Author's Notes: Well… it's been a while, hasn't it? Five months, give or take a few days. Apologies all around, honestly life just got away from me and finding the motivation to write was difficult. I'm out of my slump, got some things figured out and I know you've all read it before from other authors that didn't follow through but this story WILL NOT BE ABANDONED.
I have every intention of finishing this, I just had a lot of trouble with this particular chapter on top of everything else.
So, this chapter we're going to see the immediate aftermath of the bonded completing their bond! Yay! *confetti falls from the sky* And we will also be truly earning our M rating for reasons other than the World Cup Massacre. It's gonna be fun.
Disclaimer: Still don't own jack. Not making any money off of this.
And now, with no further ado, Chapter 49 of Soul Scars. Enjoy!
Soul Scars Part Four
Allegria
By,
Rtnwriter
Harry was six years old, sitting wedged between his parents on their couch as Professor Dumbledore explained the mysterious scars that kept appearing on his body.
What?
He was seven and didn't think he'd ever been more excited in his life. It was his birthday today and mummy and daddy had invited his entire class to a birthday party for him.
What is this?
As the time for the party to start arrived he sat on the steps leading upstairs, waiting for the first of his classmates to arrive. Seconds ticked away into minutes that became hours and no one came.
"Pumpkin?"
Harry turned, looking up at his dad, tears streaking his cheeks.
"No one came," he whispered brokenly.
Daniel Granger sighed and sat down on the step next to him. "I know, Princess," he said. "I'm so sorry."
"S'not your fault," he sniffed, head down, face hidden behind a curtain of bushy brown hair.
"It isn't your fault either," daddy said, pulling him up and into his lap. "You are smart, and beautiful, and you are so kind. Those kids don't know what they're missing by not getting to know you."
This didn't happen to me.
That night, after the food had been put away and the decorations were thrown out, Harry climbed into bed and slowly opened the cover of one of the presents his parents had given him.
"'The Neverending Story'," he muttered as he settled in to read.
#####
"I've told you before, Freak!" her uncle bellowed, dragging her through the house, one meaty fist wrapped around her arm, "I will not have your unnaturalness in this house!"
"But I didn't do anything!" Susan pleaded, desperate to understand what she'd done this time.
What's going on? Where's Auntie?
"LIAR!"
The backhand that followed that enraged scream hurt, but not as much as when her five year old frame was unceremoniously flung into her cupboard. She hit the far wall and crumpled to the thin, stained crib mattress on the floor, biting her lip not to cry out.
Crying only seemed to encourage him.
Oh, Harry…
"You'll be in here for a week if I have anything to say about it," Vernon hissed, beady eyes holding hers with a furious glare above his ridiculous moustache. "You're nothing but a worthless freak. A strain on good, honest, normal people like us."
With that the door slammed shut and she was left in the dark, listening to her uncle's heavy footsteps as he walked away. Lying in the dark she curled up painfully on her side and absolutely refused to cry, all the while wondering what she'd done to be so hated by her only family.
#####
Daphne looked up from her book as the chime for the Floo rang through the house. Excitement gripped her and she scrambled madly out of her bed, book forgotten behind her in her rush. Her small, four-year-old feet, pattered across the carpet in the hall before she carefully made her way down the stairs, one tiny hand gripping the banister.
Once she reached the downstairs hall her speed picked up again until she was running as fast as her little body could take her. On her left, a person stepped through a doorway and she suddenly found herself swept up into a very familiar pair of arms.
"Hello there, my little Susie," her aunt said as she lifted Daphne up in her arms. "How has your day been?"
"Fun!" Daphne cried, grinning broadly at her aunt. "Binky played with me after bre'fast and we looked at numbers and letters and I was readin' a piture book when I heard the chime."
Amelia laughed quietly, carrying her niece through the house toward the kitchen. "Sounds like you had a busy day," she said and Daphne nodded, bright red hair flying wildly around her head with the motion.
"Yeah, I did," Daphne chirped. "And Binky showed me lotsa fun magic too!"
Daphne was still explaining the wonders of elf magic to her aunt as the woman carried her into the kitchen and sat her down on the counter, her little arms splayed out wide to indicate just how amazing the whole day had been.
Is that what it's supposed to be like? To be loved, without being afraid of your own family? Susan… you don't understand just how good you really had it…
As Daphne wound down Amelia reached into her robes and pulled out a stack of parchment, carefully folded over, and began to flatten it out on the counter.
"Susan, I have some good news," she said. "With… with your mum and dad gone… someone needs to take care of you, Susie."
Daphne nodded, sadness creeping in behind the joy of recounting her day and she took a deep, shuddering breath. "You been takin' care of me, Auntie 'Melia."
"I know I have, baby. But until now I've just been what's called a guardian. I take care of you because we're family, but there's a lot of legal stuff that goes into all of it. Do you understand?"
Daphne nodded slowly, her little brow creased into a frown. "I think so…"
Amelia smiled, a soft, gentle thing that barely turned up the corners of her lips. "It's a complicated process, little one. Don't worry too much about the details, that's what I'm for, right?"
Daphne nodded again, more emphatically that time.
"Well, I wanted things to be more official. I could have remained your guardian, but I wanted to be more than that." She tapped the parchment where it rested on the counter next to Daphne. "This stack of parchment, when I sign it and file it at the Ministry, it'll make you my daughter as far as the law is concerned."
Daphne frowned again. "So… mummy… mummy wouldn't be my mummy anymore?" she whispered.
Arms wrapped around her and a curtain of vibrant red hair obscured her view.
"Never," Amelia hissed, fiercely. "Your mum will always be your mum. She loved you so much, Susie. Her and your dad. You were their special gift, and they couldn't have loved you any more if they'd tried. If I file these papers, all it means is that the law will consider me your mum as well. You can keep calling me Auntie if that's what you want. I'm not trying to replace your mum, I'd never do that. I just want to be able to take care of you with everything I can, and adopting you would give me more options to protect you."
After several minutes Amelia pulled back, watery blue eyes regarding her carefully. "Do you want me to adopt you, Susie?" she asked. "I won't, if you don't want me to. We can wait until you're older and you can understand it all better if you want. I won't be upset at all if that's what you'd prefer."
Daphne considered the question as carefully as a four-year-old can, her little face scrunched up in thought as she tugged absently at a lock of her hair.
"You're my family, no matter what, right?" she finally asked and Amelia smiled broadly at her.
"Always, Susie. We're all each other has left, right now. One day you're going to find someone that's going to join your family and you'll build a new family of your own, but you and I will always be family, even when that day comes and after."
"You mean my soulmate?" Daphne asked.
"Yes, Susie."
Daphne made a face. "But he's a boy," she complained. "Boys are yucky."
Amelia laughed. "You're not always going to think that, little one, trust me."
Daphne wasn't so sure about that but decided to move on. "If you want to be my mummy… I'd like that, Auntie 'Melia."
Smiling again, Amelia signed the parchment and a moment later it glowed brightly for a few seconds before she folded it up and tucked it back into her robes.
"That's it," Amelia said. "You, you amazing, beautiful, wonderful little girl. You are now officially my little girl."
With the exuberance only a child can produce Daphne flung herself off the counter and into her aunt's arms, clutching tightly to the older witch with every ounce of strength in her little body.
"I love you, Auntie." she whispered against her new mother's neck.
"I love you too, Susie."
#####
I hate him.
Hermione would have glared at the man before her had it not been for the years of training and tutoring she'd already received that let her keep a placid, emotionless mask in place.
"What is it, Daphne?" her father demanded, standing tall and imposing in front of his desk. "I'm very busy and I don't have all day to entertain your whims."
"I don't want to keep doing this," she said after taking a fortifying breath. "My lessons are… they're too hard, Father. They're painful, and frightening. I don't want to do it anymore."
Bastard.
Hermione expected an argument. She expected anger, disappointment, even disgust at her latest failure. What she did not expect was an indifferent shrug and a negligent wave of one hand in her direction.
"Fine."
"F-fine?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.
Cyril Greengrass nodded. "Fine," he repeated. "If you're too weak, too useless to be what your House needs you to be, then fine. I'll not waste anymore time on a lost cause."
She is not useless, you loathsome, horrid man!
Almost unable to believe her good fortune Hermione started to turn, ready to leave the office before her Father changed his mind. She'd barely managed to turn even a quarter of the way when he continued speaking.
"Of course… if you don't fulfill your role to the House, then I'll have to find someone who will…"
She whipped back, icy blue gaze meeting icy blue with a dumbfounded expression cracking through her mask for a moment before she was able to school her expression back into placidity.
"What do you mean, Father?" she asked as politely as she could force herself to be.
"This House needs a proper heir. If you're not going to do your duty to your House then I'm sure your sister will. She's still young enough to begin training."
"No!" she blurted out, terror shooting through her.
