You have the rest of today, tonight and tomorrow for shopping while Joss does the feed wagon. Why don’t you come to my place Dafid, after lunch the day after tomorrow. That will give you enough time to get out of town. That okay Tabitha?”

“Yes, come about 1 p.m., that should be enough time.”

Everybody shakes hands and heads out to homes/offices. Tabitha has three ponies and Natalie has two. Dafid watches and he was right. Natalie was just as gentle as Tabitha.

While on the walk back, “Cartwright Joss?” says Tabitha, “I’ve been thinking about harnesses. How would a box on the outside of each wagon work? They’d be easier to reach, still protected and free up room inside for feed.”

“Oh now, I can do that. That will free up some time also because the boys already know how to do that. We’ll put two boxes for 3 on the feed wagon to start. We should be finished by dinner tomorrow, maybe closer to lunch.”

“That’s great. We’ll be buying barrels, feed and camping supplies tomorrow. Making lots of lists today.”

All five ponies are in a pen together. Rubbed down and loved on. Each gets a treat but it isn’t dinner time yet.

Tavric tells the girls, “You’ll need some supplies for the trip there and back but you can’t really buy everything else until you come back. The wagon is fine, just the rest of your shopping will have to wait. The treaty is weird so everything you buy except the living wagon has to go with you.”

“I’ll get you a map to mark where to shop for feed, treats, clothes for you and household items.

Natalie says, “Stationary and quills too please.”

“We’ll head out now to walk the market and take notes.”

“Come back for dinner and talk some to my steward. See if you missed anything. Just because you aren’t going to be selling right away doesn’t mean you can’t get ready for when you do.”

“Thank you.“

“That’s great. We can talk about trials and beads too.”

“Buy what you can today and we’ll do a couple of your trials tomorrow and talk about your family beads tonight.”

Tabitha and Natalie glance at each other then Tavric. “Yes Sir.”

Tavric laughs and tells us to get shopping.

We get more parchment than I think we need. We go ahead and get six water barrels for delivery. We find magical plants when we were looking for pony treats. I don’t have any recipes memorized but I’m still looking while she laughs at us. “You’re not the first to look at these plants funny. I don’t have them very often, maybe once a year.”

“We’ll take them all.” We’d need to find someone who can make plant shelves to hang on the wagons. “Now, what do you have in the way of treats for ponies?”

We stopped to order pony feed and had that delivered. We also found some sweet grains to go with the dried apple slices we got. That’s the ponies taken care of, we’re next. We find a nice tea set and mugs not glasses. We found pipes we could rig up as a bathing/toilet area each night but decided to wait and check out the tent. The toilet looked like ones I had seen at home for emergency preparedness so we get that. Toilet paper will always come in handy. Towels, lots of towels. Towels for washing and bathing. Towels for ponies too.

I pull out one of our new notebooks and quills to think of a menu. Eggs and rolls. Vegetables and sauce for a stew. Harry used a stasis box for the meat so we need to find a nice box. We’ll need pots, knives, something to wash dishes in. Maybe transfigure something. “Let’s get some clothes then head back and check out out the trunks.”

Chapter Text

All our deliveries were there and had been placed in an empty stall near where the wagon can drive up. We pulled out the book that was left with the trunks. Good thing we did, we needed to feed animals! I don’t know why they didn’t mention that when we left? Poor things! First, happy that there was food stored and waiting for us. Same with water.

Animals first. Cats. OMG! Did they send all the cats with us? Are those kittens? I just sit down, I’m so overwhelmed. Natalie sits down with me. A pair of cats come up and one sits in front of each of us. “Hello. I didn’t know you were awake in here or I would have been here this morning.” I continue with “I’m overwhelmed and almost afraid of what else I’ll find.”

The cats look at each other, walk up to us, pat our hands with a paw before nodding and walking back to the rest of the cats.

Natalie and I get up and look back towards the door to find the food.

Wow, there is an actual room for feeding. Instructions are on the board {snicker} so we get busy. Scoops in all the big bowls, smaller scoops of kitten food for the little bowls. The water area is cleaned up and refilled. We need to come in at lunch to feed the kittens again. Yikes, does that mean they missed two meals? How dare they not tell us we have live animals in here! I thought they were all in stasis!

I’m happy we picked this trunk first. “There are more doors in the Foyer, I’m almost afraid to check. What if they all have animals not in stasis? What if they’re hurt!” I cry a little and scream into my hands. “Okay, mini-rant over. I’m angry right now that they didn’t tell us the animals were not in stasis. That’s overriding my, overwhelmedness. I can panic and rant tomorrow night after trialling, we’ve got too much to do right now. Let’s open doors!”

Back to the Foyer and onto the next door. Bunnies and chickens. Not in stasis. There is also a feed room but this time it’s just for storage. Wash the water troughs and refill. Check for eggs. Check the roosters, they are in a different cage. Oh, all the male bunnies are here too. Scatter some grain and we’re done in here for today. No little bunnies or chicks.

The next door has more animals. These are in stasis. Transfigured, shrunk, boxed and labeled. Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, llamas, Alpacas, owls, falcons, hawks. Does that say snidgets? Hippogriff? Puffskeins? Wow. I stop reading labels, just double check that everything is in stasis, check for instructions. There is a food room here to with books and … is that a pedigree chart?

Back to the Foyer and the next door. Trees. Oh, this is an orchard. There is another room in here too. It has pruning equipment, books on care and a list on the door of all the trees planted in this space. Cherry, oranges, peaches, so many!

Now I’m excited to see what we find. We don’t need to spend time each day with the trees, not like feeding animals.

Back to the Foyer to find the next door only to find tall narrow panels. These are labeled with food names, several by each door. There is one last regular door, labeled storage.

The storage door has glass jars, cooking pots, magic stoves. Wait, is that a house elf door?

Tabitha call out, “Zippy? Flopsy?" Two house elves pop in. "How are you here? Are you safe? Are you healthy? Are you happy?”

Oh to see my elves bouncing around with smiles are their faces. “We is healthy and safe. Your Man Wilson at old home called it a bestest prank! There are many elvsies that needed home. We’ve bonded to this trunk. We were okay if it didn’t work because it was better to try this than die in pain at old home. We are all happiest here.”

I’m down on my knees giving out hugs to everyone I can reach. There are more coming for hugs, not just my four.

“All the living things is in this trunk so we can take care of everything for you. Even cooksie the jams.”

Natalie exclaims, “This means we didn’t hurt the cats! We were so afraid that the kittens had missed meals but they didn’t. We were angry at those at home for not telling us that some animals were not in stasis.”

“How many of you are here?” Tabitha asks.

Pooky says, “We is tens tens tens tens tens in this trunk.”

“Tabitha, I don’t know how to house elf count. Pooky, why did you say this trunk?”

Tabitha, absentmindedly, “There are 50 house elves in this trunk.” Tabitha straightens up, “Wait, what do you mean this trunk?”

Topsy and the rest of the elves laugh. “There is many many more in library trunk. There is special door from that trunk to this trunk so elvsies have time in growing magic spaces. We has special lesson in time chamber too. Wes learn how to take care of animals, plants, and books.. Healer lesson to take care of youses too.”

Tabitha joins Natalie on the floor just shaking her head. “I have an idea on organization. This is what I’m thinking, you don’t have to do it this way. Talk about it with each other. One of you must be in charge of everything, they would be the Admiral. Commanders are next in charge and they are over each door. You’d have a Strawberry Commander, a bunny/chicken commander, a library commander, a cook commander, a cat commander. Then all he elves that work under them. Make sure you rotate so no one is overworked and everyone gets to do their favorite and least favorite chores. Also, if you need permission for bondings and littles, hear and understand this statement, I give you permission.”

“You do not have to do things this way and I really should have asked if you already had something set up but I need a way to get information from you as to what your needs and wants are.”

“Do any of you read and write?” Natalie asks, “We could leave a communication paper in the Foyer.”

Nods all around from the house elves.

One elf steps forward. “Kreacher?” nod. “How can we help you?”

“I was tired but wanted to serve Master Harry. Your man Wilson let it out what he was trying to do and I came. I may not be serving Master Harry directly but I hope what we do will help him. You also need to know that there are many many more jammies then you knew about in timey chamber.”

”Thank you Kreacher.” Tabitha says with a hug, “I hope what we do helps Harry too. Many more jammies?”

Topsy giggles, “Yes, you did not make jam out of honeydew but we brought plants and mango, coconuts, and bananas too. Good for you food, not just for jammies.”

Tabitha looks around in wonder, “You know Nat, we may need a room in our house that’s just doors on every wall.”

Natalie, laughing, “Too true, or find out how to connect everything.”

Tabitha slaps Natalie gently, “Okay, first trunk has animals, plants, and house elves. Wow, what a surprise that was. How are we going to remember which trunk is which?”

We leave the living trunk and open up the next one. It’s the library trunk.

The foyer has an index with a search feature. There are retrieval and translating spells. I see the elf door in the Foyer. One door is a classroom. One door is a storage room.

Natalie says “Wow, look how many blank books they sent! Let’s bring one out and see how it handles the different atmosphere.”

We’re back out in the Foyer and are confused. There aren’t any actual doors. There are signs.

Tabitha exclaims, “Oh, this is just like the garden rooms. Look here, the sign says French with an arrow and the one underneath says Spanish with the arrow pointing the other direction. Push on where the arrow is pointing. See, it looks like a tall, narrow decorative panel.“

I love magic! When you push the panel, it widens into a door. Inside, are two rooms, one bigger, and as far as we can see, are bookshelves.

We head out and look for English, push the panel, go inside. We are flabbergasted when we realize there must be a library for each language we learned plus many more.

Tabitha whispers, “The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions worked with us. They have members in 150 countries. There must be millions of books here.”

We head out, both in a thoughtful mood. We don’t meet any house elves in here, they must of have all come to the living trunk. There are still two trunks to check out.

Next trunk. One door has my name on it. A quick look confirms that what I packed is inside. Even the books I picked out. Same with Natalie’s door.

One more trunk but I’m not sure what is in it, the instruction book wasn’t complete.

Last trunk. This one has four doors. One door is the storage I was looking for. Everything we would need to set up a household. This is where we’ll get knives, pots and pans. We’ll still need a camp stove but we won’t need too much. There is bedding too. This is where the goblins have left the metal rod trunks. They said they would be shrunk and oversized but not expanded.

”Hey, look at this blanket.” Natalie says excitedly, “My grandma made me one just like it but my father burned it. Someone must have gotten a hold of a picture." As she hugs the blanket. "Oh, man, I love magic!”

We head back out to the Foyer, there are still three more doors for us and an elf door.

One door is for training. I see a running track and a separate trail heading into trees. There are racks for equipment, some being used. Natalie and I each grab a staff and two knives. The is an open area where we take turns finding the perfect weapons. I change my knives and Natalie picks a different staff. Great, there are ways to hang them in the wagon as well as holsters. I’m happy there is a nurse elf.

One door is a garden, this is not a food garden but for relaxing. I see a ritual space in the center.

The last door is a pool area. There are lounge chairs and several rooms, one looks like a steam room. Wow.

Okay, back to the cat room. We sit down and the same pair of cats approach us. We explain that we weren’t sure what they were told so we were going to start at the beginning. We explain about the war and see nods. We tell them about Harry, they’re still nodding. We tell them about copying all the books. We tell about all the training we did under time compression. About the plants and the music. We talk about Tavric, Joss and Dafid. About the wagons and ponies. We tell about Tavric’s full disclosure and that we were going to get memories that can be converted into training memories. That we were going to be trialed, tested, for some skills tomorrow.

We tell them we found the house elves.

The two main cats come up and nudge our hands then go back to the rest of the cats. It looks like they’re having a meeting. The kittens come up for pets and cuddles. We lay down and let them climb all over us. The meeting breaks up and four cats come over to us. We sit up and after some meows the kittens leave. The second pair of cats come closer. They bite us! WHAT THE? Oh, I can hear you! Oh this will help so much!

The main pair are the leaders. That was a meeting they were having. They’d like to go out and wander around. They are hoping that a pair will like to stay with Tavric. First, all the cats come up and sniff us, their whiskers tickle. I had two cats sit near me while my new cat clearly said “pony man”. I explained that we would be traveling with him in a couple of days and they decided to wait. Our new cats and the main leaders come outside with us.

Dinner was fabulous and I asked for recipes. Tavric takes the cookbook to his office and I get to copy it! We plan trials for tomorrow. We mention the four cats.

”I don’t believe we should be tested in everything tomorrow.” Natalie says, “We should be good with knife fighting, staff fighting, and hand to hand. We’d like to get memories and equipment so we can practice this week. We can test for Utrab when we get back. I’m sure that’s all we’ll test at but we should do better with the ones set for tomorrow.”

~small time skip~

We talk to the bead smith, Frelbar, about family beads. I tell him I need memory beads for my parents and two brothers. Natalie didn’t want her parents’s beads but asked for Irma and her younger sister. I just need my Mom after me, the rest can wait. My family is a wash but I wish we could have brought Irma and Natalie’s sister. Maybe now with Dumbledore gone, Tofty can help Irma. She would absolutely love our library.

We explained about the chickens and bunnies that are also not in stasis to the cats. They told us that they were eggs and dinner. This will be fun, we need to figure out how to connect the cages to the wagon and still have them above ground instead of over wagon. mmm, need to learn how to keep them safe while traveling too. At least the butchery and cooking was included in our time chamber lessons.

The female main pair mentioned a picture bowl that should be in storage. “A pensieve? Cool.”

It has been explained to Tavric about how to do a memory. We did a short one with him looking at his bookshelf when he was younger. It was a solicitor pensieve so all three of us were able watch the memory displayed. He understands what he needs to do and gets started. He said it was quite easy. He had always looked at the calendar so that’s what he looked for before his memories. He was right. Daily formal lessons in Khuzdul and writing with a quill. He did memories a month at a time. We got a full year that night and were able to make a list of what books to buy. I know I wanted to get an estate memory but I don’t believe we’ll be able to do that this trip.

Tabitha mutters, “I’m really starting to not like this treaty. We could stay here for a month and still have more to learn.”

Next morning

We slept better than ever. It’s been years since Tabitha slept this good. Natalie says the same. We get ready for the day after feeding the ponies then have breakfast. The bookstore is open so we go there to leave a list, we can pick up the books tomorrow about 11:30am. We pick up more quills and parchment. I wasn’t friends with Hermione but I still think she has rubbed off on us.

Tavric is there with four other dwarrow. We bow then excuse ourselves to get our weapons.

We are trialed in knife fighting, staff fighting, and hand to hand. Both of us do well. I get Tarbun for knife fighting and staff fighting but Tarbunel for hand to hand. Dodging put me over the top. They just couldn’t hit me. Natalie got Tarbun for all three. They expect both of us to trail next year Fall to upgrade.

Bows and thanks all around.

After cleaning up, we set up the library trunk. There is an index in the foyer connected all the rooms with retrieval spells set up. We’re searching for “expanded trunk” and “slow down time”. Oh look. this one is for 24 minutes to get 24 hours. Wow! Now we need to build an expanded trunk.

Natalie suggests, “Let’s ask Master Joss to build the room for us. He could do all the framework, we could shrink it and use magic inside. Picture frames with magic windows, magic bathrooms. We’ll need to do a forgetfulness spell on the entrance doorframe.”

Tabitha asks, “Build it? Or just get supplies?”

Let’s talk to him and then decide.

We head out.

“Good evening, Master Joss, we have another commission.

“Good day, Tabitha, Natalie, is this another wagon?” We shake our heads. “Let’s do a layout and see what you need.”

Tabitha shrugs, “This will seem like a weird request, but what we’re looking for is a miniaturized house but more half size and no roof. It doesn’t need to be a perfect show piece so boards not exactly matching or fussy cuts shouldn’t matter. We need a box-like structure completely enclosed except for one door.”

Natalie’s turn, “We also need smaller boxes. Box A: four all one size. Box B: six half that size. Box C will be the size of all of Box Bs. See, lay them all this way.” As Natalie draws them. “We’ll need two. Box D will be the size of one box A and one box B. We’ll need two. Box E will be three of box B,” as she draws them.

”I told you it would be a weird request. Notice we didn’t say actual measurements. All the smaller boxes should fit into the first box and all have a door except box B. Box B is special.”

Natalie starts a different drawing, “See, lay the biggest box aside. The next biggest, box C, go in the middle like this with a hallway between. One of the six half size, box B, goes in this corner then box E goes next to it and another box B.”

Natalie looks up at Joss to see he’s nodding. “There is a hallway between the boxes in the corner and the one in the middle?”

Natalie smiles, “Yes, there is a hallway most of the way around the box Cs. Now on this other side take a box A then B, then A again, do that twice. See how two box A’s are touching? And there is just enough room for the hallway?” Joss is nodding. “Now the back side. One box B goes in this corner followed by two box Ds and another box B. There are no boxes left so this corner space just needs the hallway wall and a door.”

Tabitha moves the drawing closer to her. Pointing at two spots, “See here, these two box Bs need doors in the middle, one on each side. This box B needs a door on the end and one to match up with the big box. This box B has a door on the end and these two have doors in the middle but only one one side.”

Tabitha and Natalie both sit back in their chairs, watching Joss. “Aye can do this. The lads will do most of the work. This box A, what will you be using it for in your half-size house?”

”A sleeping room.”

”And this one?”

”This half for a table, and a kitchen in this half.”

”I’ll work the kitchen area to be 12x12, so 6x6x4?” We nod. “I can adjust all the other rooms to that. Cost will depend on the wood. Do you know what you’d like? There are eight to choose from and there are four levels of quality.”

”The biggest box should be Walnut. This box B should be Cherry, also this box C.”

”Let’s do box E in Cherry too.” Tabitha nods.

”The other box C should be Hickory.”

”True but all the other wood can be Pine. All the woods can be second best.”

“Aye, I can do this. Pine is an inexpensive wood, even at the best quality.

Master Joss is staring at the drawing, “Well, that’s a strange request but we have the knowledge, skills, most supplies and the time to do this. I’ve got a warehouse we can build it in so we’ve got the space for it.”

“Give me some time to make notes and figure prices. Why don’t you sit here while I work at my desk. Jacob? Tea please.”

Tabitha and Natalie are on their second teapot when Master Joss comes over.

“I apologize for the wait. You’ve given me something new but I love a challenge. If possible, I’d love to see this when you’re finished.”

“I’ve done figures and plans, had runners reserve lumber, there is no charge for that. I’m glad you came to me for this. I’m sorry I didn’t have you go to an actual house master but I like you two. Ya’ve been fun to work with and I was being selfish.”

Natalie softly laughs. “We could have asked Master Tavric for a house master recommendation.”

Tabitha says, “We like working with you too. What did you come up with?”

“The big box is Ç7, the Cherry is Ç6 and the smaller boxes are Ç6. That’s the difference in the wood. My wife loves to design kitchens iffen ya ever need one done. I’d love to see what you do with these.”

Tabitha laughs, “If we can do what we’re planning and do well in our lessons, it will be amazing.”

“And if we can do it in a timely manner, we’d love to show it off.” said Natalie.

Tabitha asks, “Is Ç9 alright for a deposit?

Master Joss writes out a receipt while Tabitha digs out the coins. Exchanges and hand shakes all around.

Chapter Text

Tabitha and Natalie have walked to Master Cartwright Joss’s office. “Good morning Master Joss.”

Master Joss says, “Good morning it is. Welcome back to Dol Amroth.”

“Thank you for the welcome,” Natalie replies. “It is indeed good to be back. How is progress?”

“Your living wagon is finished. And as you wanted the house done first, it is also finished.”

“You worked fast.” Tabitha said. “Can we get a walk through?”

“Remember when I said I had a warehouse?” We nod. “When the living wagon was finished I took it over there. It’s around the corner.”

Off we go.

“Oh, that’s pretty. It’s almost too pretty to take on the road. Let’s see inside.” Natalie exclaims.

“It did come out nice didn’t it. I left all the doors unlatched so we can start on the driver’s seat.” Joss opens the door and they all look in. “See here, if the door is latched from the inside you won’t be able to open it from out here. I didn’t want anyone to be able to pick the lock. Now, here’s your empty space and weapon hooks. This is the main door, it has an actual lock but I’ve also put a latch on it that you can do up after you’re both in for the night. Now continue down this wall into your sleep area. Stacked beds, 2 feet wide. The third door on the back wall, latch like the others but this one slides inside. The ladder will be easier to see from outside. Now, this whole wall is shelves and drawers. There is a bit of wall next to the doorway so I’ve added hooks.”

“Back to the kitchen. One long counter along the outside wall. You said you wanted a sink in the middle with a window. The oven space and a cook top is closer to the front but still has countertop on both sides. Cabinets on either side of the window and shallow shelves on the wall between the kitchen and the sleeping area. It would be easy to add a door over this area.”

Master Joss, looking at the smiles, “I’m guessing you’re pleased.”

“Very much so.”

“Okay, we’ll do money back at the office after you walk through your building.”

“You can’t tell there is a layer of Walnut on the bottom but you can see the top. Let’s start by walking around the outside. See here, we didn’t butt the planks right up to each other but the spaces are fairly even. Look up at the roof. All the boards are cut evenly and the roof board is even with the sides for a nice clean look.”

“And now we’re back at the front. Here I made a change. You said Walnut on the outside and Cherry for the door. But, the Cherry didn’t look good right next to the Walnut so the entrance door is half and half. The outside and edges are Walnut. The inside is Cherry. See this edge? Most of it is Walnut. The door itself is split down the middle, I just made some cabinetry joints to get them together and I’m hoping you like it.”

Tabitha looks at he edge of the door, runs her fingers along the joint. Then she opens the door all the way open and laughs. “Master Joss, this was an excellent decision executed excellently. The Cherry door on the outside just doesn’t look good with the Walnut. Let’s see if the rest is a nice.”

“Aye, I’ve got a lantern that you can slide around but I won’t be crawlin’ around inside.” Natalie takes the lantern and crawls in, I follow. Wow, it’s very nice. Everything is ready for us to do magic. Runes, spells, magical equipment, I can hardly wait.

Tabitha says, “I’m please with everything. Can I rent this space tomorrow until after dinner?”

Master Joss laughs, “No but I can arrange to have you pick up your living wagon and structure the day after tomorrow night. The morning you’re leaving? Even if you pick it up earlier, this space is yours until then. No one is allowed in and I won’t be sending anyone over until after lunch that third day.”

Natalie smiles, “That will be perfect. Now, let’s go spend some money!”

The three head back to Master Joss’s office.

Total cost - Ç19 because the Walnut guy gave me a discount. Ç9 deposit leaves Ç10 for the house.

Total for both wagons is Ç11 Š7, with a Ç7 deposit leaving Ç4 Š7.

Tabitha says questionably, “I noticed a difference on the wagon cost. Did you short yourself?”

Master Joss answers, “No, it was the longer time we had and doing harness boxes instead of doing something new inside.”

Natalie is nodding. “Two receipts for bookkeeping?”

“Yes please,” finishes both receipts. “Here you go.”

“Thank you”, as she stacks coin on each receipt.

Natalie says, “We didn’t forget your wife”, as she hands over a dessert recipe.

Hand shakes all around. Master Joss has a huge grin, looking forward the the new dessert.

“We’ll be by after breakfast to go to the warehouse and should be undisturbed until after dinner.”

That’s fine and see you tomorrows while everyone heads home.

The Next Morning

Natalie stretches, “I wonder if I could duplicate this mattress. It’s so comfortable.”

Tabitha suggests, “Use a bedroll to transfigure it then copy the comfort level before shrinking it. You’ll have to stitch runes on it to keep it.”

“I’ll do it tomorrow.”

The ponies get fed first with some loves and brushing. We clean up and eat breakfast before heading to Master Joss’.

The warehouse

I’m pleased we were able to carve ward stones on our trip. First thing is locking the doors from the inside then draping black on the windows. Okay, now we need to levitate the stones into the upper corners and sticky charm them there. Connect the stones with a spell and turn on the time spell. Okay, our living things trunk needs to go on the wall in our living wagon. Let’s spend some time with the house elves and the cats.

Day 1: We explain to the cats that the building we were in has a time distortion spell on it. No one can get in so if they want to come out they can but maybe after we were through working for the day, we don’t want any of you getting hurt. You need to be careful not to sneak out of the building, it would mess up our spell. The house elves were happy to keep us feed while we were working on the building. They would send a cat to come get us so we wouldn’t miss eating or bed times. We’d be sleeping in our wagon.

Step One: The outside boards are removed and stacked to the side. The building is lifted up and the bottom layer is removed, so is the top. Up on top, the connections are undone so the rooms can be moved.

We start on a bedroom from the corner. The room is taken apart and the boards duplicated, spelled with a tongue and groove, then put back together. The ends stop where the bathroom and wardrobe go so that wall can be tied into the outside walls. The room is now 12x12. The wardrobe has drawers on the bottom against the back and hooks on three side. Shoes can go under the hooks but on top of the drawers. Moving on to the bathroom. There is a standing tub for showers on one end, a sink in the middle with water storage underneath. The toilet goes on the other side. It has vanishing spell buttons that also refill the bowl. We should have had a Cherry door put in. I guess we’ll use a curtain on the bathroom, the wardrobe doesn’t need a door.

Looking around, yeah, this is harder than I thought it would be. Maybe we can do doors later.

That’s one room done. Time for the second one.

They thought of dividing the tasks but work well together and soon have half of the sleeping rooms complete. Time for lunch. We clean up then play with the kittens and cats for a bit before cleaning up to eat. We get the other three sleeping rooms completed before dinner.

We are done for the night after cleaning up the warehouse. The cats come out to explore. The kittens are told to stay in the wagon so they don’t get hurt on loose building materials. We tell the kittens they can climb anywhere in the wagon. That we don’t have equipment that can hurt them yet. They still need to be careful of tiny spaces and getting stuck without us knowing where they are.

We do spend some time duplicating Walnut boards and spelling tongue and grooves on them.

Day 2: I sleep really hot but find cats and kittens in bed with me so I figure that’s why. Natalie too.

We get ready for the day and have a wonderful breakfast and hug the breakfast elves. We do the front room first. Take the room apart and duplicate the boards. Spell them with a tongue and groove then put them back together. This is now 12x24. We do the center room next. This is the training and testing room. This one needs an expansion charm. Once again, take the room apart and duplicate the boards. Spell them with a tongue and groove then put them back together. The center room is now 12x24 also. We go ahead and make it an actual box with one door, Cherry. We spell the walls smooth. add rune stones. They’re actually pebbles that we enlarged, softened, carved, then released the softening and enlarging spells. These are not just sticky charmed into the corners, they’re imbedded into the corners. All the stones are spell-connected to a panel by the door. There will be equipment stored in cabinets along one wall. Once everyone is inside and the door is closed, buttons can be pushed for expansion. Clever piece of spellwork that I’m glad Natalie found. This room needs the cabinets and paint then it’s ready to use.

Lunch time. Play with the cats and kittens, clean up, eat, hugs for the house elves and back to work.

The cabinetry takes some thinking. The backing is thinner than the boards, we’ll be attaching the cabinet walls to it then spelling the back onto the wall. The doors are simple except we forgot hardware. We still need four door knobs and four sets of hinges.

It’s disappointing that we forgot something else. We can still put the whole thing together, we’ll finish the cabinets later.

There is time to start the kitchen dining area so we take the room apart and duplicate the boards. Spell them with a tongue and groove then put them pack together. The sliding door in the dining half are “barn door” style and the hardware is there to enlarge.

Dinner time. Playtime with the cats and kittens, clean up, eat, hugs for the house elves.

Day 3: All the rooms have been shrunk and moved out of the way. We’re ready to work on the outside. First the bottom of the trunk. The center of the boards all go lengthwise then they are “framed” until the bottom is bigger than needed. All the boards are smoothed out and the runes carved. We do the top right on the bottom then flip it over and stick it to the roof of the building.

Now the inside. The first room is the foyer, backed up to that is the dining room/kitchen and a bathing room. The main room and training room go next. Now the other side, sleeping room, bathing room, sleeping room. Repeat and we’re in the corner. A bathing room connected to an oversized sleeping room, the second oversized sleeping room and a bathing room complete the back room. The hallway wall completes the rest of our house.

All the rooms are connected, the hallway is 4 feet wide so I’m glad we made the bottom bigger.

Next the three sides without doors. They’re also bigger than needed like the bottom. The inside is spelled smooth and runes are carved. It’s a little tricky attaching the walls to the bottom but magic is wonderful. The last wall had the door that we match up with the foyer.

All the walls are attached so we lower the roof and attach it to the walls.

We worked really hard on this. I don’t even remember stopping for lunch. It isn’t dinner time but we should be rested for the next part.

Bath time. We transfigure a pot and a calidum Aguamenti later, it’s ready. We take turns. The kittens stare at us. After we’re dried off and dressed our cats come over to see how we are doing. “Are you too tired to show us the house?”

Natalie says she’s not. “Is it stable Tabitha?

“Should be, it’s flat on the ground. Let’s go.”

Our cats and the main pair follow us to the house. Do you want to walk around the outside? Yes please. As we walk, Natalie is explaining what we’ve done and what still needs to happen. We don’t have bathing room doors but they can happen later or not at all. We don’t have cabinets in the training room because we need hinges. The kitchen has had nothing done to it. This is the front door and will be the top of the trunk. We need to carve the shrink and enlarge runes. Maybe a couple of different sizes. This is our first trunk and I’m sure we would do the next one differently.

Inside is the front room. This is for talking and visiting, just hanging out. To the left is a hallway with four sleeping areas with two sharing a bathing room. Down the hallway to the back of the house has the training room on the right. Around the corner and two more sleeping areas with bathing rooms. We don’t have plans for this corner room yet. Around the corner and the training room door is on the right. The kitchen space in on the left. Continuing down the hall towards the front leads us back to the front room with a dining area on the left. The dining area is 12x12 but if we need the table bigger, we’ll just move it to the front room.

Our next trunk will have a space expansion in this room. Maybe we’ll add it later but currently it would need different doors and would include the kitchen.

What do you think? Good for our first time? The cats don’t have anything bad to say so we head back to the wagon.

Dinner time.

After dinner I ask the main cats if they’d be able to watch the ponies while we were training. The time spell is 24 minutes outside is 24 hours inside. A week would be almost 3 hours. I’m sure they’d be fine on their own but trouble can happen fast.

One of the elves heard the question and had a different answer. Once the house is big again, put the living trunk on an outside wall. The ponies could come in one of lawn spaces. They can graze and be safe. We just need water and we don’t mind poo piles.

”Thank you, I like that idea. Is this room always a pasture?”

”Yes. We thought the magic animals would need it after stasis.”

“I have an idea”, Natalie says. “Can we build a garage for our wagons? Nothing fancy, three walls, floor, roof and a door on one side. Have room for three wagons. The living trunk can go on the inside wall, so can our house door. The ponies shouldn’t have trouble walking into the building if there is a wagon sized space.”

