15 The House of Zod Part Four: Training

"And it's finally up," Faora stated, she figured that they should not sacrifice usability for speed, at least that's what the thought process that was going on in the back of her mind. She placed her hands behind her neck and offered a long and poignant sigh as she looked at the crystal console that formed the training program.

Everything ran to specifications

"Not too bad," Harry remarked as he took a look around the apartment. "As for the place….you know I could have picked up an apartment for real cheap."

"I know," Faora agreed as she smiled and heard the crystals humming away like a charm. "But I think that I've done a good job on this temporary set up."

"You have," Kara agreed with a smile, as she wrapped her arm around Harry and Faora did likewise. He was sandwiched between two beautiful Kryptonian women, which was a gift. "Plus it's just a stopgap for the summer, we can worry about what we do from here after we're done with training."

"Agreed," Harry remarked as he spun around but in many ways, he was eagerly anticipating what his powers would bring. There were so many possibilities that he could not even begin to fathom them all.

Faora felt her brother's anticipation and she knew that said anticipation was inevitable. Had she been on the opposite side, she would eagerly wait for the revelation of the full scope of her powers. The training simulator was set up, there was no need to wait any longer.

"The first power that you will achieve during your second maturation, is the power to duplicate yourself into fully functional copy," Faora informed Harry as she made sure that his full attention was on her. "These duplicates will be fully functional able to do anything that you yourself are capable of but they will be subservient to the will and goals of the original. They will understand their purpose."

"Right," Harry commented with a nod, he understood that immediately. "But that won't be a power that I'll be able to access until my second maturity on my fourteenth birthday."

"True," Faora responded as she collected a few stray thoughts. "And many Kryptonians don't have this gift underneath the yellow sun but you have it buried deep within you, along with many other gifts that are rare. And within this training simulator, you'll be able to practice the power, to perfect it, before doing it for real. There will be complications naturally if you make a mistake using this power outside of the simulator."

Harry knew he might regret asking but he raised an eyebrow before he asked her. "What kind of complications?"

Faora did not waste any time telling him. "Well, I don't think that you want the duplicates somehow forming their own personality and trying to replace you. There is such a thing as making the duplicates too good, which could end up being very bad."

"Is that because you had that problem of one of your dupes trying to kill you?" Kara asked with a grin as Faora gave her a stern expression that told her to be silent but she kept grinning. "See when Faora first tapped into the power, she made them a bit too well, and one of the dupes plotted to kill her but naturally she was a bit too careful and absorbed her dupe back before it could plot out how exactly to go about doing so."

"That's the problem, you don't want the dupes to be any smarter then you or only copy certain bits of your personality into it," Faora commented briskly as she crossed her arms. "Like your psychotic side for instance."

Faora cleared her throat before she got down to business.

"Close your eyes and focus on the process of copying yourself over," Faora instructed him. "In many ways, it is like a duplication charm, much like copying one page of a book to another, only far more complex."

Harry nodded, that seemed like a pretty apt comparison to him. The young mage closed his eyes before he tried to duplicate himself. It was a lot harder than Faora made it sound, but neither her nor Kara made a peep as he tried to duplicate his form. There was a shift in the air as he tried to push himself to a certain point. There was a slight strain but the wizard managed to do it, for better or for worse, he pushed himself and nearly staggered but the fruits of his labor were obvious.

There was a nearly perfect duplicate of himself standing before him. Of course, it faded in an instant given that it was only a trial run.

Faora nodded her head with an appraising expression on her face. "Not too bad, although the hair was a bit lopsided but we'll work out that. Practice does make perfect after all."

Harry nodded, that was something that he had to agree with one hundred percent and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, before he prepared himself to attempt the exercise once again. It was a bit easier the next time as he divided himself in a duplicate a bit more seamlessly. The wizard closed his eyes and offered a bright smile as he turned around to face Faora once more.

"Very well done and once more," Faora responded as she waited for Harry to do the deed. He prepared to separate in half one more time, closing his eyes, and divided himself in two. The duplicate looked back at Harry.

"Two Harry's, could anything be better?' Kara asked with a wide smile on her face but he disappeared before their eyes. A pouty expression appeared around her face. "And now he's gone."

"It's something….I can hold it for a moment but it's like straining a muscle, I can't hold it for very long," Harry informed Faora but she patted him on the shoulder before she floated up a few inches and kissed him on the lips.

She pulled back and told him in a calm tone of voice.

"Don't worry, it's like that all of the time. It's hard power to master, I didn't expect for you to get it on your first day. In fact, I'd be over the moon if you did."

"Would you?" Harry asked her and Faora responded with a brisk nod.

"Yes, I would," she agreed before she focused her mind on the next line of attack. "Then we have something else that I'd like you to focus on. The fact that you can copy the powers of others."

