"Al'righ, everyone settle down," Hagrid said. He decided to take Harry and his friends' advice and come back to class. Hagrid was thoroughly impressed that a Malfoy had defended him and decided he owed it to the students to come back. "We're goin' to keep on wit' the unicorns fer now," Hagrid announced and the entire class sighed in relief.
"Hagrid can I talk you after dinner tonight?" Harry asked as the class ended and the others were gathering their stuff.
"Sure, Harry, jus' come on down," Hagrid replied to him with a wave as they started to walk off.
"Hey guys," Hermione, Tracey, and Susan called to them as they came in from Care of Magical Creatures. "How was Hagrid's first class back?"
"Great, he didn't bring back the Skrewts so that was good," Daphne answered.
"Good, good so we've got charms, come on."
"She's like a drill instructor sometimes," Blaise murmured to Harry who snickered, earning both boys a slapped upside the back of their heads. Severus who was walking past laughed aloud causing a first year watching to faint from shock and another to gape openly at the bat from the dungeon.
Severus sneered, "Five points from Ravenclaw for fainting." The Slytherin fourth years laughed while Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes.
That night Harry went to sleep rather early, his thoughts still on Crouch Junior and Voldemort. The new marauders had been called down to Severus's office to discuss what Crouch had revealed that wasn't in the paper. The Master he spoke of was indeed Voldemort and the other servant who helped with Moody's capture was Wormtail. Moody had been released, debriefed, and given a large bottle of Fire Whiskey. Harry was more focused on the fact that Voldemort didn't tell Crouch Jr. his plans, which meant they could still be carried out by Wormtail or another.
"Welcome to the next dueling competition between BEAUBAXTONS and HOGWARTS," announced Bagman who had taken over the whole tournament in Crouch Senior's place, who had yet to be found. Amelia and the others were convinced he was most likely dead, killed by Voldemort. She was working on convincing Fudge to act but it was proving to be extremely difficult. The minister and his undersecretary were refusing to believe anything other than Barty Crouch Jr. was insane.
"Today's match ups promise to be thrilling," Bagman announced with glee. "The first match up will be Olivier Lefevre of Beauxbatons against Blaise Zabini of Hogwarts." A cheer rang out through the crowds as the duelists made their way to the dueling platform.
Blaise bowed to his opponent, only slightly tipping his head forward, whereas Olivier gave a deep sweeping bow. Blaise had to stop himself from snorting. As the French teen came up from his bow Bagman shouted to begin the match and Blaise fired off a silent spell as soon as the word 'begin' left Bagman's mouth. The silent diffindo shot out of Blaise's wand at lightning speed. The French seventh year ducked the silver spell with surprise, not expecting it from the fourth year. Blaise cast a reducto at the French teen's feet as soon as the boy ducked his first spell. Olivier was thrown from his feet and quickly cast a bright red shield that quickly proved useful as several of Blaise's spells impacted it. Olivier scrambled to his feet and started casting back while dodging Blaise's spells. Blaise dodged a reducto thrown at him and cast back with a defodio. He over powered it and it slammed through Olivier's shield and left him no time to dodge. The gouging hex hit Olivier in the left shoulder, blood poured out almost immediately and Olivier staggered back. Blaise sent a silent levicorpus, that struck the pain filled French teen and hung him upside down in the air. Olivier dropped his wand as he was jerked upwards and Blaise calmly said, "Accio wand," and Olivier's wand was summoned to Blaise who bowed and released Olivier from the spell.
"Match, Hogwarts," Bagman announced and Olivier was rushed by the healers present. Hogwarts supporters gave a massive cheer as Blaise won the first duel. Harry, Susan, Tracey, and Hermione cheered the loudest for their friend who was overshadowed sometimes by his mother's reputation.
"A fabulous showing by Blaise Zabini, the fourth year Slytherin of Hogwarts," Bagman announced to cheers, after Olivier was tended to. "Next up for you we have Charlotte Prideux against Thomas Avery!" The duel was evenly fought but Prideux wasn't Beauxbatons' dueling champion for nothing and won the match with a well-timed bludgeoning hex followed by a fire spell. Avery was using a protego shield which was good for lower level hexes like the bludgeoning hex but did nothing to stop an elemental spell.
