Chapter 19
The Quidditch World Cup
Harry
One particular event that they had all been looking forward to was the upcoming Quidditch World Cup, Ireland versus Bulgaria.
Amelia had to be there as part of security weeks in advance but each of the study group and their families all joined her a couple days before.
Harry and his girlfriends however all decided to share a tent and have a multiple night sleepover...after some convincing from their parents and promising that they wouldn't get into any mischief. It certainly helped that they were all considered very good, responsible teenagers by their parents.
Admittedly he felt a bit nervous, over at the Bones Family Mansion, the house had been large enough for him and each of the girls whenever they stayed over to have their own rooms. This would be the first time spending the night with any of his girlfriends in the same room.
They each had their own separate beds and the tent was quite spacious as it was a magical tent, but still it was just one large room in the tent.
"Just so you know I sleep in the nude Harry," Daphne teased him.
"You do not!" Padma argued, tossing a pillow at Daphne.
Daphne grinned and said, "You didn't have to tell Harry that though so he would have to wonder if that was really true or not. Might have even kept him up half the night wondering and thinking about it."
"I'm not so sure I'll be able to sleep with all of you attractive girls around me anyway," Harry admitted.
Each of the girls couldn't help but grin at that.
"It's no big deal Harry, all we'll be doing is sleeping nearby and we'll all be wearing our pajamas," Susan reassured him.
Susan was already dressed in her pajamas, but she somehow made even her pajamas look good.
"Close your eyes Harry, I'm going to change now," Hermione told him.
"No peeking," Daphne warned.
"I trust Harry not to peek," Hermione reassured.
Dutifully and in order not to betray the girls' trust in him he closed his eyes while the rest of the girls got changed into their pajamas, only opening them when they told him he could.
"Everybody ready to play some games?" Hermione asked afterwards, now dressed in her pajamas.
"Strip Poker?" Daphne suggested.
"No, we're not playing strip poker," Hermione said with a scowl.
"Harry wouldn't mind though would you Harry?" Daphne asked him.
"Um…" He said, unsure what to say to that.
"Of course I'm sure you wouldn't like it if you lost but we certainly would," Daphne added with a wink.
Hermione had to shake her head as she banished away some probably naughty thought about him as she said, "I was thinking more like some board games. I brought a bunch of Muggle ones from home."
"Well that sounds like fun!" Susan agreed enthusiastically as she went over to see what Hermione had brought.
They ended up playing Sorry, Uno, and Go Fish before ending with a good old fashioned pillow fight.
"I'm Queen of the Tent!" Daphne insisted as she stood upon her bed like she had just conquered it.
"Not if we can help it!" Padma replied as she beckoned him over, "come help me take Daphne down."
He grinned and helped Padma pummel Daphne with pillows before they were then in turn attacked by Hermione and Susan.
Finally after a long but tiring pillow fight, they all settled down and finished getting ready for bed.
Once they all tried to get some sleep, he however stayed awake for a while, not because as he had feared being too nervous to sleep around all his very attractive girlfriends, but because of just how well...natural and good it felt to be sleeping so close to all of them.
They were his girlfriends yes, but more and more he couldn't help but see each of them as something more. Perhaps it was partially because he was also now betrothed to Daphne and that caused him to have it more on his mind but…
They were more than family to him now, all of them...he didn't even know how to describe it really. He just felt that it was just...somehow right to be all sleeping together like this.
He listened to the gentle breathing of each of the girls as they all one by one fell asleep. That too felt natural somehow.
He couldn't help but feel like it would soon always be like this...he would marry them, not just Daphne who he was now betrothed to, but all 4 of them. It was certainly a very good thought to think about even if he tried to tell himself not to think too far ahead.
At any rate he decided he'd better try and get some sleep and it wasn't long before he fell asleep too.
…
When the actual Quidditch World Cup came, he thoroughly enjoyed watching the match between Ireland and Bulgaria.
