Chapter 21

"There has to be some mistake." Fudge fretted, worrying at his

bowler hat.

"There's no mistake." Amelia Bones said uncompromisingly. "Welch

identified Dolores Umbridge as the one who hired him and his

friends to kill Harry Potter, Fleur Delacour and both of their hostages

during the second task."

"It had to be someone using Polyjuice, it just had to!" Fudge insisted

stubbornly. If it got out that his Senior Undersecretary had plotted the

murder of the Boy-Who-Lived, he'd be finished.

"It could be." Amelia allowed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at

Fudge's terror of bad publicity. "But then explain why Umbridge

vanished for parts unknown three days ago."

"She's just taking some time off." Fudge blustered. "She's working

two jobs you know!"

"Seems pretty strange for a woman with two jobs to take indefinite

leave." Amelia said, struggling mightily to keep the sarcasm from her

voice. "Especially with this tournament going on."

"Nonsense." Fudge blustered some more, sweat running down his

neck as he tried to make excuses for Umbridge. "I can handle myself

without my undersecretary for a while and young Percy shows a lot

of promise."

" Percy Weasley is in charge of the DIMC?!" Amelia demanded,

completely unable to hide her incredulity. "You put a wet behind the

ears Hogwarts graduate in charge of one of our most important

departments?!"

"No." Fudge denied indignantly. "Dolores did. He's her assistant and

the natural choice to take over while she gets some rest on her

vacation. It'll be a valuable learning experience for him."

Amelia had to resist the urge to throttle the fat lump of stupidity that

was Cornelius Oswald Fudge. Percy Weasley was an eighteen-yearold brat with a far too generous opinion of himself and in no way

qualified to be the head of any department, much less the DIMC.

She wouldn't be surprised if he started a war with Bulgaria over

cauldron bottom thickness or something equally stupid.

"Minister, you have to see that this is untenable." She tried a different

tack. "Just recall Umbridge and we can get to the bottom of this."

"NO!" Fudge snapped. If he let Bones get to the bottom of anything

that his Senior Undersecretary was involved with, she was sure to

find some 'evidence' of wrongdoing. He was well aware of the

hostility between the two women. "Dolores Umbridge is a valued

member of the Ministry of Magic and would not have a hand in trying

to kill Harry Potter! I don't want you digging into this any more,

Amelia!"

The head of the DMLE left the Minister's office foul tempered and

furious. Fudge could say whatever he wanted, but she was going to

have aurors keeping an eye out for the pink clad bitch regardless.

She'd been hoping for years to get something to pin on Umbridge

and wasn't letting the chance pass her by so easily.

Somewhat to his own surprise, Harry did not feel terribly depressed

after his break up with Dora. He had expected it to happen and there

was no shock when it finally did. All told, his mood did not sink much

lower than it had been since he had told her about the Joining. At the

very least the situation was resolved and they were still friends,

which was honestly more than he had been hoping for.

The means by which Dora had tested if it could still work between

them had served to aleviate some of the tension he'd been feeling,

but it crept back by the following week.

For the first time since he had carved them, Harry resented his

runes. He was simply not in the mood to have sex and - admittedly

somewhat petulantly - wanted to sulk for a while. A particular saying

came to mind as a good description of the situation, namely 'the

spirit is willing, but the flesh is not'. Except that in his case, it was

inverted and became 'the spirit is unwilling, but the flesh didn't give a

shit'.

Harry sometimes wondered if he hadn't inadvertently given himself a

very mild form of Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome. Most of the

symptoms fit, except for the part where masturbation offered only

minimal relief, which he put down to the fact that his problem was

half physical and half magical.

Either way, he was not in the mood to do anything about it just yet.

He decided to use the situation to perform a bit of an experiment

instead.

He had noticed that his fangirls had become bolder with their offers

in the lead up to his and Dora's break up and had eased off a bit

right after. He hadn't paid too much attention to it at first, but it didn't

take long for his curiousity to become piqued. If nothing else, it made

for a good distraction.

He started randomly attending classes that he knew his fangirls to be

in and sitting next to them, wanting to see what they would do.

As he had half suspected would happen, they got continually bolder

as the days passed. At first, they would just smile widely, entirely too

happy over the simple fact that he was sitting next to them. But as

time went on and the slow boil of his own lust worsened, their

behavior changed. Inviting smiles and smouldering looks turned to

more physical expressions. They would lean in to him to ask a

question or drop a hand on his thigh. It wasn't long before the first

blatant offer of a good time in a broom cupboard came.

He didn't limit himself to just the Hogwarts girls either, but also

deliberately sat next to some of the Beauxbatons ones during meals

to see if they would be the same. They were, though it was rarer.

The changes were much less pronounced in the younger girls.

Parvati and Lavender were still at the stage of lip biting and breathy

longing looks by the time that most of the seventh years had

progressed to the point of being physical whenever possible.

Harry had no choice but to conclude that he was indeed

broadcasting a sort of magical 'need sex, looking for girl' signal. His

own rising lust problem must have leaked into his aura and was

attracting females in the same way that an animal might use

pheromones.

Considering recent events, he might have been upset by this, but his

testing had managed to conclude that it was only affecting the ones

that were already interested and not planting any foreign desires into

the girls. That was very good, because Harry really did not want to

deal with the moral quandary that he'd be placed in if it was

otherwise. That one Ravenclaw sixth year guy that had also been

hinting at sexual interest had actually put him at ease. Harry was

straight as a board and certainly would not have been soliciting gay

sex, either consciously or subconsciously, which meant that he was

only emboldening people that already wanted to get into his pants

rather than anything more sinister.

There were only two outliers in his tests that he couldn't quite pin

down: Luna and Fleur.

He knew that Luna was sexually interested, she had flat out told him

so. Curiously, her behavior didn't change just as it hadn't before. He

didn't know if this was a consequence of the Joining or if it was

because of the promise she had made to her father. He knew how

much it meant to her, so it could be either one. That wasn't

mentioning that she was quirky enough to throw off his tests even

without that being factored in.

Fleur had already been pretty blatant in her interest, making it

impossible to say if her lack of reaction was due to her veela

heritage or if she simply couldn't get any more obvious without

shoving her tongue down his throat. Once again, it could be either

one.

It was an interesting experiment that told him he certainly wouldn't

be lacking in girls willing to help him relieve stress when he inevitably

stopped being stubborn and gave in. By the point that he figured all

this out, he was refusing to take one of them or Fleur to bed more for

the sake of curiousity than sadness from the break up. He wondered

if it was similar to a veela's Allure and what it would push the girls to

do over time.

So focused was he on this new project that the situation he currently

found himself in had blindsided him completely.

He was in one of his bi-weekly Arithmancy lessons with Professor

Vector, nothing unusual there. What was unusual was that her chair

was so close to his that their legs were touching and she pressed

her breasts into his arm whenever she needed to point something

out on the paper they had on the desk between them.

He had vaguely noticed that the teacher he'd been having detention

fantasies about for over a year now had been slightly more frazzled

lately but hadn't paid it much mind. In this latest lesson though, she

had slowly gravitated ever closer until she was pressed into him and

her presence was now radiating a desire to jump his bones.

That was… unexpected. Vector hadn't been considered a test

subject for this little project. He'd never had even a hint of an idea

that she had any thoughts in that direction, she had always been the

perfect picture of professionalism. His best guess was that she had

been hiding it and his lust soaked aura had worn away her restraint

over time.

"You're not paying attention, Harry." The professor in question chided

gently, leaning in close and pointing at the equation he had written

down. "This is all wrong, if you tried to set up a ward like this it would

collapse within hours."

Well of course he wasn't paying attention. Not only was the teacher

he'd wanted to boff for so long nearly draped over him, but he also

hadn't had any sex in three weeks and was long past the point of

being only slightly distracted.

Should he go for it though, that was the question. It was plainly

obvious to him that he was going to need to pick a girl or three for

the purposes of stress relief or else become unable to think of

anything but sex, but he also didn't want to jump into another

relationship. Breaking up with Dora may not have sent him spiralling

into a depression worthy of a thrashy romance novel, but he wasn't

eager to jump back into a commitment again either.

In that respect, Vector would be perfect. She was a sweet, quiet,

demure woman and utterly uninteresting as anything other a MILF.

He didn't see himself having a relationship with any woman so

'settled' in life even if she had been closer to his age and without the

whole teacher-student thing getting in the way.

The reasons not to sleep with her essentially boiled down to potential

awkwardness between them.

"I'm sorry, Professor." Harry said, deciding on a course of action by

placing his hand on her thigh. He would only be in Hogwarts for a

few more months anyway, so even the worst case scenario wasn't

that bad and Septima Vector really was a very hot lady. "I've been a

bit distracted lately."

Septima froze and then flushed as she felt his hand creeping up her

leg. She was not proud of it, but she was terribly attracted to her

young student. He had been a cute, if somewhat awkward kid when

they had started with these private lessons, but had grown up far too

quickly into a very handsome man. Getting invited to dance with him

during the Yule Ball and seeing him in nothing but swim trunks for

the second task hadn't helped at all. She was embarrassed by her

own behavior lately, but touching him just felt so good. Besides, it

wasn't like she was going to do anything more than that, so it was

alright. He was almost like her apprentice anyway and it was a well

known dirty little secret that masters or mistresses of their craft often

took advantage of their apprentices. She was being quite decent

really.

Then his hand gripped her thigh and Septima found herself feeling

not very decent at all.

"Harry…" She tried to say, not even sure whether she was going to

protest or encourage him. It was a moot point in any case because

he cut her off with a kiss.

She knew that she really should protest where this was going, but it

felt so good that she kept delaying for just a second longer and then

for another when that second passed. Before she knew it, Septima

found herself sitting in his lap.

Finally, he broke the kiss and moved on to paying attention to her

neck. It didn't help improve her resistance any, but it did free up her

mouth for talking.

"Harry… we should… stop." She breathed out with no conviction

whatsoever. "The rules…"

"I won't tell anyone if you won't." Harry said and went back to

nibbling on her neck. His hand slid upwards across her stomach to

fondle a breast through her robe.

