I coughed a little, feeling a slight mixture of irony and bewilderment. I had to acknowledge that Lavender was either extremely intelligent, or highly intuitive, or possessed an innate, truly terrifying prophetic gift.
"What?" Penelope asked, dumbfounded. The rest of the girls shared her same expression of shock. Only Lavender remained unalterable.
"All right, Lav, I'll give it to you: you're right not to fear. But even so, don't exaggerate without warning," I told her, tapping her head lightly as I meditated. "Still... I'm surprised by how far you've come in your depravity on your own. I know the book I gave you opened the doors... but I find it hard to believe your natural talent for unlocking new fetishes without having access to porn or anything similar. Could it be that you always carried it inside? In a way, you're like my female version in terms of horniness."
Lavender let out a giggle and began to suggestively suck on my toes. I pulled away immediately; it felt like an excess of dirtiness. I cast a quick cleansing charm over my skin before allowing her to continue, although the real problem now lay elsewhere.
"Red! What do you mean she's right?" Penelope demanded to know, indignant. "You can't feed her that lie. If she does something risky and..."
"Red... can you revive the dead?" Daphne interrupted. Unlike Penelope, the Greengrass girl felt a sudden rush of adrenaline and ambition in her chest upon weighing the implication of my words.
"More or less..." I replied with utter indifference, contrasting drastically with the general commotion. "One of my lovers, the Grey Lady—the Ravenclaw ghost, who for those who don't know, is Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter—has already designed a method to return as a zombie. Though of course, that was just the first prototype; in a short time she will develop a real resurrection. And if that fails, I have other methods. I even count on another lover who possesses the power to revive properly and without imperfections... though I try not to abuse it; if you do, death loses its flavor."
My words, delivered with the absolute calm of the world, unleashed a storm of crossed and chaotic reactions in the room:
"Ravenclaw's daughter?!"
"You can raise the dead?!"
"How many lovers do you have?!"
"A zombie?!"
Yes, it was an excellent way for situations to spiral out of control. But, in the end, everything seemed to be solved with a few kisses and a bit of affection. It was getting late, but the energy in the room remained at its limit. Even Astoria, who seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep, struggled to keep listening to me; she had just discovered that her sister was right: I was on a completely different level.
"And so... why did you have to fight Draco's father?" Pansy resumed, determined to dispel the last of her doubts. "What did you gain from that? Just getting rid of him?"
"Among other things... I won half of the entire Malfoy family fortune," I replied with absolute calm.
"HALF OF THEIR FORTUNE?!" several girls exclaimed in unison. Even Lavender, who was still licking my feet, stopped dead in her tracks out of surprise.
"Are you serious?" Pansy asked, jumping to her feet to look me dead in the eye.
"Completely. That gold will be guarded by Narcissa, who is also contractually obligated to protect it. I can make use of it whenever I want or claim it directly as soon as I turn seventeen," I explained.
The girls fell mute, opening and closing their mouths without being able to utter a single word. Those from Slytherin were, of course, the most affected by the shock.
"But do you mean half of their entire fortune? Not just a simple portion?" Daphne inquired, incredulous.
"Yes, half of absolutely everything, including the hidden vaults," I added calmly. "It was a secret agreement. Only I, Ginny—who acted as a witness—and Narcissa know about it. It cannot be disclosed, so it is completely safe."
I said this last part to reassure Penelope, and it worked perfectly. Upon hearing that there were no loose ends, her countenance changed drastically, shifting from pure anguish to genuine excitement as she processed the magnitude of such wealth.
"But that... that is..." Pansy stammered, her heart racing and her eyes welling up with pure emotion.
Daphne, for her part, was visibly altered while performing mental calculations at top speed. It wasn't a simple stereotype: the Malfoys were, legitimately, one of the wealthiest families in Great Britain. Perhaps they didn't possess the most noble or ancient lineage, but with that level of capital, they could ignore any protocol and position themselves as a fundamental pillar of the magical world. If one calculated the total of their assets...
"Haha... Yes, my love!" Pansy exclaimed, lunging at me to stamp a long and intense kiss on my lips before sitting back down on my lap and leaning against me. "That's my man!" she added, settling her head on my neck.
In a blink, Pansy stopped caring about what I had done. She was no longer worried that I had murdered a pure-blood, nor did she fear that I would go after her own family; at that instant, her mind was overflowing with the won Galleons. To her, the man she had committed herself to had just secured a financial empire for her marital future.
Daphne remained just as stunned, with her icy mask of indifference totally shattered. According to her math, even if it were only half, I had secured the equivalent of the net worth of one or more mid-tier pure-blood families single-handedly. And I had done it at my age. Although it paled in comparison to the ability to revive the dead, money was something tangible she could understand perfectly, whereas necromancy still seemed like a distant fantasy to her. The shock was such that you could almost see Galleons reflected in her eyes. It took her a moment to compose herself, but she ended up congratulating me with total sincerity, internally reaffirming her decision to serve me. She even pushed her younger sister to do the same.
