CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT: WORTH IT.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17th, 1996 – City of London Airport.
Hestia Jones was a thirty year old witch. She stood about 5'7" and had a slim although slightly busty figure. She had blue eyes and dirty blonde wavy hair which she still preferred to wear in a ponytail even though some considered it a little age inappropriate. Many men seemed to consider it attractive, but while she had many dates, she had few relationships of any note and none she would consider serious. It seemed all the wizards she found to be acceptable company or even friends tended to already be married or engaged or such and she had no interest in being a mistress or the "other woman."
Hestia was a Half Blood. Her father was a Muggle who had worked as an accountant or some such at an insurance firm in London. He did fairly well but for as long as Hestia could remember, he never really enjoyed his job. He would rather have been someone creative, but knew he lacked the talent. His job kept the family in a nice home and with nice, if not ostentations things. Hestia's mother was a witch whose maiden name was Anastasia Tyrell. She was technically a Half Blood, but came from a long line of magic, at least thirty generations deep. From her father, she had learned that what a person does is far more important than who their parents are or were. From her mother, she had learned a general disdain for Purebloods, at least those who thought it mattered.
Hestia's mother had worked for DMLE rising to the position as a research assistant for the Head of the Department. Her boss was Bartimius Crouch who began an aggressive campaign to eliminate the Death Eaters as soon as he took office following the assassination of his predecessor in 1979. Hestia's mother helped draft policies that authorized deadly force and the use of unforgivables by law enforcement as well as a statute that allowed for summary trial, effectively depriving marked Death Eaters of their right to counsel, appeal and several other legal protections. Hestia's mother was also part of a not so secret organization called the Order of the Phoenix that at least on the surface fought the Death Eaters and strove to prevent people from joining or supporting that group of murderers. Perhaps it was those two activities that attracted the wrong sort of attention. During Hestia's Third Year as a Hufflepuff at Hogwarts, the Death Eaters broke through the defenses at her parent's home and killed them both … eventually. She never learned the full details, but could guess and it had to have been horrible for her parents.
She was left as an orphan. She was present in Dumbledore's office with her Head of House and her Grandfather Ignatius Tyrell when she was told the news. At the time, the argument that followed made little sense to her. Her grandfather was more than willing to take her in, along with her two brothers but Dumbledore seemed to insist that at least she should become his ward. Dumbledore insisted upon becoming her Magical Guardian, insisting he was better able to 'find a suitable match' for her. Her grandfather was incensed. He did not seem to care that Dumbeldore was head of the Wizengamot or the ICW or even a Headmaster. His Granddaughter was not negotiable, period, and if Dumbledore continued to insist, his daughter would be sent overseas to live with an Uncle. Under no circumstances would that old man have any say in his granddaughter's future.
Hestia was aware that Dumbledore had made subsequent efforts to change her grandfather's mind and had been repeatedly rebuffed. The War ended during her Fifth Year. She was aware that Dumbledore had prevented her from becoming a Prefect, yet another attempt to acquire guardianship over her. She never understood that and until very recently wondered whether her grandfather was right considering she was thirty years old now and had not come close to getting engaged much less married.
Hestia passed nine OWLs, including an Outstanding in Potions which was her favorite class. She was also capable in Charms, Transfiguration and Defense, but Potions seemed the more interesting of the courses. With her Outstanding, she hoped to become a Potions Mistress, but was more than willing to settle for a Potions Maker, which only required a NEWT in the subject. With time and effort, a Potions Maker might one day attain a Mastery, but did not have to seek out and be accepted as an apprentice to a Potions Master. Before her final year at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn who had taught her Potions for six years retired and was replaced by Professor Snape. In Hestia's opinion, Snape believed that no one outside of Slytherin House was deserving of study in that field and if Snape was an example of a Potions Master, Hestia wanted nothing to do with it. When she finished Hogwarts with her Potions NEWT, she went to work as a Potions Maker with a supplier in Diagon Alley. As a hobby and in the hopes of meeting a decent young wizard, she joined a dueling club. While she enjoyed the club and dueling, it turned out it was not a place to find the wizard of her dreams – at least one who was single.
About a year ago Dumbledore announced that Voldemort had returned and the Death Eaters were active again. Hestia thought that was obvious as she was at the Quidditch World Cup and had seen the crowd of Death Eaters that were tormenting a Muggle Family, and the thousands of witches and wizards who were too terrified to intervene. When Dumbledore announced that Voldemort had returned several months later and while most of Magical Britain believed the Minister for Magic and the Daily Prophet that Dumbledore was losing his grip on reality, Hestia was more than willing to if not believe Dumbledore, accept that it was possible. She followed a few members of her Dueling Club and her mother's example and joined the Order of the Phoenix in the hopes that maybe this time the Death Eaters could be stopped before things got out of hand.
That was about a year ago and for most of that year she attended meetings that accomplished little or nothing. True, until recently, the Death Eaters seemed to be more myth than reality. But she began to wonder whether the organization would ever be able to do more than argue with each other. Then there had been that battle at the Department of Mysteries. Hestia had not been involved and was a little disappointed by that, but it had proved that the Order had a mission and had been the only ones trying to do anything. But within weeks, her faith in the Order, Dumbledore and Magical Britain had been destroyed. Now she understood the real reason behind that long ago argument between Dumbeldore and her Grandfather. The old goat was the largest supplier of concubines and she was just another commodity, worth around three hundred Galleons, and nothing more to him. He would have sold her into bondage, that much was certain. When that revelation became known thanks to an expose in the Quibbler that was later picked up and republished in the Daily Prophet (at least the part about Dumbledore's supplying young women to the magical sex trade), she began looking for a way out. Another member of the Order (whom she thought was at least as disillusioned as she was) had arranged things for her which led her to this gate at the far end of a Muggle Airport Terminal.
The departure lounge seemed to be filling up with families, she noticed as she joined a queue. She saw a few kids who looked like they might be old enough to attend either magical school or secondary school, but most were younger. There were even infants. Hestia had only flown in a plane once before in her life and that was before she or her brothers started Hogwarts. She was about seven at the time, about the same age of many of the children in the queue and already seated waiting for their flight with their families. She remembered that trip, but not the details so in a way this was a new experience.
"Identification?" a voice asked when she reached the front of the queue and was addressed by a young woman. Hestia reached into her bag and pulled out her Ministry Issue identification papers with its magical photograph that had been stilled because this was a Muggle area.
"Hestia Amelia Jones," the young woman said. "Magical identification," she added slightly surprised. "Are you carrying your wand or any other magical items or devices?"
"I have my wand," Hestia answered surprised that this young woman knew about magic.
"On your person or in your bag?"
Hestia patted her jacket.
"Please place it in your bag and leave your bag by the door to the left."
"Why?" Hestia asked. Depriving a witch or wizard of their wand was considered a significant interference in their rights in Magical Britain.
"Safety," the young woman said. "While our aircraft are hardened against magic – after all with this lot the occasional bout of accidental magic cannot be avoided – we try to keep the magic down. Don't want magic to interfere with the aircraft systems. Don't know about you, but I am expected home for dinner and dinner is where we are going today."
Hestia reluctantly placed her wand in her bag and followed the direction placing the bag by the door before finding a seat. She took a seat that looked back into the terminal rather than out the window at the airfield beyond and pretended to read a book she had purchased at a stand she had passed on the way to this waiting area. In reality, Hestia was reflecting upon the sequence of events that had led her to this seat and to await a Muggle airplane that would take her out of Britain for the first time since she was a young girl and maybe for the rest of her life.