"But…" She tried again, for no other purpose than to appease the

fading voice of reason. The libido was firmly in the lead and leaving

reason in the dust.

"Fuck the rules." Harry growled and stood up, taking the professor

with him. The chairs went clattering backwards and a negligent wave

of his hand had the clutter on the desk following suit.

As she was pushed to bend over the desk and had her robes hiked

up, Septima decided that rules were overrated. Here was a strong,

handsome, powerful young man that could have any number of

women but wanted an old woman like her and his assertive

approach was much more appealing than rules. The life of a

Hogwarts teacher could get very lonely what with living in the castle

all the time and having only the holidays to dedicate to one's

personal life. Not to mention that she had always been the

quintessential Ravenclaw bookworm with poor social skills.

There had been other students that she had found attractive but had

never worked up the nerve to act on it even in their last days of

schooling when she could have gotten away with it. Having Harry

take the decision out of her hands suited her just fine.

Harry noticed her acceptance of the situation and smiled in

anticipation as he pulled down her panties. Her lower lips were

already glistening wetly and he didn't hesitate to lean in and run his

tongue across them. Her gasp encouraged him further and he was

soon licking her vigourously. With her bent over the desk and him

squatting behind her, his tongue couldn't quite reach her clitoris, so

he applied his fingers to it. There was a particular spell he had

developed during his time with Dora that had always proven to be a

big hit with the sexy Metamorphmagus and he intended to make full

use of it here as well.

Septima was perfectly happy to let him do whatever he wanted while

she lay on the desk and enjoyed herself. A quiet whine of

disappointment left her throat when his tongue and fingers retreated

from her tingling groin, but the sound of a clinking belt buckle put an

end to that. The realization that her fourteen-year-old student's

member was in all likelihood being pointed at her dripping fanny at

this very moment saw reason make a last ditch attempt to get her to

protest, but it was quickly silenced when she felt the head of it being

rubbed against her labia. No, the time for protesting was long past.

She felt herself being penetrated a moment later and couldn't hold

back a gasp of pleasure as the large male member slowly slid into

her, filling and stretching something that hadn't seen use in far too

many years to think about. Her legs shook from the sensations

wracking her body once he was sheathed all the way inside her.

Harry waited like that for a few more seconds, hiking her robes up

even further over her rump so that he could grab hold of her thighs

without it trying to slide back down. The spell he had placed over her

clitoris that forged a sensation link between it and his member had

turned out a bit too effective. He could tell that she was very close to

orgasming already.

When she wiggled against him impatiently he knew that delaying any

longer was not an option though. Screw it, so they wouldn't reach

climax at the same time. He planned for both of them to have plenty

anyway, so it was all good.

A ragged cry of pleasure escaped her throat as he pulled out almost

completely and then hilted himself back into her. Her groin felt it was

on fire and it got more intense with every thrust. By the fifth one she

was crying out loudly as a powerful orgasm wracked her body,

leaving her helpless to do anything but hold on to the desk and ride it

out.

Harry paid no heed to her climax and only sped up his thrusting, his

own lust getting the better of him. Not half a minute after her orgasm,

he was groaning as his seed spurted up her vaginal tunnel.

Sweaty and satisfied, Septime confirmed her earlier thought about

rules being overrated. Sure, she'd be in some trouble with the law if

it got out that she'd had sex with a student, but it was very had to

care about that when her legs felt like jelly and she had a handsome

young wizard panting behind her with his cock and sperm filling her.

She let out a small groan as he leaned over her to whisper into her

ear.

"Ready for round two?"

Septima's eyes widened. Round two?! What the hell did he mean

round two? She could barely move after round one.

Then he pulled out and rammed himself back in and the Arithmancy

professor belatedly realized that he hadn't gone soft and was

apparently not finished with her.

Later.

Taking deep breaths, Harry pulled out of his favorite teacher with a

groan. The sight of her shuddering backside, pubic hair matted with

sweat and sperm with streams of both running down her legs to soil

her shoes and the panties still around her ankles had him seriously

contemplating having another go at her. The refusal of his equipment

to get up again put an end to that idea though.

Instead he cast a light healing spell on Septima's groin to soothe any

aches that might be present there, followed by the ever useful

contraceptive charm. He left the mess where it was though, rather

liking the sight of what he'd done to her.

She didn't move aside from taking deep, gasping breaths as he

moved around the desk to stand in front of her. Septima was not a

particularly powerful witch, either in magic or personality and with her

soul laid bare to him her submissive bent was plainly obvious. She

had enjoyed evey moment of his control over her. That in addition to

the pretty picture of her exhausted satisfaction gave him a naughty

idea.

He threaded his fingers through her sweat soaked black hair as he

spoke. "You left quite a mess on me, Professor. You should clean it

up."

To his delight, she didn't hesitate to shift forward a bit and take his

wrung out member into her mouth, tiredly cleaning off the mess on it.

Oh yes, they would definitely be having a lot of fun together for the

next few months.

"I'll see you at our next lesson, Professor." He whispered into her ear

once she was done, grinning at the shiver that passed through her

body.

Luna was reading on the bed when Harry was finished bathing. She

looked up at him when he exited the bathroom, blinked, cocked her

head and asked a question.

"Who did you have sex with?"

"What makes you think I had sex with anyone?" Harry asked back,

bemused.

"You haven't really relaxed since you broke up with Nymphadora,

before that even, but you're relaxed now." She informed him

factually.

Too damn perceptive. Luna always managed to see right through

him.

"It was Professor Vector." If there was anyone that could be trusted

to know that it was her.

Luna's smile widened. "I'm so happy for you. I know you've wanted

to put your penis in her vagina for a long time now."

"Yes, It was very nice." Harry agreed with a nod. Not so much

because Septima had been great in bed, as the Arithmancy

professor had turned out to be surprisingly submissive and passive,

but there was something to be said for fulfilling one's naughty

teacher fantasies.

"Are you going to do it again?"

"Oh yes." The sense of power as he bent a woman nearly three

decades his senior - a woman that supposedly had authority over

him - over her own desk also had quite a bit of appeal, so there

would definitely be repeat performances.

"Good, Nymphadora wouldn't have wanted you moping over her."

With their amicable break up, Harry figured that was true. On the

other hand, if they had parted on bad terms, she would have wanted

him to get buggered by a troll. Dora had a well hidden mean streak

that didn't come out to play too often.

Septima Vector was a nervous wreck when the time came for her

next Arithmancy lesson with Harry. She half expected him to tear her

robes off and take her right there on the floor.

She was ashamed to admit to herself that she was disappointed

when he didn't and instead listened attentively as she went over the

finer points of setting up a ward properly. He was her student and

only fourteen to boot… but the way he had taken her a few days ago

and made her 'clean' him afterwards had given her a thrill like

nothing she'd ever felt before. She'd never been the type to go for

something like that, which was exactly what made it so exciting.

The hours passed with no hint of what had happened between them

and a strange feeling of loss grew inside her chest. Nothing so corny

as unrequited love, because however good Harry might look, he was

far too young for her. She was just… sad to go back to the dull

routine of her life.

Their time was nearly up when his hand gripped her leg again and

startled her.

"Why so jumpy, Professor?" He asked teasingly.

"Harry, I'm not sure we should be doing this." Septima nearly

stammered. His hand was slowly kneading her thigh and thoroughly

wrecking her composure.

"Doing what?"

"You know… sleeping together." The last was said in an

embarrassed whisper, as if afraid that someone would hear even

through the sound proof door.

"Why not?"

"Harry, I'm a teacher . I could be sacked if it got out that I'm sleeping

with a student. Besides, I'm sure there are plenty of younger girls out

there for you, you don't have to settle for an old woman." The protest

felt hollow to her ears, but she felt that she had to make it for the

sake of her job. The insecurity was real enough though.

"You're hardly old, I like to think of you as 'sexily mature'." Harry

scoffed, still sounding amused.

Septima ducked her head in embarrassment, not really believing him

but flattered nonetheless.

"As for you getting sacked… well, like I said the last time, I won't tell

anyone if you won't. I thought we could have a bit of fun since we've

got this time all to ourselves, but if you don't want to…" He trailed off

and made to leave.

Septima grabbed his hand to stop him without even thinking about it.

Damnit all, she had spent the past few days practicing how she

would firmly tell him that it could never happen again but that had all

gone out the window almost as soon as he walked through the door.

It had been so long since she'd had anything in her life except

teaching bratty and often ungrateful teenagers about Arithmancy and

correcting the mistakes in their homework, with any kind of

excitement seeming to become more distant with every year.

It was a terrible idea on paper but a naughty affair with her favorite

student would break up the monotony and it was simply too tempting

to pass up. And it wasn't as if she would be jeopardizing his

education since he clearly meant for this to happen after the lessons.

It could almost be considered a reward for his hard work really… and

for hers.

"No…" She whispered, blood rushing to her face in embarrassment.

"Please… I want to."

"That's what I thought." He said with a small smirk and pulled her out

of the chair and into his arms. His hand went under her robes and

gently cupped her pubic mound, where he discovered something

that made his eyebrows shoot towards his hairline. "You shaved. Is

that for me?"

Septima flushed even further. She had been embarrassed about how

hairy and untended her groin had been the last time and had maybe

kind of, sort of secretly been hoping that he wouldn't take no for an

answer. She could only keep her eyes fixed on her feet and nod,

face ablaze.

"I know just the way to show you how much I appreciate it…"

With his sexual equilibrium - and therefore his ability to think clearly -

restored, Harry found that there were quite a few errands that

needed to be done which he had been neglecting.

"Alright, we're here." Sirius announced as he, Penny and Harry

arrived in front of the Black Vault in Gringotts. "Why are we here?"

"I need something from the vault obviously." Harry replied dryly,

waiting as the doors slid open.

"What?" The Marauder asked.

"I'll know it when I see it."

"But you've gotta have some idea of what you're looking for?" Sirius

pressed.

"I do." Harry replied.

