Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world belong to J. K. Rowling. In this story, Harry Potter is very old, and is known as 'The Great Wizard.' His name is Bellamy.

Chapter 19:

Late Thursday night, Gloria roused Tasha and Valencio from bed. They still hadn't provided themselves with dressing gowns, but Gloria didn't seem to notice, as she asked for help with John, who'd been in a fight. "He's dizzy, and he's started slurring his words, and I'm worried."

Valencio said, "Probably had too much to drink, as well," but he was already pulling on jeans and a jumper, not bothering with shoes and socks. Tasha also dressed, and hurried after her husband and Gloria.

Bellamy didn't seem too bad, just staggering now and then, but he said he always did that when he was a bit tired.

Gloria said firmly, "Valencio will help you to the First Aid room, and I'll fix your bruises."

Under orders, once in the First Aid room, Valencio helped Bellamy off with his clothes, and Gloria anointed his bruises, which quickly faded. He was obedient to begin with, allowing Gloria to look after him, but became increasingly irritable, until he pulled himself away from Valencio, and declared that he was perfectly alright. His words were slurred, and he was swaying.

Gloria frowned at him, and said suddenly, "I'm getting Dot."

Michael came, too, looking casual, and saying, "Too much to drink, Boss?"

Bellamy said crossly that he'd had nothing to drink, and he just wanted to be left alone.

Michael looked surprised at the unusual rudeness, and Gloria said, "He's getting worse. There's something wrong."

Bellamy staggered again, held the wall, and said, "I told you to leave me alone."

His words were slurred, and his eyes were unfocused. Michael said, "I'm getting Ursula."

Bellamy swore, but staggered again.

Valencio asked, "Can I help you to bed, John?"

Bellamy snapped, "Just go away! You're bothering me!"

Apparation was so quick. The nurse looked at him closely, and told Michael to bring Bryce or Joyce, as quickly as possible. "Brain monitors. Tell them possible head injury."

Michael stepped out the door and disapparated, while Bellamy looked around irritably, and said, "I'm tired, and you're all to go away now."

No-one moved, only watched, as he carefully lowered himself to the floor, possibly not seeing the bed close, and curled himself into a ball on the floor, closing his eyes. It was obvious that he was very ill.

The healer, Bryce McKenzie, was there within minutes, hair tousled, but fully dressed. He removed Bellamy's glasses, which provoked a slight frown, and then used a sensor on various parts of his head, as he lay apparently asleep. Only when he tried to turn him over, did his patient half-rouse, and say to leave him alone, or he'd turn him into a frog.

Bryce ignored him, looking carefully at the figures on his sensor, and then slipping a sensor device on his wrist for an easier monitoring. The nurse spoke to Bellamy very firmly, "You have a bleed in your brain, Boss. You're very sick, and Bryce is going to fix you." Again, insistently, "A bleed in your brain. You have to be very still, so Bryce can fix you," and she held his head, firmly.

Bellamy looked a little more intelligent for a moment, looked at Bryce, and closed his eyes, but he was no longer resisting, and stayed very still. Bryce touched him with his wand, checked again with the sensor, and said Asinum Terrili. More very careful checks with the monitor, and then Bryce stood, and said, "Well, he won't be working in the morning, but I expect he'll be fine."

Bellamy said, but still slurring his words, "Thanks, Bryce."

Bryce grinned at him. "Stupid people who get into fights."

There was a weak grin back. "It was a good fight, though."

Valencio sighed with relief. He was almost normal again. They needed John. Bryce was wearing a wizard's cape. He hadn't given it a thought.

The First Aid Room was large, and there was a bed. Bryce said to Dot, "Might be best to keep him here, and I'll check on him now and then through the night." He glanced at Valencio. "Help me put him to bed, will you?"

When they started to lift him, Bellamy struggled to his feet, and they sat him on the edge of his bed.

"We've treated the bruises," Gloria said.

Bryce said, "Any other injuries?" looking at the underpants.

"Not that he admitted to."

Valencio grinned. "She told him she had to check him thoroughly, and she did."

Gloria reddened slightly, "Well, I have seen a naked man before, and he doesn't always tell the truth."

Bellamy just sat, his head down, and when Valencio helped him to lie down, he closed his eyes again.

Bryce glanced at the monitor that took its readings from the sensor on his wrist, stood, and said, "Any chance of a cup of coffee?"