He kept talking as if she hadn't said a thing. "Of course… with how you've turned out… obviously your instructors went too easy on you. I'll have to make sure to instruct them to be much harder on Astoria if we want her to properly learn her lessons."
"You can't!" she screamed.
"I can do anything I want!" he bellowed back, his voice booming throughout the office. "You are a disappointment to me and to my House. I will not have you sully the name of Greengrass! If you won't do your duty I'll have a betrothal contract ready for you by next week and you won't be my problem any longer. Maybe once your sister begins her lessons I'll get an heir I can be proud of, even if neither of you are the son I would prefer!"
"You can't!" she insisted, shaking her head wildly. "Astoria… you can't do this to her. This torture…"
"Merlin you are weak!" he snarled, venomously. "Torture? Your lessons are not torture you simpering little pest! They are to teach you the proper place and bearing of a Lady of a Most Ancient and Noble House! Since you're obviously too weak to learn what you need to your sister will have to take your place."
"NO!"
Hermione didn't know what possessed her, what mad thought made her believe she could get away with it, but she suddenly flung herself at the towering figure of her father, fully intent on attacking him.
Pain exploded across the right side of her face as he moved faster than she'd thought possible, his right arm coming up to backhand her just as she came within reach. A pain filled cry escaped her as she was flung back by the force of the blow and her hand came up to the side of her jaw, coming away wet with blood.
Shaking his hand against the sting from striking her he strode forward and glared down at her where she lay sprawled across the floor.
"You have one chance to change your tune, Daphne," he hissed dangerously. "Are you going to return to your lessons, or am I setting up sessions for Astoria?"
Hermione's mind spun. Astoria was too gentle, too kind and carefree. These lessons wouldn't teach her anything, not the way he had them taught. They would destroy her.
Slowly, she pushed back the tears that wanted to well up in her eyes even as she pushed herself to her feet. She lowered her hands to her sides, letting the blood from the cut behind her jaw drip down the side of her neck to stain the collar of her robes.
She would never let this… monster, do to her little sister what had already been done to her. She would be a shield, standing between Astoria and the beast that was their father.
"That won't be necessary, Sir," she said, once again hiding behind her mask, her emotions shoved ruthlessly down somewhere deep inside. "If you'll excuse me, my lessons start in half an hour and I believe I need to change."
He eyed her carefully for a moment before giving a curt nod. "Get out," he snapped. "And let this be the last I ever hear of anything like this."
Wordlessly, Hermione turned and left the office, carefully closing the door behind her before she made her way to her rooms to clean off the blood and change before her lesson. With every step her determination hardened. She would do everything she could to protect her sister. That was her purpose.
#####
Four pairs of eyes opened simultaneously. Deep blue. Cinnamon brown. Icy blue. Glowing emerald green.
Four pairs of eyes took in the familiar ceiling of the Hogwarts Hospital Wing in the early hours of morning, if the quality of the light in the room was anything to go by.
"Okay… I'm pretty sure I can honestly say that this is really not my fault, this time," Harry said after blinking several times at the unexpected sight above him.
"Anyone have any clue how we got here?" Hermione asked.
"Haven't the foggiest," Harry, Daphne, and Susan spoke in perfect unison, as if with a single voice. Harry frowned at the sensations he could feel over their bond. Moments before speaking he had felt absolutely certain that the girls were going to say precisely the same words. Like a voice in the back of his mind, feeding him the lines just before they were said aloud.
Hermione opened her mouth but said nothing for a moment before closing it again, words escaping her for the moment.
"What's the last thing anyone remembers?" Daphne asked after several minutes passed them by in silence.
Another minute passed before all four of them suddenly sat bolt upright in their respective beds and four voices chimed out, "I was you!"
#####
Neville finished his breakfast Sunday morning and pushed his plate away before draining the last of his pumpkin juice from his goblet. Morning meal consumed, he turned and cast his gaze across the other House Tables to see if the rest of his friends were finished.
Immediately Blaise and Tracey at the Slytherin table caught his eye, both of them sitting quietly with empty plates in front of them. At the Ravenclaw Table, Luna was building what looked like a trebuchet made of out strips of bacon, bangers, and pieces of carefully cut up toast.
He shook his head and glanced at the Hufflepuff table to find Hannah watching him carefully. With a silent nod he stood and headed for Luna, reaching her just as the lone 'Puff and their two Slytherin friends joined them.
"Ready to go see them?" he asked of the waifish blond and she immediately abandoned her culinary construction project and stood, looking up at him with a small smile.
"It will be nice to talk to them, again," she said as the five of them left the Great Hall and started making their way through the castle corridors toward the Hospital Wing
"If they're even awake," Blaise muttered quietly to himself. Not quietly enough, however, as the other four all turned to stare at him and he shrugged. "Hey, I'm just being honest. I hope they're okay, but they've been out for two days straight now," he said in his defense, as Neville in particular glared angrily at him.
"He didn't mean anything by it, Neville," Luna spoke up, her airy voice cutting through the tense silence with ease as she took one of Blaise's hands in her own, "and there's nothing to worry about in any case. The nargles told me this morning that they're already awake."
Neville scowled for a moment at their joined hands but then he took a deep, calming breath and let it out in a long sigh. "Sorry," he muttered. "I'm just worried about them."
"We're all worried about them, Nev," Blaise pointed out calmly.
Neville hummed something wordless in the back of his throat that might have been agreement before he turned his attention to Luna. "Thank you, Luna," he said, "and I really hope your nargles were right."
Luna suddenly burst out into delighted peals of laughter to the complete confusion of the rest of them. "Silly Neville," she finally managed to gasp out through her amusement. "They're not my nargles. They're not anyone's nargles, really." She suddenly became very serious, all trace of mirth vanishing in an instant and her silvery blue eyes held Neville's gaze when she said, "nobody owns nargles."
Nevilled fidgeted, slightly unnerved by her intense scrutiny. "Err… right… my mistake."
The rest of their walk was completed in a mildly uneasy silence for the young Longbottom while Hannah, Tracey, and Blaise all smirked at his unease and Luna skipped along, humming quietly to herself, apparently oblivious to the atmosphere she'd created.
Neville was never more happy to see the doors to the Hospital Wing ahead of them and he strode a bit faster, pulling ahead of the rest of the group. Reaching the doors, he pulled them open and walked quickly into the room, hoping to regain some measure of his dignity while he was at it. He made it a half-a-dozen steps before he stumbled to a halt, staring with wide eyes at the scene before him.
Madam Pomfrey stood in the center of the room, watching her four patients with a kind of dazed confusion about her, while Harry, Hermione, Daphne, and Susan ignored the world around them entirely. As the rest of their friends came to a stop by Neville, they watched as Harry stood from the bed where he'd been sitting with Hermione and moved over to sit next to Daphne, even as Susan shifted slightly on the bed, all without looking away from her discussion with Hermione, to make room for him.
Susan stood a moment later and took the place on Hermione's bed that Harry had just vacated when the bushy haired witch's attention suddenly shifted from Susan to look across the space between the two beds at Daphne and Harry cut himself off in mid sentence to suddenly begin speaking to Susan.
While they stood there watching, the four of them shifted beds and positions half a dozen more times within two minutes, never ceasing a chaotic, seemingly unintelligible conversation that wandered from one person to the next without pause or consideration of who was speaking.
"... but I still don't understand-"
"-what happened," Hermione said, finishing off the sentence that Harry had started.
"I saw everything-"
"-but not like I experienced it myself-"
"-it was like watching one of those muggle films-"
"-but on fast forward! Like I was watching it-"
"-but I don't know everything. Only a few pieces where-"
"-I felt like I was experiencing everything myself."
Hermione to Daphne to Susan, back to Daphne to Harry before returning to Hermione again.
The rapid fire back and forth and smooth transition from one voice to the next was so seamless the Weasley twins would've been green with envy. To the observers it didn't feel like watching four different people finishing each other's sentences, but one person speaking from four different voices.
"They've been doing this for the last half an hour," Madam Pomfrey suddenly said, startling Neville out of his daze and he jerked, turning toward her with a confused expression etched on his face.
Neville turned back to his friends and blinked at the head of silvery blond hair that'd joined the four bonded. He hadn't even noticed Luna moving but there she was, sitting calmly at the foot of the first bed where Harry was sitting once again with Hermione as she chatted happily with them.
"The nargles said you were awake," Luna was saying, smiling brightly. "I'm so glad the four of you finished your bond. It has been a bit difficult watching you be incomplete."
"It's good to see you, Luna-"
"- but what-"
"-happened to us?" Hermione, Daphne, and Susan asked as Luna's head swiveled from person to person to follow the flow of the conversation.
"I don't know," she said, shrugging her slender shoulders. She lifted her hand and moved it through the air around Hermione's head, her eyes unfocused. "Your colors were always so bright but… the mixture is so beautiful now…" she trailed off, a note of wonder in her voice and the four bonded exchanged a look.
