Chapter 19: Unicorns, Cart rides, and improper wand usage
Saturday, January 14, 1995
With a sigh, Daphne sat heavily on one of the sofas in the Gryffindor Common Room, Susan and Hermione taking a seat on either side.
It was over. It was finally all over. Now, she could focus on healing. She leaned into the double hug as Harry sat on one of the other chairs. A slight pang of guilt started to surface within her. She honestly didn't blame Harry for any of this, and she was truly getting frustrated with her body's and mind's reactions every time he touched her or she saw him naked, which hadn't been as often since everything came to light as she'd either focused on Susan exclusively or looked more at Hermione.
Well, now that had to change.
Harry had assured her multiple times that there was no rush, that healing like this took time, years at least.
The problem was, she didn't have years to wait.
The portrait hole opened and in walked Luna, smiling serenely as if she belonged there, behind her, were several of the Slytherin girls who had been at the trial, along with Tracey and Astoria, who bee-lined straight for Daphne on the sofa. Astoria managed to wiggle herself between Hermione and Daphne, but the brunette didn't mind, as she moved away from the sofa to go and park herself in her boyfriend's waiting lap with a smile.
Several of the assembled Gryffindor students tensed, Ron scowled and opened his mouth to fire off an insult or barb, but a quick wand-cast from Lavender silenced him.
"We just wanted to stop by and say thanks for everything," Imelda said awkwardly. "Hopefully now, with all, or most of, the causes of friction between our houses…" she cast a quick glare at Ron, who scowled back until Ginny elbowed him "…gone, our two houses will be a bit more civil to each other."
"I'm sure things will be easier now." Harry agreed "There's only, what? Sebastian and Blaise left in the boys' fourth-year dorm?"
"Pretty much." Priscilla Wakefield spoke up. "And Professor Sinistra has been leaning on the older students for failing to stop Draco. Slytherin still doesn't have new Prefects, and probably won't get them until next school year."
"Well, the choice for boys will be simple enough," Tracey said.
"Same with Ravenclaw," Luna spoke up.
"Why?" Imelda asked.
"Because of what happened at the Ball, when I was hexed and my mum's dress was destroyed. I can't wear clothes made from anything organic like silk or cotton or leather. If I do, it disintegrates. The twins say they're still working on the counterspell, but I told them there's no rush."
"No rush?" Violet asked.
"I'm getting used to these clothes made of synthetic stuff."
"But…didn't you get stripped naked at the Ball?" Imelda asked, "I sort of remember that but there was so much going on, it was kind of chaotic."
Luna nodded, completely unconcerned.
"I honestly didn't mind. I love being naked actually. It's just a shame it's so cold out, frolicking naked in the snow sounds like lots of fun."
Everyone in the room exchanged incredulous looks. Was this girl mad or something?
"Anyway…I hope you guys don't have anything planned for the next Hogsmeade visit, I've asked my mum to take us all to Gringotts, including you Luna. I figured we could try and get this curse off us using the Goblin's security system." Daphne spoke up.
"That waterfall of theirs? You think that'll work?" Neville asked.
"The theory is sound. That waterfall washes away all enchantment on a person passing through it. Be it the Imperious curse or disguising charms or Polyjuice. If we're lucky it'll wash this curse off us." Hermione said.
"And if it doesn't?" Parvati asked. Hermione shrugged.
"Then we can at least cross that off the list of possible solutions. Remember, it's not just me, Daphne, Susan and Luna that have a spell affecting us, it's Harry as well. And the standard 'fix' for me, Sue and Daph won't work on him."
"So if the waterfall doesn't work on me, well…" Harry added with a shrug.
"You get to spend the rest of your life muff-diving!" Dean said, grinning.
Among the assembled students, Harry could have sworn he heard several rumblings of "Lucky bastard…"
Soon the topic changed to the trial and its outcome.
"So, how long did Malfoy and his cronies get?" one of the older students asked.
"1205 years. All guilty charges, are to be served consecutively. Snape got 1500." Susan replied.
"Merlin…"
"The least sentenced was Nott, who only got 150 years. If he's lucky, he might live long enough to get released, but considering where he's going, I doubt it." Daphne said.
Several of the other students whistled.
"There's probably gonna be pushback, ya know. For all of Malfoy's bluster about his dad, he was right about their family having influence, connections and money. I wouldn't be surprised if he or one of his friends puts a price on your head." Fey Dunbar said.
Harry and his friends exchanged looks.
"That…would be pretty stupid of him. It wouldn't take long for people to figure out who placed the bounty, and Lucius would end up right next to his son." Harry said with a shrug. Then something occurred to him. "Hang on a sec, Malfoy got two counts of Attempted Line Assassination but they only carry a statutory sentence of 10 years each? Shouldn't that have been two counts of attempted murder or at least have gotten longer sentences?"
"The legal system in the magical world is…old. Many sentences for crimes haven't been revised or updated in decades or centuries." Susan said, trying to draw on what she could remember "Basically, the laws were written back when those in power thought that if any of them were to get slapped with such a sentence, they wouldn't be in prison for long. This was back before the Ministry found Azkaban."
"What did they do with convicts before Azkaban?" Harry asked.
"No one is sure, Binns might know, but I doubt he'll ever tell. It was either a prison built and run by the Wizards' Council or another facility they used. Probably the former though, as the Ministry started using Azkaban in 1718, 11 years after the Ministry itself was founded." Susan replied.
"You have to remember, though, Harry, 10 years in Azkaban isn't like 10 years in a muggle prison. Hagrid can a-test to that." Hermione added. "Quite frankly, from what I've heard, many muggle governments would consider the conditions in Azkaban beyond inhumane and probably in violation of several international conventions and violations of Human Rights."
The others stared at her blankly, not quite understanding what she'd said. She rolled her eyes.
"It doesn't matter that he's only getting 20 years for those two counts, even if we ignore everything else. That would still be 20 years in Azkaban. There's no way in hell anyone will make it through that much time in Azkaban completely unscathed. So yes, 10 years for attempting to kill someone might seem lenient, until you factor in where the condemned are going." Hermione finished.
"Think they'll stick them in the Juvenile Low-Security Wing? Or stick them all with the Death Eaters and Dementors?" Neville asked.
"Hard to say, Snape will get the Dementors for company, but I think Malfoy might try to pull things to keep his son and his cohorts away from them," Susan said.
"I didn't even know Azkaban had a Juvenile Wing," Harry said.
"Yeah, there's a low-security wing where underage prisoners, the few that are ever sent there, are kept. It's patrolled by Aurors rather than Dementors, and is supposed to be kinder." Susan said.
The flow of the conversation soon changed and moved away from the grim topic, and Daphne found herself eagerly waiting and looking forward to the visit to the bank. She couldn't wait to show off her family's more exotic heirlooms. This would also give her more time to focus on healing and work out how she was going to tell them about her family…situation.
