Disclaimer; All of the human characters appearing in this fantasy version of the period around Harry Potter's seventeenth birthday belong to J. K. Rowling; a lot of other stuff belongs to her as well so, as is my want, I freely offer anything that might possibly be mine to her as well. She has so many solicitors and suchlike working for her, she could probably claim it all anyway.
Authors Note: There will be no descriptive sex in this story and after their bonding I am generally going to ignore the sex which will occur between the members of the cohort. If you just remember that Harry now is a fit and healthy seventeen year old male and he will do his best to keep the eight ladies he is going to acquire happy. If I was to write in all of the sex the story would start to be buried within it, besides which this site would quite rightly take the story down; if you like that kind of thing then I would recommend you joining my yahoo group and ask I am certain that someone there will direct you.
Day 02
It is Saturday July the thirty first and the time is approximately 05.30 and it is also Harry Potter's Seventeenth Birthday.
It was only just getting light out and he had barely drifted into consciousness, his problem was that he needed the loo but, in the best possible way he was trapped; each of his shoulders had a female head (facing away from him) parked on it; apparently sleeping soundly. Also, to add to his chagrin, each of his hands had one of the young ladies boobs cupped and being kneaded in it, he had decided that this, although new to him, was rapidly becoming one of his favourite occupations; but life was so unfair . . . he was going to be forced to move.
When, very reluctantly, he started to release the boob in his right hand Hermione's voice said, "Just where do you think that you are going Mr Potter?"
"Honestly, I really don't want to go anywhere but unfortunately I need to go to the loo." He pleaded.
She turned around and then cast a silent, wand less spell on his stomach area.
"That's a lot better thank you, what was it that you did?" he was rather inquisitive.
Happily she replied, "It was a medical spell that Mme Pomfrey showed me, it relieves pressure on the bladder; so you see, spending far too much time in the infirmary taking care of you sometimes has its uses."
She could hear the smirk in his voice when he said, "I am sure that was exactly the use Mme Pomfrey intended you to put it to when she spent her time teaching it to you."
He kissed her and it exceeded, by several orders of magnitude anything either of them had experienced before, "Thank you, for all that you have done for me over the years."
"It was my pleasure Harry and happy birthday."
"Why don't you two stop prattling on and start snogging, then maybe I can get some more sleep?"
"If Harry stops playing with my boob so he can snog Hermione you are dead meat Miss Davis; oh, happy birthday Harry . . . and Hermione could you please cast that spell on me as well?" Daphne had no wish to move, she was very comfortable and soon, thanks to Hermione, to be much more so.
Harry and Hermione kissed some more and then he said, "I seem to vaguely remember some sort of an agreement being made yesterday that you are all in violation of . . . you're all wearing knickers."
There was a mad scramble on the bed and knickers went flying all over the room.
"Tracy didn't move." Susan told them a minute later.
"She has probably gone back to sleeeeeeeepooooooooooh!" When she had taken her knickers off, Daphne had turned around and moved Harry's hand so he could prove that she didn't have any knickers on; Hermione had done much the same thing but hers and Harry's tongues were currently trying to exchange mouths and she wasn't being quite so vocal.
Susan had started plotting aloud, "I want some of what Daphne is getting, no, I want a lot of what Daphne's getting, so I think that we should all go and have a shower, his shower is enormous and we will easily all fit in it together. There's not a snowballs chance in hell that any of us are going to move either of those two harlots to get our share if we just stay here and wait."
The response from members of the cohort was varied, one totally ignored her because she was indeed sound asleep again, five were in total agreement with her and three didn't seem to have even heard the proposal.
It was possibly a pity that the three hadn't heard the proposal, but it was quite deliberate that they didn't hear the whispered conspiracy being hatched by the other five.
When the five conspirators had found their wands which for some obscure reason had been well buried in the clothing detritus on the bedroom floor; they levitated the three from the bed, directly to the shower which they had started running at a very pleasant temperature. They had been going to make the shower ice cold, but Luna had warned them against that, fearing any adverse reaction from either Hermione or more worrying still Harry, could inadvertently kill one of the perpetrators. The three sprang apart and subsequently all eight of them had a very pleasant shower; meaning that all of the girls bits had been introduced to the delights of contact with the hands of a male of whom you totally approved. It must also be confirmed that three of the seven girls had had close contact with a part of the male anatomy which to this point in their lives, had only been the subject of their abstract speculation.
When she woke up Tracey would likely be as sick as a parrot.
Tracey was still asleep as the seven other girls made their now dry but still unclothed way back to their rooms, they and Harry were going to meet up and continue the previous evening's discussion, they would once again be in the library.
