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Chapter Text

“Excuse me?”

“Excuse me?”

“HARRY! EXCUSE ME!”

Harry jumped and spun around as he realized someone was talking to him.

“Er...” Harry squinted at the girl, a Hufflepuff witch, a year older than him, maybe? She couldn’t be older than fifth year. She was pretty, really pretty. She had a dark tan, despite it being winter, long honey blonde hair in loose waves around her shoulders, interesting dark brown eyes, and a few freckles across her nose.

Actually, Harry wasn’t sure how he’d never noticed her before. Or, at least, had her pointed out to him by Ron or Seamus when they were discussing ‘hottest witches in Hogwarts’ (only out of Hermione’s earshot, as she heard them once and they’d all been too scared to sleep for days).

Harry straightened up out of his slouch, ran a hand through his hair, and hoped his smile was confident instead of nervous. “Yes?”

The girl smiled prettily and offered her hand to him. “Hello, I’m Amber Burdette.”

“I’m Harry,” Harry said, hesitantly shaking her hand.

“I know,” she said. Harry got the feeling she barely refrained from rolling her eyes.

So clearly he was making a great first impression.

“I saw your last match, you’re an excellent flier,” she said.

Harry scowled. Apparently this was his second impression, and it was going as well as his first.

“You mean the match where I fell off my broom and Cedric won?” Harry asked, still quite bitter over it. “Yeah, I was really excellent then, thanks.”

Amber laughed, as if Harry were funny instead of rude. “You would have won if it weren’t for the dementors,” she said.

Harry gave her a deadpan look. “Then you weren’t watching properly, Cedric had me beat.”

“Well... you looked wonderful as you fell?” Amber snorted, causing Harry to relax from his tense and defensive stance.

“Gee, thanks,” he grinned. He looked around the rather deserted corridor she stopped him in and felt a small swoop in his stomach. “Er, was there something you wanted? Or were you just saying hi?”

“Something I wanted,” Amber said. She flicked her hair back with a small shake of her head and turned a blinding smile on Harry. “I wanted to ask you if you had a girlfriend?”

Every nerve in Harry’s brain short-circuited.

In fact, the ones reminding him to breathe took quite some time to function normally.

“No,” Harry choked out with a heavy whoosh of air and a fierce blush on his face. “Not- no... no I don’t.”

Amber’s eyes got a twinkle in them, as if Harry’s response made her happy instead of amused from his stunned face. “Wonderful, then I wondered if I might proposition you for a deal?”

Ron is never going to believe me...

“A... deal?” Harry said, realizing that her question had actually not been ‘oh Harry, you’re so handsome, let’s run away together?’ “What kind of deal?”

Harry still held a small measure of hope that Amber was interested in his singleness because she thought he was handsome (even though he wasn’t) or brilliant (hardly) or interesting (...that was fair). He was thirteen, he’d never been asked out before, maybe they always started with ‘a deal’.

“My friend and I are in a bit of a bind,” Amber said slowly, emphasizing the word ‘friend’. “And we heard that you’re quite kind and selfless, and that you frequently go out of your way to help others.”

This seemed more and more less likely to end in a passionate snog and romantic declarations of true love, but Harry’s curiosity had been piqued.

“I don’t know about selfless or kind, but if there’s a way I can help you and your friend, I’ll do it,” Harry shrugged. “Is everything alright?”

Amber’s smile warmed, as did the look in her eyes. “I’m going to let you in on a secret.” She leaned her head closer to Harry’s and dropped her voice to a whisper. “I’m a lesbian.”

Which roughly translated to:

No, Harry. There will be no passionate snogs nor romantic declarations of true love.

“Er... congrats?” Harry whispered back. “Why is it a secret?”

“You really were raised by muggles, weren’t you?”

Harry scowled a bit. It was fine if she wasn’t interested in him, he’d honestly just let his hormones run wild for a moment there, but she didn’t have to act like he was stupid.

“I mean, I know some muggles are weird about it, but surely nobody here cares,” Harry said, a bit sharper than necessary. They were all magic, all ‘abnormal’ by muggle standards. Some of the witches at Hogwarts had purple hair, some were lesbians, who cared?

“You’re wrong,” Amber said softly. “Most of us have to hide our sexuality, hide our partners, hide our love, because it’s very looked down on.” She sent a pointed look to the candelabra on the wall. “Witches and wizards are quite behind on times.”

Harry felt a pang of empathy for this girl. Who knew better than almost anyone how it felt to hide who you were in the dark?

“Well...” Harry cleared his throat. “That’s bullocks.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Amber’s smile turned a little nervous and Harry suddenly remembered that this whole conversation started with her asking him for a deal. “Because my parents don’t know about my girlfriend, and they’d be quite furious if they did, so... so I wanted to know if I could possibly tell them that you and I are together?”

Harry blinked at her for a very long moment. “You want to tell your parents that you’re dating me so they don’t know you’ve got a girlfriend?”

Had he heard her correctly?

“Please, Harry?” she asked. Her eyes were suddenly wet and Harry was horribly uncomfortable. “You wouldn’t have to do much. Just pretend like we’re dating in front of some of our classmates so they can tell their parents, maybe go to dinner with my family a time or two over the summer, let me hold your hand in the corridors? Please? I can help you with homework or anything you want?” A small tear trickled out and zigzagged down her cheek slowly. “They’re talking about marriage contracts if I don’t find someone ‘propers’.”

“Marriage contracts?” Harry yelped. “They just- what? Sell you off to the highest bidder?!”

“The bidder with the best pedigree,” Amber spat, half furious and half obviously terrified. “I just thought... maybe if they thought I was dating Harry Potter that they’d back off. And- and you just seemed like someone I could trust.”

“Because I’m famous?” Harry said ruefully.

“No.” Amber shook her head and smiled softly. “Because I’ve never seen you be unkind to a single person or creature before.”

Harry bit his lip as he considered Malfoy.

“Except Malfoy, of course,” she said factually, somehow guessing Harry’s exact thoughts. “I did mention that he’s at the top of my parents’ wish list for husbands, didn’t I?”

“Amber,” Harry held his hand out and smiled brightly, “do you prefer to be called babe or sweetheart?”

***

“Morning, Hermione.”

“Morning, Harry.”

“Morning, Ron.”

“Morning, ma... mate,” Ron breathed. He looked over from his breakfast to see Harry and Amber standing behind the bench, hand in hand.

“Budge up,” Harry told Ron cheerfully. “Guys, this is Amber. Amber, Ron and Hermione.”

“Hello,” Amber said, just as cheerfully as Harry. “Lovely to meet you.”

Hermione scooted over easily, smiling warmly at Amber, but Harry had to swat Ron’s head to get him to quit gaping and move.

It was horribly uncomfortable for a minute while everyone seemed to be staring at them. Then Amber cleared her throat and smiled at Harry, “Do you prefer tea or juice in the mornings?”

“Juice, but let me get that,” Harry said hastily, reaching for the pitcher before she could.

Just because it was a fake relationship didn’t mean that Harry wasn’t going to be an excellent fake boyfriend.

“Do you want juice, tea, or water, babe?” he grinned, ignoring the looks of shock his housemates exchanged.

“I’ll have whatever you’re having, darling,” Amber winked.

It was almost funny that the hardest part of their relationship negotiation had been deciding what ridiculous name Amber could call him.

‘Dear’ was what Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon called each other.

‘Sweetheart’ sounded girlie.

Harry wanted to call her ‘babe’, so she obviously couldn’t call him that.

‘Baby’ was ridiculous.

And ‘love’ seemed like they were moving too fast. A sentiment that Amber about laughed until she had tears in her eyes when he shared it.

So ‘darling’ it was.

“So... uh... you two are...?” Ron waved his fork at Harry and Amber with an incredulous look on his face. “Dating?”

“We are,” Amber said with a sweet little tilt of her head on Harry’s shoulder.

“And how did you two meet?” Hermione asked with a shrewd look in her intelligent eyes.

Amber blinked.

“Lupin,” Harry said quickly, thinking of the first place he could that he went without Ron and Hermione. “Er, Amber is taking extra classes with Lupin too. We met there and just clicked,” he shrugged.

Ron looked insultingly disbelieving, but Hermione was smiling so wide that Harry imagined her face had to be sore.

“That’s wonderful,” Hermione said, sounding as if she truly meant it.

“Isn’t it?” Amber said, giving Harry a dopey smile and laying her head on his shoulder. “Harry’s the best.”

***

Over the next few days it seemed as if Harry and Amber were a hot topic of gossip in the halls.

Harry’s housemates had never found him more interesting.

The Hufflepuffs had never been so blatantly kind to him.

Even Malfoy and his cronies didn’t have anything negative to say when they saw Harry and Amber walking through the corridors, hand in hand.

And the more Harry got to know Amber, the more he forgot they were fake-dating and the more it just felt like a very affectionate friendship.

“You’re very cuddly,” Amber laughed. They had been sitting together in the library in a very comfortable loveseat hidden back in a corner with bookshelves on runes and Harry had been laying against her while she studied.

He straightened up quickly and his neck heated in embarrassment. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“I didn’t say I mind,” Amber said, her eyes on her book. “You’d make an excellent boyfriend if I weren’t terribly gay.”

Harry laughed and relaxed back against her side once more. He peeked at her book over her shoulder, but shook his head when he didn’t understand a word it said.

“Why’d you take runes?” he asked curiously.

“Because I want to do something in curse breaking after school,” she said softly, as if admitting something shameful. “It’s a competitive field, but... but I think I’d love it.”

“I know a curse breaker!” Harry said brightly. “Bill Weasley, Ron’s brother. Maybe- maybe you can come to Ron’s house this summer with me? And meet him? He could tell you about it. I’ve never met him, but Ron went to Egypt with him last summer.”

“You are my favorite boyfriend ever!” Amber declared, her eyes brightened by Harry’s statement. “Okay, so! We’ll have to get a schedule together. I want you to come meet my parents and my brother, then I want to meet your family of course, and then we can go to Ron’s as well!”

“Er...” Harry stiffened and ducked his head. “Probably not my relatives. They... they don’t like magic much.”

And they’d probably kill him if a witch showed up to ‘meet the family’.

Amber gave Harry a curious look then snuggled up firmly beside his side, pulling him back against her. “Well, I’ll come meet Ron’s family then.”

Harry felt a wash of gratitude at the way she didn’t pry and just let the tense moment pass. He was beginning to relax once more when Amber looked up and let out a happy noise.

“Katherine!” Amber cried. Her entire face lit up as a petite girl with pale skin and two long dark brown braids wearing a Slytherin tie walked straight to where they were seated together. “Come, sit!”

Harry went to git up, but Amber merely nudged him over, leaving space for the witch to sit on her other side.

“Hello,” Katherine said to Harry after she sat primly next to Amber. “Katherine Cain.”

“Harry,” Harry said politely.

“I know,” Katherine drawled, sounding much like Amber did when they first met. “I wanted to find you, and tell you thank you.”

“You’re... welcome?”

Katherine and Amber both laughed, which made Harry feel rather stupid. Amber must have seen that though because she quit laughing quickly, though she was still smiling.

“Harry, this is Katie,” she said.

Katie...

Katie...

“Oh!”

Katie.

Harry instantly scooted away from Amber. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” he told Katie, or Katherine, or whatever she went by. “And... er... you don’t have to thank me,” he stammered. “I should probably apologize to you.”

Katie/Katherine quirked an amused brow at Harry. “For keeping my girlfriend from being contracted out to some pureblood prat? You truly are as selfless as Draco says, aren’t you?”

“Drac— Malfoy says I’m selfless?” Harry asked.

He wasn’t sure what was more shocking—

Meeting your fake girlfriend’s actual girlfriend or hearing that your bitter archenemy thinks that you’re selfless?

“Technically, he calls you Saint Potter, but I presume it’s a similar sentiment.”

Aah.

That made more sense.

Harry snorted. “Marriage contracts are insane. I can’t believe your parents were going to do that,” he told Amber.

“Not anymore, thanks to you,” Amber winked. “My mother is very pleased with my ‘upstanding courtship’.”

Harry laughed, but Katherine (she introduced herself as Katherine, and she didn’t look much like a Katie anyway) didn’t look too amused. He thought maybe it was because of what Amber’s mum said, until Amber sighed and clasped Katherine’s hand.

“I told you to go find you a Harry,” she told Katherine softly. “There’s still time.”

“There are no more Harry’s,” Katherine sneered. “You took the only one willing to do this.”

“Don’t be upset with me because your father is insane,” Amber said tensely.

Harry was beginning to think he should just leave honestly. Fake girlfriend or not, he wasn’t going to stick around to listen to an actual lovers spat. But then Katherine deflated and laid her head on Amber’s shoulder.

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “It’s just... the closer I get to fifteen the more I think we should cut our losses now.”

Harry was prepared to get up and slip away, but his damned incessant curiosity struck again. “Sorry, but what happens when you’re fifteen?”

Katherine rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. “My father finds me a proper husband to begin courting.”

Harry felt a brief flash of relief that Hermione’s parents were muggles. Sure, it made her life more difficult at Hogwarts, but at least they’d never marry her off.

“What is wrong with your parents?!” he cried. “Muggles don’t do this crazy stuff!”

The girls gave him nearly identical looks of misery.

“We just need to make it until we graduate,” Amber said, trying to cheer up her moping girlfriend. “Surely we can find some nice boy to pretend to fake date you in the meantime?”

“Oh! I know! What about Neville?” Harry offered immediately. Neville was the nicest guy in the entire bloody castle. “Neville Longbottom? You could tell your father you’re dating him! He’s even a pureblood!”

Harry was rather impressed with himself for this stroke of pure genius until Katherine snorted.

Rudely.

“No offense,” she said, “but my father would marry me off tomorrow if I told him I was dating Longbottom.”

“Neville is the nicest guy I’ve ever met,” Harry said shortly. “And he’s one of my best mates.”

It was a bit of a stretch. Harry liked Neville, but they didn’t exactly hang out much. Neville was in to plants and Harry was into...

Well.

Everything usually.

Currently he was rather focused on creating a patronus, waiting for Black to be captured or to confront him, and his fake girlfriend. Which was a rather heavy course load honestly.

“I’m not insulting your friend,” Katherine said. “I’m saying my father would despise it.”

“What about Ron Weasley?” Harry suggested. “He’s... well, he’s a pureblood? He’s nice too.”

And he would hate being in a fake relationship. Ron, and Seamus, kept talking about Amber’s physical traits and trying to get Harry to describe them until he threatened to tell Hermione.

“He’s also from a family famous for being blood-traitors,” Katherine scoffed. “And I’d prefer to not be drooled on by some straight boy.”

Harry nodded. That first point was rude, the second point was entirely fair. Katherine was just as pretty as Amber and Ron would definitely drool on her.

“I’m sorry,” he told Katherine truthfully. “I’d offer to fake date you too, but I’m already fake committed to Amber.”

“It’s fine,” Katherine sighed and looked rather despondent. “Perhaps I’ll simply run away.”

“Or...” Amber had a thoughtful look on her face and a spark of mischief in her eyes. “Or you could date Harry. Your father wouldn’t dare publicly critique the Boy-Who-Lived.”

Harry grimaced at the moniker, but Katherine slowly sat up and turned a speculative look towards Harry.

“That... that could work,” she said slowly. “My God, Amber, have I told you that you’re a genius?”

“Not recently,” Amber said smugly.

Harry hated to be the one to pop their bubble, but he had to point out the flaw in their logic. “But everyone knows I’m with Amber,” he said. “It doesn’t exactly make sense that I’d have one girlfriend, let alone two girlfriends. Especially not ones that look like you two.”

“Oh, he’s modest too,” Katherine murmured. She narrowed her eyes while her smile grew. “Harry, how would you like to be a dual beard?”

“I can’t grow one,” Harry said morosely. “I tried.”

“This is going to be brilliant,” Amber laughed. She slung her arms over them both and gave Katherine a wicked smile. “Harry prefers to not be called ‘sweetheart’ as he finds it horribly emasculating.”

***

The next morning, even Snape looked shocked as Harry sat down at the end of the Slytherin table, Amber on one arm and Katherine on the other.

“What the bloody hell is wrong with witches in this school?” Malfoy hissed, his poncy voice carrying down to where Harry sat with his ‘girlfriends’.

“Toast?” Harry asked Amber with a wide smile.

“Sure, thank you, darling.”

“Katie?” Harry offered the plate to Katherine.

“I’d love some, sweetheart,” Katherine said, her eyelashes fluttering coyly.

Harry was pretty sure that the sound of head hitting the table was Malfoy’s, and, sure enough, he glanced down the table curiously and was greeted with a lot of surprised faces and the back of Malfoy’s head.

***

“Harry, we need to speak with you.”

Harry looked up from his defense textbook to see Hermione and Ron both giving him ‘very serious’ looks.

“Alriiiight,” Harry said slowly. He closed his book and tried to smile at them, though it probably looked more like a painful grimace. “What’s up, guys?”

Hermione sat next to Harry on the common room sofa they’d claimed for themselves back in first year and Ron folded himself up on the floor in front of him.

Considering this was the first time Harry had seen Hermione and Ron in the same room without screaming since Crookshanks killed Scabbers, he assumed something terrible happened.

“Harry, people are... talking,” Hermione said gently. “They say you’re dating two girls at the same time.”

“Oh.” Harry laughed, relieved at the direction of the conversation. “Yeah, I am.”

“Bloody hell,” Ron breathed, an inkling of what looked like respect in his eyes. “And they know about each other?”

“I mean... yeah?” Harry said, his brows furrowed. “They’re friends?”

They were quite a bit more than friends, but that wasn’t Harry’s secret to share.

“You’re my hero,” Ron laughed.

“It’s not funny!” Hermione snapped at him. She turned to Harry and her voice became more gentle. “Harry, don’t you think it’s rather unfair to them to be dating them both at the same time?”

Harry snorted. Honestly, if anyone was being treated unfairly in their situation, it was him.

He didn’t know a single bloke in the world who wanted to watch two girls snog each other while he awkwardly tried to study.

“No,” he answered Hermione drily. “I think they’re happy, so who cares?”

Hermione huffed while Ron laughed and Harry was left rather confused about the whole situation.

***

“Evening, Harry, and...” Professor Lupin trailed off as the two witches followed Harry in to the classroom.

Harry had told them that he’d rather they not come, since it would be highly embarrassing if he fainted in front of them, but they’d insisted. For their ‘cover story’ supposedly.

And they were bossy.

Harry adored them. They were like... like older sisters if he had older sisters he had to pretend to date to avoid having them married off to some pretentious prat.

So not much like sisters at all really.

“Miss Burdette, Miss Cain, I didn’t know you’d be joining us,” Lupin said politely, despite the odd twitch in his lips.

“We can sit quietly and just watch, sir,” Amber said sweetly. “Harry just told us that he had extra lessons with you and we,” she batted her eyelashes at Harry, “wanted to spend as much time with him as we could.”

Lupin didn’t laugh, but he looked close to it. “Of course,” he said. He gestured to a cluster of desk chairs. “Please, have a seat.”

Amber and Katherine went over to the desk chairs and watched Harry expectantly as he stepped up to the wardrobe that was already rattling loudly and ominously.

“Harry, do you have your happy memory ready?” Lupin asked him.

There was some spark of amusement in Lupin’s tone that wasn’t usually there during these lessons.

“Er, maybe?” Harry said. He thought of flying through the skies. He envisioned the wind in his hair, the wooden broom handle in his grip, and the way he always felt like he could touch the clouds. “Ready.”

Once more: the dementor came out of the wardrobe. Harry heard his mother screaming. His patronus didn’t fully form. And he collapsed.

With a bloody audience this time.

“You’re doing it just right,” Lupin assured Harry as he handed him and the girls pieces of chocolate. “You just need a stronger memory.”

“I thought that one was strong,” Harry grumbled.

“What were you thinking of?” Katherine asked.

“Flying.”

Harry was still puzzling over Lupin’s laughter when he laid in his bed that night.

***

Harry thought that walking around Hogwarts with two girls laughing with him, flirting with him, and becoming some of his closest friends would be the weirdest thing to happen to him that year.

And then Harry was confronted with Sirius Black.

Sirius Black turned out to be innocent.

Scabbers turned out to be Peter Pettigrew.

Professor Lupin was a werewolf.

Hermione had been using time-travel all year to take extra classes.

And Snape really wanted to kill Harry.

Actually, that last bit was pretty normal.

“I wish I could go with you,” Harry admitted quietly to Sirius as they stood on top of one of the castle towers with Hermione and Buckbeak.

“I wish you could too,” Sirius said. He tried to lighten the mood, get the frown to leave Harry’s face. “Of course, I can’t imagine why you’d want to run off with your old godfather when, from what I saw, you’ve got a couple gorgeous witches following you around the castle,” he grinned. “Dunno where you got your charm from, it took your dad six years to get the one girlfriend.”

“Yeah,” Harry forced a laugh. “Just lucky, I guess.”

Harry’s mood couldn’t be lifted, despite Sirius’ best efforts though as he watched his only real family, his only chance to escape the Dursley’s, fly away in to the night; a fugitive once more.

***

“Harry? What’s wrong?” Amber asked softly.

“Nothing,” Harry sighed, his breath fogging the train window. “I’m fine.”

“Clearly,” Katherine drawled. “Is this about Sirius Black?”

Harry shook his head. He liked Katherine and Amber, but Sirius was a secret. It was more than just him that could be in trouble if Harry talked about what happened.

Then, of course, Katherine smirked and studied her black painted nails casually. “I heard he and your father were as close as you and Ron, perhaps even closer, it’s hard to believe he would turn against him and set him up to be killed, isn’t it? He’s a filthy piece of scum.”

“He bloody well is not,” Harry said hotly, offended on Sirius’ behalf. The man spent twelve years in a horrible prison for no reason. He wasn’t a piece of scum- he was… well, a bit impulsive, obviously, but his heart was in the right place.

Katherine’s smirk increased at Harry’s hasty defense of Sirius and Amber giggled and Harry smacked his head on the window.

“Story time then?” Amber asked him.

Harry sighed again and nodded. “Story time, I suppose.”

By the time he finished filling them in, Amber looked horrified and Katherine looked furious.

“How dare they?” Amber yelled. She jumped to her feet and began pacing angrily. “They were just going to have him kissed? They wouldn’t even bother, oh I don’t know, giving him Veritaserum first?!”

“I can’t believe Professor Snape would be so petty,” Katherine scowled. “He’s usually such a fair man!”

Harry gave her a pointed look and she grimaced. “Well, not to you, perhaps,” she said. “Though, you must admit, it has gotten better lately.”

Yeah, Snape went from degrading Harry publicly to ignoring him entirely. It was a nice change, but it didn’t make Snape a nice person.

“I’m sorry, Harry.” Amber sat next to Harry and pulled him against her. “I know this doesn’t make up for it, but we still have a lot of plans for this summer, don’t we? You won’t be alone all summer.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Harry tried to smile, warmed by Amber’s efforts. “I don’t know how I’ll convince my relatives to let me leave to come see you guys, but I’ll try.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Katherine said. She made a fluttering motion with her hand, apparently wanting Harry and Amber to scoot away from the window so she could sit on the other side of Harry. “Amber and I have a plan.”

Before Harry could worry about what sort of mad plan they could have came up with, Amber laughed brightly.

“And I’ve just thought of a plan for next year!” she cried. “Katie, love, let’s find Harry a real girlfriend!”

“No, let’s not,” Harry said hastily.

“Oooh, yes!” Katherine rubbed her hands together and grinned a bit evilly at Harry. “Harry, do you prefer blondes or brunettes?”

“Any preference on house affiliation?” Amber asked.

Harry looked between his very blonde Hufflepuff ‘girlfriend’ and his dark haired Slytherin ‘girlfriend’.

“Red-headed Ravenclaw’s,” he said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. “Or blokes, maybe.”

Harry’s sarcasm apparently went right over their heads because he was then trapped in a conversation about ‘the spectrum of sexuality’ for the rest of the train ride home.

At least he had something to look forward to this summer, for the first time in his life.

Chapter Text

Harry’s summer had been absolutely excellent.

After only a week of misery at the Dursley’s, Amber and Katherine showed up to ‘kidnap him for the weekend’.

Technically, Amber and a tall man with neatly combed black hair showed up to politely ‘ask that the Dursley’s allow them to take Harry for the weekend’ so he could ‘get to know his girlfriend’s family’.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had seemed so stunned by the absolute normalcy of the duo dressed in neat and clean muggle clothes so they agreed.

Dudley had eyed Amber appreciatively and (in a moment Harry wondered if he had dreamt up) winked at Harry when he left.

“I’m a genius,” the man said smugly as the three of them left the Dursley’s.

Harry looked between the smug look on the man’s face and Amber’s endless laughter, then it finally dawned on him.

“Katherine?” he hissed. “Did you- are you...”

“Did I steal some of my father’s hair to impersonate him and pull off the easiest kidnapping in all of history? Yes,” the man laughed. “Come on, Harry, teach us how to get to London like a muggle. We’re alternating weekends between my house and Amber’s.”

And that’s exactly what they did.

Harry met Amber’s parents, who were much nicer than he had built them up to be in his head, and her older brother, who was much more terrifying than Harry had imagined him to be.

It was rather rude to be threatened about ‘hurting Amber’ right in front of Amber’s actual girlfriend.

He also met Katherine’s parents, who were fussy, and prim, and proper, and blatantly wealthy, but were still nice enough for a family of purebloods. He got talked in to holding Katherine’s baby sister while they were there, which had been terrifying, and the girls laughed at the awkward way Harry cradled her in his arms.

Both of the girls’ families had been excited to meet Harry and ecstatic to know his relationship with their daughter was still going strong.

They didn’t even question the fact that Harry apparently was dating more than one girl.

Katherine confided to Harry and Amber that her mother told her she ‘simply had to outshine Amber to become Mrs Potter one day’.

Amber’s mother told her that harems ‘went out of style years ago, but if anyone could bring them back- it would be Harry Potter’.

They also showed up at the Weasley’s one weekend, to surprise Ron, with broomsticks in hands and grins on their faces.

All of Ron’s brothers seemed thrilled to meet Harry’s girlfriends, and Amber got her chance to ask Ron’s handsome older brother about curse breaking. Harry very casually pretended to listen while he admired Bill’s fanged earring and long ponytail.

Harry did have a horribly awkward conversation with Mrs Weasley when he introduced both girls as his girlfriends, but it could have went much worse he imagined.

And there was that snag at the Quidditch World Cup with the Death Eaters and all, but Harry only spent a total of 32 days with the Dursley’s, and Dudley and his friends had laid off him quite a bit thanks to his ‘hot girlfriend’, so Harry considered the summer his best one yet.

***

“Harry, honestly, you must be kidding.”

Harry, Amber, Katherine, and Daphne looked up curiously as Hermione stood in front of them, her hands on her hips, and a look of upmost exasperation on her face.

“What’s up, Hermione?” Amber asked her patiently.

Amber and Hermione had ‘clicked’ last year. Apparently over their mutual love of academics. And even though Hermione didn’t seem to like Katherine much, or know Daphne at all, he couldn’t imagine what would make her look so fed up with them. Unless...

“I know, I know,” Harry said, holding his hands up with a grin. “They aren’t supposed to be in here, but I didn’t tell them the password, I swear.”

He actually did.

But Katherine told him the Slytherin password in exchange, so it was fine. And Harry didn’t think that anyone would rat him out for having girls from Slytherin and Hufflepuff in the Gryffindor common room, especially not when he was getting a lot of awed and envious looks.

Hermione’s eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of her head. “Harry… why is Daphne sitting with you guys?” she asked slowly.

Daphne, who had claimed one side of Harry and had her legs thrown over his lap, turned a polite smile on Hermione. “I wanted to spend time with my boyfriend,” she said in her soft and posh way. “Problem, Granger?”

“No,” Hermione said tightly. It sounded like her teeth were clenched though and her eyes definitely screamed ‘problem’. She glared suspiciously at Harry for a long moment before huffing and turning on her heel, storming away.

Daphne waited until Hermione was gone to drop her ‘perfect pureblood princess’ routine and snort rather inelegantly. “She’s disturbed by the idea of me being your girlfriend.”

“I’m disturbed by the idea too,” Harry said sarcastically. “You? Fine. Parkinson? No bloody way.”

Daphne curled a lock of her long blonde hair at Harry while she studied him unblinkingly with her light blue eyes. “You would let my girlfriend be married off to Draco?” she asked quietly. Her voice had a tremble that Harry suspected was fake even if it was effective.

Harry almost caved, then he remembered something and turned to glare at Amber and Katherine rather suspiciously. “How many people are lined up to marry Dr— Malfoy?” he asked them. “Is he engaged to half of Slytherin?”

Amber smiled sweetly while Katherine smirked a little.

“Well not anymore,” Katherine drawled as she reached over Amber to pull a lock of Harry’s hair. “Since you keep stealing his possible future brides.”

That wasn’t a real answer, which made Harry suspect that they were simply throwing Malfoy’s name at him to make him help them.

Harry sighed and then scowled once more at Daphne’s cute pout. “What happened to ‘let’s find Harry a real girlfriend?’” Harry griped, only partially joking. “Instead I get another lesbian couple following me around.”

“Daphne’s bisexual,” Amber said. “And you love us.”

“You? Yes. Katie? Sure,” Harry agreed. “Daphne? Not yet. Parkinson? Never.”

Daphne smiled despite the half-arsed insults being thrown out by Harry. “So you’ll do it?” she asked.

How was Harry supposed to look in her pretty eyes and feel her long and lean legs rubbing against his and turn her down?

“Fine,” he caved. “Tell Parkinson she can sit with us at the feast tomorrow.”

“And tell her that Harry likes to be called ‘sugar’,” Katherine snickered.

Harry was beginning to feel a little putout by the whole thing. Or, he was, until Amber must have read his emotions as easily as she always did and she leaned in to whisper to him, “After Daphne and Pansy, we’ll begin Operation Find Harry a Real Girlfriend.”

And then Harry’s outlook brightened rather considerably.

***

“Harry Potter.”

It seemed as if the entire Great Hall went dead silent.

Then there was a bit of confused chatter as they didn’t find Harry at the Gryffindor table.

Harry ducked his head, cringing from his spot at the Slytherin table between Katherine and Pansy. “This isn’t real,” he whispered desperately. “This isn’t real.”

“Your life is mad,” Pansy hissed to Harry. She grabbed him by the back of the neck and forced him to raise his head high. “Get your arse in there and tell them you didn’t do it while we run damage control.”

The other girls nodded at Harry while Dumbledore finally spotted him and called him up front once more.

“We love you, Harry!” Amber cried as Harry was walking through a hall full of unfriendly looking students. The three other girls echoed similar sentiments, even Parkinson, which made Malfoy look a little green.

A bright spot in this nightmare of a day, anyway.

Harry glanced at the Gryffindor table and saw that Hermione and Ron looked gobsmacked and he had no idea what to do about that just then. So he turned and lifted his hand to the girls and gave them the sign language sign that Katherine taught him for ‘I love you’.

And, as they were the only ones who didn’t look either confused or furious, Harry thought that maybe he did love them all.

… except Parkinson. He would call her babe and fake date her in front of the other students, but he wasn’t proclaiming his love to her.

***

“God, I love you,” Harry told Pansy the very next morning.

He’d expected to become an instant social pariah to the other houses just as he’d become an instant hero to the Gryffindors the night before. Instead, Pansy and Daphne went to work in the ‘social connections’ they had within all the houses (aside from Gryffindor) and Harry now had people approaching him all through breakfast with soft expressions and sentiments of remorse for ‘another stroke of bad luck in his life’.

Even Cedric, who had looked skeptical of Harry’s denial the night before, came up to him when he arrived at breakfast and shook his hand and apologized for not believing him.

Pansy smirked and cuddled her head on Harry’s shoulder while Daphne rubbed his back sympathetically.

“And I love you, baby,” Pansy cooed loud enough for the nearby Gryffindors to hear. “I really hope you don’t die in the first task, I’d be simply heartbroken to lose you.”

Harry and Katherine snorted, but Amber rolled her eyes.

“Bit thick,” Amber murmured with amusement shining in her eyes.

Pansy scoffed and lowered her voice just for the five of them to hear. “They’re Gryffindor’s,” she stressed. “They simply don’t understand subtlety.”

“We do too!” Harry scowled.

“You really don’t,” Katherine said bluntly. She glanced to where Ron was sulking down at the middle of the table with his brothers. “And Ronald ‘I don’t care what his middle name is’ Weasley doesn’t seem to understand anything.”

Harry sighed and extracted his hand from where Amber had been holding it on top of the table so he could prod at his eggs. He hadn’t wanted to tell the girls about his spat with Ron the night before, but they’d noticed immediately when Ron glared at Harry before sitting far away from him.

Hermione had seemed torn on where to sit, but the moment that Daphne and Pansy sat with Harry, she gave him an apologetic frown and simply grabbed a stack of toast and left the hall altogether.

“He doesn’t think I entered my name, not really,” Harry murmured sadly. “He’s just…” Harry glanced at the girls and debated on what to say. “He’s jealous, of you guys, and he said some crummy stuff and it turned into a whole spat.”

“Let me guess.” Daphne straightened up and curled her lip up. “‘You’re dating more bloody Slytherins? What’s wrong with you?’ Then a few ‘Merlin’s pants’ and a ‘bloody hell’ and possibly an insult to Draco and Professor Snape?”

Harry laughed a little despite himself. “Close,” he said. “Except he asked ‘what kind of self respecting women date a bloke with a bunch of other girlfriends?’”

Which was when Harry had lost his temper and hexed Ron.

Pansy shot a venomous look toward Ron before turning to Harry with such a sweet and simpering look that Harry was certain he was about to be unhappy.

“Oh, baby?” Pansy said, her voice purposefully carrying to the other students.

Harry didn’t sigh, he just smiled and played his part perfectly. “Yeah, Pans?”

Pansy kept up her ‘adoring girlfriend’ look, but Harry saw the slight narrowing of her eyes at the nickname. She ignored it though to carry on whatever mad plan she had.

“Which one of us is the best kisser?” She batted her lashes at Harry and ran her hand through his hair, scratching his scalp slightly with her painted black nails.

Harry tried to look thoughtful as all four girls began smiling sweetly.

Internally, he was panicking.

He’d never even been snogged before. Were there different ways to do it?!

“Er… I think you’re all equally good,” he said, trying to sound fair.

“Well that simply won’t do,” Daphne said pompously. She put her hand on Harry’s cheek, gently guiding him to face her and then she leaned forward and kissed him. It was long, it was soft, it was sweet, and Harry never expected his first kiss to be in the middle of the Great Hall by his ‘bisexual’ fake-girlfriend.

As soon as she released him, Katherine leaned across the table and grabbed Harry’s tie, pulling him toward her much more forcefully than Daphne had been. She too kissed him and this time her lips moved against his, taking control of the kiss in a way that made Harry gasp as his skin turned hot.

“Shameless,” Pansy tsk’d when Katherine released a very shocked Harry. She put her hand back in his hair and pulled him toward him in a surprisingly gentle and short kiss. “You kiss like a virgin,” she murmured very quietly against his lips while Harry was blinking in shock in her dark eyes.

Harry couldn’t even muster up the indignation he was sure he should be feeling.

His lips were tingling and distracting him from all other feelings.

He sat back in his seat, rather dazed, while his classmates were all talking rapid fire to one another at Harry’s girlfriends’ very public display of affection.

Not that Harry heard that, as distracted as he was by his own inner shock.

Had he really just been kissed by three of the most attractive witches in Hogwarts? Possibly the top three most attractive witches, ever?

Amber was smiling sweetly at him across the table from her place by Katherine. “So?” she asked. “Who’s the better kisser, darling?”

Harry shook his head, trying to focus on her question. “What?”

The girls laughed and Katherine smacked Amber’s arm playfully. “Amber! He needs one more contestant!”

And then Amber leaned across the table slowly, her eyes locked on Harry. She cupped his face and kissed him so slowly, so… passionately? that Harry’s entire brain shut down.

He had wondered at one point, as most blokes who spend all their time with lesbians do, if maybe he was gay.

And he definitely wasn’t.

“So?” Amber asked again after she released Harry and sat back down with a smug look on her face. “Who wins?”

Harry could be entered in a hundred death trap tournaments if every morning afterward was like this one. He smiled brightly and felt a swell of affection for all four of the witches wash over him as they undoubtedly did that just to improve his mood.

“I do,” he said confidently. “I love you guys.”

“And we love you, sugar,” Katherine winked. And Harry thought maybe she wasn’t lying, even if it wasn’t a romantic kind of love.

Another definite bonus of their stunt was that nobody cared much to gossip about Harry’s placement in the tournament when they were too busy discussing Harry’s kissing contest.

It helped too that both Ron and Malfoy looked equally jealous of Harry throughout their classes the rest of the week.

***

Harry’s life at Hogwarts made a remarkable upswing- something he genuinely wasn’t used to.

Thanks to Pansy partnering with him in potions, Harry was receiving a lot less insults on his intelligence and more pointed questions about how he had time to study when he was quite otherwise occupied.

Which was actually almost funny of Snape to say, in Harry’s opinion.

Daphne helped him with charms, and he realized she was actually a secret genius with a lot more patience for Harry’s idiocy than Hermione had.

The five of them studied together, Harry even helped Amber and Katherine study defense for their OWL year. Amber, who genuinely seemed to enjoy flying, even got permission from Sprout for them to fly on the quidditch pitch, something that other students saw and began joining them for.

It was the greatest day of Harry’s life when Viktor Krum saw Harry flying one morning and had a seekers battle with him while Harry’s ‘girlfriends’ cheered Harry on.

Harry lost, but he flew with Viktor Krum while four pretty girls cheered for him, so he didn’t feel much like a loser at all.

His relationship with Hufflepuff house had never been better either. Apparently Amber and Cedric were friends and Cedric had began sitting with them when their group sat at the Hufflepuff table. Cedric was a good bloke- easygoing, friendly, and seemed to accept ‘Harry’s harem’ (as his classmates had began calling it) with more grace than anyone else.

He had also promised to help Harry with the tasks if he could, since he didn’t believe Harry entered his own name.

The Slytherins didn’t even have anything nasty to say to Harry recently. Or, if they did, they didn’t say it when Harry was hardly ever seen outside the company of at least one of his girlfriends.

Honestly, it was a shame that Harry was set to die in a few days, because he was actually quite happy with his life. Even with the ongoing feud with Ron (Harry was never speaking to him again until he personally apologized to each of the girls for his comments) and the slight distance growing between himself and Hermione, Harry was having a brilliant time hanging out with the girls.

The fact they spent most of their alone time snogging each other while Harry quietly read was almost becoming irrelevant to him.

“Excuse me?”

Harry and the girls looked up as one at the girl shifting nervously in front of their table with red hair and a shy smile.

Harry was fifth-wheeling (a term that Pansy told him) with the girls on a group date to Hogsmeade the weekend before he was going to die. Not that the girls thought he would die, but Harry figured he probably would.

Though, he had no idea what Susan Bones- a name he vaguely recognized as she was a Hufflepuff in his year -wanted with any of them.

“Susan, hi,” Amber said warmly. “How are you?”

“Brilliant, thank you,” Susan said politely. She smiled at Harry and looked mildly less nervous. “May I sit?”

“Sure.” Harry was rather squished on his side of the booth between Daphne and Amber, but Pansy and Katherine scooted over so Susan could sit with them. “What’s up?” Harry asked her.

Susan took a deep breath and seemed to be steeling herself to say something. Harry wasn’t worried, as she’d been the first Hufflepuff to approach him the morning after Halloween to loudly proclaim her belief in his innocence, so surely she didn’t have anything terrible to say.

“I’d like to join your… group,” she said with a sweet smile that made Harry wonder how he hadn’t noticed her before. “I…” She blushed cutely, “It’s weird, a bit, your group, but I… I fancy you. And I probably wouldn’t have said anything, because you’re you and I’m me, except…” Her bright teal eyes glanced uncertainly at the other girls. “Except maybe it’s now or never?”

Harry realized what was going on and sighed rather dramatically.

She didn’t have to dress it up.

“You’re a lesbian then?” he asked flatly.

Why was every cute witch in Hogwarts not interested in men?

Amber ducked her head and grinned while the other girls shared sly smiles and eye rolls.

Susan’s eyebrows twitched together. “Is that… is that a requirement to be your girlfriend?”

Harry snorted and took a swig of his butterbeer while Amber and Katherine seemed to be silently communicating across the table with each other.

Suddenly, Pansy kicked Harry beneath the table and raised one of her brows at him. “Harry, baby, don’t ignore the poor girl. She’s asked to be your girlfriend and you’re being rude.”

Harry rolled his eyes at Pansy and then gave Susan a bit weary of a smile. “Who’s your girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend?” Susan asked blankly. “Um… I suppose Hannah? We’ve been friends since we were babies.”

“Is she joining too?” Harry asked her.

Susan looked bewildered. “I don’t think so,” she said slowly. “She fancies someone else…”

That… that was weird.

But Harry had four lesbian girlfriends, so who was he to judge Hannah Abbott?

“Ooh,” Katherine cooed at Susan and smiled sharply. “You’re going to fit right in, Suzie. Welcome to the harem.”

“Quit calling it that,” Harry scolded her. “You know Professor McGonagall made me read a whole book about women in magical history and lectured me about women’s rights? Then she told me that polygamy, while not illegal, was an offense to the modern day witch.”

“Good,” Daphne sniffed haughtily. “We need more feminists in the world.”

Susan seemed like she would fit right in because she immediately jumped in as the girls ganged up on Harry and began lecturing him on the ‘modern day struggles of witches’.

Which was rather unfair as Harry pointed out to them that he spent almost all of his time with them so how could he not support women’s rights?

Truthfully, it was a relief to have Hagrid interrupt their debate with his whispered request for Harry to join him at his hut that night. It would cut it close for Harry to meet with Sirius, as Amber subtly reminded him (Harry hadn’t told Daphne or Pansy about Sirius being innocent yet), but surely it had to be important or Hagrid would never ask him to go. Susan insisted on accompanying him, but Amber volunteered Daphne for the job so her and Susan could ‘chat’ that night instead.

But anything that got his ‘too many to count’ girlfriends off his back had to be a good thing.

***

“Dragons,” Harry told Sirius that night in the Gryffindor fireplace. “I’m dead, Sirius, it’s bloody dragons.”

Sirius’ usually cheery face was tense and worried. “The dragons aren’t the main issue, Harry, what we need to figure out is who entered you in this tournament. I don’t like it. There’s a lot of odd things going on all at once and they paint a pretty grim portrait.”