-=-=-=-
Later that night, Daphne sat on the bed she and Susan shared before she'd even finished drying herself off. Rather than have another group session in the bath, she'd elected for a simple shower to wash the day off of her. While part of her really would have liked to soak in a large bath for a couple of hours while her friends took care of her, she'd just wanted to get it over with and get some much-needed sleep. Though she had tried to make some headway towards her healing already, namely, making a point to openly watch Harry while he also showered — and got a blowjob from Hermione, even though he had protested, saying Daphne was the one who needed all the attention, going as far as refusing Susan's offer to suck him off, insisting that she help relieve Daphne, which only made the blonde feel even more guilty over her knee jerk reactions to looking at him or touching him, something she silently swore to address, hence why she'd done her best to keep her cool while watching Hermione work. However, she did make a point to pay attention to Susan, which the other girl appreciated.
While her attempts had been somewhat successful, Daphne had still felt the twinge of discomfort, quite strongly, while looking at Harry, though she no longer saw Draco's face attached to the body, which in her opinion, was a start. The knowledge that Draco and Snape would spend the rest of their lives in the closest thing to hell a wizard or witch could get to was enough for her psyche to start healing.
She'd left the bathroom feeling more than a little frustrated and not the least bit satisfied however, despite Susan's best efforts, as she had still felt mild unease and discomfort every time she looked at Harry, or rather, his crotch, to the point she'd been too distracted to enjoy Susan's diligence, and was now waving her wand over her hair, casting a charm her mother had taught her to help dry her hair, it was the equivalent of what Hermione called a 'hairdryer', which made a lot of noise according to her.
As she looked over to Harry and Hermione, she again let her eyes roam as she remembered back to those times she'd touched him, given him pleasure, and enjoyed his company. She felt her frustration mount even more at her own body's reaction to just seeing him naked.
'Snap the fuck out of it, Greengrass! It's just a dick, one you've touched dozens of times and sucked probably just as many before you remembered everything. He's NOT Draco, he will NEVER be Draco. Harry cares about you and is willing to do anything to help you. You're going to have to have sex with him eventually, and you're going to want that to be good, right?' she started telling herself, making sure to keep her mental connection to the others muted so they didn't hear her monologue. The fact none of them tried to pry made her appreciate them all even more.
Fighting down her reflexive reactions, she continued to watch, making a point to openly stare at him as he moved to the bed he and Hermione shared, pausing a moment after hugging a naked and still slightly damp Susan before his gaze turned to her. She could tell from the look in his eye that he was concerned and that he felt bad for causing her discomfort, and it made her feel even more guilty over her out-of-control reactions and made her want to get up and hug him, her issues be damned.
"Harry?" She asked she asked quietly.
"Hm?" he asked as he finished waving his wand over himself, drying himself off fully. Their eyes locked and he gave her a gentle smile, which she returned.
"Would it be okay if…you and I shared tonight?"
"Are…are you sure?" He asked. Despite the fact they were all naked, Harry was not letting his gaze drop below her face, even though he was fully within his right to do so, and she was certainly doing so. She paused for a moment, bit her lip, and then nodded determinedly.
"Yes. I'm not going to get over these issues by avoiding them and avoiding looking at or touching you. I'm going to need to in the future anyway. Yes, I know you said we can wait a few years." She said, raising a hand to stop the protest she could already see him starting to make, "But I can't afford to wait that long, for reasons I don't want to get into right now. So for the next few nights, can we…share a bed? And see how well I do just laying next to you?"
Harry stared at her in surprise. He certainly hadn't expected this from the day's events. He cast a quick look at the other two women in the room, both of whom were smiling reassuringly.
"It's okay, Harry. Honestly, I think mixing up who we sleep with is a good idea until we're all back in the same bed, of course," Hermione said.
"Besides, we might have to do that if Luna decides she wants to start staying over." Susan added, "Or any other girls that decide they wanna join in."
"Like who?" Harry asked. The three snorted.
"Seriously, Potter? You haven't seen all the girls in the school eye-balling you? At least those that don't have boyfriends?" Susan asked, rolling her eyes.
"That's a good point, a lot more girls have been eyeing him since November, but oddly, none have tried to approach him beyond the few I said it was okay to…well, besides Ginny." Hermione mused as she got into bed, Crookshanks and Susan joining her, the redhead giggling as the cat began to purr loudly as she settled in, wrapping an arm around him to pull him flush against her large breasts.
"What's the matter Crooks? Hermione's pillows aren't big enough for you?" she asked as the cat settled down against her.
Hermione rolled her eyes as she joined her bed-mate. "Honestly, Crookshanks…you're such a boy." then she looked over to the other bed to see that Harry had finally joined Daphne in their bed, but the two weren't laying as close as they had in the past. Hermione felt a wave of concern for her friend, but relief that she was already starting to heal, and had taken the first steps to doing so. A part of her wondered if maybe even this was a little too quick, but it was Daphne's decision ultimately, and if she thought she could handle it, then so be it.
"Those girls probably aren't approaching him because of us. They're too nervous or something else is putting them off." Susan said with a yawn, "Anyways, enough talk, we're all tired…" She said with a yawn. She was asleep a few moments later.
Soon, the others followed her, Hermione decided to put the question to the back of her mind for another time as her exhaustion and the steady drum of Crookshanks' purrs put her under.
Sunday, January 15, 1995
Fleur Delacour sat at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall, having just finished her dinner.
The Sunday evening edition of the Prophet had arrived, and curiously, she applied a translation charm to the paper and started to read it. While she could read and speak English well enough, she still hadn't gotten rid of her accent, though from what others, specifically the few boys who could be around her without having their brains liquefy, and the one or two girls who could stand to talk to her without looking at her like they wanted to rip her skin off and wear it — though thankfully, she'd stopped getting those looks — had told her that her strong accent was rather appealing.
Malfoy Heir and former Hogwarts Potions Master receive a combined 2705 years in Azkaban!
That was the headline of the front page. The moving pictures showed the faces of all those who had been sentenced, but prominent among them was that foul little rodent that had made her want to roast him the moment he'd leered at her, along with the greasy-haired Potions Master who had made her skin crawl whenever she'd look at him.
Getting a read on all those now condemned with her Allure had been like touching with her senses and magic, something that one would commonly find in a sewer. Being near them had almost made her physically ill from the readings her Allure had given her the few times she'd been forced to get close.
As she read the sordid, horrific details of the trial and everything that had come out during it, she found herself feeling oddly disappointed.
Disappointed that she hadn't killed and eaten every single one of them herself.
As she read on, she thought about the possibility of approaching the Slytherin girls, maybe trying to offer a word of sympathy or support to them, but every time she looked up at the Slytherin table, those girls who met her gaze either frowned with indifference or sent her cold, hostile glares of jealously.
Although a few of the girls Draco had targeted gave her small nods of acknowledgement, she knew she wouldn't make any headway there.
She looked up around the room. Most of the other students gave the Slytherin table mixed looks of sympathy and accusation.
From what the younger Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood, had told her, Professor Flitwick, the half-goblin Charms Master, had stripped his House of its Prefects and was still trying to decide who among the remaining students in his house was worthy of the honour, although she did not elaborate as to why.
It seemed that Ravenclaw was not the only House to lose its Prefects. Slytherin had lost its Male Prefects within the first week of Professor Sinistra taking over leadership of Slytherin, and apparently, she had yet to appoint new ones, so the girls had to pull double duty, which they didn't seem to mind. At least, that was what she'd been able to coax out of the Hogwarts rumour mill.