Tabitha says she likes this idea. “We’d be a cube in a roped off field but with Hermione’s H.I.P.S. no one will care about it.”

I’m torn. On one hand it isn’t necessary because it’s only 3 hours. On the other hand, anything can happen in 3 hours. sigh. “Since we have the warehouse for longer than we need for the house, why don’t we buy some lumber. Let’s do pine and stain. We can go with 2x6 boards. Frame out the door area and do a shrink to fit area on the door. We’ll need hinges and a person door in it.”

Natalie yawns, “Let’s plan it tomorrow after dinner, I’m sleepy now and if we start planning I’ll never get to sleep.”

“Good idea. Good night everyone.”

Day 4: I don’t sleep as hot but I also expected the cats and left off a blanket. It worked.

We get ready for the day and have a wonderful breakfast and hug the breakfast house elves, different ones today.

Natalie and I are standing in front of our building. I’m wiggling around shaking off nerves.

“I’m ready.”

Natalie stands behind me and wraps her arms around my waist. She’ll share magic with me to help with the shrink spell.

horreat aedificationem ut opus

The wand movement is a circle and a point. I hold the point while the outside shrinks. Magic is about intent and our intent is to shrink the outside to match the inside. Wrapping it snuggly.

Wow, it worked. I felt a tug as the building shrunk then it stopped when the building stopped. I love magic.

“I know we just had breakfast but I could use a snack and a rest. Let’s go to the cat room. The house elves can visit us in there.”

After I eat a bigger snack than I thought I needed, I laid down. My cat laid down on my torso. Kittens climbed on my legs and a couple of cats curl up by my head with a head on my shoulders. A house elf softened the ground under my head. Natalie and the house elves talked softly and the cats were purring. I didn’t stand a chance.

Two hours. It’s time to clean up for lunch.

Lunch was fabulous like all our house elf meals have been. Hugs to the lunch elves then back outside. We go in and double check everything works. Back outside to carve runes on our beautiful door.

Shrink to trunk size (2x4x2). Shrink to briefcase size (12x18x4 inches). Enlarge to trunk size. Enlarge to full size.

“Your turn Natalie. Shrink our house.”

Natalie is startled but walks up and pulses her magic in the shrink to briefcase size rune. It works.

There is time before dinner to plan our garage. I draw out a rectangle on a paper. Mark where the wagons and trunk doors would go. I label the walls, floor, roof, door and door within door.

With our living wagon right there, we measure it. The shaft comes off. I didn’t know that! At least we know the ceiling doesn’t have to be too high. Too bad we don’t have time to figure out how to shrink the wagons. I know we have more time in here but I’d like to rest and recharge tomorrow. We have to shop for our six sleeping spaces. A dining table with extra chairs. Sofas, end tables and rugs. Oh, lamps that we can spell. Plus the whole kitchen set up. We need food for the house and our wagon. We can go through the storage to “shop” for the wagon.

For each sleeping area we need a doorway curtain, towels, toilet paper, fresh water, floor rug, trash can. A board to transfigure into a bed. A bedroll to transfigure into a mattress. Sheets and a pillow.

Six sleeping areas. Blue, green, brown/tan, red/pinks, orange/yellow, purple/lavender.

The training room is black and grays.

The kitchen is gray and white, so is the dining area.

The front room is brown, tan, blues and greens.

Dinner time

We clean up, play with the kittens and cats, wash up and eat. Hugs to the dinner house elves and I’m ready to crash. “Good night everyone.”

Day 5: I left off the blanket last night. The temperature was perfect for me with the cats.

We get ready for the day and have a wonderful breakfast and hug the breakfast house elves, different ones again today.

We’ve measured the wagon so we need to figure out how many boards we need. If we stop time early, I wonder if we can gets boards delivered here. No, we’ll do it on our way out and tie them to the roof. I’ll have both pairs in harness as we leave town.

ugg, KISS! Keep it simple. We don’t need solid walls, a tent will work. The trunks will still attach to a cloth wall. Plus we can set up the tent around the wagons if we don’t have a floor. Before we make the beds, we can duplicate the boards for a solid wall if you want. We need 12 pipes and a whole lot of canvas.

Tabitha sighs, “I know we haven’t been away very long but I miss the ponies.”

Natalie agrees with me, “I understand. Let’s find what we need for our wagon then close down the ward stones.”

Tabitha says, “Good Evening, Trade Master Tavric.”

Tavric, laughing, “Get in here you two. Did you have luck with your project?”

Natalie says, “Oh yes but we still need to go get our living wagon. We’re planning on that for tomorrow morning. We thought we’d play with the ponies until dinner then maybe have a meeting with you?”

“That would be good, risk of fewer interruptions.”

Tabitha and Natalie go off to feed the ponies with pats and grooming. It’s amazing how well they get along after such a short time.

Meeting after dinner

The three of us are sitting comfortably in the study. It’s peaceful and no one wants to disturb it.

Master Tavric, quietly: “It must be said, are you ready to change the world?”

Natalie busts up laughing. “Oh, isn’t that what your man Wilson said when we left?”

Tabitha snorts. “This is why we came back. Not to change the whole world but maybe a small part of it. Now that we’re here when we are, I’m hoping to help someone else change the world. Even though we have seven years, I’m not sure what we can do.”

Natalie goes to say something but pauses then shakes her head. “Tabitha? Can we do privacy? Maybe show off our trunk?”

Tabitha is startled but nods. She whispers to Tavric, “Will we be undisturbed for an hour?” He nods. “If you were to leave for 2 days, would you need to take anything other than clothes?”

Tavric thinks, then says, “No. Other than telling others where I’m going.”

Tabitha, still whispering, “It would be strange to have you pack but come back here so we’ll improvise. However I think you’ll want to take parchment for notes and maybe a list of Masters?”

Tavric gets up and moves to his desk. He’s not sure why he trusts these girls. He KNOWS he’s safe and if he’s honest, bored of the same routine. He’s looking forward to seeing the world all shook up.

Natalie sets up the living trunk and goes inside to talk to the elves and cats. The elves let her know that they’ve been working on another elf door. They can’t be there during the time spell but can travel before to supply the kitchen area and go after to clean up. Some of the cats will stay with them.

The main pair and our cats, we really need names, come out bringing four other cats and two kittens. Tabitha raises an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything.

Natalie takes down the living trunk and sets up the house trunk. “It’s better to stand the trunk by a wall. We’re going shopping for a tent tomorrow. It will be big enough for both our wagons. The first trunk has a space we can put all our ponies. There will be a wall inside the tent for our house trunk. Once we’re inside the tent, no one will notice it. It will be safe from all others while we are in the house trunk.

“Tabitha? Can we protect from nature not just people?”

“Yes, we’ll research when we get there.”

“Ready?” both nod “Let’s go.”

Natalie opens the door and walks in.

Tavric looks in, pauses, then walks in and starts looking around.

Tabitha walks in with the cats following and closes the door after her. There is a panel on the wall by the door that she points at.

Tabitha says, “This panel has some of our kind of magic in it. The whole building that we are now in is influenced by this magic. Let’s take a tour before I tell you more. It will make more sense.”

Natalie leads everyone out of the foyer room. “The room that we are now in is the front room. We’d like to purchase sofas, floor rugs and end tables. This is a catch-all room. Meetings, visiting, planning, playing games or music.

Tabitha, waving her arm towards the left: This way please. This is a sleeping room, there are three others just like this. Hooks and drawers for clothes along this wall and through this doorway is a bathing room. There will be a curtain for now but it will need a door.”

“The bathing room is shared with the next sleeping room.” Says Natalie while she walks into the next sleeping room. The others follow her.

Tavric looks in the bathing room. “You say there are five other rooms?”

Both girls smile, “yes, in all but colors planned”, and Natalie waves them out.

As they walk down the hall, Tavric glances into each room. We’ve circled around. “To the left of us is the kitchen area but it hasn’t been completed. We have enough for the time we’ll spend here but will need to finish the area before we stay for a longer extended time.”

“A dining area is connected to the kitchen and is next to the front room where we started. The room to the right is in the middle of the house. It is for training.” We go inside. “There will be cabinet across the far end for equipment. See this panel? It’s another magic panel that is for this room only. It expands the room to twice as wide and twice as long. There should be plenty of room for judges, watchers and those trialing.”

Tabitha walks out, the others follow her back to the front room.

“We can use our magic for furniture while we’re here.”

Natalie does three chairs while I head to the kitchen. Oh, the elves have been busy! There is a prep counter, a food storage cupboard, an equipment cupboard and they’ve added a table and chairs. There are sheets and towels on the table. The cats are also in here near a food storage and feeding station. “Hello, are you there so I’ll see it or because you’d like to be feed?” As the cats are still sitting there, I open the cupboard. The main male nudges a bag so I pull it out. It says snack on it so I pour some in each bowl and put the bag back. “You’ll be okay until morning?” I hear purrs and see nods. “Well there are just three of us here and not much furniture but you are welcome to wander around.” I pet each cat briefly then head back to the front room.

“Some of the cats are here and we have food, sheets and towels. We didn’t plan this very well and will be much better prepared next time we use this space.”

Tabitha goes to the panel by the front door and pushes buttons. “We have now adjusted time. Every 24 minutes of outside time, 24 hours will pass in here. See this clock? It is a countdown of time left. I would prefer to arrive in the morning. This late and we may want to sleep soon.

Tavric is speechless and just stares, looking back and forth between the girls. “I don’t feel any different.”

“No, you won’t. This time doesn’t effect your body or your life span. Of course, if you get hurt it carries over unless you heal during this time. Dying carries over also so don’t do that! There will be muscle strength added along with the muscle memory when we train but not a lot of actual growth.”

Tabitha says, “Our thoughts were on training. We can do memories here, practice and trial in the the training room. There are rooms for sleeping, eating, and a kitchen. Do you know anyone that would that would be comfortable teaching in this matter?”

Natalie’s turn, “It isn’t just learning, we can bring games or musical instruments in here. If you have small projects to do, they could be brought here, maybe. I guess it depends on how much room it would take up.”

Tabitha warns, “We can NOT go outside. I have an idea on how to fix that but I’m not able to do that on this building.”

“So, Trade Master Tavric, would you like to plan and train? Would you like to learn about what we can do?”

Tavric relaxes into his chair and says, ‘“Yes.”

Tabitha starts the story, “As you know, we are not from around here. And while we did come from a land far from here, sigh, the night sky that you see from anywhere here is not the same night sky that we see. Our people study the night sky and believe that we live on a planet called Earth.”

“As far as our people know, you live in a land called Middle-Earth on a planet called Arda. Middle-Earth is the main location for a series of fiction books that we have on Earth. Fiction books as in not true, made up stories.”

Natalie says, “Maybe you can imagine our surprise when we landed here.”

Tabitha continues, “We did escape a war. Others did too. We don’t know where they are, when they are or if they survived. We do believe others will follow. We do believe we will be safe from enemies from there. I’m sure we’ll make new enemies here.”

“Because of the fiction books and notes that we received before we left, we have future knowledge. It is also possible that all this is a delusion and we are home in hospital.”

“Tabitha! Really? Ignore that last part. We’re working on the theory that this is real and our new life.”

“Oh yes. On our home world? We are not dwarrowdams. The main reason we don’t have anyone to judge our skills is that we were man, not dwarf.”

“With the information we have, none of the friends that we believe arrive will still be man.”

“We have knowledge, coin, training. Most of our knowledge won’t work. Some of our training will. Gold is gold. And we arrived here before the person we were following. So even the information we have about them is not applicable yet. I’m hoping they show up. My whole reason for coming was to help him and if he doesn’t show, I’ll need a new reason for existence.”

“I have parents and two brothers left behind. Our family was scattered before I left and I will not mind that they are not here. I wish I could have brought all my friends but I didn’t have many that were close and through our training before coming, Natalie has become a friend, close enough to be family.”

Natalie says, “My parents were not good people. I’m sure I would have turned out a horrible person if there were not a few tutors that were good people as well as sneaky. I have a wonderful Aunt who basically rescued me after I became old enough to leave my parents property. I found out I have a younger sister and an even younger brother. We did what we could, for as long as we could, my Aunt Irma is watching out for them.”

Tavric says, “It seems like you were fighting the system before you fought a war. Family is suppose to be your support system when all else fails but you did not have that. If I can tell part of your story, I know several Masters who will teach you. Some will want more memories made just so their knowledge is saved.”

Tabitha relaxes, “We can do that.”

Tavric smiles as he claps his hands. “So, should we continue with lessons?”

Tabitha says, “I’m going to put you in the first sleeping room we looked at, I’ll go make a bed. We’ll be down the hall in the corner, the last sleeping rooms we looked at. Just to let you know, everything in this building is suppose to be in here. The cats haven’t shown themselves yet but there are several in here with us.”

Tabitha heads off while Natalie helps Tavric with memories. It is two hours later when they all head to bed.

Next day in house trunk (16 hours left)

The cats are fed and the elves are taking care of the ponies. I’ve made up breakfast. Not as good as the elves but still delicious.

We’ve set up the pensieve in the training room. Tavric has a comfortable chair while Tabitha and Natalie are at desks practicing their writing. Natalie and Tavric were busy last night as we have six more years of memories.

We can get through a whole year in an hour before taking a break. This is good information to know for when the Masters come.

I believe we can get a week in here, which is about 3 hours outside time. I was thinking we’d have to leave Dol Amroth but Tavric thinks we can come back for the day when the Masters gather. He’ll set up a stall for us to adjust for our needs. The wagons can stay in his yard but the ponies can go into the living trunk.

Tabitha growls then says, “I’m really starting to not like this Treaty. We could come back every day for a month and still have more to learn.”

Tavric reminds the girls, “The treaty between the Iron Hills and Gondor means that you’ve only a limited time that you can stay here in the city. Unless you’re a Master or apprenticed to a Master, or have family here, you can only stay in the city for two nights.”

“I wonder.” Tavric has a thinking look on his face. “The treaty says apprenticed to a Master or have family. Would you want to apprentice to me or my Steward? We could get you that month, might need to make it two. Something to think about. We could get a Master or two a week in here instead of trying to cram everyone in at one time. The question is, can you stop time before the set time is up. Say you have a Master in here and it’s easy knowledge for you and you finish early. What then. Will the communication paper you were telling me about work in here from my desk?”

“Three hours is not a lot of time but anything can happen in three hours.”

Natalie jumps up, “We’ll be back shortly,” as she pulls Tabitha into the dining room and shuts the doors.

“All our dealings with Tavric is based on the package we got from the bank. Even with all we’ve shared, we haven’t shared everything. The contract needs to be very specific without sharing too many details. I think one of the first questions is just how many subjects can we be tested on. If we’re here for a month, that’s say 28 days. If we do a week a day, that could be 28 sets of skills. We need time between extended weeks for shopping, elves, cats and ponies. Even 14 days of extended weeks is a lot.”

“Remus had bookbinding and teaching? Check out the package, what did Harry and the others have?”

“Here’s the list we could do, I don’t remember if they have someone do all of them. Administration, animal husbandry, apothecary, archery, axe-fighting, axe-throwing, blacksmithing, book binding, cooper, farrier, field-healer’s aid, hand-to-hand fighting, healing, jewelery making, knife-fighting, knife-throwing, leatherworker, locksmithing, masonry, metal worker, paper making, potter, scribe, shopkeeping, silversmith, smith, staff-fighting, sword-fighting, teaching, woodcarving

“That’s 30. I’m sure it isn’t everything we could get. Is estate management called administration? Yes, that’s what James and Sirius have because of the House training. Tonks is going with alcohol so add brewer to the list.”

“Trade-Master might be a good idea. Lends authority to other training, don’t you think?”

“Yes, let me look, … here it is. To trial for trade-Master one must already have a shopkeeper’s Tarbûnel and have reached at least one other mastery, as well has having at least an utrab in administration.”

“I wonder if it matters what the other mastery is. So Mastery in Shopkeeper plus one and apprentice in administration.”

“I don’t believe anything dealing with a forge can be done by memory. Maybe the beginning lessons but eventually it would need a specialized trunk. Same with masonry.”

“Some of the tools necessary for lessons could be made with magic, like staffs or knives. Maybe even swords or axes. Maybe they’ll only be good for lessons and we’d need properly made ones once we have a bead or two.”

“Should we do a short-term apprenticeship? Could we write it up as six months or upon completion of specific tasks? We’re in no hurry to get to The Shire.”

Tabitha is nodding, “I agree about the time. Okay, let’s go talk to Tavric.”

The talk was interesting. Tavric as the “master” must give house room to his apprentice. The interesting thing is that the property next to him is for sale. The three will go in on the purchase and at the end of the apprenticeship will deal with it. Tavric can call on other Masters to give his apprentice lessons.

“It is currently April 26, we have tonight and one more night before we must register the contract or the two of you leave. You have said you’d like to leave here before the hot weather starts, so April 1. That’s almost a year. Why don’t we ten months and that the contract can be extended if all agree. If you are ahead of Harry, you have time to use the next year for training. Lessons that can be shared.”

Since they have ten months, Tavric will invite his mother to give lessons first. The first month will be all the lessons they would have learned growing up. “I don’t know how many days or extended weeks this will take. You’ll need to learn years of knowledge.”

“You know what? Spend the first month building your trunks. Didn’t you say something about outside? A forge in a time trunk may not be possible but I can have one built in the new yard for beginning lessons, just to get maybe a Ultrub bead so you can make your own weapons. You won’t need to go further if you don’t plan to sell them. Nobody needs to know exactly how you make your personal knives.”

“Start on day one with building a classroom in the stables. The living trunk and the time trunk can be on the classroom wall.”

“When the classroom is finished, we’ll have my Mum for a week then an extended week. Spend the next four weeks with the trunks while I have the forge area built.”

“The next set of four weeks can be administration, scribe, shopkeeping, paper-making and book binding lessons. Not all of these will be necessary but lessons learned can be shared and extra lessons can be stored. The two of you will have a business, at the very minimum you make jams. You have mares and a stud. You have chickens and rabbits. Didn’t you say you had plants for your jams? So you have food. These can all be used by the Dwarves in the Blue Mountains as well as the nearby Elves. I’m sure some of the Hobbits would welcome the different food items you may have. It isn’t necessary to share but to make a living once you settle, you’ll need to sell your jams.”

“Add hand-to-hand to this group. I know the perfect teacher for this and he’ll want to give extra lesson memories. He currently has a student that just tested for his own Tarbûnel  and has moved out.”

They are all taking notes but Tabitha and Natalie glance at each other both thinking the same thing, “we’ll need help. Will the house elves be enough.”

“The third set of four weeks can be weapons. Knife, staff, axe, sword. Your hand-to-hand should help with weapons work.”

“The fourth set of four weeks can be smithing and farrier. This will use the forge at your new place but an extended week can be used for beginning lessons that are mostly theory. We’ll need samples but won’t need the forge until later.”

“I do not know how far in smithing lessons you can go but I have heard some Smiths mention they can’t find students for their specific skill. General students but not the specialized crafts. This is mostly word-of-mouth but I can ask if they’ll give memories without saying the word magic. I’ll mention a special skill that allows my apprentice to use memories. We can figure out exactly what I should say later.”

“I sort of like that idea,” Tabitha says. “We’ll search for a spell that we can use while they’re under a sleep spell so it will be more like dreaming for them.”

“The fifth four-week set can bring in animal husbandry, apothecary, healing, or at least field healer’s aid. Leathercrafter might be nice. You will have at least rabbit skins, you’ll want to be able to use or sell those. Teaching too since that is one reason you were sent here.”

“That gives you three weeks at the end for whatever else is needed. Give yourself two weeks to practice and the last week for upgrade trials.”

“Lists and plans can be made during this time. You’ll not want your mares in foal unless the time trunk can speed that up. It might be best to pick up more ponies or foals as you travel. Maybe other animals.”

Natalie makes a note about stasis animals.

Tabitha says, “I like this plan. As far as anyone in Dol Amroth needs to know, you’re starting us out with general knowledge. We’re only training to utrab and maybe a little beyond in a whole lot of skills. Maybe pick two to concentrate on so we can test for Trade-Master before leaving. Shopkeeping and hand-to-hand?”

“Smithing will be the hardest but we’ll be in real time with this one so everything else will be believable.”

(5 hours left)

Chapter Text

I, Trade-master Tavric, son of Kerric, son of Melric, agree to a joint apprenticeship with dwarrowdams Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, of House Firewheel, last of her line and Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, of House Rosewood, last of her line for a period of eight months and two weeks. The goal of which is general knowledge. Trials to Utrab level in many subjects will be attempted. Possibility of a secondary goal of Trade-Master trials with utrab in Administration, Tarbûnel in Shopkeeping and Tarbûnel in Hand-to-Hand.

I, Trade-master Tavric, son of Kerric, son of Melric, am allowed to call upon others for one or both of my apprentices to learn from at my discretion.

I, Trade-master Tavric, son of Kerric, son of Melric, agree to provide house room and meals. Meals will be prepared by the woman Grisarat from stores I will provide for. House room for Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, last of her line and Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, last of her line will be decided on before signing and made note of at the end of this contract.

Dwarrowdams Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, last of her line and Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, last of her line, agree to do the best they can to learn the information provided, to be honest in their trials and respectful of their teachers.

Trade-master Tavric, son of Kerric, son of Melric, and dwarrowdams Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, last of her line and Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, last of her line agree that the apprenticeship may be extended.

Signed: Tavric, son of Kerric, son of Melric … (sigil)

Signed: Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo … (sigil)

Signed: Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward … (sigil)

(4 hours left) inside time trunk

I want to name Grisarat as a live-in cook and housekeeper. She can also be a chaperone if one is ever needed.

I know you’re worried about Grisarat. I named her specifically not only because of her cooking skills, which she could teach you if you’d like, but also because she is beholden to my family. She has already made promises of secrecy and nothing seems to phase her. We just need to let her know what her duties are, when she must be at the house and what else is expected of her. She’ll be great. She can shop for the kitchen for the extended weeks and won’t question the amounts.

“Tomorrow morning, you go get your living wagon. While you’re doing that I’ll be looking at the property.”

“I don’t believe the communication paper will work inside the time trunk but we can experiment during our first block of four weeks.”

I’m going to say good-bye to the cats then I can turn off the time feature and we can head out of here.”

time skip

“Wow, what a rush. So much has happened in such a short amount of time. That will take some getting use to.”

Tabitha and Natalie both look tired and say their good-bye as they leave.

Chapter Text

Apprenticeship - Day 1

We’re packed and ready to move into our new home. We’re both excited to begin our learning journey. Today we’ll start on the stables.

We head to Master Joss’ for help finding some wood. We get pine because it’s a stable and no one would understand Maple or Cherry. We have a wagonload delivered, as pine is inexpensive, it’s Ç4.

We want the outside to look the same except the doorways. We’ll paint the outside of the new walls black and cross our fingers it looks like shadow. At least we can close the big doors in front, we’ll lock them from the inside. We add an oversized people entrance on the side at the front corner. There is no door on the outer wall, just an opening. The door will be on the new inside wall.

Next step, crossbeams on the inside of the outer walls to support the structure. Next, remove all the inside walls and the floor down to dirt. Shrink and save the gravel.

As the roof is exposed beams, we’ll want a ceiling. We’ll be practicing with a staff, maybe the roof should be vaulted?

We’ll have anti-fire, anti-pest, water protection, and bad intent ward stones on the outside. We’ll need 8 for the corners, maybe two for the roof peaks.

We now have another shell. The gravel is cleaned with all foreign matter removed, cleaning spells are wonderful. The bigger stones on the very bottom, nice and level. The smaller stones are leveled on top. We cast a timed-stasis spell to keep everything from moving until we can get a floor in.

We set up the living trunk and have lunch in the cat room. The main cats step up to the outside door and look around. We ask the elves if we could build the floor in one of these rooms. We explain that we want to build it slightly bigger than the space, smooth it out, carve the runes then flip it and shrink to fit.

We decide to do walls first. The short ones.

The boards have tongue and groove spelled on them. We put them together slightly bigger than the wall measurements and smooth the seams. Runes are carved for strength, and cleanliness. The whole wall is painted black, shrunk, flipped, and placed up against the crossbeams. Then expanded to fit the space. “That looks great, let’s do the other short wall.”

The second short wall goes together faster.

Back to the trunk so we can do the long walls after we move the living trunk to a short wall.

The elves have a space fenced off in the pony area and have cleaned up the ground. We’ve got a rhythm going and the two long sides and floor are built and installed faster than the two short sides.

Dinner time in the cat room then the ceiling. We vault the ceiling in the practice area but leave the waiting area at 10’ ceilings.

We’re actually stuck in here and need to make a door to the outside. We cut a small opening just so we can get out. We go outside and draw a door inside the outer wall opening.

Done. Add the part we cut out and smooth the boards. Now, duplicate the door and use it to cut boards to frame the opening. We remembered hinges and a door knob this time. We shrink the door and place it where it is supposed to go then let it enlarge to a nice fit and attach the hinges.

Runes are carved on the door frame for secrecy and ill-intent.

We meet Tavric and Grisarat inside the new house. We were so excited to start on the stables that we haven’t unpacked. Tavric is laughing at us. “Can we see what you’ve done?”

“Of course, let’s do that before it gets any darker. There aren’t any lights out there!”

”We still need to do a wall across about here so there is a waiting area here in front, the room in the back will be for lessons and practice.”

We head back to the house and Tavric lets us know there are actual beds with bedding in the sleeping rooms. “Towels in each bathing room, I thought Grisarat could have the main sleeping room with attached bathing room.” We’re nodding.

Tavric claps his hands and walks back to the front room. “Now, Grisarat will be cooking breakfast and dinner. She’ll make a lunch for you to take out to the classroom. Once you’re in that building, I don’t expect you until dinner unless we finish early.”

Tavric continues, ”So, lessons start at half past 8. I’ll meet you with your first teacher in the waiting room area.” Good nights all around and he leaves.

Grisarat let’s us know that breakfast at 7 am so we don’t need to eat fast in order to get enough.

Apprenticeship - Day 2

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat cooked many different things but all were delicious. She asked what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. She says that lunch today is sandwiches with fruit and veggies. There is also a jug of water. We mention that we’ll try to add a drink station at the classroom.

Off we go for our first lesson.

Tavric is waiting with his mum, we don’t have chairs so they are standing around. We go in and stand quietly near Tavric who is watching his mum walk around. She is introduced when she comes back to our group. “Mum, this is Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, of House Firewheel, last of her line and Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, of House Rosewood, last of her line.” We both curtsy and say hello. “Girls? I am please to introduce you to my mum, Yanmebela, daughter of Brander, son of Steve of the family Goldshoulder.”

“Tavric told me you built this inside area but are not finished.”

Tabitha answers, “Yes, ma’am. We will have a dividing wall. This area will be a waiting room and the back room will be for lessons and practicing.

“We would also like furniture and a training supply cabinet.”

Yanmebela looks around then says, “I have some ideas. Can I share?” We both nod. “I’d like to see a snack and beverage counter along this wall. Not all the way across but starting in the far corner. I’d like a table to eat at in the corner big enough for four. Chairs and end tables, maybe a sofa and floor rug. Maybe a bookcase? At the far wall in the training room, I’d like a cabinet across the whole wall for writing supplies and training equipment.”

We look at each other and then at Tavric and his mum. “We like the idea, especially space for writing supplies in the equipment cabinet.”

“Let’s take measurements and go shopping,” as she rubs her hands together laughing. “Call me Bela. Teacher during lessons.”

“Yes Bela.” And off we go shopping. The waiting room will only be 12 feet deep but is much longer. We found a ready made snack counter, a sofa, area rug, four comfortable chairs, three end tables, and a table with four chairs. All these are delivered today. We also purchased what seems like a metric ton of parchment along with notebooks and quills before lunch. We even found a grid to set up inside by the door for mud.

We head back to the classroom to eat lunch on our own.

Bela comes back after lunch and we move furniture. After it looks perfect, we measure how much space it takes. The sofa will be against the classroom wall. The back of the sofa measures at 11’6”.

We sit at the table with drinks and notebooks. Bela starts, “Tavric says you have had a mans upbringing instead of dwarven.” We nod. “Tavric, as your Master, will be here tomorrow for the beginning of your training.” We nod. “We’ll use the table for our lessons with a planning session first.”

“I’m going to call today finished and will see you at half past 8 tomorrow.”

We sit on the sofa and look at the room around us. We move to the chairs opposite and look at the classroom area behind the sofa. We look at each other and both say, “We need the cats.” and laugh.

“We’re also going to need to purchase double the writing supplies for the time trunk.“

Natalie nods a couple of times as if she’s banging her head on a table. “All the training equipment too.”

We go to the living trunk first and talk to the house elves. They suggest using the dream spell in the house but without times. “We can learn days times and teach you sleepies time. When you do time weeks the elvesies will make meals ready to go for everyone.”

“Thank you. We need to make one more wall for a divider.”

“No, shrink sofas and take down back wall to duplicate it. Paint also, dark grey on the floor. Lighter grey on the walls. Lightest blue on the ceilings. Cabinet be light grey with blue trim.”

“Thank you, we’ll do it tonight after dinner.”

Dinner was delicious, Grisarat is a great cook.

Today isn’t over yet! We shrunk the furniture, duplicated and shrunk the wall. We painted all the walls, floor and ceiling and spelled dry. There is a door to the right of center, closer to the living trunk wall space. The living trunk is set up so the door opens toward the wall. We’ll need to make a temporary path from the door to the trunk. I had planned on spelling the grid to banish mud, water and grim. Maybe I could enlarge it to cover the full path. Oh, move the living trunk over a foot, make a 6 inch deep frame for the wall by the grid. We’ll have hooks there and they can stomp their boots on the grid when they hang up their overcoats.

Natalie shakes her head, “The weather is nice, we can do that tomorrow. Let’s get the time trunk set up in the training room.”

We place it in the corner in the same spot as the living trunk and head back to the house and to bed.

Apprenticeship - Day 3

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat cooked mostly our favorites and some different things but all were delicious. She asked what we liked best and if yesterday’s lunch was okay. We say yes but ask for two extras for Master and Teacher. We believe they will be with us the whole day.

Grisarat will buy snacks for us to take down after dinner.

We walk down with the lunches and put them away in the snack cupboard, Tavric and Bela arrive while we’re doing that. We sit on the sofa, Bela and Tavric on the chairs.

Tabitha starts, “You know we had a man upbringing. You’ve been told we have an unconventional way to learn. What you haven’t been told is that not every man learns this way. Tavric has been able to learn this way, maybe you can also. The two of us have a type of magic that allows us to do this. There is a spell on the door you came in that prevents you from talking about the magic you learn in this building.

Natalie’s turn, “You can talk about what you are teaching us in generalities.”

Tabitha says, “Dream time is fluid and you can dream a lifetime in a single night. What we’d like you to do is dream you are teaching a child. Use dream time to teach all that child needs to know as far as languages, cooking, reading, writing, fables and tales. What a girl needs to know about being a girl. Maybe even how to take care of a child. To try this out, we’re going to have you recline, close your eyes and relax. Then dream of story time, maybe when your child was 5.”

