Disclaimers: Dark themes, police state ideas, mention of spousal abuse (including rape) on and off-screen, death of minor characters, graphic imagery and violence, frank sex discussion, copious bad language, villainising the Weasleys and Dumbledore, liberties taken with mythical history and the HP real-life timeline.

"Is it safe to come in here now?"

The door to Harry and Hermione's bedroom clicked shut and Enola leaned back against it a moment. She grinned over at Hermione, who was sat on the bed with her hair and body wrapped in towels, while Sally patiently painted her toenails with a pretty French manicure. Enola thought it suited her.

"Yeah, come on in," Hermione grinned widely. "Sally and I have just been painting the walls, as a surprise for Harry when he gets home from wherever he's gone, and I'm not very good at interior decorating so I've just gotten out of the shower. And now Sally has insisted on painting me! Just be careful of the walls as they are still drying!"

She patted the bed and Enola scooted over to join her. Her eyes were bright, and naughtily inquisitive.

"Well … we haven't had a chance to have a proper natter about your wedding night!" Enola purred as she sat down. "So ... how was it?"

Hermione blushed and looked down at her elf. Sally flicked her globe-like eyes back up at her

"Oh, you not need to worry, Mistress," said Sally, tapping her head with her one remaining hand. "Sally not listen to your secrets, but keeps them if I hears."

"Okay. Thank you," said Hermione, before turning excitedly back to Enola. "Oh, Ennie … it was incredible! It was everything I could have possibly dreamed … and a million times more!"

"You went on for ages, Min!" Enola exclaimed. "I'm surprised you are still alive!"

"You and me both," Hermione grinned. "My breath … wow. I lost it time and time and time again! If I'd had died, I wouldn't have been sorry. Well, apart from leaving Harry behind, obviously. Oh, En, he was just amazing."

"And you … everything worked?" asked Enola, pointedly, glancing down.

Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "I was worried … I tried in the afternoon, you know, like you said to. Couldn't really get anything going down there, but it might have been nerves. But as soon as we got to the Reception I could feel the magic that Harry had finished casting on our bedroom. And then … and you might not believe this ... he cast magic onto us both before we got started!"

"What? Actually on you? Onto your very bodies?"

"Yep, drew magic directly on to our skin" Hermione grinned. "And when the spells joined together I just exploded! My God, it was mind-blowing! And it wasn't just runes, either ... Harry did little pictorial spells, too. I didn't even know there was such a thing!"

"Me neither!" Enola exclaimed. "Wow. You lucky witch! Do you think he could teach Nev?"

Hermione laughed out loud. "I don't see why not. It's only a series of spells, isn't it?"

"Ask him for me," Enola implored her, eagerly. "I'm sure he'll do anything you ask him to, especially now that you've carpeted him."

"Carpeted?"

"Yeah, you know … you've laid him, so now you can walk all over him, just like a carpet!"

And both girls fell about laughing.

"Mistress Hermione!" Sally admonished. "Stay still! Yous going to ruin all my hard work!"

"I'm sorry, Sally," Hermione apologised through her giggles. "I'll behave, I promise."

Sally frowned and went back to work.

"Yeah, so get nagging Harry for me," Enola went on feverishly. "Not that Nev needs it at the moment, but ... just in case … in case this is just a phase that passes ..."

Enola turned her eyes away sheepishly. She may have been relentlessly teased for the last couple of days over her zombie impression on Harry and Hermione's wedding night, but she'd happily have Celesca Lovegood embarrass her forever if the prize was renewed intimacy with Neville again.

Hermione reached over then, coaxed Enola's head up to look at her. "I'm sure it wont … I have a good feeling about this."

Enola swallowed hard. "What does that mean?"

"It means that I've been having a good old think about what might have happened with Neville," Hermione replied. "And if my guess is right, this issue you've been having might just be a thing of the past."

"And Harry always says your guesses are better than most people's facts," Enola nodded, keenly. "You seem quite certain that Nev's little … er … problem is over. What makes you so sure?"