It was obvious that the elves had been busy overnight; when Harry had gone into his dressing room he discovered that it had a large selection of clothes from both magical and muggle worlds; there were also eight housecoats that were obviously for the girls. For the first time in his life he had the rather novel problem of deciding what to wear, previously he had never had enough clothes to create any sort of selection problem. He was not really that fussed about clothes so it did not take him long to decide to wear a wizard robe and no boxers; after all, it was the girls who had made the 'no underwear' rule and the weather was warm enough so he didn't much mind.
Harry came out of his room and none of the girls were in sight so he went an tapped gently on Hermione's door, when she answered it he asked her if she would like to be bound to the House of Potter, for her part the topaz eyed beauty didn't say a word . . . she just dragged him into her room and kissed him . . . very seriously. Both of them had felt the surge in their hearts and their magic and realised that a bond had formed spontaneously; they didn't hesitate and immediately consummated it.
The other six girls met up on the landing outside Harry's room, Luna could see a golden glow from around Hermione's door; as the glow became brighter Luna had her hands shading her eyes as she said, "I believe that they are binding . . . and the glow is nearly blinding; well they have very neatly solved one of the problems we talked about yesterday evening."
When the couple eventually came out of Hermione's room the six girls congratulated the newly joined couple who seemed to be in a bit of a daze and still hadn't spoken but they had huge smiles as they started making their way slowly down the flight of stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs, in the main hall, all of the Potter elves had gathered to greet the new Lady Potter and following Potter family tradition, she had to lay her right hand, in turn, on each of the elves heads. It was as well that she had given up her earlier ideas of freeing all elves; she now knew that they loved to serve and should be treated with the kindness and respect the race had earned for hundreds of years, it only ever became a problem if they were mistreated.
Lady Hermione Jane Merlin Potter did not yet realise that she now had, with her husband, acquired the power to go to the Wizengamot and change all of the restrictive laws against species and the underprivileged sections of the community. It was as well that the other seven witches who were here with them knew what she was like and were very much in agreement with what she . . . and Harry wanted to achieve.
Hermione turned to her friends and said, "As you no doubt noticed, we have just consummated our binding and all I want to do is take Harry back to bed and keep consummating for a year or three, however until all those who wish to be bound, are bound, then that would be extremely selfish of me. So I will make a temporary rule for us; 'no secondary sex for the next week or until all seven of you are bound, whichever is the sooner, of course this is always assuming that Tracey gets up sometime in the next few days."
The six girls started giggling along with the happy couple; now 'sick as a parrot' didn't begin to cover it.
It was still very early in the morning, however in the library they found that the elves had laid out tea, coffee, milk, three kinds of juice and two large plates of shortbread biscuits.
Luna pouted, "I always have 'Coca Cola' first thing in the morning." Fifteen seconds later two large bottles of the diet decaffeinated verity of said drink appeared on the table, wondering if it was a coincidence because this was the kind she liked best; out loud she said, "Potter elves are the bestest elves in the whole wide world." All of them felt the warm glow from the elves; an elf had actually been to Luna's home to find out which kind she liked and had actually brought the bottles from there; later when the muggle shops opened he would replace them.
Having helped themselves to what they wanted for a pre breakfast snack they all sat themselves down and suddenly Parvati said, "What on earth is that on your hands, the pair of you?"
Looking at their hands Harry realised that he knew what all of these rings were; the ring on his left hand seemed to be pouring knowledge into him almost as quickly as he could absorb it, the one on his right hand was doing much the same but at a more reasonable pace.
To the others he explained that on his left hand ring finger was the Potter family ring and on the pinkie of his right hand was the Head of Merlin Clan ring, both of these rings were platinum, the relevant family crest seemed to be detached and suspended above them. Hermione's rings were also platinum, on her wedding finger the ring had a three eighths of an inch square emerald that had the Potter arms floating in its centre, the right hand ring had the same size emerald with the Merlin house arms floating in it. (Three eights of an inch is approximately ten millimetres, as has been stressed at various times, the wizarding world is somewhat out of touch with its muggle counterpart; we will no doubt touch on this subject again sometime in the not too distant future.)
Together the couple said, "Wow!" Apart from all of the information they were transmitting, the rings were things of incredible beauty; it was obvious to him that Hermione's rings were doing the same to her as his were to him.
The couple explained to the rest of the cohort what the rings were and about them transmitting a lot of information on both the Potter family, Merlin himself and the Merlin Clan. The Potter family information was both ancient and more recent, it was almost like a pensive memory of what it considered to be most important.
All of the girls were gobsmacked simply by the beauty of all four of the rings, however Daphne seemed to be awed, "If you thought that you caused chaos with what you did yesterday, it will be almost nothing compared to the riot which will happen when the Merlin family rings appear in public. Also from the look of those Potter family rings, the Potter family has been elevated to 'Most Noble' and 'Most Ancient' status. I have only ever been told by my father and read about rings like these, I have never actually seen any, if any others still exist the families who own them will have to dig them out and start using them. In reality the kind of stuck up prigs who generally shout their mouth's off claiming Most Noble and Most Ancient status; are the kind of self centred morons who would be sure to wear them just so they could wave them in people's faces.
