In class the next day, Harry fumbled his way through spells he barely thought about normally. His magic, inflated and foreign, felt much like it was going through puberty. An inch here, a few extra hormones there and he was reduced to an awkward, stumbling sack of pimples. Last night adrenaline and urgency had provided focus as he conducted a thorough search of the forest, fashioned wards to keep dark magic out of the forest, and boosted the castle's defenses in numerous ways.
If any students noticed his awkwardness today, it was offset by the awe they felt at the rapidly growing tales of the night before. Most barely dared glance in his direction.
The most noticeable of his achievements the night before, were the stags. Each classroom now had a faintly glowing crystalline protector that lay in a corner and more patrolled the halls and courtyards. They were an elite guard that neither slept nor ate. Harry had even figured out a way to tie them to the hearthstone. That way, the teachers shared the magical tax of maintaining them, rather than him maintaining all three-hundred and thirteen himself. The only one he kept tied to his core was his first, which acted like a general of sorts. It also communed with the single statue which wasn't a stag, a cat. McGonogal left most of the control of the new guards to Harry; but the jade cat Harry had created for her that she then pushed her Patronus into under Harry's direction, made daily reports and held veto power.
Overnight, Hogwarts had become a heavily fortified castle ready for the war Harry knew them to be in.
Though many students were spooked and nervous, most believed that nothing could possibly go wrong while Harry was there. Astoria Greengrass took it upon herself to become his personal cheerleader and would regail anyone who would listen with tales of his heroics.
Fed up, Harry marched to the infirmary after second period. The cluster fuck of foreign personality traits and magical energy threatened to leave him a drooling idiot. He needed something to focus on. Something to ground him. Classes weren't it.
Luna slept curled into Hermione's side on the cot. His frustration ebbed as the picture warmed his heart. With a sigh. Harry sunk into the chair by their side and rested a hand on top of Hermione's. He bent to whisper in her ear.
"I need you, Mio. Come back to me."
Hermione had been unconscious since passing out the night before. Her cheeks were a bit more angular, nose more narrow though still rounded and slightly upturned at the tip. Clear skinned, fuller of lip, and with new caramel highlights running through her ever unruly chocolate waves. She was still his Hermione, but something had happened in that other world. Something changed her.
After an hour of intent study, Harry slid into a comfortable meditative state. Normally, meditating was simple, but quieting the cacophony in his mind and soothing the storm of emotions not quite his own proved almost impossible. When he accomplished it, what he saw nearly jolted him out.
Hermione s' aura, normally a calming mix of blue, green, purple, and the occasional burst of gold, was now solid iridescent gold. It burned so bright he wondered how it didn't wake Luna, with her own misty aura of pure white and sunflower yellow.
Several moments passed while Harry figured out how to look at her without going
blind. Once he could examine her closely, he noticed a shimmer around her head as if looking through a heat mirage.
Tentatively, he let his magic brush against her aura. With gentle feather-like caresses, he moved over her entire aura before approaching the shimmer.
Flashes of memory assaulted him. Hogwarts, abandoned yet exactly the same. The feeling of being watched. Doors opening and closing. Food, scrolls, and other items appearing and disappearing at random. A tugging sensation in her abdomen and suddenly she could see Harry, dark and killing without any remorse. Speaking to him. Pounding against nothing where the barrier felt thinnest. The voices. Shadows that followed, mocked, and threatened.
A bird of molten gold embraced her.
The rift, light in a dim world and Harry pulling her through. Submitting to the fire, but balking at the last moment.
That was it. Hermione hadn't fully accepted whatever power killed the Death Eaters and had manifested as wings at the ministry.
Telepathy came easier during meditation, so when defences snapped up to rebuff his attempt at connecting, he was able to keep his mental presence at the periphery. After several moments, she dropped her defenses.
"Harry?" Her mental voice sounded distant.
"I'm here Mio. You're safe."
"I can't see you. I can't see anything."
"You're fighting yourself and it's keeping you unconscious. Accept whatever new ability you've discovered."
"I can't. It's not me. It's not natural."
"Then we'll figure it out together. You don't have to trust it. but trust me."
After several moments, the tension in Hermione's mind eased. Her defenses were too complex for him to see what happened, but her aura ripple, the haze around her head cleared, and her eyes flicked open.
He broke out of his meditation to cling to her.
"Harry?" After a brief hesitation she hugged him back. "I knew you'd find me."
