Shank-ko woke up with a pleased smile on her face, despite lingering soreness. While she had not come out on top, she had placed respectfully in the previous night's events. The feel of spider silk pajamas against her skin made her smile as she slipped out of bed, careful not to wake the other two. Seline was an unusual choice for a second wife, but there were benefits to having her in the family that Shank-ko hadn't considered before last night.

Lord Harry may be forward and reckless on first glance, but his choices thus far showed remarkable long-term profit possibilities. Her teeth gleamed in the dark as she smiled broadly, carefully stepping over the spinner from the Twister game and avoiding stepping on the Monopoly board.

Shank-ko had slept a full five hours and was a bit ashamed of her laziness but allowed herself a little leeway, as it was her first night with her intended.

The goblin girl quietly slipped out of the room, eager to go over the finances and implement some of the things they'd discussed last night. She was thankful she knew the goblins to contact who would give them the best deal.

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"We can do it!" a goblin wearing a dirty white lab coat and goggles said excitedly. "We can make him, bigger, stronger, faster!"

"Seriously?" one of the other goblins dressed in more sensible grey overalls asked doubtfully, as he cleaned up a lab table.

"No, but we can make him smarter and a bit thinner," he replied. "Probably do something about all that hair while we're at it."

"So… smarten him up a bit?" one of the other goblins joked.

"Yeah," the labcoat wearing goblin said thoughtfully. "A tall order, but it's the Potter account requesting it."

"Ahhh," half a dozen of the assistants chorused. The Potter account was to be afforded every possible privilege as the young lord was capable of causing great chaos and chaos meant opportunities for profit!

Plus watching the humans scramble around and panic was always fun.

"Any suggestions?" Labcoat asked.

"How about you actually read the report?" one of the others asked.

He rolled his eyes behind his goggles. "I always read all the applicable paperwork before starting a new project."

"What about the wizard last week who exploded?" another asked.

"Not every experiment is a success," Labcoat replied with a shrug.

"And the one last month who was permanently transfigured into a miniature chicken?" one of them called out.

"It was a rooster and it's hardly my fault he mixed up the words 'have' and 'become' when trying to write in English when he was from Bulgaria," he defended himself.

"What's the summary?" one asked, curious what they were arguing about.

"We've got a half giant who went through an uncounted number of obliviates, reducing him from a skilled agent during the war to… Rubeus Hagrid," Labcoat explained.

"Ouch," one of them muttered while a number flinched.

"Not much we can do about the obliviates at this late date," one muttered.

"So, what's the request?" another called out.

"Make him into a wizard James Bond," Labcoat answered.

"Who in the tundra is James Bond?"

"No idea," Labcoat replied. "Looks like we have some research to do."

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Harry woke up bright and early from long habit. He noticed Shank-ko was gone, but he knew from their talk last night that Goblins only needed four hours and forty-six minutes to be fully rested, so he wasn't surprised.

He tried to slip out of bed without waking Seline, but she instinctively pulled him closer. He waited until he was sure he hadn't woken her up before trying again, but this time she wrapped all four arms around him and pressed her lips against the side of his neck.

He felt a slight pinch and a creeping numbness that stole his ability to move. 'Good thing I didn't have to pee,' Harry thought to himself before deciding he might as well go back to sleep as he wasn't going to be going anywhere.

2 Hours Later…

Seline woke up wrapped around a peacefully sleeping Harry. It took half a dozen shakes before he woke up, looking more than a little groggy. "Wake up sleepy head," she said cheerfully, "it's time to bathe!"

"Huh?" Harry asked.

"It's time to wash so it's harder for adults to find us," she explained, tossing the covers aside and picking him up.

"Adults?" he asked with a yawn.

"A lot of things hunt by smell," she explained, "so before we go anywhere we have to wash away as much of our smell as possible. They also have this thing called soap that makes us smell alike so we're harder to track." She carried him to the master bathroom, her four arms making short work of their pajamas.

"Yeah, I've heard of that," Harry agreed, wondering if that's why soap was invented as it did make sense.