Kara decided to jump in with a further explanation.

"Perhaps we should clarify, it's only people that you bond with and it might not be a good idea to copy every single set of powers," Kara informed him. "Because despite the fact that you have the abilities, you still have to master them, so it doesn't come to you, automatically learned with a snap of the fingers. And it could get confusing and strain your body if you take on too much too soon."

Harry thought that was fair enough, why would it even be that simple? He had to train magic, he had to train his other abilities, why wouldn't this be the case?

"So these power absorbing abilities are most useful when utilized in moderation," Harry responded with a calm voice and Faora nodded, pleased to see that he got the picture one hundred percent of the way. "So what about any other powers?"

"The time dilation abilities," Kara remarked, reminding Faora.

"What is done is done in other words," she concluded with a smile on her face. "So you can slow down time to the point where for a minute, you have an hour of time, at the very least, done within a certain area. Mastering this power takes concentration at first but it becomes more seamless as time goes on."

Faora paused before she continued.

"It is impossible to do so whilst in combat and could have severe consequences, such as brain damage, if you try."

Harry nodded, he'd figure that would be the case.

"You cannot go backward or forward in time, not without utilizing a dangerous ritual that could cause more harm than good. Going back in time for any reason could have severe side effects and would disrupt the natural order of things."

She placed a hand on her chin.

"What is done is done in other words," she concluded with a smile on her face. "So you can slow down time where in a minute, you have an hour of time, at the very least, done within a certain area. Mastering this power takes concentration at first but it becomes more seamless as time goes on."

Harry allowed it to sink in with a smile before Faora brought them to the next point.

"And now comes the fun part, where we get to test your skills."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "So what do you need to have in mind?"

"A little sparring sensation without magic and….without any other powers," Faora responded as she clapped her hands and the room bathed in red light. "Even with your immense solar reserves, that simulated red solar radiation is designed to keep your powers down to a moderate level and will sap you in a matter of minutes."

Harry smirked as he kept his eyes on her. "Makes things interesting doesn't it?"

Kara smiled, she did hope that Harry was up for it. Although if he did get knocked out, she supposed that she could kiss it and make it feel better.

"I'll stand over here," Kara remarked as she slid back and took a chair, watching the battle.

Faora and Harry got in a battle stance. He closed his eyes and tried for a punch but Faora crouched down and ducked beneath it, before grabbing Harry's arm. She twisted it around to his back and drilled him in the back of the leg, before her knee slammed down onto it. She flung Harry down and straddled him, pinning him down to the ground in a dominating pose.

"No magic, remember."

Harry realized that and tried to push her off but she rolled him over and caught him in a rear naked choke. He struggled out of the hold and she eased up the grip, only slightly.

"Again!"

Harry charged Faora, but she tripped him up and caused him to land on the ground. She backed off with a smile.

"Combat skills aren't as good as other talents, even if you show some potential in your movements," Faora responded as she tried to nail Harry with a spinning back fist but he dodged it. "Your ducking is pretty decent; defense is always the best part of a good offense, providing you can use it to tire your opponent out."

She went for another punch but Harry saw it coming and crouched down.

"Make them do all the work."

She fired a jumping kick towards him but he caught the leg. She snapped her leg up and nailed him in the lower back, which staggered him. Faora jumped up and tried to springboard off of Harry's knee with a running knee strike to the face. Harry ducked the attack and grabbed her around the waist, before flinging her to the ground.

She dropped to the ground but bounced back up. Both tried for a strike at once, but they cancelled each other out.

"Remember hold nothing back."

Harry held nothing back and nailed her with a huge kick to the face. She was asking for it. She went down but bounced up immediately with a graceful kip up. She bounced back with a wide grin on her face, before she darted around the attack that Harry gave her.

They kept up the sparring session for quite some time.

"I didn't throw you around too badly, did I?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders before he looked towards her with a tense expression on his face. There was one thing that he had to say.

"No pain, no gain."

"Yes, one could say that," Faora agreed as they sat down on the couch, it was a hard day's training done or at least it would be done if they were normal. As a result of this, the trio decided to it would be prudent to take a break.

"For the record, I got my ass kicked a lot worse the first time against her," Kara commented as she winced at the memories.

"Hey, I kissed it and made it feel better afterwards," Faora fired back as she placed her hands on the back of Harry's neck and massaged the tender muscles. The wizard closed his eyes and the dark haired girl stroked the back of his neck, running her hands up and down the side of it.

"Oh that feels good."

"Yep, got to beat you up so I can make you feel better later," Faora remarked with a grin as she massaged the back of Harry's neck. "You got a few good shots on me. Being up at that school and using magic all of the time has softened your abilities slightly but you're not as bad off as most people are. Superior genetics are on your side."

