C O Potter
Year Four
Chapter 28
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The Love Birds and the Wall Flowers, that's what their group had become known as. They always moved as a group, if someone wanted to attack one of them, there was the group that was there to help defend that one. They ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner together, the girls never went to the restroom alone, there was always one that went with the other. Only the guys used the loo by themselves. They moved from class to class as a group, navigating the hallways so they wouldn't impede the flow of students going in the opposite direction, was a learned technique. Mostly this was learned by Ced and his wives who were always holding hands. Most of the hallways were wide enough that they could walk three across with no troubles. Their friends subconsciously would form a protective detail around the three in the centre, the three in the centre would feel for hostile intent. Feeling for hostile intent was difficult at best, there were so many students that were jealous, they were jealous of Ced because two of the prettiest girls in school chose to be with him. They were jealous of Cici because of her long hair, and she was with Ced because he was rich. They were jealous of Vic because of her small waist, and she was with Ced because he was so good looking. They were jealous of Fred, and George, and Julia, and Amber. Amber because of her skin colour, which was the perfect skin colour for a suntan. They were jealous of Julia because she was with Fred, and he was rich, and they were jealous of George because he had Amber. So, needless to say, not everybody was happy for the Love Birds, especially the dark Slytherins.
They had been working on Julia for quite some time, they had almost brought her over to the darkness when she had gone and joined that happy little group of lovebirds.
Julia, always awoke with plenty of time to get dressed and join her boyfriend and his friends for their morning run. Her father had raised her not to be late. Being late was a form of rudeness, and rudeness was not tolerated well in the business world, especially in finance, where time really was money. Julia had her routine down to the minute, she was always awake before any of her roommates, and that meant that she never had to wait for the restroom or anything else at this hour of the morning. She was dressed and slipping out the door to the dorm room, down the hall, across the common room and out the door to the common room, right on time, every time. She walked down the hallway to meet her boyfriend in the entrance hall, she got there just as they were coming down the last flight of stairs. She greeted Fred with a sweet kiss on the lips, and out the doors, they would go. She had been refining her morning routine since she had joined Fred and his group of friends, she had her routine down to where she could do it in her sleep if she had to, and there had been times when she felt like she was half asleep when she had done her routine.
None of the group had realised that their morning routines had made them predictable, and that predictability was a weakness that could be exploited. They always walked to the same lone tree by the lake, they always ran around the lake in the same direction, they always ended their run at the same spot by the lone tree. Their mornings were predictable, the large group of friends had each other for protection, but there was one that was out on her own, that was vulnerable, and her predictability was her weakness, the chink in her armour, that she was going to exploit.
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After that antique, ancient, old bat, of a Headmistress wouldn't let Cici do a beach themed Christmas dance with bikinis, Cici had settled on a traditional Christmas school dance.
"But we live where it snows!" Cici had argued with the Headmistress.
"No, Lady Potter! You are not having a beach themed Christmas party with bikinis! And that is final!" The Headmistress had put her foot down.
And Cici was willing to bet that, that foot was covered in callouses and bunions too!
So, working with a Santa's North Pole Workshop idea, Vic had encouraged her not to go with the naughty elf costume with the plunging to the bellybutton neckline, and the micro mini skirt that would ride up over her ample bum.
"Think of Hermione!" Vic had tried guilt tripping her.
"Think of Elissa!" Ced had hit her right between the eyes.
"Fine!" she gave in loudly. "But I'm wearing it on Friday night when it's our alone time!" and she stuck her tongue out at Vic.
Working together as a team, the teens had managed to put together a fantastic Christmas dance for the school. The decorations started in the Grand Entrance Hall and the Foyer, and they flowed into the Great Hall. After an early dinner, they set to work to have everything up and ready by seven o'clock that night. The dance would last until midnight again, and the Hogwarts Express would be leaving after breakfast the next morning.
Hagrid had selected a Christmas tree that was truly huge, even by Hagrid's standards. As was the tradition, the school faculty decorated the Christmas tree, with Professor Flitwick levitating the star to the top of the tree.
There were several animated toys, including a steam engine, running around the base of the tree, then across the tables of food to the far end of the hall and back across the tables, of course! They had even managed to charm a nice sized Santa Sleigh with all of the Reindeer to fly around the Great Hall shouting out "Ho-Ho-Ho and Happy Christmas!" dropping Christmas gifts of candy to all of the students.
Even though the dance was casual, all of the girls were encouraged to either wear dresses, and all of the guys were encouraged to wear a button-down shirt, or they could wear an appropriate costume.
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The Hogsmeade weekend before the dance had a lot of the girls buying dresses and shoes for the dance. The salesclerks were glad to see Cici and Vic walking through their door.
"Hi! This Christmas party has everybody buying new dresses and shoes!"
"Hi! Yourselves!" the girls greeted her back. The store was packed with students buying dresses, for the Christmas dance the following week. They even spotted Julia and Amber in there exercising the debit cards their parents had given them. They were still amazed at the transformation that Amber had gone through, she was no longer this moody, reclusive, irritating person they had met over the summer, but she was upbeat, outgoing, confident, and a real pleasure to know and to be friends with.
They joined Julia and Amber as they shopped for their dresses, Cici saw her naughty elf costume, Vic and Ced just rolled their eyes at her. But they all selected the costumes that they would start the night wearing. They waited their turn in the checkout line, when they got to the cash register, the salesgirl was so happy with all of the extra business they had received, that she gave them an additional 50% off their purchase as a thank you.
They stopped at the Three Broomsticks, for a late lunch and a couple of butterbeers. Rose and Angel caught up with them there, the waitress was good enough that she got their order and was able to bring all of the food at once. This earned her a generous gratuity at the end of the meal.
Once back in their dorm rooms, Fred was going through his shopping bag, and he found a small box of chocolates with his name on it signed with XOXO. He looked at the chocolates, his eyebrows furrowed in thought, how had this box of chocolates gotten into his bag? Who put these chocolates in his bag? He would bet his last galleon that Julia hadn't done it, she hadn't been out of his sight long enough to make it happen. So, he set the chocolates down on the foot of his bed and went about putting his costume and his new clothes in his trunk.