"Avery's good but he relies on dark spells that can't be used in this competition," Moody growled out to Harry whom he was sitting next to. "He's going to follow his father, you'll need to be on guard when he comes back."
"The only reason we don't have problems now is because he's scared of Severus, do you really think our problems will increase to throwing spells when Voldy is back?" Harry asked, leaning into Moody and lowering his voice.
"Yes," Moody said simply. They watched the next match in silence, both thinking more on Voldemort's soon to be second coming. Thomas Kensington won his match against a final year Beauxbatons student, Dartagnan Chevalier. Harry had a fleeting thought that wizarding parents must have a damn good pain killer during birth with some of the names they come up with.
"Next match up, Beauxbatons competitor Guy Arceneau versus Neville Longbottom of Hogwarts, both fourth years," Bagman announced in his ever present and ever irritating jovial manner.
"They thought he was a Death Eater," Harry whispered to Alastor, gesturing to Bagman, "Voldemort would have killed the annoying prick at the first meeting." Surprising many of those nearby, including Harry's friends, Moody barked out a laugh.
Neville looked over his opponent, appraising him while he nodded his head instead of bowing. The French boy was taller than Neville but Neville was bulkier and had significantly more muscle. Neville fought a rather Slytherin smirk as he saw the boy opposite him gulp. Vaguely Neville heard Bagman start the duel. Neville stared at Guy, this time letting the smirk show as Guy started to sweat.
Guy brought his wand up and fired, "Reducto." Neville simply waved his wand at the spell and deflected it. Neville continued to deflect spells as Guy got sweatier and more desperate with his spells. When Guy finally took a breath, Neville struck with a silent reducto. Neville's spell destroyed Guy's shield without slowing and slammed into the French boy, throwing him back a good five feet and fracturing four ribs and his shoulder. Neville summoned the boy's wand and the duel ended. Most of Hogwarts looked at Neville in awe, primarily the Gryffindors who still saw him as the meek little first year off the boat. Harry, Hermione, Susan, Tracey, and Hannah though were whooping and yelling their approval as was the Hogwarts dueling team. Severus and Flitwick were both looking on with pride.
"And a very good showing by the Longbottom scion, definitely living up to his parents," Bagman yelled out to the finally cheering crowd. Harry suddenly stilled and focused on the dueling platform as Daphne moved to take her place for the next match.
"Easy lad, she can handle herself," Moody said and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"I know, I just don't like seeing her get cast at while I sit here," Harry muttered. Moody let out a grizzly chuckle.
Daphne turned to face her opponent and ran over the Beauxbatons girl's previous match. Roslin Gravois was a Beauxbatons' final year student and a sly dueler, rather like Daphne. Daphne fired first with a simple, "Expelliarmus." Daphne spoke aloud, wanting to see if she would dodge or shield; against Durmstrang she had dodged. She dodged and countered with a stunner. Daphne used a rebounding shield and sent it back at Roslin, casting three stunners of her own; one down the middle following the rebounded stunner, one to the left, and one to the right. Roslin dodged the rebounded spell but she was dodging into the path of another one. She pulled back just in time for both spells to miss, but the follow up curse down the middle hit her dead on. Roslin dropped, rendered unconscious by Daphne's stunner. Daphne smirked and turned, blowing Harry a kiss. Harry smiled back at her and Moody patted him on the shoulder and laughed again.
"And HOGWARTS WINS the fastest duel of the tournament! CONGRATULATIONS MISS GREENGRASS!" Murray won the next duel after playing with his opponent for a few minutes. Severus and Flitwick were looking on proudly while Karkaroff looked a bit worried as he left the Great Hall.
"Harry, have you found the mervillage yet?" Hermione asked as she flipped through a book on arithmancy. It was two days before the task and Harry had spent at least one day a week exploring the Black Lake.
"No, and the only helpful thing so far is that the Giant Squid likes me even more since I played tag with it. Daphne's agreed to let me cast a tracking charm on her tomorrow night. We found one that will produce a beam of light that only I can see that's tethered to Daphne's magic."
"Good, get in and get out. Honestly the Black Lake in the middle of winter, this tournament's asinine," Hermione muttered. Harry and the others laughed.
"Don't worry, with the Gillyweed I don't need to cast a warming charm; it allows me to stay warm."
