The Girl who Imprinted

by CCRevival

The Volturi ran off with their tails between their legs, but a gathering that large of supernatural creatures attracted attention from the magical world. The magical world is still rebuilding from Voldemort so Harry gets sent. He finds trouble quickly with vampires - and an infatuated shape shifter.

10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"So, you get to make a choice right now," Harry informed her, his face set into a very serious expression.

"Oh?" she raised an interested eyebrow. It was a little unusual for a date to start out like that, but that could potentially make it better.

They walked out of her house to leave, Harry holding the door open for her like a good date.

"Mhm," Harry hummed affirmatively. "The place is far, but won't take us long to get there," he said mysteriously.

"What is this a riddle?" Leah asked, not knowing if she should be amused or angry.

Harry laughed at her. "No." Then he shook his head, "if you'd just not interrupt all the time, then you might-"

"Yeah, yeah," she said impatiently, not wanting to hear a whole speech about how she interrupted everyone all the time, "I know, don't interrupt. I won't." He arched an eyebrow. Oh. She'd just interrupted him saying she wouldn't interrupt. "Fine, I'll keep interrupting," she muttered, and crossed her arms petulantly.

He just smiled at her in response. "So the choice is on how you want to get there-"

"Doesn't matter to me," she said immediately.

Harry raised a pointed eyebrow again. She just huffed and stayed quiet, but not without difficulty.

"We can either go there the slow and romantic way..." he trailed off with suspense. After the suitable two seconds, he suddenly grinned at her, "or the fast and exciting and maybe even slightly scary." His mood was definitely infectious.

Leah rolled her eyes. "It is our date Harry, what do you think we should do?" she asked him condescendingly, as if she was asking a very obvious rhetorical question.

Harry grinned at her happily. "So fast and scary?"

"Of course fast and scary!" she threw her hands up in exasperation, but her smile showed how happy she was. Even if the whole thing had been very corny.

Giddily, she watched him pull out the broom that he'd said he preferred. The very fast and very expensive one. It was immediately obvious what they were doing.

Her first reaction was to check her clothes to make sure they wouldn't hinder her. Thankfully, she had decided that Harry liked her for a reason, one that was most definitely not very girly dresses.

So she wore jeans and the first top that her hand grabbed when she stuck it in her closet. Okay, fine, so she freaked out about it, and that's how she ended up deciding, by the good old-fashioned close your eyes and grab the first thing before you change your mind. Otherwise she would have still been going through all of her old shabby clothes. So she was a girl sometimes, it wasn't her fault. At least she hadn't worn a skirt(she couldn't find one). She'd never liked them until she started dreaming of all the kinky things she could do with them once Harry would finally ravish her.

The point was that nothing was going to be a problem on a broom.

She had been promised a broom ride weeks ago, but it just never seemed to happen. They'd either end up talking until patrol time, or Leah would get hungry and Harry would cook something for her – and really who was she to say no to her imprint cooking for her. That was hot. Mostly though, she'd put too much effort into how to end up with her head on her shoulder, or leaning on him, or just any kind of contact; so after all that effort to get some friendly cuddles, she wouldn't want to get up and lose the contact they were having.

Cuddles were very important to Leah.

Later, she'd regret not pushing for that broom ride more.

"Hop on," Harry told her, patting the back of the broom lightly.

Shaking off the fear that the flimsy looking broom would break under her weight(werewolves were naturally heavier), she threw a leg over the broom and straddled it. Her butt felt delightfully comfortable when she unceremoniously dropped it, as if she was sitting on the fluffiest pile of cotton. Looking down, she could see there were still a few inches between her and the broom, which meant that there was either an invisible seat, or that was magic itself she felt on her ass.

"It's a cushioning charm," he said, seemingly reading her mind. Thinking about it though, it was probably a very obvious question everyone had when first sitting on a broom. "Hold on tight," he warned her. She did as asked and immediately realized the genius behind sharing brooms.

If she'd just thought about it, she'd have realized that sharing a broom meant holding on to him from behind, which mean full body contact, which meant getting to feel every inch of him... which was even better than the cuddles she'd fought so hard for. She would have gone gladly back in time and kicked herself, if she could. She'd have to ask Harry if that was possible, later.

Leah pressed her chest against his back and wrapped her arms around his middle, spreading her hands out and grabbing his sides. There might have even been a little discrete thumb stroking. And by discrete, Leah meant completely obvious.

Harry coughed, predictably succumbing to her seduction techniques.

"Right," he cleared his throat. "When I take off-"

Leah interrupted him again, which she had started doing on purpose just because it was starting to get amusing. Though this time she had a better reason. "We should have done this a long time ago," she whispered in his ear sensually, making sure her hot breath hit his cold ear. She felt him shiver a little.

Then he turned around, or tried to, since she was still happily wrapped around him and refused to let go... it was a bit awkward. By the time she'd decided to let go a little(when he'd wiggled enough), and he managed to look at her, she'd thrown an innocent expression on her face. He saw right through it, of course, so she dropped it in favor of her impish smile. "Would you rather have me do that when you were in the air?" Leah asked, rationally, in her opinion.

"True, but you didn't need to do that," he tried explaining, but she just looked at him impassively, conveying silently just how stupid of an idea that was. Obviously, she needed to, or she wouldn't have done it. He could tell what she meant just by her face, that's how perfect they were together.

He just chuckled, shaking his head and turning forward, and kicked off the ground.

Maybe she should have stopped interrupting him, because he didn't bother explaining anything like he was going to previously. He just took off, which made her grab on to him all the harder. Yes, she was a supernaturally strong being, and yes, she was very unlikely to get hurt either way, but being that high on a thin piece of wood was still disconcerting to her.

Cats can land on their feet from very high falls, but that doesn't mean they like being thrown out of windows willy-nilly.

Of course, being the prick that her imprint was, he just laughed and started carelessly spinning in circles, scaring her a little. Not that she'd ever admit it. She really had tried to seem tough about it, but when he did a roll that brought her vision upside down – none of her other excellent very good senses could tell her where she was anymore - she screamed at him to stop.

She got her mercy, but no real pity, since he stopped doing gut churning stunts but didn't stop laughing at her at all. She was breathing hard and contemplating the merits of yelling at him when she was at his mercy, when she caught sight of her surroundings.

They were a good quarter mile off the ground and still rising, giving her a bird's eye view, one of the few advantages she didn't get as a wolf. She could see so much of the town, practically nothing blocking her vision... it was incredible. She could see her house from there, she could see the Cullen's house, she could see Bella's dad's house, she could see everything.

It was beautiful.

Harry took them a little further up, to the point where they were flying through the lower clouds. The white mist made everything seem harder to look through for Leah, as if there was a film over her eyes. It was probably worse for Harry though – he probably couldn't see at all.

That was what brought her to speak for the first time, "How do you see through that!?" she asked him, speaking right into his ear to be heard.

"I don't really," he shouted back cheerfully.

"What about planes and stuff?" she asked him, only half jokingly. It practically routine for her to be worried about how he would get hurt during his pastimes.

"They fly much farther up than this," he yelled back, "they-"

"There's no need to shout, Harry," she said in his ear amusedly.

There was a bit of red tainting his neck - he must have gotten a little bit embarrassed. The urge to coo was small, completely negligible, but it was there nonetheless. She fully blamed Emily for that.

"Sorry," he apologized at an inside voice level. It was still perfectly clear to her, despite the wind. "They're loud anyways," he said, referring to the planes, "we would hear them coming long before they hit us and I would find an empty patch of sky."

She nodded against his neck, taking the excuse to smell him some more. She told herself that it was okay to smell him, that didn't make her more dog than human... as long as she didn't start sniffing his butt. Even while in wolf form, that would be totally uncool... and tempting, but mostly uncool.

Although she could do it while her pack is phased, just for their reactions. On second thought, it would be even better if she made them see Leah smelling his crotch. If that had been her instinct in the first place, then that was even better for her. She cackled evilly, planning on all the things she would do as revenge for having to listen to them repeat all the times they had sex. It would be even better when she had sex with Harry.

She got another thought, a truly evil one. When they really tried, they could think about what they'd done in enough detail to where the other wolves would get an undiminished first hand experience, meaning that whenever they didn't care too much about the girl, all of them(her included) knew exactly what it was like to have sex with the poor girl. They would even compare and rate sometimes.

That's where her brilliant idea came from.

Of course, she'd had passing thoughts of it before, but her only experience had been with Sam, and that had been too painful for her to think about before Harry. And after Harry, she just didn't want to think about that anymore, mostly because she was ashamed she'd ever even liked Sam, much less agonized over him.

With Harry though... it would work perfectly. She'd even enjoy it.

She would show them exactly what it felt like to be fucked by a guy - in full sensation and detail.

Even better, by the time she was done with them, all of the guys would know exactly what it felt like to suck a dick.

Her laugh was truly evil, she felt evil.

Harry tensed under her for some reason, so naturally, she was instantly on alert. "What's wrong?" she asked out of instinct.

He completely relaxed hearing her voice, which even through her worry made her a tiny bit smug.

"Sorry, you just..." he trailed off. Had he been worried about her falling off? She had been holding on to him fairly tightly, and it wasn't like she had just made any sudden movements other than laugh... "That laugh you just did... it reminded me of someone," he told her.

She cocked her head curiously. Realizing afterward that he couldn't see her, she asked, "who?"

"Her name was Bellatrix Lestrange," he said, shifting in her arms uncomfortably, "she was evil."

"Oh," she smiled, relaxing with understanding. "I was thinking about getting revenge on my pack, so that might be why," she admitted proudly. "They were pretty evil thoughts."

"I'm curious now," he laughed.

She debated on telling him the truth for about half a second. Telling him about smelling his butt... that would be mortifying. About three or four times a day, she would make a fool of herself in front of him, so she thought she's skip it this time.

Telling him about how she'd been thinking of going down on him and then pranking her pack... well, he'd probably love the pranking. And while she was sure he would also appreciate knowing that she'd do that for him... it didn't need to be known yet. If the opportunity came up, she wouldn't hesitate, obviously, but just telling him like that out of no where seemed trashy.

Hinting and teasing was good, but that would just be distasteful. Not only would it be trashy, but it would seem as if she was trying to win him over with sex. Even worse, admitting that she dreamt about it all the time... she didn't need him to know she was that much of a whore for him.

Not yet at least.

So she decided she should probably skip the whole question. He was entirely too good at dragging the truth from her. Being her imprint gave him even more unfair advantage.

"Nah, it's cool," she told him, trying some of that cunning that he was always going on about, and always saying she didn't have any of. "I don't really need help, but I'll ask you for some if it fails." She was quite proud of herself for the thought, that one would fool him for sure. Especially because he was the biggest promoter of doing things by herself, and learning from her mistakes. He would probably nod at her proudly and tell her to keep up the good job.