"These are really good!"
"George? What are you doing?"
"These chocolates are really good! Have you tried one?"
"Did you just take those off my bed?"
"Yes, they're really good!"
"Why did you take my chocolates off my bed?"
"Oh, I miss Amber sooo, much! I just wish that I could go and see her right nowowowow!"
"You idiot! Those are the chocolates from our dads' joke shop! How many did you eat?"
"Just a few. Oh, where's Amber? I want to go and see her now." George swooned.
"Aye!"
"AMBER! WHERE ARE YOU? I LOVE YOU!" George started yelling at the top of his lungs.
"Aye, George!"
"AMBER! I'M COMING FOR YOU!" he yelled as he got up and started to head down the stairs to the common room.
"George! You're in no shape to go anywhere!" Fred yelled after him.
"AMBER! HERE I COME MY LOVE!" he yelled as he walked across the common room to the girl's staircase.
"GEORGE don't do it!"
"AMBER! I'M COMING FOR YOU!" he yelled again as he started to climb the staircase.
Thankfully with all of the noise and commotion that he was creating, Amber, Rose, and Angel came rushing down the stairs to stop him as he put his first foot on the first step.
"George!" an embarrassed Amber hissed at him. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, Amber my love. I love you so much. I miss seeing you, staring into your big beautiful brown eyes. How can you be so pretty? Everything about you is so pretty! Why are you so far away from me? Come here! I want to look at you closely."
Amber stepped a little closer to her boyfriend, "George, what has gotten into you?"
"Ha! You! You are sooooo incredibly beautiful! You are the most beautiful girl in the whole school!"
Amber managed to blush at that, her naturally dark skin colour got darker and took on a reddish tint to it. "Thank you, George. What's bringing on this sudden rush of emotion?" she asked him as she looked at his sister and cousins.
The two girls just shrugged their shoulders, but Fred told them quietly, "He ate a few chocolates."
"What?" they hissed at him, "How could you give him those chocolates!"
"What chocolates?" a confused Amber asked.
"Oh, I love the sound of your voice! It's like music to my ears!"
By this time, Amber had wrapped her arms around George, he had become slightly tipsy.
"Our dads' own a joke shop! One of the pranks that they sell is a box of chocolates that have a love potion mixed in, all the person that is giving them, as a gift or gag, has to do, is to tap on the box three times and repeat the person's name three times. Then, whoever eats the chocolates will develop a crush on that person for as long as there are chocolates to eat. In this case, you." Angel explained to Amber quietly.
"But why would someone waste their money on a prank on two people that are already, sorry," she looked at Amber, "in love with each other?" asked Rose.
"They didn't, the box of chocolates was given to me anonymously," Fred told them.
The three girls looked at him.
"OH! Amber! How do I love thee! Let me count the ways!"
"Baby, let's go over here and sit on the couch for a few moments, okay?"
"Oh, anything for you! I love your hair, it's so perfect, I love your eyes, they're so perfect, I love your teeth, they're so white, I love your …."
"Why would someone want to give you a love potion to make you fall in love with Amber?" asked Rose.
"I don't know, I love Julia."
"Why would someone, want to get you and Julia to break up? She's the jealous type, not as bad as she used to be, but she still gets a little jealous every now and then." Angel told him.
"How many did he eat?" asked Rose.
"Half the box."
Their eyes just rolled to the backs of their heads, they were in for a long, long night.
"Well, I guess at dinner we'll need to keep watch for whoever is watching us too closely," Fred told the group. He knew that he was going to have to sit on the same side of the table as Ced and his wives. He needed to keep watch over the hall during dinner. He started thinking about the best way to get everyone to sit at the table, he wanted to make it look kind of like the prank had worked, but his sister and his cousin were right, Julia was the type to get jealous too easily.
They went downstairs for an early dinner, they weren't really hungry, because of the late lunch they had at the Three Broomsticks, they were there to see who was watching them. Fred and Julia sat on the side of the table that put their backs towards the wall, and they started observing the social interactions of their fellow students. Fred watched, and he watched, and he watched. Then, like fish in an aquarium at feeding time, the other students started getting really animated, the volume of the noise in the hall jumped up. He turned his head in the direction that they had their heads and he watched, and Ced and his two wives entered the Great Hall. He could see as the other students would lean their heads together and start pointing and talking, a whisper could no longer be heard, they had to speak at a normal volume to listen to each other's comments. He watched as the students, at first would follow them by turning their heads, then they would have to turn their bodies, and finally, some of them went as far as to twist around in their seats to watch them all the way to where Ced would seat each of the girls, and receive a kiss from each of them.
As Ced was holding Cici's chair for her, Fred asked him if he could sit next to him, he had something that he wanted to talk to Ced about. Ced looked at Vic and Cici, and they nodded their consent. Once Cici was seated, she gave him a kiss on the lips as a thank you, for his love and respect. He then helped Vic with her chair, and she too, kissed him on the lips, it was after all Saturday night, her night.
Once everyone was seated, Julia was quick to cast the privacy charms over the whole group. Fred explained everything that had happened since their return to Hogwarts.
"How much did he eat?" asked an incredulous Ced.
"Like I said, he ate half the box before the first one had a chance to take effect," Fred told him.
"So basically, he's going to be like this well past midnight," Ced commented out loud.
"So, you want our help in spotting who gave you the box of chocolates in the hopes of getting Julia to break up with you. So, I have a couple of other questions; the first is, who would want you to themselves? And the second is; who would want Julia for themselves once you're out of the way?"
Julia started to speak slowly, in a quiet voice, "Well, there's this one girl in Slytherin house that's been watching me in the mornings, when we come back from working out. She's a sixth-year, and lately, she's always in the showers when I'm in the showers. She makes me feel uncomfortable in the way that she looks at me. She's never been rude to me or said anything mean to me, it's just the way that she looks at me."