"Miss Lovegood if you could move from the bed please, and if the four of you could get back to your own beds, I'd appreciate it," Poppy said, suddenly moving forward, determined to bring some semblance of order back to her domain. "I'm happy to see the four of you awake again, but I'd prefer to find out what's going on and determine if you are at any kind of risk."
Luna pouted, but dutifully removed herself from the bed so the bonded could move back to their respective places as Madam Pomfrey began her examinations. While she did that Neville and the rest of them pulled up chairs and waited until the mediwitch was finished so they could set themselves up at the foot of the beds as close to the middle between the four of them as possible.
"Anyone want to explain-"
"-what happened? Why are-"
"-we in the hospital wing?" Daphne and Harry asked causing their friends to glance back and forth between them.
"Uh…" Neville trailed off, feeling distinctly out of sorts for a moment before shaking off his reaction to their unnerving display. "Is there any way you guys could stop doing that?" he asked. "I mean… is it something you can control or…" His voice fell off again as he wasn't entirely certain how to word the question he wanted to ask and the four of them exchanged a look before shrugging in perfect unison.
"I think we can," Harry said.
"It's weird. It's not like… like we're feeling compelled, or that we have to finish each other's sentences that way," Hermione slowly added in, her brow furrowed in thought.
"It's just that we know what we're going to say," Susan offered. "Not like we're reading each other's minds but… it's just a feeling."
"My scans show you all to be in perfect health," Madam Pomfrey cut in, frowning at her wand. "As to what happened… Lord Longbottom? Would you care to explain?"
"I got up Friday morning and went down to wait in the Common Room for the rest of you," Neville said. "By ten after five when none of you had come down I started to get worried, so I went up to check on Harry."
"Wait, what day is it?" Hermione asked.
"It's Sunday morning, Miss Granger," Poppy offered and the four of them sat back in shock for a moment to realize they'd been unconscious for two days before Harry waved one hand for Neville to continue.
"Anyway, I went up to check on Harry, but he was out and wouldn't wake up no matter what I tried. I even splashed cold water on his face and nothing." He shrugged apologetically at Harry's frown while the girls all giggled slightly at their bond mate's behavior. "I was desperate," Neville pointed out in his defense, but Harry snorted out a laugh and just motioned for him to keep going.
"When I couldn't get Harry to wake up I ran down and tried to run up to check on the girls."
All four of them winced at that and Neville gave a rueful shrug.
"Yeah… woke the whole damn tower up when a siren started blaring and the stairs turned into a slide and dumped me on my bum."
"No boys are allowed in the girls dorms," Hermione lectured and Neville frowned.
"I know that," he said. "But I wasn't trying to peek or visit a girlfriend or something. I was worried and everyone was asleep. It wasn't like there was a girl downstairs I could ask to go check on you, Hermione. Either way, it got the job done. The girls came pouring down and I managed to ask Lavender and Parvati to check on you. While they were doing that, Professor McGonagall showed up and I explained to her how Harry wasn't waking up.
"It didn't take very long before she had all four of you on your way here and we've all been lost, wondering what the hell happened to you since."
"I think you set a new record for yourself, Harry," Blaise cut in, a small smirk tugging at his mouth. "Barely a week into term and you wind up in the Hospital Wing."
Harry rolled his eyes but decided not to comment. He was honestly getting tired of saying that it wasn't his fault, and it only amused them more when he tried to argue the point.
"I just can't figure out what could have happened to knock all four of us out like that. We weren't attacked or something, were we?" Harry asked, his attention shifting to Madam Pomfrey.
"I didn't find signs of any spell work. No charms, curses, or the like. What's the last thing you four can remember?" she asked.
All four of them opened their mouths to respond, then suddenly stopped. They started again, and again, stopped. After a series of exchanged looks, arched brows, and a silent conversation that passed between them, the girls sat back in their respective beds and gestured for Harry to speak.
"The last thing I can remember," he said, hesitantly, "is going to bed Thursday night."
"Did anything happen that day, Harry?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"Yeah." The smile that spread across Harry's face was, by far, the broadest and most genuine any of them had ever seen. "We completed our bond."
Silence reigned for a handful of seconds before, with ear splitting, delighted squeals, Tracey and Hannah darted forward to tackle their best friends. While Daphne and Susan were occupied, Luna, not to be outdone, threw herself into Harry's arms. She squeezed him quickly then bounced over to Hermione, giving the bushy haired witch identical treatment, congratulating all four of them as loudly as she could to be heard over their friends excited chatter.
It took some minutes before Poppy was able to restore order and all the students returned to their seats. Not that she tried too hard. She was just as thrilled for her four favorite patients as their friends were.
"That might explain what happened," she mused aloud, eyeing the four of them carefully. Drawing her wand she stepped closer to Hermione's bed and then paused throwing a look over her shoulder at Neville and the others. Returning her gaze to the bonded, "May I?" she asked.
Hermione smiled. "Of course. We don't have anything to hide from our friends."
Madam Pomfrey's wand moved through the motion of the spell, now long familiar to the four of them after the many times she'd cast it on them over the last couple of years and then she stepped back to give everyone a clear view of the smiling, bushy haired witch.
The result of the spell was both precisely what they'd expected and simultaneously very different than they could have imagined.
In the past, the aura that would surround them when that spell was used appeared as a gentle seeming cloud of misty light. It appeared to move in small eddies and currents, invisible to the naked eye, swirling around the target in a graceful, soothing way. When Hermione's soul became visible the first thing that anyone noticed, aside from the smoothly blended silver, green, gold, and auburn, was the fact that the aura seemed… agitated. It moved, expanding and shrinking, swirling and roiling like storm clouds. Arcs of energy lifted off of it before falling back like solar flares, reaching out toward her bond mates, as if seeking them out.
"Why is it doing that?" Harry asked, concern clearly coloring his tone.
"I've no way to be certain," Poppy admitted regretfully. "If I had to guess I'd say it might have something to do with how new the final, completed bond is. It may simply take a bit of time to settle back to something normal."
"What's 'normal' for us, though?" Daphne asked with no real answers coming from any of them.
"All right," Poppy said, getting their attention a few moments later. "If you lot could head out, I need to talk to these four, and I'd rather keep that under Healer/patient privilege. If they decide to tell you about it later, that's up to them."
The expressions on their friends faces were rebellious, but none would dare attempt to argue against Madam Pomfrey, and they slowly shuffled their way from the room, promising to return at lunch if they were still there.
Once they were gone Madam Pomfrey turned her focus back to her patients.
"I hate to ask, but I feel I have to… how did you complete your bond?"
At first the four of them were confused before suddenly all three girls blushed a vibrant red. Not three seconds after something seemed to click in Harry's head and his face matched thier's for color as he joined them in abject embarrassment.
"Nothing like that," Susan blurted out. "We just kissed, but Harry finally admitted how he felt about us."
"And he really accepted that we could all make something work with the four of us, I think that was one of the more important factors," Hermione added.
"Did nothing feel different after it happened?"
They considered that for a moment in silence, another silent conversation seeming to pass between them before they shrugged in perfect unison.
"Nothing that immediately springs to mind," Harry said. "I mean… I definitely felt happier than I think I've ever been in my life… but nothing felt different with our bond…" He trailed off uncertainly with another helpless shrug.
She hummed something wordless to herself as she considered that before pushing forward. "So you went to bed Thursday evening. You have no recollections of any kind from then until you woke up here?"
"Well… not exactly…" Harry trailed off again, looking to the girls for a moment before he continued. "We… well, I guess… I think we've been seeing each other's lives since then."
One brow arched questioningly in his direction. "Can you elaborate on that?"
"I witnessed their entire lives, all three of them, up until we completed the bond the other night," Daphne said with a gesture to her bond mates. "But, with a few exceptions, I didn't experience their lives. It was as if I was just an observer, watching everything at high speed."
Poppy wasn't sure what to think of that, both brows rising toward her hairline as Daphne spoke. "You… you said there were a few exceptions?"
"There were moments," Susan said, "where I was Daphne, or Harry, or Hermione. I didn't just see the memory, I lived it, experienced it as if it had actually happened to me."
"That must be why you were unconscious for so long," Poppy mused quietly. "I can't imagine viewing a combined forty-three-years worth of memories could happen quickly, no matter how sped up they are."
The four of them shrugged again, having no better explanation to offer.
The mediwitch pulled up a chair and sank into it, her motions slow, her manner distracted as she turned over the new information that she'd been presented with in her mind. Completing the bond… while she was personally thrilled for them and for what the bond's acceptance said about the state of their relationship, there would likely be many and far-reaching ramifications as a result of it.
"The agitated appearance of your souls does concern me," she said slowly. "I do believe that it will settle, given a bit of time, but I can't say if anything will happen because of it. Obviously, everything we're learned in the last two years tells us that things will change for the four of you, but exactly what those changes will be we can't really say." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as if attempting to stave off a headache.
