Disclaimer: see prologue
Guide: "Speech", Thoughts, ~letters and other written things, "Parseltongue"
Warning: sexual themes, lots of swearing and hopefully some good laughs which will steal your breath
Beta: Platinum, VictorianMuse
AN: This chapter is dedicated to Shizu66. Without the discussions I had with her, I probably wouldn't have written this chapter about the Marauders' Altair experience.
-~-~- Altair -~-~-
-~-~-by Still waters are deep-~-~-
-~-~- Chapter 27 – Of cats and dogs and bats-~-~-
Saturday, 1st November 1997, shortly after midnight
"Oh, Sirius, I'm so happy to have you back," Harry exclaimed, leaning over the portrait of his godfather, tears still freely flowing from his eyes. "I was so devastated after you fell through that damned veil," he sobbed.
"It's okay, Harry. I'm here now―or at least my portrait is, even though I have no bloody idea when I got one," Sirius said in a soothing voice, trying to lighten the mood with the last part.
"Your uncle Alphard had commissioned it and somehow got it into the Black family vault at Gringotts," Harry explained, his face still wet, but at least the tears had stopped flowing.
"Bless uncle Alphard, may his soul rest in peace," Sirius said, a solitary tear falling down his painted cheeks when he remembered how much his uncle had done for him.
Before Harry or Sirius could say anything more, they were interrupted by Draco. "I'll leave you alone to talk. But don't stay up too long, after all, you have the whole weekend to catch up with him and it's already a quarter past midnight."
After his sudden revelation of being in love with Harry, the blond had been unsure how he should behave. On the one hand, he would have loved nothing more than to walk over to where Harry was kneeling on the stone floor and to take the brunet into his arms, wanting to comfort Harry in his current state of happy distress.
On the other hand, though, Draco had felt like he was intruding on a private moment between Harry and his godfather, and as they weren't a couple yet, it wasn't really his place to be next to Harry, especially since at the end of their fifth year he had been forced to make fun of Sirius' death to stay on Voldemort's good side.
So, in the end, Draco had decided that it would be better if he left Harry alone with the newly activated portrait of his godfather. Besides, this way he would have some moments on his own to come to terms with the fact that he loved Harry.
After fastening up his trousers, the blond had gotten up from the floor and informed Harry of his departure, before he left the room, and softly closed the door behind him.
"Who was that?" Sirius asked. As his portrait was still lying on the ground, he hadn't been able to see the blond boy.
"Draco," Harry answered, with a small smile on his face. "He's my Altair partner and performed the Portrait Activation Ritual with me," was all the brunet could say before Sirius interrupted him.
"Draco Malfoy?" the portrait asked, shocked. "The spoiled little brat that tried to get Buckbeak executed?" Sirius went on.
"Yes, Draco Malfoy," Harry said, then immediately added in his Altair partner's defence, "but he has changed."
However, Sirius didn't seem to hear the last part—or maybe he chose to ignore it—because, before Harry could say anything else in Draco's defence, Sirius asked the next question, "Who was in charge of assigning the Altair partners?"
"Snape," the brunet answered with a yawn, like usual leaving out the "Professor".
"Snivellus paired you with Malfoy!" Sirius screamed, now he was really angry with the Potions master. How could he pair his Harry with Malfoy of all people!? "I'll have to have a serious word with the bastard," he said, already standing upright and ready to walk out of his portrait to search for Severus.
"Calm down, Sirius," Harry said to stop his godfather from leaving the frame. He feared that Snape wouldn't hesitate to destroy Sirius' portrait if his godfather annoyed the Potions master too much. "Besides that he only reads out the list that a magical object generates, I'm really happy to have Draco as my partner. Without him I would never have known that your portrait needed to be activated," Harry informed Sirius.
This time Sirius finally seemed to listen to his godson, as he grudgingly sat down again and responded to Harry's praise of Draco. "Great, now I owe my new existence to a Malfoy," he said with a pout.
"You know, it could be worse," the brunet said.
"I don't see how it could be worse," was the portrait's answer.
"Yeah—h?," Harry asked rhetorically, dragging out the H because he was yawning once again. "Snape could have been the one to activate your portrait."