In a way, the process had begun when Harry Potter had disappeared earlier that summer. Dumbledore had insisted that Harry spend the summer at his Muggle relatives and had assigned Order Members to keep a watch on the young man and to keep him at his relations should he attempt to leave. Hestia had been assigned some of the night watches, late enough that unless the boy tried to sneak out, there would be nothing to report, although she was not assigned to the detail until the third night after Harry presumably had returned from Hogwarts. Mad-eye Moody had given her the task as Dumbledore was out of town and, according to Moody, Tonks and Lupin had asked for reassignment. July 10th had been the date of the reading of the Will of Sirius Black, a former Order Member who had died in battle the previous month. The Order was led to believe the vast Black fortune had been promised to Dumbledore to support the Order and their struggle against the Death Eaters. The will reading was the first indication that the Order was falling to pieces.
Hestia had not been there, but had heard about what had occurred. The whole country heard as the proceedings were covered in detail in the Daily Prophet. If Black had promised the Order his fortune, he was either lying or had clearly changed his mind. The fallout was that the Order now owed the new Lord Black millions. Dumbledore had apparently been making liberal use of the Potter vaults over the years and had been caught. The Goblins did not care why he had misused the money. They did not care about the Order or anything else other than seeing their client's vaults replenished. They also did not care about the other fall out. Within a week, the Weasley family, which had been among Dumbledore's most visible supporters for years, had been effectively destroyed. Three of the sons left the country forever. The youngest daughter had been enslaved in payment for an attempted attack on the Head of an Ancient and Noble House. The elder Weasley's divorced and the husband had disappeared. Worse for Dumbledore and the Order, two of its members admitted to betraying him probably from the beginning and his Deputy Headmistress suggested she might have and they all left the country as did Dumbledore's most valuable asset Harry Potter taking with him, apparently, enough Wizengamot votes to ensure there could be no quorum and depriving both Dumbledore and the Ministry of their usual path to control such damage by passing laws making their actions retroactively legal. All of this was before the revelation about the concubines and the hundreds of girls sold into bondage by their headmaster over the years solely because they had no other magical guardian.
Over the next few weeks, other order members expressed their desire to resign. A few did and never were seen again so far as Hestia knew but some had a sudden change of heart after speaking with Dumbledore and a blank expression in response to any questions about their change of mind. Hestia might not be an Auror, but she knew the signs of a powerful, mind altering charm when she saw one. She doubted it was an Imperious Curse, but was aware of spells that were almost as effective and were not technically illegal. She wanted out. She wanted nothing to do with Dumbledore and, more important, wanted out of Britain as well. She remembered the night she spent drinking Firewhiskey with Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-eye Moody, but she was not so clear on what she told them. She was pretty sure her spotty memory was the result of overindulgence and not a more insidious form of magic. But she remembered the next day perfectly when Mad-eye entered her place of work:
"Afternoon Jones," Mad-eye said. As far as Hestia knew Mad-eye never called anyone by their first name, not even Dumbledore at least not when anyone else was around. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I was run over by a dragon," Hestia moaned. "Why are you here?"
"Is there somewhere where we can speak in private?"
Hestia nodded and lead Mad-eye to the 'Break Room' which was fortunately empty. Moody pulled his wand and seemed to waive it at anything other than Hestia.
"There," he said. "Now we will not be disturbed or overheard and, as an added bonus, while you will remember this meeting, not even Dumbledore will be able to get to those memories. So, were you serious last night?"
"I'm sorry?" Hestia said. "To be honest, last night is very fuzzy."
Mad-eye chuckled. "I'm not surprised, young lady. Fortunately or unfortunately, you are a loud but restrained drunk. You didn't make a real fool out of yourself if you're concerned and Shacklebolt and I were gentlemen. Last night you were on about leaving the Order for certain, the country if possible and were concerned that if Dumbledore found out, you might have no memory of your name much less why you want out. Is that true, or were you just in your cups?"
Hestia nodded. "I … I can't be a part of this. Not with that man involved, much less in charge."
Mad-eye nodded.
"If my grandfather had not stood up to him," she continued, "I'm certain I'd be…"
"Earning your living on your back or knees?"
Hestia nodded.
"That's probably a fair suspicion. You had a Muggle father and the only young ladies like you who were under his guardianship and did not wind up that way were the handful who managed to become Consorts or married before he got around to selling their paper and bodies. The only silver lining is at least until this summer he never sold a girl until she had sat for her OWLs. This summer however? Most of the girls he sold were younger yet of bonding age. The youngest, I believe, had only recently turned thirteen."
"So all that stuff about Muggle relations and Muggle Born rights?"
"Oh, those laws were passed," Mad-eye said. "Only Arthur Weasley bothered to try to enforce them and few of the bastards he collared ever suffered more than a ten Galleon find payable over time."
Hestia nodded but said nothing. She wondered what she had told Mad-eye and Kingsley last night and the thought of what she might have told them scared her. Of the Order Members left, only Snape seemed to be more in Dumbledore's pocket than those two.
"So," Mad-eye said, "did you mean what you said last night?" It came out almost like a growl, or at least that was how it seemed to Hestia.
She shrugged. "I'm really fuzzy about what I said last night. What did I say that would bring you here?"
"You basically said you wanted out of the Order. You said you joined to do what was right only to come to believe that it was little better than the Death Eaters and Dumbledore a less obvious Dark Wizard than Voldemort, but probably darker inside. That was followed by a list of his crimes against 'us' and a comment along the lines that at least Voldemort is quick about it. Better a few hours torture and death than years and years as a sex slave, you said. How could any sane person serve that thief, liar, deceiver … and that was when you chose not to get colorful. Well, I'm here to fix your little problem."
Hestia paled.
"I, Alastor Moody, upon my word and my magic do hereby swear that what I'm about to say is the truth or is what I believe to be the truth, so mote it be!" He then cast an illumination spell with his magic. Hestia was well aware of the nature of the oath. If he lied, if he even sought to deceive her, the light would go out and with the light, so would his magic.
"I am Alastor Moody. I joined the Auror Corps right out of Hogwarts in 1929 and served as an Auror until I chose to retire in 1982 following the last of the Death Eater Trials following that War. I was recalled to active service by the Ministry at the end of June this year following the fight with a dozen Death Eaters and Voldemort himself. I joined the Order of the Phoenix in 1971. At the time, I and many others who joined believed that the Order had only recently been founded by Albus Dumbledore to deal with Voldemort and his Death Eaters as the Ministry seemed reluctant to do so. I and a few others have since learned that the Order was really founded sometime before 1925. As a phoenix rises from its own ashes, so the real Order believes the Purebloods are destined to rise to rule over us all. I do not believe that. Many who were or are in the Order to deal with Voldemort joined because we do not believe that. We were pawns. We were and are expendable foot soldiers I believe are to be used to help the real Order take over one day. We are expendable, nothing more matters to Dumbledore.
"When the 'expanded' Order was reformed last year – by that I mean those of us who were not permanently a part of the plan to elevate the Purebloods and old families, like Dumbledore, to the position of a permanent ruling class – there were a few of us who at least to ourselves were already questioning what was really going on. Three had been working to restore Potter to his rightful place for years and had been thwarted at every turn. I had just spent the better part of a year of my life in my own trunk as a potions ingredient source for a Death Eater right under Dumbledore's nose. He told me he was unaware that a Death Eater had taken my place under Polyjuice Potion. I did not and do not believe him. My enslavement furthered his ends for some reason and as such I was merely a statistic at best. Shack had his own reasons to doubt.
"We met in secret, separate from Dumbledore and the rest of the Order. We were later joined by Bill Weasley and his Consort who had uncovered a plan that was not meant to be uncovered, one designed to destroy House Potter and elevate Dumbledore and his top Lieutenant – at least the closest Order member of whom we are aware – Molly Weasley. Molly was to use whatever means necessary to breed her daughter to Potter until Potter sired a healthy son. She would then engineer their demise and raise the son as Dumbledore's heir…"
"Dumbledore's incapable of siring a child?" Hestia asked.