Unlike her, her imprint was a bit of little-goody-two-shoes. On some things, anyways - he still had a healthy disrespect of rules that she absolutely admired.

"Leah... I grew up with Slytherins against me," whatever that meant, she had no idea, "and you can't fool me." He sounded quite smug. It probably was all the time he was spending with Malfoy, the blond's arrogance must be rubbing off or something. Oh! Slytherins! Malfoy was a Slytherin! But... Malfoy wasn't cunning at all, he was quite an idiot, Leah thought.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said with a very believable expression on her face. Then she remembered she was talking to his ear and he couldn't see her(which was a waste of some very good acting), so she dropped it and made a face childishly, even sticking her tongue out at him.

A tongue that went directly into his ear.

"Ah!" he yelped, flailing an arm over the side of his head to cover his ear, and catching her face in the process. It didn't hurt her, but definitely took her by surprise. His flailing also made him lose control of his broom, which started dropping without his arms holding it up. The combination of all that caused him to hang on to the broom only by his legs, and for Leah to hang onto him using her legs and arms.

Thankfully, they didn't fall off, but it gave her quite a scare. He managed to skillfully angle the broom enough with just his legs so that he could grab it with his hands again, and then straighten it so that they were flying correctly.

Leah didn't put her legs back on the sides of the broom, where they belonged, but just clung on to him, half scared and half embarrassed. For not trying to make a fool out of herself, she really had fucked things up and humiliated herself yet again. Maybe she should try to be moronic all the time, and things would go right... but probably not. They'd probably get worse.

Her stomach dropped even more. What if he was mad at her? She had just endangered their lives - well mostly hers. He could turn into an owl midair or something and be fine. But if he was like her, he'd be more angry about her life being in danger than his anyways... so he might cancel their date or something. Maybe he'll break up with her! Before they even made it official, too! Her legs went to the sides of the broom again, feeling heavy. Why did she always have to do stupid stuff like this, why did she-

"Woo!" Harry screamed out suddenly, startling her out of her deprecating thoughts. Really, she was getting way too dramatic. That was completely unneeded. "That was bloody exciting!" he exclaimed out, like the loon that he was. Leah just shook her head fondly.

She loved him.

"Why didn't you just ask me if you wanted something more exciting?" he asked her, probably smiling insanely.

Deciding not to admit it was by mistake, she mock complained irritably, "well it was so boring!" She hoped he didn't call out her lie like he usually did.

"Oh? You want faster?" she could hear the mischievousness just pouring out his voice. He must have been too excited to see through her. Hell, he had even forgotten about the revenge she was planning on her pack, and the whole evil laugh!

The excitement she could feel coming from him was catchy, adding to the excitement of finally pulling one over his head, which rarely ever happened. That made her catch up to him, bouncing in her seat just like him. "Yeah! I mean, we're just going through clouds, not even seeing anything!" she exclaimed eagerly, running a hand out through the clouds, which felt odd on her skin for some reason.

She stared out at the clouds more and ran a hand out again. They felt fluffy, just like they did hitting her face and everything... but something was off. She rubbed her fingers together and noticed it. They were completely dry. "I thought we'd get wet from going through clouds," she said confusedly. She thought about how that's what happened in all the cartoons that she'd watched as a kid, like superheroes going through the clouds and coming out drenched... but those were just TV shows. "Or not... I was just guessing..." she said, ducking her face in his neck in case she was just being stupid.

He laughed, "It's a charm on the newer brooms like this one, so that you don't get wet," he told her. Well, that was a pretty awesome feature. She wondered how many for things like that the broom did. Then Harry spoke suddenly, and not making much sense. "Don't worry, you'll be safe."

That was a bit confusing, she thought. It sounded sweet, the words, but it's not like clouds would really hurt her. She started to laugh... until she felt the weightlessness.

She immediately clamped all her available limbs around him. He had laughed psychotically and pointed the end of his broom straight down. And then she felt herself speed up. The weightlessness left her, making her feel as if she was going up instead of down, but up being the ground and down being the sky. Rationally, she could tell they were dropping through the clouds, because she could still see the sunlight behind her, but the speed at which they were accelerating downwards made her feel differently. Since they were laying down on the broom, accelerating downward, it felt like gravity was pulling them upward. It was slightly confusing to her.

However, as soon as they broke the cover of the clouds, she could see a little more clearly, and paid more attention to the ground coming up to them. They were still fairly far away, at least a few dozen miles, and enough as to where it wasn't scary, but the adrenaline was making her feel a little high and giddy. She laughed just as madly as he was and hung on tighter, reveling in the speed.

If there was one thing that her imprint needed to have, was a love for speed. While she would probably still have loved him if they didn't have that shared passion, she sincerely doubted there wouldn't be any disappointment. And it was hard to be disappointment about your imprint. However, that worked both ways. If she would have been disappointed to find out he didn't like it... she was absolutely euphoric to find out he did. She felt elated and just free, going so fast, her imprint in her arms. They had probably just hit a hundred and fifty miles an hour now.

And that's when the speed became fast enough that the wind was affecting them. The effect was that the wind hit them hard enough to where Harry couldn't make the broom accelerate anymore, so they started to even out in speed.

Which meant that they weren't accelerating anymore.

Which meant that Leah could feel they were upside down again.

Which meant that she remembered they were going a hundred and fifty miles an hour, straight at the ground.

"Okay, Harry," she yelled a bit frantically, her previous elation all but gone, "you can start pulling up now." They were still a good half mile away from the ground, so they had time.

"Not yet," Harry screamed back.

Leah took a few deep breaths and resisted the urge to yell to go up now, but just barely. She waited about five seconds. Quarter Mile.

"Okay! I definitely think we should be going up now!" she screamed, definitely frantically now.

Harry didn't swerve an inch.

"Not yet," he screamed back again.

"Pull the fuck up now Harry!" she shrieked, completely losing her shit.

"Not yet," he repeated, only this time she could hear the glee in it. Oh fuck, she repeated in her mind hysterically, My imprint is fucking suicidal. They were only about two hundred yards away from the ground now, practically the last chance to pull up. She screamed in his ear that if she didn't pull up now they would fucking crash and die.

Well, she just shrieked in his ear, but the sentiment couldn't have been more clear.

They were about sixty yards away. That was it. He didn't even have a shot now. She closed her eyes and screamed as loud as she could, too scared to do anything else.

And then she finally felt him pull up, the way his body flexed barely registering through her panicked mind. When the broom responded, it felt nothing like when they were accelerating, where it had started out slowly and then the force got stronger and stronger until it felt like gravity was the wrong way.

There was nothing slow about it.

No, this time, it felt like he had just slammed on the breaks, instead of accelerating steadily. All of her weight seemed to triple instantly, her upper body pressing down uncomfortably on her spine, making it feel like someone standing on her shoulders. Her arms and legs got heavier, making it very hard for her to keep them from disturbing Harry(even in her panic, not hurting her imprint was her first priority). It felt like she was heavy enough to break the broom they were on, everything about her felt like it was getting stretched. She could even feel the hair on her head pulling on her scalp by the roots, as if a vacuum cleaner had just caught it.

It wasn't like any of it hurt or anything, she was a werewolf after all, but it felt weird nonetheless.

However, all of this she noticed much later. At the moment, all she could think of was that she was going to die, and that she failed at protecting her imprint. They were the right way now, so any minute she would feel her legs hitting the ground and breaking, which would mean that Harry's legs would hit the ground and break. Then the rest of their bodies would catch up and break too. She might survive, but probably not.

So she just kept shrieking.

Then she felt prickles on her legs, startling her. Maybe that's what breaking them felt like, she'd never done it before. She looked down, expecting to see them bloody and broken, maybe even a few bones sticking out in places, but all she saw was the tall grass hitting her very healthy – and sexy with the clothes she was wearing, she hoped – legs.

"Woo!" Harry rooted, making his cheer long and loud. Leah could only breathe hard, still unable to move in her fright. She wasn't able to react, either, by the time Harry got up high again. He was still cheering and laughing giddily. Leah just stared at the back of his head, torn between maiming him and hugging him in relief.

"Leah?" he asked her, laugh still in his voice.

"Hm?" she hummed, because she couldn't work her mouth.

"You alright?" he asked, just starting to come down from his high, concern seeping into his voice.

"Yeah," she managed, her voice sounding weak to her.

He tensed under her, and grabbed her left hand, pulling it off him. Before she could ask him what he was doing, or make a sound close to it, he twisted his torso until he was facing him with his upper body, his legs still holding the broom in a twisted way. It looked terribly uncomfortable.

It also made him look a lot like an owl.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked her worriedly.

"Yeah," she gave a little laugh, calming down now. "That was exciting," she smiled at him. "I forgot that Hermione told me you're practically the best flier ever," she stopped and glared at him, "although a warning would have been much better."

Harry went to turn forward again, but she stopped him, scared that she had offended him. However, she forgot how ridiculous her imprint was. "I'm not that good..." he mumbled.

Of course, he would get that out of everything she said.

Leah rolled her eyes at him. "Just give me a warning next time, I might have enjoyed it if I remembered there was no danger," she glared a little, but mostly replayed what just happened in her mind. If she had known there was no danger... it would've been one of the most exciting things she'd ever done.

The grin on his face brought her excitement all over again. "Okay, then. How about next we do this..."

For the next half hour Harry took her dipping and diving, he shot upwards, he turned and stopped on a dime, he did more than she'd thought possible on a broom. He even rolled over again, making her go upside down... then he did it continuously, just spiraling, while the broom went in a straight line.

There were a few times when she stopped him and asked him questions about how it worked, like how sometimes he could do a roll where they would spiral around the broom, and other times they would do a turn where they would spin in place, but their feet and broom spiraled around them. She asked him how that could even be possible, how a broom could be weightless one second, and practically an unmovable column the next. His answer was...

"Magic, of course."

She glared at him, and the answer became, "I can't control how much it weighs – well I can, but I didn't. I did, however, control when I put magic into it or not... you need a lot of control to do that mid air though," he had explained excitedly, much more excitedly than he'd ever explained anything, "if I use my magic to control it, it pushes at the air kind of..." he struggled for words for a second, "well, when we're upside down, and we're hanging on as if it was a monkey bar," he said, getting a chuckle out of her by citing things from recess, "I'm not just hanging on," he explained emphatically, "I'm technically pushing down too... on the broom. Or pushing upwards in terms of relative position, not just on the broom. It's hard, psychologically, to push up when you're hanging on upside down. It's more of a will thing, it's why very few can do it."