"I'm keeping you here until tomorrow," she decided and then continued speaking over all four of them protesting. "At the very least!" she snapped, glaring at them until they settled back in their beds, slightly sullenly. "I don't want you to be elsewhere in the castle where I can't monitor you in the event something happens.
"If nothing has changed by tomorrow morning I may let you go to your classes under the condition that you return here before lunch and dinner so I can examine you again. I also want you four to pay close attention to what you can feel through your bond. If anything feels wrong, even slightly, I want you to come straight here, even if you are in the middle of a lesson. Am I understood?"
A small chorus of grumbled agreement sounded from the four of them and she gave a curt nod before standing.
"Nutrient potions do a lot, but nothing beats a good meal," she said as she sent all of the chairs back to their proper places with a flick of her wand. "I'll have breakfast served for you and then I'll be back in an hour to examine you again. If you're up for it, I believe you'll have a few other visitors that will likely be arriving soon?"
A round of more enthusiastic agreement greeted that pronouncement, so she gave them another nod and made her way to her office as the four of them began another conversation of half finished sentences and long silences where only they knew what was really being said.
#####
About half an hour before lunch, Amelia, Sirius, and Danyella arrived at the Hospital Wing to see their charges. Of the three of them, Sirius seemed to be more than a little nervous, something Amelia didn't think she'd ever see from the ever confident, if not arrogant, Sirius Black.
As Danyella entered the Wing ahead of them, Amelia put a hand on Sirius' arm and pulled him gently to a stop just outside the doors.
"What's wrong, Sirius?" she asked, blue eyes searching his face for any sign of what was bothering him.
His abrupt, "nothing," did nothing to deter her and she simply gave him a flat stare until he cracked.
"It's just… after we talked in your office on Thursday I wrote a letter to send to Harry, but…"
"But they didn't wake up Friday morning so he hasn't had a chance to read it, most likely," she finished after he trailed off into silence.
Sirius nodded, his dark eyes hooded and filled with pain and uncertainty.
"He doesn't hate you, you know," she said and he let out a strangled sounding laugh.
"You didn't hear him that day, Aims."
"He doesn't," she insisted, ignoring his attempt to argue with her. "He was angry, sure. But he cares about you. If he didn't he wouldn't have gotten quite that upset, he'd have just ignored you as if you were unimportant to him. Just talk to him, apologize for being a git, and accept whatever happens after."
He let out a morose sigh, absently patting the front of his robes with one hand where a slight bulge could be seen around something in his pocket and nodded. Giving him the most encouraging smile she could, she pushed open the doors and led the way into the Hospital Wing, moving away from him and directly to the four occupied beds.
"Well… you certainly look a lot better than you usually do when we come to visit you in here," Amelia said, grinning at Harry as she came to a stop at the foot of his bed.
His glare would have been intimidating to most people but she could see the hint of amusement in his glowing eyes and around the set of his mouth. That and she'd been subjected to far worse glares in her time than anything a fourteen-year-old could muster up.
"I refuse to dignify that comment with a response," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest in an eerie imitation of Hermione as he huffed and leaned back in his bed, causing a startled laugh to bubble up out of her throat.
"How are the four of you feeling?" she asked, pulling a chair over between his and Susan's beds.
"We feel fine," Susan said, smiling broadly at her aunt. "I don't think I've ever felt so good in my life."
"Poppy told us you four completed your bond. I'm happy for you all, and I'd imagine that feeling has to be incredible. I can't picture it myself but just looking at you I can tell how much better things must be."
"Amy? Have my parents been told what's happened?"
Amelia looked across Harry to Hermione and nodded. "Absolutely. I went over myself and spoke to them Friday morning when you guys didn't wake up. I've been keeping them updated every day and I let them know you were awake as soon as I heard. I'd have brought them, but bringing non-magical people into the castle isn't easy and takes quite a bit of preparation work so we weren't able to organize it so soon."
Hermione's smile was understanding, if a little sad. "I understand," she said. "Thank you for keeping them informed."
"Always, Hermione. You're all family, and family is the most important thing there is."
At Amelia's pointed glance, Sirius, standing awkwardly nearby, decided he wasn't going to get much of a better lead in so he stepped forward, clearing his throat to catch Harry's attention.
Instantly all of them turned to look at him, becoming unnaturally still as four flat gazes settled on him and he found himself thrown far off balance by the strange reaction.
"Umm… family… family members also fight," he said, plucking up his courage and pushing forward despite the unnerving scrutiny. "And sometimes we do something really stupid that we should never have done. Harry… I'm sorry I tried to force the issue with what I learned after the World Cup. I… I was just worried, and I wanted to try to help. I didn't mean to barge in like a troll in a tea shop, but I've been told I have all the subtlety of a blasting curse so I can't say I won't bugger things up again."
He reached into his robes and pulled out the package Amelia had noticed when they were still out in the hall, stepping forward again to hold it out to his godson. "I found these at my family home. Your dad and I used to use them and I thought you might like to have this one."
Wordlessly Harry accepted the package, wrapped up in brown paper, and tore it open to reveal a small, simple, round hand mirror. He stared at it, perplexed for a moment before looking up at Sirius to find the man holding an identical mirror in one hand.
Looking into the mirror, Sirius said, "Harry Potter," and a moment later the mirror in Harry's hand grew warm and vibrated a few times, causing him to dart a look down to the mirror then back up to his godfather. "Tap the mirror," Sirius explained and Harry did, tapping it with one finger and the surface of the mirror blurred for a few seconds before it cleared and he could suddenly see Sirius face in the smooth surface.
"These are communication mirrors," Sirius said, his words echoing strangely as he spoke and what he said could also be heard coming from the mirror in Harry's hand. "Your dad and I used to use these to talk to each other when we ended up in separate detentions here at school. If you ever need to talk to me, or even yell at me about something, you can contact me on this, just look into the mirror and say my name."
Harry privately had to admit that he was impressed. The mirrors were ingenious and from what he'd learned in runes and arithmancy they wouldn't have been easy to make, either. He tapped the mirror in his hand again and the image of Sirius vanished to be replaced with his own reflection.
"I get that you wanted to help," he started slowly as the hand holding the mirror dropped to his lap. "But I didn't want to talk about it, and you shouldn't try to force people to tell you things they don't want to say. I felt like I was being interrogated, and I'm sorry too, for what I said, but you really pissed me off."
Sirius winced but nodded his head in full agreement. He knew he'd messed up and only hoped they would be able to move past it.
Silence reigned for several minutes, even Danyella, talking to her daughter, had abandoned that conversation to follow what was happening a few beds over, before Harry looked up from where he'd been staring at the small mirror to meet Sirius' worried gaze.
"Don't do it again, Pads," he said, his face and the tone of his voice showing clearly how serious he was. "You'll probably learn it all one day, if you're patient. But I won't be pushed to share more than I'm willing to. Talk to Amelia if you want, she can tell you everything she knows if she's willing to."
"And don't think this gets you off the hook, Sirius," Hermione spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to her as she glared at the former convict. "I promised you a specific revenge if you pulled what you did and I aim to deliver."
That comment broke up the tension rather nicely and the girls shared a laugh, much to most of their confusion and Sirius' consternation but he gave a rueful smile and nodded, well aware that he'd earned whatever retribution she cooked up, if she was able to pull it off.
#####
The rest of the day was spent talking to their family and their friends while Madam Pomfrey spent time bustling about, frequently interrupting their visits to examine them again and getting the same results each time she did so. Eventually, the day passed and the adults returned home even as their friends returned to their dorms as the four bonded settled in to spend one last evening in the Hospital Wing.
Something tickled at the back of Harry's memory though, something that the girls could feel was bothering him but neither he, nor they, could think of what it might have been. Harry was sure it was a memory, a conversation he'd had in the past perhaps, he just couldn't remember, but whatever it was seemed like it might have been important. He finally fell asleep, long after his girls had drifted off, only to have his night filled with dreams that he wouldn't remember in the morning save the fact that he was left with a strange sense of worry, like something was hanging over his head and he was just waiting for it to fall and crush him.
Monday morning they were woken early by Madam Pomfrey and she examined them for a final time before letting them go with orders to return to her immediately if anything out of the ordinary occurred. They were more than happy to agree to her demands and dressed quickly so they could make good their escape before Poppy decided to change her mind and hold them after all
As they made their way toward the Tower, Hermione was practically giddy, almost bouncing with every step, much to her bond mate's amusement.
"What's got you so excited, 'Mione?" Harry asked, his lips curled up into a gentle smile as he watched her.
Spinning around mid-step, Hermione continued walking backwards, her hands clasped behind her back and a broad grin on her face. "I'm just happy," she explained. "Our bond is finally complete! Can't you feel it? Before didn't feel right. It wasn't complete, we weren't complete, but I couldn't really tell until now. How it feels, how I feel now is incomparable to how I felt last Wednesday."