"Has Viktor said anything to you about the task?" Blaise asked Hermione as he waited for Tracey to finish looking over his paper on the History of Delphi.
"No, just that he's ready for it. We try not to talk about the tasks," Hermione answered.
"Hey Mione, you read a book on Veela after meeting Fleur right?" Daphne asked.
"Mmhmm, why?"
"Is the water going to impede Fleur at all, you know, with Veela being creatures of fire?"
"Well she won't be able to use her Veela powers under water but since she's matured already she shouldn't have any other problems. Veela that haven't matured yet, though, have to watch the time they spend immersed in water, it can have adverse reactions on their magic." Daphne nodded with a thoughtful look on her face.
Harry woke up the day of the task rather irate; Daphne had been escorted to the Headmaster's office by Severus and hadn't returned by midnight. Harry, even though he knew it was coming was still pissed about Daphne being taken and put at risk. Aiolos had slithered onto his shoulder and sunk in as a tattoo in order to help calm him, but he still had to go to the room of requirement and cast spells for an hour. He spent a good part of that hour setting dummies of Dumbles on fire with the incendiary spell Severus taught them. He went to bed about two o'clock after working on his meditative exercises.
Harry pushed his covers off of him in a flourish and stalked to the shower to get ready. Blaise tried not to laugh at his friend, knowing it would only turn Harry's ire towards him, something no one in their right mind wanted. Harry pulled on his green and silver board shorts and then his Hogwarts Triwizard outfit over it. He didn't talk as he made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, content to merely glare at everyone in his path. As he sat down to eat he noticed Hermione missing from his group of friends surrounding him and Cedric's girlfriend, Melissa Bennet, was also missing.
"I'm going to kill whoever thought this was a good idea," Harry growled as his magic started to release. Severus noticed his aura from the head table and hurried over to calm his student down.
"Hadrian come with me," Severus said as he laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. He spoke in a tone that didn't give Harry a choice.
"Yes sir," Harry said, and stood jerkily.
"Man I feel bad for the judges, Harry's either gonna out right kill 'em or prank 'em all to death," Blaise muttered, making the table laugh. At once they all stopped laughing and looked at each other with worried looks; it was entirely possible Harry would do exactly that.
"Hadrian, your aura is starting to show, now calm yourself. I was with Daphne as she was placed under the spell and as there were girls involved they spent the night under Minerva and Poppy's care. They've already been placed in the Lake, all you have to do is activate your locating charm and you'll have her back safe. Use some of your meditative exercises; you're acting like a bloody Gryffindor. Daphne would be most displeased if you killed Dumbledore." Harry cracked a smile at that and started focusing on his breathing and took some deep breaths, his aura fading.
"Good, now I'm supposed to escort you down to the platform," Severus said just as Cedric joined them as well as the Quidditch team and Harry's friends.
Harry and the rest were taken in the boats they used first year to arrive at the castle, and were taken over to a set of stands that were raised out of the Blake Lake. There were stands surrounding the platform that Cedric, Harry, Neville, Blaise, Tracey, and Susan were taken to. The Quidditch team plus Hannah, Aofie, and Astoria went up a little ways to the stands.
"How are they even going to see?" Harry asked, motioning to the murky lake that aptly earned its name.
"A charm has been placed around the mervillage, similar to the one at the Quidditch World Cup," Severus answered and gestured to where workers were placing the finishing touches on a screen a little ways off.
As they talked, Viktor and a few of his friends plus Karkaroff came over to the platform on the boats. Karkaroff and Severus had a stare down that Severus won when Karkaroff flinched away. "Bloody coward," Severus muttered and Harry, being the only one to hear, smirked. Cedric nodded to Viktor who returned it but Harry moved over to the Bulgarian, who was quite a bit bigger than him and pulled him off to the side.
"Just to let you know," Harry started, "If you don't bring Hermione back unharmed, I'll kill you," Harry finished in a deadly tone. Viktor simply nodded to Harry before moving away, swatting at a nearby bug. The rest of the school came out, as did the judges, but they were still waiting on Fleur to arrive. Madam Maxime had already arrived and was looking rather put out.