Faora massaged the tension knot on Harry's neck as Kara rested her head on his shoulder. Harry instinctively snaked an arm around Kara's waist, pulling her in tightly and the blonde offered a smile towards him.

Genetics brought up a point that Harry wanted to talk about with her. He closed his eyes. "So….our parents…the Kryptonian ones."

"Yes," Faora commented as she hoped that this one was not going to go down a road that she did not want to go down. Even though she grudgingly admitted that Har-Zod had the right to know about them, it still was hard to reconcile everything that occurred in the past within her mind. She bit down on her lip and thought hard about how to best go into what he wanted to know.

"What was your childhood growing up with them like?"

Kara's ears perked up slightly, it was a subject that Faora did not bring up that often. Hell, Kara did not like to bring up her own childhood either, given how much her father drilled the fact that she had certain duties into her mind. The blonde did not like thinking about it but there it was, staring back at her time and time again.

That part of her life was over and she was happier for it.

Faora paused for a second but resumed the massaging of the tender spots on his flesh. "I don't even know where to begin."

"Let's try the beginning."

Kara stated this and Faora turned towards her, eyes narrowed.

"Yes, the beginning would be ideal, I suppose."

Faora placed her hands on her head but she noticed that Har-Zod had a moment where he was about to open his mouth, likely about to say that there was no need for the Kryptonian to bring up the past if she was not interested in doing so. But the fact of the matter was that she was really needed to speak about it, for the purposes of therapy.

"From the moment I was born, it was painstakingly obvious that the General was disappointed that I was not the son he always dreamed about for years," Faora responded, trying to keep the bitterness in her voice to a bare minimum. "Granted, the son that he dreamed about was going to be his clone in every way, so I'm glad that you didn't turn out anything like that."

"I'm glad as well."

From what Harry heard about the General so far, he was not impressed. The wizard crossed his arms and waited for Faora to continue and the dark haired girl was not about to disappoint with her words.

"My mother….well she only had one duty and that was her devotion to Zod, which went beyond your standard loyalty. It was to the point of fanatical and ruthless obsession. She essentially did what he said and tied all of her ambitions towards him. It was a pity, I've read about her exploits in the military, the Bitch did have potential to be a strong leader on her own right. But she lacked the fundamental trait that could bring her up to that next level."

Faora let out her breath in a long sigh.

"I hope that you understand that our parents had a few issues that made them mostly unbearable to be around."

Faora saw that Harry and Kara were focused on her, and what she had to say next.

"After I was born, my mother ceased to be useful to my father, and especially so after your creation."

She turned her head towards both of them as Harry placed an arm around her, as he did with Kara. All three Kryptonians drew strength from each other before Faora continued her speech with bold inflection.

"As I mentioned, she spent a lot of time possessing Lily, to try and use her as a puppet, to groom you into Zod's perfect little soldier," Faora responded as she continued to build up a little head of steam. "Unfortunately, possessing someone who gets nailed with a death spell isn't rather healthy for your long term prospects of living as we've discussed."

"No, I guess not," Harry remarked which gave Faora a chance to catch her breath.

"So, she spent her days lecturing me, drilling into my head about loyalty and duty and all of that stuff, at least until the moment where her plug got pulled and then she became like a zombie, the loyalty to Zod the only thing keeping her from ending it all."

"And when Zod died, well she decided that there was no reason for her to live anymore," Kara concluded for Faora, resting her head on Harry's shoulder with a sigh escaping her lips.

"The interesting thing is that I can't quite classify my childhood as abusive," Faora added as she watched Harry. "Especially when I consider what you might have gone through if you had not been strong."

That was why Faora's guilt was not as great as it could have been. Harry had been strong enough to fight back against the Dursleys and he proved himself to be quite adept at defending himself. That was one thing that despite it all, had to make her smile.

"They had plans for you, big plans, and they tried to groom me to help make sure those plans happened as they wanted them to," Faora responded before a shadow of a grin crossed her face. "But their grooming only worked as well as I wanted it to work."

"Guess they didn't figure out that you might be independent," Harry suggested as he smiled towards her.

"So that's my children in a nutshell, no friends until I met Kara at the Academy, duty, duty, duty, my mother grooming me for my duty, did I mention I had duty?" Faora asked as she watched Harry's face for an expression.

"Yes, once or twice," Harry admitted with a grin and Faora responded with a nod of her head.

"Back to business….since your fourteenth birthday approaches, there is something that you should know."

Harry waited on the edge of anticipation for what she was going to say and sure enough in a minute, she was not going to disappoint him.

"The bond structure of your collective," Faora remarked as she turned to Harry. "I won't bore you with all of the details, more information is available in the library."

Harry inclined his head with a nod.

"However, I will give an extremely simple explanation that a five year old could follow. It's just a lot easier that way for us all."