Further up the table, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, and Margot Smythe read the paper and exchanged looks. They'd kept their heads down since the Ball. Cho thought they'd gone a little too far with destroying Luna's dress and leaving her naked in the middle of the dance floor, and seeing her in the semi-transparent ice dress later had made all of them feel more than a little jealous. They started to whisper among themselves, wondering what their next steps should be. Playing any more pranks on Luna now would be suicide, either getting them suspended or expelled or likely dead if Potter got involved.
Casting a quick privacy charm, Marietta gestured for her two friends to lean in.
"Okay, so now what do we do? We can't go after Loony again, or it'll be all our heads. She's getting close to Potter now, and we can't touch him. So what do we do now?"
"Nothing," Cho said flatly.
"What?"
"We do nothing. We leave Luna alone. I've heard that that hex we put on her is still in effect, she can't wear any clothes made of natural fibres, or it disintegrates in minutes. I also heard that dress belonged to her mum, who died when she was nine."
Smythe snorted "Why are you suddenly developing a conscience, Chang?"
"Because if we're ever found out, it could reflect badly on Cedric and our families! Not to mention it could get us expelled! Marietta, your mum works at the Ministry, right? Just imagine what her friends would say if they found out her daughter got expelled from Hogwarts for harassing a student. Hell, what we did could easily be considered assault. Look what happened to Mister 'I'm the Prince of Slytherin; I'm untouchable because of my daddy'; he just went down for a fucking millennium! I'm not risking that or Cedric's reputation just because I think Luna is a crazy air-head!" Cho snapped, glaring at her friend.
Marietta sat, thinking it over. She hated to admit it, but Cho was right. They needed to apologise to Luna, and quickly.
The three cast furtive glances over to the Gryffindor table, where Luna had once again decided to sit with Potter and his friends. Her gaze lingered on Potter, and she once again was struck by how…good looking he had become over the last few months. It was odd, really. He'd always been handsome, no doubt inheriting his father's good looks, but since November, especially late December, she, and she was sure other girls too, had noticed Harry a little more than before.
She and her two friends had overheard Lavender lamenting the thought that she'd lost her chance to experience Potter's 'magic tongue'. Whatever that meant. Rumours were circulating among the girls that Potter had discovered a rather novel use for his infamous Parseltongue ability if the half-delirious rambling of Padma's sister Parvati were to be believed. And judging by the utterly blissed out 'I've just had the best orgasm of my life!' grin she'd sported for a day back in late November, there might be some truth to it.
Allegedly, there had even been an incident where almost the entirety of Gryffindor Tower had heard what, at the time, sounded like Hermione Granger being brutally murdered. Marietta had scoffed at that. While she was surprised Granger was a Banshee in the sheets, there was no way Harry was that good. But if he was…then she wanted a big piece of that action.
Unfortunately, every time she thought about approaching him, her thoughts, or gaze in this case, were drawn to his now three partners, all of whom seemed to exude a sense of feral territorial threat, as if they would kill any girl who now approached Harry who wasn't already on the 'approved access' list, or something. And evidently, Luna Lovegood was.
It wasn't fair!
And judging by the looks of most of the single girls around the Hall, many thought the same.
The boy in question was currently sitting eagerly devouring a bacon sandwich, blissfully unaware of the numerous female eyes on him. His first night with Daphne hadn't been as uneventful as he'd hoped. There hadn't been any major incidents besides her having a nightmare that he had woken up to, finding her moaning and murmuring in her sleep. According to Susan, she'd had them several times since the revelation of what had been done to her, but Harry was such a heavy sleeper he usually didn't notice, and Susan was the one who helped their friend through those unpleasant nights.
This honestly disturbed Harry, he liked to think he was a lighter sleeper than Ron, who could probably sleep through an earthquake, but he'd been so dead to the world every night since Draco's arrest that he did not notice Daphne's occasional nightmares until he was sleeping next to her. Fortunately, all it had taken was a hug and a murmur of reassurance from him to calm her down before she actually woke up, and he's subsequently woken up that morning with Daphne lying half on top of him, curled up against him, sleeping deeply and soundly, looking rather peaceful.
He'd hated to wake her, but he'd badly needed to pee, and she'd actually groaned in protest and pressed herself against him, burrowing her face into his chest until she'd seemed to realise the large breasts she'd been expecting to find hadn't been there. She'd come awake and sat up so abruptly that she'd woken Susan and Hermione as well. The look of shock and momentary fear that flashed across her face had hurt too. He didn't want Daphne to be afraid of him, ever. She'd quickly mastered herself, however, and tried to mumble an apology, but Harry had reassured her that he wasn't upset, that he understood, and that her healing wouldn't happen in just one night.
She'd smiled at him in thanks and offered to cuddle, but he'd apologised and stated rather bluntly, "If I don't get out of this bed right now, I'll end up wetting it!" which had gotten snorts of laughter from the girls as he'd bolted.
12 Grimmauld Place
Sirius stalked into the Art Room of his family home, containing the family tapestry, his face determined. Within him burned an intense sense of excitement and anticipation. He was looking forward to this. He'd almost done this after Remus had called from the Ministry with the verdict on Draco. Sadly, he hadn't been able to pass on Sirius' message to the little bastard, not that it mattered now, at any rate. His conviction invalidated him as heir. Sadly, he hadn't had any physical evidence to back up the statement he was about to make when he'd first planned to tell his dear mother about Draco's fate, but now, with the morning's edition of the Prophet in hand, he did.
And he was going to relish every second of this.
He'd already filed the necessary paperwork with Gringotts, who would then pass copies on to the Ministry, updating the Line of Secession, just to make sure no one at the Ministry tried to claim the family as heir-less.
Coming to a stop in front of the family tapestry, he scanned it until he found the little picture and name tag of Draco Malfoy, who sneered back at him.
Raising his wand, he aimed it, and with a single thought, the small picture of Draco was turned into a black, charred mark on the tapestry, forever removed. His eyes flicked up to Narcissa's portrait. He briefly considered doing the same to her but decided against it. His cousin had already suffered enough.
"Hopefully, this will make her rethink her whole worldview on Muggle-borns, but I doubt it." He muttered.
Turning, he walked out of the room and headed down to find the covered portrait of his mother. With a flick of his wand, the curtains fell open and she opened her eyes, her baleful glare found him instantly, and she opened her mouth to fire off an insult when he raised his wand and pointed it at her.
"I just thought you might like to know, I just burned off Draco Malfoy's face from the Tapestry. Narcissa's son has been officially disowned. He will never inherit this house, or the vault, or any of our other holdings."
"What?!" Walburga hollered, "Kreacher! Check the Tapestry!"
Sirius smiled grimly as, with a pop, the hated little wretch appeared next to him and glared up at him before turning his mournful gaze on the portrait.
"Filthy blood-traitor master speaks the truth. Filthy blood-traitor master has defaced the family Tapestry. Young Draco's portrait has been burned off."
"Why would you do such a thing?! Narcissa is a fine upstanding young witch! A proud member of the Blacks! Her son would have brought great honour to our house! Honour you have tarnished associating with Blood-Traitors and Mudbloods!"