Moody shrugged. "It's possible, but I don't know. Needless to say, it was agreed that Potter must be removed from that situation at all costs. He was secretly relocated to a place called Charenwell the night of June 22nd. Our group maintained the watch on his former abode for about another two and a half weeks in case Dumbledore checked. He never did. Following the reading of Lord Black's Will, all but two of our group also relocated to Charenwell, a place that neither Dumbledore, Voldemort nor their minions can ever reach as was shown about a week ago. Those who tried are dead. No exceptions. Those who ordered them to try are also dead.
"Shacklebolt and I remain. But we are not what you have been led to believe. We are intelligence agents for the Duke of Charenwell and are here to collect information on Dumbledore, the Order, the Ministry and anyone else deemed to be enemies of Charenwell; information that we hope one day will be used to destroy the lot of them. Nox!" The light had remained bright until Moody extinguished it, thus ending that which was governed by the magical oath.
"You want out, Jones?" Moody asked. She nodded. "The only way out is to disappear, without goodbyes or warnings. Any hint that you're leaving might get back to Dumbledore and he would either try to prevent it or to turn you into a weapon against the Duke. The former would scramble your brains, as you have already noted has been the case for some of our former colleagues who were less than discreet. The later would get you killed sure as you're sitting here now. You must vanish."
"How?"
That had been yesterday and the answer found her now sitting in a Muggle airport waiting for a Muggle plane that would fly her to a place where those who might wish her harm could never follow.
A couple sat down immediately across from her. They appeared to be about her age, maybe a little younger. The woman was holding an infant, a boy judging by his clothes who looked to be over a year old, but Hestia really did not know too much about babies or their development to be sure, never having had a child herself nor knowing any infants really. She continued to pretend to read her book, but listened in to the couple's conversation, as well as any others that could be overheard.
The couple were Muggles, that much was certain almost from the start. They had three children, the older two girls were off elsewhere in the lounge playing with some other girls their age, their new friends as it were. This couple was from London where the husband worked with the Metropolitan Police – that tidbit had come out when he introduced himself to another Muggle couple. At first this struck Hestia as a little odd. She had a little experience with other forms of Muggle mass-transit, namely the London Underground and National Rail and from her experience most people tended to ignore their fellow passengers unless they already knew each other.
But it turned out the two couples had something in common. In fact, as she casually looked around there were many similar groups of couples sitting and talking. Even knew families who just cleared the queue that had relieved Hestia of her wand – or at least insisted she kept it in her bag – were drawn into these discussions. It seemed she was the only person in the lounge who was not with a spouse and children.
What the other adults had in common was that they were all Muggle and they all had at least one magical child. The oldest child in the area had just turned ten and the youngest was a few weeks old. A couple of the women, including the policeman's wife were noticeably pregnant with what they had been assured was also a magical child. This was odd. No one had said anything about an older child attending one of the magical schools and most of the families looked like they probably didn't have a magical child that old. Magic was not revealed to non-magical parents until the child received their official invitation to school, which occurred either after their eleventh birthday or in July assuming they were not yet eleven but would be by September 1st, and yet all these families knew and most knew years before they would normally be told.
"Excuse me?" she asked the couple across from her when the other couple moved away. "I'm Hestia. Pardon me for asking, but how old is your oldest?"
"Jeanie is six and a half," the mother said. "I'm Gail. Gail Turner."
"Cecil Turner," the husband said. "Hestia? That's an odd name."
Since the magical cat was out of the proverbial bag, Hestia replied: "My mother was a witch from a long line of magic. It's a family name."
"You're a witch?" Gail asked.
Hestia nodded. "My dad wasn't magical. He worked for an insurance company, I think. But Mum was."
"Was?"
"They both were killed in the War," Hestia said.
"I'm sorry."
"It was 1979 when I lost them. I was at school at the time."
"So that was real?" Cecil asked rhetorically. "The two agents from State Security sure put on a show, but it's still hard to believe our daughters are witches and our son a wizard. How did that happen?"
"To be honest, I don't know," Hestia said. "I don't think anyone has ever bothered to figure that out or if they did they haven't decided to share their findings, or … or … Well, there are elements who might wish to suppress findings that do not conform to their world view."
"Like those Death something or others?"
"Death Eaters," Hestia nodded. "The bulk of them are what they call 'Purebloods'."
Cecil laughed. "Do they have any idea what that term means? Pureblood! Ha! In our world, that word is applied to breeds of dogs, dogs that are only mated with somewhat close relations. Inbreds! These Death Eaters don't by chance have flipper hands, do they? Bleed to death from paper cuts, do they?"
"Excuse me?" Hestia asked. "Well, I can't speak to flippers or bleeding, but yes. I guess you could say at least some of them prefer not to stray too far from their family tree in search of their spouses. But I can assure you, Death Eaters may sound silly, but they are quite lethal."
Cecil nodded. "That's what the two blokes from State Security told us," he said now sounding serious.
"State Security?" Hestia asked.
"Sorry. Witch right? Grew up in that world?"
"Kind of on the fence, really, at least until my parents were killed. I went to Infants and Primary with non-magicals at a school near our home. I started magical school at age eleven and was away for nine months of the year, that time was all magic. I was in my Third Year, not quite fourteen when they died. After that, I went to live with my Grandfather during the hols, and he lived entirely magical."
Cecil nodded. "They're kind of like our national police."
"I thought that was Scotland Yard."
Cecil chuckled. "I guess they were right about that too."
"What?"
"They said that to those living in the magical world, our Britain is a foreign country to them. A lot of foreigners seem to think Scotland Yard is far more than it really is. Actually, the name is now New Scotland Yard and that name is simply the name of the Headquarters for the Metropolitan Police, basically the London Police although we cover some of the neighboring towns as well, the ones whose councils decided it was more cost efficient to pay us to police their towns than to pay for their own police force.
"State Security, also called MI-5 although that's really out-of-date, began as an intelligence / counterintelligence force to deal with internal threats to national security such as enemy spies and terrorists. Over time, they've also picked up certain more traditional police roles, typically the kinds of crimes with national implications as well as certain forensic analysis that is more cost effective handled at that level rather than by the local Departments. Apparently, they've had a section devoted to keeping an eye on you lot and it was a couple of blokes from that section who met with use a little over a week ago about our kids."
"Little hard to believe that at first," Gail said. "But one of them was a wizard and was able to give us a rather convincing display of magic and explain a lot of odd things that had happened in our home since our oldest girl Gwen was still a baby."
"One of them was a wizard?" Hestia asked in surprise.
Gail nodded. "Said he was a Muddle Born like our kids."
"Muggle Born."
"Oh. What's that mean, by the way?"
Hestia shrugged. "It's a term that describes a witch or wizard who had no magical parents that we know of. Aside from that, I have no idea. I'm a Half Blood, which refers to any witch or wizard with at least one magical parent or where there's a Muggle grandparent, Great-grandparent or even Great-great Grandparent even if all the others were magical and even if, like me, they otherwise have scores of generations of magical ancestors. Most of my ancestors on my mother's side were technically Half-Bloods but I can trace my magic back unbroken to the eleventh century for certain."
"The whole thing seems silly to me," Cecil said. "After convincing us magic was real and that our kids were magical, they told us that we were in danger because there were evil witches and wizards who would target us and our children just because Gail and I are not like them."
Hestia nodded. "Unfortunately, that part is true. They kill non-magicals for sport and families like yours because they believe your…"
"A blight on their world view?" Cecil offered.