Harry sat up in attention and Kara did as well. The information that Faora was about to give them could be easily verified in the library.

"Your collective is much like a pack, with a hierarchy and a structure to it," Faora explained to him.

She smiled as she explained it.

"The tip-top of the list, underneath the male leader of course, are the Alphas. The vast majority of collectives will have one Alpha Female. However, the strongest of the males will have multiple Alpha females, due to the vast size of the collective and the need for assistance to help manage that structure."

Harry responded with a nod, understanding what she meant.

"The next tier on the list is the Primary Bond Holders, they are pretty important, just beneath the Alpha."

Simple, Harry thought.

"Then the next tier is the Beta, often referred to Secondary Wives, but Beta rolls easier off the tongue. They are beneath the ruling male, the Alpha Females, and the Primary Females in the pecking order."

It did seem simple enough.

"Wives are there in the middle tier. They have more rights than Life Debt Bond Holders and Slaves, but obviously are not as important as the Alpha, Primary, or Beta wives."

Faora saw that Harry got it all so she continued to explain.

"Life debt bond holders, you've racked up a few of those already, well they can be promoted to full time wives, with any of the bonds. Providing they are not naturally too submissive. Magic is a complex element that will judge the bonds accordingly through criteria far too numerous to explain now. Slaves can only be released by the ruling male. Mistresses, there is an unspoken agreement that she is with the ruling male but there is no formal bond."

Harry nodded, that did make entirely too much sense.

"And now we begin the next phase of our training."

After a couple of weeks of training, Faora, Harry, and Kara agreed that they were at a stage of their training where they could take a few days off for a visit. Said trip would bring them to Gotham City and the trio made their way forward, smiles across their face as they made their way into the insane place that was Gotham City.

"So this is Gotham City," Faora remarked in oh so casual voice, although there was moment where Kara offered a brief sigh as she looked around.

"I suppose that there could be a worse place out there," she remarked and the group all nodded.

"It does take some getting used to," Harry commented but thankfully he didn't think that there was anything out there that could hurt them. Of course, Harry was not about to take that to heart you never knew what could end up happening. "Better to be safe than sorry."

"Right," Kara agreed with a smile as she swayed nervously as they entered Gotham City. She turned to him with a smile across her face. "Where did you say that Barbara and Pamela were going to meet us?"

The trio hovered a few inches off of the ground, it was instinctive because of a training exercise that they did, the last one they did before they arrived here. Faora cleared her throat and they dropped down to the ground.

"It was a nice little café across the way," Harry told her as he watched Kara, who has a look on her face that twisted into a cute little smile. Harry wondered what she was thinking and true enough she was going to say it.

"Now do we mean nice by the terms of sane people or nice by the terms of Gotham City?"

Harry offered a shrug before he edged towards their destination. "I guess we'll know when we get there. Although the city is not all that bad."

There was a sound of yelling that indicated that there was a mugging going on and the sounds of sirens indicated that the police were on it. Harry and Kara stepped forward, inclining their heads and both listened intently.

"Maybe we should get involved," Kara suggested but Harry shook his head.

"No Gordon's on the case, thankfully," Harry responded as the group continued to head towards the café, seeing a police car in the distance.

"HARRY!"

Barbara greeted him with a bright smile on her face. She was dressed in a black tank top and jean shorts, along with sandals. Pamela sat next to her, dressed in a combination of greens and yellows, with a green blouse and a yellow and green skirt with green boots on, with her hair tied back. There was a third girl that Harry did not recognize although there was something that told him that he should. She had dark hair and blue eyes, and was a fair bit shorter than Harry was. She was dress in a white tank top that stretched around her developing bust line and tight jean shorts that wrapped around her legs. She surveyed Harry with a smile that was identical to Pamela and Barbara's.

"Barbara, Pamela, how are you two doing?" Harry asked as he stepped forward to give both of them hugs. He lingered with Pamela for a moment and she turned towards him, before leaning upwards and giving him a light kiss on the lips. The wizard smiled as he returned the kiss for a few seconds before he pushed back and turned towards the rest of the group.

Barbara's expression flashed with one of mirth.

"We're doing fine," Barbara commented as she smiled at Harry. She bit down on her lip before turning her head around. "Other than….well we went over it in our letters, didn't we?"

"Yes, we did," Harry answered in a crisp voice, offering a smile towards the girls.

"You remember my friend, Zatanna, that I told you about in one of my letters," Barbara remarked to Harry before she turned to the dark haired girl who looked around Harry's age. "Harry, Zee, Zee, Harry."

"Nice to meet you Harry," Zatanna stated, naturally she knew who he was although she figured that it would be in poor form to look at the mark on his forehead. Plus, the young girl figured that he had enough of the mindless gawking back home. She did allow herself to look into his deep green eyes for a moment, however.

