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Harry tried not to laugh when Minh stumbled into their small kitchen in their Hogwarts apartment, completely drenched and looking like a bedraggled cat, complete with an expression that said he would like nothing better than to watch the world burn.
Mildly concerning, given that they had three Fire types and connections to a few Fire Circles. If Minh wanted to follow through on those plans, Harry had no doubts that his Gheyo would be successful.
Still, it grew harder and harder to hold back his laughs the longer he looked at Minh and how out of sorts the Gheyo Princess looked—it was such a strange look, compared to how perfectly turned out and presented Minh liked to be.
Such a perfect picture of misery, one that made Harry want to cuddle and fuss over his Bonded until things were set right again.
But he was sure at least half of the picture Minh was portraying was deliberate and designed to get sympathy from either Hadrian or Wikhn, so he didn’t feel too awful when a few snickers escaped.
“Har~ry~,” the Gheyo whined when he heard, slumping against the counter, as if he could barely summon up enough energy to stand.
“I’m sorry,” he said automatically, pressing a hand against his mouth to muffle the rest of his laughs. To make up for his laughs, he summoned a few towels and warmed them. “You poor thing. Do I want to know what happened? Did Alec toss you in the lake on your run?”
It wouldn’t be the first time, after all. Their apartments at Hogwarts were smaller than they were used to and sometimes the close quarters meant that they stepped on each other’s claws or grated on each other.
Tempers were fraying and Harry sometimes found himself counting the days down to his next resting period.
He didn’t necessarily like his resting period, but he enjoyed the first twenty-four hours or so afterwards, because everyone was perfectly aligned and in good humors and there were next to no arguments, fights, or disagreements.
“No run,” Minh grumbled. “It’s too miserable outside with all that wretched snow. There’s so much snow. Why is there so much snow?”
“Because it’s winter here,” Harry replied, lips twitching. “And I warned you. Told you that Riven’s been in a mood and there was bound to be a snowstorm sometime today.” He made a mental note to talk to Hadrian about rotating out their Gheyos—to maybe consider sending Minh back to Nevarah and bring Brishen to Earth, because the Gheyo Princess was getting fussier and whinier each day, likely due to being away from Idan and Devrim for so long.
It would be easier to just bring Idan here, so the Queen could handle both his Princess and his King and they wouldn’t have to deal with the next round of Alec and Brishen sniping at each other, but Hogwarts used house-elves and Idan was … not a fan.
To say the very least.
“So if you didn’t run and you weren’t sent for a swim, what happened?” Harry asked, picking at a limp strand of white-blond hair. He picked up a towel and carefully started drying the Gheyo’s long locks, his bonds humming appreciatively when he was allowed that intimate task.
“Found a tree. Looked like a good look-out spot,” Minh muttered. “Tossed me into a snowbank.”
“Ah,” Harry said, smothering some more giggles. “The Whomping Willow.”
Minh made a disgusted sound. “It has a name?”
“You’re lucky that the only thing it did was toss you into a snowbank,” Harry said. “Ron drove a car into it our second year. It tried to kill us.”
A dangerous look entered his Gheyo’s green eyes.
And they were back to looking like he wanted to watch the world burn.
Or maybe, just one specific tree.
Harry had nothing against the Whomping Willow, but he also wouldn’t be particularly sad if there was a bonfire in a few nights, once the snowstorm had died down. He would even suggest it, because it would inspire his Gheyos and his Pareya to work together.
He would just have to make sure Theo didn’t find out.
After all, destruction of the Whomping Willow probably counted as property destruction of some kind…