"To put it mildly, yes."
"Is that why they sell girls like our daughters off as slaves?" Gail asked.
"Actually, I don't think that makes a difference except that your girls would have a wizard magical guardian who could do that," Hestia said. "Any wizard magical guardian can without regard to the girl's heritage as I understand it. I could have been. My father, not being a wizard meant that the right to do that or not do that fell to a wizard regardless of my parents' wishes. Fortunately, that wizard was my grandfather although another tried to get that authority transferred probably so he could sell me off. But even if my father was a wizard, which means he would also have been my magical guardian, he could have sold me. I've read that there are about twice as many witches as wizards in Britain and I think that has something to do with why that vile practice is accepted. As far as I know I've never met a Concubine, but you can't tell by looking always. I do know that trade does not distinguish between girls with magical parents and non-magical parents, but because the girls with non-magical parents tend to have magical guardians who don't know them and have never met them, it seems to fall on them more often."
"And they consider this acceptable?" Gail asked.
Hestia shrugged. "Many of us do not. Then again, while I grew up knowing that such things could happen, I think like many of us I had no idea of the scope of it. If you consider that our culture in Magical Britain is a few centuries behind yours, it makes more sense to an extent."
"How so?"
"Slavery and indentured servitude were legal here two centuries ago. Slavery was not that common, but servitude was for household staff and at least some trades. The indentured servant usual began as a child or teenager and worked without pay for a set number of years. Once their term was up, they were let go mostly and on their own and one would hope they had learned a trade otherwise… Children, particularly in the working class, were sent to work as young as four in the factories, farms and mines. Even though they were paid, they were pretty much tied to that life because they usually became indebted to their employer such that they could not hope to leave. I learned this from by Dad before he passed as he tried to place certain unpalatable aspect of the magical world into perspective."
"And the sex trades?"
"That was far more common place even a century ago," Hestia said. "Prostitution, while unsavory, was not illegal and for one reason or another for many unmarried women with no other prospects, it was either that or starvation. I'm not suggesting that what the magical do can be justified today. I'm just saying it's a society that has not seen this as a problem, just as non-magical society once did not see child labor or slave labor or other things as a problem."
After a pause, Cecil said: "Well, it is a problem for us. Any reservations about leaving were erased when we learned our girls could be sold off like that without so much as a by your leave."
"Okay," Hestia said, "I know why I'm leaving. I'm leaving in part 'cause there's nothing keeping me here and mainly 'cause it's too dangerous to remain. But the rest of you?"
"Imagine coming home from work and two men from State Security who are tasked with keeping our country safe are waiting," Cecil said. "They tell you that because of things over which my wife and I have no control – we could not know nor control the fact that our children were born magical – that all of our lives are in grave danger. That's bad enough. But then there's the problem that there's nothing our government can do about it. I'm a police officer, but that does not matter. There are thousands of families like mine at risk. We don't have the resources to keep us safe from that lot and we're not likely to get them. The only other option is to leave altogether. If we leave, specifically if we go to this place Charenwell, we'll be safe. Our kids can have normal lives – if there is such a thing – and we won't have to worry about being slaughtered. If we chose to remain, we're on our own. The wizard State Security agent has a family, and they're being sent away for their safety. If he has no confidence in the ability to remain and be safe, what are we to think?"
"If it was just us," Gail said, "we may have told the men thank you and left it at that. But our children are the ones really at risk, aren't they? If we sent our children away or if they were grown up and living somewhere else, the men thought that the Death Eaters would probably ignore us for a time. It's our children who are those bastards' targets and we're not sending them away."
"There are risks in my job," Cecil said. "There's always the chance things will go pear shaped and I'll get killed. I know this and accept this. It stresses Gail out at times, but she knew what she was getting into when she married me. But to learn that my children are at greater risk just by being who they are than I am on patrol? That's unacceptable! We're taking a risk. I'm leaving my job, we're leaving our home and family behind with no clear guarantee that we'll be better off aside from the fact that our children will be much safer. We don't know if we'll ever be able to return even for a visit. What we were told suggests our children will grow up thinking that London and Britain are foreign countries and this place we're going to is their true home. But our children will grow up and will not be sold off like cattle. That is something that our homeland cannot promise. So we're off."
"For how long?"
Cecil shrugged. "The relocation, as they call it, is for the duration of the crisis. They said best case it's at least a couple of years."
"As refugees?"
"Not really, we were told," Gail said. "We'll have a house or a flat and there will be employment opportunities. We're already scheduled to look for a place and meet with someone about jobs later this week, although they said the jobs might be a few months off. Housing is already available and is said to be – well it might be even better than what we had before. The only reason we can't just move in is we have to wait for our stuff to be moved from Britain which can take two to three weeks. Once our stuff is here and we've selected a place to live, we can move in. Until then, they're putting us up in a hotel at no cost to us. There'll be schools and programs for our children including day care and such should I choose to work. I'm a nurse by training, although I've only been part time since we started a family. There's a new hospital in need of staff so… True, it's said to be a magical hospital, but a lot of the work such as what I'm trained to do does not require magical ability so it seems like an idea. Cecil might have to take another kind of job, but we don't know yet."
"Depending upon those things," Cecil said, "jobs and education for our children and such, we might be there a while. We were told this is not an evacuation or refugee situation but a relocation. The 'host country' anticipates that thousands of us will remain even after it is safe to return here. Rather ambitious on their part but the fact that we won't be on the dole living in tents or such suggests they're serious about hoping we'll stay on. It's better to go somewhere where you're wanted."
"What were you told about this country?" Hestia asked.
"Not much, really," Gail said. "It's magical, that much we were told. We were also told that you might never know that as they use technology as well. They don't keep magic a secret there and their laws make no distinction either. There're only a few jobs that absolutely require magical ability, most do not."
Hestia nodded. "I'm a Potions Maker myself. Only about five percent of what I do requires magical ability. Before the Statute of Secrecy, my field had many non-magical practitioners. Even today, you'll find Squibs in the field – those are people born to magical parents who for some reason are not magical themselves. I guess that unless spell casting is essential, magic would not be required and that applied to a lot of jobs even in Britain. My Mum was a witch in Magical Law Enforcement. Her job only truly required knowledge of magic, the magical world and magical society, not spell casting skills."
"May I have your attention please?" a voice announced over an amplified address system in the boarding area. "We have a full flight today. We'll begin boarding with the families with children under the age of three and follow with general boarding…"
SATURDAY, AUGUST 17th, 1996 – Longbottom House, The Manors, Charenwell.
Tracy Davis sat in a small salon on the Ground Floor of Longbottom House. The salon had been designed for "intimate" meetings and by that they meant a small number of people usually for tea, not the kind on intimacy that required a substantial degree of undress. Those sort of "intimate" meetings were confined to the First and Second Floor apartments belonging to Neville and his family, which now included her. This salon was recently finished as Houses Longbottom were completing their move from the Third Floor of Potter Manor to their new Manor next door. She knew that much of this floor and some of the rooms on the floors above had been furnished with things from both Longbottom Manor and the Bones estates, although she could not honestly say which piece was from which estate, aside from the portraits.
She was sitting in a chair reading her copy of the self updating book on bonds. There were now thousands upon thousands of books in Longbottom House Library again collected from both the Longbottom and Bones estates and also augmented with copies of books that had been received from other estates. She knew that the other huge homes nearby belonged to Harry Potter and his family, although to the best of her knowledge she had not seen anyone from those Houses yet. She didn't even know who was a part of Potter's family. But she had learned over the last few days as she helped Longbottom House sort through their library and the additions that Potter had somehow managed to confiscate entire estates back in Britain and had practically everything that had not been nailed down (and much that had been) transported here, including thousands of books, many of which had not been in either the Bones or Longbottom libraries. But for now, only two books were of interest to Tracy: the book on bonds and a ongoing work on the history of this place.