When Fleur finally arrived riding a boat with two friends from Beauxbatons, Harry immediately noticed she was a nervous wreck. Fleur's hair was all over the place and her eyes were red. One of her friends was whispering to her in French while the other was rubbing her arms and shoulders. Tracey and Susan moved over to her, Susan asking in French what was wrong. Fleur was too upset to try and speak English. Susan and Tracey gasped, Tracey staying by Fleur but Susan moved over to where Harry and the boys stood watching.
"They took Gabrielle as Fleur's hostage," Susan spoke softly but with urgency in her tone.
"Bloody hell, our Ministry is full of idiots," Harry said fiercely and turned to Severus. "How long have they been underwater?"
"About three hours now," Severus answered looking confused before it dawned on him. "Why the hell didn't Maxime say anything, we can't communicate with the merfolk until the task is over due to a spell."
"Ask Fleur how long Gabrielle can be underwater," Harry said to Susan. Susan nodded and moved over to Fleur who looked even more panicked than before.
"She doesn't know and she's panicking even more. The cold water is worse than warm water for Gabi's magic."
"Damn, if Fleur can't continue in the task message me with you patronus, if I leave Gabi down there Bill will kill me, so will Ginny." Severus nodded his approval as the three Heads came over with Bagman and Monroe Clagg, the new head of the International Department of Magical Cooperation. Severus leveled a glare on Maxime and the other judges. They shrunk back at the Ex-Death Eater's glaze. Dumbledore cleared his throat and the students around them snickered as they saw the adults flinching under the glare they had learned to live with by third year at the most.
"WELCOME TO THE SECOND TASK!" Ludo Bagman announced after casting a sonorous charm on his voice. He was trying not to let it show how thoroughly afraid of the livid Potions Master he was. The friends of the Champions had been ushered back behind them so the Champions stood alone and were instructed to wave to the stands. Harry rolled his eyes and midway through his wave flipped the bird to the whole crowd, eliciting laughs and gasps. Severus lightly smacked him upside the back of his head and raised an eyebrow at the teen. Harry just shrugged back as Bagman continued. "For this task something rather important to each Champion has been taken and hidden in the Lake. The Champions will have an hour to retrieve their hostage. Along the way they will face the many creatures lurking in the Black Lake," Ludo finished with his voice fading, trying to be mysterious. Harry struggled to not curse the man.
Harry stripped down to his broad shorts, as did Cedric, Viktor, and Fleur to her suit. Harry had his wand strapped to his forearm and his new combat knife strapped to his leg. He put his left hand to his wand and muttered, "Quaere," activating the locating spell on Daphne. Harry was able to see a bright purple line appear in front of him and disappear into the water.
"When the cannon sounds you may start," Bagman announced and waved his hand. Filch lit the fuse and the cannon went off. Viktor began casting, moving his wand around himself while Cedric and Fleur both cast spells as they jumped into the water. Harry swallowed the gillyweed he had and dove in, not waiting for the gills to come.
About ten seconds into the water, Harry felt the gills and webbing start to grow and his need for a breath relaxed. He shot forward past the other two champions in the water, following the bright, almost neon line that extended into the deep. Harry sunk lower into in the lake and farther from the stands as he followed. It was murky in the lake; even with the advantage of gillyweed he was having trouble seeing more than ten feet in front of him. He moved through the seaweed and other algae in his path, and as he was beginning to think he might be swimming too fast for the various aquatic denizens of the lake to threaten him, Harry felt something pull at his left leg and bite into it.
"Fuck," Harry mumbled, the expletive erupting from his mouth as several bubbles. He turned and shot a blasting curse at the offending grindylow, which was promptly blasted to pieces. Blood stained the water around him, some of hit his own from the wound in his leg, but most of it was thick, black, and strewn with grindylow bits. Several grindylows that looked like they were going to swarm Harry from behind stopped short at the sight of their dismembered fellow. Harry glared at them, "You lil' bastards will get the same," he said through the water and the beasts sunk back down, leaving him peace. Harry used a healing spell to seal the bite, knowing the blood would continue to run in the water and attract nastier things than grindylows if he didn't. After closing the wound, he turned back to follow the magical line tethered to Daphne.