She praised him, suitably impressed. He, of course, excused that it was because he was an owl, so that was an unfair advantage, but she was quite adamant that he was perfect, so that wasn't it. She didn't say it quite like that, not wanting to freak him out with intense declarations, but he was still blushing like a school boy by the end.

That time she did coo at him, his embarrassment too cute to restrain herself. Thankfully, he just took it as mocking, which was just fine with her since it helped her save face.

Her favorite part, however, was when she got to seduce him a little more. He had been explaining all the new things he had practiced, but hadn't been able to pull off. Like the one thing that almost every professional quidditch player has tried, but only a handful have achieved: Flying laying down. That gave her the perfect opening.

"Hmm," she hummed thoughtfully, "I think the few that have been able to... they probably had the proper motivation," she said to him as she took one of her hands off of him and pretended to run her hand through the clouds again. "Something that you could use," she said breezily.

"Oh?" he asked, curiosity in his voice, "what kind of motivation?"

"Well," she started out in a slower, lower, sultry voice, snaking her hand back on his stomach. "I guess there's just certain things you can do when you're laying down," she said, moving her mouth even closer to his ear, now almost whispering, "that you can't do otherwise." As she had said that, she moved to grip his sides tightly like she did when she needed to hang on more. Except as her hand ran through his stomach, she made sure to slip her pinky into the waistband of his pants, lightly caressing the hair she felt there. He gave a small gasp, to which she innocently replied with a bright, "just a thought."

She really hoped he practiced it now.

It took him a while to be able to speak again, a reaction she positively loved, but when he did, she decided to lay off the teasing for a bit. She wanted to have a conversation with him as well.

"So I thought you said this was the quicker way," Leah said after about ten minutes of bantering. It was mostly him grumbling about her being a succubus. She took it as a compliment.

"Did I say that?" Harry asked, surprised. "I meant fast as in speed."

"Oh," Leah blinked. "Well, then where are we going?"

"I thought I'd show you Hogsmeade," Harry told her nonchalantly.

How he said that lightly at all, she had no idea. She had been looking forward to see a magical place ever since he had first told her about them, the very first day after the bonfire. The first time they had sat down together, it had been slightly awkward for all of the ten seconds it took Leah to ask him to show her some magic, just like a little kid at the carnival.

Or at the zoo, when she kept throwing stuff at the lions, expcting them to wake up and do something interesting for her. She was such a brat.

Harry had immediately grinned knowingly, fixing and cleaning her tattered dress with a jaunty wave of his hand. It had made her just the tiniest bit self conscious, and a little worried that he'd thought it looked ugly. She had made an effort after that day to look a little better., which really just meant she brought underwear with her; there wasn't much else she could do.

He soothed her fears some, however, by telling her about how Hermione had fixed his glasses when he first met her. Sharing things like that with her imprint made it all better. She was also very glad that Hermione had told him about contacts, he should not have to hide those eyes, they were a gift to the world(hers) and should be shown.

However, what had excited her the most that day(other than the hugs) was when he talked about the magical towns and about Hogwarts. She couldn't wait to see them, any of them. Especially Hogwarts, but they had to get special permission to use international floo, apparently, and as a muggle – that's what they'd classify her as – it would be ten times as hard to get her permission. Not only that, but it was too far to go another way... much too far...

"Harry! It's going to take hours to get there if we fly there, it's all the way in Scotland!" Leah said disbelievingly.

"We're not flying all the way there, silly," he shook his head at her amusedly.

"What are we doing then?"

"You see that big gray cloud over there?" he pointed forward, and only a few degrees to the left, "the one with all the lightning and stuff?"

"Err," she blinked, thinking about how the hell that had anything to do with it. She had learned early on that magic was very illogical though, so she just nodded and said, "Yeah."

"It's fake," he said to her disbelieving raised eyebrows. Even though he couldn't see them. "We see a scary fucking cloud. Owls see a portal to other countries. I think there's lots of them around the world, I found a few already, but that's how we do international mail."

She nodded in understanding. From a conversation they'd had with Hermione, she had said that wizards always tried to adapt their already chosen solution, not try to think of a better one. Therefore, they'd always use owls, and not try to come up with a better way. But Harry dared her to come up with a better way. He won that one.

"Alright, fly through it, easy enough," she nodded.

"Err," Harry sounded nervous. They were just starting to enter the cloud. "It's a bit more complicated than that," he started to raise his voice, because of the fake lightning sounds. At least she hoped they were fake sounds. She didn't bother telling him he still didn't need to shout because she was a little more preoccupied with how he was avoiding the question.

"Harry! Tell me now!" she shouted nervously.

"Well, people can't go through it... but owls can," he hedged again. "And so can the packages they're carrying."

Leah just looked at him like he'd gone crazy. "How does that help us get- what are you doing!?" Harry had grabbed her hands and taken them off from around him, shifting forward and away from her a bit, then put them on the broom shaft between them. Then in an easy practiced motion, he started to stand up on the broom, just like she'd seen surfers do at the beach.

That's when she lost her shit and started getting hysterical. "What the fuck are you doing!?"

Her imprint, her cheeky imprint, turned his head back to her, wearing a fucking grin, and he said to her. "Hang on to my foot tightly and the broom," she quickly did so, too confused to do anything but follow directions. "Remember when I said that this way might be slightly scary?"

"Yeah?" she asked, starting to get scared herself, definitely getting that ominous feeling.

"Don't let go of me or the broom," he warned her.

"I thought the dive was supposed to be the-" but she didn't finish the sentence, because he turned into an owl.

They were flying and he turned into an owl. She didn't know if he had forgotten, but she couldn't fly a broom.

So it was really no surprise when they started dropping almost immediately. He, however was still flapping away, as if a three pound owl could carry two hundred pounds of werewolf girl and a broom, which he was clutching with the other leg. She shrieked and held on to Harry, miraculously not breaking his hollow-boned little leg.

Almost immediately he shifted back and sat them down on the broom, easily righting them.

Leah was still shrieking.

"Was that fun or what?" he asked her, laughing.

"Why the fuck did you just do that?" she asked him, breathing hard and wanting to pummel his face. If only he wasn't her imprint, she would. But seriously, this was the second time he'd scared the shit out of her.

When she'd first imprinted, like all other wolves, she was worried about scaring him with her wolf. She should have known, everything in her life was backward.

He just laughed delightedly and gestured out to her surroundings. Leah glanced out reflexively, instead of yelling at him like she really wanted to.

"Oh," she breathed out. "It's beautiful."

It really was. The scenery had changed around her without her notice. Instead of the deep deep green that she had gotten used to around forks, there was a lighter green with sparser trees, but it felt no less alive. But that wasn't the most beautiful part.

No, the most beautiful thing was the majestic castle in front of her that looked as if it had be wrought with magic itself. Whether imagined or not, she could almost feel the magic around her, merrily jumping on her skin.

Harry's description, as most of his were, was understated, and did not do the castle justice at all. When he'd said countless towers, she'd imagined about seven or eight at most. No, he meant countless towers, being completely correct in the word, because half of the structures she couldn't figure out if they could be considered a tower by themselves or not. Like a little one coming off of the side of a huge one in the front. Is that its own tower? Or is it called two separate towers. She didn't know. Even so, there had to be at least twenty of them.

Then there was the quidditch pitch Harry said he played on, the forest that contained the unicorns and giant spiders, the courtyard where he would socialize...

Leah reached over and kissed Harry on the cheek in appreciation, all without taking her eyes off the castle, looking for all the little things that Harry had mentioned.

---

Draco Malfoy was bored.

It really wasn't that big of a difference from his usual day in Forks, but it was still nothing that a Malfoy should have to experience. At least that's how it had been ever since Potter became friends with his mistress-now-turned-girlfriend that lived out in that reservation. They spent almost all day together now, every single day.

How Potter could stand a woman for that long, he'd never know.

Draco himself couldn't stand his girlfriend for more than a few days in a row, and she was a pureblood! It definitely helped that she wasn't nearly as bad as Parkinson. Draco shuddered.

Still, the poor bloke must be completely bonkers if spending time with the girl was his only option. He never tried hanging out with him... although that was probably because of his status.

It was true that Draco seemed unapproachable at times, being an esteemed pureblood who didn't usually consort with his inferiors. It was true that he was graceful, extremely skilled, and practically the epitome of masculinity. Things like those could be intimidating, so he couldn't condemn Potter for not approaching him...

Maybe he'd do something nice for Potter, something with only guy time. He'd have to invite some of his friends to come over, Weasley wouldn't do. This would also be a great time to teach Potter how to befriend some proper purebloods. With him being distinguished enough that his blood status could be ignored. Not that he was bigoted or anything... or at least he was trying not to be, but purebloods were just better, that was common knowledge.

No, he was proud to say he wasn't bigoted at all anymore.

Excited about having something to do, Draco went upstairs to get his list of floo addresses. It had all of his friends in there.

He went down the list.

---

Draco Malfoy's Acquaintances list

Unbigoted Revision

With Characteristic Notes

-Parkinson, Pansy. Parkinson Manor. Clingy. Avoid.

-Greengrass, Astoria. Greengrass Manor. Reputable, perfect in with quidditch players, current girlfriend.

-Bullstrode, Millicent. Bullstrode Manor. Not a great conversationalist. Ugly. Dead.

-Zabini, Blaise. Zabini Manor. Reputable. Stuck up. Beware of succubus mother. Hates me.

-Crabbe, Vincent. Crabbe Manor. Brainless. Dead.

-Goyle, Gregory. Goyle Manor. Brainless. Azkaban.

-Nott, Theodore. Nott Manor. Reputable. Hates me. Dead.

-Flint, Marcus. Flint Manor. Got me banned me from Wasps stadium after demanding my rightful seeker position.

-Higgs, Terrence. Higgs Manor. Got me banned from Wanderer's Stadium after demanding my rightful seeker position.

-Pucey, Adrian. Pucey Manor. Got me banned from Puddlemere's Stadium after demanding my rightful seeker position.

-Greengrass, Daphne. Greengrass Manor. Hates me. Frigid Bitch. Avoid at all costs.

-Davis, Tracey. Floo Address Unknown. Half-blood. Friends with Daphne. Avoid.

-Potter, Scarhead. 12 Grimmauld Place. Half-blood. Lots of connections. Could use better friends.

-Weasley, All of them. The Burrow. Blood traitors. Poor, rude, too many of them. Avoid if possible.

---

Draco scratched his head. That certainly didn't really help.

Was Potter really his only one male friend... ish? That was sad. He'd have to get some more friends soon. It shouldn't be hard, he was Draco Malfoy after all, and making friends was one of his many skills. He nodded his head. Later.

First though, to keep looking for his neck pillow that he couldn't find...