Tracy was a Pureblood witch raised in a Pureblood household. Her parents and extended family were not, so far as she was aware, Pureblood elitists, but they were well versed in the customs and traditions of Pureblood society. The Davis family had managed to remain mostly neutral during the last war. The handful who had chosen sides had stood against the elites. House Davis was a family of merchants and the elitist cause was sure to hurt business. If one were to eliminate or enslave Muggle Borns, most Half Bloods and Blood traitors, there would be little business left. But they were also pragmatic and to openly stand against the Death Eaters had usually not ended well. Hence they had remained neutral.
As a Pureblood daughter, Tracy had known about concubines since before she even entered Hogwarts. As far as she knew, her father did not maintain one, and she was pretty sure she would know if he did given her mother. But she knew about them. She was reminded of this from time to time, told to be thankful to be born into a family like hers, one which would never sink to selling their kin off. That was something a Slytherin family might due. Once they had their male heir, daughters were only useful for betrothals to cement political or economic alliances. The daughters who proved either hard to match or otherwise difficult could easily end up as a Concubine. Historically, the Davis family had been Ravenclaws. As long as the daughter was studious, the family felt arrangements could be made to tap into her talents regardless of any other considerations. House Davis considered the notion of Concubines abhorrent to a degree, but could understand if not condone the institution.
But, Tracy thought as she read, what the women in her family said about Concubines and what this book on bonds said were totally different to the point where it was hard to see that they were one and the same thing. Tracy realized that what she had been told was only a fraction of reality. She had been told about what the book called the First Stage Bond and only in the context of what the authors considered the societal abuse of that bond. She had been told that the bond was nothing more than permanent enslavement. The book said that while that was the practice in Britain, it was by no means universal nor was it the intent or focus of that initial magic. The First Stage was designed to allow rapid progression to the latter stages. It broke down the witch's inhibitions, reluctance and resistance. It did this to allow her to open her mind and heart to the wizard and the bond and allow her to accept being the part of poly-marriage, as the book said. Without the First Stage, a woman in a poly-marriage might well compete with the others for favors or be driven by ambitions and jealousies that would be destructive to the larger whole. With the bond, the woman begins to be reformed so as to place the collective over the self and initially the collective will would be the will of her wizard. That was the trap for while the witch was bound to the wizard and magically bound to his will, he was not in any way bound to her. It was this disparity in the bonds that allowed wizards to enslave witches and treat them like property and not people or partners.
Of course, Tracy thought, it did not help that most witches were Muggle Borns or less than Purebloods and most of their Masters were Pureblood bigots like or Half Bloods trying to worm their way into society. As a group, that lot thought little of women, to put it mildly.
What she had never heard about were the later stages. The Second Stage Love Bond created a reciprocal bond. In that bond, the wizard was as bound to the witch as she was to him in many ways. Her will, to a significant degree, returned. The bond was one which grew over time and, unlike the First Stage, it was built upon both physical and emotional intimacy, hence its name as if it was not the real thing, it would become so close to it as to be all but indistinguishable. Unlike the First Stage, where the witch could be shared with others or sold out right, the second stage was for life or at least until the first of them died. The book only cited one case where a Second Stage Concubine had intimate relations with another man, aside from cases of outright rape and even in Britain, it was a serious crime to rape a Second Stage Concubine. Raping a First Stage Concubine was no worse a crime than vandalism, the seriousness depended upon the degree of damage done to the wizard victim's property. The one case where a Love Bonded Concubine had relations with another wizard was one where she was forbidden from carrying her wizard's child, but the Heir of that wizard's House needed a son and the heir's wife and Consort seemed to be barren. Aside from that exception, a Love Bound Concubine was little different than a wife in many ways.
But in two ways, she was still a concubine. If she outlived her wizard, she could be transferred and would again be a First Stage Concubine. Likewise, the wizard retained control over one important aspect of her free will. She could not conceive a child without his consent for conceiving that child or giving birth to it – the book was unclear as to which – transformed the bond completely. That was the Final Stage, at which she was for all intents and purposes a Consort of her Wizard and would remain so for the rest of her life even if he passed on. That had been the goal of the artificial magic that created the bond, one based upon magical contracts, enchantments and oaths as opposed to nature. In Britain, there was no law protecting the interests of Concubines which was why so many of them wound up as sex slaves. In Charenwell, no wizard could deny his Concubine the right to move to the Second Stage and only a pre-existing wife or true Consort had the legal right to prevent the Third Stage. At least that had been the law until recently. As the law dealt with issues of immigration, it was the Duke who could change it and the current one had. A Wife at Law or Consort could prevent her husband from acquiring a Concubine. But if she did not, then the bond had to be allowed to progress to the Final Stage and the only person who could prevent it was the Concubine herself.
What Tracy was trying to understand was why it had happened so fast for her. She had no choice in regards to the First Stage, she knew that and had known that. But when she had reached the tree by the lake, somehow she knew that lack of choice was not really all that important. When he completed the bond, and she was still amazed at how wonderful it was, she immediately offered him the Love Bond and he accepted and she already asked for and had permission to move on to the final stage and bear his child. She was pretty sure that was not normal, in fact the book said as much when it talked about the first two stages. It said, and she could understand, that many witches given enough will to offer the Love Bond never do so or take years to do so. The Love Bond requires at least some true affection for the wizard and it is hard to have any affection for the person who stole your life away. The book said it was easier for a Concubine for whom this was a later bond to take that chance than the first time Concubine normally. Even then, it could still take months and even years for the witch to take that step. It had taken Tracy all of a minute or so and the only reason it took that long was because she needed to catch her breath.
She knew part of the reason. The last year of her life certainly made her open to what seemed like a good offer and she knew even before she followed her minder down that path to the lake both what to expect and that she would be allowed to progress her bond as far and as fast as she wanted. She had no issues with her new husband. Neville was not from Slytherin which was a plus in her book and unlike many boys from the other houses and especially from Gryffindor, he had never been mean to her. The only other boy who fit that description was Harry Potter. She knew he lived in the nearby Manor, but was surprisingly (for her) not the least bit upset that she was Neville's lady. Whether Neville had known it or not before she came to him, he had in a very real way saved her life and for that she was grateful if nothing else and she knew there was far more going on at least for her than just gratitude.
Tracy was the seventeenth of nineteen witches now bound to Neville and, as far as everyone knew, there would be no others. She knew that on the day she bound to him, not even a week ago, the fifteen Concubines were all at least Love Bonded to him. Six were already pregnant and seven had permission. The two who did not were deemed too young for now as they were both only fourteen.
The two girls who bonded after Tracy were both younger than she was and were the only girls in Neville's House she already knew to any extent as they had both been in Slytherin. Teresa Murdoch was fourteen and a Pureblood from a long line of Slytherins. Her father had been a Death Eater in the last war and, according to Teresa might well be one again. She had two older brothers and an older sister, all of whom were out of school and married and either were likely to become Death Eaters or at the very least supported their ideas. Teresa knew she had been sold off for two reasons. The first was she was a spare daughter for whom her parents had not been able to obtain a suitable betrothal and second because she had dated a Muggle Born boy from Hufflepuff the previous year, her Third Year. Her father had told her as much when he received the sale price of over two thousand Galleons stating at least she was finally worth something to the family.