Seline set him down in the old-fashioned claw foot tub and turned on the cold water. Having grown up with the Dursleys, Harry was used to only being able to use cold water so he was comfortable in the tub, though it did finish waking him up as they settled into the water and he yawned and stretched.

"The soap makes the water taste strange so we use it last," Seline said, "first we practice not breathing water."

"Not breathing water?" Harry asked curiously.

"Uh huh," Seline said with a bright smile. "You haven't done it before?" Her lower two hands played with the water.

"I don't think so," Harry admitted. "I mean, I can't breathe water, so I'm always not breathing it, but I don't think you mean that."

Seline giggled. "Give me a second, I have to make a water seed so you can start learning."

She closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating on something so Harry entertained himself by repelling water from his hand while slowly lowering it into the tub.

After a minute or two she sighed and one of her lower hands darted down into the bottom of the tub and came up with what looked to be a large blue pearl. "You can pull air from the water while you chew on this, so you don't have to breathe, but you have to be completely under the water for it to work because air doesn't have enough air for it to work in."

"OK," Harry agreed as he accepted the strangely warm 'water seed'. "So, I just chew on this and keep underwater?"

"Uh huh," she agreed brightly. "It's hard because breathing is a hard habit to break, but eventually you get it and it trains your magic to breathe for you… when underwater anyway. Remember to breathe when in the air," she said firmly.

"Alright," Harry agreed, popping the water seed in his mouth and chewing on it like it was a gumball. It tasted slightly sour but not unpleasant as he ducked down under the water and waited to see what effect it had.

The seed lasted for half an hour and he'd only surfaced three times, desperately wanting to breathe, sure he was going to drown despite knowing better.

"Did I do OK?" Harry asked as he and Seline surfaced.

"You did good," Seline assured him as she grabbed two bars of soap and some washrags. "If you do this well all the time you'll have it down in a couple of months."

"So, you can get air from water all the time?" Harry asked as she passed him a washrag and bar of soap.

"Scrub my back," she told him, turning around. "I can do it for about a tenth of the day before I get too tired," she said proudly.

"I'll have to take swimming lessons," Harry said as he scrubbed her back while she washed herself. "I'm sure there are tons of places to explore underwater."

"They don't have goats underwater," Seline complained, "but it's great otherwise, you just have to make a silk tent or find a nice cave and put the right plants in it."

"We could go camping underwater," Harry said with a bright smile.

"Yep," Seline agreed, rinsing off and turning him around so she could get his back. "You just got to be careful where you go camping, cause there are a lot of hungry things underwater, plus a lot of people live there."

"We'll just have to get strong enough not to worry about it then," Harry said, wiggling a little as she hit a ticklish spot.

While the pair prepared for the day, the Daily Prophet's latest issue hit the streets…

Molly Weasley stared in shock at the front page of the paper, as it showed an Auror flying through the front window of one of the darkest most despicable places she knew of, followed by a young boy with a handful of fire and fierce expression on his face, fighting off a pair of Aurors.

She quickly dived into the paper, reading about how Harry Potter was cleaning up a blight on their community and the very likely possibility that he was a mythical male Veela!

"I knew Lily Potter was too pretty to merely be a witch," Molly muttered.

The Delecour Residence

"Male Veela do not exist," Apolline told her husband as he ate his breakfast.

"What was that, love?" he asked, noticing she was reading that English rag that the British Ministry used as a mouth piece.

"I said, male Veela do not exist," she repeated as she stared at the front page.

"It really was him?" he said surprised, as he spotted the moving picture on the front page of the Daily Prophet.

"Yes, however there is no such thing as a male Veela, so there must be some other explanation!"

"I'm more surprised that Harry Potter, the slayer of Voldemort, an eleven-year-old wizard, rescued our daughter," Monsieur Delecour said.

"Using his penis no less," Apolline teased, "or perhaps not and you simply need to stop telling our youngest daughter horror stories about little boys that you make up."

He sighed and opened his mouth to concede before grinning. "Then again, perhaps they're just true of male Veela."

Apolline rolled up the paper and smacked him with it.

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Harry looked in the mirror at his neck where Seline had nipped him in bed. It had left a round purple mark sort of like a bruise or a hickey.