"The legend is . . . hang on it's a lot more than a legend it's a 'High Magic Edict' so it never gets written down . . . so the rule seems to be that if you abuse the power these rings bestow on you then the rings will disappear and the family will no longer have the status, supposedly it is the rings which bestow the power. Obviously the Ancient bit is simply a matter of looking in the records although those don't go back that far and a suspiciously high percentage of what we might call dodgy families records seem to get destroyed or lost. It is the Noble and Most Noble part that is affected and from what you are both saying also the way the ones who I believe are lying, carry on. I am prepared to believe that it is only those who hold unselfishly to the benefit of the magical world, who retain the Noble and Most Noble power and status."
"I can feel it." The couple said together and smiled at each other.
Daphne continued, "As I said most of the people who claim 'Most Noble' status no longer appear to have the rings to back the claim up and as ring holders, you have the right, which is enshrined by Higher Magic, to be backed up by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to call on anyone claiming Most Noble status to produce the relevant family ring.
"Talk about twisted knickers theirs will have granny knots in them.
"I think that we are beginning to find out why the goblins treated us the way they did; they have their own way of telling but I bet that they also knew that through you, we would have the will and the power to change the magical world to a fairer and more just society."
An owl arrived distracting them as it went to Susan, she took the letter off his leg and gave him some shortbread; "No secrets," she murmured loud enough for them all to hear, they were all going to be in this together; so she read the letter aloud:
"Dear Susan,
I trust that you have had an enjoyable night and I also trust that you are not yet pregnant. ('Chance would be a fine thing I'm still a virgin'. Susan was muttering again.) Actually as long as you are bonded getting pregnant is entirely up to you and nothing at all to do with me.
I have sent you this so that you might inform your Lord that there is to be a full meeting of the Wizengamot, it has been called for by the Ministry of Magic Internal Administration Department. It is timed for Wednesday at 09:00 supposedly it is to appoint a new Minister of Magic, it should be interesting especially if you all turn up uninvited.
It doesn't appear that the Wizengamot has as yet become aware that they are currently without a Chief Warlock; they need to appoint one of those before they can do anything else. This is a long standing rule and there has to be a new Royal Witch or Wizard before the Wizengamot is empowered to enact any other business.
Harry should receive an official notification of this meeting, it would normally be sent out by the Wizengamot recorder, however as far as I can tell he has gone to visit Harry's friend Hades along with quite a few others. So I await with interest whether he receives a notification or not, I will be surprised if he does, notwithstanding all that, please ensure that he realises that, if required, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is at his call.
The only thing that anyone requires for admission to the voting floor is an Ancient or Most Ancient family ring and if necessary those can be sorted out for you with the goblins in Gringotts tomorrow.
Love to you and all fellow members of your cohort, oh and Happy Birthday Harry,
Love again Aunt Amelia."
-x-
Harry was suddenly very alert, "Susan, it's still early but do you think that your aunt would like to come here for breakfast?"
"Why?" Susan didn't want to drop her aunt any further in the mire they were generating, she was probably already knee deep in it.
"At the moment she is the only person in the Ministry who I am certain that I can trust." Was Harry's sincere answer.
"Then of course," Susan said as though it was obvious, she stood up and she disappeared towards the floo happily holding Harry's hand.
Seconds after they left a bleary eyed Tracey staggered into the library and the Patil twins started filling her in on all of the delights she had missed out on.
Daphne drooled, "It was like a light coming on, there was something that needed doing and he was there doing it."
Luna smiled, "And there you see one of the reasons why we who know him well, will follow him anywhere he leads us."
"We will have to keep a close eye on him if things start to get hectic in the future, he has never found it easy to delegate anything or found it at all easy to ask for help from anyone, so we must all watch him and try to share the load." Hermione was trying to help them understand her Harry . . . she liked that, he would now always be, 'her Harry'.
Amelia Bones arrived with Susan and Harry, she seemed quite surprised to see all nine of the cohort already very much awake; although one, was that Tracey Davis, really looked as sick as a parrot . . . maybe two parrots, "So what is so urgent?" she asked.
Susan looked resolute, "Auntie, I promise you that you are not going to hear anything illegal, but we will need a secrecy vow before we can tell you our secrets."
Amelia had very few concerns with any of this group so immediately made the magical promise; with the promise in place Harry and Hermione showed her their rings.
"Morgana's flaming knickers!" was not exactly the thing they expected her to say but then she started laughing as though it was the funniest thing ever . . . then, when they all started thinking about it, perhaps, in its own way, it was.
Eventually she settled down and said, "I can see why you want these rings kept secret for the moment, however if you want to use the additional political power they bestow on you, you will have to reveal them."