"Oh, that's right, you don't know." Sirius grinned as he reached into his expanded pocket and pulled out the copy of the Prophet. The results of Draco's and Snape's trials were plastered across the front page. He held it in front of him, letting the portrait read for herself.
"This…this cannot be!" she protested.
"Yep. 1205 years for sexually assaulting six girls at least 30 times, on top of all the other stuff he pulled. Two counts of attempted Line Assassination, one count of casting an Unforgivable, 10 counts of kidnapping, and numerous other crimes."
"Those girls should have been PROUD to have been approached by such a fine young example of breeding!" Walburga shot back, glaring at him.
"Then your standards are the complete opposite of everyone else. That little piece of worthless shit will never set foot in this house. And he certainly isn't the prime example of breeding. If anything, a muggle-born is more pure than him. And I would happily accept a Muggle-born into this house and this family. Hell, I'd happily accept a Veela into this house and family. As for Muggle-borns, well, considering my dear cousin Andi married one…"
"BLASPHEMER! BLOOD-TRAITOR! FILTH! DESECRATION! DISGRACE OF MY LOINS! I SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU WHEN YOU WERE BORN!"
Sirius rolled his eyes as he turned and walked away, after using his wand to pull the curtains back over the hated portrait.
He so wished he could burn that damn portrait, but instead, he'd just have to entertain himself by pissing her off for a while.
-=-
Monday, January 16th, 1995
Wolfram & Hart London Branch
Theophilus Harlow stepped out of the elevator onto the floor that held his office. He hadn't heard from Tempeste since the trial of Draco and his associates two days prior. He wasn't too worried, she was likely buried in paperwork. After all, it wasn't every day that the firm lost a case, but the evidence against Draco was just too strong, and if they had used some of their more…questionable tactics to arrange his acquittal, Draco, at the very least, likely would have been murdered right there in the Courtroom by Daphne's father. The blood feud between House Greengrass and Malfoy was on record, so legally, he would have been allowed to do it. Even if the judge likely wasn't aware of the blood feud.
He wasn't sure if there would be any difficulties with their client regarding the Draco/Snape case, he knew that the British Ministry rarely did appeals. Once you were in Azkaban, you either escaped or died, unless you got a short sentence, which was rare in most cases. Or you somehow got a retrial.
He opened the door to his office and paused when he saw Tempeste waiting for him. She looked pissed.
'Oh bollocks…' he thought.
"What's the matter with you then?" he drawled. Tempeste turned to face him.
"That fucking WANKER!" she snarled, throwing up her hands.
"Which one? There's a lot o' wankers 'ere."
"MALFOY! The fucking son of a bitch KILLED ME!" Thorne screamed in rage.
Harlow raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's unfortunate."
"Is that all you have to say?!" she shot back.
"Well, what'd ya want me to say? You knew what you were gettin' into when ya signed on the dotted line. We all did. Our employment contracts extend beyond death, remember?" Harlow replied as he moved to sit at his desk, and started looking through the files he'd retrieved earlier from Records.
"Of course, I bloody well knew that! What I wanna know is what is going to be done about that arsehole! There has to be some sort of repercussion for a client killing an employee!"
"Lucius wasn't the client. They'll probably log it as an on-the-job hazard or somethin'." Harlow replied, "Anyway if you're dead now, shouldn't you be on your way downstairs?"
"I'm supposed to report to Processing when I'm done here. They let me come and speak to you first, you being my partner in this sideshow of a case and all." Thorne said resignedly.
"You asked to see me? Didn't know you cared." He replied, his tone a little mocking. She scowled.
"Oh fuck off. I just wanted to know if you planned to avenge me or something."
Harlow shrugged. "Employees of Wolfram and Hart die all the time."
Thorne sighed, clearly this topic was going nowhere. "So, what's all this then?"
"Been looking into this Potter kid. He's quite popular. Got a couple of Prophecies written about 'im. One has to do with Tom Riddle, the last of Slytherin's bloodline, though there's enough vagueness in it to suggest it could also be about the Longbottom boy, but all signs point toward it being Potter who is the focus. Now the other is a bit more obscure, we can't pin down if it's about him or not. But what we do know is, there are some powerful players now involved and eyeing this kid."
"Like who? The Senior Partners? What would they want with some random wizard who somehow managed to survive a killing curse to the face?" Thorne asked. Harlow shook his head.
"Not the Partners. Older." Harlow replied.
"The Old Ones? But there aren't any left in this dimension, besides that one in Sunnydale, California pretending to be the town's Mayor. And there's been no activity around the Well for years."
"Nope. Not them neither. Whoever they are, they're keeping themselves relatively on the down-low, hard to pin down, our Mystics and Psychics can't get a lock."
"Is it worth trying to reach out to Riddle? Try and work a deal or arrangement?" Thorne asked. Harlow shrugged.
"Doubt it. Going by his past actions, he's a selfish power-mad idiot. He'd never make a deal with us because he wouldn't trust us. Not that anyone ever should. Plus he'd try to get one over on us and we don't look kindly on that."
The conversation didn't go anywhere after that, and eventually, with a sigh of resignation, Thorne left Harlow's office and walked towards the elevator, where someone was waiting to take her 'downstairs.'
-=-=-=-
Cornelius Fudge sank into his office chair with a heavy sigh. This was turning out to be a disastrous start to the year. The trials of Malfoy, his friends and Severus Snape had been gruelling. He hadn't been able to do anything about Snape, but he had promised his good friend and backer Lucius that he would get Draco freed on technicality. But that hadn't happened. Instead, Lucius' fine son Draco, who Cornelius was sure would have done fine at the Ministry, was now going to be spending the rest of his life in prison.
He hadn't tried to reach out to Lucius, but he knew this could come back to bite him.
A knock at his door drew his attention and he called out for the person to enter. Looking up, he saw his Under-Secretary walking in, a thoughtful look on her face. Behind her was Amelia Bones, who looked decidedly unhappy.
"Yes, Dolores? Amelia?" it was odd, seeing the two of them in his office together. He was well aware that the two women hated one another.
"Minister, I believe we have a problem. Or rather, Hogwarts has a problem."
"Yes…it does." Fudge sighed.
"It seems Dumbledore has lost control of the school. He has allowed delinquency and criminality to fester and go unchecked, and unpunished, for years it would seem. I think it is time for the Ministry to step in to correct these errors in governance." Dolores said. With a sigh, Amelia spoke next.
"As loathe as I am to agree with Dolores, she is right. As soon as the wider public learns the full extent of Draco's and Snape's crimes, they'll want answers, and the Board of Governors will want answers as well, and a response. They'll likely call for the removal and arrest of at least Dumbledore, if not the entire Hogwarts faculty."
Fudge winced. That would not be good press. Dumbledore was nearly untouchable as it was, even if the trials had revealed his apparent dereliction of duty to the school.
"Unfortunately, while the Tournament is in progress, Dumbledore can't be touched."
"We're aware. After the second Task, I'm going to start interviewing the faculty one at a time. I'll skip over Aesop Sharpe, who has just been brought in to replace Snape. He's a former Auror, and was a damn good one before he turned his focus to teaching Potions."
"Why wait?" Dolores asked.