Sirius waited for his godson to elaborate, but he didn't.

"Alright fine, be that way. Penny, why are you here?"

"Harry wants me along to check if there's anything worth selling

down here." Penny explained.

"Ah." Sirius nodded. Who knew that his family's tacky garbage would

be worth something to eccentric muggles? It took all kinds he

supposed.

"How much have we made from that so far anyway?" Harry asked as

they moved into the vault.

"Just under two hundred thousand pounds, but we haven't sold

everything yet." She answered promptly.

"Very nice." Harry said admiringly. That was some serious money

and it was well out of the reach of the greedy fingers of the goblins. It

was currently sitting in a bank account that Penny had opened for

exactly that purpose. of course, this meant that the money was

technically completely under her control and he wouldn't be able to

do a damn thing about it if she decided to make off with it, but she

had never given him any cause to doubt her integrity. Not to mention

that he didn't think that Penny was anywhere near stupid enough to

make an enemy out of him by pulling a stunt like that. It would be

safe in her keeping until he was a legal adult in the mundane world.

It was a better solution than getting his foster parents involved at

least.

"Turns out that antique furniture kept in mint condition by spells is in

high demand." Penny replied wryly. The people at Christie's had

certainly been impressed by it. The original idea of selling it over

eBay had turned out to be unworkable because of the figures

involved, but furniture and the like was fortunately not scrutinized too

closely. Her explanation of representing a noble family that had fallen

on hard times and needed to sell things off but also wanted to

remain anonymous had been easily accepted. "I'm actually kind of

disturbed at how quickly that torture paraphelia we found in the

basement sold."

"I hope it ends up in some nutjob's BDSM playroom." Sirius

muttered.

"I should not have introduced you to the internet." Harry sighed.

"You shut your whore mouth." Sirius said with a scowl. "The internet

is a magical place."

"Uh huh." Was the disinterested reply from his godson, who was

already poking through the piles of gold and centuries worth of junk.

Penny and Sirius were left with little to do since it definitely wasn't

safe to touch anything if you didn't know what it was and only Harry

could tell whether an item was cursed or just enchanted. They

busied themselves by casting various detection spells on random

stuff, but neither were curse-breakers, so it was more to pass the

time on the off chance that they encountered something interesting.

"Huh…" Harry said to himself holding up a thin rapier and squinting

at the blade.

"Good choice, it suits your girlish figure." Sirius complimented.

"I was more interested in the spellwork on this thing…" Harry said

absently, obviously not really paying attention. "Looks like some kind

of Bloodletting Curse that prevents blood from clotting."

"Thinking about bleeding people to death?" Sirius asked.

"Nope, it was just an interesting enchantment." Not only was the

blade on the damn thing too long, but it would also be a warm day in

the eighth plane of Baator before Harry would use a weapon as

emasculating as a rapier.

"So you're looking for a dagger?" Sirius asked, seeing that Harry was

now examining a collection of shiny implements of murder.

"Pretty much."

"Why didn't you just say so when I asked the first time?" Sirius

demanded indignantly.

"Because you'd just blab it to the first pair of tits that asks." Harry

shot back mercilessly.

"Are you never going to let that go?" Sirius asked in exasperation.

You get seduced by a serial killer once and they never let you forget

it.

"No." Harry said petulantly.

"Fine!" Sirius pouted. "So why'd you need a knife?"

"Because my fight with that assassin during the second task would

have been a lot simpler if I could have simply stabbed him." Of

course, he could have also tried to conjure something to stab him

with, but conjuration was a difficult enough feat to pull off even when

someone isn't trying to kill you. And he'd also forgotten.

"See anything you like?"

"Hrrrm, maybe…" Harry answered distractedly as he peered at the

collection of knives.

A couple were ritual blades which was a big no-no. Those were

designed to channel the magic of the stabbed or cut individual and

could inadvertently have all sorts of unpredictable effects if used in

combat. Certainly not something that could be used for a casual

stabbing.

A few others looked promising though.

The wavy kris with some kind of weird animation enchantment that

looked as if it was supposed to make the blade move like a serpent

was a definite possibility, though it didn't look terribly practical. He

didn't want the blade getting away from him.

The rest had more normal straight blades of varying lengths. One

was cursed rather heavily and would turn against its wielder, another

had the same Bloodletting Curse on it as the rapier, still another

looked like it had a Rotting Curse attached to it, very Morgul Blade

that one.

"Man, Sirius. Your family was into some nasty shit." Harry said with a

shake of his head after he spied a dagger whose only purpose

seemed to be drinking in blood through the blade and squirting it out

through the eye sockets of the miniature human skull carved into the

pommel. What the fuck would you even need that for?

"I know, why'd you think me and Andi ran away? The whole damn

family was cracked."

"Andi and I." Harry corrected, knowing it would stick in his

godfather's craw.

"Grammar Nazi." Sirius grumbled, using a phrase he had learned

from his godson.

"Too bad there's no hammers in here." Harry smirked and turned

back to the daggers. "Well hello. And what are you doing under

there?"

"What?" Sirius asked, looking to see what had caught his godson's

eye.

Harry carefully removed what seemed to be an iron buckler that was

cursed to crush its user's forearm and grabbed the hilt of another

exotic knife that had been under it.

"Now this, I like." Harry said admiringly, turning over the medium

sized kukri.

"What's it do?" Sirius asked curiously.

"It's a knife Sirius, it makes people bleed when you stab or slice

them with it." Harry said snidely.

"I know that, smartass." Sirius rolled his eyes. "I mean, what is it

enchanted with?"

"Nothing." Harry chirped.

"Nothing?" Sirius repeated.

"Nothing." Harry confirmed.

"I thought you wanted a magical knife?"

"I did, but all the ones here are way over the top and could kill me,

take off a finger or even a limb if I nick myself by accident. I'll just

enchant this one by myself and be done with it. Nothing too fancy;

durability, built in summoning, nasty electric shock or burn to

unauthorised users. That kind of thing."

"That makes sense." Sirius had to admit that he hadn't thought of

that. He was just glad that his godson was being careful for once.

"Hey, Penny. You done?" Harry called over to the other side of the

vault where his steward had been doing her own thing.

"Almost." She yelled back.

"What in the name of Merlin's wrinkly nutsack is that ?" Sirius asked,

staring at a twisted black octopus looking thing that the former Head

Girl had found somewhere.

" That is an antique chandelier."

"Are you sure anyone is going to want to buy that?" Harry asked,

staring dubiously at the cast iron monstrosity. It only had a powerful

durability enchantment on it, that would be simple enough to remove,

but it also looked as if it would need an exorcism to purge the spirit

of Cthulhu from it before they could sell it.

"I've noticed a trend that the freakier something looks, the faster it

gets sold." Penny explained.

Both Harry and Sirius were still doubtful, but were later forced to put

up with her smug looks as it was sold in less than a week.

The kukri thudded into the wood, quite a bit off target. A moment

later it was pulled out and returned to Harry's hand.

He threw it again. It hit slightly closer to the target this time. It flew

back to his hand and was thrown again, landing very close to the

bull's eye this time.

"That was a good one." Luna complimented.

"More luck than skill I'm afraid." Harry said ruefully. Knife throwing

wasn't something you picked up in a day. At least the enchantments

on it prevented it from hitting hilt first though. "How are you doing?"

He was trying to teach Luna the basics of wandless magic, with

limited results so far. He had some trouble figuring out where to start.

"Not good." She pouted. "I just can't get it to move."

"Show me." Harry ordered.

Luna nodded and sat down to stare at the quill she had on the table

in front of her. A look of concentration came over her as she tried to

make it budge, but it remained stubbornly still.

"See? It's not working."

"You're just trying to will it to move." Harry diagnosed.

Luna cocked her head at him quizzically, obviously asking what else

she was supposed to do.

Harry scratched at his chin as he tried to find a way to explain things

to his friend.

"Will is good, it's a start and might do something if you're desperate

enough, but it'll be uncontrolled and unreliable. You have to make a

sort of… mental construct of what you want to happen. I'm sorry, this

isn't really helping you, is it?" He sighed.

"Not really." Luna admitted bluntly.

Harry chuckled at her directness, but was inwardly stumped at how

to convey his meaning to her. Without an ability to feel magic, all his

explanations were just so much hot air.

"Show me one again and walk me through it." She said, looking at

him expectantly.

"Alright." He nodded.

Bringing his hands together and focusing on the spell to manifest

between them, he began talking her through the process. "First, you

need to know what you want to do. The spell I'm casting right now is

called Darkness, an Evocation of the Second Circle. It will create a

sphere of supernatural shadow that no light can pierce. In order to

create it, I have to specify its radius and point of origin or else it

would just fizzle out and do nothing. I also need to have a good

understanding of the concept of completely lightless dark before I

can cast it. I spent over three hours sitting in the Room of

Requirement sealed off from every source of light before I managed

it. This mental construct of what you want to happen is essentially

what a spell is before you put any magic into it. Of course, just willing

the world to darken won't do anything. That's where the magic

comes in, you have to infuse it into the spell so that you can then

superimpose it over physical reality."

With his explanation finished, he cast the spell and the room went

pitch black. Harry felt Luna nervously groping for his hand and

dismissed it.

"Just throwing magic behind your willpower is more like controlled

Accidental Magic." He went on with his explanation, neglecting to

mention that he had spent years doing just that or that he still did it

when he didn't have time to think. "Accidental Magic… well, it's like

throwing a tantrum and having the Universe give in because it

doesn't want to listen to your shit anymore. That's why it generally

only happens to children or people under extreme emotional duress.

It tends to be wild and unpredictable and controlling it is very hard. It

will also give you a splitting headache more commonly known as

magical exhaustion because you're essentially trying to bully the

natural order of the world into submission instead of creating a

temporary localized state of altered reality. To summon the quill, all

you need to do is imagine a tether connecting it to your hand and

triggering it. Remember that the tether itself is not like a rope, but

more of a pathway of your own personal reality where the laws of

physics do not exist, the only law that exists is that the quill must

come to your hand."

