“You said you wanted to learn it”, Lyra smiled at Viktor as they both lay on the nursery floor, with two enthusiastic toddlers giggling and crawling over them.

“Now?” He removed Lily gently from his head so he could see. “Ouch” James kneed him in the belly as he climbed over to Lyra.

“As good a time as any”, she laughed. “Let’s do something easy, fun and harmless, like Lumos. Take out your wand, and do it verbal first, then wordless, and then as you think it, observe how the words bind the magic, and feel the taste of the magic itself in your mind, OK?”

“I guess”, he struggled to pull out his wand.

“Watch carefully inside your mind as I’m doing it. You’ll feel the echo”. She closed her eyes and pointed at a place in the air, and a glowing ball of white light appeared and remained there, like a Christmas tree decoration.

“OK, I did feel magic vibrating at the location, and I heard Lumos in my mind as it vibrated”, he nodded.

“That was the sympathetic activation of the spell. I didn’t use the words, but since this magic is bound to this verbal spell, as it activates it resonates with things in its closest proximity in your mind, and that’s the spell-word”, she explained. “I will now change its colour, and you tell me what you feel”.

The light turned red, and the children squealed with delight.

“I heard Lumos Rubeus in my mind”, Viktor’s eyes spread wide. “That actually works”.

“Excellent. I will now turn it into some colour there’s no spell for yet. Observe carefully”. They both closed their eyes, as the light turned pale amber.

“Oh, that’s weird. I heard Lumos… and then something garbled, but I felt the colour before I saw it”, he spoke excitedly.

“You’re doing great”, Lyra smiled and nodded encouragingly. “Your turn. Make another light, with a nonverbal spell first”.

He pointed the wand somewhere to the right of the amber light, and another light appeared. James giggled and pointed: “White!”

“Yes, it’s white”, Lyra smiled and ruffled the boy’s hair. “OK, now hold it with your wand and turn its colour into red”.

He obeyed, and the colour shifted.

“You used the Lumos Rubeus words, right?”, she looked at him, and he nodded affirmatively. “OK, now the next part; think Lumos, and then remember that feeling of colour and magic that vibrated in your mind as I made it amber”.

He frowned, but nothing happened. Then he relaxed, remembered the exact feeling of colour and magic, pointed the wand and there were two amber lights in the room. He smiled victoriously, and Lyra gave him five. “Yes!”

“Two!”, Lily squealed, trying to grab the lights above.

“Bravo sweetheart”, Lyra praised the baby girl. “Well done, you said the good number!”

“Let me try something else”, Viktor frowned, pointed the wand at the different spot, and made a green light.

“Oh wow, you got it”, Lyra praised him. “I see you said Lumos… like before, and modified the magic for amber but visualised green”.

“Yup”, he smiled. “Why do I feel like Lily saying the number well for the first time?”

“Baby steps”, Lyra giggled.

“Twee!”, Lily pointed. “Excellent, sweetheart, you got it perfectly”, he praised her.

“Now, put your wand back in your pocket, and take Lily in your arms, so that they are busy”, Lyra instructed, and he obeyed. “Look at some place in the air, and feel it also in your mind. Then repeat that same spell, with the same feeling and magical vibration, only wandless”.

He took the baby girl, closed his eyes, frowned, and nothing happened.

“You didn’t lock the spatial coordinates right”, Lyra observed. “Look at the place with your eyes and try again”.

He did, and this time it worked: a green light appeared, to children’s great delight. “Many!”, James giggled. “Yes, there are many lights. There are four”, she instructed, and gave Viktor five again with a broad smile.

“Woah”, he looked completely amazed. “I’m actually not completely useless at this”.

“You’re doing great”, she encouraged. “Now, try a few more colours”.

…

“Christmas came early”, Harry smiled from the door.

“Someone’s having a party without us”, Hermione laughed. There were hundreds of spheres of light suspended in the air, with all kinds of colours and sizes, and children were squealing with delight trying to reach them, stepping all over Viktor and Lyra who lay on the floor laughing and protesting weakly.

“Look!”, Viktor pointed and lit up a yellow light in front of Hermione, without a wand, wordlessly.

“Woah, you learned it”, Harry was amazed. “Bro, you rule!”, he sat down to fist bump him. “That was amazingly fast”.