“Oh.” Harry blinked at Sirius as he realized that he probably forgot to tell him the girls’ theory on how Harry got entered in the tournament. “We figure either Moody did it or Dumbledore.”

“What?” Sirius seemed taken aback. “How… how do you figure that?”

Harry scoffed and relaxed a tiny bit. “Quirrell and Lockhart tried to kill me, Lupin too, no offense, so Moody’s a pretty safe bet. And we figure that Dumbledore seems to always be watching me and testing me in some way, and it’s not like he tried real hard to get me out of the tournament, so he’s a contender as well.”

Sirius frowned and seemed to nod almost absently. “I don’t think Moody or Dumbledore did it, but I’m glad you and Hermione are thinking critically and not ruling out any suspects. Better to be overly paranoid than a sitting duck.”

“Pft,” Harry scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Hermione and I haven’t properly talked since Ron insulted the girls and I hexed him. Katherine thought of Moody and Daphne said Dumbledore.”

Sirius’ frown switched almost instantly to an amused grin. “Harry, tell me Daphne isn’t another girl in your harem?”

“It’s not a harem,” Harry scowled. “But yes. Daphne and Pansy and Susan. Susan’s new though, she only joined today.”

Sirius’ loud bark of laughter made even Harry grin a little.

It was absurd sounding, wasn’t it?

Harry would have told him the truth, then asked for advice on how to defeat the dragon and how to find a real girlfriend when he had five fake ones, but a creak on the stairs to the dorms ended their conversation almost immediately.

And who was it that kept Harry from getting good advice?

Ron.

“Who are you talking to?” Ron asked.

Harry scoffed, irritated to have his conversation with his godfather interrupted. He stepped up on the stairs, moving closer to Ron. “What’s it matter to you? Thought you’d just come down here sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong?”

Ron’s ears turned red and he crossed his arms defensively. “Sorry, I should have guessed it was probably another harlot for your little harem, right?”

Harry wasn’t entirely sure what a ‘harlot’ was supposed to mean, but it didn’t sound good. So he acted impulsively and drew his fist back and punched Ron right in the nose. He glared down at him when Ron landed on his arse on the stairs.

“Don’t ever insult them again,” Harry spat, furious. “The girls have been better friends to me than you have been this year. If you’re so bloody jealous then you should grow up and ask someone out. I wouldn’t date such a misogynistic berk, but some girl probably would.”

With that, Harry stormed up the stairs and closed the curtains firmly on his bed, leaving Ron to sit on the stairs and ponder what ‘misogynistic berk’ was meant to mean.

***

“It’s a good plan,” Amber assured Harry the morning of the first task. “It’s foolproof, Harry.”

Harry let out a quiet moan and accepted Susan’s soft and reassuring grip as she clasped his hand outside the champion’s tent.

“You’ll be fine,” Susan said so confidently that it was hard to doubt her. “You already practiced. There’s no way this can go wrong.”

“Unlike Moody’s idiotic plan,” Katherine scoffed. “Flying, honestly, your broom is made of wood.”

“And dragons breath fire,” Harry moaned, feeling faint and nauseous. “I’m going to die.”

“Hey.” Susan dropped his hand to put her hands on either side of his face and force him to look in his eyes. “You will not die, Harry Potter. You are brave and brilliant and you will walk out there, win this task, and we’ll be one step closer to being done with being done with this tournament, okay?”

Harry nodded. Not in agreement, necessarily, but acknowledgement anyway.

The girls all gave him hugs while the other champions entered the tent, and Susan caught Harry by surprise by giving him a sweet kiss on the cheek and then blushing as she wished him a final good luck.

Harry saw Hermione dart by and wave, but he’d still been thinking over Susan’s tender kiss and hadn’t even thought to wave back.

He did duck into the tent and was bombarded with questions by the other champions on if he felt ready. Harry knew that Fleur and Viktor knew about the dragons, since Madame Maxine and Karkaroff had been around them the night he’d went, and Harry told Cedric at breakfast the very next morning. He was touched that they were all so concerned for him though when Harry had a bit of an unfair advantage in the situation.

“Zair eez no shame in seemply staying in safety until ze timer runs out,” Fleur told him with a bit of a maternal seeming frown.

And since Harry thought there was actually quite a bit of shame in doing that, he gave her a quick shake of his head. “It’s fine,” he told her. “Er… I’ve got a plan.”

He hadn’t, not really. His plan had been to outfly the dragon, like Moody suggested. Then Daphne pointed out how stupid it would be to follow a plan hinted at by one of the men they suspected of entering Harry in the tournament, so the girls helped him come up with a new plan.

It had been tricky, sneaking around with the girls to practice, but it would be worth it if it worked.

“Is it a good plan?” Cedric whispered to Harry after they all pulled their dragons and Harry got the Hungarian Horntail.

Harry didn’t think so at first. At first he thought that perhaps Pansy was idiotic for suggesting it in her dry and sarcastic manner, but then they tested it and Harry felt much more confident now even if he was still terrified out of his wits.

“Yes,” Harry said. “It’s a good plan.”

Harry doubted his plan the moment he stepped on the field and was faced with a giant, furious, black dragon.

Her teeth were longer than Harry’s arms.

Then he heard a voice amplified magically yell his name, drawing his eyes to the stands.

Susan was standing up and waving at him, as were the other four girls. “Go Harry!” they cheered. Susan blew Harry a kiss, Amber and Katherine held their hands up, silently saying they loved him, Pansy and Daphne were holding each other’s hand and watching him closely, and Harry felt tall enough to take on a dragon.

Figuratively; of course.

Bagman’s commentary fell silent, as did the entire school, when Harry slowly walked up toward the dragon and began hissing at her.

“Good afternoon, how are you?”

The dragon’s enormous tail twitched and she huffed a cloud of smoke out of her nostrils. She didn’t answer, but she didn’t blow fire at Harry as he hesitantly moved closer either, so he thought he should just keep talking.

When they’d practiced, they could only get the Chinese Fireball to talk back to him, but the girls had been confident that Parsletongue would translate to all the ‘overly evolved serpents’.

“The thing is, one of your eggs is fake,” Harry told the Horntail. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to take it out of your nest so you don’t have to deal with it bothering your babies. Is that okay?”

The Horntail let out another thick snort of smoke, this one with little tendrils of fire that had Harry flinching backward. She twisted her head down, her endlessly black eyes staring at her eggs.

“That one smells of wizards.”

Harry was so relieved that she did seem to understand him that his entire body slumped from the weight off his chest. “Yes,” he told her eagerly. “It’s fake. May I move it? So your babies are safe?”

The Horntail considered him for a moment then agreed.

And that was how Harry stunned the entire school as he walked right up to the dragon, grabbed the egg, and became the quickest champion to finish the task entirely uninjured.

The kiss from Susan in the middle of the field when he received his first place score wasn’t just the cherry on the sundae- it was the entire sundae.

Sometimes it was hard to remember that Susan wasn’t his real girlfriend, as openly affectionate as she was with him.

Ron and Hermione even found Harry in the Gryffindor common room during the party that night and Ron apologized to each of the girls for ‘anything rude he might have implied’ about them. It wasn’t a perfect apology, but Harry was just relieved to have his friends back.

Pansy told Harry he should have held off on forgiving them, made them suffer a while, but Harry reminded her that he gave her a second chance and Ron and Hermione had more than earned their second chance.

And all was well for a while.

***

“A dance,” Harry said flatly, having just been informed by McGonagall that he was expected to not only attend, but open the dance.

‘With a single partner’, she had stressed.

“At least you’ve got… what? Five options?” Ron hissed as they made their way to dinner. “Nobody’s going to go with me.”

“And which girl am I supposed to ask?” Harry hissed right back at him, relieved that Ron was back to normal now and no longer walking on eggshells around Harry. “McGonagall said I can only bring one as my date, one, Ron, only one.”

Ron didn’t look wholly sympathetic, and all the less so when the girls were all sitting at the Hufflepuff table patiently waiting for Harry to go sit with them.

“You’ll find someone,” Harry assured him with a clap of his shoulder. “See you after dinner.”

Harry no more than sat down, taking the spot between Susan and Daphne that the girls saved for him, then Susan turned to him.

“Harry, would you like to go to the Yule Ball with me?” she asked promptly with a bright smile and sparkling eyes.

Harry only hesitated out of worry for the other girls. “Er…”

“The rest of us figured we’d just go together, since we can’t all go with our boyfriend,” Amber said loudly enough for the other nearby students to hear. “Katherine said she’d go with me, and Daphne’s going with Pansy, as friends of course, but we thought we’d all take turns dancing with you after you open the ball.”

This was… suspiciously easy.

Harry glanced down the table to where Hannah Abbott was chatting away with Justin Finch-Fletchey and then quirked a brow at Susan. “Wouldn’t you rather go with Hannah?” he whispered.

Susan giggled while the other girls either laughed (Amber and Pansy) or rolled their eyes (Daphne and Katherine).

“Hannah and I aren’t together anymore,” Susan said, not sounding upset in the slightest.

“Oh.” Harry was a bit disappointed, he’d come to really enjoy spending time with her talking and working together while the other girls cuddled one another and snogged in their alone time. “I suppose you’ll be wanting to break up then?”

“Harry…” Susan’s smile was still sweet, but there was a twinkle of laughter in her eyes for some reason. “If you’ll still have me, I quite like being your girlfriend.”

And when she tilted her face up to Harry’s and kissed him, slowly and sweetly and in a way that made it hard for Harry to remember that it was a fake relationship, how was he supposed to say no?

“Susan, I would love to go to the Yule Ball with you,” Harry told her honestly. “And, er… we can all dance together, but McGonagall made me swear to only bring one of you as my official date.”

Daphne sighed and poured Harry a glass of pumpkin juice. “It’s fine, I guess I’ll go with Pansy.”

Then she winked.

And Harry realized that women were brilliant and terrifying and Slytherin women were all the more so.

***

The Yule Ball wound up being much more fun than Harry thought it would be.

Susan looked breathtaking in her form fitting silver dress to match Harry’s dark green dress robes. Her usually straight red hair had been curled and was piled on top of her head with a few loose tendrils hanging down. She had her makeup done, by Pansy, Harry was certain, and overall looked so stunning that Harry couldn’t believe his good luck.

He nervously gave her a ‘wrist corsage’, a red rose with silver ribbons around it, that Daphne suggested he get for her, and Susan had looked thrilled when Harry put it on her.

“You look beautiful, as usual,” Harry told her, nervous to make it ‘a real date’ as Amber suggested he do.

How was he supposed to have a real date with a fake girlfriend?!

“Thank you,” Susan looked shy as she took Harry’s hand in front of all the other students in the entrance hall. “You look handsome, but you always do.”

Then it was Harry’s turn to blush. Luckily, he was saved from trying to find something to say with the arrival of the other girls.

Daphne was dressed in a silky green dress with Pansy in a short black one on her arm. Katherine was in a dark blue dress with Amber matching her in a similar shade of blue but an entirely different cut and style.

And Harry desperately wished he didn’t know as much about dress styles, hairstyles, and makeup techniques as he did, but it was a side effect of spending all his time with girls, he supposed.

“You all look beautiful,” Harry said as he accepted a peck on the cheek from each of them.

“Pft, we know,” Pansy smirked. “And you look fabulous, baby. Every girl here is simply dying of envy over your looks.”

Harry didn’t think anyone was jealous of his looks, but plenty of people looked jealous over his group of beautiful witches kissing him and surrounding him.

Especially Malfoy.

Malfoy came with Daphne’s younger sister and was shooting daggers at Harry.

Ron wasn’t though. Ron had originally asked Hermione to the dance, at Susan’s thoughtful suggestion, but Hermione already had a date so Susan set Ron up with Hannah.

Harry thought it was really kind of Susan to set Ron up with her ex-girlfriend. He assumed it meant that Hannah was interested in wizards as well as witches too, especially since she looked rather happy where she stood over beside Ron.

Pansy had even, in a moment that Harry swore to tease her for the rest of her life, taken Ron’s horrible dress robes and worked some literal magic on them to turn them into a stylish pair of deep purple dress robes that made Ron look five feet taller just by wearing them. She told Ron she only did it because Harry was such an excellent boyfriend and she didn’t want him to be embarrassed by his best friend, but Harry suspected that she also enjoyed the challenge.

“That’s us,” Harry told Susan as McGonagall called for the champions and their ‘single date’. “Are you ready?”

Susan’s smile was bright and her hand was warm as she squeezed his. “I’m very ready,” she assured him.

Harry was too.

He’d planned on tolerating the ball, not truly enjoying it, but as he slowly danced with Susan in his arms with the other champions and their dates dancing around them, he found that it was actually much more fun than he’d planned on having.

Probably partially in thanks to the never ending, torturous, dance lessons the girls gave them. Daphne and Katherine practically grew up in dance classes and the five of them spent their evenings leading up to the ball working on Harry’s dancing skills instead of the now usual routine of snogging and working on his egg.

“Harry? Can I tell you something?”

Harry looked down at Susan’s pretty eyes and smiled. “Course you can, babe,” he assured her. “What’s up?”

Susan bit her lower lip, distracting Harry for just a moment by the sight of her pink lips and perfectly even and white teeth. “I didn’t understand that bit about being a lesbian when we talked in Hogsmeade that one time,” she whispered. “Amber explained later, about their relationships and marriage contracts and stuff, and… and I’m not a lesbian, Harry.”

“That’s fine,” Harry said quickly, keeping his voice low as to not be overheard as other couples joined the dance floor. “Daphne’s bisexual too, it doesn’t matter to me.”

Susan laughed and ran her thumb over the back of Harry’s neck, involuntarily causing Harry to tighten his grip on her waist. “No, Harry, I’m saying… I’m saying I’m not interested in witches or women at all.”

Harry kept his feet moving, automatically following the dance steps that the girls had all but beaten into his head, but he frowned at Susan a bit. “But then why…?”

Susan smiled, a sweet and nervous smile. “I meant what I told you that day,” she said with a faint blush enhancing her looks. “I… I like you, Harry. And I quite like being your girlfriend.”

Harry experienced, not for the first time, an entire short circuiting of every cell in his brain.

Things like this just don’t happen to him.

“Things like this just don’t happen to me,” Harry blurted as he blinked at Susan. “You… you like me, like how some witches like wizards? Not like just as a friend or a…” He lowered his voice, “Or a ‘beard’?”

Susan’s nose crinkled as she looked at Harry’s face. “You don’t even have a beard?”

Harry nodded, “That’s what I said. The girls say I do.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Susan said thoughtfully.

“Most things they say doesn’t,” Harry admitted. He sighed as he thought about how brilliant it would be to have a single girlfriend, one who actually liked Harry, one who he’d already kissed and already liked. But… “I… I can’t end it with the others,” Harry told Susan, feeling as if this were the heaviest sacrifice he’d ever have to make. “They’re counting on me to help them, and they’re my friends.”

Susan’s thoughtful look shifted into a smile and Harry felt wistful imagining that they could be together for real.

“Harry, sweetheart, I don’t mind if you have fifty girls in your harem,” she whispered. She leaned up and kissed Harry on the lips and Harry felt like it was their first kiss all over, except this time he could embrace the fireworks exploding inside him since Susan liked him. She pulled away and grinned impishly. “As long as I’m your favorite.”

“Yeah,” Harry breathed, nodding eagerly. “You’re my favorite.”

“How rude,” Daphne sniffed as she and Pansy appeared from no where. “And here I came to twirl our boyfriend around the dance floor.”

Susan gave Harry up with good grace. “He’s all yours, ladies.” She easily accepted Pansy’s hand while Daphne slipped in Harry’s arms. “Don’t break him, I’m quite fond of him.”

And Harry found that as she spun away with Pansy, he was quite fond of her as well.

Actually, as Harry spent the entire evening dancing with each of the girls- sometimes individually, sometimes in a group when the song was fast enough -Harry found that he was rather fond of all of them.

Susan was his favorite though.

Not that he’d be sharing that information with the others.

***

“This is the most awkward situation of my life,” Harry grumbled as he slipped into the prefects bathroom the next afternoon with Amber and Susan. “I told Cedric ‘it’s dragons’ and he tells me ‘take a bath’? What happened to fairness, huh?”

“What happened to ‘Wow, Amber, you’re such a brilliant girlfriend? Thank goodness you’re a prefect’, hmm?” Amber said. She put her hand on her hip and flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Figure out the clue, then come meet us in your common room, alright?”

“Oh… you’re not staying?”

Amber glanced at Susan and winked. “I think you two can handle this, toodles.”

Harry watched curiously as Amber abruptly turned and left the bathroom. He looked toward Susan to see if she knew why she left, then once more lost all sense of thought, time, or even self as Susan slipped her robes off to showcase a bright yellow bikini on her lithe body.

“Strip,” she ordered Harry, smirking a little at whatever look of shock was on Harry’s face.

Harry hadn’t questioned the girls before, long since accepting them as the brains of their operation, and he didn’t question Susan now. He merely took his robes off and stripped down to the shorts that Katherine had told him to wear that day.

And if Harry thought he was a bit scrawny, too pale, too… everything, Susan didn’t think so.

Susan stepped confidently up to him after she turned the taps on to fill the pool-sized tub and placed a small and warm hand on his chest. “Egg first, us second,” she murmured.

Harry would have rearranged the order of that, but Susan was very obviously in charge, so he merely nodded.

And Harry didn’t even get a chance to puzzle over the egg before Susan properly distracted him.

***

“You don’t look like you just got shagged,” Katherine said when Harry and Susan joined the other girls a few hours later in the Gryffindor common room. The other Gryffindors had long since accepted that Harry was going to have his girlfriends in there.

Some people didn’t like it, but they weren’t stupid enough to say so.

Some people merely hoped that Harry would have another snogging contest, maybe let the girls judge each other, but Harry hexed Seamus when he’d mentioned it to him before.

They were mostly unbothered now. Sometimes Ron and Hermione even joined them. Harry didn’t see them tonight, but he was rather distracted.

“He still smells like a virgin too,” Pansy said from her spot on the floor where she was painting Amber’s nails.

“How does someone smell like a virgin?” Susan asked. She pushed Harry on the sofa between Katherine and Daphne and then sat herself on his lap.

“He just does,” Pansy insisted while Daphne nodded. Pansy looked up and narrowed her eyes at Susan. “I thought you were fixing that problem?”

“Leave them alone,” Amber said loyally. “They’re going slow, it’s sweet.”

Harry sighed and tried to shift the topic as his face was burning. “Anyone want to hear about the egg?”

Around the time that Susan had robed herself after their bath, Harry’s panic came back in full force about the egg.

“…and I can’t swim,” he insisted after reciting the song and Susan gave them her interpretation of it. “They’re going to steal my Firebolt and it’s going to be trapped there forever.”

“Oh my sweet, sweet, Harry,” Katherine clicked her tongue and laid her head on Harry’s shoulder. “Is it hard being so unbearably stupid?”

“Don’t call him stupid,” Susan told her hotly. “Harry’s very brave and quite amazing.”

“Yes he is.” Amber sat up and grinned at Harry. “But smart? Hmm, not quite.”

Harry would have been offended, but… but Susan thought he was amazing.

“If anyone cares, I have an idea,” Katherine hummed. “And a slight correction to Susan’s interpretation.”

Harry very much liked the idea of using gillyweed to retrieve his stolen item.

He very much hated the idea that it might be a person and not an object after all.

***

Katherine’s prediction rang true the morning of the third task.

Harry was pale and worried and Susan wasn’t there to reassure him this time.

The other girls did their best, all taking turns to hug him and stroke his hair and kiss his cheek, but… but they weren’t Susan.

“Good luck, mate!” Ron called to Harry as he passed Harry’s group on the way to the task. “Hannah and I will be rooting for you!”

Hannah raised a hand in a cheerful wave to Harry, only deepening his guilt that her best friend (and apparently not ex-girlfriend) was in danger because of him.

Harry couldn’t help but notice that Hermione was also not there. Not that it was unusual to see Ron and Hannah without Hermione, they’d been seeing each other since the Yule Ball, but the fact that Hermione had been Viktor’s date to the ball seemed ominous now.

“Hey, breathe,” Amber murmured as she lingered by his side on the docks only minutes before the task started. “The song is a silly scare tactic, do you really think Dumbledore will let a student die?”

“Yes!” Harry cried. “He would!”

Harry had years of proof of just that.

“Not for a game,” Daphne insisted quietly. “Harry, simply swim down there, retrieve Susan, and come back.”

“No bloody theatrics, baby,” Pansy hissed. “Get your girl, get back. Got it?”

“Get my girl, get back.” Harry nodded. “Got it.”

“Good luck.” Amber hugged him tightly and gave him one last kiss to the cheek before she took off with the girls for a seat in the stands.

“You’re like… the luckiest bloke in the school,” Cedric murmured as he watched the girls take off. Viktor nodded in vehement agreement on his other side. “How’d you get them all to just be fine with you seeing other girls?”

Harry shrugged and fingered the three doses of gillyweed that Pansy ordered him. “They love each other,” he said. “We’re happy.”

“And do you love zem?” Fleur asked curiously.

Harry looked back to where the girls were seated and waving at him with various levels of worry etched on their faces.

“I do,” he said.

Fleur beamed at him, then the task began.

“YOU IDIOT! WHAT HAPPENED TO GET THE GIRL, GET BACK?!“ Pansy screeched as she helped pull Harry and Fleur’s little sister on to the dock.

Harry coughed and gave her a sheepish look. “I got Susan back first, didn’t I?”

It had been a rude decision, but bringing Susan to the surface before going back to Fleur’s sister at least ensured that Susan would survive if the song wound up being true.

And as Susan threw herself in Harry’s very willing arms, he didn’t think she was mad at him for it.

Plus, Harry got full points as he’d technically rescued his hostage in the quickest time.

The fact that Pansy kissed Harry as Malfoy walked past them at the end, causing Malfoy to actually stumble and fall in the mud would be Harry’s patronus memory forever.

***

“It’s weird that Rita didn’t write some rubbish about us,” Harry said. He was laying on the Hufflepuff sofa with his head in Amber’s lap and his legs stretched out across Daphne’s legs while the other girls read an article about Hermione and Viktor out loud to him.

Pansy was being rude as she made faces every time Hermione’s name was mentioned, but it wasn’t as if Hermione didn’t curl her nose at Pansy every time Harry sat with her in potions.

“Very odd, one could almost say she was prevented from writing such garbage about a group of minors,” Daphne hummed. “Odd, indeed.”

Harry nodded, “Right, it’s odd, right?”

Amber laughed and Katherine rolled her eyes.

“You are the most oblivious person in the world,” Katherine sighed, sounding more fond than exasperated really.

“Aww, but he’s our oblivious boyfriend,” Amber said in a sing-song voice. She kept up her soft stroking of Harry’s hair. “And I’ve been thinking about this summer…”

“And?” Harry asked, feeling a tremor of unease.

Amber looked slowly from Pansy to Daphne to Susan. “And I think it’s time you trust us,” she said.

“I trust you guys more than anyone,” Harry said truthfully. He trusted Ron and Hermione, they were his best mates, but the girls were different. Aside from Susan, it was like… it was like they were his family, in a way.

And Harry had always wanted a big family.

“Trust me then when I tell you that Katy and I have an idea and you’re going to be pissy at first, and then you’ll realize we’re brilliant.”

Harry looked up at the very earnest eyes of his first ‘girlfriend’ and nodded as much as he could. “I trust you.”

“Then let’s talk about Sirius Black,” Katherine said.

Amber had been right. Harry was pissy at first and then he (once again) acknowledged that the girls were brilliant.

***

“Either you trust me or you don’t,” Harry said flatly. “I trust them with everything. So quit being a bloody baby.”

Sirius whined up at Harry and sniffed in Susan’s direction.

“I already told them,” Harry shrugged. “All you’re doing now is looking silly.”

“And we can help you, if you would quit stinking this delightful cave up with your wet dog smell,” Daphne said as she crinkled her nose. The girls looked around the damp and dark cave with looks of disgust on their pretty faces.

Sirius barked loudly and then shifted into his normal form. “Her aunt runs the DMLE,” he told Harry, sounding more than a little accusing as he pointed at Susan. “I’m going to have to leave the country, Harry.”

“Or we clear your name,” Susan said brightly. She pulled out one of the empty vials in her pocket and gave it to Sirius. “Susan Bones, pleasure to meet you.”

Sirius looked blankly from the vial he’d just been handed to the other girls before his gaze landed on Harry. “What?” he asked blankly.

Harry nodded understandably. The girls were very overwhelming when they were in planning mode. “It’s best to just do what they say,” Harry told Sirius.

“Then nobody gets hurt,” Katherine said with a sharp smile.

A couple of hours later, Sirius held Harry back as the girls began setting off down the mountain trail.

“Harry, listen…” Sirius was grinning and was much happier to have met the girls now that he heard their plan and couldn’t find any loopholes. “Those girls are insane, but…” He ruffled Harry’s hair affectionately, messing up the style that Pansy did for him that morning. “But I think I love them.”

“Well, don’t,” Harry warned him. “They’re mine.”

Sirius laughed and pushed Harry off towards the girls. “I’ll have plenty of time to get to know them this summer when we’re all on holiday, eh?”

“Really?” Harry’s face lit up. “No more Dursleys?”

“No more Dursleys,” Sirius said solemnly. “If their mad plan works, you’re never going back there. I swear.”

Harry, probably due to all the time he spent being hugged and cuddled by the girls, impulsively threw his arms around Sirius in a tight hug. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Sirius laughed as he hugged Harry back. “Don’t thank me, thank your little harem.”

And two weeks later, when Harry received a newspaper with breaking news that Sirius Black had been exonerated, Harry did just that.

“IT WORKED!” Harry screamed, right in the middle of the Great Hall that was buzzing with the news. “IT WORKED!!”

Susan jumped to her feet and threw herself in Harry’s arms, allowing him to spin her around in a circle before kissing him rather dramatically.

“It worked!” Susan said, sounding just as genuinely happy as Harry was.

And that was the kicker, wasn’t it?

Sirius’ name being cleared didn’t impact Susan in the slightest, not really. She was only happy because Harry was happy. In fact, all the girls were squealing and hugging and in general looked incredibly pleased for Harry and smug with their own self-satisfaction.

Nothing Harry was doing for them would ever repay them for what they did for him.

***

“Harry?”

“Hmm?” Harry looked up from the letter from Sirius he was reading, one that he was mostly frowning at as Sirius vented his frustrations at his claims for custody being blocked. Harry had been pondering if any of the girls, specifically Daphne and Katherine with their parents in legal professions, would have any ideas. He pushed the letter away though as Hermione and Ron looked rather serious and uneasy.

Hermione glanced around, but found Harry was alone and settled on the sofa beside him while Ron took the other side.

“Are you… are we…”

“Are we still friends?” Ron asked as Hermione trailed off and began twisting her fingers together.

“What?” Harry furrowed his brows together as he looked from Ron’s serious face to Hermione’s anxious one. “Of course we are, why would you ask that?”

“You didn’t tell us about Sirius,” Hermione said softly, her voice causing Harry to feel a flash of guilt.

“And were never see you anymore,” Ron added. “You’re always with your… your girlfriends…”

“And people are saying you guys are…” Hermione dropped her voice to a dramatic whisper. “Sleeping together.”

Harry laughed, which was probably the wrong reaction based on Hermione’s offended face. It was just too funny though. “They’re in different houses, I think someone would notice if I were sleeping in different dorms.”

Hermione sighed and Ron snickered.

“She means, people think you’re shagging them,” Ron said. “I told her it’s your business, and it’s wicked at that, and—”

“No,” Harry cut him off hastily before Ron got too detailed. “We just…” Harry wasn’t going to say ‘cuddle’. He and Susan snogged quite a bit, some of the best times of Harry’s life, but they didn’t do that either, despite Pansy’s creepy insistence. “We don’t do that,” he said, his face bright red and burning. “It’s… er… it’s different with them.”

“Yeah?” Ron grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “I bet it is.”

Hermione scoffed and cuffed Ron on the back of the head before turning her focus on Harry. “Why didn’t you tell us about Sirius?”

Harry shrugged his shoulders, uncomfortable. “I didn’t know if it would work, and… I just… I didn’t think of it, I guess.”

Hermione’s face did the pinched thing it did preceding a cry which made Harry’s insides twist and had him pulling Hermione in for a sideways hug. “I’m sorry,” he said. “The girls planned it and then it just happened quick and we didn’t know if it would even work. It doesn’t mean you guys aren’t still my best friends.”

“I don’t want us to grow apart,” Hermione sniffled as she laid her head on Harry’s shoulder. “Everything feels so off lately and I don’t like it.”

Harry tilted his head to hers and thought it over in his head. “Just because things change and we have other friends doesn’t mean you two won’t always be my best friends.” He grinned in an attempt to lighten the mood. “I didn’t see any of the girls jumping in a trapdoor with me in our first year.”

Hermione laughed softly and Ron chuckled, so Harry figured that he was forgiven for being distant recently.

In his defense, juggling five public girlfriends and one actual girlfriend was a bit time consuming.

***

And Harry’s already limited free time was dropped to nothing once the final task was revealed. He wasn’t really worried about the maze, and truthfully he’d almost forgotten about it with the whole Mister Crouch thing happening, but his girlfriends were ruthless.

In an incredibly thoughtful move no doubt spurned by Harry’s recount of his recent conversation with Hermione and Ron, Susan and Amber coordinated ‘Harry training sessions’ to ensure that the two of them could attend if they wanted. Hermione and Ron usually swapped out with Amber and Katherine so the two fifth years could study for the OWLS. And it was nice when they were there, it felt like Pansy was slowly starting to roll her eyes less often at Hermione and Hermione had less disgust on her face every time she saw them.

Ron was even perfectly polite to all of the girls, something Harry had worried about. Harry kind of expected Hannah to come with Ron, but Susan confided in him that their ‘sweet summer romance’ had ‘fizzled out’. And then Harry worried that his actual relationship with Susan would ‘fizzle out’ and she’d called him adorable then snogged him until he forgot about his worries.

Was Harry a simple bloke who enjoyed simple things like snogging his incredibly gorgeous girlfriend? Yes.

Did Harry feel like with all the nonsense in his life that he deserved some simple moments? Also yes.

Plus, the more he got to know Susan, the more he enjoyed being around her. They all went on group dates to Hogsmeade and ate their meals together, but Harry and Susan found alone time too where they talked.

And Susan was incredible. She was smart, and had a wicked sense of humor, and she was stubborn, and just… Susan was brilliant and Harry had no idea why she liked him, but she assured him that she did and he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth over it.

She was also bossy and ruthless and determined to force Harry to win the tournament, which he found to be rather funny.

“Your guys’ housemate is one of the champions,” he reminded Amber and Susan after a particularly grueling training session mostly consisting of Katherine and Pansy hexing Harry over and over until he blocked their spells. “It’s not exactly loyal of you to be helping me, is it?”

Harry had been joking, but Amber was seriously when she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

“You’re my best friend,” she said quietly. “Cedric never would have done for me what you are. If anyone deserves my loyalty, it’s you.”

And then Harry blushed at her genuine response. Then Susan laughed and kissed him, triggering a darker blush. Then Daphne sent a stinging hex to his backside indicating that his break from training was over.

Truly, it was almost a relief for the third task to start so Harry’s training could end.

***

Then Harry won the task, barely reaching the cup before Cedric did.

And Voldemort returned.

Moody turned out to be Barty Crouch Junior.

The Minister didn’t believe Harry.

And life looked like it was going to get messy and complicated and miserable.

To top it all off, the Ministry was blocking Sirius’ every move to take custody and Harry was being sent back to the Dursleys. Sirius told him when Harry had been in the Hospital Wing that he would be there every day, but as terrible as everything felt, Harry wasn’t sure he believed him.

“We should break up,” Harry told the girls softly on the train ride back to Kings Cross. “It’s not safe to date me now. I’ll help you find other fake boyfriends, but you shouldn’t be around me.”

He was looking in his lap, cowardly avoiding eye contact. It hurt him to say those things, but it was true and it would hurt Harry more if one of them got hurt because of their relationship to him.

(Un)fortunately, the girls didn’t agree with him and they never listened to him anyway.

“We would still be targets, love,” Amber told him. She reached across from her seat to tilt Harry’s face up by his chin and smiled sweetly at him. “We love you, Harry, we won’t stop being with you just because of a single threat.”

“You’re stuck with us,” Katherine added from beside Amber. “Get over it.”

Pansy scoffed and snuggled into Harry’s side (Pansy was probably more starved for physical affection than Harry was, in his opinion). “Even if we ‘broke up’,” she used her fingers to quote Harry, “the Dark Lord will still see that we are your friends and we’d be in as much danger as Granger and the Weasel.”

Harry would have frowned at her insult to Ron, but her other words distracted him. “Even if we weren’t together, we’d all be friends?”

Daphne scoffed and swung her legs up and across Pansy for the sole purpose of kicking Harry. “Obviously,” she drawled. “We are rather fond of you.”

“Very fond of you,” Susan said from Harry’s opposite side. She smiled when Harry looked at her and then kissed his cheek. “Plus, my aunt is dying to meet you this summer.”

Harry bit his lower lip and then shook his head. “Dumbledore said I’ve got to go back to my relative’s house and stay there. He says it’s not safe to leave their place this summer because of the wards.”

Which must have been funny somehow because all five girls laughed.

“Did he?” Daphne asked when they were finished laughing their bloody heads off at Harry. “That’s quite odd because my mother is terribly eager to meet you this summer.”

“Mine too,” Pansy said. “You have to meet our families to fulfill your contractual obligation for our courtship.”

Harry was pretty sure he hadn’t signed any contracts.

“I dunno…” Harry said hesitantly.

“We do know,” Katherine told him firmly. “And we know that you aren’t spending your holiday with those people.”

“Don’t worry, darling, we have a plan,” Amber winked.

“I feel like you guys could take over the world and it would be done before anyone even noticed,” Harry said wryly as they all exchanged mischievous smiles. “Terrifying, you are.”

“You love us anyway though… right?” Susan asked him.

Harry looked around at the odd assortment of witches and felt a bit like he suspected some people do when they get home after a long and trying day.

“Yeah,” he said, speaking to all of them. “I really do.”

Despite all the terrible past few days wondering about Voldemort and the war and what his role would be in it- it had been nice to spend the train ride curled up on the bench with the girls as they discussed fun things to do that summer.

It had been rather odd when a Ravenclaw girl a year below Harry, Luna Lovegood, showed up halfway through it and asked if she could join them, but at the rate it was going Harry figured the more the merrier.

Chapter Text

Year Five

It wasn’t that Harry didn’t trust Sirius, it was just that, aside from the girls, nobody really ever cared much about where Harry spent his summers. He thought that maybe Sirius would visit, pop by once or twice over the summer, but that was the most that he expected to happen.

But Uncle Vernon had no more than unlocked his front door when they returned from Kings Cross Station and Harry realized Sirius planned on keeping his word.

To the letter, apparently.

“WHA—”

“Evening,” Sirius said brightly. He was lounging on one of the sofas in the sitting room and smiled cheerfully at the three Dursleys and Harry. “I let myself in, hope you don’t mind.”

Uncle Vernon did mind, as it turned out. He got into a spectacular screaming match with Harry’s godfather that only ended when Sirius pulled his wand and began twirling it in his fingers.

“You stay in the boy’s room,” Uncle Vernon muttered, his eyes focused on the wand.

“Terrific,” Sirius drawled with a Snape-level worthy sneer. “Harry, my beloved godson who I would kill anyone for, lead the way?”

Uncle Vernon paled and Aunt Petunia whimpered as they undoubtedly remembered who Harry’s godfather was. Harry just shrugged and let Sirius levitate his trunk up to his room while he carried Hedwig, as apparently none of his belongings were being locked away this summer.

Neither was Harry, clearly, as Sirius’ face got dark and he ripped the locks off Harry’s bedroom door by hand and threw them down the stairs.

“So… er… whatcha doin here?” Harry asked Sirius casually as soon as they were in his bedroom and Sirius was sitting on the edge of his bed bouncing in place.

“Fulfilling my contractual obligations as godfather,” he laughed. He looked loads better than he had. Freedom suited Sirius. His eyes were brighter, his hair looked shinier and was tangle free. He even looked like he had gained some weight, giving him more of a handsome jawline and less of a starving skeleton look.

Harry squinted at the phrasing of Sirius’ explanation. “Talked to the girls recently, have you?”

“Sure have,” Sirius admitted with a shameless laugh. “I received a darling letter from a Miss Adorabella Greengrass offering to take my custody case for us. And we’re supposed to be there tomorrow for dinner.”

Harry stared blankly at Sirius. “Is that Daphne’s mum? Why would she invite us to dinner?”

Sirius’ never ending laughs were surely loud enough to irritate the Dursleys, which was reason number two why it made Harry smile. Reason one was that freedom truly did suit Sirius. Harry had never seen him so healthy and happy and whole.

“Harry, your girlfriend’s mother invited us to come have dinner because she wants to meet you. I’m guessing she offered to help us because she wants you to marry her daughter instead of the rest of your little,” Sirius flicked his fingers in an airy motion, “harem.”

Harry sighed. “We aren’t a harem, Sirius.”

“How many girls are you dating right now that know about each other and go on group dates?”

Harry counted quickly. “Six.”

Sirius laughed again and jumped up so he could ruffle Harry’s hair. “It’s a harem, kid.”

It…

It was becoming difficult to deny that it wasn’t at least a bit like a harem. Or, at least, it looked like a harem anyway.

A harem with five fake girlfriends and one real girlfriend.

“Let’s go shopping!” Sirius cried after digging through Harry’s messy trunk and curling his nose at Harry’s sparse muggle wardrobe. “You need something proper to wear to the Greengrass house tomorrow and I’ve got a whole vault just begging to be wasted on dressing up my godson.”

Harry’s neck heated up and he muttered something about his own money and ‘Dumbledore said…’ and Sirius laughed again.

“You leave Dumbledore to me,” Sirius winked. “And don’t worry about gold, I’ve got more than we could ever possibly spend. To Knockturn Alley!”

Harry thought Sirius had said the wrong place, but he hadn’t.

He also thought that Sirius was exaggerating about the contents of his vault, but a quick trip to Gringotts proved he hadn’t.

Sirius had also not been exaggerating about leaving Dumbledore to him. When they got back quite late that night with pockets filled with shrunken shopping bags, they were immediately stopped by a pink haired witch who had been lounging against a tree across the street from the Dursley’s house.

“Wotcher, Sirius, Harry,” she said cheerfully. She offered Harry her hand. “Nymphadora Tonks, call me Tonks or I’ll hex you, auror extraordinaire and the unlucky member tasked to lecture Sirius.”

“Try it and I’ll be the one hexing you,” Sirius warned her.

Tonks held her hands up placatingly. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m supposed to say ‘Harry is safest inside the wards and away from the magical world this summer’.”

Sirius nodded. “When you get off shift, tell Dumbledore I said ‘bite me’.”

And Harry began to feel like maybe Sirius’ word was something he could actually count on.

After all, not many people would transfigure Harry’s bed into a set of bunk beds and then happily ‘call top bunk’ and stay the night in somewhere as terrible as the Dursley’s house unless they really liked Harry.

***

Harry’s summer got a bit weird after that. Well, weirder, anyway.

Sirius went with Harry to go meet Daphne’s family- which consisted of her mother and her sister. Apparently Daphne’s father had died the year Daphne started Hogwarts, which had been why her mother wanted to arrange a marriage for her. To ‘ensure that she would be financially set for life’. Daphne’s mother was polite and obviously intelligent. Daphne’s sister Astoria was funny and loud and spent quite a bit of time chatting with Luna.

Harry didn’t know why it surprised him to see all the girls at Daphne’s house when he arrived with Sirius, but he had been rather surprised nonetheless.

Daphne’s mother also invited Harry, Sirius, and the other girls to stay for a few days to ‘assess their case’ and ‘get to know her future son’. Sirius had seemed all too happy to stay. He spent a suspicious amount of time flirting with Daphne’s mum. It wasn’t Harry’s business, but it was odd to see Sirius flirting, especially when ‘Adorabella’, as she insisted Harry call her, looked more tolerantly amused than anything.

Then Sirius told Harry that he had to ‘pop back home and check on things’ and promised to explain more fully next time they were alone. He left Harry in ‘the very safe hands of his girlfriends’ and Harry wondered if he saw the oxymoron in that statement or not because Harry certainly did.

“Mother said,” Daphne tossed her hair and stuck her nose up in the air when they left her home to go to Pansy’s, “‘Inform Mister Potter that I will be assisting him in his custody case. Then kindly ensure that he is aware I would prefer my eldest daughter to be wed by twenty’.”

Harry snorted and the girls laughed and then Amber mentioned how polygamy was very much legal in the wizarding world, even if it was mildly frowned upon, and then Harry felt overwhelmed and terrified.

Which made the girls laugh more, obviously.

Meeting Pansy’s family had been terrifying. Harry assumed, based on Pansy’s friendship with Draco, that her family had death eater connections. Pansy’s ‘reassurance’ that they were ‘merely sympathizers’ hadn’t exactly soothed Harry’s nerves.

Her father was a strict looking man who didn’t speak a whole lot and spent much too much time scrutinizing Harry with dark and suspicious eyes. Her mother was polite, if a bit aloof, and asked Harry about his ‘intentions with her daughter’.

Harry’s quip about dumping her at graduation had only made the girls laugh.

“They liked you just fine,” Pansy assured Harry afterwards. “Father thinks that it makes more sense for him to stay away from the Dark Lord since we’re together.”

“Which is a good thing,” Katherine assured Harry when he apparently made a face. “Just think, maybe you could add Draco to our group next and then take Lucius from the Dark Lord as well.”

Harry definitely made a face at that because Luna giggled at him.

“Do I need to go meet your family as well?” Harry asked Luna. He didn’t know much about her, she merely showed up on the train ride home, asked if she could join them, and stuck with them all summer so far. As far as he could tell, she didn’t have a girlfriend, but he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to talk with her about it either.

“Oh no,” Luna said airily as she looked up at the sky. “My mother is dead and my dad is off hunting Holtflangers.”

Harry felt a pang of empathy with her, just as he had Daphne, for losing one of her parents. Susan, the only other true orphan of the group, squeezed Harry’s hand tightly.

“What’s a… whatever you just said?” Katherine asked Luna curiously.

While Luna explained what the creature was and the other girls began dating the likelihood of it being a real creature, Susan tugged on Harry’s hand and smiled at him.

“Can we go meet my aunt tomorrow? She’s already said we can all stay there for a few days. She works a lot, so she doesn’t mind if we stay there as long as you sleep in the sitting room.”