Hermione beamed, proud at being able to vaunt her husband's abilities to her best friend. That was an entirely new sensation and Hermione fell instantly in love with it.

"Well, Harry did this ridiculously clever bit of magic for our wedding night activities. Honestly, En, some of the stuff he comes up with ... it takes my breath and blows my mind and other assorted superlatives. Anyway, there was a spell that Harry designed that would allow him to keep an erection for me," she blushed crazily, and Enola swooned out loud. "But it was a healing spell. It helped Harry to perform, and to recover quickly following his own climaxes, no matter what his physical body might have to say about it. If I wanted more, Harry had the magic to make it happen. But I think this might have helped Neville, too."

"How?"

"I think it was the purity of Harry's intent," Hermione explained. "It powered the spell and I think some of that transferred to Neville when you were in here, that day Harry and I went to Cardiff."

"Doesn't sound very pure to me!" Enola teased.

"No, it led to some utter filth," Hermione agreed as her flush deepened. "But, his intention was pure, that's what I meant. He didn't invent any of that magic for his own benefit ... he did it all for me. Everything he did that night was for me. It was a way for him to give his love to me as often as I wanted it … or could cope with it ... which I honestly struggled with at one point."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that it was so good I actually passed out from the intensity of my pleasure!" Hermione explained, laughing as Enola's eyes glazed over a second. "It wasn't all plain sailing, though ... Harry was so upset that he'd gone too far that we almost stopped before we'd really got going. Luckily, he got over it quickly enough ... but we decided to just make love in a regular manner after that ... and he was still so good that I could barely tell that he wasn't magically-enhanced at all!"

"Hermione … I'm honestly kind of hating you right now," Enola grinned. "Harry is literally so good to you … it puts the rest of men-kind to shame."

"Doesn't it just!" Hermione laughed. "But, I'm not sharing. So don't ask. Especially not with you."

"What's wrong with me?"

"You're a fucking goddess, that's what!" Hermione huffed good-naturedly. "Harry is utterly devoted to me … I'm just about getting used to that ... but I'm not going to risk him by offering divine temptation."

Enola hooted with laughter. "But this still doesn't really explain how Harry's sex magic helped my Nev."

"Harry's spell kept him going on our wedding night.," Hermione explained. "But I think that when you and Nev had sex in here, the spell ... which Harry had cast into the brickwork so that he wouldn't get distracted from me ... must have sought Nev out, detected that there was a male problem to be fixed … and then fixed it."

"Lucky me," said Enola dreamily. Then her face exploded in colour. "But, Min … how far do you think that healing might have gone?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it fixed Nev's erection problems," said Enola with cautious enthusiasm. "Do you think … could it have … repaired everything else?"

Enola reached down and rubbed her belly. Hermione's eyes shot open.

"Didn't you cast a contraception charm?"

"It didn't occur to me," said Enola. "We haven't had sex in months. Months and months. I wasn't going to stop for anything once he jumped on me. And he's jumped on me a lot over the last couple of days!"

"Oh, Ennie!" Hermione exclaimed. "I really hope so, for you. Assuming that's still what you want, obviously."

"It's the only thing that I want," said Enola beaming. She clutched hard at her womb, hoping Neville's seed was quickening there. Then a powerful thought hit her in the chest. "Min ... has Harry told you anything about this? About why Nev suddenly became unable to be intimate with me? Is that how you are so sure he is fixed now?"

"No, Harry hasn't spoken with me in detail about it," Hermione replied, suspicion stirring within her. "Should he have? Is there something he knows about this that he hasn't told me ... or you?"

"I ... I don't know," Enola confessed, biting her lip nervously. "It's just that ... whenever I've spoken to Harry about this, maybe asked him to come up with some advanced healing spell or something for Nev, he closes off from me mentally. I can feel it, like he's keeping something in the very depths of his mind where even I cant reach it. I don't resent him for it, because if he is ... or even if he's removed my own knowledge about this ... I know he would only do it for my own good. But I'd still like to be sure, and I wondered if he had said anything to you, because I've always suspected that there is Dark Magic at work here, but I've never been able to find out how ... or if I have, I've been made to forget about it."