“He’s exceptionally talented, but we knew that already”, Lyra praised him. “Also, the kids can count to ten now, and we learned names for the colours”.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other. “Life is passing us by”, she said as they burst into laughter.

“Kreacher”, Lyra voiced. Crack. “Yes, Young Mistress?”

“Could you please bring warm milk and biscuits here? I think the children are hungry”.

The Elf nodded and looked at the lights, and then at Viktor. “Practice?”

“Yes. Lyra is teaching me how to do magic without a wand”, he pointed at the empty space and a new sphere of light appeared, this time changing colours and spinning.

The old Elf smiled, pointed his finger at the sphere, and made it change shape into various animals, as the children squealed and giggled. “With practice, Master get almost as good as Kreacher”, he snickered, and went to get milk and biscuits.

They all looked at each other for a few heartbeats, then broke into laughter.

“Someone leaked the visual recording of the fight to the press”, Viktor went through the titles in the Daily Prophet.

“We asked Minister Shacklebolt for comment:
Yes, I can confirm that head of the Auror office herself took the ground during the ambush, and she is very good at her job. I don’t understand the level of surprise over the fact that the person leading the Auror office in fact happens to be the most lethal and competent fighter in the country, and possibly in the world. That should be a given.”

“Others comment that the hole left by the death of Albus Dumbledore has finally been filled, and we again have a person of extreme competence on the watch. Experts have been analysing the footage and picking apart various details – what kind of chronomancy you used to selectively stop time, how you hovered in half-apparated form, what spell you used to kill the assailants. They even interviewed Harry:

Yes, I can confirm that she took the field while I took the office because she is a much stronger fighter between the two of us and the hostage situation with Mrs. Krum was extremely delicate; all five assailants had to be neutralized at once so that none of them could have time to fire off a spell or surprise us in any way, so I supervised the operation from the control centre while she dealt with the murderers in the alley. Yes, I can confirm that she didn’t have a wand.”

Viktor let out a muffled laugh. “Yeah, that will take some getting used to. Let’s see what’s next. Some are panicking about your level of power and need for oversight and accountability. Others reply that having someone in charge of dealing with armed murderers and dark wizards who’s the most powerful magic user in the world is actually the point, echoing the minister. There’s even a fashion columnist commenting favourably on your sweater”.

“Your tea is getting cold”, Lyra pointed out with a smile. “I knew this was about to happen once the cat gets out of the bag, as it eventually would. It will be fine.”

“You seem so incredibly cool about this. Haven’t you even been a little bit scared?”, he looked at his sister of choice with amazement.

“I’ve been terrified”, she admitted. “Not of the stupid ghouls, of course. I was terrified that Hermione might miscarry from the shock. Also, that they might surprise me with something unexpected, like hitting her with a portkey and transporting her to an unknown location, or using some potion or a powder. Fortunately, they were just ordinary idiots with wands”, she sighed.

Viktor froze. “Oh, I didn’t even think that she might miscarry. So that’s what it was all about later – all the personal spa treatment”, he grinned.

“Yes. I started relaxing only when a day passed and she seemed to be fine”, a visible shiver went through her body.

“I’m very happy I don’t have to manage the circus Harry and Hermione are currently having”, Viktor noted.

“I still had to submit paperwork”, she smiled.

“True”, he laughed. “But I wonder how we would have dealt with it if you were unavailable”.

“Easy. Have one Auror protect her with their life and get her to safety – apparition, portkey, something. Hit them with a spray of some debilitating potion. Mop them up”, she shrugged. “Less clean, but doable in a pinch”.

“I guess. But having her surrounded by five armed guys makes the logistics of it a nightmare. Everything would have to be coordinated down to a split second so that none of them can fire off a spell. We are really lucky to have you”, he admitted.

“Thanks”, Lyra smiled angelically. “Let’s finish breakfast and go play with Lily and James, they’ve been neglected slightly over all this”.

“Last night at 8PM Ronald Weasley and four other violent criminals known to the magical law enforcement lured Hermione Krum, the head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, into a meeting in Knockturn Alley, under false pretence, suggesting that Ronald Weasley had been kidnapped and will be killed if she doesn’t appear. Five men surrounded the pregnant lady, and Ronald Weasley attempted to murder her with the killing curse. Fortunately, the Auror office was aware of the situation, intervened in time and all five armed and dangerous criminals have been killed. The lady was unharmed.