They went to a sitting room nearby, and there were formal introductions. Bryce McKenzie, the healer. Stocky, average height, black eyes, and restless mannerisms. Ursula Barnes, grey-haired. About seventy, Valencio guessed. Bryce was happy to have so many listeners, and said to the gathering, "It's happened before. Knocked out by someone he'd just cured, passed by an incompetent healer, and started to die overnight. Very severely handicapped for a long time. In a wheelchair for nearly a year."

Tasha asked, "When you trained to be a healer, how did you practice?"

Bryce said firmly, "Not on medj prisoners. That's something only barbarians would do."

Tasha reddened. She hadn't realised that the man might know so much of their history.

Gloria asked, "How old is John?"

Bryce spoke proudly. "Bellamy is our great wizard. He's a mutation, unique. He's a hundred and seventy-two years old, his birthday at the end of next month. But he does seem particularly vulnerable to head injury. He's susceptible to fitting in the right circumstances, as well. Old incidents of injuries to the brain are responsible for his attacks of trembling, and the problem with his balance."

Michael was frowning, "Bryce, you know - he probably would prefer you keep his health problems private."

Ursula was frank, "He hates his health discussed!"

Bryce ignored them both, and continued to talk about his favourite subject. "Even before Riza Khatabi cursed him, there were a few times when he had severe head pain, and nearly died."

"Does he still get that now?"

"Not for years."

Valencio remarked, "He was knocked out when he hit his car into a fence post, though it wasn't much of a bump really, and again when he fell off the roof. Is he easier knocked out than a normal man?"

Bryce answered, "I think he is. It's no good even suggesting it, but he really should take much greater care of himself. I told him once, and he just said that he had to die somehow, and it didn't appear that it was going to be of old age!"

They were full of curiosity, and there were more questions, which Bryce was only too happy to answer. A hundred and seventy-two years old! Yiko had been over a hundred when Valencio had known him, but he'd looked old. John looked young. Maybe it was because he was so old that he could make people feel better.

Yiko had appeared to be wise, but he thought that Yiko didn't have compassion, and John did have compassion. A hundred and seventy-two years old! Maybe anybody would be wise after a hundred and seventy-two years of living.

Dot finally interrupted. "Weren't you going to check him again about now?"

Bryce rose, and said, "Of course." He checked the monitor that lay open on the table, and explained, "This corresponds to the sensor I put around his wrist. He seems to be recovering quickly, but I'll go and have a closer look."

Ursula and Gloria, followed by Tasha and Valencio, also rose. Far from indicating any need for privacy, Bryce seemed pleased when they followed him, and he was watched closely as he put a sensor carefully to Bellamy's head. Bellamy frowned slightly, turned away from him, muttered something, and went back to sleep. Bryce carefully put his sensor in a different spot, and a third, not touching in any other way. He smiled, and said to his audience, "No problem any more," and that's what he reported to Dot on his return to the sitting room, that he'd just grumbled a bit, and had gone back to sleep.

Michael said disapprovingly, "He'd probably grumble more if he knew how much you were telling everyone about him."

Bryce said defensively, "It's common knowledge. There are books."

Gloria said, "Books?"

Dot rose, saying there were a couple of hours left before dawn, and she, for one, was going back to bed. Michael asked Ursula if she preferred to stay the night, or go home, but as Bryce was staying, she decided to leave. Tasha raised her eyebrows at Valencio who also rose. Gloria said calmly that she might stay awake a while, make sure that John didn't become sick again. Valencio grinned at her, quite sure she was bent on getting as much information about John as the healer was inclined to tell her. And as Bryce seemed to have not the faintest notion of discretion, that might be quite a lot.

Bellamy seemed alright the next morning, though a little pale, and made a point of apologising to Valencio because he thought he'd sworn at him. Valencio was surprised. He couldn't remember any other wizard thinking of apologising, no matter what.

Bryce went off with Gloria and Helene after breakfast, 'to look around.' Valencio, Jimmy and Clarence started working on the hayshed again, until Inge called them. "We're all in the pool, and we've got Bryce, and he answers every question anyone asks. Want to join us?"

Valencio grinned, and said to the others, "We can't miss this opportunity!"

Bryce was next to the swimming pool, in his element, surrounded by beautiful women, even nude, and answering more questions about Bellamy, and about how he trained to be a healer. "Four years, and it takes longer, of course, to become really experienced, as there's just not the practise."