It had been quite some time since Hermione had actually said very much of consequence, she had been assimilating the knowledge she was gaining from her Merlin and Potter rings, now however she said, "Outside of the group here, Harry and I do not know or really trust many people anywhere and we probably have the power to decide who will be the next Minister of Magic. At the moment I only trust one person in the ministry and she is currently sitting in our library drinking tea.
"The question is obviously open to everyone here. Who should be the next Minister of Magic?"
Silence.
More silence.
"You managed to break all of them at once darling, you're better than Susan . . . what she said only managed to break me."
After another couple of minutes Daphne was the first to speak and after a couple of false starts she said, "Mme Bones would be the best person, if she is prepared to do the job."
"Let's all go and have some breakfast." It was Hannah who had, very sensibly, suggested it and then she stood up, everyone else stood and they all followed one of their elves into the breakfast room, as they arrived their breakfast was just appearing on the table.
Spending the next fifteen minutes thinking while they were eating didn't seem quite as dire as sitting in silence in the library had appeared to be.
Eventually it was inevitable that Amelia should ask, "What would you want me to do?"
Daphne was quite forthright, "We would want you to do the job that the Minister of Magic is supposed to do, we want you to guide the magical world through the chaos that we started yesterday and is currently still building up. So far we have only kicked the wizarding world in the privates to get its attention, next we are going to give Hagrid a beaters bat and ask him to caress the same area."
"Sounds rather painful." Amelia opined.
"It probably will be." Susan confirmed.
"You're going to change everything, aren't you?" Amelia didn't sound a hundred percent happy and was still only nibbling at the bait.
"Not everything," Hermione entered the discussion, "there has to be some good things out there still, but there is so much crap mixed in with them, none of us can see the wood for the trees. Don't dare laugh but I read a lot and I have talked to a lot of . . . older people, the magical world didn't used to be like this; in some things we need to go back, maybe a hundred years, possibly more, to keep the real traditions not those that Malfoy and those of his ilk tried to inflict on everyone.
"In some of the other things we need to move forward by the same amount, we need to be keeping the wizarding traditions that matter but we should try not to let them inhibit progress or personal freedom. Daughters are not commodities to be bartered by their father's for any reason I can think of, or betrothed against their will again for any reason I can think of; if anybody has any suggestions as to when it might be appropriate then I am prepared to listen to them.
"Changing the target slightly; I have read a fairly detailed description of our house in Barbados; it is warded but it has magically operated panel lighting, computers with e-mail, telephones and it has a portal. The portal is set up so any of us could step through it and come out in one of our other houses in Canada or Florida or Australia or Switzerland and several other places; what earthly reason is there not to be allowed to have one in this house? Around the world there are a fair number of public portals in hotels, government offices and such place; every magical area in Australia has one, for us that would be like the Ministry, Diagon Alley, platform nine and three quarters and Hogsmeade. If, for instance, if one of us tried to use the one in the Canadian Ministry of Magic, we would arrive outside the security check point, if we worked there and used the correct pass code we would bypass security, there are ultra high security models as well.
"Outside of Europe, the British wizarding community are a laughing stock and I don't like being laughed at; the majority of the rest of Europe are being laughed at just as much as us. Only Switzerland seems to have its act together which is why it is the only European country where the International Confederation of Wizardry will meet. Even more ridiculous is the fact that the majority of these modern magical things were developed by and are being produced by various Potter owned companies based in Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States; it is illegal to bring the jobs and ergo the taxable revenue to this country.
"How crazy is that?
"Apart from anything else we are going to do something about the lunatic portions of our eighteenth century society."
Harry was going to get his six pennyworth in, "Leaving out transportation, muggles can do about ninety five percent of what we do and they don't use magic, in this country, using magic, we can do less than fifty percent of what muggles can without, in Australia that figure rises to over ninety percent. We intend changing the disparity between here and Australia; the blond ponce no longer visits the ministry, Malfoy and the other minions are all dead, so they can no longer bribe Fudge and the Wizengamot to stop everything the Voldeburger didn't want to fit into his outdated perception of the world.
"In recent years a lot of the problem has also been the curmudgeonly old farts in the Wizengamot itself and we will be dealing with that self serving oligarchy . . . probably starting on Wednesday; it is time for them to start serving the people they are supposed to serve instead of themselves.
"What we need you to do is to keep the rest of the magical world running whilst other people bludgeon through the rule changes.
"Anyway how does an importation restriction get changed and how long does it take?"
Amelia thought for a moment, "Applying and removing importation restrictions is actually quite straightforward, I know that at this moment you are most concerned with removing them so I will go with that; anyway applying them is virtually the reverse.
"It is the Minister of Magic who has to be convinced to put the item or items before the Wizengamot for removal from the list. The items in question will have been suggested to the Minister in any number of ways. Generally it is a committee for just about anything or a member of the business community worried about competition; recently it has been Malfoy with a bag of gold in lieu of a sound argument. Whatever the Minister must be the first one to be in agreement.