Harry decided that introductions were in order.

"This is Kara," Harry informed them as the three girls nodded. Harry turned around to Faora. "And this is Alex."

"It's an honor to meet friends of my cousin," Faora commented as she grabbed Pamela and Barbara in tight hugs.

"Cousin?" Barbara asked as she watched Alex, thinking that there was something more to this little situation than there appeared to be at first glance. Although she could not quite put her finger on what exactly. That was the detective in her more or less coming out.

"Yes, we met up over the summer, and we met Kara shortly after that," Harry told them in a firm voice.

Technically he was not lying, although he cheerfully omitted certain parts of the truth. The fewer that knew about Faora and Kara's unique origins the better although Barbara raised an eyebrow and turned to ask a question of Harry.

"So are they like you?" Barbara inquired and she decided to elaborate what she meant when Harry eyed her with trepidation. "I mean they can do….well if they can do magic."

Harry wondered if he should talk about these things but Zatanna offered him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, Harry, I know all about magic, I have the gift, my father has the gift, my mother had the gift, we've had the gift on both sides for generations," Zatanna informed him although even though her magic was very different to the form of magic that Harry and others were taught at Hogwarts, magic was magic when stripping it down to the very core. "Not that the Statute matters here in the United States because magic is an open book, it's just another special skill and not this elitist thing like is over there."

Harry thought that he remembered reading something about that, there was no Ministry of Magic due to their only being a dedicated and small community of magical users, many of them who immigrated over here after the various conflicts in Europe became too much over the centuries. All of the magical users were handled through the Muggle Government or rather a special branch that regulated such a thing.

Whether or not that was a good thing or not, well it depended on a person's individual perception on the American Muggle government and how competent it was. Harry sadly came to the conclusion that stupidity was not a condition that was native to one country, rather it afflicted politicians the entire world over.

"That's good to know but yes they can do magic," Harry offered, figuring that it would best to gloss over the fact that they were not witches technically but rather Kryptonian sorceresses.

"Cool, guess Pam and I are the only normal ones in our little group," Barbara remarked in an off handed voice as she ignored the bemused glares that the group was giving her.

"I wonder if anyone could be normal in Gotham City," Pamela mused as she closed her eyes, it was a far off dream.

Harry placed his hand on hers. "Now we know that being normal is grossly overrated."

"What is normal anyway?" Kara asked with a smile.

"Won't find any of it here, I guess," Barbara interjected with a chuckle. "So where do you fit into this little equation?"

Kara was only too happy to give a scaled down version of her history. "Well Faora and I have been friends since we were eleven years old, we went to the same school. My mother was one of the teachers there so she made Faora my student mentor so I could get around the place."

"Oh, how is your mother?" Barbara asked as she looked at Kara with a wide eyed look and smile but she saw a far off look in Kara's eyes. "Oh yeah sorry, mine too."

"It seemed like ages ago," Kara stated with the far off look tapering off, as she tapped the crystal pendent that Faora handed her as they left for Gotham. "Beside she's alive where it counts."

"In your heart, then," Zatanna piped in but Harry caught the somewhat knowing expression in Faora's eyes.

"Yes, something like that," Faora commented briskly as they ordered drinks.

"The milkshakes here are to die for," Barbara remarked in an excited voice before she let out her breath and winced at the implications of what she said. "Which might not be the best thing to say in this city."

"Hopefully not literal," Zatanna remarked as she took a drink but she had to admit, they were pretty good.

"You never know in Gotham," Harry responded as the group made some small talk about everything.

"Yeah, someone might have died for them," Barbara offered which made Kara smile.

Harry told her enough about Gotham City to get the joke.

Harry stood outside of the museum with Zatanna as Pamela, Kara, Faora, and Barbara were all still inside. They had not finished off their tour of the exhibits yet, given that the six were split into separate tour groups. That was the nature of how things worked in the Gotham City museum, and it was the luck of the draw.

"So let me get this straight," Harry remarked to Zatanna as he looked at the dark haired teenager and she stared back at him. "You can do magic but the way you do magic is that you cast the spells by saying the words backwards."

The fourteen year old girl responded with a grin. "Well, to be fair, you use that bastardized form of Latin when you perform spells."

"Some of us don't need to shout out our attacks," Harry fired back as the two sat down on the steps outside of the museum to wait for the rest of the tour group.

'Or use any of that foolish wandwaving.'

Harry added that last bit as an afterthought before he shifted his legs. There was a question that vexed him so he turned to Zatanna to confront her about that.

"There was a sense that you might have heard of me when I met you," Harry answered but Zatanna offered him a shifty smile.

"Well there are more than a few people who have heard of you."