Harry couldn't help but agree. After waking up Sunday morning the bond he'd felt with his girls was different. Not in a way that he could easily define or articulate, but it felt as if he'd been missing something all his life without even knowing about it and now he'd finally found whatever it was. Complete, as Hermione had said, was the best word he could think of to describe the sensation.
"And," Susan said, a teasing note in her voice as she observed the bubbly brunette in front of them, "you're excited to discover what new things the complete bond might bring," she teased, causing Hermione to flush with embarrassment.
"Well… it's fascinating, isn't it?" she mumbled hesitantly.
Laughing quietly, Harry grasped her by the shoulders and turned her around without breaking stride, wrapping his right arm around her shoulders even as he felt her arm come around his waist, embarrassment and a small twinge of disgruntlement filtering across their bond from her.
"Don't ever change," he murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple. "You are so curious and inquisitive and it is by far one of your most endearing traits."
The flush in her cheeks darkened even further as a beaming smile split her lips and she responded by kissing his cheek. Further conversation fe aside as they arrived outside the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Barely even a week into the term and you're already in the Hospital Wing for an extended stay," she teased, humor alive in her tone.
"It's not my fault!" Harry blurted out, purely as a knee jerk reaction, and his girls joined the portrait in laughing at his response for a few minutes before Susan was able to choke out the password around her giggles. Together, the three girls were able to drag a sullen Harry Potter into the Common Room and sent him up to his dorm to shower and change after first pausing so that each could give him a lingering kiss. The end result of this action being that a far less surly wizard made his way upstairs to prepare for the day.
Neville was missing from the dorm when he arrived, leaving only the chorus of snores from Seamus, Ron, and Dean to greet him. After gathering together his bath supplies he took ten minutes to shower under a stream of water that was as close to scalding as he could stand before he got out, dried off, and dressed for a day of classes.
He was in a hurry, and though he knew that it wasn't necessary, he couldn't bring himself to really care. He was anxious to get back to the girls, and the longer he was away from them, the worse the feeling became.
Finally dressed, bag slung over one shoulder, he was half-way down the stairs to the Common Room when he suddenly staggered. One hand came up to his head while the other tightly grasped the bannister as the world around him faded from view.
"What the…"
Harry knew that he was still standing on the stairs. He could feel the smooth wood of the bannister under his hand, but he suddenly couldn't see any of it. Instead, he found himself looking at a fogged over floor length mirror in what appeared to be one of the dorm showers. The room seemed strange for some reason, some small detail that appeared off to him, but no matter how he turned his head or moved his eyes his view was unchanged, preventing him from attempting to find the difference he couldn't immediately place.
His view suddenly tilted down and the first thing he noticed was a generous amount of cleavage and two slender arms adjusting a towel that was wrapped firmly around the viewers body.
Okay… this isn't a memory, I don't think. I don't have breasts, so if it is a memory, it isn't one of mine. What the hell is going on?
From his view looking down, he noticed a wide scar crossing diagonally over the left breast to disappear under the edge of the towel just before the viewpoint shifted back up toward the fogged over mirror.
Okay… so this is either one of the girls memories… or I'm seeing what one of them is seeing right now. They mentioned that once before, seeing something through my eyes as it happened…
An arm came into view, wand in hand and flicked the length of wood silently toward the mirror. A moment later the surface of the mirror was clean and clear, showing a perfect reflection of a towel clad Susan Bones. The towel seemed to barely manage to wrap around her chest enough for her to tuck the edge in and it ended high up her thigh, giving an entirely too enticing view of long bare legs.
She had a considering expression on her face as she studied her reflection for a handful of seconds. Her long hair was damp and tied up into a messy bun, stray strands curling around her cheeks, neck, and brushing against her bare shoulders. Harry had just a few seconds to admire her reflection before she suddenly dropped her towel and his brain completely shut down.
Susan Bones, arguably one of the most attractive girls in the entire school was standing there, completely bare, and the shock froze him utterly for a moment as he took in the sight of her. Her skin was lightly tanned and he found himself wondering when exactly it was that she'd done any topless sunbathing as he couldn't see a single tanline.
I shouldn't be seeing this, he thought, his focus naturally following the wide basilisk scar down the length of her torso. His gaze traveled over full, rounded breasts with their dark pink nipples and further down a toned stomach until he stopped at a small patch of red curls just above her-
I shouldn't be seeing this!
As the words ran through his head, he saw Susan's mouth move, forming the word, 'Harry?' and she spun around, scanning the room behind her.
"Harry? You-"
"-okay, Mate?"
Harry jumped, vision fading away for a moment only for the stairs and Common Room to fade back into existence around him. Turning his head he found the Weasley twins standing on the steps next to him, identical, slightly concerned expressions on their faces.
"Umm…." He could feel his face suddenly burning, shock giving way to mortification and a rather stark sensation of terror. The girl's emotions rolled across the bond toward him, worry, concern, confusion, and a small tinge of lust, the latter he assumed being a reaction to his own feelings of moments before. "I really don't know," he almost squeaked out to the twin's confusion.
"I think… I think I just might be a dead man."
#####
"Madam Pomfrey did what?"
Harry winced, resisting the urge to cover his ears at the rather loud, and approaching shrieking, voice of Angelina Johnson. With Oliver graduating the year before, Quidditch Cup firmly won for their Head of House with a commanding lead as his send off, Angelina had been expecting to Captain their team to another victory this year. The loss of the usual school league, however, had been a blow, and she'd been absolutely thrilled by the idea of an Inter School Tournament. The very first night they were back in the castle, after the feast, she'd started hounding the rest of the Gryffindor team to do their absolute damndest to secure a place on the new school team that was going to be formed. Tryouts were set for that upcoming Friday and the news he'd had to bring her was less than welcome.
"Madam Pomfrey grounded me," he repeated, idly thinking that maybe telling her this in the Great Hall during lunch hadn't been his best decision ever. He'd hoped that the public area might stop her from blowing up at him but could now see that that had been a vain hope. "She says I'm not allowed on a broom until further notice."
"Why? Why would she do that? Doesn't she know you're our best bet to win against the other schools? Viktor Krum goes to Durmstrang! You know he'll want to be part of their team, if he isn't already!"
"It's because we foun- wait… Krum? Really? You honestly think I stand a chance against him?"
"Harry," Hermione cut in before Angelina could respond. "Maybe it'd be best if you stuck to the pertinent information right now?"
Personally, Harry felt that a potential match against Viktor Krum was extremely pertinent to the discussion, but he wisely chose to shelve that particular line of thought and instead turned his consideration to the events that had happened that morning as he attempted to decide just how much to tell his teammate.
After the twins had snapped him out of whatever trance he'd fallen into on the stairs, he'd made his way down to sit in his chair by the fire to await his upcoming execution. Yes, the girls had all implied, or in Daphne's case, outright stated, that they wanted a far more physical relationship with him in the future, but that didn't give him permission to peep on them! He was reasonably certain that Susan was going to gut him like a fish once she found out what happened.
By the time his girls had made it downstairs, his mounting worry and anxiety had driven them to new heights of concern as well, which only added to his sense of self-loathing, knowing that they were worried about him when he'd been the one to violate Susan's privacy. When they arrived it hadn't taken long before they were insisting that they return to the Hospital Wing where he once again found himself subjected to scans and diagnostics, some of which even he hadn't seen befo-
"Potter!"
He blinked, drawn out of his thoughts to find Angelina suddenly much closer than she had been, both of her hands fisted in the front of his robes and looking as if she were contemplating violence, probably against him.
"Holy-"
"Spit it out already!" she yelled.
"Remember the Headmaster announcing our bond two years ago?"
She leaned back an inch or two, eyeing him warily. "What about it? Wait? He was being serious?"
Harry blinked again. "You didn't believe him?" he blurted out incredulously.
"Well it's kind of fantastic, isn't it?" she shot back defensively. "I mean… Soul Bonds are practically myth, and I don't think anyone has ever heard of a four-way bond before…"
Harry sighed and carefully pried her hands off the front of his robes, leading her over to the Gryffindor table where he gently urged her to sit, well aware that they were gathering an audience.
"Look, it's true," he told her quietly. "Me, Hermione, Daphne, and Susan. We're bonded to each other, and we completed the bond Thursday night, that's why we've been in the Hospital Wing. You heard the stories say that some bonded exhibited extra powers or abilities?"
She nodded, eyes wide as she took in the information he was giving her.
"We don't know what to expect, what's true and what is just stories. We've been looking for information since first year, really, and haven't found much that's really reliable. But this morning I found myself seeing through Susan's eyes. I didn't have any control over it and I couldn't see anything around me while it was happening." He could feel that his cheeks were burning and the look on her face told him she'd noticed so he pushed forward, hoping to get past any attempt to tease him. "Madam Pomfrey doesn't want me on a broom until we can be sure we have it under control. Last thing we need is for me to be in the air and suddenly I can't see where I'm going."