After twenty minutes of swimming in the oppressively dark and thankfully empty water, Harry was able to see the outlines of the mervillage. Several plimpies hastily dispersed in his path as he neared his goal. He could hear an eerie melody as he descended further into the village proper. Harry was rather awed that the mervillage seemed to resemble the residential part of Hogsmeade. He assumed there would just be caves or some other crude structures, but the merpeoples' homes were surprisingly elegant and civilized. He even saw a pet grindylow leashed in front of one of the homes, its owner watching intently Harry as he swam past.
Harry swam to the center of the village where a mass of merpeople were congregating, holding spears and singing their haunting tune. In the center were the four hostages tied to the bottom of the lake. As he looked over the hostages, Harry's anger at the task started to get the best of him; short of the few small bubbles erupting from their mouths, they looked dead. They were pale and an eerie green glow was cast on their faces, forcibly reminding Harry of the killing curse. As Harry swam over to Daphne, Susan's messenger patronous struck him in the head.
"Fleur was ambushed by the grindylows and pulled out."
Harry sighed and moved down to cut the ropes binding Daphne. When he moved over to cut Gabi's rope he was stopped by a large merman pointing a spear at him.
"Only one," the merman hissed out and jabbed the spear forward a bit to make his point.
Harry, who was already pissed, let his aura flare and placed his knife back in the ankle holder, drawing his wand instead. "Get out of my way," Harry said. The venom in his voice was mottled by the water, but the tip of his wand glowing an angry red seemed to get his point across just the same. The merman took the hint and backed off fearfully, as did the others. Harry used his wand this time to cut Gabi's rope. He grabbed the small girl under the arm and swam over to Daphne. He gathered her up as well and started kicking. He made his way slowly out of the mervillage, and saw Cedric swim by giving him an odd look at the two hostages he had. Then Harry had to separate himself with a jerk from Gabi to move both of them out of the way of a shark man thing. Before he lashed out with a spell, he noticed the swim trunks on the lower half of it, indicating it was Krum. Grumbling to himself, he caught Gabi's arm again and started up. He swam much slower with the two girls and was quickly growing frustrated at the enormous distance he still had to cover to the surface. He felt a disturbance in the water behind him, and knew he was about to be attacked again. He turned and caught a fleeting glimpse of a long, pale appendage shooting towards him before he was struck hard in the back, propelling him and the two girls all the way up and out of the water a few feet. As they landed back down, both Gabi and Daphne spluttered as they woke to bone chilling water soaking them. Gabi, not one for water and feeling lightheaded, started panicking and latched onto Harry while rapidly speaking French.
Daphne swam the couple feet she was separated from them and started to speak to Gabi as Harry and her started back to the platform and the cheering crowd about twenty feet away. "Shh Gabi, it's okay. Harry's got you and we're going to get you out of the water." Daphne murmured the words over and over in an effort to calm the understandably frightened little veela. Harry, with Daphne's help, got Gabi back to the platform with just a bit of difficulty. Fleur pulled her sister up and off Harry and wrapped her in a large, fluffy blanket and pulled her in for a hug, casting warming charms and drying charms over and over again on the shivering girl. Daphne was helped from the water by Blaise and Neville and then given a fluffy towel by Susan as Tracey cast a drying charm on her friend.
"You've got about five minutes left Hadrian," Severus spoke as he looked down to where Harry was still in the water due to the gills. Harry nodded and kept his neck where the gills were under the water, though he held onto the platform. Daphne came over to the edge so she could talk to him as did his friends.
"Nice job Harry, you're the first one out," Susan congratulated him. Daphne was smiling at him and looked to be waiting impatiently for him to get out of the water. Fleur, Harry noticed, was fussing over Gabi and ignoring Madam Pomfrey who was trying to look over both girls. Fleur, though she was cut up and still bleeding from the grindylow assault, refused treatment until Pomfrey was finished with Gabrielle. Madam Pomfrey ran her wand over Gabrielle, who was looking pale and woozy.
"Severus, I need a Pepper Up potion," Madam Pomfrey said. Severus pulled a potion out of his robe pocket and handed it over. Madam Pomfrey got Gabrielle to swallow the potion and the usual steam came out, but the girl's condition didn't look to be improving. While Pomfrey continued to wave her wand over Gabrielle, Cedric surfaced with his hostage. "I need to take her to the hospital wing," Madam Pomfrey said, giving the judges a glare. "Severus can you handle the others for me?" Severus nodded in reply and Madam Pomfrey ushered Fleur and Gabrielle into a boat and made for the castle, Gabi wrapped in Fleur's arms.