We asked an Auror, who wished to remain anonymous, for a comment:

“Slander is one thing, but trying to lure your childhood friend and former fiancee, who is pregnant, in order to murder both her and her unborn child, is the lowest of the low. But trying that with a lady who lives with three Aurors, two of which are the joint heads of the Auror office and the third is her husband, that requires a level of stupidity that is rarely seen. Let’s just say that neither the magical society nor the magical gene pool will miss them. Of course, the boss immediately had us on the case and we dealt with the situation.””

Hermione closed the Daily Prophet, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “That Auror is right. I am fortunate to live with three Aurors, because if not for that, I would have been dead right now, Lily would be growing up without her mom, Viktor would be grieving, my unborn child would be dead, and Ron and his fellow ghouls would be laughing maliciously in some dark hole”.

Lyra was carefully applying pink gel to Hermione’s toenails. “I know that muggles have stupid nonsense sayings like ‘no means no’, but you can rest assured that this family has different rules. Next time you decide to go into a dangerous situation, be sure to let us know and tell us you don’t want us to be there for you, and we will be sure to completely ignore your wishes”, she grinned.

“Thank you for that”, Hermione laughed. “At least somebody here has a functioning brain, because mine was apparently asleep. Having you save me last night was the most satisfying and relieving thing I felt since I watched Voldemort drop dead like a sack of flour. Please, always ignore my stupid nonsense and handle my safety as you see fit, because, unlike me, you actually know what you’re doing”.

“It’s my job, sweetheart. Quite literally”, Lyra smiled angelically.

“And by the way, you are absolutely frightening when you fight”, Hermione grinned. “I’ve never actually seen you in action before, but that was quite something”.

Lyra just smiled, focused on applying the gel precisely.

…

“Kreacher, please get the door; it’s Arthur and Molly Weasley”, she smiled at the Elf.

“Yes, Young Mistress”, he croaked.

Arthur and Molly approached shyly, and saw two women on the couch, Lyra painting Hermione’s toenails; they just looked at each other.

“I’m sorry I can’t get up and greet you properly, but I’m literally in the middle of something, and Hermione’s comfort is the most important thing in the world to me now”, Lyra smiled at them, as Hermione blushed. “Please, get the chairs and make yourselves comfortable”.

“We’re so sorry, my dear”, Molly approached Hermione. “I’m so glad to see that you’re alive and well. When the Auror lady notified us of what happened last night, we almost had a heart attack and decided to come see you first thing in the morning. We knew he was lost, but that he would try to murder a pregnant woman, and not just any woman but you…” she started crying and couldn’t control her voice.

“It’s not your fault”, Lyra addressed them, not taking her eyes from the toenail. “I know you’ve been thinking about what I showed Arthur, but despite all your errors, none of your other children ever turned to evil. Ginny is a healthy, vital, wonderful young lady. Fred and George were pranksters, but their hearts were always in the right place. Percy’s only flaw is that he’s uptight and too formal when there’s no need for it. Charley and Bill are wonderful men. You should be proud of all of them. Ron’s choices in life may have been facilitated by Molly’s upbringing that promoted infantile behaviour, but they were not caused by it. None of your other children had those tendencies in the first place. He was just that kind of a person, and he made his own choices that ended up exhausting his guardian angel’s ability to save him. It is not your fault. And by the way, I am sorry to have caused you pain by killing your son, but I am glad I did it. He almost finished the killing curse invocation pointed at Hermione, and he did it with such murderous, cold hatred, that I haven’t seen anything like it since the fall of Voldemort. I am glad he’s dead”, she looked at them with perfect, transparent honesty in her eyes.

“I am glad you were there”, Arthur nodded. “Had he managed to kill Hermione, I would never be able to forgive myself. I’d probably go and hang myself in the attic, to be honest. Just the thought is too horrible to even consider”.

“Please, join us for tea and biscuits. I sense Kreacher had made a fresh batch and they smell wonderful”, she smiled at them with profound peace and kindness.

“We might just do that, thank you”, Molly smiled through tears. “I feel such peace here, as I haven’t felt in a long time. Thank you for having us”.

“You know it’s a trap, right?”, Harry looked at Hermione incredulously.