"I would rather burn this portrait myself than to let that happen," Sirius said earnestly, full of resolve.
"See, it could be worse," Harry said smugly, though another yawn swiftly erased the smirk off of his face.
"You know, maybe you should listen to what the Malfoy brat said and go to bed," Sirius suggested after Harry yawned for the fourth time in five minutes.
"But I just got you back," the brunet whined.
"And I'm not going anywhere or going to vanish again, so go to bed, Harry," Sirius ordered this time. When he saw that his godson was hesitating to leave, he added, "I'll even promise you that I won't leave the portrait to search for Snivellus."
With a last sigh, Harry resigned himself to his fate and said goodbye to his godfather, promising to come back in the morning.
Looking up for the first time in half an hour, Harry noticed that all of the five white candles were extinct, just like they should have been if the ritual had been performed correctly. Though, the brunet couldn't say that he had noticed the magical wind, which according to their book should have blown out the candles the moment Sirius' portrait was activated.
With a last wishful look at the portrait of his godfather, who had already closed his eyes in sleep, Harry left the special Altair room to join a sleeping Draco in their bed, not noticing that the blond was only pretending to be asleep as the other boy's mind was far too troubled by his feelings for Harry to find some much needed rest.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
When Draco woke up around eight in the morning, being used to getting up at that time after two months of classes, he was alone in the bed but could hear the shower running in the bathroom. Getting out of the bed, Draco went to their walk-in closet to pick out some fresh clothes for the day.
By the time he had everything he needed, he heard the bathroom door open.
"Morning," Harry greeted the blond with a big smile on his way to the Altair room.
"Good morning," Draco greeted back as he passed the brunet, not surprised at all to see Harry wearing one of his old Weasley jumpers instead of one of the new ones.
After Draco left the bathroom, he decided that he would spend the morning doing his Ancient Runes homework. He would use the time Harry would spend speaking with his godfather to contemplate whether he should or shouldn't act on his feelings for Harry and make the first move to start something more.
In a minute, Draco had gathered everything he would need―everything but his Ancient Runes textbook, which he had left on the living room coffee table Thursday evening. So, the blond left the bedroom and walked to the living room, where he was met by the sight of Harry propping his godfather's portrait up against the coffee table. Apparently, the brunet hadn't wanted to spend the whole morning cooped up in the dungeon look-alike that was their special Altair room, which Draco could totally understand.
"But really, Harry. I don't know why you don't want me to have a word with Snape. It's not like I can hex him, or anything," he heard Sirius complain to Harry, as the brunet sat down on a pillow in front of the portrait, his back resting against the sofa.
"Sorry, Black, but you'll have to make do with our Ritual Magic teacher," Draco said from the doorway, making his presence known. "Though, I can't deny that she sometimes reminds me of a female version of Severus who looks a bit like McGonagall."
"Their daughter?" Sirius asked jokingly. After Harry had briefed him on what Draco had done to help Harry defeat Voldemort, the brunet's godfather had warmed up to the blond boy, having developed a great respect for the young man. That Harry confirmed that Lucius really had been under the Imperius Curse, hadn't hurt either.
"Unlikely, she's about ten years older than us and from France," the blond said as he picked up his forgotten Ancient Runes textbook from the coffee table.
"And why do you want me to meet her, when you won't let me meet Snape?" Sirius asked Draco.
"Because, we have to prove to her that we successfully performed the Portrait Activation Ritual, and for that she'll need to see your portrait again. She will probably have some questions for you as well," the blond answered, throwing a longing look in Harry's direction before he walked out of the room, intending to complete his homework in the Slytherin common room to let Harry talk in private with his godfather.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
"So," Harry began after the blond had left, but didn't know how he should continue, even though they had fifteen months of Harry's life to catch up on.
The brunet had already given Sirius a quick summary of how Voldemort was defeated when he moved the portrait from the special Altair room to the living room. And because he didn't want to ruin his good mood with talking any more about Voldemort, going into detail about what happened during the final battle was out of question.
Sirius wasn't faring any better as he answered with a "So?" of his own, not wanting to talk about Voldemort and his cronies either.
Trying to come up with another topic to talk about, Harry finally got inspired by Sirius' portrait. "You know, Sirius," he began. "I had been really nervous about the Portrait Activation Ritual."