"The Minister will hand the matter over to the Senior Undersecretary for a suitable document to be drafted, the matter would then be brought before the Wizengamot for their approval or otherwise.
"So dependant mainly on goodwill, the process can take anything from an hour up to several months; is that enough of an answer for you?"
The cohort were nodding in approval so Amelia continued, "I am going to need help for the next few days and other allies as we go forward."
Padma asked, "Naturally you will, whom were you thinking of?"
"Griselda Marchbanks and Augusta Longbottom to start with, if we are going to retain the proper traditions those two will probably be our best guides."
Daphne interjected, "Don't forget that we also need a Royal Witch or Wizard." Now they all realised what she meant, it was the correct title of the leader of the Wizengamot.
It was Hermione's turn again, "Those two are as good as anybody, however we are also going to revamp the Hogwarts curriculum; the subject matter and the teaching of some subjects is appalling. The syllabus for both muggle studies and the history of magic are a total waste of time and the teaching of both is consistently dreadful. We also need to introduce some other important subjects such as English Language and Literature, maths, maybe a course called the Wizarding World for the muggle born and raised, possibly some more as well."
Amelia frowned, "You will have a problem with the Board of Governors."
Daphne smirked, "Allow me to introduce you to the Lady Luna Ravenclaw Lovegood head of the Most Noble and Most Ancient House of Ravenclaw; you have already met my Lord Harry James Merlin Gryffindor Hufflepuff Slytherin Black Potter.
"Have you read 'Hogwarts a History'? The Hogwarts Board of Governors are history, they are not doing the job they were originally created to do and they are interfering with thing they have no remit to become involved with."
Hermione interrupted gently and what she said startled Amelia even more, "Yes Daphne, but the actual fact is they have no remit to do anything.
"To become a Governor of 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' you should after being approved by a vote of the full Hogwarts Board plus the standard supernumeraries; it will then include the Headmaster and Heads of all four Hogwarts Houses. If the vote is one hundred percent in favour, not even abstentions are acceptable, the nominated party would be invited, submit themselves to Hogwarts herself for assessment.
"I'm a muggle born witch and I have found all of this information, why does nobody in the Ministry appear to know anything about it?
"Anyway; the assessment room is a ritual room and is a part of the Headmasters suite and has not been used since Dumbledore took over; for the last twenty years it has only been used for Order of the Phoenix meetings, chaired, of course, by Bumblemore the incompetent. Whoever it was that allowed Bumblemore to run what was essentially a war from a school full of underage children, should be taken out and shot . . . not really, shooting is far too quick, something much slower and far more painful would be far more appropriate for the callus depraved pervert."
Amelia was shocked, "Lady Potter, that was a bit vicious."
Hermione held up her hand with the Merlin ring, it was glowing, "In this instance I am the Lady Merlin and this ring has told me that I am the 'First Among Equals', well apart from anything else Merlin was the last great Druid chief and this magical government claims to be representative of Merlin's teachings . . . it would be as well to remember Druid justice . . . the Wicker Man.
"The Druids did not have prisons, they would have abhorred a hell hole like Azkaban; if you were found guilty of a serious crime you were sent to justice and to Merlin justice was the Wicker Man, it is more merciful than Azkaban and more permanent. The Wicker Man would be set up in a public place and felons would remain in justice until the next solstice or equinox at which time the wicker man was burned; not very nice, but it kept the serious crime rate very low and obviously nobody reoffended. Do not concern yourself over much; we do not want you to bring back the Wicker Man." Amelia looked somewhat relieved. "But think Amelia, how many of the pure blood morons would have signed up as one of Voldemort's bully boys if the odds were high that if you were caught you were going to be burned to death in public. Also the Olympian gods, who started this all off and brought us here, approve; maybe not as a long term solution, however they appreciate that at first we need to get rid of the accumulated dross, they appreciate that some of it will have to be forced to move.
"When did I get so morbid; husband, cheer me up." So Harry kissed her until her toes curled and her eyes, blissfully, glazed over.
However all of the girls eyes had lit up as Hermione was talking and Tracey asked, "What does Hermione mean by, 'the First Among Equals'?"
Harry replied, "I don't think that this is the right time to be asking that question, simply because we don't really know the answer to that ourselves at the moment."
Daphne stirred them up, "We have been hard at it for nearly three hours, it is supposed to be Harry's birthday so let's take a break for a bit and Susan, you know which room is your aunt's so you can show your aunt her room as well as yours before she goes where ever else she needs to."
The cohort returned to the library and continued to review the files given to Harry by the goblins.
When Susan returned she told them that her aunt had gone to the Ministry, what with one thing and another they had given her rather a lot to do.