"Why haven't you said anything to me about this?" a concerned Fred asked her, as he took her hands in his.
"I didn't think that she would do anything, all she's ever done is to look at me. We say hi to each other, we're pleasant to each other, but that's about all!"
Ced asked her, "When she looks at you, does she look at you in a mean way? Like she doesn't like you?"
"No, she looks at me like a boy who likes me, who wants to be with me, looks at me."
Amber placed her finger across George's lips, he immediately started to suck on it. She just looked at him, he had his eyes closed as he held her hand and sucked on her finger, "She's a dyke?"
"What's that?" Julia asked, having never heard the term before.
"A dyke. You don't know what a dyke is?"
"No." Said Julia. Fred and Ced all shook their heads no.
All eyes were on Amber as she explained, "A dyke is a girl who likes other girls. She plays the role of the male in the relationship. They typically have short hair like a boy, they wear boy's clothes, and they try to act like a guy in every way possible, down to grabbing themselves like some guys do! They can get real aggressive when they go after a girl. The really aggressive ones, the guys call them bulldykes, because they get aggressive like a bull does."
The purebloods at the table just looked at her as if she had just described something that doesn't exist in their world. Magical Britain's population had just returned to the level that it was thirty years ago. And now there were girls that wanted girls like guys wanted girls? How were they going to have magical children?
"There she is! The girl with the short hair!" Julia pointed at her, she wanted all of them to see her, the girl that looked at her.
The short-haired girl saw Julia pointing at her and changed her course to come over to the Gryffindor table, and the group she was sitting with.
As she got closer, Rose cancelled the charms.
She looked at Fred, "Ahhh, I see that you didn't get the chocolates I bought for you." Her tone was that gee I'm so sad for you, not! Tone.
Then she looked at Julia, "Hey cutie! How've you been? Do you miss me yet?" like they had already been in a long-term relationship.
Every eye at the table looked at Julia in either a questioning way or in an accusing way.
The intruder was good, she picked up on the looks of the others and decided to try and drive that wedge of distrust further into place.
"Why do you keep trying to avoid me? I thought that we had something special!"
"I don't like the way that you look at me! Why do you always have to follow me? Can't you just leave me alone?" Julia was near tears with her frustrations.
"But, I thought that we had something special between us! You used to like what I did to you!" then she looked at Fred. "I want my girl back. I challenge you to three different duels, a formal magical duel, a good ole fashioned fistfight, and a sword fight. Best two out of three gets Julia."
"Julia's a person! She's not a piece of property!" an indignant Angel said.
"You're wrong! My dad paid for her, she's my property. He bought her three years ago." She looked around the group daring any of them to say otherwise.
"So, what's it going to be Bones? Are you up to the challenge? Or are you just going to give me back what's mine?"
"When do you want to fight?" asked Ced.
She eyed him, then she looked at Fred, "First duel, February first in the Room of Requirement. We'll make it a formal Wizard's Duel."
"So, who are you?" asked Ced.
"Julia here can tell you all about me, and all the things that we used to do to each other, and how good I used to make her feel when we did them." With that, the short-haired girl turned and left.
With that departure, four hands waved casting the privacy charms. They were all interested in an uninterrupted story of Julia's life.
"No, not yet, I want to hear everything that she's got to say!" said Cici, she was the farthest from Julia and the one that was going to miss out the most in the conversation. "Let's take this to our quarters where we'll have the privacy, and it will be a lot more comfortable."
Amber pulled her finger out of George's mouth, wiped it off, and the group moved to go to the married quarters in Gryffindor tower. They ignored the short haired girl and her friends as they left.
Amber and Julia had never been in the threesome's married quarters before. They were awestruck by the lavishness of their quarters. Vic conjured more chairs for their guests, and arranged the chairs and couches in a circle, sitting Fred and Julia directly across from her, Ced, and Cici. Cici had asked Maco and Lucy if they could bring some butterbeers and lite snacks for their guests.
"You even have your own house elves?" Amber asked in awe.
"Yes, our elves are all volunteers, and receive payment for their services," Cici told her.
They all got quiet and started to look at Julia to begin to tell her story. Julia launched into her story of how she became the short-haired girl's property. "The girl's name is Candice Coldstone, and I was sold to her family just before my first year at Hogwarts. The original agreement was that I would belong to her only when I'm at school, I'm supposed to be her 'friend' at school. My father didn't want the rest of the Wizarding World to know that he had sold me, to pay off the gambling debts, he owed to her father. He had borrowed a lot of money, and the agreement was that he could buy me back in three years or I would forever belong to Candice. Well, as you can see, I'm in my fourth year, and I still belong to her. I dread going home because of my parents, but I dread coming to school even more. I don't like the things that she does to me, and she makes me do to her. But sometimes, your body betrays your mind. Since I've been learning occlumency, I've had more control over my body, and she doesn't like that. She doesn't like that I'm getting stronger both mentally and physically. She doesn't know that I'm getting stronger magically also. Because of this, I think that she's getting bored with me."
"Well that's a good thing, right?" Rose asked.
George had gone back to sucking on another of Amber's fingers, at least it was keeping him quiet.
"Yes and no. Yes, because she has provided a way for me to be freed. No, because she could just as easily give me to one of her other friends, and some of them are more abusive than what she is. She's never hit me or anything like that, she yells at me and calls me names, but she's never hit me before. I've watched as her friends have hit their girlfriends."
"How many other girls are in the same situation as you?" asked Vic.
"I can't tell you that. They made me swear a wizard's oath."
"So, all I have to do is to beat her in two out of three challenges?" asked Fred.
"Yes, and then I'll belong to you, literally, with papers that say so. I will be your property to do with as you please." Julia told him. They could all see the hope and desperation in her eyes as she looked at him.
"Is this why you got together with me?" asked Fred.
