The Map
They all followed Miss Mullard to the school ground. She had them stop in front of a large floor to ceiling painting of a map. On top of the map, Sirius read ‘Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ on a seal.
“As you can see, the school is larger than Hogwarts,” Miss Mullard pointed at the painting.
“This is a map of the school,” Arthur asked in awe.
Miss Mullard wasn’t kidding, the map showed enough land to cover Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest, Hogsmead, Diagon Alley, the Ministry, St Mungos, and most of the Black properties, including the farm the Black family owned, which was the main source of fresh produce for the Island.
Before she could explain, Tony interrupted her answer.
“I need to speak to Nathan, I already know all this, so I’ll be going now,” before anyone could protest, he added, “I won’t be long, I’ll be back before you get to the main building, to see where the children will go to school.”
Severus nodded, and Darcy took him to the side to tell him where he would find her father.
“On the western border, you’ll find the mountain,” Miss Mullard showed them. “The Goblins have a jewelry program in the caves, but that section also hosts our potterers, our fire dweller, several of our beasts,” when she saw their curious looks she explained, “we have two dragons on site.”
The Weasley boys were excited and immediately asked to go see them.
“You will get to see them with your professor, but you won’t approach them until you have had many, many lessons,” Miss Mullard told them.
Sirius saw Severus, Arthur, and Remus roll their eyes, no doubt thinking the same way he was, that she just issued a challenge to them.
Miss Mullard looked at them and smiled, “Our Head Care professor has to cast a charm on the students allowed near the dragons, otherwise the wards won’t let them closer than they are supposed to be.”
“If this charm can be found somewhere, they will find it,” Arthur warned her.
“Then they’ll just have to find a stronger ward against your sons,” Miss Mullard said. “The worst that could happen would be for the alarm to go off, and the Care professors on-call would be apparated directly on site. Safety is always our first concern, and we know dragons are a call to cause troubles.”
She moved to the other side of the painting, and they followed her.
“On the eastern border, we have the sea, Mermaids and marine creatures live there. Underwater they have their own ecosystem, and home bubbles for those who can live in both environments but prefer to sleep on dry sheets,” she explained.
“On our southern border, you’ll find our Earth based classes, acres of land meant for Herbology, but also farming, be it for wheat or cows and goats, the school is self-sufficient,” she explained. “As you can see,” she pointed at several long ribbons of blue on the map, “we have several rivers going all through our land. We also have ponds and lakes, with numerous creatures and beasts living there.”
“On our northern border, we have a large forest. Our beast care classes take place there unless, of course, it is about a beast from one of the other environments,” she tells them. “Our creatures give their own classes on their culture and/or languages.”
“I am sorry,” Natasha asked when Miss Mullard fell silent. “There are no buildings on the map.”
Darcy laughed and waved off their questioning gaze.
“This map is to scale,” Miss Mullard simply said and waited.
Clint was the first to understand what she meant. “How much land do you own,” he asked as he came closer to the painting. “Those points here, and there, are buildings.”
Everyone came closer to look at it, and Clint was right the buildings were as tiny as needle eyes.
“The land was acquired when the school was founded in 1627,” Miss Mullard told them. “The actual amount land between our main borders is about 200 km2 (or 49,000 acres), the extension charms allow us to double our acreage.”
“How do the children go from one class to another,” Sirius asked.
“Portals, and wards. We are outside the administrative building and if you turn around you will see nine doors. Each door leads to a specific area through a portal, you simply have to think about your next class or the next place you need to be and it will open to the closest door. The wards allow our older students, and our teachers to apparate inside the school borders. Parents are given either a portkey or a focused ward allowing them to only retrieve their own child,” she explained.
She was walking toward the doors when Tony joined them with a tall man with black messy hair, tan skin, and defined muscles, which Sirius could infer even as his body was hidden under heavy clothes.
“These doors lead to each section,” she said pointing toward the far left ones. Turning to the far right one, she explained, “the center one leads to the Administrative building, we came from there. On its right, the door leads to the common rooms, library, great hall, study hall, med bay. One over is the door to the entertainment area, you can find a secondary library, with mostly fictional works, but also our sports fields. The next door leads to the dorms and House commons, though we encourage our students to mingle, the staff houses, a small village with a school-related shopping area. One over is our No-Maj area, you can find our No-Maj classes, but also our garage and other fields of No-Maj hobbies or manual work here. Finally, the last door,” she said and went to open it. “Our little ones’ school. It is kept as far away from anything danger as we can so even if they open the wrong door nothing can hurt them. If they try opening the far left door it leads to the Herbology area instead.”