"So I've heard," Harry dead panned as he sat next to Zatanna. "So you said that your father was a user of magic, didn't you?"

Zatanna nodded in affirmative. "Giovanni Zatara, he's a world famous magician, he's toured the world more times than I can count. He's always amazing, that much I can tell you and he's trained me in what I know of the arts. Granted, I'm very much a novice but hey, fourteen years old, we both have plenty to learn."

Harry thought that he heard the name Zatara somewhere before but he could not place it. It would be something that he might have to look up for a change.

"So, my father knew your father," Zatanna stated and this caught Harry's interest. He did remember that Zatanna was referring to James Potter and not General Who Makes Men Kneel Before Him, as Faora so lovingly dubbed him. "Although know is a really weird way to describe the relationship that he had with your father and Sirius. James and Sirius….well they tended to be…."

"A bit immature at times," Harry offered her finishing the sentence and Zatanna responded with a nod.

"That sums it up," Zatanna agreed with him before she pushed her hair from her eyes. She drew in breath before she spoke. "The fact of the matter is that my father was on the wrong side of the Statute of Secrecy, giving a lot of his infractions happened in countries where it applied. In this country, you can use your natural talents and make some extra cash to become a stage magician or even help the mundane population. Not in the countries in the International Confederation of Wizards."

"Good thing or bad thing?"

Zatanna shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know if that's a good thing or not but it's just there."

The dark haired girl hung her head for a brief instant before she placed her hands firmly on the stone steps and drummed her fingers off.

"So Hogwarts, what is it like?"

"Useless…mostly but it gets me accredited as a full time wizard, so there's that," Harry responded as he watched her with an honest expression glimmering through his eyes. "It's more of a notch in my belt and really the best studies are that are done independently. Still, it gives me my official accreditations. I'll be out of there after this year. I'm sure the Ministry would like me to become one of their drones but I don't think that's for me."

"No, I don't think that is either," Zatanna offered, with a smile. "My father has some rather colorful comments about your Ministry or rather certain people in it."

"It wouldn't have to be about Fudge and his pet toad, now would it?" Harry asked her and Zatanna smiled back at him.

"You know, I think it might be," she told as her eyes flash with mirth and a chuckle escaped her mouth. "So….I heard that you lived with your mundane relatives. What was that like?"

"A coexistence," Harry informed her in a diplomatic tone of voice. "We stayed out of each other's way."

Zatanna really could read between the lines although she heard rumors about how Lily's sister was a jealous hag. Granted that was coming from her father who had the misfortune of meeting that woman once and also her Walrus like husband.

"I'll never go back there," Harry stated as she instinctively placed a hand on his. Then she realized what she did and turned away with a slight blush appearing on her cheeks. Harry said nothing although his expression said everything.

The doors opened as Kara, Faora, Pamela, and Barbara exited the museum.

"I thought that was an interesting piece of history," Barbara stated in a gushing tone of voice.

"Yeah even if Professor McElroy is a bit out to lunch," Pamela offered in a droll voice. "Did you hear about…."

"Yes I heard about that," Harry commented, the outlandish rumors about the psychotic episode the man had that got him put up for review at Yale. "Zee and I were out here talking about….well about the nature of magic and how it varies."

"Well to be fair backwards spellcasting is very useful, as most people can't work out what you said, unless of course they nail you with a translation spell," Zatanna said as the other four girls sat down on the stone steps of the museum.

"There is a certain school of thought to that, of course eliminating verbalization should be done whenever possible," Faora stated as she rubbed her chin and watched them. "Whether that's backwards, forwards, or sideways."

"It is a school of thought that has always been around, people have always felt the need to shout out their attacks," Kara commented before she sighed. "That kind of makes them….well you know what that makes them."

"Idiots that we can take out with the element of surprise?" Harry suggested with a grin.

"Well yes, technically," Faora commented as she thought about the number of times where people could have won the battle, if they had not broadcasted their ability.

Harry was not beneath of capitalizing on the mistakes of people that were far too ignorant to think that their little magic was the be all and end all. Wave a wand, say a spell, lather rinse and repeat, hell Harry knew that silent spellcasting was taught at Hogwarts. However, from what Andromeda told him, the number of people who could actually cast a spell silently after Hogwarts were few and far between. They reverted back to stupid old habits after NEWTs were over, always calling their attacks like a tool.

"Pretty nice night all things considered for Gotham City."

Pamela voiced that statement to Harry as they stood at the edge of the city, looking at the Gotham City skyline. They separated themselves from the rest of the group and stole a few moments for themselves away from everyone else.

"Yes, it's a pretty nice night," Harry agreed with her, a smile crossing his face as he placed his arm around her. He could not resist adding a certain spin on it. "Not a bullet in the air."