"Yes, no, and yes." She told him. She was going to be as honest as she possibly could. "Originally, I was just going to use you to get to Cici. After watching her defeat those two guys last year, I knew that she was my best hope of freedom. Then I saw how devoted Cici was to Ced and I knew that I could never drive them apart, not even Vic was able to drive them apart. But, then, as I got to know you, I fell in love with you. I know that sounds cliché, but this is going to sound cliché too, but I fell in love with you, and now you're my best hope of a better life. She's strong, but I think that you can beat her. I watch you practice, and you're better than she is, but she's strong magically, it runs in her family."
Fred pushed away from her, his emotions were all in a turmoil, right this moment he didn't like her, she had just admitted to using him to try and get to his friend. And when she couldn't get to her, she had settled for him. So, no, he didn't like her, but he still had feelings for her. How can I have feelings for someone that I don't like right now?
The others watched as Fred put a little distance between them. They could see the emotions running across his face, they watched as his face changed to various shades of red, and then settled back down to his usual pale white skin colour.
Slowly Fred began to speak to her, "What happens if I beat her, and I don't want you that way?"
"Then you can give me away, or sell me to someone else," Julia answered flatly.
"But what if I don't want to do that either?"
"I will be yours to do whatever you want to do with."
"But what if I don't want to do that either? What if I don't want you that way? But I want you another way? What if I just want you, for you?"
"Then I will be yours forever." Her eyes getting misty.
Did Fred just propose in front of all of us and did Julia just say yes?
"Yes! You can be so thick sometimes!"his wives thought back at his random thought.
"Not everybody gets …"
"Off as easy as you did!" his wives thought to him.
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At the Christmas dance, Julia was stuck to Fred like glue, that was just fine with Fred because he was stuck to her like glue also. How they managed to get the decorations up was a mystery to the rest of their friends. Fred and Julia had gone up to Coldstone and told her they had accepted her challenge to begin on the first of February and to keep her distance from Julia until all of the challenges were fulfilled. She agreed to their terms.
The happy couple joined their friends for a wide variety of dancing and lots of Christmas cheer. Everybody got to dance, no one was left out of the festivities, not even the Wall Flowers. The guys had made sure that Rose and Angel got to dance as much as the couples. It was a tired group of friends that started the cleanup shortly after midnight. The house elves helped them, and the school was returned to normal, ready for breakfast the next morning in less than an hour.
Fred dreaded walking Julia down to the dungeons, he just didn't trust the snakes to keep their word. Julia worked to alleviate his fears, and their kisses had grown in intensity as the days had gone by. Now, here, after the dance Fred wished that he could provide the security that he felt that she needed, she told him that she would be safe, but he still kissed her like it would be the last kiss forever.
Now, her mind and her body were working as one, her body was responding to the desires of her mind, and she had to push him away lest they go too far. She wasn't even on the potion!
"Fred."
"Humm?" kissing her neck.
"We need to stop!"
"Why?" sucking on her earlobe.
"If we don't stop, we're going to get into trouble!"
"Why?" kissing across her neck to the other earlobe.
"Because we're going to go too far!" pushing him away from her reluctantly. She wanted this as bad as he did if not more. She needed to talk to Cici or Vic.
She put her hands between them on his chest to hold him at a close distance. "We need to say goodnight and go. I will see you in the morning for our morning run. Okay?"
"Fine."
She leaned in and kissed him chastely on the lips, as he tried to pull her in for more, she was able to hold him off.
"Goodnight Fred."
"Fine. Goodnight Julia." And he tried for one last kiss.
She kissed him back and then hurried to the Slytherin entrance. She got to her room and looked at her bed, it was trashed. The curtains were torn down, the sheets in the floor, her trunk was dumped out, her pillow was cut, her mattress was wet, and she didn't know enough magic to fix any of it. She took her sheets, her blanket, and her cut pillow and curled up in the corner of the room closest to her bed. She closed her eyes and got a few hours of sleep, when she woke up, she quietly repacked her trunk, and got dressed to go for her morning run. When she was out there running, there was nothing in the world but running, that was all that she focused on, she hardly participated in the conversations that sometimes occurred, she was just there to run. At least they got to go home today. She hated home. But at least it was better than here. Her parents both worked, so she didn't have to deal with them all day long, and this holiday she could spend as much time with Fred as she wanted, she didn't care what her father tried to say, their secret was out.
They reached the lone tree, and it was bitter cold outside, they looked around, she wrapped her arms around Fred and then they were falling into the chamber of secrets.
"Hey, Vic, can I talk to you for a few moments please?" she was scared that she would be judged, but she also figured that of all of them, Vic would be the least judgmental and be able to still help her. Amber was still too inexperienced to help her with her magical needs.
"Sure, what's wrong?"
"A couple of things, one is, they trashed my bed last night and they soaked the mattress, I don't know how to fix it. The other is, how do I go about getting on the potion?"
Vic pulled her farther off to the side, then chose to take her into the sitting room. With a wave of her hand, all of the furniture stacked itself against the back wall.
"How do you do that? I bet that most of the teachers here can't do what you've just done!"
"Practice, lots and lots of practice. Plus, and what I'm going to tell you is probably the biggest secret in all of England."
"Okay, I took the oath."
"Ced, Cici, and I are a soul-bonded threesome. And because we are soul-bonded, that lets us learn magic at an accelerated rate."
"I can see!"
"Okay, to deal with your broken, wet bed." She conjured a Hogwarts bed and then she broke it, then she soaked the mattress. "Now the first spell is actually very easy, it's reparo, and this is the wand movement that goes with it."
She had Julia practice saying the spell a few times then she let her try it on the broken bed. Julia looked at the broken bed, cast the spell with the correct wand movement, and she watched as the bed repaired itself.
With a little bit of confidence built up, Vic moved on to the drying spell. She taught her the spell, then she showed her the wand movement, she had her practice saying the spell five times, then she let her try it on the soaked mattress.
Julia looked at the mattress, she said the spell and flicked her wand, and the mattress was dry to the touch!