Bela looks at Tavric. He says he’s done it so she nods.

Natalie says, “Okay, the room we need has a door in the classroom.”

We go through the memory and the elves teach us. We explain that we’ll make a list of all the books she reads to us so we can purchase them to take with us.

We explain about the writing memories from Tavric. That just because we know the information doesn’t mean that we don’t need to practice.

“Come,” Natalie says. “Let us show you the rest of this house.”

Tavric laughs at his mum and says she’s going to love it. We explain about the time and he says, “See, you can bring a couple of books with you or that needlework project you’re working on.”

“Pack for a week.”Tabitha says, “We can magic clothes clean but would prefer not to because we aren’t that good at it yet. We do have friends that can clean them every night when we leave and put them away in the sleeping room you’re using. If you don’t mind wearing the same things.”

“Are you allergic to cats?” Natalie asks. “We have some that like to visit when we use this building.”

Bela says she’s not and is looking forward to meeting them.

It is lunch time so we leave the time trunk and go back to the waiting room. Bela asks for parchment so she can make a list of what she needs to bring.

We tell her that we’ll go inside about 9 am. And will be gone almost three hours of outside time. We’ll have lunch and be finished for the day about 1 pm.

Any errands or purchases we need can be done each afternoon. For instance, this afternoon we’ll be shopping for beds and bedding as well as towels for the house.

Bela says, “My list doesn’t have anything on it about you or time. I’ve made a generic list of what I need to take if I’m gone a week. I don’t say how many books or projects.”

“One warning. We can not go outside once we start time. We are researching how to fix that but we haven’t done that yet.”

“Mum,” Tavric says, “We have you scheduled for 14 outside days but it is okay if you finish early.”

Tabitha says, “That’s true and if we finish early, we can take an outside day for you to bring extra projects or books that you never seem to have time for. You can spend the whole week with them.”

Natalie giggles.

Apprenticeship - Day 4

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat cooked mostly our favorites and some different things but all were delicious. She asked what we liked best and if yesterday’s lunch was okay. We say yes but ask for two extras for Master and Teacher. We believe they will be with us the whole day.

We had taken snacks down after dinner yesterday and plan on using the extra 30 minutes to talk to the house elves. The beds and other purchases had been delivered to the house last night. We shrunk them and brought them with us.

ALL of the writing supplies are in the house with us. The house elves have stocked up the kitchen with snacks and meals. We are as ready as we can get.

We forgot to ask if Tavric was joining us but planned on it just in case.

We’re in the waiting room by 9 am and they are both there.

“I forgot to ask if I could come this day. If yes, I’m ready. If no, I played pack mule for Mum.

Tavric laughs as his Mum gently slaps his arm but she’s laughing also.

“We forgot to ask also but planned on it just in case.”

Tavric sighs, “I’m glad. I brought a project, a flute with music, and the bane of all businessmen. Parchmentwork.”

“Remember what you are wearing.” Tabitha suggests, “If we need to stop time so you can go get something important, you’ll want to be wearing what you have on.”

“We’ll spend a little bit of outside time to unpack first, check projects, and parchment work to make sure we have everything before we stop time. If you’ve brought a series of books make sure you have each one. I once came in with books 1 and 2 and 4-6. I was not happy about it.”

Day 4 of our apprenticeship has almost 3 hours of stopped time. Seven days = 2.8 hours.

And thus ends day 4 with a list of books to get and more writing supplies.

Natalie says, “I never realized how much a baby learns just listening to the sounds around them. We were able to get five years of memories learned.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get another five years tomorrow. There is more and more to learn as {snicker} we get older.”

We stay after to give thanks and hugs to the house elves. We go to the living trunk to spend an hour with the cats before we do our shopping. After dinner we take everything down and spend an hour with the ponies.

Sweet Kitty and Zeno join us at the house.

Training with Bela (day 4- day 14)

We start our training days with Bela doing 7 days inside time and almost 3 hours of outside time.

Day 4: We were able to get five years of memories learned.

Day 5: We were able to get three years of memories learned.

Day 6: We were able to get three more years of memories learned.

Day 7: We were able to get two more years of memories learned, up to age 13.

Day 8 of our apprenticeship is a laundry, errands and rest day. We may have been shopping most afternoons and the house elves are doing laundry but our time trunk’s kitchen need to be restocked.

We are very excited to have 13 years of memories. We have six more days of training with Bela. Even at two years a day, that’s 12 more years and takes us up to 25!

Day 9: We were able to get two more years of memories learned. There was also a question from Bela. “Can we do two more hours each day for the rest of my time?”

Eleven days? Yes we can.

Day 10: We extend our outside time to 5 hours with 11 days inside. We were able to get three more years of memories learned and spent some time relaxing.

Our shopping list has games, books, music and writing supplies. We’ve also been asked to take an envelope to a craft store. The note asks for four sets of beginning painting, drawing. And the note to the elves say we’ll do two times of 3 tomorrow.

Day 11: We change our times again, and do 3 hours twice so we get 2 weeks inside time.

We were able to get two more years of memories learned each time and spent some time relaxing and learning how to draw and paint.

Day 12 is a day of rest.

Day 13: We have 4 outside hours today. This is the last day of actual lessons. We’ve learned up to age 20. Today’s lessons are courting and baby care. This is good information to have.

Day 14 of our apprenticeship has 4 hours of outside time.

Four hours seem to work well with non-physical training. This is Bela’s reward. Tavric comes too. We play, read and relax. There are our two cats and six others. Two fall in love with Bela and the two that want to stay with Tavric.

And so ends the first section of our apprenticeship.

Chapter Text

Apprenticeship - Day 15

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat is cooking fewer things, some of our favorites and something new to try. She asks what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. She says that lunch today will be sandwiches with fruit and veggies as that seems to work best for us.

Today is outside time only. The elves are making sure the animals are fed. We play with the kitties and take time to brush the ponies. We talk to the house elves about what they need and want. We talk about research.

We would like a time trunk with a greenhouse and a pasture. A workroom as well as a training room. The house elves would like a trunk with a wizarding space and time feature. They want to get several animals pregnant when the time spell is on. NOT the ponies! There are also five elves that are tired. Their knowledge has been passed on and they will join the pregnant animals when the time feature is on. We are not sure what will happen but they are willing to chance it. All are male and five females are pregnant with their babies.

I don’t pretend to know what house elves need in regard to babies but I’m uncomfortable with them taking this chance. What can I do so they aren’t as tired.

We’ve talked among us. They believe they only have a year or two left. Their families were not good to them, they were injured before they came. They’ve shared lessons with all of us and made training memories for you and others. They are very willing to do this one last thing to help. They’ll take care of the animals and help the babies. They’ll take lots of notes. All of us are sure that the time won’t bother us if people aren’t with us, something to do with the magic.

Tabitha, with tears running down her cheeks, “Well, Let’s do that trunk first. It needs a Foyer? A single door with a very large pasture? Or do we need a second door with plants and food storage. Do you want the time to start in the Foyer? Or maybe we should have a double Foyer.”

“Look at this, see a single square with four sections. One when you first walk in with a single door opening to a small room with two or three doors. One wizarding space for the animals. One wizarding space for plants. One wizarding space for elf rooms and all other supplies necessary to last the year. See the time starts in that second foyer. There can be a sign, or the door can be locked. We can open the trunk and walk into the Foyer without messing up anything.”

Should the time be longer? The trunk house has 24 minutes out here is 24 hours in the trunk. Do you want that changed?

Let’s research this to see if it is possible.

Chapter Text

Apprenticeship - Day 16

Today is outside time only. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

Is what they want possible? Almost. We haven’t found where we can have that second Foyer with the time feature. We found a spell that will put a sign on the outside door that can say, “STOP Experiment in progress”.

It looks like we will leave the door in our living wagon until their time is up before bringing it to the classroom after lessons.

One pasture fenced. A cow, sheep, goat, llamas, alpacas. There will be two females, one is not pregnant. All the pastures are planted with bluegrass and orchard grass.

Oh, here’s a note. There should be two enclosed spaces for chickens and rabbits.

One greenhouse with an alfalfa field. Also a bigger field of timothy, orchard, brome, and bluegrass planted in stages so it is always “young” for the sheep, goats, llamas, and alpacas. Sheep also like leafy alfalfa. Legumes—harvested while still growing so that it has finer stems planted late for the baby lambs. Only a little alfalfa should be fed to the llamas and alpacas. Romaine lettuce for the bunnies and chickens.

The 40 acre greenhouses we have now are big enough for what they want.

A third space for everything else. I’ll make it as big as the pasture one. The House Elves can work on what to bring while I’m working on the spaces: house elf homes, chicken feed, sweet feed for treats, lots of writing supplies, etc. Each elf will do a memory of each day. Yes it will be a lot of vials.

The experiment time trunk will be Mahogany on the outside with Cherry and pine on the inside.

Natalie found all the spells needed for the greenhouse, she’ll just make four of them. All have sunlight spells and water spells. One of them will be the water supply. We store fresh water once and the spells duplicate it as it’s used. I don’t understand but the elf that found it does. By the time the duplicated water needs to be used it is real water.

I’ll need to talk to Master Joss about wood supplies tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Apprenticeship - Day 17-19

Today is outside time only. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

I talk with Master Joss. “I don’t need to know how to estimate building supplies yet. I need another weird structure but this time I have to build the whole thing from the beginning. Can you help me estimate what and how much I’ll need?

Not only does he say yes, he walks me through how to do it. After we go to his wood supplier. I pay the supplier directly but still tip for Master Joss’ time. A Crown and a recipe. I’ve also remembered to buy hinges.

Tomorrow I’ll build the trunk, for now I’ll help Natalie.

We talk to the house elves about what they need and want. We talk about research.

Should the time be longer? The trunk house has 24 minutes out here is 24 hours in the trunk. Do you want that changed?

Let’s research this to see if it is possible.

~time skip~

Today is outside time only. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

All the wood has been delivered and I put it in the classroom. I start with the Mahogany that will be the outside. I duplicate all the boards and spell them with tongue and groove. The bottom of the trunk built 6x10. After the boards are put together, I spell them smooth. I make two panels that are 6x4 and two panels that are 10x4. I attach one at a time to the bottom. I tip the box when I get to last panel so I can step inside. The corners are smoothed out. I attach pieces of wood that are L-shaped to the bottom edges and the four upright corners. Everything is spelled smooth.

Runes are carved on the inside of the trunk for feather-light, water-resistant, water-tight, pest-repellant, ill-intent, ventilation.

I add thin pine boards to each wall the depth of the corner supports. Now the inside is nice and level.

The inside box doesn’t have a top. It is made of Cherry, slightly bigger than the mahogany box. The boards are spelled tongue and groove. Biscuits are used to connect the edges. All the insides are spelled smooth. I levitate and cast shrink to fit and the inside slides into the outside.

Now for the door. I stand the box on its end. I use mahogany to make another panel. I spell it smooth on the inside. I shrink to fit along top edges and use a timed sticky charm. Hinges next then a handle. Runes are carved on the door for: shrink to 3x5x2 feet, shrink to briefcase size, shrink to 3x5x2 inches. Enlarge to trunk size. Enlarge to door size.

All the runes on the door work. I shrink it down and go look for Tabitha. Looking at the time, I forgot to eat lunch.

I see Tabitha take a break and ask if she remembered lunch. Nope. “Are you at a stopping point? We could eat our lunch with the elves before we leave.”

“Great idea. I can stop here, I just need to make notes.”

“Oh, here’s the trunk. I’ve got to finish the time feature and the warning spell then it will be ready for you.”

~time skip~

Today is outside time only. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

Tabitha: We need to make a point to spend a couple of hours in the living trunk each day.

I was able to do the time feature and connect it to the warning. There is a 5-second pause after you turn the time feature on but the warning sign goes up right away. Gives someone a chance to close the door back up or continue to open it before the time feature is ready to turn on. Also, it won’t turn on if the outside door is open at all.

Natalie has been working on the wizarding spaces. I’m glad she could work on them in the trunk training room. Without the time feature on, the elves are able to help her.

Alpacas are pregnant the longest at 11-12 months. I think bunnies are 30 days. Time should last 15 months.

At 24 minutes = 24 hours, the trunk will be spelled for 7.5 days. After talking it over, we make it 8 days. That doesn’t seem very long but there are no breaks like we do and I’ll be on pins and needles the whole time.

I place the trunk in the training room, fully enlarged and ready to open the door. One door inside on each short wall and two on the other.

Natalie: The warding spaces are ready to place but I want to do them in the morning.

We have lunch with the elves in the cat room.

We spend the afternoon in the time trunk practicing our writing and reading. It seems like I still love picture books. We take turns reading them to each other.

Chapter Text

Apprenticeship - Day 21-23

Today is outside time only. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

Tabitha, “Jasper? Are you pregnant? I thought you were spelled not to?”

Jasper is sweet about it. She shakes her head no then yes then nudges me, walking closer so I can hug her around her neck. “Are you healthy? Happy?”

We separate and she paws at the ground then nods her head toward the cow. I’m confused but Natalie gets it.

“Are you sure? We don’t want to lose you. Once we start the time feature we can’t stop it until after the babies are born.”

One of the cats walk over to Jasper and sits down. The main pair of cats follow. *Jasper has favorite elf. Wants to go with elf. Cat will go with, needs male too.*

Now, we’re all sitting down on the ground. “Let me get this straight. We have five male elves, three cows-one pregnant, four goats-one pregnant, three each of sheep, llamas, and alpacas-one of each is pregnant. The are bunnies and chickens. Now we also have Jasper who is pregnant going and two cats.”

One of the house elves stand up. “Cans I go too?”

Natalie is laughing by this point. “As long as you are not pregnant too. Elves should be fine, it’s the pregnancy we’re worried about.” Six elves stand up, “We has project we can use time for! We need walls of plant house for berry vines for jammies.”

Jammies? “Oh, you want to grow more fruits for jam? Don’t we have a lot is stasis?”

We talk it out and Natalie says she can do another greenhouse. It will not be as big, maybe half the size. One elf pops out followed by the other five. They pop back in with ears wiggling. “New size would work.”

So our time experiment is delayed for a day while Natalie makes another greenhouse. The research elves have found rapid growth spells that they want to experiment with as well as make jams.

So much has happened that I need to write everything down. I do that while keeping an ear out for Natalie in case she needs help.

~time skip~

Day 22

Today is outside time only for us. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

The living trunk and the new time trunk are set up in our training trunk. The classroom door is spelled closed.

We help the elves move the animals and set them up in the time trunk. Hugs for the elves that are staying and for the cats and Jasper.

The trunk is shrunk and moved to our living wagon. After setting it up, Natalie knocks three times and we watch as the warning sign comes up. Three more knocks then two knocks from inside. I spell a panel next to the door with the start day/time.

Natalie, “It is only for a week but I don’t feel like doing anything else. Let’s take a rest day and visit with Tavric and Grisarat.”

Tabitha, “Me too but let’s make some notes, have lunch then end the day early. I want to write a letter to Dis.”

To: Dis, daughter of Train II, son of Thror, sister of Frerin and Thorin Oakenshield, King-in-Exile of Durin's Folk

Dis,

I realize this letter should go to someone else but I don’t know who and am hoping you can help.

We are dwarrowdams with an apprenticeship contract with Trade-master Tavric, son of Kerric, son of Melric. The two of us were man raised and Tavric has been kind enough to help us learn the basics of many trades. His mum has helped us to learn what we should have learned growing up.

When we are through with our apprenticeship we will be traveling towards the Blue Mountains.

We would like your help in learning how to purchase the valley south of the Tower Hills, south of the Great East Road. We would like to build a home in the valley. We will need help with a connecter road off the Great East Road and also a road at the back side of the valley.

On our map, there is a Shire road south of Sackville that leads out of the Shire towards the Brandywine river. We would prefer a road that connects to that road outside of the Shire. Then add a road that follows the Shire boundary north with an off-shoot to our valley and continuing north along the forest to connect to the road that leads to Undertowers at the Great East Road. We do not currently have the knowledge to do this on our own but we do have gold to pay for this and may be able to help with materials. We can certainly pay/barter for the road that goes through our valley.

Once we are settled, we would be pleased to host you for Tea and give you a tour of our homestead and share our plans.

Faithfully

Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, of the House of Firewheel, last of her line. Natalie, daughter of Mark, son of Edward, of the House of Rosewood, last of her line.

time skip

Today is outside time only. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

We show Tavric our letter. We tell him about our time experiment. We will need to make a new time house so we can connect a greenhouse for outside space. If we have a big enough space, we could do a month or two inside at a time instead of a week at a time each day. We can make a big project space but there are still limits as to what can be brought in. Door size for example. We’ll need to research how to bring a forge in. Weapon training? Sure. Weapon making? Not sure.

By this time next week, we’ll know if the time experiment worked. If we lose Jasper, we’ll be in mourning and I don’t know if we can grieve in the time house or if it must be in outside time.

Tavric, “I don’t know what to say. Jasper is a fine mare and you would be right to grieve her if something happens but you have a week before you’ll know. What can you get done or plan in that week while you are distracted?”

Tabitha, “Thank you. I believe we can use the expanded training room to make an extra large room where we can attach the wizarding space doors. I do see where we can plan as we fret.”

Natalie and I head out to see the house elves. It’s time to check the rest of the trunks.

Chapter Text

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat is cooking fewer things, some of our favorites and something new to try. She asks what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. She says that lunch today will be sandwiches with fruit and veggies as that seems to work best for us.

Today is planned for outside time only. The elves are making sure the animals are fed. We play with the kitties and the ponies.

It’s the second day of waiting and when we get to the class room at 8:30 am, Tavric is there with Dafid.

Tavric says, “Dafid needs help and I think you can help. I brought him here because of the door. This is about his ponies and that trader that is trying to intimidate him into trades.”

Tabitha looks at Natalie, looks at Tavric then back to Natalie. The girls whisper then ask, “Does this involve a greenhouse? How many and for how long.”

Tavric answers, “Yes to the greenhouse. Dafid? How many of your ponies are threatened? Is it just the ponies? How long do you need them kept safe?”

Dafid says, “Everything. The ponies, my horses, my employees and my family. My family and most of my employees all have somewhere to go and have already started to leave. I just can’t take all my animals with me and stay safe while traveling. I was hoping you could come with.”

“You didn’t say how long. Will you stay with your animals if we have a safe place for them.” Tabitha questions.

Natalie gives parchment to Dafid, “Please roughly draw out the layout of your animal area.” This is really just busy work, Dafid looks frazzled.

Dafid looks pretty confused, “Maybe six months, maybe one but I think it will be closer to six”, as he starts to draw. “I have the space in the trader’s market. I usually have 50 animals there. I have a place outside of the trader’s market with another 60, mostly horses. Our home has most of the ponies, another 75, but we have cats and dogs too that my family can’t take with. I think I should stay with them, not only to feed them but I’ve got 20 mares in foal and two of the dogs are pregnant.”

“So, 200 animals? Just you?”

Dafid says, “No, I have two younger men that want to help me. They don’t have family and will go wherever I go.”

Natalie says, “Let me think. Excuse me,” as she goes off to pace and talk to herself.

Tabitha says, “There are snacks and beverages at the counter, I’m going to think and pace in the classroom. Please excuse me.” I go talk to the elves and the cats.

“I know we can link several greenhouses to a Foyer. My question is how big can we go and how many do we need for almost 200 horses and ponies. Another question: Do we need to keep their cats and our cats separated?”

”If we have stalls for most of the horses/ponies and feed them hay. Could we use a smaller pasture area?”

”Can we have doors connected to our foyer but have a time feature for growing the hay needed?”

”Can we build a greenhouse room that is one square mile? That’s 640 acres. If we can build it, should we? Wouldn’t it better to have smaller but connected rooms?”

Zippy answers Tabitha, ”Not sure, yes, probably, maybe, no, and yes.”

”Very funny. Here’s another one, how much water will we need? Oh, how can we hide that we’re moving that many animals?”

”Can we build a barn with many greenhouse doors?”

Tabitha leaves the cat area, ”Finished thinking Natalie? Let’s go talk to Tavric.”

”We can do this. Are you able to split the herd into groups of 30 without the mares in foal? One space will be 40 acres. That’s as big as we can comfortably go but we can do multiple rooms. Are you okay having your animals in a pasture or do you want them in stalls? We were thinking of building a house, at least three bedrooms. It will have a kitchen, dining room, a room like this one. There will be a second room like this that will have all the doors into the greenhouse spaces. You’ll walk through a door and be in 40 acres.”

”One room will be for all the mares in foal. I don’t believe we can do a barn with stalls for all of them. We might want to ask someone to do a miniature barn as a sample layout then enlarge it. They might be able to if we keep the stalls square. Say each stall is 20x20?”

”That leaves us with 165 animals, 30 per room? 5.5 rooms, let’s make it 5 rooms for 33 horses or ponies in 40 acres. We need a store room for all the feed you currently have, grooming supplies, harnesses that you may have plus all the stuff you currently have in your house. We’ll do one room for actually growing hay but I think you’ll still need to purchase it outside and have it delivered here. Where will the main door be?”

Natalie says, ”Wait, the hay greenhouse will not be connected to the house. We can use one for growing some but also have it delivered.”

”Five of the rooms will just be open space with 33 horses or ponies. Let’s make it six pony spaces, one for all the males. There will be running water in each one. One room will be 40 acres but will have all the mares that are in foal. There will be running water but we’re not sure about a barn. The barn is really just for you, we could have a lean-to for each mare and you can run … let me think on that. The last room is storage. Feed, housewares, grooming or riding equipment. One door will be where the water starts from for the other rooms.”

”Lights and water will be push-button, cooking will be fire.”

”Tavric, do we know anyone who builds doll houses? No? Okay. Dafid, can you pay for building materials?” Dafid nods. “Is pine okay? We can paint or stain it. Would you rather have maple or cherry? Teak is way too expensive for this.”

Natalie explains, ”We paid Ç33, Š4-double check for the house I’m going to show you. We also did a lot of the work ourselves. We used Walnut, cherry and pine along with mahogany. We also didn’t have a kitchen.”

Tabitha goes ahead and makes sure all the elves are out of the house.

Tavric sticks his head in and call out, “Ready?”

I come out of the dining room laughing. ”Come on in. That is the front door and this is the visiting room. We can make it bigger. To the right is the dining room. Follow me. Open to the dining room is the kitchen. The room to the left will not be there. Down the hall and around the corner is three sleeping rooms each with a bathing room. These can also be made bigger. Can you share bathing rooms? Yes? So at least two bathing rooms. Now around the corner are three more sleeping rooms but I thought that area could be one big room with your doors. We could, maybe, add a door to the outside… never mind, we won’t need it. We really only need two of the rooms, the third could be for laundry.”

Natalie’s turn, ”This is what we were thinking of. When we leave, we’ll take it with us as it won’t work for you anymore. Consider what you’re paying for materials as rent. We can stay in town until the end of March if Tavric extends our apprenticeship but would like to start traveling before the summer heat starts here . Also, we’ll need access to keep it working, maybe once a week. You could invite us to lunch or dinner every Sunday.”

Tabitha says, ”If we purchase supplies tomorrow, we can be mostly ready in two days. It will be crowded for maybe a week but the animals will be safe. After they’re safe we can go back for housewares.”

Dafid looks at Tavric. ”Really? They can do this? We’ll be safe?” Tavric is nodding. Dafid straightens up and clearly says, “yes please. They’ve already left dead birds at my home. I don’t want to wait to see what they do next.”

Today has been very stressful, we didn’t even stop for lunch! ”We’ll meet you at Master Joss’ at 10 am. tomorrow.”

Handshakes and see you laters and we’re all headed home.

Chapter Text

Day 25

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat is cooking fewer things, some of our favorites and something new to try. She asks what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. She says that lunch today will be sandwiches with fruit and veggies as that seems to work best for us.

Today is planned for outside time only. The elves are making sure the animals are fed. We need to play with the kitties and brush the ponies before heading over to Master Joss’.

It’s the third day of waiting and we’re going to be busy. After washing up, we grab two lunches and take off for Master Joss’. I’ve got a bag with our ward stones and other supplies and add our lunches to it.

Tabitha says, “Good morning Master Joss.”

“Aye, that it is. I un’stand you be working with Dafid.”

“Yes, and we need to rent the warehouse for three days. The rest of today through dinner of the third day. Could we get Ç20 of pine and Ç15 of Cherry delivered to the warehouse today? I brought another dessert recipe.“

“Thank ye, I’ll send a runner now to reserve it as we fill out the receipt.”

“Dafid will pay for the pine and I’ll pay for the Cherry.”

“Two then.”

Money and receipts change hands.

Tabitha suggests, “Dafid? Buy a container of paint or stain for every color you want in the house. Simple like we had it is best but it’s your choice. Take it to Tavric’s place. We’ll need it tomorrow morning.”

We head home, Master Joss goes to the warehouse to accept delivery and Dafid goes off the buy paint and check his animals.

We have lunch with the cats. The elves are looking at what has been prepared for us and asking questions.

We let them know what we’re going to do. Can they pack meals for us for the week we’ll be timing? Would any of the other cats like to come?

“Why don’t you take the time house to sleepies in?”

“Yes, thanks for reminding us. We’ll take it with us tonight so we don’t forget it. We’ll be by in the morning to play with the cats and ponies but will miss the day after while we’re at the warehouse.”

We let Grisarat know we won’t be here for dinner tonight, meals tomorrow or breakfast the following day. She doesn’t believe she’ll go anywhere, just adjust her cooking.

We have the paint Dafid picked out and he left notes about which color goes in which room (smart). We have the time house with cats and food in it.

We’ve done two trunks now by ourselves. What did we learn? The outside doesn’t need to be very big, it’s only a door into the inside. I shake my head. Let’s start with the inside.

These are men so the bedroom should be larger, say 12x12. We didn’t think of picture frame windows, maybe we can add them later. There’s a door to the hallway in this corner. Let’s put the closet along this wall. Drawers at 18” deep, 10” tall, 2’ wide. That makes this room 10x12. We need three of them.

The bedroom side of the house is 36 feet long.

The kitchen side of the house is 12x24 feet, let’s add a 3rd room in the back corner 12 feet by 16 feet to have room for the door into the hallway.

Wait, let’s have our training room space be for the doorways. If animals need to be moved, they can come into the training room then walk to to new door.

The back of the house can be completely open. Will add a laundry space and double bathroom next to the back bedroom and a single bathing room next to the kitchen.

Let’s make the dining room longer, at least six feet.

Recap: ~The bedroom side of the house is 36 feet long. All three have doors opening to the hallway. ~The dining room is 12x17, open to the kitchen 12x12, gives us 29 feet, seven for the bathing room. All three have doors opening to the hallway. ~Back of house is one big space with no wall where the hallway would be. ~A visiting room and a training room in the center of the house.

“Excellent plan.” Natalie is laughing at me.

We’re using pine on all the inside walls, floors and ceiling. Duplicate, spelled tongue and groove, attach and smooth out one side. Repeat. Repeat again. And keep repeating. We forgot to bring something to transfigure for the tub and toilet. I wonder if we have more dishes we can use. Remind me to look after dinner. We have all three bedrooms ready before lunch.

Off to our time house for food and friendship. There are four elves and ten cats. “Hey, Sweet Kitty, you brought a lot of friends with you.” Natalie is laughing. “They like our climbing wall.” Pets for the cats and hugs for the elves before we head back out for the door room space.

Duplicate boards, spelled tongue and groove, attach and smooth out one side. Repeat. Repeat again. And keep repeating. Dining room is complete so are the kitchen walls. Both bathing rooms have their walls done. The laundry shoot is ready. Any hand washing can be done in the bathing rooms.

“Okay, still no doors. We should pay Master Joss to make them and he can see the building. We can set it up in the classroom so he has to go through the door frame.”

“Yes, I like that idea. Let’s clean this up before dinner. We can paint in the morning.”

“I keep forgetting we have time stones in the warehouse. We have plenty of time. Let’s work on the greenhouses tomorrow.”

Natalie’s laughing at me. “Yes, and don’t forget to eat. We can do the greenhouses in the training room. Even if it’s expanded, the elves can pop in.”

Grisarat is a great cook but I really love when the house elves cook. Most likely because we’re more familiar with it. We should ask Grisarat for training memories of cooking.

We spend the morning in the training room making a greenhouse with plans to make the water room and the storage room before more greenhouses.

And so ends the day. Tomorrow, we’ll be back in the warehouse.

~time skip~

The rooms have been decided on and painted. We use Cherry for the outside and shrink to fit the rooms before adding the door.

We remembered all the runes we needed.

We make a small trunk to help support the greenhouse doors as we move them around. The door is on a frame attached to the small trunk inside wall. We’ll bring the small trunk inside the door room and remove from one and attach to the other. It sounds confusing but it will work.

We clean up the warehouse, stop the time feature, shrink both trunks and head out. I’m not sure how long it has been but it may be dinner time and we’re a day early. We gets home and clean up. It’s after dinner, and we are a day early. We leave a note for Grisarat about breakfast and say that we’re here but we’ll eat out because we have errands.

Chapter Text

Apprenticeship - Day 27

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat is cooking fewer things, some of our favorites and something new to try. We’re moving Dafid’s animals today so we skip taking lunches.

Today is outside time but moving day. We spend some time with the cats and ponies explaining we’re helping Dafid today. We still don’t know where his door is going.

We’re off to Tavric’s. He thinks the door should be at his house. He has a sleeping room he can put it in that already has three beds in it. It will be better than having three men at our place. This makes sense and we’re thankful he’s keeping our reputation in mind.

We head out to meet Dafid. There is a wall in a blind corner at the trader’s market near his pens. And all the horses and ponies are safe. Dafid and I go to his office first. I made a couple of boxes, shrink “everything not people in this room that is unattached to the walls”. We go the storeroom and repeat. Hey, there’s a child in here! I’m so glad I said not people instead of naming us.

I sit down in the now empty room, “Hey sweetheart, are you lost? Hurt? Did you run away?”

The child looks around then at us. “Where’d stuff go?”

I smile, “It’s a secret.” they nod, “I put it all in the box.” The child’s eyes get wide. “Is you Tabby?” my turn to nod, “I been waiting for you!”

I look at Dafid and he shrugs. “Okay, I’m here now but still have errands, can you come with me?”

“Yes, but my bag went in the box with everything else.”

“Oh, just a minute.” I look in the box then at the child and put my finger to my lips, they nod and I look back in the box, galw eiddo'r plentyn hwn (which is “summon this child's belongings” in Welsh) and a bag comes to me which I unshrink and hand to the child.

“Thank you.” They rummage inside and pull out socks and a different shirt. They change what they have on and put the dirty ones in the bag and hand the bag to me. “For the box.”

My turn to shrug but I shrink it and put it in the box. I stand up and hold out my hand. They grab on and start to walk out. I stay standing so they stop and look at me. “You know I’m Tabby, called Tabitha. This is Dafid. What is your name?”