Harry hesitated. “Can Sirius come too? Or at least pop by or something?” He held up the letter that Hedwig delivered to him while he’d been at Pansy’s. “It’s just that he said he got hung up with ‘a bunch of nonsense’ and he said he’d explain when he saw me next.”

“And your incessant nosiness demands answers,” Amber said serenely with a wink.

Susan’s grin only grew at Harry’s question. “Oh, darling, my aunt would love for Sirius to come by. They were classmates, you know.”

Harry didn’t know.

But he found out quickly.

While Sirius seemed to enjoy flirting with Daphne’s mother, he was a red faced mess when he came for dinner at Susan’s home.

Harry expected to be grilled about his relationship with Susan when he and the girls arrived on the first day at ‘Bones Cottage’. But Susan’s aunt, Amelia, seemed to take a lot of pleasure out of teasing Sirius most of the time. She was friendly and polite, a persona Susan told Harry she didn’t use in the courtroom she ruled over, and Harry liked her immediately. The fact that she spent a lot of time telling embarrassing stories about Sirius in his school days, along with some genuinely sweet ones of his parents, only cemented Harry’s genuine liking of her.

And Sirius did answer Harry’s questions that very night when the girls went to bed and the two of them went for a walk. Apparently Dumbledore started a resistance against Voldemort, the Order of the Phoenix, of which Sirius and Amelia were both members, and it was being hosted in Sirius’ family home. Sirius explained that Ron and Hermione were being forbidden from sending Harry letters (he gave Harry their letters they slipped to him before he left) and that Order members were split between guarding a prophecy made about Harry and Voldemort (apparently the reason why Voldemort targeted Harry’s parents in the first place), keeping watch at the Dursley’s, and tracking Harry.

Harry was hurt that his friends weren’t being allowed to write to him and was terribly amused to hear that the Order members were unable to track Harry as much as he traveled from warded magical property to warded magical property.

“Which is just another reason why I’ve paid Bill Weasley to ward our place,” Sirius told Harry, his endless cheer still shining as they walked and talked. “He’s a good bloke, loyal to Dumbledore, but willing to do this off the record still. And after August second you’ll be moving in and there won’t be a damn thing that Albus or Fudge can do about it.”

Harry wasn’t sure that the idea that Harry become an ‘emancipated minor’ would work, but Daphne’s mother seemed confident, Sirius seemed confident, and it made him hopeful at least.

Harry wasn’t sure if it would hurt or help him to have Amelia Bones hear his case for emancipation, but Sirius said it would help and he hadn’t lied about anything else so far.

Of course, Harry worried that any good relationship he built between himself and Susan’s guardian would be shot when he’d hardly been there for two days and he and the girls were attacked by dementors.

Harry immediately received a letter from Mafalda Hopkins expelling him for producing a patronus in the muggle town Susan lived in.

Then Amelia apparated home with an auror and interrogated Harry and each of the girls about what happened.

“You saved her,” Amelia sighed as she wrapped a very startled Harry in a hug after hearing that the dementors went for Susan. “I don’t care if you marry fifty witches, as long as Susan always has you there to look after her.”

Harry patted her awkwardly on the back while the girls giggled at him.

He got a letter from the Ministry not twenty minutes after Amelia left clearing him of all charges and apologizing for the ‘hasty expulsion letter’.

The day before Harry’s birthday, he received an odd letter delivered to Amber’s home where they were currently at.

Harry,
The Weasley’s would be delighted to host you for the remainder of the summer. Molly has requested you be brought to them- I believe she is planning a birthday celebration of some sort.
Let me know if this is something you would enjoy, letters addressed to the Headmaster will always reach me.
Kind regards,
Albus Dumbledore

Daphne, who had snatched the letter as soon as Harry finished reading it, scoffed. “He’s trying to bribe you into leaving us for the summer with a birthday party.”

“I suppose he doesn’t know about the party that Sirius planned then, hmm?” Katherine hummed with a mischievous grin. “Or the fact that he’s bringing Hermione and Ronald to it?”

“Ron,” Harry absently corrected her. The seven of them were lounging in Amber’s yard after a morning spent flying together. “And I guess not.”

“Bullocks to him,” Amber said. “You’re ours, darling, and we don’t share.”

Even Harry found the humor in that and they all laughed and laughed and laughed and Pansy caught Dumbledore’s letter on fire.

Harry and the girls showed up to Sirius’ new place (‘our home’ Sirius called it, but Harry didn’t want to call it that and then lose it) on the day of his birthday, at the very firm demand of Sirius himself, and Harry was caught by surprise.

First off, the house was beautiful.

It was a cute little two story, four bedroom, brick house in the middle of the forest- a bit of a pain to find on foot to be honest- and the backyard was huge and tree-free.

“A perfect place to fly,” Sirius assured Harry.

The house wasn’t the real surprise though, the presence of his grinning and smug best friends, along with Ginny, was.

“Sirius broke us out!” Ron cried as he pulled Harry in for a quick hug. “Mum’s going to be furious when she finds out!”

“Which was definitely worth it,” Ginny said firmly as she too gave Harry a quick hug. She raised her brows at Luna though. “Luna? What…” She looked around at the other witches with Harry. “What are you doing?”

“Celebrating Harry’s birthday,” Luna said seriously. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

Ginny chuckled and then pulled Luna away for ‘a quick chat’ behind the broom shed.

Harry enjoyed his birthday very much. All the much more when Sirius taught him how to use his flying motorcycle and he let Harry take each of the girls, plus Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, on a ride.

It was weird when Ginny started batting her lashes and flirting with Harry, but the girls weren’t concerned so neither was he.

The morning of Harry’s emancipation trial had him wiping sweaty palms on his dress pants in Sirius’ sitting room while the girls snickered at him.

“If I lose, they’ll send me back to the Dursley’s,” he fretted as he paced. “Or they’ll send me to Grimmauld Place, or they’ll—”

“They’re going to emancipate you,” Pansy said factually.

“Stop.” Amber got up and grabbed Harry by the shoulders and pulled him against her in a warm hug. Harry was tense in the hold at first then he slowly relaxed. “This is going to be fine, darling,” she murmured as she held him close, just as Harry had always imagined an older sister might do. “Susan is going with you, Sirius is already there, Amelia is overseeing the case. You’ll be in, state your case—”

“Tell them you are seeking emancipation as means to move from the muggle world to the magical,” Daphne drawled from the floor, blinking up at him with her cool blue eyes. “My mother said that it has almost always been approved.”

“Almost always?” Harry cried, tensing up once more and wrenching free from Amber only to he stopped mid-stride by Katherine.

“And it will definitely be approved for you or we will burn the Ministry to the ground,” Katherine swore. She pushed Harry toward where Susan stood by the fireplace and then smirked when Harry shot her a look over his shoulder. “Go, now.”

“Good luck, Harry,” Luna cried when Susan smiled at Harry and grabbed his hand before flinging a handful of floo powder in the fire.

“We love you, baby boy,” Pansy said with a smirk after seeing Harry’s look of exasperation. “You’ll be all grown up in less than two hours!”

It was actually less than one hour.

Amelia Bones had asked Harry his name, asked if he had a source of income (Pansy had brilliantly told him to inform her that he had become a ‘recent investor in an upcoming business’ and ‘had a trust to hold him over until he began seeing profits’), asked if he had a residence, if he understood the legal ramifications of being an adult, and then asked if he was sure it was what he wanted.

After Harry answered them, parroting the responses the girls drilled in his head, his hand slick with sweat while Susan kept him grounded to the courtroom they were in-

They granted his request.

“You did it!” Susan yelled. She threw herself in Harry’s arms before he could even fully comprehend—

No more Dursleys.

—the situation and kissed him so fiercely that he entirely forgot himself as he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed all his happiness, his relief, right back to her.

The rest of the summer went by quickly.

Sirius brought home daily reports on Order activities; which focused solely on guarding the prophecy as Harry’s emancipation and ‘mysterious move’ had been in the papers and Dumbledore admitted that he could no longer track Harry. Dumbledore was being drug through the mud in the papers almost daily, but they had kept rather silent on Harry, something he apparently had Daphne to thank. Or, Daphne’s mum, anyway, who told Harry (when he did thank her for all her help) that the only repayment she required was her daughter ‘being treated as a young woman should’.

The girls took turns staying at Harry and Sirius’ house; Sirius gave the extra two bedrooms up for their use after forcing Harry to sit through a mortifying ‘safe sex’ talk.

“Harry, mate, listen… every time you have sex there’s the risk of pregnancy, and you’ve got six witches sleeping here regularly. We’re discussing bloody condoms.”

At some point Harry planned on telling Sirius that only one of Harry’s six ‘girlfriends’ was interested in having sex with him, but as he hadn’t been able to look Sirius or the girls in the eyes for a week after that talk, he didn’t accomplish that summer goal.

He also got to spend a lot of time with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny when they kept popping through the floo as often as they could sneak away. Ron and Hermione kept him up to date on their lives, and they all celebrated when Ron, Hermione, Susan, and Pansy were made prefects, and Ginny…

Well, Ginny seemed to be awfully interested in chatting up Luna, which Harry didn’t quite understand.

All in all, it had been a nearly perfect summer, Voldemort and the dementor attack notwithstanding, and Harry had been glum to be returning to Hogwarts for the first time in his life.

***

“Ron will kick my arse,” Harry said. He crossed his arms, narrowed his eyes, and shook his head. “And so will Fred and George. No way.”

“Harryyyy, you’re not scared of the twins, are you?” Ginny batted her lashes and smiled coyly. “Please?”

“No.”

“Please?” Luna pouted from where her head was in Ginny’s lap.

“Unfair!” Harry cried. He looked around the compartment, hoping one of the other girls would agree with him, but they all smirked and shrugged. “I’m going to start forgetting your names,” he warned them. “How are there so many witches uninterested in blokes in a single school, anyway?”

“I like blokes,” Susan hummed. She threaded her fingers through Harry’s curls, causing him to sigh quietly. “I like you, anyway.”

“And you like me when I’ve got six other witches telling the whole world that we’re in a- a harem?” Harry asked, hiding his genuine concern behind a sarcastic front.

“Yes,” she said firmly. She cuddled in his side a little and kissed his neck. “You’re brilliant,” she murmured.

“And you’re a liar,” Harry snorted. He gave Ginny an exasperated look, “What are we telling Ron that doesn’t make him hate me?”

Ginny squealed happily and began scheming with Pansy and Katherine, the three of the coming up with stories for Ginny’s infamously hotheaded brother while the other girls offered criticism and ideas and Harry relaxed with Susan’s head on his shoulder and his head tilted down to hers.

They all fell silent when there was a knock on their compartment door and a girl stepped in after Amber opened it.

Harry didn’t know her, she was tall, had tanned skin and long waves of dark hair, and she wore the blue tie for Ravenclaw.

“Hello, my name is Sara.” The girl offered Harry her hand and Harry was drawn in by her almond shaped warm brown eyes. Then he was pushed away by her last name. “Sara Lestrange.”

“Lestrange…” Harry repeated, barely refraining from cringing away from her. “As in Bellatrix and Rodolphus?”

“My uncles, Rodolphus and Rabastan, yes,” Sara said, seemingly not put off by Harry’s obvious discomfort. “May I sit with you all?”

Harry glanced at the girls, who all shrugged aside from Luna who nodded eagerly. “Alright then,” he said slowly. He gestured to the bench opposite him. “Have a seat.”

Sara smiled prettily and perched herself on the seat between Amber and Ginny. “I came to ask you a question.”

Harry prepared himself as he knew the exact words that were about to come out of her mouth.

“How would you like to get married?”

Harry clearly did not know the words that were going to come out of her mouth and he suddenly found himself choking on his spit while eight girls watched him curiously.

“M-married?!” Harry sputtered as Susan rubbed his back. “I’m- I’m fifteen?!”

“And in a committed relationship,” Susan said. She sounded polite, but the look in her eyes wasn’t.

“With all of us,” Ginny added brightly, clearly delighted to be in a lesbian fake-harem.

“Let’s hear her out,” Amber said bossily. She turned to Sara and gave her a kind smile. “Why would you want to marry Harry? Especially with the current… political climate?”

Sara tilted her head curiously at Amber while she studied her with hooded eyes. “Did you think, perhaps, the current ‘political climate’ is precisely the reason I wish to firmly tie myself to one side before I am forced to tie myself to the other side? Also,” she gave Susan a kind smile, “we could divorce amicably once the Dark Lord is dead. I have no intentions of stealing your boyfriend.”

Harry felt like maybe nobody was remembering the biggest flaw here. “I’m fifteen,” he told Sara again. “I can’t marry you, lesbian or not.”

“Asexual.”

“Bless you.”

Sara smiled at him, her eyes now amused. “Asexual, as in I have no interest in sexual relations of any sort. A preference that will be ignored if I marry Corban Yaxley, I assure you.”

Harry tried to place Yaxley’s face in his mind, but could only dredge up the memory of Voldemort saying his name in the graveyard.

“That’s horrible!” Ginny cried indignantly. “You’re an adult now, right? Seventeen?”

“It will be wed or die,” Sara said as casually as if she were mentioning to weather outside. “However, while wizards have the option of multiple wives, wives cannot be forced to have more than one husband. The patriarchy at work, you see.” She looked at Harry and her eyes were sharp as they focused solely on him, “I wouldn’t ask if I had a great many options. I simply heard about your harem and thought perhaps you would enjoy another woman to prance around with. I can’t offer you sex, but I can offer my allegiance and assistance in this war you’re going to be forced to play a role in.”

It was like nobody heard Harry mention his age before, so he tried one more time.

“I wish I could help,” he said honestly, “but I’m fifteen, Sara. I can’t get married.”

“Oh, you weren’t making a joke when you said that?” Daphne asked him after a beat of silence. “Harry, love, you’ve been legally emancipated. You can get married.”

“I- I can?” Harry looked around the compartment and saw the curious, yet not surprised, looks on the girls’ faces. Then he sighed and turned to Susan. “Are you going to be really mad if I propose to Sara and marry her?”

It was silly, and Harry blamed his dad since Sirius said he had been a hopeless romantic, but… but Harry loved Susan. He loved all the girls, but he loved Susan in the way that he hoped his first and only proposal would be with her. But he wasn’t going to let some poor girl get married off to a death eater and forced to be intimate with him. And… and he hoped Susan understood, because he was going to do it regardless. It would just be nice if Susan was also the type of person who wouldn’t stand by idly while something so horrible happened.

Susan only thought about it for a short moment. “No,” she said, sounding confident and sure. She smiled sweetly and ran a hand through Harry’s hair, causing him to lean into her tender touch. “I think it’s amazing that you’d do something so thoughtful for someone.”

And Harry thought she was amazing.

“And I think you should propose on Halloween,” Pansy said. She looked up from her nails that she had been buffing when everyone turned to her. “What? Then they can get married on Christmas. It’s called romance, you plebeians.”

“I don’t expect us to have a traditional wedding nor engagement,” Sara said politely. “We could simply have it done at Hogsmeade one weekend, if it could be announced, that would be lovely.”

“Wro-ong,” Ginny sang. “Harry’s first wedding isn’t going to be some quick and dirty down at the pub. You leave proposing to Harry and the wedding to us.”

“On second thought, leave proposing to us as well,” Katherine told Sara as she considered Harry carefully. “Harry here will definitely jock it up if we allow him free reign.”

“How does someone ‘jock up’ a proposal?” Luna asked her with a genuine look of curiosity to mirror Harry’s own inner curiosity.

Katherine sighed. “Harry, sweetheart, where would you propose if you were going to do it at Hogwarts?”

Harry thought about it for a moment. “The quidditch pitch,” he nodded. “It’s the perfect place, isn’t it?”

Ginny nodded, but nobody else did.

Amber giggled and shook her head at Harry. “No, love, it isn’t.”

By the end of the train ride, Harry heard all about weddings and rings and cuts of diamonds and Sara was added to their group.

And Harry knew that Sirius was going to laugh himself sick when Harry called him on their two-way mirrors that night to tell him that he’d soon be proposing to Sara Lestrange.

Sirius didn’t laugh, Sirius was shocked and horrified for all of five minutes before Harry carefully explained that either he married Sara (his most recent girlfriend, he said) or Yaxley would, and then Sirius began planning. Harry had to explain to him that the girls were in charge of the wedding and he should write to them about it.

“You’re very whipped,” Sirius grinned.

“And dramatically outnumbered,” Harry agreed.

***

Harry thought that having a proposal and a wedding looming in front of him would be the most stressful part of fifth year—

Then he met Professor Dolores Umbridge.

And he got in to a fight with the woman in his very first class when she continued to wheedle him, insisting that Voldemort wasn’t back, saying Harry lied last year.

“Think I took a bloody holiday at the end of the maze?” Harry demanded, getting to his feet despite Susan’s soft hand trying to keep him in place at his desk. “Think I cut my arm open and then jaunted back with the cup and said ‘Oi, might as well make up some story’?”

“I think, Mister Potter, that you are someone who clearly enjoys attention.” Umbridge’s eyes lingered on Susan long enough for the entire class to understand her implication and then suddenly Susan was on her feet as well.

“Can you explain your meaning, Professor?” Susan asked with a polite tone and a mean look. “Please, ma’am, as I’d love to inform my Auntie Amelia your intent.”

Umbridge shut her mouth with an angry snap before she glared at Harry. “Detention tonight, Mister Potter.”

“For what?” Harry demanded hotly, his skin pricking with anger at the injustice.

“Insubordination!” Umbridge cried. “Sit down or it’ll be a dozen detentions!”

Harry was seething as he slammed himself back in his seat. Susan didn’t though, Susan very calmly packed her bag up while the students all watched and Umbridge pretended to not watch.

She spoke up when Susan slung her bag over her shoulder.

“Where do you think you’re going, Miss Bones?”

Susan bent down, pecked Harry on the cheek, and then fixed Umbridge with the hardest look Harry had ever seen on her cute face.

“I am going to speak with Professor Sprout, then Professor McGonagall, and perhaps Professor Dumbledore, ma’am,” she said, sounding polite. “Have a wonderful day.”

Harry couldn’t hide his smile as Susan turned on her heel and flounced out the door. He didn’t clap, though he wanted to.

Hermione did clap and subsequently earned herself a detention that night alongside Harry.

Susan was missing until dinner that night. Harry and the girls were all seated at the Ravenclaw table. And Harry was receiving a lot of dirty looks from Ron that were causing Ginny to grin and Harry to cringe.

He had a bad feeling that he was going to get yelled at after his detention.

“That woman is foul!” Susan spat. Sara scooted over so Susan could sit beside Harry, earning a grateful nod, and Harry earned himself one when he slid her a plate of her favorite foods. “Do you know what Professor McGonagall told me?”

“Let me guess…” Katherine, who was as informed as the other girls were, flicked her long hair over her shoulder and stuck her nose in the air. “Miss Bones, I cannot overrule another teacher when they give detention. Kindly inform Mister Potter to keep his head down.”

“McGonagall does not sound like that,” Ginny said loyally.

“It’s precisely what she said!” Susan cried. “She even offered me a biscuit, Ginny, a BISCUIT!”

“The horror,” Pansy yawned. “What?” she asked when the other girls gave her unimpressed looks. “Harry swore in her class, surely you can see how that might get a detention from even Snape?”

“I could sneeze loudly in Snape’s class and earn a detention,” Harry muttered.

“Not true,” Daphne corrected him. “Professor Snape has been perfectly lovely to you lately.”

“Because he’s terrified of you lot,” Harry said with fond exasperation. He caught Hermione waving at him from the Gryffindor table and got to his feet with a heavy sigh. “I’ve got to go, I’ll see you lot tomorrow?”

“I’ll see you soon,” Ginny winked. She jumped to her feet, leaned across the table, and startled Harry as she kissed him hard and fast.

He peeked over at the Gryffindor table and saw Ron’s ears were as red as his hair and made a mental note to keep his wand on him when he got back to the dorms after detention.

Then he forgot about Ron entirely as he and Hermione made their way to the dorm, shocked to silence, with bleeding hands.

“We tell no one,” Harry whispered to Hermione before she opened the portrait door. Hermione gave Harry a look before opening her mouth, but he cut her off. “I mean it, she’ll expect us to go whining and I’m not giving that bloody toad the satisfaction.”

“So you’re just going back tomorrow?” Hermione hissed, referring to the additional detention Harry managed to earn during their detention.

“Yes,” he said firmly. “Could you imagine how smug she’d be if I complained and still got told to show up?”

“I hate her,” Hermione said, her eyes blazing. She looked down at their hands, Harry quickly slid his inside his robe sleeve, and when she looked up there was a spark of fire in her. “You should tell your girls, they’ll be unhappy if you keep it from them.”

“We’ll see,” Harry murmured. He reached out with his good hand to open the portrait, effectively ending the conversation, and they crawled through and were nearly hit with a blue spell being fired across the room.

“MY LIFE IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS, RONALD WEASLEY!” Ginny was screaming from the steps of the girls dorms. “YOU’RE JUST JEALOUS!”

“OF WHAT?!” Ron yelled, standing in front of the fireplace with his wand drawn and his face red and furious. “OF YOU JUST- JUST- SLAG—”

“Watch it,” Harry said harshly, stepping forward and making his presence known. Ron raised his wand at Harry, but then Hermione stepped up beside him and Ron quickly lowered it.

It was a bad time to think it, but Harry was relieved that he wasn’t the only Gryffindor bloke bloody terrified of witches.

Except for Susan, who was terrifying, but was also brilliant, and brave, and honest, and sweet, and—

“YOU PUT MY SISTER IN A HAREM!”

Harry blinked quickly and shook his head, pushing away distracting thoughts of his girlfriend. “Huh?”

Ron advanced on Harry, spurring Ginny to do a truly spectacular leap from the stairs to Harry’s side.

“You put Ginny in your bloody harem!”

Harry looked over at Ginny then at Ron with a quirked brow. “Er… I mean, I didn’t make Ginny do anything? She just… just wanted to join.”

They’d planned on telling Ron that Ginny was interested in Luna and only hung out with Harry and the girls for Luna, but… but Harry didn’t much like Ron acting as if Ginny wasn’t able to make her own decisions and Ginny did kiss Harry, so… he guessed they were making up new plans on the fly.

That was the way Harry operated best, usually.

“I don’t like Ginny being treated like a bloody option!” Ron said hotly. “You shouldn’t be with all of them! It’s not fair!”

“I think it’s up to us if we feel as if it’s unfair or not,” Ginny told Ron. She took a step toward him and jabbed her wand in his chest. “I dare you, dare you, to tell the girls- to tell Katherine, that Harry is treating us unfairly.”

That… that probably wouldn’t go over well.

Ron must have agreed, because his face paled and the redness of his ears faded to pink. He mumbled something Harry didn’t catch, but made Ginny laugh.

“I’ll tell Mum myself,” she said. She narrowed her eyes at Ron challengingly, “I’ll go right now. Harry, baby, can I borrow Hedwig? I’d rather not use Ron’s owl tonight.”

Harry held back a sigh, remaining true to the character Ginny set him as, and smiled sweetly at her.

“Course,” he said. “She’s in the owlery.”

“Brilliant.” Ginny leaned around Hermione to kiss Harry and Harry saw a mischievous little twinkle in her eyes, “I’m off to write Mum then, I’ll send her your love.”

Harry watched her leave the common room, he also noticed the groups of students clustered around watching the show, then gave Ron his best pathetic sigh.

“Mate, I’m tired, detention was horrid, and I want to sleep. Can we just… just not fight? I’m not doing anything to Ginny she doesn’t want. I wouldn’t, you know that.”

Ron stared hard at Harry, and Harry felt like their entire friendship was being weighed.

Hermione bit her nails, her eyes flickering between Ron and Harry, until Ron finally conceded with a jerk of his chin.

“I don’t like it,” he said stubbornly.

Truthfully? Harry didn’t much like it either. Ginny could be annoying when she wanted to be and he was afraid that Molly was going to hate him, but it truly was Ginny’s decision to make.

“Can we not fight about it?” Harry asked hesitantly.

Ron rolled his eyes, but his lips curled up in a small grin. “Fine, but don’t be surprised if Fred and George start testing products on you. They’re, er… not thrilled.”

Harry looked around the common room and felt like it was an ominous sign that the twins weren’t present. Then he felt a twinge of pain in his scar to match the twinge in his hand and winced.

“Whatever,” he muttered, bringing his good hand to press down on his scar. “If they want to hate me because Ginny’s all grown up and can make her own decisions, that’s just bloody brilliant. I’m off to bed.”

Hermione smacked Ron the instant Harry moped off to bed with his head hung low and drug him to go find the twins for a chat.

***

Harry made it approximately seven minutes through breakfast before one of the girls noticed his hand.

“Harry, why are you babying your hand?” Amber asked, zeroing in on Harry’s left hand and drawing it to the attention of the other girls.

“I’m not,” Harry denied. He hissed between his teeth when Sara snuck her hand out and snatched his wrist, slamming his palm on the table.

“Oi! Gentle!” Ginny scolded her.

“Apologies,” Sara said politely. “Harry doesn’t seem like the type of person to show injuries without being forced to though.”

“I do—”

“That’s fair,” Daphne said, the others nodding in agreement. “Harry, love, what the hell happened to your hand?!”

Harry tried to pull his hand back, but Sara was surprisingly strong. And, with all the girls staring at the proof, he figured it was a pointless endeavor anyway.

“Detention,” he said flatly. “Lines.”

“Did you use your hand for parchment?!” Susan demanded.

“Of course he didn’t, Harry isn’t stupid,” Luna said airily. “It’s a blood quill.”

Harry wasn’t sure what a blood quill was, but he seemed to be the only one. Sara let go of his wrist and yanked her hand back, her mouth open in a horrified ‘O’ while the other girls stared at Harry blankly.

Susan looked close to tears. “Harry, how many lines did you write?”

Harry shrugged and hid his hand back in his sleeve on his lap. “Maybe… fifty?”

“Fifty?!” Amber shrieked. The girls, as one terrifying machine, turned and stared up at the Head Table and glared at an unaware Umbridge.

“Harry, tell me you don’t have detention again,” Katherine whispered, her dark eyes narrowed and hateful as she glared up at Umbridge.

“Er… yeah, actually, tonight.”

“Wonderful.” Pansy checked her watch then pushed a plate of toast toward Harry. “That gives us roughly ten hours to get rid of Umbridge.”

Harry looked at the determined looks on all the girls’ faces then leaned forward and dropped his voice low so he wasn’t overheard by the nearby Hufflepuffs.

“You’re getting her fired?” he asked.

Pansy and Katherine snickered.

“Fired? No,” Katherine said in a falsely saccharine voice. “We’re killing her.”

Harry laughed nervously, but the girls all looked dead serious. Which then left Harry in the uncomfortable position to try and explain to them why murder should be a last resort and not their first option.

He wasn’t entirely certain if he was successful or not, but he hoped he was.

Harry was partnered with Daphne as usual during potions— a class that had greatly improved for him ever since Snape and Dra- Malfoy quit antagonizing him, when their class was interrupted by a scroll popping into existence on Snape’s desk.

“Potter!”

Harry nearly spilled his toad eyes at Snape’s harsh snap of his name, it was only thanks to Daphne’s quick fingers that kept him from ruining their halfway decent potion.

“You’re needed in the Headmaster’s office.”

Harry blinked up at Snape, caught off guard. “Er, why? Sir?” he added hastily at Daphne’s sharp kick beneath the table.

Snape sneered at him, “Do I look like your publicist, Potter? I have no idea. Go!”

Harry scrambled to pack his bag while Daphne hummed loudly.

“Imagine being an adult and mocking a student under your care for achieving unwanted fame through the death of his parents,” Daphne said as she calmly chopped daisy stems.

Harry saw Malfoy’s eye brows go so high on his forehead that they were no longer visible and Ron grin like Christmas had come early, but as Snape’s sneer turned into a look of absolute hatred, Harry thought it was best to just hurry and find out what Dumbledore wanted him for.

The gargoyles that guarded Dumbledore’s office parted for him, allowing Harry entrance up the stairs to the office door. He knocked politely and waited for Dumbledore to call for him before opening the door.

Then he stopped mid-step and stared around at the group of people within the office.

Dumbledore was seated behind his desk, his hands steepled together as he studied the ceiling as if it held the secrets to the universe. Sirius was there as well, standing against one wall with his arms crossed and a dark expression on his face. Amelia Bones and Minister Fudge were both also there, both seated in front of Dumbledore’s desk.

Amelia got to her feet when Harry slowly closed the office door behind him and tried to catch Dumbledore’s eye.

“Harry, it’s good to see you,” Amelia said warmly. “How are you?”

Currently? Rather confused.

“Fine?” Harry said, glancing toward Sirius and raising his brows. Sirius only shook his head and Harry had no idea what that meant. “How are you?”

Amelia’s pretty smile, one that looked a lot like Susan’s, widened. “Excellent. Why don’t you sit? We need to talk.”

Harry eyed the chair that Amelia vacated warily, the Minister looked about as pleased to be there as Harry did, but before he could find a polite way to refuse, Dumbledore wiggled his fingers in Sirius’ direction and a comfortable looking, purple, plush chair popped into existence.

Harry mumbled a quick thanks, but Dumbledore only nodded his head slightly, still not looking at Harry.

Amelia remained standing even when Harry sat down and Sirius placed a reassuring, if not a bit tight, hand on his shoulder.

“Harry, may I see your left hand?”

Harry immediately pulled his hand closer to his chest and felt his heart rate pick up. “Why?”

Amelia gave him a solemn look while the Minister scoffed. “I received a report today,” she said. “It said that you were subjected to a blood quill by a Hogwarts Professor.”

Harry loved Susan, but he also cursed at her in his head a bit. Then he felt guilty for even mentally swearing at his girlfriend and dropped his eyes so Amelia couldn’t see his guilt.

“Harry, show her your hand,” Sirius said tightly. “It’s illegal, what she did.”

“If Professor Umbridge did anything,” Fudge muttered as he fixed Harry with a look of utter loathing.

“That’s what we’re here to determine,” Dumbledore said softly as he continued to stare at the ceiling. “Harry, if you wouldn’t mind?”

Harry very slowly held his left hand out, his face flaming with shame, to show the scar ‘I will not tell lies’ on his hand to Amelia.

Amelia didn’t hiss or shriek as Susan did, but her eyes did turn hard while she gently turned Harry’s hand left and right, letting the light reflect on his hand.

“Who did this? For the record?” she asked Harry.

Harry shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with the scrutiny, the feeling as if he were tattling, and Sirius’ hand clenched tightly on his shoulder.

“I did,” he said, which wasn’t technically a lie.

Amelia smiled, a bit condescendingly, honestly. “Who gave you the quill and instructed you to write ‘I will not tell lies’?”

Harry sighed and looked down at his lap. “Professor Umbridge, ma’am.”

“He is lying!” Fudge cried, jumping to his feet.

“Do not call my godson a liar!” Sirius yelled.

It was basically pandemonium after that.

Fudge insisted that Harry was lying, did it to himself ‘for attention’. Sirius was furious that Harry had been ‘assaulted’ by a teacher. Amelia was quoting the laws over their argument. And Dumbledore stared at the ceiling with a queer little smile on his lips.

Finally, Fudge said something about Harry being the only student to claim he was injured, and Harry cleared his throat.

“Hermione Granger,” he said simply. “She did lines with me as well, sir.”

Sirius looked triumphant as he stared down the Minister of Magic. “Hermione Granger is a muggleborn. It would be a shame if it made it to the papers that Hogwarts isn’t safe for muggleborns to attend anymore.”

Dumbledore stood up when Fudge fell silent and smiled at everyone in the room aside from Harry. “Cornelius, Amelia, would you care to accompany me to Professor Umbridge’s office? We can swing by Severus’ office and fetch Veritaserum if you would like to ensure that the truth is told today.”

“For once,” Sirius muttered.

Fudge blustered and sputtered then finally gave in and followed Dumbledore and Amelia out of the office, leaving Harry alone with Sirius.

“Idiot,” Sirius scoffed, rolling his eyes at Harry. “You’ve got a bloody mirror, mate, why did I find out about that witch-bitch from Susan?”

Harry shrugged silently.

Sirius sighed and nudged Harry to his feet then wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug.

“I think if it weren’t for the girls, you would have just suffered in silence all year,” Sirius murmured.

“Yeah, probably,” Harry agreed gruffly, overwhelmed with the feeling of… of… of just people caring about him.

Sure, Harry was irritated that Susan wrote to her aunt about something Harry was dealing with, but she did it because she cared about Harry, just Harry. And Sirius hugging him was painfully awkward as Harry was rarely hugged by people who weren’t the girls, but it was also nice and made Harry’s eyes feel embarrassingly wet as he imagined that hugging Sirius was the closest thing he’d ever get to hugging a father.

Harry held Sirius a little closer, subtly wiping his eyes off on his shoulder.

“I love you, kid,” Sirius said, his voice rough when he released Harry. “Keep those girls close, eh? I don’t like to think about what you’re up to without them.”

Harry laughed and had the mad urge to tell Sirius about Pansy and Ginny’s plot to dump Umbridge in the Chamber of Secrets that morning, but he figured he would keep it to himself.

They could always do it to Malfoy later if needed.

***

Time seemed to go by quickly after that.

The school all celebrated when Dumbledore announced at breakfast that Umbridge had been fired and they all read about her arrest in the paper.

The girls cheered especially loudly, unabashedly whooping and whistling, and Hermione even hugged each of them in turn.

The defense post was filled by three aurors on rotation to fit around their work schedules, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks, and a quiet bloke named Blue Ritters.

Professor Shacklebolt was a good professor, calm and fair. A bit stern, like Professor McGonagall, but Sirius vouched for him over the mirror one night that ‘despite being in the Order he was a good bloke’. Professor Ritters was a bit dry, but occasionally shared stories about his cases that was interesting. Tonks, who flat out refused to go by Professor, was Harry’s favorite of the three as she thought dueling was the thing for them to all focus on ‘given the current state of the world’.

And Harry loved to duel.

He always paired up with Ron, flatly refusing to duel Susan as he was worried he would hurt her. Ron wasn’t brilliant in a duel, but Tonks paired with Harry a few times and Harry had never had so much fun in his life.

“You’re becoming a little swot,” Pansy teased Harry while they were all spread out in the Gryffindor common room mid-October and Harry was working on an essay for Defense. “Keep this up and you’ll be top of our year for defense.”

“He already is,” Sara told her, surprising them all. “Grades are important,” she sniffed. “I merely keep track to see if Harry needs assistance in any of his classes.”

“She just doesn’t want her fiancé to be bottom of his year,” Ginny snickered. She was laying on her back beside Harry with her head in Luna’s lap. “Be a shame if she were marrying a dunce.”

Harry felt a weight settle in his stomach at the reminded of his upcoming, incredibly public, proposal. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Sara, he had grown to like her quite a bit actually, she was snarky and funny and clever and enjoyed walking the halls with him at night beneath his cloak when his head hurt too badly to sleep. Harry came to feel like he and Sara had a bond of understanding between them, both orphans raised in unloving homes who never felt as if they fit in anywhere, and Harry truly liked Sara. It was just…

“Hey, Susan?” Harry smiled nervously at his actual non-pretend girlfriend. “D’you wanna go… er…”

“On a private walk because Harry clearly has something on his mind he’d like to discuss?” Katherine suggested sarcastically when Harry trailed off, struggling to find a polite way to separate them from the others.

Harry nodded, “Yeah, that.”

Susan, who had been working on an assignment for their temporary Care of Magical Creatures Professor, rolled the parchment up easily and gave Harry a sweet smile. “Of course,” she agreed.

The girls snickered and giggled and rolled their eyes, but Harry just flipped them off behind his back as he snuck out of the common room with Susan.

Harry led her to a back staircase, one that was sure to be private at that hour, and then felt his nerves skyrocket as she sat on the top step and looked expectantly at him.

“I…” Harry stood two steps below her and felt a bit like he was going to be sick. “I love you,” he blurted. “I love you and I wish you were the person I married first. Or, er, not first, I mean just married. Not now, because we’re fifteen, but eventually. I just—”

“I love you too, Harry,” Susan said simply, shutting Harry up mid-ramble.

Harry was suddenly struck by how beautiful Susan was. He always knew she was pretty, gorgeous even, but as she sat there smiling softly at him, the moonlight in the window hitting her face just perfectly, Harry knew she was undoubtedly the most beautiful witch he ever met.

And she said she loved him.

“I have something for you,” Harry said softly, feeling nervous and shy despite knowing in his chest that Susan truly did love him. He pulled a simple black ring box from his pocket and handed it to Susan.

“It’s a promise ring,” he told her, watching closely as Susan’s eyes widened at the silver ring with the simple infinity symbol with their birthstones on it. Sirius had helped him pick it out, though he jokingly suggested Harry get one for each of the girls so they weren’t jealous. Harry did not do that, though he did order them each a necklace with their own birthstones on it for Christmas.

“I wanted you to know that I do care about Sara and I really love all of you, but I’m in love with you and when Voldemort’s gone and if I’m still here, I want us to be together,” Harry said softly, waiting for Susan to either take the ring out of the box or throw it in his face.

Susan finally looked up from the ring and Harry saw that her eyes were shining with unshed tears.

“I love you so much,” she said. She took the ring from the box and slid it on her finger before jumping up and throwing herself so enthusiastically at Harry that he nearly fell down the stairs with her in his arms. She kissed him and it started as all their kisses did, then it quickly built to something that ignited a flame in Harry’s stomach and had nerves of a different sort filling him.

Harry was worried that Susan was going to notice the… er… rather obvious reaction he was having to her incredible kissing, and she did. But instead of being angry or disgusted, she just pulled back and gave him a smoldering look that only made his problem worse.

“Your dorm or mine?” she whispered, her voice husky and so bloody sexy that it took Harry nearly an entire minute to comprehend the question and the implication behind it.

Once he did, he quickly debated the issue, “Yours,” he said.

The entire way to the Hufflepuff dorms, Harry thanked God for Sirius forcing him to have ‘the talk’ over summer.

It didn’t make it any less awkward, but… but at least Harry knew a bit of what he was doing and he and Susan laughed together through the awkward bits and Harry fell asleep in her bed afterward, wondering if life could always be so brilliant.

***

“Life is horrible and I’m going to vomit,” Harry whispered to Ginny and Luna on Halloween night.

He had a ring in his pocket. His hair was brushed as neatly as Pansy could make it. Amber had her camera on her to take photos for Sirius and the Daily Prophet. And Harry was going to barf right in the middle of the Slytherin table they chose to hold the proposal at.

He thought the quidditch pitch was a lot more romantic than the Great Hall, but Sara said that she’d been getting a lot of comments from some of the students with Death Eater connections about her upcoming nuptials to Yaxley and the girls scrapped romantic for ‘extremely public’.

And now Harry had to give the performance of a lifetime as he proposed to the girl sitting across from him in the middle of the Great Hall with every student and professor in attendance.

Without barfing.

“Don’t vomit, please,” Luna whispered. “It’ll be very gross.”

“And Amber will record it and we will tease you for eternity,” Ginny added.

Harry glanced at Amber and saw her wink, confirming Ginny’s story.

“You can do this,” Luna whispered encouragingly. “You love her, she loves you, what more does a proposal need?”

“A bit of sexual attraction, probably,” Amber teased. She sat up straight when the main dishes disappeared and the desserts began popping up. “Harry, love, you can do this,” she said bracingly. “It’s time.”

Harry looked at Sara who sat on the other side of Luna and had her face hidden by a curtain of dark hair. He thought about the bravery it had to take to ask Harry Potter of all people to help her avoid a horrible life. He thought about her checking his grades, and helping him with tricky essays, and the way she always brought him warm biscuits after chilly quidditch practices.

It was that last reminder that had Harry getting to his feet then turning to Sara and kneeling down on one knee, bringing all conversations in the hall to an abrupt halt.

Sara spun around in her seat and stared at Harry with true surprise in her eyes. Harry wondered if she thought that he’d change his mind, leave her to deal with her problems alone. He wouldn’t, he could never. Sara was one of them, and if Harry didn’t much like her last name, so what? It would be Potter before the end of the year anyway.

Harry pulled the ring box out of his pocket with one hand and reached up and gripped Sara’s hand tightly with the other, reassuring her silently that she wasn’t alone with her problems anymore just as Harry wasn’t alone with his since the day he met Amber.

Harry spoke clearly, allowing his voice to fill the hall, and he spoke from the heart instead of the mushy speech that Katherine and Daphne tried to make him memorize.

“Sara, I know we’re young, I know I can’t offer you the world that you deserve just yet, but I love you. I want us to be together forever, and I never want either of us to be alone again. Will you, Sara Lucille Lestrange, marry me?”

A single tear trailed down Sara’s cheek and Harry used the back of their intertwined hands to reach up and brush it away.

Sara cleared her throat and gave Harry the brightest smile he had ever seen from her, something truly happy and genuine.

“Yes,” she said, her soft voice echoing off the walls in the absolutely silent hall. “I will marry you, Harry. I- I love you, truly.”

Harry gave her his best attempt at a warm and reassuring smile as he slid the ring on her finger and they shared a brief and expected kiss to general cheers and catcalls from other students.

And if a few professors looked shocked, if Hermione and Ron looked confused and more than a little hurt, and if Harry knew his girlfriends and fiancé were going to be a popular topic for gossip the next few days, he ignored it for that moment.

He assumed a bloke only got engaged to his lesbian asexual, fake-girlfriend/fiancé to keep her from being forced into marriage with a death eater twice her age once, he might as well enjoy the moment.

It was a moment made all the sweeter by the little white cake with ‘congratulations’ written in blue icing sent up from the kitchens to Harry’s table.

Chapter Text

Our story picks back up on November 1, the day after Harry Potter publicly proposed to Sara Lestrange…

Harry had been correct in guessing that Hogwarts would be flooded with rumors about him and the girls the next few days.

There was such a variety of rumors that the girls began sort of a contest on finding the most absurd one to share.

“Fred and George think that Sara’s pregnant,” Ginny said brightly when they were all hiding spending time together in the Hufflepuff common room where there weren’t as many whispers or hurt best mates or furious Slytherins around.

“Point, Gin,” Harry said. He had a headache and had decided that the best way to treat it was to lay his head in Sara’s lap while Susan was laying on his chest, nuzzling him sweetly.

“That’s nothing,” Pansy scoffed. She sat on the floor with the rest of the girls, all of them in a circle while they flipped through what looked like wedding magazines.

