Wayfaring Stranger

We were now in our seventh and final year. Lily and I became a couple much to everyone's surprise. Unsurprisingly, for me at least, James and Vela became a thing. Harry's third year had gone quietly, this worlds Pettigrew had been captured and used to clear Sirius Black's name. With Voldemort gone Harry had moved in with Sirius at Grimmauld. The run down house had been cleaned and refurbished by the combined efforts of Dobby and a reformed Kreacher. 

The Ministry had tried to get involved with the 'resurrected' Lily and James. I convinced them otherwise, Fudge had been kicked out of office once Amelia Bones had gotten concrete evidence of his corruption. That led to a lot of workers disappearing once they realized that the DLME was onto them. 

Everything was going great, I actually enjoyed Hogwarts with no issues. Learned magic like a normal teen and even got a smoking hot girlfriend. I didn't even realize that she was attracted to me till that night a year ago when the alcohol loosened a bit of our inhibitions. She confessed to developing a crush on me after meeting me on the train and that crush growing over time. I was pretty much on the same boat but my thoughts of her as 'Harry's Mom' stopped me from doing anything right up until I drank over a dozen bottles of Fire Whiskey on a bet. One thing led to another and I ended up in bed with Lily Evans.

At the moment we were listening to Dumbledore announce the return of the Triwizard Tournament. I guess no matter what, the story would always play out. Just that summer a cult had emerged and attacked Hogsmeade. I brushed it off at first now I was questioning if the tournament was a front for some other plot. Lily squeezed my hand under the table. 

"What is it?" 

"Nothing, for now. Just wondering if this is all a part of a ploy that cult is cooking up." 

"You're worried that this is connected to that attack?"

"Oh I have no doubt. I'm just confused as to what their plan is." 

"We could always ask Dumbledore… or we could sneak away and look into this ourselves." 

"I love the way you think." She grins. "I'll meet you by the astronomy tower." 

Giving her a quick kiss I left the hall and flashed to my pocket dimension. Gathering a few supplies I flashed back to Hogwarts to meet Lily. She was standing by a portrait of a small girl when I found her. The two were sharing a conversation that I missed out on as Lily turned around to face me. 

"I had to repair the cloaks from the last adventure we went on. That manticore venom ate away the fabric." 

"Give it here, you probably damaged the charms." 

"Highly unlikely, if I did you could always fix them." 

She looked at me exasperatedly, "I'm not going to fix everything you break Theo." 

"Even if I ask nicely?" I shot her a grin. 

She had taken to shortening my name to 'Theo' ever since we had first started dating. She only ever used my full name if I had screwed up, badly at that. I didn't mind the shortened name, 'Theseus' was the god, the overpowered being, the one that would eradicate an entire bloodline for insulting a friend. 'Theo' was the kind and caring man, someone who enjoyed reading, and the secret fifth Marauder. 

I never thought of myself having developed a sort of split personality. Going by the other gods in the Greek pantheon I shouldn't have been surprised. I wondered if I would develop a third personality if I were to go back in time so that the Romans worshiped me. It was an interesting thought, one that I shelved away as a potential adventure for the future should I ever find a way to travel through time again. 

Lily shimmied out her robes giving me an eyeful of her near see through lace lingerie. I groaned before turning away, she giggled behind me. 

"A year together and you still shy away when you see some skin. We've shagged more times than I can count. It's just a bit of skin." 

"So you say, I'm just trying not to ravish you on the spot." 

"We do have a few minutes before everyone comes back to the dorms." 

"Lily! We're supposed to be sneaking out." 

"Relax, I'm dressed. You can turn around." 

"I still don't see why you don't let me just flash the clothes onto you."

"I wouldn't get to tease you then." 

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, she smiled before giving me a peck on the lips and disapparating away. I followed her signature and popped away after her. 

We found ourselves in the back of the Shrieking Shack. Hogsmeade was still closed off to the public as the investigation went on. We got past the barricades easily while wearing the gray cloaks that I had tactically acquired from the Department of Mysteries. Aurors thought we were Unspeakables, and the Unspeakables didn't think twice when we walked by. The cloaks not only hid our faces but also distorted our voices, leading to some rather solid disguises. 

"What do you have for us Auror." I tried not to sound too demanding. 

"Shit- oh sorry- I didn't see you there. Right… uh-" I sighed at the flustered Nymphadora Tonks. "We've bagged the bodies, the strange artifact was sealed off by the inn."

I nodded at the pinkette before walking away with Lily who was fighting back a giggle as Tonks cursed herself silently behind us.  

"She isn't as bad as she makes herself out to be. She just recently graduated from the academy I think. Moody taught her himself." 