"Now, here's the best part of the drying spell, you can use it on yourself!"
"I can use it on myself?"
"Yes! You have to practice on each part of your body, you have to focus, and then you can dry one leg, and then the other without using your wand. It takes practice, but after about a week, you should be able to dry yourself when you get out of the shower."
"Really?"
"Yeah! Cici taught it to me. She also taught me another great spell. Have you ever noticed that her hair is always perfect?"
"Yes! And I'm so jealous of her for that!"
"After you learn to dry yourself wandlessly, you can use this spell to dry and style your hair." Vic taught her the spell and then she showed her the hand movement that went with the spell. "Now, you have to know how you want your hair when you cast the spell." Vic shook out her hair and got it to go everywhere. Then she looked at Julia and cast the spell on her hair, her hair flew up, and then it settled down into an intricate braid that crisscrossed her head, complete with hair ties on the end of each braid.
"Wow! That's so amazing!"
"Now, for the last question that you asked me. Cici and I don't use the potion because, as close as we are with Ced, we've never consummated our marriages. It seems as intense as our love is, that the bond won't let us consummate our marriages. We figure that the soul-bond doesn't want any pregnant warrior princess! Now, I can get you some books that will answer a lot of your questions, these are the same books that Cici gave me when I asked her this same question, on a variety of subjects, but you will have to talk to a doctor or Madam Pomfrey to get the potion."
"But I don't want to have my parents take me to the doctor!"
"Ced's mum is a doctor, and so is Cici's mum. If you want, I can introduce you to one of them."
"Which one would you talk to about this?"
"For me, because of my situation, I would talk to Ced's mum. But you may be more comfortable talking to Cici's mum."
"But isn't she a muggle?"
"That's another secret that we keep. She was under a curse, but now she's hooked up with a dragon trainer, and she should be at the Potter mansion for the holidays. Uasal and Car-baun like to come to visit whenever we're home. As much as they hate the cold, they would hate to miss us more!"
"Cici's mum is a dragon trainer?"
"No, she just rides them, but she's their healer for the trainers that get hurt. Oh, and just so you know, she cheats at dragon tag!"
"Dragon tag? What's that?"
"Did you ever play tag when you were younger?"
"Yeah."
"Well, it's just like that, only you're playing with dragons while flying on a broom."
"Are you two doing okay in here?" asked Cici.
"Yes, I was just telling Julia how your mum cheats at dragon tag!"
"Yeah, she does! But don't tell Uasal that!"
The three girls broke out laughing, and they had a good hearty laugh.
"I was just teaching her a couple of new spells to make her life a little easier."
"The drying spell and the hair styling spell?"
"Yeah, those are great to know. I just needed to talk to a girl for a while. Fred is okay, but there are things that he just wouldn't understand no matter how hard he tries."
"Boys!" the three of the coursed, and burst out laughing again.
"If she continues to have troubles in her dorm we can offer her the spare bedroom if it's okay with you and Ced."
"Thanks, but we'll offer that as a last resort. My wife may be a little to clothing optional for us to have long-term guests."
"Ced wants Fred to practice four on one for the next fifteen minutes, so we need Julia to help him out," Cici told them.
When it came time to get their showers, Julia asked Rose and Angel if she could portkey with them. She told them that she really didn't want to go back to the Slytherin girl's showers that morning.
"Do you want one of us to go with you to get your stuff? Or do you want us to have an elf go and collect your stuff and you shower in our spare room?" Ced asked when he heard the request. He was sure that Cici and Vic could handle any troubles that may occur, but he wanted to offer just the same.
"Well, my trunk is packed." She said.
"Then I can send an elf to collect your trunk and bring it to our spare bedroom. You can shower in there and change in private."
"Okay, that'll be fine then."
Ced asked Maco to go get her trunk and take it to their spare bedroom for Julia while she showered.
.
Everybody met down in the common room for breakfast, the saying that there is safety in numbers turned out to be true. As they got closer to the Great Hall, more and more of Coldstone's friends were watching them in the halls. Ced and the girls scanned the hall as the entered to see who was watching, and everybody was watching, wonderful.
They sat in their usual spot at the Gryffindor table, the guys all sat their girls, and all of them received a kiss of appreciation as their reward. This didn't go unnoticed by the Headmistress, she liked that Ced's manners were paying off with his friends. Angel was just about to throw up the privacy charms when Ced waved her off, she looked at him questioningly.
"Let's see what all of the noise is about. It can't all be about getting to go home in a couple of hours." He told her.
She nodded in agreement, she thought that it was unusually noisy, the noise wasn't right for getting to go home, it seemed that it was anticipation noise, like for a fight.
The guys helped their girls with loading up their plates with food, Ced was sitting between Cici and Vic, Julia was between Vic and Fred, Amber was between George and Angel, and Rose was on the end of that side in front of Cici. Everybody on Ced's side of the table kept a watchful eye on the rest of the hall. As they were finishing their breakfast, and most of the head table was empty, two sixth-year Slytherins started making their way towards the Gryffindor table, one went around, and across the front of the hall, the other went around by the doors. It was a classic pincher movement, catch them in the crossfire. Some of the other Gryffindors saw what was coming and wolfed down their food so they could leave quickly, and with a full belly.
"Here they come." Said Fred.
"Looks like a couple of sixth-year guys," Ced replied.
"Those aren't boys, those are girls." Julia corrected them.
"Those are girls?" squeaked Fred.
"Yes, and they're mean too," she told them.
"Well, lookie what we got here, little miss sweet in the pants, went and got herself a Gryffindor boyfriend!" said the one closest to the doors.
"What? We ain't good enough for you?" said the opposite dyke.
Julia just looked from one to the other, she was noticeably scared
Fred spoke up, "Coldstone agreed to leave us alone until all three challenges were finished."
"No, she said that she would leave little miss sweet in the pants alone. You're fair game."
"So, it's you two, against the eight of us?" asked Fred a little confused.
