AN: People asked me for a list of Harry's girls and what they were to him so here's a list:

Narcissa: Lady Peverell-Black

Ekaterina: Lady Potter

Bellatrix: Lady Emrys

Miranda: Lady Slytherin

Amelia: Lady Gryffindor

Samantha: Personal Trainer and Concubine

Alice: Secretary and Concubine

Iryna: Wardrobe specialist and concubine

Daryna: Concubine

Kateryna: Concubine

Natalia: Concubine

Larissa: Concubine

Susan: Concubine

And yes I realize in hindsight that maybe I went overboard with the concubines but, well hindsight is twenty-twenty and I started writing this rather early in my fanfiction career.

A battle of Subtlety and Manipulation

Chapter 20

-Harry-

The next morning he walked down to breakfast with the girls, idly noticing that Dumbledore had returned during the night, and sat down at his table, smiling at Rina as she held his hand tightly. Last night after the ball they had all sat down as a group and decided that it would probably be a bad idea to bring in anymore girls as the situation was getting strained as it was which he was eager to agree to, he was only one man and he already had thirteen women in his life, he devoted a good portion of his time to just making sure they were happy and keep them from getting mad.

"Anything good in the paper today Susan?" he asked as the red haired Hufflepuff opened the Daily Prophet with a flourish.

"Let's see," the red headed beauty muttered as she perused the articles "sports information, articles about the ball last night, Witch Weekly posting a picture of Harry kissing Rina and making the usual love potion accusations when a celebrity starts dating someone…".

Growling he snarled out "Note to self…ruin them.".

"Ignoring Harry's plotting of the demise of reporters everywhere," Susan said with a giggle as he blushed sheepishly "there's a couple more articles here. Let's see, speculation on the rest of the tournament, article about international affairs…what the hell?" Susan gaped in shock "There's an article in here about Fudge accusing Harry of having him kidnapped and tortured before the ministers' 'valiant escape'.".

Before he could begin adding the new director of the paper to his list of people to ruin Narcissa passed him a letter from the pile of mail they were sorting through, a good deal of it cursed letters for himself or Rina and another large portion laced with love potion, all sent towards him, "It's from the director of the Paper," Narcissa said "maybe it will explain what's going on.".

Opening the letter he read:

Harry,

I know if you've seen the article in the paper before you've read this then you've probably already begun planning on the most painful way to ruin me. I'd like to tell you that it wasn't my intention for that to go out, Fudge came and bribed one of my editors, who has already been fired and I sent a letter to your Lady Gryffindor about it so she could handle any legal problems his actions could insight. By the time I realized what was going on the paper was already being sent out and I couldn't recall it. This does however give you the opportunity to call Fudge out on it and, if he admits to doing so, you can swear a magically binding oath that you didn't cast any spells that would result in his kidnapping and then challenge the idiot to an honor duel. Good luck and once again my apologies.

Sincerely,

Director Cuff

After reading the letter he gave a bloodthirsty grin before turning to Alice, "Alice," he said as the beautiful secretary turned towards him "be a dear and pen a letter for me would you? I'm calling a Wizenagamot meeting as is my right as a lord of its body to discover the truth of a matter and possibly declare a blood feud or honor duel.".

"Of course Harry," Alice said happily, a blush spreading across her cheeks as he gave her a quick kiss "shall I send one to Amelia as well to let her know of the situation?".

"Probably a good idea," he said with a wince, "I'd rather not get on any of your bad sides but especially not the woman who became the Head of the DMLE.".

"Oh Harry," Susan giggled "Auntie wouldn't hurt you…too much.".

Shaking his head in amusement he finished his breakfast before the girls all got up and left to have a girl's day out, taking Claire and Rebecca with them as he, Cedric, and Viktor relaxed for a while, quickly leaving the hall when the eyes of the French Champion and their fangirls locked onto them.

"I'm going to go do some practice with my axe," Viktor said as they exited the hall "do either of you wish to join me?".

"Might as well," Cedric replied with a shrug "I still need to get used to my spear. What about you Harry?".

"Not today guys," he said with a shake of his head "right now I'm just going to take a walk. I'll see you later. Before you go though, either of you managed to figure out the egg clue yet?".

"No," Cedric said with a depressed slump while Viktor copied him "the damn thing just screams and screams whenever I open it.".

"The clue is a riddle that you get when you open the egg underwater," he said with a grin as the two of them gaped at him "I won't tell you the answer to the riddle now as I want you bums to do at least some of the work.".