"Always," he whispered into her hair. Along with the comforting lavender and leather books, the scent of burning pine tickled his nose. Oddly enough, the scent rounded out the others. He'd never thought anything was missing, but now that the burnt pine was there, he couldn't imagine her smell without it.
"Luna? Where are you going?"
She'd gotten halfway to the door before Hermione's question made her turn.
"You two need a minute," she said, though for once she wouldn't meet either of their eyes. "I'm glad you woke up Hermione." Her voice hitched, but before they could say anything else, the girl turned to all but run from the room.
"What just happened?" Harry asked.
Hermione's brow knit together. "I'm afraid I've been neglecting our friendship. Before you came, Luna and I were quite close."
Harry nodded. "I could see that. She worked as hard as I did to find a way to bring you back. We spent a lot of time together." He looked toward the door, concern written in the crease of his forehead and turn of his lips.
Hermione chuckled. "No Harry." She took his face in her hands and a deep breath. "We were really close."
Confusion quickly followed by realization and chased off with a blush as a few choice fantasies played in his head.
"You mean you two were together?"
Nod.
"I thought after Krum..."
"That might have been a big reason why. Luna and I were already good friends. She was familiar. Safe. Suddenly, boys didn't feel too safe. And, I mean, they weren't exactly lining up either. Ronald," she growled. "Well, I never thought of him that way anyway and he certainly would have been a poor choice."
Harry rubbed small circles into her lower back with one hand and ran the fingers of the other through her hair. Only the knowledge that neither gutter shite could lay
any piece of their anatomy on her ever again kept his rage in check. That only just. Damn these magic fueled emotions.
"Luna listened and understood, to an extent. Likewise, I listened to the problems she faced in Ravenclaw and the abuse she suffered from people throughout the school. Even some teachers."
Harry took long deep breaths. Fury immobilized him.
"It's alright. We're alright. We were the best thing for each other. And you've helped me so much. I just worry that while I've been exploring my relationship with you, I abandoned her in more ways than one."
Hermione propped her forehead against his and stroked his hair. His anger drained away, leaving a raw aching sadness for his quirky friend.
"I grew close to her while you were gone. Not like that," he clarified when she stiffened, magical fingers stilling in his hair. "As a friend. Not that Luna isn't gorgeous, but I couldn't even think of another girl like that while you were in danger. "
"And now? "she asked in a whisper.
"Now what?"
"Now that I'm safe?"
"You're first in my heart." He lifted her up, slid under so he was sitting against the headboard, and set her back down between his legs. He hugged her back to his chest. "No one could distract me from you or make me break your trust. We're soul mates.
"Full disclosure, she spent the night the first night you were gone. I was a mess. So was she, I guess. We talked. Comforted each other. I didn't mean to, but we fell asleep on the couch. It was completely plutonic."
"I know."
"What?"
"Luna told me."
He sat, puzzled for a moment.
"While I slept, she talked to me. Well, she thought towards me. Not like you did. Her brain or mental self stayed inside her body. I'm not sure what she did or how. She opened herself to me? I couldn't figure out how to talk- er think back, but she filled me in on what went on while I was- you know.
"She said you melted a mountain for me?"
"Well just the top."
"That's property destruction you know."
"Thought you might say that. I bought it. "
"You what?"
"Now the only property I destroyed is my own. Besides, once you see it I think you'll agree it was more like redecorating. Although, technically, I bought it for you."
"You bought me a mountain you broke?"
"For your birthday, which I'm sorry we missed. That's the day I melted it, so it only made sense."
"Oh of course. Naturally. What am I going to do with a deformed mountain?" She sounded wryly amused.
"I thought we could make it a sanctuary for any elves who want to live in the wild. It does sit on top of a decent ley line. The magic there could support all sorts of endangered magical creatures. With Professor Sprout and Neville's help, I'm sure I could terraform it to support anything you'd like."
She whipped around, thankfully avoiding his crotch, and threw her arms around his neck.
"I can't believe you got me a present better than books."
"Oh some of those come with." With a thought, he Acioed the neat stack of texts he'd left in their room. Most of them were on endangered magical creatures, but a couple were magical theory books too rare for the Hogwarts library to have that he'd picked up for her before she'd been ripped away from him. "You've got some research to do."
She didn't even look at the books before snogging him. They would have gone further if not for Madam Pomfrey tsking at them and shooing Harry out of the medical wing so Hermione could get some rest.
"You've got to tell him," Lund said. She lay curled up with Hermione in her medical cot the next morning.