Pamela relaxed her stance, that was not a bad thing, it was a really good thing that there was not a bullet in the air. Her eyes closed tightly before she popped them back open with a brief smile that crossed over her face.

"No not a bullet in the air," she agreed as she watched the eerie sunset in the red sky around her.

It was amazing how different her life was before Harry's friendship and how different it was after that. She didn't make friends easily. Her relationship with her parents was rather formal at best, when they were around that was.

When Harry turned up, things changed and they changed for the better. Pamela appreciated that.

"Thanks for turning up," Pamela said as she looked out on the bridge, seeing the eerie red sky that was above Gotham City. The smell of pollution and decay in a city that needed to be cleaned up but yet still somehow existed by some twisted ideal, filled her own her being with a sense of hope and optimism for the future. "It means a lot to me to see you when you're here."

"I'm glad it does," Harry commented as he turned his head around and listened carefully for anything.

"So, at the end of the school year, you're a fully accredited wizard," Pamela offered as she tried to make conversation.

"Pretty much, it's been a long three plus years but the road's running out," Harry remarked before he turned around.

He was not going to lie; he made some friends, slept with some hot women, made a lot of money, so there was more than a few positives to that world. The sheer ignorance of a lot of the people in that world, well that was something that Harry could do without but the world was full of ignorant people. Harry figured that it was a nexus point for the ignorant.

Still he had one final hurdle to overcome as he returned to Hogwarts. The hurdle that drove many people to lose their minds as Harry saw them do every year, for the past three years, the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, or it as it was known by its oh so creative acronym, NEWTs, the final hurdle from being a fully qualified wizard.

The NEWTs opened doors for people or at least opened a door to opening a door. Andromeda informed him that there was a lot of politicking and a whole lot of ass kissing to get into the higher levels of the Ministry of Magic. He got a few pamphlets for job offers, with his grades; the people at the Ministry would be utter morons not to at least offer him a job.

Of course there was the fact that he was Harry Potter that helped work in his favor a tiny bit but that was beside the point.

"I think that we should get together and celebrate," Pamela suggested as she watched him with wide eyes. "I mean it isn't every day that you become a fully qualified wizard."

"No it isn't," Harry remarked as he snapped his fingers and threw his head back. "But hey, maybe I'll come over to Gotham City on a more full time basis."

Pamela watched him and wrinkled her nose slightly. "So you're going to end up trading in one madhouse for another, is that what you're saying?"

Harry shrugged but she had a point. Really the insanity of Hogwarts and the insanity of Gotham City, they were two sides in the same coin.

"So, I'm guessing that you're going to have to leave tomorrow," Pamela commented as she turned to him with a smile and Harry tightened the arm he had wrapped around her waist and pulled her in closely.

"Yes, for better or for worse, I am," Harry informed her and Pamela eyed him as she bit down on her lip. "But it's not like that I'll be leaving forever."

Pamela smiled, she knew that, and shook her head. "I know, but….after everything, I get the sense that you're embarking on a pretty big journey in your life."

'Pam, you have no idea,' Harry thought in an amused way.

Harry cleared his throat and brought up the next point.

"So did you enjoy the plants?"

Pamela's expression brightened at her favorite topic. "Yeah I did, thank you very much."

She hugged Harry tightly a favor that he returned. He pulled her into a deep kiss and she closed her eyes to feel herself lost in the talented mouth of the wizard that wrapped his arms around her. She lost herself in the moment and Pamela slid back.

"I would have sent you more but it's hard to send some of the plants via post," Harry commented, although he wondered who would win a fight between Hedwig and some of the psychotic magical plants. Personally Harry put his money on Hedwig. "Some of the more violent ones are a little bit of trouble to get there."

Pamela narrowed her eyes and kept her expression on Harry. "There's no such thing as violent plants, they're merely misunderstood."

Harry offered a shrug and a smile, this was not a point that he disagreed with, although there were sometimes where he did wonder about her. Then again, Pam was steadfast in her ways.

"There are you are, I thought you got lost?"

"Hey, Babs," Pamela remarked as she saw her friend waiting on the edge of the bridge but the younger redhead crossed her arms and a smile crossed her face.

"So, I thought you two snuck off to…." Barbara remarked but she trailed off, actually that was not a thought that she wanted to entertain all that much.

Unless she was involved then all bets were off but she didn't think that she was quite ready to take that step. Plus she didn't doubt that her father would skin her alive. Getting in a fist fight with the son of a mob boss, yeah that was something that James Gordon might overlook. Losing her virginity at such a young age, that was not anything that her father would approve of, in fact she would get dragged over the coals if such a thing happened.

"Just having a talk," Harry commented to her as he placed his arm around the shoulders of the other redhead.