“Yeah, Fiona Braterton thinks that Harry’s marrying Sara to get closer to the Dark Lord so he can offer an alliance,” Daphne snickered. “Not yellow, never yellow,” she told Luna, smacking her hand.

“Yellow is a lovely color that brings good luck to weddings,” Luna said airily.

“Harry looks terrible in yellow,” Amber said. She turned her head and smiled at Harry. “No offense, love.”

Harry winced and clenched his eyes shut, fighting off a bloody horrible ache just between his eyes. “It’s Christmas, let’s do red and— ugh!”

Harry pulled his knees up to his chest, accidentally dislodging Susan and knocking her to the floor while he scrunched up tight and his head exploded in white hot shatters of pain.

“Harry? Harry!”

“Don’t shake him, you nutcase.”

“What’s happening?”

“It happens sometimes. Let him breathe.”

Harry couldn’t breathe because his head was exploding even while his stomach swooped with what felt like intense joy.

Someone’s fingers began carding through Harry’s hair while someone else whispered sweet reassurances to him while Harry rode out whatever horrible events were making Voldemort feel so intensely joyful.

“Fine,” Harry finally gasped, pushing everyone off him. He was drenched in sweat and struggled to get in a sitting position, something made easier by someone’s assistance.

“I’m fine,” Harry tried again. He pushed against his forehead hard, trying to physically push away the last wisps of pain, and someone with small and warm fingers pressed a cool vial in Harry’s hand.

“Drink,” Luna said firmly. “There are nargles in your head and they’re going to make you miserable.”

Harry was already miserable, but he nodded and downed the potion Luna gave him, trusting her implicitly to not poison him.

“What was that?” Katherine asked sharply after the pain melted away from Harry’s head, dripping away and leaving him pain-free.

“Voldemort,” Harry whispered, conscious of the eyes that seemed to follow him and the girls constantly. “He- he’s happy about something.”

“He’s inside your head?!” Pansy hissed with her voice an octave too high.

Ginny looked ill as she stared up at Harry in horror. “Harry, is he…?”

“Not like that,” Harry assured her, conscious of how much it would bother Ginny. “Or… bloody hell… maybe?”

Ginny paled further and Luna was quick to snatch her hand while Amber bossily demanded they explain.

Harry and Ginny took turns explaining about Ginny’s possession in her first year and Harry added about the pains and twinges he had been having ever since the graveyard. When Pansy looked mad as hell, Harry stupidly thought that she was indignant on his behalf.

She wasn’t.

She was mad at him.

“You IDIOT!” Pansy shrieked. She reached out as if she were going to hit Harry and Amber snatched her wrist before she could.

“Don’t hit him,” Amber snapped. “He’s not an idiot. He’s…” Amber waved her free hand at Harry. “He’s Harry.”

Harry… didn’t think that was a compliment in the slightest.

Pansy took a deep breath and nodded her head, apparently soothed by the… insult? Maybe?

“Well you’re not possessed,” Daphne said confidently. She never even stopped flipping through the wedding magazines and didn’t bother looking up while she spoke. “We’re with you all day long.”

“And some nights,” Susan added brightly.

Harry looked at Ginny and saw her thoughtful expression. “Gin?”

“Makes sense,” Ginny said. “I didn’t have any friends my first year that might have noticed the fact I was disappearing and losing track of entire days.”

Harry’s chest panged with empathy at Ginny’s very factual words.

“I didn’t either,” Luna suddenly sighed. “I would have loved having a friend who was possessed, it would have been like having two friends.”

“You’re both very popular now,” Katherine said, rolling her eyes. “Can we focus? Because if Harry isn’t possessed then how is Riddle telling him how happy he is?”

Harry settled back against Sara while the girls began debating the issue. Sara rubbed the back of Harry’s neck and he closed his eyes, still trying to shake off the vicious happiness that hadn’t belonged to him.

“Am I the only one incredibly concerned with what Riddle is happy about?” Sara asked once the general consensus on Harry and Voldemort’s link was ‘no idea, but we’ll find out’.

Katherine was actually more interested in the diary than anything, but Harry suspected even the magical world didn’t have many diaries with a supposed to be dead Dark Lord lurking in the pages.

“Knowing the Dark Lord, I’m sure it’s terrible,” Pansy said airily. She leaned back against the sofa to torch her head to Harry’s hip. “Maybe he’s found a way to kill you telepathically,” she said.

Harry had gotten to know Pansy rather well in the past year of ‘dating’ and easily interpreted that to be ‘I’m sorry I tried to hit you’.

“As long as he takes you with me, sweetheart,” Harry said, code for ‘I forgive you’.

Pansy looked up at Harry and twisted her red lips to the side in a teasing smirk. “Remind me to teach you occlumency if you aren’t dead in the morning.”

“Yeah, I’ll absolutely remember that,” Harry said sarcastically.

“We’ll remind you,” Amber said. “Okay, focus, ladies. Are lily bouquets too on-the-nose for a reminder of Harry’s mother?”

The girls went right back to planning the wedding for the only two people who couldn’t shake the worrying question of what made Voldemort so happy.

Their question was answered the very next morning in the form of an owl for Sara and the Daily Prophet.

As often as Harry and the girls were the center of gossip by their classmates, they were the target of a lot of pitiful looks as they read the paper together.

Seven death eaters, including Sirius’ cousin Bellatrix and Sara’s uncles, escaped from Azkaban the night before. The Daily Prophet didn’t seem sure how to spin the story considering they were feeding the ‘Voldemort is dead’ political flames. Harry was sure Sirius would be offended to read that there was speculation perhaps he wasn’t as innocent as he seemed, but Harry was more concerned with Sara.

“I’m being summoned home,” Sara whispered as she read the letter that shook in her trembling fingers. “I’ve been told that any prior connections I made are to be nullified and it’s time I ‘take my rightful place’.”

When Sara’s eyes filled with tears, Harry was actually confused. He very gently took the letter from her hand and then grasped her left hand, turning it so she had to look at his engagement ring on her finger.

“Sara, you’re not going back,” Harry said, for once getting to make a decision. “You’re seventeen, they can’t make you leave school.”

“They can if they withdraw my tuition,” Sara said around a miserable sob that broke Harry’s heart. “I- I’m so sorry. You tried, Harry, and I’ll always be grateful, but…”

“But you forgot that Harry’s sitting on a mountain of gold and his godfather is the richest bloke in Britain?” Ginny asked sweetly, reaching across the table to pat Sara’s arm. “Yeah, I try not to think about it either. Sickening, isn’t it?”

“I can’t ask Harry, or anyone, to do that,” Sara said. As much as Harry was firming himself up to protect Sara at all costs, it seemed as if Sara was resigning herself to a sick fate. “My uncles will kill us all. You don’t know them, they’re sick.”

“Well Harry’s certainly never been targeted by anyone sick and determined to kill him,” Pansy said with a dramatic sigh. “If only Harry were a stubborn Gryffindor who would add an additional target on his thick head to keep you safe, Sara.”

Harry was a stubborn Gryffindor and adding a target to his head for Sara’s sake was probably the best reason he had ever been targeted before.

“Don’t pack a single thing,” Harry told Sara firmly. “I’ll take care of this, I swear.”

Katherine and Susan giggled when Harry stood up and strode off to leave the Great Hall with his head held high.

“It’s so funny when he tries to ‘be a man’,” Katherine said fondly. “We’ll let him, just this once.”

“Unless he makes a mess of things,” Amber assured Sara. “It’s good for Harry’s self-esteem if we let him take care of some things, but we’d never risk your safety to do so.”

Harry asked the gargoyle outside of Dumbledore’s office for a meeting with the headmaster and was dismayed when he was outright refused. There was a wedge between Harry and Dumbledore ever since Harry didn’t follow his directions to stay with the Dursleys, but it was an emergency.

Harry tried the Deputy Headmistress next and was relieved to find Professor McGonagall didn’t have any issue giving him some of her time.

Not that it wasn’t without ulterior motives though.

“Ma’am, I’d like to ask that Sara’s tuition for next term be paid for from my vault,” Harry said politely, rather impressed with himself.

The girls would be impressed too- he sounded incredibly mature.

“I see.” McGonagall adjusted her spectacles and peered at Harry with open curiosity. “May I ask why?”

“That actually leads to my second question,” Harry said. “I’d like to get permission to leave school this weekend so that Sara and I can be married.”

Harry felt guilty that he would ruin all the work the girls were doing by moving the wedding up, but it wasn’t as if it were a real marriage anyway. Harry would feel better if he knew that there were no strings left loose that Sara’s ‘family’ could use to take her away.

“Let me see if I understand you, Harry,” McGonagall said, surprising Harry both by the use of his first name and the way she swished her wand, slamming the office door closed. “You, a fifteen year old boy, want to pay the tuition for one of your seven girlfriends and you wish to leave school this weekend to marry the same girl, is this correct?”

Harry cleared his throat uncomfortably. “There’s eight girls, ma’am,” he said. “But yeah, er… yes, the rest is correct.”

“Harry, I don’t play favorites with my students,” McGonagall said out of the blue. “I’ve attempted to treat every student in these halls the same.”

“Okay…” Harry said slowly, unsure where she was going.

“But I will confess that I was very fond of your father,” McGonagall went on. “Your grandmother, Euphemia, and I were good friends before she met your grandfather.”

Harry blinked not just in normal confusion but in ‘where on Earth is this going?’ levels of utter bewilderment.

“I was named James’ godmother,” McGonagall said, Harry swore there was a sniffle at the end of that shocking sentence. “And thus, in a way, I feel as if you and I are family, of a sort. I was the one to teach James to fly and it brought me a sense of peace to gift you with your Nimbus, even if you were already an excellent flier.”

Harry smiled slowly, feeling suddenly warm and bashful. “Thank you, Professor, I had no—”

“The young women you call your girlfriends are using you, Harry,” McGonagall interrupted Harry’s gratitude in a blunt tone, instantly causing Harry to scowl. “I have refrained from saying anything, but it would be neglectful of me to allow you to spend your gold on them without knowing the facts.”

“The girls don’t use me for anything,” Harry said heatedly, his determination to be polite entirely gone. “They happen to love me, and I love them.”

The girls were the best part of Harry’s life. They did so much for Harry and it wasn’t because they didn’t want him to ‘break up with them’ and put them at risk for marriage contracts, they did it because they loved him.

Harry knew that for a fact because he asked Amber to check at least once a month for the last two years they had been together.

“Harry…” McGonagall pushed her glasses up so that she could pinch the bridge of her nose for a moment. When she dropped her hand, she fixed Harry with a look that was almost pitying. “I am not saying this to hurt you, but to protect you, and I would prefer it not leave this room as it goes against everything I believe in to even say this, but…

“Your girlfriends are homosexuals.”

“Oh.” Harry dropped his scowl and let out a relieved laugh. It would have been a shame for McGonagall to say they were something like family and then have Harry turn around and hate her forever for insulting the girls.

“I know, ma’am,” Harry said. “Sara’s asexual though, it’s entirely different.”

Harry knew all that he could know about asexuality because Sara had spent a night when Harry couldn’t sleep explaining it to him. They had walked around the castle together under his cloak and Harry listened carefully as Sara explained the many different sexual orientations. Amber and Katherine had once said that sexuality was a spectrum, but Harry had no idea how huge that spectrum was.

“Excuse me?” McGonagall said, looking like she was the one who was shocked then. “You know?”

“Of course,” Harry said politely. He was curious how McGonagall knew, but she was one of the few people in the castle who Harry suspected just knew things.

“Harry, your girlfriends are attracted to women, not you,” McGonagall said slowly, as if Harry were exceedingly unintelligent.

“Susan’s attracted to me,” Harry said, a bit too happily let before he blushed at McGonagall’s raised brow. “Er… but Daphne and Ginny are actually bisexual and Luna is…” Harry struggled to remember the word. “I know she’s not attracted to pans, but I swear the word is pansexual… anyway,” Harry brushed off his own poor memory. “That’s why I need to marry Sara this weekend. If she doesn’t get married, then her family is going to make her marry a man named Yaxley and, I’d really appreciate you not telling anyone this bit because I don’t want Sara to be worried, but he would make her consummate their marriage.”

Even if it was an unwilling marriage by a seventeen year old girl with no interest at all in sex. Harry couldn’t imagine how Sara wasn’t interested in it, he loved it with Susan, but it was her life and Yaxley forcing her to have sex would be assault.

And Harry wouldn’t let his worst enemy be assaulted like that. Probably not even Voldemort.

McGonagall studied Harry for a long moment, her eyebrows drawn low like she was still confused by something.

“Whereas you would be marrying her to keep her from having to marry a man who would want to consummate a marriage,” McGonagall eventually said with a thoughtful lilt to her tone. “I had forgotten, but marriage contracts are still used frequently by pureblood families, correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Of which most of your girlfriends are.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And no parent would force a marriage contract on their daughter if there was the possibility that they could wed the Boy-Who-Lived.”

Harry let out a heavy sigh and nodded, relieved that McGonagall finally seemed to understand.

“Exactly, Professor,” he said. “So you can see why Sara and I need to get married now and not later.”

“I do,” McGonagall said simply. There was a never before seen glimmer of something in her eyes when she lightly pushed a tin pan toward Harry’s side of her desk. “Have a biscuit, Potter, let me see what I can do for you.”

Harry missed his first class of the day, but he also got to sit in McGonagall’s office and once again let a woman make a series of decisions on his behalf. And he got biscuits and a few stories about his grandmother, who McGonagall had nothing but nice things to say about.

Best of all, Harry got Sara’s second term of tuition covered by Hogwart’s ‘students in need’ fund and permission to leave after classes on Friday so he could get married.

Harry stood in front of the mirror in Sirius’ bedroom with anxiety rocking through his entire body. He went to pat his hair down and only stopped just before touching it.

If Harry messed his hair up after Pansy spent an hour making it look nice, she would likely kill him as soon as he stood beneath the altar.

It was odd, staring at himself then. Harry looked like an adult in his dress robes and the way he raised his chin with false-confidence. On the inside though, Harry felt like a wreck.

When Sirius arrived to go down to the garden with Harry, the much smaller venue than the girls originally planned, Harry was fanning his hands in front of his face to prevent himself from actually crying. It was stupid, it was so stupid, but Harry suddenly felt like his entire childhood had disappeared and he was responsible for so much.

Harry didn’t mind the responsibility, and his childhood had sucked anyway, but it was Sara’s life that was being tied to him that day. Sweet, brilliant, Sara who sobbed when Harry told her his plan to keep her safe from her family. Sara was just as important to Harry as any of the other girls and he couldn’t shake the fear that he was going to mess up somehow and get her hurt.

“Oh, kiddo…” Sirius swallowed hard and Harry thought Sirius looked just like he had in the photos at Harry’s parents’ wedding, except he was crying instead of laughing.

“You look… you look just like your dad,” Sirius said with a sad and shaking smile. “Merlin. You look exactly like James.”

It didn’t escape Harry that drawing parallels between himself and his father while he worried about his soon-to-he young wife wasn’t helpful to his level of anxiety.

“When Voldemort comes for me, he’ll come for her too,” Harry told Sirius in a panicked voice, unleashing all his thoughts on the only parental figure he had left. “Siri, what if I’m trying to protect her from one thing and it gets her killed? Or- or tortured, like her uncles did to Neville’s parents?”

Harry had actually spent the entire night before thrashing and sweating through a nightmare about just that. Sara had told him what her uncles were imprisoned for, trying to give Harry one more out, and all Harry could think about was what if that was Sara?

What if they were another young couple married in the face of what would surely be a war and they became the next James and Lily or Frank and Alice?

Harry was trembling when Sirius pulled him in for a fierce hug. Even the usually comforting feel of his godfather couldn’t shake Harry’s fears.

Maybe Harry should just write to Fleur Delacour and ask if Sara could go stay with her instead. It seemed to make so much more sense then having her marry Harry and hope that he could keep her safe.

Sure, it was Sara’s plan to start with, but maybe it was a bad one.

“Harry, you’re a brilliant wizard,” Sirius said, a bold lie. “Sara loves you, I know she does and you know she does.” Sirius pulled away so he could raise his hands to cup Harry’s cheeks and wipe away the stray tears that escaped Harry’s hold.

“There’s no guarantees in life, I won’t lie to you. You and I know that better than anyone. But I know something else and I’ll tell you the same thing I told your dad when he got married. I know that if you have a beautiful witch who’s willing to put up with you for the rest of your life, you don’t just walk away from that.”

Sirius was right.

Harry couldn’t - wouldn’t - walk away from Sara and she was waiting for him.

With a nod, Harry let Sirius guide him outside to the backyard.

The girls had transformed it to something unrecognizable in the twenty-four hours they had been at Sirius’ house for. There were flowers everywhere, too many flowers, really, and there was a golden carpet that led to an arch that Harry stood beneath. Sirius, as Harry’s best man, stood beside him and they waited for Luna, Sara’s maid of honor, to take her place so the wedding could begin.

The other girls made up the entirety of the attendants. Harry had no idea how they all got their parents to give them permission to leave school for the weekend to attend their boyfriend’s wedding, but they did. Susan sat between Ginny and Daphne and Harry had a moment of wishful thinking that his first wedding could have been shared with her.

Susan didn’t seem upset though. In fact, the girls were all beaming and Amber had whispered that she was ‘so stinking proud’ of Harry just before Sara stepped out the backdoor with McGongall and music began playing from nowhere.

It had been a caveat of Harry leaving school to get married to be supervised by a staff member. It was one he easily accepted when McGonagall volunteered herself to be that staff member.

McGongall then made a rather touching offer to walk Sara down the aisle since she had just as many living parents as Harry did. It made the fact that Harry wanted to ask McGongall to officiate the wedding a bit odd, but nobody seemed bothered by it.

Harry watched Sara as she approached and every step she took, every photo that Katherine was capturing, made Harry’s fears ease. By the time Sara made it to the arch and they took each others hands, Harry decided that he had been being silly.

If the marriage was a bad idea, one of the girls would have said so. They never really let Harry make bad decisions, not when they were able to stop him.

Sara’s eyes were glistening with tears that made her look even more beautiful while McGonagall made the obligatory speech for marriage.

‘Thank you’, she mouthed after Harry said his only line in the wedding.

Harry would say ‘I do’ a dozen times if it meant keeping one of the witches he cared so much about safe.

Hypothetically speaking, he hoped.

They exchanged rings that Pansy bought, they kissed very chastely, and Sara became Mrs Sara Potter.

And then Harry realized that a wedding was just a really excellent party with his favorite people in the world. He felt bad that his other friends, Ron and Hermione, weren’t there, but… but also they hadn’t exactly been jumping to Harry’s defense against some of the nastier recent rumors either.

Harry and the girls drank some sort of alcohol-spiked punch that Ginny made. They danced together in the transformed back garden. And Harry laughed more that night than he had in a long time.

It was odd starting a day with so much anxiety and fear and ending it with just happiness and laughter, but Harry was a married fifteen year old with a wife who had no interest in him sexually or romantically and had six lesbian girlfriends and one real girlfriend.

Odd was just the way Harry’s life was.

Sirius’ wedding gift to Harry and Sara had been to keep McGonagall away from the house so that Harry could ‘have a honeymoon every man envied’. Harry didn’t think any bloke would envy being kicked from his own bedroom, banished to the sofa, and knowing that two of his fake girlfriends were shagging in his bed, but he appreciated the privacy nonetheless.

Harry did get to spend alone time with Susan… the girls’ wedding gift apparently. And alone time with Susan was precisely why Harry knew that sexuality wasn’t a choice someone made but just the way they were born.

Because nobody on earth would choose to not be interested in sex. If they were, it was only because they had never seen Susan Bones naked.

Harry was floating on an impenetrable sort of happiness when he returned to Hogwarts on Sunday night… for the entire four and a half minutes it took him to walk from McGonagall’s office where he floo’d in at with the girls to the Gryffindor common room.

Harry had opened the giggling portrait for Ginny before following her through and immediately being confronted by Ron and Hermione.

“I think you can handle this,” Ginny said brightly when she saw the look of irritation on both their faces. Ginny kissed Harry on the lips, as she always did when Ron was around, and then pranced away because she was the worst.

“Where have you been?” Hermione asked with her arms crossed and her face creased with unhappy lines. “You weren’t in the castle all weekend.”

“I…” Harry held up his left hand sheepishly to show them the simple golden band he wore. “I got married?”

Hermione’s jaw dropped in a way that was almost comical and Ron’s eyes bugged out of his head. Harry dropped his hand when Hermione made a strangled nose - he was fairly confident that the sight of his wedding ring was going to give her a stroke.

Harry would have explained why he married Sara so abruptly - they’d only been ‘engaged’ for a month after all - but then Hermione gave Harry an accusing look as her eyes welled with tears.

“How could you?” she asked, her voice breaking on a hitched cry.

Harry felt terrible when Hermione turned on her heel and ran for the girl’s dorm. When Harry looked at Ron and opened his mouth to ask what that was about, Ron only shook his head at him.

“I don’t understand why you want to get married at fifteen or why you spend all your time with your girlfriends. Hell, Harry, I don’t even understand why you can’t just date one witch like a normal bloke. But I thought- I thought that if you were really going to get married that I would at least be your best man.”

Harry didn’t know what to say to that. It was on the tip of his tongue to explain that the actual wedding had been ignored in favor of just having one. Harry wanted to tell Ron that of course he would have been Harry’s best man if he could have been there.

But they were lies and Harry knew that.

Harry had always planned on Sirius being his best man and the girls had laughed when Harry said that Katherine and Amber could be his other groomsmen. The wedding was abrupt, but if Ginny made it, Ron could have too.

The truth was that Ron and Hermione were Harry’s friends and Harry loved them, but Sara, Susan, Amber, Katherine, Daphne, Pansy, Luna, and Ginny were Harry’s family.

“I’m sorry,” Harry said, a truth. Harry was sorry that it felt like he had grown apart from his best mates. But Harry wasn’t sorry that he prioritized the girls above his friends. Harry had already lost his family once, he couldn’t do it again.

Ron nodded and then he too walked away. Harry could have chases after him and tried to repair the friendship that was fading through no one’s fault, but he didn’t. Harry waited until Ron was up the stairs for the boys dorm and then Harry turned around and made his way to the Hufflepuff common room to talk to Amber.

Harry was relieved that there were only a couple of weeks of term left after the wedding.

It only took a day for someone to notice the pictures Katherine took and Luna published in her father’s magazine and it was ridiculous after that. Everywhere Harry went, people asked him why he married Sara. It became a game for Harry and the girls then to make up the most ridiculous answers as a response.

Harry said very seriously to Dean Thomas that Sara was pregnant and it would be irresponsible to not marry her during potions, causing Pansy and Daphne to laugh.

Sara told one of her classmates that she had always dreamt of being famous and marrying Harry Potter was the closest thing to that she could achieve.

Ginny started telling people that Harry wanted to be a Dark Lord but that ‘everyone knew proper Dark Lord’s had Dark Ladies.

Luna explained in her very long-winded and Luna-like way that the stars woke Harry up one night and he misread them. They told him to kill Sara but he had mistaken Venus’ influence for Mars and married her instead.

Amber suggested they just be honest and say that Harry loved Sara and wanted her to be safe, but that wasn’t very fun. Harry did take Amber’s advice to apologize to his friends and explain why the wedding had to be rushed though.

Hermione had forgive Harry easily, much more caught up in the injustice of forced marriages in the wizarding world. Ron seemed more withdrawn, but they were at least on friendly terms when Christmas break approached.

Which was good because Ginny informed Harry that her mum wanted Harry and ‘all his little girlfriends’ to show up for Christmas dinner.

“What about his little wife?” Amber asked, ever the loyal Hufflepuff.

“Ahem.” Ginny cleared her throat, flicked her long red hair off her shoulder, and then read directly from Molly’s letter. “‘Oh, and please make sure Harry knows that all of his other little girlfriends are welcome too. I’ve made matching jumpers for you all. Should I make Sara’s in white?’”

“Oh.” Harry blinked away the prickly feeling building in his eyes. That was… that was sweet, actually.

Pansy didn’t think so. Pansy rolled her eyes and sighed loudly about having to go see Ginny’s family for Christmas. They all began arguing playfully over whose family had to host them the next Christmas. Amber said they could spin a wheel, but Harry rather liked Susan’s suggestion that they bring all their families to one place for future holidays.

It sounded like complete and utter madness. Sirius, at a minimum, would love it.

Christmas wound up being madness anyway due to the vision he had the day before the students were scheduled to leave the castle.

It was lucky that Harry always slept with his mirror from Sirius and so as soon as Harry woke up from seeing Ginny’s dad get attacked by Nagini, he told Sirius about it while he dragged Ron to McGonagall’s office.

And then, once McGonagall fetched the other Weasley children and sent them all through a floo with Harry, Harry sicked up from the splitting pain his head had been in for the last hour.

Which somehow immediately made a crazy house-elf try to stab Harry with a knife. One of the twins caught him before he could and that was Harry’s introduction to the Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix.

After filling in Ginny and the twins on what he saw, Harry retreated to a dusty bedroom to call Sirius. Sirius was supposed to meet him there and Harry desperately needed someone to confide in about the vision he had.

“I’m on my way,” Sirius said as soon as he answered the mirror call. Sirius was shirtless and from the awkward shuffling he was doing, Harry would guess he didn’t have pants on either.

It was only when Harry could have sworn he saw a picture of his girlfriend on the wall behind Sirius that he allowed himself to be momentarily distracted.

“Are you at… Susan’s aunt’s house?” Harry asked slowly.

Sirius grinned unrepentantly in the mirror before a familiar voice called out a greeting in the background.

“Amy’s going to the Ministry to keep the peace there and I’m headed to you, kiddo,” Sirius said. “I’ve got a bedroom on the second floor, you’ll know it when you see it.”

Harry didn’t think that he’d just magically know which bedroom belonged to Sirius in what must have been his old house, but he’d been wrong.

Only Sirius would decorate a bedroom with bikini-clad muggle women on motorcycles.

Ginny found Harry before Sirius did. She slipped in the room and climbed up on the dusty bed with Harry silently. Harry’s arms awkwardly lifted, an offer if Ginny wanted it, and Ginny burrowed in his chest and cried.

“I want my dad,” Ginny sobbed over and over.

As Harry rubbed her back, he closed his eyes and wished that the man he loved like a dad would hurry and tell Harry if he was responsible for hurting Ginny’s dad or not.

Not only did Sirius firmly shut down any idea Harry had that maybe he’d somehow been transported to the Ministry and used to attack Ginny’s dad, but is delay was only because he picked up Sara.

“A bloke should have his wife in hard times,” Sirius grinned as Sara wrapped Harry and Ginny both in a hug. “Ginny, Molly sent along a message that your dad is recovering and that you lot are staying here for the holiday.”

Ginny let out a strangled shout of joy and then ran off to write to Luna and tell her brothers about the change in plan. Harry was relieved as well, but he was also curious how Sirius was able to get Sara before term officially ended.

“Sirius is an interesting man,” Sara explained as she looked around the proof of Sirius’ interesting-ness in his old bedroom. “I had already went to the Headmaster and demanded to know where my husband was, Katherine is furious, by the way.”

Of course she was. Katherine was almost as bad as Amber in terms of worrying over them all.

“And after I was turned away by Dumbledore, I spotted a black dog on the first floor. It barked and I followed it through a secret passage.”

Harry grinned for the first time since waking to the knowledge that Ginny’s dad had been on Death’s door.

“Babe…” Harry battered his eyelashes at Sara in the sweet and innocent way that all of the girls tried to pull off and never could. “You know what that means, right?”

Sara raised a dark brow at Harry.

“It means you’ve left without taking Katherine too,” Harry said gleefully. “Now you’re in just as much trouble as I am.”

Sara sighed and threw herself backward on the bed. Her hair created a brown halo behind her and Harry did an admirable job of not looking at the way her chest stood out against her white button up.

“So I am,” Sara agreed. “I did say for better or worse though.”

Harry laid beside her and they naturally linked their hands together in the middle of the bed.

“Til death do us apart,” Harry reminded Mrs Potter cheekily.

“And death comes in the form of Katherine Cain.”

By the time night fell and everyone began choosing bedrooms from the home they were in, none of the Weasley boys were envious of Harry having so many gorgeous witches in his ‘harem’. It was difficult to be jealous of the bloke who had been scolded by five witches - Ginny, Sara, and Luna didn’t scold him, thankfully - about ‘sending messages before just disappearing!’ And they certainly weren’t jealous when Pansy and Daphne declared that they were teaching Harry Occlumency with the same fervor that someone would declare they were going to kill an enemy.

Molly had seemed overly fond of the girls though. It was short-lived when she realized that Harry and all right girls intended to share a single bedroom. It was hysterical to Harry when Molly said that Ginny, Luna, Pansy, and Daphne could ‘bunk up’ while Sara flat refused to leave Harry, Susan politely lied through her teeth and said she had written permission from her aunt to share a room with Harry. It left Amber to dramatically sigh and ask Katherine to share a room for the holiday.

Conniving girls. They were terrifying honestly.

On the same day that Ginny’s dad joined them at Grimmauld Place, Pansy sat Harry down for his first occlumency lesson.

Which was unbearable.

“Do you trust me?” Pansy asked when it was just her and Harry in the bedroom that Harry had been using. It used to belong to Sirius’ younger brother and Harry was constantly being attacked by the elf, Kreacher, for being in there, but it was private and the bed was big enough for Harry and Susan.

Sara privately moved herself to the room Katherine and Amber shared. Harry didn’t ask her to, she just did it. But since she did… Harry didn’t mind the privacy with the one girlfriend he had that was attracted to him.

For whatever reason.

Harry and Pansy were sitting on the floor together, facing each other with their legs crossed. Harry studied Pansy’s serious face and answered without having to think too much about it.

“I do,” he said, meaning it. It was insane that the girl that once taunted him with Malfoy was someone that Harry trusted with his life, but it was true.

Pansy nodded and then closed her eyes, prompting Harry to do the same.

“Breathed in and out, very slowly,” Pansy murmured. “Focus on the way your air moves within your body before being exhaled and traded for new air. Focus on that, nothing else.”

Harry did as she said. He breathed in through his nose and focused on how his chest rose with the air and lowered when he exhaled. Harry focused on the feeling of his lungs expanding and constricting.

“I’m going to enter your mind and you’re not going to fight me,” Pansy murmured after a few minutes of silence between them. “I’m not going to be digging, I want you to try and recognize that I’m in your mind. Tell me when you’re ready.”

Harry didn’t like the idea of anyone being in his mind, but he put his trust in Pansy.

“Ready.”

“Legilimens.”

Harry didn’t know if he was supposed to keep focusing on his breathing or try to focus on finding the extra presence in his mind.

Can you feel me?

Harry grit his teeth at Pansy’s teasing whisper in his mind. He heard her and he knew the thought wasn’t his own, but he couldn’t find her. When Harry inadvertently thought of Pansy, it brought on a flood of images…

I will never love her, Harry thought about Pansy on Halloween night in his fourth year.

“I love you,” Harry said the very next morning.

There was a very dry giggle and Harry tried to focus on that. Unfortunately, the giggle and thinking of Pansy in general brought up a memory that Harry very much wished Pansy wasn’t witnessing…

“Oh, Harry.” Pansy sat in the overly large bathtub that the prefects used. She batted her lashes and giggled when she splashed at where Harry stood outside the bath. “It’s sooo much warmer in here.”

“Yeah, Harry.” Daphne looked through her lashes at Harry with a coy smile on her pink lips. “Join us.”

All of the girls - and Hermione for some reason - were naked in the bathtub, encouraging Harry to join them.

‘How do you know we’re naked? What’s wrong? You didn’t have the imagination to dream of our boobs?’ Pansy asked when dream-Harry tripped over his own feet in his haste to join them and landed in the tub with a splash.

“Stop!” Harry yelled, somehow kicking Pansy from his mind. Harry’s face was beet red and Pansy was smirking at him. “Don’t tell the others,” Harry begged. “Pans, baby, sweetheart, my favorite lesbian… Please.”

“Oh, baby boy.” Pansy clicked her tongue and reached over to pat Harry’s cheek condescendingly. “Of course I’m going to tell them.”

And she did. Along with all Ron and the twins.

Harry had only been able to bear the embarrassment of the girls knowing that Harry had pornographic dreams about them by the fact that Ron and his brothers thought they were memories instead of fantasies.

Susan found it hysterical because of course she did.

“I’ve had fantasies about other people,” Susan told Harry when they were in bed that night. “It’s normal.”

Harry scowled and flipped over to look at his actual girlfriend.

“Who are you having fantasies about?” Harry asked, a bit hurt.

Nevermind that Harry knew Susan couldn’t control what she dreamed of anymore than Harry could.

Susan hummed even while her eyes glittered with mischief.

“Professor Lupin once,” she said.

That didn’t bother Harry. Harry’s first sexual dream was about Amber, his second had been a very confusing dream involving himself, Amber, and Professor Lupin.

“Katherine a few times.”

Harry dreamed about Katherine a lot. He… he rather liked the dreams he had where she teased him in her sarcastic way. It usually ended with Harry waking up painfully hard and unable to look Katherine in the eyes for the day.

“Cedric Diggory, of course.”

Harry nodded absently in agreement. Everyone had fantasies about Cedric. Cedric was classically handsome, friendly, and Harry’s brain short-circuited when he saw him shirtless in the second task last year.

“Professor Tonks.”

Professor Tonks being a metamorphmagus had been a cause of some of Harry’s fantasies too. Imagining her able to just… change herself to fit both their desires? That was something Harry would never stop imagining for a long time.

“I had a dream about Sirius once…”

Harry stopped nodding and gave Susan a sharp ‘please stop talking’ look that she ignored. That was disgusting. Sirius was practically Harry’s father.

“And Draco Malfoy. But that was sort of a threesome with you as well.”

“You’ve betrayed me in the worst possible way!” Harry cried then. He snatched his pillow right out from beneath Susan’s head and huffed as he climbed from bed. “I can never trust you again.”

“Harry! Oh, you dramatic git!” Susan laughed while Harry began stalking from the room. “You’re literally married but my dreams have betrayed you?”

Harry shook his head at Susan and gave her a disappointed look over his shoulder.

“Fantasizing about my godfather is one thing. Having a sex fantasy about Draco Malfoy is another. But to involve me in that kind of sick dream?” Harry shuddered. “It’s too far, Susan.”

With a sniff, Harry left Susan to think about what she did and he went downstairs to sleep on the sofa.

Then he was nearly strangled to death by the house-elf with the grudge and he ran to Sirius’ room.

Where he interrupted his godfather and Amelia’s aunt in an incredibly private - and complicated looking - position.

When Harry returned to the room he shared with Susan, he had his metaphorical tail between his legs and an apology speech filled with compliments he had to give before she’d let him back in their bed.

Harry and Pansy continued practicing Occlumency and Harry began to be immune to the girls giggling over the random crude thoughts Harry occasionally had about them. Pansy on a couple of occasions saw more than Harry wished she would have of his childhood, which was humiliating.

The other girls had a merry time helping decorate the house, sing carols, and generally add some festive cheer to the house. Harry thought that Sara might get on with the twins since they were in the same year, but it was Molly that Sara bonded with the most.

Molly decided that as Sara was ‘a married woman’ that she needed to teach her everything she could about cooking. Ginny rolled her eyes when Sara told her about it and offered to tell her mum to bugger off, but Sara seemed to like it.

By Christmas morning, Sara had even started to look a bit like Molly with the messy bun and apron. Harry had watched her fondly as she followed Molly around, insisting on helping serve breakfast to them all. Arthur had returned from St Mungo’s, Hermione cut her ski trip with her parents short, Sirius and Amelia were making sappy eyes at each other, and Harry… Harry just looked around the room and felt overwhelmingly fond of every single person.

Except for Pansy, who asked Harry if he’d prefer Sara serve breakfast topless which had been a very peculiar dream Harry had not long ago.

Daphne said it was Harry’s idolization of his mother influencing his sexual desires. Which led Harry to worrying that he only fancied Susan because she had red hair. Which then led to Harry tentatively talking to Sirius and asking how similar Susan was to Lily.

“Kiddo, they’re like night and day,” Sirius laughed. “At fifteen your mum, Demeter bless her soul, was a stick in the mud and… well… I imagine that Lily spent a lot more time in the library than Susan does.”

It took Harry a while to realize that last bit was an insult and then he recruited the twins to help him charm and transfigure all of Sirius’ favorite shirts to display his thoughts instead of the bands they originally did. Sirius only caught on when Amelia arrived from the Ministry and Sirius’ shirt became… graphic.

Molly hadn’t been impressed, but Harry and the other students all thought it was a riot.

Christmas was spent just as Harry used to dream about as a kid… even if he never foresaw a family including a- a harem.

Harry couldn’t lie to himself anymore. If it looked like a harem and sounded like a harem… it was basically a sexless harem of witches who just wanted their freedom to love who they wanted.

It was Harry’s harem though and he was perfectly happy with it.

The girls and Harry were all laughing in the sitting room after everyone opened gifts as they wore their matching sweaters (all a pretty golden color with their initial on the front in purple) and snapped photographs with Katherine’s camera. Harry gave each of them the necklace he bought them months ago and Harry himself had a new necklace, a gift from Susan.

It was a simple golden chain with the image of a Greek God, Eros, stamped on the front. On the back were all of their names.

Apparently it was also charmed by Flitwick to have a variety of defensive spells built in that Harry was eager to test.

Unfortunately, Harry’s best holiday ever was ruined by the unexpected and unwanted arrival of Professor Snape.

Sirius was scowling darkly when he popped his head in the sitting room. Harry liked that he had his sweater on too, a purple one with a yellow ‘S’ to match Harry’s, but the unhappy look on Sirius’ face Harry didn’t like at all.

“Severus is here,” Sirius said, sneering Snape’s name. “Apparently he has an oh so important message from the Headmaster that he won’t tell anyone but you, Harry.”

“Lovely.” Daphne stood up from the dog pile they had made on the floor and she pulled Harry up as well. “Come on, Harry, let’s see how Professor Snape’s holiday has been.”

Harry let Daphne pull him along and Sirius snickered when the rest of the girls followed behind them.

So much for a private message.

Snape curled his lip in a sneer when he saw them all enter the kitchen together. His eyes flicked quickly from girl to girl before lingering on Daphne and scowling at her the hardest. Harry tried not to laugh, but he had to duck his head to keep from caught grinning.

Daphne was always so perfectly polite to Snape, but it made the things she said so much more cutting. It was nice though, having someone defend Harry in class when Snape looked tempted to vanish his potion just to give him a zero.

“It’s almost as if you don’t want to teach, Professor. You should inform the Headmaster, perhaps you can be relocated to caretaking.”

Daphne only smiled that much harder in the face of Snape’s scowl and held her hand out to him. “Professor, lovely to see you. How are your holidays?”

Someone laughed, Harry thought it was either Sirius or Amber.

Snape seemed to quickly decide that insisting Harry talk to him without an audience was a waste of time because he turned a look of absolute loathing on Harry.

“The Headmaster has decided you will be taking Occlumency lessons, Potter,” he snapped. “My office on Monday nights at six. Do not be—”

“Harry, don’t do it.”

Harry turned in surprise at the suddenly panicked tone of Luna. Luna wasn’t looking at Harry, she was staring at Snape with wide silver eyes full of distrust.

“Lulu?” Ginny ran her hand up and down Luna’s arm. “You okay?”

“It’s dangerous to let people you don’t trust mess with your mind,” Luna said, still staring at Snape. “It’s dangerous.”

“Luckily, Harry will be denying the Headmaster’s request,” Pansy drawled. She tilted her head to rest it on Harry’s shoulder. “Thanks anyway, Professor.”

It was definitely Sirius who laughed then, a joyful bark of a laugh. When Snape turned his venomous glare to Sirius, Sirius only shrugged and held his hands up.

“Harry’s a legal adult,” Sirius said cheerfully. “He can make his own choices.”

“And yet I have never seen Potter make a decision,” Snape sneered. “It seems as if it requires at least three witches to do so for him.”

“We’re very invested in his well being, you see,” Susan said brightly. “That’s how it works when someone loves you.”

“You’ll understand one day,” Ginny quipped.

“Doubtful,” Amber said under her breath.

When Snape was left with no choice but to turn around and leave to tell Dumbledore that Harry wouldn’t take lessons with him, the laughter of the girls followed him.

“Okay, get shoes on,” Sirius said, grinning around at the cluster of giggling witches and a beaming Harry. “We’re going to celebrate because that was the greatest moment of my life.”

Everyone has been good about being cooped up in Grimmauld all break so far, but Harry was thrilled to get a chance to leave. Molly and Arthur said that if Amelia went that Ginny and Ron could go too. The twins had disappeared earlier that day with pockets bulging from the drawing room they’d been interested in, but Hermione was just as happy as the rest of them to leave for a while.

For the rest of his life, Harry would use the memory of walking around London with all the people he loved the best. They drank mugs of hot chocolate from the magically refilling thermoses that Amber got everyone from Christmas. They laughed when Susan got busted with a flask of firewhisky by her aunt and Amelia only took a drink, kissed Sirius right in front of them all, and passed the flask to Sara. Sirius started singing Christmas carols when they entered the heavily decorated park that glittered with Christmas lights and Harry held Susan and Luna’s hands and sang right along with him.

They were terrible singers, but it didn’t matter.

Harry had never been so happy in his life.

It was even better when their group of tipsy teenagers and childishly giggling adults made it back to Grimmauld Place to find a letter from Dumbledore on the table.

“Whoops,” Sirius flicked his wand and set the letter on fire before anyone could even open it. “Hope that wasn’t important.”

It wasn’t, as it turned out.

When Harry regretfully returned to Hogwarts after the break, he was personally handed a letter from Dumbledore by Professor McGonagall.

Harry wondered if Dumbledore just knew that Harry would never disrespect McGonagall by letting Pansy catch it on fire in front of her.

So Harry read the very short note informing him that he was to attend occlumency lessons every Monday night and borrowed a quill to respond on the back.

‘I’m fine. Thank you though.’

Harry already had Pansy and Katherine constantly attacking his mind at random moments to check his ability to recognize an outside presence, he didn’t need Snape doing it as well. Luna had also been so shaken by the mere suggestion that Harry wouldn’t do it for her sake as much as his own.

Term picked up with a vengeance for the fifth and seventh years. Harry, Susan, Daphne, Pansy, and Sara were studying for their end of year tests according to a strict schedule that Amber made for them. When Harry complained about juggling it all when quidditch picked back up, Amber pointed out the times she cleared for practice and games.

“What’s this for?” Harry asked, pointing at a two hour block every Sunday night with nothing dedicated to it.