At the beginning when the mascots all came out, he noticed that the Bulgarian mascots were actually veela. He'd read about, but mostly heard even more about veela from his male Gryffindor dorm mates, who were quite eager to explain about the great attributes of veela.
Personally though he couldn't imagine any woman being better looking than his girlfriends.
As they did their little song and dance, Harry noticed that many of the wizards around him were now acting very foolishly and he couldn't help laugh a little at their antics. The veela women were beautiful but not that beautiful. Not like…
He ended up turning to look at each of the girls who were all now looking at him with impressed looks on their faces.
"What?" Harry asked, wondering what he had somehow done right.
"You don't seem at all affected by the veela," Susan observed.
"No, I guess not," Harry noted.
Hermione seemed a bit hesitant to say it but finally admitted, "It is said only wizards that are already truly in love with a witch can totally resist a veela's charms."
Did he really actually love the girls that much?
"I guess I actually do love each of you that much," Harry admitted.
The girls all looked at him and smiled, pleased to see that.
"We love you to Harry," Padma told him as she reached over and squeezed his hand.
Once again he felt the love from each of them through their connection.
Perhaps he was picking up on and feeling particularly strong emotions from them even before, but ever since the Bellatrix incident, it seemed to happen more frequently and he was actually aware when it happened, which admittedly was actually rather nice to feel so connected to the girls that he loved.
He however eventually decided to try not to dwell on it too much just then and focus on the Quidditch match which once it got started was very easy to get into.
It ended in Ireland winning the match, but the Bulgarian star seeker Victor Krum getting the snitch.
As the match ended and the Ireland supporters cheered as the World Cup trophy was presented to the Irish National Team, Harry and the girls who had opted to root for Ireland themselves, all cheered too.
"We should celebrate or something," Padma suggested.
"We should," Susan agreed, "not that any of us are actually Irish...well I suppose I have some Irish in me, but it's an excuse to celebrate."
For the adults as well as some of the boys Harry knew at Hogwarts, celebrating meant drinking, but none of them saw any reason to try alcohol for the first time and so they contented themselves with non-alcoholic butterbeer to drink.
It was also one of the stipulations that they had promised to make when getting their parents to agree to let them have a sleepover together in the same tent, which was probably wise considering the many other people out drinking around them, but was easy enough to refuse.
After playing some more games they then ended up going to sleep and this time he had no trouble getting to sleep easily, contented and relaxed by having his girlfriends all around him.
…..
He was however awoken to the sounds of screaming.
Bleary eyed, he grabbed his wand instinctively.
Each of the girls were woken up too by the screams.
"What's going on?" Padma asked, still half-asleep but also now reaching for her wand as well.
"I don't know, I'm going to go find out," He insisted, "stay here."
"We're coming with you," Hermione insisted, not about to let him go out into potential danger alone.
Leave it to the Gryffindor to be brave, Harry thought.
He then noticed all 4 of the girls seemed to want to go with him, evidently he was rubbing off on them much to his annoyance.
Unable to sway them otherwise it looked like, he sighed and they all headed out of the tent.
They found the campground in chaos as people were running and screaming past them, trying to get away from a large group of hooded figures that were casting spells at whoever they came across with several different people being tortured on the ground.
Amelia was over there with a group of aurors trying to fight them off.
"Come on, let's go help," Susan suggested.
They all silently agreed as they rushed on over.
Before they made it over to Amelia however they were suddenly stopped by about 8 different hooded figures who now that they were up close, Harry noticed that they were all wearing silver masks.
Death Eaters, Harry thought grimly. He'd heard all about them from Amelia and from reading a couple different books about modern wizard history.
Each of the Death Eaters seemed to study the girls for a moment in a way that made Harry definitely want to protect them.
"Ooh, I'm going to have fun with these!" One of the Death Eaters said excitedly.
"I want the mudblood," One of the death eaters said, looking at Hermione as he somehow knew that she was a muggleborn.