"How on earth did you figure it our Harry?" Viktor asked curiously as they walked.

Blushing he scratched the back of his head sheepishly "I was trying to figure out and decided to take a nice soak in the bathtub that comes with my quarters, things the size of a swimming pool, and the girls decided I was too stressed and decided to help me," here he coughed, his face beet red "unwind. The egg fell to the bottom of the pool while they were doing this and, when I swam down to retrieve it I heard the riddle.".

"So you having 'fun' with your wives allowed you to solve the clue that has been puzzling us for over a month?" Cedric asked in a deadpan and, when he nodded, groaned out "Now that's just not fair!".

"Fair or not I sure enjoyed it." he said with a smug grin as his two friends glared at him jokingly "Anyway, I'm off. See you too later.". Waving at his two fellow champions he turned and wandering off, not really paying attention to where he was heading to but simply enjoying moving around and taking in the ancient castle that was his home.

Eventually he heard the sound of someone, rather angrily, berating another person and, snapping out of his wandering daze, silently approached the area, idly noticing that he was near the Ravenclaw tower as he did so.

"What are you doing here Loony?" the first voice he had heard snarled to someone causing him to frown, having a good idea of what was going on, "We already told you that you aren't allowed in the tower during the Christmas celebrations. And what's this that I've heard of you actually keeping your 'gifts'?".

Snarling he rounded the corner to see a group of fifth and sixth years, including one Cho Chang, surrounding a little blonde third year girl, the third year was on the ground with tears in her eyes as she looked like she was trying to protect something small, he assumed a Christmas gift. When Cho raised her hand to slap the little girl he snarled and thrust out his wand "Stupefy!" he roared, the stunning spell crashing into the Ravenclaw fifth year's side as she was slammed into the wall, her compatriots spinning around from the shock as he glared them down, the tip of his wand smoking lightly from the extra powerful stunner he had cast.

"Come on and try," he growled "make my day." Causing the four students to bolt in fear, leaving Cho behind, still unconscious on the ground. Rushing forward he knelt down by the crying girl and gave her a tender smile "Hey there," he said softly "are you alright.".

"I-I'm fine," she said softly, looking away so as to not look him in the eye "no reason to be concerned.".

As she spoke he finally recognized her, having seen her in passing several times throughout the past few years. She always walked around with a somewhat dazed look in her eyes and a vacant smile on her lips that he recognized now to be just a simple mask, the girl being too shaken up by the close call of Cho almost slapping her and his unexpected rescue.

"You don't have to hide you know," he said softly as she turned to him somewhat confused but he could see the trepidation in her eyes "behind the mask you always wear. You don't have to hide, you don't deserve to be forced to hide, don't deserve to be treated the way you clearly are.".

"I…I…" the girl stammered as she stared at him wide eyed before she lunged forward, hugging him tightly as her tears, which before had been a mere glimmer in her eyes, now poured forth as she sobbed into his chest.

Wrapping his arms around the crying girl he gently shushed her, rubbing soothing circles in her back until he looked up at him with watery eyes "Would you like me to teach you how to protect yourself from people like them?" he asked the girl with a soft smile as she nodded meekly. "Hopefully you won't need it though," he assured her as he stood back up, pulling her with him as he went "because I'm going to be making it clear to your entire house that if I find out this behavior continues I will deal with them in a similar manner to Cho and they'll find themselves waking up outside of the school Expelled.".

At his declaration she stared at him wide eyed before stammering out "W-why?".

"Why am I helping you?" he asked, wanting to be sure and, when she nodded, explained "For one it's the right thing to do little one," he said with a soft smile that she hesitantly returned before his smile melted off his face at the flashes of memories "and I too know what is like to be pushed around and bullied like that.".

"B-but you're Harry Potter," she said confused "the boy-who-lived and the most influential Lord in British History. How could you have gone through that?"

"I was raised outside of the magical world though," he told her as he waved his wand at the unconscious Cho, levitating her into the air before setting off to the Hospital Wing "and my cousin led the School's group of bullies with me as their favorite target.".

As he led the girl to the hospital wing he learned that her name was Luna Lovegood as they continued to share about each other, she asked about him as she wanted to get to know who he was outside of the rumors while he was trying to find out more about her situation. By the time he had gotten her to the hospital wing she had exhausted herself from the crash when the adrenaline rush left her as he scooped her up and carried her while levitating Cho next to him. As she snuggled into his chest though he couldn't help but wonder if this was what it felt like to be a big brother.