Now that Hermione was awake, Harry had started to catch up on the duties he'd neglected in her absence. Most teachers had long since given up on his schedule or thinking they might give him anything less than a perfect score. He did randomized inspections of every teacher, checked on the first years, spent time with Thor, and started to institute new activities or events that promoted collaboration between the houses.
"I almost told him last night but- "
"Chickened out."
"Did not! He surprised me with a mountain.!"
"And then you chickened out."
"No. Then Pomffrey kicked him out."
"Because you decided to get handsy so that he would get told to leave so that you could - What's that phrase again? Oh yea. Chicken out."
"You know too much."
"You love me anyway."
"I don't know why."
"You need to tell him."
"I will."
"Today."
"Today? But he's so happy I'm back."
"Which means you need to tell him while the extra endorphins are pumping."
"I guess."
"I don't have to guess."
"And it makes you insufferable."
"Some have said the same about you."
"Guess we'll just have to suffer one another," Hermione sighed.
"How truly horrible."
The girls studied in amicable silence, something they'd both been missing for weeks.
"Ah, Luna, I'm glad you're here." Harry walked in about an hour into their homework session. "I have a gift for you."
"You have rewritten the bylaws," she said dreamily.
"Good thing I said 'gift' not 'surprise!"
"You're clever like that."
"What bylaws?" Hermione asked.
"He's made it possible for students to skip grades, "Luna said.
"No point in our brightest students melting their brains in remedial classes when their curiousity and talent would be put to much better use at our university."
"University?" Luna asked.
"Oh was that a surprise? My my, she has limits after all folks. First magical university in the world."
"When will it be opening?" Hermione asked, her eyes sparkling.
"Next week."
"Next week! How?"
"Well Hogwarts has been running at about one third its current capacity since Grindelwald. I'm rearranging some things. Trelawney insists she needs to stay close to the stars, but either than her class, the highschool will be relocated to the first three floors. the upper floors will be for the university."
"What about the dorms? Either than Slytherin, all the house dorms are at least partly intruding on what would be the university's space," Hermione pointed out.
Harry grinned and Luna burst into spontaneous laughter.
"Such a clever boy," she said, and kissed his cheek. Then blushed and glanced at her best friend, who just looked perplexed, not angry. Not even a hint of jealousy in her aura. Perhaps even... was that hope?
"I'll be expanding the library. It is the most fortified room in the school, so I'll be working with the hearth stone to make dorms in the center. Can't be too careful with Death Eaters about. The houses will be safest living together."
"We decimated the Death Eaters." Hermione said.
"Yes we did, but some got away."
"And those that did would never attack the school. It would be suicide."
"You can never be too careful."
"I told you when you asked me what was wrong with Hogwarts that the house derision was toxic. "
"Of course you did. You're brilliant like that."
"And you're using a largely imagined external threat to bind the houses together."
"He's already started," Luna said. "Rather than tell them that they'd be safe behind an army of centaurs, house elves, and Patronus statues, Harry had the students train each other for war when he went to pull you from beyond the veil."
"Harry!" Hermione sounded appalled.
"You should have seen them, Mio. They were stressed, scared, and near a massive breakdown. The staff weren't much better. I gave them focus, purpose, and courage."
"I think they all learned more about defense in those two hours than Snape will be able to teach them from a book all year," Luna added.
"Well, if it really did help... Sometimes you scare me, Harry Potter."
"Scare you?" His eyebrows hitched up to sit almost level with his scar. "Of everyone in the entire world, you are the very last I could ever be a danger to."
"Not like that... How do I explain? You felt my loss so strongly you accidentally melted a mountain, yet when it came time to fight you pulled off political change on the sidelines that I thought would take years to even prepare to initiate and do so in a way that ties the student body to you without suspecting your motives?"
"Not to mention he deposed Dumbledore," Luna added.
"Deposed Dumbledore?!"
"Well, had him arrested," she amended. "Did I not mention that part?"
"No. You certainly did not."
"It feels like so many chapters ago."
"Chapters?"
"Of our life."
"I agree," Harry said. "It feels like you've been gone for months." He kissed her, but she wouldn't be distracted.
"Arrested for what?"
Harry sighed. "He had Snape try to break us up in an effort to control me. He told him to use any means. I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"Putting you in danger. Being with me is hazardous to your health. If I were stronger, I'd leave you."
"You listen here mister." She snapped her wand to his genitals with a smirk. "I almost died several times before I met you. If you ever mention leaving me again I will hex you seven ways to Sunday and keep you in my purse."
Harry grinned. "I love you."