Natasha Adair was a thirteen year old who had just finished her Second Year. Her father had not told her outright she had been sold off, but she was fairly certain as to why she was. She was over ten years younger than her brother and sister and for as long as she could remember her whole family said she had been a mistake. Her father grumbled about having to pay for her clothes and her tuition when she shouldn't have been born in the first place. Her mother complained that she could not truly entertain as she wanted with a young child to look after, never mind she had been all but raised by her family's elves. It was illegal to kill a magical child, even an unborn one. It seemed to Natasha that she was sold as soon as she could be so they could be rid of her. Both girls Love Bonded to Neville fairly quickly, arguably more quickly than other girls their age. They both told Tracy that it was because as weird as this was, it might be the first time in a long time if ever that they felt truly wanted.
It was not like that for Tracy. She loved her family and was certain they loved her as well. Her trip to Charenwell arguably began when she was sorted into Slytherin House. She was appalled at what went on there. Her first full day at school, a Monday as she remembered, she returned from class to study before dinner and walked into the common room where several older boys and girls were engaged in very public sex acts. That Friday night, she and the other First Year girls were gathered by a Prefect to watch as a Fifth Year Girl was gang raped. They were told that as the victim was neither betrothed nor under any House Protection, she was expected to provide "aid and comfort" to her Housemates and that meant she was expected to have sex with the older boys at the very least whenever they asked. As a Slytherin girl, unless you had some form of social protection, if you refused to volunteer your services, you would still provide those services.
Tracy was not worried. Girls were under blanket protection through the end of Second Year and could not be "broken" for any reticence to perform before their Fifth Year unless Snape said otherwise. Even then, House Davis was sufficiently respected that she was effectively under its protection. Still, it disgusted her to see what her housemates would sink to do. Pansy Parkinson entered Hogwarts betrothed to Draco Malfoy, but as he seemed to like group sex, she had been a part of his orgies since the beginning of Third Year and there was good reason to believe she had slept with at least the Captain of the Quidditch Team as part of Draco's ploy to become Seeker and probably anyone else who could support Draco's schemes including their Head of House. Millicent Bulstrode had begun her Third Year by allowing herself to be gang banged in front of the new First Years then trying to be the first in her year to bang every boy in their House. She had no long term protection. Augusta Runcorn did, but didn't seem to care and since Fourth Year was a regular for the Common Room sex. Daphne Greengrass had no protections, but at least so far had avoided becoming a House Whore. The few boys who tried to force the issue spent time in the Hospital Wing. Daphne was as disgusted with Slytherin as Tracy was and they quickly became close friends. As Daphne could and had easily fought off six or seven boys at a time, Tracy had planned to stick close to her to avoid becoming any kind of object lesson for the lower year girls. Unfortunately, it did not work out that way.
Her life had not gone to hell the morning she arrived in Charenwell. By then, she was not surprised that she had become a Concubine. It seemed inevitable by then. Her life had gone to hell the night of September 2nd, 1995 after her first day back for Fifth Year. She remembered it all to clearly. She received a note to see her Head of House following dinner and dutifully did as she was asked.
"Have a seat, Miss Davis," Professor Snape said as Tracy entered his office just after dinner. She did as she was told. Before she could even register what was happening, before she could even gasp, his wand was on her and he silently cast the Petrification Charm. "I regret that was necessary," he said, "but I want you to listen closely and I have found young women like you are not inclined to under these circumstances." He rolled up his left sleeve and showed her what looked like a vile tattoo on his forearm. It looked like a skull with a snake slithering out from the mouth. "Do you know what this is?" he said slowly.
"A Dark Mark?" Tracy replied surprised that she could speak at all as she surely could not move.
"Indeed. All summer long the Ministry and Daily Prophet have been doing their best to convince us all that the Dark Lord has not returned. Aside from Dumbledore and Potter, whom they have gone out of their way to discredit, there are others who know that the Ministry is fooling itself. The Dark Lord has indeed returned. I know it. The other Death Eaters know it. And … your father knows it, although he has yet to have the pleasure of the Dark Lord's presence and, I dare say, he would rather never have such pleasure, hence the reason you're here."
"You're a Death Eater? Does the Headmaster know?"
"I prefer not to be interrupted! But to humor you, yes I am a Death Eater and have been since 1978. The Headmaster is as aware as I am that no Death Eater can ever truly stop being one or willingly turn his back on the Dark Lord or his plans. But, as I am useful to both sides, the Headmaster considers my affiliation of little moment. My role has always been to see the Dark Lord return. There were some who might think I've worked actively to forestall it. But when I did, it was because his method of return at that time was both foolhardy and destined to fail. He was displeased until I explained myself.
"As I was saying, your father is aware of the Dark Lords return. As before, the Dark Lord would prefer that a venerable Pureblood family such as the Davis family would be eager to side with him, but he is aware that not everyone will take that step. But, he expects something in order for your family to avoid being classified as Blood Traitors or, should I say, he is willing for some minor concessions or humiliations to suffice rather than submit a neutral family to the tender mercies of some of his less restrained followers. In the case of your family, that minor payment is you.
"He wants me?" Tracy said in a panic.
"Not directly. No, he considers payment in full to be the transfer of your magical guardianship from your father to me. Your father's other options were a 6,000 Galleon 'Neutrality Tax' or the elimination of his entire line. Transfer of your Magical Guardianship to the Head of Slytherin House was a small price to pay in the end as one of the other options was impossible for him and the other unthinkable. The only promises asked of me were not to marry you off to a Death Eater or a possible Death Eater and not to allow you to become one."
Tracy relaxed. Then Snape strode forward, forced her mouth open – as she could barely stop him from doing so due to the spell he had case – and one by one drew three vials from his robes, opened them and poured them down her throat. She could not help but swallow each. Snape returned to his desk, placed each vial in plain view and looked at her as if questioningly.
"I am not to marry you to a Death Eater nor allow you to become one," he said with a slight sneer. "Even with the restrictions placed upon me by magic and by law, that leaves … a lot of interesting options. I am sure you do not know what potions I gave you. I am sure because they are of my own creation. I am also fairly certain you are curious. Anyone would be.
"This first potion is very interesting. Like some lust potions, it can be keyed to a specific person, in this case myself. But it is not a lust potion. No, this potion is a loyalty potion. It conceivable will last forever, although in reality it will last so long as there is some form of magical bond or promise between us; in this case the oaths associated with my assumption of guardianship. Should I allow you to bond with another wizard, this potion will lose its effect. But as it makes you loyal to me, you will not be able to escape my control for you may not offer yourself as consort or wife without violating your loyalty to me.
"This second potion can also be keyed to a specific person. I like to think it's ingenious for it acts similar to the Imperious Curse. I cannot make you kill unless you would be willing to do so nor harm another unless you are so inclined, but that leaves a lot of interesting options. You will be taking this potion every other week to ensure its potency and, as you are now loyal to me, if for some reason I forget to offer you your booster potion, you will make it a point to remind me.
"This third potion is somewhat mind altering or, to be more precise personality altering although in my experience the only one who will know that there's been a change is you. It will make you accept all that follows without question or mental or emotional resistance. Deep down, you will remain yourself. But whatever you feel or believe will not rise to a level that will allow you to act on that. Again, you will take a booster every two weeks.
"Finite!" Snape said releasing the spell, "and remain seated."
Tracy complied. She did not want to, but she could not resist the command.
"You will tell no one of this meeting, what you were or will be told nor what has or may happen to you, do you understand?"
Tracy nodded. She had a very good idea where this was leading and wanted nothing to do with it, but could not do anything.