“Amaryllis Sparrowflight.”

“Very pretty. And you’re a girl?” she nods. “Can we call you Mary?” a nod, “Okay, this is the hard one. Are you a man child?” This time a shrug and a head shake, “Can you tell us?” and another shrug. “That’s fine, we’ll call you Mary and we’ll figure it out later. Will anyone be looking for you?” And another shrug. “Oh, how old are you?”

“Seven.”

“That is good to know and it looks like I missed the nappy stage.” Mary giggles. “We still have errands and people waiting for us. Let’s go.”

Dafid reminds Tabitha, “We still have my feed room to do. It’s on our way back.”

We stop in the feed room and this time I ask if there is anything connected to the walls. No, just bags and bales. Another box, an “everything not people” later and we’ve got three small boxes.

I grab Mary’s hand and look up at Dafid. “Next spot please,” and off we go.

I put the three boxes in Natalie’s bag and whisper that we should do a glamour before we go to the other places. The three of us go back to that blind corner. Tavric and Dafid can see us. I hold out my hand to stop them then put a finger to my lips. First cast is a timed notice-me-not then a “improbi nobis sororibus” (glamour us sisters) while thinking of all three of us. Looked at us then “veste mutata” (clean clothes), “color vestimenta sua viridi” (color clothes greens) and we’re ready to go.

The five of us head to outside of the trader’s market area to pick up the other animals. “Do you have supplies here?”

Dafid sighs, “Yes, I do. Same set up with office, feed and supplies.”

“Okay, I hope there is a blind spot near the horses. And as I squeeze Mary’s hand, I also hope there is not another child left behind.” Mary snickers.

We’re in luck, there is a blind spot with a wall. We leave Tavric and Natalie there moving the horses while Dafid takes me to the other rooms. It was quick and there were no surprises. When we get back to Natalie, she’s talking to one of the horses who walks in the door without noticing Dafid.

Dafid says, “I knew you’d be good to my ponies.” Natalie just blushes. “Now, off to my place. It’s a couple miles away. Will you be okay Mary?”

“Certainly.”

Dafid leads and off we go after I give Natalie the boxes.

It is a couple of miles but Mary is fine with it.

Dafid turns onto his property and Mary takes off running towards the porch. She stops by the steps and crouches down waving us over. We’re all worried now so we jog over. “This is Ella Hindmarsh. Ella, this is Tabby. We made it!”

I move closer, “Hello Ella, are you going to come with us too?” She nods “Come on out so we can continue on our errands. Are you hurt?” Ella was crouched under the porch and she scoots out, “Can they come too?” Meow.

Now all the adults are looking under the porch. There are four kittens. “Hey sweet kitties, where’s your mama?” They all look behind themselves. “Oh, why don’t I make a box for you then I’ll take a look.” I back up and make a box then a blanket for it. The kitties come over and try to jump in. Mary and Ella help them while I go look at mama.

“Hello mama kitty. Are you hurt bad? Can you crawl out?” I swear I heard her sigh. Mama cat comes out but she isn’t alone. “Oh, Mama Kitty, what did you find?” The puppy is limping and there is blood on it’s side. He’s such a small thing I’m not sure he should be away from his own mama.

“Hey sweet thing, I’m going to rub around to see how bad you’re hurt and to see if there are other ouchies. Mama Kitty licks the puppy’s nose and walks towards the box and jumps in. I let the puppy smell my hands then run my hands around his head. His ear is cut but isn’t bleeding.

Around his neck and under his head. No jerks so we’re okay. I scratch the top of his head then run my hands down his spine and his tail. Okay, that’s a whine. “I’m sorry sweet thing, looks like your tail is hurt. Let me look closer.” Smart dog turns around so his tail is closer to me. “Yes, there is a knick here at the end, almost like they wanted to cut off the tip of his tail.”

“I saw you limping so we’ll save that for last.” The puppy faces me and I run my hands down each side, no whining or jerks. Now I run my hand down the other three legs. “Can you sit in my lap? I want to feel your paws without you standing on your hurt leg.” The puppy tilts his head then comes closer to me. “I’m going to pick you up now.” So I do, and move him to my lap. “None of your paws feel hot or hard and you didn’t jerk them away so they don’t hurt. Let’s look at your last leg.” I gently run my hand down his leg and get a whine. I hold his paw but don’t feel heat.

I make a blanket for him and tell him I know someone that can help but he’ll have to wait until we have finished our errands and go home. Tavric says he’ll carry him. Puppy perks up and relaxes in Tavric’s arms. I cast a stability charm on the box of kitties as well as a feather-light and pick it up.

“Okay, Dafid, lead on. Let’s do the animals first.”

The ponies are easy since it is his own barn. We set the door up in a stall and they all walk in. Easy-peasy. Dafid walks outside the barn and whistles. Loudly. Several barks are heard but I don’t hear running dogs. Natalie takes the door down and returns it to her bag. I whisper, “do you remember how to make a port-key?” We’re lucky that she does. I hand her a long stick. Make it out of this and pretend that you’re using it to walk. “Ella, walk between us and Mary walk on the other side of Natalie. Tavric give the puppy to Mary and I’ll give the kitties to Natalie. Hang on.”

I place the kitty box on the ground. “Mama, I’m worried. I’d like to shrink the box you’re in so it will be easier for Natalie to hold you.” Mama stands up and meows at the kittens. Mama sits in the corner and all the kitties sit close to her. “Oh, thank you, that should work just fine. hinc maiora faciunt (make sides taller to here in latin) ... horreat arca tardius (shrink box slowly) ... prohibere (stop)

“Here Natalie, take the kitties. Girls, if any of the adults say “run” I want you to grab hold of the stick. Mary, hold tight to the puppy so he doesn’t get dropped. When you grab hold of the stick Natalie is going to say “home now” and you will feel a jerk and a squeeze. It will not be comfortable and you will fall down at the end. You may even throw up. But it will take you away from here very fast to safety and I’ll explain what happened when I get back to you.”

“Wait Mary.” I think really hard then make a baby wrap carrier for the puppy and tie up Mary and the puppy. “Now he won’t be dropped, just snuggle him close to you and support his head.”

“Okay, we’re ready. And I hope all that was unnecessary.”

“Hey Tavric? Do they write wills here?” Tavric stops Dafid. “Do you have a will? Quick get him writing supplies. Write down that you feel threatened and have given all your horses, ponies plus supplies and any paperwork that go with them to Tabitha and Natalie. Mention the dead birds and who you think it is but you have no proof. Say where your family has gone and name the two employees that were going to help you. The four of us will sign it and put it in Natalie’s bag.

I take Natalie’s bag and open it, a quick “vocare archa cum Mariae sacculi” (summon box with Mary’s bag) and unshrink the box. We use it to sign on then I put the will in the box, write office on the lid, shrink it and put it back in Natalie’s bag. Hand the bag to Natalie and hold the kitties while she gets the bag back on. Dafid starts walking while I hand the kitties back to Natalie and we all follow.

By the time we make it to the house, all the dogs and cats have come home. Once we get inside, Dafid counts them to make sure. I go into the front room and make a box. um, looking around, I stand just outside the room. “Shrink everything in this room not living”. Then “put everything in this box.” Good, no people or animals, not even plants. I go back to the kitchen.

“Dafid? Why don’t you take everyone to the front room while I do the kitchen. There isn’t anything left in there.”

Natalie duplicates kitchen chairs and the men carry them. Natalie sits down with a girl on each side. The stick goes across their laps. Mary is still snuggling the puppy and whispering to him about being safest where he is and he can play at the new place when he gets fixed. Mama Kitty is looking around but stays in the box. The box is sitting on the stick. The girls are all hanging onto the stick. Natalie says if they have to use the stick to hang on tight but lean forward. She doesn’t think the chairs will come with. They all scoot the chairs closer together and wait.

Dafid had been talking to the dogs and cats. He’s giving them all pets while he’s talking. Saying he was going some place safe. That they were all invited to come with. That it would be strange for a while but the ponies were already there. The family has left to be safe somewhere else, that they were not invited. That he wanted them to come with him and the ponies. They all stop walking around and sit nearby. One of the bigger dogs sits close to the girls, after poking his nose in the box to sniff kitties then licking puppy’s nose. Two of the cats jump up on Ella’s lap.

I’m in the kitchen. I make a box just for food, and a second box for everything else in the room that isn’t me, this box or considered house. Whew, that worked. I go back to the visiting room with the three boxes for Natalie’s bag.

“Ping for all people in or around this home not in this room.” Silence “Ping for all animals in or around this home not in this room.” Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping. “That’s four animals, you’re up Dafid. I’ll start another box.” I make another box and hit it with a color charm. “Identifique todos los artículos en esta casa, no en esta habitación, no personas, no animales.” (Identify all items in this house not in this room not people not animal)

”Reducir todos los elementos identificados” (Shrink all identified items)

”coloque todos los artículos encogidos en esta caja” (place all shrunken items in this box). A quick shrink of the box and I add it to Natalie’s bag.

Tavric asks why I changed the boxes color, “I noticed that they’re all different colors.”

“That’s easy. I can made a box and in a few days it will disappear and everything in the box will be lost. If I change the color, it is now a different box and will last for as long as I need it.”

Dafid comes back in with four more puppies. They aren’t hurt.

Tabitha is petting the puppies, “I have an idea. Why don’t all the animals, Tavric and the girls go in the door. Natalie and I will use the stick if needed and Dafid can come over with his two employees.”

Natalie says, “That’s a good idea and while they’re getting in the door, Dafid can walk through the house to make sure we got everything.”

Dafid nods and walks off. Natalie gets the door out, puts it on a wall and opens it.

“Here Tavric, take the kitties with you. Come on you two, you can walk in with Ella. I’ll help Mary stand up. In you go.” The four puppies whine. “Yes, you too just watch out for horses and poo piles.” Natalie closes the door after them and gets the door back in her bag. I’m standing next to her and we’re both holding the stick. I can hear Dafid’s voice then a slap and a loud “Run.” Natalie says home now and we’re gone.

We land in a tangle and I can see she is crying but looking in her bag. She gets the door up and opened. “Tavric, Dafid said run.”

Tavric’s eyes widen, “Okay, get out the will and make a copy. I’ll take it with me to the Ranger Station and tell them that Dafid was suppose to come to my house but is late and I’m worried. I’ll tell them I know it hasn’t been long enough but that’s he’s been having trouble. If I need to, I’ll show them the will.”

As he’s talking, I’m rummaging around for the right box, here it is. I unshrink the box and make a copy of the will. Tavric takes the copy and leaves.

“Look Natalie, do you think Dafid will make writing memories? He did this really fast but it’s still beautiful.”

Natalie slaps my arm lightly and says, “Let’s go to the living trunk and have them look at the puppy and the girls.”

Tabitha sits down by Dafid’s cats and dogs, “Mama Kitty, we need to take puppy to a place where there are other kitties. Will you stay in the room with the horses? How about the rest of you? Will you stay in the room with the horses? I know everyone needs to be fed but I want to get puppy looked at and that’s where the food is.”

Mama Kitty pats the box. “Oh, no, you don’t need to stay in the box but I can make you a bed if you like.” The box is on the ground so she jumps out. I made a bed and hit it will a color charm. I take the kitty box into the room with the horses. Mary follows me. “Can you make a fence so they don’t get stepped on?” I smile at her and nod.

“Okay everyone, do the rest of you want beds now or later? I see head shakes so later? I see nods. Okay. Stay in a group for a little bit.” Mary walks back out of the room while I walk off muttering while walking in a circle. I’ve made a fence with a gate. “Okay, the fence won’t stop you from getting out but will stop the horses from getting in and stepping on you. Be careful of wondering around and we’ll be back after getting the puppy looked at and getting food.” All the dogs and cats walk into the fenced circle and I carry over the cat bed. I close the gate and leave the room. Natalie takes the door with us as we go to the living trunk.

Tabitha is thinking, how am I going to explain house elves to the girls?

I’m exhausted and the day isn’t over yet. I’m worried about Dafid, puppy and the girls. I’m worried about Jasper and the other animals and elves in the time experiment. I go to the cat room and sit down on the ground. I think I’m numb.

The main pair come over and sniff around. There’s a loud meow and a couple more cats come over with kittens. They head for the girls while the main pair head for the wall. Wait, the wall? Yup, they knock on the wall and an elf pops in. I look at the girls but they’re playing with the kittens. Sneaky cat. Natalie and the puppy go away from us and I go sit with the girls and the kittens.

Not much time passes before puppy runs over with Natalie following. “Is this room like the other one?”

“Yes Ella, it is, only in here, there are cats with some house elves and no horses.”

“House? Elves?”

“Yes, friendly house elves. Look at puppy? See, he’s all better. I want them to look at you to make sure you aren’t hurt anywhere and that you’re healthy.”

“Do I have to leave?”

“No, you can stay right here. You might have to stand up, lay down, or just set the kitties down.”

Mary giggles and soon Ella does too.

Floppy walks over. “I already checked everyone.” She picks up a kitty. “This one needs to eat more.” She hands it off to another elf who has a bottle. The girls are fascinated. Floppy hands me a jar and says “Bruises. All of you have bruises.” She shakes her finger at me, “I do not know how you have a foot print on your leg and I do not think I want to find out but push your pant leg up so the girls can see how the paste works.”

“I don’t know how I got a foot print either” but I push my pants up so we can see it. I open the jar and scoop out a little bit of the paste and rub my fingers together. “It’s smooth.” I scoop out more and rub it on my bruise. “It’s cool.” Both girls lean forward and touch the paste on my leg.

“Take that with and use it after washing. Tomorrow sleeping time you use a different one. Make sure you wash today is not hot.”

“Thank you Floppy. I’m guessing all we have are bruises. We were on a rescue mission and have a room with almost 200 horses and ponies plus several cats and dogs. We need to make sure they’re all healthy and feed them. The horses and ponies can graze but not the cats and dogs.”

Floppy looks off the side with her head tilted. “You all go back to the other pony place, others will follow. Is this what the greenhouses for?”

“Yes, but the horse man is missing. We are hoping he comes soon. Come girls, leave these kitties here so we can go check on the other ones.”

Off we go to ’the other pony place’.

Floppy pops in and says, “These animals healthy but hungry. All these animals okay with all our animals.”

“Hey sweethearts, did you hear that. You can come out into our space and visit with any of our animals. Let’s go into our class room and get you fed. I’ll make you a toilet area too.” Bags of feed pop next the Natalie and the girls. “I guess you will be bringing food. Am I going to carry anything?” Mama Kitty comes over and I pick her up. “Hey Mama Kitty, just you or your kitties too?” She looks down but her kitties are already following the girls and Natalie out. I pick up mama’s bed and head out.

When I get out, Natalie has already made a potty spot. “Just in case you need to go now. We’ll let you go outside but let’s get you fed first.”

Natalie has a stack of bowls that she is laying on the ground. Mary has puppy food so she adds a scoop to five bowls. Ella has kitten food so she adds a scoop to four bowls.

My Sweet Kitty shows up with a note. I bend down to pet her, “Hello Sweet Kitty, have you come to see the new kitties? This is Mama Kitty, I don’t know the other ones yet.” I read the note. “Floppy says the cats get kitty food too for a couple of days so 5 more bowls of kitten food.”

Natalie has the dog food so she scoops out three bowls.

One of the dogs and two cats have used the potty spot so I’m glad Natalie made that first.

“Was Tavric coming back here when he got back?”

Tabitha cocks her head, thinking then says, “I would think so. I’m going to go ask for food for us now that the animals are fed.” I go back to the cat room and tell them that the new animals are eating. We need lunch for the two of us plus to new girls. Can we get food for them and give the other animals time to finish eating before coming out to meet them.

We stay in the classroom to eat, some of our cats come out to say hi to the new animals. Natalie hears voices then there is a knock on the door. “Come in.”

Tavric sticks his head in and says he found Dafid and also has a man from the Ranger Station with him.

I don’t know about their eyes but I know my eyes widen, “Should we all come out?”

“Might as well.”

We clean up our picnic and I make a box for the food bags to keep them safe. I tell the animals that we need to talk to an official but we would send Dafid in as soon as we can. “Do you want beds? Blankets? Toys?” I see nods all around and laugh. “I wasn’t very clear was I?” A couple of quick charms and there is a bed and blanket for everyone plus some extras so everyone has a choice. Natalie has made some balls, a couple of scratching posts, and a climbing wall. “Okay, we shouldn’t be long. Leave the big beds for the big dogs or share.”

I open the door but Natalie walks out first, followed by Mary and Ella with me bringing up the rear with Sweet Kitty and Mama Kitty sneaking out with me. I open the door back up and look in, no one else seems to want to come out so I close the door again.

Tabitha bows to the official. “I’m going to assume that you don’t want to sit with your back to the doors. Why don’t we rearrange furniture so the girls and I can sit on the sofa together.”

He nods his head so furniture is moved around. Natalie and I sit on the ends of the sofa with the girls between us. Sweet Kitty is on my lap but next to Mary and Mama Kitty is on Ella’s lap.

We all stare at each other. Dafid says he’ll go first. He explains about the man in the market watching his ponies and trying to make a deal but not willing to pay what they are worth. How he had watched the man be mean to the animals he already had. How Tabitha bargained but was willing to pay for good quality. How Natalie was also gentle with the ponies they bought. How he traveled with them to Black Rock when he had horses to deliver to his brother and the girls bought more ponies.

The Official, Ristaro, stops writing, “Wait, more ponies?”

Tabitha answers him, “Yes, we are headed to the Blue Mountains, maybe The Shire. We have a wagon for us to live in and a feed wagon. That’s at least four ponies but we bought 8 ponies so we can rest a pair every other day. They still have to walk but they’re only in harness every other day.”

The Official nods his head, “Thank you, that’s a good idea. Go on,” as he looks towards Dafid.

“When I got back, there were dead birds at my home.” He grimaces, “Sorry girls. The birds were in pieces but none of the pieces seemed to be missing. Now I was scared of what would happen next so my family packed up and left for her parents. My employees, all but two, also packed up and left. I came here to talk to Tavric because I was looking for Tabitha and Natalie. He was with them when they bought the first ponies and seemed friendly with them. I thought he might know where they were. I was going to ask them to help me take all my animals to my brothers.

The Official asks, “And did he?”

“He did, they were here.”

The Official looks confused. “Here?”

Natalie answers, “We had signed an apprenticeship contract and we live in that house,” as she waved her arm. “This building has our classroom in it.”

The Official nods and continues to write.

Tavric’s turn, “Help was available but they needed to prepare for almost 200 horses and ponies. That’s what we were doing today. Ponies, horses, grooming and business supplies. Food. Three different locations. We found Mary at the first place and Ella at the third. They know each other. Both are not here with parents. We had planned on telling someone official about them, starting with the dwarves. Tabitha was antsy when we got to the house which was after we found Ella and a hurt puppy. Dafid made a quick will, all the adults signed it and we headed inside the house. Dafid left us to see if there was any thing we missed when we packed up. We stayed in the visiting room with the animals.”

Natalie says, “I heard David’s voice then a slap and then a very loud run. So we did. Because we were worried about what happened to Dafid, Tavric went to see you. Or rather, went to report that worry. We stayed here to feed the animals and the girls.”

Tavric’s turn again, “I found Dafid on my way to the Rangers Station but that’s where he was also headed. He told you his story and here we are.”

The Official asks, “Do the girls know his story?”

“Natalie and I knew he was afraid for his animals and his people. We do not know what happened to him after he said run. As far as I know, the girls met Dafid today.” The girls nod.

“I was walking around the house when someone knocked on the back door. I thought it might have been a neighbor since it was the back door but it wasn’t. They said they were looking for a little boy but I hadn’t seen a little boy. They didn’t believe me and pushed passed me and into the house. The were headed towards the visiting room where everyone was so I said run. That was our safe word for today. Tabitha told Mary we were doing errands and that she could come with us. We found her hiding in my supply room at the Trader’s Market. We found Ella at my house by the front porch. She had an injured puppy, Mama Kitty (who meowed) and four kittens under the porch with her. We also found four puppies later. After we finished clearing out the barn, Tabitha explained about the safe word and what we should do if an adult said it. That’s why they left when I said it. I don’t know if Ella was the little boy they were looking for but I wasn’t going to take that chance.”

The Official looks down at his notes, shakes his head and relaxes into the chair. “Many things have happened today. An attacked man, found children who aren’t lost and missing ponies. We had two young men come to the station today. A”, looks at notes, “Mark Shadowfall and Boomer Okkan. They said that their boss’ horses and ponies were missing from the Trader’s Market. We sent someone to check and they found all your stuff missing which lead us to believe you had done a runner. They didn’t believe us.”

“You, Dafid, have given a description of the men and someone is looking for them. As the children found look like dwarfs, I will make note that you will report it. We do not, at the time I left, have a record of them being lost.”

“Now, as for the missing ponies. You don’t seem worried about them.”

Dafid laughs, “I was going to see the boys tonight. They knew I was worried and that my family had left. I was hoping that between those two and these two, I could get my animals safely to my brother’s place in Black Rock. As these two have all my animals, I’ll ask those two to help me take care of them.”

The Official nods, “I need to see or have a firm location I can visit in order to report on the missing ponies, horses and supplies that we found missing.”

Tabitha nods, “It’s my turn again. I have several things to tell you. First. You can share anything and everything that you have learned in this room today during this first meeting. Second. After we go in the other room and you see the horses and ponies, the other animals and the supplies, you can only say that you have seen them. They all look healthy and that they are safe. You can NOT share with anyone except when physically in this building, where they are, how they traveled or anything except what I said. You could leave here without confirming the animals are safe but you would waste man-hours looking for but never finding them.”

The Official nods his head and says, “Just a moment.” He flips around the pages of his report, reading snippets here and there. He flips to a new page. “What were the words you used?”

Tabitha asks, “Dafid? Did we get all your animals?” He nods.

“You have seen all the animals that Dafid owns in Dol Amroth. They all look healthy and they are safe.” He closes the notes and puts them in a pocket. “I’m guessing Dafid does not own any of these cats.”

Natalie laughs, “True, let’s go look for his animals.” as she stands up. “Come on girls, kitties, let’s go see the other animals.” She heads into the room first and we all follow.

Tabitha tells the Official, “This is our classroom and practice room. Our apprenticeship is new so the classroom still looks new.” She points to the potty spot. “We do not usually have a potty spot or a climbing wall,” as she points towards the wall. “We also don’t have beds, blankets or toys scattered around. Dafid doesn’t own all of these animals but all the cats and dogs he owns, as far as I know, are here. Safe, healthy and accounted for.”

The Official wanders around the room, stopping to pet dogs and cats, watching the cats on the climbing wall. He walks back to us. “Okay, where are the ponies and horses?”

Mary says, “They’re in there” as she points to the door.

The Official looks at all of us, “I don’t remember seeing a door on that wall when we walked up to the building.”

Tabitha says, “I know and it’s the reason you can’t say where you found them in your report. Come on.”

I’m talking as I open the door and hold it wide for everyone. Dafid is next. He continues out into the pasture to talk with his animals. The girls are next, the Official follows with Natalie and Tavric bring up the rear.

“We had not planned on sharing this with anyone here. We are headed to The Shire or Blue Mountains and per the Treaty between Gondor and the Iron Hills, we can only stay for two nights. Unless we have family, are a Master, or have signed an apprenticeship contract with a Master.” The Official looks startled. “We are dwarves but were man raised. Tavric was trying to share as much information as he could with us before the contract came up. I’m sure if the contract came up right away we would not have bought the ponies as we would not need them yet. Dafid would not know us. His animals would not now be safe.”

“As for sharing, all those here know and so does Tavric’s mum. She was one of our teachers. That is all we have told. Our other teachers will be told. Tavric bought you here to talk to us for two reasons. One is that he knew the animals were here. Second, there is a spell on the door into this building. You won’t be able to talk about specifics when you leave. Only what I said you could talk about. We take secrecy and security very seriously. {far, far away, a dog shudders without knowing why}

The Official asks some more questions about the girls and the animals. He looks around and asks how to get ahold of everyone.

Tavric answers, “That would be through me. Tabitha and Natalie are both under apprenticeship contracts. While they do not live in the house I’m living in, they do live in one of my houses. Plus, you’d need to talk to their Master first. The door with the ponies will be in a spare room at the house I am living in. While Tabitha and Natalie need access to the pony room, it is not appropriate for the three men to live in their house.

The Official has left.

Tabitha says, “Okay, let us update you about your house.”

Natalie asks, “Why not do a walk through?”

“Good idea, let’s go to the classroom.”

“While she is gone I can tell you that your house is not just like our house.” Natalie says, “Once you said you could share bathrooms, it made things easier for us and I hope you like it. Also, it is mostly but not completely finished.

Tabitha returns, “Here it is.” She expands the trunk and places it against the classroom wall. “See this panel on the door? It’s for fingerprints. No prints in the system? You can’t open the door. Let’s get both of you in the system.”

Once that is done, Natalie says, “Alright. Dafid? Why don’t you open your home for the next few months.”

Dafid grins, opens the door and walks in followed by the rest of us. Including all his dogs and cats. And some of ours.

Natalie says, “There is no furniture, we’ll unshrink a box. We can add a climbing wall and maybe a ledge down the hallways for the cats.” I see nods. “Your dining area is in the same corner as ours. Yours is bigger. The kitchen is the same size but unfinished. There are three sleeping rooms on the other side.”

Tabitha walks towards the other side. “There is a hallway to the back of the house. Three sleeping rooms with clothes storage.” She walks to the back of the house. “This is a laundry area. It has magic in it, you bag up your dirty clothes and drop the bag in this shoot. If you do it on Friday we’ll bring the clean clothes when we come for lunch or dinner on Sunday.” Dafid nods.

Natalie sighs, “We aren’t finished with the bathing rooms but the basic setup is in there. Three sink areas and a door into the toilet and bathing area.”

“The rest of the back where we have sleeping rooms is one big space. Let’s walk towards the kitchen. There is another bathing room here, all one room with a single sink. And around the corner the kitchen is on the left. The hallway ends in the visiting room. This door on the right leads into what we are calling, the door room.”

We all walk in. “This is where we will put all the doors when the house is finished. For now, we are keeping your one animal room with us because we have help to feed the animals inside.”

Natalie walks back to the hallway, the others following. “See, here’s the door into the kitchen. This hallway ends in the visiting room in the corner. And back to the visiting room, here is the dining area.”

Tabitha, walking out of the house: “We’ll be working on the other doors in your house, here in the classroom.” The others follow her. “The classroom door will be locked just in case. With your house being here, we can add the rooms as we complete them. Bring your helpers over the day after tomorrow so we can get their fingerprints added to the door. Come after lunch, maybe 2 pm. You can wait for us in the waiting room. Tavric is welcome to come with you.” Tavric nods. “You may see us for breakfast or dinner but you won’t see us all morning or before dinner. Maybe around lunch if we need to purchase anything.”

Tavric asks, “Will the girls come with us? I do need to report them.”

Tabitha looks at the girls then Natalie: “Can we keep them for a couple more days? They’ll be with us and in with our other animals. Once we’re finished with Dafid's house and rooms, we can do what ever reporting is necessary. We also need to shop for them!”

Tavric says, “We can do that, as long as there is a plan in place and they’re taken care of, we should be fine. You might need to add one more unexpected person to your list. The Dwarven Child Services.”

Natalie kneels down to hug the girls. “We may break our contract and take the girls and run. Even if we have to take Dafid and his helpers with us.”

Tavric nods, “I expect he’d go with you!” Dafid is laughing and nodding. “It shouldn’t come to that especially if they come here with the Ranger man that was here.”

Good-nights and see you laters all around.

Tavric and Dafid leave. Both head to Tavric’s home, one of the dogs goes with Dafid.

We head home, leaving a note for Grisarat about needing two more breakfasts because of the girls.

Chapter Text

Day 28

Mary remembered the bruise cream. So many things happened since then I’m not surprised I forgot. Cool showers all around. Natalie expanded the bathing area and we each took a girl in the shower with us. We asked them first of course. They put on the bruise cream where they could reach, including our backs. We got the rest.

We were able to duplicate our beds, shrinking them just a little so they could sleep in our rooms. We also transfigured jammies. The elves can help with clothes tomorrow but we really need to take them shopping.

We’re ready for the day before breakfast. Grisarat is just like Tavric said, calm. She’s cooked many different things and all were delicious. She asked all of us what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. What the favorites were of the girls. We let her know we will be here for dinner. We take lunch with us.

We’re at our training facility (the stables) by half past 8. We go inside the classroom and lock the door with several spells and head to our living trunk. We play with the ponies first. Everyone is healthy and happy except Mandarin. We give him extra pets and talk to him. We figured he was missing Jasper.

The cats are excited to see us. We sit down to talk to everyone. Explain that Dafid was safe. All the animals, including the extras, except one dog were in the other pony room. We explain to the cats and house elves that we were going to use the time feature at our house to finish the rooms for Dafid’s trunk. Four elves and eight cats ask to come with. I’m surprised that four elves want to come but two say they have research to do. I nod and they head out to get their books and research notes.

Sweet Kitty comes over for cuddles, “are you coming with us?” She nods. One last hug to all the house elves there and pets for the kitties. Off we go.

Natalie takes the other pony room to the foyer to add it to our living trunk. It will be easier for the house elves to take care of them and the other animals.

Our house trunk is set up in the classroom, the classroom door is still locked. Four people, four elves, nine cats are ready to go.

First things first, the girls need clothes and a bed. We take them into our sleeping room so they can each pick out clothes. Mary picks one of Natalie’s. We duplicate it and bring it with us. Ella picked out one of mine which we duplicate and bring it with us.

Now, we show them the other bedrooms and ask them to pick one of their own. Ella and Mary are whispering. Ella asks us if they can share. Mary nods.

“Of course you can. First, I want you to put on your new clothes so we can shrink them. This will change the duplicated item and it will last longer. We will pick out a new outfit each morning until we can take you shopping.”

Oh, they are sooo cute!

Natalie asks, “Do you want one big bed or two smaller beds?”

“One big bed.”

Mary giggles, “It will be like a slumber party every night!”

Tabitha and Natalie make a bed and mattress. “Elf please”, one pops in. “I’m sorry, I forgot who came in with us!”

“I bes Zoory. Bibny Doory are researching. Toory is also here.”

“Thank you Zoory. I haven’t turned on the time feature yet. The girls are going to need sheets and blankets for their new bed and towels for the bathing room. Can you see if we already have something?”

“I goes.” and she pops out.

She pops back in with what we need. Floppy came with her and waves her hands at us. “Use this cream at sleepies time this night then all you alright.” She hands Natalie the cream and pops out. Zoory snaps her fingers to make the bed, another snap and the towels disappear. She takes the cream with her when she pops out.

Tabitha goes to turn the time feature on before hearing Natalie. “Wait, how much paper do we have with us and where are all our books?”

“I don’t know and I don’t know. Zoory? Do you know where we’ve put all the books we bought for Bela’s lessons?” She nods. “Are they where you can get them?”