“Family night,” Amber said cheerfully. “Sara’s leaving us this year, I just want us to spend as much time together as possible.”

“Without compromising our test scores,” Katherine added firmly.

Harry looked at his first two girlfriends with fond exasperation. Amber was so warm, caring, motherly. Katherine could be kind, but she was the more strict of the two.

“You’re going to be really good mums one day,” Harry said. He could see it so clearly, Amber telling their kid bedtime stories while Katherine popped in with a reminder to brush their teeth.

Harry hoped Voldemort didn’t end up killing him so he could be there to see it. He might even be Uncle H—

“And you’ll be the best sperm donor ever,” Amber said with a wide smile. “But it’s study time now.”

How Harry was meant to study after hearing the most absurd statements in the world was beyond him, but he managed it.

It was probably a combination of Harry’s contentment with life and literally having every moment scheduled out for him that made time fly after the new year began.

All through the week, Harry divided his time between classes, studying with Susan, Pansy, Daphne, and occasionally Ron or Hermione. When March rolled around, Harry had to add quidditch practice to his evenings which was a relief to lessen the time he was spending in the library.

Saturdays had ‘free time’ which Harry mostly spent visiting Hogsmeade on ‘Hogwart’s largest group date’ (according to an incredibly jealous sounding Draco Malfoy) or walking around with the girls, just talking and laughing.

Harry spent one Saturday evening listening to the twins explain to him how they invested his gold in their shop and Harry was rather bemused when he told them that, frankly, he didn’t actually care.

“Well your girlfriend does,” George snorted. He rolled up the parchment he’d been reading to Harry. “She told us we needed to explain the business you invested in to you.”

“Really?” Harry blinked at where Fred was nodding in agreement. “Which- er… which girlfriend?”

“The scary one,” Fred said.

So not Luna.

“You’ll have to be more specific,” Harry grinned. “They’re all scary.”

“The scary Slytherin one,” George said.

That still left Katherine, Daphne, and Pansy.

“Er…” Harry shrugged helplessly.

“Blonde,” Fred explained.

“Ah. Daphne.” Harry understood then why Daphne had recently been asking Harry about the twins’ upcoming shop. They had been talking about the career conversations they had with their Heads and the girls told Harry it was daft to be an auror when he could be ‘a perfectly safe and happy business investor instead’.

“In her defense, I did sort of claim the shop as future income in court last summer,” Harry said. “Not that I need income, just that I said it to get emancipated,” he added hastily, not wanting the twins to think they needed to pay back what had been a gift.

“Yeah.” Fred ruffled Harry’s hair in a way that Harry only liked for the girls to do. “Who needs money when you can mooch off your witches?”

“I hope you told McGonagall that your career goal is to be a trophy husband,” George laughed. “I would pay good money to see her face if someone told her that.”

Harry actually felt goosebumps raise on his arms as he imagined the fallout from a student being so careless. Not that McGonagall had a very positive reaction to ‘an auror? maybe?’ but it was better than ‘I’d like to be a trophy husband’.

McGonagall was yet another witch that Harry realized was secretly terrifying. Before her, Harry thought that it was mostly just lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, and asexual witches. But Harry was wrong because McGonagall was clearly a heterosexual witch who could cause fear in a person with just a single look.

Family nights were Harry’s favorite night of the week.

Every Sunday night, Harry and all the girls met up in one of their common rooms to spend time together. Sometimes they played cards or board games, sometimes Luna showed up with a tiny new creature that they would spend hours trying to discover the origins of. The only rules for ‘family night’ were that they weren’t allowed to discuss homework or quidditch and attendance was mandatory.

Nobody in Gryffindor ever cared to see the girls in their common room. Hufflepuff’s never minded either. Though both of those common rooms came with the risk of their classmates trying to butt in on family night. Ravenclaws didn’t like to hear them laugh and Harry and Susan kept getting locked out when they couldn’t solve the riddles. It made the most sense to spend time in Slytherin, until Malfoy made a quiet comment about Harry’s presence in the Slytherin rooms.

“Oh piss off,” Harry said cheerfully as he purchased Regent's Street from Ginny and became one step closer to having the entire green set of locations. “I should have just said yes to being in Slytherin in the first place.”

“You had a choice?!” Pansy shrieked. “And you chose GRYFFINDOR?!”

“You moron,” Katherine said scathingly. “Imagine the connections you could have made in Slytherin.”

Harry very slowly looked around at the variety of witches that sat with him in the middle of the common room, all teamed up as they played a muggle board game that one of the girls got for Christmas.

“I think I did okay on connections,” Harry deadpanned.

“Yeah but you’d look better in green,” Daphne sniffed, the true offense in her eyes. “So again we say- you moron.”

Harry might have been a moron in their eyes, but he was their moron and they loved him.

Which had to be true because Amber promised they did when Harry asked her and Amber never lied to Harry.

“You lot look terrible.”

Harry didn’t even have the energy to scowl at Ginny’s barb. He genuinely felt terrible. When Harry looked over at Sara, he saw that she looked just as beaten down as Harry felt.

“Just wait until next year,” Susan yawned. “These exams are brutal. I think I accidentally cast that Bat-Bogey Hex for my Charms OWL, I’m so tired.”

“I just think NEWTS might actually kill me,” Sara said. Her cheeks were colored with a red spot high on either side and her eyes were shining with what Harry suspected was a fever. “I’ve felt ill since dinner last night. It’s probably nothing, just nerves.”

“Oh, honey.” Amber poured Sara a cup of tea and gave it to her before running her fingers through Sara’s dark hair. “What tests do you have today, Sara?”

“So many,” Sara groaned. She looked queasy as she took a small sip of the tea. “Transfiguration first.”

“Maybe you two are coming down with something,” Susan fretted as she laid the back of her hand on Harry’s forehead. “Are you okay, love?”

“Just a headache,” Harry said, more concerned about Sara. “Sara, maybe you should skip? Ask McGonagall to reschedule?”

“You could take it this summer,” Luna suggested. “Fred and George are doing that so they can meet with the wizard they bought their shop from instead of taking their charms NEWT.”

Ginny blinked at her girlfriend. “How do you know that?”

“They told me, of course,” Luna said simply. She frowned at Ginny and placed her hand on Ginny’s forehead. “Are you sick too?”

Harry snickered at Ginny’s eye roll and was then distracted from his aching head by Amber pestering him to eat.

“Last one,” Ron groaned when the fifth years were lined up outside the doors for the History of Magic NEWT exam. Harry nodded in silent and miserable agreement.

“Babies,” Pansy sniffed at them. She looked perfectly calm and collected. “This is the easiest one.”

“Says you,” Ron muttered.

“Precisely.” Pansy smiled sharply and fluttered her lashes at Ron. “Says me. And I’m always right, aren’t I, lovey?”

Harry sighed and answered truthfully, “Usually yeah.”

Ron whispered something about Harry being whipped - as if Harry wasn’t fully aware - and then they were called in for their exam.

Harry had the worst headache as he dragged himself to a desk. History of Magic was never going to be a subject that he scored too high in, but Harry really wanted to repay the girls’ assistance in studying with good scores.

And Sirius said that he’d take Harry to get a flying motorcycle of his own if he got at least an EE across the board. It was ambitious, but Harry had done nothing but study for months with tutors more rigorous than any professor in the castle.

Harry gave Daphne a pained smile when she took the desk beside him just before the examiner started the test.

As poorly as Harry expected to do in his least favorite class with a headache that wanted to rip his mind in half, he was pleased when the first eight questions were all things he knew right away. Question nine was tricky… What had been the cause of the Pixie Plague that had nearly broken the Statute of Secrecy in 1754?

Had it involved a muggle war, maybe?

Harry skipped it and decided to go back to it. He answered five more questions before there was a sharp pain as if someone were stabbing his scar with a knife. Harry raised a hand to his forehead and pressed down hard, trying to physically push away the pain… and as soon as he closed his eyes everything changed.

“Take the prophecy,” Harry ordered in a cold voice. “Take it NOW!”

“No!”

“CRUCIO!”

Harry laughed as Sara screamed, her body writhing on the floor in terrible pain. As if the body of a tortured young woman was too bland of a sight for him, Harry looked over at the shelf he wanted Sara to reach for.

There glittered an orb in a row of orbs, one with Harry’s initials below it.

That was what the girl would grab or she would die. It made no difference to him, he would continue to torture her either way.

Harry was ripped from the vision in his mind with a strangled sound of pain. Someone was talking to him - the examiner, maybe - but Harry shoved him away and scrambled to his feet. While Harry gasped out some excuse he’d never remember, he just started running toward the door.

It was a vision like he’d had when Ginny’s dad was attacked, Harry knew that. It wasn’t truly Harry that had been torturing Sara, but Harry had no way of knowing that she was safe until he saw her.

Sara had to be safe… she had to be… if Sara was being tortured… Harry couldn’t even think about the miserable contours of her face in that vision.

Harry stopped at the foot of the grand staircase and tried to remember what NEWT Sara was meant to be sitting. When he couldn’t remember, he decided to go straight to McGonagall.

“Harry! Wait up!”

Harry didn’t slow down as he ran up the stairs, not even for Susan’s familiar call. Susan instead had to speed up to catch Harry. She grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him to a halt.

“Susan, stop!” Harry yanked his shoulder free and started running up the stairs again. “I’ve got to find Sara.”

“Why?” Susan asked, yanking on Harry again. “Harry, stop for five seconds, please!”

Harry couldn’t stop. He couldn’t. All of Harry’s worst fears about Sara being targeted because of him were running rampant in his mind with the background symphony of Sara’s screams under the cruciatus curse.

Harry couldn’t stop, but he could explain while he ran.

“Either Riddle has Sara or he wants me to think he does,” Harry said, unintentionally using the name the girls used while he was distracted. “I need someone to find her.”

“Okay.” Susan slid her hand down to grasp Harry’s, immediately on board. “Run faster then, where’s your quidditch training?”

Harry put a burst of speed in his run and it only took a few more minutes before Harry and Susan burst in McGonagall’s classroom, interrupting what looked like the exams for first years.

“Mister Potter!” McGonagall rose from her desk chair and stared sternly at Harry. “There better be an exc—”

“It’s Sara,” Harry interrupted desperately. “What test are the seventh years taking? I think she’s in trouble. Please, please, you have to find her.”

To McGonagall’s credit, she didn’t question Harry at all. She immediately flicked her wand and conjured a slick silver female lion.

“Filius, is Miss Les- is Mrs Potter in the exam room for her NEWT?” McGonagall asked, impressing all the students who had never seen a patronus before. “Answer immediately, if you would.”

Harry couldn’t relax - he couldn’t even calm down under the eyes of so many curious students - Harry could only fidget and squeeze the life from Susan’s fingers while they waited.

It only took maybe a minute, but it was the longest minute of Harry’s life before a silver songbird flew through the classroom and spoke in Flitwick’s voice.

“Mrs Potter isn’t taking her exam,” Flitwick said.

Harry let out a pained noise as his heart hammered in his throat and every fear he had filled him.

“She was sick and is in the hospital wing.”

Harry turned on his heel and ran from McGonagall’s classroom, needing to see Sara to believe it.

That time, McGonagall chased after Harry as well as Susan.

Harry burst in the Hospital Wing, his chest searing with heat from how quickly he’d ran, and he cried aloud when he saw Sara laying on a bed. Harry crossed the room in an instant and threw himself on her bed, touching her wrists and neck to feel that she was there, she was alive, she was fine.

Sara yawned, Harry had woken her, and it took her a moment to realize that her husband was laying on her, crying in relief.

“I knew I should have told you I came here,” Sara sighed as she rubbed Harry’s shaking shoulders. “Don’t cry, sweetheart, I can’t stand that.”

Susan was panting when she entered the Hospital Wing behind Harry and she held on to the doorframe while shaking her head at Harry.

“He’s… so… dramatic,” she sighed.

Professor McGonagall asked for an explanation when she made it to the Hospital Wing, Professor Tonks along with her. Harry didn’t hesitate to explain how he had apparently been blocking a vision from Voldemort all day that finally broke through during his exam. Sara let Harry grip her knee as tightly as he could when he explained what he saw- how Voldemort had been trying to get Harry to some room filled with sparkling orbs under the guise of torturing Sara.

Tonks exchanged a look with McGonagall before she pulled her wand and rushed from the room.

“You stay here until I come for you,” McGonagall told Harry sternly. “Your wife is here, your other friends are safe. It is you that they want. Do you understand, Potter? Do not move.”

Harry was relieved enough that it had just been a horrible attempt at a trap that he nuzzled himself in Sara’s side, getting comfortable, and smiled cheekily at McGonagall.

“Where else would I want to be, Professor?” Harry asked her with big innocent eyes.

McGonagall snorted and Harry swore she still locked the door behind her.

Harry waited in the Hospital Wing with just Sara and Susan for an hour until the other girls arrived. Amber had thought Harry got ill and didn’t alert any of them, but she didn’t scold him when Harry told her what happened.

The girls were solemn as Harry thought they were thinking the same thing he was - Sara could have been hurt because of her relationship with Harry - but he was caught off guard when Katherine launched herself at Harry with soft eyes.

“They were trying to trap you!” she cried, clinging to Harry hard. “I’m- I’m so proud of you! You’re not so stupid anymore!”

Harry frowned, “I have never been—”

“Brought Lockhart instead of McGonagall to save me in the Chamber,” Ginny said.

“Swam back in the lake because you thought Gabrielle would die,” Pansy added, never having forgave Harry for that.

“Didn’t you only make the quidditch team because you decided to fly toward a castle and narrowly avoided being smashed?” Luna asked, blinking innocently at Harry.

“Okay, okay!” Harry interrupted the girls when they all apparently had an instance of Harry being stupid. “I’m occasionally stupid, but it’s not like you lot ever give me time or space to be stupid.”

Amber cracked an imaginary whip and winked at Harry. “Most men wouldn’t complain about being constantly surrounded by gorgeous witches.”

“Most men haven’t met you all,” Harry said drily, not meaning anything rude at all. “They’d run for the hills. You’re lucky I’m stupid, otherwise little thirteen year old Harry would have congratulated you on your upcoming marriage to Draco Malfoy.”

Amber laughed louder than anyone, all but confirming Harry’s long-held suspicion that the girls only mentioned Malfoy to lightly manipulate Harry into fake-dating them all.

Not long after Ginny suggested they play cards while they waited on word of what was happening, the Hospital Wing doors opened.

Harry looked up from where he sat on the bed, Pansy in his lap, and his stomach dropped. Tonks walked in first with red-rimmed eyes that were puffy with recent tears. Headmaster Dumbledore followed her in, his head dropped and his shoulders slumped in what seemed to be unhappiness.

And then Professor McGonagall walked in behind the Headmaster, not hiding the pain on her face or the way her flaring nostrils were the only things that seemed to be holding together the frail composure she had. McGonagall looked directly at Harry, not skirting his eyes as Tonks and Dumbledore did, and Harry knew.

“Sirius?” Harry asked her, his voice cracking with the fear icing his veins. If McGongall was looking at Harry with grief and pity filling her eyes and almost every single person that Harry loved the most was already in the room with him…

McGonagall let out a sob when she nodded her head and it was seeing his usually collected Head of House - someone who had been almost as fond of Sirius as Harry was - break down that told Harry all he needed to know.

And what Harry couldn’t fill in for himself, Tonks did.

The girls managed to pile in two beds smushed together so they could all find a way to hold Harry while Tonks, McGonagall, and Dumbledore sat across from them. Tonks began from the moment she left the Hospital Wing earlier and Harry made himself picture it all just as Tonks described it to him.

Tonks alerted Dumbledore that Voldemort’s followers were likely in the Hall of Mysteries at the Ministry. Dumbledore told her to check it out, see if they could gain the upper hand in the followers were expecting Harry to show up. Tonks sent a message to Kingsley, who was at the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters. Sirius must have gotten the message from Kingsley, because Tonks had planned on only herself and Kingsley going to check it out but when they arrived, Sirius and Amelia were there.

“I just got a message from the Order,” Amelia might have said. “I have to go.”

Sirius would have jumped up to help; not because he really gave a damn about the Order but because Harry suspected he cared quite a bit for Amelia.

“Not without me,” Sirius would have grinned. “I’m coming too.”

Just as Dumbledore suspected, there were a dozen death eaters waiting in the trap they thought Harry would fall for.

“Sirius was brilliant, Harry,” Tonks said thickly. She was crying all the tears that Harry couldn’t find. “There was no stopping him. I’ve never seen anyone duel like Sirius was.”

Harry could picture that clearly. Harry could see in his mind how his godfather would have been laughing, showing off, as he ran around taking down the death eaters.

“Take that, scum!” Sirius would have said with his grey eyes flashing as he cut down a masked death eater with a single curse. Sirius might have laughed when he turned around. “Who else?”

“We nearly had everyone,” Tonks said. “And then You-Know-Who arrived.”

Someone made a high-pitched keening noise of pain and Harry didn’t understand why he was being pulled toward Amber unless he made that sound.

“Sirius was holding his own,” Tonks went on quietly, every person in the room hanging on her story of how the best man Harry knew had died. “I’ve never seen anything so mental… Sirius was just making jokes, shifting in and out of his animagus form to dodge spells, and making a damn good show against Him. It was… It was bloody brilliant. I wish you could have seen it.”

“Missed me,” Sirius would have grinned when he shifted gracefully back from Padfoot to Sirius. “C’mon, I thought you were meant to be tough, or is that just when you’re picking fights with babies?”

Pansy made a sharp comment under her breath about what a thing to say, but Harry wished he could have seen it too.

Harry wished he had been there to help Sirius.

“Amelia and I finished up with the two we were dueling and Kingsley took over on the last two we didn’t get. So we ran to join Sirius. I was thinking… I was thinking how if Sirius was doing so well on his own, maybe we’d actually take down the bastard together…”

“He’s mental!” Tonks would have laughed as she ran to help her cousin fight Voldemort.

Harry imagined that Amelia would have been fighting back an impressed smile as she ran to help her lover.

“He’s brilliant,” Harry hoped Amelia had said.

“We… we ran up with our wands drawn and- and he sent the killing curse directly toward Amelia.”

Susan’s hand was crushing Harry’s when she inhaled loudly. Harry closed his eyes, already quite sure he knew how the story was going to end.

A burst of green light aimed at Amelia… Sirius would have seen it, he might have screamed in fear, “Amy!”

And then he would have ran.

“It happened so fast,” Tonks whispered. “One second it was going to take Amelia and the next… and the next it was gone.”

And so was Sirius were the words lingering in the air.

Sirius would have used his last second of life to run thoughtlessly toward that spell and taken the hit for Amelia.

Others might have said it was the most thoughtful thing a person could do, but unless they just had their chest ripped in half by the loss of one of the greatest people to live then they didn’t get an opinion.

Harry only had one question, one person he needed an answer from. It took every ounce of strength that Harry had in him to look up at Albus Dumbledore and finally see his blue eyes meeting Harry’s.

“Where the hell were you?”

Harry couldn’t tell anyone how he, as Sirius’ only family and as an adult in the eyes of the law, planned a funeral. Harry couldn’t remember being told he needed to do so or how McGonagall offered to take that responsibility from him. Supposedly, Harry insisted he would do it.

Harry didn’t remember that.

It must have either been magic or the girls, synonyms in Harry’s mind, that made a funeral happen on the last week of school.

Ginny told Harry later that there wasn’t a single open seat at Sirius’ funeral.

Katherine told Harry that the speeches were beautiful.

Daphne told Harry that all the most important members of the Ministry attended to show support to the right side of the war.

Sara told Harry that Sirius looked peaceful in his coffin, he didn’t die in pain.

Amber told Harry that everyone had cried, there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd of attendees.

Luna told Harry that Amelia Bones had made terrible cries when Harry told her he didn’t blame her.

Pansy told Harry that dozens and dozens of people had expressed their sorrow to Harry for his loss.

Susan said nothing. Susan only held Harry, kept him standing, as he floated through the funeral, wishing it was all a joke. Harry didn’t remember who showed up to the funeral, who spoke, who cried. Harry didn’t remember that Sirius Black’s funeral was used as a political event - luckily for everyone else. Harry didn’t remember seeing Sirius in the coffin that was a bright white.

Harry remembered Sirius on the day Harry married Sara. Harry remembered Sirius laughing and flirting with Daphne’s mum and blushing when Susan’s aunt teased him. Harry remembered Sirius jumping on the top bunk at the Dursleys and making Harry laugh when he made obscene noises just to bother Harry’s relatives.

Harry remembered how Sirius was the last parent he had, the last of his family.

Harry remembered Sirius telling him, “There’s no guarantees in life,” before standing beside him as Harry’s best man.

Harry remembered everything up until the brightest star in Harry’s life was buried in the ground, then Harry simply shut down.

The girls kept Harry alive as they forced basic human necessities on him. Amber made Harry plates of food and nudged him until he ate enough of the tasteless foods to be acceptable. Susan stayed on the sofa in the Gryffindor common room, holding Harry during sleepless nights where he stared at the fireplace and remembered when Sirius would appear for private chats. Susan twice had to drag Harry in a shower in the prefects bathroom, something he couldn’t even enjoy as deep in his depressed state as he was.

Pansy ran interference, keeping the other students from approaching Harry with meaningless platitudes. Ginny tried to make Harry laugh with jokes that went unheard. Luna brought Harry flowers, three new ones every time he saw her. Daphne intercepted Harry’s mail, filtering through the letters of sympathy and the letters that said Sirius Black got what he deserved to get the actually important letters for him to read later. Katherine apparently, according to what the girls later told him, told Dumbledore to piss off right to his face when he tried to get Harry for a private chat.

Harry hadn’t been there to witness that, he’d been chasing down a ghost once he had a sudden and wild hope.

Sara covered Harry with his cloak and silenced the alcove he broke down in when he had briefly hoped Sirius would come back and was told by Nearly Headless Nick that he wouldn’t.

“He would come back for me,” Harry cried to her, finally breaking the silence that he’d been stuck in for so long. “He would, Sara, he would.”

“If he could, he would,” Sara whispered. She stroked Harry’s hair and held him close in her arms. “I think… I think your parents must have needed him more, love.”

Harry couldn’t speak around the sob that ripped from his chest, tearing his throat as it broke free.

Sara had to be right. The only person that Sirius would choose over Harry had to be James. And Harry couldn’t even be mad, Sirius deserved to go on and spend eternity back with his best friend.

Harry just had to figure out how to spend the rest of his life with the hole in his chest that Sirius left.

On the train ride home, Harry was curled up on the floor, sort of buried beneath girls. In another world, Harry imagined he would be elated to be in such a position. As it was, Harry was just grateful that their physical touches were keeping him grounded to reality. He’d spent the last week in an odd fugue-like state where nothing felt real and everything seemed like a distorted nightmare.

Being with the girls was a sense of normalcy.

Harry’s head was on Amber’s lap and he rubbed his thumb compulsively over the glass of his mirror while they girls talked quietly about their summer plans. Either Sirius didn’t have his mirror on him when he died or death had truly separated Harry and Sirius forever. Harry had tried hundreds of times to call for Sirius since he died even though he knew after the first time that it wouldn’t work - if Sirius could answer, he would.

There was a quiet but firm knock on their compartment door and Harry didn’t even look up. He had assumed it was Ron or Hermione again; they had tried to talk to him the night after Sirius’ funeral, but Harry couldn’t make sense of the words they said and had walked away, leaving Susan to apologize for him.

Harry assumed wrong.

“Not now,” Pansy hissed at whoever entered. Harry looked up, his attention captured by Pansy’s venomous tone, and found himself staring at a Slytherin boy in Harry’s year, Blaise Zabini.

Blaise looked at Harry while he stood in the doorway, leaning against the jam as if he belonged there, even if he didn’t. Harry was sure he had never said more than ten words to Blaise in the last five years, and eight of those words were probably insults knowing Harry. Harry held Blaise’s eyes for a moment before losing interest, thinking instead about how empty and haunted his house would feel with Sirius gone.

“Actually, I thought this might be the perfect time,” Blaise said, his voice a husky and lazy drawl. “I would like to join your harem, if you’ll have me.”

That finally caught and kept Harry’s attention. Harry blinked at Blaise from where he laid on the floor and tried to decipher why he would say that. Blaise was an attractive bloke with his smooth dark skin, styled black hair, and the amused tilt of his smile that looked permanent. Blaise wasn’t a lesbian and Harry doubted if he were even gay and needing protected from a contract that wouldn’t impact him regardless.

“Why?” Harry asked, his voice raspy and cracked from spending a week switching between crying and remaining entirely silent.

Pansy answered before Blaise could, preceding her explanation with an eye roll and dramatic sigh.

“Blaise enjoys being the center of attention,” Pansy snarked with a sharp look at Blaise and a snuggle where she was leaning against Harry’s side. “He’s been pestering me for a year to join us.”

“And as I said, he’s missing a few important qualities,” Daphne said. “A willingness to date Harry—”

“Fake date,” Ginny corrected her.

“There’s the fact that he is not a lesbian,” Katherine added.

“And he doesn’t even like Harry,” Susan said, making a face at Blaise.

Blaise nodded as if he agreed with all the points made.

“I would be honored to fake date Pot- Harry,” he said smoothly. “Who cares about my reputation as a Casanova if I’m a part of the hottest clique in history with the Chosen One as a beau?”

Harry grimaced at the idea of being ‘a chosen one’ as the papers called him. There was a prophecy that Amelia told Susan she would discuss with Harry that summer, but Harry very much hoped that he it didn’t involve him being chosen for anything.

“Blaise has no such reputation,” Sara whispered to Harry very loudly.

“I do, but the point is moot,” Blaise said with a careless shrug of one shoulder. “And as I’ve told Pansy, there is the obvious choice here for Harry to claim eight beautiful witches is simply too much for any one mortal man to satisfy and I, being the considerate man I am, have joined your harem to offer my assistance.”

“That would never work,” Luna said airily.

“And why not?”

“Because none of us would be living inside of that fantasy with you,” Ginny said with the sweetest smile. “Goodbye, Zabini.”

“I could also bring you all to Italy for the summer to stay at my villa. I imagine that Harry could use a summer of lazing on the beach, being pampered, and seeing all that the great country of Italy has to offer.”

And that was how Harry found himself arriving at Platform 9 3/4 with six fake-girlfriends, one legal wife, an actual girlfriend, and… a fake-boyfriend. There was no Sirius there as a man or dog waiting though and Harry felt his absence acutely.

Harry wouldn’t trade any of the girls for Sirius, but that didn’t make the loss any easier.

Chapter Text

“Harry James Potter…”

Grey eyes stared up into shocked green ones in the center of a beach covered in rose petals and candles.

“I know that we haven’t always gotten along, some would say that we’re as different as oil and water, night and day… some would say that I hid my love behind scorn and you hid yours behind teasing smiles. It’s in vain that I have struggled, my feelings will no longer be repressed.

“Some nights I lay awake and think of your lips and how they should be kissed often by someone who knows how. I fell in love with you as an earthquake… abruptly and without choice. I wish I knew how to quit you, Harry, but I cannot.

“Say you’ll marry me or, before Merlin himself, I won’t go. I’ll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you’ll have to marry me to save your reputation.”

Harry looked at where Draco Malfoy was on one knee, holding up a golden band with a ruby in the center of it, and felt horrified.

“I…” Harry honestly didn’t know what to say. He only knew two languages, but he was prepared to say ‘no’ in both of those languages.

When Harry went down to the beach on his second week of ‘vacation’ with the girls and Blaise, the very last thing he expected was to be proposed to by Draco bloody Malfoy. But Malfoy looked so earnest and he’d clearly put quite a bit of time and effort into his proposal…

Then there was the sound of two people positively screaming with laughter and Harry was given the perfect excuse to look away from Draco to the others behind him. Pansy was laughing so hard that she had to hold Blaise to keep from falling over. Blaise wasn’t faring much better as his laughter bounced around the private beach, sending birds Harry didn’t recognize to go flying in the air.

“HE DID IT!” Pansy screamed. She lost her grip on Blaise and fell on the ground where she kicked her bare legs and continued her insane laughter. “HE ACTUALLY DID IT!”

“HOW MANY AUTHORS DID YOU RIP OFF?!” Blaise shrieked. He bent over at the waist and continued to laugh. “MY GOD!”

Harry was relieved that none of the other girls were laughing. They all looked as confused as Harry felt. When Harry turned back to Malfoy, he saw that Malfoy had stood back up and was scowling fiercely at the two shrieking and giggling Slytherins.

“YOU SAID I HAD TO BE ROMANTIC!” Malfoy yelled. He waved a hand at Harry without looking away from his classmates. “WAS I MEANT TO WRITE MY OWN POETRY ABOUT POTTER?!”

Harry sent a hurt look over his shoulder to the girls and was mildly pleased to see that Sara and Amber had pulled their wands out.

“Watch yourself, Malfoy,” Sara said coolly. “That’s my husband you’re insulting.”

“No that’s your husband whose lips he dreams of,” Pansy said with a renewed fit of laughter. “Blaise, I hope your mother has a pensieve… I’ll be reliving this memory daily.”

Harry must have looked especially confused because Daphne walked up beside Harry and took his hand to explain what the hell was happening.

“Draco is trying to evade joining one super exclusive club by joining another,” Daphne said with a sniff. “Pansy may have told him that… ahem… you would be more likely to accept him if he was romantic in his proposal.”

“Why would you tell him he could join at all?” Harry asked Pansy, bewildered.

“Harry, baby boy,” Pansy finally stopped laughing and got back to her feet with Katherine’s assistance. “It’s your choice, of course, but Daphne isn’t exaggerating. Draco joins us or he takes Riddle’s mark.”

Harry looked at the girls’ serious faces, Blaise’s still amused one, then he looked at Malfoy and could feel a headache building.

“Can we talk about this in the morning?” Harry asked them all, already knowing that if it was let Malfoy be a part of their group or doom him to be a death eater then there was no real choice.

It was just… Harry couldn’t sleep and it had been Ginny’s idea that they go to the beach behind Blaise’s house to start with. Harry had planned on sitting in the sand - maybe moping some. Harry didn’t plan on finding Draco Malfoy in a field of sandy rose petals, down on one knee, offering Harry a crummy ultimatum.

“Of course we can,” Blaise declared, puffing his chest out at the ‘we’. “In the meantime, skinny-dipping anyone?”

Harry settled down in the sand to watch the others begin a sand-fight with Blaise. Malfoy seemed to sense that Harry wanted left alone and he scampered off to assist Blaise.

Amber didn’t care if Harry wanted left alone, she sat down right beside him and pulled Harry’s head over so it would rest on her shoulder.

“You more what I’m imagining?” Amber asked Harry softly. “I’m imagining Sirius is with your parents and he’s probably still bragging about you.”

Harry twisted his face up to keep himself from crying. “That does sound like him,” Harry agreed thickly. “I miss him.”

Sirius had been gone for nearly a month and Harry didn’t know how he was supposed to deal with the pain he’d be in for an eternity.

Amber turned her head to press a kiss to Harry’s forehead. “I do too, babe,” she said. “You know what might take your mind off things?”

“Hm?”

“SUSAN! HARRY SAYS HE’S DEPRESSED AND ONLY SKINNY-DIPPING WILL KEEP HIM FROM AK’ING HIMSELF!” Amber screamed, right in Harry’s ear.

Harry did not say that. And Harry really didn’t think that seeing Susan naked was going to—

“She’s shameless,” Harry breathed when his girlfriend winked at him from right where the dark water touched the sand. Susan pulled her dress over her head, leaving her in just a pair of—

“ARE THOSE MY BRIEFS?!” Harry yelled, hastily getting to his feet. “SUSAN BONES, DID YOU STEAL MY PANTS?!”

Susan laughed and then ran further in the ocean, disappearing from sight when she gracefully dived in the waves.

Harry wasn’t going to get naked in front of a bunch of people, but he wasn’t going to complain when most of the girls decided that ‘what happens on a beach in Italy stays on a beach in Italy’ either.

“Just wait until you attend the sleepovers,” Blaise murmured to Draco while the two boys watched the girls splash each other and Harry. “I imagine it’s much better than death eater slumber parties.”

Draco nodded dumbly, too shocked by Potter’s endless luck to even question it.

Blaise’s home was beautiful, honestly. Even with as miserable as Harry was when they arrived the day before couldn’t hide the fact that he was impressed by the ‘villa’. The house itself was a posh white building that was sort of perfectly square shaped. There was a pool attached to the back of the house and a set of stairs that led to the beach.

The inside was just as impressive as the outside. The first floor of the house had a library that Sara actually moaned at seeing, a living room big enough for them all to comfortably spend time in, a dining room with a massive table, and a very modern looking kitchen filled with some of the cheeriest house-elves Harry had ever met.

There were five bedroom suites on the second floor. Blaise’s mother had said that they could all share a single room for all she cared and Harry and the girls did just that. Blaise was excluded on the first night they were there, but he eventually made it in the room.

Blaise’s mother was… exactly what Harry expected actually.

Juliana Zabini was beautiful with her long legs and smooth brown skin. She was also rather exotic with her accent that seemed to be a mixture of multiple places and the floral dresses she wore. Harry had been told by Ginny that Juliana Zabini had seven dead husband and it didn’t take a genius to understand why a bloke would take a risk and try to be lucky number eight.

Harry’s face burned hot when they all went to the dining room the morning after Malfoy arrived and Juliana kissed Harry on both cheeks as a greeting. She ushered him in a dining chair at the opposite end of where Blaise sat at the head.

Susan rolled her eyes fondly at Harry’s blush. It wasn’t as if Harry could help it, Juliana was a very overwhelming person. Plus, Harry saw the way that Susan’s eyes had followed Malfoy the night before and he really doubted that she was looking at the back of his head.

And speaking of Malfoy…

As soon as the chirpy and cheery elves served breakfast, Daphne cleared her throat.

“There’s something we need to discuss,” she said primly.

Harry assumed she meant Malfoy being there but the girls laughed when he said that.

“Oh, darling,” Amber smiled warmly at Harry. “We all know you won’t actually look Draco in the eyes and tell him to go join Riddle instead.”

“I mean if you let Blaise join then might as well add Malfoy too,” Ginny snorted. “We’re drowning in Slytherins.”

“Slytherins tend to be the ones with the least amount of family belief in choosing their own path,” Luna said. They were kind of wise words, Harry just had a hard time taking them seriously with the dreamy voice Luna used coupled with the flowers she braided through her hair.

“My Blaise has always been told to follow his heart if his mind leads,” Juliana said. “If it leads him to a powerful coven then my Blaise simply has a very good mind.”

Harry was inclined to agree with everything Juliana said just because she said it.

“So Draco’s in then?” Blaise asked, looking at Harry. As much as he has been laughing night before, he was solemn then. “It truly is us or them for Draco.”

The odd thing that Harry couldn’t understand was why Malfoy wanted the option. Blaise had no death eater connections, his mother was a leader of the magical world in Italy, Blaise gained nothing by joining the death eaters.

Harry didn’t think he gained anything by joining them either but Pansy swore that Blaise just liked to be involved in drama. But Harry wasn’t trying to build a following… The girls were his family.

If Harry was there in ten years, he liked to imagine that he would be Uncle Harry to their kids and best man at all of their weddings. They would all gather together on holidays and it would almost be everything Harry always wanted out of life.

Sirius would have been the thing to make it everything Harry always wanted.

Harry didn’t realize that his mind had drifted away and his eyes clouded as he thought of his godfather until Susan - who sat on Harry’s right side - reached over to grab his knee and squeeze it beneath the table. She gave Harry a sad smile when he blinked at her and then Harry focused on the Malfoy dilemma.

“I would have thought that you’d be lining up to join Voldemort,” Harry told Malfoy bluntly.

“You thought wrong then, didn’t you?” Malfoy said, sneering at Harry in what seemed to be an automatic reflex. Malfoy twitched as if someone kicked him and then he took a deep breathe.

“The Dark Lord has taken over my home,” Draco said. “I would already be considered a traitor for telling you that. I would be outright killed if he knew I told you that Lestrange is nearly as high a target as you are or that they held a revel the day that Sirius Black was buried.”

Harry had to clench his jaw and bite his tongue then. Harry couldn’t decide which was worse - targeting Sara or celebrating Sirius’ death.

“It’s Potter,” Sara said quietly, but firmly, to Malfoy.

“And don’t ever talk about Sirius again,” Ginny said hotly. “You people make me sick.”

“Ginevra,” Juliana clicked her tongue and shook her head at Ginny. “I believe young Draco is attempting to separate himself from those animals, no?”

“Exactly,” Malfoy sighed. He looked at Harry again with the same pleading eyes that he had the night before…

Harry never realized it before, but Malfoy had the same color eyes as Sirius. It was painful and Harry quickly looked away from him.

“Either you marry me or they will kill me,” Malfoy said. “And I truly did weigh how little I wanted to die against how little I wanted to marry you.”

Harry let out a startled laugh at that. “And?” he asked curiously.

“And then I bought a damned ring.”

Harry grinned some at the genuine look of discomfort on Malfoy’s face. There was something bothering him still though.

“You’re not seventeen yet, are you?” Harry asked him. “I don’t see your dad agreeing to a marriage, as close of mates and the two of us are.”

Malfoy drew himself up straight and raised his chin in a mixture of arrogance and stubbornness that Harry usually saw on the quidditch pitch.

“I’m sixteen and that makes me an adult in the eyes of Italy’s Law. If we wed here, I would become emancipated there and free to not return home.”

“Where will you go?” Katherine asked with a raised brow. “If you marry Harry then you’re a target as well, where do you think you’ll be able to hide at?”

“And why would you marry Harry and become a target when you could just get a new tattoo, be a good little death eater, and wait out the war?” Susan asked.

Malfoy’s eyes flicked toward Pansy and Blaise, both of whom nodded subtly, before he answered the girls’ questions to Harry.

“I will be a target if I sever my attachment to the Dark Lord by marrying you for emancipation. My hope is that you would protect me in that case, I’d hate to be buried under the name Potter.”

Harry made a mental note to do just that if it came to it.

“But… but they’ll definitely kill me and my parents even if I join them,” Malfoy said, his voice cracking with emotion. “I’m meant to be given a task, a huge honor, but when I fail, they’ll kill me.”

Daphne had been quiet up until then, looking silently peeved that whatever she wanted to talk about had been brushed off for Malfoy’s story. She narrowed her eyes then, staring Draco down intently.

“What task are you certain that you would fail?” Daphne asked. Harry didn’t understand why he saw Daphne pull her wand from her dress pocket or why Katherine half-rose from her seat or why Susan had pulled her own wand.

Then Ginny glanced toward Sara and Harry understood what they were thinking. Malfoy said that Sara was a target, it was likely that he knew he would be tasked with killing her. Harry didn’t even consider that Voldemort would want Malfoy to kill him, Voldemort wanted that honor himself.

Fifth time being the charm and all.

Juliana seemed unaffected by the way that the air became tense and everyone began slowly drawing their wands. Harry rather admired the way that Juliana continued to eat her omelette and watch them all with the same amused smirk that was mirrored on her son’s face.

“The Dark Lord is going to tell me to kill the Headmaster,” Malfoy said quickly, practically shrieked, when Luna of all people pulled her wand and twirled it in his direction.

“Oh.” All the girls relaxed and Katherine even laughed.

“All in favor of sending Draco home to get a new tattoo?” Amber asked, suddenly cheerful ad could be.

Even Harry didn’t raise his hand. Malfoy would never be able to kill Dumbledore and then he would be killed. Harry wouldn’t be able to live with himself with that on his conscious.

“And all in favor of having a super fun beach wedding?”

The girls raised their hands, Harry didn’t.

Harry would let Malfoy marry him to get emancipation status in Britain, but Harry wouldn’t do another wedding. It was rare, but Harry very firmly would put his foot down on that.

Harry couldn’t bear having another wedding for show without Sirius there. Harry would have no best man when he eventually got married for real; an empty space would be better than having someone stand where Sirius once stood.

“Wait!” Pansy smiled sweetly at them all, a precursor to her saying something terrible, Harry knew. “All in favor of us tasking Draco with killing Dumbledore?”

When Juliana even raised her hand, Harry could feel a headache blooming. The very last thing the girls needed was someone like Juliana trying to guide them - they were feral enough on their own.

Harry snuck out of the villa that night on his own. The girls were all asleep and Harry didn’t want to wake any of them with his restlessness.

All Harry wanted to do was sit on the beach by himself and just be alone for a few minutes. Harry did get four minutes alone, and then someone snuck up beside him on silent feet.

“Are we talking or being quiet?” Amber asked softly.

Harry shrugged his shoulders up and continued to look out at the sky above the ocean. The ocean was beautiful, even terrible in a way with the dark waves that covered a depthless void beneath them. It was just that Harry wanted to find the only part of Sirius that he could still see.

“Being quiet, please,” Harry said.

“Okay.” Amber sat beside Harry with her legs drawn up to her chest. She reached over and gently pulled Harry’s head to the side so that it could rest on her shoulder. “It’s there,” she whispered, pointing up to the sky for him. “See?”

Harry didn’t know how Amber knew what he was searching for, but… yeah, he did see. Harry felt as if he saw a lot of things that night once he had a chance to just breathe.

The two of them sat outside until they could see the dark sky lifting to reveal a shade of pink. When the Dog Star disappeared, Harry stood up, brushed the sand off himself, and offered Amber his hand.

“Come on,” he said, forcing a smile that was more of a grimace. “I’ve got a prat to marry.”

Amber laughed as she used Harry’s hand to pull herself up then she bent over and kissed his cheek without releasing his hand.

“You’re doing a good thing,” she reassured him. “Just don’t forget to kiss the groom.”

“I will never kiss Draco Malfoy.”

“Oh. So are you scared or just homophobic?”

Harry gave Amber a withering look with no real heat behind it.

“You can’t taunt me into kissing Draco,” Harry said.

Amber smiled sweetly, “Whatever you say, babe.”

Amber calling Harry a chicken couldn’t provoke him to kiss Draco after Juliana held the wedding ceremony right in her dining room. Hearing all the girls chant, “KISS! KISS! KISS!” could though.

Katherine smirked after she snapped a photo right when Harry had pulled Draco to him and kissed him square on the lips.

“If anyone ever sees that picture I will- will…”

Katherine continued to smirk while Harry struggled to find a threat he would carry through on.

“Don’t tease him,” Ginny said when it became clear that Harry couldn’t find a threat. Ginny’s usually playful brown eyes were glittering with amusement that Harry didn’t think boded well for him. “Harry’s got enough problems when everyone else finds out he’s got two spouses and one of them is Malfoy.”