Although on second though, and on a rare bout of logic, he remembered that he'd tried summoning it countless times, and if that didn't work, the possibility of him finding it by hand was extremely small.

He looked out the window forlornly. Well, he was just bored, but forlornly sounded much more deep in his mind. He was a deep, complicated, intelligent man, so routine words like bored, he pondered disgustedly,were insufficient to properly convene how he felt. Including whichever acts he so deigned acceptable for his station.

That got boring quickly.

At least it took him a while to think of all that, and killed some time. He sighed opened the window, bored again. Then he noticed something outside.

The car! It was there!

He'd been wanting to drive that muggle thing for weeks now, but Potter had apparently left it at his mistress-now-turned-girlfriend's house and never brought it back. Last time he got to drive it, it wasn't fun at all because of Potter, but finally, he'd get to use it. Alone.

Draco looked for the keys, but they were not in any of their shared spaces. Potter must have taken them with him, the selfish berk.

No matter! His father had taught him a spell to hijack muggle cars, so that he could sell them later. At first, when he was young and a little less amazing, Draco had been disgusted at touching something muggle, but his father had explained it to him well.

"If we don't take it from them, then the muggles would keep it."

Draco understood the sentiment then, but he didn't completely agree with stealing from muggles anymore. He used to be great, but now, almost impossibly, he was even greater, since he was no longer bigoted.

However, it was only Potter that he was stealing from. That was fine. He was rich anyways, he could use with losing a few toys.

Giddily, he went outside and charmed the car door to open. He bounced inside - in a dignified manner, of course - and charmed the car to start.

He was so excited. Finally he could drive it without Potter next to him saying things like "the brake, Malfoy! The brake!" or "Malfoy! That's a child you're about to hit!" or just "between the lines, Malfoy! Between the lines!"

It was all very stupid to Draco.

Everyone knows that muggles move out of the way of vehicles.

Hello, he'd been on the Knight Bus before.

Draco rolled his eyes at Potter being a pansy. Really, he was the Gryffindor? Well, he wasn't here and now Draco was running the show.

So now Draco tried to remember what to do next. The car was facing the forest, so he had enough space to do a circle and end up looking out, but he wanted to do the right thing and reverse first.

Because Draco was a smart man.

So Draco looked at the shift, and promptly put it on first. Because first you reverse and secondly you go. He could figure this out.

Because Draco was a smart man.

He was also an important(impatient) man, so he didn't have time to go and back out slowly. Even though he was only there because he was bored, but he'd already forgotten about that. So Draco hit the gas hard.

And promptly accelerated right into a tree.

Thankfully, Potter had put up some safety charms, so barely a hair was out of place on Draco's head. Potter wasn't worthless all of the time.

He decided to try again. But this time, when he tried to start the car, it only made clanking sounds and refused to start.

Such faulty things that muggles made.

Draco kept trying, but he eventually got bored and went back inside with a huff. There, he decided to call his girlfriend, because someone had to cheer him up, and he had no one else. He would have bothered Potter, but he was on a date.

Maybe he should do that with his own girlfriend, it would be nice to give her a treat. Contrary to popular belief, Draco wasn't completely ruthless and cunning, he did have a heart. He cared about his girlfriend and wanted her to be happy.

And have sex.

They'd go on a date in Hogsmeade. That'd be nice. Potter could go and find his own friends.

---

Leah was walking next to Harry through the streets of Hogsmeade. She was trying to keep her cool, but it was hard when she was on a date with her imprint, and at a magical town after a broom ride. All on the same day. Hopefully, he'd let her show him exactly how pleased with him she was later.

"I'm going to get you back for scaring me like that by the way," she teased, lightly bumping shoulders.

"It was the only way," Harry shrugged at her smiling. "Besides, it was already payback for all the teasing you were doing up there," he gave her a pointed look.

She, of course, tried acting innocent. It never really worked for her, since she was pretty much born corrupted. Maybe she'd just corrupt him enough to where she will seem innocent by comparison. That might have a better shot.

So once he snorted at her attempt, she went with the truth. "You liked it." At least she hoped it was the truth.

Harry didn't answer, but stared ahead impassively. She'd have thought he was mad, if it wasn't for the very small blush that he was sporting. If she hadn't been a werewolf she wouldn't have seen it.

"Aw, Harry liked it!" she crowed happily, overjoyed in the fact. Of course, she couldn't just finish with that. She got closer to him. "I liked it even more, you know," she told him lowly, in what she hoped was a sexy voice.

"Leah," Harry groaned and put his hands in his pockets uncomfortably. "Talk about something else, please." If he was hiding what she thought he was hiding in his pants, she should probably stop before it becomes a real problem.

"Fine, fine. Wanna know what the best part about being a werewolf is?" she distracted him.

He sighed, looking ridiculously relieved. "No," he told her, with honest curiosity now. "What is it?"

She was going to stop teasing him and tell him something sweet. Something like... it was imprinting, because it connected them together. He would always say sweet things to her, and she'd have trouble being as smooth as him. The sweetest thing she'd ever said to him, was 'I'm going to stalk you forever, you know. You can't get away from me'. Yeah, she could use with more practice. That was why it would be a perfect time for a sweet comment.

But then again, she never knew when to stop.

"Gravity defying boobs," she told him giddily, absolutely loving how much it was affecting him. "The bra doesn't support them, they support the bra." She even wiggled her chest a little for him. She liked that description. Gravity defying... she decided to affectionately call them space boobs.

Harry looked away quickly and shifted his pants, not being able to be subtle about it at all anymore. He tried glaring at her for a second, but she saw through it – and it made her even happier to finally win for once, so his face dropped into a resigned expression. "Name your price," he told her, still with his hands in his pockets.

She grinned victoriously, not trying to tone down her gloating at all. Inordinately pleased, she basked in the feeling of flirting with her imprint like this, something she'd been wanting to do for ages. In fact, she even did an exaggerated fist pump to show just how seriously she took that win.

It might have been slightly pathetic.

Once her celebration was done, which Harry just chuckled at, she tapped her chin with her finger, trying to think of what she wanted – and what she could pull off. Those pants did look deliciously uncomfortable, something that giving her her own problems. She decided to be nice, since he was taking her out on a date. Not because it was affecting her too much. "I'll be nice since you're working so hard for me," she told him imperiously, to which he rolled his eyes. She really gave his eyes a work out, with how much he rolled them at her. "Hold my hand for the rest of the evening then, and we shall call this... adjourned."

Harry blinked at her. "I don't think that's the proper use of that word..."

Leah glared at him, showing her disagreement, and folded her arms. "Okay, Hermione, what is the proper use?"

"Err..." Harry said, frowning. Leah knew he didn't know what he was talking about. She remembered learning what the word meant in like sixth grade. He didn't know what he was talking about. "It's like for meetings," he said, still frowning, "like when they're over and stuff."

"No," she shook her head stubbornly. "You're wrong."

"Oh?" he arched an eyebrow at her challengingly. "What does it mean then?"

"Err. It means..." she trailed off. She couldn't quite remember exactly how to explain it, but she knew she was right. He smirked at her knowingly. He might be her imprint, and therefore perfect, but she still hated being proven wrong. "It means," she repeated, glaring, and a plan starting to form in her head, "to touch yourself."

Harry sputtered a bit, surprised laughter bursting out. "That's ridiculous, and it doesn't fit into our conversation at-"

"Of course it does!" she interrupted. "For example," she said and lowered her voice, getting closer to him and pressing his arm between her space boobs, "I adjourn every night," she pressed herself even closer, making sure her hot breath hit him, "thinking of you. Always thinking of you."

Harry gulped and took a step back, raising his hands. "Okay, you're right, you're right. Adjourn means... whatever you meant," he nodded quickly.

She smiled again, satisfied, ignoring his unintentional jab at her. She held her hand out expectantly, which he hastily took, making her smile even more broadly.

"Alright, I'll talk about something else," she said reluctantly, stroking her thumb on his knuckles as apology. "How about the portals we came through?"

Harry looked ridiculously relieved. "What about them?"

"Well, is there portals like those, ones that work for people?" Leah asked curiously, seeing the possibilities with it. She would put a portal from her house to the grocery store. Well, Harry's house. She'd decided to move to his house. She'd inform him of that decision later.

"No," Harry sighed and seemed oddly melancholy. "No one even fully knew of them, not before I went flying with my owl just for fun when he was delivering a letter to Hermione," he said, his eyes far.

"Err... That's awesome Harry," she said trying to sound enthusiastic for his achievement despite his tone. He gave her a small smile. "So why do you look so down?"

"It just always makes me think..," Harry said trailing off. She watched him patiently, waiting for him to get his thoughts together. "Well it's just that nobody knows who did it. We have no way to replicate it, we're not even close to doing that kind of magic."

Leah thought she understood. "Ah, so you're worried about someone having that kind of power and you not even knowing about it," she said a bit worriedly.

Harry surprised her by laughing. "No. I know who did it."

"But you just-"

"No, I mean..." Harry interrupted, then started "I know it was someone a long time ago, just not who exactly. It was probably thousands of years ago. That's what's depressing, we're actually a long way behindwhat we were millenniums ago," he said frustrated. "It's because of the government taking the easy way out on everything and blaming muggles. Right now, there's a lot of corruption still left over in the ministry."

He sighed and started over. "A long time ago, in the time of Merlin, wizards weren't really recognized until they did something major for the community. Something that helped them all, and it had to be something original," he said with admiration, even awe when he talked next. "Like how Merlin helped build Stonehenge by searching the world for the strongest leylines and taking months to purify each and every stone. He did countless rituals to prepare the place for eternity, going as far as including giants to carry them so that he didn't taint them with any of his magic." He was smiling by the end. "The founders were the last to do this. Each one created innovative things to help the school. The sorting hat, the room of requirements, even the chamber of secrets was supposed to protect the school."

Then he sighed and all his excitement seemed to leave him. "The ministry was founded at the same time. They started to regulate magics. They banned a lot of things. It was a good idea in principle, but magic is almost impossible to regulate. The only thing they did, was remove the knowledge from the general public, because the worst of wizards still found it." He shook his head. "It actually helped the criminals, because that's where it all ended up. Not only that, but those kinds of magics are good to learn about if you're going to be delving into any of the more powerful magics."

"It was a flaw that didn't show up for generations," he said saddened.

Leah felt sad herself. She was suddenly very proud of her tribe though, for keeping their culture and traditions, and for passing on the stories as much as they could. Although if she really thought about it, they couldn't spirit walk anymore like they used to...

"That's what you and Hermione are working toward though," she tried to cheer him up. She also very much enjoyed not counting Ron in their group. Or Ginny. "You're both working toward making it better, even if it's only a little."

"Well," he smiled again, "it's mostly Hermione."

