CHAPTER 11:

TICKET TO RIDE

Harry couldn't help but chuckle as Hermione Granger spun out of the very air, clutching a wooden baton that was apparently her Portkey. But as she toppled and began to fall, he gently kept her on her feet with a Vector, ensuring he didn't infect her with the Diclonius virus. Instinct told him that Lucy had done the same thing. "Ugh, I hate Portkeys," the bushy-haired girl muttered, looking distinctly green around the gills. "And international Portkeys are even worse than normal ones."

"I understand," Lily said, walking forward, a stern expression on her face. "Hermione Granger, welcome to the Cuckoos' Nest. Please be aware that you must be with authorised personnel at all times during your stay, for health and safety reasons. Also, keep in mind that due to the confidential nature of the research here, any questions you ask may not be answered, and we had you and your parents sign that NDA before coming." Her stern expression then got replaced with a smile. "That preamble is to keep the lawyers happy. In truth, this is a far less secretive facility than it was not so long ago, and it's certainly safer here since then. However, many Diclonii around here are still not used to unknown humans, and a startled or afraid Diclonius can be just as lethal as an angry or hateful one. Just to be clear, authorised personnel include Harry and Lucy, so as long as you're with them, you should be fine."

Hermione nodded rapidly. Harry found it somewhat comical, if only because of the way her bushy tresses danced around her head. "I…Uh…Thank you very much, Dr Kurama."

"You can call me Lily, Hermione. Besides, my husband is also Dr Kurama, and we get a bit confused when someone calls out that name," Lily said with a smile, before indicating those gathered. "You've met my husband and my children, and you know Remus." She indicated Bandoh, who was on standby nearby. "This is Bandoh, our head of security. He's rather rude and curt, but he's also good at what he does."

"Yeah, and if I say you've gotta keep away from something or stay outta something, there's a fucking good reason, got it?" Bandoh said. "You're a visitor here while we're on an alert status, so if I tell you to jump, the only question I want to hear you say is how high you should jump. Got it?"

Hermione flinched, but scowled, even as she nodded.

"Right. Though I ain't babysitting you for this part. But I may have to later. See ya." And with that, he left.

"Like I said, he's rude," Lily said.

"Where did you find him?" Hermione asked, feeling more than a little affronted.

"He was in one of the NPA's Special Assault Teams," Kurama said, resettling his glasses on his nose. "This particular SAT was on the payroll of the previous administration, to deal with containment of any Diclonii who managed to make it to the mainland. However, once the previous administration was purged, we made him an offer to join, because despite his nastier tendencies, he's also a professional and loyal. Believe me, there were far nastier people than him on the payroll. But enough of him, Miss Granger. I'm sure you would like a tour?"

Hermione nodded eagerly. "Yes, please…"

Harry and Lucy had to admit, Hermione looking around with the air of a child in a sweet shop was amusing. "This is so fascinating," Hermione breathed. Then, a thought occurred to her. "Dumbledore told me that this facility wasn't so benign not so long ago."

"It wasn't, under the Kakuzawa regime," Kurama said. "I joined towards the end of that. Diclonii were subjected to many cruel experiments, stuff that seems like it came out of Auschwitz or Unit 731. Long story short, Lily managed to stop it all, and deal with the Kakuzawas…though they ended up being killed resisting arrest by the local Aurors, as Diclonii, surprisingly enough, are mostly born to people with some magical potential."

Lucy shook her head. "He was a monster with a god complex, the director, and his son…when I first met him, the bastard wanted to bed me, to have Diclonii children. The Kakuzawas were former Diclonii, ones that lost the ability to use Vectors centuries ago, even if their horns remained. And keep in mind, this was a few years ago, and here he was, an adult in his…twenties? Thirties? Wanting to bed a teen. And the perverse thing was, even though the Kakuzawas tortured us, they also wanted Diclonii to be supreme. I just want to live a happy life, or as happy as I can be as a Diclonius."

