"Are you ready to be kidnapped again, Millie?" Diana asked the following afternoon. "My guards are going to make Harry's search for you a bit longer and harder this time.
"This time, you are going to be tied up in an iron cage and carried to the chosen location. Since you will be staying inside the cage, you won't be able to get a feel for your surroundings. That said, while you will still be bound hand and foot and gagged, the cage shall be heavily draped throughout, thus dispensing with the need for a blindfold. It is a large enough cage to accommodate Pansy and Parvati too. They shall also have to be tied up and gagged, but at least you shall have some company.
"Pansy, Parvati, the choice is up to you. Do you each consent to join Millie in doleful captivity?"
Both girls nodded their agreement. They then joined Millie in kissing their other soulmates goodbye, whilst a cohort of Amazon guards carried in the cage. Covered in drapes, it was about seven-foot-long by six-foot-wide by three-foot-high, made of solid steel and with wooden poles extending from each corner.
"Remember, Harry," Millie said, before claiming a last quick kiss, "you have three grateful damsels to reward you for their liberation from bondage this time…" She winked at him, then nodded to Pansy and Parvati. "It is time, loves." As she said this, she walked over to the cage. Two Amazon guards unlocked and lifted the lid. Once the cage was open, the three hostages were bound and gagged, then lifted bodily and gently lowered inside. The lid was then closed and locked, whilst Diana gave a second key to Harry. Finally, the guards lifted the cage and carried it away.
It's a good job that the cage floor is padded!
Yes, Pans. Whilst Millie is right about the knots not being too tight, being tied up and carried like this is bloody uncomfortable!
Remember the snogging session to come, girls!
I'll be as quick as I can, my darlings. Trust me!
We do, Harry. Millie, Parv and I know that we shall soon be free again. Daffy, Trace, Gin, Weds, kiss him for us please.
I'm on it, Pans! Pucker up, Harry!
Anytime, Gin!
Some minutes later, Parvati announced telepathically that the cage was being lowered. Shortly after that, Harry began his hunt. This time, the presence of the captives seemed to come from the West, which took him out of the woodland and onto a beach. Following the coastline revealed a small inlet, by the side of which was a platform on which the cage was laid. The Amazon guards were nearby. As Harry got closer, the muffled cries of his soulmates started.
Thanks, ladies!
No problem, Harry! Now hurry!
I will be with you momentarily, Pans.
A moment later, Harry unlocked and opened the lid. He used his wand to levitate the hostages out, then gently lowered them to the ground. Once done, he untied the cloths gagging them and cut the cords from their wrists and ankles. "Are you OK, girls?"
"Yes, thank you, Harry," Parvati said. "Whilst spending time with Millie and Pans is always welcome, it is not as much fun when bound and gagged in a cage! That said, if I am your hostage in the Second Task, I know that you will find me quickly."
"Just snog him senseless, Parv! My turn next!"
"Thanks, Pansy."
"For someone who spent over an hour bound and gagged in a cage, Pansy darling, you seem cheerful this evening…" Hermione's tones made it clear that she was joking, as the Potter Island Book Club met up in the reading room of the library tent.
"That part of the afternoon wasn't much fun, no. What came next, however, more than made up for it. Merlin! Harry can really kiss! Parv and Millie can too, for that matter…
"More seriously, Hermione dear, if it had been Ron rescuing you and Padma from that cage, you would be feeling special too…" Pansy smiled knowingly at her friend.
"Being a damsel in distress doesn't really chime with my feminist sensibilities, Pans. I never dream of being rescued from doleful bondage by my boyfriend or husband. We should attempt to escape by our own efforts, not just wait for our man to save us!"
"True, Hermione," Hannah chimed in. "That said, if one of Harry's soulmates is to be held hostage at the bottom of the lake in a couple of weeks, he needs all the advantages that he can get. I am sure that the organisers are saying that every safety precaution will be taken. That said, those are the same geniuses who assured us that nobody under seventeen could compete in the tournament in the first place. Merlin! How did that turn out again?!"
Hermione sighed. "I can't disagree with you on that point, Han! Poor Harry!"