Angelina swore quietly, her brow furrowed in thought.
"All right," she said. "I can understand how that would be bad, but shit, Potter. If you can get this under control by Friday, does that mean you can still try out?"
"According to Madam Pomfrey, yes," he assured her. "We're going to work on it and hopefully figure out how to control it. We're just not sure right now why or how it happened, much less how to stop it."
Angelina spent a few more minutes grilling him for everything she could get before excusing herself, promising as she went to keep quiet about the details she'd learned regarding their bond. Yes, the fact that they were bonded was technically public knowledge, but the details were private, and apparently not everyone believed the bond was real, anyway.
Harry sighed as his girls and their friends moved in to sit around him at the table.
"That went better than I expected it to," Hermione admitted as she filled his plate then her own.
"Angelina might be obsessed with Quidditch, but she's not nearly as bad as Oliver," Harry pointed out. "Did I ever tell you that before one of our games he actually told me to 'catch the snitch or die trying'?"
All three girls' eyes narrowed angrily at that, and Harry was suddenly very glad that his former captain was no longer at the school and was therefore out of their reach. If they could have gotten their hands on him, Harry didn't think Oliver would have survived the encounter.
As lunch continued, Harry found himself acutely aware of Susan's presence on his left. Since the explanation of what he'd seen had come out during their meeting with Madam Pomfrey she had been completely silent and, somehow, she was minimizing her emotions. Not blocking them off as they used to be able to do, but whatever she was feeling was muddled and unclear. He just couldn't get a read on her and it was driving him to distraction.
A glance at his watch showed that they still had twenty minutes before they needed to start making their way toward their next class so he turned to the redhead sitting beside him, hopefully to start them moving past their new situation.
Before he could say anything, however, he felt a hand on his arm and turned to Hermione where she sat on his right side.
"Not yet," she told him in a voice so quiet that it was clearly meant only for his ears. "She's had a bit of a shock. Let me and Daphne talk to her first."
"But-"
"Everything will be fine," she said, cutting off his hissed protest before it could really begin. "But you've got to give her some time. I'm sure that she's at least a little embarrassed."
"I didn't mean to-"
"We know you didn't," she assured him. "I don't think she's upset about that."
That assurance surprised the hell out of him. He was expecting anger and disgust, and calm reassurance had been as far down the list of possible reactions as it could get, in his opinion.
"I'm not entirely sure what she's actually upset about, but let us talk to her, and we'll all talk it over tonight when Daphne and I have a better understanding of things and can help, okay?"
Harry wasn't at all sure that really was okay, but, thinking that Hermione probably understood the inner workings of the female mind better than he could ever hope to manage, he decided to trust her judgement on the matter.
Slowly he nodded and she gave his arm a reassuring squeeze and turned her attention back to her lunch. For the last few minutes that they had remaining, Harry only pushed his food listlessly around his plate, praying that things would be okay before they had to go to bed that night.
The rest of the day passed quickly and Harry couldn't remember ever being as tense and worried as he felt leaving the Great Hall after dinner.
Right after classes had ended for the day Hermione and Daphne had each looped one of their arms with Susan's and dragged the girl away, ignoring her protests the entire way, and Blaise and Neville had lead him in another direction, realizing that something was going on and each deciding to do their best to help distract their friend.
When the girls met them in the Common Room half an hour later, none of them said a word, but he felt a sense of relief and reassurance flowing from Daphne and Hermione. That did little to stop him from driving himself crazy wondering how their discussion had gone.
"Come on," Hermione said, interrupting his thoughts as she looped her left arm through his right and led him away from the Great Hall toward the stairs leading up into the school.
"We have a discussion we need to have," Daphne added, falling into step on his left side with her own arm hooked through Susan's. "Neville, we'll see you back in the Common Room later?"
"Have fun," he said, giving them a negligent wave with one hand, a small smile on his lips as he watched them walk away.
Two floors later the suspense was killing him, but as Harry opened his mouth-
"Just wait until we get there," Daphne cut him off before he could say anything.
His mouth shut with an audible click and he frowned slightly, but remained silent for the rest of the walk until they arrived on the seventh floor and Hermione began pacing back and forth, thinking carefully about what it was she wanted until a door appeared in the blank stretch of wall. Pulling it open she gestured for the other three to precede her into the room and when Harry entered behind Daphne and Susan he found a comfortably appointed sitting room with a large couch, perfect for the four of them, resting in front of a fireplace with a merrily crackling blaze already burning within it.
Hermione took hold of one of Harry's hands just as Daphne grabbed onto Susan and they dragged the two of them over to the sofa, sitting them down in the middle before they took a seat on either side, bracketing the two teens.
"Now," Hermione started after they were all settled from her spot on Harry's right side. "We talked to Susan earlier, Harry, like I said we would, and Daphne and I agree there's a miscommunication happening here."
"Or rather, a lack of communication," Daphne corrected, glaring slightly at the two of them. "For how much Susan has always advocated opening up and talking, I confess I'm a little disappointed in her. But that's why we're here, now. To clear this up so that we can all move forward without worry. At least on this particular issue."
"So, this is the part where you two talk this out," Hermione continued. "Daphne and I are just here for moral support."
Harry wasn't entirely certain what to think of that, but the two girls didn't feel angry as far as he could tell. Again, they seemed to be pushing sensations of calm reassurance. He felt as if everything really was going to be okay and he took a deep breath and turned slightly so he was facing Susan more directly.
For herself, Susan wasn't so sure everything really would be okay. For the first time, she wasn't reassured by talking to Hermione and Daphne. Part of her wanted to be angry with Harry, since his actions caused part of this, but she'd already stated once before that he was guiltless, to a degree. It was an irrational, but visceral reaction that she couldn't beat back.
Only Harry could possibly resolve the conflict that she felt, though she was terrified to voice it. What if the girls were wrong? What if his reaction had been exactly what she thought it was? If he confirmed what was bothering her… would that be worse than not knowing? Pretending that everything was fine?
Slowly, she gathered the courage to speak when Harry beat her to the punch.
"I'm sorry," he blurted out, causing her to pause, blinking in confusion, her mouth still open in preparation to speak.
"What for?" she asked, everything she'd been about to say falling away in the face of his unexpected apology.
His expression was incredulous. "'What for?'" he repeated, eyes wide. "I invaded your privacy! I didn't mean to, but it happened and I saw something I shouldn't have seen." He started to stand, intent on pacing when Hermione grabbed his arm and yanked him back into his seat.
He shot her a mildly irritated look over his shoulder, to which she simply returned a small, enigmatic smile, before he looked back at Susan.
"I shouldn't have seen you like that, not without you knowing about it, or without your permission."
When he fell silent, Susan could only shake her head, exasperated by his reasoning.
"I'm not going to say, 'I told you so,'" Hermione said from behind Harry and he could honestly hear the grin that must have been on her face from her tone, "but…"
"Hermione, moral support doesn't need to talk," Daphne lightly admonished her.
Susan ignored both of them, keeping her focus on Harry. "I'm not mad at you," she said. "Like you said, it wasn't intentional, wasn't something you meant to do." A deep flush suddenly rose in her cheeks. "I'm not honestly against you seeing me… that way… though I'll admit the circumstances could have been better…."
Confused was probably the best word to describe how Harry felt right at that moment. The worry, anxiousness, and nervous fear that he'd barely been able to detect from her had completely vanished as she tried to make him feel better about the situation.
How in the hell does that make any sense? he wondered, shaking his head in bemusement.
"Wait… so if you're not mad at me… then what are you upset about?"
Just like that, Susan's emotional state flipped on its head, all the unpleasant feelings she'd forgotten in her effort to reassure him came rushing back, stronger than ever.
"Susan, just tell him. We promise you, you misunderstood how he felt."
Harry almost expected Hermione to tease Daphne back about moral support remaining silent but instead she simply kept her own silence, tacitly agreeing with the other witch.
For nearly a minute, Susan tried several times to speak, her mouth opening, only for no sound to come out. She fidgeted in her seat, her right hand absently rubbing a line on the upper left side of her chest with just the tips of her fingers.
Harry's eyes narrowed, bright green irises gleaming as he unconsciously followed the path of her fingers. Back and forth from just outside her left collarbone they moved diagonally down across her upper chest. Her fingers stopped just before the impressive swell of her breasts and moved back up by her collarbone again.
Strangely, he was suddenly reminded of a conversation he'd had with Amelia, not long after the girls had told him that they shared his scars. He'd noticed that, even though he now knew about them, they still hid the scars with glamours, even at the Boneyard when there was no one else to see them. To say it had confused him would be an understatement, particularly with how they'd been after him to not hide his scars and to be more open at the time.