"Well, you and Harry seem happy together. I mean, I know you are siblings by adoption, but as long as it's not by blood, I don't mind," Hermione said. "Then again, incest explains a lot about the Purebloods."

"I've said it for years," Lily said. "By the way, here."

She handed Hermione a pair of tinted glasses. "Umm, why do I need these?"

"You don't need them per se, but they're enchanted to allow you to see Vectors."

Hermione put them on, and Harry, along with Lucy and Nana and Mariko, brought out their Vectors. Hermione turned to look at them, and gasped quietly. "Oh my God…they really do look like ghostly hands. Do they…feel the same way? Like real hands?"

"Sort of," Harry said. "Don't worry, the way they are now, they're pretty much harmless. You've probably read about the various settings, right?"

Hermione nodded. "The first is an intangible one, the second allows for actual telekinesis, and the third…allows you to cut through virtually anything."

"You're not that afraid," Mariko observed, pouting a little. "You are a little, but…"

"Mariko," Lily said sharply. "Hermione is a guest, you aren't supposed to want her to be scared."

"Yeah, Mariko!" Nana snapped. "Don't be so mean to Hermione!"

Mariko's pout deepened. Harry and Lucy fought the urge to chuckle at her indignant look. Mariko did have a tendency to act up, after all…

Hermione's enthusiasm was only briefly dampened by Mariko's attempt to intimidate her. But after the first tour of the day was finished, they had some lunch in the cafeteria of the Cuckoos' Nest. While most of them were researchers, there were a few Silpelits. "It's very relaxed here, considering," Hermione said.

"I've tried to make it so," Lily said. "These Diclonii, even though they have heightened aggression and psychokinetic abilities, are just children. As long as they understand boundaries and rules, they're surprisingly like normal children."

"Who wants to be normal?" Lucy asked with a roll of her eyes. Then, she corrected herself. "Well, I'd prefer to be treated normally, not be normal. Being normal is boring."

Hermione nodded, a little morosely. "Maybe. But while I can't say I know what it's like to be treated as badly as some Diclonii are, I was bullied at school, even before Hogwarts."

"Why?" Nana asked, cocking her head.

"Because she's a smart girl," Lily said with a sigh. "I was the same way in many ways. And then, you got the Hogwarts letter, right? You thought it would be so magical, only to find it an incestuous cesspool of nepotism and snobbery."

"…While I wouldn't use those words, yes," Hermione said with a nod. "And then, I ended up friends with Charlie. Well, I'm not sure if I can call him a friend now. He's always been a bit distant, but these days…it's not like he's bad or anything, but there are times when I wonder about him. But he helped me out more than once. He managed to calm me down after Ron said some tactless things on Halloween of our First Year, and a good thing too, as a troll ended up rampaging through the castle. He stopped the responsible party later on that year, to say nothing of the one using a Basilisk to attack others the next year. Both times, it was Voldemort. The first time, he was possessing a teacher, while the second time, it was some weird possessed diary affecting Ginny Weasley."

"I heard about that fiasco about the Chamber of Secrets," Lily mused. "A number of students were petrified, and Dumbledore was ousted by Malfoy. We had our own problems at the time, though. I was still running around cleaning up the mess Kakuzawa left behind."

"I was one of the last ones petrified, though I'd learned it was a Basilisk by that point."

"What's a Basilisk?" Mariko asked.

"It's a massive snake that can kill you if you make eye contact with it," Lily said. "Their venom is highly poisonous and even corrosive. You're lucky to have survived, Hermione."

Hermione nodded. "I actually used a mirror to check around the corners, just in case, but…I was lucky. Lily…I need to know…why did you leave Charlie behind? He just goes on about you abandoning him, but…you don't seem like the sort of person who would do that."

"…My ex-husband gave me a choice, between Harry and Charlie," Lily said bitterly. "If I chose Charlie, Harry would have been cast out of the family. If I chose Harry, I would be divorced, but I hoped Charlie would be loved. I did not make the choice lightly, even if it was no choice at all. Hermione, try to be careful what questions you ask. They can be rather painful."