"Take them out and then have whatever fun you want to have with them afterward," The apparent Death Eater leader said, "but leave Potter to me."
At that the death eaters tried to surround them and attack, but fortunately Harry and his friends had prepared enough for just such a moment like this, whenever it came.
None of them, besides perhaps Daphne, actually enjoyed fighting or magically dueling, but they had done some training with Amelia, who had given them the same training that aurors normally did.
Susan managed to take out one of the death eaters while he hit another, knocking him unconscious.
"You pathetic lot! They are only teenagers, you're better than this!" The apparent leader of the death eaters yelled.
With renewed efforts the Death Eaters started attacking with renewed vigor as Harry and his friends were forced to either dodge or throw up magical shields to defend themselves.
They were still slightly outnumbered but that didn't last for too long as Hermione to some satisfaction took out the one who had been wanting to go after her.
This left them matched up one on one with the remaining death eaters.
Harry dueled against the leader of the death eaters himself one on one and it was clear he was the best duelist among the Death Eaters by far.
He only narrowly avoided another killing curse before attacking back, which was quickly defended by the Death Eater leader.
Yet then it soon proved Death Eaters did not play fair as the Death Eater leader cast a Killing Curse not at him, but at Hermione who didn't see it as she was still busy taking on her own opponent.
There was simply no time to stop the attack, nor could he as it was a killing curse.
Acting purely on instinct in an effort to save Hermione's life, he did the only he could as he threw himself directly in front of the oncoming spell.
It hit him directly in the stomach and as he landed on the ground, having just been hit by the Killing Curse for the 4th time, he felt something inside himself fighting off the attack.
He however focused once again on his girlfriends and his love for them, they were his strength and they would be what saved him yet again.
Time seemed to stop as his girlfriends became aware of the mortal danger that he was in. He felt a powerful connection to them, stronger even than the last time this had happened, and he felt suddenly aware of all the powerful magic that he had at his disposal from each of them.
He drew upon that magic to help repel the Killing Curse.
There was a loud explosion as the Killing Curse rebounded and instead hit the Death Eater leader. He didn't stand a chance as his entire body was instantly destroyed.
At once all the other Death Eaters stopped fighting, surprised to see their leader fall, and immediately they tried to flee...only to be stopped by spells from Harry and his girlfriends.
However there was then a cry of anger and horror from one of the onlookers.
"Father!" Draco Malfoy screamed in anguish.
The man that had just been killed was apparently his father Lucius.
With shock and horror, Harry realized that he had just killed someone. Lucius Malfoy was dead because of him.
He hadn't intended it to happen, but it had still happened nonetheless.
Draco turned to look at him, his eyes full of tears as he yelled, "You did this! You killed my father! You'll pay! I'll kill you myself!"
Draco tried to cast a spell at him, but the girls were too fast as 4 different spells hit him before he could.
"I killed someone," Harry said breathlessly, still trying to process this.
"You didn't do it on purpose," Susan tried to reassure him, "he nearly killed you or Hermione...and I'm much more glad that you are still alive. In war things happen, but it is better that it happen to bad people than good ones. You shouldn't feel guilty for merely trying to survive and protect others."
"You saved me Harry," Hermione observed, tears coming to her eyes as she realized just how close to death she had come and also how grateful she was to him. Yet then her expression changed into anger as she insisted, "but you shouldn't have done that, you could have easily died!"
An angry Hermione was definitely something that he didn't want, she could be much more scary than any Death Eater, but he definitely didn't regret making such a decision.
"What was I supposed to do, let you die?" He argued as his voice cracked as he thought of losing Hermione...or any of his girlfriends, "I couldn't bear to lose any of you, I'd willingly give my life for any of yours. I...love you each of you too much for that."
Each of the girls, including Hermione, softened at that as tears came to each of their eyes. He could definitely feel the love from each of them very strongly just then.
After surviving the killing curse in such a way yet again, it seemed very likely that their bond had only gotten even stronger.