She nods again, “All of them?” I nod and she pops out. She pops back in with all our books, Zappy comes with her and has a bookcase. “Thank you, let’s put the bookcase in one of the extra bedrooms.” It disappears and so does Zoory with all the books.

Tabitha looks at everyone, “I guess we should go find the bookcase.”

Natalie is in the lead as they head back to the hallway and looks in the next bedroom. “Wow!”

Our empty sleeping space is one big room now, no bathing room or closet. There are four bookcases, all are short but wide, only two with books. There is a table with four chairs, also short. And a cabinet like a buffet table. One door is open, that’s where our writing supplies are. Mary goes to explore and finds colors!

Zoory, “All books by age, when read from one shelf, add to next shelves. One girl two shellvees.”

Natalie, “Thank you Zoory, that is a great idea. Both bookcases with books are the same?” She nods.

Tabitha, “I have some questions, let’s go to the visiting room and sit more comfortably.”

Tabitha, “I don’t believe we have planned this very well. I have forgotten to tell you that we’ll be in here for a week. You have a bed, books and papers with colors.”

“Natalie and I have work to do while we are in here but I didn’t think what you would be doing while we were working.”

“I’m wondering,” looking at Natalie, “If we should have them do the same lessons we had with Bela.”

Natalie’s eyes get big then she’s tapping her finger on her chin.

“Girls?, We’ve haven’t asked how far along you are in your schooling. You’re dwarf now. Did you realize that?” Both nod. “Were you dwarf before we found you?” Both shake their heads. “Do you remember where you were before we found you?” Both shake their heads.

“Okay, we can work with that. Bibny?”

Bibny pops in. “Hello Bibny. Have you seen the lessons we had from Bela?” Bibny tilts his head then nods at us. “Can you please check to see if Mary and Ella can learn from them?”

“Doory better at this, be right back.” and he’s gone. Wow, a full minute before he returns, Doory with him.

“Girls, lie down, I check.”

“Here or a bed?”

“here good, should be quick.”

“Okay, Mary, please lay down and close your eyes. Doory is going to touch your head and look at memories. I want to you relax.” Now talking soft and slow. “Breath in, breath out, that’s it, just relax and breathe slowly. Think of kittens if you need to.” Doory removes her hands. “Okay, Mary, you can open your eyes. How do you feel?”

Mary opens her eyes and while stretching takes a deep breath. “I feel like I just took a nap.” Mary sits up.

Natalie snickers, “That’s what Tavric said. Okay, Ella, your turn.”

Ella looks at everyone but stops on Mary, “It didn’t hurt?”

“Nope. You’ll be fine.”

So Ella lays down and closes her eyes. “Very good. Doory is going to touch your head and look at memories. I want to you relax.” Now talking soft and slow. “Breath in, breath out, that’s it, just relax and breathe slowly. Think of kittens if you need to.” Doory removes her hands. “Okay, Ella, you can open your eyes. How do you feel?”

“Wow, it did feel like a nap!” Ella stretches and sits up.

Natalie hugs her while Mary is being hugged by Tabitha.

Doory is bouncing while he waits for us. “They be human. From America. Jerhattan.” Doory tilts his head and an elf pops in. “This is Mopsy. She be teacher elf.”

“Thank you Doory. Hello Mopsy.”

“Natalie, why don’t you start on a greenhouse while I try to read to the girls. Tonight we can plan their lessons with Mopsy.”

“Sure.” She kisses the top of the girls head and leaves the room.

“Mary, why don’t you go get the first five books, Ella can get the next five. All from one bookcase. We can read in here.”

The first read through was Khuzdul. The second time we looked at pictures while I mostly translated the story. After that, we talked about the book. We only got through half before Natalie was sitting down with us. I was startled. “Already?”

Natalie is laughing at me. “I’ve finished a greenhouse and the storage room. We’ll want to put them in Dafid’s trunk between times so the elves can start growing the pasture. I’ll do the water room next.”

“I’ve realized why Jerhattan sounds familiar. It’s from a Anne McCaffrey book.”

Natalie, “You mean we landed in a fictional world and found two girls from a different fictional world?”

Tabitha nods, “All things are possible with Magic. And as that is true, I’m wishing that all our pregnant animals are okay.”

“Now, I’m hungry. Anyone else?”

The rest of the night passed in laughter and more reading. Showers and bruise cream. Tucked in and kisses. Mopsy pops in to give first day of lessons to the girls. First Mary who then falls asleep. Now Ella who then falls asleep. Five of the kitties sleep with the girls. Sweet Kitty is with me. I don’t know if the rest slept with Natalie or not.

Day 28, inside day 2 of 7

Mornings are different with children. Luckily, Sweet Kitty understood that as I felt her move across me to my pillow just before my door opened. Quickly followed by jumps on my bed by two little girls. Hugs followed that. And a rush to the bathing room.

Clothes picked out for everyone and teeth brushed, we’re ready for breakfast.

First the cats are fed. Always the animals first.

Natalie, “Can we have pancakes for breakfast?”

“Washies hands first, wes add pancakes to breakfast.”

The girls received five years of memories last night. Some of that is writing.

Mopsy and the girls head to their reading room. Natalie and I head to the training room to work on pony rooms.

~time skip~

Lunch time. Natalie and I are very hungry after each of us get two rooms done. The water room is the only one left.

Tabitha, “Hello girls, how was your day?”

The girls are talking over each other. They started their reading with the same books we read last night and were able to understand much better.

Natalie, “We’ll add games to our shopping list. This week you’ll just have to read and color. Next week we should new games. Tabitha, can you work with the house elves and maybe make some of our games from memory?”

Tabitha, “Snakes and Ladders will be great, so would Cluedo. I’m hoping there is a building game like legos.”

“Can we do Go Fish? Maybe a matching game? Checkers? Frustration? Scrabble would be hard to do by memory. Maybe Connect Four? Windy Knickers might be fun but needs batteries.”

“Board games and card games. Memory and fun games. We can add chess later. Do you remember how to play Go?”

Natalie and I move furniture around in our visiting room. I draw a hopscotch game on the floor while Natalie explains what it is.

Hugs all around after lunch. Natalie and I head back to the training room. There is only the water room left for Dafid’s trunk so I work on another pony room for us. The elves say we can attach to a wall in this house for an outside place. The time feature will capture the room because it is attached to the house.

“Dinner time.”

After dinner, the rest of the night passed in laughter and more reading. Showers, tucked in and kisses. Mopsy pops in to give writing lessons to the girls. First Mary who then falls asleep. Now Ella who then falls asleep. Five of the kitties sleep with the girls. Sweet Kitty is with me. I don’t know if the rest slept with Natalie or not, I forgot to ask.

Day 28, inside day 3 of 7

Morning goes just like yesterday. I’m going to enjoy getting use to this.

After breakfast I ask to speak with everyone, house elves too. “We started the week expecting to take that long to make the pony rooms. Today is day 3 and the rooms are completed. We’ve also made one for us to add this house for an outside space.”

“My question is, do we end the time feature early?” There are looks all around.

Bibny stands up. “We are finished with the materials we have and would like to end early so we can start on the next set.”

Tabitha, “Thank you Bibny. Anyone want to stay?” All the house elves shake their heads.

Natalie, “Is the classroom for the girls permanent?” The house elves nod. “Can you adjust another room? Move our sleeping rooms around? Should we make another trunk just with sleeping room for our teachers? Should we redesign our house and make a new trunk?”

Tabitha, “Let’s end time early and meet with Tavric and maybe Dafid. The house elves can start on growing the pony rooms and we can go shopping.”

And so ends time before lunch which we eat with the cats. Natalie gives the house elves all the rooms we made so they can start growing the pastures.

Natalie and Tabitha meet with Tavric and Dafid after lunch. We finished early today and will be ready to meet with you and your helpers tomorrow at 2 pm.

Tavric, “Why don’t we have the Ranger Ristaro and the Dwarven Children’s Warden come at 2 pm also. Dafid’s house can be in the classroom. So can yours. Use the rest of today and tomorrow morning for shopping and whatever else you need to do.”

Natalie, “First stop should be our house up front so we can adjust the bedrooms. After dinner we should adjust our apprenticeship schedule.”

Natalie and Tabitha take the girls to the main house, the house where Grisarat lives. We leave a note that all four of us would be there for breakfast, would need to take lunches, but would not need dinner. They had a meeting with Tavric at 2 pm tomorrow that would go through dinner. They would be back for breakfast the following day.

Once a note is left, they head to the sleeping rooms. “I know you share a sleeping room in the other house. The first night, you slept apart, one of you with one of us. Is that still okay or do you want to share here also?”

Mary and Ella look at the grown-ups then each other. Mary nods. Ella says, “Sleeping together is like a slumber party but we like sleeping like this too. Can we stay with you here, and together at the other house?”

Tabitha and Natalie both smile big. Tabitha asks, “How about bunk beds?” Both girls nod. Tabitha goes in her room and makes a new bed frame. The bottom bed is the same size as the top. The top bed has a railing around it. The ladder is at the footboard. “Is it safe?” Tabitha nods and all three are trying to climb up the ladder while laughing. “Natalie first then Mary then Ella. I’ll go do the same thing in the other room.” So I do and they soon follow. This time I climb up first then Ella, Mary and Natalie.

Tabitha, “Let’s go see the cats. We’ll have dinner there and make plans.”

~time skip~

Dinner was delicious as always. We visit the ponies and it is always nice to play with the kitties.

Tabitha, “Since we have landed, we have bought ponies and two wagons. We have signed an apprenticeship contract. We have put that on hold while we rescued almost 200 animals and Dafid. We have rescued two children.”

“Dafid has a house trunk. We plan for the door to be in his sleeping room at Tavric’s. He has two helpers that will also live at Tavric’s. We have made a storage room, a water room, and six pasture rooms. This trunk has no time feature.”

“We have made a time trunk for the elves and pregnant animals. It is still running so we don’t know if it worked.”

“We have made a time trunk for us and our teachers. The girls now have a sleeping room in our trunk and a learning room.”

“Should we make another time trunk for us and our teachers but expanded?”

“Should we add a greenhouse to the house?”

“Should we make a sleeping room annex for the time trunk we currently have.”

This is where we are and the questions we have.

We stay with the cats after dinner so the girls are distracted. Our House Elves are the best, there is something to drink for all of us and a couple of notebooks for planning.

Natalie conjures a table and chairs for us. “We have that last pasture we can add to our house for an outside space. I think we should build another one, maybe smaller but put the sleeping rooms in it as small apartments. It looks like one section on our schedule has seven subjects. Even if one teacher could do more than one subject, I think we should do 8 or even 10 apartments. One for Bella and one for Tavric only than 8 others as generic rooms that change who stays there.”

Tabitha, “I like that idea but lets modify it. I don’t believe they need 40 acres but 10 acres, one for each apartment should work. They could use the space during their downtime.”

Natalie starts to draw out an apartment then a whole room layout. “I think there should be a path around each acre so no one is crossing over a neighbor’s yard.”

Tabitha nods, “I keep thinking we’re missing something. Maybe we should build it as 40 acres but only build up the closest 10 acres? It would easy to add apartments or training areas that way, the space is already there.”

“Yes, that’s a great idea. I think we should do a water room too. If we have seven teachers, Bella, Tavric and the four of us? Plus what ever animals come with us? Bathing and cooking? That’s a lot of water usage.”

“We should research if we can build one apartment and duplicate it.”

Natalie, “No, we already duplicate the wood, we should have no problem duplicating the whole apartment. We just need to change part of it, like a different color on the walls in the bathing room.”

Tabitha laughs, “We could make a really nice one, remembering doors this time. Let’s make it with 1 and a half bathing rooms, a visiting room, office, and two sleeping rooms. Heck, if we only need to build one, we could add a bigger room for hobbies.”

Now Natalie is laughing, “Don’t forget picture frame windows or even just windows. We need to talk to Master Joss for supplies and figure out lights.”

“We need to go shopping tomorrow for the girls so we need a list for that. Do you think Bella would shop with us? We also need to make a floor plan for Master Joss to use for ordering supplies.”

“Well, the short list for the girls is; blanket, toys, clothes, games, art supplies. We have books, maybe get their own? I know they have a blanket but maybe they’d like to pick out one of their own? I think we should start with 10 pairs of bottoms and go from there. The house elves will do laundry for us but 10 is a good number for a week’s worth. The trunk’s weather will be mild outside and inside but we’ll still need outside time clothes.”

“I’d like to learn to knit.”

“Well Natalie, that came out of nowhere!”

Natalie snorts, “I was thinking of hats and scarves for the girls.”

“Oh, good idea. I wonder if Dwarves do needlework. I’m sure Hobbits do. We may need to ask Grisarat if she has friends that could teach us. Maybe lessons on yarn making like Gina does plus weaving, crochet, knit, and quilting and sewing.”

“We keep adding to what we want to learn, we may be traveling after the hot season instead of before!”

“No, I feel that we need to be there sooner rather than later. I wish I knew why. Why don’t we research for a different time ratio. Now, lets look at the apartment layout.”

Tabitha and Natalie are drawing an apartment and talking about it but finally give up. “Why don’t we tell Joss what we need and have him figure out layout and materials?”

”Oh, I have an idea. Why don’t we find a Dwarven builder and ask for a very nice practice house plan and material list.”

Tabitha, “I like it. We can then go to Joss to buy materials.”

“We can also use the plans later as a practice house if needed for skills.” Natalie smiles, “Let’s go find the girls.”

The girls are quickly found and good-nights are said to everyone before we go to the front house.

Chapter Text

Day 29

Mornings are different with children. Here I only have one child jumping on my bed but Sweet Kitty isn’t here to warn me. A rush to the bathing room then hugs and “good mornings” follow. Clothes picked out for everyone. Faces and hands washed, teeth brushed, we’re ready for breakfast.

Grisarat is cooking fewer things, some of our favorites and something new to try. She asks what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. She says that lunch today will be sandwiches with fruit and veggies again as that seems to work best for us.

Today is outside time only. The elves are making sure the animals are fed. We play with the kitties and take time to brush the ponies.

This morning finds us and Tavric in our waiting room, counting down to 9 am. Once the alarm goes of, we head to the classroom to open the House Elves Time Trunk.

Natalie knocks three times on the trunk and it opens. Jasper is the first one out and she rushes to drape her head over my shoulder. I hug her while Natalie comes over to hug her too. Jasper backs up and turns back to the trunk with a whinny, and out comes a foal. “Oh, Jasper, you did good. The other mares may be jealous.”

While we’re loving on Jasper and being introduced to her foal, the house elves are popping all the other animals to the living trunk. Jasper and her foal are popped to the healers. Mary and Ella head to the cat’s room as we close up the trunk.

“You know, we’ve been kind of stupid about the trunks.”

“What do you mean Natalie?”

“We’ve been talking about building an outdoor space for our learning trunk but we’ve already got two spaces we can use. Remember the trunks we brought from home?”

“Oh, right! There was a room for working out, the relaxing garden, and the pool area. Let’s think about how to use them in our time trunk. But first we need to meet with the elves that just got back.”

The elves’ time trunk is closed and locked up. We also put a sign on the door. We keep it full size for the elves to clean it up and tucked in the far corner of our classroom. Once that is taken care of we head to the cat’s room.

The house elves are with the Healers, same with the animals. Jasper comes in first with her foal, a beautiful filly (baby girl). I was right, the other mares are looking at us. “Not all at once and not immediately. But we’ll discuss it.” They all nod. Man we have smart animals. Even the cats and puppies we picked up.

The Healers come out to say everyone is just as healthy if not more so than when they went in. The next thing to try is for Natalie and/or Tabitha to take chickens in with house elves. I don’t think we’ll be disappointed if somethings goes wrong with chickens. If the chickens are fine, we should try with a bunny because it’s a short pregnancy and a live birth. After that try a sheep or something with a longer pregnancy before we try with a pony. We also need to see if the adult animals are aging inside time or outside time. (AN aging inside time - duh, pregnancy!)

As much as we want to stay, we leave for our waiting room. We need to plan the rest of our apprenticeship, shop for the girls, and prepare for our 2 pm meeting. Tavric brings up an interesting point. “I want you to use the same time ratio as the house elf trunk. First, make a very large room that you can use to build your trunks. Also take those two rooms you were telling me about. The elves can take Dafid’s pastures and grow them. The hay room can be grown a couple of times to have a good supply.” Tavric sighs, “Wait. I’m not sure what I want to happen. I do know that the apprenticeship changes with the girls and that we need to go shopping for them. Why don’t you do that while I think about the contract. Is there some where I can work where I can ask a house elf questions?”

“One thing we keep forgetting is sleeping space for the girls in your wagon.” I look startled while Natalie pounds her head on a “desk”.

“Let’s make sure we get to keep the girls before adjusting the wagon. We can have Master Joss adjust it if we get to stay. I don’t see why you can’t work in our training trunk.” Tavric goes to get his contacts list and a copy of the contract while Tabitha sets up the training trunk and talks to the elves. Natalie gets our money and the girls and we head off to shop.

And what a whirlwind trip that was. We all got clothes and books. The girls got toys and games but mostly indoor ones. We stopped for more writing, coloring and painting supplies. It was lucky I took our lunches as we ate while we walked between stores. We barely got back to the stables before 2 pm.

Tavric, Dafid, Ristaro, and a dwarf are in our waiting room when we arrive with all our shopping.

Tavric introduces Flameclaw and Dafid starts the explaination about his ponies. I can see that Flameclaw is confused. I mention about finding Mary and that she knew my name. Flameclaw is nodding and taking notes. Ristaro says that he came to give everyone an update and to add Flameclaw to his report about the girls.

Tavric mentions us being under contract before finding Mary and Ella. He has gone over his contacts and found a teacher that will come to the girls so they can learn while Tabitha and Natalie are learning.

We both look at Tavric, “You did?”

“Yes, while you were shopping.”

“Thank you, very much.”

Flameclaw clears their throat, “Where will you and the girls be staying?”

“My turn still,” Tavric says. “Housing is part of the apprenticeship contract. I purchased this property for the girls to live in the house, with a chaperone, while using this building for training and lessons.”

“Will this chaperone take care of the girls?”

“Oh, no. Both girls will be here with us doing their lessons while we are doing ours,” says Natalie.

Flameclaw has been taking notes. He looks around the room, “I don’t see a place for them.”

“My turn,” says Tabitha. “Natalie and I, as well as the girls, were man-raised far from here. Our apprenticeship contract is basically to learn much of the general knowledge we should have learned growing up. We have a way of learning quickly, and a special place for us and our teachers to stay while we learn. This building has secrecy spells on the outside door,” I wave my hand towards the door we came in. “You won’t be able to share anything about our learning process or place. I can show you our building but you won’t be able to tell anyone about it.”

Flameclaw is still writing but stops, “I can’t write anything about learning.” He seems upset.

“I know. You can write in your report anything that Tavric has said so far.” Flameclaw is nodding his head. “You can write that you have seen our classroom, the girl’s learning area, and our training space. You can write down that we are under an apprenticeship contract which has been filed. You can write down that we have a tutor coming for the girls but that you have not met them yet.” Flameclaw nods his head again. “Would like to see what you can’t talk about?”

Flameclaw looks up, startled. “What stops me from talking about it?”

“I mentioned man-raised far from here?” Flameclaw nods. “Natalie and I have access to a type of magic that is woven into this building which is one of the reasons Tarvic brought you here. That magic helps all four of us learn quickly but only if we’re in our learning place. Our classroom is through that door,” I wave in the classroom door’s direction. “and our learning place has a door inside the classroom. We’re being very careful of who has access or even knowledge of it.”

Natalie speaks up, “If we had not found the girls, you would not know about this place.” Flameclaw nods. “Even if we had but the girls did not know who Tabitha was, we might not have been able to keep them and would not need to tell you.” Both girls snuggle into our sides at this point while we put an arm around them in a half hug.

Flameclaw is nodding, “I noticed that you came in with bags. Tavric mentioned you went shopping?” He’s watching how comfortable the four of them are together.

The girls are practically bouncing in their seats now. Mary raises her hand as she speaks, “May we show him?”

Natalie and Tabitha exchange looks then smile towards Mary before Natalie speaks, “Yes. Both of you can share with all of us.”

Mary and Ella jump up, before I speak. “Why don’t we take everything with us and you won’t have to pack it up again?” The girls are nodding. “Gentlemen, shall we go?”

Tavric and Dafid are already standing and Ristaro is not far behind before Flameclaw stands. Tavric is walking to the classroom door, “Are the cats still in the classroom?”

I’m laughing, “No, but the climbing wall still is.”

Tavric and Dafid go first followed by Ristaro. “Girls, help me with the shopping,” and the girls and Natalie gather the shopping and follow Ristaro. “Go ahead Flameclaw, I’m going to make sure the outside door is locked.” Which I do, only allowing Bela to come in, before following everyone into the classroom.

I lock up the classroom door so no one, not even Bela, can come in. Or leave. Everyone is standing around waiting for me. “Let me go in alone first” So I open the door and close it behind me. “Anyone here?” An elf pops in. I squat down and hug them. “Natalie and I have people coming in to see the trunk and I wanted to make sure none of the elves come in while they are here.”

The elf is nodding, “I share. Call when they leave, we have news.”

“It may not be right away. Is the news urgent?” They shake their head. “Okay, we’ll meet after dinner?” They nod their head and pop out.

I open the door wide, and wave everyone in, “Be guest welcome this day.” The girls are so excited but let Tarvic in first. Natalie nods to them and they rush to follow him.

“Go ahead, I’ll be last today.” Dafid and Ristaro walk in. Flameclaw hesitates but follows then Natalie comes in.

I’ve walked further into our visiting room. “This,” while I wave my arms open, “is our visiting space. It is also our music room, game room and play space.” Flameclaw and Ristaro are looking around. “On this side is our eating room and kitchen. We’re still working on the kitchen.” Everyone peaks in. “Girls, why don’t you put the shopping on the table.” They do.

I look towards Flameclaw, “This doesn’t all go in the same place, but we can show you everything easier in here.” Flameclaw nods and takes a seat.

The girls are excited and bring out clothes first then soaps and shampoo. “We have color soaps for the bathing room so we can play while we wash.” Flameclaw is smiling. Then the girls bring out the games and toys, sharing what they are like we’ve never seen them before. Last are the books, “We have lots already that Tabitha and Natalie have but these are just for us and our lessons.”

“Wait,” says Flameclaw, “Are some of these books the same?”

“Yes, we don’t have an issue with buying each girl their own copy.” Tabitha says softly because wow, that could have sounded really arrogant. “We’ll get all our children their own books hoping to foster a lifelong love of reading and learning.”

“Thank you for sharing girls. Let’s leave these here and head in this direction,” as I start to walk, “This is our sleeping hallway. Natalie and I each have a room,” I open doors. “The girls are sharing, they said it feels like a slumber party that way,” as I open their door. Flameclaw peaks in.

I knock on the wall opposite their door, “This is our learning area but the door is on the other side by the kitchen. Let’s keep walking, around the corner is the girls learning area.” Everyone peaks into the girl’s classroom. I hear Dafid and Ristaro whisper how nice it looked. Around the corner and I’m opening our training room. All of us pile in. Flameclaw says, “I see why there is not a door on the other side. May I look in the cabinetry?” I nod. He opens one that has our staffs and wooden practice swords in then closes the door. The next is locked and he looks at me. Natalie goes over and opens it. “That magic we have access to only allows Tabitha and I to open this cabinet.” Flameclaw looks in and sees why. This cabinet has all our sharp weapons. “Can I mention that your training tools are in cabinets and the sharp ones are locked up?”

Natalie nods, “Yes, that should be fine.”

“Why don’t we go back to the waiting room?” And we all head out.

Flameclaw is writing up his report at our table. Dafid and Ristaro are talking about his animals. Natalie takes the girls back to our trunk to get a quiet toy and a couple of books.

Flameclaw asks Tavric some questions before coming back to the sitting area. The girls are reading with a cat on their laps. Flameclaw does a double take then just shakes his head. “I have filled out my report. I have mentioned that you have already gone shopping for them and that your apprenticeship Master has found a tutor for them. I mentioned that all of you have been man-raised and I can not see anyone else being able to understand the girls and the problems they may have. My recommendation is for the girls to stay with you, not even leaving during the waiting period while the application is processed.”

You can almost see the tension leave the room. Tavric says, “Thank you. As Master, you’ll need to contact the girls through me. I’m going to assume you’ll want progress reports and visits?” Flameclaw is nodding. “You’ll need to know that sometimes another teacher will be here without me. Lessons always start at 9 am with chores before that. Most days, lessons end at lunch and can’t be disturbed. Sometimes they are longer so you’ll take a chance dropping by unexpectedly. Not that you can’t, as I’m sure you will need to, you’ll just have a better chance of finding them after lessons. Best bet is 4 pm and maybe getting an invite to stay for dinner.”

Flameclaw smiles. “This is good to know. You need to know that usually, the home visits are passed on to others.” Everyone sits up, even Dafid and Ristaro. “That will not happen in this case.” Everyone relaxes. “I’ll mention the apprenticeship to my supervisor as the reason. I do not believe they will want to come but maybe you can show them the front house later.” We’re nodding. “Now that everything is filled out and I’ve seen your work area, I’d like to see the front house before heading back to the office.”

The girls are excited to show Flameclaw the bunkbeds. Natalie takes the girls while I stay with Dafid and Ristaro. Tavric and Flameclaw follow Natalie.

Ristaro asks to see Dafid’s animals as an update for his previous report. “Sure, let me go set up the door.” I head to the classroom, leaving the two men in our waiting room. Their visit is short and they head out.

Natalie has come back with the girls and Tavric after Dafid and Ristaro have left. “Let’s go see the cats and get something to eat.” So we head off to the cat room. Natalie introduces Tavric to Jasper’s foal while I ask the elves for dinner.

“Just a moment. Can I have an elf please?” An elf pops in. “You have news for us?”

I conjure up a table with chairs, we all eat quietly before Tavric clears his throat. “I’ve been thinking. I’d like you to change the time ratio on your trunk. I was thinking you could use the time to grow Dafid’s pastures. Build an outdoor room for small guest houses for your teachers. Build an outdoor play area for you and the girls. Maybe have a larger training room where you can build your trunks. What do you think.”

“I like the idea but I’d like it to be in a new trunk.” Natalie is nodding her head. ”Our front room and eating area need to be bigger. Also, a couple of house elves could come with us if our teachers are in a room separate from the trunk. I’d also like to add a room with dinner animals.”

Natalie says, “If the house elves want to clean the guest room area, they could do it during dinner time.”

“True, or late at night.”

“We can have several single room wizarding space doors in our expanded trunk. What spaces do we need, what spaces do we want and can they be a wizarding space door or part of our expanded trunk?”

Tavric says, “A wizarding space would be good for guest houses. You don’t need a large space but make it 40 acres anyways. That seems like your go-to size and the houses don’t have to be spread apart.”

“I’d like a wizarding space for the four of us,” says Natalie. “The girls learning area can stay in the trunk but I’d like a green area to live in.”

“The last one made should be a music room. We can put up walls and each have a practice room and a large space to play together.”

Tavric is noding. “That sounds nice. The visiting room can be used for games but music would be loud.”

“Why don’t we do the expanded trunk to have our dining room, kitchen, the girls’ learning room, and visiting room. I’d like the kitchen to be it’s own room with a door to another wizarding space for the chickens, elves rooms, food storage area.”

“Tabitha, where will our workout room be? Do we want an area to run where our house is? Shouldn’t our practice area need to be where our teachers can watch?”

“If our living area is invite only, we could use the workout room we already have. The trail through the forest may have been set up for running but we can use it for walks as a family.”

“I haven’t seen that room but I like the idea of a private family space for you.”

Natalie smiles, “Thanks Tavric.”

Tabitha reaches for paper and starts to write.

- visiting room, twice the size of our current room
- the girls learning room, 2+ times current learning area
- training room, theory: half again the current size with more cabinetry for tools, paper and books
- training room, practical: three times the size of our current room ~or just twice?~ no expansion feature
- dining room, the size of our current visiting room
- kitchen, ask the elves

“Still need to decide where doors will be and what wizarding spaces we need.”

“True, I’d like Sweet Kitty to come with us. Do you want Zeno? What about other animals?”

“Could you use the elves’ time trunk to build yours?”

Tabitha is shaking her head, “I don’t think so.”

“It’s a good idea Tavric, but I don’t know if the different magic will allow it,” said Natlie as she yawns.

Tabitha laughs, “I think we all need to go to bed! I’d like to stay down here. Tavric, could you leave a note for Grisarat to not expect us until dinner?”

Tavric is nodding, “I can do that. Can I stop by for lunch?”

Natalie smiles, “Yes, see you at noon.”

Good nights all around.

Chapter Text

Day 30

We spent the night in our learning trunk so my morning started with Sweet Kitty walking across me before both girls jump on my bed. Hugs all around before a dash to the bathing room. We didn’t pick out clothes last night so I get dressed then head to the kitchen to pick something for the girls. “It’s gone!”

I hear giggles and a pop. “Wees did it!” I squat down to give the elves hugs, “Thank you. Could we have breakfast in a few minutes?” Nods and pops so I gather the girls and go to their sleeping room, picking up Natalie along the way.

Once hands and faces are washed, teeth brushed and everyone dressed, we head to breakfast. Grisarat’s cooking is wonderful but I’m so use to what the house elves cook that I think it is better.

After breakfast we head to the living trunk to play with the kitties and take time to brush the ponies. I can tell the mares want babies. I kind of want them also. I could get lost watching foals play. After we wash up, we head back to the visiting room.

“Yesterday was such a long day. Our shopping was rushed, was there anything at the stores that you wanted to get but we didn’t? Or something you didn’t see?”

Natalie is nodding her head, “I’d like to crochet during some of my downtime, I’m not very good so lesson books would help. I know we’ll be super busy building our trunk but crochet or cross-stitch would be nice.”

“That does sound nice. Girls? Did you see something?”

Mary and Ella lean in to whisper before nodding, “Blocks for building and clay.”

Natalie looks at Tabitha, “Legos and Play-doh?” Tabitha nods.

“We’ll have the elves look for the memory of making play-doy and what a lego looks like. Oh, I think we could make lincoln logs and blocks If we don’t find any. Bubbles might be fun too.”

Natalie sigh, “I wish we could do kinetic sand. We didn’t expect to have children when we left home. We should ask the elves for ideas.”

The elves were excited about crochet, actually about yarn. They knew how to make yarn from some of our animals. They also knew how to make play-doh.

Tabitha reaches for the list from last night. “How much can we build under time and how much doesn’t need to be under time?”

- visiting room, twice the size of our current room
- the girls learning room, 2+ times current learning area
- training room, theory: half again the current size with more cabinetry for tools, paper and books
- training room, practical: three times the size of our current room ~or just twice?~ no expansion feature
- dining room, the size of our current visiting room
- kitchen, ask the elves

“Still need to decide where doors will be and what wizarding spaces we need.”