"I'm sorry, I…"

"I understand. I like to know everything as well," Lily said with a sigh. "But it's a very personal question. The thing is…if Harry was abandoned by me, what then? Orphanages aren't the best of places, even those run to a high standard. For a Diclonius…Lucy knows what it was like."

Lucy nodded. "Most of the children and even most of the adults shunned me for my horns, even before Diclonii became more widely known. My only real friend was a stray puppy I adopted. That Lily came along and adopted me was pretty much a miracle."

"I didn't make a right or wrong choice," Lily said. "As I told Lucy yesterday while discussing this matter, it was the lesser of two evils. And while I regret leaving my youngest son behind, I do not regret the path it has led me to."

Hermione nodded, clearly filled with self-reproach for bringing the matter up. Harry couldn't blame her curiosity. She had a very inquisitive mind. There were just times when she was a bit tactless. "I'm sorry. But Charlie…he has this resentment. I asked him why he didn't go to see you, and…he just didn't want to. It's like he's a different person lately. Or maybe he's been like this all the time, and everything's just been an act. Ron doesn't see it, but Ginny and I do."

"Maybe the fame has gone to his head?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. Sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

"It's okay," Lily said. "Just use a bit more tact in future."

"I think I got infected by Ron," Hermione muttered. "I mean, I've been tactless before, but still…don't get me wrong, I appreciate this, and my parents said you were considering hiring them."

"Yes. Good dentists are hard to come by, especially where Diclonii are involved," Lily said.

Nana shivered, as did Harry and Lucy. "Please don't use the drill," Nana murmured. "Nana doesn't like the drill."

"We're…not fond of dentist drills," Lucy said. "There was a bit of an incident when I had to get a cavity dealt with. Nobody was badly hurt, but the dentist got one hell of a fright when I shoved him away with my Vectors. And Nana…well, she doesn't like the sound."

"I don't think anyone likes the sound of a dentist's drill," Hermione said. "Or anything about them. Unless they're like that dentist Dr Szell from Marathon Man."

"Actually, the frequencies and harmonics emitted by a dentist's drill has a particular effect on Diclonii. Our best hypothesis is that it has a particular resonance effect on the tissues relating to their horns," Kurama said. "We're working on technology that does not require a rotary drill. The last time a Diclonius needed cavities filled, we used magical means, but we're also working on laser ablation devices, and tests are very promising. If your parents are employed by us, they will be using the laser ablation drill. It's a little less distressing for Diclonii."

"Still don't like having my teeth messed with," Harry muttered.

Later on, Harry and Lucy took Hermione back outside, as Lily and Kurama had to go deal with some work. Nana had gone off to play with other Diclonii, while Mariko had been brought to a lesson by Remus. "So, what do you think?" Harry asked.

"It's quite a fascinating facility," Hermione said, frankly and honestly. "I still don't understand why people want to shut it down, or rather, I don't understand why they let their fear get the better of themselves. Diclonii are dangerous, yes, and you have more aggression, but…you can be reasoned with."

"It's human nature," Lucy said. "We're pretty much a new human species, or at least subspecies. No species ever got to the top of the food chain by being nice, at least to other species. To humans, the Diclonii are a threat to humanity, usurpers and cuckoos. To Diclonii, humans are a threat, seeking to snuff us out in the crib before we can properly emerge. True, we have existed before, but it seems like there is an explosion of our numbers. We have powers beyond the ken of normal humans, and aggressive instincts. And violence is part of the human condition."

"Or, TL;DR version," Harry said, "it's basically like the Mutants from the X-Men. People aren't rational when it comes to xenophobia, though they love to rationalise it."

Lucy shot Harry an annoyed look. "What have I said about using internet slang in normal conversation?"

"You say a lot of things, Lucy," Harry said with a smirk, before turning to Hermione. "Anyway, we'll be staying overnight not here, but at the Maple Inn. You'll get to meet some of our friends. You'll like them, especially Mayu. Just…don't ever bring up her parents, okay?"