"I would rather wait until after the Second Task, don't want them making a mistake during the planning stages because they're so stressed dealing with me." Bones replied.
"Seems to me that would be the perfect reason to start now, no? I have a suggestion of my own. It's high time the Ministry took a more direct role in the oversight of Hogwarts. To that end, I propose sending a representative to the school to serve as part of its administrative body, not just as a temporary placement during the Tournament. Naturally, I would have suggested dear Crouch, but the man is not well, the stresses of his former job and the Tournament have taken their toll on him." Dolores stated.
Fudge nodded absentmindedly. "Who would you send then?"
Dolores' smile was that of a shark. "Me of course."
"Of course." Amelia snorted under her breath, rolling her eyes.
"In what capacity?" Fudge asked, intrigued. Having his Under-Secretary inside Hogwarts permanently seemed like a very good idea.
"Well, for the duration of the Tournament, I will be part of the judicial committee. As for positions going beyond that, I was thinking Defence Professor, but that position has been filled. I never really had a hand for Potions, but my knowledge of magical history is fairly solid. I dare say I could do a better job of that than Binns."
Fudge sat back, thinking deeply. If Binns hadn't changed from his own time as a student, then it was very likely almost nobody actually did any work in the class and also didn't learn anything useful.
"Well, I see no problem with you taking up a position on the Tournament Committee, but as far as getting a position teaching…I might be able to get you that Defence posting, but you'll have to wait until the end of the year. I'm sure Alastor will want to re-retire once this school year is over."
"I'm surprised you even want the job Dolores." Amelia said, "If what I've heard from Susan is any indication, all the Professors that have held that position for at least the last few decades have never lasted more than a year. They've either ended up fired, in early retirement, in St Mungo's, or a grave. Sure you want to risk it?"
Dolores glared at her colleague who was smirking faintly. She wanted nothing more than to ring Amelia's neck but knew she couldn't. She'd just have to settle for making Amelia's niece's life miserable.
"All failings of lesser Professors, I assure you. Once I take the post, I will stay there."
"Alright, ladies, I'll draw up the paperwork and clear it with the other members of the Tournament Committee and contact Dumbledore. If everything goes well Dolores, you should be on the Committee by at least the end of this week or the start of next."
Feeling satisfied, Dolores turned and walked out, ignoring Amelia, who gave Fudge a last look before she, too, left. Once they were gone, Fudge sighed again and reached for his quill and some parchment. He had some notices to write.
-=-=-=-
A week later, on Monday the 26th, Harry and his entourage noticed the extra face sitting at the Head table in the Great Hall at breakfast.
"What's she doing here?" Susan asked.
"Who?" Harry asked.
"Umbridge." The redhead growled, nodding to the head table.
The others followed her gaze to the garish pink monstrosity sitting at the Head table between Percy and Crouch. Every time she looked up, her beady eyes would search out and lock onto Harry and Hermione. The look in her eyes made Harry's skin crawl and, under normal circumstances, would have utterly killed the erection Hermione and Susan were both teasing with their fingers.
Harry's eyes narrowed; he remembered the woman from the trial and how she'd seemingly been delighted when he'd accidentally admitted to helping Sirius escape. There still hadn't been any blowback from that, and he was a little worried. His gut told him the Ministry was planning something, but for the life of him, he had no idea what.
She was still wearing that hideous pink cardigan that she'd worn at the trial. Her face was round and plump, giving her the rather unflattering likeness of a giant toad. He somehow found the strength to resist muttering "Ribbit", to the amusement of his lovers.
Midway through Dumbledore's announcement, Dolores stood before he finished, cutting him off. He turned and frowned at her, but she ignored him.
"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore. I am here on behalf of the Ministry to ensure the Triwizard Tournament progresses smoothly and, more importantly, fairly. In short, I'm here to make sure any cheating is severely punished, and also to ensure the standards of education and discipline here remain high."
Harry narrowed his eyes as he stared at the woman. It didn't escape his notice that when she said the words 'fairly', 'cheating', and 'discipline', she was looking right at him.
Almost as if she were trying to imply everything that had happened recently was somehow his fault. And it seemed he wasn't the only one who noticed.
"Who the fuck does she think she is?" Susan growled. "Harry did not cheat in the First Task, and he certainly isn't responsible for what's been going on here lately. This woman is going to be nothing but trouble."
"Think she might be a problem?" Hermione asked.
"Hopefully no, though I wouldn't be surprised if she tried to tilt the scores after the Second task against Harry. Fortunately, she's only on the judicial committee, so I'm not sure what, if anything, she can do to affect the rest of the school's operation, though I'm sure she's going to try."
Deciding there was no use worrying over potential meddling from Ministry Stooges, the group at least settled down to eat.
The rest of the week proceeded relatively calmly, thankfully, except for Care of Magical Creatures, where the Unicorn mare that had kissed Harry before started to nuzzle him rather affectionately when he got close enough to pet her. She also allowed Neville to get close enough to pet her, something that surprised everyone else in the class. However, Susan did get a letter from her Aunt that strongly urged her and the others to avoid antagonising Umbrage in any way.
Monday, January 30th
The past week since Umbridge's arrival had been relatively uneventful.
Now here they were, a week later, back in Care of Magical Creatures, and Harry was nervously eyeing the mare. It was the same one; he recognised her now, not only from her look but the way she always seemed to look specifically for him and then nicker loudly in greeting when she saw him.
"If this keeps up, people are gonna start thinking something is going on between me and her." He muttered.
Though he had to admit it, she was beautiful. For a unicorn. The way she swung her head, ruffled her mane, the way the morning light caught her and emphasised her toned, feminine body that just begged to be caressed and petted as she slowly turned round, letting his bare hands trail down through her surprisingly warm and smooth, silken coat of white fur, his fingers feeling the firm muscle beneath. As she fully turned her back to him, Harry was so distracted that he barely even registered the position she'd taken, or that she'd hiked her tail.
"Well? What are you waiting for Harry…can't you see what she's offering you?" A voice seemed to drift through his mind that didn't belong to any of his lovers, he would have thought that odd, if not downright alarming, if he wasn't captivated by the beautiful sight that lay before him. It was suddenly like he couldn't focus on anything but the snow-white rump of the mare before him.
"Go on…touch her…she wants you to…she's wanted this for weeks now…why don't you have a taste as well?" That same mysterious voice whispered through his mind, and he became aware of a warm, strange tingling sensation, almost like what a disillusionment charm felt like, starting at the back of his neck before it quickly spread over his body, and along with that warmth, he felt a rush of arousal as his fingers brushed soft, warm bare skin instead of fur covered muscle, and was about to do as the voice suggested, when he heard a rather abrupt, and horrified; "Mister Potter! What the hell are you DOING?!"
Harry blinked in confusion, the strange tingling warmth that had flooded his body quickly fading, leaving behind cold embarrassment — and to his private horror, a painfully hard cock that was very evident to anyone who bothered to look — as he found himself being presented with the mare's back end. He blinked, confusion and embarrassment rushing through him as he found himself staring at what was normally hidden by the mare's tail, and as if to make it worse, his hands were on either side, his thumbs even gently running up and down the soft, warm lips.