"As you may or may not be aware," Snape continued, "I … maintain two or three upper year girls as my personal … toys. This is in addition to the two Concubines I possess. Becoming my toy is usually the price they agree to for their Prefect status. No. Miss Parkinson has not cut that deal for her badge, but that is because she is both betrothed and it has proven unnecessary as Mr. Malfoy has been more than willing to loan her to me since she surpassed her bonding age. While I appreciate the loan of her services, for my purposes I prefer an unprotected witch whose services do not require me to seek anyone's permission. Miss Bulstrode would have had this … honor … but for my purposes she is not pretty enough as my … toys … among other things … are expected to use their bodies to placate my ingredient suppliers from time to time and they prefer more attractive females. That leaves either you or Miss Greengrass. I need not explain which one of you won the draw."
Tracy gulped.
"I prefer my toys to be … broken in. As you are probably aware, sometime this week the Seventh Years will provide their object lesson for the edification of our new First Year girls. You will be that lesson. You will allow them to seize you and take you in the Common Room until they tire of you. You shall make a show of resistance, if so inclined, but you may not resist in a way that will harm your assailants or prevent them from taking you or bending you to their will or desires, do you understand?"
Tracy nodded.
"When they are finished with you, you will return here where I will determine the scope of your skills. You will reside here for the rest of your time at Hogwarts although access to your room here will be from your room in Slytherin House. You will go to your room there, lock the door as most of the older girls do and step through your wardrobe which will bring you here and it is here you will sleep, at least when you're not needed for my entertainment or the entertainment of those I allow. This will allow me to ensure you are properly skilled for my purposes and it will ensure that I and I along control access to you and your skills. Be that as it may, I can state that you will probably come to … know … most if not all the Slytherin boys over the remainder of your time here and yes, that means the First and Second Year boys as well as you and my other two toys are to train them in how to take pleasure from a female…"
Fifth Years and above in Slytherin were allowed their own rooms if they wanted. It was not required of them. They were also allowed to have a roommate or roommates and as a Fifth Year or above, the House did not consider it necessary to separate boys from girls with respect to living accommodations at night. Tracy had planned to room with Daphne, but Snape had vetoed the idea and now she knew why.
Thus began the worst year imaginable. Despite what Snape had said, it was over a week before the eight Seventh Year boys decided it was time to make an example of her; a week of walking through the Common Room after dinner where couples or groups were busy copulating and knowing at any moment she was going to be gang raped in front of an audience. Each evening when she made it safely to her room made the next even more dreadful. It was almost a relief when it finally happened, but it was still horrible in all respects as she was taken every way a woman could be taken by all of the Seventh Year boys and a few of the Sixth Years thrown in for good measure.
She knew her friend Daphne had passed by as it was happening. There was nothing Daphne could do for her at that point as she had already been thoroughly violated and had she tried to stop it she might wind up in the same horrible fix. Daphne tried to be there for her afterwards, but Tracy could not tell her about what went on beyond what Daphne had seen for herself. She could not tell her about what happened at night in Snape's "playpen" and how she was forced to "service" all the boys in her House or how she was ordered to spend nights in the boys' dormitories for year-by-year gang bangs or that she was now an occasional guest slag for Malfoy and his shag club. She could not tell her that Snape violated her several times a week or that apparently Mr. Filch was a frequent visitor to her bed and the beds of the other two girls. She certainly could not tell her about her visits once or twice a month to the Headmaster's Office where she was expected to service him; especially as for those visits she was always polyjuiced into the form of whatever male student had caught the Headmaster's eye or that he had managed to find a few male students who seemed willing to let the old man have his way with them while she was forced to either watch or help. She could not tell her how Snape had used her and his other two "toys" to keep the Hogwarts High Inquisitor out of Slytherin and Snape's affairs. In many ways, servicing that woman was infinitely worse than getting buggered by the Headmaster. Nor could she tell Daphne how she was expected to spend her Sundays in a room over the Hogshead Tavern servicing whomever Snape felt needed service. Twice a day, she was supervised either by Snape or one of his other "toys" in ensuring she attained her female release. She was made to play with herself as they watched. Her Fifth Year became humiliation after humiliation, yet outwardly, thanks to Snapes Potion cocktail, no one aside from her "customers" was the wiser.
The more she read about the bonds, the more she realized that Snape's cocktail was many times worse than being a First Stage Concubine. The firsthand accounts of that bond from girls whose lives were at least as bad as Tracy's told her that the bond in many ways separates the mind from the body. The mind could rebel. The body would not and regardless of what the mind wanted, sex at the behest of or with the bondmate usually ended in an orgasm for the Concubine. That was almost never the case on Snape's cocktail. Even in the mind, many First Stage Concubines soon came to accept their fate. Again, this was attributed to the Bond. Such was not the case under Snape. It almost came as no surprise when that horrible year ended and Snape told her the night before she went home to her family, who were also kept in the dark about what had happened, that as her Magical Guardian he would be selling her off to the highest bidder that summer. It was a last torment, for until she was summoned to become Neville's, she had no idea for certain if she had been sold or to whom.
The "orientation" she had received when she arrived and before she was even told who she was to be bound to had provided her with a glimmer of hope. She wanted to believe that the nightmare was over. She wanted to believe that her Bondmate would treat her like a friend, wife and lover and not an object. She wanted to believe she had a chance to be a person again and to have some semblance of the life she had once hoped to have. Her bonding with Neville had been wonderful and as a result, she was willing to believe and that, she felt, was why she had taken that leap of faith to push this bond to conclusion as soon as possible. That night, she told Neville all that she could about the last year. She was afraid it might put him off or worse, that he might treat her the way she had been treated. Neither happened.
Tracy lay in Neville's arms crying after telling him about what had happened to her the past year. "I … I'd understand," she whimpered, "I'd understand if you wanted to get rid of me now."
"Why would I want to do that?" Neville asked. "Because of what you were made to do?"
Tracy nodded into his chest.
"I'd be a bloody hypocrite if I did that," Neville said.
"Oh?"
"Six of my other ladies were Concubines for at least a year before they came to me: Amber, Penny, Annette, Debbie, Miriam and Amanda. They were all forced by their bond to do things like that. I can't fault them for what their bond forced them to do. I can't fault you for what those potions made you do. So far as I'm concerned, what happened before you came to me is not important. I know it hurt you. But that life is over. According to the others, they don't even dream about that life anymore – not since they bonded with me. This is your life now. As far as I'm concerned you're my wife just as much as Susan and the others are and when you're ready you will also be a mother to our children…"
"Children?"
Neville chuckled. "It seems that my ladies all want more than one … more than two actually. When and how many are up to you. Now what happened to you is important. The Duke's Chief of Security will want to know the details – including names of any who violated you…"
"Why?"
"So we can kill them when the time comes," Neville said as if it was nothing. "Also, the Duchess will probably ask for a recounting of your experiences both before and after you bonded with me. I don't know how graphic she wants it, but she and others are working on a book about these bonds and about Covens and Coven magic. Apparently no one bothered to study this before."
"Covens?"
"Yep. We don't tell you about that beforehand. The British Magicals consider it Dark Magic. We know it's only dark if the Coven itself is dark and the five Covens here are anything but dark.
"We're still learning about Covens. We know a Coven forms when a wizard is magically bound to enough witches. This means Love Bonded and in the basic Concubine Bond the witch is bound to the wizard and not the other way around. But we think the magic can begin to form without that step if all of the witches have strong feelings for the wizard and he for them. Once the Coven forms, everyone is magically bound to all the other members of the Coven."
"Is that why they were – um – with each other and with me during the bonding?" Tracy asked.
"We think so. It seems that within a Coven sexual intimacy knows no specific partner. Having sex with me is not really different than having sex with any of the other bondmates, aside from the equipment and the obvious potential after effects. I know that if my girls are not in my bed, they're in bed with each other and they are not particular with their bed partners. I also know that we are attracted that way to each other, but not to anyone else.