When Sirius motioned for him to continue, Harry added, "You must know, it was the first ritual Draco and I performed. And unlike the sexual potions we have brewed before, failure didn't mean that we could simply start all over again with the ritual. So, I was even more nervous about botching it up."
"Understandable," Sirius said with a nod of his head, though he couldn't help but add, "However, considering what else you've already mastered―like killing a Basilisk at the age of twelve―something as simple as a Portrait Activation Ritual should be child's play in comparison."
"How would you know that a Portrait Activation Ritual would be easier than killing a Basilisk? I haven't heard of you doing either of them" Harry said. While he, of course, had been a bundle of nerves when he had gotten down into the Chamber of Secrets, he had been full of adrenalin too. So, without the adrenalin to give him an extra kick and the recentness of the event, for Harry the Portrait Activation Ritual had felt much more stressful and demanding than the slaughter of the Basilisk.
"I'm a Black, remember?" Sirius asked rhetorically.
Nevertheless, Harry still answered him, "And all Blacks have an obsession for portraits. So, of course, you would know all about the ritual," he said with a smack to his head. How could he have forgotten about the Blacks' fondness of portraits, even though their Gringotts vault had been full of them?
"Exactly," the portrait answered. "Besides, Malfoy's mother is a born Black, so you should have been in good hands," Sirius said, not even bothering to point out that Harry and Draco obviously had done it right for him to be able to speak to his godson at this very moment.
"Trust me, I was," Harry said proudly, a happy smile on his face. The brunet still couldn't believe his luck to have gotten an Altair partner who could so easily could calm him down like Draco could. Really, he didn't know what he would have done without the blond boy by his side.
"Really, considering everything Draco has done for me so far, I should have known that my Draco would ensure that everything went smoothly and that I would be as comfortable as possible," he finally admitted with a dreamy and happy look on his face.
"Your Draco?" Sirius asked with a raised eyebrow, obviously teasing his godson about the use of the possessive pronoun. It hadn't escaped his notice that Harry seemed to genuinely like the Malfoy heir.
After turning a bright shade of red, Harry attempted to cover up his mistakes. "Yes, Draco, my Altair partner," the brunet stressed.
"You know, Harry. You and Malfoy remind me of Lily and James," Sirius said with a secretive smile.
"My parents?" Harry asked, wondering why he and Draco reminded his godfather about them.
"Yes. Just like you and Malfoy, the two fought like cats and dogs before they became Altair partners in their seventh year."
Letting out a chuckle, Sirius added, "I still fondly remember how James let out a cry of joy when he heard that he and Lily were partners. And then in his usual James-like manner, he walked over to where Lily stood, put an arm around her shoulder, and made the classic Head Girl joke. Your mother, of course, slapped him right on the head for his stunt," the portrait said with a fond smile on his painted lips.
"But after that day, it soon became obvious to everyone that they were falling in love fast with each other, and would end up marrying once they left Hogwarts. Or at least Lily was starting to fall, as James had already been in love with her from the first time he saw her on the Hogwarts Express."
After a pause, which Sirius gave Harry to assimilate the new information about his parents, the Animagus couldn't help but ask, "And, Harry, have you and Malfoy already set a date for the big event?"
"What?" Harry asked, perplexed. He had no idea what his godfather was talking about. Maybe he had missed something Sirius said while he had imagined how his parents had become a couple through their Altair electives?
"Have you and Malfoy already set a wedding date?" Sirius elaborated. "Surely you two are already in love with each other," the portrait said as it would be as secure as the sun rising every morning.
Am I in love with Draco? Harry asked himself. And he had to admit that he couldn't answer that question with a clear "Yes", but neither could he answer with a simple "No."
"I don't know," Harry finally confessed with a sigh and a shrug of his shoulders. "Though, I have to admit that last month I was worried that we had accidentally gotten married to each other," Harry told his godfather, remembering about their unexpected fourth order bond.
"How can someone get married on accident?" Sirius asked, bewildered; in all his life he had never heard of two people getting married by accident.
"Apparently there are some old bonding rituals from the time of the ancient Greece and Rome. If you aren't careful, you can easily end up performing one of them just by having sex thrice in certain positions and saying a phrase or two."