Then he felt the mare rock backwards, then forwards, then back into his hands again, rather insistently, which caused the lips his thumbs had been gently stroking to be pulled slightly apart, and Harry, whether he wanted to or not, got his first look at where unicorn foals came from.
Then he felt the itch on the back of his neck, which didn't last more than a second before a buzzing filled his ear, and he saw something small fly past his head to briefly land on the mare's head. The mare flicked her ears and looked back at him with that same strange, almost sultry look before she stepped backwards, forcing him to take a step back, lest he ended up accidentally eating her out, as well as copping quite the feel.
She looked back at him over her shoulder and snorted, though he wasn't sure what she was trying to tell him.
'Harry James Potter! What the bloody hell are you doing?!' Hermione's voice echoed through his mind rather loudly, and he flinched, looking over at her apologetically.
'Uh…sorry Hermione…I…I don't know what that was…I just lost focus…' he replied, confused.
'And WE lost contact with you. Something blocked our connection to you right as that mare started nuzzling you.' Susan replied. 'Were you seriously about to start fingering or eating out that mare?'
'Why didn't you or someone else just walk over here and stop me then?'
'Maybe everyone was too stunned to respond? Poor Grubbly-Plank looks like she's about to have a stroke.' Daphne replied.
'I don't know what it was when she turned around, I heard this voice in my head telling me to touch her…that she wanted me to do it…' Harry gave a helpless shrug as the mare whinnied behind him, and he turned to face her; she was still looking at him rather strangely.
"What the hell was that?" he muttered, stepping around the mare and backing away from her warily. Several of the other students who had been staring at him started snickering.
"Hey, Hermione! Looks like she's making a move on your man!" Fey Dunbar said, giggling, ignoring the brunette's glare. Then she turned to Harry. "Looks like you got her horny, Harry!" the girl then devolved into fits of giggles, as did several of the other students.
"Alright, class, settle down…settle down…Mister Potter, I think you best keep your distance from that mare." Grubbly-Plank said. The poor Professor looked like she didn't know what to make of the situation.
Deciding to put the mare's odd behaviour out of his mind, Harry turned to focus on the foals that were with her.
The foals were adorable, most of them about the size of a Labrador, though a couple were larger, and most were a brilliant gold. The larger, older ones looked more silver or platinum. With slight apprehension, Harry stepped around the mare, giving her a wide berth as he turned to look at the foals. He wasn't sure if any of the foals were hers, but she did seem rather protective of them, and while the foals did seem naturally skittish, they let the cooing girls approach and even pet them.
"Boys, you can approach too if you wish, Unicorn foals are more trusting of boys than adults, for some reason," Grubbly-Plank said, then she eyed Harry somewhat awkwardly. "Ah, Mister Potter, best not get too close, yes?"
Harry agreed, so he decided to hang back while the rest of the combined Gryffindor and Slytherin students got up close to the animals. Honestly, this class, and most that involved the Slytherins, had become much more pleasant since the trial.
In the last couple of weeks since the trial, Harry had spoken to Sebastian and his sister Anne a couple of times and found them to be rather nice, not fitting the typical Slytherin mould, much like Daphne, Tracy and Astoria, much to Ron's chagrin. A momentary pang of loss stirred within him at that thought. It seemed whatever rift had opened between him and Ron still hadn't healed, and while Ron was no longer giving Daphne the Evil Eye, he still wasn't exactly warm towards her. And the few times he'd talked to Susan, he'd looked no higher than her chest, something that he knew upset her a lot, both from the scowl on her face and the seething anger she barely held back. Though it seemed Ron had found himself a couple of new friends, Seamus and Dean. It was clear to all that Ron was intensely jealous of Harry's situation or his number of partners.
Hermione had told Ron to his face that he could have any girl he wanted, he just had to approach her, court her, listen to her, respect her and not be selfish and boorish. Though it seemed no girl was interested in him.
Sebastian's sister Anne was currently fussing over a silver colt, holding some treats Grubbly-Plank had given them, Parvati and Lavender were currently knelt next to two gold foals and an older silver foal, quietly whispering and cooing to them, giggling and gushing over them as they started to nuzzle the girls' hands and faces.
Harry's entourage were likewise gathered around four golden foals, though from this angle, he couldn't tell which were male or female.
Nobody noticed the small green beetle flitting around between the foals that Susan, Hermione, Daphne, Lavender and Parvati were fussing over.
"Well, aren't you friendly?" Susan giggled as one of the two foals she was petting, a colt, turned and started to sniff her front, starting around her hips; he quickly moved up to her chest, then her neck and face. Then pressed his muzzle into her coat-covered chest. "Aww! What's the matter, cutie? Mummy not feeding you enough?"
"Oh, he's definitely a boy," Anne said, grinning as the silver colt she was petting started to lick her cheek. "Sorry, kid, pretty sure she's dry as a bone." She added, addressing the colt that had buried his muzzle into Susan's coat and was trying to get through her woollen jumper to the fresh meal he could smell under it.
"Actually…I'm…um…not." Susan said, face flushing red, as it quickly became apparent that the foals that Daphne and Hermione were fussing over had also seemingly taken a keen interest in the girls' chests.
"What? Seriously?" Parvati asked as she petted another silver foal, a filly, that thankfully wasn't trying to get at her tits.
"Yeah, we're all…producing. Have been for a while. This is the first time any of us have been around any animals that would feed on milk or would get this close to us. I'm not counting Crookshanks because he's my familiar." Hermione said, her face flushing as the gold colt she was petting while kneeling next to it made a concerted effort to shove his muzzle down the front of her jumper. After getting frustrated with not being able to reach the food he could smell, and the annoying human's hands getting in the way to stop him, the colt had enough of being subtle and just brazenly shoved his face down the front of Hermione's jumper.
There were several gasps, and not just from the now red-faced brunette, as the small colt, who thankfully hadn't started growing a horn yet, shoved his muzzle down the front of her jumper and blouse until his nose and lips touched the soft, warm mounds from where the scent of food was strongest. It was an incredibly tight fit. However, the combined mass of his head and her neck and chest was enough to pull the neck of her blouse and jumper taut, almost tight enough to make breathing difficult. So as a consequence, try as he might, the colt couldn't get to the right spot.
The others were so distracted that nobody noticed the gold colt that had been nuzzling Susan's chest had been paying attention to his herd-mate's actions and, after observing the lack of success, had decided to try and reach the source of food. He dipped his head to Susan's waist, slipped his muzzle under her woollen jumper and lifted it until he was about level with what he was after, then pushed into one of the small holes he could feel until his lips met soft, warm skin, then moved his head to his left, feeling the strange barrier loosen suddenly and the female human gave a surprised yelp and tried to push him away, but he was determined to get to the food.
With a gasp and a yelp, Susan was snapped back to reality, staring in shock at the colt that had shoved its face down the front of Hermione's jumper, only to realise the colt nuzzling her chest had pretty much done the same, but had gotten further. When she tried to push the animal's head away, it pushed back, first to her right, causing a couple of buttons on her blouse to pop open, which allowed the colt to reach the front of her right breast. Before Susan could react, she felt warm air blow over her nipple an instant before she felt a pair of lips close around it, and with a shove that knocked her back onto her arse, forcing her to support herself with both hands, the colt applied enough pressure to start pushing milk from her breast, then he began to suck.