"Still, did you see the look on her face?" 

"You make the same face when I lic-" 

"OKAY, moving on then. What do you think happened?" 

"From the reports it sounds like a bomb of some sort. I'd have to get a look at the 'artifact' before coming to a conclusion." 

"Right, I'll go have a look around then. See if they've missed anything." 

"Be careful." I felt her push affection through the bond we shared. 

After our last adventure she had gotten injured. After healing her I had given her my godly blessing, not a sexual innuendo, and the result was a metaphysical bond that let us feel what the other was feeling if we concentrated. On a side note, this led to some absolutely earth shattering feedback loops. 

Pulling myself away from the dirty mindset I had gotten from having around James and Sirius for too long I continued on my way to the inn. There, behind a few repelling wards, was a collection of steel rings shaped into a ball no larger than a man's fist. Hundreds of intricate little runes covered the rings which seemed like they could rotate. I drew my wand and levitated the ball from the ground observing the circle of rings. I could feel the ball trying to draw my power and grinned. 

'That's a genius design. A reusable magical grenade.' 

Further inspection revealed that the ball drew on the ambient magic around it. The runes had a certain pattern to it that when thrown the rings would spin activating a pattern. Once the ring stopped spinning the magic it had gathered would forcefully escape as an explosion of power. Whoever made it must have either had more or was currently very angry at the loss. This was an intricate piece of equipment that I myself would have hated to lose. The sheer number of uses you could get from a reusable grenade was insane. Quickly creating a passable, albeit nonfunctional, replica of the grenade I pocketed it before going off to find Lily. 

"Found anything?" She looked over at me. 

"Just a runic grenade that may or may not be reusable."

"Found a few drops of blood, not enough to identify the person but it's clear that one of the attackers was injured." 

"Doesn't seem like there's too many witnesses either."

"The ones willing to talk pretty much just describe Death Eaters." 

"So it Death Eaters?"

"Or people dressed like them." 

"Wanna see the grenade I found and test it on stuff?" 

She returned my grin. "Is the sky blue?" 

"Fucking marry me." 

"Not until you ask me properly." 

"Fine. Let's go back." 

She grabbed my arm and I flashed us back to my home, now named 'The Palace' thanks to Sirius. Older Remus had taken it well when we had explained who we were to him. He was glad that Sirius was freed and that Peter was brought to justice. It was hilarious watching the shock on the traitors face as a younger version of him stunned and bound him before turning him into the Amelia Bones' office. The woman was shocked but had an emergency trial the next day clearing Sirius Black of all charges. A year later Sirius and Amelia had gotten engaged. Amelia had called my home a Palace and Sirius picked up on it. The name stuck ever since. Currently the couple was vacationing in France at my other estate there in preparation for their wedding. This left Lily and I free reign of the house. 

Lowering my hood I took the grenade out of my pocket and handed it to Lily. She held it gingerly and examined the runes. As godly as I was, I was rather clueless when it came to runes. She on the other hand was nearly a master at seventeen. 

"This is incredible rune work." 

"I know, I might be pants at runes but I can recognize a good rune scheme."

"It's able to regulate the size of the explosion depending on how hard and how far it's thrown. This- this is grandmaster level work." 

She continued to study the grenade, sprouting off facts and tidbits about it. Eventually she came back down to reality and looked at me. 

"Do you know what this means?" 

"That they either have someone really good at runes captive or one of them is really good at runes?" 

"Yes! Wait no, the only person this hood has been dead for centuries. At least back in my world, potentially the same here. This means that this cult has probably found a cache of artifacts belonging to Benjamin Franklin." 

"Woah, wait, back up. Benjamin Franklin was a wizard?" 

"Well, a squib, but that doesn't mean he couldn't study runes. That's all he's said to have ever done. He was the first in the Americas to harness ambient magic for energy."

"That seems highly unlikely. Wasn't he a bit… wacky?"

"That's not the point!" I chuckled at her. "Point is we've narrowed down the list of suspects by a lot." 

"So they're from America?"

"Or have traveled there very recently. All of which is easily tracked by the Ministry." 

"Fantastic, now are we going to keep talking or do you want to test that." I said while pointing at the grenade in her hand. 

She smiled before tossing it a few yards away. I erected a shield around us and watched as the rings on the grenade spun. The runes glowed briefly before the rings came to a stop. There was a soft bell-like sound before the earth around the grenade exploded and a shockwave slammed into my shield. 

"Fuck that wasn't even that far… imagine if you had thrown it harder and further away with magic." 

"Let's keep Sirius away from this." 

"Agreed."