Daphne asked the couple, "So you bonded and I didn't tell you how the books said it should be done; so did you read a book or just do it?"
It would not have been possible for all of the girls to pay more attention when Hermione replied sheepishly, "We didn't read any books on the subject, although if we have any here I will add an amendment to them detailing what we did.
"Harry simply asked me if I would like to be bound to the House of Potter . . . I didn't say anything, I just kind of kissed him rather passionately, the rest, as they say, is history."
"I think," Harry said, "that this is something that Hermione really wanted without reservation, if I am not mistaken it is something that she has wanted for a long time, although I am not sure that the last bit is really important." Hermione was nodding as Harry continued, "I kind of indicated this earlier however circumstances have changed slightly and because now it seems right, so I will say it again a little differently.
"For my part I will be happy if any of you decide to bind yourself to any of the houses of which I am the head; however Hermione is the First Among Equals so it to her you must come to express your desire to be bound to a house through me."
Susan had a big smile and eyes were glowing as she said, "Hermione, I would like permission to bind myself to the House of Potter and I think that we should all try to do this without reference to any books."
Smiling widely Hermione answered, "That is a very good idea about not reading the books Susan and yes I give you all permission to ask the Lord Potter, when you are certain that you are ready.
"As an addition to my earlier temporary rule, for all of our sakes; we should try to give Harry at least two hours to recover between bindings."
Harry stood and taking Susan's hand he led her up the stairs.
-x-
The others continued assessing the items and information in the goblin supplied file box and Hermione had found an intriguing looking portkey to their Swiss chalet, it was a dozen or so miles outside of Geneva, so she started reading the detailed information in the relevant file.
An hour later he was back with Lady Susan Amelia Merlin Potter Hufflepuff, then they all went back to reading in the library.
All of the un-bonded girls spent some time quizzing Susan about the experience and examining her rings, Hannah was especially interested in her rings.
Some little time later.
"Harry."
"Yes Hermione."
"I have been reading this file about our chalet in Switzerland and by far the most interesting thing I have found is that this isn't a portkey."
All of the girls were now paying a bit more attention to the couple.
"If it's not, then what is it?"
"It doesn't appear to actually have a name, I suppose that the only thing I could call it would be a semi portable portal. It's unique because it was developed for your mum and dad, by what is now one of your companies in Australia the company is called Potters Portals; isn't that really original. If you touch it with your wand, it will create a portal that we could all walk through and come out in our chalet outside of Geneva in Switzerland. The chalet in Switzerland has a permanent portal linked to the international portal-net and of course all of our other properties and companies all over the world; Susan and I are Potters so it would possibly work for us as well.
"From what's written here neither your mum nor your dad liked portkeys, I can't say that I blame them, I don't like them either, if you use it at the Swiss end then it will bring you back here . . . it means that we can visit any of our properties, anywhere in the world, anytime we want to."
There was complete . . . thoughtful . . . silence; it lasted less than a minute.
"Do all of you girls have swimsuit's?"
Apart from the squeals there was a general cacophony of agreement from the girls however, when it died down Susan said, "My aunt bought mine and I am not going to let any of you see me in it . . . especially Harry"
Sounding concerned Parvati asked, "Is it too skimpy?"
"Skimpy! That would only encourage me, it wouldn't stop me showing him. It starts around my ankles and it even has straps under my feet, it finishes an inch below my chin, it completely covers everything in between except my hands, it's this horrible 'granny knickers pink colour' and I'm sure that it's deliberately baggy to be as unflattering as possible, it really is hideous."
All of them, Susan included, were now rolling on the floor laughing.
Hannah decided to help her friend, "I read yesterday that there are a couple of bars, restaurants and a few beachwear type shops that are only about fifty or sixty yards from the beach house in Barbados."
Hermione opined, "That information is at least fifteen years old and . . ."
Harry had a pretty good idea of what she was about to say so he interrupted her, "Let's go and try it, we can at least go and have a look."
"Should we go and change?" Parvati asked.
All of them were now in muggle clothes, so smiling Hermione said, "We're alright as we are, we can probably buy whatever we need in Hannah's shops."
Half a dozen cry's of, 'Shopping . . . we'll need money' followed by a reminder to bring their wand's and they were soon ready to give a test run to the portable portal.
-x-
It worked perfectly so one and a half hours later the cohort were spread between two beach front clothing shops in Barbados, the delay had been caused by Daphne deciding that she simply had to become Lady Daphne Ophelia Merlin Potter Slytherin, whilst they were passing through Switzerland.
The other seven girls had had enough time for a pretty good look around the Swiss chalet; it was set in an otherwise unoccupied valley and according to the notes Hermione had read; to a muggle appeared to be no more than a loose, unstable snow drift. Inside it was a very nicely appointed mansion with twelve bedroom suites and all of the other rooms one would expect to find in an affluent home including a library, which to several of the girls disappointment didn't appear to have any old magic books.