Luna nodded thoughtfully and refocused on the quill. Five minutes

later it still hadn't budged.

"You're still trying to move it with your will instead of your magic."

Harry told her.

"But how am I supposed to use my magic without my wand? I can't

feel it." Luna said plaintively.

"A wand is just a focus, a tool that allows you to draw on your magic

without needing to really work for it. It is also a crutch that makes

your thinking rigid and inflexible if you allow yourself to believe that

it's necessary. With how refined they've become and all this wand

motion shite that is being peddled these days, people barely need to

think in order to cast spells. Overreliance on wands has made

wizards dull, stupid and lazy." He lectured sternly.

Luna's face took on the look of a kicked puppy at the frustration that

had leaked into his tone towards the end and he rushed to reassure

her.

"Sorry, that wasn't aimed at you." He apologized, distantly aware that

she had him wrapped around her little finger. "Look, how about we

try something else. You form the spell and I'll try to pour magic into

it."

"Okay." Luna chirped, happy again. She refocused on the quill and

imaged a zig-zaggy path that the quill was supposed to take as it

flew towards her hand while Harry settled himself behind her.

"Do you have it? Remember to keep in mind the rule, the quill must

come to your hand. There is no gravity to hold it down or air

resistance to hold it back, there is only your hand and the quill."

Harry whispered into her ear, his chest pressed into her back.

She nodded, never taking her eyes off the piece of stationery.

Harry slowly overlaid his magic on her's, being careful to not think of

summoning the quill. Nothing happened, so he continued to extend

his magic deeper into her, well past the point where any normal

person would have instinctively shut him out.

Luna relaxed against him.

"Keep your focus." He warned, making her jerk a bit as she realized

that her concentration had slipped at the sudden wash of comfort.

She re-established the zig-zaggy path that she wanted the quill to

follow.

A few minutes later, the quill shivered and zipped into Luna's hand in

a zig-zag pattern.

"I felt that!" She exclaimed happily.

"That's great, well done." Harry complimented.

"Maybe I'll be able to do the spell myself now." She beamed happily.

"Maybe, I want you to practice tomorrow while I take care of a few

errands."

"What kind of errands?"

"Mostly just inviting extra people along for our summer holiday."

"Isn't it rude to invite people to Fleur's home without asking her first?"

"I've decided not to take her up on that, not yet anyway. Besides,

she's in her final year in Beauxbatons and we're leaving Hogwarts

once this tournament is finished, so nothing is stopping us from

going to France after we get back from the Caribbean."

"Okay."

"Harry, I wasn't expecting you." Penny said in surprise when she saw

him walk into the living room at Potter Manor.

"Of course not, I didn't tell you I'd be coming." He quipped.

She rolled her eyes at the lame attempt at humor and decided to get

to the point. "So, what's up?"

"Three things. First, I need the address where Bryanna and Tiana

are currently living." He'd never bothered to ask about that before.

"Planning to pay them a visit?" Penny asked as she wrote it down for

him.

"Sort of." He shrugged. "Next, do you still have that list of businesses

that are qualified to work with basilisk hide?"

"Of course, it's in my office." She answered, getting slightly confused

now.

"Good, I'll probably need that someday soon. Finally, would you like

to join Sirius, Luna and me on that private island that he keeps

boasting about?"

"I'd love to, Harry, but I already promised my parents that I'd go with

them." Penny said regretfully.

"You could invite them to the island instead." Harry shrugged. "I

doubt we'll be short on space and I was planning on inviting the girls

too in any case. Just don't tell them where the island is, I want to

keep that a secret."

Penny's eyes widened at the offer and she quickly accepted. She

already knew that her parents would jump on the offer. A free

vacation on a private island in the Caribbean would certainly appeal

to them a lot more than having to pay quite a lot to go somewhere in

Britain, though the secrecy Harry wanted would take some

convincing.

I'd never have expected them to be living in a place like this. Harry

thought to himself as he walked at a leisurely pace through the town

of Arundel in the South Downs of West Sussex, a name that

sounded naggingly familiar for some reason. He let it go after ten

minutes of fruitlessly trying to recall where he had heard the name

before.

Bryanna and Tiana had always struck him as being more of a city-girl

sort, so this quaint little place was a bit of a surprise. Still, it may not

have been their first choice to live here since Penny had told him that

any purchases of real estate had to be done through the Ministry of

Magic because they had a list of places where wizards and witches

could settle, the controlling bastards. Arundel was only forty-nine

miles away from London, so maybe they'd just picked the closest

place.

It was a nice looking house they were in though. Located on the

outskirts and comfortably big without being overly lavish. The relative

remoteness of it probably spawned all sorts of rumors about what

four young women might be getting up to, having no apparent jobs

and living all by themselves. Come to think of it, seeing a single man

going into the house was probably not going to douse those rumors

any.

To his mild shock, the house actually seemed to have electrical

wiring if the doorbell was any indication. Apparently there were a few

people in the Ministry that were actually capable of subtlety.

Amazing, he'd been ready to believe that it was staffed almost

entirely by inbred morons with drool dribbling from their chins.

"Coming!" Came the muffled yell from inside as he rang the bell.

"Harry?" Bryanna asked in near disbelief, clearly having not

expected to see him. Her hair was a bit longer than he remembered

it being and she was dressed in a perfectly ordinary hoodie and

sweatpants combo. The casual look rather suited her actually.

"Hi." Harry said with a smile. "Mind if I come in?"

"Please." She smiled back and waved him in, taking a surreptitious

look outside as she closed the door.

"Problem?" He asked, amused by her behavior.

"Not really." She replied, sounding a bit annoyed nonetheless.

"Someone's been spreading weird rumors about us."

"Depraved lesbian group sex?" Harry guessed, biting his lip.

"You only just got here! How can you know about that already?"

Bryanna demanded.

"I had a trio of grannies craning their necks after me so much I half

expected them to topple from the terrace they were on." Harry

explained, trying not to laugh. "I'm sorry, but I think you might

become known as some kind of exclusive sex club before five o'

clock."

"That's not funny, you arse." She huffed and slapped his arm.

"I could put an Aversion Ward on the house. It would make people

think you were the most boring thing this town has seen since paint

drying." He offered. That was the easiest ward of all to cast, not even

requiring an anchor. It also wouldn't cause enough interference to

mess up the electrical wiring of the house.

"Tone it down to just 'not worth spreading rumors about' and it would

be perfect." She said with a relieved sigh. "We tried to do it ourselves

but we're crap at those and accidentally ended up making it so

powerful that people kept getting stuck in conversation loops about

whether the house was always there or not and forgetting that we

lived in it. But do tell what you're here for first, I get the feeling it isn't

a social call."

"It's not." Harry confirmed. "I come bearing a request and an offer."

"Well color me interested." Bryana said flirtatiously. "Come on down

to the basement, that's where we've got our workshop."

The stairs down were hidden behind a heavy oak door that was

spelled up to the gills with Aversion Charms, both magical and

muggle. The basement itself was much larger than the house above

it, having dimensions more suitable for a warehouse. It was well lit

however, with a set of skylights that illuminated it with faux sunlight.

He could tell that it wasn't real sunlight, but it was a pretty good

imitation. A specially modified Lumos if he wasn't mistaken.

"Very nice." Harry complimented as she led him through the halffilled space.

"Glad you like it. The skylights cost us almost as much as the space

expansion, but it's made it less gloomy down here."

"You're making some interesting stuff." He noted, looking at a rather

provocative corset.

"That one is a bit of a pet project of mine." She admitted sheepishly.

"I've always liked what corsets do to a girl's figure, but the damn

things tend to be either too loose or too tight. I'm trying to see if

magic can turn them into something that will stay put but isn't a

torture device at the same time."

Harry reached out to touch it and the laces in the back tightened so

hard that he could hear the plastic mannequin it was sitting on

cracking.

"Self-lacing charm." Bryanna explained lamely. "It's a work in

progress."

"Maybe you'll model it for me one day." Harry suggested with a small

grin.

"Maybe I will." She flirted.

"Bry, is that you?" Another familiar female voice yelled from in the

distance.

"Yeah, it's me." Bryanna hollered back. "And guess what? Harry

came to visit us."

Tiana walked into view, also looking far more casual than Harry had

ever seen her with her brown curls in a sloppy ponytail.

"Harry, do what do we owe the pleasure?" She purred in greeting.

"I have a request and an offer for you girls." He repeated and then

frowned. "But the other two should be here for this too. Where are

they?"

"On dates actually. Isabel is still together with her Hogwarts

sweetheart and Jade got suckered into going out with one of the

local boys." Tiana explained.

"Probably hoping to get invited to the 'orgies'." Bryanna muttered

sarcastically.

"And they left you two all alone?" He asked mournfully, secretly

probing to see if his own meddling with their souls was to blame. "No

dates for the prettier half of the group?"

Bryanna and Tiana laughed, obviously delighted by the compliment.

"We work in shifts and they just happen to have this time off. And no,

no dates for us. There just hasn't been anyone interesting enough to

catch our attention, not that we've had time to look in the first place."

"And we have each other if we get frisky." Tiana added salaciously.

"But you know that you're welcome to join us anytime, don't you,

Harry?"

"That might actually be relevant for my offer." He admitted.

Their eyebrows shot towards their hairlines and they leaned in with

great interest. "Do tell."

"The request first." Harry said. "Penny tells me that you've been

dabbling with an attempt to make a sort of robe that can pass as

muggle wear at need. I want you to design something like that for me

made out of basilisk hide."

Bryanna and Tiana leaned back with stunned expressions. "Harry,

we appreciate the vote of confidence but we're not qualified to work

with basilisk hide! We'd just ruin it."

"I know, that's why I only want you to design it. I've looked over at the

designs the various hide workers are offering and wasn't impressed.

Basilisk hide is so rare that nobody has had any to work with in

centuries and dragon hide behaves more like bloody iron plates than

leather. They just don't have what I'm looking for, which is why I want

you to sketch out a robe that could pass as a long coat but that can

be closed by something more than buttons when I need it to act as

armor."