"We need to begin their fight training next week," Diana told the Six Goddesses and the other Powers That Be. "I don't know what obstacles Harry will have to overcome during the Second Task, but we must assume that there will be some…"
"Of course, Diana," Athena told her. "It is time to start getting the Furies and Raiders ready for battle. From what happens in other parts of the Multiverse, we need to ensure that Harry can put that foul abomination Riddle down once and for all.
"What about the horcruxes? Can your craft get to them, Doctor?"
The Time Lord frowned. "With full shields up, I can get into 12 Grimmauld Place easily enough, Lady Athena, and the Gaunt place. Hogwarts can be reached via a portal next week. Gringotts might be trickier. Hopefully, the old girl can materialise in the Lestrange Vault, or the Goddesses can persuade the goblins that there is a prohibited magical item inside it and let them in.
"If Professor Dumbledore can loan us that sword, we can destroy the abominations easily enough. By all accounts, he's good like that, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Good!" Aslan half-said, half-roared. "We have a plan, my good friends. Now, I have an old friend to visit…"
A woman with greying long dark hair was seated in her flat. With a haunting bell-like chime, a pair of carved oak doors appeared in the room. "Come in, Will!" she called. At her words, the doors opened to reveal a stocky man some years her junior. He had straight mouse-brown hair, blue-grey eyes and a round face. As he stepped through the doors, his solemn expression cheered into a disarming grin. "It is good to see you, Susan." His accent suggested Buckinghamshire origins.
"Likewise, Will.
"So, the Last of the Old Ones visits the Last Friend of Narnia. Is the call business or pleasure?!"
"I don't know. There are Dark Portents than an evil wizard is trying to return from a half-life. He calls himself a Dark Lord, but the Great Lords of the Dark remain banished outside of Time and Space.
"Something tells me that the two of us are about to have a visitor. He will show us what we need to do."
"Do we know this mysterious visitor?"
"I don't sense anything familiar, but there does seem to be a connection to you. Make of that what you will."
"Sometimes, Will Stanton, you remind me of… Aslan!" The Great Lion had indeed appeared in the room. Susan Pevensie quickly ran up to her old friend, threw her arms around his neck and kissed his nose. He responded by kissing hers with the wild kiss of a Lion who was Good, but never tame.
"It is good to see you again, Queen Susan the Gentle. It has been far too long…"
"I'm sorry, Aslan. After you told Peter and I that we could never return to Narnia, I felt so abandoned that I pretended that you, Narnia and the rest were all imaginary. Then that terrible day happened, and my parents, siblings and cousin were all gone. Jill Pole, Professor Kirke and Auntie Polly were also killed in that crash. If it wasn't for Merriman Lyon and later his protegee here taking me under their wing, I don't know what would have become of me.
"Are they all in Narnia with you? I would love to see them all again…"
"They are with me, Daughter of Eve, although Narnia is no more. The Real Narnia in My Country never shall end, and the Other Friends of Narnia are there. Your parents are in the Real Britain, which is connected to the Real Narnia.
"Companion of Merlin, your mentor and I are amongst a number of Champions known as the Powers That Be. What you have heard about Tom Riddle, the self-styled Lord Voldemort, is correct. The Dark Wizard is returning. I know that your powers as an Old One are limited when the Great Lords of the Dark are not involved, but you can still teach and advise. There are some wizard teenagers who need your help, Will. One of them is the Boy-Who-Lived himself."
"If Harry Potter needs my help, my Lord Aslan, then he shall have it!
"How is Merriman, by the way? Only Herne the Hunter is left who still speaks the Old Speech now.
"Bran, Jane, Simon and Barney are still my best friends. My large family fill my life with joy. Still, I am the Last of the Old Ones, just as much as Susan is the Last Friend of Narnia. The others all departed for Avalon after our last victory over the Dark all those years ago. If it wasn't for Susan and Herne, my Watch would be unbearable."
"Ah, Watchman, I can ensure that you will never be alone again. Queen Susan, with my breath, I make you an immortal with the power to vary your apparent age to match Will's." The Great Lion breathed on Susan. "Now you have a Companion in your Watch, Companion of Merlin.
"When he departs for Avalon, you will accompany him, Susan. You can visit the Real Narnia and the Real Britain from there. By the way, Companion of Merlin, your family and friends will also go to the Real Britain when the time comes, so you will never truly lose them either.