"It took Jila and Agneta about six months," observed Jimmy, "And they were expert."

"Probably lacking in theory, though. That was a very precise spell I worked last night, and I bet they hadn't practised that."

He started quizzing them about how they were taken, starting with Jimmy.

"A tour was offered, granting us private access to a recently uncovered tomb. There was supposed to be treasure being unearthed every day. It was a day off work, and paid - who could refuse?"

"Helene?"

"I was taken from school, the prettiest few sorted out, and then a closer inspection, even use of a monitor, I think to indicate whether we were virgin, then the other two were rejected, and it was only me."

"I've never heard of a monitor to indicate virginity."

"They seemed to think it important."

Shirley didn't answer, but Gloria, surprisingly, did. "I was eleven, half starved, begging on the streets of Bangkok, and they picked me up from there. Probably thought I should be grateful!" It was the first time she'd said anything about herself.

Jimmy asked suddenly, "Is there a monitor to show whether a man is still fertile?"

Bryce said, surprised, "Why shouldn't you be?"

"Clarence was sterilised - practice for a trainee healer, and while I can't remember anything like that, it's a painless spell, he said. I just wanted to know."

"There is a monitor, but I'd have to borrow one. It's seldom needed."

As well as no sense of discretion, Bryce seemed to have not the slightest notion of tact. Even when he blithely asked questions that had the potential to be very embarrassing, he was not resented. More people gathered around him.

"He said he was kidnapped once..." Clarence said.

Bryce nodded. "They wanted to make it so that he wouldn't be able to lift his head again in public, so they filmed everything that happened in the three weeks. You can still buy it, if you know where to go. There used to be a pornographic film even, but the DMT thinks they've got rid of the last copies now."

"Was he really raped?"

"It was incredible. He was apparently totally unconscious, enough drugs that he could have died of it, and the camera was showing it all. It was about to happen, and then the penis of the man doing it became very, very short, and he was unable to rape."

"He worked magic?"

"He must have done. But he never admitted to remembering anything."

"Did someone fix the man?"

"They tried, and couldn't. So then they broke every bone in his body, just about, as punishment."

Valencio smiled. If only he could have done that to some of those who'd raped him. To vanish their penis. What a poetic revenge.

Clarence asked, "So he didn't really get raped."

Bryce nodded. "Very carefully, right at the end. They wanted to release him, as he would soon have died. But they had only female voices in the room, from a tape, none of the men spoke, in case he managed to drag himself awake, they had him very heavily drugged, then stunned him as well. They even broke and displaced a leg, so if he woke, he might think about his leg instead of what was being done to him. Then it was done very quickly, with no warning."

Bryce looked at the few men that listened, and said, "Men always feel very shamed when that happens. And it's extremely rare in wizard culture - viewed as a more serious crime than murder." He chuckled. "He must have known, even when he pretended he didn't. He killed two men the day after he escaped, and the day after that, he was off with the nurse who treated him in a medj hospital." And he said, very affectionately, "No-one else but Bellamy. Any other wizard would have shrivelled up with shame, maybe committed suicide when it became widely known. But Bellamy just played harder than ever, with more women than ever before. It's why he's a legend."

Clarence said hesitantly, "He said it happened again, much later, but he said he was older then, and that time he said he thought it childish to be upset about a minor physical intrusion."

Bryce echoed, "A minor physical intrusion!" But then he said firmly, "I know nothing of any other rape. Just that one time while he was drugged."

Valencio thought it the first time he'd lied to them, but no-one queried, and he certainly wasn't going to. It was not something that John would want them knowing.

xdividerx

He checked the notice board before dinner. It was habitual. With so many of them, it was the simplest way of conveying news. This time there was a notice put up by Carol - that the headmistress of the local school had been approached to run a bridging course there, that they should hear in a few days.

Tasha asked, "Are you interested?"

Valencio answered, "Not in university, and I'm fully occupied here. There's always things to do."

Tasha looked at it thoughtfully, and mused, "It's a year's course, and it's not just for university. Kaede was good, but there's so much we must have missed out on."

"I told you what Elspeth McConachie told me - that maybe we should allow a month's readjustment for each year of captivity. That gives you over a year yet, and me a few more months."

"You've changed your mind about leaving as soon as possible, haven't you?"