"Who said that there were only two of us? it's a long train ride home, and it's about to get longer." And they turned and walked away.
"Well, at least we know where they're going to try and attack us," commented Ced, already thinking of a defensive strategy.
"Let's get the last compartment on the train, at least they can only come at us from one direction!" George said.
"I like it, we just need to get there early enough to get it." Responded Ced.
"I'll go down there early and get the compartment." Said Vic. "I'll just teleportus to get there before anybody else!"
.
So far, the train ride home was nice and quiet, Vic had teleportused to the gates of the school, and from there she had walked to the train station. The scarlet coloured train was sitting there waiting, smoke and steam coming out of the various ports and pressure relief valves. She looked at how clean and shiny it always was, then she realised that it must be enchanted to never get dirty or for the paint to fade. She walked to the last car of the train and climbed aboard, there she found Candice Coldstone and two of her friends applying runes to the train car. Vic quickly disillusioned herself and quieted her shoes to make no noise. She stayed still so that she wouldn't attract attention, it was only a disillusionment charm, not an invisibility cloak after all. She stood there and watched them work, just over half way down the car.
"The kid said that they were going to take the last compartment on the train! Hurry up with those runes!" Coldstone told the long-haired witch.
Shaking and gasping out her response between sniffles, she said, "I'm going as fast as I can! It takes time to draw all of these runes!"
Coldstone hit her in the back of the head, "Draw them faster then!"
"I'm trying!" she tried saying louder. But she was shaking too hard to draw the runes any faster.
"Change of plans, we're going to be in the first compartment of the last car. Coldstone is having some long-haired girl write runes on the walls of the train car. She stole my idea!"
While the long-haired girl had to draw each of the runes three and four times, Vic got all of her runes done quickly, the compartment disappeared with the drawing of the last rune. She slipped inside and watched for her spouses and their friends. The minutes dragged by as she waited quietly inside the compartment. If anybody cared to count the windows on the outside of the car, her ruse wouldn't hold up.
"We're here." she heard her husband think to her.
"I'm in the last train car, and when I see you, I'll open the compartment door. I used some runes around the compartment door to hide the compartment."
With Ced leading the way, the group headed for the last train car, Vic watched them approach through the windows of the compartment, she also saw, Coldstone watching them from down the platform. She turned just in time to catch Ced before he walked past the compartment door. Well, at least my rune work works!
"Yes, it does." He kissed her in greeting.
"Coldstone is farther down the platform, she watched all of you get on the train car, so she knows that we're here," Vic informed the group as they put their trunks in the overhead storage racks.
Once they were all in the compartment, the door slid shut. While Cici was locking the door, Vic was casting another charm on the outside windows of the compartment to display a bunch of first-years having fun. On the inside, the compartment didn't exist, and from the outside, it was just a bunch of kids messing around. And sure enough, one of Coldstone's short-haired friends got off the train and walked to her. They talked for a few minutes and then the short haired girl that had threatened them at breakfast, walked down the outside of the train car looking in each of the windows. They all held their collective breathes. They watched her walk back to the front of the train car and then as she went down the hallway of the train car. Cici cast all of the privacy charms and added a couple more. The threesome knew they couldn't use their body armour, and privately they were glad that they had enchanted their school robes to absorb all but the strongest of spells.
"So, when do you think that they'll come looking for us?" asked a nervous Fred.
"If we're lucky they won't find us until we get home." Answered Vic.
"If they start checking for wards, about halfway to the train station," Cici said.
They heard the whistle of the train telling all of the stragglers to hurry up. A few minutes later the whistle blew again signalling that the train was leaving the station. They felt the train lurch as it started to move forward. With a steady pace, it built speed until it reached the cruising speed to get them home. The nine of them took turns watching the hallway and the scenery moving past as they sped down the train tracks.
"There's one of them standing in the hallway," Angel said. "they're looking towards the back of the train car."
"Another of them just came out of the area that we can't see into." She continued her narration of what was happening outside of their compartment.
"Do you want to take the first couple of hours of watching them, Angel?" asked Ced.
"Sure, I doubt that I could relax anyway." She told him.
"Good, the rest of us need to close our eyes and get some rest. The stress of waiting will wear you out worse than the fight would. Close your eyes and clear your mind." Ced told the rest of their friends.
George and Fred, leaned against the outside wall of the compartment, they pulled their girls into them tightly, their arms wrapped around them to hold them in a loving embrace. Rose leaned against Angel, while Ced leaned against the inside wall, then Vic, and then Cici sandwiching Vic between them. Cici and Ced held hands loosely as they closed their eyes. Angel sat there, standing guard over her friends, brother, and cousins. She watched the aggressive behaviour of the dykes, she watched as they were abusive to their girlfriends. She had seen other female couples that looked to be very loving, but these girls were even more aggressive than most angry guys. Coldstone was definitely the leader of the group, every few moments she would come out and talk to the guard in the hallway, then walk past the wards. Even the trolley-witch walked past their compartment and then she also walked past the wards to the back of the train car! Well, I guess their warder isn't as good as our warder! Angel thought to herself. This helped her relax a little as she kept watch.
About an hour into waiting, Rose sat up, "I can't sleep!" she said softly to her cousin. "I'll trade you places."
The two witches got up and traded places.
"We're known as the Wall Flowers," Rose told Angel, a little dejectedly.
"I know, but most of the guys these days don't grow up until they're in their thirties!"
"And we're too closely related to all of the good guys!" Rose was making reference to the actual fact that Magical Britain was getting too inbred. The purebloods had all been marrying each other for the past centuries that they were all literally related to each other at the fourth and fifth cousin stage, if not closer!
"So, what are you thinking?"
"I was thinking about looking abroad for a husband. Taking some time and travelling."
"Your mum is going to kill you!"
"Have you ever looked at dogs? The pure-bred dogs?"
"Yeah, so."