"Sorry about that," Seline apologized. "I didn't mean to bite you."

"It's OK," Harry said, "I know you were just trying to keep me from leaving while you were half asleep."

Seline smiled, relieved he wasn't upset. "Here," she said, handing him a black head scarf.

Harry tied it around his head as they finished getting dressed. It certainly was easier than trying to deal with his always messy hair and Seline seemed to like it.

The pair joined the rest of the household in the dining hall where everyone was eating breakfast, grabbing seats on the bench next to Hagrid and Billy.

"What's that on your neck?" Billy asked curiously.

"Love bite," Seline replied, since it was a bite to keep Harry with her cause she wanted to be around him all the time.

The pair didn't notice the shocked glances from the adults as they dug into the breakfast the elves had provided for the two, a big pile of fresh fruit.

One of the newly hired tutors stared in shock. He'd been surprised to see Hagrid here, but Harry Potter?! Remus pinched his leg to make sure he was awake.

"What are we going to do today?" Billy asked, hoping to be able to spend it with his father.

"Well…" Harry chewed on his lip while he thought about it. The Dungeons and Dragons books didn't seem to be completely accurate, as everyone in his party was taking Wizard in addition to their base class and there didn't seem to be any weapons or armor restrictions, but it did work as a starting point.

He considered Billy; Strong of arm and pure of heart, definitely a paladin. "You need to get together with your Da and figure out which God you follow, so you know who to pray to for strength. Might want to look into getting a mount as well, but it's a bit early for that. I think pegasi are the traditional mounts."

"Pegasi are a mite small," Hagrid offered. "If you are looking for one to ride, I'd say go for one that is at least a quarter Abraxi."

Harry nodded. "Not going to need one for at least a year, probably two, but it never hurts to keep an eye out and see if he bonds one early."

"How do I pick a god?" Billy asked.

"Find one that fits you and see if they'll answer your prayer," Harry replied.

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"I did not see that coming," Loki admitted.

"May want to send him a sign, a really obvious one," Ares said. "Otherwise all that loose prayer is going to attract attention."

"But who is going to be his patron?" Hermes asked. "He's much too soft hearted for most of us."

Aphrodite smirked and opened her mouth to volunteer when Thor spoke up, "I'll take him."

"You know he's part giant, right?" Loki asked in the stunned silence that followed.

"Yeah, and?" he asked.

"You kill giants," Loki reminded him, "you're famous for it."

"Of course," Thor said cheerfully, "where else am I going to find a good battle? Giants are great!"

"Well… I feel like an idiot," Loki said.

"You're not the only one," Odin said, shaking his head.

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"What are we doing?" Seline asked.

"Going to a muggle book store," Harry said. "The Dursleys tried to keep me from learning about all the muggle stories with magic in them and I'm not letting that stand."

"You're going to need an adult with you and I'm afraid Seline can't go," Stanley said.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"It'd cause a panic," Stanley explained.

"Muggles are going to panic because a little girl has extra arms?" Harry asked, rolling his eyes.

"No," Remus interjected, "but it makes you two memorable and as magicals we are required to blend in. Tell you what, I'll help disguise her and escort you, if you like." He was anxious to spend time with Harry and see if he could accept his condition.

"How well do you know the muggle world?" Harry asked cautiously, recalling how much Hagrid stuck out.

"I live there," Remus quickly assured him.

"Good," Harry said, "we need to go to a book store, a comic book store, a gaming store-"

"Can I get a rabbit?" Seline interrupted.

"And some place for a private lunch," Harry finished, nodding at the excited little red head.

"Not a problem," Remus said, realizing that he might just be worrying over nothing.

AN: Shank-ko is not a letter switch from Skank-ho. It's meant to make you think of a prison made knife of a feminine Japanese nature. Shank-ko is a female goblin who is anime pretty, not slutty… and would cheerfully stab you in the shower if you upset her.

TN: Who the heck thought 'slutty' in regards to the probably eleven year old she-goblin, especially since her actions and demeanor have not been anything near slutty? And the age people! The age! Good grief… I'm gonna need a good memory repression, Vegeta style, now…

Typing By: Abyssal Angel