"That's nice," Barbara remarked in a crisp voice before she jumped straight to the point. "I hope….you're leaving after tomorrow, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Harry reminded her and Pamela placed her hands on her face with a wistful expression on it.

"Well how long are you going to be in the States?"

"Yeah, if you….well after you take care of business, maybe you could stop by quickly before you leave, just to say hello," Barbara offered, a bit too eagerly for her liking and this caused the redhead to become flushed. She spoke more briskly and tried not to trip over her words. "I mean you don't have to….I don't think….but I'd like it if you would and I'm sure Pam would. Zee's leaving tomorrow but she…"

"I'm sure Harry will stop by," Kara commented, the blonde followed Barbara out to the bridge. "We have a few loose ends to tie up and we don't have to be back into the country by….what day did you say, Har?"

"The twenty fourth," Harry added, because it would be a madhouse if he didn't get there early before the Triwizard Tournament. After his birthday, the ancient magic surrounding Castle Peverell will let him inside because magically and legally he was the last heir of that line and the Potter line when James Potter accepted him as his son. So in the eyes of magic, he was the heir to the Potter line, along with all other lines that descended from it.

Harry smiled at both of the girls. "Don't worry, I shall return."

Kara, Faora, and Harry had to make preparations to go back to Smallville because it was time for something that would allow Harry's mind, body, and soul to become one hundred percent his own.

"The ritual is ready."

This was the statement that Harry was waiting for since the moment that Faora brought it up to him. All three of them were dressed in casual clothes as they sat in the bedroom area of their makeshift apartment.

"The soul piece needs to be worn down slowly so we can safely extract it," Faora explained to him and Harry smiled.

"And it's not going without a fight."

"Afraid not," Faora confirmed although it wouldn't be such a problem if this Voldemort apparently did not divide his soul so many times. The diary was the proof that Faora needed to indicate that his soul was divided more than once and she was pretty sure that it was divided a third and a fourth time as well, if not even more.

"At least we're here to make sure everything goes okay," Kara stated as she placed her hand in Harry's and squeezed it tfirmly.

"We're going to fuel the one thing that has been keeping it from destroying your brain for years," Faora stated as she picked up with her explanation, running her fingers through Harry's hair as she spoke. "The protective charms your mother cast, it kept you from turning into something more twisted and vile than Voldemort could ever be."

Faora decided to pause for the most dramatic effect possible before she launched back in with a further explanation.

"And it will be that protection that will allow us to destroy the soul piece and extract it from your being without any damage," Faora stated before she paused long enough for him to soak this in. "But the next part of the ritual, this was the tricky part to get together."

Harry picked up what she was saying immediately. "You needed a way to filter the information and abilities back into my brain, without any of the corruption from his darkened soul."

"Correct," Faora answered, glad that he was getting it. "Simple, elementary process but there are so many ways where it could go wrong that I cannot even begin to fathom."

"So ready or not, here we come?" Kara asked as she kicked off her shoes to the floor.

"Essentially," Faora concluded in a dry voice. "As you might have guessed, the ritual is fueled by one thing and that is pure sex. The two of us should be more than sufficient to kickstart the ritual and we will be able to work in tandem to expel the demented piece from your head."

Harry thought that there was nothing wrong with that and Faora prepared to straddle Harry's lap before she pulled his shirt off in one motion. She did not bother avoiding ripping it because magic could repair anything so there was no need to pick nits. Her lips matched his in a kiss that was born of a great deal of passion and she rubbed herself down on his crotch, getting him excited.

Kara seducitively off her blouse and skirt to reveal she wore nothing but a blue pair of bra and panties. Faora stripped her attire off to reveal that she was not wearing anything underneath it and she struck a seductive pose.

"Ready?"

Harry grabbed her and threw her down onto the bed, which got her the answer that she was looking for.

They mentally caught the soul piece in his head, the combined will of the three of them pushed it out of him.

Harry felt a throbbing thump, thump, thump, in his head as he came down from his climax but the Horcrux left his head and fluttered into nothing after a shrieking scream.

Faora remained business like despite having such amazing sex.

"So….crystal states that you're normal."

Harry rubbed his forehead and he felt brand new information flow into his mind. He rubbed the side of his head.

"I know where the rest of them are," Harry managed as he rubbed his forehead. "There's a ring….in the shack where his mother's side of the family is. Then there's….a Cup in the Lestrange family vault. Then….Ravenclaw's diadem in the Room of Hidden Things in Hogwarts….and there's a locket in a basin of a cave. The diary, got that one. He intended to make his familiar into one."

"So we should assume that he might have," Faora responded although destroying a magical user's familiar would be the ultimate sign of disrespect and since she did not have any for Riddle, that would be up her ally.

Kara, Faora, and Harry collapsed, drained from more intense sex than usual. They would sleep well tonight but they had further plans to do.