"Alright, that we can do." They nodded thoughtfully and quickly

developed identical devious grins. "You know what that means,

Harry?"

"What?" He asked with mild apprehension.

"It means we need to get your measurements, so strip down to your

undies and stand on that pedestal over there."

Harry strongly suspected that they didn't need him to be near naked

to measure him for an outer garment like that. In fact, he strongly

suspected that they didn't need to measure him at all since they

wouldn't be the ones making the final product, but he went along

with it anyway. Getting goosed for a while by two beautiful women

really wasn't such a terrible thing.

"Oh my, Tonks sure is a lucky girl." Tiana muttered, taking in the

changes to Harry since the last time she'd seen him naked. He had

grown up quite a bit during their final year in Hogwarts, but the past

few months had seen him move out of the stage of gangly

teenagerhood and into the territory of yummy adult maleness. If he'd

looked like this when the plan to seduce him had been hatched, they

would've been fighting to jump into bed with him instead of using it

as a last resort.

To their surprise, Harry sighed. "It didn't work out between me and

Tonks I'm afraid."

"We're sorry to hear that." Bryanna said sympathetically, inwardly

already plotting the best way to get him into bed. She and Tiana had

a good arrangement going between them and toys could make up

for the lack of male sex organs to a considerable extent with magic

involved, but that line of hair leading to a tented pair of boxers was

looking simply delicious.

"It happens." He shrugged philosophically. "Serves me right for

declaring that I want to stay single and then jumping into a serious

relationship right afterwards."

"What went wrong?" Tiana asked, writing down values as the

enchanted tape measure hovered in the air over his right leg.

"Nothing specific, we just drifted apart." Harry lied.

"Why don't you tell us about this offer you had for us?" Bryanna

suggested.

"Sirius' family apparently swiped a whole island for themselves a few

hundred years back and we're going to spend at least part of the

summer on it. Aside from me, Sirius and Luna, Penny and her folks

are also going to be there and I figured that the four of you might

enjoy a vacation on a tropical island." He explained, mood picking up

quickly.

"A tropical island?" They nearly squeaked, the task of measuring him

forgotten for the moment. "Where is this island?"

"That's a secret." He teased.

"Harry!" They whined in protest.

"Seriously though, it really is a secret. I'd be willing to let Isabel bring

that boyfriend of hers, but Jade's muggle boytoy is out of the

question. We'd get there by portkey and you wouldn't be allowed to

go too far away from the island, but other than that it would be weeks

or even a whole month of sun, sand and sea with house elf service

included."

Harry frowned at the end of his explanation and looked at the mess

around him thoughtfully. "Speaking of house elves, would you like to

borrow mine? I've wanted to do something nice for them for a while

and the only thing they ever seem to want is more work, so it would

be perfect for everybody."

Both girls had just been thinking that the secrecy was a small price

to pay in exchange for vacationing on a tropical island with Harry

while being pampered by his house elves, but then he just had to

offer to remove all need for cleaning and cooking from their home.

Tiana snapped the tape measure together with a note of finality. "I'm

sorry if you were hoping to be done with this quickly, Harry, but

you're not. Drop the underwear."

Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrow, seeing Bryanna nodding

in agreement out of the corner of his eye. There was really only one

thing to say to that.

"Well if you insist…"

Meanwhile in Hogwarts…

Fleur was a bit bemused as she was led by the hand towards Harry's

personal quarters by Luna.

Harry had pulled another one of his disappearing acts today. She'd

been keeping an eye out for him and hadn't seen hide nor hair of

him. Even Luna had been notably absent all the way until lunch.

She was well aware that the rumor mill was of the opinion that the

two of them were having sex and took these disappearances as

'proof', but Fleur knew better. Those two wouldn't be getting sticky

together until the promise Luna made to her deceased father

expired. She personally thought that it was stupid of the man to

impose his worries on the girl, especially with the sort of liberal

relationship he'd had with his wife, but would never say it out loud. It

was rude to speak ill of the dead.

Still, even if Harry wasn't having sex with the quirky blond, he was

cleary doing it with someone . The way that the tension was

suddenly absent from him was proof enough of that. The problem

was that this someone wasn't her and that seriously burned the

veela's pride. She'd all but thrown her panties at him and then he

went to someone else. Most men would kill to get this kind of

attention from her, but no, not Harry Potter. If she wasn't sure that he

would eventually be worth all this bother she would've written him off

as either gay or stupid already.

She also had the feeling that he had been avoiding her lately and

she didn't know why, but she was determined to get to the bottom of

it.

Of course, that would require actually finding him, which had proved

problematic. But Luna had showed up to eat lunch in the Great Hall

and Fleur hadn't wasted any time in asking the smaller blonde for a

private conversation, which was how she found herself being led by

the hand.

When they finally reached the room on the sixth floor, it was not what

Fleur expected. People tended to imprint their personality into their

living space over time by means of various decorations or the clutter

they left lying around. There were a few hints of Luna lying around,

but it was otherwise completely bare. No artwork, no tapestries, no

knick-knacks… even the bookshelves and desk were empty. It

looked like Harry was living out of his luggage.

"What did you want to talk about?" Luna asked as she plopped

herself on the bed, which was one of the few splashes of color in the

room.

"'Arry." Fleur said directly, also sitting down on the bed. "Why 'as 'e

been avoiding me?"

"Oh, I expect that he probably doesn't know what to do about you

now that he's single and having sex with women other than

Nymphadora again."

That was easy.

"Zey 'ave broken up zen?" She asked just to be sure.

"Oh yes, it was terribly sad." Luna replied. "Nymphadora can't bring

herself to relax now that she knows about the Joining and Harry isn't

putting up a fight because he feels responsible. Both of them are

being dummies about it."

While Fleur was glad for Luna's refreshingly unconcerned attitude

towards the Joining, she knew that this Nymphadora's response was

positively tame compared to how most people would react in a

similar situation.

"But why didn't 'e…" Fleur trailed off, realizing how pathetic it would

sound to finish that sentence.

"Why didn't he come to you?" Luna finished it for her anyway, getting

a stiff nod from the veela. "I don't know. You'd have to ask him that."

"I would if only 'e would stop avoiding me." Fleur groused.

"You can wait for him here." Luna offered. "He should've been back

already, but I guess he ended up having sex with Bryanna and

Tiana."

"…'Oo?" Fleur asked blankly, wondering if there were yet more

women to compete against.

"Two business partners with nice boobies. Harry used to play with

them at least once a week last year."

Fleur really wasn't sure what to say to that, but at least it sounded as

if this was just casual sex and not a relationship. "I will wait for 'im

'ere zen. Merci ."

"You're welcome."

There were a few moments of silence… well not really silence

because Luna was humming something, but there was no talking.

Then it was broken.

"Oh, I just had an idea!" Luna exclaimed. "Do you want to paint each

other's toenails? I heard that girlfriends do that for each other and I'm

sure it applies to harem buddies too."

"But we are not in a 'arem togezzer." Fleur felt compelled to point

out.

"But you want us to be and I want us to be, which only leaves Harry

and he's much too sensitive about his masculinity to get his toenails

painted." Luna counter argued.

The warped logic was strangely persuasive even if the moon brained

girl hadn't gotten it 100% correct. Fleur did not, strictly speaking,

want Luna in a harem with her, but she was quite sure that

attempting to separate her from Harry could only end in tears(and

possibly blood considering the events of the second task), probably

her own, so she had accepted that Luna was there to stay.

The fact that she genuinely liked her and hadn't had a proper

girlfriend for years also played some small part in shaping Fleur's

answer.

"Let me just 'op over to the Beauxbatons carriages, you British don't

know 'ow to make proper nail polish."

After extricating himself from the clutches of two lusty females and

making use of their shower, Harry had decided to fly to London in his

raven form and spend some time in an internet café catching up to

stuff that he had missed in the normal world over the past couple of

months. Magic was great and he wouldn't trade it for anything, but

he did miss technology sometimes. Not being especially politically

inclined, he ended up spending most of his time reading about the

recently video games that he was probably never going to get

around to playing. It was hard to get excited about the newest

fantasy game when you could throw your own fireballs. Or if the

bloated cancerous mass known as Electronic Arts had reached out

from the Pit of Inescapable Mediocrity with its slimy tentacles and

used them to repeatedly violate any good idea that wandered into

reach until said good idea was left more abused and ruined than a

top of the line sex doll shared between fifteen people.

By the time that he got back to Hogwarts, the sun was already

setting and he was eager to see if Luna had been able to repeat the

feat of wandless summoning that they had done together yesterday.

The sight that greeted him upon opening the door to his room had

him staring in pure bemusement.

"Hello, Harry."

" Bonjour. "

Luna and Fleur were sitting together on the bed, apparently having

been deep in conversation before his arrival.

"Did I miss something?" He asked, still quite baffled.

"Fleur and I are having a girls day." Luna volunteered happily. "We

painted each others nails. Look!"

She extended her legs to present her toenails to Harry, which were

now a pale pink that went well with her blonde hair and complexion.

"Nice?" Harry guessed, knowing nothing about nail painting.

"Show him yours, Fleur." Luna urged.

The veela looked reluctant to Harry's gaze, but she did it anyway. He

had to bite his lip when he saw what Luna had done to the poor

veela's toenails. They looked like something that you might see while

on a psychedelic acid trip.

"Fabulous." He said, still trying not to laugh.

Fleur ignored his obvious amusement by adopting a dignified air of

low level snobbery.

"That's what I told her, but Fleur keeps insisting that less is more,

which really makes no sense." Luna said with a nod.

"We can't all be as wise as you, Luna." Harry said agreeably. This

day was turning out to be friggin' amazing.

"Hmmm, you'll have to explain what wisdom has to do with toenails

later, Harry. I'll go play with myself in the Room of Requirement while

you and Fleur talk." And with that she put on her shoes and left.

Harry wasn't sure if Luna's words were meant to be as dirty as they

sounded and figured that he probably never would. She had such a

mastery of ambiguous statements that you couldn't even tell if she

was doing it on purpose or not.