“I’m thinking of having the guest space and any door our teachers can go in off our sleeping hallway. We won’t need sleeping rooms but maybe have a bathing room or two. Our training room can be a wizarding space. We can set up walls for the theory part and everyone can use the practical part if we aren’t.”

“Oh, divide the area so our training place is always ours but everyone can use the other part.”

“So we need a trunk with a room with doors the teachers can access. A room with doors for us, such as our sleeping door, the elves experiments door, growing doors (hay).

“Let me think. The trunk needs a door in and out. That’s corner 1. Heading along wall one to corner 2 is the dining room, kitchen, bathing room in corner 2. Along wall two to corner 3 is our room of doors, laundry/handwash area, single sink in the corner connected to the girls learning room which is along wall 3. Then the room of teacher doors and a bathing room in corner 4. There needs to be a hallway around three sides. In the middle is our visiting room.” She looks at what she drew and isn’t happy about it. “It looks uneven.”

“Let me try.” Natalie is drawing and mutter to herself. “Okay, look at this. It isn’t to scale or even proportional. See, I drew the hallway first in a U shape.” I nod. “Then the middle has our visiting room and dining room. The door out is in this corner. The far side has a storage room in the corner for games, extra pillows and blankets. Next to that is a single sink bathroom. Then the room with the doors our teachers can access. Then a kitchen. A laundry area is on the backwall, so is the girls learning room with an attached bathroom for them and their tutor. Next to our foyer will be two bathrooms then a room with all our doors.”

“I like this. Let’s put the door to our room of doors,” Tabitha smiles, “closer to the girls learning room.”

“Yes, and two doors in the kitchen.”

“Now, what wizarding space doors do we need?”

Natalie grabs for paper and starts writing.

- teacher houses (new build) … teacher access
- training space (new build) … teacher access
- music room (new build) … teacher access
- green space for our sleeping space (brought from home)
- water supply (new build)
- Dafid’s pastures for growing (built)
- hay room (2?, 3?) (one built)
- animals (chickens, more?), veggie garden? storage (new build)
- elves growing, research (elves time trunk?)
- elf rooms, storage (elves time trunk?)

“We should be able to build our trunk in a week, let’s do 4 hours just in case. Maybe a couple of elves could come in to help teach the girls.”

Natalie is bouncing in her seat, “The cats too. Can we bring the puppies?”

“I know the cats can come but I think the puppies need training first. After this trunk is built, we should spend time just training the puppies when we aren’t distracted with our own teachers. We could even build them their own room.”

Natalie is nodding her head.

“Some of the wizarding space rooms are already done and we should be able to do the rest in a couple of weeks. We should ask Tavric and Bela if they want to come the 2nd or 3rd week to work on projects.”

An elf pops in, “Thereses knocking on outside doorsie.”

I look for the time and realize we don’t have a clock, or a watch. “That must be Tavric for lunch.” Natalie goes to let him in while I go to let the elves know.

“How are you doing?”

“We have a plan but I was just looking at what wizarding space we need and it may take a year to get the rooms finished.” Natalie looks at me funny. “Really, we need to build the space for the teacher houses which should be quick. Then build each house and grow the landscaping. I don’t know how long the landscaping will take. We’ll take Dafid’s spaces with us when we do a year so his animals can get moved.”

“Oh, Tabitha, could the elves use their time trunk to grow Dafid’s pastures? And his hay?”

“Smart. Except one of the mares will want to go too unless the elves don’t go for a full year.”

“I don’t think grass takes a full year and I think you should take a hay space every time you plan to do a full year. You’re going to need a LOT of hay.”

“Elf please.” pop “Hi, do you know how long we need to grow Dafid’s horse places?”

“I check” and pops out then in again. “four months be bestest.”

I lean over to hug the elf and say thanks. They pop out. “ four months = 16 weeks = 77 days = 1848 hours … 1,848 minutes = 30.8 hours = 1.2 days. Why don’t we do 2 outside days for them while we’re building our new trunk. Then we can pause to get Dafid’s animals moved and get his trunk settled. We may need to put secrecy runes on the door where his trunk is.”

“That would be fine. I know Ristaro will want to see the animals again.”

Tavric is looking at the list, “What is this water space? Is that just water storage for the trunk? How much and where do you get it.”

“Good questions and the answer is mostly, I don’t know.” Tabitha is laughing.

“Stop laughing at me.” Natalie looks at Tavric, “I just build a 40 acre space for the elves. They do their magic on it and we have enough water. The door isn’t even a real door after I’m finished, just a panel. They have said they’ll share how but not yet. I do know that to cover an acre with a foot of water, you need 325,000 gallons.”

“Okay, that’s a lot of water so we’ll just trust the elves,” said Tavric. “I guess you’ll need one per trunk being used?”

Natalie is nodding while Tabitha speaks up, “We have made three. One for Dafid’s animals, one for the elves’ time trunk and one for this one. The living trunk also has one. We’ll need to move this one to the new trunk.”

“So first is growing Dafid’s pasture so we can get his animals moved?” Tabitha and Natalie are nodding. “Can you get the trunk set up by 6 pm?” Tabitha and Natalie look at each other then back to Tavric before nodding. “Good, do that and end your day. You can start the time tomorrow morning then work on your new trunk.” Tabitha and Natalie are nodding, Tabitha is writing. “Good, I’ll see you tomorrow after dinner.”

Tavric leaves.

“What were you writing?”

“We’ve got Dafid’s pastures built. Do we need to add anything else to the trunk?”

“Head Elf please.” pop “I be Apple, Head Elf at this time.”

Natalie squats down and hugs Apple while Tabitha looks on, “We would like elves to grow Dafid’s pastures during time in your trunk. Maybe not a full year but at least 4 months. We were thinking what ever time you get in two outside days.”

Apple is bouncing, “You come too? Build one expanded space with lots of doors. Use center space to build doors.”

Tabitha doesn’t look sure, “We really need to get Dafid’s animals moved and it will delay that if I need to build an expanded trunk.”

Apple is nodding her head, “We do two days now with growing horse places. Can grow hay too. Come back and do again. Grow new spaces you builded.”

“Thank you Apple, we’ll put the doors in the elf trunk and be ready to start time in the morning. Will you let all the elves know in case more want to go?”

Chapter Text

Day 31

Mornings are different with children. We stayed at the front house so I only have one child jumping on my bed but Sweet Kitty stayed last night so she warned me. A rush to the the bathing room then hugs and “good mornings” follow. Clothes picked out for everyone, hands and faces washed and teeth brushed, we’re ready for breakfast.

Grisarat is cooking fewer things, some of our favorites and something new to try. She asks what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. She says that lunch today will be sandwiches with fruit and veggies again as that seems to work best for us. We tell her thanks and I let her know we’ll be there for dinner.

Today is outside time only. The elves are making sure the animals are fed. We play with the kitties and take time to brush the ponies.

The elves’ time trunk is ready. We set it up in our learning trunk in an unused sleeping area. The elves come in for hugs before heading to the time trunk. We sit down in our learning trunk to plan our new trunk. “One of us needs to go to Master Joss and order wood.”

“Yes, but if all of us go before lunch we can introduce the girls plus the wood will still arrive today. We can stop by the toy store and look for blocks on the way home. Let’s plan out how many hinges we’ll need too.”

Master Joss is surprised about the girls but we tell him about Flameclaw. We walk over to his wood supplier for me to pay but I still tip Master Joss and ask about the last recipe. He loved it.

We do stop by the toy store on the way and find blocks. We purchase a couple of each shape. We can duplicate them for more, we just have to change their color. We make it back to have lunch with the kitties then spend time with lessons.

The wood arrived just before dinner. We have dinner with Grisarat and let her know we won’t be there for breakfast or lunch but will need dinner. I’m so glad Tavric picked her for us. She’s been so cool, calm, and collected with all the weird things going on around us. We move the wood to our classroom and visit the elves and ponies before heading to bed.

Sweet Kitty, Zeno and several other cats and kittens spent the night with us. We’ve added a climbing wall like in our classroom.

Since we spent the night in our learning trunk, my morning started with Sweet Kitty walking across me before both girls jump on my bed. Hugs all around before a dash to the bathing room. Faces and hands washed, teeth brushed and we’re all dressed ready for breakfast.

The elves love us. They cooked little bits of many of our favorites then many of them came in for hugs.

After breakfast we head to the living trunk to play with the kitties and take time to brush the ponies. I talk to the mares. I let them know I haven’t forgotten they want babies. I explain the elves are in their time trunk but it is only for four months. I say that we’ll be going into a time trunk but I’m not sure how long. After we come back, two mares can go in the trunk with the elves. I let them know that we’re going to need a colt that isn’t related for the fillies and that we may need to sell or geld the colts. I want all of you to get along so after the babies, we’ll look for a colt. I’m thinking that we may need an elf for pony pedigrees and wondering if Dafid would do a teaching memory for us.

After we wash up, we head back to the visiting room.

The girls are set up in their classroom with a couple of elves. Natalie and I set up in the expanded practice room. We spent two hours working on our trunk before breaking for lunch. I’m thinking we need to use the time feature before Natalie brings it up. “I agree. We need to leave a note for Tavric in our waiting room. Let’s use the time stones in our classroom since it is bigger than our expanded training room.” So Tabitha writes a note in case Tavric comes down. We let the elves know what we’re going to do. The living trunk is set up in the waiting room. The elves’ time trunk is moved to the waiting room also. Our learning trunk is set up in the classroom. Several elves come for research. The girl’s teachers elves, elves for cooking, cleaning and visiting. Sweet Kitty, Mama Kitty, Zeno and a number of kittens join us. The elves say they have food stored for every one and meals planned but ask for a favor. They want one of the green rooms we brought from home. The training one. I think that is a good idea for after dinner walks as a family.

I lock up our classroom door with a sign on the outside - no admittance at this time. I’m sure Tavric will get it. The time stones are in place and linked. The time is set for the usual 24 min outside time equals 24 hours inside time. With time to stop at four hours, we’ll get 10 days.

“And time starts … now.” We all laugh. Natalie rubs her hands together, “First thing, more blocks.” I agree but I still laugh at her. Duplicating blocks is fun. We shrink some and enlarge others so there is a choice. The girls pick the colors. We spend an hour with the girls in the learning trunk before we leave them to play and we head out to the classroom.

We had finished the outside of the trunk so we start on the insides. We had set a timer so we stopped to take notes when it went off at 5 pm.

The girls are finished with lessons for the day and are playing with the blocks. We spend half an hour playing with them before we wash up for dinner. After dinner we read and play with the cats before walking in the training room.

Under time: Day 2

Sweet Kitty warns me just before the girls come in to jump on my bed. Morning hugs before a quick dash to the bathing room. Once we wash hands and faces, brush teeth and get dressed we’re ready for breakfast.

Lessons for the girls until lunch. We work on the trunk until lunch. We eat lunch with the girls, asking about their lessons. After lunch they get a play time break before more lessons while we work in the classroom. Our trunk is complete so we start on the wizarding spaces.

Wizarding Spaces Needed
- teacher houses (new build) … teacher access
- training space (new build) … teacher access
- music room (new build) … teacher access
- green space for our sleeping space (brought from home)-training room
- water supply (new build)
- Dafid’s pastures for growing (built) - the elves took
- hay room (2 cuttings for Dafid) (one built)
- animals (chickens, more?), veggie garden? storage (new build)
- elves growing, research (elves time trunk?)
- elf rooms, storage (elves time trunk?)
- pony pasture for us

… Elves do landscaping - year … we build one teacher house each day they are gone, shrink it.

Okay, I want to use the training room so we don’t mess with rituals. Although we should look up rituals of thanks that can be done anywhere.

We won’t be able to use the elves’ rooms because they’ll be using them too. Let’s build the teacher and training spaces first. We could do two teacher houses to start. Then each time we use the trunk we could make more.

“After those two, let’s do the water room so it is ready for the elves to do their magic on.”

“Yes, then five empty rooms. I think it would be easier to adjust the inside once the room is built.”

We get started with the teacher’s living quarters first. Asking for someone’s help right now would take too long. After it is built, it will need landscaping. We can have the elves take it for a year with the ponies. “Could we build a teacher house each day the elves are gone then shrink it?”

Natalie smiles, “Great idea.” I add it to the list.

The teacher’s room is complete. We can’t build expanded in expanded and we can’t use wizarding space in wizarding space so we set up the room in our learning trunk’s visiting room. We build two expanded houses for our teachers. “I’m wondering, could we duplicate the house?”

“Maybe, let’s ask the elves at dinner.” We remembered to set the timer so we stopped to take notes when it went off at 5 pm.

The girls are finished with lessons for the day and are playing with the blocks. We spend half an hour playing with them before we wash up for dinner. After dinner we read and play with the cats before walking in the training room. We add storytime to our nightly routine.

Under time: Day 3

The days are repeating themselves. The girls are progressing nicely in their lessons. The elves are happy with whatever they brought to research. We finish the training space today.

There is a large area marked off for us based off the area in our training space. We added a white line from the door, spliting the room in half. We added an open classroom area for theory in our half. Cabinetry near the workout area and in the classroom area. I’m glad we brought so many hinges. Forty acres is really big so I’m glad we split it in half. I don’t know what to add to it but maybe Tavric will have an idea.

We’re ready when the timer went off at 5 pm.

The girls are finished with lessons for the day and are playing with the blocks. We spend half an hour playing with them before we wash up for dinner. After dinner we read and play with the cats before walking in the training room. Storytime before bed. Natalie read tonight.

Under time: Day 4

The only change today is different things for breakfast and working on the water room.

The water room takes all day but it is finished and ready for elf magic by the time our timer goes off at 5 p.m.

“I’m really looking forward to relaxing with you and the girls.”

“Me too. It’s your turn to read.”

Under time: Day 5

There are more different things for breakfast. Today we’ll be working on the music room.

The music room isn’t going to take up the full 40 acres but we build it that big anyway. We can always take out the rooms and use it for something else.

Because we have so much space, we make the practice rooms bigger than we were thinking. We do rooms along the wall, three in each direction, leaving about 20’ square space in front of the door. We do a walkway and two rows of three rooms heading out from the top of our entry square. We do a row of three rooms off each side. I’m wondering if 18 rooms is enough. I see Natalie walking along the rooms before coming back, “Can we add a room to each row?”

“Yes,” laughing, “I was wondering if we had enough rooms too.”

We have just enough time to add the rooms before our timer goes off. It’s Natalie’s turn to read to the girls.

Under time: Day 6

We get different things for breakfast and work on empty rooms.

Doing an empty room, ready to grow things but no structures inside is quick and we get three rooms done today.

It’s Tabitha’s turn to read to the girls.

Under time: Day 7

We get different things for breakfast and work on empty rooms.

“Tavric mentioned us needing a LOT of hay. I know we have one we’re using for Dafid but why don’t we build another?”

“And to finish things out, build a pasture for our ponies so that they don’t have to share with the cats. Except maybe link the two so the cats can visit.”

It’s Natalie’s turn to read to the girls.

Under time: Day 8

We get different things for breakfast.

“Our list is complete. Why don’t we build teacher houses?” We get four built today. That’s six. We forgot to ask the elves if we could duplicate them. Then again, they may need the library.

It’s Tabitha’s turn to read to the girls.

Under time: Day 9

We get different things for breakfast, the elves are really showing off.

We build another four today. That’s ten. We take notes about what else we want to do and go see the girls when the timer goes off at 5 p.m.

It’s Natalie’s turn to read to the girls.

Under time: Day 10

We get different things for breakfast.

The girls head off for lessons but Natalie and I are finished with our tasks. “We should workout.”

We let the elves know where we are going and head to the training room. Oh, our teachers will be upset. We’ve gotten out of shape and out of practice. “I’m happy you suggested this, Natalie. I’m not sure I want to know what the teachers would say if they saw us today.”

“We should spend time doing nothing but practing.”

“And doing Bela’s lessons.”

“We need more than a week, we need a couple months.”

The timer goes off.

The girls are finished with lessons for the day and are playing with the blocks. We spend half an hour playing with them before we wash up for dinner. After dinner which Tavric was at, the girls play in our rooms while we talk to Tavric.

The elves’ time trunk will be ready tomorrow and we can set up Dafid’s trunk at Tavric’s house. Tavric suggest the three of them talk after Dafid’s trunk is complete to catch up where they are and what else needs to happen. “I’ll be by in the morning and stay for lunch.”

Good nights all around and Tavric goes home.

We talk with the girls about our week and what we wish we could change or what we want to bring next time. We read some then get ready for bed and storytime.

It’s Tabitha’s turn to read to the girls.

Chapter Text

Day 32

Mornings are different with children. We stayed at the front house so I only have one child jumping on my bed but Sweet Kitty stayed last night so she warned me. A rush to the the bathing room then hugs and “good mornings” follow. Clothes picked out for everyone and teeth brushed, hands and faces washed and we’re ready for breakfast.

Grisarat is cooking fewer things. She makes something new for us to try plus rotates through some of our favorites. Breakfast is usually different every time. She asks what we liked best and what we didn’t like about the others. She says that lunch today will be sandwiches with fruit and veggies again as that seems to work best for us. We tell her thanks and I let her know we’ll be there for dinner. I also ask for another lunch for Tavric.

Today is outside time only. The elves are making sure the animals are fed. We play with the kitties and take time to brush the ponies. The mares are giving me the stink eye. “I haven’t forgotten.”

Tavric arrives by 9 am and we let him in the classroom. “Let’s move the elves’ trunk into our learning trunk.” We move all of them.

“Girls, why don’t you play in your learning area.” I call an elf to watch them for us.

We’re sitting at the table in our learning trunk. We’re not expecting anyone. I pull out our list and show it to Tavric.

Wizarding Spaces Needed - teacher houses (new build) … teacher access - training space (new build) … teacher access - music room (new build) … teacher access - green space for our sleeping space (brought from home)-training room - water supply (new build) - Dafid’s pastures for growing (built) - the elves took - hay room (2 cuttings for Dafid) (one built) - animals (chickens, more?), veggie garden? storage (new build) - elves growing, research (elves time trunk?) - elf rooms, storage (elves time trunk?) - pony pasture for us

“All our spaces are ready for the elves to grow landscaping. Four months is too short for the mares but it is good for the pastures. Natalie and I did a workout at the end of our time and it was horrible.”

“We would like to go with the elves. We’ll spend half our time getting back into fighting condition and the other half having lessons with the girls.”

“We’ll take all our books and the girl’s toys. We’ll work on Bela’s lessons. We’ll take the teacher elves.”

“Most of our time will be spent in our green training space so we need to buy outside toys.”

“Once we’re back, we can start the apprenticeship lessons. Two mares can go in the time trunk with the elves until they all have their babies.”

“Next year we can do it again.”

Natalie looks sad, “I’m not ready to think about next year. We’ll be leaving here by next April. Excuse me,” and Natalie runs off.

Both of us are watching Natalie. “I guess I understand. I know we came for a reason but I’m not ready to think about leaving here.”

Tavric clears his throat, “I’ve been thinking.”

Tabitha snorts and so wants to ask if it hurt.

Tavric looks at her funny but continues, “My family has property outside of town and the neighbors are selling. Maybe we could plant it for your jams. Hire locals for the property but use the elves in a trunk. Have a cart to sell seasonally. It would be easy to hire a sitter for the girls to work with their teacher. Work up to a small shop with employees. This would help with your shopkeeper bead. We could extend the contract to cover this and my family would be happy to buy the property for it. Try it for a couple of years. You said you were early?”

“You might want to talk to Dafid about using the elves trunk for his ponies.”

Tabitha looks at Tavric, then looks off into the distance, “Excuse me.” And follows Natalie.

Tavric had brought his contacts list with him and is reading through it looking for a sitter. What he really needs is someone working on their own mastery that can watch the kids after school. He puts things away knowing Tabitha and Natalie would say no, wanting to spend as much time as they could with the girls.

While Tavric is thinking, Tabitha has found Natalie who is washing her face. She has been crying. “Is it just that something is changing that you don’t want to happen or is it that we’ll be by ourselves?”

“Not sure, just I’m not ready to leave yet.”

Tabitha is nodding, “Would it help if Tavric has an idea that would keep us here another year, maybe two?”

“Really? Would it mess things up for Harry?” Tabitha is nodding her head then slowly shakes it.

“Want to make some jam? He’s thinking of our shopkeepers bead. He also mentioned our elves and Dafid’s ponies.”

“We can’t make jam without having a visible place to grow plants or been seen purchasing them.”

“Atta a girl, let’s go talk to Tavric.”

Chapter Text

Day 33

We moved the elves’ time trunk to our learning trunk last night and spent the night. Sweet Kitty warned me before the girls came in and jumped on my bed. A rush to the bathing room then hugs and “good mornings” follow. Clothes picked out for everyone then teeth brushed, hands and faces washed and we are ready for breakfast.

Breakfast seems to drag but that’s because we’re excited about the success of the elf trunk. We still make time to play with the kitties, brush the ponies and hug every elf that wants one.

We’re moving the living trunk and Dafid’s trunk to our learning trunk when Tavric arrives. “Just in time.”

The door opens on the elves’ time trunk and a cat walks out batting a ball of yarn. Oh, Natalie mentioned crochet. The elves must of made yarn for her!

All of Dafid’s pastures are ready for fencing. At least an area by the door. If I had thought of it, I would have ordered wood yesterday! We set up Dafid’s trunk and start to move his pasture doors. One of the elves come over and mentioned me down so they can whisper. “We don’t need actual wood for fence. We can use yarn. How big should area be?”

I hug the elf and say thank you. “I’m thinking 20x20 with a double gate across from the door out. Dafid can move one animal out at a time or leave the door and gate open.”

By the time we’ve got all the pastures moved, the first have the fencing ready. “Did Dafid ever list which horse goes where? Are we cross-fencing the stud pasture?”

“I don’t think so and I don’t know. Why don’t we just move the mares that are pregnant?” So that’s what we do.

The three of us head to the room with all of Dafid’s animals. Some of our cats are with them and come running up to us. I squat down to pet them and say we’re ready to move all the pregnant animals. One of the cats runs off towards a horse who neighs loudly. Another cat had left then came back with friends. Each cat went to a pregnant animal, even the two dogs.

Wow, it must be the magic in the trunk that helps the animals be smarter. Every animal with a cat walks calmly toward us. When the first arrives, I introduce myself, Natalie and Tavric. “We have another pasture for you that is mostly finished. I don’t know what else Dafid wants done but you can go there.” She nods her head and follows the cat out the door. They all do. Good thing I left the other door open for them.

The horse that neighed loudly came over with a cat. I bend over to pet the cat before standing up and talking to the horse. “Hello. We don’t have a list of who goes where but knew the pregnant ones were together. We hope to move the rest of you later today.” He nods his head, sniffs the cat and walks off. We leave the space.

We find Dafid after lunch and move the rest of the animals. We tell Dafid we would move the trunk after dinner.

We go back to out to our waiting room, Dafid and Tavric too. We all get something to drink and a snack. Thanks to Grisarat for sending restocking supplies recently, I keep forgetting. We’re all just sitting around resting when there is a knock on the door. Tavric gets up, “Let me. As your Master, anyone will need to talk to me first.”

It’s Flameclaw, “Good you’re here. We have an issue. Not quite a problem.”

Tavric nod and steps back to allow entry, “You might as well come in and explain. Are the girls safe?”

Flameclaw says thanks as he comes in and looks around. He brings a chair over from the table. “The girls are just fine with you. We sort of found another child.”

Yeah, that was not what I was expecting. “I’m not sure what to say. Well, I’m wondering how you sort of find a child and why are you telling us.”

“They walk in the office.” Flameclaw smirks at me. “Today had several co-workers out sick. There had been a dinner… well, it doesn’t matter. This morning my boss was working the front counter. Someone tried to open the front door a couple of times before finally managing it. The boss didn’t think anything of it as the door often opens a bit if it gets knocked into. He looks up when the door actually opens and a child walks in. He’s got a bag over a shoulder and he’s carrying a box. He smiles at my boss and asks, “Do you know where Tabby is?”

“Where is he?” “How old is he?” “What’s his name?” It seems we’re all talking over each other except Mary and Ella. I feel Mary edge away from me so I put my arm around her and squeeze, giving her a half hug. “You are not going anywhere. We’ll take all three of you and run if necessary.” I’m looking at Mary and she looks up and smiles at me and relaxes.

“He’s five. He said he’s called Boy or Freak.” Gasps from the males in the room but Natalie and I exchange looks. “As for where he is, my boss has him out front.”

“Stay here.” As I jump up and head to the door. I’m running out front and sort of slide in front of the boy. I may have scared him but I said, “Hello, I’m Tabby.” And the boy forgot about being scared, he puts his box and bag down and throws himself at me. He’s crying, but I can hear him saying, “You’re real, you’re real, you’re real,…” I wrap my arms around him then he’s a dead weight and as I glance down, I realize he’s asleep. Or passed out.

I gather him in my arms and stand up, he’s way too light, “Hello, Flameclaw’s Boss.” I’m smiling, “Would you like to join us?” He’s nodding so we walk to the stables after he picks up the bag and box. The door is still open so I say, “Be guest welcome this day. Won’t you come in?”

Flameclaw’s Boss gives me a little bow, “I thank you for your welcome.” and walks through the door.

Natalie jumps up when she sees me and comes over. “What happened?”

Tavric comes over and takes the box and bag to the table while saying, “Go ahead and sit in the chair, and then drags another chair from the table over.

Mary comes over to guide Natalie to the end of the sofa. Ella guides Tabitha to sit next to her to get help to support the new child then both girls sit on the sofa too.

Tabitha adjusts how the child is sitting and then looks at Flameclaw and his boss. “Explain.” Then she lowers her head and clears her throat, “Excuse me.” She raises her head and speaks in a nicer voice, “Please explain.”

Flameclaw snorts, “I did.”

“Maybe I should introduce myself. My name is Dundee. I’m the boss at Dwarven Child Services. Which doesn’t really mean much. There are five in my office, including me. We mostly look for lost children of those passing through. Children are precious to us so to have three without parents is astonishing. To have three know Tabby, is without precedent. I’ve since learned that you plan to travel to the Shire. What happens when another child asks if I know where Tabby is?”

“I’m not sure what to say.” Dafid inturpts me, “I do. Get the child to me. I can get the child to Black Rock. We know people all the way to Bree. Three will go, one fast to the next stop. Two will stay with the child. We’ll pick up a fourth for a short time just to resupply. The fast one will switch off with a slow one. Once we get to Bree, we’ll be resupplied and the three will head to the Shire. If we have to we’ll get a wagon and six or eight horses and drive them all the way there.”

“NO!” Everyone looks at Natalie who has her hands over the child’s ears. “You will not run those horses into the ground just to save a few days.” She is glaring at Dafid. “Just because they aren’t in harness doesn’t mean they aren’t working. They still have to keep up!”

Dafid holds his hands up in surrender, “The hardest part will be going through Rohan. A wagon might be best all around as I’d be a man traveling with a dwarvan child and the child could stay in the wagon. Unless one of you would like to come with?”

“Stop.” It’s Tabitha’s turn to glare at everyone. “We aren’t leaving tomorrow or even next month. There is time to make plans. We also need to let other offices know where Tabby is, just in case.” They all nod their heads. “Now, I need to take this child some place where we can check his health.” Natalie helps Tabitha stand, Mary and Ella grab the box and bag and follow Tabitha.

Natalie says, “I’ll stay and explain.”

Tabitha, carrying the new child goes into the classroom, the girls following her.

Natalie stays standing, “Why don’t we rearrange ourselves, I don’t need a full sofa all by myself.” The males look around, before Dafid sits in the middle of the sofa. Tavric and Flameclaw sit on either side. Dundee takes a chair while Natalie takes the other, moving it a bit to be able to watch all of them.

“Dundee, the others have heard some of this story so I’ll mostly talk to you.” Natalie proceeds to explain “far from here” and “type of magic”. The secrecy on the doors and what he can and can not talk about. “What is new to all of you is that in the far from here place we knew of a child that was called boy or freak. We didn’t know of it until much too late to do much but that’s who we think this new child is.”

“Also, we have access to healers so that is what is happening now.”

“And you took the box and bag to check the contents?”

“No. They must have been important to him and he would be stressed if he woke up and couldn’t find them. We won’t look inside until he says we can.”

“Wow, I can see why Flameclaw left the girls here and insisted that the child would be safe here.”

Natalie sighs, “Tavric, I’m afraid we need to delay, change or cancel our contract. We need to get him a bedroom set up at the very least. Clothes, books, and toys like we got the girls. We don’t know when he’ll let go of Tabitha.”

“I don’t think we need to worry about the contract right now but I’m sure it can be modified. It is getting late. Is the child allowed to stay here with Tabitha and Natalie?” Dundee is nodding. “Would you like to come back tomorrow to check on him?” Flameclaw is nodding. “I’ll be meeting with them to talk about the contract now that they have three children. Why don’t you come at 2 pm? We should have plans figured out by then. Is this okay Natalie?”

“Yes. We’ll see you at 9 a.m. and Flameclaw at 2 p.m. Dundee and Dafid are invited to come at 2 p.m.. Maybe the Ranger Official, Ristaro, should come if you can contact him.” Everyone but Tavric leaves, “Please leave a note for Grisarat that we’ll be here all day and won’t need meals?” Tavric nods and walks out.

Natalie hears a hoot and stops closing the door to look around. A hoot and a screech follow. “Hedwig?” which shouldn’t work, he didn’t have an owl this young. Natalie held up her arm as a landing spot knowing it would hurt but the owl was important. A snowy owl lands gently on her arm. Natalie smiles, “Hello Hedwig, would you like to come in?” Hedwig bobs her head so they go in, with Natalie closing the door and spelling it closed, only allowing Tavric in.

“Okay, Hedwig, we’re really happy to have you here but I’m going to ask you not to eat any of the cats or kittens.” Preak “I know you’re a good girl. We’ll have the house elves make sure there is mice for you. We’ll need to fence off a space as I don’t want them to have free range of our spaces but I’m sure you’ll want to hunt sometimes. You’ll see. We also have bunnies and chickens but they’re in a different place. We’ll research what is best for you.” Hedwig bobs her head and starts grooming my hair. I’m explaining to her about our trunks while closing and locking the classroom door. The living trunk door is open so that’s where I’m heading.

Meanwhile with Natalie, we’ll need to sleep in our learning trunk but Harry needed to see a healer first. I went to the cat room first, wondering if one of the cats would like him. The main cats came over then ran to the elf door and meowed loudly. An elf popped in and started waving their arms. “Okay, I’m going to help you sit down.” I can feel being supported as I sit down, like I’m being hugged. The main cats came over to sniff at Harry. Sweet Kitty comes over to sit by me. With Harry supported on my lap, I’m able to pet her. Four kittens came over to sniff at Harry, three stay but the fourth leaves then comes back with a fifth kitten and an older cat. The older cat and Sweet Kitty touch noses and rub cheeks before they settle down by us.

Natalie comes in and I hear a hoot. I look up in wonder, “Hedwig? What the hell Natalie?”