'Scars for men and women are different,' she'd said, her blue eyes holding his gaze with a somber sincerity that had startled him at the time. 'For men, scars are typically viewed somewhat positively, at least battle scars most often are. They're badges of honor, or they can show a man's strength as a visible sign of the various challenges he's faced in his life… That's a simple way to put it, but close enough. For women, though…' He remember her letting out a long sigh, her fingers idly fiddling with her tea cup where it sat empty in front of her on the kitchen table.
'For women, scars are typically thought of as being disfiguring. Something to detract from her beauty. They're a blow to a young woman's self esteem, and especially how she might view herself. A big scar, that like slash across your chest… something like that is somewhat devastating for a young woman to have to bear.'
It wasn't something he'd given a lot of thought to after the fact, aside from Amelia reminding him that he wasn't technically to blame. Now though… now he thought he just might understand what she meant a little better. "Is all this about the scars?" he asked, noting carefully how Susan flinched at the question.
"You saw me," she mumbled a moment later, her head bowed so she was staring at the carpet in front of the couch. "You saw me and, yeah, at first you were… you felt excited…" She flushed brightly but pushed on without pause, "but then you felt disgusted-"
"Wait… you think I found you disgusting?" he blurted out, completely flabbergasted when her answer was a silent nod of her head. He gaped at her, sputtering wordlessly for several moments, unable to put into words how completely ridiculous that thought was. Scars or not, all three of the girls in his life were some of the most beautiful he'd ever seen, and they'd only grown more and more into their looks as the years had progressed. He'd seen it when they were all eleven, that they were gorgeous, and the passage of time had only proven his initial thoughts on that matter.
"I can't even begin to explain how completely incorrect that is," he finally managed to say. "Do you… do you find me disgusting, since I have all the same scars?" he asked and her head snapped up, wide eyes meeting his.
"No!" She shook her head, almost violently. "No, Harry, not at all. But… it's different for girls. Guys are almost expected to have a few scars but…"
"Amelia explained that to me one day during the summer before third year," he admitted. "I didn't really think too much about it at the time since… well the idea that I'd ever be in a position to really look at any of you was a distant thought in my head." He sighed and leaned back on the couch. "I didn't have the slightest clue where we were heading… I honestly still don't, really, except I know now how I feel for all three of you, and how you feel for me, and some scars… as much as I hate that I have them, and that you three ended up having to deal with them too… some scars would never be enough for me to think you anything other than beautiful."
As he spoke he felt a growing sense of hope coming from the redhead beside him. Hope, still tempered by doubt, but hope. Of course, words alone wouldn't be enough to completely dispel her worries, and he couldn't begin to fathom how deeply ingrained those worries might be. None of the girls had ever struck him as particularly vain, but he was able to understand how the idea of feeling desired and desirable could be important.
Actions speak louder than words, he thought. As those words echoed in his head, his body seemed to move on its own. Leaning toward her, his scarred right hand came up, curled fingers gently pressing beneath her chin to tilt her head up so he could press his lips to hers. At first she was tense, surprised by the suddenness of his actions, but in moments her body relaxed and she was returning his kiss with an equal and growing fervor.
He could tell her how beautiful he found her until he was blue in the face, he knew. His best option was to show her if he really wanted her to believe him. His arms wrapped around her waist and she let out a startled squeak when he suddenly turned, pulling her up and into his lap, never removing his lips from hers, deepening the kiss with every second.
He honestly didn't know how long they spent lost in each other, but he didn't think it had been an exceptionally long time when he slowly pulled away from her, both of them panting slightly, lips swollen, eyes dark with a growing passion that seemed to pour out from somewhere deep inside them. A quick glance showed that Hermione had moved while they'd been busy with each other, now sitting with Daphne, her arms wrapped around the smaller girl as both of them looked on fondly at the two of them.
Harry carefully cleared his throat. "Do you two feel the same way?" he asked, his voice rough. "Are you worried that I'll be turned off by your scars? Scars that are all my fault, by the-"
"They're not your fault, Potter," Daphne interrupted, her brow furrowing as she scowled at him. "You didn't know, and there's nothing you could have done."
Harry sighed, not agreeing, but not willing to continue arguing that particular point when there was a more immediate concern that needed to be addressed.
"Maybe a little bit," Hermione cut in, answering his question. With both of her arms wrapped around Daphne, Hermione's hands started twisting and twining together over the blond's middle until Daphne placed a calming hand over them, giving a reassuring squeeze as she did so.
"I think we all have a few doubts and insecurities, Harry. We don't doubt for a minute that you love us, but…" She fell silent as she searched her prodigious vocabulary for the words she needed.
"We're not as sure of how much you're actually attracted to us," Daphne bluntly stated.
"Daphne!"
"What? You weren't going to get to the point any time soon."
"I've told you repeatedly how beautiful I think all three of you are," he pointed out, trying to make sense of the strange direction the conversation had wandered.
"But you're also the least demonstrative out of all of us," Daphne returned. "You've been getting much better, but hell, even Hermione has been more 'hands on' than you've been," she finished while the brunette in question flushed a brilliant red and attempted to hide her face against Daphne's back.
"You weren't complaining last week when I had a handful of your-"
"No complaints, love," Daphne said, cutting off Hermione's embarrassed muttering with a smug smirk firmly in place on her lips. "Like I said before, we're happy to go at your pace, and you've been making a real effort, which Susan and I both appreciate." She turned her attention back to Harry. "But things are slightly different with you. Hermione is still getting used to the idea of intimacy with another woman and she's done more to show Susan and me, physically, that she finds us attractive and wants us. Why don't you?"
"But I do," he protested. "I've been initiating kissing you and such more often. I've made a point to show you how I feel as much as I can."
"Yes, you've gotten much better at that," Hermione admitted. "You're quite the kisser. But… honestly, Harry, that's all you do."
Harry was back to being confused and expressed that in the clearest way he could. "Huh?"
All three girls sighed nearly in unison, though there were fond, if slightly exasperated, smiles curling up the corners of their mouths. Even Susan from where she was still sitting in his lap, one arm wrapped around his shoulders as the other rested flat on his chest.
"Harry," Susan said, drawing his attention to her. "When you were just kissing me… where were your hands?"
He frowned. "On your waist, or your back."
"Why?"
"Huh?" he said again, tilting his head slightly to one side.
"Why did you keep your hands to those spots? Why didn't you touch me more?"
Harry took some comfort in the fact that, even as her voice was level and calm, her cheeks were bright red, probably matching his own complexion at that particular moment in time.
"I don't want to do something wrong," he finally said after a short time. "I didn't want to push any of you, especially since, really until Friday, I couldn't honestly say what we were doing. Were we dating, technically? Were we in an actual relationship or just fooling around? I meant to talk about that with all of you after the World Cup but… well, things were just weird, and then we got side tracked talking about the ball, and completing our bond and…" He trailed off with an awkward shrug of his shoulders as Daphne and Hermione nodded knowingly.
"We appreciate you being a gentleman," Hermione said.
"We really do, me especially since I'm the least certain about intimacy with you," Daphne added. "I know I want to, eventually, just building up to it is… a little scary."
"So you've been playing things safe with us since you didn't want to do anything that might upset us?" Susan asked, just to clarify and he nodded.
"Harry… you trust us, right?"
"Of course I do, Hermione. There's no one in the world I trust more than the three of you."
"Do you think… do you think you could try to be a little more… daring? Try to explore a little more, and trust that, if you do something we don't want you to do, that we'll tell you, and we'll do our level best not to get upset with you? As long as you listen to us if we tell you no, there's no way you would upset us."
"Why is this so important?"
"We're fourteen, Harry! Hermione is nearly fifteen! Yes, we're young, but we're not stupid, and we're more mature than most people our age. When we were eleven the idea of the four of us being in a relationship was just an idea. It was something abstract. Since last February we've been in something of a relationship, not very well defined, as you pointed out, but even though we might not be ready to have sex we're damn well ready to explore a little and learn a bit more about ourselves and about each other."
Harry blinked several times at Daphne's, rather forceful, outburst as Susan started giggling slightly and Hermione fixed the back of the blond's head with a stern glare.
"I might not have put it so bluntly," Hermione said, "but she's not wrong. You can't honestly tell me that you haven't thought about doing more than just kissing us, can you, Harry?"
Hesitantly, he shook his head. "No… I-I have had a few thoughts," he admitted.
"Well, act on a few of them, would you? We'll warn you if you come close to crossing any lines. We've been waiting for you to move things along with us which, retrospectively, was a bad idea. Obviously this is a conversation we should have had a long time ago." Hermione's brow was furrowed into a deep frown, one hand absently stroking Daphne's forearm as she fell into her thoughts. "We don't have to go any faster than any of us are individually comfortable with, but we won't really know what we're comfortable with until we start moving forward, right?"