He sat down on the bed next to the veela and prompted her when

she didn't speak up right away. "You wanted to talk?"

Fleur had been trying to get Harry into a situation with a bed involved

for months, had flirted constantly and waited patiently for him to

become available. Now that it had happened though, she wasn't

sure how to proceed. Indignantly demanding why he had spurned

her attention didn't seem like a good idea.

She settled on simplicity. "I did."

"About?" Harry prompted again.

"You 'ave been avoiding me." Fleur stated neutrally. "Why?"

Harry sighed and got off the bed again, beginning to pace. "What

exactly is it you want from me, Fleur?"

The veela was somewhat taken aback by the directness of the

question and answered with a question of her own. "Eez eet not

obvious?"

"Heh, I suppose it is." Harry chuckled humorlessly. "Your signals

have been pretty clear and I doubt you would've kept at it this long if

you were looking to just fuck and forget, if you'll pardon my French."

She briefly glared at him for the dig at her country and language but

decided that there were more important things to talk about. "Am I

not good enough for you?"

"Please refrain from pulling that passive-aggressive bullshit on me."

Harry said mildly. His foster parents were masters of the art and he'd

had to put up with it for years. He was rather looking forward to

telling them that their association was finished for good once the

summer began. He certainly wasn't going to put up with it from his

friends. "And no, it has nothing to do with you not being good

enough."

Fleur's lips had become a thin, irritated line at his rebuke but she

didn't say anything back. She hadn't meant for that to come out like it

did. Veela were somewhat naturally predisposed towards passiveaggression as it almost always got males falling over themselves to

please them. There was nothing magical about it, just a pure

feminine power trip.

It was unfortunate that the habits learned over years of being an

object of worship for most men worked against her here.

Not wanting to feel like a scolded child in front of an annoyed parent,

she got up from the bed as well and stepped in front of him. "Why

did you ignore me zen?"

"I just got out of a relationship, Fleur." Harry explained. "I'm not

looking to jump back into one."

That was a possibility she had taken into account, but she was sure

she could convince him to change his mind. Resistant to the Allure

or not, she had never heard of a man sharing a veela's bed and not

wanting to come back.

"I understand, 'Arry." Fleur said softly, stepping so far into his

personal space that she was practically breathing against his lips.

"But could you 'elp me take care of my needs at least?"

"I would love to…" Harry said back equally softly, their lips almost

touching. Then he took a step back. "Unfortunately, I've spent the

whole day goofing off and I need to get some training done."

"What?" Fleur asked, numb with disbelief.

"I have people out to kill me, I can't afford to skimp out on training."

He explained. It was one of the main reasons that he still hadn't

fucked any of the bolder fangirls, it would wreck his schedule. The

other reason was that teenaged girls were prone to thinking that sex

equaled a relationship. That was one bit of drama he simply did not

need, not when he had a young middle aged woman bored with her

life to vent his lust on.

"But…" Fleur still could not believe that she had just been so

casually rejected. That simply did not happen.

Harry saw that her state of mind was poised to shift towards anger at

any moment and thought it best to cut her off before she could build

any steam. To that end he placed his hands on her shoulders and

spoke earnestly. "Look, Fleur. You are a beautiful, vibrant and

interesting woman. A mite quick to have your pride wounded and

with far too high an opinion of anything French, but I would have

been all over you since day one if the situation had been different.

But things are not different. It's barely been over a week since I

stopped moping about the relationship I stupidly ruined, a

relationship with a woman that I liked a lot. Normally that wouldn't

stop me from shagging you into next week if you made an offer like

that, but I actually count you as a friend, one of very few that I have.

It's for that reason that I'm asking you to think carefully before

making the same offer again. Next time, I will accept it, but it won't

be the relationship you're obviously hoping for. And don't think that

your veela charms will work either, I'm pretty sure they won't. Now,

I'm going to get some training done with Luna. You are welcome to

join us if you want."

Fleur stood there like a stump as he collected a few items and left

the room, her mind chewing over what he'd just said and not at all

sure how to feel about it. She was still stung from the rejection, but

also touched to be openly called a friend, not having many herself.

Annoyed at his presumption that the offer would come again, but

also challenged by his claim that her veela charms wouldn't work.

About the only thing she wasn't conflicted about was the offer of

joining in on his training, so she quickly put her shoes on and

followed him.

Harry was surprised at how little time it took before Penny told him

that Bryanna had contacted her to say that they were done with the

request he'd given them. He'd expected a couple of weeks at least,

but they were finished in days.

They were happy to explain why it was done so quickly though.

"Turning a robe into a muggle looking coat really isn't that hard. All

you have to do is open it at the front and make the sleeves smaller.

The problem is rooted almost entirely in two things, fashion and

tradition. The British fashion for robes are colorful fabrics and

decorations, while the muggle one is simple, usually dark colors. The

tradition of wearing only underwear beneath robes is the other issue.

We'd be hard pressed to convince tradition minded wizards and

witches that they should start treating their robes as the outermost

layer of clothing rather than the only layer."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. He could definitely see that. Dumbledore

in a baby blue 'coat' with yellow starts shooting across it and nothing

under it except for a piece of baggy underwear from two hundred

years ago was an image that didn't bear consideration.

"What you asked for is easy in comparison. The basilisk hide is a

dark enough color that it wouldn't noticeably stand out from a muggle

long coat and you're obviously comfortable wearing muggle clothes.

The only problem you might have is some over enthusiastic animal

rights activist thinking that it's made from snake or crocodile skin."

"But it will be made from snake skin." Harry pointed out humorously.

"I doubt even the most die hard activist would fight for the rights of

what is essentially a magical weapon of mass destruction." Bryanna

said dryly.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Harry muttered to himself cynically. "What

about closing it when I need it to act as armor?"

"Well like you said, buttons wouldn't work since a lucky spell could

blast them off even if it wouldn't do a thing to the hide itself and

Sticking Charms are out of the question because of the magic

resistance. That's when we got the idea to line the inside with

acromantula silk."

Harry could see that they were excited about that, but he was just

confused. "I'm sorry, but I don't follow. How would that help?"

Tiana seemed to have been waiting for that, as she slapped a

rectangular piece of fabric that looked quite magical to his eyes on

the table immediately after he was done speaking. "Cut it."

Curious, he dragged a finger over the fabric, holding a small magical

edge at the point of the digit. The silk parted easily and he turned to

look at them, eyebrow raised questioningly.

The girls stared at him with jaws hanging in shock. Oh right, they

hadn't known he could do wandless magic.

"You can do wandless magic?" Bryanna stuttered on cue.

"Yes. Keep that to yourselves for now, will you? I'm planning to make

a big spectacle of that ability sometime in the near future." All the

better to frighten people into not getting any stupid ideas. "Now

what's so special about this silk?"

The familiar territory snapped them out of their shock and they got

their focus back. Tiana grabbed the two pieces and held them

closely together. "Observe."

Harry observed and his eyebrows climbed upwards when he saw the

two pieces of silk slowly merging back into one.

"Tailor it properly, and you can have an inner lining of acromantula

silk that will knit itself together and seamlessly close the coat on

demand. Getting it to open again would be a bit trickier, but we know

that it can be done. Acromantula silk is very expensive though,

otherwise we would've tried working with it ourselves."

"Good thing I'm rich." He said sardonically. "Can this stuff be

enchanted with space expansion charms?"

"Sure, what did you have in mind?"

"Well you can never go wrong with pockets, but I was thinking of

having a hood sewed in to protect my head too."

"No problem."

"Okay, great. That takes care of my upper body, but what about my

legs? I don't want to lose too much mobility."

"Two ways. Either you get a basilisk hide strap that can be tied at the

waist, which will make sure your legs are covered by the coat most

of the time, or you get a pair of pants made of basilisk hide too."

Harry looked between the smiling women suspiciously. Something

about that last part didn't sound right… "Are you two trying to get me

to squeeze my arse into a pair of tight leather pants?"

"Well it is a nice arse. You've been taking good care of it and you

shouldn't be afraid to show it off."

"Yeah, how about no. I'll stick to the first option."

"Aw."

"And since we're on the topic of arses, could you girls provide me

with a dozen or so thongs, with matching bras if possible?" Septima

really needed some new undergarments. Or to be more accurate,

she would need them after he Vanished all of her frumpy granny

panties.

"Harry, we had no idea you were into that kind of thing." Tiana purred

sexily.

"What can I say? I like a breeze across my cheeks." He retorted

sarcastically.

"We could give you what you want of course, but I'm afraid you'll

have to pay for it." Bryanna chimed in officiously.

Harry got the distinct impression that they weren't asking for gold.

"This situation seems kind of familiar."

"Turnabout is fair play."

Fred and George Weasley had been dithering over a decision for

several months now. Namely the decision of whether or not they

should take the offer that Harry had presented them with.

The joke shop idea was their baby and they really didn't want to

share ownership, but the simple fact of the matter was that they

needed a large infusion of money if they were ever going to progress

past owl order sales.

Their winnings from the bet they made with Bagman at the World

Cup would have sufficed to make a start of it, but they had learned

the hard way why it was a bad idea to make bets with people you

didn't know. Being paid to pull pranks on Draco Malfoy had seen

them recover their savings and then some, but it wasn't nearly

enough for what they wanted.

The Tri-Wizard Tournament had offered another possibility of getting

their hands on some quick money, but it had picked Harry.

Their younger brother frequently grumbled jealously whenever Harry

Potter was mentioned in his presence and cast aspersions on his

character, but anyone with a brain could see that the youngest male

Weasley was simply jealous of the fact that Harry was apparently

able to do whatever he wanted with impunity. Fred and George were

a little jealous themselves to tell the truth, but unlike Ron were able

to see that Harry wasn't just a gloryhound taking advantage of his

fame.

Much of their time since then had been spent in debate on the topic

of allowing Harry one third ownership of their business in exchange

for even having a proper business. April 1st had come and gone

already, marking the day that the twins were considered adults in

magical society and thus able to legally make such agreements

without parental input.