"No it's not," she stated, a bit angry that he didn't give himself enough credit. "She might be the smart one, but you're not slouch yourself. And you're practically all of the muscle," Harry reddened as she kept talking. "Not only in magic, since she has you do all the major spells, but politically as well. You're the one that has the Wizardemot-"

"Wizengamot" he injected.

"Whatever, the Wizengamot seat and voice," she didn't fully know what she was talking about – he'd explained it a long time ago – but it seemed to be working well enough. His blush was receding and he was looking almost proud. She knew she was proud at cheering him up. This would be her favorite job from now on.

Leah, professional... er... cheerer-uper? She didn't want to be called cheerleader. Too gay.

"So you go and use it. I know you can," she said, being completely cheesy. Her grin said she knew it was cheesy as well. "Besides, I only imprint on the best of the best," she turned up her nose haughtily. That, she could pull off quite well.

Harry laughed – a real laugh – and grinned widely at her. "You're amazing," he informed her, as if she didn't already know. It was alright though, it was still nice hearing it. Okay, fine, she almost swooned. If she had been a more girly girl she would have, but she was tough.

At least until he let go of her hand to put it around her waist, making her give her dreamiest sigh.

Then he informed her that they were going to sneak into Hogwarts. Both of those things making the date even better – and seriously how much better was he going to make it, she was practically gliding in her happiness already.

They walked toward a secret passage that he told her about, with her cuddled into him and a comfortable silence between them.

---

Hermione was content.

She had the day off, and she decided to go to Hogsmeade with Ginny, to try and make her feel a little bit better. Maybe as an apology for getting all crazy on her. Not that she'd ever admit it, being called irrational was one of her weak points. She had also asked Ron to come for dinner as well, so they could work on Ginny together.

Hogsmeade was the logical choice to her. Harry couldn't bring Leah here on his date because Leah was not allowed to floo internationally. There weren't many ways for them to get there otherwise, the only ones being experimental... which Harry actually was quite likely to try. But in all fairness, Harry was just as likely to do anything else, so logically it's still the least likely choice. Not only that, but if Harry were to want to show Leah a magical town, he'd show Diagon Alley, since it was a less likely place to be recognized. At Hogsmeade, they took Harry's legend more seriously than anywhere else, since he fought in that area.

The last safeguard that Hermione had, was that if Harry were to show up there, Hogwarts would be too tempting a place to sneak in for him. No male can resist trying to show off their little hiding places to the women they try to woo. It's basic instinct, like showing off their nesting places. If there was anything that Hermione could count on with Harry, was his instinct.

"So what are we doing then, Hermione?" Ginny asked, her voice chipper.

Hermione smiled at her friend being happy already. Ginny was strong, and her relationship with Harry wasn't as serious as they made it out to be. She would be fine.

"Shopping first!" Hermione said in the most excited voice she could muster.

She hated shopping. But friends were important for emotional well being, and being selfless was the most important part of keeping your friends happy. From all her observation, keeping your friends happy made one happy as well. She was no different.

It might even affect her more since she hadn't had that any in her childhood. That had been why keeping Harry happy was the most important thing to her during most of school. Of course, Harry would disagree that having your homework done, and being safe was equal to happiness, but Hermione tried her best. Ron was easier to keep happy. Plus, he annoyed her back then.

Ginny grinned at her knowingly. "You're really making a sacrifice here, huh?"

As much as she read from her muggle acting books, they didn't help her at all. Just like when she had tried to read and learn how to ride a broom. Her and physical things don't mix that well. Apparently acting is physical enough to where she'd be bad at it.

Well, she decided to just be honest. Honesty was another big part of friendship, she'd read a long time ago. She'd stuck with it and it hadn't failed yet.

"It may not be my favorite activity, but I can enjoy it if you like it enough," she informed Ginny.

Ginny grabbed her hand excitedly and they went inside of the dress shop. She looked around.

For some reason, her memory did not work at the same efficiency that it usually did, whenever she looked at clothes. The most likely reason was that it was just very very unimportant to her, therefore her brain didn't make it a priority to analyze the models enough to where some kind of memorization technique unintentionally went into effect. That's how most of her memories were saved so well. Her brain would automatically run through different techniques on how to remember everything. Most of them were things that most people did regularly, like think about what she had just read a few times in her head. Or she would try and poke holes in the content, or come up with arguments on how to defend against counter arguments. Interesting things.

She just couldn't do that for boring things like quidditch or clothes.

"Oh look!" Ginny exclaimed next to her after they had entered the store. "A sale!" and she quickly ran off.

Logically, Hermione knew that sales were misleading. Most of the time, if there was a reason for the sale, then there was a reason for why not to buy them. Sometimes the clothes be defective, so that's why they were getting rid of them, or the style would be unpopular soon, not that she cared about the style, but it was the principle. That's not to say they were always misleading, just statistically speaking, most of the time.

At least they would meet Ron for dinner later at a nice restaurant, one that overlooked a street with a beautiful scenery. It was her favorite one. That would be much more interesting than this.

Hermione gave a great big sigh and steeled herself to try and make limericks out of the cuts, styles and brands of the clothes, using transfiguration laws in each verse. If that didn't make it more interesting, nothing would.

---

"Are you sure you won't get in trouble if they catch us here?" Leah asked Harry worriedly.

"Not too much," he shrugged. "Why? Scared of detention?" he smirked at her.

Leah scoffed. "I'd probably enjoy them, to be honest- ooh, the paintings move! Look!" Leah excitedly pointed them out to Harry. Some of them were even talking! Yes, she knew that he'd gone to school there, and that he very well knew that the portraits moved.

But it was just so freaking exciting!

The sneaking was probably the best part though. Harry brought out his invisibility cloak and they huddled in together – brilliant decision, sharing a small cloak – and they tip toed across stairs, corridors, and even secret passages that she would always 'ooh' and 'ah' at. That's how they got into Hogwarts, which they were now traversing. When they reached a portrait of fruit, he admitted to her that none of that was actually needed, since he could tell if anyone was coming.

It just made it cooler. She could have quite happily raped him right there.

Well, technically she could always quite happily rape him anywhere, but the urge was particularly strong then.

Then he tickled a pear, which giggled – magical things would never get old to her – and the portrait swung in, showing the kitchens. The vaunted safe house, from what he always told. Not just because it was too pleasant a place to fight, even with Slytherins, but because the house elves didn't let them.

Then she met the house elves.

Really, nothing could have prepared her for meeting those little buggers. It might have just been the cutest thing she'd ever seen – if she didn't count anything about her imprint, of course.

They were tiny, and she just wanted to grab one and cuddle it. Their ears were so big and just so floppy. She really wanted to grab them and wiggle them around. Their eyes were bigger than her fists, all of them staring up at her, asking her if she needed anything at all. And all of them absolutely adored her imprint.

Which is understandable. He was perfect, after all.

That was why, after meeting so many of the cute little guys, she met one that wasn't so cute. Well, that was debatable, but for a bit, she didn't look so cute at all.

Apparently, she was the elf of a past Death Eater, one who had a very special hate for Harry. The little house elf had a plan to become Harry's elf and then get revenge.

The elves that worshiped Harry were the ones that thwarted her, and informed him of her plan.

"You were going to kill him?" Leah asked, half horrified, half murderous.

"Death be too good for Potty," Minty - that was the little lady house elf's name - spit out his name. "No, Potty would be being alive to suffer, Minty would make sure," she said, with a very out of place vengeful expression on her elfin face.

"What would you do?" Harry asked worriedly. Although he seemed more worried for the elf's sanity than his own life. He looked like he really wanted to go and hug her.

"Minty would have burnt your food for every meal!" Minty declared evilly. The other elves yelled in protest. Leah held in her snickers somehow. "That is not all Minty would being doing, Minty would being much worse!" The elf paused for a few seconds, while the other elves looked at her angrily. "Minty would have being using her master's tippies!"

The reaction was immediate. As one, all the elves in the kitchen gasped, covering their mouths in shock. One of them fainted, and had to be carried out. Another, one of the younger elves, was muttering about the dishonor, the shame.

Leah raised her eyebrow at Harry in question, to which he shrugged. "Um, could one of you guys tell me what exactly tippies are. Err, or is," he looked her in question this time, but she was no good at grammar so she just shrugged back.

One of the little guys spoke up though, "Tippies is being the pot chamber, Master Great Harry Potter, sir!" That was another thing that made her want to laugh, they names they called him. There were actually a few longer ones than that one. She would have to start calling him that now, to tease him.

Now she could see Harry struggling to not laugh, but she didn't exactly get it. "A pot chamber? Like pots and pans? As in a kitchen?" she asked confusedly. "Don't they work there anyways?"

Harry had been struggling to speak while still hiding his laughter, so he didn't get to interrupt her. "Pot chambers are bathrooms," he ground out through the giggles that were threatening to erupt from him.

Leah hadn't even known how to respond to that. So she didn't. She just nodded as if that was normal and tried not to think about it.

Harry took care of stuff for her after that, so it was fine. He apologized to the elf for his loss, but not his actions, and ended up sending her to the elder Malfoys, whom the elf liked.

The rest of the elves seemed to try to make up for their one bad egg, so they ended up having getting much too much food from them. Each one of the little elves would bring a different food and set it down at their table until Leah could barely see over the food at Harry.

He smirked at her, "Enough food for you?"

Rolling her eyes, she began to eat. It was the greatest thing that she had ever tasted in her life. Each and every dish was better than the last one. It was almost a constant orgasm in her mouth. And with how much she could eat, multiple orgasms was an understatement for what her taste buds went through.

Thankfully, she managed to keep the contented noises quiet and lady-like. The conversation was also fairly one sided. She was much too busy eating to talk back, but he seemed to realize that. He went on telling her all about Dobby. Dobby the house elf.

It was a fairly sad, moving story, especially when she heard of his sacrifice and thought back to the beginning. The little elf was completely abused, and still committed the ultimate treachery to do what he thought was right and told 'The great Harry Potter, sir' of the danger. She still giggled at that.

But it was fairly sad, how devoted the little elf was, and how hard he worked at trying to help Harry. The amusing things that he did, like stopping him from getting on the train, all those misguided things, seemed very sad to her in hindsight. How much of his effort and life was mostly in vain, because of all the restrictions on their kind. His sacrifice was even more moving because of how he was so happy in the end, helping Harry.

She wasn't ashamed to say she cried a little.

Well, in theory. Theoretically, she wasn't ashamed... but yeah. She would never say she cried.

That's when Harry tried cheering her up by talking about the little elf's love for socks. He had made her giggle and think about something else other than the sad story. She didn't forget it though, obviously, because she cherished hearing all of his stories. And what a story it was! Harry's life, she decided, was the most complicated, dramatic thing she'd ever heard. And she loved it.