“Probably, yeah”, she shrugged. “We have Ron; come alone to Knockturn Alley tonight at 8PM if you want to see him alive”.

“Probably as in certainly”, Harry grinned. “Let me send a detachment and deal with it”.

“And what if Ron gets killed?” she frowned.

“It’s a possibility”, he conceded. “However, it’s also a possibility that he aligned himself with some dark creatures who want to lure you into a trap and kill you, and he thinks it’s suitable vengeance for you leaving him”.

“That’s really a stretch”, she raised an eyebrow incredulously.

“Is it? With what we know about him, and how he’s been lately?”, Harry retorted. “I wouldn’t put anything past him. Also, you’re pregnant. And even if you weren’t, you’re precious. Risking you for that fool doesn’t sound like a good trade”.

“Maybe, but it’s my call to make”, she insisted.

…

She apparated there slightly ahead of time, and observed carefully, wand drawn. Harry was probably right and she was probably a fool, but she had to do this.

Three shadows moved in front of her, and she felt movement behind. Five.

“You were right, Weasley. She really is that stupid”, a nasty, rough voice laughed. “We caught ourselves the Ministry mudblood.”

“Probably pregnant again with that Bulgarian freak”, it was Ron’s voice, but rough, cold as ice. She shivered. “Time to die, bitch. Avada Ke…”

Hermione felt as if time froze around her as she felt terrible regret for not listening to Harry. As always, he was right. His instincts won them the war and she had to be a smartass and go against his advice. She won’t even get to tell him she’s sorry. Her eyes swam with tears, but then she realised something. Time didn’t just feel like it froze around her. It actually froze. A flash of white light swirled, red light flashed in five spots, at the chests of five thugs, and time suddenly restarted.

White mist materialised as a young platinum blonde woman in jeans and a warm sweater, wandless, completely relaxed as five men crumpled to the floor like sacks of potatoes: safely and permanently dead.

“Lyra?” Hermione was still in shock.

“Might as well earn my pay as your personal goddess”, she smiled. “Also as the head of the Auror office”. She snapped her fingers and three Aurors apparated, looking like they mean business. “Would you be so kind as to clean up after me? I’m afraid they were armed, in the process of deploying the killing curse, and I couldn’t risk lady Hermione’s life by using half measures. I’ll do the paperwork in the morning”, she smiled at the men.

“Sure thing, boss”, the closest one nodded respectfully as they started processing the bodies.

“Come, sweetheart. This must have been stressful for you, and you’re pregnant. Let’s go home and have Kreacher make us hot cocoa”, she hugged Hermione and they disapparated with a crack.

…

“He’s really dead”, Hermione spoke dully, wrapped in a blanket, holding a warm cup. “I didn’t want him to die”.

“I’m afraid it was his choice”, Viktor whispered, holding her tightly. “I’ve seen the preliminary report. Those were thugs adjacent to Death Eaters; they did jobs for them, and tried to become important enough to get the Dark Mark; they were on our wanted list, but not a priority. That’s the company he was keeping these days. It must have been his idea to lure you to your death, to curry favour with that scum, make himself important. Had you not come, sooner or later it would have ended similarly, but at least now you got to see what he became”.

“I’m not sure I’m improved by the experience”, she sighed. “Harry, I’m so sorry not to have listened to you. I can’t remember when your hunch was ever wrong, but I was a stubborn fool”.

“You were emotionally compromised by your misplaced sense of responsibility for him”, Harry nodded. “I didn’t want to insist, but I also didn’t want to let you walk alone into a trap, so I notified Lyra and the guys. I held the office, she held the field”, he smiled.

“You were never in danger”, Lyra smiled, massaging Hermione’s feet. “I allowed them to come close to releasing the spell only to make sure that they had lethal intent. Then I dealt with them. Girl, your feet are so cold; you’re in shock. But we’ll thaw you in no time”, she giggled, and Hermione smiled despite her mood.

“Thank you for saving my life, Lyra”, she managed. “I was already regretting not listening to Harry and expecting to die in a second, when time stopped around me”.

“I didn’t want to risk giving them the chance to finish the spell, so that was the only safe way”, Lyra nodded. “Nobody hurts what is mine”, she smiled a smile of fierce protectiveness.