At that they all came in for a group hug.
"I love you girls," Harry admitted, "I would do anything to protect you, even give my own life if necessary."
"We know Harry," Hermione told him, "and we all love you too but we couldn't bear to lose you either."
After a moment they pulled away from the embrace as they heard cries for them.
Amelia and several aurors were approaching, having evidently dealt with the group of Death Eaters they were facing and were now looking at all the Death Eaters lying around them that they had defeated as well as Draco.
"Are you all okay?" Amelia asked them all worriedly.
"We're fine Aunty," Susan told her, her eyes still full of tears.
Daphne seemed to be the most composed and so decided to be the one to explain just what had happened.
Amelia shook her head as she said, "I can't believe I let this happen. We've been dealing with budget cuts in the Auror department for years, but Minister Fudge kept insisting that we'd already taken care of any Dark Wizards and there were none left to oppose us. I knew that it wasn't true, that they would reappear one day as they did today, but my demands continually fell on deaf ears. People just felt too safe and voted against an increase to the auror budget...now it seems that we've all paid the price."
"At least we've taken into custody a lot of them, in part thanks to all of you," Kingsley Shacklebolt said, one of the aurors that Harry had met once when he'd come over to their house once to speak to Amelia, his boss's boss.
"We captured about a dozen more, which is at least more than half of the Death Eaters that attacked here but there are still more at large we'll have to apprehend," Amelia observed, "at least with the attack I'll definitely have leverage to force the Ministry to increase our budget and with any luck we'll be able to remove the rest of what is left of the Death Eaters."
"We'll all be working overtime until the ones responsible are all caught," Shacklebolt promised.
Amelia nodded approvingly and said, "well let's start rounding up the ones that we have caught first and try to interrogate them."
All the aurors went to go do as she asked while Amelia went over and stood by what was left of Lucius Malfoy.
"Never thought I would see the day," She commented, a grim smile on her face.
"I can't believe I killed him though," Harry couldn't help but say.
Amelia's expression softened as she said, "with war death is inevitable for either side. I've seen it too many times. You shouldn't feel bad Harry, Lucius was a terrible person who had killed and tortured plenty even though we were never able to prove it. It is good however that you feel some guilt as that means you are only the caring and wonderful young man I know you are but don't dwell on that guilt as while Lucius certainly deserved to die, you were just trying to protect yourself and others and you shouldn't feel guilty as the alternative would have meant either you or Hermione would have died. If however you continue to harbor feelings of guilt or distress I would be happy to have you talk to the same therapist that the aurors use after having had a particularly traumatic experience."
"I'll think about it," Harry told her, unsure whether or not he really needed it or not.
Harry however then looked at Draco, still unconscious. Draco hadn't been directly involved as a Death Eater himself, but he did wonder what was going to happen to him. In any case he was sure that Draco would now definitely be out for revenge for the death of his father, that much was certain.
He might not try anything for a while, trying to bide his time and look for the right moment, but Harry was sure that he would try something at some point and he ought to watch his back.
Yet looking at his girlfriends, he noted that they certainly had his back just as much as he had theirs...and there was nobody he trusted more.
…
Susan
Later on, once everything settled down, Susan went to go find Harry and check to make sure that he was okay and make sure that he wasn't blaming himself for anything.
She managed to find him sitting alone inside their tent.
"Are you okay?" Susan asked him worriedly.
He sighed and said, "I think I'll be fine, like you've all said, I shouldn't blame myself and I'd much rather it be Lucius Malfoy dead than Hermione."
From what she could tell though as their bond had apparently gotten only stronger, Harry wasn't exactly telling the whole story. It seemed that he felt like that would eventually be the case, although he was still worried about Draco, both because he knew he would eventually try to get revenge and also because no one, not even Draco should have to grow up without a father.
She could understand that just as well as Harry, having lost her own father to the war with Voldemort.
Sitting down next to him on his bed, she put a hand on his shoulder and said, "well I'm here for you if you ever want to talk."