"Really?" the portrait asked, astonished. "Makes me wonder why it doesn't happen all the time," he muttered under his breath.
"That's easy," Harry answered, having heard his godfather's mumble. "While some people nowadays may scream out things like 'don't stop...love you', they still only roughly mean 'I'll never stop loving you'.
"In Latin and Ancient Greek though, those two phrases were exactly the same. Thus, two people accidentally married when they theoretically only said to not stop and that they loved each other," Harry explained to his godfather, his cheeks only turning a light shade of pink at the mentioning of sex talk. Apparently, it was easier for him to talk with Sirius about such things than with Hermione. But then, Sirius was more like a mix of big brother and funny uncle to him, and not his best female friend with whom you talk about love, but not about sex.
"Though, I have to admit, that I don't know if it really works with the translated English phrase as no one has ever tried it out. But, as both the Greece and the Roman bonding rituals only differ in the language of the phrase, I would assume that it would work with English too," the brunet added.
"Interesting," was all Sirius said. After a pause he asked, "And how did you find out that you and Malfoy aren't married?"
"Ehm...yeah," Harry began, trying to come up with a good point to start the story while he messed up his hair. Deciding that the beginning would be the best option, he said, "You must know that Draco and I only started to wonder about our marital status after it was revealed that we had a fourth order bond."
"Really?" Sirius shouted in disbelief. He knew that only married couples or so called 'soul mates' shared a fourth order bond. "Shit, a fourth order bond," he added after a moment, shaking his head.
"Yeah, that was what we thought, too," Harry said. "So, we, of course, wondered if we somehow had gotten married to each other without our knowledge.
"Because I didn't want to tell Hermione about it, I began to research on my own. I found a potion which shows whether two people are married or not, but it would take a full year to brew the potion and I don't think that one can buy such a rarely used potion somewhere in Diagon Alley," the brunet informed his godfather.
"You must be speaking about the Matrimonio Potion," Sirius correctly concluded.
"Yes, that was the name of it," Harry confirmed. "Anyway, with the potion out of the question, I shifted the focus of my research from discovering the marital status to ways one could marry. That's when I came across the old marriage rituals from ancient Greek and Rome. And while I didn't find one ritual which coincides with what Draco and I did, I still can't cross out the option that maybe there is a ritual not in the books that we may have performed," Harry said.
"So, I can only assume that Draco and I have a fourth order bond because we are just really compatible, and not because we accidentally married." And maybe also because we followed Thothus Malfoy's instruction on how to get a strong bond, Harry added in his thoughts only. After all, he had promised Draco to tell no one about the journal.
"Though, considering that we ended up in Room Zero, it's very likely that we're just really compatible," the brunet added as an afterthought.
"FUCK, ROOM ZERO? The two of you really got into Room ZERO?" Sirius cried out. Harry was surprised that someone who was dead still could scream so loud. But then, Walburga's portrait had been a real pain in the ass too. So, he shouldn't be surprised that her son could scream as loudly as her.
"Ehm...yeah," Harry confirmed after Sirius had finally finished screaming out his surprise.
"You know, I always wanted to know how the famous Room Zero looked like from the inside," the portrait said. "I had been really surprised when James and Lily hadn't been assigned to it in our days."
While Harry liked that he finally had the previously missing puzzle piece of how his parents went from loathing to loving each other, he really didn't want to know the details about their Altair time. So, to change the topic, he asked, "Say, Sirius, did you also apply to the Altair electives?"
"Yes, of course," the portrait immediately answered. "Do you really think that a seventeen-year-old teenage boy would miss out on the chance to get laid regularly with the pretext of doing homework? Moony, though, couldn't apply for them, with his monthly visits and all..." Sirius added ruefully.
He could still remember the sad look on Remus' face when he and James had filled out their Altair applications. But, they all knew that the risk that Remus would be paired with someone outside of the Marauders was too great for the werewolf to apply.
Wanting to get the sad look off of his godfather's face, Harry asked, "And who was your Altair partner?" He really was genuinely interested with whom Sirius had been the most compatible.
"Snape," Sirius deadpanned.
"SNAPE!" Harry cried out in horror and disbelief. "And you two are still alive?" he asked when he had calmed down enough to speak again.