Hermione gasped out loud, shocked at the violation that Enola was suggesting. It couldn't be true ... but, then again Hermione reminded herself, it was exactly the kind of misguided chivalry that Harry was prone to.

"He hasn't mentioned anything like that, but you can bet that I'll be asking him about it the first chance I get," Hermione promised. "And I'll tell you what he has to say for himself, if there's anything to tell."

"Thank you," Enola smiled, weakly. "I'd really appreciate that."

"Best friend privileges, Ennie ... I get to interrogate my husband on your behalf!" Hermione laughed. "And for now, I suggest you enjoy having your husband fully recovered from whichever Dark prick did whatever to him. Ooh, if I ever got my hands on the ones responsible for all these crimes against our wizards ..."

But Enola had stopped listening and her eyes were alight with fervour.

"What is it?" Hermione asked, stirred by Enola's energetic turn.

"Min, if we say you're right, and that Harry really has cured a Dark Magic spell … do you think we could put the reason down to it just being through his own Light Intent?"

"Well … yes, I suppose we could look at it like that," Hermione mused. "Why?"

"I'm just thinking," Enola chimed, bobbing up and down in her excitement. "Could that magic be applied to other Dark injuries, do you think?"

Hermione squinted at her as she thought about it. "I suppose it could … if Harry knew precisely what he was up against. I mean, he had a specific problem to try and solve for our wedding night, and Nev's problem just happened to be similar enough, if we theorise about it. So, yes, you could make that leap. Why, what are you getting at here?"

Enola took a passionate breath, one laced with worry. "It's Angharad … she's dying ... and dying quickly. But, if Harry can heal Dark Magic with Light of his own … maybe he can help her in a way we haven't tried yet."

"This is about the Dolohov Curse, isn't it?" Hermione frowned. Enola nodded. "She still hasn't recovered from it?"

"No ... and neither have you."

Hermione just blinked in her shock. "What do you mean? I was hit with that curse over seven years ago. I'm clean of its effects ... aren't I?"

Enola looked at her with a pained expression ... then slowly shook her head. "No, Hermione ... you're not. Come on, my Mum knows more about this than me. She can explain it better."

"Okay," Hermione mumbled, her chest fluttering nervously. "But answer me one thing ... does Harry know about this?"

Enola nodded guiltily. "He ... fixed a hole in your heart when you first arrived, during some point before he had even consented to see you. It was a bit of lingering damage from when Dolohov hit you with his curse ... but Harry found other things there that he wouldn't tell me about. He told me off so sharply when I pressed him for details that I was too frightened to ask again."

"Told you off!?" Hermione huffed. "I'll be telling him off, you can guarantee that, for keeping all this from me! That boy and his secrets! Argh ... he's so annoying!"

"Welcome to married life ... well, proper married life!" Enola teased. "You'll have to put your foot down with him, Min! Get dressed, I'll go and fetch my Mum and we'll meet you in Ann's room."

Ten minutes later and Hermione joined Enola and Arianwen in Angharad's room. Neville had been employed to take Myfanwy on a security sweep of the Palace Wards, just to keep the horrendous truth about the depths of her girlfriend's condition far from her mind. Angharad was asleep right now, looked pale and thin and very ill. She was ten times worse than when Hermione had seen her at breakfast a few days ago, and she felt sure a cosmetic charm must have been used to hide the severity of her condition from the others.

"You should have told me about this," Hermione frowned. "Or Harry should have, actually ... this isn't your fault, ladies. But you can tell me now, and leave nothing out, even if Harry has told you keep something from me."

"I'll tell you what we know, but it isn't much," Arianwen began, ruefully. "We pulled the residue of Dolohov's Curse from where it ripped Ann's battlerobe in half. We knew it was a vicious curse to be able to do that sort of damage ... those robes should be able to absorb almost anything beneath the level of an Unforgivable, so this curse must be assumed to have comparable power ... a testament to the skill of the wizard who created it."