"Oh-holy shit!" Susan gasped, eyes going wide as she locked gazes with the colt, a myriad of emotions flooding her as she tried not to panic, too afraid to push it away in case it bit her, and too startled to react either way as she felt that familiar sensation of being drained, and her face heat up with horrified embarrassment as the colt began to gulp.
Everyone was so stunned and distracted, that they didn't notice a second foal, a filly, approach and manage to copy her companion by working her muzzle into Susan's clothes until, with a yelped "Eeep!" from the redhead, the filly managed to reveal and latch onto — and hungrily suckle — on her full left breast.
The mare snorted and stamped her hooves, but the foals ignored her as they continued to gulp down their free meal.
Daphne was staring, wide-eyed and crimson-faced, unable to tear her gaze away from the highly awkward and embarrassing scene before her, a shudder going through her as the phantom sensations on her breasts told her everything her eyes couldn't. Another phantom sensation also telegraphed something else.
Susan Bones was enjoying the unexpected nursing far more than her expression seemed to indicate.
While she and Hermione had experienced such reactions to nursing since they'd started producing, she had assumed it was because either Harry, Hermione or Susan herself was the cause. The fact it was happening now, by the hungry mouths of two undeniably cute unicorn foals, was surprising, though whether it was Susan's body just reacting to the simulation it had come to associate with her lovers, or if, Merlin forbid, Susan was legitimately enjoying this…and judging by the phantom sensations coming from between her own legs, Daphne could tell she clearly was.
'What the hell, Susan…?' she thought.
'I…! I'm sorry! I can't help it! I get wet when my tits are sucked on! I always have. You know that!' the redhead mentally protested.
'You're always wet these days! We all are!' Hermione added. Her voice, even over the mental link, was higher pitched due to the situation.
A nudge against her chest drew her attention to the foal she'd been petting, her eyes meeting the surprisingly hopeful gaze of the young filly, whose golden fur shone in the early morning light. For the first time in a long while, Daphne lamented the fact that she, Hermione and Susan had stopped wearing bras pretty much entirely since all three of them had started producing. The idea behind that was that they could each get access if they needed it. It had never occurred to any of them that someone, or something else, might also take an interest.
Huffing, Daphne stood abruptly, crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head determinedly.
"Uh-uh. Nope. You're not getting at my boobs. I'm not your mum! Besides, I'm fresh out!"
"Hey!" Hermione yelped, and Daphne turned to see the colt that had stuck his head down her jumper had given up, followed his brother's example with Susan, and was now trying from below after pushing Hermione almost onto her back.
Almost as one, every girl took a step back away from the foals.
"What the hell is it with you guys? First, that dragon flashes Harry her snatch, then that mare snogs him a couple of weeks ago, then she tries to shove her own fanny and arse in his face, and now the foals are breastfeeding from you!" Parvati said as she and Lavender backed away from the silver foal they'd been petting, each girl eyeing it warily as it turned to face them, its eyes clearly showing a mixture of excitement and sudden sadness. Her eyes went wide as saucers when she noticed something…hanging…between the colt's back legs. 'Oh sweet Merlin!' she thought.
"Oh my, he's a big boy…" Lavender said. Then giggled.
Parvati turned to stare, slack-jawed jawed at her friend, who was looking at the colt in a way that wasn't entirely hesitant; her friend's tone of voice suddenly made Parvati feel concerned.
"This doesn't normally hap-happen-I—Eeep!" Hermione yelped as the colt that had been foraging for food finally found what it was after, leched onto a nipple, and started suckling, his mouth filling quickly with warm, delicious milk which he hungrily gulped down. Hermione's eyes went wide as dinner plates, her face even redder, her mouth falling open in a silent gasp of shock, embarrassment, and much to her shame, pleasure.
"Not you too…" Daphne muttered, staring at the brunette incredulously.
"What the hell?" Harry muttered as he approached the group. The foals turned to face him and eyed him curiously, and a couple of the older silver fillies approached to give him curious sniffs. They nickered in greeting and gave him a look that he could have sworn would have been flirtatious on a girl's face. He eyed them warily. "You ladies aren't gonna try and snog me, are you?"
"They might, considering what their mum just let you do!" Seamus chuckled.
"Is she even their mum?" Dean asked, Seamus shrugged.
"Bugger, if I know, mate, but it's obvious she has a thing for wizards or one in particular. I don't know whether to feel jealous or relieved that it wasn't me she made a move on."
"I hate to sound like a broken Wireless, but I feel I have to ask again. What is it with you guys? The animals weren't like this right after you all got hit, but now they're all over you?" Lavender asked as she subconsciously covered her chest with her arms when she noticed one of the other foals giving her a hopeful look. Harry and Daphne gave a helpless shrug.
Ron, meanwhile, had decided to do something brave, or foolish, depending on who you ask, and had walked forward, rather purposefully towards the mare.
"If this mare is handing out free snogs and feels, I'm not gonna turn one down, even if it's from a horse."
The rest of the class, Slytherin and Gryffindor — and their still stunned-into-paralysis Professor — stared at him in shock. Many, not believing those words had just fallen from his lips.
Harry stared at him as well, though he did switch his gaze to the aforementioned mare, who looked rather annoyed all of a sudden. Almost as if she understood what Ron had said. She was now giving him a rather dirty look as he approached, and Harry wondered just how intelligent these animals were if they could clearly understand English. The mare flicked her ears with annoyance, then as Ron approached, she turned her back and raised her left rear hoof.
"Uh, Ron?" Harry said, fearing for his friend's well-being.
"What? Hope she's not expecting me to kiss her arse or fanny." The redhead replied.
"No, she's about to kick you," Neville warned.
"Why would she—" Ron's question was cut off when the mare's leg shot out and she did exactly that. Fortunately, her aim was too low for her hoof to connect with its intended target — his crotch — her ankle joint, however, did. It might not have been as serious a blow as it would have been had her hoof made contact, but there were still several hundred pounds of force behind the blow that did connect.
Ron froze, eyes going wide, face going white, as a high-pitched screaming whine clawed its way out of his throat as he dropped, his hands going between his legs as he fell.
That, more than anything else that had already happened, seemed to be enough to finally get Grubbly-Plank's brain to reboot, and she frantically, finally, moved forward, pushing the foals away from Susan and Hermione, though it seemed they were just about finished anyway.
"Class dismissed! Miss Bones, Miss Granger, comport yourselves at once! Mister Longbottom, Mister Potter, would you please help Mister Weasley to the Hospital Wing?"
"Sure," Harry said, as he gave his redheaded friend a roll of the eyes before stooping to help him up, along with Neville, who gave the mare a hesitant look. She looked back at him and nickered in response, the very picture of an innocent, docile animal.
"Told you," Neville said as he helped pick up Ron.
"Shad'up…" Ron wheezed and groaned as he was lifted. His face was a mask of pain. As they were heading away, Daphne was helping Susan and Hermione to their feet while also helping them get presentable. "This'll be all over the castle by dinner tonight, if not by lunch." The blonde muttered.