“You know, the political landscape after the war ended up being completely different from what the Order of Phoenix would have expected”, Harry smiled at his wife. “They had a very black and white picture of reality in their heads, where they are the good guys and everything they believe and do is good and should prevail, while the other side are the bad guys and everything about them should be abolished and discarded. In reality, our long talks at school taught me that the other side is actually right in so many things, we should be very careful about ignoring those arguments”.

“And we ended up adopting a balanced policy that acknowledges good arguments from both sides”, she nodded. “Things like Hermione being considered a pureblood, or House Elves being considered family members”.

“And also the dangers of magical blood dilution and extinction being taken very seriously, and preservation of ancient tradition and family lineages being enshrined in state policy”, he smiled. “Rather than one of us recruiting the other to their side, we ended up teaching each other and adopting good ideas”.

“Oh, I definitely consider myself as having switched to your side when Voldemort returned”, she was serious.

“But when we divorced the Voldemort issue, dark magic issue and the pureblood issue, I think I adopted all of your good ideas and slightly modified them. I think the lesson is that when two intelligent people argue, it’s not realistic to expect that one side will be completely right and the other completely wrong. In fact, when I realised how smart you are and how well thought out your arguments were, I expected to outright lose every argument with you and that terrified me.”

“On the other hand, there were certain arguments I didn’t actually want to win. I was just afraid of what it would mean if I lost. For instance, the Voldemort thing. My parents were so intertwined with him, that it terrified me to think he might actually be evil, and I rather spent inordinate amounts of energy thinking of all sorts of rationalizations as to why he might actually be the good guy despite all evidence to the contrary. Because, if he were evil, what are my parents then? Should I not love them because they are objectively on the wrong side? The idea terrified me. In the end, even after my parents emotionally separated themselves from him, it was excruciatingly hard to save them while at the same time not raising attention to the fact that I’m on your side”, she grinned.

“That was a more terrifying situation than anything I ever experienced, and I had a piece of his soul in my head showing me evil things”, he nodded.

“I think the key point was the understanding that Voldemort hijacked the pureblood issue that was actually important to people. He also hijacked the issue of dark magic, which was sometimes actually useful and people objected to the fact that it was outright outlawed. When the two of you disentangled those two issues from Voldemort and the specific Death Eater ideology one could only embrace if they were a murderous lunatic like Bellatrix and other thugs, things became much simpler”, Hermione joined them. “When separated from the death cult of Voldemort, the other two issues became quite rational and even I had to accept most of the arguments, even when it put me personally in a vulnerable position”, she smiled.

“And when you chose to put yourself in a vulnerable position, I felt so protective that I lobbied for laws that would guard you”, Lyra took her hand and smiled.

“It’s hard to play the game of political extremism when you love people on the other side of the divide”, Harry nodded. “That’s why Lyra and I kept holding hands while arguing. It’s hard to make deliberately injurious arguments against the other side when that other side is somebody you care about. We looked more like lovers than enemies and I guess that’s what we were, if not for my thick head.”

“And it’s hard to argue categorically against dark magic when we ourselves had to use Crucio or Imperio in the war if we wanted to win”, Hermione was serious. “You had to separate intent from the means. Saying that dark magic is universally bad is like saying good people should only smile all the time.”

“Harry and I ended up not wanting to win an argument unless it made the other one happy. It was just not seen as a victory if the other side ends up feeling defeated, because that would hurt, a lot”, Lyra squeezed Hermione’s hand.

“And I decided that I may be a hamster, but at least I’m your hamster”, Hermione smiled at her friend, who pulled her sweater over her head and groaned in embarrassment.

“I will never live down that stupid insult”, Lyra let out a muffled whine.

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, it was an insult in the beginning, and it hurt. But then, after the challenge in the hallways, I started paying attention and started seeing you for what you are, and the idea that you just might be such a wonderful person that I might actually feel like a pet next to you cured me of lots of my intellectual arrogance and egalitarianism. For the first time in my life, I looked at someone my age and was forced to accept that they are superior to me in every way, and it didn’t feel humiliating, it felt great”, Hermione touched her cheek to Lyra’s hand. “I was just miffed for not being allowed to be your friend, so when you approached me after the war, I was in hamster heaven”, she laughed, to Lyra’s enormous embarrassment.