"The oddest thing about the place was the room containing the portal, it was enormous with sofas and comfy armchairs, there were also a lot of books here but they were all about 'Potter Industries,' companies, factories and products. The girls had just about cleared the shelves taking books that looked either interesting or useful to read, never doubt that the cohort were all for forward planning.
He had tried to ask the girls about the Swiss chalet whilst they were in one of the clothing boutiques and the politest answer he had received was, 'It was very nice, can't you see that I'm busy,' from Padma. Her twin seemed to be in raptures and on another planet, she had given a squeal of joy when she had found a large display of thongs; between her and the others the display was now nearly empty, all that the shop was left with would be too big for Millicent Bulstrode.
After just over an hour in the shops, during which time Harry had spent twenty five minutes buying himself some swimsuits, colourful shirts, patterned T shirts, brightly coloured shorts and a couple of pairs of sandals, also he had been next door to buy a divers watch, he had started looking bored.
Luna noticed this and taking his hand she called out, "We are going back to the house, we will see you either there or on the beach."
Two and a bit hours later the other seven girls, now clad in very skimpy bikinis, found Harry with Lady Luna Selene Merlin Ravenclaw Potter playing in the sea.
It was a bit odd, but Harry would ask the goblins if they knew why the Ravenclaw eagle had appeared on the ring that was on the middle finger of his right hand; he had already been going to ask about the Slytherin snake appearing there; however he wasn't the head of the Ravenclaw family. He also realised that all three girls he had bonded after Hermione had a Merlin ring, but theirs were solid platinum with Merlin's dragon raised in the same metal on the front; so Hermione was the Lady Merlin; definitely one in the eye for so called pure blood superiority.
The cohort had been playing in and out of the water for a couple of hours or so when the girls started sorting things out so they could lay in the sun and Padma decided to find a bedroom with him, he returned a while later with Lady Padma Merlin Potter Gryffindor.
Before the pair had even settled down Harry said, "I'm starving."
Tracey looked at her watch and almost panicked, "We had better get home, we missed lunch and it's nearly dinner time at home so we had better move ourselves."
Which they did.
-x-
The elves wouldn't have minded if they had been told where the cohort was going; after all the Potter elves all liked Barbados and it was many years since they had been there; the cohort discovered that elves could do pouting to international gold medal standard.
Having quickly been forgiven dinner turned out to be brilliant and included birthday cake for Harry, he came pretty close to death when he declared that being as how it was his birthday, ergo it was his birthday cake and he was going to eat all of the chocolate extravagance himself. He was saved by Tracey who dragged him away so that she could be bound; when the smiling pair returned the cake had been shared equally between the nine of them, all in all everyone had a good time.
Later that evening Hermione was shaking her head when they were again asked if they had discovered what 'first among equals meant,' however Harry answered, "Yes, Merlin explained it and it is nothing really significant and so I kind of forgot about it, I had been terribly worried that you were all going to be numbered, I was so relieved when I found out that it wasn't like that at all, so as I said I forgot about it. It seems to be simply that Hermione knows me best, she probably knows me better than I do, if that makes sense, so if you have any problem and I'm not around she would be the most likely one of you to know what I would think about almost anything."
If he had been paying attention he would have realised that she who was 'the first among equals', was none too happy with him, he had had unique information that he had not immediately shared with her; she would be having words about it with him later. It would be difficult to ban him to the couch, it was irrelevant that it was his house, however it had over a hundred empty bedrooms and one of the other wives would find him and take advantage of the situation, why was life so difficult.
Tracey was still snuggled into his side when she pondered, "I can't believe that with all of this other stuff, your family didn't have somewhere where muggle things worked, I reckon that your mum would at least have wanted to watch video films."
"What's a video film?" the Patil twins had asked in unison, it was also obvious that most of the other girls had no idea of what a video film was either.
Hermione realised that trying to describe a video film to someone who had no idea what a film or television was and only a vague idea about what electricity could do, would be extremely difficult, but she did agree with Tracey's supposition, so she called Zen and asked, "Do we have anywhere where muggle electronics work?"
Elves do not like to disappoint those they look after so he didn't look too happy as he answered, "The south west tower is for muggle stuffs, but the stuffs in there is fifteen years over olds and I does not knows if it still be works."
The bushy haired girl thought that they should have a look, but relatively she had had a lot of exercise, in the sea and on the beach, this afternoon and she didn't want to walk all that way, it was over a quarter of a mile, each way, "Is there an easy way for us to get there?" she asked.
Zen looked around furtively, "There is special cupboard in Master Harry's room, I wills show you alls."
Clambering to their feet the cohort followed the elf to Harry's room and into his dressing room, there was an unobtrusive door on the left hand side near the back wall, there was a small shelf to the left of the door, "You should leaves your wands here, to be no magic in muggle places."