"Carol says I'm needed here. Clarence too. And I think we can be probably happier here than anywhere else in the world."

At dinner, Veronica and Angini were full of their news, that they were going to rent a men's hairdressing business, get a month's tuition from the barber, who wanted to retire, and take over. "We'll be self-supporting," Veronica said, with an immense satisfaction. "Dot has to organise the business contracts, as none of us have the faintest idea, not even Carol, but then it will be our business!"

Angini said, "It'll be nice if we take some of Rhonda's customers from her, seeing she was so nasty to us."

"Women's haircuts?" asked Carol. "You're good at women's haircuts as well."

"Probably, and when we know how, we can do fancy haircuts, and colouring and curling, things like that."

"A bit risky, without proper training," said Tiffany.

"We'll have to think about that. Anyway, just standard men's haircuts for a start."

"You'll be the first to become independent," said Valencio.

Veronica said, "We'll need models of course, when we try different haircuts."

Valencio grinned. "You can experiment on me. I don't mind."

Jimmy looked a bit alarmed, and said, "Not me!"

That evening in the ballroom, when the triumphs of the day had been thoroughly discussed, Gloria said, "John suggested that I just don't do it. That it's good to sort things out in your own head, but not necessary to tell everyone else." She smiled. "It made me feel a lot better about it, and I've decided to do it anyway, and so is Maliwan. It's so that we've all done it, and we can go on from here."

Carol asked, "Chocolate?"

"Beer, please. Lots of beer. I want to celebrate afterwards, because we're free."

Carol nodded. "Valencio, Clarence, Jimmy, lots of beer."

Bernice followed them. If it was going to be a party, there should be food, as well. Bernice wore an air of contentment these days. Freeing herself from religion was as significant as being freed from captivity.

Settled with a glass of beer, Gloria started. "We lived in Bangkok. Dad worked at the embassy, but in some fairly minor capacity, I think. Our home was in a sector where a lot of foreigners lived - a fairly modest home, but there was a Thai servant who kept the house cleaned, and kept me out of sight whenever Dad was home. Mum was a small, nervy woman. You couldn't give her a fright as a joke, or she'd be upset for hours.

"When I was not quite eleven, she died suddenly. No-one told me what she died of. The servant left the day after, and I was left very much alone. On the third night after her death, the day of my birthday, Dad got into my bed as I slept, and he was in me, and hurting, before I even properly woke up. I tried to run away then, but my door was locked, and my window was made so that it only raised about six inches, though I tried and tried to squeeze through.

"The next day, there was another servant, a man. Maybe part of his wages for keeping me a prisoner was that he was allowed to use me, too. After I was away from school three months, someone came and spoke to Dad about why I was no longer at school. I tried to call to her, but Suyitno put his hand over my mouth, and held me.

"Suyitno was out a few days later, and Dad lay beside me snoring. I got a heavy ornament from under the bed, where I'd put it earlier in the day, and started hitting his head as hard as I could. I'm not sure whether I killed him or not. He was making a funny sort of a snoring noise. I found his key, and let myself out of the bedroom, but the front door was locked, and I couldn't find that key, or any other way out. I had to wait until Suyitno opened it, before ducking behind him, and running.

"He chased me a long time, but I finally squeezed through a fence where he couldn't follow, and hid. He still wasn't far behind, though, and determined to catch me. I'll never forget trying desperately to muffle my breathing, while he searched close. I thought even if they killed me, it was good that my father was at least hurt. But I was only eleven, and didn't want to die.

"I survived six months as a beggar on the streets of Bangkok. I learned to be fierce, so that I wouldn't be used again, as I had been by my father and by Suyitno. I was picked up by two Khatabi-Richi, Arif, who was quite old, and one called Fujita. I think Arif took pity on me. But I preferred to be a beggar. He was occupied with something else, and I was left to Fujita, and seeing I was not a virgin, he was allowed to use me as he chose. I fought him all the way at the beginning, but Fujita made a game of it, using a different method of control each time. When I managed to hurt him one night, he punished me with the Pain Curse until Arif heard my screams, and came in to stop him. We were still in Bangkok.

"The next night, he tied me to the bed, and then sat on the edge of the bed. And he smiled at me, and caressed my face, even when I managed to bite. He said, 'You have to learn that your destiny is to serve the needs of men. And this is to teach you. After this, you'll know not to fight.' And he said it's called the Mizuho-Freeni Curse. He repeated it three times, he said, so I'd remember."