This conversation has gotten surreal, Harry thought as he nodded. But they're not wrong. They maybe could have given me some hints they wanted more, but I didn't really try anything either.
The conversation had strayed from the original point, he felt, so, with his mind spinning as he tried to consider this new information as well as trying to figure out how he could show Susan how little her scars mattered to him he turned his focus back to her again.
"Backing up, just a bit," he said, "you said I felt disgusted when I saw you."
"You did, Harry. It was clear as day."
"Well, you're not wrong, I did feel disgusted. But I was disgusted with myself."
She sat up a bit straighter on his lap, leaning away slightly so she could look at him more easily.
"I was disgusted that I was invading your privacy, that I was seeing you in a moment that I shouldn't have been seeing."
"And I'm not upset that you saw me."
"But I didn't know that at the time. If… if it happens again, I can guarantee you I won't be feeling any form of disgust. Not now that I know you're okay with it."
Her expression showed she didn't entirely believe him, but she clearly wanted to based on what he felt from their bond.
Maybe… maybe I can convince her… and take what they were just saying into account at the same time? he thought, a nervous thrill shooting through him as several different ideas rose to the forefront of his mind.
"Do you trust me?" he suddenly asked, his eyes never moving from the girl on his lap and she arched a slim brow at the question.
"Of course," she answered without any hesitation.
"Then… can I show you… can I show you that I'm not at all disgusted by you, or your scars?"
Susan nodded slowly. "Of course," she said again, her voice soft as her pulse quickened slightly in anticipation. "If you'll stop blaming yourself for our scars."
He let out a frustrated sigh. "I'm trying. I really am, but you wouldn't have them if it wasn't for me."
Susan leaned in and kissed him, gently pressing her lips to his for several moments before she pulled away. "And we wouldn't be here, either, if it wasn't for you and our connection to you. As long as the three of you love me, any doubts I have, we can deal with. Now… what did you want to show me?"
Harry shook his head, pushing away any thought of arguing his point in order to focus on reassuring the girl in his arms, and hopefully the other two girls in their strange relationship, that there was no concern their scars would deter him from loving them.
Susan let out another surprised squeak when he suddenly pulled her into a searing kiss. While he did so he pushed everything he felt for them through the bond, opening himself up more than he ever had. Love, care, compassion, even lust. Every positive emotion he held for his girls was gathered together and sent out to them as their lips moved together, tongues battling against each other.
When he pulled back Susan was flushed and panting, he was sure that he was as well and a quick glance showed a wide eyed pair of girls sitting beside them, watching them both intently. He turned his attention back to Susan and moved his hands from where they'd been pressed against her back. Shaking slightly, his fingers found the knot in her Gryffindor tie and he slowly untied it, leaving it draped around her neck and hanging down her front before moving to the top button of her uniform blouse.
He stopped when he felt a collective shock coming from all three girls, the feeling nearly overwhelming him before it receded and Susan simply nodded, giving her silent permission for him to continue. Slowly, one button at a time, he unbuttoned her blouse, pulling the bottom edge from where it was tucked into her skirt until it hung open on her body. The half inch wide gap gave an enticing glimpse of the front of her yellow bra that had his heart racing and his mouth feeling suddenly dry.
Carefully, he pulled her blouse open, pushing it to the side to reveal that toned stomach he'd seen earlier that morning and the now bra covered breasts that were burned into his memory.
Susan was shaking, small tremors running through her body that she couldn't stop no matter how she tried. She had never felt more exposed before. Her swimsuits showed more skin, but somehow she felt naked as his glowing green eyes swept over her body. A soft gasp escaped her when heated, rough hands gently touched her stomach, her muscles tightening instinctively as his fingers began to trace every exposed scar.
"I hate that you have these," he said, his fingers trailing slowly up and down her sides, leaving trails of heat behind on her skin. "Not because they make you any less gorgeous, but because they happened to me, and bottom line, you shouldn't have to deal with them."
She immediately went to protest and he silenced her by once again covering her mouth with his. A stronger tremor ran through her as his hands slid up her back, beneath her shirt. Goosebumps broke out over her entire body as calloused, hot hands pulled her closer to him. There was a possessive feeling in the grip he had on her body that sent a thrill through her unlike anything she'd ever imagined.
"Oh, Merlin," she gasped when he suddenly released her mouth, her head tilting back as she drew in several deep, gasping breaths. This action left her throat exposed and he leapt on the opportunity to kiss his way down the slender column of her neck until he reached her shoulder.
His mind swam, senses completely awash with her. The scent and the taste of her skin, the warmth of her body and the way she writhed in his arms, back arching, pressing herself against him, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, fingers buried in his messy hair.
Pleasure, desire, and pure lust flooded across their bond, threatening to wash away what he intended on a wave of pure emotion driven by desire and rampant hormones.
"I hate that you have them," he growled in a rough, breathless voice as he forced himself to stay on task, kissing his way across her left shoulder toward her collarbone. He looked up at her, waiting until she tilted her head down to meet his eyes with a heavy lidded gaze.
"I hate it," he repeated, pausing to press another kiss to her shoulder, "but I love you, and your body, how you look, is only a pleasant accident. No amount of scars could ever make you anything other than completely beautiful to me."
With that, he pressed an open mouthed kissed directly to the top of the long scar that crossed her chest, his tongue darting out to taste her skin. Heat seared her body as her eyes and mouth opened wide and a low groan escaped her, echoing up from somewhere deep in her throat.
Susan whined and moaned, her hands clutching painfully at his hair as he slowly kissed his way down her chest and over her breast, carefully covering every inch of exposed scar tissue until he reached the edge of her bra. Progress halted, he worked his way back up, just as slowly, until he was able to claim her mouth again. By the time they pulled apart, neither of them could seem to catch their breath, and Susan leaned down, resting her head against his shoulder, her eyes tightly closed
"We- we need to calm down," she panted, the scent of him filling her nose with every desperate, gasping breath she took in.
Harry could only nod, shifting her on his lap so that she was no longer sitting directly on the now throbbing hard-on that he prayed she hadn't noticed while he'd had her distracted.
"That… was insanely hot."
"Daphne!"
Harry and Susan jumped, both of them flushing a brilliant red as they suddenly realized they'd completely forgotten about their audience.
"What?" Daphne said, somewhat defensively. "You can't honestly tell me that wasn't hot."
"That was amazing, and loving, and beautiful," Hermione sniffed, her attempted haughty air lost due to the flush coloring her own cheeks.
Daphne looked back over her shoulder at the brunette behind her with a sultry smirk twisting her lips. "I can feel how turned on you are, Hermione," she reminded her, causing the other girl's flush to darken to new levels.
"Th-that's not the point," she muttered. "You're making what they just shared sound cheap or tawdry."
"You know that's not what I meant."
Hermione sighed. "I know," she muttered, fidgeting nervously for a moment. "Though… you're not wrong… that was very, very sexy."
Harry was sure that he couldn't possibly blush any more than he already was and decided to focus on the girl in his lap as a means of distraction.
"Do you believe me?" he asked softly, but loud enough to be sure that Hermione and Daphne would be able to hear.
Susan hummed quietly, gently running the fingers of one hand through his hair for a moment. "If I said 'no', would you try to convince me again?"
Daphne burst out laughing as Harry frowned and started pinching Susan's sides, setting the buxom redhead to squirming in his lap. "Okay," she squealed, "okay, I believe you. I believe you!"
He grinned, triumphantly, and left his hands rest on her waist, thumbs gently stroking her skin as she collected herself.
"Merlin, I believe you," she murmured, kissing him again. When she pulled away she pressed her forehead against his, staring into his glowing eyes. 'Thank you," she whispered.
"Anytime."
"Now they're just being disgustingly sweet."
"Daphne!"
"Well they are!" Daphne cried, defending herself.
"Merlin's pants, what am I going to do with you?" Hermione sighed, exasperated.
Daphne looked back at her again, grinning mischievously. "I can think of a few things you could do with me," she practically purred, "or, more to the point, to me."
"Daphne!"
Daphne's only response was a decidedly wicked sounding laugh as Hermione sputtered, sending both Harry and Susan off into fits of laughter as well. Hermione's embarrassed protests were silenced when the blond turned in her arms and captured her mouth with her own. In seconds the brunette's indignation was forgotten as the two soon lost themselves in an ever deepening kiss.
By the time he went to bed that night, Harry had shown Hermione just how little her scars mattered to him, just as he'd done for Susan, while the redhead did the same to Daphne. That was as far as they went, though all three girls agreed that it was phenomenal progress and they were quite pleased, if a little frustrated and unfulfilled.
Harry realized, just before falling asleep, that they were going to have problems, at times, with their unusual relationship, but he was finally certain that they would be able to overcome anything, either from their bond or something outside of it, as long as the four of them were together.