"What does it do?" Hermione asked, peering critically down at Angharad as though hoping to diagnose her on sight alone.

"It has a lot of common elements that we often find in harmful spells," Arianwen explained. "Malevolent curses are nothing new, after all. But this one seems to have a built-in degradation element to it ... on that seems to come in cycles, troughs and peaks that hit almost at random, but which we are guessing are intelligently targeted and controlled, probably by Mr Dolohov, himself. That's the only common trigger we can come up with. Annie can be fine one minute and then … bang … she gets like this."

"And it gets more potent with each cycle," Enola added, smoothing Angharad's forehead. "Mum, pass me a cold cloth. Her skin is searing hot."

Arianwen dabbed a cloth she was holding into a bowl of iced water, and Enola pressed it tenderly to Angharad's boiling skin.

"What do you mean by potent?" Hermione asked.

"It gets stronger, multiplies its own power intensity with each go around," Arianwen explained. "When Ann came back from Hengest, I would have given her till Christmas. At this rate, she might not last a few weeks ... even the next surge might be enough to kill her. She's lost a third of her body weight, hardly wakes up now and doesn't have much strength left to fight this."

Hermione stared at Enola with imperative concern. "Harry … you said he cured meof this recently. How?"

"He found a hole in your heart, like I said upstairs," Enola began. "We both knew it was there from the first time I examined you after you arrived, but we both thought it was from something that Ron had tried to do to you. Everything else was, so it was a fair assumption."

"But Harry soon found out that it wasn't?" Hermione pressed. "And also discovered this other thing there, too?"

Enola nodded. "There was another type of magic at work around your heart, and it was this that massively slowed down the effect of Dolohov's Curse. Harry wouldn't tell me what it was, but it was so personal to you that I can only come up with one conclusion of my own."

"Which is?"

"That whatever the enchantment is ... you put it on yourself."

Hermione froze in her shock. There was ... a grain of something there, like a truth that Hermione had utterly forgotten. But it was so infinitesimally small that Hermione couldn't even begin to guess what it might be about. She pushed it aside for now.

"So, Harry healed me, fixed that hole?" Hermione asked. Enola nodded back. "How?"

"We didn't know at the time, but I think he must have used one of his special alchemical solutions on you," Enola speculated. "And it worked for a while ... but now the hole has come back. We didn't know for sure, but after Ann's last attack I remember you complaining about chest pains at almost exactly the same time. I thought it was nerves over the wedding, but I did a sneaky check on you when we were sizing your dress, just to be sure. And that's when I found it. I'm sorry for not telling you ... but I didn't have a chance till now."

Hermione swallowed, hard. "Alright, I'll let you off with that ... if you tell me how bad it is."

"A hole in the heart is always bad, but right now that secret magic of yours is still fighting Dolohov's Curse within you," Enola replied, gravely. "But if Harry's best alchemy can't heal you, it points to one, rather worrying conclusion."

"Tell me," Hermione insisted.

"One of the main reasons that we can't touch Harry's scar with any Healing method we know is that because it retains an energetic link to the magic that caused it," Enola explained, sadly. "The connection keeps it fresh, renews it ... and there is no way to break that link ... well, all except one."

"Killing the wizard who cast the spell!" Hermione cried, aghast. "Harry once told me that things like severed hair retain a link to the body for a while, until one of them dies. Are you saying that Harry cant be healed while Tom Riddle's magic still exists in the world? Is that what the prophecy about him meant?"

"Yes," Enola nodded. "Lily and James worked that out, just as you have. Harry and Tom Riddle are intimately connected, on a far deeper level than Albus Dumbledore ever imagined. The Curse that should have accounted for Harry's life conversely tethered him to it, to Riddle himself, in both of Harry's facial scars and the magical link that they retain to Tom Riddle, who cannot be killed himself because of the perversion of his Horcrux magic. They share an energetic bind on a level that is so similar to what a Horcrux connection feels like that Dumbledore can be forgiven for confusing the two, as what has happened between Harry and Riddle has never happened before, so far as we know."