Draco, who had been dramatically gurgling water to prove some point about Harry being toxic or something, spat it in a cup and rolled his eyes at Ginny.

“I believe I’m a Potter now,” Draco said with a hint of bitterness.

Sara smiled kindly at Draco and reached over to take his hand.

“Welcome to the club,” she said warmly. “I’d say it’s exclusive, but I think we all know that’s a lie.”

Harry snorted and then sat back down to finish his breakfast and open the letter that Hedwig dropped off for him that morning. Hedwig loved Italy, the spoiled girl had been outside constantly to the point that Harry had been worried before he saw her. Harry assumed the letter she brought him was from Ron or Hermione; Molly knew roughly where Ginny was spending part of her holiday and Harry thought one of his friends had correctly deduced that the only wizard Harry might know in Italy was Blaise.

Harry was wrong, on all accounts. Harry must have made some type of sound after reading the first line of the letter because Susan grabbed his arm.

“Harry?” she said. “What is it?”

Harry tilted the letter to the side so Susan could read the letter to Harry from her aunt in her official capacity.

“Sirius left a will,” Harry told the others dully. “Amelia only just found it. I’m being summoned to a reading of it.”

“Oh, hell no,” Pansy scoffed.

“Language, my lovely flower,” Juliana sang reproachfully.

“I think what Pansy meant to say is why do you have to go?” Daphne said. “You’re not a… oh, right.”

Harry assumed that Daphne was about to point out what Amelia did in her letter and he held up his left hand where Sara’s ring sat on his fourth finger and Draco’s sat on his middle. Harry didn’t want to accept the damn thing, but Juliana insisted that there were powers in rings (and Blaise made Draco wear a matching gold one with a ruby in it and seeing Draco wear a Gryffindor style ring was almost enough to make Harry fine with yet another fake-spouse).

“Legally emancipated to get married, legally an adult who has to sign for what Sirius left me or it gets passed on to ‘his next closest adult relative’,” Harry quoted flatly. He rolled the letter back up and hid it in his pocket.

Harry let Susan read it, but the smudges that looked like tears were something that Harry wasn’t going to share with everyone.

“World that be… Professor Tonks? No… who’s older? Draco’s mum or Tonks’?” Katherine asked.

“Andromeda,” Draco supplied. “I believe if Pot- Harry doesn’t go then Black’s belongings will be offered to Andromeda Tonks.”

They all looked at Harry as if Harry had any choice in the matter. As much as it hurt, as much as Harry didn’t want to leave the place that wasn’t tainted by memories of the godfather he lost, Harry wouldn’t just ignore Sirius’ final wishes either.

“I guess I’m going,” Harry said tonelessly. “Sara and Draco have to come too, ‘my spouse’, Amelia said.”

“Eccellente,” Juliana said calmly. She tapped the document that Harry and Draco signed with her index finger and made two copies. “You will need to file this with the Ministry before darling Draco is reported as a missing child.”

Harry’s definition of excellent didn’t involve making it public knowledge that he married Draco Malfoy but he did it and it was time to own up to it.

For better or worse.

Harry’s mild obsession with Blaise’s mum wasn’t helped any when she obtained an international floo pass for Harry, Susan, Draco, Sara, and Ginny.

“I thought that my beloved surely would prefer to floo directly to the Ministry instead of using a portkey,” Juliana said airily. “It is no matter to me, though I will always prefer the cleanliness of portkey travel.”

“That’s because you’ve never taken a portkey and ended up being tortured and used in a sick ritual,” Daphne said.

Juliana lowered her lashes and held her hand up to study her sharp manicured nails.

“Never I, no,” Juliana agreed. “My… was it my fourth husband or fifth that I killed in Bucharest, mi amor?”

“Fifth,” Blaise said immediately. “We had that truly brilliant holiday after.”

“With the horses!” Juliana cried, smiling widely. “Yes! So, my dearest, I needed to get my husband out of the country, yes? And a portkey seemed to be the best choice…”

Harry shook his head at the way all the girls who wouldn’t be going to London with him were hanging on Juliana’s every word. Harry really wished Juliana didn’t give them any mad ideas, it was hard enough keeping them from committing murder as it was.

When Harry, his two spouses, his girlfriend, and Ginny stepped through the floo in the Ministry, Ginny immediately pecked Harry on the cheek and rushed off to find her dad. Molly said that Ginny could spend a month in Italy, she’d seemed relieved for Ginny to be out of the country after everyone was shaken by Sirius’ death, but the end of that month was approaching and Ginny wanted permission to stay longer.

Harry was toying with the idea of just never leaving. What would Harry give up by withdrawing from Hogwarts and staying in Italy? A few friends, a castle filled with as many bad memories as good? A country that loved and despised Harry in equal measures? Last winter he’d been the next Dark Lord according to the papers, suddenly there was whisper of a prophecy and Harry was meant to be a hero.

Nobody seemed to understand that Harry only wanted to be Harry. And, if he could choose a second thing to be, it would be happy. Italy made Harry happy, the girls made Harry happy. Even Blaise and Juliana made Harry happy. Harry assumed that if their marriage-of-convenience lasted much longer that even Draco might eventually make Harry happy.

A horrifying thought.

Home just wasn’t a place, as Harry used to childishly think it was. Home was Amber’s hugs, Katherine’s teasing. Home was Daphne teaching Harry charms to make his life easier and Pansy calling Harry an idiot before she curled up in his lap. Home was Ginny having seeker battles with Harry while Luna braided them both flower crowns. Home was Sara singing while she baked and even the way that Blaise and Juliana added Harry to their family so fully.

Home for Harry was anywhere that Susan Bones smiled at Harry.

That had been a big part of the revelation Harry had the night on the beach and if he could convince the girls to transfer to the Italian School of Magic then Harry would be done with Britain.

Done with a school where he’d fought for his life more than once.

Done with a country that vilified and reveled his name.

Done with a Headmaster who wanted to use Harry to win a war.

As soon as he signed for Sirius’ belongings, he’d return to Italy and bring it up to the others.

Harry knocked on Amelia’s office door after feeling his resolve to leave quickly being hardened. Harry didn’t keep up on the news, Daphne kind of did that for him ever since Harry read an article questioning Sirius’ character on the second day of summer and he accidentally broke the dining table.

The stares and whispers that Harry’s presence brought made him wonder what he hadn’t been told.

“Harry! Susan!” Amelia opened her office door and threw her arms around both of them immediately. Harry closed his eyes while she hugged him and wondered if Amelia thought of Sirius every day as Harry did. They had been lovers, Harry knew Sirius had loved her, if anyone understood Harry’s loss, it was Amelia.

“And… Mister Malfoy.”

Harry opened his eyes at the familiar voice and looked over Amelia’s shoulder to see Professor McGonagall standing behind her with a puzzled frown.

“Oh.” Amelia released Harry and Susan and while she looked curiously at Draco, Harry saw proof of her grief. Amelia had been as lively as Sirius and lovely as Susan once, but she looked dull and thin as if she hadn’t been sleeping or eating.

Probably because she didn’t have eight witches nagging her to do so.

“Mister Malfoy, what are you doing here?” Amelia asked, glancing at the four of them curiously. “Actually, existing inside, please. There’s too many ears out here.”

Harry let himself be ushered in Amelia’s surprisingly cozy office. For the Head of the DMLE, Harry expected something more cold and clinical, but her office reminded him of the Hufflepuff common rooms. The walls were a dark yellow and nearly entirely hidden by rows and rows of bookshelves. Most of the shelves were covered in books, but a few of them had coffee mugs with silly sayings and photographs on them.

Harry smiled slightly to see a picture of himself, Susan, and the other girls from Christmas in their matching sweaters. There was a larger one in a gold frame of Amelia and Sirius at what looked like a party. Sirius was grinning and winking at the camera in his black leather jacket as he dipped Amelia back for a kiss on a loop.

It must have been a photograph that they recreated from their days as students because just beside that one was a much younger Sirius doing the same thing to a much younger Amelia.

They looked so damned happy in both pictures that Harry wanted to cry.

“Sit, please,” Amelia said, jolting Harry from the reverie he’d been in as he inspected the photos. With a swish of her wand, three more chairs appeared in the room, identical to the two that were already across from Amelia at her desk. Professor McGonagall plucked a teacup from Amelia’s desk that she must have been drinking before they arrived and moved back to allow Harry and Susan to sit at the desk. Draco and Sara sat in the other chairs and Draco subtly handed their documentation of marriage to Harry to present.

Wanker.

“Draco’s here because you asked for my spouse and I wasn’t sure which one you meant,” Harry said, sliding the document to Amelia.

Amelia’s brows shot high on her forehead and she quickly pulled the magical monocle from where it hung around her neck to inspect the document. Harry’s palms were sweating and he swore that he could hear Draco’s heart hammering from behind him.

Everyone could definitely hear the sound of McGonagall sighing.

“Polygamy is not illegal, but… It is rather unheard of today,” Amelia finally said, looking directly at Harry. “I am assuming that you have an excellent reason to have married Draco in Italy?”

“Yes,” Harry said. “I love him.”

Sara hid a laugh behind a couch and Harry heard Draco choke on his own saliva at Harry’s deadpan response.

Just as the girls’ sexual orientations were nobody else’s business, neither was Draco’s dilemma. Harry had been gossiped about in the magical world since he’d been orphaned at only a year old, he might as well give them all something interesting to say about him.

“I see,” Amelia said with her brows furrowed. “And you’re aware that by marrying Draco under Italian Law that you’ve emancipated him here?”

“Did I?” Harry asked, blinking twice for effect. “Oh.”

McGonagall snorted behind Harry and he glanced over his shoulder at his favorite professor.

“Completely coincidentally, I’m sure,” McGonagall said drily. “This is certainly another marriage of deep and passionate love, no ulterior motives involved.”

“We do have photos of them snogging if you’d like proof of their passion,” Sara input in her ‘so serious that people didn’t realize she was kidding’ type of way.

“I’ll pass,” McGonagall responded.

“Well… congratulations then,” Amelia said, seeming confused by the conversation. “As you and Draco were unwed at the time… the time that Sirius passed, he has no recourse to claim any part of what was left to you, Harry.”

Harry nodded through the pang he felt at the way Amelia stammered through that statement and Sara cleared her throat.

“I would like to sign whatever is needed to dissolve any claim I may have to whatever was left to my husband,” Sara said firmly. Harry shook his head at her - Harry would share everything he owned with all of the girls - but Sara didn’t budge.

“I didn’t take your name for your money,” Sara told him. “I won’t let you give me more than you already have.”

“That makes this relatively easy, if incredibly painful,” Amelia said as she pulled a parchment from her desk drawer. “I’ll just…”

Amelia sniffled and Susan carefully took the parchment from her aunt.

“I’ll read it,” she offered.

Harry heard someone’s chair scoot up and was surprised when the hand that tentatively landed on his shoulder wasn’t Sara’s dainty one but Draco’s.

“‘The last will and testament of the late and great Sirius Orion Black…”

Harry’s face spasmed with a torn desire to laugh and cry at that. That would be how Sirius would start a will.

“‘I assume that either I really did drop dead as my dearest mother cursed me to do or I’ve wrecked my motorbike’,” Susan read. “‘There’s always the hope that I’ve went out in a blaze of glory, but I suppose I’ll never know. This is just a formality to make sure that the very trustworthy Ministry of Magic doesn’t pull some hocus pocus and cheat Harry out of an inheritance like they did a proper godfather.

“‘To Remus Lupin, my oldest living friend… I leave you twelve thousand galleons from my vault. That’s one thousand galleons for every year you thought I’d betray James. I hope you feel like rubbish in comfort.’”

Draco laughed outright and his hand clenched hard on Harry’s shoulder. “He holds a grudge, doesn’t he?” he asked.

“A very odd act of pettiness,” Sara agreed.

Susan swiped her eyes with her shoulder and continued reading.

“‘To my true love… The only witch that could hold my heart… My Northern Star…’”

Harry looked at Amelia and saw that she had a smile hidden beneath her tears.

But that wasn’t who Sirius meant.

“‘Minerva McGonagall.’”

“Fool,” McGonagall whispered thickly.

“‘Minnie - I can call you Minnie now because I’m dead - there’s a set of books on my bookcase in my bedroom, Harry will get them for you.’”

Susan glanced at Harry at that part and he jerked his chin in acceptance. Whatever Sirius asked of Harry, Harry would do.

“‘One is a master list of every prank the Marauders pulled during our time as students. You should put that in the Gryffindor common room on the day you retire. The second book is a record of how James, Rat-Face-Scum-Bag, and myself achieved animagus transformations so young. There were some tweaks we made to the process. I’d like you to take our notes, add your own brilliance, and publish it with James and I as co-authors. I’d hate for the world to only remember us for our beauty.’ That’s funny,” Susan sniffled.

“‘The third book is just for you. Do you remember when I was eleven and you caught me drawing on my arm?’”

If McGonagall’s broken noise was any indicator, she did.

“‘I used to do that all the time at home and Walburga would lose her mind. I’ve got a nasty scar from when she caught me once… but you were the first person to see a flower inked on my arm and told me I had talent.’”

Harry never knew that Sirius liked to draw anymore than he knew that Sirius was so bitter toward Lupin. It was as if Harry was finding out more about his godfather in a will than he had in the too brief time they had together.

“‘The third book is just drawings… things I would call nonsense but you once called art. It’s yours if you want it, I probably would have given up on drawing when I was a firstie if it weren’t for you.’”

Sara moved her chair to sit directly beside McGonagall and offer her a shoulder to cry on just as McGonagall once offered to fulfill a parent’s role for Sara.

Susan was crying, but her voice didn’t shake after she cleared her throat.

“‘To my Amy,’ oh that’s sweet,” Susan said with a soft and sad look for her aunt. “‘Amy, I hope I haven’t died before I told you I loved you and tricked you into marrying me.’

“‘I could leave you riches and jewels and all the things you deserve but would never want, but instead I’m leaving you with my love and the ring I bought when I was sixteen. It’s in the secret pocket of my jacket, I hope I didn’t wait too long to give it to you.’”

Amelia looked wretched as she buried her face in a handkerchief and sobbed. It was miserable in that office that Harry had just thought to be cozy. Everyone listened to the words of a dead man and felt their hearts break all over again.

“‘And finally, to the reason I lived and breathed…’”

Draco’s hand was nearly painful on Harry’s shoulder and Harry tried to focus on that physical pain instead of the emotional anguish that he could feel coming.

“‘Harry, I’d give you the air in my lungs and the blood in my veins if I could. I never wanted kids, too much responsibility, but I have never been as honored as I was to be your godfather.’”

The sound Harry made then was inhuman. It was a sound of pure pain as Harry thought of every moment he had with Sirius and all the ones they should have had.

Susan tossed the will on Amelia’s desk and dropped to her knees in front of Harry’s chair to pull him in her arms.

“He left you everything and said to be happy,” Susan whispered as she held Harry together when he felt as if he’d shattered in pieces. “He said he loves you, he’s sorry he’s gone, and to just be happy, love.”

Just as Harry fetched Sirius’ jacket for Amelia and the three books for McGonagall from the home Sirius left Harry in Guilford, Harry intended to follow through with the rest of Sirius’ instructions.

None of which stated that Dumbledore could continue using Number Twelve Grimmauld Place for Order of the Phoenix business. They hadn’t protected Sirius in the Ministry and Harry didn’t feel bad about telling the house-elf that lived in that house to kick everyone out and not to let them return before returning to Italy.

Harry would have to return at some point and sort through the houses Sirius left him - the one they shared in Guilford, the one in London, and the cottage that Harry’s parents left Sirius that they had died in - but they could stay closed and unused until Harry felt like dealing with them.

Back in Italy, everyone gave Harry a couple of days to collect himself and his thoughts before Sara finally asked him what the plan was. The eleven teens were sprawled around the pool behind Blaise’s home. Ginny and Amber had been swimming, but they swam to the edge and looked at Harry then.

“Why ask me?” Harry said with his eyes closed and the sun on his face and bare chest. Harry didn’t feel great shirtless, especially not with Blaise ‘I look like a bloody model’ Zabini around, but the girls teased Harry when he had a shirt on until he finally pulled it off. The girls all looked brilliant in their bikinis of various colors and it was just safer for Harry to keep his eyes closed when they were all walking around half-dressed.

“Because you’re the one who goes quiet every time we talk about school or the war,” Ginny said, splashing Harry with pool water as she did.

“Gin! Glasses!” Harry complained. He opened his eyes and sat up from the reclined position he’d been in so he could pull his water covered glasses off his face and scowl at Ginny’s blurry outline.

“Oops,” Ginny said in a way that wasn’t apologetic at all. Someone - Harry squinted and it was Katherine - handed Harry a dry towel to dry his glasses off with.

“Quit changing the subject, baby boy,” Pansy said. She shared one of the poolside loungers with Daphne and they looked all too comfortable wrapped around each other.

It was another reason Harry didn’t want to leave… Nobody in Italy gave a damn about sexuality. Ginny and Luna had snogged in the most enthusiastic way at the wizarding city Blaise took them to the first week they’d been there and nobody batted an eye.

“What’s been bouncing around your head lately?” Pansy pushed when Harry didn’t say anything. “If you’re missing your Weasel, Ginny could cut her hair and say ‘bloody hell’ until you’re over it.”

Harry grinned and took his time drying his glasses as he tried to find a way to—

“Harry doesn’t want to leave,” Luna said, apparently answering for Harry. “Do you?”

“Not really, no,” Harry admitted quietly, not wanting to upset anyone.

Harry would never ask the girls to uproot their lives to stay with him but Harry also couldn’t imagine them being separated either. It was a no-win situation and Harry couldn’t see any way around it.

“Why?” Sara asked. She was sitting cross-legged on one of the loungers and had been charming Draco’s fingernails different colors. She looked at Harry then though and Harry hated the sad puppy-eyes she had. “Is it too hard?”

“No, no.” Katherine yawned and relaxed with her arms bent behind her head. “It’s about to get really noble out here.”

Harry rolled his eyes at her. As much as Katherine and Pansy ribbed on Harry for being noble, he was thinking entirely selfishly.

If Harry was noble, he’d return to Britain, join the Order, fight Voldemort. Once upon a time, that was exactly what he would have done. But Harry had a family that counted on him in their own strange ways, he had a chance at a future, and if someone as brilliant as Sirius had been struck down so easily by Voldemort, what chances did Harry have?

None, really.

“I just… I dunno. I just think we’d all be happier here. Safer too, really,” Harry mumbled, feeling stupid.

It was a childish dream to want to stay on holiday indefinitely. But Harry lived through nightmares that adults couldn’t imagine, why couldn’t he live in a dream for a while?

“Ginny and Luna are only fifteen,” Susan reminded Harry.

“Mum said I could stay the rest of the hols, why not until at least the war is over?” Ginny argued immediately. “She knows I’m safer here.”

“I never did tell Daddy that I was leaving,” Luna said thoughtfully. “It may take him a while to even remember to write.”

Harry forgot sometimes, but he rather hated Luna’s dad who hardly ever remembered he had a daughter.

“I could transfer schools,” Amber said slowly, looking at her girlfriend. “Katy?”

“My parents wouldn’t allow me to leave for anything less than marriage to the Chosen One,” Katherine scoffed.

“My mother barely let me take this trip,” Daphne said in agreement.

“So Harry marries everyone, we hope Luna’s dad forgets about her for a couple more years, and Ginny emotionally blackmails her family into letting her stay,” Amber said cheerfully. “Blaise, do you think your mother could get us all in the Italian School of Magic?”

“Woah, you’re serious?” Draco looked at them all as if they lost their minds. “P- Harry says he doesn’t want to leave and just like that you’re all staying?”

“It’s called loyalty, you moron,” Ginny sniffed with a flick of her wet hair. “What happened to stand by your man, Mister Potter?”

“What happened to Harry is meant to kill the Dark Lord??” Draco said, looking hard at Harry then. “You heard Amelia, it’s got to be you.”

Harry did hear Amelia when they’d been in her office. Harry heard her say that some dusty old glass orb was shattered in the Hall of Mysteries and supposedly it said either Harry killed Voldemort or Voldemort killed Harry.

Why it didn’t account for Harry just… not killing anyone or being killed was beyond him but Hermione had once said it was a useless bit of magic.

“Before we go making this group a marriage of twelve…” Daphne sat up and used her wand to summon a journal. The journal flew from the house to her hand and she then levitated it to Harry.

“Perhaps we should discuss horcruxes.”

Chapter Text

Harry and the others sat outside around the pool on the edge of their seats while Daphne discussed horcruxes.

“Ginny’s story about the diary made no sense to me,” Daphne said. “So I began looking into it. And when I hit a wall, I stole the diary from the Headmaster.”

“How the hell did you do that??” Ginny asked in an awed tone.

“I told Lavender Brown that I know she stole my jumper I left in runes at the end of the term and when she let me in her down to look, I summoned Tom Riddle’s destroyed diary,” Daphne said with a glint of self-satisfaction in her blue eyes. “It flew from Dumbledore’s office to my hands. But that’s unimportant, now look…”

They all practically held their breath as Daphne summoned another book from the house. Instead of a crisp and clean journal filled with neat handwriting though, it was the blackened journal with a hole from a fang through the center.

Harry and Ginny recognized it immediately.

Daphne caught it and held it up for the others to see. Ginny pulled herself from where she’d been inside the pool so she could sit on the edge and keep a wary watch on the diary.

“Why would you want that?” Ginny asked. “It’s evil, Daphne.”

“Magic can’t be good or evil,” Daphne said haughtily as she stroked the cover of the ruined diary. “Some magic is heinous though, inhumane and dangerous…”

But not evil, apparently.

“Magic like horcruxes?” Sara guessed.

“Precisely,” Daphne said. “I was curious as to what type of magic could do all the things Harry and Ginny described. Human possession? Stored memories? The ability to communicate as Tom Riddle? There’s no spellwork in history to give a mere book those powers.”

Harry felt something niggling in the back of his mind… something that he heard…

“‘I, who have gone further than anybody along the path that leads to immortality. You know my goal — to conquer death. And now, I was tested, and it appeared that one or more of my experiments had worked… for I had not been killed’,” Harry quoted suddenly, his eyes sharp as he looked at the diary in a new light.

“Was the diary an experiment then?” Harry asked Daphne. “Or… no….” Harry chewed the inside of his cheek while he thought about it. Daphne waited patiently for Harry to say what he wanted, though she undoubtedly already knew twenty times more than Harry did.

Bloody brilliant witch.

“If the diary kept him from dying when I was a baby then it should have stopped working after I stabbed it with a basilisk fang…” Harry murmured while he tried to work it out. “But the Riddle that came from the diary wasn’t the actual Voldemort because he said he was in Albania possessing a snake then…”

“He looks like he’s in pain,” Draco whispered to Sara.

Sara smacked his leg lightly and shook her head with at him.

“Be nice,” she breathed, leaving her hand on Draco’s leg and squeezing some. “That’s our husband you’re insulting.”

Harry felt as if he were just on the cusp of understanding but he was missing a piece of a puzzle.

“If the diary was meant to keep him alive, one of his experiences, but the diary is destroyed then there had to be something else,” Harry mused as he squinted at the diary Daphne held. “One or more experiments…” Harry’s eyes flicked up to meet Daphne’s approving one’s. “More diaries?” he guessed.

“Yes and no,” Daphne said, giving Harry that tiny pleased smile she did when he did well on an exam. It was Harry’s favorite smile, to be honest. It made him feel warm and accomplished.

“I believe, based on what Riddle told you in that deplorable graveyard, that there are more items like the diary but are unlikely to also be diaries,” Daphne said, speaking to them all. “It was the way that the diary seemed to be an entirely separate entity from Riddle that intrigued me the most. What magic was that? How did it work? Could it be replicated?”

“How did you end up in Slytherin?” Susan interrupted curiously. “You’re so clearly a Ravenclaw.”

“I nearly went there until the Hat recognized my thirst for knowledge was all tied to my ambition,” Daphne said casually, as if that weren’t a terrifying thought. “Be quiet now, because this was the truly brilliant part…”

Harry always knew that Daphne was brilliant and could intimidate a grown man with her ice cold barbs and comments. What Harry didn’t know was that Daphne had bollocks the size of Harry’s entire head.

“I suspected soul magic, but when I saw that there were no books on it in the library, I was sure of it,” Daphne said. “I considered asking Professor Snape, but he’s too close to Dumbledore and I couldn’t risk Dumbledore discovering I stole the diary.

“So I asked Professor Ritters.”

“The auror?” Pansy had been half curled in Daphne’s lap and she sat at up to glare right in her girlfriend’s face. “Has Harry’s idiocy rubbed off on you?”

When Harry frowned, three people were quick to tell him it was meant with love and nobody thought he was an idiot.

“You actually asked an auror for—”

“That’s what you were doing!” Amber cried. She grabbed the ledge of the pool with both hands and lifted herself out of it, showing off the water that glistened on her sun-tanned skin. Amber laughed at Daphne after she sat on the ground with just her legs in the water beside Ginny. “I think I got an O in defense this year for that.”

“For what?” Katherine asked. “What did I miss?”

“I may have noticed that Professor Ritter tended to let his eyes linger at times,” Daphne said carefully. “I asked Amber to flirt, see how far he would try and take it.”

“You did what?” Harry asked sharply, his stomach twisting. Harry immediately and automatically looked Amber over, as if he would find physical proof that she had been harmed. Amber caught his searching look and smiled.

“It was fine, darling,” she told him. “I twirled some hair around my finger, sighed about how hard it is to share my lover with soo many other witches, and when I was invited back to his quarters to talk over tea, Daphne stepped in.”

“Brilliant,” Blaise chuckled. “Women truly are the most manipulative creatures.”

“They are idiots,” Katherine sighed. “You’re both stupid.”

For once, Harry was sure she didn’t mean him.

“You love us,” Amber winked.

Katherine said nothing, but Harry could sense the eye roll behind her large sunglasses.

“If you could all focus on what’s important,” Daphne said. “Aside from the O that Amber should have earned in defense, I was also able to get a book from the Hall of Unspeakables.”

“That’s a real place then?” Draco asked her. “My father said it was.”

“Your father also thought that joining a maniac was a good life plan so you can see why we don’t think his thoughts are worth much,” Ginny said sweetly.

Draco’s face twisted in a grimace and he inclined his head in a nod of acknowledgement.

“Ritters could only guarantee me three days with the book,” Daphne explained. She stuck her lower lip out in a cute pout. “If I knew we were going to stay in Italy, I would have stole it. It was amazing, you have no idea…”

Everyone gave Daphne a moment to lament her loss before Sara cleared her throat pointedly.

“What was in it?” Sara asked.

“Everything,” Daphne said wistfully. “Every bit of magic ever recorded. The Book of Unspeakable Magic is… It was… There are just no words.”

Harry caught Luna’s eye and she mouthed ‘crazy’ and Harry grinned in agreement. Daphne was a swot, but she was Harry’s swot and he loved her too much to call her crazy to her face.

Also Harry was a bit scared of her as he assumed all blokes were of their fake-bisexual-girlfriends.

“Daphne, for the love of magic, tell us what you found,” Amber laughed when Daphne once again seemed distracted by thoughts of a book.

“Let me be dramatic for a chance,” Daphne snapped playfully. “We let Harry do it all the time.”

“Oi! When am I—”

“Walking out of your history OWL.”

“Going back for Gabrielle.”

“‘Give that back, Malfoy!’”

“You punched Ron.”

“That’s not fair,” Harry said, only disputing the last one. “Ron called you all - er… something rude.”

“Did you call him a misogynistic berk after you hit him or was the gossip wrong?” Blaise asked Harry with a half-smile.

“I did, yeah,” Harry said sheepishly. “Who told you?”

“Weasley told Longbottom, Longbottom told Finnigan, Finnigan told Thomas, Thomas shagged Blaise,” Draco said as if that wasn’t confusing at all, mostly because Harry had no idea Blaise was bisexual. “Blaise gets most of his gossip in bed.”

“And the showers, hidden alcoves, locker rooms, and the kitchens in what might have been the most exhibitionistic encounter of my life,” Blaise said. He stretched out on his lounger and smirked at Harry’s look of surprise. “Don’t tell me you only shag in your bed, Potter.”

“Of course not,” Susan answered for Harry, a lie. Susan’s smile was blinding when she aimed it at Blaise. “There’s also your mother’s bed.”

Everyone, even Blaise himself, laughed and Harry gave an incredibly fond smile to Susan.

… Harry wondered if Susan wanted to shag in other places… Not a kitchen though, Harry didn’t think he’d like to risk being caught by a house elf.

Susan looked at Harry then very slowly looked toward the pool. Harry knew he was blushing as he caught her insinuation. He hoped anyone else would assume he just had too much sun.

While Harry was thinking about the places he would most like to shag Susan - and the logistics that doing it on a broom would need to be worked out - Ginny was teasing Blaise.

“You and Dean make a cute couple,” Ginny said to him thoughtfully. “I thought maybe him and Seamus…”

“We make a cute couple because we’re both black?” Blaise asked with his lip beginning to curl upward.

“Don’t be stupid,” Ginny waved her hand flippantly. “Because you’re both ridiculously hot.”

Blaise relaxed and leered at Ginny. “I accept that as an answer,” he said. “If you an Luna ever decide to add a third…”

Luna perked up and Ginny giggled in a nervous way that Harry had never heard from her before.

“Will you all focus on me?!” Daphne demanded, snapping her fingers impatiently and ripping Harry from the beginning of a fantasy playing out in his head. “Hi, beautiful and brilliant here, let’s focus.”

“We’re all ears,” Sara assured her, the one one of the teenagers who wasn’t consistently distracted by sex. “What did you find in the Book of Unspeakable Magic?”

“Soul magic,” Daphne said simply. “Nothing fit just right until I became specific in my search and I found horcruxes.”

That was the third of fourth time Daphne used the term and nobody except for her seemed to have any idea what it meant. It was nice, not being the only one who was clueless, Harry rather liked it.

“A horcrux is a piece of a wizard’s soul, stashed away to prevent the wizard from every truly dying,” Daphne said, her voice lowering in either awe or theatrics. “It’s ingenious, truly.”

“That’s sick,” Draco said - Harry thought it was worth noting that on the sixteenth of July in 1996, Harry Potter agreed with something Draco Mal— Draco Potter said.

“The diary had a piece of Voldemort’s soul in it?” Ginny asked, looking suddenly ill. Amber was closest to her and reached over to rub Ginny’s back when Daphne confirmed it and Ginny looked as if she were going to be sick.

“But there’s more,” Harry said abruptly, knowing it had to be true as soon as the thought appeared in his mind. “If the diary was the only thing keeping Voldemort alive—”

“Then he would have died when you killed this bit of his soul before he had a body, yes,” Daphne said, giving Harry that pleased smile again. “Very good, dear.”

Harry must have looked too smug because Ginny abruptly splashed him again.

“GINNY! GLASSES!”

While Harry dried his glasses off again, Draco spoke up.

“And so the Dark Lord can’t die unless the other horcrux is destroyed?”

“If there’s only one more,” Pansy said logically. “If he split his soul at least twice, who knows how many times he did it?”

“Seven is a powerful number in magic,” Sara pointed out.

“So is eleven,” Luna added.

“And one hundred is a nice even number,” Harry said a bit hysterically. “Voldemort will live forever! Who knows how many pieces he made!”

And if he was going to live forever then Harry was never leaving Italy. Voldemort must have known about the prophecy, why else would he personally go try and kill a baby? It was why he had targeted Harry and killed his parents and it was why as long as he lived, he would try to kill Harry.

Maybe if Harry just had Hermione Granger write him a well-reasoned letter, explaining that divination was a soft subject… but Harry hadn’t talked to Hermione in ages and who knew if Voldemort could even be reasoned with?

Blokes who ripped their souls in pieces weren’t exactly sane to start with, Harry assumed.

“He might, yes,” Daphne said nonchalantly in agreement with Harry’s hysteria. “Unless someone found the horcruxes, destroyed them, and then killed him.”

“And who’s going to do that?” Susan demanded, prickling defensively. “Not our Harry.”

“Goodness, no,” Daphne laughed lightly. “Harry would be dead in a week and we would all be married off to death eaters the next week.”

Even if it was true, it was still rude to point out.

“So… we do nothing?” Draco asked.

“You should do your toes pink to match your nails,” Katherine murmured lazily. “And someone should distract our boyfriend before he decides to get noble.”

Harry puffed up indignantly. “I am not going to—”

“Let’s play chicken,” Amber declared loudly. “Harry and Luna against me and Ginny.”

Harry didn’t know how to play chicken and he wanted to talk more about horcruxes, but then Luna said she’d always wanted to play but never had three friends and a pool and suddenly Harry had to play. It wasn’t hard, really. Harry just had to put Luna on his shoulders and then she had to pull Ginny off Amber’s shoulders.

Harry thought they’d lose since Ginny had almost as much muscle as Harry did and Luna was so kind, but Luna apparently hated to lose and displayed a viciousness that would probably haunt Harry for the rest of his life.

Susan laid on Harry’s chest that night when it was just the two of them. The others were inside sleeping and Harry had very romantically and not at all awkwardly asked Susan if she wanted to go for a night swim with him.

They didn’t swim much, but they did laugh their way through having sex in a pool. It was more difficult than Harry had expected, mostly because everything was wet and slippery, but Susan never seemed to mind when Harry made mistakes that more experienced blokes might not make.

Afterward, they were laying on one of the loungers with Susan’s head on Harry’s chest and a fluffy white towel covering them.

“Why haven’t you asked me to marry you?” Susan asked Harry quietly, breaking the comfortable silence they had been relaxing in.

“Because we’re sixteen and normal sixteen year olds don’t get married,” Harry said wryly.

Harry could feel Susan’s smile even if he couldn’t see it. Her fingers traced the lines of his chest and Harry thought about how comfortable he was around Susan.

Susan never acted as if Harry were unattractive or seemed as if she would prefer someone bulkier like Blaise or taller like Draco. Susan just… she acted as if she found Harry as attractive as Harry found her.

It was mental because Susan was gorgeous.

“You’re not exactly normal though,” Susan pointed out. She tapped Harry’s chest with her right ring finger, the one that held the promise ring Harry and Sirius had picked out together.

“If you married me, then I could stay if you do,” Susan said. She peeked up at Harry and Harry hated the shine in her eyes that made him think her feelings were hurt. “Don’t you want me to stay?”

“Sue…” Harry groaned and had to look away from the hurt in her eyes. “Of course I do. D’you think I want any of you to go back there and be in danger? I just… I can’t marry you, Susan, not for convenience.”

“So you’ll screw me but ultimately I’m just another of ‘the girls’ to you?” Susan pushed herself to a sitting position and she wasn’t glaring, she was crying and it was a thousand times worse. “Thanks, Harry, that really makes me feel great.”

“Susan!” Harry had no idea how she so badly misinterpreted what he said, but she didn’t give him a chance to answer before she just streaked inside.

Literally, actually, considering she was starkers.

Harry groaned and smashed his head back against the chair, frustrated by the whole damn thing.

“You’re really bad at speaking.”

Harry twisted his head to the side and saw that Draco was lingering at the top of the stairs that led to the beach. As dark as it was, Harry hadn’t noticed him before.

“You would be here,” Harry scowled, carefully tucking the towel around his waist so that Draco didn’t see him naked. “How long have you been skulking about?”

“First off…” Draco slowly, almost hesitantly, walked over toward the group of chairs and took one that left an empty one between himself and Harry.

“I don’t skulk,” Draco said haughtily. “I was politely waiting until you were finished with your midnight rendezvous before going back inside. You are the one having public sex and loud arguments with your girlfriend.”

That was fair, Harry supposed. Harry just wasn’t much in the mood for fairness.

“So you thought you’d hang around and watch?” Harry sneered. “Creep.”

“You’re disgusting,” Draco said, crinkling his nose. “I’m going to pretend that you’re only being a prat because of what happened instead of assuming it’s your entire personality.”

Harry crossed his arms over his chest self-consciously and glared up at the sky.

“Do you drink?”

Harry looked over at Draco’s quiet question and blinked at the silver flask he had. Draco held it out like an offering and Harry carefully repositioned so he could sit up and take a drink.

“That could be poison,” Draco said only after Harry took a drink.

“Tastes like scotch,” Harry said as he passed it back.

“It is,” Draco said, taking his own drink and proving either it wasn’t poisoned or Draco had a death wish.

They did that for a while, just passed the flask back and forth until Harry felt the stress ease from his shoulders and he was able to grin at Draco.

“I never did ask why you were awake,” Harry said curiously.

“I have insomnia and anxiety, it’s a terrible combination,” Draco said with his own tipsy grin. Draco seemed like a different person when he grinned, someone Harry could be friends with instead of just husbands.

That thought made Harry snort and then lapse in a fit of giggles.

“Draco… Draco…” Harry flipped Draco off with his left hand, raising the finger he’d put Draco’s ring on. “We’re married.”

Draco snorted too and Harry’s laughter must have been infectious because suddenly he was laughing.

“Weasley- Weasley must be losing his mind,” Draco howled. “My- OH MERLIN, MY FATHER, POTTER!”

Harry almost fell off his chair, laughing his arse off as he wondered if their marriage had been made public yet.

“Your- your father he —” Harry was laughing so hard his stomach ached and he could hardly get the words out. “He watched Vold- Volda… you know who I mean… He watched him torture me and now he’s my father in law!”

Harry laughed harder at that than anything, but it seemed to sober Draco up for some reason.

Draco peered at Harry with Sirius’ eyes on a face too pointed and pale to be Sirius.

“I didn’t know that,” Draco said, quiet then. “Was that what happened the night he returned?”

“Did you think we had tea and scones?” Harry asked with a stupid grin. He held out his right arm so Draco could see the scar that lined his forearm. “Pettigrew cut me, used my blood in his ritual. Voldemort rose from a cauldron and called his followers. When he was ready, he untied me and we dueled.”

Draco clutched the flask in both hands and his eyes were big.

“You dueled the Dark Lord?” he breathed. “Merlin.”

“Dueled might not be the right word,” Harry said, his grin turning bitter. “He tried to force me to bow to him - which I didn’t, for the record - and then after he got tired of crucioing me, he tried to kill me and I tried to hide behind tombstones.”

“And then what happened?”

“And then…” Harry tried to remember what had made him go from hiding to deciding to fight. “Oh, then he called me a coward, said my dad died on his feet and I took my best shot.”

“You used the killing curse?” Draco asked, looking entirely too impressed.

“Er… no.” Harry snatched the flask from Draco and took a drink when he thought he could taste blood in his mouth again.

“I used expelliarmus, he used the killing curse,” Harry said after he took a long drink.

Draco blinked.

Then Draco blinked again.

“You really are an idiot,” Draco said as he stole the flask back. “He was trying to kill you and you thought it was okay to use a first year spell?”

“I didn’t want to kill anyone,” Harry said. “I just… I just wanted to get back.”

Draco scoffed at him - it was easy to judge Harry’s choices when nobody else had been in his shoes - and he took a last drink before handing Harry the flask and getting to his feet.

“Three unforgivables in a night and you’re still here.” Draco shook his head. “There’s something to be said for dumb luck.”

Harry raised the flask and then turned it from side to side, watching the moonlight bounce off it.

“Oh, Harry?”

Harry looked up at Draco and quirked a brow at the exasperated look Draco gave him.

“As your husband, I’m going to tell you that you should find a way to make Susan feel special,” Draco said smartly. “Her boyfriend is married and in a committed relationship with eight others, it’s enough to make anyone feel insecure.

“And as someone who hates you, I’m going to tell her that she could do better.”

Harry grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah but if you settled why can’t she?”

Draco snorted again before he went inside, leaving Harry to drink and think.

Harry thought about Susan and horcruxes, that night in the graveyard and his dad and Sirius… Harry thought about prophecies and mothers refusing to back down…

When it all began to blur together, Harry closed his eyes and passed out right out by the pool.

“So here’s the thing…”

“Here it comes.”

“I knew it would.”

“I thought it would take longer.”

“Not me, I’m surprised it took this long.”

“Well he had to drink himself sick first, didn’t he?”

“I SAID HERE’S THE THING,” Harry repeated, scowling at the jokes the others made. Susan wasn’t making jokes, but she wasn’t looking at Harry either. They hadn’t talked since the night by the pool and it hurt, but Harry had been too distracted by horcruxes to try and find a way to reassure Susan that she was special.

It took Harry a couple of days to decide what he wanted to do and when they all received their test results and book lists for the upcoming year, Harry couldn’t push it off.

It was also a welcome distraction as Harry had passed every single one of his OWLS, aside from the History of Magic test that he bailed on. Sirius had told Harry they’d go pick Harry out a motorcycle if he passed everything and even the thought of owning a motorcycle then made Harry want to weep. So it was just easier to think about horcruxes and what to do with the information that Harry doubted anyone else had.

“I’m not going back to Hogwarts,” Harry announced firmly. His eyes flickered over to where Juliana sat calmly at the dinner table. “If there’s still a place for me, I’m going to finish school here.”

“You are Harry Potter,” Juliana laughed lightly. “There is no school of magic in the world without a spot for you, my darling.”

“Right,” Harry said uneasily. “Well… I don’t want to start right away though.”

“Here it comes,” Katherine whispered to Amber.

“I want to try and find those horcruxes first,” Harry said.

Ginny clapped her hands together before sticking one out to Blaise.

“Pay up,” she said cheerfully. “I told you Harry would want to kill Voldemort.”

“He isn’t saying kill Voldemort, he’s saying destroy his soul, it’s different,” Blaise said waspishly.

“And I never said I’m killing Voldemort,” Harry told them all. “I’m just going to make it easier for someone else to do.”

Harry had no interest in being lauded as a hero by the people who would call him a villain again by the next week. Mostly though, Harry didn’t want to prove a prophecy right and make everyone who put Harry in a specific role in their minds feel justified for it.

But Harry didn’t want there to be any more Lily Potters or Sirius Blacks either. When the next generation of witches and wizards were born, Harry wanted them to be born to parents that wouldn’t be taken from them by a senseless war.

That was it. It was a lofty goal but simple in its aims.

“How will we find them?” Amber asked Harry. She rolled her eyes when Harry must have looked surprised at her question. “Babe, we’ve known for a week now that you weren’t going to go back.”

“And we knew that you’d want to find the horcruxes,” Katherine added.

“Unfortunately, we’re rather fond of you and can’t leave you alone to deal with it,” Pansy drawled.

“As if you could without us,” Daphne sniffed. “You were going to try and outfly a dragon.”