Harry felt the effects of the Gillyweed fading just as Cedric and Melissa made it to the platform. Cedric and Melissa were helped up by Blaise and Neville, while Harry swung himself up onto the platform. They were immediately hit with drying and warming charms and given thick, fluffy towels like the others. Severus checked all three over for injuries and found them all fine, though both Harry and Cedric had a couple marks left over from the grindylows.
Daphne launched herself at Harry and grabbed him by his hair, pulling him down into a heated kiss. Severus and the other adults cleared their throats before the kiss could go very far, though. When they separated neither looked the least bit ashamed or sorry and they could hear wolf whistles from the crowd. Melissa looked like she would have liked to be doing the same to Cedric if it weren't for the surroundings.
"Nice job Harry. What did you use?" Cedric asked but was interrupted by the crowd giving another loud cheer. Viktor and Hermione surfaced. Viktor canceling his spell and his head reforming made for an odd sight. Hermione hugged Viktor before they swam over to the platform. They were helped out of the water by the others and given the same treatment, though Viktor required a healing spell and pain-numbing potion from Severus.
"Merman stab me," Viktor said gesturing to his shoulder, "vought I vas a real shark, damn fish!" Viktor's shoulder had a stab wound about an inch deep but Severus was able to close it easily. "Vank you." Severus nodded and turned to make sure Hermione was alright.
A loud bang was heard that quieted the crowd, everyone turned to the sound which came from Bagman's wand. "Marks out of fifty will be given to the Champions. For her use of the bubblehead charm and getting to the outskirts of the mervillage we award Fleur Delacour twenty-five points," that was met by cheers from the Beauxbatons contingent but that was about it. "For his use of partial transfiguration and returning only two minutes outside the time limit we award Viktor Krum, THIRYT-EIGHT POINTS!" Again cheers went up, louder than the ones for Fleur. "For his use of the bubblehead charm and returning only one minute outside the time limit we award Cedric Diggory, FORTY-THREE POINTS!" More cheers, and Melissa gave Cedric a kiss on the cheek making the dashing seventh year blush as he heard the wolf whistles. "AND for his use of gillyweed and returning with not only his own hostage but another's and within the time limit we award Mr. Potter, FIFTY POINTS!" The loudest cheer yet erupted from the crowd but Harry rolled his eyes. 'Hypocritical bastards,' Harry thought.
"YES, YES, congratulations! The next Quidditch match will be March 13th, the next dueling match April 17th and the academic challenge will be April 24th. The third and final Tri-Wizard task will be June 18th!"
Harry and Daphne were in the Room of Requirement later that night; only the room currently looked like the clearing Sirius's wedding took place in with the added benefit of a comfy couch. Harry was stretched out with his head in Daphne's lap while she played with his hair. Harry was content for the first time in the weeks since finding out about the second task and Daphne's roll in it. When Harry sighed Daphne looked down into his eyes and smiled at him in a way that made his insides melt. Harry stretched up and gave Daphne a soft kiss before lying back down.
"Thank you for saving me," Daphne said when Harry pulled back.
"Always," Harry replied simply.
Daphne smiled and then started snickering as she thought of the aftermath of the task, Harry gave her a look. "I was just thinking about Madam Pomfrey completely tearing all the heads and judges a new one."
Harry's crooked grin was in full force as he laughed in agreement. Once everyone had gotten back to the castle, Madam Pomfrey had insisted on seeing the contestants as well as the judges. The champions she wanted to look over for herself and see if anything needed healing outside Severus's expertise. The judges, well the judges and heads of the three schools were almost reduced to tears of shame and stupidity, Bagman actually was, as Madam Pomfrey ripped them to shreds over Gabrielle's condition. Ultimately Gabi would be fine but for the next few days she was going to need to be kept inside and near a fire to help her magic rebound from the exposure to the icy lake. Seeing Madam Pomfrey's tirade was the only thing that kept Harry from finding out which judge's idea the second task was and giving them a swift kick in the balls.