Natalie is laughing. “Thanks, I needed that. I heard her as Tavric was leaving and invited her in. I did ask her not to eat any cats or kittens.”

“Okay, have a seat and make a perch for her.” Natalie does. “Well Hedwig, this is Sweet Kitty. This cat and these four kittens have adopted Harry and don’t have names yet.” The main pair comes over, “This is the main pair of cats, they run things in here and they don’t have names yet either.” Hedwig bobs to all the cats, looking like she is bowing to them. “A lot has happened since we last heard of you. Do you realize you aren’t at Hogwarts anymore?”

Preak

Natalie laughs at me, “I’m pretty sure she just said, duh! at you.”

Natalie takes over the explaination. “Mary and Ella were also found waiting for Tabby. We have an apprenticeship contract with Tavric. That’s the man that walked out the door before I did.” Hedwig nods. “He’s coming over in the morning so we can figure out how we’re going to do our contract while we have three children. We aren’t giving them up and if necessary we will pack everyone up and run.”

Tabitha says, “You are included in that Hedwig. We will not leave you behind.” I get a churr sound and a head bob. “Someone help me stand and we can move to the learning trunk.”

We spent the night in our learning trunk. Natalie was right about Harry not wanting to let go of me. We do storytime in my bed then Natalie takes both girls off to bed. Sweet Kitty and all of Harry’s new cats sleep with us. Tabitha spelled a perch for Hedwig. Hedwig being here really surprised me.

Chapter Text

Day 34

We spent the night in our learning trunk. Natalie was right about Harry not wanting to let go of me. We do storytime in my bed then Natalie takes both girls off to bed. Sweet Kitty and all of Harry’s new cats sleep with us. Tabitha spelled a perch for Hedwig. Hedwig being here really surprised me.

The girls didn’t jump on the bed but they did come in the next morning. Harry had relaxed over night so I said I had to run to the bathroom. He nodded so I ran off but came back and asked if he wanted to use it. “Go ahead, we’ll stay here. we’ll get ready for the day when you get back.”

Natalie came in and joined us on the bed. Harry is back to being glued to my side. I’m okay with that. I feel him sit up and see him looking around before I talk, “calm sweet boy, your box and bag are over there,” as I point towards the wall. I didn’t expect him to jump out of bed!

After looking in both of them he comes back over towards the bed. He hesitates and bounces then steps back a couple steps and forward again. He looks up at me and then Natalie, “I don’t hurt.” We both nod but I wanted to cry.

I hold my hands out to him and help him back onto the bed. “I don’t know what was wrong, but it got fixed. I already had a healer give you a check up.” He’s smiling and snuggles down next to me with the cats joining him. We tell him all of our names and tell him that we knew his name was Harry. Natalie saw the face his made. “Do you want a different name?”

“Yes please. Rosella and Amaryllis are pretty names. Can I have a name that is more pretty than Harry?”

“Okay, what about Alaric, Gray, Niall, or River?”

“What about Nigel, Harris, Liam, or Willow?”

“Oh, I’m not sure.” Harry looks uncertain.

“As much as I want to stay and cuddle, we do have someone coming over this morning. We also need breakfast. You don’t have to decide on a name right this minute. You can think of the name you want all day but it would be good to decide today so we can fill out the paperwork.”

Tabitha gets Harry’s attention, “I’m going to call you Sweet Boy today since you don’t like Harry.” Harry nods. “Okay, Sweet Boy, it’s time to go to breakfast and we need to get dressed and do morning things.” Harry nods. “Let’s start in the bathroom and wash up.” Harry looks scared. Tabitha thinks before saying, “Would you like Ella and Mary to wash up first?” Harry looks uncertain but slowly nods his head. “Okay. Girls let’s wash our hands and faces and get our teeth brushed before we get dressed.”

Natalie helps the girls while Harry watches, not letting go of Tabitha’s hand. He startles at the brrr sound the girls make. “It didn’t hurt?”

Mary gets it. She bends down while speaking, “No, touch my cheek and you can feel that it wasn’t too hot or too cold.”

Amazingly, Harry does! He looks up at me in wonder. “It’s all for real isn’t it?” I’m nodding my head trying not to cry. “Do you want me to help you or do you want Natalie to help you?”

“Can Natalie? Really?”

“She can. Do you want us to stay here?”

“Yes, please.” So Harry gets his hands and face washed. We had an extra toothbrush for him then Natalie and I wash up and we all troop back to my sleeping room.

Tabitha says she’ll get dressed first, and does so. “Now, Sweet Boy, I want you to look at the clothes in my closet. We’ll go look at everyone’s closet and I want you to pick out something you like. We can duplicate it so they can keep one and you can wear one.” Harry is noding his head.

We troop off to each room to get dressed while Harry looks in all our closets before picking out something and getting dressed. Time for breakfast.

The elves are showing off with the variety available. They don’t make much of each thing but enough for all of to have some. Harry’s eyes are so big and he does taste a little of everything but doesn’t eat a lot. “Sweet Boy?” Harry looks over. “Does your tummy hurt?” Harry tilts his head, then looks down at his tummy, pats it before saying in wonder, “No, it doesn’t.”

I nod then ask, “Is there something different you want to eat? Or more of what you had?”

Harry has a thinking face. I’m surprised I recognize it so soon. “I’m used to eating toast and milk. Could I have more milk please?”

“Of course.” I say as an elf heard and his glass is refilled. Too bad this startles him into backing up and he falls out of his chair. “Sweet Boy?” I get up to kneel by him. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Harry looks at me, the table, then around at everyone. “I’m not in trouble?”

We’re all shaking our heads. Natalie asks, “Why would you be in trouble?” at the same time Mary asks, “Because of the milk?”

Harry nods his head before looking up at me. “I’m sorry Sweet Boy, I didn’t know you didn’t meet any of our house elves or remember seeing them. Let me hold you.” As I sit properly in my chair Sweet Boy stands up and comes over. Once we were comfortable, I ask, “Do you know about magic?”

Harry tries to curl up but I’m whispering as I hold him to me, “It’s okay, it’s all okay, we know, you’re safe, we’re not going to hurt you, …” I can feel him relax as I keep repeating what I said. Finally he sits up and leans into me. I’m running my hand through his hair and down his arm as I hold him. He falls asleep. Whew, crisis averted. Or maybe just postponed.

Natalie asks the girls if they’re finished. They nod. She says thank you to the elves that come in for hugs and we move to our waiting room for Tavric.

9 a.m. We’re in the waiting room, waiting for Tavric.

Harry is still asleep on my lap. We brought books and coloring supplies for the girls. Also paper for us to take notes. I’m also thinking we should move to the cat’s room so we can talk to the elves and cats. It won’t take much for us to move.

Tavric is right on time. Natalie answers the knock on the door and invites him in. Hellos all around and I’m asking if he wants the elves to help plan.

“Of course I do. We need to talk about the time trunks.”

We all head back to our house trunk while Natalie locks the classroom door.

The girls are happy to play in their learning room and promise to check in with us if they get hungry or bored.

Tavric starts first, “I understand that you want to do time so you can get your hand to hand and staff work back up to where it was.” Natalie and I nod. “I understand that you won’t give up the children.” We’re nodding but Natalie gives him the stink eye for thinking they would. “I understand that you’ll take any children that ask for Tabby.” Now it’s my turn with the stink eye.

“Of couse we will. I would break our apprenticeship contract and run if you or anyone tries to take the children.”

Tavric is smiling. “I know and I would help you run.” Natalie and I relax. “I was thinking of asking the elves how long you can be away in 3 hours.

“Head elf, please”

An elf pops in, “I be Strawberry, I bees Head Elf this day.” Natalie kneels to give the elf a hug.

“Hello Strawberry, we have time trunk questions. Would you be able to answer them?” Strawberry is nodding. “I know we are doing one minute equals one hour. Would we be able to do one minute equals one day? And if we can, would elves be able to come with us?”

“bees right back.” Strawberry pops away then comes back 5 minutes later. “Trunk with big teacher room can do this long. First needs growing time.”

We’re looking at each other before Natalie says, “I get it. We need all the rooms that need landscaping to be grown before we can use them.” Strawberry nods her head.

“Eyes talk to time elves and they say 3 hours is 180 days. Ifs you do this, wes can come to help. Also elves want research room plus pregnant bunnies.”

Natallie and look at each other before nodding. “So the elves will take the new rooms and do time just for growing landscape.” Strawberry nods her head. “Then, we can go for 3 hours. Some elves will come to help us, research and experiment.” Strawberry is nodding her head. “Can the elves’ trunk time be changed to the one minute equals one day?” Strawberry is nodding her head.

Tavric claps his hands, “Looks like you don’t need to start the trunk tomorrow morning. You only need 2 hours. That isn’t even enough time to go shopping for your new child.”

Natalie makes me a more comfortable chair to use while Harry sleeps on my lap. A Healer elf comes in to check him. He’s just stressed about his new circomstances. I ask Ella and Mary to get Harry’s bag and box which they set down by the chair. The girls get books from their learning room and come back to where I am and settle down.

Natalie sets up the elves time trunk in the classroom. All the rooms we made go in the trunk, the time is set up, the elves gather what they need and the time starts.

We have two hours to plan how to adjust our apprenticeship. Tavric has ideas.

“I know you want to train.” We nod. “I know you want your children to learn.” We nod. “I know you don’t want to drop off the children with a sitter.” We nod but glance at each other wondering where he is going with this. “I want to delay your first teachers for one trip in your trunk for 3 hours. Use this time to get back in shape. Spend mornings with the children. The afternoons practicing while they have lessons. Spend the evenings with the children. Take teacher elves, helper elves, elves that want time to research. Take your outdoor spaces and use them everyday. Maybe take one day off just to play or do hobbies.” We’re nodding our heads while listening to Tavric.

Natalies asks, “Do you think you or your mom would want to come? If your projects are small enough to make it through the door, you’d have six months to work on them.”

Tabitha whispers, “It would also give you a chance to see just how much could get done in six months when you don’t have interruptions.”

“I’m wondering if we should ask Flameclaw and Dundee to come. They know about the “far from here” and a “kind of magic”. I don’t know if both can leave the office for three hours. Of course, they could say they were checking up on the children.”

Natalie has her thinking face on. “I’m thinking we do the six months in three hours first with just us. It will allow us to get our practice in, get used to a schedule and bond as a family. There is no reason I can think of right now not to do six months again and ask Bela to come with us. I’d kind of like her to feel like a grandmother for us and the children. If we’re already used to a schedule she won’t feel like she has to teach us or be a sitter. She could use the time being a grandmother. Plus for projects and reading. Same with you. Next week we could do 30 days with Flameclaw and Dundee, we’d like you to come with them.”

Tabitha is nodding, “There is no reason why we can’t do six months one day a week. I’m not sure of doing it everyday while training, we really need our training to be realistic. Oh, no one knows how much we currently know. We could do six months every morning and be visible in the afternoon.”

Natalie looks excited, “We could be at the farm too and spend one day a week in town selling our jam. I think I’d like just one of us to do that while the other stays with the children. We would have to find someone to help with the jam cart.”

“I’ve got someone in the family that can help with the cart and several that would help at the store when you get one. The bead requirement of selling can be covered by the cart, maybe ordering and stocking too. The store will cover employees.”

Tabitha looks worried. “I just had a thought that worries me. About all the extended time and the children. I think we should do the 6 months with all of us then I think the next six months should be with one of us out here with the children. The one inside will be training and learning but the children will miss them for less than a day. Even if we extend the trunk time to a full year, it is still less than a day.”

Natalie looks conflicted but Tavric says, “I think I understand, you’re worried about their growth.”

“Could we bring a healer elf with us when we do our first six months? Also do a before and after scan?”

“Why don’t we plan your training as if you’ll all go together then make a new plan if you go one at a time. We have an hour before the spaces are ready for you.”

Natalie says thoughtfully, “I think we need to decide if both of us need beads in everything and how far we want to take the training. Some things would be good for both of us to know like hand to hand and shopkeeping but do both of us need to know how to be a cooper?”

Tabitha smiles, “These are good question but I’m thinking if it’s just us for a while, maybe we should make sure that we’re at apprentice in everything. One of us can be journeyman in some, the rest in the other. The same for Master. We don’t each have to be Master in everything but one of should be master of some and the other master in the rest.”

“I don’t know if that would make it more confusing or not. It might work if we train one at a time. Of course, I could be training with someone at the same time you are training in something else with someone else.”

Tavric is thinking he’ll miss these girls when they leave. “Some of your fighting could be in the yard. Pick a weapon that will be mostly practiced outside where anyone on the street can hear you. Also practice in your classroom so they can hear you. If the children are okay during your first six months, then you can do trunk time Monday mornings. Rest Monday afternoons. Tuesday mornings practice outside then do trunk time Tuesday afternoons. Spend Wednesdays doing jam related things, planting, making, selling. Thursday is a repeat of Monday and Friday is a repeat of Tuesday except your practice time is in your classroom. The weekends can be for play-time, hobbies and shopping.”

Tabitha is nodding, “That gives us four times we’re in a time trunk and could possibly give us two years in a week.”

Natalie sits up in surprise but Tavric beats her speaking with his, “What? Two years? I didn’t realize.”

Tabitha is quietly laughing at them. “If we go in one at a time, that’s what we’ll do. That way we each get a year in a week without the children missing us too much.”

“I also want you to think about a kitchen. Either built off the waiting room or at the property where your fruit will be grown. You could have it built for you then duplicate it in a trunk. If you build it here, it could be used for your brewer lessons also. People will be able to smell the jam cooking and the brewing even if you only use it once a week. You could ask Grisarat for cooking lessons.”

“We could be seen leaving to buy fruit even if our barrels won’t be full it will give reality to us having enough to make jam before our vines are ready.”

“Oh, we could have a couple of greenhouses? We also have fruit trees.”

Harry is starting to stir so I talk softly to him about where he is. Once he is more awake, I tell him I’m going to stand, which I do. Then I carry him to our sleeping rooms and into my bathing room. Once I put him down, he hurrys. I can hear him before I’m even out the door. Whew, just in time.

Harry holds my hand to walk back to our chair but stops before we leave the room. He looks up at me and has tears in his eyes, “Box?”, his voice is soft and quivery. I kneel down to wipe his cheeks, “Safe. Remember the chair we were just sitting in?” shrug “That’s were the box and your bag are.” He nods his head and we head out.

I sit back down in the chair once we’re back in our waiting room. Harry stands by the chair and looks at me before one of his kittens comes over and climbs the chair and walks to my lap. I’m laughing softly while petting the kitten, and look at Harry, “Do you want to sit on my lap too?” Harry nods his head so I help him up.

Tabitha sighs, “I know we have people coming at 2 pm but I don’t remember what we were meeting about. The elves are almost done with their time than we’ll have lunch. If we eat fast, we could spend an hour shopping for clothes at least.”

“You must be tired. You're filling out paperwork. I could come back before 2 pm and wait in your waiting room just in case you’re a little late or they’re a little early. I can also share why you’re late. I don’t think they’ll mind because you’re shopping for the child they gave you.”

Tabitha and Natalie both say thank you to Tarvic as the timer goes off.

I’m glad we made the main trunks big then shrunk them, it allowed us to put trunks inside trunks. Our new trunk is in the classroom. We put the elves’ time trunk inside it and also the Living Trunk.

All of us are now in our new trunk, Natalie opens the elves’ time trunk and an elf looks out the door. They wave their hand around then lean out the door before coming out, calling back into the trunk, “Come out!”.

The elves are bouncy. I’m not sure what is going on.

“Wees all done with growning time.”

“Okay. Why are you all excited?”

“Wees love new time! Wees can feel family and they all the same as us.”

Tarvic gets it first, “Does that mean that you age differently in the other trunk?”

The elves are all nodding their head then shaking it.

I’m still confused and glancing at Natalie, she looks confused too. “Did you get a year older when you were in the time trunk with the pregnant animals?”

The elves are shaking their heads, “Nos but we didn’t stay same as family.”

“I’m sorry, we won’t have you come into the time trunks if it changes you!”

“Nos that not it. Bees right back.” And they all pop out.

Strawberry pops in with Apple and five other elves. “Wees be Head Elves. Needs to knows what you did to make elves cry.”

Luckily she doesn’t sound mad, just curious. “I don’t know what I did. I am sad I made the elves cry.”

“Excuse me,” said Tavric, “Could we move to the other trunk so we could sit down? I think this may take a while.” The elves nod their heads and pop out. “Well, I guess we need to change trunks.” And walks off.

The girls follow him then Natalie. Harry is still holding my hand but seems to be okay with walking with me. I look down at him, he’s looking around at the ground, “Where are the kitties?”

I see Sweet Kitty and Harry’s cat so I ask, “Are the kittens still in the trunk we had breakfast in?” Both cats nod their heads. “Well, Sweet Boy, let’s follow everyone back to where we had breakfast.” Harry nods is head as he starts wallking, pulling me along.

It doesn’t look like we’ll be getting any shopping done. The girls head to their learning room but Harry doesn’t want to leave me. They girls bring some of their blocks for Harry to play with which he does, sitting right up against my chair. He’s out of the way of my legs but angled so he can see me and close enough I can reach down and touch him.

It was an interesting converstion with the elves. Apparently the house elves take turns being Head Elf. Each elf gets four days. A second elf is deputy those four days then Head Elf the next four days with a new deputy. The Head Elf moves to Secretary for four days before moving on to something else. They also take notes and share memories. They all know what is going on.

I feel bad, Natalie and I have been so busy that we aren’t keeping up with what the elves are doing.

Wilson had given the house elves instructions about the animals, food, and books. “Wees be needing one more room for books just for yous trunk. Wees still want to uses it but yous can too. Wees makes copies. Wees also need big room for some animals. Pregnant animals went with ponies in cat room. Need it bigger.”

“You want another big space like our teacher room?” asks Natalie. The elves nod their heads. “You want all the animals that were pregnant in that room?” Head nods, “Ponies too?” Head shakes.

“Wees want to have a food room with yarn animals too. Need yarn spot to work yarn and meat spot.”

“Can the yarn spot be a different room? Can the meat spot be a different room?” then Natalie whispers after looking towards Harry, “Is the meat spot a slaughter area?” Head nods.

“Do you want shearing done in yarn room? Washing? Dying? Weaving? Yarn making?”

As the elves are whispering to each other, Harry gets my attention, “Yes, Sweet Boy? Do you need something?” He points to his box, which is glowing.

“That’s for you.”

What the hell?

I start to walk towards the box and hear a “Wait!” so I stop and turn around. An elf pops out and in again with another. The new elf walks over to the box, waving their arms around, “Box is safe. Message from our friend Wilson,” and they pop out.

“Okay, let’s see what Wilson has to say.”

This day has been so weird. And long. Or at least it seems that way. It seemed so easy when we started. Just find Harry and help him with Teddy. Yeah, our Harry is 5 and there is no Teddy. Or at least not yet.

I walk closer to the box but stop short of it. I reach out to tip the lid off and the glow stops. “Huh.” I walk closer to look inside and see papers tied with a ribbon. There is a tag that says ‘Tabitha and Natalie’ so I grab it, put the lid back on and go back to the table.

Sitting again, I say thanks to Harry and untie the ribbon.

“To Tabitha and Natalie,

I’ve received an update on what has been happening and know that you have three children. I know that one of them is Harry. This is the Harry you are thinking it is. The Harry you went to help, is now in an alternate universe from us. I can guess you are confused as I am the original Wilson but your Harry is different.

Most of what we knew is now different. I’ve been told that you don’t need to worry about Teddy. He and Harry are just fine. I’ve been told that many more children will be looking for Tabby, all of whom will make it to you safely. I have not been told how many or when. Not even where you will be when they arrive.

I’ve been told to say ‘one-third just passed Apprentice then half Master, half Journeyman.’ I hope that makes sense to you. (I glance at Natalie and Tarvic, Tarvic says training and I nod).

I’ve been told that the box will have messages for you but not how often. I know you are safe and the house elves made it. I am not able to update you much on the plans we had when you left as it has only been a week for me. I am finishing with Heads of Families and them doing the ICW non-magical studies class.

I’ve been told I can send another message at a later time but I don’t know when or how often. It was not mentioned if you could leave a message in the box.

Your Friend and Brother, Wilson”

We’re just sitting there. Harry is playing with the blocks. The elves are still whispering.

“Sweet Boy?” Harry looks up, “Would you like some milk?” He smiles and nods his head. An elf heard me and a glass of milk with a plate of sandwiches, carrots and a couple of cookies is on the table before Harry is even standing. Harry sits down and reaches for the milk with a smile on his face. “Did you get to drink a lot of milk?” He nods.

“Auntie Petunia heard the neighbors talking about how small I was. After that I got all the milk I wanted. Dudley wanted fizzy drinks and didn’t want to share them with me. He didn’t like milk unless it was chocolate or on cereal.”

“Okay, I haven’t seen fizzy drinks here but we have plenty of milk. Do you like fruit juice?” Harry nods his head.

I look up at Natalie but she’s watching the elves. When I look at Tarvic he is taking notes.

The elves stop talking and one steps towards us. “We want meat room to be separate from animal room so smell doesn’t scare everyone. Shearing can be area in animal room. Yarn room can be separate but still big so all can uses it. Yous too. We haves lot to do but babies need somethings too. We want more animals up for food, yarn and babies.”

Now Natalie is taking notes, “You want one big room like the teachers space for yarn. Does it need a regular floor?” Head nods. “You want a meat room. Same size?”

Head nods, “wees not use all of it yet.”

“Okay, do you need more than one room for animals? If we need more room later, maybe we should make them now. Do all the animals need the same kind of room? Can all the animals live together?”

The elves are whispering again. “Can we have one room per animal?”

Natalie nods her head, “Should they get their own trunk? Will any of them need time? What about predigrees?”

The elves’ ears are standing up, “Can we put them together? One room, lots of doors? Meat room too? Walk animals from growing room to meat room. Move animal if time is needed.”

Natalie is nodding her head, “We’ll need a water room too. Tabitha, can we use some of our bonding time to build animal rooms?”

Lunch menus pop on the table where we’re sitting. I laugh, “guess it’s time for lunch.” Natalie goes to get the girls, menus pop up when they sit down. All of us order something, which pops in. Harry gets grapes to go with his carrots.

“I don’t see why not Natalie. We’ll be there for six months, let’s use Sundays to make rooms, that’s 12 if it takes two days per room. One needs to be water but that leaves 11 rooms for animals. How many different animal rooms will there be?”

Natalie looks toward the elves, I look too. They are whispering together.

“Milk cows, sheep, llamas, alpacas, pigs, bunnies, chickens, turkeys, goats, beef cattle. Bunnies, chickens, turkeys can be in same room. Pigs and goats can be one room to start. Want time to grow turkeys and chickens for food others later.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of animals.”

Natalie looks a little sick and whisper, “Are we going to eat all of the animals?”

I look at her and then the elves, realizing what she means, “Bunnies too?”

The elves shake their heads, “Mostly yarn.”

Natalie and I glance at each other before she speaks, “Could you mix them with other meat and not tell us?”

The elves look at each other and nod their heads. “Can mix most in stew, soup, curry type foods. All can be ground up together.”

Natalie and I are nodding our heads. Tavric seems to be laughing at us.

Harry has cleaned his plate, he still has milk in his glass but I saw it refill once. Same with the girls. Harry’s rubbing his eyes but the girls look tired too.

“I’m thinking there isn’t time for shopping. Why don’t we put a mattress in our waiting room for the girls to nap. Harry can nap on my lap. That way we don’t have to move anyone.”

“Sounds good, I’ll bag up all the blocks to take with. Girls, why don’t you go get coloring stuff and a couple of books in case you wake up and we’re not finished with our meeting.”

“Sweet Boy?” Harry looks up. “Are you finished eating for now?” He nods. “Have you thought anymore about your name?” He nods. “Is it okay if another child shows up and picks one of the other names?” He nods. “What name would you like us to call you?”

“Willow.”

I hug him. “Willow,” he smiles at me. “We’re going back to our waiting room to meet with the ones who brought you to us.” He looks fearful. “They are NOT taking you.” He doesn’t look convinced. “They are checking up on you and will fill out the papers with your new name and the paperwork that allows us to keep you.” He looks better. “After you tell them your new name, you can take a nap on the couch by me. Your kitties can come with.” He smiles again and nods his head.

Natalie says, “Let’s wash our hands and faces first.” I take Willow to my bathing room, Natalie takes to girls to hers while Tavric heads to where he stayed last. The girls gather their things, Natalie gathers all the blocks and a mattress, I gather some blankets and we all head out, including Sweet Kitty and all of Willow’s kitties.

It isn’t 2 pm yet so we rearrange the furniture. The couch is moved so the mattress is behind it by the table. I duplicate the chairs so we have four now. I also duplicate the couch. It is a bit crowded but the meeting shouldn’t be too long.

The knock comes at 2 pm. Tavric gets up to answer the door. Dafid, Ristaro, Flameclaw and Dundee are outside. All come in. They all look surprised at the room.

The girls are at the table coloring. I’m sitting on the original couch with Willow on my lap. Sweet Kitty is sitting on the back on the couch, Willow’s kitties are spread out by his legs.

Dundee speaks first, “You were right, he didn’t want to let go.”

I smile, “He has, but has stayed close. I’m okay with that.”

He looks concerned, “And the girls?”

Natalie’s turn, “We did story time in Tabitha’s room last night, all of us piled up on the bed. We all got ready together this morning, mostly like we usually do. It was the girls idea to bring him the blocks to play with when he stayed with us and the girls went to their learning room. He’ll get used to us and when he feels safer, he’ll get farther away for longer.”

“I see. That’s good. Now, shopping was mentioned and so was a meeting about your apprenticeship. How did that go?”

Tavric’s turn, “The meeting took longer than expected so shopping didn’t happen today. I’m sure that will be one of the first things they do tomorrow.”

Natalie and I are nodding. Natalie sees the girls put the colors down and close their books so she goes over. “Ready for a nap?” The girls nod and go to the mattress to lay down. Natalie covers them up and tucks them in with kisses on foreheads before sitting back down.

I nudge Willow, “Sweet Boy? I need you to wake up enough to tell the nice people what your name is.”

Willow scrunches his face while stretching then looks up at me, “What?”

I wave my hand toward Flameclaw and Dundee. Willow looks over at them. “They brought me here.” I nod. “Okay.” He looks at them, moving so he can see them better. “Thank you for bringing me to Tabby. Can I stay? Look, I already have kitties.” He pets them a bit before looking back at Flameclaw and Dundee. “Can my name be Willow now? It’s pretty like Ella and Amaryllis.”

Flameclaw looks towards Dundee, who says. “You’re welcome. Yes, you can stay. Your kitties look nice. Did you pick out Willow?” Willow nods his head. “Okay, I’ll fill out the paperwork so you can stay and your name will be Willow.”

Willow smiles and curls up on my lap again before nodding off.

Flameclaw is busy filling out papers for Dundee to sign. Tavric is answering some questions. Dafid and Ristaro were talking with Natalie. She had mentioned to me she wanted Ristaro to know about the kids looking for Tabby.

Once the paperwork is all signed, I say “Natalie, I’m stuck here for a while, why don’t you show them Dafid’s trunk then bring them back here.”

Natalie stands up, “Gentlemen, why don’t you follow me.” Dafid’s trunk hadn’t been moved yet and they can see the room the mares are in and Ristaro can check up on the horses for his report.

They all come back to the waiting room. Dundee is muttering about needing a drink. I’m smiling at him. “We have another room like what the mares are in. It has more landscaping in it, including trees, but is just as big. We are going to put a house in it and can add rooms for every child that comes looking for Tabby. We’ll welcome them all.”

Dundee looks shocked. “All?” I nod. “There will be more?” I nod. “Will they all be without families?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should say anyone who is looking for Tabby should be brought to us.”

Ristaro says he’ll spread the word but he needed to get back to work. He thanks us for sharing and Tavric shows him out.

Dundee and Flameclaw also mention getting back to work and say they’ll be back in a couple of weeks to check on the children. Dafid leaves with them.

Travic looks around then back to us, “Shopping tomorrow?” I nod. “Sleeping here tonight?” Natalie nods. “Where will you have breakfast?”

“Oh, Grisarat hasn’t meet Willow.”

“Why don’t you have breakfast here. I’ll leave a note that there will be six for lunch and I’ll join you. And you can do your shopping in the morning. Have deliveries made in the afternoon and do your six months the next day.”

Good-byes all around and Tavric leaves. The girls wake up and I remember that we didn’t brush the ponies this morning. Natalie helps me stand up and we head the the cat room to see the ponies.

Willow wakes up while we are with the ponies and is introduced to all of them. We stay with the ponies until dinner then head out. I’m wondering if the ponies can do the six months with us. I’ll need to remember to ask the elves.

Chapter Text

Day 35

We did spend the night in our learning trunk. Willow wasn’t ready to sleep in his own room but did relax his hold on me. We did our nightly routine before we did storytime in the visiting room, it was my turn to read. We all go to the girl’s room so I can do forehead kisses and say good night before heading to my room with Willow. Sweet Kitty and all of Willow’s new cats follow.

Morning starts like yesterday. Everyone comes in but the girls don’t jump on the bed until Willow is awake. Good mornings all around before I run to the bathing room. I say, “Your turn Willow,” when I come out. Willow runs to the bathing room. When he comes out I mention the rest so we all go back in to wash our faces and hands before brushing our teeth. I get dressed and the group goes to the girl’s room where they get dressed and Willow picks out something to wear. Natalie goes to get dressed while Willow does.

Breakfast includes milk, orange juice and coffee. Scrambled eggs, sausages and pancakes are served family style. We have maple syrup but the elves have made raspberry jam. It was delicious.

Willow checks for his box and bag after breakfast then we go shopping.

Thinking that toy shopping would be the most fun we go to the clothes store first. Willow doesn’t know what he wants to get and after standing in bewilderment, he asks for help. Natalie remembers talking to a friend who was helping a nephew. She takes a pair of pants off the rack and holds it up to Willow. “Okay, these are long enough, let me try something,” and holds the waist up to him. She checks the size then pulls two more from the rack. “Okay, I want you to try these on for size. Don’t worry about color, just how they feel while you’re wearing them and let us see you wearing them.”

Willow does and picks a favorite pair. Natalie starts the this color or this one questions narrowing it down to two before picking four of each. Next is the shirts. It goes much the same.

Shoes are in a different store and we pick the same as the girls making sure they are a good fit.

“Next is furniture then toys. We need a bed for Willow. We also need couches, chairs, rugs, lamps, a table to work at and a table to eat at. I want Willow to pick his bed and each of you to pick a comfortable chair to go in our visiting room. Think of reading or just cuddling with kitties when you pick a chair.”

That wasn’t near as horrible as I thought it would be. I decided to move our beds to the new trunk and maybe duplicate them later.

We stop for more writing supplies before heading to the toy store.