"I'm not exactly alive, am I?" the portrait asked jokingly with a raised eyebrow.
"You know what I mean," Harry said.
"Yes. But you haven't heard the best part of it yet. Or maybe the worst. It depends on your viewpoint," Sirius said with an expression that was a mix of amusement and disgust.
"What could be worse than having Snape as your partner?" Harry wondered.
"Our compatible Typos Thesis," the portrait answered dryly.
"But being compatible is a good thing, isn't it?" the brunet asked. In his opinion, if his godfather had had to endure Snape as his Sexual Magic partner for a whole year, then having compatible Typos Thesis could only be in their favour, as successfully completing their task should have been hard enough already between the two arch-enemies.
"For the general success of Sexual Magic, yes," Sirius answered. "But it wasn't the compatibility that complicated things, it was how the roles and positions were split up between us," the portrait explained.
"While I'm a submissive top, Snivellus is a dominant bottom. So, I'm sure you can imagine how that turned out," he revealed.
And Harry could clearly imagine how it must have been between the two. Sirius not wanting to be dominated by Snape and therefore trying to argue that as the one with the top position, he should be the one in charge. Snape, on the other hand, would surely dismiss his godfather's claims by stating that while he was the bottom, his role was still that of the dominant partner, thus he should be the one who held the reins.
And the brunet didn't even want to start thinking about their disputes of which sex position would be best. Knowing Sirius he would have wanted one where he could humiliate Snape, like the doggy style position; while Snape would prefer a position which would allow him to be in control, like the cowboy position. Really, those two would have taken the whole 'How to top from the bottom' issue to a completely new level.
"How have you been able to pass your Altair electives?" Harry had to ask. He really couldn't imagine those two rivals calling a truce long enough to complete their assignments, even less to successfully complete them.
"I didn't pass. But then, I had dropped out of all my Altair classes after the second week of school," Sirius said.
"But Snape and McGonagall told us that one cannot drop out of them once you're assigned a partner," Harry said in disbelief. Why had Snape taken such a great care in emphasising that you can't switch your partner if he obviously had been able to get rid of his own? Harry wondered.
"And they haven't lied. Snape and I had just been able to use a little loophole in the rules to our favour. You must know that Altair partners can only be exchanged if the new pair is more compatible than the old one. But as you must be of age to sign up for Altair classes your choices are restricted to the students in your year. So, there is no sense in trying to reassign partners after the school year started as the student pool hasn't increased," the portrait explained.
"So, I was really lucky that not only my birthday is in September, but that my brother Regulus was also born in that month. As Snape and my brother got along rather well, we all thought that it wouldn't hurt to try to get Regulus paired to Snape. Normally, of course, something like this isn't done as the average sixth year student would turn of age too late in the year to not miss too many classes by the time he could apply to the Altair electives.
"But with Regulus' birthday being on the thirteenth, and with me being one of Dumbledore's favourites while Snape was one of Slughorn's, we had also both the headmaster and the professor in charge of assigning the Altair partners on our side. So, on Regulus' birthday the three of us filled out the Altair form again and Slughorn put it into the magical device that assigns the partners based on their compatibility," the portrait said.
"Needless to say, the announcement of Snape being paired with my brother was one of the best moments of my life," Sirius exclaimed joyfully. "Remus and I had so much fun in the room we shared," he told his godson with a mischievous smile, leaving it up to Harry's own speculations whether the 'fun' had also been of a sexual nature.
But his happy expression soon became remorseful, when he added, "But still, I can't help but wonder if Regulus would still be alive if I had just shut up and stayed Snape's partner."
Noticing Harry's puzzled look, Sirius realised that he needed to elaborate. "You must know that my brother became a Death Eater sometime during his sixth year. But only a year after graduating from Hogwarts, he wanted to get out and was killed to make an example. So, I can't help but wonder if maybe not my parents, but Snape had been the deciding factor for him to join the Death Eaters."
"You know," Harry, who had until then listened to his godfather's little tale with rapt interest, interrupted, "it could also be possible that Regulus was the one to persuade Snape to join the Death Eaters." While Harry still didn't like the Potions master, he couldn't help but to defend the man. After all, Severus had saved his life countless of times in the last years―including not only one, but two times during the final battle in the beginning of May.