So it was that they opened their most prized possession, the

Marauder's Map, and sought out Harry Potter.

"They're at it again." Fred sighed.

"Think they'll be done soon?" George asked.

"Probably, it's Wednesday so they can't have a lot of time." Fred

replied.

The Marauder's Map may not be able to tell you what a person on

the map was doing, but it did show the position of a person's feet.

Fred and George didn't think that Harry Potter could be studying

Arithmancy with Septima Vector's feet on either side of him while up

against a wall.

They didn't really mean to stick their noses into what Harry was

doing with the Arithmancy professor in her quarters, but well… they

were teenagers and nosy about sex by default, no matter how

desperately their mother tried to keep them from growing up. It was

hardly the first time the map had shown them someone having sex at

any rate, although it was admittedly the first time it was a student

with a teacher, if Harry could even be called a student anymore with

his awe-inspiring and ongoing show of disrespect towards authority

this year.

"Looks like they're finishing up." George noted, seeing the two pairs

of footsteps separating.

"Let's go then, to battle!" Fred declared and the twins moved

stealthily into a position near the door to Harry's room on the sixth

floor.

Harry reached their position a few minutes later, once again flaunting

the school dress code with his muggle clothes as had been the norm

for him for the past few months. Truly, Fred and George envied his

immunity to the rules. The things they could do if they were too

famous to be expelled. That was possibly the only thing that Ron had

gotten right about him.

"Harry, old boy."

"Old buddy."

"Old friend."

"Old chum."

"Fred. George." Harry greeted with an amused smile, correctly

identifying each twin. It had taken quite a while to pin down which

was which, but he'd never mistake them again now that he had. The

auras did not lie. "What can I do you for?"

That was perhaps an unfortunate choice of words given who the

twins knew he had been doing mere minutes ago, but they powered

through it gamely. "We need to have a private word with you about a

certain thing we talked about back in October."

Harry's eyes narrowed minutely. There was something a bit… off

about the twins' behavior, but he couldn't tell what. They had the air

of being slightly uncomfortable. Well no matter, the fact that they had

finally decided to get back to him about the offer he'd made them

was more important. "Good, I was starting to think you two had

forgotten about that. We can talk in my room." Luna was still in

Transfiguration right now, so they'd have it all to themselves.

He opened the door and let the twins in, plopping himself into an

armchair after waving them to take a seat.

"So, you've made a decision?"

"We have." They confirmed. "We'd like to take you up on it, but first

we want to know the specifics."

"It's all very simple really. I loan you a sum of money with no interest

attached to it, maintaining majority ownership until you pay me back.

Once that happens, my share of the business decreases to a third

with a proportional amount of your profit going to my vault. You

should contact Penny for further details."

"That sounds reasonable." Fred and George admitted. They were

well aware that Harry was being exceedingly generous by not

charging any interest for his loan. "How much gold would you be

willing to give us?"

"How much do you need?" Harry countered. "And feel free to quote

me a number higher than what you actually think you'll need. It won't

cost you any more in the long run.

The twins exchanged glances. "A thousand galleons should do for a

start. There's only so much work that the two of us can do in a given

timeframe after all. We may need more by the end of next year

though."

"Alright then, so we have a deal?" Harry asked, getting up and

extending his hand.

"We have a deal." The twin grinned widely, extending a hand each.

Seeing the dilemma, Harry used his left hand to shake with the other

twin.

After that series of events life settled into a routine where nothing of

real note happened for a little while. Harry continued to train with

Luna every day and was becoming steadily more confident in his

combat ability, as well as advancing his own magical abilities. Luna

herself did not make as much progress as Harry had hoped in the

subject of wandless magic. She simply hadn't managed that

breakthrough that would allow her to get a feel for her own magic,

but he was hoping it would happen eventually.

Fleur joined them frequently and provided some welcome variety to

their skill sets. She hadn't made any more offers like the one he had

rejected that day and Harry suspected that she was giving whatever

plans she'd made a careful rethink before she made any decisions.

That was good. Fleur had her flaws, the foremost of which being that

she was too used to getting what she wanted, but Harry had come to

like the prickly veela all the same. She had a drive that was sorely

lacking in most magicals which was something that he would always

respect. He was not however, going to be a prized wizard she could

claim and take home with her like some conquest from the old days.

He hoped she understood that if she decided to invite him to her bed

again, or else it was liable to spark the drama that he'd been so

meticulously(but not always successfully) avoiding ever since his first

year in Hogwarts.

About a month and a half passed since the second task when Harry

heard from Penny that the Prophet had finally published the

sentencing of Royston Welch to Azkaban, but there was no mention

of who had hired him. In fact, the entire article was the written

version of indistinct mumbling, as if the article had been written only

because the whole thing couldn't be ignored. The damned Ministry

was dicking around again.

He had waited patiently for the DMLE to finish investigating,

understanding that these things take time, plus the fact that their

prisoner had been badly injured and he had no idea how long it

would take to fix him even with magic. The length of the investigation

coupled with the dearth of information in an article that was already

buried somewhere in the depths of the newspaper made the whole

thing stink of a cover up.

That was why Harry grabbed Sirius and dragged him over to the

Ministry, intent on talking to Amelia Bones and getting the truth out of

her. He could've gone by himself, but he was still technically a minor

and he needed whatever credibility his godfather could provide, little

as that was for people who knew him.

Of course it wasn't quite as simple as striding into the woman's office

and demanding answers…

"I'm sorry, but Madam Bones is in a meeting right now and can't be

disturbed." Amelia's secretary informed him.

"How long until she's finished?" Harry asked, not wanting to look like

an idiot that came over for no reason.

"I don't know, but she really doesn't have any time to squeeze you

into her schedule." The secretary insisted.

"It won't take us more than a minute." Harry promised.

"I guess that would be alright…" The secretary said reluctantly and

Harry got the distinct impression that only the fact that he was Harry

Potter had gotten him that concession. He also got the impression

that Amelia Bones did not lightly tolerate lordlings coming to bother

her with their shit, but then he'd gotten that impression during their

first meeting as well.

"Now what?" Sirius asked.

Harry glanced in the direction of the Auror Office, wondering if Dora

was sitting at her desk right now.

"Go ahead, Harry." Sirius said, somewhere between a sigh and a

laugh. "I'll call you on the mirror when Bones is done with her

meeting."

"Go where?" Harry asked innocently.

"Don't even try it, I was doing the innocent look before you were a

gleam in James' eye while he stared at Lily during Christmas dinner

in our sixth year." The older wizard chided.

"That was oddly specific." Harry commented dryly.

Sirius ignored him and ploughed on. "I know you want to go see if

Tonks is here. Normally I'd tell you to keep at least one continent

between yourself and an ex if at all possible, but this is a special

situation."

Harry gave him another look and then strode off.

Sirius simply shook his head once his godson was gone. "This is

why you don't date your cousins. It makes family gatherings damned

awkward." Oh sure, Harry and Tonks were like five times removed on

the family tree and quite possibly not even truly related if one of

those was through an in-law, but they were still bound to run into

each other if they ever had a family gathering.

"Working hard I see." The amused voice took Tonks' attention away

from the report about some idiot enchanting a car tire to fly off after a

certain time period. Fucking Willy Widdershins. The bastard should

have been in Azkaban for reckless endangerment already, but he got

off with a warning because it happened on an empty stretch of road

instead of the freeway.

"Harry!" Tonks exclaimed in surprise, almost jumping off her chair.

"What are you doing here?"

"It's good to see you too, Dora." Harry replied, still amused.

Tonks' hair went a bright pink and her rebellious body tweaked itself

in several minor ways to be more attractive. Perkier breasts, firmer

butt, tighter waistline… it was pretty much unnoticeable under her

robes, but it had happened. Despite everything, she'd missed him.

"Of course it's good to see you, but still, what are you doing here?"

"I came to nag Madam Bones for information about that double

assassination attempt on me." Harry sighed. "It's become obvious

that the Ministry is hoping very hard that I'll just forget about it."

Tonks grimaced. She'd gotten that feeling too. She technically wasn't

supposed to talk about the case, but…"I wasn't part of that

investigation. Bonesy and Scrimgeour didn't assign anyone to it as

far as I can tell, but we were told to keep an eye out for Dolores

Umbridge, who went on a vacation to parts unknown shortly after

you hauled that Death Eater out of the lake."

Deep inside him, shackled by runes bound to the Sun and Stars,

Harry felt the distant stirring of a hunger that was old, vast and

ravenous beyond human understanding. Or maybe he had just been

hoping for an excuse to send that toad to the Void. "You think it's

related?"

"I can't say, but I can say that if Umbridge was trapped in a burning

building and Bonesy was the only one who could save her that she

would have probably misplaced her wand." That was a common

sentiment actually and hardly unique to the head of the DMLE.

"I see." Harry said thoughtfully. If Amelia Bones hated Umbridge as

much as that implied, then she wouldn't have passed up an

opportunity to bury her. He still didn't know for sure that Umbridge

was involved in one of those assassination attempts, but it was

looking likely and there was only one person in the Ministry who

could overrule the head of the DMLE. The Minister for Hire, Fudge

the Oblivious. Maybe he didn't need to speak to Bones after all. He

could just go up to Fudge's office and bully the useless idiot into

letting her do her job.

"So how've you been?" Tonks asked, switching the subject.

"Can't complain." Harry said with a shrug. "Things have been a bit

routine lately, but that's not necessarily a bad thing." It was amazing

how even boning your teacher could become a routine, though he

made sure to keep Septima on her toes.

"Speak for yourself." Tonks groused, waving her hand at a pile of

reports.

"That's what you get for working for the Evil Empire." He smirked.

"At least I get to torture smug little shits sometimes." She sniffed.

"Did you sleep with that veela yet? Fleur I think her name was?"

"She offered, but I told her to think about it some more." Harry

shrugged again.

"Really?" Tonks asked in disbelief. She knew what kind of sexual

appetite Harry had and had expected him to jump into bed with his

fellow Triwizard champion within a week of their break up. More to

the point, who turns down a veela? Barring a few experiments with

kissing her dorm mates during her Hogwarts days, Tonks was pretty

straight, but she might have said yes if it was a veela coming on to

her.