It was like listening to the old men who met the most famous bands back in the seventies or something. Except he was the same age as her.

The whole time he talked though, she kept eating. Even through the sad parts, she was crying while still stuffing her face. That's how delicious it was. They didn't finish the food, but she did try every last dish, and each was just as delicious.

After that, and thanking the elves extensively, they went back outside the castle again, making sure to go through a different passageway – and it was so fucking exciting – and then they went back to the little town. They got some magical ice cream, which was ice cream that didn't melt and changed flavors every few seconds in your mouth. You could choose three different flavors and they would mix them into one for you. Leah was on cloud nine with her imprint, food, and exciting magics that he would explain to her. He really knew her too well.

Harry was a bit fidgety around crowds, but she was warned that he was famous, so that she should be prepared for that. Nothing could prepare her for just how cute it was when a couple of little kids came up to him and asked for autographs.

It was his face, she decided, that was the funniest thing. It was a bit scared and embarrassed, and looked at her desperately as if she could – well, more like would – help him out.

She didn't, of course. It was much too cute.

"Harry Potter!?" a little boy that looked about seven ran up to them and blocked their path. When they didn't answer because of the suddenness, the little boy crossed his arms and glared. "You could answer y'know! It's not that hard!"

Leah snickered and looked at Harry. He sighed and put on a fake smile. It probably fooled the kid though. "Yes, that's me, what's your name?"

The kid's face instantly turned from grumpy to awed. It was hilarious how he forgot that he had just yelled at Harry. "Ma-"

"Matt!" a little girl that Leah was pretty sure was his sister ran up to him, stumbling a little on the way. She was wrapped up in the cutest little pink jacket that still looked much too big on her. She usually didn't like kids that much, but this one seemed a bit shy once she saw Harry and Leah. Shy kids were cute.

"Matt!" she yelled again, although he was already looking at her - and a about foot away. "Mum callin'" she pointed back to where a lady was walking toward them, looking very harried. The little girl noticed that Leah and Harry were there and staring at her, so she shrank a little and grabbed on to her big brother's arm.

Before her mom got there, her brother got angry, probably at being interrupted, and yelled, "wachu doing here!" raising his one good arm, since the other one was held down by his sister. The little girl shrank a little more, getting even more shy, but didn't let go of his arm. Leah almost wanted to stand up for her.

"Sorry about that," the mother said, huffing with exasperation, "I don't know why he just ran at you like that..."

"He's Harry Potter mum!" the little kid yelled, much too loudly for how close they all were. Harry started and looked around apprehensively. Thankfully, no one seemed to be paying much attention.

The little girl though, gasped loudly and looked at Harry with so much awe that Leah almost felt like she should stake her claim. She recognized that it was bad, when she saw five year old little girls as potential rivals. Harry just fidgeted, too uncomfortable to discern from her face what was going on in her head.

"Well, I'm sure that he's busy right now, honey. He looks like he's on a date, so we shouldn't bother him," his mother told him sternly, but she did glance at Harry a couple of times in wonder as well.

"But mum!" he immediately pouted. Leah snickered, which the little boy caught, because he turned to her angrily. "Why would he want to be with her anyways. Girls are stupid."

Oh hell no. Leah put her hands on her hips and glared right back at the little boy. She didn't take shit from anyone. Plus, that brought her back to kindergarten when she had to kick little boys in the balls because they called her stupid.

Nobody called little Leah stupid.

"Girls are not stupid," she bit out. She saw Harry sigh and look at the boy's mother apologetically, but the mom just smiled amusedly. Girl power, that's right. Even the little girl was looking at her admiringly.

"Yuh huh!" the little boy told her immaturely. Leah had to clench her hands to stop herself from retorting in the same way. That didn't say much for her maturity level. "All girls are weaker than boys, it's the truth!" he exclaimed.

She opened her mouth to tell him how girls rule and boys drool, but Harry beat her to it. "Actually, mate, Leah here is stronger than me," he smiled at the little boy, "it's terribly embarrassing sometimes," he winked. He seemed much more comfortable now that the attention was away from him being Harry Potter.

"What?" the boy asked with his mouth open, while the little girl giggled. "No way!" was all he could say. "I don't believe you!" he exclaimed stubbornly.

"Really. Look," so Leah put an arm around Harry's side and then shifted the other way, lifting him up like luggage. His eyes popped out a little, also saying a little oomph.

Both of the other females giggled at him, and Harry pouted good naturedly. The boy looked at her appraisingly. "I guess you're not too bad," he told her, and she guessed she could forgive him, at least until he kept going, "for a girl." The boy was going to be a chauvinistic pig, she could tell.

She was about to start her feminist speech about how women could do everything that men could, and how they were actually the superior species since they statistically did more work than men(she didn't know if it was true, but men masturbate much more than women, so that meant less time for work), when Harry tried the sensible approach. She still thought they should have done the feminist speech.

"Mate," Harry started, probably acting like friends so that he was more likely to listen to him, which was smart, in a way. "Someday, you're going to like girls, and you're going to regret thinking that girls were stupid, trust me," he told him exaggeratedly. "Plus, you have nothing to lose by being nice to them. If you're nice to your sister here, I bet she won't ever tell on your or anything," he winked again.

The little girl smiled at Harry and looked at him with even more star struck eyes. That made Harry start fidgeting even more than before. Leah thought it was about time they moved on, she didn't like her imprint feeling that uncomfortable. Unless she was the one teasing him.

"Well," she started out, looking at the little girl, "did you know that Harry positively loves hugs?" She looked at Harry with the most innocent eyes she could. The betrayal in his eyes was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Even the mom snickered at him.

"Really?" the girl asked so hopefully that she saw Harry wince.

He was quite gracious about it though, and crouched down, putting a knee on the ground. The girl immediately launched herself at Harry, trying to wrap her tiny little arms around him. It was terribly cute. It also made her a bit emotional, seeing Harry with a kid. She tried not to think about that too much though. She just watched Harry contentedly as he hugged the little girl.

As they were walking away, Leah sighed, "I hope I taught the kid a lesson about saying girls were weaker."

Harry just laughed at her. "What lesson? You just fought with him!" he said.

"What? Really?" she asked him confusedly. "I thought I told him about how he was going to regret it and that he should be nice to her sister..." she said.

"That was me! I said that!" he said, feigning outrage.

"Huh," Leah said and scratched her head. "Well, as the woman here, I can take credit for anything you do," she nodded.

Wisely, he conceded that point, and they kept walking. He wanted to show her the joke shop next.

---

Hermione was having a wonderful time with her husband and her best girl friend.

They had even made progress on the Harry front.

At first, she had to fight alone, since Ron was actually more of a hindrance than any kind of assistance in Ginny's recovery. Really, she should have seen it coming. Hermione could predict what people would do reasonably well, if they weren't Ron or Harry. With Ron she couldn't predict when they would get in an argument, or anything like that, which she actually absolutely loved. She always felt so in control over everything, and Ron took her out of her safety zone, it was something she needed.

Harry's life was just too crazy for her to predict. Hermione sincerely wished Leah good luck with him. Plus, he would almost always go with the first idea that popped in his head – he was getting a little better, but it was still his trademark – and half the time, his ideas were completely illogical.

How they almost always worked out for him, she'd never know.

But eventually, Ron acquiesced, and started trying to cheer Ginny up with food and quidditch. The Weasleys were a very easily satisfied lot.

They also had some wonderful, and some not so wonderful, surprises there at the restaurant. It had looked like half their class was there, but of course that was only at first sight.

It was just Malfoy and his girlfriend, and the rest of Harry's dorm mates, all with their girlfriends. Seamus with Lavender, Dean with a girl tiny Ravenclaw girl if she remembered right, and Neville with Hannah Abbot.

Once they saw the three Weasleys, they all wanted to join. What was truly Baffling, was Malfoy wanting to join. That made Seamus and Dean, discreetly, of course, leave for another place, their girlfriends in tow.

So now it was Neville, who kept shooting strange glances at Malfoy, and his girlfriend that joined them.

Really, Malfoy must have warmed up to Harry or something, because he would have never joined them before. She watched him curiously and saw him smirk at Ron, riling him up. Okay, maybe he hadn't changed that much.

Then she glanced at her left and winced sympathetically. Everyone but Ginny was there with their lovers. It was quite sad, but Hermione felt it was vindication, really. She had told Ginny over and over that she wasn't appreciating Harry as she should have been.

At least she knew that Ginny wasn't trying to hurt Harry, she just genuinely wasn't ready for more. But Hermione also knew that going to all of her Harpies parties and leaving Harry alone during the weekends wasn't really helping her get ready either, something that Ginny dind't quite get. If she did get it, she had decided that the parties were of the more immediate importance. Hermione could somewhat understand... the glamorous life – although in the small magical community glamorous was a bit of a stretch – was hard to refuse. She could understand how it happened, but she couldn't exactly sympathize or agree.

If she had even suspected that Ginny was doing any of it on purpose, she would have hexed the ginger to a coma. She loved Harry more than almost anyone. It wasn't even until she got engaged to Ron that she set her relationship with him above Harry's friendship. Even now, it really wasn't that much higher, although once she had her baby and Harry's relationship with Leah went along more, that would probably change.

She didn't have romantic feelings for Harry, she'd known that since about fifth year when she was sure he wasn't going to have any feelings for her. It was a mix of friendship and sisterly love. Even a bit of maternal feelings, because she had seen how starved for affection Harry had always been. All three of those, fueled by how much Harry was always in danger, mixed into a fierce protectiveness for Harry that she'd be lucky to have for her own child.

And just like a mother would, she'd thought she would never approve of any of his girlfriends because they'd never be good enough, or want to protect him as much as Hermione did.

Then she met Leah, who quite honestly had her beat in that regard. She'd never thought it was possible, Hermione felt her protectiveness over him was equal to none. At least until she saw with her own eyes how Leah would always have Harry in the corner of her eye, always tracking him to make sure he was fine, always ready to do anythign he needed.

She watched Leah offer help Harry with a lot of little things, but somehow not come off as clingy, smiling at him happily when he wanted to go outside with Ron and fly, even if that left her alone with Hermione or if it wasn't what she wanted. Leah had it down to an art form – a balance that Hermione had never been able to achieve. Leah would offer help, but never twice. She would insist when he was being ridiculous, but not when he was just being stubborn. On top of all that, she had a playfulness to her that would make everything seem brighter.

It all boiled down to how concentrated Leah was on Harry's happiness; which was the most important thing, after all. No matter what happened, what they talked about, how suspicious Ron would be on their friendship or anything that made Harry frown, Leah would fix it.