"If you say so..." was the portrait's meek reply and Harry knew that this would be as good as he would get from his godfather on that matter.
"Though, I can't imagine that Snape and I would have been able to last a year with only having sex in the lotus position―as this was the only one we could agree on. After only two weeks, I already had enough of his 'obedient dog' jokes in reference to my Animagus form and my Typos Thesis' role," he added with an angry scowl on his face. He still couldn't forgive that the Potions master made fun of his Typos Thesis and the Animagus form he was so proud of.
While he found the mentioned lotus position intriguing and was interested to try it out with Draco, the brunet didn't want to talk about Snape's sex life any longer, especially if it also included his godfather.
The times―or was it only one time?―they had sex must have been as disastrous as if their animal counterparts, the Grim and the bat, would have tried to have intercourse, was Harry's last thought on that particular matter, before he changed the subject of their talk.
"You know, I'm sure Hermione would have loved to start with the Altair electives in her sixth year too," the brunet said.
"Another thing to blame Bella-bitch for," Sirius said, angrily. "I really had wanted to take her aside at the beginning of her sixth year and tell her all about the Altair electives. With her birthday being even earlier in the school year than Regulus' one, Dumbledore would surely have allowed her to start a year early."
"I believe that Hermione is rather happy with her partner. And besides, I think Mrs. Weasley paid Bellatrix back nicely," Harry answered.
"Is it someone I know?" the portrait asked. While Hermione wasn't his goddaughter, he still had a soft spot for the bushy-haired know-it-all.
"It's Blaise Zabini," Harry said.
"Ah, the son of the infamous 'Black Widow'. While not as famous for Sexual Magic as the Malfoys, his mother's family is still rumoured to be very adept in Enchanting," Sirius stated matter of factly. "So, as long as those two get along personally, he should be a good choice for her. At least, he should be able to answer most of her questions," the portrait said with a chuckle.
"Ron didn't think so," Harry said. And then went on to tell Sirius about how the red-head had reacted to Hermione and Harry signing up for Altair classes and that he had come around now.
By the time Harry was finished with the tale, his stomach had started to growl loudly. In his eagerness and excitement, Harry had skipped breakfast and coupled with the fasting from the ritual, it was high time that the brunet got something into his stomach.
"Go and eat lunch, Harry," Sirius ordered.
Being too hungry to disobey, Harry slowly got up. He still hadn't gotten completely used to the penetration and still got sore when he bottomed. However, the brunet couldn't deny that the soreness wasn't as bad as in the beginning of the school year.
"See you soon," Harry said as he left the room.
But before the brunet had taken more than two steps towards the door, Sirius called after him, "And, Harry, don't forget to give Ron a nice whack on the head from me."
"Will do," Harry answered. Sirius had been so displeased by Ron's reaction that he had asked Harry to knock some sense into the red-head, as he couldn't do it himself. Though, Sirius would most likely have played a prank on Ron instead of hitting him if he had still been alive.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
As Harry was walking down the staircase from the balcony to the Altair common room, he saw Blaise and Hermione sitting together with Michael Corner and Stephen Cornfoot, obviously working together on one of their assignments.
"Hey, Harry," Ron called out from downstairs. "It's a good thing that you've cancelled today's practice. It has been raining cats and dogs all morning."
"I haven't noticed," Harry truthfully answered. All of his attention had been focused on Sirius, so something as unimportant as rain hadn't interested him.
"What have you been doing to not notice this downpour?" Ron asked, bewildered.
Instead of answering right away, Harry decided to fulfil the promise he gave Sirius first and slapped Ron on the head.
"HEY! What was that for, mate?" Ron asked, angry.
"Just doing something Sirius told me to do this morning," Harry said with a very, very big grin on his face.
"Very funny, Harry," Ron mumbled as he rubbed his aching head. He, understandably, did think that Harry was only using Sirius' name as a very dumb excuse, thus he was angry at the brunet. That was until Hermione rushed past him, and jumped Harry, giving the brunet a tight hug. Then, he was only confused.
"Oh, Harry," Hermione cried out while Harry was unintentionally swirling her around due to the momentum her jump had given them. "I'm so happy for you!"