Willow was hesitant to pick out anything. I found small animals that he seemed to like. Natalie got one of each. “Did you like the blocks?” He nods so I pick one of each so he’ll have his own like the girls do. We should dupicate them to have a set for the next child that shows up. “We were going to go to the book store after this. Do you want to get coloring books and colors of your own?”

“For real?” I’m nodding my head. “Okay, um,” as he looks around. “This one.”

“Why don’t you get one more.” He looks astounded then picks out another one. I take him over to where Natalie is, “Look, Natalie picked out animals for you, did she miss any? Are there ones you don’t like?” He picks out three that he didn’t like and we go pay for everything else.

The owner of the book store was there when we got there. “Good morning, I saw Flameclaw the other day. I gathered a copy of all the books you got for the girls, just in case. I also pulled out some for younger boys.”

“Thank you, in our rush, I forgot my list. We’ll take them all. Even the ones you pulled out for a younger boy. The girls haven’t finished reading the ones we got before but I’m sure we’ll be back before too long for more.”

We’re on our way home when I remembered bathing things. “I’m sorry children, we have one more stop. Shampoo and bathing toys are at a different store.”

Willow got colors for the walls, I got a second set as the girl’s set is almost gone. Willow also got a couple of floating toys. “Now we can go home.”

I heard shouts as we were walking home. Natalie looked behind us and grabbed the closest girl yelling, “Come left!”

Mary was on my left and Willow was on my right but I was already holding his hand so I tugged him in front of me, nudging Mary closer to Natalie. We really only moved two feet over before a horse went running passed us and skidded to a stop.

We’re still moving left to get out of the way but the horse steps closer to us. I’m nervous, this horse looks much bigger than ours. I also seem to talk when I’m nervous. “Hello Sweet Thing, we’re just getting out of your way. No reason to bother with us. We’ll just keep moving now.” As I’m talking I’m facing the horse and backing up trying to herd the others to keep them moving left. The horse follows us. Now I’m upset. I stop moving, ask Willow to go to Natalie and stand there so I’m between the horse and everyone else. “Hey Sweet Thing, I think you’re lost. Do you know how to get home from here?” Yes it sounds stupid but I was hoping the tone of my voice would keep him calm.

A man I don’t know comes over followed by several others. The horse looks around at his feet then sidesteps the man, moving closer to me. I move to the side holding my arms out to my sides. Natalie moves the children back behind me. I wave my hands back trying to get everyone to step back as I do. The horse follows me.

The man looks exasperated. “I give up.” He looks at me, “He’s yours now. Come to the horse tent to get his papers later.” And he walks off with the others following.

Willow slips up next to me and grabs my hand. “He’s bigger than your other ones.”

“I know.” Natalie and the girls come up on my other side. “He is a beautiful horse but I don’t know what to do with him.”

The horse hangs his head then walks closer to us. His ears are perked forward and he moves slowly. I don’t feel theatened. He nudges me then backs up and looks towards our home then back to me.

Now I’m thinking, how does he know which direction our home is. “Huh, I guess he’s coming home with us.” I look around, “Anyone hurt?” I don’t hear yeses. “Do we have all our packages?” Natalie says yes. “Okay Sweet Thing, let’s go home.” I swing Willow up in my arms and start walking. Everyone follows. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with you. Do you know? Are you to stay with us? Are you supposed to go to Dafid? Ristaro?” I’m looking at Beauty, thinking great, I just named him. “You’re the only big horse we have. I know you’re not that much taller but will you be okay with our ponies? Do I need to get you your own herd?” Beauty gives a soft whinny but keeps walking with us. I feel like he’s laughing at me. It isn’t even lunch time yet!

Natalie and the girls take our shopping to our waiting room while I let Beauty in the back pen with a snack while we go to lunch.

Willow loves Grisarat! Lunch was the normal excellence we’ve come to expect from Grisarat. The surprise was just how open Willow was. He was so excited telling Grisarat about the new horse, shopping and his new kitties that he almost forgot to eat! We’re going to need to make sure we spend one meal up here everyday. And spell Willow not to share trunk time.

Tavric goes home after lunch to find Dafid then both come to find us. The rest of us, including Grisarat, come to the outside pen where Beauty is. Dafid whistles, “Wow, he’s a beauty! Where did he come from?”

Natalie laughs, “Yes, that is his name now. He got it on the way home. If you want bare bones, ask Tabitha. If you want the exciting version, ask Willow.”

“Before Willow tells the story, will you come with us to pick up his papers? And could you match him? If we’re keeping him he’ll need to pull a wagon and for that he needs to be matched.”

“If not here, we’ll hit up Black Rock. Of course I’ll go with. Hang on Willow, I want to check out Beauty before I hear the story.” Willow is nodding with a big smile on his face. Dafid gets in the pen with Beauty to inspect him.

Beauty is calm only moving closer to Willow and Tabitha for head scratches.

“Okay, I don’t think I have anything that can match him but I know someone who might.”

“Why don’t we go back to the house and Willow can tell the story before we go to the horse market.”

Willow is a good storyteller and he likes Dafid like he likes Grisarat, so he’s super excited telling it.

I head back to the house trunk to talk to the elves about a rope then head back to the outside pen. “Hey Beauty, we need to go get your papers so you can stay with us. I’d like to use this rope as a lead so others don’t get scared about you walking around without it.” Beauty comes over to sniff the rope then nods his head. So I tie a slipknot then a quick twist and a loop, explaining to Beauty what I am doing as I do it. Now I’ve got a halter and lead for our walk.

Sweet Kitty had slipped out when I went to the trunk to get a rope. I try to talk her into going back to the trunk but she wants to come and somehow she got Beauty up against the fence so she could climb on.

I stay outside the clerk’s tent with Willow and Beauty. Tavric stays with me. Dafid goes in with Natalie and the girls. The clerk remembers Natalie, knows Dafid but is surprised by the girls. Natalie gives a quick update, mentioning Flameclaw and looking for Tabby before sharing what happened this morning.

“You say Tabitha is outside?” We all nod. “I didn’t know it would be you two. I did get a message this morning and I do have his papers. Why don’t I go outside and make sure the papers match the horse.”

“Hello Ms Tabitha.” We shake hands. “I’ve got papers but need to inspect him to make sure they match.”

I nod to show I understand, “just a moment.” I walk over to Sweet Kitty and get her to jump down to me then walk back to Beauty’s head. “Hey Beauty, the clerk needs to inspect you to make sure you match the papers he was given so we can keep you.” I’m stratching his forehead while I’m talking. “I need you to be nice so it will go quickly. Okay?” Beauty makes a raspberry sound. “Hey, if we don’t get to keep you we aren’t going to get mares for you.” He nods his head and stands still.

The clerk just stands there looking at Beauty then me and back to Beauty. Dafid nudges him and he clears his throat. “Okay, I have papers for a solid black stallion, no markings. I see no socks or body markings on this side, he walks behind Beauty while trailing his hand on the horse (smart man). “Okay, I see no markings on this side,” he bends down to look at this belly (and checks that he’s intact) then lifts his mane. “No markings here, let’s look at his face.” Now he’s in front of Beauty, softly rubbing his nose. “I need to you look down for me so I can check under your forelock.” Beauty lowers his head. “Thank you.” One last pat on his neck and he faces me.

“I believe the horse in front of me matches the papers I was given. As I have heard the story from several people independent of you, this horse is yours,” as he hands the papers to Natalie. I’ve got my hands full of cat and Willow.

The clerk asks us to fill out the transfer papers so Natalie goes in to do that. I ask Beauty to be nice while I go in to sign them. Tavric stays with Beauty. Dafid comes in so they can call in the guy his knows. I sit down at the desk with Willow and Sweet Kitty on my lap. Willow is petting Sweet Kitty, holding her so she doesn’t slip off.

“All completed. Thank you for making this unusual circumstance go smoothly. I’ve never had someone do what that man did.” Handshakes all around. “Now, you wanted to talk to a trader about matching?”

Dafid’s turn, “Yes, I believe that Stefan will have what we need.”

The clerk gets up and pulls a rope and suggests we wait outside. We’re sort of laughing because we know the clerk doesn’t want anything to happen to our new horse.

Stefan knows Dafid and greets him with a handshake. Dafid lets him know it was us that wanted him. “Greetings, what can I help you with today?”

“Greetings Stefan, I am Tabitha, daughter of Rowan, son of Theo, and this is Beauty. There is a story that we can share but what it boils down to is this, I have a new horse and would like three mares to match him in harness. Two pairs is fine, all four being similiar in build would be better.”

“May I inspect Beauty?” I nod but tell Beauty he has to be nice or he doesn’t get his mares. Stefan looks at me funny but goes in front of Beauty first before holding out a hand to be sniffed. Beauty gets a nose rub, forehead scratches then a run down his neck under his mane. A hand down his back and under the belly before patting his rump and walking behind him and doing the same to the other side. Back at Beauty’s head, “He’s beautiful, calm and well-porpotioned. Let me get a few mares I think might work and I’ll put them in pen 7. There is room for all of you, including Beauty.

Off he goes when Dafid says he can show us the way. Once we get there, Sweet Kitty wants back up on Beauty so I help her up. I tell Beauty that he doesn’t have to like any of these mares. He hasn’t meet any of our ponies and maybe he would like to breed their babies. Maybe he would like geldings with him in harness. I’m whispering to him, “We can always make a trip to Black Rock if you don’t find any here you like.” I get a head nudge and a nod, I’m sure he knew exactly what I said.

Stefan comes back with six mares. “I have other mares if you don’t like these, I also have geldings.” I nod that I understand.

“Willow, I need you to stay here with Natalie. I know you were able to be with our ponies but I haven’t met any of these horses yet so you and the girls need to wait.” Willow looks very sad. “I know Sweet Boy but you can watch me, okay?” He nods and stands by the fence to watch me.

Inside the pen, I pet and talk to all six but only like one of them. Stefan smiles when I say so. He leaves the one but takes the other five and comes back with eight more. Oh. I look at the one I liked then at Beauty, yes, this will work. I go through the other eight, petting and talking to them. Rubbing noses and patting rumps. I like six of them. Darn it, I do not need eight horses! I have Stefan take back the two I don’t like.

I walk back to where everyone is standing. “I know we do not need eight horses but I really like these. I’m just going to sit for a while and see what happens.” I start to walk away but Sweet Kitty meows really loud so I move closer to her. She stands up and walks along Beauty’s back. I walk closer so she can jump to me. “Are you going to help me decide?” She meows at me and cuddles close so I walk to the center of the pen and sit down. I can see Stefan is talking to Dafid and Dafid laying a hand on his arm as if to calm him down. I see Stefan slump then nod so I put them out of mind.

“So Sweet Kitty, what are you going to do now that you are out here?” She just looks at me and rolls over in my lap. I laugh softly and pet her. One of the bay mares comes over to me. I wait for her to sniff me and am rewarded with a head lowered so I can do head scratches. The other bay also comes over and waits her turn after sniffs of my hair and Sweet Kitty. “All right you two. Let’s go.” I stand up and walk towards the fence and the black from the first group. “Well, Beauty, what do you think?” You can see Beauty looking around his feet before he steps up and puts his head over the fence. The black from the first group isn’t happy with the two bay horses. I look over at the other mares still in the pen. The grey looks like she is standing at attention and her ears are forward. I’ve still got Sweet Kitty in my arms and the grey is fine with her. “Come one, let’s see how you do with the bays and Beauty.” I’m leading her over with just a hand under her head. Once we get there I can see she fits much better and nod to Stefan before I head to the gate.

“Alright Stefan, how much for the two bays and the grey?”

“Not the black?”

I shake my head, “Nope, she’s great but got snotty when the bays came over. I’ve got cats, ponies and small children. I don’t have time for her to get used to us. The bays and the grey didn’t have an issue with Sweet Kitty, Beauty or each other.”

Stefan nods, “I wish all my buyers thought things through like that. She’s been bought and returned once before. Well, the others have harness training and have worked well with different horses. All are proven breeders with papers, have harnesses and fresh shoes. I’d like 7 crown for the three of them, with papers and their supplies.”

Dafid looks at Stefan in shock and my mouth drops open in shock. Natalie is the first to recover, “Why so low?”

Stefan sighs, “Several things. Your thoughtfulness and careful handling of all the mares. Plus you showed me what was wrong with the black. The previous owner didn’t explain and she hasn’t acted up with my other horses. Now I know how to sell her if I don’t just keep her here to breed.”

“Let me go get harnesses and papers.” Stefan wasn’t gone long before he comes back.

“Beauty, I need you to stay here with Tavric while we pay for your mares and get them ready to come home.” He lowers his head for scratches and I walk away to the clerk’s office. I fill out the paperwork with Willow on my lap and Sweet Kitty on the chair next to me, the girls are standing behind her. Dafid stayed behind to help Natalie harness the new horses. Might as well let the horses carry the harnesses.

“Let’s take the long way and stop by to see Master Joss. I have questions about a lean-to for our pen.” It isn’t really a quick stop. Joss had heard the story of the runaway horse. We let Willow tell it again and Joss gives him his total attention. It takes longer when Willow tells it but Willow loves to tell this story and it seems to be getting easier for him to talk to other people.

“So now you have four more horses. When you leave, you’re going to need another feed wagon. These are bigger than your ponies. It doesn’t look like much but not only will they eat more, they’ll drink more too.” He looks at both of us. “I know you aren’t leaving yet, so what can I do for you?”

“For now, these four need to stay in the front pen and it doesn’t have any shelter. We’d like a three-sided structure to shelter them plus a fully enclosed room next to it for feed. I’m thinking the feed room should be 10x10 at the least. Could you measure how much room they’re taking up now and estimate how much lumber we’ll need?”

“Sure can. Lead them over close to the wall, heads about three feet back with a couple feet between them.” Everybody moves. “Now, will you feed inside?” I nod. “okay, let me see how deep this should be,” as he wonders off muttering to himself before coming back. “I’d like this to be 15x30 for the horse area. This includs a trough at the front for feed. Divided would be best so each animal has their own spot.”

I’m confused, “Divided?”

“Oh, the feed trough, not the shelter. If you have space, I could have doors at the back that you could open and slide the food in.”

“Yes to the divided trough, no to the doors in back. I’d still like the feed room to be 10’ by 10’ wide but I’d like the roof to overhang the 5’ and an door-like opening from in front of the feed room into the shelter. The door should be on the front, opening out.”

“Question. Could you build this like a puzzle where the pieces can travel as panels then slip together when they get where they’re going. Or would it better to build on site?”

“Good question. It would be better to build on site.” We’re all nodding our heads.

“Pine is fine, grade 3 works. We’ll build a floor. Could you start in two weeks? We’ll finish the outside. And what would be your estimate?”

We sign off on his estimate, schedule a date, leave a deposit and head back home.

“Let’s put Beauty and his mares in the back pen so we’ll see them more often and we can build the shelter floor without them interferring.”

Willow is tired enough to go with Natalie and the girls to the waiting room while I’m grooming Beauty and his mares. Dafid helped me take off the harnesses and carries them to our classroom. Natalie sees him come in and goes with. She brings a stand for them out of the cat’s room (snicker). While they are doing that, I’m standing on something so I can reach their backs to brush them. The legs and hooves are easy. They all lower their heads so I can reach to wipe down their heads. They all get forehead scratches and along their jaw line. Natalie and Dafid come out with hay and the new horses are happy where they are. I know we didn’t need more horses but I’m loving these animals. I’m wondering if Mandarin could breed their foals and Beauty could breed Mandarin’s. It is a little early to think of it but the ponies keep giving me the stink eye.

I poke my head in the waiting room to find everyone asleep and change my mind about where I’m going to shower. Tarvic and Dafid head back their own home and I tell them I’m going to lock up to keep everybody in and everybody out while I clean up. I’m not expecting anyone except them. Nods and see you laters and we separate. I ask Willow’s kitties to go to the waiting room and they run off. The shower feels amazing and I realize that Willow hasn’t had a bath since he got here! We need to fix that. I’m thankful this is only the second day even though it feels so much longer.

Natalie stirs once I come back to the waiting room and unlock the outside door. She doesn’t wake completely.

I sit down with a drink and Sweet Kitty in my lap and just melt. I so want to nap too! It isn’t too much longer until I hear a quiet knock and the door opens for Tavric. “Can I come in?”

I lean to the side to look towards the door, seeing Tavric, I call out, “Come on in. Grab a drink.” He comes in and does just that.

Natalie sat up at the knock, sees that I’m cleaned up, “My turn, be right back.” She heads off to our house trunk to clean up. Tavric and I sit quietly while she is gone.

Natalie comes back, gets her own drink and sits down with a sigh but doesn’t say anything.

Finally, Tavric breaks the silence, “I’ve been thinking about your kitchen. Joss has done good work and you said his wife loves to design kitchens.” We nod our heads. “I’m thinking of having him build the kitchen to use for cooking lessons, brew training, and jam making.” We look at each other then Tavric before nodding. “I also think you should move your waiting room and expand your classroom.” Both of us are confused. “Hear me out.” We nod.

“Build the kitchen in the far corner,” he waves his arm in that direction. “Build the waiting room in front of it, blocking access from the outside. If you want, you could put a door in the farthest corner and short the waiting room however much a walkway would be. You don’t need people to visit your kitchen, just smell it.” We giggle. Wow, I must be tired if I’m giggling. “Extend the stable building to meet up with the new waiting room. Have an actual stable door in the front corner of the bigger building. It will give you a place to walk the horses and the ponies into the stables. People don’t need to know they are going into a trunk, just that there is space in the stables for them. They could also take turns staying out front. Maybe have the horses pregnant in real time. Maybe have a couple of the ponies pregnant in real time.” He can see us nodding but I have questions for the elves. “There isn’t a reason you can’t move them into the stable once they are close to birth and the elves can help in a trunk.”

“If you want a bigger waiting room, build it out. We could add a partially enclosed shelter on the front of the stables for the forge or move the forge to in front of the waiting room. I know it would be safer to have the forge in the back yard and the horses out front. I know you’ll be worried about them, but I’ve got a neice who loves horses. I think we could hire her for room and board to make sure which ever horses are out front are fed and taken care of. I know you’ll want to take care of them but this will allow you to do time over night without worrying about them.”

Natalie sighs, “How old is she? Would she want to do something else between feedings? We’d have to meet her and do secrecy spells on her.”

Tabitha’s turn to sigh, “I feel bad that we won’t see the horses as often as we see the ponies.”

“Why not? I’m the one that’s actually in charge of your schedule. Let’s just move your start time back so you have an extra hour in the mornings to spend with the horses, or ponies, that are out front.” Tavric pauses, “You have more responsibilies than you did when you started this journey. You may not need to save the Harry and Teddy you thought you were but you have three children now, one of which is a Harry. And that message said more were coming.”

Tabitha is nodding, “The elves would like to experiment in a time trunk. They want us and a pregnant animal to see if our magic will mess up the pregancy. They were going to start with chickens and bunnies before moving up to sheep, goats, pigs, and so forth. I don’t believe they want to have us with pregnant mares. Training for foals yes. We need to take Jade into a time trunk for training to see if she ages or gets hurt.”

“Wait, why don’t we buy a foal instead of using one of ours? Harsh yes but we’ll keep the foal if it gets hurt. We could also start with a shorter time.”

Tabitha starts laughing, “Tavric, just how long can we stay here under an apprenticeship contract? We may need two years or more!”

“We’re planning on have a store. I think we’ll be here for a while. How will having a store work as an apprentice? Will you be the actual owner and we do the administration of it? Do you think your family would want to keep it going? Would it work if we just had a market space? We could add other fruits and vegetables. If your family kept it, …” Tabitha sighs, “I guess we don’t need to keep it going for Harry’s group.”

“True, but maybe someone will want to keep it going.”

“Wait. We need to break things down. We need to do our bonding time, even if we don’t do the whole six months. We can use that time for our practice but also to teach the children the first lessons we got from Bela.”

Natalie and Tavric are nodding.

“The elves can experiment with the chickens and bunnies in the faster time. If they are healthy afterward, one of us can go in for a repeat of the chicken and bunny experiment.” They are nodding. “If the faster time works, the elves can try it with the other animals but not the ponies. I’d like the longer time for the ponies as we know it works. Also not all of them at once. I told the ponies two at a time and they would need to decide who goes in next. I think they could go in back to back, we should ask the elves about that.”

Natalie says, “Do we let the horses get pregnant in real time now? People will see pregant horses and expect to see foals, as long as we don’t have all the foals out front together.”

“I think the foals will be too different to switch them around.”

Tavric sits up straight, “I have an idea. Once the pony foals are ready to leave their mother, put them in a trunk and leave Dol Amroth. I’m not sure where to travel do but you could come back with foals.” He looks at us, “just an idea.”

“I think we need to purchase property.” Natalie is nodding. “If Harry is not here to buy the place near the Shire, why don’t we. We can do a lot of the things Harry’s group did but we can also raise ponies there and plants for jams.”

“You already wrote to Dis to ask about that valley below the Tower Hills.”

“That’s right, I did but maybe we could get both. We have the money that was to go to Harry to help Teddy. Why don’t we use it to purchase the property and for the children.”

“We’ll need to remember to look up Harry’s story for where they found the property and see if we can purchase it by mail or if we need to travel there.”

“Maybe express interest by mail but I wouldn’t trust that kind of money to the mail.”

We sit quietly for a while. My mind is going in circles and I wished I had written things down. “We should wake the children up and have them eat dinner before baths.”

Natalie grimaces, “I’m not looking forward to them being up late.”

Tavric chuckles, “Beauty messed up your schedule but I think he’ll be worth it.”

Tabitha sighs, “I don’t remember if we told Grisarat we’d eat dinner with her.”

“I’ll go ask then come back. I had an idea for the chickens and bunnies.”

Tavric comes back, “You told her you would eat here.” Tavric claps his hands, “Now, do you have everything you will need for six months? Do you have a teaching plan? A playing plan? A workout plan?” He looks towards the children, “Are the kitties going? Do the girls have kittens? Do you know if the kittens will be hurt?”

Tabitha pretends to bang her head on the table, “I really need a planner.”

Natalie pats her on the shoulder. “Let’s ask the elves and a kitten to do a short time to check the kitten’s health.”

“Oh, wait. The cat’s room has done time when we were building trunks and working on the stable. It doesn’t seem to be a time issue, just a pregnancy one.”

“I think we can add “planner” to the things we want to do during our six months.”

“Alright, wake the children up.

“Wait on that.”

Good nights and see you in the morning to Tavric as he goes home.

“Head Elf please.”

“I bees Apricot. I bees Head Elf this day.”

“Hello Apricot, I have a lot to ask, and tell. I’m also wondering if there should be another elf to call for questions so I don’t keep interupting a Head Elf.”

Apricot nods her head, “Yeses, wees think of this. Call for Secretary and yous get Head Elf but not current one.”

Head Elf but not current one? Tabitha shakes her head, she’ll figure it out later or ask. “Thank you Apricot, should we be talking with the Secretary now?” She shakes her head. “Okay, we are planning on doing time tomorrow. We’ll be gone for 3 hours and get in six months. We will be taking the new workout space and the workout space from home that has the forest path. I’m sure Tavric will mention taking our hay room. While Natalie and I will be working out with staffs and doing hand to hand we also want to work on our lessons from Bela with the children and bond as a family.”

“We also have a list of rooms to build while we’re gone.”

“I know the mares want babies. Is it easier for the elves to have the babies two at a time instead of all at once? Also, I’m not sure about the faster time with their pregancies.”

“Twos by twos bestest for elves. Don’t need faster time.”

“Thank you Apricot. Can that be set up without us or should we be here to start it up and welcome you when it is over?”

Apricot stares at the floor for a bit then sighs. She looks up and stands tall. “Can do by self if in right trunk. All elves want yous to start and welcome back.”

“So it would be okay for the elves to do their time trunk without us but all of you want us to be there before and after?”

Apricot nods her head.

“Thank you, we will try to always be there.” Apricot smiles and bounces a little.

“We will need helper elves for cooking and laundry and teacher elves for the children and us. I’m not sure what we would learn but I’m sure there is something. Also, any elves that want to come to use the time for research.”

Natalie interupts, “Tabitha, I think we should take extra elves to play with the children. I wanted to learn to crochet or knit. Maybe both.”

Tabitha stops to think, “Yes, that’s a good idea. Can we have a health elf come too? I also just realized that not only did we not keep up with our staff work, we haven’t played any of our instruments since we got here. We should introduce all of them to the children. We’ll need all our instruments and sheet music.”

“Thank you Apricot,” as Tabitha squats down to hug her, “I think that is everything.”

“We need to take all our writing supplies. See if we could take the yarn. We’ll run out of colors, coloring books and colors for the baths. We need to take every game and book we have. I wish we had puzzles.”

“Could you go shopping while I do baths and dinner? And this may be what we ask to keep Rhea for. See what kind of active games there are and if they have any kind of planner.”

Natalie laughs, “The planner would have helped with this.” She goes to get money and ask Rhea to go with.

While Natalie is shopping, Tabitha wakes the girls and sends them to the learning trunk for dinner. She quickly follows with Willow.

Dinner was sandwiches and soup with fruit for afters. Bath time was fun, not. Willow was willing to sit outside the bathroom but Tabitha needed to keep talking. The girls got clean but didn’t get to play. Tabitha reminded everyone they would be together next bath time.

Tabitha read in the girl’s bed so they don’t have to wake again. Natalie comes back in time for forehead kisses and good-nights.

Tabitha carries Willow to bed and she and Natalie talk quietly about tomorrow before Natalie heads off to get a late dinner.

Natalie’s last thought before sleep was wondering what Tavric’s idea for the chickens and bunnies was.

Chapter Text

Tabitha and Natalie settle in the valley between the Blue Mountains and the Hills by Undertowers. A road is made from the Great East Road into the valley and goes all the way out the other side. It connects with the Shire’s road at the Old Vineyards.

Our road meets the Great East Road in a Y making an easy turn-off no matter which direction you are coming from or going to. There is a bit of an illusion so you need to know where you’re going. We want to know who is on our road and in our area. We may need to add a road in the Shire that is more direct from the South to the Great East Road. The back of our valley is not accessible from the outside.

We are glad to have Harry’s story as we were able to bring Emerald Opals. I don’t know how Wilson was able to do it but they hold spells wonderfully.

We have made nice stables soon after the road comes together. There is room to camp. There are rooms to rent. You can use the stables or livery yard.

We were able to add a water transfer bucket in the Brandywine after it flows out of the Shire and into Eriador. If necessary, we can move it. We also have one in the River Lune tributary from the Blue Mountains. We’re both grateful that Wilson figured out how to send titanium and stainless steel.

The people that have shown up in our safe room, use to be men. They may be Dwarrow now but they aren’t comfortable with all of their house under mountain. Magic is wonderful and we’ve been able to stabilize our hillsides.

We used magic to stabilize the hills between our valley and The Shire. Once the outside of the hills were frozen, we carved out patios and balconies then 2-3 sleeping rooms homes inside. Kitchen, dining, visiting, play, bathing rooms included. All on one level so we could stack homes. We used transfiguration to add waterproofing to ceilings and walls, and titanium for strength between ceilings and floors. We even found a sunshine spell to use inside. Runes are fantastic and allow push-button light switches.

Once the homes were ready, the outer layers were released, and we waited.

The middle of the valley had cattle, sheep and goat pastures ready for when we release the animals. We need people for that as the house elves can’t come outside.

Tabitha is wondering if being under emerald opal wards would allow the house elves time outside.

The foothills of the Blue Mountains had our homes, offices and greenhouses. Also a dorm room type “house” for recent arrivals until they decide they are staying with us.

One of the first things we did was make a safe room out of one of our hills for new arrivals with alert wards and safety wards, just in case. And not a moment too soon!

Our first, um, refugee. Yeah, refugee. Our first refugee is Owen Holmes. A 45 year old from Colorado, USA. Our time studying insured we knew where Colorado was at least.

Owen Holmes, 45, widower with grown children. Wizard. Owen is 5’9”. Owen’s wife was non-magical and died six months ago in a drive-by shooting while visiting friends in California. His children left for University and never looked back and he doesn’t even know what has happened to them. His mother Gwen, sent him a new trunk and a letter last week. She told him it was time to move on and that a new opportunity would show up soon but he needed to plan for it now. Owen read the list of what she wanted him to do and called her.

“I know it is strange but I dreamed your next year and it wasn’t a happy dream. I also dreamed an alternative that you will enjoy. Now follow the list and come see me in a couple of weeks.”

Well, no one ever called him stupid. He’d listened to his mother about dreams before and will do so this time as well. He cashed out what he could. Sold, donated, or gave away his electronics. He changed his beneficiaries on what he couldn’t cash out and wrote a new will. He made sure to mention his children but that he wasn’t leaving anything to them as he no longer even knew where they lived. Everything was left to his mother. He packed everything he owned that was magic friendly into the new trunk. The trunk and his cats went into the car and he locked up. The “I quit” letter was mailed on his way out of town.

His mother must know someone, she does, because he was able to quickly sell his house and car for full market value.

The trip to the bank for gold dust and gems started off weird. Well, more weird than it already was. They thought his mother was going with him. “I don’t know if she knows it is an option.”

“Mother, do you want to come with me?”

“Of course, I’ve followed my own list. I’ll make an appointment to meet Wilson Evergreen.”

Tabitha and Natalie have a picture frame showing the inside of the arrival room. There is a framed bulletin board with a communication paper on it.

Owen and Gwen were standing around, not sure where they were. The room looked like the one they were just in but it felt like they took a long port-key.

“Welcome to Ravendreams Hold.”

Both are thinking it must be magic but don’t say anything.

A flash of light then new words, “Please state your name, age and last location.”

“My name is Owen Holmes, this is my mother, Gwen. I am 45, my mother is 70. New York City at a bank.”

A flash of light and more new words, “Do you know what Ilvermorny is?”

Owen stands closer to his mother, “Yes, we both went there.”

“Thank you, please stay in the center of the room.” As Owen and Gwen move closer to the center a couple of comfortable chairs, an end table, sofa and a door appear. “The door is a bathing room. We’ll be there shortly.”

Gwen heads to the door and uses the facilities then Owen. When Owen comes out, there are two people in the room with his mother. Which is when he notices that his mother looks different.

“Oh, yes, to add to your shock, you’re a dwarf now.”

“And you’re not in New York anymore.”

“That just doesn’t sound right without using Kansas.”

By this time Gwen has lead Owen to a chair as he seems incapable of moving on his own.

Gwen is laughing at Owen, “Owen, honey, this is the opportunity I was telling you about. You get to work with cows again and I’m going back to teaching.”

“Cows?”

Now everybody is laughing at Owen. Tabitha catches her breath first. “We have cows in stasis but no one with the knowledge that can take care of them.”

“Why didn’t you just advertise for help?”

“Owen honey, remember that she said you’re not in New York anymore?” He nods. “You’re also not on Earth anymore.”

“I’ve never seen a man faint before. Why didn’t he faint at the dwarf part?”

"I don't think he really heard the dwarf part."