Even with all her intelligence, Hermione knew wouldn't be able to pull that off. She had known back then that Harry would break up with Ginny and go with Leah, so she supported Leah to speed things up. It had just been a matter of time.

So while Hermione did feel a little bad about Ginny, she completely supported Harry's decision.

"So," Malfoy said, probably to say something to rile up Ron, "where's scarhead?"

And based on Malfoy's smirk, he knew exactly where he was. Hermione had always thought that the Slytherin had no sense of restraint, unlike what the house was supposed to represent.

"On a date," Ron bit out, becoming irritated again. Hermione sighed, knowing this meal was ruined already. She wracked her brain for all the techniques at dispelling arguments that she knew, to try to figure out a way out of this situation without upsetting anyone. Or at least minimizing them.

As she was thinking, she saw Astoria look at Ginny with a bit of sympathy as well. The girl was actually fairly nice, much better than Parkinson at least. If had she cared about Malfoy at all, she would have approved. As it was, if she ever had to invite Malfoy anywhere, insisting he brought his girlfriend would only improve things. Something to keep in mind.

After analyzing everything she knew, barring the more outrageous actions like faking an illness, she decided on a simple distraction technique. She would get Malfoy and his girlfriend to talk about a date they went on. It was on topic, so she could transition smoothly, and if she appealed to Malfoy's inflated ego, she could give him something he found more interesting than upsetting her husband.

"Yes, I don't know where they went," Hermione started out, giving herself an opening to ask Malfoy about a place that he knew in his vaunted pureblood knowledge(she thought this sarcastically), "I wanted to suggest a place for him, but I'm not that well acquainted with the wizarding world that much," she could see Ron look at her incredulously, and Ginny in understanding. She would explain to Ron what she was doing later. "I realize that you know this subject more than me, Malfoy, could you – oh!"

She blinked, feeling a weird sensation going from her magical core and brain, to her stomach. Or at least what felt like where the baby was. She held on to her stomach instinctually, feeling for it again.

She blinked again. It felt like her magic did something... what would it do to her baby?

"Hermione?" Ginny asked her.

"That felt weird, my magic did something," Hermione told her.

"Does it feel like it's going to your baby?" Astoria asked her. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in thought. It did actually feel like that.

"Yes, I think so..."

"Your magic must be feeding your baby then, it's not going to be a squib," Astoria smiled at her.

That was good. Hermione kinda wanted a magical baby. It would be nice to teach it stuff. Like reading... and stuff.

"Are you alright?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah..." Hermione looked around. Everything felt fine, nothing felt weird. Well, almost nothing, she was hungrier than before. And she really wanted Ron's food. It just looked so much better than hers. "Gimme that, Ron." She traded plates with him.

"Whu? No! Give me that back!" he complained. But she wasn't listening, because his food tasted so good.

"Err.. Hermione?" Ginny asked her hesitantly, then sighed. "Are you crazy again?" Ginny asked resignedly.

Hermione frowned. She felt quite sane, thank you! Oh! She was talking about that magic from her brain thing. It was a complicated theory. She didn't want to think about that right now.

"Iuno," she said around her food. It was too good to put down. She also caught sight of Neville and Malfoy looking at her with wide eyes. Hadn't they ever seen a pregnant woman before? How rude of them.

She turned to the window to ignore them all and show them she was very displeased.

"Oh!" Hermione said excitedly. "Look! It's Harry and Leah!"

She turned back to look at the rest and see them as excited as her. She loved seeing friends on the street.

Except no one else was excited.

Well, Malfoy kind of was, he was just laughing really loudly. Ginny had her head on the table, so she might have been excited, but without seeing her face, Hermione didn't know. Ron looked angry, and Neville just looked like he was very very confused, especially because he kept looking between Ginny and Harry. Did he not know that they had broken up? Someone needed to be better informed. Really.

She turned back to her best friend, Harry.

Oh, they were so cute!

"Look, Ginny!" she told her because Ginny was missing it.

"Hermione..." Ginny groaned without raising her head. "We just broke up today, are you really-" whatever she was saying, it didn't matter, because Hermione noticed something much more important.

"They're holding hands! Aw," she cooed. She loved seeing Harry happy. "Wanna go say hi, guys?" she asked them all, expecting agreements.

"Er, they look like they want privacy," Astoria told her gently.

It was true, and Hermione didn't want to interfere. She wanted Harry happy. She nodded thanks at Astoria – she was starting to really like that girl - and went back to watching Harry and Leah. They looked beautiful together.

---

Leah was walking hand in hand with Harry. They had finally decided to stop for a second and sit down in front of a little restaurant that he had said Hermione loved.

There was a nice bench, next to some railing. Although it would have been hot to sit on top of the railing with him between her legs, they decided on the bench. It was only their first date after all.

"So what do you feel like doing next?" Harry asked her curiously. "Anything at all, what would you want to do."

"I thought you were supposed to be the one that had this all planned," Leah smirked at him, but happy to do anything he wanted.

"Of course not," he answered easily. "We're just doing what we want, like always."

She frowned. This was not like always, it was a very special date, not any other day.

"Isn't this supposed to be like a super special romantic date with a toe-curling kiss at the end and stuff? Not just a regular day?" Leah asked Harry, only half jokingly.

Harry turned to look at her seriously. Much too seriously for the mood. "I don't want this to be a special date," it sounded offensive, but there was so much warmth in his eyes, and in how he treated her, that she could tell that wasn't how he meant it, "I don't want dates to be special, I... I want all the time to be special."

It was romantic, she thought. Almost too romantic for their relationship, but Leah just sat there and listened raptly.

"I tried explaining that to G- My friends," she smiled at his slip up, although she was sure he wasn't technically lying. He probably did explain it to his friends as well as his ex. "Hermione is the only one that agrees with me... but only in theory."

"Why only theory?" she asked softly, not wanting to break his mood.

"She says it's not realistic," he smiled fondly, probably thinking about Hermione's penchant for logic that even Leah could see clearly. "'People need some special attention every once in a while, or else they become insecure in the relationship. You need to actively work at it,' she had told me," Harry smiled, shaking his head, "I don't believe that."

Leah didn't either, but only because of the imprint. Rationally, she thought Hermione was right, but the imprint kind of defied that rationality. It made the wolf appreciative of everything their imprint does. There would be no need for the imprint to do something special for the wolf, since the wolf would always think that their time together was special. They would never be complacent, they would always work toward their imprint's happiness. So from the perspective of an imprint, it'd be easy to think like Harry does, they were secure in their partner's love. Leah would never stop loving Harry, no matter how unappreciative he may turn in the future. So of course, Harry didn't need to think that dates would be special to her - every moment with him was special to her.

Except he'd apparently thought this before meeting Leah.

Plus, it was already common knowledge to everyone who knew Leah that Harry was perfect, so that definitely wasn't it...

"What do you believe then?" she asked him, more than anything because she couldn't find a way to put her feelings into words. She also took the time to get closer and lean against him. If they had to talk feelings and be all emotional, she'd at least get cuddles out of it. Though, it was obvious that she cherished every time he spoke his mind like that; she didn't actually dislike getting emotional if it was with just Harry.

But cuddles were always nice.

"It's quite simple, actually," he said with a grin that dispelled the serious mood a little, but not completely, "if we want to do something, then we should just do it."

Leah smiled back. "That's simple enough. So if you want to go on a date, then you just do it?" she smiled, a bit challengingly.

"Ah," he said, acting all wise, his fake voice making her giggle. "But, what is a date, my dear?"

She pulled a face at his acting, but thought about it nonetheless. A date was... "I don't know..." she shrugged, "movies, dinner, dancing, I guess. Stuff like that."

Harry's smile became victorious. "Exactly my point. If you feel like movies, you go to the movies. If you feel like dinner, you go to dinner... you get the point. Why the need to call it a date?" he asked her, challenging her right back.

She thought about it. She wanted to say it made it more special, but that was exactly his argument. It would only end in him smiling victoriously and probably some gloating. "I know!" she cried out happily. "It gives it a different mood. Like, it signifies that you can do stuff like kiss, and hold hands," she brought up their hands to show him the example, "and gives the whole thing a more romantic feel. So that you can hold hands throughout the dinner, instead of just eating breakfast before work and stuff." This time she smiled winningly.

She expected him to bow down to her superior logic, or at least grumpily concede defeat. What he did, though, was just look at her condescendingly. "And why can you not do stuff like kiss, or hold hands, or just eat breakfast and leave when you feel like it?"

Leah pulled a face, thinking she felt a bit like she was cheated. It was basically his same argument, only reworded."It makes it more special," she grumped stubbornly, going back to the original argument, even though he would be all victorious about it.

But he wasn't.

Instead he asked a question, "Which do you think is more special," he asked, pinning her with an intense gaze, making her pout disappear, "if I were to kiss you after a date..." she looked at him with wide eyes, her breath speeding up, "or if I kissed you every time we were to be apart for a few hours - if every time you went to patrol, I gave you a kiss to think about," he started to inch closer to her, his eyes smoldering into hers. "Tell me which you would prefer."

Leah stared back breathlessly. It took her a full ten seconds to get lungs under her command again. Her eyes were wide and couldn't close them even if she wanted to. He got even closer to her. "Would you rather have an amazing first kiss that you'll always remember..." she could feel his breath going straight to her nose now, making her even more light headed, "or not being able to remember it, because each and every last one of our kisses are just as amazing as the first?

She stared, wide eyed.

"Hmm?" he asked her in a hum, their noses almost touching.

The only thing that brought her out of her shock, was the small warning her subconscious gave her, giving her a passing thought about how much she'd be laughed at if she froze, especially after all the time that she wanted a kiss. She had day dreamed about it, even when her packs were phased with her, every day – practically hourly. They would never let her live it down. Hell, she'd never let her live it down. Their first kiss... and she'd ruin it.

"The second," she stuttered out.

"Me too," he whispered. He brought a hand up to her face and caressed her cheek just a bit. "But," he suddenly said cheerfully, fully opening his eyes, which she just noticed had started to get hooded, "since this is a date, I guess you'll have to wait for a regular time," and with a last grin, he got up and started to walk away.

Leah gawked at his retreating form, her whole being protesting. All she could think was: foul! It took her a few seconds to get out of her shock, her mind screaming at her that she should not just let him do that.

That shit was so not cool.

She got up and stalked over to him. However, just as she reached him and was about to unleash a torrent of profanities his way, he turned around and grabbed her face. Shocked once again, she didn't react when he touched her lips with his. She could only stand there like an idiot while he grabbed her lower lip with both of his and very lightly tugged on it. The pleasure of it would have probably frozen her anyways, since she felt her eyes want to roll to the back of her head.