“Ooh, really?” Ginny asked, looking excited at the thought. “Why didn’t you, Harry?”

“Because a broomstick is made of wood and dragons breathe fire,” Pansy said. “Is a lack of common sense a requirement for Gryffindor?”

“Houses won’t matter anymore anyway,” Luna said happily. “Maybe we can all be roommates at our new school!”

“It’s not a boarding school, my moon,” Juliana said with a warm smile for Luna. “You are all welcome to stay here. My Blaise will thrive while surrounded by his coven.”

Harry was unable to get a word in edgewise while everyone began asking Juliana dozens of questions about the Italian School of Magic. Harry just sat silently under the curious watch of Sara while he waited for someone to realize that there was little to no chance that they would all be able to stay.

Katherine had her parents and baby sister. Amber had her parents and older brother. Daphne had a sister and mother. Pansy and Luna both had parents. Susan had her aunt. Ginny had an entire family.

It was only Harry, Sara, and Draco who had no one and nothing waiting for them in Britain. Sara’s only relatives wanted her dead, Draco’s parents couldn’t protect him from the betrayal he pulled. Harry buried the only family he claimed outside of the people in the room with him.

When the conversation turned to Juliana reminiscing over her own days in school, Harry had to point it out since nobody else did.

“You’ve all got families,” Harry said. “Amber, your brother—”

“Understands that I’ll be seventeen before summer ends and said that he’ll talk with our parents.”

Amber was too stubbornly loyal, Harry looked at Katherine instead.

“You won’t be seventeen until the end of September,” Harry pointed out. Katherine had been accepted in Hogwarts early thanks to a hefty bribe her father gave the board, Katherine told Harry that herself.

“I told my mother that I would be staying here with you and she is prepared to send me love potions if it means a marriage to the Chosen One,” Katherine said, tossing her black braid over her shoulder. “If you think I’m leaving you and Amber here, you’re just as stupid as I’ve always feared.”

“Gin?” Harry said, not daring to hope that all the people he loved would just… stay. It was selfish in a way, because Harry just couldn’t imagine life without them anymore, but also there would be no real threats to their lives in Italy.

Ginny shared a sly look with Juliana, an ominous sign, and she barely withheld a mischievous smile as she explained her own plot.

“You see… it’s awfully dangerous for me to return to Hogwarts right now,” Ginny said slowly. “I heard that someone put a warning on the twins’ shop that was very threatening to the red-headed blood traitor dating Potter. So Mum’s a bit shaken, you know. It was a real relief to her when Miss Zabini - a Countess and member of the Italian Counsel of Magic - offered to let me stay with her and attend a very prestigious school while the war was happening.”

“Threatening letters would shake most mothers,” Juliana said, oozing false sympathy as she clicked her tongue. “I am only grateful that the curse the letter carried was muted before one of the Weasley boys touched it.”

That… that sounded premeditated. Not just premeditated, but also the most cunning and manipulative thing Harry had ever heard Ginny admit to. It was all the Slytherins they had surrounding them… probably.

“Harry, honey, we knew you were going to stay,” Amber said when Harry struggled to find any reason they couldn’t. “We can go to school anywhere, we can only find one you.”

Harry gave Amber a weak smile before he looked at the only person who hadn’t said anything about her plans.

“Susan?” Harry asked tentatively. Susan didn’t look at Harry for a few seconds, causing Harry’s heart to skip a beat with worry.

Surely Amelia of all people would think Susan would be safer out of the country?

“My aunt told me weeks ago that she would prefer I stayed here,” Susan said. Harry was halfway through a relieved exhale when Susan tacked on, “But I’m not staying.”

“What?”

“Susan!”

“You’re kidding?!”

Harry was the only one unsurprised by Susan’s declaration. He was hurt, but not surprised. Susan pushed herself away from the table and left the room and that time Harry chased after her.

“Susan!” Harry caught Susan by the hand just before she began to ascend the staircase to the second floor. Harry pulled on her hand, encouraging her to turn around and face him, and Harry prayed that he wouldn’t fumble his words as he dropped down to one knee.

“Don’t you dare!” Susan started hotly before Harry cut her off.

“Shush,” Harry said, adding a quick and nervous smile so she wasn’t angry. “Susan Elaine Bones, I want you to know that I love you and I am in love with you,” Harry stressed the difference as he looked up in her eyes. “You’re not ‘one of the girls’, you’re my girl. I know you put up with a lot of rubbish and I’d be mad as hell if I had to watch you marry two other people.”

Harry took a deep breath and squeezed Susan’s hand.

“But can’t you see that’s why I can’t marry you?” Harry asked earnestly. “Because one day I’m going to, I swear. But I want it to be just us. I want you to be the only Mrs Potter and I want us to have five kids and boring jobs and a beautiful wedding that nobody will shake their heads at and wonder what our motives are.

“I want us to have everything, Susan. I can’t give it to you yet, I just can’t. All I need is for you to wait until everyone’s safe and there’s no war or marriage contracts or death eaters hanging over our heads. Please, Susan, just give me time and I’ll give you everything you want.”

And if all Susan wanted was Harry, then Harry would give her all of him. He just wanted to do it when there weren’t so many others that were depending on him so heavily.

Susan’s lower lip quivered and she yanked on Harry’s hand to pull him up so they could grab each other in a fierce hug.

“I’m sorry,” Susan wailed in Harry’s shoulder. “I just- it’s so stupid, I just see how much more brilliant and gorgeous and funny all the girls are and I know how much you love them and I get jealous and it’s so stupid!”

“It’s not,” Harry said, rambling as much as Susan was while he held her tightly and inhaled the familiar scent of her shampoo. “I was so bloody jealous when you talked about that dream you had about Draco—”

“Did she tell Harry she had a sex dream about Draco?” Blaise whispered from where he, Draco, and Ginny were eavesdropping on the couple in the doorway of the living room.

“Oh yeah,” Ginny whispered back, just as unrepentant of a gossip as Blaise. “I guess it was a threesome in the quidditch locker room.”

Blaise and Ginny both looked at Draco, prompting him to respond.

“That’s… disgusting,” Draco finally said. He coughed and hastily turned away. “Excuse me.”

“He’s totally thinking about it,” Ginny told Blaise knowingly.

Blaise waved his hand at where Harry and Susan held each other.

“Who wouldn’t?”

Harry technically married Pansy and Daphne three days before his sixteenth birthday. It was a simple signing of a document they mailed off and exchange of rings. Harry wore his sweatpants and the girls wore shorts. Their parents absolutely wouldn’t let them stay for anything less than marriage, though Pansy said that her father saw it as an excellent opportunity to marry her off and be finished with her.

Along with letters from Ron and Hermione (Ron’s was curt, Hermione’s was confused), Harry received multiple surprises on his birthday. The first was a copy of the news that had broken Harry’s multiple marriages in the most unflattering way.

“‘Harry Potter, fated foe to He-Who— Riddle,” Ginny said flippantly. “Anyway, ‘It was rumored that Harry Potter, age sixteen, had reignited polygamy with a harem of over a dozen witches.’”

Luna licked the birthday cake icing from her fork as she counted everyone who sat on the beach, enjoying cake and giving Harry gifts.

“Nope, there’s still eight witches,” Luna said brightly.

“The Prophet exaggerated?” Susan laughed even while she eyeballed Harry’s new boots that Blaise had given him. She was probably trying to figure out if they’d fit her and Harry narrowed his eyes warningly. “Surely not,” she said sweetly, adding a wink to Harry.

“It gets better,” Ginny insisted. “Listen, ‘This reporter went on a mission to disprove these rumors and instead found proof that Potter has not only three wives, but a husband as well.’”

“You would be the shocking part,” Harry told Draco. He yelped when Draco flung a bit of icing at him. “Where are your perfect pureblood manors?” Harry tsk’d.

“They died when I married your heathen half-blood self,” Draco sneered.

It was playful, in a way.

“Well we’ve all been listed by name,” Sara said after she finished reading the article over Ginny’s shoulder. “Amber’s mother even gave a quote.”

“What?” Amber snatched the paper from Ginny and read it herself as a smile slowly unfolded on her tanned face. “Awe, Harry! Mother says that she only hopes you’ll make an honest woman out of me and marry me soon as well.”

“Unfortunately I’m all out of fingers,” Harry said. He held up his left hand and grinned. Juliana refused to marry any of them without rings and so Harry had added an emerald pinky ring from Pansy and a silver band with icy blue flecks in it on his index finger from Daphne.

“You have two hands,” Blaise winked. “See? Watch.”

Harry laughed when Blaise reached out and grasped both Luna and Ginny’s legs from where they sat on either side of him. Luna turned a funny shade of red and Ginny winked.

Whatever the three of them had going on was absolutely nothing Harry needed to know about. And he was hopeful that four marriages was enough and maybe the fifth time Harry signed a marriage certificate it would be with Susan.

The other surprise Harry received that day was a certified document that Hedwig delivered from…

“Daphne…” Harry read the letter twice before looking up to find Daphne’s blue eyes. “Why has your mum given me a house?”

“Oh, was that my dowry?” Daphne asked nonchalantly. “Is it the townhouse in Bradford? It’s lovely there.”

It was. It was yet another house Harry didn’t want or need being gifted to him for no good reason.

“What the hell is a dowry?” Ginny asked, looking as lost as Harry was. “Like a gift for marrying you?”

“It’s an old practice,” Sara explained. “It’s essentially a gift or payment to the groom from the parents of the bride for marrying her.”

“I think Father should be sending you mine soon,” Pansy said. She took a small bite of the slice of cake she’d been nibbling on. “He may have just deposited it in your vault though.”

He did.

Harry received a notice the next day from Gringotts that ten thousand galleons were deposited in his account and it made Harry feel sick. Harry tried to immediately make Pansy take it, she could have the gold and Daphne could have the house and they could go be gay and pretty and happy together eventually, but they both refused.

“If you die then of course we’ll take it,” Daphne said, patting Harry on the head. “But until then, it’s best if you just hold on to things. It’s not as if we’re hurting for housing or comfort now.”

No, they really weren’t.

As summer began to fade and autumn approached, Juliana took everyone to the Italian School of Magic and Harry was immediately shocked. Not only was it a large and beautiful campus, but it rested on an island surrounded by the clearest water Harry had ever seen.

“How do we get over there?” Harry asked, judging it to be at least an entire quidditch pitch away from the beach they were on in Piombino.

“Like this, my love.” Juliana held her hand up and the air shimmered as she made a small circle in a clockwise motion. By the time she completed a circle, a bridge made of glistening gold rose magically from the ocean and granted them access to the island where the school sat.

As their group crossed the bridge, Harry wasn’t the only one to let out a surprise noise. The school had been pretty from the beach, but it was stunning up close. With the pointed roofs and the arches with carvings that stood in five equal distances, it made Harry think of the old churches in London but more lovely.

“The Italian School of Magic does not discriminate as they do in England,” Juliana lectured them all as she led them beneath an arch to the front doors of the beautiful building. “This is a school of magic, not a school of wizardry.”

“So they accept anyone?” Draco asked, subtly eyeing the fountain in the center of the courtyard. It was just as awe-inspiring as the rest of the campus.

There were five figures of solid gold spread out in that Harry could see was a star pattern. At the tip of the star was a slim woman who was only covered by her long waves of hair. Her hands were cupped together and raised, pouring water to the other four figures that were created smaller than her. One was a witch with a pointed hat and form fitting dress on. Beside from her was an elf with a long nose and a smile. There was what Harry guessed to be a goblin next. And the fourth one Harry couldn’t identify. It was as beautiful as it was terrible with a smile that showed a mouth of pointed teeth that Harry swore would be dripping red if it were made of any other material.

“I said they do not discriminate, not that they are not prestigious,” Juliana said with a warning in her tone. She gestured to the fountain that Harry and Draco had been inspecting. “This is the First Mother’s Coven… you see our Mother sharing her magic with the witch, the goblin, the elf, and the fae in equal measures. No being is created to be lesser than the other, though the Mother is the ultimate symbol of magic and power.”

Harry looked at the fountain for a moment longer, his eyes taking in the absolute equality of the four figures catching the water.

It didn’t escape his notice that all five beings were female. It was just more proof that Italy was where Harry’s family belonged.

Everyone who would be attending, outside of Harry and Sara (Harry wouldn’t be swayed no matter how much the Headmistress, a powerful looking woman with delicate features and dark tanned skin, Lady Marina Messa, tried to) were accepted as ‘upper years’.

“We will evaluate you to see which classes suit your needs,” Lady Messa explained as she stared at their group with her eerie green eyes. They were a sea foam color but her pupils were so small they were hardly visible and they were framed by long black lashes that were just as long on the bottom as they were the top.

Juliana told Harry later that Lady Messa was a descendant of Titania, a High Queen in the fae’s Seelie Court and Ahzek Ahriman, a wizard and leader of soldiers in a place called Terra.

As interesting as Harry was sure that information was, it made him leery of the woman with such powerful ancestors and an obvious interest in what she called Harry’s ‘coven’.

It wasn’t until the day that the others left for their first day of classes that Harry asked Juliana about it. He had been reading a book she gave him on his birthday about magics that weren’t taught in traditional schools. Harry had just finished a section about the strength of rituals when completed by covens and he had questions.

Harry found Juliana and Sara in the sitting room. Sara was curled up with a book of her own while Juliana transcribed a letter with nothing more than her accented voice.

“And if the Cardinal has issue with the decision of the Embassy then he will stand before us and declare that with his own voice,” Juliana said. She held a finger up when she noticed Harry and continued on with the letter that wrote itself in the air. “The Embassy will not be insulted by the cowardice of men and we will respond to future insults as we judge to be fitting. Sign off.”

Harry watched with interest as the letter was signed in bold cursive as Juliana Rosalind Zabini, Contessa of Italy and Matriarch of the Grand House of Zabini.

It was a really nice house, but Harry didn’t know if it was grand.

“My love.” Juliana turned her attention on Harry and she smiled at him as if there was nothing she wanted more than for Harry to interrupt what sounded like the beginning of a political feud. “What can I do for you?”

“I had a question, about covens?” Harry said, rocking nervously on his feet. Sara peeked at him over the top of her book and her kind smile made him feel less stupid. “I just… you talk about them a lot and I, er… I don’t really understand what they are.”

“That’s because you’re British,” Juliana laughed. She snapped her fingers and a comfortable looking chair with white cushions materialized just in front of Harry. “Sit, allow me to educate you on magic that many would foolishly turn their noses up at.”

Harry felt like Hermione with as quickly as he sat down, eager to hear Juliana talk.

… to talk about covens. It had nothing to do with the way Harry thought her voice alone was more enchanting than a field of veela.

“Covens were the way our Mother first created her family.” Juliana waved her hand and the lights in the room dimmed and a smoky replication of the fountain from the school appeared in the space between them.

“The Mother was at war with the demons,” Juliana said, her voice becoming musical as she spun her story. She raised the Mother from the circle and dark beings made of smoke began to wrap around her, starting at the ankle and clawing upward sinisterly. “Demons are the most powerful and Mother needed assistance to break free of them. But there were none that she trusted and so she created them.

“To fight fire with fire, Mother created the witch.”

The figure in the pointed hat raised her wand and spells poured from the tip of it toward the smoke that attacked the Mother.

“To wash away the demons evil intent, Mother created the elf.”

The elf with the long nose and bat-like ears raised both hands and water washed away more of the smoke attacking Mother.

“To cleanse the earth of the curse of the demons, Mother created the goblin.”

The goblin with the pointed ears opened its mouth and let out a terrible cry that sent the last wisps of dark smoke off Mother’s body.

“And to clear the air between the demons and the mortals, to keep peace, Mother agreed to create the fae with Magoth the demon.”

The being with the circular eyes, sharp teeth, and long waves of hair fluttered the wings on its back and the air was clear once more. It allowed the Mother to float back at her place at the head of the star and a shining silver light connected the five figures.

“With all elements represented - Mother knew that a true coven of Magics would never be less than five… but as her children grew in number, so did their covens.”

What was Mother and four figures became seven, spread out equally as they formed another star, one of a new shape.

“Seven points was long thought to be the most powerful number as it represented perfection…”

The seven grew until it was a circle of beings that only made a pattern when Juliana connected them all with a thin silver ribbon. It wound around each of the figures until a shining star pattern was visible again.

“The hendecagram is a master number,” Juliana said. “With a powerful coven, a hendecagram can open realms and create new worlds. Covens share magic and the most powerful magic is the love that would flow freely between the members, filling their vessels and enhancing their magic…”

Harry felt like it was a loss when Juliana snapped her fingers and the eleven figures disappeared, the lights brightened, and Juliana’s voice lost the enchanting quality it had taken on during her story.

“And you, my truest of loves, are the leader of what will be the most powerful coven since the Mother Coven itself,” Juliana said, her eyes shining with intensity when they locked on Harry’s. “The love you share, the power…” She shuddered and reached out to grab Harry’s hands, squeezing them tightly. “A hendecagram-coven as yours will be unstoppable, my love. You will create the world that you wish to see.”

All Harry wanted to create was a world where all the people he loved were safe. Harry didn’t care about being in a hendecagram or a coven… Harry just wanted to find the horcruxes so that someone could kill Voldemort to make his wild dream come true.

September was a busy month for everyone. Harry and Sara tried to think of anything or anywhere that Voldemort might have been to create a horcrux. The others helped pitch ideas when they returned from school each day and Harry began to feel envious of the good cheer and interesting conversations they all shared while all Harry and Sara shared were brick walls they kept banging their heads against.

Harry was ready to cave when they began rehashing the same ideas over and over - maybe something tied to Riddle’s mother since she was a witch and his father a muggle, maybe something tied to Hogwarts. Maybe one could be hidden at Hogwarts. Maybe there were ten of them. Maybe there were only six more. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

Harry hated the word maybe.

Halloween morning brought Harry an unwelcome surprise in the form of a letter delivered at breakfast. Everyone was off school for the holiday and Katherine sighed loudly when she saw the handwriting on the front.

“Don’t even open it,” she said. “Burn it.”

“I can’t burn it,” Harry said as he already began opening the envelope. “Pans, put the lighter away.”

Harry didn’t even have to look at Pansy to know that the quick flicker he heard was her lighter ready to once again burn a letter Dumbledore sent Harry. And the sigh was her annoyance as Harry unfolded the letter to begin reading.

Harry,
I would like to set up a time to speak with you soon. While I may not understand a great many of your decisions, I do not question them. I merely would like to check on you and see where the relationship we once had stands.
Please inform me of a time and place that you would be acceptable to meet at.
Sincerely yours,
Albus Dumbledore

“Okay.” Harry passed the letter to Pansy. “You can burn it.”

Harry had once admired Dumbledore beyond any other wizard. Then Dumbledore sat in his office above the school of children he never protected well enough and Sirius was killed fighting a wizard that Dumbledore could have scared away easily.

Pansy gleefully lit the letter on fire while Harry watched it burn.

Albus Dumbledore could go to hell. He didn’t understand Harry’s decisions? Harry didn’t understand what took him so long to get to the Ministry the day Sirius died. And until Harry did, Harry didn’t have a thing to say to that man.

Susan wanted to have a celebration that night for Harry’s parents. She had learned about a ritual from her new elf friends from school and she decided they would all do it together.

“For la Sofferenza dei Morti, we try and ease the pain of the dead,” Susan said solemnly. The eleven of them were sitting around a bonfire on the beach, one that glowed brightly with green flames made of magic. “Tonight, the dead that we are speaking to are James and Lily Potter.”

Harry didn’t understand the ritual at all. How could they ease the suffering of the dead when the dead were dead and it was the living who suffered? Harry bit his tongue even though he was uncomfortable when they all held hands and everyone else seemed to know what part they played. Harry was on Susan’s left side and it was Sara on her right that spoke next.

“Your son is amazing,” Sara said quietly. “You should be so proud.”

Amber was crying loudly beside Sara and it made Harry want to go to her and hug her. It hurt and was a comfort both to know that she was so emotional over Harry’s loss.

“I know- I know it had to be such a sacrifice when you died,” Amber cried. The green flames were casting off shadows on her face, contorting it nearly as badly as her cries were. “It’s the most selfish thought I’ve ever had but I’m just so grateful because- because we just love Harry more than anything.”

Harry stared hard in the flames and pretended his eyes were watering from the heat that the magical flames didn’t produce.

“Your son has made the world a better place and there’s nothing more I can say to ease your suffering than that,” Katherine said solemnly.

“I hope you’re happy knowing that you made a difference in the world,” Pansy added quietly. “You shouldn’t be suffering. You’re super young, go party and do drugs, kiss strangers and have wild sex.”

Harry huffed out a wet laugh and nearly missed Daphne’s whispered message.

“Every Halloween for the last two years I’ve thought of you,” Daphne said softly. “I’m not alone, I’m sure.”

She wasn’t. Harry thought of them every October 31st, every birthday, every holiday.

Draco went next and Harry was surprised by the heartfelt message he shared.

“Your son saved my life and I believe it’s thanks to your influence on him. Which, in a round about way, means that you saved my life,” Draco said. “Thank you. Rest in peace.”

Harry looked through the flames and for the first time it didn’t hurt to lock eyes with Draco. Harry didn’t see Sirius, he saw someone who had just said something incredibly kind and comforting to the spirits of Harry’s dead parents.

“You made a super hot son,” Blaise drawled while Harry thought about how odd it was to see Draco in a new light. Susan scowled at Blaise immediately, but Harry laughed.

If the stories Sirius shared about Harry’s dad were right, then James Potter would be comforted knowing that someone found his son attractive. Harry grinned at Blaise and Blaise winked.

“Everyone said that you liked the Arrows so I think you’d appreciate knowing they’re definitely going to take it home this year,” Ginny said intently to the flames. “Their new captain is fierce, James. He’s going to take them to the World Cup, I just know it.”

“And I hope that you’re happy knowing that I found a new perfume in Amber’s bag, it has a very distinct smell of lillies,” Luna added seriously. “I think you would hate it.”

“Why would she hate it?” Ginny asked quizzically. “Her name is Lily?”

“Right, so I imagine that everyone probably gave her lillies and variety is the garden of life.”

That… that made a lot of sense actually. The things Luna said tended to make sense when Harry thought about them, it was just that he didn’t typically think about them.

Susan hummed before she took her turn. “I don’t know how to ease the suffering you must be in knowing that you aren’t able to hug your son, kiss him, or brush his hair when he forgets to do it.”

Harry would have reached up to check his hair but his hands were being held so he didn’t.

“All I know is that I love your son so much and he’s done so many good things for so many people,” Susan said. “You shouldn’t be suffering because I won’t let him suffer, not ever.”

Everyone looked at Harry and the flames burned high, burning above their heads, while Harry swallowed thickly.

What could he say that would ease any suffering they might feel? If it were Harry, it would make him suffer to see his child crying on a beach and missing him. Harry didn’t know his parents, he didn’t get the chance, but he missed the life he could have had with them.

Harry said the only words of comfort that he could think of.

“I’ll always love you,” he offered.

As soon as Harry said ‘you’, the flames whooshed high in the air and Harry let out a surprised gasp when he swore he saw his dad’s smile and heard a warm laugh that could only be from his mum.

The fire burned even brighter and then - all at once - it was fully extinguished and Harry sat with his friends, his family, and he smiled.

“I’ve never heard her laugh before.”

By the first week of November, Harry was prepared to let Voldemort live forever. There was just no way to understand how many soul pieces he had, what they were stored in, or where they might have been hidden.

Harry floated the idea that maybe Voldemort gave each of his followers one like he did Lucius Malfoy and the diary. Sara shot it down and pointed out that if that was true, Bellatrix and her husband would have had one.

They couldn’t find any spell that tracked souls… there were no tracking potions for possible horcruxes… Harry truly thought that it was a foolproof plan.

And then Daphne returned from school and sat everyone down to drop an idea on them.

“I believe we should ask the fae for a boon,” she said. She raised her voice to speak over the immediate arguments from the people who understood what that meant.

Harry was not one of those people. Harry knew that the fae were magically powerful beings - they were half demon, half nymph and were the ancestors of many other magical beings like pixies - but he didn’t understand why everyone looked as if Daphne pulled a Harry.

And Harry hated that the girls used that phrase so often that it began to filter in his thoughts for his own use. Allegedly, it was said with love, as most of their insults were.

“No, listen!” Daphne said loudly over the arguments of the others. “There are eleven of us, there’s no chance that we get outsmarted! And if Harry wants to find the horcruxes then this would be our best chance!”

“Lady Draga just told us that asking the fae for a boon has caused thousands to die just in the last hundred years,” Ginny protested. “I know Lorenzo called us a cult, but I’m not much interested in drinking fae-tea.”

“Who is Lorenzo?” Sara asked.

“And what’s a cult?” Harry asked.

Harry was missing so much while everyone else attended school. Sure, Harry and Sara were learning new things as they researched and Juliana was hellbent on teaching them wandless magic, but Harry missed gossiping with the girls.

“Lorenzo is a classmate who propositioned Ginevra and ran his mouth when she told him she was spoken for multiple times over,” Blaise said. The vein on his forehead twitched in a way that made him look abruptly furious. “I believe he has since learned his lesson.”

“What Blaise means is that he got in a muggle fight with a goblin for insulting our family,” Luna said. “And Chiara is a fairie and she’s very nice so I think we should ask them for help.”

Harry was still picturing Blaise throwing a fist at a goblin while the group began voting.

It shouldn’t have been surprising when they reached a 50-50 split. Daphne, Luna, Blaise, Sara, and Katherine were for asking the fae for help. Ginny, Draco, Pansy, Amber, and Susan were against it.

Which meant everyone looked at Harry.

“It’s your call, love,” Amber said. “What do you want to do?”

Keep them safe.

That was the goal, the mantra. It was why Harry even involved himself in a war he had no interest in. If Harry could find the horcruxes, someone could kill Voldemort, and nobody would target Harry’s only living family again.

“Screw it,” Harry decided. “Let’s ask the fae for a boon.”

Chapter Text

“Harry?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we talk?”

Harry grinned up at Daphne and patted the bed he sat on. Harry had just been doing more reading from the book that Luna brought home for him from the school library. It was interesting, really. Harry didn’t expect a book about etiquette to use in a fairie realm to be interesting, but there were loads of things that Harry didn’t expect.

Like the words thank you and I’m sorry. Harry had a bad habit of using the second at least once a conversation, but if he apologized to a fae then he risked being told he needed to prove he was sorry.

One wizard who had to do that was forced to drink poison before the Unseelie Court to prove he was sorry.

Harry carefully bookmarked the page he was on and gave his legal-but-fake-wife (one of three) his complete attention. Daphne looked uncharacteristically nervous when she sat beside Harry to the point that even her usually sleek blonde ponytail had strands sticking out randomly.

“This might not be a good decision,” Daphne said quietly. She looked down at the book Harry was devouring for their upcoming ritual. “I- I desperately want to speak with the fae, but…”

Harry took Daphne’s hand and squeezed it to silently reassure her that he was there, he was listening, and she could take her time. Daphne looked down at their conjoined hands and the matching rings they wore and she seemed to draw courage from the sight.

“I can’t help but think I’m putting you all in danger so I can prove something,” Daphne said. “I… I want to think that I could outsmart the fae, that I would be able to see through their trickery and word games. But what if I can’t?” Daphne looked up and her light blue eyes were filled with uncertainty and fear. “What if I’m not as smart and cunning as I think I am and one of you pays the price, Harry?”

Harry absently rubbed the back of Daphne’s hand with his thumb while he seriously considered what she was saying. The fae were tricky and they did nothing for free, Harry read that. They were powerful and immortal beings that found entertainment in mischief and trickery.

Harry kind of liked the idea of them and was eager to meet them the next day. The ritual to call on the Seelie Court and request an audience was much simpler than actually making a request would be.

“Daphne, you’re the smartest witch I’ve ever known,” Harry told his very stressed wife as earnestly as he could. It was nothing but the truth- Hermione was brilliant and loved to learn, but Daphne was ruthless when it came to Learning and it gave her a thirst to know absolutely everything.

“And cunning?” Harry shook his head with a teasing grin pulling at his lips. “You always make the best plane, babe. You’re like… like- you’re just the brains of the group, I swear.”

Daphne managed to trap and blackmail an auror to get a book of magic that only unspeakables were meant to have. Daphne talked Harry into letting Pansy Parkinson join their group back in fourth year.

If Daphne decided to take up Voldemort’s spot then Harry would be the first to pledge his loyalty because he knew nobody would ever stop her. Especially if she decided to he co-Dark Lords with Pansy…

Harry didn’t like to even think about it.

“You probably say that to all your wives,” Daphne quipped. She did look less stressed though so Harry thought maybe his very crummy pep talk helped.

“You truly trust me to do this?” Daphne asked him seriously.

Harry squeezed her hand and was completely honest, “I trust you with my life.”

A daft thing to say, in hindsight.

When the sun began to rise, Harry’s group of eleven were in the deepest part of the Comet Forest with their hands conjoined.

Everyone was dressed in white, the color of the Seelie Court they were appealing to, and Harry couldn’t help but think that they were magic just as they were. Spells were brilliant and useful, but when Harry thought of what magic was he would always picture his family that morning.

The girls had their hair loose and the three boys were in loose clothes. They all held their hands together and Harry could just feel the magic that flowed between them.

Why wizardry was the only magic traditionally taught when there was so much more to discover, Harry would never understand. Harry had never felt more magical, more part of something so much larger than himself, than he did during their ritual.

There was a heavy feeling of anticipation in the air when Daphne stood in the center of the circle and went from person to person and took their wand.

“We lay our wands down to show that we come in peace with no ill intent,” Daphne said. She held all eleven wands up in a single bundle that she held with two hands before she placed them on the ground.

When a ribbon made of shining silver appeared from thin air, Harry knew from what the others told him that it was a good sign.

The fae saw them, they heard them, they were curious.

Daphne’s fingers shook as she tied the ribbon around their wands.

“My family hoped to speak with any member of the Fae Court that would see us,” Daphne said. She backed up from the circle’s center and took her place between Pansy and Draco. “We await your decision.”

There was electricity in the air then, tiny sparks of magic that lifted their hair and cracked in their ears. Harry didn’t think he was the only one that felt uneasy by the way the sparks were less mischievous and playful and felt more threatening.

The Seelie Court, while still being nothing to take lightly, weren’t supposed to be as dangerous as their family in the Unseelie Court. They could be dangerous, but they were known more for their curiosity and general indifference to mortals than anything else.

Susan’s hand squeezed Harry’s hard when the natural rays of light they stood beneath began to disappear and the ground beneath their feet shook.

“Wait, I don’t—”

Whatever Daphne wanted to say was lost as their entire group was suddenly falling through the ground as if it were made of mist. Harry held tight to Susan’s hand and someone - Katherine, maybe - made a scared shriek.

It wasn’t the blinding white they fell through for what could have been hours or seconds that scared Harry, it was the way that white felt so unfriendly and cold. It was bright white, pure as anything, and it might as well have been snow for how cold it made Harry feel. Not the snow that he used to have snowball fights in at Hogwarts but the snow that would fall when he was a kid that he just knew Dudley would bury him in.

Harry gripped the two hands he held - Susan and Sara - as tight as he could when they landed on nothing that all at once became everything.

The group took an instinctive step toward each other and Harry stood in the front, standing between his family and five of the unfriendliest beings he had ever seen in his life.

And Harry had seen a lot of unfriendly beings.

Harry couldn’t even risk looking away from the four fae and the beast that wore chains around its neck across from them to take note of the menacing forest they were brought to. The fae were not the pretty and fierce things that Harry had seen before but were terrible and beautiful in the way that they made Harry think of warriors.

All four of the fae were male and they stood tall with athletic frames and skin that shimmered in the moonlight they were all beneath. Their faces were chiseled and hard with sharp eyes that were unblinkingly focused on Harry. With the wild manes of hair that were filled with leaves, twigs, and feathers, they had an untamed and primal appearance that had Harry more on edge than the armor they wore and the swords on their hips.

Daphne whimpered and whispered something that Harry couldn’t hear over the blood pumping in his ears and the adrenaline that rushed through him. Wherever the hell they were, it wasn’t the merry and whimisical court of the Seelie fairies that they had meant to be at. They were somewhere dangerous, more dangerous than a graveyard or a web of acromantula.

And they were unarmed and unprepared.

One of the fae, the one with the armor that was a gleaming white instead of the silver of the others, stepped forward and addressed Harry with authority.

“You are the protector of your masters?” he demanded.

Harry opened his mouth automatically to say he didn’t have a master - and then he clamped his jaw shut and considered the question. The fae, like most magical races outside of wizards, followed the Mother’s footsteps and ran matriarchal societies.

Harry didn’t have masters, but Harry did have witches that he would die to protect.

“I am,” Harry said. He was pleased when Blaise and Draco moved forward to take places on either side of Harry, shuffling Sara and Susan behind them.

“As are we,” Blaise said firmly.

Draco nodded, but his eyes were on the creature that wore chains. The creature was just as white as the warrior that spoke to them wore as armor and Harry could see every bone in its horse-like body. The eye sockets were empty but Harry swore he could feel the chill that radiated from them.

“State your business for our Queens and Masters,” the one fae said, speaking to Harry again.

Harry didn’t plan on having to talk. Harry was terrible with words… but Harry doubted if he could just look toward the girls and let one of them take over.

As much as he desperately wanted to.

“My family wanted to speak with your court,” Harry said. He chose the safest route and just repeated what Daphne had said at the beginning of the ritual.

Another of the warriors with a grizzled look on his face growled at Harry and his hand twitched to his sword. “For what purpose?”

Harry could feel sweat building up on his forehead beneath the stare of the fae. Blaise opened his mouth and the fae holding the chain for the skeletal-horse actually raised his sword and aimed it at Blaise.

“We spoke to your Lord of Protectors!” he said sharply. “Hold your tongue, Knight, before I remove it.”

If Harry had looked, he would have seen Ginny and Luna scowl darkly at the fae threatening Blaise, but Harry was eye-locked with what seemed to be… the Lord of the Protectors for the fae.

“We - I - wanted to… to talk to them… and - if they let us… ask a question.” Harry stuttered and stammered more than he had as a first year. When the warriors said nothing, Harry felt pressured to keep talking.

“I want to ask for a favor but I want to know the terms first,” Harry went on anxiously. The fae were infamous for twisting words and finding loopholes and ways to exploit others- that was what everyone said and all the books reported.

“You wish to ask for a favor from our Queens?” The smiles Harry received were terrible and had him feeling genuine fear for the first time in his life.

Harry had been scared before, but it was nothing to what he felt when the warriors turned around and began striding through the forest with their beast.

“Do- do we follow?” Draco whispered, sounding about as brave as Harry felt.

“I don’t see what choice we have,” Blaise answered, taking the first step toward the fae. “This was a mistake.”

Harry couldn’t agree more. All Harry wanted was help to find the horcruxes to make the world safe for his family and instead every person he loved - which oddly enough included Draco and Blaise - was in more danger than Voldemort could ever dream of inducing.

The group stayed quiet as the walked through the forest after the warriors who seemed confident that they would follow.

The forest was dimly lit and every tree had gnarled branches without leaves, adding to the gruesome feeling of the forest. Every step they took was on dead leaves that crunched beneath their feet and twigs that snapped and caused a few of the girls to make squeaks of unhappy surprise.

As they went deeper in the forest, the air became even colder and Harry’s imagination played tricks as he felt like he was being watched by the shadows from the trees.

It wasn’t until they followed the warriors through a break in the trees that it struck Harry all at once…

They wore white because they assumed it was what the Seelie Court wore when they read about the ‘dark’ and ‘light’ courts and how to call on each one. But it was so obviously the Unseelie Court that wore the white and they had reached out to.

That was what Harry knew for a fact when they stepped in a clearing that was hollowed out to make room for dozens of fae in glittering white gowns with delicate wings that sparkled as much as the three bejeweled thrones made of thorns that were in the center of the clearing.

There was no word for the fae that sat in the center chair other than Queen. She sat regally with her feet folded up on a silken white footstool and she didn’t need the crown made of ice on top of the silver hair that matched her perfectly round eyes to mark herself as royalty. There was no mistaking the way her white gown fell around her body, giving her a fluid appearance even when immobile, or the steel in her eyes that she tracked the invaders with.

The two on either side of the Queen had the same immortal look of beauty with the foreign features that marked them as… powerful. Scary and powerful.

The fae flittering around fell silent at the sight of the witches and wizards that followed their warriors in the clearing. Harry saw the warriors drop to one knee each before the thrones and Harry immediately did the same, having read it in the book of manners that he had.

Once Harry dropped to a knee, so did the rest of the group.

It killed Harry to bow to what his gut screamed were enemies, but they were actual royalty and even Harry couldn’t ignore that title.

Harry’s heart beat so loudly that he imagined every person could hear it while he waited to be told to rise. It was the worst position Harry had ever been in and he didn’t have any idea how to get out of it with everyone alive.

Especially when Harry’s head was respectfully bent and he realized the footrest the Queen used was not a piece of furniture but a person.

They were going to die. All of them. There was zero chance they got out of the Unseelie Court alive.

The only silver lining to that was that Harry imagined Voldemort would be furious that someone else killed Harry and he would focus his war on the fae and they would destroy him.

So Harry would die first, Voldemort would die soon after, and divination was still rubbish.

“Rise, Coven of Samsett.”

Harry didn’t need to know what Samsett meant to know that it was his group being addressed. Harry rose slowly, trying (in what he assumed would be in vain) to not offend the fae.

Harry, Draco, and Blaise still stood in front of the girls while the fae warriors had moved behind the three faeries on thrones. The other fae still fluttered in place with anticipatory looks on their faces which Harry didn’t think bode well for them.

“Who is the leader of your coven?” the Queen in the white gown asked, looking at Harry for a response again.

That felt like a trap. Harry knew they would be a touch more respected if they had a female leader, but Harry didn’t like the idea of putting any of the girls—

“I am.”

Harry kept his face blank when Amber stepped up to squeeze between Harry and Blaise. Her hand slipped down and grabbed Harry’s, a tight and sweaty squeeze gave away the fear she didn’t show in her tone or posture. Harry pinched her lightly, a silent reproach for putting herself right in the line of possibly-literal fire.

“I lead our coven,” Amber said firmly.

The fae that sat on the Queen’s left-hand side had a wild look about her, less polished than the others, and her white gown was paired with a tiara made of silver and orange. She leaned forward and smiled at Amber.

“And your name, witch?”

“Call me what you please,” Amber said pleasantly. “Your court is lovely.”

Lovely wasn’t the word Harry would use, but it was safe enough for Amber to say.

The fae that spoke with Amber looked disappointed in her response and the one opposite her, with the crown made of what Harry thought were dead butterflies and jewels, smiled as she summoned a tray of tiny wooden cups.

“Convaner, don’t be rude,” she said, snapping a finger at one of the fae on the side. It was a male with a bare chest and tattoos that made beautiful patterns on his chest that rushed forward at her command.

“Give our guests a drink,” she instructed him. “They are mortals, mortals require hydration.”

“We aren’t thirsty,” Amber said, not even twitching toward the tray that the male faerie brought.

“You must care for your warriors,” the Queen said. “All good leaders ensure their warriors can have the endurance for battles when your life is on the line.”

The threat was clear and Harry’s spine stiffened. Amber must have sensed that Harry was about to shoot something off because she dug her nails in his hand as a warning.

“My warriors are of excellent health,” Amber said, not wavering from her cheerful affect.

The Queen relaxed in her throne and tilted her head to the side so she could let her eerie gaze filter across them all, one at a time, seeming to weigh them up.

“So they are,” she said evenly. “And how does such a healthy coven of witches find themselves in the Unseelie Realm?”

Accidentally, apparently.

“We came to ask your Highness for a favor, if you were willing to discuss the matter with us,” Amber said slowly, carefully. The flittering and rustling of wings stopped and it seemed as if every faerie in the clearing froze in place while they looked either at Amber or the Queen.

“Did you?” The Queen’s eyes gleamed as she regarded Amber then. She waved a hand regally toward her, “Speak your desire, witch.”

It was their moment, their only moment, Harry was sure. He was less interested in having their favor granted than he was leaving the place altogether but they were there… and Amber wasn’t backing down.

“There is a wizard in our realm that is threatening my coven,” Amber said, standing tall and confident beside Harry. “He has made a mockery of immortality by ripping his soul apart to bind himself to the living.”

The Queen’s smile grew and it took Harry less than a second to realize that none of the fae seemed disturbed by that at all- they looked thrilled. Daphne had been hoping that the fae would be insulted by a wizard trying to live forever like they were able to and would want to destroy the horcruxes solely for the insult. And maybe the Seelie Court would have… but Daphne also thought that white was the color of the ‘good’ court so she wasn’t infallible clearly.

The Unseelie Queen regarded them with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. "Ah," she said, a sound that none of them could interpret the meaning behind. “And you have came to ask…?”

“If you would help us, we ask that you tell us where these soul pieces, these horcruxes, are hidden at,” Amber finished.

“And what will you do if you find them?” The fae with the orange and silver crown asked. She held a hand up when Amber started to answer. “I am speaking to the warrior with whom you share love, witch.”

Harry assumed from the gaze of the fae that they meant him and he was allowed to speak again.

“Destroy them,” Harry said honestly and simply. The less words Harry said, the better, probably.

“Delightful,” the fae with the butterfly crown said with a breathy laugh. “They’re mortals who murder!”

The rest of the fae laughed when she did - sycophants, Katherine later called them - and they were surrounded by a mixture of tinkling laughs that all had an undercurrent of maliciousness.

“It’s kill him or he’ll kill them,” Harry said, scowling at the laughter and staring directly at the faerie that called them murderers. “It’s not as if we have a choice.”

“You.”

Harry looked at the Queen questioningly at her single sharp word.

“You do not see a choice because you love these mortals,” the Queen said. She held her arms out and Harry saw the floral designs that laced her pale limbs that were made from silver scars.

They were stunning and Harry couldn’t imagine how much they hurt.

“The witch claims leadership but the warrior leads them,” the Queen told the fae. “He feels love for them all- even his fellow warriors!”

Well that was humiliating. Harry stood red-faced while the faeries all laughed at him. A few of them even pointed, as if wanting to be absolutely sure he knew he was being mocked. The warriors behind the thrones didn’t laugh, but they were grinning viciously in Harry’s direction.

“Silence.” The faerie with the orange said, her single softly spoken word was enough to silence them all. “You have come to ask us to assist you in murder, what do you offer?” she asked.

“We would—”

“Not you,” the Queen snapped at Amber. With a flick of her wrist, Amber’s voice was gone and she smiled serenely. “That’s better. Warrior of Samsett, what do you offer in return?”