"I know my que," Luna said. "You have a lot to um - " she cleared her throat, "talk about." As she turned to leave she flashed Hermione an uncharacteris tically hard stare. 'Tell him,' she mouthed.
"No you don't, "Harry said and pulled the girl into his lap. "The three of us have something to discuss."
Luna could only sputter and blush.
"Hermione told me I'd gotten in the way of your friendship, and quite a bit more."
"Oh. Well, um, you see "
"I'm sorry." Harry leaned his forehead against hers. What limity ability to speak she'd regained was blown away on the scent of fresh cut grass and lightning storms.
"Soulmate bounds are precious gifts," he continued. "But they can leave behind bitterly broken hearts. Yours is too high a price. I won't allow it."
"Huh?" she managed.
"You two are the best of friends and I never meant to get between that. Also, I've gotten to know you over the last week. I know you love Hermione, maybe almost as much as I do. You're pure, supportive, and have become one of my most trusted friends. I guess what I'm dancing around saying is," Harry blushed. The Heir of Gryffindor, Slayer of Voldemort, and most sexually experienced of the three of them, blushing! "If you two want to continue the other aspects of your relationship, I won't stop you."
"You want us to fuck?" The blunt statement out of Luna's mouth left him floundering.
"No. I don't want- Well, I do. But not, like in a creepy way. I mean it might be creepy because I don't know if the bond will let me feel- I mean - Look, I just want you to be happy."
Both girls burst into fits of giggles. It was at that moment, Harry beat red and still holding Luna perhaps a little too intimately, that Draco and Neville decided to waltz into the infirmary.
"Well, well, well," Draco said "I never figured you for the sharing type, Granger."
"And it looks like the tin man grew a heart if he stooped so low as to visit a mud blood in the infirmary," she replied off-hand.
Draco winced, but recovered his cocky crooked grin quickly. "Well as long as we're sharing and caring, Potter owes us some details."
Neville sat on the cot beside Hermione's. When Draco moved to sit beside him, he saw his opportunity to pay the blond back for stroking his cheek in the library last week. A simple action that Neville hadn't been able to shake from his brain for
some reason. Without thinking too hard, he tugged Malfoy into his lap to mimic Harry with Luna.
Surprised, Draco stiffened, frozen in place.
"Yes," Neville said. "We're owed gossip. Hermione is here now. Do kiss and tell."
"Or just kiss," Draco added, having regained his wits enough to rejoin the banter. He relaxed into the lighthearted atmosphere and Neville's lap. "We'd be just as happy to watch an instant replay."
"Harry?" Hermione said. Obviously she'd missed something. She eyed Draco's relaxed posture, rosed cheeks, and the way Neville's arm remained draped across his chest. Perhaps she'd missed a lot.
"I might have let slip to these louts, under extreme fatigue, that we, well, slept together."
"And true to his whipped Gryffindor heart of gold," Draco said, "he wouldn't give us details until you signed off."
Hermione's eyes widened. He hadn't told these two anything? They weren't just friends, they'd sworn their loyalty to Harry on their magical cores. And he hadn't told them to, what,protect her modesty? Meanwhile, she'd snuck away to share the memory in the most visceral way magically possible with her best friend and recently ex-lover?
And Harry had been worried his offer to let Luna and her continue fooling around would be construed as creepy. Oh goddess. How could she ever tell him now?
"Hermione? Are you alright?" Harry asked.
She nodded.
"We're just joking," Neville said. He'd wrapped the fingers of his left hand around Draco's right wrist, which supported some of his weight on the bed. What had initially seemed a casually draped and promptly forgotten embrace now more closely resembled a seat belt. Draco made no move to unbuckle. "You don't have to let him tell us anything."
"Speak for yourself," Draco said, making a light swipe for the other boy's ribs with his free elbow. Neville simply shifted him on his lap, nocking Draco off balance. The offending elbow never made contact. All Draco got for his trouble was Neville's other arm criss crossing his chest and locking onto his other wrist. "Sit still. Look at how nicely Luna sits."
Draco blushed and looked for a moment like he was going to swat the other boy away. But didn't. He sat still.
"No. It's not that. Harry has my permission to share as many details with you two as he likes."
Harry's eyebrows rose, but allowing any less would've made her a hypocrite.
"You sure miss goody goody?" Draco goaded. "We boys can be perverts."