"Not our fault!" Susan protested, her face still flushed. "Maybe if you'd done a good enough job draining me this morning, there wouldn't have been enough for them to get." She replied, still in shock. Daphne gave her a sideways glare.
"Excuse me, I did drain you. And so did Harry. You produce the most out of all of us. It's not surprising, considering the Quaffles you're packing. And I honestly thought I had. Besides, you were getting off on it, even more than Hermione was."
Susan turned and gave her lover a wide-eyed stare "Excuse me? Did you just compare my breasts to Quaffles Daphne Greengrass?"
"You know what I mean," Daphne said as they started to make their way towards the castle doors and then into the warm corridor, followed by the rest of the students who were all silently, eagerly listening in. "Besides, you were getting off on them sucking your tits. You both were."
"Well, we are under the effects of a curse that leaves us in a near-constant state of arousal, Daphne. And besides, it's how our bodies have conditioned themselves to respond to nipple stimulation. It has nothing to do with breast-feeding baby unicorns, no matter how cute they were." Hermione pointed out, that somehow she and Susan hadn't completely flipped out yet, but part of her knew that was coming, like a delayed response.
'Still felt good though, didn't it?' Daphne shot back mentally. Hermione hated to admit it, but yes, it had felt good. Very good. So good in fact, it was even bringing up the faint memories of those strange thoughts she'd had back before the First Task, the ones where she imagined herself just mounting him and riding him until she was pregnant. For a moment, she paused and wondered if the foals suckling her breasts had started to awaken her maternal instincts but then shook it off. Harry, Susan and Daphne suckled from her daily. It didn't mean anything; it was just some randomness the foals had decided to do.
'Then why didn't you and Susan stop them?' a small voice asked in her mind. She honestly didn't have a response.
-=-
Outside the castle, beyond the grounds, just beyond the Anti-Apparation ward line, a tiny green horned beetle landed on a rock before its form shifted and it grew into the form of Rita Skeeter, wrapped in a warm winter coat. She turned and looked back at the castle in the distance, and a smile curved her lips. Soon, her shoulders started to shake; then the first giggles came; those giggles became a chuckle, which turned into a cackle, which soon turned into roaring laughter as she arched her head back and howled with mirth.
"CHAOS!" she yelled at the top of her voice, her face a mask of almost insane delight. Indeed, if anyone were to see her at that moment, they would surely have thought her insane. After a few moments, her manic laughter turned to gasping cackles as she tried to calm herself down enough to Apparate back to the Prophet. Finally, feeling she'd calmed down enough, she turned on the spot and vanished with a pop.
-=-=-=-
Barnabas Cuffe threw down the papers ready for the presses Rita had just given him and glared up at her as she smiled back at him calmly.
"We can't print this!" He scoffed, gesturing down at the front page, which proudly displayed Susan and Hermione on the ground while several unicorn foals happily nuzzled their chests, with the headline proudly declaring:
"Hogwarts Care of Magical Creatures Class becomes Unicorn Nursery!" And the alternatives, such as "Hogwarts students breastfeeding unicorns!" And "How NOT to flirt with a woman, of any species, featuring Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley!"
The latter of which was accompanied by the moving picture of Ron approaching an unhappy mare, only for her to turn around, raise a hoof and deliver a rather powerful kick to the boy's family jewels, while the other two papers proudly displayed Susan Bones and Hermione Granger on the snow-covered ground with unicorn foals eagerly suckling at their chests.
"That last heading is the only one we can run with that won't result in Amelia Bones breathing down my neck!"
Rita snorted, "Oh please Barney, you've printed more salacious articles than those."
"And got a visit from Potter telling me to keep you on a leash." Her boss countered with a growl. "I'm warning you on this one Rita, publish this article, and I'll either have to fire you or hand you over to Bones when she comes knocking. And I'm sure she'd love to get her hands on you and find out how you get all these 'scoops'. How do you do it anyway?"
Rita tilted her head, considering whether to bother with a straight answer or not.
"I use the Pensieve we have, and take the photos from that."
"Well, that would explain why no one sees you, but how do you even get the memories? I know you don't have an invisibility cloak, and Disillusionment isn't that good." Cuffe sat back, folding his arms.
"I have my methods," Rita replied.
"These 'methods' wouldn't happen to involve you being an Unregistered Animagus, would they?" Cuffe said with a smirk. Rita blinked. The look of surprise told him enough.
"How did-"
"I hear things, rumours, whispers, and you always seem to be able to get shots of people in extremely compromising positions, like that photo of Potter and his girlfriend in that corridor that prompted his little visit to my office. There was no way you weren't seen unless you were a literal fly on the wall. Now, if this article about Bones and Granger getting their tits sucked by foals gets out, I'll have Potter, probably his solicitor, AND Bones hunting me down, and I would have to tell Bones how you got the information for that 'expose' considering you've been barred from Hogwarts by Dumbledore. I'd also have to tell her that you're Unregistered and hope to god she doesn't charge me with harbouring you. To say nothing of the enemies you've no doubt made over the years. Once it gets out you're an Animagus, you'll be a marked woman."
"They'd be welcome to try!" Rita growled. Barnabas rolled his eyes.
"Find something else, Skeeter. We aren't printing any of this. Go over my head, and you're done here."
Rita glared at him, before snatching up the papers and storming out of his office. Barnabas sat back and sighed, wondering what he was going to do with that woman. Firing her was risky, considering the blackmail she would no doubt claim she had on him and everyone else in high society.
-=-=-=-
As Hermione had predicted, the school was abuzz with gossip about what had happened in Care class that day by the time afternoon classes started. Hermione and Susan had resorted to borrowing Harry's cloak to get around the school without being cornered or to avoid being laughed at, but that still didn't stop them from overhearing the whispers from the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and older and younger Slytherin and Gryffindor students, some of whom even resorted to making horse-like noises around Harry, which he did his best to ignore.
The true shock of what had happened hadn't sunk in right away, it had only been around the end of lunchtime when the full reality of what both of them had gone through finally hit them like Bludgers, and on the way to Fourth Year Arithmancy class, both Hermione and Susan had gotten overwhelmed with the sudden reality of what had happened and had fled to their quarters. Harry had followed them, and upon seeing the distress both of his lovers were in, asked Dobby to pass a note to McGonagall and Pomfrey, informing them that Hermione and Susan had gone through something rather traumatic and would need an exemption to miss their lesson for the day.
Dobby had done so and had appeared a few moments later with both the Mediwitch and their Head of House in tow.
"Dobby, please pass on a note from me telling Professor Vector that Miss Bones and Miss Granger will not be attending her lesson today," McGonagall said, passing a hastily written note to Dobby.
"I'll be sure to pass on any work we're assigned," Daphne said as she quickly left. McGonagall nodded and then turned to Harry.
"And you need to get to Divination Mr Potter. I know Sybil can be…trying, but that is not an excuse for you to miss lessons. Now scoot."
Harry gave Susan and Hermione concerned looks, before leaving.
Once he was gone, McGonagall sighed as Poppy came in with some potions on a tray.
"Well…this term is off to a fine start. First, that mare snogs Potter, then that trial and now this…"
"How's Professor Grubbly-Plank?" Hermione asked, taking and downing a calming draught.
"She quit."