"Why?"

"…Her parents were not good people at all. Let's leave it at that…"

In a darkened house in Little Hangleton, Charles Potter, or rather, the thing inhabiting his body, was walking into a room. The three occupants of that room stared in bemusement as he looked around, rather disdainfully. "Ugh, what a hovel. This would have been a far better hideout if it were better maintained, more suitable to my glory."

"…Charles Potter?" Voldemort, or rather, the infantile Homunculus containing his essence, demanded, querulously. "How did you…? Well, it matters little. So, you have come to die."

"Actually, I came here to kill you. Besides, I'm not Charles Potter. I'm merely using his body."

Voldemort didn't even bother puzzling that sentence out. "Wormtail? Kill him."

Charles Potter scoffed, and a jet of light pulped the rodent-like features of Peter Pettigrew, decorating the walls with what little brains he had. "And the thing about relying on the help of traitors is that you can't be sure whether they will betray you in their turn. Really, this would be doing you a favour if it weren't for the fact that I am here to kill you."

A rather large snake approached Charles, only for Charles to hiss, in Parseltongue, "If you know what's good for you, Maledictus, stay where you are."

"…You know what I am?" it hissed back, startled.

"Barty was most informative," Charles said, in English. "You see, I have a few advantages over you. The first is that I'm sane. The second is that I've retained my people skills, a bit more carrot than stick, or rather, power and privileges than Cruciatus and Killing Curse. The third…well, even if this boy's body isn't quite the paragon of attractiveness we were when we were his age, it helps that we don't look like our mother bedded a snake. Yes, we needed to look intimidating, but seriously, that's such a teenaged thing to do. Making a nom de guerre from an anagram of our name? Giving us a snake face to look scarier? I mean, I can't talk because I actually am in a teenaged body, but still…"

"You're me," Voldemort said in horrified realisation.

"In a manner. You accidentally created a Horcrux when the Diclonius smacked the Killing Curse back into your face. A little fragment of soul that merged with Charles Potter's, regaining stability. I didn't regain my memories until a little later, but still…it came in handy when I had to put the Basilisk down and fused with the fragment we had in the Diary. It helps that I'm considered the messiah of Magical Britain. Even with the way James Potter has squandered my reputation as the Boy Who Lived in the Wizengamot, and envious murmurs, I am still loved more than you, and certainly less feared. But seriously, you were going to use the blood of a Diclonius to resurrect yourself? I can't fault you on a desire for power, but you know how your peons react to those of impure blood. Why do you think we kept a lid on the fact that we had a Muggle father?"

"AVADA KEDAVRA!" Charles sidestepped the jet of green light with contemptuous ease.

"Temper, temper. I was seriously considering an alliance with you, but…I don't need you. I'm well-placed to become a figure of power without instilling fear into all and sundry…well, fear of me, anyway. I'm the Golden Boy of Magical Britain. I have a chance to start from scratch. I actually managed to keep the Philosopher's Stone away from the old goat, so that's immortality out of the way, Horcruxes aside. Plenty of time to find something a bit more reliable. You, however…I don't need a wild card like you in the way, not when I have that Diclonius filth of a brother to deal with. Goodbye, Tom. It's not been pleasant…"

It was over swiftly. The Homunculus body Voldemort inhabited was weak and easily dispatched. Charles Potter then looked at Nagini. "He never even tried to reverse your curse. I think we should fix that. We have plenty of time to do so. Still, first things first. I need to figure out a way to deal with my…dearest brother…"

CHAPTER 11 ANNOTATIONS:

So, there you have it. Some character moments, and Charles has made his move. Oh dear.

Now, it's worth pointing out that the Horcrux has merged with Charles since the night of Voldemort's attack, but he didn't regain his memories until later in life. He HAS, however, fused with the Horcrux from the Diary. This has helped him remain sane, or at least saner.

No numbered annotations this time.