"And what's that?"

Enola took a steadying breath. "A Bond ... of hatred."

Hermione gasped and clutched at her heart. She hoped Dolohov wasn't attacking her now, as she felt too weak to fight him off.

"Please explain that, Ennie."

"It's like this," Enola began. "You and Harry recently established a Bond of Matrimony, powered by love. But what Tom Riddle did was to use his hatred of Harry, the world, himself, who knows, to power the Killing Curse that he used. But James and Lily were ready for that, and used their love for Harry ... and ultimately, their lives ... to make sure that for all that Riddle could hurt Harry he could never kill him with magic. They used their love as a shield, and they literally brought an aspect of the prophecy to fulfilment when they did that ... by making sure it was now Harry who could do the killing, and not Riddle.

"A curious offshoot is that Harry is now ultimately protected by Riddle's own arrogance. He puts total stock in the prophecy, even though he has only heard a portion of it still. So he believes that he still has to be the one to kill Harry, despite his numerous failed attempts at that. It's a fundamental flaw in Riddle's armoury. So he wont let anyone else kill him ... even that zombie Dumbledore stopped short of taking Harry's life. He wanted to capture him ... and all Harry has to do is let go of his restraint in fighting his old mentor and he should be able to beat him in the future.

"And Riddle's own magic is keeping Harry alive too. In pain, but alive. So long as Harry's body remains largely intact, he'll be able to return to it from the afterlife as long as he has a tether to this realm through Riddle, probably an indefinite number of times."

Hermione frowned at the story. "But ... if Harry can come back via Riddle, doesn't it work both ways?"

"No, it's different," Enola explained. "Because Harry has designed a spell to project Riddle's magic back at him ... using their connection as a conduit, which will close once the Dark magic is expelled from Harry. But he can only do it if he has direct access to Riddle himself. Then, once Harry has purged Riddle's magic from himself, he can kill him however he chooses. Nothing says that he has to do it with a spell ... and I rather think that his Animagus form will come into play somewhere. Harry always becomes a lion to play with his juiciest food. But there isn't much point in doing that until the lost Horcrux is found and destroyed."

"So, that's why Harry's scar always looks so fresh and new?" Hermione considered, her heart aching for Harry's continual suffering. "It's as if Riddle opens it anew just by being alive."

"Exactly, and the Dolohov Curse seems exactly the same," Enola nodded. "So, until he dies, neither you nor Ann will be completely cured. I just hope that Harry has some alchemical potion in his stores to slow Ann's degradation."

Hermione sighed in agreement ... then her eyes shot wide. "Ennie! There might be another solution ... forgive the pun!"

"What pun?" Enola replied, scrunching her eyes in her confusion.

"You said that Harry's most potent alchemical solutions didn't heal me, yes?" Hermione whispered excitedly. "Well, that's because he hasn't used them on me yet!"

"But I thought he had? He told me that, anyway."

"Yes, but he used the most powerful one he had at the time!" Hermione cried. "But it wasn't the most potent one possible. Ennie ... Harry has never managed to brew the ultimate potion of alchemy! He said he couldn't until he'd reached the final stage of his Opus ..."

"... which he has, by marrying you!" Enola hushed, as she began to understand. Her face lit up with joy. "You think ... could he do it now? Is the Universal Panacea within his grasp now? Can he make ..."

"The Elixir of Life! Yes! I think he should be able to!" Hermione sang. "Oh, where is that boy when you need him!"

"He'll be back," Enola told her, confidently. "In the meantime, can you take me to Harry's alchemy cell? There might be something there than can help Ann for now."

"Yes, come on," said Hermione. "The Cell will answer to me now ... and as soon as Harry gets home, he has a lot to answer to me, too!"

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