"All of the pure-bred dogs have health problems. Some have problems with their hips, some are nearly blind from birth, some just have unnaturally short lives. With people, their intelligence gets lower, and they also develop some health issues. Look at some of the Slytherins, hell! Look at some of the guys in our own house! Smythe for example! The guy was in the same year for three years!" she hissed.
"So, what are you going to go do? Marry an American!"
"If I have to! Cici's not so bad."
Then they heard it, somebody was banging on the walls of the compartments.
"Time to wake up!" Angel called loudly.
The rest of them sat up quickly.
"What's going on?" asked Ced.
"They're patting down the walls to search for us," Angel said.
They all got quiet and listened. They could hear the pat-pat-pat of someone looking for a missing compartment. It wouldn't be long now until they would have the confrontation they had been expecting. The long-haired girl was patting down the walls with Coldstone right behind her, her wand out.
They watched as she got to the smoothness of the glass.
"That's Lucy, she's a Ravenclaw that they converted from boys by telling her a bunch of lies. Now they control her with fear." Julia informed them softly.
Lucy found the edge of the doorway. They watched as Coldstone pulled her back and felt for the door herself. A smile came across her lips as she called for her back up.
"Yup, two hours in, into a four-and-a-half-hour train ride!" Cici said looking at her watch.
"Use protego alavaris for your shield spell, this will reflect whatever curse they're going to use back on to them," Ced told the group.
Fred and George were busy teaching their girlfriends the new shield spell. Cici and Vic watch as the two girls got the hang of the spell.
"When she barges in here. I'm going to slam and lock the door to keep her friends out. Then we'll enlarge the compartment, like the time Percy Jr. came after me? Do you think that you can take her in the fistfight, Fred?" Ced asked.
"Yeah, she's fat, and she's slow."
"But she's strong!" Julia cautioned.
"You also have to let her take the first swing! When they try to accuse you of starting the fight, your defence is that they threw the first punch. It doesn't matter if they hit you, they threw the first punch, and you were just defending yourself, and/or your girlfriend."
"I'm kind of thinking that if he disarms her in the magical fight, that that would count as the wizard's duel. Then if she throws the first punch, and he beats her in the fistfight, that would be the two out of the three." Cici said.
Ced looked at Fred, "If you get it over with today. Then you've gotten yourself a girl for Christmas."
"Now what you do with her! Well, that's up to you two!" Vic cheered him on.
Coldstone started trying to blast the door open. They could feel the reverberations of each of the spells hitting the door. She kept hammering at the door with her variety of spells.
Ced looked at Cici. She looked back at him and shrugged her shoulders, "Guess she's not as strong as she thinks she is."
"This is good for you Fred, she's wearing herself out just trying to open the door!" Ced told his mate.
"Why don't the rest of us get up on the seats and disillusion ourselves, leaving only Fred and Julia visible?" suggested Angel.
The rest of the group looked at each other, gave that 'Gee that's a good idea' look, and climbed on to the seats and disillusioned themselves. It was about three more tries before the wood and the glass of the door shattered inward. Fred cast a shield spell to protect him and his girlfriend.
"Little punk! Looks like all of your friends have abandoned you! Or did you get a compartment to yourselves hoping to get some from her? You, traitorous witch!" she spat at Julia. Julia cowered under the verbal onslaught of abuse.
Fred cast a reparo spell to fix the door, and then he locked the door behind the overweight witch in front of him. Next, he enlarged the compartment and kept Julia behind him where he could protect her with his body, and his magic.
Coldstone, already in a rage cast the first spell, Fred blocked it with the protego alavaris shield like Ced had suggested and a deep cut crossed Coldstone's face. This took her by surprise, and she cried out in pain. The pain fueled her rage as she cast another spell, which Fred blocked easily. He then cast a duplicate of himself that she blasted to bits. He cast another and then another letting her burn up her magic blasting decoys out of existence. Then sensing her weakness, he hit her with a one-two punch of spells and her wand landed in his outstretched hand.
He looked at the defeated witch, "My wand, I won it through the rite of combat!"
Coldstone, her energy fueled by her rage, charged at them. Fred pushed Julia farther to the side as he waited for the right moment for him to sidestep the raging dyke, then he was going to hit her in the back with his elbow and drive her into the floor of the compartment. NOW! Was the instant to strike her! He buried his elbow into her back as hard as he could! She went down with a thud, her face hitting the wooden floor of the train compartment. He dropped on her with his knee into her back again. Straddling her, he grabbed her short hair and slammed her face into the floor of the compartment.
"DO YOU SUBMIT!" he yelled at the dyke. This wasn't a girl or a woman, this was a dyke, a new breed of human.
She shook her head no.
He slammed her face again, into the floor. Her blood coming from her mouth and nose.
She shook her head no again.
He slammed an elbow into her kidney, and she roared like the bull she wanted to be. But she still shook her head no.
He slammed his other elbow into her other kidney, causing it to rupture, and she let out a bellow worthy of any bull.
"DO YOU WANT ME TO DO IT AGAIN?"
She shook her head no, she didn't want any more of this pain.
"GIVE HER TO ME THEN!"
She nodded her head in submission, and he got off of her. He stood back warily waiting for some kind of deception, but there was none. He unlocked the compartment door.
"Summon the papers to give her to me." He told her coldly.
Her friends tried to rush in, but she held up her hand to stop them. "I need my wand." She said.
"It won't work for you, but here it is."
She caught her wand and could feel the difference immediately. "Accio papers for Julia," she said. She repeated the charm twice more before the papers came to her. She tossed the wand back to Fred. "It's useless to me. You keep it."
"Sign the papers giving her to me! And then put your bloody thumbprint in the circle!"
After she had finished signing the papers and she was handing them to Fred, Ced disillusioned himself and stepped off the seat. He took the pieces of parchment and read them carefully.
"It's not right," Ced told Fred. Then he looked at the dyke. "You need to word it this way." And he told her how to word the contract so it was uncontestable and Julia would truly belong to Fred, papers and all.