"She wants a relationship and that's just not something I'm willing to

give her right now." He explained. He figured that Fleur would

eventually repeat her offer and he would accept it as he said that he

would. He had been sorely tempted the last time, but had not wanted

the drama of a veela who felt entitled to him. If she offered again,

she would have to do it with the understanding that she'd only be

getting sex out of it. Considering the nature of veela, he was actually

kind of surprised that it hadn't happened yet.

That made Tonks feel kind of sad. She had been the one who

couldn't relax despite Harry's assurances that he'd never perform the

Joining on her again, he shouldn't be clinging to the memory of what

they had.

"So the insatiable Harry Potter is on a dry spell?" She tried to joke.

"I didn't say that…" He replied slyly.

"Ah, now the plot thickens. How many broom closets need a

thorough cleaning?"

"None. Well… none because of me."

"What, did you bring her or them to your room?" She pressed with a

raised eyebrow. She knew that Luna lived with him, so how would

that work?

"Nope." He answered smugly.

Now Tonks was just plain baffled. If not in a broom closet and not in

his room, then where? He couldn't have gone into the girl's room

because of the charms that prevented men from going there and

three of the four houses used dorms anyway.

"Who is the lucky girl or girls anyway?" She asked with narrowed

eyes, almost stepping into his personal space as her hair turned a

darker shade. Auror Tonks was going to get to the bottom of this

mystery.

"It's a secret." He teased.

Perhaps unfairly, Harry and secrets was linked with 'illegal' in Tonks'

mind. Unfair or not though, it led her to the right conclusion.

"You're sleeping with a teacher ?!" She hissed in surprise.

The way that his face slackened in shock confirmed it for her.

"Please don't tell me it's Sprout or McGonagall? I don't think I could

live with the mental scarring." She begged.

"The fuck? NO! The hell is wrong with you, woman?" Harry

demanded in a hiss of his own, snapped out of his shock at her

guess by the horrible imagery she'd invoked. He might appreciate an

older woman, but not that old.

"Thank Merlin." Tonks breathed in relief. "Who is it then?"

Harry hesitated before his shoulders slumped in defeat. Too late to

cover his ass now. "It's Vector."

"Vector?" She repeated with a blink. "I guess I can see that…"

"She's a very bored woman in her early forties that hasn't done

anything exciting in her entire life. She was begging me with her

eyes to help her." Not entirely true. She had been begging him with

her eyes to do it again the second time, the first time she'd been

prodded into revealing her attraction by his 'fuck me' aura.

"And you, being the hero that you are, couldn't resist." Tonks was

very amused.

"It's the duty of a hero to help those in need." He agreed. The main

character always got all the pussy, it was an ironclad rule of RPGs.

"You're so noble, I think I'm going to swoon." She punctuated this

airy statement by resting the back of her hand on her forehead as if

about to faint.

Harry chuckled and trailed off with a sigh. He'd missed Dora's sense

of humor. "You'll keep this to yourself? I don't want to get her

sacked."

"Of course I will, a little hanky-panky is hardly worth causing a fuss

over." Tonks scoffed.

"Thanks." He said with a smile. "So what about you? Anything

interesting happen?"

"Not really." Tonks shrugged. "We can't all be Harry Potter."

Harry bit his lip in thought. He was about to do something that he

was 100% sure Sirius would call him an idiot for, but screw it. "Listen,

we're going to Black Island for a while over the summer. Do you

want to join us?"

"I don't know, I don't get a lot of time off…" Tonks said uncertainly.

"You can join us for as long as you can or want to. For all I know, I

might get bored there and cut it short after three days myself."

Tonks wavered. A vacation in the tropics really did sound lovely…

"Who all is going?"

"Luna, Sirius, Penny, Penny's parents, Bryanna, Tiana, Jade, Isabel,

anyone that Sirius might bring and an off chance that I'll invite

someone else." Harry listed.

A couple of friends, a couple of strangers and two women that Harry

would be fucking while there then. It was a good thing that Tonks

wasn't so immature as to resent him sleeping with other women after

breaking things off between them.

"Alright, I'll take some leave." She agreed. "When are we going?"

"Somewhere towards the end of July, but it's flexible."

"Cool, I'll see how much time off I can arrange."

Harry felt his mirror vibrate at that point signaling a call from his

godfather. "Excuse me for a second."

"Harry, it's no good." Sirius said in defeat as soon as his face

appeared. "Bones says she doesn't have time to meet us and to

make an appointment. Even the famous Padfoot charm wouldn't

convince her."

"Turning into a dog and humping a woman's leg isn't charm, Sirius."

Harry informed him.

"Fuck you, Harry."

"Fuck you twice."

"You want to head home now?" Sirius asked once the obligatory

insults were done with.

"No, I'm going to go pay Fudge a visit and squeeze the spineless fat

fuck like a wet tissue."

"That's an idea." Sirius admitted. "Did you meet Nymphie?"

"You'll pay for that, Sirius." Tonks growled, snatching the mirror from

Harry.

"Sorry, can't hear you. Connection is breaking up. Khhhhh." The

mirror became just a mirror.

"Radio interference on a magical connection. Good one, Sirius."

Harry said, shaking his head.

"As a Ministry auror, I'm supposed to treat any threats to our

esteemed Minister with due seriousness, but I couldn't quite hear

your conversation over all that radio interference." Tonks said sternly.

"I'll be sure to report anyone that looks to be threatening the good

Minister."

"Good. Carry on, citizen."

Fudge perked up when the door opened to admit the pretty witch

he'd employed as his secretary. She mostly just read the various

notes and letters sent to him and relayed the important ones, but

she'd mainly been hired because she was nice to look at. Being

Minister of Magic was a stressful job and having a bit of eye candy

made the burden easier to bear. His wife certainly wasn't up to the

task anymore.

"Sir, Harry Potter is here to see you." She said and instantly

eliminated any thoughts of pretty witches from Fudge's mind.

"Send him in, send him in." Fudge said quickly, trembling with

anticipation. He hoped this would be a good visit.

The young wizard stepped into the office, thanking the secretary as

she passed him by. That got a brighter smile out of her than he had

ever managed.

"Harry, so good to see you!" He exclaimed as he rushed to shake his

visitor's hand. He was dressed like a muggle for some reason, so

Fudge assumed he'd just been in that world. The short sleeved shirt

he was wearing displayed a physique rather more impressive than

he recalled. His burned arm was also exposed, as if he didn't care

about the disfigurement. Fudge tried not to stare at it or to let on how

much it had unnerved him to touch the scar tissue.

"Cornelius." Harry greeted back. The tone was pleasant enough, but

there was something offputting under it. There was a strange look in

his eye…

"What can I do for you?" Fudge asked nervously. Had Harry always

been this tall? No, he was certain that he'd been shorter during the

World Cup. Kids sure do grow up fast these days. And why wasn't he

blinking?

"I was wondering how much progress had been made on finding the

instigators of the assassination attempts on me." Harry said. His tone

was still pleasant, but Fudge felt cold sweat bead on his neck

anyway.

He tried to play it off. "Come now, Harry, assassination attempts?

Who would conspire to kill the kill the Boy-Who-Lived?"

"I could think of quite a few people." Harry's tone was colder now.

Dangerous. The normally large office suddenly seemed small and

stifling. He still hadn't blinked. Was it getting a mite chilly in here?

Fudge tried to find his voice, but Harry continued speaking before he

could. "It could even be someone from the Ministry, you can never

tell with these things."

The cold sweat now broke out everywhere and in greater quantities.

This was a disaster! He couldn't allow the Ministry to be implicated in

a plot to kill the Boy-Who-Lived! It would be the end of him. Even an

accusation would see his public esteem drop like a stone.

"I know that my good friend Cornelius would never have anything to

do with it of course." Harry was still talking. "But you can't be

expected to keep an eye on everyone under you. Every government

has individuals with their own agendas, wouldn't you agree?"

Fudge didn't hesitate to grab the lifeline. "Of course, it's a constant

struggle to fight corruption in the government."

"It's a good thing that you have a woman as driven and competent

as Madam Bones on the job. She's sure to keep people in line."

Oh yes, Fudge knew that Bones would indeed keep people in line.

The woman was like a bulldog, but had no understanding of how

politics worked. She'd dismiss or imprison half the Ministry and the

Wizengamot if she had her way.

It was unfortunate that she would apparently be getting her way this

time. Fudge didn't really think that Dolores had anything to do with

the incident during the second task, but that wouldn't matter if Amelia

got the chance to go after her. He couldn't protect his Senior

Undersecretary this time. He hoped Dolores would understand that it

was just politics. "I'll talk to Amelia about putting some more effort

into the investigation."

"I'll look forward to thanking the Ministry for their efforts in uncovering

the mystery of this plot on my life then."

The powerful young wizard left after that and Fudge was able to sit

down and take a breather. That had been unpleasant. He didn't

remember Harry being that intimidating the last time they'd spoken.

He might have just served Dolores up to the sharks, but at least

Harry had said that he would endorse the Ministry. As far as

consolation prizes went, that one was pretty good.

In the lift back outside, Harry let out a deep breath and released the

Dark he'd been pulling into himself from Arhain . It was much harder

during the day, but it could be done. He immediately felt his insides

warm up and twisted his neck to the side, producing a series of loud

cracks. Made him feel as stiff as a corpse afterwards though.

But he'd gotten what he wanted. Fucking Fudge had wasted all this

time fidgeting in terror at the thought of bad publicity and gave

Umbridge a huge head start. No wonder Malfoy spent so much time

at the Ministry, someone had to hold the idiot's leash to keep him for

cutting his own damn neck off with a bloody papercut.

"You okay?" Sirius asked in concern.

"Peachy." Harry grunted and twisted his neck to the other side,

producing another cacophony of cracking vertebrae.

Chương 20: Chapter 21

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Chương 20: Chapter 21

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