"Susan and I chose to be together. She became my Consort on July 1st, the afternoon before we came here. She knew I had inherited Amber from my father. At the time we had no idea my parents could be cured and House Longbottom passed to me that night. She insisted I bond with Amber as well as I've known Amber my entire life and Amber was my first real friend despite the age difference. When we learned of the others, including you, she agreed we should take you in as well. We chose you over a month ago and knew you'd be joining us. At that time, we had no idea about Covens.
"The Pureblood Elites believe that their was is the best way for magic. It's all rubbish, you know."
Tracy nodded.
"The truth is that Covens may be better, especially if you live in a society with far more witches than wizards. We think that was among the reasons why the Concubine Bond was invented."
"Why are Covens better?"
"First of all, the bond helps us work together for the benefit of our family. There are no petty jealousies or ambitions within the family. I'm not saying there's no ambition, but such ambition is for the family and not the individual in many ways. That means we get along. We do have our arguments and do disagree. It doesn't make us subservient, mindless, opinion-less sheep. But things never get to heated.
"Second, the bond allows us to share our magic in many ways. What's even more brilliant, if one of us has a magical ability or knows a spell that no one else in the Coven can do, we all can develop that ability very quickly. So far, we've just used it to learn spells and such which means we might well get our NEWTs and such early even with all that's going on. We know it works for spells. We think it may work for other things like apparition and animagus transformations and such. Once one of us can do that, the rest can follow in short order."
"Wow!"
"Third, there's a maturation process at least for you girls. We've set the age of Permission at fifteen…"
"Bit young, don't you think?"
"It would be if the fifteen year old is fifteen in all respects. She's not. Emotionally at first and then physically, she will mature towards the Coven average. For my house, it means within a few months or less you will be emotionally at least seventeen and a half. The same will apply to any of the girls under that age and we then think the maturation will slow, but continue faster than normal until you reach an emotional age around twenty-one. You will also mature physically at a faster rate for now and will probably be physically around eighteen in a year or so. The younger girls will take a little longer. The girls who are over eighteen are going to get younger physically until they are around that age, we think. We already see that happening in another Coven, one which has a few ladies over the age of thirty and sourced the girls have found state that this will extend the life expectancy of the older witches. All of this means a far greater likelihood of healthy and very magical children. The sources have reported not one single case of a Squib born to a Coven. Although we don't think it extends fertility"
"Meaning?"
"A witch – any woman really – is born with all the eggs, all the possible chances of a child she will ever have. Every month you have your … um … female issues…"
Tracy giggled at that.
"… you release at least one of those eggs and unless it becomes a child, it's gone forever, never to be replaced. A witch who's almost out of those eggs may become physically younger in a Coven, but we're pretty sure she'll never get those eggs back. Still…"
Tracy thought for a moment. "But if I get older sooner, won't I die sooner?"
"Aside from the troubles back home which could be fatal, we don't think so."
"It almost makes last year worth it," Tracy sighed.
"A few of the girls who went through hell before have said something like that," Neville said. "I'd like to think there's some truth in that."
Tracy had been thinking about how much her life had really changed in the last week since she arrived here. A week ago, she lived in a state of constant dread knowing she was to become a Concubine before the summer was over. Now she lived in almost perpetual hope for her future. She knew this was not unique. Every one of the girls in her Coven whom she had managed to speak to at length had similar feelings about their new life. Teresa and Natasha had walked in during her musings. She knew Teresa was pleased with the way things had worked out for her, although there was no way she ever wanted her former family to know that. Tracy wanted her family to know and was promised they would be invited to move here soon. She did not know how Natasha felt about this new life, but judging by the girl's smile, it was probably sooner.
"You lot ready?" a voice called from the doorway.
Tracy looked up and saw…
"Daphne!" She jumped up and ran to her best friend and hugged her. "What're you doing here? And what's your sister Story doing here?"
"We're here to take you lot shopping, of course."
"No. I mean why are you two here in Charenwell?"
"It should be rather obvious," Daphne deadpanned. "We got lucky. The Death Eaters forced our Daddy to sell us into what became a Coven. I'm now a Black and Story's a Potter. We're both bound to Harry, Duke of Charenwell." She then proceeded to tell her friend and the others how that came to pass. When she finished she added. "So, you lot ready to shop until you drop?"
It was definitely worth it, Tracy thought as she and the others followed their former Housemates out for a day in Pottersport.
A/N: The Turners might show up from time to time. They're not major characters. They're here to provide a form of disinterested perspective on things. Hestia might be more important…
Oh... and I am still working on Life Sucks...
RELATIONSHIP SCORECARD:
If you didn't read the Intro, you missed that. This is so you can keep up with who's with who and how.
Key:
Names in Italics = OC
Gr – Gryffindor, Hu – Hufflepuff, Ra – Ravenclaw, Sl – Slytherin.
SG – St. George's School, PE – Prince Edward School, SA – St. Andrew's, SP – St. Patrick's, SD – St. David's.
(Number indicates last year completed. No number means they finished all seven years.)
P = pregnant.
Harry James Potter, age 16.* HOUSE POTTER
No changes from last posted list – see end of Chapter 66 for last post, Chapter 64 for last full posting and next Chapter for next full posting.
HOUSE BLACK
No changes from last posting.
Bill Weasley, age 25.
No changes from last posting.
Neville Algicyrus Longbottom, age 16.*
18. Teresa Chastain (Murdoch) Longbottom, age 14 (Sl-3).
19. Natasha Brianna (Adair) Longbottom, age 13 (4/12/83) (Sl-2); Concubine Neville (8/16/96).
Fred Weasley, age 18.
No changes from last post.
George Weasley, age 18.
No changes from last post.
Lord Mayor Remus John Lupin, age 36.
10. Coleen Michelle Greer, age 20 (12/20/75) (SP-5); Original Bond (7/27/92); Concubine Remus (8/15/96).
11. Alive Lynn Ives, age 20 (1/21/76) (SA-5); Original Bond (8/3/92); Concubine Remus (8/16/96).
12. Greta Mae Ives, age 17 (8/21/79) (SA-5); Original Bond (7/21/95); Concubine Remus (8/16/96).
Frank Longbottom, age 41.
10. Francine Katherine Moore, age 24 (6/20/72) (PE-6); Original Bond (7/16/88); Concubine Frank (8/15/96).
11. Tamara Yvonne Faust, age 22 (10/19/73) (SD-5); Original Bond (8/7/90); Concubine Frank (8/16/96).
Charlie Weasley, age 23
3. Lisa Faith (Stuart) Weasley, age 23 (SA).
4. Janice Amelia (Brooks) Weasley, age 22 (SG-5).
5. Pamela Hope (Brooks) Weasley, age 18 (SG-5).
6. Tonya Louise Childs, age 21 (12/20/74) (SD-5); Original Bond (8/5/91); Concubine Charlie (8/15/96).
7. Lauren Noel Ellis, age 20 (7/21/76) (PE-5); Original Bond (8/13/92); Concubine Charlie (8/16/96).
8. Mary Louisa Ellis, age 17, (8/5/79) (PE-5); Original Bond (7/27/95); Concubine Charlie (8/16/96).
Arthur Percival Weasley, age 46 (4/12/50).
4. Emma Lucile Dawson, age 23 (2/7/73) (SD); Original Bond (7/16/78); Concubine Arthur (8/15/96).
5. Anna Justine Marsh, age 21 (11/7/74) (SG-5); Original Bond (8/20/90); Concubine Arthur (8/16/96).
6. Constance Maria Marsh, age 18 (8/1/94) (SG-5); Original Bond (8/16/96); Concubine Arhtur (8/16/96).