When she had finished rewording the contract and resigned it, and reinserted her bloody thumbprint. Cici disillusioned herself and stepped down from the seat.
How big was this compartment? Coldstone wondered.
"Let me heal you, or you won't live long enough to get to London." She told her.
She just nodded her consent, and Cici started to heal her. Fred had done an excellent job of defeating her. Cici treated her kidneys first then she worked on the rest of her for the next thirty minutes. She left all of the drying blood on her robes. Vic disillusioned herself and scourgified the rest of the compartment clean.
Julia was sitting on Fred's lap kissing him hard. All of them were very truly happy and excited that Fred had won. All those months of training had paid off for him with an incredible prize.
"So, what are you going to tell mum?" asked Rose.
"That I won her fair and square!"
"So, what are you going to say at your funeral? 'Cause you know that she's going to kill you!"
"I've got the papers that say she belongs to me! What can she say?"
.
He was about to find out what his mum was going to say as they pulled into the platform at King's Cross Station. The first thing he wanted to do was to deal with her parents. He was going to make it clear that she was no longer theirs. She belonged to him now.
When they got to the station, Uncle Os was talking to Ced's father, the threesome walked up as Fred and Julia walked to her parents. Uncle Os was watching the scene that Fred Jr. was making.
"Why's Fred Jr. waving that parchment in Ole Berkshire's face?"
"Oh, he just won that girl in a two out of three fight. She used to belong to another girl that's called a dyke." Ced told his great uncle.
"He won her?"
"Yes, that parchment that he's waving in her father's face? That's the ownership papers to her, she belongs to him now."
"Ownership papers? He sold his daughter with papers?"
Os and Harry started walking towards the commotion happening on the platform.
"Berkshire," Os said.
"Lord Greengrass! Lord Gryffindor!" he bowed to them. Could this day get any worse?
"You sold your daughter?" asked Os.
"No! No! It's not like that! I was going to buy her back!"
"So, you did sell your daughter." Harry's voice was colder than what Daphne could make it.
"Let me see the parchment, Fred," Os told his grandnephew.
Fred handed him the parchment. Os started to study the contract. While Os was examining the contract, the rest of the Ancient and Nobel families where drawn to the commotion. When Susan asked Fred Jr., what was happening.
Os looked at her, "Your son owns this girl, Julia Berkshire. These are the papers giving him ownership of her."
"WHAT!"
This outburst from her niece caught Amelia's attention, now the Minister of Magic was walking towards them, and her husband, the Head of the Wizengamot.
"Os."
"Amelia."
"Susan."
"Auntie."
"What's going on?" asked the Minister.
"I was just explaining to Susan, that Ole Berkshire here sold his daughter to pay off his gambling debts to Coldstone over there. Fred tells me that he gave her to his daughter as a plaything, for when they were at Hogwarts and that he just won her in a fair two out of three fights. So, now your grandson owns this girl legally."
Probably the only thing that was saving Fred from being hexed into oblivion was that Julia was hanging on his arm with both of hers. She had met all of them before, she had almost lived at the Potter mansion over the summer. She had even been to Bones Tower on several occasions, but right now, seeing all of the anger, she was scared.
Fred was scared too, he was afraid that they would somehow take Julia away and give her back to her parents that sold her off in the first place.
Berkshire was looking around like a mouse in a maze, when he saw the original "Ice Queen" of Hogwarts walking up, with her husband.
Daphne looked at her father questioningly.
"Your employee sold his daughter three years ago to pay off his gambling debts on a three-year contract," Os told her.
Daphne looked at the wizard. "Don't worry about cleaning out your desk. I'll have everything brought to your house on Tuesday after Christmas."
He looked at her pleadingly.
"You're dismissed."
He looked at her husband hopefully.
Cedric looked at him with disgust. How could you sell your daughter, your only child, to pay for your bad habits?
"Leave, before I have you arrested for loitering," Amelia told him.
He didn't move, he just looked from face to face looking for a friendly face.
"Tonks!" Amelia raised her voice.
The Assistant Director of the D.M.L.E. started walking towards her former boss. "Yes, mam?"
"Have one of your Aurors arrest this man for loitering. Keep him until Tuesday, after Christmas."
Tonks looked at Sirius. Sirius was smart enough to keep his mouth shut and just nod at the bubblegum pink haired witch.
Tonks waved an Auror over and told him what she wanted to be done. When the Auror realised who all was there, he became nervous but carried out his duties as he was told.
With Julia's father taken away in magical handcuffs, Fred and Julia celebrated with a huge hug and a searing kiss. Who cares about a public display of affection when the one that sold you into slavery is locked up.
"We need to change that law on Tuesday also," Amelia told her group of friends. It may be too late for Julia, but she was going to put an end to slavery in Magical Britain.
Vic walked over to Julia, "That's Hermione, whom you've already met, and that's Angelica, Cici's mum, you've probably met her too. They're both doctors, but read the books that I gave you. You don't need to have sexual intercourse to have fun in bed with each other." She whispered in her ear.
Julia kissed her on her cheek, "Thank you! Thank you for everything!" she wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tightly.
Susan looked at her son, "She can live with us until you two are of age. I'll have Fleur place wards on your rooms! If either of you tries sneaking into the other's room, I WILL KNOW ABOUT IT! Do I make myself clear?"
Harry looked at Hermione, then he motioned to the threesome. They walked a little ways off to have a conversation.
"Sean McMillan wants to meet with you three now. We were supposed to be there thirty minutes ago." Harry told them lowly so no one would overhear.
"Daphne, will you be okay if I send you home with Winkey?" Hermione asked.
"I'll be fine. Just please shrink my trunk for me. I haven't figured that one out yet."
Hermione handed her, her shrunken trunk.
"Bye mum, I'll see you at home!" and she was gone with a soft little pop.
"Same place as before. Ready?" asked Harry.
Then the five of them were gone.
.
.
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A/N: Please review!
Revised 02.22.2018
And again 01.03.2019