"Screw Malfoy! Now, even if my family turns their backs on me, we won't have anything to worry about," Pansy celebrated, kissing me again. "We will buy a spectacular mansion and open dozens of businesses... We're going to make everyone die of envy, hohohoho!" She let out a haughty laugh, identical to that of an anime noblewoman—an involuntary gesture while her mind sketched a future where the formalities of secrecy would no longer be necessary.
The wonderful idea of giving Granger a kick in the backside even crossed her mind, convincing herself that the know-it-all would no longer be needed. However, she refrained from mentioning it aloud, knowing that I probably wouldn't agree. Regardless, she rejoiced imagining her humiliated, almost at the level of Lavender... who, precisely at that moment, broke the atmosphere.
"With so much money you could have any woman you wanted! I am increasingly insignificant... I am useless. Who knows when you will get tired of me and throw me away... You will swap me for any cheap, old, sick, and dying whore... and even then she will still be better than me...!"
"Lavender! Don't ruin my moment!" Pansy snapped at her, glaring her down.
The situation became almost comical. Pansy wouldn't stop complaining about Lavender, even going so far as to step on her to push her away; however, that didn't help much. Lavender seemed to enjoy the gesture, and her exclamation—"Yes! Harder, Mistress Pansy! I deserve it!"—caused Pansy to turn as red as a tomato. It was hard to tell if she was reacting out of pure embarrassment or out of the twisted sadistic excitement that the Gryffindor's pleading generated within her.
In the end, the talk dragged on for so long that fatigue began to take its toll on everyone; even Astoria had fallen fast asleep. Since they had to fulfill their usual activities the next day, I used my abilities on each of them to replenish their energy, ensuring that the few hours of sleep they had left would be more than enough. The time came to say goodbye, although more than one would have loved to stay the night with me.
I bid a casual farewell to Daphne, allowing her to take her younger sister back to the dormitories.
Next was Pansy, who gave me another long kiss packed with joy and promises. She wouldn't stop chattering about our future and about when we would tell her parents, certain that now they would accept our match without hesitation. I had to rein in her fantasies by reminding her that the matter of the Malfoy fortune had to be kept strictly secret. Although the news hit her like a pitcher of cold water, I comforted her by assuring her that it wouldn't take us too long to take the step—perhaps just a year or two. That was enough to make her leave with a radiant smile, pleased to know that her financial future was secure and that she would become a carefree high-society lady.
Penelope left afterward. With fewer people remaining in the room, she offered much less resistance when I pulled her in to kiss her and trace her body. I was on the verge of fucking her right there, right in front of a Lavender who was begging on her knees for us to let her watch. However, I decided not to go that far; I confined myself to using my fingers and the power of [Ecstasy] until making her squirt, forcing her to have to clean her wet panties before going to bed. Though she didn't leave immediately; she still harbored the naive hope of "saving" Lavender from her own nature. She stayed behind to wait for her and accompany her back, believing that by doing so she would prevent me from doing anything too intense that would aggravate her depravity. That measure, besides being useless, would at most only delay the inevitable... the girl was already lost.
As for Lavender, she was practically begging me to destroy her right that instant; she even yearned for me to turn her death fantasies into reality. I denied her request, postponing it for a better occasion. It was astonishing how obsessed she was with experiencing new limits. My only real concern was that, after tasting so many extreme sensations, she might end up getting bored or discovering that nothing satiated her anymore. Although that was unlikely, both due to her own psychology and my capabilities to ensure that wouldn't happen. To soothe her anxiety, I simply took her mouth with the roughness she herself demanded, forcing her to swallow my penis and savor every drop of my semen before letting her go. Just like Penelope, she would have to take her time to change; the wet patch on her clothes was far too obvious. And she didn't change out of her own modesty, but because Penelope's pressure and the need to maintain the secret left her no other choice.
Thus, each of the girls ended up in her respective bed: Daphne, dreaming of serving me and ascending by my side; Penelope, still wrestling with doubts regarding my true nature and my current situation; Lavender, lost in her usual extreme erotic dreams; and Pansy, giggling foolishly between the sheets while imagining riches and the perfect opportunity to trample on the "Granger whore."
With the room finally empty, I called it a night. I had to mentally prepare for the following day; there was too much to do, both inside and outside the castle. I had to ensure that the snake didn't escape, since he would function as the perfect whetstone for my girls. I also had to close the pending matters in Brazil once and for all... and, of course, take care of the revenge and reward for the professors who had dared to punish me.