Harry managed a small smile and said, "thanks."
They both continued to sit in silence for a while though as she just merely held him.
Finally however she decided to point out, "you know, you've actually helped save all of us by now at least once, you saved Hermione and me from the troll, helped save Padma from the diary, saved all of us from the dementor on the train, saved me from the killing curse from Bellatrix, and now Hermione from Lucius Malfoy."
He seemed to think about that and realized that she did have a point but also reminded her, "I feel like each of you has saved me just as much."
Susan couldn't help but smile at that as she said, "all of us make a good team."
It may have seemed strange to some, their relationship, but she wouldn't have it any other way by now.
He smiled and told her, "I'm glad that I've been able to save each of you and you are still here, although I do wish we didn't keep somehow ending up in danger."
"Yeah, I agree," Susan said, "you're much braver than the rest of us though."
"I'm only brave when I have to be," Harry said, "I would do anything to protect you girls, anything...I couldn't bear it if I lost you."
"I couldn't bear it if I had lost you," Susan told him back, "I love you Harry...with all my heart."
In that moment she felt an overwhelming feeling of love both from Harry as well as her love for him.
She wanted to do something, to express just how much he meant to her.
They both came together for a kiss and as they continued to make out, it seemed that their thoughts and minds seemed to blend together in that instant.
Evidently their bond or connection really had gotten even stronger and she guessed that her natural empathy for others made it easier for her to pick up on things which made it even more noticeable in her case.
Right now she was feeling the strong feelings of love for her from Harry, but also the way that he saw her.
Her breath caught as she saw the way that he saw her, for the gorgeous young woman that she was both inside and out.
"Something wrong?" Harry asked as they had stopped kissing for her to process how he really felt about her.
"No," She admitted before then asking, "just saw the way that you felt about me that's all, must be our bond manifesting itself, I think it's gotten even stronger."
"Yeah, it definitely has," Harry agreed, "I've been picking up on more now too."
"Is that really how you feel about me?" Susan asked.
"Yes," He admitted, seeming to remember just what he had just been thinking about her.
She blushed as she then thought of just how much she loved Harry, she really did love him...and she was definitely going to be spending the rest of her life with him.
There was no doubt in her mind now, she was going to marry Harry Potter and become his wife and have his children.
She made a decision right then and there about something she had been thinking about already, but only just now did she know she really wanted to do it.
….
After her conversation with Harry she immediately went to go find her mother.
"I would like to form a betrothal contract with Harry," Susan announced.
Her mother seemed surprised but still took her seriously, aware that her daughter wouldn't make such a decision lightly.
"Are you sure?" Her mother asked, "you don't have to if you don't-"
"I know that I don't have to, but I really want to," Susan said, "there is no one else I would rather be with than Harry, I love him and I intend to marry him."
Of course she didn't have to be betrothed to him, unlike Daphne's parents, her mother and Aunt would never expect that of her despite a generation or two ago that being the expectation for their family. She just wanted Harry, her family, and everyone else to know what her priorities and goals were: to marry Harry.
Her mother studied her for a moment before then smiling as she said, "well I suppose if this is what you really want and if Harry wants it too, then who am I to stand in the way of it."
Susan smiled back as she went and gave her a hug and said, "thanks mum."
"Well it's not like I wasn't expecting you to marry him anyway, I just didn't think you would make such a decision so soon," Her mother answered, "we can talk to Amelia and have her help form the betrothal contract."
"Sounds good," Susan said, "I haven't told Harry yet that's what I want, but since he's already betrothed to Daphne, I'm sure it shouldn't be a problem for him."
"Are you sure you are okay sharing a husband with another woman?" Her mother asked, wanting to be sure she knew just what she was getting into.
"Yes, I'm sure," Susan answered with finality.
It would certainly be a challenge, but she had already been sharing Harry up to this point and she felt more and more comfortable doing so the more their relationship progressed.
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