All of them put their wands on the shelf and as instructed Harry opened the door, they were facing a room that was about ten foot square, it had a door in the far side; Zen said, "You alls goes into the room and closes the door; when yous opens the other door yous alls be in the muggle place."
Following the elf's instructions they all went into the room and closed the door behind themselves, as soon as the door closed a strange pale blue light came on and then Harry opened the far door.
Some things are surprising and they exited into a world of matt finished stainless steel and Perspex . . . they were surprised; there had been absolutely no sensation of movement.
The landing they were on was circular and about thirty foot across, descending from the ceiling was a transparent circular lift shaft with a five foot wide staircase sweeping down around it; the torus was about thirty foot diameter with a sixteen foot diameter hole in it. Excluding the lift there were only two doorways on the landing, the single one they had come out of and a large pair of double doors; so of course they went through the double doors.
The room they were in was lit by what appeared to be fluorescent panel lights as had been the hallway and the room was huge; it didn't take them long to realise that they were at the top of the south western tower and quite a few clever things were going on. Looking through the panoramic windows all of them would lay money that they were looking directly at the scene outside as it actually was at the moment, but they had flown around the outside of this tower and they knew that there were only arrow slits for windows. It only took Hermione moments to realise that with plasma screens, some wide angle cameras and a little bit of jiggery-pokery, what they were looking at could soon be arranged, probably without very much, if any, magic being used.
Because it was getting late they decided just to have a quick look around and found that they were in a muggle apartment, it was well over two thousand square feet but it only had one large bedroom; it also had a large kitchen dining room along with a television room. This was what they had originally come for but none of the remote controls would work, in fact they were all but destroyed because the batteries had been left in them for so long. After fiddling around for a while Hermione managed to get a little bit of the Sound of Music video to play but they all decided to come back when they had more time, amongst the videos, there could well be some good memories here for Harry. The only other room was a library containing what they estimated as over five thousand hard back books; although all of the books were muggle fiction. Space was still available on the shelves for probably another three thousand as well as room for more bookcases; the reading area had half a dozen comfortable looking chairs and some side tables.
Leaving the top floor they quickly went down the very elegant stairs, (they wouldn't use the lift until it had been checked,) each of the other three floors was divided into five rooms and only two on the third floor had been fitted out, they were both bedrooms with en suit bathrooms, all of the other rooms were bare.
The journey back to the main house was the reverse of the one to get to the tower and it was made without any fuss.
There had been some discussion throughout the day about having a regular meeting late every evening to decide what they were going to do the next day. Harry declared that they knew so little of the details of what was likely to happen in the morning at Gringotts the next day they couldn't even discuss it and anyway the afternoon would be totally different to the morning.
At the end of the quasi meeting, Hannah decided that she definitely wouldn't be able to sleep unless she was bound so that was also done without any fuss. Harry and all of the other girls were pleased to note that, after her bonding, Hannah's rings were exactly the same as Susan's, it could save future arguments, at least on that subject.
-x-
As per the night before he again had the eight girls with him as he was laying awake in his massive bed, he figured that this might well be a permanent feature of his prospective future, if it was he was all for it. Once again it was Hermione on his right hand, or should that be in his right hand? Tonight however it was Parvati who was purring in his left hand, hopefully she would be bound first thing in the morning; that would be all of the girls bound, it might well be advantageous in Gringotts tomorrow. He wondered if maybe things would settle down with the cohort after they were all bound, although all of his wives seemed to be excitedly waiting for seconds.
He was still day dreaming however; he had learned a tremendous amount today, mainly from the rings and in themselves the rings were to him really strange magical objects. The appearance of neither the Merlin clan ring nor the Potter family ring had changed since they appeared on his hands when he had bound Hermione this morning. The ring that had just appeared on the middle finger of his right hand, after he had bound Susan as the Lady Susan Amelia Merlin Potter Hufflepuff, was an entirely different caldron of cheesecake; where on earth had that expression come from, he must have caught something off of Luna.
It had added floating emblems as the different houses were tied to him, he fell asleep thinking that thanks to the rings he understood a lot more of this kind of thing, he dare not think of the girls or he would never sleep.
-x-
Authors Notes;
One: I have never been to Barbados, or anywhere else in the Caribbean for that matter, so all I know about the place I have learned from the internet; what with Wikipedia and Google Maps et al. Although, having experienced a lot of other places around the world, I seriously doubt that anything there is particularly cheap for anyone who isn't a local, except maybe Rum . . . now that's not a bad idea, although not for this story.
Two: Warning! In the next chapter the cohort will take orphans into their home, these unfortunate humans are currently classified by current wizarding world laws as chattels. As such Harry already totally owns them so he doesn't need to adopt them; this is not intended to be a nice situation, it is intended to show the state of the callous society the pure blood bigots have created