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Meanwhile, Tony was looking for his cousin. Darcy told him she would find him at home as he didn’t have any lessons to give until later that evening.
Tony knew which door led to Nathan’s house and didn’t hesitate as he went to join his cousin on his porch.
“Nathan,” he greeted.
“Tony,” Nathan answered his face serious.
They stayed silent for a few minutes before Tony laughed and grinned at his favorite cousin, well, after Darcy, of course.
“You usually last longer,” Nathan noted.
“I am in a hurry,” Tony admitted with a shrug. “You’ll meet the others later I am sure. Darcy planned for us to have lunch together…” Nathan nodded, “but I had questions I’d rather ask while we are alone.”
“Don’t you trust them,” Nathan asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I do,” Tony said with conviction, which surprised them both. “I trust them, but there are questions only you can answer.”
“One of them is a Werewolf,” Nathan pointed out, “Darcy warned me.”
“Did she tell you anything else,” Tony inquired.
“That he managed to claim you all as his pack,” Nathan said plainly, as if it wasn’t important in the grand scheme of things.
“Nathan,” Tony growled at him.
“I looked into it,” Nathan finally admitted. “Darcy said he is a turned wolf?”
Tony nodded, “He was bitten when he was a kid.”
“She also said he had some powerful Alpha pheromones,” Nathan stated, “she isn’t worried, but she admitted she was straining to resist the pull to lay on her back and show her belly,” Nathan said with a smirk.
Tony knew Darcy never showed any inclination to follow the wolf instincts, so this made his mind boggle.
“Members of his pack just…” Nathan didn’t finish that thought but Tony nodded anyway.
“Two adults, the parents of one of the cubs, but he also just got his first contact with his own cub,” Tony explained. “I didn’t think it would be enough to trigger the claiming though.”
“Not on strangers, no,” Nathan admitted with a sigh, though Tony could see the crazy scientist gleam shiny in his eyes. “Any wolf I know would regroup, hide the cubs away, and only allow their Beta or their Omega to come close to them.”
“You said you looked into it - what did you find,” Tony asked, looking at his watch for good measure.
“Remus John Lupin, son of Lyall Lupin and Hope Lupin, née Howell,” Tony nodded when Nathan looked at him, “Rumor has it, Greyback bit him in retaliation for his father working with the ministry against Dark Creatures. Stating that all werewolves were 'soulless, evil creatures deserving nothing but death'.”
“Makes Howard sound like a big cuddly teddy bear,” Tony mumbled but Nathan smirked in teasing. “I take it you found something else,” Tony inquired.
“Lyall Lupin didn’t become a specialist in Dark Creatures by studying them through books,” Nathan told him coldly, “His mother is Elena Harbour.”
“Wait, Remus’ grandmother is our Great-Aunt Elena,” Tony sputtered as he understood what Nathan was saying.
“The great leader of my pack,” Nathan nodded.
“But that means,” Tony said, but stopped not actually sure what it meant.
Sure, it meant Remus' grand-mother was alive, but he didn't seem aware of it. Also, Lyall Lupin hated Werewolves and Tony never heard Elena mention a child other than the missing heir she talks to the little cubs about, but he thought it was her version of a fairy tale.
“It means Remus is the missing heir of my pack, our Alpha, but mostly,” Nathan sighed, “It means Greyback bit a born wolf, even if Remus was only half or a quarter wolf at the time, which would only give him our instincts, and some of our abilities, while he would feel no need to change.”
Nathan turned to look Tony in the eyes.
“I don’t know what his Alpha powers will be like,” Nathan admitted, “It is unheard-of.”
“Oh, you mean, like having a 15 months old mage, or an 8-month-old seer, a mix mutant/witch all under the same roof,” Tony said with a nervous laugh.
“You are the one who added my daughter to the mix,” Nathan pointed out.
“Yes, yes, I did that,” Tony nodded with a grin. “And more will be added.”
They stayed silent as Nathan tried to force Tony to explain through raised eyebrows, cocky smirks and silent dares, but Tony didn’t take the bait.
“Did Darcy say anything else,” Tony asked with a grinning tease.
“No,” Nathan admitted, “She is annoyingly silent on your new companions.”
Oh, this was going to be fun, Tony thought, if Darcy didn’t tell him about his mate than he was in for a surprise as they joined the group. Tony grabbed Nathan’s forearm and dragged him back to the portal to join the Main Hall.