It was one question that Harry was prepared for. They had discussed it as a group the night before when they tried to think of what they could offer. Fae liked open debts and that wasn’t something anyone wanted to carry. They also liked infants, lives, titles, and organs.

Nobody wanted to give up their firstborn. Harry wouldn’t let the girls even joke around about sacrificing Draco’s life (as the newest member- Katherine said “last in, first out”). Ginny suggested they all give up a liver or kidney, but it was title that stuck with Harry.

Harry had a title that he would be too happy to give up. Technically, Harry had two. But Pansy was wary about Harry giving up being ‘the Boy-Who-Lived’ as the fae might see it as permission to make him ‘the Boy-Who-Was-Killed-by-Pissed-Off-Faeries’.

“If you tell us where all of Tom Marvolo Riddle’s horcruxes are, I’ll give you my mortal title of the Chosen One,” Harry said.

“An interesting offer,” the Queen sang. “One that I sense would benefit you twice.”

It would, really. Harry hated being called the Chosen One. Draco and Blaise were especially annoying about it.

“Turn them away, Sister,” the butterfly-adorned faerie said, sounding bored suddenly. “They offer nothing in exchange for a heady favor.”

“But the desperation in their hearts…” The fae with the orange murmured, her eyes trained hard on Harry’s face. “Sister, do you see…?”

“I do,” the Queen said, a slow smile spreading on her pale face. “Oh I am very much inclined to grant their request…”

Harry’s heart skipped a few beats and he was filled with a sudden hope that maybe the fae did want Voldemort taken down. Maybe they liked Harry. Maybe they liked the coven. Maybe—

“My aid comes at a cost and I will name the terms,” the Queen said abruptly. “Do you accept, Warrior of Samsett?”

Harry took a chance to look around at the others. Everyone’s mouth was moving, but nobody made any sound. Regardless, Harry knew when he was being screamed at when he saw it. And despite what they tended to sometimes think, Harry wasn’t actually an idiot.

Anymore.

The girls never let Harry be too stupid.

“I would like to hear the terms first, your Highness,” Harry said politely.

“Aw, he’s a trained mortal,” the butterfly-fae said sarcastically. “He wants to know your terms.”

“And so he shall.” The Queen of the Unseelie Court drew herself up straight and looked down at Harry with a cold smile and eyes that seemed to be made of ice. “I will give you an item to locate all the items on your quest, and your coven will give us a life force to feast on as we watch your quest destroy the love you share.”

Harry understood the idea of life force, it was rather clear. What Harry didn’t understand was how destroying the horcruxes would destroy his relationship with the others.

Then someone kicked Harry hard in the back of the leg and he turned to see Daphne pointing at herself with teary eyes. Her message was clear even with silence - Daphne felt responsible for getting them in the mess and would offer herself up. When Harry rolled his eyes at her, he hoped his message was clear as well.

“And by life force you mean… one of us doesn’t leave?” Harry asked the Queen, hastily tacking on her title.

“We have plenty of mortals to serve us.” The Queen kicked the human footrest she used and Amber practically crushed Harry’s fingers in her grip. “I will grant you the choice, Warrior of Samsett. I will tell you where the seven items that the witch Tom Marvolo Riddle turned to horcruxes and in exchange, you will give me eleven years of a life force—”

That was nothing, really. And the fae already gave them one clue, there were seven! Harry was beginning to think that maybe they were actually going to get luc—

“— for each item.”

Harry’s heart raced with horror as he easily did the math. The Queen wanted seventy-seven years of life. That… that was over half the lifespan of an average wizard.

“But I give you a choice,” the Queen went on, smiling still as if the horror in Harry’s eyes pleased her. “There are eleven in your coven, Warrior of Samsett. You may divide the debt as you see fit.”

When Harry tried to turn to look at any of the others, he found himself stuck in spot, unable to even turn his head.

“I said the decision is yours,” she said coolly. “Decide now.”

As easy as it would be for Harry to say to take seven years from each of them, hardly no time at all, Harry couldn’t. Harry couldn’t take a single year from any of the people he loved.

He wouldn’t.

“In exchange for you giving us an item that will lead us to all of the horcruxes, I’ll give you seventy-seven years of my life,” Harry said with his chin raised and his shoulders squared. If the girls were able to talk, Harry knew they would be yelling at him.

But it was Harry’s decision, as the Queen demanded it be.

The Queen didn’t look surprised by Harry’s decision, she only continued to smile and mock him silently with her cold gaze.

“Very well,” she breathed. She raised one hand in the air and twirled a finger, causing a thick and yellow parchment to appear. “Take this parchment, Warrior of Samsett, and our deal will be completed. My warriors will lead you safely out of our realm and your years will be added to my realm for a feast.”

The hold on Harry lifted and he stepped forward to take the parchment and agree to give up over half of the life he had left.

“YOU BLOODY IDIOT!!”

“How could you be so stupid?!

“Did you not learn basic mathematics? SEVENTY-SEVEN DIVIDED BY ELEVEN WOULD HAVE ONLY BEEN SEVEN YEARS EACH!”

Harry let everyone scream and knew that nobody was actually mad at him, they were upset and scared. That was fine, Harry was upset too.

But Harry had made the decision and they had the parchment and the world would still be safe for Harry’s family soon. Amber could see her brother and Ginny could hug her mum. Susan would see her aunt and Katherine could watch her baby sister grow.

Sara wouldn’t be a target. Draco wouldn’t be punished for defecting.

Harry just wanted to do it all quickly so he could be around for that world… math wasn’t something he had to use outside of quidditch often, but he thought he had about forty years left to see it all.

“That’s enough,” Amber said. She sat beside Harry on the sofa in the villa with her arm around his shoulders. Amber hasn’t stopped crying since they left the faerie realm, but she didn’t scream even once. Sara hadn’t screamed either, she had remained entirely silent and still had nothing to say with her arm thrown over Harry’s body and her face hidden in his chest. Susan didn’t scream or cry, she just sat on the floor in front of Harry with a death grip on his ankle.

The others were an even mixture of ranting at the fae and venting at Harry himself. Ginny, Blaise, and Draco were calling the faeries every vulgar word in existence. Katherine, Pansy, and Daphne called Harry an excessive variety of the word ‘idiot’.

Luna just walked around the room with Hedwig on her shoulder while she studied the parchment from the Queen.

“Amber, he’s so stupid,” Katherine said with swollen brown eyes. “He might not make it to fifty.”

“I know,” Amber said solemnly. “But you’re going to hurt his feelings.”

Katherine let out a scream that hitched on a sob and before Harry knew it, he was buried at the bottom of a pile of witches.

It was a familiar place Harry had been before and it was comforting.

It was how Harry hoped to spend the rest of his life. He wanted to curl up with Amber and listen to Katherine complain about everything. Harry wanted to gossip with Pansy and Ginny and look at flowers and books with Luna and Daphne. There would be days of flying with Draco and baking with Sara. Harry could learn magic from Juliana with Blaise and… and there would still be plenty of nights to talk with Susan about everything and nothing.

Harry just wanted to find the horcruxes as quickly as they could and then spend the rest of what would be a short life with his family.

There were no guarantees in life anyway, Harry knew that better than anyone.

Nobody felt much like celebrating their escape from the Unseelie fae or gaining an item to help track the horcruxes that night. They told Juliana of their mishap—

“You thought that the Seelie represented the light when we were all children of the night?”

—and Harry’s deal during dinner. Harry remained relatively quiet during the recount, though he perked up when Susan mentioned the same thing he had been wondering about.

“Do you know what Samsett means?” Susan asked Juliana. Susan’s plate of pasta sat untouched, much like many of the others.

“They called us the Coven of Samsett,” Sara explained quietly, her voice raspy from the amount of crying she’d done all day.

Harry would be touched at how much his life meant to them all if it weren’t hurting him to see them hurting.

“You are all parts of a whole,” Juliana said, gesturing grandly to the eleven teenagers at her table. “You carry unique identities and ideals that are melted together to become great.”

“I don’t feel very great,” Luna said miserably. “I feel like we failed very badly.”

“There’s nothing you know that we can do?” Blaise asked his mother. “The Counsel…?”

“Will tell you that the fae are the most powerful beings on our world,” Juliana said. “I am sorry, mi amore, there are few that could break a deal with the fae and none that reside in our world.”

When that made Sara sniffle and Luna’s small face to crumple, Harry sighed.

“Hey, it’s fine,” Harry insisted. He forced a smile for them all. “It was my choice and I’d make it again, okay?”

Not okay.

Katherine - who was very uncharacteristically weepy - started crying about how Harry didn’t value his life because of ‘dirty muggles’ and dinner sort of spiraled downward from there.

Harry found himself once again unable to sleep that night. He had slipped out back to walk down to the beach and just breathe and it didn’t take long before he was joined by Draco once more.

“Insomnia,” Draco said as a simple explanation while he sat beside Harry on the sand. There was no flask with him to soften the edges of hysteria that Harry could feel building in his chest.

Harry nodded and looked out at the ocean, wondering what death was like. Would it be comfortable? Easy? Would Harry see Sirius and his parents? Were they watching him then? Could Harry watch over his family when he went?

“Are you scared?”

Harry hummed at Draco’s quiet question.

“No,” he decided after a moment. Harry turned and looked at Draco earnestly, needing at least one person to understand. “I’ll spend one life with people who love me and when it’s over, I’ll join other people who love me. I’m never going to be alone.”

And that was what used to scare Harry. Giving up part of his life to the fae just brought it all in clarity. Harry would love and be loved for eternity.

There was nothing scary about that. That was the dream.

Draco inched closer to Harry on the sand until they were side-by-side.

“You’re unbearable,” Draco said.

Harry grinned out at the ocean and leaned over to rest his head against Draco’s.

“You love me,” he teased him.

“I married you for the money,” Draco deadpanned.

Harry let out a laugh and he felt the weight of his decision beginning to melt off him and - with that weight - was some of his apprehensions. Who cared if Harry did reckless things if he was destined for an early grave anyway?

“Hey, Draco?” Harry smiled as charmingly as he could at his one time rival turned husband turned friend. Sara said Harry had a nice smile, one that she said he should use more often.

Draco didn’t look entirely sold, in fact, he seemed rather wary by having Harry smile so close to him.

“What?” Draco asked, his eyes flicking between Harry’s eyes and Harry’s mouth in a way that made Harry want to blush.

“Er…” Harry summoned up the last bit of bravery he had for that day. “Do you… d’you… doyouwanttogoswimwithmeandsusan?”

Draco blinked and Harry really hoped he was able to understand that rush of words because Harry wasn’t going to be able to repeat them.

“Are you…” Draco trailed off and he turned a light shade of pink. “Are you… asking me to consummate our marriage?”

Harry laughed again and shrugged self-consciously.

A year ago, Harry would rather die. But Draco was… witty and fit and Harry knew it was a not-so-secret fantasy of Susan’s. And Harry planned to fulfill every one of her dreams during the time he had since the life he promised her was already shortened.

Also… Harry was kind of curious about blokes and since they were already conveniently married…

“You don’t have you,” Harry mumbled. “It’s just—”

“Have you done this with the others?” Draco asked abruptly. “I’d rather not be another notch on a bedpost.”

“No, never,” Harry said quickly, feeling his face burn. “Er… we just… erm…”

“Both find me incredibly good looking.” Draco sighed dramatically, reminding Harry of the less attractive aspects of his being.

When Draco stood up, Harry thought that he was going to spend the rest of his (thankfully) short life being reminded of the most humiliating—

“Let’s go wake your girlfriend to see if she’s still interested in a romantic triumvirate.”

Harry looked up and saw that Draco looked just as red as Harry felt, but he had his left hand, the one with Harry’s wedding ring glinting on his fourth finger, extended to him.

And Harry took it.

Susan blinked with sleepy confusion when Harry quietly woke her up, but it didn’t take her long to catch the brainwaves Harry and Draco sent.

The pool was too cold, as Harry quickly realized, but the beach was fine when they laid down a blanket and put up some warming charms.

Harry added another item to the ways he wanted to spend the rest of his life: having ‘romantic triumvirates’ with Susan and Draco. Because, as Daphne gleefully told him the next morning, apparently Harry was half-gay.

Bisexual, was what she technically said. Half-gay, was what Pansy said.

“An idiot,” Ginny called him.

Sara only sipped her latte with Juliana and said in her very wise and mature way that she totally knew it was going to happen.

November was nearly over and Harry wanted to have the horcruxes located and destroyed before Christmas. Molly had sent Ginny a sad letter asking if they would all be visiting over the holidays or not. Most of the girls received similar recent letters from their families - though Draco received a coded letter from his mother informing him that he should stay where he was and never return.

Nobody wanted to be left out of using a powerful tool from the fae and so Juliana made everyone’s excuses so they could miss a week of school to help track down the horcruxes.

They let Harry use the parchment and he felt rather daft as he held it out and just blinked at it.

“Er… show us the horcruxes,” Harry said.

Nothing.

It was still just a blank piece of yellowed parchment.

“Let me try.” Pansy made grabby hands and Harry too easily passed over the parchment. Pansy cleared her throat and pulled her wand, pressing the tip to the center of the parchment. “Reveal the horcrux locations!” she demanded.

“They cheated us!” Daphne cried when it was still blank. “They lied!”

“Fae? Nooo,” Katherine drawled. She placed a hand over her heart and narrowed her eyes at Daphne. “Who would have considered that as an outcome?”

“So Harry will live?” Susan asked hopefully.

“Or we’re reading it wrong,” Luna suggested. She carefully took the parchment from Pansy and traced it with a single finger. “We require your aid for our quest.”

“How…?” Harry shook his head and accepted it as a purely Luna thing. “What’s it say then, Luna?”

Blaise leaned over Luna’s shoulder with his hand on her waist as he inspected the map with her.

“Is that…?” Blaise murmured.

Luna nodded, “I think so, yes.”

“So they…?”

“Those cazzo di culo!” Blaise said - swore? maybe? it sounded like a swear - with a snarl twisting his face. He looked up and there was genuine anger in his eyes as he glared at Harry. “They- porca! Lue, show him.”

Harry was filled with trepidation as Luna passed him the parchment. Susan, Amber, Draco, and Sara pressed against him, trying to see what had broken Blaise’s composure.

The face of the parchment had shifted to show a softly painted image. There were vines that decorated a row of trees with what Harry thought might have been the Tower of Pisa in the background. On the ground between two trees laid a familiar and ruined diary…

“‘I will tell you where the seven items that the witch Tom Marvolo Riddle turned to horcruxes’,” Amber quoted quietly. “Those- those- THOSE BLOODY SLAGS!”

Harry had never heard Amber swear before but he shared her sentiment completely. The diary was in Italy… they knew that because they had it. The fae had charged Harry eleven years of his life for a horcrux they already had.

“Brilliant,” Harry said flatly, thrusting the map back to Luna. “That’s excellent, really. Because if the bloody basilisk didn’t take a few years off my life already, I’m really glad I gave up eleven years for it.”

“Let’s go back and burn their entire court to the ground,” Ginny offered heatedly, just as angry as Harry was over it. “Who wins in fiendfyre versus faeries?”

“Yeah, let’s not,” Amber said quickly. She forced a smile for Harry and pushed him away lightly on his chest. “Darling, why don’t you and Susan go visit the city?”

“And take Draco or he’ll pout,” Pansy, smiling sarcastically at Draco. “Third wheeling is difficult from a distance.”

“And what are you guys going to do?” Harry asked. “Track down the bloody horcruxes without me?”

“You gave up enough,” Amber said, pushing at Harry again. “Go on, we’ll call you if we need you.”

Harry blinked at the bedroom door when he, Susan, and Draco were shoved from the room and the door was slammed in their faces.

“How the hell are they going to call us?” Harry asked. “We aren’t muggles?”

“Who cares?” Susan linked an arm with both Harry and Draco and smiled brightly at them. “Let’s go shopping.”

Harry wasn’t someone who could be distracted from important and possibly dangerous missions by shopping.

“We can look for lingerie… I think I’d look excellent in black lace.”

But Harry was just a teenager and any teenage boy could be bribed and distracted by the thought of his girlfriend in black lace.

Harry wasn’t stupid, honestly. He knew what Amber was up to when every few days he would be sent off with some of their group on errands.

On the day that Harry was sent to go buy groceries for Pansy’s birthday dinner, Katherine and Amber brought home an obsidian ring set in silver.

(Harry pulled a Harry when he suggested they buy a basilisk fang and destroy it then and there- he didn’t even consider that Voldemort might be able to feel it. Giving him a chance to make more before someone else killed him would be stupid, Harry could see that… after Katherine told him that.)

Harry was asked by Daphne to give her and Pansy entrance to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place a couple of days later, which he did absently while he was in the middle of an intense three-way seekers battle with Ginny and Draco. After Harry won, Daphne and Pansy were back home with the elf from Grimmauld, Kreacher, and a locket that Pansy begged to keep once Voldemort’s soul was removed.

Juliana was delighted to add Kreacher to the kitchen but Harry was a little more wary of the elf that used to spend his time attacking Harry with a knife.

Two days after that, Ginny asked Harry for his cloak and his map of Hogwarts. Harry was… extremely reluctant… to hand over the heirlooms from his dad and Sirius.

“I swear to you we’ll bring them back,” Ginny said earnestly. She bounced in place with Luna and Blaise and Harry didn’t like how excited she was.

“Don’t use my cloak for any weird sex stuff,” Harry said pleadingly, clutching it to his chest.

“We’ll save weird invisible sex to you and your… what do you call Draco?” Blaise asked as he proved he would be careful with the way he gently untangled the cloak from Harry’s iron grip.

Harry looked over at where Draco was gaping over the Marauders Map and felt rather fond of him. Harry wasn’t sure what term there was for ‘the bloke that Harry used to hate then begrudgingly married and they became friends and then they became… lovers’, as weird as that word was to use.

Susan didn’t have a problem finding a word for it. She took the map from Draco and handed it to Blaise with a little smirk.

“Harry’s my boyfriend, Draco is his boyfriend; our sex life is terrific and they totally have dates without me. Good luck.”

“We do not have dates without you!” Harry cried, distracted from Ginny possibly destroying his property by Susan’s slander. “You name one time—”

“You went to the bakery without me!” Susan said, stomping a foot and pouting. “You know I love those cannolis they sell!”

“And we bought you three!” Draco said, defending them.

Technically, they bought Susan half a dozen. It was just… Harry and Draco also loved those cannolis and may have had some on the walk back to the villa.

“You two went to the beach without me!” Susan said. “And I saw the hickey on Draco’s neck!”

“I bit him because he was being annoying!”

Harry was still arguing with Susan and Draco when Blaise, Luna, and Ginny returned Harry’s belongings to him and Luna carried a silver tiara in her hands.

Draco went with Sara the next time the parchment was broken out to track a horcrux. Harry took the chance to take Susan on a romantic picnic in the nearby park. The weather was still nice in Italy, so much different than England, and they had a nice time together.

Harry laid on his stomach and smiled up at Susan, watching the sun cast golden streaks in her red hair.

“You’re beautiful,” Harry told her. He remembered what Amber once lectured him for and swiftly followed it with a better compliment, “And brilliant. I’ve got no idea how I got so lucky.”

Susan smiled down at Harry and then held a grape out for him that he happily accepted.

“Harry, you didn’t even think for one second to take years off anyone else,” Susan said. She didn’t say it as a reprimand, she said it with a loving sort of exasperation. “I’m the lucky one.”

Harry grinned stupidly at her, “I’m luckier.”

“No, I’m luckier.”

“Nuh uh.”

“Uh huh.”

It took some time, they had to wrestle and snog over it, but when they returned to the villa and found Draco holding a golden cup with a Hufflepuff shield stamped on it, they decided that Draco was the lucky one.

Harry and Draco were pointedly sent to go pick up an entire list of things the girls had ordered from muggle stores in the cities the week before Christmas. Harry was confused when it seemed as if the nine others all planned to go fetch another horcrux to add to their pile of stolen souls they kept on the mantle in the sitting room. Draco had no answers either and they spent the entire very long day wondering why suddenly the others were all going on what seemed to be relatively risk-free ventures as a group.

That was until they made it back to the villa with arms overloaded by bags and bags of goods and Harry blanched at what laid across the dining table.

When Harry stumbled backward with his arm flung out to keep Draco away, Katherine moved to block the table from Harry’s view.

“It’s a horcrux,” she said quickly. “And I need you to not panic, okay? But Sara’s hurt and she wants you.”

Harry’s lungs turned to ice and he couldn’t drop the packages and move fast enough, skirting around the table where Nagini the snake laid immobile, to follow Katherine to Juliana’s bedroom.

“Sara…” Harry whimpered and pushed through the others to get to Juliana’s giant bed with the black gossamer curtains to where Sara laid in a small ball in the middle of the bed. Juliana sat on the far side of the bed with a tray of potions and Harry quickly climbed on the bed to reach someone who wasn’t just Harry’s wife, but one of his best friends in the world.

“Sara, love?” Harry could feel his nose tingling when he laid his hand on Sara’s pale and clammy forehead. She groaned and her eyelids fluttered, but didn’t open.

“What happened?” Harry asked the others filling the room. He kept his hand on Sara’s forehead when Juliana rolled her on her side to begin feeding her potions.

“It- it was at Malfoy Manor,” Daphne said as she held her own girlfriend against her side tightly. None of the ones who went to get the horcrux looked great.

Pansy was a terrible shade of pale while Daphne had a burn mark on one side of her face. Amber was sitting on the floor, cradling what Harry would guess was a broken arm to her chest while Katherine hovered behind her. Harry hadn’t noticed before, but one of Katherine’s black braids had been singed, leaving her with an uneven and stressed appearance. Ginny was actually propped between Blaise and Luna and looked to have gotten the worst of whatever they faced - aside from Sara - with freshly healed cuts that had ripped through her shirt and jeans, exposing skin that had dried blood coating it.

Harry didn’t even bother to mention that it was his shirt that Ginny wore and ruined.

Susan didn’t look too harmed, she was at least with it enough to describe to Harry what happened as she handed off potions to Juliana to feed Sara on autopilot. Harry didn’t like the open wound on her forehead though and he was relieved when Draco brought her a charmed bandage so that Harry could stay with Sara.

“The parchment gives us these clues, right?” Susan said absently while she handed over potions over and over. “It took us a while to realize what it was, but it was telling us there was a snake at Draco’s father’s home and it must be the next horcrux. So we went to get it.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Draco grabbed Susan’s shoulder and made her pause to look at his scowl of concern. “The Dark Lord resides in my father’s home.”

“Duh,” Susan said tiredly, turning away from Draco and going back to her task. “That’s why we all went and you and Harry couldn’t come.”

That actually sounded like more reason why Harry should have gone with them.

“Harry,” Sara croaked. She began coughing and sputtering after a potion Juliana gave her and Harry actually cried out when her body went lax.

“She is healing,” Juliana told them all. “Your anima gemella will live, my love,” she said as she touched Harry’s arm. “Our Sara needs rest.”

Harry nodded and was careful as he put an arm beneath Sara’s neck and around her waist to adjust her to lay more comfortably. He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, felt her heartbeat in the side of her neck, then covered her up and left her to rest.

That was when the others began describing a full-on duel between themselves and the Death Eaters. It sounded as if they gave as good as they got until Rodolphus Lestrange cursed Sara with something that made her hit the ground and begin screaming. Then Pansy stole the snake - she said she screamed how she was going to kill it in retaliation for Sirius to try and keep Voldemort from suspecting their intentions - and Blaise and Amber apparated with Sara.

“I go next time,” Harry said firmly, looking at every person one at a time. “No more sending me shopping, got it?”

There was a mixture of guilty, sheepish, and stubborn looks on their faces as they nodded at Harry.

Not that it mattered, they already had the seventh horcrux. And the Queen’s words about their quest destroying the love they all shared finally made sense.

Sara was conscious again by the next morning and since they only had a few days until Christmas, Harry wanted to end the search. His plan was to find the seventh horcrux, take them all to Dumbledore, then let him destroy them and kill Voldemort. Then Harry’s family could go to the Burrow for Christmas and everyone could be happy.

Well, Ron would probably be really bloody unhappy when Harry arrived with everyone, but the thought kept making Draco laugh which made Harry laugh too.

“So we just…” Harry squinted at the image on the parchment that appeared after he asked for the final horcrux to be revealed.

It was familiar, but Harry couldn’t put his finger on it.

There was a small house; a wooden cottage with a stone roof that was covered in a thick layer of snow with three carved pumpkins on the stoop outside the door. Lightning flashed above the scene and Harry absently raised a hand to touch the scar with the same pattern as the image showed.

Harry’s stomach twisted so hard he actually thought he’d be sick when his finger remained on the scar and he felt a distant flash of anger from Voldemort through it.

“Harry? Honey?” Amber tried to take the parchment from Harry and just for a second, Harry wouldn’t let her.

Then he realized that was stupid because it wasn’t as if Amber would decide ‘yeah, maybe you’re right, we should kill you just in case’.

Harry stayed quiet while Amber looked over the parchment. When she gasped and her eyes flew over the top of it to stare at Harry’s scar, he knew she thought the same thing he did.

“What is it?” Katherine asked, trying to take the parchment from Amber to look at. “Love?”

“I…” Amber looked at Harry and he jerked his chin, too busy processing to care.

They were in Juliana’s room so that Sara could see where the final horcrux was and Amber passed the parchment around while Harry sank down to sit on the bed beside Sara.

It all made sense, finally. In the sickest way possible, it made sense. Harry’s mental link to Voldemort, Harry sharing his power of Parsletongue. The emotions Harry would get that weren’t his own, the visions.

Harry was a horcrux.

‘Neither can live while the other survives’ because Harry’s life was keeping Voldemort alive. Harry was anchoring him to life with his soul inside of him.

The soul of the murderer of Harry’s parents - all three of them - was nestled safely inside of Harry’s forehead, leaving behind just a scar.

Once everyone else had gotten a chance to see the parchment, Amber took it back and walked directly to Juliana’s fireplace she used for a private floo. Harry watched with a sense of detachment as Amber started a fire with a silent flick of her wand and threw the parchment inside of it.

When Amber turned around, it struck Harry how much older and more mature she looked than she had when he was thirteen and she had been fourteen. The silly sparkly blue eyeshadow was gone, as were the colorful earrings she used to wear.

Amber had grown up by Harry’s side for the last three years and it struck him how different his life would be if they had never interacted that fateful day in third year.

“We tell no one,” Amber said to them all, glaring everyone down one at a time until they agreed. “Not even Juliana, agreed?”

“Agreed,” Blaise murmured as one of the two being stared down then. Sara hesitated when Amber looked at her though.

“What if she could help?” Sara suggested. “She may know something…?”

“Sara, we tell no one,” Katherine insisted then. “Swear it.”

“Okay.” Sara didn’t need to swear, everyone in the room trusted the word of each other. “I won’t tell her.”

“I reckon she’ll know when I’m dead,” Harry said bleakly, looking at the fire and the parchment that wouldn’t burn within the flames.

That got a reaction from everyone who had been stunned to silence.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Pansy sneered. “As if we’d kill you.”

“Is it removable?” Ginny asked Daphne. “We could put it in someone we hate?”

“I vote we just join up,” Katherine suggested. “All past transgressions would be forgiven if he knew what Harry has.”

“I really don’t like the tattoos,” Luna sighed. She looked down at her left arm that had colorful bracelets from wrist to nearly elbow. “Skulls just aren’t very pretty.”

“So we trap him instead!” Susan said quickly, garnering nods from Draco and Sara. “We just put him somewhere in a cage and leave a note saying that after Harry dies a natural death, someone should put a sword through his face.”

“I assume most of us would still be around then, considering…” Draco gave an apologetic half-shrug. “It could work.”

Everyone began arguing between two different plans—

Somehow managing to capture and lock away Voldemort, something that even the supposed great Dumbledore hadn’t managed yet.

Or using their leverage with Harry’s horcrux to get Voldemort to agree to some sort of truce, as if Voldemort wouldn’t just kill them all and create new horcruxes.

Harry looked around at them all and walked out of the room, leaving them to fight about it amongst themselves.

Ginny and Draco caught him just outside the bedroom and planted themselves on either side of him, refusing the let Harry wander about alone.

“It’s like suicide watch for people who make bad decisions,” Ginny explained.

Draco summoned their brooms and handed one to each of them. “Except it includes flying.”

Harry went flying with them and he brought Sara dinner in bed and he listened while everyone told him they would find a solution.

Harry didn’t doubt they’d try, but he doubted they’d be successful either.

All of the girls with family back in Britain wrote home saying that they would be unable to return for the holidays due to the war, studies, and a variety of excuses. They stopped talking about the horcruxes to Harry but the pile of trinkets on the mantle remained, as did the head of Nagini that Juliana had mounted for them.

Harry was glad they stopped discussing it, even while he didn’t stop thinking about it. They would need to decide soon what to do - sacrifice Harry’s life for all the ones that Voldemort would take - but he just wanted one last holiday with his family.

They shared stories, gifts, laughter, and love on Christmas together. Ginny’s mum sent each of them - even Blaise, Draco, and Juliana - new jumpers and they had to lower the temperature in the oceanside villa to make it comfortable to wear them. Susan laughed when she swapped around her, Draco, and Harry’s jumpers until Harry Susan’s, Susan wore Draco’s, and Draco wore Harry’s.

Blaise gifted Ginny and Luna both with charmed bracelets that held each of their initials. Katherine got Amber a pair of diamond earrings. Pansy found a set of ancient spellbooks that were written in Akkadian for Daphne. Susan surprised Harry and Draco both with a locket for them both, a picture of the three of them on the inside.

Susan sheepishly explained that she had it made before they found the Slytherin locket that was a horcrux, but Harry didn’t mind either way.

It was the best Christmas Harry ever had, truthfully. He just… rather desperately didn’t want it to be his last.

And the girls - absolute mad women that they were - couldn’t agree more.

Harry was woken up from a deep sleep on New Years Eve by Pansy.

“Wakey, wakey, baby boy,” she whispered, shaking his shoulder lightly. “It’s time to summon the devil.”

“If that’s an innuendo, I’m not doing it,” Harry grumbled as he tried to roll away from her. They had agreed not to have a New Year’s party since they had all been awake most of the night the night before.

“It’s not an innuendo,” Pansy said, shaking Harry a little more firmly. “We’re summoning a demon and we need you, come on.”

Harry rolled over and blinked blearily at Pansy.

“We’re summoning a what?”

A demon.

An actual demon.

Harry always knew the girls were feral and deranged… he just had no idea that they had embraced their dangerous madness so fully.

Pansy didn’t allow Harry to ask any questions as she led him to the beach where everyone waited. Once again, they were spread out for a ritual and Harry was shoved to take a place between Amber and Sara.

“What—”

“Sh,” Sara shushed Harry and squeezed his hand. “We’re starting now.”

In the center of the hendecagram they made laid the obsidian ring, the Slytherin locket, the silver tiara, and the golden cup.

Harry opened his mouth to ask what the hell was going on, but everyone began chanting.

They had to have practiced, that was the stupid thing that Harry thought while the others all chanted in the moonlight in an unfamiliar language.

Harry’s family was attempting to summon a demon from Hell… and Harry was just impressed by the practice they put in the ritual.

The girls’ madness was contagious.

Their voices were rhythmic while they changed, slowly getting louder and louder. Everyone’s faces were set, determined to see the ritual through. Harry swore that the stars above seem to dim as if acknowledging the power being invoked. The ground beneath them rumbled, kicking up sand that swirled around them while the chant reached a pitch just loud enough to be heard above the sandstorm.

A smoky portal in the center of their group appeared, just above the horcruxes in the center, and Harry had to squint to see through the sand and the smoke to see the flames within the portal. The chant became a scream and claws appeared at the edges of the portal while a demon pulled itself through.

Everyone fell silent at once when the demon crawled through the portal and landed with grace on its feet in the middle of their group. If Harry had looked down, he would have seen a silver thread of magic that locked the demon within the hendecagram, but Harry’s eyes were glued to the demon.

With charcoal blackened skin that was scaled like a snake, vivid red eyes with a cats vertical pupil, and jagged horns made of white bone sticking from its forehead, Harry thought it looked just as he imagined a demon should.

If Harry had ever had the imagination to wonder what a demon looked like or what would ever cause him to be involved in a ritual summoning one.

The demon looked around with a cruel smile on his face and Harry felt the sweat causing the back of his shirt to stick to his skin.

If faeries had taken seventy-seven years of Harry’s life… what on earth did everyone think that a demon would take?

Souls. The girls wanted to sell souls to a demon from hell.

“Evening,” Katherine said to the demon. She sounded nonchalant, like it was an every day occurrence to be speaking to a demon.

“Do you have a name?” Luna asked politely. “We hoped to call for Marchosias, is that you?”

“I am Marchosias,” the demon hissed, tendrils of smoke flowing from his mouth. “Why have I been summoned by the children of Nymph?”

“We have a proposition for you,” Daphne said. “If you’re powerful enough to break a deal with the Unseelie Queen… we would give you five souls in exchange.”

They weren’t just unhinged and savage, they were brilliant beyond compare.

Chapter Text

“Daddy!”

Harry laughed when his daughter ran to him with her little arms up so Harry could swing her up in a hug.

“Is he here?” Ruby asked, lisping with her missing front teeth. “Daddy, is he here yet?”

“He is,” Harry said, nuzzling his nose against Ruby’s. “Do you want to meet him?”

“Wait for Mama,” Ruby said, so seriously for her ripe age of seven. “Mama’ll be sad if I see him first.”

Harry laughed and held Ruby on his hip while Amber waddled across the lawn. She had one hand on her back and one on her round stomach. Harry’s oldest, Jules, chattered Amber’s ear off while they made their way to them. Harry could hear their little witch going on and on about her elf friends that she had a sleepover planned with the next weekend.

“Daddy!” Jules ran to Harry and grabbed him in a fierce hug. She smiled up at him with Amber’s tiny nose and Harry’s green eyes. “Is he here yet? My very own brother?”

“He is,” Harry told her with a wide smile. “Come on, let’s go meet him.”

After kissing Amber on the cheek, Harry guided a part of his family through the house he once shared with Sirius to the master bedroom. Susan laid on the bed with Harry’s first son in her arms while Draco flitted around, nervous as anyone, and kept fluffing pillows and offering snacks to Susan.

Harry had been through the birth of his child twice before with Jules and Ruby, but their son was Draco’s first. And poor Draco had been an emotional wreck while the healer was there and Susan had been pushing. It was sweet and Harry couldn’t wait to tease him endlessly for it at some point.

“Okay, be quiet now,” Harry told Ruby after he pecked her nose with a kiss and stood her up. “Let me get your brother.”

Both girls were practically vibrating in place, though their mum took a seat in Harry’s abandoned chair by the head of the bed.

“Hello, love.” Harry pushed some of the sweaty strands of red hair off Susan’s face and smiled affectionately. “Our son has a few visitors.”

Susan let Harry take the bundle of cream blankets in her arms and Harry was awed once again by the sight of his son.

Milo Sirius Potter was perfect, in Harry’s unbiased opinion. With two older sisters, two cousins from Luna, Ginny, and Blaise, and a baby sister that would arrive any day, Milo was the first boy in their family and Harry couldn’t be more proud.

Draco said it was proof that Milo was biologically his as so far Harry had only produced girls, but they wouldn’t know for sure until Milo got older and they decided who he favored in looks. It didn’t matter to any of them, Minnie and Panda never seemed to remember who their mum’s were out of their large and mixed family anyway, but it would be interesting to discover.

Harry actually hoped that Milo was biologically Draco’s… Harry wanted him to have Susan’s red hair and Draco’s grey eyes…

There were enough little green eyed babies in their family.

“Oh, baby.” Jules sounded awed when Harry let her hold her the baby. She sniffled down at Milo and smiled at him. “Hi, Milo. I’m your big sister.”

“And I’m your big sister too!” Ruby said, bouncing in place and trying to get at the baby. “And Opal will be your big sister!!”

“No, Milo will be Opal’s big brother,” Amber corrected Ruby patiently. “Milo was born first.”

“Was I born before Minnie?” Ruby asked. “Cause she said she was older but I’m taller.”

“Minnie was teasing you, love,” Susan said. “You’re older than her and Panda both.”

Harry put a hand on Jules shoulder and couldn’t help feeling wistful for the day that she had been born. The entire pregnancy with Katherine had been stressful and terrifying and she had been so sick Harry worried that she would die. As soon as Jules was born, Amber told her wife that she would carry all future kids. And Amber had breezed through pregnancy with Ruby and, with only a week until Opal was due, with their third and final daughter.

Susan had made pregnancy look easy, though Katherine said maybe if Harry and Draco pampered her like they did Susan then it would have been easier for her too.

All that mattered to Harry in the end was that everyone stayed healthy and nobody named their kids anything daft.

Draco had suggested Scorpius and has been immediately outvoted by Harry and Susan. Susan told him that sounded like someone who would have followed Voldemort back when he’d been alive and reigning.

“Daddy, he’s so perfect,” Jules sighed. “Can Auntie Susan have a bunch more babies? I need more brothers. There’s too many girls.”

Harry chuckled and kissed the top of Jules’ dark head of hair.

“I’ve been saying that for nearly twenty years now,” he assured her. “Let’s let Ruby hold him, Milo and Auntie Susan need to rest before the others arrive.”

Sara, Luna, Ginny, Blaise, and their two girls would be cutting their holiday short to meet the newest baby in the family. Sara confessed that she didn’t mind at all, since Ginny had used the trip as an excuse to promote her new place on the Harpies, Luna kept trying to take the girls hunting for creatures, and Blaise and Sara were left chasing after all four of them constantly.

Daphne and Pansy would arrive shortly, since they were only at their home in Bradford. The two of them were the only ones who lived in Britain with Harry, Draco, and Susan. Though, Harry was itching to move to Italy to be closer to everyone else soon.

Italy had been home for years and as much as Minerva subtly kept requesting that Harry’s kids attended Hogwarts, the Italian School of Magic was where they all agreed all the kids would attend. It was… safer, as long as the kids never tried to form a coven and converse with faeries.

One day, Harry would have to have the talk with them all… about how faeries were little dicks and demons were somehow more trustworthy.

Once Ruby took her turn with holding Milo and Draco snapped dozens of photos for their bookshelf of albums, Harry left Milo and Susan to rest while he guided everyone else to the dining room. The girls barely had time to pull out the muggle board games before the floo flared to life and Pansy could be heard calling through the house.

“Where are my minions?” she sang.

“Aunt Pans!!” The girls ran from the dining room to go tackle Pansy and Daphne with arms wide open and giggles spilling freely.

Pansy and Daphne enjoyed being ‘the fun aunties’ and Harry wasn’t surprised at all to see them passing out expensive gifts from their recent trip to France to the girls.

“You spoil them,” Harry accused Pansy half-heartedly as she kissed him on the cheek.

“What else are step-mothers meant to do?” she asked waspishly, waving her hand where Harry’s wedding ring still rested. “If you don’t like it, you should divorce me.”

“If you wanted a divorce, you shouldn’t have went to Kabul on the only day I had free,” Harry teased hrr with an easy smile.

“How does Susan deal with you?” Daphne asked with a click of her tongue. “She’s going to propose to Draco if you two don’t do it soon.”

Harry looked and Draco and they both bit back amused smiles. They had suggested years ago that Harry divorced Pansy, Daphne, and Sara and the three of them would have a bonding ceremony. Then Susan stared at Harry challengingly and asked him if he’d really divorce any of the others.

And Harry couldn’t do it. He was going to, Amelia had gotten him the form to sign for an amicable ‘no-fault’ divorce from Sara and… and Harry’s hand shook and he couldn’t sign it when it was time to do so.

Everyone teased Harry for it, but he didn’t see any of them rushing to divorce him either.

Susan didn’t care either way. Apparently her envy of Harry being married to the others had died when she thought Harry would. It was amazing the way that priorities shifted and changed after demon deals, horcruxes, and faerie tricks.

Plus, the adults all enjoyed laughing together when a newspaper did manage to get photographs of any of them and rumors ran anew. Even poor Grandmum Molly never seemed to understand that ultimately simple relationships within their family:

They just loved each other; fiercely, devotionally, and eternally. The only real issue people seemed to want to know was who shagged who and frankly that was nobody’s business.

Sara and the others arrived not long after Pansy and Daphne, which set off more squeals, giggles, hugs, and exchanges of gifts. Harry eyed his first wife carefully to ensure that she was happy still.

Sara was a grown witch who could make her own decisions as she pleased, but Harry suspected he would always be a little more protective over her. He had worried that when she moved in with Luna that she would feel left out since the other three shared an annoyingly boisterous sex life, but Sara looked completely happy as she held Luna’s hand and talked about Pandora’s first bit of accidental magic.

Little Pandora was the spitting image of her mother with her dad’s dark skin and golden eyes. Pandora also had Luna’s easy-going nature, but Harry wasn’t surprised that she had broken a window after Minnie beat her in a game they made up.

Harry would never forget when Luna destroyed Ginny in a game of chicken. It was why Harry never played with her when they were at the villa.

Minnie had Ginny’s red hair, Ginny’s brown eyes, and the rest of her face was so like Juliana that Harry was already worried for when she was older. That girl was all fire and beauty- she would be a force to be reckoned with. And with her ‘twin’ (they were exactly thirty-nine hours apart) by her side, Harry wondered how Italy would handle a Dark Lord one day.

Thankfully, Harry’s deal with the fae had been broken so he would get to watch his nieces rule the world.

When dinner was ready, Susan brought Milo in for his first family dinner. Everyone ooh’d and aww’d over his tiny and perfect face and Harry sat smug as any proud papa would be.

It all just felt like a dream sometimes.

Harry never even knew that he would one day be so damned happy. With his family that continued to grow creating new memories inside Harry’s home… with his children, his girls, his husband and his best mate… Harry just…

“Awe, Harry’s crying,” Amber said, calling everyone’s attention to where Harry indeed was feeling soft and teary-eyed.

Susan smiled and reached over to grasp Harry’s arm while Jules fretted over if he was sad.

“I’m not sad,” Harry assured her. “I’m just…”

Happy wasn’t the right word, it wasn’t strong enough to explain the all-encompassing contentment and joy Harry felt… but Harry was happy.

“Your daddy is happy,” Draco told Jules. “And he’s a baby.”

Jules giggled and then Harry was once again being outnumbered and teased by a room filled with mostly girls. It was familiar, it was comfortable, and Harry would happily be teased for the rest of his life.

For the rest of his long life that would be filled with love and happiness thanks to the unconventional family Harry had built.