And just from a kiss! She was quite frankly a little scared to do more.

He pulled away from her, and she finally told herself to stop being stupid, and to finally do something. She grabbed his face with both her hands and brought him back, putting everything into the kiss. She put all the love she'd had, all her gratefulness and devotion for how much he healed her, all the disire and the outrageous amount of need that she had every time she saw him but couldn't touch him; she put all of that into the kiss.

While all of that went through her mind as she was kissing him, he had started to kiss back again, grabbing her waist with one hand and pulling her closer roughly, bringing their bodies together snugly. The other hand went to her other hip, but this one caressed rather than gripped, touching the patch of skin that wasn't being covered by her shirt. It felt like her skin there was even hotter than her normal one oh eight.

It was quite frankly a sacrilege that she'd gone the past weeks without doing this.

It was blasphemy. It was an insult to her life. Never again would she let it go that long without kissing him.

She moaned into his mouth and opened it a little, flicking her tongue on his lip ever so lightly, trying not to get too carried away, but already gone enough where she couldn't have stopped it. He instantly responded, touching just the tips together, but didn't try to deepen it more than that, neither of their tongues going into their others' mouths.

Their lips had started out dry from the cold, but they were wet now from their tongues coming out to play. She could feel Harry's cold face, and she pressed hers harder against his, trying to share warmth, and getting an appreciative moan from him.

Although, his moan was music to her ears, the position made it harder to deepen their kiss.

In a way, she was thankful for that. She always day dreamed about taking him practically anywhere, and even imagined all the different outrageous scenes that she would willingly do. But they were all just dreams.

Right now, she was very close to losing control and making them reality.

So she took her hands away from his chest, where they had been caressing him – and when had that happened – and one down to her side to take some of the intensity away. The other went back to his face, to push away if she needed to.

She felt him push his forehead into hers and pull his lips away. When she opened her eyes, she found his hooded ones smoldering right into hers.

---

Hermione watched Harry and Leah contentedly. They were just so adorable, the way they were cuddled in a bit together, and talking with their heads close together. She was cheering for them to kiss.

And she had a front row seat to all of it! She grinned happily.

"Err, I thought you were dating?" Neville asked Ginny awkwardly, having not heard Ginny before.

"We broke up," Ginny told him dejectedly. "Today." She should get over it, Hermione thought.

"Oh," Neville fidgeted. "Isn't it a bit soon for him to..."

"Yes," Ron bit out immediately.

"No!" Hermione said vehemently, startling everyone. "You know Harry, this had very special circumstances!" Really, how dare they judge him.

"She is hot," Malfoy agreed with her.

"Thank you!" she smiled at Malfoy. Really, how had she hated him for so long?

"Okay," Neville agreed with wide eyes. Of course it was okay, Harry never did anything bad.

Of course, Ron didn't agree with her completely. She'd always loved that he stood up to her, but not when it was about Harry. He was just dead wrong now. "Doesn't mean that he has to flaunt it!" he said. He was wrong.

Hermione just shushed him and went back to watching. Now they were putting their heads even closer, and Leah had her eyes so wide that it looked like they were about to pop out. Oh! This could be it!

"Look, look!" she told everyone, shaking Ginny a little to make sure she was watching the cute scene.

"I hope Potter doesn't screw it up," Malfoy said, shaking his head. Hermione whole heartedly agreed, nodding at him emphatically.

Then Harry put a hand on Leah's cheek and get whisper something. Leah looked like she as about to pass out, it was terribly adorable.

The urge to coo was there, and it was strong. She didn't fight it, cooing at awing almost constantly. She heard a choked sound from Ginny. She agreed, it was so cute it was moving.

"Oh, oh," she said in suspense when they were about to kiss, "Aww," she groaned in tandem with Malfoy and his girlfriend, when Harry got up and walked away, leaving Leah looking comically startled.

Hermione giggled even through the disappointment. "I knew it," Malfoy said disappointed.

If she could say anything to Leah she would tell her to get up and chase him. Ginny sighed, it sounded relieved, but Hermione knew it was disappointed. Everyone wanted Harry happy.

Most everyone else was quiet, except for Ron and Malfoy. Ron was grumbling about how Harry better not kiss her, and Hermione found herself still strangely teaming up with Malfoy.

"Oh, come on Potter! That was a disgrace!" Malfoy groaned disappointedly. Hermione agreed with him again, nodding her head vigorously.

"Oh, oh, she's going after him," Neville said quietly from her side.

Hermione snapped her neck to watch again. Just in time to see Leah catch up to Harry. She rooted in her mind for them to kiss. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Malfoy and his girlfriend start to stand up to get a better view. It was a good idea.

She thought it would take them longer than that, but Harry immediately turned back and grabbed Leah's face, giving her the most romantic kiss Hermione had ever seen.

She jumped up and cheered loudly with Malfoy and Astoria, the three of them high-fiving over the table. Some of the other customers started cheering as well, everyone having followed their tables loud attention.

Ironically enough, her table was the only one that had people who weren't moved by it. Neville looked like he wanted to hide somewhere, and Ron looked angry.

All the girls had tears in their eyes, being just as moved as Hermione was.

Ginny wiped some of her tears with her hand, being just as happy as the rest. Except her face didn't look that happy. Hermione shrugged, people made weird faces when they saw romantic stuff.

"I'm going to kill him," Ron said angrily.

"And I'll kill her," Ginny said unexpectedly.

"What?" Hermione turned to her, surprised to see her angry. She thought Ginny had been happy... what happened? Oh! She was still sad at losing Harry... "Oh, get the fuck over it," she told both redheads, irritated now. "Either of you bother them when they're – oh and look, they're still kissing, wow."

Ron made to move around her, but she brought out her wand, and pointed at them, and back toward the table, telling them to stand down. Ron looked like he might mutiny, but Draco – he'd earned it – brought out his as well with Astoria joining him, cowing them.

They had a lovely meal afterward, and Hermione got to look at Harry and Leah whenever she wanted, who were still cuddled up into each other the whole time. Hermione also made friends with Draco and Astoria, talking about Harry and how cute it was. Draco, of course, said it in more manly terms, but it was obvious – he thought it was cute too.

An inordinate amount of time was spent talking on that kiss, some other tables joining a couple of times. Astoria and Hermione swooning over it, and Draco saying 'It was acceptable, for a half-blood,' which coming from him was practically a glowing commendation.

She'd have to invite them over some time.

Ginny and Ron had eventually agreed that they might have overreacted, and that they were happy, reluctantly, for Harry. The two new lovers left right before they finished their meal, but it was probably for the best. She didn't want to interfere what was probably a perfect moment for them.

---

Leah had finally kissed Harry.

And it was everything she had been waiting for. All the months she had to wait didn't matter to her anymore, because it was that brilliant.

She wanted more.

But she could see him breathing hard, and still smoldering the full power of his eyes into hers, making her unable to move. Maybe she had forgotten that he needed to breathe more often than her.

Oops.

Breathless wouldn't be the proper definition for what she felt then, but she was definitely breathing just as hard as he was. For slightly different reasons. She did need oxygen, she wasn't a blood-sucker, but she could have gone another minute.

"You're brilliant," he laughed out on an exhale, his eyes clearing a bit, "just... just brilliant."

Leah flushed, but didn't take her forehead off of his yet. Her eyes were getting a little cross-eyed though, so with another peck – she couldn't help herself – she pulled away from him a bit so as not to tear his clothes off.

He helped though, by hugging her and pushing his face in her neck. It was much too convenient for her to do the same. His smell always calmed her down, or at least made her feel more in control.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, until she heard his voice.

"Is it always like that?" his voice was awed, full of wonder.

It made her heart race all over again.

"I can't imagine not feeling that with you," she admitted softly.

He nodded against her, and they fell silent again, comfortably wrapped up in each other.

She didn't know how long they were standing there for. She didn't even know when Harry ended up leaning against a railing, and her leaning against him. It could have been a few minutes, it could have been a few hours. She was way too content to keep track of little unimportant details like that.

She yawned. It was still early there, but everyone in Forks was definitely asleep by now. They'd been out for a while.

"Tired, huh?" Harry asked her, with his own yawn.

"Mhm," she hummed and leaned heavily against him again, overly exaggerating.

"Sleep," he said softly, and she could hear his smile on the next sentence, "I'll hold you all night." She recognized it from the first time they slept together.

"M'kay," she mumbled back, and leaned even more into him, digging her nose fully into his neck. "Love you," she mumbled sleepily.

The last thing she felt was him chuckling against her and a kiss on her temple.

---

Harry looked down at the girl that had very quickly become the most important thing in his life. The thing that finally gave that meaning to his life. The one he'd looked so hard for. She was everything that he'd ever looked for in a girl.

At the beginning, he had been a little bit worried that she couldn't do magic, therefore might not be able to keep up with him. But if anything, it was the other way. He had found himself pumping magic into his body all the time, or using spells to cut corners, to try and keep up with her.

Even without all of that, he realized it would have been fine. She wouldn't have resented him being more powerful or anything that muggles sometimes hated them for. She didn't resent anything.

Now he had the trouble of carrying her back without waking her up. She was much too cute right now to disturb her, even though he knew she wouldn't resent him for that either.

He bit his lip in thought. The easiest way would be to transfigure her into something light and go through the portal again. Most people didn't like being transfigured though, it was a little disconcerting.

Harry looked down at her again, noting that she was drooling a bit on his shirt. Somehow, he found that terribly sexy. He wondered if she drooled a lot in wolf form when she slept, and when that had started to be one of his fetishes.

Fuck it, he thought, he put her in a deeper magical sleep, so as not to wake her up when he moved her and apparated close to the portal. He transfigured her into a small version of herself, being very careful, and carried her in his owl form, making it to his house in about five minutes.

He stopped at the counter to see a note that Malfoy left him, telling him about how his meeting with Amelia went. It said something about the Wizengamot, but he was thinking more about Leah than the note, so he didn't pay that much attention.

The gist was though, that he had to get up and go to the ministry tomorrow. Fun.

There was also a Wizengamot meeting tomorrow, one that he was actually required to join, if he wanted to get help protecting Forks.

At least he would get to cuddle with Leah tonight.

He set her down on his bed, transfiguring her clothes into pajamas, making it all silk. It wouldn't upset her, he knew, that he changed her. She trusted him as much as he trusted her.

Then he stripped down to boxers and a t-shirt and laid down next to her. She immediately clutched on to him, amusingly putting her mouth in the same place where she was drooling before, adding more to it.

Harry couldn't help himself, he kissed her again – drool and all - because of how adorable she was. Leah sighed contentedly in her sleep and mumbled something undecipherable. He kissed her again on the forehead and followed her in sleeping a few seconds later, feeling her burrow into him more.