Because of Ron's loud outcry after the slap, Hermione had heard Harry's comment about Sirius asking him to do it. And, unlike the red-head, Hermione had correctly guessed from Harry's words that he really had talked with Sirius this morning. Or at least with the wizard's portrait, if her conclusion was correct.
She, of course, had been curious why Harry was cancelling a Quidditch practice a day in advance. But, as she and Blaise had also used yesterday's magic enchanting quality to boost one of their own projects for their Enchanting class, she had gathered that Harry must be busy with one of his Ritual Magic projects as they didn't have any Sexual Potions to brew.
When she and Blaise had discussed the topic this morning, the Slytherin had been the one to jokingly suggest that Draco and Harry's project could be a Portrait Activation Ritual. With Draco's mother being a Black and Harry being the current head of the Black family, them honouring the Black's love for portraits would have been the obvious choice for a Halloween ritual, if there wasn't the tiny, little problem with getting their hands on a still unenchanted portrait.
Surely Harry would have told me if he had somehow found an unenchanted portrait of Sirius? Hermione had thought. In her reasoning it was very likely that Sirius hadn't gotten one because he had been disowned from the family. But when she had heard him say that he had talked to Sirius this morning, she couldn't help but to assume the best.
When Harry finally set her down, Hermione had calmed down enough to slap the brunet hard on the left shoulder. "Really, Harry," she scolded. "You should have told me that you had found his portrait," she explained the reason behind her whack.
"I forgot?" Harry said lamely, which earned him another, harder whack from his friend.
"Blaise, keep your girl in check," Draco called out from the Slytherin entrance door of the Altair common room, having finished his homework and wanting to put his book away in his room. The blond knew from personal experience how much Hermione's slaps hurt and so far, he had seen her slap Harry twice and would hate to see him get slapped for a third time.
"But she would only slap me too," Blaise whined, enjoying how Hermione, so carefree, slapped the defeater of Voldemort, while Harry didn't even try to defend himself.
"Then bind her to the bed for all I care," Draco answered, not so inconspicuously referring to Hermione's bondage kink.
"Very funny, Mr. I'm-turned-on-by-socks," was Hermione's comeback. Even though she didn't believe that either of them had a sock kink, the colour of their Lloj Potion still allowed for this kink to be a possibility.
"That would be Dobby," Harry said in Draco's defence and received his third slap from Hermione for his effort.
"Or Dumbledore," Draco commented from his position safely out of the Head Girl's hitting range.
Before the situation could escalate, Ron interfered. "Could you please tell me what you're all talking on about?" he asked. Opposed to Michael Corner and Stephen Cornfoot―the only other occupants of the common room besides the three Gryffindors and two Slytherins―Ron hadn't the slightest idea what they were referring to.
Unsurprisingly, it was the only female in the room who answered the red-head's question. "You see, Ron. Harry here," she began in with a glare in the brunet's direction, only just restraining herself from slapping her friend again, "has by mischance forgotten to tell us that he had found Sirius' portrait."
"Seriously?" Ron asked.
"Yes," Harry confirmed with a nod of his head.
"Wow, that's great mate," the youngest Weasley son said. "Though, does that mean that Sirius did really ask you to slap me?"
"Yes. He said that you've earned it for been a right A-classed jerk at the beginning of the school year," Harry said.
Before Ron or anyone else could say anything more, Harry's stomach loudly demanded to be filled which got the group of five moving towards the Great Hall for lunch.
~-~-~-~-~-~-Altair-a life changing event-~-~-~-~-~-~-
AN2: I hope you liked this chapter. I tried to use the Altair electives to explain some things which canon left out (like how Lily and James became a couple).
Also, "don't stop...love you" and "I'll never stop loving you" is most likely not the same in the ancient languages. But, I'm sure you already guessed as much.
If you haven't heard their songs yet, check out the bands "Draco and the Malfoys" and "The Whomping Willows" (especially "In Which Draco and Harry Secretly Want to Make Out", Trust me you'll love that song as the title says it all).
Next: Probably the boys brewing the Zët Potion I mentioned in chapter 24 and with it a two weeks' time skip. Any special strong dislikes you want the boys to have? Currently I only have two for each boy.