She knew he was trying to lighten the serious mood that had fallen over her, but the word 'pervert' struck a chord. Was she a pervert? If Harry had waited to get her okay before talking about their times together, he certainly wouldn't share the memories. An image of the three boys jerking off together while watching Harry fuck her sent heat to her crotch. Merlin's balls! She was a pervert.
"Hermione, what's wrong?" Luna gave her a meaningful look.
Oh no. No, no, no. Nope. Uh-uh. She would not tell Harry what they did with the other two leering. No way. But what else could be wrong?
"Dumbledore," she blurted. "Before you boys came in, they were telling me that Dumbledore-that he-" It had been a convenient diversion, but now that she thought about it, she couldn't fathom the Headmaster ordering such a thing. Or for Snape to comply. He might be the most hated teacher, but he'd never crossed such a clear line before. What did Dumbledore have over him? And if he was looking to control Harry, did he know what would happen to her when Snape pushed too hard?
"That fool deserves worse than our dungeons," Draco said. Neville rubbed lazy circles into his wrists with his thumbs. Tingles shot up his arms. He repressed a sigh, but his head involuntarily tilted back against Neville's broad chest.
"He's in the dungeons?"
"Yea," Neville said and rested his chin on Draco's shoulder. "Harry gave him three months to redeem himself before being handed over to the dementors. Dunno what he'll be able to do from a jail cell though." Neville shrugged. His biceps tightened across Draco's chest.
When had the forgetful butterball he'd tormented in first year grown all these muscles and a foot taller than him? Perhaps a better question would be why Draco permitted -hell, enjoyed- it when the man posed him like a doll, but the blond was too distracted to give it much thought.
"I have to talk to him." Hermione lurched out of bed.
Neville's breath on Draco's ear jolted him to the conclusion that he should join her. Neville held him still. Draco squirmed.
"Don't wiggle your ass like that," Neville groaned in his ear. Luckily the others were distracted as Harry tried to talk her out of going.
"Let me go," Draco hissed.
"You're comfy." Neville tilted his nose towards the boy's neck and inhaled. Mint, hints of citrus, and aftershave. "And you smell nice."
"What is this Longbottom?" It didn't come out as cold or detached as he had been shooting for.
Neville's confidence of a moment before vanished. "I-uh don't know." His grip slackened.
Draco paused for a moment. He didn't know either, but suddenly it was crucial that it not die here. He wiggled his ass. Something twitched under him.
He stood, but slid a shy grin over his shoulder to Neville, and received one in return.
"No, don't support this," Harry growled. "Hermione is on bed rest."
She actually stomped her foot. "Only because you all are freaked out about where I was and what it might have done to me. You know who might have answers?"
"She's right, boss," Neville said.
"I am not taking her to the man who stole her in the first place." Scales rippled down Harry's body in the blink of an eye. All the windows in the room exploded, but as Harry exhaled, the shards flitted back to their frames and melded themselves together.
Luna, Draco, and Neville had gotten used to his emotional distress, but none of them had seen his magic out of control.
Only Hermione seemed unshaken. "That," she said, "was not you."
"No. "
"Explain."
"Whenever I drain people their- flavour as a person comes with. If I drain one person completely I inherit a key trait. Forever."
Draco went cold. "My father?"
"Arrogance. I can repress it, or at least mask it to an extent. After I drained Lucius, I stopped asking Sirius and other trusted people who know a lot more than me before I made political moves. I'd claimed my title beforehand, but I became a lord then." Best to switch topics before anyone remembered he'd drained more than one Dark wizard that day.
His friends didn't need to know that when he killed now, or dealt out whatever other form of justice he'd unilaterally decided was necessary, he felt nothing. The small brutally honest voice in his head pointed out that that was a lie. He felt satisfaction at a job well done.
"This... instability shouldn't last too much longer. If I only take a bit the effects are temporary. My core doesn't grow as much, but the personality traits die quickly.
I've never drained from so many sources at once before. The power was- " Addictive. All consuming. Wild. "Heady. But I have too many ghosts meddling with my emotions. I'm sorry."
Hermione threw her arms around his neck. "I love you. We'll get through this."
"How can you love a monster?" he barely whispered.
"Monsters don't know they're monsters. They think they're the hero."
"That's what makes me the worst kind. I've convinced everyone that I'm the hero so completely, that you don't want to believe me when I tell you the truth." He sighed and began to lead the other four out of the medical wing.
Luna and Hermione followed close behind.
"Bawk bawk," Luna said in her ear, complete with the chicken dance.
"Bitch."
"Chicken."
Neville took Draco's hand, and pulled the confused blond from the room.