Jimmy creased his forehead. Had he seen that curse? Valencio looked away, and shivered.

Gloria was a courageous woman, but it was beginning to be very difficult. She drank her beer, and finally continued. "He was right. I gave up after that, and never fought again. He thought it was funny. He'd just touch me, very gently, and it would hurt. The ties around my wrists and ankles were terribly painful. Even contact with the bed. For a while, he just played with himself, watching me, and touching me gently every now and then, to enjoy my pain. That would have been enough. I would have given up, and been obedient. But then he got on and had sex when I was like that. When every tiny touch was agony."

Valencio remembered that at least Adil had lifted it before taking him. It had been one of those times when the guards had waited for him to recover a little, so that he'd be able to walk back by himself. But he'd been accustomed to pain by then, and Gloria had been just a little girl of eleven. Fujita. He didn't know anyone called Fujita.

Gloria said quietly, "I think I nearly died. I never saw Fujita again. When I woke, Arif was trying to feed me a potion. I begged him not to hurt me any more, I said I'd do anything, and I wouldn't fight any more, ever. I didn't fight them again. I made myself into the best sex slave I could be, so that they wouldn't hurt me, and wouldn't kill me. I still wanted to live, you see. Maliwan helped me, and both of us became very popular for a long time."

She smiled sadly. "We'd do fellatio, you see. And as far as I know, they never tried to force anyone to do that, maybe because of Sonata."

Maliwan gave her a warm smile of congratulation, as she relaxed in the chair, drank the last of her beer, and said that she was finished.

Maliwan said, "My turn now," which took pitying eyes away from her friend.

"I was picked up in Bangkok at the same time as Gloria, except I was a couple of years older, and things were very different for me. I was a professional, reared from childhood as a sex worker. By the time I was chosen, I'd already been working over a year. I could do tricks, because I'd been working at muscle control so long, well before puberty. I don't remember losing my virginity, as I started training so young. They hired me, didn't just take me. They promised a generous wage, and lured me at the start with a diamond necklace, which I still have. Genuine, too, as I had a jeweller in Duich check it for me.

"They kept paying me, even though I knew I was a prisoner the moment they put a number on my arm. And then, of course, it was the Nala Spell, which at least meant I never had another period, not that there had been many at that age. But I told Nusa'pei that it was better to pay me, and have me the best performer ever, than just to have another unwilling slave. And I gave him such a good time when he used me, that he agreed. It was only when I was put over into Enclosure 2, that he stopped paying me. I tried telling him to let me go, as I was an employee, not a slave."

She smiled. "I thought it was worth a try. Fair money, but not as much as I thought, and one jewel a year, though they were most of them just pretty glass. It's a nice collection, though, twenty-three years of pretty jewels, some of them real.

"I'm going to buy myself a business, maybe a dress shop. In Bogridge, because it's so beautiful here. If I'd stayed as a sex worker in Thailand, I probably wouldn't have been still alive. I don't know whether REF injections were invented then, but I know I never had one.

"And now that's all of us, and I definitely think we should party!"

"Invite the others?"

"No, not even John. Just us!"

Gloria asked Valencio to join her again that night for a little while, and gave him enormous pleasure, in return for the pleasure he gave her. Afterwards, she lay a while on his shoulder, as he stroked.

Finally, she said, "You know Revenge's foal? I'm going to call him Jack. It was my father's name, but the foal is to be gelded."

Valencio pointed out, "If your father had been gelded, you wouldn't be here!"

"I suppose. No matter what, I always wanted to live."

"We're both alive. Against all expectation."

He stroked her gently, and said, "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been alive. You and Tasha and Hilde and Emma. I was too weak for it."

Gloria kissed him, and ran a finger gently down his penis, "Alive and intact. And how many of us have been glad you're intact?"

Valencio laughed, and admitted, "I certainly am!"

"Mildred told me that Clarence used to oblige some of the women now and then. But once he partnered Bernice, he stopped."

"Tasha doesn't mind. She says she'd be upset if I went with an outsider, but we're like family."

xchapter endx

PLEASE NOTE: After this chapter, I am going to post the rest of the story, so another 18 or so chapters. So don't get confused, this is Chapter 19, so start at Ch 20.
I hope you enjoy it.