"Yeah that was pretty good," Harry chuckled. "What do you think Draco and his mum are going to do?" Draco and Narcissa had been trying to decide if they were going to keep Malfoy Manor. It held no real ties for Narcissa but for Draco it was home. The problem was, Voldemort had access to it and would expect Draco and Narcissa's help.
"I doubt Draco will destroy it or sell it," Daphne said, "Despite that fact that he says he wants to and Narcissa wants it destroyed. Family Manor's like ours and the Malfoy's are hard to build anymore, there just simply isn't the space and muggles populate too much of the land." Harry looked at her questioningly and Daphne rolled her eyes. "Most family manors have vast grounds for two purposes, it keeps muggles away and because of the magic in the manor, magical beings, plant life, and so forth are attracted to it. They're probably just going to empty it of everything they want and close it up until Voldemort is good and dead."
Harry just nodded, "Sirius wants to clean out his parents' home, he finally decided. I think he's going to offer it to Narcissa." Harry sat up and pulled Daphne into his side with his arms wrapped around her. Daphne sighed contentedly and laid her head on his chest.
"Where is Sirius's home? The Blacks sold their Manor a few centuries ago if I remember correctly."
"It's in London and apparently needs a lot of work. Sirius wants to redo the whole house, said he hates the damn place."
"Why?"
"It reminds him of his mother," Harry said, laughing. Daphne giggled and then reached her hands up behind Harry's neck and brought his lips down to hers.
"'Nuff talking," Daphne murmured against his lips and then pressed hers to his. Harry pulled Daphne onto his lap so she was straddling him. Daphne deepened the kiss and slipped her tongue into Harry's mouth, taking control. Daphne's tongue played in Harry's mouth for a minute or so before she moved her mouth down to his neck. Harry moaned as Daphne kissed and licked on his neck before moving her hands down to his shirt. Harry lifted his arms and Daphne pulled his t-shirt up over his head. Daphne leaned back and looked her fiancé over with appreciation.
"Like what ya see?" Harry asked waggling his eyebrows. Daphne licked her lips making Harry groan. She smirked and kissed her way around Harry's chest, tracing the scars littering his body. Harry would suck in a breath every time she hit a scar, growing harder each time. Harry pulled her head back to his and immediately claimed her lips in a harsh kiss. Daphne moaned into Harry's mouth as his tongue dominated hers. Daphne rolled her hips into his and they both moaned louder. Harry moved his hands down to the hem of Daphne's shirt and ran his hands over the skin of her hips making her buck into him again before he lifted her shirt over her head.
Daphne pulled back from Harry and bucked her hips again getting his attention and Harry looked up into her eyes. Daphne smiled and reached behind her undoing her bra and let it slip to the floor. Harry pulled her back into him and kissed her lips then slowly brought his lips down Daphne's neck, stopping to amuse himself with the spot behind her ear as he thrust his hips into her. Daphne was slowly melting as Harry continued to kiss and suck his way down her neck and to her breasts. Daphne and Harry were moving in synch, thrusting and pushing against each other as Harry moved his mouth to her breasts. Harry's mouth closed around her left nipple as he brought his hand up to massage her other breast.
"Oh God Harry," Daphne moaned as her head fell onto his shoulder and she kissed his collarbone. Harry moved his mouth to her other breast and repeated his treatment with his mouth and tongue. Daphne was bucking widely into Harry as she moved closer to her climax. She was moaning and panting as she felt it building within her as they moved. She raked her nails down Harry's back and rolled her hips into him as she screamed out, "Harry!" At the same Harry thrust up and groaned out his own climax.
Harry slowly stopped his ministrations and moved his kisses back up her neck and to her lips. Their kissing was now short and sweet as Harry moved them so they were lying down on the couch. Harry absently waved his hand cleaning the mess in his pants as he wrapped his arms around Daphne as they lay facing each other. The room conjured a blanket and it draped across them as they drifted to sleep.
A/N:
Sorry it's kind of short, my semester started Monday, so now I have classes and work. So bear with me here, the chapters might take a little longer than usual do to my new schedule. On the plus side I have a beta one Mr. Skellington, who has corrected this chapter. So a big thank you to him.
Thanks for the reviews,
AM
A/N:
LMAO sorry about the word confusion for those of you who caught it!