"Now, we must briefly visit My Country. It is time to celebrate the wedding of Queen Susan the Gentle to the Watchman Against the Dark."
"Wedding!"
"I think, Susan, that Aslan meant Companion in the old sense. You are to be my Consort.
"My dearest Susan, I didn't know it before, but I have loved you for years. Will you…" He was cut off by Susan kissing him passionately.
"Will darling," Susan said, when they finally came up for air, "I think that answered your question. We can have a wedding for your family and friends later. My family is all long gone, as you know. Still, I shall see those that matter again very soon, albeit only for our Narnian wedding.
"We are ready, dear Aslan."
With that, they found themselves in what Susan recognised as the Great Hall of Cair Paravel Castle, only a larger and more beautiful version. A whole host of legendary Narnians was there, plus the other Seven Friends of Narnia, Susan's parents, Herne the Hunter, the Lady, the Seven Sleepers and all the Old Ones, including Merriman Lyon. At a breath from Aslan, Susan looked to be the same age as Will, and both were in lavish wedding attire. After a lavish ceremony presided over by Aslan himself, and Susan had said the words she had been wanting to say to her family for over forty years, she found herself kissing her new husband.
"So, until you join us in Avalon," Merriman told Will, "be of good cheer, keep the Watch and we will always be with you in spirit. Take good care of that companion of yours. Farewell."
"I will, Merriman. Bran and Jane named their youngest after you, by the way."
"He had better treat you right, Susan, or…"
"I don't need my virtue defending, Peter, High King or not! If a Champion of the Light isn't good enough for my hand, who is?!
"Still," she hugged her elder brother tightly, "I have always missed you, Ed and Lu, Pete. I always will when you are here, and I am not. Now that I have said goodbye properly, I think that the pain will be less acute when I remember you all."
After some tearful farewells, Will and Susan found themselves back in her living room. "I shall take you to meet Mr Potter and company in a few days," Aslan promised.
"We'll see you then.
"Thank you, Aslan. It was… He's vanished again! Typical!"
"Well, I must take the Doors back to my place…"
"No, you are not, husband of mine! It is our wedding night, remember!"
"Then, my love, lead the way to your bedroom…"
The following afternoon on Potter Island, Harry and his soulmates were once again gathered around Diana on the beach after their scuba diving lesson. "Today, I thought that we would try having Harry look for an unconscious hostage. Millie dear, Jason here is going to put you into an enchanted slumber and my guards will carry you on a stretcher to your hiding place. Is that acceptable to you?"
"It sounds infinitely more comfortable than being bound and gagged, so yes!" Millie went over to Harry and kissed him. "As usual, darling, there shall be more of that to come once I am back in your arms."
"Funny you should say that, Millicent," Jason Blood noted, "because Harry is to awaken you in true Fairy Tale style, with a True Love's Kiss." As he said this, the party of Amazon guards came in with a canvas stretcher. "Now, if our Princess Aurora wants to lie down on the stretcher, please? I can then cast the enchantments…"
"I take it that means me…"
"You may not be a thin blonde, Millie Potter, but you will always be my Sleeping Beauty. I'll be kissing you awake before you know it."
"Considering I'll be asleep for most of it, Harry, that should go without saying!" She lay down on the stretcher and Jason waved his hands whilst muttering a quiet incantation. Within a few seconds, Millie was in a deep slumber. The Amazon guards carried the stretcher into the woods.
Forty minutes later, Harry began his search. This time, he couldn't speak to Millie through their mental link, but did sense peaceful contentment radiating from her. As he walked, he felt this presence get colder or hotter, indicating that he was on the correct path. After a few minutes in the woodland, he came to a lake surrounded by verdant grassland. Millie was softly snoring on her stretcher on the opposite bank of the lake.
Harry ran to Millie's side, knelt beside her and gently pressed his lips to hers. As he held the kiss, he felt her lips respond to it. Then she pulled him into her arms and deepened the kiss. My hero!
"We're going ring-shopping tomorrow, girls!" Pansy noted, as the Potter family sunbathed later that afternoon.
"Oui! My family has invited us for lunch afterwards.
"Harry mon amour, should we organise an engagement party for the evening?"
"Of course, Weds! How about a formal meal followed by a dance?"
"That sounds perfect, darling," Daphne agreed.